In Dark Places [Makura Rising S2E2]

[Manderley]

"When the going gets tough, the tough call for close air support," Jace quoted, hunkering down as the Solace of Fire blasted apart their adversaries. "Good thinking." Once the doors opened, he looked upon the remnants of the building he had once served in, once been paid in. What a shame that that paycheck had to be terminated. Still, it wasn't a total loss. If the soldier kept his word, he'd get more than enough compensation for his betrayal. As the others made their way across the gap, Cairnspur left and then watched the elevator, in case any pirates decided it'd be a good idea to make their way towards them with it. None did; the ex-cop silently commended their intelligence.

"What was that?" he asked, as another explosion went off. "It sounds like it came from the control room. I hope you didn't call for more shots from your ship, cuz we don't really need any." Picking up a piece of rubble, he jammed it into the space between the lift's doors, hopefully stalling any pirates who got the bright idea to follow them up. He then turned around and made a running jump across the gap in the floor, activating his jetboots for a boost in air time. As he sailed through the air, the others were already securing the next area.

He followed the pair to the control room, watching their sixes, pistol readied. They charged inside, after a duo who he thought he recognized as one of their protocol droids and a prisoner, former military. What was an armed protocol droid doing downing pirates, and with one of their prisoners to boot? Cairnspur would let the others figure that out, while he manned the hallway to ward against and surprise flanking attacks. He heard Kali threatening the two from outside, and smiled beneath his helmet, though he did hope she wouldn't go through with it. There was that paycheck he was promised, after all.

"Oh, kriff." A suite of blaster turrets began lowering from the hallway's ceiling, prompting Jace to dive behind cover, behind a durasteel crate. "Thanks, love," he said to Kali, in response to her taking out the heavy turret that would've most likely torn him apart.
"That's odd," he said, peeking up above cover to throw a few shots at another turret, directly into its barrels, and igniting it like a Corellian holiday fireworks display. "My suit's ID should still read as friendly. Since when did the pirates code the turrets to cut down their own men?" Kali made the same observations, opposite him, still in the control room. "What in damnation is causing it? See if it's that bloody droid and his new friend, eh?" Cairnspur asked, proceeding to throw a few more bullet volleys at the turrets to keep them busy.

 

[InfernalSage]

Finally, five minutes had come to pass. The turrets mowed down all those in sight. They made no distinction of who was to be spared all who could draw breath would no longer. The turrets were keeping one of the trio occupied. Etches decided they had been useful in his mission and so he offered assistance
Mr. Cairnspur, kindly keep yourself tucked away, the turrets are programmed to target all organic life forms. he then began to address Kali, If you or anyone else kindly lend me your firearm i will step out and disable the turret, unless you would rather wait five minutes when the turrets will cease fire.

 

[Ravensmark]

Kali finished with her thoughts on the situation and Collins mind began to fog. So many people getting killed for no reason, all around them.

“Kali get that man infront of you down, or put him down.” Shouted Collin angrily.

“You in the hallway, stay behind cover and that damn turret won't shoot at you.”

Keeping his gun up and pointed toward the droid, and in turn the man behind the droid. Collin continued speaking. “Now someone in this room knows why these damn guns and targeting only people. Slaughtering everyone remaining in this building.”

The droid spoke up saying that if given a weapon it would take care of the turret. Collin yelled at the droid. “You will not move!” Collin pointed his gun directly at the droid. “You. You're a god damn droid, you are the only one here that could benefit from those guns targeting only living breathing people.” He paused an took a deep breath. “Are you responsible for this? Are you responsible for this mass destruction of life? The very destruction that I was here specifiably trying to avoid.”

Collin waited for a reply.

