Faction Train and Space Elevator Heist (Open to Darkwire and Any Independent Mercenaries)

[Underworld Tales]

@All

The dual car train continued to bank right and began to oddly SPEED UP, moving closer to sideways, proceeding to head down into a valley. The rodian on the walkway was hit by Moira! Which bought them all time. BUT

Darkwire’s ability to Jam the signal was being tested. There were enough people on board trying to break through that it was getting difficult. Time to capture these driving cars was fast becoming critical. If only to slow them back down to normal speed before it derailed.

Cei Kyros | Finley | The Fool

Doing well so far! They would find the lead car was being very crafty, there were slits where you could see in. Three very short drivers were barricading the train's door, welding it shut. Hurling insults to the trio if they approached, the gaggle of jawa’s inside seemed very confident they’d not get in!

Assuming they got there over the hazardous cars. “Etee uwanna waa.” I want to trade. One of them said, wanting to negotiate. Time to deal or time to duck? Was the little syndicate lackey stalling for time? One of the drivers was under the dashboard, wiring something up. He was trying to disconnect the front carriage, that’s why they were speeding up! There was some laughter from inside, they were going to leave them all here. You could see the couplings on the driving car, a great lever on the side starting to turn!

Behind from a few cars back. The glint of a sniper scope could be seen from one of the carriages a ways back. One of the loose furry defels taking aim. The angle of the train meant he was clipped on the underside of the carriage waiting for it to come back to level, his sights training on the door of the front carriage as it turned.

That car door was a trap and with the train rotating sideways into the bend, an unpredictable one, plus there was that lever between the cars beginning to move, hold on! Difficult situation for our trio.

Vher Nall

“Got it!” The lead freight communicated and took a slightly higher vantage point, ready to shoot down if Vher needed it, trying to dodge the walkways overhead.

His next move considered him! Above him from the next walkway the two twi’leks landed, boots making a clear thud. They hadn’t seen him, but they had seen everyone else, and they were about to start shooting in both directions, giving everyone a bad day. A male and a female, kneeling down to steady themselves, taking aim.

With the entire train banking sideways and right, from his position he could now make out four of the cars with a C on them, not six, the other two were separated. Typical. There didn’t seem to be any movement from inside of them, perhaps packed with the cargo they were really after. Simple enough right? But he had a choice to make.

Wait? What was that? Two cars down over the rail there was a heavily armored Trandoshan mercenary planting an explosive charge on one of the C car doors. Was he doing looting of his own? Tsk you just couldn’t trust criminals! Getting there with the two shooters above him was the real problem, as Vher would be a sitting duck if he moved.

Vallaro Kindall | Moira Connell | Gierhyst Xzun | Haro Lergo

The Rodian overhead was a pincushion for Moira Connell , before he could get off a sound, which really had helped everyone as the train entered the lower valley, thankfully she also took out the turret more or less. Being able to do nothing else it just started firing over and over beside her, trying to throw her off. Through the car slits, she might see some frustrated battledroid operator inside the rear car trying to knock her loose. The train continuing to bend right probably didn’t help! Er. Roger! But look out....

WHIP TSSSSSSSSHHHHH Vallaro Kindall could see the problem better than anyone from his vantage point, he could certainly hear it. One of the downed houk’s electrostaves had become tangled in a powerline, which with a snap and a hiss of electronics. A flash of sparks went up and an overhanging live cable swung loose going right through the middle of anyone up top unless stopped or moved.

Sparks above but Ssssst Sssst from inside the car. Clearing the Houk car with an impressive display. Left only a creeping noise somewhere along the floor. A red-pointed viper slowly raised up from behind Gierhyst Xzun while speed had beaten the houks, speed may not be the answer here. It was a pet viper and it was frightened. Snakes on a train!

For Haro Lergo the rear driving car wasn’t too bad. Bunch of old model confederate B1-Battledroids in there, probably five in total. Roger. Roger. One of them inadvertently opened the door toward Haro maybe knocking him over, and stepping out to see what was going on. One thing the droids did well however was electronics. “Mayday Mayday. Syndicate Treasure Train under attack!” It was shouting into the comm!

