Log:First Order: Everyone Loves a Party
Everyone Loves a Party
OOC Date: February 27, 2019
Location: Gythui, Merlios System
Participants: First Order: Artemis, Drath, Duke, Karys, and Hadrix Rol
STAR
WARS
Everyone Loves a Party
Following information extracted from a captured mercenary,
The VANGUARD are deployed to the MERLIOS System, near JAPRAEL.
To the home of a sentient responsible for brokering a mercenary
hiring that resulted in casualties in the Sullust sector in the
name of a smuggling pipeline. Is this RIUS BAHANNEN the orchestrator?
A mere middleman? Or one of many branches sprouting from a more sinister tree?
Word has it that he is hosting a soiree for members of the criminal elite,
turning his compound into a veritable nest of gundarks? Whatever will the Vanguard do?
Gythui, a small temperate world located near the star Merlios. A system near Japrael, known primarily for lumber export - and recently as a pathway on the Smuggler's Run to bring equipment 'lost' from the Sorosuub lines.
The mission was simple, set out by Lord Ren - retrieve Rius Bahannen and bring him to Spearhead for interrogation. Any other targets of opportunity can be retrieved, but are of little interest. The man orchestrated a viral assault on a First Order craft near Sullust. Costed valuable manpower and time. The method of approach something that would make Oran weep into his white gloves.
"Hey! This is just like the simulations!" Drath hollars over the din of flak and surface to air fire erupting all around the assault drop-ship. No TIEs, no cruiser support, just the shuttle to maximize time before notice. It had been a dicy initial flight, skimming the surface of the forest that surrounds much of the smuggler's estate. A few clonks and shield strikes indicating the tops of several trees being clipped before green and red anti-air batteries begin firing. There's even a few missiles to boot! The solution? Simple.
"Brace!" Drath calls over the PA as the ship spirals into a full aileron roll. Sweeping through energy and physical fire, forcing all aboard closer to the floor by way of centrefugal force. "OK! Brace for impact!"
With a grinding crash the prow of the ship slams through the glass window-wall opening to a veranda and balcony overlooking the grounds. Shrieking to a jarring halt, the craft stops by as much as the pilot reversing thrust as much as the structure gripping like a stone fist to the sides - the Drop Ramp switch lighting up
Artemis grits her teeth and growls with a low, gutteral rumble that does not manage to pierce the din of friction tearing in to the heat resistant plates nor the roar of the shuttles rocket engines. She holds on tight, holds on for dear life even as her pragmatic, any steadfast heart finds it racing along like a gizka pursued by an irate junker.
"Never again," Artemis mutters to herself at the last moment before the sudden stop squashes her spine and yanks her organs towards the floor. When the ship finally settles, she gasps for breath and then immediately slides in to action. Off goes her seatbelt. Her rifle is removed from the rack, and she slams that glowing button for the ramp like it's going out of style.
<<Heads up! Find cover! Remember, check your fire! We are here to capture Rius Bahannen, not turn him in to a greasy smear of Gand wine!>> Artemis barks, barely recovering her win enough to bark orders with the full force of her diaphragm.
The harnesses that keep the troopers in place strains and presses against Karys' plates, her helmeted head turning to look towards the front of the shuttle at the call for bracing. Her feet already wide spread do so further and she reaches up to the hand hold above her head to help hold herself into place even as they lurch and slam into the building, feeling the weight shift with the change in speed.The grinding of the hull against the building fills the air and once their movement begins to slow and Artemis is up so is Karys. Her harness is removed and she is pulling both pistols from her side and moving to follow the squad lead, taking up a position along the right side with a quick movement as she heads for the ramp. She turns her helmeted head <<Going, right ma'am.>> But it's likely for all that she speaks of her intention.
The ramp slams down while the Dazzler has sent what looks like a ballroom set for a gala into a glit-biter rave in the depths of Nar Shadaa. Blaster fire splattering against the starship hull with the occasional bolt sparking against the walls, floor, and cieling of the dropship. A group of guards are trying to get into position while the criminal elite are running for cover, or drawing to fire their own weapons. One man, in a taupe tuxedo with gold tie holding a massive pistol of his own, shooting and shouting with gusto as another man is grabbed by a pair of armored thugs that start to hustle him to a side door.
