Ask Nal Hutta Erasing the Past

[Rafe]

Nal Hutta
Mid-day​

Rafe sat in the back of one of the five cargo speeders crossing the landscape of the disgusting planet of Nal Hutta, this wasn't a place he frequented, and if he had it his way he'd never be back.. still though, the plan needed a follow through, and what way to do it other than the newly established Pyke way Rafe had brought about.

As the five cargo speeders went, Rafe looked over to the Yautkan, the man was only about a meter shorter than Rafe, but still one of the tallest species Rafe had worked with, Rafe chuckled to himself slightly, briefly imagining a full gang of monstrous being like his compatriot and himself descending upon some unwitting victims.

Between the two were a Pyke camera crew, Rafe had worked with them before, they knew their job, stay out of the way until they were needed, they'd done well last time, Rafe expected the same this time..

The Zaa Fenn had deeply fallen from favor, they'd started a war with the ISC that spilled over into the rest of the Five Syndicates, as part of a recent peace agreement with the Slug king, the ISC war was over, they'd taken Kessel as a result, which made this personal for Rafe, that was a loss not even the entire Syndicate could repay. Without so much as even an effort to do so, Rafe would see many of these same missions take place..

Five minutes.. the driver called out from the front. Rafe nodded his head, and looked over to the Yautkan sitting next to @Grace Zann. The guys name wasn't something Rafe was gonna try to pronounce on his own, he'd only read it, @Vuankei Thau'ja.. whatever that meant, though Rafe supposed his name probably made just as much sense to this creature.

Rafe would nod at both of them, Four other trucks full of Pykes to keep perimeter, we'll go in, blast the fhtagn out of them, and take a few for our home movie we're sending the ISC.. easy enough? Rafe stated. Rafe had made sure to bring humans along as well, they'd be inconspicuous enough, as he didn't want the video to be able to identify who was carrying out the executions.

These were holdouts, many of the Zaa Fenn had retreated to the musky depths of Coruscant to hide amongst the rabble, those who'd stayed behind, whatever their reasons, were about to learn why that was a bad idea..

@Versok @Where

 

[Vuankei Thau'ja]

It was a strange thing when the syndicates all worked together to get something done, but whenever it happened, it was for a reason. The Zaa Fenn had become the targets of the whole galaxy, shedding some unwanted light on the rest of the syndicates as well, taking care of them would for sure help them when it comes to cleaning up their reputation and also improve their relationships with the ISC a little bit. And for this very reason, Nor'baal had sent Vuankei to help, the Yautkan simply looking forward to the hunt.

Vuankei had given the other people inside the vehicle a gaze or two while in their way to the hideout. He had noticed immediately that the famous wolf of the Pykes was quite taller than him, while he had gotten used to Wookiees and some Trandoshans being taller than him, being dwarfed in such a manner by a sentient being was certainly a new experience. However, he did not mind, size and strength on their own didn't mean much if not tempered by a warrior's experience, otherwise you were not much better than a beast.

Considering Rafe's reputation, however, chances are Vuankei wouldn't be disappointed by his performance and, as such, had to try his best to prove himself worthy. He was in company of two rising starts after all, it was the time to prove his own worth. <"It'll be done."> Vuankei simply stated, a low, predatory growl accompanying the deep voice that came from his translator collar, ready to get to work and earn his pay and hopefully a trophy or two.

@Mad Dog @Where

 

[Grace Zann]

Grace had worked multiple jobs with Rafe before, assisting not just the Zann Consortium, but all of the syndicates. The massive man next to her was from a race she was unfamiliar with, a Yautkan. The man looked like more of a brute than the wolf in some ways, not that it was a bad thing. The syndicates relied on dangerous and imposing people, this was only one such example.

She would listen closely as her old friend spoke, it was a fairly simple job in all actuality. Take out a few Zaa Fenn, take a couple others alive. That was the way the galaxy worked, or at least how Rafe did things. The woman would give a nod in tandem with the warrior's response.

"To victory then Rafe. Let's clean up these hideaways..." The woman would remark. She would then unveil her double-bladed lightsaber she had tucked away, resting the weapon on her lap for a moment. It wouldn't be long before they reached a combat zone, and she would be ready for the second they did.

@Mad Dog @Versok

 

[Rafe]

The five vans pulled up to the warehouse and quickly stopped, one on each corner and one in the front containing Rafe and the rest, it didn't take long for blaster fire to start, apparently they had sentries..

