The petite Togruta stood back to back with the team that had hobbled together after meeting up at one of the indicated hot zones at the edge of the crater.
Her Ryn apprentice, Livia Mariquita Daffel, had come with her. Ready to beat the Children of Mortis back into the Ethereal realm, or at least make sure they didn’t lay their hands on anything that would threaten the Brotherhood, or Plagueis.
Two other Brotherhood members from different clans had joined them, both Human. The older woman with white hair cut shorter than Livia’s, was a Bounty Hunter with Naga Sadow, and a middle aged man who had a unique looking cybernetic arm was from Scholae Palatinae.
Tahiri wasn’t going to outright trust them, but as long as they stood against a common enemy it would work out.
Within the crater itself.
The atmosphere was hard to breath in with the nearby hot streams of lava, but she knew that they were down the soldiers of the Children. Their little team had already dispatched several of the enemy troops, and they were trying desperately to retreat with three cases holding artifacts found in the rubble between lava flows.
“Don’t let them get out of the crater with those cases!” Tahiri shouted as she leapt forward and engaged two enemies at the same time. Her sabers clashing with alchemy and energy weapons alike, before her acrobatics and skills lent to overpowering the enemies till they either succumbed quickly to her deadly blows, or tripping as they tried to retreat and fell screaming into the lava stream.
Watching the Plagueis member jump into the fray Korvyn turned his attention to another group of the Children of Mortis. This was his first direct action against the enemies of the brotherhood. The three men in front of him had turned towards the sounds of Tahiri attacking their brethren. It was a fatal mistake as Korvyn used the force to close the gap with unnatural speed. The first was bisected by a white lightsaber before he even realized the Hand of the Emperor was there.
The second and third turned to combat the Beskar clad imperial. Korvyn brought his sabers around in another powerful strike. The first saber cutting through the Blaster Rifle his opponent was trying to raise to his shoulder. The second blade severed his forearm, his hand falling to the ground. A spinning stab to his sternum caused him to gasp and fall lifeless to the ground as the white blade was pulled back to a ready position.
The third and final member of the groups flight or fight instinct kicked in. He turned to flee knowing he had no chance against the Hand. It didn’t matter as Korvyn channeled the force into a crackling spray of electricity powered by the force. The stream hit the man in the back causing him to fall down writhing in pain. Casually Korvyn walked up to him and removed his head.
“We got runners,” he shouted as some of the enemy began trying to flee. Others opened fire in the group and Korvyn began using his sabers to redirect their blaster bolts back at them providing cover for his three teammates.
Anya smiled as the Children of Mortis broke ranks and attempted to retreat and regroup. She had found herself with formidable allies. No doubt the Children had been hoping for some of the less skillful members of the Brotherhood to deal with.
She observed the others’ work, remembering what her employer had said. “Help them out, learn all you can about them, and do your best to support them. Just because I want to learn about our potential rivals doesn’t mean that I want them dead. Observe any artifacts that are recovered from the world’s surface. Try to make friends. Oh, and be careful with the fire.”
Fortunately for Locke Sonjie, this planet was already on fire, and their enemies were already retreating.
“Shame,” Anya muttered. Oh well, at least she was getting paid.
The others dealing with close range meant Anya could take her time preparing her BlasTech DLT-19 rifle. She stepped from behind the cover of her allies and fired at the retreating enemies, taking her time to line up shots on the furthest distance targets. She would take a few steps, line up, and fire. Then a few more, and fire again, each dropping the furthest retreating soldiers. This seemed to give the others pause, and she almost hoped they would turn around, but they took one glance back at her and the others and then kept running. She grimaced, kind of hoping the enemy would regroup and attack from some other angle. This wasn’t much of a challenge.
Suddenly, Anya noted two things. One was, she had separated herself from the others by a bit more than she was comfortable with. The other was, a different group of the Children had been trying to sneak up on her from behind. She turned around, slinging her rifle over her shoulder as she realized they were too close to optimally use it, an opted for her arm cannon’s flamethrower mode. She fired it in short bursts in an arc as she retreated back to the safety of the group.
Maybe she would get to burn something today after all…
Livia had setup a distance from the stream, but still well within her sniping range. She watched as her master Tahiri and the other members of team started their attack on the soldiers of the Children,she stayed calm, knowing that her master and team mates could handle themselves.
As the attack continued, she noticed Korvyn come under intense fire, she quickly moved over slightly and set her sights on that group. Spotting the one who looked to be in command of the rest, she took a deep breath. Focusing, slowing her heart rate and squeezing the trigger slowly, repeating the mantra “one shot one kill” as she watched the commander fall, watching as the rest of them broke their ranks allowing Korvyn to take the offensive again.
Looking back she noticed that Anya had been drawn pretty far from the group, luckily she used her flame thrower to break through their lines and was already heading back to regroup. But there was still some soldiers of the Children fleeing, as they had gotten pretty far. Moving quickly over the rocks and rubble, the Ryn got them back within range of her blaster rifle. Setting her sights on them, she began picking off the last few one by one from farthest to nearest before they could get away.
Once she confirmed that the coast was clear she moved in to collect the three cases that they were trying to flee with then immediately retreating to regroup with her master and team mates, not wanting to be caught alone by any reinforcements of the Children of Mortis.