World Tree MUSH

    It's a quiet world. A peaceful world. A world that hasn't known war or strife for a long time.
    That makes it a pretty decent place to try and lay low.
    Basin City is one of those hyper advanced futuristic type cities with flying cars and sky gardens and high rise buildings that reach, literally, to the skies. In other words, it's not all too different from the planet city of Coruscant; except it doesn't span the whole planet.
    "Okay, kid, this looks like a good spot to rest for a minute." 
    It is in one of the city's myriad floating parks that a solitary figure sits down on a public bench to try and catch a moment's respite; a tall man in gleaming silver armor and helmet with a distinct T-shaped visor. Hovering at his side is a floating crib-like device, carrying a small, green-skinned, child with long pointed ears, and the pair seem to be enjoying a quiet moment to themsel--
    "Oh what a CUTE little thing." A passerby comments. "Is it yours?"
    "Uh...?"
    "Oh just look at how darling it is! A boy or a girl."
    "... Uh. ... Boy?"
    In no time, the pair are assailed by passerby mothers walking their own children for the day, The Mandalorian very awkwardly and gruffly struggling to answer questions as best he can while wanting to mostly shoo these people away.

>> SUMMARY[The Mandalorian] >> Just an ordinary single dad and child out for a day in the park.

    Stealth, Blending into the crowd. These are things that come naturally to three types of people. Thieves, Asssassins and papparazzi. The second option stalks the crowds in this futuristic city park, light fingers lifting small amounts of money from pockets as she passes through groups, just enough to not be missed but building up a decent little clutch for purposes of her own.

    The young woman pauses as she spots a familiar looking green child and suit of armour being surrounded by locals. She frowns, adjusts her hood and moves to get closer so she can listen in on the conversation, but also to check if there's any threats. A suppressed motherly instinct peeking through, perhaps?

>> SUMMARY[Piera Forta] >> Pickpocketing the crowd. Eavesdropping on Mando being accosted. Also True Sight to check for overt threats.

    Oh look, normal people doing normal people things! Like fawning over children. Li-Ming doesn't exactly feel contempt for such a gathering. Mild consternation over why anyone would want to crowd into a child's space like that when they aren't even... Her ruminations stop and she double-takes. A child with an impressively equipped bodyguard? Guardian?

    It's just the right kind of bizarre that even she takes an interest, though she's certainly not going to just walk up and coo in a baby's face. No matter how green they are. Or ears... Headshake! No, don't!
    Softly, to herself, "At least I'm not the one being stared at for bringing armor to the park." Looking for a threat? She may count as a threatening presence!

    Dante looks pretty out of place in this kind of city, it's peaceful and bright, with no sign of demons. But then again, even he could use a day off every now and then. SLurping a milkshake, he's got sunglasses and has his weapons stuffed in a guitar case, his trenchcoat slung over his shoulder as he has himself a walk. His amusement when he spies the Dadalorian and his little boy is palpable, as he just leans on a tree and grins as he watches this show. This is just too precious to ignore.

  Somebody else is already here, as close to what serves for a shadowed corner as the place has: A woman closer to fifty than forty, slumped on a bench with her elbows braced over her knees, head bowed. She's fiddling with something in her hands. It looks like some kind of tiny, mechanical cylinder. Occasionally, she lifts her gaze to scan the crowds, before returning her attention to the tiny object.

  She's not from around here. Her clothing establishes that much. The sleeveless white tunic and the olive fatigues are pretty universal, but the holstered blaster at each hip isn't, nor the half-gloves that protect only the pads of her fingers and palms.

  It's only after the women start questioning the brooding figure of the Mandalorian that the woman looks up again, reaching up to clear hair from her face; pale blonde, but there is silver in it. There are hints of stress lines along her face. Hollows under her eyes. She squints.

  That's a bounty hunter wearing full armour in the Mandalorian style, all right, but... what's he doing with... what even is that? Some alien child? The species isn't one she knows. And why does it look vaguely familiar?

  Better yet, why is a Mandalorian here? She hasn't become an active target, yet, has she? Her presence is a quiet, tightly-reined ball of anger and misery, carefully wrapped up behind an officer's poker face. It might even unsettle the Child's sensitivities.

  Juno Eclipse swallows, and her mouth compresses into a thin line as she weighs her options. A subtle lean to one side lets her check the charge on her blasters, and she exhales silently through her teeth. There isn't much in the way of options. She drops her gaze to the data cylinder again, frowning.

  She seems to reach a decision, standing and dropping the cylinder into her pocket, and striding over to the Mandalorian. Her stride is brisk. Straight. Just a degree or two shy of military.

  "You're a bounty hunter." It's not a question as Juno folds her arms, tilting her head and studying the armour. She's actually pretty afraid, which the Child might sense, but somehow she projects nothing but calm. "And that armour is Mandalorian, if I'm not mistaken. What's brought you all the way out here?" Or, in so many words, You're not here to kill me, are you?