 

[InfernalSage]

I am. Etches replied. All those dying now are organic scum, I place no intetest in their lives. Just as they placed no mercy on the people of this world. I have already released those imprisoned and gave them ample time to escape. I had the cameras on loop and already had a clearing for them. Your groups arrival merely shifted my time frame and plan. With the aid of the commandet here, we aimed to seize control of the garrison from the pirates.
Etches activated his internal comlink
33, disengage the turrets immediately.... yes im certain.
And as quickly as the defenses had turned on the pirates, they halted and powered down. Jace was no longer under direct fire.
I admit, my plan did not account for this variable of change

 

[Ravensmark]

It took every once of will power Collin had to not pull the trigger of his Peacemaker. "You metal brained fool, you heartless abomination. The prisoners never left this building. When those alarms went off this places sealed up like a vault. They had not the tools to make there way through those doors. So after you released them, they would have found themselves stuck between a blast door and a fortress full of armed men who wouldn't think twice about slaying them. And then the turrets came online. Those people never had a chance. And you brought this upon them. Your short sited, no emotional thinking. You Jawa scraped hulk of machine."

Collin was screaming at this point. Verbally venting all his rage. He began to squeeze the trigger of his rifle; as the sounds of tearing metal and snapping beams drew his attention towards the roof. He snapped his rifle into place facing the new threat.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Death.

Delun could feel it erupt in a sudden, terrible surge beneath the Solace. Dex chirped in alarm, highlighting pinpricks of intense heat and energy pulsing within the base. He didn't need a lifetime's worth of engineering and military expertise to know that those were heavy blasters going off. The camera feed from Collin was still functional, and through it he could see - and hear - some small measure of the mayhem that'd been unleashed.

"Hasuni!" he barked, "Get Marines and a medical team ready to go. You have the con, I'm headed down!"

He didn't give the junior officer chance to argue. The striped Captain was off the bridge in moments. Broadsword was already waiting for him. He shed his uniform coat and stepped into the waiting armor. He took off like a shot, forcing the suit to hiss and clack shut around him as he raced for the nearest airlock. There was no time to get to a dropship, no time to organize anything. People were dropping like flies with each passing second; if he waited so much as a minute and there'd be nobody left to save.

The nearest 'airlock' was a service hatch leading to the ship's belly. Dex popped it remotely and opened it, the hatch beneath it, and both sides of the airlock beneath that. It was a safety breach, one Del would rectify when lives didn't hang in the balance. He leaped in and hurtled right down. Once free of the ship he fired his armor's maneuvering thrusters to angle him face-first towards the deck. His armor's drives flashed to life, columns of gold-white plasma sending him rocketing planetside. "I have approximated the location of Mr. Graves by..."

"Cut the gibberish. Location."

"Of course, Master Delun. Approximate position on your head-up display."

Underneath the roof. That wasn't good. Del modified his armor's navi-shield to slow his descent by a few meters per second. That gave him a precious moment to reassess his impact. His sensors switched to EM imaging, while his helm's LIDAR node deployed and took a quick, low-resolution scan. It wasn't much, but it was enough; he identified a weak point where no support braces were present. A tiny square, some two by two meters, but enough to go right through - especially since the roof was barely more than sheet plasteel. A flick of his wrists adjusted his flight, carrying him straight to that weak point. Del waited for the last moment, then fired his shoulder thrusters. He rolled, now poised to go feet-first through the roof. His particle shield reformed, snapping into place solely around his feet in a roughly dish-shaped block of humming blue energy, and failed a split-second after impacting the roof.

That split second was all Del needed to get through the thin roof unharmed. A quick half-second burst with all thrusters slowed him, so that the feline landed firmly on his feet. He allowed his knees to bend, absorbing some of the shock, though the jarring deceleration he'd subjected himself to had stolen most of the energy right out of his landing.

That left him with another problem. According to his LIDAR node and suit sensors Collin was behind him, while that murderous droid was right in front. Del swiftly leveled his right palm at the machine. The HAIL - a potent anti-armor laser system - built into his right forearm noiselessly slid from its enclosure, ready to fire at the drop of a hat. He brought his left hand up along his torso, palm - and the pulsar weapon built into it - leveled at the droid as well. His LIDAR node scanned the droid, memorizing its appearance and uploading the data directly to the Solace.

