Log:Mandalore: The Immovable Object
The Battle For King Mountain reaches the gates
OOC Date: April 7, 2022
Location: King Mountain, Mandalore
Participants: Fae Renta, Valeska Kora, Narsai Ordo, Hahtavi Kora, Sumi Kora, Avery Ihala Kora, Teela Kloo and Hadrix Kora as GM Revivers, Clan Kora
Smoking hulls of buggies and makeshift tanks had become earthworks with turret fire turning sand to glass. Durasteel turned to slag fusing with the ground of Mandalore and the wind piling more against it, Mandalorians fired at one another with blaster, bow and spear littering the space between with missed shots and the fallen spotted where aggressors and defenders had dug in.
Days had passed since the fall of the shield generators. Since The Reckoning had begun firing in zones where those fighting under Mand'alor's banner were not. A forest of crystalline sprays frozen in time had sprouted around King Mountain, creating hazard zones where a high powered blast would create clouds of cutting shards that threatened the throats and lungs of those without sealed helmets.
<<"We need to get someone on top">> Hadrix rumbling, hunkered down behind a durasteel plate cast into the ground like a splinter of a clay bowl, sketching out directions on his wristmount datapad and sending information to HUDs on the link. Beyond, where twin and tri-barreled cannon batteries set on the ground before and against the mountainside beside and above the massive doors, loose bursts of coherent light and plasma fire to force heads down or vaporize the unlucky stands the King Gate. Five stories tall, pure beskar shining silvery despite the haze of smoke and dust. <<"Getting on top gets us the gate controls, we need to get ascenders close enough that the cannons don't just swat them.">> leaning and peering from behind the metal defense, long enough to assess and have a series of slugs and blaster bolts chew up the sand near him and more to shake the defense and send up bell tones of slug hits.
<<"Move up, follow defilade, provide cover if you're not mobile. Watch your flanks, make for their positions - claim ground and if you see an opportunity to make for the gate-top, call out and we'll adjust approach.">> A Bazza clan craft, the cannibalized remains of shuttle and transport craft grafted to repulsor systems to create a mobile weapons platform surges past, blaster cannons screaming fury, deploying plates of shed spacecraft hull and creating a reinforced turret bunker of itself when its hull slams down to the ground. Clan warriors of different marks and symbols charge in its wake, some making it to the staging point for the next push. Some fall. Some cease to exist in the wake of overwhelming fire.
<"MANDO'ADE! FORWARD TO BATTLE AND GLORY!"> Hadrix then with them, charging into the teeth of the enemy. Moving hard for the next points of cover - humps of sand built on bodies, ruins of vehicles, craters from detonations. It's plentiful, but is enemy fire.
Medicine has advanced by leaps and bounds. What was once a fatal injury is often now no more than a day or two inconvinience floating in a tank. But modern science can only go so far and the road to recovery is a long, arduous one in some cases. For Valeska, who had only been held together in the aftermath of the last mission by the armour fused to her frame, the medbay staff had managed to salvage her right leg. A good sixty-seven percent of it is still flesh and bone. The rest? Well. There are a lot of metal rods and cybernetic sinews in there now.
Not that it can be seen at the moment. The harlequin mess that is her body -- freshly regrown skin still pink and patchy all over -- is covered by her Journeyman armour. Repaired to functionality in the handful of days time alotted to do so. Most of the crimson painting has been melted or chipped off, but enough remaining to scream that hint of defiance left in her. The beskar chestplate, however, is predictably unscathed. Takes more than two plasma cannons to wreck the stuff, apparently.
Stooped down, Valeska slips her helmet off just enough to pop a painkiller tablet into her mouth. Not strong enough to make her loopy and thus not strong enough to do the job, but maybe enough to keep her moving. Biting into it, she pushes to her feet with an audible grunt and moves after the rest.
Allbeit noticably slower than usual. At least getting to the gate requires flight. Flight she can do.
<"I can move for the top, should you require it. I need a moment to prime my weapon,"> Sumi Kora responds as she drops the spear she had from before and rotated an E-11 to her front by leveraging her sling and hooking the custom buttstock to the pocket of her shoulder. In this style, Sumi held the weapon with one hand and arm, casually as a century old soldier would, then she looked for where she needed to jetpack.
Teela checks her blaster pistols, then reseats them in their holsters. Her attention shifting up to Hadrix giving them the lowdown on what needs to happen before the charge can commence, she inclines her visor and looks around at the others present. <<"I'm willing to climb up there and hit those gate controls... or at the very least escort someone more functionally apt at slicing them. It's going to be a jolly mess.">> She murmurs, dead eye staring at the wall standing between them and the fortress.
Suffice she is not wearing a jetpack.
So it's butt and elbow climbing for her.
