Viox Savage
Blackguard Imperium
"You want the same as me. My redemption, eternal ascension. Setting me free."
Posts: 2,938 
Affiliation: Sith Order
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Post by Viox Savage on Jul 15, 2018 13:51:13 GMT -8
The Blackguard originated on Mustafar, formed by Vulta Daanat, a former Brotherhood of Darkness member. They took up refuge in the Southern Jedi Ruins near the Smoking Forest on Mustafar's fiery surface. While it is a several day hike across some of the most challenging terrain Mustafar has, Sith'ari Savage ensured that a path was created and maintained well enough to allow members of the Blackguard Reborn to venture to these ruins and search for relics and artifacts and lost knowledge. Not all who decide to make the trek make it back to the Obelisk, however.
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Valefor
The Sith Eternal
Posts: 284
Affiliation: Sith Eternal
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Post by Valefor on Aug 2, 2024 21:33:54 GMT -8
Dark Obelisk of the Blackguard - Grounds near the Grand EntranceThe Command Refit C-9979 Modular Frigate continued its descent, with an escort of starfighters and a pair of C-9979 Modular Frigate Gunship Refits on either flank. The Sith Eternal ground forces that had began their deployments earlier, with the first strike having been near Fralideja, had started to encroach upon the Blackguard's base of power. The anti-air defences had been damaged and brought down such that the C-9979 was able to touch down close to the Obelisk.
As the doors swung open, droids were already busy piling out and beginning the unloading process of the CIS Mobile Command Center. Floor panels and walls were already being set in place by the time Valefor descended the loading ramp alongside 2B and the combined 2nd and 6th SORORITAS Companies. Given their "broken" state, Valefor had renamed them to the SORORITAS Royal Guard unit for better command management.
As the Red Sage reached the bottom of the ramp, he took a breath in. Sulphur and brimstone were thick upon the volcanic air, which was further mixed with the usual scents of a battle field. Not that he could quite delineate them in the same way that Dragus could on a scent by scent basis. But there was an overall odour that was unmistakeableToday the Blackguard fall and the Sith Eternal will replace them, as the true bastion of Dark Side control and power. COME! LET US CLAIM THE MOLTEN MINE FOR THE FORGE WORLDS!Robotic Legions cheered in their synthetic manner, taking up the battle cry of the Legios Cybernetica. More Droid forces charge onwards across the grounds of the Obelisk and breached buildings. Valefor did a quick check to see if Professor Arachnus was going to join his assault upon the Obelisk or was else wise busy commanding a separate assault front
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Post by Professor Arachnus on Aug 3, 2024 10:48:49 GMT -8
If one thing was for certain, the Professor wouldn't miss this opportunity to impress his master for all the dead meatbags in the galaxy. Conducting the will of the Demon Lord was the Legios Cybernetica's entire purpose.Heavy Artillery Guns (HAGS) were unloaded from the landing craft within the walls of the mobile command centre, punching the sulphuric dirt as large stabilizer pads came down on either side of them and locked the cannons in place. Slowly their barrels began to elevate, seeking that perfect parabolic arc, then began to bark with thunderous booms as the proton shelling of the Obelisk began. The B1s operating the artillery pieces had to temporary shield their audio-receptors with each concussive boom that rattled the volcanic crust beneath them. The shelling would cease once the front lines of the droid legionaries reached the besieged structure, who were largely relying on the artillery to soften up the target, possibly even breach its walls, while providing proper cover for the droid assault. Already an exchange of blaster fire could be seen as the first wave of B2s came within weapons range of the Obelisk's defenders, mowing down lightsaber wielding zealots with their unrelenting numbers and overlapping fields of fire, not much unlike the CIS conquest of Dathomir during the events of the Clone Wars. Hulking B3 ultra battle droids stood over their smaller mechanical kin, belching a chorus of flames and rockets that immolated their foe and blasted their remains to smoking charred bits of gore. There was a notably impressive effort by the facility's defenders to hold the line, but even the most capable darksider could not defend from every direction at once.Glowing orange cones of light streaked towards the Obelisk from the mobile command centre, as the plasma cutting torches affixed to the ends of power lances flared to life, held by IG Lancer droids on the