Blood and Fire

[Leandros Solus]

Theme​

They were all that separates the world from darkness. Their enemy was relentless. They could not, must not fail, in their grand mission. This galaxy had long been subjected to tyranny, to live under the shadow of despair for centuries. So long as their eternal foe remained in the annals of history, their taint would forever besmirch the stars. There could be no doubt about it; whatever records they held of their people must be eradicated to save future generations from the threat of darkness. It was why he chose this world; it was why this world needed to burn, along with whatever secrets were held on it.

Their transport streaked across the skies, its payload waiting with grim determination in the back. Their target was the former Jedi temple, now since converted to a Sith academy and temple. Leandros knew that Ossus was once a great repository of knowledge for the Jedi and he could only assume it maintained that status among the Sith who took control of it. Whatever knowledge it had within its halls must be destroyed. Knowledge kept a people alive, so to truly annihilate the Sith, they needed to wipe out whatever secrets they kept secure.

He and Narir had set off immediately after his rallying cry to do this task, knowing that the clans could begin the Great Crusade without him present. This was something they needed to do; this was for Raz. He had given a grand speech before his people about the will of the gods, though his heart was not entirely in it. Since her death, he began to doubt the faith he placed within them. After all, what manner of gods would take away his wife? Why would they take away the mother of his child? Lily would grow up knowing only stories about her mother, and it was all because their gods decided that her time was up. Angry tears began to well up in his eyes as the seeds of blame took root. Finding himself on the track to impiety without realizing, Leandros shook his head and cleared his thoughts. He needed to worry about the enemy. Such doubts would leave him vulnerable in battle.

Wherever the Sith lurked, Leandros would root them out and punish them. Hatred coursed through his veins and fury gripped his body. Even the great droid beneath him seemed to thrum angrily with energy, ready for vengeance. Its home was destroyed as much as the rest of the Mandalorian people’s. It was a machine of death, and death is what it would dole out.

The transport neared the temple, flying above whatever anti-air defenses it held, if any. They were used to high-altitude insertions; this would be no different. He gave one look to Narir and reading his equipment, securing himself in the pilot’s seat. His heart beat quickly, as it did before any hot drop, but he came to relish the feeling. As the bay door opened, his droid approached the edge. Leandros raised a fist and directed his basilisk forward, letting out a mighty, ”For Mandalore!” as the sudden feeling of weightlessness took hold.

Adrenaline surged through his body as he began the freefall. Like an avenging angel, he plummeted downward, teeth bared beneath his helmet, a murderous gleam in his eye. It felt like minutes, even though the drop did not take very long. He braced himself for the shock and soon enough his droid slammed into the roof of the temple, cratering a significant part of it, the stone shattering in thousands of pieces. Almost immediately, his droid leveled its plasma cannons at a section of the roof ahead of them and began boring through it. The front door was too obvious an avenue of approach. They were going to surprise them.

@Phoenix

 

[Narir Solus]

They were going to destroy a Jedi library that was really occupied by Sith. So a Sith library. This was why Narir didn't like Force users in general. Not because they had mystic abilities, but because it made them do stupid things. And differentiating between one and another wasn't always so easy to do. Sure, Narir had fought alongside Jedi against the Sith and they certainly weren't as bad as the Sith (right now) but he didn't trust them. The enemy of my enemy isn't always my friend.

Narir didn't have to confront his dubious feelings about Jedi today, though. This was a Sith library now and he was here to burn Sith. That wasn't anything that he had second thoughts about.

The Mandalorians were here to eviscerate the ideas of the Sith. It was what the Sith had failed to do on Mandalore, and the warrior culture wouldn't make the same mistake. Obliterating an idea was difficult, but Narir was happy to put in the effort. He checked his many, many weapons one more time before re-checking his quick release harness once more. He knew that his Marauders were piloting the Revenge nearby if he called in. They could have simply leveled the building from orbit, but this war more personal. And this war had become nothing if not personal.

A mix of fury and anticipation caused his heart to pound. He could hear his pulse pounding in his ears as the ramp began to lower. The rasping breaths in his helmet were now accompanied by the hissing of the wind whipping into the hangar bay. It yanked and pulled at his jumpsuit. Sitting in his jet black armor atop the vicious droid, Narir could have been the very incarnation of death. For many of the Imperials below he would be precisely that.

With a shout and a drop, Leandros was plummeting to the ground. There was a moment's pause as he took one final breath in and let it out slowly.

