[IB] Tombstone: Sister Act I

[Ender]

Tombstone Actual
City Ruins, Hapes
0300 Local Time

Sister Act I
​

Seven moons, you could count them. It would be a very beautiful sight, except that they left Private Davidson and the rest of Tombstone very, very visible. But, the light rain coming down helped a little. It was also quite relaxing. The soft pitter patter of the droplets against his helmet kept him grounded. Reaching out with a flick of his wrist, he motioned to Draven Darkstar, a comrade from a previous operation, to take the lead. "Rokahn," he whispered into his throat mic "Follow Darkstar. Andara, on me." The splitting of the teams had a purpose. Recruit Rokahn, the new girl, would follow Recruit Darkstar, whom Alex knew was an experienced Trooper. Private Andara, while more experienced than the other two, would take his place behind Davidson as between the two of them, Davidson was the superior fighter.,"Andara, keep our eyes on for our target. Move cover to cover, we're quite exposed out here."

 

[Slamdingo]

Late night, watching the moons shining down around them, and Ishale had never felt more exposed. She was used to late nights and staying up with the bass from speakers so turned up that she could feel it in her chest. This wasn't the sort of thing she liked when it came to late nights. Even as a rookie, you didn't get into the 501st just by pure chance or dumb luck. Ishale knew when she was exposed and knew well enough that it was a very bad situation to find yourself in. The only saving grace the demolitions expert could find was that the rain coming down was providing a little visual concealment and enough audible cover to make moving around easier without constantly worrying about how much noise their group was making. Other than that?

Ishale swept their surroundings with her blaster, eyes trying to look everywhere at once.

This wasn't a very good situation to be in.

At hearing her last name in a hushed whisper, Ishale looked to their team leader and gave a nod of confirmation. Their team-leader and Darkstar were both more experienced Troopers than she was and even if she didn't know them that well personally she knew enough about their records to trust their ability. The only two honest things in the world were the tax collector in the 501st: the first wanted your credits, the second didn't get where they were brown-nosing. Ishale stepped lightly to take up a position tailing Darkstar, making sure that neither she nor her senior partner were never covering the same zone at the same time to ensure coverage while they moved in on their target.

Then she heard her team leader speak again. Cover to cover?

With the low-light vision on her helmet engaged, Ishale kept her eyes out for anything close to cover. It would be equal parts a good place to run if things suddenly got hot, and a good hiding spot for somebody waiting to put a blaster bolt through her brain-pan.

 

[Tristar]

Nice night.

Too bad Corric wasn't out on a date, or he'd had got one for the boys to hear the next day. Right now? The rain was mildly annoying; it made for slick footing and bad visibility. For them and the enemy, wherever they were. Crouching low to reduce his profile, Corric gave an inaudible sigh under his breath; his thighs were starting to prick; the result of standing very, very still for a very very long time.

It wasn't as if this was his first combat op, but generally his firefights were short, quick and to the point. Then relocating to respond to another disturbance; your typical peacekeeping patrol combat ops you'd hear on mostly Outer Rim worlds.

Bringing his rife close to his chest, barrel angled sideways, Corric gave their surroundings a quick look-over and gave his team leader a thumbs up; so far, so clear. He knew nothing about his new comrades, save that they were for the most part, bloodied in the nose somehow. Minor exception of Ishale; she was still a greenhorn.

Slowly, he raised a gauntleted clenched fist, to his head level, indicating that he was calling for attention, and tapped the side of his helmet, before releasing a quick short message: "Tombstone; radio silence. Hand signals, use our private channel if you really need to. Over and out."

He was taking any chances for this op; if he wanted to see more action, this was the quickest way. Hoping that they were looking, he brought his hand down to his hip before raising it up again and jerking it forward twice; Stay low, advance forward. He'd have to wait for Recruit Darkstar and Ishale to move up, because unlike the both of them, he had their life line: a small portable long range radio within an explosives rating hardcase magnetically strapped to his armour.