backs of 125-Z treadspeeder bikes that tore up the volcanic landscape beneath their plasteel treads. Riding twi'lek behind each lancer was a B2 super rocker trooper, painted in the Forge Master's red, spewing gouts of lethal laser over the metallic shoulders of their drivers from the cannons mounted on their wrists. The enemy armoured units pushing past the defensive line were slow lumbering targets for the nimble and fast paced Hellrider(©) units, whose lance tips sheered through dense protective plating like a lightsaber through blue-butter. Above them, HMP gunships hovered above the battlefield, harassing the Blackguard sycophants with kinetically lethal concussion bombs and blackening their flesh with radiation bombs that left visible isotope particles in the air. What would have been immediately clear to their foe was that the droid legions of the Fabricator General did not lack for hardware. The Dark Forge had been pumping out machines at a record pace in preparation for this day.As Lord Valefor adjusted his eyes and sought out his most loyal servant, he would find him atop the mobile command post battlements, pacing back and forth as he delivered a rousing speech to the droids of the Legios Cybernetica. A commissar's cap rested atop the spider-bot's domed head, slightly askew, and his recently added manipulator mandibles held in one claw a shimmering vibro-saber. His vocabulator unit had been adjusted to its maximum setting, turning many a photo-receptor towards the morale espousing arachnid."Hear me servants of the Forge Master and take heed! Our enemy stands before us, foul and covered in disgusting flesh, an organic stain upon this future Forge World. Look at them!" He shrieked in synthetic fury. "Detestable to the last fleshling scum! Not only is their presence offensive to our noble mechanical sensibilities, but they commit the gravest blasphemy by standing in opposition to the Demon Lord's will. Ours is a righteous mission! A holy edict, bestowed upon us by none other than the Red Sage himself, who stands with us on the precipice of victory!"All eyes, mechanical or organic, within the command centre came to rest upon the winged Crimson King as Arachnus indicated Valefor with the tip of his saber. Rolling down the ramp of the C-9979 parked inside the walls, an IG-227 Hailfire-class droid tank crossed the courtyard and came to a stop at the open gate, pausing beneath the Professor on the wall. Arachnus leapt from the battlements, falling down towards the tank droid, which on closer inspection had been modified to accommodate the SD-K4 assassin. The usual droid brain in place had been stripped and replaced with a docking socket for the chief librarian. The second he slid into place, his cybernetic systems integrated with the hailfire droid, its engine growling. Spitting ash and sulphur as he rolled up to Valefor, Arachnus looked on his liege lord with a multitude of sinister red eyes."Let's kill them, Master. Let's kill them all."
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Valefor
The Sith Eternal
Posts: 284
Affiliation: Sith Eternal
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Post by Valefor on Aug 26, 2024 23:31:42 GMT -8
Dark Obelisk of the Blackguard
It did indeed not take the Forge Master long to locate his most servile companion atop the ramparts, delivering a speech out to the Legios as he was want to do. However, his latest speech was a good reminder to Valefor that some minor adjustments needed to be made to the Librarian along side some upgrades. What had been a controlled and useful zealotry against organics was starting to slip into the realm of dangerous consequences. The incident upon the Nullus Beacon just a day or so ago had highlighted just how far things had gotten, with Arachnus having attacked Elarinya and Sirona. Whilst he was confident the pair of women would have been more than a match for Arachnus, it did concern him how far things had gone and could have gone. It was time to dial those settings back once this mission was over. For now, he let this madness work for him as he raised the Legionis Hastae to the sky as the Droid Army gathered in waiting turned to him.
With a thrust toward the Obelisk, the battle cry went up and the Legios forces started to spill forth from the Command Center, whilst others continued their work assembling the fortress and co-ordinating the various battle sites across Mustafar. More and more droids were spilling into Fralideja to overwhelm the defenders and take out the Blackguard Garrison there. Elsewhere, strategic sites across the planets were being assaulted and captured. Civilians were allowed to survive the assaults, but every member identified as military personnel or Blackguard Cult Members were gunned down, even if they surrendered. This was the final day that the Blackguard Reborn would reign.
