Twenty Nights in the Ice is a Long Time [ME Domination of Hex AD-25)

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

“I am Gorrus, Master of Snow and Ice and Agrocite!” The Sith Lord roared, yanking his hands into the air. I shrugged, plucked an Agamar Citrus Fruit out of a bowl across the room. Leaning against the rail, I wiggle my fingers over the fruit and the skin pops off in pieces.

“You are Gorrus, Telegrapher of, oh hello, hey Gorrus! A missile!” I pointed as the Mando’s missile veered to its’ mark. “There goes Gorrus, Master of puddles.”

I would have yawned, when something oddly curious occurred. Gorrus didn’t blow up. Dang Sith Lord must have thrown up a cockamamie shield! Didn't know he had it in him.

“Huh!” Popping some fruit in my mouth, I wave as Gorrus glares up at me.

“Darn you, Ahani!! Call your goons off!”

“What, you think I brought these guys!? My husband was an Ordo, jackalump, Ordos are like… pariahs to these Mandos! And gee, thanks for reminding me about my dead husband! You suck! I can’t believe you’re still paying attention to me while this Mando fires rockets at your femurs!”

“You have suffered my patience for the last time, Najwa!” Gorrus leapt into the air, drawing his lightsaber, other hand crackling with lightning. He sent a blast of it at [member="Koda Fett"], force-jumping toward the bounty hunter.

“Yakkity rackety yack!” I wave, when out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of a flash of gold and black beskar’gam. “Now, now…”

Hopping to the ground, I pad loosely in an ‘over there’ direction toward the slave pens, eating my fruit as I go.

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Yasha sprinted her last hundred meters to the central processor unit of the slave collars. To her right, [member="Koda Fett"] was shooting missiles at some intensely loud man announcing himself as Gorrus. She thought for a moment about joining the fight, but the slaves were in a panic and pieces of the encampment were bound to explode or trap the slaves inside.

She made the call, and sliced through the cordon cording powering the force field around the slave collar control unit, sliding in beside it.

“Cover me.” She pulled a lead from her left gauntlet and shoved it into the droid socket, as her HUD flooded with protocols and the data she needed to hack.

“Yes Ma’am.” Te’a Farr said, pointing to her three associates. The squad continued cover fire at the fleeing Sith lackeys, as Yasha sliced in.

“Ma’am!?”

“Yeah, Te’a?”

“There’s some Echani coming… she’s eating a… fruit?”

“… Trace her. If she gets closer, fire. Our objective is freeing the slaves.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

 

[Shia Kryze]

Location: The encampment of Master Verin​

Objective: Take the encampment, by any means.​

Allies: ​

Engaging: [member="Bryce Bantam"] [member="Ember Farseer"] "32nd CSDF "The Ice Lords" ​

​

There are many cases where avoiding conflict is the better strategic option.​

​

"Fade."​

​

Shia commanded, letting the gas from the forcebreaker grenades the poor weather hide a retreat as she and her warriors pulled back out of direct contact with the enemy forces.​

​

"Circle right, penetrate the line at mark two five, then put pressure on their dropships - as much heavy fire as we've got. See if we can't convince them to pull out with what they have. We're not here to destroy this place - the locals need the tunnel nexus."​

 

[Teagan Stoirm]

​

The generator was not what Teagan had expected it to be at first. The whole thing was not a single one for starters but rather a hodgepodge of several all rigged up together Corellian style. The creative engineer in him screamed about how ineffective the whole thing was. Not only was it sloppy beyond belief in the physical combining, but there was so many additions that made it more complicated than it needed to be. How could anyone be proud or even admit to doing something this bad? No, calm down Teagan. They might not be good with tech. Even so the combat engineer in him was also screaming because the stupidity of it was actually making it harder than it needed to be. It was the kind of hard that made it so for not just him but anyone using it on a regular basis. How did they stand messing with this thing? As this thought crossed his mind, he saw the little dents in the bottom casing where it had clearly been kicked repeatedly. Seems they didn't.

