Private Trouble on Taris

[Zephyr Krayt]

Since their mission on Felucia, Zephyr hadn't felt particularly compelled to work with Isabeau again as he found the encounter rather awkward. Nor did he want to spend too much time working with a single person lest they get too familiar with him and have them privy to his actual past. After finding out about his Mother's survival from Rhen Var, he had been keen to avoid encountering her by not becoming known to Imperials. No doubt she would be looking for him bu the risks were low as he knew where she was at the moment so she was easy to avoid. It was probable that she could narrow down what clan he was in based on the signets on those who attacked the Imperial base fourteen years prior which complicated the matter.

It didn't seem as though his current relationship with Isabeau was reason for concern though as he didn't expect her to be too fond of him. He did not dislike her but simply saw her as an equal ally who provided valuable support on a mission and her support had never been as valuable as it was now. The distress call from some Mandalorians stranded on Taris had prompted the pair to race to the planet to rally behind their allies. Further battle was there was still chance for a loss of life to be prevented.

Once they had landed, Zephyr practically leapt out of his seat, grabbed his jetpack and rifle before heading out of the hangar door, aware that every second was key to the survival of another Mandalorian. He landed out of sight of the skirmish, on the outside of the town border, but the sound of blaster fire was present when they stepped off the ship. He waited for Isabeau to join him but said nothing to her, only giving her a nod to allow her to confirm she was ready.

Upon confirmation, Zephyr launched into the air and over the wall to the town, using the element of surprise to allow himself a few free shots before he would become a target. Below the streets were littered with the lifeless carcasses of droids and Mandalorians alike but the air was alight with the luminous bolts of blasters. After taking out a handful of droids, a shot sailed past Zephyr so he dropped onto a roof to take cover for a moment before peering over the edge and taking aim at a droid below.

Isabeau

 

[Isabeau]

Helmet on, rifle at hand and the sound of battle raging on outside. This was what she had been longing for and it was finally here. A warzone with worthy foes gathered up in the same place. Sure, they were supposed to be droids, but at least it was a first step towards something more real. Looking over to Zephyr, Isabeau nodded "Ready" she said and watched as he took off. Taking a couple of steps forth, her own jetpack soon ignited, launching the young Mandalorian into the air, following him with a few meters apart.

They were at one of the few towns with significant walls and her brethren were trapped inside - stranded with nowhere to run except for the heavily fortified gated areas. Upon getting up above the walls, she refrained from following Zephyr down and kept going up instead. While he got into the thick of the fight from the start, she would try to gather some information first. Once high enough, she stopped and looked down, seeing her allies in a slow retreat into a large apartment building, ceding house after house to the advancing droids.

Turning off the jetpack, she immediately started falling down but clearly rather comfortable spending time in the air, Isabeau remained calm. Moments before hitting the roof on which Zephyr laid, she ignited her jetpack again - it would not enough to give her a soft landing, but it did remove any risk of her injuring herself from the fall. Crawling up to his position, she aimed her rifle at some of the droids below and started firing as soon as Zephyr had taken his first shot.

While the plan was to blow a hole in the wall with the demolition charges they had brought, the situation made Isabeau reconsider. "They're getting hammered hard. I think we should relieve them and use these later" she said, whilst pointing at the explosives. While she wanted to tease him, this was hardly the time as the droid units started to return fire and seemed to communicate information between themselves remarkably well, causing a hail of bolts to come towards them. Seeing no real choice in the matter, Isabeau slid down a bit to avoid the incoming fire. "A school building is between us and the residential building our Vod are at." While Isabeau thought the most safe and efficient route was to go through the building, she would stop there and allow Zephyr to make the call - he was the one bringing her along and had seniority.

Part of the roof were starting to crumble and metallic feet could be heard clanking against the pavement on the other side of their building. Sliding over to the side, she started firing at the droids who she suspected wanted to flank them, having a few close calls as she managed to dodge moments before a shot would have hit her. "We need to go!" she hollered, ready to follow his lead.

Zephyr Kumaara

 

[Zephyr Krayt]

Zephyr targeted the droids below with precision, taking out three before they gathered enough wits about them to fire back at him, at which point he ducked below the cover of the edge of the roof again. While behind the cover with Isabeau, he listened to her suggestion and nodded in agreement. "Ok, let's do that." He replied, peering over the edge of the roof again but only to be met with blaster fire before he could get an aim so he quickly took cover again.

