Tadath had well and truly become a war zone. As Wraith ran through the city streets, the sounds of blaster fire and explosions echoed off the buildings around them. Every now and then a plume of smoke would begin to fan itself over towards them, swirling around their helmets trying to find a way in. A few more corners however and it would disappear.

They'd chosen to take the back streets as opposed to the large main one that would take them straight there. The fighting would be focused there and it would also be far easier for them to be spotted. This way was safer, but also a lot longer.

"Ron, I've decided, we're swapping bags" Kand called back, calling a halt to the jog.

"Why?" Ron replied, although already peeling it off his back.

"Because we cant risk anything happening to you. This'll make me the target and leave you relatively safe"

"But you're the leader, aren't you just as-"

"Ron has a point, I'll take it" Helena nodded, holding out her hand for his bag.

"It's heavy, you sure you can take it?" He asked.

"I'll be fine" Helena responded, strapping it over her back and leaning forward slightly to counterbalance the weight. She seemed a little tired simply after lifting it to her back, but she managed a smile towards Kand.

"If that gets too much let me know, I'll take over" Kand soothed, somewhat worried for Helena's safety.

"I'll be fine, let's just get going"

Kanderin smiled and re-initiated the jog. The complex was beginning to come into view now, which made him visibly increase his guard. Word had spread that they were heading to the complex now, it was more than likely a trap would be prepared for them.

Bright didn't know exactly what these creatures were, and she shuddered to think about what they might do the the rest of the squads should they be reached. To Bright's eyes though she could see they were compactly built, fighters. These aliens were built for fighting. Frack! The young Sergeant thought, her mind looking at all the possibilities she could process. As she sat there with her weapon in hand, Bright took stock of her squad mates. There was no doubt that some of them could actually go head to head with these creatures, these Noghri, but how many of them knew how to fight like them.

Angel might. Even Jeg maybe could handle something like this. Bright kept those two in mind for a moment then discarded the idea of Jeg fighting these two. Jeg was a big man. These strange beings however looked to be able to take Jeg's size and use it against him. Her helmeted gaze shifted to Gio and Sam and then she slashed that thought in half. Wicket was out of the question, way to small. Jag maybe? Bright shook her head again. Through her helmet she could see the Noghri getting ever closer. Think, Bright! Think! She looked at Aeos and grimaced. Although Bright thought that maybe Aeos may have a fighting chance, she wasn't inclined her see her ASL and friend back in the infirmary anytime soon. That leaves Jori and me. At least from Jester.
Bright didn't know if anyone Blackjack Squad was capable of talking on these "bodyguards" but she wasn't too anxious to let them take a serious beating either.

She looked over at the younger of the two Zabraks, Jori Lekrif. There was no doubt he had the guts to take them on, but Bright doubted he had the skills.

They were only a few feet away now and closing fast. "Cover me!" She called, and without waiting for an answer, Bright dropped her her weapon and ran out to meet their opponents head on. She could hear someone calling her back but she ignored them. They didn't have time to argue and right now the Noghri were far too close. They could dodge blaster fire like they were stones and if they were allowed to get any closer to Jester, only the two of them could cause serious damage.

Bright charged straight into a tackle, her left shoulder taking the first of the two Noghri in the gut. It didn't seem to bother the smaller being though as he twisted and let Bright's momentum carry her forward. Bright was expecting such a move and dipped into a sweeping kick of which the Noghri easily jumped. The other of the duo just seemed to keep going. Bright was having none of it. Rising from her sweep she grappled with her opponent for a moment before she managed to unbalance him if only the slightest bit. That split second was long enough for Bright to move him into a position to throw him. So she did and as he was on the ground she bolted after the other one.

Bright heard a few blaster shots somewhere before she refocused on the still advancing Noghri. This one was a female and not as easily caught off guard. The female swung to meet Bright with a full on, full fisted punch to the stomach. Bright stumbled back and fell to her her knees the wind knocked out of her, but she did succeed in turning the Noghri from her squad. Bright sprang back up, though she remained a bit shaky. Should have finished that training on Bakura. She thought fleetingly, as she dodged another blow here and parried a blow there.

Two against one was hardly fair, Bright knew that and she wished that someone would take the other one out for her but she knew that wasn't likely as she was too close to her opponents. They would risk shooting her. So she took another blow to the stomach and fell back into the waiting arms of the male she had managed to get by earlier. Not good! She thought as he held her tight. Her arms at this point were useless. The female advanced quickly and ran right into Bright's upraised feet. As her feet connected Bright kicked back away from the female. An action that promptly put all of them on the ground. She was still in a fix though as the male still had a strong hold on her.

Bright had enough of this, she slammed her head back into the males face hard. She heard the cracking of something so she did it again and she felt his grip loosen, That was all she needed. She had of a struggle, but Bright did free herself and promptly had to duck a low kick. She rolled away and found that her armor was much more inhibiting than she would have liked. More blaster shots in the distance but Bright didn't care. She yanked her helmet off and slammed it into face of the female. before she lifted her knee to catch the Noghri in the gut. She twisted out again before she could be caught again.

"Bright! Behind you!" She heard someone yell. She didn't have time to think about who it may have been. And unfortunately she wasn't fast enough either. She felt a hard blow to her back and she fell to the ground temporarily paralyzed. To add insult to injury Birght's armor had cracked. The Noghri were trying to end this quickly.

Regaining her senses, Bright turned and put a booted foot in the females stomach and narrowly missed the male as he jumped back. "Would someone please get this kreifing assholes off of me!" Bright called through a fat lip she didn't realize she had sustained. She didn't have time to think again as the female was up again. "Seriously!"

