Revan's Legacy: The Beskar Cache

[Akanmin Pema]

((OOC: The planning thread is located here. Read it before posting.

Summary: Akanmin Pema lands on Bogden and discovers that others seeking the same cache have already arrived. He plots to outmaneuver them and get away with the Beskar.))

The dusty, cracked brown orb that was Bogden hung heavily in space, its twenty moons hovering around it like a posse of children harassing their tired mother. Even the most advanced scientists of the time were at a loss to explain how a single planet could draw so many little objects into its orbit, or how the planet itself could withstand the constant push and pull they caused without fracturing down to its core. Perhaps, in another ten thousand years, it finally would snap in half, but for now it merely bore its torture stoically, reflecting light into the darkness of space with pain and pride intermixed in its shimmering.

The planet was a case study in why attachments were a poor choice, mused Akanmin Pema, chuckling as the Quarren do (it sounds like a drowning, mentally retarded bear). An eternity of swampland interspersed with rocky crevasses ripped open by the intense gravitational forces exerted by the moons, the planet was so devoid of anything useful that even Czerka hadn't tried to mine it (people still laughed at the Tatooine fiasco). Though the world was lush in places, dust clouds kicked up by the constant earthquakes gave the planet its brown color, and the local plants had either adapted to need very little sunlight or died to make way for more evolved counterparts. Even smugglers and other criminals avoided the planet in favor of its moons, which were equally secluded and far safer.

In short, it was a world which would have been entirely beneath the notice of most everyone in the galaxy if not for the treasure map recently sold to a number of groups on the black market, a treasure map said to lead to a vast cache of Beskar, one of the most valuable materials in the galaxy. Normally, Akanmin would have paid such stories no heed; any number of treasure maps were sold by unscrupulous groups to the naive, and often led into pirate ambushes where those foolish enough to follow them could be easily relieved of their lives and belongings. Something was different about this one, however, something that had made him follow up and talk to his contacts. They all told the same story: the map was authentic, and had recently been stolen from its inexperienced creator, now deceased.

All too often one of his information brokers was wrong, but never before had six been misled, so here he was, guiding the Stilled Storm down toward the surface of the wounded planet. Beside him sat R-7C6-GE3, Seesix for short; the modified protocol droid had lost its shine from many years of use, but after having its programming wiped of useless etiquette and replaced with starship-specific knowledge, it made an excellent sensors operator despite its antiquated model. The droid could also take over as pilot in a pinch; to facilitate this, and to protect his secrets without necessitating frequent memory wipes, he'd taken away its capacity to speak at all and understand any languages except Quarren and Binary. He had no need of company, and enjoyed the silent serenity of space.

Readouts popped up on the screen in front of him, already swiftly but carefully analyzed by Seesix. He adjusted his course slightly, then moved his facial tentacles into what his species considered a frown. It was difficult to tell because of the distance and the interference caused by the dust clouds in the atmosphere, but it seemed that he was not the first to arrive at the location of the cache; given the amount of time he'd spent making sure the venture wasn't an elaborate set-up, that unfortunately made sense. He was going to have to circumvent whoever had arrived first, though if the Dashade warrior who guarded the cache was as fearsome as he'd heard, perhaps he could use these early arrivals to distract him for a moment. These concerns left his mind as his ship hit the atmosphere, forcing him to focus on piloting.

One moment he could see the darkness of space behind him as Bogden filled up his front viewports, the next he could see nothing but swirling brown as he streaked into the atmosphere, arriving in the heart of the cloud of dust. He was now flying entirely based on Seesix's readouts, and was glad that his ship had such immensely powerful sensors. His vessel dropped lower, and he dodged away from a tall spire of rock just in time; had he tried to locate it visually, he wouldn't have been able to spot it until his ship was a scant few meters away and on the path to destruction. After a tense minute or so, he dropped beneath the cloud entirely, and his vessel stabilized. It occurred to him just how tall the spire must have been; gravity pulled as well as pushed here.

Looking back at his sensor readouts again, he confirmed his suspicions; another group had, without doubt, arrived here first. At least two freighter-sized vessels were landed, and between ten and twenty humanoid life forms were milling about between them, no doubt preparing to enter the cache. He would have to find a way to deal with them; fifteen or so against one was very poor odds, even for someone as skilled as he. Not so for a Jedi, perhaps, but Akanmin took pride in the fact that he didn't need any ancient magics to accomplish his goals. Raising his eyes from the readout, he got his first true look at Bogden; in its own bizarre, twisted way, it was beautiful. Massive trees of purple, grey, and green teetered on the edges of crevasses, water flowed upward out of a ravine, and little furry creatures banded together to carry off a lizard-like animal four times their individual size and still squirming.

This was a kind of beauty the Quarren could appreciate: warped and mercurial, just like the life he so eagerly embraced. Still, there was another beautiful thing he needed to focus on, and the Beskar was going to be much harder to get than a simple look at the scenery. Spotting another, thicker spire just out of line of sight of the landed freighters, he brought his ship slowly toward it, then flipped the nose upward and engaged the docking claw, allowing it to bore deeply into the rock and hold his vessel steady. Hopefully it wouldn't fall if an earthquake hit while he was away. Leaving Seesix to mind the ship, he attached his adhesive climbing pads to his hands and boots, then began to carefully move down the rock. More than a few times the gritty stone crumbled ominously, but it never quite gave way.

