Merrick followed Snipes lazily through the corridors of the jail wing, trusting him to warn her if they needed to lay low. It was late enough that there weren’t many guards on duty, and those that were around preferred the lazy approach – sitting at their checkpoints rather than actually patrolling. They had no trouble sneaking up on two guards sitting around playing cards and laughing and talking loudly, probably taking great pleasure in the idea that they would keep the inmates awake for as long as they felt like. Snipes quickly disposed of his guard while Merrick temporarily silenced hers and found an empty, open cell. Snipes arrived as she was rifling through his gear and smiled appreciatively as she came across a worn knife. He knelt, his face level with the guard’s, and spoke quietly to the man. “Now I’m sure if you look in her eyes, you’ll realise that you don’t want to give her any excuse to do something nasty to you with your own weapon.” The guard whimpered quietly and looked from Snipes to Merrick and back again.

Snipes took a quick glance at Merrick as he stood, the guard having given them directions and even his set of keys to the cells of the other Raiders voluntarily. Snipes knew that they’d tortured Merrick, and he would hate to be the one to deny her some revenge, but she blinked quickly, knocked the guard out and followed Snipes from the cell. “Let’s go get the others.” Snipes nodded and they returned to wandering through Worga’s prison, this time with much more direction than before.

**

She laughed in his face again. At the start, his composure had been excellent, but now it had started to wear thin. She could tell that he craved some sort of break in her, a scream, some begging, even just an uncertainty in her voice or manner. She gave him nothing. His frustration was obvious even to his colleagues, and Merrick’s eyes following him around the room, her attentiveness despite her situation, made him very uncomfortable. He wouldn’t admit it to himself though, he was in power here, she was the one in pain. But he had been given a deadline to find out anything about her source in the organisation, where her info about Worga had come from. And so he ordered them to shock her again....

**

Snipes kicked Merrick in the shin then ducked around the corner as she shot him a glare. “Merr, stop daydreaming, we need to get the others.” She nodded almost imperceptibly and followed him once more. All the while, she was thinking of plans for getting the mission completed as well as tracking down the interrogator. She knew that, right now, there was no time for personal business. And there wasn’t likely to be time while ever their mission was incomplete. She hoped that the Jesters had made some progress on gaining the trust of Worga’s people, and maybe even the location of their objective. But for now she had to resign herself to hoping that her interrogator survived the mission so that she could hunt him down later. She wouldn’t give him the pleasure of dying swiftly.

Kami slid down the wall of the cleaning closet, her hands shaking, her breath coming in short panicked gasps. She hadn’t had a chance to process Eviscares death since Aeos’s call, instead she’d casually mentioned the brawl between the troopers to Worga and Lodur and then continued on with her general duties as though nothing was amiss. General duties that included assisting Lodur and his men interrogating members of the Raiders, her friends and comrades, pushing them to the brink in an attempt to discover information she already knew.

Pushing her face between her hands, Kami forced herself to take several deep long breaths. Eviscares had been a long time friend, she had known him even before Aeos had met him, back in the days when she was still a soldier new to command. To suddenly lose him in the face of everything was a severe shock, and she was struggling to maintain her façade of indifference in front of Worga’s bloodthirsty men. They were waiting for her to slip up, a single comment, a single expression or communication that they could use to tear down Worga’s new favorite lieutenant and take her place. Such was the violent nature of a mercenary organization, and she had few friends to watch her back.

Pasck had remained hidden, though Kami grew increasingly worried about his absence. She had sent a few of her growing gang of stooges out to look for him, but their loyalty was as questionable as hers was in reality, so she was doubtful of their unlucky findings. She suspected the Trandoshan was simply biding his time, waiting for Worga to unleash Operation Ragnarok so he could swoop in and steal his prize. Despite her and Lodur’s attempts at solidifying security about the base, Pasck knew of back doors that neither she or her Zabrak colleague knew about, which made peace of mind extremely difficult to obtain.

Angrily brushing away the tears that had slid unnoticed down her cheeks , Kami forced herself back to her feet, knocking away the dirty mop that attempted to hinder her progress. She had an interrogation process to oversee, Merrick’s of all people, who had until now stubbornly resisted all of Worga’s torturers’ attempts to procure information about who she was. With orders to take the questioning to a new level, Kami had virtually been given Merrick’s life in her hands, the Hutt lord would probably see the necessity of causing the Colonel’s death at long as he obtained what he wanted.

