Wrong Place, Wrong Time [Open to All]

[Zef Halo]

UNINHABITED WORLD,
OUTER RIM COALITION SPACE

In the midst of a thick jungle, a settlement has been recently raised for refugees from the Galactic Alliance to begin their life anew. The soil is rich, the climate is good. Little did they know that the settlement was built on the ruins of an ancient Sith vault storing old and forgotten secrets and artefacts.

A small, deadly and enigmatic Sith cult infiltrated the settlement seeking to find entrance to the vault when a band of avaricious marauders storm the settlement eager to find the riches buried beneath the ground. Bloodthirsty and crazed, most of them, they have no mercy for the denizens. Red lightsabers materialize furiously in an attempt to reach the vaults at the cost of anything.

And then there's those of good will and kind hearts in the middle of it all simply trying to protect and save the innocent.

--

Thane's carbine crackled as a trio of bolts found their way in someone with a gun running to cover. The marauders were paying good and the percentage of the eventual loot could seriously stack him up with consumables and gear maintenance for the next two months. Maybe less considering the spike in tibanna gas prices recently.

Which meant he had to 'accidentally' reduce some of his employees' numbers eventually.

After they took care of this darned Sith threat first.

The mercenary pulled the trigger again.


//ooc: the good, the bad and the ugly meet in a star wars scenario. Go nuts.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

SOUTH, TOWARDS THE SETTLEMENT​

[member="Thane Lokar"]

Ever since the destabilizing attack on Coruscant and the other Alliance territories the refugees of the Galactic Alliance had proven a fertile grounds of growing.

A nice word, some assistance, perhaps mentalism in overdrive... it did wonders to convert the hopeless and the helpless to the point of view of the Emissaries. Some were accepted into the fold, trained as fighters, marauders.... others? They would serve as eyes and ears out there in the Galaxy. That is how Jairus Starvald found out about this little settlement and the bounty it had been build on. Of course, where riches and legends could be found vultures came to prey.

Under siege and with violence in the air dark boots stepped onto the ground.

Dozens of them.

The cover of night did wonders to not be shot out of the sky almost immediately. "The settlement is eating itself up." One of the cultists murmured to one another. Jairus tilted his head, listening to what they had already overheard.

Carbine fire in the distance.

"It has started then... let's join them and see what happens, yes?" Jai answered back before slipping into the forestation that would lead them towards the settlement due north.

 

[Melexandria]

"Please help were under..." Mel turns off the comms. "HELP THEM MELANIE" "YOU MUST HELP THEM MEL" the two voices in her head scream simultaneously. Fresh out of spice she knows the voices wont stop until she does what they want. "URGHHH I dont have ti..." "Mel please these people need your help" "fine" Mel diverts course from Exocron. "Alright here we go" Mel flips the switch to turn the comms on. "This is Melexandria. Captain of the Obsidian Kestrel. I'm on my way to help." As she breaks the atmosphere She notices Red lit up Lightsabers and instantly realizes its the sith so she takes a couple of potshots at a couple of them she approached her landing spot just south of town that she made by blasting down some of the canopy she lands her ship hard on the ground. Grabs her blaster pistols and gets ready for a fight.

She jumps off of her ship blasting right at the sith past the heads of what she assumes to be refugees. With her dead-eye aim she hits one in the forehead before she takes cover behind a ramshackle house,

[member="Jairus Starvald"] [member="Thane Lokar"]

 

[Jared Starchaser]

Piloting was his forte, but assisting forces was something else. Working for the Directorate found Jared Starchaser looking around the galaxy for places to help out. Sometimes he was over in the Remnant, other times he was in the Silver space, and sometimes he was just running goods too and from D’Qar from a various Alliance worlds. But now? He had a few things he was doing, including assisting the other Jedi out there. Jared may not be the best Jedi, but he was a Warden.

And his father did request assistance in helping Jedi move around the galaxy. He had a few of the so-called ‘vigilantes’ and Ronin. They were the part of the Shattered Order that were more typical to traditional Jedi. Ones that weren’t hiding within the military or the state to protect everything. These ones were able to get their work done because the Shattered Order also reported to the State through Coren and most of the vigilantes and Ronin were reported as Service Corps, more there to help the transition in a variety of forms.

And that was what the ship was supposedly filled with here. Jedi Geologists and Archeologists, to help recognize the world the Alliance was finding. In truth, it was going to set up a safe house. And the GR-90 he was escorting touched down. Landing his own E-Wing, Jared was going to be meeting with the Jedi who were being transported. They really were bringing supplies, but a safe house for Jedi was needed.

