3-4 Tango

[Logan]

The small sounds of tinkering filled the cargo hold of the ship as Vesper worked, content to let the autopilot cruise them into the refueling station on Kessel. If someone would’ve told Vesper even just yesterday that she’d be responsible for transporting one of the most dangerous beings alive into Jedi custody she would have cracked up laughing.. But, lo and behold, her she was doing just that. At least she had time during the flight to rig up a few things that would make her feel just a touch safer being in his presence.

The Warlord Szebat was currently laying on his back on a durasteel table that was bolted into the floor of the ship with sturdy, industrial steel bolts about two inches across at the head. His arms - his only real remaining limbs - were fastened to the table with strong, magnetically sealed clamps at the wrist, elbow and upper shoulder. His legs were the same, one on the lower nubs near his knees and one higher up on his thighs. Vesper had even taken the further precaution and placed a restraint over Szebat’s throat and forehead, too. That plus the two neural inhibitors jammed into the side’s of his scaly skull should be more than enough to keep the Warlord pacified, or at least that was Vesper’s hope.

Feeling the ship descend, Vesper assumed they must have arrived at the refueling station and begun docking. It didn’t take but a few moments for the ship to settle into its nesting area, the sound of liquid fuel being pumped into the engines somewhat soothing. They were halfway to their destination now, which meant Vesper would be getting off this freighter and putting Szebat onto a more secure, guarded vessel for final arrival in Jedi territory. She wasn’t entirely sure what they would do with the lizardman but she also didn’t really care. She wasn’t a Jedi and that wasn’t her department. The daughter of the Mandalorian prime minister had done her part in helping, the rest was up to the monks with light swords.

Standing up, Vesper took out a small belt of round, spherical looking devices and handed it to her guard droid Frasier. “If I send you the signal, I want you to activate this belt and hug that giant lizard like he was your momma.” She said to Fraizer, turning away from and making her way towards the exit of the ship. Vesper had no idea if the Sith even know that their Warlord had been captured, but in the event that they did and had managed to find her, she wanted to be prepared.

“Yes Miss Vesper.”

“You’re a good friend, Frazier. I’ll see you soon hopefully.”

“Stay safe, Miss Vesper.”

Stepping off the ship, Vesper looked around for a refreshment stand or some sort of food place. She was still wearing her armor and had her normal kit of weapons strapped to their various places, and with her wits about her it was unlikely even some stalwart assassin would get the jump on her.

Never know, though. She’d been surprised before.

@Chask274

 

[Chask274]

The very moment he'd gotten the message that the Warlord had been captured, Vaxus had the helmsman set a course for Kessel at maximum possible speed. He thanked his lucky stars that he'd already been in the general vicinity of the infamous mining world, as the Empire was gearing up for an offensive through the nearby Ash Worlds sector. Whether it was luck or skill, the War Leviathan's helmsman managed to get them into Kessel orbit in short order, arriving just over an hour after Shaan's report ha been received. Turning to his XO, Vaxus nodded. "Keep the ship in high orbit, I'm heading down in the shuttle. Be ready to jump out of the system once we return." Turning on his heel, Vaxus left the bridge and made for the hangar. Upon reaching his destination, he found a deck officer waiting for him. "The shuttle is fueled and ready, sir. Scanners picked up a vessel leaving the combat area, and tracked it to a local refueling station. Coordinates are already locked into the navicomputer." Giving his thanks, Vaxus boarded the vessel along with four stromtroopers and immediately flew down towards the surface.

As the small craft descended through the atmosphere, Vaxus contemplated what he'd find when he caught up with the ship. Shaan had mentioned Jedi and the one and only Vesper Almec in his message, so he knew he'd have to be careful with his approach. His first and foremost concern was locating and repatriating Szebat. Taking out any of his captors was second. Setting the ship down a few blocks from the unknown ship's fueling berth, Vaxus left the troopers to guard the shuttle, and began walking through the streets towards the other ship. He was dressed in his Redoubt-series armor, with his usual assortment of weapons and equipment secured to his person. After a moment of walking, he spotted a female Mandalorian approaching from the other direction. Moving quickly, he switched on the signal jammer clipped to his belt. With it being known that Jedi were in the area, he couldn't risk her, or anyone else for that matter, calling for back-up. Approaching her swiftly, he leveled his rifle at her chest and called out in a voice loud enough to be heard over the din of passerby, "Vesper Almec! Hands where I can see them!" If she did anything other than freeze and raise her hands, Vaxus would fire a pair of bolts at her.
@Relent

 

[Logan]

She noticed him almost instantly. Walking into a spaceport on Kessel dressed head to toe in the armor of the Sith Empire wasn’t exactly what one did when they were trying to remain anonymous or blend in with the crowd. Of course, the same could be said of Vesper given she was clad in her less-than-inconspicuous beskar’gam. Her father had always told her “bright white armor was a good way to get killed” but he never really understood fashion. Silly old man.

