RK gritted his teeth at the pain, he had been careless, but at least he could till fight. After Helena finished up here check s on his leg, he struggled to get up, limping slightly. His Dewback was having less trouble then him getting up, he was thought, RK had to give him that, but he knew it would be harder to ride him. Although once he was up something spoked him.

“Alright Boy, stay calm.” RK tried his best to keep the dewback  under control; he grabbed the reigns and kept them firmly in his hand, while picking up his whip with the other. Once he got everything gathered up he replaced the whip to his belt, and became to attempt to get on his mount. “Alright, your going to have to work with me here.”

the dewback just stayed there, his head shaking up and down; whether that was a sign that he was alright with it or he was just trying to shake RK off his reigns. Regardless, RK didn't care, all that mattered was getting back on and helping out. This wasn't probably the best idea ever.

RK started by jumping on his good leg and getting it in the right saddle foot hold, then he swung his bad leg up around; when it made contact with the side of the dewback a sot of pain went through his leg, making him grit his teeth even harder. The Dewback,on the other hand, let out a low grunt, letting him know that he wasn't liking what was going on. RK just patted him on the head and let him know it was okay.

“You going to be alright RK?” Kand asked, riding up beside.

“Yea, I'll be fine.” RK replied, grimacing at another jolt of dull pain that went up his leg.

“Good, everyone form up, were going to have to hit them hard.”

“Yes, sir.” Ror replied. He was the only one to say anything, except for Helena who was telling something to Kand that was beyond audible, except for their ears.


“Alright, understood. Now let's move.”

Ror took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second as Kand talked to Darr on the radio,. "God damn this was not fun waking up to!" Ror muttered under his breath as Kand finished talking.

"Let's make our way out of range of the mortar's guys, and wait for the fresh meat" Kand said grabbing his reins once more.

Ror sighed and looked over and saw his polearm and ran his dewback over there, "Well at least I found you," he said under his breath again before turning his bewback around and running to catch up with the squad.

They proceeded out the stable and where making their way down towards the south way slowly. The process was slow because every time a mortar hit their dewbacks would get spooked. "I am talking to Doc about why he gave us these damn thing!" Ror yelled over the roar of incoming fire.

"Hey you guys are Wraith squad I take it?" A man's voice yelled after a round exploded off in the distance. They looked over and saw the squad that was sent for them. They were regular army and about 15 men strong with basic blasters.

Kand turned his dewback and looked at the man, "I take it your the squad commander right?"

The man nodded, "Srg. Taylor, now heres that map command told you about,' he said reaching to his pants pocket and pulling out a small databoard.

Kand reached down and took it from the man and switched it on a second and looked at the map, "Thank you, I am Knaderin Draken, Wraith's Squad leader. Now I think we should get started don't you?"

The man nodded and they both barked marching orders to their squad and both squads began once again moving to the south wall.

K

Ror listened to the plan and smiled, "So we get to be the meat shields Kand?"

RK looked over at Ror and laughed, "You scared Ithorian?"

Ror looked over at RK and scowled, "Kand, sir, is there going to be a point man?"

Kand looked over at the two and sighed, "Fighting for lead again you two? No we go as one wave so we hit harder without getting shot up piece by piece." Rk and Ror both sighed to that. Wraith turned their mounts; slowly and quietly walked their mounts over to the cliffedge so the surprise would be more sudden. Taylors squad split into groups and went to separate riders.

As the groups split up three man stood their dumbstruck, Helena laughed and spoke up, "Kand I think you made a math error. We got three leftovers."

Kand quickly snapped his head around and scowled, "Oh, well just each of you join a different group and we will have three squads with 4 and one with three." The men quickly nodded and ran to join the others.

Ror looked over and glared at his partner RK, "Hey Rk I am going to get more kills on the first run then you do."

Rk looked over and glared at Ror and smiled, "100 credits say I take more kills first rum."

Ror laughed and nodded, "Fine 100 credits it is." Ror glanced back and saw they were the group of three and that the men had edged back away from the two Wraiths, Wow these regulars must think we are crazy for volunteering and having a smile on our faces to be basic meat shields.

