Private Can Delete

[Kitty Kat]

Rebooting...

 

[Dash Ryken]

ATTIRE: Lionheart Armor
EQUIPMENT: Service Rifle | Pistol | EMP Grenades | Frag Grenades
TAGS: Katarine Ryiah

"Why are they sending us instead of SIA?" he asked, running a hand through his hair. "Seems like rescuing Jedi would be more their thing. Or better yet, send a Jedi to rescue a Jedi."

"I don't ask questions when I'm given an order," Sergeant Higgins said, from his position at the front of the transport.

Dash knew that was code for the shut the flip up and just go with it, so he shrugged and slammed a power pack into his rifle. Still seemed odd, their being assigned to rescue a Jedi in Canto Bight. This was typically a sort of low profile type of thing. Sending in a fire team seemed heavy handed. But who knew. Maybe they were up against some big organization. If a Jedi had been captured it seemed likely there was something fishy going on. Still seemed like SIA work.

The transport came to a stop and the Sarge looked them all over.

"Helmets on, ladies," he said before putting his own on. "The word we got was that the Jedi was supposed to have left days ago. Intel tracked her, but a cam caught a glimpse of someone hauling her off. They tracked them to this building, but we don't know who or what is inside. Lippy, you're on point."

"Shit," he said before sighing and putting his helmet on. "Always on point."

"Brute, you follow him, then Zero, Fuse and I."

Dash grumbled as he stood and opened the transport door, snapping his rifle up to his shoulder and scanning the immediate area. Satisfied that it was clear, he exited and moved to the wall of the nearby structure. Seemed relatively nondescript, perfect place for some scumbag to hold up. Who knew what was inside. Regardless, he approached the door and reached to open it, but it didn't move, meaning it was locked from the inside. Couple ways to get through that, but that's where the Sarge came in.

"I'll slice it. That doesn't work we'll have to blow it," Sarge said as he plugged into the door controls. "Keep an eye out."

"Nothing else to do but keep an eye out and wave at all the people staring at us," he said, his eyes scanning the crowd. "Bad guys will know we're here any minute now if they don't already."

"Well, prep for a firefight, Lippy. And don't get shot."

 

[Kitty Kat]

Rebooting...

 

[Dash Ryken]

ATTIRE: Lionheart Armor
EQUIPMENT: Service Rifle | Pistol | EMP Grenades | Frag Grenades
TAGS: Katarine Ryiah

The door opened without the use of explosives, which was almost a drag. It was a lot of fun watching Fuse make things go boom. But it was probably for the best given there were a lot of civilians in the vicinity.

"You're up, Lippy," Sarge said.

He grumbled under his breath, brought his rifle up, and peeked the corner briefly before moving inside, sweeping the corners of the room they were entering in. Seemed clear for the moment. Their rifles and other weapons, for the most part, were all loaded or set to stun. No sense in killing everyone. This wasn't a military operation, but a rescue and if they started shooting willy nilly they risked hitting any hostages that might be held within the facility.

"Clear," he said as he started forward. "Closed door right. Closed door front."

Moving to the wall, he stopped beside the first door and waited for the rest of the team stacked up behind him. Clearing buildings was pretty routine when it came to formations. Stack on a door, give the go signal, sweep in with one as a backup while those behind covered any other doors in the area. So he waited until Brute tapped his shoulder, then kicked the door in before stepping into whatever was on the other side and beginning the process of sweeping the room.

 

[Kitty Kat]

Rebooting...

 

[Dash Ryken]

ATTIRE: Lionheart Armor
EQUIPMENT: Service Rifle | Pistol | EMP Grenades | Frag Grenades
TAGS: Katarine Ryiah

"Holy kark," Dash said as he saw all the kids in cages.

Some of them looked like street kids, grimey and dirty, clothing that barely fit. Others looked a lot nicer. Almost immediately he felt angry, and the guy that yelled at them something about breaking and entering was almost immediately blasted in the chest by a stun shot that knocked him back and off his feet as Dash pulled the trigger. He moved in to allow more of the team to enter, doing what he could to avoid the kids getting into the line of fire.

Brute started shooting over his shoulder. He'd have yelled at the guy for that in a normal situation, but he was utterly blinded by absolute hatred for these guys having put children in cages. Nothing was going to stop him. Probably a good thing he was wearing good armor as the other guys were shooting at him and some of their shots were hitting. Better they hit him than the kids and he didn't feel a darn thing as he continued to finger the trigger happily knocking the remainder of the guys down with blue stun shots. He wished he could kill them.

