636. Taking Out the Trash - Raezyr

Mannix continued moving down hallways and stairwells toward Schyrt and Reed's location in the bowels of the building. The two were supposed to have moved upward to meet him and help escort his load back the evacuation point, but they had come under fire from battle droids and had been pinned down, maintaining the escape route.

He was alone in making his way. Early on he had stripped a backpack from a dead body and shoved the case filled with aurodium into it, freeing up his hands to fight. Back in the planning stages it had been heavily debated as to whether or not they should actually bring the aurodium Sootoo had asked for. In the end, they decided the risk was worth it, just in case things went wrong and they really did end up having to pay off the two-cred crime boss.

Now the trick was making it out with the precious metal. There was enough aurodium to make a person extremely wealthy, and after the treachery Zanz had pulled, making off with the entire hijacked shipment of aurdium, Mannix knew it was a huge show of trust that they let him carry the case. He knew just how suspicious Raezyr and Trychon were of anyone not in what Mannix liked to call their "inner circle."

As far as he knew, that circle consisted of Trychon, Raezyr and Dianna. He was just now beginning to think maybe he was included there as well, and he was determined to prove that the trust wasn't misplaced.

So far he had encountered at least a dozen beings of various race and several two-unit battle droid patrols. Each had fallen under his blade, and he made sure not one was left alive or functioning to tell others which direction he had gone.

"Reed, this is Mannix again," the former Taxl monk said into his comm link. "I'm at intersection one-one-three-eight. Which way do I go now?" he asked. He had a general sense of where he was going, but it was a big building and he knew it was a good idea to double check once in a while.

"Night Rider, this is Redman," came the reply, the henchman still hadn't dropped the whole 'code-name' charade and knowing how loyal they were to Raezyr and Trychon, Mannix doubted they would until given the okay to do so. "Proceed to the east to stairwell seven-four and go two floors down, then head south."

"I copy you, Reed," Mannix replied. He moved quickly and confidently toward the stairwell and began to descend two stairs at a time. When he reached the correct floor, he started to head south as instructed when the hairs on his neck stood up.

He'd seen this hallway before, despite never having been here. It was almost like deja vu. He pressed on, shaking off the feeling and was half-way down the corridor when it hit him. The vision. The one he had just had in the turbo-lift on the way to Sootoo's chambers. He stopped dead still. Something was different, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

At that moment an armored clad figure came around the corner of the next intersection. He was a Mandalorian, or a ex-Mando mercenary. Either way, this wasn't good. The deadly warrior drew his or her blaster pistols from the twin holsters on his hips and Mannix flipped his lightsaber on, the snap-hiss filling the corridor.

"You're not dressed like a Jedi, and you're skulking around the back corridors of a Hutt's stronghold," the Mandalorian said, it's voice distorted by the vocabulator in the helmet. "I can only assume you're a Sith or a Dark Jedi, and most likely an apprentice of some sort, since you're not already on the attack. I sure hope you at least put up a challenge before I kill you, Forceling."

The mercenary dropped to one knee and began firing both his pistols in unison. Mannix blocked the shots as best he could, as he was trained to do, but they came so fast, so accurately, and so widely spaced, that it was all he could do to deflect the shots, let alone redirect one back at his attacker.

The Mando stood up and began walking toward him, stepping from side to side as he did, each step bringing him that much closer, still firing fast and furiously. Mannix was sure the merc expected him to retreat, so he did the opposite and charged in. Suddenly it was the Mandalorian's turn to begin backing up.

Mannix sorely wished Raezyr had taught him how to integrate some other Force powers such as push or pull into his fighting techniques. Something like that might give him the edge right now, but it mattered little to the former monk. He was going to make this the fight of this mercenary's life. He was going to make this damn Mandalorian pay for his cockiness... with his life.

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Raezyr moved as quickly as possible through the corridors. The trail was easy to follow as Mannix had left a path of bodies in his wake, and the big Sith warrior was more than impressed so far.

He hadn't had time to stop and examine each small skirmish, but it appeared that the young monk was handling himself quite well in his first real hand to hand combat, destroying any opposition and leaving no witnesses.

The boy had picked up light saber combat very quickly, learning much on his own while Trychon and Raezyr had been away on Den Var, but had learned a lot since their return. Even in the short time they had had to work on it, the kid had soaked up moves and techniques like a sponge.

Raezyr knew that with the right tutelage, Mannix would become a powerful and formidable Sith warrior, one even he and his brother may have to watch his back for, given the Sith penchant for killing their masters and tutors to take their place of power.

But right now he concentrated on catching up to his apt pupil. The former Monk was doing well, but Raezyr had a sense of foreboding, a sense the boy may quickly come across an opponent he couldn't handle.

