A Sound of Thunder (Mandalorian Raid of Ilum)

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Hype Darkwater"] [member="Nicair Claden"] [member="Arrbi Betna"]

OOC/ Thought I'd whip up a quick map to help keep everything straight. Does this work for you guys? It's not exactly to scale -- the tunnels are much larger and more complex - but it's the best I could do with a broken mouse lol. The middle section is the rocky ridge.

IC/
Eiarra's head tilted as some impossibly faraway sound caught her attention. She grabbed Mara's sleeve again, her emotions a naked storm of fury and despair. "'The Jedi are getting away.' That's what they're saying. The Mandalorians spotted the younglings and the Padawans as they got into the old escape ship out back."

With effort, Mara blotted out the portion of her empathic senses that pertained to her longtime mentor. "Master Minh, it all comes down to your Padawans. Can they start and fly that ship and get it away safe?"

The old Anx sighed, eyes squeezing shut. In spirit, she knew, he was with the shivering children in the old getaway ship. Maybe there was something he could do for them from this range, redirect a missile or confuse an interceptor pilot. Maybe not. "Some of them, yes. We are not warriors, Miss Merrill. Maybe one out of every four Jedi is a warrior. The Mandalorians...this is what they live for."

 

[Hype Darkwater]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] OOC/ Nice, that'll work.

IC/ Hype's feet fell upon the tunnel floors with a crack, as the spikes on his boots dug into the surface with every stride. He turned down the temperature in his suit, he was starting to get warm from the running. His ship sent if a fuzzy deep scan of the tunnels, only one tunnel was clear, and that was the route Hype was going to take. His swords were in there sheaths, his pistols were loose in their holsters. Hype breathed heavily, but steadily, never losing rhythm. He had his HUD play a Mando electronic heavy metal band that had a good beat to it. It helped him keep steady as the singer raged on about blood, death, an honorable warrior that killed a hut'uun. The music abruptly switched off, and his HUD started flashing, heat traces had been detected, Hype was nearing the other side of the ridge. He signaled his ship, which promptly warmed up and took off. It headed slowly towards the ridge, it would arrive on the other side about the same time Hype would.

 

[Nefertari Sovint]

Moving further along the tunnels, and nearing the back entrance, Nef raised a communicator.
"R3" Nef whispered "Set autopilot for behind the temple. We'll escort them out of the system."

A series of beeps and whirs came in reply. Nef's trusty stunt fighter would soon be near the rear entrance with the escape craft one of the other Jedi had mentioned during the course of their escape.
Rounding what was supposed to be the final turn before the exit, the group ran across a stray mandalorian. The padawans reached for their lightsabers, but Nef motioned for them to lower their weapons.

The Jedi Knight waved her hand
"We are not your enemies"
"You are not my enemies"
"You want to hand over any crystals and leave like nothing happened"

The warrior gave the group of escapees a small handful of lightsaber crystals and then walked away calmly.
"Nice mind trick, let's get going."
"I hope he slips on the ice." One of the younglings said, prompting a soft laugh of agreement from Nef and the rest of the group.

As they reached the back, Nefertari heard the sound of her engines powering down to standby. The crystal which had called to her was on the wall to the left. A few seconds after she plucked it from the rockand ice surrounding it, it glowed orange. This was one more crystal the Mandos weren't going to get.
A loud crack echoed through the tunnels as the ice around the back door broke and it slowly rolled open.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"], [member="Hype Darkwater"]​

 

[Hype Darkwater]

There were noises ahead. Hype quickened his pace. He stopped as a Mandalorian walked by as if in a daze. Weak-minded fool. Hype picked up speed, running full out. His boot spikes stopped him from a fall when the walls abruptly trembled, and a loud crack split the air. He rounded the corner, just in time to see several young Jedi start to make there way out of a door in the ice. He never broke stride. In an instant his arm went up, and liquid fire blasted out of the nozzle on his armor. There would be no escape for the Jedi.

[member="Nefertari Sovint"]
Mara D'Lessio Merrill Nicair Claden Arrbi Betna


Mara D'Lessio Merrill

 

[Nefertari Sovint]

The padawans quickly erected a force barrier around the group. Nef passed her child to the oldest youngling before stepping forward toward the front; neither truly fearful or angry. The heat from the warrior's assault was starting to melt the frozen ground around him.

