First page 2 to tally!
 
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SCAP, WADJ/1LT Corran "Arturus" Hargraves/STCR Doashim/VE/VEN/(=A=)(=SA=)(=*MA*=)(=JCPA=)(=SCPA=)[MC:1](x2)[SV][BRC][VC:B][CBV][LSM][LoC][BWC][SWC][GWC][LoC-DD][CM-PL]

Having recovered from his coughing fit, Atrick reached over and picked up the box and took caution to avoid disturbing the remaining dust a second time. "It's a palace, palaces are always full to the brim with expensive stuff." He said confidently, holding up the box. Although still unknowing of what lay inside, he was proud that he was the one that found it. Tomas took a second and made a point to look around the room they were currently in before replying.

"Uh Atrick, you do realize we are in a storage closet right? Everyone needs a room to put the junk they don't want others to see," waving his hand about the room, Tomas continued, "seems to me this is that room. Chances are that's a box of bolts. Unless you think even their garbage is better than what we've got?"

"Well...um...no...but..." Atrick stammered, before lashing out. "Ah, to hell with it!" And with that Atrick pulled open the box, the others standing over him just as curious now as he was to see what was held within. Silence filled the room as they all looked at the object, none entirely sure what it was yet. Atrick had picked it up carefully to examine it, holding it out for all to see.

"Atrick...be careful with that...." Jared spoke up finally. "In fact, let me see that." Jared reached his hand towards the object, but Atrick quickly pulled it back close to his body. It didn't take him long to return it to the box. Still holding tightly, Tomas could see the suspicious look that passed from Atrick to Jared. He could also see a sudden uneasiness had overcome Jared, why he wasn't sure. "But Atrick...that thing you've got there...it's a bomb or at least an explosive of some kind." Tomas couldn't help but let out a small gasp-like sound when Jared said this. "So Atrick, hand it over..." Jared repeated, having seemed to regain a bit of his composure.

"What makes you so sure?" Atrick spoke up again. He had yet to calm down from Tomas' comments and what he had seen as greed from Jared. If anything, Atrick had increased his grip on the box. That's just what we need...tension and distrust amongst us. It's all happening all over again. Tomas let out a sigh and for some reason the room went silent once again. He could feel some of the anger melt away, though he wasn't sure why. Perhaps the others had seen what their arguing was doing to them, or they just realized it was time to move on. Whatever the case it was apparent Jared was getting his hands on the bomb for now, and that it was about time they finished with that room.

Tomas opened the door gun in hand, checking both directions before proceeding out into the hallway. With currently no enemies in sight, they moved back the way they had come originally. Covering the walls and floors was a white residue. The mass quantity of the foam slowed the flight down a bit, but Tomas could only imagine what it must have been like for those caught in it. I wonder if Trevor was able to get the warning out to more than just our squadron...I sure hope so. It wasn't long before they managed to get to the stairs they had come down. Examining their options, they crossed their fingers and headed the the other way down the hallway...the stairs the other flights took down had to get to this floor somewhere. This side of the palace was not nearly exciting, though at this point the flight just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Tomas knew that the faster they moved the greater chance they would have at getting a drop an unsuspecting group of natives, or better yet encounter those of the enemy that were still stuck in the aftermath of the sprinklers.

After a few minutes with luck finding a way to get any closer to the ground, Jared started up again. "Atrick, let me see the bomb...I've got training in heavy weapons and explosives. I'll know what we're dealing with if you'd just let me see it." This would go on every couple minutes as they continued their search. The first few times it would respark the anger and protectiveness of Atrick though after a while, he ceased to even flinch when Jared brought it up, but that didn't stop the crewman from being persistent. After a while Tomas gave them each as stern a look as he was capable of, informing them...Jared in particular to keep their voices down. What the hell was a bomb doing in a storage room like that anyways? Don't they have armouries for that ind of thing? Nevertheless, the flight trooped on until they eventually found what they were looking for...a many of minutes later. Taking stock of their situation, mainly what equipment they'd been able to pick up on the way, as well as their ammo situation Tomas decided they were in pretty good shape overall. Thanks to their single skirmish back on the floor above, they had salvaged more than adequate firepower while not having to was much ammo doing it.

This floor was basically deserted. Tomas reflected, did we really make that bad of a choice as to which way to go? On the other hand it couldn't be that bad...we faced minimal resistance. Something tells me its going to be A LOT different down below. Peering over the handraild,, Tomas was very relieved to see these stairs did in fact continue on lower for a number of floors.