His initial thought, one he'd formed as he first bolted from the safety of the Solace's bridge, was that he would simply prevent the droid from being ripped limb from limb so that the people of Wazta could have the pleasure of doing that themselves in revenge. But things had changed in the thirty seconds it took him to go shipside to planetside. The guns had stopped firing, and according to the shipboard sensors, nobody had left the structure. Nobody'd left since Collin's assault started. That, by Delun's count, added up to the near-complete annihilation of every civilian inside the garrison. He couldn't let that go. He couldn't allow the droid to continue functioning after that. But it was his job to focus on the mission, and at that moment, turning the droid over to the WSF seemed like the wisest course of action.

Despite that, he still took a half-step out of the way, so that neither Collin nor his comrades would have any obstacles preventing them from firing on that machine.

"Disarm yourself and power down, droid," Delun commanded, the feline's voice coldly level. He didn't need to issue a threat - it went without saying that the droid's existence hung in the balance. And given the array of weapons leveled at the droid, there was little doubt that Delun expected the machine to refuse. And when it did, when it twitched just a little too aggressively, when Collin's finger slipped, Delun would be firing too.

 

[Andrewza]

Getting rather angry with these droping in, roland kept the blaster aimed at Cpt Marco.


"Sorry I can not let you touch the droid. And the turrets are located in key areas only. so it is not a complet masscar. Any case the number of inocet lives these scum killed far out way the losses here. Not to menstion you guy's triggerd the lock down. And can some one tell me who you guy's are and why you are here?"

 

[Dmitri]

Jace thanked Kali for her assistance, though her preoccupation resulted in her not hearing him, probably good for his benefit. When Kali had destroyed the turret and escaped further into the control room, she and Collin switched targets. Rolland may have a blaster, but the droid seemed to be the greater threat. "Roger," she acknowledged Collin's request.

Kali listened to the protocol droid. It was mad, evident by its words. It considered all organics a threat, yet stood here acting friendly to herself and her entourage. "If your actions really were altruistic, you'd have them aim at only pirates, not all organics," she spat. The doctor didn't care much for the pirates but even they didn't deserve this, a merciless genocide without the chance to surrender. Even the Kushari gave the opportunity to surrender. "It seems more like you didn't account for anyone surviving expect for you and the commander here." At least, that's what she thought Rolland's rank was, if memory served. Even now her bowcaster kept steadily aimed at Rolland.

Kali sensed something approach. It was a lifeform, one that felt similar to the other Kushari. Not Jamall, though one that was trained in the Force, if she were to interpret correctly. A shock struck the building and a metallic machination appeared, humanoid. Kali suspected it had locked into Collin's communicator. Possibly he had been listening too, considering the words parted.

Rolland seemed vexed by the new arrivals. Worse, Rolland even had the nerve to defend the droid. "Then you're a fool, Rolland," replied Kali. "If you really were a commander, you should know that after the war began, tropaion-type garrisons just like this one were reinforced with more turrets, to attack anywhere where needed. The control room is one of the very few places so the equipment is not damaged." Nevertheless, some parts of the equipment had been wrecked by Rolland and the droid's assault. "You may have hoped to save the people here, but it backfired. I can sense it. With the exception of maybe a couple people, everyone in this building, except those in this room, are dead. Including prisoners. Including civilians." She was very glad she was the one holding her weapon at Rolland, though temptation was urging her to shoot the man here and now. "What you did does not justify the end. The Kushari would have taken this place regardless. Had we proceeded unhindered, we could have taken this place with minimal casualties. Don't you dare try to accuse us as the instigators of the lockdown. We had them fooled. We had infiltrated the garrison using a con that was working." She motioned with her head to indicate the droid. "Most likely it's your friend's fault. Looping the cameras. You of all people should know most garrisons have countermeasures to detect looping feeds. The pirates probably noticed his hack and locked the place down. You're no hero here, Rolland. You're the accomplice of a genocidal killer. You are responsible for the deaths that occurred here."

Kali didn't even dignify Rolland by answering his last question. She turned the bowcaster to the right a bit and fired, a bolt whizzing by Rolland half a foot. The bolt harmlessly struck a wall away from everyone else. "That's the only warning shot you get." The doctor returned the bowcaster directly at Rolland. "Drop your gun now or I shoot your brains out."