"Fire with an intent to destroy. To some, it may seem unstoppable."
Nef stopped, noting the water at their adversary's feet.
"However..." a smirk crossed her face "Nature's other elements have a habit of keeping each other in check."

Nefertari raised her right hand to the direction of the Mandalorian in front of her. In less than a second, an off white blast of electricity erupted from her fingertips directly at her iron clad foe. A direct hit wouldn't kill him, but he would likely lose consciousness for a short while. Even a few minutes was all they needed.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"], [member="Hype Darkwater"]​

 

[Nicair Claden]

Combat could be heard from a distance as Nicair and a small group of warriors were searching a tunnel that a loner had opened up. The echoes on the walls told them that it was a distance off. The group increased their pace until they saw a group of Jedi, one of them fired a blast of electricity at the feet of a Mandalorian, his body convulsed from the shock. The ice and stone squealed under the booted feet of the warriors as they bodies instinctively raised their rifles and began firing into the group of Jedi.

(OOC: Sorry for any low effort, I'm out of it at the moment.)

[member="Nefertari Sovint"] | [member="Hype Darkwater"] | [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Titan]

OOC: Sorry for the break between posts, been having trouble loading the page

IC:
Abraxis ran down the tunnel towards where he had saw his two compatriots go, he double checked his Mecharami Pack on the way, when he arrived he saw a pitched battle going on and slid behind one of the fallen ice pillars. "Need any help?" He yelled at the other Mandos as he stood up and threw his two razor discs, both of them killing a few Jedi before getting stuck in the ice. "This had better get better." He muttered, he had things to do. Places to be, but this was nessacary for his project to work.

 

[Titan]

[member="Hype Darkwater"] [member="Nefertari Sovint"] [member="Nicair Claden"]

 

[Hype Darkwater]

[member="Nefertari Sovint"] Nicair Claden Mara D'Lessio Merrill

Hype's HUD surged as electricity bathed him. He fell too his knees, barely keeping concision. His armor fought hard to keep rerouting to electricity. Hype's will was strong, he had endured worse, he would survive. There was one way out of this situation. Hype leaned forward, and ground his fists into the floor. His MM-9 rocket activated. Hype breathed heavily, waiting for the slight slack in the force shield that would come any moment. With a roar, Hype's fighter appeared. Its heavy lasers pounded the shuttle then it spun, and opened fire on the Jedi. Then Hype fired. The explosion rocked the ground, and the ceiling began to collapse, he saw at least two padawans fall. His own body went limp as hell erupted, blood, fire, and death.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Hype Darkwater"] [member="Nicair Claden"] [member="Nefertari Sovint"] [member="Abraxis"]

Mara had counted on being able to hold off the main Mandalorian force while the slower Jedi joined the younglings and Padawans out back. But a Mandalorian strike team had navigated the tunnels very quickly, and avoided Mara's position, and now she was drastically out of position. Oh, she could still hold off the main force, but that small group of flanking Mandos had engaged the Padawans and Sovint. This could all come crashing down, so fast, and Mara couldn't quite tell if or how her decisions had made this happen. Maybe she'd made a mistake, or a hundred. Now wasn't the time for self-recrimination.

So she ran. Left Styr, Mukami, Kolatta and Eiarra to delay the main force. Caught up with Master Minh and his few remaining Jedi, and accelerated past them. Used the Force for speed, and more importantly for instinctive navigation. Her path diverged from the tracks of the younglings and the Mandalorians; apparently the Force was guiding her along a quicker route.

That route took her up a shallow ramp, then right against a wall of ice. Her lightfoil slashed a triangle. Pressure-cracks and steam radiated from each cut, and the noise of shattering ice was a roar in the tunnel. She lashed out with a projected-fighting punch, and the triangle of ice fell away in pieces. She stood on the side of the ridge, looking down at the battlefield. Nefertari Sovint was fighting with protection bubbles and electric judgment, protecting her own child and a few others. Padawans were fighting valiantly, and dying. Several of the Padawans and younglings had already reached the old evacuation ship and powered it up; now it trembled, shedding ice and snow in chunks the size of landspeeders.

Before Mara could do any more than take in the sight, a Mandalorian starfighter hove into view. Laser cannons slashed into the fight, and a fresh wave of deaths washed over Mara. Two more Padawans, dead and done, one with the Force. Two more children to add to the toll.

