+- Omni Archive (https://omni.zulenka.com)
+-- Forum: The Omniverse (https://omni.zulenka.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Coruscant (https://omni.zulenka.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=13)
+--- Thread: Faction Quest: Hand of the Empire [Complete] (/showthread.php?tid=918)
Faction Quest: Hand of the Empire [Complete] - Rave - 02-11-2015
The setting would take getting used to.
But she was being taken care of, and for her that was kind of a big deal. Rave was not the type of person that would let anyone pamper her for any reason but in this case it seemed almost expected. Biggs and Wedge had informed her of a great many things and had even offered to stay with her as kind of her own personal guard. She didn't want them to stay around, but her inner turmoil of hating everything having to do with the human race was at a crossroads at the moment. While she still harbored a deep hatred for the humans that had oppressed her people, the people of this world knew nothing of the sort. Rave had seen such a diversity of cultures and people on Coruscant that it honestly boggled her mind. She wasn't even sure that Biggs or Wedge were human at their genetic core or not.
It was all so very strange.
And yet liberating. Rave still struggled not to unleash whatever power she had whenever she brushed by some human-looking person on the street but reminded herself that she wasn't anywhere near how powerful she was back home. Nor would her actions go unpunished, regardless of her status as a Prime. The whole ordeal of getting settled in was something of a pain to her but Rave did her best to let none of it show. She was moodier than usual, yes, and the cause of that was twofold; she had to work out her own inner struggle in regards to her personal feelings towards humans, and figure out how much and how fast she could obtain this...Omnilium. Apparently that was the key to getting back to her former glory and, as much as she hated to admit it, took precedence over anything she felt towards the more human figures on this verse.
Meditation was never a thing she did regularly but it was something she'd learned to do back home. Her friend, Shin, was a mutant that knew every single martial arts in the known universe. He'd been the one to teach Rave Muay Thai. He'd also taught her that meditation could help her focus, concentrate and, if done right, could 'help one see through the fog to unravel a problem string by string so as to unravel the ball of confusion'.
Or some such thing. Rave hated the way he spoke.
Her place wasn't lavish but she was taken care of. Two weeks had passed since she'd been brought to Coruscant and in that time Rave had learned much about her surroundings. There were other Verses like Coruscant, though some weren't nearly as advanced technologically they still had formidable armies and defenses. She didn't know how that worked but, like most things she'd been informed of, Rave simply took it in stride. Things were different now and if she didn't adapt she would surely die, or worse. And while Rave knew she was rather narrow-minded when it came to a lot of things due to her experience in life, that didn't mean she wasn't open to trying whatever might help her along.
So she sat, cross legged with several candles lit up around her. Biggs had slightly tilted his head at the request for the 'primitive lighting source' as he called it but was more than happy to fulfill such an easy request. The room she was in, usually lit up by the enormous bay windows that offered a breathtaking view of Coruscant, was pitch black as Rave had given the command to her rooms AI to close the shudders and turn off the lights. Only the candles illuminated the place now, and Rave sat, breathing as slowly as she could as she pondered her current situation with nothing to distract her. She began to catalog and compartmentalize everything about her time so far.
It had been a whirlwind few weeks, to be sure. But she was settled now, and things had slowed down. Biggs and Wedge were her...'friends', if Rave could have anything resembling such things. They served her eagerly and were more than happy to stick by her side. She was taken care of in Coruscant and wanted for nothing, not at the moment. Logically she knew that it would only be a matter of time before she was asked to do something in return but, really, she didn't mind. Rave wasn' the type to be afraid of getting her hands dirty and honestly she was surprised that no one had come by yet to 'request her assistance' in some such matter.
'Reflect on what you believe to be your failures,' came Shin's voice. 'And ask yourself if you've learned. You can lie to me, to anyone else about what you've done, Rave...but you cannot lie to yourself.'
“I'm somewhere different now,” Rave muttered, her eyes closed but fluttering slightly. “The rules have changed.”
'The rules have changed, ha...' Reina could have sworn she heard the slight scoff in his voice. 'You are constant. You may believe the rules have changed but you have not. Do you remember telling me what Hell is? Why would you deny yourself this? You have fought for us and we will carry on without you. Tiberius leads us even now. Without you, the 23 Seconds War would have been lost. Without your other half, we would have had no chance.'
“But you died,” Rave clenched her teeth, eyes now clenched shut in anger. “I watched you die!! All of you!!”
'You always did trust your eyes too much,' A beat. 'But your worry is misplaced. Focus your anger on your current situation, as I know that is your greatest asset. And remember, one day you will return to us more powerful than ever before. And on that day, we will truly be free.'
Rave shook for a moment before she slouched over, hands on her knees as she took great shuddering breaths. Sweat poured down her brow and it took a moment for Rave to get her balance. The dizziness passed and the brown skinned woman took in gulps of air before shaking her head slightly and palming her eyes in an effort to feel somewhat normal again. She knew she didn't like meditation for a reason, and the vision of her friend just seemed way too real. Her logical mind knew that it was probably an image pulled up from her own subconscious to help her feel better but a part of her wanted to believe that she was, indeed, talking to a friend from back home.
“Ma'am?” The voice was questioning, concerned. Rave sniffed, her head turning to see Wedge behind her. The lights were on now and while it irritated Rave that they were she knew that they didn't know she was in the middle of her meditation. “I'm sorry to disturb you. I have a...a request her for you. From the Emperor. It's a small task, no doubt, but we would like your help on the matter...”
'What is your hell, Rave?'
A simple nod and a wave of her hand was all he got. Wedge nodded and stepped back outside if Rave's apartment. He liked the dark skinned woman well enough and she wasn't as cocky as other Primes were after hearing just how 'important' they were to the Verse. She was intense though, and Wedge was pretty sure she was an unstable reactor waiting to blow. Still, she was rather nice to look at...
Journal Entry #1 - Rave - 02-11-2015
What is Hell?
Ask a six-year-old that question, and she'll respond with sweet naivete that hell is the place where bad people go when they die, and that it's a very hot place where you can get the ultimate tan, full of fire and lava and even brimstone, whatever that is. She'll tell you about that great ole being called The Devil, who is a very bad man, a very bad one indeed, the king of all bad men, who makes occasional trips to Earth and tries to get people to come on down to hell with him. If you asked her to describe him, she might tell you that he's big and red and has horns and a black goatee and a pointy tail and goat's feet, but you can't see him, because he's invisible, but apparently someone saw him, because that's how he's always shown in pictures and portraits and cartoons. She'll tell you that he has a bunch of little, somehow lesser devils, called demons, that torture the people who are unfortunate enough to live in hell. She'll tell you that they make sure that the torturing goes on for a long, long time, though her six-year-old mind isn't going to have much of an idea of what eternity is yet.
