The shuttle shuddered and convulsed as it his the upper atmosphere.  Eventually, the shape of large skyscrapers could be made out in the night sky.  Darius looked at the map of where they were heading.  Suddenly, his vision began to blur.  Light headed, he managed to get out a few words, "d-damn, not again..."

He was sitting in the Slag Pit.  Next to him was his father and good friend and mentor, Jex.  They were sitting in a dark corner, tailing a fat, greedy man who had made too many mistakes, and now had a bounty on his head from Dreg the Hutt.  A girl burst down the stairs, cry, trying to cover herself, as she ran down in torn clothes, and was practically in the nude. 

"Here we go," muttered Darius, reaching down to his dual DL-44's to turn the safety off.  The man they were following went by the name Oleg.  Others preferred to call him Dirty Oleg, or Oleg the Traitor, or other, more provacative names. 

He came out laughing, "come back here lass."  Some henchman  grabbed the girl.  She screamed even louder and Oleg returned to his room.  "I've got this one," muttered Darius.  He showed no emotion, but anger welled up inside of him.  "Get the ship ready.  Father, wait for me somewhere."

Cyrus nodded and went outside with Jex steathily.  Darius pulled the cloak hood over his head and slid through the crowded bar without touching one being.  He followed closely behind the man that had grabbed the girl.  They walked down the hallway and as they neared Oleg's door, checked the henchman's record, and notice that he had a bounty, but it was nearly worthless, and alive equaled the price of dead.  So, he silently reached behind his back and pulled out his vibroblade.

With amazing speed, Darius' hand sealed the henchman's mouth shut, and the knife slid easily across the man's throat.  He pulled his victim's shirt up to his throat, so it would soak up most of the blood that was now gushing out of the dead man's throat.  The girl that he was dragging was now speechless.  Her mouth was open as if to scream, but now sound had come out.  She had dropped what was left of her tattered shirt, and Darius noticed that she was actually quite stunningly beautiful.

Darius hand lunged out, and went over the girls mouth before she could scream anymore.  With his other hand, he reached into his pack and pulled out a thin, spandex sleeveless shirt he usually used in his workouts.  "Shhhhh," he gently whispered into her ear, and handed her the shirt.  He seemed to calm down with his voice.  "Go outside, and there will be a man outside.  You will not see him, but he'll see you.  Whisper very quietly, Cyrus.  Mention your rescuer, Darius, which is myself, and he'll help you."

Darius could see the fear slowly melt away in her face.  "Got it?" he questioned.  She nodded, put the shirt on, and went down the stairs.

"What's going on out there?" yelled a voice from inside Oleg's room.  The fat man opened the doors, and found himself staring down the barrel of a DL-44.  Darius motioned him to step back into the room.  There was deceipt in the way the man looked and carried himself. 

With a twitch in Darius' head, the visor on his combat helmet came down, and he blinked twice in the bottom right-hand corner of the visor.  It switched to thermal vision and the door shut behind him.  It a blur of unseen motions, five men found large, smoking holes in their chest, and Oleg had a broken nose.  A body dropped from the ceiling and made a dull thud on the floor.

"You're not very smart, bounty hunter," Oleg spat in his helmeted face.  It automatically wiped the visor off with a laser.  "Do you expect to get out of here alive?" he retorted.

"I expect to get out of hear with no resistance," Darius smartly replied back.  He cuffed Oleg, and marched him out of the door, and loud clap exploded downstairs.  They walked down and beings of all sorts were rolling around, rubbing their eyes, or holding their ears.  Some were bleeding out of their ear, or auditory sensors, because the noise had been so overwhelming.  "Stun grenades are great tools," said Darius, pushing the fat man down the stairs.  Especially when there's a couple dozen in one room."

They got outside and nobody followed.  It was dark, and heavily littered.  The sky was dark, and species of countless variety walked the lonely streets, mostly prostetutes.  The sooner Darius left, the better.  This world was unsafe for fugitives like him.

"NOT SO EASY, BOUNTY HUNTER!" screamed Oleg.  As if triggered by those exact words, shuffling and a high pitched ringing noise was heard.  Soon after, an alarm sounded and the few people that were in the streets screamed and hurried inside.

Darius pistol whipped Oleg, knocking him unconscious, and drew his other pistol.  "Shit, Father, we've got a situation on our hands!"

Cyrus emerged from the shadows.  He had his dual, automactic pistols.  A slurping, gurgling sound was soon heard from the cluttered, unkept gutters.  Mutated limbs, tentacles, and other bodily apendages reached out of them, clearing away, and probing the street above.

"Jex, get the ship over here now, we've got company!" yelled Cyrus into his comlink.  "Fire, hold as many back as you can!"  The father and son went back to back, firing as rapidly as their blasters would allow.  High pitched screams of pain followed every shot, but the mutants kept coming. 

Darius' had to change power packs first.  The gutters he was cover overflowed as mutants climbed out.  He immediatly fired again, but they had come to far, and he could not longer keep them in the sewers.

The bodies piled and Cyrus had to change his power packs now.  He was no longer able to hold back his side.  The mutants slowly progressed, not even caring that their comrades were falling.  Some even stopped, to take a few choice bites from their dead.

The two eventually holsterd their pistols, and lobbed a couple of thermal detonator into the sewers, hoping to stop the rush.  Darius pulled out a small flechette launcher and opened up into the advancing pack.

A beautiful sound was heard, as reinforcements arrived.  Jex's YT-2400 carefully landed in front of Darius, and the anti-personel cannon on the bottom popped out and mowed down Darius' side.  He turned and helped his father, double teaming the one side as they both back pedalled onto the ramp.  Darius almost forgot about Oleg, ran, and picked the large man, and ran as fast as his adrenaline could take him.  He roughly dropped the man at the top of the ramp.  It closed, but they didn't stop firing until it was impossible to shoot without a stray bolt bouncing around inside the ship.

It slowly rose from its tightly squeezed landing.  "Take me to the safe house," said Darius.  "You guys can collect the bounty on Nal Hutta.  I'll be their when you get back.  I've got some business to take care of."

Jex did just so, and Darius did a fast, search for the girl he had rescued.  It didn't take him long to find her.

He found the large apartment complex and went to nearly the top floor.  It was actually pretty decent, considering the condition other buildings are in on Nar Shaddaa.  A rusty cleaning droid struggled to chase away a couple small Rodian children that were making a mess of the dimly lit hallway.  When Darius' intimidating form came out of the turbolift, they bolted back into their respected rooms.  The droid continued with its work as if nothing had happened.

He knocked on the door, and it hesitantly opened.  The beautiful woman was sitting the floor of a barely furnished room.  It was neat and clean.  She was still wearing his shirt.

"I just came to see if you made it to safety alright," Darius said in a calm emotionless voice.

"Don't worry, I'll give you your shirt back," she said, giving a little smile.  Darius gave a slight smile back, and she casually pulled it off in front of him.  That wasn't the only thing that came off though, and Darius was following suit.

He vision seemed to skip to two hours later.

Layren was laying down on the soft carpet, chest down, but still uncovered.  Her and Darius were smiling at each other, and Darius was now clothed, armored, and armed.

"Come see me again, when you return," she happily said.  "I'll be faithfully waiting for you."

Darius saw in her face that she was definately telling the truth.  He knew she would, and he would remain faithful to her, if nothing ever happened to him.

"I'll be back, I promise," he said.  It felt awkward, because he can't remember anytime he had ever said anything so...lovingly.  He walked over, picked up his shirt, and gave her one last kiss, little did he know, that soon, he would have forgotten every wonderful thing that had just happened.

"I love you Darius, Darius, Darius, Darius, Darius, Darius," she mouthed, but it wasn't her voice.  It was masculine, and afraid.

He jerked out of his slumber and discovered that he was being yelled at.  He looked out of his viewport, and saw the city, and a cloakshape fighter closing in on them.

"Dammit Darius, fire that damned turret!" screamed DJ.

Instinct overtook him, but the fighter exploded before he could get a shot off.