Wraith could see down the hill now, to the squads of enemy troopers that stood in lines below. Three men, supposedly their leaders, were barking orders at them, pointing to the South East, which with a quick glance up, kand confirmed was the the bridge crossing the river.

"Hey, you guys sure you saw 5 to 1 numbers down there?" Kanderin whispered to the men stood around him.

"Hey dont ask me, it was Sean that told you that" One of the men replied.

"Well, I see no more than twenty men, this'll be a snap" Kanderin smiled.

By the time he had turned back, the squads had vanished from where they used to be. Instead, they had already reached the road and were sprinting down it, towards the bridge.

"Shall we give chase Kand?" Helena called across from her group.

"Yeah, but lets keep back. They're up to something, we need to find out what it is" He shouted back.

Helena nodded and relayed the info to everyone else, before briskly following Kanderin and Ror down the hillside. They couldn't go much faster thana  trot without risking becoming visible, so progress would be slow. They also made the senior decision to stay off the road, which made them very visible. Instead, they stuck to the slightly lower area to each side, just low enough to make them invisible.

Tank commed the other troopers operating the various systems on the fire trucks, talking them through the controls.  Soon each of the repulsorlift trucks were dousing flames with foam jets.  Following Kami's orders the troopers were efficient, not wasting foam yet steadily making progress.

Tank was impressed; Jori had already intuited the controls before the others even asked for help.  He'd make a great vehicle crewmen; we never seem to have enough... Tank mused as he maneuvered his truck to dodge a falling tree.  "Keep your scanners open; if one of the big trees lands on you you'll get pinned or worse."

"Roger that, Tank.  I hope the others are having an easier time..."

Tank was sure Sergeant Gates was having a 'blast' or two at their enemies' expense.  Movement on his ten snapped Tank out of his reverie.  Troopers in silvery fire-retardant outfits armed with a variety of flamers; carbines, rifles and cannons.  "Lance Corporal Tnepres take the controls!" Tank ordered the newest member of BlackJack as he went up top with the M1 LMG "Tyrant" Chaingun.  Mounting the weapon on braces the vehicle itself would hold the weapon (mostly) steady as he fired.  Tank tore into the group closest to the trucks, cutting them down.  Others retreated into the flames or behind foam-coated trees.

In the relative silence Tank heard something behind him, something close.  Drawing his Stormtrooper Two heavy carbine he twisted around and rapid shot the vibroaxe-weilding arsonist.  Too damn close...  Reholstering his carbine he got back to business with the chaingun in time to take out the next wave of thugs.

Targetting a tree, Tank brought it down on the heads of the handful smart enough to retreat.  Checking his HUD there were no more contacts withing range, so he took over the foamjet.  Back to work...

Bacardi took his eyes of his gun and looked straight ahead at the transport door. Troops piled out of the transport, Bacardi behind Tortus, Tortus behind Dante, and Dante behind Sniping101. Bacardi raised his DC-15S Blaster Rifle towards the place were Aiwha Squad had stood moments earlier. It was only molten dust now. All of the troops of RAIDER Squad ran towards the mines, dodging the red dots as carefully as possible. Their target, the bridge, was straight ahead. One mine was half an inch away from Bacardi's foot as he hit the bridge, jumping over it (behind Sniping101, Dante, Tortus, and the rest of the exhilarating RAIDERS Squad).

Jumping over the bridge, their Stormtrooper Armor stood out from the Delta Armor, as fire came from all sides, the RAIDERS took cover by a few crates. Moving his gun over, Bacardi shot twice at a Delta, killing him instantly. Deltas began to charge, and Dante shot up once killing a Delta that was coming for Tortus.

"Pull back for WildCard support." A familiar voice rang through all the Stormtrooper Corps Coms, and RAIDER Squad followed suit. Dante and Bacardi dropped two thermal detonators and hopped the bridge, Sniping101 and Tortus already cleared the bridge, with Otto on their tail. All of RAIDERS ran through the minefield with strength, all the men ran behind a small barricade of Aiwha Squad's (what was left of them) transport. All the troopers raised their blasters at the oncoming troops, making sure none of them could get close enough for the minefield to detonate. "RAIDERS, pull back to the transport!"