If the big Sith caught up to Mannix in time, Raezyr hoped he wouldn't have to worry about it.

635. Taking Out the Trash - Raezyr

Raezyr withdrew the blood red blade from the thick durasteel door and threw forth an open palm. The slab flew backward and into the opposite wall of the safe room with a deep clang. The opening was still outlined in bright orange, popping and hissing as the metal cooled.

"Door's open, brother," said the big man in the dark blue armor. "If you and the boss lady would like to finish conveying our Life Day wishes to her wormness, I'll go check on Mannix."

He didn't wait for an answer, but rather headed out of the room once filled with merry revelers bent on currying favor with a small-time crime boss and now littered with bodies, debris, and droid wreckage.

"Ladies first?" Trychon asked with a grin, pointing toward the opening in the blast door.

"Age before beauty," Dianna retorted, giving the Sith a shove who in turn mock stumbled toward the entrance, then dove through headfirst and into a tuck-roll. She watched as he popped to his feet, lightsaber seeming to emerge from nowhere to deflect a couple of blaster bolts.

She shook her head wondering if that over-confident flamboyance would get him hurt or worse someday. She replaced the power cartridge in her blaster carbine and, holding it close in a tactical crouch, stepped through to face Sootoo the Hutt and whatever else might be waiting inside.

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Mannix disappeared down the hall and around the corner, leaving Master Trychon, Master Raezyr and Captain Kingsdoom alone in that room full of mercs and battle droids. Okay, so the room wasn't so full of mercs any more, the four of them had really cut down on the numbers in the initial lightfight. Then in the heavy smoke that followed it was easy to pick out a target and cut them down with the lightsaber Master Raezyr had tossed to him.

It had been almost like when he was a kid, and the children in his village played a game where one person was blindfolded and the rest only had to stay out of their reach. They would taunt the blindfolded person, jumping in and out of arm reach. Easy enough when you can see and the other person couldn't.

This hadn't been much different. He could feel each target through the Force, and could almost walk right up to them. The tricky part had been turning the light saber on. The glow from the emerald blade could bee seen through the thick white smoke and would instantly draw blasterfire from all over.

Things had gotten easier and harder at the same time as the short battle progressed. They quickly whittled down the number of their opponents, but it was harder to sneak up on them as the smoke dissipated, and as they finally finished off the last of them, and the smoke was nearly gone, the battle droids arrived.

Mannix was jolted back to his present task of making his way to the escape area when two a Rodian and a human came around the corner. The young would-be Sith ignited his blade as he was already performing his first attack, taking the gun hand of the Rodian off at the wrist, then reversing the blade in his grip and driving the weapon to it's hilt into the chest of the human.

He withdrew it as the man's knees began to buckle, then finished off the Rodian as he screamed, writhing in pain on the floor, holding the stump where his hand used to be. He moved on quickly and it dawned on him that maybe he needn't have killed the Rodian.

Mannix shrugged to himself and quickly moved on. He had a long way to go to reach Schyrt and Reed, and one Rodian more or less really didn't matter in the over all scheme of things.

-------

Trychon easily deflected the bolts that Sootoo fired at him, but he didn't advance. The fat, slimy Hutt wasn't alone. She was holding the blaster in one hand, and her other held a chain. At the end of the chain was a blue female Twi'lekki dancer. It was Deera, and she wasn't in very good shape, and the fact the blaster was pointed at her head was the only thing keeping Trychon at bay.

For the briefest instant, the Sith warrior considered attacking anyway, but that plan was gone as Dianna Kingsdoom came through the opening, blaster carbine leveled and ready for action.

"Let the Twi'lek go, Sootoo," Dianna exclaimed, still sighting down the barrel of her weapon. "That poor dancer girl has nothing to do with this."

"Bantha crap," replied the female Hutt in a voice that was somehow resonating, yet not that deep at the same time. "You can cut the charade, Kingsdoom. I know she works for you. She was caught attempting to slice my mainframe and I personally beat the truth out of her."

It dawned on both Trychon and Dianna that the Hutt was speaking basic now, rather than some obscure Huttese dialect, a tactic the Hutts liked to employ to put their adversaries off balance. Apparently she had decided that tactic wasn't of much use when bargaining for your life and your translator was most likely lying dead in the next room.

"I'm surprised you had the ambition to do that. Normally you're too lazy to lift your arms to feed your skinny face," Dianna replied. Sootoo was anything but thin, but she said it anyway, knowing it was a major slap in the face to a Hutt. It had the desired effect.

"What?" Screamed the Hutt, flinging the Twi'lek aside. With more speed than either Dianna or Trychon thought possible, Sootoo dashed across the room, trying to crush the two insolent humans against the wall behind them.

