First Reply He Pulled First

[Zad Ruzed]

Spoiler: Music OOC (Recurring)

The pair of Bacta-Works and Ranger moved together, as one and in tandem for this mission.
Lucre sniping from her position, Zad moving ahead to close the distance, and ready to shoot.
This way, if anybody caught onto what was happening, the pair could defend from either end.
While he moved, Zad scanned the defense at ground level, catching code consoles, door panel.

The last man standing was the guard at the door. His body dropped—only stunned of course.
The Ranger moved forth toward the door, hugging the wall with his back, a crate at one flank.
It both screened one side and could provide cover if needed. Ruzed kept one eye on the door.
It was his turn to cover her. “The feeling’s mutual.” Up, close and personal. “Now move that ass.”

Lucre reached her partner, standing either end of the door. For a moment, he just watched her.
He couldn’t put his finger on it. Something others seemed to notice. Brown eyes. Blonde locks.
Silver catsuit. Some other time. She was just his partner for now. He would figure her out later.
“Crime pays. But the badge claims tax. And Zad Ruzed collects the debt.” Gun raised. Cocked.

His weapon did have a stun setting but tended to malfunction and he never had time to fix it.
So he reckoned. Yet he would aim to incapacitate as far as was permitted, namely for her sake.
“Aight den. Let’s hit it.” Ranger’s key on the panel. A beep as red turned green. “Do. Done. Did.”
That door opened and they moved in. Corridor dead ahead from the side entrance. Gun trained.

Small hallway with its junction at the end. Walls on either side, no doors, leaving one way to go.
There was no one to greet them as they walked along. Just then, a gunman appeared at the end.
Guard paused a moment too long. Zad’s blaster got a shot off. Its bolt struck the man in the head.
Square in the skull. He fell but he wasn’t dead. Down and out for the count, although he isn’t alone.

“FREDDIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!”
Cried Freddie’s friend.
Zad glanced at Lucre.
And dashed to his left.

Corridor’s walls would make for some good cover as he slammed his back against one end of it.
Lucre could take the right while they covered each other and gauged the number of opponents.
Zad peered around the corner, leveling blaster. There are two attackers coming straight at him.
-BLAM!-BLAM!- The Proposition coughed twice. Two more bolts in skulls. And reinforcements.

Lucretia Lister

 

[Lucretia Lister]

At this range, Lucretia drew her capture pistols and flipped elegantly through blaster fire to put down two with knockout shots, the reflective catsuit glittering from the blaster shots passing by its surface.

At closer ranges she mixed kicks and punches into her shooting, always going for the most non lethal means, felling three while four targeted Zad Ruzed . She managed to shoot one of them , causing the others to shoot at her, forcing her to get behind a support pillar. She barely had time to catch her breath, because four appeared from a separate hall, these armed with Sonic Rifles.

These bolts were much harder to dodge. Lucretia fired and downed three rapidly before she ran dry, forcing her to cartwheel towards the shooter, who panicked as he, like the Sheriff who had taken in their captured thug earlier, realized what she was.

He backed away, firing rapidly to at least slow her down, then momentarily broke into a run to gain distance, but she was chasing him down another passage.

He wheeled around just as she was in striking distance and fired.

The bolt hit Lucretia dead on and flung her backward. The guard stumbled back as she wearily scrambled up, the entire surface of her body bubbled and rippling unnaturally like water for a few seconds before it stabilized.

"That will cost you..." she said in very sneering fashion as she again approached...only for him to pull out a strange golden medallion with a red ruby at the center.

Lucretia went dead still for a moment then resumed her approach...much more slowly.

"It can't protect you. Not completely." She said crisply as the terrified guard slowly backed away, holding the medallion up and causing Lucretia to approach him at a relative snail's pace. He quickly stumbled through a reinforced door and sealed it off before she could reach him.

Lucretia sighed.

"Drat.." she said.

Her force senses warned her as a Droideka rolled in from another passage, unfolded, and began firing at her, forcing her to draw the rifle Zad had given her and set it to kill as she fired from cover relentlessly at the bubble shield...while two more guards approached from the direction she had run from.

