Concordia prequel.

[Anaro Dreiger]

A silver ship leaves long contrails as it zipped above an uneven landscape. Mountains pass below drawing jagged lines of grays and browns. The ship dips lower and begins to slow down as it bobs and weaves gently as it passes through a valley.

Inside the ship standing in a cargo hold, several armored figures stand. Some in grays and indigoes. Others in tan and olive. They all look down to a cargo ramp at their feet.

There was no clear landing position near their destination. They were going to have to jump from the belly of their ship.

A figure in gray and blue speaks up. "We're on approach.... Ramp." A masculine voice spoke calmly and pointed their gloved hand to one of the men in tan and olive. They nodded their green helmet and stepped aside, hitting a circular button on a box-like controller nearby.

A powerful 'whoosh' was heard as the pneumatics of the cargo ramp whirred to life, lowering from the floor, allowing a glimpse at the quickly passing terrain below. T-visored helmets looked down, and stepped closer to the edge of the rectangular opening in the floor of the ship.

*"Alright. Drop in thirty seconds."* A voice crackled over the hold's intercom.

Those standing around began to ready themselves. Anaro- The one who spoke first checked the straps on their pistol holster on their right hip, pulled the clips on their gauntlets, and looked to a shorter member of the war party.

"You ready to hunt some backsliders? If we get this, we'll finally have a solid target."

[Luckur Dreiger]

"I hope so. Be nice to have a real fight instead of chasing ghosts." Luckur replied as he stood, having finished checking all of the connections between the power pack he was wearing and the massive blaster cannon he carried with ease. Short than most of the other Mandorleans around him, he was wider than all of them, and carried the weight of his heavy weapons with an ease that showed he was much stronger than one would assume for someone of his stature.

"Just surprised it took so long to find this lead, usually Saxon aren't this sneaky. You think it's really them? Or are they working with someone?" he asks as he steps up besides his commander, waiting for the order to jump.

[Anaro Dreiger]

Anaro's head bobbed with a short chuckle looking to Luckur.
"I sympathize. I think we all do." He nudged another clan warrior beside him and they chuckled and nodded back. "I hate to perpetuate war, when we're trying to unite. But damned if I don't wanna see you in action behind that cannon, Luckur." He smiled behind his helmet.

"But Im sure it's Saxon at this point. They're the only ones brave enough as a solo clan to try something like this. We need to see who their supplier is. Could be pirates. Could be corporate sector contacts..." He shrugged and stepped forward. .

"Either way.-" he reaches out and points to everyone. "Ready clan? Let's fly." He stepped forward and disappeared down through the square hole in the floor of the ship.

He hit the jets on his backpack and two small thrusters burst to life, giving some lift. He lead his pack over the trees and the rocky ground below. Their destination was ahead by about half a kilometer.

His helmet heads-up display outlined some of the trees and rock formations to give clearer visibility below as he descended.

[Luckur Dreiger]

"You think the cannon is impressive? Just wait till we find something to use the launcher on." Luckur replied with a chuckle, partially muffled by his helm. "Don't worry, I'll make sure the show is something worth seeing." he commented as they took off from the craft, Luckur keeping close his his commander as they quickly closed i on the target, what looked like a small clearing in the trees in the mountains foothills.

As they closed in just over the trees, they could see the clearing was really just an entrance that would allow smaller transports to drop in and then enter a cave, which had been cleared to act as a small landing bay, room enough for the YT's that were being used to smuggle the cargo. While it was hard to see exactly how much space there was from their position in the air, it was cut into the side of a small mountain and with his mining background, Luckur could tell that this had once been the entrance to some kind of mine. "Looks like they are repurposing some of their old mines, no telling how much storage they could have there. Even if the older shafts have collapsed, they could have been cleared and new supports put up for them to stage here, might even be another exit near by..."

[Anaro Dreiger]

"Tsk, yeah, makes me wonder how long this has been going on... Lets set down nearby." Anaro's voice chimes in everyone's helmets as they soar through the air. The sky was darkened now, the sun having just set. This made it more difficult to see the contrails of the jetpack thrusters drawing little white puffy lines leading toward their location.