Knowing that this mission would be difficult, and that if he was seen he was in trouble anyway, Akanmin had decided to include four items in his Unfortunate Situation Extrication Kit. The first was the climbing pads, and the second was the sensor-baffling cloak he wore; if the other treasure hunters were actively scanning for life forms, he would show up as much smaller, about the size of one of the little mammals he'd seen running around. Since a heat scan was impractical due to the geothermal activity and sheer number of warm bodies, he stood a good chance of getting close while undetected unless he tripped a close-range perimeter sensor or was visually spotted. He didn't intend to allow either to happen. Scaling the ridge overlooking the rival hunters' landing zone, he watched their preparations.

He counted fourteen of them setting up outside, and estimated another two to three would be aboard their ships. They had the hardened look of self-taught professional mercenaries that belonged to no particular company; they'd probably cut a deal with one another, a deal which was likely to fall through when all was said and done. Of course, Akanmin planned to prevent that by getting the Beskar first. They had a range of vibroweapons, blasters, and even a pair of the antiquated but effective rotary repeating slugthrowers, but that wasn't what worried the Quarren; the far more dangerous piece of equipment was their fanged, canine Guardian Droid, equipped with a potent sensor package and the ability to rip and tear. If he wasn't careful, the droid would detect his approach before he could do any harm.

Silently, he prepared to descend the ridge and enter the camp...

[Nex Morsus]

Bogden, Thought Nex as he stared out to the swirling dust ball of a planet. Possibly one of the most unlikely places for something this important to be. He sighed and shook his head slightly. The unlikelihood that something so...phenomenal as an ancient cache of Mandalorian Iron was hidden on this twisted rock was exactly what had drawn him here. Many of the galaxies denizens were barely even aware of Bogden's existence, and of those that were most of them only had interest in the surreal way its score of moons twisted and warped the planet.

The chatter of a handful of the ship's crew echoed down the hallway, interrupting Nex's meditation. A frustrated growl bubbled up out of his throat a bit louder than he meant, and the voice amp locked to his face twisted the sound slightly, giving it a somewhat mechanical quality. Despite being a fairly well made piece of equipment, the voice amplifier did have a few quirks. The most noticeable was that sounds above a certain volume, and not a very high one at that, had a sort of electronic buzz to them, as though coming from a droid.

With a resigned sigh, Nex pushed his annoyance at the interruption aside and looked back out the port toward Bogden. They were, he mused, kindred spirits in a way. The moons that orbited Bogden pushed and pulled on its surface, twisting and molding it. Much like his crew twisted and molded him. As much as he hated to admit it, some of the more tolerable spacers had begun to wear off on him. Had it not been for the reserved, controlled demeanor of the ship's navigator Nex likely would have stormed out of his chambers and choked the offending parties within an inch of their lives.

A derisive snort issued out from the mask. Here he was, contemplating how a planet was metaphor for his life, when he should be planning on how to acquire the vast riches that lay below.

When all this is over, perhaps I should pay Di'shan a visit. If anyone can bring the darkness in me out, it is certainly that Twi'lek. The thought elicited a wicked grin from the Dark Jedi, and he crossed his arms in satisfaction. Malicious images and thoughts too grotesque to put into words danced through his mind, soothing the fires of hatred inside him.

His focus returned, Nex closed his eyes and returned to his meditation. The chances that he would actually be able to detect any presences on Bogden from this far away were practically zero. His own talents in that area were only average, and they were currently orbiting one of the planet's moons, but that was part of the reason he continued the vigil. Only a powerful presence in the Force would be detectable to him from here, and if something that immensely strong was down there, he would have to change tactics considerably.

As it stood now, the plan was for him to pilot one of the Aurek star fighters down to the surface and do the reconnaissance himself. If as many treasure hunters showed up as he expected, he would simply watch the fireworks until one side or another had won out. Then, if the opportunity arose, he would try to divide the winning party, and manipulate them into another fight. If not, he simply have to either find a way to get the upper hand in negotiations, most likely by removing and hiding very important pieces of their ships, or destroy them.

Meanwhile, The Lamentation would be hopping orbits from one moon to another in the hopes of presenting as little opportunity for any ground to space weaponry as possible, while also attempting to fool the rest of the scum into believing that multiple ships were surrounding Bogden. That too could work in Nex's favor. If he convince the other crews that he had a fleet of ships hidden out among the moons and ready to bombard the planet, it would make 'negotiations' much easier.

A speaker near his door chimed suddenly, alerting him that someone wanted an audience. Without turning from his vigil, the Dark Jedi waved a hand, reaching out with the Force to press the button that controlled the door to his quarters. The portal hissed open, quickly followed by two soft, long strides. That alone was enough to tell Nex that his guest was their pilot, Illeana.

