“So to be clear, you need someone to destroy a lab with unknown numbers or variety of hostile creatures, all without taking down structures above it?”
Titius failed to wait for a reply, his mind already compiling ordinance lists.
“Send me a rendez-vous and have my payment ready.”
A short span later, the Deru-B-Malpractice began its journey towards Arx space.
*Strategic Coordination Centre, *Bright Light **
The Ascendant Outreach Corps had just officially finished is first operational deployment, and aside from the tragic friendly fire incident involving the unfortunate death of a Hidden Blades crewmembers, it had been an unqualified success. Not only had they achieved all their mission goals, but they had also helped a stranded Bulk Frieghter and aided in the liberation of roughly 3 dozen Ugnaughts(who were kin to their associate Major Treel). As an added bonus, 9 of the Ugnaughts had volunteered to serve with the Corps as Intel Agent and/or Special Operators, and they had also solved their ‘lack of shuttles’ problem by appropriating 3 up-armoured dual purpose shuttles/landers from the Pyke operation.
Karracca, Treel, Zuser, and Kalen were just finishjng going over some last minute AARs, when the big wookie changed the subject.
“So, apparently I committed 2 of the cardinal sins of staff work, and the Exarch wants me to head to Arx Minor for a meeting with him.”
“What 2 sins are those, hopefully you’re not in too much trouble pal.”
The wookie chuckled, “Oh, they arent those types of sins. Apparently I did too good of job in planning Op Starshell against against the Pykes, and the second sin was not complaining loudly or enough about having to do it in the first place. Grevious sins if you’re hoping to not get roped into more high level staff work. And apparently there’s a priority mission on Arx proper aswell.”
“Is that the mission with the super hi-tech computer and the underwater facility?” Zuser asked.
“Yeah, that’s the one. You sign on for it too?” Karraccs replied.
“You bet your fur coat I did. Did you see the compensation package they’re offering for it? More then enough to cover all the upgrades I wanna do to the Banshee and then some.”
“Indeed. Though in my experience wages that high are often associated with a commensurate increase in the risk of bodily harm…
And I won’t lie, I’m not much looking forward to the idea of close quarters combat against a bunch of cybernetically enhanced super soldiers either.“ The borderline elderly silverback admitted.
"In that case, I and my team will volunteer to accompany you Deputy Under Secretary. You greatly honoured my kin and I during the rescue, it is only fitting that we aid you with this tasking.” Treel chimed in, again using Karracca’s former New Republic job title.
“I’m feeling better about our chances for success already,” Karracca turned back to Zuser, “Well if we’re both heading to Arx, did you want to harddock the Banshee to the Corra for the trip? Might aswell save you the cost of fuel.”
<@542380450484715522>
The slinky Inquisitor stammered through the forest. Stepping in a puddle of mud, he exclaimed, “Nobody told me it would be this difficult!” The guide got out a moss handkerchief and spoke in a broken basic accent, “Come clean!” The Inquisitor huffed, “Where is this person? This search is becoming abrasive!”
The guide put a finger to their lips: “Shhhh! Blurry is the mind’s eye!”
The Inquisitor sighed, “That’s the last time I trust a cantina owner with good advice. You’re useless.”
But just beyond the head of the foolish guide, a stale face appeared, lit up by its own eyes. The Inquisitor reached for a lightsaber, and, tripping over roots and gunk, rushed the droid for answers.
SPRAT
Steaming from behind the inquisitor’s head lay a firmly fired blaster bolt. The guide brought up a comlink, and spoke cleanly, “Mission accomplished, boss. The secret base for our revolutionary operations will go unnoticed for now. Arx won’t ever find out our plans.” The guide, turning to the droid, said, “Good job, C-4PO.”
The droid responded, “Oh my! Did he really have to die? Wouldn’t it have been better to try to interrogate him and align him to our socialist ideals?”
The guide retorted, “He’s part of the thug class. He’s more akin to a petite bourgeoisie who works for the billionaires rather than a working class individual. My Windu-Landoist ideals state that…”
SPRAT SPRAT
A soldier from deep within the forests let a rip into both the skulls of the guide and the droid. She reached for a commlink and spoke quietly, “Comrade Enzo, the Authoritarian Communists of the Windo-Landoist tendency have been eliminated. We also have the location of their base. Shall we move in?”
