Way Down We Go

[Arage Bao]

DATHOMIR​

​

Oaths were sworn.

But Mandalore followed its own rules. Aran couldn't remember it all- some of it was still vague, besides the armored gauntlet looming into his vision and knocking him out cold a moment or two later.

Now he was in a cell.

Damp, cold, there was water dripping in the corner. It reminded him of the old days, before Rogna had become broken and safe to be let out. When oaths had been sworn, when toxin tattoos were branded into his skin and when Spider was accepted into his heart. This was uncomfortable, but at some point you just grow used to the cold and the pain. It was the hunger that was the worst part.

It gnawed a pit in your stomach.

"Accept the cure."

Aran looked up, eyes squinting against the bright light-stick hanging off the belt of the Mandalorian. Red scars running down their armor, visor obsidian with white specks. They had mocked the child Mand'alor, while throwing him in here. Now they came, every day, with that one message. It didn't matter what Aran replied, as long as it wasn't yes? They left him alone and that was the end of that.

"No."

They left.

He sighed, rubbing his knuckles. He wondered how long this would go on. When would their 'fun' end and when would they kill him? Or would they try to force the cure onto him?

[member="Talia Fett"]​

 

[Talia]

It was supposed to be a simple recon mission, assess the situation, establish defence numbers. Get a good idea of what they were up against if they took a swing at one of these things. They chose the latest security centre on Dathomir because getting onto Mandalore was not easy for Talia, but there were some things that didn't seem right. It wasn't as polished as the great black pyramids that marred the skyline of Sundari, Keldabe and the Iron City, it was smaller and its guards were not as sharply regimented as the Death watch commandos.

Talia chewed the inside of her cheek. Was it possible that the Mantis whore had stepped into Ra's boots and lost control already? She brought the macro-binoculars to her eyes again. There were no real defences, no in the magnitude there should be, and she'd seen no more than twenty men in terms of guards. She hung the binoculars on her belt and slid the sniper from her back, calibrating the scope. There were five men outside standing too close together, not watching their backs properly. Talia brought the sniper to her shoulder and settled her breathing, sliding from one target to the next, testing the speed finger resting above the trigger.

She breathed, let her finger drop over the trigger and let her instincts two the rest. The first shot cracked, tearing across the throat of one, and slamming into the throat of another with a spray of fine red mist. She took another breath, the third fell with his visor shattered, gore spraying up the wall behind him. The fourth moved, her round catching him under the arm rather then in the chest. He still went down. The fifth had started to run, her round shattered his spine.

She stayed where she was to the count of ten, waiting to see if anyone was coming, if they'd managed to get a distress call out.

No movement. She slid the sniper onto her back and rose, drawing her beskad and slipping from the undergrowth towards the facility. The fourth one was still alive, crawling to the door. She dispatched him unceremoniously, punching the sword through the back of his neck and snatched an access card from his belt. She paused at the door, listening for the sound of boots beyond. Nothing. Talia swiped the card and slid inside.

[member="Dalton Leath"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Talia Fett"]

A crack in the air.

Aran quickly looked up.

Another crack, a third one. By the second one the realization hit it was gunfire, shatter-rifle by the sheer violence of the crack. Very close, but was this place under attack or were they the ones shooting? There was a small slit brushing against the corner of the ceiling, not enough to climb through, but by jumping and hanging off the corner it was just about possible to see the outside.

Movement.

A corpse lying off the wayside, but what did it mean?

No, that was Death Watch armor, one of his captors dead... a door opened behind him. "Take him, we are moving out, but ain't no way we leaving this one to be saved by these fethers."

The door to his cage opened and in came three Mandalorians, armored, guns at ready, in the corner Aran was crouching through his knees. He had been making a shiv since he got here. Pathetic little thing, nothing more than glass wrapped in a piece of textile, but it would do. It had to. "Now then, don't make this hard. We will hurt you if necessary."

Aran set his jaw.

Nothing else.

"Alright, take him."

They moved in.

 

[Talia]

Talia made it twenty steps in before security round the corner and forced her into alcove, one round shearing open a round just below her shoulder. She cursed beneath her helmet, tugged a stun grenade from her belt and slid down to a crouch, before leaning out to toss it down the hall. The bright blue flash silenced the incoming fire, and she moved from her hiding spot without hesitation, dispatching her three assailants, with swift red lines drawn across their throats. She picked up one of their rifles, slid the magazine out and checked it before locking it back into place.

Movement shifted behind her, HUD picked up two more targets. Talia spun and opened fire, driving them back around the corner. She ran towards them, reaching the corner they'd ducked behind as one stuck his head around the see. T-visor shattered as the beskad slammed point first into his skull. The rifle followed round the corner, auto-fire emptying the rounds into the commandos chest. She used a boot to push the first from her blade.

Ten down. Ten to go.

[member="Dalton Leath"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Talia Fett"]

Shiv gone, half of his face bloody, dragged across the rough pavement and through the corridors.

But three were made to one, before one more joined and finished the job.

That was good enough.

"Why don't we kill him?" "He got a purpose." "We already lost half our men to that witch!" "...so we need all the recruits we can get, ya?"

They'd break him, his psyche, cut his face off and staple on a different one. Wouldn't be hard either, would it? After all he had broken once before. Once something was broken, you couldn't put it back together. Maybe put some glue and some tape in, but it wouldn't ever be whole. No, Aran was fully aware that this would most likely end in something... bad.

All that he could do was take some of them with him before that happened.

"She is getting closer! Mack and his boys are down, we need to hurry with this fether." The gunfight was growing louder as she approached. They had missed another shiv of his though, he started coaxing it out of his boot.

