Heavy Metal Hijinks

[Domino]

[member="HK-36"] @Wendy [member="Rave Merrill"]
Gromas 16
Koensayr Manufacturing was interested in expanding its production a bit. Or at least Domino was, same thing really when you owned the company. As such they'd launched a small exploratory expedition to the Blood Moon to determine the viability of phrik production. Nothing too large, they didn't want to attract attention and considering the moon's position between the Mandalorians and the Republic, Domino had decided to occlude any involvement of the Black Suns or anything that wasn't overtly on the up-and-up. As such she'd hired the Iron Knights to provide security on the ground.

They'd picked a rather flat spot in the rocky desert to land the ship in, the Replenish bulk freighter lay sideways to the open mouth of the new mine some 2oo yards distant with mining droids swarming the entrance. Domino had set them to dig down at thirty degrees towards what acoustic imaging told them was about the right density for phrikite and let them go at it. Nothing fancy, if they found something great, if not then there were other locations to scout.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Domino"]
Aboard the Siege Tower, Iron Knight transport

HK stood on the bridge of the Tower, looking at the rather miserable surface of the moon Gromas 16, a cold and arid place. He didn't expect his troops to get into much trouble on the mission, but hey, they did their job and in return he would get some phrik for one of his projects, something to cross off of the list.

But right now, squads were sent to follow Domino's orders, wherever she wanted them placed, and HK oversaw their movements from aboard the Tower, he wouldn't have much of an issue with how Domino handles the mercenaries unless she had in mind for them to start executing civilians, that would be something that would summon the droid onto the planet's surface for intervention, but it seemed to be a distant fiction.

Taking his datapad, he would open transmission to Domino,
"HK here, troops are ready, be careful to not dig too deep, miss, that is always the problem in the end."
He quipped,
"Digging too deep."
He would click the transmission off as he watched the planet from behind a viewport of his frigate.

Although it was not like they would wake up a Balrog down there, right?
.
.
.
Right?

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Domino"] @[member="HK-36"]

The Gromas system had been under the auspices of Darth Kyros, throughout the final days of the Sith Empire. As Kaine Zambrano finalized his reign, Kyros had called in a certain Captain Jorus Merrill, complete with mining ships and bulk transports-

-and taken all the phrik on the Blood Moon. Oh, the planet couldn't be exhausted that easily, but every mine, every secret reserve vein, every probable deposit to a certain depth had been stripped out in a mindbogglingly massive long-term operation. This new mine was a shot in the dark.

Rave's Galaar-class shuttle, a Mandal Hypernautics special, settled down on the desert hardpack, and the Nightsister stalked out to find Domino.

 

[Domino]

Yes it was a shot in the dark, but Domino didn't exactly know where all that phrik had gone, unless it was that giant chunk a certain Hutt had bought out from under her at auction... There was an account that needed balancing, but not now. And every other known planet with the elusive alloy was swarmed with national military and mining trying to get it for themselves. This was probably their best option without risking a confrontation. It just had to pay off, didn't even have to pay off big time.

"You've been watching to many horror holos." She commed back at the droid before he cut the transmission. For the moment the mercenaries were just digging in rough fighting positions or whatever they wanted to call them around the camp or putting up camo netting for shade. The whine of a ship's engine distracted Domino into looking up at Rave's ship as she came in for a landing. The Twi'lek herself would be easy enough to spot, out in the open like this, most of the above ground activity in the camp was centered around her as tables and holotanks were put up to form a temporary command station to monitor the mine with.
[member="Rave Merrill"] [member="HK-36"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Domino"]

"Fethed if I know what Darth Kyros did with all this phrik. They say she took out thousands of tons, and by they I mean my brother who helped her do it. Nice spot you've found, though. Looks untouched. Hope the intel's good." Apropos of nothing, Rave took one of the little headquarters' camp chairs. Domino was not someone she knew personally, but Fringe still honored the alliance with Black Sun -- and Rave still gritted her teeth every time she heard a Fed referred to as a 'hero of Barab.'

That, and when there was a risk of monsters, AEL was more than happy to provide monster removal specialists.

