Private An Honest Mistake

[Xandyr]

It was hard to say how much of his blood was being washed down his face with the rain. Neon lights made it difficult to see the true colour in anything here. The rain here tasted metallic too, which made it even harder to tell how much he was bleeding.

"No chance of a parlay then?" Xandyr asked. He groaned as he tried to prop himself up against the wall. Several blasters remained trained on him.

Even in the darkness and the flashes of colour from the street signs he could see that the suits of armour before him had been painted.

"No one mentioned mandalorians when I picked up this job."

One of them had a scorch mark across her chest where his disruptor rifle had dented even beskar. Another was holding a wound where he had got a bolt underneath his plates.

"You can't have been cheap."

Not a single reply. Just black visors reflecting his sorry self back at him. Impassive. Silent. Xandyr was stalling for time.

He suspected his partner on the job wasn't going to help. They were supposed to have been raiding an air transport carrying Hutt credits. No one had mentioned jet pack wearing mandos. Xandyr had been a fairly effective distraction as they chased him down.

"Last request?"

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Hazel took it as a sign of the times that she was flattened against the air transport hundreds of miles above any sign of level ground. When the shuttle had taken off it had been in a flurry of incoming blaster fire from Slick McGee (Xandyr) and a rain of incoming targeting lasers from above. For her part, Hazel had remained out of sight and managed to elude the Jet Pack Brigade's notice, considering they were busy lighting Slick's rear end up as he fled into the labyrinth of buildings.

She didn't often agree to raid missions and she rarely ever took on partners. It was an odd day for Hazel, clinging to the side of the transport notwithstanding.

Her left cybernetic arm was doing most of the work while her right slapped a tracking beacon onto the ship. Just in case.

"Brom," she grunted, teeth gritting against the centrifical force of the shuttle pulling a sharp left turn, "engage Stalk Protocol, shields at max."

["Tracking your position. ETA 7 minutes.] the voice of her ship's AI responded within her helmet comm.

"Oh good," a breathless gasp at the vision of the neon sea below her flew by, "my lucky number. See if you can get an update from Slick."

["As you wish."]

KCCHT. The AI pinged into Xandyr's comm channel.

["Xandyr, in pursuit of the transport. What is your status?"]

 

[Xandyr]

"Has he got an ident chip?"

"Teched up merc like this won't carry anything we can open."

"Check anyway."

Xandyr let his gaze drift casually between the mandalorians. Four of the damned walking armouries. He let his head loll to the side, trying to appear more out of it than he truly was.

Having been tackled by a mando with a firing jetpack, repeatedly struck in the end and stabbed in the side, it was quite a convincing act. Fortunately his implants had dispensed a cocktail of drugs to keep him mostly awake. Unfortunately it came at the cost of leaving most of the pain too.

The message from this Hazel's droid played out just for him. He hadn't realised it was just an AI yet. He silently activated his own comm so they could hear this.

"Well, guess I'm fethed then," he groaned as he was patted down. They would find some Hutt currency but nothing more. "Never faced..."

Breathing hurt. Ribs were bruised but not broken.

"...a mandalorian when I was spec ops. Four of you must have cost...a penny or two..."

 

[Hazel Scheler]

["Things are not presently boding well for Mr. Xandyr,"] Brom relayed to Hazel's channel.

Hazel grunted as she heaved herself over to the side door of the shuttle, "If he's on the ground-" she grimaced, pulling her Vor'Cha Stun Stick from its holder on her hip and sticking it into the outer panel of the door.

KZZZZZZT

"-then he's faring better than me."

The door sizzled, whined, gave a resentful chug of internal mechanics, then began to dither between opening and closing in jerking succession.

["He is beset by four Mandalorians."]

"Oh," Hazel holstered the stun stick and grappled with the outer seam of the door. She heaved herself over from her current perch and balanced the toes of her boots on the jamb edge. The precarious nature of her new situation was made apparent as the ship lurched through the air. She'd been discovered as an occupant spied her through the misfiring doorway gap.

"Shebs."

["...what's a penny?"]

"Now is NOT the time, Brom!"

PEW PEW. She narrowly missed a blaster bolt to the faceplate of her helmet through a momentary opening in the door.

 

[Xandyr]

"The Hutt will want us to take you in," continued the mandalorian standing back from him.

Xandyr was still being searched. He had two vibroknives, a holdout blaster and a terminal taken from him.

"Which will mean being tortured until they get everything out of you."

