Diplomacy Is Overrated On Ando Prime

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

Charging down into the rest of the camp at Nikka's back wasn't something she needed to request of him - he was already running with her as soon as he noticed her single-minded determination. She was putting her goal ahead of her personal safety and throwing herself towards the enemy.

Luckily for her, Castor had her back.

His blade was busy, deflecting some of the heavier shots from the circling freighters away and blocking the stun bolts that came too close. Unfortunately stun bolts didn't reflect from a lightsaber, which meant that he was forced to accept that he wasn't really in a position to turn the attacks back onto the enemy. Instead he stuck close to Nikka until she stopped to focus on the Force that she was using. He stepped forwards, slipping into a defensive stance, and began to continue to block a higher volume of shots coming their way.

Once she had finished her attack, Castor pushed Nikka behind some cover, ducking behind the same cover as her. He stared at her hard.

"Nikka." he snapped, "Focus on your own defense. You can't save any of the people if you are downed - keep yourself safe so that there's someone still in a position to save them!"

He patted her once on the shoulder.

"I believe in you little Shoulder Gremlin."

With that parting piece of advise, Castor stepped back out from behind the cover and back into the fight. He angled his lightsaber just right, deflecting one of the shots from a freighter into another freighter, causing it to spin out of control and crash to the ground. Castor pointed to the downed ship with his lightsaber and let out a war cry. Some of the nearby Deucalian fighters didn't speak Basic very well but they understood his point, falling into step with war cries of their own as he led the charge to the downed ship, blocking shots as they crossed the distance.

He cut down the pilot even as he desperately tried to gun him down. Gesturing to the guns on the freighter, some of the deucalians got his meaning and manned the guns, beginning to use the downed freighter almost as anti-air defenses and soon the freighters of the slavers were beginning to pull back. He touched his com link.

"Uhtred; Nikka. Status reports." he demanded over their shared lines, "Freighters are no longer an issue."

@Korvo @Killa Ree

 

[Nikka Toren]

She was focused. But when she was pushed aside, she stumbled hard against the cover. She had tensed, prepared to spring out and engage the forces that she was charged to bring down, but Cas's hard voice broke through. She grasped his shoulder in return, her voice calm, despite the pounding of her heart. She was not battle-driven, but so calm she was almost trance-like. "Thanks. I will." That was all that was said. All that needed to be said.

What else did she have to do, to prove she was not afraid of war, or of death and battle? She knew there were those that watched her; Deucalians that heard her words, that now saw that the Miraluka was willing to step into the fray and engage without fear. And she truly was not.

The shorter saber was held in the defensive stance of Niman; those that ran alongside her engaged with any slaver that was still trying to drag down women and children with them. One such being was struck across the back before he fell, releasing the child, who ran screaming from the dead man and the tireless Jedi.

The two other dropships that were still landed were beginning to be swarmed by the Deucalian men and women that had followed her;some had families and loved ones there. Though some had been stunned, for every one there were two more that rose to the fight. The one whose support was downed could not fly, trapped as it was like a bird of prey with its' foot in a crevasse. The Deucalian clans had those two; she would liberate the third herself.

"Two dropships down, one to go."

Her voice was clipped, calm. Even though it was temporarily disabled, she would take the captain of it for herself.

They would answer to the Council for the misdeeds against his kind; it was not her turn to judge yet. Jedi or not, they were an imbalance to the Light. And she was coming to balance it.

Once and for all, here.

@Nefieslab @Korvo

 

[Uhtred Wardruna]

The edge, once blackened as obsidian, now glowed like waking ember. Its weight was light, its form thinner than one might have expected. Its cheek was hollow, its form small and almost unassuming... until it was the last thing one didn't-see before the end. Uhtred hadn't made much use of the flying hatchets before, often preferring to use his elduröxi-to double for this purpose, but he was seeing the worth of the kastaöxi-in a more practical light. If for no other reason, he was now not partially disarming himself for the chance of a ranged strike.

One of the Unbidden warrior's heads reeled backwards as one of Uhtred's hatchets struck dead center into the base warrior's forehead, cleaving through the armored helm. With his elduröxi-back into the grip of his hand, Uhtred turned the momentum of his throw into the foundation for an uppercutting slash as he brought both his elduröxi-and his beskad-against another Unbidden rogue that had charged toward him. With both weapons striking at once, Uhtred severed the rogue warrior's weapon hand with one weapon and carved clear through the ribs of his torso with the other. Blood sprayed through the gashes of the warrior's armor as Uhtred practically basked in his perception of everyone around him.

Without a moment of hesitation, Uhtred then charged another Unbidden rogue from behind, who was attacking one of the Deucalians rallying against them. With both tossed to the ground, Uhtred pulled his second kastaöxi-out and struck the blade into the faceplate of the enemy warrior. Then he did so again. And again. And again after that, over and over until it became a muddied mire of burnt metal and mutilated flesh. Just as he was about to do so again, a glare of light struck his eye, and his attention shifted to the presence of another Unbidden warrior charging towards him. Uhtred used his downward thrust, originally intended as another strike on his already dead enemy, and converted it into the energy necessary for another throwing attack, hurling the flying hatchet. The weapon struck the Unbidden warrior at his shoulder, stumbling him, but it was far from a death blow. Taking both of his main weapons into his hands once again, Uhtred slashed at the enemy warrior in a dervish of attacks, trading blows as he used all his weight and strength against the injured warrior.

