Log:Wampa Stampa
Wampa Stompa
Location: Hoth
Participants: Poe Dameron, Sar Yavok, Tess Ul'Datha, Lofty, Sapphira Solari, Jessika Pava, David Ironside, Ektor, Nova
Poe Dameron is found in the tactical room aboard the recon vessel Ghost. With a view of the hangar below, the room is accessible by a steep staircase, with its own sliding door and window. Inside, the room is chilled, where electronics are running and the sound of the softest high pitched whine can be heard. An image of Hoth rotates from a central projection table, and it's that image Poe is looking at. "Everyone here?" He asks, looking over the lot of them.
"Somethin' like that," is Sar's response, sitting over to the side of the holo on a bench. His helmet, and his big ol' cannon and coolant tank are seated on the floor between his feet. His hands tap the top of the tank idly as he regards the projection.
Tess is sitting beside Sar on the bench in the tactical room with her helmet upright on the floor beneath her armored boot. She is otherwise encased with her F-11D rifle laid across he kness and her short hair slicked back out of her face. In acknowledgement of the Major's question, she raises her head in an up nod.
Lofty has to stand in the back, being too large for most of the chairs in the tactical room. He gazes out the window with his top set of smaller eyes, remembering his days as assistant quartermaster on the ice moon of Hoth. A five-foot-long repeater blaster is strapped across his back.
Sapphira was in the middle of a line. No, not THAT kind of line. A knitting line. She swore she'd be right behind everybody, and she more or less was. Just a minute, or two, or five behind everybody. She comes in, wearing Resistance-issue cold-weather gear with a pistol at her thigh and another at her hip. And she's still knitting, counting out quietly to herself. "Knit, purl, fourty-seven. Knit, purl, fourty-eight. Knit, purl, fourty-nine, knit, purl, fifty." She finally finishes the line and what appears to be a half-finished tightly-knit scarf of shades of black and blue has made its way fully onto one needle. She rolls up the contraption and sticks it in her oversized winter pocket, then seeks out a bulkhead to stand against to listen.
Standing at the table that the holographic projection is rising up out of, Jessika doesn't need to say anything to confirm her presence. Her hands are braced against her hips, and her gaze is trained on the displayed world that rotates. She knows where it is they're going, and why it is they're going, but now it's time to tell everyone else. Rather than the pilot's uniform she's normally garbed in, Jessika's dressed as any trooper in the Resistance might be, albeit far more dressed up for the world ahead. The temperature of the tactical room is nothing compared to what they'll be experiencing soon. Her dark eyes shift to Poe after a few moments in a gesture that her attention is focused on him for the briefing at hand.
"Here." David states. He's in the middle of cold-proofing his set of trooper gear, which really means he's working his armored limbs into some sort of parka and snow pants. His boots are fitted with spikes for this particular operation. "Run us through this plan of yours." he requests, briefly pausing his fidgeting to watch Poe.
"Hoth. We've all heard about it. Some of us.." He motioned to Lofty and Sar, "Have been there, maybe with past regimes or through our background. Hoth is known for being out of the way, but more importantly, it was used as a Rebellion base. Many pirate organizations have made it their home, be it in the ship graveyards, or through the various remnants of old outposts. Our trip is taking us beyond Frontier Outpost by about 20 kilometers. Snap has been running recon for me for weeks now. He's managed to track a lot of recent traffic to a remote location that is hidden in the volcanic canyons. Snap believes there is a facility there, one that is running off geothermal power, and given its location, the interference acts as a natural mask to keep curious eyes away." Poe brings up a series of portraits on the holo projector. Each is a doctor, one has faded to grey.
"Here, we have a list of kidnapped experts in the field of cybernetics. They were taken from a conference on Cloud City, Bespin by a pirate organization. We're not sure why they were targeted specifically, but I feel it has to do with their specialty. I took a group out to Rishi with me, a place we tracked their ship from Bespin. We found Dr. Song. The remaining Doctors are.. Dr. Jessika Wildes, an expert in the cybernetic limb replacement practice, Dr. Gibson Bouclier a pioneer in merging and reinforcing cybernetic organ implantation by using a patient's own blood cells as genetic markers for the organ output, Dr. Benjamin Travers, and Professor Emeritus at Coruscant Medical Facility, and Dr. Valenti, a renowned expert in the field overall. We suspect that Dr. Valenti is under health constraints, and may be in a bad way."
"Our mission is to get inside this facility, ascertain what's going on down there, try to locate any of these doctors, and blow this place to pieces when we have what we need. Download these doctor images to your datapads in case you come across them. Barring any questions, let's load up on the Far Rider and head down. BB-8 will keep the Ghost in high orbit and monitor traffic."
“I ain't that old," Sar says, cutting his eyes at Poe. He smirks a bit and reaches down to grab his coolant tank; hefting it up and slapping it onto his back. It clunks into place as the mag-locks engage. Grabbing his helmet, Sar stands and begins moving towards whatever a Far Rider is.
Sapphira turns to follow Sar, looking at the man's helmet as he pulls it on. "Sooooo," she says slowly, considering. "We're going more for the frontal assault style of things, this time, rather than the sneaky sideways assult kind, sir?" He's her supervisor, in the most technical of ways, so naturally he gets a sir from the overly-respectful former intel agent. For her own part, Sapphira clips on her Resistance trooper helmet, wiggling it a few times to make sure it stays on her tiny head.
Tess pushes up from the bench with her hands on her knees and takes hold of her helmet to roll it onto her head with a hiss of locked environmental seals. From her back, a seeker droid detaches from a bracket and flies over to the terminal to download the images. The droid hovers towards Tess as she follows Sar out of the tactical room and links back with the brackets to upload the data directly to her integrated HUD for quick access. "Frozen waste lands and doctors with heart problems... what could possibly go wrong."
Lofty watches the briefing in near-silence, though he does take the opportunity to suck down can after can of FizzyGlug, BubbleZap, Fizzy-Bip, and one can of Jedi-Juice from his bandolier. The thin aluminum cans will freeze and pop in Hoth's harsh atmosphere, so there's no taking along cans of soda pop. As far as cold weather gear, Talz are (supposedly) native to the icy planet Alzoc III and the Pantoran moon, so his layers of wooly white fur and blubber will do.
Sapphira grins, looking over at Tess before adding to her previous pose, "At least if they're dead already they might also be frozen. Carrying a plank of dead weight beats carrying a sack of it any day."
With all the information already downloaded into her datapad, Jessika begins movement from the tactical room towards the transport that will take them down to the planet surface. It's more than just a transport, luckily, and Jessika's not too keen on getting back into a slow, underarmed shuttle as of late. With her gear ready, Jessika begins the process of pulling on gloves exiting their current location, and goes through the steps of pressing in betweene aach finger to make sure the gloves are truly seated where they need to be.
David rises slowly, spikes neatly tucked in the grated floor. He walks out to the Far Rider, the VCX-100 supplemental craft slowly, making sure the spikes don't get caught on the grating. "Hey Poe." he calls. "How come we never have a mission to someplace warm and comfortable?" He grins. "Last time it was the local blue man group, but judging from.. you know.." he gestures towards the holo-Hoth and the information displayed, "..we'll be blue soon."