Fae Renta is squatting down, back against the safety of that metal cover as blaster bolts singe and slugs pwing off of its surface. The sound and smell of death is in the air, and that is not a bouquet that she is particularly fond of. Her helmet is hissing as she slides it into position, having taken the lackadaisical way 'round to this point of cover. Though it's impossible to see through her helmet, it's quite obvious to anyone looking that Fae Renta is yawning. How? Because she always covers her mouth with the back of her right hand, palm out, even when she's yawning behind a T-Shaped visor. And her vocoder sort of distorts the yawn, adding a bit of harmonics to its underbelly and squashing the highs with the mids.
She peers towards Valeska as the woman pops her pain pill, head tipped to the side with curiosity. She notices the sluggishness but, breaking from true Fae Renta form, she doesn't say a damn thing about it.
Instead, she just ejects the powercell from her E-11 and folds the stuck away from its barrel and towards the back, where she can tuck it beneath her armpit, lift it up, and dust it free of sand.
<"I am not going up there."> she says pointedly. As if there's a shortage of volunteers. Brush brush. Smack. She seems satisfied with her gun, despite audibly sighing.
<"...Those are really big doors.">
<<"I can go to provide the slice, but let's get a little closer first before encouraging those big guns to take our heads off.">> Avery remarks, peering over the makeshift cover at the lines of blaster fire that drill into the sand around them. <<"Looks like everyone came to the party!">> he comments in regards to the large number of cannon fire and whatnot that send up sand and debris around them.
Avery pokes his Y-visored helm up once more, gauging the distance between them and the doors, alternatively, them and the top of the wall. <<"Yeah... closer for sure.">> the Slicer replies, his darkened visor shifting to look over those assembled in their cover nearby. They're not there for long, the call to advance is given and with a grunt, Avery pushes from behind his destroyed.... whatever this was... and sprints for the next bit of 'safety', dodging and weaving through the hail of fire that is sent their way.
It is the madness of pitched battle in war - on a scale quite unlike their more usual ops. Hahtavi can walk at a slightly lurking shuffle but there's no way he can run. When needs must advance quickly, he fires off his jetpack and leapfrogs as necessary from whatever cover or line he must help hold. Otherwise his right booted foot drags a bit in the sand as he makes his way, determined to keep up.
New helmet, too.
Instead of speaking, he double clicks his helmet coms in acknowledgement of Hadrix's orders. Speach is still difficult after his brain trauma and getting his new eye mechanical eye to focus properly sometimes is frustrating. All the same, every man and woman is needed and he's been judged fit enough to join the battle. Barely. rGalaar in hand, clipped to his tactical rig, Hahtavi jetpacks to catch up in the charge and lands to take cover, and to provide cover, for the advance of others as they close ranks towards the King Gate to assault it.
Finally as he hears Sumi, Haht's coms click on, <<"I c-an je-t-p-ack thoo the t-op, az w-ell."> Speach much less slurred now but talking still a challenge for this Kora after his terrible head wound.
It is the madness of pitched battle in war - on a scale quite unlike their more usual ops. Hahtavi can walk at a slightly lurking shuffle but there's no way he can run. When needs must advance quickly, he fires off his jetpack and leapfrogs as necessary from whatever cover or line he must help hold. Otherwise his right booted foot drags a bit in the sand as he makes his way, determined to keep up.
New helmet, too.
Instead of speaking, he double clicks his helmet coms in acknowledgement of Hadrix's orders. Speach is still difficult after his brain trauma and getting his new eye mechanical eye to focus properly sometimes is frustrating. All the same, every man and woman is needed and he's been judged fit enough to join the battle. Barely.
Galaar in hand, clipped to his tactical rig, Hahtavi jetpacks to catch up in the charge and lands to take cover, and to provide cover, for the advance of others as they close ranks towards the King Gate to assault it.
Finally as he hears Sumi, Haht's coms click on, <<"I c-an je-t-p-ack thoo the t-op, az w-ell."> Speach much less slurred now but talking still a challenge for this Kora after his terrible head wound
<<"Copy, looks like everyone here wants those doors.">> adjusting a dial on the side of his own cannon while kneeling beneath the shadow of a hulled repulsor skiff, peering through jagged holes to their objective. <<"Gripper.">> His tone is as even as his stance, Hadrix's posture, everything, relaxed and completely at home in the chaos. From his back, small black droid ejects from her socket and shoots skyward, legs tucked in, body sections rotating
A trio of buggies with anti-armor repeaters mounted surge from the right hand approach, barrels spitting fire and warriors battle cries into the exchange between they and an emplacement of sandbags and duracrete block that defending savages respond with small arms and a squad weapon. The exchange brutal and quick - one of the wheeled buggies catching multiple slug and plasma bolts to a rear quarter, too many for the frame of the vehicle that deforms and then twists.
