The Severian Principate has requested the Dark Jedi Brotherhood restrain all prisoners or if necessary shoot to kill all who don’t obey to regain control. They are strict about control and order and do not stand for disobedience.
Answering the call are:
(Alphabetical Order)
Severian Principate - Tenixir Supermax Prison
Central Management Facility
“This is going to be a real shit show, Ankira,” Ala’ar mumbled in Mando’a as he checked on the chaos in the various blocks from the control room feed. “I’d say we forget Aurek or Besh; from what I can tell there’s nothing we want there, mark-wise. Cresh on the other hand might have some nice bounties we could collect on the Exchange… but the Collective agents that Taldryan are interested in are all in block Dorn. How about we swing by Cresh, then go to Dorn?”
He glanced over towards the other Mando with him, leaving her some room to look at the display for herself. She was wearing a more petite style of Mando Armor that hid a well toned athletic body, if one judged the way it hugged her body (as Ala’ar had, as much as he had tried not to).
Her t-visor turned towards the display he had been looking over. “I don’t think we’ll have time to do both, being greedy won’t make us popular with Taldryan if we lose sight of our main targets.”
Ala’ar sighed, sure Taldryan paid for the bills, but he wouldn’t get rich enough to retire to his dream ranch, raising raptors if he didn’t take any risks.
“You’re right,” he conceded, “but I sure would like one of those bounties. They’d go a long way for me to buy some land.”
Ankira had heard Ala’ar speak about his ranching days when he was younger, she knew about the giant birds he wanted to breed and race. Though she saw no logic in riding big porgs — Ala’ar hated that comparison — she did think it comical whenever she imagined the blue eyed human trying to ride a big porg-like creature, not to mention she sure enjoyed goading him.
“We better get going. Those giant porgs won’t get here by themselves,” Ankira said as she turned away to leave for the prison blocks.
She heard a muttering behind her, but soon his footsteps followed her. She too wouldn’t mind earning some extra credits to get herself a new ship, but they were sent here to do a job, and not go bountie shopping.
With all the riots going on down there it would be hard enough to get to the Collective agents at all. Because she was sure they had their own agendas for getting out there, using the chaos as a cover. But if they focused on getting them, she was sure they would be able to get one, perhaps even two of them.
As they rounded a corner, the noise was getting louder with each step they took. All the prisoners were yelling things, while the few guards that even dared to try and hold them there were yelling at them to return to their cells. Neither side would budge of course.
“Are you the ones they sent to help us?” One of the guards asked when he spotted them.
Ankira gave a nod, “One way or another, these people are going back into their cells… or not at all.”
“Good luck out there, you are going to need it.”
“We will be fine, getting our muscles warmed up and such,” Ala’ar answered as they passed by the guard and walked further towards the entrance of the cell blocks.
“I suppose you’re wondering why I volunteered for this mission,” Andrelious stated as he and his fellow Plagueian, a Shistavanen named Fenrir, descended the shuttle’s boarding ramp, followed closely by Fenrir’s narglatch.
Fenrir simply nodded. The large furry humanoid was a man of few words, but his datafile assured Andrelious that his companion for the operation on Tenixir was no slouch when it came to a fight.
“To be blunt, I loathe the Collective. Their belief that the Force needs to be eradicated means that they are a threat to the safety of my children. I do not tolerate threats to my children. Not to mention that they have taken Kooki,” the Human explained.
Fenrir nodded again.
“But regardless of the official briefing, all I am going to do is just kill as many of the escapees as possible. I do not like the Principate much, either. They are traitors to the Empire and I would just as happily wipe them out. For now, though, we’ll need their support. You and I alone would find it a little difficult against TWO sets of enemies,”
Fenrir responded with a low pitched growl.
Andrelious studied the prison’s layout on his datapad.
“There’s four cell blocks. I don’t really care which of them we deal with first. Care to choose?”
His companion shrugged, then pointed at the cell block at the bottom of the diagram.
As the pair moved towards cellblock Dorn, Andrelious could already sense the sheer hostility between prisoners and whatever guards had survived.
A nearby guard noticed the unusual pairing and approached.
“I didn’t know the Brotherhood were sending four members,” the guard stated.
“They’re not. It is just Fenrir and I. Members of Clan Plagueis. Not that we have time for long introductions. We came for a fight,” Andrelious answered.
The guard raised an eyebrow. “But the two Mandalorians said that they were with you,”
Mandalorians? Have Vizsla sent people too? Mimosa-Inahj thought to himself, hoping it wasn’t true; Plagueis had only just finished a skirmish against the Brotherhood’s newest clan.
