Log:Array Consortium: Dragons Rise
Dragons Rise
Location: Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Atria Foster, Sion, Pash Danigo, Bar'duur, Tamrae, Razia
It was only a matter of time before the Kandaka Blades discovered who was responsible for attacking their ships, and perhaps revenge was unavoidable - but the men and women of the Consortium will not expect how the Blades mete out that vengeance. Time to find out how Trandoshan pirates play the game.
Adhar is out - naturally - when an alert goes through the halls of the Serious Business calling senior officers to the briefing room. Captains don't usually join on internal business, but it's Pash, and apparently Adhar's left orders that he rates in emergencies.
The cause of the emergency is simple: ten minutes previously, agents claiming to belong to the Kandaka Blades sent a message to the Business concerning a group of crew who went on leave just a few hours earlier. The message consists of a simple recording: one in a blue jumpsuit, beaten near into unconsciousness, screaming as a towering red-skinned Trandoshan cuts off his arm with a vibrosword and begins to eat it right in front of the camera, meat fresh off the bone. In the background can be heard more screaming, though of terror instead of pain. With his jaws running with blood and gobbets of flesh dripping from between his teeth, the monster lets out a hissing laugh and reads off an address in the undercity that isn't hard to pin down. In that same horrible, gravelly voice he says something in Trandoshan before laughing agin and going back to his meal: the translation is simple.
"Come get them."
Atria watches the recording quietly, a frown on her face and her eyes hard. When the message ends, she slams a fist on the conference table, "Those bastards. It's obviously a trap, but it's a trap we have to spring."
Pash hasn't been seen on board the Business in a while. Some may have heard about his stint at Wayside, from which he's recently been let out, others may not have noticed at all. Let's be honest, it's a big and busy ship. But he's here now, walking into the briefing room with just a touch of a spring in his step. Clinics are boring, and he's had enough of their daytime holosoaps (just kidding, he's watching them all the time now), but this is certainly not. "Do you think they're mad?" the captin mutters, looking over and down to check on his sidearm.
"Guess the Trandos figured out how to tell us apart from most of the folks around here," Sion observes, grimacing at the obvious torture on the screen. But under the revulsion, a cold fire flickers behind her dark eyes, slowly growing. "I don't rate command under these circumstances, but I'd suggest we go there, get our people out, and make some lizard-skin luggage."
"Which is exactly what they want us to do." Comments Bar'duur with a frown, his expression having turned cold and impassive. He's watching the same thing they are. "Let's get a team together, prep the shuttle." He reaches for his comm and speaks into it. "XO to bridge, call back all personell from shore, prep the squadron for patrol and keep on alert."
"I could use some new luggage," Atria states matter-of-factly after Sion's suggestion. She looks to Bar'duur since he's the most senior officer here. At least where the Serious Business is concerned. "They may want us to, but we can't just leave our people with them, even if we do know it's a trap. What do we know about that address they gave us?"
Pash glances over to Bar'duur as well. "I know this technically ain't my business, but you want me along on this thing?" He lifts a brow and figures an extra pair of hands could be put to use, but he's not going to step on the man's toes here when it comes to tactics. So, for now, he'll hang back and follow orders, though it's clear the smuggler captain is keen to help.
"I'm with Atria on this one. If we leave our people to die, we're just telling the lizards the best way to pick us off without us hitting back," Sion says. "Obviously we're going to have to tell our people not to go on leave in uniform, and a few other preventative measures to avoid this in the future, but we've still got to do something about this. Plans, potential witnesses, anything we can find out might help."
She turns for the door. "And personally, I'm willing to go alone if I have to. Our people trust us to do what's best for them, even at our own risk. What are we telling the ones still here if we don't go after them now?"
Bar'duur is mostly silent as others speak, when Pash offers to come along he just nods. "Sure, you're welcome to come." He says easily enough, looking to Atria, and then to Sion. "You dont need to convince me, Sion." He says with a little smile before the man moves over to the table of the conference room, to activate a readout there. "It's just an address.." He hits the comm button. "Bridge, you have this location? Get us what you can." In time a map is available.
A voice comes over the comm.
"It's a warehouse in the underlevels, some four thousand years old. Still has power and such."
