Private The Train Job

[Belok Karr]

She was away, skipping down the train and jumping between carriages. He might have advised holding back for now, but it was too late. From the way she had deflected the bolt, he decided that she must have had some control of the mystic arts. No one could react that quickly.

His heavy conclusion rifle was well suited for shooting at people with light swords. Instead he had speeder bikes to deal with. Two of them pulled up close enough for their passengers to leap onto the side of the train. Belok ignored them.

He aimed for another group of bikes. Belok waited until they matched speed with the train, making it much easier to aim without much leading.

He squeezed the trigger. The blue-white concussion blast struck the ground ahead of the group. There was a flash and sand was thrown in all directions by the blast. It was a bad shot, but the impact clearly knocked one of the bikers clean out, because they drove right into the side of the train.

 

[Amani Serys]

Some were already taking their chance to board. Though a few were thrown off by mercy, others managed to slip past. Two began climbing up on either side of Amani. The first she simply kicked square in the face, tossing him aside before he could even start pulling himself over. The other now stood opposite her, but he too was quickly thwarted when she pointed her lightsaber at him. Amani moved forward, warding him off with the powerful blade and forcing him back towards the ledge, where he fell back off as quickly as he had got up.

More and more raiders had the same idea, with some reaching the top, and as Amani spotted, climbing between the cars to get inside the train proper. "Some of 'em might have snuck in!" She reported quickly, for whatever amount of it was audible to Belok, "I'm gonna check it out!"

Amani went to the end of her current rail car, then slipped into the gangway that connected it to the next, where she entered the interior and began investigating for signs of intrusion.

Belok Karr​

 

[Belok Karr]

Belok hadn't known what to expect, but the mirialan was definitely getting stuck into the skirmish. The train was accelerating on through the wasteland and they were leaving a trail of bruised bandits in their wake.

"I'll stay up top!" he called.

The skiff was swinging in closer. Belok loaded a smart grenade into his rifle and confirmed the distance by laser rangefinder. The grenade was programmed to detonate at that precise distance.

Leading ahead he fired. The grade detonated in the air before the skiff. It didn't do much significant damage to the sharp nose of the skiff, but it dissuaded them from coming closer.

"Not getting laid enough for this," he grumbled as he carefully got to his feet. She had made this look easy. There were more bikes gathering around the rear of the train and he needed to get back there.

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani swept the first carriage she entered, only to find nothing. Just as she prepared to move on through the next door, one of the bandits burst through and pulled her out into the gangway.

The bandit, a large Nikto man, had the advantage with his strength and the initial surprise of his attack, slamming her against the railing with intent to throw her overboard.

Right as he nearly had her, Amani used his weight against him and threw the Nikto off with her, clasping onto the railing while her opponent toppled over. After a moment to catch her breath, Amani heaved herself back onto the gangway, then all the way up to the top of the train again, "Not getting what enough for this?" She raised a brow at what she thought she heard, but quickly moved on, "Any sign of a leader? Something like that?"

Belok Karr​

 

[Belok Karr]

"Paid! Did I say paid? Neve mind," said the phone-posting mandalorian.

He continued to make his way carefully towards the back of the train, clearly not as balanced as the jedi on the moving platform. He had to lean his back into the wind to avoid it throwing him forwards.

"The skiff backed off," he said, pointing towards the landspeeder that kept well out of range. "They're still testing the defences."

"Plenty of gun hands meant that they aren't rushing into the raid. Too many of those mercenaries being rank amateurs means they're not backing off."

He reached another one of the hatches. There was someone down on the floor below clutching a smoking blaster wound.

"Feth, you alright down there?" Belok called.

Amani Serys

 

[Amani Serys]

She followed his line of sight towards the skiff, still full of rowdy pirates but now out of range, “Think the ringleader’s on there?” Amani suggested, before the sound of more encroaching engines took her focus. A collection of heavy-duty swoop bikes launched over the banks of sand, joining the rest of the speeders in their pursuit, “...Or there?” Clearly somebody was tired of the holdup.

Once more her attention was pulled away when Belok opened another hatch. Inside, an injured man, promping Amani to take action, “I can handle this, I’m a medic,” She rolled up her sleeves and hopped down beside the casualty. “Okay, okay, let’s see what we’re dealing with…”

Belok Karr​

 

[Belok Karr]

"Well you're more useful than most of this lot," Belok replied. He felt a pang of guilt for showing his disdain for the other mercenaries whilst one of them was lying injured, but it didn't last long.

The gran mercenary was curled around a wound in their side, at the base of their ribs. The blaster bolt had seared clean through from one side to the other.

