Skirmish HOSTAGE CRISIS: Sakedo Tower (Darkwire vs Armada)

[Vallaro Kindall]

The roof seemed clear enough with two of the pirates down. Vallaro moved with a distinct lack of caution. Not that he didn’t care for his own wellbeing. If anything it was one of the few things the hunter cared about. But he had already made his judgment of the situation and found it wanting. Just a few pirates with barely a brain cell between them. Nothing deserving of attention, they'd probably announce themselves again if given the chance.

He scanned his surroundings looking for any sign of the group that had landed before. Cycling through the various modes of vision available to him revealed nothing of their whereabouts. Clearly, they had moved on towards their objective. No doubt it was the same one as him.

Boots clicked with a steady cadence as Vallaro descended the roof access stairway. The sounds of conflict bellow grew audible the further down. The hunter would have continued his decent were it not for an open window. He gazed outside into the black night Bellow he could see a Houk. The ultimate target of his hunt, engaged in combat with someone. Then he heard gunfire from below.

A duo rappelling down firing into the fray, no doubt his competition. Professional courtesy dictated that he at least check if they where guild. It would mean serious trouble for him if he violated the code so flagrantly. For a short moment, he considered the possibilities but ultimately decided that even if they were, it was collateral damage. He reached into his rig and drew a single shiva knife. With a flicking motion, he sent the blade soaring towards the feline duo before dropping out the window.

He fell into the chaos below. Flames spewed from the base of his heel propelling him through the air as he looked for a clear landing. The floor bellow was backed with hostages and pirates limiting the possibilities down to the rooves of smaller shops within the cavernous space of the 301st floor.

 

[Xun of Throne]

The teenager got a massive migraine or something, cause she was clutching at her head as he counted down. Maybe it was all too much for her. Gunfist didn't know. But when she opened her eyes she wasn't even making eye contact. She wasn't even looking at him. Gunfist tended to think that threatening to blow up a bunch of people would draw her rapt attention, but instead she was looking past him.

Behind him.

Seriously?

He glanced over his shoulder and saw the big old Wookiee trying to be inconspicuous.

Wookiees were not very inconspicuous.

Gunfist abruptly stopped his countdown.

"You mother kriffer," he rumbled, gaze swinging back toward the girl.

Except she wasn't there anymore, she'd disappeared. Oh wait, nope, she was hopping over the counter and chucking something at him. Gunfist didn't wait to see what it was because he had a feeling it couldn't be anything good. So he did the natural thing.

He karking vaporized it.

BWHOOOOP.

The hand cannon screamed and a pulse of blue-white plasma shot out, incinerating the sphere mid-air. Gunfist started to charge up another round as Silverback grunted and started to get back to his feet, the effects of whatever he'd been hit with apparently fading.

The sound of staccato blasterfire reached Gunfist's earholes. Shouts started coming in over his comlink about bounty hunters and cops inside the building and other things that Gunfist really didn't want to hear.

"Blow everything," he roared into his comlink.

It was time for plan B.

* * *

MEANWHILE

* * *

Myrin Deene 's homing razors whipped toward Mane and the Prof, silent as the grave. Mane finished latching the bomb onto the sobbing person and stood up, blissfully unaware.

Suddenly, the Prof's blunt slipped from his fingers and he was twisting in mid-air like a gymnast, hands flying out. When he landed, he held a homing knife in each hand. He turned around and saw a pointy-eared woman staring them down.

"Hey Mane, we've got a little company."

"Huh?" The big togorian turned around, nostrils flaring when he spotted Myrin.

Blasterfire started erupting in the distance and Gunfist's enraged voice came over the comlink, ordering them to blow everything.

"Go on then," said the Prof, "Leave her to me."

Mane didn't need any encouragement and dashed off.

Prof kept a tight grip on the knives, feeling the repulsors wanting to return back to their master. He eyed her up and down while he ground out his fallen blunt with a boot. "Let me guess, CorpSec Agent? No. Bounty Hunter? Either way, you're a slave to their capitalist structure. Chained to the almighty credit. I was like you once."

He twirled the knives. "Teepo set me free. These are nice by the way, here, have 'em back."

The student of the teachings of Teepo let go of the knives and they hummed back toward Myrin. Only the Prof gave them a little bump with the force so that they'd come in pointy-end first and way faster than intended.

* * *

MEANWHILE

* * *

It was time.