One inch at a time.

 

[Talia]

She tossed the empty rifle aside, and collected the next one, checking the magazine and the barrel as she moved forward, passing a cell with two bodies on the floor, a shiv embedded deep in one of their eyes. She smirked, ten was now eight. Voices reached her ears, panicked tones drifting from a room up ahead and to her left, she stepped lightly.

"Where the hell did she even come from!?"

"Don't know don't care, but we need to get out of here before she catches the rest of us."

"Let her catch us, i'll gut the witch." A snort of derision resounded from the other three.

Talia edge to door from and inched out enough for her HUD to pick up the layout and she slid back again listening for a moment, catching her breath and letting calm ease over her.

"What does she want?"

"What is with you and the questions?"

There were four of them, routing through supplies spread on a table. "Shut up all of you and pack up."

Talia plucked a thermal detonator from her belt and tossed it into the room as she moved passed it. Exclamations and curses erupted before a deep boom resounded and silenced them. She reach a t-junction, fresh blood smeared the floor heading left. She picked up the pace and followed it. One man burst from a room ahead of her, bullets tearing into him before he had a chance to react. She was past him before he hit the floor.

Three more.

One dead ahead, saw her coming and bolted. Coward. Talia emptied the magazine into him out of spite, adjusted the grip on her blade and rounded the corner to find the second two and the prisoner between them. "I count...sixteen dead at my hand...four of those questionable because i didn't paused to double check but I'm pretty sure they're dead. Two at someone else's hand, yours i'm guessing." she tipped her head at the prisoner.

"And all in under....thirty minutes? Come on, at least make it hard for me. You're supposed to be Death Watch Commandos. Or did the welp cut off your balls as well when she sat on the throne?"

[member="Dalton Leath"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Talia Fett"]

The rough hacking noise was accompanied by violent shaking of the prisoner's shoulders.

Dirty long hair obscured but it was still clear that Aran was *laughing* through the mist of pain. A kick against his side silenced him, but Talia would notice two things. The glint of his eye through the strands of hair and the quick reflection of light the shiv made, before he palmed it.

Neither of his captors did though.

Too busy scowling at Talia and keeping her in their visors. They weren't the best of the crop, but even they knew that caution was advised when facing someone who just tore through their men like paper

"That schutta ain't our Mand'alor." A snort and then the other spoke up. "We follow the Black One. So, you better-" whatever Talia should better was left to the wayside as Aran moved, shiv cutting through heel and dropping the left one with a scream.

Hopefully Tal was taking care of the right one though.

 

[Talia]

Talia moved the moment first guard screamed, two quick steps and she was upon the last one, beskad singing through the air to cut through flesh sinew and bone. She excised head from shoulders in one smooth strike, uttering nothing but a sigh of effort. Still wrapped in a t-visor the head dropped and rolled leaving a trail of read in its wake, the body shuddered for a moment before pitching backwards.

She didn't know who the Black One was, nor did she care. There wasn't a mandalorian alive that deserved the title, as far as she was concerned. I have no mand'alor. She let the prisoner dispose of the last one, no doubt there was a little rage there that needed venting. She tugged a rag from a pouch at her belt and wiped the gore from her blade with a great deal of care.

"Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc." she said softly, sliding the blade into its sheath at her hip and tossing the rag onto a the body at her feet. "Ni partayli, gar darasuum." They might have been terrible fighters, even cowards. And they may have stood for things she did not agree with. But they were still mando'ade.

Talia knelt to tug a knife from her boot, and rose, extending a hand for Aran to take. "The knife's, for your bonds, not you." she assured him.

[member="Aran Rogna"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Talia Fett"]

Faith had been invested well.

No beskad came cleaving down to chop off his head, as he reversed the grip of one of his captors, before finding himself on top of them. Woman, man, it didn't matter for the shiv that came shoving upwards between the chest plate and the helmet, finding purchase in soft flesh and the slice coming right after. Blood seeped warm and bright, covering his hands and finally Aran sighed, the tension seeping away from his body.

There wasn't any anger that would cause someone else to keep stabbing in retribution.

The deed was done and that was the end.

He lived, unbroken.

"How awkward it would be," Aran rumbled softly as he watched her carefully cut the binds of his arms and give him freedom. "To be rescued from these, just to be killed by my savior."

With caution the Dathomiri rolled his head and stretched his neck.

"Thank you, stranger. Can I know your name?"

 

[Talia]

"Talia." she replied, her tone clipped. The tension of the fight still in her shoulders, she returned the knife to its sheath, tugged a blaster from her thigh and handed it to him. "Just in case we run into more trouble. Come on." She turned on her heel, not bothering to ask his name. They could exchange niceties when they were clear, preferably in her ship where any retaliation would be hard pressed to do any damage.

She led the way back, following the trail of bodies she'd left in her wake. Pausing occasionally to mutter words of remembrance, and snatching up ammunition and weapons. Waste not want not and all that. She didn't look in on the room she'd shattered with a detonator, the fact that no one had followed her was enough to know that it wasn't a pretty sight. The Hell Wolf had already lost control, this was a clear sign of that. the lack of defence, poor organisation under attack and the overall shoddiness of this pyramid screamed out in rebellion of whatever regime she was attempting to lay down. Ra, at least, had earned the respect of his enemies. Enough that they would steer clear, unless conscience demanded it. Now? Now his empire was crying out for destruction.

She paused at the door, checking behind her to make sure the prisoner was still with her, before gently pushing open the door. She paused for a moment, sensors in her helmet sweeping the area checking for enemies, before deeming it safe enough to step into the open.

[member="Aran Rogna"]