Strange Bedfellows

Strange Bedfellows

OOC: Hello and welcome to the first of many little stories I intend to write on your forums to help me pass the time and perhaps roleplay a little with you folks outside of just a patrol or standing around in a cantina. Also, it will give folks who do not have a history with my character the ability to get to know him as well. To clarify I will now list the names of the known people who said they were interested in participating in this little story. If you don’t wish to participate please feel free to either post in the story in an ooc post or pm either in game or on the forums. If you cannot post within a two days during your turn on the posting order your turn will be skipped.

-Rux
-Tai/NPCs
-Del’lantam
-Corth
-Ben’airu
-Zigna

The posting order will be whoever posts after this intial post and so on and so forth. Let’s try to keep this moving at a decent clip I understand that schedules and what not but I’d like everyone to try and get at least one post in a day so I can use the npcs to help advance the plot along with everything else. I will be keeping in touch with Rux while this is occurring and doing my best to keep the story moving smoothly. Let’s get this show on the road then shall we?

IC:
The winds of Hoth were always bitterly cold. Even when you’re taking the stimulants to prevent hypothermia and wearing your cold weather gear. The winds howled as the small patrol of soldiers on their speeders slowly headed towards their last checkpoint before returning to base from another routine patrol. The phrase routine patrol is a contradiction because every patrol starts off as routine simply because nothing has occurred to make it anything more than a typical training exercise. The soldiers of the 203rd REL 1st company were making their way towards the navigation marker their commanding officer had given them. Their mission was to look for any kind of suspicious activity in the area.

This was to be a difficult assignment given the rather inhospitable environment of the planet upon which they found themselves upon. Excluding dangerous wildlife Hoth was currently home to one of the largest known pirate havens in the rather lawless Outter Rim territories as well as a sizeable force of the Sith Empire. Basically, it was another crap assignment in a long history of crap assignments for one particular soldier in the formation who had been told to take the point for this particular patrol.

Tai Morello was one of the more recent additions to the 203rd REL, to the old timers who had been there longer he was still green as the grass. He was little better than someone who had recently graduated basic training and could march in a straight line formation with others. He was a man of few words and never complained when given an order. This was his job and for better or worse he always tried to make the best of it. His hands were gripping the throttle of the speeder tightly both out of need to keep the formation moving at a fairly steady clip to reach the checkpoint. He was quiet to the folks who were with him, not out of rudeness but now was not really the time for idle chit chat. His head kept looking around him studying his surroundings as they neared the marker.

Hoth in general is little more than snow and ice, however there is some beauty in the sense of everything typically feels clam when staring out across the rolling hills of white as far as the eye can typically see in any direction. Tai noticed something however off to their three o’clock smoke in the direction of a nearby box canyon of ice. He signaled for the others to hold as he slowed and then finally killed the engine to his speeder and dismounted quickly.

“There is smoke in that direction.” Tai said pointing as he noticed the others began to do the same. He was wondering if perhaps it was a downed fighter or ship. “I’m going to see if I can get a better look.” He really didn’t feel like getting yelled at to do at any rate so volunteering probably was the soundest choice as he climbed to the top of a nearby snow drift and after getting to a knee he pulled out a pair of binoculars from his backpack. He saw a series of land based vehicles near the entrance of the canyon, they were massive in size but bore no identifiable markings as to if they were imperial or not at least from this angle. For all Tai knew they were scavengers coming to pick a wreck apart. The pillars of smoke were rising steadily if it was indeed a wreck it was one which could have intelligence either of the sensitive nature that could hurt Republic efforts in the region or perhaps something useful on the Imperials. At any rate it was indeed worth calling it back to base after informing his squad leader.

Tai clicked his comm. and said in his usual low voice. “I think you all should take a look at this.” He waited for the others to join him it was hard to tell their expressions given that everyone was wearing a combat helmet but Tai offered the binoculars to the nearest soldier and pointed towards the vehicles in the distance near the direction the smoke was coming from. “They don’t look like imperial apcs, maybe scavengers; do we have any ships that went down here recently?” Tai asked finally after a moment of silence. Tai knew these sorts of questions were above his pay grade but he didn’t enjoy running into a fight without at least having some kind of knowledge as to what was going on. He kept looking at his squad mates watching them and waiting for them to speak their opinions as to their next move.

