Log:First Order: The Devil You Know
First Order: The Devil You Know
OOC Date: January 24, 2019
Location: Dxun
Participants: First Order: Hadrix Rol, Arvis Locke, Artemis, Drath, and Kylo Ren
Demon Moon Dxun is not an inviting place. The entirety of its surface is covered in thick wilderness from pole to pole, most of it jungle, and all of it populated with vicious wildlife. Settlements are few and far between, difficult to spot under the dense cover of the trees, and as the inbound shuttle swings low over the canopy below, the Supreme Leader explains the mission.
"You will make your way through the trees and any creatures that stand in your way to the compound I've marked here." He's not flying, he's in the passenger area with the others, pointing at a spot on a holographic map based on scans of the area below. "You will do so alone and with minimal noise. We don't want them to know we are coming. Otherwise I'd land this shuttle on top of the hovel myself."
Speaking of landing, the ship settles down roughly in a pathetic excuse for a clearing, only breaking off a few limbs in the process, and momentarily the ramp extends down for the troopers to disembark, with a hiss and a cloud of steam giving way to the fetid scent of humid air and the sounds of the jungle. Kylo is the first down the ramp, pulling his helmet down over his head as he goes, and his processed voice announces, "We'll split up. Meet me at the hut." Without any explanation as to why, he strides off into the trees, leaving the Vanguard alone.
Stealth, not one of Hadrix's strong suits... but he has an ax - and even when it's buzzing it's a quieter than his blasters, or his grenades, or most of his other equipment. When the Supreme Leader states they're splitting up, he offers no questions, but there is definate shift in his stance as he watches the man stride off through the lenses of his helmet - plated up in standard Stormtrooper kit rather than his ussual heavier gear.
Ax up, he looks to the others... and he squelches his comms, "On point when squad is ready" he waits. Of all things.
"Of course, Supreme Leader," is Arvis's response to the man as he, too, strides down the ramp. The straps on his blast guard are tugged tight and his cap is placed upon his head. "Hadrix, you're on point. Artemis, be a dear and make sure nothing, uh, nothing sneaks up on us."
Drath stands nearby, virtually anonymous, considering he's wearing his helmet. His F-11S Sniper Rifle is held in a relaxed stance as he gazes at the holographic map to take in the instructions. Kylo Ren turns to stalk out into the jungle after giving his instructions, and Drath chirps <<Yes, Sir.>> over his comms. Glancing down, he toggles the safety on his rifle off, then hefts it up as he starts down the ramp of the shuttle.
Artemis chews at the creeping itchiness that spiders across her damaged face as she steps down the ramp with thumping footfalls. The wounds radiate an unnatural heat as esoteric forces knit bone and flesh with an unnatural alacrity. Pausing at the base of the ramp with a sickening squish, she twists in place and then frowns after her survey before twistng her weapon to eye its remaining charges.
<<More moist than a Hutt's underside on this rock.>> Artemis comments over the comms. The cachunk of her rifle echoes out as its coils whine with building energy. <<You heard the Lieutenant, Nine-Oh, up front, DeeEll, you and I are going to make sure nothing bigger and angrier than Nine-Oh jump out of the bushes and give him a hard time.>> Falling in at Hadrix's 7 o'clock, she raises her rifle to the horizon line and pads along at whatever pace the rough-and-tumble trooper defines.
With Hadrix taking point to clear the way with the ax like a machete, the group is free to head on into the jungle. The shuttle raises the landing ramp behind them, a little reminder that they're here to stay, and the trees quickly block out the light of the nearest star as they group edges under the canopy. The destination was north of their position on that map, and presumably they're headed that way.
The immediate path ahead is clogged by a glut of tall, woody rushes that spring up to about neck-height, difficult to push through and with pointed tips that prod uncomfortably into anything that approaches from an awkward angle.
<"One of these days I want one of the plasma-edge axes, like the executioners use."> Hadrix grumbles over comms as he clears the path, the forest seems to fight back though, creating jabby little spear-heads like ragged teeth poking into the path he is making for the main party. <"This stuff holds up well against vibro.">
With Hadrix leading the charge, Arvis's SE-44c is slipped from its holster and powered on. It's held low and to the side, though. Hopefully, there will be no need for it, but one imagines that a place called The Demon Moon isn't known for its cheerful inhabitants.
Allowing Hadrix to clear the way, seeing as he possesses the weaponry necessary to do so, Drath gives a nod of agreement to Artemis and takes up a position at the rear of the group. His sniper rifle raised in a ready position, Drath plods through the moist ground of the forest in the wake of the cleared brush Hadrix manages to cut out, ensuring space between him and the front of the group to effectively fire on anything at a distance. Occasionally, roughly half the time, he turns around as he walks, making a full rotation to ensure nothing else is stalking them using the trail forged.
