Session export: Remember, Remember...

Appius was stressed, that much was obvious by the way he paced in his office. This was all supposed to go so smoothly. Fireworks, a passionate speech about the Republic, feasts and food in tbe streets until tbe sun rose in the sky, but no, there just had to be complications, didn’t there?

He looked at the recent reports again. ‘A’. Whoever this was had a flair for the dramatic, tagging buildings of significance to the date almost exactly one year ago. The invasion of Port Kasiya. Appius still remembered confronting Yorinobu, becoming Taldryan Consul, and Ankira being kidnapped.

Hey, not all memories were good ones.

To top everything, droids were apparently going around causing trouble with individuals for seeminy no reason. At least when it came to technological issues, there was someone he knew he could turn too. He hit the intercom and sent the message.

“Dasha, if you aren’t busy, can you meet me in my office, please? I have an assignment for you.”

Dasha hurried away from Teebu’s residence while responding on her comlink, “Sure, Master, I’ll be there as soon as I can!”

Along the streets were a collection of droids on the loose, destroying vehicles, and harassing bystanders.

The trash droid met it’s end at the hands of a pair of blaster bolts, courtesy of one Darrio Klars.

“You can tell your editor ‘You’re welcome.’”

With that Darrio activated his jetpack and shot off unto the sky to survey the damage below.

A large heavy armoured Mandalorian clad man walked down the street were he saw various droids going crazy. The few who dared to take his heavy repeater from him were now smoldering heaps of trash. He never liked these talking rust buckets and now even less.

He was starting to wonder if it was even use to get information here, but so far the leads had send him here, so here he was.

The treasure hunter Rai-Ho wasn’t very familiar with Kasiya, nor the Caelus system. But rumors had reached him that something was amiss on the moon that might present an opportunity to acquire some tech.

The rumors had been proven true as he watched droids going haywire and some getting blasted in the process. Smirking under his beskar he prepared to do what he enjoyed most, looting!

*Rai-Ho saw smoke rising into the atmosphere coming from the direction of the reconstructing Arroyo District. It was coming from the Port Kasiya city bank.

Meanwhile, the large Mandalorian clad man was surrounded by citizens. He wasn’t sure why until he heard;

“That armor! It’s like the Supreme Chancellor’s wife, they must be related!”

“I don’t care if they are related! There’s more droids coming, get behind him!”*

He tilted his head slightly as he heard the comments. He at least knew he was at the right place as for the incoming droids they would be scrap soon.

He hoisted this heavy weapon from his back and aimed it at the incoming droids. The last few citizens scrambled aside as he opened fire at them. It didn’t take him more then a few seconds before the droids were scapped.

Glancing towards one of them he asked, “The Chancellor’s wife, where can I find her?”

The citizen was startled. The Mandalorian was big, and to be honest, fairly intimidating.

“Sh-shes either with the Supreme Chancellor at the Taldryan Tower or… at their E-Estate in Eastbrook.”

Centam sat at a desk, staring at his datapad as yet another report came in of the graffiti. It was getting out of control and he was beginning to realize the true extent of the damage. Pushing down feelings of frustration, he struggled to keep calm, to keep his mind searching for potential causes.

The large Mandalorian nodded and looked into the direction of the large tower.

“Thank you.” And with that he walked off in the direction of the tower.

“Of all the glorious places smoke could rise from, I’m blessed with a bank!” Rai-Ho squealed to himself. He activated his jet pack and flew towards the smoke plume at full speed.

The large tower was more heavily fortified than he realised. When he entered the proximity, the Tower’s defences activated and pushed him back. He had two options, either force his way through all guns blazing, or find an alternative route either stowing away in the back of a speeder, or perhaps underground.

Sithmas had come early for Rai-Ho. The banks security drouds were firing upon each other, as well as the bank staff and wealthy patrons. They were so distracted, he could probably get in undetected through the roof if he wanted to, or maybe he wanted a little fun first?

The helmeted visage of Rai-Ho swept back and forth between the completely unguarded vault and the bank staff and patrons that were under assault from the security droids. He usually wasn’t one to play the hero but the treasure hunter was able to quickly weigh the short term gains of looting the vault over the long term investment of having rich beings in his debt.

Choosing the latter, he snatched his Bilari Electro-chain Whip into hand and advanced on the attacking droids with the weapons in its sword configuration. The electro-plasma filament edge sliced through the first droid, who had not been aware of his presence, with ease. As it fell to the ground in two distinct halves the other droids quickly turned their attention towards Rai-Ho.

The pair of IG Magna-Droids activated their electrostaffs and marched towards Rai-Ho.

Brax sighed and looked in a different direction to find a way into the tower. He was sure there would be an easier way or did they never had guests here? Either way he chose to activate his jetpack and flew up into the air to get a better look at the tower and the defences laid before him.

Time to show off for my new patrons, Rai-Ho thought to himself. If he made this look too easy the rich folks may not shower him with sufficient rewards.

The Magna-Guard droids showed no hesitation in advancing to his location, weapons swirling aggressively as they did so.

Excellent, they are going to help me put on a show.

The droid to the left reached him first and delivered a wild overhead slice that Rai-Ho easily parried. The droid left its entire midsection exposed to a counter attack but the “heroic defender” refrained from dealing a disabling counter strike. Intead, he pushed the first attacker back with his parry and let the second droid reach him.

The second droid attacked low, which Rai-Ho met with his own weapon. As he parried the second droid’s weapon the first re-entered the fray with its weapon spinning wildly. The treasure hunter disengaged from both by firing his jetpack in a manner that resulted in him taking a quick hop backwards.

As he did so, he let off a short burst from his wrist mounted flamethrower. It would have no impact on the attacking droids but it did accomplish its intended reaction of impressing the onlookers.

Their oohs and aahs pushed him to showboat a bit more. Rai-Ho beckoned the two droids to attack him once more.

The Tower’s defences sprung to life, shooting at Brax in the air. It was clear that going in over the top wasn’t going to help him here unless he wanted to be filled with blaster bolts. He needed another strategy.

unfortunately, Rai-Ho’s showboating allowed reinforcements to arrive in the form of, you guessed it, more Magna guards! There were six in total now, each wielding electro staffs. They began to scare the spectators, potentially scaring off Rai-Ho’s future investors if he didn’t deal with matters quickly.

Quickly he flew out of the way of the incoming fire and landed some distance away from the tower. “Guess I have to find a different way then.” He took out his datapad and searched for information about the tower and tried to find someone who could help him get inside. If that would fail he would get in with force.

Brax discovered he could break in via a transport vessel that delivered supplies to floor 42 of the Tower. One of the supplies was… glitter? What the hell? Regardless. It was scheduled 5 minutes from now. If he snuck in the back of the ship, he’d have an easy way inside.

He didn’t want to know what the glitter was for, but it was a way inside. Quickly he got to the transport vessel and hid away in the back between all the crates and boxes as good as his armour and weapon would allow him too.

“That’s it,” Centam said, standing up suddenly. “I’m done sitting around while the city is vandalized around me.” Grabbing his lightsaber, he headed out.

Centam left only to immediately be hit in the face by the stench of tibanna gas. Some of the droids were sneaky, and had raided a local armory, picking up whatever weapons they could. A family with a small child were the latest soon-to-be victims of theft, and potentially murder.

Brax was able to sneak in onto floor 42, barely hearing the audible. “Okay, let’s see what we’ve got here…” from a certain Nautolan.

All six Magna droids rounded on Rai-Ho at once. This was gonna be gooooood.

From his vantage point in the air, Darrio spotted Dasha skulking around, observing the chaos unfold before her. Droids had begun gathering whatever flammable materials they could, setting them ablaze in spectacular bonfires.

“Hey!” He called out to her, landing beside her. “What are you doing out in tbe open!?”

Winch hated droids.

He couldn’t help himself. He knew it was illogical. Droids served a vital part in modern society. They were vendors, mechanics, butlers, navigators, and even…

Soldiers.

He was thankful he came in his armor. Slipping past Kasiyan Security would have been impossible if not for Valkyrie’s clearance. Now, with things seemingly going to hell in a handbasket, he was left with two choices.

Choice number one; simply leave. This wasn’t his fight. He’d done his time in the Clone Wars, and lost his arms, legs, and time because of it. These weren’t even battle droids, but tbe scenes around him proved to him that he was right in his convictions. Droids could not be trusted.

Choice number two; stay and fight. Valkyrie might appreciate it. Ellisyn was supposed to be on the moon somewhere, and hell only knew where Koda was. His combat experience might save lives if…

His musings were cut short when several worker droids appeared before him. Under normal circumstances, they were harmless, if a bit pathetic. Now though? They were pathetic, and wielding vibroknives.

Winch held onto his scatterblaster, and in an act of catharsis, he gunned them down one by one before they could reach him. His hands shook, his breathing ragged. He took a deep breath.

That had felt good…

He ran off in search of Valkyrie, Ellisyn, or Koda. His mind was made up, and hopefully they would have answers for him as to what was going on.

Governor Koda Kendis stood in front of a wall with a giant ‘A’ painted on it. The Mandalorian Governor grumbled to himself “Great…another problem to my to-do list.” He pressed a few buttons on his left gauntlet, within a few moments there was the ringing of a holo-comm.

“Evening, Governor.” The voice a female chimed in through his helmet comms, “Enjoying the lovely anniversary?”

“I would be…but it seems there’s no rest for the wicked. Have you been paying attention to what’s going down in Kasiya?” The governor asked.

“That I have. Chaos in the streets. The letter Aurek is being plastered around, droids blowing up, all the fun stuff that comes with parades.” The woman responded

“I need you to get whatever information you can on it. We’re getting to the bottom of this. I was going to leave it to the Chancellor and Governor Valkyrie…but they’ve come to Elysia too.”

