Combat Master’s Note: Because you are matches against a member of your Clan, this battle takes on a unique format. You will be encountering Synin Torin with an ally. Treat Synin Torin as you would any other ACC opponent. You WILL be judged using the ACC rubric, so the person posting the best story will move on to subsequent rounds. If you wish to fight your Clanmate as well, you may, but this is not in any way a requirement.

Begeren. Once a prosperous Sith world, it has been the site of numerous battles throughout the millennia. Grand halls and monuments were torn down and re-purposed by looting Republic forces thousands of years ago, before they were driven from the planet. Isolated settlements still dot the planet's surface, but the inhospitable, craggy, and desert-like terrain, along with the beasts common to many desert and Sith worlds, have kept most humanoids from colonizing. Occasional skirmishes have left debris scattered throughout the desert, and battles were fought here as recently as the Galactic Civil War. The planet is now under the control of the One Sith and is rumored to be full of all manner of priceless, ancient Sith artifacts.

Begeren’s plunder has been rich, and the Clans and Houses have been bolstered, both by the favor they are currying with the Grand Master, and with their own triumphs against rivals. More fighting seems to have occurred between the Clans and Houses than against the One Sith, and the stream of priceless artifacts has slowed to a trickle as of late. The invasion of Begeren has now entered a wholly different phase, and though the end goal of capturing the world’s precious secrets remains the same, the methods of achieving it have changed. At least for now. The Dark Council has identified several settlements and key military objectives to seize, both for use as staging grounds, and to quell any revolts against Brotherhood authority before they begin. It has fallen to the Clans and Houses to seize these objectives, with large accolades and bounties to those willing to undertake dangerous missions, alone, into hostile territory. Despite the recent inter-clan aggressions, the Dark Council has made it clear that the bounties for taking objectives cannot be shared between units.

One such objective, a V-150 Planet Defender ion cannon, lies nestled in one of Begeren’s northern mountain ranges. The inhospitable and semi-arid region is known for its relatively cooler temperatures compared to the rest of the planet, and is home to one of the only active spaceports on Begeren. Though most of the region is patrolled by local militias, a sizable One Sith presence is thought to be in the area. An enormous feminine stone face, carved into the side of a towering cliff side, overlooks both the ion cannon and the neighboring spaceport, paying homage to a long-dead female Sith Lord.

You and an ally stand in a massive scree field beneath the adorned cliff side. The dark side is almost palpable here beneath the monument, but your true goal is the installation and the massive ion cannon immediately to your west. The installation is lightly guarded, and can be accessed by a natural, mountainous tunnel entrance. The entrance is well-lit and quite large for a tunnel access shaft, big enough for the heavy machinery needed to construct and maintain the massive ion cannon. The tunnel itself splits a few hundred yards in, leading to two separate objectives.

There are two main objectives: the fire control and targeting room, and the main power generators. Intelligence reports indicate that the fire control and targeting room is manned by two gunners and two-to-three militiamen from the local settlement. Intelligence also reports a light contingent of three guards and a slew of power droids around the power generators. Finally, there is a One Sith engineer thought to be working in the installation on some kind of upgrade, and he is likely to interfere with your mission. Which objective you choose depends, in part, on whether you wish to take or destroy the ion cannon. A barracks is not far from the ion cannon, and it’s possible that the One Sith could be lurking closeby should you arouse suspicion.

You and your ally cautiously enter the tunnels, unsure what exactly awaits you beneath the giant stone monument.

“Alright, Howie, game plan?” Zoron asked the smaller man beside him. They’d stopped at a fork in the tunnel and the two were considering which route to take. “Not that my vote counts, but I’m voting on blowing this thing up sky-high.” Zoron absent-mindedly toggled the safety switch on his rifle as he looked over, waiting for a response.

The old man stayed silent as he chewed on a reed he’d picked up somewhere on the trek to the installation. After a seemingly interminable length of time, he spat out a gob of spittle and fiber. “Son. I came down here to do two things. I can’t remember what the first one was, but I know for sure that the second was to blow something up. Frankly, I don’t even care what the first one was.”

“Power generators it is then.” Zoron pulled up the schematics they’d been given by Tal-Int. His brow knitted together as he focused on reading the mess of symbols. “Ok … that one takes us … wait, what? … Ah, there we go … Hmmm, maybe not …” Zoron kept working through the schematics as Howie leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.

