Nothing was clear anymore. Havock could not tell what was real and what was part of some sadistic nightmare. When her brain tried to remember what had happened, the pain was so bad she had to hit something, so she kept on punching the man on the floor. She needed to hit him, she needed to feel something else other than numb.

The hand on her shoulder should have been comforting, it should have let her feel again. All it proved to do was make the anger flare up again. Without a thought she twisted and punched the amorphous humanoid standing behind her.

Havock felt the arms grab her from behind. She struggled against the restraint, kicking her pistols during the fight. She was screaming and spitting as she flailed around. Hav wanted to keep killing the security teams, she never wanted to think coherently again. She could see more security teams coming towards them which only increased her ferocity with which she fought against the strong arms. He dragged her backwards, almost at a run.

She felt the arms yanking her back and they fell together into the escape pod. Havock was struggling like a caged animal. She was rambling incoherently, her eyes wide with a dangerous look to them. Joamer had her arms pinned to her sides, he had wrapped his own around her waist to keep her in place. He was ignoring the beating his legs and feet were taking, as she kicked at anything within reach. The door shut and she screamed. Joamer whispered very quietly into her ear "Ayme." For what seemed like an eternity the room stopped, he added quietly over and over again into her hair. “It's not your fault.”

The kicking slowed as Havock choked back sobs. Her body began to shake as the force of the tears impaired her breathing. Hav could feel her heart pound in her chest as the closed durasteel door came into focus. The haze started to lift and awareness returned to her brain. Joamer had let her go, his arms were not far away as she laid against his chest, tears rolling down her face. She rolled onto her hands and knees and looked up seeing Jae being tended to by Karash, with Ferris not far assisting him. Running a hand over her flush face she scrambled over to Jae's side.

Jae was laying on the floor of the escape pod. Havock could see the wounds, and a fresh wave of pain made its way to her stomach. Hav looked panicked for a second, her eyes pleaded with Karash. He nodded at Jae's left hand, signaling it was okay. Hav lightly placed both of her hands around Jae's left hand, only then did she notice the fact that they were covered in blood. She could feel her heart begin to slow down, gradually.

Hav removed one of her hands and ran it gently through Jae's hair. She had the shaking under control, at least a small bit anyways. A thought came to her slowly, it was hazy and hard to pin down. Her whole body was numb as she held Jae's hand. She looked at the person she loved the most in the galaxy and her expressionless face and pleaded with all unseen forces for her to wake up. Karash was talking to her but she couldn't understand the words.

“Good lord, Havock, are you even listening to me?” Havock blinked, and her head snapped from Jae's face to the medic kneeling across from her.

She swallowed and tried to find her voice hidden somewhere in her throat. “Wh-what?” Havock took the hand from Jae's hair and rubbed her own face again. “Sorry, K-Karash.” A fit of coughing hit Hav, her throat was dry and scratch from all the yelling she had been doing.

“Hav, she's going to be fine. We made it here in time.” Karash spoke softly to the ASL, maintaining eye contact until he knew the words had sank in. “What did you do to your hand?”

“Wha-” Havock blinked and remembered somewhat the haze of what had happened. She had trouble piecing it all together, she was becoming more aware of her surroundings, and more herself with every passing second. A sharp pain in her right hand made her wince noticeably. "I..."

Joamer walked over a knelt near Havock. “She broke it, doesn't matter how. Just fix it. Orders?”

Havock turned to look at him, her eyes stared blankly at this face. She struggled to remember what they needed to do, hell she had trouble placing where they were. Hav suddenly felt very tired.

"Nevermind, just stay here." Joamer sent another worried glance in Jaenna's direction before standing up and calling Bacredi over. "So you can fly one of these things?"

Bacredi shrugged. "I just said I had before."

"Well you're about to do it again. Get us close enough to the Sentinel to get picked up by a tractor beam. I can get a message out for them not to shoot us, here." Joamer thrust a data pad in Bacredi's direction. "Push these buttons when you launch, that will release all the escape pods."

Bacredi nodded and immediately got to work, leaving Joamer standing looking almost as lost as Havock felt. Hav listened to the whole conversation, she was thankful that Joamer was with them to help when her brain was so far away from where they were. She knew that Jae would probably yell at her for not being able to keep it together. Hell that was the only reason she did not fall apart in the hallway the second she saw Jae fall. She had made Jae promise not to jeopardize the others for her sake, she owed her that same promise in return.

Joamer watched for a second longer as Ferris gently sat next to Havock and tentatively reached out to clean off her hands. Havock almost snatched her hands away from Akilaa, but the girl looked at her with a soft smile and whispered the only words that seemed to be affecting Havock. "It's okay, it wasn't your fault you know."

Havock flinched, but did not move her hands away. She just turned to look back at Jaenna's motionless face. They would be back on the Sentinel soon, they were already almost half way there. After leaving Havock and the medics, Joamer walked over to stand next to Bacredi and get the message to the Sentinel that they were on their way, and to not shoot at them. He sent the message and was now sitting across the escape pod from them, he sat slouched down with his eyes closed.

The thoughts flooded Havock's mind, the thoughts she knew were coming. She saw that marine, she knew he was too nervous. Hav wished that there was some way they could trade places, she's the one that should have been shot not Jaenna. Never Jae. The whole scene played over and over again in her head until she wanted to rip her own eyes out. A hand on her shoulder made Havock jump. She turned sharply to look at Akilaa's blue eyes, her face must have been filled with a multitude of emotion.

"She needs you to be here. You keep going off to that dark place, and you're no good to anyone." Akilaa nodded to Havock's sore hand. "And that's broken, even though I'm sure you can't even feel it right now. So make sure you go easy on it until we can get it properly bandaged."

With that the young medic stood up and walked over to where Joamer was sitting, taking the empty spot next to him.

Havock let her words sink in as she felt the tractor beam engage from the Sentinel.

OOC:

The End of Obj 3 Phase I.

Havock sat in the small armory at Fort Sexton the RAIDERS were currently using to get their gear together and ammo replenished. They decided to switch into their storm commando armor, at this point they could use all the protection they could get. Given the objectives they had, this was less of a sneaky mission and more of a firefight. The objectives were running through her head, although how many times she needed to repeat the phrase, 'secure the command center' was starting to get frightening.

