Two Birds, One Stone

[Miss Blonde]

For once in a mission Miss Blonde didn't need to wear her armor. This was to be considered a somewhat simple mission and a blast from the past. Twelve years ago Miss Blonde created a mine on Enigma Prime for Arakyd Industries, a Stygium mine to be exact. And due to the unfortunate fallout between the Ravens and Arakyd the mine was lost and had presumably been abandoned for a few years now one the planet slipped back into neutrality. But the job was to be rather simple, go to the planet, grab some Stygium, restart the mine, and then go home.

But it always helped to be prepared, that's why she had [member="Zef Halo"] and a few Black Tie enforcers with her to make sure the job got done smoothly. You never knew what was out there, but for Blonde she felt that the only protection she needed was a small shield personal energy shield and her set of twin pistols.

Inside the hanger of the Hades Cruiser known as the "Coyote Hustler" the woman sat back as the ship breached atmosphere of the marsh like world and flew it's way over the mine. Initial scans said it was devoid of life forms and it seemed to clear. So it was safe to head inside.

Standing in her black suit and tie the woman loaded up into a dropship and would wait for Zef to arrive so her and the squad could head downstairs to check out the mine and facility.

 

[Zef Halo]

[member="Miss Blonde"]

Zef was indebted to the crime lady for forging his new armor and as the honest scoundrel he is, he was paying his debt now. What they were supposed to do was get some of that precious Stygium, get a mine up and leave. It sounded simple and easy but something made Zef feel uneasy about this whole operation, probably Blonde was feeling it too that is why she had the Mandalorian come with her and a few of her enforcers. He heard a few of the enforces mutter something about the place being devoid of life forms and he followed the crime lady towards the dropship.

"You going in a mine with a suit and a tie ?" Zef raised an eyebrow beneath his helmet as he entered the dropship followed by the rest of Blonde's squad.

The Mandalorian wondered if she deemed this so simple and easy by wearing a damn suit and a tie, why had she really called him for. Perhaps she knew much more than she had told him and that would not surprise the scoundrel. Smart criminals never give all the knowledge they knew.

"So what's the deal here?"

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Zef Halo"]

"Nice to see you join us Zef, and yes I'm going in my usual attire. It's an abandoned mine with just about zero life in it, so I'm pretty sure I don't need armor." Miss Blonde said with a smile and chuckle.

The dropship engines roared and soon the ship took a simple twenty second flight from the Hustler to the ground and that was that. Looking over to Zef the woman gave an almost apathetic look that showed nothing was wrong, and that this was going to be a milk run. He was just here in case some goons showed up or one of those walking mining colonies decided to walk through this area.

"The deal is that we're going to go inside the refinery and get it started again. Once we do that we'll hit the collection area where I'm sure some crystals are then drop off our new mining droids. The old ones have probably rusted over by now and we just let them get to work." Blonde would then stand up and walk outside to breath that fresh air in.

The the prefab base was a good twenty meters away and the cave was another thirty beyond that. All Blonde and Zef were going to do was walk inside and make sure everything was chill.

"Let's go people! Not getting paid by the hour!" Miss Blonde said as she stepped past a few of the mines outer machine gun nests.

 

[Zef Halo]

"Should be a karking walk in the park then, Blonde."

With that the dropship's engines were activated and it flew on its short journey towards the ground where it neatly landed dropping off the crime lady, her enforcers and Zef.

"The deal is that we're going to go inside the refinery and get it started again. Once we do that we'll hit the collection area where I'm sure some crystals are then drop off our new mining droids. The old ones have probably rusted over by now and we just let them get to work."

The Mandalorian nodded as he disembarked last from the dropship. He looked around the place, seeing it was what mines typically looked like before he followed the crime lady towards the mining complex. The slight difference was that it seemed quite a bit armed for a simple mine. Well, considering Stygium was being mined here, Zef even expected this place to be a damn fortress. For one thing he was glad - the gun nests had not activated and started shooting at them.