Each of Artemis' footfalls is carefully placed as rot-slicked muck underfoot threatens to supercede the force of friction with each step. Warily, her eyes slide side to side rhythmically, attempting to suss out movement or discolorations amongst the shimmering cacophany of leaves and branches whispering to the muted breeze. A nearly impossible task.
<<Cut the chatter and keep your eyes open.>> Artemis growls as she tests the tenacity of her muscle and the rigidity of her plastoid armor against the gnarled branches. With a grunt, she maintains her course and her slightly askew position from tip-of-the-spear Hadrix, ensuring the group continues due north with the aid of her helmet's navigational HUD.
The rushes continue to block up the way forward, indicating that the group must be near a body of moving water or better yet, some sort of marsh or bog. As they move forward, the familiar trickling sounds push their way up through the cacophony of the jungle as a whole. The reeds open up onto the bank of a stream running through the trees, their roots exposed by the passing water, and it's a sharp drop down into where the rivulet passes by. A large creature known as a boma is lounding half in and half out of the water, its scaly hide glistening damply.
Hadrix's normal gutteral growl is the initial response to Artemis, as he parts the way. Taking in the sight, and immediately powering off the ax, his left hand goes up in a fist <<"Contact, unaware of us, get low">> following his own words, <<"Snipers, position, aerial creatures - suggest winging one, or both? Let them drop where the big one can see them, perhaps.">> pointing to a pair of skreevs in a tree on the far bank, so big, and tusked, and scaly, and unpleasent. Planetary mascots.
"This is what I was worried about," Arvis remarks quietly, as his dark eyes spot the boma. And then the terrible, awful tusked avians perched nearby. Arvis probably should have stayed on the ship.
Drath had been watching the rear when the first contacts are made, as as such, he turns and quietly works his way up to the front when the call for snipers goes out. <<Roger. Moving up.>> he chirps, keeping himself crouched low as he comes up near Hadrix and raises his F-11S, his knee digging into the soft earth as he kneels down. Peering down the scope at the boma, he watches it for a moment before tilting his weapon up to gaze at the skreevs. <<Confirmed, three contacts. Orders?>> he asks, as the wrong move in a jungle could be a bad thing.
<<Hold.>> Artemis hisses in to the comm, echoing Hadrix's sentiment as she drops to her haunches and raises a gloved and plated fist to signal to the others to duck in to the reeds. She glances at her nav and notes their position relative to the landing zone and the target area before glancing downstream and in to the reeds.
<<We are not here to pick a fight.>> Artemis reminds the others with clipped tones keeping the highs out of her usually melodic lilt. <<Nine-Oh, do you think you can take us down stream without making too much noise? Blaster bolts in the jungle will alert everything within a klick or two of us.>>
Agile as he may be, Hadrix is not apt at stealth as of yet. Cracking through several bunches of rushes and reeds, Hadrix grabs for one of the downed branches cut loose by his ax and hurls it up-stream, as the group has opted to move opposite that. Hoping the branch smacking off of reeds and other brushes will make louder, and more interesting nose, than they will.
As always, Arvis vies for the non-violent resolution, because it means he's less likely to get mangled by the local fauna. Unfortunately for him and the rest of the group, Arvis's foot gets tangled in a root and he goes spilling to the ground accompanied by a loud thunk and what is likely a very sprained ankle.
Drath, as it turns out, is actually at least somewhat decent at stealth operations, and as such he stays crouched as the others pass him by to take his position up once more at the rear of the party. Once they've all passed, he turns, movement rather silent and measured as he creeps down the bank of the bog. He gives a sigh at the other's attempts to move quietly, and ensures he's far enough back to take advantage of distance, in case anything takes the bait and attempts to assault his team mates. He's the sniper this time, after all.
Artemis does not protest Hadrix's idea: the group is a storm and not a whisper that wanders unnoticed through the brush as a rodent avoids vicious talons. The clatter of branches is the starting gun as she rises from her squat position and hustles in the wake of the others. Splash.
A root is Artemis' foil as it catches the toe of her plastoid boot and forces her weight on to the other foot. The ground beneath squishes and swipes clear to the side with the force of her uneven step and then gravity takes over. With a beautiful pirouette and a gutteral curse that ends in a face plant in the creek, she soaks the surrounding root cover along the bank and herself with equal attention to detail.