Trychon launched himself into the air over the giant gastropod, landing a grazing blow on the Hutt in mid-air as he avoided the charge. Dianna jerked the trigger and dove to the side, barely avoiding a bone crushing blow from Sootoo's tail. She noted her quick shot was successful, taking the crime-lord in the belly, but had little effect.

For a moment she thought they may be in for a hell of a fight. She rolled to her knees and took aim again, firing her weapon as fast as she could jerk the trigger. In the small room, you couldn't miss a target of that size. The problem was that Hutt's possessed such a thick layer of fat, it was going to take several shots in the same area to get to any vital organs.

But then the Hutt opened her giant maw and screamed. Dianna saw her opportunity. She didn't bother to aim, instead trusting her years of firearms training under the skilled tutelage of the ex-Sith commando Zanz, once almost an uncle before his betrayal, and fired twice from the hip.

Her shots went true and bore a hole through the soft tissue on the roof of Sootoo's mouth and into the Hutt's brain. The crime lord's eyes rolled back into her head her body went limp, flopping to the floor.

Trychon got up from his crouch and deactivated his lightsaber. He walked over and kicked the Hutt several times.

"What are you doing?" Dianna asked. "Sootoo's gone, and so is any chance of us finding out how she knew about the aurodium heist."

"I know," Trychon answered. "I just always wondered what kicking a Hutt would sound like. Figured this was the best chance I might ever get to find out."

"Well?" the pirate queen asked, more surprised she even asked and realizing she didn't really want to know the answer.

"Sort of a squishy 'thwacking' noise," the Sith answered. He kicked the body again. "Strike that. Make it a squishy 'thwocking' noise."

Dianna rolled her eyes at Trychon and helped Deera to her feet. "I can handle myself, Captain," the infiltrator said. "I wasn't as hurt or beat up as I let on, and I promise you, I gave them no vital information."

"We know, Deera," Dianna said.

She tried to take a step on her own but her knees buckled and she fell forward. Trychon stepped forward and caught her. She looked up and their eyes met. "Thank you... for everything."

"No problem," he replied helping her up. She held on to him tightly for support. Maybe a bit tighter than was necessary. Hoo boy... this could either be a lot of fun or a lot of trouble.

634. Taking out the Trash - Trychon

A flying crate propelled through the force slammed into a small group of battle droids at the rear of the skirmish, followed by a concussive explosion that knocked several other targets off their alloyed feet.

"Ooh. Pretty." Trychon mused out loud as he brought his hand back to the hilt of his double-bladed weapon to continue deflecting shots. "I wonder what was in that box?"

"Does it matter?" Dianna asked him as she continued to fire from behind the protection of his weaving blade. She watched as five consecutive bolts disabled three more droids. A glance over her shoulder told her that it would still be several minutes at least before they were able to go after the Hutt herself.

"Hey, Di?" Trychon asked her. "I've got ten so far. How about you?"

"This isn't a competition, Trych." She kneeled and concentrated her fire once more. A moment later, one of the automatons she had fired at lifted inexplicably in the air and hung their long enough for her shot to fly unabated through the air it had previously occupied. Then it took off across the room, bowling into the legs of another droid and disabling them both as their power sources coursed electricity over damaged bodies.

"Hey!" She yelled. "I had that one!"

"I thought you said this wasn't a competition." He turned around and grinned at her, blocking a shot behind his back as he did.

She gave him a nasty look, clearly unnerved by his sudden lack of attention towards the incoming shots. Somehow, he managed to block two more bolts he couldn't have seen as he looked curiously around. While he was still somewhat effective, his reach was reduced and some fire was creeping in around the edges she was sure he could block if he would turn around and concentrate.

"TRYCH!" She yelled, as the fire began to creep towards her.

Then she saw a large metal crate settle down in front of her, already scored multiple times from the firefight.

Trychon jumped on top of the crate and winked. "Take cover. This one hasn't exploded yet, so you should be fine. Oh, and try not to hit me." He crouched until gravity started to pull him backwards off the edge, and he pushed off in an arcing back flip that took him just past the center of the chamber. As he landed gracefully, he swung his lightsaber behind him into a ready pose, bisecting a droid as he did.

Dianna shook her head at his antics as she leaned out to the side of her newly provided cover and fired off shot after shot, beheading and vaporizing the torsos of the droids Trychon was farthest from. The ones still concentrating on her.

Trychon, for his part, was like a Zakanzian Rat Devil in the middle of a den of deadly Fombrian Horned Lizards. He was ducking under swinging assault rifle stocks, twisting in mid-air avoiding stray weapon fire, and flipping over the hapless droid, more to play with them than to protect himself. His blade was a blur as he danced through the storm, leaving glowing metal in its wake.
He could barely be heard counting to himself over the sounds of the battle.

