Breaking the Machine

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Ari Vox"], [member="Sebastian Thel"]


The aftermath of battles was not something often spoken of. By contrast, it was epic clashes of armies and the grand duels that drew attention. But it was not seemly to focus on the scars - both mental and physical - such battles could not leave. Especially if you wound up being thrown into the conflagration again. You steeled yourself, womaned up and dealt with it. Or gave a good impression of doing so at any rate. So that was what Elpsis did.


The safehouse was an unobtrusive, nondescript building, not really standing out from any of the other buildings on the street. It was drab, dull and the furnishings were pretty simple, with only the most basic functions in mind. Worker drones on the industrialised hive world of Ession did not need anything else, after all. It had food, clothes - and, hidden in a secret compartment - enough guns to cause some havoc.


Elpsis had picked a spot on the carpet in one of the few rooms to meditate. Meditation was a basic skill any Jedi apprentice learned, but she'd long struggled with it. It required peace of mind, the ability to let go and turn your gaze away from the great and small concerns that plagued you. She'd always had trouble staying in one place. Inevitably her mind wandered to the recent events that had taken place during her first sojourn to Ession. She'd come here with high hopes. Help the local rebels, deliver a blow against Sith sympathising, imperialist friendly scum, impress mother. When her contact had told her of a Sith Lord and asked that she take care of the problem, she'd pounced at the chance. Silly dreams.


What had happened? The Sith Lord she'd faced had been none other than Matsu Xiangu. The dreaded Witch-Necromancer. Elpsis would be lying if she claimed she hadn't been afraid. The fight had been vicious, driving both to their limits. She'd held her own, suffering ghastly injuries, but dishing out as well. But good people had died.


The rebels had chosen to help her with the assignment, but nonetheless the deaths weighed heavily on her. Like a mountain. She wondered how [member="Tempest"] dealt with it. Or Siobhan. Her adoptive mother's name caused the bile to rise inside her stomach. Siobhan had scorned her as weak, but she'd stood up to a monster who was her mother's equal. Revulsion filled her even as she tried to focus.


So here she was again. Determined to put the intel the rebels had given her to good use. Her maimed right hand, lacking pinkie and ring finger, was a permanent reminder of the duel. As were the burns on her stomach and the dark marks etched into her face. Being blind, she could not look at herself in the mirror, but she could feel the imprint of darkness. Attempting to find serenity in meditation did not go well, for peace eluded her.


She tried to reach that safe spot inside her mind, the sanctuary of the forests and wild beasts. But just as she was about to cross the threshold, she was pushed out of her meditation when she felt two presences approaching. They were coming this way, en route to the safehouse. With a sigh, she turned her ethereal gaze outward, homing in on their presences. Their auras were not hostile though.

There was a knocked on the door to the room. "Company. Motion sensors spotted two people approaching. No jackboots," the female Devaronian dressed in spacer clothes was one of the local rebels who'd found alongside her. One of those who'd extracted the young empath when things went to hell.

"It's our friends," she said with certainty. "Tell Horns." 'Horns' was actually Lin Brakka, an Irridonian Zabrak and a Sergeant in Firemane's black ops division. She wasn't fond of the nickname. The rebel nodded - and checked a blaster pistol concealed in her jacket. The two newcomers would have to identify themselves with a password before being let in.

 

[Ari Vox]

Discretion. The world fumbled through Ari's thoughts like an errant piece of junk mail, spam that found no hold on anything within her and passed without much fanfare through the opposite side it had entered. Mercenaries often looked at discretion as a quick way to make a buck. Turn the books on the ally of yesterday for a higher payout by the friends of tomorrow. Some thought that was the way the Galaxy worked - turncoats and cowards the lot of them.

In her dojo aboard The Rascal, the young Mandalorian was working on her hand-to-hand with a vestige of her adoptive father, Rawlins the RWW Protocol Droid. First purchased by Thor Vox for the purposes of diplomacy and intrigue, the droid had quickly come to mean much more than just that to one of his last remaining descendants. Teachings from her father spilt from Rawlins almost daily, and the techniques he used in their light sparring sessions were completely identical to those that Thor utilized. The more time Ari spent with the droid the more she saw her father, and while she knew the feelings were far from normal she couldn't possibly wipe his mind. The sheer volume of knowledge that he possessed about their culture, about Thor's personal vision and the skills he'd learned to master were cause enough to keep the droid's mind intact. Never mind the personal connection Ari had within that content.

"I believe that is enough for today young master," Said Rawlins in his calm, electronic drawl as he straightened out his posture and placed both hands clasped before him. Ari was breathing through her mouth, eyes filled with wild adrenaline as they had been in so many fights past. As understanding flickered across her expression she heaved heavily and expelled the residue excitement, shaking out her arms and jumping up and down to fully evaporate the tension in her limbs.

When she was ready she clasped her hands before her and both the inorganic and herself bowed at one another in mutual respect, before Ari backed out of the dojo and started for the bridge. A jarring sensation filled the air as she hit the deck, caused her a moment of brief panic and she grasped the nearest wall and watched beyond Skip where Ession now appeared from the haze of hyperspace. Robotic limbs extended across almost every quadrant of controls as Skip made to guide them down to the surface to the place that Ari's contact was waiting, and when she made it to Skips side her padded training gloves were off and she was working to tie back her hair.

"How long until we touch down?" Her voice was calm and devoid of any emotion, though such a simple question would hardly warrant any to begin with.

"Four minutes, twenty-two seconds," Came Skip's easy and instantaneous reply, to which his master simply nodded and padded back into the ship the way she had just come. With the time given she found ample room to perform her ablutions and prepare herself for an expedition, and shortly after the ship touched down Ari stepped off, her sapphire armour looking dull in the hazy murk that was Ession's top layer.

