Log:Hutt Cartel: Unyielding Progress
Tusken Raiders attack Lord Borgol's palace and construction project
OOC Date: May 3, 2023
Location: Tatooine - Hutt Palace
Participants: Borgol the Hutt as GM, Amal Jha, Cadogan West, Vorcassh, Zena Tane
Over the last two days a probe droid from Lord Borgol's palace has been reporting on the activity of a long train if Tusken Raiders. Riding single file upon their bantha mounts from the Dune Sea they have move in the direction of the Hutt's palace during those two days. Uncertain as to their intentions and adopting a simple policy of wait-and-see, Lord Borgol has provided the Tuskens with an opportunity to take the initiative; to make the first move and potentially seal their own fate. Onward they came with the probe droid offering regular reports to Lord Borgol and his retinue of mercenaries, bounty hunters, assassins, advisors, and every stripe of mind that he pays to hang in his immense shadow. It's eventually decided to allow the Tuskens to make the first move; that way it will hopefully prevent other tribes from deciding to start some honor crusade or another against Lord Borgol's holdings.
A strong force of Cartel enforcers, mercenaries, assassins, a Mandalorian or two, a Tionese ex-con, and others are there to receive the Tuskens. The supposed natives of Tatooine even make justifying the coming battle quite easy. The Tuskens are the first to fire a shot as they approached the outer marker of Lord Borgol's territory. While the landscape of Tatooine is sandy and even rocky at times, the landscape around the palace has turned into something akin to a construction site.
Heavy construction equipment dots - and even sinks into - the landscape in places, the beginnings of future perimeter walls have been laid down upon cleared rocky terrain, numerous boxes and crates containing vital construction equipment or materials lays scattered in every direction around the palace for a few hundred yards, and multiple labor droids work diligently throughout their shifts before they're recalled for cleaning and servicing given the harsh environs of Tatooine.
The first shot is fired at dusk as the Tuskens lurk around the perimeter marker, taking shots from such distances the Tusken's slugthrowers are hardly able to reach most targets closer to the palace. The first casualty however is one of the labor droids, when a Tusken's lucky shot enters the labor droid's back and explodes out of its chest.
The first shot fired, the mercenaries and Cartel enforcers who had been lurking in the shade of the palace entrance cavern begin to surge out beneath the opened (and massive) durasteel door ready to exert Lord Borgol the Hutt's will and bring punishment upon these raiders and their sacred banthas.
Cadogan West is straddling an old TaggeCo racing swoop, half his face painted with a crude skull. Idly revving the hoverbike and toying with the pin of a grenade as he watches the oncoming column, as soon as the first shots ring out, the Tionese outlaw shrugs, and races forward, veering at an angle to pass the column, and lobbing the first grenade into a forward cluster of Raiders, injuring four and wounding a bantha. A tight grin curls his lip at the detonation.
Lord Borgol's wraith was many things. One thing she was not, was lazy. Yes, she did make use of a space on a swoop to carry her from the walls to the enemy Raiders, but she did not wait for delivery. Instead, the Echani leapt as soon as she was close enough to affect an attack, coming down light on the sand, despite her momentum, the twin blades in her hand igniting with crimson plasma flare as she cut down one of the raiders, a swift pivot opening up the back of a second, the body dropping, twitching to the sands, leaving her leaping over it to the next, both blades coming together to remove head from shoulders. She was in the midst of a multitude, but...this was her usual mode of operation.
Hurry up and wait. That was his first order boiled down. Vorcassh was fine following the directive. As the secondary directive was eradication for compliance if things did not shake out. He's fine in the Tatooine suns, though his armor is slightly baking. Compared to the hell of Uba, Tatooine is a picnic by comparison. The only show of emotion Vorcassh has is when the Tuskens start coming closer with deliberate intent, weapons at the ready. More than ready than their usual standards, immediate fire immiment stance. He stands up on the swoop foot pegs as the first fire comes from the Tuskens.
<"Lord Borgol's instructions were clear. The Tuskens rebuked his generosity. No quarter."> His swoop takes off, and if the person riding behind him not ready? That was on them to get rolled off. Vorcassh is trying to remain a professional but the speed is so addictive. Once the range is closed he swings it behind a sand-bogged piece of equipment and draws the DL-44 from his left thigh, and the Tenloss from a holster at the small of his back. Both weapons are practically fired simultaenously. Both miss as much. There is blinking behind the visor. He rarely misses, let alone both.
