Bunker Busters (The Underground/Outer Rim Coalition)

[Jorus Merrill]

Pirate Moon: Lok
Unaligned Space Near ORC Territory

The vault of Saverok Barcu, a droid-infested bunker in an ancient pirate stronghold, loomed out of the rainy night. Jorus slung a big Kathol Junker Cannon over his shoulder and closed the ramp of the Wretched Hive.

"All right, folks," he said into his lapel comm, "the Sith Lord is confirmed dead and this place is confirmed as his. Looks like we're the first to find it. Strip it down for anything we can use, and get a handle on any Intel about other Sith. And keep your wits about you. The Rekalis say this fether liked tricks."

He hefted the ion cannon and slogged into the rain.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

A tech team from the Wretched Hive followed Jorus into the abandoned house that concealed a subterranean labyrinth. Jasper, Shenna'vala, and old Dingo Darr himself took scanners to the walls. One proved to be false and movable. In short order, they were crouching in a durasteel tunnel, in front of a duranium blast door, taking specialized tools to the keypad.

Outlaw techs tended to have their specialties, and the Hive's folks were ship modders by trade. Nevertheless, the security system bore plenty of similarities to what you'd find aboard a starship. After a couple of minutes, Jasper clipped half the wires and plugged them into a circuit board. The huge blast door hissed down into the floor, revealing another length of tunnel. Jasper turned and gestured.to the assembled Undergrounders.

"Enjoy, folks."

 

[Loto Afu]

Pirate Moon: Lok
Unaligned Space Near ORC Territory

The spirits talked darkly on this world, and there was a chill in the air not related to the bad weather. Loto slipped some extra gas canasters into his dull brown trench coat just in case he needed them to power his QQ-4RD-1K Thunderclap Electroray Carbine. While a flame thrower worked well on organic targets these would mostly be metal minds and required a better tool suited for the job. With a Bloodstripe Hand Cannon holstered in a thigh sling and a KUT-42 Plasma Torch sling across his back he felt he was a ready as he could be for this op.

He had traveled to the main gate with the other but before he left he couldn't help but tease the slicer.

"What brother, you cutting out now. The fun is just getting started!"

 

[Delila Castillon]

Pirate Moon : Lok | Current Gear : Generic Blaster Rifle , GC Bolter , Explosive Package



Delila had been quiet the entire ride over,sitting in the Wretched Hive alone and keeping to herself. Being back in 'general population' so to speak was more stressful than she could have imagined. [member="Elliot Locke"] had refused to leave her behind, had grown too attached to her to leave her on the jungle prison. She was attached to him as well, to a point. There was a determined effort not to screw up again. Slow and shaky steps seemed the be her constant as of late.


Blaster rifle slung over one shoulder, red-gold hair in a loose bun, weighed down by tactical gear ; she was ready. Sort of. It was one of her big-time pushes out into her former life yet. She had done little jobs so far, enough to get by and obtain more gear. Everything she had previously was gone, building from the ground up took time.


Rain pelted her but she didn't notice. A decade in the jungle tended to do that, raining constantly. Her 'home', a bunch of ruins,had leaked. Staying warm and dry was still a difficult concept to readjust to. Old, well worn and patched boots propelled her forward towards the bunker.


Time to see if she still had it.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Loto Afu"]

"Hey, we're all good at something. I'm good at opening doors, you're good at carrying obscenely heavy industrial machinery and enough weapons to, uh, do something weapony." Jasper waved vaguely at Loto's loadout, which was significant. "You need another door opened, I'll come down, but only once you've cleared things out up to there. I'm more comfortable back here not getting shot at while digging through a Gen'Dai Sith's dirty laundry."

Saverok Barcu was, admittedly, an enigma. Underground sources said that he was a Gen'Dai and a terrorist and definitely dead. Sith could come back from the dead sometimes, though: he'd heard that plenty of times. He'd heard that about the Gen'Dai too. No, best to just keep his distance.

"But, you know, good luck in there." Jasper gave Loto a thumbs up and as much of a grin as he could muster. "You've got plenty of armed people coming along. Should be a real party for people with guns. I'm just not one of them."

 

[RC 212]

Pirate Moon: Lok
Unaligned Space Near ORC Territory

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Jasper Varanin"] [member="Delila Castillon"] [member="Loto Afu"]

Treasures were good!

She had spent a lifetime it seemed working on her little salvaged shipyards and things were getting boring for her. which meant when there was an adventure calling, she was all on board. Servos whined as her power armor cut through the rain. Hala had her helmet doing a repeater scan mode when Jasper opened the first door. There was rumoured to be super treasures here. And she wanted some of that loot.

