Black Hawk Down [OPEN]

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Varati gripped the controls of her ship tightly, trying to ignore the blaring alarm and flashing red light indicating that all was not well with the ship. She already knew that, she didn't need to be told. Varati wondered for a moment if hitting it would make it shut up.

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Her previous mission hadn't gone too well, leading to the situation she was in. She'd chased a bounty to another planet, where ship had been ambushed and she'd been forced to retreat. The engines had given out near this planet called Earth, and the gravitational field had pulled her in. She could've sworn she'd once heard something about this planet back on Thanagar, but she couldn't quite recall. But that didn't really matter now.

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She was pretty sure she'd be fine-- during her time in the Thanagarian military, she'd had more than one drops from orbit in a ship, and they always went especially well when she was wearing her armor. Varati reached up and pulled the safety strap from the top of the seat, securing herself in. She checked a monitor; she'd be impacting soon. It wouldn't be too bad, the waiting was always the worst part. Again, she was pretty certain she'd be fine, but still she cast a glance back to her ship's munitions closet, where a chest filled with her dearest belongings. Bringing her gaze back, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and braced for impact.

CRASH!

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Varati took a moment before opening her eyes, confirming she was still alive. She released the strap and lifted herself off the chair with a grunt. The Thanagarian took a moment and put a hand to her head, wondering how soon her headache would go away. And how soon she could get her shipped fixed and out of here. It was a fairly cheap ship, but it was a pretty durable little thing. It just didn't have any of the fancy bells and whistles that newer models had, like weapons. But she didn't really mind that-- Varati always preferred to be closer to the action.

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After a few moments, her headache dulled a little, and she checked her pistols to make sure they were still intact before opening the door and stepping out--

--to the welcoming committee of multiple officers, with their guns trained on her. She raised a hand to shield her eyes from the flashing lights, gun still in her hand, and the firing began. Varati let out a small grunt as a blast of laser fire impacted her shoulder, catching her offguard. She stepped back into her ship, quickly assessing her options. She could return fire, and possibly make the engagement bigger. She could flee, and let them get to her ship. She could stay in the ship, and risk them damaging it further, possibly beyond repair. A fight would be more fun, but... She sighed. Probably best not to start a war with a planet she'd just encountered.

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Varati opened the munitions closet and pulled out the small wooden chest, tucking it under her arm. For a brief moment, she considered bringing her sniper rifle, then decided against it. Her mace, though, she'd definitely take that, which she hooked to her belt.
Stepping back out of her ship, sealing and locking the door behind her, then quickly jumped off the ground, spreading her wings and taking off into the sky. Taking one last glance back at her ship, she flew off, wondering what other surprises this planet would bring.

Mo was currently on one of her nightly patrols according to Steel City's clocks, but being in space made day or night a moot point. In any case, Mo was abit further out and keeping a close watch out for anything out of the unusual. Pirates, greedy merchants, slavers, space dragons or other monsters, or another Oikonny warship- she didn't think there'd be another one of those for awhile. Pretty much since then, Mo had been extra vigilante and spending more time in space than planetside. That was when her ship sensors picked up an unidentified craft speeding into range. It was badly damaged from the looks of it, which meant that it wasn't a threat and whoever was on it needed help! Mo was so focused on just trying to turn her ship back around, that she neglected to actually see what kind of ship it was.

She soon flew down through the clouds, following the not so obvious looking smoke trail before setting the ship to auto-pilot. It was dangerous to fly her ship within the city, so Mo simply hopped out and took to the air herself. Mo was picking up some thoughts here and there, much of which were slight panic which upon arriving on the scene, she saw the firing line of cops. There had been another mind somewhere but it must have just gotten out of her range as she couldn't sense it any more. Her presence hadn't gone unnoticed and officers down below were pointing up at her. "Self is here to investigate the crashed vessel. Where is the pilot?" Mo telepathed down to them. The ONLY reason Mo didn't get the same treatment was A): she didn't have any visible guns, and B): she had already done the city a great service in helping fight off the Oikonny raid.

"Oh, right... yer that alien that gets into people's heads..." a clearly not happy thought growled.