Knowing that this encounter could really only end with fighting, Vesper made no hesitation in making her resistance known. Just as Vaxus began to move more swiftly towards her, Vesper raised her arm and pressed a button before he even had time to level his rifle. A write rocket shot out of its enclosure and screamed towards the Sith man, its small yet wicked payload poised to hit the ground maybe a half meter in front of him. Vesper had learned long ago that going for direct hits with explosives would more often than not result in a complete whiff. Splash damage was where the money shot was.

Activating a quick burst of her jetpack while simultaneously reaching for her A140, Vesper slid into cover behind a durasteel block that looked like it contained a small garden of plants as decoration. It wasn’t the hugest thing, but it was more than big enough to shield her relatively thin body from direct blaster fire. She leveled her weapon and waited for the smoke to clear, her attention focused on her adversary.

“Coming quietly was never really my forte!” She shouted, a small laugh following. “Just ask any of my boyfriends.”

@Chask274

 

[Chask274]

Vaxus saw her arm come up, and he reacted on reflex, sharply changing direction and diving to the left while tucking his legs up near his chest. The rocket hit it's mark alright, but the distance between him and the impact, as well as the fact that his armor was specifically designed to counter anti-personnel explosives, meant that the damage was negligible. Quickly recovering, Vaxus scrambled to his feet and took cover behind a kiosk selling newspapers and cheap trinkets. He'd lost track of her while getting clear of the rocket, but her voice allowed him to pinpoint her location behind a metal planter box. Peeking out from behind the kiosk, Vaxus grimaced in irritation as he noticed the distinct lack of cover between their positions. Ducking back slightly, Vaxus called out in a snarky tone. "You ought to watch those wrist rockets of yours around the civvies, Almec! We wouldn't want the tabloids to get the wrong idea, now would we?"

Peeking out again, Vaxus fired a pair of rounds at Vesper, hoping she'd duck behind the box to avoid getting hit. If she did so, he'd spring to his feet and advance forward, firing off another shot every couple steps to prevent her from returning fire.

Hopefully the aggressive action would force her to break cover and give Vax an opening to land a hit, as the quicker he could end this fight and find Szebat, the better.

@Relent

 

[Logan]

"Brilliant pop sensation Vesper Almec kills Imperial Scum after capturing their prized Warlord?" She shouted, harping back the same snarky tone this guy had given her while keeping her gun level on the box. She would be ready whenever the Sith snake poked his head out of his hidey-hole. "That headline alone will probably net me a couple million in album sales!"

She saw him peek out again but kept her trigger finger steady, instead allowing the man to think he had the upper hand when he fired. Vesper would duck behind her crate and peer ever so slightly out from the side. She assumed Vaxus' shots would be towards her former position and soar over the top of the box. Hopefully he wouldn't notice her next move. Reaching down to her belt, Vesper took out one of the EMP grenades she normally kept on her person. With a lob she tossed it in the direction that Vaxus was moving, slightly in front of him so he would actually move into the blast - or be forced to dive somewhere else and back off, leaving her with probably a clean shot on his body.

The EMP, should it work properly, would probably fry his current power pack and maybe some of his spares, and hopefully knock out Vaxus' signal jammer. Vesper much preferred the added security of an an explosive snuggle by Frazier should her opponent start to get the upper hand. She didn't really care about delivering the Warlord to the Jedi, if she had to Vesper would make sure that the lizard never saw the light of day before she'd give him back to his owners.

From her lower position, Vesper would maintain cover, peeking out from the side to fire off two pot shots at Vaxus from her A140.

@Chask274

 

[Chask274]

As he advanced forward, Vaxus saw a flash of movement from the side of the box Vesper was behind, and saw a small metallic object get tossed his direction. 'Shit, grenade!' Figuring that it'd be aimed to land in front of him so he'd end up in it's blast radius, he veered to the side opposite of the one he'd seen the movement from, breaking into a sprint. Typical grenade fuses had at least a three second delay, and Vaxus had begun running as soon as the grenade was noticed, roughly half a second or so after it'd been thrown. At most, it would take the remainder of the first second and some of the next for the device to finish it's arc and land at its intended position. Meanwhile, Vaxus would have skirted the edge of it's blast radius at full speed, and by the time the last two seconds were up, he'd be well clear of the grenade's range. Since Vaxus had taken off in the direction that would put Vesper's box between the two of them, the two shots she fired wouldn't come close to him.

