Baretz had his fair share of scaling buildings in Nar Shadda, and he was not looking forward to doing it in full Stormtrooper armor, but he was pretty confident that he could do it.  He shook his head watching Ron scale the cliff.  Baretz had remained quiet, because that was him as a person, especially on a mission.  He was the quiet observer, only adding input if it were to better the situation in some way.  He looked up the rock face, and he only shot a few times as he made it up the rock face, when the steps were just far to wide to take in the armor safely. 

Once to the top, he put the combat knives in their appropriate places.  His sharp eyes stared out of his helmet, through the tree line.  He held his blaster in his arms, watching his SL, the Gungan, and the woman get onto the cliff side, and get ready to sweep east of the area.  His legs fell into pace with the squad, he moved ahead, unless he was told otherwise.  He was a heavy weapon specialist, and Ron was a Communication Tech, so he only assumed that he would take the lead, while the Squad Leader followed up the rear.

“Sergeant, Shall I take the lead while you follow up?”

He asked, already moving into lead position while he spoke.  He weapon held firmly to his right shoulder.

“Yes, that what we’re going to do. Grahim, Raelene, keep your eyes on our flanks.” Ron spoke over the comms.

His eyes shot to all the squad members, making sure they were all okay, ready to go, and then he turned moving forward through the thick tree lines.  His lips were pulled back in a sneer, not that anyone could see them, but he was in the mood to kill something, a mood that really helped the entire being a soldier part of his job, if the rest of the Stormtroopers could be as comfortable with the idea of mortality as he managed to be, their would be far less nervousness all around.

“They’re going to try to hit us hard and fast…keep your eyes open…and alert us if you suspect anything…”  Baretz spoke over the comms, and then realized his Squad Leader was on the line too...”Sorry, Sir.”

The squad had quickly moved away from the first convoy, everyone felt the scene of carnage was an ambush. Joamer had scanned the area again, even using infrared, but even though he could not find any big lifeforms they did not want to take the chance. After the mission the dead would be carried home for proper burial, but for now the mission had to proceed. He knew though, if one of those bodies had been any one of the squad they would of stopped.

They split up further this time, moving almost twenty feet away from each other. They all walked as silent as they could, not even stepping down hard. For nearly two hours no one talked or made more noise then a whisper. Coming to the top of a hill they had ducked down before looking over the edge.

Peering over carefully Kand made a small sound in the back of his throat before ducking down again.

"We found the second convoy, it's deserted like the first." He said a few moments later.

The moral of the squad dropped a few pegs then, but after a few long moments a sound was heard to the left, and a second later to the right.

"Ambush!" Three of them shouted at once. Moving the squad broke rank and separated, each finding cover in a matter of seconds.

They waited tense, eyes searching for any possible movement or sound. Nothing was heard, it was quiet, but the distinct sound of boots hitting rock still rung in every ones ears.

Almost a minute passed before someone spoke, the sound caused half the squad to pivot in that direction, only training stopped them from filling the area with energy bolts. "Identify yourselves!" The call came from a shaken voice.

"You first. You are the one who tried to ambush us." Kanderin said a moment later.

"Second company, third platoon. Tail end of the convoy, what's left of it. I'm Sergeant Kyrsi." The shaken voice said.

"Well, it is your lucky day. We've come to rescue you." Kanderin said nearly ten seconds later.


"Thank the gods for you, I had thought no one was coming. Lower your guns boys and show yourselves. Even if they are allies, I think they have us out numbered." Kyrsi said. Two men made their way slowly around the squad and formed up to the side of the sergeant.

"Corporals Jiram, and Lipo. We are what is left of the last two vehicles in the convoy." The Sergeant said. All three of them holstered their rifles, and walked towards the squad. None of them wore armor, only dirty coveralls and very simply helmets. Joamer wondered if they could even use the E-11's they carried.


"First Sergeant Kanderin Draken, Squad Leader. My second in command Senior Sergeant Helena." He said pointing to the petite medic who just holstered her E-11, Joamer knew she could use her rifle. Kanderin had slung his A280 around his back, and walked a bit closer to the three men. "The others around you are the members of Wraith squad, we came to rescue you. They don't talk much, and they are not overly smart, but they do their jobs with usually minimul complaining. The one to your left, the bald one is highly unstable, I would stay away from him. If any one of them gives you an order you follow it without question. Now report."

When Kand had mentioned him Joamer smiled a strange smile, the three surviving members of Second company looked at him briefly and took an involuntary step away.

"Jori, Joamer. Scout around, see what surprises they left for us." Helena ordered as Kand began taking the Sergeants report. "The rest of you fan out, search the trucks for supplies and meet back here. We leave in ten."


Nodding to Jori, he walked off. He stopped every few yards so he could scan the country side with the scope of his DLT-20a. He stayed only a few moments in each location before walking off again. Coming to the obvious scene of an attack he knelt down.

"Tell me what you think happened." Joamer said after a minute of silence. Both of them studied the scene in front of them.

"Looks like they abandoned the trucks, maybe after the first wave of attacks. That would explain the bloody splatters on the side of the lead vehicle." Jori said quietly. Joamer nodded, he didn't think anyone had noticed those but him, they had only gotten a brief moment to look at the trucks. Jori continued after a brief pause " This looks like where they ran to trying to regroup. Two bodies up that trail suggest only twenty one of them made it here, if two died in the trucks. That means with three left alive eighteen died right here, look at the ground and the surrounding area. This was brief but intense, I figure twenty, maybe thirty shots from the army, looks like managed to hit nothing at all. Maybe eighty bolts from whatever attacked them. They never had a chance."

Nodding in agreement Joamer stood up and made his way back to the group. When the others arrived Kanderin told them what had happened, it was nearly exactly as Jori had figured.

"Guess what folks, I know you are going to hate me more then you already do." Kand paused, the sound of mumbling could be heard from several members of the squad. "Board the lead truck, we will use it to get us out of here." The mumbling became cursing, and not all of it was said quietly.

Being one of the ones cursing Joamer followed orders and made his way to the lead truck, then stopped, he glared at the truck hoping it would suddenly vanish.

"Find spots so you can have a decent field of fire. Joamer I want you up front, you have the better eye ball so we need you to be scouting ahead of us for trouble." Kanderin said as he climbed in the drivers seat and started the engine, it sounded loud just sitting still.

