We Do Not Falter [CIS, Viceroyalty]

[Hacks]

Locations: Sewer system, deep below The Sprawl
Allies: Sam Rodarch
Enemies: Kiff Brayde ?

Hacks hit the grate with a tremendous thud and felt the air expel from her lungs. She gasped, choked on the taste of human and alien waste, then vomited. She gagged and retched, chunks of bile stained her clothes. She could barely hear Sam's screaming over the sound of her own internal horror. The sewer was a backup plan if they had been found. Hacks couldn't explain to herself how they had found her so fast but they had, it didn't matter now. What mattered was finding their way through the dark underground network of sewer passages.

The mod-junkie forced herself to stand, flexing fingers and wishing she could hose herself down. She tapped her glasses and a bright white light shone from either side of her face, illuminating her path. She looked to Sam and almost vomited again, gagging as she looked her up and down. She was completely covered in brown sludge, reeking of feces. Hacks knew she would look just the same and forced herself not to stare at her own hands or feet, lest she vomit.

"We got to keep-" Hacks fought back dry heaving, "Got to keep going."

 

[Vytal Noctura]

Wearing: Royal Red Armor
Location: Citadel, Geonosis
Equipment: Claws, Nightmother's Ward Lightsaber, Healing Salves
Allies: Tallara | Malok | Tsian Denira | Adron Malvern | Antoin Garrick | Valencia Hadley | Voph | Alkor Centaris | Lunara Azure | Alluria Ivalice | GL3AM | Srina Talon | Gerwald Lechner | Credius Nargath | Kyber | Xazzex Xivar | Shamira Karuto
Enemies: Cassus Akovin | Arwen Hadd | Kovhorn | Joti Johayc | Joran Del-Finn | Renn Garrick | Hacks | Soloman Priest | Sam Rodarch | Hacks | Ceros Malsang
Undecided: Koda Fett

Take a Witch's magick away and expect them to be as defenseless as a kitten. It was the wrong strategy for a Witch of Dathomir, seen off the surface of her own planet, to make such an assumption. A potentially life-threatening tactical error. In this particular case, an especially egregious one thanks to Vytal's association with Kyyrk and the endless abyss in which they fell.

Fast as the man was, the Force would not avail him even if it were a skill he relied upon. An assault on three targets took time, and his assailants weren't going to wait for him to finish one before the next struck.

First, the pale woman reach down and drew out a black wood encased silver cylinder. A bright emerald beam shot out away from its wielder. In this time Soloman thought to suppress Voph's means of countering the man's lizard.

Second, Vytal bolted across the short intervening distance that separated them. Now the man thought to tackle the droid, Kyber , that had ambled nearby.

Third, that emerald beam would soon sweep upward to slice the undocking drone from Soloman Priest as the Nightmother swept in from the opposite side from where Kyber stood. The mercenary only being so fortunate Srina desired him to live, else the lightsaber would have went for his neck. She would seek to draw the blade along that juicy target, however, to catch a very firm attention to how dire his situation truly was.

If the man continued to resist and occupy their presence, Vytal wouldn't stop at the droid either. Srina Talon wanted Soloman alive -- you could yet live will missing several limbs. Lightsabers were quite adept at permanently disabling without killing one's enemy. While Vytal was not the foremost expert in blade combat, she'd learned enough after being granted this weapon. "Surrender or suffer." There really wasn't any reason for a prolonged discussion on the subject.

 

[Kyyrk]

Bounty Hunters: Cassus Akovin | Soloman Priest

Knights Obsidian: Srina Talon | Vytal Noctura

EQUIPMENT: Voph's Robes, Voph's Lightsabers, Ring of Blades
OBJECTIVE: Eliminate Hostile Threat
​

Voph was already in motion the moment Soloman Priest began to move. He withdrew his blade from the neck of Cassus Akovin and turned to spin and throw the blade at the hostile bounty hunter. Voph was ready to charge the man in retaliation, but realized this was a poor decision. The homing rounds struck his armor, and the toxins released into a small cloud. Voph stepped back again, firing a wave of Force Energy into it to dissipate the gas before it could cause further harm, but it was already working its way into his armor.

Voph's brow furrowed as he called upon the Force to begin purging the toxin. He couldn't enter the influence cloud of the lizard, lest the poison kill him. He could feel it attempting to spread through his body at an alarming rate. But then, Voph had an idea. He turned, sprinting the other direction as Vytal engaged the man at point blank range. Voph activated his Nanovest, directing the healing nanites to his arm to stem the flow of poison. As he did this, he grabbed his remaining lightsaber from his hip, and activated it. Then, he lept. Ten Meters. That was all the space he needed to clear. Easy enough when he was falling from above his opponent.

Voph rarely bent the laws of space and time. Left him feeling nauseated when he did so. But he was about to feel that either way. As the implants in his ocular sockets kicked on, Voph drew his lightsaber down, intending to fall on the man that was hopefully below him, and if not wound him, then kill that damned lizard. Hopefully the efforts of Kyber and Vytal Noctura would keep him occupied...

 

[Sam Rodarch]

Location: The sewers, but also maybe some kind of hell dimension
Mission: Escape the sewers, cleanse the soul, punch Soloman
Tags: Hacks Kiff Brayde (maybe?)​

Could it get any worse?

Sam's limited imagination couldn't have even predicted that this shetty situation would have occurred, never mind something worse. At this point, however, piss-stained pessimism dictated that there would be some kind of man-eating sewer monster...

...at least you can punch a man-eating sewer monster.

The horrified rage screams of the Mandalorian had finally died down into raw and ragged breaths, both her stomach's contents and emotional well-being emptied onto the ground before her. This was helpfully illuminated by Hacks as she shone a bright light in her general direction, causing Sam's head to snap around and stare at the slicer with feral eyes like some kind of distressed, nocturnal creature.

