RAIDERS Temporary Quarters, VSD Dominion

The barracks were filled with the chatter of the troopers as they discussed the upcoming mission. Here and there, one of the troopers was Only a few of the Raiders remained aloof, watching the group discussing the upcoming mission. Under his helmet, Dante's face was grim. He'd seen the briefing, and he didn't like what he felt was going to happen.

Between the casualties from the past few missions and a pair of last minute transfers, RAIDERS had been operating at half capacity. As a result, the powers that be had shipped in several Academy graduates. Dante had seen them practicing earlier, and he wasn't impressed. Not that they were incompetent; one or two had aim better than his own.

No, it was their experience that he was worried about. None of them had seen action outside of the sims, let alone combat. In theory, the Vast Imperial training regimen prepared its subjects for a variety of combat situations and enabled them to work efficiently with other troopers to complete a goal. In practice, there was no way for instructors to recreate war in a sanitized, safe environment; no way to replicate the mixture of shock and fear as energy beams started flying and people you had grown to know and respect started falling. Some dealt with it; some didn't. There was no way to tell beforehand.

That, Dante mused, was what was so worrying about the composition of Raiders Squad. If something happened, and the recruits lost it the casualties would be catastrophic. Add that to the nature of the mission, and it was a bloodbath waiting to happen.

He was considerably more confident in the last addition to the RAIDERS, Lance Corporal Leth. Like his new Squad Leader, Leth had been a Wraith. The Wraiths had a reputation for efficiency, but Dante had some serious doubts as to whether the commando was suited for direct combat on the scale they were facing.

There was a whine, and a male human’s voice echoed through the room.

“Raiders, report to Hanger Bay Aleph. Raiders, report to Hanger Bay Aleph.”

The discussions stopped and the Raiders filed out as one into the Dominion's hallways. Walking past crewmen and other stormtroopers, Dante couldn't help but wonder how many would still be alive at the end of the battle. As he remembered, the barracks were fairly close to the hangers, ensuring the RAIDERS wouldn't have long before they were dropped into action once again. The squad took a turbolift down, then made their way through several corridors. Another lift later, they were in the Dominion's main hanger. The floor was a bustle of activity, with techs swarming over transports and fighters. There was a crackle of electricity as a suited figure wielded a fusion cutter, and loading droids stomped across the hanger with the last few missiles and explosives.

Looking around the hanger, Dante noticed their squad leader leaning against an LAATi with a rifle propped up besides him. The troopers made their way through the maze of equipment and vehicles and filed into the vehicle. Sniping 101, who was already seated, nodded.

"The Dominion will be emerging from hyperspace in five minutes. We'll be part of the first wave of transports sent planet-side."

As if to underscore the point, there was a shudder in the floor, and deceleration sirens began to blare. The droids and techs retreated from the hanger, and pilots rushed to the boarding ramps and cockpits. Dante felt the ship lurch slightly, then stabilize briefly before a series of thumps shook the LAATi.

Looks like something's gone wrong.

The ceiling mounted screen flickered, then came to life. The image quality was poor, but Dante could make out a trio of angular shapes attacking a larger Star Destroyer. Subtexts identified the largest one as the Vast Imperial Star Destroyer Reclaimer and its attackers as the Venators Morgoth and Ungoliant. The third ship in the system was the Remnant Victory-II Dis, which was currently bearing down on the Dominion. Fire lanced over the viewscreen, and the feed was momentarily replaced by static. Seconds later, it came back online, but was shaking slightly as a nearby turbolaser battery opened fire. The two Star Destroyers exchanged fire as they moved closer to each other. The hanger shook as the barrage began to impact on the Dominion's shields.

The Imperial gunship's engines growled as its repulsorlifts lifted the vessel from the hanger bay floor, then quieted to a constant humming. The LAATi passed through the hanger bay shield, and abruptly banked sharply to the left as a hostile fighter opened fire. Green energy impacted onto the craft, only to be dissipated by the energy shield, which began to flicker under sunsequent impacts. Inside the transport, several cases of ammunition came loose, flying in all directions.

Forcing himself to be calm, Dante stared at the viewscreen. The view was dominated by the dull, red-orange sphere that was Siczaya III. Several hundred meters above them, the Dominion and the Dis were exchanging broadsides, with their fighter screens interlacing and dissolving in bursts of turbolaser fire. Missiles followed curving trajectories through the void, impacting on the rogue Victory-II's armour plating. Vaporized plating and gases erupted from the impact sites, followed by secondary explosions, but the Dis continued to return fire.

A series of impacts on the Raiders LAATi shook Dante from his reverie. Another TIE fighter had found the transport and was firing on its engines. There was a dull thump, and the craft shook.

"Left engine took a hit!" Lieutenant Surian yelled. "Hang on to your helmets, RAIDERS. This is going to get rough!"

With that, she sent the craft spinning down towards the planet. The TIE followed, but neglected to maneuver.

"Got you, you dirty..."

The barrage of energy from the rear laser turret tore the Remnant starfighter's shield away and reduced the fighter to a cloud of ionized gas and durasteel fragments. There were whoops from several of the RAIDERS, and the pilot grinned. With the hostile greased, she began to check the damage to the gunship and to compensate for it. The troop bay was a bustle of activity as the RAIDERS began to relax, with some securing ordnance that had come loose during the flight. Sure that the ordeal was over, Dante reached out for his deece, conducting a last minute-check. He would be needing it very soon.

