The holo vid briefing finished. It was pretty cut and dry. Intel had come across news of a new drug cartel establishing a new hub barely 2.5 parsecs from the Aliso system. This could not stand, as the drug peddlers were distributing a highly addictive and lethal new drug that was sweeping across some Imperial loyalist sectors in the galaxy. Before This gang got set up in or near Plagueian territory, simply out, their job was to take it out. Quickly and hopefully quietly. Allowing news that a rogue group like this had been able to set up a base(small though it was) anywhere near the Plagueian capital would not be good for business or the clans prestige.
Furious and Tahiri had specifically sent Kalen on this mission as the 2IC of the mission, and they would have a small task force of ‘leased’ gunboats. The 2 leaders of House Ventress wanted to see how he would handle himself in some space combat since Kalen was serving as a gunboat flotilla leader in the Ascendant Fleet already. They had assigned the veteran Commander Trok(a twi'lek) to command the mission. Aside from the 4 old DD20s that would make up the strike team taking, other Brotherhood members who had accepted the ‘open peacekeeping contract’(this is how they had worded the advertisement in the Brotherhood job bank for opsec reasons) included;
((Names of characters and ships to be added as people join))
Kalen Joss(JV Core, shuttle)
The Twi'lek Commander Trok was nearly 60 years old, and had served in the New Republic, First Order, Iron, and Ascendancy fleets, usually serving on capital ships. He had been the captain of about a dozen different vessels in the last 25 years. But now he found himself as the mission commander for ‘Operation Vanquish’. Vanquish was the military codename within the Ascendancy Fleet of Clan Plagueis, but funny enough, only he and some new guy name Kalen were the only Plagueian military people assigned to the mission.
His target was some drug cartel base, and the orders were simple. Get rid of it. To accomplish this, he was given 5 ‘leased’ DD20 gunships and a couple modified freighters.
There was also several other Mercenaries, Rogues and Bounty Hunters as well as a few Brotherhood members from House Ventress and Scholae Palatinae taking part. SP was there in a semi official capacity, as they had supplied the intel that led to the discovery of the base, and had sent a few ‘liaisons/observers’ to participate in this mission. The ships were for destroying the cartel base, everyone else was their to deal with contingencies, do recon or espionage, and generally be the ‘ground muscle’ if they needed it.
Currently, he was having a meeting with the muscle. Kalen as the second in command sat to he right at the large conference table. The mood was distinctly non military One of the SP observers was a bounty hunter/broker who had his feet up on the table. He was there to gather info for dossiers on these drug peddlers. Apparently the same drug these guys were peddling had caused some serious problems on a few worlds in SP territory. He was a point man running the hunt to track them all down. Some others stood around the table, a few were sitting on the table instead the chairs.
Trok had just explained to the assembled group, that he needed better intel to come up with an assault plan.
He also wanted to know how many defenders, in terms of both ships and shooters. The Plagueian clan leadership wanted to know how many of the cartel leaders were present too.
‘So, I need some volunteers to get in there… or get real close.’ He said.
Kalen being the extremely naive, yet keen new guy that he was, chimed in right away ‘I’ll volunteer sir’
Trok turn slightly and give him a stern look ‘You aren’t volunteering for Sith kid. You’re leading the Taunton and Bantha parade part of this mission kid.’
He stood and turned to face Kalen, with his back to the rest of the people in the conference room. ‘Figure it out, let me know when you’re ready to launch. You should probably use your shuttle to get your team in, you just bought it, and your records are clean, its probably least likely to raise suspicion. They’ll think you bought a burner shuttle to pick up the load. Find out what were going to be running into when we geg there.’ The cartel base was on a sparsely populated moon of the 2nd planet orbiting the brown dwarf star. Their was a small colony, a few mines and an orbital fuel refinery there as well. So entering the system wouldn’t draw much attention initially. Trok patted Kalen on the shoulder and left the room without another word, on his way back to his bridge.
Kalen took a breath and a step forward after hearing the door shut as the Commander left. ‘I can be a volunteer and lead it to…’ he smiled at the group of underworld associates infront of him.
Someone chimed in ‘Yeah Trok’s a goof, has been for decades. Don’t mind him.’
‘So…who wants to come and do some espionage and intel gathering?’ Kalen leaned on the conference table and looked at each person there, wondering who was willing go with him.
About time. Badger hadn’t been watching the clock, but it could have been hours, to his awareness. The captain had said when she booted him off the freighter that he’d be good for the ground mission on this job. Low and behold, there it was.
“They won’t see me coming, chief,” Badger said with a confident grin. He pulled himself halfway out of an intense slouch in his chair, just enough to dig past his pistol holsters for a cigarette. While he flicked at his lighter, he added, “Hell, if I can get a tech readout for their turf, you just point me to a system on-board, and it’s bound for the scrap heap.”
‘That’s 1!’ A wookie standing in the back corner growled to say he was in too. ‘Make that 2. Anyone else?’ Kalen had been in leadership roles before,but he had never led a covert operation before, unless you counted him and his droid doing a few bounties as ‘covert ops’.
“I’m in.” Blackhawk stated, stepping out of the corner of the room where he’d been perched. The Clawdite gave the mission’s commander a stern once over. Nothing set off alarm bells yet, but the mission was still young. Many things could happen. “Got a plan to get us in?”