    Duncan's from one of those very much not technologically-advanced cities. So of course, a place like this is a curiosity for him. That said, Duncan figures that a guy tromping around in full plate would probably garner too much attention.

    Ironic statement, that...

    Though it appears Duncan doesn't really care about drawing too much attention anyway, since he's wearing his Dark Knight armor. He is, however, making a rather laughable attempt to disguise the sword, by carrying it in a large instrument case.

    See, it works when Dante does it, because he's dressed semi-normally. But with Duncan being in a suit of full plate, it doesn't quite work as well. But at least he's making an effort!

    He'd been about to pass by the park without stopping, but the gathering of people draws him in with curiosity, as is the way of such things. Thought he's not going to get too close, there's enough people there.

    Emily Nyx does not have motherly instincts. However, she knows fun when she sees it.

    Approaching the group of women is what appears to be a lavender-skinned demoness with glowing purple eyes and hair so black it looks like a rip in space, or a graphical glitch. She's wearing a pink crop-top with the text "I'll Stop Wearing Pink When They Invent A Darker Color", red booty shorts with an AI's rant about hating humanity printed on the backside, and white combat boots. She doesn't speak, but her amused and faintly smug smile might be familiar to the Mandalorian. And/or Juno.

    And then she bursts out laughing at Juno's point-blank question. Yep, that's Emily's voice, all right.

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> One sign of demons(?).

    The conversation that Piera is privy to is very strained and awkward. Mostly a gaggle of women asking the silver armored bounty hunter questions he can barely answer or has time to answer before another excited question is flung his way. From an outsider perspective, like Dante's, it's probably hilarious. But the Mandalorian isn't finding this funny at all.
    He's almost thankful for the distraction when Juno comes storming over.
    It's subtle, but his hand edges closer to the blaster at his hip when she recognizes his armor so easily. The gaggle of curious den mothers begin to clear out as soon as they hear the words 'bounty hunter'.
    "Look, lady." He says gruffly, "We're not looking for any trouble."
    The 'we' in that statement clearly referring to him and the child- the child who is very intently looking back and forth between the woman and the armored gunslinger, burbling confusedly at just why she of all people seems to frightened, despite being the one to approach.
    That's about when everything goes wrong.
    A sleek, slate grey, transport ship swerves in a circle around the park before landing, opening at the front, and for several squads of men in white plastoid armor, with skull-like helmets to come marching out and making their way to make a perimeter around the park.
    "This looks like as good a place to start as any." One mutters to another, voice crackling and attenuated by his helmet as a squad starts making for the entryway to the park.
    "You there." He calls out to Duncan, holding up a small puck-like object. With the press of a button a hologram display of silvery Mandalorian armor appears from the device. "We're looking for a Mandalorian. Tell us anything you know right now."
    More of these white armored troopers are beginning to make their way inside the park now, harassing park goers and storming up to Li-Ming, and Dante much with the very same question: "Have you seen this Mandalorian?"
    Said Mandalorian now has his hand on the butt of the blaster at his hip.
    "... Dank ferrik."

    Well, there's plenty of threats. Dante, Li-Ming, Emily and Duncan. She sees them all limmed in yellow. Passive threat, not actively hostile.

    And that's when the transport comes down and shits out a bunch of armoured mooks. She frowns subtly, and moves with the crowds as they start to gather for protection once the park is sealed off.

    Being careful not to disturb the others she's blending into so she can sneak up on one of the troopers. It's not hard to figure out that these guys are here for foul intent, and that means she has no problem grabbing one of them and shanking her hidden blade through the gap in his armour under his armpit. "Requiescat en pace." She murmurs, casually walking away as he teeters and staggers a little, before bloodloss causes him to drop to the ground.

    She starts moving on to another target, aiming to thin out their ranks before panic sets in and tips the rest off that there's a hidden threat.

    It's a spectacle, to be sure. Soon enough, it starts to get weirder. Another much more serious-looking woman joins the gaggle and the man in armor and that's about where the scene stops being quite so amusing. Estranged spouse? Li-Ming allows her attention to wander, soon enough flicking her gaze to others who stand out and aren't trying to hide. Maybe skimming alarmingly over the few actually trying to not be seen. She's not looking for trouble, no no.

    Then there's a transport landing. Soldiers pour forth and she stiffens just a bit, head held high even as she's approached with one of those holographic pucks. Her look of disgust is only somewhat disguised. Are they blind? He's right there! "I don't think-"

    An apparition of blowing sand whirls into being just behind and over her shoulder. A man, or what used to be, sneers down at the Stormtrooper and gestures, as if indicating the obvious. "He's there, just a matter of yards away. Dolt." The apparition boils away into nothingness with a peal of cruel laughter. "KULLE!"

    Well. Depending on how fast the Troopers can pick up on something like that, the game may be up. Regardless, the poor fool standing before her gets no further warning before she raises a hand and points. "Do not move, fool." At the first sign that the Stormtrooper means to raise a weapon or call out for aid, she'll feed him a nice, big bolt of electricity. Complete with angry crackling and sparks and flashing.