Poe kills the images once everyone has what they need. The way to the Far Rider is back to through the door to the Tactical Room, then down the stairs to load into the troop transport shuttle. The shuttle itself is an eight man fighter, with a laser turret, and dual laser cannons. It's fast and tough. "Right, once we've established positive ID, we'll move in quickly. I will just need to verify ship signatures before we make our move." "I wish I knew why Pirates choose the most terrible places to camp." He says to David.
The excessively long flight concludes as they've broken through the thin atmosphere of the ice planet Hoth. Clouds dot the skies and part as the Far Rider is quick to gain momentum and angle toward the planet's surface. When the clouds part, those within the auxiliary shuttle can see the stretch of white so far as the eye can see. Turbulent winds rock the craft as snow dots the expanse of sky making it difficult for Poe to see. "We're nearly here. I'm setting a course for Snap's Recon point.. we'll hoof it from there." The craft's blue engines glow brighter as Poe adjusts his course.
They move below sensor range, flying over the sloping plains of ice and snow passing all manner of meandering wildlife along the way. The gravity of the ship's movement is sharp, especially when Poe whips them into a small circle and pulls back a lever to lift the s foil wings of the craft up. This simultaneously deploys the landing gear.
Poe draws up his face mask then, wrapping it firmly, then sliding the goggles over his face. His father's A280 rifle is taken from the weapons rack. "Alright, let's file out.. and be prepared for the cold."
When the back hatch opened, the ramp descending, a sharp wind of absolute freezing temperature cut by them immediately fogging the window port in the control cabin. Otherwise, the ground was shining from the light above, ice and snow everywhere. Snow fell gently from above, and the wind howled making it difficult to hold any position for long without stumbling a bit. They were upon a large cliff side looking down into a chasm below. A stark contrast of lava and molten hot mini-volcanoes dot the bottom of the canyon, but just like Snap's report indicated, there was a large bay door built into the massive canyon wall below. They had a path that led down to the bottom level as well, steep, but sturdy enough to move down. Poe is first to draw up his macrobinoculars to look down. He has to remove his snow goggles to see.
Sapphira offers one last reassuring pat for Tess. "See? You did great!" And with that bit of encouragement the other Yavok slides from her sister's lap to pull up her hood, slip on her mittons, and follow Poe out into the snow. Being from Nar, and having lived on Couruscant, Sapphira's exposure to snow is minimal. So when the hatch opens and she steps out into the elements, the first thing she does is swear. "Kriffin' sithspittin' shit!" Her hands come up to block her face from the blowing snow. In continuing to try and get off the ship with her face covered, the small redhead misses a step off the edge and suddenly disappears from sight with only a soft yelp. She ends up about four feet below in a snowdrift. "WHAT UNHOLY CREATOR OF WORLDS THOUGHT SOMEPLACE LIKE THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!"
Once the landing is made, Jessika unfastens her crash harness and rises from her seat. The last two steps of being ready are prepped, and she lifts her hands to shift the protective fabric up around her face before settling the goggles in place. She reseats her gloves one last time, and then there's nothing left but to brace for the cold. It's biting, even in gear designed for the planet, but she knows that's only a symptom of inactivity. Checking her sidearm is on her belt and that her rifle is secure on its sling, Jessika moves forward to descend the ramp and into the snow. Within moments of being exposed to the snow and the ice, the mimetic properties of her Resistance gear are adapting to turn her clothes white against the backdrop.
Lofty shoulders his way out of the cramped shuttle craft, thankful to be outside again. His larger, lower set of eyes remain tightly shut against the harsh blinding reflection of sunlight on snow. The Talz's fur blows wildly as he clears the dropship by several meters, raises his repeater rifle, and surveys the barren landscape.
Luckily, Sar doesn't have to worry about layering thanks to his overly expensive armor. The Corellian man trudges out into the snow, hefting his cannon with a bent arm. "Everybody, do your best not to over-exert. Don't want to sweat too hard out in this."
Tess grunts at Sapphira and pushes off the bench to get right the hell off this bucket. Even through her layers of armor, however, this place is cold... colder than anything she can ever remember. Which is saying something because her heart is ice. "Holy black heart of a witch it's cold..." Her fingers flex just to make sure they haven't frozen and they JUST GOT HERE..
David nods to Sar, following him out into hell frozen over. His helmet clicks into place and he raises his scarf to cover his lower face while his visor covers the rest. Over top of those goes a big hood lined with some sort of warm fur. His gloved hands rub together, already having to clear the visor of snowfall. "I can see why they'd set up base here now." he muses towards Poe.
The Ektor-shaped form in a sealed, climate controlled armored environment suit with a few layers of cold weather clothing piled on for good measure, wanders past the cursing Sapphira, mutters flatly, "Wah, wah, wah. ...That's what you sound like." Tromp, trump, trudge, look around.
Those who could /spot/ the structure, make out the shapes of geothermal generators that have been implanted into the ground where hot fissures reveal blackened rock amidst the ice. The bay they see is large; perhaps large enough to house a corvette within, but its shield barrier is up and maintaining atmosphere within. Small frames of people can be seen patrolling outside, near one of the further out generators and closer to the shelf the team stood on. Anyone with electronics gear that can monitor readings is getting a jamming signal, but it seems to be by natural phenomenon. An emblem is emblazoned on the front of the installation wall though. Any who were present at Rishi might recognize the symbol if they /spotted/ it.
Poe lowers the macros and passes them back. "This is it. I'm sure of it. Let's find a way down. Anyone see a path?" Poe turns to regard the others while adjusting his A280 to rest diagonally across the expanse of his torso, hanging by its sling.
Sapphira is on all fours just as Ektor walks past and sasses her. "Better to sound like me than to look like you," she retorts, looking down at the mess of herself in the snow and sighing. "Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry," she mutters to herself in the wake of Ektor's remark once he can't hear. She hoists herself to her feet and dusts herself off. Being as short as she is, the snow drifts come up past her knees. Once again, Sapphira squints against the snow blindness, then takes a tenative step forward. Well, trudge really. And then another. Focused on her steps, she falls unsusually quiet for the moment. Step. Step. Step. It's only Poe's question that causes her to look up, surveying what she can of the white hot mess of a planet before her. A path, he said. Look for a path. "You mean like that one?" the small redhead asks her boss, pointing to what does appear to be a path east of their present location. Jessika doesn't take the macrobinoculars from Poe, or try to get eyes on the structure herself. Nor does she go searching for a path. What Jessika does is scan the horizon towards the direction the ship came from, looking for any indication that there are silhouettes against the various hills, outcroppings, or the snow itself. The polarized lenses of her goggles keeps the ultraviolet light reflecting off the snow from blinding her eyes, and makes it easier to see contrasts between the flatter surfaces of the snow, the visible glimpses of deeper blue ice, and the shadows cast by drifts that are risen up above the natural plane of the surface. From within the coverings guarding her face, Jessika takes a small sip of water from the tube near her mouth.
"Our six looks clear."
Lofty trudges heavily through the drifts of snow. The large white alien pauses, peering down the steep slope with his smaller set of eyes, seeking a trail. Lowering his rifle he turns to Sar. "How we get down?" The Talz then turns and looks at the team behind them.
Sar Yavok slides his Modified S-5 Pistol - 3981 out of its holster, gripping the wooden stock of the weapon tightly.
