Bunker Busters (The Underground/Outer Rim Coalition)

[Delila Castillon]

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


Death Watch? Hired by them? Delila grew more confused as the introductions went around. She gave a brief nod when her name was mentioned by Merrill to the others. Either way they had a great deal of ground to cover and clear. Mind numbing amount for such a small group of people. Delila had done it in the past, knowing it was going to take a good amount of time and effort.


Leaning down to scavenge a Death Watch body, Arryn's voice reached her ears. It caused her blood to suddenly run cold, her hands to stop what they were doing. She knew the accent and knew it well. It wasn't one she expected to hear out in the ass end of the 'verse. Part of the reasons she chose this sector, wanting to lay low and keep quiet from her past.


Shaky hand found a beskar dagger, one that would be perfect for her boot. She fumbled slightly before the blade was resting between her calf and the leather, a perfect fit in the worn outline of her old blade. Straightening up, Delila adjusted her blaster rifle and moved closer to Arryn. They would walk shoulder-to-shoulder for the moment as she had a question or three to ask.


"You're Eldarai." A slight pause. "Your kind typically aren't found out here. You....Are you okay?"

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Delila Castillon"]


Down they went into the belly of the beast. Or something similarly melodramatic. There was a lot of ground to cover for the small group. It was also infested with kill bots. Just another day at work out there in the 'verse.


Arryn was pulled from her singular focus upon the task at hand when the flame-maned woman suddenly addressed her. The Eldorai tilted her head slightly to look upon the human. Dells would probably see that one of Arryn's pointed ears did not look quite right: As if it had been mutilated, then patched back together.


"Fine, and, yes, I am. A long way from that broken shell we called home. I chose not to bend a knee to fascist invaders or go cap in hand to the Tygaran cowards and that queen Kerrigan," she responded.


Her tone was laced with bitterness, but not belligerent as she scrutinised the other woman. One of the rebels had called her Dells. She dimly remembered the face from somewhere. Perhaps a file, perhaps a mission. It was more than a little foggy. "Pyre? Firemane?" she queried, perhaps a light bulb of sorts had activated inside her head.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Arryn"]


Continuing to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with the Elf, it seemed the two had broken off to speak for a moment while they moved forward. Their movement was a snail's pace, stopping to listen or to let the tech crew set up equipment. Tone of the Elf took on an oddly bitter tone when she spoke of Kerrigan. Polarizing woman in her opinion. It seemed everyone either adored her or hated her. Quite interesting.


"I've heard some stories of Kerrigan."


Delila kept her tone casual but as Arryn continued to speak panic rose. She had chosen this area of the 'verse to keep quiet, try to move on with her life. ORC and its planets seemed the type of place she would never run into Kerrigan or one of her associates. If Arryn recognized her....what was going to happen? Delila didn't consider herself important but it didn't mean those in the circle of Alcori-Kerrigan didn't harbor certain feelings for her.


"Yes, to both."

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Delila Castillon"]


"I see," Arryn responded, as the pair moved ahead into the base. They moved slowly, wary of ambushes and to give the tech crew time to do their thing. Dells' last words gave the space elf pause. There was a moment of silence before words left her lips again.


"I killed a few of both back in the day. We might have shot at one another without knowing it," she suddenly spoke up. Her tone was matter-of-fact, as opposed to belligerent. In other words, she did not sound like someone about to make the attempt to test out her new blade on the redhead.


"Illyria's Children. Not many left of them now. Figure your bosses called us Dashdae Eldorai," she added, mentioning her former affiliation. They'd been anti-government insurgents. The Dashdae, or rather Dark, Eldorai were militant terrorists who wanted to overthrow the Queen and implement a 'pure' government, ridding the Eldorai of all foreign influence.


Of course, it was more complex than that, and the Dark Eldorai included a myriad of competing groups under a broad general banner. Some wanted a radical theocracy that purged all non-Eldorai, others just a different dynasty on the throne, some a military dictatorship, some wanted equal male rights, others a people's republic. Yet they were all lumped together as Dark Eldorai, a name which automatically prejudiced opinion.


