Log:Ebon Guard: Captured!
Captured
OOC Date: November 27, 2017
Location: Unknown Regions
Participants: Vraag Rengh, Papo Agora, Tig Follox, Jarret Sur, Ayeeou Wanaii, Zandra naMuriel, Siha Archer, Hopp Nooram, Narsai Ordo, Ebon Guard
The trip back out into the unknown Regions from Nad Shaddaa had been fairly uneventful, if not outright boring. Typical travel amenities aboard the Omen were afforded to the members of the Ebon Guard along with their Mandalorian Reviver tag along. Modest private quarters had been provided to each member, and those that would be venturing out into the frigid environment of the small planet were taken off duty while the new hires for the Ebon Guard handled everything from flight to food prep.
Finally Vraag's voice can be heard over the ship intercom system as the ship itself moves in for a landing at the appointed coordinates that the Guard had been given, the Omen touching down in the ice and snow with a resounding shudder on the planet's southern hemisphere, far from the palace where they had met with the world's apparent king. A pair of land speeders await the Guard as the Omen's boarding ramp opens, a member of the King's Royal Guard seated atop each as they watch the ship and wait for the mercenary band.
"Alright, you guys know the drill. These stiffs over here are the King's men he has sent to help us find his daughter, and knowing that one that means they're also looking for any chance to get the upper hand on us after we find this kidnapped princess. Everyone keep an eye on them. Looks like we're going to have to split up into two groups if we're going to fit into these speeders. Let's have Tig, Hopp, and Jarret in the first. Me, Papo, Narsai, and Ayeeou will take the other.”
Papo Agora is well bundled for the weather. Beneath her armor, the doctor has layered thermal protection and has stuffed some extra rolls of clothing in her bag. She's a big lady, but the additional layers make her seem almost bear like - and in that armor? Papo scary. "Fine." The medic grunts, voice tinny behind her helmet. "We meeting right back up or should we split up the ones with medical degrees?" Yee can't see the wink that Papo gives behind her visor as she passes en-route to the second speeder.
"Aye aye, Cap," Tig Follox says as she adjusts her helmet and rolls her shoulders. She is short and not nearly as intimidating as the armored bear next to her. "Let's get this shit over with." The odd looking baton swings at her belt, her back covered in her trusty cloak. Under foot the snox and ice crunch, giving way as she keeps the crampons dug in with each step. "No falling this time, huh?" Tig warns as the ice under her shifts a little. "If you break a hip, gramps, you're gonna be a Mando pop. Got it?"
Odd one out and Sister to a Mandalore most people in the room didn't recognize, Narsai's largest concern on the flight over? Leaving the Thunderheart behind. She'd pour most of her talent and most of her life into that ship, any job where she had to leave it behind to fly in another almost felt like a betrayal. Still, she'd have to get over it! This was basically merc work, like the old days before grander causes, but to be fighting alongside other Mandalorians who weren't among the Revivers? That was something that hadn't happened in a rather long time. Hair tied back, weapon loaded and gear checked, Narsai steps down the landing pad in her red and black armor, following among the others. Some she'd met before, others were new faces to her.
Making her way towards the second speeder, she gives an audible chuckle behind the shroud of her T-Visor. "All going well, we won't be needing your degrees as much as your blasters." Doctor Yee, who still doesn't look like someone who is prepared to use a blaster though she is wearing one, spent most of the time in the med bay, making certain that everything was ready there. Just in case. Because, sometimes things happen. She's the junior medic on this trip, so she doesn't mind doing the dull prep work. Once it's time to land and debark, she gets the cold weather gear on and joins the rest, mostly quiet. She nods when assigned to her speeder, and then is very, very careful leaving the ship. When Tig comments about the falling last time, she can't quite help a chuckle. She does look curious, at Papo's question about splitting the medics.
Tromping down the ramp on thin, spider-like legs, Hopp Nooram carries his helmet shoved under his arm, tucking his thumbs into his gunbelt and shifting it around his narrow waist uncomfortably. "I don't like this gun you gave me, Vraag," he complains in a gruff, grating voice, sniffing and spitting in the same breath before he hops up into the first speeder. "It chafes right above my jimmies." The comment from Papo draws his ire, a flaming brown eye squinting back at her from the front. "Who says you're the only ones with medical degrees? And that shit is overrated anyhow." Pulling close to Tig's ear, he lights up a cig and whispers, "I ain't got a medical degree, but watch 'em squirm out there tryin' to show me up." His long, bony fingers curl into a ball and then pop apart as he makes a little 'poo!' sound, alternating chuckling and coughing as he settles into the seat and the smoke begins to drift up around his crazy pale hair.
And in the back of one of the landspeeders, Jarret sits silently, watching the landscape as it stretches on - glittering and cold, an icy waste that nonetheless yields incredible riches. He offers nothing, simply providing overwatch. It's usually better for everyone if he keeps his trap shut.