He led the group down through a few distanced trees around a hundred or more yards away from the main entrance. Landing, his jetpack shut off with a cough and he stepped forward with the momentum. Looking around, the area seemed clear. From their little clearing, they could see- though through several yards of scattered foliage- the mouth of the main cavern.

"They better not be selling our iron to outsiders..." he mused to himself out loud...

There were some ambient lighting strung around the mouth and admin building, and some temporary construction-style lights feeding from quiet generators shining bright white cones around the roadway.

"So. You think there might be another way in, Luckur?" He stands, looking at the small amount of activity meandering around the cavern. Repulsorlift dollies, droids, and a few humanoid figures. "I can't see anything from here outside the main entry." Anaro's eyes scan rapidly around. "You wanna take a couple of you to get a closer look on the rock face? I'll take Cas and Merrin to swing up to keep an eye on the front - keep overwatch for you." He gestured to two similarly armored figures near him. They both nodded and sidled over behind Anaro.

[Luckur Dreiger]

"There has to be, you always have multiple exists to these kind of facilities in case of collapse," Luckur replied with a nod, motioning towards the 2 other troopers to follow him. "Hard to tell exactly where from here, but it could be further up the rock face. It will be something small, just enough to let in extra air and to let people out. We'll stay under the trees till I see the trail and then head up." Taking a moment to secure his gear, and load a flare into his gauntlet grenade launcher, he grabbed up his blaster once more and headed off. "If you here a fight, come join, otherwise, look for the flare. I'll put it up high enough and to the east, so it won't fall within their line of sight."

Taking their time staying within the cover of the trees, Luckur and his group of Mandalorian Troopers finally found the trail Luckur was looking for. It was pretty overgrown, but it was there, showing that it was possible that the Clan Saxon forces holding it might not have discovered it, at least from the outside. They carefully made their way up the path, Luckur watching their rear while one of the troopers cleared the path with a vibro sword. At the top of the path, they quickly find the hatch that Luckur had suspected was there. Testing it briefly, it was secured, but also hadn't been maintained in years. Motioning his support back, he quickly modified one of his grenades into a mountable explosive to blow the door and launched his flare...

[Anaro Dreiger]

Anaro gave a confident nod, and took his two others further up around toward the front, getting a clearer view into the operation, and making sure the people and droid systems there didn't notice anyone poking around their side doors.

Anaro didn't have a long ranged weapon, however the other two did. They kept communications going of patrols, but they never saw anyone wearing armor. These were just mine personnel, it would seem. A few droids came close to meandering outside the influence of the cave's mouth to potentially spot some movement up the side of the mountain- but managed to stick to their practical routes of staying within a manageably close distance, carting boxes and small objects about while their 'partner' seemed to be piloting the hover dolly.

Anaro started to sigh of boredom before he saw a light flit off toward the east- then hover, to slowly fall. A cheeky grin formed across his face- hidden behind his helmet before the other two Mandalorians looked to one another- surely sharing the same excitement.

"We're in." Anaro mused, and instructed the two to follow him. Merrin clambered to her feet, and Cas stood from a kneeling position. They double timed it through the indigo and black shadowed forest- up a crudely made path and through some fresh cut brush to meet their counterparts by the mine's entrance.

"Good find, as always. Let's see who's to answer for this." He reached down, and instinctively unsnapped and pulled his weapon from it's holster on his right hip. "I'll let you do your thing, Luckur."

[Luckur Dreiger]

BOOM!

The makeshift explosive goes off, blowing open the door. In an instant Luckur is moving, giving orders to his troopers "Weapons on stun, you two handle anyone who isn't carrying a weapon, stun them and move on. Anyone with a weapon I will put down hard. If you think I have missed one, blast it and call it out, I will clean it up. If you're not sure, blast it and keep going. Goal here is to surprise them and drive them into Anaro. If it is as I suspect, there won't be a lot of people in these side tunnels, but keep your eyes open anyway!"

