Open Flashpoint Coruscant Fighting over Burning Cinders

[Kara Zaa Fenn]

Fighting over Burning Cinders
This thread is part of Bloodletting of Coruscant flashpoint.

"Even though most gangs operate in the lower levels of Coruscant, the bigger ones have a lot invested in the upper levels, not only that, but they are the ones to take a stand against the monsters as they come into their turfs. With their forces being diminished, smaller gangs have decided to take shots at them, trying to claim the many levels of the underworld with blind greed and little regard for long term consequences. Some streets are on fire and there's even riots happening as even the lowest scum take advantage to rob different places. Defend your turf for those that are protecting your level or try to take it from them, nothing ventured nothing gained."​

The news of monsters arriving on and spreading through Coruscant had the entire planet in disarray. The last time something like this happened on Coruscant was almost two decades ago when the Sith invaded the planet and destroyed the Sector Rangers HQ building near the Senate Rotunda. Back then at least the targets were obvious military ones. The Sith Order of old had at least a semblance of order and control over its destructive outlets, but this time.. these things.. seemed to be mindless beasts fueled by the Dark Side of the Force for utter destruction and chaos. Most people on Coruscant didn't even understand what these things were. Aliens, perhaps? Some species from the Outer Rim or the Unknown Regions that had been trained for war by the ever devious Sith? Whatever the case, most people stayed indoors and in the lower levels the protection from the gangs and their own respective headquarters were sought sometimes against extortion prices. The price people were willing to pay to improve their odds of survival were unmeasurable, after all.

A long time ago the Zaa Fenn Crime Family had controlled hundreds of levels on Coruscant. At the height of their power ringleaders like Kara each controlled profitable districts and levels in their own right. That was before they had been betrayed from within and many of their friends and former associates scattered to the wind. Most of them joined other gangs or even went legit, some of them now send a distress signal to their old ringleader.

A family of Twi'leks, father and mother having met while they worked at the Quick-Draw Cantina and Zabrak slicer who was once a member of the KnowOnes, had chosen barricade themselves together in the Twi'lek family's home. They had send a message to Tatooine, to the Belching Frog Saloon in Mos Espa, and were waiting for her to arrive and rescue them.

Meanwhile Kara Zaa Fenn landed a FT-19 Fondor Haulcraft on one of the lower level docks previously owned by an affiliated business. Landing on the planet had been a kriffer, but it was fortunate that the beasts seemed to be rather mindless and the Coruscant traffic control was waay too busy to ask her her business today. Thus, despite the chaos and her moderate piloting skill at best, she managed to get to the intended level just fine.

Her personav showed a red dot for the address she needed to get to, so Kara descended the ramp and locked her ship up, activating its camouflage security system. "Let's hope the Blackened Jet Empire doesn't remember me," she sighed as she walked through an alley that lead into one of this districts main streets. The Blackened Jet Empire were one of the Lower Five gangs affiliated with the Zaa Fenn back in the day, but this Barabel Swooper Gang has grown and increased both turf and power in the past decade. The Coruscant Underworld Police has many active bounties on members of this gang and even on their leader, who has yet to be taken down.

 

[Kara Zaa Fenn]

The lights turned off suddenly as most of the local electrical grid seemed to go offline and Kara found the light of her personav's screen to be the only thing that illuminated the sudden darkness. This level was so close to the true surface of Coruscant that sunlight never did permeate through and she had to look away from her screen to make her eyes adjust faster to the sudden pitch black darkness. This was bad. This was really bad.

The sound of roaring engines shot through the streets and headlights provided momentary sight in the darkness as three large Barabels on speeder bikes passed by Kara and stopped roughly forty meteres ahead of her, right in front of the alley she knew her target apartment was located. The engine died and the Barabels stepped off and grabbed their weapons of choice: serrated vibro-machetes and heavy scatterguns. Their intention clear as they started walking into the alleyway.

Kara drew her blaster, knowing that her light-stun weapon probably wasn't strong enough to even get through the Barabel's natural thick skin armor. She ran the forty meters carelessly about getting noticed and her heart was already pounding in her throat. Was she too late? Would she desperately try to engage in a fight she knew she couldn't win? Not when she was thirty years younger and definitely not now that she was about fifty.

As she reached the speeder bikes an intense feeling of dread suddenly filled the street behind her and all she felt like doing was hide. Hide behind one of the speeder as she turned and tried to see what that feeling was all about. Had she missed another Barabel biker? Or was it...

