Star Wars: the Rats and the Mynocks

Zora strode quickly down the walkway, eyes darting around as she kept watch for any trouble. It was easy to fall back on the habits she'd developed while she'd still walked the beat - she'd patrolled this very catwalk countless times over the years.

Of course, the place had been a lot livlier back then. The walkway was deserted, so quiet that her footstep's echoing returns made her nervous. Even after a week of this silence, the lack of speeder engines, crowd noise and blaring holo-ads was still unnerving.

The quiet had been broken just nce so far, by the distant crump of an explosion. The Zabrak had gone to t he edge of the pedway and looked down, scanning the lower levels for signs of the disturbance, but with no luck. Her nerves not eased in the slightest, she'd shaken her head and continued on.

Up ahead, the pedway cut a 90-degree turn around the corner of the hab block. The detective suddenly realised that her footsteps weren't the only ones she could hear. Swearing under her breath, she flattened herself against the wall and peered around the corner, hand dropping to her blaster. There was one figure on the street ahead - in the weak early-morning sun, all she could tell that was they were humanoid, probably male, and that there was a holstered blaster on their hip. She resisted the urge to swear again as she realised her own footsteps had probably been heard as well...

Whump.
Makar shifted uneasily. Did he just hear an explosion? It certainly sounded like one, and not one caused by the Enemy's weapons. He took his rifle — a modified BlasTech Industries DC-15a, old perhaps but still deadly — from its rack, checked his armour — it was in prime condition, thanks to constant maintenance — and exited his cramped apartment. He locked the door, taking care to place the fine hair on the lock's keypad and advanced toward the source of the sound — he estimated it to be about a kilometre to the east and two levels down — as quietly as he could.
Silently, he thanked the Kaminoan armoursmith who made his armour — it seemed like it was rather hot and humid outside, if the in-built thermometer was to be believe. Silently he crept onward, going through the mostly-empty pedwalks, hoping the camou paint-job he gave the armour a while back, plus, the short, hooded cloak he flung over his helmet and shoulder to make the armour less distinctive would help him merge in the shadows.
After a while, he stopped abruptly. It seemed like there was a droid on the opposite wall; it seemed like it was targeting the armoured soldier — was that a grey Boy in White? and a humanoid.
The ex-SpecForces shrugged. He crouched to make himself a smaller target, shouldered the blaster rifle, and sighted, aiming at the droid. Then he waited.

edited 4th Aug '12 9:27:51 AM by desdendelle

Like everyone else, Galvin heard the muted sound of a detonation. Where exactly the explosion occured was difficult to ascertain; all the smuggler knew was that it was somewhere not too far away. It was fairly obvious even to the somewhat untrained ear that explosives were responsible rather than an accident of fate. Of course, now came the gnawing question of what happened, and what implications it would have for Galvin. A slight undercurrent of unease seeped into his gut, and although he tried to hide his feelings it was clear that he was on the alert. Walking fast, he tried to keep his eyes peeled for anything and everything that might have been out of place.

Somewhere ahead of him Galvin heard footsteps, although they abruptly cut off. Puzzlement and suspicion swept across Galvin's features as he processed the information. Unwittingly mirroring his alien counterpart, his hand slowly snaked its way to the Renegade and lightly clutched the grip. Slowly scanning the horizon, Galvin called, "Hello? Anybody there?"

He didn't want to waste shots on some civilian who was scared out of their mind, after all.

edited 5th Aug '12 6:32:09 AM by Flanker66

Thirteen started climbing. Not as in the usual way of climbing, carefully setting each handhold and foot hold for the safest climb, he climbed Magnagard style.

He dug in his clawed fingers and feet and basically imitated the deceased General Grievous in going up, trying to get a better view and out of range of that rifle that the Chiss carried. He turned his head to keep watch, his optics filtering the darkness with infrared vision...

Heat Source. Armored, non-human.

Pointing Blaster Right At Him if the profile was right. The alien would clearly see Thirteen looking at him too, the bright red optics were a dead giveaway.

Time seemed to slow down as Thirteen ran combat calculations. Go up or down? Still a target for this new alien.