"Walk," is Sar's answer to Lofty. "Slowly. Just take your time." Sar slides his S-5 out of its holster and flips a switch on it. Lowering it, he fires a spike into the ground connected to a long, liquid-filament cable. Pulling the line tout, he clips the blaster to the back of his belt and begins the slow trudge down the steep incline. "And if you fall, don't panic. Just...go with it. We'll patch you up at the bottom. Better one person gets hurt than all of us. Copy?"
Tess lifts her wrist to check the armors environmental controls, "Oh, that explains it. Set to Tion.." Tap tap tap.. the plates start heating, the air starts recycling warmer and everyting appears much better for the Mandalorian. She even gives a thumbs up, "I'm good now." Completely unphased by their cold plight, Tess trudges forward with Sar. Her blaster laid across her chest with the barrel pointed down at the snow. Now that she has ground beneath her feet she's right as the snow and even kneels down beside Sapphira. "Lean on me if you need to." Meanwhile, she's gazing around at the distant haze of white. After shifting through the spectrums on her HUD, she finds one suitable for the atmosphere and nods as she steps up beside Sar to gaze down the path... "Huh.. copy." Ready to follow him down.
David nods at Lofty, feeling like he could slap himself when he sees Sar use his S-5 to tether himself to the surface. "Left mine back at base, wasn't expecting any chasms." he muses from behind his scarf. David stomps the ground with spiked boots a few times, noting they do pierce through. "But I'll be fine. If anything, we all fall and I land on Lofty, right? I'll bounce right off." He pats the Talz cordially. "Lead the way, pal."
Ektor hangs around idly, turning a lazy regard over the canyon and featureless whiteness of the surrounding terrain. "Probably," he returns plainly to Sapphira, not even giving the satisfaction of volleyed wit. He lazily draws out his pistol, checking that the workings of the blaster are all in order as the more useful members of the team work out their descent. Sar's pragmatic advice gets a flat snicker.
Tess Ul'Datha centers her gravity as she brings her Sonn-Blas F-11D blaster rifle to bear, preparing to fire!!
The path is treacherous, but slow and steady is the name of the game. The team makes their descent, both with terribly biting winds and the invasive presence of snow. The only to fall is Ektor, who slides by the group thanks to gravity, and begins to gain speed as he moves down the natural slope, tumbling and twisting along the way.-- Before leaving, Poe turned to Jess who mentioned their six was clear. It was not a thought that occurred to him, but he was relieved to hear it. Poe nods his reply to acknowledge Captain Pava, then turns to join the others, looking in the direction Sapphira had indicated. "Yeah.. that looks good." Poe listens to Sar's wisdom about moving down, and does as everyone else. He brings up the rear of the group and walks slowly down. Seeing Ektor go by, Poe feels helpless, and all he can do is watch the man slide and slide.
Sapphira takes the offered arm from Tess, leaning on it and using it to guide her as she trudges through the snow. "It's not that I can't do it," she informs Tess matter-of-factly. "It's just that it comes up really high on me." The perils of being wicked short. She hasn't drawn her own weapon yet, content to focus on her steps and getting down the side of the steep hill. It's only the sliding of Ektor that draws her attention. Sapphira makes no move to try and aid the man, instead, she just grins. "Ha. That's a lovely sight, isn't it." Then it's back to her own trudging.
Lofty has claws on both sets of 'paws' and they come out to dig into the snowbank as the line of Resistance soldiers descend. Lofty aids himself with the guiding line placed by Sar Yavok. He has to lower his rifle to do this, but he doesn't want to lose grip and turn into a giant snow boulder. Once at the bottom he raises his repeater once again. His boopsnoot is covered in snow and wiggles listlessly in the harsh wind.
Leading by example, Sar is moving slow and steady. With the guideline there for his and other's benefit, it's pretty easy going. "Careful now, Ektor. Be a shame for that face to get any uglier."
One hand on the line, David descends down the path, stomping his spiked boots into the ground to not be like Ektor. The deliberate motion does make him slower than Ektor, though, as he has to pull the spikes out after sometimes sinking too deep. Saving his breath, he doesn't respond to any banter along the way down. Occasionally he peers off the path down to their approaching destination, wiping his visor again with the sleeve of his free arm.
Ektor is approaching the perilous descent with a lax, careless mannerof one possessing either supreme confidence or total indifference. Predictably, this goes badly for him and the tall Tionese loses both footing and grip, tumbling past the others at increasingly breakneck speed toward the bottom. With some mix of luck, reflexes, and grip strength, he twists and latches onto the icy canyon wall, dragging his momentum to a gradual stop, just before hitting the bottom. "What, no one else got the guts to use the shortcut, yeah?" he voices, sardonic. The pilot's voice twists into an uneven cackle at Sar's quip.
Each step is precise and pushed firmly down into the snow, which isn't that difficult with the weight of her armored boots. Tess is careful where she steps and keeps far more than a cursory observation on the terrain so as not to make the same mistake as Ektor. She turns her helmet to watch him slide past and nods along with Sapphira, though she doesn't mirror her sisters amusement at seeing him tumbling. The external plates of her armor are cold, very cold, and the joints are starting to cake up with snowfall, but she keeps moving along the line with her weapon held against her torso by the tactical sling around the back of her left shoulder. Each turn or change in the path is echoed backwards along the line to those behind her while keeping her left shoulder jut out enough for Sappy to keep hold as long as she needs/wants to use it for support.
Everyone makes it to the bottom of the chasm with only one mishap, that being Ektor. Once seguing from the shelf of ice to more solid ground, the team is on the same level as the tall generators spaced out over many fissures. Ahead, at about 75 meters, three pirate (indicated by their matching logo painted gear) engineers are finishing up work with checking a generator. The one roving between the other two is staring out over the expanse of the canyon, but fails to spot anything of note.
Poe is the last to join the others down below and hunkers down a bit to get a good view. He can see the same emblem on their torso armor pieces that matched the Rishi pirates they fought. They're armed too! "We're good to engage. Let's close the distance and break into this place. Go, go, go.." He motions for the others to move into position and engage.
Sapphira utilizes Tess's shoulder until they're at the bottom of the chasm, finally managing to stumble onto more compact footing. She lets out a huff of a sigh, reaching up to draw a hand across her brow where there mingles sweat and melted snow. It's an unpleasant dichotemy. Once Poe has given his orders, Sapphira does what Sapphira does, which is move away from the group along a flankling line, moving to come up on the left side of the approach while maintaining as much cover as she possibly can. Instead of reaching for one of her pistols, the woman instead withdraws a knife from her boot. As one does.
Once they've made it to the bottom, Jessika closes the distance to Ektor to put a hand against his shoulder. "You alright?" It's a whispered question. Sardonic tones and muffled laughs aside, slipping down a steep path and speeding towards an edge could have ended in a worse way. The snow might break under their footsteps, but from enough of a height, it could still severely injure someone. Those were the predominant thoughts in her head when she'd seen him slipping by, and a notable edge of fear in her tone speaks to that. Or, would, if it wasn't muffled by volume and the barriers of multiple layers. It's a sentiment she expresses briefly, because Poe is instructing them to get into a position to engage the enemy. She does just that.