"There could be enemy outposts down below, let's keep our voices DOWN and try not to talk if at all possible. Be alert, these guys seem to be incredibly organized. We aren't your run of the mill trooper, we're pilots and I don't know about you but right now I feel like a fish out of water so to speak. I live to fly not fight it out down here. Judging from just how in sync they are, I wouldn't be surprised if the enemy already knew that. Keep your eyes open and your finger on the trigger, and I'll get us all out of here" Tomas encouraged, before motioning for his flight to follow down the first flight of stairs. They had made it down the first section, thankful to see that this particular set of stairs did indeed descend much further down towards the ground. Perhaps even to ground level.

Cautiously moving down the next group of stairs, the enemy below must have heard them coming as blaster fire opened up as soon as Tomas peered around the hand banister, causing him to rapidly pull it back. Given the height advantage, it seemed as if the attackers below would not be able to see a person crawling a cross the floor on the far side of the platform from the stairs. If Casca could just take out one or two by surprise....BAM! BAM! The sound of gunfire went off again in two quick bursts, this time coming from the top of the stairs as Casca did indeed manage to pick off a pair of troopers. The enemy returned fire, but the now multiple targets up top threw them in disarray. One by one they were picked off with bursts of laser fire. Continuing their descent when they were convinced there was no-one left, flight three once again performed a gear raid, taking all they could that seemed useful. Tomas was surprised to note a knife stabbed through one of the corpse's torsos. Looking up, he was met with a wide grin on Atrick's face.

No sooner had they finished than Tomas held a finger to his mouth, signaling the others to be quiet their blaster fire had been heard further down and someone was coming to investigate. The flight members rushed to hide, in hopes of getting the upper hand quickly. It was definitely needed, as nearly a dozen troopers ascended the steps. Their various hiding places allowed the Nazgul pilots to pick off just about all of them before their locations could even be discovered. The cover and spread out vantage points dealt allowed them to deal with the rest. Emerging from hiding, Jared couldn't help but laugh.

"I could get used to this...we seem pretty good at it." He said with a big smile on his face.

"Let's hope we don't," Tomas replied solemnly. Though I'm sure that's not the last action we've seen for today.

The rest of the stairway descent went by without incident...it seemed the enemy had stationed troops every couple floors or so. Having just dispatched of two such teams it was no surprise that no more had come. Judging from his view out the window, Tomas figured they were about two floors from ground level once the stairs finally stopped. That's more like it...we've got a much better chance of finding a hangar down here.

(OOC: I promise we'll get to the hangar in my next post guys. I've got one or two more "surprises" in store before we get there, but they'll all happen in the next post.)
 
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Senior Chief Petty Officer 'Tomas' Dagoram
FL/SPO Tomas/Nazgul 3-1/mSSS Atrus/VEN/VE (=*A*=) (=*SA*=) [SoA] [MC1] [MC2] [VC:B]

"Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood, the last drop of fuel, to the last beat of the heart."

Clearly Canadian!

Le Tally!
 
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SCAP, WADJ/1LT Corran "Arturus" Hargraves/STCR Doashim/VE/VEN/(=A=)(=SA=)(=*MA*=)(=JCPA=)(=SCPA=)[MC:1](x2)[SV][BRC][VC:B][CBV][LSM][LoC][BWC][SWC][GWC][LoC-DD][CM-PL]

They hadn't quite considered at the time how small the speeder actually was. But afterall, in the squad's condition any speeder would be small. Two men lay in the back, trying not to roll into each other. Every now and again these attempts would fail, and one of the two men (usually Darius) would curse.

Skar tried to ignore it, instead focusing on maneuvering the speeder through the hevay traffic. Their pace was getting slower and slower as the traffic built and built. Their speed dropped to barely 100Km an hour, before Sol grew impatient and stood his head out of the window.

"Just our luck" He shouted back in "The police have closed the road!"

Sol placed his head back in the car and almost did a double take as he saw the police car positioned next to theirs. The woman sat in there, a young female was idly talking to Skar.

"There was an explosion earlier" He heard her say "Carbomb i beleive"

"Is there some way we can get around it? We've got these two in the back that need medical help, and fast" Skar asked, pointing a thumb at his flight partners.

The woman looked back at them, and the blood soaked bandages, before turning and pressing buttons on her console.