Was he too late? In the distance, those outside could see it best.

@All

Thanks to Moira and the all teams fast efforts, nobody on the next walkway above had been prepared, only two of the group of twi’leks jumped down onto the train in time. While there were no shots from walkways above. The signal was out now.

In the distance you could see it, a cluster of small speeders or faster light vehicles trying to catchup alongside them. Small dots at first about to get much larger. The brave group almost had the train, but could they keep it in one piece. Time for plan B already?

The first shot overhead hit a freighter’s shields. Now the fun begins.

Halfway to the space elevator!

 

[Daiya]

As a child, she had always heard that "Fortune rains from the sky." The rich, well-to-do folks built their homes and companies high in the air, to catch the fortune before anyone else. Whatever fell down on those below were the bits and pieces discarded by everyone above them, but still, sometimes a bit of true fortune landed in front of someone special to lift them up. Though the thought didn't cross her mind as she'd plummetted from the sky onto the train roof, Daiya's mind fashioned them as fortune itself, to come falling onto this train and liberate its cargo for those less fortunate.

If fortune rained down, then misfortune definitely climbed up!

The masked head that popped up above the roof of the train car was sickenly familiar, its greenish glow spelling out the sheer punk of a kid concealed inside. The girl tasted bile in her throat, and she was pretty sure that was unrelated to the jump down to the train. Of all the train heists on all the planets in all the galaxy, he had to barge into hers.

She should have expected it. Cassus Akovin was a master at barging into her life. Daiya was too apprehensive of the job ahead and too annoyed at the intrusion of Cassus to sigh, but she let out a breath anyway. Something like a huff, not quite a scoff, but definitely more than a sigh. Cassus Akovin was more trouble than a simple sigh could account for, as his glib remark perfectly demonstrated.

"Of course I screamed, I wasn't ready!" the girl retorted hotly, wondering why this boy continued to aggrivate her. Or why she let him. The teen had better things to worry about than a stupid boy messing up her life.

Looking back up at Tawrro, the girl came across a wicked thought as she pulled out her main blaster. The Wookiee hadn't been immediately present at her first run-in with Pool Boy, and he'd seen how upset she was after her encounter with him at the Darkwire party. Daiya passed her companion a sweet grin, her eyes dancing for a moment as she savored the act of saying, "I'm going in. Watch my back, will you? I can't exactly trust Cassus," she tossed her head towards the masked boy, "to do that. He only watches his own."

Daiya landed, on her own two feet this time, on the deck of the train compartment as quietly as she could. She tensed on edge, whipping around her as Tawrro climbed down, searching for threats. The car was eerily quiet, if she didn't count the rattling along the tracks and the snores of two men slumped over on the job. She trained her blaster on them regardless, ready for an ambush, refusing to let her guard down.

But there was nothing to guard against. The casually open weapons locker, the empty bunks, it all smelled of complacence. On an armored train, supposedly so heavily guarded, the air of complacence didn't make sense.

Something was up.

Fur bristled against her, and she could smell the breath against her back. What was Tawrro doing so close to her when there was a whole car to clear? Daiya was suddenly overwhelmed by the stench of something putrid and it took until then to realize that the furry thing behind her was not the hairy bulk of a Wookiee. She whirled, praying Tawrro truly did have her back now that it faced the two drunkards, and aimed her blaster at the space where the furry something should be.

There was nothing between her and Tawrro, who gave her a strange look as he hoisted his automatic shotgun toward the sleeping guards in her stead. A shiver ran down her spine, filling her with a sense of dread to match the taste of revulsion in her mouth. If she shot and was wrong, there was nothing stopping Tawrro from getting hurt. She had a moment, a split second to act, and yelled out, "Like in Palpamore!" before pulling the trigger.

The yelp from the Defel as it suddenly became visible, a circular wound surrounded by singed fur evident on its torso, gave the girl a momentary sense of satisfaction. She backed away quickly, evading its swinging claws as she popped another few blaster bolts into the furry creature's body before it crumpled to the ground. Probably overkill, but the Defel's startling presence deserved the extra shots.