Upon Isabeau's warning, he produced two grenades designed to disable electronic equipment and launched them towards the sound of droids gathering below. The weapon would not physically damage them but would have malfunction their equipment if they got too close. Once the ground immediately below the building was clear, Zephyr jumped down and quickly advanced towards the school Isabeau spoke of, glancing over his shoulder to ensure she was following.

The whole town emanated a war zone with the building peeling and damaged both inside and out and very little glass remaining in the windows but it provided some protection from the droids rather than being out in the open. Zephyr moved quickly towards where there had once been a door though it was now blown off but he exercised caution, glancing beside him and in every corridor in case there was anyone hiding whether they be friend or foe.

As soon as he turned a corner, he was faced with a large droid aiming in his direction so he immediately turned back on himself and dived behind the safety of the corner, taking Isabeau with him if she had been close enough, aware that he would never have been able to have shot the droid first. The droid's footsteps echoed throughout the hall and came closer but as soon as Zephyr saw the shine of silver he aimed and shot the droid through the centre before it could get another attack in.

He quickly got back to his feet and continued through the building without any other interruptions. When they reached the other end, the building containing the remaining Mandalorians was in sight but there was an open space before it and though there weren't any droids to be seen yet, any nearby droids who became aware of their presence may flock to the area.

Isabeau

 

[Isabeau]

Seeing the grenades roll out by the droids' feet, Isabeau knew that this particular threat was dealt with and made her way back in towards Zephyr "Nice one" she said, moments before his decision to move out. When he glanced over his shoulder, he would notice that she was still following behind him, remaining just a few meters away from him as they made their way to the next building. Isabeau did find it rather odd that they ran instead of just darting across with their jetpacks - but Zephyr had the lead and questioning him wouldn't do her much good at this point. Instead, she simply remained watchful of their surroundings, refraining from needlessly shooting her blaster rifle to avoid drawing attention but not hesitating to shoot any droid who even dared to look at them funny.

Getting inside the school was like entering a whole new world as the sounds of battle got muffled between all the walls, despite numerous windows being broken. "This is sad" she commented as they ran past a classroom which seemed to have had to be abandoned quickly - a few backpacks remained and crayons were littered across the desks with a half finished sentence on the board at the front. "I hope the kids got out alright" she continued, not expecting Zephyr to answer, she still let herself comment on the situation. Naturally, Zephyr was busy keeping an eye out for threats - Isabeau was too but her role was far less active than his, seeing as he was taking the lead.

Suddenly, Zephyr threw himself backwards, extending an arm to bring her down with him "That's a rather direct way to go about it" she thought as she soon found herself lying down next him. Of course, the thought was fleeting as her attention - almost immediately - turned back to the threat which he had probably detected. Almost as soon as they were down did the droid appear from behind the corner and was promptly shot by Zephyr and soon after Isabeau, causing it to break in an instant.

Upon arriving at the side of the building that faced the residential building in which their Vod hid in, Isabeau also took notice of how quiet the streets had grown. "This isn't right" she whispered, quickly speeding up to signal for Zephyr to hold. Taking cover under a window next to her ally, she peered out over the lifeless streets, littered by a few corpses and heaps of broken droid chassis. "They were having intense fights over here just moments ago. This doesn't make any sense." Puzzled, she kept a close eye on what was going on until she saw a T-visor peek out from behind one of the doors "Look" she whispered as the Warrior started to sprint towards an injured ally stuck by some rubble. Isabeau gasped as he was shot dead moments later, only warning being a subtle but sharp sound of a long ranged rifle going off in the distance accompanied by a red bolt travelling at tremendous speed. "Ram'ser" (sniper, marksman) she muttered and started scanning the area from which the bolt came "Did you spot his position?" she asked, at least feeling safe knowing that the coward was unaware of their position.

If Zephyr had spotted the marksman's position, Isabeau wouldn't hesitate. With a certain degree of elegance, she would dash out from behind their cover, activate her jetpack, granting her tremendous speed as she increased her elevation whilst flying in a somewhat deceptive pirouette, making it harder for the marksman to fix their aim at her. Once in a good position, she would fire of a rocket from her vambrace, making short work of the threat and any potential spotter that was there too. It would then be easy for them to make their way over to the residential building where their allies were. If Zephyr had not managed to spot the marksman's position, the younger Mandalorian would turn back and enter the stairwell to get to a higher elevation, ready to do some sniping herself.