The battery fire poured into it after turns it to geyser of flame and molten metal.
<<"Breechers! Bring up breechers!">> a new voice on comms, one of the terrestrial clans having joined the conflict. A wave of Haran'kemire clan warriors in spike and blade augmented armor charge from behind an earthwork of sand raised by trenching tools as much as impacts from enemy fire, a half dozen falling before they've crossed five meters. Among remaining ten narrow pipes are carried gathered after they've thrown themselves against an embankment created by the death of a destroyed defender turret nest - given breathing room by covery fire of golden blaster bolts and slug fire from further back.
<<"Joq, you're still lhive?">> an aging voice on the comms, filled with mirth, <<"Mir you sonofahutt, I thought you died in Keldabe.">> <<"Reborn and swept from the sahnds. I am bringing ashistance.">> the deep throated accent of The Rememberer blending h sounds into his speech.
Hadrix pops up again, momentarily before his left hand raises, two fingers extended and twirling in a tight circle, <"FIRE AND ADVANCE"> on externals again, but loud as mortar shells when he bellows and charges.
Now that she's trying to move at any kind of speed, Valeska is made painfully aware just how debilitating this injury is going to be today. She's trying to run, but it's more of a lame-legged gallop. A lead-footed tromp, if you will. From one smoldering wreck to the other. Any cover she can find... and there's plenty to choose from. Sliding into the next bit of cover, Valeska hisses in pain but otherwise tries to ignore it. The barrel of her carbine rests on what was once a turret and down the sight she spies her first target.
And erases them with a shot that detonates an energy pack latched to their belt. Kaboom. Her second target tucks and rolls out of the way, getting singed by the explosion but also avoiding the second shot that whizzes well over their heads. <"Might serve better on the ground today,"> she offers to the group. <"But if you need another flyer, just holler, yeah?">
<"See you all on the other side. Give me a few minutes to handle those cannons.."> Sumi hoists her weapon up, takes a few heavy steps forward in a jiggy jog, and ignites her jetpack to lift into the air and make for the gates. It's not clear to those below if Sumi makes it. Between the cannons firing and flak-explosions, it seems safe to assume she might have been vaporized.
Instead, a calm, cold voice sounds back to those below. <<"I have landed. Engaging hostiles. Zero, detach and look for a point to disable some of this drek.">> The mini-probe droid attached to her back disconnects and moves away from the warrior who sallies forth to meet five foes in battle, casting her cape aside to shoulder her weapon.
Teela jogs over to her speeder bike and mounts up, cranking it with a whine, and then rockets out into the open with her cape bellowing out behinder her hunkered over form. <<"Oh, Imma get that cannon.">> She murmurs, mostly to herself, but over comms so that everyone knows precisely what dumbness the Not Kora is up to.
Since she's one of two.
Have to represent.
The bike slips side to side under blaster fire, turning wide to the right to build up a little momentum on approach of a raised rock cropping stuck out of the ground in the direction of one of the mountain mounted heavy guns. <"Don't move, I'll come up there."> She breaths as the bike hits the raised lip of the rock cropping and goes airborne.
The repulsors whine... WOOP-WOOB-WOOB-WOOB..
Then the cannon whines.
KABROOOOOO
And then the bike doesn't exist anymore.
Except as raining durasteel chunks that are very much on fire.
Teela only /barely/ manages to roll far enough away that she's not absolutely destroyed by that explosive hit. Coming up to her feet with her blaster out... way too close to a bunch fo savages.
<"It's not too late to surrender."> She threatens. Fire glowing from her bike wreckage in the reflective visor of her helmet.
LIKE A BOSS!
<"You can't be serio--"> Fae starts to say moments before Sumi engages the thrusters of her jetpacks and flings herself headfirst towards canon fire, up and onto the walls above. Fae just lets out a heavy sigh and gives a little jog up towards Valeska now, E-11 tucked beneath her right arm. Targeting data is streamed into her heads up display, lighting up as Teela zwooms past on her speeder bike and towards the canons.
<"Why don't we stay on the ground together, sister?"> Fae propositions, her helmet lighting up in an orange glow as Teela's speeder bike impacts the canon and explodes. That live-targeting tracks Teela go flinging off of the bike, though it's difficult for Fae to tell if it was being flung or flinging with style. It's only when that targeting reticle shows her body plap into sand like a bag of oatmeal that Fae realizes it was, indeed, the former. Green is surrounded by red, and Fae knows that's her cue to move.
She rounds a bit of mobile cover and levels her blaster towards the savages surrounding Teela just as the woman warns them that it's not too late to surrender. Fae, unfortunately, did not get the memo.
-KREW- -KREW-
Two singed bodies drop in a heap and yelp in surprise.
