A Wedding... or a Hanging

[Serasai Onashi]

Onashi wasn't sure what the name of the planet he was on actually was; nor did he really care to find out. All he knew was that he was working, and kriff it felt good to get back into the swing of things. Sure he'd been on planet for... maybe six months or so, but he had priorities.

Well, one priority.

War.

Backwater planet, ongoing civil war, humanoid females, weapons, death?

Yes, please.

Suicide mission to kill the main war strategist in the opposing capital, facing the best of the best of the enemy's soldiers and the noble's own hereditary guardsmen? During a party for the noble's thirteen year old son?

Yes, please.

"Access points?"

"The ventilation shafts; viewports along the servants' wing during the party. Servants' entrance. Really don't see a point. There's a wall. And guards. And access cards. Secrecy will get us nowhere."

"And how would you do it, Onashi?"

"Liberal use of explosives," Onashi said with a gleaming smile and unfocused eyes. "Rockets to the front and servants' entrance. Jump packs to get us over the walls, hitting the barracks and here."

He pointed to the topmost viewport of King Halbarabara's (whatever his name was) mansion.

"Why?" Captain Hard-ass asked with a bemused frown as he looked at the quick mock up of Onashi's plan.

"Why not?"

"No, I mean why do you have 'Orphanages to be burned/blown up — TOP PRIORITY'?"

"Well, if we're going in loud, we'll have to deal with a lot of heat from not only the guards and defence forces, but the security forces outside in the city itself... unless they were busy dealing with something else. Like burning orphanages. People care about those, right? Of course we'd have to set cresh-4 along the foundation of the mansion, too."

"...that would waste time and energy."

"But it would be the Imperial Candle atop the fireworks display that is the Nobles' Council Strike! 'No one is safe while King Habrabra is in charge!' 'The Nobles' Council is the only power strong enough to keep YOU safe!' And so on."

"He has a point, Captain," one of the other soldiers murmured.

"No he doesn't!" the Captain growled.

"Not the cresh-4 part, but the jump packs and the rocket strikes are brilliant. Sure, it's not quiet, but at some point we'd have to go loud, right? The place is too well guarded and the background checks for help there are too severe to get any of us through. And distractions for the security forces would make our job easier, exfiltration or no exfiltration."

"Guys, guys," Onashi said, his hands held up placatingly. "We're taking this far too seriously. Lighten up a bit, okay? This is a suicide mission; that doesn't mean we're all going to die."

"Uh, yes. Yes it does mean that. That's why it's called a suicide mission."

Onashi frowned. "Really? I thought they were called that due to difficulty to the average soldier. You know, like D through S ranks or something. I thought we were all super commandos chosen for our abilities to do impossible missions and come out alive."

The silence in the room was intense.

"You think the 's' in S-Rank stands for Suicide?" Onashi wondered aloud before another soldier spoke up in hushed awe.

"You've done missions like this before?"

Onashi laughed. "Oh yeah. Some of 'em were great! Let me tell you about the time me and this group called Dorn Force had to infiltrate one of the Galactic Empire bases..."

The Captain let his head fall to the table while the other soldiers listened with rapt attention to the mercenary's words.

[Alienor Vankar]

Alienor could care less about politics. What she saw when she was invited to this fancy party held on yet another planet that farted higher than its ass was the fat check they were willing to give her to play at their little gathering. She had made herself an impressive reputation as a musician, especially in terms of classical and traditional genres, so when people were ready to get out of their way to have her perform, she was totally making the best of it. And when it served her illegal business, she loved killing two womp rats with one stone.

Truth was that she also loved performing no matter what. It made her artistic soul soar and she wasn't going to deny herself such enjoyment. Heck, she was even able to rock a couture dress (http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2015/greatideas/blog/150518/ksenia-solo-600x800.jpg) she had been hoping to wear for a while. Given her latest heist and how she had been working hard on hunting a new place to open a martial art class, she hadn't really looked upper class in a good while. She had spent all of the afternoon rehearsing at the reception hall and had made sure that her instruments were perfectly ready for the event. It had also given her the opportunity to be offered a tour of the building by the lady of the house, which was going to serve her extremely well.

Arriving on time, for fashionable or not, she hated showing late unless she had a good reason to, Alienor made herself comfortable near the buffet and accepted a flute of champagne. Having fun until the hour was so late she could do more than being a musician was all she had on her agenda.

At least, it was until an idiot who hadn't learned his lesson decided to come bother her. "Oh if it isn't the princess who dreamed herself a martial art specialist? Please tell me that you're just here to lull us to sleep with your little violin..." Alienor could have thrown the content of her glass at his face, but the champagne was too good to be wasted as such. He had been a thorn in her side for a few weeks now and had decided to humiliate her since she had thrown one of his business acolytes from her class because he was just here to annoy female students and proved unwilling to learn, or even respect her as a teacher. She smirked as she recalled how she had literaly tossed him outside of the room, quite publicly at that.

