Faction Our Soles laid Bare (Darkwire)

[Jerec Asyr]

Noticing that he, too, seems to be looking for her, she pushes through to his side, and sees the falling-over line of CorpSec in front of him. Impressed, she reaches for her needles, ready to take on the next line.

Jerec stumbled up to his feet as Samnai reached him. He brought up a fallen Corpo riot shield and planted his feet in anticipation of another CorpSec charge.

And then—

In a rare moment of reprieve, the vigilante called the aid of the Force. His fists tightened into balls before he repulsed, sending a spherical shockwave around him to clear a pocket of ground.

"Pull back!!" then swiftly rotated around his axis to face the corporate guards seeking to gain the ground the vigilante had cleared. "They're gonna bring an army down here, damn it!!"

The shockwave was a little too far away to level Jerec and Samnai, but the press of shoved protesters and CorpSec crashed into Jerec from the side. He felt something break in his concealed kidnap jabber, probably the molecular stiletto injection tip. So much for that.

Big eyes narrowed as he recognized one of the armored pseudo-probably-Jedi vigilantes who'd instigated the bloodshed back at the Nexus Cantina. Naturally, the little shavvit appeared to be the very incarnation of bothsidesism.

"Hey Jedi! Get your drek outta here!"

A corpo got too close to Samnai. Jerec grabbed him, neck and belt, and hurled him at Dagon Kaze with strength straight from the dark side. The goal was somewhere between bowling and pool: hit Dagon, and use him to knock down a few more corpos.

 

[Ria the Cat]

Louder. Things got louder the cat was quite agitated by it all, and the droid heard its master. The quiet, low, guttural growls that emanated from the feline as the droid's rather stiff movements all but announced their arrival with each and every heavy step that the machine took. Riots seldom ended in anything but violence, a rather obtrusive view into the realities that plagued Denon and other places like it across the galaxy. CorpSec against those who rioted, the smells and the sounds of fighting, and blood. The anguish of those who lived here all came together like Kaminoan storm destined to wipe everything they knew from existence.

Only this time, the feline suspected it would be those who protested who would find themselves in the morgue, or in jail. For a trusted few, the jail might become their morgue. Justice was a scandal here, played out like a petty novella with substandard production rates. The whirs of the droid's motorized movements echoed against the walls and railings. Emptying out onto the bitter Denon night, the cat flicked her tail with annoyance. Quickly it swished back and forth, it hung low and curled just every so often.

Ria mewed, and the droid paused its movements.

CorpSec did not know of their presence and Ria wanted to keep it that way. They were low enough now that the droid could send out a smoke grenade or perhaps a flashbang. Or even better, the droid shifted out of direct view moving to wirelessly connect to any local broadcast line. From there the droid moved once more this time to gain a better angle and join those who streamed the riot. Meanwhile, the cat leaped up onto a balcony railing and walked along the edge. There was a sign not too far away, it was held there by bolt and washers, but oh it held on so very loosely. A simple blast of the Force, Force Push should be enough to tear it from its holdings.

She just needed to wait for CorpSec to be close enough to it.

 

[Ruby Jaxx]

"Oh, chit." Ruby braced as the crowd seemed to move in a wave. Ripples through the protesters, arms, legs, shouts. "Chit, chit, chit."

Ruby felt someone elbow her in the ribs. But she didn't know if it was another of her fellow protesters or CorpSec. It made her hunch over with an 'oof' just the same. A peaceful protest had filled her mind with images of people sitting still and calm outside the mall. Now, though... that picture was well shattered.

She glanced to the side in time to see Yula Perl catch a stun baton to the ribs. Ouch.

If the Zeltron crumbled, she could get trampled or worse -- taken. "Hey!" Ruby shouted at the CorpSec that assaulted her pink friend. She might not have had any knives or blasters, but she did have the old fashion weapons: her fists. Ruby belted the officer across the jaw -- or where the jaw should have been, had he not been wearing a helmet. Her hand throbbed, but she'd knocked the CorpSec off balance.

"You alive?" She hollered to Yula.

 

[Ivory Stroud]

(Disturbed, Land of Confusion)

The baton came in; a straight jab toward her midsection. She pivoted, deflecting the blow with her forearm as she circled the CorpSec officer, swinging toward his outside - she left the hand holding the baton free, carrying the momentum around to reach up and grab the officer's shoulder-pad. A sharp yank to throw him off balance and her foot came up, stepping down on the man's booted Achilles tendon. The sudden arrest of movement was enough to pull him off balance and he collapsed.