‘I’ve got the start of one. I can get us on the ground at the small colony near their base. But what i dont have is a connection to the drug world that could actually get us in…we can do scans as we deorbit and land figure how many ships and heavy weapons they have. But I’m hoping someone in this room know someone who can vouche for us as big time buyers…“ Kalen looked around. He could sense instantly that atleast a few of them have some friends they could call for this…but who would volunteer to out their necks out.
“Have we interrogated any cartel members recently? ” Blackhawk asked. “I can just replace a captive cartel person if I have the right Intel.” It had been awhile since he’d done it, but between stealth and his ability to shape shaft, Blackhawk could, at least theoretically, get just about anywhere.
Kalen walked over to the table and pulled out his datalink and had a seat. “Lets see.”
Badger took a long drag of smoke as the others got situated. “My ship’s captain might be able to help,” he tossed out. “Emphasis on might, but hey, if you need it, I can ask.”
Kalen nodded “I’ll take a maybe. Do it…um, so it looks like we have a few potential prisoners that we could assume the identities of for this….here’s one Keev Targo, picked up by a bounty hunter yesterday, mid level spice distributor, no direct links to to our cartel, but they’d certainly know of him…we could pose as his negotiation, purchasing, and transport crew.” Kalen shrugged, being new to the whole criminal underworld thing.
The wookie in the corner churled and growled. Kalen didnt understand any of it.
“Karracca said he’ll pretend to be the muscle.” The SP bounty hunter ‘observer’ translated for Kalen.
He laughed “I think you’d be perfect in that role” Kalen said to the nearly 7 foot tall, 320lbs, silverback Wookie.
4 hours later, JV Cora
After finishing the meeting, assembling his ‘team’ and coming up with a basic plan and backstory that should get them access to the cartels base.
They had also recieved some additional intel indicating that they had several vessels and safe houses spread across 3 systems. Recon had also shown the base having a shield generator. The Summit of House Ventress had sent Cdr Trok orders to focus on the base, and they would send others to track down and locate the cartels other assets.
“So, JV Cora, whats that name represent?” Blackhawk was currently in the co-pilot seat next to Kalen in the cockpit.
“Well, I came up with that the day after I bought this old girl. JV stands for Jedi Vessel, and Cora…is a woman.”
“An important woman I’d wager too then…hmm, Jedi Vessel eh…are you a Jedi then? I didnt think there was that many left who claim that title these days”
“From what I can tell…you’re right, there isn’t. And uh, yeah, I am a Jedi, I’m also a pragmatist.” Kalen decided to keep the details of his back story brief. Even though Blackhawk was a member of House Ventress like Kalen, he was still new and didnt know exaxtly who he could trust.
“Hey Kalen, did this thing come with the fridge and food warmer, or did you asd those?” Badger said as he walked into the cockpit.
Kalen chortled “Nah, I had to buy those. D(his 3PO droid), has done a good job making the hold somewhat livable too….I looked over your plan Badger, it looks great. I’ll play the rube pilot with a shuttle you hired for this load, Blackhawk will morph and be our mid level distributor(the real one being in a House Ventress holding cell, Blackhawk would simply assume his image) and Badger here can take care of the recon and sabotage if its needed.” Kalen nodded, he thought it was a good plan.
Karracca growled from the hold in the back. Kalen then heard D shout “Master Joss, Karracca would like to remind you that he will be your muscle for this operation, sir.”
“Thanks D…” Kalen said sarcastically.
45 minutes later
The ship dropped out of hyperspace in the target system. As they did Kalen quickly activated his scanners to collect as much data as they could. A few minutes later he got on the comm with the small civilian colony near the cartel base and requested permission to land. When he was asked to state the reason for their visit, Kalen provided the response Blackhawk had coached him on earlier.
“Our reasons are none of your business, and if you know whats good for you and your colony you’ll give us clearance and forget you ever spoke to us.” Kalen and the rest sat silent for a few tense seconds, they eventually the traffic control sent them landing clearance at a landing padd on the edge of the colony nearest to the targets base. Kalen closed the comm, exhaled and leaned back in his chair.
“Well, so far so good. It seems like your friend was able to make contact and let them know we’re coming to make a big purchase after all…its up to you 2 and our ‘muscle’ now.” Kalen turned and smiled nervously at Badger and Blackhawk.
That was an odd interaction, to say the least. Badger scratched his head under his hat. “Yeah, sure. Or they just heard a shuttle threatening them on their own turf and then decided we might make for easy target practice. Just keep your guard up for any sign of funny business, chief.”
He drew a pistol as he spoke, almost identical to the newer Bryar models, though its chassis was rough around the edges with off-color parts. By thumb, he flipped the cartridges, ensuring each was primed, then flipped it once more with a practiced flick of the wrist. It went back to its holster with the safety off and the clamp unfastened.
“Well if we’re target practice, we’ll find out here pretty quick. Everyon get, we’re going to de-orbit in an about 2 minutes.” Kalen considered powering up his laser cannon and ion turret just in case, but decided against it as it’s would definitely raise even more suspicions.
Karracca growled from the back. “Karracca says he will man the Laser turret in case we need it Mastee, Joss…oh dear….” D translated and became wise to the period they were potential heading into.
“Everyone calm down a bit!” Blackhawk yelled. “We can still salvage this. Remember, we want them convinced I’m a buyer here. ” he continued. “Our pilot is just some punk hired to fly us around. If we stick with that story, we should be able to get through this without having to kill anybody.” the Clawdite assertively reminded the group. “Just stick with your roles, and everything should be fine.”
