Snow gear! Saphira thought as she had marched out from the room. Her arms relaxed to her sides as she brushed passed the others. At least she had some time to prep herself, grab something to eat and catch a couple hours of sleep.

"Overpack..Ha!"

The female had caught the way Lucky had looked over at Madman and the couple other guys. Most likely a warning not to bring anything to heavy or any trooper Beer.  With a yawn, her boots tapped against the polished floor as a cleaning mouse droid buzzed by her feet.

Hmm... snowtrooper armor. This'll be interesting. Talohn strode through the hallways of the massive complex, just after leaving the briefing room after someone who he did not recognise had excused himself. Must be a new trooper. Talohn had seen snow very rarely on Concordia, and he always marvelled at it. He was very excited to be going to a world covered in it. But first, he needed to prepare. He had a few hours before heading off and he was going to make use of them. I'll clean my weapons and maybe have a little rest. I've certainly deserved it. Thinking back to the squad's recent 'vacation', he rubbed his shoulder ruefully. The medics had patched him up perfectly, leaving not a scratch. Still, he was curious about the Mando who had done it.

Talohn was eager to try out his newly acquired electrostaff. He had been practising with it earlier today, which was evident due to the fact that he was cradling his left arm softly. He had swung it around too much and jabbed himself in the arm, numbing it instantly. Thankfully though, he had the setting to its lowest, stunning him instead of sending a few thousand volts coursing through his body, which wouldn't be the most honourable way to die, from Talohn's viewpoint. He thought he might leave it for this mission. Besides, Lucky would probably consider it under the heading of 'Overpacking'.

He entered his room, glancing quickly at the clock on his desk. He grunted. Not a lot of time. Best just go for a quick rest beforehand. 


* * *


Talohn opened his eyes sleepily. It took him a few moments to realize where he was, before he turned his head to the clock.

"Frak." He was going to be late.

He bolted from the bed, quickly grabbing his personal effects, including his 'toothpick', his vibroblade and his rifle. His hand hovered over the hilt of the electrostaff slowly. Eh, what the heck. He snatched it up and stuffed it into his belt, on the opposite side of where his knife was resting. He then grabbed a few more essential items before sprinting through the door.

Lucky had been one of the first to arrive at the hangar, she had on her body glove; she would piece together the SnowTrooper armor en route to Belsavis. She hated this kind of armor, she wasn't too sure why she disliked it so much. With a sigh, she stowed her gear in the cargo hold and only kept the armor and a few weapons she had yet to clean and service.

As she was getting ready to board, she heard the sound of boots coming toward her. Turning her head slightly, she noticed Saphira strolling her way with a slight smile on her face, amicably she returned the smile before hopping on board.

The interior of the ship was pleasantly warm, there were no unpleasant smells here; not yet anyway. Nodding to Saph, she made her way toward the cockpit to have a word with the pilot.

"The mechanics are just finishing up servicing the ship, we will be underway shortly" he informed her after she had inquired as per the ETA of their leaving Base.

Making her way back to the passenger compartment of the ship at a leisurely pace, she hoped everyone would hurry and get to the ship soon, or at least on time for departure so they could get the  show on the road.




With everyone now on board, the squad strapped in quickly and Lucky allowed herself to relax slightly as the pitch of the engines escalated and she quickly felt it leave the ground, takeoff was confirmed when she felt the few G's press her to her seat as they left the atmosphere of Tadath and would soon jump into hyperspace on their way  to accomplish what needed to be done.

A few minutes into the ride, she allowed herself the luxury of unstrappung herself from her harness and stood.

"When we reach Belsavis the ship will not be landing, the pilot will warn us when we approach its orbit at which time we will make our way to the cargo hold where we will grab our gear and on the pilot's mark, the cargo doors will open and we'll be able to get this party started so enjoy the ride boys and girls!"