[Rux]

The tower of a man, Rux, loosens his grip on the binocs, which never reached his face, and lowers them back to Tai.

"So you break off formation, speeder up to the top of a hill, which by the way makes you stick out on the horizon like a soar thumb, then pull out reflective lenses to take a closer look as the sun hangs over to the west, right in front of us."

The men all hunker to the icy, snow-covered hill.

"To make matters worse... we're up wind, and even in this cold air, the stench you emit would tell any sharpshooter one hundred yards out that you haven't showered for days." The men chuckle.

"Something funny?" Rux barks, quickly jolting towards the peanut gallery. "I know this is probably your second swing around the posies, but try not to get me killed, Trooper. That's order number one."

Rux makes a few hand gestures for the men to fall back off the hill, they oblige, scaling the hill on their stomaches. He calls up his scout, CORTH, to the front of the formation.

"I don't know what I was thinking... but now I'm thinking I should have the scout be the one.... doing the scouting." Rux pulls a datapad from his gear-bag as it lights up an overlaying map of the area. The two scan it over, mark where the smoke is coming from and zoom in.

"A'right Corth, what are we lookin' at?"

((OOC 2 days is kinda rough man :P, also skipped Del' because he dropped out in the other thread))

[Del'lantam]

OOC Yeah, I'll just follow the story this time around. Probably jump in the next time you start a storyline, though.

[Corth]

"I've got no intel on this particular canyon Sergeant-Major. It seems to be mostly natural but I can't rule out man-made work to it. I agree with Tai, those vehicles don't match any type used by Imperials. Also, before you called me up I did a quick scan for enemy scouts and snipers on these ridgelines. Setting a perimeter would be standard Imperial doctrine further suggesting this isn't Imp work. It does seem scavengers are most likely.
Corth reflected for a moment.
"Usually, with completely unknown activity, I would suggest setting up an Observation Post and observing for awhile. However, if this is a downed Republic ship or encampment, those troops may not have much time left."
"I can move in myself and take a look if you like but that sun is getting low on the horizon. Whatever we do we need to do it before nightfall."

[Zigna]

Down the hill with the rest of the squad, Sergeant Zigna rolled on to her side in the snow and clicked her tongue at Tai.

"Way to go newb," she whispered with a chuckle.

Clearing the visor on her helm so he could see her face, she flashed a wide grin at the trooper. Her green, Mirialan skin tone was in stark contrast with the white of her teeth and Hoth's snow.

"You would have to wait until we're on the way to our last check point to see something of interest wouldn't you?" she asked quietly with a sarcastic sigh. She shook her head in mock disapproval as she took a knee to observe Rux and Corth near the hill's peak.

Zigna was a newly promoted sergeant, usually sent with the sergeant major to learn from his experienced leadership. That often led to "babysitting" the troops but she didn't mind, until they started being stupid or forgetting the point of their mission. She diverted her attention back to the troops. Her brow furrowed with impatience after noticing their lackadaisical lounging about.

"What the Hell are you morons doing?" she hissed. Her hand that had been resting on her knee clenched into a fist. "Get your weapons out, form a perimeter and for fuck's sake keep your damn cover. You know the drill." She bit her lip to keep from laughing as some of the troops jumped at the sudden change in her demeanor.

A chilling breeze worked its way through her armor while she double checked her comm settings to await orders from the sergeant major. "We're in for a long night," she thought to herself, trying to ignore the goosebumps.

[Rux]

Rux takes in a deep breath, the frosty air chirps his posture as he closes his eyes enjoying the moment. He'd always take this small serenading smell before possibly rolling on towards death.