Ask someone a little older, like, say, seventeen, and you might get a variety of answers. For instance, he might respond that hell is the negative side of the afterlife, according to certain religious beliefs. He might say hell is a place full of fire and lava and brimstone, yes, where suffering is ultimate and there is much weeping and ga-nashing of teeth. There are demons there, but now he might say that these demons are really fallen angels that were cast out of heaven along with the Devil. At the age of seventeen, he might give him a name, and call him Satan, among other things. Then, as his attention span begins to wander, he might begin listing references. If you would like more information, he will say, look, listen and read such books as the Bible and Dante's Inferno. Movies like The Exorcist, Children of the Corn Pt. III, What Dreams May Come, and, well gee whiz lady, like a thousand others. Or just go to church and the subject will come up eventually. Ask a West Virginian what hell is, and they'll respond that it's their favorite cuss word. Ask someone who isn't from West Virginia who has lived there over a year what hell is, and they'll tell you that it is the State of West Virginia. Coincidence?! I think not!!
Ask someone over the age of thirty what hell is, and all of a sudden, the answers become real different. Hell (they'll tell you) is right here on Earth. To find a demon, you don't have to look any further than that uptight bitch filing a lawsuit against you because your car was idled too high and bumped her car, or that guy from the IRS notifying you that you're being audited. Hell (they'll say) is getting into bed with the woman of your dreams, only to find that you can't perform. No, hell is the feeling of betrayal you get at finding out that the person you thought was your soulmate has turned their attentions to another. No, hell is poverty, not having enough to eat or a roof over your head, or never being able to stay warm. Hell is feeling cancer eat away at your body and knowing that no matter what you do, it's still gonna getcha in the end. No, hell is being without cable TV when they're showing the new season of The Walking Dead. No, war is hell, and anyone who's been there will tell you a thing or two about that, bay-bee.
Now ask me, The Black Rose, what hell is, and I'll tell you the truth.
Hell is a hard unasked for fucking at the hands of that extraordinarily brutal rapist called life and then reliving it again...and again...and again...and again. Forget all you've heard about the lake of fire and unholy wrath and Satan and all that good shit, that's a bunch of stories made up to scare the wicked into righteousness, I tell you what. But every story has a little truth in it and so, what everybody thinks is hell is based on a little fact. Demons? Yeah, there's demons, but not the little ugly impish things or some fallen angel lashing your backside up with whips n' chains. Is it hot? Only as much as you want it to be, boss. Despair? It becomes your bedfellow. Is there betrayal? Always. But as bad as all that sounds, I think that the one thing that carries Hell's reputation as a piss-poor vacation spot is the denial.
Yeah. Come to think of it, that's about it in a nutshell. Hell is being forever denied.
And Rave will NOT be denied.
Re: Faction Quest: Hand of the Empire - Rave - 02-12-2015
“The mission is simple...on paper.”
The explanation made Rave roll her eyes. She didn't mind the presence of Biggs or Wedge but sometimes the both of them bumbled about their words and actions like some sort of bad sitcom. Still, they were both a bastion of information and seemed surprisingly in the know for common foot soldiers. Or maybe they were more, Rave hadn't bothered to ask. Still, they took her request to be her 'bodyguards' seriously, though Rave wanted them around more for informal purposes than anything resembling the need to protect her, body or otherwise.
“Though, really, this mission is handed out to Primes that show the ability to fight in some manner,” Wedge continued for Biggs, who glanced over to his companion with what Rave could only assume was irritation. They always wore those damn helmets... “The lower tiers have always been trouble for The Empire. We send down squads every now and again to thin the herd of the lawless folk but, lo and behold, they always seem to spring back up.”
“It's a power vacuum.” Biggs took a step towards his friend and bumped his shoulder with his own. “And it's usually a Prime that fills up that gap. Not all of them are bloodthirsty savages, mind you. Just most of them. We've had surveillance down there a few times, and it's often they inspire with messages of hope and other such nonsense. And killing whatever Prime happens to be leading the largest gang never works. Usually gets them all riled up and that never turns out okay. Capturing them, however...”
Rave waved a hand to silence them, nodding thoughtfully as she began to pull together some form of strategy in her mind. They'd brought over the mission report, filled to the brim with information about the Prime she'd be going after. The device that held all this information made Rave raise her eyebrows a bit but after Biggs had explained how to work it she had worked it out easily enough. The device looked like a computer mouse back home. One simply had to set it on a flat surface and wave a hand over it. An image would pop up which Rave assumed was the 'page one' of the documents inside the device, and a simple wave to the left or the right would change the page.
Rave was familiar with going in against overwhelming forces and overcoming them. She was also familiar with just how far a desperate soul would go. It was odd that people in positions of power would so often overlook the power of hope. It was a powerful thing, something that would get someone up in the morning even if they had nothing to get up for. On the other hand, hope was something that Rave was more than adept at crushing...well, she was, back home, when her power wasn't neutered as it was now. So this little shindig would probably require a more delicate hand, which was quite unfortunate. Rave knew better than most that she wasn't a scalpel. She more more akin to a sledgehammer.
More problems to overcome.
“Just us then?” Rave questioned as she began to strap on the Storm Trooper armor they'd acquired for her. It was surprisingly comfortable and form fitting, which Rave liked. They'd told her it had other properties that went along with it, like regulated body temperature and such, though she only wondered if it could stop a bullet. Or...laser blast. Whatever. “Should keep it small. Going down in force would only draw attention and we need to get in close.”
“Close?” Biggs cocked his head slightly. “Why would you wanna do that?”
“'Cause that's how we're doing it,” Rave replied slowly, her head turning towards the man, cocked eyebrow showing her displeasure at being questioned. “Conventional guerrilla tactics won't work here. Brute force won't work here. I have a plan, and it requires more finesse than I'm normally willing to bring to such a situation. It requires...talking.”
It wasn't so much as a sneer that she said that last word but more of a sigh. The dark skinned woman had no problem admitting that Tiberius had a certain way about him when it came to handling his troops. Rave simply wasn't built to handle things the way he was. While she didn't believe herself to be superior to any of her mutant brothers and sisters she also didn't like being questioned when she was in command. There wasn't any room for it, you did what you were told or you died. For Rave it was as simple as that. For Tiberius...well, he spent more time bolstering confidence in individuals to better maximize their will, resolve and...whatever.
Sledgehammer.
“And if that doesn't work?”
Rave shrugged as she looked to Wedge. “Well, you have your guns, correct? I don't see any reports here on this rabble having any sort of effective shields. I hold them down with my powers, you shoot them in the head. The Prime you disable. They want him alive. They didn't mention anything about him not being crippled.”
She finished putting on the armor (with help from her escorts) and looked at the image displayed in mid-air. The information was rather extensive, though with this type of government she wasn't surprised if they had extensive information on even her at the moment. The Empire didn't seem to be the type to simply let someone pass, Prime or not. She didn't mind, not really. How much could they know? She was from another dimension, if her understanding was right, pulled to this one from a being that was beyond comprehension. She sighed as she reviewed the information she was looking at before she waved it closed.
“This Neon guy is a text book hero type,” Rave muttered, sniffing her distaste. “Honestly it shouldn't be too hard to get in close so I can convince him to come with us. If not, you know the plan. Two types of guns, assault rifle and sniper. Can you guys handle that?”
“Yes ma'am,” was the simultaneous reply from both. They even saluted, which Rave found amusing.