Bright took a hit to her shoulder then realized she was above the ground. Her eyes widened when she felt the rushing wind her ears. She was about to meet the floor in a very bloody manner and she could do nothing about it. "Shit!" She said as her opponent let go and sent the much lighter woman flying a few feet in to a pile of cargo crates. Well guess I should have not been so hasty. Bright thought before she blacked out. She didn't see what had happened to the male Noghri, but she did see a few blaster shots make there marks on the female before her eyes closed.

"Bright's down!" Was the last thing she heard before her awareness was replaced with the sound of silence.

Orobos fired a long spray of lasers towards the alleyway the dark shape had leapt into. Once the last of the shots spattered off the wall the thing leaped out again towards the squads. The stormtroopers were all in positions across the street firring at anything that moved. His rifle clicked a few times as the last of clip was fired.

"Reloading!" Orobos shouted swinging around back into cover back against the wall.

Pulling out another clip he hit the catch on his weapon the empty magazine sliding out and falling, smoking to the ground the battery burned out. As he brought it up to his rifle the clip was knocked from his hand something small but heavy smacking his hand away.

"Shit," he said fumbling for his side-arm his finger scrabbling at the catch of his leg holster.

Pulling out the pistol Orobos blazed away the weapon bucking in his hands as the rounds flew of in random directions. The clip in his pistol spent as well Orobos lunged forward grabbing the rifle clip lying on the ground. Snatching it up he pushed it into his rifle and then rolled over into the prone position beside some cover and fired down the street again more movements flashing at the corner of his eyes.

"I'm down to my last clip!"

"Me too!"

"Where did that one go?!"

"To your left!"

"Shit," Orobos said firing down the alleyway behind the two squads as one of the enemies had gotten around them.

"What do we do now?" Requiem asked.

Alan glanced over at Lucky and knew she was deep in thought.  He looked back at the mercenaries and knew that they were in a difficult situation.  If they took them on then they could probably take them out but it was doubtful whether the mechanics would survive.

“Let the mechanics go and take us as hostages, we are more valuable to you than they are” said Lucky.

“Are you insane” called out Drakar, “let’s take them out now”.

Alan glared at Drakar and said “zip it trooper”.

Drakar kept quiet but Alan could tell that Drakar was more interested in taking down these mercenaries whether it cost the lives of the mechanics or not.

“Very well” said the leader of the mercenaries, “drop your weapons”.

“Do I have your word that the mechanics will be let free and allowed to leave unharmed” called out Lucky.

“You do” replied the leader.

Alan leaned close to Lucky and whispered “you sure we can trust this guy, what happens if we stand down and he kills us all”.

“He won’t” whispered Lucky, “he needs hostages and he knows that we are more valuable to him than they are.  It serves him no purpose to kill the mechanics, they may be mercenaries but they kill only when they are getting paid to do so or if it is their best interest”.

“Stand down” repeated the mercenary.

Lucky looked over at the squad and sighed before saying “you heard him, drop your weapons”.

Alan hated to have to concede his weapons to these men but he knew it was the only way for the mechanics to survive.  The squad rather reluctantly lowered their weapons and a mercenary quickly gathered them up.  Alan never kept his eyes off him, he wanted to know where his blasters would be if, no when he got out of this.

The lead mercenary nodded and the mercenaries looking after the mechanics freed them and pointed to the door.  The mechanics hastily ran out the door, some saying thank you to the squad as they passed by.

Alan looked over at the squad and back to the mercenaries and thought to himself well this is a fine mess we’re in.

As Jegora watched Bright hit the ground he felt a pang of rage deep in his chest. Standing up from where he was crouched down, Jegora took a few steps forward, brought his submachine gun to his shoulder, and let loose a concentrated burst of fire. It didn’t connect with any of the strange aliens, but it was accurate enough it forced them away from Bright.

As Jester squad was scrambling to find some course of action, the creatures suddenly retreated to where a human male, presumably Frozt, was hiding behind a parked hovercraft fifty meters away. As they moved the two creatures literally hauled the human to his feet, dragging him inside a nearby three-story building. Jegora watched them retreat, holding his fire. At that distance his submachine gun had about as much chance of hitting the targets as a slingshot did. Angel, on the other hand, had no such limitations.

A highly skilled and undoubtedly expert long-range marksman, Angel took a knee as the creatures retreated. He then resumed firing his SLAR, taking his time and picking his shots. Most of the rounds he fired failed to make contact, but just as the last hostile slipped through the doorway Jegora heard a distinct wet-sounding thump and the alien slumped against the doorway before stumbling inside. Angel grunted and lowered his rifle, moving over to where the rest of the squad was clustered around Brightstar’s still form.

Aeos glanced over at Angel. “Leg shot,” the squad leader said, answering the unspoken question.

Jegora shook his head. It had been too much to hope that Angel had managed to kill one of the bastards. It didn’t matter now, though. There were more important things to worry about. With that thought Jegora pushed his way through the cluster of Jesters; he was by no means a medic, but he had been required to take an advanced first-aide course as part of his Special Forces training regimen. Kneeling next to his fellow trooper, Jegora removed her helmet and gently let her head rest on the concrete. He quickly checked her breathing and her pulse, finding both adequate.

As the others worked to bring Bright back to consciousness, Jegora noticed that the crack in her armor would probably result in some bruised ribs. He didn’t think anything would be broken, but he couldn’t be sure. If the ribs were broken, Bright would be in trouble, especially if one pierced a lung. If they were bruised she would be in pain, but it wouldn’t be life threatening.

Suddenly the still form that was Brightstar jerked as she came awake. Immediately she tried to sit up, but Jegora pushed her down. “How do you feel?” he asked, his voice emotionless.

Groaning, Bright gingerly touched her ribs, and then her shoulder. “My side hurts, and my shoulder is killing me,” she said, her voice thick with pain.

