Log:Ebon Guard: Liberators

Liberators

OOC Date: September 26, 2017
Location: Mandalore
Participants: Vraag Rengh, Jarret Sur, Barquo Dentoo, Papo Agora, Tess Ul'Datha, Rail Onasi, Ebon Guard

Mandalore.

A desolate planet hidden away and all but impossible to find unless you know where to look. War torn and a hub of oppression, the weak are ground beneath the heel of the strong, each tiny city held by the grip of mighty Warlords turned King.

The Firebrand has managed to land outside of a tiny town on the outskirt of a more populated city, hidden away behind a massive sand dune. The boarding ramp is lowered, and Vraag Rengh stands at the base, his hands on his hips as he gazes out at the thick haze of sand whipping across, what could easily soon stir up into the full blown might of a sandstorm.

'Home' is a funny concept in this galaxy. Papo was born on a ship - she should feel more of a tie to this place, shouldn't she? "I've never been here." Papo admits, voice garbled by her helmet as she steps up behind Vraag. "Weather seems nice." She decides after a moment, laying a hand on the ax at her hip. "You're a contentious people, aren't you?" Rail says, wandering behind Vraag and Papo, the helmet of his new armor held in his hand. "Ruined your own homeworld. But, hey, it's nothing a few potted plants can't fix."

Tess sat in the back of the transport, alone for the last two hours of the journey, listening to music with her sniper rifle laid across her legs like an offering to the gods. In the last thirty minutes she removed the leather harnass that covers her left arm's stump. Those paying attention notice wiring running into the flesh and a bracket on the face to attach the skeletal cybernetic she produces from a rucksack near her.

The fingers of the mechanical appendage flex, unflex, and then settles on her knee for the remainder of the trip.

Once they make land, Tess stands and grabs her pack to hang off one arm and her rifle to hang off the other, then follows the Mandalorian's as they depart onto what equates to home. "Looks like shit." She comments ruefully, "I'm sure it's more appealing with age...?"

Jarret descends the ramp behind Papo, having seen to the ship's systems well enough as they landed. "Blessed be Mandalore," he whispers over the link, looking across the blasted vista through his golden visor. "Bless his coming, bless her going. Bless the Chosen People and all their victories to come." Someone's religious, or as close to it as the Mandalorians get.

Vraag doesn't answer for a while as he looks out over the barren and harsh landscape offered up for viewing by his ancestral home. The sand whipping past is enough to sting the bare flesh of his cheeks, rough as they are from the constant barrage of heat from his forge. A long inhale and exhale precede his thoughtful reply to all at once, "From the legends my people told me, Mandalore was once populated by lush jungles, but the infighting of the clans, and wars with the Jedi slowly ate away at the planet. We were our own worst enemy. Before the Clone Wars, the largest cities existed within bio-domes, that protected what remained of our culture from the harshness that Mandalore had become." His hands drift to his helmet, lifting it from the hook at his hip and pulling it onto his head before snapping it into place, a momentary lapse in sound as the air filtration kicks in, filtering out the sand from being inhaled. "Let's see what she has to offer us, yeah?" he says before stepping off of the ramp, his feet sinking a few inches in loose sand, making the walk a sort of slog.

The trip over the sand dune is a haul, made more difficult by the sliding sand, but eventually the group is able to crest the tall dune and make their way toward what looks like a medium size shanty town, most of the buildings made either from a kind of adobe like substance, or else pieced together bits of large scrap metal. People can be seen milling about the town, hurrying to and fro as they try to get their tasks complete before the sandstorm hits.

"Nah." Papo decides, glancing back at Tess with a broad-shouldered shrug. "It's shit. I'm sure we've learned nothing from all of it." This may dampen Jarret's enthusiastic proclamation, but the taller woman does offer him a pat on the arm in passing before tackling the dune. She labors forward in stony-faced acceptance behind that T-visor and looks down at the town with the slightest tilt of her head.

Rail Onasi slides his on helmet on (aren't you a little short to be a stormtrooper?) and looks over to Vraag, asking, "So, what exactly are we looking for?"