There's not much of a floorplan here, it looks like it may be an open building with a walkway ring making up the second level. "Perfect for an ambush.." Says Bar'duur. "THey probably arent there, we need to focus on capturing them, can we get into that second level from outside is my question.."
Razia tromped through the ship, her face in that natural resting bitch face that she constantly has. Finally, she makes it to the briefing, pushing open the doors and making her way to her place. She views the material that was provided to her, the only reaction was an arching brow. "Ah. A pleasant fellow." She mutters under her breath before turning her gaze towards Bar'duur. One leg folds over the other and she folds her hands in her lap as she listens to what he has to say. "What we might need is a trace of this signal. That will tell us if the transmission was from this location or not. Though, these guys aren't super criminal masterminds. If I was a betting woman, I would bet that the hostages realy are there, being used as bait to be slaughtered once we arrive into their ambush. We will either need to just go in with extreme firepower or with super stealth." There is a moment's pause, "We could have a strong firepower team come into the front, using smoke shields and visual enhancing equipment as a distraction while the stealth team to go through the tunnels."
Bar'duur slams his finger on the comm button. "Get Tamrae up here, immedeately." Bar upnods to Razia when she arrives. "I like that plan, do we have those?" He asks of Razia curiously. "One team is the distraction the other rescues the hostages. I'll lead the distraction while you make the rescue."
And so the strategem is struck, and the lot of you on the way, collecting in a rented speedertruck that was arranged for and that Tamrae drives. It's not difficult for her to drop Atria and her squad near the warehouse at a distance easily approachable on foot, and even easier for her to head to the abandoned sprawl where the aintenance hatch is found beneath tangled durasteel beams and collapsed concrete. It takes time to pull it open, but in doing so the tangled, fungus-choked corridor is revealed, unlit and full of rotting junk.
As Bar'duur's party begins to proceed throught he dark, spotlights and night-vision visors making the progress possible, if slow, Atria and compahy arrive out front of the warehouse. Though millenia old, rust has not yet done real damage to the ancient vault, a testament to millenia and millenia of material research. Now, to do the work.
A number of wide permacrete pillars are set up out front of the building, separating the entrance from the city-trench leading into oblivion. All is quiet outside...
Atria signals her team to take up positions behind the pillars and to stay out of sight until the other team gives them the signal to go. She takes up a position herself, standing behind one of the pillars. She doublechecks the charge on her repeater, then peeks around the pillar to eye the door. Speaking quietly into her comm, "Tamrae, when we're ready to go in, we'll need you to bypass security on the door. Take cover behind one of the pillars until we need you."
<This is Backstabber. We've found the maintenance tunnel, Gunslinger,> Sion comms to the assault team, waving away a cloud of fungal dust and pulling a breath mask from one of her pouches. <It looks like this thing hasn't seen traffic since before the Clone Wars. Maybe that'll work in our favor. But it'll be slow going on our end.>
And only helped by starting the trip. She slips out a glow rod and slips into the tunnel, lowering herself carefully into the space and moving slowly ahead, weaving around growths and junk.
Bar'duur moves through the tunnels with Razia and Sion, nightvision is a hell of a thing in this situation and he uses it to good affect, looking specificly for traps or monitoring devices, but mostly it seems to be old undisturbed tunnel, at least, so far..
Tamrae is not exactly attired as heavily as everyone else as she slips up towards the front door...she looks...well, like lots of people do, her usual blue Array outfit covered up one of the everpresent rain parkas many wear on Nar Shaddaa for the constant storms, as well as a white Kyozu hat to keep the rain off her head. In this case, it's more to get her up close to the door controls as she pauses by them, pulling out tools and working at the mechanism.
A deft twist to slide a probe in, popping the front of the casing, then a few quick twists of wires and a short spark as she inserts a hydrospanner into the internal electronics, and the door's mechanism engages, starting to rumble open as she quickly pulls away and bolts back towards the speedertruck, saying over her com. "It's open! Gogogo!"
Razia pulls down the visor on her armor, allowing the holo-imagin viewplate to activate. It is extremely useful in helping her navigate this junk-filled cesspool of slime. Her rifle is powered up and at the ready as she moves through the sludge behind Bar'duur. She moves as silently as she can, carefully stepping around obstacles.