Upon her proclamation Jegora removed the armor from her right arm and examined the shoulder. Sure enough, it appeared to be dislocated. Grimacing, Jegora knew there was only one course of action that was viable at this point: he would have to set the wound.

He had learned a long time ago that the best way to get a painful procedure over was using surprise. People couldn’t dread, and couldn’t avoid, things they didn’t know were going to happen. With that thought in mind, Jegora positioned his hands gingerly, much to Bright’s protests, and then paused.

“This is gonna hurt,” he said. And then he set the shoulder.

Bright’s scream was loud, and it was right in Jegora’s ear. Luckily he still had his helmet on, and the sonic filters kept the worst of it out. Still, when the sudden pain subsided Bright was glaring at Jegora, and at the moment the young man knew that there would be hell to pay later. Still, he didn’t know what he could have done differently, and one look at Angel earned him an approving nod.

Standing up, and helping Bright do the same, Jegora picked up his M66-SD and slung it over his shoulder. “Shall we go after them?” he asked no one in particular.

Angel nodded. “Aye,” he said. “Let’s get moving.” He then opened a communications channel to the BlackJack squad leader and informed him of their situation. After that, he pointed at the building.

“Jegora, take point,” he ordered. Jegora nodded, happy to lead. With no further ado the squad double-timed it to the building, but slowed upon reaching the entrance. There was no telling what was waiting inside, and no one felt like rushing headlong into a trap.

As the troopers peered inside, searching for any indication of what might be waiting for them, Jegora came to the conclusion there was nothing else for it. “In I go, I suppose,” he said, and with that took a step inside.

Immediately upon crossing through the doorframe Jegora’s night-vision filters kicked in, overlaid with infrared imaging. The infrared was next to useless, as it was such a low power emitter that it would serve no purpose beyond noticing someone lying right in front of you. The night-vision filters, however, were extremely useful, allowing Jegora to see just what he was stumbling into.

He wasn’t alone, of course. The rest of the squad was right behind him. But that didn’t change the fact that Jegora suddenly felt very isolated from his squad. There was no logic behind it, but a cold chill crept up Jegora’s spine as he got the feeling that he was very much alone.

Snarling, he pushed down the rising fear. He had been a trooper too long and had seen too much to let some shrimp of an alien scare him into irrationality. Sweeping his M66 around the room, Jegora paused when something caught his eye on the floor.  Leaning down to examine what was shining, Jegora got a nice surprise.

It was blood.

The hostile that had been hit was leaving a trail of blood for them to follow. That didn’t mean that Frozt and the other enemy thing were doing the same, but it was the best option they had.

“There’s a trail here,” Jegora informed the squad, all the while following it through the room. Finally the trail of blood emerged into a hallway, and then turned left. 

There was a moment of silence, and then Angel issued some new orders. “Alright, we’re going to split up. Aeos, Jeg, Jag, and Jori, you guys follow the trail. The rest of us will go right. Shoot first, ask questions later, and for the love of the Force keep your eyes open.”

Jegora grimaced, but he knew it was the best chance of catching Frozt. Still, the thought of coming face to face with one of the compact alien killing machines, even if it was injured, was the closest thing to terrifying Jegora had experienced in a long, long time.

“Take cover!” yelled Snipes.

The next thing Karash knew he was diving for cover as a thermal detonator exploded right next to the squad. He could here movement around him but Karash did not wish to look up because of the fear that it might be mercenaries that had surrounded them. He slowly sat up and looked around him and it was the Raiders that were moving, Karash felt a wave of relief pass over him when he saw this, though it appeared that Dante was unconscious.

Karash struggled to his feet and observed as the rest of the Raiders were trying to wake Dante; there was then a second explosion. However this one destroyed a building just ahead of their position and caused the street where they were standing to be flooded with smoke. Karash then heard a moan come from just next to him, as Dante came around and the rest of the squad began to check the surrounding area. Then a crackling sound came over the COM link in Karash’s armour.

“There have been explosive devises planted all over the city and there are reports of civilians firing on imperial forces,” the message cut off.

Karash knew that there was something odd happening but there was no time to think about it as the squad were once again on the move.

“Raiders move out and keep a look out for any traps,” ordered the squad leader.

As they ran through the once heavily populated streets, Karash could not stop thinking about what he had seen earlier; civilians fleeing from the battle and no enemy bodies at the scene. That coupled with what had been said over the COM link made it clear that the enemy had placed its forces in the city and had disguised them as civilians, which greatly complicated things. Karash told this to the rest of the squad, who seemed to be having the same thoughts.

There was a man crouching in the middle of the street and fiddling with some device on the ground. The Raiders cautiously approached as it was unclear what the person was doing.

“What are you doing?” asked Karash.

The man instantly froze and began to mumble to himself, Karash repeated his question. The man then stood up and turned around to reveal a thermal detonator in his had; as he went to trigger the device, the entire squad opened fire upon him. Time then seemed to slow down as the man fell, riddled with holes where the blaster fire had hit him, did he prime the device or not? As it hit the ground nothing happened, the squad all staggered in relief.

“Attention all troopers, it has been discovered that there are suspected Noghri with the invading forces. Beware they are highly dangerous and maximum security should be observed when engaging them,” there was a slight sense of fear in the informers voice.

Although Karash had never dealt with Noghri in the past he knew that they were dangerous and he knew that the situation just got a lot more complicated.

Zeshaun gave Lucky a pain filled smile as she tended to his wound. It didn't quite register how close Alan had come to dieing. If my throw was just a little off... Zeshaun thought grimacing as Lucky put some pressure on his wound. Zeshaun heard the clinks of metal on metal and he snuck a look toward Alan, he was throwing their weapons in their general direction. Lucky, Nick, Requiem and Novacaine quickly dashed out and grabbed all the weapons. Lucky handed Zeshaun his rifle, Zeshaun thanked her and he reloaded his weapon.

