World Tree MUSH

    In the middle of the wastes were two prefab structures and a warehouse, all barely lit at night. The odd sentry patrolled around the compound, while snipers were posted up top of each structure. All were droids, silent and near motionless at their posts. It was good Anneka was here tonight! That made two transports, one a cargo hauler that'd been converted into a makeshift troop carrier. Talia had decided to take Anneka's quinjet to the mission. "Alright. We'll be in two teams. Alpha will stay on-board until we're downrange. Bravo, that's our airspeeder, will be landing ahead. Remember, we need to capture this engineer alive. He's no use to us dead, but on the off-chance he takes a blaster bolt to the cranium, we tear this place apart looking for anything he had."

    <No pressure, huh?> Sergeant Okun transmitted over radio, the other ship carrying him and his squad. <Right-on, I'll be handling sniper cover from here. So if there's Anti-Air down there, don't let 'em schlack me, 'kay?>

    "Okun? I make no promises." Talia said.

    <Love you too, greanbean.>

    "Lian, let's kick this off." Talia would leap right off the quinjet once it hovered over the landing zone, landing and taking off towards the target, sprinting down the barren, dried out fields. By the time the guards noticed something was up, Talia's lightsaber had already been cutting one down.

    Whether Lian Kamoya can be found on this world at any given time is a bit of a coin toss. But somehow, whenever there's something important going on, she always manages to be there, right on time. And a mission where their goal is to bring in a target alive? That's a mission where a Jedi Battlemaster with a unique gift for reading the flow of battle would be of great use.

    "I shall protect the engineer to my utmost," the elder Jedi declares, before jumping off the Quinjet right after Talia. It's the classical Jedi blitzkrieg - fall on the enemy before they can react. Though Lian's methods of dispatching them are perhaps more merciful than Talia's; a lot of removed limbs, but no direct kills where she can help it.

  Agent Stojespal is here, and so is her talking quinjet, which has been distinctly un-talkative for the whole of the trip. She's put in the navigational coordinates to hop several Vines into the region. It's taken her a bit out of the way more than she might like, but it was also necessary; the quinjet isn't cleared for spaceflight, and would probably be crushed like a tin can.

  There are seats in the back. They are both very temporary and very not comfortable.

  She just sighs to herself as both Jedi eschew landing protocols and throw themselves off the aircraft. It sounds like a very resigned sort of exasperation. Heroes.

  <<We are in the target area. I am bringing us down so you can unload, so get it done fast. Radio when you are ready for pickup. I will keep the quinjet in the operational area.>> There's a pause. <<...I am charging extra if they bring in aerial support.>>

    Claire's hitching a ride with Stojespal. She's got her crate of bombs with her, and carefully picks up it up after landing. "Thanks for the ride, ma'am." While the Jedi deal with the guards, the farmer goes and walks towards the door to the warehouse, planting one bomb big enough to blast through without causing structural damage, lighting the fuse and backing off.

    There's someone else aboard the quinjet. Chilling in the back, chewing on some gum as she loads up her weapons, Rebecca blows a big bubble and pops it as she gears up.
    Once the aircraft is over the area of operations, the diminutive cyborg watches as...
    Talia and Lian leap right out.
    "Oh man that looks so nova." She considers for a moment, hesitating for just a beat's pause long enough to think... Before she makes her decision.
    "Fuck it. THANKS FOR THE RIDE!" She says and--
    Rebecca leaps out the back of the quinjet.
    "WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!"
    Sailing in freefall she flails her arms and legs before righting herself in the air, aiming her heavy machinegun down and...
    "GYAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAAA!"
    Heavy machinegun go brrrrrrrrrrr as Becca careens groundward, laying down a hail of fire on any guards she sees before swapping to her shotgun, one handed- aiming down and--
    She pulls the trigger JUST as she lands upon a guard, the sheer intensity of the gun's recoil not only softening her landing but evaporating the guy she just landed on as she impacts in a crouch.
    That probably got some attention.
    BUT THAT'S ENTIRELY OKAY.
    Because as she stands herself up, with a HMG in one hand and shotgun in the other, she starts firing wildly at anything that moves.
    "COME ON, COME ON, COME ON, LET'S GOOOO~~~."

    Everyone will notice something odd: THere's not a single organic being in this compound. It's all droids. Spindly and carrying rifles of various kinds, from blaster rifles to heavy repeaters. One lifts a rocket launcher and begins to open fire at Anneka's quinjet, the rocket trailing across the starlit sky as its trail lights up the night.

    Droids of otherwise, Rebecca's guns do their job, tearing the poor droid she landed on to bits of mech fluid and scrap metal, reducing its torso to sparks.