Drawing her sidearm from its holster, Jessika raises it to align sights with one of the three targets in question. It's a simple series of steps. Acquire sight picture on center mass. Squeeze, don't pull the trigger. The end result? A bark of red lancing from her weapon to smash into her target of choice.
Lofty surges forward on Poe Dameron's order with his rather large repeater rifle held at the ready. He pauses to gather a bead on one of the guards, squinting through aggressive wind and snow, and fires a three-round burst of red blaster gas. One shot hits with a shower of sparks. The rifle is loud.
Tess Ul'Datha unmounts her Modified AFD-43 Rifle - 6004, disassembling and stowing the sniper rifle's bipod, and resetting the weapon's safety.
Back on flat ground, Sar reaches behind him and depresses a button on the side of the S-5 clipped to his waist. A small *clink* and the line is severed. Noting the pirates, Sar looks to the rest of the group and offers them a nod before he hefts the heavy cannon in his left hand. Jerking the charging lever back, he begins a slow, steady march across the frozen wasteland towards the pirates. Shouldering the cannon, he squeezes the trigger. For a moment, it just hums; getting louder and louder until it barks to life, sending bolts pouring across the battlefield. As the enemies have yet to get into position, the cannon's heavy bolts play havok on their squishy, squishy bodies. "Clear!" he shouts. "Move up! Go! Go! Go!" Somebody cue Ride of the Valkyries.
Tess was going to do stuff, but doesn't have to. So that worked out. "Nice shooting." Clamping her hand down on the bipod legs she was just extending and instead holding the big rifle across her chest. Following along with the group at a walk rather than a rush. No reason to get the blood pressure up.
David lets out a shivery chuckle from behind his mask. This is how it tends to go with Sar Yavok and people he can shoot at. Gingerly stepping over the bodies, David regroups with the others, blaster firmly in hand. At least the tibanna gas canister is somewhat warm, because literally nothing else is. Not even the volcanic canyons down below. By the entryway, he holds, back to the wall and blaster raised to the sky.
Ektor gives a colorless chuckle to Jessika's shoulder pat and voiced concern. "Sure, never better, yeah?" His pistol hangs at his side, as the blaster fire erupts around him, head canted to a slight angle as he looks from Jess to the doors and mangled engineers, moving forward without the same urgency as his fellows
An alarm sounds at once, echoing along the canyon loud and long. The shield gate that had blocked the hangar off from the elements has deactivated, and a row of pirates emerge, each mounted upon Taun-Tauns! By this point, the unlucky engineers by the generators have met their end, their bodies smoking with fresh bolt hits, which leaves our heroes among the jutting up generators along rock-solid ground. A total of eight cylinders about 7ft in height, are spaced around the Resistance fighters providing room for two people to cover. Ahead of them, the hangar door is about 50m out with mounted pirates riding their way quickly.
Poe doesn't fire, but takes the opportunity to close the distance toward the generators. It turns out that when they opened up on the engineers by the machinery, the generators were damaged and shut down the power feeding the bay shield. "Quick reaction force is closing fast. Open fire! Stop them from surrounding us!" Poe plants his back to a generator and eases around. He takes quick aim with his Pa's old rifle and hits one of the riders closing quickly!
Sapphira, poised behind cover and close up to the action, tightens her fingers around the knife. She's ready to pounce. Except there's a sudden report of rifles and blasters, and the guards are riddled with blaster holes and singes. Sapphira starts as the noise suddenly echoes through the chasm. And then it's followed by more noise: the alarms, the stomping of tauntaun hoofs, and all the other racket that comes with it. "See," the redhead mutters to herself as she slips the DL from it's holster, sliding the knife away again. "This is why quiet is better," she scolds, though only she can hear the words. From her far closer position on the left flank, she peers her head out of cover and begins to fire.
As soon as she has visual confirmation of the target being hit and pitching into the snow, Jessika sweeps her gaze to find any other initial targets. They're all down. With that decided, she moves swift from her position, barrel angled towards the snow in front of her, and crosses the distance to the generators that Poe has moved to for cover. It becomes her cover, too. Not quite deafening, the discharge of weapons is nonetheless loud, and Jessika expects that they'll have company soon, unless this is a pirate group that is generally oblivious to what's going on around them. She's met clueless pirates before, but she doesn't think it's going to work out that way for them this time. Poe confirms as much when he calls out approaching targets.
Jessika attempts to expose as little of herself as possible in searching for another target to engage. It's a force as big as their own, which means they need to take the advantage that they have now. She knows her sight picture, and the muscle memory to get it into place, and despite the quicker pace of breathing from the brief movement she made to the generators, she also knows to fire between hammering pulses of her heartbeat. The first bolt connects onto the target, but a too-quick follow-up sends the next one wide. Taking a split second longer to steady her aim, she follows up with a third shot that sees that target pitch face first into the snow like her previous target.
Lofty makes a surprised sound out of his proboscis when tauntauns flood out of the pirate base. "They coming!" He sloshes through the snow to crouch behind one of the frontmost power batteries, using it for cover. The Talz peeks around with his five-foot-long repeater and fires a burst of bright orange blaster bolts straight into one of the riders. It kills his mount, too, but them's the breaks.
"Solid copy," is Sar's response to Poe. Still standing out in the open and presenting himself as the biggest and dumbest target, he continues his onslaught; letting bolts rain all around the incoming riders. "C'moooon!" the Corellian shouts, holding down the trigger.
Tess picks up the pace a little once the alarm is raised and slides behind one of the generators with her rifle held up like a giant antenna. her left hand slaps out the bipod and the whole unit is brought around to lay across the top to provide some support as she leans her right shoulder in against the stock with her feet firmly planted. The link starts streaming data on her HUD and targets are highlighted on her visual field while she starts to hum quietly to herself. Some rhythmless tune into her own helmet that keeps her mind focused as she squints one eye against the scope to center in on one of the multiple targets riding towards them on the backs of taun tauns.
Shots start flying back and forth, and David heads into cover behind a pillar. A tauntaun drops dead and slides into view next to him. "Poor thing." David whispers. He peers out and sees a guy on the floor, clearly not having the best time. David kneels down, placing a hand on the tauntaun and takes aim. "Just like shooting bottles off crates." he mutters as he squeezes the trigger and convinces the downed shooter to stop moving.
Ektor leans against a clear patch of generator and snaps off a pair of shots at the foes across the stretch of frozen ground. "What kinda pirates wear uniforms, yeah?" he muses aloud to himself, idly noting that he managed to drop one. "I'll answer that: the lousy kind. The kinda pirate that's more interested in being SEEN being a pirate than inn doing pirate drek, yeah?" A scoff. "Eh, krifff it, what do I know?"
The fire fight that ensued was a hellacious one, where bolts fired from the area of the generators accurately sink into the line of Pirates riding out to battle. One by one, the beasts carrying the pirates fall over as their riders are struck harshly by incoming fire. By the end of it, despite the snow not settling, one man lay on the ground sputtering for breath. In his last ditch, he pulls his hold out blaster and fires at the blurring images of people the pirates had tried to attack and fires a single round. "AHHHHH!" He yells defiantly, crawling back and preparing to shoot again.
Poe watches with a sense of pride as the troops with him make quick work of these pirates. Bodies litter the canyon floor and he's left watching over their trail of destruction when a single bolt casts back at them. Poe dips back down toward the ground. "THERE'S STILL ONE LEFT!" It's clear that after they murder this WARRIOR who is still alive, their objective is inside the bay.