After more than a few minutes, Zoron felt like he’d figured out the path they needed. By his best estimate, they were looking at nearly half a kilometer of tunnels and lifts to get to the generators.

“Howie! Wake up!” Zoron stood over the other man, who was now snoring on the ground. With no response, he kicked Howie’s boots off the mound of rubble he’d been using as a footrest, startling the old man into a semblance of alertness.

“ … denied!” Howie blurted out as he jerked awake. Sitting up slowly, he looked around, his dark eyes focusing on Zoron. “Oh. You. What do you want? I was having a wonderful dream. Twi’leks, beer, and mounds of medal requests all covered with denial stamps. It was totally senile.”

“The mission, Howie. We have a mission. You know, blowing stuff up.”

Howie grunted and held out his hand. “Help an old man up. I’m getting senile, you know?”

Zoron frowned as he pulled Howie to his feet. “You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.” A glare cut any further smart-aleck comments short.

“Lead on, young lad.”

With that, Zoron strode into the opening on the right.

---

After a few moments, Zoron held up a hand to stop Howie. Howie being, well, Howie, walked into Zoron before stopping. A grunt of annoyance came from the old bear, but he stayed quiet otherwise.

Zoron pushed out his senses into the next room, but could only feel Howie’s presence nearby. “Howie!” he hissed. “What’s in the next room?”

The old man rolled his beady eyes and spat before asking, “Does it matter? Kill everything. Make it explode. That’s the game plan. No sneaking around.”

Zoron smiled and then nodded. “You’re right. I don’t know what came over me.” He rolled out his shoulders and squared up to the door. As he had done time and time before, he planned to breach that door the only way he knew how – like a total BAMF. He gathered up a wave of Force energy, ready to take the door off its metaphorical hinges. With a sudden exhalation of breath, he loosed it at the blast door.

There was a dull thump as the wave struck the door. The door flexed slightly … and stayed intact. Zoron’s jaw dropped open and he stammered to Howie, “I swear, that’s never happened before.”

Howie just shook his head in slow disgust. “I swear to all the gods of Endor, you suck so much it’s embarrassing. It’s a freaking blast door. You gotta baby it first!” Howie pushed Zoron out of the way, muttering to himself, “Kids these days. No one teaches them anything anymore.” Howie whipped his lightsaber out and ignited it. He made two quick slashes in the door in a figure-X then thrust his hand forward. The door blew inward spectacularly, and Howie strode in through the gaping hole. “Ladies! Come to Papa Panda!”

The guards in the room (all males, for the record) stared in shock. One had his hand frozen halfway to his mouth with a glass of water. Zoron stepped into the room as well and levelled his rifle. With a rapid series of shots, the guards were dead or incapacitated.

“Ok. Give me the satchel charges.” Zoron held his hand out to Howie.

Howie looked at Zoron’s hand in confusion. “Me? I thought you had the charges! I specifically remember when you told me to …” Howie’s voice drifted off “ … get the charges. Oops. That’s my fault. We can rig something up, right?”

“Howie, I can push a button to make things go boom. That’s about it. That is literally the extent of my experience with explosives.”

A crisp, polite robotic voice cut into the conversation. “Excuse me, gentlebeings. My master has informed me that you are, in fact, intruders. His orders were explicit. Exterminate.” Zoron and Howie turned back to the entrance and saw a pair of droids in the entrance.

Zoron recognized the floating droid. He laughed. “A courier droid? Oooooooo. I’m so scared. Howie, what’s the other one?”

Howie re-ignited his lightsaber. “YVH. Get ready boy.”

Zoron turned back to the droids as the YVH raised its right arm. At the last second, Zoron saw the blaster cannon and he dove to the side. Simultaneously, the “courier” droid opened fire with an actual flamethrower!

Zoron took cover behind a desk as the flames whipped around it. “Look!” he shouted, “I’m sorry I called you a courier! Can’t we talk?”

“EXTERMINATE.”

Zoron looked over at Howie, similarly sheltered, and shrugged. “Boring conversation anyway.” He loosened the strap on his rifle and smiled. “Let’s do this!” he shouted to Howie.

