Coruscant Confidence Conundrums

[Rowan Harlow]

The Executive of Trump Productions on Coruscant was named Jeff Mattis, though how he kept his position safe from his boss John Donald was a mystery. The man was a proponent of Justice, especially for the unfortunate and destitute, and had managed to cause any number of media headaches for his employer. Perhaps that was why his latest attempt to make a story of a dangerous swoop gang on the lower levels of Coruscant was approved, on the condition that the man went only with a camera man to get the story. The man was a naive idiot, going without protection, so it was up to Rowan and Eddard to save him.

Mattis was a popular person with some of the people of the lower levels for the previous stories and attention he had brought to them doing so. They'd managed to keep an eye on him, to a point, and so it was thanks to their information that Rowan found out the man was still alive, if captive in the swoop gang's home. The place had been a Kolto storage room in the way past, though now it was used as a pseudo-fortress against the assault of rival gangs. Rowan was sure that these men had never fought true Sith, though. This was going to be a slaughter.

OOC Note: I'll create a dice thread for us. The first round of posts are the introductions, the rolls begin with the next post. Have fun!

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Saving idiots was not something that Eddard relished at all but it seemed to be something that endeared you to other idiots so here he was, about to get on into it. As they were arriving, they had managed to get some information from some of the locals, who confirmed that there were sixteen members of the gang and that they were all armed with blaster pistols and some grenades but little in the way of heavier weapons or armour.

They were, after all, a swoop bike gang.

Eddard was dressed in his custom made armour, complete with the creepy half mask. He glanced at Rowan for a moment before nodding straight ahead.

"We'll go straight." he declared bluntly, "We will give up any terrain advantage but that's fine - we want them to see us. We want them terrified BECAUSE they see us."

They would approach from the front, the enemy beginning to notice them as Eddard ignited a lightsaber in his right hand and readied his blaster pistol in his left.

"Don't be soft on me Rowan - I want them to experience terror."

@Insalius

 

[Rowan Harlow]

Eddard wanted terror? Rowan was completely prepared to show these cretins the meaning of terror. Taking out his lightsaber, the Harlow was completely prepared to show them the horror of his ruby blade scything through their comrades one by one as he commanded it's flight with the Force. He thumbed the activation button, reaching back to throw the...unlit hilt? He looked back at the inoperable weapon, genuinely surprised that it didn't turn on. It hadn't done that before. The stunned moment cost him some injury, though, as a blaster grazed his side in a painful burst of energy. He fell back behind cover, showing the lightsaber in his pocket for the moment. He'd figure out what to do about that later. For now, he had to bounce back, and quickly. He wondered if Eddard thought him an idiot, he thought himself an idiot. What was the problem now, of all times? His lightsaber had never failed him before. Oh well, if it didn't want to cooperate, grenades would have to do.

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Eddard didn't care that Rowan's attack had failed because he was busy.

He was busy using the Force even as he ignited both of his lightsabers and began to speed up from a walk to something similar to a jog forwards. His gaze was focused and his entire demeanour unflinching. As he began to pick up speed the swoop bike gang members began to focus on him and that was when he unleashed the Force technique he had been building.

Force Fear rolled out from him, ensnaring the enemies and stunning them, causing their firing to halt as they saw a vision from a nightmare descend upon them. Eddard roared and, to their eyes, an inky black demon with two glowing red blades for arms screeched at them as it came ever closer. Many of the men screamed, two of them ran and half of them simply dropped their weapons.

It got worse for them.

Eddard reached the first of them, a man clutching his hands over his eyes in a vain attempt to not see him. The left blade pierced straight through the man's gut and Eddard lifted his body by his blade before cutting the man's head from his shoulders with the right blade. The man's head rolled and, to the enemy, the inky black monster roared as it bit the man's head off being spitting it back at them. Tearing his blade free of the man's insides, Eddard continued the attack, throwing his left blade and embedding it in the chest of one of the men who looked to be keeping his nerve. Charging after his blade, Eddard leapt through the air, landing on the impaled man and driving him to the ground where he stood over him.