And there is Sapphira, stepping out from her cover near where all the fighting happened. She's got her pistol at the ready, and she strolls across the open, bloodied area toward the rightmost position beside the hanger. On the way, she casually steps past the still-firing pirate, and lowers her pistol long enough to squeeze one off into him. She doesn't pause to look at him, but instead keeps moving until she's in a covered position at the right side of the hanger, waiting for the others to come up from their positions.
The stark white scenery around them was briefly interrupted by a kaleidoscope of blaster fire colors as the Resistance ground team engaged with the pirates spilling out of the base. Almost as soon as it began, it ends, and Jessika is stunned by both the return to that stark color and the silence that ensues. There's evidence of it all over the place, though. Spilled bodies, dead tauntauns, and the occasional fleck of blood across the snow where a deep wound was not absolutely cauterized by the imapct of a blaster bolt. Jessika scans their vicinity for more targets, but there's nothing. Following the firefight, the dark-haired pilot shifts her sidearm to the side to get a glimpse of how many shots are left in the powerpack. She recalls discharging four.
After that, she shifts around in her cover against the generator, and moves towards Poe. The crunch of snow reveals her approach. "I count eleven down."
Lofty lowers his weapon and looks at it, impressed. He warbles at Sar, "I like gun. Very powerful." The barrel's heat causes steam to rise into the air, quickly swept away by Hoth's harsh winds. The Talz moves forward toward the dead soldiers and tauntauns, seeking a comlink with the base's frequency on it.
Oh hey a blaster bolt. It whips through the air and smacks into Sar's thigh before it rocochets down into the snow. "Ow..." Sar groans, reaching down to press a hand to the now-indented and scorch-marked greave. "Ow..." he reiterates, standing up straight and lowering the cannon. He turns and begins limping back toward the rest of the group. "Everybody still breathing?"
Tess hears the gunfire slowly die down and stands up from behind the generator with her rifle held upwards against her shoulder in her right hand. "Cold blooded." Said as Sapphira steps over the downed pirate and back blasts him at close range. Again she slaps down the bipod on the underside of the barrel and makes her way over towards the open doors leading into the facility. "Can you imagine how complicated it is to get supplies out here for these guys?" The Mandalorian sniper muses aloud, "It's almost like they didn't think this base out completely. Literally no viable planets within close proximity to provide them with readily available trade to pilfer and thousands of kilometers deep into a system with no known astrogation charts?" She whistles, which is an odd sound through her vocaber, "Tactical analysis? Morons... Death was a favor that time was going to slowly give them anyways because whoever's leading these dumbasses has the logistics skills of a fresh turd on a hot day."
As quickly as it started, the firefight is over. Again. Only this time, in addition to humanoid corpses, there's a couple of tauntauns as well. And some that are still alive, aimlessly walking around. David shakes his head. "I'm still here. You doing alright there?" he replies to Sar, noting "Why do you suppose they kept these animals here? I don't see a second path and we barely made it down in one piece. Doubt there's any need to patrol the region, either." He shrugs and double-times to regroup with the others.
The alarm is still blaring, but as they draw closer, it is not as overbearing as it was in the canyon. The bay holds only a few small freighters in varying states of repair, and now the lights have dimmed. The bay is large, its flooring comprised of large sheet metal used to tamp down the ice and snow of the cavern it was carved from. Supplies are scarce, but crates moved off to the left side have been marked FROM: Corellia, while another is marked RISHI. There's another set near the TaunTaun pins that's marked Dantooine. Up above, a catwalk spans the length horizontally across the bay which is positioned perpendicular to their approach inside.
There's a loud hammering noise coming from one of the hatches. It's erratic, and just loud enough to be heard from the main bay door. As they draw closer, someone is yelling help, though it's faint.
Lofty managed to find a comm link that was tied into the network. At first, there was static, but a voice came over it. <<"Hello.. hello? Is there anyone else out there? Hello?!">> It was a female's voice, her tone frantic and scared.
As the rest of the group comes up, Sapphira offers something of a sheepish single-shouldered shrug to Tess's comment. Then she turns and steps inside the hanger, weapon raised as she scans and seeks out any potential dangers. Nothing crosses her line of sight, however, so she begins to follow the sound. She makes her way to the hatch, pausing by it. She doesn't look down, but instead keeps her eyes swivling this way and that for some dangers, ignoring everything else around her for the time. Lowering into a crouch, Sapphira taps twice on the hanger. "Hey. Hush up for a bit; once the hanger's clear we'll open you up. Any pirates in there with you?"
There's nothing barring Jessika from entering the hangar now that all their opposition is dead. Sweeping her gaze around the open space, she surveys it with scrutiny. She's used to being in hangars, and it doesn't take long to piece together a story from what she's seeing. All the items strewn about in a sense of disarray and the lack of any further defense suggests to her that they've taken care of what might have been the only defense the base has. She doesn't trust that initial take, though, and keeps her eye out for anything that might suggest otherwise. "It looks like someone left in a hurry." The emphasis is on looks, because between the banging on one of the hatches and the voice she can hear coming from the commlink Lofty is holding..
"Gather up the datapads and anything else that looks like it might be a source of information." Jessika doesn't holster her weapon, but she does lower it so that it isn't ready to snap up at a moment's notice. Striding across the hangar, she heads for the communication station with its hotwired cord and panel. She doesn't touch anything, yet, but she starts looking over it.
Lofty moves with the rest of the team into the hangar. At least it is out of the wind. One arm holds up his massive repeater blaster while the other holds a comparitively tiny cigar-shaped comlink. Hearing the female voice on the other end, he says, "Hello, yes? All safe." He isn't great at communication.
David follows Lofty in, listening to the voice on the commlink. "Ask her where she is." he tells the big Talz, not unlike a backseat driver. "And to stay put, there might still be unknown elements between us and there. We'll come to her and take out any sort of obstacles." he says, with a look towards Poe for confirmation. "Because you said one of the hostages had some sort of medical situation, right?"
Tess makes her way through the mostly abandoned hangar bay with her weapon still held, but barrel pointed downward across her chest. Everyone's attention is on the container, so she goes about collecting other information, some of those datapads. She picks them up and tosses them into a bag slung over her hip, "Stop whistling, Dha'werd.. you can dig into them once we're back on the Ghost.." She mumurs to the excitable droid hooked to the bracket on her back. "I am not changing my opinion of these guys.." She points out for anyone listening to her quiet synthesized complaints. "No order to their supplies, just leave shit lying anywhere.. some of these supplies are from the civil war era." She grumps at a box of food she tips over with the barrel of her sniper rifle to spill out the contents. "For feks sake. These guys were able to catch high value targets? They can barely catch a desent meal."
With her complaints aside, she strolls over to Jessika at the panel and looks down on the otherwise dead controls, "Think we can get power back up?" She asks in a conversational tone to the woman beside her. "Could link up and see if we can get security feeds or... something.." Glancing around them at the places she'd put cameras to try and spy any might be there in those locations. "Maybe a map of the place. Probably goes down a lot deeper into the side of this cave. No fire pits or survival equipment up here, anyways.. so they're sleeping somewhere else?" She shrugs an armored shoulder.
