Cast Down Your Crowns (Mandalorian Empire Dominion of Vena Hex AB27)

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

Beth was stunned. Did [member="Azure Raxis"] really just shoot her with a bloody nerf gun? That took her as much by surprise as literally everything else going on. What in the galaxy did he think he was doing? He was such a little brat! It was a darn good thing she loved him so much even if she wanted to strangle him half the time. Maybe he would chill out soon. But, alas, she ended up losing Adara and Azure. Oh no, oh no. She quickly picked Ram'ika up and held him close to her. She wasn't about to let him get out of sight in any way possible.

Panic was running through her. She knew she just needed to calm down and focus. She could find Adara through the Force. She could feel her Force signature anywhere, honestly. She knew she could. But she couldn't believe she had lost them all so fast. She was great at babysitting - how did this go so wrong? She had to find them and fast. Her panic, though, was making things worse and worse. She tried to just calm down but then she heard [member="Barrien Siegfried"] ask if she was okay. She shook her head in honesty as her longs ears were drooped, "I lost my sister and Azure and... and I'm trying to find them but I can't and I don't know where they are and there are so many people.." She strung out panicked.

But then, she felt something from [member="Skorvek"]. It was like a ping - and she knew where she had to go. She looked to Barrien, ears slightly perking, "I gotta go find them, I know where they are," she said as she motioned for Barrien to follow her.

It only took her a couple of minutes to reach them. She saw Azure shoot Er'in with the nerf gun. She used the Force to untie Azure's shoelaces and retie them on the opposite shoes so he wouldn't be able to walk. She also saw Adara but she was still with Skorvek thankfully and, presuming her Force use on the shoelaces worked, Beth came over and picked Azure up, "You wait until I tell Baiko that you ran off like that! You know how worried I was? Between you and Adara..." She walked towards Skorvek before sitting Rammie (who, like a good child, latched onto the dress a little too tight) down and picking Adara up. "Adara Vigdis Nussyn Mantis Raxis, you cannot run off like that! You made me so worried! What if someone hurt you or grabbed you?" She pulled the two little brats in and nuzzled their heads (whether they accepted such a thing or not), "I love you both too much for something to happen."

She was also not afraid to use the Force to keep them right in her arms, too, but chose not to do that yet.

She gave a smile to Skorvek, "I want to give you a huge hug and thank you but my hands are full." She glanced down towards the two 6-year-olds in her arms, and the younger toddler that was latched onto her. But then she noticed [member="Erin Tenel"], "I'm so sorry about this, I'm Beth Australis-Mantis..." She sighed and mumbled quietly, "the worst babysitter in the world."

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Vena Palace, Antechamber
Objective 1: Save the Baroness of Vena. Root out Usurpers.
Allies: [member="Cynthia Solus"] | [member="Ursula Vizla"] | [member="Kaine Australis"] | [member="Aaray Solus"] | [member="Tom Taff"] | [member="Alkor Centaris"]

“Remember that you was once as innocent unable to fight…” Cynthia said. When was the last time Yasha was an innocent? Or perhaps it was better put, unable to fight? The wolf-helm looked to Kain'ik, detached from the femininity she felt when she got to luxuriate in the love of their little family. Their children, adopted and biological. Often of late, Yasha felt like the time she spent in their palace apartments was a sort of 'playing house', a child's game she never learned until Kaine refused to let her sit within her detachment.

"Thank you, Cynthia. Australis, was I ever that weak?"

Closer, another threat lied. Two small heat signatures... coming closer to Keya and her servants.

19 Years Before
“Mama!” Little Yash screamed, hitting the ground with a thud and childish ‘oof’.

“Yash, stab it! Stab it in the spine!” Aditya roared, clawing at the monster’s appendage around her neck. The young mother thrust her knee between the hellspawn and her ribcage and kicked… and kicked… and kicked. “Ysshh!”

The child rolled and coughed, picking up the broken spearhead she never remembered getting… Yasha always had it. She scampered under debris, climbing up the bones of a creature killed before. Hoisting her spearhead as high as her little body could go, Yasha leapt on the beast’s back, stabbing down with every ounce of effort she had. The spearhead sunk into the beast’s flesh. Yasha anchored herself to its’ body with her fingernails, and bare teeth, stabbing and stabbing.

Her mother coughed, tumbling to the ground and slicing her beskad through the beast. There was no congratulations, no pause for the life they took. Aditya Mantis clambered up the twitching body, grabbed her daughter ad stumble-ran into the closest hiding spot she could find…

The thought struck Yasha that [member="Adara Raxis"] was the same age Yasha’d been. Was Adara small like her mother? [member="Cynthia Solus"] was right, her experiences had moulded her into the ruler she was. Perhaps Baroness Keya would adjust and adapt.