The others were mingling about, waiting for Jaenna to give the word and they would depart for the command center and probably a fight. Havock was so lost in thought she totally missed Akilaa walking up and looking at her curiously.

“How's your hand doing?”

Havock looked over at the girl. She kept on forgetting about her hand, not that it did not hurt, she just seemed to have too much on her mind to acknowledge it.

“It's fine. You need anything Akilaa?”

“Nope.” She shrugged with a smile. “Just letting you know that I am all packed and ready to go.”

Hav nodded. “Good. We should be outta here soon.”

With that, Hav took a few steps away from the young medic and started to look around the room again. Joamer was yanking open an apparently locked weapons closet. This one in particular looked to be holding the explosives. For the first time in a while she watched as a grin spread across his face like a little boy in a toy shop. He started grabbing explosives and stuffing them into his pack muttering to himself.

Hav looked down at the two M-4 semi-automatic blaster pistols in her hands. She preferred her DE-10, but her pistol had been lost on the Inexorable. The teams had been nice enough to bring over some of their personal equipment from the Sentinel, but in Hav's rush to leave she had only brought the pistols that were already lost.

More of the pieces of what had happened after Jae had been shot were falling together for the Corporal. Now she remembered that it was not hitting the security trooper that broke her hand, it was punching Joamer when he came up behind her. She was going to have to work hard for something like that not to happen again. She put Joamer in danger the second he had to go back to get her. It seemed like she either panicked or over-reacted.

Havock looked over to where Jae was sitting being tended to by Karash. She was the only one yet to put on her storm commando armor, since she had to wait for Karash to double check her wounds.

Havock sat down next to her squad leader and leaned over. “You're looking better.”

It was hard to miss how tired she looked, and Havock was not happy that they had to leave so soon. But Tadath was under attack, that was not going to wait for Jaenna to heal.

“I'm awake and sore, but yeah I'm fine.” Jae smiled but flinched as Karash put another bandage on. She had been shot three times but the suit had absorbed the majority of the blasts. She had managed to walk away with some pretty bad burns and nothing more.

“Alright, you're all set Jaenna. Do try not to get shot anymore though.” Karash packed up his supplies and went to stand with the others. They would be leaving in the next ten minutes for more shooting and who knows what else.

Hav was about to say something when Joamer walked up to the two of them. “Hey Jae...Ayme.”

The three of them shared an uncomfortable silence before Joamer took a few steps and leaned against the wall next to Jaenna.

Jae turned and looked at Havock, just by her gaze Hav could tell she was not going to like what she was about to ask her. “Ayme, can you give Joamer and I a minute alone?”

Hav frowned and looked from Joamer to Jae and back again. She had so many questions about what Jae could possibly have to say to Joamer that she could not say it in front of Hav they just collided in her thoughts, none of them managing to be voiced.

“Ayme, please.”

Hav just looked at Joamer and nodded. As she stood to leave, she heard Joamer clear his throat. “Those M-4's?”

That made the Corporal pause. “Yeah.”

“Keep an eye on them, they like to overheat. Things could turn bad very easily out there.” His voice was even and monotone, but she could feel the concern in it.

With a smirk she just nodded and walked over to join the rest of the squad. She kept glancing over at the pair talking as she checked to see if everyone was ready to go. Hav wasn't sure why Jae asking her to leave was nagging her so much. It was probably her nerves and the sudden need to be ridiculously over protective of the girl.

Karash was sitting patching up RAIDERS SL, after she had decided to get herself shot a few times but luckily there was no serious damage. He continued to place bandages on to Jae whilst Havock approached and started to speak, but he did not listen to the conversation out of fear he might hear something he should not or did not want to.

“Alright, you're all set Jaenna. Do try not to get shot anymore though.” Karash said as he got up moved away from the two troopers.

Karash made his way over to where most of the other Raiders were standing, although none of them spoke because they were all too busy getting themselves ready for the tasks that lay ahead of them. The room had a very different feeling from when they was on the ship because now they had a fire fight on their hands rather than a slightly more delicate matter to deal with. 

"Alright, our orders are to protect the officers in the command centre. Reports are several squads of what appears to be Nova Troopers are in the area. Probably heading this way." Stated Jaenna.
   
Both Joamer and Bacredi had the same expressions on their face. Finally Bacredi made their concerns known “If they are Nova we are in trouble. We are going to need surprise attacks, and multiple layer defences.”

Jae nodded, showing that she agreed before suggesting that the squad split up with Joamer, Grahim and Akilaa as a team; which left the rest of the squad together. This point was agreed upon and the three troopers got up and left the room however Joamer first stopped next to the SL and ASL, muttered something and then followed the other two out.

“Alright we are going to make our way to the control centre, but keep your eyes open as there maybe a few enemy scouts about.” Said Jae before signalling for the rest of the squad to move out.

Karash gave one last look at his medical supplies before following everyone else; since he had been with this squad he had learnt that a large amount of medical supplies was necessary because without which most of them would end up permanently injured or worse. They marched down the corridors of Fort Sexton towards the command centre which currently held most of the High Command and therefore a pretty important target for the attacking forces.

Bacredi was a little bit ahead of the other three when he raised his hand which meant for them all to stop. “There are two Nova Troopers up ahead.”

Karash’s expression immediately changed from being quite content to a grimace, though no one could he hear he whispered “Oh great.”

The two troopers up ahead of them were not the cannon fodder they had been faced with up in the ship, these were the Empire’s elite and would not be easy to deal with; even if the odds were two to one. As the small group of Raiders got closer to their enemies they could see that one of them was trying to hack into a terminal and find out where the command centre was and then tell all of their friends. The other of the Nova troopers had not yet noticed that there was a small group of people coming towards them, this greatly played to the advantage of the Raiders.

“What the...” One of the Nova troopers said but the rest of the sentence was muffled by blaster fire.