"Copy that," Sniping101 said. "Lets move!" All the troops turned around and ran to the transports. All the squads were meeting their, and small barricades had already been set up.

Sniping101 motioned for RAIDERS Squad to follow him (and the rest of WildCard Platoon at that). The minefield had turned into a stretch of rubble and other gizmos. Bacardi ran towards with a sluggish speed, kneeling down to fire once (with WildCard cover). The bolts streaked over the bridge and near the enemy turret. The turret immediately turned around as WildCard's bolts streaked it, it began to fire, one bolt at a time. Another turret (located a few meters away from the other turret) turned in the same direction, pulsing more shots into the same position.

A trooper from Iron Horse Squad came from nowhere, in his hand he carried an ion grenade. He tossed the grenade with a strong arm towards the two turrets, another trooper came up beside him with an Ion Cannon (both of them still standing still) and fired twice. The ion bolts nailed the turrets, disabling them for valuable seconds. All of the troopers jumped onto the bridge (were the turret emplacements were) and looked around for a half of a second at the troopers. Smirking, WildCard raised their rifles - firing. Bacardi jumped down, doing a summersault towards one of the troopers.

"Ah-" the trooper yelled as automatic fire from WildCard Platoon killed the trooper. The other troopers, three to be exact, turned towards Bacardi weapons raised. WildCard was already on top of that, Dante, Tortus, and Sergeant Major Otto Vox and opened fire from the left, Sniping101, and a few members from Iron Horse on the right. The troopers hit the ground, all of them dead.

"Plant charges." Sniping101 ordered the group, as they planted charges on the turrets.

Bacardi and Otto Vox both stood six foot one inch, they both had their weapons slung around their back, and they both were dragging Dante back. Both of them let Dante drop as they raised their weapons automatically, Bacardi's smaller, less powerful weapon could barely scratch the rebels from so far away. Looking down at the ground, he saw a T-21 Light Repeater. Picking it up he raised his blaster again, firing as fast as possible. Otto Vox, who was carrying a Imperial Heavy Repeater ran forward, and Bacardi followed. Dante got up and followed them.

Taunts came from the New Republic Trooper's mouths. Those taunts halted a second later as the Saber tank came forward, firing as fast as possible. WildCard took his opportunity to charge as quickly as possible. The troops (WildCard troops) stopped in their tracks as the New Republic troops (that were retreating) turned around and fired as quickly as possible. A shower made of lasers battered the position that Bacardi and Vox had retreated to, the Saber tank quickly fired to quell this.

Both of them jumped up quickly, along with the rest of WildCard. The enemy troopers ran as fast as possible, the Saber tank on their tail, and half of WildCard's men firing repeaters at a slow rate. They all hit the ground, dead.

"Oh... screw it." Bacardi muttered as the All Terrain Recon Transports came into play. Vox was heard swearing in a raspy voice, and the rest of WildCard stood still for a second - not a second to long. "Sir," Bacardi said, remembering that the Sergeant Major wasn't his sir. "Cover me!" Vox nodded as he raised his Imperial Repeater, Bacardi moved out of his hiding spot and aimed, the All Terrain Recon Transports were fighting against WildCard with vicious fury.

"Covering fire!" Otto Vox screamed, he had obviously commed a few other Iron Horse and RAIDERS troopers as they all popped out at the same time. Bacardi jumped onto the ground and threw a thermal detonator, Otto Vox began to launch blaster bolts at the All Terrain Recon Transports. Meanwhile Iron Horse Squad troopers boasted EMP Launchers. The Shadow crept up on one All Terrain Recon Transport in the meantime and hit its legs with fire, Bacardi shot craters near its walking path.

"This is Iron Horse Trooper Z- *static*" A EMP detonated right next to an All Terrain Recon Transports legs, it violently fell onto another AT-RT destroying them both in a flare of grenades and blaster bolts. "11 O'clock!" All the troopers turned towards an AT-RT causing havoc, they all fired at will. Troopers on the side of the AT-RT began to fall to the ground in pain, another EMP sounded and it destroyed the AT-RT.

