Fiarr turns to Dohr.  "I think Seven has mixed us up."

She offers him her blaster rifle with scope.  "Here, you take this and ride up front.  Kyvarr and I will prepare the grenades."

She quickly jumps in the back and gets to work trusting the Zeltron to get them there and the Kel Dor to ensure they arrive in one piece!  Taking the grenades she sets to work with Kyvarr assisting.



Demolitions: 17

"I have my own comlink, if you want to patch it in to your network", the blue woman said, approaching Devon. "And if you would happen to have a firing pin, then I have got a cannon mounted on my bike." She gave off an air of a military officer, diatinct even through the now closed-up helmet. "And never mind the droid, it can handle it."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:03, Sat 29 Mar 2014.

Dohr nodded to Fiarr in acknowledgement and accepted the E-11 rifle. "Apparently he did. But it's not a big surprise as we have only known each other for a few hours. And they have been quite busy hours, I might add." The Kel Dorian smiled behind his breather and headed over to Flash.

"You should probably take your own link back now. I will not do to have one of you riding without being able to communicate with everyone else. We can get another unit from someone else." The Doc swapped comms with the Duros and headed back to the truck. "Are you ready to roll out, Vyn? Looks like it is you and me in the cockpit. Let us get this truck through the barricade."

It would be Rian's show, Dohr knew and didn't wish to intervene in the way it was planned and carried out. And being honest, he had no need or wish to. The plan was made in haste, but it was a good one. He would've preferred to take out the gangers with snipers and stealth, but there really was not time for any of that. Yet there was a single point of failure in the plan. If the M4 droids missed their mark or were shot down, they would be sitting ducks in the speeder truck. But if that happened, then they would just have to wing it.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:51, Sat 29 Mar 2014.

Not long after Cor finishes her question on the Talon comms a small blocking hovering droid - an M4 messenger droid - swoops up from the direction of the hospital.  The little thing has a number stencilled to the side - '3'.  It circles around Sheila's head beeping in droidal excitement.  'Droidal' is totally an adjective now.  Yep.

"Target located!  Designation: Three!  I am M4-3, your new M4 messenger droid.  Alpha command protocols initiated; how may I serve, mistress?"

"Check."  Mika acknowledges her role as rear guard.  To Sheila, she adds, "Want to stick around or move to the truck?"  She wasn't sure about he comms stuff, but if Sheila wanted to work on it on the way, doing so in the truck would be a lot easier than on the back of a swoop.

Devon watched the others for a few moments and pinched the bridge of his nose.  He couldnt believe what he was seeing.
He raised his voice, doing his best to not sound angry but making damn sure everyone could hear him.

"In case anyone has forgotten, we are in the middle of a damn warzone here.  Five got killed less than an hour ago in an ambush and right now our only way off this planet is in a spaceport that is under siege - if we waste time screwing around rather than getting stuff done then we lose our only way off world AND Eleven gets killed.  We do not have the time to be acting like a bunch of amateurs!  If we keep acting like a bunch of fragging tourists then we will be JOINING Five and I for one dont plan to tell the boss people  got killed because we couldn't get our act together; so I am gonna say this again:

We are going to move out towards the spaceport and recon the attackers positions with a view to staging a break through using gas-grenade equipped droids as a distraction.  Hammer, Fiarr and all the M4 droids - into the back of the truck and get those droids ready to carry grenades.  Vyn, drive the truck.  Doc - take a rifle and get in the front of the truck too."

Devon pointed to each person in turn as he repeated their assignments.

  "Three and CC9, into the speeder.  Three, you drive.  CC9 gets the other rifle and is your shooter.  Those on speeder bikes will fly escort - Ten has rearguard, Two takes point.  Idaya has right flank.  Idaya - our droid expert tells me theres no way your Dark-Eye droid can keep up with us, so either order it into the truck or leave it behind."

"I want one commlink on each bike, Vyn takes another and CC9 will use his internal comms - this way every vehicle can stay in contact.  Idaya - we use encrypted comms so you wont be able to patch in."

Devon paused for a moment.
"Now, has everyone got that this time?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:03, Mon 31 Mar 2014.

Flash looked over his shoulder in surprise at Devon's shouted instructions.  'Haven't we done this already?' he thought to himself.

Then he looked at the speeder behind him and felt stupid.  He'd been giving orders via comm for Sheila to keep the speeder at least one hundred metres behind him and she wasn't even in the speeder!  Where was she?

He tapped his fingers against his handlebars impatiently.  There was a battle to fight and a damsel in distress to rescue.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 22:29, Mon 31 Mar 2014.

Fiarr didn't respond to Devon's repeat of orders, in fact she didn't even hear it.  Since she was already in the back of the truck dismantling gas grenades without a mask her focus was completely on her work.

Heigren climbed into the driver's seat of the truck and held out his hand to Dohr.  "Guess I get the comm, you get the rifle.  Seems fair.  I'd rather talk then shoot."

He waited for the convoy to move out.