The trooper that had been at the terminal fumbled slightly with his rifle which gave both Havock and Bacredi enough time to put him down with a few shots of their own. However the second trooper was not as unready and instantly began to fire back, one shot of which managed to graze Karash’s forearm and another nearly hit him the head. Though even the toughened Nova trooper could not last long as four troopers shot at him out in the open, but he did manage to unsettle the Raiders quite a bit.

“Everyone alright?” Jae asked

“Nothing serious, the armour took most of the damage.”  Karash replied.

All four of them were fine and continued to move through the corridors towards the command centre knowing that they had to get there before the Nova troopers did but they all were thinking ‘did those troopers manage to find out what they needed?’. If they did it was just a question of who would get there first and would the defences being set up by Joamer’s group be able to hold them back for as long as they needed.

Joamer stopped halfway down one of hallways and kneeled down. Grahim and Akilaa took a knee behind him and everyone went silent. Waiting for a long moment he mumbled something to himself and pulled out a tripwire, and a block of detonite.

Placing the block of detonite out of view he strung the wire across the hallway, and tied it to a bolt Akilaa had shot into the wall moments before. Locking the other end to the detonator he pushed the double prongs into the detonite and stood up.

"What's this type?" Akilaa asked as they walked away. He left the tripwire purposely exposed, any scout who was even slightly paying attention would notice it.

"A decoy type." Joamer said quietly, he took a left and continued walking. "You plant five decoys, and one well hidden explosive. Odds are they will be looking for the easily seen ones, and miss the one meant to do the most damage."

He heard Akilaa mumble in agreement after a moment. Kneeling down after a decent walk he began setting up another decoy. After pulling out the detonite he took out a proximity sensor and hooked it to the explosive. Waiting a moment he decided not activate it and stood up.

Seeing Grahim's odd expression he said, "Sometimes you have to leave them confused."

"We are all confused." Akilaa mumbled very quietly, he smiled when she grimaced at him. A short time ago, during the squads week long vacation he had found out she was his real sister.

With her here he felt a piece of his home he had not known for many years. He knew it was only a matter of time before he saw his mother again, his father sadly had passed away a few years after he was frozen in carbonite. He knew he had died thinking he had out lived his son. He wished he could see him, one last time.

  Holding up his hand suddenly he froze, his companions froze an instant later. Reaching down he pulled out his R-1A Particle Magnum. He breathed slowly as he aimed the Magnum at the doorway fifteen feet in front of them. Something was in there, he heard it shuffle across the floor.

He felt Akilaa draw her E-11 and take aim at the doorway, he hoped Grahim had his rifle trained behind them.

Waiting for what seemed an eternity he applied pressure to the firing stud just as a shadow exited the doorway. He blinked in surprise for a moment before looking down and watched as a white bunny hopped out of one of the rooms. The rabbit looked at the three of them in alarm for a moment, before spinning around and hopping off down the hallway.

Joamer turned to look at Akilaa and Grahim, their faces had the same surprised look his did. A smile formed on their faces at nearly the same time and they all laughed quietly. Flipping the safety back on he holstered his pistol and walked down the hallway again.

He heard the click of the firing stud before the rifle fired. In that instant he managed to grab Akilaa and toss her to the ground. A second later a energy bolt sizzled through the space her head had just vacated. Spinning around he drew his Particle Magnum and began firing, Grahim was half a second later in firing his blaster rifle.

The air seemed to thud as the Magnum fired, Joamer could feel the recoil through his suit as he squeezed off shot after shot. After almost six seconds they both stopped firing, he could see down the hallway two bodies splayed out across the floor. He was not sure if the enemy had fired more then that first shot, he only knew he had come close to losing someone he cared for.

Reaching down he pulled her to her feet and nodded slowly. After a moment a shaken looking Akilaa nodded at him and the three of them walked towards the two men laying dead in the middle of the hallway.

Keeping his magnum out and at the ready he walked up to the bodies and muttered to himself. He knew this would get ugly fast, the fact one of them was not dead was pure luck. Now they knew the Nova Troopers were in the base, and very close.

Two nova troopers were down only 25 to go, hopefully.

“How many more booby traps do we need to set out, Jojo?”

“We need to put out as many as possible before we return to the rest of the squad.”

“Okay.” Akilaa said and started to set up a booby trap herself.

“This isn’t very pleasant presents we are leaving to our enemies, I think it is more pleasant to give someone nice presents like the one you give people on their birthday.” Akilaa said. Grahim could not help it, but he started to laugh at the comment. Grahim noticed that Akila was on the wrong side of the booby trap he was setting up because she needed to go in front of the trap to follow Jo.

“Could yousa walk by her so mesa can finish thesa trap?.”

“Oh, my bad.” Akilaa walked past Grahim. When she had walked past him he finished the trap, it was a nearly invisible trap that you would see when you were about to be blown up. The group continued through the bunker’s dwindling passageways.

“Grahim, its your turn to put up a booby trap, again.” Grahim thought for a while then he got to work. First, he put a detpack in a tin can to make it as lethal as possible and then he connected it to a sensor to make it go of if there were any movement in the area and because the detpack was in a can it would spread metal shreds when it went of and it would do maximum damage to infantry. To finish it off Grahim took some gravel that he had found and put it on top so there would be more flying objects. Mesa hope thisa will do

“Grahim that will do, I think that the rest of the squad want us back soon and I think we have put out a lot of booby traps now.”

“Joamer mesa has una question to yousa.”

“What is it?”

“Have yousa encountered nova troopers before?”

“No I haven’t, so I don’t know we are up against but I know we will take care of them.”

“I hope we won’t run into trouble”

“Mesa hopes so to.”

“Yes but we need to move on now.” Joamer said and started to walk down the corridor. Mesa hope wesa won’t get into trouble or hurt the rest of the Raiders. Grahim thought as he followed Joamer down the hallway.

“Akilaa were do yousa come from?”

“I am from Leria Kerlsil, why do you want to know that?”

“Mesa like to know mesas squad mates.”