<"What did you say?!"> she yells across the small gap to Teela.
There goes Sumi, Avery, Teela ... and countless others. Hahtavi sees those cannons firing away, pounding out bolts of plasma like the bolt that about killed him even when he'd been advancing with a shield on his last assault. The Kora is wary of that osik.
Heading for whatever cover he may, Hahtavi stops and drops his rifle on it's tactical rig to hang down his front. He reaches back, mostly with his left hand and pulls the missile launcher over his shoulder to start making it ready. It's already loaded but it takes a moment to get down on one knee and choose his target.
The targeting reticle powers up and communicates with his new helmet's HUD as he draws a slow breath and seeks to line up on one of the cannons....
<<"Breechers in place.">> though down two more the thin tubes have been connected and slid hard over the natural ramp of sand - a conventional explosive that holds the name Bangalores, affectionate, on other worlds. <<"We're opening a path, hopefully a blind spot.">>
<<"That may be an opening for... some of us.">> Hadrix's voice on comms now, a feed of his view of the eight warriors dropping low and making themselves as flat as possible before one of them thumbs a trigger that puts heads down on either side for the clap of thunder it brings and the shower of particulate hurled skyward. Head lifted and watching Sumi and Averty lifting on their jets for the top of the wall, evading solid beam and laser flak hurled their way.
<"OK I GUESS I'LL BABYSIT GROUND THEN!"> shouted after Sumi when she leads the airborne charge, firing his rifle towards figures closer to Teela where she lands, covering her recovery. He's got a laugh on the tail end of it, so there must not be too much, if any, irritation. The recoil shoves him back, boots digging grooves in the sand, <<"Fae, to Teela. Valeska and I will cover and approach.">> another falls with the explosion of plasma that sends the white-hot duranium bolt through the head of another, kicking her into a abbreviated cartwheel with blood and bone spraying from the stump of their neck. <<"Hope that new toy works, Hahtavi...">> already starting to run, long strides carrying him at full speed for where the breechers had gone off.
The path opened by the Haran'kemire warriors now being surged into by them and others who have been waiting in the wings. Among them a figure in scarf like robes and a long, thick barreled, rifle in hand - striding with all the confidence that he would be an observer meant to be left unmarred by the conflict. Moving around Mir, like a river split by a great stone bikes and buggies roar, firing mounted cannons while one standing next to their driver shouts,
<"TO THE SAND VIPER! TO THE SAND VIPER"> their and many helmets like theirs sprayed silver across the front lower rim of their helmets and mouths where exposed.
Valeska ducks back behind her cover and checks her charge. Plenty of energy left in the gun. The energy left in her, however? Debatable, but a debate for another time. <"I like that idea, Lady Fae,"> Valeska replies with a grin under her paint-chipped helmet. <"Too many in the air will only draw their fire. We want to split their attention. Make it hurt above and below. Just like a good f--">
BOOM! A breech in the defenses, orders are bellowed, and everything is suddenly on the move. <"Stay alive, sister!"> Pushing through the pain, Valeska follows after Hadrix, slinging her rifle and yanking a grenade from her belt. The thumb on the depressor, she lets it cook with a shout. <"FIRE IN THE HOLE!">
That never gets old.
A wing and a prayer, the frag grenade soars through the air as she runs along with the Kora Al'Verde; and explosion of bodies left in their wake with a satisfying, Mandalore-shattering kaboom.
Sumi fires a hammered pair of incendiary bolts into the chest of one warrior, killing them despite their defiant charge. Glancing up, Sumi sees the landing of Avery and smirks. <"Good drek, now stick close and use me as cover if you need. I need your brain for this, Kora."> It was no secret Sumi was terrible at anything electronic, she still chicken pecked keys on her home terminal.
Zero, above the conflict, alights their HUD to the port they need, true to her nature in not saying the obvious. Sumi smirks and moves forward. <"This way, Zero has found our objective."> Prepared to intercept the warriors intending them harm, she purposefully puts herself between Avery and harm.
Clearly there will be no negotiations amongst Mandalorians and Savages.
They're pointing blasters at her, which is a clear indication that they are not interested in her, very fair and reasonable, demands to surrender. <"I'd have been disappointed if you'd surrendered."> She admits as several of them have their heads canoed by Fae/Val/Hadrix firing down range.
Still, this is a matter of PRINCIPLE.
A matter of HONOR.
She'd really liked that bike.
And while it wasn't that brutes fault?
He'll make a good sacrifice.
She ducks behind some cover as they shooting starts, ready to charge right into teh breach with the others once she's winged the big guy. The explosions open a breach and she's running through heedless of what dangers might await!
Go. Big. OR. Go. Home.
<"AIIIEEEEEEEE">
Arms and legs pumping as she runs.