The doors trundle open, and by the time the first inch is clear, blaster fire begins to spew through it. A firestorm of crimson and green hoses the deck, throwing up clouds of flame, smoke and spalling rubble. Tamrae, at least, is spared this, but as the doors widen so does the view, and so too the number of possible targets. From inside the warehouse, a roaring, monstrous laugh sounds during a brief pause of fire, augmented by some kind of vox-device.
WELCOME, MAMMAL FILTH! WE ARE SO PLEASED TO SEE YOU!
Meanwhile the other team finds the getting a bit easier now that the initial fungal piles and such are cleared - the sound of blaster fire can be heard ahead, if distant.
Beyond the doors, the upper mezzanine - protected by a waist-high wall of concrete - is suppored by columns. Hung from each of these, a body. Some are upside down, some are not. They all all red with blood.
Bar'duur continues along, falling into the lead he pauses only a second when he hears the gunfire. "Gunslinger." That's what you get when Razia names everything. "Status report." The Zabrak risks going a bit faster, still wary of devices but he's trying to be quick about it.
Atria watches the door open from behind cover, ducking back when the spray of blaster fire comes out of the warehouse. To her team, she says, "Alright, boys. This is it. Pick your targets and open fire. Stick to cover where you can and try not to shoot the bodies on the pillars in case they're still alive." She then takes her own advice and opens fire with her repeater, the loud scream of the blaster fire saying 'hello!' to the Trandoshans. Her shots slam into the concrete half-wall, chipping away pieces of it, but not quite punching through the way she'd hoped. She ducks back into cover and replies to Bar'duur over the comm, "We've made contact with the Blades. At least 10 on the 2nd level. We've got their attention."
<Almost there, Gunslinger,> Sion comms, shutting off her glow rod once some light shows ahead. Which leaves her hands free to draw her pistol. <Can you see any of our people? It sounds like you found quite a warm welcome.>
Razia steps over some odd looking fungal growth. The growth almost seem to glow! She is careful not to disturb it lest fungal spores get kicked up and into the air, causing unknown effects on people. She grits her teeth at the sound of gunfire, simply itching to get in on the fight.
When Atria starts the show on her end by firing back, her squad, already behind cover in the form of the pillars, opens up on the mezzanine with their Trackers as targets appear, marked by the source-detection hardware in their helmets. Angry red bolts flare back and forth, but the thinnger duracrete of the mezzanine wall punctures easily; Atria's salvo blasts down a whole section of the stuff in a shower of burning fragments, revealing the hulking Trandoshan from the holo who is armed with a monster of a blaster rifle - with which he then tries to take Atria's head off, but the blast instead knocks a small crater out of the pillar above her head.
The troopers have more luck. Keeping up their own fire, they tear smaller holes through the permacrete, rewarded by screams of pain. How many can't be entirely told over the roar of the blaster fire, but some people aren't having a good time.
Meanwhile, the rest of you are close - you'll be there in another minute or so. Up ahead, the night-vision hardware in Bar'duur's armor allows him to see quite easily the form of a man crouching by what appears to be an air exchange vent, staring through the slats and lifting a rifle to sight through them with a blaster rifle at Atria and her team. Sneaky...very sneaky. But he's not paying attention and the blaster's loud enough to keep him distracted from what might be coming behind him.
Steadying her position, Atria Foster takes deadly aim with her powerful Modified T-21 - 10130. She squeezes the trigger, sending a trio of bright red bolts screaming at NPC: Mercenary (Elite) (5244)! The recoil from the weapon knocks Atria Foster off-balance.
Atria instinctively ducks even though the pillar took the brunt of the shot aimed at her head. She peeks out from behind the pillar again and realizes the Trandoshan she uncovered is the one from the message. Grinning, she mutters to herself, "Found you, you bastard. You're mine now." She fires off another burst from her repeater, but only manages to blast away more duracrete instead of Trandoshan. She ducks back behind cover with a grimace.
Sion winces as no reply is forthcoming from the assault team. She just concentrates on staying quiet and following Bar'duur for the moment, tightening her grip on her blaster. It sounds like quite a fight up there.