"Move into defensive positions, I repeat move into defensive positions." The WildCard operator screamed into the com. WildCard retreated back into defensive positions, all of them hiding behind scrap of New Republic and Imperial gizmos. Enough of the men had the piss scared out of them that they were shaking in their own urine, all of the troopers looked on their radars. Nothing. Not a sound.

BAM. A giant shell hit a hiding spot and troopers came out screaming. All the troopers jumped up and raised their weapons. The red, blue, green, and other colors crossed the line of fire. AT-RTs crossed over the field of bodies, all of the men began to attempt to stop this. They all began to fire bolts at the AT-RTs, none of them stopped at this. The pilots of the AT-RTs slowed down to destroy the men's defensive positions. All the men went back into hiding at that peak.

In a second the enemy troops flooded through the AT-RTs, firing. WildCard jumped up and fired as fast as they could, bodies hit the ground in seconds. Screams echoed through the valley, and shots rang more and more violently. The AT-RTs turned at every moment to fire as quickly as possible, they were, well... screwed.

RK's dewback trotted slower than the rest, which put him behind, instantly, making him the back up; just in case someone came up behind them. Actually it was better that way in RK's mind, then if his dewback decided to go crazy, he would have a better chance of getting it under control before they were noticed.

“Seriously, why don't we just go up to them say 'hi' and then kill them...” Ror asked.

“Well, we could, but then if they have people hiding out like snipers we'd be dead, not to mention that they might have some information that might prove useful.” Kand paused, and turned around to stare at Ror, “And be quiet.”

A slight snicker escaped RK's mouth, which got a dirty look from both Helena and Ror, which prompted him to shut up as well. After all, if they kept talking, being noticed was inevitable, RK knew just what that was like. Okay, now this is getting tedious.

By the time everyone had quieted own, their dewbacks had finished trotting towards the beginning of the bridge, by that time the men they were following were three-fourths of the way across. Running faster and faster, resembling people who had jut looked as if they had seen a ghost, even if they weren't looking back.

“I don't now if they know where here, but that's no excuse to stop, let's keep going, we don't have much time.” with that Kand snapped his reigns and the rest of them followed suit, again going into a slow trot.

However,RK was able to get one last  phrase out before they began their journey again: “When will this madness end?!”

He had to admit, the walkers did explode well. The enemy surge had momentarily stopped, giving the Wildcards a chance to take a crack at the walkers. Small arms fire might bounce right off, but charges and continous beams tore the walkers apart like nerfs at the slaughterhouse. Yet another Recon Trasnport fell over with its legs still moving as the Saber-tank tore through it on its path to the front. Someone started a kill count, and both the Horses and the RAIDERS took it up.

"Five bastards down!"

The fallen walker moved slightly, then fell still. The hostile infantry, perceiving the loss of their support, had started to pull back. Running didn't save them from sprays of heavy cannon fire, fire which burned away armour plates and turned living flesh into clouds of ash. The Wildcards gave chase, eager to exact vengence for their near defeat earlier. One of the surviving walkers "ran" forawrds, ignoring the allies it crushed under its pronged feet. It headed straight for the Saber, apparantly intending to take it out with a suicidial charge.

The particle beam impacted the walker's curved front plate, burning a hole straight through the walker until it reached the rows of hand sized power cells. They ignited one by one, popping like a string of military-grade fireworks. The walker was spun around by the explosion, and was still turning when it impacted the ground and vanished in a greasy fireball.

"Another Romero tango bites the dust!" a trooper shouted.

Unable to help himself, Dante whooped in glee as well. At that moment it didn't matter that he had taken a good half dozen hits. It didn't matter that they'd been on the brink of defeat twice. All that mattered was that the enemy was running, and that they could actually win this. He hadn't felt that conviction for a long time, not since his days as a Private fresh out of the Academy, and he enjoyed it, knowing it wouldn't last.

Dante blinked as the light and heat from the twin explosions washed over him. Then the situation sank in, and he clenched his fists. The Saber tank blazed merrily, its cannon warping and merging with the cockpit in the intense heat of the blaze. Dante scanned the wreckage in vain for survivors, knowing rationally that no sentient could have survived either the initial explosion or the subsequent blaze, but unwilling to abandon two of the troopers who had saved the Wildcard's collective asses without even looking.

