Mission The Dagger Unsheathed || COV Reconnaissance of TSC Held Humbarine

[Darion of Myrkr]

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS​

He had learned too late that the man against him was a Sith. The roof beneath him cracked and shook and split apart as though the earth moved under it, and pieces of concrete and durasteel rose and came at him through the air. Darion of Myrkr went to defense at once. He swung the rifle behind him and brought up the dinuul shield from his vambrace and held himself firm while the stones and steel struck against it. The shield glimmered blue and buzzed under the weight of the blows and he could feel the force of them through his arms and shoulders but he held his place and would not give up on this vantage point in the air.

Then the attack changed. The slabs came no longer straight and true but in broken rhythms and from all sides and at odd heights and speeds, and there was no reading them. Small pieces struck first and then larger ones and he heard them hammer against the beskar'gam and felt the dull pain beneath the armor where flesh bruised and tightened.

The Sith drove the wreckage at him harder and harder and Darion knew he could not remain there. He fired the jetpack and went backward through the smoke and dust and landed badly upon the next roof and rolled hard across the gravel and steel. He hurried behind the lee of a stair bulkhead and leaned there against the wall breathing fast and feeling the stiffness creep into his body.

He shut off the shield. Then he drew the Mandalorian ripper from its holster and held it close beside his face. He would stay here now and wait, hoping the Sith gave pursuit straight into his ambush.

Varin Mortifer

 

[Siv Dragr]

G U N S L I N G E R
Humbarine
​

Allies: Mandalorians
Enemies: Arris Windrun | Sith

Siv had to move to an adjacent building to find a suitable hatch that he could climb into. Standardized Imperial tech and design plans made it easy to access the complex and its ports. A simple scan-ident security lock protected the hatch, which was quickly sliced with his anti-security blade. The hatch opened, and Siv put one leg inside, ready to drop down.

Suddenly a warning light flashed across his HUD. The probe network was detecting an outage. Siv cursed, pausing in the open hatchway, quickly pulling up the list of probes he'd launched. His eyes scanned across the ID codes... it was the probe he had last placed? How had it gone down so quicky? Maybe it was a mechanical error, but he'd have to fix it before moving onward. The network was redundant but to get a full map of the facility all probes would have to be activated or else it ran the risk of developing a critical error. Siv was not a sloppy saboteur.

He lifted his foot back out of the hatch, closing it but not sealing it. He was just a rooftop away. He scrambled low to make the jump when he stopped in his tracks. Below him, where he'd dropped the probe only minutes before, was the mercenary and officer that he'd seen depart from the shuttle. She was holding the probe. How the hell had she gotten that? Siv's hand drifted towards his blaster before he remembered that he wasn't made. Yet. Or these two were a loose end. Dropping them would be safer.

Siv acquired his targets quickly and braced his knee. Two Fex-M3 rocket darts launched from his kneepad, their hiss faint against the ambient background of the complex. With any luck in a couple seconds they would find their targets and Siv could reactivate the probe, the Empire none the wiser.

 

[Signy Bralor]

SIGNY BRALOR
HUMBARINE | DEEP COVER
TAG: Nodak
GEAR: Huginn and Muninn, ballistic-weave under civilian clothes, jetpack
VISIBLY PRESENTING: Female

Signy was quite unexpected for the sheer violence that Nodak was displaying, wasnt the point of being sith to be worshipped, or at the very least, feared. How could you get either of those things without anyone alive to feel them?

Her own HUD tracked her detonator bouncing off of the repulsor field and reversing trajectory. Her momentum meant she was no longer in the place she threw it from so it exploded behind her harmlessly.

Harmlessly, that was the wrong choice of words. Another apartment exploded as the detonator smashed through the window and burst open with a bang. She wished she had her suit, she had heavier ordnance there. She needed to leave. Her ship wasnt far from here, she would summon it to come and collect her but she just had to survive.

The shells from his rotary cannon followed her with tracers lighting up and setting fire to anything that the heavy caliber shells didnt smash to pieces.

He was slower than her so she had to try something. She engaged maximum power of her jet pack just as her HUD told her one of her jet pack mounted missles had locked on to his signature. She blasted at high speed over her head and as soon as she found himself in his rear arc she unleashed the missile. Her stomach screamed with white pain as she did so but she was too committed to react fully.

It sailed forward for a few meters before finding its tracking and doing a 180° turn back towards Nodak, maybe he was less armoured from behind? At the very least she might disable the power unit for that cannon or it might even pose a serious risk to her ship and therefore her escape.