Making a face Joamer unclasped the harness holding his DC-15 from his back and climbed into the passenger seat.

Waiting for the others to situate themselves Kanderin played with the buttons on the dashboard, he smiled when the lights came on. Shifting into first gear the transmission squealed before engaging, the truck moved off, the engine roaring at full volume even at this slow speed.

"Don't be happy about your new toy. The chances of us making it back in one piece are now nil." Joamer said as he finished putting his rifle together. Pulling out his single-eye head set and slid it into place on his forehead. Turing it on he looked out of the eyepiece as it's systems found the DC-15 and began the power up sequence.

Minutes after the squad had boarded the truck the sun fell behind the horizon, and a nearly pitch blackness engulfed the land.

"I would say I told you so. But, I think the old saying I have a bad feeling about this works better." Joamer said into the darkness, he flipped night vision on and noticed the rest of the squad doing the same. Most of them had their helmets on now, except for himself and Kanderin.

"Put your helmet on." Kand said a few seconds later.

"It's subsystems are not compatible with my rifle. Besides, it limits the field of view, not to mention limiting your senses." Joamer responded, his voice had a tense edge to it.

Wanting to be spiteful and order him to do it Kanderin just let it drop, he knew Joamer was right. For all of the safety the standard issue armor gave them, nothing compared to their own modified versions they usually carried.

The truck rumbled away, down the dark road.

The halftrack was moving at a snails pace, Anival stood up and walked toward the rear of the halftrack. He looked around then limbed the sides and perched on the top. He turned on his night vision, and scouted behind the truck, knowing Joamer could see the front and the rest of wraith had the sides.

“Anything?” said Anival broadcasting his voice through the comms in the helmets.

“Nothing” came a reply.

“mhmmm” said Anival.

“Er….Kand? I don’t want to be the one to tell you this but, your driving sucks” said Anival with a forced chuckle.

“Well, unless you want to do it”

“No, I wouldn’t get in that thing unless my life depended on it, and even still.”

Anival heard grunts of agreement from the squad inside.

Anival  saw movement to the left, followed by a commotion in the truck, then a sick crunch, which reminded Anival of a kryt Dragon eating a bantha, Anival had seen one during one of his “vacations”
There was a long silence for a while, then RK broke it, Anival could hear a strain of tension in his voice.

“How’s the weather up there?” asked RK

“Cloudy with a slight chance of doom!”

“Hey” said RK, “I’m supposed to be the funny guy remember?”

“Anival?” asked RK

“Shh” shushed Anival.

Anival looked back but didn’t see it again.

“What’s wrong?” asked Helena.

“Nothing just my eyes playing tricks on me.”

Anival was sure he had seen something , either that or he was hoping to see something, anything as long as he could stretch his legs, not just walking or scouting, he wanted to feel the adrenaline pumping through his body.

“One hundred bottles of beer on the wall” started RK.

“One hundred bottles of beer.” replied Anival.

Then Joamer and Anival started in. “Take one down pass it around.”
The survivors stared at them like they were crazy, and who knew? Maybe they were right?


The halftrack lurched again and they fell silent once again, adding to the eerie effect of the engine in total silence, and somewhere outside a predator got its prey.

A rustle up ahead caught Rogue’s attention and he pointed his A280 rifle at a small stand of bushes which were moving against the wind. Erring on the side of caution Rogue unleashed a steady stream of blaster fire at the bushes causing them to crackle and burn. Carefully RB put one foot in front of the other until he could clearly identify what his kill was. Under the charred bushes Rogue stuck his armoured hand inside the bushes and pulled out the smoking corpse of a bird, however unlike most birds this one did not have feathers but instead had a thin layer of skin where it’s feathers should have been.

“Good job Rogue, you killed an endangered species.” Karash said as he patted Rogue on the back.

“Yay.” Rogue said in mock humour earning him a chuckle from his assistant squad leader.

“Alright guys, after we crest this next mini-ridge we’ll report back to Ron and see what else we can do to help this campaign.” Star said as she once again motioned to Rogue to take the fore.

The next ridge called for some awkward hand climbing as the S-5s wouldn’t have made the particular steepness. Cresting the ridge Rogue immediately pulled out his macrobinoculars and was able to spot Ron’s half of the squad cresting their ridge at the same time as the Raiders. The two ridges faced each other in a perfect parallel form, and in between the two ridges was a pair of those oversized monstrosities one armed with a melee weapon that Rogue was not able to discern properly and the other with another one of those crossbows and a hip quiver at his side.

“Gamma , this is Beta we’ve spotted hostiles and friendlys in the area.” The all too familiar tone of Ron echoed over the coms.

“Beta, please be advised that we have spotted you and the hostiles, preparing to get closer to the hostiles to maximize , requesting that you lay down some suppressive fire while we move in.” Starfruit said into her com while the squad listened in.

“Gamma, I approve of your plan will be laying cover fire on your go.” Ron responded.

Star turned to her squad. “Alright boy’s let the shit hit the fan.”

Karash could not take climbing across this mountain for too much longer because now his arms and legs were beginning to ache and he was paranoid about any movement or noise he heard fearing it might be one of those monstrous things they had been attacked by earlier. From nowhere Platoon Sergeant Rogueboy shot several blaster shots into a near by bush for no apparent reason but none the less it had Karash put up his guard immediately.

Rogueboy pulled a burnt carcass out of the bush, however it was not of an enemy it was of a small bird.  “Good job Rogue, you killed an endangered species.” Karash stated.

“Yay.” Said Rogue jokingly, this promoted a chuckle from the ASL. Little did they know Karash quite serious but he had enough sense to realise no one wanted here that now.

The treacherous pathway continued and it did not get any safer, in fact it got even worse as they approached the last ridge. The other half of the squad were crossing on their side at the exact same time but the figures of those beasts were looming in the small valley bellow, Karash had a bad feeling that they would be the ones to go down there. His thoughts were then verified as Jae got in contact with the other half of the squad and it was decided that Karash and the half he was with would going to fight, whilst the others were the distraction.

“Alright boy’s let the shit hit the fan.” Said Jae just before they were on the move again.

“How inspiring.” Karash said sarcastically louder than he had anticipated but no one seemed to be paying attention.