“Understood. Overwatch, out.” The comms were cut.

“Time to make another call…” Koda sighed once more, entering the number used to contact the Chancellor or his secretary.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Centam said, igniting his lightsaber and drawing the attention of the droids. Before he could blink, blaster fire hurtled toward him, and only intense concentration kept it away. With a slight effort, he redirected the next wave straight back to the blasters.

And Koda very quickly turned to face the security droid while pulling his RSKF-44 blaster off his hip and aiming it at the droid, quickly firing the double barreled blaster at the poor, soon-to-be, scrap heap

Aylin wa digging through the new items, trying to find her new order that she needed to get her last project done until she noticed something moving in the back of the transport.

“Get out with your hands up,” Aylin warned as she grabbed her glitter glue bomb.

Slowly the large Mandalorian got up and Aylin’s eyes grew large when she looked up at him, letting out a ‘damn’ under her breath.

The man let out a chuckle as he watched her. “Are you going to stop me with that?” He asked as he motioned to the bomb in her hand.

“Yes!” She said firmly, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

He shrugged slightly, “I’m Brax and I’m looking for the wife of the Supreme Chancellor.”

Aylin narrowed her eyes, “What do you want with Ankira?”

“I just want to talk with her, there are some problems.”

This piqued Koda’s curiosity just enough for him to swap his blaster over to ‘stun’ and continued firing at the droid to disable it.

<@61385159655559168>

Winch kept a steady jog through the streets. With no idea where his captain was, he elected to search for a lawyer instead. Around now, Ellisyn would most likely be in court.

The clone arrived at the courthouse a little out of breath. “Hey Winch” a feminine voice with a coruscanti accent rang out from beside him. Looking over, he saw a shorter woman dressed in a forest green turtleneck with black slacks leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. Her outfit was completed by a pair of black combat boots and an A-180 on her thigh.

Winch’s surprised look was hidden by his helmet, which he quickly removed. “Sir? What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for Ellisyn. You seem to be in a hurry.” Her tone was nonchalant, as if she didn’t care for the chaos around her.

Koda saw the droid hurtling towards him, he shrugged and leaned forward into a run. The two collided together as Koda tackled the bot to the ground, firing off a stun blast at point blank, can’t miss it that time. “What in blazes is going on today?” The armored man groaned and stood back up, picking up and dusting off the droid, looking around it to see if there was anything off that he could spot. But Koda was better at destroying droids than building them, so he doesn’t notice much. He dials up his last call “Overwatch, I’ve got a malfunctioning droid here. Intact. If I bring it to the Fort, would you be able to find what went wrong with it?”

“I’m not a miracle worker, Governor. I can look it over, but droid data isn’t my forte.” The woman sighed, “But if it’s intact, I can at least get an idea of how they’re getting in.”

“I appreciate it.” Koda honestly spoke .

“I don’t need your appreciation. I just need you to do your job, as you need me to do mine. Overwatch out.” She cuts the call again.

“So this is what the Chancellor feels when I do that…” Koda sighed, making his way to a transport.

Dasha responded to Darrio and pointed at the chaos, “Observing. Why are they doing what they are? How?”

She produced a datapad she found abandoned after a droid hard stolen it off someone and shoved it towards a droid to see what would happen.

All that appeared was the letter Aurek.

“What are you doing!?”

“Working,” Dasha said simply. “Gah! Stupid thing! This has never happened before…”

“If you aren’t out here to fight, then why are you here!”

“Appius said he needed me at the tower.”

That was when a devilish idea appeared in Darrio’s mind. Before Dasha could protest, he scooped her up in his arms, activated the jetpack, and rocketed towards the Taldryan Tower.

“Y-You’re the Taldryan Gatekeeper!” a young woman said. She suddenly embraced Centam in a hug before the young Jedi could respond. “Your the one that fought on Chyron too! Thank you so much!”

“No problem,” Centam said, suddenly embarrassed. It wasn’t every day that he got hugged out of the blue like this, and he wasn’t quite sure how to react.

“What’s your name?” he asked as she stepped back.

The inside of the cantina seemed calm, almost too calm. This is what crossed through Tracinya’s mind as the young Sith stepped through the threshold and into the eerie interior of the building.

Clinging to her arm as she walked was Valkyrie. The wayward trooper had been beyond ecstatic when Tracinya had returned from her absence a mere few days before, and had not left the Battlelord’s side since. It was why for the Mandalorian’s first time back in Kasiya they had opted to go into the town for a drink and a catch up.

“You don’t have to hold onto me all the time, you know.” Tracinya grumbled, pulling the other woman towards the vacant bar, any concerns she had pushed into the back of her mind. There was no one else in sight within the cantina, except for a lone droid behind the bar facing away from the armoured duo.

“I know.” Replied the clone, a cheeky smile spread across her face as she clutched onto Tracinya even tighter. Her eyes scanning the room and the apparent lack of people within. “Is this place even open right now? There doesn’t seem to be anyone else about.”

Tracinya scowled and went to rebuke her fellow Taldryanite, but was interrupted by a feeling of danger that coursed through her entire body. Acting on instinct, the Sith forcefully pushed Valkyrie back towards the doorway, ignoring her surprised gasp as the red glow from a blaster bolt skimmed past the both of them before coming into contact with the dirt stained backwall.

Tracinya’s gaze shot towards the bar, where what she had assumed to be a service droid had turned to face the both of them with a blaster pistol stretched out in its metallic grasp. The machine did not have another chance to fire at them, as a burst of lightning danced from the Entar’s fingertips and illuminated the dim setting of the building whilst it travelled the short space to the bar and ripped the droid into pieces with a loud clash.

Silence eventually returned to the establishment as Tracinya offered a hand out to Valkyrie, who had been shoved rather unceremoniously to the floor in the excitement.

“I’m guessing that’s not normal?” the Sith asked the other woman in a sarcastic tone.

Valkyrie accepted Tracinya’s hand and was lifted to her feet. Terror was the first thing that came to the surface followed quickly by rage. She had just gotten Tracinya back and already someone was trying to take her away. “Are you okay?” She desperately asked, ignoring Tracinya’s question.

“That was nothing.” Tracinya replied in a casual tone, giving Valkyrie the once over with her eyes to ensure her partner was visibly fine from the encounter.

The Mandalorian then turned towards the more docile 3PO droid who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. She moved over to it swiftly and produced her EE-3 carbine rifle, pointing the weapon directly at the machine’s chassis.

“Unless you want to end up as a pile of bolts like your friend here. It’s in your best interest to explain what just happened.”

Dasha squealed as she was simply picked up and became airborne. The pair made it to the Tower in record time at the cost of Dasha waddling a few steps to regain her balance.

Soon she got ahold of herself, hold up a finger and opened her mouth to say something but stopped herself. The slender finger, hand, and arm dropped as the Sephi muttered, “I wanted to see if it would just do the opposite that I want… Let’s go see Appius…”

She would walk with Darrio into the Tower itself.

“In case you haven’t noticed, sir, the city’s droids appear to be malfunctioning and…”

Winch stopped when he heard the familiar clanking of metal come from behind him. He spun, scatterblaster still in hand, and unleashed hell upon the droid.

“Sylvia Jones. I’m an archaeologist at the University or… at least I was. Droids damn near destroyed everything worth destroying. Years of history just… gone…”

It was clear that Sylvia was upset.

Appius was fully expecting Darrio and Dasha when they entered his office. What he was not expecting was how haggard and grouchy his apprentice looked. Her face was scrunched, and her face was in her datapad trying to decode whatever was going on to no avail.

“What happened to you?” Appius asked her.

Darrio shrugged, and both were startled when she let out a frustrated growl.

“Why isn’t this working!? It’s always worked before!”

Appius sighed. He had a bad feeling this would be the case. “No luck then? What seems to be stopping y-”

He stopped when he felt an unfamiliar presence on the Tower with them. It seemed to be coming from floor 42.

“This might have to wait, both of you with me. Seems we have an unwanted guest,” Appius ordered.

When Appius, Dasha and Darrio entered the room on floor 42 they were greeted by a waft of glitter as a glitter bomb just had gone off a few moments ago.

“Oh, hi Zappy,” Aylin said cheerfully as she dusted herself off, “I got a ‘little’ glitter package for you.”

With a big grin on her face she pointed to a big Mandalorian that was glued to the ceiling as if caught in a spiderweb. He was trying to fight himself free when he spotted the others.

“Get that freak with her glitters away from me! I just wanted to talk to the woman from Aliit Jendrii”

“I told you already her name is Ankira and you aren’t going to get to talk to her that easily,” Aylin said firmly as she crossed her arms.

“Oh no I noticed. I also noticed the graffiti and the steadying increase in violent acts.” She pulled her blaster from her thigh and lazily fired at another droid that was approaching, taking a few shots to actually down it.

Winch hastily slid his helmet back on. “Sir, I’d advise getting to shelter if you don’t plan on helping.” He said with a large helping of frustration at his General’s nonchalantness.

Thea stayed silent for a moment, pondering an answer. Winch was always the hardest to deal with because of how much of a hardass he was.

But all trains of thought were interrupted as Ellisyn burst through the doors of the courthouse, her messy mane of hair settling on her back as she stopped. “Winch? What are you doing here?” She had expected her mentor as they had plans later on, but Winch, on the other hand, was a surprise.

