[Odan-Urr - Team Ramrod]

Clad Odan-Urr

Members:
Kasula/Ysera Daegella, #12049 - Snapshot
Chris Winchester, #13401 - Snapshot
Ethan Martes, #14873 - Snapshot
Maximus Alvinius, #13876 - Snapshot

Featuring:

Ysera Daegella - Snapshot

Post I: Ethan

Outer Rim Territory
Near Nancora
The Damsels’ Distress

The ship rocked for a moment as each of them were plastered into their seats, the three men exchanging glances as they felt the turbulence of the ship rocketing through hyperspace. “Are we sure this a is a good idea?” Chris called out from his seat to the Twi’lek twin sisters in the cockpit.

“Yea, we do this all the time!” Kasula called back, not taking her eyes off one of the many screens.

Ethan reached into his robe and produced a flask, drinking from it without a word. He glanced over to see both Chris and Maximus staring at him, one obviously wearing a disapproving look while the other could only be assumed. Ethan offered the flask to the two of them, but neither made a move to take it from them. He then just shrugged and swigged more before replacing it into his robe.

“Exiting hyperspace now!” Ysera yelled as the ship decelerated, the view of Nancora Prime suddenly filling the view. The ship jerked suddenly to one side as it narrowly dodged past a piece of debris. “We are just past the blockade, they likely know we are here but if we are lucky they will never catch us.”

The three men gripped their seats tightly as they felt the turbulence get worse, entering the planet’s atmosphere. “What about the intel we did get? Is there a place for us to go ghost?”

A few seconds ticked by before Kasula responded, “Yes! There is a sandstorm going on, big one just like they said.”

“Alright, then let’s disappear into it and try and get this mission over as quickly as possible. The rest of the fleet will be engaging the blockade in less than thirty minutes. They can only hold them off for so long to keep an opening for us, so time is of the essence.” Chris spoke with authority. “The faster we are out of there, the better.”

Post II: Kasula

Nancora
Nancora Prime
The Damsels’ Distress

Dust and wind danced across the Damsels’ Distress’ hull, scoring the fresh orange-and-white paint job to reveal its previous colours, a red-and-black mix of angular lines and embellishments reminiscent of a tsw’ell from the planet Luprora - though few aside from Morgan Sorenn would recognize the resemblance. Examining the sand-blasted hull from the dome-like cockpit, Ethan Martes brushed aside a loose strand dangling on the bridge of his nose, “Seems to me, gettin’ out is gonna’ be the most of our worries. I’d’ve offered to strip her down to the bare metal, had either of you fine ladies asked.”

“Not on our ship.” Kasula remarked, reaching up to flip a switch in a pose that forced her half-standing. Chris cleared his throat in a discernable fashion when Ethan stole a glance at the curvature of her spine - how it forced the muscles of her back to show through the form-fitting fabric - tapping twice on a crossed arm as a reminder for the scoundrel to remain focused on the mission at hand.

“Might scratch the hull.” Ysera offered soonafter, drawing a chuckle from Maximus Alvinius, who was now standing between both columns of chairs as the Damsels’ Distress descended through the atmosphere. Even from where the group’s token Jedi stood, he could make out the reminders of close encounters with an asteroid field marring the hull and the faint tracings of blaster scoring beneath countless coats of varnish.

Blasterfire, he mused, seems these “civilian pilots” that Sorenn’s sister offered us aren’t so “civilian” afterall.

Buffeted from the gathering dust storms, turbulence wrenched the durasteel plating from under Ethan, whose hands caught the console to his left just in time to illicit a disgruntled shove in his direction from Kasula. Wrinkles formed across her nose as she caught a whiff of the scoundrel’s breath, which matched his disheveled look… “We’re not taking off again until you’ve hit the ‘fresher. Is that understood?”

Maximus’ lip curled into a smile as the scoundrel breathed into his palm, sniffing it in mockery and shrugging his shoulders for the Councillor’s amusement. A second series of clicks preceded the mechanical whirs of landing gears before Kasula sat back in her seat, praising the fresh air for a last time.

Both of the Daegella twins donned breath masks from the cockpit’s mirrored consoles, securing the apparatus around their mouths and nostrils with practised ease. It would do no good to breathe in the particulate matter of Nancora while the dust storms were in full effect. Both Ethan and Maximus retreated to the landing bulkhead, rearranging their cloaks in questionable fashion around their mouths. Chris adjusted the bottom of his helmet, determined to seal it off from updrafts that might push sand beneath the visor.