"Illeana, I trust my fighter is ready for decent?" Nex pulled his senses back inward as he spoke, then allowed them to flow through the Force to lightly touch on the Zeltron's mind. He felt her hesitate slightly before speaking, concern and anxiety tainting her thoughts.

"Yes sir. Sir? Are you sure you should be going down to the planet alone? Bogden has been playing hell with our scanners, but we managed to pick out at least half a dozen life forms, and there's probably around 3 times that many we can't see through the dust." The Zeltron brushed her hair back nervously. She herself had never incurred Nex's anger, but had seen what happened when others did.

The Dark Jedi frowned behind his mask. He could tell that it was not fear of his wrath that made her anxious, but concern. The Dark Side disciple closed his eyes and allowed his senses to draw back into himself before turning to look at Illeana. Like all Zeltron, the woman was beautiful, and her pheromones made the attraction all the more irresistible. Nex, however, was unaffected by these.

The voice amplification device he wore seconded as an atmospheric filter, and when he had learned of the pheromone abilities of Illeana and others of her ilk, he'd been sure to have it modified to block them. Her physical beauty also had little effect on the Sephi. The woman had been the pilot of this ship when it had belonged to his Dark Master, and had watched Nex grow up since he left the academy. Somewhere along the way, she had come to look at Nex as a surrogate son, and though her motherly feelings toward him could be annoying at times, she had proved herself loyal and useful, and so Nex had let it slide. At least, that is what the Dark Jedi told himself. In truth, though he would never admit it even to himself, the feeling was mutual. Illeana had been there for him in a way his biological mother had never even attempted, and it was the maternal bond they shared that allowed him to all but ignore her attractiveness.

"So I have been told. And it is for this precise reason that I go alone. Our crew is to few to win in a fire fight, and our losses would likely be enough to prevent us from getting The Lamentation off the ground. If I go alone, I can attempt to win this little battle with subterfuge. And before you ask, I will not allow someone to bring the other fighter and accompany me. More treasure hunters are likely to arrive, and you will need it should a battle ensue here in space." His harsh, rasping voice often made it difficult for Nex to convey emotion, and so for a moment he was unsure if the finality of his words came across. When Illeana sighed and shook her head, and a knowing smile teased at her lips, however, he knew his message had been clear.

"Fine. Go down to that twisted, backward dust bowl and play spy if you must. But come back in one piece." Had it been anyone else, Nex likely would have sent her out of the room with a blast of Force lightning crackling across her body, but he had grown accustomed to Illeana, and allowed her such leniencies.

The Dark Jedi narrowed his eyes in mock menace and nodded with over exaggerated ominousity. The Zeltron stifled a giggle and bowed, leaving him in peace.

Yes...I definitely need to visit Di'shan

The Sephi straightened his back and pulled his robes off the chair on which the rested. He eased them on as he walked, and pulled up his hood. The clothe caught on the tattered edge of his left ear, causing him to wince. He ignored the stab of pain and began winding his way toward the hangar, enjoying the feel of the cool soft cloth on the massive scar that was his skin.

Without so much as a pause, Nex climbed into his fighter and closed the hatch. As he expected, the co-pilot of the ship had already prepared it for launch, and when Nex cued his comm link, the hangar immediately opened. A grin of anticipation spread across Nex's wrinkled face and he fired up the fighter, ready for his decent to Bogden's surface.

The ride was a turbulent and dangerous as he anticipated. Several times he only barely managed to dodge a rock formation that one of the planet's moons had pulled upward, and once had to fire the fighters heavy laser to demolish a small boulder that was too close to maneuver around.

Finally, he dropped below the dust storm and was able to see clearly. As Illeana had said, there were over a dozen humanoids setting to work off to his left. With a slight frown, he pulled the fighter behind a large rock formation, and slowly brought it in to land.

Satisfied, Nex signaled The Lamentation to begin orbit hopping, and climbed out of the Aurek. With a quickly entered security code, he popped open the small storage hatch ,and removed his pack, setting it on the ground to ensure the contents were as he had specified.

Blaster, plasma cutter, sensor disruption kit, ion grenades, medical kit, vibroknife, computer and security spikes. Alright...looks like everything is here. Anxious to get underway, Nex strapped on the wrist, ankle, and waist bands that comprised the SDK, and began his slow approach to the ridge over looking the camp.

As much as he would have liked to rush in, lightsabers ignited, he knew that a single E-Web repeater emplacement would easily mow him down long before he came close. So instead, he ducked and dived between rocks, sticking to shadows to avoid being seen. Even then, he moved slower than he had planned. Something in the Force was nagging at him. He had the feeling he wasn't the only predator out on the prowl.

[Lucilius Solo]

"The Kandosii" exited hyperspace before the planet of Bogden. Mandalore the Invincible, Bralor Ordo, stood on the command deck looking out the massive view port. His helmet was removed, so as to better see the planet. This was his first trip to Bogden, and he would make it memorable. Perhaps find some riches and members for his crew. Perhaps....