Lieutenant Surian exhaled with relief, and relaxed her grip on the ship's controls. They had somehow survived the attacks with minimal damage, though one engine was currently down to 78% operational capacity. Diverting as much power as possible to the LAATi's engines, she flew the transport towards the second wave of dropships from the Dominion.

Orders began to appear on a holopanel, and she adjusted her angle of descent and position to match. The convoy began to sink through the planet's atmosphere, leaving the fracas in low orbit to rage on. The two dozen craft sank down towards the planet, leaving white trails in their wake.

They passed through the crimson upper cloud layers and began to adjust their pitch as air resistance began to be a problem. Energy shields flickered as reentry heat began to distort the air around the ships, and a cuccoon of superheated air began to form around the flat undersides of the ships. Inside the transports, the temperature rose notably, and Dante reflexively reached up to wipe the sweat from his forehead, only to have his fingers brush against the plastoid of his helmet.

Stay calm. There's nothing you can do until you reach planetside.

As suddenly as it had begun, the shaking stopped. One by one, the LAATi's dropped through the cloud layers, more or less intact. Looking at the viewscreen, Dante got his first glimpse of Siczaya III. 

In all directions, there was nothing but dust. In the distance, thick clouds of smog covered up the chains of volcanoes spewing gases into the atmosphere and creating the thick cloud layers that had proven so troublesome on their way down. The gunships turned sharply, then sank down. As they plumeted, lines in the dust became visible, as did shapes which Dante recognized as SPHAT and AT-TE walkers. The guns turned to track the group, and he felt a moment of disquiet. If they fired, there wouldn't be anything left of the gunship, shielded or not. A moment later, they turned back to their original positions and Dante exhaled.

The LAATi's slowed, then slowly landed. The engines slowly shut down, their purr fading into silence. The side hatches hissed open, and atmosphere flooded into the ship. The helmet filters removed most of the smell and airborne particles, but Dante could still taste the acrid air. It smelled faintly of sulfur, and made breathing difficult, even with the helmet. He shuffled from foot to foot, uncomfortably reminded of Mustafar, the way the planet had smelled.

Removing the straps keeping him in in his seat, Sniping 101 waved the troopers out of the transport. Service droids rushed past them and towards the transport, their limbs wielding various tools. The RAIDERS were directed towards a designated plastent, one of many scattered throughout the desert. The temporary habitats were construted from synthatex strips laid over frames of memory metal, and were fairly sturdy. A Lieutenant was waiting outside the tent. Looking the RAIDERS over, he snorted.

"Welcome to Hell, boys."

OOC:

Sorry if this isn't very good. RL keeps on interrupting midway through my posts. I was envisioning trench warfare, complete with occasional shelling and tank based charges..

Famus looked across the baren wasteland that was Siczaya III. Well this will be a great first mission. The trooper could smell the air and it smelled like sulfur. He looked around at the rest of the RAIDERS, who were coughing from the foul air. The regulars at the encampment, now they were a sight: their equipment was outdated and the armor was so bad that some had ducktape on them. Atleast this place doesn't have dieing mothers and abusive drunk fathers, now thats hell. Famus' muscles began to tighnten as he thought of home. Famus began his routine equipment check and looked at his vibrobayonet in admiration Hello, friend. He continued his check and was satisfied. He looked again at Siczaya III God what I would do for a drink

The RAIDERS sat there for a little while longer and then they were briefed. They were going to find some stray squads and that there would be some opposing forces looking for the stray squads as well.  joy though, it could be worse, I could still be back on Coruscant in some prison.  He looked at his squad again and they were sitting there emotions hidden behind their helmets, just like Famus. Eventually Snipes got up and left the tent as did Famus and the rest of the RAIDERS.

When the RAIDERS got outside more regulars were there and they had all put on gas masks that made them look more menacing and mangy. There was wreckage from where some transports had crashed and a few people were being carried away moaning. A trooper named Dante looked over at Famus and said," Don't get to shaken up rookie, you'll get used to.  This place maybe a whole new hell

Snipes rode halfway out the side of the outdated LAAT/i, he hated the vehicle, but he had no room for those thoughts, he stared out, scanning what little could be seen of the terrain, not content to make any other man in charge of finding his landing spot. Then he saw it.

“There, man! You land there, I don’t care how, but make it happen!” He exclaimed.

“God damn pleased you finally found a spot, much further in here I’m not sure this thing would keep going!”

“Keep it to yourself.”

The crappy old craft expertly landed on the side of a particularly steep mountain, not fully touching down, the RAIDERS were forced to take a leap of faith the last ten feet to the ground. Snipes bailed first, the others followed quickly after their squad leader, who risked the hazard first. Once the RAIDERS were down the crew dropped ropes and slid the RAIDERS equipment down, quickly. They had to move quickly, the LAAT/I was vulnerable as it sat idly hovering. Snipes helped, they piled the equipment to the side for now, just trying to get it off the craft before anything bad could happen. The pilot was screaming obscenities at the group, but even in a rush things only moved so fast.