Perhaps her councillors would salvage the girl in the bedroom.

“Yes, put the staff in the dining hall. All of them. Lock them inside. Have Clan Solus investigate that scream, I’ll stay with Keya. Someone has to keep that girl alive.” The tunnel felt constrictive somehow, as if a hellspawn swallowed them whole. “For the next few minutes at least.”

[member="Alkor Centaris"] was new in the room, yet maintained his Mandalorian-first policy in all things. The pressure of office was enough, Yasha didn’t need to worry for the ethics of salvaging anyone but their own. “Kill the twitchers. Anyone who seems shady. They don’t talk? Immediately? They die. By the end of this day, Vena will be ours… either by the sweat of their brows or the blood of their tears.”

The feeds from [member="Ursula Vizla"] were a much more violent affair, filled with droids and guards battling against the elements of dissension within the Venan Palace.

“Ursula, leave the civilians alone… there’s a radiation spike to the northeast wing of the Palace. Looks like weapons caches and many, many bodies on infrared.” One of the scanners said, into her beskar’gam comm.

Ursula already started the garden party, and was met with increasingly mechanized resistance. Tanks began swooping in, a half dozen in a semi-circle protecting the Palace from the usurping Mandalorian.

 

[Adara Raxis]

The Vena Market
Objective: 2 (Create economic ties & enjoy Vena’s reverse of isolationism)
Allies: [member="Barrien Siegfried"] [member="Cassiopeia Australis"] [member="Skorvek"] [member="Azure Raxis"]
Enemies (?): [member="Erin Tenel"] Gravity. Mr. Tripsie (Gravity)

“Oh!” Adara grinned at Er’in, giving a little fumbled curtesy and feeling the delight of a filling rumbly tumbly. “You’re a Princess?! Pleased t’meetcha Pelininny! Mama says we don’t have princesses on Mandalore, but Baba called a bunch of guys they were bweeding princesses so I guess Mama was wrong! You feed my tumbl... Azzie!!”

Azure shot the Princess and Adara stood in shock! “Oh noes!! Somebody find a Knight to save the Pwincess!! Wait..... Adult traitor?! Aaaaaiiieeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!”

Adara let out a piercing girl’s scream, kicking up dust by hopping up and down on her feet. “We’s better run, Azie!”

Which was exactly what Adara Raxis attempted to do… run. The child clung to [member="Azure Raxis"]’ hand and booked it… with Azure’s shoes tied together.

“OOOFF!” Adara tripped! She yanked off Azure’s glove on the way down, hands and face slapping down on the duracrete pavement. The stunned child peeked up, picked into her sister’s arm as her scratched cheek and bloody nose began to make themselves know.

“Oowwwiiieeeee!” Adara struggled against her sister weakly. The girl couldn’t struggle free of a wet paper bag, reaching for [member="Skorvek"]. “Twaitow… halp me Pwincess Pelininny save me Sloobiebooooo”

Adara sniffled, stuck her scritchy-scratchied hand up to her nose, and saw red.

“I’s bleeeedeeeeiinnngg!!!!” The child began to wail.

Lights in the stalls next to them flickered, a further flicker inside those gifted with the Dark Side of the Force, as Adara’s subconscious attempted to engage in a childish drain.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective: Vena Market

"The order has been placed"

She was more than happy to see that there was, in fact, new business brought on Vena as a result of its protectionism being lifted. Now, the keys to download the software into every computer covered by the licenses will be delivered to them, and this is where the revenue will be recorded. Meanwhile, the client left without any further questioning about the rationale behind this business being on Oorn Tchis. There was another prospective client that was most intrigued about the OmniGambler, presumably someone that wanted to use gambling machines to bolster revenues, probably a cantina or something of that nature. They want to see to what extent they could customize the OmniGamblers before the customer could do anything. She could tell about the UI, the casing, and also the visual feel of the cards and even the rules could be customized to some extent. And not simply the sounds in use, unlike some of the more primitive video-gambling machines where you could only collect the tokens and change the sounds in use when a customer is playing on it.

"I seem interested by the OmniGambler: I would like to know to what extent the content can be customized"

"UI, casings, card sets, rulesets, sounds in use, token limits, token payouts"

 

[Er'in Tenel]

Er'in let out a most un-princesslike grunt, flinching as if someone had struck her, and just for a moment the violet in her eyes dimmed enough to reveal the natural brown beneath.

You couldn't see the dark side shifting it's favour from scholar to child, but Er'in could feel it as she got back to her feet, her surprisingly natural smile at being 'shot' fading rapidly.

No, no, no. This is exactly how it all ends up going wrong!

She had no idea what to do for Adara, small screaming girls with scratches on their face were well outside of her providence. She looked frantically over to [member="Skorvek"] then to [member="Beth Australis-Mantis"].

