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Post by Jax on Aug 20, 2010 23:00:07 GMT -5
The instant Sol ignited his lightsaber Jax had his hold-out blaster out of its holster and into his hand, and in a flash he had flipped around and fired off five energy pulses in the direction of the one of the three Mandalorians by the doorway. Three of them missed but the other two struck the knee of his target and sent him sprawling towards the ground.
Sol finished another one by deflecting his own laser fire back at him and the third one charged Sol with a vibroblade. Despite this bhowever laserfire was still careening into the security bunker, so Jax fired a shot at Sol's duelist's knees, knocking him off balance, and then ran towards the doorway.
Scanning the compound again, Jax this time found two squads of five Mandalorians in defensive positions, one group stationed outside of the warehouse and one firing from an armored bunker on the opposit side of the path from Sol and Jax. He fired off a couple of shots mostly for show, and then turned to see that Sol had finished off his opponent and was now standing next to him.
Pointing to the group in the warehouse, he shouted to Sol over the loud noise of blasters, "That group could've been hiding in the warehouse when we were in there! They might've heard our plans, so we're going to have to kill all of them! Otherwise they might just switch the friend-foe back before we can take off and then we're back where we started! You take that left group and I'll take the right one and we'll meet in the middle!" he shouted, before sprinting out the the door and to the right of the camp.
The Mandalorians opened fire on him, but Jax was just barely out of their range as their weapons kept missing their marks. Looking for somewhere to take cover at, he found a stack of crates outside one of the maintenance buildings, and sprinting towards it he slid into cover behind them and then began to take survey of his squad.
There were five men across the path from him, three were taking cover behind sandbags in front of the door and two were firing shots from the doorway and then retreating and taking cover out of sight. Jax fired off a few test shots to see if he could hit them from his cover and they all missed their mark. He hissed a cuss under his breath, well at least they can't hit me either. Jax scanned desperatly for something to give him an advantage; the battlefield was too wide open to charge across without a lightsaber. That's when his eyes fell on the outer wall of their bunker...
There on the wall, underneath a metal roof to shelter it from the rain and right next to the doorway was an energy generator, presumably the one they had heard humming earlier. A few carefully placed shots to its exterior and... BINGO!
Jax had fired five shots off, three of which had hit the generator, causing it to overload and expload in a giant ball of electricity which engulfed the two Mandalorians taking cover by the door, sending them reeling to the ground seizing because of the high amounts of voltage running through their bodies.
This freaked out the other three Mandalorians, who instinctively ran as far away from the origin of the explosion as possible. Unfortunately for them, that meant out of the cover of the sandbags and just close enough to Jax that he could unload a flurry of blasterfire that mowed them down from behind. Just like clockwork, Jax thought smugly to himself as he turned to see if Sol needed any help with his squad.
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Post by Solomon Kurro on Aug 21, 2010 15:01:16 GMT -5
Sol noticed the shots hitting home on one of the mandalorians. The knee shots Jax pumped into the trooper sent the man careening to the ground, and directly into the path of Sol's stumbling, vibroblade-wielding opponent. Jax's shots had helped with that too. With both now on the floor, it was a simple matter for Sol to leap forward and sever their vitals.
Dashing out of the room after the smuggler (he figured Sheila would know to follow them without any comments), he was relieved to come out into the open again. Here, there wasn't as much around to impede his sight. He witnessed the same set up that Jax saw, and nodded in agreement. He understood the situation. This was no time to be careful. If Jax thought he could take a squad by himself, then Sol would take the other.
Heading to the left, the Eyeless moved from cover to cover, empty fuel casings here, tool racks there. He occasionaly had to use his lightsaber to deflect some of the nearer shots as he drew closer. Crouching behind a pile of refuse parts, he took stock of how his enemies were set up. For the most part, they were hiding behind sand bags, like Jax's opponents, but a few had more solid protection.
In a moment of insight, Sol came up with a plan. Reaching his arm out, he concentrated, and used the force to draw a nearby repulsor cart to himself, then stood and whipped the cart towards one end of the mandos. Dashing after it, he reflected many of the bolts back towards the people shooting them, eliminating one. One down. Just as the cart was about to hit the sand bags, he surged forward, and turned a knob on the cart. The Repulsors kicked to high power and leapt another few feet into the air- Or it would have, except the Jensaarai stomped on the back at the same time, causing it to stand on it's side. The man who would have been hit by the cart, was instead blasted by a full power repulsor, and thrown back against the wall, hard. Two down.