Just then, one of the tree sprouted legs and arms and a face tortured by time opened up. The tree reached into the pocket of the Inquisitor and pulled out a holographic recorder. The Neti looked up, “Attack the base, comrade. I need to hear this.”
The libertarian socialists sprung up from the shadows, all 5 of them and started getting ready to move out. Dek pressed the recorder and a picture of Chief Inquisitor Amanda appeared, “Dek, we need you back at Arx. We know you’re deep undercover with the Freedom Fighters of the Force, but this mission is considered top priority.”
Dek looked up, all of the fighters heard the message. They slowly started reaching for their weapons.
“Oh…I actually agree with you…truly,” and the Neti did. But good luck convincing a libertarian socialist that they have allies!
—————————-
As Karraca and Zuser got ready to leave, the dock manager was pushing a large wooden barrel onto the ship.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Karraca held up his furry hand, “What’s this?”
The dockworker struggled, wincing out a few words: “A package. Supposedly necessary for you? Can be used in whatever you’re doing.”
The Force was strong with the barrel.
“I…guess…we could use whatever is inside,” responded the wookiee.
“Great,” the dockerworker sighed, “Cause I don’t want to bring it back down.”
** Brightlight Hangar**
Zuser’s helmeted head tilted to the side in thought.
“Yeah not a bad idea, all things considered. I’ll saddle up and get ready. You want a ride to the Corra? I promise Chime won’t try to carve you up this time. She’s just very territorial of the Banshee.”
He gestured to the Firespray, the Sandrock color palette looking out of place in the black and grey durasteel hangar.
“Sure. Lets go.” Karracca replied.
“It is right below, I assure you sir.” The pilot droid worked constantly to steady the ship over the lapping wake.
Titius was looking out over the ramp, face exuding heavy skepticism. Shrugging, he walked deeper into the hold and dragged a pallet of materials forward. A swift kick sent the bundle sliding over the edge followed by a dull crunch as it landed.
“When our dear friends arrive, let them know where I went. And keep close-by in case I need to make a swift exit.” With his instructions clarified, Titius stepped off the ramp and pencilled into the wake below. The air filled with a heavy roar as Deru-B peeled away.
Pulling himself up to the platform, Titius made quick work of tearing down the pallet. Flat plates of detonite skidded out across the duracrete, slim lines of cord linking each like an explosive arachnid. Cradling the detonator, Titius gave it a firm squeeze and dove beneath the waves again.
Flaming duracrete and steel formed a firework as the platform disintegrated. Bobbing back up, Titius was pleased to find a gaping hole leading down into the dark depths…
A few hours later the Corra VI and Banshee arrived on he scene. They recieved a comm from the Deru-B informing then that Master Titius had already deployed in the mission.
Karracca spoke over the comm to Zuser in the Banshee, “These are the coordinates, where’d the platform go?”
All that was visible was the jagged stem of a large elevator shaft and some pilings sticking up from the ocean waves below.
“Oh, yeah, you haven’t worked with Titius before have you? Expect plenty of explosions and things melting or bursting at random times.” Zuser replied.
“I see. Well lets get to it then I suppose.” Karracca replied.
The 2 ships took turns parking next to the top of the elevator and disgorged the team members onto the top of the shaft.
Half of the 8 Ugnaughts on Treels team remained behind on the Corra with Reece.
“Did you guys bring ropes?” Karracca asked Treel.
The 4 ugnaughts all raised their hands with their palms facing Karracca displaying the small technical devices therein.
“Mag sets.” Treel responded.
The Obelisk Adherent peered over the side of the still-smoldering hole and sniffed when he caught a whiff of smoke through his helmet.
“Given the scarcity of smoke, I’d say he blew this up hours ago. He’s probably already down there having a cup of Caf and wondering where we are.”
Zuser turned in his heel and walked back into the Banshee. He walked back out in the process of putting on a Mandalorian jet pack on his back, with Skull trailing behind him.
“Sir, I really don’t think this is a good idea. You’re gonna end up a pile of ash, bone and beskar.”
“Oto’yodo! Besides! I remember when Clan Vizla dropped out of their own ships like this when we had that big fight, they did it all the time! How hard could it be??”
He turned to look at Karacca and the Ugnaughts.
“See y’all at the bottom! UTINNI!”
Before anyone could even respond, he dropped down the hole, metal walls turning orange from the jet pack firing to slow his descent.
