Ask Plot Get That Zeltron

[Preef Callo]

The Pyke Syndicate aren't fools. Kessel is home to one of their most skilled gunslingers: the Zeltron enforcer Silas Modoll. He resides in an outpost close to the coaxium mine and he needs to be taken out before non-pyke ships can safely refuel. This is not an easy task and the scoundrels drawing the shortest straw should be really kriffing careful.

Dice thread || It's always Kessel​

This one had Preef thoroughly nervous and part of him had preferred a better shot to accompany him than Marissa. She was a thinker, a leader, but so far wasn't that accomplished with a blaster. Not like Preef, anyway, but certainly not like Silas Modoll. Preef had heard stories about Silas having been in an infamous showdown on Mos Eisley with a couple of Sector Rangers. Heard he planted a bolt right between the eyes of CorSec captain and never missed a shot. He wasn't sure if it was all true, but he knew that no one ever double-crossed the Pykes when he was around.

Apparently Xar of the Black Sun didn't give a kriff and why would he? Xar was a crime lord who employed enforcers and had them killed just as often. It was just, well.. he could've used another enforcer or one of his personal vanguard. You know? If anything, pulling this off would cement their reputation with their respective syndicates and made Preef wonder.. what would it take for him to become an enforcer anyway? He could also be dead twenty minutes from now after faceplanting a bolt of plasme, but he tried to keep things positive.

Both he and Marissa sat on the edge of a speeder bike about three hundred meters away from a tower outpost. It was the very same they would be tasked to defend two weeks later and subsequently lose to Pyke scoundrels. Today they didn't know that yet and their task was the opposite: take the tower... and kill Silas Modoll. "So," the rodian began, "scaling the tower with a grappling hook is just stupid." He wouldn't even for a second entertain that idea. "Guess that leaves going in guns blazing?" It was an equally stupid idea. Perhaps that's why he was paired with someone who could be relied upon to plan ahead.

@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

Kessel was not a planet Marissa was enjoying being on.

The thick, rancid air, the stomping of mud beneath their feet, none of this was something she wanted to be a part of. But, as much as she had run off from life to do her own thing, the truth was that, at least for now, everybody gotta serve somebody. And Marissa served the Black Sun. Today the Black Sun wanted her here, and she wasn't about to refuse. Not when that would mean another life to flee, and not to something better.

The tower beyond stood out like a sore thumb in the wide, muddy landscape, lording over the mines below it. It wasn't something she was looking forward to dealing with, Silas undoubtedly sitting right up the top of it. He'd see them coming, no doubt, if they were to try and go up,

"Or we try and bring him down to us?" she looked at Preef with a smirk. It wasn't a plan, not yet, but it was a start "If he's here to enforce order then he presumably has to leave to enforce that" she turned it over in her mind, though she wasn't sure Preef would go for it,

"Cause a little disorder, get the jump on him as he comes out?"

@Ecclessey

 

[Preef Callo]

Marissa's suggestion surprised Preef and it was obvious in the way he turned to look at her, "You want to attract more Pykes?" She had some balls, for sure, especially considering her skill with a blaster. Incredulous, Preef turned his gaze back on the tower and pondered over her suggestion for a moment. "I guess it's got a better shot than trying to catch him off guard in there," he finally muttered, still not entirely convinced, but his idea definitely had a lower survival chance. Pushing himself off the speeder, the rodian shook his head and pulled it back so it was aimed in the general direction of the tower. "I'm not a good driver anyway." He shrugged and engaged the speeder's engines and without explaining Marissa what he was planning to do he violently pushed the throttle forward so it got stuck and the disengaged the parking brake.

The speeder propelled itself forward with significant speed and both scoundrels could watch speed towards the tower for several moments before someone shouted and another was forced to dive away. Then it crashed, rather unceremoniously, into the building about three meters right of the main door and exploded into a modest fireball.

Immediately afterwards alarms started blaring and half a dozens blasterwielding goons emerged from inside the building, prompting Preef to turn once again to Marissa and shrug. "Well, we've got their attention. What now?"


@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

It was not exactly what she had in mind, but it certainly seemed to work. As the speeder shot off across the ground and exploded against the building, she watched as what nay as well have been half the Pyke guards at this place swarmed the crash site. Hunkering down, she watched as some of the guards pointed in various directions, the forces splitting off in search of the culprits.

That was useful. They wouldn't face an army, not straight away anyhow.