A second officer was already moving toward her, weaving his baton in a figure-out... she guessed the man was a trained artist, as the tactic was taught in various Martial Arts. It made it difficult for someone to grab one's weapon, and made your own strikes difficult to track. Ivory backed off, keeping the downed officer between her and the man approaching her. Instead of engaging them both, she turned - racing toward the steps to the second level. "Get her!" One of the officers shouted. She didn't know which.

She took the steps at a leap, climbing them quickly. Her calves screamed at the sudden exertion but she powered through it. The moment she reached the top, she could hear footsteps behind her... the clank of CorpSec armor chasing her up the steps.

As she crested the top of the steps onto the second floor, her senses suddenly roared: Move.

She ducked, and heard a sound similar to fluttering wings pass directly over her head. Without looking, she knew what she'd dodged - a net, fired at her.

Behind her, coming up the steps, the two CorpSec officers came fast. The fourth, furthest from her during the onset of her engagement, had turned to deal with the crowd.

At a crouch, she fired a kick at the first officer coming up the stairs, but it glanced off his armored shin. He swung at her, but she was low enough that it missed. Barely.

"Bastard", she growled, and then he was on-top of her. She grabbed his wrist, delaying the impact of the baton for a second swing, and viciously heaved: knocking him into the railing and causing him to lose his footing. The officer slipped and nearly collapsed into his oncoming comrade, buying her just enough time to rise at a scramble. She knew it was only a few heartbeats until another net was coming her direction... She needed cover, and she needed a weapon.

Daiya Jerec Asyr Samnai Rouber Gemma Hentz Val Halcard Braxton Holst Yula Perl Dagon Kaze Ruby Jaxx Ria the Cat Cartri Keswoll​

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Daiya Anakin Stormrunner Xan Deesa Dagon Kaze Hacks Samnai Rouber Jerec Asyr Ivory Stroud Kadora'Tra Yula Perl

"Me and my big mouth..."

In the blink of an eye, his very fears came true. CorpSec troops from every direction rushed the Darkwire protesters, swinging their batons fiercely and arresting anyone they could get their hands on. The flash assault was quick enough to startle the crowd backward, forcing Cartri to be separated from Yula as he got roughly pushed to the left "Kark! be careful Yula!" he shouted in the hopes she'd be wise enough to keep out of harm's way.

Suddenly, through the crowd, he heard the familiar voice of Daiya voicing her displeasure. He snapped his head just in time to see Daiya getting handled by the seccers, who wasted no time in trying to put her in cuffs. The teen let out a growl and suddenly barreled towards Daiya, his hands open and ready to use without a second thought "Leave her alone you corporate pigs!" the boy yelled, forcefully pushing his way through the countless protesters until he saw an opening to strike.

Using a short run up he dived at the seccers feet, wrapping his arms around the legs with force until he fell back first to the floor. Scrambling on top of him he removed the stun baton from its holster and slammed it into his shoulder, zapping him until he couldn't move anymore.

Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around his chest and tugged him to his feet. Dragging him away from the unconscious body and into the more open ground "Arghhhh! get off me!" he grunted before unceremoniously driving the baton backwards into his stomach until he let go. Cartri stumbled forwards and turned around as the guard rushed him once again, but he wouldn't get far. He quickly raised his hands and gripped the guard using the force, throwing him forcefully into another two who were fast approaching. Like bowling pins, they all fell motionless on the floor.

Cartri hurried back to Daiya put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly "Come on Daiya, we need to get out of here. Now!" he shouted with urgency as the battle waged on around them. Yet, through that time the ginger didn't take into account his surroundings. Out of the blue a stun baton hit the boy's back, shooting a pain he'd never felt before to surge through his spine "ARGHHHHHH!"

In a matter of seconds, three seccers jumped onto the hurt Cartri and pushed him face first into the floor next to Daiya "Deal with the girl you two, I've got this brat!" the seccer spat as he brought Cartri's arms behind his back to keep him secure. The force of the hit knocked him into dreamland, sending his vision into a blurred spiral "Daiya... R-run...go..." Cartri blurted out in a pained gasp, finding it hard to keep conscious underneath the seccer who pointed at Daiya now with fierce intent.

