Axel snores right through the bombing. When the sirens begin to sound he turns over in his sleeps and groggily mumbles "Gimme five more minutes, sarge..." before pulling the pillow over his head.
Anders keeps snoring under his overturned cot.
The door is thrown open, and standing there is the mechanic Anders spoke with hours ago. There are 3 guards with him. He tosses a bundle containing all your weapons and equipment to the floor. 'Get up. The base has been attacked, we are evacuating. We have ten minutes before the self-destruct goes off. Follow me, Magnus is waiting.' He gives you a few moments to gather your things, before some loud shouts come from down the hall. He raises his pistol and squeezes off several shots down the hall.
Once you are geared up, he speaks again, gruffly. 'Nine minutes. Come.' He then moves down the hall, toward where his bolts went seconds ago. You follow him down the hall, stepping over two corpses, still smoking from the bolts that felled them. You are led through several hallways, when he suddenly stops you, and begins listening to his comlink. After a few moments, he speaks into the communications device, 'Affirmative, on our way.'
He steps to Anders, and asks him a question. 'Do you remember the route to the garage?' At Anders' nod, he pulls out a small flimsi card, and hands it to you. On it is written a single sequence of nine numbers, 592702749. 'This code will allow you through all doors in the base. I have to go help some people in trouble. Get to the garage. There are people there that will get you out. Wait for me, but if I am not there two minutes before the boom, get out. You will need that time to get clear.' He, and the three guards then set off at a run, back down the corridor.
"Right, follow me guys." Anders finishes buckling on his equipment and begins to run down the hallways, blaster pistol and flimsi in hand. "592702749, 592702749, 592702749, 592702749," he mutters under his breath, memorizing the number string.
Anders leads you down the hallways, opening several bulkhead doors along the way. Just before the garage, you run into seven thugs wielding blaster rifles. As soon as they see you, they open fire on your group.
Tarros fires back a shot while looking for cover.
The spattering laser fire grazes Axel's sides and he grimaces. Bringing up his own blaster he opens up with a volley of his own in return, dousing the grunts in front with torrents of livid, red energy bolts."AAAAAAAUUGH!!!" he bellows as he sweeps his firing arc across the hallway. "YOU WANT SOME?! YOU WANT SOMMA' DIS? I'LL GIVE IT YA!"
"What the, oh by the force, KILL THEM!"
Vyr opens up on who ever is still standing near the front hitting as many as he can with his auto fire.
"Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur," Anders snarls, snapping a shot off at the nearest goon.
"Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur" means that "Today is a good day for someone else to die."
Your thunderous fusillade of blaster bolts plows into the line of men, shredding armor and instantly cauterizing wounds. All seven are blasted to the ground, and smoke wafts into the air. The smell of scorched flesh fills the air, and you move on.
You go through the last door to the garage, four and a half minutes before the self destruct goes off, and see a venerable old A5 Juggernaut tank sitting in the middle of the garage. It is old, rusted, and the primary turret has been removed. It sits on saggy suspension, and it is evident that the suspension underneath at least two of the five wheels on the side visible to you has collapsed. The second tire from the rear is also flat.
The loading ramp is down, and there is a woman standing on it, blaster at the ready. Axel will recognize her as the woman he spoke with earlier. She is waving at you, and starts yelling when you get close. 'Good to see you! Cover the ramp!' When you reach the juggernaut, she speaks again. 'Samuels on his way? Nevermind, we won't leave without him. Cover the rear, I'm going to fire this old girl up. We leave in two-point-five minutes, you need to defend us that long.'
She heads into the tank, leaving you to defend. You see a single enemy walk in. He really looks like an evil dude. We will call him ED. He fires of a shot at Vyr as he approaches, missing by a hair's margin.
"Shabuir on our six," Anders reports as he squeezes the trigger of his blaster. A hail of viridian bolts flash from the emitter nozzle at the fell figure.
"Eat... Dam it! I had a line for this. I had a line for this and now I have forgotten it."
Vyr just get behind cover and full auto's ED.
Tarros carefully lines up a shot, firing with deadly accuracy.
'Good to see you! Cover the ramp!' When you reach the juggernaut, she speaks again. 'Samuels on his way? Nevermind, we won't leave without him. Cover the rear, I'm going to fire this old girl up. We leave in two-point-five minutes, you need to defend us that long.'
"Right. On it." Axel advances with the group to cover the ramp.
"Shabuir on our six,"
"I don't get it," Axel says, "It's just one guy." Probably a bad*ss mother****er too, going in solo. Man, wish I had an ax on hand.
