Trouble in Threes [Rebels]

[Sannika Brynn]

Carida was quite the storied world--and well-armed. That was the nearest jump the twi'lek could make from wartorn Chazwa, having been caught in a battle in which she was not sure who was good and who was right. It seemed like the conflict had initiated with a rogue Prime Minister--surprisingly, the very founder of the Rebellion herself--and everyone had decided they wanted to get a piece of that cake. It was nothing short of carnage in the skies and on the ground, though the forces of the Sith had been repelled, last she had heard. Whether the Republic or the 'Republic' had won, the jury had yet to declare.

Shrieking out of hyperspace, the Rogue Squadron pilot in her Corvus interceptor began a slow freefall beyond the gravity well and into the atmosphere of the old Imperial stronghold. That was when the anti-air guns began to fire, and it was quite clear that either the formerly harbored Imperial Remnant or the clones of the so-called People's Republic were not enthusiastic about an unidentified military spacecraft entering their airspace. Such was the luck of Rogue Three. There was nothing she could really do about it. Sannika was either unwelcome as a representative of the Republic, or she was a rebel who needed to be quietened. Violence begat violence either way.

Though she was able to bob and weave and buy some flight time for a few minutes upon atmospheric entry, Kantankerous Kill was not invincible. The small and speedy fighter managed to avoid most of the fire, but a thousand meters or so above the cities and grasslands set her out as an obvious target. Streams of fire and a few rockets streaked after her ship, and Sannika knew there was little she could do for herself but to make an emergency landing--also known as crashing, in less delicate terms.

"Straw Hat is in the sewer," the pilot reported over Rebel frequencies, hoping there might be someone in the area to receive her distress call. "Point oh-two-two and declining. Out." A brilliant spear of green turbolaser fire 'tapped' the starboard foil of her interceptor, followed by a resounding thunderclap, and the smoking contrails of the Kantankerous Kill signaled its fall to earth. A few hundred meters above and a few hundred meters per second meant it was time to bail, and the short, green twi'lek wasted no time in doing what she had amazingly never done before: ejecting.

A few minutes later, a lone figure flopped to the grassy surface about a pair of kilometers away from where a mangled and smoldering flying machine lay, half buried underneath a frozen wave of topsoil. A little bewildered with this unfamiliar situation, Lieutenant Brynn rolled to an upright sitting position and gazed at the battered hull of what was her baby. The Kill had finally been killed.

No time to dawdle, however. Whichever faction had shot her down would likely be looking for her soon. She needed to get up and get out. And so the fun-sized Rogue took off for the jettisoned care package that had landed a few scores of meters away to acquire her gun and whatever else she could afford to carry. Just a few minutes. Gotta scram for the woods soon enough.

[member="Eliza Stryder"]

 

[Eliza Stryder]

Eliza had barely escaped the battle, still trying to get used to flying. She hadn't been a Rebel for very long, but they needed every man and woman they could get for this fight, so she was assigned to join in the fight. The whole thing had quickly become chaotic though, and she barely made it out alive. She was still panting heavily, sitting back in the pilots seat and trying to come to terms with the fact that she actually managed to fly the ship well enough to get away.

She closed her eyes, trying to calm herself, and with a deep breath, she turned on her radio to listen for any possible survivors. At first, nothing had come through, but after a couple of silent moments, she heard a static filled "straw hat is in the sewer". She quickly jumped to attention, flicking a few switches and preparing her ship for travel.

"Roger that, are you receiving me..." she asked, into the mic, but she got no answer. She let out a long sigh, putting her head in her hand for a second and trying to focus, when a second message was sent, "point oh-two-two and declining. out".

"Hold on, I'm tracking your location" Eliza stated, rushing to find the source of the transmission. Once again, there was no answer, but she did find the pilots location. She was on a planet named Carida, and after taking a moment to type in the coordinates, she blasted into hyperspace and started heading into the planets atmosphere.

That's when she realized that the coordinates had led her straight into some sort of Imperial compound...

That's also when she realized she was being fired at...

"Kriffing hell...." she ground out, dodging blasts with a spin and hitting the side of her speeder on a tree "I'm not a trained enough pilot for this..." she ground out, sweating from the intensity of the situation. She slowly looked down to see a forest, and the wreckage of what she could assume to be the pilots ship.

She flew forward, hoping to get into the cover of the forest. She knew if this ship went down, both she and the other pilot would be stranded here. Her left wing was struck by a blast, and she could see that it was slightly damaged, but nothing that was unrepairable. She dropped down to the end of the forest, and quickly lowered into a small, opened meadow in the wood, moving as close to the tree cover as she could.