“Cut the chatter you two. Akilaa take point, Grahim guard our rear.” Grahim just waited to be ambushed by nova troopers. Grahim watched backwards when he heard the privates voice “Nova Troopers.” And shortly there after Joamer’s magnum was fired and one of the two Nova troopers fell in a pool of his own blood and the other ran back the way he came and was to far away to start chasing him. Wesa don’t know much about themsa but theysa seems to know a lot about us. Grahim walked up towards the dead Nova trooper and heard that the radio was on.

“Don’t… [Static] we will move up on them as one unit… [Static] Lets meet up at[Static]” Then it went dead. Mesa could end up like thisa guy… mesa miss mesas mother mesa need to go to Naboo and visit themsa and try to get thisa thing out of the way or else… Grahim was interrupted by the sound of moving boots and noticed that the cyborg and Ferris had started to move again.

“Grahim, come on now we are moving.” Ferris said. Grahim ran up to them.

“We should be close now.” Joamer said and he was quiet right because they heard voices.

“The datapad said three squads but all the other information was bogus so I'm not sure if that's correct or not. Plan on at least three.” Jae said. Grahim went out the corridor and he saw the rest of RAIDERS squad making ready to shoot the intruders.

“Stand down.” Jae said. “It’s the others.”

Grahim meet Havock’s eyes and then he went passed her to get behind the small barricade of chairs and tables that was put up.

“Nice of you people to join us.” Karash said. Grahim shrugged and nodded because he had a feeling some of the big shots were about to say something.

“Okay guys. They are coming. We stand our ground here, hopefully the traps take out a fair amount of them, we will know soon enough.” Jae flinched every time there were an explosion. “If we must fall back, we go through this door. But I really don't want to take this fight right into the HC. So lets try to kill them before that happens.”

“Do we have to pay for any damage on the main command center?” Bacredi asked.

“This is not the time to be funny, we need to get too battle pos…” Jae was interrupted by the sound of many boots on concrete. “NOW, Get ready they are soon upon us.”

"Damn it! They were just here to soften us up, here comes the main force."


Havock kept her eyes down the hallway at the dissipating smoke and the sound of boots headed their way. The area smelled of burnt electricity which was far from pleasant.

RAIDERS were lucky in the last fight. They had managed to repel the attackers with no injuries. Now they had the rest of the force, probably double the numbers they just faced, heading right for them.

Hav felt Jaenna lean over her shoulder. The two of them along with Grahim were on the right side of the hall, while Joamer, Akilaa, Bacredi and Karash were on the other side.

Havock jumped a bit when Jae spoke next to her ear. "So, you gonna tell me whats wrong."

"Now?" Hav did not turn, she just kept focusing on the battle that was coming.

Something that sounded like 'pfft' came out of the squad leader's mouth. "You have something better to do, Ayme?"

Hav shook her head, she was starting to get aggravated. She knew that Jae just cared about her. Hav also was aware that she had been acting beyond moody since they arrived in the command center. But for the first time in a long time she spoke without thinking. "I don't know. How about making sure you don't get shot."

Havock immediately closed her eyes and tapped her forehead on her pistol. That wasn't the smartest move. Great job, Hav.

Hav sighed and turned to look at Jae. "I mean...I meant, ugh. Look, I need to focus. Last time when something happened to you, I snapped. I could have gotten Joamer killed."

Hav looked at Jae, who's expression was unreadable. Ayme knew that Jaenna probably hated that she was acting overprotective. Jae was about to say something, but a blaster bolt sizzling the air next to them brought the two women back to the present.

Havock snapped her head back to the hallway, both M-4 blasters firing at the now visible nova troopers.

The nova's weaved in and out of the open doorway down the corridor from them. The RAIDERS managed to take out a few, but the makeshift barricade was taking a beating and the smoke around them was making it hard to see.

Suddenly, a new volley of fire came from another direction. It was hard to make out, but it looked like some of the uniforms worn by academy personnel. Jae jerked down and tried to listen to a voice on her private comm. Havock and the others just kept firing. Havock cared less for the explanation and was just thankful for the help.

Hav squinted as she tried to hear Jae spoke on her private comm now. "Recruits from Tagge."

Hav nodded and kept on firing. They had managed to dwindle the numbers down to no more than a typical squads number. But the nova's had taken their toll on the RAIDERS as well. From what Havock could tell, nobody was seriously injured but there were certainly a few bruises to be had.

The blaster fire slowed, which Hav initially took as a good sign. That maybe the nova troopers had lost more numbers in the fight. The smoke was making visually checking that theory almost impossible.

Hav heard something, it was someone yelling but she could not make out the words. She looked up and saw it. Without thinking, Hav turned and pushed Jaenna to the floor just before the grenade went off less than a meter from the barricade. The blast sent Havock and Bacredi flying backwards, and demolished much of the barricade.

Havock slammed into the wall behind where the RAIDERS were standing, she fell slowly landing finally on her chest. It took her a second to get her focus back, she could hear Akilaa yelling into her comm. Shaking the last of the ringing out of her head, Hav nodded to Akilaa and stumbled back towards the front to keep firing.

The recruits were doing a decent job using their E-11's to compensate for the now battered RAIDERS. They were not the best fighters, but in this situation anyone that could handle a blaster was useful.

They all were putting up a good fight, but the now outnumbered nova troopers were managing to advance. It looked like they were going to make one final push. The important thing was to make sure they did not get past them into the room which held the high command.

OOC:

Waulkure is one of the Recruits helping us.

The explosion caused all kinds of chaos for the RAIDERS and the academy troopers sent to help them fight the Nova troopers. Karash saw out of the corner of his eye, Havock and Bacredi thrown across the room and the rest of the squad were knocked of their feet; the academy troopers seemed to have made it through with minimal of damage.

Karash got back to his feet to sound of Jae shouting through the com, “Karash get over here!”

As he made his way over to Havock, who was leaning up against a wall trying to get back in to the fight, “Jae get out of the way! No I’m not leaving!” Havock wheezed slightly as she spoke.

“Karash, take her and Bacredi into the Command centre...” She turned to shoot, “... Go on, NOW!”

Karash had learned that it was best to just do what Jae said when it concerned Havock; otherwise it would be him needing the medical attention. He quickly looked over the battle scene but could see much as dust and smoke caused little visibility, there was even more rubble strewn across the floor and the Nova troopers were advancing amidst the chaos.

