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| - Raxis cocks his shotgun and moves along the side of the group, keeping a close eye on the numerous air shafts and ducts lining the walls of the corridor. Giving a short nod to the technician, he turns around for a moment to make sure that Vee-Ten is scanning around with his enhanced optics. Slowly, cautiously, he presses forward. The great grey Nexu takes several minutes to wend his way through a maze of tubes and tunnels, his nose leading him towards what his predator's instincts tell him is a mortal threat to his mate and his progeny. With his ears beginning to detect the sound of footsteps, the great beast growls low in his throat before crouching down in the deep shadow of some heavy duct-work.... And waits. Stepping out of the successfully cleared room, Tal'sin speaks into the comlink as he leads the group back to the guards at the end of the hall. "Bandit One, this is Bandit Bravo. Hallway and room are cleared. We'll continue our sweep." Turning to the whole group as they meet at the end of the small hallway, he moves his hand in the direction they'll be moving. There's only one direction for them to go that they haven't gone yet, but he figures it can't hurt to make sure. "Back in original formation. We'll be calling it Formation Alpha, while the formation we used to clear the room will be known as Formation Bravo. Don't forget it. Let's move." His shotgun points ahead of him, leading the way ahead of the five or six other men behind him. Raxis gives an immediate and reflexive nod to the marking of the two formations by Tal'sin. The nod itself is a confirmation as well as an immediate reaction, as unlikely as it is that someone hunting a Nexu in cramped quarters with some marines with shotguns would not obey their orders. Letting out a slow breath, Raxis flips some hair out of his eye as creeps forward with his Astromech unit in tow. Having spent the last several hours rebuilding a sublight engine, Ohao figures that the best way to spend his off-duty hours would be to help track the Nexu running wild. As he makes his way toward the hunting group, he checks his portable bioscanner and monitors comlink transmissions so that he knows where they are. Finally reaching their destination, he slows his pace and approaches, hoping that nobody mistakes him for a giant cat. Death. That is the only thought, if thought one could truly call it, in the Great grey predators mind. Either he is going to kill these creatures who threaten him and his mate and offspring or they are going to kill him. Either way, the female and the cubs will be safe. And so from his vantage point in the shadows, the creature marks the approaching formation of humanoids. Noting that they've stopped, the Nexu picks one of them who appears to be the most afraid. With the ability to see into the infra-red, the cat-like beast can see the extra heat emitted by one whose heart is pounding. Stalking forward, the great predator coils all his strength up and then like a lightning bolt, launches himself at one of the shotgun carriers, razor-sharp teeth and wicked claws bared and prepared to inflict lethal damage. Noting Ohao as he joins the group, Tal'sin gives a nod, pointing to the middle of the formation. "Please take position here, Sir." He turns to move out, but the sudden clatter of the Nexu fills his ears as it springs onto one of the marines behind him, growling and roaring as it takes a chunk out of the man's shoulder. The green Twi'lek turns quickly, his finger already pulling back on the trigger as he completes the turn. "Shit! Open fire, don't shoot each other!" How he manages to say that all in what feels like a split second is a mystery to him, but at this point, it doesn't matter. Not bothering to make a special com-call to Vengan, Tal'sin only shoots, hoping the rest will do the same. Raxis suddenly realizes it would have either have been better to have been punched by the Doashim, or having made himself look incompetent before entering the corridor. Trapped in a dark airshaft with a Nexu as the room lights up with the scattered shotgun fire, Vee-Ten howls "Byaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuooooooo!!!" and begins backing away as Raxis strong arms Ohao behind him and tries to get both hands on the shotgun to get an aim at the Nexu. As he moves to take his indicated position, Ohao's visor sees the Nexu's pounce. He quickly turns the opposite direction to find some sort of cover since he is unarmed. Raxis' assistance throws him off balance and he stumbles forward. In the process of regaining his balance, his bioscanner falls to the floor. Not that it's really needed right now. Everyone should have a pretty good idea that the Nexu is in their midst. Having tasted the blood of one of these interlopers, the gray beast now wants more. Swiveling 180 degrees in place, the Nexu simply charges at the next available target, another one of the shot-gun carrying Marines. With claws out and fangs bared, the creature seeks to tear it's intended target apart. Swearing loudly as he misses the Nexu, Tal'sin takes aim to shoot again. As it jumps from it's first victim, landing on another one of his marines, the Twi'lek can't help but wonder if it's targeting specific beings. Either way, the Nexu's jump comes as slightly less a