The jungle is not a silent place, and the Vanguard have that going for them. At least they're not the only large-ish noisy creatures in the place, because they definitely are loud. Splashing in the stream, tripping over rocks and roots, chucking pieces of the scenery, it makes a lot of noise. The Boma, thankfully, heaves a large sigh and rolls over onto its side, creeping forward only slightly to keep in a patch of sunlight.
Hadrix's distraction works to cover his own noise, and one of the skreevs flies upward with a screech to wing after it, while the other goes to see what fell in the creek, and finding a black shiny creature flopping in the water, descends from the heavens to claw at the thing experimentally, a curious squawk from its tusked jaws.
Arvis goes down, then Artemis, and Hadrix can't help but sigh inside his helmet, <<"Ninety-One, get the Commander up.">> and then he moves forward, ax humming to life as he takes a jab with the thrust point at the beast, aiming high to keep from potentially jabbing to far and stabbing Artemis in the process. <<"This blasted planet...">>
AAAAAH. Gross bird thing! On the ground, Arvis scoots back against the tree that tripped him and lifts his pistol. A duo of shots are fired. A duo of shots miss. "I'm fine. Kill that...that thing!"
Drath seems... Somewhat unsure of whether he should open fire or not. When the skreev swoops down to harass Artemis, he stops in his position, his rifle raised in the direction of the creature. But then Arvis gives an order, and that seems to clear up any reservations about firing his weapon that he might have. Lining up a shot, Drath pulls the trigger, the bolt from his sniper rifle slamming into the skreev from behind the group.
Gritty and filthy with a herbaceously saccharine bouquet of rot, the swamp water curls through every crevice and seeps through to Artemis' under armor. It plies the trooper's skin with its cold and clammy feelers coaxing a reflexive, galvanic shiver from her flesh and littering it with goose bumps. Then the trooper is accosted by scrabbling claws and she reacts in the most natural way possible: a rage of ineffectual, flailing blows that find nothing but air as she pulls herself up on to all fours.
Artemis' helmet comes off, water gushes out like a torrent and she coughs as she struggles to recover. Rip, the soiled bandage on her face is thrown aside to reveal a lattice of angry red rivulets and an equally incensed trooper.
"Bith spit," Artemis snarls as she retrieves her weapon from the muck.
SCREEEEEEECH, the skreev is not pleased by being shot. It's a smaller but feisty example of the species, and after the bolt hits it from behind, it lets out a howl of rage and whirls on Drath, beating at the trooper with its wings, feet flailing around and scrabbling at the tough plastoid plating. If nothing else, it makes it hard to see or do anything else while it's harassing him.
The jungle has come to life around them, now, with sounds from other animals as they retreat away from whatever the hubbub is, not wanting to be the next meal or trophy. Given most of the fauna around Dxun, this is probably a good thing.
<<"Kuudj sucking... shavit licking... carking... planet">> Hadrix tries to keep up with the flappy, floppy, thing. The big trooper shifts in the muck and the mud, trying to get himself into proper balance before once again he is on the attack. Jabbing with the thrust point again, intent on not impaling his squadmate, considering using his fists if this keeps up.
Still leaned against the tree, the Commander continues firing at the mean tusk-bird. He really hates this planet. Honestly, it's going right down to the bottom of his list.
<<Kriffing alien!>> Drath curses into the comm as the skreev approaches and begins to buffet him with its wings. He wasn't prepared for this! Honestly, he wasn't prepared for much of anything on this mission! But at least he's still up, and has hold of his rifle. Roaring, he shoves the barrel forward, fortunately catching the body of the creature as he opens fire again and manages to get another good shot in on it. He's breathing heavily, but somehow, the skreev is down.
Slicking back her sodden, artificially flaxen hair and ignoring the dappling of flora both verdant and cadaverous, Artemis hisses sputum in to the creek and snarls her displeasure. Helmet in one hand, rifle in the other, she sloshes to the other side of the creek with contemptuously heavy steps.
"Regroup." Artemis commands as she tosses her helmet to the ground and scrutinizes the function of her weapon. It's a swift, practiced series of coreographed gestures that follow as barrel, ventilation, and power pack are are found to be in grimy but acceptably functional condition. The helmet is given much the same treatment once she shoulders her rifle. Save for the effluvia of rotting verdure, it continues to display reasonably clear readouts along the inside of the visor and an unobstructed view of the outside. "Karking jungle." She snorts and coats a nearby plant with clorophyll speckled mucuous.
The stream has done little to improve the fecund quality of the close air, and even through the helmet filtration systems it's hard to ignore. This is joined by the scent of burnt reptavian as the skreev goes down in a tangle of leathery wings, with a last pathetic squawk. With the way north thus unobstructed, it's a short walk to the rendezvous point through some more of those rushes on the far side of the stream from the direction they came from.