Off to the right Karys goes and the first guard she can make it that is not their target earns her fire, the pistols flaring to life with the last shot hitting true as she moves for better cover, upending a colorful table for just such a purpose. << I have no eyes on the target yet.>>
Cleared for duty mere hours before, DK-4077, former Sergeant of Havok Squad and corpse, has found this new First Order to be quite different than the one he left behind. With the very sudden cessation of movement indicating that they've finally made their way to the landing (crashing?) zone, Duke moves to stand, pulling back the charging lever on his F-11D and unfolding the stock to pull it tight against his shoulder. The newly-appointed Vanguard Private stands silent and ready, the visor of his black and red helmet trained on the ramp before him.
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't nervous. The man hasn't seen combat action in three years. With gun in hand, the man can't help but be transported to the cave systems of Felucia. To that ambush. To the Resistance sniper putting a bolt through his gut. A shuddering breath crackles through his vocoder.
But then there's the call for action and Duke's bounding down the ramp, some antique muscle memory surging through his body. <<Contact!>> shouts the man, letting a bolt loose towards the guards as he scurries his way towards an overturned duracrete pillar. A quick scan of the area doesn't reveal their target as DK-4077 slides into cover, his back slamming hard against the pillar.
Drath seems to have greatly enjoyed this particular flight, the man jarring in his upended pilot's compartment as they slam through the side of the structure. "Kriffing hell!" he declares, the man taking a moment to lock down the controls on the ship before he drops down out of the pilot's slot behind the others. They're already working their way out of the lander, of course, and he rushes over to grip his F-11D Blaster Rifle from the rack within the shuttle itself. Ensuring it has a proper amoutn of charge, and the safety toggled, he hefts it to his shoulder and starts after the other three, weapon raised as he emerges from the assault lander, the Dazzler bright behind their backs to provide a bit of light based cover to the squad. It's something similar to attacking with the sun at your backs, really.
The Devoranian targeted by Karys is knockedback, the blaster bolt taking him high in the chest, sending him skidding back and firing wildly, aiming for the center of where all the blaster bolts are coming from. The human nearby following the tracers of blaster fire, their weapons converging on Karys while the Quarren, leather faced weequay, and the tuxedo'd man are unable to make their shots land. The crossfire is terrible, and there are bodies piling up all over. A massive banquet table falls as a table leg is blasted out, sending steaks of a curiously circular shape slopping onto the floor. More people begin to leave, running at full tilt while guards try to hustle them to safety, and keep them between their VIP and the troopers.
Artemis waits just long enough at the threshold of the ramp to ensure that everyone is off of the transport and on to the theatre of battle. With the dazzler casting its radiant spotlight with the glower of a Tatooine sun, the washed out view she steals with a quick lunge fails to bring to light the presence of their target. The scream of a blaster bolt instead begs for her attention but the trooper shuns its heated advance. Ducking behind the durasteel shell of the ship reflexively she's just in time to avoid injury.
<<Bith spit, KS-0218 is down.>> Artemis declares over the comms, venom laced in her usually melodic voice as she witnesses the nearly lethal hits. The more experienced trooper twists and shoulders her rifle in one smooth motion before squeezing the trigger. Her shot fires true, a phoenix's fury severing the Devoranian's head and mortal coil with equal voracity. The man's head slumps forward as his body stiffens and teeters back, leaving behind a curiously inverted tableau of what a humanoid should be.
Leaping forward, Artemis bridges the distance between herself and Karys with surprising haste. Pulling the other woman down to whatever cover's available, she interposes herself between the wounded trooper and whatever assailants are visible. Behind the helmet, Artemis grimaces, lacking the training to do little else but play human shield.