Once the old wookie was reasonably sure that Zuser had made it to the bottom the wookie leapt down the hole too, he reached with his sense and repelled the pull of gravity as he neared the bottom, still landing with a thud on the deck below. A moment later the ugnaught plopped out the bottom of the shaft after using their mag sets to scamper down the corners of the partially destroyed elevator.
“Any idea where you friend is?” Treel asked.
As if one cue blaster fire could be heard off in the distance down the dimly lit corridor to their left.
“That way.” The massive wookie replied as he pulled out his lightsaber by didnt bother activating yet.
Treel made a hand signal to one of his fellow ugnaughts who cocked his weapon and proceeded down the corridor towards the sounds of the weapons firing. Each ugnaught was armed with a full sized carine repeating blaster that has most of the buttstock chopped off. In a certain way, the size of the weapons in the hands of the 3 foot tall ugnaughts reminded Karracca of a little statue of garden gnome with a full sized dinner fork in its hands that he had seen in a restaurant on Khomm decades before.
Titius would really prefer to be sipping caf, bored out of his tree waiting on his tardy compatriots. Alas, his own actions came to haunt him. Far deeper into the facility, the air was heating rapidly from the storm of blaster bolts. Titius was lobbing shots down a corridor, an unseen party was tearing strips off a wall with their barrage, automated defenses were swinging wildly and zombified slaves sprayed with abandon. Through the chaos, the unmistakable groan of pressurized metal fighting nature itself. Titius could not even hear himself screaming expletives as the aggravating chirping roar gated his implants completely. The only indication that his blaster was still firing was the dull hammering against his pauldron.
And without notice, the sound died out completely. The battle still raged, the heat cranking up even further but only a silvery voice slunk through Titius’ implants. “Stop. Stop fighting. You are going to hurt me. You are killing my friends. Stop!” The message began looping. Titius shook his head hard over but the voice stayed. Retreating to a side passage, he produced a canister of animated silver sand and poured it out rapidly. The cloud expanded rapidly up to caress Titius’ hand and arm. [Hello Ripley] signed the mercenary. [We need to get out. Help guide?] The silver cloud contracted as if to caress Titius and floated off in a serpentine plume. Titius kept low and moved after it through the battlefield.
The Maverick started sprinting down the hall when he started hearing the unmistakable sound of blasterfire. When he started being able to see the faint red flashes, he reactivated his jet pack to make the distance. He felt a pressure from the Force, prompting him to drop to the floor, skidding down the hallway, throwing his cybernetic hand forward to steady himself on the floor and leaning forward. The helmet sensor flipped forward over his right eye and with a twitch of his left hand, the rocket from his jet pack ripped away down the hallway, the explosive shell shrieking through the air due to modifications to the surface of the rocket.
The explosion made the blasterfire cease immediately as the attack eliminated the threat. The sensor flipped back up as he stood back to his full height and dusted himself off.
Zuser turned and looked at Titus, who had his own blaster pointing at him.
The Obelisk Adherent’s helmeted head tilted down to look at the blaster.
“Well that’s not very nice. Is this how you treat all your rescuers?”
“WHAT?” hollered the mercenary, the voice still looping through his head. The human standing over him seemed to be moving their lips but Titius could barely discern a message. “YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH ICE TREATS AND IM GOING TO REFUSE MINE?” The human started making wide gestures in the negative.
The silver cloud swirled back around and split itself between the duo, its form rippling over Titius’ sleeve in Binary. “OH! NO! MOVE FORWARD, THE AI IS IN MY EArs…thank you, Ripley.” His volume decreased as he realized he was yelling. “Node ahead. Get me close enough to plant my last pack. Structure compromised.” Ripley’s other half tapped out the same on Zuzer’s shoulder.
Dek rolled off the ship and into the hole. They decided to explore the place and see if anyone needed them at any point for anything. They ate one of their leaves. It tasted like a fingernail.
Zuser tilted his helmeted head to the side, as if in thought.
“Structurally compromised? Well yeah. That tends to happen when you detonate a landing pad with enough force to wipe out a moisture farm from existence. Come on, let’s get you there so we can finish the mission.”
Meanwhile Karracca’s and his band of Ugnaught commandos had setup a condone, and makeshift defense of the corner atrium the team was currently occupying. They had been engaging in a firefight with what they presumed was the Collectives special forces unit that the intel dossier had mentioned. In fact, they had been trading shots with a squad of mentally and cybernetically augmented Brotherhood soldiers who had originally composed the stations security detachment, but had been corrupted and made to do the bidding of the stations rogue AI.