 

[Yula Perl]

"You alive?" She hollered to Yula.

Yula gasped, lungs swelling with oxygen as the stun baton finally let it up. She hadn't seen the officer go down, but suddenly Eyeliner was there.

"Yea-" She rasped, thumping a fist against her chest and stumbling back by a half step. The cop who'd been pushed back had regained his balance, bringing half a dozen goons with him. Hostiles like Yula and Ruby gave them a chance to freely employ violent tactics. Self-defense, right?

The protest-turned-riot was reaching a fever pitch fast, and dissenters were already being dragged into armored patrol wagons. "We have to—Cartri—now—!" Yula tried calling over to Ruby, her words lost in the sea of bodies and din of the riot. They'd lost sight of the ginger kid, and Yula could only hope that he was surviving on his own alright.

The CorpSec thugs surged on them fast, and Yula was prepared. She caught the next stun baton that went swinging for her head, hissing in pain as sparks leaped along her hand. The stinging sensation bled into her arm, but she focused on hindering the electrical currents discharging from the weapon. A projectile—either wayward or well-aimed—struck his helmet with enough force to send him stumbling, and Yula ripped the baton from his hands.

She narrowed the location of the streamer using the name of a store in the foreground but it wasn't enough, there was still a good two dozen bodies in the thick of the crowd and the streamer could be any one of them. She had seconds, Hacks surmised, before the streamer realised someone was probing her firewall.

Suddenly her brain was on fire. It was like snorting bad spice, or inhaling those crushed up spicy chips. "Hwa…" A hand went to her forehead, trying to make sense of the sensation. Had she been darted with something? Was this a new CorpSec dispersion agent at play? The vision in her bionic eye was already choppy with the strain of broadcasting, but suddenly there was a lot more static. Enough to obscure her vision and make the footage grainy and distorted.

Two things struck her; first, someone was interfering with her video stream.

The second was a riot shield, and Yula was suddenly flat on her ass. One bastard hovered over her, one fist in her face, but she still had the stun baton. So she employed it, smashing the butt end of the weapon into the officer's visor. Once. Twice. A third time until she could see the whites of his eyes, one sclera tinged red with a popped blood vessel. Or anger. Hell, she could see the sweat drip from the edge of his brow to the bridge of his nose. His skin was a shade of lavender, maybe Keshiri? Possibly Zeltron, but who could tell in this lighting. Yula felt scandalized either way.

She spat in his face. He did not take it well.

One eye was filled with static, and now the other was filled with stars. Next thing she knew, Yula was being dragged by her arms and tossed into an armored shuttle.

Ruby Jaxx Cartri Keswoll Hacks Daiya Anakin Stormrunner Xan Deesa Dagon Kaze Ria the Cat Samnai Rouber Jerec Asyr Ivory Stroud

 

[Callista Volpe]

"Daiya... R-run...go..."

"Get that one to a van," called out a distinctly female voice. "I've got footage of him attacking one of the Sec officers."

The violence had erupted quickly, there was nothing she could have done about that. Callista had been far from the epicenter, at the back of the protest where some locals had tried to shove through the crowd to get home.

Kaydee hovered overhead, recording another that could be useful to them in the aftermath. That was why she was here, she assumed. Limit their liabilities in civil suits for any injuries the protestor sustained.

Volpe knelt down beside Cartri and hooked her hand under his left arm.

"Get him up. Carefully. He's just a kid," she warned the security officer.

"Hope you enjoy a few weeks in a juvie cell," she added for the benefit of the protestor.

 

[Kadora'Tra]

"LOOK AT US!" Kadora'Tra roared over the din, a feral call to her former kin and her new herd, "WALK OUT, OR WE WALK IN!"

Some Seccer tried to shout at her, "You're under arrest!"

"They're gonna bring an army down here, damn it!!"

Violence. Violence. Violence.

An unworded mantra seemed to echo inside of her. She felt its tug and call, saw into the past and future and forced it into the present. What was, will be, and is. She knew the army they would bring; they were her forsworn brothers and sisters, and she wanted to tear through all of them.

As the protest was befallen by the surge of bodies and shields, batons and fists connecting to exposed or armored flesh, one figure stood out amongst them. Something that only resembled a person but had every characteristic of an animal.

"Stun her already!" A voice called out with a tinge of mounting fear.

"I'm trying!" Another with desperation.