Sol would have been hit by the cart, now flying away from the cluster, except he had not stayed still. While the cart tipped up, and continued to roll over, Sol had run up it like a staircase, using the repulsors, which were now angled at a more upward slant, to launch him over the heads of the three remaining mandos. It felt like he'd been hit hard from behind, but it kept him out of the mandalorian gun sights.
Solomon landed and rolled behind a small worktable covered in mechanic tools. A large explosion sounding from the other side of the battlefield provided an startled all four of them, and Sol used the moment to turn his senses that way. It looked like someone had just said "no" to a turbolaser, he couldn't make out Jax over there, but that hardly meant anything. In all that chaos, Jax's odd tendency to waver into and out of view would make spotting him nearly impossible. He turned his attention back to the mandalorians in time to duck a shot, then, gathering the force for a mighty push, he released it, and a dozen or more tools flew off the tool box, crashing into two of the mandos who were clustered together. The dents left in their armor, where their heads used to be, surprised the Miraluka. He'd not expected the strength to be so vicious. ...Wow... four down.
The last was caught between where Jax was supposed to be, and the Jensaarai himself. He only managed to fire a few retreating shots before Sol, first sliced the barrel of the rifle off, and then redirected his swing into a hip-to-shoulder gouge.
"Jax? You there!? We've gotta burn some void!"
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Post by Jax on Aug 22, 2010 16:10:56 GMT -5
Jax couldn't help but laugh as Sol shouted to him, "Jax? You there, we've gotta burn some void!" He knew that Sol had problems seeing him sometimes and that he probably shouldn't laugh, but it was just too funny because he was literally standing about a foot away when he'd shouted out to him.
"No need to shout Sol, I'm right behind you!" he said, fighting to keep his laughter at a respectful level. Regaining his composure he said, "You're absolutely right though, we'd better get out of here before more Mandos pop up out of the ground. Sheila! Come on we're leaving!"
"Yes Captain Kel-Droma," she replied and began to wobble out of the shack. Then Sol and Jax began the awkward dance of running ahead, slowly losing Sheila, then waiting for her to catch up before repeating the whole process.
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They were about twenty yards from the lake where the Aria now sat on the shore of (Jax had moved it to expediate getting Sheila out of the ship) when they saw something coming over the horizon. From the direction of the camp they had just left, flying over the trees were flying three Firespray-31s beginning to fire erratically around the lake's shore.
"WE GOTTA HURRY!" Jax shouted desperately, as he grabbed Sheila by her "ankles" and her "shoulders" and hauled her off the ground, and ran as fast as he could toward the Aria. "Sol, open the loading ramp for me!" he shouted, and Sol quickly slammed the button that controlled the ramp and it slid open with a hiss sliding down onto the sandy coast. He dropped Sheila carefully on the loading dock and then ran around her and darted for the cockpit. Flipping switches and pushing levers, he fired the ship up and it whirred to life. When Sol and Sheila were both aboard he pressed the cockpit button to close the loading ramp and then lurched the ship into the air.
Out of his viewscreen he could see the Firesprays gaining on his slowly lifting off craft, and Jax silently hoped that Sheila had done her work well; otherwise this was going to be the shortest flight of his career. Yanking on his controls he jerked the Aria around to face the Mando Sky and shoved the accelerator, lurching them towards space. "Sorry Sol! The ride's going to be a bit bumpy," he warned as the ship began to gain turbulence as they left the atmosphere. Taking a moment to turn his glance to the rear viewscreen, he saw the Firesprays come into the range of the turrets and then saw the two anti-air towers swivel to face the Mando ships then whir to life and ripped off a steady stream of laserfire, quickly downing the three ships from behind.
Letting out an intense sigh of relief, he steadied the Aria's controls, slowing the ships pace to allow his passengers to regain their balance. He turned on the hyperspace computer, and began to calculate a route to Taris, any system but Mandalore he thought to himself. He brought the Aria to a stop and flipped the hyperspace preparation levers, waiting for the navcomputer to finish calculating their exit. Almost out of here], Jax mused as the computer screen showed 39% calculated...40%calculated...41%calculated.