There was the patter of footsteps behind him, and he turned around, and was greeted by Torvar Fett, the commander of the four Basilisk War Droids stationed on the Kandosii. True the Basilisk's weren't 100% operational, but they flew and for the most part their weapons were operational. They would do. Torvar saluted Bralor with a quick salute and said "MANDALORE!" Bralor nodded and Torvar put his hand down.

"Mandalore," began Torvar "Bogden is before us. It is an odd choice to take us Mandalore, but I will follow you to death's ends. The glory of the Clans depend on it!" Bralor smiled but said sternly "Why have you disturbed me Torvar?" Torvar nodded and said "My apologies Mandalore. Your shuttle is ready for descent to Bogden, and Marduk Ordo is ready to act as your bodyguard. Whenever your ready Mandalore."

Bralor nodded, and said "Thank you Torvar. You are in charge until I return." and with that final word, Bralor put his helmet back onto his head and exited the bridge. He made his way to the hanger bay, where a black armored Mandalorian was waiting for him by a shuttle, Marduk Ordo. Marduk saluted Bralor who returned it without saying a word, and together they entered the shuttle.

Bralor sat down in the co-pilot's seat, while Marduk started the shuttle and exited "The Kandosii." The shuttle spead towards the surface, and after a brief moment of being covered in dust by a dust storm, the shuttle made it's way down and landed. The exit ramp lowered, and Bralor exited the shuttle followed by Marduk. Together they scanned the surface, and then began to walk. Not knowing who they were about to run into.

[randothefungiman]

Kharne wasnt sure if he could trust the information about this map to "Revans Cache". He had broken a rodian's arm to get him to tell him the specifcs on it, and he had taken it from a group of mercenaries he killed on Nar Shadda. Now that he was here at Bogden, he was even more skeptical. This planet was absolutely miserable. The moons were tearing the planet apart like gigantic parasites, and he had a gut feeling the surface wasnt going to look any better.

His ship, The Wild Card, descended though the clouds of dust and debris to the wet, ugly surface. He knew someone else had likely made it to the cache first, and in truth he was hoping that was the case. His goal wasnt to take the Beskar but to kill the twisted being protecting it. That would be the real challenge, but if he got to take out a low-life mercenaries and smugglers before-hand, that was just icing on the cake. Hopefully the monstrosity guarding the cache and the freaks coming after it would weaken eachother first.

He found a decent enough area to land his ship about two kilometers away from the target and hovered down to the surface between two large trees. Hopefully there wouldnt be any seismic activity while he was here, or his ship could take some serious damage.

He got himself ready for the hike to the target area, strapping a knife to his boot, a blaster pistol to his waist, his saber securely on his belt, along with a few grenades and a rope over his shoulder in case he had any climbs between him and the cache. He also had his standard set of medical supplies, a plasma cutter, and a small, unadvanced sensor display for detecting lifesigns and thermal signatures.

Kharne set out for his trip and remotely sealed his ship behind him. He didnt want any local creatures or scumbags showing up and getting into his home, so he double checked to be certain it was secure.

With one last minute check of his gear, he set out for a fight.

[Jerek]

The Everwind broke out of hyperspace with a massive rumble unheard in the vacuum of space. Lucien Kinder sat in his personal quarters of his ship, his feet propped up on the desk in the center of his room and his chair leaning back on two legs. His hat was pulled down over his eyes; he was asleep.

One of the many droids running the Everwind entered Lucien's room to tell him the ship had come out over Bogden. Lucien let his feet hit the floor and his chair go back to setting on four legs. He slipped his hat on the right way and looked around his room. He stood up and walked over to a footlocker in the far left corner of the room.

Lucien typed in the security code and the locker popped open with a hiss. Inside was everything of value to him, save for his hat. He pulled out his two pistols and slipped them into his belt, then strapped his sheath and vibroblade over himself. His small vibrodagger was already strapped to his boot.

He turned to leave, then turned back around as something shiny in the bottom of the chest caught his eye. He reached down and pulled out a lightsaber. He sneered as he remembered how he'd stolen it off an unconscious Jedi. He clipped it to his belt, then kicked the locker close.

After all his gear was in place on his person, he walked to the bridge to look down at the miserable planet of Bogden. Looking down at the planet, Lucien began wondering if the map he'd stolen was a real map or merely another trick created to capture and/or kill anyone foolish enough to follow the coordinates.

The thought left his mind as the Everwind entered Bogden's dusty atmosphere. Dust clouds swirled around the massive ship as it flew into and then out of the tempest. Lucien looked around at the surface of Bogden as the dust cleared. After another moment of looking, he found a suitable landing spot close enough to the cave, yet far enough from the lifeforms that were swarming around the cave's to not be spotted.

Lucien's ship landed with a small jolt, that almost took his legs out from under him. Fixing his hat back on his head, Lucien exited the ship via the exit ramp. He Looked around, while standing at the bottom of the ramp. He looked back up the ramp to see his new firstmate lumbering down it. Lucien was lucky enough to have a Jedi as a firstmate. He turned back to the landscape and began walking towards the cave.