Fae Renta tips her head when she hears Hadrix's voice ring out over comms to tell her to close the distance with Teela. There is an audible huff of annoyance from the Hapan. <"What do you think I'm dooooing?"> she says, most notably not over group comms.
<<"Oh my way.">> That's Fae being well behaved.
She pushes off of that bit of cover she'd found and starts to hoof it towards where Teela flung-with-style from her speeder bike only to see the woman sprinting and... screaming... in the other direction.
The Hapan just stands there, bewildered for a moment as she sees Teela full sprint towards the breach and pop a shot off at a charging brute. <"I... wait!"> she yells.
Because what else could she yell?
She starts running behind the woman, huffing and puffing, and shoots the wounded Brute -just- as they'd risen back up to their feet and collected their dignity. Not on Fae's watch, bub!
He was prepared for battle when they land, the carbine in his heads active and prepped to make the Wardens' short lives miserable. Avery nods to Sumi and double taps another of their approaching foe, the second of the two shots removing much of what would pass for their head before they toppled from the edge to crash land below.
<"Roger, Alor. We got this, I'm with you."> He replies, marking the console as a target from Zelo's recon and moving with the imposing woman, shifting ahead to take on the remainder of the Wardens that hadn't yet lost their lives. Soon.... soon....
<<"I ho-pe so too!">> That even comes out pretty clearly. Adrenline may help with the slacker side of his face. Hahtavi takes a moment to send his targeting information through their various helmet HUD's so everyone on his side knows where he is about to send a missile in case they are bodily heading for it and need to tell him to change targets.
When nobody squaks right up at once, Haht adds, <<"Fi-re in th' ho-le!">> It's only alittle slurred. That's for /you/ Valeska! Glory in it. - Followed by a WHOOOOSH as the missile launcher fires! And away it goes!
But can he hit osik with it? Hopefully not his own people.
Who thought it was a good idea to give the guy with BRAIN TRAUMA a missile launcher?!?
The missile rises up at an angle and SMACKS into the wall of the mountain just left and slightly high of the cannon emplacement. Harming no one but making a nice BOOM!
Hahtavi grimaces, <"Osik."> Reload or do something else? Either will take time so he reloads. As long as there are cannons and that gate still isn't open, try, try again.
They say, practice makes perfect! Could be a lie. If nothing else, he got their attention!
Amongst the chaos of the field and the scream of blaster fire, the sound of a jetpack igniting might be lost on the ears, but Narsai Ordo took to the sky. Her red and black armor streaked through the air, moving to sweep in and cover Teela lest the other warrior be left exposed and seperated...when her reflexes screamed at her and a masterful cannon shot blasted towards her. No time to dodge, no hope of deflecting such a thing, Narsai's hand reached out and instinct took over. There were stories of terrifying Sith Lords swatting blaster bolts aside with their hands, Jedi catching lightsabers protected only by the force....Narsai was none of those thing, but still she reached out as the heavy artillery blasted against her and smoke filled the space in the sky at the point of impact, leaving a momentary pocket of darkness.
Then her armored form touched down, violet blade of plasma errupting to life and sweeping through the first two startled savages as she touched down. Terrifying perhaps, but beneath the emotionless mask of her helmet there was only relief on Narsai's face. She was glad as hell that worked...even if it stung like you wouldn't believe!
Into the heady whirlwind of the front, with the gap being opened, blaster bolts fly and the wailing of vibro weapons on armor and bone. The clash of blades, clubs and batons blended with the crackle of slug repeaters and the shriek of blaster bolts in the air. Mandalorians on either side falling in droves - those six cannons that had not fired on Narsai opening up on approaching vehicles.
<"Watch your flank! Watch your flank!"> Hard melee is pitched on one side of the field, a Mandalorian in rare Siege armor bearing the marks of one of the attacking clans shoulder charges into a group of defenders with a battle ax blurring by grace of the armors motion assist servos.
<"Right side buckling! Shore up!"> Mandalorians bearing marks of those clans using Keldabe as their base of operations fall under the weight of repeater fire, soldiers being cut down like grain stalks.
<"MEDIC!">
A chorus of voices declaring 'fire in the hole' in dribs and drabs following Valeska and Hahtavi's signaling. Ordinance comes in a wave that explodes without sequence. Pockets of fire and bodies flung in clouds of sand and the shooting star of Hadrix's rifle striking a brute charging Fae dead center, bursting them like an overripe melon.
<<"Advance! Advance!">> the big man's voice calm over private comms, dead opposite of his field shout - though there is a snarling catch when Narsai goes flying and... passes the cannon shot nigh unscathed he can't help but stop, bracing long enough to put a bolt through another of the brutes bearing down on Teela and Narsai in the wake of her 'arrival'.