The mandalorian set his grip on his blaster and levelled it at Xandyr's brow.

"You put up a fight, if you'd rather go down fighting..."

"I'll take the torture please," Xandyr replied. He very slowly reached up to wipe the blood from his eyebrow to stop it dripping down. Mandalorian honour codes giving him a way out.

"Really?"

Xandyr offered a subtle shrug. Across his view the implants projected a status update.

ACCESSING JETPACK REMOTE CONTROLS

 

[Hazel Scheler]

["It sounds as though Xandyr is expecing torture."]

PEW. BLAM!

Hazel dodged another outgoing bolt through the crack in the errant door.

"Ach! He'll be fine," she waited as the door screeched and whined, open, shut. open-open, SHUT, open- and shoved her cybernetic hand in to catch it before it shut completely. With a grunt she heaved it open wide enough to allow her boot access, then tossed a smoke bomb inside through the crack, "he's a young buck. They bounce right back."

BOOM

The shuttle began to warble through its flight path as the inside filled with smoke.

"Where are ya Brom?"

["I have you in my sights."]

Behind them her AT-120 Freighter dipped down from above, engines thrumming hot and a laser trained on the topside of the shuttle.

"Brom..."

["Oh, right. Tow harpoon away!"]

 

[Xandyr]

ACCESS GRANTED

"Your choice," said the lead mandalorian, shrugging his shoulders. "Cuff him and..."

Fwam

All four jetpack activated together, launching their owners high above the rooftops.

"Should have just shot me," Xandyr grumbled. His blaster was just two strides away but even getting to his knees was painful.

He looked up as he picked up his weapon. They had quickly overridden the malicious remote commands. One orange streak came around and was heading back to the ground. The other three shot into the distance.

They must have heard from the shuttle.

"Tag, you're it," Xandyr called into his comm-unit.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

KLUNK.

The gigantic magnetic slab slammed into the topside of the shuttle and sent it lurching through the air.

["Tow tether engaged."]

"REEL IT IN BROM!"

"Tag, you're it."

Jaw set, Hazel leaned into her grip on the door and cranked it open with a fair amount of cybernetic effort. She was inside the shuttle the next moment, infrared vision in her robotic eye cutting through the smoke to find her targets.

PEW PEW

A rodian keeled over in the corner.

KZZZT

A second thug collapsed against the bulkhead.

["I hate to interrupt-"]

"What is it now?"

One of them grabbed her from behind, an arm looped around her neck, and batted the Vor'cha from her grasp across the cabin.

["It appears we have incoming."]

"DRAH-" Hazel struggled against him and heaved herself backwards, out the opening of the door, catching herself on the frame with her natural hand, "deploy - EMF - drones!"

["Is that wise?"]

"JERST-" she flailed at the weight of the man presently attached to her neck before grabbing ahold of his arm with her cybernetic hand and crushing, "DO IT!"

Whatever he was, he screamed at the agony of his bones being crushed and fell loose from her, disappearing into the haze of the city below. He would die, and she would deeply regret that later, but she couldn't deal with that right now.

["Targets acquired. EMF Drones deployed."] A outer cargo slip opened, depositing three drones into the sky that bleeped, spun, and sped off toward the incoming Mandolorians.

Reeling herself back inside, Hazel gasped for air while bracing a hand against the doorframe, "Brom," she wheezed, looking up as a particularly large fellow detached himself from the copilot seat and began making his way back toward her, "take us down."

["Down?"]

"DOWN," she yelled, and mentally said feth it before lurching forward and barreling shoulder-first into the thug's middle, toppling him back into the cockpit and into the pilot of the shuttle.

 

[Xandyr]

Blaster proof armour was - as far as Xandyr was concerned - cheating. He had made good credits bringing down jedi and sith alike. There were ways and means to get around their foresight. It took patience and planning.

Xandyr had not expected mandalorians. There was no plan for them. He was short on time.

The single mandalorian left to deal with him landed outside. It sounded as if someone had dropped a steel anvil on the road.

"That was very clever," came the metallic voice. The door was kicked in. Someone was out of patience.

The mandalorian paused, looking towards the floor. Their helmet switched to another view, highlighting footsteps. She turned and followed them towards the stairs up. Her target was walking unevenly, both feet on each step.

All the way around the corner to the next landing, where the steps broke into a random, chaotic mess.

"Gotcha."

There was a soft clink. The sound of a blaster muzzle to the back if her helmet. To look up, any soldier needed a gap between the base of the helmet and the armour. This was where Xandyr had placed his blaster.

