With the bomb diffused, it seems that the whole manufactorum has gone on red alert. Droids seem to pour out of the walls, their blasters readied. B1s of all paint schemes are ready. It does not take long until the group is surrounded.
Edgar stood there trying to focus in front of him stood 7 battle droids getting into position to surround the group. Edgar focused hard calculating distancing between himself and each of his targets. Planning each move and counter-move while he prepared to strike. The humming of nearby machines, the clanking of the droid’s movements, and fainted muffled voices were all trying to distract him from his thoughts.
It was then that he noticed two droids to the left preparing to fire. The noises behind him were getting louder but he remained focused reaching for his lightsabers and crouching down getting ready to pounce. He calculated he could make that distance by having to dodge one shot from his friends before he could cut the droid down and get his shot off. It was a gamble and he knew he would be the center of attention for a while but to Edgar, he rather be in the thick of it than hang back.
He was ready, the grey Jedi’s breathing slowed, he closed his eyes and his mind calmed, then he heard his Knight commander’s voice come to him first very faintly then with the last word she was crystal clear, “Move together, cover each other, follow the plan. Is everyone ready to GO”?
Upon hearing his Commander’s “order” Edgar opened his eyes and said out loud “WHOMP! WHOMP! Droid, it’s time to go back to the scrap heap!” Without a second’s thought Edgar Sprang from his spot and rushed the droids. All the while Syrena twisted her face in shock and horror with the rest of the team not prepared for it. Frank screamed, “Ed, no wait!”
Jon looked at Syrena “Well it was a nice plan but Ed just ran in there” he said with a smile and a sigh.
Edgar Ignited his lightsabers and jumped at his target cutting it in half with 2 quick strikes. As it fell he turners to square up and prepared to strike at the next droid standing next to him.
The droids do not take kindly the attack, and the closest fire off an array of shots. The red painted droids unleash into the rancor, with one striking true.
The green painted droids fire into the much shorter beings, with one landing a hit on Edgar that seems to be taken by his armor.
Syrena stood perched atop her massive Rancor known as Zephira, the creature’s gold and pink scales shimmering in the dim light. As a volley of shots were fired in their direction from the various droids, a series of growls echoed from the Rancor in response, followed by a loud howl as one struck the thick skin of her flank.
A surge of anger shimmered in Syrena’s bright silver eyes, as her expression became one of pure focus. White crackles of lightning began to gather in the palms of Syrena’s hand, sparking to life. Extending her arm, she channeled the streaks of electricity energy forward into two separate blasts, aiming to strike down two of the droids.
In another swift movement, Syrena leaped down from where she had once been atop her Rancor, aiming her fists in a downwards punch with gathering speed as she made her descent. The moment the punch connected with a droid’s metal core after her landing, a blast of electricity was fired from the knuckles of her gloves, emitting in a wave around where she stood following the trajectory of her initial movement.
As the the bodies of several droids began to spark in several shocks from the after-effects of Syrena’s punch, the obsidian-black Charhound known as Kiva leapt into action alongside her. The candid’s narrowed red eyes tracked the droid’s movements with a hunter’s precision, locking on a target noticeably affected by the recent surge of electricity. A ripple of orange flames began to move through the creature’s body, before being quickly exhaled through its jaw in a sudden ranged blast of fire. Kiva instinctively lunged backwards, paws hitting the ground running as the concoction of sparks and flames mixed to create an inevitable blast.
At a safe distance from the explosion, a pleased smile seemed to twist across the Rancor’s face, revealing rows of jagged fanged teeth. The massive beast lurched forward, swinging the large club of her arm, razor-sharp claws dragging across the metal bodies of several droids to eagerly toss them towards the direction of the explosion.
“Careful, you two!” Syrena instinctively cautioned her two pets from across the fray of the unfolding battle.
“Always with the explosions…” Jon muttered to himself. His eyes scanned the room; droids came in from every direction. Edgar and Syreena, however, had blunted the tip of their assault already. Lightsabers, lightning, and a glittery rancor… there was a time all this would’ve seemed odd to him, wasn’t there?
Ah, who cared. He had more immediate concerns to deal with.
His eyes honed in on two potential ways forward… and then calculated a route to reach them through the maelstrom of chaos. Fourteen droids between him and the terminal, minus the ones his fellow Knights were keeping busy, add in the coolant tanks, utilize the platform… all he needed was a little lift.
Yes, that would work quite well.
Jon flicked the switch on his belt, activating the repulsors within; he grinned as he felt gravity loosen its grip on him just a tad.
Taking one more second to calculate his odds, he dashed forwards.
One droid tried to get in his way, but he ducked low and sliced it at the waste with his lightsaber. Then he pushed in Syreena’s direction. More specifically, the direction of the great lumbering beasty she’d brought with her.
So nice of her to bring him a walking staircase.
He leapt onto the beast’s back as it tore into a gaggle of battledroids, clambering up its back; it let out a surprised noise as he used its head as a final step, leaping high into the air where he spun headfirst.
