Karash hurried over to Rogue, as the squad’s only medic it was his duty to attempt to bring a soldier into fighting condition and when that was not possible either to call a med evac or to load the soldier up with enough drugs that he never opens his eyes again. RB knew his injury could not be that serious; shortness of breath, pain in the abdomen short of those two there were no other symptoms.

“What happened to you?” Karash asked as he pulled off his medpack and began opening it.

“Bastard pierced my tank sent me flying into a rock, a couple of aches and pains nothing serious just need to catch my breath.” Rogue wheezed.

“Well when we get back to base I recommend you get a scan, never know if you broke a rib or something like that last thing you want is for that to pierce a lung and then...” Rogue’s signalled for Karash to shut up.

“Don’t paint me any lovely pictures, I don’t feel like taking an eternal nap just yet.” The platoon sergeant said as he forced a grin to lighten up his features.

Karash chuckled as one of the recruit’s voices came over the coms. “What are we standing around here for? Shouldn’t we be chasing that bastard? Let’s get some!” The exuberant youth said.

“Negative soldier, for all we know those three were supposed to skirmish with us and then retreat leading us into a trap. We’re here to finish our objectives and that’s to reduce this forest into ash.” Ron said before continuing. “What are you guys standing around for? Burn this shit down.”

Activating his com Rogue opened up a private channel with Ron. “Oi! Bossman I got a problem, my tank’s pierced in two places which makes it useless as all hell what would you have me do?”

“Just keep an eye on the woods, I don’t want them getting the drop on us again, there were three of them this time and we’re lucky we’re able to walk as if nothing happened, next time we won’t be so lucky. I’m going to request an airstrike to help us with the burning.” Ron said as he switched frequencies.

Rogue switched his frequency to the general army channel and listened in. “This is senior sergeant Ron, squad leader of Raiders. I am requesting a bombing run be made on co-ordinates Charlie three-Delta three. Over.” Ron said.

“Senior sergeant Ron that request is denied, we have stopped all bombing runs due to increased anti-air fire, the risk of casualties is too great, Over.” The nameless female voice said.

“What about the risk to my men? We just got ambushed for Palpatine’s sake!” A frustrated Ron yelled into the coms.

“That’s a negative, sorry but the orders came up from above.” The answer left Ron cursing everything under and above the sun.

There was a slight buzz in Rogue’s helmet as the comlink notified him that someone wanted to open a private com with him. Opening it soon revealed that it was Ron. “The airstrike was denied, RB I want you to watch our backs while we finish off this forest it shouldn’t take too much longer.”

The squad had stopped firing blindly, and instead took a quick aim at the shadows and then opened up. They were draining clips fast. Slapping in a fresh one Joamer mumbled to himself, if they did not hit the edge of the forest soon they would never leave this place.

Suddenly a shadow reared up behind him, he noticed it a second to late, he went calm at the last instant, and instead of feeling the sharp edge of a huge axe slicing into his back he heard a dull thud as the barbarian slumped to the floor. Two blaster marks converged in the center of the creatures back, looking up he noticed a small opening in the tree tops, and off into the distance he saw the cliff face. Wanting to wave and shout thanks, he only turned around and ran again.

"Well, at least two of them can shoot." Anival said, they were all breathing hard now. A klick appeared to double in distance when you were running through a forest. The squad stopped almost at the same instant, they all opened fire on a barbarian who had just lept over a waist high bush. The combined power of the bolts threw the beast backwards into a tree. When the squad stopped firing, about three seconds later, the thing did not stand up.

"One down, a lot more to go." Helena said. The squad nodded and ran on.

No one spoke for a few minutes, only continued to fire and hope. They all looked ahead to any sign of the forest edge. They knew they had minutes remaining, already the creatures had closed the distance between them. You could see them now, they were no longer shadows. Another fifty feet and they would simply converge on the squad. Joamer wondered if it would be quick, he very much doubted it.

"So.." RK paused to take another breath. "Are we there yet?"

No one answered, only watched the distance separating the two forces shrink foot by foot. Suddenly the roars stopped, and the sound of pursuit ended. They emerged suddenly into bright sunlight, they kept running thirty yards and turned around. The forest seemed quiet and peaceful, the distant sounds of flamethrowers could be heard.

The only sounds the squad made was heavy breathing, for a long minute they let themselves begin to think they had made it. Until an ear piercing roar was heard, all around them it echoed in the valley. The forest seemed to come alive as barbarians poured out of it.

They did not take the time to count, only to turn and run. The sound of thuds filled the air as the snipers tried to keep up with the army emerging from the forest.

"I thought that if we made it into the open we would be free?" Anival half shouted.

"It was a safe assumption at the time. Looks like we hit a nerve." Joamer said, his breathing had become labored, the whole squad was near collapse, but the thought of death kept them moving.

"Let us hope our friends up there do not run out of ammo." Void said.

The squad only nodded, no one bothered to shoot behind them. There only thought was to run, and when they could not do that anymore, run faster.

Running as fast as he could, Void was thinking back to his childhood with the thieves on CorelliaThis is nothing compared my nights of thievery on Corellia! He shoots an enemy as he pops up out of the bushes. "Not gonna be that easy!" He said as he ran some more, when suddenly he came up on a group of the enemy forces. He slowed down as he got closer, he activated and rolled a grenade amongst them.