Howlader looked over to his younger clanmate adjusting his BlasTech A280 rifle, and tried shouting over the weapons fire "at least you brought a big gun!" Howlader could barely make out Zoron’s laughter over the weapons fire: "it’s what the ladies like, Howie! Now, what’s the plan?"

Howlader, tired of straining his voice over the weapons fire from the droids, began to gesture with his hands to indicate what he wants Zoron to attack and where to move. He stuck his left arm straight up in the air and began to rotate the wrist counter clockwise, then with his right arm; Howlader began slapping the left wrist with his right hand. Howlader noticed that Zoron was not laying down suppressing fire; obviously, his clanmate had missed the signal. Howlader decided to try another approach; he thrust both his arms into the air and made miniature circles with both of his index fingers. This second method also proved to be ineffective in directing Zoron against the enemy droids.

Howlader, frustrated with Zoron’s inability to follow simple hand signals, forced himself from his covered position to face the oncoming droids, with his lightsaber activated in his right hand, and a mildly deranged look in his eyes. He reached out with the Force and fired off a telekinetic blast at the first droid, knocking its flamethrower out of its connection to the rest of the droid’s frame, and sending the damaged droid spinning towards the ground. Within seconds of Howlader’s initial attack, Zoron realized his clanmate’s (apparent lack of) attack plan, and began firing his rifle at the YVH droid.

With the YVH droid monetarily distracted by Zoron’s fire, Howlader turned his attention towards it, reaching out with the Force to fire a shock from his left hand, while continuing to advance. The shocks knocked the focus out of the YVH droid for a few seconds, long enough for Howlader to draw in close enough to detach its head from the rest of its body.

Howlader, satisfied with their actions, deactivated his lightsaber and sighed. Suddenly, Howlader heard a shrill scream coming from the east, he turned his head to see a human male with a purple blade extended, backed by a number of droids…

Zoron’s head snapped around toward the squealing sounds coming from just beyond Howie. The deranged noises were coming from some strange humanoid with a purple lightsaber. Using his prodigious skills of deduction, Zoron guessed that this was likely the One Sith engineer they’d been warned about.

“Ummm, Howie, we should probably do something about that.” He gestured at the dishevelled, howling male.

“You think?” Howie twisted his body and ignited his saber again. He squared himself into the path of the One Sith and was able to catch a just-released blast of electricity on his lightsaber. “Handle the droids! Then we’ll sort this explosion thing out.”

“Droids? Where?” Zoron levelled his rifle as he scanned the room, seeing nothing except the One Sith and Howie. “We got them all, Howie, what are you talking about?”

“Can’t you see them? Hold on boy.” Howie ducked a Force-thrown chair and countered with a devastating blast of Force energy that knocked the One Sith from his feet. “Oh. That sneaky bugger. Nevermind, they’re gone. Stupid illusions. Help me with him, then.”

Zoron began unloading shots at the downed One Sith, but the man proved too quick, jumping to his feet and batting the blasts away. The stream of shots kept the One Sith anchored in place as he focused on deflecting the incoming rounds.

Zoron kept up the torrent of blaster fire until the trigger became spongy beneath his finger and he heard an audible click as the rifle’s power pack expended its final charge. Without a moment of hesitation, Zoron’s training kicked in and he pulled the rifle down to hang at his left side using his left hand. Simultaneously, his right hand snapped to his pistol. In order to keep up a steady stream of fire, he began shooting the moment it cleared the leather of his holster. The first few blasts were wild and untargeted, but were enough to prevent the One Sith from resuming his advance. Zoron brought the blaster up into both hands and punched it forward, centering on the One Sith.

Out of the corner of Zoron’s eye, he saw Howie working his way around to the One Sith’s flank. Howie thrust his left hand out and a massive stream of lightning ripped forth from his fingertips, striking the One Sith in the side. A burbling stream of whistles came from the One Sith as he writhed in agony. In response to the whistles, a spherical black form rose from the shadows behind Howie and struck him in the shoulder with a needle. The lightning stopped instantly and Howie collapsed into a heap.

“No!” Zoron shouted and hit the droid with three lances of blaster fire before the weapon was ripped from his outstretched hand by an unseen force. The droid warbled and sank to the floor, streaming smoke. Zoron looked back to the One Sith and saw the male scythe his saber through the pistol as it flew toward him.

