Hidden Street

[Klesta]

Clearly, since she became the commanding officer of an army that was once commanded by the much-reviled Darth Maladon, she was well on her way to become, in her own words, a better general than Darth Centax has ever been. But what sank the One Sith was multiple-fold: while ground command was the worst of those weaknesses, attack craft was also another weakness that she feels is necessary to address if the dark side is to retake its rightful place in the galaxy. Before she could hand over the captured troops from Darth Maladon to the Rebellion, alongside the stolen AT-AA schematics and other artifacts, however, there was a mining mission that she needed to undertake. That would take her to Maramere, where stygium was about to be mined. As they made their approach towards Maramere... several people among the troops that made it through the assault on the Jedi Temple on Yutan asked for explanations as to why they were even to go to that planet in the first place. They appear confused, and so are rather reluctant to get down to the surface.

"General, any reason why we are being taken to Maramere? Shouldn't we be handed over to the Imperial authorities?" an AT-AA driver asked.

"If the intelligence is correct, we should be going to the Haunted Straits"

"General, why should we even mine for stygium?" an AT-ST gunner asked.

"This is for a top-secret project that you won't be called upon to use"

[member="Merric Rhoso"]

 

[Merric Rhoso]

Rumours of AT-AA schematics and artifacts being transported to a local mining outpost spread fast. Merrec knowing well the items would sell well on the market. The hard part was getting his hands on said items. Tracking their ships hyperspace signature Merrec was able to learn the trajectory enabling him to learn the location the ship was heading to. Though the rumours may be false and this mission may be a dud, he decided to get a crew together to set a trap.

The room was filled with the noise of heavy breathing the smell of sweat, fear and worry the loudest noise is the hum of the engines running. It was dark but yet lightly lit only essential systems running. The Atmospheric Assault lander flying full speed, as close to the surface as possible to hide from sensors.

Standing shoulder to shoulder about 20 hired guns and volunteers stand at the ready in the main compartment. As the ship approaches the drop the zone the doors burst with the sound of pressurised air releasing into the atmosphere with a loud whistle filling the compartment with a gale of wind.

One of the Mercenary step up to the door controls "Drop Zone in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.." The ship comes to a stop hovering over the drop, the door swings open. The merc yells "Go! Go! Go!" The men begin to jump from the ship readying their blasters and weapons, they immediately begin to spread out securing the area. The last of all Merrec steps off the ramp planting both feet onto the ground with an audible "Thud" The ship immediately fly's off to keep away from the area.

Merrec slides the rain coat over his head "Let's get moving, we'll set up for an ambush as soon as we get there." ​The group begins to move up towards the landing zone.

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

From her last training session on Yutan, which took place after the full-scale assault that yielded her the items she had in tow, namely the AT-AA schematics and the Jedi artifacts, she got very, very little out of it, hence her lingering feeling of being disappointed with Lord Ferox. Dual-wielding with Niman is where it is at. But already several other Sith found her highly militaristic, perhaps too militaristic for her own good. The Rebellion provided the best shots among Yula's force with slugthrowers capable of shooting 12.7x108s so that they could snipe at Sith Lords if said Sith Lords were to cause mayhem. Now that Yula's mining operation was set to begin, the band of fanatical convicts, technically still flying the Nubian flag, began deploying in a region where they took up tools that they would normally associate to sappers: beamdrills, shovels and other such things. Yet the mining equipment was rented.

"Stay alert, we need some snipers on overwatch. However we do not expect hostile aircraft so don't deploy the AT-AA just yet"

"Roger, roger"

"All other infantry units, start mining the stygium! Just store the stolen material safely inside the vehicles first"

Meanwhile, she combed through the contents of an entire vault's worth of stolen Jedi artifacts so that she could examine whether there is some holocron in there that could provide her with some Force-knowledge to get her started in her Force-training while she still attempts to find a master. Even if the Sith Inquisitor exposed the folly of a full-scale assault if the objective was just stealing some tree, she was still hailed as one of the heroes of the assault on the Yutan Jedi Temple. And masters willing to train Sith with some accomplishments to their names would expect them to at least have a basis to work from.

[member="Merric Rhoso"] [member="Martin Webb"]

 

[Merric Rhoso]

The mercenary leader calls for light radio use as the group spreads out "Two of you go with Merrec to the transport, the rest spread out we're gonna need to make a distraction." The mercs get into cover and position around the mine, completely unaware of any sniper overwatch "Wait for my signal."


