Blood and Rain

[Narir Solus]

Narir had been on the planet for several days, and this was the first time it had stopped raining. It was a status he was sure wouldn't last, but the brief reprieve had given him the chance to peel his helmet away and take a deep breath of air without being immediately drenched.

From head to toe, he was caked in the mud of this planet, and he had no delusions that that would change as long as he was on the planet. Because of this, he was rather excited to get this job done and never have to return to Jabiim again.

He also didn't like that his regular armor had been changed out for some other heavy armor. He checked over his weapons, silently thankful that the Mandalorians built weapons that were sturdy and would fire even if they'd been under a decomposing body for days... yes, that had happened, and yes, the gun still fired. So, while he tired to keep his weapons clean, the Mandalorian wasn't too worried about whether or not it would go "bang" when he squeezed the trigger.

And the squeezing of the trigger might be sooner rather than later. He and Raz had been here for three days specifically because they were waiting for a prime opportunity: one like this one. Of the mercenaries that worked for the Empire, 90% of their 20 man company had filed out for a patrol for the day, which left the two remaining men to guard the camp. It was just the perfect time for a pair of devious Mandalorians to make their move.

"We'll want to be quiet..." he grumbled in a disgruntled tone. He had no doubt she would be oh-so-excited about him admitting defeat from the get-go on this one. "I'm thinking beskad only," he said. Rain would wash away the blood, and a sword would be far more quiet than a blaster. Even from here, Narir could see gaps in the armor to be exploited with a close slash or stab.

 

[Raz Solus]

She couldn’t deny she was more than a little nervous. This was out of her comfort zone, and she was very far away from any territories she knew. Not only that, but she wasn’t adorned in her usual armor and in some generic heavy armor, and she felt naked without it. Her beskar’gam was everything to her, and she felt like she was wearing plastic trash when she wore anything else. It didn’t fit right, and she kept picking at the plates, grumbling to herself while Nar planned and strategized things. When he muttered they had to be quiet, she responded with a clueless “Huh?” She blinked and then nodded, “Oh, right…wait, what?” She looked at him with her eyes wide, still genuinely surprised whenever he suggested not going in guns blazing.

Raz was soaking wet, and she was welcoming the idea of breaking into the mercenary base if not just to get warm. She nodded at his suggestion for beskad, drawing hers out in preparation, “We will have to time this just right,” Raz muttered as she began to creep towards the guards. They had to wait till they were facing different directions so killing one wouldn’t alert the other.

The thunder pounded above as she kept her body hunched over and began to sneak towards one of the guards. As she moved closer, she heard snippets of what he was saying into a comlink. It took her a moment to realize that he was….having phone sex. Raz’s face cringed in repulsion, hearing explicit details about everything he wanted to do to the other person on the line. She came in close with the blade, abruptly coming up to clasp a hand over his mouth and jamming the blade up into the back of his neck.

He went slack in her arms and she stomped on the comlink to destroy it. She shifted to the side so his body was out of sight, and she hoped Nar didn’t run into any troubles taking his man down.

 

[Narir Solus]

Narir rolled his eyes at her shock about his silent approach. It was to be expected. He drew his sword out and began making his way slowly toward the camp, along the edges of the ridge until he had both guards in view. One was speaking on his com, and Raz went in that direction, while Narir moved toward the second man. From the looks of things, this one was taking sips from a flask before slipping it back into a pocket in his upper armor.

Tisk-tisk, drinking on the job, he thought judgmentally, knowing full-well he'd done the same. But he guessed this was something the mercenary wasn't supposed to be doing from the way he shiftily glanced around even when no one was nearby.

Narir waited for him to reach into his pocket once more before making his move. He closed the last few feet on the man, gripping his helmet and shoving him toward the mud. Like a flash, the beskad was plunged through the side of his neck, slitting open the arteries as Narir held his head in the mud. The sound was muffled in the wet ground and within a few moments more, the guard stopped moving. While there was blood, it was less than Narir had thought and it was nothing some mud couldn't cover up... in fact, it almost looked like mud stains.

We've got suits, now we just need contacts, he said as he began stripping the guard. These suits were... not going to fit very well, were they?

 

[Raz Solus]

By the time Raz emerged again, she already had the mercenary armor on. The armor was slightly larger on her, and she pulled on some of the plating off her heavy armor to cover all her vitals. Raz hated wearing other clothing, but she was having no luck tonight. She made her way back over to Nar, happy to see he had downed the other guard. She quirked an eyebrow as she looked at him through the guard helmet, “What’s that smell?” Of course, she had no idea that his guard had soiled himself as he died.

Ignoring it, Raz grabbed the guard’s gun and used his key card to access the main entrance. She was inside without much difficulty, finding the place mostly empty. It looked like a warehouse that posed as a business building of some sort. Raz studied the layout, ignoring the other people that were walking around here and there. They were the guards from outside, after all, and there was no need to rouse any suspicion.