    Dante's about to go and greet Emily when he's suddenly harassed by soldiers in white armor. He looks at the picture, and glances over at the scene with the Mandalorian and the blonde woman who's accosting him. "Never seen 'im in my life." He lies through his teeth, before he decides to fire the first shot, so to speak.

    He headbutts one of the Stormtroopers, and draws one of his pistols, and Ivory barks loudly as .45 caliber rounds punch through Stormtrooper armor with demon energy enhanced firepower. Whether or not Stromtrooper armor can stop normal projectile weapons is irrelevant, when dealing with magic guns.

  The woman in question is silent for a long moment. She stares at the bounty hunter impassively, as though she were baffled by the possibility that he wasn't after her. Juno blinks several times, rapidly. "Oh." She seems to deflate, but only a little. "Really?" Wow, that woman sure wasn't expecting that.

  Before she can push the issue, a transport ship arrives. It parks. It spits out a cargo of men in familiar white plastoid armour with their distinct helmets, and familiar lockstep marching.

  Her brows furrow. She risks a quick look at the Mandalorian and the Child, before her eyes flit back to the approaching Stormtroopers. The designs are a little different than what she's used to, but they're unmistakably Stormtroopers.

  Even at a distance, the Mandalorian might hear the distinct sound of Juno's teeth suddenly grinding together. It sounds like it must be painful. There's a vein standing out on the woman's neck. Heart rate and blood pressure soar.

  But she doesn't move.

  "Not friends of yours?" she ventures to the Mandalorian, tense. "I don't much care for these Imperials, either. If they're after you, I'll help in any way I can." Juno flicks a glance back at the approaching Stormtroopers. Is she sweating? "Deal?" Her voice is terse; impatient for an answer so she can spring into action one way or another, maybe. Hopefully, she's not misreading the Mandalorian's position in this little Imperial invasion.

  And hopefully they don't recognise her.

    Emily turns as the stormtroopers arrive.

    The gears are visibly turning in hear head. In fact, after a few seconds, her head opens up like a Terry Gilliam animation to reveal turning gears. Then her head closes back up again. "Fuckin' stormtroopers," she says. "Wow, it's been years."

    She turns to face the mothers. "Okay, ladies, time to beat feet!" she announces. "-- Uhhhh, not you, Blackout, you're fine." (She still only knows Juno by that name.)

    ... She rolls her eyes at Li-Ming's ghost and Dante's ... initiative. "Whoopsie!" she says cheerfully. "Looks like we're about to find out if the last stormtroopers I locked horns with got any word out about their attackers. Releasing Capacitor Seal 3!"

    Dubstep begins playing from ... no discernible source, but it's definitely Emily. Never Surrender by Combichrist, in point of fact. Three distinct auras appear around her: one silver, one gold, and one pearlescent; the silver one shatters, and the other two fade. In a swirl of what appears to be silvery nanomachines, she transforms into a silhouette as black as her hair with glowing purple eyes, just like the mission she went to in Juno's world, except now she's wearing a pair of chrome cat-eared headphones with speakers in the ears, now obviously the source of the music. A silvery sword appears on her back, and there's a couple of chrome blasters in her hands ... In fact, more than a quick glance will reveal that they're just made out of solid chrome, and don't appear to be functional.

    Without any concern, she starts striding forward towards the approaching stormtroopers.

    Duncan is a bit startled when someone calls to him, and he looks in that direction. He does have his helmet on as well, so it's probably a bit hard to see his eyes. The white-armored solider displays the hologram of the armor, and Duncan blinks (unseen behind his helmet).

    He tilts his head at the little hologram displayer, and notes, "That's quite the interesting little toy you've got there! Is it magical or technological?""

    He is completely ignoring what he's been asked, in favor of examining the hologram displayer with complete rapt fascination... that is (almost) completely feigned. He's actually purposely talking loud so the person in that armor that he'd glimpsed in the park would have some warning, and maybe some time to get away.

    Well, things look like they might be starting to heat up now, with actual violence starting. And that's when Duncan flips open the case he's carrying and out comes the sword. Though he too waits, since the armored soldier questioning him probably wants to go see to his buddies.

    Besides that, it's reasonable that Duncan could be pulling that sword for self-defense, given the solid waste seems to be impacting with the ventilation systems at about that point.

