World Tree MUSH

    Mid Afternoon, Rome, Italy, 1503. People mill about their daily lives on the streets below, giving a wide berth to a procession of well dressed figures on horseback, trotting through the streets.

    At the head are two armoured men with full helmets, behind these are two lightly armoured men with simple helmets, and behind those, are two men in noble garb, one with a large feather in a peaked cap, the other wearing a rather modest seeming beret with a golden tassel. Behind these two the pattern in front mirrors, with two lightly armoured men, trailed by two in full armour.

    Above this scene, a pair of Assassins perch on a rooftop, waiting for their allies to arrive. The procession below will be going on for some time, so there's plenty of opportunity to intercept them before they return to the heavily guarded and patrolled Vatican at the center of the city.

Also above the scene, entirely unrelated to the assassins and their allies, flies a strange entity. Four feet long, humanoid head, eight limbs. Four of which insect-like legs, two insect-like arms which end in blades, and two humanoid arms that end in hands. The entire creature is obviously mechanical. One of the hands is holding a tourist's guide to renaissance Italy, written by famous explorer Marcus Polus from another world.

    Having landed The Razor Crest and left The Child in the care of one Juno Eclipse and her plucky dreoid companion, Mando is here.
    The beskar-clad bounty hunter situates himself on the roof with the assassins and detaches the magnifying scope from his disruptor rifle to peer through it like a telescope.
    "What have we got?" He asks, down to business.
    The man hates Templars. He hates them almost as much as he hates Imperials.

    Talia emerges from the shadows, cloak covering her as she nears Mando and Piera. She kneels down, and produces electrobinoculars to inspect the situation, wanting to feel this out before they get to work.

    She eyes Mandalorian with concern, she can SENSE the sheer hatred he has...and there's clearly reason for that. It's worrying to Talia though, hate can be a double-edged sword, and one can easily lose their way with it.

    "Eight guards, two dignitaries of some sort. I don't know if they're noble or of some religious significance yet. Their bodyguards tell me they're important, whatever they are." She says. "Possibly more guards we're not seeing yet."

    Piera doesn't look away as the others arrive. Her eyes are fixed on the procession. Aquila, meanwhile, responds. "Miss Kyras has the right of it... our Brothers have marked at least twelve sentries, and a few hidden guards in the crowd... I can provide tacnet uploads from my sensors to help you locate them." With that, the Shinki opens lines to Mando and Talia, offering a sensor link.

    Piera pipes up then, standing from her crouched perch. "We don't even know if either of them are The Grandmaster... they could be decoys, but even if it is a trap, we must take the bait on the off-chance that it isn't a trap and we can end this threat now." Having spoken, she holds her arms out, and falls forward off the roof, landing below in a haycart.

    Aquila sighs. Turning to Mando, she says, "Take care of the rooftop sentries. They'll be the biggest threat once we get into open combat." to Talia. "Mingle into the crowd, most of them won't take heed of your presence, those that do are likely hidden guards. Take them out as quietly as you can."

    The Shinki then looks skyward to Bryllu, but doesn't contact her. Best leave civilians out of Brotherhood business if possible.

Bryllu doesn't know about the relationship between assassins and haycarts, she just spots someone familiar falling from a tall building and responds immediately. The tourist guide gets shoved into a compartment of her body and she dives, trying to catch Piera. Whether it's fortunate or not, Bryllu was quite high up and a decent distance away, with a body that wasn't built with speed in mind, so there's a lot of room to cover, and she hasn't even made it to the roof level yet by the time Piera falls into the haycart and Bryllu loses sight of the assassin, and she awkwardly comes to a halt, hovering in mid-air.

Now quite obvious to anyone looking up.

    There goes Piera, doing that Assassin thing again; leaping off the roof and into the haycart below.
    Mando blinks once, but no one can tell thanks to his helmet.
    She'll be fine, especially if she can give her shinki partner such a grand miniscule headache like she is. The man in the beskar mask nods to the little helper robot and takes a running leap to the next roof, and the next, and the next.
    The vibroblade in his hand hums quietly as he slows down, moving silently to start taking out the first rooftop sentry he finds.

    Talia blinks as Piera does her thing, but she realizes that haycart was placed there for good reason. In any case, she takes much more modest jumps, bouncing off the walls of the building close until she's back on the ground level. Syncing to Aquila, and she keeps her hood up as she approaches the crowd, doing as Piera does. Talia keeps her eyes trained on the target, slowly moving a hand toward her lightsaber.

  Having been Having left The Child in the care of one plucky PROXY, holodroid extraordinaire, Juno Eclipse... is also here. She's dressed in her usual smuggler's garb with Rebel insignia belt buckle, twin blaster pistols, and customary flat look.