She wished sincerely that she could help Zad. But she had problems of her own...

 

[Zad Ruzed]

Spoiler: Music OOC

Keep your distance, his mentor had taught him, and his mentor was much and more than his pistol.
Oh, The Proposition had done him numbers of favors, but he gripped experience in another fistful.
The corner of his corridor provided cover. No need to dart forward. Not like her, not like his partner.
Her pistols spewed bolts, she flew with fists and kicks, while the Ranger held back and aimed blaster.

-BLAM!- Knocked that other bastard backward. Had his weapon malfunctioned? Who gives a kriff.
It’s him or them, mentor always said. When you had a badge in your hands, you had the right of it.
Namely under the circumstances. He’d clean up the mess later. Proposition on stun. He reckoned.
Eyeful of sonic rifles. Comets amid fistful of bolts. Zad wasn’t trying to dodge. He kept a distance.

Zad blasted that round before rounding back around the corner, glimpsing his partner in his vision.
She moved quickly—nimbly. Suddenly he wondered if maybe she was moving too fast for a woman.
Man. Whatever. Person. If that worked. Damn she’s fast. Ranger licked his lips. Never mind the sheriff.
Oh. He saw it. Bolts whizzed by his side to the other side of the corridor where she was. He defended.

Thanks to the trunk of his partner’s speeder, Lucre had promptly provided Zad with some goodies.
“HEY!” He tossed one his hallway’s way. “YA LIKE GRENADES!?” They panicked. Zad smelled cookies.
-BANG!- He may have enjoyed the employment of an explosion but it was a flashbang that hit them.
-BLAM!-BLAM!- While they were distracted, stun-bolts struck them, dropping them as good as dead.

That was that. His corridor empty, Zad quickly turned in the other direction, dashing down his partner’s.
Just in time to spy with his little eye Lucretia flying backwards, bubbling, as if some shield guarded her.
The Ranger didn’t see her enemy, too busy looking at Lucre, pistol cocked, eyebrow cocked. The kriiff..?
Zad blinked at her. Heard his partner say ‘Drat’. Cue a droideka rolling along the hall for a chat. I dig it.

His back to the passage he had swept clean, two facility guards emerged in between him and Lucre.
-BLAM!-BLAM!- They had faced away from him, training their blasters on her, and paid the price for it.
Do. Done. Did. Zad didn’t hesitate and he didn’t wait to charge ahead. Droidekas had some weak points.
Maybe a Jedi or a Sith with a lightsaber would have exploited one. Zad just rolled a grenade for the droid.

And -BOOM!-
No flashbang.
It rocked the room.
And thank you, ma’am.

Lucretia Lister

 

[Lucretia Lister]

Lucretia ducked behind cover as the blast rocked the complex. The Droid was demolished.

Lucretia managed a small grin. "Grenades: Rated E for everyone."

She handed him back his rifle, retrieving her capture pistols and finding ammo for them off the dead or the unconscious, as well as a few ion grenades.

"One Droideka down, two to go. Watch out for their Sonic Rifles." she said picking up one of them.

"Keep up, Handsome. You are such a pleasure to see at work."

Lucretia sprinted forward, Sonic Rifle on stun setting only, slung over her shoulder as she drew her pistols. The next squads of guards were slammed with non lethal blaster bolts as Lucretia launched herself into the middle of now panicking thugs, legs, fists and pistols flashing in equal measure, while another four man squad engaged Zad himself.

Lucretia snapped ankles and wrists but not necks, eventually stunning with pistol fire, or otherwise incapacitating them first then stunning them again in good measure, all five men that attacked her. The responses were becoming less frequent. Their defense forces were being badly whittled down. If they were not fleeing, they were concentrating their last, best fire power.

Which meant...

"Zad get in! GET IN!" Lucretia yelled as she was forced to dive into another chamber as the remaining two Droidekas closed in on them from separate directions, trying to create a kill box. The unfolded and started firing immediately be with bubble shields active. Lucretia drew her Sonic Rifle, set it to Maximum, and fired on one Droideka to get it's attention so Zad could deal with the other one shooting at him rather than both...

