What? You Don't Like Surprises? [Mandalorian Crusade]

[Lina Djo]

Gydine
Expansion Region
Republic Space

Two Ora'uliik dropships reverted into realspace above Gydine, cloaking the instant they did. Maybe the sensors picked them up, maybe they didn't. If truth be told Mia wasn't concerned either way, they'd be upon the shipyard before the Republic had a chance to amount any serious attack against them. She stood in the viewport of the bridge of the first, watching the the mid size station slowly loom into view.

There was a tension about her that was not caused by the anticipation of battle. She'd been in enough that she was able to compartmentalise her emotions, enabling her clear and cold focus where it was required. Her tension came from the fact that it had been a long time since she'd led a raid of any sort. She recalled Mon Calamari, a small smile appearing on her face.

"First ship is in range, Katlayadr."

"Order them to hold position." She replied, eyes scanning the the the shipyards as the passed them. The plan was simple, a pincer strike from each side of the station. Three teams, one to take the control center, one to scour the yard for anything of value and the third to lay explosives to disable it. Permanently if possible.

If they were lucky, they could pull back in the Ora'uliiks. If they were not, orders were to seize whatever they could that had a hyperdrive and get the feth out and rendezvous in space near Sepan.

"One minute until we're in range."

Mia nodded. "Open comms to the raiding parties." A thumbs up told her she was connected.

"For Honour and Glory.
For Mand'alor and for all those we have lost to the Republic hut'uun.
Make them suffer!
Remind them who we are and what we can do!
OYA!"

The ora'ullik dropped their cloaks, peregrine shield disruptors activating, and moving to connect with the shipyards hull. Mia waited for sparks to start flying before turning her back on the bridge and heading to join the boarding party.

[member="Falcon Rekali"] [member="Malcolm Dusque"] [member="Isley Verd"] [member="Zef Halo"] [member="Aedan Miles"] [member="Tempest"]

 

[Tempest]

[member="Mia Monroe"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] or [member="Elpsis Elaris"]

In one of those dropships, Tempest checked her equipment again. She would be in the group which would take the command centre.
She was wearing her Beskar armour, showed no symbols of her Firemane allegiance and had only Siobhan with her. She was doing this not so much because she greatly disliked the Republic but because it was a way to keep herself honed. Since the Xioquo battle and some skirmishes with the Kraal she’d not been seeing that much action. For a warrior this was the true way to keep focused.

Her own upbringing was not Mandalorian in name, but had many of the same values and hallmarks when she was growing up on Dahomey.
She activated a private commlink to her companion. “Ready? We’ll use codenames, I’ll go by Yildirim.”

She was determined though not to let the Mandalorians with her push her into doing something she didn’t want to. Kill only soldiers in hot blood, no civilians, no terror. This was a raid, not a massacre…she hoped.

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Mia Monroe"], [member="Tempest"]


"All stars burn as one."


That was the most remembered line from the Old Republic's anthem. It had been drilled into Elpsis' skull during her admittedly terribly short time as a Jedi. Along with inspiring phrases from the Jedi Code, such as 'there is no emotion, there is peace.' Except it was just platitudes. Hollow, purple poetry that meant nothing, aside from being an attempt to cloak yourself in righteousness and brand everyone who did not fit into your neat box as evil or beneath you.


She'd run from both of them a long ago. Truth be told, her grudge was mostly against the Jedi. Less so against the crumbling, hypocritical Republic. She had no qualms about participating in a raid against a legitimate target though. Like the big shipyard before them, even though her connection to the Mandalorians was very peripheral.


Her private comm beeped and she responded. "You know I am. Race you to the command centre? I'll be Incendia," she replied. The redhead had heard about Ilum and...had not been happy, at all. But Tempest was here and the raid was being led by a woman who'd been one of Elpsis' childhood heroes. The Liberator!


The stealth craft dropped their cloaks, peregine shield disruptors activated and the vessel shuddered slightly when it attached itself to the hull. Nodding to Tempest, Elpsis grabbed her gear and got ready to board. She was clad in beskar'gam that displayed no Firemane symbols, her bolt pistol was in hand.

 

[Preliat Mantis]

Blood for blood. Ashes to ashes. Dust. To. Dust.

And it all came around. Preliat glanced down at his hands, and for a moment, he swore he saw blood on them. It dripped onto the floor of the craft, and he could feel it on his face. On his arms. On the blades at his side. He blinked hard and grasped the sides of his head. His world came to, and reality set back in. It wasn't there literally, but it damn sure was there mentally. He was in a craft. A boarding craft. Comms clicked to life as the craft did it's dirty work on the hull of the ship.

He stood, rising to his full height, and moved afront of @Tempest. He turned and stared at her, curling his fists at his sides. A sickening chuckle escaped from his helmet."I have only known cowards to use codenames. It is unbecoming of a Mandalorian."He turned his head towards her, and the other woman.

"Make them tremble at your name."

He waited, then stepped forward as the vessel opened up. Security teams were already enroute to provide a counter-attack. Preliat met them with brutal efficiency, letting the confusion do it's work as the vessel opened and his allies stepped out. He grit his teeth as he came upon a guard, hiding behind a box of what he would assume would have been ship parts. The guard did not do very well when Preliat crushed his skull in with a well-placed crushgaunt to the face. In fact, he did rather...poorly. Another guard turned on Preliat, and his helmet shifted as he grinned in savage appraisal.

"YOU WILL KNOW MY NAME!"

He charged the man, picking him up by his collar before he even had time to raise his rifle.