Rol Zivari had served in the war of liberation against the One Sith. He knew the chains of slavery. And he had seen what the Galactic Alliance and other great nations had done for his people on Ryloth.

Nothing.

No reparations for what had been done to the Twi'lek for centuries of exploitation. No help rebuilding his homeworld. Nothing but empty promises and false hope.

So instead of a gracious master, he chose to have none at all. He was a free man, subject to no nation. Bound by no laws but his own. The pirates of Gunfist's crew took him in, they were his brothers and sisters now.

As he eyed all the stores throughout the mall, he saw what had been wrought on the backs of the poor by wealthy executives, implicit in the exploitation of his people. And these so-called citizens who milled about aimlessly here had been complacent. Complicit.

He felt no remorse for what he was about to do. He would sleep soundly tonight. His finger hovered over the detonation trigger.

"For Ryloth," he whispered.

All down the mall, support pillars exploded. The mall was filled with permacrete dust and debris. There was silence for a moment, then the screaming started.

Rol closed his eyes and basked in their howls.

"Suffer. As my people suffered."

* * *

MEANWHILE

* * *

The remaining pirates released their captives in the aftermath of the explosions. Panicked hostages, suddenly free, began to run toward the nearest sources of help in a flood of bodies.

 

[Myrin Deene]

If Myrin was shocked when the pirate plucked her throwing razors out of the air, she didn't show it. "Nice catch," she remarked dryly, keeping her enemies' attention on her moving lips... rather than what was going on in her sleeves. She was still too far away to rush them with her molecular stiletto, so elegant, fancy weapons were going by the wayside for something less fun. A holdout blaster slipped down her sleeve; over and over it had proven useful to have magnetized weapons frequency-coded to her gloves, so that she could always bring the right one to hand.

Securing them to her bra had been a stroke of genius; corpo security goons were usually too awkward about checking it to notice.

Myrin let the Togorian run off, keeping her attention on the threat she'd underestimated - the too-quick man. "See, that's funny," Myrin shot back, eyes never leaving his even as she traced each movement his hands made in her peripheral vision. "Here I was under the impression that this whole thing was a ransom scheme. Kid yourself all you want, we're all worshipers at the temple of money." She grinned at him. "I admire the spirit of the plan, though. Stealing straight from the high priests in their monument to greed. It's got style."

Honestly, it was good to run into someone who was a bit of a challenge; given the flawed nature of this little ransom plan, she hadn't expected a worthy opponent, but it wouldn't have been very fun or satisfying if all of these pirates or revolutionaries or whatever had just gone down like chumps. But as they traded their witty repartee, Myrin heard a sound that slightly dampened her enthusiasm for the situation. It sounded like others were breaching the 301st floor of the mall, and they were being a lot less sneaky about it than she had. Gunfights were breaking out everywhere.

Just as she'd predicted, the corpos had come in guns blazing. That would be bad news for the hostages... and anyone else nearby.

Myrin was ready when her opponent sent the knives hurdling back at her, though she hadn't expected them to come as fast as they had. Idly she wondered what made him quick enough to catch and throw them like that; top-notch cyberware, if she had to guess, though there was no way to be sure. She raised her right bracer, activating the homing beacons in each razor so that they abruptly changed course mid-flight and reattached magnetically to her arm; they were designed to return to her, and that made them pretty much impossible to use against her.

Still, they'd come at her fast. The impact of the flats of the blades hitting her arm knocked her off balance... and saved her life.

She'd been raising her holdout blaster in her other hand, about to squeeze off a shot at the surprisingly quick man, when the bombs went off. It didn't come as a complete surprise; she'd heard someone chucking around grenades earlier, a bad move when the entire floor was wired to hell and back. This was deliberate, though, and the terrified Zeltron behind Myrin's opponent wasn't exempted from the mass-detonation. The woman disappeared in an expanding ball of fire that threw Myrin back and pelted her with permacrete debris, opening cuts on her arms and scalp.

Still, the Sephi had at least partially prepared herself for this possibility, and the impact of her razors had already started moving her out of the way. She stayed loose as the shockwave took her, letting it blow her backward... and then rolling over her shoulder in reverse, back up to her feet. In the haze of smoke and ash, she couldn't see if the man who'd caught her razors had survived; he'd been much closer to the Zeltron when she'd gone kaboom, so there was a good chance he'd gone up with her. No matter; the corpos were already here, so collecting on anyone was unlikely.