At the end of his short sprint, Vaxus readied his rifle and dropped to his knees, sliding behind a box identical to Vesper's cover just as the grenade detonated. Coming to a stop just even with the backside of the box, Vaxus immediately leaned around the corner and fired two shots at Vesper, aiming at her jetpack, hoping to rupture the fuel system. Since she'd been focused on taking attempted potshots at him, and was possibly distracted by the flash of the grenade detonation, her back would hopefully still be facing Vaxus' new position in some way, giving him an easy target.

@Relent

 

[Logan]

Her eyes followed his movements closely. Battle was not about standing still, it was about action, about tides and ebb and flow. Vesper was the aggressor, the shark who knew how to do only one thing: swim forward. There was no standing down, backing off or giving up. If this Sith dog was going to reclaim his warlord, it would be over Vesper Almec’s bruised, blood and broken body. That was for damn sure.

Moving as Vaxus moved, Vesper followed his line of movement so that she made a semi-circle from her former positio. She would be standing and running around the edge of the box that she’d fired the random shots from, she never expected them to hit anyway so not a lot of effort was really put into where they were going. She would have exited her former position just as Vaxus was beginning his slide to get behind cover and fire at her back, after the detonation of the grenade.

This now put Vesper somewhat in the open while Vaxus was behind cover, although he would now find himself firing at the back of nothing. Her next movements would be fast and calculated. She dropped her A140, pulling up her gutripper with one hand. It was much more suited for tighter quarters combat. A quick trigger pull would fire off maybe five rapid bolts with not much aim towards Vaxus’ cover, a distraction.

Her left hand would have simultaneously grabbed an EMP and primed it and then dropped it too on the ground. A swift kick would send it rolling along the ground towards Vaxus. The timing of the fuse was not but a few seconds, and Vesper hoped that the Sith would lose sight of all that was happening and the EMP would catch him off guard.

Her jetpack would kick on and send her soaring up and back, giving her a better birds-eye view of Vaxus’ position. With both hands on her Gutripper she would start firing off as many rounds as she could, raining blaster fire down on top of Vaxus who’s cover would be less than adequate against an aerial assault.

@Chask274

 

[Chask274]

Vesper was far from the only person who could adapt to a changing battlefield. As he slid into position and started raising his rifle, Vax noted that Vesper was on the move, and adjusted accordingly. Rounding the corner of the box completely, the Zabrak shuffled sideways, keeping the box between himself and the trigger happy Mandalorian pop star. He kept himself crouched down, almost completely concealed by the box. Ignoring the sloppy spray of carbine fire for the distraction that it was, Vaxus watched as another grenade was kicked his way.

Unfortunately for Vesper, the thing about quickly kicking a grenade instead of properly throwing it was that accuracy tended to suffer. While the small device did slide to a stop with Vaxus in it's blast radius, it also came to rest next to his box and within arm's reach. As Vesper took off and began to spray his cover with blaster fire, Vaxus snatched up the grenade and threw it with as much force and accuracy as he could at the airborne Mando. Doing so exposed the upper half of his helmet, his shoulder, and his right arm, which Vax learned the hard way when a bolt connected with his shoulder bell and another with his upper arm plate, knocking him into a flat prone position.

However, the grenade was already airborne, and with the timing of the throw and it's remaining fuse delay time, it would detonate roughly half a meter in front of Vesper if it stayed on its present course, frying her weapon power packs and jetpack, as well as her helmet HUD and the rest of her armor's electronics. With her concentration most likely focused on keeping the notoriously recoil heavy carbine on target, and her view of what Vaxus had done at least partially obstructed by the storm of plasma bolts filling the air between the two combatants, Vaxus hoped that the returned grenade wouldn't be noticed until it was too late.

If the grenade succeeded in bringing down Vesper and disabling her equipment, Vaxus would pop back up on his knees, brace his rifle against the top edge of the box, and put four bolts into Vesper's center of mass. If for some reason it didn't, Vaxus would remain tucked behind the box, popping up to return fire whenever the carbine ran it's current power pack dry.

@Relent

 

[Logan]

From her advantageous position, watching Vaxus’ vain attempts to relocate the grenade was quite simple. The stream of plasma coming from her gutripper wasn’t so vision obstructing that Vesper couldn’t clearly see what was going on. The man had quite obviously poked his head out and grabbed it to chuck it, all of which took precious time off the grenade’s already short fuse timer.