"Might get something worthwhile out of this before the Mandos or the Pubs take the Blood Moon. I'm sort of amazed they haven't already."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Domino"]

HK nodded slightly at Domino's response, as if he was giving out a chuckle, except without the actual chuckle, responding in another transmission,
"If you should spend enough time with Colonel Kerrigan hunting Bando Gora you would start talking like that as well."
He quipped as the door to the bridge opened, in came a slender being in armor similar to his.
"It is ready."
He spoke simply, removing his helmet to show another HK head underneath. 36 nodded simply,
"Let it begin then."

He would follow the other into one of the meeting rooms on the ship, the brief opening of them revealed that there were other beings inside, however they would close soon after and total darkness would reign over the room as even the dull red glow of HK's photoreceptors would shot off as he spoke once more, quietly,
"Summon her."

After a while of silence the door would open again as an armored figure of one of the Iron Knight troops came in,
"Hello?"
The trooper asked when suddenly the room filled with light, the people inside wore those conic party hats,
"Happy birthday Jenkins!"
They called out and the Iron Knight gave out a little shriek of joy and surprise,
"You guys remembered!"

So yeah, that was what HK was doing until Domino had a need of him.

 

[Domino]

"We could ask him what they did with it." She said to Rave; not bothering to respond to HK's latest call, anything that came to mind just sounded too much like tempting fate. "Still it's not really any of our business. Your brother still owes me a planet and I'm not going to go upsetting him by taking what I don't have a claim to until I get it." In front of them on the holo the droids reached the 250 meters down mark and kept going, apparently the first three hundred had been completely stripped, which in geological terms was practically nothing when some mines went kilometers down. Of course they'd done it to an entire moon which was impressive all on it's own. Their suspected vein was around the six hundred mark though. "Probably too busy squabbling with the what's left of the Sith and trying to 'secure' that space or their rear from the Fringe. As for the Mandos? Who knows? Maybe they're just so happy with their Beskar they don't care if phrik is twice as light."
@HK-36 @Rave Merrill

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Domino"]

Rave chewed her lip in assent. "I've worked with songsteel, I've ever worked with beskar a little, but phrik is easily the best. No question about it. It's almost worth pressing your luck to set up an ongoing operation, small enough not to be noticed, one little mine. Toss the refinery underground, bring in refined tydirium, leave with compact, refined, transportable phrik. You could get by with a light freighter a week, totally normal civilian traffic for this system's rates."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Domino"] [member="Rave Merrill"]

In mean time, aboard the Siege Tower

Door to the Party Room opened as HK walked out with two guards in grey cloaks and armor similar to him, their faces hidden behind metal plates of their mask-helmets. The droid commander waved to his troops and fared them well, he couldn't stay aboard the ship for the whole mission, Domino didn't paid them to just sit around and celebrate, after all, and having the mercenary commander show up on the ground, ready for a battle, would be a good sign of competence, although the fact that he was holding two plates of cake would take away from that a bit.

The door to the turbo-lift opened with a hiss as he and his guards entered the hangar, one of the shuttles was being prepared for take-off.
"Everything loaded?"
He asked to one of the crewmen working in the hangar,
"Yessir, supplies on board."
HK nodded as he took a seat aboard the transport with his envoy.
"Good, take us down to the planet then."

The crewmen nodded, hurrying about the shuttle, getting into safe distance as its boarding ramp closed, the engines roared up to life, and the vehicle started to take off the ground. Soon enough, the shuttle was well out of its way from the hangar of the Protectorate frigate and heading down to the landing pad of Domino's current mining operation.

Once they touched down, the shuttle's boarding ramp opened and the sight of ground crew workers greeted the droid and his two companions, plates with slices of cake still in his hands as he stood up and motioned to the supply crates inside,
"Distribute these to my troops on the ground, one of my Company is having a birthday."
What were inside of those crates? MRE's, but these ones had special cake flavor, a bit of extra rations to his troops but with a more celebratory flavor. One would wonder, those the droid put as big of a deal for every birthday one of his troops has? Well no, that would be pretty weird and rather costly, there would be celebration and additional rations put out to troops every week. Usually it's just something granted to squads the troops are separated into inside the company, but this time around it was celebration concerning one of his closer friends, who happened to be also one of his bodyguards and senior veterans of the mercenary company.

Either way,
Once the dried MRE's would be given out to the troops stationed in Domino's mining operation, HK made his way inside the facility or whatever was used as base of operation where he could find Domino.

