Marooned!

[Audren Sykes]

Even as Audren was asking his question a rather large toolbox was hurtling through the air. With an air of having done such a thing multiple times before, their pilot caught the tool chest and a few of the devices that spilled from it. Much of it ended up on the floor anyways, the man having selected only what he needed and tossing the rest. As he vanished into the guts of the vessel, his voice floated back up, already distracted.

"Might try one of those containers mate! Pretty sure I kept a Disruptor rifle or two around somewhere."

The Sephi restrained his urge to snort and started examining the cases the smuggler had spoken of. The air was thick with violence and charged with emotions, both of which interfered with his ability to use the Force with much effect. Fortunately, he was simply looking for guidance. A nudge at the stack netted into place led him to a pile of crates in particular. Only one of them had the sense of being dangerous. With vibroblade held in a reverse grip, he made short work of the lock and opened the crate to reveal a rifle of some kind. And ammunition, three power packs and two grenades. Was it a disruptor rifle? Feth if he knew, but it was a rifle and he could use it.

Slapping one of the power packs into the waiting port and a grenade into its launcher, the Knight moved back to the hatch he and Jack had left. Safety off, barrel pointed down-range. He braced the stock against his shoulder, settled the scope's crosshairs on a target, and pulled the trigger. A blaster bolt shot out and impacted his target on the shoulder, doing little but knocking him down. It was off, the Jedi had been aiming dead center. Two clicks on the scope led to another test shot. Much better.

"Audren was it? Yea, uh, no grenades on me right now. But plenty of rifle rounds. And as long as this hatch closes I can easily cover your position til you find something worth shooing them with. Looks like another 6 clips for my blaster in the bag. So that's a little shy of 700 rounds total. Well now more like 612 rounds, gone through 48 in this clip so far. Either way you do you, get a rifle or pistol or some such and just plink them as they try to get through the ramp. Failing that you are a space wizard, I'm sure you can work something out."

"Just did."

Audren fired one shot at a time. He was conserving his limited ammunition - he had an estimated two hundred bolts or so - and prioritizing his targets. He wasn't shooting as hurriedly as some might expect, but it was more or less constant. His trainers had a saying they'd beaten into him years ago: fast is slow, slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Rushing things would only complicate matters. Not all of his bolts hit, and for that matter not all of the bolts that hit killed their targets. They certainly packed enough of a punch to knock the target down, but he saw several of his targets had charred pockmarks on their armor. If he hit them a second time though, they stayed down.

Once they got through this, Jack might not like him much any more. Rather than use a corner of the hatch for cover and blind himself on one side, the Sephi had taken cover behind the speeder. Burn marks and molten metal were the order of the day for that poor fellow. The Knight himself wasn't fully covered, but covered enough that he really only caught bits of the molten metal. Most of that ended up on his robes, which were designed well enough to withstand that sort of thing for the short term. He really wanted to call out for a status update from the crew, but refrained. Distract the people doing repairs and they might end up with control lines crossed, or take even longer. Or both.


[member="Jack Raxis"] | [member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Kurayami Bloodborn"] [member="Audren Sykes"]

Blood, flame and smoke. That was the mixture down in the engine compartment as Jack slipped, and sliced a gouge into his hand. With a legendary tolerance for pain he pressed on, trying to shield his eyes as much as possible from the sparks and white hot lights of the arc welder. Dak finished first, bringing the main power back online.

Finally Jack managed to connect his section and leaned back trying to shimmy out, except the welder fell to the floor, right in a pool of engine oil and he swore out loud.

"Dak lookout!"

Flames flared up underneath the engine, licking from the floor, tearing at his body. With reflexes of steel he moved quickly, shoving off against the wall and out from under the engine. Seconds later he snatched the extinguisher device from the wall, clothes smouldering with burnt embers and faced streaked with ash like a savage war-paint.

"I'm stuck!"

"Hold your breath, close your eyes!"

Whoosh! Fire retardant foam sprayed into the gap, sealing off the flames from oxygen and making a hard coating across the floor. Right over Jacks welder too.

"Kark it!"

