Havock rubbed her head letting her arm lean on one of the over-sized stacks of paper in her office. Luckystar sat with her hands in her lap waiting patiently for the Platoon Commander to continue. She had called Iron Horse's highest ranking members into her office to deliver the news of their new mission.

Sergeant Major Bugsy, the new Iron Horse squad leader, shifted in his seat. Luckystar may not have been bothered by the mess that surrounded Havock, but Bugsy seemed to twitch at the sight of the random datapads and half drank cups of caf.

"I need both of you for this and lucky me, you are in the same squad." Havock ran one hand through her hair as another groped around on the desk for a datapad. After the third one was thrown back to the disaster zone she found what she was looking for and tossed it to Bugsy who barely was able to snatch the pad out of the air before it hit him in the face. "That's the info on RD-546, its an asteroid at the edge of VE space. We have a decently established fortress there but given its location and the activity in the area we need to amp up the marines training out there."

"That's where I come in, I take it." Luckystar smirked.

The platoon commander nodded. "Right, Lucky will be in charge of training the garrison in tactics and defensive weaponry. The rest of Iron Horse will be there to assist. You shouldn't have much in the way of problems...but be aware the whole fortress is on high alert. There will be multiple security checks so your people need to have their shit together while they are there. You guys are there to set an example, I better not hear about any bull shit non-sense occurring."

Bugsy leaned forward, and seemed somewhat perturbed by the accusation that there would be any issues with his squad. "I can assure you we will represent Wildcard well."

"You better. Your clearance is in place for you to arrive in the next twelve hours, so get your gear and get a move on. Dismissed."

OOC:

Okay Horsies here is the deal. You are all getting on the transport and heading to the fortress. From Corvin's description: "Initially, the squads would start at a landing pad. The introductory posts would make it clear that the fortress planet is...a fortress planet. Army troopers would be shown as well-trained and armed, there would be stormtroopers everywhere, gun batteries and reinforced walls, blast doors everywhere..." The trip should not be an uneventful one. The fortress will be under attack by a scout ship. Something small that gets scared off when you arrive. In other words, hurry the hell up and train these guys! Let me know if you have any questions, have fun guys and gals.

Grumbling under her breath, the Twi'lek  shoved a few favorite items into her duffel bag. The bag itself looked like it went through hell. Tan with a few blaster scorches on it. A Patch was sewn in on the side where a seam had torn. Some had asked her why not get a new one. Saph would only smile and tell them it meant something special to her.
If only they knew..


Saphira thought. The bag had been with her for as long as she had been a Trooper. It carried memories; both good and bad.  With a sigh, she shoved a couple blaster clips into the bag, along with her favorite vibroblade before closing it shut.  Slinging it over her right shoulder, she flicked her silvery gaze over to her  SCOPE and  slung that up to her shoulder as well.  Only then did she head out of her room and to the docking bay.

Boots tapping ecentictly with purpose as she nodded to a few passing troopers. Faces that she knew. Others she didn't as they seemed to come and go. Blurred together as much as some of her memories.  Those she knew had come and gone and the female naturally stuck to her own squad. Knowing them was more important. At least as far as missions were concerned. 

Reaching the bay, she noticed Lucky was already there. Along with a new face she didn't know. Perking up, she walked briskly over and gave Lucky a evil smile. One that was plotting new found torments that threatened to be set loose on the newbie. 


Lucky didn't miss the look in the females eyes as she approached.  Giving her a glare back she nodded to her.

"Ah, here she is."  Breaking the stilling silence as  Red turned around to meet the red skinned Twi'lek.

Spoil Sport... Thought Saphira as  she had positioned herself back to being the still solider. No wickedness was beholden in her demeanor as she greeted the newbie.

"I suppose Lucky has been filling your head with silly nonsense?" She replied with a sly smile. Her gaze flickering over to Lucky and back to Red.

"No. Not yet.." Red replied as she brushed past him.

"Good. I would hope not. Now, if everyone else would show up. I'd like to blow this rock and head out. I'm aching for something interesting." She smiled and  slung her duffel over to lock it on a shelf.

"Still wearing that rag for a face?" She hissed back to Madman. Picking on him for the facial wrap. Of course, ignoring Lucky's hint of warning. It was a spat she and Madman always did. Either picking ont he other and no one knew exactly what the two had with each other.