"This is officer Drasek. I have a car here with two badly injured passengers, escort badly needed"

Skar ehard the response mumble from her earpiece, but wasn't able to make out what was said. But eventually, she turned back to Skar.

"Ok, im going to turn around. Once i get back here, follow me and stay close. I hope you can drive" She sped off without waiting for a response.

Skar smiled to himself.
"Lady, you have no idea"

Sol looked back at Darius and his bandages, and then back to Skar.
"They're not badly hurt are they?"

Skar shook his head.
"Nope. They're fine, just need some rest. The bandages look far worse than they actually are"

Sol laughed and put his feet up on the dashboard.
"You damn liar"

"Got us through though, didn't it"

Sol's legs crashed off the dashboard as Skar pulled sharply to the right, right in pursuit of the police car. It weaved right and left through the traffic, often over and under it as well. The cars were being forced to make a path through by the police sentry's marking parts of the road. Skar was keeping up with the car ahead with ease, for a VE pilot this was simple. The only problem was, everynow and again he would enjoy himself too much and forget about the two lying on the back seat, who would promptly collapse onto the ground.

They spent a good twenty minutes wevaing through the traffic before the road cleared ahead of them. The poilce car pulled to a stop, and Skar pulled up alongside it.

"Nice work back there, made it look simple" The woman smiled at Skar. "You ever considered becoming a pilot?"

"Once or twice" Skar replied "Not my thing to be honest"

The woman laughed. "God some people are too picky. But anyway, im holding you back, the hospitals about five minutes down the road ahead of us. Dont worry about speeding, ive let base know you're coming, they'll any tickets you get. But dont get used to it"

Skar smiled. "No Ma'am"

They accelerated down the road. Sol finally pulled his mouth away from his shirt collar, letting the laughter loose.

"She didn't even notice your uniform"

"Exactly. Some police officer" Skar smiled. "Is she still sat there?"

"Nah, she's gone"

"Good" Skar pulled the speeder right sharply, in the direction of the base.

The rest of the journey went in silence, each man contemplating what could be waiting for them at the base. Every now and again a police car will flash its sirens at them, shortly before noticing the license plate and backing off.

Their diverson had pulled them quite a way away from the base. They were a matter of seconds away from it, if it wasn't for the traffic jam. Regardless, Skar carried on going, driving on autopilot. He wans't really paying attention to where he was going. He knew it was a straight road to the base, and dodging in and out of the occasional speeder was something he had become very accustomed with in training. For much of the journey he drove with one hand, the other resting his head against the window.
 
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Skar Darkanto/ Kanderin Draken
Crewman Skar Darkanto, Nazgul Squadron
FM/SCRW Skar Darkanto/Nazgul Squadron 2-6/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE (=*A*=)

Un autre tally!
 
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SCAP, WADJ/1LT Corran "Arturus" Hargraves/STCR Doashim/VE/VEN/(=A=)(=SA=)(=*MA*=)(=JCPA=)(=SCPA=)[MC:1](x2)[SV][BRC][VC:B][CBV][LSM][LoC][BWC][SWC][GWC][LoC-DD][CM-PL]

Jared moaned again at the slow moving craft, swearing that he could run faster than it was going. While exaggerating, the crewman had a point. At the rate they were moving, it seemed like it'd take them all day and night to reach their destination. Trevor had sounded somewhat urgent in his last communication, and as a result Tomas hoped to reunite with the other flights as soon as possible. With no enemy troops currently in view, Tomas lowered the speeders' shields in order to increase their rate of travel across the beautiful grassland that lay ahead.

"That's more like it," Jared said excitedly, though even redirecting as much power as he could to the thrusters, their overall speed failed to increase by too much. After a while, they approached the edge of the rainforest and Tomas was forced to once again charge the shields. They would be far to susceptible to a surprise attack for the flight to keep moving on no shields. In the end Tomas found overall speed would not matter as on several occasions they had to weave the speeder through gaps between the trees.

It hadn't been long after they entered the jungle that Jared insisted on seeing the bomb again. He had been previously distracted by all they had gone through, but not anymore. Tomas heard Casca groan from the back seat, and noticed a similar yet much more annoyed look on Atrick's face who had been sitting shotgun in the speeder. Tomas felt similar feelings, but chose not to show them. He feared if this didn't stop soon they might be making it to the base with one less flight member. The only questions were when and whether the victim would suffer from insanity or a brutal strangling. It took another couple minutes, but finally Atrick snapped:

"Jared...I swear...if you don't stop I'm going to..." Atrick spoke harshly, swinging around to face the back seat. His voice came out laboured, which Tomas could only guess was from the intense frustration his wingmate was feeling at the moment.

