Rendili

[Erika Freeborn]

Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion as she watched Jet, no Darren, take on the Alpha Warmonger. Luckily for her the pack seemed intent on going after Darren and Taaru so she could just stand there watching, a little in awe, a little tired. Though her senses were open enough that she would notice if one of the beasts turned towards her. Luckily they didn't. Just when she thought it would be over Darren came running at her and tackled her to the ground. "What the -" She cut herself short knowing that it was Jet and not Darren who was tackling her.

When the explosion hit Erika was grateful that Darren, Jet, had come to her aid. At those words Erika began to make her way quickly towards the exit of the building, but stopped just long enough to yell back at Jet. "Make sure you get out too!" Then turned and ducked through the hole to join the Corellians.

[Taaru Masako]

Taaru coughed and retched, his stomach still heaving from the combination of acute brain bruising and a sudden and unplanned expenditure of lethal force, something which usually left him a bit nauseous anyway, but tolerably so.

He was relatively protected where he had fallen behind a counter displaying various cheap chrono pieces, but looking at him made it very evident that he wasn't doing so well. Beyond the symptoms of concussion, the blood from the head wound and the gray ferrocrete particulates clinging to his damp skin, he was covered in cuts, bruises and minor burns collected throughout the day.

The ringing in his ears was deafening, and he felt much heavier than usual. Lying down and sleeping it off seemed like a wonderful option at the moment, and he was seriously contemplating this when something dull and sluggish pierced the tintinnabulation. It may have been footfalls, or maybe a voice saying something, but he couldn't really make it out. Chances were it was one of those beasts come to finish him, and despite the alert animal part of his brain screaming at him to fight or flee - DO SOMETHING! - he couldn't motivate himself to do anything beyond rolling to one side and leaning against to wall to at least face the approaching sound and meet this new fate face-to-face.

He was very glad when he recognized it as a human shape...and even more glad when he recognized it to be Darren. Were he a bit more conscious, Masako may have noticed the odd changes signifying that it was indeed something MORE than Darren.....but he wasn't in the right state of mind of that. Even if he were, his strengths in the Force did not cover precognition or ESP....he would've only been able to guess that this was Jet from the same clues a non-Force user could ascertain.

He coughed again, this time because of the settling dust in the building aggravating his throat, managing, at the very least, a flicker of a smile.

"You're probably going to have to do more than help me stand...," he managed, his voice hoarse. He noticed that he couldn't hear himself talk.

A shudder ran through him....but it wasn't anything related to his condition. Flecks of plaster and ferrocrete showered across the back of the store as a new crack opened up along the ceiling. Another shudder, and a deep groan he could feel, leaned up against the wall as he was. He had spent enough time on ships to know that feeling: The sound of metal failing.

"And you'll have to do it quick," he added, raising a hand towards Darren's.

[Jet Almeara]

As Erika escaped Jet was somewhat relieved, one person to worry over was a vast improvement from two and thankfully though Taaru reacted in a less then favorable way when she first approached he no longer had the ability to lash out without thinking and recognized Darren. A quick once over showed him to be in well...terrible condition really - but this was Taaru and Jet had a hard time equating his condition to his chances. Of all of her previous allies he was always the one who managed to come out of terrible scrapes and bad circumstances relatively unscathed.

"No time for injuries" She told him sternly "Your only supposed to be getting us a map you know...how do you turn getting a map into this?" She questioned, a delaying tactic as she examined her options. she couldn't heal him - Darren lacked even her own poor abilities in that department - and she certainly couldn't hold back an entire building. Not right now anyways..she'd have to carry or drag him out. Well that was a tick awkward... but there it was, and grasping his hand Jet was for once glad of something Darren offered, relying on his physical strength to help Taaru out...and his meager but usable force abilities in an attempt to keep from jostling his head any more.

"Your going to be absolutely no use if you keep scrambling your brains" She scolded him, though there was a touch of concern in the words now that she got a closer look at his head wound. Throughout this time she'd managed to ignore the shuddering building - but that was quickly becoming a non-option and by the time she had him secured there wasn't much time to get out "just had to leave me behind on the blasted ship" She muttered "could have just shadowwalked on out of this mess and be done with it..but no, the diktat can't play because she's an important public figure... important public figure my ass" Jet continued to mutter as she half carried, half dragged Taaru out of the building - something that would have been much easier if she wasn't so worried about his head and had more of the force available to her.

