It didn't take a mastermind to conclude that something like this would happen, so Darth Bellious had prepared. She had mustered whatever members of or fresh recruits to her organisation could be arrayed and, with Razzya's strategic forecasting, had placed them in various outlets of the base for a concerted effort to craft the proverbial and literal fog of war. Smoke explosives, mobile missile decoys, blinding flashes, confusing coating of vents and doors, weird installations that looked like targets... and more once the ground troops deployed.
The expertise had been there. Darth Bellious' Directorate for Intelligent Xeno Integration and Transformation, or DIXIT for short, a very obscure institution within the Imperial Ministry of Intelligence, had operated unnoticed and untracked for years now. It had been infamous for fomenting revolutions throughout the galaxy for years now. She had educated so many a stray xenos into anarchistic freedom fighters, giving them purpose she had once acquired herself to forge their own destiny, and had schooled them in secret facilities in the art of provocation, subversion, and sabotage.
If war was theatre, she had prepared a very unpredictable scenography that would awe the impartial audience and frustrate Syrian. And fill the Echo defenders with battle frenzy as they would stand a better chance against the Zakuul tide, with the inflection toward the Dark Side Zeno Thul's battle-making had imbued them with.
Moyr couldn't deny Razzya a prominent part, danger or not. She had been brooding over how their meeting with Syrian had gone, a chink in her credentials, and now was the time for an unexpected comeuppance. The duel of the minds between the Chiss. And the mind of Chaf'razz'yatee'waz, the proud member of the aristocratic House Chaf, proved superior over that renegade scoundrel, and she would make him know.
---
MA8. Knowledge: Warfare for Improved Researcher.:
1eP+4eA+3eD 1 success, 4 advantage
[4 Advantage to add a personal touch to the plan so that Syrian would know it was Razzya's.]
[3 Advantage to the following roll: 2 from Improved Researcher, 1 from Supporting Evidence.]
---
[My approach.]
The execution of the plan, however, as everything, required sacrifices, and Darth Bellious wasn't going to stay her hand just because someone would get in the way. Or so she was telling herself as in the end she did rush out two of her trusted agents out of the harm's way, taking the explosive impact on herself, not looking at is of course.
---
[Soak 5]
[0/14 Wounds]
[0/13 Strain]
[Destiny flip to use Light Pips, 2 Conflict.]
[Taking 7 Wounds with Pierce 3, Nets 5. Mitigating 3 from Advantages]
[2/14 Wounds]
[0/13 Strain]
---
MA6. Event Roll. Deception. Influence. 2 Boost from Powerbase. 1 Boost & 3 Advantages from Razzya. 2 Successes from Zeno.:
2eP+2eA+3eB+2eF+1eC+1eD 4 successes, 4 advantage, 2 Light Side, 1 Dark Side
[4 Successes + 2 Zeno's Successes + 3 from Pips = 9 Successes]
[7 Advantages for use, using 6 for Wound mitigation]
---
As the fog of war above the Echo Base was thickening, Darth Bellious was about to enact the next stage of her plan. Timing was instrumental as the overwhelming force would inadvertently overpower their anti-air defences and to come to a ground assault. Their own ships had to escape before the hangar would be bombed into smithereens or overrun. The Bitch would not be smashed sitting, but Moyr didn't plan on being on board. She would let Razzya and her most trusted agents to crew it and find their battle fortune up there. Though she had programmed a truly erratic flight path for them until far in orbit so pirates couldn't dog them into a trap of their own design. She had espected Syrian to have offset a special force to hunt down the escapees. It would either work or it wouldn't...
---
MA6. Event Roll. Piloting (Space). Enhance. 1 Boost from Razzya. 2 Successes from Zeno.:
1eP+2eA+1eB+2eF+1eC+1eD 1 success, 3 advantage, 2 Dark Side
[1 Success + 2 from Pips + 2 from Zeno = 5 Successes]
[2 of 3 Advantages to Wounds mitigation.]
[Taking 7 Wounds with Pierce 3, Nets 5. Mitigating 1 from Advantage, Nets 4.]
[Stimpack for -5 Wounds]
...
And it did. The Bitch had pierced through, gaining the fighting chance; now it was up to Razzya and the team if they were to survive the battle. This time Moyr was hit harder by the concussion bomb that tore the hangar in belated retaliation, but it didn't really stop her. The impromptu camouflage and decoys of the base would be gone soon, now was the time to prepare for the true showdown in the icy bellies of Echo. She would invite the uninvited guests with a lot of... fanfare.
Rushing through the base she kept activating various booby traps and creating cul-de-sacs of death from blocked passageways, turning the base's wiring against the Zakuul. That had been her hidden purpose when she had tinkered with the security systems of the command centre and the lower passageways throughout their confinement at Echo, since Day One. Now it was about to bear fruit in an orchestral performance composed by the Master of Shadows.
Like fruits of mayhem, like flowers of carnage, the base bloomed as the Zakuul forces entered it.
---
MA8. Event. Skulduggery. Master of Shadows. +2 Zeno Successes.:
2eP+2eA+1eC 2 successes, 3 advantage
[2 Success + 2 Zeno's = 4 Successes]
[2 Advantage for Wound mitigation]
[Taking 7 Wounds with Pierce 3, Nets 5. Mitigating 1 from Advantage, Nets 4.]
[2 Strain for Master of Shadows]
[Stimpack for -4 Wounds]
[1/14 Wounds]
[2/13 Strain]
---
"I hope you're having fun, Syrian, because I, Darth Bellious, sure am." Moyr sent the message into the ether for the nearest comm point, chirping with sweet mockery. "It may not be too late for you to reconsider and to take the better deal."
She didn't count on the pirate changing his mind, rather on provoking him. And it looked like it worked, as the battle droids started closing on her, some of them firing successful shots, and not all of them got parried...
---
MA8. Event. Charm. Influence. Zeno's Meditation.:
1eP+2eA+2eF+2eC+1eD 1 success, 2 Dark Side
[1 Success + 2 from Pips +2 from Zeno = 5 Successes]
[Taking 7 Wounds with Pierce 3, Nets 5.]
[6/14 Wounds]
[2/13 Strain]
---
Now it turned to the most difficult part. She'd goaded them into following her, so it was up to her to bring them to all the death pits while escaping them herself. She recalled her conversation with Luth about mice, and her recollection of desert mice on Ryloth, outsmarting predators and making them look like fools. This was her tactics for the moment, to play cat and mouse where curiosity kills the cat and the mouse feeds on its carcass.
Either way, she'd done her job. She wouldn't mind if it were Layne who did the executions. At least it would bring her closer to the Dark Side again?
---
MA8. Event. Stealth. Master of Shadows. Zeno's Meditation.:
4eP+1eB+2eC 4 successes, 2 advantage
[4 Successes + 2 Zeno's = 6 Successes]
[2 Advantage for Wound mitigation.]
[2 Strain for Master of Shadows]
[Taking 7 Wounds with Pierce 3, Nets 5. Mitigating 1 from Advantage, Nets 4.]
[10/14 Wounds]
[4/13 Strain]
---
Darth Bellious contributes 29 Successes.
Running total is 46.