Why is Zena on Tatooine? Drinking in the Hutt's Palace, of course. She's done a job for him, and her (for the moment) retired boss was one of his enforcers, so she may as well hang around and use some of that good will, right? Why not build more by blasting womp ra--Sand People who are heading for the Hutt's doorstep?
Before the attack, Zena's sitting at the bar, helmet attached to her belt and a drink in her hand. She's having a Great Time sipping on a drink and chatting with whoever would listen to her stories!
"Believe me, I was kriffing there! We jumped from Concord Dawn to Mandalore and fought beast riders te whole way down. It was so much fun," she says, slugging her drink. Then maybe another.
Too many for the job.
The call comes, and the tiny woman slaps her helmet on and unslings her sniper rifle, making for the battlements. She lies down on the battlements, setting the weapon up and getting her HUD ready. "Go time." She takes aim at a Tusken and squeezes the trigger, a crimson blaster bolt lancing out and turning some sand into glass.
"Maybe I should have had less to drink," she mutters.
The tusken raiders begin to spread out; ESPECIALLY when a grenade is lobbed into their midst and leaves a number of them injured. There's suddenly a ghost among them, cutting and cleaving through them. Their bellowing shrieks of rage and doom can be heard in equal measure as they are cut down, one after another. Vorcassh and Zena Tane both aid in keeping the Tusken Raiders corraled and effectively prevents them spreading out too much. The tusken's own return fire echoes across the Tatooine landscape, loud bangs and booms crackling through the air and rolling off into the distance. While some of the tuskens do engage the Cartel enforcers directly. Despite their best efforts though, the tuskens only succeed in felling a single labor droid.
Other soldiers and mercenaries within Lord Borgol's employ even begin to surge from the great cavern entrance of the Hutt's palace, laying down their own fire in support of those valiant Cartel enforcers rushing into far closer quarters than themselves. Beneath their fire a few more of the Tuskens fall to semi-accurate and semi-professional blaster fire from those hired guns.
Cadogan West had been trusting the speed of his pass and the angle to make return fire difficult, and while several slugs scream past, one thuds squarely into the armor of his right thigh, earning a ceiling and a wince that bares his teeth for an instant. ...only an instant though, no one wants sand in their teeth.
Banking the swoop around quickly enough for the repulsors to throw up an arc of sand into the air, he pulls a second grenade and races back to harass the besieged column again. If nothing else, a grenadier on a swoop bike screaming past at hundreds of kilometers an hour makes for a compelling distraction.
For one raider who looked down just in time to see a grenade land at their feet, it is a final distraction, cutting off a "HURK HURR HUR-" with a scattering of sand and people bits.
If there was one thing that could be said for Tusken Raiders, it was that they were as relentless as they were vicious, and the return fire was withering. One shot blasdted into the Echani, throwing her back against the side of one of the bantha, but Amal simply used the momentum to kick off again. She was old enough, and hardened enough that she managed to ignore, mostly, the pain searing through her chest as she waded back in. Two slashes brought down one of the raiders, the Echani kicking the body away and jumping off to attack the next, trying to maneuver so that she could use one of the banthas as something like cover.
The angry Ubese (Technically that's standard Ubese) is trying to make adjustments on the fly to his sidearms. This this is completely cut short when his right lg is taken out from under him by a Tusken sluq. The vocoder is unable to translate the burst of violent Ubese that breaks forth, but it still scrambles the speech patterns in the process. Unfortunately, it's not close enough to a Krayt's angry cry. Since Vorcassh is on the ground, he chooses to roll on his back and attempt to fire from this position as a rapid reflex. One that fails miserably. He's going to kill an armorer later. Slowly. There will be flaying involved. After he slices all the evidence needed that the armorer was stealing from the Hutt.
Zena cycles her rifle, taking a deep breath to steady her hands and her nerves. The sounds of combat, roars of the Tuskens and the whizzing giant hornet sounds of slugthrowers helping her out.