“Very well. I shall have to see if we know them. And if they’re a friend…or a foe,” Andrelious declared.
The cells in Dorn were empty, only the sick had remained indoors, looking forlorn and mere shadows of their former selves. The action was in the courtyard, where thousands of prisoners were rioting. At the other entrance, a bunch of prison guards were assisting some prisoners.
“That’s odd,” Ala’ar grumbled, “looks like those guards are helping some prisoners escape.”
Ala’ar smelled money, and he suddenly didn’t really care to tango into the fray in order to get the prison back into control when there was some obvious mischief in the works. His finger tapped the side of his vizor, his HUD taking images of the guards and the prisoners for further analysis as he drew his pistols.
He made a snapshot decision, instead of shooting at the guards, he decided to shoot at one of the prisoners instead. His silencer suppressed the gunshot, doing little to surprise the rowdy prisoners below them, but the prisoner nearest the door suddenly howled in pain when a slug hit him in the leg, causing him to fall several feet from the open gate where the guards stood, dumbfounded. Another shot fired from Ala’ar’s second pistol, barely missing the prisoner that had decided to push the wounded one to the side in order to move past him. A third shot, and the prisoner taking the lead took a shot in the thigh, tripping over the one he was passing over and crumbling into a heap of arms and legs in front of the others.
The guards’ surprise suddenly evaporated, understanding that they’d been smoked, took defensive positions, and started returning fire.
“Hey, you can’t keep all the fun for yourself, nerf herder,” Ankira said with mild approval in her tone. She drew her own pistols to keep the guards pinned down. “Get to the other side!”
Ala’ar took a second as he fought the desire to answer her jibe, but couldn’t deny that one of them had to cross that courtyard before the guards took off with the prisoners.
Keeping his pistols in front of him, the Mando leapt over the side and engaged his jet pack.
Andrel and Fenrir, flanked by the equally monstrous narglatch made their way towards the courtyard. What little trickle of prisoners they met made a wide berth for the trio. Given the choice, they’d most rather blend into the walls than come across this sinister but unfamiliar group.
The din of battle could be heard at a distance, growing louder and louder with each passing step. At a distance, they could make two Mandalorians battling it out with an ever-growing crowd of lawless prisoners.
Andrel and Fenrir broke into a run. When they came nearer, Andrel addressed one of the Mandalorians.
“And what interest can Vizla have in this, mercenary?”
One of them, right after shooting a charging prisoner on the kneecap, snapped at him “We are from Taldryan, and you’ll address me as Ankira.”
“Right…I see you have your hands full. Plaguesis will give you a hand on the way to Dorn.”
Shooting expertly at one of the rogue guards, hitting him right between the eyes with a slug, she said: “That’s where we are going.”
Fenrir growled low. He almost had it with this backtalk. “Then…we work…together!”
He whispered something to his pet, and it charged at a group of now-frightened guards and prisoners alike. Fenrir himself charged right behind, barreling through a phalanx of baton-wielding inmates.
Then all hell broke loose! He would claw and bite through anyone stupid enough to come near him. As one particular inmate, either brave or stupid, decided to stab the Shistavanen when his back was turned. The wolfman was warned by the Force, heartbeats before the incoming danger. He wheeled around, causing the blow to miss him by inches. He then grabbed hold of the weapon-arm, bit hard and tore that arm off.
Anyone with a flair for a fight almost lost heart.
His Narglatch, equally ferocious, clawed through flesh and bone, mowing through unarmed inmates like they were dry leaves.
Andrel was hacking off limbs, dancing across the battlefield, using lightsabers, blasters, and when those were not enough, maiming through Force Lightning. With a lightsaber he sadistically hacked off the limbs of inmates before dispatching them, while with a blaster he incapacitated them similarly. With telekinesis, he would easily throw an inmate into a crowd, throwing everyone off balance, and with Lightning he would torture those brave enough to point a weapon at him.
The Mandalorians meanwhile continued to thin ranks with relentless and aggressive suppressing fire, as the one with the jetpack finished crossing the yard.
However, new crowds of inmates continued to swarm madly around them, as if too desperate to escape.
The sheer number of enemies was turning what Andrelious had hoped would be an easy mission into a long, hard slog. For every prisoner he slew, Mimosa-Inahj was sure another three joined the melee. With the help of Fenrir and his new Taldryanite allies, however, Andrelious did seem to be making a dent in the enemy’s numbers. The guards were not so fortunate; most had long fallen in battle and those who remained were becoming increasingly desperate.