It took him several minutes of sorting out the system, but Teagan had it figured out finally. He began to mess with the systems on the panel as he adjusted nobs and switches. As he did, the generator began to kick into overdrive on its output. The thing was already causing surges with everything being hooked up to it, so making it worse was the fastest way to deal with things. The output was causing the planetary shield to flicker and shimmer wildly. The lights inside did the same as well as any other system. Everything was beginning to become unstable, and this alerted the sith lackeys that had been chasing him earlier to where he had lost them at.

As the blaster bolts began to strike around Teagan, he twisted one last nob all the way over. The machine was now past overdrive and gone straight into overload. A massive surge was kicked out to all of the systems hooked up to the generator. The shield, the weapon, the lights, and systems all over the base began to go out as their control panels blew up. The generator's own panel sparked as he took off towards cover. The Sith following him with their weapons firing. One of them moved to the panel as the other continued the chase, but it was too late. As Teagan took a shot to the leg and dropped behind cover, the panel exploded and threw the Sith into the wall. They crumbled to the floor limp. Everything went dark all over the base as it was cast into the shadows of powerlessness.

Teagan propped himself up against the wall. He looked down at his leg. He wasn't about to be moving anywhere quickly right now, but it also wasn't bleeding everywhere. A mixed bit of luck. His entire body either hurt or burned by this point, but he had gotten his job done. Pressing the side of his helmet, he said over the Mandalorian channel, " Teagan Stoirm here. I've killed the main generator. The shield and weapon are down. Seems the lights and everything else too. Hope everyone has night vision or heat vision built into their helmets. Anyways, this base is crippled technologically speaking." His fingers left the com button and fell into his lap. He should really stop going onto the front lines like this. What other engineer was this foolish anyways? That reminded him though. He pressed the button again and added, " Also I've been shot in the leg and can't really walk right now. Someone might need to come get me." After that he activated his distress beacon and leaned his head back. A little nap couldn't hurt right now could it?

[member="Shia Kryze"] [member="Yasha Mantis"] [member="Kaden Mantis"]

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

Gorrus rushed the Mando, and I couldn’t care much if I tried. These other Mandos looked more interesting, tinkering with what not and as the slaves started going all ‘yeeaaaarrruuuujggghhhh’! And I couldn’t do much but laugh…

… laugh until this tall Mando girl in gold and black armour put a hand to her head and yelled.

And then I was yelling. Running full tilt as volleys of heavy artillery crashed down. Gorrus went up in the most spectacular cackle I’ve seen since Palpatine saw my Dad and his Crimson buddies train on Byss… rockets.

So they did get him in the end.

“Awesome! So! I’m going to take some arbonifericite or whatever it’s called and go… yep! Yes, it is time to bugger the heck off.” I narrowly avoid a stray blaster bolt aimed for my head, and laugh… then run. A bunch of angry Mandalorians freeing a bunch of walrus slaves in an angry wasteland of ice and snow…

… better believe I grab my rucksack and blow the joint.

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Tinkering with the slave collar failsafe unit was taking longer than Yasha cared to admit. It seemed the only thing this Lord Gorrus cared about in the end was controlling the populace he’d captured and set to work.

That was, until the generators went down.

A back-up churned into activity, and Yasha looked up and cursed. “For the love of everything! Right!”

Backing up from the collar unit, Yasha pulled her blaster and shot at the power coupling connecting to the back-up power. Done wrong, the slaver unit had the chance of blowing every neck of every Khormai enslaved… done right?

The Mandalorians had new friends.

“Die! Slave! Collar! Machine! Die!” Yasha continued firing, until a series of loud chunks pulled Yasha’s attention to the Khormai eagerly clutching their necks.

“Huh! Maybe should have started with the violence sooner… [member="Teagan Stoirm"]? You’re wounded - hold on, I’m coming!” Yasha set her blaster back in her holster and looked out to the remains of Lord Gorrus.

“Farr, send a broom droid to clean up Gorrus’ remains and package them for delivery. Vizsla, coordinate with beta and gamma teams, and make sure the freed slaves have food, water and transport. [member="Shia Kryze"]. Gorrus is down. I repeat, Gorrus is down and the slaves are freed. How’s it going on your end, vod?”