Kalen mentally relaxed a bit. Blackhawk was right. They just needed to play their roles, and be ready for anything. Several seconds later Kalen said “Beginning landing approach now.”
They came down gracefully on their designated landing padd. It was a small, but reasonably habitable moon. The vegeration mostly consistent of things resembling schrubs and tumbler weeds. The cartel base was a few miles off in the distance behind the ship. And the small desolate prefab constructed colony of around 1000 souls was several hundred metres in front of the ship. As Kalen disengage the engines and repulsors he turned to his teammates.
“I guess its go time. I’ll stay with the ship as the hapless pilot” He chuckled because he would fit into the role seemelessly.
“Act like a wounded puppy. As far as they should be concerned, you’ve spent most of the landing being taught a thorough lesson in the error of your interaction with them.” Blackhawk suggested. With that, the group proceeded to land.
As was somewhat expected, however annoying, there was a diverse group of armed men waiting for them on the landing pad.
“No need for violence, gentlemen.” Blackhawk stated as he deboarded the shuttle. “You threaten us, and dare suggest we don’t need violence?” shouted a Weequay in response. “You’re lucky we didn’t blast you out of the sky!”
“And for that, you have my sincere gratitude.” Blackhawk replied. “And my humble apologies. My pilot is young and dumb. He is still at that time of his life where he feels himself invincible. I assure you, he has spent most of the landing being cured relieved of that foolish assumption.”
“Hmm. Very well, but we are watching you.” came the Weequay’s suspicious reply. “I would expect nothing less.” Blackhawk stated. “Now, shall we get down to business?”
Karracca simply stood behind Blackhawk as he was talking with the Weequay. His eyes scanning back and forth to identify threats. There was atleast 1 snipe trained on them that he had seen. He held his rather large battle rifle up against the shoulder of his 2.34m, 135kg frame. He churled a low growled, just loud enough for amy Shryriwook speakers to hear. “We ok here boss” was what it translated to.
In the Cartel Base
Draggo paced around nervously in their makeshift command centre. It was actually the basememt of the old colony construction facility that they repurposed into a drug refinery and distribution hub.
“That ship just came in with the pilot with the attitude. Has Jar'khan made contact with them yet. Kravik is usually never late picking up a load…”
One of Draggo’s Lt.s listened intently to his headset ckmm for a few seconds before saying “They’re making contact with them now.”
“Good the garage is getting full, we gotta start moving some of this stuff.” Draggo grabbed a datalink and began typing.
After a few more minutes Draggo’s Lt reported to him that it sounded like these were Kraviks people here to pick up the load.
“Good, then get em in here, start loading that stuff onto gravsleds. Its about time.” Their cartel had been able to grow is numbers and expand its operations exponentially over the past several months. The drug was so cheap to make, yet so addictive they couldn’t help but make money hand over tentacled fist.
Back on the JV Cora
Kalen sat in the cockpit, making sure that the ship appeared fully shut down, but could be ready to fly again within seconds. D-3PO had been standing in the ship at the top of the side entry ramp, listening to the exchange between the gangster and the 3 other members of the team. As Kalen was checking the comm channels on his headset for anything out of the ordinary D had tottled back up to the cockpit, and announced in a somewhat hushed tone. “Our friend have been invited in now Master Joss, they are now walking towards the structure to out rear sir.”
“Thanks D, you can probably just hang out in thebcorner and shut yourself down now. I’ll wake you up if anything important happens.” He was kore worried about the droids blathering causing issues then anything else.
Outside the Corra
It had been a fortuitous case of chance and luck, that Blackhawk was literally impersonating the exact person that this cartel was waiting for. The drugs had already been paid for by the criminal that he was assuming the identity of. The cartel still hadn’t gotten word that their guy had been rolled up, and was sitting in a maximum swcurity holding cell on Aliso.
After a few minutes of awkward silence the trio of Badger, Blackhawk and Karracca heard the headset comm of one of the people infront of them chirp. After listening for a few seconds the guy wemt and whispered in the leaders ear ‘they say let em in, and start loading the stuff’.
“Alright then, why did you just say you were here to pick ((insert name of the dude in the cell)) load…let’s go” the cartel security chief said as he turned and began walking towards the old construction facility thaf was now their drug lab.
Several minutes later D came lilting back into the cockpit.
“Master Joss, several men are approaching with fully loaoded gravsleds”
Kalens eyebrow raised as he turned to D. “Things must bengoing well then…” Kalen thought for a moment, should he just open the lower cargo hold? Or should he go and meeting them? He decided to do both.
“Impressive security. You design it yourself?” Blackhawk asked. “Indeed I did.” the Weequay replied smugly. “Too bad it’s got some flaws.” Blackhawk quipped. “Wha…” the Weequay gasped. He would never finish the sentence. Before he could get the word out, Blackhawk’s wrist mounted vibroblade pierced through his chest, killing him instantly. “Kill them all!” Blackhawk yelled as the other security personnel turned to deal with the sudden betrayal. Unfortunately, a few cartel security personnel were nothing to three trained fighters. The security detail was made short work of, and Blackhawk took the form of the now dead security chief. “Muck better,” he quipped, “now, hide the bodies and let’s move.”