"Target the center...pull the trigger," she mantas to herself as she takes aim. The tiny Mandalorian picks one of the Tuskens and fires. The crimson bolt lances out with a howl, pegging one of the raiding party in the shoulder and spinning him around, but not dropping him. She growls, cycling the weapon again.
The tuskens attempt to fight back, but in this moment it is a losing battle. More of their number fall, "RUURRRRR!" they screech out in pain or agony. While others screech out their own battle cries at the sight of their fallen kin, "HURR HURK HURK HURRRRRRRRRR!" More fall, yet they continue fighting. Yet more of the labor droids fall under the rifle fire of the tusken raiders. It almost seems like the majority of them are more interested in disrupting construction operations than actually fighting the Cartel's enforcers.
This time, Cadogan flashes past the disordered column without taking a hit back. "This is where they break," he predicts under his breath, readying a third grenade and charging anew. He spots a cluster of raiders near a bantha and places another frag grenade near enough to them to give Huurkhurrk III a retinue into the afterlife, and start the wounded bantha stampeding off into the desert.
The shock wave of the fragmentation grenade did more than kick up sand and send at least one bantha shambling off, as blood and body parts rained down. Not the sort of rain Tatooine needed, but, generally, the sort that it got. Amal dipped back, waiting for the shower to pass, before she surged forward again, moving with care to avoid tearing the painfully cauterized flesh that came in the wake of a blaster bolt. She fell into dueling with another of the raiders, blades versus rifle barrel, but in the end, it was the Echani who came out the victor, the body subsequently kicked aside to leave the sand clear for maneuvering.
Grenades expose, slicing and dicing. All Vorcassh can seem to do at this point is at least not get shot again as he was struggling to get up and limp somewhere for cover. Two more reflexive shots are returned. Both go wide.
Zena takes aim for the Tusken that she just wounded, leveling the viewfinder directly on them and holding her breath. Wait for it....Wait for it...
She fires again, the blaster bolt racing out. It misses the raider by about a meter. Because she forgot to lead her shot.
She's a little drunk. Sue her.
Two of Borgol's retinue bead in on the same tusken, peppering the tall and lean figure draped in robes with blaster fire. Yet more are blown to whatever sacred waters constitutes a Tusken's afterlife when Cadogen's grenade explodes while they were seeing to their fallen friend and kin. Another falls beneath the expert blades of Lord Borgol's wraith, more commonly known as Amal Jha. While Vorcassh and Zena Tane both prevent the tuskens from spreading to far and pushing deeper into the construction area. It is by virtue of that alone that an even greater number of labor droids or equipment has been damaged.
One of the Tusken Raiders rushes toward Amal Jha with his gaderfii held high, a screeching battle cry erupting from his mask as he rushes in with the honor and bravery of centuries of Tusken warriors carrying him forward. He surges ahead with that sense of confidence, only for his swing to sail by the Wraith's head by at least a full yard. His momentum continues carrying him forward and directly into Amal's own blades...
Somewhere in the distance the sound of a shrieking, almost mechanical, roar can be heard. The sound echoes across the sands.
Cadogan West catches a second slug in riding past the desperate Tuskens, slamming into the armor over his ribs hard enough that his weight shifts and the entire swoop wobbles at speed, before stabilizing. A grimace twists the young outlaw's expression. "Ow," he mutters, after the fact. He doesn't glance down to check the number of grenades, instead feeling by touch and counting two of the little bombs left on the bandolier. As he banks back around into the chaotic battle, another slug impacts his swoop, putting a harmless hole in the cowling, but further annoying the rider.
In banking back around, his pale blue eyes catch on something. His eyes widen and he barks over comms, open channel for all to hear: <<"SOMETHING BLOODY BIG COMING IN HARD FROM THE SOUTH. INCOMING, ANY SECOND.">>
The numbers were thinning, that was true. But some was not none, and she was being paid for none. So, Amal fought on, trying to keep out from beneath the lumbering forms of the banthas. had she been a female of more average size, perhaps she might have been able to pass beneath them, but she was not, and so, she simply dove and danced, coming up on one of the tuskens taking aim at the defense force and putting them down. The alert that came, and the sound that had prompted it caught some of her attention, but coming was not here. And here, there was still knife work to do.