Looking up once more, she could see Silas Modoll in the window at the top of the tower, turning his back and heading presumably back down to investigate what had caused such a disturbance. That was there cue,

"Let's stay low, and stay quiet, if we can get around the tower base we might be able to ambush them" she explained, though even she herself wasn't entirely confident.

Keeping to the ground, they dashed between bunkers and blown out dirt piles to avoid the Pyke's searching about, but the two had a little practice moving about like this, and managed to make it to the towers base, blasters drawn and ready.

@Ecclessey

 

[Preef Callo]

Preef followed Marissa as they snuck and dashed in an attempt to outflank the Pyke Syndicate's scoundrels. So far they were lucky and the blasterwielding thugs that were searching for whoever crashed that speeder kept missing them by a hair or a second. When they reached the back of the tower there was only one guard looking out for intruders, but he didn't really do a good job as he was most likely convinced that whoever crashed a speeder on the other side of the building wouldn't magically appear on his side. Well, he was right about one thing... it wasn't magic.

The element of surprise in his favor, Preef smacked the butt of his blaster against the side of the guard's head and caught his fall with his left arm. "Quick, we need to hide him." Immediately he started dragged the guard to one of the dirt piles, hoping that Marissa would either pick up the guard's legs or wipe out their trail in the sand.

Unfortunately for them, Silas had by now joined his men on the ground and finally brought some order and structure in their search efforts. "Form groups and patrol, you idiots!" was the first thing both Preef and Marissa would be able to hear from their dirt pile as the former anxiously covered the guard with dirt. "Watch each other's backs!" followed shortly after and by now a patrol of three walked their way.

"Where's Telo?" the rodian scoundrel asked his two fellow patrolmen. "Probably in some other patrol-" the human replied in an annoyed tone of voice, "-not even Telo ignores orders from Silas." They were getting really close to Preef and Marissa but then suddenly stopped. "Who do you guys think did this?" the rodian asked, prompting the Sullustan to laugh, "Probably some dissatisfied workers. No one has seriously considered making a move against the Five Syndicates for years." which prompted the human to snort, clearly he was the pessimistic one, "Every syndicate only cares about itself. My guess? It's the crew of that smuggler Silas shot last week." the other two seemed to agree with that idea and the rodian kicked some dirt towards the pile a mere two feet away, "They shouldn't have tried to haggle with him."

Preef and Marissa couldn't move without the risk of getting spotted. There only hope was for the patrol to walk off or night to fall.

@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

She was grabbing up the legs of the man as soon as Preef directed, she wasn't about to take chances today. This whole operation may as well have been an enormous chance. But as the voices came from over the crest, she kept her head low, and listened close as her rodian friend kept the body covered.

The team nearby seemed like they needed Silas to really get the most done, it certainly explained up close why their target was so important. But, for now he was still at command, and that meant they had better trained soldiers to keep track of between them and him.

What Marissa thought she had was a clever idea.

What she thought she'd do was use the dead mans radio to relay false positions and get people moving.

What she thought was that would free the way to their target, and let them get the drop while his backup was away.

She was wrong on every level.

Explaining the plan to Preef, she thumbed the radio. But her fingers slipped on the receiver, and a harsh static and ring shot out loudly, alerting more guards than either of them could have been prepared for,

And Silas.

Blaster bolts began ringing around them, their cover blowing away at the level of firepower that met them, and the Pyke's best gunslinger was on his way over to them, barking orders and unhooking his prized pistol from his belt.

It was do or die now. She looked at Preef with pure embarrassment and terror. If they died, she'd never live it down.

@Ecclessey

 

[Preef Callo]

Despite Preef quite violently shaking his head to tell her no, Marissa did something that unleashed the doors of hell. The air all around them exploded with flying plasma and the rodian pressed himself even closer to the sand. He couldn't even voice his displeasure with Marissa, for despite all the anger his heart broke as he looked in her terror-stricken eyes. It's okay, he tried to convey, though between his anger and her terror he doubted it would ever come across.

"Stop!" a voice thundered over the plasma and within seconds the air was calm again and the only burning of the air was done by the sun. "I don't know who the kriff you think you are!?" Silas shouted from distance, but there was one pair of footsteps audible and something convinced Preef that it was the Zeltron who was slowly closing the distance. No doubt basking in his glory.. "But I will personally deliver your heads and that of your employer to boss Carr."