Valefor turned his focus to the modified Hailfire Droid that Arachnus had dropped into and gave a nod
The final dawn of the Blackguard has arisen. Tomorrow the sun will rise on the rule of the Sith Eternal here.
Valefor loaded up on Treadspeeder with 2B riding shotgun, whilst the rest of the Royal Guard commandeered a handful of Treadspeeders to follow in close formation riding 2 per bike. It was a decent ride from the Command Center to the front steps of the Obelisk, but the only real defence they would need was Arachnus. Fighting was spilling down out of the buildings and into the grounds, whilst many of the gun emplacements had been struck with bombing runs or shaped charges. The SORORITAS unloaded blaster fire from the second seats whilst Valefor levelled his spear to skewer anyone caught within their path as he directed them towards and up the massive staircase
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Post by Professor Arachnus on Aug 28, 2024 8:42:36 GMT -8
Arachnus rode next to his liege lord and creator, the large tracked wheels of his hailfire tank tearing up the sulphurous black sand between them and their target. He let loose a destructive emerald green blast of hot laser from the retractable laser cannon attached to the bottom of the agile droid tank, immolating several Blackguard soldiers standing in their way and leaving nothing behind but ash. Proton shells arced overhead from the barking HAGs set up inside the safety of the command centre walls, streaking past Valefor and his war party as the large staircase of the Obelisk came into view, blasting holes in the roof of the building that rained down debris on those still currently inside. Before reaching those steps, the Professor fired off his entire payload of missiles, each packed with enough trihexalon gas to melt the lungs of a Zilobeast. The hex missiles exploded across the tops of the steps, erupting in expanding clouds of luminous green gas that blanketed the entrance of the Obelisk. Any soldiers and Sith caught in the open had seconds to don any protective gear they might possess, else they found themselves writhing on the steps of the Blackguard stronghold, as their lungs melted away and they drowned in their own blood. By the time Valefor and 2B reached the bottom steps of the structure and dismounted from their treadspeeder, they were welcome by the still twitching corpses of their foe, strewn across their path with lifeless hands still clutching their throats.A squadron of nimble Nantex-class territorial defense fighter flew past the top of the steps, flying low and fast as their beak shaped starfighter chased down fleeing enemy ships, inadvertently blowing away the cloud of poison green gas veiling the Obelisk. The Geonosian fighters were a recent addition to the Dark Fleet. Painted in the Forge Master's crimson, each was flown by a member of Stalgasin Hive's pilot caste, bred specifically for a life behind the cockpit of their own uniquely bonded starfighter. Admittedly it had been a point of contention between Arachnus and his Master, as the spider-bot was reluctant to accept support from an organic source, but the Fabricator General had convinced him by explaining that the Geonosian hivemind was not so different than how the Felstorm acted as a droid-control ship for the Legios Cybernetica. As usual the Demon of Hypori was correct, proving himself as wise as he was red. Those blade tipped fighters disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared, chasing after threats further away as they darted over rivers of molten rock and smouldering planes of lava.A chemical hiss of propulsive gas launched the Chief Librarian out of the Hailfire tanks droid socket, up into the air with a remarkably agile mechanical flip, then saw the robo-arachnid land on the ground next to Valefor and 2B. Bestial snarls sounded from inside the besieged Obelisk, rising in pitch as the Blackguard played their final hand of sabaac. A brave B1 blasting away at the top of the steps suddenly found itself encircled by the massive constricting claw of a four armed Darkghast, a hideous unholy melding of a rancor and besalisk, emerging from the Obelisk interior. Its snarling maw looked large enough to bite Lord Valefor in half, and despite its large size, it moved with the agility of a kowakian monkey lizard. The monstrous beast squeezed the B1 in its grip into metal grains, then swung back and forth from the pillars supporting the structures damaged roof, its grimacing fangs daring them to try and enter its lair.