From above, sliding down the side of the mountain on heavy boots come another pair of gate guards, rifles gripped and preparing to join those Sumi is defending Avery from. Still the cannons continue to throw fire into the rear ranks of the attackers, one raising and blasting a repulsor buggie and sending it flipping through the air to roll through a formation, crushing it, sending Mir leaping to one side as he opens fire.
The cannons. Those blasted, damnable cannons. Valeska looks around to see the rapid fire tearing through their ranks. Yeah, she could explde a few more on the ground and that's probably what she should've done. In hindsight.
But those cannons hurt and Narsai is nearly shot out of the sky for one. A growl, Valeska grabs another grenade. <"Cover me!"> The jetpack sputters to life and for the first time since she started, she takes to the air and the pain in her leg subsides a little. For all of about ten seconds.
No matter her ducking and weaving, the enemy must have put their crack shots in the gunner seats because a burning shot hits her BANG in the chest and swats her out of the sky like an insect. No sooner had she taken off that Valeska is crashing back down to the ground. Her beskar chesplate is visibile dented and she is all kinds of momentarily disoriented. And pissed.
<"Keep moving,"> Growls Sumi, keeping herself in front of Avery in a way that does not hinder his ability to shoot, but it obscures their foe's view of him. <<"We are nearly to the objective. Stand by--">> Sumi cuts off as a warrior draws near, gunning him down with a hammered pair of shots, the final concluding in their head.
The impact is so hard their neck breaks from the kinetic concussion, and the bolt bursts out the back of their head, showering their wake with a misty spray of sweet smelling pulverized blood.
She adjusts the weapon in her grip and trudges onward, doing her best to protect Avery in their approach.
They're advancing, blaster bolts are hitting everywhere around them as they do so. Teela is out in the front leading by example, running right up to a brute who is trying to bring his own gun up to bare on her only for a pair of bolts to hit him right in the chest. She slides to a halt and extends the big DL-44 out in her right hand, angled shoulder, real classical stance given the weapon has no kick.
Blame blame.
No more brute.
<<"We need to do something about those gonking cannons.">> Because they're eating up the backline. Which is their own fault for being in the back... There's only victory up here in the front.
Fae Renta scrambles her way up a glass-tipped sand dune and presses her back to it. The pace of her breathing has increased, but she hardly seems out of breath entirely. There's just that rhythmic sound of her exhales through her vocoder as she turns to look towards Teela. <"You are faster than you look, sister."> she says to the Sand Viper. She tips that E-11 over onto its side and gives the condensing coils a bit of a back-and-forth prime. It's not that they needed that manual friction within their exciter-array, but the priming manages to shake a bit of sand loose that might have otherwise absorbed the heat that would ionize that gas.
<"Valeska, we talked abo--"> but she's off. Up up and away, and Fae is left but to do only what the other woman ordered -- cover her. She levels her E-11 at a charging brute and sprays several bursts towards its center of mass. Blaster carbines don't kick, but that doesn't stop her from applying pressure with her shoulder to the butt stock to slowly lift it as she sprays, drawing a neat little line from the brute's midsection to his face. He clutches it and collapses to his knees where he dies half-upright.
<"Hnnnh,"> Fae dusks, just in time to watch Valeska crash onto the sand.
<"Do you want to blow up some cannons, Sand Viper?"> she asks.
The Slicer moves behind Sumi quickly but cautiously, firing around her when given the opportunity. When her target damned near explodes from the assault, he looses a couple of carbine shots at the Warden directly behind. One finds its place, hitting his mark square in the chest. Fortunately the blast does a decent amount of damage, enough to make them think twice about returning fire. Unfortunately, it doesn't prevent that thought all together.
The pair move, firing and advancing, working their way toward the console indicated by Zero, a couple of silver Mandalorians hell bent on their objective no matter what stands in their way.
launcher and steadies it up on his shoulder for one more try. Using the targeting reticle linked with his helmet he /should/ be able to hit one of these damn cannons, right?
WHOOOOSH! There goes another one - but it impacts the wall even further away from the first hit.
<"Wha-t a p-ie-z of osik."> Deifnitely /not/ having trouble saying 'shit' in Mando'a. Frak it.
The missile launcher is a waste. Or he's just too drekked up to be much help until he's done more PT with Doctor Cas. Either way, it gets slung back over a shoulder. Haht's done wasting time with crappy tech that wasn't worth purchasing.
Thankfully a determined man has other options...
Still moving, still standing, Narsai moves forward as the Brutes fall before she can reach them, a nod given to Teela in appreciation before she spins and slashes down with her weapon, cleaving through more of the saveage clansmen. They had to push forward, keep moving to support the others...then she looks up, spotting Valeska's impact and collision with the ground before giving a soft hiss. <<"Valeska, you still standing?"> the woman calls. Being shot by heavy firepower is not the bonding experience she wanted with her fellow Mandalorians...even if it was all too common.