“SNIPES!” Dante screamed, “INCOMING!”

Snipes looked up in time to see the rocket trail rushing towards the hovering craft, he pulled down the two troopers next to him as the missile impacted the LAAT/I, the explosion tore the right side of the craft apart, sending it leaning down towards the RAIDERS in a giant fiery ball. Snipes turned his head and watched as it loomed towards them, he looked into the cockpit, it was ablaze, but inside he could see the pilot wrestling with the controls still, even as his armor burned into his skin, and then, it crashed. And it missed the RAIDERS by only a hairs breadth, shrapnel and wreckage poured over them, hitting several, a large panel of durasteel crashed down on Snipes, RB and Kry, shielding them from most of the other debris.

The whole thing happened in only a few seconds, but that was enough to destroy a good deal of their equipment and injure several, there was no time to count losses though, they had to discover who had pulled the trigger.
Snipes crawled out from under the piece of steel and crawled across the ground towards Dante, who had managed to take cover in a cluster of large rocks slightly uphill of them.

“Where’d it come from soldier?”

“Over there” He pointed down the canyon between mountainsides, the way they’d come in. “It seemed to be just around the corner, on this mountain.”

“Good work, go get Marka and Celota and we’ll go check it out, the others are to remain and try to salvage anything they can.”

“Yes sir.”

Famus  was holding h is squadmates broken rifle and was attempting to fix it Dammit this is more difficult than I thought. The small fireteam began to move out and Famus was still holding the busted rifle when as a rocket  flew past Dante's head Famus fell to the ground and the rifle sitting on the boulder was destroyed and was blown to smetherines
  Shit gotta get a rifle. At that moment Dante threw him a A-280 and yelled," Get your ass in gear Private." Famus looked down the scope saw a piece of armor hiding behind and a rock and shot. The foe crumpelled to the ground and laid still. Then the shots stopped.  The fire team marched forward. Famus walked past a small cave and a one of the red armoured adversaries came running out wielding a vibro- sword. As he tried to attack Famus, the young private  kicked the his opponent's knees and grabbed his arm forcing the unfortunate combatant to stab himself.
"Good Job Rookie," said Dante

Blaster fire rained down on the fireteam as Famus ran for cover. A blaster bolt flew past Famus' head as he dove behind a boulder. He peaked around the boulder and saw a grey soldier running in the open, Famus rose up and fired five shots dropping the soldier. More and soldiers came running down the pass and were mowed down.  What are they doing they gotta be planning a diversion Famus shot five more grey armours before a group of red armours marched in rows and fired together. Famus was shot in the shoulder, "Awww dammit it to oblivion!!!" He rose up fired seven shots and was avenged. They must have alot more soldiers than thought Famus rose up and looked across the battle field and saw the fallen opponets. He than shot another two who were trying to get back up. Famus looked around at the rest of the fire team and noticed that they were all standing up.

  "Raiders move out!"

OOC:

Sorr this one was so short limited on time

The stench drew back, the heat began to cool, and the specs of dust began to clear. Strata Kain removed his helmet and began taking in the area they had just entered. The room was dimly lit by orange over-hanging glow rods, and shadows engulfed every other inch that hadn’t been illuminated. To Strata’s immediate left, Famus too removed his helm and spoke.

“Great,” he began half-sarcastically, “everyone have their flash-rods handy?”

-Earlier, aboard the ISD Dominion-

Strata’s dark blue skin tone stood out aboard the Dominion and its crew as he waltzed from corridor to corridor; passing droids and other fellow squad mates. He wasn’t the only Zabrak on board, but he was the only blue skinned one, which certainly drew unwanted attention to his self. Strata liked things simple, quiet; and things didn’t always go that way when you stuck out in a crowd. Halfway through what must have been the fourth or fifth corridor Strata had walked down, he was joined by his Squad Leader, Matthias Battlemont, and better known as Snipes.

“Private Kain,” Snipes began, “nice to see such fresh meat.”

“Sir,” Kain said in return, with a slight hint of mild resentment. “I assure you, I may be fresh meat as you so put it, but you’ll find I’m most capable.” Kain’s accent had a slight touch of Coruscant in it.

Snipes nodded as they began to walk down the corridor, “Well, we will see now won’t we?”

“You don’t sound convinced,” Kain claimed.

“I lost count a long time ago about how many new recruits have assured me as much,” Snipes admitted.

“When I was a mere child, I was sent on my rite of passage to the harsh planet of Hoth,” Kain spat out. “The air was frigid; it cut through your flesh like a thousand knives. I was with three other fellow clan members, and food began to run low. I knew that we would eventually turn on each other one by one, to eat each other’s flesh and use our skin to keep warm. So I took the first move. I murdered three Zabrak within minutes, ate their flesh, and earned my rite of passage once I completed my task. Sir, I highly doubt that any other recruit has ever done as much.”

Snipes bore a look of slight bewilderment, “That’s some tale.”

“I am quite kaz, sir,” Kain returned.

“Sorry?”

“Kaz; meaning clever in my home language.”

Snipes nodded, “I see. Well, if your story is true then I’m sure you are more than capable to last in the corps.”