He didn't waste time. He pulled the trigger. A single flash of red and the mandalorian died instantly.

"Droid?" he called into his comm. "How far is the shuttle. Do I need to get my ship or can I get after your boss in an air speeder?"

 

[Hazel Scheler]

["Firstly,"] Brom replied into his comm, ["my name is Brom and I am not a droid."]

The shuttle bungled around in the air like a bumble bee on a tether while the three wrestled in the cockpit. Brom began the descent into the haze of the city, tugging the shuttle along behind the freighter.

["Secondly,"] he continued, ["something with the capacity to shoot our three ... our two pursuers would be apt. We are 30 clicks to your south."]

 

[Xandyr]

"Sorry for the offence," Xnaudr wheezed. He did not sound very sorry.

His gaze fell to the Mandalorian's jetpack. That wasn't happening. A surefire way to die a very abrupt, brightly coloured death born of a very stupid idea.

"Thirty clicks," he muttered. His ship was back in the Dock and everything could be done by then. On top of that the cannons were not configured to shoot something the size of a person out of the air.

"With you shortly," he grunted. Every step brought lights dancing across his eyes and only stubborn determination kept him going. He found his disruptor rifle where it had been abandoned and found two people getting into an air speeder on the streets.

He didn't apologise to them for stealing their air speeder either.

"Give me a bearing, how high are you?" he called out as he floored the throttle. "I'm at least six minutes out."

 

[Hazel Scheler]

["I question your sincerity but I'll take what I can get."] Brom replied, the slight mechanical tone to the voice conveying a sense of ... humor? ["We are descending into the haze. Please avoid the EMP drones."]

"NYAH-" Hazel suddenly found herself gripped by the big man around the leg and scrambled to get a hold of something as she was lifted into the air. The man stumbled back out of the cockpit, holding her aloft and abruptly swung her face-first into the nearby bulkhead. Hazel heard her faceplate crack, but mostly she felt her brains scramble from the impact.

The shuttle staggered as Hazel's ship continued to drag it down into the haze, slightly toppling the big man to his knees. Hazel landed on the ground with a loud, wheezing grunt. Blinking stars from her eyes, she looked up just in time to see that her Vor'cha was within reach.

She reached.

 

[Xandyr]

He had been six minutes from catching up to the shuttle. However, he caught sight of three mandalorian jetpack plumes much sooner.

"Damn," he muttered. Not for the sight of them - they would certainly be tracking the ship with more precision than him - but because he had no plan on dealing with them.

Xandyr used his knees to keep the wheel level and flicked the velocity lock switch. He reached for his disruptor rifle.

Even the slightest turbulence was going to make this difficult. It was awkward, but Xandyr leaned the rifle on the lip of the windshield. He fired a shot.

It missed, but was enough to draw the attention of the mandalorians. One rose high into the air, probably to turn and deal with him. The other two dropped into the mists after the ship.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

In the city haze the cadre of shuttle-attached-to-ship continued buoying through lanes of traffic. At their aft the EMP drones dithered, awaiting distance lock on their targets. As soon as the two Mando's dove into the fog, the drones zipped off.

BRRT

BRRRT

BLEEEP

The drones streaked forward in a blur of black and intermittent glowing red, dodging incoming blaster fire from their targets as they closed the distance. An errant blaster bolt clipped the front droid and sent it careening off into the mists, the second zoomed past and activated with a resentful BLORP.

There came a flash of light and shortly after a single mandalorian plummeted down out of the haze like a discarded stork baby with no working technology to save them. The other mando in pursuit narrowly avoided the blast by suddenly pulling directly skywards and out of the haze.


Inside the shuttle...

Hazel's fingers latched around the stun stick with a sound of victory that alerted her quarry. He grunted, threw a slew of swearing at her that is not appropriate for polite company, tightened his grip around her leg and did mightily yeet her entire body to the back of the shuttle.

 

[Xandyr]

The mandalorian dove towards his airspeeder, picking up speed. Xandyr had his disruptor rifle precariously balanced. There were just five rounds left inside. It would take more than one strike to the same plate of beskar to kill the incoming armoured killing machine. He waited.

The mandalorian twisted in the air, coming in too quickly and needing to arrest his velocity. Xandyr squeezed the trigger. Another miss. The manalorian started firing. Red bolts lashed past his airspeeder. One struck the windshield, the heat shattering it instantly.