Tess is anything, if impressed with the world, but her own homeworld is Nar Shaddaa, so who is she to judge? "Yeah..." Shouting a little over the scream of the sand storm, she pulls up a small cloth scaff across her mouth and covers her eyes in goggles. It does nothing to keep her face from being battered, but at least she's not breathing dirt.

"I take it back.. there's no way this place gets better with age.." In seeing the Shanty town. "What are we hoping to find here? Besides, potentially, disease? Because this is how you get that..." Pointing around with a metalic finger that is not at all pleased by the abundance of sand now clogging up joints.

Thankfully these things grow on credit trees.

"All things can change, sister," says Jarret, making a soft hissing sound at Papo's words. "This place is a crucible. It remains the future of the People, even if it is, currently, a blasted wasteland." Next thing you know, the dude will be summoning up sandworms.

"We are not looking for anything, so much as letting it come to us," Vraag says back, his own voice loud enough to carry through the sand, but also through the comms built into everyones' helmet. "I-" he begins to say, before trailing away as those in the city begin to point their way. The sight of three people clad in full Mandalorian armor is causing a bit of a stir in the little shanty town, and soon enough people are running back to their homes quickly. As the group makes its way into the shanty town, they have reemerged from their homes, but rather than weapons in their hands, it is baskets of food. Odd vegetation that is shriveled and quite pitiful, apparently the only thing able to be grown in this environment, the townspeople rush to line up in the path of the coming group, kneeling in the sand and shoving the baskets out in front of them before pressing their noses to the sand.

She'll let Jarret have this. Papo's grip tightens on the hilt of her weapon as they approach the town and the people start... Offering them... Food? "Nuh - uh." She freezes and holds her hands up immediately. "None of this, Vraag I did not sign on for this. Stand back up, stop that, take that back inside." She's uncomfortable.

Tess's hair tosses about in the wind, but she's not backing down from no storm when there's terrified peasants afoot! With rifle on arm she follows the group down into the town where they are greeted with kneeling townsfolk baring fruit baskets.

It isn't that she takes stuff from any of those baskets as much as she lifts a few pieces to inspect it... ya know for quality control purposes. "Besides, this is the disease part I was talking about..." A strange shriveled fruit rolls off her tilted metal hand to fall back in with the other strange shriveled fruit. "That bread, right there... those are worms. There's worms in that bread."

This is not at all the kind of thing a Tess gets off on. "Go away, I don't want your shit.." Shooing someone who gets too close, "Stop it, no."

"We should bring as much food as possible here, Vraag Rengh." Jarret's voice is low and angry. "And kill everyone who tries to steal it. Let them roast in the fire of their own avarice, should they treat their kinsmen this way."

He removes his helmet immediately, and says to the people in Mando'a, "We do not come to take your food. We come to meet you, in the spirit of Manda'lor. Rise, rise! We come as fellows of he Chosen People. We come as friends, and are not to be bowed to." He looks fearsome, but it is not anger in his eyes. "I am Jarret, of Clan Sur. This is Vraag Rengh. Vraag Rengh is our leader. He too comes as a friend." A hand gestures to the big man, his helmet still on. Behold, the diplomat.

Vraag is nodding his head toward Papo, apparently agreeing with her assessment regarding the offering that the villagers have brought out. Despite Papo and Tess' insistence that they don't want their offered food, no person moves to pull the baskets back, and only when Jarret begins speaking to them in Mando'a do they begin to lift their faces from the sand and look up at the Mandalorian's in surprise. Vraag nods his head as they look up at him, towering there above them, and gestures with a hand for them to collect their food offering, "We do not want your food, take it back to your homes before the storm arrives. Do you have somewhere where we might go to talk?" he says in Mando'a. Shifting back toward Basic, Vraag glances aside toward Tess before saying in a quieter tone, "We may have not been the intended ones to receive this offering, but that means someone out there is. We need to keep our eyes open."

"If we were ever in a place for you lot to get your tits blown off, this is it." Papo sighs and drifts to the back of the group, where the maternal Mandalorian medic may most easily muscle her medkit in while keeping out of the line of offerings and, even worse, diplomacy. "Don't let anyone tell you you're not doing a fantastic job of not sounding pompous, Jarret." She encourages, grip tightening uncertainly on her ax at Vraag's revelation. She's there, guys, just blended in; standing quiet and creepy in the background as usual.

