Rats

[Merrick Helmsdottir]

Theme​

Spice mines were rat warrens built into the earth, layers of labyrinths that criss-crossed through eachother as they dug and dug deeper into Kessel, seeking out every last credits worth of spice.

They had served the Empire for so long, and now in the chaos the Pykes had taken them back. Not for long, apparently.

While command scrambled to decide what needed to happen, this little rebellion in Imperial Hutta was tiresome, and needed to be put down. Or so Merrick had gathered when he'd scanned the briefing. Point was, in his mind, that there were a bunch of Pyke punks holed up in one of thee mines, ones who keeping all that coaxium and spice to themselves. And well, that just wasn't on, as a general rule,

"So uh, prejudice here, extreme? Extreme prejudice? Cause that's the vibe I was getting" Merrick chatted as he checked over his pistol, clipping his lightsaber and his PIPE to his person, ready for the attack as their transport touched down.

He always considered himself a pilot, but with promotion came expectations, like doing the jobs they asked you to do. That hadn't exactly been his plan when he applied.

But, he was here now, and he may as well try and work through it all as he did so.

@Nefieslab

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Valar was a man who's tastes extended to the Xenos of the Galacy but even he found no redeeming features to the Pykes. As people they were, as a rule, petty beyond belief. As a race, their agreements with the Empire were discarded whenever they pleased. They were, as far as he was concerned, the worst kind of scum.

So when the opportunity came to destroy them?

Well - who was he to turn down such an offer?

"I say we leave one alive as a messenger." he offered to Merrick as he twirled his two crossguard lightsabers, "Cut off an arm and all the fingers on the other. Send him back to serve as a warning and as a reminder; The Empire will not hesitate to ruin you."

Simple but effective message as far as Valar was concerned. He was dressed in his heavy armor for this mission and felt a lot more at home in it then in a fighter. Thank the Force this mission was actually one that had solid ground beneath his feet. Was that really too much to ask for in all of his missions?

Apparently yes.

"Are we ready then Crusader?"

The rank was said in a lilting tone. It wasn't quite mocking but it wasn't respectful. Valar was more powerful with the Force than Merrick, he could feel it, and yet the other man was to be deferred to as his superior. Well, Valar wasn't too much of a political animal so he would allow it. He would tolerate it because he didn't care what his rank was or what he ended up actually doing - all he cared about was getting back to his true calling.

@Nightfall

 

[Merrick Helmsdottir]

(Dice)

"I do like the way you think. One of the little guys, just to be sure though" Merrick smiled as the transport touched down, the bay door swinging open to the musty smell of mud, spice, and fumes throughout,

"Oh come on now, ready as ever Valar!" he just didn't have it in him to even bother commenting. He took the promotion cause he liked the paycheck. Wasn't that fair enough? Still, no matter what was transpiring they both still had a little job to do, and if Valar could hold his own then well, it wasn't really worth mentioning things like that. They'd flown together once anyhow, that had gone well enough, a few nicely placed shots had kept them outta trouble up in the air. It was time to hope they could do the same at the other end of the spectrum.

They'd arrived at the rear, happily, an entrance more hidden and, luckily, less guarded equivalently. One soldier, puffing cheerfully on a cigara on his break. Though the man stumbled to try and get his rifle up in time, a few potshots at the transport didn't stop Merrick's blaster shooting through his armour and dropping him to the ground,

"Well, that's our entrance secured" Merrick smiled, keeping his pistol ready just in case more came. But his confidence was buoyed, more than ready to keep storming the place. Not often he had his feet on the ground, so starting strong was a nice change.

@Nefieslab

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Their entrance was almost too easily secured but Valar wasn't one to complain. Stalking forwards, Valar readied himself as he approached the entrance. It wasn't a very heavily fortified entrance so he was able to slice through it quickly and cleanly with a swipe of both of his lightsabers. With the door weakened, he decided to make a bit of an entrance.

Using the Force, he slammed a Force push into the door, shattering it and sending it's pieces flying inside. One of the large pieces sawed through the air and cut the guard in the hallway clean in half before they had even stepped foot inside. Valar stepped in, his lightsabers at the ready and a small smile on his face.