A grav-wagon nearly slams into the side of the mountain as the pushes force the defending line back. Repulsor bumpers keeping it from crumpling against stone and hook launchers welded to the sides fire sending ascender cables rocketing skyward with Mandalorians hooking on climber grips that they squeeze and the small motors inside run tracks that begin zipping them up at rapid speed.
<<"I'm on Valeska.">> Said as Hadrix is up, leaning into the kick of his cannon firing on the second shot that sends a savage defender flying backwards and into pieces, covered by Mir as the elder mandalorian drops to a kneel and sweeps his repeater to saw through enemies in a sawing cut of blaster bolts chased by the distinct grunt of the ancient weapon he uses. The old man diving behind cover and the big man kicking up his step just a bit more, breathing hard enough to hot-mic rapid breaths into comms at the near miss that warms his shebs and melts sand in his wake.
<<"You're giving me gray circuits, Hadrix.">> <<"Giving -YOU- grays...!?">>
A Bazza tank is holed by cannon fire on the approach, a scant pair of figures clearing the wreckage before the floating repulsor vehicle has finished sliding across the grit leaking fuel, flames and the dead. Mandalorians are trying to use the ground cannon batteries for cover, others are putting their backs to the gates or attempting fighting withdrawals to the left or right flanks.
Atop the gate the wardens shore up their attacks and focus fire on the warrior in blue armor, heavy rifles spraying a veritable wall of fire on Sumi while she safeguards the slicer - and not without good fortune with the gate controls within reach of the other just as more hooks grab and sink into the stone of the mountain. More buggies and sleds past the cannons, sapper squads attempting to make good of their own charges.
Fae, you were right. Should've stayed on the ground this time. Valeska takes a moment to appreciate -- truly appreciate the Mandalorian sky. Not that she has much of a choice as she is seeing stars in the middle of the day. Also, there is a battle waging around her. Her first breath after hitting is a painful one filled with broken glass and battery acid; wheezing through her lungs and tasting of unmistakable sunder.
The comm chatter buzzes in her ear and to Narsai's voice, she grunts: <"Yeah... yeah, I'm up..."> Or at least she will be. Standing is a brutal trial all its own but she doesn't have time to groan and gripe about it. Tucking that injured leg up under her, Valeska staggers to her feet and activates the frag grenade still clutched in her fist. <"F...ire in the hole...">
Not as strong as before but she wings it towards the cluster of enemies. Who she's pretty damn sure are enemies. She misses, hits the ground, and explodes a piece of the planet into a spray of sand. <"Rekk.">
<<"Do your thing, Aver--UGH!">> Sumi is hit. Hard. The blast connecting with her arm and carrying her back several steps. There was no lifting her arm after it either, which meant her weapon fell against her side, swinging wildly and leveraging its sling. Hell bent on protecting the Slicer, Sumi charges ahead despite the pain. She shoulders into a man's gut, wrapping her arms about his lower half and hoisting him up to force him to follow the momentum of her hit.
She makes a solid impact, metal against Mando iron, and she plants him firmly on his back, scrambling to seat a full mount. Her follow up attack is thwarted as her foe demonstrates his own mastery of ground fighting by hugging an arm around her neck to keep her close. Her punch smashes into the ground instead, and the warrior flairs to one side, flipping them both to trade positions and take the dominant one above her. He slams his fist against her wounded arm, and Sumi cries out in pain, booted feet kicking as her mind attempts to sort through the searing flash of red and focus on some modicum of her training. The two roll around.
<"Would you like to go blow up a cannon or two?"> Fae asks. Mind you, the Hapan is not the type of woman to wait around for an answer. She's already sliding up the side of that glass-tipped sand dune, cracking and shattering it beneath the durasteel plating armoring her ribcage. Blaster fire hails past her, but she keeps on running. One shot rips into the sand in front of her, causing her to stumble and catch herself on her hands and knees. But she keeps going -- her hands pull her forward into a crawl across the sand. It's less than graceful, but it keeps her body low enough that maybe, just maybe, the canons can't quite pitch low enough to fire at her. She reaches her destination -- the two ground canons that are a bit more like bunkers with massive turrets -- and begins stringing up explosive charges on the doors that lead into them. There's shouting from the inside, but it's too little and too late. She scrambles away and towards the second while she depresses the button of her mobile detonator. It's simple, really. Just a tiny click of electricity, no sharper than the static shock of a finger in dry air, but it sets off a chain reaction that rips hot air and concussive waves through that first bunker.
She doesn't turn to look over her shoulder as she hears the screams of people and Teela's flamethrower. She just strings up a second charge, scrambles, and detonates.