At least the Tuskens are missing him by better margins this time. He's slapped a sealant patch on his armor in the brief lull of taking cover. He couldn't afford to lose too much of his armor's internal atmosphere in the Tatooine dryness. He'll have the injury dealt with at a later time.
Limping to one side, his right hand tries with the Tenloss again and he scowls behind that visor. The armorer is definitely going to become a casualty at a later time. If he survives this. There's yelling about something big coming, which only then lets his battle-fogged brain replay some sort of bellowing sound in the distance. That is for later. For now. At least his trusty DL-44 downs a Tusken. He's still frowning, though.
Zena takes aim again and makes ready to pull the trigger when she yelps, dropping back behind her cover. A slug had hit a metal plate, shattered and punched through an unarmored portion of her leg. It hit muscle more than anything, so it hurts like -hell-, but, hey. She's not bleeding out.
Bonus.
The tide has decisively turned with multiple explosions echoing across the landscape thanks to Cadogan West. Yet more fall beneath the blades and under the blasters of Lord Borgol the Hutt's enforcers and other hired guns. The screeching whine grows in ferocity as it draws closer, hidden away by the rollin dunes and sand bars of Tatooine's dry landscape.
Many of the remaining tuskens finally break and begin to scatter, lurching abruptly back to the remaining banthas with their rifles held high, "HURRRRRRRR!!!"
The mechanical screen is almost upon the construction site when from over a dune the source of the sound is finally visually realized. A trio of swoop bikes come roaring over the sand dunes, each carrying two Sand People; a driver and one riding on the rear with a slug-throwing rifle. SKURRRRRR their swoops shriek, while their riders roar out their own, "HHHRRRRRR!!!"
Some damn fool had taught them to ride a swoop. Probably 'like a bantha', too.
They ride and fight like marauders, rather than soldiers. Ever moving, using the speed and maneuverability of their mechanical 'banthas' to rush by, firing and creating chaos as they go, "HURR HURR HURRRRR!"
Cadogan West isn't sure what to expect from the south, but as the raiders and banthas scatter and the last dune is created, he sees...A gaggle of sand people piled onto three swoops.
<<"No lie: I ain't sure what I expected. Mayhap a low flying fighter, or.. a bloody krayt dragon or some drek. Sorry, everybody, I'm disappointed more than anything, if I'm honest.">> He lobs his last grenade into the path of the oncoming Sand Swoops, before veering off. The blast is harmless, but Sand people on swoops are easily startled, and one inexperienced Tusken driver veers away from the blast, crashing at speed into a piece of construction machinery, raising a big fireball.
Tusken Raiders in swoop bikes. That...was not something you saw everyday. But...there was always a solution to ever new problem, and Amal dashed over towards one of the bikes on which the team had been conveyed to meet the enemy, hopping up and pivoting into the seat. It took quite a bit of juggling, to both continue to world weapons and fly, but thankfully, the swoop was such that it did not need fine control to aim itself in an attack position. Also, she did have knees. As the two swoops faced off, Tuskens versus Echani, Amal dove with the machine, allowing herself to come in close enough to nearly scrape paint, as she lashed out, managing to carve off one of the Tuskens, the gunner, their body flying back into the sands as Amal maneuvered to come in for a second attack.
His injury cannot be bad enough to create such a mirage for his eyes. Vorcassh does take a moment to shake his head. His leg does smart after all. Swoops. Fine. Tuskens. Fine. Tuskens on swoops? Not fine.
<"What sociopath taught them to ride swoops?!"> Sometimes professionals have breaking moments. Not missing shots. Not losing cargo. Tuskens on Swoops. That's what breaks Vorcassh a moment, before he decides to act on this affront to his sensitivities. So the ones on the Bantha get it. One is barely taken down, the other vanishes in a burst of light, dust and partially disintegrated cloth.
Her leg hurts, but the booze keeps it at a dull roar. Zena grits her teeth as the swoops come racing in, raising hell. She smiles under her helmet, taking aim and trying not to think about the blood soaking into her pantleg.
She takes aim not at the raiders, but their bike. They're so fast though, it's going to take timing. She lines the bike into her viewfinder and pulls the trigger, but the damn maniacs juke out of the way. She lines up another, but they do it again, leaving another patch of sand turned into grass.