In one frame, a human girl with a cracked mirror-face shield demonstrated her pugilistic expertise, elbows, and knees.

In another frame, a feral Farghul leaves a trail of blood and claw marks, the face shield falling away.

The CorpSec officers responding to the incident tried to surround her and experienced a distinct sense of deja vu. Some of them saw familiar fur moments before blacking out. Others saw a shimmering mirage of a blonde youth, coupled with invisible claws. A cat with a ponytail, a human with a tail. The individual couldn't settle on one appearance as she fought tooth and nail (or claw) against them.

Yet for all her familiar ferocity, eventually, CorpSec counters her with numbers.

Images of the incident would spread and find corporate interests, as the animal is detained, unconscious...

 

[Samnai Rouber]

Corpsec was taking over the crowd. One only had to look at the arrests taking place to know so.

They were losing any advantage they had.

Gritting her teeth, Samnai kicks down another officer and jams a second needle into the human trying to shoot her from afar. She could still handle it, but if they kept coming she soon won’t be able to.

They had already arrested some of their members. She looks at the bodies being dragged across the ground, both living and possibly dead. Taking down a CorpSec and pushing her into the crowd like the first one, there comes up only one objective in her mind : Survive.

Daiya Xan Deesa Callista Volpe Ivory Stroud Lethe Harrow Anakin Stormrunner Jerec Asyr Gemma Hentz Hacks Val Halcard

 

[Xan Deesa]

Everything else fell away with a literal blast of the Force. Once Xan recovered and got to her feet, her gaze met that of an odd figure shouting for them to get away. Around her, CorpSec was grabbing people left and right to arrest and yank them away. She was not in control of this. Protesters fighting for their lives were being trampled and crushed, and now this new figure was interfering instead of helping them all.

Her facial recognition failed her completely. No matter how many attempts she tried to scan him, nothing could pinpoint his identity. Although he seemed familiar in a sense. Regardless, something needed to be done and she was the one who would do it. Peace be damned, fairness could melt in the Abyss along with wishful thinking and naivety.

What were the lives of a few more Seccers on top of the others?

Technicolour eyes glimmered as her face contorted in rage. Enjoyment and concern flew out the window as her synth-muscles tensed up and let loose, cybernetic blades emerging to rip and tear through armour, flesh and bone. A violent scream followed her blistering movements as nothing but anger and disgust fuelled her actions.

Once she broke through the bodies of Seccers, she reached this figure, this Nightshrike as her records called him.

Bloodied and battered, the Demon reached her target and swung at him. Unrelenting, unpredictable, she swung at his head and then at his legs, uncaring of the collateral damage of Seccers around her. "ROT! ROT, YOU CORPO DOG!" She roared at the top of her cybernetic lungs as she fought. "FIGHT THEM! KILL THEM ALL!"

Dagon Kaze

 

[Ivory Stroud]

Open shops, some of them with customers huddled inside with terrified looks on their faces, streamed by as Ivory sprinted down the hallway on the perimeter of the second floor. The railing to her right opened up to the floor below; the sounds of all-out warfare humming in her ears. She heard screams... of pain, of rage. A quick glance out of the corner of her eye caught a hooded figure ( Kadora'Tra ) keeping multiple CorpSec officers at bay; a whirling dervish of feral power. The stench of blood & fear assaulted her nostrils - somewhere in the chaos, ( Xan Deesa ) someone had spilled blood.

A lot of it.

The chaos was total. The mall would never be the same.

Behind her, the two CorpSec officers had recovered from the near-spill down the flight of stairs and were hot on her heels. She looked up to the floor above - a walk-way running perpendicular to the third-floor right-of-way - and saw the CorpSec officer who'd fired a net at her reloading his weapon. She doubled her pace...

when suddenly, her senses screamed at her again: MOVE!

Ivory threw herself into a forward roll as a sound from behind her cracked; she could sense the tiny steel barbs penetrate the air she'd just been occupying. If they'd have hit her, they may have penetrated her fur coat. Or they may not have. She came up back on her feet, having closed a little distance and put part of the walk-way above between her and the net-gun wielding CorpSec. The armored officer would have to shift his position to re-engage. This bought her a split second.

A split second was all she needed.

