Ask Found Him in a Junk Pile

[Malou D'Amaris]

Malou might have found Vizim's late warning amusing if she wasn't actively engaging in combat with said creatures. A whole horde, she repeated in her head as she dashed forward to join Xiomara in the fight. I wonder when that'll show up? Malou had seen the wild flinging of their limbs as they attacked Xiomara, so she made her move according to that. If they were uncoordinated and clumsy, it would be easy to overwhelm them if she moved quick enough.

The acolyte closed enough distance that she was but a few meters away from Xiomara. As the woman looked her way, Malou extended a few fingers and curled them. One of the cyborgs which had leapt towards her was redirected Malou's way, and with a quick repositioning and slice of her saber, it was cut horizontally in half. It fell to her feet, and she stepped over it to make her way even closer.

The bodies of these creatures were part flesh and part metal. "The Force can do much that neither yourself or me can fully comprehend." The words of her master echoed in Malou's head as a metaphorical lightbulb lit above her head. She didn't have much interest in learning how to do what he had done, but she had taken up his offer to at least learn. The acolyte was glad she had.

Malou slipped in between Xiomara and the advancing cyborgs, taking advantage of the few seconds she had before they reached them to concentrate on what Artorgias had shown her. She pulled the Force inside her, held it for a moment, then released it through tips of her fingers. Fire spilled out, heated and empowered by the Force, and fanned out against the front line of approaching cyborgs. It was not nearly as impressive as what her master had done. Malou had only attempted it a few times before in an empty, open area. No matter; it worked well enough.

The hot smell of heated metal and the rancid smell of burning flesh--as well as pained cries--filled the air as the front line was engulfed in the fire. Though it only completely disabled one or two, a few others fell to the ground to roll in pain, and it was enough to give the rest of the creatures pause for a moment. Hopefully Vizim would be joining them soon.

tags: @Phoenix @Logan

 

[Vizim]

Vizim shrugged despite no one else being around to see it. Well a late warning was... no, actually, it really wasn't much better than no warning. Oh well, can't win them all, he thought to himself.

No. See if you can seal it off. We'll find another way down or bury them down there, he said back over the comm. He wasn't going to go fight in some cramped hallway if he could help it. Or fight where he was badly outnumbered.

Was he a terrible teammate? Well, yes, kind of, but that wasn't really the point. He turned back toward the middle floor, heading to meet them where they had first descended, pistol in hand and ready to cover them as they piled out. If they piled out.

Meanwhile, his mind continued to turn over their way of dealing with this threat. Or maybe they could convert these things somehow. He wasn't hopeful, but he did thing that these avalanches of trash might be able to be used against these things. Or starship engines. Oh yes, I like that. Starship engines can be rewired quite usefully.

@Logan @lizziie

 

[Xiomara Drast]

_______________________

Coward. Xio said back, the orange glow of Malou's spewed flame casting dark shadows across her face. But as you wish, oggdo.

Her mind racing for a solution, Xiomara noticed that the heat of the flames that had engulfed many of the cyborgs had also weakened the overhead structure of the tunnel they were in. Old durasteel plagued by the ravages of time now made pliable. One thing was for certain - she'd either seal the passage, or bring down everything on top of herself and Malou and this place would be their tomb.

Run for the ladder. I will be right behind. Xio shouted to Malou as she began to pull the force into herself.

As the mechanical beasts began to regain their composure, Xio gripped the entire ceiling above them. The old durasteel shuddered and groaned, flexing and bowing before rivets began to fly, crunching into the duracrete like blaster shots. With a grunt of exertion, Xio pulled on the ceiling with all of her strength, and after a few moments of not budging, the whole thing eventually gave out.

As the twisted debris began to fall and fill in the hallway, Xio was already running towards the ladder. As she approached it, Xio stole a glance backwards and was met with a sight that did give her a little bit of solace. The passage was completely blocked, and for now they were safe from the horde.

Hopefully Vizim hadn't fallen through the floor.

@Phoenix @lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

Run for the ladder? Malou began to back up, but did eventually turn and run once it clicked in her head what Xiomara was going for. The acolyte moved quickly and was about halfway up the ladder by the time the other woman reached it. With a final push, Malou reached the top and turned, ready to pull Xiomara up should she need it.

The acolyte then began to look for Vizim in the immediate area, also hoping the marauder hadn't fallen through the collapsed floor.

tags: @Phoenix @Logan

 

[Vizim]

Vizim was stone cold as the other woman called him a coward. If she couldn't see the value of what he said, he wouldn't waste his breath explaining it to her. And if she wanted to fight him over it, then fine.

The entire facility began to shake and shudder as portions of its foundation were torn free. His feet instinctively widened to keep balance and portions of the floor at the far end of the room began to tear free. A deafening crash of rending metal rang out from below and with it came massive clouds of dirt and dust, swallowing the pair of lower Sith up within it.

Nevertheless, he was still at the ladder entry when Malou reached it and with his free hand, he reached down and helped hoisted her the last bit and free. Malou seemed to be ready to do the same for Xio, so Vizim focused his attention back to their mission.

Buried for now, but there's probably mazes of tunnels down there. Still like detonation, he thought to himself, heading back toward the entry they'd come in through without a word and looking down toward the pit of trash they'd nearly been caught up in, but never quite turning his back completely on the other two. If there was room for trash, he'd wager there was a way through for Sith or psychotic cyborgs.