Zan is quiet, as she's come along. Hopefully not wearing a red shirt. The pilot is really not sure what she's going to be able to help with, but - here she is. Gulp. She got sent along with Tig, Hopp and Jarret, so she's settled in near Jarret, totally not trusting the king's guides/speeder drivers for an instant. Especially not after their last encounter with the fat king.
The land speeders have metal plating all around them and a hatch on the top which provides entry into the vehicle, as well as protection from the frigid temperatures as the vehicle moves. As each member of the mercenary band approach their intended speeder, the royal guard awaiting them instructs them how to turn their comms on to the local channel, allowing each member to hear what is going on in either speeder so that the teams may still coordinate. The interior of the speeders is... cozy... for lack of a better word, Papo and Vraag no doubt doing a good job of taking up enough room to be annoying to the other members.
The speeders launch off with enough force to tug each members' head back against the seat, and looking through the rear view port will reveal a spray of water as the speeder repulsers melt the ice and snow, causing a rooster tail to leap away and the water to refreeze in the cold air. "Keep your eyes peeled," Vraag says into the comms as the speeder zips along. "If these people are ballsy enough to break into a palace, I'd imagine they won't take kindly to us coming to take back what they stole."
Her own crampons anchor each step to the ice as Papo picks towards the speeder, snow crunching and ice sagging with low growls. "Smoking is bad for you." The medic, an incredibly heavy smoker herself, grumbles as she folds her considerable bulk into the speeder with a last glare at Hopp. The T-Visor makes everything a glare, but she is somehow able to laser-beam her deeper-than-average disdain at the old fart nonetheless. "How the kriff did I get the middle seat?" She grumbles, trying to pull her knees closer together. It doesn't make it any more comfortable. She doesn't even attempt to see out the window, she's too busy suffocating and resenting Vraag's manspreading.
Tig Follow settles back in her seat, keeping a hand on the baton and twisting it off it's mag to lay across her lap. She rogers to Vraag's request and taps her foot on the slim bit of real estate that the crowded speeder allows. Being small has it advantages. She looks downright comfy. As they move along and the Omen is lost behind them, Tig sits up a little, leaning forward. "Is that where we're going?" she asks to the others through their comms, lifting a hand to point at whatever the heck she spies with her visor eye.
It's a good thing that Narsai was on the smaller end of statures, but there was still enough people wearing armor and carrying weapons crammed into a speeder? Noone was going to be comfortable. Scanning the horizon from behind her T-visor, she speaks over the comm channel to the group. "They've got to be expecting someone to make some sort of attempt, right? Hopefully not to the degree of us, but they're probably armed to repel a retrieval team of some sort." She trails off as Tig reaches up to point out, engaging her helmet's magnification to peer at whatever it is she'd spotted.
Ayeeou settles into the speeder after her careful walk to it, wedged in with the others. While she seems mostly alright with this, and while her tendrils are wrapped well to stay warm... ish, they don't seem to like lots of touching others. She does try to look around, but it would be fair to say that spotting trouble while speeding along through an icy wilderness isn't her area of expertise.
"You're goddamn right it is," Hopp growls under his breath, tossing his head back and letting the wind whip through his sparse crown of flyaway hair. He's just enjoying the breeze, not really keeping much of an eye out, and the brightness glaring back off the icy surface is making that hard through his old eyes anyway. "So what's the deal here, anyway, I didn't- you know, I didn't get much of a briefing on this. Point me in the right direction, here, Tig, Vraag gave me a gun. It chafes, though, gonna have to deal with that." He squints into the distance, puffing out smoke all the while.
Talking of guns, Jarret has quietly drawn his from its place on his hip, lifting his gun to peer through its oversized and powerful scope in the direction Tig indicates. "Perhaps I can see something also," he says. "Contact Vraag Rengh, sister, tell him what you see."
Zan has no clue what she might even be looking for, truthfully. So she looks - and sees ice, snow, pretty sunlight bouncing off the above, and the smoke that Hopp is emitting like a chimney. That she definitely sees. She at least is better equipped this time, having had forwarning. That is, she's dressed far more warmly, and hopefully won't freeze. But she's totally not spying anything, so she gives Tig and Jarret a puzzled look. Quietly for the moment.
Siha Archer is along for the ride, a coat worn over her fiber armor shipsuit, a scarf wound around her neck and a pair of snow goggles worn. Atop her head is a nice knitted top of dark brown, and her hands are gloved. Squished in along the others she'll keep her knees together, hands squeezed between them, body rocking with each bounce the speeder takes, the occasional 'Sorry, sorry' murmured when she knocks into one of her seatmates. Fun fun.,
Vraag turns his head around as Tig mentions seeing something out in the distance, the big man bending his head down low so that he can peer out of the front view port rather than just sit with his head banging against the ceiling. He is about to speak when Speeder 2's driver speaks up from where he's at. There is a grunt of confusion before the man reaches over to toggle up a primitive sort of terrain display that is basically a sort of crappy GPS system with lines and shapes. "Not supposed to be anything out this way," the driver grunts into the comms, words that find their way into the ear of every person riding out this way.