An unexplained flicker of light allowed her to see the creature as it's heavy footsteps came to a stop near the speeders. It's breathing was heavy and for a moment Kara was sure she was done for, but then a heavy shot sounded from the alleyway and a cruel reptilian laugh followed it. The creature turned towards it and headed into the alleyway slowly.

---

Meanwhile a nearby cantina was filled with mean-looking Barabels as they geared up with their own serrated vibro-machetes and an assortment of blasters. Deals with mugglers and underworld arms dealers had increased their arsenal significantly and today, this weird invasion they didn't really care about, was the perfect opportunity to expand their territory. Seated at the head of a long table was 'Gresk Makk' who lead this chapter of the Blackened Jet Empire and looked over a holographic display of surrounding city sectors. The cantina, their HQ, had its own small power-generator that fueled the lights and fortunately this table with integrated holographic entertainment.

"While Grak, Sshren and Tavarr are taking care of those hass-beenss," he referred to Twi'lek family and the Zabrak slicer that had never aligned themselves with a new gang after the Zaa Fenn had been ousted from Coruscant. Their deaths had nothing to do with the expanionist plans today, but was merely a score that Gresk felt had to be settled. "We kill everyone at the police sstation, raid their evidence vault-" Gresk had been especially angry laterly because a large shipment of spice had been seized just as it was transported to his district in bulk, "-and then, jusst for fun-" his grin widened, "-we rob the credit disspenssary." otherwise known as "the bank".

A roar of laughter and approval echoed through the cantina. Today the Blackened Jet Empire would become the biggest and most powerful gang on the entire planet.

 

[Nihali Salzhan]

Chaos had consumed Coruscant. Beasts that appeared more at home in a horror holoflick than on the city streets had emerged all over the planet, and blood flowed wherever they walked. Doctor Nihali Salzhan had been called in for a shift at the emergency department, but with the beasts and security blockades, such a thing was impossible. Besides, chaos was opportunity and the doctor had a darker side unknown to her colleagues and employer at the central hospital.

The upper levels were swarming with beasts and police, fighting amongst each other. The lower levels were far less protected but also less threatened. Nihali's apartment was strategically located in between the two levels, allowing her to easily transition between her official job and the shadier business she ran on call with the local underworld. It was the second that was booming this night, with violent beasts spilling blood on the streets.

A locked apartment was where the doctor currently held shop in a backroom, called urgently by the twi'lek family to try to save a business associate of theirs. The zabrak lay lifeless on the table however as Nihali wiped grey matter from her cheeks, enjoying the lingering moments of soupy euphoria. The man had been too far gone by the time she had arrived, as evidenced by the blood that had pooled underneath his savaged gut and stained the white coat and safety gloves she wore. She had tried to save him of course, but in the end he had lost far too much blood and she had no choice but to end his suffering by drinking his soup. Or so she told herself. He had been no more than a light snack to the Anzat and her proboscis twitched, unsated, inside her cheeks.

Exiting the back room, she shook her head grimly at the twi'lek man who eyed her questioningly. "No charge" she said. She didn't charge for the lives she couldn't save in the underworld, instead taking her payment directly from the dying in the form of a meal. Whatever other questions were cut off as the sound of a scuffle emerged outside, followed by a howl. Nihali eyed the front door cautiously as she removed her gloves and replaced them with her pair of Matukai gauntlets instead, eyeing the bag in which her wan shen was collapsed in before deciding against it as she remembered the tight confines of the apartment.


@Eccles

 

[Kara Zaa Fenn]

The scattergun had made short work of the front door and then one of the Barabels, Grak, started laughing upon seeing the clumsy barricade that blocked their entry. The kitchen table and living room couch had been piled up in the small hallway behind the door. "What an idiots, like that would stop us," he laughed, motioning for the other two, Sshren en Tavar, to use their serrated vibro-machetes to cut he barricade down. "Where are your enforcers now, Zaa Fenn?" Grak continued to laugh, "Preef is too old to hold his blaster and your Beast is dead!" He referred to the main enforcers of the Crymorah Syndicate when it had ruled much of the underworld a few decades ago, when the Twi'lek family they were there to kill still consisted of two daring young teenagers. Now they had one of their own. Everyone knew that Preef Callo was too old to come to the rescue and Gareth Zaa Fenn was.. well, imprisoned, escaped and then dead again? He had never been the same since his genocide on Mon Cal caused the downfall of the Crymorah syndicate.

Grak was getting giddy as the barricade collapsed before his eyes and raised his scattergun up, "The Blackened Jet Empire will rule the entire planet!" he shouted in confidence, "Coruscant is ou-" his enthusiastic shout was abruptly stiffled as the Barabel looked down towards his chest where a large purple-like claw portruded from. "-Oh?" was all he managed to say before the claw was yanked back through his body and out his back. Sshren en Tavar turned around in surprise to see their comrade fall and a large purple monstrosity appear behind him. It's breathing was heavy, slow and unbothered by the fact it had just brutally taken a life.