    Talia sighed. "I suppose we're going hot." She mutters, before she approaches the first building, using her lightsaber to cut the door down before kicking it off its hinges, clearing room by room with lightsaber and blaster pistol in each respective hand. "Clearing first structure. Bravo team, land and secure second structure." She radios.

    Claire blows a hole in the warehouse, and out comes...well, let's just say she triggered the boss fight a bit early! A massive four-legged war droid crawls through the opening, sporting arms that carry claws, and big blasters. Stomping towards Claire, the war droid opens up a barrage of blaster fire. As resistance fighters offload, Okun remains on-board as the ship hovers in the air, and he begins to provide sniper cover as promised, firing on the big droid to try and damage its sensors.

    Well, if there's nothing but battle droids here, Lian has a bit less worry about striking to not-kill. That's good, both because it makes her job easier, and because... well, Rebecca. She's not going to fault the cyborg her methods, as long as there's no actual torture going on, but it's still earning a bit of a side-eye. But it's droids, so she's not going to fuss about it.

    But then Claire accidentally a boss.

    In the instant before the bomb goes off, the Jedi Master is already turning to look towards the warehouse, as though she feels what's to come. By the time the bomb is going off, she's already moving, and by the time the heavy blaster fire starts from the war droid, there is already a bar of sky-blue light weaving a defensive wall, sending some of those blaster bolts right back where they came.

>> SUMMARY[Lian Kamoya] >> Intercepting some of the blaster fire from the war droid.

    "Oops.| Claire didn't think there'd be something like that in there. She drops her crate and draws her sword, leaping forward to try to drive the weapon into one of the machine's legs. She's clipped by one of the blaster shots in the process, wincing at the pain on her left arn.

    When Rebecca is involved, there is no such thing as subtlety. It's always 'go in hot, hard, and loud' with this one.
    But after a moment of dropping droids with heavy ordinance fire, the solo pauses. Not to reload, but to make an astute observation:
    "What the hell, there are no guys here. Just robots." She says, casually pumping a shotgun shell into the head of a droid twitching at her feet.
    "Ah well, target practice is target practice." She says with a shrug as she shifts her grip on the empty HMG in her hand.
    Using the gun like a cudgel she crushes a droid with a rocket launcher, picks UP said rocket launcher with a wild look in her eyes and...
    She turns around to see what Claire hath wrought.
    She looks at the war droid. She looks at here new rocket launcher. Back at the war droid.
    Rebecca smiles sweetly as she takes aim through the rocket launcher's scope, waits for the sweet ~beep beep~ that signals a lock on. And squeezes the trigger.
    With a ~FSHOOM!~ the rocket streaks from the gun in her grasp on a course for... Not the war droid- but a section of the warehouse behind it- trying to bring down a chunk of the building around the machine rather than risk hitting the machine directly and catching Claire in the blast radius of the missile itself.

  When Claire collects her ordinance and disembarks, the pilot tosses a casual salute to the farmer without looking back. Her eye is on the instrumentation and the surrounding area.

  Down goes Rebecca in a hail of gunfire and crazy. Anneka twists to watch, and then straightens, rubbing at the bridge of her nose. Lunatics. She's surrounded by lunatics. She has no time to dwell on it, though.

  Proximity warning. Anti-aircraft measures in effect. Initiating evasive manoeuvres.

  Anneka grimaces, a sudden wrench of the controls slewing the quinjet to one side, turbines eerily silent. The rocket makes more nose, burning its way closer, and it fishtails wildly when narrowly evaded.

  ***BOOM.*** Something causes it to explode once it flies just a little past the aircraft, and the quinjet slews sideways as the blast jolts it.

  "Val gimmie a damn report," the SHIELD agent snarls.

  Damage nominal.

  "Oh, well, thank God for small favours--" Anneka's eye drops to her radar panel, and her mouth twists. Giant four-legged war droid stomping towards the party; that's probably bad. The quinjet swings around until it can train its nose on the war droid, and... opens fire with its nose-mounted cannon. Might as well try to help, before that thing gets too close to the squad.

    It's totally fine if you cut droids up with your laser swords, yes.

    Talia jumps out of the building window, finding that there's nothing inside of value beyond droids and more droids. "Stojespal, how copy?" She says into her commlink. Thankfully it seems the quinjet's made of sterner stuff as it remains airborne. "Thank the Force." Talia says, before rushing off to help with the war droid.

