[Mando/Renelo] Unleashing the Hound

[Sierrien]

Levijon threw something heavy across the room, which smashed against the wall. Not only had his Hound been taken down, but then the remaining 'slaves' had taken down all the remaining pirates who had been pinning them down. he quickly switched his viewport over to watch the lone mandalorian. Surely his pirates would be able to take him down, right? They actually managed to shoot him a few times, he was pretty sure - but that armor was too thick, and now those four were dead as well. That meant that he was now the only conscious pirate on the ship; even his hound had been taken down. He let out a dark curse, drawing his heavy blaster pistol and quickly moving towards the exit. The ship was lost; the only thing for it now was to get to his private shuttle and get out of here, quickly. With his pistol in one hand and the control in the other so that he could still use the slaves as his bargaining chip to get out of here, he moved quickly through the halls. He knew them well, and his enemy did not.

He would be to the shuttle soon enough, but would run in to Barden Kex at the least due to the pirate telling him which way to go, as well as Ral and his group if they decided to back him up as well. He brought the device up quickly, his thumb against a button as he called out to them, while shifting around a corner to be somewhat out of sight in case anyone shot at him. "This is a deadman switch, and I mean that literally! If my thumb comes off of this, the collar of every slave on this ship will explode, and they'll all be dead! I am going to get in my shuttle and fly away, and then you may have the ship and the slaves. Do we have a deal?" He waited there for someone to call back to him, his pistol at the ready and his thumb on the switch. There weren't actually explosives in the collars, the button would only choke the slaves until someone pressed it again, but he needed something better to bluff his way out of this one.

Astra meanwhile slowly opened her eyes, a low groan let out as she slowly looked up to see her wrists cuffed together, and to see she had been cuffed against part of the ship. She tugged at it lightly; yeah that wasn't going anywhere. Memories returned and she nodded lightly. Good; they had taken her out and she hadn't been choked out, so that meant the rotten captain of this vessel was likely on the run. And they had been smart enough to cuff her somewhere she couldn't get away from and further harass them. She hoped they would be successful in taking down Levijon, but she didn't think they would have a problem with him. The only issue she could see was that he might be able to escape, but even then she would be free. At least free of him - she wasn't a hundred percent sure these newcomers were going to free her. She looked back up towards the cuffs and blew out a low sigh. All she could do was wait, now.

 

[Ral]

"Gotcha, I'm on my way," Ral answered when Kex informed him of where he could find the hut'uun captain. After a minute he came across the other two Mandalorians that Kex had sent on ahead to relieve Ral and his team from the half dozen mercs that were besieging them. It seems they had been ambushed by a small contingent of pirates who had been mostly successful at delaying them. But with Ral's arrival he led them against the pirates, his pulse rifle capable of laying down a successful barrage of covering fire while the Verde moved down and blasted them with their rifles. Out of it only one survived, the rest were killed by the two warriors. "Get to engineering, and take this scum with you; tie him up with the others. Also if you have some stun grenades I'd gladly take one off of your hands. I have a depraved craven to hunt and I don't want him getting away."

Armed with another grenade, Ral made his way to where the captain was supposed to be having lost less than a minute countering the pirates in the previous corridor. He reached the entrance to where the shuttle was docked and saw Kex had also just arrived. It seemed that there weren't any more pirates on the ship besides the captain, and he was trying to escape; something Ral couldn't possibly allow. The man offered his ultimatum, threatening to kill all of the slaves including Astra. It put Ral into a difficult position, he couldn't risk Astra since she was the whole point of the mission, but he couldn't let the captain get away; he had promised to make sure he would pay. The only thing Ral could do was figure out if the captain was bluffing or if he had actually installed explosives in the collars of all the slaves. Acting on instinct, Ral decided he would have to risk it, there was no guarantee the captain wouldn't kill the slaves anyway once he was free.