No sooner had the freighter landed that Ethan, Chris and Maximus found themselves surrounded in miscellaneous cargo, bins of all sorts lined against the interior of the Damsels’ Distress, marked in labels ranging from Incom Corporation to hazardous materials data sheets. Matching the sand-blasted hull, Ethan noticed the telltale signs of a Flare-S in shining red-and-black with logos depicting its declared allegiance to Morgan Sorenn’s criminal faction and whistled in satisfaction.

A snap shifted the riff raff’s attention - and admiration - to the Twi’lek twins that were now unbuckling one of several crates.

“Can I assist with tha…” he stammered, cutting his sentence short at the sight of a Merr-Sonn Z-6’s multi-barreled mass rising from the container. Leaning the battleworn heavy repeater along the edge of a second crate, the twins retrieved dual Blurrg-1120’s and EL16-HFE rifles resting in alcoves, fitting them to discrete holsters that seemed to match the glossiness of their outfits.

Not a moment after the five were outfitted, Ysera engaged the loading ramp via a hanging lever. Within seconds, Nancora’s dust filled the loading ramp in an orange haze, an opaque barrier set between the intruders and the dangers outside.

Post III - Maximus (Collective view)

Nancora Prime
Badlands
Secret facility

Lined along the walls of a secret facility, the Shikari and the last of the agents from the Technocratic guild quickly finished locking away the recently acquired scrolls and tomes written by Darth Plagueis the Wise. One by one each agent sealed the containers with code that could only be unlocked by the trusted leader of the Shikari, Kendra Icasta. She was personally chosen by the Technocratic Guild to facilitate the transaction and transfer the items to Daggo Mouk.

“You know we could just kill the Shikari and then Kerwin and I could force that code out of you, making us a billion credits richer.” Gwendolyn “Sparks” said with a heinous laugh, watching the Shikari as her left cybernetic eye slowly turned towards cerulean colored Chiss to her left. Such comments of black humor were common from the small framed Twi’lek.

“The problem is even if you were lucky enough to have Kerwin for once side with all your talk, you wouldn’t have the first idea what to do with it once it’s in your possession other than to find the right way to blow it up am I right Kerwin?” The Chiss said while she quickly turned to the right with her deep red ponytail snapping back towards the Twi’leks direction.

The towering Devaronian male paused staring at the two with her amber hued eyes for a second as if to say something, before realising his patience with the two was running thin as he shook his head and turned away. The imposing scavenger had his mind on finishing the mission and not wasting time with words as he began to check the final seals holding the goods. Reaching down one by one with his cybernetic limb to verify the containers would need much more than strength to bypass the code to unlock them. Kerwin Drake’s patience for small talk, and many Technocrats, was always on a fine line, but it seemed even more apparent with these two.

“Well let’s hurry up and get this wrapped up. I don’t need the “Mad Bomber” pushing Kerwin past his limits.” Kendra motioned as she pulled out the communication link to ensure Daggo was updated on the progress of their mission.

Nancora Prime
Badlands
Scrapyard

It had been thirty minutes since the group had left the Damsels’ Distress. The group had, albeit with some complaining from the twins and Ethan, fallen into a formation that had Maximus as the vanguard, followed by the twins, then Ethan, and Chris was the rearguard. They had entered the scrapyard to get out of the sandstorm that was now raging around them, barely letting them see further than ten meters ahead and drowning out any sound they might hear.

Ten minutes later the group holed up in a “cave” created from the wreckages to get out of the storm. Maximus stood guard at the entrance, keeping to himself. Ethan took another drink from his flask, before asking, “How far do you think we are?”

“About halfway the-,” Chris stopped talking mid word when he heard the tale-tell “schvrmmmmmmm” of a lightsaber igniting and turned his head to the see the blue glow of Maximus’ saber at the entrance just before he ran out.

“What is that idiot doing?” asked one of the Daegella sisters.

“I don’t know, but I guess we should help him.” replied Ethan before taking out his blaster pistol. The twins each took out one of their blasters, Kasula her rifle and Ysera her pistol, before running out into the storm after their token Jedi, with Ethan behind them. Chris was the last one out and he hadn’t draw his weapon yet.

When the rest of the group caught up to Maximus they found him in combat with a four man patrol, or rather a three man patrol since one of them was already dead. The girls fired at the remaining members, one of which was hit by a blaster bolt and fell where he stood. The remaining two members ducked into some cover and start blind firing at the group. Maximus deflected the bolts away from him, but the two girls ducked under some cover, where they found Ethan already at.

