Private Iron Resolve

[Yael Kandar]

IRON RESOLVE

A Brave New World - Chapter 1

EQUIPMENTS: In Bio
OBJECTIVE: Kill Vren Rook
TAG: Vren Rook

Spoiler: THEME

TATOOINE

Vren Rook. That’s a name she hadn’t heard for a long time. How long was it, three years? Yael hadn’t been in contact with him since her disappearance. He might have visited her when she was still unconscious in Kamino. He might have not. Doesn’t matter now. He might have heard of it from Meshur, Emam, or Gailen. Doesn’t matter. All that matter is that she is going to put a bullet through his head.

It has to be her. Ave Jathassa had put a bounty out; Dead or Alive, for busting one of her spice shipment. If it’s not her, then another bounty hunter would go after him, and bring him in alive. She wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Not her godfather, the one who found and rescue her. The one who help her adoptive dad raise her. The one she let down when she rallied the Enclave on a crusade that left their home unguarded.

The Black Sun Assassin wouldn’t dare get at Vren in his home. Their home. It’s too close to her heart, too many things left unsaid, too many loose ends. She instead decided to intercepts him in Tatooine. His second home. Her birthplace. Where it all began.

It wasn’t hard to track him down, Yael knows her godfather like the other side of her palm. It was his usual spot. She waited for him to start his day, right before dawn, her eyes ever focused through the slug sniper’s scope. He emerged, her fingers brushed the trigger. She has to do it. If it’s not her, someone else would, and it will be worse for everyone. Just one bullet and his soul will return to Manda.

Tears streaming down from her eyes. Vren doesn’t deserve this. If anything it’s him that has the bragging rights to put a lead through her brain. Enclave, his life, his joy, she destroyed it. She ruined it, for him, for Meshur, for Emam, for Mevia and Elise, for Gailen, for everyone. Her finger pushed the trigger, but her hesitation already did the damage. Her hand shuddered, shoulders uneven, and her slug sniper shook.

A single sniper bullet hissed through the air, launching at speed at Vren… and it hits the ground beside him.

She fucking missed.

And now she has to live with the consequences.​

 

[Vren Rook]

VETERAN
RANCH | TATOOINE
TAG: Yael Kandar

IN DARKNESS HE CAME​

A break.

Vren had needed it. With Siv Dragr back finally, he could get one at last. Naturally, he came to his refuge. To the peace and quiet of his little bantha ranch. George had been ecstatic when he had touched down. The massiff nearly bowled him over in his happiness.

Now, the next morning, the reptilian hound was snoozing in the twin suns on the porch as Vren stepped out in the arid morning air, caf in hand. Nag was also catching some sun in the yard, chassis collapsed as she regarded the dusty landscape. For the first time in years, the former Guildmaster could breathe a bit easier.

He breathed in a deep breath before taking a sip of his caf. This was the retirement he wanted. What he needed. But something always interceded. Last time, it had been (†) Kranak Vizsla to have pulled him from here. And what a mess that had been right up to this moment. Vren rubbed his face before finishing his caf.
"I'm gonna go check on the herd, Boy. You comin' or stayin' here?" he asked George.
The massiff only cracked one eye and lazily wagged his tail before closing it again.
Vren chuckled. "All right. See you in a bit." he said before stepping off the porch.

He'd barely taken a step before a slug slammed into the sand next to him, sending up a plume of dust. Nag was unfolded even before his head snapped up toward the ridge where the shot had come from.
"Get 'em, Girl! I'll follow!" he ordered the droid as his jetpack howled to life.

In another howl, Nag shot into the air and was at the ridge in almost an instant. She was just about ready to release a salvo of laser-fire when her IFF told her who it was.
With a predatory growl, the basilisk planted a claw on Yael and pinned her to the ground, thrusting her turret into the girl's face.
://: WHY? ://: she roared.

At that moment, Vren touched down too, pistols drawn...and then he froze.

"Yael?"

