Jegora’s armorweave duster was scorched, torn, and in some places still smoldering, but so far the pirate lord remained completely unscathed by the battle raging around him. It was both luck and skill that kept him alive, a combination of experience and circumstance that somehow kept him from getting dead. He had landed on the outskirts of the battle some time ago, and had immediately rendezvoused with the nearest group of pirates he could find. Now he was attempting to fight his way towards the enemy command bunkers, his face twisted in a permanent snarl of rage and bloodlust, surrounded by the two dozen or so Oskers he had managed to collect along the way. The vaksai pilots were not among those present, however; most of them were not suited for this sort of combat, and so he had sent them back into the sky to provide air support or the ongoing troop landings. They would be safer there, in their element, than they ever could be on the ground.

Plus, pilots were highly trained specialists he couldn’t afford to throw away.

The battle had long since degraded from a firefight to an all-out melee, and while it wasn’t the bloodiest or most brutal conflict Jegora had ever seen, it was far too close for his liking. Blood flowed freely on both sides, the blood of hundreds of Osk raiders and the local smugglers and pirates and natives who had thought to oppose them. It turned the usually arid plain that the base was situated on into a marsh, and Jegora knew that if he stopped to think about it for even an instant the sound of his heavy boots sinking into the blood soaked ground would very likely make him sick. So he ignored it, and he fought, and he urged his men forward toward the center of the enemy camp. And while his men were doing well at the moment, he had no doubt that if they weren’t reinforced before they reached the bulk of the enemy forces he and his group would be overwhelmed and killed.

“Keep moving you lazy sons of Corellian goats, I don’t have all day,” Jegora shouted, his deep booming voice audible even over the roar of battle. His men roared their approval and pushed forward, moving ever deeper into enemy territory. Luckily, however, by this point the battle lines had completely disintegrated. Here and there were pockets of fighting and dying, groups of ten to twenty men banding together for a brief confrontation and then disbanding as soon as the fight was done, only to reform into different groups as the next opportunity presented itself. It was mindless, this type of warfare. Chaotic, undisciplined. Jegora hated it, hated everything about it. He hated the senseless application of force, the pointlessly brutal and bloodthirsty struggle that seemed more akin to something found in the ancient histories of some underdeveloped planets than the modern day. Still, for all his contempt and hatred, Jegora was good at this sort of fighting, and although he would never admit it, he enjoyed it as well.

At the moment Jegora’s group was moved about the field unchallenged, but it was obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes that was about to change. Thirty meters away a rambling group of displaced smugglers noticed the invading raiders nearby, and decided to do something about it. With a scream the mob turned as one and charged Jegora and his men. With a snarl of his own, Jegora unsheathed the massive vibrosword he wore on his back and stepped forward to meet those who would challenge him.

The giant hand-and-a-half sword was well over a meter long, and was as deadly as it was elegant. In most hands would have been impractical and foolish, but Jegora did not lack the skill to wield it properly. He moved gracefully for a man of his immense size, seemingly unhurried throughout the entire fray. Every motion had purpose, every expenditure of energy an end. Again and again the sword lashed out, and wherever the blade went men died. And during the ordeal Jegora’s face remained twisted in a snarl of rage, his grey eyes cold and unforgiving as he proceeded to slaughter any living being that managed to get in his way.

Eventually there were no more enemies standing. It had not been a very large group that had decided to test their mettle against Jegora’s band of Oskers, and in any case it had most certainly not been large enough. Surveying the carnage around him Jegora grimaced once again at such pointless slaughter, disgusted with the situation and with himself. It wasn’t the act of killing that bothered Jegora, or even the sheer brutality involved in this particular fight, but rather the pointlessness of it all. Force should be applied carefully, to achieve an ends. These men had stood so far below Jegora that had they not stood in his way, he most likely wouldn’t even had noticed them. Instead they had thrown themselves at him, hopelessly, desperately. They had not realized when they were beaten, and so they continued to struggle against a force they could or would not comprehend. And they had died pointlessly for their mistakes, instead of serving some other purpose. That, above all else, was what made Jegora Fal angry. He hated inefficiency, and this massacre was a study in waste.

“Move,” he reiterated for his men, who were lost in their own thoughts after the vicious fight. Jegora would not tolerate any more incompetence. “I will kill any man who is still here in thirty seconds.”

Something in his voice convinced the men around him that he meant exactly what he said. As one they gathered themselves and quickly began to move forwards again, towards the bunker. Off to his left Jegora could now see a mass of Osk troops pushing forwards towards the same bunker, and Jegora let out a little sigh of relief. His men had been doing well so far, but they couldn’t stand up against the full smuggler force. Thankfully, however, reinforcements had arrived.

Silence filled the engine room, the only sounds that broke through that barrier was the soft tinkering and clanking of the tools that both Havock and Bright used to fix up the piece of shit ship. It was hard for Jae to stand there in that silence and just watch, her mind telling her to say something, to just speak to the women who had once been there for her through anything. The three of them... they had been the feminine back bone of RAIDERS, keeping the idiot men in line, and holding together through some of the worst missions. But now, as Jae stood there, sea-foam eyes narrowed, her lips betraying the angry look as they titled down in a soft frown, she didn't know what she could possibly say.