She swears, only part of it because she missed.
The tide continues to work again the Sand People. Their cavalry had arrived and despite their exhaustive training regimen: it proves rather useless. One of them slams into construction equipment, another is engaged in a zipping and slashing swoop-mounted duel, and the third loses its driver under the blaster fire of Lord Borgol's own retinue of bodyguards and mercenaries. Even the last of the original wave of Raiders isn't provided any mercy. The Tusken Raider falls from his bantha after being shot in the back by Lord Borgol's retinue, dropping into the sand a moment later. In a moment of tear-jerking sadness, the bantha actually stops to look to its rider and friend, nudging at the dead tusken with its immense head as though to urge the tusken up and at'em.
Cadogan West had banked away to the right, to keep the swoop between his already wounded right leg, and the remaining Tusken Riders. This has the unfortunate effect of allowing a slug to smack him squarely in the LEFT leg, provoking a colorful explosion of profanity that goes on for several seconds in at least two languages. "Bloody bastard bantha rekking Hutt-suckers! How the bloody rekk am I 'posed to walk off this piece of drek bike without a bloody rekking leg to stand on! REKK and drek and drips off the backside of a-" it goes on. Mercifully not over comms.
There were not many times when the Echani had cause to practice any other skill aside from killing. But, then again, that was the job, when one worked for Borgol. But Amal Jha had learned a great many things, in her many years of service to the Six Sisters, and she put that to use now,a s she squared off, swoop to swoop with the gadderfi wielding swoop rider. They had reach, but Amal had flexibility, and she drove the swoop down, beneath the range of the longer weapon, driving back upward to land two hard blows that finished the rider off. Let us hope the swoop did not impact anyone else as it drove away out of control. The Echani did not have a chance to look, as she gunned the swoop's engines, a preview, perhaps, if the races to come, as she accelerated to catch up with the fleeting raider. None alive. She had the seeming complete lack of fear working in her favor, and much more skill with piloting, as she piloted the swoop on a shocking fast intercept course, intersecting at right angles, and driving a blade into the throat of the raider, the force of the blow pulling the, now, body back off of the swoop to land in the sands.
<"Should take a Bantha for steaks."> Vorcassh grumbles. It's tempting, the Bantha mourning one of the shot Tuskens irrationally irritated him. Just another foci for his anger at all the wasted ammunition. At least the orders were carried out. A very loud message sent. Do not resist Lord Borgol. Do not betray Lord Borgol. All that wasted water. Vorcassh shook his head. Some creatures are incapable of changing their temperments apparently. Unless someone else riled them up. A possibility. He will need to have that looked into. First he reloads the betraying pistol and slips it away for now. After that, it's limp towards his swoop, hoping not too much sand got into his armor.
Zena watches the, well, violent shenanigans through her viewfinder. She's glad that the others took care of the rest of the Tuskens, because her buzz is gone, all that's left is throbbing pain. "Sons of ....," she trails off as a spike of pain lances through her leg.
<<"Ugh. I think I need a medic.">>
She rolls away from her rifle, putting herself into a seated position on the battlements as she squeezes her leg to try and stop the bleeding. She doesn't want to spend a day in a tank for this! She has cargo to move!
Smoke rises from the burning wreckage of swoop and construction equipment. The fire burns brightly in the fading light of Tatooine's twins suns. In all a half dozen labor droids - of a few dozen - lay blasted and dismantled upon the sand and stone of the terrain surrounding Lord Borgol the Hutt's palace. Many bodies of fallen Sand People litter the landscape and while battered in many cases, the Enforcers of the Hutt Cartel and Lord Borgol stand trumphant and without any losses. Such is often the case when technology has a violent encounter with the primitive.
Cadogan West, Amal Jha, Vorcassh the Ubese, Zena Tane. Each is rewarded in turn with an almost simultaneously beep from their credit accounts, indicating a sizeable payment from Lord Borgol the Hutt for 'Services Rendered'. There are drinks, spice, and other pleasures to be had within the Hutt's palace tonight. Lord Borgol's home being successfully defended and its attackers dealt with brutally is ALWAYS cause for celebration.
There's even a murmur of bacta and bantha to go around, too.
