Bring on the Heat!

[Dax Perl]

The message went out to the ex-Jedi a week ago. And now, things were coming together. A team of mercenaries better trained than his own men, not that he didn't trust his crew with his life, but they had a lot to learn still. And he wasn't quite willing to lose any men yet. And he wouldn't lose any of these mercs either.

The reason Dax had needed battle-hardened mercenaries had everything to do with his prey. War criminals, an elite unit that had fought on Omega, Dax's first true trial by fire. It was rumored that the group had died aboard the station, but Dax had recently learned that hadn't been the case. They'd escaped, survived, and taken some of that dangerous technology aboard the station with them. And then they'd used them to kill innocents, take what they want and leave. The civilians hadn't stood a chance. And now Dax was going to punish them.

The Rogue Master offered his hand to the grizzled ex-Jedi, "Pleasure to meet you. I've heard good things about you and your work." he said as the last of the fireteam arrived.

[member="Sol Damerin"]

 

[Sol Damerin]

Sol didn't advertise the fact that he was an Ex-Jedi. In fact, he took pains to hide it most of the time with Force Stealth. However, recent events in his life meant that this particular secret was getting around more than he would have liked and that didn't even cover the fact that there was still a record of his name with the order. So if Dax Fyre knew he was an Ex-Jedi Sol wouldn't have been surprised, just mildly concerned on how many people knew at this point.

When he'd gotten the message a week ago from a big shot in the ORC Sol had been surprised. He didn't usually get contracts from people with those kinds of resources, still, the money was right the job was explained in the message and it sounded like he'd have a competent team to work with. All in all, it was a solid contract and so he'd accepted it with only his normal level of reservation.

When he met at the gathering point Sol looked around at the other mercs. It appears as though he was last to arrive. A young man that Sol recognized from his research on both the ORC and Omega came up to him and offered a hand. Taking it Sol gives one firm shake and then releases. "You'd be Dax then." Sol says, a statement not a question. "Pleasure to meet you are well, I've heard..." The stone face man considers his next words carefully. "Interesting things about you."

[member="Dax Fyre"]

 

[Dax Perl]

Dax gave the man a firm shake, "Nothing too good I hope. Gotta keep our prey a little scared, don't we." Dax brought the man further into the dingey little bar that was completely empty except for the four other people inside surrounding the only table that hadn't pushed aside. The Grand Marshall gestured towards the group and began to point out each of those that were present. "Alright, so this is Vanta." Dax said, gesturing to a large, muscled blue Twi-lek who stepped forward and shook [member="Sol Damerin"]'s hand. "He's going to be our weapons and munitions expert on this one. These two," Dax moved onto two female zeltrons who appeared to be twins, both sporting matching pink skin and dark blue hair, "are Cypher and Silence. Cypher is our sllicer, and Silence is performing overwatch." The two sultry woman both greeted the older man and gave him a sly wink, "Yeah, don't let them get you into bed, you'll regret it. And this last one," Dax pointed to a Rodian who nodded towards the newcomer, "is Slonda. He's our communications expert." Dax joined the rest of the team at the table and gestured for Sol to do the same, "You and I are the heavy hitters. The targets have no Forcers on their side, but they were experts at killing our kind. Hopefully, we can throw them off their game though."

[member="Sol Damerin"]

 

[Sol Damerin]

A handshake, two winks, and a nod later and Sol had met the entirety of the team. His expression remains pretty much the same throughout but so far he had a reasonable level of confidence, clearly defined roles were always good in an operation like this. Being labelled as the other heavy hitter did make him grimace slightly, it looked like his quiet life of just being a mercenary was coming to an end. Now he would be a force wielding mercenary. Similar, but usually in higher demand and with a target on his back.

Settling down at the table the first part of the debriefing was mildly concerning. Anti-force specialist could be dangerous, usually not for him since he fought without or only subtly with the force most of the time. However, he got the feeling that Dax wanted this to be loud, why else bring along a demolitions expert? That meant he'd probably want Sol up front with his lightsabers out hacking things up. "I'm not too worried." Sol says honestly. Mostly because he didn't get worried about jobs but also because he was competent. "What do we know about their base? We have a plan of attack?"