"Nice turrets, Blonde." The scoundrel said sarcastically.

It really might be as smooth as she said...


[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Zef Halo"]

"Oh don't be such a baby, they're manned turrets." Miss Blonde said to Zef as they continued their little walk.

It took a few seconds but the group of thugs and one mando reached the main door of the facility and when they did Patricia looked back towards the mando and her crew with a humor filled smile on her face and the uplifting attitude that for once something was just going to go smoothly with no hiccups.

"Besides, what's the worst that could happen?" she said as she input the door code.

The door opened slowly and while she looked away a very gruesome sight was revealed. Hanging from the rafters multiple bodies of workers, guards, and other former employees swung slightly as the cool Engima breeze rolled into the facility. Across the main room bodies lay scattered across the ground and it seemed that whether these people were old Arakyd employees or maybe another crew, they were dead as shit.

"Well $&@# me." She said as she took a step to the right.

"After you Zef." the woman would let the iron covered mando go first against whatever it was that killed these people.

 

[Zef Halo]

"Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"

"You had to say that, didn't you ?"

Zef looked with disgust at the absolute massacre that had occured in this mining facility and felt bad for the poor workers who had the bad luck to have been working in this damn facility. He was glad that his armor's air filtration system was working properly, as he would not really like the smell that was definitely lingering with the fresh air of the planet.

"Of course after me, cause this armor looks badass enough to make me immortal, right Blonde ?" The Mandalorian scoffed as he took out his Ravanger shotgun from his back, a product that was developed by Miss Blonde's company. A damn deadly weapon.

"My sensors read nothing, so whatever's been here is gone." Zef stated as he proceeded into the darkness of the mining facility. He did trust his sensors alright but not as most Mandalorians. He'd lived more than half his life with such gadgets and trusted his own senses more. "But I will be damned if I ain't have my gun in my hands while I walk in."


[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Blonde didn't respond to Zef, not at first. Where normally she'd have a witty retort something just didn't feel right. Sensors indicated that whatever had caused this wasn't around anymore, there were no signs of life. But yet the force shook her body with signs that everything was not what it seemed to be, everything was going to go horribly wrong. As Miss Blonde and her crew proceeded down the halls behind Zef stepping over decomposing bodies she looked over to the mando and finally spoke.

"Something isn't right. I can feel it." Miss Blonde looked over to Zef and then it happened.

The force screamed at her with everything it had and she dropped down to her knees to avoid a uncloaking pickaxe that rammed itself into the man behind her pinning him to the wall. Blood splashed and Miss Blonde drew her pistol and placed its barrel beneath the chin of a target. There was no words, only a pull of a trigger and a splattering of fluids.

But it wasn't blood, no it was oil. Falling down to the floor the body of an old Hegemony mining droid hit the deck and started to leak oil everywhere. And just like that the doors behind them closed and standing in front of Zef all uncloaking from Stygium crystals were dozens of mining droids holding makeshift weapons.

"They've gone rampant. Zef. We need to get to the control room, right now." Miss Blonde said as she slowly drew her second pistol.

[member="Zef Halo"]

 

[Zef Halo]

"Something isn't right. I can feel it."

"Why do bad stories begin with someone having bad feelings about this ?" Zef muttered as a pickaxe had just nailed one of Blonde's enforcers to the wall, totally ignoring the he wore. The figures that appeared right after Blonde's execution of a droid implied that poodoo was just about to go down. "Y'all gotta teach me that damn feeling trick cause I don't have it."

Another pickaxe flew from the shadows and Zef was barely able to dodge it as it slashed through the right shoulder of an enforcer behind him resulting in a scream of pain. The clanking of more metal alarmed him that more and more droids that did not appear on his sensor were coming up.