She slowed a little so she could turn and see if her round hit. It was in that moment she was able to consider the pain she was in. He had winged her, it seemed strange to be thankful but thankfully it was a tracer round she had been struck by and whilst the would in flank was nasty, the phosphorus had cauterised it and it didnt have the killing power or one of his active rounds. She padded the burned edges of her clothes and planned to make good her escape.
​

 

[Nodak]

Tag: Signy Bralor

Equipment: Nevermourne | Blackstar Armor | Lightsaber​

---

Sith came in all varieties. Worship was less a priority for Nodak than fear and every common citizen of Humbarine who didn't already fear him would have hearing rumors of the destruction wrought here today. They would fear and dread him and then they would whisper silent prayers hoping he wouldn't revist such destruction on them, that was a type of worship too.

Nodak's head rose as Signy sailed over him, propelled by her jetpack. He turned to track her when the missile launched. Warnings in his HUD screamed prior to its impact.

Nodak actually turned to face the missile, heeding the warnings of his hud. Perhaps he thought to repel it similar to the detonator. The Missile detonated regardless.

The Explosion would rip the Monster off his feet and send him sailing while kinetic force transferred through the breastplate of his armor. He'd land on his back several meters away, his armor solid but the flesh beneath riddled with broken blood vessels and bruised muscle. It had been the explosion more than the impact that had effected him.

His HUD flickered, static crackled across the screen. The Rotary Cannon sparked, it had been damaged in the explosion.

He sat up, a metallic growl ripping from the comms of his helm. Targeting designators locked onto Signy Bralor via the heat signature of her jetpack. Nodak's right arm extended, hand out and palm wide and then he closed it.

Telekinetic force reached out in tandem with the gesture. It didn't touch Signy, she wouldn't feel its embrace though she would doubtless register the impact it could have. It came as a crushing force capable of crumpling a blast door and reducing it to scrap the same as a child might ball up a piece of paper. Everything, all of its pressure had been focused on her jetpack like it was a toy being squeezed in the hold of a titan. Whether that might cause it to explode or simply render it incapable of flight was inconsequential to Nodak.

Rising slowly he climbed back to his feet. As he stood he'd have checked the rotary cannon which was inoperable at the moment, sparks still crackling from it. He'd begin lumbering forward, his right hand withdrawing to Nevermourne the enormous mace clipped to his side.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber

Varin pinned the Mandalorian with his gaze as he boosted towards the roof of the next building, he wasted no time. The force surged through his body like that of an eruption, his legs flexed before his body launched in a powerful leap into the guts of the same building his foe had boosted to.

Screams of other people in the building could be heard as Varin walked by them drawing his mace. His senses felt throughout the building searching for that same signature he sensed from the Mandalorian with his Eye.

He felt his presence, waiting for him. He could hear his breathing, feel the stiffness of pain within his body. Without warning or hesitation Varin walked to door to the stairs leading up to the man. But he did not open the door.

Superheated black smoke billowed from his back and tendrils slithered beneath the crack of the door quickly slithering up the stairs towards the warrior.

The heat of the smoke leaving a residual glow on the metal staircase that came in contact with the cloud. Dripping of the metal could be seen as they carved their way through, the scent of heated metal filling the air.

The smoke thickened the area in front of the door as it traveled, then Varin opened it, stepping in. The Black Blade and his mace in hand.

Darion of Myrkr​

 

[Signy Bralor]

SIGNY BRALOR
HUMBARINE | DEEP COVER
TAG: Nodak
GEAR: Huginn and Muninn, ballistic-weave under civilian clothes, jetpack
VISIBLY PRESENTING: Female

A hit, that was something at least and she staggered the beast, apparently also damaging his canon. She slowed her movement just above a low slung building, she wasnt aware what was inside.

He began advancing on her, pulling out a maul whose head looked as big as her torso. She was about to make some distance between the two when she felt something grab her jump pack. Red alerts appeared all over her HUD as the pressure and temperature of the fuel tanks climbed dangerously. She fumbled for the the clasp on her pack and began to undo it. She was still a few metres above the ground so this might hurt, but certainly less than the detonation of her jetpack and its remaining missile. It unclipped and she felt herself drop. She twisted her body to grab the strap and sling the pack in the direction of Nodak . It was a hail mary throw relying on centrifugal force so it might not hit anything, but blast of it going off would probably have him digging himself out of a crater while she escaped. She didnt see the explosion as she fell through the flat roof of the building but she heard the blast and felt bits of ceiling shake loose when it went off.

