"Status report Wraith!"

Kanderin still hadn't gained his own bearings again, but he was already checking his squad out, the Leader tempremant was quick to develop. A large chunk of the roof had came loose and nearly ended Kanderin there and then if a fresh faced private hadn't shunted him out the way. Unfortunately for the boy however, it was a poor move, and Kanderin was forced to pull the rocks off of him.

"Not all Radio's working Kand, I have Jennabelle and Specter with me, but they're links are busted. We'll keep looking for the rest" He heard RK respond.

"No, take up defensive positions. We need to know where the hell that came from and be ready for a second wave. I'll look for them in a second"

As Kanderin moved a few more rocks, he could finally hear the screaming of the private from underneath.

"You okay kid?" Kanderin called through the gap.

"My leg....I cant feel it...."

"That the only problem? No shortness of breath, stomach pains, headaches, anything like that?" Kanderin responded.

"No...just my leg..."

Luckiest private I've ever met, you could of been killed" Kanderin smiled as the private's body finally emerged. He looked around to find a medic dashing back and forth between downed soldiers. "Hey Medic, this guy needs your help in a second! Just a broken leg though most likely, not serious"

The medic put his finger's into an 'ok' sign, so Kanderin nodded, before pulling the rest of the rocks from the private carefully, patting him on the shoulder and running off to the Wildcard lines.

"Wraith's, gather at the north east wall, I need a headcount" He shouted, having to side step even more falling debris.

Gates grasped his DC-15 with heavy suppression attachments; extended clips, bipod, extended scope.

But that was of limited importance. The universal comlink code was buzzing in his ear, and every single SL called a halt at the same time. Storm platoon snapped to a stop. Gates adjusted his backpack, which had his shovel, a pair of fire extinguisers, and part of a hose in it, off of his shoulder. He'd been hit in the recent op, and his shoulder hurt like hell.

"Sarge, what's the call?" Tank whispered from the spot just behind Gates. BlackJack was halfway across the bridge towards the raging inferno. Personally, Gates wished to let the fire burn. It was nature's way of cleaning house.

"Damned if I know. I'm always the last person to be informed of anything."

He checked his DC to make sure the dry heat wasn't affecting it. Flashlight, on, clip, charged, sights aligned.

"Chief," Gates called quietly, "What's the news? Why'd we stop?"

"HQ's under attack. Mortars. Wildcat's holding the perimeter, but the LT wants us back double quick.

Gates groaned. He loved blowing stuff up, but he hated getting shot at. One couldn't come without the other. And the fire was more interesting than blaster bolts; he'd seen thousands of those. He shuffled to turn, his heavy pack and rifle weighing him down.

"Who the hell designed these damn shovels to be so awkward and heavy?" Garryll cursed again. "Hell!"

Dante looked out at the growing blaze, watching the curls of smoke rise up into the still-dark sky. Outlines of tree trunks softened and vanished as the forest crumpled like a ball of flimsi before the growing blaze. The other RAIDERS were nearby, manning E-Webs across what remained of the facility's sensor wall.

The rounds had smashed a three meter wide section of the wall into rubble, and killed half a squad of the troopers manning the barrier. Now there was a nice big gap in their defenses, just wide enough for a few squads to come charging in. The RAIDERS were stationed on the Northeast wall to prevent just that.

The only consolation was that none of the rounds had hit the tower itself, or injured the higher-ups within. Still, the roar of still more incoming artillery showed that this was at best a temporary situation. Dante saw a shell pass low overhead, and dropped to the ground.

A moment later, the round impacted, shaking him and the others as though they were rag dolls. A second and third round came down, but fell far short of the facility. Shrapnel pinged off the security walls, and a pair of smoldering craters smoked outside the complex.

Dante heard footsteps behind him, and looked in the rear viewscreen, a feature that the storm commando suit hadn't stripped away. There were four of the Wraiths, their shapes barely visible in the gloom. Dante gave them a nod as they raised rifles to firing height. He himself hefted a Z-9 rotary cannon, an anti-infantry weapon capable of tearing through dozens of troopers per minute.

Time for the fun to begin.

Dante found a large piece of duracrete debris, and decided to work from there. Setting his deece rifle on the ground, the Gunnery Sergeant placed a power cell in the Z-9. The weapon hummed as it activated, and targeting data scrolled across his HUD as the rotary cannon's sensors connected with his helmet sight. Half of the RAIDERS were on top of the wall's remains, sniper rifles in hand. The others and the Wraiths were on the ground to stop any from slipping into the complex.