In the other speeder, their driver is doing much the same, bringing up his own navigation display and checking for confirmation. The driver of Speeder 1 shrugs his shoulders and says to all, "Whatever it is, I say we go around it. Stuff popping up out of thin air is never a good thing on this planet. Adjusting course."
The Speeders begin to tack left, and soon are moving in a direction that will let them circle wide out to the side of that weird looking shape that all can see by now through scope or helmet magnification. Vraag's voice can be heard as he says, "It almost looks like some sort of cave in... like a mountain just collapsed right in that spot... Weird."
"Of course there's not." Papo grumbles back through the comms, sighing - but Vraag's words give her pause and she fidgets uncomfortably (as well as she can wedged between her companions). "Stuff popping up out of thin air is never a good thing anywhere... The ice a danger if something collapsed, driver?" She questions hesitantly, peering out over the snowscape but picking out no details of importance.
"Just... looks like a mountain or something. Really far away?" Tig says vaguely and glances to the others in her speeder. Hopp gets a look. It's a sort of bewildered, head tilting one. What a grumpy old man, her face seems to say. "Oh, see? That!" she motions again to the spot she had spied before, but can't make heads or tails of it. They're just going around, so Tig shrugs and sits back.
It looks like..." Narsai begins before her eyes narrow behind her mask. "Potential incoming!" she calls out over the comm. "Four or Five marks, could be speeders like ours." A pause, she glances over her shoulder at the driver and the other Mandalorians. "We're not expectin' any backup, are we?" Even as she asks, the Ordo is already lifting her carbine to peer down her scope at the potential threat. "They must have seen us coming."
Ayeeou peers as there seems to be something worth going around, but it's pretty well lost on her. Instead, she sits back and lets the professionals try to pick out any dangers. She just watches the view she's facing, trying to appreciate it. A little, anyway. Until there's the warning and she blinks once and tenses before looking to see how the others in her speeder react.
"Well, the odds are, a whole mountain didn't drop into the earth," Hopp observes astutely, craning his long neck up to peer out at the anomaly without rising too far from his seat. "So that's something else, and our 'guides' here are oddly clueless about what it might be, both of which don't seem like coincidences, there, Tig," the old fogey continues, scratching at a scruffy cheek. "Think Vraag'd be upset if we just shoot 'em?" he breathes in her ear, washing her with rancid breath that mercifully gets whipped away by the wind.
But over in Jarret's spot, the tall, lean man is playing spotter. "Vraag Rengh," he says over the communal comms net, "We have speeders incoming. Four...perhaps five, in position behind us and gaining ground. I cannot identify them yet, but I would assume they are an armed pursuit group. Your orders?"
Zan is as clueless as Yee, though she probably has less excuse. At least a little. Though as the call about incoming comes out, her eyes widen and she takes in a deep breath. There's a moment of panic that she seriously shoves back into her gut with a mental grumble that comes out as "we're all too young to die. Well, except maybe him." And that is followed by a, "I really need to learn self defence. But for now, what should I do? Other than hide under my seat?"
Siha Archer hears Narsai and turns her head to look out to the far left in the direction the other woman is indicated, looking over her shoulder do to so. She'll push up her goggles to her forehead and squint, looking out and nodding her head, "Yeah, she's right, and they're on a path to intercept ours." The pilot will say, tongue pressing to the corner of her mouth as she confirms that inside her brain with a quick few calculations in her head, "Oh yeah, definitely on an intercept course. So if nothing, or no one, is supposed to be out this way, I'm thinking we got some trouble." Jarret just confirms her suspicions, and she'll slip those goggles back on down to her face, settling back down into her seat, "Can you punch air? If you can punch air, you can get close enough to whack 'em if you need, hun." Siha says to Zan, her own hands unzipping her coat to draw out her gun.
Vraag turns in his seat, as much as his massive size will allow in the tight confines of the speeder. His head moves around to mark the three different groups that are moving in on them, one from the rear and another from either side. "Everyone, make sure your armor is on and sealed! If we can't outrun them, everyone close in around Zandra, Ayeeou, and Siha!" he begins to issue orders before he is interrupted by pandemonium breaking loose.
The driver in Speeder 1 had apparently gotten nervous at the sudden appearance of three enemy speeder groups moving to intercept the small band and put on an extra burst of speed. Speeder 1 begins to pull away from Speeder 2, moving into the lead as the pair of vehicles move quickly to try and escape that closing pincer of enemy vessels. Moving so quickly, it is too late to react by the time the wide open trench carved into the ice can be seen. The land speeder's nose tips easily into the wide trench, and the vessel carrying Tig, Hopp, Jarret, Zandra, and their driver plunges down into the hole to stop with a sudden and violent jerk. Speeder 2's engines die almost immediately before the driver engages the reverse and just barely manages to get the vessel stopped before it falls in atop the first.