"Let's show them what Paladin's made of." Lucky said making a break for another hiding spot where she would have a better view of the mercenaries.

Nick, Requiem, and Novacaine all moved out as well leaving Zeshaun by himself. He tried to pick himself up but found he could not put enough pressure on his leg to run. Damn, guess I'll stay here Zeshaun thought sitting himself down behind the tool box.

Now that the Paladin's were spread out the mercenaries fire was more sparse. Only a few shots seemed to be coming his way. The assassin seemed to take a liking to him, the assassin was sitting unmoving, aiming at Zeshaun waiting for him to make an appearance. Zeshaun was trapped and he couldn't even get off a shot. Why me Zeshaun thought keeping his head down as bolts flew over the tool box and hitting the wall in front of him.

Zeshaun groped his belt for some kind of explosive but found none. He let out a string of curses and rested his head against the tool box. He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. The light sound of a clinking metal item rolling on the ground caused him to open them and look around. A grenade had fallen next to him and it seemed the pin had been pulled.

Zeshaun jumped up so quickly that he forgot his leg was in pain and he immediately fell back down. Zeshaun crawled over to the grenade and threw it back overt he tool box. The explosion rocked the tool box and some tools flew by Zeshaun's head nearly hitting him. The heat from the explosion almost made him with he was back on Anteevy.

"You alright Zesh." Alan's concerned voice came in.

Zeshaun confirmed that he was okay and he caught his breath. That was too close Zeshaun thought. The smoke had not compeltely cleared from the area quite yet so he took the opportunity to look out over the tool box. He couldn't see anything clearly but his thermal scan told him that the assassin was still sitting, unmoved by the explosion. Well, I hope he doesn't have thermal vision too. Zeshaun thought lining up a shot with his rifle, purely based on his thermal scan.

Zeshaun pulled the trigger and he heard a muffled yelp. Another scan showed the man lying on the ground, alive, but in very much pain. Zeshaun patted himself on the back. He winced as he limped to a secluded corner surrounded by boxes. I should be safe here. Zeshaun thought. He propped his rifle on the boxes and searched for another target.

The two squads' chatter was subdued and precise; the team that had gone upstairs had reported killing the injured alien, no mean feat.

"These Jesters are good," Gates muttered to Orobos, who was looking around, checking everywhere - the team had reported that they'd been ambushed. "But I'll bet you could take one down, big fella."

"Gates, as I much as I would love to encourage this insane activity, I think I'll sit this one out."

"Your loss."

The four-man fire team, Gates, Orobos, Verk, and Dinin, pulled back downstairs. There, they met back up with the rest of BlackJack and the Jesters, half of whom's armor sported some new blood splatters, dents, and scuffs.

The two SL's gave quick orders.

"Three of the aliens have managed to escape, and they got their package out," the two said in unison; "We have to spread out and make sure they can't escape the planet."

Gates raised a hand. "Gates?" Tanus replied.

"Sir, with all due respect, these things are killing machines. I say we just let them take off and let the Navy boys vape 'em."

The Jester SL interrupted - "Command wants him alive."

Gates nodded. "Yes sir. Alive. Got it."

The two squads split back into teams, quickly patrolling the immediate area. Weapons were reloaded, what little ammo that was left was distributed.

Gates flashed through his visor's modes; Infrared, Thermal, Motion, Basic HUD, IFF. Nothing showed up except a kid looking out into the street as the Stormtroopers marched down it.

The ASL considered, looking around Tadeth. He hoped he'd never be deployed with BlackJack in this city again, because cities that met BlackJack on a mission usually ended up seriously damaged.

"Eyes up, boys, don't let these shit heads catch us with our pants down."

Requiem smiled as he was thrown his heavy set of weapon's from Lucky and  he was even more excited he didn't have to use the droideka he had in his pack on his shoulder's they must of thought it had small equipment Requiem watched as Lucky began to bark out numerous orders and they were sent to get rid of the 10 mercenaries guarding the area.

Requiem ran over to the railing and looked down and noticed he was up on the buildings second floor the rafter's Lucky and Alan stayed stationery and fired down onto the ground floor from the rafter's and signaled the go to Requiem to reach the ground floor.

Requiem Inhaled deeply and turned back to the squad to his left, Lucky and Alan were deep in thought and Nick Nova and Zeshaun were on the ground floor. I don't have time to find the step's Requiem grabbed the railing and swung his feet over he was suddenly pulled to the ground below by an amazing force and than landed on one knee not that much gravity on this planet . Requiem got up in a heap as a mercenary on the ground floor heard the clatter he had made and wanted to investigate.

" Damnit. . . I cant have anymore interruptions " The mercenary grumbled slowly and than walked down a darkened pathway towards Requiem who was hiding behind a large Durasteel crate.

" What The- "Requiem stayed in his cover with his left hand on one of his IvP-18 S-FOX Machine Pistols, in a quick motion he flicked a FSK-7 Combat Knife to his right hand and than rammed it down into the mercenaries neck as he was about to walk past him and about to turn around.

Requiem grappled the combat knife from the mercenaries neck and pulled it out with speed and hid back behind cover as to make sure he was covered with the mercenaries remains and to make sure he was hidden from sight Revenge is sweet Requiem ran down to a side of the ship and crouched he than banged on the ship's hull to make a diversion for the mercenaries to try and figure out where it was coming from.

Requiem grabbed his chest as a small blaster Hole appeared to the left of his heart he wasn't losing blood that patched and he barely patched it up so that he could continue through the storage bay and get rid of the 7 mercenaries left in the facility. Requiem thought that the attacker could still be trying to finish the job and looked around his person to try to get a better view.