They didn't notice it until it was too late. He collected anything useful from their corpses and continued running towards his goal. "I wonder where RK is?" Void asked himself as he ran. He continued to run as he thought about his friends. Hoping they were allright. As he was thinking, he nearly ran into RK. "Where the Hell have you been?" RK asked. "I got separated from ya'll. where are the others?" RK responded, " just over this rise!"  They ran and caught up with the others.  "What how Kand?" Void asked.

OOC:

sorry it's so short, but It's been a while since I was D-Crowe

Painfully, slowly, the screams of their enemies died upon the subsiding wind.  The flamethrowers had made short work on the forest and surrounding countryside, turning everything that was combustible into ash and smoke.  What remained was a graveyard of trees, only the hard centers of stumps remained; projecting out of the ground like jagged, pointed teeth.  The thought of teeth, of further symbols of death, didn't help to calm the squad's nerves.

Ron found it impossible to walk without making some kind of noise, wherever he walked the charred ash below his feet was crushed into oblivion, sending ash and dust up into the air, and then spilling back to the ground.  He looked around at the carnage and death around them, at the burnt trees and dead, charred bodies of the ambush party that had nearly caught them unawares.  There was nothing to be heard, and this time the silence was expected.  It was the sound of death.

Ron turned back to his squad while slowly removing his helmet and flamethrower equipment from his back.  He was sore, tired, and emotionally drained; but as Squad Leader he knew his duty was to make sure that these men, his troopers, were well and able to move on should a call come in from Arnaut or Kanderin.

"StarFruit, Havock, Rogueboy." Ron said.  The three came promptly, some sooner than others as made obvious by some form of limping or sore movement.  Those who Ron had not called directly hung about ten feet or so from the small group, anxious not to be caught too far away from them in case of another ambush.

"Your thoughts on the situation." Ron said, in answer to StarFruit's salutation.  Ron knew the possibilities of further ambushes existed, but distrusted his own exhausted mind to examine the situation fully.  Perhaps his senior troopers had thoughts of their own, a chance to shine even.  Yes, that's what ambitious troopers like, a chance to prove themselves.

Rogueboy spoke first.  "There's no tellin' how many more of those freaks are still out there.  They've outsmarted us once, and I'm sure they could do it again.." he winced with pain for a moment before continuing.  "If you ask me, we need some more help to clear this place out.  We need air support."

The others nodded in agreement.  Ron shrugged and replied,  "It's probably the most effective way to go about it, and the simplest, but as I'm sure you've heard; we're not getting any more help than we already got."  here Ron hefted the flamethrower equipment that the rest of them had received as well.  Havock spoke next.

"That's the problem though, chief: we won't be able to burn for much longer- another hour or so of burning and we'll be out of fuel."  Ron grabbed the tanks to his own flamethrower to check its levels, but the action proved to be useless as he soon discovered.  Havock was correct.  If they were going to get any more use out of these flamethrowers, they'd have to do it in the next few hours.

Ron placed it down slowly, collecting his thoughts as he did so.  "As far as I know, we've completed our objective.  We've burned down the forest, and flushed out those who opposed us.  All we can do is wait and see if there are any more; and if there are, its up to us to stop them and hold the position until the rest of platoon gets here.

"Sounds good, Boss." Jaenna said.  "We can hold em."

The others nodded in agreement.  Satisfied with this, Ron called the other troopers over.

"Karash, Grahim, Raelene, Beta, Beretz!"  They came quickly, eager to hear what the plans for the future was, and how they would effect them.  Ron motioned to them to come closer in; and then prepared himself for what he had to say.  It was important that they were confident and ready for what lay ahead of them, and it was up to Ron to make get them to that point.

"You all know why we have been given this task." Ron started.  "It's because you are the fastest, the strongest, the smartest.  It's because they needed someone to get the job done, and you are the ones who can do it the best.  Because in the darkest hour of the darkest night, when all around you there are burning carcasses of friends and foes- you have the courage, and the ability to continue.  I know you would all fight to hell and back to see each other alive; I know you'd do it for the empire as well."

Ron looked around to make sure he had them, and from their looks he knew they were ready for the climax of his speech.  Ron searched his thoughts for the words of great men that he had heard.  Surely words of some kind of similar quality would give them courage and hope as well.

"But today, RAIDERS," Ron began again.  "Today we may not come out alive again.  We must stay here, in this graveyard of a forest, a graveyard that we made by our own power; and we have to defend it." Ron pointed into the charred woods to emphasize his next point.  "There were many, many men, women, and children who died in that forest!  We took out entire villages, homes, gardens, crops, killed their livestock, and animals as well.  Do you think they will just give up?  Would you?  I don't think so."  Ron shook his head with those words.  It was s depressing situation that they were in.  With the possibility of another ambush, and no way of knowing when the rest of the platoon would get there; the only way to hold the dead forest was to make sure that every trooper was fighting with everything they had.