That trash probably all got sucked into the tunnels down there. We can detonate some of these engines and eliminate the rest of those things. Unless you'd like to get minced to pieces fighting them one at a time, he said simply.

@lizziie @Logan

 

[Xiomara Drast]

_______________________

Looking up the ladder, Xio accepted Malou's aid in getting up and only slightly out of breath, reached the top with the faintest hint of a grimace on her face. She was not particularly enthused with how close they had all come to getting overran by the monsters beneath their feet.

To be honest, I'm far more interested in finding their source, but even I'm not willing to undertake an obvious suicide mission. Looking around, Xio gave a shrug of concession when she could come up with no better alternative. Leveling this place seems to be the only viable path to completing our objective.

Her ears pricking, Xio could hear the faintest of sounds emanating from down below. The scraping of metal on metal, the low groaning of anguish and pain. They were running out of time.

Rigging shit to explode is a bit out of my wheelhouse though, She said, her eyes staying on Vizim. I'll unfortunately have to follow your lead on this one.

@Phoenix @lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

Her hand wrapped tightly around Xiomara's as Malou took a step back to help pull the woman up as the build collapsed down beneath them. As she took several steps back from the ladder, she watched the outlines of the cyborg-like abominations pulling and pushing themselves around in the heavy rubble beneath them. If that didn't kill them, she couldn't imagine they wouldn't be able to eventually crawl their way out. Blowing this place to bits sounded like a plan to her, as long as she was outside of it.

"Remotely?" Malou would ask, backtracking the way out of the complex in her mind. Even if they didn't have a remote way of doing it, it shouldn't be too hard for them to push a button or spark a plug with use of the Force. The sound of a rock hitting the ground below caught her attention. Whatever they did, they would have to do it soon.

tags: @Phoenix @Logan

 

[Vizim]

Vizim was starting to roll his eyes when the woman said that she wanted to find the source of these creatures. He didn't like their odds. He was confident in his won skill and no coward, but he was also no fool. He knew the numbers, and it wasn't favorable.

He was thankful, then, when she seemed to agree after a moment.

Making things explode is in my wheelhouse, he assured her. Assassination often came in the form of a big boom, and if it could be made to explode, he could probably make it explode.

The blind girl didn't seem to disagree either, so that meant they had work to do.

Can you surfboard us over there again? he asked, motioning toward the ship that she had gotten him out of earlier. Assuming she could, he would head inside and begin messing with the engines of the ship. Several pieces were rewired and then booted up before he reappeared at the floating platform again.

On my signal, pull on that beam under the ship, he said to the blind girl, wondering if she could actually even manage to see it or know it was there. Probably. It would probably be fine.

As she pulled on the beam, he began to pull on the ship itself so that it would begin to slide away in front of them. The sound would be incredible as the ship fell into the same hole as the trash from earlier. It would detonate and hopefully they would be gone by the time it did.

@lizziie @Logan

 

[Xiomara Drast]

_______________________

Xiomara nodded at Vizim's request and took little time in fulfilling it. Pulling over a thin piece of metal - this time a little bit bigger than the last one so they needn't recreate the door scene from Space Titanic - she concentrated on keeping the ride smooth as they hoverboarded over to the old ship Viz had pointed out.

The vexing assassin didn't take long in completing his task, Xio doing her best to keep a smirk of admiration from creasing her lips. She'd never tell him, but Vizim seemed like exactly the kind of Sith Xio could get into trouble with. She loved trouble.

Once the shipbomb had fallen into its place, Xio would take the hoverboard down to Malou and reach out her hand to help the young girl hop on. They would be up in the air faster than a pouncing nexu, far and away from the dangers of the blast radius.

She would let them hover there for a moment, they needed to make sure Vizim's handiwork got the job done - and it did, with flying colors. When the engines of the ship reached the zenith of what power they had left, they detonated in a marvelous display and the resulting shockwave leveled everything around for nearly thirty meters.

Everything durasteel turned to slag and folded in on itself, the unstable ground beneath the facility turning into a twisting sinkhole, sucking in everything and burying whatever might remain that didn't get vaporized by the blast.

After a few moments, Xio reached out with the force and did not feel the same tinge of unknown evil that she had felt emanating through the air before. It seemed their job was done, at least until someone else managed to dive into the dark and awake whatever monsters the trio of Sith might have only put to sleep.

She would take them back to their ship, which to her surprise hadn't been picked clean by unknown scavengers. Once they had left but before parting ways for good, Xio would slip her phone number into one of Vizim's jackets with a short, and of course sarcastically flirtatious message.

He would call or he wouldn't, but it would certainly be more interesting if he did.

@Phoenix @lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

At Vizim's signal, Malou gripped the beam with the Force, yanking it out of place. The metal crinkled under the weight of the Force, and soon after, the ship fell over it and tumbled down into the pit below. In an explosion of color--which Malou witnessed in her own way--the ship burst to flames and detonated, causing the complex to implode and fall in on itself.

When Xiomara reached out her hand Malou would take it quickly, hoping up onto the metal sheet and remaining still for the few moments in which she and Vizim watched the wreckage.

Once they returned to the ship, Malou would give both Vizim and Xiomara and nod of her head before disappearing into the back.

/thread end

tags: @Phoenix @Logan