"Contact!"

Shots rang out from above Dante, sizzling into the gloom and hitting targets he couldn't see. Crimson return fire started to emerge from the  path, and the other RAIDERS opened up. Dante saw a glint of metal, then the Delta trooper's body. He clicked his Z-9's firing switch, firing the anti-personnel weapon in bursts. The man was thrown back by a trio of energy bolts, twitching as he flew through the air. More figures emerged from the gloom, their armour and helmets reflecting the flames from the forest fire and damaged sensor station.

Pinipoint fire sent them sprawling, but their comrades simply charged over their dead bodies. Blaster fire flew back and forth as the Wildcard troopers picked off the enemy squads.

Dante saw one hefting what was unmistakably a PLX-1, and quickly emptied the power cell into the terrorist's direction. His hand tightened on the firing lever in a death reflex as he fell, and a proton torpedo flew straight up, detonating meters above the area and showering both sides with debris. Still more of the hostiles emerged from the gloom, and Dante mentally swore.

"How many of the bastards are there?!"

The grey-armoured figure ran towards the walls, firing its stolen E-11 as it went. Shots rang out, and three energy beams reduced its head to a blackened mess. It flopped into the dirt in a faintly boneless way, dropping its rifle with a clatter as it did so. Dante had stopped keeping track of how many of the bastards had shown up, and was focusing on mowing them down before they could fire or ,worse yet, chuck a thermal in his direction.

The Wraiths had managed to set up a trio of E-Webs just beyond the damaged part of the wall, and the squad weapons had proved effective. Dozens of the Delta troopers went down,  their armour blown off or simply melted away. Dante saw a trio of the terrorists crawling towards the perimeter and pulled the Z-9's trigger. A red light flashed over his reticule, and "Power cell depleted" flashed on his HUD in three different languages.

"Osik."

Dante blinked, trying to shake the after-image the warning had left on his retinas, and swore to himself that he was going to find and kill the idiot who had calibrated this tin can. Dante threw the heavy repeater to the ground and retrieved his deece from where he'd placed it earlier. It may not have had the same decimation factor, but it would do. He squeezed off a burst at the group and watched the leader fall. E-Web fire took down the rest

Above him, the other RAIDERS were still firing when the seemingly endless charge stopped. The wounded continued to try to crawl to safety, but no new enemies emerged. This made Dante even more nervous than he'd been during the assault. He could deal with the enemy only if he could see them.

What are the Sithspawn planning now?

Bright's grenade lit up the field in a brilliant explosion, followed by the strong scent of burnt flesh and gunpowder. "Mmm. Smells like victory." Angel mused, getting to his feet. Smoke from the grande started to mix with smoke from the fire as the blaze kept burning mightily in the night, making it harder and harder to see and breathe. The enemy fire had stopped, indicating that they few in number, and even fewer in skills.

"Jori, Jager, recon where Bright's grenade hit. Everyone else regroup. Anyone injured?" Angel asked as the two troopers moved quickly to check if the threat had truly been neutralized.

None of the squad appeared hurt, and reported to their leader as such. "You all ok?" A familiar voice called through the night. Six blasters trained in the same direction until Angel called them off. Kami appeared from the darkness, splashing across the water. "Paladin and Blackjack are on their way, but I heard explosions close range."

"Yeah we're  ok." Brightstar assured her former squad leader. Her second thought was interrupted by Jori and Jager's return.

"They're dead. Was only three of them, looked like scouting party if they commed in we could have more coming." Jager reported, keeping his rifle shouldered.

"Right then, lets double time back to the station!" Kami called out, and Angel barked in affirmation, "Move out!"

Orobos stood looking around into the semi-darkness the fires lighting up the night with a eerie orange glow. He was waiting for Tanus to give the order to move back up to protect HQ. The squad turned and made there way cautiously back towards HQ alert for any enemies they might see along the way. Of in the distance Orobos could see other squad from Storm doing the same. They were coming closing in, in a kind of defensive loop.

"Who the hell designed these damn shovels to be so awkward and heavy?" Garryll cursed again. "Hell!"

"They're military grade equipment. Not designed to be handy or comfortable because we're not allowed complain,"

"There's a reason for that," Tanus said looking back at them both,"Now cut it out."

They walked on in silence weapons raised. Scanning the horizon ahead of him Orobos could spot out the faint outline of a building just ahead of them. It was headquarters definitely as there wasn't any other buildings around this area. A few distant explosions made them quicken there pace. They moved up and around towards where the enemy had been reported to have mortars set up.