The Starchaser Heir Apparent had stepped from the ship and dropped his flight helmet on the seat. His former Imperial Knight Armor, more inspired by Jensaarai teachings nowadays than anything was in tatters, only pieces, similar to the Jedi of the Clone Wars. A blaster pistol on one hip, his lightsaber on another, and a carbine across his back. He was ready to assist.

 

[Zef Halo]

A barrel of tibanna gas exploded from a ricochet burning to crisp the engaged in a duel Sith and marauder. Their screams were buried under the sound of a starship tearing the ground open with its fire. Bodies and parts of bodies were flung in the air along with the dirt. Where the heck had this ship come from was a question Thane would seek the answer for later.

"Clear everything in your paths." Came the deep voice of the chief marauder through his earpiece - a Devaronian whose name Thane didn't bother to remember.

Sure thing. The mercenary thought sarcastically. The Sith out of nowhere were truly the biggest issue at the moment.

As he shuffled cautiously forward through one of the settlement's streets, he caught a glimpse of a Sith's back cornering a marauder to the wall. Thane could've shot him right there and right then saving the bloodthirsty marauder from his death. He caught the death meeting horrified eyes of the marauder but felt no remorse, at least not on the surface. Thane had his seen his fair share of war and death, the death stare, as he called it, was something that made him once upon a time puke.

But that time was gone.

The red blade came decapitating the marauder and immediately after two pulls of the trigger released six shots in the back of the cultist. Thane double-tapped, just in case. Those gifted with the Force always needed a double tap.

Chaos grew around him extremely with every passing moment.

[member="Jairus Starvald"] [member="Melexandria"] [member="Jared Starchaser"]

 

[Eliza Steele]

"What in the nine Corellian hells?!"

A sea of red blades suddenly appeared out of nowhere, slashing through the camp hell bent on getting to something it seemed.

Eliza Steele, Captain of the Corellian Dawn, jumped down off the loader and ducked behind a pallet of crates she'd just placed on the ground. The petite smuggler had been contracted by an agent of the Alliance-in-Exile to bring in supplies for the refugee city popping up on the jungle world in ORC territory. No one said there'd be darksiders to contend with though. And oh how she loathed them, always costing her credits, and yeah friends too.

Pulling twin scatterblasters from the holsters slung low off her shapely hips, the fiery brunette began firing at the Sith hoping to catch a lucky break with the large volley of tiny bolts and bring down some of them to even out the odds a bit.

It was no sooner that a mercenary group also jumped into the fray. Now who the hell are they? At the moment, the marauders seemed to be the good guys, but that was yet to be determined. Never trust freelancers.

"Rahl, buddy... Lock down the ship. We've got bad company. Don't want to lose the ol' girl... " Steele called over her comlink to her Wookiee copilot still on board the YT-1930 light freighter sitting in a clearing nearby, then she stopped mid-thought as chocolate drop eyes watched in shock an explosion take out one of the other pallets of supplies she'd delivered earlier.

A very not lady like flurry of Corellian expletives moved past her smuggler lips before continuing. " ...or any more cargo."

​This was supposed to be an easy milk run... right?!


[member="Thane Lokar"] [member="Jared Starchaser"] [member="Melexandria"] [member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Progflaw99]

Aboard the Kingfisher, a Dynamic-Class Freighter​

​

---​

​

The muted sound of weapons fire sent Atlas' eyes fluttering open where he lay. A pause in the commotion set him wondering if he'd really heard anything, or if it had been a figment of his imagination, little more than a quickly fading dream. Reaching up to rub the sleep from his eyes he heard it again, this time closer. *Nope, that's definitely weapons fire.* Atlas himself had been around weapons long enough to recognize the subtle thumping through the hull. Scrambling to slip on his boots, Atlas pulled a loose fitting tunic over his head and stumbled towards the door. Nagging his gunbelt, he tightened it around his waist before dashing towards the boarding ramp, initiating the disembark sequence. *Now what could possibly be going on here?*

Another run for the Rebellion had seen him heading to the Outback in an effort to scrounge up more supplies to aid them in the fight against the ever expanding Sith to the Galactic North - there wasn't supposed to be anything crazy going on. *Well, I guess that's out.* he thought to himself as he descended the ramp. All around him things seemed to be unfolding at an exponential rate, first there was the smell. Burnt ozone as blaster fire painted lines across his field of view. Then there were the red sabers - those he'd seen before. Even further still towards the edge of his vision was a figure, partially obscured by the trees, just beyond the hull of another ship visible. Weapons fire rang out from the direction of the ship, likely aimed towards the Sith who seemed to be cutting and gunning anyone down in view.