Something suddenly occurred to Preef and his anger visibly subsided. If he was to die today then he might as well die as a gunslinger, right? "Stay down," he whispered to Marissa before he slowly got up from the sand in full view of two dozen armed scoundrels and in the middle, and closest, the infamous gunslinger Silas Modoll. "No employer, sport-" the rodian said with a confidence in his voice that surprised even him. Apparently terror disappeared once one had made his peace with death. The rodian might be short-sighted and one to jump to conclusion too quickly, but he sure had some kriffers between his legs. "-just a gunslinger eager to prove that Silas Modoll has lost his touch." about a dozen scoundrels smiled, not believing the young rodian's arrogance. Silas couldn't help but flash a confident grin, "Is that so?" his pistol was in his left hand and as an absolute show of skill he spinned it around, holstered it and then unholstered it again all in one smooth continuous motion. "I'd ask your name, but-"

"Preef Callo," the rodian hadn't given him the time to finish his sentence and he noticed at least one of the Pyke scoundrels seeming to recognize the name. Robbing a casino on Canto Bight did do something to one's reputation, after all. Silas was unimpressed, his long isolation on Kessel probably made it difficult to keep updated on the happenings in the rest of the Outer Rim. "It doesn-" he started again, but Preef was quick and interupted, "I'm here for a duel." Silas was visibly irritated with the second interruption and gritted his teeth, "won't change the fact that you're de-"

"Chicken."

Silas stamped his right foot on the sand in frustration. "Stop interrupting me!" he shouted to both shock and amusement of the two dozen scoundrels under his command. Noticing that this time Preef hadn't, Silas composed himself, looked at his underlings and realized he couldn't refuse the rodian after being called out in such a manner. "Fine," he said finally, sighing as he did and reholstered his pistol.

One of the scoundrels to Preef's left suddenly waved at Silas and once he got his boss' attention pointed at the sand behind Preef, "He's not alone! A human girl in the sand here next to," the scoundrel paused and jerked his head back, "Telo!?" Suddenly Preef was looking into the barrels of two dozen blasters and all he could think of doing was to shrug and stay silent.

"Guess you're not only throwing away your own life, Preef-" Silas sniggered, "If you lose the girl dies, too." Preef nodded. He didn't have a choice. Hopefully Marissa would forgive him.

Then the rodian stepped forward five paces, putting himself right in front of Silas in a straight line with only ten meters in between them. Both of them had a hand eerily close to their pistols and with a considerable crowd in attendance. A crowd, it needs to be said, who could decide to lynch both him and Marissa regardless of the outcome of this duel. Despite all the uncertainties Preef found himself to be remarkably focused, something Silas appeared to have left behind in his tower and although he didn't know that then, that would be making the difference...

They both made their move and a second later the crowd gasped. Both men were still standing and a dead silence reigned. Then Silas winced and his hand moved to his right side, where burned fabric and burned skin became visible. Preef couldn't believe it. Did he just win? His free hand moved across his own body to find a wound he didn't appear to have. Although Silas gotten a shot off, he had in his arrogance aimed for the rodian's head and missed by a hair.




@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

As she was called out Marissa stood up from behind the sandbank, facing the guns that surrounded them, watching Preef as he stood tall in front of Silas Modoll. She couldn't see a wince in him, and she made sure to refrain from calling out should it stop his focus. He'd need every ounce if this was truly going to happen. And with every bite back and forth between the pair, it seemed only more and more certain that it would.

She took some comfort in Preef's sympathy to her only moments ago, and while he may not be able to see it, she hoped he knew she felt the same. He was throwing himself up in front of the danger for both of them now.

And people said there was no honour among thieves.

Not that there would be more time to muse on it. As wind swept up, and hands reached blaster, Marissa could look nowhere else as the bark of blasters sounded off. It was to her joy that it was Silas who clutched at his side, a burning wound in his body. Preef had won.

Not that it meant they were out of the woods yet.

The collected mercenaries around them still watched, abject, and clutched at their weapons. Part of her wanted to speak up, and try to get them to stand down now that Preef had shown himself clearly the fastest gun there. But watching she saw a few whispering amongst themselves, hands clutching guns a little tighter. Stepping forward, she went to move to Preef's side, but a gun butt to her side quickly stopped her in her tracks,

"Not so fast I'm afraid missy"

Apparently they weren't backing down entirely, though she she prayed Preef had made a dent. If they made it out she owed him, big time.