 

[Andrewza]

"Lady do not lectur me in my home! You have no idea who you are fighting! They will not give up because you ask nicely. Why do you think I am aiming my blaster at a man who has given no warring's? He is the biggest threat in the room. And what was your plan, to ask them to stope? Our plan would have worked, if you did not triger the alarms and start a shoot out! "

 

[InfernalSage]

The droid was now faced with another threat, this one much larger and well armed. Assessing his situation and damage, Etches knew he had no alternative but to power down. He knew better than to try and reason with organics when they were highly emotional. He addressed the new intruder.
There will be no need to fire your weapon. I shall comply. I do apologize for the loss of any civilian organic.
Although Etches did not truly feel, he was disappointed that his mission was not a complete success. Activating his internal com he addressed his agromech companion.
33, i will be deactivating for some time. I wish for you to proceed to the ops room and make yourself known. He turned off the communicator and spoke to Delun once more.My companion droid, an R4 model, he goes by 33. He will be here shortly. Please do not harm him, he was merely carrying out my commands.
And with that Etches shut down

 

[Manderley]

As the turrets powered down, Jace looked above his cover and saw the ancient model of astromech droid whir down the hallway, nonchalantly as could be, as though it hadn't just slaughtered entire floors of sentient people. "You there, halt!" he called to it, fishing in his pocket for a restraining bolt. He always carried one around, just for situations like these. "I've got this, er, Thirty-three out here, kay?" the former CorSec man told the others. "You just take care of that kriffing bastard droid." Cautiously moving over towards the R-series droid, he knelt down.

"I'd say I'm sorry about this, but I am really damn not." He stuck the bolt to the R4's port, then pulled out the linked caller, giving it a command to stay put while he walked into the control room. The murderer was shutting itself down, while its accomplice may very well had to be "shut down..." forcefully. Someone else had also entered the room, and with quite a showy arrival, to boot. His armour was positively beautiful, but Jace stayed his hand, using the other to aim his pistol at the former prisoner.

 

[Dmitri]

It was sad. Rolland possibly had snapped while imprisoned, sanity corroding behind those bars. Now logic was being rejected by Rolland's mind, believing an unarmed injured man was a greater threat than four armed individuals. He may be right that the pirates were unlikely to surrender, but not necessarily so. Not all were fanatics. Cairnspur (which Etches had kindly provided a name for) was a case in point, willing to forgo the piracy for another opportunity. Worse, Rolland's actions may have instigate Etches' genocide. With idiocy and desperation blinding him, it was unlikely the situation for Rolland, just as he claimed of the pirates, could not be resolved peacefully.

"This is no longer your home," Kali said, after Etches shut down and 33 arrived. "It's a necrohol." With those words, Kali pulled a trigger. A blaster bolt shot quickly at Rolland's chest. The wound would be grievous, and she decided not to treat them yet, considering Collin's earlier warning. She was uncertain if Rolland could hear her, if he was still conscious, but she said, "We never would have had a need to start shooting had it not been for you and your homocidal sidekick."

Kali glanced at Marco. He was bleeding, but would survive. Her bowcaster was still raised, in preparation for any more surprises. It was now aimed between Rolland and Marco, maneuverable against either men. Still, she turned her head to face Collin and the newcomer and said, "Now what?"

 

[Andrewza]

As the bolt hit Roland he squized of one shot from the blaster. Marco fine tuined refexes led him to dive down. The result the blaster shot hit a large view screen on the wall behind marco. Marco took this time to ready him self. 1 large power battel armour, 1 solder wounded in a combat armour, the good doctar and some merc that helped them out. This would probaly be his last battel, his best chance was to bring them down with him.

As soon as the doctor turned her head Marco acted. Throwing a ION grenade he then jumped up and begain weaving and moveing between cover. All the while he fired of well aimed shots from his pistol his other hand search for another grenade.


Laying on the ground with his blood pooling under him Roland watched Marco spring in to acstion. These strangers where fools. Had they not relized it. Yes many of the crimson where only hired thugs. But there was a core group that where somthing else. More dedcated, better trained and willing to die. For they like him where dead, but just just to stuborn to accept that fact. With all his might Roland drew the old slugthrower on his hip and aimed it at Marco. Each shot and the accompaning recoil cuasing great pain.

