Private The Sight

[Red Mobius]

"Only visions, some of which didn't make sense until later. When I got revived in this era, there was a point I hid out in a Mandalorian Covert that got attacked by slavers. Was working a power conduit...then I saw a vision of cradling a dead member of the covert. Five minutes later, everything is getting shelled, and I see a member of the Covert take it in the neck. He's bleeding everywhere, and I'm trying to stop the bleeding. It isn't until he's dead a minute later that I realized he was the one I saw in my vision..." Red explained, giving an example.

"At least, it was only visions until just now. When that thing tried to kill me..." Red said, pointing to the dead Fragment she had killed breaking down.

"The Oversoul...grabbed my arm in a vision. And suddenly I was able to resist..." Red spoke, staring at the decaying mess.

"Our people fight against a sickness, you say...no offense Runi, but I haven't seen evidence of that. All I ever saw was clans squabbling, almost looking for an excuse to fight. I never heard any talk of fighting some sort of metaphysical sickness. To most Mandalorians there is only the certainty of their armor and weapons..." Red trailed, turning to Runi.

"However, when it comes to these...beasts...they are the first enemy I've ever considered as nothing less than a sentient disease..." Red asserted, noticing a recently set up work bench that had tools worked on it.

Red went over to it to inspect. What she found surprised her.

"House Io Tech..." Red spoke, lifting up a recently repaired Type 2 Energy Sword, flashing it on, a semi-translucent lavender blade popping out with a buzz like an electric razor.

"Laertia was apparently obsessed with creating a society that could tell the Jedi 'no'. Invented all sorts of things. Most of their weapons were devoted to this concept..." Red explained, relaying much of the info Kassandra Beskar'ad had told heras she stared at the blade before shutting it off and clipping it to her belt, going over and grabbing her fallen hammer.

"C'mon, let's keep going..." Red said, not sure if she wanted 'balance' as Runi described it.

"This armor you see me wearing? First one I ever made...it...makes the visions more intense. More frequent. I put it on because I think the Oversoul wanted me to..." Red said, using her hammer to bash down another door.

"I hid the visions from my clan. I was... afraid..." she admitted as she headed into the darkness, slipping back into her barbarian like outlook, stalking the passages looking for threats...

A squad of Black and Blue B1 Droids burst through one of the tunnel walls and opened fire on her with their Io-Series Laser Carbines.

Red pulled out her own pistol, dodging fire as she returned it, flinging her hammer and activating it's repulsor tech, the hammer traveling through an arc and smashing into one, though the remaining squad dodged in a disturbingly calculated and human like manner, letting Red know right off the bat that these were not ordinary B-1 units as the hammer returned to her hand.

One stretched out their arms and Red started to feel herself slowing. She fired frantically, as fast as she could pull the trigger, downing another two while two of the remaining three concentrated their fire on Runi Kuryida ...

 

[Runi Kuryida]

Runi' nodded, slowly, when Red Mobius called to question the sickness the Shaman had spoken of. A slight crease at the corners of the eyes and the lips accompanied that nod. Few ever recognized the fundamental flaw in creation. It was not their fault. One didn't truly hold an undeveloped species to account for their lack of knowledge of germs and disease, after all. How could someone fight what they couldn't see? It just pained the Shaman to know they could see -- they could learn -- if they only chose to.

"They are only a more recent symptom," she replied dispassionately to Red's comment of them being nothing but a sentient disease. "They and Blackwing." Two things that shared a great deal in common.

That Red secured the weapon of the enemy to her side did not raise any objection from Runi. A weapon was a weapon. If Red found it useful then that was the end of it. If anything, the Shaman checked whether the same was true of the other she'd dispatched. Perhaps the Empire could study it. Any weapon useful against the Jedi -- and by extension, the Sith -- was useful to the Mandalorian people.

Curious that Red listened to the Oversoul she'd see if it told her to wear something that made the visions more intense. Obviously, Red trusted it implicitly despite the troubles it brought. Brave of her to deal with what frightened her on her own.

When the B1s appeared, Runi regarded them with her hazel eyes. Red's strike was true, but others of their number scattered smartly. Not an average droid then. Good. Perhaps this would be an opportunity. And for that, she lifted her left arm and activated the energy shield to form a buckler to thwart the concentrated fire on her person. They would adapt, but she only needed a second. Or two. Curious. Runi could sense these droids were equally above average when it came to being afflicted by the Manda. A foul creation.

She pivoted and thrust her right hand out toward the trio. Rather than grapple with them directly, however, Runi snared the Laser Carbines they had in their hands. With a frown on her lips, she tore her hand back through the air to rip the weaponry out of their mechanical digits. Just as suddenly, her hand was thrust back toward the trio; the rifles immediately returned to begin rapidly pummeling the physical-weak droids at their joints and cranial units.

Two of them managed to snare the weapons out of the air despite taking a beating, but not soon enough. Runi had drawn both hands back to her center and drew in a deep breath. With both hands thrown forward, a lance of lightning struck their metal chassis dead center. They flew backward a foot a charred wreck.

"The Oversoul can provide many gifts, Daughter of Mobius."

 

[Red Mobius]

The Io Mercenary Droids soon fell, and Red approached, hammer raised and ready to bring down if they so much as twitched. None did. Runi Kuryida demonstrated her Wizard Lightning to the droids and Red could feel the whole area distort as she did, though she couldn't explain how.

Red picked up one of the laser carbines from the Droids she had taken out. It was intact, and had been fitted with an Undermount 20 mm Rocket Launcher, which she detached and added to her Banshee Carbine, along with the ammo belt for the rockets the Droid had carried, taking the rockets and transferring them to her own ammo belt. Two frag rockets, three plasma.

"Oh, I don't doubt it, Runi..." Red replied...

"But is it really a gift if you ain't got a choice at this point except to take it?" Red mused as she headed into the blasted open chamber the Io Droids had come out of.

It looked like some sort of command center. Ad hoc. There were flimsiplast maps of the city, red X's on certain locations. Red immediately recognized one of them as the area where people had been getting sick.

She also saw photos of her and Runi posted on a bulletin board, and underlining the photos of both were the words 'PRIMARY TARGET'.

"By the Manda...are these psychos actually willing to target a whole-ass city just to get us down here?" Red hissed in rage, realizing all of this was a trap.

"But what do they get from targeting y--" Red stopped...

"Kuryida..." Red said very slowly. "I think the Cult wants to...absorb you..."

A detonation from behind the way they had come made Red race out of the blasted open chamber.

The way they had come was completely collapsed in from rubble.

"They've cut off out escape..." Red hissed. "But it's one thing to get a Mandalorian in a trap...it's another to keep them in a trap."

Red looked around for anything she could use, spotted a box of 12 gauge Incendiary shot shells. She opened it and started loading every shell her ammo belt had space for.

"They're obviously using these old catacombs to move around...we will flush them out. Stop them from spreading this sickness any further..." Red said, looking at the map.

"Three contamination zones, all heavily populated and major traffic areas..." Red noted. "There's bound to be a lot more of these Droids..."

Red noticed an arch way leading to another section of the catacombs. She got out her carbine.

"I suggest grabbing one of those Carbines the droids were using...might come in handy before this is over..." Red trailed, bringing out her banshee carbine and taking point once more as she headed down the arch way...