Rafe busted out of the back, his peacemaker in his right hand and started firing at the building. It was a relatively large sized warehouse, and a few men were stationed well covered on the roof, Dam.. Rafe thought, he was hoping for more of a breezy massacre, but this would do just fine as well..

Rafe trusted the others knew what to do, his jetpack kicked on, propelling Rafe up into the air as he rained shot after shot into the center mass of the Zaa Fenn mercenaries. Landing on the roof beside a man, who'd managed to land a bolt into Rafe's right breast, the impact mitigated by Rafe's armour, but still cracking the surface of it.

Rafe's free claw dug into the arm of the man, his rifle falling to the roof as flesh and muscle was torn from bone and Rafe lifted him into the air by grasping his exposed humerous, a second later he sank his teeth into the man's neck as he dangled from Rafe's claw, the resulting river of blood and the seizing of the man's body told Rafe he was probably dead before Rafe chucked him off the rooftop to splat on the duracrete below..

@Where @Versok

 

[Vuankei Thau'ja]

Vuankei would be among the last people to leave the van, quickly hearing the blaster shots hitting it before starting to think. The first thing that he decided to do was to activate his camouflage, slowly making his way to the front seat of the van, exiting through its door and climbing to the top of it. He had quickly noticed that the enemies had secured a nice position over the building to shoot at them, but Rafe had charged in, using his jetpack to quickly get to the top.

Taking advantage of the fact that they weren't focusing on the camouflaged Yautkan, Vuankei took out two smoke grenades and threw them to the roof, setting them to explode on impact as curtains of smoke started to form in front of their eyes. Of course, now Vuankei was visible, but they still didn't have a visual on him thanks to the smoke grenades...But he did have a visual on them.

A Zaa Fenn soldier would find half of his neck missing as Vuankei's Rodian throwing razon went through him, an easy target even amidst the smoke to someone that had thermal vision on his helmet, the first to fall, but not the last. Vuankei would then jump towards the warehouse, from his right wrist emerging his yautkan blade which he used to pierce the wall and allow himself to hang from it before completely climbing on top of the roof. By now thir enemies would be confused and losing ground, the smoke granting Rafe some cover so the others wouldn't shoot at him. Vuankei, however, just saw a lot of good targets with his thermal vision, the closest one to him falling quick after his yautkan blade went into his eyes and out of the back of his head. Blood, screams and confusion, horrified prey that were about to be slaughtered putting feeble resistance, it was their fate.

@Mad Dog @Where

 

[Grace Zann]

While both Rafe and Vuankei seemed to be focused on the roof of the building, the force user decided to take a different approach. She would jump from the van with an ignited double-bladed yellow lightsaber, rushing directly toward the building. She would hold the blade above her head, twirling it in a windmill-like fashion that would deflect several blaster bolts as they came. The smoke grenades would also manage to buy her some time...

Eventually reaching the entrance of the building, the woman would plow her lightsaber blade into it's front door! Thankfully, the material it was constructed of didn't hold up too well. After a moment, she would cut in a large circular motion, creating a large hole two meters tall and two meters wide. The durasteel of the doors would begin falling apart, revealing a small group of dumbfounded Zaa Fenn on the other side.

Rather than going in first, the woman would simply step to the side as a large crew of Pykes began firing blaster bolts into the opening she had created... Waiting for a couple minutes, she would then run in the warehouse herself. Grace would immediately impale one of the thugs with her blade, clearing the last of the opposition in the first room of the warehouse's floor. She would speak over commlink, "Rafe, the front door is down. A few Pykes and I cleared the first room, but we still have a long way to go."

@Mad Dog

 

[Rafe]

The smoke filled the area, giving Rafe his chance, he barreled over his cover and crossed the roof in a flash of speed before crashing into the cover one of the Zaa Fenn had been cowering behind, rolling through it Rafe dug his free claw in to the man's neck and whipped him around like a rag doll to use him as a human shield, pointing his peacemaker through the gap between the man's arm and body, firing off multiple shots at the heads and necks of the others on the roof, multiple bolts came back his way, slamming into the body Rafe held in front of him.

@Vuankei Thau'ja and Rafe had appeared to clear the roof just as @Grace Zann came over the comms, just in time.. Rafe holstered his peacemaker, dropped the body, and drew his micro missile gun, firing three micro missiles at an area of the roof about fifteen feet away, cracking the top and crumbling a massive hole that opened into the inside. Holstering the micro missile gun, Rafe switched back to his peacemaker and dove into the hole.