They'd have to share torches, there simply wasn't enough time to un-dig the first.

"Pass me the torch kid, I’m going for the controls."

"I got a lock on the auxiliary power cable, make it quick."

"Got it!"

Dak slung the torch across the deck and it rang and rattled bouncing off the engine. With deft precision Jack reached under, caught it and slammed it to the two ends of forearm thick circuity he was holding. It wouldn't take long, just a few welds on loosed wire to solder them, and then a flash weld to hold the metallic casing pipe in place.

"Things are ok gentlemen, hows it going up there?" He roared as the ship perpetually rocked under heavy alien barrage.


--15 Mins left--

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

[member="Jack Raxis"] [member="Audren Sykes"]

Kurayami had just finished emptying his second clip and ducked back into cover to reload when Audren started firing. Looks like the rifle needed a bit of work done to it, but the Jedi had it dialed in pretty quickly. Good, that meant more concentration on his previous targets. Granted there were plenty of angry things to shoot at and this was not one of the times that he felt the need to compete for most kills. Sometimes that was kinda fun to do, but that was when you knew your chances of losing were slim and that even if you did your chances of getting off the rock were better than average. Right now, this situation? Survival. Plain and simple, keep the things that want you for dinner away, kill 'em if you have to otherwise just take them out of the fight.

While his main focus was on the shooting parts of what was happening he did find a moment to reply to Audren during the staccato exchanges of fire with the aliens.

"Glad you managed to get that thing under control. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to try and teach you basic marksmanship while we were fighting...not that that would have been a bad thing, plenty of practice targets around these parts apparently."

After that he went silent again, keeping to his established routine of 3 round burst, duck back, repeat. It was working well enough with him only taking a chest shot or two every exchange. Problem was that it was slowly chipping away at the power supply of his suits shielding. There was only so many recharges for each power cell and he wasn't sure how much longer it would hold out. The fact that this seemed a never ending wave was not helpful, nor was the fact that he heard quite a bit of yelling and commotion from the engine room.

"Things are dandy up here, captain. Well depending on the definition of the word, once the ammo runs out on my rifle all I got is 25 for the sniper attachment and that is going to go fast. After that short range pistols and melee would be the order of the day. So yea, great if you consider a rapidly dwindling ammo supply a plus."

He wasn't trying to make things sound more dire than they were, but he couldn't leave much of an opening between bursts, and if he fired full auto he'd be down to the pistols in very little time, so that was out of the question.

 

[Audren Sykes]

"Glad you managed to get that thing under control. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to try and teach you basic marksmanship while we were fighting...not that that would have been a bad thing, plenty of practice targets around these parts apparently."

That was the Mandalorian's reply to him. It made him smile; the first time he'd used a real blaster rifle, he'd shot against paper targets. Then Coren being Coren had hinted at pitching them into something more inclusive, which the Sephi had finally decided meant putting them in a situation where something shot back. Maybe it was an incorrect interpretation, but it certainly fit with what was said and with Coren's general attitude.

"Practice targets don't usually shoot back though," he called.

Even though the distraction was minor, it was enough. Audren missed the tip of a blaster rounding the hatch corner. He absolutely noticed when it opened fire though, the first bolt slicing past the right side of his forehead and subsequent bolts missing only because of recoil. With a muttered curse he dropped into a roll that kept him behind the speeder but moved him to the same side of the ship as the gunner was at. Said gunner rounded the hatch corner, having apparently assumed that the thump was a dead body hitting the floor, and was met by a quintet of blaster bolts in rapid succession. The next one to round the hatch took three, each one successively walking 'up' from stomach to chest to head. Try to ambush him, why don't they?

Of course, the best ambushes never had just one layer. Audren could sense the third person preparing to round the hatch from the other side, the side that the Knight now had an aggressive angle on. That one had delayed, seeing two of his brethren shot dead the moment they cleared the frame, but was regaining his balance. Or his hunger. Maybe both. He too began to move, but as soon as his blaster became visible it was blown apart with a single shot to the power pack. A second's inaction as he stared wide-eyed at the bloody and charred stump that had been his hand, too startled even to scream in pain, and a second bolt took him in the head.