Other then a couple of people who think they know. Saphira thought with a slight mental roll of eyes.

"Knock it off you two with the lovers qural.!" Lucky hissed. 

Saph turned on her heel and was about to say something when the rest of the troopers rolled in. A couple were yawning as they loaded up and started taking their seats.  If Madman had anything to say, he kept his own council as she grumbled a few swear words in smugglers argot.


"Alright ladies, let's load up and head out!" A voice replied. Saphira ignored the newcommers voice as she took her seat. The humming of the engine filling her ears as the engines thrummed to life. Knowing very well it was their new Squad Leader as she sighed and closed her eyes. Like it mattered to her who was the SL for the moment. They didn't seem to last long anyway's in their squad. Alway's managing to leave for one reason or another.

Hannah Monoke glared at the small asteroid on her viewscreen. It was little more than an oversized rock. What it lacked in square footage it made up for in colossal architecture.  The spires reached as high as the structure would allow holding gods knows how many turrets. The color of the structure matched the dark craggy rock that made up the asteroid. She leaned down letting her hands press into the cold console as her mind continued to muse over the series of events that led her to this ridiculous assignment.

The NR seemed to always send her on these quick scouting missions to determine the danger of random upstart imperial remnants of the week. This one though she couldn't get a read on. The sophistication of the signal blocking impressed her in a way she had forgotten she could be. Most of these fly by night operations could be set back years by a simple overload of their electrical systems. Fry their computers and destroy their intel in one swoop.

“Their weapons systems are more than we can handle in this vessel.”

Hannah sneered at her XO, causing the Twi'lek to visibly recoil. “I noticed. Get what intel you can using the visual scanners, just stay out of range of theirs. This...asteroid will require further investigation.” Which she probably wouldn't get to be apart of, she didn't say it out loud but she knew. It was her family or her lack of experience all she knew was if there was a decent, exciting assignment Hannah Monoke was the last one to be considered for it. 


===~~~~====

“What do you mean it's gone now?” Captain Riley Anneu was tired as hell. It had been a long night of yelling at marines that got the brilliant idea to have a bachelor party and piss off the duty officer to no end. It was true shit rolled downhill and if Riley had to get his large behind out of bed to listen to an ornery officer it was damn sure those marines were getting a piece of his mind, hung over and all.

“Sir, we picked up what looked like a small vessel. The preliminary scans picked up no VE signature, but before we could go more in depth the damn thing disappeared.” The young marine immediately looked away and started rubbing his head. Riley knew he looked familiar, must have been yelling at him at a ridiculous hour that morning.

Riley smirked at his next command savoring the pain he was about to inflict on the members of his crew that needed some more discipline. “Put the base on high alert, and radio that squad that is scheduled to come in today. Make sure they know to expect unfriendly company.”

===~~~===

“Who are you?” Gwen Holt skidded to a halt in front of the red-skinned Twi'lek. Her blue eyes widdened not sure what to make of the angry woman's demenor.

“Umm Gwen...I'm the medic they assigned to the squad.”

“Oh right.” Bugsy spoke up from his vigil near the cockpit. “I forgot to tell you guys she was coming. Something about high command being tired of us putting on our own band-aids.” He shrugged and returned to looking out the viewport.

“Another girl, at least they are evening out our numbers. Hey Saph now you don't have to push the guys around so much, power in numbers and all that.” Lucky commented absently as she continued to read several notepads with training regimes.

Saph continued to study the young woman, who looked positivily petrified. With a quick nervous smile she slipped around the Twi'lek and found a seat.

“Hi, I'm Red.”

Gwen jumped, she had been so preoccupied by Saph she didn't even notice the young man she sat next to. “Heh, hi, Gwen.”

The hyperdrives slowed and the ship lurched to a halt. This wasn't going to be the smooth landing Gwen hoped it would be though. Bugsy immediately cursed and yelled for everyone to hold on. “What now?” A man with a cloth over his face growled from across the crew cabin.

“Looks like we have company, its a small ship though, probably a scout. But its not one of ours, and it doesn't look happy to see us.” Beta got a look from Bugsy that sent him running to his seat after his commentary on the current situation.