Pulling in another deep breath, Kami forced her face back into the unfeeling mask which had become her daily expression since her infiltration. She would somehow ensure that the Colonel survived the day, and then spend some quality time with Worga reassuring the Hutt Lord about how fantastic she was. Every day she spent without gaining knowledge of Ragnarok was another day spent in torture by the Raiders, and that was the one thought that kept her strong…and kept her going.

*        *        *        *        *        *

*Weeks later*

Kami and Lodur trailed Worga as he led them from his throne room, for once void of the protection offered by his men at every turn. The urge to pull her blaster free and shoot the Hutt Lord would have been insatiable but for the destination which he was leading them…to Ragnarok, and the fruition of months and months of work.

Worga slowed to a crawl, reaching out to trail his chubby gray hand down a seemingly blank walk of metal. Both Kami and Lodur were unsurprised when the wall hissed, sliding back to their left to reveal a small security panel.

“Keyed to my prints only,” Worga informed them, dragging his thick tongue along his bottom lip in obvious delight at the prospect of revealing his toy to his trusted advisors. Punching the panel, he rolled over to where the entire door now rose to reveal a wide staircase curving downwards into darkness. Gesturing impatiently for Kami and Lodur to come, Worga propelled himself down the staircase with a sudden burst of speed.

Cast into darkness as the door shut behind them, Kami followed the barely visible outline of Lodur’s broad shoulders as he followed his master into the earth. They trekked down for what seemed like hours, before the floor beneath Kami’s feet plateaued, leading the trio out into an extremely well lit and bustling workshop.

Men and aliens, all clad in a uniform set of grey overalls, scurried across a bare metallic floor about the base of an extraordinarily large device centered in the middle of the cavern. Kami heard Lodur curse in horribly shielded admiration at the sheer size of the structure, which bore a set of what looked like oversized engines on its back.

“What is it?” Lodur whispered, following Worga as he gestured again for his two lieutenants to follow him towards his masterpiece.  Coming to a rest at its base, Kami tilted her head back, almost losing her balance in an attempt to view the top of the strange machine.

“A destroyer of worlds,” Worga boomed, letting lose a hearty chuckle, “The result of years of work, and billions of credits.” He waved a pudgy arm above his head to encompass the machine, “Ragnarok will give whoever purchases it the power to destroy the homelands of their enemies. It latches to systems like a giant leech, pushing planets from their orbit and igniting the natural destructive processes of gravity.” He laughed again, overcome with his own brilliance, “In the meanwhile, I shall have enough funds to start a small empire, and with you two at my side, we shall be a force to reckon with!”

Lodur laughed, throwing Kami a wide grin, “This is astounding!”

Kami stood forward, running a hand along the giant mass of machinery, her mind a blur of thoughts. This was beyond anything she had imagined…beyond anything indeed that Vast Empire intelligence had imagined when they had committed so many of their men to discover Worga’s plans. That Worga was capable of creating such a monstrosity, and that he already had multiple buyers lined up suggested not only that the VE was at severe risk, but millions and millions of other systems and organizations, innocent or no.

“She is overwhelmed!” Worga clapped her heartily on her back, “Take it all in Sharpe. You will never again behold such a wonder in your lifetime!”

Abruptly, sirens flashed to life about them, causing the scurrying workers to pause mid task as their world turned a bloody red.

“This is a level five alert,” The programmed computer voice droned, “All security to your posts. All workers to holding areas.”

Kami swore, spinning around as the chamber erupted into chaos, workers dropping clipboards and tools to the floor to sprint towards the relative safety of their chambers. Level Five denoted an extensive attack, either external or internal. Lodur was already on his comm. at her side as Worga screamed in visible outrage, his bulbous eyes focusing on his elder lieutenant, “Report!”

“Prisoner breakout,” Lodur informed him, glancing over at Kami, “We need to go, now.”

“Sharpe!”

Kami’s reply was cutoff as her comm. emitted a terrified shout. Recognizing the voice as Miff, one of her more loyal smugglers, she thumbed the response button, “What is it?”

“Pasck is here, now! He came through the hangar, has a bunch of unknowns, is killing anyone that doesn’t switch over!”