  What have we got? She's just in time to hear Mando's question, spot Bryllu up in the sky -- what is that? -- and note the arrival of Talia Kyrias.

  Much like Mando, Juno hates Templars. She hates them almost as much as she hates Imperials, but not quite so much as that. She doesn't hate anything as much as she hates Imperials. These guys seem to follow the Imperial playbook at least in spirit, though, and so here she is.

  "Social elites, maybe, with decoration like that." Juno is standing just a little away from the others, with a pair of binoculars. They were probably rummaged up from some random storage cabinet aboard the Rogue Shadow. She whistles through her teeth, low and toneless. "I can see those accessories on their hats glittering from here. Or to even afford guards like that; I don't see anyone else riding down there."

  She offers them to Mando, leaning sideways to check the charge on first one blaster, then the other. "How are we going to handle this?"

    Bryllu gets spotted by one of the rooftop sentries. He seems either brainwashed, or just so jaded that the strange robotic insect doesn't faze him. He brings his crossbow up. "Get down, Now. You shouldn't be up here!"

    Fortunately for Bryllu, Mando is nearby, and with the distraction manages to take the guy out without any fuss.

    Talia fades into the crowd and as Aquila mentioned, most of them just flow around her without even batting an eye... until one man with a hooded cloak suddenly turns on the Jedi with a dagger drawn, trying to get the drop on her from behind!

    Juno gets an Aquila perching on her shoulder. "You can help The Mandolorian take out the rooftop sentries." she offers, shifting her 'wings' and folding down the vernier jets as they cycle down. "Or you can help take out the hidden guards in the crowd-- <Look out Miss Kyras> --though another alternative is assisting me with coordinating our allies." The Shinki looks up at Bryllu, and sighs again softly. "I was hoping you wouldn't involve yourself... this is Assassin business and I didn't want to bring you into it without cause."

    Meanwhile, Piera is perfectly fine, rolling out of the haycart... and right into a disguised guard... She gets grabbed, and thrown out into the street, staggering and rolling backwards. This bowls over a merchant, who knocks over someone carrying planks of wood, which smash pots, that release olives that trip up some civilians... that knock one of the mounted guard's horses off balance, causing it to rear up.

    This little Rube-Goldberg sequence leads the rest of the mounted men to give a call and kick their mounts to a canter, calling for the way to be cleared and alerting all the guards and sentries!

    Whoops.

  A tiny weight settles on her shoulder.

  In the time it takes to blink, a blaster is out of its holster and pointed at the Aquila model shinki, before Juno's eyes focus. She withdraws the weapon and eases it back into its holster, eyeing the tiny droid and folding her arms. "I'm afraid I'm not much for fieldwork." After an instant she raises the binoculars again, following the mounted escort's progress down the boulevard. "It might be better if I return to the Rogue Shadow and coordinate from there; I'll have a more comprehensive picture of what's happening."

  Wait, what's the ruckus?

  "Oh..."

  Juno Eclipse heaves a sigh.

  <<This is Blackout to allied units. What in blazes is going on down there?>> It's a legitimate question, but Juno's tone is one of exasperated resignation. They just started and things have already gone pear-shaped. <<Right, well, I'll try to offer guidance from above.>>

  In fact, Juno's already in action, loping stiffly across the rooftops. She gets as far as the other side of the roof she's on... before reaching up to tap the comm unit at her ear. A few seconds later, there's a weird blurry shift in the air, the faintest electrical whine, and the sensation of wind roaring.

  Juno lopes up the waiting open ramp of the Rogue Shadow, still cloaked, which makes it look really weird. She's just walking up into nothing and disappearing.

  <<Someone had better take out those fleeing cavalry units before they bring the rest of their friends to the party. Mando, Talia; think one of you can intercept?>>

    Talia senses the hooded man before the dagger is close to her. She remains motionless to lull him into a sense of ease, like this will be an easy kill.

    He's disappointed, as a flash of green from the Jedi's lightsaber lights up the night. She severs his metal dagger in half, before deactivating her weapon and striking him on the head with the hilt. "Take a nap."

    <<Knight here, I think we've been made. Already had someone jump me.>> She says into comms.

Bryllu seems momentarily confused by the chaos, but Aquila's comments gets her focus, and she responds with a narrow communication beam, < Didn't realize you were doing something, sorry. I thought Piera Forte slipped and wanted to help. > She explains herself, but she did notice the sentry aiming at her, < Guess I'm involved now. > She flies to chase the guys on horses, trying to knock them down from their mounts.