So go across. In an instant, Thirteen curled his legs up underneath him, and pushed off the building with surprising force. He cross the gap in a heart beat, landing beneath where the sniper was hiding and hopefully putting him out of sight for the moment.

A challenger had appeared from a side street, or something, one way or the other Maja backed the zoom off to keep both in her viewfinder. It almost felt bad, watching survivors duke it out because of hate or greed.... almost.

Zora made an annoyed tch as her suspicions were confirmed. The Zabrak frowned for a moment, weighing her options. She could always just run the opposite direction, but if the guy wasn't the shoot-first type she risked missing the opportunity to talk - get some info, or at least spread the word of the Vong troopships.

"Yeah. Nice morning, huh?" She replied, staying on her side of the corner. "Let's keep it that way. Everyone keeps their hands off their blasters, deal? I just want to talk."

Ace stopped backpedaling as he saw the droid move. "It's acquired a new target, looks like reinforcements are - what in the ferglutz happened to his armor? Where's the heavy weaponry?"

He briefly looked around, "He's a dead man if that droid gets to him, I need to extract him. How skilled are you with that blaster? Can you knock it off of its perch?"

"Well, there's always time to practice, I guess!" Looking somewhat surprised and eager, Shtir took a knee and raised a rifle up to her face. The droid was within range, so she lined up the shot. Pulling the trigger, a brilliant green tracer-laser flew out of the barrel and impacted near the droid. About 2 and a half feet above him, it turned out.

She muttered a curse under her breath and tried to re-aim before the droid could move.

Galvin sniffed appreciatively at Zora's response. If nothing else, the mystery woman seemed reasonable, and if that first comment was any indication her sense of humour wasn't too bad either. He still felt on edge from the explosion, but hopefully doing as she said would prevent things from devolving in a shoot out. He wanted to be anywhere but here, and having to kill someone would only slow him down. It was a grim, brutal calculation, but the near end of a world tended to force such pragmatic concerns to the fore.

"Deal," said Galvin, making a show out of adopting a non-threatening posture. "But let me just tell you now that if you try anything I'll turn you into a pockmark on that wall. Speaking of which, get over here - I don't like not knowing who I'm talking with here."

He figured that it was only fair that he got to request something in return. If his counterpart refused, well, he thought that would give him enough reason to be more critical of them.

"Right back at you." Zora replied, deadpan. There. Isn't diplomacy nice? Keeping her hands away from her gunbelt, she stepped out from behind the corner - still ready to throw herself back again if the man turned out to be lying.

She gave her opposite number an inquisitive once-over, her eyes habitually out key details at a glance. Human, male, looked to be young-middle aged. A really big blaster, probably only barely legal. Outfit and stance practically screamed spacer, or maybe gun-for-hire. Something about his face niggled at her memory, but after a moment she brushed it aside, for now - filing the feeling away for future notice, however. She wasn't in the habit of dismissing potentially important details.

"Zora Kolkeen." She said by way of introduction, nodding in greeting and crossing her arms.

Well, kriff. That droid had a visual on him, and it looked hostile. Makar backed down, slowly crawling backwards then darting behind a convenient corner. Then he heard the sound of a blaster being fired. So the droid was hostile to the two humanoids down there, or else they were to him.
The ex-SpecForces soldier crouched behind that corner, finger hovering lightly before his rifle's trigger. Waiting.

Galvin returned the nod, trying and almost failing to resist the urge to stuff his hands in his pockets. Considering how crazy things had gotten, she'd probably think he was reaching for a holdout blaster or a knife and smoke him. That was the worst possible way to end the day, to put it lightly. He didn't make too much of Zora being a Zabrak - aliens were credit-a-dozen on Coruscant, even after the YV invasion or so he suspected. He did, however, raise an eyebrow at her armour.

"Huh, I didn't realise there were still CSF around here," Galvin said thoughtfully to himself. "I thought you'd all cleared out or got hit when the Vong arrived... unless you took that off of a dead one. Anyway, name's Galvin Vekarr. Glad to make your acquaintance. Anything in specific you wanted to talk about or are you just tryin' to pass the time?"

Might as well get down to the root of the matter, he thought. He wasn't averse to small talk, but considering the circumstances it didn't seem advisable to waste too much time lollygagging.