Lodur let out a string of particularly brutal swear words, “Sithspit, at the same time!”

Cursing her luck, Kami spun to Worga, “My Lord, stay hidden, we’ll deal with this.”

The Hutt Lord grabbed at her, pulling her feet free from the ground. Choking as her air supply was suddenly cut off, Kami struggled to focus on Worga.

“You do not fail me on this you understand!” Worga yelled, his face blotching, “Kill the traitor lizard, kill the scum prisoners and report back to me!”

He cast Kami backwards into Lodur, causing the air to violently expel from her lungs. Allowing Lodur to steady her, Kami doubled over coughing, attempting to breath through the sudden pain in her chest.

“It will be done,” She vaguely heard Lodur say, “We’ll send down your personal guard my lord, you will be safe while we deal with this.”

The Zabrak mercenaries' hands tightened about Kami’s shoulders as he steered her safely away from the incensed Hutt Lord, “Deep breaths girl, we have a lot of work to do.”

OOC:

Wasn't quite what I had planned, but it will do.

They’d both been taken aback by Aeos’ presence in the prison wing, but Merrick’s decision had been quick. Without knowing the current status of the mission, she had to keep the squad leader’s cover intact. And so she had knocked her out with the other guards. She’d had enough time to give them a little bit of information, but now it seemed like everything was going crazy. They must have missed a guard, because alarms were going off and the prison wing appeared to be going into lockdown. They had no choice but to free the rest of Raiders and get the hell out, regardless of where that left Jester.

The rest of Raiders squad were all grateful to finally get out of their cells and back to the interesting part of their mission. None of them seemed alarmed at the security systems blaring and trying to lock them in. Of course, it helped to have all the keys to the place. The only people being locked in would be the guards meant to stop them, and the prisoners that weren’t trying to escape. Merrick had considered freeing everyone, but they were meant to be here to uphold Imperial law, not let a bunch of undesirables free on a remote planet. They were already going to upset the balance of power in the organised crime syndicates of the area.

Merrick let the Raiders go first, following Snipes and the others at a small distance. She didn’t doubt that there were reinforcements on the way, now that their escape was common knowledge, and that she’d need to pay attention to their back. Of course, she didn’t know that they’d managed to synchronise their escape with the attack on the facility being led by Pasck. The resistance was fairly thinly spread, and Merrick and the Raiders had little difficulty making their way towards the main part of Worga’s home. By now she expected that Snipes had contacted Marka, wherever he was, to come and give them a hand. She couldn’t help feeling that they were dumping Kami and the other Jesters in fire by leaving now, rather than finding them and just blowing the whole place to hell. But this is what Aeos seemed to want, and so they ran towards the rendezvous with Marka.

Kraytirous was taking powerful strides in order to keep up with the taller Imperial troopers. Kraytirous had just gotten out of Basic Training a month back. Then he'd been discreetly transferred to Raider's squad just in time to be shipped out to help with some sort of mission. There had been no briefing, just the exchange of gossip by the squad as to what was going on. Some had said that Jesters Squad, another Imperial Squadron, had gone rogue and joined a crime syndicate. Others said that the Jesters were actually under cover. And the few that looked veteran enough to know what to expect from such a situation said nothing.

Kraytirous was among neither of the groups. He just socialized with anyone who was within ear shot of him, talking about the latest holovids and the most upcoming holovid stars. A close by twi'lek spoke about Dentr'estha Ondretin, an up and coming Twi'lek supermodel. She had been in several holo-films, being the main character. Most had been romances and had been viewed with optemistic review. She truly had a beautiful face, wonderful curves and a cute accent Or so the Twi'lek said. But instead of provoking the alien, they all just nodded and smiled.

* * *
Several conversations later, either the pilot got tired of their laughing and jeering and decided to just dump them on the planet or they'd reached their destination, but the ship's landing siren sounded. The shuttle hissed quietly as it landed, the ramp was lowered and the soldiers marched out in orderly formation.

Their rifles were drawn and held at the ready as the Stormtroopers marched out of the shuttle. Marka, their current leader, motioned for them to move on. Kraytirous was smiling as the Twi'lek male he'd been chatting to on the ship approached Daesha and started talking to her, obvious lust piercing his eyes. As soon as he'd been put down, which hadn't taken long, Daesha must have felt bad because she compensated the Twi'lek by telling him she'd chat with him back on the ship. Kraytirous walked up to her and poked her in the ribs with his elbow. "Looks like you'll need to act out that dance from Basic Training after all." He smiled in his helmet and walked on.