"And so for the next few days and nights, you must all fight for the same reason.  We aren't fighting for each other, we're not fighting for the empire."  Ron paused for a moment.  "We're fighting to show these bastards that we have the power to give them life.. or death, and that if they choose to continue fighting we will send every single one of them to the fiery death that they have asked for.  RAIDERS, we fight simply because we have to."

OOC:

The origional RAIDERS objectives have been completed.  Further RAIDERS posting should be about short skirmashes and brief battles to hold our position until the other squads are ready to join us again.

I’ll run till that tree up ahead, though Anival forcing himself to move on, making promises to himself, many of which he knew he wouldn’t keep.

Finally they made it to a clearing, Anival saw the sight, and felt like stopping, but he knew if he did, he wouldn’t start again, his momentum carried him down the hill.

Rolling down, Anival heard the sound of armor rattling on the floor, and crunches as they rolled over gravel, dust and rocks.

Coming to a stop Anival looked around, everything was blurry,  he couldn’t even tell if any of the squad had made it down the hill. He was to tire to care.

Anival summoned the last of his energy to take of his helmet yet again, the fresh air was welcomed, and it gave his face a better view, all the squad had made it.

He lay back down, savoring the end of their run through hell.


His lung burned, an icy burn. His eyes were dried. His body numb. His brain shut down.

“Wake up!”  It was a medic, Anival hadn’t even realized he had fallen asleep, he smiled at the medic.

Around him, there were others checking the squad, Anival tried to sit up but his side still hurt, a medic inspect him.

“You are alright, except maybe for a few bruised ribs, and a small abrasion, nothing a little bacta, and some rest won’t cure. You’re lucky you weren’t injured badly. So are the rest of your teammates.”

Anival smiled.

“Not luck.” managed Anival, the medic gave him a quizzical look.

“Years of honed skill.” Anival laughed. Anival looked at the sky, time had barely passed, Anival saw that most of the squad was taken on stretcher to their tents, to tired to walk.

Anival stared at the medic, and closed his eyes.

“You want a stretcher too?”

Anival thought about it, his pride would not allow it, but he didn’t have the energy to stand up, let alone walk.

“Just….don’t…tell….anyone….or else……..” was all Anival said before he fell back into oblivion, and darkness enveloped him.

I have to keep going. Just have to keep moving forward.

Jori had long since felt any pain whatsoever. All he knew at that point was that he had to keep running or he’d die a horrible death, probably by dismemberment which wasn’t good at all. He could hear the panted breaths of his squadmates but he mainly blocked those out. Every time he moved out of the way of a tree, he nearly stumbled and fell over. It took all of his will power just to keep going, and that will power was steadily decreasing. He had almost lost all hope and given up when he noticed a discernable change in the light. Looking upwards, he noticed patches of light penetrating the dense barrier of leaves above him. And with that, he knew they were close. His strength renewed, he pushed forward. Whereas he was running slowly before, he was now literally sprinting. As he dodged yet another tree, he glimpsed an opening ahead.

“We’re almost there!” Jori yelled at the top of his lungs.

A few more steps and he made it. Bursting into the sunshine, he felt immediately better knowing that he was safe, at least for the moment. Looking to his left and right, he noticed every one of his squadmates were right there with him, which made him feel even better knowing that no one had died a gruesome death. They continued to run until they got to the top of a hill. Looking down at the bottom of the hill, Jori realized that what looked to be the Dagger Battalion had set up an ambush for the barbarians.

“Woah…” someone said.

Sharply breathing in, Jori fell over and began rolling down the hill. From what glimpses he saw, he realized that he wasn’t the only one to think of rolling down the hill. As soon as he stopped at the foot of the hill, Jori doubled up, finally feeling the pain that had built up. Clutching his sides, Jori writhed around in agony, wheezing out ragged breaths.Slowly, the pain subsided and finally slipped away. Jori looked up to see a medic standing over him, holding an empty syringe.

"I gave you a dose of painkillers. You should be back to normal shortly." the medic said, standing up.

"Thanks." Jori replied tiredly.

Closing his eyes, Jori breathed in and out for a few moments before gathering his strength. Standing up, he rolled over on his stomach and sat back on his knees. Slowly, he stood up. Breathing a sigh of relief, Jori went to take a step only to stumble as his legs gave way. Hitting the ground hard, his breath whooshed out and the pain returned worse than ever. It was too much for him to handle and dark spots appeared at the edge of his vision and grew rapidly. Then, with a final cry of pain, he blacked out.

Rogue was lying on the crisped grass rubbing his stomach where the pain was emanating from thinking that perhaps Karash had been right. Looking up Rogue noticed that Ron was standing before him asking if it was alright if he could take a seat. “Sure.” RB’s overly simple response seemed to surprise himself.

“Did you ever wonder why we are on this planet?” Ron asked.

“You mean in the physical sense? Or the never ending question one?” Rogue responded carefully.

“Better yet, don’t answer that. A question that I would like for you to answer is how do you feel about Jaenna’s promotion to assistant squad leader?” The senior sergeant’s eyes darted to Starfruit when he asked.

“I didn’t know that was SF’s real name.” Rogue said trying to hide his affection for the aforementioned. “I take it your asking if I am insulted as to being passed over?”