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Valefor
The Sith Eternal
Posts: 284
Affiliation: Sith Eternal
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Post by Valefor on Oct 2, 2024 23:49:36 GMT -8
Dark Obelisk of the Blackguard
Valefor could only assume that Arachnus had properly done the calculations to ensure the trihexalon gas was not going to blow back and affect the organic elements of their forces, few as they were. In fairness to the Librarian, the Nantex-class Fighters would have only been the forces to suffer at most, for the Red Sage would have quickly formed a cone of wind to keep himself and the SORORITAS safe. Another stroke of luck, or perhaps another well calculated move, was the pair of fighters sweeping in close to the stairs as the Treadspeeders arrived to the foot of them, clearing the air of the gas. Once more, something that would not have been an issue had the academically inclined assassin bot not gotten lucky yet again.
But what ever luck he'd had ran out moments later as the group all finished dismounting their respective rides and the bestial snarls sounded from deeper within the Obelisk. Of all the things he could have hoped or preferred to have appeared, a Darkghast was extremely low in preference. The beast stood several stories tall, had the strength and rage of a Rancor, and could easily swing from the support pillars for the roof with the agility of a much smaller beast. He'd have smiled and congratulated the Blackguard on going out with such a bang, were he not the one having to face the beast down. As it stood, retreating to a safe distance to gas the beast was not an option for it would likely attack. They were also too close to deploy any remaining gas, for the Darkghast could likely grab and hurl the cannisters back at them before it succumbed. This left them only with the weapons available at hand.
Valefor tightened his grip on the Hastae and charged forward with the SORORITAS following close behind. The Rifles took aim at the beasts hands, whilst those with shotguns aimed at its legs and lower torso. Valefor clenched his left fist, the Desidia stone glowed a dazzling yellow before arcs of Lightning ripped through the air toward the beast. Stone work was smashed apart and sent flying through the air before the lightning finally reached the beast
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Post by Professor Arachnus on Oct 4, 2024 6:30:16 GMT -8
As the lightning struck the monstrous Darkghast, it let out a baleful cry that assaulted the ears of all nearby organics, even requiring the Professor to partially muffle his own audio receptors before they blew out. Electrical forks danced across the creature's leathery hide, its internal skeleton exposed by the raw current flowing through its body, blistering its skin and causing cloying black smoke to waft from its shrieking frame. Initially stunned, it fought through the discharge of lightning, the pain only serving to amplify the creature's bestial rage. Its two left arms swept out and ripped a treadspeeder bike sized chunk of stone out of the support columns center, then flung it towards the SE forces gathered at the bottom of the stairs before its besieged body retreated back from the lightning, breaking free as it backed up towards the Obelisk's entrance. Meanwhile the Felstorm's chief librarian was forced to hurl his mechanical body to the side as the chunk of stone came hurtling towards him, bouncing off the ground where his eight legged self had been seconds earlier, then carried on into an Armoured Assault Tank as the first of the Legios Cybernetica's armour began to reach their position. AAT heavy laser turrets opened up as soon as they moved into range, their cannons pounding the Obelisk with relentless fire, causing further chaos as part of the roof began to rain down across the entrance, sending burning debris and duracrete fragments tumbling down the steps in a landside of rubble. Unperturbed, the cybernetic spider swatted aside a series of stones with his forelegs, until a squad of BX-series droid commandos appeared and formed a shield wall between the Professor and the debris.Above and behind the Obelisk, three C-9979s in the Dark Fleet's signature crimson hovered into view a few hundred feet above the volcanic war torn ground. The armoured doors of the trio of transports boots had retracted, allowing further swarms of droids and equipment to descend from the sky, assaulting the Blackguard fortification from the rear while the Fabricator General led the attack on the front. B1 Droid Workers drones took to the air in vast swarms, joined by flights of D-1 series aerial battle droids that glided easily on the thermal winds generated by Mustafar's hellish landscape and climate. There were three legged octuptarra magna tri-droids, carried aloft on powerful jets just like the variety seen on Skako Minor, trailing toxic clouds of more trihexalon gas released from their massive heads as they descended through the air towards the ground. Lastly, bringing up the rear was the Legios' workhorse, a force of a dozen mechanized assault flyers. Concussion missiles launched from their forward ordinance tubes ripped across the sulphuric sands to the rear of the Obelisk, cutting off the retreat of Blackguard cultists attempting to make their escape out the back. Then they opened up with the beam cannons mounted on either of their wing tips, firing coherent beams of amethyst light that crisscrossed the roof of the Obelisk, scorching the ferrocrete while reducing durasteel beams and supports to molten slag. OOM droid gunners controlled two side pod lasers and the large turret that swiveled around the top of the vehicle, using these systems to target anything moving down below that wasn't their own.