He couldn't see anything in this line of vision and looked to his left and to his luck he could see that the ship was polished and a reflection was created to make a small lens. Sniper. . . Requiem grabbed a C-22 Fragmentation Grenade from his side and threw it over his head. It landed on a rafter above him and he closed his eye's, a high pierced scream could be heard and Requiem noticed that the sniper was a women.

Requiem crouched out of his spot and walked down the hull of the ship, he grabbed a small mirror from his side and placed it facing him and facing down the lane he saw that no one was their and no reflections could be seen clear Requiem grabbed both of his IvP-18 S-FOX Machine Pistols and than upholstered them as he fired down a lane and he smiled as he hit on of the 2 mercenaries trying to finish the lost mechanics work.

Requiem rolled behind a large durasteel canister and winced as he heard blaster fire pierce the other side of the canister and slowly begin to get closer to his spine and Requiem knew that the Canister was filled with some lower quality equipment. Shit Requiem Slowly looked to his left and saw another crate filled with small devices that had a label with Volatile strapped around it in a piece of cloth, Requiem threw it up to the air, got up from his cover and he fired into the device.

It exploded and created a perfect diversion for Requiem to roll to the right of the canister and fire into the mercenary who than crumpled to the floor with a large hole in his chest. Requiem watched as Nick and Nova were being attacked from afar but they seemed to be handling it well. Requiem's eyes opened as he saw Zeshaun firing down the area trying to hit a target but he slammed his arm down on the crate searching for something Shit he has no ammo, he's done for he soon gave up and produced a sort of depressed look on his face. I forgot he was injured Requiem ran to his side and fired up to the rafter's for extra cover he grabbed Zeshaun's arms and than lifted him over his shoulder as he dragged him along behind him.

" What are you doing ? Help the others " Zeshaun yelled over the blaster fire in his area.

" You're the only one that's really important right now, now shut up and fire " Requiem continued to drag Zeshaun along and he fired at the mercenaries who were unusually piling out of the doorway in the storage bay. Zeshaun began to fire after  and he seemed to be getting comfortable to the fact that he was being dragged along to safety, Requiem lowered him off his arm and than  placed him on the side of the vehicle.

Requiem grabbed a detonator pack from his side and connected it to the side of the vehicle so it would do some damage when he left cover 10 minutes Requiem set the detonator and motioned to Zeshaun he than took off his pack and placed it on the ground he than took out a small droideka he purchased on Coruscant a few years back from the bag and placed it on the ground, he activated it and set it to full power as he than made the order's to the droid which in retrospect were overall: destroy our enemies. Requiem picked up Zeshaun from his spot and dragged him to safety. almost their

Requiem set him down and placed his hands over his head. " What did you do ? " Zeshaun said after he hid in cover.

" Nothing. . . just get ready " Requiem closed his eyes as the detonator exploded which sent the vehicle high into the air it was destroyed beyond repair and Alan and Lucky doubled their efforts and thought it was a great diversion. The droid fully activated and its Shields went to full power as they enveloped the droid and the mercenaries began to fire at it. The droid seemed unresponsive to the oncoming fire and trusted its life on the shield's around it and began to fire at the mercenaries with its blaster cannons, Requiem smiled as he saw a few of the mercenaries left drop to the floor

" Do you carry that thing around ? "Zeshaun asked in surprise as he continually covered his head with his hand's from the explosions going off in the room.

" Yup, its like my back up plan if I don't have my anti vehicle weapons with me. . . " Requiem replied back and waited for Lucky and Alan to help them out of this situation.

Zeshaun blurted out " What ? " and continued to wonder if Requiem was lying since most trooper's didn't have that much firepower on this sort of a mission.

Requiem looked to Zeshaun as he saw a look of emotion of calm creep up on his face and smile , but somehow Requiem wondered what Zeshaun was really thinking and he came up with the thought of I don't want to be on his bad side .

He expected the two mercenaries were getting impatient by now,  they had been spotted a good ten minutes ago but not a single shot had been fired. The squad had made their way in between buildings, making sure there were at least a pair of walls separating them from the snipers at all times, and by all possible means they would of lost them.

"Let's pick up the pace, I feel uncomfortable out in the open if they have snipers on us" Kanderin called, the squad nodding and standing up straighter so they could run. A few seconds later a shot was heard, but he didn't need to call out for them to hit the ground.

The strange thing he picked up however was the lack of a 'thud', the sound the round would of made as it hit the ground or a building around them. A second shot was fired but the same again, no thud. Kanderin motioned for the squad to stay down and still, and made his way carefully down a break in the two buildings they were passing. He arrived at the main street and poked an eye carefully down towards the source of the noise. The two sniper's hadn't moved positions, but were firing in the complete wrong directions now. The larger of the two men fired another round, but Kanderin managed to see this one fly through a window of a nearby house, followed by a loud pitched scream and then silence. They'd got bored of waiting for the squad to show up, and had turned their weapons on civilians. They were almost being called out.

"Wraith, make your way over to me, quietly" He whispered through his comlink, which was now noticeably less clear.

A few seconds later they showed up, lining the sides of the buildings and glancing out. Kanderin pointed the snipers out and explained what they were doing.

"We cant let them...they're slaughtering innocent people" Helena stammered.

"But look" Joamer pointed behind them "Our targets less than a hundred metres away, we've made it. We could get inside, get rid of the virus and deal with them on the way out"

"But how many people would of died by then Joamer!" Helena shouted, before Kanderin tapped her on the shoulder and hissed at her to be quiet.

"I'll see what I can do" Kanderin nodded, before tweaking a few things on his rifle. Noticeably, he yanked a scope out of one of his pockets and attached it to the top.

"That a sniper rifle?" Ron blinked "Thought you were a medic?"

