Hide and Seek

[Reyna Solus]

Mission Briefing​

Alarm! A band of slavers have abducted a group of Umbaran children and are keeping them in their camp before they leave the planet! Hunt them down through the jungles and bring a swift – and bloody – end to their enterprise, then return the kids.

It seemed that no matter where Reyna went or what Clan Solus was doing, there was always some slaver scum doing something to piss her off. Even on Umbara, far away from the clutches of Imperial Space there were children being stolen from their homes and forced into the bondage of spice mines or whatever undeserving fate the slavers had in mind for them. It was enough to make her sick, to be quite honest.

Though she was a much different woman now than what she had been during her own personal time as slave, Reyna still struggled to keep her feelings of absolute revulsion and rage from bubbling up to the surface and affecting her decision making. She wanted to find each one of them herself and put the blade of her knife into their throat, but she knew that was unrealistic.

So she brought friends. And not just any friends, she brought along her alor Raz Solus and someone she considered a close friend at this point, Dio Solus. Friend might have been a bit of a stretch for most people, but Dio and Reyna at this point had been on many operations together and she trusted him and his ability a great deal.

For the past while the trio had been searching through the jungle for the slaver's encampment, finally finding it as Reyna approached a fence that seemed to have been hastily put up but was still solid.

"Slavers on the other side likely," she said to her clan mates. "Can't go in with full firepower, I wouldn't put it past the di'kuts to use the children as human shields."

Turning towards the fence, Reyna balled her hand into a fist, reared back and gave it a mighty smash. The pneumatic fist attachment on her armor did its job splendidly, causing the wooden fence to ripple and splinter. A large section near them fell backwards into the camp, exposing some of the slavers who were clearly not prepared to be met with such resistance.

It was time for them to die.

@Critas @Sreeya

 

[Diocletian Solus]

Diocletian was looking forward to this engagement. He had no special feelings towards slavers either good nor bad. He did not like people who messed with kids however and that made this mission a little more personal for him. He knew it was personal for Reyna but not for the same reasons. Dio knew Reyna would keep a level head in the coming engagement, she was a professional after all. Dio had been in more scrapes with her than on a seven-year-old boys’ knees so he felt confident in her.

The other reason Dio was so interested was the third member of their raiding party. The alor of their clan, Raz Solus, was accompanying them on the mission. Dio had only had the chance to work with her once in the past, that being in the trandoshan slavers camp in Kashyyyk. That battle had been hairy to say the least and, in more ways, than one.

Dio had led the way through the jungle for the most part, his skills at navigation and tracking being especially useful in that terrain. Eventually they had found the slavers tracks and followed them to their encampment. It had been an easy trail to follow, the slavers were obviously not expecting company and had made no attempt to hide their presence in the jungle.

Arriving at the small palisade the slavers had hastily erected, Dio was looking over options on how they might perhaps scale the structure. He hoped to be able to infiltrate the camp with stealth and catch the slavers unaware, maybe even eliminate a few prior to open battle. He stopped his examination to look over at Reyna stood at the fence speaking. He nodded to her assumption that there were slavers on the other side and agreed that they should watch their shots, not wanting a child to get hit.

Dio had just opened his mouth to recommend the stealth approach when he saw Reyna rear back and do her best Hulk Smash impression on the wooden wall. Her punch turned the immediate area into toothpicks and splinters and caused Dio to curse in multiple languages in rapid fire. Raising his bowcaster to the high ready he followed Reyna into the compound, branching out to the right to cover her flank.


@Logan
@Sreeya

 

[Reyna Solus]

The wall in front of her had come crumbling down in an instant, Reyna drawing her rifle as it did so. Through the haze of dust she could make out several figures, her head quickly snapping to the number *six.

Without a moment's hesitation, Reyna aimed her rifle at the first two slavers closest to her and Dio's position. *She let out a couple rounds and was able to down both of them without much effort or issue.

The rest of the camp, or at least the ones that had been outside, seemed to be scrambling for cover and weapons. Reyna herself ducked behind a large pile of busted up wood that had been created when she broke through the fence. It would provide a decent amount of cover for now, but she wouldn't be able to stay hunkered down for long. Their true objective was to retrieve those that the slavers had stolen. Killing all of the scum would just be an added bonus.

@Critas

 

[Diocletian Solus]

DICE​

Diocletian ducked down and took cover behind a piece of the wall that had survived Reyna’s super punch. Sighting in across his Shriek-Hawk, he took aim at two slavers that were recovering from the falling wall and resulting carnage. He fired two shots at both, all of them missing as the two men moved behind cover as well. He continued to try and get a good shot at the slavers as the battle was commenced.

As a result of his tunnel vision, he did not see the slaver that had been to the right side of the wall, working on their water condenser. The slaver had a large wrench and he brought it down on Dio’s shoulder. Dio saw a slight movement out of the corner of his eye just before the man struck and was able to roll with the blow but it still numbed his right arm and he would have a beauty of a bruise. Rolling away from the contact, he attempted to get distance between himself and the wrench wielding slaver before the man could strike again.