<"I literally couldn't want anything more, right now."> Teela is quick on Fae's heels, the cracking of glass beneath her durasteel boots sounding like thin ice giving way as spring rolls in. The blaster pistol slides into the holster on her hip in favor of the long nozzle grip of the flamethrower strapped to her back. She nods for the Hapan to blow the door, waits of rit to crack-boom, then steps into the opening to spray molten plasma into the opening.
The woosh of the super heated particulate sucks the oxygen out of the enclosure. So while there is initially screams of agony, that quickly dies down when the air they're breathing is /actually/ sucked out of their scorched throats until the only sound is is the pop-sizzle of plasma coating everything within.
It's a small victory to be sure, but it's a satisfying one.
The metaphorical fiery exclaimation of:
I'm the Captain Now
They're so close, and Avery is nearly lowering his E-11 to use the UCI in his gauntlet when Sumi takes a heavy blast to her arm. His eyes widen behind the shaded visor and he begins lifting the carbine to defend her... until she socks one of the Wardens and bowls over the rest in defense of HIM. "Right, the mission..." he grumbles, taking the last few steps to the console to hunker down beside it and insert the interface wire from his gauntlet.
Almost immediately the feed from the machine pops into his HUD, his right hand snaps to the tiny keyboard beneath his left bracer, and he goes to work. The systems are surprisingly robust, counter-attacking as the Slicer tries to navigate through the network. But as quick and as versatile as they are, Avery is better...
<<"Knock, knock...">>Within seconds he's already bypassed the security network, delving deeper into the system to unlock the gate controls, moments after that the locks are popped and the massive beskar doors begin to slowly swing open. Back to reality, he withdraws the line from the console and lets it snake back into his armor, snatching up his blaster to move and help Sumi with her struggle.
Having given up on the missile launcher, Hahtavi leaves the cover he'd been using and gets moving. It's not a run. He just can't manage it yet. But he can walk and manage a few jogging steps, his right leg still dragging the foot a touch but not tripping him up long as he's not pushing too fast.
Galaar back in his hands, Haht gives up on the fancy stuff and just tries to help clear the defendings before the huge gate. Rifle up, he manages to nail one savage squarely and then another on the move.
Crappy as he's been doing on all his recent ops? It's good to just shoot the bastards and be done with it. At least he's not down and wounded yet, still trying to support the effort.
Over the gate, past the walls, with (almost) every swing or shot, another foe falls! Narsai moved alongside her allies, sweeping forwards with her weapon, evading an incoming strike from a brute and slashing her weapon low to cut him with a rise from foot to face. Even as the next man falls she's stepping past him, striking and slicing again before the next weaves out of the way of her strikes and looks upwards to the sounds of some of the Koras taking hits. There was only so many she could try and assist, only so much she could cover and the others were capable.
She just needed to keep fighting, help clear the gate and do her part!
The King Gates opening has a tone all its own. A tolling like a bell that only doors tall as some buildings could make. It shakes the dust from the ground, it shakes those standing atop.
<"THE GATES! WE HAVE THE GATES!"> a cry from the ground and one of the Saiwali thruster skiffs sweeps from the flank, deck mounted harpoon cannons launching their payloads towards one of the wall cannons before it wheels to try and pull away. The air on the ground below a sandstorm blowing grit with such force that it makes the air screech from the constant impact against armor plates.
Mandalorians are launching by pack and ascension line to the top to assist with holding those controls that have been sliced into. More begin pouring in through the entryway with blasters firing and forcing the lessening defenders into the tunnels, into defensive positions. A siege broken without sally. Dozens upon dozens in the sand outside.
Hadrix has Valeska up by her armor cowl, making to pull her behind a sandbag wall now crafted by the dead. A reminder of times past for him <<"Valeska is clear.">> looking up to see Mir's jets phutter and spurt misfires when he leaps, sending him skidding across the ground. Muttering and grousing as only old men can when they do something painful and painfully embarrassing.
The cannons continue to roar, but their fire is slowing. The Gate is open, they have no assured defense and already there are thuds of ordinance in the depths.
<<"Reckoning, ground forces, we see the gates open on observation scopes. Mand'alor Fett... has been informed.">> and likely Mand'alor Fett has 'ominously loomed' his compliments to the ground forces.
Next thing she knows, Valeska is hoisted and taken behind cover. She doesn't pay attention to what kind of cover it is. Probably for the best. The dent in her beskar is still smoking from the super-heated impact and she nearly misses the fact that --- oh, hey. They got the gates open! Huzzah!
But she's still a little dazed, trying to shake out the cobwebs in her mind and ignoring the impending PTSD she going to carry with her after these battles. Cannons.... fekking cannons. Again. Another problem for later. <"Thank you, ori'vod,"> she says half-dazed and looks around the cover to the big, beautiful gates opening up.