"So, you have nothing to say, little girl?" That was enough. Alienor placed her flute back on the table and without hesitation, leaned forward and grabbed at the man's throat. "Two options: you shut up or we finish that outside." She was hoping he would actually choose the second option so she could beat him up.

[Serasai Onashi]

*We have threats to Armory and Security Stations reported. Repeat, threats to Armory and Security Stations reported. All forces are to enter standby for orders.*

Onashi's smile grew larger.

"The barricades are getting weaker. And Four-Two reports that some checkpoints are completely disbanding."

"Beautiful when a plan comes together. That's the cue, guys! Let's go make a mess, all right?"

Through the fuzz in his commlink, he could hear the other members of the Elite Assault Death Squad Alpha (as they'd named themselves) reporting their readiness. He glanced around the speeder transport to see the faces of the soldiers all turned towards him. He smirked under the pressure of their regard.

"Boom stick, please," he asked. He was handed a Smart Rocket. "Jump Packs ready? Boom Sticks ready?"

"Yes sir!"

Onashi grinned and opened the sun roof of the bulk transport speeder and pointed the rocket at the security force's barricade only a few blocks from the Royal Mansion.

"Hello!" he shouted and fired at one of the speeders making up the barricade. It went up in fire and light; on the other side of the barricade, another team approaching fired their own rocket at the same barricade. Both transport speeders plowed through the flaming wrecks of their targets, before turning and making their way to the walls of the mansion. "Another!"

He was handed another rocket as the back of the speeder opened up and the E.A.D.S.A. Soldiers jumped out and engaged their jump packs, the rocket packs taking them over the defensive wall and into the large, well maintained gardens and lawns. Each one of them had their own rocket, which they aimed and fired at every exit and entrance point they could find. He and another soldier armed the explosives in their transport speeders before meeting their comrades on the other side of the wall with their own jump packs.

"Phase One," Onashi said with relish, "Success. Let's go do some assassinatin' boys!"

With a whoop of anxious energy, the soldiers of the Elite Assault Death Squad Alpha rushed into the mansion to cause some mayhem and kill a certain strategist.

"I love my job," the mercenary sighed as he strutted into the entrance hall of King Hasbro's mansion, following his soldiers into dishonorable battle. "I just do. Not sometimes. All of the time."

[Alienor Vankar]

As expected - and hoped for - the idiot thought so high of himself he chose the second option. "You don't have the guts to do anything." The way he spat the words made Alienor punch him in the face and grab him by the collar. "Excuse me... Sorry... Please... Thank you..." She ushered in between passing through gathered patrons as she dragged the guy outside. Her slender frame made others mistake her for a fragile little thing but they couldn't be more misled. She cared not for the shocked glances her way for she was going to finish that damn business and to maintain her reputation, fancy dress or not fancy dress.

Once outside, the moron freed himself from her and try to pin her down and kick her, but she was ready for him. She twisted his arm and used the momentum to kick her heels off, soon grabbing one to stab him. She heard cheerings from some of the security personnel despite how weird such a sight might be during a higher class meeting held by royalty, but she didn't care one little bit.

That was until she heard bombings and shootings closing in on the area. She gave one last punch to her target who fell unconscious on the ground. She saw a wave of attackers come out of nowhere in the distance. She didn't stay to ask what was going on. Whatever it was, she wasn't going to get caught in it. Barefoot, she rushed back inside the mansion, where screaming was already heard all over the place.

Thing was that she wasn't afraid. She saw an opportunity. Fetching her purse, she clipped the strap back on its hooks and adjusted it around her body, disappearing into hallways. Pulling her dress up and tying it as a shirt, revealing black shorts under, she put gloves on and then decided to make the best of this mayhem to get to her robbery.

[Serasai Onashi]

Inside the main ballroom, the guards were looking around wide-eyed while the sounds of blasters firing and voices shouting were muffled by the massive doors and music and chatter of people within the huge room.

"So the King turns to me and asks, 'Artur, however will it survive?' And I respond —" The General stopped as one of the guards took him by the arm and pulled him away. "Wha — what? Haeri, what's this?"

Any response was cut off by the doors being blasted open and figures emerging from the smoke. A man with long dark brown hair braided down his back and an odd looking blaster in his hands was flanked by six more soldiers, all armed to the teeth.

"We're looking for the General!" the brown haired man shouted. "Give him up in three seconds or we'll begin firing into all of you. Chances are we'll get him anyway, it'll just take longer."

Mister Onashi sir, we have a woman heading down a hallway into a sealed section of the mansion.

"Hold on, hold on, this may be important," he said, holding one hand up. "Kill the guards you see."