She picked herself up, she was concerned her arm was broken from the fall but now unarmoured, armed only with her pistols and with no jump pack she had to escape. She kicked the back door of the room and back out into the sunlight. Thankfully she could hear the whining noise of a mandalorian starfighter engine. Her droid copilot flew low just above the roof line with a grapple line hanging from its belly. She grabbed it as it went past and was yanked off of her feet and into the air. Nodak would see the dust cloud from the starfighter approaching and then see his target being pulled up into the air below it as it headed higher.

Normally she would let the starfighter pull her straight into orbit in this situation, she just hoped her droid remembered she wasnt in her armour.
​

 

[Darion of Myrkr]

Darion of Myrkr steadied his breathing when he saw the man come down onto the roof. He lay behind the stair bulkhead, in its lee, and he watched through the visor of his helmet. In the thermals the Sith was only a white shape of heat against the dark, dark drops of rain pattering the fiery white frame.

The Sith came on without haste. He walked straight toward the bulkhead, straight toward where Darion waited, and there was no caution in him and no need for it. Darion took a thermal detonator from his belt with one hand and held the ripper low in the other and he felt the tightness come into his fingers as he waited. In his head he saw it already done. The Sith would pass the corner and he would throw the detonator and fire and the whole thing would finish before the man understood he had been trapped.

Then the Sith stopped outside the door of the stairwell and the plan died there.

Darion saw white-hot tendrils come out from the Sith and move under the door like snakes seeking warmth. The Sith must have thought he was inside the bulkhead. Darion smiled at that. He watched the heat spread through the little structure and melt what was within and then the tendrils touched the far wall where he himself had been leaning only on the other side and he moved then because there was no more time left.

He drove himself backward and the jetpack coughed and caught and threw him across the roof and at the same instant he hurled the thermal detonator against the wall of the bulkhead. The detonator burst on impact and the shockwave split through the concrete walls as though they were thin ice and the force of it went through toward where the Sith stood beyond.

And Darion was already firing then.

He pulled the trigger of the Mandalorian ripper hard and fast and the energy-coated rounds tore across the roof where he judged the Sith would be in the smoke and flame and he kept firing as the jetpack carried him back toward the edge of the building and the shots beat out one after another under the showering rain.

Varin Mortifer

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber

The thermal detonator exploded with violent fury, a fury of flame and smoke. The destruction of the building responded not long after as rounds rained down towards him. Varin had acted quickly, activating his shield just before the detonator blew, absorbing the shrapnel that came his way.

But the energy coated round ate through his shield causing him to move quickly still obscured by the smoke. The rounds pelted the stone roof round after round, embedding themselves into the duracrete at his feet. Varin’s hands lifted, the smoked coalesced between his hands, his own heat empowering the flames gathered within the smoke cloud that he now orchestrated.

With a bellowing yell the cloud seemed to burst forth into a shape. Eyes of molten fire and jaws full of burning teeth. It seemed to roar with the fury of an eruption. The shape looked draconic in nature as it surged forth as a massive shape towards the mandalorian.

The sound violent enough to shatter glass panes from nearby buildings. The massive cloud flew towards the man, its maw open wide as if to swallow him whole.

Darion of Myrkr​

 

[Kaelyr]

⚜ Tag: Brent Warnel ⚜

⚜ As the area settled around the explosion, I casually walked the debris-filled street. The rats, if they were smart, were fleeing. However, some thought they could catch me unaware and strike from under the ruins of the buildings caught in the blast. To their dismay, they didnt take into account that no one could smell malicious intent like a sith. I could sense their murderous auras the moment they sprang into action. Two had jumped up from the debris to try to stab me in the back, but found themselves frozen in place. Looking over my shoulders, I shot them a gaze of malice, my glowing embers locking with theirs.

With a swift turn, I bisected them at the waist before letting their bodies hit the floor. I turned my attention to the tavern across from the information hub. I set forth a field of force to protect myself from anything that could be lying in wait as I surveyed the busted-up tavern. The collateral damage was necessary, and those living here would understand. They would rather this be the outcome than interlopers from off-world trounce around their planet.

I could see that the back entrance was open, and I immediately rushed through there. In a full sprint, I didnt even notice that there were explosives planted on the alley walls, and by the time I did come to realize this, I was already too far in to stop. The resulting explosion knocked me into a nearby building. The occupants were caught in the blast as well. The good thing, however, is that I had myself protected with the force barrier. Stepping out of the hole made by the explosives left by the rat, I looked around to see if I could still sense movement.