Kara had slowly followed it down the alleyway and now pressed herself to the wall on her left as he jaw dropped and her eyes widened. Kriff. Whether this monster was a previously unknown species or truly a manifestation of the dark side of the Force she still didn't know, but if it was able to punch through a Barabel's leathery skin with its bare hand.. then it was definitely the biggest threat in this alley.. by far.

@Arcangel

 

[Nihali Salzhan]

It took all of one scatterblaster shot to the apartment door for Nihali to change her mind and snatch up the collapsed weapon out of her medical bag, snapping the two pieces together as laughter and voices echoed through the apartment entrance. The twi'lek motioned for her to follow him into another room, a bedroom where the doctor could see a woman and two children peeking out from, terrified.

"No. You go." She said as she shrugged out of her bloodstained coat. She could hear sharp, hissing voices at the door as the intruders busted through the barricade at the door and she could recognize them. Not the individuals, but she knew the type. Blackened Jets. Scum who didn't pay their bills when a doctor saved their comrades life.

"Is that the doc?" One of the barabel hissed while his comrade laughed about ruling coruscant. Nihali had stepped into view, wearing nondescript, blood spattered black clothes and wielding her Wan-Shen. "Working for the zaa Fenn now doctor?" The barabel sneered. This one she recognized, a thin scar lined his snout where her scalpel had slashed him.

"Zaa Fenn pay their bills, unlike the Broke-ass Jets." She reminded him. Whatever he might have said back was cut off as their leader's words were cut short, a clawed arm protruding from his chest, spraying blood. Nihali's eyes followed the arm up to the body and face that it belonged to, her eyes going wide.

Barabel enforcers didn't scare the Anzat. She had travelled the galaxy for decades and faced down things that might make most mortals squirm in fear. Never before had she seen something like the hulking monstrosity that blocked the barabel inside the doorframe.

Rippled flesh that warped and twisted unnaturally. Spiky protrusions that appeared just as sharp as it's teeth and claws. An uneven number of eyes lined it's face in an asymmetrical fashion and it's snout appeared as if it were stitched on crooked. The doctors clinical mind noted the lump of entrail hanging from a tooth, concluding that this must have been the monster that sealed her patients fate earlier. To think he had escaped from such a beast in his condition... "Kriff." She muttered to herself as she settled into a combat stance and tried to clear the murk and fear from her mind. The Wan-shen's blade wavered slightly as her hand shook.

@Eccles

 

[Yi Tarkar]

It was just as he thought it would happen. The fall of Byblos had just been the start, the abominations were going to invade more planets and, although he had not a reason to think they would target Coruscant in particular, his love for his home planet, regardless of how he was treated while in it, made it so he decided to stay in Coruscant for a while. And sure enough, he would find himself protecting the planet from a horde of monsters. The Quarren was not dumb, he had realized the planet was beyond saving, but their people could still survive.

At first, he had been part of the group protecting the evacuation zone, but the people on lower levels were not lucky enough to have an easy way out of the planet, so, after fighting monsters alongside the armed people on Coruscant, he made his way to the lower levels of Coruscant, needing to get through the more violent gangs that were shooting at everything and everyone in order to gain territory on a doomed planet.

The Quarren jedi stumbled upon the situation currently unfolding in front of the Matukai doctor, shaking his head as he realized that the abominations had gotten here first. So far they were not overruning the lower levels, but it was a matter of time. For now, he could only stand against this one, help someone survive and go from there.

The fallen barabel's weapon would float for a second before flying towards the jedi, a couple of blaster bolts hitting the abominations before he discarded it. He knew the blaster itself wouldn't be able to do much, it was just a way for him to draw the attention of the monster.

As the exalted creature turned around, what it and the other people present would see is a large Quarren wearing a kyuzo hat, battered and bruised with blood all over him from fresh wounds gained in the last hours, yet still standing and seeming to lack fear on his eyes at it looked at the beast "Come, monster." Yi would simply mutter as he ignited his lightsaber, the blue light glowing alone in the dark alley he had come from. The abomination looked to quickly change targets, as one would expect...For them, the jedi were the most abhorrent of them all.

@Eccles @Arcangel

 

[Kara Zaa Fenn]

Kara just stood there. Jaw low, blaster clenched in her right hand and having no idea how to defeat a monster and get her old friends out of there. She noticed movement on the other side of the door, but whoever it was they didn't seem to be a Twi'lek or Barabel, which both frightened and comforted her. Whatever was going on here, Kara wouldn't have to face off against that monster on her own.