    It all starts when Piera takes out a stormtrooper, low-profile style. The squad almost doesn't notice it at all, if not for the fact that stormtrooper helmets record and broadcast everything. Even the soft sigh of a dying trooper as he collapses to knees, and then falls prone, no longer moving.
    "What the HELL." One of the other troopers snarls, but by the time they turn around... The Assassin is gone. She can probably easily get another in the confusion if she tries hard enough.
    The troopers accosting Li-Ming are beset upon by Zoltun Kulle, cackling and cruelly pointing out the Mandalorian's presence.
    "-What." The stormtrooper says, baffled, weapon raised, and-- summarily electrified in the same instant, causing the others to raise their weapons. "Blast her!"
    It becomes such chaos when Dante headbutts a trooper hard enough to shatter the man's helmet, Ivory's enchanted bullets tearing clean through the white plastoid armor and dropping another trooper in an instant. "Blast him too!"
    Meanwhile, back at the bench...
    "Really." The bounty hunter replies to Juno. Though it looks like he's about to get some trouble, anyway, with the stormtroopers coming for him. "Sure not friends of mine." He replies, stanting himself up. He eyes Juno for a good, long beat more, and the Child at his side whines at the woman's clear agitation.
    "... Deal." He decides.
    Between Duncan's raised voice and the sudden flare of blaster fire that starts pealing through the park, there's no question these guys are here for him.
    "The hell is that?" A trooper shouts at the sight of Emily, his squad already opening fire on her as she approaches 'blasters' drawn.
    Despite Duncan drawing that blade for self defense, the act is enough to earn a blaster pointed his way. "Drop it or I'll blast you!"
    Now, more stormstroopers are emerging from the transport; there must be about twenty of them, and they're closing in. "Put your blaster down and give us the kid, mando, and we MAY make your death quick and painless. We have you twenty to one!" A trooper blares from the ship's PA system.
    "... I like those odds." The Mandalorian says under his breath as--
    A stormtrooper just suddenly evaporates; a flare of golden light slamming the man in the chest before he screams and begins to disintigrate into a fine chalky pile of dust, while the silver-armored gunslinger casually reloads his blaster rifle.

    Piera tries to keep her profile down while everyone else starts engaging openly. She ducks low and creeps towards one of the perimeter guards .. then breaks into a sprint just before he makes out she's a threat and leaps on him, ramming her blade into the fine mesh suit covering his neck. She then grabs up the blaster rifle, checking it for a moment before firing across as another perimeter guard, strafing his position before doing the same in the opposite direction... she's trying to open exit paths for the civilians to get out by. "This way! Everyone, please evacuate towards me!" she calls, hurling the rifle away before climbing up onto a higher ledge so she can direct the civilians better.

>> SUMMARY[Piera Forta] >> High Profile Assasination on Stormtrooper TK-Y-ME. Steals his blaster and makes a hole in the perimeter then starts directing the non-coms out of the way.

    Dante draws his other pistol, and trades shots with the Stormtroopers as they open fire on him. He contemptuously dodges their shots as he throws his trenchcoat on, and he smashes a Stormie in the face with his guitar case before slinging it back on his back. "WOO! You guys are really, really stupid if you think twenty's enough to take us!" He taunts, blasting a Stormie in the face.

    His evasion is way more fancy than it needs to be, as he flash-steps side to side while dishing out kicks and pistol whips that shatter plastoid. His shots are expertly aimed despite his wacky gunplay, and Dante almost feels bad for these guys.

    Key word being 'almost.'

  The agitation builds from a dull roar to the snarl of an irate rancor. It's probably not comfortable for the Child, and Juno's tension is quite visible. She grinds her teeth again, one hand twitching as it strays toward her pistol. Oh, the temptation. Oh, sweet temptation.

  Deal, the Mandalorian says, and it's like letting slip a Corellian slice hound's collar.

  Juno's hands snap down and come up with a blaster in each. She aims the left-hand blaster at the nearest Stormtrooper, and the right-hand zeroes in on the next-closest Stormtrooper. Practised hands manage to compensate for the recoil, catching the blasters' backward kick deftly. Circling closer to the Mandalorian, Juno puts herself both behind and still within sight of him. It would be irresponsible to trust, but she's warming up to him pretty quick.

  The enemy of my enemy...

  A flicker of recognition crosses those blue eyes as Emily's face changes, but there's no time to comment on it now. Too many Stormtroopers... but hopefully those demographics are rapidly changing. Juno can hear the other battles, even if she's too busy to pay attention to anything but the Imperial mooks closest to her and the Mandalorian.

    That just figures. Duncan is, however, already swinging the blade by the time the Storm Trooper has gotten about halfway through the sentence. Though the Trooper can easily still finish that sentence even so -- the strike's still kinda slow; it's a zweihander, and those things aren't meant for precision strikes to vital areas, the way a rapier is.

    As it turns out though, Duncan's aiming only to destroy the blaster aimed at him anyway, so at the moment there's little danger to the Storm Trooper's actual life. The soldier may be wearing a red shirt, but it'd be underneath that armor, and so Duncan sees no reason to kill him.

    ...Yet. That's subject to change without notice.

    Though at the moment, his concern is the civilians. So whether he's managed to disarm the Storm Trooper or not, he's sprinting for the exit paths that Piera's making for the civilians, looking to make a bigger target of himself than civilians. Also to block stray shots; he's a pretty big guy.

