Location: Inside Nickel One, corridor (Aura-one), ventilation shaft (Beltran and co.)
Objective: The Queen Mothers
Allies:
Debbis Endo,
Obsidian Star operatives: Aura-one (sorta) and Aura-two,
Valkren Calderon, @Roona Omsari,
Tyrell Caphey, @Rok Dex, [member="Audren Sykes"]
Enemies: Sith,
Maria Bentley and her forces,
Joon
Engaging: Sith forces under the control of
Maria Bentley.
Post # 4
Aura-one’s Perspective:
“Uhh…sir?” Aura-one keyed his comlink as he back-pedalled away from the advancing Sith troopers. Looking down at the grate through which Mister Rarr and Mister Endo had escaped, he’d found that his superior had blocked it off from him. Even as he spoke, the operative had already deduced what was happening.
Mister Rarr had decided that the team getting away was more important than his survival. A sudden burst of rage filled him as he switched his “Reaper” to full automatic and began sending dozens of blaster bolts down the hallway toward his enemy.
Or, more accurately, one of his enemies.
Unlike many in his line of work, he hadn’t come from a career in the military and as such he’d never seen this level of combat before. But he’d thought he’d proven himself to his superiors. He’d survived the slaughter-fest that had occurred on Denon when Mister Rarr had engineered the takeover of Obsidian Star. That had been a three-way firefight between
The Outfit, Rarr and that damned unnerving clown he’d brought with him, and his men.
Just coming away without taking a bolt to the face, or worse, he’d thought he shown that he was useful. Or perhaps that was why Mister
Rarr was removing him now, maybe he’d shown that he was
too useful. At this point, it really didn’t matter. The rest of his life, he knew, now measured in only the span of seconds.
Soon he would be dead.
There was no way that he could hold this corridor on his own. In a few more shots, his weapon would be fully depleted and he wouldn’t have enough time to reload. So he resigned himself to his fate, settling into the numb calmness of a man with no more options.
And then his HUD cut out. It was sudden and complete. One second it was transmitted telemetry and then it wasn’t. In his ear, Aura-one started to hear a whine. The whine then turned into a hum, which seemed to be increasing in intensity.
“You’ve got to be fething kidding!” He growled as he tore the device from his face and threw it down the hall at his enemy. It was one thing to leave him here to die, but to activate the device’s self-destruct while it was still on his face?
That was
low.
So caught up was the operative in these events that he’d completely missed the fact that someone had been cutting a hole in the ceiling just in front of him. When [member="Audren Sykes"], plunged down-riding the piece of ceiling he’d cut out two things happened. Aura-one’s personal HUD device flew into the Sith and exploded with a power he hadn’t thought the device had, and two he very nearly fouled his pants.
As the operative stood, gaping slack-jawed, the elfin Jedi proceeded to carve a swath through the oncoming Sith. When asked, very politely the operative might add, to try not to hit the Jedi Aura-one simply nodded slowly.
It took a few more breaths before he realized that he wasn’t even shooting.
Quickly-far quicker than he’d have thought-his training kicked in once more and he leveled his weapon at the enemy. It was difficult to aim around the Jedi, so the operative took his time and lined up his shots. Switching the pistol to semi-automatic, he fired one round at a time as he advanced behind the Jedi.
While the vast majority of the kills made were the Jedi’s, Aura-one was gratified to be able to take out another three or so troopers on his own.
Then, with the lull that this newcomer had created, the operative listened to the man’s next statement. “Uhh…yes, sir!” He said, his face set with determination. He took a few moments to reload his weapon and then took off after the elfin Jedi, weapon in hand and a new sense of purpose in his heart. It seemed he’d been recruited.
Beltran Rarr’s perspective:
“Keep moving,” The Lorrdian ordered the two men ahead of him. Through the walls, he could hear the muffled sounds of fighting. As they’d crawled, the ventilation shaft had led them several meters deeper into the rock before settling on a parallel course with the corridor.
Brisk air flooded through the system as they travelled. The life support systems were still engaged, that was good. He didn’t know the Sith’s objective here, but if it were him he would have made taking control of the colony’s life support systems first priority.