As it was they had only made it a few feet out when the building really did come down. "Sorry" She told him and abandoning her attempts not to jostle Taaru she flattened them both to the ground and tried to shield him from the worst of it, turning her attention to and turning away anything large that might be headed their way. She was fairly successful and though Darren would have a few new bruises she didn't think Taaru had suffered any more damage.

Rising when the dust cleared she coughed a few times, though her attention was on any immediate threat that might still be coming. Hopefully someone would be showing up with a Medic sometime soon...well as long as the bit of building covering the southern street hadn't flattened said medic.

[Erika Freeborn]

Once safely tucked behind the flipped over hovercars Erika turned her attention to the half destroyed building in which Darren/Jet and Taaru were in. She knew that the Corellians could handle anything that came their way, though if needed she would certainly help. Eyes watched the hole waiting for any signs of the two. There, she caught a bit of movement, but before she could do anything the two figures dropped the the ground as the building collapse.

"Jet!" Erika yelled out, even though she knew it was Taaru and Darren that would be worse for wear if they hadn't made it out. Disregarding everything going on around her Erika dashed towards where she had last seent he two figures before the building collapse. To her relief after a few moments Darren stood up, well he didn't look that bad - covered with dust and a few bits of building but otherwise fine. Glancing down at Taaru Erika fell to her knees looking over his battered body before looking bad up at the Jet possessed Darren. "I'm too weak to heal him." She told him, wishing that the damn medic would show up.

[The Thruvarans]

<<Where are all these things coming from?! How many can they keep on one ISD III?!>>

<<Shut it and throw me a clip!>>

Marek obediently fetches a magazine from a hip magplate and tosses it at his brother, sitting behind an overturned hovertruck. Lukas catches it and smashes it into his rifle's feed and chambers the first round, spinning out from behind the truck and putting three neat holes in the closest charging warmonger, which only falls when he finishes it off with a head shot.

He zeroed on the next approaching tango, which was firing on the move. With plasma fragmenting into microstreams on his shields, he dropped this second one just as readily, before the sound of the falling building filtered in through the inboard speakers.

<<Cover!>> he shouted, crouching down again behind the truck as a wall of dust and particles blanketed the center of the intersection.

<<We still had people in there, didn't we?>> he hears Marek say, crouched on the other side of the truck.

<<I don't know, I didn't see any->>

<<Marek! Lukas! Go with Mikhail check on those three from the away team! Sniper team, cover them!>>

Lukas sighs in the privacy of his helmet as he hears Till confirm the order. <<You heard Victor. Axes up, brother.>>

Marek had already holstered his rifle on his mag plate and pulled his riot shield and vibroaxe, switching it on with a piercing hum. Mikhail arrives soon after, not bothering with cover as the dust cloud provided sufficient visual cover against the warmongers, who lacked any sort of imaging equipment by the looks of them.

<<Ready boys?>> the squad medic asks.

Lukas whips out his own vibroaxe and riot shield. <<Been wanting to do this for some time. Let's get going.>>

They formed into a rough triangle, the twins up front and Mikhail covering with his rifle from the rear.

Despite the suitability of their rifles, it was a carry-over from the Thruvaran Military College to favor melee weapons when using power armor and moving through visual cover. They were able to make out some of the warmongers with their IR bands, but a rifle's versatility ended as soon as an enemy closed distance, while switching to melee utilized the power of the suit and left more options open for dispatching foes.

Marek demonstrates this first hand when a warmonger rushes out of the dust and slams into his riot shield, aiming a blow at him with its plasma rifle. The gun bangs harmlessly off his shoulder pauldron, and before the warmonger can draw its plasma weapon, Marek has pushed it off his shield and neatly cleaved its head in half with his axe. He kicks the lifeless corpse in the chest to dislodge the blade, which comes loose with a sickening, wet crunch.

The small group dispatches a few more tangos, only aware of the sniper team's contributions through the sound of their rifle shots and the occasional sound of a round impacting on the asphalt, which sound like a small speeder crashing.

They reach the small group composed of Erika, Darren & Taaru. Mikhail looks Darren and Erika over first, and ascertains that they are good enough to walk. He then focuses his attention on the more serious case of Taaru, who seems to have gone unconscious. Flexing his shoulder slightly, Mikhail frees his right arm from the suits gauntlet, which pops at its seems and slides away. His fingers free, he opens both Taaru's eyes.

"Anisocoria. Definitely a bad concussion. We need to get him to the med bay as soon as we board" he ascertains, pulling a biofoam patch from a medkit and applying it gingerly to Taaru's head wound.