With one hand she drew her Mag Pistol and slipped through the door holding it at the high ready.

"Nothing here folks...... yet." She added.

The scanners were picking something up in the next room.

"This calls for something extra maybe?"

Just to be safe she drew her second Mag Pistol, holding them both at the high ready.

"Who's coming with? Need a point man."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Delila Castillon"] [member="Hala Jast"]

At Hala's invitation, Jorus unslung his Junker Cannon. "I'll take point," he said, glancing at Castillon. Force, but it was good to see the Colonel back. He almost asked her if she was up for this, but clearly she was here, she knew her own mind, and he didn't want to insult her. Instead he just tossed her a nod and headed down the tunnel.

He thanked the tech team and passed the open door. Beyond it lay the first in a series of rooms. Metal shapes gleamed - but as his cannon surrounded them with sparks, he realized he'd made a dangerous mistake. They weren't battle droids.

Four Mandalorian Death Watch mercenaries, armour disabled, pulled out beskar machetes and attacked.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Hala Jast"]



Merrill looked towards her as they both moved into more of an attack position, Delila taking the blaster rifle into a more defensive position instead of being slung over her shoulder. She was finding it hard to believe the pizza faced kid was actually Merrill. He had said enough to convince, said enough about their past history to know it wasn't some dumb kid trying on a new identity for size.


While Merrill and Servo Sally(Hala) led, Delila decided to take up rearguard as they moved into the bunker. She knew nothing about the place, unsure of where corridors could lead and where hidden entrances and exits could be. Someone could easily sneak up behind them as they moved deeper into the facility.


Servo Sally mentioned something about potential signatures and Merrill decided to open fire. Immediately she knew something had gone wrong, it was instinct one never lost. Moving closer, a glint indicated some type of blade. Old Delila would have tossed in a few grenades to handle it, explosions were how she handled most issues.


Hand went to the vibroblade found her in boot. Wasn't there, right. Lost that a bit ago. Guess the blaster would have to do.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Delila Castillon"][member="Hala Jast"][member="Loto Afu"]

"Not good not good not good-"

Fortunately, the actual combatants stood between the tech team and the charging Mandos. Even so, Jasper found himself caught flat-footed. Beside him, Shenna'vala and Dingo Darr produced blaster pistols and hefted wrenches. They began laying down precise fire between the actual fighters while Jasper basically just gaped.

A long and embarrassing moment later, he realized what wasn't adding up, the inconsistency that was slowing him down. The Sith Lord was dead, and they'd expected to find droids guarding the bunker complex, not living mercs. So who was paying the mercs?

Jasper began fiddling with his datapad and the sensor he'd used to find the false wall. Link them together correctly, and...

Proof of Saverok Barcu's death, plus a reasonable credit offer, bounced through the comm waves deep into the complex. It wouldn't do much against these four infuriated Mandos, but if others were down there, they might take the offer and start chewing up the sentry droids on their own.

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Delila Castillon"], [member="Jorus Merrill"], [member="Hala Jast"],


This writer is awfully fond of their characters being at odds. Indeed, it feels weird when they get on. That's what makes Siobhan/Elpsis scenes so awkward. So this one just had to make a counterculture Eldorai. #DownWithTheAncienRégime, #UpTheRevolution, #PurgeTheImperialists and so on and so forth. Now that the meta preamble is out of the why, we can get to the actual plot.


Arryn had drifted after Kaeshana. The struggle was not over, not by a long shot, but the battle had been lost. Taldir had made the uncharacteristic offer of pulling strings to reinstate her in the Angelii - apparently all sins were forgiven and the United Front was supposed to be fact instead of fiction - but she had declined. The Dark Eldorai refused to bend a knee to the cabal of reactionary aristos and the so-called Star Queen. Or their Firemane mistresses.


So here she was, amongst humans she did not know. Aesham had recommended the Underground to her. The mission was simple: Infiltrate the bunker of a dead Sith Lord and plunder it. Arryn was game for that. Her kind had little love for Sith and she could use the loot.


Unsurprisingly, things did not quite go as planned. Mandalorians assaulted them. One of these fine Death Watch ruffians went straight for our rebellious rebel. Acting on reflex, Arryn unleashed the bolts of lightning she'd been saving for the droids their briefing had said would be guarding the place.


The arrow of elemental electricity shrieked towards the attacker and struck him. However, though hit and shaking, he still came at her. Maybe the voltage had not been high enough, or he was just that badarse. One could endlessly extend the list of maybes, but there's enough meta in this post.