No, her main priority now had to be getting off this level before it collapsed. The explosives hadn't been expertly placed, but they'd clearly done enough damage to the support beams that the 301st floor of Sakedo Tower (and possibly the whole building) was going to be in some serious trouble very shortly. "Just as things were starting to get fun," Myrin sighed, casually ignoring the panicked screams all around her. "Some operators just can't handle subtlety, and this is what we get. Oh well." She turned to look for the emergency staircase.

The evening might not be a total waste if she could find a bar with a view and enjoy a drink while she watched Sakedo Tower burn.

 

[Kadora'Tra]

Explosions.

"K...Kadora!" Kyle yelped while on over watch, loitering around Sakedo Tower's top floor in the transport. Bringing the sniper rifle to his eye, he leveled it at the figure with jet boots ( Vallaro Kindall ) who had just sent an explosive towards his compatriots, and sent a slug though the glass towards him.

"Captain? Lonnie?" Kyle spoke frantically into his communicator as he lined up another shot. The smoke from the explosions was beginning to obscure his vision, and he wanted desperately to send another round through the building. Hit or miss, Kyle fired at the figure again and then put the rifle down.

"All units, Captain Kadora'Tra is down, lethal force authorized!" Lonnie broadcast to the already approaching police transports who were now close enough to begin marching in, if not for the swarms of former Hostages now making their way out the tower.

***
A MOMENT AGO
***

Lonnie's Riot gun blast, broke the glass and knocked over the furnishings inside the Heartbeat store and gave plenty of opening for Kadora'Tra to leap through with her Baton, ensuring the surrounding area was secure the Trandoshan spun themselves behind a Mall Map and swept the surrounding area with the Riot gun when she spotted a figure above them ( Vallaro Kindall ) and at first thought nothing of it, Bounty Hunters were likely on scene... until the glint of their blade flew through the air. On impulse she opened up on Automatic with her Riot Gun towards them which wound up lining up with the projectile.

Then, the world shook with explosion and heat.

The projectile must have been about 6 or 7 meters away when the blast of her weapon caused it to detonate in Thermonuclear fire, claiming her weapon, hands, elbows and a portion of her snout. It took a moment for Lonnie to register the damage, before she collapsed in pain, giving out a harrowing roar. The smoke from the explosions around them obscured the scene around her, but she heard rockets, gunfire, and screams.

***
NOW
***

Kadora'Tra was in a primal state, sprinting towards the Huok ( Xun of Throne ) with the baton in hand, when the ground shook from a series of explosions. It was hard to ignore but what was more important was the pirate that just unleashed a blast of something into the air. With speed and momentum on her side, she brought the riot baton down to strike through the pirates legs.

Then she heard her friends injured wail...

Daiya

 

[Daiya]

She screamed!

The blast was deafening, and it was only after it subsided, leaving a ringing in her ears, that she felt her throat sore from the effort. Pulling away the hands that had tightly clamped over her ears, Daiya pried herself away from the counter to take stock of her situation once more. The Houk pirate stood —stood!— unscathed, the cannon-arm he wielded still leaking a little smoke from the discharge.

Why did it have to be a cyborg Houk?

Something told her to duck, and the girl tucked her head under her arms as a piece of the logo-bearing wall behind her fell away from the hole caused by the blaster cannon's shot. A lonely, pink artbe stared up at her from the floor, visceral proof of the pirate's deadly capabilities. She clutched her limbs close to her head, feeling the comfort it brought her, as if she could will the danger to be over.

A small gasp of breath flooded through her, pushing past the catch in her throat. The tears that awaited behind dampened eyes, the sobs her stomach contorted to begin, all of that would have to wait. Daiya blinked it all back, setting her jaw in resolve as she drew in a firmer breath this time. A whiff of dust accompanied it, but the girl only rubbed at her nose, brushing away the galaxy's newest attempt to stymie her.

Daiya grabbed a handful of the pearls below the counter, arming and tossing them over the counter as hard as she could. She didn't really aim, she no longer cared enough to, only hoping that Tawrro and any bystanders were far enough from the blast radius to escape unscathed. The girl only acted in blind rage now, lobbing pearls across the storefront's aisles and out through the open door into the mall beyond. The awful pirate and his companions would rue the day when they interrupted her shopping trip!