Maja watched the two talk from her window, far too far away for the conversation to be audible. The spacer quickly became bored once it became clear the two weren't going to do anything more then stare at each other and talk. Keeping the binocs up, she watched because there wasn't exactly anything else to do.

"I got cut off from the rest of the force." Zora replied, sighing slightly. The man's comment didn't bode well for her search for her team. She smiled slightly as the man jumped right to the chase - she wasn't one to bother with the nerfshit either.

"I don't know if you've looked up at the Zoughnies this morning, but I spotted Vong troopships around the towers." She frowned grimly and rubbed her temple, circling one of her horns. "Looks like they've finally decided to make a move. Have you seen any other sign of them in the district?"

So she was a member of the CSF. Galvin felt his spirits sink, but he then reminded himself that she was hardly going to arrest him with Coruscant being in its' current state, much less with the Vong looming overhead. At her question, he spared a quick glance at the towers as though they might have been removed and said, "Yeah, I've seen 'em messing around up there. As long as they're not bothering me or anything I care about, I don't give a damn. But otherwise I haven't seen a single one of them. It's strange... I guess there must be something worth their while there. How about you? I'm going to go out on a limb and say you've got a similar story to tell."

Zora snorted derisively. "Just you wait until they start moving down into the district proper, then you'll start having to give a damn." She said, crossing her arms.

"I've spent the last week looking for the rest of my precinct - and for signs of the Vong." She replied. "I hadn't seen much of them until today - but if they really are moving in on us, I'm not going to hole up and hide. I'm going to do something about it." She let a note of challenge bleed into her voice. The wasn't expecting much help from the spacer, but his attitude - while certainly pragmatic - grated on her already frayed nerves. If everyone left has that attitude, we'll be vaped before the republic even makes orbit again.

"Woah, wait just a moment," said Galvin, raising his hands in a placating gesture. Although he never would have dreamt of telling her the truth, he didn't relish the idea of being left behind to the Vong. "Mind if I come along with you? We're both more likely to survive if we stick together. Two guns are better than one. I'm not going to die for some sort of damn fool's crusade, though."

He felt it was necessary to include the disclaimer, since he didn't want the Zabrak to hold him to anything. Knowing the way things had been going recently, though, he'd probably get dragged kicking and screaming right into the thick of things.

A low boom rolled out over the district, startling birds and flying reptiles into the air from their eaves; it was followed by another, then another. The troop transports had climbed into an orbit of the four central Zoughnie towers, and one or another would occasionally fire into the surrounding smaller towers, a general covering drumfire rather than targeted firing for effect. Tiny Vong figures scrambled, visible through collapsed walkways and sheared-away durasteel paneling, down the tower.

Of more concern, pairs of coralskippers fanned out from the target center, as did lone biological "swoops", nosing around in a hunting pattern. Several were visibly approaching at fairly high altitudes, the skips flying top cover and the swoops dodging through the canyons between the buildings, evidently at random—although the cloud of smoke and dust generated by the explosion of the AP mine had probably drawn some attention...

Well, the situation was getting hairier by the second. Fantastic. Simply fantastic. Now the 'Vong were here. Well, those two civilians would have to fare by themselves. He had other matters to attend to.
Makar turned around and walked away from the clearing, seeking one of the maintenance shafts that he knew were still mostly intact so he could ascend to a higher level and perhaps ambush those 'Vong.
And so he chanced upon Galvin and Zora. He looked at them. The Zabrak wore a CSF uniform — a CSF uniform! He thought all of them were slaughtered when the 'Vong invaded — and the man wore what looked like standard spacer attire. The pistol at his side probably meant he wasn't a civilian, though one could never be sure these days.
"Sorry to interrupt," he said, pointing his rifle at the ground for a moment, "but this place is going to be very unsafe in a few moments."

Zora had raised one eyebrow. "Really? I didn't peg you as the type." She said. She'd assumed the spacer would return to whatever hole he'd found and wait the invasion out. "Still, I'm not about to turn away a helping hand, so long as it doesn't pull a blaster on me later."

