The Crucible

[Akalenedat]

Kell had his back against the wall as overwhelming firepower blasted at him from the other side, slowly digging away at the sandstone wall with each blaster bolt. Kell took the time to breath and recuperate before going back at it again with these blasted pirates. This whole shenanigan started because Kell had rushed into things without thinking first. Who could blame the guy? Nobody was with him and the only people getting hurt were the pirates. Still, Kell wished he had a little more restraint some times. He used to think chains were a weakness that held one back, but discipline simply makes one stronger in the end.

Kell lobbed an explosive slug into his Mountaintop and waited as the blaster fire died down. He peeked, only for a second, and found that the pirates had began to set up an old E-Web to a large tripod.

Fools!

He ran out of his hiding spot and rolled to another vantage point where he had just enough cover and time to fire an explosive slug right into the energy capacitor that was hooked up to the E-Web turret, sending the machinery and the men manning the gun to a fiery doom as the explosion even rattled Kell's helmet a bit.
The Mando took the opportunity of shock and awe to fly up onto the roofing of one of the houses used as cover and high ground by the pirate gang. Three pirates were caught staring at the wreckage of their once-effective trump card before reacting too slowly to counter Kell's blows.
The first, a blue Rodian, turned right into Kell's fist, knocking the man down in a single blow. The second, a skinny Trandoshan, rushed Kell and grappled with him long enough for the third pirate, an older looking man with one good eye, to open fire on the Mando.

Kell felt the first two bolts hit him in the gut- the burning cold sensation made the Mando roar in rage rather than agony as he twisted his lizard opponent into the next shot which would've taken out Kell's head. The old man, being stunned from the accidental friendly fire that took his Trandoshan ally to the Force, took a three shot burst right in the gut from Kell's EE-3 and toppled over the edge of the roof.

Poetic!

There were eight more pirates left for Kell to maul- Squeezing the trigger to your right... -Kell dodged the blaster bolt and fired back at the sharpshooter, only clipping the masked figure's shoulder and Kell thanked his Luck-Gut-Instinct. Before Kell could pursue the cheap-shot, the other seven baddies began firing upon him from newly taken cover.
Kell found himself right back where he started, but with slight advantage.

"Surrender now, Scum! I have the High-Grou- GAAH!" A pirate knocked off a laser to Kell's helmet, knocking the Mando to his back. Kell was alright, thanks to his father's Beskar, but the heat and and aching pain of being shot still throbbed his head to the beat and rhythm of his heartbeat. The warrior groggily got back to his feet- he still had seven and a half pieces of Bantha Fodder to take care of that were moving in on Kell's position.

Thanks for nothing, Lucky-Gut-Instinct.

 

[Akalenedat]

Kell shook himself awake as he was still dizzy from his recent wounds. "RAH!" He roared as he jumped off the roof and dove into a combat roll, taking cover behind a barricade. To Kell's surprise, one of the pirates was doing the very same thing and peeked over the barricade to see where Kell had gone. The pirate yelled and fired at Kell, but was too slow as Kell got a hold of the pirate's head and pulled the man over onto Kell's side of the barricade just as the other pirates began firing at him. The Mando struggled with the pirate for a moment, using his weight to keep the brigand down while punching the pirate incessantly, trying to beat passed the helmet the pirate was wearing and knock him out before the others jumped Kell from behind.

"Go to sleep- Gotosleepgotosleepgotosleepgotosleepgotosleepgotosleep!" Kell shouted hurriedly as he kept pounding down on the pirate's face with his fist. After the pirate stopped struggling (whether he was dead or knocked out, Kell couldn't careless) Kell picked up the limp body with one arm and dashed towards another barricade to take cover, using the body as a shield from the almost immediate blaster fire.

"I will only tell you all one last time!" Kell called from behind his cover- he realized that he has mistakenly put himself in a corner. The remaining pirates laughed at the Mando and held their ground. "Bantha-brain, you're surrounded! Surrender the beskar and maybe will kill you clean and fast." Called out one of the bastards in a cruel voice that spat when he spoke. Kell switched out his EE-3 for his glorious Mountaintop and loaded another explosive slug into the chamber. He grinned a proud grin behind his helmet, "Surrounded, you say? All I see are dead men!" Kell took to the air with his jetpack, gaining some leverage before diving over the party that wished him dead and fired a single slug at the middle guy, sending everything in the blast radius to cinder.

Kell took a moment to revel in his victory- all ten and half men were defeated and only Akalenedat remained- Looking down iron sights... - Kell wasn't fast enough this time as a blaster bolt barreled into the warrior's shoulder. Kell couldn't pin point where his unfinished sharpshooter was firing from so he took to the air and flew to a spire-looking building, blaster bolts nearly grazing him as he flew. Once he was behind the spire, he took to time to acknowledge the following injuries he had sustained; Two wounds in his gut from a blaster, a wound on his head that had now began to bleed, and his newest wound on his shoulder also from a blaster.

Whoever had him cornered was a good shot, Kell sadly had to admit. They had been aiming for the gaps in between where the Mando's beskar plating didn't cover and had enough time to line up the shot while also remaining hidden on another higher rooftop. Then, Kell had an idea...