Kain grunted in annoyance and humor, “The story is true, I kept their hearts to prove it.”

Snipes nodded with a half uncomfortable, half interested look upon his face, “Well, I’ll just take your word for it.”

The two shared a brief bow and went about their ways. Strata quickened his pace as he turned a final corner, down a final matte grey corridor, into his small personal quarters. The eight by ten room was painted an even dimmer grey, with rust around the edges of each of the four walls. Strata’s bunk was covered with two duffel bags, each of which holding his personal belongings… each belonging either being a piece of armor or weaponry. He reached his hand in one of the bags and withdrew pieces of equipment for the upcoming mission.

___________________

OOC:

Snipes and crew: Ok, this post is up just as an intro that I'm with you guys. From here on out, I will post just as much as I do in the Navy, and every post will be no shorter than 2k words.

Famus looked around at the durasteel and gray walls. He wiped the beads of sweat that were dripping down his face.  "Well looks like this place could use an air conditioning." The coporal who was leading the group turned and gave Famus a sad and stern look. "The medical bay and cafeteria are on the right and the barracks are on the left." With that he was gone. Famus looked at his squadmates and shrugged.

    The RAIDERS kept walking and all but Famus went to the mess hall. He walked into the med bay and was blided by bright lights. "Hello," said a blonde female doctor, " You must be one of the guests. Follow me and we will give you some medical attention you need."

  Famus followed the doctor to a bench and removed his shoulder plating revealing the gash on the left shoulder. Famus looked at the dried blood on the armour and gritted his teeth. "Wow, thats gonna leave a nice scar," said the blonde doctor. She grabbed a syringe and fill it with a clear vacine and said," This should help the pain and should keep the wound from getting infected. Alright now for the stiches."

  20 minutes and eight stitches later Famus walked out of the medical bay feeling much better. He walked over to the mess hall
were he grabbed what he thought were bread and some sort of meat and sat down next to Celota and said, " Hey, what do you think of this place." Celota just shrugged and kept on eating.
  Well he is a social type

Eting and thinking over the mission so far. When he was done he got up and said," Catch ya later." He walked out across the hall to the barracks. Famus looked inside and found an open were he laid down and fell asleep.

"Hey come on sweety," Laura smiled at Famus. The two young lovebirds were walking through Coruscant. They came to the protest and found New Republic soldiers marching towards the hundred or so protesters. Laura looked into Famus' eyes and said," They can't do this, HEY cut it out you WAR MONGERS!!!" Just then blaster fire broke out in the plaza. Famus heard a shriek and looked to his left Laura was on the ground motionless with a hole through her chest.
      Famus woke up in a cold sweat and began to sob.

“You actually thought that I’d care you were a Twi’lek.” Snipes said with a smile, “You foolish child.”  There was a degree of bemusement to the squad leaders demeanor that managed to lighten the souls around him, “You’re a stormtrooper now, kid, that’s all that matters. This is war and we are brothers.”

Snipes watched Tort’s confused face as he stared up from his bunk. No doubt the young trooper wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, waking up in strange places tended to have that effect on people. The kid made Snipes chuckle in a sense. He wasn’t much of a warrior, or for that matter anything else. A coward and braggart, Snipes usually hated the combination, but something about the kids arrogance appealed to the twisted Snipes sense of the absurd.

“Y-yes sir.”

“My name be Snipes. Don’t expect to be called much else. Anyway, get yerself ready kid, we’re movin’ out pretty soon.” Snipes said, lighting a cigarette. “And try to fire a atleast a couple shots this time, it’ll make you look better.
In about ten minutes we’re meeting at the entrance and goin’ back outside.”

* * *

Snipes looked around at his troopers, they hadn’t gotten much time to rest, in such a place it was easy to forget the urgency of war outside. Snipes didn’t allow himself to. His face was partially covered in bandages and under his storm-commando armor his arms were as well. The others were wearing their stormtrooper armor, Lambert had suggested they paint it a different color to blend in better, Snipes agreed and now they were a red striped with brown, dark, musky colors, designed to blend in with the area.

“We’re going back into the fray, right now we’re helping our comrades here raid a supply convoy for the enemy army. Apparently some of their drop ships missed their landing zone and now they have to drive the goods to the front. We’re going to strike from the mountains, capture the goods, then return. Our friends here have agreed to give us first pick of the loot, and since on our own we’re a bit short on supplies I don’t see why not. “

The squad nodded, they were tired, the mission had started poorly and now they were stuck banged up and beaten, low on supplies and moral already seemed to be slipping. This would not do.

The RAIDERS slowly made their way up the mountain side, their repainted armour camouflaging them from any unwanted eyes. Whenever possible, they crawled with their rifles held out ahead of them; when the terrain made that impractical they moved with their back parallel to the ground. Lambert was fairly sure that the hostiles wouldn't be expecting the attack, but Sergeant Battlemont wasn't taking any chances.

Truth be told, Dante had developed a pronounced dislike for the renegade Captain. A few words with his men had told Dante all he needed to know: they were traitors. This knowledge made his cooperation with the group, not to mention his taking orders from their Captain, stick in his throat. It wasn't the first time he'd wondered what in the Nine Corellian Hells Sniping 101 was thinking, but it was the first order he'd seriously thought about disobeying. For now, he'd simply follow his directions and hope for the best.

