For the Glory of Mandalore: Taris

[Bendak Garett]

A few seconds of awkward silence filled the bridge of the Phoenix, which was mainly caused by the uttering of the name. Holy fuck, Bendak thought, the realization hitting him like a tonne of bricks.

"Mand'alor?" He asked out loud, in sheer disbelief.

It couldn't be.

 

[Lina Djo]

Mia moved forward to the nest, trusting her comrades to follow her. If the planet had been plagued with these creatures she would have expected a more open greeting, Rakghouls were hardly the stealthy type. Doubt began to creep nto her mind as Bear's words echoed in her mind.

"How many did you see Kyr?" she asked, careful to keep her voice conversational. She not wan to give the impression also had doubts, especially after she way se had spoken to the Mandalore. No sooner had the words left her lips however, than one appeared to the left of the entrance. Dropping to one knee Mia opened fire at it.

 

[Carbon]

Emberli could practically feel the air in the shuttle grow still, and the air crew moving around the hangar paused too as the voice echoed down the gaping maw of the lowered ramp. It couldn't be. None of them should still be alive. Even his own ship's crew wasn't the originals; they were simply descendants.

Finally, after a pained silence, he speaks.

"Yes. Though not in this time. Who's speaking...?"

Shit had just gotten weird.

 

[Verz Horak]

Verz heard the shot from Mia's blaster and reacted on instinct. He turned and fired as well, seeing the rakghoul long enough to line up a shot. He watched Mia's, then his own, projectiles hit the beast, one right after the other. He quickly looked around for any others.

"Permission to move up Mia?"

She seemed to be taking the lead, so he would treat her as a Bloodied for now.

 

[Bendak Garett]

No, no, no.

It hurt Bendak's head just trying to think about what craziness had just occurred. What event could possibly fling a ship into the future? A future in which the Mandalorians were rebuilt but the Mand'alor was not Mand'alor? Shaking his head in an attempt to dispell the... Disbelief, he spoke up, his deep voice cracking slightly.

"Commander Bendak Garett..."

 

[Carbon]

"And how did you get here?"

The ramp was raising on his shuttle already as it made to head towards the Mand'alors vessel. Sending a brief message to the bridge of his own ship, the Star Destroyer's tractor beam would spear out to take hold of Bendak's ship and pull it in so that they could get the crew off.

After all, even a cursory glance showed that the ship had suffered far too much damage to be viable much longer.

There was a moment of weightlessness as they passed through the shield of the hangar bay and into the void of space, but it was replaced by artificial gravity a half moment later. "Get your men aboard, Commander. This will all be righted."

 

[Lance of Dreams]

"We did not see many to be honest, Mia. Is the bombardment rational on Mandalore's part?" All his life he had been forced like a slave to kill anything he was told to, and he like a loyal dog had done so. But his last question was braver than anything he had ever had to utter. He had a shiver, of disbelief he had even asked it. Could it be possible, that a Mandalore could be... wrong? Were the Mandalorians truely becoming the Sith? They have shared quite the history together, he hoped now more than ever that this was not the case. He leveled his gun and scanned the area. Their truly were a sparring little amount of opposition. What had they come here for then? What worth was it to burn this world where there was nothing to burn? The Tusken tried to calm his troubled mind, and force down his insistant questions for later. Perhaps that... Emberli person could be of some help. He seemed to have great doubts in the new Mandalore.

 

[Bendak Garett]

The question was not one Bendak could answer. He himself didn't know what had happened, so he stated rather bluntly, "I don't know."

"Sir, they're pulling us in," A crewmember called out.
"Let them."

A few minutes later the battle scarred and nearly destroyed corvette entered the hangar, it's huge mass landing with a dull thud. A few armored plates flew off and exposed wiring continued to spark spontaneously. A huge boarding ramp lowered slowly, it's damaged gears producing a deafening sound.

"Alright," Bendak started, "Everyone out. Let's see what the future's like." He sincerely hoped the plague had been eradicated.

Stepping off the ramp to join his men, the huge Mandalorian removed his helmet for the first time in 390 years, exposing a scarred face with deep turquoise eyes. The crewmembers of Emberli's ship surrounded his, staring curiously at the time travelers. Bendak didn't really know what to expect.

"Where's the Mand'alor," he demanded.

 

[Carbon]

Hardly any help.

Frowning to himself, Emberli's pilot was already messaging the flagship of the Mandalorian fleet that he was in transit to come aboard. But, back aboard the Nebula, the crew were already putting out electrical fires and heading aboard the damaged vessel to put out any flames inside.

Medics were already waiting for anyone who needed help.

A young security officer answered Bendak and pointed out of the hangar towards the fleet. "He went to meet with the Rebuilder." Presumably that was the name of the current Mand'alor. Already the diminished engine-wash of Emberli's shuttle was fading into the background pinpricks of stars.

 

[Bendak Garett]

As the medics carried away the injured and the engineers boarded the Phoenix, Bendak deadpanned the security officer. The tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. "Who?" He asks, flatly.