She was considering rolling her eyes when a timed thermal charge rolled to her. She looked to see how fast the indicator was blinking and determine if she should run or throw it back, when she realized that the timer had not been depressed. Stupid droids... she thought to herself as she picked it up and activated it. She fired a few shots at the feet of a cluster of droids without aiming. Predictably, they backed up a step in response, just as she arced the explosive into the now closely huddled group.

She growled as it came to a stop at their feet and was still blinking. The droid nearest to it picked it up to return again. She squinted and eyed the target, exhaling as she squeezed the trigger. Her aim was true, nailing the explosive right in the center and causing it to erupt, destroying eight droids as it did.

There were two lonely droids left in the middle of the room. It was always a source of amusement to Dianna that droids began to appear intimidated under bad odds. In reality, she knew that their 'panicked' glancing back and forth and slow backstep was a result of their tactic chips trying and repeatedly failing to find a solution. Trychon dashed towards one, grabbing it by its head as he vaulted over it and smashing it against the wall, limbs scattering in different directions.

The last one jerked into the air and its arms folded behind its back, rifle still in one hand. It began shaking its head and swinging its legs wildly in an attempt to free itself from the invisible vise that held it. Then it could no longer do that, and the creaking of metal could be heard over distant noises, though no limb gave way. Finally, it moved the only thing left to it in a last ditch attempt to free itself somehow. As the trigger compressed, the rifle fired squarely between its shoulder joints, and its limbs went limp in mock resignation.

633. Taking Out the Trash - Raezyr

Another shadow loomed through the smoke, but somehow she knew not to fire. "Where's Deep Blue?" Raezyr shouted over the din of blaster fire. They were both crouched low behind some debris as firing was now nearly constant. People were firing at anything that moved, being unsure of friend or foe. The only thing their enemies all seemed to be in agreement about was that the the lightsabers were a target.

"I saw her right before you morons fell through the ceiling, but then she was gone," Dianna shouted back. "Deera can take care of herself, though. She may look like a petite Twi'lekki Dancer, but she's as deadly as the rest of us."

"Fine, let's get out of here. She should know the fall back rendezvous point anyway."

"Not so fast, Lover," Dianna stated. "Sootoo is behind this blast door. If we leave here and she's not dead, this assassination attempt will likely be the end of us all. If we don't get Sootoo, we might as well not go home."

"Very well," the Sith replied.

"Striker, this is Sun Ray," he said into his comm. "I need you to find the controls to the safe room door and over ride them."

"I read you, Master, but the safe room is not showing up on the program Master Trident gave us," came the reply. "I believe it is on a separate system. And not to pile on the bad news, but battle droids have been activated all over the building. Redman believes they are being controlled from inside the safe room. We have no access to their control matrix."

At just that moment, dozens of battle droids stormed into the large smoke filled chamber and began open firing, using their sensors to determine targets rather than their photo-receptors.

"Sun Ray, Night Rider and I are cut off. We can't get to you through these battle droids without putting ourselves in a cross fire. I might get through by myself, but not with Rider," Trychon's voice came across the comm.

"Send Night Rider down to Striker and Redman," Raezyr said with a sigh. "He still has the package and we need to get him out of here. Right now, I need you over here."

"Copy." Trychon turned to the kid fighting next to him. He wasn't much of a kid anymore, except in appearance. He'd come a long way from being the excited puppy dog following two strangers from stars. The Sith warrior pushed those thoughts from his mind.

"You heard Raez. Go down that corridor and if you are unsure of where to go, contact Reed or Schyrt for directions, got it?" He said to the boy.

"Yes, Master Trychon," Mannix replied. He ran for the opening, and quickly disappeared around the corner.

Now to get through these droids, he thought to himself, and with a quick deflection of a blaster bolt that came too near, he charged the droids.

The droids responded by concentrating their fire on the incoming attacker, but the black and red blades of Trychon's dual-bladed lightsaber spun and flashed, redirecting the incoming fire into different directions. At the last moment, the Sith launched himself into the air, boosting his jump with the Dark Side. The warrior sailed through the air, spinning and landing in a crouch near Dianna and his brother.

"You beckoned?" he asked with a grin, deflecting the incoming fire.

"Yeah," replied Raezyr. "You two cover me while I open this door."

"I thought it was controlled from the inside," Dianna questioned over her shoulder, clearly a bit confused.

"It is."

"How are you going to slice in and override the system?" Trychon asked, trying to figure the technical aspects in his head.

"An ancient Sith secret," Raezyr replied with a rare grin. Quickly he stabbed the blast door with his lightsaber, the red blade sinking all the way to the hilt. Immediately the thick durasteel began to glow. First deep red, then brighter and brighter as Raezyr slowly twisted the weapon until the metal became molten and began to flow.