The roll was a temporary solution to the immediate problem of the slaver, but it did not get them any closer to their ultimate goal. It did accomplish the goal of Dio staying alive for the moment as he finally rolled to a stop and turned on his back to face the close in slaver, raising his carbine to ward off the next blow that must surely come soon. Dio hoped silently to himself that Reyna was having a better start to the battle than he had.

@Logan

 

[Reyna Solus]

Of all the badgers Reyna would think she'd have to look after, Dio would have probably been the last on the list. Though it seemed that even he could have an off day. Catching the commotion of Dio's altercation with the wrenchman, Reyna made a snap decision. Deciding that trying to shoot the dude would probably be too dangerous given his close proximity to both cover and Dio, Reyna reached down and pulled a vibroknife from her boot. With a quick, hard, and most importantly accurate whip, she launched the knife straight at the wrench-wielding slaver.

*The knife caught him directly in his unarmored throat, sending blood spurting into the air like some kind of macabre sprinkler system. Reyna made a mental note to return to the wrenchman's corpse after they were through here to retrieve her knife.

Turning her attention back to the other slavers, Reyna pulled up her rifle to fire off some more shots. *Unfortunately for her, the time she had spend helping Dio meant that the slavers were able to retrieve their weaponry and fall into true defensive positions. Before Reyna could raise her rifle, a shot from one of the slaver's blaster pistols caught her in the shoulder.

Gritting her teeth in pain, Reyna ducked back behind her cover as more blaster shots began pelting her location. "If you have something up your sleeve, now would be the time!" She shouted over her comms.

Reyna was going to kriffing kill Dio if she died here today.

@Critas

 

[Diocletian Solus]

Diocletian had rolled over just in time to see Reyna’s vibroknife thud home into the wrench wielding slavers throat. The blood splattered down over Dio where he lay prone and turned the front of his armor into a Jackson Pollack painting. Within seconds he was a modern art masterpiece and he could have cared less. Scrambling back to a firing position behind the remnants of the outer wall, Dio took a heartbeat and examined the battlefield.

Coming to a firing position, Dio reached down and grabbed a large rock that had come loose when the wall had dropped. He hefted it and tossed it towards three slavers that were ducking behind a piece of machinery. Shouting in basic “Grenade Out!” Dio then raised his Shreik-Hark to a firing position.

As he predicted the ruse worked and the three slavers rolled away from the rock, one even picking it up and throwing it back with a look of triumph on his face. That look was then placed on his face permanently as Dio promptly shot him in the face. Turning to the second of the three slavers who had left cover, he fired again, hitting the man in the chest. The man fell but was able to struggle back to cover with one of his smarter comrades.

Diocletian did not look up to Reyna, but he heard the bolt strike home and her grunt in pain. Rolling back onto his stomach he heard Reyna’s shout for something up his sleeve. Did he have something up his sleeve? Well he hoped the grenade ruse had fit that bill well enough for Reyna. It was a trick he had used in the past and darned if it didn’t work almost all the time. Dio did not want to consider what might happen the time it didn’t.

“How bad are you hit?” Dio asked as he continued to fire to keep the slavers heads down before they launched their next attack. Reyna was tough and would keep the pain to herself but there were operational issues as well. She would tell him if she was out of the fight.

@Logan

 

[Leandros Solus]

Dice Thread​

Leandros cursed to himself; he was late. His Alor, Raz, was supposed to be on this mission – someone was supposed to be on this mission to oversee the junior warriors. They were working on securing the favor of the Umbaran people in order to be granted their blessing of establishing a secret enclave on the planet. While he was off slaughtering Umbaran pirates or negotiating deals with government officials, the others were to help out with the natives and win their hearts and minds. That was what it was all about – hearts and minds. Without the backing of the natives, their secret enclave would be discovered quickly and their work for naught.

Instead, Raz was off doing… something else entirely. Leandros had to fill her spot in the mission, though he was growing tired of moving across the planet to help people. They were after slavers this time; fiends who have kidnapped a number of children and were going to sell them into slavery or worse. Owing it to the Umbaran people to save their children, the Mandalorians would hunt down and mercilessly put an end to their slaving ring before they got off-world. The blood of the unworthy would stain the soil today.

Leandros soared through the night sky on his jetpack, his face a rictus of grim determination. Beneath him, bioluminescent flora whipped past him in a blur, though he decided to not focus on them, lest he find the desire to make contact with the earth much sooner than expected. Instead, he flew about fifteen meters off of the ground in the direction of the slavers’ outpost. In the distance, he saw gunfire – it stood out like a beacon in the otherwise pitch-black environment. He made a bee line for it and arrived just in time to witness one of the Mandalorians take a bolt to the shoulder and the other one taking out a slaver.