    Li-Ming does manage to look maybe a little apologetic. Another motion of her hand sends enough slashing blades of force into the mob of Troopers to liquefy any of them who are foolhardy enough to try to make a stand. ... She really may be slightly overestimating the aptitude requirements for Imperial rank and file. Presuming nobody moves against her further, she'll leave a trio of intertwined serpents where she'd been standing. They glow like an electrical arc and spit bolts of lightning abouth, though they're weirdly restrained; just picking on the troopers in white as she begins a grim march toward their source.

    She calls out, in general, to anyone who may have her back here. "Does anyone have a use for their vehicle? It seems to be troublingly full of these fools." So far, she believes she's only ever seen two of the people here anyway. Dante, who... She really isn't sure what to make of that man and his loud weapons. Or Emily, the other of the two she remembers. Who seems to be emitting loud... music?

    If she manages to get within a hundred yards of the troop transport or so, she's gonna do bad, bad things to it. 

    Then again, she's gonna do bad things to any of these zealots that try to stop her. Win... win?

    Emily smiles. Then she realizes that this probably isn't visible against her current shadowiness, and gives herself a glowing purple mouth. It's only then that she realizes that this probably makes her look even creepier. Nice!

    She starts making her way towards Dante, her "blasters" firing pink bolts which only slightly resemble actual blaster fire. One shot at a time, though ... and ... she can only fire from one blaster at a time, apparently? They're actually slightly weaker than blaster bolts, too ...

    The vocals kick in. "Self-medicating ... craving punishment ..."

    "Wait, what?" mutters Emily. "No thank you!" In another swirl of silver nanomachines, the cat-ears transform into rabbit-ears, as the music abruptly switches to "Lock and Load", a song she picked up from Dante's world. "Should've listened to the whole thing first," she mutters. Oh, good, Piera and Duncan are already handling civilians.

    Though Li-Ming presents another suggestion! "I like the way you think!" she says, changing her course to head towards the troop transport. "Oh man I know what I wanna do, I haven't done this in a while ..."

    No sooner than the first blaster bolt shot off, the Child reaches forward. Pressing a button on the front of his floating crib, it seals up, snapping shut around him like a protective steel egg.
    And then the park is an inferno.
    Piera takes out another trooper, and puts his blaster to use in dropping a second, before the panicking people start rushing towards the exit as soon as she points it out. The less people in the line of fire, the better, right now; as the stormtroopers do not seem to be checking their shots.
    Two more troopers go down in a flare of blaster fire, Juno's shots are both swift and impeccable; dropping the white-armored grunts handily. But where those two were, there's still a squad more as they open fire on her-- there's a sudden bulk of beskar between Juno and reprisal, the Mandalorian grunting and jerking as lasers rebound harmlessly off his armor.
    The beskar holds up.
    "They would've hit the kid." He mutters.
    Things just aren't going well for these Imperial remnants, as one soldier is handily divested of his weapon by Duncan's blade. "What-- hey!" The stormtrooper yells as he's left holding a cleaved-in-half blaster, too confused and shaken to give chase, blaster fire spanging and ricocheting off magical Dark Knight platemail as another few troopers take the bait and open fire on Duncan instead of the others- or worse, civilians.
    "We can't kill them?! Why can't we kill them?" A trooper shrieks before Dante smashes his helmet in with that guitar case, more dropping from magical devil gun bullets...
    Which leaves Li-Ming and Emily free to approach the transport...
    "--Stay away. Don't come near!" The pilot calls out over the PA.
    "Do whatever you want with it." The Mandalorian says gruffly in reply to the wizard's question.
    Nope. No one here has a use for that thing, that's for certain.

    Once the civilians start to thin out, Piera makes her way along trellises and ledges, moving to get the drop on another distracted Stormtrooper, dropping from overhead to slam him into the ground. Her hidden blade slips into a break in his armour the next moment, then she stands slowly, menacing as her cape flares out like a single wing of an avenging angel. "Drop your weapons, or face your death." she says, eyes hidden by the shadow of her hood, hidden blade still extended, dripping a little blood from the slender tip.

  Juno says nothing, but there's a flicker of satisfaction as both her targets drop. As two more step into place, she--

  The sound of blaster fire caroming off of the beskar armour of a Mandalorian bounty hunter is a very distinct sound. Juno's eyes widen; at once she leans over, reaching around on one side to fire at the fresh Stormtrooper arrivals. She'll stay behind him and use him as walking cover as long as he'll let her; attempting to pick off the Stormtroopers actively aiming at them.

  "They don't like you very much, do they?" Juno observes, conversationally. Her light, airy tone is at odds with the tension of the situation. The blasters bark and recoil in her hands; her eyes search the smoky shadows for more targets. She has questions, but they're gonna have to wait until the Imperial presence is forcibly removed.

    Dante rushes toward the last Stormie near him, and he twists around, pivoting forward as he delivers a back kick right between the legs.

    A bell rings, and the Stormtrooper's codpiece shatters as he's knocked back several feet before landing limply. With that, the son of Sparda drops the remainder of his opponents with his guns, pinpoint accurate shots hitting their blaster rifles. Honestly, it takes a moment for him to realize he's run out of goons to kill.