"Thanks Shazam," Warren voice chimed in over the com.  "Darius, you going to be alright?"  He was out for one minute, but that minute had almost cost them their lives.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

-----------------------
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men to do nothing. --Edmund Burke

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

FM/SCRW Darius Pursius/Nazgul 3-2/mSSD Atrus/Defensive Fleet/VEN/VE (=A=)

For the most part, the portion of Nar Shadda which they had just entered was pretty baren.  That is, compared to other parts of the city where it was actually impossible to see the ground floor, but this one was messy as well...  The putrid air was just as thick as it was anywhere else, leaving a slight film on the viewports of the ships as they descended.

As they entered the NR airspace, only miles from the drop point, several sirens began to blare from below, none of which could be seen at that altitude but seemed to make everything move into ferment...  Arising from the deapths of the city, a small pack of X-wings twirled about, like it was the first time they'd been out in months. 

In the distance, the Imperials had kept in a closely knit formation through the entry and began to spread out just a little, feeling as if they'd cover more ground.  Shazam was still in the lead as the radar picked up the group of NR craft, a dull murmer ringing in his ears. 

"Right then, Nazgul, we will be escorting Delta to its landing point and covering the airspace.  We have hostiles coming up from everyone's ten o'clocks...  Don't worry about them yet, we'll try to outrun them for the most part..."  Shazam broke of the transmission and pushed his throttle forward to full, still not too worried about the fuel gague which was a little over halfway the first mark; risking damage to the ship that could hinder its safe return would not happen today, thought Shazam.

"Nazgul 1, we have a slight problem..."  The group recognized Dj's voice accompanied by the sound of him unbuckling himself and jumping to the back of the cabin. 

"What is it Delta?" Shazam queried, but was cut off as the X-wings began a sharp incline below the transport; Art turned into wingman number one as Shazam cut in front of the landing craft.  Just ahead of the Sentinal, a fine stream of bolt fire highlighted the cool steel of the ships as they ducked under to try and engage, both dancing for a moment in the dark, poluted skies. 

Just five miles off, the drop point loomed ominously.  It was a single tower, highest amoungst the other crumbling statues of time surrounding it. It looked as if someone hadn't been satisfied with it, for it was overlapped several times over by different forms and structures, not to mention materials...  The top half appeared to be made from a less dense metel to try to keep it stable, while the bottom was extremely low-tech and appeared to be made to hold military craft.  The upper portion of it contained a massive circular door embedded into the building with a hinge on the left side and a clasp for the other.  This was actually a cover for the infestructure as it was originally a popular park that was transformed into a hanger during a small civil war.  No fighters had ever actually been launched through the door, though, as it was taken over and fighters were then launched from a reconstructed portion of the original half.  This was when this building was one of the tallest, so fighters did not have such a hard time getting out, but now they were sort of bottle-necked during their launch.  Luckilly the battle was far enough away they could take their time...

Shazam twisted his craft around smartly, pulling right back up to face the underbelly of the Sentinal; the entirety of Nazgul squadron was firing on the single fighter throwing itself into the hornets' nest.  The seven remaining fighters were just getting to the same altitude as Nazgul and needed to catch up.  This was the striped ass monkey, thought Shazam as he let out a strong burst to the lower left engine.  Unfortunetly for the X-wing, even with all of his power taken from his sheilds and forced into his engines without overloading them, he still wasn't quick enough to escape the TIEs.  The engine shorted out, then exploded through the rest of the craft, sending the cockpit into the empty air in front of the landing craft.  Shazam and Art split, going up both sides of the Sentinal, then spinning back into formation.

"Thanks Shazam," Warren said calmy and continued his same speed; Nazgul one and two covered the backend as the rest of the formation moved ahead to cover their open spaces.

"Keep movin, Delta," Shazam breathed deeply for a moment, then collected himself and allowed his hands to stop their shutter.  He removed one hand frm the controls and flung it about, as if tapped with the head of a hammer.  Your ganna need to fly carefully, he thought to himself as he looked down upon the tall buildings below. 

Just ahead of the group, four more X-wings pulled into position; they held a moderate speed, awaiting the fighter support from behind the formation.  Shazam rolled his neck around for a moment and said," Ok guys...  We are going to split from Delta as soon as we reach those fighters.  Its ganna be a fly through, Delta will drop down to its mark at that time.  Then we will engage the enemy fighters after a loop recovery.  Any questions?" No one said anything but Warren-

"Affirmative." It seemed to end the entire groups thought process as they began to focus their eyes on the little specs before them.  The tower was sitting inbetween about eight buildings, all very thin but hard to manuver straight through with a fighter, X-wing or TIE.  Shazam was in the process of switching to missles as the group began to slow a little, allowing Art and the commander to creep to the front of the formation. 

Jen and Tokijin fanned out beside them while Jack and Gladius held their positions aggresivelly, ready for anything it looked.  "Everyone, lock on if you can..."  Shazam's tone was fearless as was the click of the missle's cache'.  The X-wings ahead of them appeared to be curious as to why they hadn't broken to circumnavigate them. 

On the ground, within the eightieth floor of the 'Tempra NNR Base,' a man, kind and slightly overweight was pacing about the many consoles within the room.  "Get those fighter's locked onto something...  Tell them the enemy isn't going to make it so easy on them, and that they'd better do some damage if they don't wanna be dead..."  This was Commander Baits.  A man of loyal contribution and overall celebreated campains; this was not one of his favorites though, as he shook his head in disbeleif at his own fighter pilots sitting duck tactic.  Maybe he hadn't spoken to them enough about 'free shots...'

"Dranit one is- now Dranit three...  Four...  Thats it, Dranit two is down, the entire flight has been destoryed sir..." Baits was still pacing when he heard this from his communications officer.  He stopped dead in his tracks, in disbeleif that it could be so easy to take out four X-wings...  But How?

In the skies above, two concussion missle launchers, eight laser cannons and two turrets had just unloaded upon the X-wings from the Sentinal alone.

"We didn't get this thing for nothing!" Darius jeered from one of the front turrets, he'd just switched from the back to accomidate the new threat.  Jack had pulled one of the commando's from the back in, asking-

"Who shoots really well?" and brought him to the other forward turret. Each Nazgul unloaded a single missle, speeding to its targets perfectly...  The X-wings had no chance whatsoever. 

"Delta, you may descend," Shazam informed everyone as he and the rest of Nazgul flew through the falling debris at full speed, preparing for their recover loop. 

"Alright..." Jack said and switched com's to the unit's holding room in the back.  "Everyone, listen up...  Grab onto something...  I mean, tight...  You've got three seconds..."  He clicked the com back in and took hold over the controls, pulling back the throttle to about twenty-five percent and putting on the air brakes as much could be allowed without forcing it off. 

Shazam nodded to the Sentinal as it began to descend in respect, and then thought to himself- here we go...

(Alright guys, now its your turn to create.  I've got your setting done, but you need to make the story, so lets ROCK!!)

 
-----------------------
*Flash Was Here...*

CMDR/ESN Shazam/Nazgul 1-1/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF/VEN (=A=) (=*SA*=) (=*MA*=) (=*FOCE*=) [LoM] [LSM] [VC:S] [DSM]

Shazam spent a long moment thinking on how long the upcoming dog fights would last, then ended the exagerated loop with the rest of the squadron.  The seven X-wings split into waves as they approached, three in the front, two in the middle, and a couple in the back for good measure.  The first row passed in between Nazgul Squadron harmlessly as they straightened out, while the second row got a few shots off that were seemingly as ineffective as the first rows' pass.  As for the final wave, Trevor had pulled up next to Shazam and the two got two burst into the same X-wing while Art took a shot at the farther one, narrowly missing it. 

"Rows one and two are pulling up behind us, Nazgul 1," Jen pointed out as they end their first barrage of enemy attack.  No damage sustained, Shazam thought.

"Right, don't run into anybody." Jack noted this with a grin as he pulled up with Gladius to engage the first coming row of enemy fighters.  The three X-wings were doing their best to get ahead of the rest of the group and take down flight one, but Jack wouldn't have it as he quickly rolled in behind him, his wingman like a shadow.