Alone the mercenary descended into the convoluted sub-dermal layers of the planet where hives of workers toiled and produced all manner of goods for the Galaxy as a whole. Noise filled the air to the point that Ari had to employ her dampeners, and the wash of motion, life, and steel set her temporarily dazed as her HUD picked up everything in a three hundred and sixty-degree pattern around her. It had taken years to get used to it, but even so, this much information was almost traumatic to her mind.

"Make a left turn ahead and the location will be three hundred feet on the left," Came Rawlin's calm and collected voice, his transmission encrypted and patched straight into Ari's helmet though she gave no reply and simply continued forward. The rules had been made clear for this job, both by the employer and by Ari for her crew of droids, everyone knew what should happen and were prepared should it not.

Above her in the multiple layers of congestion was her Sparrow droid, deployed from the ship it had tracked her progression and scanned out her pathway, careful to keep clear of the safehouse as it was guided around its perimeter by Rawlins in the ship. Across Ari's back, obscured almost entirely by a tattered grey cloak the mercenary employed for just such discretion, was her new Jackal ACR, primed and just a half a second from her hands and being combat effective. As well a heavy blaster pistol sat high on her right thigh, her fingers tracing across its handle with every step she took, opposite a Vishnu military shield she'd placed on her belt and the hip. Pouches of power cells and various other combat needs sprawled across the same belt each pouch looking more identical than the last.

With time she made it to the safehouse, the ebb and flow around her seemingly unaware of the firepower she packed, though her helmet was enough to cast a wide berth around her. Standing before a nondescript door at her destination, Ari took a last look around and made to tap the door three times, pausing for effect and then giving it one solid bang with her closed fist. The start of the password to allow her entry inside.

@[member=Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori], @[member=Sebastian Thel]

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Ari Vox"], [member="Sebastian Thel"]


((Sebastian, feel free to 'teleport' your char into the scene and assume he got let in as well)).


Tap, tap, tap.

BANG.

First half of the password completed. The reply was prompt. It came in form of two short rasps, then a brief pause that lasted one intake of breath, followed by two quick rasps again. The signal coming from outside would show the newcomers that it was safe and the hideout had not been compromised. One could not be too careful. The door was opened slightly, allowing the guard to take a peek outside.


A beat later, the door slid open. A female Devaronian dressed like a spacer stood in the doorway. Her leather jacket concealed a heavy blaster pistol. "You really had to come here in full armour?" she asked rhetorically when she beheld Ari's attire. Her tone was not unkind, just gruff. In the manner soldiers, mercenaries and the like who'd seen too many comrades get blown to bits and didn't have time for pleasantries tended to be. As for her remark, in all fairness Mandalorians tended to strut around in armour day in, day out. At least this was the popular perception!


Regardless, he gave the street outside a quick scan and stepped aside, letting the two inside. The door was quickly closed once the threshold had been crossed. The Devaronian also secured the security chain attached to the frame of the door. Not the most high-tech security countermeasure, but it was something at least. Besides, the place had some traps. Such as tripwire.


"Hi there," a new figure suddenly appeared to greet Ari. The girl looked a couple years younger than the Mandalorian warrior-woman, barely out of her teens. But she had scars that showed she had not been spending the past few years in a classroom or partying her parents' fortune away. Dark marks, courtesy of malevolent tendrils spawned by dark magicks, were written across her face. Flaming red hair fell down past her shoulders. However, perhaps the most striking feature were her eyes, for they were pure white.


These blank orbs stared at Ari, as if assessing her. In truth. Elpsis only perceived a blurry shape and, more importantly, the Mandalorian's aura. The girl wore a pair of faded trousers, a dark top and boots that could probably use a polish. A pistol rested inside a holster. One of her hands was missing two fingers. "You sure no one followed you?" her tone was friendlier than the Devaronian's, though wary. "Name's Incendia."

 

[Ari Vox]

There was barely a grunt in reply to the Devaronian as Ari stepped within the safehouse, but when the door ran shut with a satisfying thump, she raised her forearm and took a peek at her holodisplay. The Sparrow she'd loosed from her ship was tracking the area around the safehouse and back the way she'd come, careful not to give too much of itself away at any given moment, and Ari was pleased that it was working out so effectively. This was her first time employing the droid and she was optimistic about the future.

"It's always better to be armed and dangerous than vulnerable and dead, especially in my line of work," She looked at the Devaronian through her T-visor helmet, shrugged her shoulder and let the ACR off her back to set it just across her chest. There was no aggressive intent, she just preferred to be transparent when it came to what she carried and kept her fingers well away from the triggers, the Devaronian just shook her head in amusement, and Ari's infectious grin seemed to radiate through the helmet. Turning to the stairs the Mando made to take the first step but stopped as a figure loomed high above at the top.

Cast in a firey red halo the silhouette glared down upon her, milky iris' seemingly fixed on Ari's even through the faceplate of her armour. "Hi there," Came the woman's voice and from the bottom of the stairs, her counterpart took a moment to size the youth up. From below she seemed striking, the kind of girl that Ari would've never thought to see in such a situation. Her eyes came as the least surprising part of her, the dark spots across her features being the most, and as Ari watched her eyes came to fall upon the digits which this woman was missing, a significant loss in the form of a ring and pinkie finger. "You sure no one followed you? Name's Incendia,"

Ari wondered if this Incendia was a righty or a lefty.