"It's only an emergency sniper, basically. It doesn't have the range of a real one, and the rounds are nowhere near as penetrating, but it should do the trick" He mumbled in response, carrying out the last checks on the weapon before housing it against his shoulder.

The pair appeared to have two rifles between them, but only one of them was firing at once. It was a pretty standard tactic but it saved lifes, your partner could watch your back while you completed the objective. His partner however was looking the wrong way and apparently smoking a cigarette, large halos of smoke were visible in Kanderin's scope as he watched him. His friend wouldn't be the target however, that wouldn't solve very much. Instead he turned to face the other, who was also lining up a shot. Without wasting another second, he fired towards the man.

The shot hit him in hand, causing him to cry out in pain and drop the rifle to the floor below. His guard was quick to react, his own rifle trained on the location of the shot only a few milliseconds later. Wraith were already gone however, well on their way towards the complex.

"Why didn't you kill him?" Antos whispered, accelerating his jog to catch up with the squad leader.

"I missed, but luck was on my side again and it still did the trick" Kanderin sighed.

"Yeah but now we still have two of them after us instead of just on..."

"I get it Antos!" Kanderin snapped "I screwed up, I know. I should of killed him but I choked and missed. let's just get on with it"

Karash could hear Drental, one the troopers they had picked up, mumbling to himself as they ran down the street; there was then a series of explosions that engulfed the entire squad. The following events all seemed to fuse together in Karash’s mind; there were more explosions, Rogueboy had killed Drental, Dante had then attacked Rogueboy and there was now a sniper to deal with. Although Karash was in a daze he still had to the common sense to take cover behind a staircase.

“What the hell just happened!” shouted Karash.

“The mines and the…” replied Gaz.

“I know that, why did Rogueboy kill Drental,” asked Karash.

“Drental was one of them, he was going to kill all of us but we got there first,” said Gaz.

Karash peered out over the debris; it was then that a shot whizzed straight passed his head, Karash fired a few shots back but no one knew where the sniper was or if he was still there. Dante was still fighting with Rogueboy in the middle of what was once a street, he could here Sniping ordering them to come to their senses but they could not here over the roar of the flames.

“What are we going to do about them?” asked Karash.

“We can’t do anything while the sniper is still out there,” bellowed Karash.

The flames had stopped spreading but they showed no sign of dieing down, for the time being the Raiders and the sniper were encased by the wall of fire. They could have just thrown the remainder of their grenades at the position that the sniper was in but that would have just spread the flames and it could have caused the building to collapse on top of them.

The sniper fired again, however this time he had made the mistake of revealing himself. Laser fire then surrounded him.

“Don’t let him move from that position,” order the squad leader.

Knowing that he had no chance of survival the sniper came out from his position and just fired at everything he saw; the Raiders returned his fire but nothing seemed to hit him. The sniper was getting ever closer to the squad, though he failed to notice the unexploded mine which was triggered as he ran.

There was another almighty explosion that caused the entire street to shake, more debris fell and several buildings collapsed upon the fire. Karash looked up and saw that the rest of his squad seemed to evade death once again, the rubble also put out a part of the fire.

Karash stood and observed what had happened; he could see the charred body of the sniper partially crushed under the rubble. The COM link then came to life.

“Additional support is being sent to delta section, caution should be taken enemy units have been spotted there,” said the voice before it once again faded away.

‘Little late’ thought Karash. As he turned to face the rest of his squad he saw that Dante and Rogueboy were still fighting. As he was walking towards the confrontation Karash realised that the easy part was over, the difficult part was just about to start.

Inside the complex, Deth had already set his trap.  All entrances to the building had been sealed off from the outside, all of them except for the main one.  And in the main entrance, he had set up three large canisters of concussion gases, enough to knock out three rancors. 

"Did you set up the trap yet?" snarled Moorg.  He held his hand, or what remained of his hand, in the cradle of his armpit; groaning and swearing every time someone bumped into him.

Deth looked at him mercilessly.  "Tis your own fault yer hand got shot off.  You weren't looking the right way."

"It was your plan to take out the civilians to distract them!" Moorg yelled.

"Not my problem." Deth said. 

"I'll be damned if it is." Moorg whispered.  "And I can promise you Deth, your payback will be death.  Death for Deth."

Moorg cackled at his own joke while Deth set up the final tripwires to the system.  They were laser tripwires, which made it harder for them to be detected.

"Let's get moving, before we know it we're going to have a lot of sleeping visitors on our front door step." Deth grinned.

The remaining mercenaries followed Deth into the main room of the complex, while Moorg stayed behind; blaming his slowness on a sudden pain spurt from his hand.  Once everyone had left the entrance way, Moorg walked over to the entrance way and pulled free one of the gas containers.  Once he discarded that, he inserted a poison gas container at the end of the entrance hall, where he judged Deth would be standing when he came for the soon to be knocked out troopers.

"A lit'le present from an old friend." Moorg said to himself.  After he set this, he left the room to join the others in the computer room.
_ _ _

"Here we are." Joamer said.  In front of them rose the large complex that contained the terminals responsible for the mess.

Kanderin looked at the main entrance way.  The door hung open, slightly, but just enough to appear suspicious.  Helena walked up to it and looked back at Kanderin.

"It looks like..." she said.

"A trap." Kanderin finished.  He motioned for Ron and RK to patrol around the complex. 

"Split up, one of you to the right, the other to the left; check and see if there are any more entrances we can go through."

Ron and RK split up to search for the other entrances.  It wasn't long before they returned; RK first, then Ron.

"Well?" Kanderin said.

"I got nothing Kand." RK said.  "All of the doors are shut down, nothing we have right now can clear them open."

RK meant nothing could blow them up.  But what about hacking into them?

"Ron?"