Merrec begins his slow approach on the objective ensuring he isn't seen at every step, the two men with him follow closely. "I'm pretty sure that's the transport." He says with a little bit of doubt straggled in his voice. Coming up on the transports entrance two guards stand out the front scanning the area for intruders. Bringing the radio up to his mouth he whispers "Give em Hell." Immediately the sounds of the first blaster shots release from the mercs rifles. Hitting their targets a bunch of unsuspecting infantry.


"Now!" Using the element of surprise He quickly pulls out his DC-15 blaster pistol laying fire on the two guards. Taking both guards down "Go go go!" He runs up the ramp into the transport with the two Mercs, closing the door behind them immediately. "This transport should have the items we're looking for, spread out look for something they would secure their valuables."

​Hopefully the valuables are here he thinks to himself because If their not we're probably screwed.

[member="Yula Knezevic"]​ [member="Martin Webb"]

 

[Klesta]

"Intruder alert! " Yula screamed inside the transport's PA system while the transport containing the AT-AAs was being intruded.

The snipers on overwatch failed to spot the mercs [member="Merric Rhoso"] had in tow, and, while the main troops were out there mining stygium, Yula remained inside the transport. She feels that she should Force-choke one of the snipers later because of it, but ultimately they are still little more than convicts with nominal weapons training. Meanwhile, Yula draws her two lightsabers in an attempt to fight off the intruders that remained inside, deflecting a few shots from the DC-15 blaster pistols, knowing however that they may not land where she wants it to, that is, the deflected bolts may not hit their opponents, and possibly end up denting some wall or something inside the transport. And yet [member="Martin Webb"] would not suspect that Yula is a dark-sider whose loyalties to the Sith Order are wavering, especially since she has been questioning the choice of tactics of one Abyss or the rest of the Sith Order. Too much destruction, too many casualties, there were more efficient ways to steal the tree or vaults.

 

[Merric Rhoso]

"Oh kark." A feeling of dread sinks into Merrec's stomach, he never thought a force user would be here. Raising his pistol he begins firing, the two others open fire as well. The deflected blaster rounds dangerously fly around the compartment hitting one of the mercs with a killing blow the merc's body collapses next to Merrec.

A rushed idea slides into his mind, he shouts "Keep shooting!!" to the Remaining merc Sliding to the dead merc, He moves the body to it's side as improv cover to take some blaster rounds. Taking hold of a stun grenade from his belt he pulls the pin. At the same time the other merc gets hit with a blaster round wounding him.

Throwing the grenade towards Yula he immediately raises his face cover like a bandana, closes his eyes and covers his ears. The next part of his plan involves running out with his shock baton at hand, hoping for the best.

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

Upon seeing, in the Force, the horror that was about to be unleashed under the form of a stun grenade, Yula decides to deactivate one of the two lightsabers, keeping the off-hand one active. She makes a big effort of concentration to push back the grenade with the Force before it would detonate, so big that her face is glowing red, and her facial expression is showing signs of anger. But when the grenade detonates, it seemingly does so at a distance that is closer to [member="Merric Rhoso"] than to Yula, and at point-blank range from the wounded merc. And, of course, she would feel dizzy because she didn't absorb the brunt of the, perhaps her body would be a little stiff from the pain. Perhaps I could use the pain to regain some semblance of motion, she thought, while expecting the other duelist not to be giving up on this just yet. Meanwhile, the stormtroopers are hard at work mining stygium crystals, but without realizing that the transport's doors are closed for the time being. Perhaps using droid-manned hoppers would allow the haul of crystals to be carried onboard.

 

[Merric Rhoso]

BANG!!

A bright flash of light and smoke fills the compartment the sound of a tendinitis like squeal enters Merrec's ears, with a follow up of a throaty scream from the merc with the increase of intense pain. Rather dizzied from the grenade he quickly stumbles almost falling while getting to his feet the shock baton at hand.

Stepping over the dead merc he begins his stumbled advance through through the light smoke, raising his pistol he opens fire erratically at the last direction he saw Yula. Hoping for the best as soon as he exits the smoke he swings his shock baton down trying to hit Yula.

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

With every ounce of her pain being directed throughout her body, she somehow found the strength to reduce her physical stiffness, if only for a few moments when her arm with a lightsaber still active would just extend in position to deflect a blaster shot, fired through the smoke the grenade generated. She had vastly impaired hearing as a result of the grenade's detonation (which, hopefully, would come back in time) so she could at most hear a faint blaster shot when it was fired. And then her body would stiffen again, once the blaster shot has been fully deflected off the black lightsaber. Probably have exhausted my Force-batteries in this encounter; my men are hard at work mining stygium out there and I am there overseeing the entire operation. My master would probably appreciate that I was using my own pain to power myself up in a pinch, she thought, while watching nervously the blaster shot landing somewhere near [member="Merric Rhoso"], if not directly on him. After all, hitting the target would probably suffice for her purposes on this planet.