"Uh. No shame there. You've got a considerable handful..." Miss Mantis? Ugh. Mandalorians and their unstructured yet important informality. Argh. "...Beth."

She winced as the tug got worse. She'd love to give into it, but on a scale of galactic sized problems for the future, she was pretty sure corrupting a five year old by accident or intent would bite her firmly when she wasn't looking, and the girl couldn't hold all of the suffering Er'in drowned in - some nights, Er'in had trouble with it.

Oh. Wait.

"Here Adara!" She almost tore the frayed leather cord on the ancient sith artifact as she pulled it over her head, stepping forward to press the Sith Amulet into Adara's hands. "Hold this and close your eyes, then think about your nose not having blood on it anymore. You have to be brave and not think about anything else. I know it hurts, but pain and fear are one of the first steps to control. Focus on it, hold it in your mind."

Hopefully her thoughts would stay there, or else the power enhancer (and handy source of energy for Adara to drain that was tamed and wasn't... well... everyone else) might cause some... unique results.

Had a Jedi not just run through here? Never one when you needed one, always ten when you were innocently exploring a tomb for artifacts they felt were best surpressed.

[member="Adara Raxis"] | [member="Barrien Siegfried"]​

 

[Norrin Fisck]

The Market
Objective Two

She had lost her sister and someone else. Ok, that much he could understand. The sister must have been the small girl who had run off when he had come rushing through earlier. The kid sister. Of course she had run off on her own. That was a childs favorite thing to do. Beth needn't worry, though. The fear was clouding her judgment. It would hide the obvious truth from her just as plain as anything else. Otherwise she would use the Force to reach out and feel where her sister was, and follow the feeling.

Before he could suggest as much, [member="Beth Australis-Mantis"] took off. Either someone else had whispered in her ear or she had done what he was going to suggest anyway. One of the two. Either way, he followed after her so he could sate his own curiosity and make sure the girl was alright. Plus he wanted to meet her. Siblings of Beth's were always of interest to him because she was of interest to him. It was important that he meet people. Considering he couldn't hunt the traffickers further, it seemed a decent use of his time.

When he caught up he was just in time to see [member="Erin Tenel"] give [member="Adara Raxis"] a talisman. The girl was bleeding, which caused him to frown, though not as much as the talisman and the life draining he was feeling coming from the child. Who carried around a darkside tool such as that save one who practiced its use? Curious. He moved closer to Beth, all the same and looked down at the injured little cutie.

"Looks like someone got an owie," he said, reaching into his pocket. "Why don't you let your sister help with the owie? I'll give you this if you do."

He brought out a bar of chocolate, 76% cacao, and waved it in front of her. Ever since Beth had introduced him to it he had been carrying it around with him. A guilty pleasure, perhaps, but it tended to help him fight back nerves after strenuous days of work. Most of the time he just ate it to eat it. Why not? It tasted good. Ok, so he was making excuses for carrying chocolate around, but who could blame him? Best stuff ever.

 

[Ursula Vizla]

Objective: 1.
Location: Outside the palace..
Gear (As it goes): Black Fligh suit, Osseus Class ExoSkeleton, Legacy System Beskar’gam (equipped with: Jetpack with two individual thrusters, one wrist rocket launchers, two cortosis gauntlets, two crushgaunts, one wrist mounted retractable vibroblades, and two wrist flamethrowers, one Mandalorian Power Shield, and one KE-1 Shoulder Mounted Slugthrower), AIMX-01 "Buckler" Energy Shield Cybernetic Arm, armorweare black cape with Vizla symbol in the back in red ink, pair of R82 jump boots, Utility Belt (equipped with: Two thermal detonators, one grappling spike launcher, ammo, one comlink, one EX-324 Serum Subjects, two hand granades).
Armory: One custom made Masamune, four Shiva Knifes, one T-7 ion disruptor rifle, two MT 14 Heavy Blaster Pistol.
Crew: Four Harbinger War Droid.


There party never stopped. Shooting guards and cheap droids was a unworthy task for her, at least some might say, but Ursula didn’t seem to mind, and when the intel came to her beskar’gam com, she noticed that now she was in big trouble. The droids didn’t felt like informing her about the tanks slowly showing up and circling the palace, ‘This keeps getting better and better’, she thought to herself, almost laughing about how ironic life really was.

Tanks and many thanks, that was all she could have said it about the matter if someone asked her about it. Ursula had a choice, go to the radiation spike and find out what they were selling, or deal with those big machines. If she went inside, there would be a good chance the big armored vehicles would not bother her, and some friendly fire would deal with that kind of mess instead of her. But…

“B1 e B2 bring out the rocket launcher, and concentrate fire on the tanks.”, she said in her com, rushing back outside, whistling to her two guard droids. “Grab the grenades you have left and blow those schuttas to hell. Come on, boys!”, Vizla screamed the last words, activating the jetpack and flying up the sky, dropping her ion disruptor into the floor and grabbing with one hand at the MT 14 Heavy Blaster Pistol in her left, and the other one slowly closed its finger in the hilt of her sword above the shoulder.