    "Seriously? Man, you guys really suck. Starting to think the silver guy didn't need us."

    Good. If they're hitting him, there's less chance of civilians getting hit. He's pretty good at taking damage, but these shots still sting! He is, however, holding off on actually attacking, until the civilians are well and truly out of the way.

    Once they are however, Duncan's blade suddenly comes alive with black-red energy, and he swings it towards the first remaining Storm Trooper he can see, sending out a blast of his own -- of that same black-red energy.

    Emily grins creepily towards the cockpit of the troop transport. "Releasing capacitor seal 2!" she all but answers the PA. The gold and pearlescent auras reappear, the first shattering and the second fading, and the shadows around her seem to grow and deepen as she takes on a more fluid shape, but still with the rabbit-eared headphones ...

    (Pay no attention to the shadows' grainy appearance which could hypothetically indicate that they're made out of nanomachines. They totally aren't, they're genuine Creepy Shadowy Shit.<tm>)

    And then the silver sword floats off her back, points straight up with the edge of the blade facing the transport, and then transforms into ... a very big sword indeed. It's easily big enough that it could slice the transport in half, if Emily were inclined to do so.

    She doesn't bother swinging it, though. It just tilts ponderously forward, letting gravity do the work.

    It's a rather dramatic crashing sound.

    The sword then vanishes back into nanomachines, which swirl back into Emily's shadowy form as she dramatically turns away and crosses her arms, realizes once again that this is probably invisible against the blackness, and shifts back into her lavender-skinned demon form, so that whatever Li-Ming is about to do will be an awesome backdrop for her posing. Or an explosion, one of the two.

    (... She has eyes on the back of her head, the purple glow faintly visible through her Vantablack hair. She doesn't want to miss this.)

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> SFX: SWORD.

    Li-Ming upraises her chin as Emily falls in with her. "Oh? I suppose you have something in mind? Good. Then let us be done with this." She leaves her coiled trio of hydra heads behind, crackling angrily and hopefully denying the Troopers a spot of land. Hopefully, despite their intimidating appearance, the bystanders will realize they'll not be threatened by the conjuration and can use it as cover to make their escape! While it lasts, at least.

    The wizard remains vigilant, preparing a spell or two for defense in case there's a hail of blaster fire that must be answered before the threat is finally ended.

    As Emily commences her attack, however, it's clear that her caution is almost laughable. That gigantic blade cleaves forth with such a racket that even she's caught up with a case of appreciative grinning. "Well done!" With a thought to the wider city's wellbeing, rather than cast hellfire or something else down upon the ship she moves to simply clean up after Emily's fun. Her hands trace arcane gestures she was once forbidden from knowning and space seems to swell within the transport... then collapse.

    The effect sustains for several seconds as a mote of seeming nothingless claws at the very air and the hull of the ill-fated craft. She turns away, standing just a few steps from Emily. "Those without eye protection may wish to look away." Once her black hole conjuration ends, the fledgeling singularity evaporates with a thump of displaced atmosphere and a momentary flash of bright light.

    "Mmm. Is that all of them, then?"

    "Not at all." Is the Mandalorian's reply to Juno as more blaster fire spangs and ricochets off his armor, the silver plating not even so much as scuffing from the hail or fire rebounding off his body while Juno guns down more troopers.
    Dante ensures that particulart stormtrooper's next generation will be feeling the pain of the blow, while Duncan continues to act as a mobile shield for the last straggling civvies to make their escape, the dark energy wave cleaving down another trooper.
    And then. Emily cleaves the trasport-- what's left of the exploding ship suddenly sucked away into nothingness, with nothing left of it thanks to Li-Ming.
    Which leaves one of the last stormtroopers pinned under Piera, quickly raising his hands in surrender. He's done it seems-- save for one final guy giving his all in making a final bull rush for the floating cradle.
    That stormtrooper goes down screaming in a burning conflagration as the Mandalorian reaches out with one hand, a thick plume of fire erupting from his gauntlet as he burns the last trooper down to the ground.
    "... I think that's all of them."

    Didn't finish the guy she landed on, it seems. She kicks away his weapon, then yanks off his helmet, bringing her blade down to his throat. "Why are you here? Speak quickly or taste my blade." she snarls softly, grasping his armour's body-plate and draging him up into an uncomfortable position, knee pressed into his back.

    Emily flips her hair at the exact moment the flash of light happens. "My creators would be horrified if they could see me now," she cheerfully announces to all and sundry. She turns to Li-Ming. "I gotta say, though, that performance was snazzy."

    She smirks towards Piera. "Oh, now you're showing mercy to the mooks, huh?" she says wheedlingly. She shrugs, and turns to the Mandalorian. "Okay, but seriously, why are they after your kid?" She gestures to the egg containing the baby alien.

    Dante stows his guns and kicks a lost helmet like a soccerball, sending it skyward. "Probably 'cause he's got some kind of super blood." He guesses as he goes to approach Mando, Emily, and company. "Or he's got psychic powers? I dunno, but it seems related to the kid."