There was blaster fire far over to there left. They followed the exchange from a distance as lasers flew back and forth. The enemy fire was coming from the tree line. Orobos spun around as bolt fire came there way.

"Contact!"

Bright listened to Jager's words then nodded. Only three but that was a small victory as she had just thrown that grenade hoping that they hadn't had time to move. Hearing the move out order, Bright jumped back into reality and followed Angel and Kami.

The smoke in the air was still thick but Bright tried to look past that and keep focused on her surroundings and the condition of her team. Jori was on her right holding his own and she noticed with satisfaction that he was keeping his eyes on the surrounding area as well. Jager was to her right and behind her a couple of paces but he too appeared alert.

In the distance she heard several more smaller explosions but they were too distant to tell if they had caused any significant damage. Turning her stinging eyes in the direction of the station, Bright could see even more dust and debris. Without realizing it her pace began to quicken and before she knew it she was level with Angel as Jester and Kami made their way forward. A few more yards to go and they would be able to see most of the damage done.

“Just hold out a bit longer.” She muttered to herself.

Tanus ducked behind a tree as laser fire pelted the ground in front of; luckily for Tanus, they couldn’t see all that well, and Blackjack’s armor allowed for the soldiers to blend well into the night. Tanus yelled to Orobos behind the tree as he fired his Stormtrooper Two one handed to try and at least send them running.

“Orobos, grab the Tyrant and lay covering fire. Tank, you stay with him and provide grenade support; just toss them before the cannon to throw up a screen. Garryll and I will flank them and take them out. Just keep us alive boys!”

Tanus grabbed his spade and ran up the hill, careful not bring any notice to himself or to Garryll. As they rounded a bend near the top of the hill, they could hear the sound of the Tyrnat opening fire and Tank tossing grenades. So far everything was going well. Tanus came to a small outcropping behind the cannon emplacement. He turned on his thermal scan and got a readout on what he was facing: there were six of them, three of them manning the cannon, with another one holding macrobinoculars, looking for a viable target. Tanus knew that it was just a matter of time before they found Orobos and Tank, and he didn’t want to give them that chance. Tanus turned to Garryll and nodded. Before Garryll could question what was happening, Tanus jumped down off the outcropping. He rolled on the ground coming up behind the rebel with the binoculars. As the others turned around, Tanus brought his spade across the back of the man’s legs. Before he hit the ground, Tanus took the spade head down into his skull.

The other men were completely shocked; it looked like a ghost had just appeared. Tanus was going to use that fear. He brought his Samurai Edge out its holster and planted two rounds into the next target’s chest, taking him out. Tanus ran up to the next rebel and rammed the butt end of his spade into the man’s mouth. As he stumbled backwards, Tanus jammed the spade head into the man’s throat, killing him instantly. Garryll came down soon after and opened fire with his Stormtrooper Two, killing off the remaining two rebels. Tanus commed in to the others.

“Okay boys, we’re done up here. Grab your gear and come up here so we can up with a plan.”

As the others gathered around him, Tanus put his spade back in its case; the fires off to the east seemed to be getting brighter.

“Okay, the blaster fire to the right of us seems to be intensifying. Now, I’m not entirely sure what the four of us can do, but I have a feeling that wreaking a little havoc is not too far out of our reach. Grab your gear and let’s move out. We’re gonna have some fun tonight boys.”

Rocks and sand rained down upon them, stinging RK's eyes as he ran making it difficult for him to see five feet in front of him. Kand on the other hand was running in front of RK, dodging debris as it fell around him. Something inside of RK, however, made him feel like this was going to be his final resting place, which wasn't exactly how he wanted to die.

“Keep up RK, were almost there.” Kand ordered as they took a sharp corner, which to RK's distress  had more debris then the hall they had just came from.

“I'm trying, believe me I'm trying.” RK replied, wiping his eyes from the water that had built up, finally letting him see clearly.

Every step RK took he felt a tremor, and every turn there seemed to be more debris than the previous hall, making him even more nervous than he already was; which added to his fear of being buried alive.
I just hope the exits haven't been blocked. He kept running wondering what had happened to kand, he no longer saw anything moving in front of him.

“Umm RK where are you going?” Instantly RK stopped, wondering who had called his name, and specially so calmly. He turned around and saw Ror standing there, smiling.

“Oh, sorry, couldn't see, thought we had farther to go.” RK wiped more sand and dirt from his eye while walking back to meet up with the rest of the group.