Even in it's portable version, it was still rather bulky and had a large profile; essentially a large bullseye on his back. It was vital for their linkup with their mission coordinator or their pilot for a exfiltration. Or call in an artillery strike, something Corric thankfully had not done in a while. Even the sounds of your own cannons firing was terrifying, and a screw up on the grid coordinates could very well lead to a massive casualty listing for the regiment officer. Corric wasn't going home in a matchbox, and sat still until the rest of his squadmates moved up.

 

[ShadowMandalore]

This would be the first time Draven would be on the Hapes system.

The ground that they were laying on was beginning to get softer over time as the water droplets from the sky began raining down on them. Davidson, a well-known comrade and squad leader of tombstone, was in charge of leading Private Corric Andara. While Draven was assigned leading Rokahn, a new recruit in tombstone.

Tombstone was founded for sole purpose is to eliminate high profile criminals at all cost. Founded only a few weeks ago, intelligence went through a list of candidates. So far, Davidson, Andara, Rokahn, and Draven made the cut.

Their first mission: Eliminate a force sensitive terrorist by the name of Ten Ali. It wasn’t the first time Draven had to deal with force sensitives.

“Rokahn. Follow Darkstar. Andara, on me. Andara, keep our eyes on for our target. Move cover to cover, we're quite exposed out here."

A tapping sound was heard on the right of the squad; Andara was calling for attention.

“Tombstone; radio silence. Hand signals, use our private channel if you really need to. Over and out."

We need to find cover.

Draven and Rokahn were positioned on the left hand side of the group. With a slight hand gesture, he indicated Rokahn to move up the rear. Crawling on his stomach, he made his way upward on the steep mushy hill near a medium boulder protruding out of the ground. The shadow that the boulder was casting concealed the squad from the sight. He lifted his head a few inches over the rock to see. Reaching into his pouch, he pulled out his binoculars to get a better view of the compound.

 

[Pureblood-Sin]

The skies of Hapes were bright as usual; the Transitory mists were certainly brightening up the heavens, as they had done long before the Lorell raiders first arrived. The place would be glorious, were it not for the fact that this very city was ruined; utterly devastated by the invasion of the Sith Imperium. Sadness fluttered in the heart of Ten Ali, if only for a fleeting moment. Soon enough her fists clenched together as anger flowed through her instead. By the Queen mothers of old, it felt like a lifetime had passed ever since she and her sister had went on their crusade to disrupt the Imperial presence on Hapes. Felt more so at the loss of everything they've ever had. The wealth and prestige they could live without, but the loss of their family was the crown that toppled the throne. A snarl formed on her face as she relived the loss of everything that she lost, and now the split with Victra had made this sensation even worse. Why? thought Ten, Why did we have that kriffing stupid argument? Before she could ruminate on this even further, it was then that several presence crossed the threshold of her Force Sense; it didn't surprise the Hapan Knight that the Imperial dogs would come for her. Unclipping her lightsaber, a smile crossed her face in exaltation of the thing she sought most; revenge, and the blood of the invaders will help to satisfy it. As she proceeded through the ruins, she vocalised a quiet oath to herself.

"Death comes for us all this day...but you dogs will go first."

 

[Ender]

Thermals, Davidson signed to Andara, hoping to catch something on his HUD that the normal vision might not pick up. And so it did. A humanoid life form, in the ruins. It would seem they were approaching. Force, schmorsh, who needs magic when you've got superior technology? A second hand motion, Eyes on, told Andara the direction of their contact. Slowly, he drew his blaster rifle, Rogue Arm's DE7, and took careful aim, while also issuing a neural command 'painting' their contact in a nice, bright, red. The whole squad could see the bitch. He tracked the Hapan's movements, then gave a whispered command. "Wait until we all have target acquisition to engage."

 

[Tristar]

Damn; not a minute in and they were already going to get some.

His squad leader's signals told him that much. Corric swivelled his head to his left, activating his thermal vision with a quick whispered command as he did so. The blurry wet vision was replaced with a background of dark blue hue, with minor humanoid heat signatures that were his team mates; quickly raising a clenched fist, he jerked it once in the direction their target was approaching from, flashed the number one: One Tango, 12 o'clock.

Corric then gestured them to move low to the cover some 6 yards further up front, a partly blown wall that sloped downwards to the flank of the Hapan by the time she was up by their position; to Davidson he gave a short whisper: "She knows; prepping flash. Account your shots after the detonation."

