" Right at your back, brother. I might stay with you to take care of any wounded while we go up again! "

With that, CT-4077 reasserts his role as a medic again. Yet he levels his rifle, and pulls the trigger. Shot after shot shows the rest that the medic isn't without combat capability either, however. As his blaster bolts impact their targets, left and right parts of various statues burst off.

The gunfire batters into the stone bodies of the statues with real ferocity as the clone squad make their steady descent down the darkened shaft. Despite the unnatural nature of the enemy; and their sheer endless numbers, the squad is able to drive the statues back into the holes that they had emerged from. It would seem in this case modern firepower outdoes ancient magics. Eventually the platform breaches the shaft that they had descended, and they suddenly find themselves within the huge cave that the jedi had been trapped. Just below them they can see one of the jedi with their lightsaber drawn, a smaller one not far away. However the situation is far grimmer that first imagined. The numbers of the statues is even greater than they had first seen, and commanding them was a truly ghastly visage of a corpse, wrapped in ragged red robes. Strips of skin hang from its bones, dripping with a sickly green ichor. Nothing in their training on Kamino could have prepared them for this. Extending from its fingers is crackling green energy that has engulfed the smaller jedi in bonds and that smoke and burn at their robes.

Caieous has to jump to one side to avoid the platform as it hits the ground with a jarring thud. Though the clones had learnt how to operate the crane, speed control seems to be a little lacking. Still, they were down and safe, relatively speaking. The figure watches the clones with a disgusted snort. "More husks, no magics between them. Your filth will not desecrate this place!" As she speaks the statues slowly begin to surge towards the clones from every direction, determined not to let them escape.

Gunslinger’s hackles rise, when he sees their true enemy, beyond the statue warriors. He tries to shake it, but his game is off nevertheless.

Firing into the statues, his pistol seems to have little effect. Seeing his squad also hesitating, he cries out: “Take these walking rocks out! Through them! Protect the Jedi!”

Pistol vs statues/short/aim : 3eP+1eB+1eD+1eS 0 successes, 1 advantage

(pass a Boost).

Caieous sees through the gloom the clone troopers arrive and he smiles with hope despite his heart filling with dread at the task they face in this dim place with the dark side suffusing everything.

He swirls his lightsaber settling in a defensive stance and his minds goes into the Force and to the troopers and the lone Padawan, his voice echoing in their minds.

"Together we fight for the Republic and each other!"

His words through the Force were meant to inspire confidence and focus - and they did that - but they also carried too much of his fear.

Vinteer was in a lot of pain at the moment. Not so much from the lightning itself but from his own body doing it's best to break the binds that held it. His strength wasn't anything to write home about but using his limited abilities of the force and with the rousing, though fearful, words of Caieous, the small Padawan broke free from the unknown figure's grasp. Having broken the spell, Vinteer began to retreat back to the others, hoping a unified front would work better at taking down the seemingly endless hordes of statues.

"Oh. Yeah." Said while fitting a shield to his arm, Brick finally feels ready to fight.

"Uh, General? Jedi. Let's get the frak outta here!"

"Another wave comin! Orders!?"

As Vinteer begins to fall back towards the rest of the squad, the haggard figures faces twists in a lurid smile. The skin cracks and splits as more of the viscous green slime drips from their face, and they begin to walk towards the padawan. "You cannot escape from this place, no one leaves the heart". As she talks, the image of the figure flickers and fades, the jedi recognising the power of illusion used before.

Witch Force Check : 5eP+1eA+5eF 5 successes, 1 advantage, 1 Triumph, 4 Light Side, 3 Dark Side

Figure activates misdirect, targets @Jedi Ronin , @rocketrobie2 , @Edgehawk and @Shlambate

Slugger did not like what he saw when they arrived on the bottom floor, A horde of living statues was close enough to the droid army but this crazy thing... That was the best way he could internalize what was speaking to and fighting the Jedi just disappeared before his eyes. Straight up vanished! " Zombies! Walking Statutes! And now Ghosts! Now I wish I had more Thermals." He said for the whole group to hear then continued to blast into the Statues taking out another good bunch before they could approach the Squad.

Despite Sluggers best attempts to cut down the statues, two more land on the ground for every one that is killed. They continue to jerk forwards with their weapons extended outwards. Approaching from every direction, the squad soon finds themselves circled by the enemy. This time the statues attack the heavy gunner as he mows down their fellows. Lunging out with their stone blades Slugger finds himself stabbed and beaten with the chipped and blunted weapons, the sheer force of the blows being enough to cause damage. The strikes take great chunks out of his armour as the trooper comes under attack from every direction. One of the blades is thrust forwards and jams in the mechanism of the rotary cannon. The spinning is quick to shatter the stone, but not before Martha lets out an awful squeal as strain is put on the system. Just as he is able to shove the statue back, Slugger feels a spear ram him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him.

Statue Combat Check : 4eP+2eD 0 successes, 1 advantage, 1 Triumph

Does 0 damage, advantage spent to recover 1 strain, triumph spent to damage @Shlambate 's weapon by one rank, adding 1 setback dice to future checks.

Statue Combat Check : 4eP+2eD 5 successes, 1 threat, 1 Triumph
Does 10 base damage to @Shlambate , threat spent to suffer 1 strain, triumph spent to inflict critical injury.

Critical Injury : 1d100 82 @Shlambate suffers 'winded', average critical injury, cannot voluntarily suffer strain till the end of the encounter

CT-4077 is in doubt. Just a very short moment, but doubt nonetheless. His squad mate is injured, but the moving statues keep coming, and they come in fast now. The horde is actually starting to overrun their position. No medic is worth his medical training if he lies on the floor, beaten into a fine paste, so the best option, for now, is to let loose with ample firepower.

However, things are not as well as they could have been. When he tries to level his rifle at some of the little monstrosities, others start to drag his barrel down again, making the whole concept of firing effective shots more difficult. CT-4077 then kicks back one or two of the stone assailants, allowing him to get a short breather. Temporarily free of stone dead weights, CT-4077 suddenly feels the need to aim to his left, where more of the statues are. As if guided by some invisible hand, the combat medic opens fire, gets off a couple of shots, and this time actually hits some of the enemies.

Ok, I know it's been far longer than I said, but here is the link for the Cyclone Squad server: https://discord.gg/RgQn3d2X4F That should let everyone join, including anyone who just wants to spectate. I will be starting the game again shortly, but will be focusing on sorting the Revan's War server first so that it's out of the way.