"What're you going to do At, old buddy?" Jared responded, egging on the enraged pilot in the front seat. Tomas felt like hitting his head on the dashboard in hopelessness, they're going to kill each other, I know it. The only thing that probably stopped him from doing so was the fact that the current terrain they were going through was not the kind of place you wanted to take your eyes off of for more than a couple seconds. Especially with a large band of enemy troops out and about. Captain Rejal had told him to keep his eyes open, and that from preliminary reports the native army was larger than that of Vast Empire and palace forces. Just how much so, the captain never actually mentioned before the Nazgul pilots had decided to be on their way. Either way, Tomas didn't want the enemy to get a drop on them as they rumbled along through the jungle. Meanwhile the discussion between his fellow pilots had simmer down a little, though just barely. One false step by either participant and Tomas was sure the other would make him pay dearly. The fact that the tension was so high had Tomas felling extremely uneasy and he didn't like it one bit. As he began to listen in on the conversation once again, Jared attempted to appeal to Atrick's logic:

"Atrick, please hear me out...what do you plan on doing with this bomb of yours? You obviously aren't going to just keep it as a souvenir, right?" Jared said much calmer than before. This change in tone seemed to throw Atrick off as he mumbled an "uhh...right..." in response.

"Ok, and since you have no intention of preserving the bomb...no offense, but how much do you actually know about bombs and explosives in general?" Jared said, continuing his train of thought. Once again Atrick was only able to get out a stuttered "um...not too much".

"Right, and were you to try and use this bomb of yours in one of our battles...do you even know how to activate it?" At this point, Atrick simply shook his head solemnly. "Then, if you don't mind...may I see it?" And just like that to Tomas' surprise, Atrick handed Jared the box containing the bomb. All too eager, Jared quickly opened it, plucking the bomb from its container.

"Alright...so you see this here? This would be the control panel..." Jared explained, more talking to himself the instructing anyone of its inner workings. "And this...this is the display, probably to show the user how much time the have left before it blows. To start 'er up all you'd have to do is  oops." Tomas' ears perked up from the sudden change in tone and purpose of Jared's voice. Casca had looked over curiously at the other pilot, while Atrick started into a series of curses. It was Jared who timidly informed Tomas of the situation:

"Uhhh, sir...we need to stop the speeder...now" the newest pilot said, obviously lacking confidence though Tomas did not yet know why.

"Stop the speeder? Why? It'd better be important, we're already going slow enough as it is...last thing I want to have to do is be sitting ducks for whatever is out there." Tomas replied calmly.

"Well, sir...you see...I kind of activated the bomb...accidentally, of course." Jared stammered on.

"You what?!? Atrick, no more sharing of toys with Jared, understoood?" Tomas commanded only semi-sternly, before turning his concentration back to Jared. "Well? Have you tried turning it off?"

"Of course I tried that," Jared replied, sounding more fearful as the time went on.

"Alright then, how much time do we have?"

"Um...according the screen...fourteen seconds..."

Tomas cursed before slowly decelerating, "I'm not risking stopping completely but you should be fine at this speed." With that Jared open a hatch on the speeder and tossing the bomb into the jungle behind them. It seemed to be just in time as the bomb exploded on impact. Atrick had been cursing throughout and looked like he would throttle the careless pilot. Crisis averted, Tomas took the chance to laugh slightly, mainly at the expense of the other two pilots. That was, until the ground shook and a second explosion followed. Whipping his head around, the others doing the same Tomas saw a tree had been toppled by the bomb's explosion...the second explosion meant only one thing...they had company. The fact they had gone undetected to flight three was not encouraging

"What were they waiting for?" Casca thought, deep in thought.

"I don't know, but we're not waiting around to find out." Tomas had quickly accelerated, praying they had been extremely lucky and had somehow managed to destroy the only enemy threat out here in the jungle...though he doubted it.

"Trevor, Tomas here. We've encountered the enemy here in the jungle, we managed to destroy them, luckily...long story. We're moving as fast as we can and should be at the base soon." Tomas kept the comlink open for a response, but did not again. Repeating his message Tomas once again waited for an answer, but to the same result.