    A hand over the mouth, and that vibroblade is inserted into the rooftop guard's back. Mando holds the man up for a moment before gingerly lowering him down and...
    And then things go pear shaped.
    <<Blackout.>> He calls to Juno over comms, <<I'll handle the roof guys, just call them out to me as you see them.>> He says, sheathing his vibroblade and unslinging his Amban phase-pulse rifle from his back, re-attaching the weapon's sniper scope in the process.
    Snapping open the breech he loads in a power cell and locks it shut again. If the guards are already alerted then there's no need to really hold back as he takes aim. In the next instant another rooftop guard is vaporized; reduced to a pile of ash in a brief flash of golden light.
    <<If Kyras can't deal with the cavalry I'll shift aim, just keep me posted.>>
    A pause.
    <<Or the droid can handle it.>> Muttered as Bryllu is on the job.

    Piera gets back to her feet, thumbing a device in her ear. <"Stiletto... I was careless and one of the guards found me."> she reports, moving to climb back to rooftop level and start running after the mounted men. <"Try to spare the horses."> she adds.

    Bryllu darts off in flight after the fleeing men. Easily able to catch up, since they're being slowed down by panicking civilians... and a few of thier hidden entourage. She can easily grab one or two of the men from their horses, before the others draw weapons to fend her off, the man with the golden hat has a blade with intricate lines of golden 'circuitry' laced through it, giving it a mild vibroblade-like quality.

    Mando's target doesn't even get to scream before he's PHOOMP'd into ash... a crossbow bolt skims off the beskar from another sentry, who then draws a long sword and charges in, having seen his ranged weapon be so ineffective.

    Juno has a companion aboard the Rogue Shadow. The Raptias hops off her shoulder, onto the console and opens holographic windows to show the various 'field operatives' as they move. <"Caramella to all points, you have about 5 minutes before they reach the bridge to the Vatican... I am plotting their possible route... priority target is the man with the golden hat... he must die before he reaches the Vatican.">

    Talia disarms her mark, thankfully for him not in the literal way. He gets beaned by the deactivated lightsaber and topples over, though the Jedi has a very large open area around her from the sudden flash of the energy blade. Aquila speaks to her directly, <"Piera got caught off guard and alerted the target... can you intercept, sending you the interrupt point. Priority target is the man with the golden hat.">

    Sometimes killing a man isn't the necessary call, and sometimes all it takes is a brief flash of the lightsaber to get everyone to back off. Talia wastes no time as she bounds over a group of the crowd, landing gracefully as she thumbs her commlink earpiece. <Copy that, Carmella. I'm in pursuit.> Golden hat, got it.

    She uses her superior agility and speed to mantle over obstacles.

    Talia winces in her gut at the order. She is no assassin by nature. Still, she's going to have to catch the man first before they decide what they'll do with him, and he's headed for the bridge. She makes her way towards there to intercept.

  Oh. Juno acquires a co-pilot. She doesn't look incredibly pleased about that, but maybe the shinki will prove useful after all. Her eyes are already glued on the console, flicking through data, and eyeballing the camera display. Although the Rogue Shadow hovers over the operational area, it's not visible. Someone might hear it, or maybe smell the burnt ozone smell of the sublight drives, but there's nothing to see.

  <<Blackout to Mando. There's a guard two roofs north of your current position. He has a crossbow. You may want to do something about him before he scratches the nice layer of paint on the beskar.>> The last is given dryly. She knows the quarrel won't do squat to the beskar armour or its paint. <<Blackout to Mando. Looks like Talia is in pursuit.>>

  <<Blackout to Bryllu. Can you get any closer to them? You may be able to spook their horses, and that could buy us a bit of time.>> Juno reaches forward, fingers dancing over the controls, tapping through commands and flipping through sensors.

Bryllu is not a trained combatant. The moment the templars start fighting back this becomes clear really quickly. She kind of tries dancing just out of their reach while staying close enough to be a threat, snapping at them with her mantis-like blade arms. She receives Juno's message and responds with another tight beam communication. < Acknowledged, will give it a shot. > She then dives low and tries to get beneath the legs of one of the horses, while playing back a recording of a howling wolf pack.

    With his first target reduced to ash, Mando casually snap open the breech of his phase-pulse rifle and ejects the spent energy cartridge. He's mid-loading when the crossbow bolt spangs harmlessly off his armor, the beskar not even so much as showing a scuff for the man's efforts before coming in to melee range with that longsword.
    It would be awkward at this point to try and use a sniper weapon at close range, so he doesn't take aim. Instead he lifts his left gauntlet; a jet spray of fuel igniting as it launches from his gauntlet mounted flamethrower to set his next attacker ablaze before he can finish crossing the distance.
    With that handled he shifts his aim as per Juno's instructions; two roofs north, and vaporizes another guy.