Zephyr Kumaara

 

[Zephyr Krayt]

Jetpack fuel was not infinite and so it was wise to conserve it when it was unnecessary. The armour and jetpack combined were heavy but Zephyr was fairly agile, by Mandalorian standards, which was aided by the medium, rather than heavy, armour. "I'm sure they did." He replied as he had been listening to Isabeau, his attention split between her and potential threats ahead. "Our vode would've made sure of it." He reassured her and though it was more of a hope than a fact, the lack of casualties pointed towards his statement being true.

As he was about to step outside, Isabeau signalled him to hold. Trusting her judgement, he stopped and looked at her. "What is it?" He asked, taking a step behind cover for good measure. "Yeah." He agreed, watching as he was directed to. As soon as the bolt came into vision, his eyes tracked the trajectory of it and stayed focused on the apparent position. Everything happened so quickly there was no time to compliment her vigilance. "There." He pointed to the roof of a building and no sooner than he said it was Isabeau off in pursuit.

Still, it seemed like a risky move as they were not totally ensured that there was only one sniper, meaning Isabeau could still be at risk but with her vantage point he trusted that she would be able to handle herself which would simultaneously defend Zephyr from getting shot so he ran over to the Mandalorian trapped in the rubble and started shifting the pieces of concrete which trapped his legs until they were free. The armour hadn't allowed much protection against the weight of the rubble which left the man's legs almost useless.

The residential building was only a short walk from where they were but they still needed to be quick in case the droids caught on and they were swarmed again so he got onto his knees and positioned the man over his shoulder, straining as he stood up but then began walking towards the residential building at a slower than normal pace. Once outside the door, he warned his comrades who were likely on edge. "Don't shoot." He told them as he walked through the door and upon seeing him half a dozen Mandalorians lowered their weapons.

Zephyr placed the Mandalorian down against a wall as gently as he could and scanned the crowd. Among the warriors were many injured who had taken safety in the building. The priority suddenly shifted to helping the injured escape. The injured would die here, either from lack of medical attention or from being unable to escape the enemy. It seemed unlikely the uninjured would abandon the planet unless the situation seemed truly hopeless but even then some people didn't seem to know when to stop. He expected many of the people looking back at him to die here today.

Isabeau

 

[Isabeau]

Hovering for half a second, Isabeau scanned the area around where she had just fired the missile, seeing the marksman which Zephyr had helped her find disappear in a fiery ball along with its spotter laying to its left. It was then that she saw another hostile peer out from a window in the house next door. Quickly accelerating upwards, the young Mandalorian brought out her blaster pistol and fired off a flurry of bolts at the droid. While inaccurate, she managed to hit it before it managed to hit her, in large part thanks to the sheer number of bolts she fired off as well as the fast speed at which she flew.

It was not long before the two mandalorians reunited as she returned to him, landing gently by his side as he had just picked their ally up over his shoulders. They were lucky that he had the strength and stamina for it, for she would certainly not have been able to do the same. Seeing as she did not have to carry anyone, Isabeau quickly moved a bit ahead of Zephyr, just to make sure that there were no droids hiding by the entrance. Once that was confirmed, she slowed down to let him pass her whilst scanning the area behind them for new potential threats.

Soon, the two of them were inside the building, containing a fair amount of wounded warriors on the bottom floor, but many many more capable fighters on the upper levels. Two medics scurried past the large purple armoured Mandalorian to tend to their ally, providing him with both painkillers and bacta. Moving further into the base, the duo soon stumbled upon a tall Mandalorian carrying himself as the commander of anything within eyesight. "You are here responding to the distress signal we sent." he stated, having already drawn all conclusions which would have to be drawn. Isabeau nodded meekly before he continued "We're sending our wounded away with you, got a couple hover carts in the storage. The rest of us will fall back to the Corb wildlands." His voice was clear, direct and proud yet with hints of being worn and having barked out orders for way too long and way too loudly. "So, pup, what's the exit plan?" he said. Not quite sure how to face someone carrying the presence of this guy, Isabeau looked at Zephyr, letting him respond to the commander on how they planned to escape.