This wasn't his fight, at least not really. The Alliance had been struggling for a while, and while they could prove to be valuable allies, they were nowhere near strong enough to stand on their own yet. That had been the purpose of this settlement, hadn't it? The thoughts were cast out by a pair of green blaster bolts ricocheting off the hull of the Kingfisher just beside his head. "OH CHIT." he exclaimed, ducking down as he stepped off the side of the ramp. Instinctively his hand reached for the blaster pistol, drawing it as he took cover behind the boarding ramp as he tried to get his bearings. This was not where he wanted to be. It was only a matter of time before one of those lightsaber wielding folk set their sights on him, an idea he wasn't very fond of.

[member="Eliza Steele"] | [member="Jairus Starvald"] | [member="Melexandria"] | [member="Thane Lokar"]​

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Atlas Viridian"] // [member="Eliza Steele"] // [member="Thane Lokar"] // [member="Jared Starchaser"] // [member="Melexandria"] // [member="Jairus Starvald"]​

This mission had not gone the way she had hoped or could even have predicted. Amea had wanted to find herself a man responsible for the assault on three women on Sullust only to find herself stuck in a cult-filled hellhole that had decided to get itself besieged the day after she had arrived. Things like these were rarely happenstance. While the reason of the attack was unknown to her the fact still remained that she had to get out of there. The shuttles that had dropped off the citizens escaping the Alliance’s downfall had since departed and the chance to catch a ride back was so slim that it simply wasn’t worthwhile to contemplate it.

Her back rested against the the wall of a nearby makeshift shelter. The sounds of people fleeing, cowering and the panic around her was hard to keep out, but she had to. The sound of gunfire and lightsabers seemed to surround her. There was no plan here, at least not on Amea’s behalf. She only knew that she needed to get out of here, and right now that meant finding a ship.

These folk were on their own, she hadn’t come here for them. She had come for a single cultist, and yet here she was with an entire cult up in arms. No sir, that was not how she operated. There was a difference between doing the right thing and dying like an idiot because you didn’t know when to fold them. This was one of those moments when she needed to fold them, and fast.

Like, double time fast.

With no weapons at hand except her own fists she had to keep it cool. An eye peered out from the corner and into the main street beyond to see what was going on. With luck there would be a ship there waiting for her, right? Nah, no such luck today.

Chit. Okay, so how would she do this?

Chit, chit, chit.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Eliza Steele"] | [member="Melexandria"] | [member="Thane Lokar"] | [member="Atlas Viridian"] | [member="Amea Virou"]

By the time that the silent figures emerged from the jungle the settlement seemed to have caught on fire.

Metaphorically anyway.

Though it was close- what with tibanna canisters exploding, a ship flying overhead and letting out a salvo of laser shots, it was a mess. The cowled figures looked at it than at each other for a moment. One of them shrugged. "Seems like they didn't need us for this." Jairus had also paused for a moment, blinking twice, while studying how one of the mercenaries (Thane) waited patiently for the Sith to execute one of their own.

Before gunning the Sith down himself.

Huh.

Almost as ruthless as some of the Sith Lords he had been allied with in the past. "I suppose I can't hire you myself, can I?" Jai called out as the other cultists faded away into the other streets and started adding their own chaos into the mix.

 

[Zef Halo]

Long trained reflexes for self-defense triggered within the ex-soldier as he turned around almost instantly to the source of the words. The professional carrying of his carbine gave the illusion as if the weapon was an extension of him. Took Thane a second or less to instinctively aim at the talking man and much less to fire a salvo of two three-shots at the figure. No questions asked.

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jared Starchaser]

Looking more like a solider of fortune than a Jedi, that sat just fine with Jared. He wasn’t really in any particular direction right now, aside from ‘help the father’ and ‘fight for the light.’ He was much more the Imperial Knight meets the Jensaarai, with a bit of bounty hunter thrown in, nowadays. The Alliance and her allies always had hits out for someone to be taken down, or some location to be reinforced. This was a bit more being an enforcer than anything else. It wasn’t bad, and it paid the bills.

But before he could be too focused, that’s when the explosions started happening. “Sonofa…” He knew he had seen friendly vessels, the Corellian Dawn being one of them. That was the smuggler… Steele, right? Yeah. He nodded to himself, and pulled his carbine out from where he was taking cover. The Jensaarai-student was learning the ways of that Force Order, and a lot of it worked with what his father had taught him. Defense, and then attack.