There is little room to be battle-squemish among Mandalorians. Papo doesn't have the same reservations that some of the others display, and instead there is a smile that forms behind her T-Visor. In the cramped space, a hand drifts to her ax, but there's little she can do now - let those with scopes and a clear line of sight pick them off from afar, and the melee crew can clean up what's left. At least, that's the plan Papo sets up in her head before speeders start disappearing into the ice. "Mother-!" Reflexively, a large hand moves to grip the seat in front of her because she is sure that they're going in on top - but they're not. Despite the encroaching pincer of enemy vessels, Papo turns abruptly toward Narsai on her right. "Get the door!" She barks, decorum lost. That speeder just went down, someone's gotta be hurt, right? "This is why you split the medics!" Papo gripes, trying to crane across the seats to get the door open.
Tig heaves up to get into a better position to close in around Zandra.... at exactly the wrong moment. The speeder lurches as it barrels into the hole suddenly, sending Tig flying out of the speeder and slamming hard into the ice near where the driver lands. The baton she was holding skitters across the ice and stops several feet away from her location. Her armor spots gashes and grooves that follow the pattern of the ice. But she isn't dead, it seems. The pilot stirs, pushing herself halfway up on an elbow dazedly.
Narsai didn't need to be told twice, she was already going for the door after seeing the others Speeder go over. "Move!" she calls, bringing her weapon up and taking aim at the speeders incoming. "Check on the wounded, I'll cover you!" Narsai was actually decent at treating the injured, but there were two medics in the speeder that could do the job. The Ordo girl? She was going to focus on doing a little violence to keep the others safe. Or at the very least, she was going to do her best to try."
There's things happening, and the wide-eyed Nautolan isn't sure what to do about it all. The speeder she's in with the others reverses suddenly to stop, and Ayeeou hangs on to keep from going flying. "What happened? Is anyone hurt?" she asks quickly, the word 'yet' seeming to hover there briefly. She's clearly worried as she moves to follow Papo to see to anyone who needs, and it looks like it hasn't even occurred to her to unholster her blaster. She may have forgotten she's wearing one.
"Who's Zandra?!" Hopp yells, spreading his long, bony hands wide at Tig, like 'who are they talking about?' in that old, cranky, old dude manner. About the time he asks his question, though, the speeder pitches abruptly into a trench, spilling the passengers everywhere. Remarkably, the codger rolls to a stop and picks himself up again, looking around for his helmet with a sour expression on his face. "First time out with the damn thing and it's lost already, it just- it just figures," he grouses, spying it then propped against a rock. Ignoring the others, he stalks over and plucks it up, turning back towards the rest and he plops it down atop his frizzy grey hair. "Where's all those prissy doctors? Get down here!" A cig thumps into the front of the helmet, smushing the filter.
Zan is trying to figure out what to do when the speeder goes flying into a trench, and there's a squeak from the pilot, but she somehow manages to not get fallen on, squished, or trapped, and ends up on scrambling to her feet, with a very startled look on her face. "I'm Zandra," she replies bemusedly. She has a blaster pistol, at least, though it's not a big one. And that gets drawn so she's at least ready to try to shoot, should anything get too close. "I should have stayed on the Omen," she mutters. "but nooo - and now I'm here causing you trouble." She stops there, just shutting up, expression tight, shoulders hunched, and heart in her throat.
So closely is Jarret paying attention to the incoming speeders that he doesn't see the trench opening up - which means that he gets to hit his head, /hard/, on the roof of the speeder's cab as it goes down. He manages a gurgle as his head floods with pain and his eyes are masked momentarily with a red film, and in that moment he is stunned.
"Whoa, man." Siha will say as Vraag turns around and squishes the already squishy space smaller. Her weapon is quickly tucked into the pocket of her coat for easy access once out of the speeder. However, no sooner does she tuck that gun away that she finds herself turning her head to see that speeder crash, "Whoa, see ...this is why I should have been piloting." Breathlessly murmured, Siha scrambling out of speeder 2, her gun whipped out of her pocket once more as she sinks down into the snow up to her knees. Coils of warm air drift around her face as she breathes out heavily into the cool air, "You all okay??" Called out over her shoulder as she orients herself towards the group of speeders bearing down on them.
The group down in the trench are treated to a particularly gruesome sight as they pull themselves from the wrecked land speeder. All around them are similar vehicles in similar states of wreckage, and bodies laid out on the ice. Some are stuck with sharpened lengths of salvaged metal fashioned into spears, others exposed to the cold for long enough that their bodies gave in to the elements.
Vraag follows the rest out of their speeder, and his big feet carry him on a pounding coarse toward the hole. He drops down to his left hip, letting his momentum carry him on a slide that drops him down the sheer side of the trench to slam boots onto the ground. "Papo!" he calls out into the comms, "You stay up there to help fight! Ayeeou can come down here and check them out while I help them get up top!" True to form, Vraag crouches and sets his back against the wall of ice, bending his knees and locking his fingers together so that he might give those down below a leg up.