“We have a problem,” She muttered as Nar caught up to her, “These guards won’t have access to any information worth nabbing,” Raz muttered, “We’ll have to down a few more. Not only that, but we need several more uniforms,” She sighed, scoping out those around them. They would have to corner people discreetly and take them down.

“We have to split up. I’ll look for contacts and you get us more uniforms,” Raz nodded to him and veered off to the right down a separate corridor. She would have to take down someone of slightly higher rank to get into the more exclusive rooms.

 

[Narir Solus]

Narir grimaced and turned up his nose as he realized what had happened. "Men **** themselves when they die," he had told Narir. It was often true, and today was not the exception. He pulled free the plates, taking the ones that weren't covered in feces, though in some cases it was difficult to tell where feces ended and mud began. He just steered clear of most of the plates near the butt and he was "fine."

As he caught up to Raz and they spoke, he realized this mission was going to be quite complicated. It was going to require a lot of patience and... stealth. Just what he loved so much. "How many are we wanting?" he asked, trying to work out the logistics already. Killing each of these people - officer included - with hands, knives, and swords was going to be complicated, but even more than that, he wondered how he was going to get the suits out of here.

"Keep coms on, we'll meet up after," he said. Ticking through the list, he ordered the first thing as finding a way to get the uniforms out of the building. Maintenance worker, he told himself. Housekeeping in a base on Jabiim had to be a nightmare with all the rain and mud, but if he were lucky, that would mean extra droids on staff.

It took maybe five minutes before he found a maintenance droid pushing around one of the carts, and Narir kept walking, waiting for the droid to enter the fresher and look around. As soon as he did, Narir made his move, walking toward the cart and wheeling it away. The beauty of it was that it had a nice, large area for garbage that one could fill with armor plates, and as long as they didn't stick out the top, no one would be the wiser.

Meanwhile, as Raz made her way into the base, she would find one of her officers, but he had three other enlisted men with him. "You," he said, jutting a finger toward her. "You're supposed to be on patrol outside, what are you doing in here?" he asked. Clearly he recognized her armor markings, but didn't seem to realize that it wasn't one of the soldiers wearing it.

 

[Raz Solus]

“About four should do. I have people lined up to do the job on Nubia,” She responded as she began to walk down the corridor towards where she needed to go. Raz looked around herself, not spotting anyone that looked in her direction with much more than a cursory glance. She kept walking till she began to pass by a room. There was a man inside that looked important, and he was speaking very quickly in his comlink. Raz looked around, not spotting any guards nearby.

She knocked on the door, the man ignoring her entirely. She stepped in then, closing the door behind her. The man looked at her, obviously irritated, “What the hell are you doing?” He began to speak, but she was already across the room by then. She clasped a hand over his mouth and slammed her gun into the side of his temple to knock him out. Raz looked around to ensure she hadn’t been seen, dragging the body into a closet and out of sight.

Raz strode around casually, armed with a higher levels key card that would get her better access. From the terminal in this office, she was able to load up the schematics of the place. She loaded it into her datapad before sharing it with Nar so he had it too. Raz walked out of the office, having spotted where their information was stashed. It was located one level below.

She came across a repulsorlift and stepped in, the doors closing as she began to descend.

 

[Narir Solus]

Four suits. No pressure. There was definitely not going to be any issues with the fact that his armor still smelled like literal feces. At least he had somewhere to put it, now it was just a matter of doing the killing. Again, with the preference that he didn't make a mess of things.

Isolate and eliminate, he told himself, adding the addendum: And try to be stealthy. He could already feel that this was going to go badly. What better place to start, though, than the bathroom. He started by picking one and placing his employee "closed for cleaning" sign out front. Perfect disguise. He made his way inside and found a man about to go into one of the stalls when he grabbed his pistol and hit him in the back of the head multiple times.

Narir quickly stripped the man of his outer gear and armor before plunging a knife into his throat. He dumped the gear in the garbage, shoved the body deeper into the stall, placed an absorbent mat to catch the blood, and prepared to leave the maintenance sign out front.

One down, three to go, by his count. Could they just give up the poopy armor as well? That counted as two didn't it? His and Raz's? He wasn't going to count on it, which meant another three to go.

Hey, come here! he said to a passing soldier in the halls, a look of concern crossing his face on purpose. I think there's something wrong with the guy in the stall, he said, waiting for the man to walk inside and placing the maintenance sign out front again.

And the process repeated. Thwack, strip, stab, repeat. That was two down and a growing number of bodies in the stall. There was no way that would work a third time.

 

[Raz Solus]

After the repulsorlift landed on the bottom floor, she waited for the doors to open. She stepped out and began to walk down this new corridor. Almost at once, two people were exiting a room off to the side. They came to a stop in front of her and looked at her suspiciously, “What’re you doing down here? This place is not for anyone unauthorized,” They eyed her up and down, “In fact…why do you have a key to get down here?”