Ron nodded signalling that was his intent. “I’m not the least bit offended, Jaenna is a good assistant and would make a good squad leader. She’s very good at making friends, courageous, smart and professional; Jaenna is what this squad needs. Now if you’re referring to her combat record I’m definitely her senior and hopefully will continue to be.” Rogue stated his assessment of Star as professional as he could and hoped that his praise would not be misconstrued.

RB noticed that Ron had a faraway look for a few seconds before standing up and excusing himself. The watching Rogue saw Ron walk towards Hav and the two of them disappeared off into the remaining woods. “Where are those two going?” Jaenna asked.

“Ron said he needed to talk to Hav about something .” Rogue lied, covering up for an obvious sign of affection or at least that’s how RB interpreted it as.

An awkward silence passed between the two troopers which was broken by a loud thunk! As something sharp pierced the ground, Rogue instinctively dove for cover bringing Jaenna down with him. “What the hell are you doing?” The assistant squad leader shrieked loudly.

“What’s everyone’s status?” RB yelled into the comlink.

Surprised looks greeted him as no one had moved a muscle. “Or am I just crazy?” Rogue asked.

“No you’re not.” Jaenna said as she pointed at a javelin that had been shot from the forest. At the haft of the javelin rested a stormtrooper’s helmet.

“I guess there are no hidden meanings in that symbol.” Beta said.

“Quiet you!” Rogue snapped. “You three, cover me while I retrieve the javelin.” The platoon sergeant said as he motioned to Beretz, Beta, and Karash to fan out.

The likelihood of the javelin being a trap was exceptionally high and nothing symbolized that these barbarians were honourable. Carefully RB slung his rifle over his shoulder and approached the helmet, a black liquid slowly seeped out of it. “Rogue, what is it?” An impatient Jaenna asked. Rogueboy raised his arm to silence her.

Seeing nothing to indicate that the helmet was a bomb, and a quick scan of the tree line didn’t show any threats. Lifting the helmet revealed a severed head, not that Rogue expected anything different however he was still unprepared for the smell and sight of the tarred head.

It was dark. Havock looked up and she couldn't make out not one star in the sky. The smoke from the smoldering fires was blotting out all manor of celestial illumination. Havock walked over to where Rogueboy was sitting, she couldn't tell if he was awake or not they way he was propped up against a tree looking towards the center of their makeshift camp.

As she passed some of her newer squadmates, she could see the fear in their wide-eyed expressions. These guys had never really seen battle and here they were on some god-forsaken planet with barbarians jumping out of the darkness attacking them.

Finally reaching Rogueboy's location, Havock fell more than sat down on the ground next to him. Pulling her knees up, she rested her elbows and tilted her head to one side. Any other place but here and she would be asleep in ten seconds flat. But not here and not now.

After her way too close encounter with the barbarian, Havock was shaken. The beast grabbed her, dragged her, carried her away. Who knows what he would have done before he killed her, but thanks to Ron she would never have to know. At this point she was quite certain her imagination would do her the favor of filling in the rest of the story without Ron's arrival, just as soon as she closed her eyes to sleep.

“You didn't happen to pick up any beer while you were off with your new boyfriend?”

Havock snapped her head to look at Rogueboy, then grabbed her neck as the pain radiated down  her spine and left a searing pain in the front of her skull. She felt a hand on her shoulder. “Geez Hav, I didn't mean to hurt you. It was just a joke.”

Havock shook her head, softly, as not to damage her neck any further. “No, I'm fine. How are you feeling, you got banged up a lot worse than me.”

It was hard to see Rogueboy's face in the dark, especially now that he was leaning back against the tree again. But he seemed to think about his response very carefully. “I wouldn't be so sure about that. But to answer your question, I'm going to be fine. I've been banged up a whole lot worse than this before.”

It suddenly struck Havock how little she really knew about Rogue. He was a good soldier and always could be counted on, but his past was a complete mystery to her. Just then Jaenna walked up and knelt in front of the two of them.

Hav smirked, “Hey Jae, welcome to the RAIDERS infirmary. Don't eat the food, its awful.” Havock tried to laugh but it sounded more like a cough. When she was able look back up at her Jae had a worried expression as her eyes flicked from Hav to Rogue and back again.

“Why me, why did I have to be best friends with the two most accident prone people in this squad?”

Hav and Rogue exchanged a glance before they turned back to Jae and simultaneously shrugged. Then both of them groaned as pain radiated from the slight movement. Jae just shook her head at the pair.

Havock was about to say something, but the thought died on her tongue. She could hear what sounded like running coming from multiple directions around the camp. “What the frak is that?” Havock grumbled as she looked around.

Havock reached to her side and pulled out her blaster pistol, Jae was still kneeling in front of them, and Rogue had grabbed his blaster rifle and had it across his lap. Then they saw them, barbarians, they were running through the camp at full speed. They didn't bother to stop at all they just took random swings with their spears as they continued at break-neck speed.

Rogue and Havock both started to get up, and help the others taking shots at the stampeding barbarians. Just then one saw the three of them and seemed to pause, he twisted his body and threw his spear right at them.