“Don't...DON'T LOOK AT ME!”

The fewer people that saw her like this, the better. Would make it easier to pretend that it never happened.

Eventually, Sam managed to gather what was left of her remaining spirit and finally got off of her hands and knees, swiftly following behind Hacks, the source of light who was hopefully just as traumatised and filthy as she was.

“...do you...”

She wanted a shower. A bath. To be sprayed down by a cold hose. To be tossed in a frigid sea. It sounded so dramatic but there was something so much worse about the piss and shet of sentient beings.

“...even know...where we're goin'?”

Please, Hacks. Please know. Just have a way out. A glimmer of hope. Something. Anything. This was all that Sam could really think as she followed behind the slicer and sole source of their light. It would be fine, Hacks is smart. Just then, a single thought flickered towards the man who had gotten her into this new life.

“I'm gonna...I'm gonna KILL Soloman!”

 

[Hacks]

Location: Deep below The Sprawl, Sewers
Mission: Escape, bathe
Tags: Sam Rodarch

"Do you... ...even know... ...where we're goin'?" Sam said, praying, hoping that Hacks knew what she was doing. The slicer confidently answered, "Nope." She gestured towards an intersection ahead and murmured something to herself, a childs counting rhyme, finger dancing from one tunnel to the next. “I'm gonna...I'm gonna KILL Soloman!” Sam screamed and Hacks shivered, damn she hated people who screamed and Sam was doing a lot of it lately.

"Look, it'll be chill," Hacks reassured Sam, placing her shit-stained hand on her partners shit-stained shoulder, "This was my backup plan, I didn't think we'd get caught, especially not that quick. We're just gonna' wing it, we'll get out fine. Not my first rodeo." Hacks motioned her head to the third tunnel and she led the way for the two of them. The smell of the sewer became fainter and there was an artificial light far ahead. It shone a neon blue and as the sound of rushing waste faded away she could hear the hustle and bustle of a market. The Invisible Market.

 

[Soloman Priest]

Location: Geonosis, Golbah City
Mission: Capture Valencia Hadley before the others.
Team Members: Koda Fett │ Sam Rodarch │ Hacks
Equipment: Armor │ 2x Big Iron │ 2x Nastirci │ 1x Vibroblade │ 1x ACR │ 1x Inferos Disruptor │ 1x Ysalamiri Backpack │ GS-77

“Well that didn’t last long.”, Soloman offered under his breath as he had a lightsaber held to his throat - though, he wasn’t sure the Witch knew about his beskar gorget. He’d heard the stories of Jango Fett’s decapitation, thought it best to not have that happen to him as well -​

​

Oh well.​

​

Yet, before he could offer a tangible response, the flying strike of Kyyrk had already come down - with only a moment to react, Soloman launched himself backwards with the force of the Repulsorlift in his boot, watching as the two crashed into one another. With his disruptor now primed away from the droid he had taken out - he pointed at the other two with a refined danger.​

​

“The funny voice in my ear says a new deal was reached.”, he said with a quick glance to Srina Talon .​

​

He didn’t lower his disruptor from the two infront of him however, waiting to see if they twitched in his direction before he would.​

​

“That true?”, he said, without firing another shot. No need if there was a bigger paycheck coming.​

​

Vytal Noctura​

 

[Sam Rodarch]

Location: Sewers, The Invisible Market
Mission: Be confused, bathe
Tags: Hacks ​

Chill, she said.

Chill was the antithesis of Sam Rodarch. On a good day, the woman was always one sly comment away from a meltdown, and this wasn't even a good day. No, this was a nervous day, a trial by fire in the realm of bounty hunting. An anxious day, sitting around feeling the persistent nibble of withdrawal. A real shit day, needed no further explanation.

The worrying thing here was that this wasn't Hack's first rodeo (was that a computer thing?) and a concerned glance was spared for the slicer, as Sam interpreted her words in one and only one way.

“You always end up in sewers?”

Horrifying.

The smell of shet might have been fading as they approached the lights of the underground but it wasn't like either of them would have noticed because they were the smell of shet.

Wait. Did people hang out down here? The Mandalorian looked at the glow of The Invisible Market and then to Hacks, and then back to the market again, her skid-marked face very evidently confused by this revelation. Were brains supposed to hurt?

“I don't ge- I... what is...this...? Why are people down here?!”

 

[Hacks]

Location: Sewers, Invisible Market
Objective: Bathe, find a smuggler
Tags: Sam Rodarch

“You always end up in sewers?” Sam asked, seemingly confused and concerned. "Well, sometimes," Hacks answered, "You'd be surprised what you find in the sewer systems of the galaxy." As the light became greater, Hacks removed her goggles and placed them in a pocket, concerned for whats next but not yet willing to tell Sam. “I don't ge- I... what is...this...? Why are people down here?!” she said, Hacks looked her over and said, "You know that old adage? all spacelanes lead to Coruscant? that's not inherently true. Think of it as being the same for the underworld, all tunnels lead to the Market." She raised her arms as a light shone on the both of them, blinding them. "Every world has an Invisible Market, just gotta' know where to look."

Someone afar in a brackish accent yelled out, "Ey boss! We got'ah coupla' shitters!" followed by an unintelligible command from another individual. Suddenly a burst of scented-water shot from a high-powered water cannon fired at them, it hit Hacks square in the chest and knocked her off her feet. Her head cracked against the stone with a powerful thud, she rolled and flopped, hosed down utterly as flesh and cloth was power-washed, skin beat red. Then they redirected the cannon at Sam and fired. . .