Reaching for another round of ammunition, she looked away as something big joined her behind the counter. Big, hairy, and familiar! Tawrro crouched wearily beside her, but offered her a reassuring expression. The girl's spirits rose, her rage honed now into a purposeful drive. She grinned, the two of them were stronger than any opponents!

"Grab a bunch of these pearls, they're stun grenades. And I—oops!" the girl giggled, pointing at the last pile she'd grabbed from. Instead of stun grenades, the label read EMP grenades. Those weren't going to do any damage to the stupid Houk at all! Moving her arm, she pointed at the right ones, "These ones. He can't shoot them all down! Toss and scatter!"

Grabbing a bunch of the stun pearls, Daiya lobbed one over the counter, hoping to clear her path as she dashed to the other side of the store. The aisles were a warzone now, most of them overturned with their products no better than trash. She didn't have time to be annoyed at the lost shopping opportunity, only time to toss and run, scattering like she knew Tawrro would be on his side, keeping the pirates from a single target.

She heard a series of the pearls go off, and the lights blinked out. In the halls of the mall outside, too, just as a larger ripple of explosions shook the floor. Daiya didn't scream this time, she was ready for the blast, just not quite the intensity of it. Smoke clogged her view outside the store, but from what she could make out, many of the storefronts along the mall were destroyed and the supporting pillars near them were falling.

All but the area outside of the Heartbeat Boutique where Daiya had thrown the EMP pearls. (Unfortunately, that also meant Chase Fashion escaped unscathed, too.)

"Feth you!" Daiya shouted, flinging her arm in the direction of the pirate at the center of the store. A moment later, something flew into her hand, causing the girl to stagger back in surprise. Her blaster? Not one to mess with a good thing, the teen simply aimed it back where she'd wanted it before: right in the middle of a pirate's forehead. The lack of artificial lights made it harder to see, but the bombs had collapsed enough of the walls to let the grey, midday light stream through.

She squeezed the trigger.

Xun of Throne Sor-Jan Xantha Kadora'Tra Myrin Deene Vallaro Kindall Zivos​

 

[Zivos]

Explosions rocked the floor, a moment spared thinking about what could have done it as he remembered the explosives they had been placing around the building. Fethin crazy nerf herders. He listened to the panicked screams of people. Wondering silently if he should bother with attempting to assist with the people, and deciding against it given your typical citizens innate ability to completely clog an area with fear induced clumping. Picking the rifle off the counter, he stood and moved towards the elevator. His aural sensors picked up voices, fearful noises as it sounded as though people were moving his direction. He spun, a group of civi's coming around the corner in a panic before screaming at the sight of him.

His scanner did not pick up an explosive vest on any of them, a heavy sigh coming from him while rolling his eyes. "Get to the first floor and get out. And send it back up or I will come find you and shoot you myself." The ubese snapped, taking up a covering position in the archway as the people moved. More people came through, his scanner not picking up any explosive vests. Though more than a few people wore what looked to be blood on them.

It was hard telling where it came from, but his blaster was raised as people slowly milled towards the elevator, squishing together as part of the group broke away and went into the emergency staircase. A slow trickle of civilians coming his way while the rifle was pointed towards the corner.

 

[Xun of Throne]

Inside the Heartbreak Boutique, lots of things happened all at once. Way too fast for Gunfist to keep track.

Another one of those little pearls rolled across the room and boom, a big EMP shockwave warped out. Well, not BIG big, but big enough that Gunfist got stuck in the blast. His cannon arm went to sleep and he leaned to one side, grunting with the effort.

At this point, however, Silverback the Tarro had gotten back to his feet. He had escaped the effects of the initial EMP blast, but only barely. And he did Not. Look. Happy. A shoulder-mounted micro-missile launcher popped up out of his exo-suit and things got a whole lot worse as he launched three in a row toward the counter where he thought the kid and the Wookiee were hiding.

The explosions ripped through the boutique and a wave of smoke drifted up from the site of impact, obscuring everything. In the haze, a blaster bolt whinged out and took a chunk from the side of Gunfist's head, leaving it nice and crispy. He let out a roar of pain.

"Damn kid!"

Which was when Gunfist felt something zap his leg. Not in a static shock kind of way, but in the holy karking stangballs that hurts kind of way. He looked down and saw some sort of rabbit or cat humanoid thing wielding a stun baton. His beady red eyes flared irritably, then he sought to punt the feline with the other leg, the one that was NOT throbbing after getting a few thousand volts.