"They had to know how to use this damn stygium, didn't they?" The Mandalorian complained once again as a droid had rushed towards him with an energy pick axe in an attempt to end his life. The Ravager thought otherwise as it blew droid's head off. Zef had accidentally pulled both triggers of the weapon and had to reload. The shotgun immediatelly ejected the spent rounds and opened the breach for new ammo.

The Mandalorian didnt think twice and had the ammo in his left hand read it to load the shotgun once more. As he was about to do so, another droid had rushed at him. Fortunately for the scoundrel, he knew the power of the Ravager was beyond its superior firepower. With a swift stab at the droid, the two phrik blades of the ravager went straight through the cursed droid's eye sockets resulting in static electricity buzzing and oil splattering all over.

"We better get our assess out of here, Blondie. You hear the metal clanking ? I'd say there's a damn army in this damn facility. Lead the karking way to that control room." The Mandalorian inserted the two shells into the Ravager and locked it. His finger itching to pull the hammers once again.


[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

"Just follow me!" Subtlety was now over, since Zef decided to blow apart a droid with the massive shotgun.

The droids in front of them let out mechanical scream from their processors as the lead one lifted a finger pointed directly at the group of organics aka them. With a furious vengeance the droids began to run at them and Miss Blonde and company were bolting towards the control room with Zef along side.

Dropping down from vents, popping out of hall closets the droids pulled each Black Tie enforcer away screaming one by one until the two reached the control room. Blonde quickly ran inside with Zef and went to the door controls which surprise surprise were broken. So that meant Zef was going to have to hold them off at the choke point that was the double wide door.

"Hold them! This should only take me a few minutes!" Blonde would then move to the computer and do her best to start typing away at it and thankfully it still worked.

[member="Zef Halo"]

 

[Zef Halo]

By the time they had reached the control room, Zef had already used the recently new shotgun shells before magnetizing the Ravager back on his back and taking out two verpine blaster pistols. A deadly combination when single wielded, what remained when such a weapon was dual wielded. Well, lot of oil and static electricity in this case. Through the damn labyrinth of this cursed mining facility, he had to thank his long years as a smuggler for blessing him with quick feet and agility despite his old age. Miss Blonde's enforcers had not been blessed.

"It's easy to say to hold them when you're not getting a battalion of hellbent droids throwing pick axes at you and wanting to hang you with your own intenstines." Zef shouted as a droid jumped at him with a sharp make shift sword. He evaded it, only for it to pass through. "One is in, Blonde!!!"

He couldn't do thing about it as it headed towards the well dressed crime lady, the Mandalorian already had to keep firing barrages of armor piercing pellets at the horde of droids.

In the distance it was no longer tiny sharp metal feet clanking on the metal floor but as if a forge powerhammer being pounded on the floor.

"You better hurry cause I don't like the sound of their karking dad!"

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Zef Halo"]

Without even looking the woman raised up her right hand with her pistol firmly grasped in it and fired four shots into the droid's head and chest. And as she was doing so she had accessed the computer with her old password and had found all the old mining droids were still linked to the system. So they could all be shut down. As she was swiftly murdering the droid the woman pressed a few buttons and entered the command to shut down the hegemony droids.

And right as the command was sent the blade of the falling droids rammed itself into the computer disabling it. However she was able to make the command fast enough so the worker droids gone mad in front of Zef turned off and laid on the ground in heaps of scrap.

"Zef..." Blonde said with a gulp and a little nervous chuckle afterwards.

"Good news and bad news. The good news is that I got all the old Hegemony droids. But papa bear down there isn't one of them. He's an experimental mining droid that Arakyd developed and deemed too expensive. So he was sent to work here. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I couldn't get to him before the terminal broke so if got something bigger than that shotgun now would be the time." Blonde stood up and would walk over to Zef to look down the hall.

With one more pounding noise from around the corner a massive right foot tall hulking machine with a drill for one hand and in the other the broken body of a black tie member began to stare at the two of them with its red eyes that glowed in the darkness.