Meanwhile, outside, Tamrae keeps her head down, the truck running, and the doors locked in case anyone tries to jack it while everyone is busy shooting up the place inside. She does keep an eye on the outside, in case anyone tries to sneak up on the force assaulting the interior. Her blaster pistol is in her lower right hand, resting on her thigh. Just in case. She figures she'll have time to flip open the locks and open the side doors if they come running out ready to roll.
Bar'duur slows to a halt when he spots the man at the vent via his nightvision, he a hand back as if to stop everyone else, and starts moving forward a little more slowly. He speaks in a whisper. "I see one, see that vent? Cover me." He whispers This before he carefully sneaks forward, it's easy when a good part of the tunnel is mossy at least, then he's on the man! Pummeling him mercylessly!
The firestorm in the warehouse keeps up, with the pillars weathering it handily; even with the big Trandoshan's mighty rifle blasting head-sized chunks out of the permacrete, Atria and her troops remain covered. The cover provided by the mezzanine walls, however, is running out.
Meanwhile, Bar'duur leaps upon the man at the vent, and without a hint of noise safe for the soft thud of leather on meat, the combination of strong fists and charged filaments drives the man so close to total unconsciousness as to make no difference. He falls against the wall and slides down, groaning softly. Razia, channeling her inner Leroy Jenkins, charges forward - and slipping on a piece of wet trash hits the velt with her shoulder, knocking the cover wide so that it smacks the wall of the warehouse interior with a clatter. Luckily, the gunmen above are too busy trying to kill Atria and her crew, and do not take notice to the noise. However, Razia can see something that is no doubt very cheering: the Trandoshan is right overhead, and there's a metal grille, not a heavy floor, overhead. Not much to stop blaster shots at all.
Bloodfowl in a barrel, this'll be. Or you could take the stair cases at the right and left corners, one supposes.
Steadying her position, Atria Foster takes deadly aim with her powerful Modified T-21 - 10130. She squeezes the trigger, sending a trio of bright red bolts screaming at NPC: Mercenary (Elite) (5244)! The recoil from the weapon knocks Atria Foster off-balance.
Atria is loving this pillar right now. So far it's done an admirable job of keeping her from being ventilated. Another burst is fired at the lead Trandoshan and more duracrete is chipped away without leaving a mark on the target of her ire. At least she's doing a good job of keeping him distracted if nothing else.
Sion winces at Razia's idea of 'sneaking around'. But nobody seems to have heard... and there are Trandos close at hand. Including the head luggage himself!
With that in mind, she can't help but open fire straight up, through the overhead grating. The huge alien goes down in two flares of crimson energy. "Guess that'll teach you to underestimate us 'mammal filth', huh?"
Bar'duur makes a run for the steps now, well, he's in the tunnel still for a time at least, he reaches out as he moves past Razia as if to make sure she's alright and concious, giving her shoulder a pat as he moves toward the stairs to get to the second level, carefully as to not get hit by any crossfire.
Razia curses mentaly in her native tongue. Her transgression nearly cost their group and she can't help but to thank whatever divine entity is out there! Instead of dwelling on it, she simply moves onwards, taking up position underneath the grate of one of the people overhead. She lifts her gun upwards and squeezes the trigger at the same time Sion does.
Once the second team gets in and opens fire, all Hell begins to break loose. Their aim focused on Atria's team and heavy firepower, nobody - not even their Trandosan overseer - detects Bar'duur's unit emerging from the vent/maintenance tunnel. When the floor of the mezzanine erupts in blaster fire, and people start going down, the rest of the footsoldiers start to lose their collective shavit. They are momentarily broken, unsure of what's happening, who's doing it or where it's truly coming from, and then there's Bar'duur arriving at the landing, seemingly unarmed but horned and very scary like some creature of the Underworld. Atria's troops do not let up, however, and one of the unprepared troops takes a shot in the arm.
One intrepid soul, however, keeps his wits about him, but not his aim - he turns and fires at Bar'duur, but his shot is wide.
Atria notices a distinct lack of blasterfire hitting her pillar and takes a peek. She sees that the leader is down thanks to the other team's timely arrival. Not having enough energy for another burst, she flips the toggle switch on her repeater to single-shot and uses the last of her powercell to blast one of the remaining pirates, dropping him.