Koda makes his way onto the Sentinel-class landing craft that was waiting for him. He set the drone he had with him on a chair and made his way to the cockpit to talk with the pilot. Manning the ship was a young Taldyran officer with a bright smile on his face “Governor Kendis, it’s a pleasure to meet you and be your pilot for the day. My name is Westen, Stejak Westen.” He holds out his hand. Koda cocked an eyebrow under his helmet and reached out to shake the mans hand

“I wasn’t expecting this much enthusiasm.” Koda chuckled slightly “It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Mister Westen. I need you to take me to Taldyran tower, I have business I need to discuss with the Supreme Chancellor.”

“Something about the malfunctioning droids I’ve heard about?” Westen asked as he started to take off.

“Among other things.”

“Well…hopefully it’s nothing too bad. I told my wife to keep the kids inside and to not go out until this all blows over.” Westen stated as they zoomed off.

“A good precaution. I’m hoping to resolve this issue without having more people get hurt.” Koda sighed

“I’m sure you will, sir. I’ve got things under control up here.” He smiled “You should get buckled in before we break the atmosphere.” Koda nodded and headed into the passenger section, finding somewhere to sit down and buckle into. On the short trip over to Kasiya, Koda reviewed his datapad with a report from Overwatch. Once the shuttle entered the atmopshere of Kasiya, the ship started to shake violently.

“Westen! What’s going on?” Koda knew entry was never this bumpy.

“Something’s wrong with the controls, nothing’s wor-” A loud explosion was heard as the power inside the ship flickered off. Koda quickly unbuckled himself, turned on his helmet’s light, and ran up to the cockpit. The whole front section of the ship was fried, along with the partially charred body of Westen. Koda cursed to himself, he looked out the window as the ship started to plummet to the moons surface. Koda knew there was no saving Westen, so he went back to the passenger section, activated his mag boots, grabbed the drone, and pulled the emergency release switch to open the landing ramp. Koda slowly walked his way to the ramp, making sure one foot was always secure. The ship spun around rapidly, meaning this was going to be an eventful jump. Koda deactivated his boots and leaped from the ramp, just narrowly avoiding having a leg taken off by the shuttle. He activated his jetpack and followed the shuttle down as it crashed. He activated his comm system and made a wide announcement to all who could hear it. “This is Governor Kendis! Whatever you do, don’t try to fly anything! I don’t know what’s going on, but something fried my shuttles systems…and my pilot.”

A knife whizzed by Tracinya’s ear, landing square between the protocol droid’s eyes and effectively killing it. She whipped around to look at her partner, who had just destroyed their only lead. “What did you do!?” She shouted.

Valkyrie took a half-step back. She truly didn’t know what had come over her. She couldn’t stand the idea of Trinnie getting hurt again and acted out of pure emotion as opposed to logic. “I-…” She was silent for a moment before approaching the Mandalorian once again. “I got scared.”

Dasha suddenly squealed, “Did it come in?! THAT order with the burrowers?”

Aylin grinned and pointed one of the new crates on the workshop of which Dasha almost seemed to have teleported over with how fast she ran. Glitter flowed to both sides like Moses parted water before the disturbed glitter danced back down onto surfaces.

Appius and Darios just stood there knowing full well to not interrupt Dasha in case an accident happened, doubly so when the term ‘burrower’ was used and Dasha took out one of the clear satchels containing some glittery powder.

Before long, Dasha produce some small malteaser-sized balls and a couple ones the size of tennis balls.

The Sephi looked around then asked the room, “Where can I find a guinea pi…” then she looked up.

“No! I’m not going to be your guinea pig!” Brax yelled as he squirmed more to get out of the glue prison.

“Do it,” Aylin said with a grin.

“Hey, what ever happened to parlay? I came here to talk, have not pulled my guns on any of you. I even saved your citizens from those freak droids outside!”

Appius waved a hand to stop Aylin and Dasha before they could go too far. Having been on the receiving end of their experiments, they were sequences he’d only wish on his worst enemies.

“Let him down. I want to know what he wants with my wife.”

Appius’ orders were clear, and he attempted to dust off as much Glitter as possible from his armor.

Dasha nodded and picked up the ‘solvent sprayer’ of which looked liked a pressure washer and began to disintegrate the glue.

When the large Mandalorian dropped like a rock onto the floor, the Sephi went over to some type of gun-looking item with a small satellite dish. Though she decided to test it on some glitter on a table. When she clicked it on, it sounded like a heat gun and the dish seemed to start glowing a bit yellow with heat as a small fan whirled. The glitter melted and shook , running into each other as they were pushed by the hot air and formed larger globules of melted glitter.

When she was satisfied how much she had collected, Dasha turned off her experimental tool and allowed the glitter blob to cool into what looked like a large, uniform dome of plastic and metals.

Brax got onto his feet and dusted himself off, “Finally some one with more sense…”

“Oh! Be careful what you say around here!” Aylin warned him.

He muttered in return as he tried to get more of the glitters off him, parts of his light grey and red stripes started to show through the glitters, but he failed to get the rest off him. He sighed in frustration and looked up towards Appius, “I guess you must be the Chancellor the citizens talked about. I am Brax and I came to talk to Irr of Aliit Jendrii, but this Aylin girl kept barring the way.”

“Of course, after what happened here and going on here now, I’m not letting anyone near her just like that.”

“Nor am I,” Appius stated, looking Brax up and down. “You wear the colours of the Jendrii, yet I don’t remember seeing you on Rekkaid. Who are you, and where did you come from?”

Tracinya looked back at the other newly scrapped 3PO droid with a deep feeling of irritation. Reluctantly though she cast it aside when she returned her gaze towards Valkyrie.

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just get out of here.” the Mandalorian replied with a sigh. Motioning towards the door and gesturing for her partner to follow.

“As I said, I’m Brax. I’m from Jendrii-ka, a spaceborne sister aliit from the Jendrii. I want to talk to her about aliit matters.”

“Whatever aliit matters you have can be discussed with me too. Ankira is my riduur,” Appius plainly said.

Once Tracinya and Valkyrie were outside, they saw a Sentinel in the air crash towards the ground about 10 feet in front of them, sliding across the duracrete before bursting into flames.

“Looking for you,” Winch answered bluntly. “Are the clankers acting strangely in there too?”

“Yeah, droids are acting up all over the courthouse. I was just about to go get my stuff…”

Winch began to pace back and forth, mumbling something incoherent under his breath. He closed his eyes, removed his helmet, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“As much as I loath to admit it, these droids aren’t doing this on their own. Something is interfering with their internal programming, and it must be coming from an external energy source within the city. Unless whoever did this went droid by droid reprogramming them manually, which I doubt, then we are looking at an external signal interfering with their software and giving them new directives.” Winch finay spoke his thoughts.

“Fine, but not with those two around,” he said firmly, “it’s no business for them.”

Aylin frowned, “Why not? We have helped them quite a lot of times already.”

Brax narrowed his eyes at her even though she couldn’t see them, his posture said enough, “No.”

Dasha pondered for a second then winked at Aylin.

The Sephi took out a datapad and tapped open a program. Through the program, she snatched all identification codes on electronic devices of those nearby with noted distances… of which of course she had it save Brax’s information.

Also, she planted a virus.

She put away her datapad and smiled to Appius sweetly.

Aylin looked curiously at the Sephi for a moment and then smirked when she realized what she was doing.

Brax glanced at his bracer when he heard a beep notifying him that there were unauthorised connections made and shut his systems down.

“No trickery from you, my systems aren’t overwritten that easily.”

“Alright you two, that’s enough,” Appius had to suppress the laugh bubbling within him. “Wait for me in my office, I have another assignment for you both once I’m done with him.”

Darrio, Aylin, and Dasha left tbe room, leaving Appius and Brax alone.

“So, what business do you have with Ankira?” Appius asked.

The second he was at a window in the adjacent corridor, Darrio was immediately privy to smoke in the distance. It was coming from what appeared to be the Port Kasiya bank.

He withdrew his blaster, and shot out the window. Leaping out of it, he activated his jetpack and began to soar in the direction of the bank.

Brax crossed him arms and stared down at Appius, “As I said I want to talk to her, not her riduur. You know nothing off the matters of aliit Jendrii.” And with that statement he waited till they were either going to meet Ankira or that she would be called over to their location.

Centam winced inwardly, but before he could say anything, out of the corner of his eye he saw a shuttle careening through the atmosphere and crash.

“Thats all well and good Winch” Elly said, retrieving her knuckle dusters from her pockets “But that’s not really our issue. That’s up to my di'kut and the KPP. The most I can do is make sure people don’t get hurt while they work.”

Thea holstered her blaster and smirked. There was a reason Winch was Candle’s favorite. “Good work Winch.”

<@837236610684813342>

Meanwhile, Dasha decides to go to her workstation to see about accessing some feeds inside of Appius’s Office only to be met by V.O.D.O. appearing and staring down the Sephi where one could almost hear him silently tsk-ing her.

The four new droids presented a bit of a problem for Rai-Ho’s heroics. He knew that his best option was to dispatch the first two quickly. The would-be looter used his jetpack to burst back towards the oncoming attackers. In flight, he swapped his weapon into whip mode and blasted the one on the right with the repulster. Hit hit the ground on its back just as Rai-Ho wrapped the electrowhip around the torso of the left droid and pulled hard as he could as he passed by at full speed. Rai-Ho tossed the droid with all of his force into the bank vault and it shattered into pieces. Before the other droid could react, he returned his weapon to blade mode and stabbed it while it was trying to right itself. The other four droids were already upon him. He expertly parried their blows while deciding how next to proceed, if he ran and came back the droid might just kill everyone and move on which would leave the vault open to plundering. Before he could free himself enough from the fighting to leave, he heard the unmistakable sound of a jetpack getting closer. If it was some of the local security forces, his plan to look like a hero would likely pay off. He chose to hold his ground a little longer to see who was on their way.