Inside droves of men were behind cover either aiming at the door the commotion Grace was causing, or recovering from the ceiling caving in. Rafe's jet pack slowed his descent as he fired three more shots into the tops of the heads of the Zaa Fenn members, it certainly seemed like they had left a lot of men behind when they retreated to Coruscant..

When Rafe landed he took cover behind a large stack of crates, The belly of the Beast.. Rafe thought, before leaning out and firing off another bolt at a man who's cover was compromised by Rafe's new position.

 

[Vuankei Thau'ja]

While Rafe decided to go in as soon as he made the hole, Vuankei decided to stay up for a little bit, using the higher ground to his advantage as he threw his Rodian razor at people from down below, cutting limbs, heads and making holes through people as the deadly razor was shot and then came back to the Yautkan, who had a lot of leeway to do that as the still recovering thus mostly focused on Rafe.

However, after a few kills, he would notice a few of them starting to catch on to what was happening and, before blaster fire came his way, Vuankei decided to jump down the hole, but he wasn't planning on making himself an easy target. With his grappling hook now in hand, the Yautkan would shoot it at a metal box that was being used as cover by one of his enemies, the hook latching on and allowing Vuankei to pull it towards himself, gaining some cover of his own and taking it away from someone that was now more than an easy shot for the wolf.

@Where @Mad Dog

 

[Grace Zann]

With much of the entrance area cleared, Grace and the few Pykes that followed her would begin kicking down doors. The warehouse was large, and there were plenty of spots for the Zaa Fenn loyalists to hold out. Piles of old metal crates, tables that could be flipped over, and all sorts of concrete walls. One of the Pykes leading the charge was especially unlucky, as he kicked in a pair of double doors just to be gunned down by blaster rifles.

Behind these doors were several Zaa Fenn taking cover behind metal tables in what looked to be a break room. Grace herself would follow behind with an ignited yellow lightsaber, batting away blaster bolts as they came her direction. Thrusting her arm forward, two of the tables would fly upward and away from several thugs taking cover.

Pykes from behind the woman would then start blasting away at the poor bastards.

@Mad Dog

 

[Rafe]

Rafe watched as the metal crate skidded across the ground being pulled by @Vuankei Thau'ja, revealing a lone and now scared little man, Rafe raised his peacemaker at the man and fired two bolts, hitting him in the base of the neck and the side of the head. After Rafe chuckled a bit some tables on the opposite side went flying and a egregious amount of blaster fire filled the room as the Pykes gunned down a good amount of formerly living Zaa Fenn mercs, all led by @Grace Zann, Rafe nodded and looked over to see his other large alien friend, This was going very well.. Rafe thought.

Further away Rafe spotted a large number of them hiding behind even more crates, What was in these things?.. Rafe wondered, pulling up his weapons and firing repeatedly toward them, given the massive cover most of his fire was suppressive, but he managed to catch one right in the forehead.. Rafe grimaced shortly thereafter, much of the man's face had melted off before toppling backwards out of sight.

They'd taken a good chunk of the warehouse, but still had plenty left,, Rafe hoped there would still be at least a few survivors..

 

[Vuankei Thau'ja]

Vuankei got out of cover as Grace and her troops decided to take part of the fun. It was true that things were going smoothly...Too smoothly. Vuankei didn't forget about the fact that they were supposed to take a few of them alive and so, he decided to take a more...Careful approach from now on, at least until they had gotten the amount of unfortunate bastards Rafe wanted for the big main show.

As Rafe supressed the ones hiding behind more crates, Vuankei quickly rushed forward and towards them (While staying out of Rafe's supressive fire, of course). They wouldn't be able to notice the Yautkan until it was far too late. Vuankei would vault over the crate, landing a powerful kick that would knock one of the thugs in the process before cutting a few limbs using his blade. Some would die in the process but the Yautkan would knock a few out before needing to run to another cover as they got heir shit together and began shooting at him. Vuankei was strong enough to handle a couple of them, but not enough to solo the whole place, he would need assistance from the others.

@Where @Mad Dog

 

[Grace Zann]

The syndicate soldiers had the old Zaa Fen pinned, they never stood a chance. The Pykes would cease their fire as a pair of hands were thrown up from behind a different pile of crates. "Hold up! This ain't worth our lives!" he would exclaim. The man would then fully stand up, hands in the air surrendering, and many of his kind would do the same. As he did, the Pykes near Grace would move in to secure the miscreants.