Belok risked tumbling from the train and broke into a run. He crossed the next carriage and took up a firing position just a few sections from the tail of the train.

His range finder folded down from his helmet and picked out the swoops. In the open wastelands he had no way to gauge distance by eye.

He started firing and forced them to spread out. There seemed to be little resistance left on the train after the first wave of the attack.

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani crouched down beside the Gran, who still seemed to be in a bout of shock from the hit. She opened her mouth to speak but froze when he looked back at her; Three eyes blinked asynchronously, waiting to see how she reacted before forming his own response to the injury.

“...Nothing I can’t handle,” Amani assured, changing her initial tune for the mercenary’s peace of mind. She reached back to search for her medical supplies, before the realization struck that she had the powers of the Force by her side once more. For so long she had become accustomed to more old-fashioned methods, that the possibility of Force healing hadn’t crossed her mind.

“Just hold still,” Amani reached down, placing one hand over each end of the wound, and in short time the surrounding flesh was repaired as good as new. She smiled in approval at her own work, before turning back to the merc, “You’ll still need to get some of the internal damage checked out by uh, an actual doctor, but we don’t have time for that. Just rest easy and you’ll walk out of here in one piece, yeah?” He seemed all too happy to follow her advice, and with a parting nod Amani turned her attention back to the outside.

“How are we looking?!” She called to Belok, making her way back to the train top behind him.

Belok Karr​

 

[Belok Karr]

"Not good," he grunted.

That frank assessment was compounded by the sight of one of the swoops dropping a raider off at the tail of the train. Belok fired straight down the length of the train.

The first shot missed and they had dropped between two carriages when the second lanced overhead.

"Damnit," Belok muttered. The assault was larger and more coordinated than he had been informed. His fault for not doing his research properly. Only a smattering of blaster fire came out from the train now.

"We're exposed here, easy targets," he said. The swoops changed then. One concerted run to lash the roof of the train with repeating blaster fire and they'd be done.

"Let's go down, through the train and clear it," he said, crawling for the nearest hatch.

 

[Amani Serys]

"Right," Amani confirmed. One look at the flock of speeders and swoops flanking the train was enough motivation to get out of sight. She tailed Belok down the hatch and into the carriage. This one, at least, seemed empty.

"Just gotta catch my breath…" Amani rested against the wall, leaning on her knees as she took the slight lull to recover from the burst of exertion.

"We take it one car at a time, clear out anybody not supposed to be there. Should be easy enough. Then we…-" Her senses flared, and the view out the far window confirmed, "Get down!" Amani dropped to the floor as blaster fire broke into their train car from either side. Bikers on either side fired indiscriminately, hoping to tag the two they had seen drop in.

Belok Karr​

 

[Belok Karr]

During their runs, Belok thought the bikers might have lost sight of the two of them. He had thought they would have focussed on decoupling the cargo module's from the rear of the train.

He dove down, but not straight. She could complain about his bulk later, but he threw himself over the mirialan. Blaster bolts striking besker had a distinctive noise.

Belok felt the warmth through his armour. Even with the padding, the mandalorian iron was still hot against him from several strikes.

"Sorry," he apologised, rolling away as the bikes passed.

 

[Amani Serys]

"Ack~!" She felt the unexpected heft of beskar plate on top of her. All the while blaster bolts wailed and ricocheted overhead, the unobservable closeness of such shots largely left to her imagination.

Eventually the attack run died down, and the pirates moved on to continue whatever the next stage of their plan was. "A quick warning next time might not be so bad," She laughed it off, then stood back up once there was no sign of them through the windows.

"Alright, let's not waste any more time," Amani redrew her lightsaber and moved towards the door leading into the next carriage, "On you? I'm not the one who's blaster-proof."

Belok Karr​

 

[Belok Karr]

Belok threw his concussion rifle over his shoulder and tightened the strap. The confines were ill-suited to such a hefty weapon. He drew his hand blaster and leaned against the door.

He hadn't flattened the mirialan, which was good. They weren't dead yet, which given the state of the train's defences was doing well.

"On me," he agreed, shoving the door open.

The next carriage was personal luggage. Racks down either side of the train filled with cases and bags. Belok took it for empty and started moving down quickly.

Something snagged on his subconscious and he stopped suddenly. Belok turned sharply between two racks and brought his blaster up.

He found himself pointing at at a rodian hiding under a self-made pile of cases that had been pulled down from the storage.

"For feth's sake. You're supposed to be manning this section," Belok growled. The rodian stayed quite still.

"Leave him," he said to Amani. "He's no use to us."

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani jumped in after Belok, only to relax at the apparent lack of opposition. “Welp… One down. Any idea how many more are ahead?”