“Cover! Re-loading!” Treel said forcefully as one of his fellow Ugnaughts wrapped his medium repeating blaster carbine around the corner they were defending and let loose a few unaimed bursts. The corridor were small and tight enough that exposing ones head from around the corner to try and increase the accuracy of their shots wasn’t not worth the risk.
“GRENADE!” The diminutive soldiers called as heard the tell tale sound of a metallic device bouncing and rolling down the corridor towards them. As the fragmentation grenade rolled into view just infront of him, his decades old instincts kicked in. Knowing the risks of exposing himself to whoever was shooting at them around the corner, the brave lil man didn’t hesitate and jumped out and kicked the device back in the direction it had come from.
Before he could jump back behind the cover of the corner of the intersection a blaster bolt burned a hole clean through his chest, a fraction of a second later the grenade he had punted exploded. The concussive blast wave threw the 60 year old veteran in the wall at the end of the corridor. Treel couldn’t help but be frozen for second, staring at the limp corpse of his kinsman who had been a close confident and squad leader in his Commando unit during the early days of the New Republic.
“Neel!” One of the other Ugnaughts cried as he moved to jump out and pull his fallen comrades back behind cover.
The main node dwarfed the duo as Titius and Zuzer broke their way in.
STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP The voice kept pounding into Titius’ head as he moved into the room. Looking around, the mercenary nodded a few times then turned to Zuzer.
“Hold onto something.”
Not waiting for confirmation, he hurled a gravity grenade towards the center of the space. It burst and suddenly up was down, down was sideways and Titius was flying. Contorting around, he was able to launch a grapple onto the mass of cables and land with a satisfying crunch…only to slump awkwardly as gravity reoriented itself. “I cannot believe that worked. But now…” Titius drew out a much larger device and primed it. Thermal imploders were about as subtle as an AAT in a nature sanctuary but they were effective. The device was easily wedged in the nest of cables around the server node then Titius smashed the brake on his zipline. Cable screamed as it payed out.
From Zuser’s view, Titius was surrounded by a golden halo, a miniature sun appearing behind as the imploder went off. The sun collapsed and Zuser came to realize that Titius was flailing more than a moment ago. And getting bigger. VERY QUICKLY.
THUD Titius landed on Zuser heavily. “First you point weapons at me and now you use me as a landing surface. Youre quite rude!” Titius lifted his helmet out from Zuser’s armpit and snarled. “Shut up and run.”
“No! He’s gone cousin.” Treel shouted as he reached out and grabbed his other kinsman and stopped him from exposing himself and meeting the same fate. The grenade had apparently caused atleast one casualty for their foes as Treel heard someone shout ‘I’m hit’ from around the corner.
Karracca had been holding a position at another intersection 15 metres further down the corridor with the remaining commando from Treels team, and his heart sank as he returned and saw the gruesome scene.
He let out a bassy, primal, and guttural roar as he quickly used the force to pull the clearly dead Ugnaught back towards them. He placed one of his massive clawed paws on Treels shoulder.
“I am sorry dear friend. He will be avenged.”
Just then they heard Zuser holler, “Time to go!” As both he and Titius ran off down the corridor towards the elevator shaft.
“Reece, we need a hot extract, now.” Karracca yelled into his commlink, as he and the 3 remaining Ugnaughts began sprinting back to the entry point.
“On the way big guy.” The droid chirped back.
Treel wasn’t fond of the idea of leaving his fallen kinsman behind, but he knew that Neel wouldn’t want them to risk their own lives over what was nothing more then the empty vessel that was his corpse.
As they got to the elevator shaft Zuser had already used his jetpack and propelled himself and Titius up to the Corra which was hovering just above the opening.
“No time to climbs.” The wookie said as he grabbed 2 of the Ugnaughts under one arm and held onto Treels combat vest with his other hand and leapt with all his might, reversing the pull of gravity and propelling him up to the ship. As he landed on the edge of the Corra’s entry ramp, he less then gently hurled the 3 ugnaught into the hold and ran up into the ship himself.
“All aboard. Get us out of here Reece.” The wookie roared and the droid dutifully moved the ship away as he raised the ramp.
Seconds later a mile and half wide geyser centred on the shaft made of water
Erupted from the ocean as a cleae sign of the successful completion of their mission.