"Rafe, I think this area is clear, for the most part. We should fan out to see if anyone else around here is hiding." She would raise her lightsaber up like a torch, and would begin walking into an attached room to the main area. It was filled with more metal crates, but didn't seem to have any hideaways... "Nothing here..." She would mutter.

 

[Rafe]

Rafe made a note to send someone here to collect all these metal crates sometime later, for now the blaster fire stopped, and Rafe looked over at one of his men, Go get the camera crew.. he said as he himself stood up and started to walk over to where the Zaa Fenn loyalists were being placed into stun cuffs.

As afe passed by @Vuankei Thau'ja he padded the man on the shoulder with his claw, Good work, if you wanna stick around for the show you're welcome to.. otherwise, come see me again, I'll have more work for you.. Rafe said, he liked the man, and would see to it he was wall taken care of for his work this day.

As Rafe got to the men he waved his massive claw, ushering all of the non-human pyke foot soldiers out of the room, for this he was only using his human foot soldiers, each of which were now donning their masks, or helmets, or whatever face coverings they'd brought. Anonymity was the name of this game..

As the crew got in and started to set up their gear several protests from the now kneeling Zaa Fenn men errupted, one earning a savage punch to the midsection, and for the most part silencing the rest of the eight men.

One of the Pykes moved to spray paint the letters of Zaa Fenn across the chests of seven of the men, leaving one man unpainted. Making sure to stand off camera, Rafe watched the scene unfold, just as he had ordered them to.

Once the camera was recording no words would be spoken from Rafe's men, silent and concealed behind their helmets they simply raised their blasters to the backs of the heads of each of the Zaa Fenn, after a few tense seconds they all opened fire, firing a single bolt into the skulls of these traitorous swine. The bodies fell to the floor and the camera panned to them zooming in slightly on some of them for a moment until the Pyke behind the camera said, And cut... before looking back at Rafe, We'll get the edits in an send it off.. he said, Rafe simply nodded.

The plan was to simply have text cross the screen before the video, Rafe didn't want to send a voice recording of any of his men, sure the Syndicates and the ISC had a current peace, but giving them ammunition wasn't something Rafe wanted to do...

After Rafe watched it back on the side of the recording device he waved a single claw in a circle, Let's roll.. he said before thanking everyone who took part and moving to leave..

@Versok @Where

 

[Vuankei Thau'ja]

Vuankei stopped his rampage through the Zaa Fenn members once they begun to surrender. They seemed to think that this would save their lives, but they were nothing but lambs ready for the wolf's slaugher. Vuankei nodded respectfully in response to Rafe's words of more work in the future "<I'll be honored to work for you again, I shall hunt with you in the future again, wolf of the pykes.>" Vuankei said in response before he grabbed one of the dead members and dragged him out in order to take his head: A trophy to remember today. The Yautkan would leave after that, he didn't care about the message that was going to be sent now, the hunt was over after all...but he had known two great hunters, things were getting more and more interesting in the five Syndicates.

/exit thread

@Where @Mad Dog

 

[Rafe]

Rafe would offer the Yautkan a smile and a nod, they'd be seeing eachother again, that was for sure.

As they all boarded their respective cargo speeders Rafe watched over the shoulder of the Pyke clicking away on its datapad, editing the video, silencing background noise and crisping up colours, technical stuff that reminded Rafe why he employed a media team in the Pyke Syndicate.

When all was done Rafe watched the completed product, in total it was about thirty seconds, none of Rafe's men could be identified as they stood masked and fully covered behind the Zaa Fenn loyalists, a little less than ten seconds of protests and crying, followed by the brief murder by blaster bolt to the head and a handful of seconds of panning and zooming on the bodies. No theatrics, no long speech, nothing messy in the background to give away its location or who had taken part, just a good to the point murder film.

Looks good, send it.. Rafe said, leaning back against the wall of the inside of the cargo speeder, Oh and send someone to pick up all that cargo.. Rafe added before taking out a deathsick and lighting it, despite the enclosed quarters they were in..

A few moments later the home-made holovid would circle the Galaxy a few times hitting designated dead drops and rifling through multiple encryptions before finding itself in the inbox of none other than @Emryc Thorne from an unknown sender.

[EXIT THREAD]

@Sreeya for reaction.