Jogging toward Teagan’s beacon position, Yasha kept a weather eye. Where was [member="Kaden Mantis"]? He was supposed to be with Teagan… had something happened to her riduur?

The thought made Yasha run a little faster… then a little more.

She broke into a sprint.

 

[Teagan Stoirm]

​

The generator, or rather generators, was shut off and stay that way for some time. The shields were down while the needlessly big turbolaser was out of commission. Teagan had done his job here on Khorm. He might have blaster burns and a bolt hole in his leg for it, but he should be proud of himself. The problem was that he couldn't really think about that right now. All he had on his mind was the fact he couldn't exactly go anywhere very quickly with his back and leg in so much pain. Even if he could move, he was an average shot by galactic standards which meant he was a bad shot by Mandalorian standards. He couldn't really contribute to the larger fight with the followers of that Sith guy. What was his name again? Gorble? Gorgie? Gorrum? Then it came to him in a flash, Gordon! He had to worry about a Sith Lord running around too. Not the best place for a simple engineer to be right now.

That tired feeling that Teagan had before was building. The adrenaline was wearing off and the fatigue was setting in. His mind was feeling more and more fuzzy as his eyes hung lower and lower. Was he dying? No. He had experienced it once before, or close enough that he counted it. That time on Doldur when he had given up on living and just wanted to take out some of the people following that tyrant with him. His entire body was numb. He couldn't feel the pain he knew he was experiencing then, but he was well aware of the pain he was feeling now. It was why he couldn't move. The other thing was that he felt like a mind trapped within a corpse. All of his energy had been sapped away from every fiber of his being, yet right now he could feel the energetic rush of his body's natural restorative functions. No, he wasn't close to dead but he was passing out. As this realization came into his mind, everything else went dark.

It could have been a couple of minutes or a couple of hours for as aware as Teagan had been. A sound of crushing snow and metal on stone hit his ears and roused his mind. As he reawakened slowly, his thoughts were jumbled at first. Once a coherent stream was able to form, he figured one of his Mandalorian companions had found him. He was wrong and it was revealed to him by a large, rough hand lifting him completely off of the ground by his breastplate. His eyes fluttered a bit then the sight of one of those gigantic walrus people came into view. A savage look was on their face and words were roared at him in a tongue he couldn't understand. They kept pointing in the direction of the generator with a primitive looking tool. No, it wasn't a tool. It was some kind of cross between a hook and a sword. His body felt sluggish as he began to flail a bit. The motion seemed to anger the big brute as before Teagan knew what was happening, he was propelled into a stone wall. His breath was completely knocked out of his lungs and a cracking sound came from more than just his armor. Everything was all swirling about. The sound of snow crushing and metal against stone told him that he wasn't likely far away from death. He began to miss Doldur.

[member="Yasha Mantis"] [member="Shia Kryze"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“Kaden! What’s your status!?” Yasha yelled in her comm.

“Kaden, answer your comm!” Yasha was sprinting full tilt to [member="Teagan Stoirm"] and [member="Kaden Mantis"]’ position. Her lungs burned, the nausea which spread down her throat and stomach all day being choked down by a growing and disproportionate anger.

Why wasn’t her Riduur answering his comm? Why was Teagan sounding hurt? Who dared hurt what was rightfully hers? Rushing the Khormai warrior, Yasha saw him throw Teagan like a rag doll.

That was her clansman.

That was Gray-Buir’s engineer, the one who gave her the plasma torch and welcomed her in his way. Teagan slumped on the ground, dazed. Men in battle, who flopped like that were echoes of the warriors Mandalore survived on. He needed medical assistance, maybe bacta. Where was Kaden?!

Yasha couldn’t focus on Kaden, when the gigantic walrus was about to take Teagan out. Never breaking her speed, the six foot tall Epicanthix rushed and pounced on the Khormai’s back, katar blades unleashing from her gauntlets. Punching her left fist into the flesh of the Khormai’s blubberous neck, Yasha sliced and sliced and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed at the Khormai’s spine, attempting to get in and slice across the spine, dig to the heart.