It had been... months since she had last seen Bright, maybe more than that, hell the woman didn't know. And Havock... Jae didn't want to think about the last time she had seen her. Why? Honestly Jae couldn't even remember, despite it having not been all too long ago when she had been placed back in RAIDERS. But things had been rocky, their relationship - if there was even such a connection between the two anymore - swaying open in the wind, completely unguarded and unprotected from the many ridiculous trials they had already been through and many more that were inevitably to coming.

It seemed Jae had gotten stuck in her mind for longer than she thought, for only what seemed to be a few moment slater both Havock and Bright stood, shared a hi-five and laughed.

Havock patted the bit of engine she was standing next to. "There we go, that's a good ol' Bitch."

"Time to get down to the field then, huh?"

Havock nodded and turned to walk out of the engine, but was caught dead in her tracks by the sight of Jae, her eyes widening. Jae was staring back with an equally confused and lost look. The silence was accompanied by a tension so thick that when Bright finally spoke up, her words were like a knife cutting through the air. 

"Well ladies... I'll just leave you to this." The red head moved past them, cutting into the line of sight of both frozen women causing them to jump.

"No." It was a quick, spit of a word that came from Havock. She shook her head and looked to Bright, her face stoic, emotionless, but those blues showed just how much her face was lieing.

Jae did the same thing and stood up straight, as she had been leaning against the edge of the door. She ran a hand through her short, choppy hair and sighed. "Yeah, this is for another time. A time when our King isn't in danger."

Bright shrugged and walked by them. "Your King, ya mean. I'm still new here. Just tell me when we're leaving." She exited the room and went back to where the rest of the crew was, leaving the two angry, hurt and confused women staring at each other again.

Hav cocked her head to the side and quirked a brow, pointing at the eye patch that now covered Jae's right eye. "A little stereotypical aren't we?"

The glare that shot from the uncovered sea-foam eyes would have been dangerous to anyone else, but Hav was able to mentally dodge the daggers. "Shut up. I don't want to get it fixed. I already have one cybernetic, I don't need another. Plus..." Jae raised a hand and plucked at one the strings that kept the patch secure to her face. "I kinda like it."

"Of course you do." Finally Havock laughed, the sound cautious but still light and gentle in it's nature. "Alright, lets get Aero to shuttle us down to the field." Havock smiled, though like the laugh it was cautious, scarred to leave her lips and drift into the open air where their relationship hung, open to any attack. She began to walk passed Jae, but her arm was caught by a strong and yet still somehow gentle grip. She turned her head and looked at Jae, their eyes actually meeting and mingling in the same of emotion for the first time in so long. "What?"

Jae reached into her pocket with her free hand, took out something and, holding it her closed fist used her other hand to grabs Havocks hand and hold it out. She dropped what was in her hand into Havock's opened palm and quickly closed the Pirate Captain's hand. She stood there for a moment in silence, then looked back into Hav's eyes again, her cheeks flushed. "I meant to give this to you a year ago. Do what you want with it but... Just know what it means without having to ask me. Please." And with that Jae let go of Hav's hand and turned and started to walk away.

Quickly Havock looked down and opened her hand, and in her palm sat a small silver ring and around the ring were small blue and green gems that were in an alternating pattern. "Jae I..." She looked up, hoping to still see Jae, but instead she saw the woman turn the corner and just barely caught the glint of a matching ring on the pinky finger of Jae's cybernetic hand.




"Alright, get yer asses off of my shuttle as soon as we land!" Aero's voice rang through the com in the ship, annoyance obvious and growling.

"Yer comin' with us!" Jae shouted, ready to jump onto the battle field as soon the ship landed.

Aero could be heard grumbling again. "Yeah I know, I just want you off of my ship the most, before you steal any parts from it, you hooligan."

"Oh that hurts, buddy." Jae chuckled and pointed to where her heart was. "Right here, right here."

Havock, Bright and the few other Oskers that had come along for the ride off of the Bitch joined in on the laughter, quite possibly the last bit that would be heard until this battle was over.

"Mkay. We're down, I'm dropping the hatch now, get the hell out. All of you. I'll follow." Aero's voice said over the com before they all felt a sudden jolt and then the ship was still. The door dropped open and a gust of dust filled wind burst into the shuttle.

They all stood, fixed their chosen weapons onto their person and filed out of the shuttle, Aero was behind them within moments. Once outside, they looked around, eyes wide and mouth open. Dead bodies seemed to be make up the entire surface, blood spilling from the piles and soaking into the ground, the smell of death and decay stung their noses, but the group remained hard-faced and serious, none of them retching or gagging. It wasn't a surprising sight. These people had kidnapped their King, and so all of this death... all of this blood play was the expected reaction.

