Naasad'guur Mhi, Mhi N'ulu, Mhi Mando'ade (Mandalorian Dominion of Taris)

[Naast'ika Laaran]

(#12/20)


Naast'ika rose twenty meters into the air. All the while, the point defense cannons spread over his hull barked out against the swarms of Rekghoul with lethal effect. They were automated. The droid brains that controlled the turrets had, for the moment, been set to engage Rekghoul and only Rekghoul. His primary offensive weapons swiveled back and forth, looking for clear targets far enough away from civilians to not cause collateral damage. The turrets were not Naast'ika's to control right now. Nor were his heavy proton torpedo tubes. Nor were his point defense turrets. Each were controlled by his crew or were slaved to the will of droids. Scared, angry, and missing the twi'leks that had been making him happy until very recently, Naast'ika lashed out the only way he knew how. Holding himself aloft with the four primary dovin basals of his neuroengine, Naast'ika swept his fifth, defensive dovin basal through a cluster of the swarming monsters. Most were simply flung into the air, falling this way and that as the powerful singularity swept overhead. Quite a few, to the satisfaction of Naast'ika, were yanked violently into the singularity he created. Some were crushed and disappeared entirely. Others simply flung past the singularity in more pieces than they had been in mere moments before.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Eh, I just dont think they've seen a Mando'ade up close is all. They'll get used to it eventually," he said, his tone dismissive of the reception, not of his wife. Her next words caught his attention, however.

"Rakghouls? Aren't they those things that turn people into more of the creatures?" he asked thoughtfully. As he thought a moment, the food and drinks arrived. He handed Anija her drink and scone and tucked Mirshko's cookie into one of the plated pouches of his armor. "Well, we have enough time for a drink and a snack before the fighting starts, I think. Think Mir'ika's cookie will be fine in the pouch?"

[member="Anija Ordo"]

15/20

 

[Anija Betna]

[member="Arrbi Betna"]

6/20

"I hope so, at least..." she said in reply to his first comment. "While we might not set up a garrison here... I think there will be an increased presence." She frowned, momentarily distracted by the food. Accepting her drink, she nodded. "Aye, they are.... and from the sounds of things out there... there's a feth=ton t of them..." she sipped at her tea, trying to be calm as she kept her voice low. "Mir'ika's cookie should be alright as long as you don't fall on that side.." Part of her just wanted to sit back and enjoy the few minutes of quiet... but the rest of her, knew her duty as a Field Marshal.

 

[Shaw McKeller]

One of the tin suits Draco designed went down. Not because the pilot had been killed or injured or the armor breached, but because of the sheer weight of the numbers dragging it down.

Shaw decided to fix the problem. He shifted over and planted his feet firmly before bringing the blade around over his shoulder. The heavy sword swung hard and fast using both Shaw's augmented strength and momentum to it's benefit. Ghouls fell away from the downed suit, bisected and rent apart by Jag'kyramud. Shaw watched the pilot rise up covered in gore and shoving dead rakghoul parts off the armor, but not for long.

More came at them and Shaw went back to work. His blade rose and fell as he did his grisly duty. Around him lay the bodies of the fiends who perished at his hands. Slowly but surely the pile grew larger...

[member="Draco Vereen"]
[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

16/20

 

[Andras Garon]

Kimmel Export Tower, Taris

​

...E-V-E-N-Y...

...just a few strokes of the keyboard and the console opened to Andras as though he had been its lord and commander all along. It only took a little innovation and some coercing on his part to obtain the password however the little bit of trouble had been rewarded tenfold. As the console activated it answered several questions for Andras the most obvious being where exactly he was on Taris. Kimmel Exports is what the screen read as it activated. How intriguing...