Rogue and Hav both saw it, and they both saw that Jae didn't. Rogue grabbed Jae's right arm and Hav grabbed her left, throwing her to the ground as they all fell backwards together.

“Gah, what the hell is wrong with you two.” Jae managed as she was face down in the charred forest floor. Then she spun quickly to her back and saw what Rogue and Hav were staring at. The spear was only inches from her feet, the point buried in the ground. All three of them looked up and watched the barbarian...smile...before he continued along the path with his friends.

Day 02
Death Valley, 22.00 (Approx.)

They spent a night on the cliff peering down into the valley. It was oddly silent. After the noise of the day – the screams, the yells, the blaster shots – the silence was unnerving. There was a hush on the camp. Everyone felt the need to talk in whispers , to not raise their voice for fear of ...fear of something. Getting singled out, inciting the barbarians to attack. Something bad, that was for sure.

Wraith stayed up on night shift along with a few troopers from the Army side. By morning they were all dog tired. Not from staying up, but from not being able to calm down. Everytime they glanced into the valley, they said, they swore they could see shadows moving. Not just a few either. Hundreds of them.

Something big was going on down there, and it probably meant bad news for the Imperials.

As soon as dawn hit, Arnaut called in an airstrike on the valley, to no avail. They’d lost two pilots in the airstrike Raiders had called in and weren’t about to lose anymore. If there had been any doubts as to their objective, there were none now. The AAs were definitely still here.

They mortared the valley instead, razing trees, vaporizing dust, killing...well, not much. There weren’t even any woodland animals to kill. They mortared in silence – as silent as mortars could be – for the btter part of three hours before giving it up. There didn’t seem to be anything down there.

At noon on day three, they moved in. First Alpha Platoon, followed closely by the Corps and then the long train of Army trucks. The Army troops themselves were on edge. They didn’t fancy the idea of heading into the enemy that had terrorized them so thusfar into the mission. They’d heard what the enemy had done to the first platoons, though, for morale’s sake, they’d been separated as much as possible. Still, stories had a way of permeating through the ranks and it wasn’t long before everyone knew about each and every dead man’s name, or knew about what had happened to the scout Ficks. That seemed to crush them most of all. They looked up the scouts, however grudgingly. It’s what they aspired to become. To have one brutually maimed and tortured, even after death, broke the pristine image they had of the scouts as invinicible, undying warriors of doom and gloom. By the time the trucks rolled into Death Valley, as it would later be dubbed, morale was at an all time low.

Arnaut could feel this, hintingly, from his position in the command tank. It was the way that Marcus’ aides hung their heads, the way they let out dejected sighs every few moments. It screamed of despair. Despair didn’t win battles. Only little gold Imperial symbols next to your name on the roster, to indicate a KIA.

Arnaut expected to be attacked the entire length of the valley. The village they were after, the one believed to be concealing the AA guns, was at the far end, up quite a ways. It required them to cross through the valley, over a mile long, length-ways. Even with the forests broken and battered, they were just asking to be ambushed.

And yet, nothing happened. For a tense thirty minutes, the command tank shuddered along the bottom of the valley, following the natural stream there, without so much as a whisper of the enemy. Arnaut sat on edge for the first half of it but gave it up after a while. If he died, he was dead. That was that. He needed to save his energy now so that he could avoid that later. There was no time to worry about where the enemy could be hiding.

Even so, he let out a large sigh of relief once the command tank made it to the far end, once again under the cool shadows of the mountain’s peaks. As the tank began to rise, once again pushing up into he mountains, he was afforded a rare view of the entire convoy, front to back. It was...long. Longer than he’d expected, even though he’d seen it three times before. Just, in the valley, where it nearly stretched end to end, it somehow seemed longer.

He noticed, somewhat unsatisfactorily, that some of the troops had gotten out of their vehicles to run alongside the convoy. They should be inside, resting themselves, not outside running, jumping on the front of the cab and...

One of the middle trucks swerved sideways as the brute put a quarrel through the driver’s face. Arnaut’s blood ran cold. Crossbow fire began to pick up, just flurries of darkness from the distance, but Arnaut knew exactly what was happening. Troopers began to pour out of the vehicles, weapons up, firing at the enemy that had suddenly appeared all around them. There were tens, hundreds. Each one that fell seemed to be replaced by three more. They seemed to just pop out of the ground. The sporadic blaster fire laid down by the Army wasn’t enough to keep them back and, soon enough, two of the trucks were completely overrun with a third fighting to stay alive.

Worst of all, the only elements down there were the Army Regulars. All the specialists were up front, at the head of the convoy, completely useless.

“Turn us around!” Arnaut commanded, but the truck already was. At Sorin’s behest. Marcus’ new comm officer was trying to raise the embattled Army elements, but having no luck. Their radios were still out. Arnaut mumbled a few selective curses under his breath and thanked the stars that the short-range, Stormtrooper comlinks still worked.

Quickly, almost frantically, he began to get the Platoon turned around, facing toward the fighting. The trucks became entangled, backing into one another in their haste to turn around. Time was running out. Already the casualties on the ground below were piling up, and the waves just kept coming.

OOC:

A short (if somewhat...incoherent-ish) post to counterbalance my long, articulate last post.