“Good.” Rave nodded her approval. “Listen to me and we just might live through this. Stay in radio contact and out of sight. From what you've told me and from what I've read this isn't exactly gonna be a walk in the park.”
“Ma'am?” Rave turned and looked to Wedge, who slightly shuffled his feet while looking to the ground. He turned to Biggs, who nodded. “We, uh...we kinda wanted to hear about your battles back in your dimension...if that's okay with you, of course...”
There was a silence as Rave thought about the request. On one hand she knew that, as loyal as they seemed, Biggs and Wedge were loyal to The Empire and probably wanted as much information about this new Prime that they could report back to their superiors. On the other hand, giving them any such information was actively pointless unless they were going to use that information to gauge her abilities for future use. Which, at that point, any information they gained would be useless as Rave knew she would simply crush them before they had a chance to use any such intelligence against her.
“Very well,” Rave nodded. “On the way I'll tell you how my wife and I won a war in 23 seconds. It was named such after the fact, though some still debate if it was a war at all...”
Re: Faction Quest: Hand of the Empire - Rave - 02-12-2015
After all was said and done, the 23 Seconds War would be rebuffed by military historians and armchair generals alike as being less than a war, but a battle at most and a farce at least. They would point to certain modern definitions of war: a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air and a contest carried on by force of arms, as in a series of battles or campaigns being two of the favorites. To support their beliefs, they would point out that it lasted less than a minute, that there was very little pre-established history between the combatants, the exceedingly low number of casualties, and the fact that no land or territory had been seized, the hallmark of any great war. What they could not know was that if the latter circumstance was the measuring stick, the conflict was the war to end all wars.
The 23 Seconds War took place at 4:00pm EEST exactly on Sunday, June 6th, 2022. At 3:59pm, the 88th Dragoons of the North had surrounded the ruins of Philippi, having arrived the day prior and awaiting orders to move in. They were joined by an air cavalry detachment from the East, whose silent attack choppers hovered against the clear blue sky, actively camouflaged. Other units took part, of course—commo provided by the South, logistics from the West, quartermaster units in the rear—but the 88th Dragoons were by far the most dominant players.
Crouched amidst the hills and woods surrounding the ruins were a full regimental element of personnel. The Dragoons were noted for utilizing both mobile armor and infantry in concert with each other. Their armor of choice for this excursion were the feared R61 Typhoons. Utilizing the latest developments in long-range precision weaponry and mutant gene mining, they boasted a high plate rating that did nothing to deter from their speed—as part of the Roman arsenal, there was no doubt that some mutant cells had been harvested in order to lend the Typhoon its hovering ability. Up against this formidable opponent: two mutants. Only one would ever make their presence known throughout it all. The other, sitting atop one of the several clouds populating the sky that afternoon, would play a crucial role but remain unseen and uncredited.
Having emerged from the ruins, Sensational hovered in the epicenter of the armored perimeter. The tanks were extremely well camouflaged, only one or two were obvious to the naked eye. But she knew they were there. She could hear their fusion engines, growling idly to themselves, like lions in tall grass. She could hear the excited chatter of the men inside them, confirming that they had a visual on her. All around her, she could hear the slow, mechanical creak of their massive 155mm precision rail cannons—at least seventy of them from the sound of it, probably more—rising in concert, acquiring her as their target, making minute compensations for her being airborne. Sensational had a flickering flashback of The Gate and their formidable machinery. The last time she'd witnessed such a display of raw military might had been during the blockade on Southern Cross.
These men didn't know how lucky they were. This wouldn't be anything at all like that. This would be over quickly and painlessly. So long as the woman hiding in the clouds was true to her word. She touched the tiny radio nestled in her ear. 'Any second now.'
'Change of plan,' she heard Rave say. 'You're going to eat a volley.'
Sensational felt her chest collapse somewhere into her stomach region. She found himself looking skyward, as though he could find Rave's hiding spot through the haze of low-level cumulus above them. 'What?'
'We're going to let them get off a shot,' she said. She didn't like the edge of excitement in her accent. 'Don't worry. Just stay there till I tell you to go. And whatever you do...don't flinch.'
Part of Sensational's upbringing involved detailed knowledge of the military vehicles and their weapons systems. Their tanks had been armed with 105mm rifled cannons, the equivalent of sniper rifles with an effective range of four miles. Out on the firing range, she'd witnessed what those cannons could do to a target made of hardened steel. Sensational was not made of hardened steel. Her skin was impenetrable, but concussion affected her like anyone else—well, not quite as severely, perhaps, but that didn't mean eating a missile was her idea of a good time. The Roman tanks were not using 105mm rifled cannons. They were using railguns, with a velocity that outmatched anything she'd seen American military weapons put out. She had no idea what the explosive yield was on a 155mm round, but she was in no hurry to find out by having one hit her in the neck. This, and her woman was telling her not to flinch.
Below, the Typhoon tanks finished their adjustments.
'Just stay still,' Rave reminded her.
They cycled up their weapons.
'I've got you,' Rave reassured her.
They fired.
Sensational never saw the massive projectile hurtled through the air towards her, and she didn't hear them until long after they would have hit. The velocity of the rounds was unlike anything she'd ever witnessed. She didn't think she would have been able to dodge them, even if she'd known they were coming. They didn't make the traditional shearing sound as they cut the sky. They screamed towards her, making an otherworldly sound that she would remember for some time afterward. She could only imagine the psychological impact (ie: pants-crapping terror) such weapons would have had against an enemy military.
But, it was not an enemy military the Romans were up against.
Each soldier had been trained in the takedown of enemy mutant personnel. Their officers were of the highest quality tacticians. Their weapons systems were state of the art. Their aim was dead-on. The rounds should have smashed into Sensational with enough destructive force to level a few city blocks, knocking her out of the sky. Unfortunately, all these factors meant precisely dick against a woman who could control gravity. Especially when they had no idea she was there.
The heavy, explosive-laden rounds bent around Sensational, harmlessly scattering hither and yon into the sky. The opening second of the war passed into history.
'Now,' Sensational's radio hissed.
The railguns had a reloading time of about three seconds. It took about that much time for Sensational to vanish from the spot she'd been hovering in and decimate the first of the Typhoons, plowing through it bodily, destroying its weapons systems and rendering it impotent. At the end of the third second, she was already laying into its neighbor, ripping the railgun from its moorings. The tank's crew lay exposed before her, their astonishment hidden behind their faceless helmets. Yanking them from their stations, they were sent flying over her shoulder. Her fingers tore into the tank's hardened armor as she pressed it overhead, and with a mighty heave, hurled it like a dart into the next Typhoon in the perimeter. It collided with a horrific clang and a screech of armor grinding upon itself. The impact sent both tanks rolling over their sides down the hill in a tangled heap of twisted metal.
By now, five seconds had passed, and the railguns had reloaded. But each and every gunner discovered a curious thing as they tried to line Sensational up in their sights: they couldn't. In fact, their guns seemed to have already decided on their new targets, and no amount of fiddling, mashing, or slamming on the controls changed their minds. Nor did the drivers seem to have any control; the tanks stayed where they were as though gripped by the Earth. But their targeting telemetry remained online, and though unresponsive, was more than willing to let them know of their new targets: each other.