Tawrro had twisted away, joining Daiya on the other side of the creature as she shot it, a move harkening back to a job they'd pulled in East Palpamore once. They'd only barely gotten out of that scrape, too.

And judging from the sudden silence behind them, not to mention the train car's slow lean to the right making Daiya stumble without her mag boots engaged, this scrape wasn't going to be any easier.

Cassus Akovin​

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Cassus shrugged in deference to her accusations as the Wookiee turned to him. The boy wasn't fluent in shryriiwook by any means, but he was pretty sure whatever he growled directed at him wasn't the nice sort of words you use to greet a friend. Context was everything, after all, didn't need to know what the growls meant if you could read a face and understand what someone or thing is feeling.

While Cassus was negotiating with the Wookiee via silent staring contest, he wasn't able to notice the Defel trying to jack his ride. Though, regardless of the Defel's competency, he would have a hard time removing his vehicle from the side of the train on account of independent Manipulation Projectors Paired with Magnetic Anchors on the bottom of the vehicle. He could get it to start, but it wouldn't undock. With the overpass approaching, would the would-be-thief fit underneath as well?

Then, Daiya started blasting. Cassus wasn't exactly in a rush to get in there with the Wookiee and his kid, but the fast-approaching overpass and the sound of his bike powering up again, straining to take off due to his modifications, he had to make a quick choice. He knew his bike likely wasn't going anywhere without him saying so, that meant whatever the girl was facing was currently a larger threat. Unhooking the Relentless Blade from his belt he leaped through the hatch and the overpass flew by their cabin. Cassus smelled the burnt meat of the Defel before he saw him, but nonetheless, half a dozen pairs of eyes were now on them in a drunken stupor. Cassus thumbed the activation.

"Go back to sleep." Cassus said, his voice warbled a bit by his mask as the silver-yellow glow of his lightfoil ignited the darkness with sudden brisk motion. His blade almost sung through the air as he brought it down through a pair of bunks. The ionic energy passing through flesh and inanimate material seemingly harmlessly, if not for the sudden limpness within the rudely awakened. Short term paralysis and a numb sensation would pass through them as he brought the blade in a full circle to pass through the bunks on the other side of the cabin, this time from underneath them. Cassus turned his head backward to see if there were other threats in the direction of Daiya and the Wookiee, his other hand grasping a Neural Shuffler, his blade still ignited and at the ready.

Underworld Tales

 

[Vher Nall]

A set of thumps made Vher Nall's next decision for him. Someone had just boarded his car. He slung the rotary cannon over his left shoulder and held it until it clung into place, locked there by integrated magno-clasps. Blaster fire whirred above; the boarders were unaware of the prowling beast below them. Threatening the hunters meant threatening the hunt, something Vher would not allow. The Dashade stretched his massive arms wide and approached the damaged hatch.

In a single bound he exited the car and slammed on top of the railcrawler landing in front of a lone male Twi-lek. No, not alone. A female was at his back, still unaware of the Dashade, and firing blaster bolts toward the rear of the train. With an armored claw he grabbed the first of the duo's blaster and crushed the barrel, in his hand it was but a child's plaything. His quarry shouted in the face of the armored beast, alerting his partner who spun around let off three repeated blasts. The shots slapped into his shielded chest forcing him a step back but his defensive system was only minimally depleted. Vher lunged forward and lifted the duo into the air, holding one each hand.

"Please! Please don't!" The male pleaded.
"Take the spice, we don't care!" His partner followed.

Vher Nall dropped them over the edge. Their screams lasted only for a brief moment as they collied with the side of the banking train. Self-awareness was the first virtue one required when venturing into the greater galaxy. If you weren't prepared to fight, you had no place here.

Vher Nall jerked against the sudden shift of his footing. The crawler was near horizontal trailing the river below. Fate smiled upon the predator, four marked cars sat in a row starting with the car under his own. An angle only offered at the moment the train had banked right. "Four marked cars below my own," he shouted over the comm channel connecting him to the freighters.