Topside, the speeders don't keep those offering a fight waiting for long. Speeders slow to a stop, and people begin spilling out of them. A huge number of dirty looking and emaciated people begin to yell as they run forward, some holding blasters, but most holding salvaged metal shaped into primitive weapons.
"Fine by me." Papo groans, but there is a hesitation as she turns her back on the downed speeder and her wounded team. These fiends look dirty, drawn, and desperate - not the kind of foe she enjoys mowing down, but an enemy nonetheless. "You could have asked nicely." She laments before compartamentalizing that part of her that cares; they're nameless meatsacks full of juices and regret and they split apart just as easily. The first to approach within range meets the medic's heavy ax, the swing biting unapologetically into her with a spray of flesh and marrow, bones failing with her foe's advance. "How're they looking down there, Yee?" She calls emotionlessly over her shoulder, past the cover Narsai provides.
The air is knocked out of Tig. She pushes as much as she can, fails, and cringes against the ice again. "Can'...." she wheezes. "Can'... bre...tha." is about the best she can do. Give her a minute.
Narsai can't help but feel the sting of familarity as Papo charges forwards, swinging her axe and cleaving through some of the approaching hostiles. It did remind her quite a bit of a friend who'd long since left. But there was time for nostalgia later, right now they had things to kill and people to protect. Advancing with her customized carbine held in both hands, the redhead fires,her first shot just barely missing the one of hostiles holding a blaster before the next hits him square in the face and causes the man to crumple like a puppet with its strings cut. Switching up, she takes aim at one of the better armed, better armored folks who look more 'in charge', firing a bolt that goes wide.
The funniest thing about having Ayeeou see to any injuries in the trench is going to be seeing her get down into it without damaging herself. At least, it would be funny if people could spare the attention to watch her at it. She pauses at the edge, to look down there at the previous victims, and frowns a little. "That's... steep." She does, at least, have the presence of mind to be crouched down, since apparently there's going to be a fire fight and that just seems like the smart thing to do to avoid being hit by something. She girds herself then and just slides down on her rear as that seems the safest way. Because she'll be of little use to the others if she breaks something trying to get to them. Once down, she gets to work immediately on the injured, working quickly and efficiently.
Uninjured, Hopp latches onto Vraag's shoulders, shoving his boot into the big man's clasped fingers, and starts scrabbling up the side of the trench. His long, thin frame is long and thin, but there's not a lot of strength in those limbs. Luckily, Vraag has him covered with a big boost up, and he only steps on the big man's face once. "What's- who are these people," the old fellow demands, confused, glaring around at the oncoming assault, pulling his own blaster from the holster and slotting a powercell into it with surprising dexterity. "I see we've decided we're not interested in finding out," he continues, sheltering behind an outcropping.
Thankfully, terror does funny things to Zandra. Like make her reflexes faster and her ability to climb suddenly appear even though she's never climbed most anything in her life. She totally takes Vraag's help, as required, and is a lot lighter on her feet than Hopp appears to have been. "Thanks," she says to the big man, quite definitely. "I came up because I don't know how to help Yee either, but if I need to go back down there, I can." She has no idea where to go, but follows Hopp's example, taking her chance to hide for now, behind whatever outcropping she can find.
The attackers up top continue to rush in without fear at the group of Mandalorians, pressing in on the group that tries to stand against the wave. Attacks begin to fly in, a man rushing forward with a piece of sharpened steel to stab at Papo, while thin soldiers wrapped in thick bunches of fabric fire blasters at Narsai, Zandra, and Hopp. Oddly enough, it does not seem like the attackers are really attacking to kill the group quickly. More so, it seems like they are toying with the few brave defenders, playing with them and making the skirmish seem like entertainment for those few in the back who lean against their speeders, nudging one another and pointing... making bets and laughing as their fellows are shot dead.
Down in the hole, Ayeeou makes an efficient circuit as she moves from one injured person to the next, checking them out and managing to get them pieced together enough that they can stand and move to escape the trench.
She's charged, and while Papo is busy eyeing the assholes standing around in the back, something stabs /her/ in the back! Well... The side, but the turn of phrase was too easy not to pass up. The attacker manages to shank through the joints of her armor between torso and hip and the metal piece makes a shallow puncture. The shard of improvised weapon is doomed to stay just where it is, jammed inside Papo, because with a roar, the big woman spins and takes the man's head off. It hits the ice with a dry 'thud' and rolls several feet before his body slumps to its knees. She yanks the shard out with a grimace and throws the bloodied bit of metal to the snow without a word.
Tig Follox hacks and coughs, thankfully not into her comm, as she finally manages to get her air pipes open and working again. Tig groans, scoops up her baton, and pushes herself weakly out of the hole. "M'okay, m'okay," the armored woman says as she tries to gather herself after being thrown out of a speeder. The bow snaps it's long arms out of it's body and Tig starts to arm it. "Who the fuck are these guys?" she demands in a strangled, still oxygen deprived voice.