"Ari Vox," Came her curt reply, and the armoured warrior started up the stairs, mindful as always that this could be a trap her eyes saw everything but fell on nothing. If she'd known nothing before she now knew less, was this woman truly fighting the Sith? Hard to believe, but then again Ari had experienced her own troubled youth, one that found her fighting other people's wars before the age of sixteen. When she made it to the top of the stairs Ari lifted up her forearm and revealed the ongoing surveillance she had of the area, briefly as a show of faith to her contact.

"No tails, at least to my measured approach. It's a pleasure to meet you Incendia, I hear you're looking for some extra firepower," Her voice was metallic and yet soft in its inflexion, coming through the intercom of the helmet as it did. A gloveless hand followed next, reaching out for a handshake. She would, after their greeting, remove her helmet and proceed with a more personal meeting, assuming they remained undisturbed.

[member=Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori]

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Ari Vox"]


Perhaps if Elpsis had worn battle armour during her fight with Matsu Xiangu, she would not have been maimed. Alas, she'd left it on her ship. It would have probably been a bit difficult to explain why she was strutting around in full Phrik armour, with a well-oiled Mark One Boltgun strapped to her back and a lightsabre tied to her belt. Perhaps. Or maybe she'd just not been imaginative enough.

Regardless, what was done was done. Elpsis, who tended to go by the somewhat overdramatic code Incendia when she was on missions, gave the Mandalorian a one-over. She had some experiences with Mandalorians from her gang days, though those might not have been the best way to get the measure of them. Siobhan had affiliated with the Clans for a while and Elpsis had tagged along when their armies marched on the dying Republic, fighting alongside them on Kashyyyk. Then Mandalore was nuked by a former Mand'alore. Unpleasant stuff followed. Civil war, anti-Forcer crusades, a sudden volte-face on the aforementioned anti-Forcer crusade. Suffice to say she'd found good cause to distance herself.

"Ari," she repeated the woman's name, as if testing how it rolled off the tongue. Those milky orbs locked on the mercenary. The woman's aura showed strength, but also pain, albeit one shielded by walls. Elpsis had enough decency not to pry. Everyone had chit they did not want others to see. Ari extended her hand and on reflex Elpsis reached out with her right hand before realising it was the maimed one. The one with burn marks and missing fingers. Looking a bit embarrassed, she withdrew it and instead shook Ari's hand with her left. Her grip was firm, her fingers callused. No painted fingernails from fancy spa weekends here. After listening to the precautions Ari had taken, she gave the older woman an appreciative nod. "Good. Could use some heavy firepower, yeah. Ready to make a bang and blow up some Sithy friends, sweetie?"

The Devaronian rebel, who went by the name of Kora, coughed. "Cut the flirting, Red. Spire is waiting," she grunted, shooting Elpsis a look. Spire being Sergeant Lin Brakka. Codenames were cheesy, but in case of capture they made identification a bit more difficult. Corporate warfare and sabotage might be a common occurence, but was still something ladies and gentlemen in fancy suits could not openly admit to. Even if the corporation happened to Firemane, whose chief gave her minions fat bonuses if they snuffed out the lives of Sith or their enablers.

"Right. I'll take you to the boss. Target's a big factory. She's got the details. Come along." From the outside, the safe house did not look like much. Indeed, this applied to most of the inside as well. But one chamber had been remodelled to serve as a makeshift planning room with solid communications gear and a map, plus surveillance photos pinned to the wall.

 

[Ari Vox]

With a simple flick of her wrist the helmet Ari wore slid up and off her head, relegating it to her belt kept it out of her way for the time being and she smiled curtly at the woman who called herself Incendia. With her blonde hair pinned back to accommodate the helmet's fit, Ari felt underwhelming in the eyes of this woman, just another mangy mercenary fighting for the scraps of an Empire at war. A fleeting thought passed through her mind, one that wondered how this young woman had earned such a name as Incendia, surely she hadn't been born to it, but the thought was replaced as she watched her hand be grasped and noted it had not been her maimed one. The attempt had been there but reflexively and nothing else, replaced quite immediately with her pristine appendage.

Fresh scars then.

Were she one to gossip the scars would have meant far less to the Mandalorian. As it stood now they showed her what she needed to know about this woman's intentions and her ability to bleed if necessary on the field of battle. Their hands came together with a firm grip and nearly identical calloused tissue, Ari's came from a blaster of course and she assume Incendia's did as well, though the things she had so far witnessed left the merc suspecting much more about the girl than she was willing to say.

"Good. Could use some heavy firepower, yeah. Ready to make a bang and blow up some Sithy friends, sweetie?" The coy smile that Ari couldn't help but grin spread across her face infectiously while the coldness of her eyes locked on Incendia's milky orbs. "I'm always ready to ply my trade," She said, her words coming as if such things as war and battle were the most normal parts of her days, in many ways this Mandalorian saw it as such. It was then the Devaronian coughed, her words seeming to change Incendia's stance and intensity as she made to guide the Mandalorian to another room within the safehouse. Had she been flirting? Ari was oblivious but felt a certain connection with the woman nonetheless, more like an interest piqued by the young woman's incredible burden, but she gave no indication that it existed.

Deeper they ventured into the almost painfully bland safehouse, coming at last to a hub of activity where Ari found a small crew of battleplanners working over a map that extended across a table centred within the room. Secured comms chatter filtered through the open doorway from banks of equipment settled at the far side of the room and Ari made note of the extensive amount of surveillance photos posted across the walls, more noteworthy than others. Blueprints and faces to name just a few. Now, this was what she had been expecting.

This close to Sith space one always had to be careful to hide their true intentions of course, and given that there were so many factories, so many different interests vying for control of the planet's industrial output, Ari assumed that attacks like this were less an exception and more of a rule. Espionage was not her strong suit, but given the wealth of data that flowed throughout this hub, it would seem to be the trade of these fine men and women. She wondered briefly if they knew of the new Rebel Alliance?