Once informed of the plan, the commander would let out a slow and approving "Good" before reaching for his coms unit "We're leaving in 25, find your groups - this will be a fighting retreat" His voice could be heard in a few helmets laying around - apparently, he had sent the message to the entire base. Turning back to the two newcomers, he spoke with a grim voice "My men are exhausted. We've been pushed around in this blasted city for days. The droids are preparing a big assault, I can feel it. I want you to spearhead our push to the wall whilst the bulk of my fighting men and women hold them back at the rear. Get what you need from our base and move out, we don't have much time"

Just as those words were said, a loud explosive could be heard along with agonising screams as a couple Mandalorians fell down onto the streets outside. "They are here" the commander spoke with a calm voice and put his hand on Zephyr's shoulder "Clear us a path. Now." before turning around to bark out orders to the other fighters. Outside, the droids had gathered en masse with armoured vehicles and field cannons to boot. Fortunately, the bulk of their force stood to the west of the building whilst the Mandalorians needed to head southwards. Isabeau looked to Zephyr "This will be hard. We will have many stories to tell after this is all over" she said, trying to keep a stable voice, only momentarily letting a bit of fear slip through.

Zephyr Kumaara

 

[Zephyr Krayt]

There was no telling how many allies had been lost here today but from the look of some of the eyes sharing his gaze this would be a day that would haunt them. The devastation was evident from the state of the town and the depleted numbers of Mandalorians but the fight was far from over. They would protect the injured so they could fight another day but the able-bodied would continue on in true Mandalorian fighting spirit. "Yeah." Zephyr confirmed, seemingly taking on Isabeau's voice as well.

Judging by Isabeau's glance towards him in response, it seemed she was intimidated by the Mandalorian in authority which made him smile in amusement as the normally confident young woman was reduced to nothing but an attachment of her companion. "We have a ship waiting outside so we get the injured to the wall on your hover carts and blow up part of the wall." He explained briefly. As the commander relayed the story of how they had come to be there, the ground shook with a nearby explosion, highlighting his concerns.

Zephyr replied to the commander with a single nod and although he had no authority, they needed teamwork and organisation to allow the situation to run smoothly so Zephyr turned to face the wounded. "Walking wounded, help those who can't walk to get to the hover carts." He told them in a much softer and less commandeering tone. People were free to disagree with his suggestion but they would likely understand it was in everyone's best interests not to. He placed a comforting hand on Isabeau's shoulder after sensing her unease. While not particularly calm himself, he was better at hiding his nerves. "I'm going for a drink after this if you want to come." He told her, trying to instill a sense of normality to help calm her nerves whilst showing his own stoicism.

"If you can fight, come with me." He told the group which prompted a man with his arm in a sling to begin to push himself off the floor so Zephyr gave him his hand and helped him off the floor but not with the intention of allowing him into battle. "Live to fight another battle, vod. Your help is in healing." He told the man who was unhappy but accepting of such a response as he didn't try and get up again. Zephyr could respect how the man felt as any of them would feel the same but there was no glory in dying unnecessarily.

With no other instruction needed as everyone had the goal in mind, a simple nod between the comrades initiated an attack on the droids. They filtered out of the building from the doors and windows, some in the air and some on the ground. Immediately blaster lit up the air and with grenades in hand Zephyr shot into the air and launched both at armoured vehicles blocking the route ahead. He quickly filled his empty hands with his blasters and continued shooting at the small fleet of droids heading for the building below.

The Mandalorian beside him was shot from behind and the explosion from the jetpack swallowed him before spitting him out onto the ground below. Zephyr whipped around to take out the shooter and avenge his ally before taking their position on the roof and assuming a position as both a sniper and to allow for a better understanding of the situation. "Clear the road next to the school." He spoke through the comlink. The road had been partially cleared aside from the littering of semi-destroyed droids but this battle would be a marathon, not a sprint.

Isabeau

 

[Isabeau]

Activity had just gone from calm to bustling within the building. On the upper floors, warriors broke open the windows and started firing on the droids below. A soft smile grew on her lips as he asked if she wanted to come along for drinks once it was all over - it was nice of him to ask. Nodding, she let out a "Aye, definitely" With their job cut out for them, Isabeau let Zephyr handle the commandeering of troops - she would not challenge the commander and the only one who would join when he asked was, apparently, the one who was already too injured to fight. Instead of lingering, she jogged over to the exit and tried to get as good of a view of the battle as possible.