"You two, stay with Marek and Lukas," he tells Darren & Erika, "I'll carry him."

Mikhail refits his gauntlet and and uses one massive gauntlet to put Taaru's head and neck into, while lifting him gingerly with the other arm and cradling him against the suit. It wasn't the best way to transport a patient with a suspected traumatic brain injury, but it would have to do.

<<Boys, watch our backs.>>

He turns and starts making his way back to the LZ. Lukas and Marek turn to Darren and Erika, waiting for them to follow Mikhail before bringing up the rear.

[Jet Almeara]

"yes well I think you've done enough healing on this trip already" Jet pointed out to Erika. "And trading him wounded for you wounded won't help anyone - we'll still be down one person right now...and they are coming in any case" She told Erika as shadows approached through the dust. Familiar figures encased in familiar technology. Jet didn't think she'd ever been happier to see the terrors Taaru had created for her - and she was sure he'd feel the same way if he wasn't currently unconscious.

Assuring Mikhail that Darren was fine, she busied herself with comming the rest of the mercenary's to see how they had fared while she played rescuer. It was Rex who assured her they had all gathered with no losses and were merely waiting on the ValCAT. Satisfied with this she motioned to Erika to proceed her and followed the medic carrying Taaru at a quick jog. It might be pushing Erika a bit but Jet was sure she'd been through worse on Dathomir and could handle it "I won't be able to stay much longer" She told Erika as an aside "I'm already pushing it, but I want to see everyone on the ship if I can"

[Erika Freeborn]

Relief flooded over Erika as the medic team arrived not too long after she came to Darren and Taaru's side. She took a step back to let them do their work before nodding to Mikhail. Jogging with the group as they carried Taaru along Erika looked over at Darren. "Don't let yourself get drained by staying too long." She told Jet, but knew that her Aunt would stick around to the last second just to make sure the reminder of the rescue went to plan.

"I'll watch over him after you're left." She added, though it was more directed towards taking care of Darren than Taaru. Taaru after all was in good hands with the medics but Darren may feel some effects after Jet's presence left him, and Erika would make sure nothign happened to him even though she was exhausted and feeling quite drained.

[The Thruvarans]

The way back to the LZ was complicated for Lukas and Marek by the fact that its hard to move backwards in power armor. Keeping their shields and vibroaxes at the ready, they made their way back through the dust cloud, which was beginning to settle. The silhouettes of an approaching pack of warmongers was now visible without technological aid as they picked their way over the wrecked carcasses of their fallen brethren.

It wasn't long before a trio spotted the two suited Thruvarans, one of them opening fire while the other two drew their blades and charged. It was quickly evident that they had a capacity for strategy: while the first suppressed Marek with a plasma rifle, the others ganged up on Lukas.

Marek's I-field flickered as creases of deflected plasma bolts shot in every direction, and he was forced to one knee to maximize the protection his riot shield offered him. Setting his axe aside for a second, he fumbled at the suit's utility belt and pulled out a stick fragmentation grenade, roughly the length of a human femur and with enough explosive power to bring down a military starfighter. He bangs its bulbous head against the asphalt, arming it, and takes careful aim, rising to full height and taking a few more plasma bolts to his I-field as he hurls it forward. The spinning grenade hits the distant warmonger in the shoulder, before evaporating it into a cloud of purple blood, its upper torso complete demolished.

Lukas encounters the first warmonger right around the time his brother starts retrieving the grenade, and parries the first thrust of the plasma blade by using his shield to bang the warmonger's arm out and away from him, aiming a gauntleted uppercut right into its mandibles and sending the creaturing staggering back and clutching its "mouth".

The second warmonger arrives on the heels of the first, and Lukas again gains some time by thrust the bottom edge of his shield forward at it: the length of his arm and the shield combined is greater than that of the warmonger's blade, and its initial swipe at his torso misses by inches as his shield catches it in the chest. But this warmonger recovers quickly, charging again and ducking under the shield swipe aimed at its head. Its twin-pronged plasma blade impacts against Lukas' chest plate and scatters in every direction, the I-field refracting and scattering the magnetic field containing the ionized gas within. Lukas has only seconds before his I-field fails, and his reaction is reflexive: he grabs the warmonger's sword forearm and crushes it, the warmonger's strong radius and ulna snapping like twigs in Lukas' mechanically altered grip. The warmonger howls, dropping its weapon. Lukas uses these precious seconds to lodge his vibroaxe firmly in the warmonger's neck, turning its how into the gurgle of blood and a severed windpipe.