But that wasn't the second layer.

Further out on the sand, a group was beginning to approach. They held some sort of shield before them and were moving at a steady pace towards the hatch that Audren guarded. Unfortunately, the round killing stumpy had been the last round in that particular power pack. Fortunately, he had another. And another type of ammunition to boot. He'd never used launched grenades, but they were parabolic projectiles according to the holos. The Force could help. Putting himself in plain sight in the hatchway for a moment, the Sephi launched the grenade with a hollow thwoop. As it left, he tracked it with the Force, made minute - and very gentle - nudges to it to drop it right at the feet of the shield holder. Exactly where the shield itself would direct parts of the blast back into the group.

The resulting explosion was not quite as restrained as the launch had been, and the results were quite a bit messier. The Jedi hadn't stuck himself in the hatch to watch though, as soon as the grenade had hit where he wanted he'd moved past to the other side and dragged a couple shipping containers into place as a barrier.

"Things are ok gentlemen, hows it going up there?"

Things are okay? It was never a good sign when that was the first thing called out by the person doing repairs...without being asked first. That more than anything else worried the Sephi.

"They've figured out how to use angles. Watch yourself."



[member="Jack Raxis"] | [member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Kurayami Bloodborn"] [member="Audren Sykes"]

"Ughhh." Jack grunted. The smell of the plasma was frying the ozone in the freighter and he could smell all manner of nasties. Mixed with his burnt spacers leather garments and the nasty smell of oil and sweaty fear it was noxious. Plus the Sephi was saying something about angles.

The arr welder sparked a few more times, and the weld was complete. Jack elated fell back against the bulkhead and wiped a wad of sweat from his brow. For a second he was lost in an endorphins rush, before Dak snapped him back to life.

"Oy Torch!"

"Ah kark, here kid!"

He tossed the torch, skidding it across the floor to Dak who was laid flat under the control hub in a tangle of wires. It was a crazed mess down here and his dark brown eyes were lit with fire behind them.

"Know what your doing kid?"

"Shut your Shebs. They might need some help! And we got our power back sooo..."

Jack scratched his head, wondering what the hell the kid was talking about. Then it dawned on him, power meant weapons and that meant blasters! The control hub parts that were severed were strictly engine only.

"Alright, finish her up! We're counting on you!"

"Just go I got this!"

Jack pulled himself up through the the hatch, giving a slight nod to the two and then cracking a wicked grin across his grease smeared features.

"Gentlemen, five more seconds, I got us the big guns back online!"

He was in the Cockpit then, moving quickly to flip the power switches and fire up the main generator. The power whirled to life and few more taps of the panel dropped their twin blaster cannons straight from the belly of the vessel. He took a seat, no plunged into a seat and flipped two more levers, transferring gunner controls to his yoke.

"On three, let em have it! Full circle destruction boys!"

"One....Two...Three!"

Jack slammed the triggers, peering through the data screen at his targets. He was a crap shot, but you didn't need to be accurate with an automatic laser cannon. You just needed to walk it in, big gun style.

WHOMPH WHOMPH

The beach began to explode as he turned this way and that, raking the aliens front-lines with masses of green beams. Sand and surf was tossed everywhere. Screams rang out, armor exploded or was melted on. Bodies were flying about in the maelstrom...

---10 Mins----

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

[member="Jack Raxis"] [member="Audren Sykes"]

Audren's mention that practice targets didn't shoot back made Kurayami chuckle. Granted most did not, but his point was more the fact that even though these beings had the tech, they were not the best shots ever. Not too bad as they had dropped his shields down to half again and the power cell was in no state to recharge them any more, however he had not moved from his position so they really only had to wait for him to pop out to take his own shots at them. They had still missed enough but he wasn't sure how many more rounds the weakened shields could absorb and he could only count on the duraplast plates to stop a few shots at most.

"Fair point, but couldn't you make them shoot each other if you wanted? Mind control type thing? Jedi use those in dire situations right?"