Zephyr soon came along and after showing that she was ready with a nod, she sprung out from the building along with him, quickly engaging her jetpack and thus avoiding getting hit by the numerous bolts raining down onto the exit of the building from their front. Zephyr quickly took out the worst offenders - namely the armoured vehicles that stood in their way - and then proceeded to thin out the lines among the droids. Isabeau had her rifle run hot as she pressed down the trigger, providing for a fully automatic and continuous stream of blaster bolts which made short work of the remaining droids nearest the exit of the building's southern flank.

Dropping down onto the street a few meters away from the exit, her eyes tracked Zephyr as he made it to a vantage point nearby. Usually, she was the one who flanked and provided fire support from a distance but seeing as he had taken the role upon him, Isabeau proceeded on foot, not minding gaining more experience as a frontline fighter too. Still, it was a daunting task, seeing as how many droids they had to face. Still, their allies were taking most of the heat since the bulk of the enemy force was focused on the Mandalorians peering out from the building's windows and not on the girl hiding behind the carcass of a burned out car in the middle of the street.

Running forth, Isabeau was soon safe from the main enemy force as the school building got in between them. Momentarily turning back, she waved at the Mandalorians at the entrance she had come out from earlier, signaling for them to start making their way over. This would probably be the most perilous part for the wounded as they had to cross a street with limited cover, open for enemy fire. Still, the droids were distracted which was their saving grace. Nevertheless, it was important that Zephyr and Isabeau could clear the path ahead quickly so minimize casualties among the active fighters in the rear and giving space behind the school for the wounded to cover in.

Firing in shorter and more controlled bursts, the young Mandalorian now started pushing forth, moving from cover to cover whilst taking down one or two droids every time she peered up. Naturally, she had to rely on Zephyr for cover as she started her bursts of movement, using the coms to know when he would be able to provide covering fire for her to move with and in return let him know when she was safe behind cover. Once the duo had cleared half the street, allowing for a fair amount of wounded Mandalorians to have made it over, the push started slowing down to a crawl as 16 droids had gathered relatively compactly but still with a couple of meters apart. Since their cover made them harder to hit and their sheer numbers limited the efficiency of any covering fire Zephyr could provide, Isabeau was prevented from continuing the push and only plopped up for cover for brief moments to fire off a shot or two. While she managed to hit one droid, a blaster bolt also scratched by her helmet - the force caused her to fall back in behind cover, just as if she was hit more seriously. Somewhat dazed, she stared up at the blue skies whilst her brain tried to recover from the shock of almost being hit.

Zephyr Kumaara

 

[Zephyr Krayt]

Zephyr's gaze darted around the scattered battlefield below, trying to determine where best to target next as some groups of allies had their situations under control. Upon spotting leaking fuel from an abandoned vehicle in a nearby street, a few away from the school, Zephyr made a snap judgement and fired towards the leakage while a squad of droids were passing by. The resulting explosion was far more extreme than he could've imagined, creating an explosion that shook nearby buildings and set off a chain reaction among nearby vehicles, taking out some incoming droid units. He watched in awe and let out an audible "Woah" over the comlink before the resuming exchange of blaster fire drew his attention back to the battle below.

As the wounded emerged to begin their journey to the wall, Zephyr focused fire on any attacking droids, taking out a handful that were too close for comfort. He glanced towards Isabeau and took out a droid in her way but was interrupted by a noise behind him which caused him to look over his shoulder. He reacted instantaneously by drawing a blaster at the figure who proceeded to open fire on him and though his beskar offered protection against that particular attack he knew he was not invincible so threw a shock grenade behind him without looking to allow himself a moment to get to his feet, now pointing both blasters at the newcomer who was obscured by smoke.

The figure seemingly appeared out of nowhere, leaping towards him and slashing with a vibroblade and catching him across the armour on his chest with the painful sound of metal scraping against metal. He tried to get a shot in but at such close range it was difficult so when he was pushed back to the edge of the roof he activated his jetpack and ascended above the attacker before firing at them with one shot clipping them on the arm before the final blow. ::Everything okay?:: He asked Isabeau over the comlink as he had been distracted for a few minutes. He whipped around and scanned the ground for his companion before finding her, seemingly trapped.

Without a second thought, he flew over to the street Isabeau was in and began firing at the droids who quickly returned fire. He knew he would become an immediate target but if it would take some pressure off of Isabeau then it would be worth it. After the first few shots, he dropped an electrical grenade amongst the droids and dropped down behind Isabeau's cover as the weapon was activated behind them, causing the droids to spasm before dropping dead. "One of us in front to blow up the wall and one of us defend from behind?" He suggested in the brief moment they had before they would descend into chaos again.