...it turns out that in his earlier years Strider Garon had an illicit tryst with the wife of the CEO of Kimmel Exports himself, Mr. Kimmel who I'd left worse for where on the floor in the room adjacent to this one, which lead to the meeting that had just occurred several years later. Kimmel might not have cared that Andras wasn't the Garon he was looking for but now that Andras knew more he'd be sure to make the most of this meeting. "Need a business partner Kimmel?"...he'd have mused to himself while accessing the data stored on the console which provided him with a number of inside information and details of the corporation itself. Everything Andras would need to make the business his own...

...reaching up Andras would wipe a bead of sweat off of his brow before his hand trailed down to rub the side of his jaw and nurse the ache that was still present there..."Looks like this is my lucky day after all."...then he'd have collapsed back in a seat behind the desk where the console was located. Gazing beyond the console he'd have steepled his fingers against one another as he looked towards that adjacent room where Kimmel was still incapacitated, the real interrogation was about to begin with Andras on the other side of things....​

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Works for me," Betna said with a grin. He pulled his helmet off and took a long drag on the beer and a bite of scone.

For the moment, the fighting was in hand and they could eat their snack for the moment. From the looks of things, Naast'ika had things pretty well handled, but a few other trigger pullers couldn't hurt.

"When do you want to step outside?" he asked, sipping his beer.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

17/20

 

[Naast'ika Laaran]

(#13/20)



Heavy, automated flak cannons barked out from all sides of Naast'ika. Here and there, one of the heavy plasma cannons launched forth a molten ball of plasma at a large cluster of Rekghouls as they swarmed through the city. The beasts were everywhere. Naast'ika's sensors showed angry red dots swarming city streets and clawing their way through buildings for as far as five city blocks in any direction. Naast'ika watched with dread as small, vulnerable dots of light cowered in one tiny corner of a building or another as the angry red dots of light tore through doorways and tore the poor humanoids to shreds. He watched sadly as a blot of light went dark... then became red and began moving again.

Naast'ika did not like the Rekghoul. They were mean.

Shifting his dovin basals, all five of them this time, Naast'ika dropped twenty meters and slammed bodily into the ground below. Dozens were crushed beneath him as his body collapsed the first two stories of a building, sinking him up to his nacelle in duracrete and alusteel.

As his body fell, the powerful dovin basals were swept through one of the nearby buildings. All of the little white lights had gone out. No more humans. No twi'leks. Just Rekghouls.

As the hammer of gravity slammed through one side of the building and out the other, five floors collapsed inward towards the powerful singularity Naast'ika had created. The building shuddered violently as Naast'ika sat upon the ground. He swept the singularity back through the building, stopping at the midway point, and dragged the singularity up and down through the center of the building. Naast'ika hated Rekghouls. They were bad lifeforms.

 

[Anija Betna]

[member="Arrbi Betna"]
7/20

Sighing, Anija did likewise, and set her helmet on the table next to his. She could sense the surprise of the other patrons and it made her grin even more as she sat back nonchalantly and ate her scone. "They think we're crazy..." she murmured in Betna's ear as she looked outside. From what else she could sense in the Force, things seemed well in hand. as well as they could be, anyways. "You know, that little ship... is totally wrecking things out there..." The thought amused her immensely, and she grinned again.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"I know," responded Betna. "We almost don't even really need to do anything. It's kinda neat, really."

He polished off his scone and sipped his beer once more. Outside was a picture of carnage as rakghouls perished in fire and blood. How the glass windows of the tapcaf were still intact, Betna didn't know.

"Oh! Did you see that? One got vaporized by a point defense cannon. Was kinda cool looking."

[member="Anija Ordo"]
[member="Naast'ika Laaran"]

18/20

 

[Anija Betna]

"Hmm?" Anija looked up at his quiet exclamation and watched for several moments. Bodies... or parts of bodies flew past the windows in a miniature hurricane created by the swirling downdraft of force from Naast'ika's dovin basals. it was.... intriguing to watch. She'd worked with the little ship before several times, but never really gotten to observe him in combat. "Let's finish our drinks and then go see if he needs help.." She sighed. Arrbi was right. There were not too many times they got to sl;ow down and just take it easy. though part of her did feel guilty about it - this time.
[member="Arrbi Betna"]
8/20

 

[Popo]

First, cut in line. Then, rakghouls show up and scare the twileks off. Now, the corvette was shooting up the place.