The tension was palpable as the navcomputer slowly finished calculating all the debris that would be between the three passengers and the Taris system. It would only make it to 43% before Jax's worst nightmare came true. Directly in front of them, through the cockpit's viewscreen Jax stared wide-eyed as three Mandalorian warships, ten Basilisk Wardroids, and fifteen cruisers came out of hyperspace directly in front of them.
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Post by Solomon Kurro on Aug 22, 2010 22:00:56 GMT -5
Sol jumped a bit when he heard Jax's voice before growling under his breath, "We've gotta do something about that."
With that, the threesome scurried off to get to the ship. It was time to leave this rock behind. Mando ships were close on their heels, when the anti air guns let loose on the pursuit vessels. Solomon smiled, satisfied, as he felt the pilot's surprise, and then felt it no more. It was nothing personal, but in an us or them situation, he had no qualms about not picking them, especially after he'd seen the business they were dealing in. He may work for the hutts for now, but that was only as long as it was profitable for his clan of Jensaarai.
Sol remained in control of himself, for the most part. They weren't out of this yet though. Disaster struck when a battle fleet came out of hyperspace right in front of them. Sol cursed quietly under his breath, a Correllian one this time. "Jax! Get us out of here!" Stabilizing himself against one of the chairs in the cockpit, he reached out with his senses. He could feel the engines throbbing, could feel thousands of little points, each a the mind of a being, and he felt... darkness. In one of the ships. A darkside aura was around someone in that ship. Sol retreated from it. Now was not the time to get into a match of minds with this being. As a jensaarai, and the Saarai-kaar no less, his defenses were formidable. He threw up those shields now, sealing his mind off from invasion. "Please tell me this hunk of durasteel has some guns on it."
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Post by Jax on Aug 24, 2010 0:34:52 GMT -5
Jax let loose just about every curse he knew in a single breath before turning to Sol and saying, "Down the hall and to the left is a blaster turret, do me a favor and keep any fighters they launch off my tail! Oh, and you might want to strap-in extra tight when you get there, this is gonna be one really bumpy ride!" He waited as long as he could for Sol to run back to the turret before jerking the control stick forward, sending the Aria into a steep nosedive. He slammed the throttle up as hard as he could and they sped at breakneck pace away from the capital ships. He knew the fighters would follow, and Sol would have to do his best to keep them of their backs, but it would be harder for the capital ships to match the Aria's speed, and that was good because they wouldn't be able to withstand fire from that many battlecruisers.
The cockpit flashed repeatedly with a forboding crimson tint, as the basiliks gave pursuit, and Jax saw from the rear viewscreen a healthy diet of return fire being sent out from Sol, and Jax allowed himself a very small sigh of relief. At least he knows how to use one of those things, he thought.
Setting his shields to double stern, he set the nav computer to begin plotting a new course to Taris. He began to guide the Aria through a set if thight spirals and skilled corkscrews, throwing off most of the basilisks behind him, and he hoped that the maneuvers didn't throw off Sol's aim too much. He got his answer to that a few seconds later as one of the basilisks blew up, crashing into one of the other basilisks next to it and sending them both flying into a fiery grave. He is good, Jax mused to himself, I'm going to have to find a way to keep him around, he's like a bloody good luck charm!
The navcomputer announced that it was 80% done computing their escape, and that was when Jax remembered that they'd have to stay still for a second before they jumped into hyperspace. Jax silently prayed (a rarity for him) that Sol could hold off enough of their pursuers to keep the Aria's rear end intact. When the navcomputer reached 90% he lurched the ship to a halt and Jax firmly crossed his fingers. There was a heavy onslaught of laserfire to their rear, and despite the double coverage of shields they were starting to gradually crack through. 95% complete, some of the Basilisks began to make runs at the front of the ship, causing the Aria to violently rattle and shake. Jax was pretty sure he smelt a fire burning somewhere down the hall. "Sheila, take care of that will ya?" he said jerking his head in the direction of the fire's scent. 98% complete, the anticipation was starting to kill Jax, and if tjey didn't jump soon those Basilisks were certain to. A red light was starting to blink on Jax's dashboard signalling that the ships shields were gone and that the Aria was starting to take structural damage. 99% complete, the ship was rocked violently again, and he heard Sheila let out a loud verbal complaint from the back room. Calculation complete, the navcomputer finally said, and Jax turned his head and shouted, "Sheila, Sol make sure you're strapped in back there," and then giving them a very brief second to do so, he yanked the hyperspace controls back and sighed a breath of relief as he felt hyperspace gradually suck up the ship and whisked them away to safety.