He loved this part.

From around the corner at the end of the hallway, a single guard appeared as reinforcements and began to fire his blaster at Valar in a blind panic. Valar began to carefully deflect the bolts, managing to knock two shots back that blasted the man's knees out with his own blaster bolts. He continued to advance, deflecting the shots into the walls on either side as he approached. As he got closer, the man pulled the trigger... and it clicked empty.[/ulr]

Valar took pity on the poor guard - and stabbed his lightsabers right through his skull through his eyes before tearing them out and cutting the guard's head clean in half.

Alarms began to blare.

"I think they're afraid now."
http://www.thestarwarsrp.com/forum/index.php?threads/dice-rats.87614/#post-1486126

@Nightfall

 

[Merrick Helmsdottir]

“I think you’re right” Merrick nodded back at his companion with a smirk. This was all too easily. No wonder the criminal elements of the galaxy hadn’t taken off as much under the empire, if this was all they could muster against it. He was certain that if he ever pursued that life, Karl, he’d give it a better show than this.

For now though, he was still with the side that put things like this in their place, and that meant continuing through the mine. As they plunged deeper within toward the control facility, where the Pykes has hoeld themselves up in fear, the walls became less made, closer to the earth and mud they were rough hewn holes in the planet with a sheet of duraplast to walk on and little else. Alarms still sounded around them, though for the time being there was little to see, no guards running about or workers fleeing their intrusion. It was all too quiet. Much too quiet,

“Now what exactly do you think that means?” He lazily queried back at Valar as he turned his head back. Too bad he didn’t turn it up.

From the roof came the Pykes plan, half a dozen IG-00 Assassin Droids clambered down the ceiling, their metal frames clicking as the spread across the ceiling before dropping down to attack, wrist blades flared out,

“Kark!” Merrick shouted as one crashed on top of him, a spray of blaster fire from him doing nothing to stop it plunging its blade into his shoulder.

Not so defenceless after all.

@Nefieslab

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Rolling his neck a little bit, Valar readied himself for the next part.

There was always a "next part" and the next part was always worse - the Galaxy did not let people just have what they had. It was always looking to try and screw you out of what you had earned and what you wanted and it was only your own efforts that stopped that. And here? In these tight mines?

The next part was assassin droids.

Valar growled as he spotted them coming down. He didn't really have strong feelings about droids one way or the other but he always objected to things trying to kill him or his allies. He wasn't about to fail this damned mission because one of these shites had decided he wanted to kill his partner.

Roaring, Valar used the Force to grab the one atop of Merrick and send it flying into one of the mine support beams so hard the metal of it's back deformed on impact and it sparked uselessly. The droid to attack him directly attacked with blade in hand and Valar showed it just how superior a lightsaber was to any other blade in the Galaxy, trapping the blade in between his blade and crossguard, snapping the blade before slicing the droid in half.

"Get up Helmsdottir! There's work to be done!"

@Nightfall

 

[Merrick Helmsdottir]

Throwing himself up onto his knees, Merrick clutched at his shoulder where the karking droid had stuck its blade into him. Bloody thing had drawn blood, the little kriffer,

"Always is Dohaeris, always is" he called back, squeezing the trigger right into the chest of one of the droids that whirled around to his right, blades tearing out from its hands as it went to slice him right across, a fate he wasn't quite ready for, all things considered. But lucky for him they hit their target, ripping through the droids would-be ribcage, another threat down.

Not that he was exactly showing what a soldier could do today. Their first bit of serious opposition and here he was, already injured, trying to hold his own beside Valar, a man he could feel had a stronger connection to the force, and a damn sight more combat experience. Not an ideal way to warm into ones new rank, but hey, what else could he do?

Well, for now anyhow, he started by swapping out his blaster for a blade, igniting his lightsaber and spearing another droid clean through, leaving a pair left as the two fought for their lives in the hallway. Still, this was a nasty trick, and the droids weren't cheap. He didn't think the Pyke's would have much left in the bank for them after this.