“So, umm, what now?”

Saph smiled. “Now, the fun starts.”

OOC:

Sorry for any mess ups with your characters, you have one obstacle, a scout vessel that will shoot at you but then get scared off, she is horribly out matched.

NPCs:

Major Hannah Monoke: NR officer that was assigned to scout the asteroid and found more than she bargained for. She'll probably be back with reinforcements.

Captain Riley Anneu : VE officer on the asteroid, he is the head of the base, and your contact while there.

Private Gwen Holt: NPC medic, cause you needed one, and this way I can keep helping you guys in the story.

Once you deal with the scout vessel you should land on the asteroid and meet with Captain Anneu. He will point you towards the rowdy bunch of marines you will be training. They got a bit drunk the night before so expect them not to be pleased to be on duty or to do any work. Saph don't injure them

Do not be afraid to move the story forward in your posts, you guys are great at establishing what your character is doing at the point the story is at, now work on taking another step forward and doing the same thing.

Lucky's attention was split between making sure Saphira and Madman didn't tear each other to shreds as well as staying focused on what was ahead of them. The pilot cautiously eased them toward the small ship and stopped his maneuvers abruptly before calling out "the ship's charging weapons, sir"

"Be at the ready to return fire, let's not obliterate them just yet, we're unsure of their exact intent; all we know is that they're not of Vast Empire origin, fire a warning shot. Close enough to inflict indirect damage from the blast" Bugsy ordered.

"Aye, sir. Firing...Now!"

As soon as the word escaped his lips, the co-pilot sent a bolt flying in the ship's direction, it ended up going nowhere, dissipating into the vacuum of space but they could just see the smaller vessel undergo a sudden change. It seemed as though the plan worked, disengaging their weapons the ship retreated. To Lucky, it looked like it had taken on some damage.

"Now let's get to that asteroid, shall we?" Bugsy stated matter-of-factly she guessed more to the pilot than the rest of Iron Horse.

-------------

"Damn, trying to ride the shockwave of that bolt they fired our way didn't do us much good!" Hannah heard her XO shout in alarm as klaxons blared all around them. some of the ship's systems were damaged and they were venting plasma at a decent rate.

"Damn those guys" she hissed under her breath before making a decision she did not like, but under the circumstances had no choice to make.

"Get us back to base, we can't hang around much longer in the shape we're in, we'll come back and we'll have a little surprise in store for 'em"

---------

"They're retreating!" she heard Madman and Red shout in unison, turning her head she could see that they were staring out one of the viewscreens, while their words had been the same, their meaning she sensed was not, judging from the tone of their voices. Madman had seemed unhappy, she strongly suspected that he still wanted to blow them to pieces, Red had seemed a little overjoyed at the fact that they were leaving.

"Let's not start the party too soon guys, something tells me they'll be back for more" she said as she looked over Gwen's shoulder at the ever-growing imagine of the blasted rock they were going to be landing on in the next few minutes.

As she walked  a few paces behind Riley and Bugsy, Lucky noticed Saphira shoving her way toward the front of the pack. Knowing the woman pretty well she had a pretty good idea of Saph's intent but dared not step in her way, not because she was intimidated by the Twi'lek but because she knew that to try to stop her would be futile, she would find a way to do some eavesdropping either way.

"Saph, leave the men to their business. I'm pretty sure they're discussing stuff we already know about" she muttered loud enough so that only Saph could hear.

Lucky watched as Saph forged on ahead anyway and stopped shoving her way forward when she was right in Lucky's path, between herself and the two men.

"Talk about something interesting for once..." she heard Saph hiss, she presumed to herself after  a few minutes of silence.

What did I tell you? Lucky thought with a sigh as she kept her thoughts to herself and stared at the rocky ground.  A few minutes later she found herself staring at a construct which looked an awful lot like simple sleeping quarters.

"Here's where you folks will be staying" announced Captain Riley somewhat cheerfully "Just choose a bunk and put your stuff on it, there will be time for unpacking later; you gotta meet the guys you'll be training first"

A few grumbles could be heard as everyone filed into the somewhat dark building. From the outside it looked to be of a decent size, from the inside however Lucky quickly realized that looks could be deceiving. As soon as they crossed the threshold and entered she took a quick scan of her surroundings and wished she hadn't; what she saw sank her spirits somewhat.

