I've got sand in my...Dominion? ACA for Tatooine

[Ashin Varanin]

Stun shots? Stun shots. The QQ-83n hissed and screamed as its silver stun beam made short work of the nearest Tuskens. It seemed like the thing to do...mostly because she didn't like the look of that knot of Tuskens between herself and the faraway Baobab. The issue, however, was primarily one of ammunition. She made an executive estimate of her remaining shots and the remaining tuskens, and decided not to pursue long-term safety at the expense of short-term survival. Her Pathfinder, her phrik core samples, and her personnel could wait. Irked and then some, she opted to follow the lead of [member="Raziel"]'s plan.

The sandcrawler smelled like wet dog. Former Confederate leadership, perhaps.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

Cassidy blinked and returned into existence, it was almost as if he hadn’t been there for the entire duration of the fight, except the very beginning when he had saved [member="Raziel"]’s fine ass from one of dem raiders. But that was utterly nonsense, of course, the heavy arms, blood and sweat mixed and rippling over his skin, the small migraine coursing through his mind… all signs that he had been fighting for the entirety of the climax.

It was probably relativity kicking it up again, he punched a guy in the throat, scattergunned a few others and then kept escorting the dang thing, towards the dang objective with the dang people. At this point in time Adrian was operating on the auto-mode, battle flow or however ya wanted to call it.

Point was, he was in full balance with his tap dancing shoes and scattergun.

 

[Aeron Kreelan]

Well boots hit desert.

The Pyre was here. A little bit late but better than never. The dropships would send billowing clouds of sand and grit into the air, the hiss of the hydrolics opening the ramp.

Cover fire would blast through to the very angry Tusken Raiders, set to stun not yo kill. It wasn't their fault they got all riled up. It was a powerful stun blast none the less.

More and more Omega Pyre mercs would hit the ground, moving to interact with the angry Tuskens.

 

[Jennifer Blanchard]

Jenn was here for Tion, and that meant for Marek. But she wasn't really dependent on the Abrion Corporate military. What she was doing, though, was making sure Marek was fine. And that was why she was paying attention to the ships that were landing. Those were... Omega ships, weren't they? That wasn't going to bode well. Unless they were here for Arceneau Trading. That made sense, but the OP and AC weren't so down with one another.

Doing her very best to try to intercept the messages, she tried to get ahold of the Omegas. “This is Jenn Blanchard, representing Marek Starchaser to the Protectorate commander. State your business on Tatooine.”

She really didn't want to get involved in a frakking border war. Not that she dealt with the last one, but every time the Protectorate goes to war, a planet gets devastated, Druckenwell, sure that was Abrion, Corellia (thanks Goat man)... And that one didn't even have Abrion involved.

[member="Aeron Kreelan"]

 

[Raziel]

Raziel felt much safer up on the top of the crawler. He had a good view of the surrounding plains and unless they'd started using gunships he had plenty of cover. Then the crawler lurched and he nearly skidded off the side.

Finding a handhold he rolled and went prone. Sighting down his carbine he fired a few shots at a group of Tuskens firing at them from the right. He shots thudded into the sand harmlessly.

There were almost certainly plenty of people more qualified than him to take this position, but he hadn't survived this long by taking unnecessary risks.

The ravine was coming up ahead. Shaw was clearing it out, but it still presented the best opportunity for the sand people to ambush them. Raziel watched a pair of speeder bikes heading out to chase off the group of Tuskens taking pot shots at them. The sand people scattered.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

And there they went, scattering as their momentum broke and their spirits gave up, probably. Could be a trap and they could be waiting for them at the upcoming choke point - that would mean a lot of bad things, unless the operative within the canyon had done his job correctly. Adrian hoped he had, because he wasn’t sure how much more archaic gunfire he could dodge today.