Zad Ruzed

 

[Zad Ruzed]

Spoiler: Music OOC (Recurring)

Oof. To that tune of -ka-boom!- In truth, he had just found a grenade in his pocket and chucked it.
An EMP grenade was particularly proven to take out a droideka target in a heartbeat as it’s rolled.
Slow and steady was the payment, to bypass the droid’s shield, negate its prism, so stone cold.
Yet, evidently, the explosive grenade was just as deadly. It exploded. Boom. Bye. Do. Done. Did.

Another grenade on his person, sonic rifle on his back, Zad Ruzed would yet stick with his own Proposition.
“Work is pleasure, miss,” Zad responded. “Ain’t no play if business doesn’t pay.” And his did in many ways.
Sometimes he wondered if he himself was just a criminal at heart. His father’s son. But his is a different art.
Lucre went ahead, plugged pistol pegs in the middle of her enemies, nonlethally, as others come at Ruzed.

Four idiots come at him. He didn’t have two pistols to work with. Zad did have one gun.
It coughed two shots off. Plugged the head and the chest. Then he went into cover again.
Corridor to the side as his partner flies by. She dealt with her targets, four and then some.
The Ranger rounded outward, peered round the corner. Two shots. To the chest and head.

Suddenly Lucre was shouting at him to ‘get in GET IN’. He was quick to obey her command.
“DAMN!’ Zad Ruzed said as the droidekas had them both pinned in. “They want payback!?”
With that, he slammed his back against the cover of another chamber, partner firing back.
“They can have it.” Zad rolled an EMP grenade for his own target and waited for its impact.

But he didn't just wait for the outcome of his grenade. The Ranger darted back for cover.
Behind a crate like a small wall, its metal impenetrable against the fire of a droid's blaster.
That meant, if all else failed, well, he could beckon the droidekas to come along for them.
If they did, then he would happily jump over them, turn, and blast lethally into back, head.

Lucretia Lister

 

[Lucretia Lister]

Lucretia had just gotten the bubble shield down when Zad Ruzed rolled his EMP grenade at the Droideka and got behind cover.

The blast took out the Droideka, but one was still left and it started to contract and roll back to get a better firing position. Lucretia held her breath and fired.

The bolt hit the Droideka somewhere delicate and it collapsed in a heap mid roll.

Lucretia smirked and rose up. "That was a delight Mister Ruzed. I do believe that's the worst of what they can throw at us."

As if on cue Lucretia heard the faint whine of various speeders powering up.

"I do believe that would be the stragglers deciding to just bail out while they still can. It doesn't matter..." she said casually, strutting towards a keypad locked door, ripping the panel of it partly open with sheer strength and hotwiring the door open.

"With the evidence we've obtained? And the ones we took alive, Bacta-Works will be able to place a bounty on the stragglers so high they won't be able to near a civilized system. Either way, I doubt we'll see these particular unfortunates on Tattooine ever again."

They had stumbled on the main treasure room of the gang. Various packages of illicit drugs, Aurodium bars, gemstones, weapons. She found the giant containers of MedSpice, one ton each.

"There it is...ah, I'm in better shape than I thought! They couldn't open the crates due to the anti theft devices!"

But it was the prize at the far end of the large Chambers where makeshift hangar doors had been installed that caught her attention.

(THIS plays)

It was sleek and dark and it's cockpit viewport was like a splash of blood against steely shadow.

It was a relic from a bygone era. It had been "The New Money" of starfighters when it premiered.

It was something that would fight Xenomorphs if it had arms and legs, but who needs those when you can use DEATH FROM ABOVE? TO KILL XENOMORPHS?

Lucretia gasped in awe at the sight of an intact TIE Vendetta.

"They must have scavenged it. Too bad it's evidence. Maybe you could, oh, lobby it as a repurposed tool of law enforcement? Better it be in The rangers hands being used then rot in some evidence garage." Lucretia suggested.

Just then, Lucretia's flesh bulged and warped disgustingly everywhere. The days events had been taxing, and her host had at last run out of the charge necessary to keep "being" Lucretia.

Lucretia's mind and muscular body vanished into that of an extremely beautiful but far more petite red head, shaking her head in dizziness. The Catsuit seemingly did not lose shape, instead simply adapting to the new body wearing it.