Nothing emerged, and he finally turned away from the wreck, suddenly bitterly angry at the enemy, the world , the dikut who had sent them out here with only a single tank and with bad intel. Dante caught himself, and channeled that fury into something constructive. There were bursts of blaster fire from a group of four Delta troopers, and Dante ran towards them. One of their shots hit him directly on the arm, burning away the plastoid and searing the mechanical apparatus underneath, but Dante ignored both the sudden rise in temperature and the simulated pain from the cybernectic limb.

His return shot caught one of the trooper's in the throat, nearly severing his head. Vox and another stormtrooper Dante didn't recognise joined the firefight, and the last three quickly joined their comrade. Nodding to the Sergeant Major with a new respect, Dante searched for another target.

On approaching the bridge, the whole situation changed before anyone even had chance to blink. There was fire everywhere, rising up in huge plumes over broken machinery and smouldering bodies. A few familiar faces from Wildcard were visible a hundred yards forward of their location, chasing after the survivors from the gunfight. The group they were chasing had just appeared down their flank, and suddenly it made sense.

"Wraith, fire at will! We need them all downed now!" Kanderin cried, already jumping off his Dewback and dashing up onto the higher ground. His squad were quick to follow, taking up prone positions to either side of him. Their blasters fired in unison, and four of the Delta troopers went down instantly. The others however reacted quickly, diving for cover. One of Kanderin's rounds managed to take out a kneecap, letting the solider it belonged to almost humoursly trip and slide off the edge into the river.

"Hope he can swim" Kanderin smiled.

The squad accompanying them had been slightly slower to react, apparently falling into Wraith's shadow. They tried to take over positions opposite Wraith, but it was a poor position that left very little opportunity for hits. One man on their squad got a little over zealous, taking the advantage Wraith had gained and running with it. His charge out into the open allowed him to down another Delta member, but mere milliseconds before several more shots flung him to the ground. He screamed out in pain, clutching what little skin remained on his leg.

"Covering fire Wraith!" Kanderin shouted again, allowing time for their change of pace. Their shots that pinged against the girders of the bridge became more frequent and less accurate, They did the job however of forcing the Delta's to hit the deck. Kanderin took his chance and dashed forward to the downed man. He was still screaming when he arrived at him, which was a good sign.

He took one look at Kanderin arriving at his side, and immediately clamped both his hands on to him, desperate for some sort of help. Wraith's leader was forced to pull his hands off of him, before he was able to lift him up onto his shoulders and begin the dash back to Wraiths location. What was happening had already became clear to the enemy, and bolts were pinging off the tarmac far too close to his feet.

He made a full on dive down under the cover of the road, before carefully lowering the man down onto the ground.

"Helena, do what you can to help him. The rest of you guys, on me"

Dante heard a sickening crunch, and looked to the side to see a Wildcard trooper using his rifle butt to subdue a rather large Trandoshan. The reptilian humanoid was still trying to move despite a pair of stumps where its legs should have been and an arm located at a rather unnatural angle. The Wildcard kicked it back down as it tried to get up for the third time, then briskly brought his rifle down again. The Trandoshan slumped, either knocked out or killed, but still managed to twitch again.

Dante's semi-usable HUD identified the trooper as a Wraith. The mop-up seemed to be winding down, with the surviving Deltas gathered in a sullen circle and sporting stun-cuffs. Two squads were guarding the prisoners , rifles raised and safeties off in case the terrorists tried anything. Most sentients turned docile when blasters were aimed at their heads, but this rabble was unusually fanatical and dedicated, as their earlier attempts at suicide attacks attested to.

The Wraith looked at the unconscious Trando critically, then picked up one scaly arm and began to drag the alien away. Dante jogged up to him.

"What took you Wraiths so long?" he asked, his tone half joking.

"Ran into a spot of trouble on the way." the Corporal grunted. He suddenly let the arm drop, and panted for a moment. "Mind giving me a hand with scaly here instead of just standing there?"

Dante shrugged and grabbed onto one of the lizard's stumps. The two troopers dragged the unconscious Delta over to the prisoner group and let it drop.

Dante was just about to ask the Wraith a question when the mortar shell landed half a dozen meters away.