"Ugh... this is appeasement.." Vraag's statement illuminates it for Tess. She leans towards him and points out one of the taller dunes, "I'mma go set up there. Should give me a good view of the surrounding area." Drumming Addell on her shoulder with rhythmic clinking of metal fingers, she trotts off in that direction. "I'm on comms." Pointing up to her ear.

"I will eat their hearts, Vraag Rengh, whoever they are." Though his words are Basic, Jarret's voice is a sword drawn in the dust. "How dare they. How /dare/ they!" The lean man has a very specific idea of how Mandalorians should act. This is pretty fucking far from it. The fury in his eyes is cold, black fire, masked only as he pulls his helmet back on.

The lithe newcomer to the group follows just behind the rest of the armor clad squad. His brown eyes scan the bright dunes and scan over the village. "I don't think they have much more than this..." he frowns at his statement of the obvious. "There is also a pretty large number of villagers here, means that if the food was intended for someone else there may be more of them than there are of us." his nimble fingers tap lightly on his leg just above his blaster.

The Villagers begin to stand to their feet, some staggering in a way that suggest obvious malnutrition, not that it is very surprising given the apparent pitiful food they have to eat. Many move quickly to grab the baskets of food and move them back to their homes, least the Mandalorian's change their minds and decide to take what little food they have. A tiny old man walks forward, gesturing with his hand toward a small hutt that is to one side, and Vraag nods his understanding before gesturing for the others to follow him. He looks first to Barquo, nodding in agreement with the man before he says quietly, "They easily outnumber us... but have you noticed that they don't have a blaster in sight? Also... I haven't seen very many able bodied men. Mostly women, children, and elderly.... Do you see anyone that looks older than twelve?" Vraag is really asking, because he too goes back to peering around at every face in sight as he walks toward the indicated hutt. Into the comms, Vraag says to Tess, "If you see anything dubious, make sure and tell us first. Don't open fire until we can get a plan in mind."

Tess tosses her bag down and takes a lays out on the sand using the bag itself is a firing post with the barrel extending out over the top. Before she opens the scopes cover, she grabs a filter to put into place so sand doesn't damage Addell's expensive optics, then settles in to score the dunes for any signs of potential trouble.

"Ohhhh hello there..." She mouths to herself and zooms in to get a better view, making certain of what she's seeing before informing anyone of anything.

"Cloud rising out of the storm, headed this way. Vehicle, possibly wheeled, but probably speeder.. only see one so far. Coming up fast though. Let me know when if you want it dead."

"They must be pressed into service," Jarret says, lips pursed. "Or enslaved. This is not a..." Jarret frowns, turning toward Vraag as he walks toward the elder's hut. "Your orders, Vraag Rengh?"

Barquo Dentoo walks slowly behind the rest of the group as they head to the small hut. "What food they had to offer is all the food they have I would imagine." he watches as a young boy stumbles and says "I doubt they'd survive a week if someone took it away."

Vraag glances around, angling his head as if he were trying to spot Tess up on top of the hill. He sighs into his helmet before he says into the comms, "Don't fire. I want to know what is coming, and as close to a count as we can get before they get here." He looks toward Barquo and Jarret before saying, "If someone is coming here then it looks like that may be the group these people were expecting to begin with... I think you're right about them not making it very long if their food is taken. So I say we don't let them take it." He looks directly at Barquo, "I know you said you prefer not to fight, but it looks like this may be what we have to do if we want to save these people. We can probably get back to the ship and make it out before that speeder gets here, but if we do, these people will almost certainly die. What do you want to do?"

Tess takes a mental count through the scope of her rifle, sand is making it difficult but she manages to rangle out a number. "Military carrier by the markings, not sure what make though. Rough estimate of eight or nine head. Ten with the driver. I can't see any arms or gear, but they don't look like they're coming to provide relief efforts."

"Are they armored?" Jarret is already on the way to cover, his pistol in his hand. "Wearing helmets, anything of that nature?"

Barquo Dentoo frowns as Vraag confirms his thoughts. As he asks about combat Barquo laughs a little and says "I said I prefer to stay out of a fight." his hand grips his blaster and he says "I'm still a Mandalorian, not a coward." he looks between Vraag and Jarret "I don't have your fancy armor though so, don't take this the wrong way, I hope they shoot at someone else." he grins and he slides the well oiled blastech out of it's holster.