"Flight 2 firing..." he announced as both of the interceptors let out a series of burst into the backend of the farthest back X-wing.  Luckilly for the NR craft, he'd managed to switch his energy from the engines to the sheilds in time, and there was no initial hull damge, just an interesting light show in his rear-view mirrors.  Jack and Gladius backed down as the second row of enemy fighters began to close in on them. 

"That's us I suppose, Flight 3 engaging..." Jen sighed and quickly thrust the controls upwards, doing a manuver similar to Jack's while keeping Tokijin in her comfort zone.  With the first and second row combined, the NR craft were up to five fighters, all chasing after Nazgul's flight one. 

"This is Nazgul 1, flight one, let's split..."  Shazam had noted the approaching blips and then the petulant hum of the missle lock as he rolled left.  Art dropped back to join Jack and Gladius while Trevor followed Shazam, allowing just enough distance to move about freely while keeping whatever target he might come in contact with, within his own sights. 

As all of this transpired, there was an insurgency taking place within the NR base below.  Darius had managed to sneak around the buildings and evade the X-wing pursuers, subtly dropping into the NR hanger bay.  The commando that had been pulled out to fire one of the forward turrets was climbing out and jumping back to the exit ramp while Warren took his place, a kind of interested grin on his face. 

The buildings surrounding the Sentinal as it came in were darkended with exhaust and singe marks from fighter fire and take off heat.  The hanger that the group was actually coming into was a little messy.  It was empty save two unmanned X-wings in the far right corner, but the floor itself was littered with hoses, chords, tool kits and equipment arrays that stood a little over five feet tall.  At the side of each of these consoles, engineers of all sorts were rewiring and mending peices of fighters or rebuilding other equipment arrays to prep the more than likely wounded fighters.

While the width of the building was comprised of the hanger bay, the far wall appeared to be the command office and had a few lifts embedded in its wall.  The structure of the vast room was evident with several sturdy looking collumns, beams breaking off like vines into the ceiling.  If they wanted to severelly criple the building, the group of pilots knew how...

"This is Delta, and we are touching down.  Exit ramp is being lowered and the turrets will be manned..." DJ announced as he took the controls, his hands softly lowered the ship while the instruments in front of him glowed with a newly inspired efforvescene as the darkness enclosed the cockpit.  The engineers that had previously been hard at work, were now scurrying across the room as fast as possible, unholstering any pistols or revealing any dislosed weapons as they made haste towards the backwall.  There was a clink as Warren reported that he was in the turret and ready to go; Darius had begun to do the same. 

"GO, GO, GO!" The commander of the imperial army group bellowed as the engines became subdued and the sound of movement reverberated through the cabin and passenger room.  There was a burst of rifle fire and a sudden grunt as the first man down the ramp fell to NR gunmen.  Warren glanced through his own viewport and saw the dozen or so troops filing into command office, knocking out windows to create easy firing position while another ten took position behind consoles; the mechanics seemed to become brave and began to fire at the insurgents like it was what they'd been waiting for their whole lives. 

"This is Delta turret one, you now have cover fire..." the old pilot said into the open com units of the army group.  There was the sound of the machines within the turret turning about to twist him into position and the a sonic boom.  Withought any warning to the command booth, Warren opened fire with a direct line of sight, an unbeleivable roar breaking out because of the echo enhanced room.  The glass panes that had not been broken out suddenly exploded and walls crushed in on the troops; those who were looking at the ship as it opened fire were probably blinded as it was an intense abstract to the usual gloomy, musty look of the hanger.

At the exit ramp, the commander gave Warren a thumbs up he couldn't see and exited along with his troops behind whatever cover they could find. 

"Nice..." Dj said as he began to switch power sheilds, no longer needing anything for the engine. 

"Lets not try kill what energy we have Dj," Darius cautioned as he strapped himself up, not taking any chances; he'd felt his fair share of ship shudder... 

In the skies above, it had erupted into a kind of ballet, one fighter barreling out of the way of another while trying to take aim at yet another.  Shazam was still being closely followed by Trevor while pursuing one of several indistguishable fighters.  The only two that could be recognized where those with scorch marks about them, their sheilds already severaly weakened by the frontal and rear intense fire. 

"Hold back a little," Shazam almost whispered into the com ans he pulled a tighter barrel roll to the left, narrowly missing an incoming X-wing with linked fire.  The X-wing he'd been pursuing was one of interesting difficulty, going at a snail's pace to weave in and out of traffic, which threw Shazam off substantially beause of the amount of control it took to keep at this speed and still try to get a shot off.

Trevor sat back as he was told and watched as Shazam jumped out of the dogfight, then gained a couple hundred yards before coming back in at a good fifty percent throttle.  The one he'd been pursuing was doing his usual frogger style flying as Nazgul One flew through the mess of fighters with his own cannon fire linked and opened up on the innocent looking X-wing.  Three full cannon burst straight into the cockpit area of the fighter... 

"The sheilds are down, Nazgul three, move in..." Shazam kept his speed and barreled over the stunned X-wing as Trevor came from the opposite way, firing abbrasively into the rear end.  This threw the pilot into an even more interesting tactic: panic. 

"Watch it, we got a spaz," Trevor announced, breaking off his own pursuit as the X-wing became ecstatic, gunning it to full throttle, attempting to exit the dogfight as quickly as possible.  However, as the sphere of fighter combat continued to ensue, the freaked X-wing drove himself right inbetween the fire of one of his allied pilots on Gladius's rear-end.  This was the same X-wing that had its fire linked before and dealt the same devestating damage to his own fighter, causing it to rupture at the foils and explode with a crunch.  The fellow X-wing flew threw the explosion, catching a strong peice of fusalage in his own underbelly.  Gladius roamed the sidelines to safety as his own former pursuer became his prey.

"Nazgul eight, don't be afraid to fire," Jen breathed as she jerked about, avoiding the rapid fire from two x-wings.  Tokijin seemed unable to choose between the two enemy craft as Art pulled away from wherever it was that he'd been caught up the whole time. 

"Nazgul two, locked on..." his voice was calm as the sights in front of him turned red and he clicked the missle's ignition.  The NR craft shuddered and seemed to swing slightly; Jen was in the process of diving straight into the core of the city she was flying above while Tokijin regained her composure and opened linked fire on the X-wing from her side.  Art kept his missle lock on his target as the wobbly craft tried to pursue Jen into the midst of the towers.  The man within this particular X-wing had been extremely rattled by the first missle and was suffereing from some kind of scewed vison.  Art switched target's to match Tokijins and locked on, letting of another missle into the back of the similarilly surprised fighter.  The sheild had just blinked out as Art's missle hit, sending the X-wing straight into a building to the left, its right half cutting through a line of dark windows and then suddenly into a support pillar.  This didn't rip the wing off though, just rung it around the post and into the actual building, like a hoola-hoop around someone's waist. 

"I'm comin back up," Jen wasn't quite gritting her teeth but she seemed to have lost a lot of strength in her voice as she pulled the controls to the sky.  The weary X-wing seemed to have no trouble navigating the area she had just got down flying though, but followed her in a daze despite the fact he suspected some other enemy fighters in the area.  As the two pulled out of this uncomfortable manuver, both Art and Tokijin took what remaining sheilds the X-wing had down.  Within the cockpit of the poor individual, the systems were suddenly failing; there had been a leak from one of the exhaust lines and it had been permeating the surface of the cockpit ever since Art's initial attack.  The eyes of the NR pilot began to close as the rest of the engines lost their their power and began to malfunction accordingly.  The imperial pilots didn't quite understand what was happening as the X-wing suddenly dropped from the sky without any sign of struggle.

Jen had disappeared from the scene completely, assisting Gladius in the destruction of his target while Trevor and Shazam went to work on a fighter that had decided to pursue Jack; Art and Tokijin followed suit by pursuing a high flying X-wing that had been basically surveying the battle the entire time.

"NR Resistance remaining?" Shazam queried as he pulled into a sharp turn, attempting to get the evading fighter into his weapon's envelope. 

"Well, I see four..." he paused as Gladius and Jen finally dropped their target," make that three fighters remaining." Art finished up his summary with a sharp burst of fire to his own target. 