He could feel the dark siders.

Blast. Looking up, he saw yet more explosions. And the telltale red lightsabers. “Gonna play hard then…” He muttered and started to call the Force to himself. He wanted to get to where the captain was. He knew that was her ship.

[member="Eliza Steele"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Thane Lokar"]

Mistake.

For Thane rather than Jairus, of course. The moment intent became clear in the muddy extension of the Force Jairus raised his hand swiftly and projected a force shield in front of him. The gunfire blasted against them and the Sith Lord behind it sighed. Just a little bit annoyed- it seemed that these days people were less willing to be rational actors and discuss things.

Instead they just needed to be aggressive.

His other hand lashed out and blasted a wall of kinetic force against the soldier.

Ka-pow.

 

[Eliza Steele]

"Ah crap!" Eliza grumbled as she'd gotten the attention of a Sith.

The red saber Force user began to menace over towards the petite smuggler's location; his overconfidence rolling off of him with his robes flapping in the breeze as he stormed the distance between them yellow eyes glaring.

There was no way the ship captain could fight this type of enemy head to head so Eliza would have to improvise, and that she could do as it was her speciality. Corellian, remember?!

Quickly changing out spent power cells on her scatter blasters, the fiery Corellisi waited until the time was prime, then she threw out a flash bang with a short timer and dove off to the side rolling around onto her booted feet in a crouch position. The blast had only slowed the Sith. When he continued forward with a swing of his crimson blade where she used to be, Eliza cut him down from the side with a volley of bolts.

That is when she saw a young man across the way... He looked real familiar. Was that Coren's son? Steele had worked with the elder Starchaser during her Underground days. Like father, like son...

The guy looked like a knight in shinning armor coming to slay the three headed dragon with blaster and lightsaber about him.

"[member="Jared Starchaser"], right?" the petite smuggler inquired as he made it over to her. "Don't worry, flyboy. I left you a few," she smirked, then noticed the downed Sith still twitching on the ground. The Corellian beauty put another couple of precise shots into his smoking corpse, then turned her dark chocolate eyes back on the younger Starchaser.

"I'm Eliza Steele... I know your dad. You are as seemingly crazy as the old man... This should be fun."

 

[Zef Halo]

The blasts meet an impenetrable, invisible wall and the mercenary quickly acknowledges the fact that the Force was in play. Kark, of course. Automatically, his finger comes to pull the trigger again but before that could happen Thane finds himself flung off like a rag doll by the force of a thousand hammers slamming his chest and sucking out the air from his lungs.

The kinetic overlay saves his back from breaking when he hits the wall behind him. Thane groans silently before he turns his eyes at the cloaked figure.

"Talk in numbers." He says with confidence, not that he feels he was going to kill the guy but because in situations like this, he learned, it is best you show some spine.

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Thane Lokar"]

Jairus didn't follow up until the end of Thane's fall.

He knew better than that.

After all, years of waging war with the One Sith taught him a few valuable lessons in the act of war and the act of battle. A few steps were taken so he didn't have to shout to make himself known. Just maintaining the initial distance as the Sith Lord studied the crumbled form of the mercenary. Because a mercenary Thane was, not a true believer. They wouldn't have accepted a new price when they saw defeat in the future. Instead they would have fought until the death.

"My initial term was twice what you were being paid right now. But I find myself less charitable now. You get one and a half more. Deal?"

Simple.

To the point.

Thane's life was worth less than the blink of his eye and he was going to collect a price one way or another.

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Jared Starchaser"] // [member="Eliza Steele"] // [member="Thane Lokar"] // [member="Jairus Starvald"]

Deep but focused breaths filled her with a vague sense of calm. There were trouble everywhere and Amea didn’t quite know what to do. On one hand she wanted to help them, but on the other she was also just the one person. They needed more than a dozen to accomplish what was necessary here, and quite frankly that was not something that the girl had at her disposal. She had her fists and the clothes on her back. She had the most deadliest weapon available to her at hand, literally, and that was good enough for her.

She gave the main street another peek before she pushed herself off of the wall. The panic around was something like a blessing and a curse. Useful for distraction, but the distraction worked just as well on her as the others. One woman’s scream was bound to attract the attention of a cultist, just as it was bound to attract Amea’s.

There was a brief opening and Amea had to take it.

Her feet raced across the street and into another off-street alleyway. Or well, as alleyway as something got in a setup of quick build homes such as this. She was fairly certain that the ground she walked on was still little more than trampled dirt and grass.

