Scene #5820: A joint mission

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Zerrawn	A long time ago, In a galaxy far, far, away...Cue copywrited music A few months ago, a republic cruiser carrying valuable intelligence meant for Republic high command was shot down in a space battle onto the frigid planet of Hoth. Already a hotly contested location, it was a shock that only now the wreckage was found. The Holocrons aboard the ship contained both mundane information, but that was not why now both Republic and Sith forces were moving with all speed to secure the site. The Holocrons contained information on Jedi Masters and their families. It was this information that Zerrawn, the Emperor's Wrath, sought. Currently moving in with his ship, the Fury, he surveyed the site. Already the two forces were engaging each other in skirmish battles, as well as with opportunistic scavengers and those who would sell the information at a profit. "Malavai, land the ship and co-ordinate the Imperial forces. I suspect the Republic to have contacted Elite support. Leave them to me." "Of course, my lord. I would wish you luck, but I know you will not need it." A smirk emerges along the Wrath's face, his second-in-command speaking the truth. For now, Zerrawn marches towards the nearest fight, his black cloak an ominous contrast against the nearly snowblind white.
Majima Goro	Majima Goro has looked better. He's got his snakeskin jacket, sure, but he's wearing enough bandages under it that it looks like an undershirt. He has a bandage running /under/ his eyepatch, and he's definitely bruised. His expression, however, hasn't changed. He's still having a good day. Clearly. He steps off of his Concord-supplied ship, the Mad Hand of...nah, that's stupid. He's Majima. Mad Dog of Shimano still works. He steps off of the ship he's given, making it about three steps before pausing. It's cold. It's, y'know, incredibly cold. Why the /fuck/ did he bring leather pants and a snakeskin jacket to a planet below freezing? "...Ehh. I better find somethin' ta beat on soon just t' keep from getting frostbitten, eh?" He jokes to...uh. Guess he jokes to noone. That's fine. There's gotta be some group of thugs whose day he can utterly ruin. He's gotta have at /least/ a cast on 'fore he'll consider not getting in a scrap, and even then--you can beat someone with a cast. It's a touchy thing. "...fuckin' seriously havin' an all out war over Jedi Facebook.."
Lory Thumper	As Zerrawn's ship nears the location, a fast moving Republic blockade runner is bringing in a team of its own. Apparently no Jedi were free for the assignment, but when Lory Thumper (the small bunny cop) heard about the situation she happily volunteered. Keeping such information out of the hands of a brutal, merciless faction like the Empire just seemed like the right thing to do. A small landing craft is launched, carrying Lory and any who happened to join up along with her to the surface as close as they can get to the crash site without being targeted. From there, it's a fast trek on a speeder. Lory is wrapped up tight in cold weather gear, but she is still hoping this won't take too long. She really isn't used to such extreme cold.
Reyes	Hearing that some nasty people are looking to gather intelligence on the FAMILIES of various peacekeeping forces is one quick way to rile up Reyes. As soon as the details of the mission reach Paladin networks and his filtering pings it... He is OUT THE DOOR. ... Thankfully, after getting in his armor, because as soon as he leaves the small transport the Paladins provided... the frigid planet's harsh conditions assail him. But the armor he wears is a special, environmentally sealed ceramic and woven fiber dealie, the armor plates carefully engraved with occult circuitry that carries a pulsing, slow blue glow. Inside the fully covering suit, Reyes is cozy as a bug in a rug... And pissed off. "Guess it could be worse. Science says we're lucky enough this planet has a breathable atmosphere in GAS FORM... I mean it's not so cold that the air itself froze and snowed down on us..." But it's pretty evident why nobody's bothered to settle here. What's the point? Does anything even LIVE on this frozen wasteland...? These questions are shoved to the back of Reyes's mind as he deploys a set of mechanical wing-bones that snap out into place like clockwork, and fill with a sizzle of bluish-white energy that quickly takes the shape of angelic wings. With a few beats of them, he's carried aloft and leaving a small glittery trail of magical motes, and heads towards the coordinates of the downed ship with all due haste!