Plates in hand, he would finally enter the room where the Twi'Lek stood with Rave, the clanking of his and his guards' feet should be able to alarm the ladies of his presence closing in on their position, he didn't had a reason to bother with staying quiet right now.
"Ladies."
He would greet them once he saw them, coming closer and offering out two plates of cake, covered in thin layer of protective plastic wrap to prevent any dust contamination.
"Cake? We are celebrating birth anniversary of one of the senior veterans among my Company."
He would glance past them at the holo of droids working.
"Anything interesting yet?"

 

[Domino]

"Not yet," Domino said taking the offered piece and setting it on the table. The plastic covering was needed here where the dust slowly blowing from the mine and the dirt and rock removed was slowly coating everything. Maybe setting up a command center outside wasn't the best of ideas but it let them keep a close eye on things. "Droids just passed the two-fifty mark, not even half way to the suspected vein. We've got time."

That said, she took a drink from her aluminum water bottle as she gave Rave's suggestion some serious thought. It was essentially the reason they were here on the tax and permit papers, exploratory operations. Though up to this point she hadn't seriously considered the creation of a facility here. Could be done, doing it underground would help with the obvious security concerns and might cheapen the whole thing. Something to consider, along with what she could actually make with that much alloy. Then again, selling it raw seemed to be ridiculously profitable these days. Of course that would just flood the market, drive profits down. The same discussion had taken place when Shine was first started, might be best to do here what they'd done then. "How well do you think it hold an edge Rave? Have to make something with all that phrik and ships don't seem practical."

@HK-36 @Rave Merrill

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Domino"] [member="HK-36"]

"Phrik's lovely, versatile stuff, no question about it. Over the last couple of years I've been quietly buying up shares of a rare materials prospecting company based on another phrik world. I have majority now, and one of the perks is getting to work with phrik whenever I want. It's very light for what it is, holds an edge well -- I've seen it made into excellent blades, very good personal armor, small vehicles. I've even toyed with the idea of producing full-phrik-jacket lead slugthrower rounds, to the point where some of my people are working on a prototype. I won't lie -- not that I intend to step on any toes, but I'm here to evaluate the feasibility of long-term investment, small-scale like I mentioned, right under the nose of whoever takes the Gromas system. I have plans.

"So, basically, if you're interested in thinking long-term with this location, regardless of the risks, I'll happily run it, pay dues, prioritize your phrik needs. No pressure, no hard sell -- Force knows there's enough Blood Moon for the both of us -- but the option's out there."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Domino"], [member="Rave Merrill"]

HK just nodded a bit at Domino's answer, looking down at the consoles he would scan them and read from them. Droid had little to no experience with mining operations, but he would like to learn more about it sure enough.
"What do your droids use for mining, drills?"
HK asked while Domino was contemplating Rave's suggestion and drinking from her water bottle.

The droid didn't really reacted at the mention of full-phrik-jacket slug prototypes, he sure took note of it, but nothing other than that. He was putting a similar project already on Abregado-Rae but in melee form, after all, it was not like he didn't had a similar idea.

He watched the mining operations on the blood moon through the holo-gram display while the two ladies talked, he didn't exactly specialized in making death-dealing toys, more in using them.

 

[Domino]

It almost sounded like it'd just be a waste not to leave a small facility underground. Let droids do all the work around the clock, even if it was shut down in six month's time there'd have to be a profit. Domino wasn't sure she wanted someone else running it for her though, the set-up Rave suggested had her paying for everything for only a portion of the profits. Why not have them all? Besides, how well did she really know Rave Merrill? Letting Popo and Tenloss get too close to the Suns was turning into a double edged sword and he was starting to take 'liberties' Domino didn't appreciate. Instead of voicing all that out though, she just said "I'll keep it in mind, need to explore options first though. Not to mention find a producing vein. As for the droids HK, tri-cone roller bits with a horizontal sleeve for fine excavation, think like a dermal tool, other than that they're blasting the main tunnel down with lasers I think. Faster. Then of course you have the ones doing the clearing with scoops." Domino inclined her head to where several of those could be seen at the mouth of the mine transferring their load to be dumped off site.

On the holo projector a yellow warning box popped up, mining stopped, before a few of the droids flashed red and the rest began returning to the surface as fast as their servos could carry them. Just over, Domino checked the depth, three hundred meters and already a cave-in? These things were supposed to have much better programming than that. Wait, just there on the bottom of the projection, the droids had turned to take on a less dense pocket full-on and clear it out completely. Queuing up the seismograph, Domino was about to send the survey probes in to asses the damage when the first ultrasound return came in. Had that pocket? A few seconds later and another return completely changed the lowest portion of the projection. That pocket hadn't just moved, it'd disappeared as if it was no longer touching the surrounding sides of the tunnel....

