Taking of Si'Tilk

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Previous: Disorder

Concurrent: Founding of House Odan-Urr

Next: Invasion of New Tython

Taking of Si'Tilk

Information

Conflict: Dark Crusaders of Yun-Harla assault Plagueis from within the Vongformed Jungle.

Date: 34 ABY

Location: Sigil 2

Outcome: Destruction of the Dark Crusaders Surrender of Urrael Korrynth Defection of Sarak Shai Capture of Si'Tilk Giant Yorik Spire disarmed Construction of Fort Ash

Combatants House Plagueis Dark Crusaders of Yun-Harla Commanders Kal Vorrac Cassandra El'sin Mograine Unus Domus Kaira Rohana Furios Tra'an Reith Korras Samael Korrynth Sarak Shai Urrael Korrynth Fy'y Rooq Strength Jusadih Armed Forces Jusadih Naval Command VSDII Instigator VSDII Ballista INT Atrum Pars II CRV Silent Scream Jusadih Intelligence Directorate Jusadih Starfighter Corps FFC Perdition Conquistador Iron Throne forces 250 Yuuzhan Vong Warriors 190 Yuuzhan Vong Priests 150 Yuuzhan Vong Shapers 80 Yuuzhan Vong Intendants Several hundred Shamed Ones Thousands of Thralls Thousands of biots Yammosk Coordinator Giant Yorik Spire Casualties Instigator heavily damaged AT-AT walkers heavily damaged 488 crew members 672 Plagueian troopers 211 Iron Throne soldiers 39 TIE Interceptors 14 TIE Avengers 7 Scimitar Assault Bombers Cassandra El'sin captured, tortured Furios captured, tortured Samael Korynth Fy'y Rooq Tavro Shai Norik Anor Jian Weigh Thousands of Thralls Thousands of Biots Yammosk Coordinator 231 Warriors 159 Priests 142 Shapers 176 Intendants Several hundred Shamed Ones

[ Source ]

The Taking of Si'Tilk was a conflict in 34 ABY between House Plagueis and a faction of Yuuzhan Vong known as the Dark Crusaders of Yun-Harla. Abandoned on Sigil 2 in the speedy departure of the Vong during their Incursion, the Dark Crusaders were brought together by the heretical Vong Priest Samael Korrynth and his vicious military commander, a young Warrior called Sarak Shai. Congregating secretly within the Vongformed Jungle on the planet, the Crusaders quietly retook control of the organic base Si'Tilk and gathered an army of disgraced Vong, Shamed Ones, and Thrall slaves.

Believing their victory would see their sins forgiven by the Gods, the Crusaders waited for years before striking out at Plagueis by assaulting the Plagueis Army Training Center and concurrently boarding the Instigator. What followed would be one of the bloodiest incidents in Plagueian history as the forces of the House, alongside the Master at Arms and reinforcements from the Iron Throne, fought a brutal battle to destroy their Crusader foes and capture or destroy the fortress of Si'Tilk.

Plot

Week One: Taken By Surprise

The Calm Before the Storm

On Kapsina, capital of Plagueian power in Jusadih, Quaestor Kal di Plagia Vorrac observed the departure of his former Aedile and Apprentice, Vivackus Kavon as he headed for Antei to serve Halcyon Taldrya, Voice of the Brotherhood. As he mused over the need for a new subordinate, the Sith took the time to contemplate recent reports and disturbing images. Such reports included groups of abandoned Vong Thralls on Sigil 2 and derelict ship analogs on Joran, the quarantined world's moon; though Vorrac could feel no disturbance through the Force, he knew that the Vong's absence from it would make such a fact irrelevant.

Meanwhile, in the Vongformed Jungle, the corrupt Priest Samael Korrynth marshalled an assault force, giving the Dark Crusaders of Yun'Harla sinister hope as Sarak Shai, his brother Tavro, and six additional Warriors marshalled sixty Thralls and Shamed Ones. As Sarak disputed the "Redemption" promised by Samael - a pledge that by defeating Plagueis, the Dark Crusaders would see forgiveness of the sins that had apparently made their Gods abandon them - Tavro warned him of his blasphemies, and after a short exchange of words the Vong headed off with their suicide contingent. Nightfall would be their shield; the Plagueis Army Training Center would be their target.

Assault at the PATC

A scout named Tanil Vos held the patrol shift for the Training Center, not wearing his helmet; his belief that the wastelands of the planet were dead had proven right for many years. After reporting into his senior officer, his mistake proved to be a fatal one as a thud bug fired by Tavro would end his life. Slipping into the compound by cutting through its fences using their amphistaves, the Vong ushered their Thralls into position as Sarak kept command of them using the yammosk tissue grafted to his brain.