Shazam was pretty satisfied, knowing the only reason it had been so simple to take them was because the two X-wings that hadn't been pursued the entire time were only doing hit and run operations throughout the dogfight. 

"Okay, lets end this..." Shazam was adjacent to the horizon as he finished out the dragging motion around a tall speeder garage.  Trevor seemed to be thinking similar to him and broke off from his side to try and get to the top of the building before the X-wing began another one of its long drags around the many skyscrapers.  All of the NR pilots had an awesome advantage: they knew where everything was.  This allowed them to fly at slow speeds while their pursuer's struggled to keep up with them.  The city itself was full of random connections and undesignated layerings.  Shazam kept his eyes on the prize as he ducked below a skywalk with a retreating market skiff at its side.  The imperial's had noticed that everyone seemed to stay in doors, battles frequented the area and no one wanted to be in the middle of it.  Who would?

"This is Nazgul three, I have a lock," Trevor seemed pretty proud of himself all the while a sad impression was left on his squadron mates as he swept down on the X-wing as if he were death from above.  This thought stuck to him as he let a single missle go into the upper portion of the fighter...  Shazam had taken this time to close in and begin rapid fire to the fuselage once again...  This fighter had put most of his energy into rear shielding, which left his head and lower portion totally bare.  Stuck inbetween Trevor's missle lock Shazam's incesent firing, the X-wing took his chances with arpartment buildings, a narrow space about fifteen feet across seperated them.  Shazam struck one last time, a combine burst to the back end where the sheilds actually protected the craft.  This final push jumped the fighter into one of the apartment walls as it was perpendicular to the ground, flying at about fifty percent through.  There was no more damage or sheild depletion to be done as it lost control within the two walls and exploded miserably. 

"Well done pilot," the commander of Nazgul pulled out of the sleazy area with a slight bit of difficulty, but then tasted the open air as he pulled out of the snare. 

"All fighters have been extinguished, Nazgul one..." Jen announced.  The last two NR pilots had been done in some how, and Shazam didn't really care...  They'd done well, and now they simply needed to wait.

(There is your clearing up post.)
 
-----------------------
*Flash Was Here...*

CMDR/ESN Shazam/Nazgul 1-1/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF/VEN (=A=) (=*SA*=) (=*MA*=) (=*FOCE*=) [LoM] [LSM] [VC:S] [DSM]

Darius scanned across the hanger in the turret.  Nothing stirred once the hanger command center had been destroyed.  Something was wrong.

"This is Darius, how are the commandos doing securing the area?"

"This is Colonol Lulansk," answer the veteran commanding the group.  "The hanger is secure."

"Excel--," was all Darius could get out before the shuttle shook violently.  The lights and power were gone.  He unstrapped himself and ran outside.  The perpetrator was dealt with before his foot left the ship.  Scanning the hanger, Darius discovered the smoking carcass of a Chagrian, sitting behind an ion cannon of a beat up Y-wing.

Darius went back up the ramp and met Warren.  "How long until you can get this thing back running?"

"Depends on the extent of the damage," he replied.  "I don't know if we've blown any circuits or not."

"Fix it."  He went and retrieved the rest of his weaponry he had stored in the pilot's locker.  Then, he proceeded, leaving the ship and Warren.  Pivoting on his foot, he turned back, as if forgetting something, "DJ, you comin'?"

"Yep," the man replied, walking down the ramp, armed.

"How are we going to proceed colonol?" Darius shouted.

"Well, I plan to leave four of my men here, to hold the position," he answered, trying to surprise Darius from behind.  It appeared to have failed.  "Then-" Darius put a silencing fingure up.

"I hear it too," Lulansk commented.  "Prepare for contact, we've got company!"  He got the words out in just enough time, three large holes blew in the walls and the NR soldiers now had four entrances to choose from.  Three of them they had just made. 

Darius' instinct took over.  Grabbing Lulansk and DJ, he bolted to the nearest cover.  Blaster fire erupted from both sides.  Activating the lens on his gun, he raised it above the cover and fired with precise accuracy, using the screen built into his helmet visor.

Lulansk saw the devastation he was laying down on the enemy without revealing himself and said, "I wish those were Imperial standard issue."

********

As a medic tended to the gash on his arm, Baits spoke to his commanding officer, "I admit they got the element of surprise, but we've got more men.  Throw everthing we've got in the top levels at them."
 
-----------------------
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men to do nothing. --Edmund Burke

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

FM/SCRW Darius Pursius/Nazgul 3-2/mSSD Atrus/Defensive Fleet/VEN/VE (=A=)

Darius was tutoring DJ through commando hand signals as fast as he could.  They had decided to make com silence and go by hand signals, to confuse, and hide from the enemy.  The young pilot had already been through the training and never forgot a thing.

"What's this again?" DJ asked, putting his two index fingures together, moving them forward, and splitting them. 

"That'd be a double flanking manuever.  We're probably not going to use that one."

"And this was?"  raising a flat hand in the air, he moved it a diagonal, every few inches, putting the palm of his hand horizontal to the floor and raising it back up to a vertical.

"We'll call that our tag and shoot.  When we do that, we'll line up in a right or left echelon.  The last person runs, tags the next, a head to the front, and lays down cover fire.  Everybody in between is already doing that.  It's a strategy to push the enemy back.  The last person runs, tags, and shoots.  Constant fire will throw the enemy off on how many of us there really is."

DJ nodded, understanding this new information as best he could.

Lulansk gave the signal to move out.  They closed in on the doors, and both Darius and the colonol called for immediate cover.  Everybody scattered.  A sonic rifle sounded, sprawling a commando on his back.  A second rifle was heard.  This time, it was armor piercing, and the commando didn't last long.  A loud hiss echoed in the hanger.  "Trandoshan bounty hunters!" screamed one of the commandos.

Darius, DJ, and Lulansk were at the point, hiding behind a fallen support beam.  Lulansk gave the signal for a double flank, and that he, Darius, and DJ would provide a distraction.

DJ thought fast, and shot out the power terminal.  The lights went out, and it was dark outside of the hanger.  The city glow provided little light.

"Trandoshans double as nocturnal," Lulansk commented in a whisper.

"Oh, well, at least they're a little surprised," he whispered back.

The two Hunters slowly pushed forward, their clawed feet clicking with every step, and their tongues lashed in the air, tasting it.  A commando tripped over some rubble and the two fired in that direction.  The other flank fired into their backs, and one of the reptiles quickly returned fire, shrugging off his burning back.

"Okay," Darius said, in the coldest, most erie evil voice DJ had ever heard out of the man.  He stood up and charged the two.  Two short blades lashed out of his wrists, and Darius jumped onto one of the reptiles back.  He could only get the blades halfway into the creatures shoulders.

With one strong heave, Darius was thrown off its back.  The Hunter leapt, landing on top of Darius.  It grabbed his wrist, and was forcing the blades to his throat.  The power suit built in his armor kicked in, but was only successful in slowing the powerful Trandoshan.

The other hunter finally fell from blaster fire, and DJ leapt from cover to help his comrade.  He pulled out his pistol and fired three shots into the creatures head.  The fourth one was placed in its back.  It let back on its hold, and Darius freed an arm. 

Two strong right hooks to the head, a left to the abdomin with a blades still extended from his wrists brought the creature to its knees.  DJ walked up, a finished it off with blast to the back of its small, yet thick skulled head.

"These bounty hunters weren't hired by the NR," concluded a panting Darius.  His tone was emotionless.  "They were for me, and somebody knows I'm here."

"How, nobody knows who's on this mission except for us Imperials," said DJ.  He and the rest were confused in the matter, still unclear on the history of the pilot standing in front of them.

"Damn," muttered Darius.  "I didn't keep the channel clear.  I mentioned my name, and somebody was listening."  Fool! Darius thought to himself. 

"May not have been to terribly bad they came though," exclaimed Lulansk.  "Come see."

All of them crowded into the corridor and Darius circulated clean air through his helmet as he layed his eyes and smelled the stench of death.  A majority of the soldiers had died facing the far end of the corridor.  "Look," said one of the commandos, grabbing a dead Sullustan by the color of his combat suit.  Its face appeared to have been knawed on.