The first warmonger, now thoroughly recovered, attacks him from a new angle. Lukas tugs at the imbedded vibroaxe but can't dislodge it from the dispatched warmonger's vertebrae in time. The first warmonger's blade comes down on him, its blue incandescence reflecting in his visor - it vanishes.

The echo of a rifle shot catches up the the bullet it has propelled, which struck the last warmonger cleanly in its center of mass and knocked it unconscious immediately from massive blood loss and trauma. Its blade clatters harmlessly to the asphalt and extinguishes.

Lukas doesn't waste time, checking on his brother, and indicating they should probably hustle back now.

As they do so, he comms the sniper team: <<Thanks you two....that was some fine surgery.>>

[The Corellian Navy]

Darren's comm buzzes in his ear.

<<...Away team, this is Foehammer, come in. Approaching your position now. We have incoming bogeys...not much time to get you out of here. Designate LZ and update conditions. >>

In the distance, down the eastern boulevard, a dark red speck makes it way down the street, flying between buildings for radar cover.

[Jet Almeara]

Jet pauses briefly as she registers the approaching warmonger's, Erikas saber in hand as she turns, but the fight is swift and their rear guard with the help of snipers seems to have it well in hand. Knowing that to continue standing about would only invite more trouble she starts moving again as soon as the brothers do.

Her or well Darrens com clicking as she does so, taking a quick glance around she finds what appears to be a suitable landing zone - or a least it's large enough for the Valcat and has a minimum of rubble to deal with. it wasn't perfect..but it was the best option that she could see.

"Foehammer, Away team - we're under fire with one critically wounded, sending coordinates for LZ now. Just get us the hell off this rock. Over" She stated, simultaneously sending the LZ coordinates to everyone on the ground team as well as the approaching ship. Answering com clicks from Darrens team told her they were heading in that direction, appearing out of the quickly settling dust in pairs as they covered each others progress from the reappearing enemy.

Jet stopped long enough to slam a good sized chunk of rubble into a group of warmongers overtaking Jethro and Vidown, before letting them precede her and regrouping with the others around some cover near the landing zone. A quick roll call assuring her that everyone she had sent on thoroughly screwed up mission was present and arrayed near-by for pick-up.

[Erika Freeborn]

Erika turned as the group of Warmongers approached from behind but the rear guard took care of them quickly enough with the help of the sniper team that she didn't need to help them. Recieving the coordinates Erika tapped in her confirmation on the comm and continued to jog along with the group. It wouldn't be long before they reached the Foehammer and more importantly got off this planet. This mission certainly had gone to hell quickly but at least it wasn't their fault, everything had been fine until the warmongers and others showed up the crash the party. Giving her head a shake to clear those thoughts Erika pressed on, soon they would be on their way back to the Faustus, and then she could rest and recoup from this near complete disaster.

[The Thruvarans]

Victor drops below cover intent on hearing the incoming VaLCAT's pilot, the sound of his rifle deafening despite the suit's sound dampening. His team continues pour fire into warmongers as said beasts make their way through the settling dust and into firing range.

"Copy that, away team. Coordinates received and we have a med team standing by. Instruct suited marines to designate targets for our approach."

Victor looks down the eastern boulevard, where the shape of the VaLCAT becomes more resolved as it slides over the street, with only the sound of downward thrust trailing it, its silent design making very little sound.

No need to wait for orders, he thinks to himself, peaking up over the midsized sedan he has taken cover behind and noticing the return of Mikhail, the twins and their charges in tow. The lifeless body in Mikhail's arms did not sit well with him, but he had more important things to worry about as he flicked on the laser designator mounted underneath his rifle's barrel and opened a comm channel with the ValCAT.

"Away team to Foehammer, confirm wireless system acquisition."

"Read you, away team. You're on our display now."

"Standby for DTs."

His HUD acquires the rifle's onboard targeting system and integrates it, and a reticule appears.

"DT one." He clicks a button on the designator and holds it for 3 seconds, shining an invisible laser on the group of warmongers approaching from the east.

"DT two." The same procedure, this time with the warmongers from the southern approach.

"Popping smoke on LZ. The rest is yours, Foehammer."

"Much obliged, away team. Get your IFFs on and we'll have you home for stimcaf in no time."

Victor double clicks his comm and closes the channel, reopening the global channel he has with his Thruvarans and the Corellians.