Karracca growled in the affirmative and limberly started grabbing bosses and dragging them behind a boulder. Just then the large bay doors to the cartel base began to open several hundred metres across the rolling tundra and boulder field that made up this oart of the moon.
The security detail hadn’t even managed to get off a single blaster bolt. The doors opening were presumably cartel members getting ready to load the JV Corra(Kalens ship) with the illicit drugs.
Karracca growled a few barks, saying ‘Badger and I should help them load the drugs while you infiltrate’ in Shryiwook, as he was saying the words he also reached out with the Force to say the words telepathically aswell.
Back at the JV Corra, Kalen just stood there with his hands on his hips after opening the ships lower hold. He was watching the cartel lackeys loading the first grav sled of roughly half a ton of the highly addictive designer drug known as Daytripper.
Now, with Kalen being naive and very unassuming he hadn’t thought anything was odd about the situation at all. He just figured the plan was going well. He didnt realize what a stroke of good fortune and luck had saved them from an immedaite firefight as they landed(Blackhawk had assumed the identity of the perfect person). At this point, he also wasn’t aware of the murders of the cartels security detail. That had happened just a moment before, a few hundred yards away, on the other side of a rise.
Kalen had messed up big time. He had left the ships comms frequency open on vox.
A call came in from ‘Strike Team’ to the JV Corra just as some cartel members were within earshot loading the drugs.
The cartel goon immediately pulled his pistol, while Kalen retrieved his lightsaber as he realized what a collosal fluff up he had made and began to cut the 2 drug cartel lackeys down.
“Sith! Idiot!” His Jedi morals leaving him for the moment. He was quite angry with himself for leaving the comms open.
After nearly panicking over the next 30 seconds, he realized what he needed to do. He had to go and move the bodies from the rampway of the vessel. As he stepped out though, a snipers blaster bolt impacted the ramp near his foot and he leapt back. ‘They had eyes all over us and seen my saber hacking their buddies down.’ He thought to himself.
He keyed him his comm with was linked to an earpiece in Badgers ear. “Covers blown, watch out. Their sniperdwill be radio i…” Kalen stopped as he heard a melee erupted through Badgerd microphone.
The cartel members Karra and Badge had gone to help, had just heard that the group of Brothers were actually hostile. Kalen then ran amd jumped into the cockpit and fired up the engines. He also responded on the ships comms to the Strike Force and called in the cavalry. Unbeknownst to Kalen the cavalry was not longer led by Commander Trok of the Ascendant Navy. It was now lead by House Ventress Quaester’s Brother.
<@152256842473406464> <@280930981983289345> <@375384499770359819>
“Idiot!” I’ll deal with you later Blackhawk thought. Right now, things were going as he wanted, at least mostly. Cartel soldiers went rushing past Blackhawk. He headed in the opposite direction, hoping it would lead him to the base’s control room. It took him a few minutes, but eventually, he found it. “Where the hell have you been?” yelled a muscular human. By way of answer, Blackhawk waved a hand, bringing the door down, sealing the room. “I’m afraid your security chief is dead. Surrender now, and maybe you won’t have to join him.” Ths Clawdite dropped his guise, there being no further use for it. In the moment it took to return to his true form, a few things happened. Several of the men in the room drew blasters, their bolts impacting against Blackhawk’s armor with little effect. Someone, he didn’t realize who until a moment later, screamed with rage. Something impacted his head. Hard. Hard enough for Blackhawk to feel it and actually stumble a couple steps. He turned, slowly, his eyes narrowing at the muscular human that had spoken a moment ago. The blasters stopped. Fear suddenly overtook the room. The human stared back with rage. “My turn.” the Clawdite declared. With a quick wave of his hand, the large club that had been used on him flew out of the man’s hand, skittering across the floor. Blackhawk’s lightsabers ignited, signaling imminent death to everyone in the room. The blaster fire, futile as it was, resumed.
Blackhawk took his time. He wanted the man he assumed was the boss around here to watch as his men, previously feared by others, were slaughtered. Some, he simply cut down. Swift and efficient. Others, he burned, combusting them with a wave of his hand. The last few, he ended with a torrent of lightning. The presumed boss watched in increasing horror as this single person annihilated his men like a force of nature. As the last screams of agony faded, Blackhawk turned his attention to him. He grabbed the drug lord in a force choke, pulling him in close. Just as the drug lord was nearing unconsciousness, Blackhawk released him. “No. We’re not going to kill you just yet. We still have questions for you.” With that, Blackhawk sent him flying across the room, where he crumpled, unconscious but still alive.
Kalen was a well trained pilot by his small communities standards, but it was still a new ship for him. Still he made it off the ground in less then a minute. As per the mission plan Kalen immediately activated and armed the ships ion cannon while he swooped over to the cartels base. He noticed he was taking fire from 2 different sniper positions on his starboard side. For now he decided to ignore them and complete the task of disabling the bases shield generator for the strike force.
He identified the shield generator from a height of about 600 feet and and range of about one kilometer. It was like shooting a barrel at point blank range. And after a few bolts from the ion cannon the generator was disabled.
As this was happening Kalen saw one of the cartels z95s to begin to take off. He quickly targeted the fighter with the ion cannon and snapped off a few shots at it. One of the swirling electrified blue bolts struck the headhunter as it was about 7 feat off the ground. The result was the fighter losing all power and falling back go to the launch pad with a thud and cloud of dust.