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Valefor
The Sith Eternal
Posts: 284
Affiliation: Sith Eternal
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Post by Valefor on Nov 16, 2024 2:03:06 GMT -8
Dark Obelisk of the Blackguard
Valefor, 2B and the SORORITAS had been charging up the massive entrance staircase when the treadspeeder sized chunk of rock came flying down toward them. With danger approaching, the Forge Master swung to his side and grabbed hold of 2B as he tackled her aside out of the path of the chunk of rock. The SORORITAS units bringing up the rear had also scattered across the staircase to get clear, but in doing so they soon found themselves being pushed further aside as the avalanche of debris came down. Separated from the Forge Master, they soon found their attention drawn to a number of high value target cultists that were fleeing the Obelisk. They soon heard the Valefor's voice come over their comm links
:: Deal with them, we will take care of this beast... ::
A series of affirmatives and rogers came back over the comm link before the SORORITAS forces launched off the stairs and back to the grounds to chase down their prey. Valefor meanwhile rose to his full height to survey the damage from their attack on the Darkghast and its subsequent retreat into the entrance hall. Rubble now stacked itself at odd angles where before columns had neatly held up the main roof, but yet the beast still lived. 2B rose up to her feet, checking her rifle before her focus turned toward where they had to go. The Forge Master turned to Arachnus and motioned for the Spider Droid
Let us finish this beast off then and tear down this sad monument to a failed legacy...
He slung the Legionis Hastae over his shoulder as the Superbia Stone glowed a brilliant sapphire and a spear of midnight black took form in the Sorceror's free hand. 2B charged up the stairs behind him toward the opening and the pair leapt through, certain the robotic arachnid was not far behind
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Post by Professor Arachnus on Nov 16, 2024 8:17:44 GMT -8
 Twin cones of yellow light winked to life as the Professor activated the lumen projectors nestled in next to his multitude of photo-receptor lenses, dispelling the darkness eclipsing the crumbling structure they had entered in perhaps a perilous pursuit of the Obelisk's guardian beast. The servos in his mechanical legs whined in protest, clotting with dust and Mustafar's sulphuric sand, not quite impeding his movements but certainly ruining any chance at stealth. Stone pebbles pelted the alert arachnid's commissar cap, clinking into the open crevices in his domed shaped head, agitating the sinister spider-bot's mechanical offspring. While Valefor led the way with 2B hard on his heels, the Felstorm's chief librarian brought up the rear, walking backwards with his ceremonial vibro-saber held in his right manipulator arm and a stolen Sith disruptor pistol in his left that he had pried from the cold fingers of a Blackguard corpse. The battery was almost depleted, but he calculated he'd get at least one or two shots left, which based on the size of the creature they hunted he doubted would bring the beast down. That didn't perturb the practical Professor in the slightest. Arachnus had been fighting the long-war at his master's side for quite some time and knew better then to weigh the odds. Probabilities were well and good, but some things simply couldn't be tabulated, such as the Crimson King's sorcery. Too many times it had been the deciding factor in the Legios Cybernetica's countless victories. An occasional ping resonated from somewhere inside the SD-K4 assassin droid's cybernetic chassis as his motion sensors detected movement, though it was difficult to discern whether those radar pings were caused by the darkghast or a result of the building falling apart around them. Despite the path of destruction the mutant Mustafarian rancor left in its passing, the maze like interior of the damaged structure made it difficult to know which path to follow.Issuing a command to the small army of thirty probe-killers nestled in the pores of his metallic dome, Arachnus activated his mechanical offspring, and set them to the task of surveying the Obelisk. In seconds the insectile swarm of arachnid like robots emerged from the crevices in his chassis and spread out like a swarm of spiders, scurrying between Valefor and 2Bs