"Full alert soldiers," announced Darius to the group.  "I just made you mission harder."

************

"Trandoshan bounty hunters cleared the 24th thru 31st floors, before climbing to the 32nd hanger floor?" Baits tried to confirm. 

A blood soaked Wookiee stood next to the door, holding a reptillian head.  He grumbled.

"There were three you say?  And the victim's head you hold in your hand was an unlucky staggler?" questioned Baits.

The Wookiee nodded, then grumbled some more.  He was the only survivor.  He had accepted and won the challenge of the now deceased bounty hunter.

An officer stepped up and saluted, "report sir!"

"Proceed."

"All that encountered the bounty hunters died sir.  Which adds up to fifty-three deaths.  No survivors."  The Wookiee roared and waved the head in the air.  The officer quickly apologized.

"Alright people!" Baits said in a shouting voice.  "No more slip ups.  They're almost here, and our visiting friends just helped them out.  I don't know what they were after, but they won't last long against whoever is at our gates.  Fortify this position.  We can't retreat.  We're not welcome down in the streets."  The first five floors had been rigged with anti-personnel explosive, just to keep the Hutt supporting population away.

-----------------------
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men to do nothing. --Edmund Burke

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

FM/SCRW Darius Pursius/Nazgul 3-2/mSSD Atrus/Defensive Fleet/VEN/VE (=A=)

Tokijin flew her Interceptor a little farther behind Jen's. Looking for a safe place to land was hard in this god-forsaken place. Tokijin contacted Jen.

"Have you spotted a place to land yet? I haven't seen any place." Tokijin had kept her eyes open but then again her vision wasn't exactly 20/20.

"Yea, I have. There's a parking garage a little further ahead. It's big enough to land in. Follow me." Tokijin looked up ahead and saw it. The building showed them the uninviting darkness from the outside and the last lights of day revealed the sign. "Private Parking."

Jen steered downward, Tokijin following closely behind, heading toward the huge building. They flew toward the entrance and entered, darkness surrounding them as they flew in silence.

"Look for something big." Jen flew up the ramp up to the next floor leaving Tokijin to explore the current floor. She drove up and down the lanes slowly, marveling at the machines the people on this planet used to get around. Nothing like she had seen before.

"Odd." She mumbled to herself.

Jen finally said, "Toki, I found a good hiding spot. Go up four floors from your current spot."

Tokijin turned around and headed up the ramp to the next floor. This one had a gang of people huddled in the corner. She went up the next three floors and found Jen toward the back. She landed in the lane a across from Jen's spot. Tokijin jumped out of her Interceptor and looked at her surroundings. Exhaust filled the air with the strong smell of gasoline. The smells made her gag. Jen walked over to her.

"We need to get to the hanger. It's not too far from here." Jen looked around and spotted stairs. "It wouldn't be a bad idea to blend in a little if you ever find the chance."

Tokijin started walking toward the stairs with Jen following closely behind. Flickering bulbs lighted the stairway and they started walking quickly down the stair. Tokijin slowed slightly and looked to the side.

"We need to come up with a pl-" Jen stopped walking as a gust of air blew her hair back. Tokijin had jumped onto the railing and was sliding down it into the darkness, gaining speed. Jen laughed and ran down after her. Tokijin had jumped off at the landing and was looking around by the time Jen caught up.

"Sorry. I've always wanted to do that." Toki smiled sheepishly.

Jen smiled and said, "Now, with all silliness aside. We need to figure out how to get around the city, at night I might add, without attracting suspicion."

Tokijin thought for a moment and then said slowly, "On the second floor there were some guys in the corner. We could always knock 'em out and take what they have." Jen considered this for a moment.

"How many do you think there was?"

"About five or six when I saw them last. They all were drunk."

Jen nodded, "That could work. What floor are we on?"

Tokijin opened a door that led back into the garage and peeked inside. "This is the right floor." Tokijin slowly walked inside and spotted the group. "Yea there are only two of them. They can't see us from the angle there at. Let's go."

Jen nodded and stepped inside. It was dark and the only light came from the buildings outside. They walked over to the two drunkies and smiled innocently.

The first one saw them and grinned hungrily. "What r' two girls doin' in a plerce' like dis one?" He hiccuped.

Toki smirked and Jen said, "Looking for something."

The second one pondered for a moment. "Lookin' fer what?" And swayed from side to side.

Jen laughed and Toki finished, "A disguise." With that said she advanced forward and reared back her leg and swung forward hitting the second guy in leg, breaking his knee. Reactions slowed from the beer, the first guy had no time to act before Jen had him knocked out using what she knew about the pressure points in the neck.

Before the second guy fainted from the pain, he spit out, "You guys suck." And fell over.

Tokijin chuckled as she knelt beside the broken knee guy and looked for anything on him that was useful. It was too easy. The guy was wearing a trench coat. She peeled it off him and stood up to look at it. Jen was looking at the other when another smell wafted into the air.

"Don't these guys ever bathe!? They smell like something that crawled out of the sewer!"

"Yea, they do but we don't really have a choice." Jen didn't find anything useful on the other guy and then peeled another trench coat off the other.

Tokijin put on the nasty smelling coat and looked in the pockets and pulled out a jug of Corellian ale out of one. "It might not smell nice but it will hide my suit pretty good." Jen's had the same effect.

They ran back to the stairs and went down to the first floor and stepped out of the disgusting garage into the chilly night and ran in the direction of the hanger.


-----------------------
Nazgul Squadron

SC/FM Tokijin/Nazgul 7/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/Denfensive Fleet/VEN/VE (=*A*=)

~ Tokijin
~

In a darkened room, sparks from damaged control panels sporadically lighting areas, Baits stood with his clothes trashed, his face dreary and depressed, and finally his base destroyed all around him. The man had known for a long time that there was nothing worse than being the last one alive... He stood in silence for a long moment, after the near death experience he'd returned to the control center to find the corpses of his colleagues and a gaping hole that looked directly upon the war-torn terrain he'd been fighting to protect for some reason. He didn't want this. Why was he even here? One more silver star? He sniffed gingerly, smiled, taking out his blaster and about to put it to his temple when a beep rang out within the room.  The man glanced to his right, gun still head-high and then he lowered it realizing it was somone trying to contact him.  He wasn't the last one...  There was still someone he could help...

Outside, a little over a mile off, three imperial pilots were in the process of finding a way of the roof they thought was secure enough to land on.

"So... Think there's a staircase maybe?" Trevor asked as both Shazam and Art recognized the hatch they were trying to break into was a little stronger than they'd anticipated.

"Doubtful." Art pushed up on his knee's and jumped from his crouched position into a kind of jog to the edge of the tower. From the altitude they were at he could easily be thrown to his death, but he didn't seem to care and dived to the ground just before the ledge, letting his head fall over the side to observe the building all the way down to the streets.

"What do you got Art?" Shazam released his hands from the pavement and lifted a knee so he sat in a half Indian style. Art turned his head to meet his shoulder, the wind had picked up significantly so he began yelling-

"Access Ports! Along the wall! Anyone got a grappling hook or something?" Trevor suddenly had one as if waiting for such a question to arise.

"Always carry extra equipment..." he said as he crept toward Art on the ledge. Shazam's hair was blowing about everywhere so he decided he'd best put something over his head before it frowed out and reminded his crew of an intergalactic rock band. As Shazam ran back to his fighter amoungst the energy routers and small antenna with blinking lights, Art let his arm fall away from the ledge to get a better angle of lower stories. Within the massive cuts in the walls there appeared to be steps for repair, and within those little crevices for securing ropes. This is what Art was aiming for. Trevor sat back and watched, pretty low as to make sure he didn't go flying off of the roof either.

Shazam returned with a light stocking cap he kept in his pilots kit and rubbed his hands, out of habit rather than necessity; his gloves squeaked sweetly as he did so, but this floated off in the wind as it increased in severity.

"Think I got it!" Art's flight jacket was flapping about wildly as he said this and Trevor tried to hold it down while remaining secure to the ground. Shazam could hear something else besides Art's voice and Trevor's struggle though, and turned his head to look the opposing way. The haze that consumed the building was pretty tricky, bouncing light about the place and letting you think it was still dusk while it was really getting quite dark...