Limping into the base, Sar moves over to a wall so that he can lean against it and take some of the weight off of his leg. "Yeah...you guys do that...lookin' around thing."
Ektor gives a slow look around the disordered hangar. "Pretty standard dose the fires and run, yeah? Let's see if the sensor array is still rigged up, could maybe cut through the interference. Otherwise, all we gonna get is what they left behind, yeah?" he considers aloud, stepping toward the comm station a step after Jessika. He arrives a few steps later, as he is delayed by picking up a few errant datapads, inspecting for cracked screens and functionality.
"This is Dr. Wildes, and I have Dr. Valenti with me! Please, open the door. The facility is on the verge of collapse, and /they've/ escaped!" Her voice is frantic, and despite Sap's order to stop beating on the door, the rapping continues. This same message is conveyed over the comms, the one Lofty is holding.
The comm equipment Jess and Ektor find is not very sophisticated, but they find a Datapad plugged into it. This datapad isn't encrypted, but it was used to encrypt the comms. With the power out, the comms are running on the backup battery, which is currently flashing red. A voice cuts over the comms device. <<"We've just made it back in orbit and are prepparing to get the last of you guys. Terex is already pushed ahead to the new site, we won't have to wait on him.">> The transmission cuts off and a long pause. <<"Hello? You guys still down there?">>
Poe is the last to make it inside, and he stays near the bay door covering their rear. A glance is paid to David who asked about Valenti. "Yeah, Dr. Codi says it's a heart condition or something. He can't survive long without his medication." Poe doesn't hear the transmission from the Talz comm link, or from the radio station. Instead, he looks over to Sar. "You good, Colonel?" Poe steps by Tess, and glances further inside to see Sap near the back right of the bay where the door is that has a rapping noise coming from it. Poe intends to head that way after checking in on Sar. There was no need to make further orders, Jess had already issued one to collect intel.
Sapphira takes one more look around the hanger, but seeing as there's no imminent danger available, she turns back to the hatch. "Alright, alright. Stay back or something. Now let's see...." the petite redhead moves to lean against the wall and use that leverage to yank the hatch door open. Surprise surprise, it doesn't budge an inch. She readjusts her stance, and tries again. Her cheeks flood with color from the effort, but again no avail. She's about to try a third time, when a look of an epiphany crosses her face and she turns to the group. "Hey," she calls out to her compatriots. "Any strong, capable, able-bodied men here able to give me a hand with this?"
"And handsome, let's not forget handsome," she adds as an afterthought.
"Nothing about this is pretty standard," Jessika replies to Ektor, before Tess' question has her attention. "I don't know. I'm more worried as to why they left quickly. We came in below sensor range and arrived here without seeing any kind of takeoffs. Whatever happened, I think it happened before we got here. Maybe we don't want the power coming back on. One thing is for sure, though, and that's this isn't even really the base. You don't put a hangar out here in the middle of nowhere just to have a hangar. I suspect the base might be underneath us. Hoth has more caves than are known." When nothing jumps out to attack her, Jessika flicks her weapon's safety to on and holsters it at her right hip. This frees her hands to work at the controls.
Or would, if she wasn't frozen in place by the sudden voice coming over it. No, it's not the voice that makes her freeze. It's the name that it speaks. "Poe, there's a group returning to this hangar right now," Jessika's voice sounds rushed and concerned. "And he just said Terex pushed ahead to the new site. We need to capture the ship that's incoming. If it has ANY navigational data that could lead us to the place he's talking about.." It's like she's forgotten everyone else in the room, because Jessika's gaze is glued to the Major. It's at that moment she realizes they've left plenty of dead bodies on the snow. "They're gonna see the bodies. We need a plan!"
Lofty steps up when Sapphira mentions "handsome" but he probably qualifies for most of the other attributes. The Talz grunts as he pulls with all his might, but the hatch only bends open part of the way. He needs more help. Or maybe a lever of some kind. "Hnnnnggg... More help?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Sar says, looking down at the hole in his leg. "Just gonna keep my weight off it for a minute." He groans a bit and asks, "Anybody found anything worth holding onto? Aside from the doctors, I mean. They're pretty integral, I reckon."
Tess raises her helmeted head and steps away from Jessika and Ektor at the control station. She's more than capable of hearing the transmission after the short trip to look around and turns towards the Captain glued to Major with a raised brow behind her visor. "Awesome." She murmurs and turns her rifle over to check the power reading on the current cartridge. With a sigh she releases the clip and tosses it off to the side with a jerk of the weapon so that a new one can be slapped into place. "Plenty of cover here in the hangar, but they might take off if they start taking fire." She offers from the peanut gallery. "Could pull some of those corpses inside so they think some of their people are still alive in here. There should be enough snow fall that most of them are just unrecognizable masses anyways..." Another shrug and she's off setting up some place behind which she can get cover with her sniper rifle. Even pulling up a crate upon which to sit so that a couple more crates are stacked up in front of her with the rifle balanced on the bipod atop it.
David heads over to Sapphira with Lofty, stepping in when Lofty surprisingly requests help. Putting his gloved hand in place, David applies force, and the appropriate sounds come out of his helmet. And then his bones. That's when he lets go. "Clearly flash frozen in place or something. Did anyone bring a torch?" he suggests, even as he's looking around for a pipe or crowbar. Anything that'll help.
Ektor ducks his neck lower to respond to the incoming hail, "We're still here, but hurry it up, the tauntauns got loose and one of em's pissed. And hey- while I got you on comm, somebody was feeding me a line that Terex changed plans and was heading to Kafrene. We ain't heading to Kafrene, are we? I got a price on my head in Kafrene."
Poe nods, leaving Sar to it. It's a short walk to help Sapphira, but Poe joins the others in lifting the door. It opens and a voice follows. "I'm coming out.. don't shoot.. please!" Dr. Wildes comes out dragging someone with her. It's and elder man who is unconscious. He has winter white hair with a thick bushy mustache, but is rail thin and frail. They make it through the threshold and Poe releases the door with a loud groan. "Ohhh.. oww." She steps away holding his back in time to hear Jess. "What?! What do you mean they said Terex?!" Listening to Tess, he agreed. "Find cover quickly, drek is about to get crazy."
<<"BB-8, get the Ghost here now, buddy. You may have to drop a ship if we can't get them to land.">>
<<"What the kriff? Kafrene? What hutt-sucker fed you with that? He isn't there! He moved to Tar--">> The comms cut out, they may have hit interference.
Just then, the very door the team had lifted shook loudly, and a roar followed. Sap, Lofty, and David could see the door being knocked from its track. Another roar and the door began to bend more. "It's here!!" Wildes said. "Help me with him.. help me with Valenti! It's a cybernetic Wampa.. you'll have to kill it!"
At the sight and sounds of the cybernetic wampa, Sapphira takes a step back and lifts her weapon up to bear, pointing it directly at the door while she wats for it to bust in and for the wampa-creature to show itself. "I can sneak out to the ship and disable it once they land," Sapphira informs Poe and Sar, her two supervisors for all intents and purposes. "You know, but that means I'd have to leave you guys here all alone to deal with this." Oh, darn. "Just tell me where you want me." Either man, it seems, may give her the orders to follow in the tense few seconds before Wampa and pirates crash in on them.