"Negative.  I tried hacking into one of them, but I got no response.  The terminal for the door has been ripped out.  There's nothing I can do to get em open."

So they would have to enter the main doors, they would have to brave the trap.
_ _ _

Deth and Moorg stood in the entrance hallway, just out of range from the gas canisters.

"Report for Deth." came one of the mercenaries.

"Let's hear it." Deth said.

"They've gone round the building lookin for other ways in, and the target tried to get into one of the doors."

"And of course, she was unsuccessful." cackled Deth.

"He, Sir." the mercenary said.

"What?" Deth asked.

"The target I mean, it's the taller guy, the one Kinew put into his report..."

"Never mind Kinew." Deth said.  It didn't matter if they had been confused about the target before now, what mattered was that they knew who the target was for sure... no matter how they disguised it.

"They're going to enter the trap." the mercenary finished.

"As planned." said Deth.  He looked around him and finally fixed his eyes on Moorg.

"And now for the other part of the plan." Deth said to himself.

"Moorg my friend!" said Deth with false enthusiasm.

Moorg grinned his own false smile and said, "So everything is going to plan."

Deth nodded and said, "Almost everything." 

Moorg looked at him suspiciously before suddenly realizing what was happening.  Two strong mercenaries grabbed him from both sides, and dragged him over to the end of the entrance hallway, where he had set the poison canister.

"You thought you could kill me." Deth said.

"No!  No, I never did!" yelled Moorg.

"You wanted to kill me." Deth replied softly.

"What?  I respect you;  look up to you!"  Moorg yelled again.

"And now, you will die by your own demise." Deth finished, as quietly as before.

"Nooo!" Moorg screamed.

The two mercenaries held Moorg's mouth up to the canister and forced him to hold it between his teeth.  Green smog poured out of his nose and mouth, which spilled out down his body and onto the floor.  When at last the canister was empty, the mercenaries dropped him with a thud, and removed their gas masks.

"Quietly now." Deth said.  "Away from the entrance.  We still have to catch these intruders- and chances are they heard that fool's screams..."

Zeshaun could hear the last 3 mercenaries making plans. They obviously hadn't noticed that Zeshaun was resting his leg behind their hiding spot. Zeshaun examined the crates and metal boxes he was hiding behind. These can probably take a huge imapct. Zeshaun thought searching his belt for the grenade he had picked up earlier. Zeshaun held the grenade gently, rolling it around in his hands.

As Zeshaun listened it seemed the mercenaries were planning on making a run for it and leaving the paladin's locked in the hangar so that they couldn't be immediately pursued. I'm not letting you get away that easily. Zeshaun looked down at the greande Even if it costs me my life. Zeshaun held the grenade to his forehead saying a quick prayer and then pulled the pin.

He rolled the grenade over the box, and he heard it drop from the edge and continue to roll on the ground. The mercenaries heard the drop and came toward Zeshaun's spot. Just as the first mercenary was about to start shooting in Zeshaun's general direction the grenade went off. Zeshaun felt the heat before he felt the force of the explosion.

Zeshaun felt himself get hit hard by some boxes and splinters. The force threw him up against the wall and he saw one mercenary running around with splinters all up his back, screaming in pain. He noticed that the pain in his leg had subsided but he was now overcome by the pain in his back. Guess I hit the wall harder than I thought. Zeshaun thought. He closed his eyes and he put his down.

He awoke when he felt his body being shaken. A familiar voice was saying his name but he couldn't quite put the voice to a face. Some other voices mixed in with the mix. They were talking about mercenaries and explosions and someone being injured. I'm injured. Zeshaun rememberd, suddenly feeling the pain in his back.

Everything suddenly snapped back to reality. He remembered throwing the grenade at the mercenaries. He realized now that Lucky and Alan were both shaking Zeshaun trying to wake him.

"Maybe he's dead." Alan said solemnly.

"Don't say stuff like that, it doesnt help." Lucky said sounding even more concerned than Alan.

Zeshaun didn't like being mourned and he forced himself to hold himself up to make sure everyone saw that he was moving. Lucky and Alan both grabbed his arms and helped him up to his feet. Zeshaun thanked them both and held himself up against the wall. The rest of the squad explained that the explosion had taken out the rest of the mercenaries. Zeshaun just nodded too tired to care that much.

Zeshaun just sat back down and took his helmet off. The fresh breeze felt very good on his face, and it calmed him. Zeshaun observed the mess that they had made out of this hangar. Ships were in pieces, some still on fire. The grenades had torn up the ground, the walls, and the supplies. We're going to have a fun time explaining this to the mechanics we saved. Zeshaun thought smiling.

As if Requiem had read his mind he said "How are we going to pay back the owners of this hangar, we banged it up pretty bad."

Alan and Lucky both shrugged. "Maybe they'll be so grateful that we saved them that they'll wave the fees."

Everyone laughed, that was very unlikely. Even if they had saved their lives, the hangar was almost at the point of not being able be repaired. After the long fought battle, the squad was enjoying a moment of peace and happiness. What is this Frozt guy gonna throw at us next time. Zeshaun thought, hoping that Frozt would give up after this failure.

Requiem began to get cautious as they neared the STC headquarters and wondered if Frozt was still using the Central Computer. this is going to be harder than I thought Requiem slowly shook in his seat as the Trooper transport deactivated and stayed stationery waiting for its passengers to evacuate the vehicle since they had reached their destination.

Requiem somehow felt paranoid as the vehicle stopped and he reached for his weapon, he calmed himself down and than looked to his right to see that the rest of the squad was heading to the Cockpit to see what damage had been caused to the Storm Trooper Corps Headquarters. Requiem ran to the front of the transport and slid back the door to see the rest of the squad crowded around the 2 blaster proof plates of glass protruding from the metal's over the control's.