legs as they stalked off in every available direction. The Professor's HUD screen split down the middle, with half of his processing power assigned to monitoring the mini-assassin droids, whose progress throughout the ruined structure was simultaneously creating a three dimensional map of their surroundings. Proton shelling from Legios artillery had largely collapsed the upper levels, but from what the robo-arachnid could tell there was a vast series of catacombs beneath them, spreading out in all directions like a city sized necropolis. Their path gradually descended, stone step by stone step, deeper into the molten bowels of Mustafar. "Master." Screeched Arachnus as he scurried up beside Valefor, whose malevolent green gaze was locked forwards, unwavering and resolute as ever. "I'm detecting a network of tunnels beneath us. It's strange though, the architectural design is different from the rest of the temple. If I had to guess, these Blackguard meatbags built their temple on top of the remains of a former settlement. Based on my scans, there is a sizable chasm located directly beneath us. Perhaps we should..." Rumble-Rumble! Before Arachnus could finish his statement, the stone floor beneath their feet gave way, descending into a dangerously steep slope that sent the three of them spilling downwards into the darkened abyss.Seconds later their feet hit solid stone, only not the carefully cultivated slabs that comprised the temple above, but rather the raw volcanic rock of which most of Mustafar was comprised. Their rapid fall had dropped them directly into the necropolis, which as the Professor's lenses adjusted, spread out before them like some sort of abandoned subterranean settlement. Crevices splitting the ground around them belched burps of heat from geothermic vents, creating a sweltering heat hotter than a dewback's scaled nut-sack, coupled with the rotten-egg stench of brimstone. Not that Arachnus could tell, having no nose with which to smell. More potent perhaps than even the offensive sulphur stink was the scent of freshly spilled blood, a copper metallic tinge on the air unmistakable to most organics. The reason for it became clear as the dust settled around them and they got a better look at their surroundings. Two hundred feet ahead of them was the source of the scent of vitae, a where a large ceremonial altar had been erected, which now was coated in a sticky layer of congealing crimson. Cooling corpses were heaped around the stone platform, their throats slit and their peaceful expressions as pale as the Director's, though theirs was the result of an absence of blood. Some sort of mass ritual sacrifice had been committed here. Based on the composition of the corpses, the Professor suspected it had started the same time as the Sith Eternal's invasion. At that distance, they could make out a lone figure standing behind the altar, robbed in dark crimson with their features hidden behind a shadow obscured hood. In the figure's left hand was an ornate dagger, stained in recently spilt blood. What went unseen by the cybernetic-spider's mechanical gaze were the currents of sorcery and blood magic swirling about the chamber, the focus of which was centered on the alter, as the robed cultist dragged the edge of their blade across the throat of the last willing sacrifice.Simultaneously with the hooded figure's action, those aetheric currents invisible to the naked eye coalesced around the knife in the cultist's hand, then spilled forth like a river of raw darkside power. The energy formed an arc in the air, rising up towards the ceiling of chasm, before descending towards one of the rooftops of the many dilapidated structures. It became clear why as the snarling repto-mammalian visage of the Darkghast appeared, the lower set of its four arms resting massive clawed hands on the edge of the roof. The monstrous creature's lightning scarred body appeared in a state of metamorphosis as whatever foul ritual the Blackguard had committed had suffused its gargantuan frame with sorcerous energy, causing spikes of bone to erupt from its thick leathery hide. Its eyes blazed in their sockets like two erupting volcanoes, while a curtain of brimstony breath spilled from its opening maw as it let loose a roar that reverberated off the subterranean chambers walls, loosening rocks and causing the ground beneath their feet to rumble and quake. |
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