He rose from the darkness like an avenging wraith, blaster raised and ready to bring deliverance to the enemy. Beneath his helmet he whispered a litany of hatred, emboldening himself and steadying his hand. The slavers looked up and noticed him just in time for one of them to take two bolts in the chest, ending his pitiful life after he had already taken one shot from Dio. The man’s lifeless corpse crumpled to the ground like a sack of rocks. His comrade fired at Leandros; the shot missed, but grazed the pauldron of his armor. The minor force moved Leandros slightly, but he otherwise remained in the air like some kind of vengeful god.

”Gar cabur a'oatr ashnar olaror,” he spoke over their comms network now that he was in range. It was time to slay this scum with the fury and hatred of Mandalore.

@Critas @Logan

 

[Diocletian Solus]

DICE​

Diocletian moved to cover Reyna as she struggled with the wound in her shoulder. He kept his body between her and the two remaining bad guys that had finally recovered from Dio’s ruse with the fake grenade. He had certainly not expected the ruse to work but stranger things had happened. It appeared to be down to two on one and Dio didn’t really mind those odds usually. The addition of a wounded clan mate made those odds no longer favorable. Dio fired several more times, not hitting anything but keeping the pair’s heads down to try and buy time to think.

The sound of a jet pack throttling down brought Dio’s attention away from the battle for a moment. He turned, expecting a new threat to have appeared as it seemed the be the way with this battle. Instead he saw the signature gold armor of Leandros as he hovered near the battle. As Leandros fired, Dio turned back and saw one of the two remaining slavers fall and the other return fire with the hovering Mandalorian. Regaining the advantage in the battle, Dio turned back and sighted in on the remaining slaver, firing once and effectively ending the battle.

Dio continued to scan the area around the slavers camp for several heartbeats to ensure that no further threats appeared. After ensuring that they were clear, he rose from cover and moved to physically clear the battlefield. It only took moments, but he was finally able to announce the all clear across the comms. “All clear…” With that statement the air seemed to go out of his sails as the adrenalin dumped and he sat on a piece of shattered wall.

@Painus
@Logan

 

[Leandros Solus]

Dice​

Leandros remained hovering for a few seconds, sweeping across the battlefield with his rifle to ensure that there were no more hostiles in the area. Dio killed the final visible slaver, but that did not mean that their enemies were not in hiding elsewhere on the nocturnal planet. Once it seemed to be all clear and the battle was over, he tapped his wrist and lowered himself to the ground, landing next to Reyna with a gentle thud. The woman had been shot and seemed to be in some degree of pain, but it was nothing fatal. She would feel some pretty bad discomfort as it healed, though it was preferable to dying, he imagined.

He helped Reyna to her feet and, once it was clear that she would be okay, he set off in the direction of the slaver camp. There were still children to free, after all. He kept his rifle at a low ready, but the silence of the environment seemed to spell out that they had no more opposition to face for the time being. As Leandros passed by Dio, he pointed forward to what appeared to be a shack or cage of some kind in the distance near the slavers’ ship. ”Rala mhi pabida bakrinr bal slana'pir,” he said, continuing forward. The news they got from the Umbarans suggested that about six children were missing, so it was a necessity that they recover them.

@Critas @Logan

 

[Diocletian Solus]

Diocletian had cleared the remainder of the compound but there was definitely one thing missing and that was kids. Dio looked at the shack at the rear of the property and raised his rifle to a high ready. Moving quickly, he made his way to the shack and checked the outer door, if was locked but with a physical lock. One quick shot from his rifle was the skeleton key they needed, and the lock fell away. Dio yanked open the door and dropped into a tactical crouch, weapon scanning back and forth into the gloom of the interior of the shack.

Eyes looked out at him, they were partially closed due to the light being forcibly allowed into the shack. Five sets of eyes that belonged to five children of varying ages peered out at Dio as he scanned back and forth with his rifle. They shrank back from the armored Mandalorian, armored men usually mean trouble in their world and Dio felt a little ashamed for scaring them. He dropped his rifle to allow it to hang by its harness and reached up, unbuckling his helmet. He pulled it off and attached it to his belt in an attempt to appear less intimidating.

Dio raised his hands to show they were open, and the children started to walk forward in curiosity. They walked like zombies, that slow shuffle of resignation that had only one inevitable outcome in their minds. Dio tried to smile but the appearance of the children suppressed all joy at their recovery. Quickly he pulled a flask of water from his belt and offered it to several of the children. They drank but it was out of habit, there was no fire there, no light of intelligence. These children had been damaged beyond what Dio could provide here and now. His face a grim mask, Dio ushered the children towards their awaiting ships. They would return the children to the Umbarans, Dio would see to that.

As the ship rose into the sky, Dio took the children and gave them food and water. He made sure they were as comfortable as they could be. He gave them blankets and made pallets for them on the floor of his cargo hold for them to rest. It was the least he could do and he would do far more.

@Painus
@Logan