Sensational noticed it, too, when she landed atop the next tank in the line. Its turret, along with all the others, was ambling to the left, facing its neighbor. The tank crews might not have known what was going on, but Sensational knew in an instant.
His fingers flew to his radio. 'Dammit, Rave, no deaths!'
'I'm giving them the chance to bail,' came her terse reply. 'If they're stupid enough to sit there—'
Her words were drowned out by a sudden hail of withering machine-gun fire from above. The attack choppers had flown into position around her—Sensational had scant noticed them until now, in spite of her enhanced hearing—and had opened fire. The bullets from their Vulcan machine guns ricocheted loudly off the armor she stood astride and shredded her jacket into ribbons, but didn't faze her one iota. In fact, it served no other purpose other than alerting her to their presence. They were now seven seconds in.
A leap took her to the first of the choppers. She flew into the path of the whirling rotor keeping it aloft; it shattered against her shoulder and slowed enough for her to separate it from the body in a shower of sparks. It didn't plummet from the sky. She made sure of it. She saw to it that it landed safely on the ground. Then she broke off one of the rotor's blades and hurled it at another chopper like a spear. The makeshift missile neatly pierced its aft section and lodged there. It spiraled out of control. She caught the chassis before it fell, carrying it with her on his way to the next helicopter. The sickle-shaped remnant in her hand sliced the machine in two. Both wreckages, she swiftly deposited into the soil. Eleven seconds.
'They're starting to scatter. I'm gonna start firing in five,' Rave advised him over the radio.
Gaining altitude, she glanced around, taking stock of the battlefield. She saw gray-suited soldiers on the field. Some were taking potshots at her, firing blue beams from hand-held weapons. But the general wave of movement was an ever-widening circle in the direction opposite the ruins. She took aim at a cross-section of the company, preparing to use her sonic blast on them.
'Four.'
Some random rifleman in the midst of them all scored a headshot on her from below. It came from her right. She turned and slammed her hands together in their direction instead. The wave ripped through the air, a rippling distortion, shredding through the field and laying soldier and armor alike at nines.
'Three.'
Another chopper opened fire on her. She flew into the stream of rounds, into the pilot's face, and yanked him through the glass. Swooping low, Sensational dropped the man into the midst of his fellows. The pilot-less chopper hovered in the air listlessly, its cockpit smashed.
'Two.'
As Sensational rose into the air once more, she noticed smoke from the corner of her eye. Turning her attention to it, she saw that it was the wreckage of one of the Typhoons she'd destroyed—the one that she'd sent skittering down the hill. Apparently, one of the dragoons was unable to make it out; his legs were trapped beneath the tank's massive bulk. Two of his fellows were attempting to pull him free, to no avail. His heart skipped a beat when he realized that the next tank in the line up the hill had its turret zeroed on them.
'Wait!' he shouted into his radio.
For an inexplicably chilly moment, Sensational thought that Rave wouldn't wait. No, she didn't think. She knew the other woman wouldn't. In that split-second, she even saw the scenario play out in her mind. She would respond to her plea with 'Nope!' and let the Typhoons' rail guns loose. There would be a hellish chain of massive explosions, piled on top of each other, and she'd watch helplessly as those three men down there vanished in a fireball. So certain was she that this was how things would play out, that Rave's response actually startled her.
'What is it?' She sounded irritated, but she held off.
'There's men down there. One of them is trapped.'
Her sigh was one of exasperation. 'Well then, hurry up.'
By that time, she'd already landed at the side of the soldiers. Predictably, they drew weapons on her, screaming at her in thick accents she barely understood. Sensational chose not to waste time by acknowledging them. She strode up to the man trapped under the tank. His helmet had been shattered; Sensational could see that his face was bloodied. Their eyes met. Oddly, there was no fear in the man's eyes. More acceptance, than anything.
Sensational lifted the tank up gingerly with her foot. The man still didn't crawl out. It didn't take long for Sensational to figure out why; the man's legs looked like the rough equivalent of spaghetti noodles. They'd been crushed. Sensational grimaced. She hadn't intended for that to happen.
Despite his fellow's reluctance to do anything but brandish his useless weapon in Sensational's face, at least one of the soldiers was on his game. He quickly dragged their comrade free from the wreckage, and slung him over his shoulders. Without a curse or a word of thanks, he hurried away from Sensational, clambering up the hill to join his fellows. His friend with the carbine slowly backed away before turning tail and doing the same.
Once they were clear, Sensational took to the sky, twenty-two seconds since the first shots had been fired. 'Alright,' he said into his radio. 'Do it.'
It was just as she'd envisioned, in that brief moment of panic. Some seventy-odd railguns expelled their swift payload into some seventy-odd engines at the exact same moment. The sound of the blast carried as far as Athens. The sky above Philippi remained lit long after night fell as the armored carcasses burned. And twenty-three seconds after the first shot had been fired, the 88th Dragoons had been routed, forced to retreat back into the hills.
Sensational performed several circuits over the battlefield, looking for any dead or wounded soldiers. She found none. Which meant that despite the many injuries, and perhaps save the soldier who would lose his legs, the Dragoons had successfully retreated from the area by their own cognizance.
There had been no deaths.
She kept checking to make sure, zipping through the wreckages at hypersonic speeds, unable to make herself believe. With the assistance of one of the most murderous criminals on the planet, she'd scored the first major victory against Rome. When she'd have time to think back, she'd understand that there was really no other way things could have gone, not with the pieces laid out on the board the way they were. But for now, she just couldn't bring herself to reach out and accept the victory set before her.
'They're gone, Sensational,' Rave assured him, after her fourth or fifth go-round. 'But they won't be gone for long. Let's finish what we started and get the hell out of here.'
'Right.' Her answer came in the form of a hoarse, breathless whisper. She slowed to a stop, leaning on one of the scorched stones of the ruins. She'd have to regain her composure before appearing before the Emperors.
The air was a fetid, smoky amalgamation of smells. The heavy, insistent musk of cordite. The noisome tang of burning steel. The earthy scent of singed vegetation. And the ruins themselves, they stank of history. Sensational breathed it in deeply. It smelled of win.
'Right,' she said again, meaning it this time. She found the old temple and went to meet the soon to be former Emperors.
Re: Faction Quest: Hand of the Empire - Rave - 02-16-2015
“Wait...wife?”
The tale of her past accomplishment (as Rave would always call it) had taken them to the lower tiers of Coruscant, though they'd only started to be watchful once they'd hit Tier Five. She's stopped a few times in her tale to explain a few details but for the most part her Storm Trooper companions had remained silent and thoughtful through the whole story. Rave never considered herself one who had the 'gift of gab' like Tiberius did, but she was effective when she wanted to be. She was, after all, fairly straightforward when it came to many things.
Now, however, she stopped and slowly turned her head towards Biggs, a sharp eyebrow raised. “Really?” she breathed, shaking her head as she began walking again. “That's what you take from my story? The fact that I had a wife?”