As the elite Warriors of the group quickly and silently slaughtered any patrolling troops, the group ensured that no one would raise the alarm prematurely before moving to attack positions. Once they were in place, Sarak allowed a single distress call before disabling the Training Center's communications array; the attack had started in earnest, and bait had been put out for the Instigator to deviate from its patrol route over the world and travel over the Vongformed Jungle to assist the PATC.

Discussing the departure of Kavon from Plagueian Command, Directorate General Unus Domus and Grand General Mograine speculated on who would be the next Aedile of Plagueis when blasterfire and screaming erupted through the Center's Command Bunker hallways. Drawing their lightsabers, Domus quickly put out a distress call over private channels for any Directorate Operatives in the vicinity before they joined the nearest soldiers in repelling the wave of Thralls as they attempted to overwhelm the two Sith. As they waded through the enemies, though, they soon encountered Sarak and Tavro before the deadly Warriors engaged them in close combat.

Thralls quickly snuck into the barracks and approached the armory of the Center, several soldiers, recruits, and even a pair of Dark Jedi unaccustomed to fighting the Force-dead meeting their ends with nothing but screams of terror and pain for their eulogies. Those that retained sense quickly organized as their Dark Masters drew the survivors together to keep the Thralls from their obvious objective - breaking into the weapon stores of Sigil 2's training facility.

Outside the PATC, several Intelligence Officers picked up Unus' signal; one of them, a Kaleesh named Tres'kar, sent out a transmission for any nearby operative units to assist. As nearby snipers established themselves on nearby hilltops to provide firing support, a team of Dark Jedi led by Domus' Apprentice, Navrez, entered the PATC alongside several Plagueian Spec-Ops Commandoes, using special weaponry and ambush tactics to even the odds. Even so, the fight continued to be a massacre.

Below, within the bunker, the combat had degenerated into brawls between mindless Thrall and soldiers forced into melee combat with enemies that knew no pain or fear. Domus and Mograine engaged Sarak and Tavro, taking them both on to the best of their abilities. However, without the ability to use the Force against them, both Dark Jedi quickly became battered and bruised, forced to their limits as their enemies began to overwhelm them. It quickly became apparent to both Sith what fate had ordained them; without reinforcements, they were as good as dead.

Boarding of the VSD Instigator

Engaged in a patrol over Zone 6 of Sigil 2's surface, Admiral Kaira Rohana protested the use of her ship, the Instigator, as a patrol and survey vessel. Waving away her concerns, Grand Admiral Cassandra El'sin informed her subordinate that the ship's equipment would prove useful in the surveys and that its manpower was essential should someone try to break planetary quarantine. Before the two could finish their discussion, they were alerted to a distress call from the PATC, Rohana quickly ordering that they move to assist by taking the fastest route - flying over the mysterious, largely unexplored Vong Jungle. Giving orders to arm the ship against any stray biots that aimed to take a bite out of the ship.

Far below, amidst Vongformed trees, several Shapers oversaw the final preparations for their assault; seeing the Star Destroyer pass above them, they gave the signal for an assault. Implants in the Shapers overseeing the operation relayed their commands instantly to Si'Tilk's Yammosk, which quickly confirmed that events at the PATC had transpired correctly before ordering the surprise attack to commence.

As the young Rodian Weapons Officer of the Instigator relayed information to Kaira of incoming lifeforms, the Archpriestess waved him away, ordering him to put them down without delaying their mission. El'sin quickly advised her to belay the order, seeing the source of the attack; thousands of grutchins had formed a swarm cloud and ignored turbolaser fire to attack the upper surface of the Instigator in a bid to chew through. Ordering topside shields to maximum, the two Dark Jedi quickly ordered that the onboard Templar and Spark starfighter squadrons mobilize to defend the ship before sending out a distress call.

On board the TIE Interceptors codenamed Templar Five, Octavia Morgan Kuga blasted her way through several grutchins as she fought to keep the Instigator and her squadmates alive. Seeing that the full might of the shields were beginning to fail under the relentless assault of the biots' acidic secretions, she and her fellows fought even harder. Only Octavia bore witness as below the ship, huge Vongformed cannons shot gigantic blasts of plasma at the Destroyer's vulnerable underbelly, capitalizing on the Force-dead nature of Vong "tech" to protect their ship. Spotting a convoy of transport biots flying toward the huge rents in the ship's hull left behind by the surprise strike, she quickly organized any spare fighters before moving to take down whatever she could.