The SL’s half of the squad opened fire on the two gigantic men who seemed to be genuinely surprised that they were the ones to be ambushed. The diversion did not work for very long as Karash’s half of the squad were noticed and the two creatures turned their attention to the half of the squad that was now running at them. What was beginning to worry Karash was the fact that they were exactly as big as they were made out to be and any fear he previously had of them was now tripled as they towered over him. Too involved in his own thoughts Karash did not notice the bolt that was soaring towards him and by the time he realised it was too late to do anything about it…

“Well now it’s all over, I wonder what it is like.” Karash said to himself.

Karash was then brought back to the real world by the familiar voice of Havock “You okay, Karash?”

As he opened his eyes Karash realised that he was not dead but in fact Havock had slammed him into a rock wall and therefore saved his life. “Yes, thank you.” He replied.

“First rule of combat never let the medic get himself killed.” Havock replied and gave a slight chuckle.

She then got back up immediately and continued to fire in the direction of the but Karash sat for another minute or so and realised that he had to thank Havock properly and he really hated having to do things like that. Then as Karash stood back up he realised that his foot was not quite right and would not be able to last for much longer under these conditions. However it was not the time for such problems now because those things were now within jumping distance of the squad.

Ron grumbled to himself when he heard Jaenna's orders, but he grudgeingly acknowledged the fact that splitting up would not only cover more space, but would also help them to spread out the enemy's attack on the cliff.  He noted the slight command given even to himself; which of course smacked of a lack of discipline (which to Ron is worse than incompetence), but given the excitement that was probably coursing through everyone's veins, Ron decided to wait until a calmer time to discuss it privately with his Assistant Squad Leader.

Ron had no more time to think of that, however, due to several challenges that he saw ahead of him.  The first was an outgrowing balcony in the cliffside.  Ron found it difficult to scale, primarily because he could get any footholds, the only way to scale it would be to hook onto the very edge and pull himself up to it. 

Ron aimed for the edge and launched a shot at it.  The first one missed, but barely missed, and scraped the edge of the shelf.  Ron took the line back in and fired a second shot.  This one was too low, and embedded itself below the shelf edge.  Ron was about to extract this line and fire a new one, when he suddenly launched forward towards the cliff line; he had accidentally pulled the trigger to wind up the line, which was stilla attached to the cliffside.  Ron flew towards the embedded line, smacking into the side, and giving himself a good bruise on the shoulder. 

Ron groaned with some pain and nausea.  At least he had a good shot for the edge of the shelf.  Ron dug his toes into the cliff rock and fired a close range shot at the edge of the cliff.  It was an accurate enough shot.  Ron released his foothold, and allowed the line to pull him up the cliff. 

Ron barely climbed over the edge of the shelf before he was suddenly attacked by several things at once.  They were small, indigiounous creatures that bit and tore and pushed Ron until he was nearly off the edge of the cliff.  Suddenly his foot reached the edge, and he toppled over the side, with three of them still on top of him. 

Ron yelled, outloud, as he fell.  It was a mixture of fear and anger.  Fear that he would die as a splattered mass of flesh at the bottom of the cliff, and anger that he only took three of those things with him.  He violently wriggled out of their grasp, threw his arms out, and kicked at them; eventually breaking lose of their grasp.  But now he was falling... falling to... his death.

But when all seemed lost, Ron was saved.

"Gotcha!" Jaenna cried.  She had seen Ron fall the entire time, had in fact been almost hit by him as he had fallen not far from the side of the cliff- coming dangerously close to hitting the side on his desent.  Jaenna reacted quickly, and fired one of her S-5 pistols at Ron as he fell.  The grapnel hit him in the back, piercing his armor, and some tender flesh beneath. 

She pulled him up slowly, for the weight was heavy; and finally grabbed for him when he came close enough.  When he was finally set right again, with two of the spare grapnel guns and his feet safely pegged in the cliff, he looked at Jaenna and grudgeinly smiled.

"Remind me not to yell at you later." he said.

"Alright, we need to head out. We don't have much more to go before we report back in." Saphira called and stood. They had break ed for about an hour. The tension still building from the fact they could be ambushed. Once everyone was assembled they started marching again as a unit. Each looking out for the other.

Good. Don't need anyone else hurt or worse.. She thought as they lead on. Sam and Brock close behind her as they came up over a hill and spread out slightly. Moving down took enough without stumbleing from some loose rocks in the ground.

"Sithspit.." Sam cursed

No one argued there as htey came down to the bottom and scanned around. The rustling in the wind picked up and as Saph scanned over the East Brock caught his attention on something to his right. It was a little off the road and looked almost torn apart. Covered in branches and some vies that seemed to have started to take over was a broken down hutt.

"Sarge! Over here. Look." Brock replied. Attention gathered directly to the spot.

"Alright.. we'll check it out. Alpha.. Fan out a bit and keep an eye out for any movement. The rest of you as well. Brock, Sam, you're with me." She stated as they moved closer to the broken hutt. In many ways it reminded Saphira of the Ewok hut's.


"This doesn't look right.. A Hutt in the middle of nothing?" Sam replied.


Saph shook her head and as they got closer a pungent wave of death wafered in the air. It took allot for even Saph not to chunk up her own vomit as took her Helmet and put it on. It didn't help allot, but it was better then nothing. The others did the same as she drew into a fighting stance and advanced.


"I think you're right about that..." Saphira replied as she stepped on a tree branch. It snapped and caused everyone to jump slightly as she kicked open what she thought looked like a door. "By the Word!!!!!."


Sam backed off with Brock and it was enough as Saphira reached a little. Inside was a pile of bodies. Some fresh, others in various stages of decay. The air ranked of Death and inside she couldn't tell what they were. Bodies were latterly chopped and hacked. Heads rolling down as one landed by her foot.


"I think... we're in for allot of trouble... It has to be what attacked us.."


Saphira backed off and when far enough she bent to her knees and took her helmet off and upchucked. It took allot to make that happen for her, but the decay was too much. She also swore she saw a hand of a small child.


"Are you going to be ok Saph? I didn't things get to you like that." Brock replied.


"They don't.. But this.. This is something else... We need to report back in. From what I saw it's been a few days sense the last body was taken here. I don't see any other choice in the matter."