 

[Jiang Winters]

The droid shut down.

That was good, that was a start. Del relaxed a little, though he still kept the HAIL trained on the seemingly-inactive droid. His now-free hand he brought to bear on Roland and Marco. The former started ranting and raving and, for his trouble, received a blast to the chest courtesy of an apparently irritated Kali. He dropped; his blaster discharged, shattering a viewscreen while Marco slumped to the floor... And made a fatal error.

He assumed that the strangers were fools. The only idiot present was he and he alone, for brazenly assuming that Kali was the only person watching over him. When her head turned, Delun's was still fixed on him - and so too was his left hand and the pulsar and HAIL weapons fitted to his arm. Perhaps more deadly than those was Delun's wealth of power available through the Force, and the man's nigh-absolute mastery over telekinesis and his environment. His practiced eyes watched Marco shift, then lob an object; it was child's play to swat it back down with the Force.

The ion grenade detonated harmlessly some distance from the group, though even if it had burst against Del's chest it would have done nothing - his power armor was shielded from such attacks by a faraday mesh. The pulsar in the palm of Del's off hand briefly whined, then cracked as it loosed off a deadly accurate bolt of gold-white plasma. As Del wasn't more than five meters away, that sizzling lance of energy not only carried enough kinetic force to throw a man several meters, but it was hot and energetic enough to punch a molten hole clean through pistol-proof armor and some forms of rifle-resistant armor. As for the pitiful sidearm wielded by Marco, its bolts splashed harmlessly off Del's heavy hardsuit.

Regardless of whether or not the first beam put Marco down, Del fired another - then another, and another, tearing into the pirate with lance after lance of burning energy with the singular goal of crushing him into the deck. All the while, his other hand and his armor's LIDAR node remained trained on the deactivated assassin droid, ready and waiting to slice him in twain with a HAIL burst at the slightest provocation.

 

[Ravensmark]

Kali fired a round into the chest of Rolland. "A little harsh." Collin thought to himself a moment before Marco began moving. As the Marco began firing Collin snapped his rifle towards the now moving target. Though his rifle never made it. As Collins heart began to race, his body gave up. He had lost to much blood and his blood pressure was now far to low. His eyes blacked out for a moment as he fell to his knees. His rifle hitting the floor beside him as his arms fell off to the side. Before even hitting the ground the blood that had been building up inside the left Leg of Collins armor began pour out from the damaged area over his thigh. Sitting there on his knees, his vision faded back to a blurry mess. "Times up." He reached down pressing the activation button for the tourniquet built into his armors leg.

The bands tightened against his flesh immediately cutting off the blood flow to his leg. It also prevented him form moving it any longer. Collin fell backwards as bright flashes and far away noises were going off. Delun firing a Marco. As his eyes closed, his last sight was of the Vitals Warning light that had been flashing at him since he arrived on the third floor. His helmet made a dull crack as it impacted the floor.

 

[Manderley]

Jace simply watched as the drama unfolded before him, shots flying this way and that, curses and yells accompanying them. Kali shot the former prisoner, and earned another point in Cairnspur's book. The pirate threw an ion grenade, which was quickly taken care of by their armoured companion. Roland opened fire on Marco after he felt to the ground, near death. For some reason, the grenade flew across the room, seemingly thrown from a distance by the armoured man. He began loosing bolt after bolt of energy at the pirate, closing off another target for Jace. He saw Collin fall to the floor, his injury finally catching up to him, but Kali swept in, leaving Jace to choose his own target.

Once Marco had been dealt with by their new armoured friend, the ex-cop quickly turned his sights on Roland, the murderous bastard that had helped slaughter everyone that was in the garrison, and nearly him, as well. "Normally, I'd let you say a few final words," he said, moving over to him so that he could hear. "But bantha shit like you don't deserve anything near that." He switched on his pistol's automatic setting, then pulled the trigger and held it down, tearing into the former general, ripping apart whatever life he had left, and leaving nothing but a bullet-riddled mess that he felt very, very good about. "Now you know what it feels like, eh? Kriffing monster." With a resolute kick he delivered to the corpse, he then moved back to where his squad was, and watched over Kali and her medical proceedings.