[avoim]

As the ship left hyperspace, Avoim felt the life presence of many beings, including one who was strong in the Dark Side of the Force, but was unable to pinpoint its location. Avoim had been meditating during the trip, and was thusly stronger in his sense of the galaxy for it, but when he felt this dark presence the pure evil of it forced him out of his meditation and made him sweat in a cold sweat that he’d never experienced before and that scared him, he figured that Dark Presence guarded whatever it was that they were headed for and he knew that they’d battle him eventually.

Avoim was not wearing his LIghtsabers or his Jacket when the meditation was broken, so he got up and went to the locker that was in front of him and got his items out of it. He pulled on his Jacket and placed his Lightsabers on his belt, he then walked out of the room and through the halls of the empty ship. He then walked down the Ramp, when he got there he saw Lucien, when he got to the bottom of the ramp he turned to Lucien and said “This place is the correct place, somewhere on this planet the Dark Side is strong here...

((OOC: Sorry I was doin' a million things at that moment?))

[Akanmin Pema]

When he was about a meter off the ground, Akanmin reached down and pulled the adhesive pad off of his right boot, relying on his left foot and hand to hold him up. He covered it and stowed it in one of the pockets sewn into the inside of his cloak, then did the same for his other boot. He wasn't the strongest sentient in the galaxy, and it was difficult for him to hold himself up by just his arms and the unaided pressure of his legs; he didn't wait long before dropping, catlike, to the ground, landing in a low crouch and scanning his surroundings.

He was taking cover behind a fallen spire of rock, a great pillar that had tumbled off of the nearby hill and broken in several places when it fell. Now that it was horizontal, several gaps in it were large enough to squeeze through. Easing the adhesive pad off of his right hand and stowing it, Akanmin peered through one of the gaps. He was perhaps three meters from one of the freighters; more alarming, a tall, orange-skinned Kajain'sa'Nikto stood almost on top of him, watching a small canyon through an adjacent gap in the spire. Had the mercenary taken two steps forward and turned his head twenty degrees, he would have seen the Quarren while he was climbing down.

It was good fortune that, although Akanmin hadn't seen this sentry in his initial survey, the sentry hadn't seen him, either. It was the sentry's bad fortune that he had become the prey. The hunter was unskilled in unarmed combat, and blasters made a lot of noise; the only things on his side were surprise and ingenuity. Looking over at the curved top of the fallen pillar, the Quarren noticed a small pile of handheld scanners that had clearly seen better days; they would have to do. He took a deep breath in, then sprang into a flurry of motions.

Suddenly, he was right in front of the sentry. His left hand struck him in the side of the head, the adhesive pad sticking fast and pulling him forward, while he hooked his foot around the back of the Nikto's ankle. The mercenary was, in the space of less than a second, pulled through the gap he'd been watching and onto his backside. He filled his lungs to shout, partly out of surprised pain and partly as a warning, but only the first syllable came out, and was never heard. All at once, Akanmin's right hand withdrew his blaster from its holster, swung around and knocked loudly through the scanners, and fired a single shot between the Nikto's eyes. The clank of metal hitting the rocky ground, while suspicious, at least masked the sound of the shot and warning yell.

"Gabaz? Waki mallya kuna chu chu?"

Akanmin slowly glanced around the side of the gap, looking for the speaker while he freed the adhesive pad from his victim's face and put it away. A short, scarred Weequay and muscular Gran, both armed with military-grade blaster rifles, had already come looking for their buddy; then again, they had no idea he was dead, and that was pretty good for no silencer and almost no cover. Still, he did have to figure out what he was going to do about them; if they didn't come back, the whole camp would come looking, and that was assuming he managed to kill them both before they killed him. No, he needed to be more subtle. He felt the dead Nikto's vocal cords with his fingers, carefully analyzing their configuration, and then called back over the pillar.

"Keepuna! Stoopa poodoo!"

His torrent of expletives was delivered while he carefully ran his fingers over his own vocal cords, putting pressure at the precise points required to change the sound of his voice; it was an old criminal trick for which the Exchange was particularly infamous, though only a few species could pull it off. Fortunately, the beak-like mouths of the Quarren could be manipulated to sound like the mouths of many other species, and their water-adapted vocal cords were both powerful and easy to shift with trained fingers. To help sell the deception, he picked up the dead Nikto's arm and swiftly waved with it, trusting air pressure to keep the hand raised in the brief moment it spent in the other sentries' fields of vision.

"Oh, bona nai kachu. Heh."

They moved off with mocking chuckles; it was very fortunate indeed that Akanmin had learned so much in his time in the criminal underworld. He slid out from behind the fallen pillar and, keeping low to the ground, dashed for one of the nearby freighter's landing struts. Coming to a silent halt behind it, he took the moment to breathe, observe, and plan his next move. The little valley which contained the cache had three entrances, all of them small canyons that only one or two humanoids could pass through side by side. He'd circumvented that by climbing over the hill that formed the valley, but others might not be able to do so.