He checked his revolver, thing was outta ammo… figured. Dropped it in the crawler and took out a nasty looking vibroblade. Meant he would have to come in close and personal if shet went down, but there wasn’t really anything else to do about it right now. The spy looked over to Raziel and saw the guy was alright right now, relatively speaking, which meant that his paychecks would still be coming in for now.

Good.

It wasn’t because he was actually getting a soft spot for the bastard, too many missions and bruises to like the guy, probably. Cassidy started looking out for more problems, would be awkward to get sniped right here and now when they were almost safe from further harm.

 

[Aeron Kreelan]

[member="Jennifer Blanchard"]

Aeron got a notice from her comm officer. A nod went next and the Icarii took the small black box from the backpack the Lieutenant carried.

A thumb would depress the switch and send the following message through.

[ This is Commander Aeron Kreelan of Omega Pyre -- my business is to complete a contract with Arceneau Trade Company in regards to security. ] meaning this was the Private Military Contractor --- not the government forces of the Omega Protectorate.

Fugitive Recovery Specialists. Prior Military available for contract hire.

Mercs.

 

[Jennifer Blanchard]

Omega Pyre. That wasn't the government entity. That was a start, at least. Checking the datapad she had for the name, she nodded [member="Aeron Kreelan"]. She knew that they worked in the Protectorate, but they were here on Pyre duty? That would... well, it was for ATC. They didn't seem to be disrupting

“You're in the area of an Abrion Corporate operation. I understand you are completing a deal with Arceneau, however, we must warn you not to interfere with Abrion personnel. Do we have an agreement? We'll stay out of interfering with your contract, if you stay out of us attempting to calm the Raiders?”

Maybe they were working together, who knew? She just didn't want to start another war that would knock Abrion back too far. If it needed to happen, Jenn could get back out there and do something, but for now? She was going to wait, and monitor the situation.

 

[Raziel]

The ravine was as daunting as Raziel could have imagined. Even if Shaw had cut a swathe through here earlier, the opportunity for ambush was great. He walked along beside the sandcrawler now. The roof of the gargantuan, tracked vehicle was no longer a safe spot. Below the height of the ravine walls, he'd have been the first target then. There was a crash ahead, it seemed so loud in the ravine, but it was just a few rocks rolling down.

Possibly natural, maybe not. "Easy now," Raziel warned into his comm. It would be easy enough, particularly enough during the recent sandstorm, for the tusken's to pass any ACA patrols and set up new ambushes.

A moment later his fears were realised as a great cry echoed all around them.

"Sand people at the edges of the ravine!"

"In pairs with rifles!"

"We're sitting ducks!"

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Raziel"]

A few hours later they found themselves within the safe (or relatively safe) compound of the Arceneau Trading Company. They had drinks, girls were massaging their feet (probably) and in the grand scheme of things their worries were slowly ebbing away into a cloud of alcohol and warm fuzzy hot baths, yes, one could say that life on Tatooine quickly improved after they managed to break through the raiders.

‘Boss, I know I don’t tell ya this enough.’ Cassidy finally said to the guy sitting next to him. ‘But I love this job.'

'I will be expecting that raise tomorrow evening on my desk.’

He didn’t have a desk, but that was only a word to add to the atmosphere. They both knew that deep within themselves.

 

[Raziel]

[member="Adrian Cassidy"]

Raziel expelled a long, slow breath. It had been perhaps one of the worst days in his life. The Force was just a dull noise in the background now, but all that pain and terror he had been linked to had left deep imprints in his psyche. Perhaps the sadness was the worst. The slowly building grief that pulled back the fear as someone realised that life was slowly slipping away…

The spymaster took a long swig of his drink. “Well, this has been a bad day. How the hell are we going to deal with this Cassidy? We’ve lost half our people overnight and everything has imploded. So much work had been put into building everything up, putting the right connections in place, garnering the right kind of influence…” he leant forwards, placing his elbows on the table. For the first time in a long while he was feeling fairly forthcoming.

A pack of cards slid into his hand in a flash. “Ah hell, cards?”

He almost managed to hide the mischievous grin.