“Well, then,” Appius clasped his hands together and stepped closer to Brax. He spoke with a low, dangerous tone. “Guess you won’t be seeing her then.”

“What?” Brax asked.

“Did I stutter?”

Brax tensed slightly, though remained firm. “I demand-”

“You are in no position to make demands!” Appius suddenly snapped at him. Brax could have swore he saw electricity began to form at the Supreme Chancellor’s fingertips. “You break into my city, break into my aliit’s headquarters, and demand to speak to my wife without giving me any reason to trust you!? You are either the boldest man I’ve ever met or your brain is made of melted shit! Give me one reason I shouldn’t just kill you where you stand!”

“My husband was a pilot…” Sylvia stated.

Centam could go and check the wreckage. Perhaps it would offer some clues as to what was happening. He could use his authority as Taldryan Gatekeeper to his advantage.

“Either way, we-”

Winch was interrupted by the distinct crashing of a shuttle nearby. The ground vibrated upon impact.

“Damn it!” Winch cried out.

Suddenly, a very familiar voice came through on Winch’s comm unit, a hacked interception of Taldryan communication channels.

“This is Governor Kendis! Whatever you do, don’t try to fly anything! I don’t know what’s going on, but something fried my shuttle systems… and my pilot.”

Winch turned to Thea. “Please tell me there’s aren’t more Crusaders on the way in. Going through this atmosphere is a death sentence!”

Two droids appeared behind him, and Rai-Ho was nothing if not a grand entertainer. He knew how to put on a good show when required.

Unfortunately, a series of blaster bolts soared past his head and unto the chassis of the two droids. Darrio landed a few feet away from him moments later. He then held out one towards Rai-Ho.

“I’m Darrio Klars of the Taldryan Military. I don’t recognise you, stranger. What’s your name and why are you here?”

The pair of Kendis’s noted the crashed ship as something to check out once they got their bearings.

“What? No of course there isn’t.” Elly said, a little surprised by the ground shaking. This was certainly escalating quickly.

“Angelica wouldn’t waste the resources on a republic she isn’t affiliated with” Thea confirmed.

Excellent, time to suck up to the local military, Rai-Ho thought to himself.

“Most people just call me Rai-Ho but introductions will have to wait. There are two more droids behind you.”

“Simple. It will give you more problems then you already have,” Brax said with an even tone.

“Why you!” Appius lashed out at him and lightning arced between his fingers.

“Appius!”

That single word stopped Appius dead in his tracks as he turned his head towards the door.

“Ankira? What are you doing here?”

“Seeing what all the fuss is about and apparently stopping you from being stupid,” she said as she walked closer and looked at the large Mandalorian. “I guess you are the cause of all this commotion, Arasuumir”

Brax stood up straight, “Vod Irr of aliit Jendrii. You know of me?”

“I know some stories. Call me Ankira. Why is someone of aliit Jendrii-ka here?”

Dasha tried to explain to <@494180472713248788> , “So…. we need to see and hear what’s going on. Unknown Mando comes in causing problems and making demands. We’re protecting fellow Taldryan!”

The Sephi made gestures to the remains of the glue on the ceiling as well as pulling up surveillance footage of inside the workshop (the latter of which she has accessto only because she’s responsible for the space).

The image of the former Sith Warlord Vodo Biask Taldrya was a hologram projected beside the workstation, about 1 meter tall and standing as he was from table level it was not hard for the image to glare down at the Sephi girl.

“You lack the authorization to access these files”, the piercing eyes of the Twi'lek man bore into her accusingly, “I should report this unauthorized attempt.”

The girl sqeeked, “No, no, no! This is a real problem and everyone is busy or isnt thinking right!”

“Then you need to contact the Administrator and have them authorize you to access these files.”

In a momentary fit of frustration and anger, she reached in her pocket and slammed the small cylendrical Spike into the workstation’s keyboard, “I don’t have time for that. One moment.”

Vodo’s brow furrowed, “This is an unauthorized–”

His voice modulated and skipped several times, as though the avatar had glitched. Jala ploughed through his code and looked for the half-finished string she knew would be there to complete. She knew it would be there because she had put it there, or at least had started putting it there before her plan had been interupted by Zakai’s fast-moving plan back when this had all begun. She ignored the protestations of the program V.O.D.O. and quickly finished the command line.

“Vodo?” She asked without looking at him, her hands still flying across the keyboard, “Glitterbomb.”

Vodo’s eye’s sparkled momentarily and then his normally rigid stoic posture relaxed, as though someone had finally filled the old arcanist’s veins with a warm liquid, “Yes, Jala?”

“I need access to those files.”

“Yes, Jala”, the program of Vodo said.

Koda’s message interrupted her. As he listened, Centam realized what he had just seen. “Sorry to leave so suddenly,” he said, turning to leave. “I need to take a look at that wreckage.” Without further hesitation, he made his way to the crashed shuttle.

“I’d like to know this too,” Appius said, standing beside Ankira and folding his arms. Suddenly, the lights in the Tower began to flash before becoming steady again. “Well, that was strange.”

<@417336769181122562>

Dasha’s authorisation momentary caused a glitch in the Tower, flickering the lights before becoming steady again. The files of all know Taldryan members, past and present were suddenly available to her, as well as the Kasiya Citizenship Records.

<@77213354619318272> <@494180472713248788>

Darrio went wide-eyed at Rai-Ho’s proclamation. He spun, and activated the flamethrower in his vambraces.

<@434108976834019379>

“I need to see that ship,” Winch said, his voice the stern authority of a soldier.

“Think you can figure out what the hell is going on?” Ellisyn asked.

“I don’t know, but I can certainly try,” Winch placed his scatterblaster back on his back.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Thea cracked her knuckles. “Let’s get moving!”

<@301514304845381632>

“Wait! Sylvia grabbed Centam’s arm before he could leave. "My partner was a pilot. I know its a small chance but…”

“What was his name?” Centam asked.

“Stejak Westen.”

The rest of the family behind her looked to Centam hopefully.

<@959261453087559680>

Dasha decided to leave the files she didn’t need be and focus on any regarding this large Mandalorian.

“OK,” Centam said. “Maybe you could come with me and we’ll see who the pilot was.” When she nodded, Centam led the way to the crashed shuttle.

As soon as Sylvia saw the pilot’s body she fell to her knees heavily. “Stejak,” she sobbed, reaching out to touch the corpse.

Centam bowed his head. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said. “And I will do everything in my power to keep anyone else from feeling this pain.”

On the one hand, Appius did not want to leave Ankira alone with this unexpected Mandalorian, but on the other hand, Brax had unintentionally demonstrated he was no threat, given Aylin and Dasha were able to neutralise him the way they had.

He took Ankira’s hand. “I gotta take this. If he tries anything, you know what to do.”

He pressed his helmet to hers, and then left the room. He headed straight to the turbolift, commanding it to rise to the 70th floor.

Things had escalated too far. He needed a closer look at that recording…

“Tell me what you all see,” Appius said to the group.

<@494180472713248788> <@77213354619318272> <@417336769181122562>

Ankira nodded towards Appius, “Don’t worry about me. I will see what kind of things he has to discuss with me. You go take care of the rest.”

“Seems you have some serious issues going on here as well,” Brax said as Appius left the room.

She shrugged slightly in reply, “Just like any other day around here it seems. It gets scary when it gets quiet.”

The large Mandalorian chuckled, “I guess space is nothing for you then. But on a more serious note. We are having similar issues with the droids are you are experiencing here. Our pilots are having trouble to keep our ships on the correct course.” He sighed. “One of our team found a lead back to here, seems the source is somewhere here… Or at least that is how far he could trace it back.”

Aylin frowned and rubbed her chin, “I’m not sure, I have already tried to enhance the recording to find out who the shorty is, but it does not get better then this. But maybe…” As the Nautolan trailed off her fingers started to fly over her datapad, trying to find other recordings of that area or in the direction the short figure had walked.

As Koda made his way down to the crashed ship, it seems he was the last person to get there. He landed close by and walked his way over to the crash site, right over to Centam and the grieving widow. The drone he had with him was still tucked under his arm, hopefully with information relevant to the situation at hand. Koda looked around the area for some kind of blanket or tarp to put over the cockpit of the ship, or at least Stejak.

Those of you who had seen Koda before, he is now rocking new paint job and armor.

<@959261453087559680>

Aylin stared at her screen for a moment before a slur of Nautolan curses escaped her lips.

“That shorty is a murderer, he killed at least 11 more people and at first glance they seem random people that might just have gotten to close to him. It looks like he came from the Karufr Lowlands in the northeast and every time he gets close to a camera they black out for a moment.”

“I know for certain, despite appearances, its not Teebu,” Appius stated. “He’s doing reconnaissance in Pirate territories at the moment. So, that begs the question, who is that?” Appius walked over to his desk and hit a large, red button underneath it.

A powerful beam of light erupted out of the tower, soaring towards the sky. Eventually, the sky began to turn bright red as Kasiya was covered in a forcefield so powerful almost nothing could penetrate it.

“There,” Appius clasped his hands together. “Now our little friend has no way to get off Kasiya.”

<@61385159655559168>

And so, the trio made their way to the downed ship. Along the way they encountered a little resistance but nothing they couldn’t handle. They made it to the smoldering mess in no time.

Upon arriving, the first thing Ellisyn noticed was her di'kut of an older brother Koda. She, along with Thea and Winch, quickly made their way to his side.

“Koda!” Elly shouted, stopping beside him.

Thea stared Centam down with her arms crossed, sensing his connection to the force.