Time slowed, and for a heartbeat, all was still. He reached into his coat, pulled two fistfuls of daggers, calculated trajectories mid-air, and thrust his arms out in two different directions.
Several things happened in very quick succession.
The first was that three blades buried themselves in three droids guarding the computer terminal.
The second was that three more pierced the highly pressurized coolant tanks.
The third was that those tanks proceeded to burst, freezing every droid nearby in place, taking them out of the game as well as any blaster bolt or lightsaber would have.
The fourth was that gravity re-asserted itself, and jon landed at the top of the round platform that overlooked the terminal. There was a crunching sound, and he looked down to realize that he’d shattered a frozen droid with his impact.
He clambered to his feet, and slid down the frozen walkway to land amidst the twitching droids he’d dispatched via his knives.
“Scuse’ me gents, don’t suppose you’d mind if I borrow your terminal for a moment?”
One of them twitched, and he stabbed it with his lightsaber as he stepped over it.
“Thougth not. Now, where are you mister brainy-brain?” he whispered as he began attempting to slice the terminal.
Frenek ducked low through the curling mists of coolant that threatened to strangle the factory chamber. As he rushed forward, his steel-toed boots skidded across the slick metal floor. He kicked a chunk of loose durasteel out into the open, sending it skittering into the path of a staggering B2 battle droid like a package with expedited shipping. Fog wrapped around the droid’s legs in tendrils, freezing up its joints.
All around him, droids began to rapidly converge. “Think, Frenek, think! If Jon can do it, so can I.” As he looked up towards his comrade, he spotted the answer he was seeking—in the form of a sparking power line and a loose-hanging cable that dangled just out of arm’s reach above the now frozen droid.
Carefully, so as to avoid becoming better acquainted with the frozen factory floor, Frenek took a running start toward the cable and jumped, catching hold of it and yanking down hard into the sparking power line. Electricity cracked loud and wild. The surge hit the freezing gas with a boom, lighting up the whole area in a burst of cold fire and sharp metal. Nearby droids came apart like ruined cargo in a crash landing. Frenek dropped back to the ground with a grunt, rolling out of the way of the detonation, before standing and brushing a thin layer of frost from his jacket.
Miho smiled as she lifted the brim of her black hat and looked around. The odds were definitely against them with the sheer number of droids at the very least.
“Hop down, Pips. This is going to get interesting fast.” She murmured to the small BD looking over her shoulder.
Pips whistled disapprovingly at her as it jumped down. “It can’t be helped.”
The pressure seemed to build for a brief moment before the smell of burnt oxygen heralded the arc of lightning that shot from the small Kyataran’s fingertips.
A nearby droid with blue stripes painted on its chassis exploded from the impact of the blue-white bolt.
“Ain’t no going back now.” She said almost sourly to herself.
Without a second beat, green coat whirling about her with a flourish, Mihoshi moved with a purpose and rained destructive blows on a few more droids with green and yellow stripes.
Each strike left dents in the metal as though luck more than strength with the amount each chassis or head caved in from the impact of tiny hands and feet.
Coming to a stop and falling into a defensive posture, she tapped the brim of her hat once more with a grin. “Stay close, Pips. We might need you if we find the right console.”
As the others joined the fight and started clearing the way toward the consoles, Edgar jumped again, partly to avoid the frozen part of the floor and to get closer to the next group of droids. He landed in between 3 droids and quickly checked his footing as he slashed the lead droid’s arms off, then cut the next one in half in a well-trained fluid movement.
Just as he settled into a stance, Edgar focused and pushed another droid into a nearby stack of boxes. Then, with a quick move, the Hothfather stabbed the armless droids with both his sabers without even looking.
“How is the console coming, guys? Are we almost through yet”? He questioned over the comlink. Edgar didn’t wait for long until he got a response from Syrena, “Not yet, but then again, we have almost secured the area”. Looking over, he saw the droid struggle to his feet before pulling out his slugthrower and putting 2 rounds into its chest, followed by it collapsing on the ground unmoving. “Ok, Ma’am, I’m on the way”. He replied, and headed in the direction of the group to help them secure their position.
“Huh… And here I thought she wasn’t a Force User… Well, I’ll be damned,” Syrena remarked with a surprised laugh, as she caught sight of flashes of lightning springing forth from Miho in her peripheral vision.
Blaster bolts sizzled past in a volley, scorching through the air. Moving on instinct, her form twisted in a few smooth motions, weaving to avoid them. Yet some had still managed to strike her teammate. Sensing the disturbance, Syrena gazed towards Edgar, a look of concern flashing through her silver gaze.
And in that brief moment, a blaster bolt managed to strike Syrena from a distance, enough to singe her shoulder. Gritting her teeth, she lightly swore under her breath. Even if it stung, at least her armor had prevented it from striking too deep. And yet, already that sensation was beginning to dissipate, thanks to the doses of pain relievers beginning to flood through her systems, from the recent addition of her BioTech Implant.
“Could use some healin’ over here!” She called over her shoulder to the rest of her teammates. Leaping back into action, Syrena moved to stand protectively beside Edgar, who seemed to be down for the time being. Healing had never been one of her strongest skills, but in the very least she figured she could hold their attackers off until someone got to him.