 

[Dmitri]

When Marco had started his death stand, Kali swerved her bowcaster and managed one bolt to strike Marco before he was annihilated by the newcomer. Rolland had fired too. She would have turned her bowcaster to fire upon the man but she saw Collin collapse. A small amount of blood leaked from his boot.

Kali rushed over to Collin, her bowcaster clattering on the ground she had previously inhabited. As she knelt down, she unhooked her first aid kit. It was filled with more machinations than the typical one. She examined what she could, though the armor hindered visibility. A small scanner detected a wound on her leg. She fished a valuable bacta from her kit. She used a vibroblade to slice open the boot and see the wound. She cleaned it up and took out a needle and thread. "Jace, hold him down, I don't want him moving." Barely giving enough time for Jace to come over and hold Collin still, Kali began inserting a needle into Collin's leg and sowed. It was primal, considering the tech many installations had, but they weren't at a medchamber. She used a device to char the skin shut. It would leave a bit of a scar, though could be healed. She then applied the patch to the wound.

Kali turned to Collin's companion. "How quick can you get us picked up? I've applied basic treatment, but he needs a proper facility I can work at. I also need to get a blood transfusion done; he's lost a lot of blood." As she had mentioned to Collin before, she had a supply back at her clinic. "We need to get back to my clinic. I have blood there. And the proper equipment. Do you know what blood type he is? Nevermind." She scratched the last request and took out her scanner again. She tipped the sensor into the small puddle of blood. It read off the detected blood type.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Del finally lowered his arm. The last human threat lay crumpled and ruined, little wisps of smoke rolling from craters punched into his broken form. The armor-clad feline approached the HK unit and fine-tuned his pulsar to form a tight blade of energy capable of welding. Utilizing a piece of scrap steel salvaged from the partially collapsed ceiling, Del took a few moments to roughly weld together the assassin droid's joints and limbs; a pair of long, straight steel rods were welded to his wrists and then to the opposite shin in front of him, creating a rather stout X-shaped pattern that even further minimized mobility.

With the droid disabled and rendered largely harmless, Delun called for his support to come in. A drop ship hovered o'er the holed roof and let down fast ropes, while Del himself made straight for Collin. The human had collapsed within the last few minutes; the medic was already hard at work on him. She piped up, prompting Delun to radio in for a medevac. A stretcher was lowered via cable, a Makuran combat medic clinging to it as he rode it down. He leaped off and raced to Kali, realized the casualty was a human, then simply pointed back towards the stretcher in a wordless offer to get Collin out of the facility.

Meanwhile, Del used his armor's datalink to patch into the facility, allowing Dex to directly access and slice into the base mainframe. Dex reset the comms array so that he could access it shipside. His work in the facility done, Del headed back to Kali - he'd simply tail her and, once he met up with Jamall, rally his people and get them debriefed.

In the meantime, there was a lot of cleanup to be done - lots of pirates to be rounded up and jailed, and according to preliminary data coming in from Dex, a lot of bribe-accepting WSF personnel to have a little chat with. While the people of Wazta may've finally been rid of the pirate problem, they had an entirely new entity in town - and the Makurans were not so willing to turn a blind eye to a system of government as deeply corrupt and troubled as theirs seemed to be.

A complete fix would have to wait - and, indeed, would be months if not years off. But getting the WSF back into shape and securing the planet - both for the locals and for Makuran use - would take no time at all.

Del eased himself into one of the canvas seats of the Kingfisher once Collin was aboard, the feline resting and taking a moment to compile a plan of attack for the next few months. There was quite a little bit of work to do and not much of a time frame to do it in. His tail twitched idly within his armor and his fingers mindlessly drummed against his knees. Looked like his work - and, indeed, the Makuran's work - was only just getting started.

[And thus the thread ends! Those wishing to pursue jolly socialization may create a S2E2.B thread to continue the events from this.]