They hit the tunnel and move quickly, the first couple sections empty, Lucker using his experience with mines to take them down and towards the main area. They encounter a few larger rooms that had been cleared, some with a few cases, but not a huge amount. That changes when they reach the first major junction, a large open area that looks to have been used by the original miners as a staging area to go deeper into the mine. The door leading to it had been locked, but not sealed like the outer door. With a three count, Lucker switched his blaster cannon to it's charged shot mode and, racking the cannons charge leaver, unleashed a shot that blew through the lock and slammed the door open outwards. Stepping aside so the Mando's with him could move into the room while he switched back to repeater mode, he quickly follows them in, seeing that they have already settled the room, several workers already down and stunned. A brief look revealed a large number of weapons crates, complete with charge packs, and a few heavier weapons.

Shaking his head, Luckur found the door with the most used and headed for it, "We're in the rear, we should expect more resistance now. If we start seeing real resistance, I won't get mad if you decide stun isn't doing the job anymore."

[Anaro Dreiger]

Hearing the dense blast from the explosion at the secondary entrance, Anaro drew his pistol and the other two checked their weapons.

Watching in, of course the civilians stopped in their tracks and looked around, worried. The droids mostly kept at it, less concerned. There were a few crewmates with hard-hats on that ran toward the mouth of the cave, and were going for a terminal next to a door within a metallic hub.

"Alarms. Let's take 'em." Anaro flipped a switch on his left gauntlet and a high pitched whine was heard. His jetpack burst to life and launched him from cover, toward the entrance, and these two crew members. His two warriors followed him. The crewmates, as they saw the bright streaming jetpacks move in, stopped in their tracks and began waving them down- shouting incoherently until they saw the colors of their armor.

Anaro was careening right toward them.
"Oh no no, they aren-" they weren't able to finish their mutterings before a blue-tinged arc ripple exploded out from his gauntlet- washing over the crewmembers, who immediately collapsed. All three Mandalorians landed on the pourcrete floor.

"Cas, move and tie 'em by the door. Merrin, lets disable the communications."

They were near the entrance, Cas began to gather the stunned, binding their hands before they awaken from the momentary system shock. Anaro and Merrin charged for the operations building nearby. A burst from their jetpacks and they leaped right to it. Landing atop the small trapezoidal building, Merrin pulled a small cube from her belt, and hit a button - it spread flat and a red button blipped atop it. She scurried over toward a nearby satellite dish and slammed the object into it- with a metallic clank. A beep and a click was heard as the square-looking object blipped into a green pattern.

Anaro gave Merrin a nod, before they both charged for the ledge, and leapt off, blasting their jets a few times before hitting the ground so they didn't break their ankles, or need to roll- damaging their packs. Immediately spinning, Anaro sees the door- and a lockpad right next to the doorframe. He took a quick shot and an orange bolt careened into the center, leaving a searing hole. It sparked, and the door hissed open, to which the Mandalorians ran through...

The room was rather small, connected to a hallway and a few rooms attached to it. This one was empty, save a few computer nodes- but in clearing the rest of the building, they found a foreman and some other crew. She surrendered, as did the two other crew- hands in the air and getting to their knees.

Anaro and Merrin detained them- Merrin clasping their hands behind their backs with plasteel strips. They lined the three humanoids wearing coveralls up. Anaro points his pistol directly to the foreman, to which they flinched- though attempting to remain in composure. Zabrak aren't easy to scare, but seeing the odds against her, she sighed and closed her eyes in defeat.

Anaro stepped before her. "I have two questions for you. I know you're storing weapons here. Who's delivering- and who is it for?" his voice was calm and collected, clear through his vocoder. "You've got five seconds."

She swallowed and nodded, looking to her two crewmates on their knees shoulder-to-shoulder next to her. "Look, I don't know who's providing the stuff, but I know that Derrus Saxon and his cadre are shipping it in themselves, and keeping it in a secure part of the mine."

The barrel of the pistol inched closer to the foreman's head.
Anaro's voice came through his helmet's vocoder again- "Where?" It was less a question, actually.

"It's in a locked shaft, there's only access through an unused side door- or following shafts Aurek to Aurek-4c." her voice began to sound less worried. Like there'd be no way to get there without her help. Little did she know, his counterparts sounded like they were already in. "There's a few storage rooms with new security systems on the doors. Only Saxon can get in.... Unless you blow the doors. But- doing that inside is probably not a good idea... you know. Mine shafts tend to be... collapse-y." she gave a confident smirk.