"Boss," came a tiny voice, "Let's get outta here."

It was Micky, blood dripping from his nose, one of his arms twisted funny, but very much alive and wielding a vicious looking disruptor. Micky started shooting at the cat-person, while the other two tried to make good their escape in the chaos of the running civilians and crumbling infrastructure.

MEANWHILE

Zivos was a pretty smart guy, as it happened, because while the first wave of civilians did not have bombs strapped to their chests, or bellies, or butts, or whatnot - the second wave did.

And one Ubese with a fancy scanner was just one Ubese, after all.

As civilians started crowding into the police picket lines, the bombs started going off.

Rol Zivari watched them. Watched them burn, like Ryloth had burned. And he felt... happy.

 

[Zivos]

The explosions below caught the bounty hunters attention, realizing too late that people that were strapped with explosives were getting through. It took only a moment for the ubese to decide what to do.

And the decision of what to do afterwards.

He pulled out into the hallway, rifle aimed at civilians and screening them for explosives. He pulled a number of them aside, scanner running over the vests and coming to the conclusion that even with ample time he would not be able to remove them properly. He scanned their faces as more gathered around the growing number of those vested.

"All of you. Back room. Move." The rifle dipped towards the rear of the store, one hand on the rifle as he dipped a hand in behind him and set the timer on a thermal detonator. A sigh passed his lips, the sound of static coming through the mask as he handed on of the bomb vested individuals the detonator. They tried to refuse, the ubese forcing their hand open and shoving their thumb on the trigger as it armed, timer slowly and silently ticking down.

"Stay back their, or you will kill everyone trying to help you and others around you. We need experts to take those off. That won't go off unless you let your thumb off it. Now move and don't come out until I get you." He snapped. The anger helped cover the blatant lie he told them. Men and women, scared and unthinking. Their faces saved to his ships backup systems as the group trudged to the back room. The one holding the detonator was shaking violently.

Choices. Hard choices that someone had to make. He'd pay for it later. Right now people had to be saved, and sending the armed ones was doing more harm than good. He didn't regret the choice. Was culling the damage before it could spread further.

The door to the backroom closed, the ubese screening more people in an effort to stave off more deaths before half a minute later the succesive blasts from the backroom tore through the ongoing screams. The walls in the back barely stood.

His head snapped that direction. A false show of not knowing what happend for those around him. His actions already weighing on him as he knew clearly what had happened.

It was going to be a long day.

 

[Kadora'Tra]

Kadora'Tra wasn't thinking, she was just reacting.

After successfully impacting the Pirate's leg, something caught her feline eye in the air, a projectile of some kind. On instinct she brought her baton upwards and smacked the stun pearl out of the air and away from her, not knowing where it would end up landing because her attention was already refocused on the battle at hand. As explosions ripped through the shop, she saw the pirate unwisely shifting their weight off of their unstunned legged and onto their stunned leg. Avoiding the pirates movements, she launched into the air diagonally, clinging to a wall momentarily before flipping through the air behind the pirate ( Xun of Throne ).

All the while Micky's blasts tore through the air or wall of where she used to be, and smelling the burning ozone she eyed the source of the blasts to make sure she side stepped such that her position put Gunfist between her and the one shooting the disruptor rounds. As she side stepped, she attempted another swing of her baton to strike the pirates body.

"Keep shooting rodent, kill your buddy and you might make it out alive!" She snarled loudly for Micky to hopefully hear her threat, bearing teeth instinctively even though they wouldn't see them till after the pirate between them managed to move or evade some other way.

The other pirates managed to escape her grasp, moving out the shop, and though she wasn't thinking it at the time, she hoped Lonnie was well enough to hunt them down.

***​

Lonnie wasn't.

Armless, facially injured, and unconscious, she looked to be just another dead casualty in this warzone.

***
​

CorpSec kept trying to pour in, and the civilians kept appearing. Explosions where everywhere, and the threats were more difficult to identify. Eventually, they all started looking like threats. Although lethal force was authorized, CorpSec began unleashing mass stun rounds to get through. Many people were dragged to transports unconscious and bleeding, some were trampled by the crowd or CorpSec boots, others were even less lucky. Either detonating from the pirates, or mistaken for pirates and killed on sight.

Some civilians were even arrested, CorpSec lacking unity in how to handle the crowd of unknown threats.