"Musta ran out of juice..." Syd Celsius murmured, clutching her head, blinking blue eyes at Zad.

"You're...Zad, right?" Syd asked, my ldly groggy and confused from having spent nearly a week trapped as Lucretia. She was almost impossible to wake up from without overwhelming effort or until she simply ran out of energy.

"I thank you for your assistance. My name is Surt'r..." Syd answered. She was telling the truth. It had been one of her many names over the centuries. Her face wouldn't be in any database.

"Lucretia is a...cover identity I use from time to time. I...uh... would really appreciate if you not let that slip out. It gets the criminals to underestimate me. Plus it's better if they are all mad at Lucretia rather than me. Syd explained, drowsy and woozy, stumbling to him.

"It also takes a lot of energy...to actually be her...to the extent that while I am her, I believe I am her. It's very hard to snap out of as you can see."

Syd handed him the Bacta-Works contact number.

"I cannot think right now too well my head feels like bowl of mush..." Syd complained, sitting down.

"Could you call it in?" she asked politely as she sat down... before falling unconscious in her seat.

 

[Zad Ruzed]

Spoiler: Music OOC

“Well, lessee…” Zad rubbed his chin in imitation of someone thinking deeply.
“Thirty guards, three droidekas…” Whose numbers had depleted so quickly.
“I do agree.” Cue speeders. Then Lucretia pulls that panel open abnormally.
Unusual for Human women as far as Zad Ruzed can reckon of her species.

Huh... Was his thought. “Uh-huh...” Was his response. Suddenly remembering.
They’re partners, in this together, at least for the duration. For the time being.
Their missions, however, their positions, were a bit different. He was a Ranger.
Sector Ranger, to be specific. She was a philanthropist as much as adventurer.

And a whole lot kriffin’ more than meets the eye amid all of that damn silver.
He met her eyes, wondering how high those stakes she aimed in this game.
Looking away in the treasure room. Said ‘treasure’ is pricey and then some.
More than enough to fetch a catchy cred and lock some scum away forever.

For a long time, anyway. Metal rarer than gold was one thing. Weapons?
Kriff my inexistent tits. This evidence was definitely the lawman’s business.
Lucre? She was evidently more interested in the MedSpice, quite naturally.
That was her claim and her stake. “Do. Done. Did.” Zad replied—casually.

So, both the man and the woman ventured to gather treasure of their own.
Yet their reward was suddenly more mutual as those hangar doors opened.
The starship looked like a bat out of hell. Stealth vessel, whether with a cloak.
TIE Silencer? A TIE-something-or-other. Kriffer’s like a dark shark in an ocean.

Zad was never much for a poet, he reckoned. “Uhh…” He blinked. “You serious..?”
Lucre actually offered for him to take it as a repurposed tool of law enforcement.
Shit. Better than rotting in some evidence garage... Zad’s own thoughts repeated.
“I mean...this thing puts the Sector Rangers’ Egg to shame, no mistake, I reckon.”

Just then, Lucretia’s flesh bulged and warped disgustingly everywhere. The KRIFF?
Zad just blinked at her, or it, eyes wide. From her silver hair suddenly into red hair.
The catsuit didn’t change. Yet her face? Kriffsake. Shook his head as if imagining it.
The woman spoke groggily, thanking her contemporary, as Zad ought to be scared.

I’m gettin’ too old for this shit. Surt’r, or whatever, explained away regarding her person.
Lucretia, her other version, and cover. The Ranger had seen some things, including her.
The other one, that was. What was the difference? Right… Redder, silver, older, younger.
She stumbled into him, figure just as lithe as Lucre, as Zad caught her, this other version.

“Mush, huh?” Zad accepted the number. Surt sat down without so much as a ‘Thank you, sir’.
“Lady, I can’t think anything worth speaking as it is ‘sides what the hell it is I’m dealing with.”
He had already taken out his comlink the moment Lucretia-Surt’r gestured him to call it in.
Before falling unconscious in her seat. Sheesh. “Ranger Ruzed. Need a pickup. Confirmed.”

Lucretia Lister