As soon as she was flying, she started shooting at the tanks. One shot for each target, she knew her pistol wouldn’t pierce through that thick armor, but it was enough to have their attention. Flying around while they started to aim at her in the sky, the pistol was useless, and placing it back in her waist, the girl allowed the mounted turret to do its job and fire at will.

“Time to go crazy.”, she murmured to herself, slapping her open hand in her own chest, activating the exoskeleton beneath the armor. Inside the helmet, she watched the visor showing off the unit had full capacity, and that was the moment the hand in the hilt of the sword pulled out the damn thing from her back. The sword was a real heavy biatch, but like the manufacturer promised, Masamune, would cut through anything, especially when now she, in her fingers, seemed to be lighter than a feather. Grinding the blade was an unbelievably annoying thing, but she did it every damn night before bed. And so, thrusting the jetpack at full speed, Ursula rushed down the sky, going left and right, up and down, so she would not become an easy target for the cannons firing in her direction.

“Hope that greedy drunk was right.”, she growled before the strike, as the metal seemed lighter around her fingers, Ursula struck with the blade in a single blow, like an assassin ripping his victim inside out. Feeling the steel of the barrel of the cannon slicing over his fingers and the blade of his sword almost screaming with pleasure at the profane act. Laughing like a little kid, Vizla immediately went backwards with her jetpack tossing the last grenade in her belt against the next tank, aiming straight inside the big hole that would, most likely, blow her up if he could. And as she tossed the explosive in the air, again she allowed the jetpack to go full strength up in the air, so the next blast would not affect her, in the air, she lifted her free arm, firing the missile in her wrist in the big metal body of the tank she just cutted. And not for a single moment, Ursula stopped laughing while doing it.

 

[Ravenfire]

Objective 1

[member="Yasha Mantis"], [member="Kaine Australis"], [member="Cynthia Solus"], [member="Ursula Vizla"], [member="Alkor Centaris"]


Tom continued down the secret passage. He was simply wandering along. This was taking so long. He wished [member="Mykes Vatak"] was here. He couldn't wait to get married to him. He wandered along the passage looking for a way out but not finding one yet. As long as he wasn't trapped down here he would be fine. He was sure there would be a way out for certain.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective: Vena Market

"In which case I would like 4 of those: my customers will like the new cluster of video-gambling machines"

"Just place the preorder"

They were a little different from the Wheel's sentient card dealers, which instead dealt cards for multiple players at once rather than one at a time. One could also fit a specific shoe size into the game rulesets in use; that was just a few extra lines of code to generate different shoes for different shoe sizes, with the caveat that duplicates can only occur as many times as there are decks in the shoe. Now that the preorder is placed, she had to realize that the Bloodless Coup's price of 1 credit for download was pretty low, and there was nobody here coming for more information about the Bloodless Coup as a software, but the Bloodless Coup as a music group, on the other hand, she got questioned about it without fail. Now, just because she paid 1/7 of the profits on that product as a royalty to the band, paid quarterly, and that they used the last royalty payment to purchase stocks (HoldoWare was, after all, publicly traded), doesn't mean that HoldoWare has priority access to the reserves of tickets held for sale for any given Bloodless Coup concert.

"Do you know where we can get tickets for the Bloodless Coup?"

"I'm afraid I don't know the concert schedules of that band, even less where tickets are sold. I only called the media player Bloodless Coup because 1/7 of the profits from that software will go to the band as a royalty, as part of the agreement"

 

[Zelen]

Cast Down Your Crowns
Mandalorian Empire Dominion

Objective 3: Chase the Terrorists/Pirates to their Denovian base & take back Venan Exports (Fleet)

Zelen’s options were limited. Given her situation, taking part in the combat was not an option. Yes she was skilled for a 13-year old, but the fight was not with pre-pubescent teenagers.

And she was no trader or an expert in establishing diplomatic relationships or economic ties.

But then, she was hardly a fleeter, but at least in space she had a role. So she took it for what it offered — a chance to be part of the cause.

She was on board a ship that was part of a cluster. They were in the Ojoster sector within the Outer Rim Territories, adjacent to the Mandalore sector. The planet was some distance away — not that it mattered. Not really. Although the briefing mentioned extensive deposits of the ore known as baradium.

But they weren’t here as miners. They were waiting. Sooner or later, the terrorists and pirates would be flushed from the Vena hex. And when they did, this is where they’d appear.