"Fire support on its way. If your IFFs aren't already on, I suggest doing so now," he says, doing that very thing as he says it.

Seconds later, the VaLCAT makes its first pass over the warmongers on the eastern approach, its shields absorbing the harmless small arms fire with little problem. In return, the warmongers are peppered by the chin-mounted 20mm Vulcan and the forward particle beam cannons. The warmongers scatter almost immediately, seeking cover in nearby buildings, but depleted uranium shells hound them even through solid building walls. The VaLCAT passes over this group of warmongers and slides past the office building to the away team's left, its image reflected in its multiple stories of windows. It rotates on its axis to face down the southern approach, and pours energy and projectile fire down the street at the second group of warmongers, catching several of them off guard and all but annihilating every trace of them.

Satisfied that the LZ is clear, the VaLCAT's pilot brings it down above a part of the LZ with relatively little rubble, hovering its troop bay a foot or so off the ground. Bay doors slide open and the freighter's away team, now armed with military hardware, pours out and starts providing cover for the away team to board the dropship. Two of the freighters crewmembers are carrying medical supplies and a stretcher, and spotting Mikhail & the still unconscious Taaru, make their way over to them.

[Jet Almeara]

With the arrival of the rescue ship Jet wasn't about to waste any time. "Move it people" She told the Corellian mercs, mentally ticking off names as she trusted the ships crew to keep the enemies off of them long nough for everyone to get on board. when the last of Darrens team climbed in Jet finally followed "Hurry up Erika" She yelled over her shoulder as she did so, strapping in quickly along with everyone else.

The ship could not have come at a better time - it was getting harder and harder for Jet to keep her connection with Darren and rather alarmingly she saw visions of the interior of ShadowChaser interposing themselves over the world outside. It was distracting to say the least and almost certainly would have caused some trouble if she were still fighting. Thankfully she wasn't, she did however cling viciously to her control of Darren, at least she told herself until Taaru was loaded and they were in the air. Once they were relatively safe she would let go. Not that she could do anything if they got shot out of the sky anyways...but Jet had never been good at letting go to begin with.

[Erika Freeborn]

Erika hurried into the rescue ship amid the Corellian mercs, not that she needed Jet to tell her to hurry up. She knew damn well that the sooner they got onboard the sooner they could get off this planet. Of course that also meant the sooner the horrible speech from Jet about injuring herself to save on of Darren's team would come. That she wasn't looking forward to.

"Oh yeah, hurry up Erika." She mumbled as she set about strapping herself in. "Get back to the Faustus so I can yell at you, this will be so much fun. It's what you get for sending me on this 'easy' mission while you stay behind on your fancy little ship cause having the Diktat involved would be a bad thing." Her eyes looked upon the Jet possesed Darren for a moment just daring her to make a comment about what she just said. Erika was beyond caring right now, she was already in a heap of trouble so did it matter if she spouted her mouth off now? No, not really.

[The Thruvarans]

"Details?"

"Blunt force impact to the head, definite concussion, possible TBI. What’s the flight time on this bird?”

A hasty query by comm.
“Pilot says 25 minutes. “

“Then we need hypertonic solution on IV and we should intubate. There’s little we can do for him right now except to monitor.”

“Okay….we’ve got him from here.”

Mikhail, having supervised the medic team’s process of strapping Taaru to the stretcher and placing his head in traction, gets out of the way to allow the two medics to take carry their charge into the waiting hangar bay. Other members of his squad and the Corellian mercs were either getting in or beating a measured retreat from their cover on the periphery of the intersection.

His attention turns again to Taaru. The injured man’s eyes are open, and his lips are movie, though Mikhail can’t understand him over the din of battle. He follows the two medics, and helps them secure the stretcher once in the ValCat’s troop bay.
In the relative quiet , he understands Taaru’s words to be what he expected: The delusional and confused ravings of someone who had just sustained a head injury. He checks his watch and his suit’s mission chronometer, estimating Taaru to have been unconscious for about 15 minutes….that was a good sign.

Miko, already strapped in elsewhere in the troop bay, starts unhooking his harness as soon as he sees Taaru born in on a stretcher. He is stopped, however, by Mikhail’s admonition: <<Stay where you are, brother. We need to get him back and waiting for you to get strapped in again is only going to waste time.>>

The latter man hesitates, then sits again, resigned. The former finds a suit harness and fastens his to the mag plates, before cracking the carapace and stepping out. He didn’t need power armor to attend to Taaru.