“Strike Force this is the Corra, do not target the base, I say again, do not Strike the base. Requesting ground forces be landed directly on the base. I am providing air cover. I have 3 team members on the ground needing extraction.” He hollered into his comm as the emotion of the moment overwhelmed him again.
His sense of being the Jedi he had trained to be was slowly and steadily slipping away from him. It wasn’t a consciously thing for Kalen, it was just happening due to circumstance and his lack of real life experience in this galaxy and these types of situations.
“Would you guys hurry up, the boss is waiting for us, yeesh” an unfamiliar voice came over the comm as Kalen saw a Fang fighter come streaking in on his starboard side.
Kalen switched comm channels to the team channel and keyed the mic “The cavalry had arrived gentlemen, I’ll meet you all at the front door!”
As he circle the ship around and came in to land back infront of the loading back door of the facility where Kalen presumed his friends would be, he saw blaster bolts going in and out of the large bay door. As he sized up the situation, Kalen realized that the team was likely pinned down near the door, as the snipers on the ridge were firing in that direction.
Kalen activated the single laser cannon, his only other weapon on the small ship. He began firing towards the sniper positions as he tried to bring the shuttle in for a combat landing near his friends.
He was successful at nuetralizing one of the sniper positions, but the snipers we also successful, and took out one of kalens manuevering thrusters causing the ship to sink and spin slightly.
His landing skids based into the soon moon dust and kicked up a massive cloud. The ship spun and skidded to a stop, but not before one of the rear landing struts literally snapped off.
The shuttle then teetered and came to a rest, like a wounded animal sitting on its rear haunches.
“We’re doomed!!!” D screamed from the back after getting thrown around a bit.
“Shut up D, we’re fine…just snapped a landing strut….I think.” Kalen said as he jumped out of the cockpit, pulled out his blaster pistol and opened the side ramp door which was convieniently face the area where Badger and Karracca were holed up.
Kalen peeked out from behind the cover of the ships entryway, and was heartened to see Karracca and Badge both b-lining towards the ramp.
“Hey, kid! Nice flying, but you might want to keep that bird landed and let the professional take it from here,” the unfamiliar voice coolly said over the comm, as Kalen saw a flash of a blaster from his starboard side as he attempted his landing.
If he had glanced over before crashing, he’d see a sunset orange male Togruta, on the wing of his fighter, while it flew towards the sniper. The Togruta leveled his pistols and laying down fire with bursts of three rounds with the one, while with the other he took more careful aim.
The sniper tried to hide, but the advantage of being on the wing of his maneuvering fighter, and his own pistols, Ro-Tahn easily took out the sniper with a well aimed shot.
“Good work Dunga,” the Togruta grinned at his BB droid. “Getting better at staying steady.”
Indeed, the ship, was not fine. The lucky shot from the sniper had knocked out his port engine, it would not fire up against without major repairs. To add to this new problem, their were still snipers on the ridge line to their left. One of them fired a bolt and hit Karracca in the leg.
The large and chubby wookie crumpled to the ground and Kalen instantly leapt from ramp, ignited his saber and ran the 7 or 8 metres to get to him. As he did another blaster bolt landed at hit feet and Kalen turned to his attackers and covered Karracca, deflecting several more bolts. Karracca howled and then grunted and began to slowly rise and hobble towards the shuttle.
Kalen shuffled sidewase keeping himself and his lightsaber between Karracca and the snipers a few hundred metres away, deflectinf a few more sniper bolts sent theumjr way. Ro-Tahn made quick work of the snipers that were left though and Kalen and Karracca we able to clamour back into the shuttle.
“Where’s Blackhawk” Kalen yelled as he jogged to the cockpit and picked up his headset.
“Whoever that is flying out there, thanks, you just saved our lives down here!” Kalen had not heard Ro-Tahn last few comms messages, as he had discarded his headset right as they crash landed.
D and Badger began helping Karracca with his leg as they all heard the sound of assualt landers coming in around them. That cavalry was indeed arriving.
Kalen peeked out the cockpit windkw just in time to see the Fang Fighter pilot climb back into the cockpit after riding on the wing.
Kalen literally did a double take, not believing his eyes.
As the strike force entered orbit, a large figure appeared on the ramp. “Let me out,” he demanded, the mechanical voice accompanying a loud, guttural growl. The pilot complied, nobody else bothering to try to stop him. Common sense dictated that you let the Wookie do as he desired if you wanted to stay in one piece. Spokk kept from the ship, allowing gravity to work naturally for the moment to get him away from the ship. After a moment, he altered the direction of gravity, propelling himself towards his destination. It took only a moment for him to come into sight of the base. A large group of blaster bolts appeared to be firing into a building near a crashed ship. He also noticed a group of snipers firing the occasional blast towards the bay. Spokk aimed for the snipers, while pulling out a thermal imploder for the group firing towards the downed ship
Had they not had bigger things to worry about, the 3 men in the docking baym ight have heard the sound of a large, angry Wookie suddenly crashing into a mountain. The snipers were no longer an issue. Both had found themselves to stunned to do anything when the Wookie landed next to them. And it was the last thing the saw before they were both shredded by flechettes from his pair of smart pistols at point blank range. The imploder, on the other hand, couldn’t be missed. It’s effects on the enemy group were quick, immediate, and devastating. The initial blast didn’t kill as many as he’d hoped, but the psychological effect it had on the cartel was immediately apparent. Many suddenly hesitates, looking around for where he blast had come from. They didn’t expect to see an armoured Wookie suddenly float in from the mountain where their snipers had been a moment before. “You would be wise to surrender,” he stated, the a menacing howl accompanying the mechanical voice of his translated, “or I’ll tear you apart”
Blackhawk heard the new arrivals on his comm. The first amused him. “Nice of you to join us!” Blackhawk quipped over the comm. “This mean the cavalry’s in town?” The second thing he heard… well that left even Blackhawk a bit intimidated. Glad he’s on our side Blackhawk thought as he made his way to the docking bay, not that he figured he’d be needed by the time he got there
Jumping back into the cockpit, he took the controls back from his droid, quickly sweeping across the ridge of the mountain, seeing the carnage of the huge Wookie.