"Mand'alor the Rebuilder."

Chuckling darkly, the bulky Mandalorian shakes his head and pushes past the crowd, making his way to a shuttle that was miraculously already prepped for launch. Stomping up the ramp, he enters the cockpit and taps both the pilot and co-pilot on the back. "Follow the Mand'al- ... Emberli Garett's shuttle." The look Bendak gave them was a 'don't fuck with me' one that made the two pilots nod and begin take off procedures.

 

[Carbon]

Emberli's shuttle was already passing into the cavernous bay of the flagship, whose name he'd not bothered to check. It was the same vessel from which the squad had departed not too long ago, although he wasn't aware of this fact. The ramp lowered and a pair of guards were already there to escort him up to the bridge.

Pausing at the bottom to look into space, the man nods to the duo and they begin the march towards the command center of the large vessel. It was going to be a fairly decent length walk, but no more than ten minutes. There was no conversation between the three of them, however. No need for it.

Stepping into a turbolift, the door hisses shut and they speed up towards the upper floors of the large ship. Let's get this over with.

 

[Alli Vern]

*ignore*

 

[Mirta Kar]

Mitra looked for more rakghols, as she had been with the others the whole time, She had helped but it just seemed strange, and not worth the effort, but alas orders were orders, She waited for a new command. She didn't want to get in any trouble.

 

[Lina Djo]

"Granted" Mia replied to Verz "You can take point. Mirta bring up the rear, i'll take the left flank, Kyr on the right."
They fell into formation, with Mia and Kyr just behind Verz and Mirta bringing up the rear. She could her the doubt in Kyr's question and for a moment said nothing as they moved into the nest and her HUD switch to infra-red vision in the darkness of the tunnels. She had expected to be fighting every inch of they way all of them had and this silence meant only one of two things. The Rakghouls had set a trap for them, or the Manda'lor had made a very irrational decision.

"No." she replied finally to Kyr. "None of this is rational." She told them as she opened a comm link to the R9 on her ship. "Bandit, dispatch the prowler to my location." An old probe droid to say the least but it had been cheap and it worked. If they were going in deeper, she wanted the droid to give them a heads up on what they were going into. It would take several minutes for the droid to get to them, assuming someone didn't shoot it on its way to the planets surface.

 

[Verz Horak]

"Got it." he replied in his gruff voice, which was slightly metallic from his helmet.

Verz looked at the tunnels ahead through the ghostly filter of his helmet's night vision. The tunnels were cramped for someone in full battle armor. He moved cautiously foward, listening for the breathing to thousands of rakghouls, but heard only silence. Where could they be?

 

[Jorn Mair]

Jorn was behind everyone else looking behind them to make sure that nothing was sneeking up behind them. It seemed that Mia had taken comand of the group and was okay with that. He had his mapping censers and his life forms censer up and saw not a soul when they first landed. they began to move towards the tunnels. Jorn could see that the place would be pack and hard to move in. his rifle was going to get in the way so he let it hang by its sling and grabbed his pistol for closer combat. if need be he could grab his swords.

 

[Mirta Kar]

It was disconcerting that there was nothing but silence, where were these foes they were promised, She watched their rear, when she could before they stopped shotrly after waiting for something. " It looks like it will be a tight fit, fun" Mirta put her rifle on her back and pulled out her pistol as well, this was no place to have large objects to add to the body armor in trying to crawl through. Mirta couldn't wait till this was over, she hated small spaces, especially caves. She had to conquer her fear though and thus took a deep breath , she could do it. She followed the others, hoping for a quick mission filled with distracting combat.

 

[Lina Djo]

The hum of her probe droid made Mia jump, she had been listening so intently for other beasts that she had forgotten she ordered it. It stopped in front of her. "Ahead of us please Prowler, give us some light and stay within sight." The droid beeped in acknowledgement and whizzed passed them, a bright light illuminating the path ahead. It was too narrow for them to remain in the formation the were in so they had no choice but to shift to single file.

Prowler's light however, showed it was widening ahead. Rakghouls were not small creatures so she was grateful they would not have fight them in such a small space. They were likely to loose someone if that was the case.

 

[Verz Horak]

Verz moved to the side to let the droid pass, but in these cramped quarters, it was just half a meter. The droid hummed as it passed him and he flicked off his night vision as the droid activated its light.

"Do you think it is wise to use a spotlight? Night vision is much stealthier."

He turned to continue walking down the single passage, with no branch offs as of yet.

 

[Jorn Mair]

Jorn saw the little droid comming towards him and moved to the side. When Verz asked about the spotlight and the nightvision he switched to infared it would still be used even if the light was on. but it distored everything that he saw. Jorn thought better of it and switced to normal vision. With Mirta just behind him covering their 6 he felt not so protected. When they ere entering into the tunnel she took deep breaths. A sign that she wasnt confortable with the enclosed space.

"Hey go ahead of me." he then said only to her com. "Dont worry Ill take the rear if you want me to?"