Danger, Will Robinson, Danger [Echidna: Hunters vs. Subach Innes]

[Thrax]

Echidna​

Outside Subach Facilities ​

1532 Local Time​

​

It didn't take much to get the mountain of leather known as Thrax moving. A promise of credits and a whisper of violence was generally enough to light up his ugly mug. So, when the Holonet had gone alight with rumors of a bounty on Subach facilities he'd tracked down the source of the rumor and found himself staring at something quite wonderful.

"Open season." He says, feeling like he'd already said that but not caring. Arranged around him were several Lost Clan mercenaries, their Graug forms easily visible alongside his. "Remember, we go in, trash what we can't take, steal what we can and take as many prisoners as possible. Kill only if required, and don't go overboard. Don't need you fethheads ruining my payday."

Snarling as he looked down towards the facilities, he hefted his hammer with one hand and waited to see if security had a regular patrol route. If they did, he could exploit it. If they didn't, well, full frontal wasn't the worst idea in the history of ideas. Other bounty hunters would no doubt be descending like the vultures they were to pick apart whatever they could find in the never ending hunt for credits.

Him? Well, he was already here, wasn't he? A click and a whine from behind him told him someone had armed a rocket launcher, no doubt to clear a hole for them. "Hold fire."

There was a long pause as he began marching forward slowly but surely, "Ahhhhhhhhh, who am I kidding. Wreck it all." Two whoomps and matching smoking contrails passed over his shoulders as the rockets screeched their way towards their targets. Whatever they hit and whatever damage they did was obscured by dust and smoke.

Roaring their approval, the Clanners charged forward, intent on doing what they did best. Pillaging.

[member="Enigma"] [member="Ember Rekali"] [member="Xar "][member="Ordo"] [member="Manamune Ticon"] [member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Thrax"] was very, very good at keeping his nose to the ground; Ember hadn't even heard of this specific bounty. After his talk with Ovmar while the Sith Lord rotated in the Coronet's restraint field, he'd expected a move like this from Santhe/Sienar...but ATC? Truck drivers and 7-11s posting a raid?

...all right, maybe it wasn't that unusual.

Hibridium-cloaked, thrust-trace-damped and gravitically-modulated, with Ember at the helm personally, the Coronet slipped into the inner Echidna system. His hyperspace reversion was sure to have been noticed, but the Coronet, apart from being immune to pretty much any form of detection, was faster than feth itself. He could be anywhere.

Echidna was a slow-rotating, slow-orbiting, low-density terrestrial giant inhabited by Vong. It had two natural moons and one artificial. The latter was called Khar'lan or Kharlon, an observatory and weather-control station the size of a small asteroid. The station, so far as he knew, was not owned or operated by Subach-Innes, just old Horde assets.

Well away from any Subach assets or forces, the Coronet nestled up against Khar'lan, and Mandalorian boarding troops poured in. Mandos had a special love for Vong, and plenty of Ember's boys had seen action against the Horde at Myrkr. They got to work.

 

[Skye Mertaal]

This was a job that suited Mertaal's needs just fine. No killing, just acquiring and neutralizing of corporate property; along with the nice bit of salvage rights.

Anything that she could use to upgrade or claim for what she needed. The Shadow Phoenix would be in full stealth, slipping into the Echidna System undetected for now. Breaking atmo, Mertaal would set course to find a place to land near the facility. Others would be here, she was sure, but for now, she'd do as much of a job as she can.

 

[Thrax]

"ARRRGH THIS IS CREDITS IN THE MAKING." He roars, hammer swinging around to smash a dent in a surprisingly thick door. There'd been word some time back that the Confederacy had gone to town on Subach. Perhaps they'd learned a little something from that. What they'd not learn was that you didn't keep Thrax from what he wanted.

"AGAIN." Roared the clanners.​

​

CLANG.​

​

CRASH.​

​

Like that, the door flew from the hinges, Graug whooping and hollering as they stormed the metaphorical breach. Coming in behind them was the vaguely smoldering armored form of Thrax, a look of sheer disdain on his face. "FIND ME THE CONTROL ROOM." He roars, watching as stun weapons made short work of the scurrying employees unlucky enough to be caught in the initial breach.