Zerrawn	Forces on both sides salute when they see the elites touching down. They would redouble their efforts, blaster fire kicking up as they all move to secure passage into the wreckage. Zerrawn and Majima would find that the Wrath's second was working in record time, creating both a front-line AND fallback point, as well as extraction for when they had the items. "Majima, take Raven squad and move around to secure the flank. I'll take Shadow and push right down the center." He says. Taking up positions, the soldiers of the Empire move to find their way inside. Over with the Republic, the elites find they had similar support from the best the Republic could spare. They would likewise find ways into the wreckage, and both sides would learn the holocrons were held within the cargo hold.
Majima Goro	"Neheheh!" Majima's not quite dancing, but it's close. He's still got a spring in his step. "Ya -ta -taaaaa-," He says in a sing-song voice, even hopping up once. His metal-toed shoes clack together. And then the Sith Lord gets his attention. "...Eh? Hey! Who the heck is 'Raven Squad'?" He asks. Hopefully, that gets the attention of whoever Raven Squad is. "Arright. I'm beat to actual hell, ya guys. Why? Cause I was fightin' off crap worse than this. We got this under control, eh? It's not even like..." Wait. Wait, no. He puts a hand over his good eye, squinting a bit. "... Fuck izzat?" He says, pointing towards the glowy angel wings trailing motes. "...arright. If ya gonna shoot somethin' down, focus on that first. That ain't gonna be good." With any luck, Imperial Stormtroopers are going to shoot down Reyes. Woo.
Lory Thumper	Lory has some squad training, so when she gets assigned a squad of troopers she gives them a nod before heading for the cargo hold. She knows that neither she nor troopers are likely to make it far in a straight up charge for the goal so she leads them between cover points, drawing fire when necessary and using her super-human speed and senses to avoid potshots by enemy troops. Unfortunately, all her kiting means she ends up at the cargo hold before the rest of the squad. She starts to head back to regroup with them, but her ears twitch and her nose wiggles as Zerrawn closes in. No time to wait, it seems. She runs ahead, sticking to shadows and expertly hiding her movements. Of course, that won't help against force sense, but...it might make it harder to pinpoint her exact location as she tries to set up an ambush. She waits until she thinks she has the drop on Zerrawn, then pulls a few yellow discs from her belt and throws them like ninja stars. They explode on impact, though the damage is pretty minor. Their real purpose is to cover the target in quick-hardening foam to slow down their movements!
Reyes	Held aloft on Techno-Wizardry wings of the highest quality, Reyes surveys the battlefield as he closes in on the skirmish... and, rather promptly, finds blaster bolts zipping through the air at him. "Whoah!" He spins, swerves, and rolls around to try and dodge. A few of the bolts slam into his armor, scorching away inches of the ceramic plating. A few others hit his wings and... well, those harmlessly spang off in random directions as the greater energy field is impervious to such things. The wings are, after all, mostly for show... Techno-Wizardry's a bit weird like that. But, stormtrooper accuracy against a distant flying target who's this nimble leaves much to be desired. Reyes eventually finds a confounding flight pattern that lets him cut through the screen of bolts and descend towards some cover! But... on the way, he opens a panel on his armor, takes out a small colored orb, and HURLS it for the distant platoon... It doesn't explode on impact. Instead, it unleashes a huge explosion of LIFE-SEEKING BLACK LIGHTNING BOLTS that jump from fellow to unlucky fellow. The actual damage is not very great - the bolts instead DRAIN LIFE AND STAMINA, leading to severe exhaustion. He doesn't wanna kill if he can avoid it.
Zerrawn	The soldiers are hit by the strange black lightning and are indeed taken down, but still alive. Zerrawn himself is coated by the riot foam, eliciting a growl of anger from the Sith Lord. "I was wondering how long it would take for you to annoy me...'heroes'." He says. Immidiately, he would begin calling on the power of his hate, his rage. So much hate it was palpable. He roars out, fighting to break free of the foam. When he does get free, he ignites his lightsaber, a red-black blade illuminating the area. "Shadow...find the cache." He orders, his team QUICKLY running to do so. They knew his tone, and it meant insurance companies were about to go bankrupt.