@Nefieslab

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Roaring with a mixture of rage and sheer enjoyment, Valar launched himself forwards at the rest of the droids. They responded in kind and charged him right back. Grinning, Valar pulled the Force to himself as he moved forwards before pulsing it outwards just as the droids would connect with him.

The droids went flying in all directions, slamming hard into the walls and each other. Most of them didn't get back up again and the one that did? It was so damaged that Valar had absolutely no issues with walking right up to it and impaling his saber straight through it's head, ending the droid in one strike.

"Helmsdottir." he turned back to the Sith Crusader, head tilted to one side slightly, "Are you good to continue?"

The man had taken a blade after all.

"Do you need to heal up?"

@Nightfall

 

[Merrick Helmsdottir]

Merrick spun his shoulders round to watch as Valar splattered the remaining droids into the walls. Well, as much as you can 'splatter' droids anyhow. Still, they were more than a little dead and destroyed, a good turn overall.

Not that it had spared him an injury though.

As Valar glanced over to check in on him, it really only then dawned on him what had happened to him there. The thing had pierced him in the heat of it, his body had held off the pain for the time being, but wasn't able to do so forever. The stab wound seared under his armour, drawing more than a bit of blood as he held it close in one hand, keeping the pressure on,

"Kark. Yeah, half a sec. I'll be right with ya" he said, running over the treatment in his mind.

A bit of gauze, a quick swab to clean it, he tied it with what cloth he had, but he wouldn't be using that arm as much for the rest of the day unless he had to. Not that there would be much left,

"Pykes. Now. Yeah?" not quite an order or really a question, but a simple statement of what they had left. The control room was close now, the pair coming to the door in short order, locked tight to hold off the intruders a little longer.

A final test.

@Nefieslab

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Merrick healed himself up as best as he could and Valar was glad of it - he was doing well so far and he knew it but he didn't want to risk both their lives and the success of their mission on the idea that he could carry the mission alone. Valar was many things that made the Sith rather well known - volatile, angry, hateful and manic - but he could never be considered arrogant. He had taken far too many beatings and burns for him to allow himself to fall into that trap.

Many of those burns and beatings still marred him to this day.

Nodding to his ally, Valar marched forwards towards the control room door. It was, as expected, locked up tight and that was something that needed to be addressed. Stabbing his lightsaber into the center of the door, Valar began to melt through the locks through the sheer power of his lightsaber.

It took less time than expected as the doors suddenly opened, revealing nine Pykes with varying weapons readied - and a pair of grenades now right at Valar's feet.

Throwing himself to the side, Valar would forever be both grateful and not that one of the grenades was only a flashbang and not a blasting one. The other was a frag grenade though. Blinded and lightly peppered with shrapnel, one piece that had managed to get through his armor to stab into the side of his stomach, Valar was lucky he had dived into cover at least.

@Nightfall

 

[Merrick Helmsdottir]

There were times in the Imperial Army that one was allowed to shoot a subordinate. caught in a mutinous act, if they turned traitor, as part of an official execution by firing squad, etc.

Typically, these scenarios did not include when under the blinding and frankly terrifying influence of unexpected grenades on your first mission in command.

And yet, here, in the tunnels of Kessel, on what should have been a routine mission to take a blaster bolt to the backs of some criminals, that was exactly what Sith Crusader Merrick Helmsdottir did.

Though Valar had gone first, Merrick had followed up behind, his injury keeping him back a pace, though not keeping him from keeping his blaster up and ready to fight. He still meant to get the job done, and by all accounts they were damn close to doing so. It also meant that, when the Pyke's little ambush had gone up, he just didn't have a chance to move.

As the light hit his eyes he flew back, arm flailing and firing off in all directions as a few pieces of shrapnel managed to slice at him. Nothing as dramatic as his wound before, but nothing pretty either, cuts across his body that hurt like hell.

It was only when his vision came back he realised where one bolt had gone: Right into Valar Dohaeris. And with the two of them more than a little wounded, he did the only thing he could think of, dropping his blaster and looking the lead Pyke dead in the eyes as he looked down at his close to death companion and his own wounded body,

"So, we surrender"

@Nefieslab

Spoiler: OOC

So uh, I take it that's gonna be /EndThread, and failed too.