Popo's day just was not willing to work with him.

He'd slid behind a rather large speeder to avoid the worst of the shrapnel and explosions. Now, he was just watching what was going on.

Turns out he wasn't the only one.

Beside him, using the same speeder as cover, was another rakghoul. It seemed more scared than hungry and more afraid of the explosions than worrying about attacking anything. Popo figured it was a younger rakghoul.

"So..." Popo started, thinking conversation might be a decent pastime. "Undercity. Any good real estate down there?"

[member="Naast'ika Laaran"]

 

[Werdla Dardalab]

[12/20]

Taung sa rang broka!​

jetiise ka'rta!​

Dha Werda Verda a'den tratu!​

Coruscanta kandosii atu!​

Duum motir ca'tra nau tracinya!​

Gra'tua cuun hett su dralshy'a!​

​

Kom'rk tsad droten troch nyn ures adenn!​

Dha Werda Verda a'den tratu!​

Coruscanta kandosii atu!​

Duum motir ca'tra nau tracinya!​

Gra'tua cuun hett su dralshy'a!​

​

Dha Werda Verda a'den tratu!​

Coruscanta kandosii atu!​

Duum motir ca'tra nau tracinya!​

Gra'tua cuun hett su dralshy'a!​

Dha Werda Verda a'den tratu!​

Coruscanta kandosii atu!​

Duum motir ca'tra nau tracinya!​

Gra'tua cuun hett su dralshy'a.​

Five voices sang or chanted in passable harmony. It was possible they hadn't stopped at five. They'd even managed to convince 'La a vacation might not be a terrible idea, and drunkenly booked her one over their comms. Something about a beach or something. Whatever. It would surely all become clear later, when there was a little more sobriety to go around.

At the moment, they were in various states of stagger, helmets off, heading back for the ships, subjecting the citizens of Taris to a myriad of songs in Mando'a and threatening them if they stopped to look to hard. They were pretty good about not pulling guns when they couldn't see straight, but there was just about nothing that could stop them from scrapping.

"I think.."

"Yeah?"

"I think.."

"What?"

"Tha might be a wave of them rak-things."

"What?"

"Comin at us."

"Pretty fast."

"'S a lot of claws."

"Osik."

"Buckets on!"

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Fair enough," Betna said, downing the last of his beer.

He donned his helmet once more and pulled his shotgun around into his hands. He double checked to make sure it was loaded and ready to go before looking up at his wife.

"Well, shall we go for a walk?" he asked, the grin evident in his voice.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Werdla Dardalab]

[13/20]

"I liked tha bar, tha wassa, it wassa good bar! itdone, it don't need no rakkies!"

"Hold!"

The five Mandos spread out, a little unsteadily, to once again form a line across the street. Almost as one they dropped to one knee to help steady their shots. They could use all the help they could get in that department.

Once again, civvies were allowed to flow through them unmolested, some even changed course to make for the reassuringly armed and armoured Mandalorians. Hearts and Minds, look how good they were at their job, yaaay. Someone might even give them a medal or something.

"Din't, din't the rak report say somethin' abou' like, infection?"

"We have armour, should be okay, jes don' take it off."

"Haha, only time I wan' you t'keep your armour on La."

"Yer but like."

La brows drew together as she struggled to have her somewhat pickled brain cells communicate with each other.

"But like, how d'we know them goin' past us aren't infected."

"Osik."

"Should we.. should we shoot everyone?"

"No time to check them.."

"Kark that, that ain't my job. When they get all claw-y and stuff I'll kill 'em. Till then, I don't do civvies."