The actual entrance to the cache was about twenty meters from the central valley entrance; the freighters took of most of the space, and greatly restricted what he could see without revealing himself, but Akanmin spied the stone entryway, flanked by the guards with the rotary weapons. There had been a heavy durasteel door there once, but now it lay broken, probably ripped apart by the large boulder that now lay just beyond its ruins. It had probably been dislodged by the crash of the map's creator, which explained how he got inside in the first place. Suddenly, one of the sentries at the main canyon shouted a warning.

"Pushee wumpah, Mando'ae koona! Kako kreespa!"

Apparently, there were Mandalorians on the way, making no effort to hide their approach; the thought was a worrying one, and not just to the mercenaries. The Mando'ae were always fierce warriors, and if they were this confident, there were either a lot of them, or they were very elite indeed. Either possibility presented a serious complication, and the mercs knew it; one of the rotary weapon-wielders left his post, prepared to send a constant stream of deadly slugthrower rounds down the main entry canyon where the Mando'ae had been spotted, and several more guards took up positions on the ridge overlooking the canyon, preparing to fire down into it. These warriors had better be as good as they seemed for their own sake.

Akanmin's reaction was rather different; he was now certain that he was working with limited time, for he was not naive enough to think that these first newcomers would be the only ones. While everyone was fixated on the canyon, he ran to the next landing strut, then took cover in the shadow of the freighter's extended ramp. He spotted another large rock and sprinted toward it, keeping low to the ground and taking his finger off of his blaster's trigger to make sure he didn't accidentally pull it if he tripped. He reached the rock and straightened up, pressing his back to it while he recovered his breath; it was only a few meters to the cache's entrance, now watched by only a single guard.

He twisted away from the rock, ready to sprint again, and came face to face with a hulking, four-legged metal monstrosity; in all the excitement, he'd forgotten about the guardian droid. Sharp metal teeth as long as his hand extended toward him as the droid prepared to bite his head off, which it was easily capable of doing if he wasn't fast enough. Even if he avoided the bite, the droid would raise the alarm, and he would be found, surrounded, and killed. With less than a second to act, he formed the best plan he possibly could, which also happened to be the craziest. Rather than pulling out of the way, he forced his right arm down the droid's metallic maw, found his blaster's trigger, and squeezed it twice.

It took every ounce of self control he had to not cry out; in his haste to complete his task, he'd brought his arm too close to one of the razor-sharp teeth, which had effortlessly ripped a jagged gash down the bottom of his upper arm. And yet the jaws of the droid did not close, and it did not bark its warning; the first shot had passed through the vocabulator, the second through the droid's brain. Akanmin withdrew his bleeding arm from between the fangs just as they closed for the last time; the guardian droid sank down to its powerful metal knees and slowly lay down its head, as though going to sleep.

Gritting his beak-like mouth against the pain, the Quarren sank down against the rock. The interior of the droid had muffled the sound of the shots, but the guard at the cache would notice that the droid was not operating properly in a few seconds; still, none of that mattered if Akanmin bled to death. Withdrawing a small medkit from one of the folds of his cloak, he applied an insta-seal gel bandage to the wound, though he refrained from using any of the chemicals; the pain would keep him alert, and warn him if an action he was taking was about to reopen the wound. He had lost valuable time, and possibly revealed himself, by forgetting about the droid; everything depended on what happened next.

[Nex Morsus]

Nex's decent into the valley had been a difficult one. With no climbing equipment of any sort, he'd been forced to rely on his own strength and agility to keep him form simply falling to his death. Had it not been for the Force occasionally guiding him away from loose boulders, and toward secure perches, he knew he likely would have fallen.

Once Nex was little more than three meters from the valley floor, he crouched down inside a small niche in the rock face. There had been several of these on the way down, as well as places where the rock jutted straight out horizontally, or at a slight upwards angle. Nex had used these to hide his presence as he'd descended, quickly scrambling, or in some cases leaping, between them and lying flat against the rock. Though his SDK would throw off most scanners that the mercenaries in the valley were likely to be using, he knew better than to fail to consider simple visual detection.

The formation he used as cover now was one that jutted out from the face at about a 30 degree angle. He was leaning against the ridge, and slowly swiveled his head, studying the mercenary camp. There were over a dozen lifeforms milling about, as well as a large droid of some sort.

This could be problematic... He settled his eyes on what he assumed was the cache's entrance and sighed. There were two rotary slugthrowers guarding it. He'd be gunned down within moments if he was spotted.

Nex's eyes suddenly narrowed as a small pinging noise sounded in his ears, informing him that the comm link installed in his mask was being hailed. Keeping the movement slow so that it would be unlikely to draw attention, he ran his finger over a small slider on the mask and listened.

What the Dark Jedi heard troubled him deeply. The scanners aboard The Lamentation had picked up on at least three ships coming out of hyperdrive. He had hoped that he would have more time before other hunters began showing. This new development certainly did not bode well.