Kyvarr would normally have been the first to jump up and assist Seven in getting things going.  Part of her still wanted to.  But since she was busy keeping a grenade fuse from making contact with a detonator cap with her claw while Fiarr rewired the pressure plate, she decided not to move.  The Bothan probably wouldn't thank her if she let the grenade go off so she could 'play sergeant' as Fiarr liked to put it.

Sheila  answered Devon when he told her to drive the speeder., answering mikas suggestion at the same time.   Yes sir, I'll drive.."  She thought she felt up to it.  "They drained all my power packs, so I'll need some."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:32, Tue 01 Apr 2014.

< Pushing forward a bit... >

With the marching orders given by Devon, the Talons (and Associates) get organised and move off.

As designated by their current team leader the placement of the journeyers is as follows (not to scale):

                 SwId

<==     Sw2    SPt     SP     Sw10

                 Sw7

SPt = Speeder Truck (Heigren driving, Dohr on watch; Kyvarr, Fiarr, three M4 droids, the DRK-1 droid and a whle bunch of gas grenades in the back)
SP = Speeder (Sheila driving, CC9 on watch)
Sw2 = Flash's Swoop
Sw7 = Devon's Swoop
Sw10 = Mika's Swoop
SwId = Idaya's Swoop
<== = Direction of travel

---

The journey through the city is hazardous but the majority of danger comes from the landscape itself, not the locals.  Sinkholes force the convoy to detour several times, though never very far out of the way, and while there is one instance in which some gruff-looking folks try to forcibly stop the convoy they get the hell out of the way when they see how well-armed the travellers are.

Much of the city is now quiet, as if taking a shocked breath after the terror of the past few hours.  In these places the broken buildings seem to loom over the convoy, empty windows staring down like the sockets of an agéd skull, shattered doorways and sinkholes in the street yawning to swallow them with the inevitability of a sarlacc.  The death of Arin is fresh still in the minds of the Talons and every now and then the ominous creaking of plascrete high above makes it clear that any one of them - or all of them - could easily be next.

That sound of weakened masonry is particularly grating to Sheila.  She was very recently almost killed - twice - by falling rubble.

The city looks blank and cold.  Normally these urban sprawl planets - Coruscant, Nar Shaddaa, Corellia and more - are alive with the rush of sky traffic, awash with the lurid glare of holographic advertisements, some bigger by far than the buildings they sit upon.

But Akari City is a dry bone under the desert sun.  No signs gleam, no cars rush and even the ubiquitous crush of pedestrians is largely absent.  The place is a graveyard.  Even the Claws District was (and presumably still is) more lively than this.

---

Maybe that's why the group knows with a certainty that they're approaching the spaceport - its holographic sign is still active.  Flickering wildly but preserved presumably by some emergency power source, the giant logo blazes up above the ruins of the metropolis, a flashing beacon to the convoy as they move through rapidly darkening streets toward their goal.

Night is falling when they reach a spot almost half a kilometre from the Det Akari Spaceport.  It used to be some kind of open town square, decorated with holographic projectors that probably once showed models of trees.  The spacious area is plenty big enough for the convoy without being too open to make them conspicuous amongst the carcasses of abandoned and crashed speeders that litter the city.

With a lowering whine of engine power the convoy slows and comes to a halt next to a large and mostly-broken statue of a figure that was probably once humanoid.

The vivid glare of the spaceport's blue logo can be seen over the buildings, casting a lurid glare over the mostly-dark cityscape and flickering like the wings of an injured moth.  As they watch a tremendous orange-white explosion bursts from that direction, too low to see past the surrounding buildings but reminiscent of a small rocket.

While having agreed to help the Talons, Idaya was feeling somewhat uneasy. Some of the people, who had shot at her were surprisingly polite, much to her astonishment, but others were rude and gave a feeling, they didn't really care whether she lived or died. Of course, she was not part of their team, but they had asked her help in exchange of a voyage off the planet and that was something she needed. Yet, they had promised not to harm her and stunned her right afterwards. The future would tell, if they'd hold their end of the bargain.

This was also a wholly new situation to Idaya. She didn't have the might and authority of CEDF behind her, nor her crew for support. She felt lonely and having some of the people, she had just met, act with hostility towards her, didn't exactly help. But they do not know me, she thought. Maybe, if they did, they would appreciate me and my skills.

Dohr heard Devon shout his orders for the second time, but didn't comment in anyway as he was already climbing into the truck's cockpit. The doctor accepted Heigren's hand and let the Zeltron help pull him up. He'd said it to himself before, but he couldn't help thinking about it again. He really liked Vyn. Although the two of them were very much different, they had a lot of similarities too. Would he be accepted into the group, Dohr and Vyn would get along very well.

The Kel Dor smiled and gave Heigren one of his customary nods. "Thank you. Yes, that works for me. I believe you are much better in communicating with your friends and I am an ok shot with the rifle. Let us just hope I do not have to use it." Dohr lowered his window and called out to the women in the back of the speeder truck: "Ok. We are ready here. Give us a yell or a knock whenever you are ready to leave too."

When the notice came, the doctor nodded to Heigren again and turned his attention to the city around them. Fortunately the only real trouble they faced on the way to the spaceport was the city itself, not its inhabitants. The few gangers brave enough to step in their way were quickly convinced of standing aside by the rifles and the blasters Dohr and the others were holding.