"Yet why here? Why where we anyone with a brain could find a place like this?" Sam replied. Saphira urned and looked to everyone as they came back in. her eyes growing black with anger.

"I don't know.. But I think we will at some point.. and very soon. Look more like a trophy room to me.." She replied and placed her helmet back on. Connecting herself to an alpha com user she had him reply back to main.


----------


Messege:



Alpah and IH here. There is nothing ahead of us so far, but you might want to take a look at what was found. Awaiting further orders.....



End.

Day 02
Forests above Death Valley, 05.09

“We should be getting back,” Ficks announced to the trees. No one paid him any mind, least of all Sergeant Griff, at the head of the squad. Behind him was Yeris, and then Wren, Gibis, Pitt, Forze, Augun, and Ficks. Their scout trooper armor clinked softly in the darkness as they made their way through the dense forest undergrowth. Other than that, there was hardly a sound. Not even wildlife.

“Seriously, we should be heading back. We’re too far out.”

“Shut up Ficks,” Griff growled. There was a seconds pause.

“But we really shouldn’t be here.”

And so it went on as it had for the better part of a day. They’d mobilized near seven o’clock the night before, when the rest of the convoy had regrouped for the night. Their mission parameters had been simple; scout the forest two clicks in and call in what they found. Then return back. That’d taken an hour, and they’d found nothing.

Griff hadn’t been happy. He was old, though no one knew quite how old. Older than squad leaders were supposed to be, anyway, and he was itching to move up in the chain. A big break here – finding a large enemy concentration, taking out leaders, possibly ambushing their ambushers as they fled deeper into the mountains – could be the sort of thing that got him moving up.

So he’d lied. Their hour long scout “hike” had turned into a full blown reconnaissance mission, without any real parameters, which is how they found themselves trekking through the forest at five in the morning. Augun was barely tired. His legs had gone numb, but he’d gotten used to it. Alpha Platoon taught you to accept and cope with your pain, rather than let it interfere with your performance. Augun thought of home, home on Levis. Just thought of the calm afternoons he’d spent there, the times he’d spent with his families. It calmed him and took his mind off the mission.

Ficks coped by bitching. Out loud. Incessantly.

“We’ve been trekking for hours and not seen a single damn thing, Sarge.”

“We’re going to find something. Now shut the hell up.”

It’d been an uneventful ten hours. Quiet, calm. No birds, no creatures. Just the trees and the darkness. Alpha Platoon taught its troopers to contain their fear, not let it out, not let it get the better of them, but it wasn’t as easy as that. Augun had seen what these barbarians had done in their first attack, and he was scared shitless. They could be anywhere, anywhere at all. Augun could be dead at any moment. The thought chilled him to the bone. He didn’t think he was ready to die.

He almost ran into Forze and caught himself just short. They’d all stopped, staring. Augun finally noticed that the trees had thinned and the elevation had dipped won to the lip of a large cliff, leading into an even larger valley. It was almost beautiful. Almost. There was a feeling Augun couldn’t quite shake. A feeling of dread, deeper, even, than his fear.

Sergeant Griff was already pushing forward, eager to explore the new area he’d discovered. The squad pushed on after him.

So intent on the valley, no one heard the pop Ficks’ head made as it exploded, or saw the way his body tumbled as it dropped down the cliff and into the brambles below.

* * *

It was a clean kill. Right above the ear, left side of the head. Went through the temple, shattering his skull, pulping his brain, and ejecting the remnants, along with the fractured pieces of his helmet, out the other side.

He didn’t see any of this happen, of course. The recoil had made sure of that. He knew this happened because it was what he’d meant to happen. His bullets always went where he wanted them to.

He eyeballed the cliff face, and then put his eye back to the scope, centering on the seven scouts remaining. So oblivious. So stupid.

He’d been trailing them for the better part of three hours, ever since the locals had alerted him to their presence. He was a krish’na to the locals: an Undying, one of the few outsiders that had survived long enough to actually speak with them. He’d survived their trials, their petty tribulations. He’d allied himself and, by extension, the New Republic with them.

They were useful, to an extent. Experts at guerrilla and close-quarters fighting, their stature made them fiercesome on the battlefield, provided one was within arm’s length and lacking a gun. Other than that, they made quite large targets that died just like everything else in the galaxy. He would know. He’d killed more than his share to attain the position he currently held.

Beyond that, they were also aggravating to work with. So primitive. They had no concept of ambushes beyond what they’d used to trap prey and keep out the regular inhabitants of the planet for years. They had no formal military training. Their basic was, at best, rudimentary, and they weren’t inclined to progress it any farther. And, above all, they insisted on their superiority to New Republic forces, insisting that fights go their way.

Like, for example, right now. He counted at least a dozen of them, moving between the trees. They were stealthy alright, but you learned to sense their movements. A shadow bending where it shouldn’t. A bush bulging and suddenly becoming man-shaped. They were moving in for the kill. Probably take them once they came off the cliff.

He took one last wistful look through the scope. He could, easily, take down three or four, though not without alerting the rest. Best not risk it. They could alert their friends in the convoy, or start shooting, both of which could be bad. Not disastrous. Just uncomfortable.

He pulled his rifle back and began to pack up.

* * *

“Where’s Ficks?”

They’d stopped at the bottom of the cliff to catch their breath when the absense of the usually chatty trooper was noticed. The forest around them suddenly felt forbidding, more so than it had before. The predawn shadows seemed darker, more...sinister.

“He was...ah, hell, he probably got himself lost. Raise him on the comms.”

“Nothing, sir,” Pitt reported. The troopers shared an uneasy glance.

“To hell with him. He’ll show up before long.”

“Sir I think we should really—”

“Where’s Wren? And Gibis!? They were right next to me!” Yeris became frantic. “They were...they were right there ! I saw them! Oh frig, oh frigging frig. We’re all frigged!”

A calm descended upon Augun, the calm that usually only came before battles. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He had the distinct feeling he was being watched.

Griff’s eagerness diminished somewhat, but what replaced it was as bad, if not worse: foolhardy courage.

“If they’ve got them,” And he didn’t need to explain who they were for everyone to understand what he meant, “then we’re going in after them. Rifles up, safeties off. Anything not wearing white is considered hostile. Three meter spread, we’ll move into the jungle as one. Always keep two men in your sight at once and never stray from the group.”