“Are you okay to walk in there?” Karash asked Havock.

“I am alright, this pointless anyway!” Havock coughed as she made her way into the command centre.

“You two...” Karash pointed to a couple of academy troopers, “Carry him into the command centre.” Referring to Bacredi

The battle was getting worse and it was impossible to tell who was winning but the Nova troopers seemed to be moving ever closer to the command centre, then he saw a small figure laying on top of another person. Karash rushed over to the bodies and dragged the four armed woman into the command centre, not stopping to check the person she had saved. In command centre was in a manic state because they were now directly under threat and preparing themselves for a fire fight, though in a small corner were the injured RAIDERS.

Karash first went to Havock as she was likely to just walk out if she was not checked first. She had sustained no serious injuries but did have several burns and cuts and possibly a cracked rib, nothing that couldn’t be dealt with later. So Karash sent her back into the battle as they both knew that is where she wanted to be. Bacredi had been knocked unconscious as he was shot across the room but was otherwise fine, though not likely to come round just yet. The unknown academy trooper was an unfamiliar species to Karash but she also seemed to be unconscious therefore it would be best to just leave as she was. Karash told a random soldier from within the command centre to just leave those two as they were and decided he too was needed back at the battle.

“What the hell!” he blurted out as he left the command centre. Most of the academy troopers were now dead under the uncontrollable power that the Nova troopers were exerting, if things continued as they were all the RAIDERS would be following them.

“We can’t stay here for much longer, we need to do something.” Jae spoke over the com. “Joamer got any grenades left?”

“Sure, why?” The conversation continued but Karash did not listen as he was concentrating on staying alive.

A short time later the order to fall back came over the com and everybody listened without comment or exception, though Joamer seemed to drop something as he ran. They entered the command centre tired and almost destroyed; eagerly awaiting the present that Joamer had left the Nova troopers. The final explosion rang out through the building and the academy troopers moved closer to the door in a sense of achievement of having won, the rest of the room still stood in fear as something did not seem right.

“AHHH!” Screams that emanated from both the academy troopers that fell lifeless to the ground and the handful of Nova troopers that blasted in the command centre.

There was shot upon shot being fired into the command centre by a remaining troopers, they seemed possessed as they manically fired randomly not caring what they hit. They did not survive long because even though they fought like madmen, they were to heavily out gunned and soon nothing but silence and dust filled the command centre. This time no more Nova troopers entered but the damage they had caused was yet to be seen.

OOC:

That be the end of objective one

The RAIDERS were beaten and battered already as they walked silently towards the Low Altitude Assault Transport/infantry, or LAAT/i for short. There new objectives were near suicide as far as Havock was concerned. But orders were orders, and truth be told, she did not mind shooting at some more of Thrawn's men.

Now the RAIDERS, along with one spec forces squad, were going to infiltrate the mobile command base and kill the field commanders. Havock figured there were two, everything bad seemed to be in twos.

Someone said something behind her, something about the LAAT/i. It was still difficult for Havock to hear, her ears were still ringing from the blast that sent her flying into a wall earlier. Her ribs would have hurt more except Jae ordered her to take the pain meds Karash kept pushing on her.

“Larty.” Havock grumbled as she rubbed her head.

The rest of the squad came to a stop, as Havock turned to look at Jae and Joamer. Karash and Bacredi were caring the recruit that had been injured near the command center. They found out her name was, Waulkure and she was actually assigned to be in the squad now. Boy wasn't she going to be surprised when she woke up.

Grahim was gone. The command updated Jaenna on the situation for then entire army and it was decided that, being a sniper, he could be more help to Wraith right now then to RAIDERS and their stealth mission.

Akilaa was, as always it seemed, right on Joamer's heels. She looked at Havock with a flash of concern, she probably thought Hav was going mad. But Havock knew exactly what she was talking about.

“Jed called them Larty's, not LAAT/i's. That just sounds...wrong.” Havock let her hand rest behind her neck as they stood there.

Joamer nodded with comprehension, he had probably heard that word too. It was the old clone wars way of describing the repulsorlift vehicles.

A noise caused all of them to look back at Waulkure, who was moaning and attempting to turn in the two troopers arms. They quickly put her down on the durasteel floor and let her finish waking up.

Jae knelt down next to the four armed girl. She was very pretty, with gold hair and unique features. The number of arms was the only thing throwing Hav off, she was not familiar with the species.

“Hello, I'm Jaenna.”

The girl popped one tentative eye open to look at her new squad leader. Then scanned the faces around her before returning to Jae. “I'm Waulkure, where am I?”

“Your still in the command center on Fort Sexton. Not for long, but that's where you are at the moment. You've been assigned to RAIDERS squad, which is us. I'm your new squad leader.” Jae smirked, and the poor girl just looked more distraught, if that was even possible.

The young girl sat up on the floor and started to rub her head, then she gasped. “The other recruit, where is he?”

“He didn't make it.” Bacredi spoke gruffly as he rubbed his shoulder that was still sore from slamming into the wall.

“Oh...but. I just thought that...” Waulkure's voice trailed off and she looked as though she would start crying at any moment.

Havock shrugged and knelt down next to Jae. “It happens.”

That got Hav a hurt glare from Waulkure. “It shouldn't just happen.”

Havock raised an eyebrow and looked at Jaenna, who was nodding. Jae spent the next few minutes filling Waulkure in on the things she needed to know for the mission they were currently on. The girl's expression varied between pure terror and horror. As Jae finished, Waulkure's eyes fixed on one of the dead nova troopers in the hallway.

“Alright, so that's about it.” Jae stood and looked around. “Are we all ready to go people?”

A series of affirmative nods came from the troopers around the room. Jae was just about to give the word to move out. When another voice caused everyone to stop and look.

“Wait.” Waulkure was still looking at the nova trooper. “I've got an idea.”

“I’ll take pilot!” Joamer enthusiastically said.

“Right, when hell freezes over.” Havock snapped back, it was her specialty after all.

“But I can fly this thing!”