"And don't worry, I'm not about to charge the Vong barricades." She added. "When the Republic returns, they're going to need intelligence. I'm going to try and gather as much data on them as I can." She shrugged. "Maybe it'll be enough to give the troops an edge when they reach the Zoughn-."

The Zabrak cut off mid-sentence as the distant thunder of weapons fire echoed through the city. She spun around, swearing aloud as she spotted the smaller enemy ships descending towards the district proper. Her hand dropped instinctively to her blaster as she took a step back. "Damnit, they're going to be all over us! You have a bolt-hole, right?" She asked turning back to look at Galvin - and almost jumped out of her skin when she saw a third figure behind him.

"Sithspit!" She really did draw her pistol this time, although she stopped short of actually levelling it at the new arrival - a big humanoid with a rifle, kitted out in what looked like stormtrooper whites. Another merc? Despite the heavy-looking rifle, he didn't seem to threatening - especially not when compared to the Vong swooping down on them. "We noticed, and we're not going to stick around. Know any good hiding places?"

edited 9th Aug '12 5:12:22 AM by Gaunt88

Thirteen moved when the Blaster Bolt smacked into the concrete above his head. He moved, pushing off the concrete again and spinning in the air, landing once more on the opposite side of the alley.

Now though he saw the incoming alien ships and moved down at a fairly fast pace, aiming to get out of the way of the incoming ships.

Dropping to the ground in the shadows of a side alley from the others, Thirteen unslung the Electrostaff he had been carrying, not activating it yet but keeping it handy.

"Well, that's good to hear. I'm not stupid... turning help away would - " Galvin found his words were drowned out by the report of heavy weapons. Whatever the Vong were doing, it involved more than a little violence. He barely noticed the infantry, his attention being seized by the Coralskippers and "swoops", not to mention the transports. For a moment he could say almost nothing. "For Edge's sake, couldn't they have waited?!"

Zora's question snapped him out of it, however, and he gave the woman a curt nod. "Yeah, I do. It shouldn't be too far from here, and I've got a transport if we really need to get going. It isn't too well protected though, so if they hit it we're done for."

If he was still feeling lightheaded from the surprise, Makar shook him quite rudely out of it. He felt his hand instinctively grab his heavy blaster pistol and begin to haul it out of its' holster, but he stopped mid-draw as he realised the man probably didn't mean any harm. "Whatever we decide on doing, I think we should do it quickly before we get company."

He was really starting to feel jittery, the same emotion he got whenever things seemed to be getting interesting in the worst sense possible. He had managed to get out of worse messes before, he told himself, but there was no guarantee that he'd escape this one. The uncertainty was always the worst bit, and it was that which he suspected made him feel twitchy.

Signalling with his hand for Galvin and Zora to follow — it was fairly easy to recognise as a military sign — Makar continued in the direction he was walking before her ran into them. He led them through that pedwalk, then though a maze of increasingly desolate passages; at last they arrived at a small building, about twenty metres high.
"No Vong around here," he said. "It's abandoned and already looted."
He prodded the door with his rifle. It fell in with a clang. He cringed.
"Damn, that'll surefire attract attention. Inside!" he said, entering the building.

The scene had gotten pretty boring pretty quick, two idiot humanoids that thought surviving together was possible. Then of course the Vong had started hitting the local main towers with some serious preparatory bombardment before the grunts started pouring out. Maja watched, a little stunned, and most definitely surprised by the reminder that there was a genocidal invasion going on at the moment.

Cursing herself, the building, the Vong, and the effectiveness of the landing pod she began shoving all of her supplies back into the pack. If there was one advantage of sheer blinding terror it was that at least the heat wasn't nearly as noticeable.

As she was preoccupied with lining up the next shot, Shtir was oblivious to the events quickly folding around her. As the magnaguard jumped into the air for evasive purposes, the sniper got a better look down the street as she looked about.

Then she saw them.

The Demonic Horde itself.

Coming down HER street.

Something broke on the inside as she started to unload shots in their general direction, cackling with a perverse happiness as she got a chance to kill what she had thought had been oppressing her for her entire life. The rest of the world started to melt into a general greyish red as her pent up rage flowed into her trigger finger.