* * *

The air around Kraytirous looked full of airborne grease and cooking ingredients such as different types of flour. Luckily Kraytirous was protected from these disgusting toxins within the confines of his helmet. They weren't really toxic, but Kraytirous had the feeling they'd make his nose burn nonetheless. Soon the troop had managed to reach what must be the rendezvous point as Marka came to a halt and opened a door with the word 'Pantry' scratched into it.

Snipes spun, his foot connecting with a body and sending it tumbling across the floor. Snipes dove behind a box as a volley of blaster bolts ripped up the floor, sparking against the man that Snipes had knocked down. Then the bolts went mad and then silent. Snipes stuck his head over the box and saw Merrick standing over the body. She had apparently decided to detach herself from the shadows at some point. The shadow suit she wore made the shadows a more useful place to hang out. Snipes remembered the one he was wearing under his clothes, he didn’t need it yet.

“Decided to join in I see.”

“Couldn’t let you get yourself killed, you could still make good cover.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Snipes stood and stretched, grabbing the blaster from one of the men. He loved trading up. He shoved it into his belt, from which the stun baton still hung. Left and right he looked, checking the small room for anything else of value. There wasn’t really anything, so Snipes made his way through the door.

It opened into another wing of the prison. Lower security, they had bumped up Snipes and Merrick's security rating after they got tired of asking them questions. Confined to naught but each others company for two weeks. It would have been easy to go stir crazy if Snipes hadn’t been able to look forward to escape. Now they had reentered the lower security area they’d been initially detained in. It didn’t really look any different, lots of steel doors. Snipes and Merrick took opposite sides of the hall and searched out the RAIDERS.

Snipes found the first and threw the door open. Nams lounged on one of the bunks, another woman cowered in the corner. From Nams lack of concern Snipes assumed she was responsible.

“I was just about to rescue you too.”

“Right, Nams, lets go,” Snipes tossed her his stun baton and shrugged, it was all he had to spare.

Releasing the rest went smoothly, with only a couple guards to dispatch. Snipes had been temporarily amused when he managed to twist one of their necks all the way around so that it faced forward again. It was all he could do to stop giggling like a madman. Most of the RAIDERS were confined with random criminals, Snipes locked them all back up. Couldn’t have random ruffians running around, one of them might tell someone something. Snipes didn’t know who or what or why, or if it would be of any use to whoever, but he wasn’t going to risk it.

The efficiency with which RAIDERS accepted their release and situation then went about like it was normal was a testament to their skill. Most were still unarmed, four had stun batons, Merrick and Snipes had the only blasters. Snipes had selfishly kept one to himself, if someone had to be relied on to give good cover Snipes preferred it to be himself. They were taking orders better than Snipes had expected as well. He’d almost expected them to be pissed for his surrendering. They seemed to at least be waiting to hear an explanation. That was good. The hotheads had been cooled down. Confinement sometimes had that effect on people.

* * *

Snipes leaned back, he was lounging on a large shelf, the middle one on the wall. He’d cleared it off, ate a bunch of tasteless food. And a good deal of what roughly had been identified as water. It was strange that in a base that was completely submerged there was no water that even roughly passed as clean. Then again Snipes had never been a big fan of the substance. Snipes cast his eyes around at the other RAIDERS, eating, stretching, conversing, there was even a little laughing. Nothing like food to lift spirits. Snipes doubted they’d forgotten their dire situation, but five short minutes of escape from their hopeless reality was forgivable. Merrick stood in the corner, Snipes attempts to get her to enjoy a cigarette with him had been met with sarcasm and rude remarks as to his character. Snipes had laughed them off. They were a horrid brand one of the dead mercs had enjoyed, or at least endured.

The door opened, and Snipes pulled the power5 from his belt and held it over his stomach. It opened to reveal a man with shaggy hair and a sword on his back. From what Snipes remembered he was Marka, a former RAIDER and current Jester. His eyes cast about dispassionately for a moment before Nams sprung from the corner of Snipes vision and clasp him tightly in a hug. The others eyed him with some distrust, but said nothing. Snipes let the pistol rest on his stomach again.