Isabeau

 

[Isabeau]

With her eyes still fixed on the white clouds above, peacefully drifting in the otherwise blue sky, she heard the familiar sound of a jetpack. Soon, she could see Zephyr's purple armour as he rushed past her and begun firing at the droids, holding them at bay. Doing her best to recover quickly, Isabeau rolled over to lie on her stomach before slowly getting up on her hands and knees "That hit hard" she mumbled with a hand reaching up for her helmet - quickly retracting it as she felt the scorching hot mark in it. Still not back to her full senses, she made her way over to the cover and leaned in against it whilst looking at Zephyr throw out a grenade.

She raised an amused eyebrow "Defend us from behind? What, do you expect our sick and crippled to take up arms against us?" she asked jokingly with a teasing smile. She then shook her head, letting out a small chuckled and spoke, this time sincerely "But yeah, I'll plant the charges, you keep lookout"

With that, she raised her rifle and carefully peered out from behind cover. Scanning the area, she determined that it was safe to push forth - his blaster work and the grenade had proven very effective and their immediate surroundings seemed safe - still she could see some droids in the distance. Letting out a sigh, she spoke "Might as well deal with them from here" and with that, she rested the rifle against their cover and started firing shots from a longer range, taking out droids with precision further down the road.

Once it all seemed clear, she started sprinting forth, eventually turning her jetpack on, sending her towards the wall at a tremendous speed. Once back in the air, she felt as good as new again, happily gliding very near the ground, swooshing past a few droids on her way to the destination. She had no intentions in dealing with them since she knew that Zephyr was probably capable of taking care of them. With that, she found a secluded spot along the wall and brought out the explosives to begin setting them up. "Your damsel in distress is going to need some protection now" she joked, speaking over the comms and added a last "Any knight with any sense of self-respect would provide"

Zephyr Kumaara

 

[Zephyr Krayt]

After launching the attack, he slid back down to lean against the cover beside Isabeau. "You ok?" He asked with a concerned tone after realising he hadn't checked on her when she commented on getting hit hard. He knew she would not be wounded but the impact might have dazed her. "It'll pass in a moment." He reassured her. Although beskar provided protection against lethal shots, the impact could still have consequences, especially in the head.

Zephyr sighed at Isabeau's comment but let out a small chuckle. "I'm going to take up arms against you in a minute." He joked back. "Ok, let's go." He agreed before jumping out of the cover and leaping into action by launching into the air and following their allies, leaving Isabeau to deal with the droids in the distance. He maintained a relatively slow speed to keep up with the Mandalorians and shot a few stray droids that were too close for comfort, provided with support from some injured allies who could help.

It seemed those less injured could provide adequate protection of themselves so Zephyr advanced to Isbaeau when she requested his help and landed on the ground behind her, with his back to her to give her cover. At her comment about self-respect, Zephyr frowned and muttered "Shut up," irritated that she brought up his misjudged comment.

The conversation was cut short as a group of droids approached them though Zephyr made short work of them with his dual blasters. However, it wasn't long before more and more came, providing a relentless stream of droids that proved to be trickier to handle. Opting to take drastic measures, Zephyr drew a proton grenade and launched it in the direction of a large group of droids. It was a safe enough distance that they wouldn't get caught in the blast but to avoid the possible debris of droids then Zephyr put a hand on Isabeau's shoulder and pushed her to the ground whilst dropping beside her.

Isabeau

 

[Isabeau]

A satisfied grin grew on her lips as she heard Zephyr tell her to shut up. "Sure will" she said, pausing as she activated her jetpack to get a bit higher in order to get a good vertical spread of where the explosive charges were planted. "Any proper Mandalorian girl would shut up when you're asking. At least if they have a sense of..." she trailed off and shifted focus to planting the explosive for a bit. Although she knew that he knew what she was going to say, she eventually completed the sentence "...a sense of self-respect."

For all this time, she had continued speaking whilst Zephyr fought of the droids. Although one or two might have thrown a glance her way, she tried to make herself small and utilised the occasional bulge in the structure for cover. "Charges are pl-" she said, but was cut short as his heavy hand suddenly fell upon her shoulder, forcing her down onto the ground. Trusting her ally, Isabeau didn't even try to resist but rather went along with him. Soon, the explosive went off and a powerful gush of wind blew above them in its wake with a fair amount of debris flying by above them, smashing up against the wall with tremendous force.