Squad objectives are as thus:

Wraith: Take the mortar teams up the hill, avoiding outlying enemy patrols and rogue elements, and try to get some ehavy fire down on the forces below.

Iron Horse: Repel, repel, repel. Get down into the thick of the action and keep them off of the convoy. Rember, these guys are tough. They are uber-humans, much stronger, faster, and larger than regulars. Think wookie-sized except more awesome. Heavy weapons should be applied liberally.

Raiders: They’re coming from somewhere. Find out where and find a way to stop it, if able. If not, well, take as many as you can out and find a place to provide sniper cover on the convoy.

Remember, we’re in the thick of a battle. This should be a short, battlefield mission. That means not too many posts and such. Details on an end date are TBD.

Also, while I have my soapbox, might as well clear up some misconceptions:

Barbarians ARE human. They are extremely large humans. They are well-muscled, beyond normal human ability, and armed to the teeth (literally). Think...Germanic tribes. Celtish. Uhh...the guys from Braveheart without all the mooning the enemy stuff.

The Army Regulars are NOT stormtroopers. I saw this more in artwork than writing, but I figured a few people had confused it. This is the army. Clicky. (just look at the pictures)

More pics.

That’s all. Enjoy. As always, the discussion thread will have a copy of this AND a place to talk about the story with people...not that you've been DOING that. Pfft.

"SithSpit.. We need to go Now!" Cried Riq's voice as troopers woke up. The sound of fighting was off in the distance as Saphira came wide awake. Instantly there was a scramble as troopers woke and readied.

"Alright. We need to get down there as fast as we can. Casualties are already up for everyone. The Brutes are attacking and attacking hard. Repel as fast as you can. They shouldn't see us until we are right on top of them." Riq replied again. "Striker.. take half of them and go..I'll take the other half and we'll split into two groups and try and flank them. Just be careful."



"Yes Sir!" Came her reply as Saphira ran towards the group and took Brock, Sam, and Jelly, along with some others.


"Alright. We need to move fast. Heavy weapons should be enough to take these guys down. Just be alert and careful. Our Snipers should help, but don't count on them all the time." She replied as they hooked grapples and stood on the edge.


"Yes Ma'am!" Came about a jumble of voices. Her lek flicked with annoyance at being called that. Yet there was no time as they all started to repel downward. Each repel looses some rocks as they crumbled down to the ground below. With helmets on she kept a com open for Doc in case things went sour. They better not..
She thought as they reached the ground and released the ropes from their armor. Instantly some bags followed that carried a few heavy weaponry and her favorites... Thermal Detonators. Brock saw the bag and a few of it's contents.

"You gonna cook a few today?" he replied.

"Ya know it.. Now lets move... and here.." She tossed a couple to Brock and Sam. "Use them carefully."


They all nodded and then took off at a near run to head into the fight....

Havock's hands were sweaty as she held the sniper rifle Ron had given her. They were walking, scanning the forest for the barbarians. If what Rogue was telling her was right, they needed only one to wound and that one would lead us to the others. Havock had already had quite enough of these barbarians.

After everything that had happened, Hav was not able to sleep the night before. She tried, but every time her eyes closed another barbarian was in her tent grabbing her, and she would wake up and they were gone.

Havock walked up next to Ron. He glanced over at her as he walked, “Problem, Havock?”

Multiple thoughts ran through Havock's head. The sheer amount of them threated to give Hav a migraine. “I'm not good with sniper rifles. Not good with rifles, in general. Always was better with pistols. You know?”

They were a few steps away from the rest of the squad, which gave Ron the opportunity to pause and look at Havock. “Your nervous, thats normal. Just relax, your doing fine Havock.” He patted her on the shoulder lightly before continuing. “So tell me, what do you think about the new objectives?”

“I think they haven't attacked us when we're looking for them...so we need to stop looking for them. Bah, sorry.” Havock shook her head, she knew she wasn't making much since. “I mean, what if some of us hid in the trees and the rest of us acted like we were distracted, not paying attention. Then our snipers could get them when they try to get us.”

Ron looked at Hav for a few minutes then nodded. “That's not bad, I like it.” He turned towards the rest of the squad and called for Jaenna to come over. She hesitated for a second then trotted over. “Jaenna, we're going to take a break...here. I want Rogue and Grahim to cover us from the trees, tell them to take opposite positions so they can cover the area.”

With an immediate, “yes, sir.” Jae was off giving orders.

Hav smirked slightly, as she cocked her head to watch Ron walk away. She was nervous. This mission she seemed to just keep getting herself into trouble. Hav needed to focus, and eventually she really needed to sleep.

Havock walked up to a near by tree and set her sniper rifle down, leaning it against the trunk. Clicking the snaps on her helmet, she slid it off her head and let it rest next to the rifle. As she turned around she took a long drink of water, her throat was still pretty sore and water was the only thing that helped. Hav swallowed which made her grimace, then smiled as Jae walked up to her.

“Hav, are you okay?” Jae looked very concerned, as she approached the young girl.

Havock looked over at her friend and smirked. “You know you have already asked me that same question at least three times today, right?”