Whirling on her heel, she slid to a stop. The two officers chasing her were at a dead sprint to catch her and were on-top of her instantly. She struck like lightning: snagging the up-raised arm of the first (holding a baton to club her over the head) and whirled, catching the man's elbow and bringing it across her shoulder. She dropped her weight, feeling a bone-crunching snap. The officer screamed, but she followed through, using his oncoming momentum to hurl him over her shoulder. He went over her back like a sack of vegetables, landing with a crash.

Her combat senses took over. She didn't think, didn't feel, didn't ready herself. She simply opened herself to the flow.

The second officer swung but she blocked it, quickly blocking a follow-up hook with his left hand. She stepped in low, striking down into his groin (which made him flinch, even through the padding) then reached down, snagging his legs and ripping his lower body off the ground. He landed on his back, and Ivory lashed out with a kick - disarming him, sending the baton flying over the railing and into the melee below. Then, she dropped her weight, centered on the sharp point of her knee, directly into his sternum. A great woosh of air escaped his lungs, and she could see the pained expression on his face through the visor.

She aimed a rigid hand between his chest and chin, knocking him unconcious with a blow to the side of his neck.

A heartbeat later, when the net-gun wielding CorpSec officer finally regained an angle on the space where he'd lost the three below, she was gone. His comrades lay sprawled on the floor in various states of movement. Both of their batons had vanished. Ivory had also grabbed a can of chemical spray from one of their belts.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Sir! We have one lone actor in the wings! Multiple officers down! She's moving too fast!"

Val Halcard could hear the frantic tone in his officer's voice through the secure comm-link. Whomever this was, was no discrete. This was something worse.
​

 

[Daiya]

Squaring off against a Seccer turned out to be a terrible idea.

Her hands finally free, Daiya fumbled for the knife strapped to her side. It took a moment, her shirt was tangled in a piece of dried gum that had lodged itself to her pants, stretching instead of tearing away. It was a moment too long, by the time the teen had her shirt free, CorpSec was nearly on top of her. Frantic fingers pulled too hard at the leather grip of her blade, drawing a sliver of her own blood as she pulled it out, earning a yelp from the young shadowrunner who was now facing the looming Seccer.

He —she? it?— was armored in the heavier riot armor that obscurred the Seccer's identity, but not his intent. Daiya had to duck low to escape the arms meant to grab her, a hand flashing out to slash at the buckethead. He was a step ahead of the teen, and she found himself caught in armored gauntlets anyway, wrapping around her waist and hauling her up into his arms.

Upside down.

Daiya shrieked, her legs flailing while her brain worked to reorient itself. Her chest heaved in the Seccer's brawny grasp, her head and eyes thrashing to find some means of escape. At last, the young shadowrunner seemed to remember that she was armed. She flipped the knife in her palm, holding the pink-bladed weapon in a reverse grip, and then jammed it into the padding above the armored knees. The armorweave gave way to her blade, and the knife sunk into the Seccer's leg.

"Feth!" Daiya managed after landing. The Seccer had lost his grip on the teen, arranging a hard contact between the floor and her head as she collapsed to the ground before him. Her bruised head was faster to adjust this time, rolling aside before he could reach her again. Or in case one of his buddies was ready with a weapon. Her blonde curls picked up extra dirt on the floor of the mall, but Daiya just needed herself out of the way. She tossed them back, looking up to gauge her status once more.

That was the moment Cartri Keswoll slammed into the Seccer's legs, screaming as he went. The Seccer was down, with the ginger-haired boy fast on top, a fury to behold. She blinked as she watched the scene unfold before her, was Cartri really putting himself in harm's way? For her? Daiya was shocked out of breath, gasping to recover enough to tell him, "Cartri, behind you!"

The teen was already scrambling forward, trying to reach her knife in the downed Seccer's leg. Cartri was too busy shocking her former assailant with his own stun baton —a move that made her hold off on grabbing back her knife— to notice the one reaching in behind for him. The new Seccer pulled Cartri off the prone CorpSec body, leaving room for Daiya to grab her knife before she could turn to help him.

Already, Cartri had added a second unconscious body to his count today.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Daiya murmured at the boy's warning, gathering tangled legs underneath her. She felt a dampness at her side where she'd kept the knife, and glanced down at the pink soaking through her shirt. She would have to deal with the self-inflicted wound later. CorpSec swarmed around them, one getting close enough to warrant the teen to slash out with her knife. This one was wiser, jumping back to avoid the blade, and giving her enough time to climb to her feet. Enough time for Cartri to fall onto his face.