He fires of a shot at Vyr as he approaches, missing by a hair's margin.
"Woah!" Axel drops to a knee and takes up firing position. He fires a shot at the oncoming opponent. "Whoever this guy is, he's got balls taking a ramp solo." He's obviously outnumbered and outgunned. So why do I get this strange feeling, like this problem isn't going to be going away any time soon?
Before ED is able to unleash a second shot, your bolts bring him down.
18 seconds pass.
Two more soldiers enter the garage, with a swarm of soldiers just now visible at the far end of the corridor leading out of the garage. The two close ones open fire.
One bolt catches Anders on the arm, dealing 11 points of damage (stun). The second, from ED2, misses all the party members, and flies into the open rear of the tank, and a scream of pain emanates from the tank an instant later.
ED1 and ED2 sprint into the garage and take cover behind some small boxes.
"Focus fire on the left one, bring them down one at a time."
Anders fires off another burst from his rifle, raking the crates with a hail of blaster-fire.
Tarros takes a deep breath and lines up a shot.
Before ED is able to unleash a second shot, your bolts bring him down.
...okay, maybe we won't be seeing any more of him.
Two more soldiers enter the garage, with a swarm of soldiers just now visible at the far end of the corridor leading out of the garage. The two close ones open fire. One bolt catches Anders on the arm, dealing 11 points of damage (stun). The second, from ED2, misses all the party members, and flies into the open rear of the tank, and a scream of pain emanates from the tank an instant later.
"Sh*t, there's more of them!" Axel returns fire on the the new targets.
"You guys keep them busy, I'm gonna check on the driver." Axel moves into the tank to investigate the scream, hoping nothing bad happened.
All of your shots fly above the merc's heads, traveling ineffectively into the garage wall. ED's 1 and 2 both take aim and fire.
ED1's shot thunks harmlessly into the tank ramp, but ED2's bolt thud's into Axel's back as he scrambles up the ramp. ED2 exits cover and begins advancing toward the ramp, unsheathing a medium length blade from a shoulder scabbard.
Tarros shifts his aim to the one who's getting close, but he presses the trigger before his aim is settled.
Anders snarls at the nearest enemy, aiming for maximum effect.
Vyr take his time for this shot and actually aims. Attacking one one that is advancing with a sword.
Axel grunts as he gets hit. He turns to take one more shot at the swordsman then moves further into the tank. "Hey!" he shouts, "You alright in here?"
The advancing ED takes three shots, one to a leg, one to his sword arm, and one nasty one straight to the throat, dropping him like a sack of nerf-nuts.
The other fires a shot at Tarros, landing a glancing blow. He then screams something into his comlink, before turning and running from the garage.
-Inside the tank-
Axel finds a man leaning heavily against a crash couch beside a partition a few feet inside the tank. He has a nasty-looking blaster burn on his left arm, painful, but not life-threatening.
Anders fires at the fleeing figure, his erratic movements throwing Anders' aim off.
The pain of the blaster bolt refocuses Tarros. Taking a deep breath, he aims and returns the favour.
Vyr snaps off a shot and the guy as he runs down the hallway.
Axel moves over to the injured soldier. "Hey! You alright? We got squatters on the ramp. How soon can we get this thing running?"
The last enemy disappears around a corner. The garage falls silent. For one long minute, nothing happens. More time passes, leaving only seconds until you depart.
--Inside the Tank--
The man is holding his injured arm, and speaks through clenched teeth. 'Ready to go... Just need to wait for... Samuels to arrive...two-and-a-half minutes... until the blow.'
Shortly before the time to leave, you see the mechanic, Samuels, appear at the end of the passageway. He is leading 3 other soldiers with him, one of which is slumped over the shoulders of the two others, being carried. At the rate they are moving, it will take a good minute for them to arrive.
Assured that the soldier isn't going to bleed out on him, Axel heads back out to guard the ramp with the others.
---
Axel rushes over to give the soldiers a hand with their fallen comrade, taking the place of the slower one if he has to, taking both their places if they both appear really slow. "Come on, everyone into the tank!"
Tarros keeps an eye out for any hostiles coming behind the others, rifle ready.
Anders backs into the tank, covering Axel's advance. "Let's get out of here, guys. I don't like leaving my shebs flapping in the breeze."