"Lippy stop!" Sarge yelled.

He was standing over one of the guys, repeatedly shooting him with stun shots, when the Sarge's voice cut through the comms in his helmet. Finger moved off the trigger and he slung the rifle back. Without another word, he started searching the guys for keys, but the guy who'd left must have had them because he couldn't find them.

"No keys. Dang masked prick must have taken them."

"Just smash locks," Brute said as he walked over cracked one off with the butt of his gun. "Easy work."

"Lippy chase the other guy. Zero go with."

Dash moved to the door and kicked it open once Zero had caught up. They moved down a long corridor, sweeping doorways in search of the guy, but they found nothing but an exterior door that opened on an empty alley. Dash looked up and down it, but there was no way of tracking the guy in the mess of it. No sign of him, no sign of a transport, no sign of anything. He kicked a can and then pushed past Zero to head back to the room where the kids were.

"Nothing doing, Sarge. He got away. No sign of the Jedi, either."

"Well, there's a lot of memorabilia in here from a club. If she's not here, maybe they're holding her there. Club's probably a front." The Sarge pulled out his external commlink. "Transport to my location. We've got a pickup of child hostages."

"I'm going to kill whoever's in charge of this, Sarge. Don't care about the orders. Mother karker needs to die for this."

"You'll do what you're told. Get the kids on the transport and then let's get to this Club Nosh."

He muttered more under his breath but slung his rifle over his shoulder and started helping the kids out. They'd head on shortly, but the kids were even higher priority than the lost Jedi.

 

[Kitty Kat]

Rebooting...

 

[Dash Ryken]

ATTIRE: Lionheart Armor
EQUIPMENT: Service Rifle | Pistol | EMP Grenades | Frag Grenades
TAGS: Katarine Ryiah

"Alright, load up," Sarge said before climbing back into the transport.

A second transport was outbound carrying the rescued children. Not what they'd been expecting when they went in, but at least those kids would be out of harms way for the moment. Dash followed the others into the vehicle and settled back into his seat. He popped out the used mag from his rifle and replaced it with a fresh one since they were going to be going back into the ringer shortly. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach about the guy that got away, too. Something about the way he'd looked.

"You guys get a look at that dude in the mask?" he asked. "Something fishy about him."

"I believe it highly likely he was a Sith or Dark Jedi," Zero said, twiddling with the scope on his rifle.

"Plausible. Someone like that would have a good chance of capturing our target," Sarge said, holding onto a handhold as the transport set off. "Safest assumption would be that he is so we'll go with that from now on. Driver's going to take us to the back of the club. Best chance of us getting in without getting bogged down in people. Lippy on point again, but I'll handle any civilians that cause a problem."

"Come on, Sarge. Why do I always have to be point?"

"Because you run your mouth too much and you're the only one here that isn't a specialist."

He muttered something about someone's mother under his breath, but didn't say anything else. As much as he hated it, being point was his specialty. He knew how to do it well, and he was fast on the uptick, which meant that it was harder for people to get the drop on him. Zero was range. Brute was, well, a brute. Fuse blew things up. Sarge ran the whole show and handled electronics. It was always going to be his job to go in first unless he ended up dead. Or worse: promoted.

The transport eventually arrived at the club, and like before they disembarked. There was a bouncer at the back door. Only took one look at five guys wearing commando armor and he opened the door for them. He didn't want any trouble. Probably not paid for that sort of thing. They secured him in binders just in case before sweeping forward. Back of house seemed mostly empty, but they were quickly presented with a problem.

"I got stairs up and stairs down, Sarge," he said, holding his rifle on the stairs down while Brute covered up. "How do you want to take it?"

The Sarge was quiet for a moment, and Dash tapped his finger against his gun as he waited for a response.

"Lippy and Brute go down. The rest of us will hold here to cover up and provide exfil support if needed."

"Copy, moving down."

Dash started down the stairs, rifle up and at the ready. Never knew what was going to be waiting for them. Hopefully they'd get to the Jedi in time and find her alive, but he was worried that masked creep would get to her first.

 

[Kitty Kat]

Rebooting...