@Ecclessey

 

[Preef Callo]

The hostility that the group of scoundrels felt towards the pair was unchanged despite Preef's miraculous win, but then the rodian did sense one kind of change; the pack was turning against the alpha. The way gangs worked was that the best brawler/gunslinger/racer was the leader of the gang until that time someone beat him. Now, none of the scoundrels was interested in having the rodian as their new leader, but there were those that had beef with the Zeltron and they finally had the guts to act on it..

An actual Pyke stepped from the ranks of his fellow scoundrels. "You know," it said in a raspy voice as it leveled its blaster towards the wounded Zeltron. "Get back in line!" Silas snapped, but when he turned towards the Pyke he winced from the pain in his side, which only served to encourage the latter. "Quite frankly it was an insult," the Pyke continued as he stepped closer towards the enforcer, "Carr should've appointed a fellow Pyke instead of a Zeltron-" he turned his head towards the rodian and smiled, "-whose slinging days are in the past."

Silas beat the pain and aimed his blaster at the Pyke, "Get the kriff back in line!" But the Pyke was emboldened and didn't even seem to think Silas would actually shoot to kill a Pyke. He was wrong. A single bolt screeched from Silas' blaster and hit the Pyke right in the chest, dropping him into the sand with a gasp of the crowd. What happened next is exactly the reason why an enforcer's career is usually short-lived, for by now it was clear to everyone that it wasn't so much that Preef was the faster blaster (the rodian thinks he is) but that Silas had indeed lost a step or twenty. Whenever an enforcer wasn't up to the task of enforcing, he was usually replaced and not in a way he could later tell about it.

Another Pyke leveled his blaster and shot the Zeltron in the lower back, prompting other scoundrels to gasp again and suddenly everyone pointed their blasters away from Preef and Marissa and towards each other. Then, bolts started flying between those loyal to Silas, who was properly squirming in the sand now, and those that wanted to usurp him in favor of... well, they all wanted to usurp him.

"Run!" Preef hissed at Marissa as he ran as quick as he could towards the nearest building. Once the infighting would stop, which it would because in the end the loyalists would always outnumber the ambitious would-be usurpers, they would probably still outnumber them at least two to one. Best to get some cover, wait it up and hope Silas kicks the bucket in the meantime. Once they reached cover, Preef forgot himself and hugged Marissa. "Did you see that!?" he beamed enthusiastically, "I'm the kriffing fastest blaster on Kessel!"


@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

The sight before them was, well, chaotic to say the least. And not at all what Marissa had expected. The mercenaries in front of the pair laid it on thick, and when one got shot the man that had been pointing a gun at her suddenly whirled around with a shout,

"Aye, don't you hurt Lawrence!" and charged into the melee.

Whoever Lawrence was was hardly of interest to Marissa in all of this, and as soon as Preef went to make the move she followed quick, over the open ground to another bunker in the dirt like the one from before. Not that she had much time to get into it before Preef arms suddenly wrapped around her and squeezed. She was taken aback for a moment, there was a moment she almost went to disengage and push back. Unfamiliar territory perhaps. But as he beamed excited at her in his victory, she relaxed, and let it happen,

"That you are Callo, that you are" she offered warmly in reply "But the best blaster can't be getting shot in the back once the mission is nearly done. Come on, let's leave these idiots to end themselves" she waved her head back at the gang of soldiers blasting at each other even still, before pulling her friend up and looking to make their way across the field to something that would give them the advantage: The Watchtower.

And for the most part, it worked. The fools kept to themselves and any others who came up wanted to know what the hell was going on there and not where the culprits had gotten to. It wasn't all perfect of course, as they slid the main door open to get inside, a voice from the mass called out,

"Can't you see their escaping, you kriffers!" Silas shouted from amid the melee. They'd been spotted, which meant they wouldn't get the surprise she was hoping for. But, their target was still wounded, and they had a tower between them and the blasters below now.

@Ecclessey

 

[Preef Callo]

While Preef and Marissa headed for the tower five of the scoundrels that had been loyal to Silas were unceremoniously shot in the side of the head or in the back as the coup was underway. Silas was definitely losing this battle despite hitting one of the instigating Pykes right in the face with a well-aimed shot. It was bad luck that he just happened to spot Preef and Marissa and equally bad luck that the four that were still loyal to him stood on the tower's side of the scuffle.