The mountain slope abruptly flattened out, inches above Sniping 101's head. The First Sergeant gestured to Dante, who then passed him a flexible cable. The Squad Leader slowly fed the cable out onto the plateau, activating the holocam as he did so. The feed showed something unexpected: a trio of soldiers sitting with their backs against a large rock, their weapons lying in a heap at their side. This was a new wrinkle, and a potentially disastrous one at that. If the group wasn't taken out before they could report in, the whole ambush could fall apart.

Several troopers below, one of the new recruits started to move from side to side, shaking all of the troopers below him from side to side. Dante leaned to one side and looked directly down, and the shaking stopped.

Sergeant Battlemont muttered something under his breath, then spoke.

"Sniper."

A Verpine shatter rifle was passed up from RAIDER to RAIDER until it reached the squad leader. Sniping 101 checked it to make sure it was fully loaded, then deactivated the safety. He then clambered over the cliff face and behind a convenient boulder. Poking the rifle's barrel around the rock, the First Sergeant squeezed the rifle’s curved trigger three times. Three bodies fell with their helmet faceplates and large parts of their heads blown away, and a disembodied helmet rolled through the dust as its owner twitched in his death throes. Sniping 101 stood up, scanning the area, then nodded to himself.

“All clear.”

Dante pulled himself up by his arms, dropping his weapon as soon as he could, then scrambling up. Moving aside so as to not block the others, he retrieved his PLX-1 and reslung it. One by one, the RAIDERS climbed up, forming a loose semicircle near the cliff edge. Far below, the first of the hostile transports rumbled into the area directly below the mountain. Looking around, Dante hoped the patterns painted onto their plastoid armour would fool the eyes of the cargo ship pilots. A series of curses from Sniping 101 drew his attention back to the convoy below. Dante removed a battered pair of electrobinoculars, provided courtesy of Lambert, from his belt and zoomed in on the group. There were four boxy cargo craft, each topped by a light laser cannon. Although the RAIDERS were far out of the short-range weapons maximum firing distance, and were ,in any event, well hidden, the same did not hold for Lambert’s force. The turrets would have to be neutralized before they made their move. 

The real problems were hovering serenely on either side of the circle of transports. Red-brown AAT tanks, dating back to the Clone Wars but still very much a threat, and a single AT-ST were on either side of the group. The laser cannons alone would be enough to end the ambush, and the AT-ST would be a major problem. The only consolation was that there seemed to be fewer infantry than expected, eighty instead of the hundred Lambert had promised. It was clear the Captain’s intel was badly mistaken.

Still, Dante said none of this, instead loading a round into his PLX-1’s firing chamber. Looking through the sight, noting the target distance and other information scrolling across the sight’s display as he moved the weapon, he dropped to one knee as he prepared to fire.

“Wait for Lambert to give the signal…”

A flare shot into the air, going unnoticed by the Remnant convoy against the hellish red-orange sky.

“Now.”

Dante fired a rocket, boots digging into the pebble-filled dirt as the force of the projectile pushed him back. At the same time, the other RAIDERS had shouldered and fired their rifles. Shatter gun rounds and sniper fire hissed through the air, and half a dozen of the red and grey armoured troopers fell midstep. A moment later, Dante’s rocket impacted on the AT-ST, which had conveniently turned its head directly towards the incoming round.

The explosion blew away the light walker’s front and filled its drivers with shrapnel. The scout vehicle took a half step forwards, wobbled mid-step, then fell gracelessly to the ground with flames pouring from every opening. More rockets streaked towards the other vehicles, and clouds of smoke began to drift up as explosions echoed up the mountainside. Down below, the first of Lamberts squads charged towards the hostile infantry, and blaster fire flew to and fro.

By this time, Dante had reloaded and was looking for a second target. He soon found one in an AAT tank that had obligingly turned away from the squad's mountain in order to provide cover fire for its allies.

"Knock knock..."

Tort slid down the slope firing off random bursts from his rifle before finding the catch and switching to single fire mode. He was now wearing an improvised gas mask one of Lambert’s engineers had cooked up for him. It was attached to his face by sandy coloured bandages which also covered his now exposed lekku to stop the colour giving away his position.

Despite the poor visibility given by Tort’s gas mask he saw one or two of the Silhouettes approaching their position fall giving him the moral boost needed to make his way to where Famus was struggling with the E-web taking nervous glances at Kry who was lying in the dirt unmoving.

‘You two!’ Famus screamed in desperation. ‘Help me set up this E-web fast; it should be able to fire at half strength at least…’ Famus sounded unsure but RB rushed in to help leaving Tort to administer first-aid to the fallen trooper.

Ducking low to avoid the blaster fire Tort looked at Kry and tried to remember his training. He took a needle filled with bacta from a small medkit on the fallen troopers belt and removing his helmet injected the liquid into what he hoped was the correct vein.

Without waiting for any response Tortus put the trooper’s helmet back onto his head deciding that even if the bacta helped the atmosphere on the desolate planet may well kill him anyway. Looking up Tort saw that Famus was still struggling with the E-Web and the figures where getting ever closer. Picking up his rifle Tort swallowed nervously and leapt into the fray.