The walrus was massive. Clenching her legs against his waist, Yasha gave out a frustrated roar, as both sets of katar stabbed and sliced into the Khormai’s neck, until his body slumped on the ground. Stepping off him, and sheathing her wrist blades, Yasha walked over to Teagan and pulled his helmet off. Without missing a beat, Yasha stabbed a bacta-stim into his neck, to stabilize his body with the life-giving liquid.

“Hold tight. Hey… Hey! Teag!” Yasha smacked him on the face with the back of her hand. “Shebs… okay… okay. We need to get you to Evac. Teagan, where’s Kaden? Where’d he go?”

The warrior who instinctually murdered the twitching Khormai on the ground, scooped Teagan up armour and all into her arms. His body was not too heavy for her to carry. “I’ve got you, Teagan. Stay present. Talk to me, how’d it go with the generators? How’d you shut them down? Talk to me… Teagan, you need to talk to me right now.”

She knew if she could keep him conscious, Yasha had a better chance of deciphering what happened, and where her husband had gone. The Yalilyr around her swarmed, yet Yasha continued carrying her father’s engineer.

Yasha was Clan Raxis, and she would lift Raxis, and the Mandalorian people, as much as she could from the mire of their wounds. “[member="Shia Kryze"]. Khormai are free, Sith is dead, enemies liquidated. Where are you at?”

 

[Teagan Stoirm]

The Khormai's steps were like faint taps to Teagan's ears. They should be thuds but for him they were only taps because of how loud the ringing in his ears was. His vision swirled about, his chest and back were both screaming while burning, and he was having trouble breathing. All of this along with everything else from before was hitting his brain at once. It was overwhelming how intense the sensation was, but also provided a sort of relief from his current situation. He couldn't think about the approach of death. He couldn't think about his failures or his successes. He couldn't properly think at all. All he could do was live within the sea of pain and sensation overload that was his being.

Next thing Teagan was aware of, he had a needle in his neck and the liquid contents of it were clearing the pain away. It did little to ease his breathing, but at least his mind was returning to some kind of outer awareness. His eyes just sort of rolled around as he heard some sound. There was a big mound of blubber and flesh on the ground near by. Strange that someone would store it all right there and outside of a box or a basket of some kind. Then they drifted over an saw a woman a few years younger than him. No wait, that was [member="Yasha Mantis"] the new Mand'alor. She was talking to him. What was she saying? He still couldn't make it out, but it was getting a bit clearer as time past.

Teagan asked in a voice as unfocused as his mind was at that moment, " Yasha, what are you doing here? Is that your blubber pile back there? You should store it properly or it will go bad. Well the fleshy parts will. Blubber is just fat and fat doesn't spoil easy. Oh, do you know what happened to that big walrus guy? He seemed really mad about something. I think he forgot to save his game or file before I overloaded the generators." He smiled a bit and shakily made a puffing motion with his hands as he added, " Poof! Like that for both. I should apologize to him. If I do he might forgive me and we could be friends...." His eye lids began to give out on him. The fatigue had never really gone away and was just getting worse as his body rush about to repair all the damage.

It did not take long for Teagan's eyes to close shut. This day had not been so kind to him in the end. Between all of the injuries, he might need to be put into a bacta tank for a while. As beat up as he had gotten though, he had completed his mission. The Sith's base was crippled and their weapon was disabled. His people could clean up things from here without him. Still clinging to consciousness, he did manage to get a few last words in. " I'm tired. Wake me up if anything needs fixed up...." With that last bit uttered, he past out cold. He wasn't about to wake up anytime soon.

[member="Shia Kryze"]

 

[Kaden Farr]

​

Kaden woke from a blast which had him out cold. The warrior was unsure of his whereabouts, and all he could hear for the first several moments was a ringing in his ears. The last hing he remembered was covering for Teagan, and then finding that he was on the ground unaware of anything. Yasha was yelling into their comm. Kaden had not been answering on any of the channels. The yelling would have to continue until Kaden could reorient himself.

He tried to stand and fell back on his shebs. The world around him was still spinning. At least he could talk, or felt like he could. Kaden activated his tracking beacon. It would ping on Yasha's HUD as soon as it was active. They were tied together so they would always know where they were.