"Yes- self apologizes for the inconvenience of the intrusion but self wants to help," Mo apologized and tried to bring the conversation back to the task at hand. The men down below all seemed to point in a direction to guide Mo who thanked them and sped off in the direction they indicated. The pilot had wings? That seemed very fitting then that they were a pilot Mo thought as she tried to stretch her telepathy outwards, stopping into a rooftop or two so she could concentrate. It wasn't going to be easy in a city, but there had to be a set of thoughts that stood out. Also based on the... welcome they got, they were probably spooked and looking for a place to hide...

As she fled the scene, Varati went over her next steps in her head.
First things first, blend in.
She'd been able to get a decent look at the ones firing at her, and they looked similar enough to Thanagarians that she'd probably be able to pass as one. The only problem was her wings. She'd have to figure out a way to conceal them.
Varati flew until she found what she was looking for-- a building containing garments. The perfect place to pick up a disguise. She did a quick scan to make sure nobody nearby was looking her way, and quickly dove down to the alley behind the structure. Locating an entryway, she forced her way in-- and whether she didn't know or just didn't care, set off an alarm. Varati took a quick walk through the store, grabbing items she decided would be useful.
Upon completing her circuit around the store, the Thanagarian dumped the items in a pile and began stripping her armor off, revealing the black bodysuit she wore beneath, and sticking the pieces of the armor into a duffel bag she'd grabbed. Leaving her ship was one thing-- it was a cheap piece of crap, replacable if need be-- but she wasn't about to lose her personalized armor.
After getting dressed, which took no more than a few minutes, Varati exited the way she'd came in. She now had baggy camo cargo pants, a grey tanktop, and a black trenchcoat, long enough to cover her wings. She'd also grabbed a pair of tinted sunglasses, to help conceal her identity as the one who had just crash landed. Her Thanagarian eyes would be able to see through them well enough in the streets, despite the darkness.
Perfect. Next step, find supplies to repair my ship.
She stepped out of the aisle, and got a short distance before her stomach began to rumble.
Okay, new play... Find food first, then find supplies for the ship.
The woman adjusted the duffel bag strap on her shoulder, then continued on her way.

Mo was having trouble picking up anything immediately regarding the ship, didn't help that there were plenty of curious locals filling the air with their thoughts making it next to impossible to pinpoint one that stood out. This really was an issue, until she started picking up some thoughts of distress. Mo flew her way down just about the same time as a couple Steel City Squad Cars pulled up.

"A feckin'space craft crashes'an we get stuck checkin'this shite out? Oi! Is tha'who we're lookin'fer Rick?" a magenta haired cyborg barked, wondering why instead of rolling out with the MRO, she was put in a squad car.

"Self is also looking for the pilot because this may just be a huge misunderstanding miss," Mo telepathed while Rick and the others hung back for a moment before heading into the store Varati had been in.

"Think that one helped us when the talking bacon came down," Rick spoke up.

"Telepath? Feckin'grand. Look, you seem alright and shit but we ain'takin' chances. They're armed an'dangerous," Roxxy didn't totally let up, still remembering all the trouble those swine caused.

Mo sighed and let them do their job. flying out and around the perimeter only for a moment- she didn't think it was related to the pilot so didn't spend too much time. It was more out of habit to try and help out, but she had to find this person before the locals did- or atleast she hoped it wouldn't be too bad if the locals did.

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Varati continued walking until her nose picked up the scent of food. Considering her heightened Thanagarian senses didn't include smell, it took some time. But, it did help that the window was smashed.

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Wait, that's odd...

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Varati approached the broken window, slowly pulling one of her blasters from its holster. She peered inside to see an Oikonny-- she'd seen their kind around the galaxy. The being was currently stuffing its face with the contents of the restaraunt.

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Well, that might explain why the locals were so jumpy.

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Stepping back for a moment, Varati considered her options. She could leave it be, and just keep walking until she found another place to get food. On the other hand, if she were to take this thing down, the locals might be a little less shooty towards her. She stepped back to the window to get another look--and let out a small gasp. It was looking directly at her, now.

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Looks like my choice is made.

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Grabbing the other gun from its holster, Varati dove through the window, firing off blasts at the being. She landed in a roll, dropping her blasters and pulling her mace from her hip. This was going to get interesting.