Eddard snarled at the pinned man beneath him before retrieving his blade from the dying man's chest.

He stomped down hard with both his foot and the Force, crushing the man's skull entirely beneath his mechanical foot as he assessed the defenders. Two were dead, two were fled and the remaining twelve were still reeling from the fear, the utter terror. And they looked at him as though he was some kind of demon come to life.

And he loved it.

@Insalius

 

[Rowan Harlow]

Though Rowan did notice what Eddard was doing, for a few moments all he could concentrate on was his pain. The blaster had grazed his ribs, a quick look showed the stark white of bone through the wound. This wasn't something he'd be able to shrug off, this was something he'd have to live with for a while. Over in a corner he spied a medpack, using the Force to pull it to him to slap on a kolto patch. At least now he could keep fighting, albeit a bit handicapped. The pain and rage didn't diminish, though, even as he still saw more blaster bolts coming down range at him. Oh, these miscreants would pay for what they've done. It was like a flash going through his head, the Force infusing him and using his pain and anger to achieve a state of mind he rarely felt himself in.

Pulling a second blaster from the hands of a gang member, Rowan's vision seemed to zoom in on his targets as if it were seeing exactly where he was shooting. Everything seemed to slow ever so slightly, the pull of the trigger in his left hand causing more pain from his wound, which fueled this heightened state of awareness. He didn't care if they were running or if they were frightened, if he saw an enemy they would die, one shot at a time. He didn't even count how many he felled while like this, as in the end it didn't matter. Either they would all die, or he would. There was no middle ground.

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

There weren't that many of them left.

Rowan had recovered enough to start blasting away at the enemy and the confusion from being attacked from two different sides, combined with the lingering effects of the Force Fear, led to half of the number falling before the Harlow's blaster bolts, leaving only six of the enemies remaining. With both lightsabers in hand, Eddard launched himself forwards at speed, intent on ending the lives of many more of the scum.

He sliced through the legs of one man as he prepared to shoot back at Rowan before stabbing his other blade into the man's chest, ending his life. Blocking a blaster bolt instinctively, he blocked two more before deflecting the fourth shot into the back of one of the man's allies, sending him down to the ground screaming in agony. Watching his ally, maybe his friend, die because of his shot distracted the shooter enough for Eddard to use the Force to bring the man flying through the air towards him, where he bisected the man with a slash from both lightsabers.

Eddard was looking for his next victim when a blaster bolt caught the emitter of his left hand lightsaber, causing him to drop it immediately as the blaster bolt ruined the weapon.

There was a pause in the battle where Eddard tracked the bolt to the shooter, who looked scared witless to be under scrutiny from the Sith, one blade or not. Eddard slowly drew his own blaster pistol, blocking two panicked shots from the man before firing once, blasting his skull apart.

He had liked that blade.

Spoiler: Roll

Result

@Insalius

 

[Rowan Harlow]

As Rowan started to come out of his battle frenzy, he was noticing it was harder and harder to find a target to shoot at that hadn't been killed already. It took a moment for him to realize it was because he'd left a veritable swathe of corpses behind him, even as the wound in his side hammered pain into his body with each beat of his heart. One of the survivors tried to run, the Harlow raising his stolen blaster to fire at the man. A click met him, causing him to scowl and drop the weapon as he killed the man with his own personal blaster. Cheap weapons had cheap effects, though one had managed to wound him pretty well at the onset of the battle. That was when the last one left tried to rush at him, a vibroknife in hand as he aimed at Rowan's wound. Did the man think he was stupid?

With a twirl, Rowan flipped the blaster around in his hand and batted the knife out of the gangster's grip. His empty hand darted out to grip that now empty limb and pull him forward while simultaneously thrusting out with the butt of his blaster to brutally pistol whip the cretin. The sound was quite delightful when the metal cracked against flesh and skull, something that made him want to hear it again and again. What came next was a festival of carnage, one strike after another that ended with the man's face reduced to a crimson slurry that sent streaks of blood over Rowan's face and chest. When the man stopped struggling Rowan paused, panting lightly as he looked at the results of his work. Satisfied, he holstered his blaster while moving towards the back, where the target he was supposed to save was supposed to be. He forgot to let go of the body, though, dragging it behind him as if it were an oversize ragdoll.