"Yasha, it's Kaden..." he finally replied. "I'm hurt... I don't know where I am... I need extraction."

[member="Yasha Mantis"] [member="Teagan Stoirm"]

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

“Aha, you’re not dead. Physically dead… still… still force dead…. how’d you… do such things?” I prod the sod with my foot, watching him fall back over. Dragging his slagging end away from the explosion was one thing, causing said explosion was an entirely other.

“Oh no, you’re hurt! Gee, I hope the Mand’alor doesn’t comes to get you… that would be awkward in her condition.” Grinning down at the black-clad Mandalorian, I grab him by a shoulder and hoist him up.

“Guess what!? You’ve become a golden ticket. See, Gorrus was an idjit, but he was smart about one thing, and only one thing. Making mooks into do-your-bidding-slaverinos, and getting out of tight spots…” Wait… Stopping short, I drop the Mando and purse my pout.

“That was two things… maybe three, if we get existential about it. Eh! Oh hey, you’re on the ground.” Picking [member="Kaden Mantis"] up a third time, or was it fourth… numbers suck… I trudge off toward the Mand’alor’s position. “See, he was great for getting out of tight spots, but terrible at saving anybody else’s shebs… so when your mook’alors blasted him with the wrist rockets, his dead man switch blew up my shuttle. SO! I figure! Bringing you back to Mando-central is a good way to get a ride back somewhere where I can get to a console and signal my ship! Which I totally know where I left it, and don’t think I don’t… hey! HEY YOU! Wake up, Mando-pando! Force be… if you die on me I am going to kill you…”

Ahani grunted and hefted Kaden across her shoulders.

“Kill you dead!”

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Yasha winced as [member="Teagan Stoirm"] muttered in drifting thoughts and phrases. Brain damage in a battle was easy enough to see, and hard enough to witness. The engineer needed more help than a bacta stim and a hand up. Setting him on a low wall, Yasha secured his neck with her hands, looking at him as best she could.

“You called for rescue, Teag. You were supposed to be with [member="Kaden Mantis"], do you know where he went?” Her second wince came when the Raxis engineer muttered about her blubber pile and the walrus guy. Shutting her eyes for a moment, she heard the boot-falls of her Yalilyr rushing around to sweep the area. Three broke off and stood behind the Mand’alor. “Don’t worry about apologizing to him, he’s gone. Worry about staying with me, kay? You and me, buddy, we’ve got to finish this so the Khormai stop fighting with the Jedi… hey… hey, Teag!”

Was Yasha once again holding a dying soldier? Gritting her teeth, Yasha set him down and let Vodu ply his trade as the Yalilyr field medic. “Get him stable and take him to the Shereshoy for bacta. He lives, or this planet sees more of what I did to the big walrus guy.”

“Yes, Mand’alor.” Vodu snapped a salute and got working, easing Teagan toward the shuttle which would take them once more through the snowstorm.

"Yasha, it's Kaden..." he finally replied. "I'm hurt... I don't know where I am... I need extraction."

Kaden’s ping on her HUD brought both a sense of relief and another wave of nausea to the newlywed woman. “Kaden! Stay put, we’re coming for you, hold o-ah.. Kade? Who is that on your comm?”

The motion which began as a trot and turned into a gallop had Yasha rushing to the moving ping of Kaden’s locator beacon. He was in motion, some odd-accented woman muttering on about mook’alors, and procuring rides.

“Kaden! I’m almost to your position! Talk to me, c’yare!” Kaden wasn’t answering, or at least, not without some grief. The snow crackled under her foot, discoloured and ruined by soot, mud and spots of dour crimson. “Kaden!”

There he was, slumped in the arms of an Echani in winter gear marked for the once-royal planet of Chandaar. The muddy snow sloshed under her boots as Yasha skidded to a stop and readied her gauntlet.

“Five seconds, and your head is so lost in chunks of snow, it takes eleven bean counters forty five hours to put the puzzle back together, aruetii.”

The foreign woman, [member="Ahani Najwa"], grinned and swept her leg out in a little bow. “You ate your fruit as a kid… big’un, ain’tcha? Easy now, don’t want to drop the bay-bay.”