The train dipped even further with the sudden turn, and that's when fate reminded Vher Nall of the cruel mistress she was. An armored reptilian, Trandoshans they were called, slapped something on the train's side. One did not have to be an expert in such devices to deduce that it was probably some sort of explosive. This intruder was not part of the hunt, an outsider, and one that would not be tolerated. Vher Nall removed his broadsword and dropped over the edge.

With a few subsequent bursts of his trusters assisting the brief descent, Vher caught the lower car's ceiling with his free hand. The Trandoshan shook its head, clearly surprised, then bared his teeth with a snarl. Its smaller claws reached for a blaster pistol but the hunter wouldn't permit it. Vher slashed his heated vibrosword through yielding armor and scales relieving the outsider of his left arm. The reptile squealed in the agony that accompanied a lost appendage. His suffering would be brought to an abrupt end. Vher lifted his trunk-like leg and thrust it into the Trando's chest dislodging the intruder - now a meal for the creatures of the jungle.

Vher Nall returned the blade to its hold running down the armor's spine. He clutched the side of the train with both hands and scanned the target for a weakness. Vher stared at the black device the Trando had placed. He didn't survive long enough to plug in a set of wires along the right side of what was certainly a bomb, but even if Vher finished the reptile's work, explosive solutions risked blowing out the valuable cargo. He needed another option.

A hum in the wind snatched his attention away from the issue. A pack of hungry wolves circled their prey. The wolves in this instance, armed airspeeders soaring in on an attack run. "Enemies at the rear, airborne," the Dashade roared across the comm channel.

With one hand Vher Nall wouldn't be accurate, but with the rotary cannon he wasn't looking for accuracy. He lifted the cannon and filled the air with blaster fire. The formation veered out of place, unable to get a straight shot on any aboard the train. A few rogue blaster bolts slapped into the side of the two leading speeders. Sparks and jutting smoke trailing their damaged frame. Soon there'd be a downpour of enemy fire, but Vher could buy time.

Underworld Tales

 

[Vallaro Kindall]

From the air Vallaro could see landing had become a bit more complicated than he had anticipated. Ahead of him Live wires whipped through the air in a shower of sparks and electric buzzing. Try as he might to change course, he had no choice but to land on the now electrified top of the train car ahead. Whipping his body around into a shipless version of a “flip and burn” maneuver. His rocket boots roared as he used the throttle to slow down and land with some semblance of control.

His landing was rough. Magno-grips struggled to find purchase causing the hunter to slide several meters down the electrified surface of the car. Electricity arced through his body. Sending white-hot pain through his nervous system. Before the signals could reach his brain, circuitry took over and his resilience node sprang to life blocking the sensation before he could feel it. Vallaro knew he had to deal with the cables quickly before anyone else came topside. Other than himself and Gierhyst, the hunter assumed no one else in his crew could take this many volts and remain standing. He ran down the length of the car towards the power conduit that fed the cables, pulling a knife from his rig as he sprinted.

Live wires lashed at Vallaro had he continued running at full speed along the top of the car. Flashes of light clouded his vision as sparks danced with arching electricity at the top of the car. Loose cables whipped around making the run no task. Each time the cable was whipped by the wind or the motion of the train Vallaro was forced to take to once again rocket his way through the air to dodge and land immediately before another cable could whip him from the sky.

After what felt like an eternity Vallaro had finally reached the source of his problem, A single power conduit feeding thousands of volts into loose wires. Vallaro drove his knife into it. A loud electrical buzzing cut through the air as the mono-molecular slid easily through the thick cable. Thousands of volts coursed through him as fractal patterns formed on his skin, the result of electricity ravaging him. The blade continued to slip through the powerlines until finally, it slipped out the other end. Violently the wind snatched the cable away, carrying it down the length of the car until it fell on the rail behind them.

Vallaro reached for his comms only to find them fried by the current. He made his way back towards his crew as the wind carried the smell of burning flesh off him. “This is gonna be a rough job,” He grumbled in protest as mild pain returned to his awareness. He didn’t like to keep the node on high if he could avoid it, and he needed to know the extent of the damage he’d incurred.