“No problem kid, my sis would probably punch me if I allowed you to die on your first mission,” the Togruta chuckled to Kalen. “We’ll do intro’s after we get things taken care of. Just call me Ro. See you on the ground soon.”
“I couldn’t miss out on causing a bit of chaos.” Ro laughed upon hearing Blackhawks’ voice. “Hell yesh, the cavalry is coming down hard into town.”
<@1178915035049902120> <@280930981983289345>
“The townsfolks all ran and hid as this kicked off. I think its safe to say they were coerced into letting the cartel operate here…all units treat the town as nuetral, we have not recieved any fire from the town, I say again, all units, the colony does not appear hostile. Focus on the ridge and the base. Secure all vessels and vehicles in the courtyard of the base.” Kalen said into the comm. He wasn’t a military leader, he was literally just spouting the mission directives almost verbatim. Though he did want to make sure that the mercenaries and battle droids that were landing now didnt ransack the colony. They were just miners who the cartel took advantgae of from what he could tell.
Landing his fighter, Ro-Tahn climbed out, grabbing a satchel before jumping down. The tall Togruta waved towards the incoming troop shuttles, the commanders quickly coming over to confirm the orders they had heard before landing, to which Ro simply nodded. He added that they should get medic droids and personal, after the area was secure, to check the civilians over, and make sure that armed escorts went with them. He watched the other fighters secure the airspace around the mining colony, making sure no one unauthorized took off or landed with their permission. After seeing everything coming to order, the tall Togruta turned and walked towards the JV Corra. Observing the damage the vessel had taken, he just shook his head and went over to the open side ramp door.
“whistles Hey y'all good in there? Looks like you guys had a rougher landing than expected.”
<@1178915035049902120> <@152256842473406464>
With additional forces landing and the remaining cartel troops doing as they were told, Spokk allowed his gravity to reorient in its natural direction. With the threats all taken care of, Spokk joined the others at the Corra.
Blackhawk emerged into the landing bay. As he suspected, he was no longer needed. Between Ro, Spokk, and the rest of the Plageian forces arriving, any remaining cartel troops within the base quickly gave in to their sense of self preservation and surrendered. “You’ll find their leader in the control room.” Blackhawk told a lieutenant as he passed by. “He’ll be the one still alive in a room full of corpses.” With that, he also made his way over to the crew gathering at the damaged JV Corra.
“Hey Blackhawk, good to see you again dude.”
Ro’s cocky grin flashed big as he held out his arm to the Clawdite in greeting.
“Likewise, little man,” Blackhawk replied with a chuckle. The obvious irony was not lost on anyone present. “And where, pray tell, is that mean sister of yours?”
Chuckling, Ro looked around for a moment before answering, almost as if he was checking if the coast was clear. However, that cocksure grin never left his face.
“Oh she’s nowhere close by, thank the stars,” the Togruta rolled his eyes and folded his arms. “But knowing her, Hiri will have intel on what’s happened here before Joss and you, or even I, get to debrief her.”
“That she will.” Blackhawk replied. “Question is, which of her pets is spying on us this time. Or is that what the carpet of doom is here for?” He joked, jerking his head towards the towering Wookie. “Hey!” Spokk retorted with mock indignation. “That’s rich from a sentient toothpick!”
“Haha that’s why I only work with droids, though that comes with it’s own issues.”
RO’s little BB droid rolled over his foot and caused him yelp in pain, before attempting to kick at the droid.
“Ouch! Dunga! You motherfracking sonofahutt!”
The droid rolled away as fast as it could, beeping incessantly and put it’s blowtorch in a gesture that very durogertory, sending another series of high pitched beeps, boops, and whirls back at Ro-Tahn.
“Oh yeah?! Well, you’d still be in a scrap heap on Nar Shaddaa, if it wasn’t for me!”
Turning back to Blackhawk and the hulking Wookie who joined them, he huffed as he tested his weight on his foot.
“See what I mean?”
“Droids are hackable. Besides, have you seen what one can do with an almost 8 foot pissed off Wookie standing there? It works wonders for… info gathering.”
“I getcha. I mean, having a Wookie on your side of things is a bonus no matter what,” Ro respectfully tipped his head towards Spokk. “Although, I wouldn’t want to get on my sisters bad side, it’s almost as bad as watching a Wookie rip someone’s limbs off.”
He chuckled nervously for a moment and then looked back at the ramp seeing that Kalen, Badger, and Karracca had emerged from the ship to join them.