The first thing Dante heard was a quiet buzz, a noise which quickly resolved itself into the screams and bangs it was composed of. The world flickered in and out of blurry existence, then became clear. Dante was lying facedown in the dirt, his battered deece lying discarded nearby. He was dimly aware that there were dozens of troopers running around, and that most of them were wearing the standard armour, but all of this seemde very distant and unimportant. What worried him was that he could only see a few of his black-clad squadmates.

The other RAIDERS!

The sudden memory shook the Gunnery Sergeant out of his semi-conscious state, and he pulled himself up by tugging on debrids. His armour was covered with shrapnel, and a jagged piece of durasteel had carved a curved trail across his helmet's visor, but he himself was unharmed. Two or three of the regulars hadn't been so lucky: they'd been near ground zero for the four mortar rounds.

Dante's helmet com shrieked, and he opened the channel.

"All RAIDERS, get back to the wall. The Deltas are back. Repeat, all RAIDERS get back to the wall."

Sure enough, there was a vicious firefight ranging at and around the remains of the wall. Mortar rounds had carved so many holes in the structure that it was no longer a question of holding the wall so much as a deadly game of hide and seek. From the light cannon fire Dante heard coming from the South Wall, they weren't faring any better.

One of the Delta soldiers spotted him and gestured at the trooper. For his idiotic failure to fire, Dante put a two second burst through his forehead. The other three troopers in the group opened fire on Dante, forcing him to leap for a large piece of twisted metal. A blaster shot whizzed less than a centimeter away from his ankle, and Dante felt his flesh inside the suit prickle as the heat burned it. Blaster bolts continued to impact Dante's cover, and the troopers were running towards him as they fired. It was time to even the odds.

Dante unpinned the grenade, held it for two long seconds, then rolled it past the cover before quickly ducking.

The troopers were less than half a meter away from the explosive, and caught the full brunt of the blast. The front two took high-velocity shrapnel in their unarmoured faces and necks, while the last one fell with his torso riddled with debris.

Dante had emerged from cover and was preparing to finish the man off when a trooper in storm commando armour decapitated the crippled terrorist with a vibrosword. He then removed his helmet to reveal the bushy sidelocks and bearded face of Dante's squad leader. Wordlessly, he gestured at the besiged wall. No words needed to be said.

The north wall was almost unrecognisable as what it had been just over an hour earlier. Entire meter-long stretches of duracrete wall were now scattered across the dry earth, and corpses were draped everywhere. Squads of Delta troopers ran out of the gloom, seemingly heedless of casualties and determined to take the sensor array this time.

There was a bright flash of light, followed by a loud clang as a well aimed thermal detonator turned the last of the Vast Imperial E-Webs into a smoking pile of scap. Without the guns, the Vast Imperials were outnumbered and demoralised. Several squads of regular stormtroopers had been sent up to supplement the RAIDERS, but the majority of the base's garrison was occupied to the South, where the situation was even worse.

The RAIDERS were at the epicenter of the conflict, the largest hole in the perimeter wall. Vibroblades slashed through armour and flesh, while blaster bolts sent the troopers of both sides sprawling with their vital organs carbonized. Sniping 101 and Otto Vox were slashing at the Deltas, severing limbs and rendering armour with vibroswords.

The other RAIDERS, Dante included, were using more conventional blaster weapons. Dante fired until the power cell was dry, smashed faces and limbs with the rifle's butt until there was a momentary pause in the fighting, then reloaded and repeated the proccess. As a Faleen's skull gave way with a sickenning crunch under his mechanical right fist, Dante looked up slightly from the fracas and almost froze. Dozens more of the squads were headed towards the conflict.

"Do they ever give up?!" someone shouted, capturing Dante's mood perfectly.

"Does it look like it?"

Jori woke up on a hard, cold floor with a terrible headache. He sat straight up as the past hour flooded back into his memory. He looked around and noticed his squad, plus Kami, all lying on the floor as he was. As he gazed at the room, Kami sat up and propped herself up on her elbow. He jumped when a distant rumble sounded and the building shook.

“You finally up, Jori? Well, besides me and Bright, you’re the first. Everybody is more or less intact. You’re pretty beat up yourself.” Kami said.

“I probably feel as bad as I look. My head is pounding. Anyway, where are we at?” Jori asked, looking around.

“We are in the Sensor Station. When the mortar hit, they saw it and sent someone out to bring us in. I’m glad because the mortars started pouring down right after we got in, or so I was told.” Kami said.