“Well, no.” Biggs shuffled his feet before he realized the other two had began walking again while he wasn't paying attention. “But...you told us you spent most of your adult life in a tube. So when you were married you were...well, probably not of legal age...”
He trailed off and the silence was rather uncomfortable...for them. Rave smiled as she thought about it. Ms. Sensational, or Stacey Keen as Rave knew her, was a genetically enhanced mutant that was no older than Rave herself was. The woman was grown in a lab and while normally Rave would have frowned upon such a thing, she also knew that Stacey was chosen for that experiment because of the mutant power she possessed. The atrocities that Stacey had suffered through made Rave cringe even now, and it was this how they bonded in the beginning.
“Ma'am?”
“Hm?” Rave sniffed and looked to Wedge, who had his rifle up and pointed to a man a short distance away. He was rather ragged looking and had a deer in the headlights look about him. Rave lifted a hand up, palm down, and lowered it. Wedge lowered his rifle in response to the hand gesture. “No need to scare the people, Trooper. What good would that do us?”
“He's a sentry.” Biggs piped up, lifting his chin towards said man. “No doubt we caught him unawares. Sleeping on the job, are we?”
Rave stared at the man, mismatched eyes narrowing a moment before she began to walk towards the man. He looked, for a brief moment, like he was going to make a run for it but instead thought better of it. It was as if he fully believed he would be cut down regardless of what he did. Rave thought this wise, though she'd never kill a man while his back was turned. No, this tended to make people angry and gave unnecessary reasons for people to fight. Plus, she liked to see the light go from someone's eyes if she was going to squeeze the life from their throats.
“You're a lookout, yeah?” Rave stopped a few paces away from the man, looking at her surroundings. “You signal your camp that there are intruders here yet?”
No response, though the glare she received was amusing.
“It's a simple question that has no bearing on what might happen in the future, nor will help your current situation,” Rave explained, feeling rather diplomatic at the moment. “A situation, I'll remind you, that you got yourself in by sleeping on the job. So I'll ask again...have you signaled your camp that there are intruders here yet?”
Her question was met with more silence, though eventually the man nodded. Rave nodded along with him before shifting her feet and crossing her arms. She knew she may not look intimidating but she'd learned just how much body language can speak for you. This man spoke of nervousness and pants crapping terror. Oddly enough, Rave didn't believe for one second that her nor her companions had anything to do with that fear.
“I'll assume you work for Brilliance Dynamites Neon,” Rave said, forcing herself to change her tone to something more along the lines of being bored out of her skull. “I require an audience with him. Since you've failed at your job here, why not take you and whatever compatriots you have skulking about and report to him? That way we can avoid any unnecessary bloodshed and I don't have to waste my time and energy slaughtering every single one of you with my bare hands. Have you ever gotten blood under your nails? Terribly inconvenient to wash out, especially when it's dried...”
No response, though Rave hadn't expected anything more. In fact, if she looked closely, she could see the defiance levels skyrocket in the man's eyes. It was a prime example of why Rave knew that coming to this place with attempts to take the Prime away by force would most likely fail. Biggs and Wedge were sharpshooters and Rave herself was an unknown factor. They were threats and he'd done his job. He would die before he would betray his clan, of that Rave was certain. A purpose made him brave and therefore more difficult to deal with.
Fear, on the other hand, was the mind killer.
“You feel that?” Rave asked, uncrossing her arms to clasp her hands together and run them in a gleeful motion. How everything seems to be...heavier? Maybe a tad harder to stand?”
The man blinked a moment as he took a step back. His knees visibly wobbled a moment before he straightened up again, though this time with visibly more effort. His eyes were wide and the look he gave Rave was priceless before he fell to his knees. This gave the gravity manipulator the opening she required to take a single step forward as she jet a hand out, grabbing the man by his chin as she lifted him up so they were face to face. The strangled gasp he made was music to Rave's ears and every instinct in the woman told her to snap his neck, right then and there. Her eyes glowed a molten gold for a moment before the color faded. Her feral grin, however, stayed on her face as she spoke.
“I can continue to increase the gravity in this area,” Rave explained, eyes never leaving the terrified ones of the man she was holding in her grasp. “You will fall. You will not be able to move. Slowly but surely you will be crushed under it's awesome power and I will laugh. I will laugh because, in the end, someone else will do your job and they will be more willing. Do you know why? Because they would have just seeing you crushed into the ground into a fine paste. The earth will absorb you and there will be nothing left but a memory. It will be like you never...even...existed. Savvy?”
The man attempted to nod, though it was difficult. Rave felt the attempted motion though, and after a moment let the man go, her power fading from the area around them.
“Go.”
This time the man didn't need to be told again. He was off like a shot, along with two others that made themselves visible when he ran off. Rave stood there, watching them run. The bloodlust inside of her was...troubling. Back home she would have simply killed anyone she ran into without a second thought. In fact, if she had come to this...reality, or whatever it was called, with even half of her actual power she probably simply would have leveled Tier Five and everything below it and called it a day, capture the damn Prime or not. Then she would flooded the place with poison to make sure everything was gone, including the rats.
Sadly, that was not the case. There was an itch inside of her that was begging to be let out and, during quiet moments, Rave would purse her lips as if she was trying to figure out what it was. It almost felt like a trapped animal, long forgotten, that now knew it was free but yet more chains kept it restrained. The woman stood there, watching the retreating backs of Brilliance Dynamites Neon's men until she felt a hand clasp on her shoulder. She startled, looking to her left and eying the visage of Biggs. And although she couldn't tell, Rave knew the man wore a look of concern as he spoke.
“Ma'am?” he started, removing his hand as Rave looked at the offending appendage with distaste. “You sorta blanked out there. Everything five by?”
“Yes,” the dark skinned woman answered, a little too quickly. She cleared her throat a moment, her vision blurring with anger for only a moment before she nodded quickly. “Let's move out to the next clearing and set up camp. You both know what to do. If that information we got about Brilliance was correct then I'm positive we'll be seeing him within the hour.”
“And if we don't?”
Rave looked to Wedge and smiled. The voice that came out was odd, as if it wasn't her own. It made Wedge swallow hard.
“Then we scorch the Earth.”
Re: Faction Quest: Hand of the Empire - Rave - 02-17-2015
The Sergeant uttered a heavy sigh, turning instead to the Colonel. 'It was chaos. I saw the female in the air, and a bunch of the vehicles spinning around her. There were some men spinning in the air too. Guess they tried to jump out. There was a lot of shooting all around, none of it was hitting her. But it sure was hitting us, though. She was directing the vehicles down into the ground, on top of the companies. Some of them she was smashing together in midair with men still trapped inside. There were a lot of explosions, a lot of screams. A lot of bodies.' He slowly scrubbed the back of his hand across his mouth. 'The bitch didn't seem to care. She was up there laughing. She was slaughtering the goddamn lot of us like we were ants and having fun.'
“Ma'am?”