For Raz, he whispered to himself. This was about more than honor or prestige, it was justice for his closest friend. A slap to the top of the droid and it was charging forward out the rear of the transport. Artificial gravity turned to real gravity that now yanked him toward the planet's surface. Blood seemed to rush to his head as he gained momentum, guiding his droid down after Leandros's trail.

The thrusters fired as he neared the ground, decelerating his impact enough, but the thud still traveled up his body and shook his bones. There was no hesitation as the heavy laser carved through the already caving roof, causing chunks to fall away and already begin smashing those inside. A chunk of stone was as effective as a missile if it hit you in the head.

The air was already filled with the sound of death and destruction as the canons fired. A hole in the roof was all he needed as he fell to the ground below with another thunderous boom. His carbine swung back and forth seeking immediate threats as the basilisk did most of the work. His finger squeezed around the trigger and every shot, every kick of the weapon tasted like a hint of vengeance. @Painus

 

[Leandros Solus]

Carving through the roof took minimal effort for his droid, and with a shout the machine plummeted down the hole and into the temple. Thrusters fired to slow its descent, though it could not stop the shockwave of the machine slamming into the ground below. More fragments of the flooring exploded outward, peppering acolytes and Imperial menials alike with stone shrapnel. Leandros brought his carbine up in similar fashion as Narir, sweeping it across the room in search of targets. Thick dust hung in the air like a fog, coating whatever this great room was in fine powder. Luckily for him, his suit’s inbuilt environmental filters kept most of the dust out. The Sith, on the other hand, were stunned and shocked from the dynamic entry of the Mandalorians.

They were not here as the angels of mercy they once were; today, they were angels of vengeance. Every kill Leandros scored was penance for Raz’s demise. Every body that hit the ground, writhing in agony, cried out in agonized chorus for the gods to hear. It didn’t matter if he killed a thousand Sith himself, no amount of death would fill the void in his heart. His face was frozen in a rictus of hate, his blaster firing off rounds with brutal precision.

He had no idea where to go to begin looking for their archives or holocron vault or… whatever it was the Sith used to store their knowledge. He’d smash through every room if he needed to, though he’d prefer to simply find his way there. The bolts he fired pressed the stock of his carbine into his shoulder, gently moving him as he swayed with the lumbering movement of his basilisk. They had landed in some kind of upper-level training atrium, it looked like. Flat, open dueling rings occupied most of the room, with a single door leading out like a vein. It would lead him to the supposed heart of this temple, it just had to.

His basilisk stomped over to one of the doors and dug one of its massive metal claws into it, rending through the metal with ease and exposing the hallway. With an angry thrum, it discharged its cannons in the opening and utterly atomized any poor opposition that might have been lurking within. However, the halls were too narrow for the massive war droid to fit in, and Leandros instead directed it to move to the wall a few meters from the door. With a slap from its rider, the droid fired its plasma cannons once again, annihilating this section of wall and exposing the next room. He took a moment to look at Narir, then back at the hole in the wall he had just formed. The surprise on the faces of the Sith within as they stared down a Mandalorian war droid would forever be etched in his memory.

@Phoenix

 

[Narir Solus]

It was going to be a good day. The number of dead Sith already beginning to litter the halls and rooms that the massive droids lumbered through was exactly what Narir had come here for. Although the scent of burned flesh, scorched air, and scalded stone was as sickening as ever, there was no regret or remorse over the deaths here.

Lights flickered on and off as the power systems tried to reroute around cables and electric lines that were severed and shot. The integrity of segments of the building were already beginning to give way, but the library wasn't even close to being finished.

The Mandalorian trusted his droid to continue carving through walls, doors, floors, and pillars as he, himself, continued sighting and eliminating targets. Death filled the air on every side, but none of the blood that flowed was his own. He was sure that sooner or later members of the Sith order would actually rally for a counter attack, and this was what Narir watched for, but until that time the slaughter would continue.

Leandros, he said into the comlink that linked the two together. We should move deeper. Go for the foundations, he said as the cutting cannons on his basilisk began to carve into the floor. @Painus

 

[Leandros Solus]

Those within the library would now begin to mount their defense, the shock of the attack finally wearing off. His droid fired its massive cannons into the room it had just breached, vaporizing or otherwise killing anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in its blasts. What the laser or plasma cannons themselves did not kill, the explosions and resulting debris did, and it was only a matter of time before the room was completely cleared. Leandros continued to pick targets out from atop the droid, executing any Sith who had somehow survived the basilisk.