Carefully peering up, Isabeau saw how most droids were destroyed and only fired a couple shots to finish the surviving ones off. "Nice going. The charges are ready" she said before entering a jog back towards the wounded. Far in the distance behind them, heavy explosives could be heard going off as the battle between the droid forces and the main bulk of the Mandalorian fighters was raging on at full. Looking at Zephyr, she spoke with a distant voice "We should probably help them out" whilst simultaneously pressing the detonator, causing a large explosion to go off which was - in stark presence to her voice - utterly present.

Deciding to fight, rather than to work the logistics, Isabeau laid down on the ground and started firing highly precise shots with her rifle, hitting targets at a long distance which gave their allies more room to pull of a hasty retreat. Fortunately, a few of the men and women who had been able to escape due to her actions now dedicated themselves to helping the wounded get on board the ship.

The explosion would not go by unnoticed, however. Droids started to converge on the position from all sides - even a few who had been on patrol outside of the city were making their way towards the breach. "We need to get out of here fast" she said, speaking to Zephyr over the commlinks - not even aware of how much attention they had drawn and purely focusing on the bulk of the droid forces' attack on their allies at the rear.

Zephyr Kumaara

 

[Zephyr Krayt]

"Any proper Mandalorian wouldn't be afraid of throwing you a punch for being so annoying." He retorted, half-joking though there was a sourness to his words as Isabeau's mocking irritated him. Although he wouldn't punch Isabeau for irritating him, he might have tried another way of showing his disapproval had they not been in such a pressing situation. For now, he criticised her to try and get her to stop. "Maybe you should focus on the task at hand instead of messing about." He told her while shooting a droid.

"Great. Let's go." He replied as he got back to his feet. Zephyr nodded in agreement and after seeing Isabeau opt for support from afar then he decided to deploy himself into the heat of the battle, helping to get the last couple of wounded aboard the ship while a handful of Mandalorians provided cover from behind. He had a man's arm wrapped around his shoulder as he helped him get up onto the ship and as they walked up the docking ramp the ground shook. ::I second that:: He replied to Isabeau over the comlink.

The last people on the ground were himself, Isabeau and a couple of Mandalorians who defended the ship. ::Get here. I'll hold them off.:: He told her before shooting up into the air to gain a vantage point over the droids. He had a good view of the droids behind Isabeau and fired at them with both blasters to hold them off and allow her to escape. There seemed to be an endless stream of droids which became increasingly difficult for Zephyr to contend with as every droid he shot was soon replaced with another.

Isabeau

 

[Isabeau]

Looking at him for a few seconds, she leaned back towards him. Her legs were hugging a pole whilst her right hand held it firmly, a few meters above the ground. The sticky charge only needed a few more adjustments before she was ready to go. It was amusing to see how he claimed that a real Mandalorian would punch her but then for him not to follow through on it. Allowing her helmet to maintain a pokerface for her whilst she smiled underneath, Isabeau extended her left hand towards him, motioning for him to come at her before turning back to the charge, finalising the settings before moving on to the next one.

***​

The two had been working together well, Isabeau covering their rear troops as they retreated whilst Zephyr fiercely protected their injured as they boarded the ship, each covering their own flank. Her people were seasoned warriors and knew how to pull off an organised retreat. It would not take long before they had all managed to escape through the large hole in the wall. Getting up, the young Mandalorian soon saw Zephyr standing on the ship ramp whilst hundreds of fighters were already by the woods in the distance - having escaped the confinements of the walled city and now capable of fighting the people who held their planet much more efficiently and safely.

Firing two more bursts at incoming droids, Isabeau finally fired the rest of her shots at a tree trunk, causing it to fall down into the wall's gap. She had filled it with a piece of wood and whispered "That will hold" to herself before turning around and making her way back to Zephyr and the ship whilst the droids struggled to get to them. Zephyr had done a tremendous job holding the droids off, probably made a bit easier as she had cut the most immediate supply of them. While he was still out on the ramp, she quickly made her way to the cockpit, gracefully running past the injured Mandalorians, hopping over legs and making sure to not stomp on anybody's weapons.

After having slipped into the co-pilot's seat and hastily prepared the ship for takeoff, she said "We are good to go"

/End Thread

Zephyr Kumaara