Havock stepped forward and looked around the field for a moment, searching for someone familiar, and it was when the form of Jegora hit her eyes that she smiled. Jae had seen him, too and, never being one to wait for an order, took off sprinting in his direction. She roarer, her voice cracking into the air like a lightning bolt, blood curdling and dangerous. The other behind her returned the roar all moving forward at a matching speed, all drawing their own weapons. Aero had stopped for only a moment to kneel down and pilfer two small blades off of a Pirate corpse, and now he too ran with the small group of Oskers.

A group of winged natives had seen them and took off in their direction, coming at them from the front. They flew low, teeth bared and bloody, screeching a battle cry that held anger and blood lust. The two groups collided, the Oskers continuing their forward momentum, slicing and shooting their way through.

Aero had taken to the air by a few yards, carried by a native. He grunted and growled, face twisting into rage as his hands moved with ease, slicing and hacking away at the chest of the native. Within moments he was dropped the few yards he had been carried into the air, landing on a pile of corpses. He got up in time to see the dead native fall to the ground with a thud. A smirk lit his face and he kept running forward.

Bright's pistols fired away, taking out the natives as they flew towards her. One of them had gotten by the blaster fire and had grasped her shoulders, and began to pick her up into the air. There was a sudden weight on the back of the native when Jae landed on it. With a venomous growl she grabbed the back of it's head with her left hand and punched downwards with her right, the cybernetic easily breaking the thing's spine on impact. Down it fell the few feet and both Jae and Bright landed next to Havock who had just gotten done shooting down her own couple of attackers.

They all looked to each other, each of them now covered in blood of the enemy and quite possibly some of their own, though they were impervious to the pain. They simply didn't care. They looked off towards where Jegora was heading again and they all started running again, closing the distance between the two groups.

The sights, the sounds, the smells, it did nothing to Jae, nothing bad. She loved this, enjoyed it, LIVED for it. And now she was acting in it, doing something for it, saving her King. With each step she could hear screams, she could smell the sickeningly thick scent of blood, she could see the piles of bodies on both sides. It all made her smile, her lips twisting into a smirk of joy and confidence. Running missions with RAIDERS, with the Army, was fun and all but this... this seemingly senseless and pointless killing, however disorganized it was, it was fun. Whether or not anyone felt the same way, Jae knew she was going to come out of this fight with pride of herself and Osk. This was all for a reason and the reason was to save Snipes.

The group slowed as they reached Jeg. "Oy, Jeg!" Havock called out, her voice raised a mighty bit over the sounds of the battle. "We're here."

"About time." Jeg said, his face still twisted in rage.

Aero stopped to catch his breath, wiping his mouth as he did so. He started to lower his hand, but stopped as a bright red glare caught his gaze. Looking down, he saw a streak of red on the top of his hand, and distinctly felt a wetness running from his mouth.

Blood, then.

He did not remember being hit in the mouth, but then again, he didn’t remember much from the past few minutes. The fighting had been ferocious and had dealt him a fair share of blows for every one he unleashed. But he was still standing, not them. That was all that was mattered.

He recognized the taste of blood, then. Spitting, he grimaced as a glob of red splatted against the ground, quickly fading away as it mixed with countless amounts of blood that had already soaked into the parched earth.

“That’s my contribution.” he muttered to himself.

Pausing for another moment to stare at the ground, he immediately set off at a dead run again, intent upon catching up with the two women that were a good distance ahead of him. He cursed himself for letting them get away. They were the closest he had the allies at the present, and he definitely did not feel particularly good about getting into combat all by his lonesome. But despite his wishes, his pursuit was consistently interrupted as random combatants rose up against him to challenge him. They were an irritation, no more, and he soon decided to just completely ignore them in order to keep up the chase. Even so, he was forced to stop more than once as an enemy with slightly above intelligence realized that Aero could easily get past and so moved directly in the way. Those were more dangerous, because they required him to actually fight.

Another such imbecile jumped in his way at that moment, forcing him to slow. He had learned at that point to always keep his knives out and barely stopped to deal with the being, lashing out with a blow to the face that drove the man to the side. Not bothering to continue the fight, Aero instead kept running, picking up speed again as he sputtered curses.

“Blast this kriffing world, blast these kriffing natives, blast the whole kriffing universe.” he yelled as he ran, not caring who heard. At that point, he was mostly surrounded by the natives of the planet, which only added to his haste to catch up to the two women.

The gap between them was rapidly closing, as the pair had stopped, seemingly in a small argument. He chose that moment to push himself even harder and hurtled towards them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a rather large man striding through the battle, taking out two or three natives with a single strike. He brought his attention back on his targets, only to see another enemy coming towards them with the obvious intent to cause harm. He got within a few steps away and collapsed with a smoking crater forming the back part of his skull.

The large man lowered his gun and said a few words to the women, who responded and stood up. Aero lunged forward one last time and made it to them, nearly colliding into them.

“Hey, you two. Umm, mind if I tag along?” he said, giving his best cheesy grin.