The villagers all react fearfully as Jarret and Barquo begin sliding their blasters free of their holsters, moving quickly to get out of Jarret's way as he runs for cover, leaping out of the man's way as if afraid he were going to open fire on them. Vraag nods his head to Barquo, saying, "No offense taken. You make it through this and decide this is a job you'd like to keep, I'll make you a set of armor when we get home." He points with his hand toward a small hut fashioned out of various types of scrap metal, instructing Barquo to take cover there before he turns to the villagers and says in Mando'a, "Those who would take your food from you are coming now. We are going to fight them. If you wish to fight with us, you may. If you cannot, take cover and we will try and take care of it."

At Vraag's words, the villagers all stare at the huge man with shock and obvious fear on their faces. Many begin to cry out in fear, some in outright displeasure at this plan, but finally the wizened old man steps forward, raising a hand for silence and gesturing everyone inside of their homes. Vraag watches for a moment before running for cover as well, pulling his rifle over his shoulder as he goes, flipping the toggle and powering the blaster rifle up.

As he runs, Vraag says into the comms, "Tess, we're going to fight. Do not fire on them until they come into the village. Let them get close enough for the rest of us to be able to get shots off."

"So you hire a sniper and then tell her to fight like line infantry?" Tess frowns at the order, "You're in charge, but that is.. an odd request." Probably something to do with honor, so the sniper'll have to settle for the notion of pretending she has some.

So she waits. Which gives her time to aim, which means whoever she does shoot is about to get a hole blown in them that a person could walk through. Because this is their fault.

Barquo Dentoo slides behind the hut of scrap metal and leans his back against the hut sliding to a crouch. "Better than bringing along a slicer and having him fight like infantry." he chuckles into the com and peaks around the corner of the building trying to stay out of sight.

The sound of the heavy transport speeder can be heard by Jarret, Barquo, and Vraag as it trundles along through the sand, engines blasting stand beneath and behind it and creating a billowing sort of cloud. The villagers hiding in the huts begin to tremble, children crying as they hear that familiar sound of their tormentors come calling, mothers hurrying to clap hands over tiny mouths. Vraag is crouched inside of the doorway of his hut, rifle held at the ready, "Tess, when I step out, open fire. Then Jarret and Barquo. With any luck, maybe the three of us down here will be able to keep them from marking your location."

Vraag trails away as the sound of boots striking sand can be heard as eight soldiers begin to climb free of the transport. "Ey! No sense in hiding from us!" a gruff voice calls out. "You know what'll happen if you don't bring us our food and show us the respect we deserve!" Gruff laughter can be heard all around as the soldiers begin heading for the huts, intent on dragging the villagers out by force. "On three," Vraag says, counting off in a cadence that matches the boots approaching his hut. On three, Vraag steps out, blaster barrel leading and blasts a hole right through the soldier's chest.

Once they start to get close, close enough that she can see their visors and they start passing through the opening into the shanty village, something strange starts to happen up on that dune.

"I'm so tired of being here..." Her left eye closes, "Suppressed by all my childish fears... And if you have to leave, I wish that you would just leave..." Her shoulder rolls, settles against the weapon, "You're presence still lingers here and it wont leave me alone.."

She doesn't overtly acknowledge Vraag's order, but no shot comes... not until he steps out and puts a blaster bolt right through one of the Mandalorian thugs chest. All at once, her finger squeezes the trigger and Addell screams red across the sand storm. Hits one of the goons jumping free of the back of the carrier speeder, square in his chest knocking him off his feet before they ever have a chance to touch sand.

While it might not kill him outright, it sure does change the way his life goes for what little remains of it.

The Mandalorian thugs are quite surprised when Vraag steps out and strikes one of their soldiers down, more so when they note the kind of armor he wears. They are even more shocked when blaster fire begins raining down on them from all sides, having thought the village itself was disarmed. Leaping for cover, those who would grind these poor villagers beneath their heels begin to scramble before leaping up to press the attack. One aims for the big man, shooting Vraag and scoring a quite solid hit on his side, singing through the side of his armor and scoring a bloody wound on the side of his stomach. "Arrrgh," Vraag grimaces and growls through the comms, popping off two shots which go sadly astray.