I could feel several force signatures around me, one closer than the others. That must be the rat that had scurried out of the tavern. Now the real fun could begin. Launching myself into the air, I used the force to propel myself to their location. Once I saw them, I began to channel force lightning throughout my very being till I was engulfed by it. Seeing the fleeing Mandalorian, I blasted the area in front of them in order to stop them in their tracks. Landing behind them, I held out my dominant hand, lightning crackling around it as I issued them one warning.

Surrender or die! ⚜

 

[Darion of Myrkr]

As soon as he had fallen back he switched from the thermals to his natural sight and what he saw made him narrow his eyes and feel the sweat run cold down his flanks. The smoke was coming together now and the fire with it, drawn by something he could not see, and it turned into a black cloud that rolled and twisted above the roof while red fire leapt and crackled through it like lightning in a storm. He saw his slugs vanish into that darkness and still he kept firing into it and firing again.

Then the bellow came.

It broke out from inside the cloud and carried with it a hard force that shattered the windows near the roof and cracked the concrete beneath his boots and shook the armor against his flesh and reached down into his core. The black cloud split apart then and from it the thing came forward in fire. It had the shape of a dragon and its body was made of flame and smoke together and it rushed at the Darion of Myrkr with its jaws spread wide as though it would swallow him whole and burn every trace of him from the galaxy.

The Mandalorian clicked his tongue again in the pattern for the jetpack and heard the pack cough behind him once more. But instinct moved quicker than thought and he remembered then the lesson his father had given him long ago, and he felt the heat of the beast against him now, so fierce it seemed to strip the flesh from the bone, and through that heat the old words came back clearer than ever before.

"Fight fire with fire, son."​

Darion of Myrkr shot his free hand forward like an automaton, possessed by a foreign script or protocol that guided his limbs and moves now, and his tongue clicked a different pattern and he heard the hissing start in his raised and pointed forearm and it felt like a lifetime before the hiss finally erupted into a loud whoosh as the vambrace's flamethrower's igniter flicked the spark and sent forth a blazing sphere of fire that clashed with force against the fiery dragon.

Far below them and across the city, the people looked up and saw the roof burning like the top of a furnace, a blazing inferno, and they watched the great fire and dragon struggle there together for dominion.

Varin Mortifer

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber

When his foe attacked, that was when he moved, weaving through the smoke and flame. Hidden within the shroud of chaos and destruction that battled with the flame of the Mandalorian.

Varin's armor burned a red hot around him, hissing when droplets fell upon the hot plates of the protective shell.

Varin's gauntleted arm reached through the flame, the heat bound to and inside his body only burned brighter than the flames outside of him.

He was the Living Pyre, and he would show that to his adversary.

The clawed armored glove reached for the arm that wielded flame against him, his helm slowly pulled itself through the flame.

His hand impacted his opponents bracer hard with a metal clang before his boot rose up to meet the Mandalorian's chest, driving hard and straight almost as if he were trying to crush stone beneath his wake.

There was something almost animalistic about his strike. What would look like a kick of desperation or of frenzied fury, was but a precise response of a patient predator drawing near to his prey.

Darion of Myrkr​

 

[Darion of Myrkr]

Darion of Myrkr was late to the blow that came through the fire. The armored gauntlet struck his hand aside and the flame went wide into the wind. Then the Sith kicked him in the chest and the force of it rang through the beskar and through his whole body and he staggered back across the roof.

Now he saw his adversary clearly.

He was a towering man in dark armor with a red T-visor burning like a flame. He towered above him like a black obelisk against the gray sky. Darion saw him only for a moment but he would remember it vividly as men remember things in combat, clear and lasting and outside of time. Such is the nature of the purest test of honor.

He went back from the kick and felt one foot step onto nothing at the edge of the rooftop. Then he thrust out his free arm and fired the Mandalorian ripper three times at point-blank range.

Varin Mortifer

***​

As the Mandalorian ripper roared across the rooftop, a coded signal flashed across Darion's HUD and across the helmets of every Mandalorian in the recon force on Humbarine. He saw it and his eyes widened and then he cursed and felt his jaw tighten with anger.

The coded message was not just a distress signal.

It was a signal for the Mandalorian fleets to invade, issued by someone from the recon force.

All the long weeks of recon work were thrown to the wind.

All the careful plans and the silent movement and the patience were gone to fire and smoke.

All they had done to prepare the world for conquest was broken in a single moment.

All of it thrown aside to save stranded brothers and sisters...

Signy Bralor Vara Rasha Gel Karn Siv Dragr Kamon Hourn Brent Warnel Reggie Rau