When they reached the square and stopped beside a broken statue, Dohr eyed the windows of the nearby buildings through the scope to find out if there were ganger snipers about. He waited for Rian to give them new instructions and Kyvarr and Fiarr to announce that the droids were loaded with the grenades.

Flash watched the distant explosions with trepidation.  "Seven, we've got explosions up here.  Looks like they're firing rockets at the spaceport."

"Idaya, your droid airborne yet?  We need more info and we need it fast!"

Fiarr felt the truck stop and took time for her grenade work to confirm their location.  They were nearly there.  She'd spent the trip modifying the grenades then having Kyvarr load them into the droids.  They gave an equal amount to each droid, working as fast as they could.

She looked in the front.  "If Seven asks we've loaded as many grenades as we could  and the M4's are ready to go on his instruction."


OOC:  I have no idea how many grenades we could have done in transit or even how many fit in a droid.  But we would have done as many as possible and loaded them as we finished each grenade.  One in the first droid, then on in the other and so on.

"Sending it in now", the reply came in accented basic. She gave the order to the droid to keep hidden and scout forward. It was, after all, their best chance, if they could catch the gangers by surprise. Until they got telemetry from the target area, there was no tactical sense to barge in to the situation and Idaya hoped, it was something the man commanding the group understood.

"I hear you, Two."  Devon answered as he halted his bike in the shadow of a wall just as Idays droid buzzed overhead.  he kept his voice low just incase the gangers had some form of rearguard in the area, relying on the commlink to carry his instructions to the team instead.

"Ok, we got recon on its way; so bikers gimmie a perimeter for the moment - keep us safe."
Hurrying across to the truck, Devon hauled the rear door open and peered in.
"Did I hear right - you guys ready?  How much you got for me?"  Devon stepped aside and held the door open so that the droids - as well as Kyvar and Fiarr - could exit.
"OK," he said to the group in general. "We've got a couple of minutes wait till we get some intel back from the droid, so take the time to prepare.  Unless we see something we really dont like, I figure we go in as soon as possible - the longer we wait here, the more time for us to get spotted or those rockets to hit something vital.  The basic plan is a vehicle based breakthrough using the gas grenades as cover and distraction.  If you got something to add, if you see an opportunity, tell me - we all have our own areas of expertise, so play to your strengths."

Looking round their immediate area, Devon called to Idaya.  "Hey, has that droid of yours got a vid-link or something?  Hows it report back to you?  we're going to need to see its data as soon as possible."

Kyvarr limped out of the truck and came to attention before Seven and saluted.

"Sir, we have nine grenades primed and ready.  We've loaded three into each M4 droid.  Each droid can only hold three so they are at maximum capacity.  Would you like us to rig the last three grenades or keep them for manual throwing Sir?"

The Chiss produced a small but rugged looking datapad from a pocket on her suit. "The droid sends telemetry and, if necessary, visual feed to me. I suggest, we let it reconnaissance the enemy carefully and make decissions based on proper intelligence." And while Devon might not have thought much of the woman, she seemed to know quite well, what she was talking about. "We should pick a spot where the enemy is at the weakest, strike through it with the best speed we have, and get in to the spaceport before they know what happened. Taking out the rocket launcher would be a good thing to accomplish, if we wish to get off-planet."

"It would seem time is a precious commodity at present Idaya.  While a detailed recon is advisable, the spaceport can't withstand a sustained rocket assault for long.  We'll have to find a balance between speed and detail.

"You'd also better make sure your droid is careful.  A single rocket or some well aimed blaster fire is all it would take to reduce your droid to scrap."

She looked to Devon.  "You want the M4's to help with recon or hold them in reserve for now?"

"nah," said Devon as he peered at the datapad.  "Save 'em for the actual attack - it would kinda suck if one of 'em got shot early and the grenades went off.  And yeah, I'd love it if we had the time for a really thorough job of recon... but time is a luxury we aint got."

"They're a damn fool."  Flash said thoughtfully.  Anyone who thought he was speaking about them would have seen he was staring off at the spaceport, not at a Talon.

Seeing questioning glances he waved to the spaceport.  "I mean whoever is in charge of spaceport defence.  The gangs are shooting at the walls with rockets, not tanks or heavy artilley but small rockets.  If I was in charge I'd comandeer some ships.  Think about it, even our ship, a stock civilian model has simple shields and a laser cannon.  Commandeer one or two of those and blast away at any barricades.  Even basic shields will survive one or two hits from a missile.  Any unshielded barricade wouldn't last long against a sustained barrage from heavy weapons."

"Whoever is in charge in there has never seen battle.  They're cowering behind their walls."
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:08, Thu 03 Apr 2014.

"My mistress concurs that is a likelihood," CC9 states, looking toward Flash, "unless there is some element to this assault that none of us are aware of.  The security force is primarily manning the defence of the main doors and the individual she is in contact with has stated concerns that the force will be decimated 'because of stupid bureaucratic fear'.  I suspect the head of security is not well thought of."

As the others watch there are a couple more muffled explosions, though nothing dramatically huge, as if the gangs are testing for weak points.