Snippet #1778728

"Move it people, we found another survivor in the wreckage. Cmon, let the med techs through you flaming hutt spawns!" Zekial yelled at the onlookers and looters, lazy SOBs couldn't even be bothered to wait to start looting this mess.

Zekial was part of another crew of mercenaries and able bodied hands hired to sift through the ruins of yet another destroyed building. A minor issue was the amount of trapped gas pockets still in many of the wrecks, forcing him and others to adopt gas masks of varying sorts. He had taken to his old military mask that went with his armor, the others had more modern, but civilian, ones handed out by their employer once the first man had succumbed to exposure. It was an improvement over previous work at least. It wasn't more than a few weeks ago that he had been fighting tooth and nail against the bloody Mandalorians. Say what you will about what they did or who they were, but they were dangerous and skilled warriors. That much he respected, though respect didn't do much with a commando barreling down on you for the seventh time that day.

He and another fellow, never picked up his name, dragged the poor sod who had been found clear as a med tech came running up. The man pulled from the wreck looked wealthier than others, but not wealthy enough to get clear of this downed building in time. The med tech had a few volunteer aids who took over from the two mercenaries, putting him on a stretcher while the med tech stabilized him and they ran off to the nearest field hospital. The block they were in was near the starport, but the hospital had been bombed several times, from both air and ground, and that left it useless. The crowd was getting restless, pushing against some of the impromptu cordons that the group of hired men and women had put up. One such lass, a hard bitten Rodian female, fired off her blaster pistol within inches of the feet of the most violent of the civvies, a flourish of her Rodian blade helped back them up too. "Back up or loose a leg."

By now, surviving members of the Defense Force, and a handful of Republic personnel, had arrived to break up the mob of people. It probably was one of the only few then, Zekial mentally noted with a very sarcastic sense, as the majority of the rest were left to burn out, turn on each other, or get taken down by hired mercenary teams. The looters were not happy to have to be shoved off like that, but they didn't have weapons, or at least not as many as the mercenaries guarding and working, combined with the newly arrived forces, did. They were not stupid enough to try anything, surprising as that was at times. One of the Defense Force approached Zekial, gesturing for him to step away from the ruins for a second. Once he had done so, the corporal spoke quietly with the mercenary.

"Are any of you lot planning to listen to the announcement just made? All men and women with arms or ships are to report for enlistment with the new Republican Reclamation Army." The corporal spoke on even terms with Zekial, rather than trying to talk down at him. That was a plus in the man's respect, but he wasn't going to just off and re-enlist in the Republic again before his current job was done.

"I'll get there when I get there mate, still got work here to do. We are still dragging survivors from the wreckage. Just found one not five minutes ago." The corporal accepted this with a nod, and went off to corral the remaining civvies out of the immediate area. Zekial sighed quietly and turned back to the merc in charge of this group. He confirmed that it would be about an hour before they were done here, and the rest of the pay was handed out in full. Zekial went back to work after that, having another idea for work already lined up in mind.