"A'right, Corth. Take up a perimeter on the west end around these glacial formations." He points to his holomap. "I have a feeling this isn't any ordinary salvaging unit." He turns his attention to the newly demoted point man, still slumbering in the snow. "Get the squad together for orders. You'll be on point, this time, try not to point out where we are. And Corth," the scout turns, "be sure to stay in touch with Tai, he'll be leading us out." The scout nods as he fades away into the misty breeze of snow.

Tai tips his head and heads down the slop.

[Tai]

Tai didn’t have time to argue with Rux that he had simply parked his speeder at the lead of the formation before dismounting. He didn’t care if he climbed the snowbank in a low crouched position as opposite to sticking his pecker into the snow or that he actually used his binoculars to see in a distance when Rux easily would have done the same thing.
Rux was an NCO and as Tai had come to learn quite quickly their world revolved around criticism and all of your amazing short comings. If he wanted to hear goodjob he should have been a construction worker at a foundry on Coruscant like his sister suggested. Tai said nothing as he did as instructed first by the Mirilan sergeant who Tai had to admit was easy on the eyes and then by Rux. To Zigna, Tai probably wasn’t even someone to notice aside from criticism that she was learning from Rux. Tai simply rolled his eyes under his helmet as he tried to get everyone else organized. Tai knew he had everything he would need but it never hurt to either check the person beside you or to simply treat them like humanoids and assume they had two braincells to rub together and they packed everything like they were supposed to.

Tai slowly headed in front and gave a hand signal to follow him as they began to move towards the nav point Rux had issued them in formation. Tai had his rifle raised as he scanned his field of fire. The snow was beginning to pick up, and signs that a blizzard was rolling in seemed all the more likely. Tai was grateful for this at least the snowstorm would give them added concealment as they moved towards the vechiles. As Corth’s team got to the observation post at the nav point Rux had given them they could make out several things in the distance. There were two humans and a zabrak harassing three chiss; and elderly female, a young boy, and a teenaged looking girl each of their blue faces wore the look of terror. The chiss were unarmed and appeared to be little more than civilians caught while trying to flee. The humans wore composite armor that bore the distinct markings of the White Maw pirates. While lacking the audio equipment to listen into the conversation it was clear of one thing as the elderly woman threw herself at the closest two knocking them to the ground. The young girl grabbed the boy’s hand and they made a mad dash.

Corth and his team could make out the elderly woman trip up the human as he rose to his feet and grabbed the zabrack’s knife and tried to stab him with it. The human not involved in any combat quickly gave the woman a sharp blow to the back of her head with the stock of his blaster rifle before aiming dead center at the small boy’s back. There was a stream of red that zipped across the snow and the young boy fell forward and then lay still. The girl struggled to her feet and then after looking at the pirates chasing her continued to run. Another red line zipped across the snow catching the young girl in the back of her left knee.

Corth’s team could make out what was occurring back at the mouth of the canyon. A large Trandosian with a rather large blade was staring at the elderly chiss woman who had succeeded in making fools of three of his comrades. The human and the zabrack held the woman down as the large Reptile brought the sword down onto the woman taking her head in one stroke. Red blood splashed onto him and the snow as the headless corpse of the chiss woman lay limp and still. The Trandosian began to bark orders at the other two as the shooter slowly walked towards where the chiss girl was desperately trying to crawl to safety.

The human eventually caught up to the young girl and forced her over onto her side before hauling her to her feet. The other two were standing with him now. The zabrack slapped her across her face before she replied with spit. The three started walking back dragging the girl with them towards the vechiles.

The formation Tai was leading could hear the shot and doing as he had been trained to do. Tai immediately dropped to the ground and assumed the others would be doing the same. He couldn’t see anything through this snow storm his visibility less than ten meters ahead of himself now. “Corth do you see anything?” Tai asked over the comm. Rux and Zinga could bitch at him later about not keeping comms clear during this.