    While Lian is providing defense, Talia goes on the offensive as she ducks and weaves, deflecting blaster fire before she slides underneath the wardroid to slice at its leg. The armor's too thick for a single chop to do the trick, unfortunately. Luckily Anneka lets out a barrage of vulcan fire, armor penetrating rounds punching holds into the droid's metallic chassis. Talia scatters to avoid getting hit by friendly fire. "Danger-close danger-close!" She calls into comms again.

    The droid staggers from rocket and vulcan fire, a barrage fired at the Quinjet while turrets on top of the droid take aim at Rebecca, the miniature solo now having the droid's aggro.

    "Cut it down!" Talia yells at Claire and Lian, before she makes another run to cut into the mechanized menace's leg.

  <<Have armour.>> The link is a little staticky, but it looks like the quinjet is still holding together just fine. As soon as Talia calls danger the machine gun fire stops, quinjet pivoting to keep the war droid in its sights. Looks like Anneka's just waiting for another opportunity between blows.

  She checks her instruments, frowning. <<Give me room. Can maybe punch through some of that armour, but. Up to you.>>

    The entire time she's deflecting blaster fire, Lian Kamoya is slowly approaching. It's only one step at a time; but with everyone else moving in as well, that's all she needs. By the time the droid is staggered and distracted, she's close enough to take advantage of Talia's call in a heartbeat. In fact, she does so at the very instant Talia begins to yell.

    That whirling, swinging line of blue light suddenly spirals upward. The Jedi Battlemaster whirls up in a high leap aimed to take her up and over the colossal droid, and as she does, her lightsaber lashes downward and outward, again and again. A wide slash here, a quick slice there - cutting power lines, blinding sensors, disabling everything she can from above while Claire and Talia aim to attack from below.

    "Oh man that was nova." Rebecca crows as she futzes with the rocket launcher, trying to figure out how to reload it. Just as the droid turns its turret on her.
    "Oh. Shit."
    This succinct assessment of her situation stated, Rebecca wheels around on her heels and starts delta, booking it as hard as she can, as blaster fire chews up the ground beneath her feet.
    "Oh shit oh shit ohshitohshitohshit!" She repeats like a mantra; a litany of profanity following her every step as she scrambles to avoid being perforated, she baseball slides into cover inside what's left of the warehouse.
    "Oh. Oh shit." Can be heard from inside the building.
    "Oh shit!"
    Whatever is inside the warehouse seems to be something either very good or very bad.
    It turns out to be... Very good. Very VERY good. Because a moment later, with an utterly massive battery back on her back, linked via cable to an even BIGGER gun, Rebecca comes storming out of the warehouse. In her arms is an E-Web heavy repeating blaster; the kind of gun that Lian Kamoya and Talia Kyras would recognize; the kind of gun that has vaporized countless shock troopers and brought about the saddest songs of the Siege of Mandalore, when similar ordinance laid waste to fields of Mandalorian recuits...
    AND IT GOES BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR as Rebecca thumbs the trigger mechanism and unloads a barrage of searing hot blaster fire at the war droid.

    Claire decides to go forwards for a moment, sheathing her sword as she slides underneath the machine, pulling out her slingshot to aim upwards, sending a pair of impact-triggered bombs straight upwards.

    E-WEB goes fucking BRRRRRRRRRRRRRT indeed, as the proto E-WEB unloads on the war droid, hammering it with firepower. Claire's bomb barrage hammers at it too. Lian severs one of the power lines, cutting into the machine while Talia cuts a leg off. Rebecca manages to cut a hole into the machine with her repeating blaster, leaving it wide open for one last bomb to sink into the hole. Kaboom, the droid is blown apart from the inside and slumps dead.

    "Phew. All teams, area is secure." Talia radios, before she makes her way to the warehouse, giving Rebecca a nod. "Nice work, 'choom.' Very 'nova.'" It's impossible for Talia to not feel like a total dork with that slang.

    Inside, the warehouse is filled with weaponry and supplies, and Talia senses about. Reaching with the Force, she grips a crate and pulls it aside to find a hidden doorway. Her lightsaber cuts it open, to reveal a small panic room and a miniature alien with scaly blue skin.

    "I GIVE I GIVE I GIVE I GIVE!" The tiny aleena squeals. "I'm the engineer, Garo's had me building droids and weapons for years! I just didn't want him to execute me!"

    Talia has very little issue with getting the diminutive alien on his feet. "Considering how easily you folded, he won't have an issue with killing you now. I don't suppose you'd be willing to help us instead?"

    "Just keep me alive, and I'll give you as much technical data you can handle."

    "Then you're in luck," comes the warm reply from Lian Kamoya, as she strides up beside Talia. "My name is Lian Kamoya, a Master of the Jedi Order. I- we- fully intend to see you back to the Republic alive and well."