((I'm going to leave it to our resident beast master to determine what horror we've awoken))
@HK-36 @Rave Merrill

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Domino"] [member="[SIZE=13px]HK-36"][/SIZE]

I'll think about it, in Rave's experience, had more or less one meaning. But there really was plenty of Blood Moon for the both of them.

Rave squinted at the readouts as a second seismograph came in, and an unseemly grin spread over her face. "Not much moves this fast underground," she said, pointing to the difference in distance scale and timestamp. "Not through solid earth. Not even those Blenjeel sandworms or Kessel energy spiders. This is a long shot, but I think we might be looking at a full-size tikulini tunnel worm. Teeth the size of my leg, hide that'll stop a laser cannon or a lightsabre. If it is a tikulini, it'll chew through just about anything. I'd recommend pulling your droids back until we know for sure."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Domino"], [member="Rave Merrill"]

"That is interesting."
The droid answered to Domino's list of equipment that the droids were using down in the tunnels of Domino's operations. He would look over the holograms, studying the movements in the tunnels as well as the workers' movements.
Then he heard Rave's comment, Tikulini Tunnel Worm.
Tikulini Tunnel Worm

"The Death of a Myriad Knives."
He muttered, translating the "Tikulini" part.
HK nodded then simply, he knew what to do. He looked to Domino and gave her a nod, same went for Rave.
"Well looks like I have to do what I was hired for today."
He commented to them as he turned around to head towards the door, his helmet closing over his head and his cloak trailing behind him.
"Should I perish this day, eat the cake I made and remember me for it."
He would quip, before the doors closed behind him.

Soon enough, HK sent out his orders to his troops, the mercenary guards were arranged in a loose formation about the facility, equipped with their heavy MK 1 bolters and gas grenades. HK put a lot of faith into the heavy weapons of Protectorate, hopefully they won't fail him now. The droid and his Greycloak guards would be seen on the field as well, patrols of Protectorate's fighters would circle above here and there, summoned from the Siege Tower.

"We are in position, hopefully this will not be any worse than usual weekend with Kerrigan, something usually collapses, decides to use me as its puppet for destruction, or tries to eat me. It slightly feels like one of these 'tries to eat me' days."
He transmitted to the two ladies

 

[Domino]

"Already got them on their way out," Domino confirmed for the human. She had no idea what a Tikulini worm was and HK's translation didn't help much, but she was sure that it meant they were in for quite the fight. "If blasters are useless, will thermal detonators work?" She asked in the few moments they had as she prepared. The business lady had produced a leather cord and was using it to wrap the mid portion of her lekku together, her version of a braid, to keep them from getting in the way. As she finished there was an outpouring of spider-like mining droids and a fresh cloud of dust followed by a roaring as the worm breached the surface.

@HK-36 @Rave Merrill

 

[Velok the Younger]

@HK-36 @Domino
HK vanished into the tunnel, the mining droids scurried out, and the worm -- unwilling to respect the assassin droid's intentions -- breached the red soil near Domino and Rave. "Thermal detonators will work," said Rave, drawing Entropy with a rasp of songsteel on leather, "but that hide's worth its weight in gold to me."

That was all she had time to say as the tikulini skidded over the red ground toward them. The Force took her up and over the charge in a flip, legs together and arms spread wide. Entropy glanced off the durable hide; she landed her flip on the tikulini's back and whirled the blade to strike, but its tail snapped like a whip and she flew. Her boots hit the ground, red dust choked her view, and when it cleared in the breeze, the tikulini was bearing down on Domino.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Domino"], [member="Rave Merrill"]

Well the droid didn't actually went down into the tunnels, he was among his troops gathered around the facility in defensive positions, they were in the area on the red dusty ground between the facility itself and the mining tunnels. Going down there would be more or less suicidal with a thing like that,
"Fire only when the beast faces you or you have to distract him from workers! Their safety and getting them evacuated is priority!"
The droid commanded to his soldiers, unclasping his chameleon cloak, he handed it over to one of his body guards for safekeeping, the armored figure as it took it. HK took a belt of Anti-Forcer grenades into his hand, as opposed to what the name suggests, they weren't just Force Breaker grenades but a wide array of grenades, explosives, smoke covers, knock-out gas, sonic, etc., varied for wide array of scenarios.