[Corth]

"Civilians. We've got civis getting executed", Corth shouted over coms. "S'arnt-major, they are Chiss - unarmed. They are being wiped out."
Corth affixed a medium-range targeting scope to his pistol. "I count at least 3 tangos. Look like pirates. They have blaster rifles and there is a huge trando with a blade."
Corth fixed the crosshairs of his scope on a pirate who was carrying a Chiss girl.
"They have a hostage and are taking her to the vehicles. I have the shot on one. Say the word and I can slot em."
"If you want to take em, approach low using the snow drifts leading to the cave as cover. This snowfall should also conceal your approach. The pirates don't seem to be paying much attention to their surroundings. There may be more pirates in the vehicles or back in the canyon. I can't say for sure yet."

[Tai]

OOC: We've given Rux time to post but it's time to skip him and try and get moving again. Zigna you're up.

[Rux]

Rux hears the alert. He's been in this position before, the one where decisions need to be made, for better or worse.

"GET UP YOU APES! GET ON THOSE SPEEDERS!"

Rux hauls his boots through the snow, thumping, charging, doing anything he can to get back to their personal transports. The men fallow suit as they stagger behind.

"Corth, shoot an explosive round to their main vehicles engine, do it now!" He commands through the comm. Corth's reply a few moments later; a large explosion in the distance.

"We're riding into that! GET ON!" Rux hops on his speeder, hunkers down and kicks it into high gear. "Take cover, keep firing at them, how many explosive charges do you have?"

<COMM> "Two left."

"Shoot them at the base of the gully on my go. Right side. Let's burry those assholes!" Rux turns to his men, now in hot pursuit. "Get ready to dig through some snow." They all nod. "Zigna, you and Tai hit the left flank, if we get buried in the snow, use your harpoons to pull us out. Everyone turn on your tracking beacons, if we get buried, it's our only shot." The two comply, breaking off formation to the left as the others push some buttons on their wrist communicators.

"Fire up your cannons, we're going in hot. Leave that fuckin' Trando for me!" They burst through the snow, dodging debris and rocks maneuvering to the explosion. They're only a few clicks out.

<COMM> "They're almost at their transports, they've scattered. Some have taken up defensive positions. They're still trying to figure out what happened."

"Do it."

<COMM> "Firing."

"Zigna, what's your position? Have you made it to the left flank? I can't see shit."

BOOOM!

Rumbling of a massive avalanche shakes the ground. "Corth, shoot a flare, distract'em now! Make them stay in that gully!" He turns to the squad. "This is it, get ready, right over that ridge."

The flare drifts into the sky as the Cavalry sails over the hill, illuminating them in a red glowing haze of death as they rain down upon the Pirates, who stand frozen in terror.

[Uxas]

((Alot of us read this so stop slacking Rux.))

((I posted, check my edit))

[Rux]

((Zigna you're up))

[Zigna]

And we're off!

"Fucking damn it," Zigna thought to herself, "this job is a bitch. You're either bored out of your damn mind trying to count snowflakes, or charging full speed into a man-made avalanche with your guts in your throat." She didn't know if it was the numbness from the cold or the repeated scenarios over the years that made the helpless civilians being slaughtered an afterthought, but she hated herself for it either way.

The blood pounding in her ears made it almost impossible to hear Rux ask for their position. Signaling furiously at Tai, they whipped their speeders around at the last drift between them and the pirates and came to an abrupt halt.

"We're there, Sarge." She hoped he could hear her over the rumblings.

Leaving Tai with the speeders, Zigna took only a moment to climb the drift. She lifted her head until her eyes just barely cleared the peak.

"They didn't see us break off."

Knowing they weren't compromised, she waved at Tai to join her, started prepping her assault cannon and scanned the area for the best place to drop some mortars. The red flare stopped the pirates in their tracks and left them completely exposed to Zigna and Tai. The tactic had worked! Then, the Trandoshan among them shouted and the pirates sprung into action once more. While it was certain some would be caught in the avalanche, the majority would escape at this rate.

<COMM> "Engage!"

Immediately following the order, Zigna launched three of her six shells, strafing the pirates. "SURPRISE!!!" she couldn't resist yelling with a sudden rush of adrenaline. At least it wasn't cold any more.