"EVERYBODY DOWN!" Shazam screamed into the howl and grabbed Trevor, throwing him to the pavement while Art didn't have too much time to move. The mist above began to swirl as a massive transport broke through the cloud and flew through both shields of fog, letting of an incredible gust. The engine noise was insurmountable as Shazam again screamed for everyone to grab onto something. The SC kept his head down, the air pressure immense on his head as he was being pushed back to the ledge, his feet meeting with it and holding him in place. Trevor was rolled into a ball, not allowing himself to turn at all or he would be over the ledge. The wind kept up for nearly ten seconds and then the gust was past with a few little aftershocks as Shazam found his bearing and tried taking a head count.

"Where's Art?" Shazam queried to Trevor as he was the only who he could still see. They gave each other an odd, knowing look then flung themselves onto the ledge and glanced over the half foot tall guard. As they glanced down there didn't appear to be much there, but then Shazam noticed the handle of the grappling hook cast about an L shaped antenna. Shazam's eyes followed the chord as it fell through the harsh wind and beyond his line of site.

"Don't be afraid now, just hold on tight," Shazam seemed to whisper to Trevor as he grabbed hold of the weak looking antenna and suddenly groped the chord with one hand, then removed his original hand from the antenna and placed it on the chord as well, finding himself swinging for a moment, then it was still and Shazam nodded to Trevor and began to descend. He moved slowly, clutching with both his hands and feet, even rapping one foot loosely about the chord in case he lost his grip. But time rolled away as he met the side of the tower, the massive slits going down for miles it seemed. The imperial pilot glanced up to see a large square hole where a grate had been removed by pistol fire and a grinning man holding himself in the corner of it. A few steps farther and the slope would increase to become perfectly vertical. Art had his leg outstretched with the chord in the crevice at the center of his boot while his hands held the chord tight against him. Art gave Shazam a little slack to all him to reach the little steps in the side of the building and then tightened it back up as he noticed Trevor struggling slightly above.

Shazam climbed up the little steps as the remaining pilot slid down the wire impatiently, suffering now cuts or burns from it though. The SC pulled himself into one of the corners and bellowed into the wind," Done this before, have ya?" And Trevor grinned back as he pulled the same maneuver to get hold of the steps. Art held his place until Nazgul three was secure in one of the corners then re-grappled his chord to one of the steps, leaving it to shiver in the wind as he escaped into the musty darkness behind him.

The pilots entered this seemingly dark and slightly abonded area to some very, very loud machines that seemed to make everything vibrate. All three of them had managed to stop before stepping off of the landing and glanced downward. Below the massive tray and pipe leading to the exit they'd just entered, nothingness lay waiting. Four massive tubes led from the middle the point of the building to the very bottom, each having hundreds of smaller pipes leading to small clean water containers or little filters made of old cement.

"Shall we take the lift?" Trevor pointed to service lift elevator two flights below and Shazam and Art nodded in agreement. Just as they were a flight down and across from their shabbily created entrance, the pipes groaned and a burst of steam shot out of the tube. Shazam, Trevor, and Art all glanced at each other with a sigh of relief, realizing a few moments longer on that walkway and they'd have been melted...

"There goes our rope..." Art groaned and they continued their walk to the elevator.
 
-----------------------
*Flash Was Here...*

CMDR/ESN Shazam/Nazgul 1-1/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF/VEN (=A=) (=*SA*=) (=*MA*=) (=*FOCE*=) [LoM] [LSM] [VC:S] [DSM]

Trevor was climbing down the rope and was happy when he arrived at the vent they were climbing into. He swung from the rope into a corner of the vent, and looked at his hands. They were cut and burnt from the rope.

"Done this before have ya?" Shazam asked with a quick grin.

"Yeah, well..not exactly like this, but close enough to know what I`m doing. Never cut my hands up like that before." He said. Proceeding to spit on his hands and wipe them on his flight suit, He turned to follow Shazam and Art down the tunnel.

They arrived at a landing in a large circular room, with four large tubes in the middle, and many smaller tubes sprouting from them that carried water to different parts of the building. He looked down and couldn`t see the bottom, but 2 flights down he could see a lift. After pointing it out to Shazam and Art, they continued downward.

Ducking under a pipe, Trevor caught his hand on one of the smaller ones that wrapped themselves around the walls.

"OW! Shit..these are hot. They probably have steam in `em." He said, stating the obvious and rubbing his burnt and cut hand. He heard a cough from ahead of him, but wasn't sure if it was one of the older pilots stifling a laugh or actually coughing. He laughed himself, and continued to follow. When they got down one flight, just a little behind Trevor the pipes along the wall started groaning and creaking. He turned to look at them, and jumped pretty good when one of them sent out a large jet of high pressured steam. He then let out a sigh of relief, realizing the fact that if he had taken any longer to reach the landing, he would have been hit by the jet of steam, possibly pushing him out into the 'void', or at least badly scalding him. They continued down to the next level with minimum talking, other then Trevor occasionally muttering a swear under his breath when he touched his burnt hand to his flight suit.

(I know its short..I`ll probly work on it more tomorrowe..i`m just super tired from stuff today...i had like..49 spellign errors in it or somthing, so I`ll just edit it tomorrow.)
-----------------------
FM/SCRW/Trevor Evenson/Nazgul 3(1-3)/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)

"Wait!" Trevor called out again, this time Shazam stopping himself from getting in the pipe. "Shazam..did you see a speeder out there? Prefurrably a convertable one, but a hard-top would also work."

"Yeah, there was a hard top parked near the building? Why?" Shazam asked, still braced on the pipe. "You got somthing in mind?"

"Well, sorta. First, I wanna know if stealing is permitted for Imperial pilots, specificly under extream circumstances." Trevor asked...fidgeting with a small zip-pocket on his flight suit.

"I`d call these extream circumstances." Art said with a shrug. He walked over and opened the door a little bit, so Trevor could slide out. Shazam followed, not quite knowing what the new pilot had in mind. Trevor approached a speeder that was parked right close to the building. He knelt down and un-zipped the pocket, pulling out a small set of lockpicks.

"So we`re going to steal a speeder, and use it to get up there?" Shazam asked, slightly impressed at how quickly the pilot had unlocked the door.

"Yeah. Hang on, an alarm is going to go off in a sec. Anyone got some wire cutters? A knife? Anything?" Trevor asked, checking his own pockets.

"Here." Art said, handing Trevor a knife. Trevor swung the door open, and dived inside, grabbing a bunch of wires from under the dashboard and cutting three of them. One stopped the alarm, and the others he used to hotwire the vehicle.

"Who wants to drive?" He asked, sliding into the back seat and putting his tools away. Shazam got into the pilots seat, and Art go into the passenger`s seat. Trevor handed back the knife, and leaned back in his seat, zipping up his pocket slowly.

(sorry, i got rushed at the end)
 
-----------------------
FM/SCRW/Trevor Evenson/Nazgul 3(1-3)/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)

Trevor foolishly un-buckled his seatbelt while reaching for his pistol, and was thrown hard accross the speed when Shazam made a tight right turn, to avoid hitting a building with mirror glass walls. He stayed in the left seat and buckled the belt there, then rolled down his window and stuck his arm out, keeping it close to the speeder. He pulled the trigger, sending the first bolt towards the glass building, ands the second one into one of the headlights of one of the following speeders. In the distance behind them he could see part of the wall of the building shatter.

A few blaster bolts flew towards them, most bounching off the trunk of the speeder, but one of them stricking the rear window and burning itself into the back of Art`s seat.

"Damn Trevor, be more careful." Art said, turning to look at Trevor.

"Sorry, I`ll work on it." Trevor said, with a sheepish grin on his face. He fired a few more shots out of the now-broken rear window, hitting one of the speeders windshield, and blowing a hole in the grill of the speeder next to it. The speeder who`s windshield had been hit swearved hard to the right when the bolt hit the `shield, and bounched off the concrete wall of a building, sending a shower of sparks and debreis to the ground far below. It richocheted of the building, accross the narrow street, and head on into a large transpot ship, which was taking up most of the lane. The explosion wasn`t very big, probebly not even noticable by the transport.

