Toxic

[Varus Wren]

Quesh​

They had been dropped off and left in a rather dangerous swamp to walk the last handful of miles to the adrenal factory. Varus was glad for his armor as they had seen a myriad of bugs the size of banthas, even if this planet was almost unbearably humid and hot. He much preferred the mountain peaks of Krowsnest to this swampy hell.

They needed to get in, disable any air defenses and tag that shipment of adrenals and get out. They wouldn't be staying for long. They could have easily taken this place by force, but they would likely have destroyed the Adrenals in the process.

They were close now, close enough to see the walls through the trees. "Want to find the shipment, or find the defenses first?" he asked. Once they got the defenses down, they could signal for extraction. They would have the firepower needed to hold the Hutts off while the adrenals were loaded.

The plant looked rundown, vines were growing up along the walls, as if they were just asking to be climbed. The "Systech Corporation" logo was just visible through the foliage.

 

[Shere Solus]

One thing Shere would have to admit when it came to Mandalorian armor. It was much better to walk through a swamp than without it. That is, if you, unlike a Cathar, could actually sweat to release body heat. Instead, Shere was moisting up his entire helmet with his sighing and puffing. "What karking defenses?" he shot at the human wearing clan Wren colors. "You really think a rundown thing like that has actual defenses? It doesn't even have its own hangar."

Systech Corporation's Adrenal Facility was perhaps one of the very few who still had the same owner on paper as it had five centuries ago. It also might've been the only one who hadn't seen a serious upgrade or maintenance job in that same span of time. Shere took his light repeater from his shoulder and after confirming it was loaded, pressing it against his shoulder. "We kill everyone that puts up a fight."

He didn't wait around for Varus to give a reply and stepped up the pace and went through the trees with a jog. There were a couple of windows at a height of about five meters and instead of going to the main entrance, Shere made his way over to the windows and engaged his jet boots, thinking that he could jump straight through without issue. Unfortunately, the glass was stronger that he thought, and while it did break from his force, he himself was bounced back slightly, his pride hurt, but luckily not dazed so he could grab hold of the window and pull himself through in what was a slightly embarrassing display. "I'm good-" he cried into the comm link he shared with Varus, then looking up to see in what room he actually landed in and then repeating "-I'm good." when to his relief it was empty.

Dusting off his armor as he rose to a stand again, Shere turned to the broken window, measured the distance again and then stepped casually aside. "You got jump boots right?" he asked, "if so, jump through."

@Raydo

 

[Varus Wren]

Dice Thread

There was too much money involved for this place not to be protected, besides the briefing, they were given said the location was heavily fortified. Varus would rather be cautious than bumble into a trap. "Maybe we pretend there are defenses and just act surprised when it isn't..." he said back to Cathar as they neared.

It was too late, Shere ran forward up to the walls. The sight of the Mandalorian bouncing off the windows would have been much more fun if he wasn't cringing from the loud, shattering glass. Shere finally made it into the room, and surprisingly wasn't riddled with blaster holes. "Yeah...I got jump boots." he said, the scowl obvious in his voice. This is why he preferred to work alone, or at least with someone he knew.

He jumped up into the room. No sooner than his feet touched the ground, there were yells announcing intruders. His vision snapped to the open catwalk that spanned over the warehouse below. Six guards ran at them from two directions. "Looks like we are doing it the messy way." he said pulling both of his pistols.

He fired a quick shot to the left catwalk that branched out from the room they had entered in. It struck one of the guards who were running towards them. He then ducked to the right and knelt, bring both of his blasters up and firing. The three guards coming from the direction were cut down in a blaze of blaster fire.

Red lights began flashing and a siren blared. "The real messy way" he grunted.

 

[Shere Solus]

Shaking his head over Varus' complaints, Shere stepped forward on the catwalk and turned to his left,. There was only room for one person to take cover in the doorway, however, thus Shere was exposed when he began blasting the guards with his light repeater. Two fell lifelessly down the catwalk, but when it was time for the third, Shere's repeater needed its forced cooldown and a bolt struck him against the shin. Apparently, firing while running and seeing your mates die wasn't that beneficial to your aim.

A second later the guard still dropped dead, thanks to Varus, and when Shere turned to the other side of the catwalk all three of them were dropped as well by his complaining companion. "Should've told me you could shoot like that-" Shere grumbled, lifting his left leg up a little because his shin was hurting like KES in a threeway battle. Angry now, induced mostly by the pain and partly by the sour companionship, Shere pulled Varus by the shoulder pad and pushed him towards what seemed to be the office area of the facility. "-so you first, wonderboy."

To their luck, the door from the catwalk to the offices, and no doubt the security panel, was open due to the guards having been in an overconfident hurry and Varus would be able to step right through.

@Raydo

 

[Varus Wren]

Shere had been hit in the leg, but they didn't have time to worry about it now. Hopefully, it held out until they could get picked up. He had little doubt the Mandalorian would push himself to limits to ensure he wasn't bogging down the mission, just as he would have. "We all get lucky sometimes." he said shrugging. "Sometimes we get unlucky though." he said as the Canthar looked over the wound.

With Shere ready, they moved down the catwalk that led to what to be some type of overseers office. He nodded as he took point. Coming up the door, he stopped only briefly before crashing through the doorway. He saw a fat, balding man hiding in the corner. He had a blaster in his hand. "Drop the weapon!" Varus yelled and the man squirmed as he followed the command.