“It’s my specialty.”

“I could just fly it.” Bacredi injected himself into the conversation.

“NO!” Both of them screamed in unison, Bacredi shrugged and jumped onto the LAAT/I, as he did so the ship dove about half an inch down. Bacredi—who had flown one of these before—began to climb into the co-pilot seat.

“And why do you get the co-pilot seat?” Joamer smirked.

“Because I’ve logged over fifteen-hundred flight hours,” Bacredi nonchalantly retorted. “Besides, I suck at being the gunner in this thing, you take it.” Joamer, who loved large weapons, especially large weapons on ships, immediately listened and went to the back of the ship. Havock climbed past Bacredi and into the pilot seat (which was an entire head lower). A Special Forces troop and Karash had placed themselves into the swivel turrets while Joamer had the rear turret. The rest of RAIDERS Squad and most of the Special Forces team were all standing on the deck, holding onto the hand rail. Two of the Special Forces troops were sitting on the deck, there legs over the side, they both had long range weapons. While the new recruit was binded up in the corner of the ship.

“Kay…lets put this baby into the air,” Havock said as she gently began to make the ship hover higher and higher. Bacredi began to look at the screens in front of him.

“Nice.” He said to no one in particular as he looked at the missile launcher. Havock pushed he craft to the limit and began to push the throttle harder and harder, and Bacredi was afraid it might snap. “Might want to ease up on that—”

“Bacredi, get us connected to the base—tell them that we are one of them.” Havock said as she could see, off in the distance, mobile turret bases.

“Affirmative,” Bacredi touched the screen and loaded coms. He scanned the area and found Thrawn’s mobile command base, he clicked it and put on his most polite voice. “Home Base this is Nova Transport One, we are transporting a prisoner from Fort Sexton on a commandeered shuttle, over.” All Bacredi heard was static, and he could see the turrets lighting up in the distance. C’mon…

“Copy, we’ll prep landing bay one for you, Home Base out,” it was too easy, Bacredi felt rather impressed with himself. 

“Ma’am, they’re giving us a landing bay.” Bacredi told Havock over the com.

Havock glared. “Copy, it’s probably just a pile of grass knowing these people.” Havock guided them over the turrets and then transferred the controls to Bacredi. “I’m going to go tell Jae about what’s happening. Can you get us the rest of the way?”

“Yes.”

“And Bacredi, NEVER call me ma’am.” Bacredi quickly tested the controls out as she scurried off, leaving Bacredi a little pale faced. He moved the joystick to the left a little and saw that the shuttle had inverted control. I hate inverted controls, Bacredi thought to himself. In the distance bright lights turned on two squads of Stormtroopers came out onto Landing Bay One. Bacredi noticed the lights in the distance and sped the shuttle up, he flew the shuttle over the base one and then turned again, he slowly brought the shuttle down and landed onto the Landing Bay. The doors to the LAAT/I were closed.

RAIDERS exited the LAAT/i wearing their recently acquired Nova troopers armour; they were greeted by the large group of field troopers that had surrounded the ship, in the knowledge that they had a prisoner aboard. This could go very wrong at any moment, would they realise that they were imposters, that the RAIDERS were not their comrades or would on of Karash’s own squad be a disastrous mistake. In fact it just hit Karash that the pivotal figure in this was a rookie, no more than a few hours out of the academy.

“I know you Nova’s like to think your better than us but you will still salute a superior officer!” A Large man boomed with an undertone of resentment. “Now what’s this about a prisoner? Your orders were to kill all of that scum.” He looked menacingly at the RAIDERS who had temporarily froze, “Who is in charge of you lot!”

Jaenna stepped forward and began to speak, “Sir, we took this one back with us because she may have important information for us.”

“I doubt if she will provide anything we don’t already know. Never the less we shall take her from here. You are to report for new duties.” The man turned and signalled for a group of his Field Troopers to take command of the ‘prisoner’.

“No wait!” Jaenna spoke a little more loudly than she had meant.

“What! How dare you speak to me like...” The man drew up to his full height; Karash could know clearly see his insignia and also see that he was a Captain.

“We also have these datapads that contain important information; we have orders not to allow anyone else to see these.”

The entire RAIDERS squad waited for the Captains reaction, we he believed the lie or would he see straight through and have them become the prisoners.  “Very well, but I have my eye on you lot.”

So far the RAIDERS had managed to get past the mobile command centres outer defences, they had lied their way into the centre but how much further they would get depended completely on how the Captain felt, he seemed to be an old school officer and already had his doubts. Karash could have sworn that he saw the shadows move behind him and could feel someone or something watching them as they marched through the corridors towards the cells.

“Right, half of your little group will accompany our alien friend.” The Captain spoke with a rooted sense of self importance, “The rest will come with me to the control centre and we’ll see about the datapads.”

Once again the squad were faced with an impossible decision, of whether to split up or to make their presence known their and then. Karash was drawn out of his thoughts by a section of men walking off with the captain towards the control centre.

“What happened?”  He asked.

“Those were the Spec ops that were sent with us.” Havock replied.

Karash had completely forgotten that they were even there, they were soon out of sight and Karash got a feeling that they would never meet again. There it was again, that movement in the shadows and that feeling, he could remember that feeling from somewhere before and it scared him that he knew whatever it was could be capable of killing them. The RAIDERS and their now considerably smaller Field trooper escort were marching towards the prison block.

“Right this is it.” Said one of the Field troopers.

The RAIDERS had made it into the mobile command centre and were deep within its belly by now, however they had no idea what was going to happen next as they were stuck in the prison block. They had no idea where the Field Commander was, how to get to him or what circumstances the Spec ops team were in but what was certain was that from here on in it would not be easy.

RAIDERS Squad walked in pairs of twos in a straight line, and behind and in front of them were the six Field Guards of Thrawn’s base. The ‘prisoner’ was in the middle of everyone. The hallway they were walking in was lined with camouflage on the inside and outside, and the lights inside were shining blue. As they walked down the hallway Bacredi observed his weapons: he had a M66 that was silenced, his modified silenced Tropov, and a backup ankle holstered Q33 with a silencer on its side. They reached the end of the hallway and Bacredi was done looking over his weapons; on the side of the door was a console and a speaker above it. “Identify.”

