Open Showtime, A-Holes

[Tacitus Agrippa]

Rorak 4​

Looting from the dead was such an underappreciated art-form in Tacitus' own, humble, opinion. Stealing from someone when they were still alive was all well and good and was, point of fact, half of what he did with his time but stealing from people who were already dead? Well that required a different set of skills and people needed to respect that more. When you were stealing from someone who was alive, you could gather more information from them to better use what you were stealing but when they were dead?

Then it was more like investigation work.

Like figuring out that one of the many private hangers on Rorak 4 was not only the property of a Hutt classed as dead by his own family but that it was one of those 'private hangers' that was classed more as 'armored vault' than anything else. Finding it had involved talking to refugees leaving the planet who had worked for the Hutt in question. He hadn't even needed to silence them either, a stampede of refugees had managed to crush them underfoot and that was just a stroke of fortune.

The Garrison started to come into the atmosphere and Tacitus patted his pilot droid on the back.

"Ignore all distress signals." he ordered the droid, the pilot droid going against it's protocols to obey him due to the restraining bolt it was fitted with, "We're not here for living people."

Fully armored up, Tacitus headed for the cargo hold which had a couple dozen fellow scoundrels from the Fenn Fam along for the ride.

"Alright people - full armor and rifles always! If something moves and it doesn't give the counter phrase when asked? Shoot the shrak out of it." he demanded as the freighter came in hot in the middle of a now abandoned street, "Phrase is 'What cheeks does Preef clap' - what's the answer?!"

"ALL CHEEKS."

Tacitus nodded, serious, as the ramp began to lower.

"With me then you salty karkers, it's time to go steal ourselves some Hutt's escape route."

Said escape route was within the armored hanger - a Bolo-Class Corvette that would have carried the Hutt to safety had he not been eaten alive before he could reach it.

 

[Taldorak Trenessar]

A job that required full armor? How could Tal say no? Sure, he was an Enforcer for the family, but boy was he every bit scoundrel as the rest of them. He spent much of the flight cleaning his weapons, armor, and singing to himself in Mando'a. This sounded like a job that required a lot of mayhem, a good helping of collateral damage, and a healthy dose of poorly timed jokes, which was really that niche area that Taldorak really thrived in.

It had been some time since him and his bestest friend Tac got to kill some osik together so by the time the Garrison was entering the atmosphere, he was giddy as a Rodian school girl after her first picture with Leather Daddy Preef. Don't ask him where or why, but it was some cosplayer on Coruscant. He started to tune back into what Tacitus was saying and he got even more giddy, pushing his way through the crowd.

The challenge had been the result of a... spice induced after party shared by Tac, Tal, and maybe a few others, he couldn't remember. Tac had posed the question and he answered with a question, or rather the answer in the form of the question: 'All cheeks?' It had been quite the hoot, if memory served right, whoever actually knew. So when Tac posed the challenge, Tal was sure to say it with his chest. "ALL CHEEKS!!!" amped up, he'd give the closest scoundrel a Keldabe Kiss, a less than friendly helmed headbutt to the poor bastards exposed forehead. The man was stunned and went down hard, he'd be fine.


As the ramp lowered, he made his way to Tac's side. "Kinda like old times, yeah?" he said with an audible grin. Once the ramp hit the deck, Tal was down, Rayna at the ready. He'd clear left, then right, before signaling for the others to move up with him. He would start to advance down the street, heading for the direction of the armored hangar. "Eyes peeled."

@Nefieslab

 

[Tacitus Agrippa]

A ship full of scoundrels all ready to get paid their weight in credits, blood, adventure and reputation – what more could a guy ask for? That Tal was here as well was handy. The Mando was about as subtle as a brick which worked absolutely perfectly here because they weren’t being subtle; they were bashing skulls in and blasting things apart. What better time to bring along a brick of a friend than that?

Fully armored as he was, Tacitus grabbed Tal’s own helmet and smacked his head against Tal’s. It was a Mando thing, apparently, and Tacitus was in need of some pumping up just like everyone else. He gripped his rifle tightly in his hands as the ramp hit the duracrete, the ship having landed and the dusty air of Rorak 4 rushing in.

“Just like old times – let’s go make some karking credits you beskar-plated kark!” he declared with a grin underneath his helmet, “Bet I can find the old slug’s spice hoard before you.”

Was there actually a spice hoard hidden away in the armoured hanger? Probably, the former owner had been a Hutt and they were notorious drug fiends when it came to spice. Plus it worked as emergency funding if the Hutt was looking to go on the run – some people wouldn’t take credits but preferred trade in kind and spice was always valuable.

Stepping onto the street, Tac brought his rifle up and swept his gaze up and down the street. His gaggle of buzzards were all off the ship so he tapped the side of his helmet, triggering the in-built comlink.

“Buzz off, droid.” He instructed his pilot droid, “Stay in the air and I’ll buzz you if things start going tits up.”

The freighter started to rise and as it did several of the infected were suddenly visible, lurching hungrily down the street at them.

“Blow these shambling shraks away!”

Tacitus wasn’t a medical professional but he did approve of the use of blasters in treating the infected – much quicker than any other method.

@Rhogar

 

[Taldorak Trenessar]

Tal was already fired up but when Tac gave him a Keldabe Kiss? Oh that really fired him up. Brotherhood, a rarity in a criminal life. Then came the challenge and the Mandalorian would laugh. "Oooh... now that is quite the bet! Winner takes seventy-five percent of the horde?" Tal would offer. "I mean, I need to have something for Vri after all this."

That was the trap. Other scoundrels began to fire away down at the infected, but it was loud. Very loud. His head being on a swivel since they were very much in zombie land, he cursed. The door to what was maybe a warehouse burst open as a small horde of infected began to spill out, drawn by the sound.

"Contact right!" Tal shouted over the blaster fire, twisting, Rayna was leveled and he crouched low, stock against his shoulder and laid down several shots. The goal was two bolts a head, he didn't always hit it, but he would keep firing until a body stopped. "Get off the street! We're going to have to go rooftop to rooftop!"

Rising, he'd swat Tact to let him know he was behind him. "Move!"

@Nefieslab

 

[Tacitus Agrippa]

Tacitus was already beginning to think that the news might have undersold this AMS kark because the infected were far faster than anyone had given any indication they would be. Cursing, he corrected for the unexpected speed and fired off another duo of shots to put down another two of them. One of them was only mostly dead with only a grazing hit to the skull but one of the people with them finished it off with a stomp to the head.

“If you win, Tal, I’ll give you fifty.” He agreed with a grin, “Gotta leave enough to kick up to Preef and pay the help after all!”

And it would still leave him with a cut of the spice horde even if his main prize for the whole attack was set to be the ship he was going to secure. Getting to the rooftop wasn’t a bad idea at all but Tac wasn’t going to be going until he knew he had enough of his people up there. Was it out of a sense of comradery?

Kark no.

But he needed some of the witless karkheads to help him pilot the corvette off the rock they were on and they could only do that is they were alive by the end of it. When they were mostly up he would sling his rifle over his shoulder and launch his own grapple line before ascending to the rooftop. Climbing the last foot or so, he scrambled up and checked the area.

“Alright shitheels, time to get a move on.” He ground out, gesturing to a large dome at the end of the street, “That’s what we’re aiming at. It’s a bunker complex don’t be fooled – the dome is just to open to let the ship out. Check ammo; we move in two.”

With Tal up with them, he would pat his friend on the shoulder.

“When we get closer we’re going to need to draw attention away – you got any explosives?”

@Rhogar