A hard juke would move Vesper rapidly out of the small area of the blast radius of the EMP, the grenade detonating mid-air but harmlessly with both she and Vaxus being well out of the danger zone. Her gunfire stopped only long enough to raise her wrist and fire off her last wrist missile towards Vaxus, maybe only a second or two at the most. Vesper kept her movement to strafing patterns, not wanting to be just a floating duck up in the air.

A quick flip of a switch on her gutripper would change the firing style from fully auto to quad-burst, and with about 20 rounds left in her powerpack Vesper remained airborne with her eyes on Vaxus. Should he find himself up to his feet in time, Vesper would start sniping at him from the air so he would have both gunfire and a potentially explosive death to deal with.

@Chask274

 

[Chask274]

The very instant the gunfire stopped, Vaxus pushed himself up into a kneeling positon and looked up. Seeing Vesper's arm come up to launch another rocket, he didn't even reach for his rifle, and instead planted his right foot and kicked off hard, the cybernetic leg easily propelling him into the start of a mad dash for the box Vesper originally hid behind. Wrenching his pistol from it's holster, he looked over his left shoulder at the flying Mando and fired three rounds at her before taking a running leap over the box and ducking behind it. The rocket impacted just as he finished firing, rattling him with it's concussion wave and peppering his back with some shrapnel, but otherwise leaving him mostly unharmed. Any potshots Vesper had taken while he ran would hopefully be swayed by the shots he'd taken. While he had been at a dead run, Vaxus was an experienced soldier and knew how to shoot on the move. Even if the shots weren't direct hits, they'd be close enough to make even a seasoned veteran flinch. With her carbine firing in burst mode, even the tiniest twitch could mean a shot missed, and since Vax's armor was till mostly intact, taking a couple hits from pistol-strength carbine bolts wouldn't injure him too severely.

Spinning around on his knees, Vaxus holstered his pistol and raised his rifle as quick as he could, taking three shots at Vesper. "I thought Mandalorians were supposed to believe in honor and courage in battle! Where's the honor in hiding out of reach with your jetpack, eh? So far your aim has been shittier than your music, so why don't you come down here and fight me face to face?" Vaxus knew that if she continued to stay airbourne, he'd run out of options pretty quickly in his current positon, and would need better cover. Glancing around quickly, he noted a Correlian freighter behind and to the left, about 12 meters away. He decided that he'd make a break for it if Vesper didn't stop floating around like an idiotic fairy. Some cargo crates between here and there would give him excellent cover while he made a run for it as well.

@Relent

 

[Chask274]

Vaxus watched as the three rounds he'd fired blasted apart Vesper's torso armor. The Sunspear was designed with power in mind, and each bolt would hit with the strength of a rifle shot. While the trio of rounds would only cause some minor burns and some nasty bruises at most, the front facing plates of Vesper's torso armor would be now rendered useless, and the next shot to land in that area would severely wound the popstar, if not kill her outright.

As it were, the impact of the bolts would also knock Vesper backwards, and while it wasn't enough to knock her out of the air, it would hopefully be enough to keep too unstable to react in time to Vaxus' next move. Taking aim while still remaining in cover behind the box, Vax emptied the remaining three rounds in his pistol's clip at Vesper, aiming at her left collarbone and shoulder area, intending to disable her ability to fight. After all, he realized that if he could capture her and return with the Warlord alive, it'd be a good day for the Empire, and give them an excellent bargaining chip with the Dominion.

@Relent

 

[Logan]

The three shots hit her in the chest like, well, bullets. It was in this moment that Vesper was glad she was wearing the armor of her people, it had done its due diligence and protected her when she had needed it most. She would have some deep bruising for sure, and if she the pain in her lower left torso told her anything she might have a cracked rib. That sunspear really packed a wallop.

Apparently her simple strafing tactic had proved ineffective and the moment the third bolt hit her Vesper made the decision to try something more erratic to try to prevent herself from getting shot any more. A hard juke to the left put Vesper behind a hanging sign when the second volley of shots was fired, the bolts slamming into the durasteel but not into Vesper thankfully. She aimed herself downward with an angled trajectory and her jetpack gave a hard thrust sending her towards the ground at a fast speed. As Vesper neared the ground she activated her repulsor boots, allowing her to ride the momentum of her thrust and slide into a position of cover instead of having to take a chance and tuck and roll.

