The Perilous Pits

[Maggie-Rae Americus]

Location: Tarsunt​

Venue: Spike's Pit​

​

As usual Maggie-Rae had taken a fun time to the extreme. While helping to set up a Confederacy outpost on Tarsunt, the redheaded Mandalorian had sneaked back to the droid fighting pits to try her luck a few more times. And lucky, she was. Mags had a string of wins. Big wins.

“Ain’t that the berries,” she thought to herself after a hundred credit chit into the waistband of her pants. So she returned. Again and again.

And soon a slithery Ming Poian loaned her some money when she was particularly down that evening, and eventually she owed both the fighting pits and Chinzano a debt that she could not pay. And it wasn’t as if the redhead had the kind of charm that allowed her to bat her eyelashes, wink and smile. Her caustic tongue saw to it that she was hauled in by the Ming Poian and made to meet the owner, a human who only called himself Spike.

And Mags realized quickly that no benevolent ending could be reached with a man named Spike.

“Are you gonna keep me here forever?” she spat at the equally gruff owner, his own face scarred with what she presumed were his own fights in the pit.

“I haven’t decided yet, but I have some ideas.”

Either way, he wouldn’t let the Mandalorian go, not this night, and he’d taken her datapad, her blaster and hell, even her makeup, don’t know what he’d want with that, but that still gave her time to figure out an escape plan.

[member="Roy Americus"]

 

[Don Cagliostro]

Walking down the what was nicknamed "the pews" of the pits. The names given to some of the features of this place gave it a pseudo-religious tone to the whole thing. Calling things like the fights "congregations". Perhaps that was the this particular fighting pit. The man had surprisingly heavy steps that shook the floor each time, with seemingly newly polished black boots, and oddity on the desert planet. Getting to the VIP viewing spot Roy took a seat next to Spike. Who promptly looked back at him with glee. "Butch, my man, I'm glad you could make it to the fight, I think you're gonna like the next one, we have a girl fighting." The cyborg nodded to spike, seeing the current fight that was in progress. It featured a red Loadlifterdroid who was winning by tearing the arm off another one and promptly beating it out of commission. 'Impressive, but perhaps another time' He thought to himself. Currently Roy was using a different name since he was undercover. "By the way, good work on your last delivery, the fething fighters always seemed to break their weapons, so It's good to know we have some more now thanks to you."

"Thanks, and you're welcome, let me guess, this girl you have fighting is just trying to pay off her debut?" Roy asked, clearly being a rather common occurrence to see spikes collectors throw those who couldn't pay into the pit. Little did Roy know, it was gonna be [member="Maggie-Rae Americus"] who was featured next, which could very well blow his cover.

 

[Maggie-Rae Americus]

Miraculously Maggie convinced Spike to let her wear her Beskar’gam for the duel. She’d peered into the next match after the one with the Loaderlift Droid and noticed another woman clad in what appeared to be a chain-mail bikini running around the ring while a medium sized assassin droid chased her around with a baseball bat. The result was both comical and slightly sad. The redhead turned away as she could not bring herself to watch just what was about to happen, though the hyena-like laughter from the crowd in the pews told her the match was more of a fun intermission than a violent denouement.

Mags could take a punch or two on the chin, even a hard elbow to the ribs, but embarrassment like that? No Vor entye!

As she stepped into her purple and red beskar - under the leering eyes of Spike - the Americus girl hoped she’d be squaring off against old Loadlif or even a Giant Mouse Droid.

Negatory.

As soon as she latched her helm in place, she spied her opponent and her palms began to tingle with anxiety. The droid she would face was not a simple astromech or maintenance droid. It was some abomination of metal and flesh that ended up here on Tarsunt to live out its final days punishing sassy redheads like Maggie-Rae.

“Off you go!” shouted Spike as he firmly pushed her towards the ring. With a growl, she activated her J-37 Jetpack and soared above the raucous crowd as she primed herself to face this half-organ, half-machine monstrosity.

[member="Roy Americus"]

 

[Don Cagliostro]

Roy watched on as the cacophony of flesh and metal pranced about on its legs in the arena. It looked frighting for sure, but they way it ran around in the pit looked more like it was confused as to what was going on. Which he could understand. Being put into a very chaotic situation where a crowd of ravenous views shouting at you from all sides. He could imagine it must be rather scared. But whoever made the thing probable removed and capability of fear, so it was probably just confused without fully being able to process what was going on and how it should act.

Then the next fighter came in after, it was a Mandalorian, or at least someone in Mandalorian armor. However, the red and purple design seemed very familiar to him. But he'd shake the feeling the best he could for now. But was they came into the pit the once confused looking mostly machine animal seemed to get a hold of itself after catching sight of their Mandalorian opponent. Roy imagined that internal artificial aggression protocols were firing up in its processors. Making it hyper aggressive now for the fight to come. If his theory was true he thought it made sense. Someone wanted to build something like this for gladiatorial fights to the death, why not crank it's rage up to 11 for the entertainment of the viewers.

Then in the middle of his pondering the fight kicked off, cutting off his way of trying to empathize with a fellow cyborg. The person in the armor suddenly shot themselves up with their jet pack, seemingly to get a advantage over the cybernetic monster. Which it was running around under her trying to jump up, like a dog trying to get a treat it can't reach. But then that feeling came again, and he'd begin to hope that whoever was in that armor wasn't who he thought it was.