So the small fleet was waiting — the depleted forces that escaped Vena would be no match for the surprise attack. It would all be over before it began.

[member="Flash Australis"]

 

[Cynthia Solus]

Vena Palace, Antechamber
Objective 1: Save the Baroness of Vena. Root out Usurpers.
Allies: [member="Yasha Mantis"] | [member="Ursula Vizla"] | [member="Kaine Australis"] | [member="Aaray Solus"]

As the windows crashed inwards Cynthia's shot up taking aim at the closest one to her. A person wearing what looked like thick armor and a mask repelled in blaster hot as the red beams strafed across the floor. She'd jump to her left crashing onto her side to avoid been hit. Without the chance to stand she took a shot that sent the foe into the wall with a big blue blood splatter behind him or her. She rushed to her feet. "Cynthia come in, one of the servants are up here dead. Looks like she was strangled and put up resistance." Everyone in this room knew it was compromised and if their attackers was willing to fight through Mandalorians then someone with deep pockets wanted the duchess dead.

Pushing herself up Cynthia closed the gap between herself and the duchess before more flooded inside along with grenades. Kaine seemed prepared but as the debris showered her arms wrapped around the kid and sheltered her by standing over the top of her. "Kaine, this room is compromised. I think we should move to a more defensible spot. Come on kid." She said pointing to start moving to Yasha who was stood by the tunnel entrance. Each step Cynthia used her body to shield the girl. There was blaster pelting her in the back and against the buyce. each time it came with a heavy hitting thud. In a few steps more steps they'd be there.

It was that moment not any amount of adrenaline could mask the pain of the shot that hit her in the back of the thigh. She would cry out in pain as she limped the rest of the way.

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Vena Palace, Antechamber
Objective 1: Save the Baroness of Vena. Root out Usurpers.
Allies: [member="Cynthia Solus"] | [member="Ursula Vizla"] | [member="Kaine Australis"] | [member="Aaray Solus"] | [member="Tom Taff"] | [member="Alkor Centaris"]

[member="Tom Taff"]

A short ways down the passageway, Tom came upon two who scurried in the direction of the supposed leader’s room. They paused, one readied a blaster.

“It’s a Mandalorian…”

“Stop him! We need to know what he saw!”

Two droideka rolled out from recesses in the wall, as a grid of lasers halted any backward momentum. “Capture him, quick!”

The laser grids continued to shunt into place… what were laser grids doing in an old Palace of mortar and stone?

[member="Ursula Vizla"]

Secondary guns on the tanks veered out of secret panels on either side of the tanks’ main gun turrets. Each of the six tanks opened up fire on Ursula’s troops, droids and the woman herself, the secondary and tertiary firepower lighting the air with so many blaster bolts and scattershot flying without catching any shots would require abject luck and more personal shielding than a Queen of Naboo had hairspray.

The Masamune and grenades indeed effected one of the six tanks. Ursula’s attack burst it by its seams, explosive shockwaves rocking anything within thirty feet to the ground and shaking the castle’s stone battlements. An instantaneous ease in one vector from the lack of the tank’s attacks.

The radiation spike continued to pulse… five more tanks to go…

[member="Kaine Australis"] [member="Cynthia Solus"]

Yasha rushed back through the corridor and into the Baroness’ Chamber seconds before the Infrared signatures on her HUD went crazy.

With Cynthia diving for Baroness Keya, Yasha rushed the room, her Grahala’shok Heavy Pistol remained on her hip. There were too many for pot shots. Good thing Mand’alor the Infernal borrowed a XSR-47 “Seraph” LMG on her way out of the Palace personal armoury.

Seraph raised to firing position, Yasha threw herself back to back with Australis and grit her teeth.

“Finally some faces to shoot around here.”

And an unholy conflagration of firepower thundered in calculated bursts from the Seraph railgun. She didn’t need to say anything to Kaine, he had her back as she had his. It was the way of things, and as she peppered the insurrectionists with the mighty heavy gun, Yasha finally found her groove.

Whistling her orders to retreat with the Baroness, Yasha cleared the path for Cynthia and the girl, witnessing the horrific shot, which stole through Cynthia’s knee.

In the retreat tunnel, a strip of blue illuminated tape lit the way to the safe-room.

“Go! Go, go, go!” On the way out, Yasha covered their exit to the tunnels, using bursts from her railgun to turn the assaulting small force into a macabre style of warm butter.

“[member="Aaray Solus"], Cynthia needs you! Home in on our position and rush it.” Two of Keya’s servants rushed on hands and knees into the safe room, one clicked the panic button on the door, standing mouth agape and eyes wide, shaking her head. The coward locked the safe room from the inside,

They were stranded.

“Keep moving! Make for the Dining Hall! Centaris, you have incoming.” Another burst of fire created in its wake an eery silence.