"Well, thats one down, two to go." Trevor said, reloading the energy pack on his pistol.

"If only you could do that much damage while we we`re in the sky." Shazam said jokingly, making a tight left turn into an ally way, bounching the rear-end of the speeder off a wall, but quickly straightened out.

Trevor just laughed at the comment, and turned back to his gunner position. One of the speeders had missed the ally, while the other one had turned in and was now picking up speed. Trevor shot once, catching the pilot of the speeder off guard, who, attempting to dive under the bolt, ran head on into a small walkway connecting the two buildings. The walkway tore in two, and the nose of the speeder could be seen sticking out of the walkway. Suddendly a large explosion forced the nose of the speeder out of the walkway, and it plummeted to the ground below.

"Well, we should be good for a little while now, but I`ll Keep a lookout." Trevor said, putting the pistol on his lap and pulling a flight glove out of his pocket to put on his hand. "I don`t know why I didn`t think of this before."
 
-----------------------
FM/SCRW/Trevor Evenson/Nazgul 3(1-3)/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)

***During the flight and Fight***

Trevor was only half paying attention to the comm chatter. He was looking behind them to make sure no followers were on them. He was jerked back to the comm when he heard blaster fire in the background. Apperently he had come in pretty late, and was just turning around when Shazam hit the brakes and shot straight downwards. He wasn`t afraid, but merly clutched his blaster closer to his chest, and a small grin spread across his face. As they shot farther down, he began to remember a time liek this, when he was plunging straight down through a dark tunnel at high speeds.

"O shit! Did you see how close I was to that speeder?" Trevor laughed over the comm as he sped down the tunnel, swearving left anf right to avoid traffic as he raced Reaper down the tunnel.

"Yeah man. That wasn`t cool..for the guy in the other speeder." Reaper joked, grinding along the side of the tunnel to avoid a transport. His hotrod shot out from beside the transport, now slightly ahead of Trevor.

Trevor hammered on the accelerator, and could see lights flashing behind him.

"O crap..cops. What do you think they will do when they find a couple of NR pilots streetracing out here? Hell, We`re using Corrilia`s main highway as our personal playground." He said calmly, knowing exactly what Reaper would say.

"I have no clue, but I sure as hell don`t wanna find out." He replied, and they both sped down the tunnel, towards the exit. They split in opposite directions and hid behind some large buildings. As the police slowly passed by, Trevor couldn`t help but laughing. He was mocking them, having his headlights on, reving his engine, and practicaly waving at them. After they were out of site, Trevor pulled slowly out of the allyway and turned his comm back on. He was met by a loud blast of music from Reaper`s sterio.

"Damn Reaper, just about defened me. Ok. Well, I guess that just about wraps up our illegal activities for tonight. How about we go park the speeder`s and get some rest. We got a bigger sized mission tomorrow, and i think Szar would be pissed if we weren`t ready.

He was jerked back to reality when the speeder he was riding in bounced off a wall, then skidded to a stop on the ground. They could see blaster bolts fly down the ally they were in, and they all piled out of the car. Shazam tossed one of his guns behind him, and Art skillfully caught it.

They ran to the corner of the building, and Shazam peaked around the corner. Just as he stuck his head around, Jack jumped to the ground from around the corner, and was followed by the form of Gladius, who had just taken a volly of bolts to his body. Jack stood up and dusted himself off, then turned to look for Gladius.

"He...He saved me. He ot infront of me to take the shots..." Jake said quietly, and Trevor barely heard it. Shazam grabed one of Gladius` arms and dragged him around the corner.

Shazam and Jack had started taking the body towards the speeder, when three armed men jumped from around the corner, blasters trained on Trevor and Art.

"Ok Trevor, just don`t do anything stui-" Art started to whisper to Trevor, but was cut off as Trevor quickly fired at two of the men. Both shots made contact, but one was only to the leg of one man, and the other was to the chest of the second man.

Art quickly fired on the third man, then together they hit the first who had only been dropped. Shazam and Jack came running at the sound, but arrived only to find Trevor checking pockets on the men while Art stood silently, shaking his head.

"Looks like we got us a petty thief in our squadren." Art said to Shazam with a little laugh.

"No, just a street kid." Trevor said, standing up with a few hundred credit notes in his hand, and three blasters, a small vibroblade, and the keys to a speeder.. "Here Jack..you do what you want with the credits and the blasters. I`ll just check if the speeder is nearby.

"It should be..I saw them pull up in it just down the ally." Jack said, taking the blasters from Trevor and pointing down the ally and nodding.

Trevor hit a button on the key and saw a set of headlights turn on, and the sound of an engine roar to life. Sounds nice...

Trevor ran down the ally, and arrived at the speeder. When he arrived, his mouth dropped open. It was the speeder he used to own on Corillia. The exact same one. To be sure, He opened the door and checked under the dash. Sure enough, he found his initials carved right where he put them when he bought the car. He started it up and cruised slowly down the allyway, arriving back with Shazam, Art, and Jack.

"I`ll follow. Havn`t driven this thing in so long...It`s going to be a shame to leave `er behind when we go..." He said, a smile crossing his face, but flicking away when he remembered what had just happened.

"Ok, Lets go people!" Shazam exclaimed, and the others piled into the stolen speeder.
 
-----------------------
FM/SCRW/Trevor Evenson/Nazgul 3(1-3)/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)

Shazam ignored the joke in the background and had Gladius up against the speeder's driver's side seat.  Simply by observing the blaster wounds, he knew the man was dead.  Two bolts had sunk themselves into his chest while another one seized his belly.  The final bolt was to the right side of his head, the cranial cavity slightly distorted with what was completely unrecognizable on its front side.  Gladius's face had been obliterated by the blast and after Shazam checked any and all vital signs in some distant hope for anything, he turned to Art who was pacing back to the vehicle; Shazam shook his head and pulled off the pilot's flight jacket, covering his face and chest the best he could.  Shazam motioned for his flight member to go to the other side of the speeder to help lift Gladius over the seat so that atleast they would have the body for a full, respectful funeral.  Jack was watching nearby, a little shaken, but not by the gunfire or even the fact a flight member was dead.

"C'mon Jack, we gotta go..."  Shazam was securing the man now and motioned to the center cushion in the front.  Jack dropped his head and said quietly-

"I had a gun...  Right here." he indicated his arm...  "And here I thought the guy was annoying...  I'll let them know it was...  My fault..." He wasn't looking into the backseat for fear of meeting the single visible, lifeless and grotesce eye on Gladius's face.  Shazam sighed deeply, sensing the anguish within Jack.  For as long as he'd known Nebulax, he'd known that he tried his best and did everything as he saw fit; failure had never been an option. 

"Listen..." Art decided to take a seat in the vehicle and listen as Shazam waved Jack over.  "Sometimes things happen...  They're out of our control, and theres nothin to do but move on.  You can chose to act like this is some sign that you are not what you could be, or you can go on ahead..." Jack had reached Shazam and the two looked eachother in the eyes.  There was the sound of a seperate speeder and Trevor was letting everyone know he was ready.  Shazam held his stare no longer, nodding his head and conclusion and said," Ok, lets go people!"  Shazam didn't have to turn back to get Jack to take a seat because he was already there.  He'd decided.

The ride to the hanger was quiet, no one really saying anything and Art felt the silence meaningful so he decided not to ask for anymore check-ups over the com.  It was as if some kind of deep-speaking music was to be played, and its absence created a gossomer mist over the minds of the pilots.  Shazam kept himself straight at the controls and made sure his eyes didn't desert his target: the now black NR base, in all its sepulchral glory. 

Approaching the eight-hundred meter mark, Shazam noticed movement all around him, throughout the town in fact.  The base remained in its rightful place at his twelve o'clock, so Shazam decided to take a look upwards.  A chill went down his back as he immedietly recognized the form of X-wings patrolling the area.  Three, Shazam counted, but he knew there had to be more throughout the area, keeping the skies secure...  Thats one mission objective down, he noted then began to feel trapped some how.  Or maybe he wasn't trapped yet...