He screamed at her.

She ran.

Blind and dumbfounded, the young shadowrunner dashed on bare feet through the mob. The protest had turned riot, geared CorpSec all too ready for this eventuality. An errant thought in the back of her head told the girl this had been their plan all along. Conspiracy, not coincidence. Daiya shut it down, focusing instead on running forward.

Her heart pounded. Daiya ran without purpose or direction. Anakin was gone. Cartri was gone. Who, besides herself, could she even help now? The storefronts blurred past, avenues that would have been familiar to the shopping-lover were no different now than funhouse mirrors. She saw herself in every window, CorpSec leering close as she wove through their lines. Distended shapes loomed around her, and from time to time the teen slashed out with her knife, occasionally making contact.

Over here, the bent shape of Jerec Asyr throwing Seccers like they were nuna-balls. Over that way, the pink form of Yula Perl spitting into the face of a vindictive Seccer. And once she spied a familiar figure who morphed into a horrifying amalgam of a known feline enemy and a ponytail-wearing girl she considered a new friend.

An armored Seccer loomed in her path, stocky with meaty paws and a sharpened grin on the Defel's wolfish, exposed face. Her feet were sweaty now, the floor slick with fluids she wished she didn't recognize, and Daiya dropped down onto her hip. She let her momentum and the slickened floor slide her through the roaring Seccer's legs, a grin etched upon the triumphant teen's face.

It ripped into anguish as her world exploded in pain.

A trap! The uniformed Seccer behind the Defel was on top of her, knee and stun baton at the ready. Running on adrenaline still, Daiya sat up, falling over her knees when a boot kicked her in the kidney from behind. The teen coughed, her lungs on fire.

No one came to rescue her this time. No one was around to help.

The crowd had thinned, red and black CorpSec drowning out the protesters. Daiya knew she had only one more chance, and launched her arm forward, letting the knife fly from her palm toward the Seccer looming over her. It lodged in the grey pleating of the uniform's shoulder, causing the Seccer to stagger back.

Another one took their place, a stun baton roughly shoved into Daiya's side. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed, red-hot agony washing over her world. Her knees collapsed, planting her body on the ground, and she instinctively wrapped her arms around her. The pain came again, electric fire that rushed through the point of contact just under her bleeding ribcage. "NEEEEUUUUOOOOOOO—"

Her arms were yanked, nearly from their sockets, tearing the girl from her protective pose. Daiya inhaled dirt and debris, sobbing as her face was held against the floor. Cuffs bound her hands together behind her, pulling at the seizing muscles in her shoulder, forcing her to take short, wheezing gasps in order to breathe.

Daiya was hauled up by rough hands, turned to face the Seccer whose shoulder she had wounded. She sneered at the girl, pointing the pink tip of the knife under Daiya's chin in her uninjured grip. The young shadowrunner raised her head, amazed she even had the strength to do that. Her eyes searched the CorpSec woman's, her very throat at the mercy of her captor.

"You're going to pay for that, schutta! You're just lucky your little, pink toy missed my lung."

She coughed, wet and heavy. Spittle flew to the floor, landing between the deft woman's legs. Daiya grinned nevertheless. "I was aiming for your throat."

The woman growled, and stuffed a knee into Daiya's gut. The world dimmed, but she could hear herself groaning from someone pulling her hair.

As they led the half-conscious teen out to the waiting trucks, Daiya could see a lock of her hair dangling from the Seccer's waist. A pink one.

 

[Dagon Kaze]

From the rampant cacophony of groans, curses, slogans, and even life coach motivational quotes that were hurled about in thirty-six different languages, the word 'Jedi' emerged but not in that high-pitched, inspirational voice, nor in that bone-chilling, frightened tone a goon would use. No, it sounded like the raucous war horn sounded by four grizzly throats and it struck him with the hefty armored form of a large Seccer muscle.

Nightshrike crashed down under the unexpected missile's weight, the air shredding an escape out of his lungs and flimsier bones cracked against the duracrete floor. Whatever hint of the dark side may have permeated his senses, it had disappeared in the cursory blackout when his head hit the pavement. Both Seccer and vigilante looked at each in bewildermenet, stars circling around their eyes before the ringing in their ears ceased and the muffled sound of the riot blew up their eardrums once more. The muscle above him quickly shoved his forearm into Dagon's throat, a standard choking lock pinning him down. An untrained individual would wriggle wildly like fish out of water trying to escape the grip but to no avail.