In Eldorai religion, Illyria was seen as a traitorous deity who rebelled against the supreme goddess Ashira, and was cast into the underworld for her crime. Unsurprisingly, those rebels who fundamentally broke with the Monarchy and the Ashiran church identified with her.


Her elf ears - mostly the one that had not been mutilated and put back together - picked up on noise in the distance and she pulled Dells into cover, just before droids approached. Putting aside her new blade, she raised her bolter, which had ion bolts chambered. A quick hand signal would tell the human soldier they'd fire as one to take out the bots.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Arryn"]


"I think its a good bet we've fought against each other in the past. If there were a lot of explosions that was me."


Tone remained casual, unconcerned about the fact they were on difference sides of the fence roughly a decade or more ago. Past was just that, in the past. It seemed from what she could piece together there was in-fighting between the Space Elves. Honestly it wasn't surprising. From what she could remember, there were polarizing ideas about how exactly they should act. At this point she wouldn't be surprised if Firemane had been fighting a splinter group of the Eldorai while she was employed at the PMC.


Trying to keep the splinter group quiet? Or fighting to keep the brainwashed masses under control.


"Sounds familiar. I'll have to ask more later....I've got a lot of questions, there's a lot I've missed."


Delila fell silent as Arryn picked up something in the distance. She was being pulled into a dark corner, barely any distance behind herself and the Elf. The sound of droids reached her ears before they came into view. A hand came up from the woman ahead, signaling they were about to take out the droids together. Signal launched.


She moved back slightly, firing as she did so. Metallic clang,one fell to the ground. Moving away from Arryn, the droids continued to fire in the small space, Delila ducking behind a pillar on the opposite side of the wall.

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Delila Castillon"]


"Oh, so you're the one who put shrapnel in my leg? Nice to know," Arryn remarked wryly. It was always good when two people could be casual about having shot lethal projectiles at one another. If only more could be like this, there'd be less wars. Or maybe not.


Regardless, they engaged the droids as one. As Dells moved, so did Arryn. Her bolter roared, expelling ion bolts. Boom. An ion blast overloaded the electronics and circuits of a death machine and it went bang. Surviving droids kept firing, Arryn rolled, dodging lethal kill.


"Cliff Notes, as humans say: asteroid hits Kaeshana, Firemane and elf lackeys run away after 'mitigating the damage and saving the worthy'," Bam, she continued as blasters flew around, "rest of us live on a hellhole, First Order fascist bastards come to 'help us' by enslaving us and making us into monsters, Firemane and friends come back to fight them, then run away," Bam, another droid was struck and she threw in a telekinetic blast to smash it into a wall with somewhat excessive force. Yeah, she was kind of pissed.


"How about you? Anything fun lately? Did Kerrigan sack you because you wouldn't put out?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Four dead Mandos' worth of gear took Darr, Shenna'vala, and Jasper two trips apiece. Armor, jetpacks, personal weapons, more weapons, even more weapons - most of the latter had an unusual stamp. The Gen'Dai Sith Lord had been a manufacturer and an arms merchant, and his wares were pretty darn unique. Acid canister launchers, molten-metal throwers, all kinds of nasty nonsense. Still, Jasper had to admit it would come in handy. Undergrounder cells could always use more guns, even strange and inhumane ones. And in the end, what difference was there between killing someone with a blaster's plasma bolts and using a high-velocity blob of liquid lead? Pain was pain, burns were burns, dead was dead.

Once the cargo got loaded and placed under guard, Shenna and Darr got to work on it. Jasper and a couple of Undergrounder​s headed back into the crypt.

 

[Loto Afu]

Loto had taken himself a Beskar blade as well. He never felt right without a blade in his hand. Now with such a nice sword stashed into his belt he picked up his carbine and readied himself so enter the bunker.

"Hey Boss, all set. We can fry some tin cans or bust some skulls. Either way it will be a good hunt!"

