Log:It's Good To Hang Pirates
It's Good To Hang Pirates
OOC Date: February 18, 2021
Location: The Outer Rim
Participants: Mandalorians, Rathe Kora, Sumi Kora and Hadrix Kora as GM Clan Kora
Outer Rim - Near the Triellius Trade Run
<<"Here it is... Simple op. Get in, smash our way to a primary power generator, drop explosives and get out before the whole thing goes up...">> Hadrix's voice grumbles over comms.
The station was more like sections of ships that could be compartmentalized welded together to make a base of operations. Hyperdrive was a long lost dream, without a tug, but sublight engines aloud the ramshackle monstrosity to move with some small ability. To relocate marginally when needed.
Not fast enough for the Woor'Tra to shoulder aside a light shuttle, collapsing its own shields as it clears the particle shielding and comes to a halt that would be screeching if the ship's gear was down. Instead it simply stops, gear dropping just before it would hit the deck and the cargo bomb-bays slide open to allow people to drop down.
Pheergus and Greeza were already getting shields up and working turrets to lay suppressive fire in what was now a cramped landing bay with almost a dozen pirates charging in, blaster fire spraying against weak shields, threatening to rip tears.
Quiet. Withdrawn more than normal. Rathe is always relatively silent on mission approach. But this time the trip had bordered awkward several times. Rathe often stuck to being inside his full armor, helmet on. There was spurts of activity and socializing, just oddly random. As Hadrix bolts the Woor'tra into a station noone in their right mind should land on, let alone live on. Rathe is kneeling, Maglocked to the decking and bulkhead. No pre-check, just an E-11 cradled to his chest in silence. Head bowed.
Rathe's only motion as as they are landing is to reach up with a hand, blindly laying it over one of the bloody handprints on the side of his helmet. Kary's bloody handprint, memorialized there with a thick coat of clear lacquer to protect them. Once the bay doors open, in one motion the maglocks disengage and Rathe leaps out. His shots are off, reflexive. While currently recovering, the dehydrated and malnurished state Hadrix had located him in has taken a toll. Rathe rages untransmitted from within his armor.
Stepping off the ramp, Sumi lands heavily upon the durasteel paneled launch bay, falling naturally into a crouch with the pained sound of age and old knees. Grasped between two hands and held with a degree of familiarity is Sumi's weapon of choice this evening, the E-11 carbine. Primed already, the weapon fires an orange hot hammered pair of blasts that catch two pirates immediately, in quick succession. Before Sumi has even risen up, two bodies crash to the floor in heaps of dead meat and blasted plasteel. Sumi chuckles and slowly moves forward, her HUD tracking incoming fire.
Immediately, the Mandalorian is accosted by blaster fire, and while much of it misses, a solid 'TINK' sounds as a bolt bounces off her chest and shoves her into a cargo container. <"Huttsucker.. OW!"> She growled, sighting in the poor soul who just shot her.
Bodies dropping, the crew of miscreants charge into the teeth of blaster fire as the Mandalorians drop into view. <<"Forward sweep, Pheergus says sensors reporting corridors leading to their... I guess it's engineering that way - we'll likely need to dog-leg port on the way.">>
[ansi(#949494,SHCK)-[ansi(#B2B2B2,CHAK)
The explosion that follows launches a pirate backwards off of their feet to skid along the ground with their guts blown out their back while their arms and legs twitch and Hadrix keeps moving forward, pump-cocking the scatter gun anew.
The pirates on deck begin moving for cover with two of their number down and burning and another across the wall. One of them, a Dashade with a heavy looking repeater rifle pointing and growling something wet and vicious sounding from its mouth filled with rows of lamprey like teeth. It points to Sumi then Rathe, while some dip for concealment among the wreckage of the cargo hold and others dare lean out in preparation of taking shots.
He can hear Sumi land, not that she is heavy. His HUD lights up with the IFF ping in the process. Rathe has glanced down at his E-11 to eyeball the sight settings. Wondering if he took Karys for granted so badly he hasn't properly maintained sights on his own. He pushes the thought away down in the place he keeps all the other incriminating and accusatory thoughts. They will be freed again the next time he tries to sleep.
Blaster bolts zip by him and he starts moving for his own cover, taking shots on the way. adrix' shotgun barks with good authority. In response Rathe's first shot lands solidly, but the second misses well off the mark. 2-1-1... Rathe realizes he's keeping score for some reason and tries to stow that Drek away too.