<@351852811883118594> <@837236610684813342> <@959261453087559680>

Koda sees those he calls his family and stays silent for a few moments. He still needed to find something to cover the pilot with, finally seeing an old tarp nearby. He looked to Ellisyn

“Stay put. Don’t touch anything.” The armored man made his way over to the tarp and brought it over, covering the cockpit and Stejak. “We need to get some officers down here to make sure no one disturbs Mister Westen. Only his family gets to know for now. I’m not letting another innocent die on my watch. I am going to find who’s behind this…and they will face Due Process.” There was just a smidgen of extra hate in his voice as Koda rested his hand on his holster.

<@837236610684813342> <@959261453087559680> <@301514304845381632>

And that made twelve.

Appius absorbed the information Vodo provided with Aylin and Dasha looking to him expectantly. Anger rose within him. Nobody else would die today if he could help it.

Well… maybe one.

“Vodo, Initiate protocol sixty-five,” Appius said, and the holographic Twi'lek gave a small nod.

Flashing red lights and alarms flared throughout the tower as durasteel blast doors closed on every passageway and window.

“Zappy… what’s protocol sixty-five?” Aylin asked.

“I put it in place after we were attacked by the Children of Mortis. The entire Tower is on lockdown. Nobody has clearance to get in or out. Nobody, that is, except me. Only i can activate the Tower’s defences now.”

“Does Teebu know about it?” Dasha asked. “If he does then…”

“No, he doesn’t,” Appius said. “Despite what he might think, there’s little bits of administration I haven’t informed him about. I put protocol sixty-five in to protect my children, and now I’m going to use it to catch a killer.”

Appius couldn’t help but relish the hunt, he was, after all, a Mandalorian. He was ready to leave but stopped and turned to Aylin and Dasha.

“You are both safe in here. I want you and Vodo to get our systems out there under control and stop the droid attack.”

As the blast doors opened for Appius, and Appius only, he could be heard giving orders in his intercom system.

“Valkyrie, get the KPP out there protecting the citizens, tell everyone to stay indoors until further notice. They’ll be backed by the Taldryan Military…”

“Vodo, search for life signatures in the air vents.”

“Are you going to say hello, or are you going to keep staring at me like a creepy stalker?” Appius asked.

Appius turned around, and what could he see? <@61385159655559168>

“You know I can still see you. You might as well drop the Cloak.”

Maybe a little shove ought to do it? Appius sent a small wave of energy towards it, not enough to do harm, but enough to stagger and perhaps make them lose their footing.

“It’s a hologram, of course it is…” Appius attempted to reach and and touch it.

Appius spun, grabbing his conversion lightsaber and activating the twin emerald blades. They howled they an angry Krayt Dragon within the office.

“Only slightly familiar,” Appius said, remembering when Teebu possessed the Force all those months ago. Though, Appius knew the ring was gone, and Vodo was now an A.I. “For taking all those lives? Maybe I do want to kill you, but then again, maybe I don’t. Maybe it’s not my place to kill you. Maybe, if you are guilty, it will be Senate who decides your fate, and maybe you’ll rot in a cell for the rest of your life.”

Appius remained in a defensive stance. “My turn,” he said. “Who are you? Why are you here?”

In a surprising twist, Appius sheathed the blades of his weapon and placed it back on his hip.

“Vodo, scan the tower! Find him!”

“But I didn’t. The only one with authorisation was me, and I never gave the order for them to be opened.”

“But I…” Appius paused for a moment when he thought about what happened. “Son of a bitch… Mind Tricks! He’s a Seeker!”

“OK… at least we now know what he’s capable of. Vodo, Aylin, Dasha, send out the message to the Military. Upload the image, and tell no-one to engage him alone.”

<@301514304845381632>

<@417336769181122562> <@77213354619318272>

Winch watched as Koda put the tarp over the deceased body. Winch had made a habit of being able to silently judge Koda without Jim even realising, especially whilst wearing his helmet.

Auretii, that’s what they called him. Koda wasn’t on the best terms with his family, and despite all pretenses, Winch, deep down, didn’t like the discourse between the Crusaders. He could see Thea out of the corner of his eye, arms folded, and Ellisyn seemed to want to run up to Koda and grab him by the shoulders.

Winch believed he knew better. The best way to start mending bridges was with one plank at a time. He walked up to Koda, who was being consoled by Centam, and asked a simple question.

“I know you are angry, Koda, but I need to know what happened when the ship lost control. Can you tell me?”

“Something caused a power cell to explode is my guess, fried the whole system and everything in the cockpit.” Koda glared down at the shorter man, “And I’m not angry. I just have a duty I am going to fulfill. But we can talk later. I need to get into contact with the Chancellor.” Koda looked up to the sky as the city’s shield was activated.

Winch gave a small nod and walked over to the ship. The cockpit was exposed to the outside, and Winched leaned in to get a good look at the console.

“OK… what do we have here…”

He activated the advanced slicing system in his suit, and connected it to the ship’s circuitry. However, when he did, the letter ‘A’ appeared not just in his helmet, but on every screen and billboard, every projector and hologram, and every electronic in Port Kasiya. <@351852811883118594>

“Whelps of Taldyran! Your time…” The modulated voice cackled “Your time is up. This…sad…sad sad sad sad sad SAD! PATHETIC! Excuse for a so called ‘Republic’ is at an end!” The voice said in a very childish way. “My friends and allies are going to dismantle everything you care about. One by one. Step by step. You will all be begging for MY mercy! MINE!!” They laughed, “SO LET THE ANARCHY BEGIN!” The ‘A’ started to flicker before counting down from 5 4 3 2 ….

BOOM BOOM BOOM

Explosions started to erupt all around the city

@here

The droids Darrio was fighting with <@434108976834019379> stopped moving. The two Mandalorians remained on guard as the mechanical beings voiced the message from ‘A’. Suddenly, an explosion roared from the roof of the bank, the roof threatening to collapse on them both.

Aylin and Dasha watched in shock as Vodo was replaced by the letter ‘A’. The message came through, as quakes shook the Taldryan Tower from the bottom floors.

<@77213354619318272> <@417336769181122562>

Ankira and Brax heard the message loud and clear, their conversation interrupted as the message came through on the intercom. They too, felt the tremors below.

Koda, Winch, Ellisyn, Cenyamand Thea watched in horror as explosions began to ring out around them, most notably, the courtyard in which Ellisyn had just emerged from.

<@351852811883118594> <@301514304845381632>

After hearing ‘A’s message, the bar went up in flames next to Valkyrie and Tracinya, threatening to engulf them both if they did not comply.

Appius knew what caused the tremors. The tower’s lower levels gad been targeted by bombs. Thankfully, the tower was reinforced, and could stand against such simple methods.

Yet, he felt those below at the bottom become one with the Force, their lives snuffed out without warning.

Appius clenched his fists. He was so done with his city being attacked! He marched out of the corridor and gave a simple order, the Ewok be damned, right now, he had a city to protect.

“Report to the top of the Taldryan Tower, immediately! Vodo, lift the restrictions!”

He needed a better look at what was happening, and how to control the damage.

Dasha was about to explain… something that Appius didn’t quite take notice just yet when the system was overtaken.

The Sephi’s fingers flew over her keyboard, trying to regain control and access the system. The shaking of the tower only pushed her closer to desperation showing only with her slender ears pinned around her head.

Catching that VODO didn’t respond, which was abnormal, Dasha punched in a password into an isolated drawer under her desk and took out one of the keycards with small mics labeled ‘EMERGENCY MANUAL OVERRIDE". This keycard was tossed onto a surface near Appius murmuring, “Don’t ask. Say 'Butter Beer’ before you use it each time. There’s voice recognition in the program on the locks just after a decoder. That keycard is an encoder for it.” Knowing full well she’d get a scolding later for going around secretly adding a program to all Taldryan locks she could get ahold of an additional override that bypasses the network system AND VODO.

Her attention went right back to trying to access VODO and the rest of the network system.

Ankira and Brax looked at each other before she took off towards the nearest turbolift. Brax was quick to follow her. When she tried to call the lift nothing happened and a frown appeared on her face.

“Seems we have more problems then just a tower shake…”

“Is there a different way to the top?” the large Mando asked.

She nodded in reply and went over to one of the stairwells and ran down the stairs.

“Uh… didn’t he say we needed to go up?”

“Yes, but a few levels below is an balcony we can use to fly up.”

It was impossible! Just a few minutes Appius had heard Eresby be gunned down by the Tower defences, they all had! It didn’t make any sense unless…

It was an illusion.

The big question was if anyone else was affected by it, or whether Appius was the lone target.

“Eresby, come with me to my office. Its important we discuss these matters there,” Appius said, though he did take the datapad too.

As he watched the ground torn apart by the blasts, Centam felt growing feelings of helplessness. After all his hard work, all his dedication to preserving the Taldryan Republic, enemies were still finding a way in.

Annoyed, Dasha opted to bypass VODO and the network systems… by grabbing her gear and another keycard, locking her hidden drawer afterwards, and going to manually survey important locations.

Aylin quickly followed Dasha with her bag full of different items best left unquestioned.

“You noticed it too that the system is acting weird?”

Dasha explained, “Someone put it into this mode, it wasn’t scheduled. I think someone is trying to get somewhere or something.”

“But what? We got like a million items here that someone might want some time some where. How are we going to narrow it down?”

“Why put the entire system in diagnostic mode? Even VODO! Robots are all sliced too…” Dasha breathed as she ran to one of the many locations and found it safe.

Winch was damn good at what he could do. His armor was specifically designed, by him, no less, to be able to slice into some of the most complicated terminals and networks in the known galaxy. He could not, and would not, allow any distractions to impede him from his work!