"The forest must be interfering with the signal," Casca spoke up. Tomas could only nod in response, they were stranded on their own in a foreign rainforest at the moment with no way to seek help.

Fortunately, the rest of the trip albeit slow occurred without incident. Atrick had calmed down thanks to numerous apologies from the now quiet Jared. Eventually, the speeder emerged  into a second clearing. Not too far away stood their destination, the Imperial base. Keeping the shields up after the attack in the jungle, Tomas figured there was no rush to get to the base if they had to sacrifice shields and protection to do it.

It took a while alright, but the flight finally reached the outpost, though the welcome was not exactly one they had been expecting. On their arrival, about a dozen Imperial Army forces emerged from the base and ordered the speeder to stand down. Instructing the others to follow his lead, Tomas put his hands behind his head and exited the speeder. Further complying, Tomas soon found himself lying face down on the ground. He had just managed to glance up when he noticed Trevor emerge from the base, followed by the rest of the squadron. Good to see everyone made it here safely, Tomas thought to himself, now if they could just get us out of this position.

It took some talking, but Trevor had soon succeeded in convincing the guards that the guys on the ground were with him. As they lowered their guns, Tomas found his way to his feet.

"Where've you guys been? We were starting to wonder if you were alright..." Trevor said, sounding genuinely concerned. To which Tomas could only reply, "it's a long story......"

Word Count: 1517
 
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Senior Chief Petty Officer 'Tomas' Dagoram
FL/SPO Tomas/Nazgul 3-1/mSSS Atrus/VEN/VE (=*A*=) (=*SA*=) [SoA] [MC1] [MC2] [VC:B]

"Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood, the last drop of fuel, to the last beat of the heart."

Clearly Canadian!

*** After Tomas Arrived ***

Trevor and Tomas were walking back to the base, slightly ahead of flight three and slightly behind of the rest of the squadron who had come out to say 'hi'. They walked in silence for a moment, Trevor not pressing for the story that Tomas had mentioned earlier about their long arrival time. Suddenly it was Tomas who spoke.

"Well, what's the plan now, oh fearless...and indestructible leader?" Tomas said, nodding to the bandages that were visible through a small rip in the side of Trevor's shirt. He laughed at the description of himself and thought for a moment.

"We're going to hijack a shuttle. A shuttle, weapons, armour, medical supplies, everything we need to take down a temple." Trevor explained in a hushed tone, not wanting everyone to know quite yet what the plan was. Tomas looked at him slightly disbelievingly.

"You're joking, right? I mean, we're pilots. Sure we have some training, but that could be suicide!" Tomas whispered back, using an exaggerated hand motion when he said 'suicide'. "Their force outnumbers us a hundred to one probably."

"Yeah, but we don't need another fifty people. We're Nazgul, and we've gotten good at this ground thing over the years." Trevor explained with a grin on his face, Tomas still looking at him in shock as they walked into the base.

*** Shortly After ***

Trevor sighed and shook his head. For a moment he wondered why he had chosen to do this in the lobby and not take it to a more private area, but shrugged when he noticed that nobody else was in the lobby area except for them. He shifted his weight as Skar finished his comment and let out a sigh before looking back and forth across his torn up squadron. The group of people who knew him and knew Nazgul didn't seem to be showing any doubt at what his plan was so far, but those who were fresh to the squadron couldn't seem to help but show their distrust about an unfavorable plan. Trevor couldn't blame them though, not with the amount of injuries in the squadron at the moment.

"Yeah, I understand we're pilots, and nothing more. We have basic military training; we all know how to handle a gun. Some better then others." He grinned, glancing at Darius. The pilot looked bad, bandaged around his knee, the blood soaking through, but Trevor knew that it'd still take a tank to knock the man off his feet permanently. "We're Nazgul, and for those of you who don't know what that means, it means we're unstoppable. Anyone who's been in the squadron for more than one mission can see that!"

He paused and looked at the shocked faces of some of his pilots. They obviously hadn't expected such a forceful way of making them understand that Nazgul wasn't a force to be reckoned with. Trevor couldn't help but let a smile spread across his lips as he noticed the faces of Tokijin, Jack and Darius whom were all taking this very calmly. Even Tomas appeared to not be too worried about things, but his face wasn't completely clear of doubt Something must be getting to the guy. Trevor thought to himself before he opened his mouth again.