Sumi fires twice at the bastard who shot her and rekking misses. Both shots leave burning holes in the cover he's ducked behind indicating his hidey hole was too thick to puncture. Ducking into cover of her own, Sumi's HUD indicates her E-11 has two shots left on the current pack. Sighing, she orients her weapon to her side with a loud Ziiiiiip of its sling, then draws a Vibrodagger from its sheath on her bandolier, trading it from hand to hand as she waits for the Mandos to move forward a bit more before she goes.. hunting.
It has to be a delaying action, hiding out near tool chests, ship parts and the growing stack of bodies. More blaster bolts sing past to splatter against the Woor'tra's shields or in the case of one against the chest plate of Hadrix... recently modified with proper alloys.
<<"Hole is opened, good job Rathe. I'm spearheading for the hatch and will move to cover.">> already the Woor's doors are buttoning up fully and shields are nearly to full power.
More pirates can be heard coming, ready to come pouring into the bay to refill numbers but not visible just yet - allowing the Mandalorians time to maneuver as they need. The remaining thugs try to close ranks when Hadrix surges across the room, sprinting past another who is gunned down with another explosion of cordite and flechette.
An attempt to split the forces continues, to block the path opened and pin down the trio at their respective locations.
He's stopped keeping score at least, there are other concerns to be had. Sumi goes for the personal approach, and he considers it briefly. Unsure of how steady he can be with his sword right now. Hadrix gives him encouragement, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. His response a flat sounding <<"Acknowleged.">>. He's still pained from his ribcage pinballing Fungi-Trees. A firing of his rocketpack closes him to the hatch, engaging the maglock boots on the decking to halt himself in place to be able to fire into the backs of two of the pirates, and he is completely wide on both shots. There's an audible growl from the vox speaker this time.
Sumi moves in for the kill then, slumping low and roadie running along a crate before mantling over to surprise the huttsucker who was still looking for her. <"Hey handsome,"> Sumi issues, knocking him back before springing into him center mass to plant her knife. It cuts deep, easily because of the vibro tech. She can hear the discontent in his voice when the blade finds valuable organs and turns them to fileted steak. Pulling the blade out, she immediately stabs it into his neck from one side, and made a sawing motion to cut across the rest of his neck spilling blood as she did it. Life began to leave the man in spurts and sprays after she discarded him like some piece of trash.
Sumi runs forward, encountering another pirate along her path and cutting his arm bearing the weapon he intended to use on her. She cut, shoulder bumped him back, and switched hands with ease to set up her next flurry of attacks. His reflection could be seen through the silver mirror-like T-shaped visor that looked right at his face.
Numbers dwindle to the bare minimum as the Mandalorians make for the door, another cluster of vain tailed darts surging past into the chest of one of those pirates rushing to the aid of the one Sumi had been knifing, kicking him sideways and to the floor.
<<"Rathe, on point. You have this.">> the big man motions down the corridor, still looking into the bay as blaster fire sprays around the hatch they're entering and more pirates begin entering with weapons drawn. Not many but enough to reinforce while more appear down the corridor being taken.
Another voice is coming as well, from deeper in and barking orders as pirate hustle and the Mandalorians near their target.
He can hear the human blender that is Sumi at work. He envies her gift of slaughter right now. Hadrix gives him purpose and mission, Rathe turns, bringing up the E-11 to his shoulder wordlessly. Rathe is having issues focusing right now, his rage is simply out of control. His mind a random series of flashbacks, and his heart still aches, while his soul yearns for oblivion still. It's affecting how he reacts it feels. He advances, preparing to engage the maglocks the moment it dawns on the pirates to try for disabling gravity. His first shot is well above the head of the pirate, the second strikes him center mass. He plans no mercy... if his eyes, heart, and mind would cooperate.
Sumi is left to the bay, holding it a key objective in their departure. She kills the man she held onto and shoves him off the edge of her knife before leaping onto the back of a much larger, burly pirate and stabbing him twice in the neck. Both he, and Sumi, hit the ground, but she is on top. She rolls to one side and moves to cover as a hail of fire. Roadie running along the line of crates, her HUD tracks her targets and she goes on the prowl, having the time of her life.
The forces in the Bay are certainly diminished as the Alor'Kora goes to work with blade, cutting down a pair in a bloody swathe amidst the fire that moves around her. "Get around her! GET BEHIND HER!" one is shouting as he tries to circle Sumi's position and another makes to get at her flank. It's all going sideways for her as it does in the corridor.
There is a grunt over externals and another before a hard slamming thud when Hadrix takes a bolt first to his leg, knocking him off balance and stutter stepping across the hall to almost get his footing before the next shot hits his arm and spins him like a top before he hits the ground. Another wheezing sound, an attempt at words most likely.
Down the corridor the remaining pirates advance towards Rathe, heads low and expressions feral while their blasters come up with menacing intent for the War Medic.