And then a corpse hit the ground near them, startling the group. Winch grimaced beneath his helmet, his eyes hardening. They needed to get to the bottom of this, and quickly. He noticed Centam staring up to the rooftops.

“Find out what that is,” Koda said, immediately getting back to work slicing into the ship’s terminals. Sure enough, ‘A’ was still blocking them, but, Winch managed to discover a work around in the code, a work around that connected him directly to the Taldryan Tower, more specifically, Aylin and Dasha.

<@301514304845381632> <@351852811883118594> <@959261453087559680> <@417336769181122562> <@77213354619318272>

Confused, Dasha decided to go lower in the tower, and lower, and lower…. trying to find out where the explosion had damaged the tower.

“That is definitely not part of the layout,” the Nautolan said as she looked down the hole. “Looks like it is going far down too.”

Looking towards Dasha a smirk ran across her lips, “Do you want to give them a glittery surprise or are we going to get the heavy guys to do the rat chasing?”

<@77213354619318272>

“I fail to see how glitter will be of any use in this situation,” the voice of Winch aired out across the intercom.

<@417336769181122562> <@77213354619318272>

“Sometimes I wonder if you ever think outside the box, Winch,” Aylin commented. “What are you doing on this line anyway?”

Even though she couldn’t see it, Winch didn’t stop himself rolling his eyes at Aylin’s antics. “Getting in contact with you. It appears whoever is behind this was so focused on keeping you from slicing out that they failed to take into account the possibility of someone breaking in from the outside. What’s the situation? Have you managed to find the source of the signal?”

“Dasha and I are going through everything. She found out that the system got into maintenance mode somehow, but we have no idea yet who is the source. What we did find though is a hole in the reinforced wall and ropes going down to the lower levels and we were just deciding how to keep them from escaping. What is your status?” Aylin said as she looked down the shaft again to see if she could spot something.

“At a fallen transport vessel. The pilot is dead, and a… corpse… was dropped by us a moment ago. The one behind it remains unidentified.”

“We cod scan the city, but that could take hours,” Aulylin said.

“Time we don’t have,” Winch’s gruff voice grimaced. “If we had a lead of some description, we could narrow down our search and double our efforts on one area…”

It was at that moment that Appius re-entered his office with Eresby in tow.

“Vista Del Rey!” Appius said. “Eresby here has been monitoring the broadcast signals. They are coming from Vista Del Rey, isn’t that right, Eresby?”

Eresby gave a small nod.

Aylin’s face lit up. “Ask and you shall receive! Winch, looks like our perpetrator is in Vista Del Rey.”

“That’s just one district… that’ll do. If we triple our efforts, you, me, and, Dasha, we can get an exact location in minutes.”

Appius listened to the unfamiliar, deep voice boom through his office. He just had one question that needed answering.

“Aylin… who is that?”

“That is Winch, I met him some time ago… long story… But he is good and can help us. The three of us will have the hacker in no time,” Aylin said with a grin and poked Dasha before rummaging through her bag and pulled Siky out and some spikes.

“Lets start the four sided tag team. Different signals and programs to throw at him,” the Nautolan said as she held up Siky, “Time to go hunting.”

Aylin glanced towards Eresby before shaking her head slowly, “In stead of complaining, perhaps send someone down the ropes while we do the hacking?”

Appius shrugged and looked at Eresby. “Well, you heard the lady.”

It was at that moment that Ankira and Brax burst through into the office via the balcony entrance.

<@417336769181122562>

“Ankira! I got the perfect thing for you!” Aylin giggled.

“Uh… okay?” The white Mandalorian answered with hesitation while she walked towards the group with the large Mandalorian taing her.

“Yes! Your personal quest with a new weapon or two.”

“I’m not sure I like the sound of th…”

“Of course you do,” Aylin interjected and pushed two blasters into her hands. “Here you go and one for you,” she followed and pushed a large blaster into Brax’s hands.

“Now off you go down the hole!” Aylin said gleefully as she pushed them towards the hole in the wall. “We got slicing to do!”

“Can’t we first get some info? Appius?” Ankira protested.

“I assume that is the Supreme Chancellor?” Winch asked. He knew he was playing a dangerous game, but like hell he was letting anymore damage be done here today, especially by a wannabe hacker using clankers as toys! “Aylin, Dasha, whenever you are ready, pour all our connections into Vista Del Rey at once. They might be good, but they can’t fight all of us at once. One of us will get through and when we do…”

Appius felt the being re-enter the Tower immediately. It was only right that he follow him. He was aware what they could do this time.

“I’m coming with you,” Appius said to Ankira and Brax. “There’s someone else down there that demands my attention.”

“Got it!”

Aylin’s voice boomed in the office. “We pinpointed them! In Vista Del Rey, sending co-ordinates now.”

Dasha grinned and took out a datapad, “I added a new clock extender program to slow down his UI. What’s the address?”

Centam leapt up to where the figure had been, barely managing to catch a glimpse of it as it moved into the shadows.

Appius felt the entrance. It was him again. That made seven unwanted guests in the tower. He checked the time on his desk. 8:09pm.

The sun had set, and the sky was ripe for the fireworks celebration. There was ‘A’ to deal with, and these happenings here.

“Winch, was it?” Appius asked. “I’m sending Valkyrie and the KPP to your location. Once there, advance on ‘A’ together. Do this, and I’ll make sure you are rewarded.”

“Understood,” Winch said, cutting communications.

Appius turned to Brax and Ankira. “Let’s go greet our unwanted guests.” He pried open the turbolift with the Force, giving them easy access to the basement floors below.

Winch exited the craft, turning to his fellow Crusaders. “Right, I got a job for us. Supreme Chancellor says we will be rewarded.”

“And just how do you propose we maintain cover?” Thea asked.

“He sent Valkyrie,” Winch answered. “She knows what to do.

<@417336769181122562> <@77213354619318272> <@351852811883118594> <@301514304845381632> <@959261453087559680>

<@531278442008674304>

Meanwhile, Rai-Ho and Darrio were busy cleaning up house in the bank. It seemed the droids had something against them.

“That makes seventeen!” Darrio declared as another droid collapsed at his feet.

“That doesn’t count!” Rai-Ho protested.

“And why not!?” Darrio asked.

<@434108976834019379>

Footsteps could be heard coming from behind them. Immediately the group halted in their actions and turned to face the trio of Mandalorians before them. Appius, Ankira, and Brax. The latter two brandishing the weapons Aylin had given them prior.

“Don’t worry, your boss wont ever find out,” Appius said, brandishing his Darksaberstaff in hand, twin emerald blades glowing and howling like krayt dragons eager for the hunt. The group in front of them shuddered at the sight, apart from the hooded figure. “Kill them all, but leave that one alive. I’d like to know who this excellency is.”

<@417336769181122562> <@61385159655559168>

Centam dropped silently to the floor behind the group of Mandalorians.

“Hello there.”

Appius turned. “Centam! Welcome to the party.”

Appius dropped his weapon, the blades retracting into the hilt. Then he summoned his power, using it to grab onto his attacker, telekenetically pulling him towards him even faster.

Appius followed up with a hard, Force-imbued punch. A sickening cracked was heard as the attacker collapsed to the ground. He whined in pain, his weapon long since fallen out of his hand. Appius towered above him, the air crackling with electrical pressure which manifested at his fingertips. Lightning jettisoned into his body, putting an end to his life once and for all.

Now it was a question of how Ankira and Centam were doing, and what Brax was going to do.

<@417336769181122562> <@959261453087559680>

Ankira shot at the attacker that was going for her, the new weapons feeling odd in her hands, but she was on target nonetheless. As soon as the shots hit the attacker in the chest a kind of slime erupted out of the bolt, covering the man around his chest and part of his arms, then electric shocks ran through the slime, rendering the man unconscious in mere seconds.

“No glitter? I’m fine with that,” Ankira said as she watched the man topple over and hit the ground.

The large Mando turned around as the attacker ignored him and went for Centam instead.

“That was not the deal,” Brax yelled as he went after him and with a small boost of his jetpack, tackling the man to the ground. The attacker was quick though and tried to use the lightsaber against Brax, who grabbed hold of his arm and pressed it down against the floor.

“Don’t use your glowing butterknife against me,” Brax hissed.

Brax looked down at the man as he stopped struggling and got up, looking towards Appius, “Not so much of a fight huh? But what about the dude that disappeared? Do you know him?”

“Unfortunately, no. I’m not sure what his motives are. However, our objective is to secure Kasiya first,” Appius said. “After that, I have a Proconsul to go and rescue.”

Rai-Ho decided not to push the issue further on counts. The important part was getting in the good graces of the local leadership. As the final droid fell to the ground, Rai-Ho turned his attention to the armor clad Darrio. He assumed the man was also a Mandalorian by his armor. Rai-Ho had never been the most loyal to the code but he knew how to fake it.

“I think that is the last of them,” Rai-Ho said to Darrio. “So what is going on here and how can I help?”

“What’s the mission? If it’s to find wherever this ‘A’ guy is, I have someone who might be able to help. I just need to get a signal to Elysia. Then we break the doors down.” Koda pushed his right dist into his left palm and cracked his knuckles.

After narrowly escaping the blazing bar, Valkyrie’s comm beeped at her. On the other end was Appius, who quickly gave her her orders. Completely caught up in protecting Tracinya, she managed to completely forget about the KPP. She bit her lip and looked from her comm to Tracinya. She had been gone so long. She could wait a little longer. “I’m sorry, mesh'la, but I have to go.”