“Look out!” Andrelious warned, spotting a turncoat guard targeting Fenrir with his blaster. The Shistavanen turned to charge towards his would be assailant, but Ankira beat him to the punch, felling the traitor with a headshot.
The surprise of seeing some guards fighting on the side of the prisoners led to Andrelious no longer caring who his lightsaber sliced through. Guard and prisoner alike, regardless of allegiance or even ability to fight, found themselves entirely at the mercy of the Sith’s crimson blade.
The situation was now beginning to deteriorate further. With a rampant Sith now killing everyone, it was obvious that no prisoner was going to survive, let alone be transferred to Taldryan custody. Ankira and Ala’ar needed to stop the rampaging Andrelious if they were going to get any kind of bounty.
“Andrelious, stop!” Ala’ar called out. The diminutive Human glanced in the direction of the Mandalorian.
“This is the only thing these bastards understand!” Andrelious replied loudly, but he proceeded with a little more care. The fact that the two Mandalorians were from Taldryan, and not Viszla as Andrelious had suspected, had been a welcome relief, and the Sith trusted the duo’s intentions enough to respect the request to hold off a little.
Fortunately, Fenrir was near Ala’ar when he called out to Andrelious to stop. Even as he disembowelled two prisoners in quick succession, Fenrir gave off a low growl. Why would anyone want to stop the fight now? It’s going on so nicely! However, after the disembowelment, he stopped as well.
It looked like the Mandalorians had stopped fighting, and one of them was reasoning with the inmates.
“We don’t want to kill any more of you, as long as you do not attack and go back to your cells All we want at the top science brains in this maggot hole…”
Taken aback yet again, the panting prisoners held back as well. Many were out of breath, yet many more were wounded. The ground was littered with the corpses of their fellow inmates. Why the kark are their enemies calling a truce now, after all the violence? Are they waiting for reinforcements to finish them off? In that case, it can be safer to deal with them now. These are some thoughts going through the minds of many. Facing force users and even Mandalorians was a shock to many of them. However, the inmates facing them were tougher than normal, being from various gangs and criminal organizations around the galaxy. Such people won’t care to battle it out even if it means dying.
One of these hardier prisoners shouted in challenge after a long pause. “And what if we don’t listen to you?”
‘“Yeah! I don’t want to be a prisoner here any more!”
Fenrir just about had it. He took a few steps ahead and gave a low, deadly growl. But instead of attacking this time, he spoke threateningly, “You have two choices. Either fight us and die now, or go back to your cells and die later. Either way, I do not care. But if you get in my way, every last one of you will be killed and maimed for life. So…go back to your cells and none of you shall be harmed.” He picked up a decapitated head and a lifeless arm, showing it to them.
Many, even the hardest stock of prisoners, seemed to get the threatening message. Escape was impossible with Mandalorians and Force Users here. Add a wild beast, and it was suicide.
They quickly made a wide berth for them and ran off to their cells. However, some of them still thought of ambushing them as they made their way to the corridors.
Ankira made a slight nod towards Ala’ar, she had spotted some of the scientists who were hiding amongst the inmates and indicated towards them. Ala’ar returned the nod and made a beeline for them. He was sure they would give them a good amount of credits if they were able to get them out of here.
Some of the inmates saw Ala’ar moving aside and thought this was their opportunity to strike back. Too bad for them, Ankira had Ala’ar’s back and fired a few shots at them, making them stop and second guess their plan.
“I thought you weren’t going to hurt them anymore,” Fenrir muttered.
“We said we wanted a few of them, they are no good to us dead,” Ankira replied. “You two can do what you want to the others, but the few scientists left are ours.”
A furrow appeared on the Shistavanen face before it turned into a feral grin and turned his attention back to the prisoners. Shaking her head slowly, Ankira went over towards Ala’ar helping him with handling the scientists he wanted. They were an odd looking group, but there was no mistake they were from the Collective with their enhancements.
“I think these will do nicely,” said Ala’ar when he saw Ankira approach.
“Good, I guess it’s their ‘lucky day’,” Ankira said with a chuckle, “they’re getting out of here as planned.”
“I pity the fools that want to stay behind,” Ala’ar said as he started to usher them off towards the relative safety of the rest of the prison while behind them, the screams of the prisoners they left to the Sith resounded. The Collective scientists cringed, “that’s right, today’s your lucky day. I suggest you cooperate.”