He sighed before taking off his helmet and then placed it on then end of a stick like a coat hangar. Kell then got down on one knee in a crouch, very carefully edging the left side of his face to a small peep hole in the corner of the spire while simultaneously holding his helmet up with the stick past the corner, making a devious fake-out for Kell to spot where the sniper was nested...

BANG!

Kell's helmet bounced off the stick and Kell quickly retracted his arm. From the peep hole, Kell had seen the just of which rooftop he needed to look out for- it was a cylinder-ish building with lots of little archways that could be used as a crow's nest. Kell laughed in vigor as he excitedly grabbed his helmet to find that the damn sharpshooter had shot off the left horn to his helmet, so now there was only a blackened stump.

Oh, I'm going to enjoy beating the kriffing shit out of you, Cheap-Shot...

 

[Akalenedat]

Akalenedat meant "Hard-Contact". It was a mask that hid Kell's true name as his helmet hid his identity. Many probably thought it was weird and childish to use a callsign or fake name, but to Kell it was a lot more personal than an alter-ego. He was the mix of two Clans; Rook and Vizsla. His parents were noble and died nobly for the protection of their only child. He couldn't help but beat himself up about not being able to be like his parents so he decided to go by a nickname until he proved himself worthy of being both a Rook and a Vizsla.

Akalenedat meant "Hard-Contact", like how he pummeled the one pirate with his bare fists which caused him to break through his helmet and knock him out cold (or Kell at least thought he didn't kill him). He was going to make this last pirate suffer a worse punishment for ruining his helmet. Kell still had his back to the wall of the spire he hid behind for cover. He knew where the sniper perched in wait, but couldn't do much about it. He was in a stale mate. If he was going to move it had to be both fast and calculated.

Where would he go? If he went left, he'd get shot. If he went right, he'd get shot. If he went up and used the cover of the spire then he could zig-zag his way to-
Kell's comlink came on as he planned, a familiar voice chuckled with amusement. "Clever Cleaver, heheh..."
The Mando facepalmed and completely forgot about his droid piloting his Kom'rk Transport. "Cleaver! I'm in a bit of a pinch- can I get a bit of air-support? I'm sending you your target...Now!" Kell sent in the coordinates of the building Mr. Cheap-Shot waited in.

Kell waited for a few minutes, and eventually found himself playing in the dirt. Kell sniffed and sighed, grabbed a stick, and then tossed it out into the open only for it to be shot in half before it touched the ground. Still waiting for me, it seems. You're either stupid, very confident in your skills, or planning a trap that I might've already fallen into- or all of them all at once. He waited another five minutes and then stood up and grunted, "Where is that droid?!" And as he turned to look at the building, it went up in a huge explosion with dust and debris blowing in the Mando's face. The shockwave nearly toppled the man over!

"HAHAAA, YEEEEEEESS!!" Kell bellowed as his Kom'rk Transport flew past the desolated building and stopped overhead where Kell was. The hatches opened and Kell flew upwards, but before he reached it, a blaster bolt nicked him on the right side of his helmet and Kell began to lose his grip on himself, slowly fading to black- he reached out to grab onto his ship, but missed and he felt himself fall back to the ground- A metal hand gripped his forearm and began pulling the large man into the ship, but another blaster hit Cleaver's wrist, and as Kell found himself falling again, Cleaver snatched him up again, pulling him up with both hands this time.

When Kell got into his ship, he let himself go unconscious. The HK-24 series droid chuckled maliciously as he took the pilots seat and turned the ship around to see who the bothersome sharpshooter was. Cleaver found his target on the scanners and began firing away in a long series of rapid blaster fire that tore the old abandoned town apart. "Die filthy meat-bag, DIE!!" Cleaver screamed as he kept up the fire for a long while and then stopped. Cheap-Shot still stood out on the droid's scanners like a black sheep in the middle of a flock of white sheep.

Cleaver grumbled as he scanned the flaming wreckage he created for any signs of life. Then he found his target pushing over a fallen piece of stone over. Cleaver placed a metal finger over the trigger that would've blasted the pirate to hell. His target was on their back, and Cleaver could see their chest heaving up and down, but what stopped Cleaver from pulling the trigger was the armor this Cheap-Shot fella was wearing.

Cleaver landed the ship and laid Kell down to rest comfortably before heading out the ship to the sharpshooter. Cleaver grabbed the culprit by the throat and raised him a few inches off the ground before throwing the pirate to the ground. The pirate choked and groaned as he turned over on his back again to stare at the droid through his T-visor.

"Nice armor." Cleaver complimented the shiny beskar the pirate wore. "...Tha- agh...Thanks...Mando said...said there'd be...be more...be more if we pried off...the set your master wears...heheh...heheheh..." Cleaver placed his mechanical foot on the pirate's throat and began to press down slowly and steadily. This creature was no Mando and whoever gave him the armor was a poor excuse of one, too. "Who gave you the armor? Who's your dealer?!" Cleaver applied more pressure to the pirate before removing his foot so the sniper could speak. "...Gah..argh...Guy...Guy was name...named...Vallen-" Cleaver shot the pirate in the throat with one of the Westar-35s Kell had that Cleaver brought with him.

Cleaver knew the owner of that name. Cleaver wasn't programmed to hate it but he did because of the pain and grief the owner of the name caused Cleaver's master.

Cleaver took the armor off the pirate and and dragged it back to his master's Kom'rk Transport. Oh, did the droid have a story for Kell...