He had heard tales of, and seen a few Jedi use mind tricks. Usually he was too far absorbed in his own thoughts or simply thinking about things that were relatively boring to most for them to take much note and utilize the power on him. Not to say there hadn't been times where it had happened, but it had been awhile. This was what ran through his mind as he kept with his rhythm. He was finally starting to get a bit lower than he wanted to be on ammo, he'd had 660 rounds to start with, now he was down to about 200. It felt like an eternity of simple back and forth. It was a battle that seemed to have no end, where these things kept coming from he had no idea but he felt that given much more time the three of them may well commit genocide against the entire sentient population of this rock. Right now he didn't much care since if they didn't they were dinner. He just kept firing and after exhausting one clip, reloading to start again.

His nearly zen state that he had worked himself into was broken by the sound of Audren firing a grenade. He knew the distinct sound of grenade launchers well, unsurprisingly he loved the weapon. Especially with HEI or HEIAP rounds. Those were always fun, because you got the best of both world, explosion and fire. Even though the explosion usually had its own fireball anyways...oh right focus on killing the angry cannibal alien people. Things. Whatever.

"Oh so our little shooting match has finally taught them basic geometry? I'm impressed. I never though a firefight would lead to the advancement of anyone involved, unless they were searching for a quick way to make a new home six feet under. If you mean that they figured out cover, yea, they have used rocks and trees now for a bit...or whatever is left of those things now..."

Kurayami let his words trail off as jack popped up through the hatch with a gleeful announcement that the 'big guns were back online.' Well that was a good thing indeed. More cover fire meant more dead cannibals. Which meant less chance of getting eaten. Then there was a countdown, that could be a good or bad thing in the end. Once Jack hit three Kurayami was more than happy to simply open up on full auto. Sure the DC-17m was not known for having the best accuracy when using full auto, but holy hell did it send plasma down range fast. Right now that was just as helpful. Seconds before he ducked back in to reload he saw the beach explode in a shower of green plasma and sand. Molten glass as well since the heat from the bolts was more than enough to cause such a reaction. Better even though was the amount of once living angry natives flying through the air...or at least what was left of them. He didn't have much longer on full auto, maybe a minute or two tops, but after that he still had 25 or so sniper rounds. He could make those shots last a bit longer by picking off targets off opportunity, plus the sniper was only semi-auto, so that would help as well.

 

[Audren Sykes]

'Mind control type thing'...that brought up a point. Even if he could do it, the question remained as to whether it should be done. There had been incidents in the past where he'd used mind influence and other times when he'd tried and failed with dangerous consequences. All instances had been in close proximity and had been fairly simple, where as convincing one his friend was his enemy from across a battlefield was far more complicated. Direct control would be simpler in theory, but distance was still a theoretical factor let alone the philosophical ones.

He decided to try anyways.

Letting off the trigger for a bit, the Sephi's eyes unfocused as his mind cast out tendrils across the battlefield. What had been a loose awareness of the arena now became poignant. The pain of injuries, the desperation of the dying, the anger of those yet to charge. Emotions and sensations pounded at his conscious mind incessantly. His instincts tried to make him pull back, but with the stubbornness that made him such a fighter he continued the attempt. It resulted in an actual physical flinch though, something not even the molten metal flying had accomplished. Finally he found a mind across the field, one tinged with an air of expectancy as well as trepidation. At this distance though, the Jedi couldn't even determine individual thoughts, let alone slip a suggestion in. So much for the easy way.

With a blink, Audren's mind returned to his body. And got another surprise. Apparently their opponents had taken advantage of his lull to enter the vessel's hatch. One was in the process of lining his rifle up on the blond's head for a decisive kill, another two were heading towards the corridor to the rest of the ship. That didn't leave a whole lot of time to react...which also happened to be when he worked best. A quick jerk of his hands had the rifle he'd held jumping to spoil the aim of his potential murderer. They didn't stay that way though, both darted to his waist. The left grabbed his sidearm and snapped up instantly, snapping off two shots at the other intruders. The right hand snagged a leather-wrapped hilt and swung up. Triggered by the brief grip, the ultrasonic generator in the hilt activated and remained lit as the blade tumbled through the air. It only traveled a short distance, ending up buried in the neck of his first assailant.

