Post by Darth Kairos on Aug 11, 2019 4:47:25 GMT
From Hell's Heart, I stab at thee.
Halcyon Private Defence Services is the personal military force of Darth Kairos, better known to the galaxy as Obsidian Knight-Commander Venaris. Nominally a mercenary group, it is in reality a highly focused personal war machine he employs in his campaigns against the Union's enemies and to pursue his vendetta against Imperial Admiral Natasi Daala. Halcyon maintains a mercenary guise and supports its operations by taking on lucrative contacts all across the Outer and Mid Rims, protecting convoys and planets, raiding pirate bases and breaking blockades, providing Peacekeeping and security operations, and much more. Though generally amoral, Halcyon is not without its scruples and chooses its contracts carefully. A reputation for extreme lethality and effectiveness gives Halcyon its pick of numerous contracts, and many desperate planets in the Disputed Systems have seen slaving aggressors destroyed in exchange for the rights to precious metal deposits.
Though its mercenary operations keep the group well-funded, written into every contract is Clause Zero, giving the Director authority to suspend all current Halcyon operations and divert all forces elsewhere. Clause Zero has never been invoked, and perhaps it never will be - not unless the location of Natasi Daala is found.
Halcyon's symbol is a stylised Kath Hound. Their colour scheme is red with gold trim.
Halcyon's symbol is a stylised Kath Hound. Their colour scheme is red with gold trim.
1. Overview, History, & Headquarters
2. Navy
3. Army
4. People of Interest
History
Halcyon started out during the Galactic Civil War as Ironhand Arms, an anti-Imperial mercenary group. Largely made up of people who rejected, or were rejected by, the New Republic but still wanted to take the fight to the Empire, Ironhand saw limited success and usually skirmished with the many mercenary groups hired out by various Imperial Remnant factions. It would eventually have faded into obscurity if Tora Venaris hadn't joined their ranks. Fuelled by a burning vendetta against Imperial Admiral Natasi Daala for executing his mother, Venaris leveraged his incredible natural charisma and tactical skills to rapidly ascend dwindling Ironhand's ranks despite his youth, and within a few short years was one of the group's leading commanders. Under his influence Ironhand began winning many victories not just against other mercenaries but against numerous Remnant factions, and its numbers swelled.
Eventually, Venaris took control of the entire group as its Director and renamed the outfit Halcyon Private Defence Services, a quiet reminder of everything the Empire had taken away from the fighters in the group. Halcyon developed rapidly, becoming a formidable, disciplined military backed by cutting edge hardware and a sizeable personal navy. Supported through anti-piracy and anti-Imperial mercenary campaigns, Venaris reshaped Halcyon into his weapon against Daala.
Yet this wasn't enough to go into open war against the Imperial Admiral. Halcyon needed a trump card, and it came when Venaris learned of the Black-15 shipyards. A formidable installation above the Deep Core planet of N'Zoth, Black-15 had been violently overtaken by the local Yevetha after the Emperor's death. Brutally cruel and xenophobic, they had captured the shipyards, its workers, the Black Fleet ships berthed there and, most importantly, the Super Star Destroyer Intimidator. With great effort, Venaris and Halcyon managed to infiltrate the system, learning of the Yevetha's military power and culture. Having renamed the Intimidator the Pride of Yevetha, they were preparing for a genocide of the surrounding sector with an impressive warfleet. Making contact with the Imperial slaves, Venaris learned of the slave circuitry the slaves had installed into the Imperial vessels and hatched a plan.
Never expecting aliens to be intelligent or bold enough to attack them in the seat of their own power, the Yevetha were caught completely by surprise when Halcyon's starfighters entered the system and strafed the shipyards, annihilating much of their warfleet before it could react. Halcyon's capital ships followed, blasting apart planetary installations and engaging the surviving warships. Venaris himself led a boarding party to capture the Pride of Yevetha. The Yevethans were left helpless when the Imperial slave circuitry activated and allowed the Imperials to retake control, executing all of the Yevethans, and Venaris personally fought and killed the Yevethan Viceroy Nil Spaar on the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer.
The agreement with the Imperial slaves had been that Halcyon would retain the Super Star Destroyer while the remaining Imperial vessels departed to join the Deep Core Warlords, but the Imperials swiftly reneged on this agreement. Prepared for this, Halcyon's forces disabled the Pride's engines and fought a long battle to take full control of the vessel, finally succeeding and disabling the slave circuitry.
With their new flagship in hand, Halcyon turned to the Yevetha. Faced with the species' inherent genocidal xenophobia and the prospect of a sector-wide extermination when the Yevethans rebuilt their strength, Venaris chose to turn the flagship's weapons on the N'Zoth and glassed the planet, followed by the Yevethan colony worlds. The Black Fleet Siege complete, Venaris renamed the vessel Conviction and prepared for open war with the Imperial Remnant.
It's not exactly clear what followed. It is believed that a supercommando attacked the Conviction's bridge and succeeded in killing most of its crew. Following this, Venaris formally disbanded Halcyon and vanished along with the Conviction. Lacking clear leadership and the drive that Venaris had used to guide the outfit, Halcyon largely and quietly fell apart, most of its resources and soldiers finding their way into other outfits. Only a small core remained, carrying on the fight against the Imperial Remnant, then the Yuuzhan Vong, and finally the First Order.