Surely people this well equipped and embedded so closely to the Sith Empire would be an asset to the Alliance in general, and so Ari made a note that if she made it back in one piece, the aptly named Incendia would be the first to get her comm info. After all allies in a revolution were never all that easy to find, and even harder to keep. Still, the option to welcome allies was not one she felt particularily apt for, and in the moment that she thought this all she cursed Cedric for even providing her the ability to.

Life could get so damn difficult.

@[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Ari Vox"]


The rest of the team awaited them. They were a grizzled collection of Firemane mercenaries and local rebels. Presumably if they all got together after the mission to share a couple beers, they'd have fun scar stories to trade. Assuming they all made it out alive in the first place, of course. Leading the pack was a tall, tough-looking Zabrak female. She was dressed like a spacer, but carried herself with the military bearing of a professional soldier. "Ms. Vox, good you're here," she acknowledged the newcomer, then glanced towards Elpsis. "No jackboots in sight?"

The girl shook her head. "Ari took a lotta precautions and stuff. 'sides, Blackshirts prefer shaking down people who can't defend themselves."

Spire gave the redhead a look, not appreciating the commentary and attempt at humour. "Don't get sloppy," she said sternly. "You're already kitted out. If you need any additional gear, we got plenty," she added to Ari. "Now that we're all here, let's got to the job," she began, addressing the whole group.

She pressed a button on a remote control, and a holoprojector sprang to life. The table in the centre of the room was covered by a holographic projection of their target. "The biggest Ession Heavy Industry Production manufacturing plant. It doubles as a research lab. We have it on good authority that they're designing weapons for Sith. A few weeks ago, a notorious Sith Lord called [member="Matsu Xiangu"] toured the planet, securing deals for the Empire. Some of us know her well."


Seemingly unnoticed, Elpsis' maimed right hand twitched slightly. She took a long, slow breath and tried to get the tremble under control by clenching her remaining fingers. If Spire noticed, she didn't let it interfere with the briefing. "Security is very tight, but like with any facility, it's more designed to keep people and gets easier inside. The objective is simple: Infiltrate the facility, steal data on a prototype weapon," at that she pressed the button again and the projection shifted. In place of the building, there was what looked like a portable plasma cannon. "Lay charges and get the hell out before the place blows. We don't have the manpower for a direct assault, so we'll use subterfuge." Presumably there was a plan, but others could pitch in first before it was outlined.

"That Sith queen mind-frakked an entire squad without lifting a finger. One of our boys blew his brains out. If little firecracker hadn't been there" Kora trailed off. "Any chance we're gonna run into another one like her?" There was some mumbling among the rebels. Clearly the Witch-Necromancer had made quite an impression on them.

"No intel. All we know is some bigwigs are on a tour. So be prepared. Wear a neural band. It'll keep your brains from getting scrambled instantly. And grab a secondary weapon glowsticks don't protect against. Bolter, hard sound gun, slugthrower," Spire responded bluntly.

"If we run into Sithies, I'll handle them," Elpsis said quietly.

 

[Ari Vox]

Hard eyes met her entrance, their tasks put on hold to greet the newcomer with wary expressions, the toll of running a rebellion cell striking each person in the room with a heavy weight and fatigue that showed in the bags beneath their eyes and the stress they held in their shoulders. She met them with the same killer-eyes and nodded at the short welcome, appreciating the woman beside her's attempt at humour in such a trying time. The table at the centre of the room grew with illuminance as a micro holo-projection of a supermassive factory took shape above it, and Ari listened intently as the briefing got underway.

At the mention of Sith, the Mandalorian's fists clenched tightly and were the mere mention not enough to set her mind on edge the tales of this particular Sith Lord's exploits definitely did. Had she brought a neural band the mercenary would've already slipped it on at the mention of such abilities, as innocuously as she could possibly do it, but no mention of force-users had been made in their original contact and thus her band was left on the ship. Mistake one, and one she would never again repeat. Probably best that there was no mention of the Sith Lord after all were this particular mercenary anyone else they may not have taken such a contract.

As it was now, Ari wanted to hunt down the Sith. She had another contract after all.

"I take it you've faced them before? You sound confident," Ari remarked, her eyes turning to the redheaded woman beside her and catching a glimpse at something hiding behind her expression. Fear would be a misjudgement if the mercenary took anything from what she had seen in the last few minutes. History felt more fitting; eyes dipped down to her maimed appendage then back up slowly to her face. Lingering a moment she turned back to the Zabrak, cool professionalism oozing from her words.

"My only question pertains to the subterfuge. What exactly will it entail? I'm not exactly nondescript," Some of the other operators had begun quietly assembling their weapons on one side of the room where a small stash of weapons was arranged. Ari made her way there as her question was answered, her hands finding a neural band and what looked to be a pistol-like bolter, and she cast a look back at the Zabrak and the milky-eyed beauty as if to ask 'May I?'.

Back on Rascal Actual (Ari's personal ship) Rawlins was listening to the entire briefing and processing the information given to use his securely encrypted link to the holonet to help pull up additional information on the target and the Sith Lord that the rebels had mentioned. Without her helmet on Ari was unable to hear anything from her droid, but Rawlins wasn't quite ready to give his assessment and instead continued his investigation while monitoring the readings from the Sparrow droid circling the safehouse and keeping its pathway as random as he could to avoid any suspicion.