    He very gently tappytaps on the egg to coax the little guy out. "You're safe, little guy." He says as gently as he can.

    Duncan's paying attention to the rest of the now-battlefield, and so when Li-Ming warns about a flash of light, he raises his sword ot block the general area of the transport from his vision. That should let him avoid the worst of the flash of light and also be able to keep an eye out for more trouble.

    Though with things dealt with for the most part, Duncan eases from 'ready to bash things' posture. First thing, make sure there's no injured, civilian or fighter. Everyone seems fine to him at first glance, so he heads to where the Mandalorian and the steel egg-thing are.

    Questions are being asked, so he'll keep silent for now, taking the opportunity to remove his helmet -- he's noticed that people seem to be more at ease with him when they can see a normal person's face underneath all the spiky, pointy armor.

    Enough of a flash to feel warm, even from a far! A momentary second sun, then a brief halo, then nothing. All data lost. Oops!

    Li-Ming tosses her hair and looks askance at Emily. How odd, she almost said something similar. "Snazzy? Hm. Dazzling, perhaps?" Easy to be lighthearted, especially with seemingly few if any friendly casualties. 

    Anyway, yes, the why's. Piera gets a nod, "Bring him. Perhaps he can be of use to that man." Or perhaps... Her grim look at the unmasked trooper leaves a very clear 'or else' in the air. Not that she needs to be threatening. Poor fool's surrounded by people who would lose absolutely no sleep from one more body on the pile.

    Duncan gets a nod, then Dante is met with a thin frown. Oh, is this about to get tense again, "Perhaps you shouldn't-"

  The blond woman leans around the bounty hunter's torso. There is a flicker of icy satisfaction with every felled stormtrooper, but she doesn't sit back on her laurels. She's actively taking potshots at any of them that get close enough for her to be reasonably accurate. Though hardly a deadeye marksman, she's an efficient enough shot.

  Especially when she's protected by a living bulwark of beskar.

  A bulwark of beskar that just set a stormtrooper on fire. Juno quickly slinks out of the Mandalorian's shadow, thumbing the safeties of her blasters and holstering both of them when it's clear the Imperial presence here is done like dinner.

  She turns on her heel to stare at the Mandalorian, folding her arms. Why are they after the kid, indeed? And why does the kid look so very familiar to her? That's going to bother her...

    With the way Piera stuck him with her blade? That trooper is quickly going weak in her grasp. He probably won't last very long without medical attention as he coughs wetly inside his helmet before it's pulled off of him. He's dazed, bloody, and bleeding out as he answers...
    "The... Child."
    Dante tap-tap-tapping on the floating cradle... Results in a blaster pointed his way. Specifically the silver-armored gunslinger's blaster.
    Papa Wolf is very protective, it seems. But eventually, the floating shell hisses and pops open again, the green-skinned little toddler within peeking out. Mando lowers his weapon slowly.
    "Hey. You okay, kid?" He asks in a tone that might be surprisingly gentle, for a man who heartlessly disintegrated a stormtrooper not too long ago.
    As for the questions though, he looks up.
    "I don't know why." He replies. "What I do know is that I can't let the imps have him."

    Piera drags the wounded trooper up, stronger than she looks. "He needs medical attention, now. I missed my intended target, but he is bleeding heavily. If you want to question him further, heal him now or you will be interrogating a corpse." the Assassin retracts her blade, and looks to Emily. "Mercy would be finishing him off now instead of offering him up for interrogation." she needles back, before prying off the trooper's body plates so someone can maybe stop him bleeding out.

    A stab in the mid-back, just below the ribs. It's lucky it missed kidneys, stomach and other vital internals, likely just tearing into the abdominal muscles.

  The general blinks down at the pod as it hisses open again, and out peeks the green, long-eared toddler. Juno frowns, folding her arms, rubbing at her jaw as she tries to think. Where has she seen a species like that before? A few things come to mind, but none of them are quite right, not really.

  And why would the Imperials want him?

  Leaning a little closer, Juno eyes the toddler, before tilting her head the other way and hooding her eyes. It's important, she suspects, but it's something she'll have to figure out later, on her own time.

  She studies the Child for a moment, a thoughtful frown smoothing her features. An interesting little tyke, but a mystery for later. "Excellent," she comments, crisply. "I approve of anything that puts Imperial noses out of joint." She looks up at him, unable to discern anything in the shadows of his helmet, but looking anyway. She flicks a glance at the Child, as though confused, before looking back to the Mandalorian, seemingly coming to a decision. "I'm called Blackout. That's not my name, but my name isn't important right now." A hand is offered to both bounty hunter and green toddler, should either take it. See? Olive branch. Anybody that dislikes the Empire as much as she does is okay by her book.

    At Li-Ming's comment, Emily snaps her fingers. "'Dazzling'!" she says. "Darn it, I wish I'd thought of that first." She looks curiously between her and Dante as the latter knocks on the baby's egg-crib. "Hmm ...?" She seems genuinely unaware of any potential cause of danger ...