Throughout this they were picking off approaching rakghouls, holding their own pretty well. The tide of civilians had slowed down, 'La reckoned in a few more minutes she could switch to the Riot Gun, which would be a relief. Less aiming.

 

[Captain Larraq]

(#14/20)


Larraq was preparing to counter those who were against his proposal when he slowly became aware of a steadily increasing noise that came from outside the building. He was going to ask what the cause of the commotion was when a loud explosion ripped through the city streets. Larraq instantly recognized the noise as having come from multiple missile launchers detonating at once. <Don't tell me they started a war.> Larraq thought to himself. He knew that his vod had descended upon Taris to sweep the planet's cities of criminals and worse, but he hadn't thought that the use of such ordnance would be needed. Another, a more implacable sound, rumbled through the walls. Those in the office, those with him and against him, stood as one to look out the window at what was causing the commotion.

Rekghouls. Swarms upon swarms of Rekghouls. And at every city street, Mando'ade were standing shoulder to shoulder against the swarming monsters from the depths of Taris. "By the Taung." Larraq said automatically as he took it all in. Those around him muttered similar swears and prayers. In the distance, a building collapsed in on itself. For a moment, Larraq couldn't identify the cause of the collapse. And something was off about the way it was falling... there wasn't enough debris... and it appeared to be getting pulled into its center.

A second later, and Larraq spotted one of his Mesen'loras on the other side of the building, carnage and dead Rekghoul surrounding the craft. Instantly, the collapsing building made sense.

 

[Werdla Dardalab]

[14/20]

"I think thas most of them."

"It looks.."

"Yeah?"

"It looks like th'lot we killed was, were jest chasin' pupple. People. Think most of 'em were goin' t'other way."

"Well."

"Yeah?"

"Well I guess we should go shoot them too."

"Do we gotta? I got the spins somethin' wicked."

"There's prolly bars over there what you'd like if they weren't gonna get overun with raks."

"I got, I got like.. alotta ammo with rakghouls names on it. Or, it would if they had names. Do they have names? Are they like.. Arrghskkreee?"

"Reckon it's be hard t'write that on anything let alone a plasma round."

"Right, lessgo'n, 'n save the bars. I mean day. We'll save the day too."

"Reckon we'll get a bonus for this?"

"Pfffft, yeah, prolly like, seven times our usual pay. They might even add a percentage bonus."

"So like.. seven, times zero.. plus twenty percent o'that.."

"I might be drunk but, I'm pretty sure that's still a zero."

"We should robbed that Nikto."

"It's not robbing, it's spoils of war."

"Ksst, y'nick the Nikto's stuff, it's thievry, take it from me."

"Tell us more pirate stories La!"

"I ain't gonna. Shut up and shoot some stuff."

They pressed on down the street, the sounds of massive structural damage starting to register on their HUDS.

"What th'hell is that?"

 

[Olivia Dem'adas]

(#15/20)



Olivia Dem'adas, chief of clan Dem'adas and leader of one of the larger naval forces in the Mandalorian Territories, watched the screen in utter shock and silence. Live feed from Taris had cut into the broadcast of her favorite sitcom. And on that feed, Mandalorians fought shoulder to shoulder with local police and thugs alike against a swarm of Rekghoul. Apparently, in the absence of the Mandalorians, the planet had festered a bit.

"What the feth?" Olivia asked no one in particular as she leaned forward and watched the news broadcast. Far in the background, a skyscraper collapsed. People screamed. Monsters wearing the clothes of the humans and humanoids they had once been clawed their way towards the camera crew. The screen bounced violently as the civilians turned to ran, only to stop suddenly and focus on a squad of Mandalorians that came from behind them. "Hit the deck!" One of the vod yelled through a speaker in his helmet. The Civilians complied and the bark of automatic weapons overwhelmed her holoprojector. In the live feed, a tilted view showed the feet and backs and heads of a crowd of civilians taking shelter as a hailstorm of bullets tore through the air over them. On the far side of the crowd of civilians, Rekghoul dropped by the dozens... nothing more than a bloody stain and rended flesh remaining.