Maybe if she'd surrendered, if they'd all surrendered, they'd have been spared. Maybe. That, she knew, was a possibility that would eat at her. In the meantime, she had work to do.

She touched her lapel comm. "North ridge. North ridge. North ridge."

"Acknowledged," said Styr. The huge half-Valkyri commando sounded out of breath; busy killing Mandos in the tunnels. That had been the pullback order, an obcure reference to the Battle of Hoth. They'd meet her out here eventually. With a nod, Mara stepped off the edge of the triangular hole she'd cut.

She sank into the snow halfway to her knees with a thud, beskarweave coat flaring around her. There were several Mandalorians in the flanking force, but three of them stood out. One struck her as halfway familiar. Another wore a big metal backpack, a ysalamir frame maybe, around which her empathic senses picked up nothing. There was blood on the snow, and the smoking bodies of Jedi apprentices. And that Mandalorian starfighter was still hovering nearby. Mara listened to her navigational instincts, ready to move any which way, licking her lips nervously.

"Fething run, Sovint!" she yelled over the wind. "I'll hold them off!"

The hidden door opened again, and out came Master Minh and a trio of Jedi Knights, radiating grief and numb fury a step too close to the Dark Side. They tore into the Mandalorians who'd just killed their apprentices.

The evac ship shuddered again, then lifted off and accelerated for the sky. They were doing what they'd been ordered to do, but Mara sensed their despair and terror and shame, those kids flying the ship alone.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] | [member="Arrbi Betna"]

Well, didn’t this turn into a complete karkfest.

Screams in Mando’a as some of the ways got caved-in by presumably Jedi intervention, scouts being lured around in circles and away from the main force before being cut down from the shadows.

::We got the fleeing Jedi pinned down. Proceeding the assault::

The words came from far away, but they came nonetheless. A different man, a better man, might have tried to belay that order.

Tried to spare some of the Jedi.

But he was far away and all on his mind was the here/now. He was with the main force, Vizsla warriors surrounding him in black beskar’gam without any engravings or emblems, because this was a raid - not a parade.

His short beskad cut, cut, cut and blood sprayed as an Undergrounder went down. Ronan bounced back as another one lashed out with the stock of his shotgun, before being taken down from the side by someone else. Chaotic, he barely could make out who he was fighting anymore with the crowd pressing on him at all sides.

Then, an opening, a lull in the fight appeared shortly followed by a giant.

Vizsla had never been tall, but this man would have made the tallest Mandalorians he knew shrink in shame. Shiny spear, shiny armor and all Valkyrie. Behind his helmet Ronan frowned, before wetting his suddenly dry lips.

This was going to be a tough one.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Ronan Vizsla"]

There were four left; at least, four that Styr could count on. A couple of other Jedi stragglers had tried to help with the delaying actions, the lures, the rockfalls, the dead ends that turned into crypts. But this wasn't Jedi work and the Jedi were poor at it, and most of them died the first time they pulled an ambush, and he expected the same of his helpers here. No, this was the Underground's fight now.

Then a Mando with a beskad cut down Kolatta, and there were three.

The grinning, svelte Zahat'n'iri archer was a capable knife fighter, but against a beskad that only went so far. As Mukami dragged her away in a trail of her own blood, and Eiarra Denirel laid down cover fire in the dark, Styr lunged forward. He held his spear crossways, shoving the brawl off Kolatta and away from her, if only by a few steps. A Jedi dropped his lightsabre with the impact and was promptly chopped to bits; Styr didn't especially care.

He drew back a pace and got his spear to bear. The Ankarres wood haft was mainly for anti-Sithspawn use, but it also refreshed him and accelerated healing for his minor wounds. The blade was Force-imbued, linked to both him and his primary charge, his captain; it drew from her strength and glowed. Sometimes he needed to dirty the blade or bag it, to use the thing in the dark. Right now he wanted the attention, so Mukami and Eiarra could pull Kolatta back and stop the bleeding.

One warrior in particular caught Styr's eye: the one who'd chopped into Kolatta's body. Holding his spear two-handed, Styr lunged and jabbed. His left hand, near the butt, came up to almost meet the looser grip of the right, and the spear shot forward with impaling speed. He aimed for the side of the gut, where traditional beskar'gam was crap.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Tough, indeed.