Four more armoured miscreants appeared through the tunnels, chasing after the Mandalorian exit. Two had personal shields, all of them opened fire with scattershot. All directions were blocked.

[member="Alkor Centaris"]

In the Dining Hall, sixty seven staff members huddled in various groupings, some upset others attempting to force their way out of the room any way they could. One of the Butlers tisked and attempted to keep the fragile calm, stepping up to Alkor and lowering his voice.

"Might I have a word with you, Sir? It seems all the Royal Staff are to be sequestered in here, and quite right too, quite right... except I count sixty seven... and Sir, we only have sixty-three on staff. Terribly sorry to bother you... but I do think some of these people do not belong and I'm not terribly certain as to whom. Also if you don't mind, I believe I've been shot."

The Butler moved his hand away from the side of his ribs, which began to stain crimson. The shot was silent, its' impact the only monitoring sensation. He slumped against the wall, as panic burst across the sixty six beings left over.

 

[Ursula Vizla]

Gear

Ever as stubborn as a arkanian mule. That’s what her father used to say about Ursula Vizla, for she could have gone inside the palace, shot some criminals and lowlifes in a fair game, pulverized the poor schuttas to hell, but there she was. She liked the challenge, and now she was standing before one hell of a challenge. Her damn sword cut through the cannon, and she exploded the damn thing, but one was not five, and now she was in big trouble.

Even as she flew to the heavens, the secondary guns in the tanks became quite the issue. One as such, hitted in her jetpack, forcing the damn thing to malfunction and having Ursula slowly and clumsily fall down to the skies, activating the secondary flying item on the the jump boots, allowing her to become stable enough and driving full speed ahead, down enough to make the other tanks avoid shooting, otherwise they would hit in their ally. As she started to go round and round with one tank, Vizla slashed with her sword, cutting down one of the secondary guns, and not long, even before she could celebrate, the other one shoot, just in enough time so that Ursula lifted her sword, allowing the blade to absorb the damn energy.

The the impact, had her tossed backwards, only being capable to avoid hitting the ground thanks to the flying boots. Using them to go all the way back to the building that stood a little before arriving the palace, were the friendly fire of the mandalorian companions and the droids would keep her safe for enough time, at least until she thought about something to make of this situation.

And she spoke with a puffy voice, the girl called out to her ship.
“In dire need for some backup. Send in the speedster and backup, i repit, backup.” And as the ship received the transmission, Ursula had herself an idea to deal with those damn tanks. “R1, bring the pur.”, that said, she went on to grab the Infernos Disruptor from one of her friends waist, shooting with the damn gun as best as Ursula could against one of the tanks. Barely noticing as the head of one of the droids flew from his body, and as her friend, Bhia, raised the M29 Grenade Launcher, firing the Mythosaur against one of the nearest tanks, and before the full pleasure of enjoying the big explosion, Ursula began to run, running backwards, dragging Bhia by the shoulder to follow her, or they would most likely die the next time one of those things shot with the damn cannons.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective: Vena Market

"I saw you advertise the HoldoMart on Obroa-Skai in a Bloodless Coup concert"

Financial statements that are specific to a software product are typically very heavy on the fixed costs, and with very limited variable costs; often discounts started to be applied shortly after breaking even on a software product, that is, once all the fixed expenses are paid for. Plus the main variable expenses were after-market service and the income tax expenses that even Sith dreaded, despite the Sith's lifestyle being borne out of taxation. Which meant that the Bloodless Coup got about 1/10 of the total sales money from the sale of the eponymous software. Now that the customer made it clear how they came to know the association between HoldoWare and the Bloodless Coup, he has come to realize that ERP pricing was not nearly as neat as was the case for password management systems. The only thing that is publicly known about how much an ERP actually costs is that they can be a rather significant expense, even a low-end, cloud-deployed one. Just that there are so many factors going into one that a neat pricing schedule is not practicable.

"How do you want the HoldoMart deployed, cloud or on-premise?"

 

[Cynthia Solus]

Vena Palace, Antechamber
Objective 1: Save the Baroness of Vena. Root out Usurpers.
Allies: [member="Yasha Mantis"] | [member="Ursula Vizla"] | [member="Kaine Australis"] | [member="Aaray Solus"]

Every thing seemed fast moving as she felt her body pulled to the floor along with the Baroness. she let out a loud grunt and then a louder one when Kiane's body along with the Mand'alors laid over both Cynthia and the girl. It was obvious they was doing it to protect the two from having anything vital hit. She listened to the Australis alor call incoming. Knowing him he just sent something reckless their way. The soundproofing of her buyce did little help masking the sounds of crashing around them. Everything shook with force and even the shock-wave was felt through her body.

