The two left the building, taking as much armor as they could, dropping it off and Vahl’s house before setting off again, expecting a rough fight. They followed a set of directions that the holopad roughly laid out, making their way across most of the city and avoiding pirates. After a long walk the two arrived at an isolated two-story building, which was just as rachet and poor quality as the houses around it. Most of the plating on the outside of the building seemed removed to reinforce the fence instead, which would soon become a fatal mistake. The one thing that set this building apart from the rest was the fence, one that was obviously freshly put up and not very tall or sturdy. Vahl and Umana saw two pirates standing guard in front of the entrance of the fenced area, but they seemed like the only protection on the outside. Umana and Vahl moved to opposite sides of the pirates, flanking them. From his position Vahl was on the left of them and Umana was on the right. Vahl stepped out from cover, into the view of the pirates, alarming them and turning them in his direction. Behind the pirates two laser rifle stocks hit the back of their heads, their bodies slump unconscious into two pairs of grey arms, placing them down silently.

“Did your father teach you that too?”

“Yes, though he always sounded disappointed that I was bad at it.”

“Humph, sounds like our fathers are similar.”

Vahl didn’t bother elaborating, instead walking further into the fenced compound, toward the building. When he arrived halfway, he stopped and Umana waited by the door of the building. Vahl lowered his stance, bending his legs and covering his head with his arms. Pushing through his legs his speed rocketed, using the soldier ability Jet Dash to Run as if he weren’t eight feet tall or wearing one hundred and a half armor. His massive eight-hundred-pound total body crashed into the side of the building, tearing through the few fragile scrap metal sheets and wooden framing, even charging through and pushing an originally bolted down thin wooden table that was placed center in the room.

Umana opened the door of the building and closed it behind her gently and with respect to the building that her large companion seemed to lack. The pirates inside couldn’t understand what had happened, but they seemed prepared to defend, raising the nearby weapons and shooting at what charged through their walls. Vahl erect his arms into a guard, taking the bolts and feeling the scorching heat through the armor plating as Umana quickly incapacitated the pirates firing at him leaving them at deaths door. Obviously, they had not yet met the commander, but the noise probably got his attention. Vahl and Umana stood together across from a set of stairs that led up to the second story, expecting a man to walk down them. Instead, the flooring above Vahl crashed down on him, staggering him. From the hole a large man jumped own, a tactical doshko, the same make and quality as Vahl’s, was held in the mans two hands. The man swung it around pointlessly in the air, showing off his strength to wield such a large weapon effectively, only to be shocked but somehow excited when he saw Vahl wield his own with just one hand.

Vahl was stunned, but more excited than anything. The man may have been a pirate but Vahl loved his sense for making a good entrance into a fight. As for Umana, she didn’t even want to comment on the two who seemed so similar. But the red skull painted above his eye showed they were enemies

The man wore a green and higher quality of the golemforged plating Mk.1 armor the other pirates wore, the Mk.2 version. It was a set that was also mass produced but was useable to save a life here and there for mercenaries and other hired guns, usually a standard quality full set was priced around 1,610 credits. The plating’s were larger and thicker, covering a lot more surface area and even had shoulder pads, knee pads, and a helmet, clearly more love was put into this set than the others.

The pirate commander stepped forward with his large body that seemed close to even Vahl’s size, and Vahl swung at his waist in response. The commander back pedaled, evading the swing by an inch, charging forward after the axe passed. He swung down, aiming at Vahl’s head, who moved to the side, swinging his own doshko at him with the support of his second hand to smash the blunt edge into the side of the pirate. From behind a laser bolt hit the pirate’s shoulder, preventing him from evading the attack but not doing much damage. The doshko hit the pirate’s side, cracking a rib and slightly indenting the armoring. In response the pirate swung horizontally with one hand instead of two, catching Vahl off guard and tearing through his armor and gashing his abdomen. Another bolt hits the pirate in the back, preventing him from making his next attack as Vahl retreats a few steps back, holding his stomach which is heavily bleeding.

The pirate held his weapon in front of him, protecting his front with it and charging forward into Vahl. The two entered in a battle of strength, each trying to push the other over, the pirate seemed to be a more experienced soldier than Vahl as he managed to equal the larger vesk in strength. The pirate hit Vahl in his gash using his knee. Umana watched, still firing shots at the open areas of the pirate, dealing little damage as he shrugged it off. The pirate continued to bash his knee into Vahl’s stomach, his weaker armor started to crack under the blows of the pirate, bruising his flesh underneath.