"There's something wrong..." Shazam returned his attention to the looming edifice ahead.  "Where did they get the fighters?  We destroyed almost all of them..."

"Your right...  You think another NR base has been notified?" Art querried and then Jack caught on and was pointing his finger toward the open hanger bay, exclaiming-

"LOOK!  The sentinal!" Upon catching sight of the decimated carrier, Shazam immedietly pulled back on the throttle and hung close to a building for whatever shadowy coverage he could get. 

"Ask Jen where she's at..." Shazam felt his fears coming to life and now wondered if he had lost more than one member of his squadron today...

(Better get whatever it is your doing done Jen, or atleast post it and then say we called you up...  I say we join forces and make way to the hanger slightly more heavilly armed...  Get some more weapons maybe?)
 
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*Flash Was Here...*

CMDR/ESN Shazam/Nazgul 1-1/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF/VEN (=A=) (=*SA*=) (=*MA*=) (=*FOCE*=) [LoM] [LSM] [VC:S] [DSM]

Shazam felt himself becoming frustrated with the short stack of problems around him, and he knew he was, and he also knew that he couldn't think when he was like that.  Part of his ongoing self-therapy was the theory that frustration led to ultimate, sure death.  The thought of an inevitable doom hanging on his shoulders because of his own decision to let things run him over, well...  That just made him even angrier.  Since he wasn't plannin on dying anytime soon, he implemented what he called the breath then see test. 

Following his dynamic two step plan, Shazam took one large breath, filling his lungs to full capacity, and not puffing out his chest so much that others took notice, he thought of all the problems that he and the group were probably facing.  Then in one quiet movement of the diaphram, he released the Carbon dioxide into the open air, along with his thoughts and other dispositions.  Will we ever get out of this?  Do the problems have a solution?  Am I capable?  As the gust lost its strength, Shazam began the second half of his meditation...  His eyes began to unmist and his body relaxed into the seat, the mind above it totally at ease as he began to look at things as they truly were: crap.  Nothin wrong with being in a pile of crap, he thought to himself, just gotta get to a hose...  Where the analogy made sense, he wasn't sure but felt himself beleive in its amorphous reasoning when he heard Trevor over the com.

"This is Nazgul 3..."  At that moment, Shazam grinned for reasons unknown to those around him, but then began to soak in his clues to where the hose was; whatever that meant...

"Yeah, We got tons! Enough to blow the damn building to splinters!" Toki shouted from somewhere and Shazam began to really feel good.  If Tokijen was there, so was Jen.

"Right, where are you guys then?" Art felt a plan unfolding in his head, maybe it would end in imperceptable complications, but hopefully the main idea would come across before he knew where to state them.

"Well...  Give us a second...  YEA JEN!  GO FOR IT!" Trevors voice was interupted by the light from an explosion some eight hundred meters to the east.   

"I hope that's not where you were..." Jack sounded as if he disapproved, and for good reason.  "Those X-wings above you will probably find an explosion of that class interesting enough."

"Its alright Jack, we're about four hundred meters from the explosion.  Its these remote explosives, I've never gotten to use them...  They will be useful."  Art raised his eyes from the leather seats to Shazam-

"She seems to be having a good time..."  Shazam nodded and turned his head back to check for oncoming traffic.  As sure as night is not day, there were speeders and semi-trailers everywhere, in no particular order or fashion.  Shazam rubbed his knuckles against his flight suit and then returned them to the controls, diving into traffic.

"Any particular landmarks we can go by?" Art said this in his com-talk voice now, but he might as well been smoking a cigar and looking into the sunset with some heavy sunglasses.  No one else argued for possesion of the com.

"Oh, well...  I suppose from a distance, the building we're on could look like a massive..."  Jen didn't have a chance to finish as Shazam noticed a long, smooth building with lifts in random areas for no apparent reason at a distance.

"That's alright, Nazgul five...  We got ya..."  On the side facing the explosion, Shazam could see a speeder protruding from the side, barelly inside the elevator shaft.  On either side, the pilots sat waiting.  Or atleast, Shazam assumed they were the pilots he was looking for.  He recognized Trevor's grey suit immedietly, but Jen and Tokijen had either gained excessive wait while he was away, or felt the need to skin some very large animals while on the streets... 

"How's it goin?" Art waved to the trio as the red speeder, which was in serious need of a paint job... 

"Pick a weapon, any weapon..."  Jen and Tokijen opened their coats and the pilots in the red speeder could not hold back their surprise....

 
-----------------------
*Flash Was Here...*

CMDR/ESN Shazam/Nazgul 1-1/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF/VEN (=A=) (=*SA*=) (=*MA*=) (=*FOCE*=) [LoM] [LSM] [VC:S] [DSM]

Now with a speeder under their control, the members of the Nazgul team quickly set off for the enemy base. Luckily, the people that the speeder had belonged to were not hurt. They took one look at Jack's super battle droid right arm and ran.

While in the seat of the speeder, Jack began to thank that wild clone of his friend that gave him the mechanical arm.

Looking out at the surrounding landscape of Nar Shaddaa, Jack once again searched for the pirate CloakShape fighter that had eluded him in his fast TIE Aggressor. That pirate obviously had skill, and Jack knew that the Vast Empire could use another good pilot.

Scanning the skies, Jack saw everything but a CloakShape - a Gallofree GR-45 transport, a younger sister craft to the GR-75 commonly used by the Rebels, an old Delta-7 Aethersprite starfighter originally used by the Jedi during the Clone Wars, and numerous other crafts. Now, Jack's visit to Nar Shaddaa was actually more enjoyable as a mission than his first encouter years ago.

But, he and Nazgul still had a mission. They would reach the enemy base, complete their objective, and head home. This was the standard line of duty for Nazgul, no matter what happened.

Jack quickly looked at the holo of his wife again embedded into the programming of his mechanical arm. He would complete his mission and come home to Alexia.

After all, there was still the matter of the interrupted holo message R2-X7 had given him from her...
 
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Revenge is what holds this galaxy together. Without it, the universe would be a boring place.

------------------------------------------------------------
Senior Chief Petty Officer Jack Nebulax, Nazgul Squadron, Imperial Navy, Vast Empire.
XO/FL/SCPO Jack Nebulax/Nazgul 5 (2-1)/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/Defensive Fleet/VEN/VE (=A=) (=*SA*=) [SV] [VC:S]
Rep|Int/Rep Jack Nebulax/Rep: 4/Reporters-Interviewers/VE/VET
------------------------------------------------------------
Admiral Jack Nebulax, third-in-command of the Auroran Defense Fleet (ADF) and leader of Nemesis Wing (Wing I)

After having helped Shazam and Art load up with weapons, Trevor, Jen, and Toki followed closly behind their speeder. He was watching the sky carefully, as different types of fighters flew by. X-wings, a few A-wings, some fighters he didn`t recognize, and then a flight of Y-wings. All were the standard NR greyexcept for one. It was painted black. Perfectly black, except for a large skull painted on the underbelly.

No. It can`t be. He died. He is gone. I saw his fighter explode, not long ago. It was at the NR base in that asteroid belt. There is no friggin` way... He said, turnig his head around to follow the fighter. If he was right, and he did see what he thought he had seen, then Reaper was here, on planet, hunting for him and the rest of the Nazgulians. He was pulled back into what was going on when Jen screamed at him.

"Slow down! Shazam and Art turned off there. Wern`t you paying attention!" She shouted, surprising Trevor, and apperently Toki also.

"Right..sorry, just thought I saw somthing." Trevor said, pulling a tight U-turn and heading down the street Art and Shaz turned onto. Ahead of them, about 300 meters off, was a towering building, black against the outline of the city lights. Trevor hammered it and caught up to Shazam and Art.

A few moments later, or what seemed like and eternity to all who were in the speeders, they arrived. Stopping at the base of the building, Trevor pulled up next to Shazam.

"So, where now boss? Do we go up to the hanger right now? Or do we make our way up the building?" Trevor asked, pointing first up to the buildings higher levels, and then to a large set of doors near the base of the building.

(I know its short..but I have to go...)
 
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FM/SCRW/Trevor Evenson/Nazgul 3(1-3)/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)