"I mean Terex. I mean, I guess there can be more than one Terex, but these are pirates. Do you really think--," Jessika is trying to explain the situation when chaos erupts. A cybernetically modified Wampa smashes through the hatch that the two doctors were extracted from, and Jessika has to stare, with widened eyes, at the monstrosity that appears before them for a moment. Well, that can't be good. Her blaster is on her hip, and she doesn't have enough time to draw and shoot given the immediate threat that it poses. Jessika does draw it, though, with a grasp of its textured grip and a yank against the weapon's familiar weight that pulls it free from the holster. She shifts down, trying to sweep into cover while her mind tries to comprehend these events.
It's not ideal. They have to take care of the Wampa before the pilots reach the surface, because if they see something going wrong, there's a good chance they'll just turn tail and take off. "Get those doctors in the clear!" She's not close enough to drag the pair out of the line of danger. All she can do is prepare to pour as many shots as she's got into one of the worst possible creatures we could have run into. It strikes her, then, that it's not really surprising it's enhanced. "I guess he decided to take the First Order's ideas and use them for his own gain!" This she shouts at Poe.
Lofty falls back from the hatch, stunned. He doesn't like wampas. He points a large paw at the civilian doctor. "Get old man away from hatch!" It is doubtful they can outrun the wampa, so the Talz decides to fight. As such, he falls further back and raises his massive repeater blaster, aiming at the hatch in preparation.
"A wampa? Hey, Lofty; maybe y'all are related," Sar says, doing very much the same as the Talz. He readies his rifle, preparing for...a ridiculous super monster to come barging in.
"Did she just say cybernetic wampa?" Tess pops her head up from behind her makeshift cover and sniper rifle stand, "Who the fek would cybernetically enhance a feking wampa? They aren't bad enough WITHOUT metal shit attached to them?" her tone, angry, "For feks sake, it's like every possible bad decision a group of pirates can make is being made here... I swear to the force if there's a cybernetic rancor at the end of this mission, I'm retiring to somewhere warm and not unnecessarily complicated." She mocks up a voice that's both whiny and intentionally nasally, "Hey guys, let's put lasers on sando aqua monsters. Fekin' spy movie villains." She stands from her position facing the exit to look at the hatch where the monster is to arrive. Her rifle is left laying across the crates in favor of one of the four cryoban grenades hanging from a bandolier on the front of her armor. "Shake a leg moving those doctors huh?" Wiggling the grenade, prepared to toss once the coast is clear of noncoms and unclear of unfathomable horrors. "Fekin' science, man.. Fekin' science."
"That's what she said." David confirms Tess' beliefs, hurriedly backing away from the hatch, going back for the man when Lofty reminds him there are people down there too. "Sorry." is all he can offer, pulling the one's arm over his shoulders. "This way. That guy back there, the Talz, he has a huge gun. There's a couple of heavy hitters, so don't worry about that. We gotta go." He looks around for Poe, yelling "I got the doctors, you want to give me a hand?" He gestures with a nod of his head to his blaster. "I'd join the fight but y'know. Somehow I think it wouldn't matter."
Ektor curses at the jury rigged comm feed, whacking it with one hand. "Nononono! KRIFF, you got any idea how many planets start with 'Tar'??? Seriously, I'm asking: does anyone know? Wait, I got a datapad, I'll look it up. T..A..R.. Okay, we got Tar Morden, Tarabba, Tarastra, Targonn, Tarhassan, Taria One and Two, Taris-" he reads aloud, before something that had been shouted filters through his crowded thought process. "...wait, did somebody really say 'cybernetic wampa'?"
Wildes is dragging Dr. Valenti out of harms way as quickly as she can manage, then just keels over coughing. It's FREEZING in here. She hunkers over the unconscious Doctor and looks away as the crashing sound of the door gives way. Suddenly, a 12ft tall Wampa steps through, roaring at all of them. His shoulders are cybernetic, his arms too. Armor plating is over his chest, though not protecting everything. Poe backs up quickly, putting himself between the Doctors and danger, and firing. "LIGHT HIM UP!"
Just outside, a transport shuttle has just crested the canyon and is coming toward the bay to land. They do not seem to notice the bodies outside, thanks to the ample snowfall, but they see people within the landing area, so they land just outside. A ramp comes down and several pirates come out. "HEY.. WHAT'S GOING ON IN THERE?"
"Not now, Ektor," Sapphira chides as she remains standing with her weapon pointed at the door, ready for the turds to hit the industrial ceiling cooling machines. Surely this couldn't be some sort of veiled callback to earlier arguments between the pair involving Mega Death Droids. Nah, that couldn't be it. Any further discussion is tabled as the hatch finally crashes open and there's a larger-than-life wampa there, roaring and charging and doing whatever wampas do. Sapphira takes a half step back and covers her face from any flying debris that might impact her, squeezing off a few shots as she goes. Shot shot shot, a few more steps back. "We probably shoudl've closed that hanger," she muses in the moment, and then the fight continues.
A cybernetic Wampa on one side, and a shuttle full of pirates on the other. The shuttle may only land at the very opening of the hangar, but it's engines are loud and its repulsorlifts are kicking up snow into the hangar itself. She wonders if that echoing noise will be enough to attract the Wampa towards the pirates, even as she sweeps out from behind her cover and lines up her weapon on the science experiment. She discharges three quick shots towards it, but finds yet again that her second goes too wide. Something about her grouping. She'll need to work on it at the range. It's an irrational thought, but this is an irrational situation, and seeing the creature before her has her mind conjuring up more normal things to keep her grounded.
"IT GOT LOOSE! TAKE IT DOWN!" Does she really think it'll work on the pirates who have stumbled upon this little scene? She doesn't know. It's worth a try.
Lofty is aiming for the hatch, but when a ship lands behind the team and several pirates pile out, Lofty finds himself looking behind him. Then the wampa smashes through the hatch! He turns, firing a single burst from his repeater, but it only wings the wampa and it shrugs it off. Lofty points at the four pirates behind them. "Sar, you cover!" The Talz doesn't have a great tactical mind but he is smart enough to realize they are pincered. He isn't certain yet who the pirates will shoot at.
"Ah, hell!" Sar says, hefting the big ol' cannon up and letting lots and lots and lots and lots of bolts fly loose at the angry wampa-bot. A lot of them go wide, but that's one unfortunate side effect of just holding down the trigger all willy-nilly.
"If wishes were fishes... these force damned scientists would probably have attached cutting beams to them and turned them into aquatic rail guns..." Tess says in response to Sapphira in what would have made sense if she hadn't added all taht stuff later on. Standing with the cyroban grenade primed, she waits until the shooting starts and twists the dial with her thumb and forefinger holding the cylendrical object. "juuust long enough for it to hit something..." She cranks her arm back and prepares to launch it end over end towards the cybernetic bohemouth, "Grenade out!" With the projectile flung'd, she drops back behind her rifle and shifts positions so it's facing the bigger threat.
David is on his way out with two doctors when the pirates get in his way. He stops and confronts them. With Jess yelling behind him he just points and gestures to the wampa and the pirates weapons. "Well. Go on and get them, you got all the weaponry!" He nudges Valenti and Wildes ahead carefully, keeping them on the move. Towards the pirates ship. Ain't nobody paying attention to him when there's a robot wampa on the loose, right? She'd been left to guard the shuttles. Which was not her decision, but Nova made the best of it. Until the sound of blaster fire started. At that point she'd tried to call the team, only to find out the comlinks weren't holding up well in the cold. Typical.