"I WANT EVERYTHING I CAN TAKE AND THEN SOME."

Laughing maniacally, he made his way down the hallway, knowing that sooner or later he'd find his prize. Alarms were going off, but such was the way of life when a building was broken into. "AND SOMEONE SHUT THAT ALARM..." He grunts, hammer coming around to quite literally obliterate a flashing, screeching klaxon. "OFF!"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

The Mandalorians, armed with heavy repeaters that ate vonduun skerr for breakfast, pressed their assault into Echidna's asteroid-sized weather control station. One force, thirty men and women, held the docking port where the cloaked ship linked to the station; the other, seventy Mandalorians, many of them ori'ramikade, went straight for the control room. Vong on a technological station, long-term -- well, it was Horde Vong, so...whatever.

In a cacophonous thunder of blast bugs and thermal detonators, the Mandalorians tore their way through the weather control station's limited defenses. The control room fell in about two minutes.

The bulk of the assault force secured a corridor or returned to the ship, as the station settled into a peace as abrupt as the violence had been. Some very specific personnel got to work on the control room.

 

[Ordo]

[member="Ember Rekali"] [member="Skye Mertaal"] [member="Thrax"]

The big man poured in beside the rest of the Mandalorians. His armor blended in perfectly as he held his verpin shatter rifle to his shoulder. His plain black armor carried no rank symbols, no ribbons and medals on his chest plate. He was a nobody, a face plate in the crowd following orders like a good warrior and if he could help it that's how it would stay. He was still dead to most, a quadriplegic to others and that's how he liked it.

His weapon made a near silent puff as a round pellet burst from his weapon and collided with a crab wearing guard a split second later before an alarm could be sounded. The vong could handle blasters and overzealous glowrods with ease but nothing said loving like blunt force trauma at 2000 meters per second.

 

[Thrax]

Thrax gave a grunt as he shoved one of the Graug into a chair in the foremans office, the beast pulling out a slicer unit and getting to work. "How many prisoners have we got?" he asks as he turns his head to one side, eyeing the mercenary leader. "Nearly the whole fethin' factory." Thrax gives a nod, staring down at the assembly lines below and shaking his head.

There were many more places to raid than this, and not quite too much time. They'd need to swing by the Trade office after each stop just to unload the workers, who would likely wind up just getting better paying jobs elsewhere. Not that they'd enjoy the whole relocation thing, but something told him Danger wouldn't mind several hundred Yuuzhan Vong workers.

She might pay a bit extra for that, actually....

A grin split his face. "Get me what you can before the systems lock you out." Most computers anymore had anti-hacking software that would lock people out once they were detected. The trick was in getting what you could before it did so.

"Make build plans a priority, anything else factory related comes second to schematics." Thrax may have been huge, but he wasn't dumb. Dumb didn't cut it in the bounty hunting business.

Somewhere in orbit, Rekali was doing his thing. Sweet, sweet credits would flow like water.

[member="Ember Rekali"] [member="Ordo"]

 

[Skye Mertaal]

Skye would join the rest of the Mandalorians. Well, late to the party but at least not too shabby. She'd make her way into the facility, armored in full beskar'gam forged by Ordo himself.

Her helm would swivel, paning to take in preliminary scans. So far, it appeared they were rounding up employees. Her path to the control room would soon bring the large behemoth's body of [member="Thrax"] into view. Just as he ordered for build plans and schematics.

Fantastic. Not her forte. This is where Patches would have come in handy.

Blast.

Well, she might as well attempt to make herself useful. Time to grab what was readily available around and investigate things. Where was Research and Development? They had prototypes there....

 

[Ashin Varanin]

A quintet of heavy tugs emerged from hyperspace and latched onto the orbital weather control station. Now, and only now, did orbital events begin to be noticeable by the Subach defense forces. The cloaked ship's operation had been very quick. The Mandalorian forces were already mostly withdrawn from the civilian station's control room. They left a handful of capable battle droids, a couple of technician droids, and a directive.