 

[Merric Rhoso]

As he raised his arm to swing at Yula A deflected blaster round hits his right chest region close to the shoulder. A loud grunt escapes his lips, as he falls onto his back sliding back. Immediately he starts to slide backwards left hand over the newly formed wound implementing pressure, his right hand still has it's grasp on the pistol.

A deep grunt escapes his lips "Jedi Scum!" Grinding his teeth together he attempts to stand slipping and collapsing. The smoke almost completely cleared at this point he stands up successfully this time just before the terminal. He turns to face Yula "So look.." he coughs twice before continuing "I think we got off on the wrong foot." he continues to slowly slide towards the terminal. "Maybe we can be friends, also you'll need to speak up, I think that grenade ruined my ears" A light smile slides onto his lips underneath the bandanna like face cover.

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

(Sorry had a couple of busy days)

 

[Klesta]

The grenade ruined the ears of everyone in the vicinity of its blast. So it wasn't just [member="Merric Rhoso"]'s ears that were ruined. She was forced to shout, she was still reeling in from the stun grenade and yet, Merric didn't realize that she was a Sith, not a Jedi. A traitorous acolyte but an acolyte all the same. She saw the smoke clear all around her and Merric used the smoke to slip, despite his injury, towards the terminal, where he thought he could open the door to escape with his life, even though he didn't quite get what he wanted; better leave him be and not to kill him without need, but for him to actually leave him be, he needs some crystals. She feels that he would be happy about the entire ordeal that resulted in the death of two mercenaries if only he had something to show for it. Better still: she even estimated that the amount of crystals he would get would allow for something special on a small scale that make use of stygium. Speaking of which a batch has returned to the transport ship, mined by stormtroopers hard at work.

"Maybe we can be friends, also you'll need to speak up, I think that grenade ruined my ears" [member="Merric Rhoso"] told her.

"HERE'S THE DEAL: I WILL LET YOU GET OUT OF HERE ALIVE, JUST TAKE WHATEVER STYGIUM CRYSTALS YOU NEED!" Yula shouted.

 

[Merric Rhoso]

Raising a brow to the offer he is rather taken back by it "WHY ARE YOU LETTING ME GO?" Raising his voice in response to the situation. Not knowing the difference between a jedi and sith, Led to him calling them any force user he may encounter a Jedi also the cause of the pure fact that Merric really doesn't know how to take Yula in Personality and combat. Both have reputations for spilling blood any average Joe knows that, but any further then that Merric would actually have to research into the matter.


"HOW DO I KNOW YOUR NOT GOING TO SLASH ME DOWN ONCE I TURN AWAY?" once reaching the terminal, takes his hand off his wound to open the door. After the door lowers his hand raises back to his chest. Scrunching his face the pain of the wound starts to worsen, he leans up against the wall next to the Terminal Trying to lessen movement altogether.

Looking back up to Yula "Though I guess if you wanted me Dead, I would already be dead."

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

"YOU CAME HERE EXPECTING TO STEAL SOMETHING OUT OF ME: KILLING YOU IS A WASTE OF YOUR FRIENDS' LIVES" Yula shouted, still with her ears being affected from the blast.

[member="Merric Rhoso"] couldn't tell the difference between Jedi and Sith, that much was clear to her in the Force. Yes, it's true to an extent that Jedi and Sith both gained some reputations for spilling blood: to the average NFU Joe, the average Jedi or Sith is a bounty hunter with a lightsaber and the light and dark side of the Force respectively. From her historical recollections, only in the eras where the two cults weren't at numerical parity could either side be something other than Force-using bounty hunters to the eyes of the public. Then again, Yula was unfamiliar with the numerous Force-cults outside of the big dichotomy that dominates the religious landscape of the galaxy. The Sth Inquisitor may have ran a few articles about how witchcraft was an avenue to consider for those who didn't want to be caught in the crossfire of the wars between these two groups of FUs, but that's as far as her knowledge of the other cults went. She awaited the delivery of a few raw crystals mined by her men outside, around the mining outpost, while hoping that the injured bounty hunter would take a few crystals out of the cart before EMTs could arrive, since one of the snipers on overwatch contacted the EMTs.

 

[Merric Rhoso]

Merric's Looks between the dead mercs and then returns his attention back to Yula. What other choice does he have really, he let's out a light laugh. But his his teeth grinding them together letting a pained whimper escape. Releasing out a rather large breath almost a sigh before speaking, "Alright you've got yourself a deal lady, I would shake your hand but... how about we skip that part." His voice lowered in volume, but still at a reasonable hearing level for Yula to hear him.