Sumi makes herself known to the other larger, burly pirate with a laugh. <"Flank this, big boy,"> Stab! Miss! Sumi adjusts as he slides back cursing. She sprang forward in a sprint, slamming the knife into their chest just before tackling them down. He cried out as they landed and she claimed the full mount, sprawling with experience to /quickly/ take advantage of his shock and slide the knife up through his chin. It was a quick, in and out, and his arms fell limp before she moved on. A trio of blaster rifles opened up on her position, but Sumi was too quick to reach cover and work around.
"Somebody stop her!!" the remaining goons in the bay start to fall back as they fire on the mandalorian as she finishes off the one who was trying to bark orders. Now it's panic and pandemonium as they holler into comm for aid. The prospects of such looking poor and getting worse when the explosion goes off in the corridors.
One of the pirates is down, flash frozen in places, skin already suffering severe frostbite before he falls and Hadrix is resting a hand on Rathe's shoulder, <<"Helluva day. Hit them hard, I'm right behind. We punch through, we get the target, copy?">>
More blaster fire erupts around them, scoring deep marks in the walls, ceiling and floors while a single pirate works to line up his shot, just so.
He can hear killing down the corridor where they came from. Rathe is jealous, but needs to focus on the large injured mammal before him. When Hadrix's hand lands on his shoulder he gets him up. Rathe's helmet connects with Hadrix' <"Up and at'em, Brother."> It's cliche`, Rathe clearly doesn't care. Or does not have time as he siddenly feels sizzling in the backside. There's a lot of untransmitted sounds and cursing from the helmet and he hops on one leg over to the side. He doesn't bother with a hypo-spray, he just slaps a bacta-patch up in there and raises the E-11 1 armed to fire off a bolt that misses.
Sumi stabs one female, killing her instantly before making the segue to a second pirate, killing them in similar fashion. Both bodies drop within a short succession of each other and Sumi is going for the last one, approaching with the confidence of a hundred years of killing. They fire, and Sumi dips her shoulder back as the shot goes by, then she smiles despite them being unable to see it. <"Let us do this the old fashioned way. Knife to knife.."> Her knife is tossed between her two hands and she makes a stab for the third just as they dance back, bouncing from foot to foot in a unique fighting style. Sumi casts her cape back, and lifts her knife to the ready, her other hand low with the arm stretched, a type of stance of her own.
<"Been a while..."> there's a laugh in there as Hadrix is helped up, only to be blasted in the other arm in the process. Growling and raising the one Rathe just numbed the wound in, opening fire to put one of the heavier pirates down as he snarls out <"Forward. Before we're pinned down..."> other shots splattering against a shoulder pad and another singing past his head.
The last remaining thug facing Sumi blinks at the idea of going knife to knife and begins back pedaling anew and raising his blaster to take aim at her. Knife to knife? Rekk that. It's all over his face and his blaster screams to sail a shot towards her.
The pirates in the hall hold their ground, even as the Mandalorian advance begins anew, rifles up to try and pin down the big dark painted figure staggering towards them and firing. Rathe suddenly forgotten in all of the chaos.
<"Oh. Did someone just remember they are a mere mortal"> Rathe snorts in amusement even as he has to wince right afterwards. That bacta patch is pulling hair! He starts his own advance. He's slower now with the limp, it forces him to focus just enough. The E-11 blasts twice, killing two pirates. He's not sure if he got the one that shot him, he hopes not. He wants to keep venting, they have a mission. He needs to focus on it, but my my he wants to kill.
Only a pair of pirates visible at present, after Rathe's barrage down the hall, are forced down by Hadrix's firing approach - their own shots splattering against the undamaged cuisse of one leg and then the beskar cuirass while he spearheads for the medic.
<"They didn't kill me. Just knocked me down."> the smirk heavy in the pained rumble as he continues forward under fire. <"Now REKK EM"> Yes. The Sumi Kora tactical handbook in action. It's worked in the past. Why not now?
The bay is cleared, only Sumi surrounded by blood and bodies while the Woor'Tra's turrets train on the corridors that Hadrix and Rathe didn't take - the warbling voice that preambles a translator collar coming over comms as Pheergus, Hadrix's Ithorian gunner, speaks,
<<"Alor'Sumi">> because why not an Ithorian Mandalorian? <<"We have your path back covered. Stay alive.">> one of the turrets waggling before it locks onto a passage again.
<<"We're making progress.">> Hadrix responds to Sumi's announcement, <<"We're both a little more char than skin.">>
If they have to fall back, the way is now clear thanks to Sumi. Either way, they will need to go back that way if they succeed with the explosives. Especially as explosive decompression sucks. <<"Outstanding.">> Rathe acknowledges Sumi. <"Hadrix... they took your juice boxes."> It's a good story, after all. He's suddenly unsure if he accidentally gave the last Hadrix-Box away by error. Blaming pirates may work, it may not. Worth a shot!