"When's the next shipment?" Anaro's voice came through, slightly more strained through his helmet.

"Oh - uhh..." the zabrak leaned to the side to see a digitized clock on the wall. "Any minute now, actually." her predatory smile lit up her eyes, scrunching some of the dark lines tattooed on her face.

Anaro clicked his tongue, and spoke over his team's communication. "Okay, sounds like we're about to get company soon. Luckur- see any locked doors down there? Probably cleaner- new installs? Apparently only Saxon has the key. And to that- we have our culprits." He huffed a single laugh, scurrying over to a terminal to see if any had shipment information up.... of course they did. His left finger pointed and drew lines as he read.

"Clan Saxon ship. One freighter inbound. We gotta prepare for a fight. My guess is five or six clan members.... You know they won't go easily. We've got a few minutes, clean up and make your way toward the mouth of the cavern if you can. The landing pad is just inside the mouth's door. If you can't, see if you can get into those storage rooms." He gave a hand motion for Merrin, and they both ran from the operations building toward the mouth-

"Cas- get that hangar door open for our friends, they'll be here soon. Once they arrive, lets shut the doors and trap them in."

[Luckur Dreiger]

"No guards, either this is between deliveries, or Saxon is expecting that no one would suspect that they would be using an old mine to store this stuff. Stupid either way," Luckur thought to himself as he examined the door. Heavily secured, but to keep people out, not keep people in. "More Saxon stupidly, they have an open override on this side. Did any of the workers have a security fob on them? Or maybe a map of the tunnels?"

The troopers came back and shook their heads, one saying "No security fob, though they did have some data pads with an inventory lists. From what I am seeing, there looks like another delivery should be incoming soon. Looks like we might have gotten in between deliveries. Lucky for us, not so much for them. It does, however, look like there should be guards, or a headsman of some kind, as there is a Saxon approval code for the received deliveries, someone is taking inventory and preparing to have these shipped out."

The other trooper spoke up, holding another data pad "this one seems to have part of a map, looks like it just has the active parts of the mine, and the locations that they are using to store this stuff. Mine's pretty old, but this will at least show us what's in use."

Luckur chuckled, a smile on his face behind his helmet, "Well, let's go find that headsman, likely has a guard or two as well. If we can take them, and assuming Anaro took the flare and the boom as an excuse to attack from the front, we might have this wrapped up in time to set a proper ambush! And upload that map to your HUD, then pass it around, we can use it to make sure we don't get lost.

Nodding, the troopers took their pads and tucked them away carefully in a secured spot as Luckur used the control panel to open the security door, who discharged a blast from his stun gauntlet through it once the door was fully open to freeze up the mechanism and force it stuck open. Not very subtle, but he wasn't know for being subtle. Once more into the tunnels they went, using the map to follow the course that appeared to be more used, expecting to catch the headsman somewhere along the way.

Luckur was right, they did quickly come across the headsman, along with several local guards, who had setup an ambush for them, The blasts from their Mandalorian's weapons having been heard as they were returning. As they come around the corner into the ambush, Luckur takes several shots driving him back. While they weren't powerful enough to punch through his armor, it caught him off guard and drove him back. The other Mandos came around the corner and responded in kind, quickly putting 3 of the 4 guards down hard, before turning their weapons on the remaining guard and the headsman. Picking himself up, Luckur raised his repeater and points it directly at the headsman. "You really want to fight us with only one more guard? You're not even proper Mandalorians. I will give you one chance since I'm generous. Don't make me regret my generosity."

The remaining guard didn't hesitate, through his weapon to the ground and raising his hands. The headsman shook his head, before doing the same. "You won't get away with this. Clan Saxon will..."

"Clan Saxon will be called out and shown as the cowards they are, trading in weapons and who knows what else. Close your mouth, we have more important things to do that listen to you talk." Turning to his troops and motioning for them to secure the prisoners, they are quickly on their way, showing up shortly their after in the main hanger, prisoners in tow, "Anaro, we have some gifts for you!"