 

[Werdla Dardalab]

[15/20]

"Is that a ship?"

"I want one."

The reply was immediate and automatic.

"Kark."

She added, levelling the riot gun and squeezing off several shots as fresh waves of Rakghouls swarmed towards them. The intensity of the attack had definitely picked up. The drunken chatter was largely cut off as they aimed and shot, aimed and shot, adamant that they'd not lose a step of ground. Didn't matter if the street they were on wasn't strategically important, they'd cleared the damned thing, and with a drunks belligerent insistence, they were not going to lose it.

The Rakghouls might have been a veritable ocean, but the were the rocks the waves would break upon. Didn't matter how many of the creatures threw themselves at them, they would not be broken. Their advance had admittedly slowed to a crawl, often halted entirely as they fired.

They weren't alone any longer however. Their HUDs were coming alive with updates and feeds from their brethren as the other Mandalorians upon Taris united to not only push back, but to wipe out this threat to what was about to be theirs again.

"One good thing I reckon."

"Yeah?"

"Least these calyarnr came out while we were all on planet 'nd lookin' tough anyway."

"And they let us finish our drinks first."

"Oh elek, they're polite rakkies."

"Haha, maybe they thought it would help."

"Never met a drunk Mando then."

"Well they won't twice!"

 

[Naast'ika Laaran]

(#16/20)



Naast'ika would have growled at the creatures if he'd been able to. He hated them. The entire skyscraper collapsed into the singularity Naast'ika had made and it had taken an entire swarm of Rekghoul with it. Point defense flak cannons continued to bark out in all directions as they kept the swarming monsters at bay. In his three-dimensional perception of the world around him, Naast'ika could see the shift in the swarms as they broke and began to flee from the streets and make their way into the darkness once more. For nearly a kilometer in every direction, IFF markers told Naast'ika that the Mandalorians were fighting and killing the monsters even as they fled for cover. Many tried to chase after the Rekghoul, but were quickly stopped by a single order.

"Do not pursue the enemy below ground." Captain Tupu ordered as he watched the retreating icons on the bridge's holoprojector. "Brace for suppression fire. Danger close."

Naast'ika saw what Captain Tupu saw. The swarms of Rekghoul were converging on a single point deep below the surface of Taris' cityscape. The monsters were huddling together in the dark, fearful of the terrible Mandalorians that had come to their world. A firing solution flashed across the holoprojector and Naast'ika found himself in control of his main cannon once again.

"Naast'ika. You did great." Captain Tupu said to his ship. "The honor is yours."

 

[Briika Munin]

Location: Taris Undercity
Objective: Get back to the ship
Allies: [member="Graad Hokan"]
Enemies: Rakghouls
[Post 3/20]


< "Come on, Come on!" >

Briika kept pushing the lift button willing the doors to open quickly as the Rakghouls were on their heels and Graad was keeping them at bay. When the doors finally did open the blonde was promptly shoved hard into the small space, then she heard the rugged Concordian call out her name both in warning and pain. By the time he joined her, the baar'ur knew what had happene from the sheer terror in his baritone voice coming over the comlink between them.

< "Let me see… "> Bree said, then accessed his injury while the lift took them upwards to the upper city. Yep… the rakghoul's claw had just grazed the merc on the side where his armor plates didn't cover. It was a small laceration, but still… She slapped on a bacta patch to cover it until they could get back to the ship's medbay where the wound could be properly treated and the serum administered along with getting a sample of Graad's antibodies produced for later research.

Luckily for them it wasn't too far to where the transport was docked. On board, Briika quickly went to work. It didn't take long for the results of the blood samples to come back. The verdict was in…

"So do you want the good news or the bad news first?" she asked, keeping a neutral face.