Jae's expression did not change. “Well if you would answer the question I wouldn't have to keep asking it.” She crossed her arms, and her body language made it clear she was not going to let this one go.

Hav let her smile drop, she looked at her feet and shuffled the dirt before making eye contact with her friend again. “I'm still breathing, and I have no desire to stop. But you want to know how I'm feeling don't you?” Jae nodded and waited for Hav to continue. “I'm tired, sore, terrified, numb, totally confused about a lot of things, and pretty sure I'm going nuts.” Havock was breathing pretty hard after her short rant, she just looked at Jae who still hadn't moved a muscle.

Hav was shocked when Jae laughed shook her head and grabbed Hav by the shoulders. “Its about time, you've been acting like a zombie ever since the stampede. You we're scaring the crap out of me, Hav.”

“Oh, heh.” Hav chewed her lip. “Sorry about that, I'll be more myself after some sleep. Don't know when I'll be able to sleep again, but yeah.”

Jae still looked concerned, but she seemed satisfied with Havock's well being...for now. “We should join the rest of the squad, come on, RB and Grahim are set.”

Anival was happy to have been assigned a babysitting mission, another any other circumstances, he was sure no one would want to escort anybody, but since their last mission, Anival was glad to take it easy, although he suspected it would be anything but.

“Alright, ladies, get your stuff and let go!” came Helena, suddenly.

Anival looked around, nodded at the driver, and jumped out.

“So who’s got diaper duty?” asked Anival, trying to lift up spirits.

There were chuckles,

“I say we put Joamer or Jori” replied RK.

Anival laughed, he could just imagine Joamer changing a diaper.

Anival stopped when he saw a trooper in fresh armor.

“And what do we have here?” asked Anival to no one in particular.

“This is private Ananzi” replied Helena.

The Squad nodded at him.

“Corporal Anival Velasquez”

“Senior Sergeant Joamer Restlin.”

“Senior Sergeant Ryan Karrax.”

“Sergeant Jori Lekrif.”

Anival looked around, he was hoping they would have more fresh recruits. They were needed badly, especially for the regular army, but they were lucky to have gotten just one more.


“You should have picked a better time to join Ananzi” said Anival when Helena had left to talk with Kand.

“Now you get to die here with the rest of us.” RK snickered. Someone tapped Anival on the back, he turned around, only to see Kand staring at him.

“I-I thought…..how’d you get over here so fast?” asked Anival.

“I flew” said Kand calmly, hitting Anival on the head. “Don’t scare our new recruit, has any of  us died?”

“Close to it.” muttered Anival.

“What”

“No.” stated Anival defeated

“Exactly, now let‘s get moving we want to finish this as quickly as possible.”

“Heard that!” exclaimed RK.

Anival checked the new gun he had gotten from their brief reprieve, it was salvaged from some of the dead bodies. Anival wasn’t superstitious or religious but something about holding a dead man’s gun, was sending shiver down his spine.

“Ok ready guys? Let’s move out!”

Your turn in the tree, Havvy. Guard the camp while we're gone. “Fraking fantastic.” Havock muttered as she fidgeted her shoulder for the hundredth time since she climbed in nature-made deathtrap, as she had started to call it. She could swear there was something crawling on her, under the armor. It was really starting to annoy her.

Pulling the sights up to her eye, Hav scanned the surrounding area. She wasn't sure what they found that got everyone so excited, but half the squad was off looking for something. Havock pulled the rifle away and checked the safety again. She never was any good with rifles, frankly she was more likely to fall out of the tree than actually hit anything.

Turning she glanced back the way the others went. Gah, I hope they get back soon. I am really sick of being up in this fraking tree.

When she turned back, she saw something move. What it was, now that was another question. The last thing Havock needed to do was just start shooting, especially if it was nothing more than a small woodland creature. Pulling the rifle up she looked through the sight at the brush that had moved a moment before. Only to find there was nothing even remotely special about it.

Exasperated, she jerked the rifle down. Then jumped as a shot whizzed by her helmet and slammed into a branch behind her head. “Son of a bitch.” Havock jumped to another branch and fired off two shots in the direction of the brush she saw move before. Then there was silence.

The only sound was Havock's rapid breathing as she looked everywhere for the unknown shooter. Her eyes were dancing wildly around the forest floor, she swallowed and prepared to use the com. Then she saw him. A barbarian, he was running full speed from behind the brush. Tattoos covering his face and arms, he threw the sniper rifle to the ground as he approached the tree Havock was in. She pulled the gun up into firing position, an obvious action, but one none the less one that left her horribly off balance. When the barbarian slammed himself into the tree, it shook violently sending Hav sprawling to the ground. Her back hit the ground first, forcing the air out of her lungs. She coughed so violently she ripped her helmet off in a vain attempt to find more air. 

She was pretty far away from the camp, far enough that they wouldn't have heard the commotion. But they may be able to hear her yell, if only she could stop coughing. Unfortunately she would never get the chance.

Hav felt the rough hand clamp down on her throat as it lift her up in the air, with no difficulty. She opened her eyes and looked at him, as she gagged under his tight grasp. The barbarian cocked his head to the side, looking at Havock the way an old woman would pick out a new pet for her granddaughter. Then he threw Havock on the ground, picking up her sniper rifle as he stepped towards her.