Quickly, she drew her old Sarix. With the containment field activated, the weapon could stand up to a lightsabre for a short while. Wielding it with her crude cyborg hand, she turned a brutal blow aside that was meant to split her skull like an overripe melon. Dodging another using the natural agility of her race, she launched a slash against the man's forearm, where the armour plating was weaker.

 

[Loto Afu]

"On your left!" Loto shouted as she sprung forward.

The death watch were no longer clumped together so getting off a good shot was going to be tough. So instead the let the carbine he was holding fall to the ground and charged mando closest to him. As his attacker swung for his head, Loto ducked the blow and but not before grabbing the arm his attacker was using. Burying his shoulder into the armor plate of his attacker he used his attack and that of the death watch to flip the warrior over and slam him back first onto the ground. As the mando rolled to get back to his feet Loto used his free hand to pull his hand cannon from its' holster and at close range fired it into the neck joint of the still recovering death watch merc.

With a loud BOOM! The weapon echoed through the halls and blood began to spray from the wounded mando neck. As his prey writhed in pain flopping stomach first and began coving the floor in his own life fluids. Taking the machete from the dieing man's hand, Loto buried it into the back of his neck severing his spine and with in a instant the man went limp.

Pulling the blade from his victim he turned back around to see which of the attackers remained...

[member="Arryn"] | [member="Delila Castillon"] | [member="Hala Jast"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Joy]

"Kriffin' torrential downpour, yeah, n' me without togs."

A tiny figure wearing little beyond his bandolier and loose khaki cargos stomped irately through the rain toward the nearest cover. Blue fur soaked to the marrow and boots muddy as a Jedi's moral compass, he tromped along, back straight even beneath the weight of a large rifle slung over one shoulder.

He also appeared to be talking entirely to himself. Although, on closer inspection, he clutched a recording device in one hand.

"Four turns huntin' the biggest kimogila oi'd eva' seen. Bloody hard yakka. Came on the corpse a the snorball yest'dy. Boits outta her the soiz of a Houk. Left me ute last turn, 'fraid the kimo'd hear me comin'. Caught the tracks a the kimo n' some fresh scat, then down comes this rain and washes away the whole thing. Now 'ere oi am, tryin' to find some cova out in who-knows-where. An-"

The Squib cocked his head, then clicked off the recorder and scampered inside an abandoned house. He'd heard gunfire, no mistake. He paused for a moment to tuck the recorder in one of the bandolier's many pockets, and to doff the little hat sitting between his ears and wring it out. Tucking the cap back into place and nodding once, the Squib produced a slug thrower pistol and followed the sound of a firefight.

He quickly found the retracted blast door and length of tunnel. One door led to another and what do you know it, but he found himself standing behind a group of ragtag no-furs busy shooting at a bunch of... well he couldn't really see through all the commotion.

The meter tall terror puffed out his chest and waited for the rest of them to finish dealing with the whomevers and notice what was clearly the much greater threat.

[member="Arryn"] | [member="Loto Afu"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Jasper Varanin"] | [member="Delila Castillon"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Abel"] [member="Loto Afu"] [member="Arryn"] [member="Delila Castillon"]

A beskad rang off the sturdy metal of Jorus' Junker Cannon. A moment later, the cannon's wooden stock crashed into the merc's helmet. Jorus stepped into the strike and lashed out again. The T-visor fogged and spiderwebbed. The merc fell hard.

As the others dealt with the remaining mercs, Jorus caught a glimpse of fur and glowering eyes back behind the Undergrounders. He spun, cannon raised at... a Squib?

"The kark you doing, sneaking up on us like that?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

This might not have been the most opportune moment, but Jasper's datapad started buzzing. Distant Mandalorian Death Watch transmissions offered terse replies to the offer he'd bounced through the complex. The replies, uniformly, were in the affirmative. They were also far more numerous than anticipated. The Underground would have faced steep opposition, even without facing the droids that patrolled much of the complex. Fortunately, the Death Watch mercs held fortified positions throughout. They offered all kinds of tactical advantages in combat-speak that Jasper wasn't equipped to understand. They requested an increased payout, and he could understand zeroes and shifting decimal points just fine. This might get pricey. On the plus side, at least the odds of death were going down sharply.

 

[Joy]

"G'day, mate," the Squib said cheerily into the mouth of the cannon.

He jerked a thumb toward his own chest. "Twinsuns Tam, big game hunta. How ya goin'?"