Unfortunately, both of the gunned targets were turned back to face him now. One's arm hung limply by his side and the other's leg wasn't working so well. It seemed the Knight had left his weapon on the somewhat unique stun setting. They didn't so much like him any more, and they used blaster bolts to indicate that fact. Fortunately, the first few bolts found his cover. During those crucial seconds, the Force brought a second hilt to hand. This one was cool to the touch, metal all around...and just a hilt. Until his finger found the ignition button of course, then it contained a blade of blazing red energy. That blade intersected the follow up shots, sending them hurtling back at the soldiers that had sent them.

A flick of the Sephi's thumb switched his pistol to the kill setting, and that was used to take down the two others trying to get through the hatch. Right around then, the big guns started shooting, much to his surprise. The anger from outside the ship swiftly morphed into fear as the natives suddenly found themselves eating energy bolts much heavier than what they'd been fed before. That gave him a moment to get his rifle back, only to find it bent out of shape and unusable. He could get at the grenade though and snagged it before tossing the useless blaster away. Only so much he could do now, with the natives running for cover.

[member="Jack Raxis"] | [member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Kurayami Bloodborn"] [member="Audren Sykes"]

Madness was one way to describe it. Jack was all ears as the fire raked the ship, and the enemy fell back under the onslaught of the cannons. He was half way to a glorious victory, now he just needed to lay the pressure down. Retreating enemy was a good sign, but it was so easy to regroup, and move towards the enemy.

"We gotta keep the pressure, give Dak some time. Let em have it boys!"

Jack whirled the cannon around, shifting his field of fire to far left as stealth armor made the enemy disappear. Jack was half perplexed and the other half of him was straight up excited. They were hiding, hiding from his team.

One hand keyed the comms talking to Dak below the decks.

"Dak whats the situation?"

"Five minutes Cap'n almost done!"

"Hell's yea, keep it up kid!"

The cannons blared once more, this time raking the beach in a wide arc, far from the ship. Single plasma bolts still streaked their way but for the most part they were almost home free. They just needed the final controls linked so he could close the ramp and burn up out of here.

--Five minutes--

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

[member="Jack Raxis"] [member="Audren Sykes"]

Kurayami had managed to make the last few clips last a bit longer than he had first thought was possible. Granted the overheating barrel had helped slow him down for a bit while he waited for it to cool so he could continue to kill things without burning his hands or warping the barrel. He did find himself having exhausted the supply of ammo in the past minute or so. He couldn't switch until the thing cooled down quite a bit more so he pulled out one of the T-6's on his hip and flipped down the foregrip near the end of the barrel. While not his favorite way to use the weapon he only had 25 shots per clip as opposed to the 60 granted by his slightly too warm DC-17m, so these had to count. It was true that the destructive power was about equal, but range was a bit lower at only 50 meters per shot. This is why he relegated it to backup duty only.

At this point though it wasn't as critical of a concern, what with Jack going insane in the turret and blasting the hell out of the beach. There was no way that the aliens would forget this anytime soon as it seemed that half of the beach was glassed by now.For those who managed to survive, they would at least have some free meals for a bit. Kurayami took his time to pick off any aliens that managed to get near enough the ship without taking major injuries, or barring that still tried to advance with missing limbs. It was more than a bit unfair, but for the moment the Corellian didn't care and actually preferred having the odds stacked in his favor for once. Not that he really tended to pay much attention to odds anyways, especially given his penchant for using fire and explosives to help even them out.