“I’m not so sure. Then again, I don’t think I could find her bad side. Anyway, how’s everybody else doing?”
Kalen walked down the ramp and greeted Ro and gave a half embarrassed shrug to Blackhawk.
He exhaled “Well that was definitely not the landing in was going for…but we’re all fine.”
Karracca roared in disagreement as he hobble his bulbous frame down the ramp.
As Kalen got to the bottom of the ramp he turned around and started to take a look around the ship. The damage didnt look too bad from the ramp side, but as he walked around the nose he could see that the engine on the other side was fried. Still smoking will its inner working looking shredded.
“Ahh for Sith sake…this’ll cost me…” Kalen kicked the dirty dirt covered dirt, very unhappy with himself for not firing the retros sooner to soften his landing.
Kalen walked back around to the group at the ramp. “Thanks for all the help there Ro, you arrived right in the nick of time.”
“Where were you this whole time anyway?” Kalen said to Blackhawk and glanced around at the troopers and battledroids that were busy securing the site.
“I was busy reducing the population… and giving a certain cartel boss some useful clues about what might happen to him later.” Blackhawk didn’t go into much further detail than that. “Besides, things here were well in hand, right Spokk?” “Very. Or so that crater over there would indicate” Spokk replied looking down at the much shorter Jedi. “If only the sniper hadn’t gotten lucky, right, young Jedi.”
“If the sniper hasn’t been lucky, or the pilot had fired his retros sooner. Im just happy we’re all ok though. Mission accomplished, and all its gonna cost me is a new landing strut and a new engines by the looks of things.” Kalen replied.
Karracca growled again.
“And your leg wound, sorry buddy…” he added.
“Hey, don’t worry too much about the damage,” Ro smiled and winked at Kalen. “There are some really great mechanics at headquarters, and I can probably help get some of that cost taken off your bill there. I know people.”
Shaking his head, the tall Togruta smirked, “Yeah, that crater was quite impressive… err, Spokk was it? I could only imagine the look on those snipers faces. Well, I could imagine a few of them, but damn. I wish I had my rifle, but I left that back in the garage at home. Frack, I did lock the cabinet, didn’t I?”
-# There’s a small itch in the back of his mind, a thought, that no matter if he’d locked up all his weapons, his daughter would still be able to somehow get into the lockers.
Glancing over at the other Wookie sitting at the bottom of the ramp itself, “Oh kark, that round went deep.”
Pressing a small device that was attached to his head gear. “Hey! This is Ro-Tahn Drakon, requesting a medic droid over to the JV Corra! ASAP!” He ordered in a confident commanding tone. While they waited for the medic, Ro took out a datapad and was looking through something for a few moments, before breathing a sigh of relief and then turned back to the group.
“Sorry gang, had to check on someone for a second.”
<@1178915035049902120>
“Suprise, shock, horror. Probably some combination of the three. To bad there isn’t enough left of them to check.” Spokk chucked. “Not sure they fully understood what they saw before I shredded them.” He patted the pistol holstered at his side. “Turns out, flechettes at point blank range will do that.”
“Kark me! That’ll do the trick. Can’t say I wouldn’t love to get my hands on and use some of those some day. But alas, at least for the moment, I can’t have anything that explosive at my place for at least a few more years.”
Sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose, he turned to Blackhawk, “You’ve heard what Hiri got Zeva for a belated birthday present, didn’t you?”
“I did not. But I can guess. How terrified are you?” Blackhawk mused.
“22 thousand credits each for these babies.* Spokk bragged. "You could probably get one that fired blunt objects instead.”
“Oh dude, no you don’t get it. And you won’t believe this. Hiri took my daughter to a pet adoption fair and got her fracking pet!” Ro sighed heavily, continuing with hand gestures to show size. “And the thing is just a baby right now, like this small… But it’s supposed to get almost as big as Zeva is now, if not a little bigger. It’s called a Tuggle. I don’t what the kark brained idea my sister had to think that I even wanted that for Zeva.” His hands extended to about the size of a fairly large creature, already a little more than half a meter big, and then he extended his hand to height of his little girl.
Glancing up at Spokk and then down at his pistol, the Mercenary nodded thoughtfully, “That’s not too bad, I’m pretty sure I could swing that.”
Blackhawk laughed. “Kinda what I guessed she’d do. Your sister is a little chaos goblin after all. And expanding the family zoo absolutely fits her idea of an appropriate birthday gift.”
Ro-Tahn stared at Blackhawk incredulously for a moment, before shaking his head.
“How did you, get along with her, with my big sister’s pets, for as long as you did without going crazy, Blackhawk? Like even one of her pets are more than enough for me, and now my daughter has a pet, and they’re living in my apartment.” He threw up his hands in anguish.
“You get used to it. And it helps to save her life once or twice.” Blackhawk replied. “Just be happy she didn’t get something bigger. I know she’s considered getting a Terentetek at least once.”
“Hah! I think she’s saved my life more times than I’ve saved hers.” He looked slightly relieved before the last part of the Clawdites statement sunk in. Then Ro’s emerald eyes grew wider as he realized what creature Blackhawk just mentioned was. “Oh? Hehehe, is that all? Fracking hells, I had really hoped she was joking about the Krayt Dragon. But if she mentioned a Terentetek… Oh boy.”
Ro looked bewildered and almost like he going to pass out, before he shook himself and took a few deep breathes. “I might actually have to have an intervention for her,” saying more to himself then the present company.