Rave breathed in a quick breath, eyes blinking rapidly as she slowly turned her head up towards the intruding voice. Biggs shuffled his feet a moment, looking down to avoid the intense look he was receiving from the dark skinned Prime. She looked oddly serene while she slept, which was something he found odd considering the background information she'd given them. He knew he'd have goddamn nightmares if he'd been through some of the crap she had. He quirked his mouth a bit as he watched the woman stand up, admiring how she seemed graceful in every action she took.
“Sounded like you were having a pleasant dream, ma'am,” Biggs said as he watched Rave stretch out the kinks. “You were...err...giggling.”
Rave blinked at Biggs before she let out a rather stunning smile. She dreamt of her time before her current situation before, though most of it was in bits and pieces. In the grand scheme of things Rave knew that her time on her own planet was rather short, fighting only for a short while before she was captured by Silva, no thanks to Tiberius' interference. But in that short time she'd gathered up some pretty pleasant memories that she still held dear. Some would argue that slaughtering humans shouldn't be a pleasant memory, but Rave would only shrug at that.
Other dreams involved her and her wife. Those she didn't like as much since they left a rather gaping hole where her heart should have been.
“I don't giggle,” Rave winked, stretching an arm across her chest to warm up her muscles. “Where's Wedge?”
“Here ma'am,” the other Storm Trooper trotted up and nodded to his other two companions. He looked from side to side for a moment before reaching a hand to pat the back of his helmet in a nervous manner. “Errr...ma'am? You said they'd be here in an hour...” He trailed off nervously, though Rave barley gave him a glance.
“I did indeed say that.” A beat. “And yes, I know it's been several hours. I'm not infallible, you know.” Rave gave a lopsided grin. “Though if I were them I'd simply send a few more scouts, stay out of visual range and see what we got in terms of firepower and such. These kinda deals are all about patience.”
“You've done this sorta thing before ma'am?” Biggs questioned, tilting his head. “Never figured you for someone who would...you know...talk.”
Rave laughed at that, the sound bouncing off the broken city around them. No, Rave knew she wasn't a talker but she did like to think she had the ability. God knows she'd spent enough time around Tiberius to catch at least a few things. She thought back to her earlier thought; she was a sledgehammer. The next thought derailed right into a territory that Rave found eating at her gut; she didn't have her powers. Well, not all of them, and that was seriously hindering her ability to look nonchalant and confident in their current situation. It's why she gave the earlier scout a taste of her powers. Usually under the influence of fear one tends to remember things a tad...differently. She remembered the rumors of her back home. How she was a demon sent from the pits of Hades to slaughter the innocent in the name of whatever dark god the people happened to believe in. Ass backwards morons.
“Usually not, no,” Rave conceded with a grin. “I'm more of a blunt instrument. Talking doesn't suit me. That doesn't mean I don't know how to negotiate, however. Brilliance Dynamites Neon is a leader and a tactician himself. If he doesn't show up for a talk...well, we'll jump off that bridge when we come to it.”
What she didn't mention was that she knew the type of person she was dealing with. Brilliance Dynamites Neon was exactly the type of person Tiberius was; a bleeding heart moron that was more concerned with the preservation of life than accomplishing any actual goals despite the need for sacrifice. Rave knew she was right back home and she knew she was right now. She would come out of this the victor because she was willing to do what it took to get the job done. And if that meant blowing out the support beams of various large structures that Biggs and Wedge had planted explosives on to convince Brilliance Dynamites Neon that he needed to come with them...well, that's what she would do. If he wanted to fight, he'd fight with the knowledge that an unknown number of lives would be lost because of his choice.
Rave looked towards where the scout she'd sent packing went. It really was over before it had even began. The dark skinned woman took a moment to wonder just how many lives would be lost when she ended up blowing those support beams anyways, regardless of Brilliance Dynamites Neon's decision. She knew that perhaps several dozen would die in the collapse of these buildings. Others would die due to the dirt and other toxic material that the explosions and collapse would kick up over the next few weeks. Certainly a large part of Tier Five would become uninhabitable.
“A little genocide never hurt anyone...” Rave muttered, trailing off as she quirked a smile again.
“Ma'am?”
Rave looked to her Storm Troopers and shook her head despite their questioning looks. She was certain by this point they'd figured out that she was a bit...unstable. But she was a Prime, and from what they've told her Primes were held in high regard despite their mental state. Even someone like Brilliance Dynamites Neon was welcomed despite being a self admitted outlaw back in his world. She'd explained only a small part of her background to Biggs and Wedge, cherry picking her stories and words carefully. As much as the gravity manipulator was proud of her background as a freedom fighter, no one else needed to know Rave's views on humanity in general, and how she felt she was genetically superior to all of them.
“We got incoming ma'am.”
They didn't pull out their weapons, though they kept them ready. Rave crossed her arms and looked to the direction of the incoming party. Brilliance Dynamites Neon was easily recognizable, a huge man among the small rabble he kept with him. His Lieutenants, no doubt, though the file that Rave had said nothing of them. Minor characters in this story, nothing worth mentioning or remembering. They walked slowly, as if expecting an ambush of some sort despite Rave now holding her hands up in a sign of peace. Brilliance Dynamites Neon and his company stopped a dozen paces away from Rave's own, the big man holding up his own hands to show that he was unarmed.
“Well now,” the man grunted out as he walked forward, his men remaining behind him. “Heard ya scared the crap outta my scout. Said you had some sorta mystical powers that made him kneel before you.” He sniffed, looking down at Rave with a nod of approval. “Sounds hella fancy, little girl. How's 'bout we talk, eh? Settle this real flashy like between us?”
Rave nodded, mismatched eyes twinkling.
“I'd be happy to.”
Re: Faction Quest: Hand of the Empire - Rave - 02-17-2015
Two hours previous...
Despite what they thought, Brilliance Dynamites Neon wasn't a stupid man.
Of course, he didn't really know what The Empire had on file about him but he knew it couldn't be good. And he wasn't at all certain that said file didn't contain thing pertaining to his intelligence either. He knew, one day, that The Empire would tire of his antics and his presence would be insisted upon for the sole purpose of bringing him to 'justice' for his 'crimes'. It was sad, really, as back home he still would would have been an outlaw, though at least there he would have have the opportunity to look at the sky, breathing fresh air, and go down like he was meant to; flashy and in a blaze of wondrous glory.
No, Brilliance Dynamites Neon was not a stupid man. He doubted very much he would be able to do any of those things.
Only a select few of the people he kept close knew how he really felt. While he was drawn to Tier Five due to the plight these people suffered, the inequality they lived every day, a soul like his own wasn't meant to be caged underground. He missed his home a great deal, so much so that it almost felt like physical pain. But part of being a leader was to hide your pain so the difficult decisions could be made, so the people had someone to look up to that was nigh infallible. He'd been questioned before but he'd always won his people over with cold, hard logic and, above all else, hope. And he knew their lives were better for it. Not a day since he took command of these people had anyone gone hungry for more than a day. No infighting, no strife between old enemies.
Together, under one banner.