Drop. They were going to aerially drop onto the planet. Talohn preferred solid ground. He hated flying in ships and speeders. He had only been on a few in his relatively short life, but had been on enough to know that he did not like them one bit. He didn't like to admit it, but he had a terrible fear of heights. But, at least when he was on a ship, his feet were on semi-solid ground. To be soaring through the clouds, with nought but the air and the wind to keep you up.... He didn't like thinking of it. Part of him wanted to do it, for the experience, for the thrill of it. But another part (the bigger one) wanted to stay on semi-solid ground, where there wasn't the risk of dying as a bundle of bones and scattered flesh....

"Alright, people. Get ready!" Lucky said, standing up and grabbing a parachute. "We have to jump at the right time, otherwise, we'll just be another splat on the road." Talohn grimaced. That didn't exactly help much.

Everyone got up from their seats, grabbing one of the parachutes being handed out and strapping it on. Lucky handed one to Talohn and looked at him with concern. "Atoll, are you alright? You look a little pale."

"I-I'm fine."

She looked like she was about to say something, then she shrugged and turned away to distribute the rest of the parachutes to the others in the squad. Talohn stood up shakily, strapping the parachute around him and trying to psych himself up for the... ordeal ahead. They headed down to the cargo hold and began waiting for the pilot's signal to jump. The cargo doors opened, letting the wind rush in to roar in their ears and play with the loose pieces of their clothing, making them do some sort of agitated dance. The rest of his squad mates were either chatting excitedly or, mainly the more experienced members, looked like they weren't exact bothered. They've done all this before. The new member of the squad though, Kraytirous, looked like he was sharing Talohn's fears, though not as sharply as Talohn himself.

Without warning, a small beep echoed throughout the hold and a green light flickered on above the doors. "Alright, people. Let's go!" Lucky roared over the wind. She gestured them to come near the edge of the hold and reminded them of their instructions. Then, she told them to jump, one by one. Madman jumped first, yelling gleefully as the wind took hold of him and whipped him away from them. Their new squad leader, Starfruit (although she preferred to be called by her name, 'Jaenna'.), went next. It was Talohn's turn next. He looked out over the edge. And jumped back a few feet immediately. He hadn't realised how high they were.

"Atoll? C'mon, quickly." Lucky yelled.

Shooting her an apologetic look, he took a deep breath, offered up a quick prayer to whatever deities were looking over him, and jumped.

His first feeling was one of complete weightlessness. It was exhilarating. He would have yelled with delight and enjoyment, but then he opened his eyes. Fear flooded through him. His fear of heights clutched at him, speeding up his heart and making him even more scared than he already was. He was falling through the air freely, the wind had decided to spare him for the moment. But, it's mercy had faded. It had suddenly began buffeting him with blast after blast of stinging cold. It swept him away, sending him tumbling through the air, yelping and roaring as he became unsure of what was sky or ground. He was completely at the winds terrible mercy.

Oh frak, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to d--

"No, snap out of it." He said to himself. Even though he wasn't able to hear what he said as the wind snatched his words away from him, it comforted him oddly. "Just steady yourself, dammit."

And, although it took some effort, steady himself he did. The wind had died away as quickly as it had came. "Now, pull the cord..." He said, reciting the instructions he had been given. "Where the frak is the cord?!" Panic swept over him again, but left quickly as his hand ran over the cord during his flailing. And he pulled. The parachute burst out of his pack, catching him from his fall. Relief flooded through him. He was safe. Now to just hope to whatever God there is that I land with the squad and not a few miles away.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Came the sound of their feet pressing against the snow. Imprinting their boot patterns into the icy drifts as wind bit against their armor. The  drop was exciting as  the last rush of adrenaline creased through her veins.  The wind was blowing in an eastern direction. Making it hard for them to see anything visual past 20 meters.

"Don't get lost.." Saph grinned. Propping her pack up over her shoulders.  seeing the others just standing there she snapped. "You heard her. Either we freeze, or we make camp."

Leaning down she picked up a handful of snow and  chucked it towards Madman and the others. Hitting the one named Kray in the back of the head and sending him stumbling into Madman who dropped his pack into a snow drift.