[member=Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori]

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Ari Vox"]


There was something remarkably awkward about staring at a hologram while being unable to see it. Inanimate objects were difficult for Elpsis to perceive. Even droids were awkward, though she could trace their heat signatures due to her pyromancy. Elpsis could hear the hum of the projector, so she knew it had been switched on. But all she got when she tried to look at the projection was a load of nope.

The Mandalorian warrior-woman's words pulled her out of her musings. "Yeah, I have," she said simply. No boasting about Sith battled or of great powers she may or may not possess them. This could either mean that she was not the bragging type or had nothing to brag about. Or simply realised that time was of the essence.

"Fat lot of good that did," one of the rebels muttered. "You couldn't even kill the Sith you promised to take down. Good people died because of you."

"She risked her life for us. Without her, the queen would've killed us all," Kora interjected sharply.

"Tell that to Riley," the other rebel retorted angrily. Elpsis looked a bit pained, but said nothing.

"Both of you shut up and focus on your damn job, or I'll have both your arses," Spire's voice was icy, as sharp as the crack of a whip. "We commit to the job, or we end up in bodybags. If you can't do that, there's the door," Spire continued. Anyone who left would have to undergo a memory rub...just in case. She glanced towards Ari after the Mandalorian had helped herself to a hold-out bolter. Those were nice.

"We have some friends who'll help us. We'll sneak in via containers, disguised as cargo transports. Once we're inside, we break out and begin tearing the place apart. Meanwhile, a remote-controlled speeder loaded with explosives will cause a commotion outside at the entrance."

"If you run into a Ysalamiri, do me a favour and shoot the lizard," Elpsis suddenly spoke up again.

 

[Ari Vox]

[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]

As the tension ratcheted up and the rebel's outburst was quelled by their commanding offer, Ari cast Elpsis a look once more and saw the hang in her shoulders, defeat and regret looking out of place on the young woman's frame. She wanted to ask about what had happened, it would've been wise to hear what the enemy was capable of, but on the other hand, the Mandalorian knew mental scars well and didn't intend to peel these scabs anytime soon. Morale was a serious business and these men and women looked low as it was. Placing the hold-out blaster's holster at the small of her back, Ari gave it a check to make sure it was seated and then slid the neural band over her temples. It would be a tight fit with her helmet, but it would be better than whatever the Sith were capable of.

With the explanation of their entrance the Mando couldn't help but smile, subterfuge was something she was not used to but was a welcome change from the constant frontline ordeals or the monotony of training raw bodies from the inner rim slums. Her grin was out of place, cold professionalism oozed from the mercenaries and rebels who took no real pleasure in their work - most did it because they had to whether morally or financially. Ari meanwhile fought for the honour of her adoptive ancestors, for the beliefs of a people she no longer saw eye to eye with, and this assault would bring much to her in that regard.

Tyranny was a threat to all peoples, including her Warrior Clans, even if they didn't see the dangers inherent.

Unsure of Incendia's sight, Ari nonetheless shot a wink at her as she expressed once more her desire not to face the ysalamiri, a species that the mercenary didn't have much experience with but knew well enough. One of many creatures that Ari had heard discussed which could negate a force-users attempts.

"I've got your back girl," She tapped her rifle with a gloved hand and her grin grew wider. "Whatever comes, I'm in this to win," Her eyes befell the fellow warriors in the room, assessing them in silence and sharing her truth-filled message in non-verbal cues before grasping her helmet and preparing to don the final piece of armour. "If there's nothing else, shall we step off?"

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Ari Vox"]


He was right, Elpsis thought to herself quietly, though she did not voice it. Given her disabilities, she did not see the wink Ari shot her. She heard her words though. Earnest, sincere, delivered without prompting. A thin sort of smile crossed her features. Spire was not one to stand on parade. "Yes, let's move. We got a shipment to catch. Everyone grab a no-show if you don't have one already. But don't activate them just yet." No-shows were convenient. Shaped like wrist watches, they scrambled the biosignature and energy missions of the wearer. Moreover, they rendered the wearer invisible to most sensors and scanners, as well as silent to the ear. However, they also messed with whichever sensors, scanners and comms gear the wearer might be carrying. This made careful deployment crucial.


Technobabble aside, the small group quickly began to move out, just about leaving enough time for a team member to grab this or that piece of gear in case they'd missed something. Their first destination would be the sewers. These ought to get them close enough to a landing pad expecting a delivery. By chance or design, Elpsis ended up close to Ari. "Hey, thanks about earlier," she said a bit awkwardly, keeping her voice low. The girl had covered her maimed hand with a glove. An unignited lightsabre rested on her utility belt, the hilt's silver glint being an obvious giveaway. How much good it would do her given her disability was another question. A faint aura of the Force emanated from the weapon.


"Guess I might as well bring it up since we're gonna work together and stuff: I'm blind. Need the Force to see. Lizards? Bad. Silver lining? Flashbangs don't do much." The first few weeks after she'd lost her eyesight had been most uncomfortable. She'd run into walls, tripped over random objects or droids. On the plus side, she'd had a perfect excuse for wearing mismatched, colour-clashing outfits.

 

[Ari Vox]

[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]

No-show fashioned to her wrist and helmet once more fitted onto her head, Ari was ready for battle and stepped off with the rest of the assembled shooters as they made their way out of the safehouse. She followed closely, aware of the vicinity of each member and drawing as close as she dared to the front of the pack, after all, what else was she being paid for if not to soak up some high-energy aggression?

It was here that she came aside Incendia, the younger woman now sporting a pair of gloves and a particularly brilliant looking lightsabre. Positioned on the side of her maimed hand, Ari frowned in the safety of her helmet at the thought of the redhead attempting to swing that deadly device with such an injury. Reflecting on the course the group were following - a small trapdoor led them into a makeshift entrance that connected into the intricate sewer system of Ession - Ari felt the sabre was likely more of a danger in such tight confines, but kept that thought inside as the other woman spoke up.