The table does not offer enough cover and as the wild shot slams into her in the upper right of her chest it bypasses some of the armor and leaves her gasping for air which echoes back at her in the helmet. As she starts to drop for cover, the next shot slams into her lower left side and Karys actually grunts asthe residual smoke rises from her wounds. Artemis' tug has her down gracelessly behind what cover there is and most of it being Artemis herself.
Unable to focus as her vision swims, keeping the coms quiet even as she starts to drift in and out. Beneath that helmet sweat drips down her cheek as she tries to draws a deep breath and finds the pain a little much.
Summoning the fight once more, Duke pops out of cover and slaps the butt of his rifle back into his shoulder, be-visored eyes peering down the macroscope of the pinnacle of Sonn-Blas engineering that he's been entrusted to. <<Pressing forward,>> Duke comms, mantling the column in front of him and firing another shot as he continues the squad's advance, despite early losses.
His bolt finds it's mark, taking a chunk out of the Quarren guard's torso and leaving a yellow-hot, smouldering hole where his stomach and several feet of intestines used to be. <<Still no sign of the target,>> he relays.
Drath is the last one to enter the fray, the pilot rushing out of the assault lander with his rifle hefted before him and a slight thrill running through him. As if the joy ride wasn't enough, there's a firefight immediately following it. Though, when one of their own is called down, he grits his teeth inside of his helmet and advances with Duke into the room, taking a few steps to the left to place himself between the fire heading that direction towards Artemis and Karys. <<Hang in there, Karys!>> he calls over the comms, opening fire and jsut barely missing the human merc that got that last hit on the woman.
"They got Zek!" The tuxedo'd man's voice cuts through as the horned man's head is pulped. Even as the quarren is cut down, landing on hands and knees, screaming in agony before flattening and wheezing it's last.
"N'gurla too!" The human dressed in too much armor and the weequay begin to back pedal and head for the the man in the tuxedo, concentraiting fire as they try to make for the exits as well.
"How long!?" the tuxedo'd man shouts into a commlink, "C'mon!" The crowd continues to thin, but the non-coms not cut down by crossfire and shots gone wide are fewer and further between
<<Stay with me, One-Eight.>> Artemis briefly turns her head to eye the other trooper through the anonymizing and unfeeling lens of her helmet's plastoid visor. There's no room for empathy beyond her uttered curse and her weak attempt to pull Karys' conciousness back to the fore despite the pain that must be ravaging the wounded trooper's grasp on reality. She drags her mind back to the battle and casts her stony, matte-blue eyes across the field.
<<Focus Nine-One.>> Artemis' voice smolders as the wounded, fair-skinned trooper's moniker is used over the more combat appropriate operator number. Twisting over cover, the squad lead's forced to duck back as the leathery skinned alien's pot shots threaten to find angered purchase. Instead, the bolts cleave parts of the wooden table sending splinters in to the air like so much tree-born confetti. Peeking while weathering the aboreal storm, her keen eyes swallow detail.
<<Heavy ordinane at twelve o'clock! Ninety-One, Seventy-Seven, Focus fire and make sure they don't get a chance to set up that repeater! Column formation, two meter spread!>> The trooper's voice calls out over the comms, tugging at the practiced behaviors of the troopers to keep them level headed in the face of a miasma of bestial emotion that can never be totally oppressed.
<<Target spotted at three o'clock southbound! Take down that turret and regroup, I'll try to slow him down!>> Artemis barks before drawing in a deep breath. She snorts air out of her nose like a kath hound and presses her palm against Karys' breastplate before wheeling out and snapping a shot at the first target she sees: the human among the desert dwellers. Her shot's true, punching hard in to heavy plate. The edges of her lips curl up allowing the specter of a toothless smile to creep on to her lips. The gesture is invisible behind her emotionless helmet.
Continuing to press on, Duke swings the barrel of his from contact to contact, analyzing each of the escaping patrons to see if they're worth the spent ammunition. Then Artemis is comming across to the rest of the team and his rifle whips around in the direction of one of the turret-setter-uppers that the squad leader pointed out. <<Copy, opening fire,>> he comms back, squeezing the trigger and letting another bolt fly. This one hits the target dead center and sends him flying back like a ragdoll to smash into the wall behind him with a thud.