Blasters hit all around Tess, but nothing finds purchase and this certainly isn't her first time under fire, so she keeps a cool head despite it. "These wounds wont seem to heal... this pain is just to real... there's just lose that time cannot replease..." Addell barks, spits fire down into the confused ragtag band of ruffians with deadly accuracy. One of the Mandalorian goons tries to scoot behind cover, but leaves too much of his head exposed in the process. The bolt catches him just at the connection socket for his helmet and blows it clean off.

Along with most of his right shoulder and his head.

The merc that Barquo hit apparently doesn't take kindly to being shot, he also apparently had a harder time aiming because he was shot. The blaster bolt hits Barquo in the shoulder leaving a singed blood stain. "Sithspit." the young man lifts his blaster again squeezing off two rounds the first sending the merc flying and the second going over his head. The merc lands on his back but is moving slowly to take aim at Barquo again.

"Not today," hisses Jarret as the man near him takes a hit; he lifts his right hand and levels his enormous pistol, which barks twice like a vast hound in the dust - the first shot is wide against the formation of men, thanks to the wind and dust, but the second is well-aimed, landing a shot in the pit of his groin and his right thigh. The victim goes down screaming, his plates no match for the pistol's jackhammer blasts, and though his bollocks have not been hit per se, the heat and radiation are likely to have cooked the meat through anyway. It is a deliberate shot, and absolutely sadistic. Our boy Jarret has something to prove.

Blaster fire continues to whizz from all around the little shanty town, striking against the adobe and scrap metal huts and causing black burn marks across the surface of both. The Mandalorian-Oppressors are simply outmatched by the Ebon Guard group, however, and despite their continued efforts, their shots are unable to score a hit. Vraag sprints across the sand, heavy boots causing deep furrows in the sand stained with blood from his blasted side. He slides to a knee behind the front fender of the speeder, opposite one of the hiding enemies. Thinking for a moment, Vraag drops to his belly, aiming beneath the speeder and shooting the enemy's knees out, resulting in a pained scream as the man collapses to the sand, only to receive a second shot in the face.

Tess is in her zone now, the world around her drops away except for what she sees through Addell's long eye, the storm is no longer a factor to her at all. She's too far away to hear screams and would ignore them even if that weren't so. She lines up the heavy rifle with a practiced ease, an extension of her own arm and body, to point deadly bolts at intended targets.

Her newest and recent victom is one of the few remaining ruffians woefully unfortunate to peek his head out for a shot on one of the sniper's comrades. The bolt hits him right between his shoulders and leaves a gaping hole where his armor should be, where his body is nolonger.

Cauterized instantly, he falls flat away, stone cold dead as the grave.

The young slicer ducks back behind the hut he is hiding behind as a shot flies his way ricocheting off into the air. Leary of being hit again Barquo leans out and takes a few pot shots at his foe. One gets close to the merc, the other... lets not talk about the other.

As for Jarret, he is taking an uncommon glee - or so it would appear - with dissecting the men as they shrink under the firestorm unleashed upon them. Another man suddenly realizes that his arm is gone, just under the shoulder, a neatly blasted stump flailing like the wing of an electrocuted chicken.

This also means his other shot, intended to finish the job if need be, sails on into the hood of the speeder transport. Which gets a new hole.

Only two of the would be thieves are left alive, though honestly Barquo's is pretty much laying on his back in the sand, blaster wobbling unsteadily as he struggles to hold his blaster aloft and pop off a shot while he bleeds out in the sand. Vraag looks around, evaluating the situation before calling out into the comms, "When they are all dead, Jarret will help me load the bodies into the back of their transport. We will have to drive it away from here and destroy it and the bodies. Before we do that, Barquo needs to go through the nav-system and see if he can figure out where this group came from."

"Perhaps we could do that from the ship," says Jarret over the mike. His voice is tight, having taken a shot square in the chest, albeit only shallowly penetrated thanks to the heavy plates of his armor. "Load them in the bay, do the work, and space them. And salvage their armor, of course. Let the corpses burn upon re-entry, so that they actually serve this world somewhat."