"Hey, thanks about earlier," Her tone was low, the phrase almost an absent one devoid of expression but Ari felt it was sincere. "Guess I might as well bring it up since we're gonna work together and stuff: I'm blind. Need the Force to see. Lizards? Bad. Silver lining? Flashbangs don't do much." The joke brought a smile to the Mandalorian's lips, invisible beneath the faceplate of total professionalism, a warriors mantle.

"Don't mention it. Our paths have crossed and I'll do what I can, aside from fighting I don't know much else," The thought was her go-to, of course she knew much more than just the tactics and techniques her adoptive culture had brought her, but her essence was that of a warrior and thus she resigned herself to such designs. Honour dictated she die on the field of battle, pride kept her in the fight for as long as she could possibly manage, but the Universe would do what it liked with the Amazonian. 'Probably' she thought 'I'll die in bed one day'.

Rawlins on Rascal Actual had become frantic, his attempts at communication were coming up with no response and the Sparrow still circled the safehouse, attempting in vain now to penetrate its outer layers and get a reading of what had happened to his Alor within. Data had surfaced, information about the Sith Lord that had been mentioned earlier and the initial analyses was that this enemy was well-beyond Ari Vox's capabilities.

"Ten more minutes, that's it Skip. Then, I think we should go in," His voice was cool but edged with despair and the GD16 didn't know what to say in return. Neither were capable fighters, nor did they have any inclination to arm themselves from their Alor's armoury. Those weapons were strictly off-limits.

"No-show?" The pilot asked in binary, and Rawlins gave him a look of complete indignation. At least, the best he could muster.

"Now why hadn't I thought of that?"

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Ari Vox"]


((Just in case you were confused, the gang won't be facing the Sith Lord Elpsis duelled - a different writer wrote that one. However, there'll certainly be a Sithy boss fight!)).


Even before being maimed, Elpsis had not been a great lightsabre duellist. Decent, but nothing exceptional. Probably also due to gaps in her formal training. She knew the basics of what worked and what, more importantly, was plain gaudy. But most of the time the sabre had been a backup while she worked her magic or fired bullets or blaster bolts at her opponents.


Now that her right hand was in its present poor state, she'd tried using a blade with her left. The results had not been encouraging. On the bright side, she had not lost the entire hand. Siobhan had told her to just get an artificial replacement and stop being silly. Well, she had expressed it in crasser terms due to her frustration with her adoptive daughter.


In any case, Elpsis nodded. "I've not known much else either. I've been fighting something most of my whole life. I don't mind, it's what I want and what I have to do. The galaxy's a messed up place, and I can do something about it, and in this case it's blowing up karkers who sell weapons to Sith," she said bluntly. Shame I can't see your face, she thought to herself.


Down they'd gone into the sewers. As could be imagined, the stench was appalling. Indeed the clogged air was probably polluted enough to make anyone who tried passing through suffocate. Fortunately, the group had been equipped with rebreathers. Contrary to their depiction in countless hologames and holovids, sewers were not absurdly spacious. This sewer system was older a bit older and thus offered more room, but even so it was a very tight fit. Bit like sardines in a barrel. On the bright side, all that crawling through tight sewers meant they'd escape detection.

 

[Ari Vox]

Down in the sewers, Ari felt the walls closing in around them. Adapted to all manner of environments, her mercenary work having taken her to battlefields across the Galaxy, Ari greeted the tight confines with acute fear that remained hidden below her T-Visor helmet. Urban warfare, in general, was a crapshoot, and as the odds of successfully countering any kind of attack plunged along with her into the sewers she felt her morale take a dip like no other. How long would they stay in these claustrophobic tunnels? Ari prayed it wouldn't be long.

Regardless she pressed on without hesitation, deployed her small disk-shaped DRDS forward where they took the lead for the group by several meters and scanned the areas ahead of them. At least should something happen the group would be forewarned and perhaps given a chance to escape or fight back. While she watched her HUD and the readings from the droids ahead of her, Ari listened to Incendia and nodded when she had finished. To the Mandalorian, this force user sounded much like herself, and the kinship the two shared seemed to increase as they ventured deeper into the horrible underworld that existed beneath Ession's industrial hive.

"You know, for a long time, I was apathetic to the Galaxy as a whole. Went around, shot some people, captured others, trained rebels to fight and then jumped over to their oppressive rulers as an extra gun for big-time payoffs, it was all about credits and keeping myself alive," She sighed with the admission, it was hard to hear the callous life she'd left behind only months before. "My Clan was...is far in the past, but now I have a renewed purpose," Her faceplate turned to Incendia and through the mess of displays that were opened inside, Ari eyed her counterpart intently.

"It's truly amazing to feel that moral compass pull me along once more," Producing a half-crumpled sheet of madly scribbled codes, Ari pressed it into Incendia's hand as they worked forward through the sewers. "After this is all over you should contact us, I'm sure we could work together closely,"

[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Ari Vox"]


One of Elpsis' skills was Force empathy. It was a double-edged sword, being both a gift and a curse. The latter especially applied to crowd situations and battles. Feeling the pain, fear and anger of others as visceral as your own was not a pleasant experience. Sometimes the tide could be so overwhelming that she risked drowning in it.