She was just about to spur into action, to close the door on her own fear, when the Barabel's blaster flew through the darkened alley and suddenly started firing towards the beast. Kara's eyes followed it and she didn't even notice that the bolts all hit their mark and yet the monster still shrugged it off, his body turning into the same direction as Kara's eyes.

They locked onto the Quarren just as he ignited his blue lightsaber.

What. An. Idiot.

The Quarren's nobility would be his undoing as the beast immediately diverted away from the barabels and headed straight for the Jedi. It was like seeing a giant murder moth going for the brightest light in the room and it walked straight passed Kara, too. Didn't even afford her a glance. No threat, perhaps, or maybe, and this would only come to mind much later on her flight back to Tatooine, she wasn't "Light Side Enough" to be considered a target. Whatever those barabels had done -violent murderous swoopers- would probably still pale in comparison to Kara Zaa Fenn's misdeeds.

It wasn't something she was going to ponder about right now, though, so she spurred herself into action and towards the broken door. "Diva," Kara said just above a whisper as she reached the door and only then noticed that the person standing on the other side was covered in blood. Fear struck her again as her eyes widened and she raised her blaster, "The children, too?" she asked, assuming for some reason that this was another who wanted to see all former members of the Zaa Fenn Crime Family dead.

"Who the kriff are you?" a sharp voice asked behind her. Kriff. She had forgotten about the other two barabels completely. "Are you-" without turning around to see it, Kara knew the sound of a scattergun charging up for another shot, "-Kara Lok?"

@Arcangel @Versok

 

[Nihali Salzhan]

Centering her spirit was always harder right after she fed, and Nihali spent a moment in her head cursing her old friend and his lessons about purity of mind as she stared down the misshapen beast that stood in front of her. She adjusted her grip on the wan-shen, levelling it between herself and the monster, steadying it. What happened next was just about the last thing she might have expected.

The dead barabel's scatter blaster rose up from the loose claws that grasped it, firing repeatedly into the beast as it hovered out the door. Firing uselessly into the beast for all faint scoring the bolts did to the things hide. It turned, completely forgetting Nihali for the moment and charged down the alleyway. Nihali's grip on the wan-shen loosened ever so slightly as she began to relax, only for another figure to barrel into the doorframe, running right past the surviving pair of barabel who seemed to have been forgotten next to the monstrous entity that had stood there before.

It was a woman, not another Barabel who this time raised her blaster at Nihali. Eyes wild and frantic as she came in whispering, yet she held a presence about her. The Anzat's sharp ears picked up her clients name, the one hiding in the backroom with her husband and children. Of course then the woman questioned Nihali about the children and the Anzat doctor realized what the scene might have looked like to her, Nihali spattered in blood.

"Alive. Diva too. Backroom." Nihali got out as quickly as she could while eyeing the blaster aimed at her. She readied herself to move, to fling herself to the side, to interpose the haft of the wan-shen between herself and a deadly bolt if it came to that. Of course it was right about then that their other company reintroduced themselves with a questioned name and the whine of a blaster charging up behind the wall to the woman, the tip of the blaster just peaking past the frame of the door from Nihali's view, aimed at Kara's back.

It was in that singular point that Nihali found her focus, in that moment of distraction that Kara no doubt felt at the sudden prickle of a blaster charging on her that Nihali moved. A smooth, rapid movement as she ducked under the line of Kara's blaster and lunged forward out of view of the barabels. The tip of her wan-shen would slide easily past Kara as Nihali grabbed the woman's arms by the wrist.

A thrust sent the blade harmlessly between Kara and the doorframe as Nihali pulled on the grasped arm, moving the woman's blaster past her own body, out of alignment just in case she pulled the trigger. Nihali came up hard, still gripping the blaster arm to guide the woman as if in a dance while she stepped into Kara's space, bodily shoving her past the doorframe and into the room while guiding her away out of danger.

A horrible SPRANG echoed through the room as the scatter blaster went off, just as the wan-shen blade pierced it's barrel. The echo of energy built up with nowhere to go jerked at Nihali's arm, threatening to tear the weapon from her grip. The force forged metal held up against the blast, but the blaster itself had no such augmentations and the barabel screamed as the blaster exploded in his hands, leaving him staring at smoking, bloodied stumps.

And then the singular moment of focus passed, and Nihali was in the doorway. A disarmed, disfigured barabel on her right, and another one still armed and baring it's teeth on her left.