Vahl responded by pushing his long claws into the gaps of the pirate’s armor, his claws pierced the mans flesh underneath, but the man didn’t seem to feel any pain anymore. Vahl pulled his head back, bashing the helmet the pirate wore with his bony forehead and stunning the pirate for a short while. While pirate is stunned, Vahl pushes him back, and stumbles to his knees from the pain in his stomach. The pirate’s knee was covered in Vahl’s blood, and his own blood trickled out of the gaps of his armor around his shoulder.

{Look alive Vahl, Get em’!}

Two different Envoy improvsations empower Vahl, restoring his strength, standing himself up despite the pain and charging back at the pirate who swings his doshko to meet Vahl in the middle. Vahl moves his own doshko in front, blocking it and catching the pirate’s in the gap between the blades, twisting and pushing against the body of the pirate who can’t muster the same strength and fumbles backward. Umana aims at the fumbling pirate’s legs, hitting his ankle and causing him to tumble onto the ground, raising his doshko horizontally with both hands to defend against the attacks of Vahl. Vahl heaved his doshko up high, forcing it down to hit the defense of the pirate, pushing the blades closer to his face by resting his massive weight on the weapon.

The blades of the doshko pushed into the skull of the pirate under Vahl’s weight. The topmost blade pushing through the bone, feeling lots of resistance that soon disappeared. Vahl sat down next to the body of the pirate, gasping for breath, holding his stomach which continued to bleed. Umana rushed up the stairs, coming back down shortly after with many bandages she must have found in a med pack. Vahl wrapped them around his stomach, without actual medicine he wouldn’t be able to do much but the healing rate of a vesk is quite fast so he should be able to fight semi-comfortably tomorrow. Umana helped Vahl stand up, bringing him up the stairs.

On the second-floor, storage cabinets lined the walls and another table lay in the center of the room. On top of the table was another holopad, probably previously owned by the commander, Umana picked it up, checking its contents.

“It seems to be a communicator for the commanders to use, it has the directions to the rest of the commanders, even their main headquarters is in it.”

“Hm, we should probably avoid their main base for now. The leader is probably a little too tough for us to fight against right now.”

“You are probably right, that man did you in pretty good.”

“Shut up, I still won, didn’t I? Where is the next commander?”

“Well, it seems like the closest base is actually…”

Umana paused, she looked concerned, but also aggravated.

“What is it?”

“The closest base has two commanders in it, they are using Korva’s bar to make money.”

“Those bastards! Let’s head there now, with the second doshko I can fight more evenly against them.”

“No Vahl, I won’t let you. I understand you want to avenge Korva but trust me, we don’t want to rush in like that.”

Vahl hesitated, he couldn’t be angrier, the pirates were making money off the back of Korva, who worked so hard to get the bar and arena up and running. And now, the dirty pirates are using her hard work to fund themselves. He wanted to charge right into the building and kill the commanders himself, but he had to put his trust in Umana, she was probably right.

Umana put the holopad down, opting to search through the storage cabinets. Inside she found the more personal belongings of the pirates, some had gear but most contained packs of food or credit sticks which she took.

Both headed back down the stairs to the first floor, Vahl made sure to take the doshko and armor of the pirate commander. He now held two doshko in his hands, swinging each as if they were one-handed weapons like a long sword.

Umana saw him swing them around, amazed that his strength reached such a level even though his soldier class level was not high, “Did you inherit that kind of strength, or is it the weights you always are lifting at home?”

Vahl sighed, probably thinking of his father, “I’m not sure, probably a little bit was inherited but I would be damned if someone disregarded my lifting efforts.”

“You certainly work hard; you make way too much noise dropping them on the ground though.”

Vahl laughed, “Gah! That’s the best part! You wouldn’t get it, the louder the noise the stronger you feel.” Smiling to himself while remembering the satisfying sounds the weights made hitting the hard ground.

Umana shook her head, not understanding it but intrigued by his culture of strength, “Okay big guy, lets head home and patch you up better.” trying to get him to remember the large flesh wound on his abdomen.

Vahl and Umana left the building with the loot, heading towards home. On the way their people looked at them in a better mood, more of them looked to accept the action of the two. Some even thanked them as they passed by. The two were touched, they were mainly just attacking the pirates to avenge the death of Korva but didn’t realise they were having a good effect on the lives around them. Vahl offered food to those that looked hungry, even giving some to a child known for being a bad pickpocket, Umana was happy that he was opening slowly and seeing past some of the bad.