Ax disengaged again, Hadrix turns to Arvis, looming toward the man in the only fashion the big man can, menacing. <<"Nice shooting, Ninety One.">> he leans to gather up the commander... and apparently plans to tuck him under one arm before setting to cross the stream. <<"Ten-Fifteen, watch my flank, Ninety One, overwatch.">> intent on making it to the rendavou, not trying to be fancy about his movement, but still trying to keep at least basic concealment - at least assume Arvis doesn't try to wriggle free of the new Hadrix taxi service.
Not being a fan of Stormtroopers or of being touched, Arvis does, infact wriggle free of Hadrix's graps, noting, "If you touch me again, I'll, uh, make sure you get to see one of those executioner's axes before you die. Are we clear?" Hobbling along, Arvis's blaster pistol is slid back into its holster and the man brushes himself off best he can. Tugging at the hem of his tunic, the Commander looks around at the rest of the squad and begins the trek forward once more.
Drath nods to Hadrix, pushing at the corpse a bit with his booted toe as he attempts to get his breathing under control. <<Guess time at the range is paying off.>> he mutters softly, and though he tries to go back to his silent trek through the forest once the rest have passed him by, he's a bit too amped up by coming face to face with that thing back there to be fully conscious of it. <<Forming up.>> he confirms, and once everyone else is in motion, he takes up his spot at the rear once more to ensure ample firing room, in case it's necessary again.
Artemis shells herself in armor once more despite the acrid, teeming spume left behind. Each step the trooper takes sloshes and scrunches but she falls back in to the initial formation without complaint.
<<That it is.>> Artemis agrees flatly. Behind the anonymizing layer of composite material, she continues to grit her teeth and roll her jaw to deaden the prickling of her wound and fight the shiver that threatens to creep in to her spine.
What they find at the objective is perhaps somewhat unexpected. A squat hut is pitched up against the side of a massive tree, ivy hanging down from the branches in thick, moss-covered tendrils. In the clearing before it, a jumble of twisted metal rods tangle in disarray over the remains of a fire, and worn leather garments hang from a makeshift clothesline. The door to the hut is a smoking ruin, the majority of its surface lying flat in the dirt. Familiar lines are burned and cleaved through various portions of the scene, a wall of the hut, the trunk of that tree, those pieces of metal, but the Supreme Leader is nowhere to be seen.
Looking to the twisted metal, and the ground leading from the pit, Hadrix takes a moment to sling his ax and draw the F-11 hanging from his side, rather than pull up that big blaster cannon in what could become close quarters. <<"Drag marks, suspect He may have... utilized talents to take his conversation private?">> His helmeted gaze turns to Arvis <<"Hang back...">> then looking to Artemis and Drath, <<"Moving up, cover me.">>
"Fan out. Find what you can," Arvis instructs, limping his way over to the squat hut. Using the butt of his pistol to knock away a few chunks of charred door, the Commander steps inside. Activating the tac-light clipped to his blast vest, Arvis kneels down and begins sifting through pottery and other indigenous people nonsense. Grumbling, he pinches a rug between a chromium thumb and index finger. Pulling back at it, he spots something curious. A SECRET HATCH. "Soldiers! In here! Someone get down there and tell me what you find!"
Drath, upon meeting the clearing, turns and steps around the edge of it, keeping himself low and his rifle raised as he surveys the area just beyond the edge of the clearing itself. <<Roger that.>> he confirms to Hadrix, the trooper perhaps vaguely visible at the edge of the treeline as he surveys that area. After a moment off in the brush, he chirps over the comms with, <<Supreme Leader is on approach. This was either hostiles, or a diversion.>>
The tableau of rage is a routine set piece: familiar in its construction and nearly contrite for the viewing through the trooper's disinterested, matte blue eyes. She raises her weapon out of habit. Following along behind the Vanguard point man, Artemis' interest is plied to the tree against which the smoldering hut is nestled.
<<Platform. Tree. Eleven o'clock.>> Artemis declares. She fails to respond to the older Lieutenant's request, instead focusing her attention on the point of interest she had just called out. Approaching it carefully, she scans it from root to trunk while plodding in a gentle arc around its base.
As Kylo enters the clearing, he doesn't do much in the way of acknowledging the others or even announcing his own presence, just stalking straight towards the hut with the handle of his lightsaber gripped in one gloved hand, unlit. One boot dislodges a brand in the half-dead fire, sending up a flume of sparks and ash, but he walks past without much attention to it, fixed on the hut.