Eventually, the Unbidden warrior buckled, falling to a knee. Knocking his weapon out of his hand with his beskad., Uhtred hacked clear through his enemy's neck with his elduröxi., then completely severed it from his shoulders as he made a second attacking swing with his beskad.. At this point, Uhtred was practically painted in blood, most of it red, some of it something else. But in all honesty, he didn't even notice now.

"Hver er næst, þá? Komadu!", Uhtred screamed, looking about at the frenzied fighting. "KOMADU!

It was only the sound of a familiar voice that pulled Uhtred out of his battle-rage, where he could now hear the sound of his own labored breathing, the strain of it, the muffled battle cries in the background, and calm his instincts.

"They are routed", Uhtred stated simply, still attempting to mellow out his breathing. As he did so, however, a certain pain became evident, becoming sharper and sharper as he calmed. Glancing down, Uhtred saw that his lower thigh had been stabbed clean-through with a knife. His adrenaline and rage was so potent, he hadn't even felt it before now, but the pain was now not just seeping in, it was almost flooding.

"Few still hold out, but they are not long for this world...", Uhtred said, turning off his comlink as he then forcibly pulled the knife out of his thigh, both in great effort and in great pain.

"...og má Svartur tekur þá í næsta", Uhtred cursed quietly as he steeled himself to finish off the stragglers.

@Nefieslab @Killa Ree

 

[Castor Chumeda Volante]

With the freighters being force to leave their attacking runs, the local Deucalian ships were able to get up into the air without too much difficulty and began to hammer away at isolated groups of the slavers and traitors. The enemies that had banded together to try and take out Uhtred disappeared in a flash of steamed flesh as a blaster bolt hit their little group with disgustingly explosive results in the end.

Not that Uhtred would probably care.

There was, however, a final issue.

The last remaining dropship was taking off and it had some of the locals inside. The Deucalian ships dared not attack the dropship directly, none of them confident that they could hit the engines before the dropship was too high. If they hit the engines when it was too high up, the drop would kill the locals instead. There was nothing that the Deucalians could do at this stage... but that wasn't the case for Castor and Nikka.

"Nikka!" Castor called out as he jogged up to stand alongside her, "With me...! We're going to grab hold of the dropship! Uhtred! Open fire on the engines with everything you have - we'll catch the ship, trust us!"

Patting Nikka on the back, he nodded to her.

"Come on Nikka... I know you can do this."

Pulling the Force to himself, Castor threw everything he had outwards into grasping onto the dropship. He gripped it tightly with invisible hands far larger than his own, gritting his teeth as his hold on the ship began to slow it down. Already he could feel the strain but he would be damned if he was going to just let go.

@Korvo @Killa Ree

 

[Nikka Toren]

She had skidded to a stop beside Castor. No more stun bolts fired overhead; it seemed the attack was content to tuck their tails in and run. But she was not done with them, not by a long shot. And when the last ship attempted to retreat, she was already prepared.

She lightly placed her hand atop his shoulder, supporting him with her own strength. Her own power. The Force burned brightly here; her left hand maintained the connection, but the right reached up, doing the same. She could feel sweat begin to roll down between her shoulder blades, her mouth twisted into a grim line of focus.

The ship's engines began to whine in protest, but it would not budge. Both Jedi would hold it down, even as the pilots' panicking attempted to bring it to full thrust into the atmosphere.

So she concentrated even more so, felt invisible fingers clench against the durasteel. She squared her feet against the ground, and attempted to drag it closer to her, closer to them. If the opportunity ever came and it was close enough, she was going to leap onto that ship.

And engage its' captain head on.

@Nefieslab @Korvo

 

[Uhtred Wardruna]

By this point, Uhtred was covered in blood. In fact, most of those that had participated in the melee were. In the fray with axes and swords, blood and iron was all that would have ever been expected from it. But even through it all, either because or in spite of it, Uhtred was in a state of numbed calm. In what should have been throngs of panic and hysteria, from the bloody skirmish if nothing else, Uhtred had only clarity.

Without a word, the Deucalian reaver returned his beskad-to its sheath and his elduröxi-to the holster on his waist. Normally, this would be a time where he'd have stared in anticipated awe, or perhaps trepidation, at the power of the Force, but by now, Uhtred had been around Force-users long enough to have been used to it. Instead, he simply reached around to his back and pulled out his lockbow. He knew what was coming, and trusted Castor enough to follow through on it.

"Dþrúkáliþjóð!", Uhtred yelled, taking aim with his lockbow. They'd all heard Castor, but now Uhtred was addressing them all directly. "Komdu með eldinn!"

With that, Uhtred unleashed a barrage of blasterfire at the dropship's engines. But it wasn't just his lockbow alone; a series if blaster bolts crashed into the dropship's engines in an array that reached the levels of being almost a spectacle. In short order, the predictable happened; flames burst from the engines as the ship's lift was utterly halted. Now, was the time for trust. On its own, there'd be nothing left but a steep descent and a fiery crash. Uhtred knew what would happen, but this time, so would his brethren.

@Nefieslab @Killa Ree