[member="Skye Mertaal"] and [member="Ordo"] were aboard; [member="Thrax"] was down on the planet.

 

[RC 212]

Location: R&D hallways

[member="Skye Mertaal"]

There was a lot of money to made around the galaxy. Lisa always kept an open ear and it had latley landed her here. The Savans were legendary for their betrayal of many people in the galaxy, and as such were frequently hunted down.

But this time was different. As the doors to the R&D labs opened Lisa stepped through, multidirectional goggles giving her a 180 degree view of what was going on. There were a few guards here and they turned on her raising their amphistaffs.

Split seconds of trainiing and reaction took over. Lisa took a knee, grabbing her silenced slugthrower sniper with a c grip and let rip a series of fifty cal slugs in quick succession.

Ffft
Ffft

The slugs slammed into the vong, their hollow points expanding on impact and wrenching bone and carpace free of their bodies. Savage glee filled her as she pushed forwards kneeling down before the toppled guards and finishing them off with a thrust from each of her poisioned daggers. Lisa being the sick sadistic rogue she was sheathed her daggers and cupped a hand full of blood, smearing it on her face as warpaint and licking the gooey ichor from her fingers.

Satisfying. Soooo satisfying.

The door to the inner lab was still closed but it wouldn't be for long. She could hear some one coming down the hall suddenly. Boots tapping a steady beat. With the force she reached out and felt for a signature. It was woman, but her signature was unknown and Lisa didn't feel like finding out the hard way.

She dashed to a corner, finding a pipe on the wall and climbed it. Now she watched crouching on the pipes that ran laterally along the lofty ceiling space. They might have the same objective, but she had to be sure it wasn't Subbach forces getting a jump on her....

 

[Thrax]

"We're locked out." the merc grunts, Thrax turning his head towards the slicer. The Mandalorians would be handling the station, and he sent a brief message to [member="Danger Arceneau"], letting her know she'd have some presents incoming. "Get the transport down here, get loaded up. I'll handle the factory." The mercs cleared out, leaving behind their explosives.

He was going to have to redneck together a bomb, but that didn't bother him none. Trash the factory, save the workers, win the credits.

Win the credits.

Credits.

Humming a jaunty tune to himself which was likely scary to anyone not Graug, he almost skipped his way down to the factory floor and set about his business. "I'll see you on Tatooine, Mandalorian." He was speaking to himself, of course, but that wasn't the point. All too easy, really. Small company, small defenses. He didn't realize the owner was in the process of changing the company over to other hands.

How could he have known?

He was in his own little world of explosions and money. He'd check what they stolen once they were in hyperspace. No opposition? No problem.

 

[RC 212]

Location: R&D labs

While she waited Lisa studied the door with interest. It seemed to be full on durasteel but not blast quality. That was when she was interrupted by the sound of the boots coming closer. She turned back to see a black armored merc stalk down the hallway. The way they carried themselves bespoke a man and then several more came out as well, flanking him.

"Fan out I'm unlocking the door now. Make sure no one come up on us."

Aaaaaahhh Competition.

Lisa waited to strike until the first man hacked the door. It slid open with a Whoooosh.


Pffft
Pfft
Pfft

As it slide she rained three more rounds down into them, blowing holes in their chests and painting the walls with their crimson splatter.


With agility like a cat Lisa dropped and strode into the lab. The second door to the side appeared to be an armoury. She walked in and took stock of the weapons, rubbing her hands together and letting a savage grin split her visage.

"What have we here?"

Quick as she could, she began to snatch them up attaching each to a new place on her harness. Two mist plasma pistols, a flechette shotgun and two more SIW Sharpshooter machine guns. Walking out of the room with all those weapons made her sound like she had bells on her.

Time to forget the bounty job and see what else she could find. Lisa began to walk in the direction of the surface, where her shuttle was...