What he had not been doing however, was paying attention to following a pattern like he had done before. That pattern had helped him keep from sustaining anything too far beyond a few grazing hits, being knocked on his back once, and probably a few other minor dings and dents. Once he exhausted the second clip on his T-6, he took the time to close the hatch and do a quick check on the status of his armor. Other than multiple pockmarks from blaster hits taken it was still in something resembling decent enough shape. Thankfully he was able to take a few seconds to swap the attachments on his rifle, locking the sniper rifle attachment into place, he slapped in a clip of 25 rounds, and gave the weapon a chance to charge before opening the hatch again. This time though he took a kneeling position and rested the front of the rifle on the bottom portion of the hatch to help steady his aim. Anything up to 400 meters was now fair game. A smirk played over his lips as he found a target about 250 meters out, one that thought himself safe from the carnage. He took a few slow breaths to help focus himself, once that was accomplished well enough he slowly pulled the trigger back, sending a bluish-white bolt down range and dropping the alien with a well placed shot to the neck. This scared a friend of the now deceased alien into running out of cover and right into a green bolt head on from Jack's sweeping area fire.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Audren Sykes"] [member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]

ESCAPE!!!!

As Jack lit the beach up he heard Dak from the rear of the craft through the madness and chaos. Lights blinked green on the panel, and the engines rumbled to life, resuming their normal functions. The ship was alive!

"Hey we did it! Hold on!"

Jack glanced backwards checking to see the main ramp was clear before he slammed the hatch closed button. Hydraulics hissed and whirred as the hatch began to close, ramp retracting. Jack flipped two more switches killing the guns and firing full power into shields. Now the plasma bolts arced against the blue cascade of sparks and ceased to exist.

The hull read badly damaged, but he was sure she'd hold together. The Pride had never failed him and now was not a time to do either.

"Dak!"

"Coming!"

"You out of the hole kid?" Jack roared, pulling rear on the yoke and slowly lifting them off from the surf and body ridden beach.

"Yeah hit it get us out of here!"

"Thought you'd never ask, brace yourselves!"

Engines roared above all else, mighty vibrations shaking the craft as fuel combusted in the drives creating a static noise so loud it whitewashed everything else. Flames engulfed the Pride as she raced away, flying far and high in a straight up ascent to atmosphere. If they weren’t braced they'd be flying around now, along with all the crap in the cargo hold.

"Breaking atmosphere, we're home free guys!"

Dak slid into the seat next to him.

"Take over kid, I'm marking this location."

And mark it he did, making a small spot on his starcharts with a quick description as they burned away....

 

[Audren Sykes]

For the most part, Audren simply watched. He kept his lit lightsaber in hand and used it to block the few blaster bolts that came his way. Few were actually accurate enough to come close to hitting him, which was no surprise given the distance they were shooting from. Additionally, their shooting had a tendency to attract the attention of Jack and his big guns. Were the Sephi in the position of the attackers, he'd either be clearing out or laying low when faced with that kind of firepower. Or maybe not, there might be ways around it. Another subject for another time though. There was no way his handgun would be very effective at this range, though he was able to drop one of the attackers who tried to sneakily approach from the water.

In less time than he'd thought possible, the vessel's engines rumbled back to life. Jack's voice echoed through the ship, telling them to hang on. The Sephi ignored the advice, opting instead to read intentions through the Force and keep his balance that way. He didn't stay at the hatch though, he extinguished his lightsaber and moved to the bodies of the attackers that had nearly gotten the drop on him. One by one - they were heavy - he dragged them to the hatch and dumped them out. He finished just in time, as the shields came to life outside and the hatch itself irised shut. Controlled by the cockpit no doubt.

Rumbling engines slowly lifted them from the sandy beach, and another warning to brace gave the Knight enough time to grab onto handholds near the entrance to the hold. Quiet rumbles became an overbearing roar as the engines burned their way towards the upper atmosphere and space beyond. Given the speed of liftoff, beach sand had probably turned into molten glass behind them and bodies possibly burned. The attack hadn't been necessary and they could have stopped at any time, but by continuing the natives had forced the hands of the unwilling visitors. Very dangerous visitors they'd turned out to be.

As atmosphere turned to the void of space and the more extreme forces of the burn faded, Audren made his way back to the common area. The bottle of whiskey was right where he'd left it, though it took some examination to find the glasses. They were much worse for the wear, chips and cracks present in all three. They would hold liquid however. The Jedi unbuckled the bottle and poured some in each glass before collapsing in one of the remaining seats to contemplate it. All told, it could have been worse.

Now maybe they could get to their destination without further incident.



[member="Jack Raxis"] | [member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]