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Loto Afu"]

"Let's go with shooting the droids," Jorus said, checking the dials on a Mandalorian blaster rifle. "One of the tech guys bought off the Death Watch, or thinks he did anyway. Never can know for sure with Mandos. For all their talk about honor they define it strangely."

His junker cannon would have made short work of the droids, but it had conked out and was on its way back with the salvage. The blaster rifle seemed good to go, as far as he could tell; he ratcheted a new magazine and set off down the next tunnel.

 

[Delila Castillon]

It seemed [member="Arryn"] and herself had gone off on their own adventure down a second tunnel into the bunker. Firing suddenly had stopped when the Space Elf angrily tossed the remaining droids into the wall, effectively smashing them. Delila waited a moment, blaster at the ready, before coming out from behind the narrow pillar.


"Huh. Nice of them to pick up the survivors after the asteroid. How thoughtful."


Delila moved to pick up a blaster dropped by one of the droids. Safety of mind to have a backup just in case something went wrong for either of them.She joined back up with the Elf as they continued down the tunnel. Ears strained but she was relying on Arryn to pick up the sound of more enemies.


"Basically. She thinks everyone wants to become part of her Harem of Idiots. If you do, you're golden. If not then you're on her bad list." Delila offered a shrug. "I can't say I made anything easier on my part but I don't regret anything to be honest."


"Fun? I've been stuck on a jungle planet for roughly a decade....Its uh....its a rough adjustment."

 

[Loto Afu]

As the others in the back talked of other adventures Loto decided to take point. He didn't announce it of anything so formal he just began walking forward and a calm controlled pace. The halls were poorly let with red warning lighting engaged and he was not sure if this was a sign the place had been put on alert of if it was the default setting for the bunker, either way to rush now would be a fools undertaking.

As he came to the first intersection in the tunnel he slowed and listened and the sound of metal stepping on permacete began to come from the hall beyond. Raising his carbine he widened his stance and readied himself for the attack.

"Everyone, contact with more trouble."

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

 

[Kaida Taldir]

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


"I lived on a post-apocalyptic hell hole." Yay, the two could bond over having lived through different episodes of Sole Survivor: Hot Chicks with Guns Edition. Or something like that.


"And that sounds like her. Like most of our idiot queens," she added. They finally reached an intersection, but naturally there was no pause since one could hear the sound of metal stepping on permacrete and similar noise. On the bright side, these droids did not chant "Roger, roger" all the time because that was just annoying.


Her elf ears having picked up the noise, Arryn raised her bolter. Then she began unloading explosive bolts into automatons. Blowing up machines was therapeutic. She could imagine blowing up Archangel bots.

 

[Gughox]

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

Gughox had been sitting around in a cantina when he'd caught wind of a raid on a bunker somewhere out in the wastes. A raid? That was the magic word, because raid meant loot, and loot meant goods, and goods meant credits.

And credits meant he could buy more loot!

So he'd rounded up his crew, gathered a cobbled together speeder or three, and off they roared towards the fight. It's how he wound up descending into a bunker, coming across some bodies and the signs of a fight almost immediately. "OI. FIGHTS STARTED WITHOUT US." He roars, raising his right hand that ended in a trio of hydraulic powered shears. "Time ta find some 'eads ta smash." With that, the crew of Gamorrean pirates descended into the bunker, hootin' and hollerin' plenty loud.

Everyone would hear these guys coming, especially with their big boss thudding along behind them.

 

[Loto Afu]

"Boss, where the feth did they come from?" Loto asked as the green skinned Gamorrean came clanking down the hall.

With only seconds to spare Loto ducked into the nearest room and watched them run by. Between the Bolts from the kill hungey [member="Arryn"] and the all out blitz from [member="Gughox"] he was lucky to get clear in time. As he entered his presence tripped the sensors for the room and the lights three overhead lights came to life revealing the contents of the room.

There were about 5 crates stacked up neat in the center. Curious Loto move closer and using his newly acquired he cleaved the Durasteel pad lock of the first and opened it. As he looked in a smile came over his face.