 

[Yael Kandar]

IRON RESOLVE

A Brave New World - Chapter 1

EQUIPMENTS: In Bio
OBJECTIVE: Kill Vren Rook
TAG: Vren Rook

Spoiler: THEME

TATOOINE

Her missed shot was responded in an instant. Nag, Vren's Basilisk soared through the sky, closing whatever distance there was between Yael and Vren, with the Karjr following behind. Nag's claw violently snapped Yael away from the ground, before planting her back on it, the Maji exoskeleton planted on her back cracking against the hard, rocky surface of Tatooine. She thought of igniting all the three jet thrusters in her Beskar'gam, even with Nag's turret shoved on her face.

://: WHY? ://: she roared.

At that moment, Vren touched down too, pistols drawn...and then he froze.

"Yael?"

They recognized her. Even beneath her repainted Beskar'gam, behind the bulk of muscle she had put on the past year, under her unrecognizable, clouded self. The pain in their voice is crystal clear.

"Just get over with it," Yael stared Nag's turret through her t-visor, her voice half-shouting.

"Doesn't matter. That miss should buy you some time until they realize I had failed." Yael shifted her gaze to the old Karjr, her breath hitching, the bitterness in her mouth as pungent as Krayt Dragon's venom. She had one shot, and her sentiments, the nostalgia, were all it took to miss. The past already did the damage to her. The Black Sun was supposed to be an escape, a fresh start. Yet she failed. Perhaps, some nightmares are just fate, woven into the fabric of life by The Old Gods and the New ones, a matter of when, not if. She had escaped death once; perhaps this is retribution.

"I only have one request Uncle Vren. Can you bury me where you found me?" she said, almost pleading.

"And can you stay for a while, like old times?"​

 

[Vren Rook]

VETERAN
RANCH | TATOOINE
TAG: Yael Kandar

IN DARKNESS HE CAME​

"Doesn't matter. That miss should buy you some time until they realize I had failed."

Vren lowered his pistols.
"Buy me...time?" He was utterly confused. "From who?"

But Yael didn't answer. Of course she didn't. Meshur raised her too strict - the kid is too hardheaded in her adult life. But what she said knocked the wind right out of his gut.

"I only have one request Uncle Vren. Can you bury me where you found me?" she said, almost pleading.

"And can you stay for a while, like old times?"

He dragged his fingers through his gray hair.
"Girl, let her up." his voice cracked as he spoke to Nag.
://: Have you lost your mind? She just tried to kill you. ://: Nag growled at him, keeping Yael trapped between her claws.
"Just do it."
Another growling rumble and a last whirr of the rotary in the face of the visor before finally lifting her claw, yet she stayed rooted to her spot between Vren and Yael.

Vren sighed and stepped to the side so he could see his goddaughter. The armour was different, but the IFF didn't lie and neither did the voice.
"Take off your helmet, Child. You ain't goin' anywhere, 'speacially not dead." he told her after clearing his throat.

He dragged his fingers through his hair again before resting his hands on his hips.

"Now tell me what the hell did you get yourself into now."

 

[Yael Kandar]

IRON RESOLVE

A Brave New World - Chapter 1

EQUIPMENTS: In Bio
OBJECTIVE: I don’t even know anymore
TAG: Vren Rook

Spoiler: THEME

TATOOINE

Yael took off her helmet and threw it to the ground to reveal a face familiar, yet so different. Long gone was the fiery auburn hair, replaced by pale blonde strands. Her eyes locked on the sand underneath her feet, face deflated. She’s just one year plus older from the last time she met Vren, but the toll has aged her face years beyond.

The former proud crusader doesn’t know where to start. Where did it all go wrong? Was it the overbearing guilt of what once was a zealous devotion for her people? Was it the voices that promised redemption? Or the overwhelming disappointment of the sad, pathetic state of Mandalore that ironically mirrors her life?

“No one forced me to do anything,” Yael answered with a low, defeated voice. She wouldn’t dare to look at her godfather, the man who loved her nearly as much as her father did, so instead she glanced at his loyal companion. Maybe Nag can’t take it anymore and decide to blow her brain, she thought. “I willingly worked with The Black Sun, after Mandalore,” disgust can be heard in her voice.

“A vigo posted a bounty on you. Or someone did through her,” that wasn’t a valid excuse, that wasn’t everything she wanted to say. But how could she, if saying so means that she would reveal her doubts on his ability, on her own people’s chance at survival in this cruel time.​