"Ah $&@#"

 

[Zef Halo]

Zef furiously fired a few more shots at the deactivated droid that had gone to take his head off before Miss Blonde had finally done her job of turning this mess off. There was of course a problem, the damn shockwaves on the ground wouldn't stop and the nervous voice of Blonde calling his name made him keep his face at the dark corridor from where the shockwaves were becoming stronger. The thing was approaching.

"Good news and bad news. The good news is that I got all the old Hegemony droids. But papa bear down there isn't one of them. He's an experimental mining droid that Arakyd developed and deemed too expensive. So he was sent to work here. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I couldn't get to him before the terminal broke so if got something bigger than that shotgun now would be the time."

"Of course, how could this be ended so simply with a switch of a button. Of course not, has to be the hardway. Just like on the damn movies." Zef muttered as the massive obnoxious droid appeared from around the corner. Blonde's reaction to it was similar to what Zef thought as he responded.

"Where's the backdoor, Blonde ?" He simply asked implying that he did not possess anything that could take that down. Zef did not think he would be facing AT-AT big droids in a damn abandoned mining facility.


[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

Miss Blonde looked up at the droid and then over to Zef, afterwards she began to slowly step backwards hoping it wouldn't get an immediate rise out of the machine to charge them.

"Around the corner, to the left." Blonde said slowly and cautiously.

"Run!" Blonde said as she turned around and bolted assuming Zef would be right behind her.

The massive droid let out a roar that screeched against the walls and savagely threw the Black Tie's body across the hallway so they would land at Zef's feet if he hadn't already started running. As for miss blonde she was already headed down the hall and around the corner to get to the back door. Which was locked, however it was rusted over a bit so a solid hit from a shotgun and a running ram from a beskar plated mando would get it open.

"Zef! Hit the god damn door!!" Blonde yelled as she kept running keeping low so the mando would have a clean shot.

The door was a good twenty meters away and at the pace they were running and the machine was charging at them they'd be outside where the cruiser could take the droid out with a wave of its hand. Power armor would of defiantly been nice right now.

[member="Zef Halo"]

 

[Zef Halo]

Zef did not need to be told twice for him to dash after Miss Blonde. They couldn't take down the giant of a droid with their current load out so flight was the best option. Unless one of them thought it was smart to engage an experimet of a droid which held the body of Miss Blonde's enforcers in his hand like a puppet. Definitely not Zef's cup of tea.

"Zef! Hit the god damn door!!"

Despite the power armor, Blonde proved to be quite fast. Perhap he was really getting old now. Nonetheless, he was fortunate enough to have ended up to where the crime lady awas waiting for him to act and break a door. The Ravager on his back went in his hands in a matter of a second as the Mandalorian fired it at the lock, followed by utilizing his power armor capabilities.

Ramming throuh the door, both Madnalorian and crime lardy would dash towards whete their ship was.

It was their only home.

[member="Miss Blonde"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Zef Halo"]

Bolting right through the door with Zef, Miss Blonde and present remaining company hit the ground in a roll ruining the good suit that she had. Thankfully it had been cheap but that wasn't the point, the point was that the giant droid burst through the wall and focused its eyes on the two of them. Letting off one more roar it's massive drill started to spin up before it was quickly shot down by a turbolaser leaving it a smoldering crater of dust and scrap parts.

Picking herself up the woman dusted herself off and gave the cruiser a thumbs up. Once that was done she looked over to Zef and smiled, it was a good day to be alive. Well maybe not for her former employees, but they were set non the less. The mine was back in their hands and what was even better was that they were right next to the collection zone a good twenty meters away and from there she could see the large amount of Stygium crystals piled up.

"Not a bad day all things considered." Blonde said to Zef as she grabbed her radio.

"Alright, we're clear. Come on down and start repairing and loading up those crystals." Blonde said then quickly started to walk towards the crystals.