“Sergeant Major Kampion Baker, transporting a prisoner to a holding cell.” The Sergeant Major then proceeded to scan his ID card by the console.

“Identify: confirmed, door opening in five seconds.” Five seconds passed and the computer voice faded, the door’s moved to the side and gave way to nine or ten cells on the other side of the room. There were small podiums on each side of the room, surrounded by computer consoles. Sergeant Major Baker looked up at one of the men on the podiums and started talking, “what cell do you want it in?”

“Cell One. Deactivate field, Harp.” The man was obviously talking to the technician next to him, and the technician moved over to a console next to him and flicked a switch. As he did that, the force field on the front side of the first cell that shone blue a second before deactivated.

“I got it,” Joamer said as he grabbed the alien by the back of the throat and pulled and pushed her towards the cell. A guard accompanied them. As the cell was on the farthest side of the room and that was hidden by the consoles as he walked forward, he quickly deactivated her bindings, using his body to hide the bindings. Joamer slipped her his pistol in the hand and threw her into the beginning of the cell. She still had one of her…legs over the field’s ray. The guard looked alarmed and began to speak up as Joamer drew his knife and the guard raised his rifle. Waulkure raised the pistol, closing her eyes as Joamer lunged backward—she shot the guard right in the throat. He clung to it and looked back at her, his eyes stood still as he hit the ground.

“Get out of the way of the field projector!” The technician ordered her, his voice raised.

The next moment happened in a blur, Bacredi put his finger on the safety of his Tropov, and then yanked it out of his holster. The silencer made the gun look more imposing and powerful than it actually was. Bacredi grabbed the Sergeant Major around the waist and pulled him towards his body, at the same time placing his pistol to his head. He watched, pistol still pressed to Baker’s temple, as the technician and his superior on the podium were pelted by Joamer and Havock’s M66s, the five other guards quickly drew their weapons and Bacredi held Baker closer, until finally a guard tried to shoot at Bacredi, the bullet ricocheting of the podium behind him. Bacredi kicked Kampion out a foot and Baker swiveled around, attempting to draw his pistol.

Bacredi squeezed the trigger once, ending Baker’s life. Bacredi charged the podium and jumped up, pushing the two bodies out of the way and then moved towards the door controls. He pulled the lever down and the blast doors began to slowly close, the guards were finding themselves trapped. Two of the guards stepped out before the doors closed, while Jaenna and Karash made quick work of them with their pistols. The other guards raised their hands up in surrender. Bacredi turned around and looked at the ‘prisoner’, and heard two muffled shots and two screams. Waulkure was cowering in the corner, the pistol farther away from her than anything else.

“Bacredi! Shut off the lights in the hallway!” Havock ushered Bacredi, as back-up security teams had to be on their way already. Bacredi reached for the button marked ‘Hallway – Lighting’ and pushed it down. Something had caught his eye, though, and after he pushed the button he looked down at a console.

Bacredi glanced at the video feed just in time to glimpse the twelve Special Operation Troops walked through a hallway, six field troops surrounded them. “What’s going on?” Rang the com on the body next to Bacredi, a deeper, eviler voice filled the room now. “Stop! Get them!” The video feed showed static and then re-emerged, a blast door just opening and two Noghri were visible, brandishing vibroblades. The Special Operations team panicked, drawing their weapons and were immediately mowed down by the field troops as the Noghri swooped in, one of them turned and stabbed a troop and then sliced another’s throat. Three Special Operations troops moved back, behind the view of the camera.

Havock knew it was bad. The screen on the right side of the C-Shaped desk, lit up and she could see that it was obvious they had been found out. If only they had more time to encode those datapads. The three field troopers around them started to look at each Nova uniform slowly, they watched our fingers and hands, then all hell broke loose.

Havock slid under the desk as she leaped to avoid a blast from what looked like one of Joamer's crazy rifles. The field troopers were far from average soildgers. They were good, too damn good.

She watched as the troopers used the C-shaped terminal for cover as they continued to fire on the RAIDERS. Havock knew it would not be long before a grenade would be sent their way. Jaenna landed next to Hav on the floor, as they both started firing at a field trooper that was running for the detention cells. He managed to push Joamer so hard he actually fell down.

“Damn it.”

“Hav keep shooting, we have two left to deal with. Akilaa and Joamer can handle one guy.” Jae was already firing back at a particular trooper that seemed to like shooting in the two women’s direction.

They could still hear the spec forces screaming on the terminal that was right above Jae and Hav’s head. It was enough to turn Havock’s stomach and she had been through a lot more than their newest addition, who did not seem to like the violence at all.

Havock did not recognize the creatures that attacked the special forces squad, not from the quick glance at the terminal anyways. But she did know that the squad was closer to where the field commanders would be and those were probably some personal guards of some type. The speed with which they reacted to the treachery was what scared Havock more than anything at the moment.

“Jae, this is bad.” Hav’s attention went to the squad leader on her right. They had both already been though a lot on this mission, Jae even more she was the one that got shot after all. But right now, they both were broken and battered shooting red bolts in the air at troopers that looked way too much like themselves.

“I know, Ayme.”

It did not even sound like Jae’s voice. She was solumn and terrified, and a million emotions she would never let creep in if it were anyone else she was talking to. Hav wanted to hold her and tell her everything was going to be alright. But this was so not the time. This was the time for focus.

Joamer and Akilaa stumbled out of the cell with the new recruit, Waulkure. The girl looked a shade of green, as if she had just been sick. The three of them took positions at the end of the detention block and started raining bolts down on the two remaining troopers. They were fighting in such close quarters any explosives would probably put their own people in danger. Havock was sure that did not make Joamer happy at all.

“Enough. I’m bored.” Havock muttered under her breath, although she knew that Jae could hear her on the comm.  Which is probably what prompted the sharp elbow she got in the shoulder.  “Don’t worry, its me. Whats the worst that could happen?”

Before Jae could tackle her, Hav scooted on the floor to the other side of the terminal. Bacredi was there along with Karash. Then Joamer practically ran into Havock.

