Ask Badgered for Arms

[Zaia Krodas]

The path forward cleared, Zaia let Kotii lead the way ahead and kept watch behind, scanning the car for any potential threats. Finding none, she turned just in time to see her partner stagger back and his blaster bolt hit a viewport.

“Kark, you alright?” she asked, right before a second shot came flying out of the door and barely missed the pair by inches. She fired two shots back in quick succession before checking to see if the other Mandalorian was seriously injured. Before she could tell, however, one of the conductors was brave enough to come up to the open door just by the viewport and aim another shot at her. It was too bad that this train wasn’t run by a harmless droid.

Thinking quickly, Zaia aimed at the viewport where Kotii’s blaster bolt had hit earlier. A second shot caused the already-weakened material to shatter. Shards flew out in both directions, and the first conductor instinctively raised his arms to protect his face. With their armor, however, the Mandalorians wouldn’t have had much problem, and Zaia took the chance to fire another shot at the conductor’s head. That was one down, one more to go. She just hoped Kotii was doing okay.

@Darasuum

 

[Kotii Solus]

Kotii stumbled and felt the force of the impact ebb before turning into a burning ache he was all too familiar with. Through gritted teeth he raised his blaster and fired a bolt into the exposed shin of the last remaining foe. The heavy bolt practically severed the leg at the joint, dropping the conductor the the ground. Level with the Mandalorian, he fired a follow up shot into their face which was only a few inches above the deck.

The smoking blaster quickly cooled now that the engine car was filled with the whipping winds of high altitude Tatooine polar mountain range. "I'll be fine." He groaned and righted himself with a bit of help. He took a few staggered steps before fully straightening up and taking over the controls of the train.

It was a miriad of displays and controls but it couldn't be too hard. "We see the train. Everything alright?" Came the voice of the faithful pilot Aden over their comlink. Kotii gave smiled a little and responded with a tone of relief. "Just in time brother. I'm going to slow this thing to a stop and then we'll need to offload as much as we can, fast." The train had a destination after all. They needed to get out of the area before any underworld remnants decided to come and reclaim the train.

The badger began to slow the train down while no longer being protected by the windshield. The Aurore class light freighter matched their deceleration and opened up its low centered cargo hold. Inside was another Solus member, Atin and together they could begin offloading the crates and containers by hand from the armored train. This was a great day for them. They had managed to attain enough weapons to supply many of their members with the means of defending themselves. What's more they were high quality. Thermal detonators, heavy blasters, repeaters and more. "Great job, vode. Drinks and detonators are on me." He said, allowing himself to celebrate the hard won achievement.

"Are we forgetting anything?" He winced slightly before they left the empty train. "I wish they had a bacta tank we could take. I'll could use a soak." The light freighter, combined with the walker transport would randevous at a secondary location before dividing everything up. But they had earned some time to rest and relax after this. Kotii turned to the Krodas clan member and placed a hand on her armored shoulder. "You did great Zaia. Couldn't have done it without you. Thank you." His voice showed the smile behind it. Even on the wasteland planet of twin suns, he still felt at home. This would be a great tale to share with Hauron once they got back.


@Sicadorito end thread?

 

[Zaia Krodas]

The second conductor fell with a shot to the shin, and the train was theirs. Zaia let out an inward sigh of relief that Kotii seemed to be doing fine— she’d been fearing the worst. When he took over the train, she headed back to where the cargo was kept. The crates had to be offloaded soon, and there wasn’t any harm in starting early.

As soon as Zaia could see Atin when the freighter opened to receive the crates, she loosened up the straps holding the stacks together, taking the boxes off one by one to unload the weapons. She couldn’t help but glance inside one after a while, and she didn’t need long to tell that this whole trip had been more than worth it.

Once they were done, she followed Kotii off the train, half-glad to be back on solid ground again.

“Nothing but those bandits,” she replied with a grin. It was likely that they were still picking at the caboose. “We’ll be back soon, and you’ll feel better in no time. That was some good fighting back there,” she added at Kotii’s bacta tank comment before following him out of the train. Then, she was stopped in her tracks by a sudden pressure on her shoulder, and she turned, surprised, to see Kotii’s hand on it. What he said caused her to break into even more of a smile underneath her helmet, and it meant more considering the man standing in front of her was someone she’d looked up to for a while.

“It was an honor fighting beside you, Kotii,” she responded, meaning every word of it. “If the chance comes up again, I’ll be there.” And as she said it, she had a feeling that this was only the beginning of something much larger. But whatever challenges lay ahead, she was glad to have only the best to fight alongside, and the belonging she’d been searching for.

//End thread

@Darasuum