Tort gained the advantage of surprise, the enemy hadn’t seen him while he was with Kry and now he was running towards them like a mad man firing his rifle into their ranks killing two of them and injuring another before unsheathing his Vibroblade and cutting down a third.

The troopers now over this initial shock pointed their own rifles at Tort preparing to fire. The leader of the squad sneered and shot Tort’s right arm with his blaster pistol making him drop the Vibroblade in a sudden gasp of pain. Moving his aim up to the stunned Twi’lek’s face he laughed.

The cocky laugh turned into a scram of despair as his torso was pierced by a single shot from Sniping101’s rifle and before the rest of the squad could retaliate they where ripped to shreds by the now up and running E-Web.

Taking one glance at the hill where Snipes was positioned and another at Famus and the E-Web. Tort fell to his knees and looked with despair at the corpses that lay around him. The 5 or so ripped apart by the E-Web… The arrogant leader lying face contorted into a mask of horror, and finally the three that he’d killed. Two with blaster one with Vibroblade. He’d never killed before. He wasn’t ready for this.

Tort ripped off the gas mask and the bandages around it and threw up into the pile of gore, the smell of fresh corpses reaching his nostrils for the first time. The E-Web fired off again as Tort faced the ground coughing heavily now he was exposed to the air around him when suddenly everything was silent. Tort looked up.

What lay before the RAIDERS now was indescribable. It was huge.

Famus looked across the battlefield were there foes lied dead. Famus saw a motionless stormtrooper against the boulder and gulped. Kry, the other private who had been fighting next to Famus only minutes ago was now dead and alone. The young trooper had been in denial until then, thinking that he wouldn't be killed in action. The realization was stunning. He looked among his squad mates Snipes said,"Well, lets get moving towards these pods. A map of has been uploaded to your HUD." The squad set off across the rugged landscape that was Siczazya III. The pass the Raiders walked across was not nearly as bad as the one before. Famus looked across the canyon basin from the top of a hill and said,"Sir, there is smoke coming from over in that direction," Famus said pointing towards the canyon bend. Snipes looked over in the direction and replied," I see that Private. We will move over in that direction by maneuvering towards that bend and we will move along the canyon wall and work are way over to the pod."

  The Raiders were moving down the quickly with there blaster rifles in their hand's. The group was at the bottom of the canyon and started along the canyon wall which was an odd red color. They turned the corner and saw a pod with smoke bellowing out of it.
   
  Famus looked down his scope and looking for any movement. All of a sudden a grenade flew through the air making a clank sound as it hit the dusty ground. The Raiders fanned out and with a boom Famus was knocked back against the canyon wall. He rolled and got back on feet just in time to dodge a blaster bolt the flew past his head. Whew that was lucky. He shot three times toward the trooper who had almost ended his life. The remnant trooper jumped behind the pod. While two others shot at the squad before being mowed down like unarmed protesters. The  Raiders moved in on the lone adversary. A blaster shot went off and Famus looked around and was puzzled. No one in his squad was hurt. The squad moved around and saw the dead Remnant trooper laying  dead with a blaster bolt through his head. There enemy had taken his own life. This angered Famus. A man could take his life while his squad mates were being shot down fighting for a cause they believe in.
 
  The squad looked in the pod and found nothing but some small amounts of E-11 ammo. The Raiders squad leader said,"Alright one pod to go three more to go. From now on we gotta be more fuckin careful. You saw what happened to Kry, well I will not lose any more soldiers."

Otto stood in the open doorway of one of three LAATi. The trio of troop transports was on a search and rescue mission to find a number of VE squads that had lost comm. contact during the campaign. So far they'd only found a half dozen survivors, and they were all Regulars, no Stormtroopers. This worried him because he knew that members of his old squad were out here somwhere, dead or more likely, dying.

He did not like using his Force powers outside of missions for th Order, but he knew that they were necessary here. So he kept his mind attuned to any life forces in the area.

*************************************************

An hour before, Otto's Clawcraft had exited hyperspace, just as an enemy Star Destroyer began crumbling in space. His sensors picked up a few escape pods headed toward the surface, but figured they'd be picked off by those on the surface. He quickly contacted the Dominion and asked where he could find the Raiders. They gave him the coordinates on the planet for the base camp of one Major Korakas.

He thanked the comm. officer and turned his fighter toward the planet. Along the way he only encountered two enemy fighters, and made quick work of them. It seemed that either everyone was too busy with the actual battle to worry about him, or too afraid of what the pilot of a Clawcraft was cabable of.

After landing, he'd opted to leave his flight suit on due to the gases in the atmosphere. Soon after introducing himself to Major Korakas, and explaining his situation, he boarded one of the three LAATi's to try and find the Raiders, and any other wayward squads.

*************************************************

As they crossed over another molten river, Otto's Force senses flared. He turned toward his fellow troopers
      "Get dow...." And then the aft section of the ship exploded, launching him out the open door.

As he fell, he saw the fireball that was the LAATi that he'd just been standing in plumet toward the lava river. The other two ships followed suit. He spun in mid-air to face the ground. He was heading toward the drop off of ground to lava. He stuck out his hands and used the Force to land safely. When he landed, he turned to see two of the burning LAATi's crash into the surface, exploding on impact. The third crashed into the lava, and was quickly engulfed in flames. He tried to reach out with the Force to aid those on board, but it was no use, there was no one alive.