Underworld Tales

 

[Haro Lergo]

Haro looked into the driving car through the door he could see movement but it was hard to make out. It was a millisecond too late when he realized what he was looking at as the droid bumped into him he thought to himself droids why did it have to be droids out of everything I can see it had to be the one thing that is transparent to me.

As Haro began falling backward from the droid bumping into him he reaches down and draws his Protector Revolver Custom using his left arm to reach out and grabbing the battle droid throwing his poncho over his shoulder in the process. Firing the revolver he uses the momentum to pull the droid behind him and off the train standing up straight, the round he had fired ripped into the communication console the exploding round doing its job had completely destroyed the console. Snapping to each of the other droids he fired his last four shots putting the rounds square into where their chests should be, just like the console the round exploding on contact turning the droids into a pile of scrap and charred metal.

Dusting himself off Haro steps into the car talking into his communicator "I took care of the coms in the second driving car but the droids they had stationed here may have got a message out I'm not sure." He surveys the rest of the second driving car to see if there is anything else that needs to be taken care of.

Underworld Tales

 

[Gierhyst Xzun]

Friends: Vallaro Kindall | Haro Lergo | Moira Connell

Gierhyst felt the snake before he turned to see it. He wasn't sure what to make of the comparatively small creature. "I don't want to kill you either, little one." He doesn't back away slowly from the snake and instead slings his rifle onto his back, collapse his kanabo, and reattaches it to his hip. Surely he could spare a few seconds for the creature.

He approaches slowly, waving one hand away from the other. Enticing the snake with the limb. The sanguine serpent strikes, fangs barred and attempts to latch on to the Gen'dai's armor. After it bounces off of him, he boops the crimson ophidian's snoot and steps back several steps then moves around it, giving a large birth to the red-pointed viper. "Viper down here, be careful. I think it's protective."

Gierhyst moves to the door and slides the dead Houk into the 'Snake Car' with a frown. The colossus takes a quick second to replace the spent mercy bullet in his rifle before clambering onto the roof of the next car using the aid of the ladder built into the train, it was difficult for the massive humanoid but he's used to it. He turns to Vallaro, "I think we got to get moving towards the center for the goods."

Underworld Tales

 

[Underworld Tales]

@All

The crews all but had captured the train, and the space elevator was in range. A huge orbital cable that had the width of a large house, with tracks running up its sides. Payday was in sight, but hovering speeders were closing fast! Lighter craft, able to almost keep pace with the train as it rose up from the valley, drifting gradually alongside it. The freighters taking fire began to pull upward toward the elevator, and the waiting rendezvous, covering as best they were able from above. Time to shake these flies loose, get the cargo and get paid.

Their train banked left to straighten up, creating a top and a bottom car once again…. Almost there….. Almost there….

All could see the first approaching speeder exploded satisfyingly, or worryingly perhaps, now in flames careering into the ground end over end.

Vher Nall
Buy time he did! Now time wanted some payback.

He hit the first speeder exceptionally well, cleaving straight through, with the pilot dead in the first barrage it rolled into the ground in pieces. The second was on him, almost literally trying to knock him overboard, he nailed its power cell and it wooshed overhead quite low. Flames were gushing out the side and survivors soon jumping from the wreck, but they were out of this chase, left in the jungle below.

That Trandoshan he’d dislodged had a friend or two in the third car, and this car had some armor, with a rotary canon of its own. The top was open so they could fire out of it… A round four-seater speeder, and four mean-looking trandoshans wanting their payload he’d just stopped them getting. Two fired grappling hooks into the C car the other Trandoshan had been going for, while the other two turned the cannon his way to suppress him.

Very soon where he was standing was about to resemble a pin cushion, all his four opponents saw was a red mist of hyper aggression and gave a roaring battlecry! To hide or fight?

Daiya | Cassus Akovin

Dint. Dint. Thwang. Against the metal side of their car, a bottle of the best brandy exploded in glass shards.

Thud and Zzzzzzzzooooooommmm Cassius could hear from outside. Had the thief broke his lock? No he was out cold from a walkway headache as predicted, potentially a good thing too because now there were more Speeder Bikes! The pair could probably hear four of them looking to tangle people up in wire nets, pin them in place, stun shots and cable ties looking to take prisoners. They wanted a witness or two left alive, but they weren't fussy who.