Majima Goro	Majima Goro ...can respect it. Being surrounded by a bunch of Not Dead goons, even if they're on his side, is fairly familiar. That still leaves him with a sizable issue. Reyes is...still in the sky. Which, y'know, little further than his bat reaches. He stomps over to a fallen Empire soldier, grabbing his blaster. ... There's a moment. He looks at the rifle. Inspects the switches on the side. "..." He rubs his hand, gingerly, along the barrel. Looks at the trigger. Experimentally, he hoists it onto his shoulder. "..Wait, does this shit even have recoil? It fires fuckin' lasers." He shrugs, holding it roughly and firing up at Reyes. The bolt soars through the air...and...well, it's nowhere near him. Don't even worry about dodging. Majima can't aim with a gun for shit, and he learns that it's got recoil after all. At least his shoulder can't really hurt more than it already does. "...eh, /fuck it/." He declares, pulling out a single knife. It's a bit further than he'd normally go, but he knows knives. He understands knives. He throws it up in the air, taking a long moment before spinning around and, with the flat of his foot--kicking the knife. Into the goddamn sky. He's hopefully timed it to hit Reyes, and he hopes Reyes's shields are only built for energy.
Lory Thumper	Lory watches the big cat-man break free of the foam...and her bunny ears lay back. She radios to her own team. "Delta squad, make your way to the cache. I've met some...heavy resistance. You're likely to meet some of your own, but at least it won't be a...what are they called? Sith?" Then, she pulls her dual pistols and looks at Zerrawn. "So...that's one of those light sabers I was warned about? I hope you won't take it personally or as some kind of cowardice if I don't just run up and give you a hug." she says as she takes aim. Then, the takes off at a sprint, strafing her way around Zerrawn while firing gauss rounds at him. AKA rounds that are magnetically accelerated to near light speeds.
Reyes	It turns out that no, the shields AREN'T designed to only deal with energy. The knife slams into something else - a sizzling barrier that only becomes fully visible when it's challenged. A wireframe outline that vaguely looks like ornamental armor (of dwarven make, were anyone familiar enough and paying close enough attention) becomes briefly visible and twists the knife-off course. However, the IMPACT of it gets through, and as Reyes was already descending unevenly, he's knocked completely off-balance and ends up plowing hard into the snowfields below. Hard enough that it kicks up quite a PLUME of snow and ice. Muttering out fairly tame curses to himself, the engineer picks himself back up. The impact hasn't really damaged his armor, but the man inside it is now VERY dizzy and nauseated. "Hate... when that... happens." Worst part is, he has to keep trucking on like this. Once again standing, Reyes decides to banish his wings. The glow fades and the mechanical bones that were projecting them fold up and latch into place against his back. "Did he really just do what I think I saw him do?" And so he does what any principled young man who's still getting used to this hero thing should do... or so he'd wager. He turns on his armor's loudspeakers so his words can reach Majima. "Do you know why the guys you're with want these things? They want 'em so they can go after the FAMILIES of PEACEKEEPERS. My arsenal's got nothing decent for harmlessly bringing down someone tough like you... d'ya REALLY wanna fight over this?!" Reyes's right glove opens wide as he lightly raises that arm. A panel opens up on his armor near his hip and out flies a silvery cylinder, straight into his hand. Bluish energy surges down engravings on his arm and into the device... and with a whoosh-hiss, a burning red blade erupts from the handle. No, it's not a lightsaber, though it's quite similar. It's quite literally a SWORD OF PURE FIRE that burns at insane temperatures despite the frigid surroundings.
Zerrawn	Zerrawn grins evilly as he looks over to Lory. "A....rabbit?" He hisses. It was enough of a distraction for him to take a few gauss shots, but after that he had his saber up and blocking, likely managing to deflect a round or two. "You will not run from the Force." He growls out, focusing his power onto where he suspected Lory to go, and hurling himself in that direction...and through a wall.