Suffice to say some of Ari's anxiety bled over to her. The empath winced strongly, needing a few moments to raise and fortify her mental walls. The wave of foreign emotions only intensified her own anxiousness about creeping around in tiny, claustophobic tunnels. Finally, she rallied. "We'll be up soon," she gave the Mandalorian a mental pat on the shoulder. She could have done more with her empathy to calm her, but that might have produced an averse effort. For understandable reasons, few people liked having their emotions manipulated.


"I can relate, y'know. Not a Mando, but yeah." She'd been one by association for, like, a couple months, but that didn't really count. "Spent a lot of time being lost, searching for something. Anything, really. A cause, I guess. Doing all sorts of chit to stay alive. Found it, eventually. Or it found me," then suddenly there was a crumpled sheet of code in her hand. Elpsis would need to ask someone to tell her what was written on it, since her blindness prevented her from reading anything that was not in braille, but she pocketed it, figuring it was a code of some sort.


"I may, thanks. Maybe when this is done, you can meet the folks I work for." For the time being, she did not mention that she was the boss' adoptive daughter. They went further down into the sewers. The tunnel seemed to grow even more foul-smelling and cramped, as if whoever had built it had considered the possibility that people might try to crawl through it and decided to deter this by making it as uncomfortable as possible. The lighting was bad, it was cold and the stench was suffocating.


As expected, the mood among the mercenaries and rebels was far from the best as they crawled through it. "Up soon. Think of us blowing up Sith karkers. And getting bloody wasted after that," Elpsis repeated. A calming aura emanated from her. Not something that would expel all negative emotions, but something to lift their spirits a bit and allow them to focus on something other than the oppressive conditions.


Eventually, Spire signalled them to come to a halt, as they reached a manhole. Staring at it, Elpsis concentrated intently. One advantage of her Force Sight was that it literally allowed her to see through walls. Perceiving people above, she signalled the group to wait, then gave them the go-ahead. "Go up. Move quietly. We get hosed off, then head to the containers," Spire ordered. Having crawled through a sewer, they obviously smelt like chit, which could give them away. A warehouse would have a hose to clean equipment.

 

[Ari Vox]

Calm was good and Elpsis voice carried with it that very feeling, it felt its way into Ari's conscious and pushed aside her fears and trepidations, allowing her to more readily focus on the task at hand, of squeezing and sliding through the murk of the wretched sewer system. With time they came to an opening overhead, a manhole at the top of a fairly short climb, and when the mercenary leader ordered them up, Ari followed suit.

Like mice in a kitchen at night they eased their way to the surface and the point-man poked up the manhole enough to stick his head out, easing back the cover more completely once he was sure they would not be seen. There were others in the warehouse, workers for the company that ran the entire operation, but with their movements quick and their footsteps light the rebels and mercenaries circumvented them, making haste to the nearest hose where one by one they took their quick showers.

In her body glove and Mandalorian Steel, Ari felt not a single drop of water, just the sensation as it ran throughout her equipment and across the curvatures of her body. It was icy cold as could be expected, hot water was a luxury that the warehouse didn't exactly need, but for the regulated suit there was no real sensation unlike her now partially freezing comrades. Those who were cleaned took up positions of security, while the others waited in the shadows for their turn at the hose. It was a choke point of the operation for sure, but one that was necessary and Ari simply waited for the order to shoot.

Surely the fun was just about to start.

[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Ari Vox"]


Organic and droid labourers employed by the company were busy at work, but the steps of the intruders were light. The no-shows helped keep the volume down. There was no time to waste. Without a word, they hosed themselves off one by one. The sensation of icy cold water washing over her kit and across her body caused Elpsis to wince. Fortunately, she was a pyromancer. And so the icy, freezing sensation caused heat to blossom inside her. Like wild fire, it spread across her body, warming her.


Now they just needed to sneak into the room with the containers, climb inside them and then get transported to the factory - their true goal. Then it would finally be time to blow stuff up and cause a big bang. However, they had some hazards to face before that. Ari's vigil and that of the other mercenaries was a sensible precaution, for as the last of them got purified by cold water, they would hear the sounds of boots thumping on the floor. The noise came from outside. Chatter could be heard. Guards. Coming their way. They had probably been alerted by the hose noise.


Taking control over the situation, Spire gave some hand signals. Translated, the gestures meant 'take cover, deal with them quietly, hide bodies'. Unlike with the factory, the mercenaries probably had enough manpower to kill all the guards in the warehouse, but that would cause attention. Either way, as a patrol of guards emerged from the corridor, Elpsis reached out with the Force, touching their minds. True mentalism was a subtle art and she was far from a specialist, but these were standard security guards.


Through her gift, she sought to plant an image in their mind. A voice that seemed like their own whispered at the back of their minds. 'Nothing to see here. It's just a leak. Some dumb worker probably forgot to turn off the hose. You should check the perimeter. You're overdue for a cigarette break anyway."

"There's nothing. It's just a leaky hose. Not our problem," one of them muttered, turning away.

"Yeah. We should check the perimeter. I could use a smoke anyway," another spoke, following his buddy out.

However, one guard was not so easily convinced. "I was here ten minutes ago. There was no leak. Or dirt on the floor," he stated after bending down. Feeling suspicious, he approached the group's hiding place, followed by another guard. They happened to approach the spot where Ari and a rebel had found cover.

 

[Ari Vox]

[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]

It was unsurprising to the Mandalorian when the guards began to approach, their footfalls sounding loud in the attempted silence that the no-shows made, and her eyes trailed Spire's hand signals, rebel cell tensed and waiting, ready to strike. Sensing that she wouldn't need it quite yet, the Mando released her blaster from the sling it hung upon and set it gingerly on the floor beside her hiding position, obscured from sight by the shadows and the durasteel crate she'd hidden behind. Crouched low as to remain unseen, Ari found the position uncomfortable yet necessary, her placements of the Mandalorian Steel in her armour allowing her more flexibility than others of her culture, and drawing from her boot came a knife who's edge glinted fiercely in the harsh industrial lighting.