Beginning to hear thuds like raindrops outside. Their carriage was getting shot up with blaster fire, mercenaries leaning over their bikes and aiming for them through the slits either side, the occasional metal slug half penetrated the train car's metal too but far more hit harmlessly against the side. Safe enough inside right? Three defels subdued Two miners out cold. Five bunks.

Crash went a picture into pieces right near Daiya. There came a dangerous blaster ricochet, and the cabin was beginning to fast resemble a holowestern last stand! A tight jam, standing up was risky, not to mention the cargo a few cars forward still needed securing. Oh and good news! The first dying defel had just released a smoke grenade before he finally rolled dead, good thing two of the three had the force to be their eyes.

Busy and smokey day, might need the brandy afterwards, if there was any left.

Vallaro Kindall | Haro Lergo | Gierhyst Xzun | Moira Connell

Were holding the rear of the train to rights. Sadly they were right in the path of the oncoming speeders, a big one. Something right of the old holoarchive, a sail barge was drifting toward the back of the train, its rear deck canon leveled toward the rear train car. They were getting ready to take out the driving car! And this craft looked like it was primed to follow them vertically!

There was an unnerving sound as the deck gun charged up.

Mag boots on. Several smaller mercs took aim at the brave quartet, couple more droids, two twi’leks, a rodian manning the main gun, and a hatch in the crafts lower deck opened up, with a houk hurling an insult or two. The hatch showed a way in but also a firing position. Six on there in total, but why did there always have to be one more Houk?

Wsssssshhhhhupppp The Houk fired a thin wire netting, looking to pin anyone exposed into place, only thin wire but a pain in the middle of this. Meanwhile to complete the nostalgia a jetpacking rodian landed between them wielding a stun blaster, and fired at the first person he saw. The day was not over yet but they were almost there...

@All

Reaching the beginning of the space elevator they slowly rose to go verticle! Darkwires hackers feeding them straight into the mainline. Time for Zero-G. Hold on to your hats, blasters, and boots. The speeders were keeping time with them, and starfighter fire blazed across the sky as cover was provided around the elevator, taking out any defenses awaiting above. Supposedly.

 

[Kirill Bratan]

One of the trains security officers took a moment to look at some of the remaining men that were hunkered down with him. "You all ok? Good!" He pointed his gun at them and opened fire, hoping to kill them and take off his mask and exit the car and meet up with the others to help them load the cargo.

He loved this plan of his. Once the syndicate proposed this he went over with a fake background story and applied for a security offer position with the mining company. His plan was to have been working for them for six months or more before the heist to gain trust. He succeeded and is now fulfilling his contract. The mining company would not expect him anyway and when they can't find his body afterwards then they would more than likely assume he fell out or off the train while trying to protect it.

 

[Daiya]

"I had it under control!" Daiya complained as the masked teen swooped into the car, and then did...something to the bunks with some kind of lightsaber. She'd never seen a real one up close after all, and for a moment the girl was fascinated by its usage. It seemed to pass right through the bunks without damaging them or their occupants, but for the simple command that Cassus uttered after that. The occupants obeyed dutifully, the girl noted with a rising irritation. It was supposed to be Tawrro who came to her rescue, not some Pool Boy!

She couldn't suppress a surge of jealousy, either, seeing the traditional weapon of a Force user in the hands of someone so undeserved in her eyes.

The girl shook her head at the thought. She had never desired a lightsaber before, even after learning that she was one of those magical Force wielders herself. But now she wanted one more than anything, and the urge made it difficult to focus on the job at hand.

She had engaged her magno-grip boots after her stumble, which had been a good foresight on her part as the train leaned into its curve even more, making her spine bend in a direction it didn't like. She ducked as a bottle exploded nearby, sending shards of glass spraying in all directions; from Tawrro's untranslatable roar, he had found himself in the way of some of those shards. Her head whipped around to spy other objects hurtling across the room, as instinct made her step into the curve of the car, standing on a floor that should have been a wall.