“Sir, I—”

“This is a command, Augun, and you will follow it or I will shoot you on the spot!” There was a breathless silence. Augun was suddenly very aware of his squad leader’s rifle pointed at his gut. Time seemed to slow, for everything except Yeris, who was still muttering curses to himself, interlaced with what seemed to be sobs.

“Are we clear?”

“Sir yes sir.” Griff lowered his rifle and nodded.

“Let’s move then.”

The undergrowth was thicker here than it had been before. They had to push through dense brush and ferns, batting aside branches as they went. It was hard to keep up with everyone in the squad, but they did, somehow. No one went missing, as far as Augun could tell. He picked a spot near the center of the group, where he felt the safest, though he knew, deep down, that simply by being there he wasn’t safe at all. Yerin had become silent, simply staring listlessly at the ground, not even bothering to lift his rifle.

After thirty minutes of nothing, they stopped again. The squad sat down, all except for Griff, who stood staring at the trees.

“We’re not going to find anything.” Augun sat down hard on a log, staring at the dirt between his feet. He wanted to look up, scan the trees, but he was afraid of what he might see. “Let’s get out while they’re letting us live.”

Griff was gone. Augun looked up, and the squad leader was no longer there. Frig, he could see his boot prints still on the ground! They dragged a ways and then stopped. They were here, right now, around him.

“Guys,” Augun began slowly. They’d noticed, and were all keeping perfectly still. “On three?” Pitt nodded, and Forze made a jerk of his head that looked like a muscle spasm more than a  nod. Yeris remained silent. His hands were trembling. Then again, so were Augun’s.

“One.” There was a stirring of a breeze through the trees, and the sound of wind whistling through mountains. Odd, since they were far below the rocky peaks.

“Two.” The whistling intensified even though the breeze died.

“Three!” The whistling stopped, and Yeris slumped over, a metal quarrely jutting from the back of his skull. The others, Augun, Forze, and Pitt, didn’t even see it happen. They were already running.

There were whistles all around them, Augun noticed as he fled in blind panic. At first he thought they were men, but then he started to notice the metal rods pinning themselves to trees on either side of them. The bark quivered with each impact, sending tiny clouds of dust into Augun’s vision.

“Keep running!”

They made for the treeline, and the cliffs beyond. Up that, and then they were back to the convoy. Augun didn’t even dare admit to himself that they wouldn’t be able to make the journey back alive. It’d taken over ten hours to get to where they were, and Augun had to assume that it’d take at least half that time to get back. Even a quarter, an eighth of that time would be far more than he had.

They made it to the cliffs, and found out that Pitt was gone. Caught by a quarrel no doubt. Some incoherent screams came over the comlinks, but Augun couldn’t tell who they belonged to in the half-second between hearing them and shutting off his comlink.

They looked back, panting, at the trees. So far nothing had come out, but he didn’t want to take chances. They continued to move.

When the got to the base of the clffs, they finally found Ficks. Or, more accurately, Ficks found them. His corpse, nearly headless, was strapped to a frame of wood. His breastplate had been cracked open, and someone or something had torn him open, exposing his organs to the sky. Already maggots were writhing in the bloody mess.

“Oh frig,” Forze cried, dropping to the ground. He threw his helmet off, into the grass, as he spat up chunks of vomit. He caught whiff of the smell emanating from Ficks and threw up a second time, spilling his ration-breakfast all over the ground.

Augun, for his part, kept his stomach. He was much too scared to feel anything else than pure terror at the moment, even at such a sight. He grabbed Forze by the arm and pulled him toward the cliffs.

“We have to keep moving,” he grunted, pulling Forze’s dead weight. The scout was crying, dry-heaving and crying. “We have to go!” Forze nodded through tears and stood up, running behind Augun. They scaled the cliffs with little incidence, and then made it into the forests beyond.

Around eight o’clock that they stopped again. The adrenaline was beginning to wear off, and, as such, Augun’s other bodily needs came to the forefront. Like, for example, eating. He pulled out two ration bars and tossed one over to Forze. The other he quickly unwrapped and devoured. Forze did the same.

“Do you really think they’re...?” Forze trailed off. Augun looked up from his second ration bar and stared levelly at Forze.

“Okay, I was just...wondering. Oh frig.” He slumped to the ground against a tree and began to cry. “Oh frig, oh frig. Frigging forest. Frigging barbarian...things! Frigging mission, frigging planet.”

“Look, Forze, it’s not that bad. I mean, we made it out alive, didn’t we?” Forze made a half-sniffle that might’ve been an acquiescence.

“And, more than that, we’ll probably be well decorated for this,” Augun continued with a smile. Forze, for his part, had stopped crying. Augun, seeing his chance to inspire hope in his squadmate, continued on.

“We’ll have parades, and ceremonies. And everyone’ll know our names.” This talk was starting to make Augun hopeful too. Maybe they were going to get out alive, get out and be celebrated, and get medals and all that.  Augun could picture it clearly: ‘The scouts who survived, against all odds.’ Just like those guys on Maridun.

“And we might even get to meet a Moff. A real Moff!? How does that sound?” Augun looked up, licking the last flecks of his ration bar off his fingers.

“Forze?”

Augun was alone.

Before he knew what was happening, before he’d really had a chance to consciously register anything, Augun was running. His heart beat hard in his chest, and his breathing was shallow. He could feel his muscles slipping, fatigue setting in. He’d hit his limit, now he was pushing past it.

He caught a glimmer of sunlight in the distance. The treeline! They’d been this close the entire time! He sprinted, new energy flooding his limbs. He could make it. He would make it.

Clumsily, he opened his comlink as he ran. He called for help, any help, anything at all.

The whistling began again, and metal rods sprouted from trees everywhere. One managed to nick a leg, nearly throwing him off balance. Another scraped past his head uncomfortably. Augun realized, with a start, that he’d left his helmet back where he’d lost Forze.

Ten meters. The air became thick with bolts, and glancing impacts became common. He cringed at every crack and clipping noise the quarrels made. At five meters, he could actually hear the barabarians rushing towards him. The fire only increased. At two meters, the sunlight became overwhelming. After so much time spent in the darkness of the forest, the bright light blinded him. For a second, he stood dazed and out of breath, trying to make out what was in front of him. Then there was a wet thwack, and a jolt of pain, and he was on his back, staring up at the sky. He looked over at his shoulder where the metal bolt had buried itself.

