Invasion: Phoenix

Consul Duga Arkarso rubbed sleep from his eyes and growled as the comm unit on his wall beeped. He thought he'd left express instructions not to be bothered in the middle of the night, but somehow those instructions always seemed to get lost or ignored. Duga rolled out of bed and punched the audio-only button on the side of the unit - no need for the masses to see him with bed-head. "What?"

"Sorry to disturb you, sir. This is Lieutenant Vreek in the operations centre. We've had reports from the Home Guard that Admiral Lanar's ships have made another appearance at the edge of the system. This time they had their flagship with them." Duga's ears had perked up at the mention of Admiral Lanar, and his expression had turned grave at the mention of the flagship.

"Very well. Assemble the Summit on Karufr immediately, and notify me if any more of his ships cross our border. Duga out." With a sigh, Duga went to the refresher to run cold water over his face. So much for a few hours more sleep.

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The assembled Taldryan Summit met in the strategic planning room of the Clan Hall. The three Quaestors were there, flanked on either side by their Aediles and Envoys. They all sat around a large rectangular table, with each party on one side. Duga sat alone at the head of the table, with a large holographic display behind him. On it were formations and statistics of the Taldryan fleet, plus a holo of a stoic-looking Human man with a shaved head and neatly-trimmed goatee.

"The sentient you see on the screen behind me is a former Imperal Admiral named Lanar. After the death of the Emperor, Lanar took his fleet and disappeared into the Unknown Regions, intending to carve out a territory of his own. Nobody has heard from him since then... until a few weeks ago, when he started sending his warships across Taldryan's borders." The image on the screen changed to show a readout of known ships in Lanar's fleet. Of great concern was the Imperial-class Star Destroyer that seemed to be its flagship.

Frowns went around the table. Dark Jedi Master Alanna, Envoy of House Ektrosis, was the first to speak. "Why weren't we notified of this earlier?"

"Until now, Lanar hasn't been seen as a threat," Duga said. "I believe Erinyes was actually the first Clan member to know about this - she was able to provide positive IDs on the original scans." All eyes went to Erinyes, who nodded. "As it stands right now," Duga continued, "Lanar's forces appear to be similar in size to ours, and it looks like he's intent on using them. The most recent incursion was led by his flagship, an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer named Lanar's Fist."

"Egomaniac, is he?" Battlelord Taku "Crix" Matsuki Taldrya, Quaestor of Archanis, spoke up.

"Yeah, Crix, almost as bad as you are," Dark Adept Erinyes replied with a grin. She was leader of House Dinaari, and picked up where Duga had left off. "From what I discovered on my initial reconnaissance mission, Lanar has the Star Destroyer, a second Victory-class Star Destroyer named Lanar's Wrath, and a handful of smaller capital ships including Lancer frigates, strike cruisers and a pair of escort carriers. His fighter complement is significantly smaller than ours, but those Lancer will do a lot to even the odds. On his home base, which the Dark Hall has temporarily named Elyssia, he has a command base and a small shipyard. All of this is protected by a large minefield."

"It used to be protected by a minefield," Duga corrected. "As of now, I'm officially sick of dealing with Lanar. Sending his flagship in was a show of force - he wants to try to intimidate us with threat of conflict." Duga grinned. "Fortunately, we don't intimidate easily. Twelve hours from now, we'll launch an attack on his forces where they're massing at Elyssia. We'll be dividing up into three main battle groups, two space and one ground."

"I wouldn't mind knowing how the command structure will work," Templar Chaosrain, Ektrosis Quaestor, said from the other side of the table.

"The overall operation will be under my command," Duga said. "The regular military forces will be subordinate to the Summit. Crix and the Archanis Summit will command the naval forces. Erinyes and the Dinaari Summit will be in charge of the space assault forces. Chaos, you and the Ektrosis Summit will command the ground assault."

"Of course, I'd prefer you all say in the rear where it's safe, but I know you won't." Duga rolled his eyes at the chuckles around the table. "Individual missions will be given to each Battle-Team. We launch in twelve hours."

Dark Adept Erinyes strode into the briefing room where the assembled members of Phoenix waited. They were all shifting slightly in their chairs. For some, it was the anxiety of meeting their first battle - for others, it was anticipation of their next one. The room fell silent as the Dinaari Quaestor stepped up to the podium.

"Phoenix, your objective for this mission is to capture Admiral Lanar's shipyards orbiting Elyssia." Erinyes pressed a button on her console, and a holoprojector showed images of the objective and the team's equipment. "You'll be taking a transport into a secondary hangar bay while you're covered by our starfighter forces. The control centre is sixteen decks above."

"Your main objective will be to seize the yard's control centre," Erinyes continued, pointing to a spire atop the shipyard's main body. "The primary threat that you'll run into on this mission are the shipyard's internal defences. There are anti-personnel turrets in every major hallway, protected by multiple levels of military-grade security - not impossible to break, but probably not something you can do in the amount of time you'll have after the intruder alarm is sounded. Plus, the security systems are modular - there's no one central control system, so you'll have to avoid or disable the systems in each section as you go."

Finally, Erinyes punched another button on the console, and the projection faded. "That's it, everyone. You have one hour to get ready before we drop out of hyperspace. Everyone has to be ready to deploy by then. I'd wish you good luck, but you're Taldryan Dark Jedi... we all know you're not going to need it." With those final words of encouragement, Erinyes turned and stepped out of the briefing room's door, leaving the Battle-Team to plan their next moves.

This thread is ONLY for the use of members of Phoenix or the Taldryan Summit, and only for in-character contribution to the run-on. Other posts will be deleted.

Bubbs looked around the rest of the Phyle, waiting a minute before speaking,

"So, our first real test. It sounds like getting to the hangar bay will be the easy bit - with covering fire from the starfighters it shouldn't be too much of an issue; but those security turrets could cause us a real problem. Anyone got any brilliant ideas?"

Clan RO comp is now closed. Any posts made after this point will cause the RO to be disqualified.