    Mando teaches that guard how the flammenwerfer werfs flammen. The man screams, flailing as he's engulfed by the flames, before leaping off the roof and landing in the middle of the street... this causes even more panic from the civilians. Mando also takes out another sentry, causing his buddy one roof further to throw his crossbow away and head for a ladder to climb down from the roof.

    Bryllu manages to spook the horses, the one being ridden by the target rearing up and then bucking to shed its rider, sending the man tumbling heavily to the ground before the horse bolts in a blind panic. The rest of the horses also try to shed their riders, but these men are much better in the saddle and keep their seats, though they're not a threat to the Post-Human while maintaining their balance on very skittish horses.

    Talia's acrobatics get her clear of the crowd, it's a simple matter of mantling a few stalls, avoiding a few groups of people who are gathering for mutual protection, and coming on the stalled escape convoy.

    Piera runs across the rooftops, leaping from one to another, before leaping right off of one roof onto one of the armoured guards. Her blade sinks through the gap between the breastplate and helm, sending the man, and the assassin crashing to the ground and the horse bolting away now its rider isn't controlling it.

    Aquila glances at Juno. "Don't worry, I'm not accessing your systems, and I'll leave as soon as we're done." she assures before returning to her holopanels. The Shinki's visor and helmet are gone, showing the deep scar running from her left brow to right cheek, bisecting her nose bridge and barely missing both eyes. The little robot's face is a grim mask of determination, her magenta eyes flicking from screen to screen as she gives updates as she gets them.

  <<Damn,>> Juno mutters over the line, sounding genuinely unsettled as Mando incinerates his target. <<I forgot how horrifying those things are. I've never questioned why those bloody things have the legal status that they do.>> She flicks through the displays, narrowing her eyes as another Imperial is set ablaze. <<Blackout to Mando. You're nothing if not creative.>>

  "You'd better not access my ship's systems, if you know what's good for you," Juno growls. She's distracted watching the others, though, and doesn't look over at the Rapitas. "They have protections. Aggressive ones. You won't like it."

  She's bluffing, right?

  ...Right...?

  "Looks like you've seen a few things," the older woman comments, gruffly. Yep, she spotted that scar. "Why don't you just replace the damaged component?"

    Jumping and running is something Talia can do all night, the target likely doesn't have that luxury. She rushes towards the convoy, keeping to the higher rooftops in order to have as little interrupting her as possible, besides guards posted up there and anybody throwing rocks and loosing arrows at her. Those can be evaded, arrows and rocks are such slow moving projectiles...

    Bryllu makes Talia's job a lot easier, as the target is shucked from his saddle. This world is so oddly primitive, there's not much in the way of transports that isn't either a wooden vessel or horse related. She reaches out to grip the target with the Force, dragging him over.

    She's about to draw her lightsaber when she...hesitates.

    "I shouldn't." She murmurs, thumb pressing dangerously close to the activator on her lightsaber. It'd be so easy too. Piera did say to kill him...

    She hesitates a bit too long, unfortunately.

Bryllu notices Talia's hesitation, and while the other woman delays, she recalls Piera's instructions. Those mantis-like blades descend upon the Templar's neck from both sides, with as much force as she can muster. "He would not give you the luxury of hesitation." She says softly. "Commit to the course or steer clear entirely."

>> SUMMARY[Bryllu Zibhu MLDVII] >> Do or do not, there is no try

    Casually reloading his disruptor rifle one more time, Mando ignores the escaping guard for the moment as he moves to the edge of the roof for a better vantage on what's going on below.
    Talia is hesitating.
    Mando raises his sniper weapon to finish the job.
    Before Bryllu handles it.
    A slow shudder runs up The Mandalorian's spine.
    "... Droids..." He mutters under his breath and off comm as he turns to start heading back to his ship.

    Aquila doesn't look back over. "I got this while avenging my Master." she replies dryly. "I keep it to remind myself that I am no longer the Shinki of a wonderful, peace-loving young woman. I lost the right to be whole when I took that man's life." Any security system on the Rogue Shadow would report absolutely no intrusion from the Shinki. She's keeping her datalines very much to herself.

    Piera is a bit too busy with the guard. She gets up, disarming another guard who's dismounted to give aid to his charge, though the Assassin does note the hesitation from the Jedi, and the sincere lack of hesitation from Bryllu.

    Mando takes aim for the kill shot, but gets a shudder from Bryllu's calculated take-down... the other guards break and panic, the remaining man with the large feather in his cap turning his horse to gallop away... mowing down one of his own men as he crosses the bridge and into the Vatican.

    Aquila closes her holoscreens, stands up and lights her jetpack. "That's that, then.... if you would open the hatch I will leave as promised."

    Piera, meanwhile, moves to the felled man, and starts rumaging through his belongings. "He should have a medallion... The Grandmaster holds a golden medallion, said to give his voice sway over the weak willed..."