[member="Dax Fyre"]

 

[Dax Perl]

"Well, 'base' is a bit of a stretch. These guys like to move around a lot." Dax said as he placed a portable holoprojector onto the table. An image of an abandoned shipyard blossomed into being, casting a low blue light around the room. "For now, they're holed up here, an old abandoned Imperial shipyard, dates back to when good old Palps was still around." The Rogue manipulated the holographic image to zoom in one a specific drydock, "This is Terminal 476. The most structurally sound dock in the whole yard." The silhouette of a ship lit up in bright red, with various chevrons of the same color surrounding it. "They're docked there for now, but I have reason to believe they'll be moving out by they'll be moving out by the end of the week. Sentries are posted up around the area, always in pairs, and all with decent lines of sight." In total, there were 12 of these chevrons, and true to what Dax had said, they were all paired up. Three pairs were posted strategically in higher areas one pair within or moving about the ship, and the remaining two roaming, likely on patrol. "I'm hoping we can take them out before any alert goes out."

[member="Sol Damerin"]

 

[Sol Damerin]

"If these guys are as good as you say." Sol says as he eyes the map rubbing his chin. "Then if we want to do this silently will need to plan it with minimal time between taking down each group." This would stop them from getting caught by the regular check-ins, but they'd need to know what their schedule was. Every ten? Every fifteen? "The higher up lookouts take priority they will get suspicious if the patrols are out of line of sight for too long. What do you think?" Sol looks at Dax. "Big place like this likely has a lot of ways to sneak in and around. We split up get behind a group, wait for a check in and then get to work taking them out quick and quiet?"

[member="Dax Fyre"]

 

[Dax Perl]

One of the pink skinned Zeltron women decided to chip at this point, "And if we can get our hands on one of their comms, I can slice us into their channel. Get us a heads up in case they do spot on of you meatheads." The one who'd just spoken must have been Cipher as the other mentioned her overwatch position, point to one of the collapsing towers, across from on of the sentry positions, "I can set up there too. Help you guys pick off anyone you may miss, or if the alarm gets tripped, I can give you covering fire."
"Alright, well before we start discussing plans B through Z, lets at least get through A first." The Marshall began, "Like Sol said, this kinda place has lots of ins and outs. Which will work to our advantage." The Rogue gestured towards the three sentry positions, "It'll be important to take out the sentries first, so we can use whatever secret passages to get the jump on them, hopefully without getting spotted by the other sentries. We'll have to take them down in tandem, or at least within a few moments of each other. For this, I want the six of us to split into pairs, and we'll each go after one of the sentries. Once they're down, like you said Cipher, Silence, slice us into comms and set up overwatch."

[member="Sol Damerin"]

 

[Sol Damerin]

Looking at the groups Sol asks the next obvious question. "How many more are expecting besides the patrols?" Six-man team against twelve was not the best odds but that was just the guard positions. He wanted to know how much trouble they were in if the alarm went off. Not that he thought they couldn't handle it, personally in this terrain it was a toss-up. If the six-man team were better at stealth and guerrilla tactics than the large force was at hunting they had a chance. "Do we have a map of the interior?"

[member="Dax Fyre"]

 

[Dax Perl]

"Just the twelve, unless they've been recruiting, which I doubt," Dax said as he brought up what appeared to be blueprints and schematics. "This team always worked with twelve members, never more, never less. They're tightknit, so I'm fairly certain they wouldn't have brought on anyone else, but still, keep your eyes peeled." The blueprints slowly made more sense as they layered over each other, eventually detailing the interior of a ship. "This is a Gozanti Cruiser, an old Imperial vessel, and what our friends here have been living in for the last few years. Simple lay out." Dax began to point out the various parts of the ship as he listed them off. "Aft, cargo hold, mid section houses the crew quarters and bunks, kitchen, etcetera, and lastly the cockpit. Not much to it luckily."

[member="Sol Damerin"]

 

[Sol Damerin]

Well, that was certainly rare, only twelve men total and all on guard duty? In his experience unless a group was expecting trouble soon they only posted a few watchmen leaving the rest to relax, eat, sleep and what have you. So what where these guys doing that all of them needed to be on guard. Tracing his fingers around the ship Sol sets to committing the basic layout to memory. It takes a few minutes but once he is confident he won't get lost inside.

"Alright, all seems straightforward from here." Sol says, not adding the part where that meant it'd likely get complicated once they started. Motioning for the map to zoom out Sol exams it and then points to an area that is a fair distance from the ship, but well out the sight of the dry dock and the sentries. "That could work as an LZ, unless you have a better one. But we need a good extraction point."