<< I am here>> Karys' weak response is accompanied by the sound of her heavy breathing. There is obvious pain in the sound of it as the fight continues to go on around her. <<Fine here. Get the target.>> She grits her teeth beneath that helmet, the press of her hand up against Artemis' arm and motions her on with a feeble movement of her gloved hand. She can not focus enough to fire or offer assistance but the recruit is not about to be the one that slows down the mission.<<Be here when you get done.>> That sounds like a promise as a painful wheeze leaves her and thankfully the wounds have stopped smoking but the smell is a bit questionable. Burned flesh.
The blaster bolts flying past, the smells of burning flesh and sounds of battle surrounding, Drath maintains his composure as he deftly dodges to the side to avoid a shot from Ted. (Damn him) <<Copy. Focused.>> he responds, turning with Duke to focus their fire on those turret operators that are setting up across the room. Rushing to the other Trooper's side to make formation, his target unfortunately notices when his fellow goes down right next to him, and is able to take cover from the onslaught the pair unleash. Bolt sailing into the wall where the man had been, he curses under his breath, but continues on the advance. At least they can't get it set up with just the one guy, right?
Someone has to watch the ship, so that the ingress squad can do their job. <<"Lead, on retrieval.">>. Hadrix, who better to sit in the ship when there's at least one person the group doesn't need to kill, and make sure he doesn't end up fried? Suited up in his power armor, sliding down the ramp and scuttling towards the fallen form of Karys, the large man makes to hook his grip into the gap of her cuirass between the shoulder and neck before starting to drag her back into the cover of the dropship.
In the hall the other man who had been trying to get the E-Webb up slams to the ground, bashing his face into the side of the turret he suddenly became the sole bearer of.
Tuxedo'd Ted and the Weequay Warrior continue to hose fire, aiming between Drath and Artemis, but doing a better job of setting small fires in the antique wood of the ballroom floor and the cushy rugs that are strewn about it. The injured but desperately trying to hold the line, the injured human even attempting to keep the stormtroopers at bay.
Artemis places her faith in the rest of the squad as her aggressively textured boot is driven in to the ground with shocking violence. Propelled forward on the wings of coiled, lean muscle and dense bone, the trooper takes one last pot shot at the desert-dwelling alien as she lurches forward with a burst of alacrity to send the man's bolt sailing through where her after-image would have lingered on a low-frame camera.
Hunkering forward like a linebacker, Artemis' rifle becomes her huttball. She hustles with shoulders heaving from side to side, the weapon silent as her labored breaths hungrily devour air to fuel her ravenous muscles. Quickly, acid starts to linger in the muscles to add an ever-increasing but familiar agony to the tinny, saccharine taste of bile in her mouth.
When her armor is grasped at, Karys makes a grunting sound and then strains out the sound of pain after. She manages to keep a handle on her pistols as she's drug. Always know where your weapon or weapons are as it were. She gets a view of the others as they press on and there is a grunted sound when they hit the ramp. <<Careful>>. That is offered up to Hadrix as the man gets her back on the ship and out of the way.
Grabbing a cowarding civilian and using him to soak incoming blaster fire, Duke shoulder checks the now-dead man out of his way to slump lifeless over a chunk of duracrete and continues his march toward the opposition. Spotting Theodore, the man becomes the new target of Duke's wrath. Pew-pew goes the F-11. Ouch-ouch goes Ted, suffering from a new gut-wound.
Continuing forward through the fire and the flames, Drath turns when Duke chooses a new target, opening fire on the poor, unfortunate Ted and burning a brand new hole through his chest. Target down, he proceeds to turn towards the already injured human mercenary, lighting him up on the other Trooper's HUD as he calls out, <<Target down, targeting injured combatant! Focus fire!>> Of course, Duke is the only other Trooper active here with Drath, so it's likely that's a mip marker for him. <<Keep an eye on that gunner!>> he tacks on, just in case the man gets his senses back about him.