Slowly, he switched his rifle to his left hand, brought his right hand to his back and released a single concussion grenade from his belt. Height and visibility alone wasn't going to be enough for someone with some over-exaggerated sorcery; they were going to need a force multiplier of a massive scale for this engagement.

For now, he sat crouched, ready to toss the grenade the moment everyone was in position, or in a more likely situation where she was close enough for him to take a shot. That's when he realised that he couldn't get a decent shot, and inched forward until he was almost side by side with Davidson, breathing silently. Or maybe even holding it back.

Things were getting a little tense.

 

[Slamdingo]

Mud was staining her boots, boots that were part of armor she'd just spent the better part of an hour and a half before this operation had begun. Rain was coming down too hard for her liking and Ishale was pretty sure if she didn't have her helmet on that her hair would be getting soaked right now because rain was coming down so hard it was bouncing off the ground to the point that it seemed like it was raining up! There was a whole slew of things that the demolitions expert hated about this situation and she could have gone on and on for at least a good while. but there were a lot more important things for Ishale to worry about. Like the bounty they were here to hunt down.

Ishale covered her partner as he had crawled further up the slope to a rocky piece of cover. She tailed him but kept a good enough distance to avoid having both of them obliterated in case their target had any explosives on her to lob their way.

And then it had appeared on her HUD. A humanoid with an IFF marker for "Hostile". Designated by their team leader.

Ishale quietly moved to take cover behind the rock with her partner at the crest of their hill and fished in her belt for a fragmentation grenade at the same time she heard the other junior member, Corric, say he was prepping a flashbang. Her smart-fuze was set to three seconds. It'd be enough time to make it through the air and to the target but little else, hopefully.

"Frag is prepped."

Ishale tracked the humanoid figure down at the base of the hill, deeper into the ruins they'd been tipped off that their target had called home.

Out here they had elevation, open ground between they and their opponent, and superior numbers. But Ishale had never fought a jedi before.

This could get interesting.

"She even steps a foot out into open ground, I'll frag her." Ishale whispered, almost more to herself than anybody else.

 

[ShadowMandalore]

The force sensitive appeared on his binoculars as clear as day. She stood upon the ruins of a Hapian city holding her lightsaber in hand. Judging from her gestures, she was aware of our presence.
No matter.
"Wait until we all have target acquisition to engage."

Tucking his binoculars into his backpack, he removed his E-175 from his holster and placed it upon the boulder.

"She knows; prepping flash. Account your shots after the detonation."

He looked back at his partner, who was prepping a fragmentation grenade. As soon as both grenades are tossed, he would rain down a barrage of blaster fire towards the force user.

 

[Pureblood-Sin]

With the Imperials knowing that she was here, Ten Ali leapt into the ruins below; slipping through the debris-strewn place with Force-enhanced speed, she moved swift and silently. Her enemies outnumbering her, the Hapan would take to more... unconventional tactics. To mess with minds, to misdirect and to strike lightning when the time came. Coming to a stop, Ten Ali peered her head around the remains of ruined wall. There stood the Imperial dogs, they came here believing that they were the hunter. Poor fools, she thought, I almost feel sorry for them...well almost." Eyes narrowing at the sight of a rock, the Hapan wrapped the Force around it and proceeded to hurl it at the Stormtrooper who appeared to have the most authority. Anticipating the coming shots, she slipped back into the ruins; awaiting the best time to continue the fun.

 

[ShadowMandalore]

Out of nowhere, a massive rock was flung in direction of the private, knocking him backwards tumbling into the wet ground.

“Davidson!”

Leaving his position, he managed to get to Davidson's position without slipping on the ground that became increasingly muddier and muddier as the rain continued pouring down on them. His body appeared lifeless and immobile as it was slumped over in the dirt. He lifted the private’s head and pressed two of his fingers onto his neck to check for a heartbeat.

“He’s breathing, but he’s knocked out cold. Damn It. He’s in no condition to fight. Corric, I need you to radio in a transport for immediate pick up. Once they’ve retrieved him, you link up with the rest of us. We’ll scout the area for the force sensitive. Rokahn, on me. ”