Bootsteps crunched, heavy in the soil, and stopped right next to his face. He looked up and peered into the eyes of death itself.

“Light them the frig up,” Arnaut said, looking away from the scout at his feet. Behind him, Wildcard Platoon was more than happy to comply. They opened fire on the forest, vaporizing the closest trees and mulching everything behind that. Flamerthrowers squelched, tossing their volatile payloads into the forest and lighting whole sections on fire. The screams of dying barabrians filled the air, like sweet music. Despite the pain, Augun began to laugh. He’d made it. Oh frig, but he’d made it.

* * *

“What’d he have to say?” Kanderin asked, striding up next to Arnaut. He had two cups of caf in his hand

“Not much. Nothing good,” Arnaut replied, taking the proffered mess cup from his Adjutant. He sipped it gratefully, letting the warmth fill him up. “We’re going to have to push through the forest anyhow. Best if we did it on our terms.”

Kanderin raised his eyebrows. “More flamethrowers then?”

Arnaut nodded and took another sip. “I want Raiders on the flamers, torching that forest. Send Iron Horse up, faster, with whatever sniping detail you can get from Sorin. That’d probably be any of his troops. We need to find out how we’re getting our vehicles down this cliff.”

“And Wraith?”

“Wraith...is going to play bait.”

OOC:

We’re moving into Death Valley! Woo-hoo! This will be a major turning point in our story, and when things really begin to pick up. So, now, mission-time.

Raiders - You’ll be getting flamethrowers (awesome, right?) to burn down this forest ahead of us. Don’t worry, Earth Day was like...three weeks ago. Anyway, you’ll be flushing out the natives, so expect lots of fighting as they jump out. Just gun ‘em down, if you can, but always remember...they are NOT cannon fodder. Don’t be gunning down thirty of them single-handedly.

Iron Horse - You’ll be leaving with an Alpha Platoon Scout squad (made of snipers) and using your whisper sniper rifles to set up a post on the cliff. Your job is to find a naviagable pass down the cliff for our half-tracks, and then set up a sniper spot to pick off as many barbarians as you can find. You may mention The Sniper, but you may not actually see him. Remember, we don’t know he exists yet. He’s using a custom, silenced rifle, so even if he started, I dunno, picking you guys off, you wouldn’t hear it.

Wraith - With arguably the most degrading mission, your job is to rush to the cliff behind Iron Horse, and make your way down as they find a pass. Once they’re in a sniper position though, you’ll be heading into the forest to try and lure out locals. Fun stuff. Don’t die

And that’s it. Questions, PMs, send them to me (mainly because I forgot to hand your SLs details beforehand this time). Also, USE THE DISCUSSION THREAD. If...y’know, if you need to.

Also, the time is ten o'clock in the morning (10.00 or thereabouts). Not even midday. It's a clear day. That should get everyone more or less on the same page.

“You can’t have a barbecue without beer!” Rogue yelled at Ron in a mock anger.

“And I told you, we ain’t got any force-damned beer! You want some? You need to kill every barbarian on this planet and go home for some.” Squad leader Ron responded with the equal amount of seriousness in his tone.

Truth was the barbarians scared the shit out of Rogue, and he was not easily frightened particularly in battle, in the arenas you quickly learn that fear is not an ally. The fact that the barbarians turned a season Alpha squad leader into a weeping cripple attested to their effectiveness, how did Rogue know he was a weeping cripple? He carried the wounded soldier on a stretcher back to the makeshift command post where he was going to be airlifted out for medical treatment. The man was going to be a hero, the scout trooper that survived a half-score of barbarians while his squad got ambushed. Rogue ever so slightly envied the man, his days of front-lining were over, when you become a figurehead it’s a good idea to make sure nothing claims him except old age.

Staring at the old trees Rogue wondered how old they were and what they have seen, everything has a story if you could just talk to it. RB was no woodsman he could stealth walk in an urban environment and not make a sound or leave a trace, however the woods were a complete different story probably why they were burning it.

Rogue’s thoughts turned to Jaenna he had been embarrassed to find that he was kissing her, yet somehow pleased with himself that he did it, it was something he had felt the urge to do but just didn’t have the stones to do it.

Back to the task at hand Rogue quickly realized that most of the squad did not know how to properly use a flamethrower. Having been trained in their use as part of his assignment within the squad Rogue memorized the handbook and particularly the myths and facts about them. Unlike most holoflicks a direct shot by a slugthrower will not ignite the fuel tank, the tip of every flamethrower has a duramagnesium lighter that ignites the liquid spewed out by the tank. The range in each flamethrower is variable; the particular model that the Raider’s was equipped with had a max range of about twelve meters. One did not need to play with the valve unless it was to make sure it was open, any level of opening would insure you have enough liquid to burn a human as the amount that was spewed was regulated by an internal gauge. This was to prevent accidental misuse of the flamethrower and to insure the wearer’s safety, Rogue was not too sure what the liquid was called in the tanks mainly because he did not need to know as all military flamethrowers used a liquid, while commercial ones used gas.

Glancing back to his assistant squad leader Rogue seemed unable to take his mind off of the kiss, he wanted more a lot more. The question was how do you get someone to like you without being obvious, then Rogue realized does it matter if he was obvious? Yes because if she judged him right off the bat without giving him a chance his chances of success were little. Rogue was not particularly attractive, his hair was either cut short or wavy/mismanaged, his face was rugged; a nose that had been bashed in one too many times, the lower part of his right ear was missing where some shrapnel removed it when Rogue was helmetless and too slow to take cover. His body shape was hard to discern, no one would call him skinny but no one would call him fat either and many have said he carried himself in an intimidating fashion. “Bah, bollocks if she doesn’t like me that’s it.” The platoon sergeant muttered to himself.

“If who doesn’t like you?” Karash asked as he approached from the side.

“It’s a long story, and you don’t want to hear it.” RB said in an attempt to deflect Karash’s question.

Spewing forth some burning liquid from his flamethrower into the forest Karash turned to Rogue. “All I got is time, we’re burning a forest.” Kar said.