Blackhawk smiled. “I’m pretty sure riding into battle on a Krayt Dragon is actually a plan she has. Now that’s a terrifying thought. Good thing she’d be on our side for that.”
“Wait Krayt Dragons? I thought they were mythical? Like the mithosaurs of Mandalore…are you saying they’re real?” Kalen had got the sense Blackhawk was referring to a real creature amd not just making a joke.
“Krayt Dragon pearls exist. I have yet to find any reason to believe the dragons themselves don’t. And trust me, if they exist, she’s crazy enough to ride one. If they don’t, well, she might just be crazy enough to make one. And I’m not sure which idea is scarier.”
Kalen was taken aback but feigned joviality. They were talking about their own House leader, why would they be scared? Kalen thought of the group he had joined as a kind of hybrid guild/government. He has noticed that much of the galaxy had apparently devolved into quasi fuedsl fiefdoms from days of old. Or atleast thats what the pop holovids he and Corra watched had implied. “I see.”
“Well, Tahiri did tell me, that she helped a friend kill an adult Krayt Dragon,” Ro added while rubbing the back of his neck. “She’s one of the best hunters I know, and she wouldn’t spin a tale like that without actually doing it herself. That’s the thing with her, if she’s done it, she will be honest a tell you,, to a degree. If she hasn’t done it, well she’ll either do it or won’t, depending upon what it is.”
The cocky smile slowly returned to his face, “Kalen, ask her to duel one of these days, when you’ve notched a bit more knowledge on your wood. Then come back and talk with us, you’ll see why we call my sister both nice and scary.”
“Duel? The boss? You’re saying I should duel the boss? Isnt that considered…I dunno, rude or insubordinate?” Kalen was again realizing how much of what might be going on was still wholely unknown to him.
“Dueling the boss? Rude and inconsiderate? Her and I both did it on more than one occasion. She wouldn’t call it rude. She might enjoy it even.” Blackhawk chuckled again. “Hell, back in our training days, fighting our master was practically a requirement.”
“Aye. She and I have even dulled before, and we’re siblings. Although she does consider you, Blackhawk a brother as well,” the tall Togruta laughed heartily. “Kark, she’s taught me so much through our dueling sessions. But I still can’t get the drop on her, she knows me too well.”
“Also, I’ve watched her personally train some of the newer agents, she’s more of a hands-on sort of leader, rather than the ones who sit behind desks and do paperwork, or plot against their enemies.”
“You’re siblings. Pretty sure that comes with the territory. As does being unable to get the drop on her. Anyway, we should probably get back to work before she appears and kicks both our rears, though mostly yours.” Blackhawk gave the Togruta a light hearted punch to the arm.
“Ah. Yes, indeed….D! Grab the ‘go bag’ and lets get going” Kalen said, and then turned to Ro. “Mind if we commandeer one of the landers and head back to the flagship? Ill send some mechanics and lifters down to take care of the Corra.” He would actually sell the Corra 3 hours later in a ‘trade-in’ deal back aboard the freighter that was serving as the flagship of this little op.
_ Some hours later _ _ Aboard a prisoner transport vessel _
The interrogation was not beating much fruit. The cartel boss , as it turned out, had some loyalty to his superiors. But that resolve had not yet been fully tested.
“Clear the room.” The interrogator did as he was told. Normally, they wouldn’t bother with this sort of work. But in this case, an exception was made.
“Remember me?” Blackhawk’s question was cold. He didn’t need an answer. “Just so you know, all that stuff you saw me do to your men back in the control room, my friend here can do just as well.” Spokk growled. “Or, you can tell us what we want to know, and we won’t have to hurt you.”
‘Tell you what? I was just running the shipments out of that base man, thats it. I dont know anything about the operations back end. I swear.“ The cartel Lt said trying to sound earnest.
Spokk growled again, adding a burst of lightning to reinforce the threat. “Tell us everything, or this will only get worse for you. All those things you saw me do yesterday, I can do to you without killing you.” The thought of more shocks, or worse,being lit on fire broke his resolve. The cartel boss gave away everything, hoping the torture wouldn’t start.
Prisoner transport Secondary Observation room
“How did he do?”
“Hehe. Well let’s see, he’s certainly optimistic, friendly, seems a little naive, but all in all he’s capable.”
“Is Blackhawk almost finished with the interrogation?”
“Oh yeah. His Wookie friend, Spokk, got em to spill the pot easy enough. He’ll be here momentarily. By the way, why was Blackhawk in on this mission before me?”
“Ro-Tahn Vang Drakon. Stop it. You know exactly why,” the Elder’s visage turned, extinguishing her saber and dismissing the training droids, to look at her brother. “Everyone acts differently around you, when they know that you are my little brother, something I wish you wouldn’t tell everyone you met right off the wing.”
A towel floated in from nowhere and Tahiri rubbed down her arms, her tone becoming a bit gentler, as her gaze held her brothers.
“People who are hiding something are not going to open up to someone so close to me. Blackhawk knows me as well as you do, he trained with me, but he knows when to announce our relationship.”
“I can keep a secret,” muttering under his breath, the tall Togruta cross his arms indignantly. Hearing the door open, he didn’t turn, but did gesture to the small holo of Tahiri, “Blackhawk, would you tell her, that I am perfectly capable of talking to people without telling them about my sister!”