Tess is ready for this eventuality, as she has been the whole of this fight, with Addell promising sweet release to all of thy enemies. Woe be the fool who tiptoes across her visual field in search of easy prey for they shall be struck down.

The weapon barks again, and once more it finds connection, right between the Mandalorian thugs thighs.

She trades damage for the real death of a man by giving him a make-shift, field surgery, sex change.

Apparently Bark isn't hiding well enough. He takes a blaster bolt firmly in his ribs. A curse escapes his lips before he leans out aiming at the merc in question "You hutt humping son of a..." he squeezes off a shot that slides inside the merc's helmet with a wet thud. A second shot is fired off by the young slicer hitting the sand by the merc's head. He scans the surroundings for any other enemies and then angrily holsters his pistol. He looks at the transport and cracks his knuckles "Finally a job fit for a slicer."

Vraag considers for a few moments. "We leave the armor with the villagers," he says at length, turning his head to look at the frightened eyes peering out of the huts at him. "And the weapons. We teach them to hide the armor and blasters in the sand in a way that won't make them useless. The rest we take with us to dump out in space. That will make it harder to find."

With everything that might would attack them dead, Tess grabs her bag and rifle to join the others down in the village. As she passes one of the downed Mandalorian goons, who may be groaning or just twitching from damage, she scoops up his helmet and smashes him right across the beak with it. All very seamless.

She's grinning like a child when she hops to a stop beside Vraag. Blood on her hands, The sniper couldn't be happier.

"Man, I miss the red mist."

"As you command, Vraag Rengh." Hissing faintly with his words, Jarret immediately holsters his blaster and goes on corpse-stripping duty, working as commanded without any respect given the bodies in the dust. They are not, after all, worthy.

Barquo clambers into the vehicle cursing under his breath "There are other ways to fight, barquo.... use your skills barquo." he says in a self mocking way "I agree with you dad but..." he collapses into the drivers seat with a curse and a wince "...you could have taught me a /little/ better how to hold my own in a fire fight."

His fingers are already flying along the console his brown eyes dancing along the readout. "There you are." He hooks a wire into the computer and quickly downloads the information. He shakes his head "Now if fighting were this easy, I wouldn't be bleeding."

Vraag nods his head toward Tess, chuckling through his helmet as he points toward the scared eyes watching them. "You're good with that rifle. Very good. It's good that we had you. We may all be worse off if you weren't here. Do you think you can teach these people to plug the barrels of these weapons and bury them in the sand? They likely have never held a blaster before," he says to Tess before he slings his rifle over his shoulder and moves to begin lifting the bodies Jarret strips, growling as the added weight puts strain on his wounded and bleeding side before he throws them up into the back of the speeder.

He laughs to himself as he hears what Barquo says and adds into the comms, "You stick with us Barquo, we'll teach you to survive."

"I was with the resistance for a year and fought a guerilla war against the First Order for another two..." Tess glances around at the group of villages with a thoughtful frown, "Yeah... I can teach them some tricks.."

The Sniper's hand lays loving on her rifle's barrel, "If it were legal, I'd probably marry Addell.. she's my materialistic soulmate."

Barquo Dentoo closes his eyes for a moment as his datapad works it's magic. He takes a deep breath before he winces and clutches his side. "Surviving would be a good thing." he opens his eyes wide and looks at his hand before unplugging all of his equipment. "I don't suppose you have a medic on your crew." he grunts as he stands up and begins climbing out of the speeder. He groans as he lands on the ground "That would come in handy right about now."

"Papo Agora is a medic," Jarret says over the link, grunting with exertion as he strips the corpses with disturbing efficiency. "You did very well, by the by. I am pleased to fight with you."

Vraag nods his head, seeing that all of the bodies are thrown into the back of the speeder. Afterwards, he allows Barquo and Jarret to see to their injuries with Papo while he moves to help the villagers, showing them how to wear the armor and power the blasters recovered from the dead men before helping them bury it all in the sand. "Leave whatever food stores we have with them before we go, someone drive the speeder back to the ship and load it into the cargo hold."

After those last duties are done, Vraag finally allows his own wounds to be tended as the Firebrand takes off and heads back for Nar Shaddaa.