He shook his head and looked up into the sky to try and find any missle trails. Only 1 smoke trail was visible, but that was all he needed. They'd come from a section of small mountains a few miles to his left, East. Behind him he heard a distant explotion, a single explotion, no blaster fire, just the explotion.

North, it's gotta be something

He turned and followed the lava river North. About ten minutes later he reached a rock bace on the edge of the lava flow. It had a giant scortched and jagged hole near the bottom, and rubble was everywhere. Someone had just blown down the cliff edge. He had an idea of who. He looked over the river, and about a half mile away he saw a group of Stormtroopers headed West.

With the aid of the Force, he jumped over the lava river and jogged toward his likely comrades. Within minutes he had caught up to the band of Stormtroopers. One of the Stormtroopers heard him coming and turned, blaster at the ready.

"Freeze!" he shouted. This caused the rest of the company to turn in his direction with their own blasters drawn. Otto skidded to a halt and raised his hands above his head. If this was the enemy, he'd have to deal with being their prisoner. Since he was pretty sure that they weren't, judging by the shape of the insignia on the Stormtroopers' uniforms, he knew he'd be safe.

    "Whoa," he said, hands still in the air, "I'm one of you guys. I just want to speak with your CO."

Two Stormtroopers stepped forward, obviously this was two different squads banding together. The Stormtrooper on the left put a hand up to silence the other before he could speak.

"I know that voice," said a familiar electronic Stormtrooper voice, "Name yourself.

Otto smiled inside his helment and began to lower his arms, "Sergeant Major Otto Vox, at your service Snipes."

"Otto?" Snipes replied, "I though you were retired?"

      "Advisor, but same thing I guess. I'm back now." he paused a moment, "Can I not have those blasters pointed at me anymore?"

"Oh yeah," Snipes motioned to the other troopers and they lowered their weapons. "Otto here was SL of Raiders back when I was still just a trooper. Good soldier, good leader."

Snipes turned back to him, "So how'd you get here?"

Otto explained, and also told them how he'd been reinstated to active duty as a member of Raiders, but the orders came through after they'd lost comm. signal with the squad. So he'd opted to come down and find them.

"Well," Snipes said after Otto was finished telling his story, "It's good to have you back. Right now we're trying to get back to Base Camp. So let's get moving"

The group slogged through the shifting sands, their weapons either slung over their backs or danging limply by their sides. Dante felt the sand impact his armour as he put one foot in front of the other and heard the constant pinging as grit wore away his armour and left lines of white in its carefully applied red-orange coating. Sniping 101, who was leading the group, took the worst of it, with his armour now more grey than red.

Lambert's men were in the rear, their heads down to reduce the possibility of their breathing in dust. Only two of the Captain's men still had helmets, and even those two seemed to be having difficulty. They'd wrapped rags around their faces in an attempt to block the sand, but without breathing filters there wasn't much they could do.

One of the helmetless stormtroopers suddenly stopped, and his comrade bumped into him.

"Hey, watch it!"

The man didn't seem to hear the rebuke, and instead clumsily tried to put his foot forwards. He wheezed, then fell to the ground and began coughing.

"Medic!"

The RAIDERS and Lambert's men turned around. The unfortunate stormtrooper was twisting in the sand now, hands grabbing at his own throat. Quickly, Celota crouched at his side and began to help. The trooper's airway was almost completely clogged up by particles.  After almost a minute, he'd recovered enough to get unsteadily to his feet and continue.

The group marched on, their ears filled with the howling of the dust storm and the occasional dull booming of artillery or turbolasers reminding them that there was another battle overhead. Dante's head began to spin as he watched the sand swirl in all directions. He caught himself just as the world began to blur, and focused his attention on the boots of the trooper in front of him. The group continued to move on, the airbourne winds wiping out their tracks behind them. Suddenly, Sergeant Battlemont held up his hand, and the group came to a sudden and ungraceful stop.

"We're going in circles. We've passed this cluster of boulders three times before."

Looking at the rocks, Dante realised that Sniping 101 was right.

We'll never get out of this desert in this weather...

"We'd better stop for now."

Captain Lambert simply nodded. He'd been subdued, even somewhat resigned. He certainly knew that the Major wouldn't welcome him back with open arms, yet he had still agreed to accompany the RAIDERS for reasons Dante didn't understand. He certainly seemed to be serious though, and the extra troops would come in handy, even if they slowed the RAIDERS down.

The Platoon and the RAIDERS had almost finished setting up camp when the first blaster bolt impacted. The energy beam hissed through the air, hitting one of Lambert's lightly armoured men. He screamed and fell, his strips of camouflage and flesh burning. All hell broke loose as half a dozen figures emerged from the maelstrom of swirling sand.

"Take them out!"

Taking advantage of the sudden lull in the fighting, Dante crawled over  to a group of corpses to strip them of ammunition. Two had massive, carbonized craters in their chest armour, while the last had taken a blast cannnon shot in the face. Their weapons lay in the dust besides them. 