Up ahead there seemed to be a gentleman’s dispute. An argument over a price someone had agreed upon, perhaps? She wasn’t quite sure, but from the sound of it the cultist wasn’t quite content with the price that the merc was charging him.

Though why would he ask if it was a deal if they were already…

Nevermind, she couldn’t dwell on it. She snuck around the back of the home she hid next to and proceeded to traverse along the back. The cultists were bound to have ships stowed somewhere, or at worst the mercs. She wasn’t a great fan of the idea of hijacking a ship, but the situation was dire and it called for equally dire solutions.

Besides, from the sound of it there she might just do the galaxy a favor by stranding either party. She continued around the back for as long as she could, trying her best to listen in on any and all conversations around her. The merc and the cultist came to mind, though for her own sake she might just have been better off hurrying along to the landing pads.

 

[Tavi Riley]

The sounds of snoring echoed through the ship as Tavi slept in the captain’s chair, unaware of the turmoil and chaos going on in the settlement. He had spent the day distributing supplies to refugees. Just some crates of water, food, and some formula. The clamour of hands and shouts for more had filled his ears nonstop. Who knew refugees could get so rude, he had never heard so much swears in his life when he ran out of supplies to give. So after he gave away everything he had, he immediately had gone into his ship and turned off his HUD and speakers. Silence was Bliss, and he was asleep in a minute.

Fortunately, like always, Tavi had his drones with him. After the fighting began they tried to raise their master up with beeps, chirps, and even bumping into him. Nothing worked. Drastic measures had to be taken. So that is how Tavi was woken from his peaceful slumber with his drones firing their electroshock probes( at a reduced setting) at him. Tavi woke with a start, flopping on the floor like a fish as the electricity flushed though his body. As the last of electricity dissipated, one though went through his mind.

Helping people sucks.

 

[Zef Halo]

"Works for me." He says with his typical coarse voice as he stands up with a slight twitch of pain. Age wasn't just a number. "What do you need done?"

Thane locks eyes with the man and approaches him, dread shoved down beneath layers of experience and a soldier's life. He brings up out of nowhere a miniature gadget and puts it above his ear lobe. With a near silent whiz the gadget comes to life projecting a holographic visor in front of his right eye only. Information loads up and a moment later the piece is active. Thane's naturally first action is activating the sensors and scanners this gadget has.

Abruptly, the mercenary cocks his blaster carbine and his upper body twists before the trigger is pulled twice at one of the corners where movement was detected (Amea). Six shots take off.

[member="Amea Virou"] [member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Thane Lokar"] | [member="Amea Virou"]

He didn't even flinch when Thane let his rifle roar again.

Did look over his shoulder towards the lady trying to sneak her way past them though. Eyebrow rose... but honestly she wasn't a priority for him, unless Amea decided to start shooting back and causing a bigger mess than this was already starting to be. In the other streets the gunfire was mixing with screams of help, roars of anger, it wasn't a large settlement.

Voices carried far.

A shrug once Thane asked him what's the what.

"Don't give a feth about these people. Going after the secrets this place was build on, make sure you and yours got my back, that's all I need." He'd gesture towards the end of the street, deeper into the settlement where he could practically feel the secrets flowing.

Darkside was difficult to hide for those that knew the signs.

"Let's go, unless the girl wants to tango." That last bit carried over his shoulder.

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Jairus Starvald"] // [member="Thane Lokar"]

Okay, this was risky. Amea glanced at the opening ahead. The two individuals, the merc and the sith up ahead seemed distracted by their conversation. Yet it didn’t seem as clear as she wanted it to be. There was a fifty-fifty chance for success in this last stretch of the run, but that was still fifty percent too little. A deep breath filled her with determination, a quick jump, and then she was off.

One step, two steps, BAM-

Grunt.

Slide.

Pained scream.

Six shots, one of which hit her right in the abdomen. She crumpled over against the dirt, pushed herself off the ground and threw a glare at the mercenary that had shot her. She should have kept going, or gone faster. She should have held off for just a moment longer but that wasn’t what she had done. She had pushed on and gotten shot and the fifty-fifty had paid off for the worse. That was to say she lost the bet and it hurt like a fether.

Her chest rose up from the ground and sunk in a slow rhythm.

She should have stayed down, but she didn’t.

An errant cough parted her lips and she took a bloodied breath.

A hand clutched at her wound and she stared the two men down.

There was little else she could think of.

"The fact that you shot me tempts a tango." She grunted and wiped the saliva from the corner of her lips as her glare shifted to the Sith. "The fact that I am injured is a pretty big factor against it."