It wasn't until the early 30s ABY that Venaris re-emerged. Curiously not having aged a day and now a member of the Obsidian Union, he held the position of Knight-Commander and swiftly began rebuilding his army to its former glory. Backed by the Conviction's incredible firepower, that stubborn group of core Halcyon soldiers became the backbone of the revitalised Halcyon military. With mercenaries now more in-demand than ever and fresh waves of recruits embittered by the atrocities of the Yuuzhan Vong and First Order, Halcyon has no shortage of recruits and swiftly became one of the most powerful military forces in the galaxy.
Headquarters
The Cluster
Tandankin, Outer Rim Territories
Grid R-6
Halcyon's base of operations, nicknamed The Cluster, is located on Tandankin, a sparsely populated planet in the Outer Rim territories. Tandankin never fully recovered from an invasion of the nearby Stenax until Halcyon approached them with an offer: in return for the rights to operate on the planet for at least 30 years, Halcyon would rebuild the planet's infrastructure and handle its future defense. The partnership, though frosty at first, bloomed into a mutual-trust after Halcyon surveyors located and extracted a series of valuable mineral deposits that were given to the planetary authority for a generous fee.
The Cluster specifically refers to Halcyon's sprawling planetary base. A city in its own right, the base houses the entirety of Halcyon's command facilities, training facilities, barracks, and countless amenities such as shops, tapcafes, and restaurants for Halcyon members and visiting dignitaries. The Cluster is also home to a number of vast drydock facilities capable of supporting Halcyon's smaller vessels such as corvettes and transports; larger vessels are maintained by the orbital facilities. The infrastructure for the city was designed with multiple redundancies to pull both from local sources such as reactors, and local sources such as a network of hydroelectric dams that support both The Cluster and the other settlements on Tandankin.
The Cluster's dedicated defenses include a network of five w-165 Ion Turbolasers and a trio of paired Ion Cannons. They are accompanied by a formidable planetary shield capable of repelling an entire battlefleet's worth of fire, and an entire dedicated wing of starfighters. Anti-ground defenses include turbolaser towers and the base's dedicated garrison.
In orbit above The Cluster is The Spine, a network of installations and battlestations. The centerpiece of this is a pair of Golan III SpaceDefense NovaGuns supported by smaller weapon platforms and starfighters. The remainder of the orbital facilities are shipyards to repair Halcyon's larger vessels, including the vast, skeletal Cradle-One, the mammoth installation tasked with repairing and maintaining the Conviction.
Orbital Defence Network:
Tier One (Outer): Long-range starfighters, weapon platforms, and skirmish starships
Tier Two (Central): Golan III NovaGuns (2), Planetary Ion-Turbo Network, Orbital Starfighters
Tier Three (Inner): Planetary Shield, ground-based starfighters
Headquarters
The Cluster
Tandankin, Outer Rim Territories
Grid R-6
Halcyon's base of operations, nicknamed The Cluster, is located on Tandankin, a sparsely populated planet in the Outer Rim territories. Tandankin never fully recovered from an invasion of the nearby Stenax until Halcyon approached them with an offer: in return for the rights to operate on the planet for at least 30 years, Halcyon would rebuild the planet's infrastructure and handle its future defense. The partnership, though frosty at first, bloomed into a mutual-trust after Halcyon surveyors located and extracted a series of valuable mineral deposits that were given to the planetary authority for a generous fee.
The Cluster specifically refers to Halcyon's sprawling planetary base. A city in its own right, the base houses the entirety of Halcyon's command facilities, training facilities, barracks, and countless amenities such as shops, tapcafes, and restaurants for Halcyon members and visiting dignitaries. The Cluster is also home to a number of vast drydock facilities capable of supporting Halcyon's smaller vessels such as corvettes and transports; larger vessels are maintained by the orbital facilities. The infrastructure for the city was designed with multiple redundancies to pull both from local sources such as reactors, and local sources such as a network of hydroelectric dams that support both The Cluster and the other settlements on Tandankin.
The Cluster's dedicated defenses include a network of five w-165 Ion Turbolasers and a trio of paired Ion Cannons. They are accompanied by a formidable planetary shield capable of repelling an entire battlefleet's worth of fire, and an entire dedicated wing of starfighters. Anti-ground defenses include turbolaser towers and the base's dedicated garrison.
In orbit above The Cluster is The Spine, a network of installations and battlestations. The centerpiece of this is a pair of Golan III SpaceDefense NovaGuns supported by smaller weapon platforms and starfighters. The remainder of the orbital facilities are shipyards to repair Halcyon's larger vessels, including the vast, skeletal Cradle-One, the mammoth installation tasked with repairing and maintaining the Conviction.
Orbital Defence Network:
Tier One (Outer): Long-range starfighters, weapon platforms, and skirmish starships
Tier Two (Central): Golan III NovaGuns (2), Planetary Ion-Turbo Network, Orbital Starfighters
Tier Three (Inner): Planetary Shield, ground-based starfighters