The vigilante pulled his knees up with enviable flexibility and sprung them into the man's torso with the aid of the Force sending him into the ranks of both corpo thugs and rioters. Flipping back up on his feet, the masked Jedi faintly staggered as the world spun briefly around him. A damp warmth at the back of his head needed mending sooner than later. Whoever - or whatever - had catapulted a whole chunk of armored mass at him earlier was an issue that tumbled down the pecking order when pure survival instinct kicked in to evade the slash of cybernetic blades.

Xan Deesa was at his face. A brief ally of convenience and mutual interest regarding the Maw some time ago.

Now - a crazed lady who would love to rip through both his bravado and flesh. He was on the backfoot, step by step, leaning and ducking beneath the blades. Each swing next had begun to connect, slicing through flesh and cloth and he knew he'd run out of space soon. Very soon. Ducking when her swings came for his upper body once more, he attempted to sweep her off her feet.

Daiya Anakin Stormrunner Xan Deesa Jerec Asyr Hacks Gemma Hentz Ivory Stroud Yula Perl Ruby Jaxx

 

[Jerec Asyr]

The situation was escalating faster than Jerec had ever seen a protest crackdown explode. Every half a dozen breaths made a new reality, a new instance of stimulus and response, a moment of decision.

"Time to get out of here, kid," he said to Samnai Rouber grimly. A stun bolt sizzled off his borrowed riot shield. He made a path by committed force, sideways and back. CorpSec meant to bottle them, crush in from all available routes, but CorpSec couldn't deal with the spaces between the layered guts of an ecumenopolis. Behind a decorative planter, Jerec took a little pocket multitool to the bolts of a building's forced-air exhaust. A square of grate came loose, letting Jerec in, barely.

Jerec the rioter and Jerec the Force practitioner had nothing to do with the escape. Jerec the scavenger took a bow —Jerec who'd served three years in a work camp and was not going back to prison.

 

[Cal Halcard]

Ivory Stroud​

Val was counting down the seconds in his mind when the protest would finally erupt into chaos. Not that he knew the security were about to storm in, but when the inevitable spark that lit the fire emerged. Seeing in the corner of his eye the sight of armored security rolling in, he could help but bridge a smile onto his face. The sight of the protesters getting beaten for their foolishness was going to be a good watch, and with a view like this nothing could be better.

As soon as they rolled in the assault began to spiral, protesters and seccers crashing into one another in a fierce battle of justice. Val looked to his guard who seemed to stop the search for now, their eyes glued to the action in front of them with pleasure. This day was going to be a great moment for the corporations of Denon, many of these protesters and Darkwire scum were finally going to be behind bars where they belonged.

Although, his enjoyment was soon to be cut short by an unwelcome guest. To the right on the stair well, a figure was cutting through the ranks of guards and heading his way with purpose.

"Sir! We have one lone actor in the wings! Multiple officers down! She's moving too fast!"

One of the guards stated, who began to look worried by the skill and strength of the individual coming towards them. Val turned to the four body guards and pointed at the woman with a growl, unimpressed by her rude interruption "Then what are you waiting for?! take care of her!" he grunted, forcing them to leave his side as they ran towards the stairwell with their stun batons drawn.

"If they don't take care of her, I'll just have to do it myself..."

 

[Samnai Rouber]

Leaving seemed like the best option. But—

No, her current objective is to live, not throw her life away in some futile attempt. The others will survive, but in her current condition, she won’t. She makes up her mind in a split second.

Some bastard had managed to slash her across her abdomen. The shallow but still very painful wound bled sluggishly as she pressed a hand on it and followed Mr. Jerec.

Daiya Xan Deesa Callista Volpe Ivory Stroud Lethe Harrow Anakin Stormrunner Jerec Asyr Gemma Hentz Hacks Val Halcard

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Jerec shut the hatch behind Samnai Rouber . He'd made himself linger just long enough for that.

"Shavvit, I smell blood," he said as he helped her down through interstitial spaces not meant for habitation or passage. "You're hurt. I'm a Forcer but not a healer, zero talent in that area other than killing my own hangovers. Look, I'll help you get somewhere safe if you need it, gank you a medpack or something."