"Talk less, think small." Hadrix notes once up the ramp. Kneeling in front of her, digging into his medpak and tossing a packet onto the floor near her. <<"Pour that into the burns, or take half of it orally.">> Ahh, basic first aid. Neither option will be pleasent.
Ted's lifeless eyes gaze at the ceiling, the last thought 'This was a new tux' still drifting out of his fading conscience. The weequay hoots and snarls before shouting aloud "He killed Ted! Facist frizz-head!" before he and the injured human open fire on Drath
From the hall, the remaining E-Web crewman stands, firing wildly at the man who killed his co-worker. Unfortunately he only harms masonry.
"Get that trooper you fools!" One of Rius's guards turn, opening on Artemis with a sawed off carbine, pumping rounds downrange, trying to get her head down or putting her down entirely while the other tries to shield Rius with his body.
Dragging her helmet off once they are out of view, Karys dark hair sticks to her face from the fine sheen of sweat across her skin. She grasps for the packet, her gloved hands giving her some trouble but taking it orally is likely going to be the easiest method considering her armor is shifting and not exactly allowing easy access to her wounds. Making a face as she opens it, Karys is quick to take it however, gasping out her disapproval for the taste but otherwise not complaining. The helmet is set down on the ground beside her, the new recruit starting to look a little white and drawn.
It was only a matter of time before Artemis' reckless charge down the hallway cost her. One of Rius' guards finds his accuracy to be enough to crash in to her plastoid breastplate just shy of center-mass as fatigue's entropic claws ensnare her naturally keen reflexes. The armor takes the brunt of the blast, melting away to leave exposed frayed under armor and angrily puckered and bruised flesh.
Artemis grunts with pain over the comms but clamps her teeth shut and zeros in as she revectors and crashes in to a low-lying basin. Not taking the time to catch her breath, the trooper presses through the fugue and toggles her weapon's lethality down with a flicker of motion barely registered in her mind.
Pew! The rifle screams with muted fury and tears in to their target's leg.
Ducking back down behind the stone, Artemis toggles the weapon back to its most lethal setting and merely sits for a span of heartbeats. Her breaths are gulped down greedily. Her chest plate heaves up and down at a jackrabbiting pace. Her eyes peer at the ceiling to find a point with which to anchor her mind and fight back the encroaching darkness.
Ducking behind a pillar as the E-Webb opens fire, Duke looks over to Drath for visual confirmation that his fellow soldier hasn't been splattered all over the wall. Seeing that he'll probably live, Duke pops out again and takes a shot at the turret gunner. <<What's your status, Corporal?>> he asks of Drath, tucking back into cover to do his best to avoid any further retaliation from the turret gunner.
Drath doesn't slow down in his advance with Duke, keeping himself marginally in cover as they continue their assault on the remaining mercenaries. Then a blaster bolt slaps into his shoulder plating, causing his body to spin slightly to the side so that another bolt can slam into his flank. He cries out at the sudden impacts, but keeps his comms silent for the duration. Then he's turning back around, and upon noticing that the turret gunner has begun firing, he opens fire with Duke, hitting the man in the stomach and causing a small pressurized explosion of intestines out of the side of his body.
<<I'm fine, focus fire on the wounded! Turret down, Ten-Fifteen!>> he calls, the mip marker remaining on that human mercenary as he begins to turn his attention to the injured man.
"Good! good! Shot tha-OWAAAGH!!!" Leg burning, the ionizing of stun mode causing nerves to numb and fire at random as well as muscle cramps and Rius is brought down to the ground screaming, forcing one of his bodyguards down as well, the pair scrabbling to try and get back to their feet. The guard who turned presses into a small alcove, shoving over a small pedastel with a vase on it, firing ineffectually at Artemis
Paniced, things going rapidly south the Weequay and the human in armor start to move for the northern side of the room, pumping rounds at Duke and Drath as they skirt from cover point to point. Their fire is inaccurate, but they're trying to get the stormtrooper's heads down.