A large number of enemy troops congregate in the hallway behind the four new arrivals, just as Axel reaches them. The unleash a withering barrage of firepower at the group, though the majority of it flies overhead or is absorbed by armor. One of the soldiers turns and flings a grenade into the mass of enemies, felling a half dozen or so, though more appear behind. This soldier is hit by numerous bolts, most splashing harmlessly across his armor, though one hits him in the back of the armor knee joint as he turns, causing him to stumble and fall. Samuels, the mechanic, quickly hoists him across his shoulders and begins carrying him to the tank. When the group reaches a cross-passageway, the last remaining uninjured soldier stops, and unslings a large blaster and begins sending wave after wave of blaster fire, cutting down the front ranks of enemies. Axel and Samuels, and their loads, reach the tank and dash in, depositing the injured men on crash couches. The last soldier turns to make her dash to the tank, drops her weapon, and begins running. She is hit by a half dozen bolts, to which she slows, stumbles, then regains her feet and continues running. Her head swivels from side to side when she reaches another cross-passage, scant feet before he reaches the garage, and a look of panic crosses her face, as a figure steps out, and she is impaled upon the sword blade he lowers at her. She falls to the ground, and the enemy who impaled her gets hit by dozens of bolts from his own troops, and falls to the ground dead. She pulls the blade from her torso, and begins pulling herself along the ground toward the tank, a bright red smear of blood being left behind her.
"F**K! Axel I need you to do something dumb with me! We are being big dam heroes and it might kill us. Let's go!" Vyr runs to go help the inured girl with Axel's(?) help. He grabs one shoulder and who ever grabs another. "Up we go, who is going to slap me if I let you die. Come on." Vyr yells as he run back to the tank, knowing that he has delayed the escape.
The moment that Vyr drags the woman onto the ramp, Samuels slaps the door control, which causes the ramp to rise towards it's closed position, and the rescuers are dragged off the ramp as the tank lurches into gear, ancient tires squealing and tired suspension unable to soften even the slightest bump. The juggernaut smashes through the bottom of the rising garage door, tearing a massive hole through it, but also ripping the comms antennae and the remaining laser cannon from the outer hull. A scream is heard as the soldier manning the turret is flung against the floor of the tank, a dislocated shoulder hanging limply at his side. A muffled thump is heard as the tank bounces over a boulder, blowing out a tire, and throwing anything unsecured in the air. This goes on for almost two minutes, when an explosion is felt through the ground. The injured have been secured, and all that can be done now is to hold onto something tight and hope the shockwave doesn't still carry enough destructive power to destroy the tank.
Vyr is to busy making sure that the injured are carefully strapped in to worry about himself. He doesn't grab onto something and even then it was the women that he helped into the tank. He was trying to get her scurried when the shockwave hit.
Tarros isn't quite ready for the explosion.
Axel helps get the injured soldiers into the tank, but after that lets their comrades work with them. He's not exactly a trained medical man, he just has too big a heart. He buckles himself into one of the open seats and holds onto the harness as the tank bucks its way out of the compound.
Anders nonchalantly steadies himself on one of the handy overhead grips and rides out the shockwave.
"Please keep your seat-belts fastened, as we are experiencing some turbulence," Anders quips with a grin. 'Why do I feel like I need sunshades and a smoke?' He wonders idly, feeling a small pang of regret at moments lost.
The shockwave hits, sending the Juggernaut tumbling. The tank gets ripped to shreds, with much of its shattered insides exposed to the outside air. Anything not secured goes flying, including Vyr, Tarros and Axel. Vyr, while securing his load to a couch, manages to hang on to her arm, but still slams painfully into a flying sheet of metal, knocked loose during the tumble. Axel loses his grip as the harness he grabbed frays under the strain, getting flung into a wall support and losing consciousness. Tarros suffers worst of all. The support he grabs simply lets go of its welds when the shockwave hits, and he is flung dozens of feet from the tank. He tumbles into a rock, his left hand breaking his slide, getting crushed between the rock and himself. Tarros stays conscious, and watches the tank tumble and slide another hundred feet farther down the road. The pain causes him to pass out shortly after.
Anders is able to maintain his grip on the handhold until the rear ramp of the tank lets loose from it's latches, and he falls onto it, when it dislodges completely from the tank and slides to a stop a dozen meters behind the tank wreckage. He sees his friends meet their painful fates, but also witnesses the death of 5 other people inside the tank.