By then, Verk and Jager were groaning and sitting up. Kami repeated everything to them as Jori got up and stretched. He looked around and was startled to notice that they weren’t alone. It seemed as if all of Storm Platoon had already made it there.

Between the luckless grenadier who'd ended up with carbonzied ash for a face and the Trandoshan whom he'd gutted with a well aimed vibroknuckler swipe, Dante had found a sort of inner rhythm. Always moving, always firing, the Gunnery Sergeant sidestepped vibroswords and badly aimed blaster shots. Dante felt he was finally beginning to understand what made Snipes tick: the rush of adreneline that came with battle, the sudden alertness that was better than any drug.

A Barabel roared in anger as Dante's blaster shots peeled its body armour away like flimsy and singed its scale, then threw its blaster aside and charged. At up to three meters high and retaining many of their lizard ancestors' characteristics, Barabels were tough, vicious, and damn hard to kill. The last time Dante had ended up going hand to hand with one, he'd lost his right arm...again.

Dante took careful aim and fired at the black-scaled figure. The shots hit, melting tough keratin scales and the softer flesh underneath, but the creature stumbled and continued. It lunged at Dante, jaws snapped. Stepping to the side, the trooper pulled the trigger, discharging the deece into the alien's reptilian eye. Half of its muzzle and head vanished instantly, but it still manged to turn towards him before dropping nervelessly in a smoldering heap. Giving the corpse a good kick, Dante rejoined the fray.

Most of the VE reinforcements were KIA, and the RAIDERS were almost alone as they fought to hold back the living tide of would-be intruders. Already, some had slipped past and were engaging the station's inner security. Dante heard Sergeant Battlemont trying to contact his superiors and listened in.

"We require reinforcements, now! We are being overrun! What part of overun do you not understand?"

The officer's reply was drowned by the series of explosions that sounded from the wall. What remained of the sentry levels and patrol area now collapsed as shaped charges placed during the fighting decimated and the enemy poured in on all sides. Dante felt a pair of blaster bolts hit him in the lower chest plate, and felt his stomach constrict as the heat scorched his flesh. Snipes was yelling now, and Dante's heart sank as he heard the words.

"Pull back! Pull back!"

Dante had only managed to take two steps back when the impossible happened. The squads pouring through the gaps rippled and then vanished as a trio of particle cannons sliced through the space they occupied. Heavy laser cannon fire followed a moment later as the trio of Saber class repulsortanks hovered into the battlefield. Dozens of white armoured troops jogged in their wake. Dante sighed quietly as he realised that this was it, that they were saved. Still, if Command had spared the vehicles fifteen minutes earlier, the situation wouldn't have been so desperate and most of the first wave of regular troopers might still have been alive.

"Bout time the bloody cavalry arrived..."

The Dewback was hit pretty badly, from what Kand could tell. Helena had made her way over to RK and the mount to provide whatever help she could, Kanderin and the other mounts spreading out to provide a temporary shield. It wasn't the smartest move in the world, the main goal would be to get to safety. Moving a Dewback however would be virtually impossible in these conditions, so they had to make do and hope no mortar shells decided to land on top of them.

Kanderin fired his rifle three times, downing three soldiers that had broken from a bank about forty metres to his left. Two immediately clattered to the ground with shots through the forehead, but Gizmo's lurching had meant Kanderin missed his aim slightly on the third and only managed to penetrate his neck. It would be a few minutes before the man died, and it would be very, very painful until then. Kanderin fired again to end the mans misery.

"Hey Sarge, take a look over there!"

Kanderin looked over behind him, towards the North Wall of the complex. Three repulsor tanks, cutting the enemy forces to pieces were just visible. The bright light from their cannons bathing them in a very slight glow. A number of the Dewbacks were startled by the loud explosions and lights however.

"Easy boy" Kanderin soothed, stroking his Dewback's head "They're the good guys"

The North was very secure with tanks guarding it, and would be for some time. That meant the South would be the weak spot. RAIDERS had done good on their part, it was time Wraith returned the favour.

"Helena, how's it look?"

"It looks worse than it is, actually" She replied, pressing her fingers into pressure points on RK's ankle. "The Dewback has just a flesh wound, he can get going again straight away. RK's ankle is sprained, but its no problem. We're good to go"

"Then we make our way to the South, let's try and scout out where these forces are coming from" Kanderin responded, tugging the reigns to make Gizmo turn around and gallop southward.