"AND I WILL TAKE MY GLORY!"

He forced the man's face to the ground, smashing it apart with brutal efficiency. He looked up for a moment, waiting to see how his fellow Mandalorians would react to the chaotic skirmish going on.

 

[Lina Djo]

Most of the raiding party had disembarked by the time Mia got the the fresh cut hole. She stepped into the corridor, shouts and gun fire echoed up towards her. Drawing a bolter, she stepped over a body or two to a communication unit. She activated it, her voice coming through speakers across the shipyard.

"Members of the Republic, my name is Mia Monroe, Katlayadr of the Mandalorian Clans. In half an hour, this shipyard will be little more than scrap. Any personell remaining here will become so as well. This is your only warning."

She stepped back as the hammering of boots drew her attention to her left. Four soldiers rounded the corner, rifles raising towards her. The first two she downed with her bolter before they had a chance to squeeze the trigger, the second two peppered her with fire, denting her armour and offering more of a nuisance than anything else.

She advanced, seizing one in the force and slamming him with bone breaking force into the other, moving past the small group she made her way towards the engine. Her job was to disable it, and give her teams fair warning to get out before it exploded.

"Preliat," she called into her helmet comms "When you get into the control centre, shut down life support and open a window."

[member="Preliat Mantis"] [member="Elpsis Elaris"] [member="Tempest"]

 

[Preliat Mantis]

"I will drain this place of it's breath, Monroe."

Preliat screamed as he intercepted another security team, meeting them with such savagery that they had a difficult time deciphering what he was actually doing. He moved like a demon, irregular but precise, striking with a mixture of blows, cuts, and attacks from his knife and Tomahawk, sometimes in combination of the two. He was making his way to the control center, gritting his teeth as he continued to rip through security teams. His armor was covered in blood, knicks and a stray carbon burn from a lucky blaster shot.

He made his way to the corridor, having about two hundred meters from the life support center. Then, he came under heavy, direct suppressive fire. This must have been the Marines aboard, not the on-station security teams. Which meant that- he looked over his cover, a small crate of what appeared to be replacement parts for droids, as they began to rush on him. He would not fare well if he was caught in their pincer. So he had to attack into them. Which, given the narrow nature of the corridor, was not ideal.

He had to choose a pincer to attack into, and he chose the left one. He to, however, make a plan to create enough confusion to give himself, the smaller force, an advantage. He did so by charging at the pincer, intercepting one of the Marines as he began to rush, and pinned him to an adjacent viewing port.

"I hope you are angry at those who wanted to look out the windows all these years."

With beastly strength and demon-like savagery, Preliat hurled the man into the glass. The glass, being the nature that it was, would not crack under the simple thrown weight of one man. However, when the gears in Preliat's beskar leg began to wind up, and the man was kicked in the chest- that caused the man to break the glass on a singular point, and a vaccum was quickly created, sucking in air, and cracking the rest of the glass. Preliat turned his head, and powered on his jetpack to fight against the air being sucked into the open wound in the ship, but he only barely managed to stay inside the ship as cargo, Marines, and whatever else was inbetween him and the control center was sucked into space.

He clicked on his comms as the ship's warning systems kicked on and a metal sheet slid over the viewing port, where the window once was.

"Life support systems will be offline shortly. Advise to switch to internal oxygen supplies."


[member="Mia Monroe"] [member="Elpsis Elaris"] @Tempest

 

[Tempest]

[member="Preliat Mantis"] [member="Mia Monroe"] [member="Elpsis Elaris"]

Tempest’s face was thankfully concealed behind her Beskar helmet. To say she was unimpressed by the male Mandalorian was an understatement.
“Follow the meathead,” she said, drawing her bolter and loading APE rounds. “And switch to air tank.”

She had stayed back whilst the Mandalorian began his death charge and broke the glassteel window, but as she communicated with Mia, she and Elpsis moved in.

The command centre had closed the blast door against them. Standard practice. So whilst Preliat disabled the life support Tempest set to work cutting through it with her lightsabre, like a certain Jedi Master had done to the Trade Federation door all those centuries before. This time there were no Destroyer Droids to stop them, and the orange blade soon matched the glowing metal as she set to work.

“Incendia…finish the burn, I’ll cover you,” she told Elpsis, withdrawing her lightsabre. The glowing metal would now be perfect for the fire shaper to finish the breakthrough.

Then the control centre would be theirs.

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Tempest"], [member="Preliat Mantis"], [member="Mia Monroe"]


It was time to get hot! "You just wanna stare at my arse," Elpsis snarked in response. 'Incendia', you're wearing fully sealed beskar'gam, which is not form-fitting in the slightest. Contrary to what certain Mandosploitation vids might make you think.


Anyhow, she pressed her hands to the durasteel door. By now the metal glowed white hot. The pyromancer completed the process by pouring her power into the durasteel, flooding it with incandescent heat. Her eyes glowed a bright crimson, beneath her helmet it looked like her red hair was on fire and her own body temperature soared. Alarm sirens howled, and soon the door had melted away. Smoke emanated from her hands.


She took a breath. Inside the command centre, surviving marines raised their blasters and fired. Elpsis felt no hatred towards them. They were ordinary men and women doing their jobs and paying the price of their leaders' incompetence. At least the Republic had fought Sith, unlike the cowardly Silvers. She didn't have a problem with burning them though. Directing her power towards them, she blew up several blasters by overheating the tibanna gas. Some ran away, others were taken out of commission when she blew up their guns or drew their vibroswords to engage.