After everything has come to a stop, Anders and Vyr, the only apparent conscious survivors of the wreck pick their way through the wreckage.The find Axel shortly, out cold, and not awake. Most of the injuries are relatively minor, as the healthy people aboard the tank were mainly able to grab hold of something before the crash. The woman piloting the tank stumbles from the cockpit, a large gash down the side of her face, and holding a dislocated arm with her other. Samuels is found out cold, but otherwise uninjured, but the other lady, the one Vyr rescued, is found with her neck leaning loosely at an unnatural angle. This seems a blessing because, with a closer examination, her stab wound is found to have been through her lung, which would have led to her death in mere hours. Plus, her left arm is found a dozen feet away, severed at the shoulder, though it is clear that it was cut by a jagged piece of metal, and not torn asunder because Vyr was holding onto it.
Vyr pulls himself free and stands up. He spots Anders also awake. "Anders, I need a report. Count dead, wounded and alive and try to find Axel and Tarros. I will talk to the driver and see if we can figure out how much time we have before we need to move." Vyr stakes his head and looks down to see the broken neck of the women he tired to rescue. He stands there frozen and in silence for a second before moving on. He walks towards the driver. "Good job getting us out of there but are we still in danger here? Do we have time to rest or do we need to get moving now? What's our time frame?"
Anders pulls Axel and Tarros from the crash, trying to take note of their injuries.
"Five dead; Axel, Tarros, and Samuels are unconscious, and our pilot is pretty banged up." He takes a closer look at his friends. "I'll see what I can do for Tarros, it looks like he bruised his ribs."
"I'm not really skilled enough to help him right now," Anders admits with a frown.
Tarros stumbles back into consciousness. "Ouch." Looking down, he sees Anders's treatment. "Oh, thanks."
As he tries to push himself to a seated position, his broken fingers protest most vigourously. "You missed the fingers, though," Tarros bites out between gritted teeth.
Axel comes to, bolts upright, grimaces, and lies back down to relieve the pain in his chest. "Nngh, must've bust a rib." He then looks around and sees the disarray of the tank. "Whoa. Dang. That was a close one." He slowly gets himself back up, finds his gear, and begins helping with the recovery. Once everyone is up, he asks, "So what's the plan now? I still don't even know why we were being attacked at all."
When the dust settles, you find yourselves picking through the wreckage, looking for survivors and salvageable equipment. Most of the survivors are injured, but mobile. The pilot looks through the survivors, pausing at each to assess their injuries. She sets, binds, and splints various injuries, but also drives her combat knife between the ribs and into the heart of three survivors, one with a crushed ribcage, one with lungs filling with fluid, and the last being impaled through the chest by a jagged piece of durasteel, taking the corpses and laying them out in a line, ready to be laid to rest. When she reaches the dead woman, she fumbles with the woman’s belt, pulling the holster off the belt, a beautiful, ornate holster carrying an old, ornate blaster pistol. She moves to a waking Samuels, pulls him to his feet, and hands the pistol to him, grip first. ’Samuels, Zor is dead. You now lead the Warboys.’
Samuels moves over to your group, looking you over, viewing the minor injuries, and tosses half a dozen medpacks to your feet. ’You’re lookin’ for a droid?’ He points towards the east, ’Sobrik is four miles that way. The people there may or may not help you. There is an old droid museum there, and a droid factory to the south, check there for your droid.’ He then levels his blaster at you, ’Now go. We could have gotten away with a single loss, your stupid acts caused us to lose nine. Go. We will help you no further.’
Vyr picks up the medpacks and passes them out to his group. "Sweet, thanks for the help and good luck with your war." He says is a happy tone and with a smile. Vyr turns and starts walking in the direction that Samules pointed to. His action to try and save one ended up killing nine and he is happy with that math. He now also knows their name and leader. He will remember to get some revenge latter or not. Depends but for right now 9 of them are dead and that will have to do.
"Those guys weren't very nice," Tarros mutters to nobody in particular as they walk away.
The journey to Sobrik is uneventful. Several times you see small groups of people, but each time they scatter into the distance as soon as they see your armaments. When you enter the city, it is clear that even though it is in ruins, it is very much alive. As the wee hours of the morning dawn, you locate a small hovel with several rooms for rent for mere credits per night. A cheerful Bothan and his wife wave you inside and offer you a couple rooms for the remainder of the night, giving you this first night free of charge, because the night is nearly over, and your group looks exhausted.
Tarros spends an uncomfortable night, his broken fingers keeping him from sleeping soundly.
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In the morning, he dresses and tosses on his cloak, pulling on his backpack overtop for now.
Anders seems the most approachable so far, so Tarros poses him a question over breakfast: "So, do you think the droid is in the museum? I didn't think he was special or anything."