Narsai continues firing, but that sudden blast that hits her? It hits her a lot heavier than the shard of metal had her axe-wielding companion. Giving a shriek of pain and then gritting her teeth, Narsai rounds on the heavily armed leader that shot her, letting loose a barrage of shots at the man while she takes cover, trying to ignore the pain in her side. Well...that damn well hurt.
Ayeeou keeps working so long as the three injured need assistance, and then she will help Vraag to help them up and out of the hole. Not that she now seems to be in a rush to get out of it herself yet. There's violence being perpetrated up there. No place at all for a young Nautolan. But, then there's sounds that say there are people up there needing help too, so she sighs and follows up after the injured.
Supposedly, the DL-54 that Hopp hefts in one bony hand is difficult to manage in even a well-trained marksman's hands, and his are about as jittery as a kid playing hooky walking past the truant office. He pulls the trigger and blasts a pair of bolts at the nearest bundled-up bandit, but they both go just barely wide. "Dammit Vraag, what the hell kind of blaster is this? You kids and your new-fangled toys, can't give an old man a gimmick like this without warning him first! Back in my day the blasters shot one time if you were lucky, and we were thankful!"
Stunned longer than he thought, the world returns to Jarret and he finds it full of blaster fire. He mutters some low curse as he clambers out of the speeder, using his mailed fingers as handholds as he punches his way up the bank to the battlefield with Vraag's help.
Zan is literally just hiding. Yup. Cause what else is a young adult who knows nothing about fighting to do. Course, that literally doesn't help her when someone figures out she's there despite her hiding and shoots their blaster at her. She squeezes her eyes shut, hissing out her breath at the sudden unexpected and searing pain. Not a scream but a whimper comes out of her as she crumples to the ground, her flight suit definitely not vacuum worthy any more, though still affording her some protection. She's bleeding though, not even really aware that she's been shot, just that there is pain. Oh so unexpected and unhappy pain. Of course, she reaches out to touch the spot that is hurting, her finger tips coming back red, and that causes her to go pale, "Did .. Did I just get shot? That can't be right!" She again tries to draw her little blaster pistol. But she's not having much luck with that, given she's still freaking out mentally about the sudden pain and the very idea that someone shot her.
Siha Archer took her sweet ass time loading up her weapon, gloved hands don't help her at all as the chamber is switched out. She at one point had to bite her glove off by the index finger, freeing up one hand which is then able to do the fine fingerwork needed.
"Alllmost there." Siha mutters around the glove as she bites down on it, and then finally she loads and puts the gun back together. With a woop of success she is all too happy to shoot at the people bearing down on the group, while finally realizing that there is already a lot of blood around her, grey eyes scouring the scene with some surprise. Oh man. They started without her. Man, she needs to quicken things up on her end. "Bloody hells and ringing bells-" She raises up her wee gun, and will aim to shoot at the exotic looking thug, who ..perhaps has braids with feathers in their hair? Icicles? Whatever it is, Siha is leaning back on her left foot as she aims her gun with her left hand, firing off some shots, "Don't forget to remind me to get a new bloody gun!!!! Something bigger than this womprat shooter!" Called out to no one in particular, though someone out to remember later, right? Because she is u-s-e-l-e-s-s.
Vraag waits until the last person of their troupe, the driver, makes his way over to the big Mandalorian, shuffling and wobbly on his feet. Vraag ends up having to almost throw the drive up out of the hole, and then turns to look up at the sheer ice wall. He dusts his hands together in a determined fashion before he jumps as high as his bulk will let him.... which let's face it is not that high. Fortunately being seven feet tall, he has long enough arms that let him grasp the edges of the wall and begin to pull himself up. Fingers scrabble for purchase on the ice, but at the last moment slip free and drop Vraag back inside. "Damnit!" he yells aloud as blaster fire erupts from above.
One of the guys leaned back on one of the speeders watching the fight nudges his buddy and points toward where Papo just cut the head clean from her adversary, and then tosses his head back and laughs loudly. Those watching are all pointing and yelling, cheering on those that step forward to fight as blaster fire continues to dive in at the Mandalorians.
Gods above does Papo need a cigarette. "Alright there?" She growls over her shoulder at Tig as she arises from the crevice, and behind her T-visor the medic's face twists to a frown. "Alright /there/?" She corrects as Narsai screams, and she is moving in that direction with her ax still hefted. And then Zandra - it's not the young woman that Papo's ire explodes at, but Vraag as she spies the non-combatant go down - even though he's still in the crack. "The /FUCK/ were you thinking bringing civvies out into this?" There's no point to her yelling, she just /really/ needs a cigarette. With several wounded and two medics, Papo has the privilege to priorize - and tending to the Mandalorian who can keep fighting takes precedence - sorry Zandra! She keeps moving to Narsai, limping from he wound in her side. Her ax is set aside as she yanks her medpac out. "Cover me." She growls to the other Mandalorian as she scans her, and is reaching for an antiseptic spray when a blaster bolt catches her clean in the chest. The medic is blown back by the impact, wheezing at the damage the armor didn't absorb. Her helmet is thrown from her with the landing and skitters down into the crevasse. There is blood on her teeth as she bares them, struggling on her belly back toward Narsai. She can still doctor guys, she can totally still doctor.