    Until the Mandalorian has a gun drawn, at which point she conjures up the sword again -- though it's only slightly oversized. "Settle down there, son," she says mildly. "He's just checking on 'im, y'knowwhatI'msaying?"

    Still, the answer seems to have her more-or-less satisfied. She nods, dematerializes her sword again, and turns so that she can go back to exchanging barbs with Piera. "You and I have very different standards for what constitutes 'mercy'," she says cheerfully. Although, with her attitude, it seems she doesn't have any actual objections. "Okay, okay. You clearly know better than I do, Assassin. My creators still wouldn't know whether the Brotherhood or the Order is worse." Beat. "Or, well, I know the Order is worse, but ... I mean ..." She gestures vaguely. "You know what I mean."

    Li-Ming steals a look for herself at the little creature as the egg-pram-thing opens up again. She's mindful to keep a respectable distance, of course. "Mmm. They seem quite ready to risk everything to accomplish their mission." Could be blood, as Dante suspects! Her look darkens for a moment. Cults, zealots and the horrors they subject innocents to are all-too-familiar to her now.

    The look is washed away as she lifts her gaze to Emily. Well, we can't win at choice of words every time. "Nevertheless, your blow was well struck. That vessel may well have been armed."

    She blows out a sigh and removes a vial of red liquid from her robes, holding it out for the likely doomed trooper to take or reject as he sees fit. She says nothing; she has no plans for the man seeing as he's no longer a threat and could still be of some use.

    Dante is about to try and knock on the egg again before he has a blaster pistol to his head. He's not too sure if he wants to test Mando's weapon, and he very slowly withdraws his hand. "Oooookay." He says, hands up in the air as he backs away a little bit.

    "Well, count me in. Something this cute can't go into enemy hands, they'd probably cut him up for science or something messed up like that."

    "Doc... Doctor Pershing..." The stormtrooper says as he's hauled bodily by the capable Assassin. "Some. Kind of experiment." Is all he says before there's a flare of bright red and sparks fly from that white armor of his and he collapses, dead.
    The Mandalorian's blaster smokes quietly as he slowly holsters it.
    "That good enough reason for you?" He asks the collective. "Whatever the Empire wants with this kid... He's too important to fall back into their hands."
    He doesn't give much of an introduction, himself as he clasps Juno's offered hand.
    "I'd better go. Before the local authorities show up with questions."

    Piera doesn't even flinch as the trooper is shot out of her hand. She just shakes the hand that was wrenched by the impact and sudden dead-weight, before adjusting her hood. "Good enough for me. I will have my Brothers keep an ear to the ground in case something comes up." She does pull a small sheaf of paper and a surprisingly modern looking pen from a pouch and writes in quick, flowing script, before returning the items to her pouch.

    The Assassin then looks back at Emily, says nothing and turns to leave without a further word to anyone, her arm flicking out to pull her cape over it as she moves.

    Duncan listens to all of this. Some empire wants a small child and they're willing to pull out THIS kind of force to get possession of said child? And the word 'experiment' pretty well clinches it. There is a bit of a wince at the death of the Trooper, but, well. It's probably also preferrable to whatever his 'empire' would have in store for him if they found out he squealed.

    Though that done, he nods to the Mandalorian. "I don't know if I can offer much in the way of help, but if you do need help and I can provide it, I will," he offers.

  It all stinks of Imperial involvement, but that isn't very surprising. Juno quirks a brow as the Mandalorian silences the final stormtrooper, rather decisively, and then studies both of them for a moment. Instead she clasps the offered hand, affably.

  "I'll watch your six on your way out." Juno draws one of the blasters, turning to watch the way the stormtroopers had come from. She twists to offer over her shoulder: "May the Force be with you!" Maybe they'll catch up again some time.

    Emily shrugs. "A sword that size isn't about 'striking well'," she answers Li-Ming cheerfully. "It's about bigness."

    She shrugs, turning back to the Mandalorian. She nods to Dante and Duncan. "I'll go along with Dante's decision, I guess," she says, in what may or may not be a surprising moment of self-awareness. "No problems here!" She files away the information for future reference; she doesn't really have anything she can do with it. She simply gives Piera a wave on her way out.

    Summary execution? Li-Ming returns the vial to it's place. It was this man's right to mete the trooper's punishment more than anyone's, she feels, so that's that. She makes no further offers of aid, simply resolves silently to do Awful Things should she uncover an enclave of these people. What could possibly go wrong?

    "Bigness? Unfortunate then that the only ones left behind to be impressed are allies!" A jest, and grim at that. Yikes.

    "Be safe, Warrior." She lifts a hand as a parting gesture to The Mandalorian, offers a nod to Juno and then. "We should follow their example and be away from here." Her eyes sweep across Duncan, Piera's departing form. "I can offer transport though some find it unpleasant." Town Portal is not for everyone.