Watching the forest burn made Rogue feel at peace for some odd reason but he still wasn’t going to tell Karash what was on his mind. With a few minutes of silence between the two troopers Karash eventually walked away. A screeching sound overhead brought Rogue’s eyes up and three TIE bombers flew overhead, seconds later loud bangs and ground shaking signaled they had dropped their loads. Bastards would be sleeping in their own bunks tonight, Rogue thought to himself as he pulled the trigger for the flamethrower.

Not long after Rogue noticed a new trooper who he had not seen before, equipped with the flamethrower. “Whose the new fish?” RB asked over the comlink.

“His name’s Beta40, joined us when we geared up didn’t see him?” Star asked.

“No.” Rogue responded before Karash added neither did he.

“You guys could haze him after this mission.” Ron said.

OOC:

If there's any problem with me using TIE bombers PM me and I'll change them as per your suggestion.

The squad had made it back just before sunrise, by some bit of luck the Sergeant of Second Company had survived the night, he was the only one. High Command had quickly stolen him away and Wraith was left to repair their equipment and try to catch some sleep.

They did repair their gear, but no sleep was to be had. Rest was found, sitting in a patch of shade, the small squad was short of a full group, only six members instead of nine. None of them really cared, it took a special breed to do what they did, they had lost a lot of good men and woman, and they knew they would lose more. Would this be the mission where that list of names grew by one? Or by more? None of them knew, nor wished to dwell on it, so they sat and took comfort in the last few peaceful moments they might have with each other.

Kanderin returned a few hours later, his face a mix of anger and excitement, no one looked up. They knew he did not want them to come to attention or anything like that, besides, the ground had gotten very comfortable in the last ten minutes.

Coming to a stop he mumbled under his breath, Joamer only caught pieces of it but he grimaced at what he heard.

"You have got to be kidding, right?" Joamer said quietly, half hoping it was just a dream.

"Fraid not, squad listen up. We are to be grouped up with Alpha, and Iron Horse. They are to lead us to some cliffs where they get to play sniper, while we get to play bait. We are to enter the forest and draw out the locals. I am reasonably sure someone does not like us, Arnaut even sounded like this would be a suicide mission, but they also know us, we are Wraith. It's time to put that name to the test. We leave in one hour."

Kanderin began walking away before calling over his shoulder "Helena, I need to see you."

Joamer sat in the shade and mumbled to himself, the other members were doing the same. "Bait, we get to play the bait?" He made the shout sound like a question, he did not expect anyone to respond, they all kept mumbling to themselves, he heard all of them say more then once they wished they had their own armor.

"Least they could do was to give us stealth suits or something, pure white armor makes very good targets. If we survive this I am filling a formal complaint to someone about this mission." Anival nearly shouted.

The rest of the group nodded, they all felt the same way. This way going to be bad, very bad.

"Iron Horse just set out Kand"

The squad leader glanced over his shoulder to where Joamer was hailing him over, before nodding to Helena and marching back over to the squad.

"Think about what I said" he called.

"Do you really trust Iron Horse watching our back?" Anival asked as he arrived, trying to look busy so as his frantic nerves weren't on show. "I mean, most of their are nothing but grunts, and if they mess up we might not be coming back"

"They're led by Doc and Saphira, I have confidence in them" Kanderin responded, slinging his own bag over his shoulder. "Besides, I don't plan on leaving our lives in their hands anyway. We're Wraiths, remember - We work alone"

"Here's to that" RK chimed in.

The squad waited another ten minutes for confirmation that Iron Horse were ready to cover them before moving out. They took a route parallel to the one the other squad had taken. Overall it would take them slightly longer, but it would severely hamper the chances of the locals discovering there were two squads. Pushing their way through the forest, for a few seconds they believed they'd heard the sound of flamethrowers starting up behind them. Without Kand having to say anything to them the squad picked up the pace into just short of a jog. They all knew far to well that RAIDERS was about 90% batshit crazy.

It took another twenty minutes for them to arrive at the foot of the cliff, the forest dropping away below them by easily two hundred feet. Where they were stood, and for a severe distance in every direction, it was a straight drop, one completely in traversable without ropes and pulleys.

Tapping his comlink into operation, he began to send a line over to Iron Horse's command. He simply had to assume they were close enough so as the short wave frequency will do. Long range on this planet had already revealed itself as completely useless. Once the line was established, silence filled his ears as opposed to static. He sighed.

"Doc, we're having some trouble finding a way down the cliff, do you have any insight?"

"Ill have a look" Came the response. Several of the Wraith's had already began spacing out, heading left and right in an attempt to find a place where the drop shallowed. As he glanced around, all he met was shrugging of shoulders and shaking heads.

"Got it. About...two clicks to your left there's some sort of road. It's not ideal but it's your best bet"

"Two clicks? That's going to take...Wait" Kanderin suddenly spun around to watch the opposite side of the face. "How the hell do you know where we are?"

"You stick out like a sore thumb in those white suits, I'd really be more careful from now on" Doc responded, sounding like he was laughing slightly. "Careful RK"

Kanderin glanced around to spot RK loose footing and begin sliding towards the drop. He caught himself on the nearest rock, but carried on shaking for several seconds afterwards.

"Maybe you should look after your own squad for a while Kand"

"Get on with your mission, you're making us look bad" Kanderin smiled, trying to hide is emberassment. He waved out vacantly to the rough area where Iron Horse hid, before departing.

Doc smiled as he ended the transmission with Kanderin. Turning he watched as Saphira was telling a couple troopers to fan out but keep a close range.

"What was that about?" Saphira asked as she walked over towards Riq. "And don't lie.. I can tell when you're hiding something." She crossed her arms over her chest and gave a look like he had his hand stuck in the cookie jar.

"Oh, nothing much. Just shocked Kanderin that I knew where they are all right now." he smiled and noticed her lek'ku twitch before she smiled.

"Nice. Guess we're proving more to them after all.." She replied as they turned and walked back down the trail.

"So what was all the excitement about?" Riq asked as they kept voices low.

"Someone saw something and got trigger happy. Shot a animal. Squirrel to be exact." She rolled her shoulders in a shrug and sighed.

"Well, they better eat it. Can't leave a trace that we were here just in case." Riq replied. Saphira nodded and thought things over for a moment.

"Well, with the way things are going the troopers are a little bit Jumpy. Except maybe Jelly." She replied. Doc looked at her for a moment as if he didn't know. "Yes.. He's back. Came in just a little bit ago when we all reformed for the new task. Seems a bit excited to be back on the job."