Then in a moment, her calm was interrupted as the Mandalorian reacted to another presence, immediately putting Amani into defensive mode. Yet again, she deflated as the threat was no more than a hidden mercenary.

She exhaled, slightly irritated by the rollercoaster of needless intensity, then recomposed for the next carriage, “...Just stay here, stay safe.” Amani nodded to the rodian, who seemed already well into that plan of inaction.

“Why hire all these guys? A lot of them aren’t prepared for this kind of thing,” She asked with an air of pity for the inexperienced cadre. At this rate a select few higher priced mercs would’ve been more effective, and put less young guns in harm’s way.

Belok Karr​

 

[Belok Karr]

"Training is expensive and talk is cheap. Experience takes time and a blaster takes two minutes to buy. Way out here you take what you can get. Maybe only one in twenty trains gets attacked."

Belok turned to look down at the rodian.

"Good way to steal a wage until you kark yourself mid battle, hah! New trousers and a new career?"

The rodian did not reply to the mandalorian that offered far less pity. He had no time for those who would take money for mercenary work without having any gun craft.

Belok glanced through the window into the next carriage. He couldn't see anyone inside, but saw figures moving in the next one. The sounds of swoop bikes had died down.

"Might be trouble ahead."

 

[Amani Serys]

“Mm.” Amani nodded, catching sight of the silhouettes on the other side. “Let’s not keep them waiting then.”

On go, she burst through the door, revealing a collection of raiders already scouring for loot, likely to pocket a few unnoticed goods for themselves. The first one was dealt with quickly; Amani swiped the barrel of his barely raised blaster with her saber, disabling the weapon as she took him down with a sweep. The next, Amani pulled towards her with the Force, then struck with a heavy kick that clotheslined him into submission.

A few of the others, towards the end of the train, were now able to react, and began firing towards the Jedi. Amani tucked and rolled, taking cover behind a large coffer for what little amount of defense the tight corridor offered.

Belok Karr​

 

[Belok Karr]

Belok walked into the space she carved. He knew he could draw their attention back from Amani and was better equipped to deal with a hail of blaster fire in the tight corridor.

A single swing of his left arm sent a raider crashing hard into the wall on their left. The man groaned and slumped to the floor. The fight light him as readily as the air left his lungs after being slammed by the huge mandalorian.

A blaster bolt pinged off the side of Belok's helmet. It was followed by two to the chest. Two quick shots from his own blaster put down the gunman in the door to the next section of the train.

"After them! They'll be trying to decouple the rear of the train not far ahead."

 

[Amani Serys]

"Oh, great," Amani leapt from cover at the all clear, rushing through the door to pursue with the other raiders. With natural agility she weaved through the carriage, quickly catching up and tackling one of the runaways. They both toppled to the floor, where a scuffle ensued.

Amid the chaos, Amani drew her slugthrower and shot the other one in the leg, slowing him down but not keeping him from his goal to decouple the train cars.

"Hey! Slowed him down for you! I got this one!" She called back to Belok, hoping he could wrap up their little problem. Her focus then returned to the burly raider she was currently forced to wrestle.

Belok Karr​

 

[Belok Karr]

"Didn't think your kind used guns," he muttered as he walked past Amani.

He was going to have to run now. He was a big man who had been climbing and fighting in heavy armour for some time now. He didn't want to have to break into a run.

A soft grumbling could be heard as he chased after the other bandit. The doors opened ahead of them. They had already set charges to split the trains, but the man didn't want to set them off whilst he was on the side with a jedi and an ogre of a mandalorian.

He slipped.

Belok grabbed him by the back of his shirt, lifted him from the ground and then slammed him back down into it.

"I'll deal with these charges!" he called back, checking to see if she was holding up.

 

[Amani Serys]

"Didn't use to," She managed to comment before reengaging the other bandit. They proved much more useful than Jedi training had led her to believe, especially when someone was expecting a lightsaber instead.

Her opponent pulled a vibroknife, plunging it downwards and just barely missing Amani's face as she knocked the attack to the side. The energized blade ripped into the floor with a harsh grating sound, where it lodged into place. She grabbed the bandit's head, smacking it into the butt of the knife. As he recoiled from his newly-busted nose, Amani struck once more with a kick, whipping his head back into the wall and knocking him unconscious.

Belok had taken care of the other bandit, and she linked back up to see the array of explosives laid out in front of them, "Damn." More sounds from the end of the train caught her attention. Two additional bandits arrived, pulling out blasters. "I'll give you some cover!" Amani projected a Force barrier over them, deflecting the hail in incoming bolts.

Belok Karr​