Mind moved and body followed suit in an almost 90 degree angle, instead of a puncture impalement the tip of the spear sheared through armorweave and left a hot trail across the skin. Didn’t cut through any important muscles though and neither left him with two inch hole in his gut.

In his experience the more simple acts were the most effective ones in the long run.

So his body shifted to accommodate and with haste pushing his resolve forward, his beskad came down on Styr’s spear, in an attempt to cut it in half. Once, twice, short succession, if possible.

Not that he knew about the special properties of the wood.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Ronan Vizsla"]

The noise was overwhelming. Flames, pleading, metal grating on rock and bone. In that, Styr fancied he could hear Kolatta crying, but Kolatta was the toughest of them. Even with ugly beskad wounds chopped into her body, he doubted she would make a noise like that, a keening hiccup. The wind being driven from lungs in a gasp, over and over again, as if each breath cost damage. No, that had to be one of the Jedi.

He'd heard that sound and others like it many times. He was a Valkyri warrior, an Underground commando; he knew death intimately. He could function, ignore the noise, use his rage as fuel without letting it distract him.

As quickly as he'd stepped forward, he stepped back, lengthening the space between his hands as he withdrew the spear in an instant. He twitched the point upward. The beskad glanced off the long Force-imbued spearblade with what might have been numbing force if Styr was a human. Styr was not.

The tension in his body uncoiled as he lashed out with the spear again, a flicking strike for the back of the swordsman's wrist and the underside of his forearm. A Force-imbued blade could shear through durasteel with ease; if this fether was wearing actual beskar, though, there would be problems. Then again, a numbing strike could disarm as effectively as removal of a hand.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

His breath hitched as Styr reacted with reflexes that almost seemed unworldly.

The beskad bounced back upwards and Ronan moved with the momentum, but the spear was lashing out yet again. This was starting to wear on him. All around the battle raged, in his mind he could feel the scratching at his resolve - the hunger - it wanted him to feed and siphon off the dead and dying.

Ronan stepped back a fraction and the first lunge missed, the second one scratching against the beskar of his beskar’gam. They were both only near-human, where the hit would have shocked and numbed a regular humanoid, for Vizsla it was merely grating.

He almost stumbled in his step back, though. Briefly forgot about the corpse of the Jedi falling earlier, to make some room his free hand lashed out and flames erupted from his gauntlet in a cone in front of him, aimed at Styr and his companions behind him.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Ronan Vizsla"]

Behind Styr, Eiarra was bandaging Kolatta, forcing kolcta geltabs down her throat and into her wounds. Mukami's blade rang off Mandalorian armor, then snicked through flesh and bone. A buy'ce hit the floor. Styr didn't bother turning, not for that situation; his people had this well in hand for the moment. He kept his focus on the man in front of him.

He hunched against the attack, spear still pointed forward, and painful heat seared through his nearly-depleted personal shield and durasteel chainmail. The coat beneath looked just as archaic, but like all the rest of their gear, it blended primitive sensibility with full modern function. Their job, after all, was guarding Mara Merrill on the pre (post) technological world of Kilia Four, not too far away from here. General Merrill had expected the best functionality, low local profile or not. The padding blunted the worst of the assault as durasteel rings spun away half-melted in the dark.

Another Mandalorian tried to get in on the fight, get past the man in the mask on Styr's right. Styr lashed out. The glowing spearblade punched through a T-visor, forming a temporary point of anchor, a hinge. Styr shoved, pivoting the spear around the head of the standing corpse, and bashed the spear's haft into the dead man's still-incoming beskad. The Force-imbued wood chipped but held. That chip might pose problems for the right-hand-slide maneuvers he'd started with, even though he wore tough gloves.

Styr shuffle-stepped in to widen his hands' spacing on the haft, and twisted left. The spearblade ripped out of the dead man's T-visor and scythed for the left side of Ronan Vizsla's neck. On the assumption that the Mandalorian would duck, Styr gambled. He lashed out with a side kick, gut-level, using his right foot, the forward one.