Once landed, she jumped out of the speeder, taking a long breath of relief and lifting a cigarette out of her pack, moving it between her lips and taking a long, calming drag.

"Ok... now I just have to find the pilot..." she whispered to herself, and with another puff, she began to trek forward in search of the missing pilot.

 

[Sannika Brynn]

Sliding to her knees at the edge of a small parachute draped over a metal box, Sannika tossed the canvas aside and unfastened the locks on the container to unveil the rations, survival bag, and firearm--some assembly required. Despite her elementary familiarity with the equipment, it was a difficult choice to make as to what she could carry with her in time before being caught. She was small and the enemy was not going to sit around for too long.

The twi'lek decided to take the gun components and the sleeping bag, hoping she could find food some other way later on. Still, she managed to stuff a few energy bars and a water purifier kit inside her flightsuit's pockets before hitting the turf and diving into the woods. Go, Sanna! Go! Though usually nimble on foot, Rogue Three was not really suited for lugging around supplies, especially not at a fast pace. Her steps were uneven as betrayed by the strange choreography taken by her head-tails and the pattering of the disassembled AR-47 swinging against her body with each bound.

"Usch," she exhaled as she tripped over a root upon entrance of the wooded area. She could swear she heard sounds from behind, and Sannika's mind broke gallop and went full steam over what could be and what she was going to be fleeing. Were they the People's Republic's clone soldiers? The Imperial Remnant's stormtroopers? No one had really been able to get a true grasp on the current power situation on Carida. But one thing was for sure: whoever was in charge was not on her team. She would be hunted down like a fox.

Rolling back to her feet, the tukian penetrated deeper beyond the forest's perimeter and into the more crowded, shadowy areas. Who knew where she was? Sanna sure did not. All she knew was that for now he she needed to get as far away from the open field as possible--and hope for the best that someone had heard her distress cry. Otherwise, it was possible that she could be stuck on Carida for a very long time.

[member="Eliza Stryder"]

 

[Eliza Stryder]

Eliza trekked forward, making her way to the remains of the ship. She walked carefully, hands at the blaster on her thigh in case any enemies decided to appear. She walked towards the edge of the forest, not wanting to walk too close to the actual clearing, just in case any of the people firing at her earlier were still there. She could see that the crashed remains of the ship were now swarming with enemies.

Oh no... did the survivor not make it?

Apparently she was wrong, because not a second later, the enemies group started making their way into the wood.

They must be tracking her...

With that last thought in mind, she slowly started creeping her way deeper into the woods, intent on following the group straight to the survivor. It appeared that there was only four in the squad, so she didn't think she'd be able to take them on alone, but with the help of the rebel survivor, and the element of surprise, she could kill two birds with one stone, and the two of them could get the hell out of this planet...

 

[Juwiela Melec]

"This is Sharps, I've got you, Straw Hat." Commander had not been far behind lieutenant when it came to bugging out of Chazwa, and with good reason. That battle had been absolute chaos, and there was no good reason for them to stick around with no real side to fight for or cause to rally behind. It was too dangerous for any one of them to stick around and simply wait to get shot down, and so Juwiela had made the executive order to get clear and meet up at the nearest possible rendezvous point. In this case it had been Carida, though she wasn't sure yet how intelligent of a choice that had been, given that they were assaulted by enemy fire the moment they broke atmosphere.

It would have been a rather simple thing to manage, had she had an entire squadron at her back, but as it was there were only two Rogues present, and with one already ejected and on the ground those were odds she didn't want to battle with. No matter how difficult of a target she made it was only a matter of time before they managed a lock on her with their superior firepower, and she felt the hit before her ship's systems blared out the warning that it would be best to find herself on the other side of that canopy pronto. Feth. Well, they hadn't run countless drills in the off chance that one of them would find themselves in this sort of scenario for nothing, and she was once again thankful for the sims.

Being in the air without the helpful protectiveness of a starfighter surrounding you was decidedly less fun, she determined, and she would have much rather not been in this situation to begin with. Thankfully instinct took over from any private reservations about being forcibly grounded in enemy territory, and she tracked the survival container that had jettisoned with her, taking with her the essentials such as the disassembled weapon and what rations she could manage to carry along with a water purifier and a sleeping bag. A small backpack had come as part of the package as well, and without hesitation she zipped out of her flightsuit in favor of the more versatile ensemble beneath, rolling up the orange jumpsuit into the most compact bundle she could manage and stuffing it into the backpack, clipping the helmet to one of the straps after stowing the rest of her supplies and taking off for the treeline.