The hallways were narrow, the latrines were in the very rear of the building. On each side were five rooms each contained two bunks with room for not much else.

"We gotta sleep in this dump?" she heard Madman complain behind her.

"Shush you" she quickly shot back. "Never expect to sleep in comfy quarters, we're not VIPs; we're stormtroopers, soldiers of the Empire. While I myself would have liked something a little less...cramped we'll only be here for a short while, Unless you want to camp out outside?" This last statement, she added sarcastically, they were here to do a job, this was hardly  a vacation.

After putting her gear on her bunk, she wormed her way outside and followed Captain Riley, who had been patiently waiting for them. They didn't have to walk far however before she spotted what she suspected would be the group of marines they were to train.

The mean averaged in height from about 5'10 to 6" tall, all wee lean, wore the same uniform and unfortunately the same look of general discomfort and disinterest.

"These men will be your Trainees during your stay here, unfortunately they are currently suffering from hangovers. Last night they got into a case of our best rum and were far from happy to find out they had to be on duty this morning"

Time to get the party started.... She thought as she sized them up.

As Lucky looked over the marines, she felt a feelings of exasperation threaten to overtake her. They hadn't even started the training yet and she knew right away that this group wasn't going to be making her day anyime soon.

"First thing's first ladies" she said loudly to catch their attention, they were all males but since they decided to get drunk the night before and she didn't feel like babysitting them more than she had to, she decided on an approach which was more likely to catch their attention.

At the mention of the word 'ladies' a few of them looked up with irritated looks on their faces, she had gotten the attention of some of the men all right.

"Who're you callin' ladies?" One of the marines shot back hotly.

"Keep your pants on, will you? You got drunk the night before and you're currently suffering the repercussions of that decision-" at that precise moment someone in the group gagged and heaved what she assumed to be this morning's breakfast. Great.. "-as such we're not going to go easy on you lot, we're here to train you, tat's what we're going o do and we expect full cooperation. Don't participate and I'm sure I could make arrangemens for those of you who slack to do some otehr tye of wor, fully supervised by your immediate supervisor. Now, let's get started...Let's see how you guys disassemble, clean and reassemble some weapons. We'll go with a DC-15 Blaster Pistol, an E-11/m as well as an E-45 to start, afterward we'll do some target practice."

With the stench of  vomit in the air, it was all Saph could do, NOT to walk over and shove the mans face into the gunk. As putried as it were, she decided to walk up to that specific soldier. Lucky caught her walking; no, more then that. Stalking.  Saphira caught her eye and she just flashed  a not-so-innocent smile.


She better not kill the man.. Lucky thought as she shook her head. No point in stopping her, so she went back to the task at hand.

She could STILL smell the boo's and a possible hint of Spice on the man. Wrinkling her nose she stopped  two feet from the man and clicked her heels together.  The man looked up at her slightly and gave a toothy grin. Yea, right. Keep smiling like that and you'll wish your dead when I am done with you! Saphira thought as she just glared down at him.  Her silver eyes shooting straight past his Hazel's as it looked like she was looking into his soul.

"So, think it's funny being a pile of Bantha Poodoo?" She snapped. A hiss of venom played off the tip of her tongue. To her right she heard a couple giggles from her Squad mates. Those that new her well enough at least.

"Not.. really." He sputtered. Some drool slipped off his lips like a rabid dog.

"I can gather differently. When your out on front lines and drunk and you end up being responsible for the deaths of your team.." The Twi'lek hissed and pointed over to the fresher' ; tapping her right boot with inpaitence. "Now, you can go and clean yourself up. The smeel of disease is unsetteling. But not before you  clean this up. I, nor the rest of the Squad are here to baby you or clean up after your mess."


He looked upset that someone spoke to him like that. Standing a little straight (sense he had a bad hangover).  Saph sighed mentally as he looked wobbly on his feet. "When you're done, you report to me. You're going to have some special training..." She laughed lighty as his eyes opened slighty. MadMan  looking over his shoulder to her.

"You really have a mean streak.."

"Don't you forget it.."