Where the liquid on the ground lay, Syrena caught sight of a few droids standing near it. Locking her gaze on her next targets, a faint smirk danced across her lips as she extended her hand, unleashing a crackling bolt of white lightning. It slammed into the watery ground below with a deafening strike, the current instantly rippling outwards in an ensnaring web of electricity. Several droids dropped in a series of sparks, smoke rising from their joints.
Meanwhile, the dark form of the Charhound prowled upwards, Kiva’s red eyes predatorily locking on the few droids that seemed fixated on shooting at the console from a distance. She struck from the shadows in a sudden pounce, a ripple of flames working its way through the Charhound’s form in the same motion. With an exhale of fiery breath, a controlled wave of red-hot fire swept towards the droids from where the Charhound stood, melting their metal forms.
A loud roar sounded from elsewhere, as the hulking form of the Rancor advanced to clear the pathways. Using her claws to pierce through the droid’s metal forms like simple aluminum cans, she brought them closer to her rows of jagged fangs. With a few crunches, Zephira gnawed on the droids until their forms were compacted into cubes of crushed metal, spitting them back out as projectiles at any remaining droids.
With the pathways now cleared, Syrena gazed ahead and whistled for her Rancor to join her back at her side. Gazing down at Edgar, she lightly patted Zephira’s side, gesturing for him to climb on if he wished to.
“Feel free to hitch a ride,” She offered.
Miho reacted with a supernatural speed, dodging the shots fired at her with a dancers grace. The Force had shown her the battlefield and instinctively, she drew on one of her lesser used abilities.
A phantom hand seemed to grip part of a wall that had begun to collapse in from the fighting and exploding coolant tanks.
A trickle of blood from her nose was the only sign of strain the small woman had as the brittle metal came apart on a shower of fragments, each one falling directly in the path of a plasma bolt.
The main part of the wall, however, fell in and covered the console in a rather large pile of metal pieces, completely blocking off easy access. To make it worse, the compromised total had been the only thing holding up a large section of wall which also had begun to collapse in towards the fighting droids and Odanites. Wiping the blood from her nose, Miho turned to survey everything going on and stumbled a bit before going down to one knee.
Well, shit, she thought, breathing hard. It could have probably been worse, but something told her worse was still on the way.
Turel looked up at Syrena skillfully perched atop Zephira and suddenly felt grateful that a rancor was on his side for once. “I’ll take the ride if Ed doesn’t want it.”
Before he could gauge a reaction to his quip, the Sentinel noticed a droid off to the side start to take aim at the rancor. Without a moment’s hesitation, Turel darted to position himself between the droid and Zephira. The battledroid had started to aim high toward the rancor’s head when Turel summoned all his physical strength to leap into the air.
For a split second the Jedi Master doubted this tricky maneuver would work but he was sort of committed to it now. The jump had given him just enough height to intersect the droid’s line of fire and deflect the blaster bolt right back at the automaton.
“WAAAAAH!” The droid exclaimed as the deflected bolt came right back and blew the rifle and the metallic arm holding it right off its body.
Turel continued the mid-air spinning motion he had started with the deflection, landing with as much grace as he could muster. He tried to hide it, but the holonet hero landing he just pulled off sent a surge of pain through his aging knees. He was not a young man anymore.
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Hearing the thud as Turel landed on the floor, Frenek turned to see his comrade hunched over on his knees. He appeared to still be reeling from the rather impressive aerial maneuver he had just completed. Taking advantage of the momentary lapse, a droid behind Turel raised its blaster, taking aim. But Frenek shot first. As the droid collapsed, Frenek blew out a thin trail of exhaust issuing from his blaster. Frenek extended one hand to Turel, gesturing with his other hand toward the rancor. -# <@185939710005215232>
Jon scrolled through information as quickly as he could, whistling a jaunty tune as his allies tore their way through the droids. He needed to find a way to the central brain of this compound or failing that –
Wait. Was that what he thought it was? He opened a file, and a grin split his face.
“Well if that isn’t just the most delightful surprise,” he whispered. He flicked on his wrist-comm, linking up to the rest of the party.
“Ladies and gentlemen… and Miho, guess what I just found? There’s a station on the opposite end of this level, north of here, that has access to the core programming of every battledroid in the facility. In other words, we get there, and we can reprogram this whole army to be on our side. Who wants to help me clear a path north and turn the tide of this war?”
Mihoshi smiled as she listened to Jon while heading over to Edgar and knelt down beside him. The effort to protect the console had taken a bit of the wind from her sails.
“Well, Edgar,” she said in her oddly accented, musical voice. “Looks like you went and got yourself all banged up again. Hold still for a moment.”
She reached out to the Force, having more trouble than usual taking hold of it. Well, that isn’t good… Miho thought as she acted as a channel for the power of the universe, directing it into the older man, healing him. The ice cold rush of power flooding through him a barely controlled deluge.
With a gasp, she sat back again, breathing a little hard. “That’s gonna be the best I can do right now. Try not to get hurt again.”
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