"Shiny, Hey boss, got some thing to show ya!" Loto called out to [member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

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

At Loto's warning, Jorus spun toward the source of the stampeding noise-

"Holy feth-"

-and promptly bailed into the same side chamber as Loto. A group of Gamorreans roid-raged their way past, heading deeper into the bunker system. Jorus scrambled for his comm.

"Merrill to all hands. There's a Gamorrean raiding party just passing the second chamber. Watch your backs. I don't think they care who they trample."

He turned his attention to Loto's discovery and felt his eyes go wide. "I've seen one of these in action. Superheated slug, molten metal. It's almost like a lava cannon or something. Gives off nasty fumes. We can definitely find a use for these. I'll have the techies bring it up to the surface. Nice fething find, Loto."

 

[Gughox]

Down into the droids the Gamorreans went, impacting the droid battle line with an audible clang of metal on metal. Guttural snarls, the snap-crack of slugthrowers and metal cleaving metal filled the hallway, even as the Big Boss stopped at the entryway to the room [member="Loto Afu"] and [member="Jorus Merrill"] had stepped into. The beast had to turn it's shoulders sideways to step in through the door, a nasty looking slugthrower pistol the size of an Ugnaught in it's right, piggy fist.

Covered in gunmetal colored scrap that was fashioned into makeshift, scavenged armor, complete with jaw and pointed fangs that formed a gorget around it's lower jaw, the beast slid the three hydraulic sheers along the floor as it took a heavy step into the room.

"What ya got dere, humies." It says in an uncultured, guttural growl that sounded well suited to screaming at the top of it's no doubt impressive lungs. "Ya got big-bang shinies, do ya?"

Outside, the fighting seemed to dissipate further into the bunker, but big, bad and ugly didn't seem too concerned about his compatriot's rampage.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Arryn"]



There was the deafening roar of blaster bolts against metal, droids falling and creaking against one another. The hallway was piling up quickly but Delila was using that to their advantage. The more that piled up meant it created a bit of a choke point for them to continue firing.


Delila stopped firing for a moment behind a pillar, listening. Something was wrong. A moment later [member="Jorus Merrill"] alerted them to a stampede of Gamorreans heading through the corridors. Droid collapsed with another blast from the Elf. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place.


Rumbling was getting closer. They had no choice but to work their way towards the droids. Quickly.


"Lets go, we're going to have to gun and run."

 

[Loto Afu]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Gughox"] | [member="Delila Castillon"] | @Arryn

"Oi Brotha, big shinies with tons of big burnie dakka dakka, here take one. Bet it would make those metal clankers melt good."

Loto was able to speak back woods Gamorrean. He had hoped the offering suggestion would help the big warrior turn his attention elsewhere so they could haul the rest up to the surface.

"Jorus, if he goes for this we gotta get these crate out of here before he is done testing out his new toy." Loto said in a whisper to Jorus as the Gamorrean looked over his new weapon.

 

[Gughox]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Loto Afu"]

Considering Gamorreans usually only spoke in grunts and squeals, and didn't have the vocal chords necessary to do anything besides vocally imitate livestock, really all Loto was doing was being a smarmy git. Gug did not like smarmy gits.

"Ye think ya smart, don't cha, Inky." He snarls, backhanding the weapon out of his hand with that dangerous claw. His bionic eye flashed a dangerous red as he hefted what was obviously an oversized slugthrower. "Now, ya gonna give me at least three o' da crates dere, and if ya lucky, I won't break ya kriffin' legs for bein' a sneaky little git."

That was the deal, take it or leave it.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Gughox"] [member="Loto Afu"]

The Gamorrean's weapons took up all the air in the room. Even if Jorus cut them apart, they'd still take up all that air, except then they'd be hot enough for fourth-degree burns. And that was the best-selling scenario. Jorus didn't really excel at lightsaber things.

"Deal," said Jorus promptly, with a warning look at Loto. "Three crates, all yours. Now there's a whole lot of Sith nonsense between us and the rest of the loot. Can I hire you? Extra loot, extra creds if you want them, to let my people do their thing."