Daiya coughed as the room began to fill with smoke, making the ricocheting objects even more deadly now that they were nigh-invisible. At a bellow from Tawrro, she nodded and pulled up her oxygen mask from where it hung, using it to breathe through the smoky chamber of the train car. The breath mask wasn't the greatest, but she still breathed easier now than in the smoke, and her focus sharply returned even as the inside of the compartment turned into a murky, white haze. There was too much flying around in here, and from the thuds against the train car's roof —wall?— now, this compartment seemed like the last place they should stay.

"Tawrro, we need an exit!"

The Wookiee roared his agreement, muffled a little by pain and the mask against his face. Daiya couldn't see him easily, but for the trail he made in the whited-out cabin. Still, somehow the girl could track him, and followed at a cautious distance, wary of the projectiles still creating an internal threat. Just as he had for their initial entrance, Tawrro used tools and sheer strength to rip open a new opening in what was now their floor as the train began to hurtle upwards. Daiya was getting tired of all these adjustments, and peered happily out the opening in the floor towards what she hoped was a better sight.

A sail barge chase-speeder looming back at her was not what she had in mind.

It's main cannon was aimed for the rear car. The girl didn't know what was in there, but the occupants on that barge didn't look like friendlies, so she assumed it was going to be bad for them. A Huok —oh, not one of those again!— was firing a net gun at someone outside the train, luckily Daiya's car was a bit above his target line so it was nothing for her to worry about yet. But she didn't like the look of the Rodian looking a little too happy to be aiming that big gun.

Daiya tried sighting her blaster, but the distance and the movement of the train made it a precarious shot in the worst of ways. The girl sighed. "We have to take out that barge, it's going to ruin the whole plan!"

There wasn't much arguing to do about it, and she didn't wait for the opportunity to pass. Securing her blaster again, Daiya simply crawled the rest of the way out of the new hole, and jumped.

Spending her whole life looking up at the heights above her, she had rarely considered any fear of looking down from them. Still, hurtling down through the narrow gap of thinning air between the train cars, the girl thought that this might be the reason why so many people were scared of heights. It flew past her mind like the rest of the train cars, leaving Daiya with a narrow gap to adjust her fall so she would land on the sail barge instead of a longer fall to collect her thoughts. Well, she didn't much like thinking, so she just did what she had to do to avoid that fate.

See, Cassus? came her unvoiced riposte to his earlier remark, No scream this time!

She landed on one of the sails, which cushioned her inertia, but quickly started sending her off towards unending plumit to the planet below. Grabbing the edge of it, Daiya swung herself down into the deck of the barge by way of someone's head. "Oops, sorry about that," she giggled as she glanced down at the stunned Twi'lek on the deck, the weak flow of oxygen from her mask making everything pretty funny now. Glancing around to the rest of the barge occupants, Daiya couldn't help but giggle again, "Hiya boys."

Quickly drawing her blaster, she offered the downed Twi'lek a shot to keep him there, scrambling for cover in the sluggish manner that her mag-boots were allowing. She had to get that main cannon down!

A thud resounded on the deck behind her, and the girl felt it more than heard it as she found someplace safe to hunker down in. Her face brightened to see Tawrro on the deck, his jaw wide against the transparent breath mask in a pose she knew was a roar, swinging his automatic shotgun around the deck to shoot at the remaining targets. Keeping them occupied gave Daiya a chance to train her blaster on the back of the gun-manning Rodian's head, popping off several shots to take him down, or at least preoccupy him enough from the train itself.

Daiya couldn't help herself from giggling again as she helped turn the barge's loathsome intents back on itself.

Cassus Akovin Underworld Tales​

 

[Vher Nall]

A fiery heap of durasteel slag crashed into the jungle below, Vher Nall had provided many beasts their meal this day. The feast was not yet over. More attackers veered in on the train, the pack believed they were at the advantage despite the losses of their kin. Perhaps revenge was now on the docket as well. A group of Trandoshans roared in anger from a larger airspeeder that pulled alongside Vher Nall, this one had its own rotary cannon. The gunner slid the back of razor-sharp claw across his throat; one needn't be fluent in Dosh to understand the universal threat.