A voice in his ear indicated for Leandros to begin focusing on the foundations of the library and he responded wordlessly, directing his basilisk to fire a frag rocket into the room to ensure none of the Sith lived before his droid began carving through the floor of the atrium. It’d be far easier to destroy the entire temple, rather than blast through rooms until they stumbled upon the right one. With them being on a higher level after landing on the roof, their droids collapsed another significant section of the ceiling for the room below them.

With a thunderous crash, the two droids would slam into the ground of the next level, repeating what they had done in the first room. Stone fragments peppered what looked like a meditation room, though there were no Sith within it. It seemed, at least in Leandros’ eyes, that the Sith had rallied elsewhere in the hopes of intercepting the Mandalorians, not expecting the two to want to go farther and farther down. With the massive hole above them, it would not be difficult to see where they were going, but that relied on the Sith being bold enough to charge into what was previously a no-man’s land.

@Phoenix

 

[Narir Solus]

The satisfying crack of stone met Narir's ears as pieces of the stone turned to molten slag. What wasn't actually blasted downward seemed to just melt away and slough off to the levels below. A nice, sizable hole now stood gaping open for him to drop, moving to the side of where the slag had fallen, the droid landed below, it's light cannons opening up on any moving targets.

Narir slapped a fresh, extra magazine stashed on his basilisk the into his carbine as he swung it around. The gun kicked twice and then again, the aim swiveling to different quadrants quickly enough that the saber couldn't move quickly enough to block the final shot. It slammed into the Sith's thigh as Narir's sights fell once more on his head. A final bolt spat out and slammed into the masked face, spewing chunks of head and mask across the room.

Another cut through the lower floor and the basilisk slammed into the bottom floor. Pillars filled the level, and Narir faced the first of their problems. I'd fancy not being crushed in our own cave in, he said. The temptation to begin ripping into the pillars supporting the library was tempting, but he had many more Sith he wanted to kill before an accidental cave-in.

Ideas? he asked, beginning to think about one of them carving an escape tunnel before the cave in to the side where they wouldn't be crushed and could cut back to the surface. He'd rather not start the earthquake until their escape was secured and planned, however. Even his thought seemed... shifty. He'd have killed for a small nuke right now.

 

[Leandros Solus]

Leandros continued carving through the floors until he hit the bottom-most floor. Chunks of slag rained down the farther they traveled, and it was clear that the temple could not withstand the withering plasma barrages fired from their two basilisks. While the Sith rallied elsewhere to make their stand, the two Mandalorian invaders had entirely different intentions. Sure, they could go through and slaughter every Sith present with impunity, but it would not be nearly as satisfying as burying them within their own library. His droid thrummed with violent energy, its massive head swiveling around the room in search of foes to annihilate.

Narir had a point; if they wanted to topple the entire place, they needed to give themselves a way out first and foremost. ”I’ll start blasting a way out of here,” he said, panning his helmeted head around the room. The pillars supported the entire library, and he was sure it would only take the destruction of a few key load bearing ones to begin the process of collapsing the building. ”But we need to make sure we destroy this place. Do these temples have some kind of reactor to give them power?” His question got him thinking; if they could collapse the building, it could cause the reactor to go off, which would certainly do the job of annihilating whatever was inside. The issue, however, was figuring out if that was possible, and then figuring out how to collapse the place safely.

He directed his droid towards what he believed was the back wall of the temple, figuring that an escape would be easier from the back than the front. Stone crunched beneath its feet as it stomped over, its mighty claws digging deep into the ground with every step. He slapped his droid and pointed at the wall and the basilisk hummed in response, sinking its metal claws into the ground and firing its plasma cannons up into the wall to begin carving them a way out. ”Start figuring out how we’re going to topple this whole place,” he said into their comms over the din of the searing cannons. Once their exit was secured, they simply needed to destroy the building and get the hell off the building. This was the first revenge strike back against the Sith and it would be the herald of a new era of warfare.

Above, meanwhile, the Sith grew bold and caught onto their plan of going beneath the temple. As acolytes and crusaders began to rally, those boldest thrust themselves through the breach, only to be met with a hole leading straight down. This was surely a death sentence for most of them, but with numbers, they could, perhaps succeed in their defense. They awaited order from whomever the highest ranking among them was, bemusement crossing their masked faces as they wondered what the Mandalorians were here for.