She ejected the near empty power pack of her gutripper and replaced it with a new one. Now that they had essentially switched sides, maybe a distance of 15 meters at most between them, a few plans of action went through Vesper's head. She wasn't really concerned with Vaxus potentially getting to her ship. She had the keys and had locked it on her way out, and if he did manage to somehow get himself aboard Frazier would know to instantly activate the belt of explosives with no questions asked. Maybe she would let him. Her mind continued to turn.

"So what's your plan if you manage to get your hands on him?" she called out as she was crouched down on one knee ready to move if she felt the need for it. "Even without his legs the fat lizard is gonna be tough to move. Or has your simple Imperial brain not thought that far ahead?" Vesper had no reason to rush, offense had gotten her fracking shot three times. Maybe goading and defense would serve her better. She'd set dozens of traps on her verd'goten. Catching an Imperial dog was no different than snaring a hare. In theory, anyway. "Spaceport on Kessel's bound to have a lot of people willing to live stream this to the holonet from their hiding spaces. What makes you think there isn't a Mandalorian convoy en route already to come fry your ass?"

Even during her talking Vesper was ready to react to hopefully whatever came next. She was in the zone now, it had been some time since she'd been shot she had almost forgotten what it felt like. There was pain, yeah. Hurt like a bitch. But with pain came adrenaline, and Vesper loved adrenaline.


@Chask274

 

[Chask274]

Peeking out over the top of the box, Vaxus watched as Vesper maneuvered herself into some new cover, cover that he noticed was roughly the same height as his. He realized that with the both of them entrenched as they were, as soon as one broke cover or tried something, the other would be able to see and react before it really did anything. Their cover was at such a height that it wasn't too difficult to duck down and be completely concealed, but sitting straight up or kneeling would expose the upper half or the entirety of their head, respectively. An idea came to Vax, one that could very well end this fight here and now, but a little prep work needed to be done first. Unclipping his rifle from it's sling, he adjusted his rifle's stock, then gently set it down next to him so as to reduce noise and give Vesper less to go off of. He was currently sat with his back against the box on the right side of the box from the Mando's perspective, twisted a bit to the left as he looked over in Vesper's general direction, his helmet exposed down to the eye lenses, though he looked like he was trying to keep an eye on her without exposing himself too much.

"Oh, I've worked with Szebat before, I know exactly what I'm dealing with. The Warlord is a big guy, sure, but I've made arrangements, so don't you worry your pretty little head. As for what your people are doing, I won't disagree with you, they're probably on their way." As he spoke, he pulled a thermal detonator off his belt and glanced down at it for a split second, adjusting the timer to a 2 second interval, and setting the radius to max before clipping it back to his belt, all the while continuing to talk. "However, I'd be more concerned about my people if I were you. Not only is Kessel closer to Sith territory than Mando space, but the Empire was informed about the situation just after you and your Jedi pals captured the Warlord, which means they've had plenty of time to get a reaction force together and start moving. Their ships will probably be linking up with mine in orbit pretty damn soon, so suck on that."

Done with his prep work, Vaxus put his plan in motion. Easing his left hand up, Vax hooked his fingers into the rim of his helmet and pinned it to the box, then quietly eased his head out of it. Picking up his rifle with his free hand, he braced the buttstock against the ground and stuck the muzzle inside the helmet and leaned it against the box. The weight of the rifle would hold the helmet in place, and from Vesper's perspective, the helmet would've only dipped slightly, leaving the crown of the helm and the top edge of the lenses exposed and making it look like Vax had merely ducked his head down a bit to get better cover. Moving as quickly and quietly as he could, Vaxus crawled to the other end of the box(left side from Vesper's POV), keeping completely out of sight. The ambient noise of the spaceport, as well as the fact he was moving carefully, would make it extraordinarily difficult for Vesper to detect his movement. Reaching the other corner, Vax pulled the prepped detonator back off his belt, primed it, and lobbed it from around the side of the box at Vesper's position. The throw would keep the grenade low and potentially difficult to notice at first, arcing up and over Vesper's cover to land a couple feet from her at the end of the throw.

The first second of the timer was spent priming the detonator, aiming, throwing it, and it traveling most of the distance to target. By the time it rolled to a stop near Vesper, there would be just under a second left on the timer. The decoy he'd set up, as well as the precautions he'd taken to conceal his movement, meant that it would be nearly impossible for Vesper to expect an attack from the direction the toss had come from, further reducing her reaction window. With just under a minute having passed from the time Vaxus finished speaking to the time the detonator was tossed, there was little time for Vesper to grow suspicious of Vax's lack of movement, and even if she was suspicious, she'd more likely be expecting that he was getting ready to do something from where his helmet was, not where he actually was.

@Relent