“I was sent here on behalf of-“

“Come with us right now,” One of them cut her off, and she knew the jig was up. Cursing inwardly, she launched into quick action, grabbing one man and slamming him into the wall. The other one began to rapidly run in the opposite direction to set off alarms. Raz dropped the first man and dashed after the second, determined to catch him before he could alert anyone. She leapt into the air and tackled him from behind.

The man struggled against her and whirled around to pin her to the ground. Raz used her combat training to bring up her legs and trap him in a bind, jamming her elbow up to slam into his face before he could hold her down. He grunted in pain and she got a few more solid hits on him. After a moment, he stopped moving, and she rose up and had to drag him out of sight as well. Thankfully the rest of the corridor was empty for now and she was in the clear.

“How’s it going on your end?” She commed Nar as she began to walk towards where the archives were stored. For now, her path was empty and she kept up the ruse of the guard, glancing over to ensure there weren’t any cameras. She had limited time to be here and get the hell out.

 

[Narir Solus]

Narir began searching through the base, pushing his cart along and hoping no one wondered why an outside guard was pushing a janitor's cart. Most people didn't want to bother with other people's business though. On the whole, most of the guards were there to do their job and nothing more.

As he moved further away from the fresher, he kept an eye out for additional guards, finding a prime target shortly thereafter. There was a stop, and he left the cart behind as he came up to the man. Whatever he was doing, he seemed to be watching the screen of his datapad with incredible interest, barely even looking up when Narir walked by.

That was fine for the moment, primarily because he didn't want anyone looking into him before he was ready.

Now came the tough part. How was he going to get this guy into the room across the hall. Time to act? That wasn't his specialty. He walked into the room and flipped the light on when he let out an over the top gasp. What's this?! he almost shouted, feigning a panicked look and stepping back out. I need help, now! he said, putting enough panic into his voice to get the man to tear himself away from the porn or whatever else he was watching.

As he came into the room, Narir placed a leg in front of him and shoved him to the ground, face-first into a chair arm. It was followed quickly with a pistol whip to the face, then a second and third until he wasn't moving.

Three quarters of the way done, he said to Raz. I take it you're not dead yet either, he added with a snicker.

Rendezvous in 30? he asked, hoping he would be able to strip, stash and repeat on another target in that time. Even as he said it, the hair on the back of his neck stood up as if something or someone was going to be coming for them soon. I think we need to hurry, was all he said.

 

[Raz Solus]

Raz rolled her eyes at his commentary, “Yep, I’m definitely dead. Kad Ha’rangir says hello,” She responded dryly before going off the comlink and returning to the task at hand. The rest of her path was thankfully clear. Raz made her way towards where the archives were located, looking around before she used the key card on the door to get in. There were a few terminals in here, and she knew all of the information would be available here. She only hoped Nar had his part in this done, as they had limited amount of time before their cover was blown.

She began to work on the terminal, gaining access to names and shipping records of people that were connected to the Old Empire. Nar’s voice came on the comms again and she began to work quicker, loading all the information into her datapad. She knew they had precious moments before more people began to come down to this level. Raz downloaded some more data before she finally had what she needed.

“Forget 30, let’s go now,” She commed back, quickly stepping out of the archives room. Raz walked down the corridor, closing the door behind her and still posing as the guard. Another man descended down to the level and looked at her strangely. Before he could say anything, she sped up and walked right past him, getting into the elevator and moving up a floor.

Raz didn’t stop there, playing her role of the guard and making her way across the floor. She didn’t look for Nar, calmly and coolly walking past anyone there to make her way outside. It only took her a few moments before she was out, having collected all the intel she needed. There was just enough to plant and convince that Old Empire folks were involved on Nubia.

 

[Narir Solus]

Narir snickered as she mocked his comment. Always so serious! But he wouldn’t have expected anything different from her. Even from a young age, she had always been the serious little girl in the Clan.

It was short order before Narir stripped the dead soldier, and pushed his maintenance cart out of the room. He was honestly surprised at how smoothly things had gone overall. It could have been worlds worse than what they’d received.

As he saw his next target, he heard Raz in his ear saying to extract now. Hold one, he said before approaching the man. They were on a timetable now, which meant stealth and cleanliness might have to take a backseat. On the bright side, he was closer to the exit than Raz, which afforded him a bit more time to complete his job.

Narir approaches quickly, knife hidden in his right hand until he was nearly close enough to bump the man. At the last moment, he shoved the blade up and under the throat, shoving the man forward to try to reduce the blood on the armor. It didn’t work... blood covered the armor, which meant some scrubbing to come, but it was done. He stripped the armor away in less than a minute and shoved it into his trash bin.

Leaving now, he said, making his way toward the exit, and pushing his sack of trash onto a small hoversled, buzzing past Raz and stopping. Care for a lift? he asked, letting her hop on before sipping off with their prize.

//Thread