One hand dropped to the pistol at her side, a standard-issue sidearm she had taken to carrying even in the cockpit just in case someone decided to ruin her day. There were enemy troops about, and it was only a matter of time before they realized another vessel had crash-landed as well.

[member="Eliza Stryder"], [member="Sannika Brynn"]

 

[Eliza Stryder]

Eliza followed the enemy troops for around 15 minutes. She was at the rear of their formation, but keeping a safe distance. So far, they were coming up empty, but still following some tracks on the ground. Just to be safe, she had pulled out both her blaster pistols, holding them firmly in case she was noticed.

Suddenly the group froze. Eliza quickly stopped her movements and held her breath, praying that they hadn't heard her. There was a long moment of dead silence, when suddenly the leader of the tracking team motioned to his men to take a hard right, silently this time. She turned her head to watch them walk away, crouching down and lifting her pistols up, ready to shoot down the mean near the rear.

The walked for around another minute, when suddenly, she heard them stop, and after hearing the words "FREEZE" shouted, she knew it was time.

"Why hello there mates" she said with a smirk, firing both her blasters at the collection of enemies.

 

[Sannika Brynn]

Sannika was in the middle of shedding the obnoxiously orange flightsuit, gun resting against the trunk of a wide tree to accommodate her undressing, The short twi'lek had managed to mostly unzip her uniform by the time voices were raised. She had been only a little too late at taking care of this tedious process. A fair-sized platoon of faceless clone troopers had located her, ominous visors paired with gray armor proving this was the real deal; she was in deep trouble.

"Okay, okay!" the crashed pilot hollered, finally stepping out of the legs of her flightsuit and moving slowly from behind her cover, arms raised to show absolute compliance. Sure, she was a rebellious Rebel herself, but there were times when the odds were just not something to test out. Especially when someone with a gun catches you in just your leggings and sports bra. She may have been a swift and agile runner, but there was no way she was escaping harm like this. "No guns!" She stretched the neck of her top with one of her hands and patted her breast to show there were no weapons conveniently hidden on her person. "Don't shoot."

Someone else had another idea in mind, however, and the group of troopers made an abrupt about-face as one of their party was taken down by an unseen attacker from the rear. Had someone responded to her distress call after all?

No matter. Sannika may not have been the savviest chick in the galaxy, but she sure knew when it was time to take advantage of distractions from potentially violent and assuredly unpleasant debacles. The tukian dashed back behind the tree, retrieved her assault rifle, then peeked out and fired a few rapid bursts into the back of the group of troopers before tucking tail and sprinting yet further into the woods.

[member="Eliza Stryder"], [member="Juwiela Melec"]

 

[Eliza Stryder]

Eliza ducked a from a shot, quickly backing away and firing two shots back at the enemy. She noticed that someone else had started firing, quickly looking over and seeing that after a couple of fired shots (taking out the guy in front of Eliza) she was off, sprinting back into the woods.

"Damnit" she muttered, getting to her feet, and looking to the last guy, who now had charged her, knocking the weapon out of her hand, and causing her (and himself) to fall to the ground. She quickly gathered her bearings, pulling her stunned self from his grasp. He held onto her leg, but with all her strength, she took her other leg and kicked him in the gut, finally fully pulling herself away from him.

She was standing now, watching him as he fumbled to lift himself, and just as he looked up, she took her right hand and swing her fist into the side of his head with all he brute strength. She watched him fall to the ground, groaning, and with a small nod, she turned around to look at all of the fallen men. She had taken out about three with her blaster, and two were killed in the shots fired by the missing pilot...

"Aw crap" she muttered, remembering the missing pilot and quickly looking in the direction she had run in. She ran towards her blasters, lifting them and holding them in her defensive position before sprinting after the lost pilot.

 

[Juwiela Melec]

One nice thing about having sight not limited to the physical realm was that it was remarkably easy to detect everyone in the immediate vicinity without so much as turning your head. Having located the enemy Juwiela made a note to move in a wide arc about them while still doing what she could to reach the Twi'lek pilot. They were Rebels, and they stuck together no matter what. But it seemed her help wouldn't quite be needed, as the lives of those clones were snuffed out by a few short bursts of gunfire provided by a supposedly friendly stranger. Silver linings. War really was all about the little things, especially when you belonged to a ragtag resistance group that always seemed to be down on their luck.