 

[Dash Ryken]

ATTIRE: Lionheart Armor
EQUIPMENT: Service Rifle | Pistol | EMP Grenades | Frag Grenades
TAGS: Katarine Ryiah

They descended the stairs methodically. Dash kept his weapon up and focused, but they didn't come across anyone looking to stop them. This could be a safe location, somewhere they felt was so obscure they didn't need all the added security. With all the people up above in the club it made sense. He could hear the music thumping and the floor moving from them dancing around. At least it looked sound enough that it wasn't going to collapse on them.

"Door right," he said for Brute's knowledge as he stacked up on it.

When Brute tapped his shoulder to indicate he was ready, Dash opened the door and stepped in, sweeping the room from corner to corner before focusing on the woman he saw. She was gorgeous. Easily the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life and that was saying something considering she looked terrible.

He stood there staring at her for a moment, lost in his own mind, until she spoke.

"What? Oh right. Brute cover the door. Sarge, we have the Jedi."

Slinging his rifle over his shoulder again, he reached into his belt pouches as he walked closer to her. Inside he found a handful of small tools he kept on hand. Normally they were for tweaking things with his rifle or other gear, but he figured one of them ought to work for getting the collar off of her.

"What's her status, Lippy?" Sarge asked over the com. "She mobile?"

"Maybe, give me a second."

He knelt down on one knee beside her and examined the collar around her neck. It wasn't very sophisticated, and he was honestly confused about how it happened to be holding her there considering she was a Jedi. But, it obviously was, so he didn't question it. Probably something he wouldn't understand. But he did understand the clasp on it, and undoing the screws that held it together wasn't exactly difficult. Not the typical sort of lock, but it worked, and he was able to remove it and toss it aside.

"Any injuries, Princess?" he asked.

Calling her that was by no means condescending, as belied by the seriousness of his tone.

"Can you walk?"

 

[Kitty Kat]

Rebooting...

 

[Dash Ryken]

ATTIRE: Lionheart Armor
EQUIPMENT: Service Rifle | Pistol | EMP Grenades | Frag Grenades
TAGS: Katarine Ryiah

Stubborn as they came, but for good reason. He wouldn't want to lie down after having been through what she had either. Not exactly fun to be the prisoner of some lunatic.

"We did," he said, as he put his tools away and pulled his rifle back around into his hands. "They're safe now. Found 'em by accident. We were looking for you. Didn't even know some arse bucket was holding kids."

"Status?" Sarge asked.

Dash had forgotten his comm was still on.

"She's up and about, just getting her things. We'll be up shortly. No sign of the masked guy," he focused his helmet back on her. "Names Dash, but they call me Lippy. Big guy is Brute. Rest of the team is upstairs holding the stairs, including the Sarge. Guess someone got worried when you didn't show up."

He didn't know the particulars of the whole ordeal, or why they had been sent. That was above his pay grade. The Sarge knew, and that was all the rest of them needed to know. The goal had been to rescue her, and they had succeeded, which meant the mission was a success.

"There was some masked creep with the kids. He bolted when we broke in. Thought for sure we'd find him here but no sign yet. Dude was wearing a dark robe, too. Very Sith."

 

[Kitty Kat]

Rebooting...

 

[Dash Ryken]

ATTIRE: Lionheart Armor
EQUIPMENT: Service Rifle | Pistol | EMP Grenades | Frag Grenades
TAGS: Katarine Ryiah

Soon as she picked the thing up she nearly fell over. He moved over to her and used a hand to help steady her, then held it out to take the collar. Whatever was with the thing, maybe it was the strange markings that adorned it, it was affecting her negatively. Undoubtedly it was that which had kept her from escaping, especially since all of her equipment, even her lightsaber, had been left in the room with her.

"I got it," he said, opening up a larger pouch and dropping it inside.

"Contact front!" Sarge called through the comms. "I don't care who, or what, you are, but you aren't getting through us. Surrender."

"Oh shit," Dash said. "Sarge and the others have just confronted the masked guy, I think."

He motioned for her to follow and then went and gave Brute the push to get going. They left the room and started back up the way they'd come, ascending the stairs slowly. If this guy was a Sith, there was a good chance he had a lightsaber, which meant their blasters wouldn't be all that effective on him. Slinging his rifle back over his shoulder, he drew his sidearm and made sure there was a round in the chamber. Lightsabers were great against blasters, but dismal against projectiles.

"Coming up the stairs, Sarge. Jedi is with us."

 

[Kitty Kat]

Rebooting...