The droid looked back to the two ladies as they left the facility to join him on the field,
"My idea is to skip the hide, it should save enough of the skin for you to have use of it."
He chimed in on their conversation as he sensed the ground trembling, he calculated the worm was either coming out or burrowing near the surface, towards them.

With a gesture he ordered his troops to fall back slightly more towards the facility, hurrying them to get the last of the mining-droids to safety, and any organic miners that would be over-looking the mechanical units, if there were any organic miners.

And then the worm erupted from the ground in all of its majestic size, Rave leaped over to it, and HK had a similar idea. His hand quickly moved over his body and he started towards the worm, a clang was heard and then a cloud of dust rose in his wake as with a good burst from his repulsorlift units, the droid propelled himself in a stride towards the worm, leaving behind metal plates. HK discarded some of his additional armor plates, those on his limbs, to cut down on his weight, decreasing protection for increase in speed, he only left his additional chestplate on, he expected to be handling plenty damage to torso in near future.

Either way, instead of jumping on the worm's back, the droid impacted into its side, his claws digging into the beast, not penetrating his skin but enough to get a grip on the rough leathery hide in order to stay attached.

Clinging to the beast, a belt of Anti-Force User grenades in one hand, HK began climbing towards the creature's huge maw of teeth, the beast roaring and screeching as it whipped Rave and now was looking down at Domino.
"Distract it!"
The machine called out, few of his Iron Troopers heard the call from nearby the facility, they raised their bolt guns, letting out a small salvo, the barrage should be enough to take the beast's attention off of Domino, but we'll see. The droid may have not trusted the Twi'lek any more than he would trust a Hutt, but he still wouldn't leave her on her own when facing the tikulni.

 

[Domino]

The beast was huge, quite a bit larger than it'd shown on the scan. Either it's bulk had hidden behind itself or it'd compressed itself as if to fit through a smaller space, but Domino wasn't thinking of such things. As Rave charged she hesitated. Normally she wouldn't have cared about damaging the skin or not but staying in the master alchemist's good graces was something she wanted. This would be tricky. Moving again, her hands went not to the sabers at her belt but further around to the small of her back where she pulled out four small throwing knifes, two tucked between the thumb and curled forefinger of both hands. Each was no longer than her hand and had an odd clear look to them where the grip tape didn't cover the handles.

Rave charged and jumped, HK clambered onto a target he'd ordered shot (lucky him it was a big target) Domino... Domino did something unusual and held her ground, taking up a fighting stance with her arms folded across her chest, one high, one low, waiting as the worm barreled down on her. She barely noticed HK's scream to distract it or the cracks of weapons fire, she was as focused on it as it was on her.

Unlike the others she waited for the beast to be where she wanted before taking a pair of quick steps away and throwing the knives, one pair after the other into the worm's roaring maw as it came towards her, the momentum from her last spinning throw caring her into a leap to the side with a rolling finish that brought her just to the side of the mouth as it rushed by. Another jump cleared her just enough to be broadsided by the passing bulk instead of crushed.

"Any idea where the vitals are on this thing?" She called out as she felt out for the recently swallowed knives. Two were lost, either she just couldn't find them or they'd splintered into a thousand pieces along with their force signature. "I've got two in 'em, might be enough if I know where to put them!" She yelled out to her compatriots.

@HK-36 @Rave Merrill
((Wrote this up at work, sorry if it's a bit overdone))

 

[Velok the Younger]

@HK-36 @Domino

Throwing knives...

Rave's eyes went wide as she drew her Derriphan's Eye offhand. A long, serrated alchemical knife, it had served her well, tasted the blood of Masters. And, more to the point, her blood.

As the tikulini's course inscribed an arc, its maw faced Rave again, just for a moment. She flipped the longknife up, caught it by the tip, and threw with Force-enhanced coordination. The swept point, wet with fingertip blood, gleamed in the red light of Gromas, just for a second. Then the knife flitted between immense teeth, following the example of Domino's knives.

The worm whirled away from Rave towards the others, and Rave stretched out to the Nightsister blood trail on her blade. And pulled. Hard.

The tikulini paused. Just stopped. And then began to roar, and writhe, as Rave pulled her knife through its guts with unseen telekinesis.