"He can help us get these blasted alarms turned off." he said to Shere. Varus heard a commotion at the second door, moving to the door he saw out a small window about ten guards pushing up the stairs. "Kriff." he cursed. "You take care of our friend here. I'll deal with these guys." he said

Before they could get any closer, Varus opened the door that led to a set of stairs that led to the warehouse floor. With both of his pistols, he opened fire. The attacking men were sitting ducks stuck on the stairs. Five men fell in the first volley of fire before he was forced back behind cover. Hopefully, Shere could get the defenses shut off from here and they could move to the final part of locating the shipment.

 

[Shere Solus]

The alarm got killed before Shere could even apply any sort of pressure. "The Hutts ate my sister-" the fat man began, "-so kriff them." He pressed a few buttons on the nearby console and a message popped up on all screens, <<All security systems disabled>>

Now Shere was in a predicament, because he initially planned to shoot the man regardless of whether or not he complied to his request, but now he was turning out to be very valuable an asset. Somewhat absentminded therefore, not bothering to help wonderboy in his blasterfight, Shere asked "the shipment?"

The fat balding man nodded to show he understood why they were there, but seemed a bit disappointed as well. "Not taking over eh? Too bad," he said as he punched in another few keys on the console and pointed at the video feed of the shipment. "Let me help- the man's fat fingers brought a microphone to his greasy lips, "Its the entire clan Solus, they say if you drop blaster you live."

Shere could appreciate cowardice that evolved to turning ones cloak. He would have done it only from personal gain, but then not everyone lived his life. Deciding against shooting the fat man on the spot, Shere turned to Varus and shrugged. "Call in the ship."

@Raydo

OOC: rolled a nat 100

 

[Varus Wren]

There was a pause in the fighting as the guards thought of a better way than throwing themselves up the stairs. Before the fighting could resume, Shere had convinced the man to help them. He told the men they were being attacked by a much larger force than just the two of them.

He didn't think it would work, but when he ducked out from cover, he found that everyone had, in fact, put their weapons down. "Huh" he said, nodding in approval. He didn't mind battle, but he would argue with his either.

He acknowledged the Cathar, reaching to his wrist and hitting a button on his comm device. It would send a signal to the crew that they were ready for extraction and were not in danger currently. Of course, that could change, but if it did, they would just go back to dying at the hands of the two Mandalorians.

"Done. Let's go." he said making his way down the stairs and towards the shipment. Hopefully, this had been worth it.

 

[Shere Solus]

As Varus and Shere rounded up the facility's guards in the cargo hold, where the shipment was also waiting, they still benefitted from the guards thinking they were just two guys of a larger force. Unfortunately one of the men they were rounding up wasn't a guard, but a Shaddaa gunslinger who wasn't estimating his chances to be that slim against two Mandalorians.

Standing among the guards, the rodian gunslinger's fingers went up to his Quickdraw blaster pistol as he studied the two Mandalorians. Shere in the meantime had allowed himself to relax slightly and had gone so far as to sling the light repeater over his left shoulder. "Told you that you think too much-" he told Varus, who was standing roughly ten feet away from him, "-wonderboy."

wonderboy the Rodian repeated it in his head and he knew which of the two mandalorians he had to take out first. Killing wonderboy would no doubt put the other in a shock long enough for him to shoot that one as well. Stepping in front of the crowd, he drew his pistol-

but Shere was faster and the shot from his R-5 blaster pistol hit the Rodian gunslinger in the stomach before the quickdraw was even out of its holster. The frog's head turned to Shere, cursing himself for picking the wrong target, before the body dropped lifelessly to the ground. The facility's guards stepped back and away from him, clearly in shock, as Shere did the opposite and approached the gunslinger's body. "Nice pistol-" he said as he picked it up and turned it around in his hand. "-real nice."

@Raydo
OOC: Quickdraw will be event reward.

 

[Varus Wren]

They made there was through the factory. Varus acted relaxed like it was over. Most of the personnel in the factory followed suit. Only a few more minutes and they would be clear from the swamp planet.

Varus let himself chuckle, spotting the gunslinger a split second after Shere, likely too late to do anything, he still reached for his blaster, but his fellow Mandalorian had already taken care of it. "Well, that was a dumb choice." he said loud enough for his voice to carry. "Anyone else want to do something incredibly stupid?!" he spoke again. There was only silence, everyone looking away as to not make eye contact.

"Good." Varus said as they began walking again. "Thanks for the backup." he said more quietly so only Shere would here. They made their way outside to the ship just as the ship began hovering over the base. "Just on time." he said approaching the ship as it landed.

Others would load the cargo. Their work was done. "I think we deserve a drink..." he said as he began walking up the ramp.

 

[Shere Solus]

Still admiring the looted blaster when they walked through the opened cargo hold doors and into the swamp, Shere was strangely pleased with himself. He hadn't bought into the whole Mandalorian stint before, preferring to keep to the conviction that he only ever joined them because it was easier to hide among a large group of violent criminals than it was on a planet of frightful Imperials. Still, the companionship wasn't lost on him and missions like these - backed up by armed men who knew what they were doing - felt like a reward on itself. It was killing and looting, but justified "because open war". Heh, he could imagine the faces on the Sector Rangers when they were investigating this... they wouldn't know which law to reference in order to make this a crime.

"We need several-" he said, taking off his helmet to breathe in the unpleasant air of the planet. "-bit of Glitterdust on the edge of the glass, too." The Cathar was a real connoisseur.

They watched other marauders load the adrenals onto the ship, which went without further protest from the facility's employees and when it was all said and done they, too, boarded the ship. "I know this place on Nar Shaddaa - the Lopsided Quarren - best seafood in the galaxy," he told Varus enthusiastically, "-serve a mean spiked bantha milk, too."

/ end thread

@Raydo