The hate in the One Sith’s eyes burned brightly as he looked over at the downed droids littering the room. He focused back on Zoron and began moving toward him, noticeably limping from the burns on his legs where Howie had hit him. Zoron unslung his rifle, dropped it, and pulled his saber, lighting it up and waiting for the One Sith to meet him.

The One Sith attacked with sloppy, yet ferocious strikes that were met by Zoron’s Soresu. Again and again, the One Sith slashed and hacked, yet was stymied by Zoron’s defenses. Their blades locked together and the smaller One Sith pushed in toward Zoron until they were inches apart. The man spat out a series of tweeting sounds and Zoron felt spittle strike his face.

Needing to finish the fight quickly, Zoron’s free hand snaked to his belt buckle, where he withdrew a small blade from the sheath hidden there. With a flash of speed, Zoron sank the blade into the One Sith’s exposed armpit, drawing a surprised breath. Withdrawing the blade, he punched the blade into the male’s stomach and sternum repeatedly. The resistance against Zoron’s lightsaber faltered and the blade began to shake as Zoron, using his weight and greater size, levered the blades toward the other male. Sudden fear showed in the other’s face as imminent death reared its face.

With a final push, Zoron drove the interlocked blades down onto the One Sith, searing into his shoulders. The One Sith’s focus broke and his blade snapped off. Without resistance, Zoron’s saber cleaved his opponent from shoulder to hip. The two halves of the One Sith fell to the ground and Zoron wiped the spittle off his face. He leaned down and wiped the blood off his knife using the fallen male’s robes before turning to Howie.

“Ugh. I guess I have to do all the work myself, eh Howie? No no, just stay there on the ground. I got this.” Zoron saw shallow breathing from his clanmate. “Knocked out by a droid? That’s just embarrassing.”

As he dragged Howie out of the room, he realized he wouldn’t be able to blow up the generators en masse without Howie’s power or the satchel charges.

“I wonder what that One Sith has on him? Gotta have some way to control this place.” He returned to the body in the room and checked through the pockets before finding what he was looking for – a power output modulator control. He grinned as he examined the dial and saw the universal danger symbol at the far end of the scale. “Perfect.”

As Zoron strapped Howie into the co-pilot seat on Senility the ship rocked slightly as the now-overloaded power generators exploded.

“Howie, you’re missing a great firework show here.” The old man snorted in his sleep and a dribble of drool rolled down his chin.

Zoron powered on the main drive and eased the ship into the air.

Zoron shouted from his covered position: "this appears to have gotten much worse, Howie! What’s the plan here?"

Howlader pondered his situation for a moment while reaching out with the Force: a half dozen heavily armed combat droids and a powerful force user. Zoron’s observation was apt; things had gotten significantly worse in the last few minutes. Howlader reached out with the Force further, trying to perceive the Bpfasshi One Sith’s strengths and plans, but could only recognize a deep desire to drive intruders away, or worse. Given the One Sith’s resolve as well as his droid companions, Howlader did not think it was wise to engage them head on, so another tactic was needed, an old tried and tested tactic (at least in the loopy mind of Howlader). "Zoron!" Howlader shouted towards his clan mate’s position a few metres away, "I have a plan. You may not enjoy it, but it has worked in the past." Zoron nodded his head in acknowledgement, with an apprehensive look in his eyes.

Howlader reached out with the Force and fired a shock in the direction of the oncoming droids. The bright light and focused energy of the blast caused the droids to lose focus on their targets for a few moments, as Howlader saw their heads jolt in a number of directions. In those few seconds, Howlader rushed from his position towards Zoron’s, diving behind the rocks and ending up face first in the dirt. Zoron let out an exasperated sigh: "So your plan was to rush over here so we can die together?" Picking himself up from the dirt, Howlader retorted: "Die? Oh my no. I have a much better plan," and in that instant, Howlader pulled a pair of fishnet stockings, a low cut top, some large fans, and a blonde wig from his robes.

---

Sixty-three minutes later, the Bpfasshi lay dead with a lightsaber-sized hole in his chest, the half dozen combat droids lying in pieces, and the V-150 Ion Cannon a smoking wreckage. Howlader commented: "I told you my plan would work, young Zoron. Now, let’s go home." With that final quip, Howlader and Zoron walked off into the sunset, confident that their efforts were for the benefit of their Clan.