"Things are not quite focused," come Karys's reply without that helmet on her voice is more easily noted with pain. But she turns, grunting and wincing as she goes for what he asks her to. It takes her a moment and some concentrated focus before its drug out and she pulls at the red items or rather what appears to be red items. For a moment the new recruit fumbles with the items unable to find work with them before she finally thrusts it at him. "LIttle help, nine-oh.." she asks of him, the sweat still dripping down her face as her eyes flutter and then start to roll back into her head. "Not good," is said as an understatement in regards to her current condition.
<<Good... work...>> Artemis rasps between stolen breaths. She tilts her head to peer at her handiwork but is forced back as one of the guard's fire finds plascrete. The refuse rains down, pitterpattering against her armor with muted ticks and dirtying its ashen-hued sheen.
Veering to the other side of the basin, Artemis shuffles low and shoulders her rifle. Her finger squeezes in cadence with her breaths as she her steps smoothly allow her to transition to a better firing arc until she finally catches the meat of one of the guard's legs.
Breaking into a sprint, Duke's first foot-fall is right into a puddle of blood. His foot slips beyond his control, sending him tumbling into a pile of blood and offal. Groaning, he pushes himself and begins again. This time...more slowly.
<<Contact down, changing target!>> Drath calls over the comms, the Trooper already on the move as he shifts his attention to the Weequay. A single bolt flies out, and a single bolt strikes left side of the alien's chest, spraying blood past the cauterized wound as the muscle works once or twice, then no more. The alien falls to the ground, motionless, his mouth still working with a silent fury as he tries to continue speaking to no avail.
<<Last contact down, moving to you Ten-Fifteen!>> is chirped over the comms, the Trooper turning and /bolting/ in that direction, vaulting over a body, then Duke himself as he rushes off down the hallway, his rifle held close to his chest and his body leaning forward as the adrenaline works through him. He squeezes to the other side of the wall from Artemis once he arrives, raising the blaster with the blinking charge light on the side as he prepares to back up the position.
Swappining to his pistol, Hadrix takes the box being held out and grabs the tab with his teeth, tearing the top off and 'accidentally' splishing a few dribbles citric juice into one of her wounds. Have to keep her awake. <<"Use the pain, drink the juice.">> already moving to grab a second box.
The ballroom is quiet, the crowd is gone, the mercenaries are dead, and any other guards are with the crush of bodies headed for the landing pads to lift off with their charges.
In the hall, the covered guard keeps firing, throwing blaster bolts at Artemis, instinctively ducking back when the second trooper explodes into the hallway and into cover, "The cark!?" escaping his lips while his compatriot slings Rius over his shoulder and gets ready to start running with the screaming, wailing, man lugged like a sack of crime.
Hadrix' /accident/ with the juice brings Karys up a bit with a hissing cry. "Nine-oh!" She rumbles out and reaches out to graba t the juice from him. "Nough of that," she gives him a look in something near a fevered haze before she drinks deeply, tilting her head back as she tries to focus on the consumption of the drink rather than the pain that is setting her nerves on edge. She has to pause to take some deep breaths and get through what remains. She tosses the demon box aside and hisses through her teeth. "Easy to say.." she says finally.
<<Regroup.>> Artemis acknowledges the chatter on the comms, her voice adopting its usual steady melody now that her breath has returned to her. The sudden arrival of the other trooper even manages to cause her to take pause as her internal clock flails fruitlessly at reconciling his travel time against her mental battlefield pciture. In the end, the black reflective visor tilts towards the man as she ducks back under cover .
<<Objective injured, Ninety-One you are on retrieval on my count.>> Artemis flits away from the conundrum and back to business with the same ease with which she toggles her weapon from kill to kill-less. <<One, two, three!>> She spins out from the side of the low-lying planter and her rifle cleaves off right-arm of the guard she had been focused on until Drath's arrival.