" It's so quiet. . . "Nick said as he saw the old headquarters he had gone too and everyone else had seemed to say the same thing.

Alan fully deactivated the the transport and ushered Nova out of the way so that he could get to the Loading Ramp.

Requiem and Nick stood side by side as they saw the ramp lower to the ground, Nick jumped down the ramp and than looked up to see Requiem with a certain feeling of hesitation on his face as he than slowly walked down the ramp. I have a really bad feeling Requiem than slowly moved his hand's down to his sides to grab both of his IvP-18 S-FOX Machine Pistols but he hesitated.
He than placed his hand up and reached to his back, he than grasped his M82-G Assault Rifle from a small bundle with his M-590 Assault Rifle and than reloaded it.

Requiem nodded as he made sure that the G-Pack of the weapon was reloaded and he checked it to make sure that he could use it when the time was right.

Lucky exhaled and than slowly spoke out eager to get her objective done and she seemed to notice everyone else did as well. " Okay, lets get inside, find this J'ak Frozt and if we can capture him and if all works out we figure out his next plan of attack.

The rest of the squad nodded and they walked up the bleached white step's of the STC HQ they all positioned themselves on separate sides of the entrance and they all got ready. Alan walked up to the door and sent his Rifle down into it's glass, it exploded in an uncountable amount of shard's and than covered the floor in a clear blue reflection that everyone shielded their eyes from because of the sunset's glare.

Alan began to speak on his ComLink as he than walked over the glass not aware that the pieces were sharp. " Okay. . . first off let's try and find the central computer system. " Alan sighed and than signaled as the squad followed suit and than continued in their separate directions in teams of 2 trying to find the Central Computer System. Requiem was paired off with Nick and they each departed in search of getting rid of this objective.

" Okay, Nick where do you think most things are kept as to keep secret and safe from trainees ? "Requiem said as he rounded a corner with his weapon at the ready looking into separate room's only to see more carcasses and bodies.

" The meeting room. . .they barely used it but they annually entered it without anyone else, I wondered what they did in their anyway I might get my answer today. "

" I thought about that too. . ." Requiem confessed and he than signaled to Nick to round the next bend.

Requiem told Alan and Lucky to meet them at the meeting room after they told them about their idea. They all agreed that this was the most logical choice and they chose to meet in front of the meeting room. Requiem rounded a corner and saw Alan and lucky running down towards them with Zeshaun and Nova in tow.

" Okay, let's check it out " Zeshaun said as Lucky bashed down the door and they all entered the room in a clatter.

Requiem walked around the room sorry. . . Requiem grabbed a durasteel cabinet in the corner of the room and pushed it over, Requiem searched the wall behind it for anything leading into the Central Computer system but it seemed unworthy. Requiem got up as he stopped shifting through the somehow endless pile of paper's discarded on the floor.

" Guys I found something. . . " Alan said as he was examining the bottom of the table for any special control's.

Requiem and the rest of the squad walked over as Alan pointed to the wall, he than fully pressed in the small indent he found on the bottom of the table and he smiled as a piece of the wall slide back to reveal an unusually high scaled room with large machines extending from the floor to the ceiling's. Shit Requiem watched as Lucky entered the room and than got into cover she issued her arm out and told the squad to hide. She looked back out of cover and saw 3 figure's staring at a bright screen.

The squad leader walked up to the scuffling troopers and pulled then apart and Virius held Dante back.

“What the hell do you think you were doing!” boomed the squad leader.

Neither spoke but Dante continued to mumble about something about Rogueboy being under arrest.

“He murdered, Private Drental,” replied Dante.

“Drental was one of them, he and his mate were about to kill all of us, so we opened fire,” explained.

Dante’s seemed to freeze on the spot, the squad leader then proceeded to shout loudly at everyone. However Karash’s attention was drawn by a noise that came from just ahead of them, there were footsteps and they were getting nearer; the rest of the squad seemed to have not noticed because Sniping was still shouting at them. Figures than appeared through the smoke and what was worse was that they were carrying guns.

“Freeze!” roared Karash.

The Raiders all turned their attention to the people just ahead of them and all aimed their guns at them. The squad leader came forward from their squad.

“Don’t move or we will fire, now identify yourselves!” ordered first sergeant Sniping.

The opposite trooper stopped and called over to the raiders.

“We have been sent to stop the attackers from escaping, I’m captain Harrly,” said the trooper, who now looked rather shaken.

The Raiders continued to aim their weapons at the ‘new troopers’ until the voice over the COM link had authenticated them, even then the suspicions remained because the Raiders would be unlikely to survive another attack like the last one.

After the two squad leaders had discussed a few things, they began to move once again; apparently they were on the way to nearby spaceport where there was a transport waiting to take the attackers to safety. The very thought of them getting to safety made everyone burn with hatred because they were to pay for what they had done to Tadath.

“Halt,” ordered the squad leader.

They had almost reached their destination but now they needed to be even more careful because the ship was likely to be protected by mines, auto-turrets or mercenaries. They slowly made there way into the spaceport, each person scouring their surroundings to make sure that they didn’t get blown up. There was a noise coming from behind a stack of crates, everybody turned and aimed at the boxes and prepared for a fight.

“Go and see what that it,” ordered Sniping.

Gunnery sergeant Yillis and Corporal Gaz made their way over, each of them mumbling as they went.

“Ha,” laughed Yillis.

“It’s only an astromech,” Gaz continued.

They continued to make their way through the entrance of the spaceport until they came to a ship, it was the only transport in that area and therefore the one they were looking for. The squads stopped and looked at it for a moment; it was not a fancy ship or one that seemed to have great amounts of weaponry, though everybody knew that ship had carried the people that had destroyed many parts of the city.

Karash looked up and thought, ‘well, what do we do now’.