As he pondered his next step, the sudden clanking of metal echoed out from one of the sentry posts he'd noted. He watched with curiosity as two guards approached the post, a little over a dozen meters away. After some conversation that Nex couldn't quite catch, the sentries started to head back toward one of the freighters. Though he thought little of the incident, something nudged at the Dark Jedi in the Force, and so he kept his eyes on the spot.

He hadn't been watching for long when the camp when into a state of alarm. It took a moment for Nex to puzzle out what they were shouting, and he almost wished he hadn't.

Son of a bantha...that's the last thing I needed. Damned Mandalorians. Well...this is definitely going to be interesting.[/color] Nex took a deep breath, and prepared to leap out from his hiding spot. The mercs attention, and weapons, were focused on the central canyon, and if he was going to move, now would be as good a time as any.

Just as he was about to move however, something caught his eye. A quarren, or so it looked from here, dashing to hide under the shadow of th loading ramp. Obviously it was not one of the mercs, who were all busy preparing for the arrival of the Madalorians, and when it did not give the all clear to any unseen comrades, Nex guessed that it was also likely alone.

Nex watched as the quarren sprinted from the ramp to a rock, and prepared to make a break for the door. Deciding he'd waited long enough to move, Nex made came to a quick decision. As things stood now, four groups were likely to soon be fighting over the cache, and two of those four, he and the quarren, were severely outnumbered. With fluid grace, Nex rolled out from behind the rock and sprinted toward the freighter docking ramp. As he ran, the Dark Jedi let the Force flow into his legs and wrap around his muscles. It augmented their movement, pushing him to speeds he could normally never have achieved, and helped prevent any injuries to his legs when he came to a very sudden stop under the ramp's shadow.

Nex paused, and quickly checked around the camp to ensure that he hadn't been noticed. As he suspected, the mercs were to busy rushing around in fear of the Mandalorians to have spotted him. Satisfied, he turned to look at where the quarren had last been and was surprised at what he saw.

Next to the rock that the creature had been using as cover, a large hound-like droid lay still, its head slightly smoking. The quarren itself was busy tending to a bleeding arm, blaster still held ready. A quick glance toward the cache told the Dark Jedi that one of the guards was getting suspicious about the droids sudden lack of movement. Nex sighed as he reached out and with the Force and wrapped his will around the guard's mind.

It was a weak, spineless creature, and gave little resistance as Nex deftly unraveled its thoughts and rewove them to fit his purpose. The guard suddenly found himself remembering that he'd put the droid on standby so that it wouldn't get in the way while they prepared their defenses. He also found that he thought it would be a good idea to leave it that way until the Mandalorians had entered the valley.

Nex pulled his mind back into itself and growled. He found the practice of influencing others in that way disgusting. Not ofr any moral or ethical reasons of course, but because he found the weak willed minds of others to be grotesque. He sighed, and narrowed his eyes at the quarren. This had better be worth it.[/color]

Quickly checking to ensure that no guards were watching, the Spehi sprinted over to the quarren's hiding spot, staying in a low crouch as he did. Not wanting to catch a blaster bolt to the face, Nex immediately raised his hands once he was in the creatures view, and kept them there as he crouched down in front of it.

"I'm not here to kill you. If I was I would have shot you already. Seems to me that we are both here alone, trying to steal this store of Beskar from under a dozen Mercs and Force knows how many Mandalorians, not to mention this rumored guardian. So I've got a proposition for you. The two of us work together to get these idiots taken care of, and then split the Beskar once the smoke clears. Deal?"

Nex's amplified voice was low, almost a growl. He couldn't help that really, it always came out sounding that way when he was trying to be quiet. His yellow tainted eyes darted about as he spoke, keeping track of the mercs movements. If the quarren proved less than friendly, he was going to have to react quickly, and didn't want to have to deal with mercenaries at the same time.

He'd been sure to keep a little over a meter between himself and the creature, which he believed to be male. This would give him room to dive away from an attack if needed, so that he could roll back and hopefully slam the quarren against the rock with the Force until it was unconscious. If he could pull that off, it would be a simple matter to slit its throat then fling the body out into the camp as a distraction while he dispatched the cache guard. From there he had a few plans for getting rid of the rest of the mercenaries.

For now though, his concentration was on attempting to forge an alliance with the wounded quarren. They were severely outnumbered, and were more likely to survive working together, not to mention that since Nex had obviously given up a chance to dispatch the wounded creature, he was in good position to call in a later favor. And favors were worth quite a bit.

[randothefungiman]

OOC: Ok im pretty sure Lucilius isnt gonna post any time soon, so im gonna go ahead and make a post.

IC:

As Kharne made his way toward the coordinates he started to get a strange feeling. The closer he got the darker and more powerful the feeling got. He couldnt be sure if it was the presence of the ancient guardian or something worse, but he intended to find out.

He might not have even noticed the ship passing overhead had it not been for the distant panicked shouts of the mercenaries. He was just close enough to make out the word "Mando'ae" from the spooked men as they rushed to prepare to defend themselves. Mandalorians. This was not good news. It didnt matter if these were the scumbag mercenary mandalorians or the honorable warrior mandalorians. If Kharne was in the way of their objective they would definitely be gunning for him. Not that he hadnt faced mandalorians before, Kharne had accumulated many scars in his days as a vigilante, and the biggest and nastiest of those scars had all come from mandalorians. Needless to say, he would proceed with caution, but for the time being, he would pick up his pace in an effort to beat the mandos to the cache.