Well, nothing to do but find them. She's been trying for a few minutes. The pirates were sure proof they'd been there, but the confusing surroundings haven't helped.
But now she's hearing new blaster sounds! Probably bad news, but at least it's something to home in on! She takes off in the direction of all the noise.
And when she gets there, it's not exactly hard to tell who the bad guy is. And Sergeant Korell doesn't need a briefing to know what to do. She sidesteps to clear a fire path, drops to one knee, and opens fire!
And doesn't hit a thing. Maybe it'll melt from the heat of the missed shot. "Not good," she mutters, moving to a better covering position.
"The kriffing wampa's loose!" Ektor hollers at the newly arrived Bad Pirates. Sure, none of them know him, but it is a fair statement of priorities. The Tionese unloads his pistol in the direction of the semi-mechanical monstrosity. "I shoulda brought the rocket launcher, he states with an e Turkey out of place laugh as he hollers toward Poe, "NEXT TIME I'M BRINGING THE ROCKET LAUNCHER."
Chaos is all around them. The shuttle has landed, the pirates arrive amidst turmoil, and a Wampa is raging about tossing things, and waving its huge arms. It goes to attack Tess, roaring when an explosion from a cryo grenade misses its intended target. His massive paw slams on the deck, missing her! The Wampa turns, kicking a cargo container that slides between the Resistance fighters and Pirates, but hits Sar full force, sending him crashing in another direction. The pirates start screaming, paying David no mind as he and the Doctors are moved by them. The pirates join the Resistance in fighting, their shots all over as the wampa, flailing about, makes it difficult to truly get a good target.
Poe has fallen back a bit more, moving closer to Jess and firing another shot. "Keep shooting!" He notices that the pirates have joined the Resistance in the fight, and turns to look at their ship. "Fall back..!"
Inside the ship, Dave sees that it's empty. The controls are powered down, but everything appears to be functional. The craft is one of those haulers used when they evacuated the Raddus/D'Qar.
Sar Yavok's luck had to run out at some point, right? After 49 long years of rootin', tootin' cowboy nonsense, it was bound to catch up with him. "C'mon, you son of a-OH!" Sar gets hefted up by the wampa, the big creature grabbing Sar by the hand he's clutching the cannon with. Another claw is wrapped around Sar's torso. A little bit of finagling and *POP*.
Sar's left arm is torn clean from his body, also pulling the MWC-35c from his back; the pair of them dropping to the floor before the wampa rears back and whips what's left of Sar Yavok into the wall.
Sar's unconcious body slams into the icy surface before bouncing off of it and clattering down onto the ground. Somebody remember to get his gun. And his arm. Please and thank you.
"Sar!" Sapphira looks utterly horrified when the Wampa swings one of it's big, dumb arms and the father-figure goes flying. Sans arm. Oh dear, that's going to leave a mark. <<We need a medic, somebody get to Sar!>> Sapphira announces quickly over the comms before the small redhead takes another step back and, with gritted teeth and hate in her bright green eyes, she begins to pour rounds into or around the wampa again. Once. Twice. Then click. Sapphira tilts her weapon upward to stare down the chamber, which is now empty through the bottom. She groans, throwing herself agianst the interior wall of the hanger so that she can shove the weapon away to withdraw another.
Jessika's hopes that the Wampa might attack the recently landed pirates and their loud craft are dashed, because the cybernetic beast charges a target that might actually be more dangerous. Jessika has no angle on it from where she is, and by the time that she's risen and gotten into a better firing position, the creature has ripped an arm off one of their team and flung him almost clear out of the hangar. Jessika broadens her stance, sets both hands around her grip, and aligns the sight of her weapon with what she hopes is something vital: the back of the creature around his neck area. She squeezes the trigger still, so it's not yanked in the rush, and discharges a bolt into the back of the experiment that's rampaging around the place.
When it collapses into a heap, she exhales a hard breath she didn't even realize she was holding. Almost immediately afterwards, she swings her weapon towards the pirates that have arrived to help. "Put your weapons on the floor and get on your knees!" Maybe they've not noticed, or maybe they're just starting to notice, but none of the crew that was fighting the Wampa have a logo-bearing uniform like their dead comrades outside.
Lofty swivels his repeater to the pirates once the wampa is finished off. He moves toward the ramp, covering their new prisoners on the way, and helps with the disarming. "We have medic?" he asks, looking at Tess Ul'Datha.
Tess sees the looming shadow just soon enough to roll back away from her sniper position and yank out the rancor claw dagger on her thigh, but not soon enough to do anything about it charging at her dad. She tries, mind you. She can see that all palying out in slow motion and is pumping every bit of strength into her legs to get her moving after the massive creature as it barrels directly at Sar. She's leaping at it as it grabs hold of him and yanks his arm clean from his body, aterial blood spraying literally everywhere in the process.
She doesn't even comprehend the thing tumbling to the ground beneath combined fire of Sapphira and Jessika because she's scooting up close to the bleeding form of her fallen father to craddle his head against her armored leg. Sapphira's demand to provide medical attention snaps her out of her terror and she reaches back for the medical supplies hanging on her back, digging in to grab the first sealant she can get her hands on to close off the blood flow. "I'm here, dad.. just hold on okay..." Suddenly her visor is all steamed up... how did that happen? She grabs the seals and yanks it off, tossing the helmet away as she tries desperately to save the Lt. Colonel with tears rolling down her cheeks soundlessly. "We need med evac..."
<<Guys, we're in luck. This transport is ready to go and it's ROOMY.>> David transmits over comms when he reaches the cockpit of the transport. <<There's enough room for us all, including newcomers, and we won't have to climb up that cliff again. And not to mention the medical bay on board.>> He goes to work prepping the ship for takeoff, making sure the two doctors strap in immediately. <<Ready for takeoff as soon as everyone's on board, folks.>>
"Ohhhh, that is all kinds a bad-" Ektor states the spiralling, bloody obvious as the beast performs long division on Sar. Ektor hustles toward where the erstwhile Lt Colonel is being attended by Tess, "Hey, we gotta MOVE, come on let's get him onto the shuttle, you can work on him there, yeah? Come on, you lift that side, yeah? SOMEBODY PICK UP HIS ARM. RED, find his arm, yeah?"
The Wampa's dead. Thank the Maker. Nova, seeing Jessika's next target, swings her own weapon to cover the creeps. "She has a good idea. I suggest you do just that," she says, glaring over the sights as she helps cover the pirates. "It'll involve living longer than the next thirty seconds."
Normally she'd help with casualties, but there are only two guns covering four goons. Statistically speaking, those are /lousy/ odds. She's needed where she is.
The pirates were cheering when the Wampa went down, the ground shaking under its weight. When guns turned on them though, they realized their mistake. They were outnumbered, outgunned, and they were away from their ship. The gig was up. All of them tossed their blasters down and dropped to be cuffed. "KRIFF SAKE.. Terex is gonna kill us."
"Load up every, and drop me by the Far Rider, then jump outta here. Sar needs medical attention." Everyone was wrapping up, and in due time, the team departed in two ships, leaving this frozen wasteland behind! (fin)