"Dig it out!" Saph giggled, half ordered. Though not the Squad leader anymore, she was still higher ranking and enjoying herself as she and Atoll moved out and found points to set becons for Lucky to find her way back. Only then were packs rolled out and make shift camp was starting to be built.  Several snow drifts were scooped out and packed heavy and used  to built an igloo setting so they all could  go inside if need be.  though food couldn't be warmed inside, it was warmer in there for watches.

"Perhaps Lucky will find a Wampa and kill it for its fur." Someone muttered.

The Twi'lek didn't catch who said it, but only giggled under her breath as she ate a ration an hour later. Her silver eyes flickering over the snow as the wind started to die down.

"I don't think theres wampa's here. But the meat would be good." Saph replied.

"Oh, that's just lovely." Talohn said sarcastically as Madman dug up another of the frozen corpses. White as the snow that buried them, they were frozen solid, horror-struck expressions permanently stamped on their faces, alarming the group even more. There seemed to be more scattered around the surrounding area, all as dead as the first, yet some not as frozen, implying that they were recently buried, perhaps still alive at the time. Just as Kraytirous had excavated another body from it's icy tomb, Talohn had a terrible thought.

"You don't think one of these could be O'Hare, do you?" He whispered cautiously. Everyone suddenly went stiff. Talohn could tell they were all thinking of the possibility. Saph was the first to speak.

"We don't need your pessimism, Atoll." She scolded.

"I wasn't trying. I was merely stating the possibility." He said.

"Either way." Jae interrupted. "We're not marking him down as dead until we're sure he is. Get back to making the shelter." Talohn shrugged and resumed digging.

A few minutes later, Lucky returned, carrying with her a few dead animals for meat and fur. "So no wampa then, Luck?" Talohn grinned.

Lucky chuckled. "Nope, no wampa."

"Kray here thought you'd be able to tackle one and kill it with your bare hands." Talohn shot a wink at the newest addition to the team, grinning widely. He had to admit, he was enjoying himself, despite the freezing cold, the company of a few dead people and the gut-churning drop through the clouds. Saph seemed to be enjoying herself as well, tossing the occasional snowball, the first of which causing a little disruption, which Talohn found quite amusing. But, he really wanted to continue.

"So, when do we get going?"

Kraytirous despised being on the bottom rung of any food chain. Being the new guy meant he was to be picked on, which he took in a well-humored way at first, but afterwords he lost his patience and instead resigned to just slumping his shoulders and methodically go about his work. His armored fists grasped the shovel tightly and then loosened their grip as he did his best to keep the blood flowing through his fingertips.

Kraytirous was comfortable enough at the moment, but he knew that soon the cold would seep through his armor. The work continued for a few more hours. It was difficult to tell whether it was close or far from night, as the wind was swirling snow overhead and heavy set clouds seemed to be omnipresent on this planet.

He tried to keep his mind off of the corpses, last thing he needed right now was to vomit. Just as the thought came to mind, Lucky's rant about cleaning up their own mess came to his ears.

After setting the final snow-block onto the igloo that they'd been working on, Kraytirous took a step back and a deep breath. This wasn't what he'd had in mind when he'd signed up for the Stormtrooper corps. He expected war, deadly combat, fighting life and tooth for survival in a battlefield. Not something this covert. And he wasn't going to lie to himself, he also expected glory.

"I'm going for a short walk," he declared. "This shelter's built, should be able to house about three people." He hefted his rifle across his chest and began to stride towards a nearby snow drift.

"Alright, try not to stumble on any frozen limbs, though. The dead can make such a terrible racket!" Madman piped up, his typical ramble not helping to raise Kraytirous' morbid mood.

Walking up the snow drift proved to be less possible then he'd expected, his armor's weight constantly pushing him down into it. So instead he walked around it, and sat down against the soft snow. Not that he could feel it through his armor. Kraytirous put a hand to the forehead of his helmet and leaned forwards. The hell was he doing here, in this frozen wasteland?