Sion grins fiercely at Razia, having seen her simultaneous shot, and clambers out of the tunnel through one of the grates, moving to cover the remaining pirates. "Hello. Our name is the Array Consortium. You killed our people. You're very lucky I'm not in charge of the mission, or you'd be preparing to die right now. As it is, you might still be if you don't HIT THE FLOOR AND STAY THERE! And while you're at it, lose the artillery."
Bar'duur moves out and into the hall where people are hung from pillars and all that, looking more than a little disgusted. "Search and secure them, we've got to get these bodies down. Tamrae can help search the place for anything that looks important too."
Razia turns to follow Bar's orders. She gets on the com, calling in the various troops from outside the building to come in and take people into custody and secure the bodies of the deceased and send the injured for medical care. One wouldn't be able to see it past her armored helmet, but the woman is rather dissapointed in her performance this evening. Thank goodness the visor still hides her visage. (Sorry to bump order, but the mighty call of the pillow is rather fierce.)
Tam'rae hears the blaster fire stop, then says over coms. "Um, everyone intact? I'm movin' over!" And she drives the truck over, backing it up to the front door and opening teh back for everyone to be moved as needed, along with any medics hidden in the back to look over the wounded people..
Now let us clarify: the bodies do not simply hang. They are /nailed/ into the concrete. They are naked. They are /flayed/, and they have all been partially eaten. Some of those bite marks aren't Trandoshan, either. The big red bastard of an oveseer has collected the heads of all the dead in a big mesh bag, their faces all locked in expressions of horror and fear - and sprayed with some kind of fixative so that the flesh and bone is fixed there, forever preserved, in dullcoted lacquer. Trophies, albeit truly horrifying ones.
The gunmen are dressed in light armor, but for many there are all manner of gruesome affectatons with them beyond their everyday tactical gear; flaying knives on their belts, necklaces made from the teeth of many different sentients. Blood smeared on their faces like warpaint, credit pouches made from tanned skin. It's almost as though they've gone native, and tried to adopt the characteristics of their leader, for whom bones are hung in long necklaces down his front, and a finely-tanned shirt made of what looks like the skin of some sentient being worn under his armor. Ruined, now, mercifully.
As for the skins of the dead crewmen, there is no sign.
When the blasterfire stops, Atria risks a look from behind her pillar. Seeing that the battle is over, she orders her men to help secure the building then goes inside herself, her repeater slung on her back. She surveys the carnage left by the pirates, but whatever expression she has is hidden by the helmet of her armor. The clenched fists, however, are a pretty good sign of her mental state.
Tam's there with the van, and the medical help. Bar has taken command of the scene. Atria's won her way through to the inside of the warehouse. And Sion has the last pirates at gunpoint. With them secured for interrogation, there's only the task of dealing with what's inside. Some of that can be done immediately. Some, of course, will take a long, long time to do. Like seeing what's left of people one once worked with. Sion can vouch for the latter. She looks them over, her dark eyes bleak, and shivers. It's a long minute, and several deep breaths before she can move again. But when she turns, that cold fire is back in her eyes, and she moves with a purpose. Straight over to the Trandoshan leader. Pausing to find his blade, a big and nasty vibrodagger that's more of a shortsword to her size, she sets to work. Ugly, messy work. In the end, a new decoration adorns the lamp-post outside the warehouse: The leader's red-scaled head, sprayed with preservative, mouth open in astonishment. A sign hung below it reads, '(Today's Date): A Kandaka Blade. He Tortured And Murdered Array Consortium Personnel. Justice Is Done.'
Shoving the vibroblade into its sheath, the Socorran turns for the speeder truck. She's done here.
Tamrae just...stays in the truck. Yup. She really doesn't want to see the aftermath if she doesn't have to, she'll just focus on getting veryone home at this point.
The bodies are bagged and the prisoners shackled; the grisly display left by Sion seems to buoy up the security troopers, but they say nothing as they work. The prisoners, for their part, are...well, they aren't beaten, but someone falls and hits their head on the way into the van. That said, you did your jobs, and you did them well. And more importantly, some of these men might have bounties. Money that could go back to the families of the slain. It will take some times - and a lot of questioning - but at least you have an idea of what you're dealing with now.
Not that it's, you know, great.