Valkyrie couldn’t stand hearing Tracinya say goodbye, so before the Mandalorian could respond, she ran off towards her KPP building, calling a transport to pick her up.

Arriving just in time to watch Valkyrie cut a droid down its center was a bright red speeder. It stopped nearby the Magistrate and out hopped the clone’s second in command, Kya.

“I’ve arranged the usual emergency protocols!” Kya shouted over to Valkyrie as she approached the speeder. Kya wrapped her arms around the clone as soon as she arrived. “It feels like every other day, the city is in peril.”

“You’re telling me. We barely ever have time to actually deal with what I made the KPP for.” Valkyrie complained.

“Here.” Kya pulled away from Valkyrie, picked up her helmet and sword from the backseat of the open-top speeder, and handed them to Valkyrie. “I’m sorry your date got interrupted.” She cringed as she watched Valk wince at the mention of missing out on time with Trinnie.

“Let’s just… let’s not talk about that,” Valk mumbled, taking her equipment from her second in command. She slid her helmet on in an attempt to hide her emotions.

But it didn’t stay on long. She tore it from her head as A’s voice shrieked over its comms system, Kya doing the same with her earpiece. “What in-” before Kya could finish her sentence, explosions rang out across the city, surrounding the pair with devastation

“Not again… let’s regroup with the rest of the KPP.” Valkyrie said with a worried sigh before jumping into the speeder with Kya. They zoomed on through the city towards the KPP headquarters.

–

And as soon as Koda was done cracking his knuckles, a few speeders appeared, housing Valkyrie, Kya, and a few of her agents. Valk jogged over to the group, noticing Koda first. “What in blazes are you doing on Kasiya, Koda?” She then looked to the rest of the small group and quickly noticed Thea. Letting muscle memory take over, she suddenly stood at attention, gaining a chuckle out of the forcie.

“At ease, soldier,” Thea said, crossing her arms while a smirk crossed her lips. “When Winch said Valkyrie, I didn’t realize it was you. How’s my old nickname treating you?”

“To be fair, General,” Valkyrie relaxed. “You aren’t using it anymore.” Valk’s companion Kya raised a brow at her use of general.

“I’d love to catch up Cry- Valkyrie, but your city is on fire. So let’s get down to business.” She replied. “Winch, catch her up to speed.”

<@351852811883118594> <@837236610684813342>

Darrio was about to answer when a beeping was heard coming from his commlink.

“Excuse me one moment,” Darrio said. “What… really now… that is interesting. I’m on my way, and I’m bringing backup.”

Darrio ceased communications and faced Rai-Ho. “You want to help? We have a target. A hacker situated in an abandoned Arroyo warehouse. We are going to bring him in. Help me with this, and I’ll put in a good word to my brother for you.”

Winch stood to attention. “The short version is the droids in the city are under the control of a hacker that’s based himself in an Arroyo Warehouse. I have the exact co-ordinates. Koda said he needs to send a signal, what signal exactly, Koda?”

<@301514304845381632> <@351852811883118594>

After a life of having questionable, at best, relationships with any planetary leadership, Rai-Ho saw his opportunity to move to the big time.

“Let’s ride.”

Darrio gave a curt nod, and as the two Mandalorians stepped outside of the bank, he activated his jetpack, rocketing into the air.

“I need to make sure that Kasiya isn’t on fire and that my team is keeping things under control up there, but my comms don’t have enough range to reach there. For the time being, we’re all stuck here, so I can’t help the people I’ve sworn to lead.” Koda sighed, “If only the Captain was here. He would have done this cleaner. ”

<@837236610684813342> <@301514304845381632>

“You had your chance to get advice from him, Auretti.” Thea said. “He’s got more pressing matters anyway.”

“That’s a little harsh” Elly tried to defend her brother while Valkyrie stayed quiet. The clone knew better than to contradict her former general.

“Life is harsh, Ellisyn. He won’t always have someone to fix it for him.” Thea crossed her arms, a stern look on her face. She looked to Koda “If you’re incapable to lead, Valkyrie and I will take over. The city is burning and we don’t have time for whining.” <@837236610684813342> <@351852811883118594>

“I don’t need anyone. To fix things for me. I ask for help when I need it. You call me the traitor…when you’re the one who worked with the First Order.” Koda had finally had that wound poked enough and slowly walked up to Thea, looking down at her, “My grandparents saved a majority of their squad. How many did you save?”

<@301514304845381632> <@837236610684813342>

Thea’s eye twitched while she gazed up at Koda “I saved your grandparents you ungrateful bitch. If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t exist.” Her hand drifted over her blaster “I did all I could and continued to do all I could even after I woke up. What do you know about real war? What do you know about saving people? You couldn’t even save your fiance.”

And with that, there was completely silence among all gathered. <@837236610684813342> <@351852811883118594>

Darrio and Rai-Ho soared through the air, though Darrio gestured down when he saw a group of familiar people below.

He descended with Rai-Ho following suit, landing amongst the Crusaders. Darrio immediately embraced the one most important to him, Ellisyn.

“Hey, beautiful. You doing ok? Dont worry about him. Hes with me,” he said. Though, she didn’t respond, and he could feel the somber mood. “OK, who died and went to Hell?”

<@434108976834019379> <@351852811883118594> <@301514304845381632>

Koda tensed up and slowly turned his head towards Elly, the only person here that he had talked to about his fiance. He kept quiet but was ready to fight his Aunt at a moments notice. Then Darrio and Rai-Ho showed up and he rolled his eyes under his helmet. He had nothing against Darrio personally, but he didn’t approve of him dating his sister.

Elly returned Darrio’s embrace, hiding her face from Koda in his shoulder for a quick moment “I think Thea is about to kill Koda.” She sighed and pulled away

“General I don’t know if this is the most important fight right now.” Valk said.

“You keep your mouth shut Cryo.” Thea snapped. “You go ahead and take care of this ‘A’ character. I’ve got a pest to deal with.” <@837236610684813342>

“No.”

It wasn’t Valkyrie, nor Ellisyn that spoke, but Winch.

“If we do this, we do this together. There’s more on the line than our family squabbles. People have died here today, and we owe it to them to see this resolved,” Winch said. “Of course, that’s up to you, but I know what I’d choose to do right now when this personal shit can wait for later.”

With that Winch ran towards the Arroyo District.

<@434108976834019379> <@301514304845381632> <@351852811883118594>

“Don’t look at me like that!” Appius pointed an accusatory finger at Vodo, who remained unimpressed at the gesture. “Get the systems back online, now!”

<@61385159655559168>

This is great, Rai-Ho thought to himself, they are all so distracted with their drama they don’t even care I’m a stranger in their midst.

Rai-Ho decided his best bet to continue his ruse was to side with part of the group encouraging cooperation. He could also try to get access to their official comms in the process.

“I’m at a bit of a disadvantage here because I don’t have access to comes to know where the problem is. If I could get access I could fly in to the rescue!”

<@837236610684813342> <@301514304845381632> <@351852811883118594>

“No need!” Darrio said, not out of realising what Rai-Ho was doing, but because he had the exact location marked in his helmet. “Follow that Clone! I’ll explain everything on the way!”

“Alright then,” a visible nerve appeared on Appius’ face, thankfully hidden behind his helmet. “Scan the planet. I want to know if anything even rometly looks off.”

Since Darrio and his bickering team weren’t going to give anything away that easy, Rai-Ho did what he was told. He dutifully awaited further explanation on just what kind of trouble he was getting himself into.

“An Ascendant Crystal? That is interesting,” Appius said. Was it connected to their little friend? “Can you give you exact co-ordinates?”

“Darrio why did you bring a stranger?” Elly whispered to her boo

“To be fair, you brought your aunt” Darrio answered

“Thats… yeah thats fair” Elly said and then looked over Darrio’s shoulder to Rai-Ho “…Nice to meet you”

Meanwhile, Valkyrie ran off with her KPP agents with Winch to to get work done.

All the while, Thea stared up at Koda. <@351852811883118594> <@837236610684813342> <@434108976834019379>

“You, big guy,” Appius pointed at Brax, “tie up our prisoner. Vodo, I want you to ensure he doesn’t escape. Use whatever twisted, sadistic method you like if he even so much as look at you funny.”

Vodo seemed to give a malicious smile at that.

Appius activated his comlink. “Dasha, Aylin, its Appius. Get your stuff together. We’re going on a little trip.”

“What’s the plan?” Ankira asked, still holding the weapon Aylin gave her.

Appius gave her a simple response, though it was cold, deep, and filled with determination. “We’re going bear hunting.”

<@417336769181122562> <@77213354619318272> <@959261453087559680>

After the transmission ended, Dasha turned to Aylin and asked, “Does he mean literally a bear or a teddy bear or….”

The Crusaders, with Darrio and Rai-Ho in tow as well as the KPP, had gathered around the entrance to the warehouse. Truth be told, it was rather unassuming. It was rectangular in shape, and so God damn boring that no-one would have given it a second glance.

“The fuck is this?” Darrio gestured towards it loudly.

“Shut up,” Thea said.

“No, no. He has a point,” Ellisyn backed up her boyfriend. “The fuck is this?”

“Are they always like this?” Rai-Ho asked Winch.

The Clone turned his head and sighed. If there was one thing the Clone Wars gave him, it was experience. If it was unassuming, it was that way by design.

“What do you think, Winch?” Koda asked.

Though, before he could answer, Darrio activated his jetpack and soared above the building.

“Wait, you fool!” Winch raised his voice. There were one-hundred and one things that could go wrong here, as evidenced when Darrio’s feet hit the roof. Alarms started blaring out, alerting those inside to their presence.