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Seemed that Rowan had recovered enough to get the message.

The actual warehouse itself was up next and Eddard checked his blaster before he moved towards it. He had a single lightsaber remaining, his secondary pistol still full and 14 shots remaining in his primary pistol. After taking stock of what he had remaining, Eddard nodded once to Rowan as the two of them marched the distance to the warehouse itself and Eddard sliced through the lock with a single swing of his lightsaber, kicking the door open with one foot.

Inside their target was tied to a chair with five gang members stood around them. It wasn't clear if they had intended to kill the target or use them as a human shield because they had been caught short either way.

There was a second of intense silence and Eddard savoured it - the Soldier's Minute. Where everything else fell away and all that mattered, all that could be felt, was what was happening right in front of you. The only thing that mattered was the battle that you were fighting and nothing else.

He slowly tilted his head to the side.

"Evening."

The enemies all immediately started to make to fire, wanting to fight to their last it seemed. Unfortunately for them, Eddard and Rowan were already prepared for battle and enjoying their combat highs, while they had yet to actually draw their pistols.

Eddard's blaster bucked and fired five times, killing three of the enemy before they could even think to fight back. The remaining two fired with their blasters at both Eddard and Rowan but the Thul-Drast stepped forward, blocking the blasts sent for himself and Rowan both to give his ally chance to take an attack without needing to defend.

@Insalius

 

[Rowan Harlow]

Eddard's blocking of the blaster bolts made an opening for him to just go all out. Still in pain, still furious, he allowed the Force to flow through his body and empower his every muscle. With an enhanced flick of the wrist he sent the corpse he was holding flying, the speed catching one of the two survivors by surprise and sending both forms into the far wall, the living man cracking his head against the back wall. Rowan didn't lose his stride, in fact his pace picked up as he seemingly blurred with speed. With a flick of his wrist his vibrodagger was in his hand even as his target was starting to turn the blaster towards him. The noble's right hand batted the weapon away just enough to get in while the right drove the blade up into the heart of the last survivor. He held that miscreant in place, watching with a callous coldness as the life faded from his eyes. Only then did the semblance of a smile come on his face, turning and throwing the dagger to pin the thrown man's skull to the wall in case he were still alive. Now they were both dead.

The danger over, he turned to look at the man in the chair. He was sitting still, eyes wide and focused on his two potential saviors. Rowan ripped off the man's gag, yet before he could speak Rowan grabbed him by the throat. "It would make sense that one of the most powerful men I'm looking for is also one of the most foolish. This had been a death trap all along, signed by your boss, John Donald. Didn't you think it was strange he didn't let you come with any security, only a now VERY dead camera team?" The executive had a quizzical look on his face, which turned to sudden realization. There was still denial, with Rowan responding as if he could read the man's mind. "Yes, he WOULD do that, and you know it. You were too STUPID to see it, so focused on carving out your own glory from highlighting the plight of the masses. It's a good thing you're useful to me or I'd kill you here and now."

Rowan leaned in, radiating pure power and dominance. What will the executive still had was being eaten away bit by bit, succumbing to his new master. "If it weren't for me, you would be dead. That means I own you now. Very soon, you are going to cast a vote to throw John Donald out of his position. After that, you are going to retire and never enter my sight again. Is that clear?" Completely cowed, the executive nodded. "Good. Now get out of that chair and get cleaned up. You will do NOTHING until I tell you to." With a pull of the Force he summoned his dagger back to his hands, cutting the man's bonds as he slipped the blade back into his sleeve. Adjusting his hat, he turned to leave. "Thank you, Eddard. Let's leave this cesspool. I think once this is all done, I'll let you do whatever you want to our old friend John Donald. I simply don't care as much about it anymore."

/Endthread