 

[Nicair Claden]

The Jedi leaped to the defense of the group Nicair and his companions were firing at, brave tactic indeed. She was holding her own quite well, what with being surrounded by the dead it could be challenging to keep one's footing. She danced and swayed as her lightsaber deflected blaster bolts all around her, she could hold for quite some time. The Mandalorian couldn't help feeling something, however, something strange. He recognized this person, and something else, something he hadn't felt before, it was strange. He couldn't recall where he had seen this person before, it was flowing through his brain as he continued firing. Familiar or not this person was standing against them, but yet, curiosity ebbed at his mind. Sounds began to be recalled first, the ringing of a beskar hammer on metals, the cracking of fire. It was then that he remembered where he had met this person before. She was [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] and she had been with him in the forging of his armor. Surely he couldn't kill this person who had been there for such an important event of a Mandalorian's life. He imagined he owed her a debt of some kind, some form of kindness.

"Taylir! We're needed at the front, pull back, now." He spoke without thought, his hand had seemed to raise itself to stop their barrage. To his surprise the warriors nodded and began making their way back to the common area. He moved to the edge of the small uprising he had chosen to make their stand. The woman faltered for a moment, her saber constantly moving. Her eyes for the briefest moment glanced up towards the ridge. The man, gazing down at her met her eyes and with his horned helmet nodded to her before turning around to follow his brothers, his coat trailing behind him.

 

[Rekali the Hutt]

Some might have called Rekali the Hutt late to the party, but he preferred to think that he was simply the reinforcements. Heading down the tunnel armed in Vondunn Skerr Hutta and having armor talons extended. When his father spoke of his passion for the Lightsaber, learning the ways of Form Five by watching the head-tails of dancing Twi'leks. Or perhaps it was Form Eight? The young Hutt hadn't paid that much of attention to the history and lore of what Rasho was doing, but he did have an appreciation for the combat training, and of course every Hutt had an artistic appreciation for the female mammal in motion.

But that was neither here nor there. Now was the time to pillage, gain materials for Mandalore and Clan Rekali, while bringing them glory while fighting any Jedi that might challenge them. Heading into the tunnel complex he found himself at the bottom of a map crafted by most broken of mice. Looking around the large room he headed forward into the center tunnel, aiming to see what, or who, he could find.
[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Nefertari Sovint]

(OOC: would have posted earlier, was busy all day)

It all blurred together in her mind: [member="Hype Darkwater"]'s last ditch effort, the padawans falling in battle, getting the younglings out and to the evac vessel, throwing a few Mandos head first into the wall in a angry fit as her eyes flashed a hellish red, and [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] telling her to run in no uncertain terms. What finally brought Nef back to her senses was the turbulence of escaping the atmosphere. She looked around: on her eight was the evacuation craft, her six; Ilum.

"R3, shift over to auto for a moment. I need to think"

Her trusty flight companion beeped at her

"Not only did I put Articus in danger, but those two padawans died because I couldn't turn my back on my enemy."

The droid beeped, slightly annoyed at her.

"I guess you're right. They would have been found if I'd been there or not."
Nef switched back over to manual, keeping her eyes open for any new threats.

 

[Hype Darkwater]

[member="Nefertari Sovint"] (OOC: That's fine, I wasn't feeling well anyway)
Everything was hazy, but Hype fought on to keep his mind on the present. Jedi scum, they were all cowards. And what kind of Jedi used lightning? The Jedi were indeed delusional about themselves. Rock and dust fell on him, it was painful, but Hype ignored it. The Jedi were getting away. But then, what did it matter? It wasn't like one of the Jedi was a particular target. But then, the galaxy could do with a few less Jedi. Hype activated his jetpack, and launched out into the snow. He quickly entered his ship and raced to the cockpit. Yanking off his helmet, he took a seat, and switched the ship to manual control. The ship jerked and swung hard and pursued the shuttle. The Kum'rrk upgraded engines roared with a fury, hitting 2000 kilometers an hour in a few seconds. The shuttle was slow, it would not get away easily. Hype's blood-shot eyes studied the scanners, his breath was heavy, every movement was stiff, but he continued on. Endurance. He had learned to endure. Endurance was the key, the essence of his survival. There, the shuttle. Adding n extra 1000 kilometers to his speed, Hype raced up to the shuttle. He rushed by, firing the laser cannons. The lasers pounded on the shields a moment, then punched through, neatly carving up a section of the lower hull. Hype grinned, accelerated more, and left the atmosphere, then coming about, he prepared for another pass. At most maybe he killed a couple more padawans, the blow wasn't crippling, so Hype would have to give a permanent blow.