As he got to the edge of the canyon he surveyed the area. He couldnt see many of the mercenaries who had arrived first, but he could sense many lifesigns. He produced his sensor array from his pack and activated it. There were several lifesigns beyond the ships toward the ground-level entry to the canyon, more then likely the mercenaries preparing for the coming mandalorians. "Good" Kharne thought to himself, "Those scum will be butchered by the mandalorians and save me the trouble of punishing them myself." He noticed another lifesign, or possibly two, it was hard to be sure through the static and general shoddiness of his instrument, coming from the direction of the cache entrance.

He tried to get a better look at the area the lifesigns were coming from, but he couldnt get a clear line of sight at the beings there. One thing was for sure; someone in this canyon was force-sensitive, and they were far from walking the path of light. He could feel the darkness from all the way up here, which meant that this person was likely to be a very formidable foe.

With one last glance around to be sure no one was observing him, Kharne took the rope off his shoulder and began to make his way to the canyon floor.

[Jerek]

Lucian and Avoim continued their walk along the landscape towards the cave where the mysterious treasure laid. The dust storm continued its relentless beating on the two humans. Every so often a small gust would hit Lucian's hat, almost sending it off his head. He had to squint his eyes to keep from getting dust in them. As they got closer to the spot where the cave was, the dust storm got softer and eventually died down. The two came out of the storm in a valley. In front of them there were a few ships and what only could be mercenaries running about.

Two guards flanked the entrance to the cave and the rest were walking around, checking supplies and whatnot. Lucian began thinking up a plan to get inside the cave, when he noticed a Nikto mercenary walk over to a fallen pillar, then get pulled behind it by a Quarren. Lucian's eyes narrowed at the scene. So the mercenaries weren't the only ones after the treasure too. That was interesting. Lucian and Avoim were standing beside one of the stone pillars in behind the mercenaries' ships. They were out of sight, hopefully. Lucian continued looking at the fallen pillar as two more mercenaries walked over to it. The Nikto's arm suddenly came up over the pillar. After a moment of unheard speech, the two mercenaries walked away.

Again, Lucian's eyes narrowed. A moment later, the Quarren burst out from behind the pillar and sprinted for one of the mercenaries' ships. He hid behind the ramp of one. As he did, Lucian heard frightened shouts come from the mercenaries. He caught one of the human shouts. "Mandoes! Get ready!" This was bad. Mandalorians were fierce fighters. Grumbling, Lucian watched the Quarren sprint for another landing strut, then sprint for a boulder.

When the Quarren went to sprint away from the boulder, Lucian watched as he stopped in his tracks. Lucian saw th Quarren pulled out his blaster and point it at something behind the rock. A moment later, black smoke came billowing up from the rock. As the Quarren bent down to clean his own wounds, Lucian looked away and started formulating his own plan of approach. He looked all around himself. Finally, he spotted something that made a light bulb go off in his head. The mercenaries' ship closest to him and Avoim. The laser cannons. They could sue those to start more chaos. "Avoim, follow my lead." Without even waiting for a nod, Lucian sprint for the loading ramp of the closest ship and hopped up onto it.

Stopping a moment to crouch down by the entrance, he looked around him, making sure no one saw him. Then, he pulled out his blaster and pointed it at the keypad, used to type in the code to open the door, and put the barrel to it and squeezed the trigger down. The laser bolt hit directly in the center of the keypad, frying it. The metal door slide upward, granting Lucian entrance. He slipped inside and looked each way down the halls. He chose the left and took off sprinting. Several twists and turns later, Lucian came upon a gunners station. What luck. He leaned over and used the throttle to point the turret at the cliff wall two feet from the cave entrance and pulled the trigger down. Massive laser bolts flew from the gun and landed on the wall, causing enough force to throw one of the guards sideways.

As the mercenaries on the ground began freaking out, Lucian turned to run, only to bump into a Twi'lek mercenary. She was holding her blaster in Lucian's face. He put his hands up in the air and smiled. Now would be a nice time for Avoim to come along. Lucian thought to himself nervously.

[avoim]

Avoim watched as Lucian ran towards one of the starships. He then watched as Lucian repositioned the laser cannon and aimed it at a cave that was flanked by two guards, one on each side, and fired the cannon. Avoim then watched as Lucian exited the ship but was quickly stopped by a female Twi’lek, she pointed a gun right in his face and Lucian put his hands above his head. Avoim decided to weigh every possible decision before he made even the slightest movement.

Avoim quickly ran in front of her and Lucian and quickly bisected her before she could act, and with the bisection he also cut her blaster in half so no one could use it again. He then turned to Lucian and said “Lucian, am I going to have to keep saving your kriffing ass all the time?” Avoim was joking of course, he then sat on the nearest rock to wait for Lucian to start moving.