@Eccles @Versok

 

[Yi Tarkar]

The beast charged towards the Quarren, ignoring everything else to get at him. The monster was faster and stronger than the jedi knight...But it was predictable. As it came towards him, Yi pointed his hand at the beast and a bright, blinding light came out of it. Force light was known to be a very effective counter against these monsters in the past and it proved effective now, as the thing let out a terrifying howl of pain and covered his eyes with one of its hands, the other one desperately swinging at the jedi as it blindly tried to tear its head off.

However, Yi would manage to duck under it, raising his lightsaber as he did so, which would quickly cut off the abomination's arm as he used its motion against it. However, the pain of a lightsaber was not as much of a deterrent as the pain of the light side of the force, so, by the time the Quarren turned around to attack the beast that had swept past him, it was too late. The abomination grabbed his lightsaber holding hand with what was now his only hand and opened his mouth, trying to feast on the Quarren, who, while strong, was not strong enough to break free from such a monster.

However, The jedi had another weapon of sorts and the abomination would find out as soon as it realized that it had not got its mouth full of Quarren flesh, but rather sharp metal. Yi had grabbed his Kyuzo hat and shoved it against the monster's open maw, the sharp metal cutting deeper and deeper as the Quarren kept pushing it, threatening to cut through the mouth all the way to the back of the head, the monster's cheeks already destroyed as its own momentum had been the reason the durasteel had cut so deep.

To protect itself, the monster violently threw the Quarren away, the shield being drawn from its mouth as Yi got a hold of it to try to keep himself in place, but it was not enough. The Quarren would end up flying towards the building the other people were in, hitting the doorframe with enough strength to knock the air out of him before hitting the ground itself, shaking the nearby walls. Had he not used the force to soften the blow, he would've been unable to move afterwards. What came afterwards, however, was a kick from the same abomination which sent the Quarren flying through the doorframe and hitting the another Barabel.

Letting out a pained grunt, the Quarren got up and looked behind him, noticing just how many people were involved in this mess, he turned his head around once more, slowly taking yet another step forward. His breathing was heavy and there was more blood coming out of him now after those two heavy blows. The abomination's hand grabbed the doorframe as it peeked inside. It was one arm lighter and had its mouth so injured you could see its jaw and cheek bones, yet, unlike the jedi knight, it had no signs of fatigue holding it back.

@Arcangel @Eccles

 

[Kara Zaa Fenn]

Things happened so fast that Kara suddenly found herself in the living room, staring at a fearful Diva and her family. "Diva, where's-" he began to ask about the slicer, but Diva's eyes said enough. "That's why the doc was here," the Twi'lek explained and only then did the puzzle pieces fall into place. The blood-spatters, the white overcoat, her presence here to begin with. Kriff, to think she had almost shot the medic.

Kara turned back towards the door, but going out that way was a definite no-go. The doctor, the jedi, the barabels and the monster were all between them and safety. "Kriff, this whole thing is messed up-" the Zaa Fenn Boss let out a frustrated, defeated sigh. "-please tell me there's another way out?"

Of all the things Kara was good at, fighting off Force-sensitive monsters definitely wasn't one of them. She had banked on being able to sneak her way to and from the apartment. To get in and out clean and fly out of Coruscant without much actual fighting. That was the plan anyway. That's why she hadn't brough any of the gunslingers that were part of Preef's band of outlaws. Kriff.. and then to think she had karking Gareth to thank for all this. Disloyal blind karker.

@Arcangel @Versok

 

[Nihali Salzhan]

Things had a way of happening all at once in battle, too fast to keep track of even as the body desperately tried to act. With the first Barable disarmed, Nihali twisted the wan-shen and sent it slicing towards the other one who still held a blaster.

Of course, just because the first was disarmed and de-fingered did not mean he was no longer a threat, something Nihali learned suddenly and painfully as he lunged at her, his toothy maw clamping down on her shoulder as he barrelled her into the room.

There was a sickening splatting sound outside the doorway as the blade of the wan-shen slid across the second barabels gut before suddenly tearing free and clattering against the doorframe as Nihali was driven back. She fell backwards, trying to get the haft of her weapon in between herself and the first barabel who was busy gripping at her shoulder with his crooked maw. Her hand came up, thumb finding his eye socket and pressing hard until the pressure against her shoulder loosened into another scream as she kicked the Jetter off her.

Nihali scrambled to her feet, spinning to plant the blade of the wan-shen in the howling barabel's throat to silence him before turning for the door. The other barabel was nowhere to be seen, instead replaced once again by the hulking monstrosity that glared at all the occupants of the room like so many snacks in a can.

@Eccles @Versok