[Tai]

The pirates were indeed buried largely under the mass of snow and caught by suprise at the Republic attack. The trandoshian clicked on a wrist comm. and barked into it. The vehicles began to explode under the sheer amount of ordinance thrown towards them. The nearest crawler to Tai was nearly torn in half as a stray motor shell from Zigna accidentally sent shrapnel into the main fuel cell. The bright orange plum knocked most of Rux’s team onto their feet and scattered the remaining pirates. The pirates slowly staggered to their feet and those that remained fell back further into the canyon towards the direction of the rising smoke. Most likely to regroup with the rest of the pirate forces, Tai followed Zinga and her instructions as he began to fire his rifle alongside her as the pirates began to flee. Tai aimed his rifle and it kicked hard against his shoulder as he managed to send a stream of bolts towards the fleeing mob and get one of them in the back as he was running the pirate slumped into the snow red blood beginning to pool from the blaster wound.

Tai began to watch as pirates their skin covered in flame began to climb out of the burning wreckage of the crawler. Tai simply watched them and leveled his rifle at them. He then saw a sight he would never forget. Chiss suffering the same fate began to climb out the hatch their clothes aflame as they dove onto the snow. The stench of burning flesh and death was now beginning to permeate the air. Tai looked at Zigna and glared daggers at her they should have just used small arms fire. There were clearly civilians trapped inside the vehicles. Bangs could be heard from the hatches of the other crawlers. “The hell were you thinking?!” Tai growled at her. Tai wanted to help the civilians but this was Rux’s choice regardless the pirates who managed to elude them would most likely be bringing reinforcements. The sun was now just beginning to set which on Hoth in the middle of a blizzard was surely a death sentence. They needed to get a defensive perimeter up and fast but they should at least try to save what few civilians they could before the fire spread. Tai listened as screams and wails began to pierce the stillness around them. He looked at them the few who were clawing at ways to get out the others trapped as flames began to lick their bodies. Tai looked through his scope at the few he could see. He watched the pirates writhe in pain and left them to their slow painful end to the hereafter but brought his scope level with the civilians clawing their way out their bodies aflame. He waited for Rux to give him an order to at least be humane to their suffering.

[Rux]

The beautiful sunshine permeates through Rux's visor. He takes off his helmet, he's in the forest running alongside a small boy, only six at best, who skips through the tall grass beside a cute little button of a girl. They hold hands and giggle as they play together, tickling, goofing and prancing about.

"SIR!"

Rattles through his ears. He looks around the forest, weapon ready. Nothing.

The kids continue to fiddle around, as the younger boy, remarkably resembling Rux, picks a flower and folds it into the little girls hair. When he leans back, she pecks him on the nose. They both giggle.

"SARN-MARJOR!!! GET UP"

Rux jolts his weapon up again. The air gets heavy, the sky dark and the forest turns into a hellish nightmare. Blue faces stand out from the black Imperial Military ensemble. They're charging into the forrest, scattering around the kids. The kids huddle, scared, shaking in freight.

"MEDIC! MEDIC!"

Rux aims his weapon, still concealed by the forrest cover. He watches as the Chiss move in, pointing a blaster at the boys face. One of the men grabs the girl and starts dragging her away. She squirms and resists, but it's not helping. Slowly as she screams her face begins to change color, her eyes, everything is changing. She's Chiss.

"HIT'EM! KOLTO INJECTION!"

<>

Rux gasps for air as he sits up, covered in snow.

The men jump back, startled.

"Kill them. Kill them all." Rux pressures out with a droned monotone voice.

"Sir?" One of the men questions.

"Did I stutter?" He replies.

"You heard him.... kill them all." He turns to the men, readying their weapons.

Rux gets on his hand communicator. "Kill anything that moves." He gradually gets up to his feet, swings his blaster rifle around from his back and loads up. The men walk over the crescent hill and take aim. A hail of blaster fire ensues.