While she appreciated the help from the unknown individual her first concern was the other Rebel, and so she ran off in the direction Sannika had, slowing her pace once the other would have come into visual sight. "On your five, lieutenant. I'd greatly appreciate it if you didn't shoot." Despite the rather grim scenario she still managed to crack a smile, raising her hands away from her sides in a display that indicated she was unarmed. Even the best were capable of getting trigger happy, and she fancied remaining alive and uninjured so the two of them could leave Carida just as quickly as they had arrived, and unscathed at that.

"Everybody that was following us is dead so far as I can tell, and there's somebody else playing for our team that decided to help out." They rarely ever were the recipients of good surprises. "You okay?" That was priority at the moment, and anything else could wait until after the general wellness of her fellow Rebel was determined. So far as she could tell the crash had left her relatively uninjured, but adrenaline was notoriously talented at allowing you to ignore physical pain for as long as it took you to escape harm's way.

"I know I could fix my ship if we were able to get parts and have time to work on repairs, but that won't be in the cards now that everybody's looking for us. Our best bet is to steal something, and probably something fast, then get out of here as fast as we can and back to base. I don't like us all being separated with all this chit that's happened."

[member="Eliza Stryder"], [member="Sannika Brynn"]

 

[Sannika Brynn]

Aw, man. It seemed like today was just going to tease her but swoop in from behind with a wave of bad luck no matter how she went about things. As soon as Sannika heard the voice behind her, she dropped her rifle and raised her hands, slowly turning around to face whoever had caught her.

Not to worry, however. Except for the fact that now there were not one, but two Rogues MIA. Then again, now people would be looking for them and they could feel all warm and loved inside when help arrived--following weeks of misery, of course. Supposedly that was what it meant to be a hero. Sannika was hardly interested in that, however, and she scooped her AR-47 back up and marched towards her squadron leader like she was ready to take on the whole Empire. Or the clone army. Whichever one they encountered next.

"Yeah, someone helped me out back there, but I'm not sure who they were." Her magenta eyes swiveled back and forth briefly as she attempted to deduce who could possibly be out here with them and sound smart for once. Not that she was dumb--but she had her moments, as Juwiela would be sure to recall. "Do we wait here?" It could get dark faster than they would like if they hung around in the woods too long. The commander was right. They needed to steal something to get off this planet--as if they knew where the stealing was to be had.

[member="Eliza Stryder"], [member="Juwiela Melec"]

 

[Eliza Stryder]

She ran through the woods in search of the missing pilot. She sprinted, hearing voices in choppy bits behind her.

"They're all dead.."

"Send out more troops"

"Search the woods"

She knew that the pilot must be nearby, since she had only been a couple of minutes behind her. She wanted to call out, knowing that they'd hear her, but she knew that others would hear her too. More specifically, the soldiers who had now found the bodies of the enemies she (and the other pilot) had taken out.

She found it ironic that she had come here to try and save someone, but she was probably about to get herself killed before she was even capable of doing that. She slowed down, moving to a jog to make less noise, but she could already hear footsteps behind her.

They're following me... she thought to herself, crouching down and moving to hide behind a tree. She took a long, calming breath, trying to even out her breathing. Am I really gonna go out this way?

She shook her head, holding up both blasters and standing as still as possible. That's when she saw them. The missing pilot. She was up ahead with some other person she didn't know (more than likely another rebel). She needed to get to them, she needed to make sure that they didn't get caught by the enemies that were now nearly upon them. She looked around the tree, seeing the enemies in eyesight of her.

She crouched down slowly, looking at the bush in front of her. She eyed it carefully, and after a moment, slowly started moving towards it. She was careful not to make any noise, holding her breath and keeping low to the ground, staying behind the trees cover. She touched the leaves, and heard the voice of one of the soldiers, panic keeping her from comprehending what he said.

She forced herself not to think as she moved further into the bushes, trying not to focus on the fact that just behind her were a pair of enemies that could shoot her in the back at any moment. She knew that this was her only hope though, getting to the other Rebels.

Once she was fully surrounded by the thick leaves, she moved forward a bit, trying to ensure that it rustled as little as possible. She made a small opening on the other side, looking out and seeing the two speaking to one another. She didn't want to speak, so she did the first thing she could think of. She held up her hands slowly, waving towards them from the other side of the bush and mouthing "enemies behind me, you need to move".