In the midst of the explosion a part of the foundation flung towards the group huddled to the ground. The piece of concrete with three long prongs of steel landed on Cynthia's lower leg each three pieces of steel shredding through flesh and bone as if it was paper. It had pushed its way down into the floor below the flesh trapped in place. Cynthia pushed her chest out in agony as she screamed out in agony. The buyce made it's way off the woman's head from her frantic pain and shock. The three around them could clear as day hear her agonised pain. Luckily Yasha's weight was on the top of her legs making it she could not move to much. If anything it would save her life from bleeding out along with the steel made a clean puncture. "MY LEG! I CAN'T MOVE MY LEG! KAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRKKKKKKK HELP!" She bellowed out in pain.

 

[Nevermore]

Vena Palace, Antechamber
Objective 1: Save the Baroness of Vena. Root out usurpers.
Allies: [member="Yasha Mantis"] | [member="Ursula Vizla"] | [member="Cynthia Solus"] | [member="Kaine Australis"]

Aaray finally made it room containing the others. The dust and debris still sticking to his beskar'gam. His eyes locked onto Cynthia with the rebar through her leg. "Oh no..."
He made his way across the room as quickly as he could to help her. He was on down on one knee looking inspecting the wound quickly. The rebar was stuck through her leg into the ground and with the concrete he couldn't remove it. He took one look at her ruined leg and the concrete as he reached for his medkit. He digs through and finds a syringe of Symoxin and quickly gives her a large enough dose to render her unconscious. After the dosage was complete he took out the laser cauterizer and treated the bleeding arteries and stopped the flow of blood. His buy'ce bobbed up and down as he went back and forth from his medkit to her leg. He decided the only way to get her free was to cut away the remaining leg and that still clutched to the pinned rebar. The sickening noises of rending flesh as he cut didn't bother him. He quickly finished and used a boneknitter to clean up the jagged protrusions of bone. The laser cauterizer made for easy work as he finished treating her leg. By the time he had finished she should have begun to regain consciousness though she would have been disoriented.
"Okay. Not to bad." He muttered trying to reassure himself she was safe now. Well as safe as someone in a palace under siege could be.
He quickly packed up his medkit and turned to the others waiting for some sign as to what to do now.

 

[Ravenfire]

Objective 1 - root out the usurpers.

Tom saw two men who immediately identified him as a mandalorian. But he had tools no normal mandalorian had on his kit. He saw two droidikeas roll out of the wall. Did everyone have droidkeas these days. Geez poor mans droids obviously or the confederates weren't looking after their factories as well as they should be.

He also saw laser fields. Interesting they were more organised than he had been given intel for. He stood and used the force to affect the droidikeas targeting and Friend or Foe sensors. He attempted to switch himself to friends and the rebels to foe. He also activated his lightsabres to prove a point to the rebels and just encase the droidikeas turned on him.

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Vena Palace
Objective 1: Save the Baroness. Root out Usurpers

[member="Ursula Vizla"]
“Vizla, sending you incoming bes’uliik. Enjoy.” Tuulu’s voice broke over Ursula’s comm, as seconds later a half dozen Mandalorian war droids swooped in from the sky, all but one bearing riders.

The bes’uliik were faster than jet packs, and could take as strong of a hit as they could punch. While the tanks continued to mount suppressing fire, the bes’uliik riders whistled, Tuulu nodding to Ursula.

“Need a lift!? Open fire, vode! On Vizla’s command!” Reinforcements had arrived.

[member="Kaine Australis"] | [member="Cynthia Solus"] | [member="Aaray Solus"]
The Kad danged safe room.

Mand’alor the Infernal was going to rip it open and pulverize the gooey centres of the cowards inside, who locked them out. Maybe it was the usurpers, maybe it was fear.

Yasha didn’t stop to think of the in’s and out’s of motivation while she threw her armour weave cloak around Cynthia and the Baroness Keya. The girl shrieked, cuddling into the cloak as blaster bolts hit and absorbed by the material. It would protect her, but not long.

“DOWN! NOW!” Kaine punched Yasha’s shoulder plate. She dove atop Cynthia and Keya, pulling the Baroness’ diminutive body under her massive bulk. There were no words exchanged, for there was no time and no need.

The Infernal trusted Kain’ik with her life, the lives of her children and her People. Yasha covered their two charges, ducking her head down into Cynthia’s shoulder as her HUD displayed a side-view of Kaine. Her arm slunk protectively across the back of his neck with the bare second she had.

She tugged him closer, at the last second yanking Kaine as far under her as she could, without losing protection on Cynthia and Keya. His armour was thinner. Yasha’s was thick-plate beskar’kandar.

The missile struck and Yasha’s buy’ce systems went black.

Static.

A ringing sound, fading to nothing.

A muffled scream coated Yasha’s ears, as a massive collection of debris fell atop her. Yasha heard her own breath in her ears stagger out of her, a warm and wet thrill to her side.