Limping towards Artemis and Drath, Duke groans, apparently quite upset that he didn't have the situational awareness to not slip in a pile of guts. That's like First Order 101, Duke. Reaching up to give his helmet a few smacks, Duke gets back into the game, picking up the pace as best he can.
Drath is a bit pumped up at this point, all the adrenaline flooding his system to block out the pain from those wounds doing wonders for his battlefield presence. As he arrives, stacking against the other side of the hall from the right-handed Trooper for ease of firing, he calls back <<Copy.>> over the comms to Artemis.
His right shoulder still smoking slightly, and his flank quite obviously injured, the Trooper pushes out of cover as instructed and begins to make his way towards the fleeing guard and his quarry, opening fire as he does so. The bolt slams harmlessly into the wall behind them, however, managing to miss the target himself as the external comms of the ashen suit of armor flicks on and the Trooper shouts <<"Freeze!">> at the pair of them.
<<"Quite easy to say, Easier to do.">> Hadrix is already handing her the second box. <<"Keep drinking, I don't want to have to use the adrenaline - Listen to me. Talk to me. Tell me your first memory, a training memory, think hard and talk">> going for a third box and repeating if she successfully takes the second, all the while aiming his pistol out of the mouth of the ship.
"Don't you do it! DON'T YOU DO IT!" Rius's hands slam into the back of the guard as the hired merc starts out at a jog, trying to pick up speed, there's a turn he can take soon, but he's not quite there yet. He doesn't try to shoot, and neither does Rius
Taking that second box, Karys blinks a few times as her eyes try to focus when the rest of her does not want her to. She starts to drink it and makes a face, having to slow as she pants against the pain. "I remember my partner slipping during the course and having to drag him like you did me because he broke his ankle. Nothing like being the dead weight." She remarks and then guzzles down a bit more before her eyes close. "You said drink until I puke.." she breathes out, looking like she might veery well be attempting to rest.
Fortunately for Drath, Artemis' furrowed brow is hidden behind plastoid composite and partially obscured by her sweat-matted, faux-blonde hair. She continues her lethal jaunt carried on the wing's of death, and chooses the conservative route of aiming low and scattering blaster fire along the mercenary's lower half. It's only a matter of time before her weapon's barrel levels squarely with the piston-like steps of the laden guard, testing his armor's resolve and searing flesh where the bolt's hunger isn't fully stated.
The retreating guard doesn't get very far, though, because the doorway is soon blocked by DK-4077. The barrel of the Stormtrooper's blaster is pressed into the man's stomach and a bolt is fired. The initial shot is muffled, but a moment later the full report can be heard as is tears through his back, severing his spine and taking several internal organs along with it. Dropping Rius to the floor, the guard slumps into Duke before the Stormtrooper gives him a shoulder-check, sending his lifeless corpse toppling over onto the man he was sworn to protect.
Stepping close, Duke points his rifle at Rius. "Move and I hurt you."
If Rius believes he's safe from being shot at this point, he appears to be wrong. With a practiced motion of his armored hand up the side of his rifle's action, Drath swaps his F-11D into stun mode. Rushing after the running guard and target, he dodges to the side when Duke appears to fire through that guard's torso, in case the bolt continues through. His uninured shoulder slamming into the wall with a heavy thud, the Trooper opens fire with a circular stun round at Rius at near point blank range, sending the man into a deep sleep for the time being.
<<Target secured.>> is chirped over the comms from Drath, just as he starts to slide down the side of that wall to land on his uninjured side, the adrenaline starting to flee from his system now that the objective is completed. << I need more medic classes.>>
<<"I said drink till it feels like it, and I told you to talk to me. Both can be done">> Confusion anger, good to keep her focused on him. Either way, Hadrix is doing what he can to keep her awake. At the anouncement of the target begin secured, Hadrix shifts, pistol within clear reach, as he retracts several seats and slides Karys into position to run securing straps across ankles, thighs and abdomen before warning
<<"This will be unpleasent">> before the chest/shoulder restraints are in place, leaving her arms free to continue drinking juice while Hadrix runs several belaying lines from the hull to his armor to continue triage in case of bumps. His pistol is back up, held at ready once more while he waits for the crew to mount up with their quarry and take off.