“Put him down.” Yasha growled, teeth clenched under her buy’ce.

“And risk hypothermic shock? Gee, your brain grow with the rest of you, tin-hat? I’m saving him here. Sooooo, a ‘gee thanks, how’s about a ride’ and a ‘this way to freedom’ would be as grand as your violent gesture.”

Yasha snapped and raised her wrist toward Ahani’s face. “If you hurt him…”

“Yah, yeah, hurt my riduur, I blow your spleen out and use it for boloball, I get it, I see it, why’re we still rackety yacking? Well? Medics? He took a couple really impressive knocks. Be proud… and lead the way! Llllllead on! Llllllet’s go!” Yasha groaned as the Echani idiot started off in the same direction from which Yasha had come. Lowering her wrist, the Mand’alor sighed.

“Take you as far as the main city… I’ve got Jedi to quell.”

“Jedi, huh? Here, take this.” A black metal tube floated from Ahani’s belt to attach on one of Yasha’s utility belt loops with a click. Yasha’s eyebrow rose under her helmet and she nearly shot the Forcie between the jaws. “… What? Best way to quell a Jedi is to cut off its’ head. Can’t trust a Jedi like you can trust a Sith, or a Witch.”

“How insane are you? None of those sound trustworthy.”

“Shows what you know, young’un. One can always trust a Sith to live in a perpetual state of self-preservation, betrayal and dishonesty… well, double-honesty. Devious lot, always leaving clues and triple meanings with their threats and promises of friendship, which, by the way, only last as long as they need you. Which! Again! You can plan for. Jedi always say they’re the good guys, but ultimately the minute their inner clocks click over to ‘whoops we’re desperate or losing’, they turn dark, or they rationalize genocide with ‘for the good of the many’, and cleanse the guilt later by ego-ing it out of them… You think the Jedi are good? Decent? Only Jedi I know who’s a decent sort’s my son, and he left every Jedi order who’s knocked on his door and said ‘please’. Can’t be purely good or purely evil in a group, lassie. Can only be purely anything alone… take the saber. It belonged to Gorrus, keep yourself a trophy, and let me feel like I helped ease the Mandos a little. Was married to one, you know? He’s dead… guess it’s my turn to be purely whatever it is I am. Your turn, too, Mand’alor the Small.”

The way to the Jedi stronghold was undertaken in silence, as Yasha chewed on another piece of tinget root and kept her hand on Kaden’s chest to feel him breathing. The curious Echani submitted to a set of cuffs and a seat in the back of the third transport. Apparently she was too busy whistling to bother anybody much.

Once the tunnel nexus and the encampment of Master Verin were in sight, Yasha touched down and called to all units. “Mando’ade, Master Verin, stand down. Lord Gorrus is dead. I have the freed slaves, pieces of his body and his lightsaber to prove it. Repeat. Stand down. Gorrus is dead. The Khormai are free. I claim this planet under the sovereign protection of the Mandalorian Empire, to be governed by a body of freely elected Khormai elders. All who wish to interfere with the process of reuniting slaves with their families or repairing the planet have two choices. Leave now, or die.”

A hard line from a grumpy woman. As reports of stand-offs began to filter into Yasha’s ears, she stepped closer to the hold-out position of Master Verin.

“Master Verin, call off your troops. All those who stand down will not be harmed. All those who leave this planet to the Khormai are welcome to depart with the blessing of the Mandalorians. What say you?!” The far off form of the Jedi Master appeared on top of battlements, lightsaber shining in the dim, white sky.

“Gorrus is dead? Show me his saber!” Verin’s booming voice flooded across the field, no doubt augmented in some form of force-trickery, or mechanical amplification. Yasha unclipped the lightsaber from her belt, and ignited the blade, which flickered between rich reds and punctuating purples. A unique and perilous beam.

Master Verin merely disappeared behind the battlements once more, as reports of soldiers, Khormai and others began to trickle in.

Khorm was won.

[member="Shia Kryze"] [member="Adora Namadi"] [member="Bryce Bantam"] [member="Teagan Stoirm"]