These weren't clean spaces by any means. Only the foot-traffic of the occasional shadowrunner or scavenger interrupted centuries of grime, the kind of greasy fluff-grit that builds up in the forgotten corners of high civilization. Infection was a real concern. The violence rumbled through metres of permacrete and conduit, overhead and all around.

 

[Xan Deesa]

She got the drop on him, and now he was simply trying to survive. Each hit got closer to a final blow, slices and cuts decorated his clothing as he weaved and dodged to avoid her blades. "What's the matter, huh?!" She shouted at him after another swing, but she was cut off when his leg sweeped her off her feet.

The Shadowrunner immediately rolled back and onto her feet, but a stun baton crashed into her from a blind spot. She smacked the man away from herself as she stumbled back to get her bearings, watching the man, this Nightskrike as best she could as the crowd roared around them. With her blades at the ready, she looked around them as more people were dragged off, beaten and gassed by the CorpSec thugs. She couldn't win this.

She couldn't win alone.

She could fight, kill and rampage as much as she wanted, but eventually the odds would stack against her. The whole protest was a mess. Too much faith in the system, too much hope and naivety that peaceful means would result in a peaceful protest against the Corporate Authorities of Denon. This was a lost cause... and there was nothing she could do about it.

Not now, at least. And not alone.

Her technicolour eyes watched the man carefully as she wiped some blood from her face. "I'll be seeing you again, choom. And next time you won't be so lucky." Her arms collapsed back in again as she walked back and merged with the rest of the protest. She focused on getting away first, there was nothing to be done right now. Everyone was trying to get away as quickly as possible. She couldn't see any of her friends anymore... she could only hope that they got away. Anakin was long gone as well...

Ducts, alleys, rooftops, pipes, she made use of every single means to lose any tails and to cover her tracks.

This was unacceptable...

/Exit Thread
Dagon Kaze

 

[Ivory Stroud]

The next few minutes were a whirlwind of activity. Painful, embarassing, and surprising... at least for her.

Val Halcard's CorpSec goons must have had a good breakfast that morning, taken their steroids, ate some crushed glass, and tuned their brains to "Kill".

Maybe it was the fact that their boss was watching, and they would have been demoted (or however these Corpo-runts dealt with failure), or she'd just managed to capitalize on the art of surprise for a few moments until the moment had passed. When they finally met on the field of battle, she was only able to bring one of them crashing to the ground.

The can of chemical irritant did nothing to delay the onslaught. Each of the CorpSec officers were equipped with masks which they'd likely donned when the brawl was clearly out of hand.

She took two brutal baton-strikes to her forearm and ribs, disarming her and sending her into the railing which separated her from a terrible fall. Three stories below, the melee continued... but much of the damage was already done. Before the officers could capture their prize, Ivory made the only reasonable decision a woman in her position could do.

She grinned, flipped them the universal sign of friendship, and rolled over the railing.

A shrubbery broke her fall... but did nothing to save her from nearly losing consciousness in the impact.

Head swimming, she crawled from the circular grassy display and collapsed onto the cold tile of the mall floor at ground level. Were it not for a small group of protesters who'd managed thus far to avoid the Corp-Sec Noose, she may never have gotten out of the building a free woman. Unbeknownst to her, the song and display of unifying light she'd attempted had touched the hearts and minds of many in the gathering; men & women, Discreets, who'd seen and had enough of the fighting for one day but wouldn't leave one of their number behind so easily.

Later, when she awoke, safe and sound in an illegal loft apartment, she could only recall brief snippets of noise and motion: hands grasping at her arms, hauling her bodily off the floor. Shades of light & darkness. Muttered voices. Then a long sleep.

The Force, it would seem, was still very much with her.

(Exit Thread)

 

[Samnai Rouber]

Samnai breathed harshly, gritting her teeth. She replies to Jerec Asyr , “I will manage, let’s just focus on getting out of here first—are you hurt?”

She could feel the wound staining through her shirt, stinging with every movement. As long as she doesn’t somehow open it further it should be fine, but that thought doesn’t negate the pain she feels as they jostle through the narrow space. Her already dirty jacket is further blemished by the grime surrounding them, and her feet feel like they are caked in mud.

If nothing else happens, however…they should be arriving at that place soon. And since she’s already this entangled with Darkwire, telling a member about one of her safehouses won’t hurt. It was bound to happen. She purses her lips.

“...There’s an abandoned warehouse nearby where I store some supplies for emergencies. We could go there.”