All that Artemis can see are a few planks of rough-hewn wood up in the tree, until she starts to spin around it like a spoke of a wheel. It's likely she'll recognize the glint of the glass 'eye' that is staring back at her once she's out from under its shadow, however, given how much time she's spent looking out of one.
Inside the hut, there are muted sounds of a human nature from the trap door, unintelligible but with a clear note of panic.
Standing to a field attention at the approach of Kylo, Hadrix pivots and moves to fall in position with the Supreme leader, checking his ammo on the 11D as he moves, keeping at a proper flank posture, halting when Kylo does. He doesn't speak now, he only waits for orders.
Standing inside of the hut and waiting for one of the brave soldiers to come get shot instead of him, Arvis looks out of the door and stands aside. Best to avoid getting in the Supreme Leader's way, after all.
Drath remains at his position, finding a spot at the edge of the clearing and dropping down to one knee. His rifle raised, he gazes through the scope as he surveys the area outside of the hut, ensuring nothing approaches the group from behind and keeping an eye on those he can see from this spot.Click. The flicker of Artemis' finger is barely a blur as she toggles her weapon's mode for what feels like the millionth time in an almost subconcious reflex. The rifle's capacitors adjust and spread out the energy of the impending plasma burst. Then she pulls the trigger.
Energy is unleashed from her rifle but rather than being honed in to a lethal point, the blast is conical and collides with itself as it exits the trooper's barrel. The result is a concussive blast that tears in to the platform with a considerable, but ineffectual burst. At the very least, it should be apparent to anyone within earshot that something's up.
<<Contact!>>
"If only I had returned sooner, you could have saved yourselves the effort of searching, and stood at attention instead," Kylo remarks dryly as he comes to a stop outside of the hut, his masked face turning between Arvis and Hadrix for a long moment before he gestures with a gloved hand. "Open it."
That's when a blaster shot rings out, and the shout of <<Contact!>> goes out over comms. Within moments, it's followed by an answering bark as a beam of hot plasma comes singing down out of the treestand above the hut to thump into the ground between Artemis and Drath.
<<"Cover the Supreme Leader.">> Hadrix's externals wash out any emotion as he addresses Arvis. There's no defferential treatment towards rank, the man is Navy, and he's likely to have navy arms. The big man moves to open the hatch as ordered, expecting Drath and Artemis to be able to handle themselves as he preps to bring his own rifle up as soon as the job is done, settling into the positon of living guard-turret for the masked man.
At the sound of another fracas beginning, Arvis tucks himself against the doorframe of the hut and slides the SE-44c free once again. Peering out for just long enough to train in a shot, the Commander looses a pair of bolts toward the enemy's general direction.
This is the exact scenario for which Drath hung back at the treeline for, as as such, he's ready when the firing starts. Shifting his stance towards the blaster fire, he takes a moment to align himself properly, and trains his sights on the sniper in the distance. Shortly after Arvis opens fire, he fires another shot himself, burning into the enemy sniper at a distance as he peers thrugh his scope at the result. <<Enemy down.>> is confirmed over the comms, and then he's turning to ensure the rest of the area is clear.
"One,"Artemis hisses under her breath and winces with bodiless pain borne by the rind of her pride rather than any damage to her clammy feeling flesh. Lethality for lethality; the weapon flickers back to its nascent and intended function with an equally expeditious toggle in the opposite direction. Striding back for a better angle, the effort is for naught as the unknown assailant finds its mortal coil severed at the tip.
<<Good shot.>> Artemis offers despite the vitriol she holds for her own blundering shot. Drawing in a deep breath, her disdain vanishes swiftly along with the unnecessarily drawn air as she sweeps for further assailants. If nothing is found, she'll posture herself as best as she can to fire down the hatch once someone else opens it.
The blaster fire up into the treestand dislodges the sniper, who comes tumbling to earth with a satisfying/sickening thump. From ground level, it appears to have been a human female.
Once Hadrix lifts the trapdoor open, its secret is revealed to be an older woman, huddling in the bottom of a pit, various roots and spices hanging from the walls around her. Kylo's masked visage stares blankly down at her next to the barrel of Artemis's rifle. "Not what I expected," the vocoder admits, processing and amplifying his voice. "Get her out of there and put her on the ship. She may still be of use to me." Again, without further explanation and without waiting to see if the order is followed, the robed man straightens, turns, and walks off into the jungle, leaving the Vanguard to speculate on who this cringing, frightened old lady is and whether it's a good idea to haul her out of a pit to be dragged through a hostile jungle.