Majima Goro	... Majima hadn't expected anything of value to come from doing that, honestly. It was a long shot. As Reyes crashes, he just kind of nods a little. There's a chinrub. ...And then cackling laughter. "Neehehehehe! Yes! Ya see that? That's a direct hit! Finally, a fuckin' solution to that bullshit!" He even fistpumps, doing a little spin in place. He's still moonwalking around when the loudspeakers starts. "...Eh, yeah, I kinda got the idea," He explains, before pausing. He's...he doesn't have a loudspeaker. This is stupid. He's just fumbling to get his radio back to taunt back, when Reyes pulls some kind of giant flaming sword out of his armor. Majima looks at his gloves, caked with snow and ice. He looks to the guy with the flaming hot sword. A burning realization sets in. A plan. And so, he screams into the radio. "For real? Ya got a fire sword?" "..." "Nah, shit, I was just gonna say get the fuck over and fight me with that, I'm /freezing/." "...Th' fuck is 'environmental battle armor?" He asks, heading over towards Reyes. At least it's easier to deal with the cold when he's still moving. Yeah. That works. He's good at just still moving. "Do I look like a fuckin' guy who has 'environmental battle armor'? Shit, maybe I coulda brought some handwarmers from Don Quixote's, though, that woulda been nice." Majima has, for now, completely forgotten the matter of the holocrons. He is cold, and the easiest way to become warm is to beat up a guy who has a fire sword. Sure, he's injured, but this is important.
Lory Thumper	Lory gets a flat expression when Zerrawn grins like that and mentions her species. "Yes. A rabbit. But, don't you start thinking that means I'll be easy prey or something, /cat/!" she says as she keeps running and gunning. Which comes to an abrupt halt when Zerrawn suddenly lunges forward. The bunny is very fast to react, but debris from the wall hits her and sends her sprawling a moment. "Sweet peas and carrots...!" she exclaims to herself. But, as she bounces away, Zerrawn will find a few black discs among the bits of wall at his feet. Discs with red blinking lights at the center. Discs that a moment later explode like grenades! "Besides, I'm helping the Force sort of! Those Jedi won't be victims of you or your Empire's mindless destruction!" Apparently someone has been feeding her Republic propaganda. She did have time to research on the way here, after all.
Zerrawn	"And you believe them? You believe being an emotionless machine is helping the Force?!" Zerrawn growls out, his rage growing. Rocks left from the explosions are hurled at Lory with the force, as is Zerrawn's lightsaber. "I am the Sith Emperor's weapon. His Wrath personified."
Zerrawn	While the battle was raging outside, the two teams race inward, and have each succeeded in finding trace of each other. This leads them to go into classic room clearing tactics, but were closing in on their target.
Lory Thumper	Lory huffs at the accusation. "I don't know about that, but I'm pretty sure keeping people from getting killed will help the Force if it is supposed to be life energy or something!" she exclaims as she dodges and weaves through rocks. But, the light saber is more important to dodge, and in her efforts to ensure that dangerous weapon doesn't hit her, the bunny gets smashed into a wall by one of those rocks. It is only thanks to the shield on her back and her helmet that she isn't just knocked out. She is slow to get up, and shakes her head to clear the stars. "Nnng....anger might make people strong, but it also makes them stupid and blind. Without control, all the strength in the world will be beaten by a disciplined mind." she says. She takes off again, but starts off toward the two teams. And along the way she throws and drops more of those grenades, trying to keep Zerrawn from following and perhaps even blocking off the path by collapsing it. Of course, it is a gamble on if there is another way out.
Reyes	This is getting rather scary. Majima is CHARGING STRAIGHT AT HIM. That's a few kinds of terrifying for Reyes, who's ten times more comfortable at a workbench or a computer than the battlefield. And yet, here he is, staring down a man of the yakuza who KNIFED HIS WAY INTO A GIANT MONSTER'S EYE and BRAINED IT. ... completely without the aid of any sort of tools or supernatural empowerments. Reyes responds the best way he can. He circulates more of his spirit through the enchanted armor. The external circuitry engraving simply sizzles with power as a number of enchantments kick in. Every joint glows as the glowing power tenses and concentrates towards some unknown ends. "G-gah! Come on, guy! Nothing you do makes any sense to me!" Reyes splutters out over his speakers. If he MUST fight Majima though, the best thing he can do is get the first strike in. "I REALLY don't want to do this!" He protests, while leaping forward for a straightforward LEAP SLASH that'll no doubt vaporize a good chunk of ice... if it misses Majima, that is.