He turned around as blasters spat out plasmic death into the crowd and around the room.

"Okay, so we have a runner, a big damn hero, what have we got?" he asked as the blaster fire ceased.

Unknown, Mister Onashi, sir.

Onashi grunted.

"Blow her up?"

Sir?

Onashi shrugged, even though young beard-glued-onto-faced teen couldn't see the gesture.

"Drop that wing of the mansion? I'd say send men in after her but that sounds like the plot of a bad holofilm. Slayhard or something dumb like that."

I... I don't think we can just blow up just that part of the building sir.

"See, Jenkins, this is why you never get anywhere. Because you're always so pessimistic. Who said just that part of the mansion? Let's just drop the whole place around her."

Why can't we just... leave her alone? She seems to be ignoring us.

"Firstly, son, anyone sneaking off during a sneak attack like ours is up to no good. Secondly, ignore us? Like hell! We didn't get dolled up for nothin'!"

He turned, pulled out a DT-12 pistol, and aimed down the crowd, and fired.

"The general! He shot him!"

"Called it!" Onashi pumped an arm in triumph.

[Alienor Vankar]

The screaming and the shooting were damn loud even as Alienor scampered off to another aisle of the mansion. She knew that at some point she might get in trouble, but any time she could gain while the attack distracted the rest of the crowd was a win. She wanted to get her hands on the lady of the house's jewelry and she would. That would be a fun heist and a very expensive one. Oh the money she would make with this. Maybe she should have tried to just escape or to help some people but she didn't care about them. Bunch of pompous idiots for the most part. And she had come here mostly to get the robbery done so she would take care of that.

She easily reached the security door that separated her from the vaults. She had remembered the layout with ease. Finding a slot to connect her datapad in the wall, she then began to work through slicing the security code. That was harder that coming up with fake IDs and crap like that, but she knew how to slice well enough. And people weren't running after her yet, so she carried on with her task.

The attack seemed rather crazy for all the noises she still heard far away from it and she hadn't seen every equipment that bunch of attackers came with. She didn't know what they would do to the whole house but trouble was her middle name, so getting in a lot of it was kind of the usual. She had pulled crazy things several times before.

Now if this damn thing could just open....

On cue, the security doors wooshed open and she retrieved her datapad before sauntering into the vault. There was so much there, but she knew she didn't have time to go through everything. The good thing was that some boxes were much smaller, indicating items such as jewelry.

All she had to do was find the ones she needed.

[Serasai Onashi]

"You're sure she went down this way?" Onashi asked, looking down the hall.

"Yes sir," Jenkins responded. He pointed to the datapad in his hand. "Blueprints here show this leads down to functional rooms like kitchens and maintenance corridors, and further along it leads into... a vault?"

Onashi nodded, a look of pleased surprise on his face.

"Well done, boy. Get Wilkins, Aberforth, Aurora, and What's-His-Face down here. With Cresh-4."

"Uh... yes sir. Thank you sir."

Onashi marched down the hall, and not one minute later, three of the four requested soldiers were present.

"Plant here, here, and down there. Make sure the blasts seal off the corridors."

"Sir?"

Onashi smiled.

"We're just making sure that we're not the only ones security's going to keep an eye out for," he said, not worried about What's-His-Face for not showing up. "Hop to ladies and gentlemen, hop to! We're getting out of here in five minutes now that the General's dead, and the jump packs are almost done charging."

The soldiers got to work, and with Onashi himself lending a hand, they were done in an astounding three minutes.

"Let's go, boys and girls, let's go!" he called, setting the charges and giving a grin down the corridor. The soldiers ran back to the main hall, leaving him behind to mutter quietly while he sauntered after them, "I wonder if we'll need all the jump packs. Maybe not. Henderson got done in by a bad rocket. Maybe we'll just leave that one behind..."

[Alienor Vankar]

Alienor didn't give a care in the world to the chaos that was ongoing in the house. She was focused solely on the task at hand. When she sliced into the right drawers and containers to retrieve smaller items, all of them jewelry because they were shiny and easy to carry, she was done. She put everything in a zipped pouch that she clipped via several hooks on her outfit. It looked like some small holster but she wasn't going to lose her precious loot. No way in hell that it would happen. She was getting one hell of an opportunity and she wasn't going to pass it up.

Her joy didn't last long because she soon heard several explosions that were way too close to her liking. Frowning, she managed to exit the vault but to her surprise the hallway was now half collapsed and she had zero idea how she was going to get away from this section.

"Eff that..." She muttered under her breath. She coughed because of some of the dust. She tore apart a piece of her dress and used it to cover the lower part of her face. That would help as she tried to navigate this mess. So far, no guard was after her but that might not last long.

She remembered the kitchen area wasn't so far, so she would make her way towards it. It would have lifts and makeshift weapons...