“Do something will you,” Kasula directed at him.

With a groan, Ethan looked up and caused the debris the patrol was hiding behind, and under, fall ontop of them crushing them.

Ethan stood up and smirked at the twins with a ‘How do you like me now?’ kind of look. They both just rolled their eyes at him as they took cover again in the small cave. As everyone regrouped, Ethan used the contents of his flask to get the sand out of his mouth. “So, halfway eh? Any plans on getting inside?”

Everyone kind of looked at each other for a moment, none of them had actually thought of that. Chris sighed and shook sand from his armor. “We make an entrance.” Which was good enough for each of them. “We’ve got enough explosives to make a hole.”

They rest for a moment before Ethan finally spoke, “What are we gonna’ do with the scrolls?” He felt all of their gazes turn to him, “Oh come on, don’ be lookin’ at me like that. I know we all have different motives. Three smugglers, a Naval stiff and Maximus… No offense.”

“We secure them for Odan-Urr and out of enemy hands.” Chris stated flatly.

“Then we should destroy them.” Ethan countered.

“Those things are worth a fortune!” Kasula yelled with almost a growl escaping from her lips.

“Yea, they are.” Ethan nodded. “But they are somethin’ that no one should have. Think about it. These are scrolls of some Force User from ages past, and if I recall correctly, was a Sith.” He raised a single finger up, as if to mark his point. “I don’ think anyone should have those, and that we should destroy them.”

“That will be up for the Council to decide.” Maximus finally spoke. “That is not something we can decide here.”

Everyone stared at Ethan and Maximus for a few seconds before Chris spoke, “Agreed. We get them, get back. Then we decide.”

After a few more minutes they made their way back into the sandstorm, wading through the harsh winds and towards their goal. They found another small alcove to hide in, the faint outline of the Technocratic base in view with another patrol and two turrets guarding the front door.

Post VI - Kasula Daegella

“So, about those defenses. Gonna come up with another tactic here, scatter-brain?” Kasula yelled at Chris above the howl of wind sweeping across the alcove.

“If we’re walking out of here, no karking way we’re standing in front of…. those,” Ysera nodded around the corner to the turrets, swivelling on their axis, “Our whole career is built around avoiding bullets, not serving as bantha fodder.”

Ethan shifted his weight against the alcove’s wall, retrieving a cigar and lighter from emperor-knows-where and igniting the end with subconscious ease. He took a long drag of the smoke, letting it fill his lungs before expelling it in a single exhale, “I don’t much fancy getting shot at, either. No offense, but smuggler’s code. No cause is worth gettin’ blown to bits.”

Cooly fixing the braid dangling from his chin, Maximus weighed in, “With a career built around not getting shot, you two seem to shake off more TIE fighters than most ‘racers.’”

“What’s he gettin’ at?” Ethan whispered through drags of his cigar to the other man disengaged from the conversation.

“I think he has an idea,” Chris answered, “And not one of them are going to like it.”

One Hour Later

“I can’t believe you agreed to this!” Kasula hollered as the Flare-S swoop neared the base at full throttle, it engines roaring in response to Ysera’s driving capabilities.

“You agreed to this!” Ysera snarled back, switching to the bike’s highest gear just in time for Kasula to grab the bike’s rear handle. Ahead, the turrets began to take form as the curtain of sand became less and less obfuscating. As if expressing the machines’ anger, lights flared red ahead of the sirens that announced their visit and the hailstorm of blasterfire roaring in their direction.

“Here goes…” Ysera muttered before engaging the engine’s boost.

Post VII - Maximus (Collective view)

Nancora Prime
Badlands
Secret facility

As Kendra finished her conversation with Daggo Mouk, she glanced at her datapad to verify the status of the incoming ship due to pick up the goods.

“Daggo said the ship will be inbound to pick up the shipment in 30 minutes. According to the status update it will be some ships from the Battle Group Ostara who will be intercepting the artifacts.” Kendra stated as she pointed towards the datapad.

Rolling her eyes back with boredom from the wait, Gwendolyn began to spin her Bryar pistol around until suddenly the sound of sirens began to ring as red lights started flashing inside the facility.

“Looks like we got company. We should of ran off with those artifacts when we first got a hold of them.” Gwendolyn said with a laugh.

“I doubt that. If they tracked us here, they would of surely tracked us anywhere else. How in the hell did they find our location?” Kendra said as she paused, looking towards Kerwin for answers.

The towering Kerwin Drake looked unphased by the comment as he reached around to pull out the electro-staff that measured almost his own length in height. The scavenger glanced over towards the other two with a look of determination as the sound of turrets began firing outside of the facility.