“She din hafta move, Captain,” the man babbled, wringing his hands, his face a mask of worry and fear. “She jes kinda stared and I was on mah knees. Like an invisible hand just kinda pushed me down and formed me there. Couldn't move or nuttin'. I...I think she coulda slit my throat if she wanted. The others...they felt it too. Didn't push them down but...they felt it. It made their guts drop ta the bottom of their shoes...”
Brilliance Dynamites Neon waved a hand to silence his scout. He wasn't angry and he made sure to show that by giving the scout, Fredrick, a reassuring look. “Go. Get yerself some chow and a beer. Calm yer nerves. After that, I'll be gatherin' my advisers so we can assess the situation...”
And assess they did. Further (more long range) reports stated that the girl that Fredrick had encountered was actually taking a nap. The other two had their own missions, he figured, as one had left before coming back and relieving the other one. Their scouts hadn't managed to keep track of them and had given up before returning to camp with their reports. It all stank to high heaven but Brilliance Dynamites Neon really only focused on one thing; the girl.
She was brave. Bold. Confident enough to take herself a short nap but still cautious enough to keep at least one Storm Trooper within visual and vocal range at all times. Even so, they were a party of three. The Empire may be a cold, murderous government but Brilliance Dynamites Neon couldn't see the wisdom in letting a Prime, especially one as supposedly powerful as this one, head down the Tiers just to get slaughtered by the natives. Sure, she sounded powerful enough but it really wouldn't take much to overrun their position and kill them without a second thought. But for some reason he didn't. Brilliance Dynamites Neon trusted his gut. It's always served him well. He wasn't about to go against it now.
Which brought him to his current state. He was a dozen paces away from the girl now and he could see why Fredrick was so spooked. She was tall, for a female, with dark skin and mismatched eyes that seemed far too intense for someone her age. And, really, it was her eyes that got him. They seemed too...too old. Back home he'd brought a few stray souls into the Bad Lads that had needed more than a few weeks to 'catch up with reality'. Even then more than a few didn't come back 'all there'. His people concluded that these people were suffering from extended heat stroke, when your eyes played tricks on you at every which end and, even while safe and access to all the water they could need, they still didn't believe their current situation at all, Some continued to believe it was still a hallucination. Some would wander off in the middle of the night and just keep walking until they dropped or an animal killed them.
He got that vibe now.
No, this woman definitely wasn't 'all there', but Brilliance Dynamites Neon doubted that she was someone who didn't embrace that part of her. He had seen that in Vash the Stampede. They had similar looks about them, though Vash had the decency to look almost ashamed. This one did not. She was chaos incarnate, he knew. The shiver that went down his spine told him all he needed to know and, luckily, this day had all been prepared for. He had set the plans in motion already. Even if he was gone, The Bad Lads would live on. Maybe not under that name, but he took comfort in the knowledge that his people would be safe.
Even if he was not.
“Well now,” the man grunted out as he walked forward, his men remaining behind him. “Heard ya scared the crap outta my scout. Said you had some sorta mystical powers that made him kneel before you.” He sniffed, looking down at Rave with a nod of approval. “Sounds hella fancy, little girl. How's 'bout we talk, eh? Settle this real flashy like between us?”
The other woman nodded and Brilliance Dynamites Neon swore her eyes twinkled. Her voice was deeper, like whiskey-on-the-rocks.
“I'd be happy to.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now.
It wasn't a negotiation.
Rave had laid it all out before him. The choices were limited, close to none really, but Rave wasn't known for pulling any punches. They'd sat down on some rubble a few feet away from where they first stood and, without much preamble, Rave had outlined exactly what was going on and what was going to happen. Of course Brilliance Dynamites Neon knew he had a bounty on his head and of course he knew that one day he would be too much of a nuisance foe The Empire to ignore. He also knew they'd send a Prime to get rid of him in some form or fashion, though he just didn't know when. Sure, his raids on medical buildings and various food supply depots were numbered and various but he'd never left a body behind. He breathed in deep before closing his eyes and tilting his head back.
“Neva thought it'd end like this, if'n you were wondering.”
“I wasn't.”
Brilliance Dynamites Neon laughed at the gruff reply, eyes snapping towards the small woman as he slapped his knee. She was one that spoke her mind, caring little of what anyone thought of her or her actions. He doubted that this woman knew anything resembling regret in her whole life. He also appreciated that she didn't hurry him along in the process either. She was patient, or forced that quality upon herself, whichever. Either way he admired it. Oddly enough there wasn't a whole lot that he didn't admire about this woman, now that he thought about it. She was strong, confident in her ability and was rather rough around the edges. Were it a different time and place Brilliance Dynamites Neon was pretty sure he'd be smitten beyond words.
“What's gonna happen?” he asked, turning his head slightly so he could see his men behind him. “To me? To them?”
“I don't know,” Rave answered truthfully after a dozen seconds or so as she thought about the question. “I'm gonna hafta be honest with you, Neon. I haven't been in Coruscant for very long. Couple of weeks, tops. Haven't had the time to really see how The Empire deals with their criminals. If I had to guess though...maybe some torture to figure out any information you might know, followed by a quick execution.”
Rave knew she could lie, but it was in practice that she often wondered if it was something learned or a trait she inherited from her parents, people who were lying scumbags themselves. She knew exactly what would happen to Brilliance Dynamites Neon, and in truth it bothered her. He was going to be interrogated for a long, long time, after which he would be kept as an eternal prisoner, encased in something called 'carbonite' until The Empire could come up with another reason to use him. Rave thought it a more merciful fate than the one she suffered before she was whisked off to The Nexus, though from what Biggs and Wedge told her it was still a pretty awful fate.
Remember the power...
Rave knitted her eyebrows before she looked from side to side slowly. The voice was firm, enticing and oddly familiar. Still, it didn't appear that Brilliance Dynamites Neon, his crew nor her companions had heard it. She kept her game face on and crossed her arms across her chest as she kept her eyes homed in on the big man's countenance. She'd heard that voice before, in her dreams, but she'd thought nothing of it. Now, however, while she was awake...
“Ya know, back home was an endless desert,” Brilliance Dynamites Neon began, standing up and stretching. “Far as the eye could see. Hot, burning desert. It was a thing of beauty, though you had ta be lookin' fer it. It served you, if you respected it. Made my life easier when I went recruitin', lemme tell ya. Lotta people wanted shelter, food...a solid place to call home. A group of people they could trust. An' with me they got that. Guess that's why when I got here I knew I'd be doin' more of the same. Back home, though...was a hell of a lot easier to get the job done.” A beat. “Truth be told, I miss that...”
Rave stood and walked to the big man before she reached into a pouch on her belt. She reached inside and took out a pair of handcuffs that Biggs told her would keep someone twice the size of Brilliance Dynamites Neon locked up nice and tight. She held out the object to her victim, her eyes hard and eyebrows slanted to show her resolve. Brilliance Dynamites Neon held that gaze for a few before he took them. Immediately they snaked around his wrists, binding them together in a material that made Rave tilt her head in curiosity. Still, time for that later. She watched as Brilliance Dynamites Neon turned back towards his men and gave them a slight nod. They didn't move, and Rave could see a few of them standing bravely, tears streaming down their faces.