Those four turned around and spotted the pair just when Silas yelled "Get them!" Much more wasn't in the cards for the Zeltron as a dozen scoundrels now surrounded him... although they weren't as much focused on him as they were on each other. "Who made you boss!?" one cried, shoving his blaster between the ribs of another, but it wasn't long before he got a barrel against the back of the head, "Get that blaster out of his ribs!" and so it went on until all sixteen were in a traditional Corellian stand-off, completely ignoring the Zeltron.

Meanwhile Preef refused to get into the elevator and took cover in the lobby while Marissa rode the elevator to the top, thus when the four scoundrels entered all hot and bothered the first thing they spotted was the elevator's light showing it was going up. What they should've seen was the rodian in the other corner, but when they did it was already too late. Preef fired his blaster with the confident aim of someone who had just won a duel against Silas Modoll and all four dropped dead in just has many seconds.

Silas then showed why he wasn't a mere scoundrel as he blasted the nearest Pyke in the back and jumpstarted the end of the Corellian stand-off. Bolts flew everywhere but to Silas and three seconds later nine of them dropped to the sand. The Zeltron enforcer was hurt and in serious need of a long bacta bath, but by sheer will he suddenly managed to get back to his feet. The three surviving scoundrels, one rodian, one Twi'lek and one human looked at him with desperation. All members of the Pyke family were dead. Far off cousins of Carr herself, no doubt, but that at least gave Silas back some authority. "Don't disobey me again," Silas said through gritted teeth, his emotional state affected by the death around him, his wounds and the heightened feeling of desperation coming from the other three. He was capable of erratic behavior now and lost all the sophistication and pride of command. This, by all accounts, was the Silas Modoll who gunned down the families of a pirate court to earn the title of enforcer and only the human, ambitious as they naturally are, didn't recognize it. "Kriff-Ohh" the human caught a bolt in his heart mid curse and dropped dead in the sand as well. The other two nodded quickly. There wouldn't be more protest coming from them.

@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

Marissa could hear the bolts fly on the bottom floor as Preef fought off the surviving loyalists, and from the thuds it seemed like he'd won. Still, Silas was still on the outside, his own shouts of condemnation weren't hard to hear any longer. Weakened, but still desperate and dangerous, somehow Marissa didn't think their job had gotten a whole lot easier even now.

Arriving at the top floor, blaster up, she was glad to find it deserted. Silas and anyone else who had been stationed up top had all come down in the commotion. All that was left now was some half drunk beers and cups of caf that littered the place, as well as some rather distasteful wall art of 'Liana Lazuli, the Outer Rim's Favourite Dancer!', or so the posters promised. She could hardly keep herself from rolling her eyes. Some criminals had at least some taste, some ideals, and had taken a rather adventurous route to secure them. This though was not even in the ballpark.

Remaining in a crouch as she moved over to the window, she peered her eyes over and out at the ground below, spotting Silas and the two remaining henchman making their way to the front entrance where Preef had holed himself up. This was coming to the end now, there were only a few ways this could play out,

"Alright" Silas said, cocking his blaster "last ones" he spat a gob of blood to the floor as he carried on,

"Ugh boss, do you hear that?" said the Twi'lek from behind. What they wanted to point out was the dim whine of what they'd soon discover to be rather heavy computer monitor sailing through the sky at their forehead, but its crash against their skull would stop them getting any further, and a blaster bolt struck the Rodian similarly, Marissa vantage letting her line up her shots.

Preef though, he had to finish the job.

@Ecclessey

 

[Preef Callo]

If there was ever a perfect sign for a shoot-out it was the old 'monitor to the forehead' and when Preef realized what was happened he rushed out of the tower just in time to see the rodian bite the dust. There he locked eyes with Silas Modoll and the both of them knew exactly what was about to happen. Too hurt to beat the rodian in a quick draw, Silas didn't even try and a second later a blaster bolt hit him square in the chest.

and that was it. The Pyke outpost was empty bar Marissa and Preef. Corpses lay everywhere, though, which was unfortunate because most of them could've been good muscle for the other syndicates. Exhausted now that his mind finally allowed the rodian some rest, he turned his head towards the tower and the direction in which the monitor had come. "Hey!" he called out to Marissa, "Find anything to drink up there!?"

The outpost would only be theirs for about two weeks before the Pyke Syndicate successfully retook Kessel, but at least for now that didn't diminish their accomplishment and Preef was going to get drunk. "Heh-" he smiled as he returned his pistol to its holster with a satisfied feeling, "Preef Callo, fastest gun in the Outer Rim."

@Nightfall

/end thread