surprise than the first, and the marine makes it far enough out of the way to only receive a glancing bite, but that doesn't stop blood from being spilled. After Tal'sin takes his shot, he glares at the rest of the squad and their idle guns. "Shoot back, you fools!" "VEE, Get to work on that panel!" Raxis yells, nudging his head and half shoving the astromech with his boot as he scans with his eyes to see if there's a hatch they might be able to slam down on the Nexu. "Nothing till I say so!" He yells, opening fire on the ferocious beast" Loud noise. Flashes of light. The threatening humanoids are trying to kill him, but they are slow and he is fast. Fast and deadly. Two of them already he's put down and they cannot lay one of their strange weapons upon him. So he will strike again, and again, and again. Rushing towards yet another shotgun carrying Marine, the gray Nexu roars as it swipes at its intended target with a set of long and wickedly sharp claws. Conflicting emotions jump to the forefront of Tal'sin's conscience as he again misses, but the Nexu's next attack misses it's target. The squad seems to be waking up. "Keep it up!" He calls out as Raxis takes a shot. "He can't dodge 'em all!" He takes aim again, hoping this time he'll make contact. The next instant the Nexu seems to pause, Tal'sin fires the shotgun, rocking back slightly at the weapon's kick. Raxis backs up slowly with Ohao behind him as he keeps firing, being careful to avoid the other marines. "Can we lock him down somewhere? decompress it!?" he yells, and then pulls the trigger again. One of the two-legged beasts manages to strike him with the thunder and lightning of his strange weapon, but the blow merely stings. As another fires upon him, the grey predator leaps out of the way at the last split second with great agility. Coiling up once more, the beast launches itself at the one who fired last, Raxis. A rumbling growl echoes along the passage as the creatures leaps. Tal'sin's eyes narrow as he his shot first connects with the Nexu, then bounces off harmlessly. Glancing at the shotgun in his hand, he shakes his head, silently cursing whatever company that happened to manufacture the last shell. Looking back to the Nexu, he watches as it strikes Raxis. Cursing loudly as another man goes down, Tal'sin aims for the Nexu once more. His face distorts into anger as he pulls the trigger, yelling, "You sunnuvabitch!" "Oh Kar---" Raxis gets out as the massive beast sidesteps his shotgun blast, raking him across the shoulder powerfully. His legs slip from under him as he is tossed back against the bulkhead wall and then slides painfully to the floor. Still managing to hang on for dear life to his shotgun, the back of his head lumps against the floor as he goes dizzy. Mere adrenaline keeping him awake, he aims at the grey blurry blob in his vision. To his luck, he hears a shaft open to the side and a familiar beeping from his astromech, Vee-ten. "OHAO! OUT! GO!" He slurs and then unleashes another round. More thunder, more lightning. And if the maelstrom that surrounds a great beast in battle inflicts more stinging on his grey-furred hide, the creature probably hardly feels it, with all the adrenaline pumping through his predator's veins. As the two-legged creature he last knocked down has missed him, the Nexu then turns his attention on the last standing Marine, and lunges with an ear-splitting feral yowl. "Shit." Tal'sin notes, with some admitted dismay, that he's the last one standing. As the cat-like Nexu turns on him and lunges, Tal'sin's vision narrows and his lips raise into a snarl. It's too late for dodging, which is soon evidenced by the fact that although the green being moves laterally sideways, still facing the beast, it still connects, knocking him over with the Nexu on top. Reacting quickly, however, Tal'sin kicks out, rolling the two. With a loud battlecry, the Twi'lek uses the Nexu's momentum to throw it off to prevent any critical damage. Quickly popping up to his feet, Tal'sin takes aim yet again, this time with a crazed look in his eye, as if he's moving to an instinctual level that makes him more beast than sentient creature. He fires, the battle goes on, Twi'lek versus Nexu. With a bloodied hand connected to a blood caked shoulder, Raxis pushes himself up off of the floor and aims the shotgun at the Nexu as he limps to put himself slightly between Tal'sin and the Nexu. "If I go down you run for the door where Ohao is a---" He mutters before his words are closed off with gunfire. Wounded and desperate, some part of him would rather die than risk the technician being eaten. The Nexu shrieks in pain as the thunder and lightning of his enemies finally bites into his gray-furred body, perforating his right flank. However, the beast still has plenty of strength and life left in him. And in his killer's heart, he intends to use it to rend the life from the two-legged creatures that contend with him here. Ignoring the one he'd already bloodied, the Nexu stalks forward to lash out with one of its clawed paws at the creature who has just now drawn his blood. Glaring at the Nexu as it takes the hit, Tal'sin cocks his shotgun, and upon noticing that the AA-8 needs reloading, quickly loads a new clip into the gun. He brings the gun back up, just to have Raxis move in front of him. Too enthralled with the thrill of battle, Tal'sin meerly watches the Nexu, and as it looks like it's going to strike again, pushes the pilot out of the way, letting his momentum carry the two away from the cat-like creature's outstretched claws. Pivoting, Tal'sin aims the gun at the hopefully-unbalanced Nexu and fires two shots in quick succession. If he's lucky, one or both will hit and cause even more damage to the predator. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaarrrggghhh!" Raxis yells, as both he and Tal'sin open fire. Three marines already done, the tech and the droid already retreated, they're down to do or die as Raxis pulls the trigger with a curse. "Die!"" The Nexu's slashing attack fails to connect with the two-legged adversary. Off-balance for a split second, the beast finds itself vulnerable to the thunder of his foes. However, the dual strike inflicted by the enemy that the creature had just tried to knock down also fails of its promise, merely flogging his pelt with under-powered pellets. However the other two-legged creature whom he had already bloodied and then ignored turns out to be a far more effective threat. Raxis' shot strikes the creature almost directly in the back of it's head with catastrophic lethal effect. For the Nexu, it is a fitting end. The last fleeting images in the creature's mind are imaginings of triumph, thoughts of rending his remaining foes and feasting on their flesh. So it is that even though this will never be, it is the taste of victory that defines the creatures final moment before its life force flees its body to become one with the universe. Blinking as the Nexu falls climactically from the pilot's shot, Tal'sin turns his head to stare at Raxis, his battle concentration quite broken by the pilot's, um, "warcry." Looking from Raxis to the Nexu, Tal'sin blinks again, then looks back to Raxis, then again at the Nexu, doing a quick pitstop at the shotgun in his hand, and then to the one in Raxis' hand, and then back at the pilot himself, then finally stopping at the Nexu. "Huh.." He says, feeling a bit bewildered. Shrugging, he steps up to the creature and shoulders the shotgun, trading it for the vibroblade in his boot. Standing above it, a lip curls in anger, but a small slot of time passes that contains respect for the creature's life. After a second or so of this, Tal'sin hails Draelis. Looking down at the fallen Nexu, he utters a final prayer, then turns the switch on the vibroblade to "on" and crouching lower. Raxis grunts weakly as he breathes heavily in and out, his face paling slightly from loss of blood. Leaning on one arm at the elbow he tries to push himself up, but the adrenaline is fading fast from his body and he can't find the strength. With a bloodied groan, he rolls over onto his back and looks down the hallway to where Vee-ten and the technician disappeared to. "Vee....get back in an...close the door." He mumbles, trying again to roll over to a kneeling position. With luck he does, but then loses his inertia and topples, landing on his wounded side...propped slightly against the wall. "Medic!" He mumbles, dropping his shotgun. "oh....man this hurts" He says with lidded eyebrows and a weak laugh as he looks over to Tal'sin. "...that thing better ...be dead." Even as Raxis speaks, somewhere in the bowels of OS Paladin's maintenance tunnels, a she-nexu hears the final distant whispers of combat. Something tells her that she is now alone, save for the two cubs nestled at her side. Her mate is dead; and she knows it. But the yellow-furred beast is not about to give up. The beast may only have the cunning intelligence of a jungle predator, but it is enough to understand that if the two-legged creatures whose scent fills her nostrels with each breath want her life and that of her children, they are going to pay for it dearly. That much she knows. Someone at headquarters decided it wasn't a good idea to outfit the squads hunting NEXU with medpacs, so there's very little that Tal'sin can do to help any of the fallen men at this point. He's not particularly worried however. Quick observations had shown that no one had been hurt too badly.. just enough to knock 'em down for a few seconds. Glancing behind himself as Raxis falls, Tal'sin smirks. "Oh, it's dead alright. You just about blew it's brains out. It was a pretty nice shot, too. Where were you aiming?" He glances back to his work with the Nexu, slowly carving out teeth and making a bloody mess all over the place. Before long, feet can be heard stomping down the hallway. Tal'sin gives a nod to the medical team as they arrive, pointing to the injured men laying about, as if the trained medics can't figure that much out for themselves. Raxis huffs, letting out a sweaty breath from his place along the wall as the med-techs ease him to sit up against the wall and a fresh group of reinforcement marines flood the area. With a whoosh, Vee-ten shuts the outer door and reemerges with the technician. "I uh..." Raxis laughs, wincing slightly. "you're probably lucky I didn't...no. OW!" He grunts as the medtech beside him begins to inspect how deep the wound is. "No...correction. Yes. I was aiming at its brain, man" He says with a weak laugh through lidded eyes. "Unh...this better not get me taken off the ready roster.."
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