The Oikonny raid had been dealt with, and all that remained were stragglers- the very rare few who had enough brain cells to rub together to start a fire. But that was still a very generous statement as any of them could lay low for awhile, but then they got hungry and that's when problems arose. This one had apparently just found himself an overcoat, a hat and a bandana to cover his face to hide what he was. It was almost pretty good if not for his stature- which more created the problem that it made him LOOK almost just as imposing. But that all subtlety went out- err, through the window once he found a place that served the food he wanted. So in typical Oikonny fashion, he raided the place, asserted his dominance, and was now gonna eat until either he had enough (highly unlikely) or something came by to try and stop him.

Then he smelled something through the cold decay seeping into through the broken window that kinda reminded him of poultry. He looked over toward the window and locked his steely eyes with a peeping tom armed with a blaster. Once the realization hit him, he let out an annoyed growl as he stood up, and threw up an arm over his face as Varati moved in with blasters going off. He grunted and snorted as the blasts stung, also burning holes through his overcoat. Then he pulled out a sawed off "Flakker" from his hip. "Yuu wanna brawl girlie? YER GUNNA HAVE TUH DO BETTER THAN THAT!" The Oikonny bellowed, taking aim and squeezing off a spray of molten shrapenel in her general directions before reaching down and ripping the normally BOLTED small table out of the floor, and threw that at her too with another shot from his weapon right behind it.


Meanwhile, Mo would be worried that she was wasting her time at this point. It was like finding an Amorphean in an ocean- which is to say incredibly difficult! But she picked up some more distress nearby, this city just had all kinds of problems today didn't it? She didn't immediately fly over, she'd let the local police respond to that since they seemed to be out in force anyway looking for their unwelcome visitor. But then one thought seemed to reach her, a very specific and worrying one- "it's an Oikonny." Mo immediately double backed and flew at high speed in the direction of the thought, and from her bird's eye view she'd see where it was but it'd still take her a moment to get there. It also seemed like some cop cars were on the way but traffic was slowing them down... another point for being able to fly!

Slipping the bag off her shoulder, Varati executed a roll to the right, avoiding the incoming fire, then drew her mace to smash the table flying at her. Then she crouched and raised her mace in front of her face to prevent the next volley from hitting any extremities. A few grazed her arms, one actually embedding itself in her left bicep, causing her to grunt in pain.

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"Better, eh?"

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Varati leapt on top of a table, then jumped off to smash her mace down on the creature's head, and then give it a kick in the torso to back it up a bit. It would stun it for just a moment, hopefully long enough. She couldn't win this in these cramped quarters. She needed room to breath.

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The girl dashed back to her bag, scooping it up, and threw herself back out the window. She didn't have time to put her armor fully back on, but she quickly slipped her gauntlets onto her hands after removing the coat. She would've just ripped it off, but it was a fairly functional garment for concealing her wings when need be. Varati took a deep breath, then flapped her wings and rose a few feet in the air. This would be a tough fight, and she'd need every advantage she could get. In her bounty hunting days so far, she'd mostly gone after small-time targets. Sure, she'd fought powerful enemies like this before-- but that was back in her military days. Back when she had a squad. Varati shook those thoughts from her head. Right now, she needed to be focused.

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Remember your training, Vara.

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A few moments later, the Oikonny emerged from the building and looked around. Varati had taken advantage of the fact that most bipedal beings-- at least, ones without flight, she'd noticed-- rarely looked up. With a roar, she dove down upon him, striking down with her mace on the top of his head.

The Oikonny grunted and was seeing stars for a brief moment from the first blow, but it was the kick that sent even his chunky self off balance. Angry snort. He got back to his feet and drew his sidearm, a crude looking pistol as he ran outside... and maybe due to the first blow to the head, or just a lack of brains in general, he didn't bother to look up even though she had wings. So he was clocked on the head for a second time, letting out a pained piggy squeal from the added height before immediately trying to tackle her into the ground with a charge.

Just prior to this move, Mo would see Varati in the air and hear more of her thoughts. She found her, and she was fighting the Oikonny! "Aim for his snout, but be careful, because that might send him into a rage!" Mo telepathed to her as she got closer, hands glowing as she prepared to fire a beam once she didn't have to worry about accidentally hitting Varati. Even if he did go into a rage, he wouldn't be able to do much with them both flying around... other than trying to throw a car at them maybe.