[member="Dax Fyre"]

 

[Dax Perl]

"We'll have to come in low, but its certainly doable." Dax agreed as he searched about for a rendezvous point, should they need a quick exit. Eventually he pointed out a plateau of sorts, not too far away from either their targets or their means of escape. "That should work for exfil. Should things really go sideways, we'll rendevous there and get our asses out. I don't want anyone dying, so don't try to be the hero if something happens. Speaking of which," the Marshall zoomed in on the main entry to the dock, "If the chit hits the fan, we need to cover our escape. Vanta," the Rogue pointed to the team's munitions expert, "I want you to make sure this hangar bay gets cut off. The supports are already pretty iffy, a bit of explosives and we should have a comfortable amount of steel between ourselves and our friends. Sound good?" The Twi-lek man nodded, "Hell, I may just be able to drop the whole fething platform." he said with a grin.

[member="Sol Damerin"]

 

[Sol Damerin]

"I kind of like that plan." Sol says when Vanta says he could drop the whole platform. It certainly would be easier than what they were planning, but he was guessing they wanted confirmed kills and he wasn't huge on digging through rubble. "But we should probably stick to stealth." Eying everything he tries to figure out what he is missing, but for the moment he sees nothing. Of course, plans were the first casualty in any conflict so whatever he was missing would become apparent rather quickly. "Sounds like we have a plan." He chimes up and then looks over at Dax, this was the other man's show so his call if they were ready to start or not.

[member="Dax Fyre"]

 

[Dax Perl]

The Grand Marshall nodded. They had a capable team, a decent plan, and gear to boot. They could pull it off. But just as [member="Sol Damerin"] was thinking, no plan survives first contact. The Rogue just hoped they'd be able to handle whatever it was that their targets threw at them. "Alright then. Everyone knows their roles. Get geared up and get ready to move. We're wheels up at sundown."

---Sundown---

Dax did one last check of his weapons. Racking the chamber on his Assassin pistol the Rogue made sure everything function as it should before chambering a magazine and moving on to his Shacklebolt rifle. He was ready. And he was sure the team was too. It was time to take down these bosh'tets.

(Sorry for the shorter post)

 

[Sol Damerin]

Sol's equipment, by comparison, is rather drab compared to Drax's. All he wore was his standard battle chest piece, the drab grey combined with the urban cameo of his undershirt would work decently well to help him blend into the scenery. It wasn't perfect but he'd be missed by a cursory inspection if he kept his head down. His only weapons were the twin vibroblades hanging from a harness on his back and the standard issue blaster pistol in his hostler, with a well-worn grip.

As the dropship comes in low to the LZ Sol slips down onto the ground. He doesn't check or recheck his equipment it all worked and he wasn't prone to nervous habits. Instead, he just inserts his comm into his ears and starts moving so he isn't blocking the way off the dropship for the others. Everything about the old merc said calm collected competence.

[member="Dax Fyre"]

 

[Dax Perl]

Dax dropped down besides the old merc, the other four members of their group reaching them only moments later. The three security droids within the drop ship gently let the vehicle touch down, the only sound coming from the vessel being the sound of hydraulics as the landing gear took the weight of ship. "Alright, Cipher, Silence, take the top two, Vanta, Slonda, You got the bottom. Sol, you're with me." The hunters wasted no time breaking off into their pairs, each taking a different route to their various targets.

Dax stayed low, always behind cover, as to avoid being seen. Rifle held loosely at the ready, his eyes darted quickly, back and forth between the ruined corridors of the old docks. Soon enough the Vanta and Slonda radioed in that they were in position. Then Cipher and Silence. Looked like Dax and Sol were the last to make it to their targets.

[member="Sol Damerin"]

 

[Sol Damerin]

Sol nods in confirmation and he moves in tandem with Dax. Rather than following next to him like a rookie would, he kept distance or moved in parallel. If they clumped together then if they were spotted it would be at the same time, this way one getting spotted might lead to the other being able to capitalize and get in a sneak attack while the guard was distracted. The old mercenary moved slowly, sudden movements attracted attention and so it was that he had Dax were the last to get into position.

However, they weren't that far off and as they moved in behind their targets Sol drew one of his short vibroblades. The weapon was mostly used to disguise his lightsaber but it did have some advantages over the weapon prefered by most force users, mainly a vibroblade was, by comparison, quite stealthy. Its low hum was not as distinctive as a lightsaber's and it didn't glow. Looking at Dax he waits for the marshal to give the command to start the takedowns.

[member="Dax Fyre"]