Vher slung his own rotary cannon back over his shoulder and began to climb up the leveling the train cars. Two thuds accompanied twin grappling hooks that had latched onto the marked car. From behind, Vher could hear the speeder's cannon spinning up. The Dashade gripped the hilt of his Ifirit Vibrosword and cut the lines loose. Then, with a boost from his thrusters, he leapt to the upper car. Muffled screams added an additional two Trandoshans to the buffet below. Incompetence and over-eagerness was their undoing.

A barrage of blaster fire pelted his armor, eating away at the Aegis' shield system. The Dashade climbed undeterred until he wrapped his claws atop the train and pulled himself up. The train had righted itself and beamed out of the valley. Ahead, the orbital elevator lied in wait. But topside the train without cover he wouldn't last long against the Trandoshan assault. Speed was his only defensive measure against their cannon. The great hunter broke into a full sprint and darted up the train.

Shield depletion abated with only rogue bolts landing a hit but each one tore away a sizeable chunk of his still recovering system. Vher removed an Achlys grenade and tossed it ahead. The grenade burst into a cloud of smoke, which blew back and obscured the hunter. With the split-second Vher had bought himself free from the cannon's fire, which began to pepper the entire car, he brought his Hailstorm Missile Launcher to bear. The short-lived smokescreen blew away, but the hunter was ready. The Minerva system assisted in leading Vher's rather large target. Blaster bolts slapped the gut of his armor but the Dashade was unflinching. His shield gave out and armor began to char and tear.
A clawed finger pulled the trigger.

A dozen micro missiles fired away and detonated against the speeder's bow blowing the vessel open and setting it ablaze. As the train rose to meet the elevator, the Trando speeder barreled into the earth. Enjoy, Vher thought knowing the scent of charred bodies would attract even more of the beasties that called the Devaron home. Vher reloaded the missile launcher then slung it alongside the rotary cannon. He knelt by the open hatch and watched ahead as the railcrawler sped upward toward the stars.

Underworld Tales

 

[Cassus Akovin]

"Yeah, right." Cassus sarcastically remarked on Daiya 's objection just as smoke began rising from the fallen Defel, and the cabin began to be peppered by debris and blaster impacts. The cabin had been swerving to one side and was now beginning to correct itself as it ascended. With magno-boots initiated, his mask filtering out the incoming smoke, and his mask switching to thermal vision, Cassus figured it was time to activate his suits newly repaired molecular shield (and this time, it wasn't a field disruptor like the last time he was on Devoran). The shimmering shield surrounded him and began to light up as tumbling debris or ricocheting slugs deflected off of him as he stood throughout the chaos impeccably in control of himself.

Just as Daiya and Tawwro were finding an exit out of the cabin, or at least their infrared forms were, Cassus noticed two other forms radiating heat he hadn't noticed before. Hidden Defels that were about to come into contact with the girl and the Wookiee. Cassus raised the Neural Shuffler and hoped it could find a foothold inside the alien mind.

"Sabotage." The Bounty Hunter commanded as he pulled the trigger, sending the neural electrical storm into the otherwise shadowy figure of the alien, the malicious A.I. within his contraption working hard to push the buttons of the other beast to do as he said. Although Cassus couldn't see it due to a combination of his IR vision and the obscuring smoke, the Defel suddenly dropped his shadowy camouflage as it gripped its head, seemingly in agony. It wasn't exactly the effect he was going for, but it nonetheless seemed to attract the attention of his companion who looked towards Cassus and came at him with a bladed weapon.

Walking forward, he deftly raised the Relentless Blade up and allowed the Defel to impale himself on it as his own bladed weapon deflected from his shellspider silk exterior. Then, the paralysis of the Relentless Blade took over and the Defel collapsed otherwise unharmed before Cassus once again brought the ionic blade to pass through the last Defel's neck and spine. Cassus was now left alone in a cabin full of temporarily disabled combatants with the only real casualty being the Defel Daiya left behind.

It was time to secure the cargo, so Cassus made his way to the next cabin nearest to it.