"Kriffin'...!" TIg grits her teeth as something blasts her in the shoulder. "This was a trap!" the short Mandalorian snarls. "I've been better!" Tig shouts back at Papo as she makes for a small lump of ice that might, maybe, kinda give her some cover. "Covering!" she promises Papo as she takes a few shots at those closest to the medic. She whips around, nails one of them in the leg, and slides back to the ice lump to reload. "Orders?" she barks into the comms in a tight voice. "We're going to die out here!"
Narsai was hit...a little too hard. She'd picked a hell of a time to start missing! With a new smoking mark on the chest of her red and black armor, the redhead goes tumbling into the snow with a little hiss of pain. Did she have more tricks up her sleeve to fight back? Almost certainly, but she'd been hit so hard she hadn't gotten the chance! Bleeding, it's all she can do to lay out of the line of fire, clumsy hands fumbling to try and reach her medpac while she struggles to stay concious.
Doctor Yee was right - there's injured up here now, too! There's also still violence, so she crouches again. That turns out to do her no good, though. She's on her way to try to sneak to one of the bleeding people when she's hit as well. The sudden pain to her side causes her to shriek, stumble and then fall to the ice. Another civvie down, though she's still conscious. Apparently not able to think past the pain, though. Might be time for someone to run up a white flag.
Jarret does the smart thing as he climbs up the side of the cliff; he looks around, sees his comrades bleeding on the ice. He sees his commander below him. He does not bother to draw his gun, because Jarret does math on the regular - and /this/ math has an easy solution.
"Our forces are depleted, Vraag Rengh," he sounds over the commnet. "I count at least thirty remaining combatants. It would be best to call surrender, else we will all die here."
Math: it sucks, but it don't lie.
Despite his complaints, Hopp's getting the hang of the double-whammy of the DL-54, aiming with a little more caution and anticipating the jump of the beastly thing, managing the recoil a little bit better. One of the sicker-looking bandits goes down hard following the old man's hits, and he crows victoriously, looking around at the others to brag and finding that there's not many of them left on their feet. "Maybe I was wrong about this thing," he grates out to no one in particular. "But uh, you- you ought to get up here, Vraag, it looks like we're gonna die in glorious combat and you probably don't want to be down in the pit for that," the old fart recommends. "It's all the same to me, but you seem like the sort to be all put out over something like that."
Zan finally manages to move a bit, cringing at the pain, but she hears the comm communication from Jarret, and then Hopp, and that brings a laugh to Zan. Who immediately regrets it. She looks around and then has to nod, though she's not trying talking right at the moment. She does try instead to get over to Yee, to see if she can do anything to help. Not that she knows bubkus about first aid, but ... someone has to. Those crazies shooting -well, at least she'll die trying to help someone.
SNAP. Siha can hear it before she can feel it, the sudden smash of energy in her lower back sending her careening forwards, the wind knocked out of her lungs. Face-planting forwards in the snow a crimson spurt she manages to turn her head as she gasps out for air, sinking partially down into the snow she was knee deep in only moments before. She coughs as she struggles, red foam spattering onto the snow as she does so. With a gurgling gasp she flails one arm out as she tries to flip over onto her back, her chest rising and falling in staggered breaths, grey eyes looking through the lenses of her goggles up at the stark winter sky, right arm slinging over her chest limply, the left one raising as high as she can manage, maybe a foot, to wave as she weakly sputters, "Shi- I give. I give." Another coughing attack wracks her body, legs splayed as heels try to dig in to give her some traction to get up. But she ain't getting up nowhere.
Vraag is pacing like a caged animal down in that pit. He can hear the shrieks of his people up top, seeming to bounce inside his helmet as the comms feed their sounds of pain directly into his ear. He hears Tig's question and is about to answer when one of the bosses sitting atop one of the speeders takes the choice out of his hands. A nod is sent to a few of the men, who then step forward and toggle on a few stun grenades before hurling them out into the midst of those still fighting. There is a moment, a matter of seconds, as the explosives bounce and roll until their momentum is played out, and then the explosives erupt. Pulses of electricity radiate outward around the area of combat, hitting Mandalorian and Friends, as well as the enemy fighters and putting them all down. Even Vraag is not spared from the electrical surge, his body jerking under the force of the current and collapsing to the snow where he shudders before finally going still.
One by one the Ebon Guard/Friends are gathered, their weapons taken from them, before they are bound and strapped to the top of speeders. The wind is cold, and their captors do not take it easy on them as they hurdle along at a fast pace, heading directly for the tumble of rocks the group had seen earlier. A huge mass, the speeders zip ever closer to what appears to be a collision with solid stone before all at once slipping into a cleverly disguised gap in the stone and going underground into a low and long room.