“Must be Marka, I am the one they call Snipes, and this is my merry band of escapees. Glad to see you joined the party.”

He nodded and stepped into the room, followed by a gaggle of confused looking people. Snipes assumed they were some sort of reinforcements. Snipes still didn’t know exactly what’s going on. He needed her to show up someday and let him know, they couldn’t hide in the cupboard for long. Not with what little information about the current goings on that were taking place without him. He had an undeniable urge to smash some skulls.

Snipes didn’t have to wait for long, he was half way through lighting another cigarette when the door opened again, just as the new arrivals were getting settled. Aeos stepped through the door and everyone’s hands went to their weapons. Snipes stretched and pulled himself out of his spot on the shelf.

“Nice of you to make it.”

“Things came up.”

“WHY YOU!” Dante screamed, pulling down on Aeos. “God damn scum.”

Snipes picked him up by the scruff of the neck and spun him around. “Alright people, shut the hell up. I believe some explanation is required here, so hear what she has to say. Some things may make a little more sense.” Snipes gave Aeos a half smile and nodded to her.

Quillia had watched, horrified as her former drill instructor was being strangled. She had tensed up and prepared to fire her blaster if she needed to.

Looking around the room she saw similar faces going through the same conflicted feelings. Finally the twillek female released Aeos and the room relaxed noticably. Aeos explained the events that had led up to the present situation. She explained why the Jesters were "rogue."

“Which of those are mine?” she asked Marka pointing over to where the recruits were huddling together.

“Quillia, Kats, Maze, Aeos is your squad leader, feel free to make your way over to her,” Marka replied.

Quillia was both nervous and excited to be part of the Jesters. She headed over to where the rest of her new squad was standing, everyone sizing each other up. Some of them eyed her backpack suspiciously, combat medics were uncommon and she was sure they didn't know what to think of her. She double checked her comlink and blaster and noticed the others doing the same.

The powers at be decided on a plan of action and the crowd dispersed. The Jesters headed out in groups of twos and threes. Quillia and Aeos waited a few minutes and started down the hallway towards Worga's throne room.

Aeos grabbed her comlink after they had left. "Remember Jesters, blend in if you can, we're not trying to get noticed."

As they were heading down the hallway, two security guards, which recognized Aeos, looked at Quillia suspiciously.

"Who's that?" The lead guard asked.

"She's new, she arrived today." Aeos replied hoping the guard wouldn't second guess her.

"I don't know, I think I would have heard about someone like her being around." He looked at them both tensing slightly. "Let's see her identification." He started walking toward Quillia.

Not knowing what to do, Quillia fired her blaster from the hip twice one shot going wild, the second hitting the guard in the stomach killing him.

The other guard started to draw his weapon, but Aeos had already had her pistol drawn and fired twice, both shots hitting him in the chest. Quillia could hear blaster fire and screams echoing down the halls from the other groups, hoping things were going better for some of them.

"Sorry, I-" Quillia paused, "he was going to, I didn't"

"You did the right thing, you had no other choice" Aeos reassured her "we've got to get out of here."

Quillia checked the two guards for signs of life, grabbed up their blasters, and then followed Aeos down the hall in the direction of the throne room. She could still hear the faint sound of blaster fire from the other passages as they moved on.

I had too, I didn't have a choice. She tried to reassure herself, while her hands shook.

OOC: can not delete the post so I had to edit it.

OOC:

Sorry if this sucks, I'll try to do better next time. But I think i'm back!

Dante moved his liberated slugthrower rifle left slightly, and winced at the pain caused by even this small motion. Between the burns, bruises, and cuts, his every movement let him experience some new variation on the pain.

After this mission, I'm going to dunk myself in a bacta tank, Chaos take the taste, and not come out for a month.

During his one month "vacation", as some of the other RAIDERS were referring to their internment, the guards had not been gentle with him. After his abortive attempt at taking Aeos hostage, he had been stunned and thrown face first into a rather smelly holding cell. He had fallen unconscious, only to wake up and find that a wet furball of an alien had been experimentally chewing on his left ear. Exactly 2.45 seconds later, it had landed against the wall with a loud crunch, writhed in a twisted heap, and then fallen still and, thankfully, silent. When a guard had come in to remove the body, Dante had kneed him and tried to make a break for it.