After all, your enemy can’t fight you if they can’t breathe.
Through his HUD device, he heard the voice of Aura-two-the operative leading the three-man group.
“Where’s Aura-one?” The man asked.
“He didn’t make it.” Beltran replied tersely. “We need to keep moving.”
“Don’t you get it?” This was the voice of Debbis Endo, sounding aloud in the shaft since he hadn’t a com device to transmit his words. “We left him to die.”
“Be quiet.” Beltran ordered. The Lorrdian was in no mood to deal with this non-sense. Of course he’d left Aura-one to die. Any idiot could have seen there was no way all four of them were going to get away. He’d left the best shot in the unit-after Beltran, of course-behind in order to give them all the best chance at making it to the hangar.
Endo, apparently deciding to heed Beltran’s words, made no more noise and after a moment of silence Aura-two began to move again.
Once they were back on Denon, Beltran would ensure that Aura-two met with some-completely plausible-accident. He didn’t need things like team loyalty, or morality, gumming up his operations.
They travelled along the shaft for what felt like several minutes, but given all the adrenaline pumping through his veins he figured it had barely been three. The shaft began to angle back toward the corridor and he could hear the sounds of fighting growing clearer as they neared another grate.
“Sir,” Said Aura-two. “I think this is the last grate that adjoins the corridor. After this I think we’re basically crawling all the way down into the main vent system. Good chance we’ll end up being cut to pieces by a fan or something.”
“Alright.” Beltran responded. He had hoped to come out well behind the Antarian Rangers’ defensive line, but doing so right in the middle of their advance was better than climbing out into a chamber of just Sith. They would have to manage. “Flatten yourselves against the side of the shaft. I will go first.”
Even from behind, and with Endo in the middle, Beltran could read the surprise in Aura-two’s body language. No, Beltran thought as he crawled over each man in succession, he wasn’t playing the hero. Only he had the answer to the challenge call used by the third infantry.
If Aura-two just bumbled down into the fire fight, it was likely that they’d all end up dead from Ranger fire.
Upon reaching the grate, Beltran holstered his “Reaper” and pulled out a small handheld multi-tool- similar to what Aura-two had used to undo the grate that led them into this shaft in the first place. He took care to be as quiet as possible, as he didn’t need some trigger happy trooper noticing the grate moving and firing on them without verifying his target first.
Once the grate had been loosened, he turned on his rear so the his feet was facing it and kicked out-sending the piece of metal flying down to the ground in front of them. The Lorrdian disguised his voice, giving it a lighter more innocent tone as he shouted out the challenge phrase. He hadn’t been gone from Kashyyyk more than a couple of days, so he doubted it had been changed.
He then stuck his feet through the hole and jumped down to the ground below. A dozen weapon barrels came to face him as he got to his feet. The walls were lined with both Verpine defenders and Antarian Rangers. With his hands raised, Beltran repeated the challenge call so that everyone in the immediate vicinity could hear.
He then flattened himself against the corridor wall and proceeded to help Aura-two lower Debbis Endo down onto the ground before following himself. They had, apparently, come out about ten meters from the front line. The soldiers lining the wall were the relief forces for those who were currently engaging the Sith.
As he looked around, he noticed several bodies lying on the ground. No Rangers, as they would have been pulled to the back of the line as soon as they’d fallen. But several of the spider creatures and a number of Sith troopers lay ruined on the deck. Beltran knew he’d been lucky, had they arrived a few moments earlier he figured that this part of the corridor would have still been under Sith control.
Once on the ground, Endo and Aura-two took to his example and flattened themselves against the wall as well. Aura-two still had his weapon drawn, but it seemed for the moment that none of the Verpine or Rangers were planning on challenging that.
Beltran continued his scanning of the area, looking for whoever was in charge. He’d need a situation report before he risked taking Endo through any of the passageways that led back to the hangar. It was at that moment that a figure rounded the corner, backing off the line-ostensibly so that he could reload.
Beltran saw the insignia before he saw the man. Colonel.
Feth. Of all corridors on all the asteroid colonies in all the insect infested star systems in the galaxy and he had to pop up in the one occupied by [member="Valkren Calderon"].