“The time for small talk is over. I suggest you start informing all available bodies towards the front to prepare for what we are about to face Kendra.” Drake stated bluntly.

“Everyone listen up! We need all of you split up towards the entrances to the facility immediately. We have unknown targets inbound who are unauthorized to enter this building. We must protect these artifacts and transfer them at all costs. Failure to transfer these artifacts is not an option. Stand your ground and shoot to kill anything that makes an attempt into the facility now.” The Chiss yelled as the Shikari and surrounding agents nodded at the command and running towards the entrance with their weapons at their sides.

With the two girls providing distraction the rest of the small team used it to get closer to the building. They were able to locate a “maintenance” entry to slip in unnoticed.

“Maximus stay here and protect our way out, and from now on comm silence unless it goes fubar.” said Chris.

The Jedi understood and didn’t try to argue as having a reliable exit was going to be essential to pulling this thing off. This left only Ethan and Chris to continue on to try to locate the scrolls.

Ten Minutes Later

“Just how large is this place?” Ethan asked sarcastically. Chris didn’t offer up a reply, just kept moving, searching for something.

It just happened that when Ethan decided to talk they turned a corner and came up behind a group of Shikari patrolling the building looking for them. Not wanting to take any chances on them alerting the rest of the Shikari of their location Chris motioned for Ethan to stop and he slowly walked backwards around the corner. Ethan peeked around the corner, saw the guards, and darted back into cover. Once there he took out his concussion grenade, primed it, then rolled it in the middle of the guards. When it went off the blastwave caused the guards to get blown into the wall, knocking most of them unconscious. The unlucky two who didn’t go down were shot in the head by Chris using his silenced pistol. Chris searched the bodies, taking the chance to snap their necks while he was doing it, of the Shikari until he found what he was looking for; a datapad with a map of the area. On it he saw a possible location for where the scrolls were, though it was risky as there was only one way in and out of the room.

“Hey Ethan, look at this,” Chris showed him the map on the device and the central room that would hold the scrolls. “I say we go here and see what’s there.”

“Better than just roaming this place blind I guess, let’s go,” replied Ethan.

Maximus reached out with the Force and grabbed one Collective Soldier that was distracted by the twins and slammed him around like a ragdoll, doing his best to keep them from noticing him. His brow furrowed, hearing the twins in the distance keeping the Collective mostly busy. “What is taking Chris and Ethan so long?”

Kasula ducked as a round skimmed past her head, “The kark is taking them so long!?”

Ethan was squat in front of the large, imposing doors with his lightsaber in one hand and blaster in another, “What’s taking so long?”

Chris let out a low growl, “This is harder than it looks.”

“I gave ya a computer spike!” Ethan looked around nervously, trying to keep his voice down.

“Yea well it takes more than that to bypass a security system! Especially when neither of us know slicing!” Chris snapped back. “Why don’t you do something more useful than stand over me!” Ethan glared and walked up to the door and ignited his lightsaber. “What are you doing?”

“Get your stupid grenade ready.” He stabbed his lightsaber into the door, the hot plasma blade slowly boring a hole through the steel. Within seconds there was a hole big enough for one of the men to stick their whole arm through.

Without any need of further instruction, Chris pulled out his dioxis grenade and primed it before throwing it through the hole. The two backed away as they heard three distinct voices yelling inside. The two stood to either side of the door, ready to ambush any who came out. Seconds began to feel like minutes before the doors pulled open with the three people stumbling out and gasping for air.

The two men just picked the three off with with their guns and looked at them, Ethan holding his breath and backing up from the door. As the mist of the dioxis grenade cleared from the room, Chris went in and saw a few more dead inside. Ethan looked at the bodies, “Oh hey, stiff! These three are the ones from the briefin’!” He checked each one’s face. “Gwendolyn, Kendra, and Kerwin!”

Chris nodded to Ethan before they began to rifle through the dead’s belongings, hoping for a key or something to unlock the secured items.

Post X: Kasula Daegella

“These stiffs aren’t quite… stiff,” Ethan noted as the two rifled through the Collective’s belongings. He smacked the nearest of the three targets with the handle of his DL-44 for emphasis, eliciting a groan from Kerwin.

“You’re right,” responded Chris, “But we didn’t come for prisoners - let’s grab the scrolls and get out before more of the Collective show up.”

“Wait,” Ethan interjected, “How can be be sure that these three won’t be an issue?” Following his observation, the smuggler levelled the DL-44 at Kerwin’s head, his finger on its trigger as if to drive home his intentions.