So, he brought his hand up, grenade clenched tightly in it, pulled it back as he armed the device before throwing it forward and releasing the grenade like a fastball. The round metal object soared through the air and impacted the man square in the chest before going off in a bright, and loud, bang. Levijon fell to the ground from the close proximity blast and impact from the hard throw. Ral brought his pulse rifle up and fired instantly while Kex rushed the captain and pinned them captain to their hard floor. Ral ran up and grabbed the remote for the collars, making sure it wasn't activated. Judging that he hadn't gotten a sporadic series of panicked messages of how people's heads just popped, Ral took it as a sign that people hadn't died. "Get him to the slave pens, I'll meet you there with the others."

Ral returned to the engineering bay where Astra was now conscious but still tied up. "Good news! You're no longer a slave!" He smiled at the woman before looking at the remote in his hand. There was a slight temptation to use it and keep Astra as his own killing machine, but it passed just as quickly as it came. There was no way he could do such a thing. Pressing the button, Ral released the collar from all of the slave's necks before relea sing Astra's binders. "C'mon, follow me to the slave pens. I have something for you." Motioning to the other Mandalorians in the room he told them to gather up the still breathing pirates and bring them with.

 

[Sierrien]

Her eyes shifted from the floor up towards Ral as he returned. And said he had good news. Not only that, but he was smiling as he went on to say she was no longer a slave. She felt her breath catch as he brought up the remote that Levijon had always kept on his person. That meant that he was either dead or at the least had been taken down by these men who had taken over the ship. She kept holding her breath as he brought up the remote and hesitated; it would be pretty tempting to keep her as a slave with her skills, she knew. Or maybe he was just trying to figure out which button actually released the collars, as quicker than it should take to think both sides through he pressed the button to release the collars. Her breath rushed out of her as the collar clicked open and then he released the cuffs holding her to the wall as well.

Her hands shot down and pulled the collar from around her throat, immediately throwing it far away from herself as she could before jumping not just to her feet, but in to a sudden tight hug to the man who had just freed her. "YES! Thank you thank you thank you!" she called out loudly, releasing the hug so that she could bounce around in a bit of a dance. She stopped and coughed, looking back towards him and trying to be serious again when he mentioned having something for her at the slave pens. "Of course. Let's go, then!" She all but skipped her way down to the slave pens with Ral then, clearly happy to be free of that collar and the cage to boot. Kex would get a huge hug when she saw him as well, and every other Mandalorian that had helped free her that they came across would too - as well as at least one 'Thank you' to each.

Finally she was through them all and she saw her 'present' - Levijon staring at her, looking more than a little bit frightened and entirely chained up. He started to beg immediately, a pathetic whine to his voice as Astra snatched a knife from nearby and simply grinned darkly at him. "You caged me, made me your hound, made me the plaything of your sick desires and used me to make yourself rich. For years - and I couldn't even count how many - I was stuck in that cage." She breathed in slowly as she brought the knife up, inspecting it before looking back towards Levijon. "I'm going to pay you back for all of it. You will die; do not fear. But not until you've begged me for that death, not until I've made you feel every ounce of pain and humiliation I suffered."

She strode forward then, and it would be a gruesome thing to watch as she used that sharp little knife to slowly cut small pieces off of him. Wherever would hurt him the most; she made his death take hours, and by the end he was a broken, sniveling thing that didn't even have the strength to beg towould have it end anymore. And then, finally, she ended his miserable existence and went off to find a nice hot shower. If she had needed one before, well - she had certainly exacerbated the situation by getting his blood all over herself. Soon enough it was off and she was clean for the first time in many, many years. Her time as a hound was over.

Finally, she found Ral again and asked to be taken off of this ship. She told him he could keep it and do whatever he wanted with it, as long as she never had to step foot on it again. He made an offer for her to spend some time with them and see what she thought of their clan, and she glad to accept it. They had freed her, and she was happy for the first time since she had woken from her medically induced coma.