When the men approached she knew there was no alternative, it was either neutralize or be exposed, and when the lead man had crossed what Ari deemed 'no man's land' she pounced. Lifting from her concealment the warrior saw two shocked expressions meet her T-Visored silhouette as the blade she held pulled back and then flew, soaring in the air for a fraction of a second before embedding itself hilt-deep into the second guard's pharynx. Yet even as she loosed that devastating attack, she was moving to strike her second, the mere feet between herself and the lead guard closing fast enough that the other guard didn't even have time to realize he was dead. Bringing up one armoured gauntlet the Mandalorian struck out forward with the weight of her motion and caught this guard just under the chin with a blade that had flashed from the knuckle of her fist. It embedded deeply and the Mandalorian toppled upon him, the noise of their encounter masked by the heavy machinery that echoed all around them, her wrist twisting and contorting the blade in the man's chin as she searched and severed and ended his life, one hand on his mouth and nose and the other halfway into his cranium.

Behind her, the rebel nearest had watched the entire process and rose up quickly with a look of bewilderment, moving at once to help the mercenary to pull the bodies closer towards their hiding places as Ari rose up and off the now dead Imperial. Blood streaked the warehouse floor, drawing a line from the places the men had dropped to the places their bodies now were, and Ari spent a half a second longer to wipe off the refuse from her two bladed weapons before sheathing her knife and retracting her knuckle blade.

Without a word the group moved off, silenced by the near discovery and the ruthless aggression that their Mandalorian teammate had unleashed. Really she had felt nothing, the cold grip of necessity clawing her spinal column and twisting her actions like so many battle droids over the ages. In truth, she had become somewhat of akin to those harbingers of doom, a flesh and blood variant that held merciless intelligence and the capacity for extraordinary violence within an accentuated chassis and unassuming identity.

Even the adrenaline had stopped flowing by now.

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Ari Vox"]


Almost as soon as the guards noticed the infiltrators, they were already dead. Moving in what seemed like a blur, Ari took them out. Elpsis tenced when the guards' pain flooded her, raising her mental walls as she felt a pressure akin to sharp spikes. Their anguish was mercifully short. They were dead ere they hit the ground. Blood dripped onto the warehouse floor, coating it scarlet. One of the rebels quickly pulled the bodies away - and tried to make the pool of blood less obvious.


Silence descended upon the group. Spire had watched the entire affair with an impressive expression on her face. Her hand had been on her shatterpistol, ready to blow a guard's brains out should it become necessary. Being neither shocked nor bothered, she gave Ari a curt nod. Wordlessly, she directed the team to move onward.


Elpsis followed, assuming a position in the rearguard to make sure they were not being followed. The girl was no stranger to violence. She'd been initiated into a cold, harsh world defined by it after her father had sunk his claws into her. Though young in years, she'd fought on many battlefields for Firemane because, to her, it was the right thing to do. Perhaps the violence should bother her more. Or maybe all the horrors she'd borne witness to her had begun to desensitise her. Too many times watching friends get blown to bits.


In any event, they made quick progress, evading or distracting a few more guards. This was just a warehouse and the proprietors had evidently cut corners. Finally, they reached the section that held the containers. The team's point man bid them to a halt. While the team took up position, Kora dealt with the security mechanism. Deftly, the Devaronian rebel removed a scramble key from her jacket pocket and connected it with a panel near the entrance. A few moments passed, then there was the flash of a green light and the door slid open, revealing a room full of containers. The big storage units held raw materiels the factory needed to manufacture its products. "Get in," Spire mouthed as the door closed behind them.

 

[Ari Vox]

[member="Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori"]

Words passed between the rebels and the Mandalorian with curt expressions and simple gestures, actual syllables barren in the discussion as no one was willing to risk a new discovery due to their own loose lips. From these brothers in arms came a chill of understanding, each knowing full well what taking a life felt like and thankful in some way that it wasn't themselves who had taken out those two men. Those two faces that would follow them, haunt them until their last shaky breath. It wasn't that Ari enjoyed killing, pleasure from fighting came not in the death that inevitably followed but in the sheer act of overcoming one's foes and the reinforcement that came with it. You had won, you had defeated that which stood before you, though these were much different from that.

Here, in the industrious centre of Ession, the kills were of necessity and for the Mandalorian their faces would join hundreds of others that kept her awake at night and even invaded her waking hours. Some she had called family, some she had cared for deeply, others were little more than floating visages of a life half lived and hard fought, all carried in the small of her back and the slump of her shoulders, the recesses of her mind that she cast aside for the more pressing concerns of the present. Such was the case with these two, and by the time that the group made it to their destination -a lock-up housing storage containers of raw material goods- Ari had forgotten them almost entirely.

With Spire's simple order, the armoured mercenary moved forward and took to peering inside the unit's contents to find something with enough space for them that wasn't going to kill them in the process. Luckily a few of those containers had been filled with folds of fabrics, probably for uniforms given their drab colours and low thread count, and when they were uncovered the group made their way inside, making sure that each was bound for the same destination.

It had taken some work but eventually the Mandalorian found a semblance of comfort and rested back in her armour with the Jackal ACR cradled above her, it's muzzle just inches from the top of the container that was ready to be sealed when the container was loaded. With seconds ticking by several Rebels crammed into the unit, and Ari reached up one gauntleted hand to pull the lid closed shut along with help from her comrades.

She figured this to be the most dangerous part of the mission. From here things would get very interesting.