He quickly thinks through his decision, coming to the conclusion that the deal has to be better then death. He peaks out the door hoping there isn't a ton of storm troopers ready to open fire, instead he sees one of the mining troopers carting multiple crates of crystals. Sliding his head back looking back to Yula once again wondering if she'll go back on her word.

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

"I'm still a little... stiff, so I agree, we can skip that part"

Her hearing was partially returning in time, she didn't have to shout even though she still had to be somewhat loud to be able to hear it all. And she sees that multiple crates filled with crystals are coming in from all over the place, and of varying sizes: the largest of them could be cut and polished to fit into a fighter-grade cloaking device. The use of beamdrills made it so that not all crystals could be used for cloaking devices however; therefore, the smaller ones are to be sold to Jedi and Sith for use in lightsaber crystals. Meanwhile, the klaxons of the ambulance speeder are being heard louder and louder as the ambulance rushed to [member="Merric Rhoso"]'s position as a result of stormtroopers having called the EMTs on overwatch. Such ambulances had a compartment for a patient's personal belongings, to the standard of what is usually allowed on a commuter shuttle (or attack craft if one pilots attack craft), roughly 100 kg of baggage per passenger. Once the ambulance has come to a complete stop, the EMTs searched for the patient that caused the snipers to call the ambulance in the first place.

"Where's the patient?" the EMT asked the stormtrooper on overwatch.

"Right over there" the sniper told the EMT, pointing in Merric's direction.

 

[Merric Rhoso]

"Well I'll See you later." he waves his gun in the air gesturing a wave goodbye, followed by a grunt of pain.

He Walks out the door Immediately (Unless interrupted) setting his pistol to stun aiming at a miner/storm trooper near multiple crates. Not wanting to take the risk by spending anymore time in the location, he fires stunning the solder. Immediately afterwards he grabs a small crate struggling to keep hold of it with his injury. Running He begins on his trek back to the other mercs hoping they'll cover him if trouble follows.

In such a Rush he took no notice of the speeder approaching nor the sniper, he just kept his eyes forward attempting to ignore the intense pain growing every step he takes he just continued to run.

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

Ouch... he could still stun a stormtrooper with a crate of stygium crystals in tow. I'd better not renege on my end of the deal, if that crate was the compensation for him being injured, then so be it, she thought, upon seeing [member="Merric Rhoso"] ignoring the EMT in an attempt to run away from the Sith acolyte who injured him. He got a lucky break because everyone's attention is focused on mining the crystals. He was suspicious of the EMTs, but that was natural to think of every possible hazard when one was a mercenary. By now the EMTs collected the stunned stormtrooper, having finally located a patient to collect. But a new crate found its way into the ship by another of the stormtroopers while the stormtrooper was taken away to the ambulance by the EMTs. Now that Yula, while a little annoyed by this encounter, could finally continue to oversee the whole mining operation, she watched the crates of crystals coming in, and the operation almost came to an end. Oh, and of course, the sniper wouldn't call for an EMT only to later shoot down the patient he called that EMT for, so Merric could continue to run to safety unmolested.

 

[Merric Rhoso]

Finally arriving at the mercenary group he hands the crate to another merc, struggling to gain his breath as the leader approaches. "Merric where are the other two" His voice had an angered tone to it "Yeah... they're dead, we need to get out of here!!" The group begins to move off leader coming up beside Merric once more "What happened kid?" He looked to the leader with a grim look "A force user got in our path and killed them both, now Call the ship and let's get out of here." the leader looked back for a moment, with a worried look on his face.

There it was the ship was ready to go, rushing aboard the ship he rushed to the first aid box pulling out the becta. Immediately he started applying the becta to his wound sitting back on the chair He released a large sigh of releif. The ship rumbles powering up ready to leave. The merc's strap in in silence.

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

As the final crates of stygium crystals made their way into the transport ship, the combat medics attached to her force would finally be tending to her discomfort. Her body was pretty stiff, and she didn't have enough strength to moan in pain anymore. Also the stormtroopers were going into the process of packing up the mining equipment and leaving. She was a little concerned about the sheer amount of jewelry work required to make these crystals into workable crystals that can be used for attack craft-grade cloaking devices. Yet she truly was ready for anything, to finish what Darth Maladon started. To actually see to it that those Sith get past the idea of destroying everything associated to Jedi, but also to fight Jedi on equal terms when push comes to shove. Yet Lord Maladon was the closest thing to a Sith that actually understood grand strategy and the limitations of resorting entirely to Sith; she still feels that past mistakes of the Sith involve complete negligence of space affairs.

[member="Merric Rhoso"]