The prisoners are pulled from the tops of the speeders, and forced to march at blaster point into the corner of the room where they are made to strip out of their armor and given a simple cloth tunic and trousers, the fabric doing little to protect them from the cold that is felt even in this underground structure.
Once dressed, the group is lead down a long hallway of nondescript white, before stalling before a simple door. Once opened, it reveals a room full of emaciated prisoners, some so weak that they can't even stand but must drag themselves across the floor as they look toward the new arrivals, and far too few beds. There is a laugh from the doorway, one of the men who had been in charge out by the trench giving them a wide smile that is missing almost as many teeth as he has left before saying, "Welcome to the Forlorn Keep. I hope you enjoy your stay as much as we will." There is a rough laugh from the man before the door is slammed and electronic locking mechanisms engage.
She is struggling - but she's still moving. Papo drags herself forward, hand over hand, through the snow. "Stay with me." She croons over Narsai and winces as she drags herself to her knees beside the other Mandalorian. She takes stock as she tends to her and just... Things aren't good. They are not good. She winces as a blaster bolt flashes too close by her ear, her head is way too exposed without that helmet, but she doesn't look away from the bacta spray she's applying. "The doctor next." She wheezes to herself like a mantra, breath coming with increasing difficulty. "Just a patch, onto the next - man, does anyone have-" She coughs and it hurts. Her gaze follows the stun grenades but she keeps spraying bacta with a resigned sigh. "-a cigarette." And then the world is white.
The next phase passes in a blur as she stumbles forward into the 'Forlorn Keep'. She watches their captor leave them with a cold, dead stare before she turns to look over their bedraggled party. "Guess I can still kiss your booboos." She really doesn't want to think about how long the rest of the prisoners have been there. "Whose first?" Without a medpac, she will probably just be kissing the booboos.
And so...here we are.
Without a word, Jarret - once he is locked in - begins to examine bunkroom. He, having done math, did not get torn up beyond the wind and the eletrical grenade burst. So, no booboo-kissing for him. Homeslice is looking for structural failings,all that kind of mess. Because that's what he does. Shoot things, build things, fix things, say weird things. Solid.
Zan is closed in on herself now, shot, stunned, frozen, and now imprisoned. This is definitely going down in her journal as Zan's very bad, messed up day. She stays with Yee and whoever is near the Nautolan, quiet, curled up, and wide eyed. It's entirely likely that she's in shock.
Siha Archer slumps down as soon as she's able, somewhat patched up, still wheezing heavily, her knees drawn up to her chest as she sinks down, arms resting at her sides as she lets her forehead rest in against her knees. Her dark olive flesh is ashen, lips parted as she sucks in all the air she can, only half aware of what's going on around her. Maybe twenty five percent aware. All she knows is her ass is cold and it smells like stale pee, "I ..I think I peed myself." Hoarsely murmured, her body slumping into someone next to her, stealing some of their warmth.
"Those sons of bitches," Hopp grouses, stamping around on his long, stilt-like legs, pants strapped around his chest like a bandolier and long thin tunic the only garment he actually wears. "They took my cigs, Vraag," the man rants, his short, crazy old-man hair sticking up even more wildly than before, maybe from those shock grenades. Thin skin almost grey from lack of sun and the cold, long bony fingers clasping and unclasping as he paces. "I'm gonna make them pay, Vraag, they- they took my cigs! I get cranky without my cigs." Because he wasn't before.
Thankfully, Narsai was almost certainly unconcious for most of the journey back. She might be a bit of a speed freak, but even she probably didn't like being strapped to a speeder. She doesn't really recall having her weapons taken from her, or having her armor replaced by the not-nearly-as-protecting tunic. Hell, someone else might even have dressed her for all she knows, but eventually she'd stir awake again. "I think..." she groans, coming up to sit as best she can while rubbing at her heavily bruised ribs. "It's gonna be a fair bit of kissing." Humor, but even so, there's concern on Narsai's face as she takes in the surroundings.
She'd been in worse jams than this but even so... "I don't suppose anyone saw were they put our gear? It's got a fair amount of 'sentimental' value to me." Her eyes move towards the door of their cell, emerald orbs narrowing. She intends to see about getting them out of the cell, or helping the others do so, as soon as she's sure she can stand up straight. "As far as first 'dates' go, not my best work."
Ayeeou was already on the ground, so at least she didn't have far to go once the stun grenade went off. Really, while it hurt terribly until she blacked out, it might have been a mercy compared with continuing the pain she was already in. The conscious and semi-conscious part of what happens next is made fuzzier by pain, cold, shock and blood loss. Chances are, this is the first major injury the young Nautolan has ever faced. Most certainly, she's never been in a situation like this one before.
In a daze, she manages to change into what they give her, and march with the others to the large cell. She looks around, but for the moment it's hard to tell how much she's really processing of what happened and what's happening. Then, once they are locked in, she just stands there unsteadily, on shaky legs, looking entirely lost and confused. If she's going to try to help anyone else, she'll probably need a little help herself, first.