@Phoenix

 

[Narir Solus]

Narir started taking stock of the varied pillars littered throughout the underbelly of the library, knowing that they had a critical role in supporting the structure. The basilisk switched its nose cannon to longer ranged firing arcs and began to target the furthest of the pillars. The first one was decimated in short order, sending chunks of stone flying in every direction.

One down... lots more to go, he muttered to himself as the light cannons began chewing through some of the other pillars. It took numerous shots, but eventually it was blown free as well. And so the process continued. Heavy cannons ripped apart pillars in a single shot while the smaller cannons beat another pillar down through a thousand cuts.

In short order, the far half of the building was becoming less stable, and Narir stopped the assault to ensure that their escape was in place. I'm not sure about the reactor. If we're going after it, I don't want to be anywhere near it when it goes off, he said. He was far from finished killing Sith, and didn't want to lose the opportunity because he had accidentally killed himself in a detonation.

It was a tedious job of trying to destroy the pillars while ensuring he didn't hit any of the ones near enough to the two Mandalorians to cause a cave in. How's that tunnel coming? he asked as the light cannons now flickered over to Sith warrior who were dropping down through the holes the basilisks had made. The cannons practically disintegrated the people it hit, but would only keep them at bay for so long. @Painus

 

[Leandros Solus]

Plasma cannons fired off rhythmically, pounding into the wall like war drums. While the heaviest cannons fired off, the lighter blaster cannons rattled off shots in an alternating fashion. Within minutes, Leandros could vaguely see where his droid was firing, so thick was the smoke and dust from stone being obliterated and turned to slag. The sound of the cannons firing off so quickly and so often was nearly deafening, but still he persisted. As the tunnel grew, his droid moved farther ahead, pounding through in the hopes of clearing an exit for the two Mandalorians.

Leandros turned around in his seat to see Narir hammering away at the pillars supporting the library. The far side had already begun to sag where it lost its load bearing pillars and he knew that once enough had been destroyed, it would all come crumbling down. ”We’re almost through,” he said in response to Narir, turning his attention back to the tunnel. His droid paused momentarily to allow its cannons to cool but returned to firing with renewed vigor shortly thereafter.

It took him a minute or two more of sustained fire before sunlight began poking through the tunnel. His basilisk fired its plasma cannons one final time before charging forward and ramming the final barrier, using its immense weight to completely open up the tunnel and provide them with a clear route of escape. ”The tunnel’s done!” he said into his comm piece, patting his basilisk on the side of its armored head in appreciation. Leandros turned the machine around and returned to the underbelly of the library to rejoin Narir and help topple what was left.

The Sith were unprepared for the concentrated fire of two basilisks at the one entrance they had to the foundational level of the library, and each shot of the cannons evaporated pretty much anyone stupid enough to jump down to face them. Sure, they had numbers on their side, but the Mandalorians had formed a fatal funnel that their foe was pouring into. The body count was stacking up, each death another corpse tossed in the mass grave of penance the Sith owed.

Between firing bursts at the Sith defenders, Leandros helped Narir destroy the pillars, using their combined firepower to make short work of it all. They needed to start moving towards the exit so that they could focus on the nearer pillars and then it was simply a matter of escaping the planet. The defense put up by the Sith was pathetic, but not surprising; the attack was sudden and unexpected, much like their assault on Mandalore. They were here to avenge the fallen, and even if they killed a thousand Sith today it would not be enough.

@Phoenix

 

[Narir Solus]

Narir continued the assault without letting up. He slapped another powerpack into his carbine and let loose once more. It was comically little compared to the light and heavy cannons of the basilisk, but it was good for cleaning up whatever Sith and Imperials managed to evade the larger blasts. He was already nearly out of carbine ammo, and he took that as a good sign. Many of his shots were striking true, and if he was nearly out of shots, that meant many Imperials had died.

The message that the tunnel was finished was enough for Narir, and the basilisk began to rip into the remaining pillars as it backed up to the tunnel. The cracks and crunches of the stone above began to ring out, and the field marshal took it as his sign to make his escape. The droid turned and charged straight out of the tunnel as stone and dirt began to rain down. Several of the Sith were now realizing their mistakes as tons of stone began to fall down atop them.

Narir tore out into the sunlight again as dust and dirt began to ripple up from the building proper. The droid continued to carry him away, not wanting to be too close to the destruction as it came down. It was satisfying to watch. A feeling of victory ran through his veins and he knew he wanted to keep feeling it. He needed the revenge.

It's a good day, he said as they got further away from the building. They weren't even close to being finished yet, but it was one more victory to add to the list they were building. @Painus