Tam's brows shot up as he saw the armored mercenary laying at the human's feet. "Streuth! Thems mandalarians. Neva hunted one o' them before."

[member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Loto Afu"] | [member="Arryn"] | [member="Delila Castillon"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Jorus Merrill"], [member="Delila Castillon"], [member="Abel"]


Beskad machete clashed with Sarix as the two combatants fought on while the larger battle continued around them. A heavy blow was parried by Arryn, but the force of it knocked her off-balance and then she was sent sprawling.


Ouch. Her blade was out of her hand. A quick roll moved her out of the path of the Mandalorian's weapon, then she raised her cybernetic hand, activated a hidden mechanism inside it via thought and fired.


A bright beam escaped from the palm of her robotic hand and the Mandalorian suddenly had a paralysed arm. Swiftly, she swept his legs out from under him. He fell, and she was upon him. He tried to push her off and his good hand grabbed a knife he used to aggressively slash at her, but she broke his windpipe. There was a gurgle, then he stopped breathing.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Abel"] | [member="Arryn"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Loto Afu"] | [member="Hala Jast"]



Bringing up the rear during the Mando Merc clash, a small figure moved in behind them. Finger moved to the trigger of her blaster rifle, ready to take the shot if needed. Delila was thinking some type of droid explosive device, perhaps something deployed as the Mercs were being shot at by Merrill. Yet the shadow walked weird, like a bipedal gait. Brows furrowed and she hesitated, watching a Squib?....Delila didn't know, some type of furry sentient.


"I almost shot you, might want to make some noise next time."


Blood pooled around her feet as the Space Elf brought down the Merc. Delila was impressed, quick work and the gadgets. They'd have to talk later, there was a lot she didn't know anymore. Another thud as Merrill brought down someone else...a quick glance drew the sight of bodies strewn in the bunker.

 

[Loto Afu]

By this time Loto had the remaining merc by the neck his other hand holding the wrist of the blade arm of his prey. His tattoo's glowed as he tapped into the power of the force to maintain his hold. Slowing the man began to struggle less and less as the air was robbed from their lungs. Loto really only did two things well, one was navigation through hyperspace. The other was close, nasty hand to hand combat.

As the final Mando slumped to the floor of the bunker Loto took the Beskar blade from their hand, we was all ready to end his enemy when [member="Jasper Varanin"] mentioned something about the death watch agreeing to some extra zeros...

"You bought them off Brotha?"

[member="Delila Castillon"] | [member="Arryn"] | [member="Abel"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Abel"] [member="Arryn"] [member="Delila Castillon"] [member="Loto Afu"]

Jorus lowered the hulking cannon and let the shoulder strap take its weight. He snorted in agreement with Delila. "Good to meet you, Twinsuns. I'm Jorus, this is Delila, and we're the Underground. This whole place was owned by a Sith Lord, and there's some real big game down here, far as we know." Sensors had picked up massive lifesigns deeper in the complex. Come to think of it, that might be what had drawn the Squib hunter here.

He caught the edge of Jasper's conversation with Loto. "We've hired the Death Watch?" His head tilted as the sounds of combat percolated up through the complex. "Sounds like we and they still have plenty of droids and critters to chew through. Darr, Shenna, how about you strip the value outta these top rooms and get it back to the ship. Jasper can help us with any more blast doors."

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Jorus Merrill"], [member="Delila Castillon"], [member="Loto Afu"], [member="Abel"]


So the DeathWatch Mandalorians who'd attacked them were dead. And it turned that one of the members of this crew of plucky, rebellious rebels had just managed to hire their buddies. That was convenient. It would be nice if the Mandos were so obliging to act as human, beskar-armoured shields against the bots, and ended up decimated. However, things were seldom ideal. Otherwise there would be no Underground.


Arryn got to her feet and took the beskar blade from the Mandalorian's corpse. The sword was heavy, especially for an Eldorai, but it would be useful. Sheathing her Sarix, she wrapped crude cybernetic fingers around the beskad's hilt. "Arryn," she grunted, introducing herself to the newcomer calledd Twinsuns.


Briefly, her eyes met those of the flame-maned human woman. Dells. She seemed familiar somehow, though the space elf could not quite place her. Maybe they could bond later. Major Castillon could finally get a space elf buddy who intensely disliked Sio and approved of punching pompous, aristocratic windbags. "That's convenient. Let's get what we need before they change their mind and we have more than just robots to worry about," she remarked after Jorus had said his piece. Her Basic had an Eldarai accent.