On board the ship, Cassandra and Kaira felt the impact of the gigantic cannons before reports of hull damage began to flood in; as they learned that the Instigator was no longer spaceworthy, Cassie demanded to know the status of reinforcements as Kaira dispatched engineers to assess and patch the damage. They were forced to call back any engineers that had not already arrived as reports of boarders reached them, seeking to take control of the Star Destroyer for the Dark Crusaders.

Octavia and her battered squadrons were down to five fighters in total, still fighting like madmen to repel the cloud of insects and the boarding ships. As hope began to seem faint, though, reinforcements arrived; Korras, Master at Arms of the Brotherhood, had arrived on board the Conquistador, and with him were the Perdition, the Ballista, the Atrum Pars II, and the Silent Scream.

As Tra'an Reith, CAG Marshal of the Corps, joined with additional fighter squadrons to support the beleaguered fighters and ordered bomber squadrons to disable the cannons below before they could wound anymore ships, the other capital ships took position around the Instigator to contain the situation while the Silent Scream used its large array of point-defense weaponry to help thin out the grutchin cloud.

<<In Progress>>

Results

Competitions

Taking of Si'Tilk: Run-On

• 1st Place: Cassandra El'sin
• 2nd Place: Alaris Jinn di Plagia
• 3rd Place: Tra'an Reith

Taking of Si'Tilk: Gaming Massacre

• 1st Place: Cassandra El'sin
• 2nd Place: Jaek Aralias
• 3rd Place: Navrez

Warrior Poet

• 1st Place: Kodais Solatus
• 2nd Place: Tiberius di Cloud

Caught in the Crossfire

• 1st Place: Tiberius di Cloud

Canvas of War

• 1st Place: Cassandra El'sin
• 2nd Place: Tiberius di Cloud

Tides of Battle

• 1st Place: Cassandra El'sin
• 2nd Place: NightFang
• 3rd Place: Tiberius di Cloud

Once More Into the Breach

• 1st Place: Eivil Grimstroke
• 2nd Place: Tiberius di Cloud

Fires of War

• 1st Place: Cassandra El'sin
• 2nd Place: Tiberius di Cloud

Trust is Just a Word

• 1st Place: Cassandra El'sin
• 2nd Place: Tiberius di Cloud

The Enemy of my Enemy

• 1st Place: Unus Domus
• 2nd Place: Cassandra El'sin
• 3rd Place: Furios

Pieces of the Whole

• 1st Place: Tiberius di Cloud

To Watch the Turning Tide

• 1st Place: Furios
• 2nd Place: Tiberius di Cloud

Objectives of Battle

• 1st Place: Tiberius di Cloud

That Day in the Mud of Si'Tilk

• 1st Place: Jaek Aralias
• 2nd Place: Tiberius di Cloud

Ark of the Yuuzhan Vong

• 1st Place: Jaek Aralias
• 2nd Place: Furios
• 3rd Place: Tiberius di Cloud

Overall

• 1st Place: Tiberius di Cloud
• 2nd Place: Cassandra El'sin
• 3rd Place: Jaek Aralias

Behind the Scenes

The Taking of Si'Tilk event was co-created by Kal di Plagia Vorrac and Sarak Shai, the Quaestor and Aedile of Plagueis at the time. Its original concept, an event that would get all of Plagueis active and put the newly minted Military System into play, came into existence in October of 2010, and it was originally planned for a December release date - this became impossible as Kal ran into delays due to work and real life. Ultimately, the event would be released in March and ran for four weeks.

While Kal largely wrote the plot and competitions for the event, it was the involvement of Sarak that ultimately shaped it; his Vong character gave rise to the idea of Vong renegades left behind after GJW8, and his work to design the Dark Crusaders and flesh out Si'Tilk gave our enemy a form and a base of operations. Together, Vorrac and Shai managed to hammer out a four-week event consisting of no fewer than fifteen competitions, as well as medals for the overall winners.

The Taking of Si'Tilk garnered quite a bit of participation, both in its Run-On and its competitions, and was an overall success. Nevertheless, the delays involved reduced participation and hurt the event's impact. Even so, it remains one of the most intense and successful internal events ever hosted by the Ascendant House.

Trivia

• The event was one of the last that saw full militarization of Plagueian Dark Jedi.
• Sarak Shai was, in fact, created as a character before the Taking was even conceptualized. His involvement largely influenced the plot, and he created the enemy, the Dark Crusaders of Yun'Harla.
• Fort Ash, the Staging Area of Plagueis, was created and named in honor of the destroyed Ash Citadel and the former House Exar Kun.
• Si'Tilk was originally a hold-over from GJW8 - used in the Plagueian Run-On for that Vendetta, it was expanded upon and used as the enemy headquarters for the Taking and remains a stronghold of Plagueis today.