"Just die already," Xandyr muttered. They had already given him a beating. He was exhausted and in pain. He squeezed the trigger.

The rifle could turn a person to ash in an instant. Hitting the underside of the jetpack plume it did all kinds of bad things to the mechanics. The jetpack spluttered out and the mandalorian tumbled from the sky. The next part was going to be tricky.

The surviving mandalorian was somewhere above him. As Xandry drew alongside the slowing shuttle he saw the last mercenary land on the shuttle and step inside.

"Kark," he muttered. He had half hoped this one would bail out. Xandyr thumbed the auto-drive and stood up. It was going to be a jump for the railing and the door.

Inside the mandalorian had drawn his blaster, looking from Hazel to the big man to work out who to shoot. There was a flash of green light. A blaster bolt bounced off his helmet.

Xandyr stepped through the door, firing at the mandalorian and forcing him to dart behind a crate to take cover.

"Fething mandos!"

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Hazel was, for lack of any better description, laying in a shiny, metallic heap at the back of the shuttle, now pinned against the bulkhead by the cargo boxes that had toppled over on top of her. Her cybernetic arm was stuck and judging by the lack of feedback probably broken. Again. She swore, wrestled against the weight of the boxes and managed to wrangle her natural arm free. The Vor'cha had fallen off to the side.

She could almost reach it.

The big brute had begun moving toward her to finish the job but only got a few steps before a new face entered the shuttle. Mando.

"Fuck!" this wasn't going much how she planned. The brute had been a surprise - he hadn't shown up on her preliminary intel run for the mission. With a growl she gave a kick in an attempt to get a bit more reach and stretched mightily for the Vor'cha.

Enter face #4.

Big Brute Boi turned at the first sound of blaster fire and made a grab for Xandyr across the short distance of the now cramped shuttle.

Hazel continued to struggle and was quickly set upon by the Mando who reached to grab her by the neck and tug her more fully out from under the crates. It was just enough for her fingertips to reach the stun stick and with her heart hammering in her throat she lodged it under his helmet and gave him a fully charged zap. Unfortunately his grip around her throat meant she zapped herself.

Mando keeled overtop of her and added to the heap.

Scheler down.

 

[Xandyr]

X A N D Y R​

"I...am...not...having...a good day," Xandyr groaned as he was lifted from his feet, slammed into the inside of the hull and then into a cargo crate. He was vaguely aware of the sound of his blaster clattering to the deck.

He let go of the thug with his artificial arm, holding it out to the side. The thug tightened his grip around Xandyr's neck, but his eyes followed Xandyr's hand. A hand which neatly folded back in on itself, revealing a sharp blade.

"Chi..." he managed to get out before Xandyr stuck him in the chest. The blade slid between ribs and punctured a lung.

"A very bad day..." Xandyr continued, his feet finally finding the floor. The thug stumbled away but Xandyr - looking thoroughly unamused by this point - stalked after him, grabbed him by the coat and tossed him out the door. He slid that shut and the roar of the wind finally stopped.

Hands on his knees he tried to gather his breath.

"Anyone still...awake?"

 

[Hazel Scheler]

["Miss Scheler's vitals are indicating a black-out,"] Brom replied to Xandyr 's comm, ["her armor unit has short-circuited and I am incapable of remotely engaging Wake-Up Protocol. If you could assist. There is an adrenal stim located in the compartment on her left gauntlet. You'll need to remove her helmet to inject it into her neck."]

The shuttle bungled slightly in the air as Hazel's ship made a hard right turn deeper into the city haze.

["En route to safehouse. ETA 5 minutes. Scans indicate no further incoming assailants. Are you alright?"]

 

[Xandyr]

X A N D Y R​

"Why thank you for asking Brom," Xandyr replied. "Nothing a bit of bacta won't fix."

He had planned on leaning against the wall for as long as he could. He needed to catch his breath and work out which pains were exhaustion and which were bruises and breaks.

Xandyr sighed and pushed himself from the wall. He made his shaky way to the merc's side. He took off his own helmet and placed it on the deck.

"Left gauntlet, left gauntlet," he muttered to himself. "Oh I hope you're not going to shoot me."

She had gone down in the middle of a fight and was about to be rudely woken up with a stim. It wasn't an idle fear. Xandyr found the catch on her helmet and pulled it free. Xandyr felt a flash of guilt for pausing to appreciate his apparently humanoid partner before pressing the stims to her neck. It wasn't the time.

He laid a hand on her should with just enough weight that if she woke in a panic she might not be able to strike him.