“Don't tell them...” the dark skinned man muttered as he walked along with Rave towards Biggs and Wedge. “But...I jes wanna be free. I wanna go back home. Ya think if I die...I'll go back?”
“Yeah,” Rave answered after a moment. “Of that I have no doubt.”
She never knew she could lie so well.
RE: Faction Quest: Hand of the Empire - Rave - 10-19-2016
It took all if five minutes for everything Rave thought she knew to be thrown out of the window.
Biggs and Wedge were caught off guard, which made Rave feel slightly better, though it was the half a second of seeing them fall to the side from blasts from seemingly out of nowhere that gave Rave the time she needed to duck and dive out of the way of whatever might be coming her way. Instincts saved the day again, and the weapon that Dynamite was holding swung right where her head had been a moment ago. Rave took a moment to look back after her tumble roll, sliding a few inches as she did so. The cuffs that her compatriots had told her would hold a captive Prime so well was nowhere to be seen, and the huge axe that Dynamite was holding, complete with orange and blue neon coloring, was almost too huge to be real. Where the fuck did that come from?
“Yer too flashy girl, but I like that abouts ya!!” Dynamite laughed, his face suddenly a lot angrier and more maniacal than it was when she was taking him in. “Did’ya really think it was gonna be that easy?!”
“Yeah…” Reina said as she backstepped as quickly as she could and got behind cover as fast as she could. “I kinda did.”
She waited a moment as blaster fire continued and gritted her teeth in frustration. What was that? It was as if a sudden switch had been turned on and Dynamite…well, blew a fuse. Rave could say, without ego or pride, that she was a fairly good judge of character. You had to be, coming from her world. You couldn’t trust just anyone you saw. It’s why Biggs and Wedge were still around. They genuinely thought Rave was their friend, and she’d make them believe that. But to be so off about Dynamite…it was kinda embarrassing. Still, he’d gone from subdued to over the top angry in less time that it took her to liquefy a human, and that was worrisome.
“Biggs? Wedge?” Rave pressed a finger to her ear and spoke. “You alive?”
“And kicking ma’am.” The response came a moment after Rave let go of the com button. “Blaster Cannon Fire. Inaccurate as shit. Concussive force from the blasts packs a hell of a punch though.” A pause. “This is Biggs, by the way.”
“I know,” Rave knitted her eyebrows irritably. “You got eyes?”
A moment passed, then two before she got her response. “Affirmative. Dynamite is back with his people. They’re heading back this way. Ma’am…” There was a pause as the com went dead for a moment before it clicked back on. “They look…mad. Like, almost out of control. No organization at all. They’re coming at us like a pack of wolves.”
“And there’s nothing normal about red, glowing eyes…” Wedge piped in, a beat before he rephrased. “Okay, well, I’m about eighty percent sure there’s nothing normal about red, glowing eyes.”
And now the look on her face was one of deep, deep confusion. Something was terribly wrong here, but there were puzzle pieces that were hidden and needed to be found. She could hear Dynamite’s people getting closer, the sound more likened to a stampede than people running. These people had seen what they were capable of. They knew of Rave’s power. Could they have called her bluff? Could Dynamite have known that maybe she wasn’t as powerful as he thought. She snarled and shook her head. No, now wasn’t the time. She put a finger to her com and pushed the button.
“Wedge, on my mark blow the supports. Biggs, I’m gonna hold them. How long would it take you to headshot…” Rave looked at the mass of people that were coming. Dynamite was shouting at some, who backed up to his location. Five were coming their way. “Five?”
“Four seconds.”
“Atta boy. On my mark…mark.”
Just as Biggs pressed in the code that blew the support beams they’d planted charges on Rave whipped out from the cover where she’d been hiding and stood there, exerting her will forward and around the charging people. The pressure of holding so many was like a physical blow but Wedge was on point, his blaster rifle making smooth motions to get the headshots in. Rave blew out a breath she didn’t know she was holding and turned back to fall behind her cover. The weakness passed and after a moment her vision stopped blurring. She peeked back around and looked at the scene. Five dead, no one charging to their location.
“Ma’am, no incoming. Backs turned. How should we proceed?”
“What the fuck do you think?” Rave hissed, pursing her lips. “Shoot them while they’re focused on the support beams being blown. I’m going after Neon. If I get hit…”
“You won’t.”
Rave nodded, having to trust Biggs and Wedge for the moment. Whatever craze had overtaken the mob seemed to have slipped, though Rave didn’t know for just how long. The crowd of people that had been going after them had thinned considerably as most had heard the explosion and damage that the blowing of some of the support beams had caused. They began firing their blaster rifles as Rave was about halfway to Dynamite, who stood there, looking almost stupidly at the devastation of his former home. He never noticed the bodies around him dropping, nor the Prime that was charging his way.
“What…what happened?”
Rave knew that sound. It was the tone of someone who had lost close to everything in a short amount of time. Too much information to process, which gave her the in she needed. She reached out her hand, a needless gesture but one she did anyways, and caught Dynamite in her Gravity Field. A moment later blaster fire one of his knees and he cried out in pain but was unable to move. His gaze was still fixated on his lost home, however, and Rave could see the fight leave him. Whatever had possessed him before was gone. Every fiber of Rave’s being was telling her to signal one of her followers and watch as Dynamite’s head exploded into mush and gore. But she held back, knowing that any reward she might collect would be greatly diminished should she bring back his dead carcass.
“I thought you gave up.” Rave signaled Biggs and Wedge to come from cover. Dynamite didn’t say anything until they’d come to his sides, cuffing him adding the leg portions that connected with a steel tight cord that hardened on command. When they stepped back, Reina pushed her questioning. “You gave in. You wanted them to live. What happened?”
“You wouldn’t understand.” Brilliance Dynamite Neon looked at Rave and shook his head. “We were weak. Even with my guidance, we could never make a difference, never rise above to be a part of the real world. We were doomed from the start. But when he came and offered us power…”
“Who did?” Biggs stepped forward, only stopping when Rave gave him a sharp look. “Ma’am, a third party came to them, but we have no record…”
“No, we don’t.” Rave agreed. “So, why don’t you tell us Neon?”
“What’s the point? We were weak.” Dynamite hung his head. “When we took the blood and drank it, we had to want it. We had to give everything. He said we would be tested. But we were too weak. Attached. Our home…the people…” He frowned. “You took them, and we ran back…”
“Why wouldn’t you?” Rave was beyond confused now, and a shrug from both Biggs and Wedge didn’t give her much confidence. The place where those ragtag bunch was now covered in rubble and they swarmed like ants to retrieve loved ones and possessions. “Seems logical to me, going to save your stuff and friends…”
“Yeah,” Dynamite said, his voice low. “There were some there. But the other half he took. And now they are his, because of our weakness. And soon, we will join him.”
Rave stopped herself from snarling and instead kept her voice steady. No use in snapping now. “Who? Who will you join?”
Brilliance Dynamite Neon looked to Rave, looking almost sorry for her.
“He called himself…Gul’dan.”