Doc didn't say anything but nodded and told her to carry on. With ease she walked up and caught up with the others. They were being quiet and eyes opened in case of an ambush. Walking farther onward they soon saw a place worth looking into. With a good view of the other team they sent up a Sniper and the other's sat up a base camp.


"Alright. Now we need to be ready. I need a three point guard to watch our own backs as well to help out in case." Saphira pointed.


"In case?" Jelly asked?

"Yes in case.. Just because of the ambushes doesn't mean the brutes aren't mindless brutes. They are using tactics I haven't seen before and we just need to be ready. That hut back there was meant to be found. Almost like a trail of breadcrumbs to some trap. I have no doubt we're being watch or at least one of the other squads are." Saphira replied. The others murmured an agreement and started to move around to set up a perimeter.

They were all lined up, the RAIDERS, spraying he forest with fire from their flamethrowers. Havock had to take her hand off he nozzle for a second, another wave of coughing burned her lungs. The heat from the flamethrower, the weight of the tanks on her back, and the ash they were creating; all of this combined was reeking havoc on her girls lungs.

“You alright there, Hav?” She heard the voice through her com as she straightened and resumed her part in their rampage on the forest.

“Yeah, Karash. I'm fine.” Havock reached up and wiped the lenses on her helmet, a task she had to periodically do now that soot kept attacking them. It was as if the forest was fighting back, cursing them for what they were doing. Typical, gah, I really hate forests.

They continued making their way through the forest. The rest of the platoon was making their way  somewhere behind them at this point. Burning a clearing in the forest for the rest of the platoon sounded like a fun idea to Havock when they were given the assignment. Now she just wanted to finish and get out of the smoke.

Jae was on Hav's right, Karash on her left. If Hav wanted to glance behind Karash she could see down the line RB, Beta, Grahim, Raelene, Baretz, and finally Ron at the other end. Of course, Hav really didn't want to do that, since she was quite sure if she turned her head she would turn her body with the flamethrower in the same direction. Remember, we are not going to barbecue our squad. Fry the bad guy, burn the trees, keep the fire away from the stormtrooper uniforms.

Havock stopped, released the trigger on the flamethrower, and turned around.

“What is it Hav?” That was Jae.

Havock didn't answer right away. Her eyes were squinting, she was willing them with all her might to see through the dirty lenses. Scanning the forest she heard Jae's voice again. “Hav?”

“Bah, I swear I heard something. And no, at least I'm pretty sure I'm not loosing my mind.” She waved her hand dismissively in Jae's direction, but continued to look through the ashes that was the forest behind them.

“Hav, I don't see...” Havock cut her off, which was probably going to get her in a whole mess of trouble later on. “No, never mind, must have just imagined it.”

Havock trotted up to the rest of the squad and resumed her destruction of nature. Then she heard it again. A rustling, right behind her. As if the forest floor was...moving. She had stopped again and even stopped breathing, desperately trying to find the source of the sound.

She could hear an exasperated sound from not only Jae but it sounded like Karash as well. No matter how intensely she stared, she could not find the source of the sound she was desperately looking for.

Turing back she saw both Jae and Karash turned looking at her, shoulders slumped, in obvious irritation.

“Alright, alright. Sorry.” Havock shook her head and stomped back to the line of troopers.

She tried to move into position with the rest of the squad but as soon as her feet touched the ground, it rose up and threw her.  She flew through the air for what seemed like minutes before finally slamming face first into the forest floor.

Havock spun around, rolling to her back. She shook her head in complete disbelief. Looking up from her prone position,  Havock could see a barbarian standing in the spot she should have been standing in. Jae and Karash were fighting him off. She heard more sounds, all around her, all the same as before. She watched as two then three of the barbarians sprung from the ground to surround the squad.

Flames crackled as the forest burned, Rogue stared into the embers of a shrivelled leaf. Not even fifteen minutes ago it had been full of life and now it had become what everything that lives becomes, dead. Overhead another squad of bombers flew overhead dropping their nasty loads of napalm on the forest. There was a yell over the comlink piercing Rogue’s ears and making him wince, instinctively forcing him to turn around just as a barbarian brought a wicked looking axe in a side blow in an attempt to decapitate Rogue, hopping backwards RB was spared, for the moment as the barbarian took a step forward instinctively the platoon sergeant turned in an attempt to run. The sound of metal on metal met Rogue’s ears and he was ejected five meters diagonally from where he was standing. The landing was less than graceful as Rogue landed stomach first on a small rock, knocking the breath out of him.

Gasping for air Rogue looked up just in time to see a TIE bomber’s wing get blown off in a show of flames and sparks, what happened to the TIE bomber or his squadron was masked by the tree line. RB was in a lot of pain, he definitely bruised his abdomen area maybe even pierced an organ. Luckily none of his lungs were pierced otherwise the Raider’s trooper would be spitting out inordinate amounts of blood. Looking back at the squad Rogue saw that his assailant was covered in the gooey liquid that had been concealed in RB’s tank, Havock noticed this and immediately sent out a burst of flames onto the covered barbarian lighting him up like an Empires day fire sprocket.

Unable to stand up properly Rogueboy realized that he was unable to fight this battle, making a silent prayer to whichever deity would listen he hoped that the Raiders would prove their valour and be victorious.

The battle could have gone either way, even with the barbarians losing a man their ambush had definitely caught the Raiders off guard. Rogue watched how a barbarian took a vicious swing at Ron with a stick that had an oversized animal skull on it. The squad leader of Raiders dodged the blow by diving left, and quickly pressing the clip that held the tanks onto him, had he not done so they would have smashed him on the back and most likely given him temporary paralysis. One of the new recruits either Baretz or Beta, Rogue was not sure which one it was; pulled out his blaster rifle and unleashed a steady stream of bolts into one of the barbarians bringing it down. “My first kill!” An unfamiliar voice said over the comlink excitedly.

“Good job kid, now don’t get excited there’s another fifty more of them for you to kill.” Ron said in a matter of fact tone.

An audible gulp came over the coms as a response. The last barbarian quickly retreated into the forest’s foliage. Ron surveyed the skirmish area and noticed Rogue was leaning against a rock, he motioned to Karash to see if RB was ok.