It wasn’t for a few more seconds that Yasha realized she was swearing a litany of colourful language as she pulled her arm off Kaine and pushed up, attempting unsuccessfully at first to dislodge debris.

Cynthia was screaming. Keya’d been dazed. [member="Aaray Solus"] worked like lightning to cauterize Cynthia’s wounds and… amputate her leg. Yasha’s stomach roiled as she rested on her elbows and knees, looking Keya over for any wounds. A few scrapes, nothing big.

“Kaine?!” Yasha coughed, settling herself and getting her wind back. Her warhammer veered into her hand, and Yasha used it to crash through the debris and clear a path.

She attempted to hide a limp on her right hip, the leg fitting ill in its’ socket. “Pick them up, we have to move. Dining Room! Now!”

Shaking her head from the ringing in her ears, Yasha pointed Aaray, the unconscious Cynthia & Keya and Kaine toward the Hall. She lurched forward, knocking walls down with powerful swings of her Rekr Karyatesa.

“[member="Alkor Centaris"], do you read? Alkor? We're incoming!” Yasha tasted copper in her mouth, licking at a stinging line on her lip. The dining room was behind one more set of corridor walls. Slumping against the stone, Yasha steadied herself before craning her hammer back with both hands and swinging through the two-foot thick granite wall.

On the other side, the Dining Hall’s main entrance came into view. In the distance, the weak sounds of soldiers yelling.

“Lead them on, Australis. Go!” Yasha continued leaning against the wall, slapping her back against it in an effort to avoid Australis noticing how much weight she kept off her right leg. “I’ll cover you, go!”

[member="Tom Taff"]
The Droidekas began firing haphazardly into the corridor, their targeting malfunctioning and instead firing at any and every moving thing.

Including the drapery. The lasers continued to contain Taff, yet the two Venans dove to the ground the second the droids went off on their rampage. It was easy enough for a culture used to complete isolation to notice someone from an outside world. Regardless of armoured state, Tom was an outsider by his clothing and gait alone. More droids poured around the men wildly pointing in Tom's direction.

“GET HIIIIIM!”

Just then, a massive explosion hit the castle. Kaine Australis’ missile rocked and loosened the masonry, and one of the laser banks hemming Tom in failed in a catastrophic collection of bangs and electric fizzles.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective: Vena Market

"What difference does cloud or on-premise make?"

"Cloud deployment saves you the costs of hardware but increases the risks due to wireless slicing, while on-premise makes it safer depending on hardware setup"

Security and hardware setup were the main factors deciding between a cloud ERP and an on-premise ERP. On-premise ERPs, even low-end, still needed a significant amount of memory to run on the premise's mainframe, and she knew that memory, processing power came at significant capital costs for a dedicated mainframe that may or may not be worthwhile for smaller customers. But even then she knew that was not the end of the story, since customization was often required; customization is not just a matter of how many licenses to subscribe to, nor the number of users. It was also a matter of catering to other customers' needs and wants, especially if the customer wanted add-on modules that were industry-specific, as most of them actually are. These add-on modules were the big money driver for HoldoWare as an ERP vendor, and Petria knew those add-on modules were doable at limited development (and hence fixed) costs. Much like the Bloodless Coup was designed within 18 days and it was already in the black after 18 days of sales, ERP add-ons could become profitable rather quickly or with otherwise relatively few units sold, generally priced on a per-license basis, but in highly variable timeframes that depended on the pool of customers.

 

[Ravenfire]

Objective 1 - root out the usurpers.

Tom smiled blocking the droidikeas shots as they bounced back at him. "Yes screaming get him is the best idea, I have ever heard. Can you think of a better idea than screaming. I can, using comms, pointing." As he pointed the men would freeze up under force stasis. He knew they were weak enough that it would last while he left.

He would begin a mass deactivation of every droid within the area. He was using the force to do it but hopefully it would work, potentially deactivate enemy weapons and armour systems. He kept going targeting any system genesis identified as unknown. However it was wearing him out. By the time he was finished he was lying on the ground body heat being lost. "Genesis please get someone to me soon, I am not going to last much longerrr...."

A force call was sent to [member="Mykes Vatak"] as soon as Tom began zonking out. The man might be able to help but he might not also. Genesis immeditly invaded the manadalorian comm links. She made herself appear on [member="Kaine Australis"] HUD "Hey there sexy, I need your help. Tom was idiotic used up all his energy and is now stuck down in a passage. If you could get someone to him that would be swell. Take care, I am gonna play with some other things while you do that."

She would disappear from his HUD, still in the system she went and found the rebel base signal calling in an airstrike, even at times taking over ship systems to fire their weapons on the site. If only people allowed her to do this more often.