Ill-equipped for the terrorist attack, and lacking direction from an experienced Captain, every officer was doing the best they could in a terrible situation. Nonetheless, squads were going in to recover the VIPs, if they were alive, and look for their "downed Captain" and her subordinate.

This operation would be marked as a failure and blight on CorpSec for a long time.

Daiya Zivos Vallaro Kindall Myrin Deene Xun of Throne Sor-Jan Xantha

 

[Daiya]

A grin of satisfaction grew across her face as her blaster shot hit, though not where she was expecting it. The splatter of flesh and blood that flew off from the Houk's head was plenty gratifying, though, after the tragedy the pirate had wrought upon the mall. All those stores, all those sales...crushed beneath the very weight of the structure that supported it.

Well, if that was a metaphor for something, it would have to wait a while to be examined.

Daiya gasped in surprise a moment later, watching a baton-wielding cat person slide into the store and whip at the Houk's leg. She seemed to do some damage to him, and he began to favor one leg over the damaged one. The teen's surprise fueled more satisfaction, watching the kitty cat deal such a blow to their —apparently shared— adversary. The big pirate was already slumping from the weight of the cybernetic cannon arm, which was no longer looking very functional. Daiya's grin became a smirk, she was pretty sure Tawrro could manage to take this laserbrain now.

She motioned to him, poised and ready across the store. There was no sense of uncertainty in his eyes, the Wookiee surely noticed the same thing that his companion did. Daiya indicated the Houk with a quick jerk of her head. She frowned, however, when Tawrro shook his. He indicated the Tarro, whose was not only standing again, but his exo-suit's missile launcher was out and still-smoking from its recent launches at their former position. The girl glowered at the suited pirate, what was it going to take for him to stay down?!

Giving Tawrro an assertive nod, Daiya found her attention caught by the small, rat-like Squib pirate. The Houk's crew seemed to just defy death and disability, and it seemed that only a real face-off was going to keep the creature down. While the Squib was occupied firing at the catty baton-artist, Daiya crept up close to him, grabbing an item from the floor. Plenty of the damaged Heartbeat products on the floor were just makeup or cosmetic items, but this one felt like her lucky charm.

As she saw Tawrro launch forward out of the corner of her eye, making use of the shelf once more to aim at the missile launcher of the exo-suit-wearing pirate, Daiya crept forward. Waiting for her moment, the girl launched herself at the Squib, her free hand splayed in a palm, with the jolt ring twisted around so it would shock the small pirate when they connected.

Daiya wasn't sure if that was enough to take down the dirty rat, who had already survived a violent serve into the wall by Tawrro, but she still had a blaster in her hand and her finger stayed ready on the trigger. One way or another, the little pirate was going down!

"Get that Houk!" she roared to the kitty, who was suddenly without an opponent. With Tawrro now grappling with the exo-suited Tarro —who was just shy of the Wookiee's equal— and Daiya playing a game of chase with a surprisingly-agile Squib —she had already missed on two accounts, and wasn't intending her third try to fail— the only pirate left in their little mess was the big guy.

Daiya didn't wait for a reply, focusing her attention instead on perfecting her aim before squeezing out another shot from her blaster. As it fired out from the barrel of her 434 blaster, it carried all her dashed hopes for a day of shopping with it.

Xun of Throne Sor-Jan Xantha Kadora'Tra Myrin Deene Vallaro Kindall Zivos​

 

[Xun of Throne]

The stun baton landed again and again, beating the Houk down until he collapsed to his knees, arms - well arm… the other was just a hunk of inoperative metal at this point - and legs virtually useless.

Blood dripped along the side of the Houk’s face where the blaster bolt had charred through his skin. On closer inspection, it looked like it might’ve taken some of his eye with it.

“Boss!” Mickey screamed as the big pirate went down.

The commotion caused Silverback to turn as well, long enough to catch a punch to the face from the Wookiee that knocked him to the floor.

“Stop!” Mickey stopped shooting and tossed his gun to the ground. “Stop. We’re done. Stanging hell.” He raised both paws above his head and knelt down. “All this for nothin. All for nothin.”

Meanwhile, CorpSec and Bounty Hunters began tracking down and neutralizing the remaining pirates across the rubble of the mall. But three disappeared without a trace into the mass of fleeing bodies, escaping into the chaos of the city: Rol Zivari, the Professor, and Mane.