Any banter, insults, or otherwise from Rius is cut off when Drath stuns him. He stuns him quite effectively. The man's body goes completely slack, defecating and urinating himself, a thick puddle forming under his body. The guard, his torso twisted off of his legs by the check from Duke gasps, and blood squirts from the grill over where his mouth should be, a gurgling sound following as blood pours as if from a bucket.
Finally lowering her weapon, Artemis' subtly-widened eyes finally relax along with her coiled firing posture. Finally, she is given the chance to acknowledge her wound. A gloved hand prods at the edges of her wound. Each press causes her to to wince.
<<Confirm the objective's identity.>> Artemis orders of those near her so she can study her HUD's readouts closer. <<Sitrep.>> She tosses mostly at Hadrix in a softer tone, the implication being that she's interested in Karys' status.
Even being moved leaves her hissing and the juice spills a little down her cheek. Braced as best she can the new recruit is not at all ready for the strapping of her person once Hadrix goes about it. "KRIFFIN HELL!" she bellows out, very nearly dropping the juice as it goes, her hand shaking as the pain swells from the restraints. The ride home is going to be an unpleasant one. Tilting her head back, all Karys can do is breathe heavily in and out a few times as her nostrils flare. She sucks at the juice almost absently but it is something to focus on that is not causing whole body to flush with heat due to pain. Her hand continues to shake from strain of it and slowly her hand lowers to keep hold of the box of juice - albeit with a little trouble. More sweat pours down her ashen skin as her eyes close again.
Pulling up the target's picture on his HUD, Duke kneels down next to Rius and moves his head around, getting a good look at his face. <<It's him,>> Duke confirms, looking up to Artemis.
Rolling the dead guard's body off of their target, Duke mag-locks his F-11 to his hip and bends down to hoist Rius onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Standing up straight, Duke shifts his new shawl's weight around a little bit. <<On your order,>> he remarks to Artemis.
Drath is breathing somewhat heavily, pushed against the wall that he is. He's been shot twice at this point, and the extra stenuous activity he'd placed on his body is taking its toll as he slowly starts to come down from that combat high. Once the identity is confirmed, and the mission is secured, he allows himself a <<Eighteen okay?>> over the comms in a bit of a less subtly direct method than Artemis uses. Gripping his rifle, he twists himself, moving to his knees and using the weapon as a crutch to hoist himself back to his feet with a pained grunt of exertion. <<You got him, Seventy-Seven?>> he asks, << I should be able to fly us home, but I'm not sure I'll be much help there.>>
<<"Lead, situation temporarily stable.">> Hadrix responds, looking down at the trooper he is, more or less, kneeling directly over now. "Hey! Eyes open trooper!" Hadrix pats at her face, hard enough to sting. <<"Deteriorating slowly though.">> Frowning inside of his helmet, "Eyes open, keep talking."
It's quiet now, save for the occasional groan or whimper pain. There are some rumbles of fleeing spacecraft, like distant thunder.
<<Thank you, Nine-Oh.>> Artemis murmurs softly before stealing a glance at the two troopers in proximity. With everything in order, she nods curtly and motions back the way they came. Her rifle is shouldered once more out of an abundance of caution, even if she does not expect a secondary strike given their use of shock and awe tactics. <<Double time for evac and debrief. Let's go!>>
With that, Artemis backtracks at a stiff pace. At the very least she ensures that Duke can keep up with, laden as he is.
<<Roger.>> Drath responds, both to Artemis and Hadrix, as he turns and starts after the squad leader. He can make this last little bit, then he'll be able to sit for a little while during hyperspace. Walking behind Duke to ensure they aren't ambushed, despite the unlikelihood of such a situation, he keeps his rifle hoisted all the way until they're walking into the lander again. "Don't worry, Eighteen. I'll get you home soon." he chirps over the externals, giving her a look over through that visored helmet as he starts past towards the elevated cockpit.