Majima Goro	Majima Goro is, at least, clearly not firing on all cylinders. Sure, he's still /dancing/ as he goes to Reyes. He's still going 'ha cha cha' here and there and clapping his hands and even sliding a little on the ice. But, y'know, he's bandaged up. Reyes can do this. It's like when you have the terrifying final boss fight, but he's weakened because you're playing on Easy. Right? And finally, the Mad Dog is in enough range that Reyes is willing to strike. The dance suddenly stops. Majima's eye gleams. "Ah, yeah! Glowy armour shit! This'll heat me back up for sure! Uweeeheeeheeee!!!" His knees bend and he leans back on the air in a distinctly uncomfortable way. Reyes rushes forward, and... Majima slides out of the way at the last moment. Of course, the impact absolutely covers him in small shards of ice and snow. And he sputters, and shivers. "...Fuck's sake, numbnuts! Whole point o' fightin' is ta /warm up/!" Majima suddenly looks markedly angry, flaring up with a blue light as he just rushes forward to deliver a flurry of punches. Sure, his armor'll protect him from those to a point, but hey, impact works, right?
Zerrawn	Zerrawn says nothing, but rather watches the explosions occur. "Shadow, expect Elite contact." He radio's to his team. While he did use rage, he was also not a mindless berserker. Instead, he makes efforts to find another route to the two teams, or just simply make a new route to them. Speaking of the teams, they were both at the Holocron Cache by this point, keeping each other pinned down with blaster fire. "Understood, Lord Wrath. Objective in sight, but the Pub's are here too. We'll make a break for it once we have an opening." Though in truth, the holocrons were slightly closer to the Republic.
Lory Thumper	At about the same time, Lory is radioing her team. "I think I bought us a minute or two! But it won't hold that Sith off for long! I'm en route! We need to grab as much as we can and make a break for the ship!" she says as she dashes through the hallways, using her teams' transponders and a rough map given to her by the Republic as a guide to reach them more quickly. As soon as she comes around a corner she tries to flank Shadow squad, but rather than immediately moving to gun them down she throws more of those riot foam grenades, trying to lock them down long enough for her team to lock down the holocrons and get moving.
Reyes	At this point Reyes would be worrying about the mental state of his opponent. But the fact is, he's not exactly a great swordsman so all of his attention is THOROUGHLY dedicated to not getting his everything smashed in. When his initial (seriously over-committed and amateur) leap slash fails, he hurries to pick himself up and ready to strike again - but he finds himself being pummeled by a bunch of impacts while halfway up. The glowy field surrounding his armor's starting to show very visible strain after the first half-dozen blows, going from blue to yellowish to red... and then gaps begin appearing and the engineer's bowled backwards and nearly loses his balance. But he quickly adapts, moving with truly inhuman speed to sweep a foot around into place and kick off the ground, sending himself launching forward. As his consciousness accelerates, dealing with Majima's flying fists becomes progressively easier... and soon he's turning sideways and trying to get a super-powered ELBOW STRIKE in to Majima's solar plexus, keeping the flaming sword pointed away for the moment! "Do you -WANNA- lose an arm or something?!"
Majima Goro	You really should, at all times, worry about Majima's mental state. It's probably for the best. Meanwhile, Majima's not prepared for Reyes to suddenly get faster in combat. He's put on the defensive, holding his arms up just to block the engineer's strikes, looking for an opening. "...What, ya think I'm scared o' your fuckin' sword now? Nehehe! ...I came over here ta /see/ that shit!" It occurs to him there was totally something else, as well, but right now he doesn't give a damn. That elbow smash has hit home, and he's winded for a second. Right! Right! The injuries. The cold is blocking out a lot of the pain, but that's still tender, and he steps back once or twice before hitting the ground. ...Then he gets up again, slowly wiping snow from his face. "...and if ya gonna keep makin' me cold again, maybe I just gotta take it off you, eh?!" In what is, perhaps, a relief to Reyes, something vaguely supernatural finally happens. Majima flares with a bright yellow, heatless fire, drawing a wooden bat from..somewhere behind him. It doesn't matter. What matters, most of all to Reyes in this moment, in all likelihood, is that Majima's trying to perform amateur dentistry when he's supposed to be stealing cubes.