[member="Maggie-Rae Americus"]

 

[Maggie-Rae Americus]

Maggie found this whole fighting for your life thing very embarrassing and kind of a little bit thrilling. As a Mandalorian any situation where she was forced to survive was a challenge accepted to say the least, but she hated the whole public spectacle. Despite being used to second-best in everything, Mags was a perfectionist. If she wasn’t able to slay the proverbial dragon - in this case, a jumble of flesh and metal - she might as well commit hara-kiri like an Atrisian solider.

As she flew across the arena, she pressed a button on her arm, sending a rocket towards the robot behemoth. It hit square into the breast-bone of the creature with a satisfying pop and then a sizzle. The droid fell to its knees for a moment and the crowd booed.

Mags landed on her feet and made a rude gesture to the crowd. “Meg cuyir gar booing sha gar peons?”

As she was busy taunting the audience, the droid flung discs off of its arms, the ones shaped like saws, and the first one hit the redheaded Mandalorian right in the back, knocking her down as the other ones whizzed over her. She raised her head up slightly realizing that hitting the ground had kept her from being beheaded.

Fortuitous, yes but the situation was getting more dangerous by the minute and Maggie was out of tricks.

[member="Roy Americus"]

 

[Don Cagliostro]

Roy payed some attention to the crowd and their dissatisfaction with her possibly killing the cyborg too quickly. He wasn't as invested, however, his concern was with whoever was in the Mandalorian armor. Still fearing that a certain someone was who was in it. He'd hoped that the cyborg would stay down so that the fight was over, but that didn't seem to be the case.

Then the final nail in the coffin was struck when she decided to taught audience. Yep, that voice combined with the particular armor, it was [member="Maggie-Rae Americus"]. He was rather upset that his little infiltration was compromised, but those concerns were small potatoes compared to his concern for "Niece" so to speak.

As he watched the cyborg pulled off an attack of its own, nearly ending her life with an off point saw blade. Clenching his fist he stood up from his spectators booth and stepped in closer to the edge of the ring. As she fell down Roy removed his right glove and pulled up his sleeve. Aiming his clearly augmented appendage, half his forearm flipped back, revealing a blaster barrel. Firing it and hitting the weaker backside of the cybernetic creature, effectively crippling it. However, his lack of a stealthy approach put all eyes on him from the crowd.

At first the only sound was the pained noises coming from the creature as it'd just been shot. Then breaking through that Spike yelled out at Roy for his interference. "What the kark Butch!?" Ignoring him, Roy activated his jet pack and lowered himself into the pit. His arm flipping back to normal he approached the fellow cyborg as claws shot out from his knuckles. Swiftly he ended the life of the poor creature. It being a mercy kill more then anything. After that crowd began to loose it. Especially since money was most likely lost for whoever gambled on the fight. Still ignoring the others Roy approached Maggie, offering her a hand to help her back up. He didn't say anything, he just wanted to make sure she was alright first.

 

[Maggie-Rae Americus]

It was no exaggeration. In about two minutes flat, Maggie was getting smacked to kingdom come. The bio-droid stormed over to her and gave her a thwack with one if its paws, and if that didn’t knock her out, he gave her another one for good measure.

By this time the redheaded Mandalorian was seeing stars - literally. She watched them dance behind her eyes, enjoying the light show but once she opened them up, she saw the same paw reach for her until…

The droid crumpled to the side like a downed walker.

The crowd immediately booed, enjoying watching Mags get the poodoo kicked out of her. And as much as her pride might have been wounded, her arm was even more. In fact, she was sure it was broken, along with a couple of ribs. Everything hurt and as she pulled herself up on all fours, she thanked the gods that the match had been abruptly stopped by a fellow Mandalorian.

She looked up gratefully at her sparring partner, took his hand and caught her own footing, and then did what any self-respecting Americus would do. She taunted the crowd again: “Sooran, shab!”

“I owe you a drink, vod. Let’s get the feth out of here.”

The crowd erupted in violent displeasure, hurling everything it could find at the pair in the pits - rotten fruit, pint glasses and old shoes. Yet it was only a matter of time before blasters began firing.

[member="Roy Americus"]

 

[Don Cagliostro]

Roy let out a sigh as [member="Maggie-Rae Americus"] taunted the crowed once more. Not wanting the provoke them any more. She also didn't seem to recongize him, perhaps it was because he wasn't wearing his Mandalorian Armor which she'd more easily recognize. "Thanks, but now's hardly the time Maggie. Let's get out of here." As he led the way to one of the pit exits he saw that it was locked, and before he could break though it Spike Ran up to the edge of the pit to ridicule Roy.

"Butch, If you walk out with her you'll owe me more then you already do!" He said, looking down at the two of them. Just then a can of something was tossed at Roy, which was swiftly swatted out of the way by him.

"How about this, think of me walking out with uhh..." Looking back he thought of what to call Maggie, not wanting to let him know that they were family. "This damsel in distress as my payment for my shipment. That should be more then enough for the trouble I've caused. So, would you kindly let us out?" Roy replied, starring down Spike. Seeming a bit hesitant, soon Spike nodded, and with it the exit to the pit opened. Turning the look back at Maggie he spoke. "Ladies first..." Which right after saying that someone from the crow fired a blaster a Roy. The shot landing in the back of his duraplast head. Only slightly fazed, Roy looked back at the individual responsible, who quickly seemed to regret it after seeing that the cyborg didn't drop from a head shot.

After Maggie walked out of the pit Roy would follow, leaving the crowd behind.