The shot went wild with a “skraang” as an invisible hand wrenched his arm to the side, the bolt bouncing off one wall to embed itself in the ceiling. “An execution wasn’t in the job description, either,” Maximus intervened.

Unbeknownst to the three attackers, Kendra clambered to her feet behind the distracted trio with unhindered ease for her immune system was accustomed to fighting off such small doses of toxins. It took mere seconds for the Shikari to coat the end of her gauntlet in a fast reacting venom.

“Ow!” Ethan shouted, a sharp pain followed by a searing sensation spreading from the back of his neck drawing his attention from the heated debate between himself and the group’s token Jedi. Cradling the back of his neck to inspect the damage, his fingers came across something metallic embedded in the flesh. “Son of a banth-”

Ethan fell to the ground unconscious, prompting Maximus place himself and his lightsaber in front of Chris.

“Dioxis, really?” Kendra laughed, “I’ve just injected that loud-mouthed miscreant with the latest in Mandolorian toxins. Unfortunately, he’ll soon wake among the bodies of his co-conspirators.”

“I’ll give you loud-mouthed miscreant - that was a good one,” Maximus stated, “but we’ll be leaving here alive, and with the scrolls.”

“Well, best get used to be disappointed,” Kendra fired back with a flourish of her electro-whip, “the odds aren’t in your favour, Master Jedi.”

“Oh, there’s more than two of us,” Maximus threatened, “Any time now, that wall behind you is going to explode.”

“Oh reall-” Kendra’s words faltered as the walls cracked and fell around her, the Shikari’s screams falling silent beneath a large chunk of duracrete.

“We’re here!” shouted one of the two twins from the front of their shared swoop - Chris could never tell which was speaking.

“We got tired of outrunning their defenses, so we decided to outgun them,“ the other twin echoed from the back, hoisting a PLX-1 missile launcher onto her shoulder as if it were a bundle of sticks.

“Well that is one hell of an entrance. I actually was going to have some fun with that Kendra twig after all her gloating. Shame you took the victory so quickly!” Maximus stated to the two twins.

Jumping off the swoop and observing the debris of duracrete below them the two twins look below observing for both looking up and smiling.

“Well the witch is dead!” Exclaimed the twins.

“You two witches are still alive, so what the hell are you talking about?” Ethan exclaimed.

The twins seemed to ignore the comment as they began to soak in their surprising entrance had just so happen to be right over the infamous Kendra Icasta and his posse of Shikari.

“I’ll take the term witch if it means the Shikari are gone.” One of the twins said while rummaging for survivors.

The room was filled with numerous amounts of bodies spread about from what once was the Shikari Huntress. The mere luck of the twins strike just so happen to be at the perfect point to take down the Shikari and their leader in one swoop.

“So how did you know what location to strike?” Maximus asked the twins.

“Are you kidding me? We were arguing over who got to drive and as we round the area we thought we needed to go through, we ended up fighting so hard we crashed. Looks like for good reason to with the timing of it all Jedi.” The twins said with sarcastic response.

‘Yeah your right. Well let’s finish this up and get the heck outta here.” stated the Jedi.

While the others were talking amongst themselves, Chris had placed the scrolls in his pack and slung it back on his back. “Scrolls acquired, you can save all the bickering about what we’re going to be doing with them when we get back to the ship. Let’s just move.” The others seemed to share his sentiment and didn’t try to argue about it, at least for the moment.

Exiting the compound was a lot easier than entering it, due to the twins entrance. Outside the storm had managed to die down as well, leaving them with a relatively clear path out.

“We’ll go ahead and get the ship, prepare for a quick exit,” said one of the twins as they sped off, blaster shots streaming towards them.

“Alright guys, let’s move,” Chris said to the other two.

The two Jedi went ahead first leaving Chris there alone for a moment, but that’s all he needed. Taking out his pistol he put a round into the head of the other two “leaders” before heading off to catch up with the other two.

** Twenty Minutes Later **

The group of three guys had managed to get back to the maze of scrap heaps in one peace, it wasn’t an easy thing though. Several times they had ran into one or two Shikari, but the majority of them were disordered with the loss of the leaders. It wasn’t long before the group of guys heard the lovely sound of a ship and saw the Daegella’s ship hovering overhead and one of them on the gatling laser pointing to a relatively clear spot one hundred meters in front of them where they could land. The group made their way over to it and boarded the ship, with the sisters closing the boarding ramp and heading off to space.