Unfortunately for his hopes of escape, the guards had dealt with this kind of situation before. He'd managed to get four meters down the dank hallway, with the cries of encouragement and scorn from the other captives in the area to spur him on, before the glowing azure stun bolt had hit him in the small of the back and sent him crashing down heavily to the slime covered floor. As Dante thought, he rubbed his left leg, where there was still an angry red welt from that cheerful little scenario.

This scene was repeated half a dozen times in the next two weeks, until the guards gave up and simply chained him to the wall. In between escape attempts, he had the interrogation sessions to look forward to. Despite his run-down holding facilities, Worga had spared no expense when it came to torture equipment: Dante had even seen, and felt, some of the new Mark VII Agonizers. The  next few weeks had melded together into a confused blur of shouting, needles, and pain. After a while, he had stopped responding to the questions, and the  interrogators had moved onto  the others. Throughout the sessions he had tried to be silent, but the pain had been too much. The memories echoed inside Dante's head, and he ground his teeth audiably, attracting a glare from the other RAIDERS.

The room was dark, with the spotlight on the table. Humming devices were everywhere, and Dante's neck was twisted back at a painfully distorted angle. The two guards stood by the door, their weapons safeties off and barrels held casually but in his direction. In the drug-induced haze, the room seemed to be constantly shifting like a freighter caught in a meteor storm, and the outlines of his Twilek interrogator were blurred. Dimly, he heard her asking questions, now coaxing and then furious a moment later. Ignoring her, he chanted his refrain over and over again.

"I am Corporal Dante Asana, Raiders Squad, Wildcard Platoon Phoenix Company, Vast Imperial Army. That is all the information I am authorized to divulge."

Inside his head, one phrase echoed over and over :Faithful To The End, Faithful To The End.....

"You've been abandoned. Your superiors have forgotten about you, left you here to rot and die. Tell us why you were sent here, and you can leave this facility a rich man, free to go anywhere you want. Your leaders think you're dead, they won't be looking for you. Just tell me, it'll be our little secret..."

"Go space yourself."

Faithful to the End....
The words seemed almost mocking, now.

"Answer me, or we resume the interrogation."

Faithful to the End....

"I am Corporal Dan-"

He was cut off there by the application of a neurostimulator to his forehead. The pain arced, and he writhed as he fought to repress a scream, then faded slowly to a dull prickling. From far away, Dante heard his inquisitor speak.

"On your own head be it."

The memory ended there, but there were many others to fill in the blank spots. By the time Sniping 101 had come, he had stopped responding entirely. The interrogator, flanked
by a pair of guards had been about to drag him off again when the other RAIDERS had appeared from a side corridor and sprayed the corridor with blaster fire. The guards had taken hits in the chest, and were instantly KIA. The interrogator had taken hits in the arm and legs, and was trying to crawl away, leaving a thick trail of brown-tinted blood in her wake, when Dante had emptied half a clip into the alien's face. By the time he was done, the torturer could hardly be said to have a face. And he was free.

Now, as the small fire team made their way through the deserted corridors towards the distant sound of blaster fire, one thought dominated Dante's mind. Time for a little payback.

Jager lent against a wall in the dark and terribly overcrowded pantry with the rest of the unfortunate recruits, with whom he had be assigned with and Raider squad. He still had no idea what was going on, or what this operation was about... frankly he didn't care either way but it left an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

For the entire shuttle ride, he scanned his fellow occupants. Some he remembered a few during basic, other's he had never seen, there was something about going on a mission with a bunch of complete strangers... even though they pushed the belief that these people were "Your brothers in arms" they were all just faces, and if the fodder hit the exhaust port Jager had no idea who he could really trust.

As quickly as these thoughts had surfaced another quickly replaced it,

"The people standing next to you are your new family, you may have never met them and you might never see them again, but you will come to rely on them to save your life when the time calls for it...."

Jager had heard this from one of his countless instructors during his training, and no sooner had this had run through the confines of his mind then a familiar face stepped through the door.

Aeos... of all the people to appear, had casually stepped into the pantry. Jager along with the others who were in his basic training stared with complete surprise at her arrival. Within seconds of her arrival, one of the Raiders shouted something and rushed towa