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Post by Solomon Kurro on Aug 24, 2010 16:30:41 GMT -5
Sol whirled away the moment he heard where the blaster well was located, racing back to the place. He was nearly ripped from the ladder as Jax started into a nose dive, his stomach lurching with the movement. Sol doubled his pace once things had stabilized.
Upon climbing up into the canopy, he ignored the control screen. Miraluka's like him could not read normal computer screens without difficulty, as they didn't perceive the world through eyesight. Instead, the jensaarai sized the controls, and lined up the pulse of energy he could feel in the gun turret, with the small beacon of life he "saw" out in space: The basilisk pilot. His first shot was off by a bit, but the next bolt scored home, sending shrapnel and refuse out in a burst of energy.
He felt the Aria's maneuvers, rather than saw them, recognizing some of set ups for maneuvers before the ship actually swerved. It had been sometime since he'd gotten a ride from a pilot as synced with his vessel as Jax was.
Sol was caught off guard by a set of jinks and jukes so advanced that both he and the basilisks were lost. Sol didn't even know which way he was facing, but that didn't stop him from shooting. He fired, leading the target a bit and guiding it to the side, before hitting one of it's primary engines. The enemy craft flew directly into another of the crafts, resulting in a dual fiery explosion a moment later. Grife, he's good. Sol thought to himself, thinking back over the pilot's tricks. I wonder how much he'll charge me to stick around. He's good enough talent to out fly anything I've ever seen!
That was when they lurched to a halt. Crud. The Aria must need to hold steady before it can jump to lightspeed! Solomon decided right then, that if Jax was staying on with him, The Nav Comp was the first thing that would need to be upgraded. A flurry of shot's hit home, ripping into the hull, and Sol returned fire just as viciously. He could feel something building in him, and siezed onto the feeling, allowing it to swell. It wasn't anger, or fear. Such feelings provided motivations for some, but they were inconsistent guides. What it was, was purpose. He was going to do his best to get this ship into hyperspace, and that was all that mattered. He didn't give into his anger or hate at the enemy pilots. He just destroyed them, one by one, pounding away at their shielding and armor until he switched targets. It was a grim thing to dedicate oneself to, but that was what needed doing just then. He did it without regret.
Eventually, He heard Jax shout something back to him. Sounded like they were ready. He flinched as he felt a sudden burst of power hit near him on the hull. He could feel cracks stressing in the hull. This would not be a good place to be in a moment. Dropping out of the gunnery seat, the miraluka slammed the emergency hatch for good measure, sealing off the gun section, and grabbed onto the ladder. He felt space begin to warp around them, as the Hyperdrive kicked in. The ship lurched forward and Sol hung on for dear life as he was pulled back by the acceleration's force. A moment later, he reached out and caught Sheila, who was falling back through the hall.
"Watch your step Sheila. Hyper-drives can sometimes prove disorienting."
They were away, and that was what really mattered. He hoped the fleet wouldn't follow them through hyperspace.
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Post by Mandalore the Siren on Aug 28, 2010 11:33:39 GMT -5
Mandalore stood on the bridge of his capital ship once more, staring out the viewport. "We'll be exiting hyperspace in a moment, my lord," the deck officer said from behind him. Mandalore nodded in affirmation, and a moment later, they lurched out of hyperspace, the rest of the fleet, appearing around them. An odd sight awaited him, a lone starship sat not too far away from the viewport. From inside the ship, he felt a very strange presence. Two individuals, one very strong in the force, and the other a mere shadow of it.
"Lieutenant," he called behind him, "Is that a Mandalorian ship?"
"Err, no my lord, we have no record of it."
"Launch the Basilisks," he ordered, and moments later, a chase ensued. He watched in mild amusement as the starship darted through the fleet, engaging the ships following it. The fight didn't last long, as the unknown ship blasted into hyperspace. "Lieutenant, I trust your men launched the tracking beacon?"
"Yes my lord, shall we follow?"
"No, but keep a record of their destinations. I want to know who they are. Now leave me to my work," he said, heading for his quaters. The deck officer saluted and returned to his duties.
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