“What in the hell are you doing?”

“Don’t start, cover Jae.” He started to mumble something in protest. Havock grabbed his chest plate. “Cover Jae.” She let go and made her way to the corner.

She had to wait a few seconds there, Hav needed to count the succession of blaster fire. This was going to be precise, and it either was going to work or she was going to get shot. Either way the stalemate needed to end.

Eyes closed she concentrated on the sound of the one field trooper only inches away from her on the other side of that corner. Then it was time.

As he twisted around the corner to fire off his shots, Havock was a split second ahead of him. Her M-4 was the last thing he saw before she pulled the trigger point-blank at the eye sockets on the white helmet. The force of the blast at that proximity knocked her back. The trooper fell back, he wasn’t getting back up. Now there was only one left, poor guy.

The RAIDERS had been found out and had narrowly missed death or capture in the detention centre; they were once again running through a corridor trying not to get killed, something that seemed to be a recurring theme with them. They were now sprinting through the corridors trying to reach their target as soon as possible but things were not going to be easy as there were bound to be hordes of men defending the commander.

"Take cover!" Akilaa shouted as a volley of shots flew over head.

"Guess this is another one of those moments.” Another squad member spoke as they all lay on the ground, scrambling to get into a safer position.

All of the squad managed to get at least behind some sort of cover as they were now under heavy attack by what seemed to be even more field troopers, RAIDERS had been firing back but none dared to take a direct look in the direction of the enemy because of the sheer amount of shots being fired at them. They stayed in this position of randomly firing at figures just a short distance away from them for another few minutes before someone decided to speak.

“We cannot stay like this for much longer; they’ll be sending more troopers round at any moment.” Karash spoke to no one in particular.

“And what do you suggest we do?” Bacredi spoke in a sarcastic tone

“Anything but stand here getting shot at!” Karash was not in the mood for sarcasm and spoke very loudly.

Another few moments passed before anything else significant happened; the two sides were now locked in a deep stalemate neither could advance any further because they would not get very far. The field troopers though would surely get reinforced soon but the RAIDERS were being kept alive by determination and skill, which is why Karash was sure that they would at least make it out of this predicament. Whether they would be successful overall was a matter for another time.

“Joamer, you got any grenades left?” asked Jaenna after turning away from the battle, but continuing to fire.

“Sure and I think it is time we shared it with our friends over there.” Karash could not see Joamer’s face but he was sure that there was a smirk now plastered across it.

The already blackened walls gave out a large creaking sound as Joamer threw his ‘gift’ towards the unsuspecting field troopers who only realised what it was as it went off. The noise was unbearably loud and caused even the RAIDERS to stagger slightly but it appeared to do its job as the field troopers were now either dead or lying on the floor incapable of doing anything else. There was one finale blast of gunfire from the RAIDERS weapons, to just make sure that this particular group would cause them any further hindrance as they continued to make their way to the target.

“Let’s get moving, we’ll have to be quick to not end up in that situation again.” Jaenna said as she began to run once again.

Karash was not really sure where the squad was getting their energy from because by all traditional logic they should have died in the detention centre, but then he realised that the RAIDERS never really followed any form of logic. They continued through the mobile command centre, only really slowing down to see if anything awaited them through a set of doors. Every so often they would encounter a trooper that had become detached from his squad, though he never really encountered the RAIDERS as they did not stop to see what they had just shot.

“This is it, through here.” Havock spoke quietly.

Through the next set of doors was a small room, just beyond that room was where their target sat; unknowing that was about to meet his end. Just as Karash walked through those doors he thought the same thing he did every time that they entered a situation like this, ‘I will not be coming out of this, at least not with certain body parts still attached’.

Waulkure held tight to Ferris's coat tails so to speak as she whimpered and clutched the items she snatched from the fallen officer in the Detention block. Her fingers twisted and pressed onto the code cylinder, her face smiling as she held it close. In another hand she held a holorecorder rod, ready should the field commanders say anything of use. Seeing the firefight she squeezed Ferris's hand and got a reassuring pat on the head which brought a needed smile.

"Ms Ferris? Do we have to hurt them?"

Ferris responded by blasting a field trooper and pushing Waulkure down behind the barricade, her small whimpering form shaking as Ferris shoved a discarded E-11 into her hands. She carefully held the gun with her shaking hands as the small Codru-Ji girl looked up to her.

"Shoot now, cry later!"

She looked over the barricade and carefully took aim, shooting a field trooper dead center. Tears streaking her cheeks she took aim and dropped another trooper as she saw the two field commanders one four meters away in a doorway and the other five meters to his left hidden behind a desk.

Knowing her responsibility to help the squad she gripped the code cylinder and ducked low, scurrying to Squad Leader Jeanna. Patting her shoulder she stuck the code cylinder into the Commanders belt whispering, "its set to unlock the main doors for our exit, its from the captain who met us on the landing pad. Hopefully it will help out later."

"Thanks, now shoot people"

Waulkure peered over the barricade, shooting at the field troopers when she saw a group of aliens unfamiliar to her. An oddity do to her intimidate knowledge of species she lifted the holorecorder in a spare hand as she shot the troopers. The holorecorder began recording the aliens actions, there way of fighting, and anything they spoke if they did.

"This is getting us no where", Havock yelled as she jumped up and ran toward the commanders, our troopers supplying covering fire as she ran. She got within a few meters before the strange aliens ran and fought her hand to hand.

She threw a punch to the aliens skull and he dodged backwards, weaving out then back in with a strike to her left shin with its right leg. She spun around to strike it with her left leg the alien ducked and brought its elbow under her knee. Falling to the ground she kicked upwards as the alien threw itself backwards to the ground just to roll on its stomach and flip forward bringing its heel onto her shoulder.

Despite her skill she was easily beaten. The alien tossed her back towards the squad before assuming an unknown stance.

Gulping Waulkure continued to record, hoping this data might be of use to the Army when they get out. Taking aim she shot at the alien who fought Havock. With no difficulty the alien dodged each shot in a almost dance like grace. This was going to be a problem.