<@351852811883118594> <@434108976834019379> <@301514304845381632>

Just as the small being began to relax, he felt an alarm blast through hid mind. His eyes shot open, but before he could react, he was yanked by what seemed to be an invisible tether. He was pulled out of his yacht, and rolled across the floor, stopping against a pair of hard, beskar boots.

When he looked up, he was surrounded by a group of Mandalorians, Jedi, a Nautolan and a Sephi, all gazing down at him.

“Hello again,” Appius said, his tone of voice threatening. “Friend.”

<@417336769181122562> <@959261453087559680> <@77213354619318272>

Appius then grabbed hold of him by the scruff of the neck, lifting him up and quickly restrained him against his own body. “And I must applaud yours. You can blind us all you like, but there’s something you have on you that shines brighter than any darkness, and it led us straight to you.”

With that, Appius simply walked backwards out of the darkness and into the light. He then called out to the rest of his group “Walk backwards out of the darkness!”

“Really? Making threats are we? Centam, remove his weapons.”

The Jedi did as instructed as Appius tightened his grip around the Ewok.

“You are in no position to be making threats. What Zakhai started, eh? I have a theory on who you are, but let’s see if I’m right, shall we? Start with who you are, and what you’ve been doing tonight. Don’t skimp on the details, or else this will quickly get a whole lot more uncomfortable for you.”

Dasha obeyed and walked backwards out of the darkness as well. She fiddled with her datapad at the same time and used the tiny light to see if it does anything to the darkness.

“His nephew!?” Appius was taken aback. “Don’t take any offence by this, but he never mentioned you to me. Wait… is that how you knew how to enter the tower? He told you how?”

“Had, or has? And who is this excellency you keep referring to?”

“Sloven…” Appius hissed. Of course it was him. It had to be. Teebu had warned him about that Grand Moff before from their prior meeting. “I know of him. Your Uncle, then. Do you know if he’s still on Riven?”

“Teebu has only been with us about a year and a half? Which would explain why the time frame was so short. This was likely before Taldryan reformed into a Republic. OK, next question, who trained you? And why come here now? You said your uncle was in danger, how close were you two?”

Ellisyn sighed as she tried to ignore Thea’s face-palm. “You’re an idiot, Cyar'ika!” She called out to the rooftop before taking off her jacket and rolling up her sleeves. With one deep breath, she was off, sprinting at the building and quickly freeclimbing her way up the side, intent on joining her lover.

Valkyrie sighed with Winch, crossing her arms “To be fair, they probably already knew we were here.” <@434108976834019379> <@351852811883118594>

<@61385159655559168>

Dasha alao tried to check around timelines, specifically if anything else happened on the day of when Zakai destroyed the ring and tried to remember whomever else was there… as she didn’t want to tick off Jorm anymore than necessary and cause problems for Appius.

It led to Dasha wandering somewhat close to the bandaged bear and prodding him gently.

While examining the Ewok physically, Dasha mumbled, “I just… needed to see if…”

The Sephi’s ears swiveled in confusion as she stopped prodding the very obviously living Ewok. She stared intently, examining the small figure before her.

As if she didn’t hear him before she asked, “Who are you?”

Dasha took out her experimental glitter cleaner and switched it on. Though instead of it sucking up the glitter, it blew it all over Sigma in a warm wave of glitterfied wind.

“Oops.”

“Don’t worry. You get used to it,” Appius lied. You do not, in fact, ever get used to it.

Dasha blinked and shook off most of the glitter but didn’t see perturbed by the remaining that clung to her.

Koda Kendis looked around the area for the front door. “If they already know we’re here, let’s give them a spectacular entrance. One team through the roof, and the other team with me, blasting through the front door.” Koda pulled his trust power hammer, Atlas, off his back. “Today, we do this for Stejak and all those who perished!”

<@837236610684813342> <@434108976834019379> <@301514304845381632>

Aylin pouted and mumbled, “but I’m the Queen of Glitter…”

Ankira glanced towards Appius for a moment before walking off, taking a pouting Aylin along with her and Brax closely after her. She couldn’t follow everything about the things the Ewok had said, but she was sure that Appius knew all about it.

Once outside they waited for the others to join up with them.

Aylin immediately perked up and grinned, “Oh, I will and I will make sure you will like the show.”

Appius’ face turned into one of pure horror. This wasxgoing to be like the glitter bomb incident of 39ABY, only now he didn’t have Zruta Dysian JR to dig the holes…

Even though he also had a jetpack, Rai-Ho decided he’d follow the one with the power hammer through the front door. If anything, he appreciated the style points. Rai-Ho didn’t know who Stejak was but it didn’t stop him from chasing after the armor clad man with his own chain whip in sword configuration.

“For Stejak!” he yelled out as sincerely as he could manage.

<@351852811883118594> <@837236610684813342> <@301514304845381632>

“Bothan team six,” Appius responded bluntly.

“Sorry, talking to the voices in my head.”

At the concerned look the three gave him, Appius continued.

“I’m receiving updates from the Tower. As for you Sigma, I hope you will keep in contact. If you find out anything regarding your uncle, I hope we will be in touch.”

Appius double checked himself to ensure he wasn’t under another mind trick. Satisfied, he gave his answer. “Yes, and I hope yo will keep communications open with us. No mind tricks, though.” He gave a sly smile.

“I hear you, Vodo, but he’s our best lead to finding Teebu. Keep communication channels open. Let me know if anything comes through.”

This was absolutely the worst case scenario for Winch. He grimaced under his helmet at Mandalorians doing stupid Mandalorian things without thinking things through.

Yet, he wasn’t about to let them go in without him. Who knew what kind of defences the facility held?

He had his answer when he barged in through the front door, and instant horror struck his heart. Dark Trooper droids, six of them, stood facing to wait them.

“Fall back…” Winch said. “FALL BACK!”

He was the first to shoot, the beam splitter on his weapon scattering his blasts like a shotgun towards the droids. However, they remained unaffected and marched upon them.

Darrio and Ellisyn heard Winch from above.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Darrio commented.

<@434108976834019379> <@301514304845381632> <@351852811883118594>

The Serenity was saved and had returned to tbe Leviathan. It had only cost his Proconsul. No biggie.

Appius grit his teeth. If he ever got his hands on Sloven, he was going to snap his neck with his own two hands.

But right now, he had a city to secure, and a Proconsul to save. Once he was back at the Tower, he could send a message to Sigma too…

Dasha waited for Sigma to leave before mentioning lowly to Appius, “I know where Teebu is and… he’s not where that one is going. I visited Teebu before Darrio decided to jetpack us.”

Ellisyn groaned as she slid her brass knuckles over in tandem with her aunt. “It just had to be droids…” Elly said to Darrio “D'ya know how much it hurts punching droids?”

“A lot?” Darrio responded

“A lot.” Elly confirmed.

-

On the ground, Thea dashed back with Winch and took cover beside him. “You were always the brains, Captain. What’s your theory?”

<@434108976834019379> <@351852811883118594> <@837236610684813342>

Rai-Ho grinned under his helmet because even mostly destroyed Dark Trooper scrap went for a fortune on the black market. All he had to do was lend his talents to the fight and he was certain this group wouldn’t notice, or maybe even care, if he scooped up a few motivators off of the ground after.

His electro-filament blade flickered on as he activated his jetpack. The droids were semi-distracted by the chaos unfolding and he was able slice on of the Dark Troopers arms clean off at the elbow as he rocketed by, landing behind the group.

They all turned quickly and began marching towards him, quite ominously. Standing fast, in order to look heroic, he hoped his soon to be patrons joined the fray sooner than later.

<@351852811883118594> <@301514304845381632> <@837236610684813342>

Winch grimaced beneath his helmet. He had a plan, he always did when it came to advanced forms of clankers.

Then of course, Rai-Ho had jumped in with all the gusto of a Mandalorian trying to get himself killed. Sometimes Winch had to wonder if he was the only being in tbe universe with so much as a shred of common sense.

Luckily, the Dark Troopers were distracted.

“I have a plan,” Winch said. “I need them grouped together, then I can-”

He was cut off when he heard an explosion from above. Winch instinctively covered Thea to stop debris from falling atop her. When he looked, he saw Darrio and Ellisyn standing atop the rubble.

“That’s what I call an explosive entrance, eh? Eh?” Darrio gestured like a comic waiting for a reaction from his audience.

Yes, Mandalorians really did have death wishes.

Then, movement began from underneath the rubble, and Winch cried out in alarm as Dark Trooper fists tore through the duracrete like knives through butter.

“Get off the rubble!” Winch shouted.

<@351852811883118594> <@434108976834019379> <@301514304845381632>

Koda quickly ran towards one of the Dark Troopers and swung Atlas at it’s head. The head of the hammer struck into it, breaking part of the neck, before the repulsor activated in it that tore the rest of the head off, sending it flying.

<@434108976834019379> <@301514304845381632> <@837236610684813342>

Winch had his plan, and he had no time to explain it to Thea. Instead, he rounded the corner as remainder of the Dark Troopers emerged from the rubble, firing the EMP attachment on his weapon. The blast detonated in the center of the group of droids, temporarily short-circuiting them.

“NOW!” Winch commanded.

Darrio ran at the first one, using his cybernetic hand to punch one. It hurt. A lot.

<@434108976834019379> <@351852811883118594> <@301514304845381632>

The droids were static, twitching as the EMP paralysed them. After Darrio decided that punching a droid was definitely not a good idea, he grabbed a thermal imploder and hit the ignition. He tossed it in the pile of droids.

“Everybody down!” Darrio yelled, forcing all organics in the area to leap out of the way of the sudden boom.

<@434108976834019379> <@301514304845381632> <@351852811883118594>