bb8_dad | Exegol preplay

The ships exited hyperspace, and Poe's first thought upon seeing Exegol was that it looked dead. It was the the ugliest thing he'd seen in a long while, and he wondered if it had always been this way, or if building a colossal fleet of Star Destroyers here had killed the place.

And when the ships dived into the cloud cover, they nearly ran into the Sith fleet. It was massive. Their triangled hulls were enormous, but they grew even smaller as their numbers seemed to stretch into infinity.

"Great dark seas," Aftab Ackbar gasped across the comm. "Look at that!"

"No sign of the Falcon or allies," Tyce said from her ship.

"Help will get here," Poe assured them.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

bb8_dad

All of a sudden, nav screens cleared. Their navigation wasn't being jammed anymore. The power coming from the planet's surface had stopped.

"We're back on!" Poe yelled. "This is our last chance. We've got to hit those cannons now! Finn, get everyone on the lander!"

Time to aim everything they had at the Steadfast and hope everyone on the ground got onto the Tantive IV in time.

[Make it messy if you want. Ground fighters can run for the lander, spaceships can fire what they have on the ship they're escaping. Don't hit the good guys.]

From:

nothowtheforceworks

"Ground team!" Finn yelled, waving everyone toward the lander. "Get back on, go go go!"

They'd all be quick enough, right?

From:

defenderofdesmoines

Annie didn't have to be told twice before she was running as fast as she could back towards the lander. She was keeping an eye out for anyone who seemed hurt enough to need a hand, as well as any enemy weaponry small enough that she knew she could confidently siphon power off it to just help with cover. (The cannons seemed a touch, perhaps, above her paygrade.)

Edited Date: 2022-08-19 01:59 pm (UTC)

From:

dishesonthetoprack

And the fastest way to get back to the ship, in Scott's opinion, was to hitch a ride back. So hopefully this blonde woman wouldn't notice or mind that he'd grabbed onto her shoelace.

Once Annie was close enough to the lander, he jumped down to the ground, sprang up to full size, and darted past her to board.

Normal stuff!

From:

heroic_jawline

Steve loved running. It was up there with punching bad guys as a hobby. He took a flying leap and ended up on top of the lander, looking around for any stragglers to help up.

From:

imafuturist

"Need a lift?" Tony asked, making a pass over where Steve was running.

From:

heroic_jawline

"Please," Steve said, grinning under the cowl. "How was space?"

From:

imafuturist

"Dark, explosive," Tony said, scooping him up under his arms. "No one would exchange insurance information. It was a real mess."

From:

heroic_jawline

"Sounds terrible," Steve said. "Scott can turn really tiny?"

From:

imafuturist

"Ant-Man," Tony said like he expected that one. "Can he also turn really big?"

Re: Finale

From:

heroic_jawline - Date: 2022-08-20 08:17 pm (UTC) - Expand

Re: Finale

From:

imafuturist - Date: 2022-08-20 08:19 pm (UTC) - Expand

Re: Finale

From:

heroic_jawline - Date: 2022-08-20 08:41 pm (UTC) - Expand

Re: Finale

From:

imafuturist - Date: 2022-08-20 08:58 pm (UTC) - Expand

Re: Finale

From:

heroic_jawline - Date: 2022-08-20 09:21 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

stykera

Quick enough? Maybe. But Stark was still hanging back a bit and trying to offer covering fire for the rest of the ground forces.

The problem was that he was watching the others too intently and once he started moving out from his fairly defensible position he wasn't compensating for his blind side.

From:

tros_npcs

As he ran, one of the jet troopers landed in a good position to have a clear opening. He fired, trying to account for movement and probably shooting around arm level.

From:

stykera

This had been going too well for Stark so far so of course he was going to get attacked by a flying enemy. Of course.

One shot struck his upper arm and he cried out, dropping his blaster as he stumbled a few steps before falling forward. It hurt. But he needed to get back up or it was going to hurt more.

From:

nothowtheforceworks

Finn just happened to look over at the right time while waving people through to the lander. He wasn't sure what happened, and he didn't have time to ask, so instead he let instinct take over.

He stuck a hand out, and suddenly Stark was picked up into the air and moved him the rest of the way into the lander.

If he was slightly more dropped than set down, well, he was real brand new to this.

From:

stykera

Being sent flying through the air with no warning was a new experience. If Stark let out another yell that sounded suspiciously like "what the frell" at the sensation that was perfectly understandable.

Hitting the ground was considerably less new, at least, and resulted in a much smaller yelp followed by a thud and a quiet groan.

"How...?" He'd be very thankful later. For now he was confused and he'd just been shot.

Re: Finale

From:

nothowtheforceworks - Date: 2022-08-19 05:12 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

weetuskenraider

Tahiri was a trained, experienced Jedi, so of course she'd be quick enough even if she had to break about five laws of physics in the process.

Which was why she'd chosen to stay to the back of the group, to keep an eye out for stragglers and guard their rear: her golden lightsaber was ignited and in her hand, flicking out with casual ease to deflect any blaster bolts that came too close, and occasionally she might reach out and gesture with her other hand to send would-be assailants flying or drop a boulder into their path or any number of fun telekinetic tricks.

From:

solo_sword

The hard part was not being the one staying behind and making sure everyone else got on the lander. Not her mission.

She was however sticking to the periphery to take out troopers that were trying to stop them, though.

From:

unusual_sith

Lana had Force speed, which she was pouring on now, lightsaber weaving in front of her to take down any troopers who got in her way. She'd come this far, she wasn't getting killed by not getting out of the way in time.

From:

somethingwithturquoise

One of the nice things about basically having spent most of her time in the air being a portal-hopping erratic target was that Summer hadn't actually spend too much of her ammo resources on shooting things (although she'd definitely gotten a few pew-pews here and there, because, um, duh, obviously, why wouldn't she?), so she was ready to swoop back in with everyone else with plenty to volley at those cannons.

From:

nothowtheforceworks

When it was clear everyone was going to make it, Finn, Jannah, and BB-8 raced after the others and the orbaks toward the lander. But Finn came to a halt, realizing that every shot at them was coming from a blaster. The deck cannons had gone silent with the reset.

From:

gffa_archer

BB-8 kept rolling, but Jannah turned. "Finn! Let's go!"

From:

nothowtheforceworks

"The surface cannons stopped," he said. "They're resetting their systems. So before they do..."

He stared at the cannon. This had to be the worst idea he'd ever had. "Maybe we can do some shifty stuff... Jannah, go. I gotta do something."

From:

gffa_archer

She surprised them both by saying, "No. I'm staying with you."

From:

nothowtheforceworks

Finn blinked, but he'd learned better than to argue with a determined woman. He nodded his thanks, and together they sprinted for the cannon.

When they got close, the cannon was circling cautiously, like it was just looking for something to attack.