 

[Ashin Varanin]

ORBITAL WEATHER CONTROL STATION
NOT OWNED BY OR AFFILIATED WITH SUBACH-INNES

[member="Ordo"] and [member="Skye Mertaal"], along with the other Mandalorians, would feel a jolt and then some as the quintet of bulk haulers locked onto the station. Mandalorian techs got to work installing large and unspecified modules upon the station's exterior. Each was a bulk-freighter-scale hyperdrive, connected by a synchronized comm so that a single order could send them into the wild blue yonder together. The Coronet's navicomputer, having been here for a few minutes now, was running the calculations for the jump to lightspeed.

The station, it must be emphasized, was not owned nor operated nor defended by Subach-Innes. As of yet, the five cargo haulers had attracted serious concern from Echidna's meagre orbital defense forces, but when those forces approached, they turned and left.

Leaving the station studded with five large silver blocks.

Ordo, Mertaal and the Mandos then felt a very large oomph as the entire weather control station leaped to hyperspace from high orbit. The cargo haulers and the decloaking Coronet leaped after it.


Dear [member="Danger Arceneau"]

My name's Ember Rekali. I'm sending you sensor logs and approximate schematics of what I just stole from orbit of the planet Echidna. The population is 1.3 billion Vong, who'll adapt to the new weather patterns and climates just fine; they're Vong. The Subach-Innes factories, however, will be permanently untenable. The new climate -- storms, floods, fires, whatever -- will wreck the feth out of them in weeks.

I pulled this off with a crew of three hundred hungry bellies that'd like some recognition.

Rekali.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

Dear [member="Ember Rekali"],

I am amazed at the level of professionalism and quickness you have done to follow through. Salvage rights are given, as well as enough credits for those three-hundred hungry bellies for resulting in that razing of Subach. A proportional affect is worth a proportional price.

You'll have your credits transferred forthwith.

~Danger


And it was a hefty transfer indeed -- well into the eight digits. An orbiting weather control schematic.... Hmm... Mistah Dashiel might be so keen on being interested in such a venture.

Either way, the message had been sent to all who would know. Caught cheating at an auction would lead to serious consequences within the Corporate world.

 

[Skye Mertaal]

Sudden shift of crazy proportions she did feel.

What in the blazes? would come her curse, but she had other things to focus on. The Research and Development section of the factory was neigh empty now, having been secured by the Mandalorians prior.

There were a few interesting things. Mainly, a rather curious generator. Taking a small computer out used for slicing, she let the Patches' automatic protocol go through. Whatever she could find of most recent developments could be stolen. Anything that was pending development or needing to be further analyzed. Nothing like taking the products of what a company was trying to develop for the public prior to it being open for mass distribution. All she knew is that it had to do with energy crystals and something about Mygeeto. Either way, she took scans, holo pictures, even a few small samples be they failures or actually something promising.

Whatever.

There were a few weapons she took for her own gain; armor and weapons. Further exploration would find her in their resources vault.

Now what do we have here...

 

[Skye Mertaal]

More and more objects were getting tucked into pockets and sachels. Armstech were quickly snapped on with slings and then slung cross length over her chest.

What she could grab and bag she did. What she could purge thereafter with the Patche's protocol would also follow. She took her time, what with Ember having run away with the moon.

However, it wouldn't be long before the planet would start to suffer the effects -- and that... that gave her pause.

Standing outside of the factory, the Bounty hunter would stoically stare out at the small tell tale shifts of the environment with out the gravitational pull of the artificial moon.

Streaks of darkening clouds would grow upon the skies, and there was a sensation deep in her bones of something familiar. Painfully so.

Another planet torn asunder by the destruction of a moon.

 

[Skye Mertaal]

The incoming message would beep across Danger Arceneau's screen. Holographic data would then reveal a woman in mandalorian garb. Data would soon upload to confirm the data collection captured from the woman. She'd ask for less credits and instead some of Browncoat's new goods to include a CZ-833 Netlauncher and ammo.

A reply from the Trade Queen herself would transfer a hefty amount of credits for the rather interesting data on the crystals and an agreement for the tech.

Her part of the job was done.