The Gunnery Sergeant methodically opened magnetic clips and removed power cells from pouches. His gloves and knee armour became coated with blood as he worked, the dull red-brown stains almost unnoticeable against his pixelated camouflage. He glanced casually at the weapons, and stopped. There were a pair of badly battered E-11's, but the partially obscured rifle's butt was instantly recognizable.

Reaching over to the weapon, Dante pushed its former owner's limp arm aside and picked it up, running his hand over the dust covered barrel. The general outline was familiar, but the barrel was slightly longer than normal, and there was a scope. He looked through it to see if it worked, then nodded in satisfaction.

The anti-armour barrel and three rounds were nearby. Dante placed the rounds and the power cells in his waist pouches and held the DC-17 in his right hand. Behind him, the survivors of Fire and Ice Platoon were tending to their comrades and setting up turrets, while the other RAIDERS were retrieving ammunition from the dead.

Eventually, the multi-environment troopers filed into the impromptu  defended area. There were a trio of E-Web's and one of the platoon troopers was casually holding a J-9 rocket launcher.

The newest addition to the RAIDERS, one Otto Vox, was seated cross-legged in the middle of the group, his weapons lying at his side. Dante wasn't sure what to make of the Sergeant Major, who's name he recalled reading in old mission logs.

On one hand, he seemed competent enough and the available reports supported this conclusion. On the other hand, everything on the man after a certain point had been removed in a complete information blackout. That, plus the feeling of unease Dante had around him, made him wary.

The Sergeant Major got to his feet, retrieving his A-280 as he did so. He looked from side to side, then flicked off his rifle's safety.

"There's another group of those troopers making their way towards us. Just beyond those boulders."

Dante repressed a snort. There was no way for him to see that far in the still-raging storm. The man was obviously bluffing.

"How do you know?"

Dante noticed that Sniping101 had already gone, and he blinked. That was when the firing started.

A thermal detonator sailed through the air and detonated about half a meter above the ground, slicing through armour and energy shields like flimsy. Three troopers crumpled as the shrapnel and superheated gas tore through them, and their comrades ran to the barrier to take their place. It was a bad day for Fire and Ice Platoon.

The two remaining guns gutted identical-faced troopers by the dozens, blackened red and grey plastoid into smoking ash, but the enemy kept on coming.

That was when the miracle happened.

The squads of red armoured hostiles vanished in bursts of green light, followed moments later by crimson repeating blaster fire from the LAATi's troop bay. Two more of the dropships dropped from the dust clouds above, and white armoured troopers jumped out. A helmetless man with the rank insignia of Captain on his right shoulder strode towards the impromptu camp, his disdain evident in the sneer plastered across his face.

"RAIDERS Squad, I presume?"

Sniping 101 nodded, his posture slightly straighter than normal.

"I am Captain Drentan. I have orders to take you back to base, along with Lambert."

"Captain Lambert."

Lambert's voice was soft, but could be heard even over the sandstorm raging in the background. A twisted smile that made a mockery of mirth appeared on Drentan face.

"No, just Lambert. When we discovered your treason, you were relieved of your position."

Dante didn't have to ask who it had been rewarded to.

The newcomers were pushing the Fire and Ice Platoon survivors onto the dropships. One of them came over and shoved his rifle barrel into Lambert's back.

"Move."

The former Captain looked back, shrugged, then casually walked onto the waiting LAATi as though he was on the parade ground.

The RAIDERS climbed on, followed a moment later by Drentan, and the trio of troop transports climbed above the storm and vanished.

Famus looked at the storm raging below the transport that would take them back to base. Treason,well that would explain Lambert's reluctance to return to base. Famus looked across the atmosphere of the hellish planet. The transport began to rise higher and the pilot shouted back, "We have enemies down below. Don't wanna take any chances." As these words came out the pilot's mouth blaster fire began hitting the transports. "Damn thats a nuisance," said Captain Drentan with a smirk. The newcomers gave a laugh. Thats when it hit the old transport.

Three rockets came from all angles. "Open the damn do-". The transport was bashed by the enemy bombardment. It ignited as it fell from the crimson sky. Famus heard Snipes yell,"Aw shit, brace for impact!" Everything went black and he was with Laura again and she said, "Get up", the beautiful girl he had once loved faded away and Famus was feeling a sense of searing pain and then heard a distance voice shout," Fuck, get him out of there, he's under that wreckage,"

Famus woke up with a gasp. He was being pulled out of burning wreckage by Snipes while the rest of the RAIDERS were firing into at the enemy that knocked the transport out of the sky. Famus laid on the the sand for a second and then he got up crouching around looking for a rifle while firing with his blaster pistol which was miraculously still intact. He found an E-11 with some amunition in the rubble of the former transport. Stood up and moved behind a rock formation. He began firing dropping three troopers coming out of the dust. Four minutes later the enemy either had been all killed or retreated. The newest squad member Otto Vox said,"There gone. We can start moving towards HQ." Famus looked at the veteran with a bit of curiousness and shrugged.

  Just then they heard a groan from the wreckage. Lambert stumbled out with a dazed look. The squad raised their rifles. "Don't move traitor," said Dante. The former captain rased his arms and said," Okay, just don't kill me!"