Rekk'em. A simple order t follow most days, Rathe is uncertain. Stops. He stops thinking. He just lets the rage come to the fore, that agony, that mad desire to make other suffer as he has. The E-11 shifts in his hands, the first pirate hit goes down in a grisly blast, a shift of his shoulders and the second pirate ceases to be. Rathe starts moving with a purpose.
With the Captain down under Sumi's knife the way is clear through the short corridors echoing with shouting and the sounds of laser turrets firing far behind. No side passages - there's no structural means for it, as the trio move through what looks like a section of a Barlooz cargo pod and then a hunk Mon Calamari luxury shuttle. It's a mess and it opens up into a room with a throbbing bastardization of engines slap-jobbed together to make the chugging mass that keeps this whole rig running.
There's time to work, but also the sounds of approaching enemy footsteps.
<"Don't worry."> Rathe starts with. <"I have a plan."> Sometimes. You just need to fall back on good old fashioned mayhem. Rathe rarely goes for such a tactic. Not his forte, but right now. Creating a miniature sun in the heart of pirate territory just feels right. More than right. Justified. Warranted. -Needed- on a cellular level. Rathe just casually withdraws the Detonator without talking about it, as casually as if he was just pulling out a canteen. He walks to the center of the mess, looks for a good hiding spot. He hates it when people just slap these things where any drekhead can see them. He arms it, drops it into the hidey-spot and moves to ignite his rockets... apparently with the safety on. A stumbling step and he fires them to life, and zips down the corridor with a very cool sounding <"Woooohoooooo!"> mostly because he's not a pinball this time, and hiding the fact his burned butt clenched a lot.
The clomping steps of Sumi's heavy boots indicate the ol' girl is running, left behind by her boys in lieu of jetpacking. For once, she didn't require a jetpack to close the distance, and before the explosion could consume the corridor, she's seen sliding into view before trudging back into the bay and their salvation, the ship. The entire time, her cape whipped and snapped behind her, her heavy advance akin to a charging Reek, her helmet tipped with feline ears aimed ahead!
<"And he calls me crazy..."> Hadrix is laughing when Rathe makes his brief spurt leap before he too is lifted behind the man on twin plumes of fire, launching back from the small engine room just as a group of defenders appear across the way, pointing and opening fire on the exit and striking only durasteel.
A mad dash and flight for the Woor'tra as the ramp drops to allow the group to board in rapid order with Twi'Lek and Ithorian in pilot and co-pilot seat. The one jerking to hard and thudding the ship against the roof of the hangar before Greeza smacks the hammerhead and draws the ship back, engaging cargo-particle shields for fast exit while the ramp is still rising behind Sumi, Rathe and Hadrix.
After The trio come storming in there is that sudden vacuum, as if the world were gasping in surprise before sound cuts off, heat builds and the white-hot glare turns the corridor into stark black and white with no room for gray between. The ship clears the docking hatch as a growing ball expands within the engineering deck. Vaporizing plast, melting durasteel and destabilizing mixtures of ion engines in a growing bloom of fire that begins to consume the base, deforming bulkheads and sending waves of molten and shredded metal flying.
The blockade runner shakes when the station erupts, hull plates spinning into space, fire dying as fast as its born and hurling debris like celebration glitter over the cosmos.
<"Kriff..."> Hadrix rumbles, laying on the deck. <"Gripper?"> "Already on it." a juice supplement bottle being brought to the man while Gofor warbles and rolls around the lot, as if to make sure they're ok.
Sumi clipped her hip getting into the ship, stumbled, and fell over holding her side. <"Ugh.. god damn it. OW.."> Hissing now, she rocks back and forth a bit, weathering the waves of pain. <"Hhhhhhhh..ahhhhhhh...Hhhhhhhh..ahhhhhhh.">
It's only a second, but he's forgotten everything for a moment. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug, Rathe even laughs briefly. So when he looks back at Hadrix zipping along behind him. His memory overlays a much slimmer figure in Skyripper rocketing behind him, the memory bringing her up to his side. He nearly slams into the Woor'tra ramp, and skids all the way into the hold as his maglocks try to engage and then succeed. He stands there a moment panting, looking to the durasteel he peeled... and suddenly hopes that will buff out. Which brings up a soft chuckle out of the blue. <"Well... that's effective."> He'd gone to a display screen to watch it happen, feeling a little bit of satisfaction, and distracted again for a few sweet blissful moments.