 

[Dash Ryken]

ATTIRE: Lionheart Armor
EQUIPMENT: Service Rifle | Pistol | EMP Grenades | Frag Grenades
TAGS: Katarine Ryiah

A Jedi and a whole fire team facing him down wasn't going to make it easy on him. Dash had his pistol out and aimed as well, aware that if the Sith drew a lightsaber the bullets in his pistol would make it through his saber defense. The guy said something about boyfriends and he smirked inside of his helmet. Poor sod thought they weren't as dangerous as she was.

Either way, after a moment of anger, the man turned and ran back up the stairs.

"Sarge?" he asked, moving to the stairs, pistol aimed upward.

"Let him go," Sarge said, his visor facing towards the Jedi, who didn't seem in a hurry to go after him. "Orders were to secure the Jedi, not chase down a scumbag."

"Come on, Sarge," Dash said, feeling the itch. "That guy was holding CHILDREN. We can't just let him get away!"

"Orders are orders, Lippy."

"Kark orders!"

He charged up the stairs after the guy, completely ignoring the Sarge on this one. Yeah, he was going to get chewed out all to hell for ignoring orders, but he honestly didn't care. This one was personal. People like this guy, who yanked kids off the street to do horrible things to them, was just too close to his own childhood. He'd seen kids disappear off the streets with no one to care for them and he wasn't about to let one of the people responsible for it just get away. Hopefully at least the Jedi would back him up on this one.

 

[Kitty Kat]

Rebooting...

 

[Dash Ryken]

ATTIRE: Lionheart Armor
EQUIPMENT: Service Rifle | Pistol | EMP Grenades | Frag Grenades
TAGS: Katarine Ryiah

Holy hell she was fast. No way would one of the others have caught up to him at a full run. Out of all of them, he was the quickest. But she smashed into him, even though he was wearing full armor, and knocked him to the side. Then she got hit with lightning from out of nowhere, her scream radiating through his head, even though she sent the electrical blast firing back at him. How she did that, he didn't know, but she quickly made him realize he'd made a huge mistake.

"Don't do that, Princess," he said, grabbing the door and using it as a shield between them. "Don't get yourself hurt for me. Believe it or not, I can handle this."

Maybe not the electricity. His armor wasn't rated for that. Other things, though, it could handle, and he wasn't afraid of a fight with the Sith. Maybe he shouldn't have taken this on, but he was committed. He was a commando, not a regular grunt. Fighting extremes was their specialty. And since the Jedi had followed him, the others weren't far behind. She was, after all, their charge.

"Lippy you're gonna be on latrines for years for this," Sarge said through the comms.

"Yeah, whatever. I probably won't live for years anyway," he said, allowing the Jedi to hear him. "Point men never do."

He shoved the door open and leveled his pistol on where the Sith had jumped off to. This wasn't a blaster. He could try and deflect those shots, but a slugthrower was something he knew the man wouldn't expect. He fired off a full magazine, making sure that if he missed, his bullets would harmlessly impact the building behind him so that no one else would be injured by them. As soon as the mag was empty he dropped it free and was slamming another in.

"Everyone just stay back. Keep the Jedi safe."

 

[Kitty Kat]

Rebooting...

 

[Dash Ryken]

ATTIRE: Lionheart Armor
EQUIPMENT: Service Rifle | Pistol | EMP Grenades | Frag Grenades
TAGS: Katarine Ryiah

The sith was a problematic one. He managed to avoid a lot of the rounds until using his saber to try and stop them, resulting in him taking molten metal to the face, damaging the mask. Yeah, served the prick right. Though Dash would have certainly preferred if he had taken a few rounds to the chest and then succumbed to his wounds. Some people just had to make it hard on him.

Really hard, in this case.

Sheets of metal were ripped up, set on fire, and thrown at him. Instead of standing there and taking it, he ran forward towards the Sith, lowering his shoulder, and taking the hits in stride. Yeah, the Rough Rats weren't your ordinary commando unit. They were very good at what they did. It also helped that his armor was really good.

The last bit of metal knocked him aside, and even though his armor kept him from severe injury he was starting to feel it. There would be some nice bruises to nurse. But he kept going forward, bringing his fist back and aiming to slug the guy right in his exposed face. Didn't matter that the guy had a lightsaber. Heck, he'd probably, stupidly, try and use the saber against him. His armor was highly saber resistant.

He was so beating this guy's face in.