Zerrawn	The foam does it's job perfectly, locking down Shadow squad. But just as it seems it might be in the clear, the glow of the lightsaber can be seen. In a flash, the blade curves around a corner, trying to cut down Lory, or swing around to harass where he thought the republic squad to be. Said team, upon hearing the foam grenades doing their work, immidiately move out to start grabbing up intel, only for one of them to be cut down by the saber.
Lory Thumper	"Get moving, before-" is all Lory manages to say before that light saber comes flying around that corner. Lory barely manages to avoid the beam, getting knicked in one of her legs in the process. "Grrk...h-hurry!" she shouts to the Republic commandoes. She joins them in gathering up as many of the cubes as they can, though she is limping a bit from the injury. They start out, and Lory tosses a few flashbangs to keep Shadow squad at bay and hopefully catching Zerrawn in the process. As they near the exit, she radios out to any Paladin and Republic personnel nearby. "To anyone nearby, this is Officer Lory Thumper! We are headed to the extraction point, but we have a Sith down here! We may need cover fire upon exiting the wreckage!"
Reyes	What the HECK?! He's got some kind of supernatural power after all?! This might explain things. Or maybe it doesn't. Reyes's expression can't be seen through the helmet he's wearing, but behind it... his eyes go pretty wide. He can FEEL that. His sensors all flare. Absurd things happen and-- And Reyes is smacked, HARD, with that bat. Straight across the helmet. He goes tumbling backwards, end over end, as the armor's actually DENTED IN. Armor that's supposed to be able to take tank rounds is dented and his neck bends at a WILDLY uncomfortable, unnatural angle - and yet there's no sound of vertebrae cracking or anything horrible like that. Either way, he's knocked clear off his feet and tumbles across the snowbank with a clatter and clunk. Dizzied and nauseated he half-stumbles to his feet, standing lopsidedly. "Uuuuuuuuughhhhh!" It takes a sharp rap with one gauntlet to his helmet to clear his head a little, the sword held loosely in his other hand. But his empty hand soon grabs a gadget off his belt, a 'gun' of sorts with a wide, bulbous, short barrel wide enough to jam a fist down it. "You're gonna have to break out of this, first!" With a loud, comical-sounding GWOP, the gadget belches forth a glowing ball of... wires? No, the whole mess unfolds halfway to Majima. It's a NET. There's real rope in there, but it's all covered by some strange energy. The moment it touches ANYTHING, it holds fast and binds with crazy adhesive power. It's be easier to tear skin off than try to remove this thing... Thankfully, struggling will force it to burn up power faster. The enchantment won't last very long... But Reyes hopes he can use it to deploy his damaged wings and get them working in time to retreat.
Majima Goro	There are many, many things that have been shot at Majima over the more than two decades of his career. So when the glowing ball of wires happens, he does move to dodge it. What he doesn't expect is it to unfold halfway through, and he was going for a 'just barely dodged' cool move. So, the good news is, it mostly just sort of gets his upper torso, because of the distance. The bad news is, he's standing there stumbling about with his upperhalf wrapped in a net shouting obscenities, before he falls over in the snow. Partially because lost balance, and partially because he assumes adhesives come off when you apply water, and snow is mostly water. so on the upside, Reyes totally gets to retreat.
Zerrawn	Shadow squad was about to persue, until they got a hand waive from Zerrawn. This instead directed them to try to find any salvagable information from what was left. The Sith gave chase, hoping to stop the heroic commando's from escaping with anything, but was too late. Luckily for the commando's, The Republic had prepared for a hot exit, and provided covering fire until their transport got away. "My lord...They managed to recover most of the holocrons, but we did find at least one that's intact." The Shadow squad commander radio'ed. "Better then nothing...Forward the information to Quinn, and then send it to your superiors. I don't want them knowing who the target is."