Shuffling her feet on the dried ground she tried to get up, but succeeded only in scooting back away from the barbarian. He shook his head sadly at the girl then slammed her in the forehead with the butt of the rifle.

The world became dark.

- - - - - - - - -

Havock was sitting on her speeder bike. She had a hydrospanner in her hand. She looked out the main entrance of the hanger on Tadath, to a brilliant and sunny day. Hav looked down at her hand holding the hydrospanner then to the control panel of the speeder bike. She had no clue what she was supposed to be doing.

When she looked up again, Jae was standing next to her. “Hey Hav.”

Havock was totally confused, she blinked as she looked at Jae. “I...this isn't right. I'm not supposed to be here.”

Jae nodded, sadly. She put one hand on the handle of the bike and the other on Hav's shoulder. “I know, hun. That's why you need to wake up.”

Hav kept blinking, then turned her head to look behind her. She could see the forest burning in the distance.

Havock took a deep breath then looked back at Jae. “I don't think I want to.”

Jae grabbed Hav and shook her. “Wake up, Havock.” Drums. Sounded like drums, off in the distance. What is that?

“Damn it, Hav. Wake...UP!”

- - - - - - -

“Gah!” Havock coughed and spit, she could only taste blood. Her head hurt like hell, she could barely open her eyes. Once the coughing ceased, Hav looked around. She was tied up with some kind of rope. Her legs were bound together and her arms were tied behind some kind of support poll for the structure she was in. The walls looked like mud and the roof seemed to be made of dried grass. She was alone for the moment, but could hear voices outside in some dialect she couldn't understand.

She could see her trooper uniform piled up in a corner, which left her in a black shirt and shorts.

Havock rolled her head against the poll. Her thoughts were jumbled, she felt like they stuck her head in a blender.

Then she saw them walking by the entrance to the hovel they had put her in, so far nobody had noticed the fact that she had regained consciousness. She decided it was for the best, she was in no shape to deal with them right now.

All she could do now was stay conscious and wait for the RAIDERS to rescue her.

The squad exchanged nervous looks, then readied their weapons.  They were all hoping there wouldn't be any more than a small patrol.  The mortar team leader began directing his troops to set up their equipment, his eyes darting around the cave and the surrounding areas. 

    “If we have to fight these guys in close quarters again, I’m not sure we will get the better of it” said Anival. 

  “We’ll clear out the cave with explosives, then sweep up anything that’s left over” replied Kand. 

    Ananzi assembled his M13 semi-automatic shotgun from his pack and loaded it.  It was the best weapon he had for close encounters.  The squad took positions around the opening of the cave while RK tossed a fire grenade inside.  The grenade lit up the cave and there was a horrible moaning, howling sound.  Joamer and Helena exchanged glances and sniggered.  A blur of flame burst out of the opening of the cave.  The barbarian was waving his arms wildly, which were on fire, and screaming at the top of his lungs.  His long hair was aflame and he charged forward towards Ananzi.  He leveled his shotgun, but was pushed back and the shot went off into the sky harmlessly.  The barbarian was hit with several blaster shots that seemed to stun him momentarily, but he kept moving.  He had a crazed look in his eyes and seemed to be in some kind of berserker rage. 

    The mortar team stopped shelling and moved back from their equipment.  The crazed, flaming barbarian was knocked to the ground by two simultaneous blasted hits to the head.  His head was smoking, and his left leg was still twitching. 

  “Is he dead?” asked Helena, her rifle still trained on the smoldering body. 

  “These are some tough cavemen” said Jori, while moving over to the body.  He put two more shots in what was left of the head to make sure. 

“There are probably traps in there, so look alive” said Kanderin, looking at each of the squad members in turn. 

  Joamer took point and moved into the cave slowly.  The squad shuffled forward behind him, scanning the darkness for further attackers.  He stopped, pointing to the ground where a thin string had been stretched across the cave. 

“Kinda clever too, aren’t they?” said Joamer, bending down to get a better look at the trip wire.

     A barbarian jumped out of the darkness, tackling Joamer to the ground.  He had a curved blade and was moving to draw it out of the scabbard at his waist.  With his other hand, he had pinned Joamer’s arm to the ground.  The rest of the squad was trying to get a clear shot, but the two of them were just too close together.  Joamer hit away the man’s sword and it clattered to the cave floor.  Using his uncanny strength, the barbarian now pinned Joamer’s other arm and gave him a savage head butt.  Joamer remembered one trick he had left up his sleeve.  He began to extend his cybernetic arms, the sound of the servo motors seemed to confuse the barbarian.  The look on his face was priceless as Joamer flung him towards the cave wall.  The rest of the squad opened fire, and he was hit by multiple rounds at once. 

  The squad moved through the cave, satisfied that it was clear.  They moved back out into the clearing.  The mortar team moved back to their equipment warily.  One of them was standing over the burnt body of the barbarian, his eyes as big as saucers.  Everyone seemed to breath a sigh of relief, but in the distance there was a repetitive, rhythmic sound.

  “Is that drums?’ asked Ananzi.  A line of what looked like torches was coming up the other side of the hill.