"Alright, here is the plan. We've been denied assistance here, but that doesn't mean we need assistance. We're going to split up into flights once again, and work on gathering our supplies. Flight Three; I want you guys to get a bunch of stuff out of the armoury. Make sure to include some explosive stuff. If we can't raid the temple, we can try to blow the shit out of it." Trevor paused and nodded to Tomas who gathered his flight in record time and set off down the hall. Trevor was glad that the base conveniently had directional signs hanging from the roof. Probably to help new people stationed here, not to help would-be thieves. He grinned at the thought.

"Flight Two; medical supplies. They are upstairs, bring back whatever you can that we can use to help cure minor wounds and help keep people who might receive major wounds in stable condition." He explained. He nodded and Darius hobbled off with his group in toe. Now Trevor was left once again to look at his beaten up flight one. Tokijin looked kind of funny with a piece of gauze held down by clear medical tape across her cheek, and Jack had a pair of cotton balls stuck in his nose to make the bleeding stop. He wasn't in such great shape either, and although he didn't taste blood in his mouth anymore, the open wound in his gums tingled every time he took in a breath of air cooler then his body temperature.

"What are we going to do then?" Tokijin asked, stepping up next to him. She was worried about him, he could tell. He knew why too, he had never been this beaten up before. It was a mystery to him how he could still stand, and even more of one how he could still think straight. The room only spun a little bit and he wasn't having as much trouble breathing as before. Someone up there cares about me...Whoever they are, thank them for the adrenaline... He nodded to himself.

"Well," He said, taking her hands and grinning. "We get the most fun job, we get to coordinate the theft of a Lambda-class shuttle." He said, and she grinned weakly. Jack overheard and made his way over, standing next to Tokijin.

"Isn't that kind of dumb though? I understand we need it, but they aren't going to be a breeze to get out of here with." Jack said, waving his battle droid arm around the room. Trevor knew he had a point, but the couldn't just back down from their plan.

"We'll pull it off, just trust me. Lets scamper off to the hanger and check out how much it is guarded, and if they even have one that's fully ready." Trevor suggested, and the other two nodded. The started off down the hall at a walk, not seeing any reason to rush and draw attention to themselves. Trevor was hoping that Tomas and his group would have no trouble in the armoury, as it was sure to be the most heavily guarded part of the base out of the places he sent his pilots. The medical storage area wouldn't be very well guarded, and the hanger was doubtful to have an army in it. A couple of guards and some techs sure, but no one who'd pay any attention to a group of people boarding a craft as if they owned it. They were likely to think that the people boarding we just people being transported to the other base.

As they reached the hanger, Trevor's comm. link beeped and he pulled it out of his pocket. He clicked the switch and allowed Tomas to start speaking to him.

"Uh, we haven't gotten everything yet, but we were wondering if you want us to meet you in the hanger." Tomas asked, and a small commotion could be heard in the background, almost like a rack of weapons falling to the floor and two people arguing over whose fault it was.

"Yeah, meet us down here. We're just going to try and get an estimate on the guards and everything." Trevor explained, almost putting the comm. away before he brought it back up to his mouth, remembering something. "Make sure to grab as many explosives as you can carry. Put one guy to work carrying explosives, one with ammo, one with weapons, and&hell, if you were to find a hover cart this would make things easier."

"Yeah, there's one in here. We'll load it up really good and throw a tarp over it to get it to the hanger. I'll let Darius know where we're meeting too." Tomas explained. Trevor nodded even though Tomas couldn't see it, and then cut the connection. They peered through an open door into the hanger, counting the guards, the techs, and planning different routes to the shuttle that sat quietly on its landing gear in the middle of the polished floor as if it was beckoning them to try something.

"Do you think we'll be bale to pull this one off?" Tokijin asked quietly as she peered through the door, leaning backwards against Trevor to keep herself from falling through. He studied the guards and was pleased to see that most appeared to be bored with their work. They had a table set up in the corner made of an old board and a barrel, and appeared to be playing cards. Only two or three guards were actually out on the floor, and occasionally one of these would trade places with one of the men at the table. None of them carried their weapons at the ready, and Trevor spotted a neat pile of rifles and pistols in the corner on the other side of the hanger. Sometimes you just have to love boring jobs&

Word Count: 1535

 
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SC/ESN/Trevor Evenson/Nazgul 1(1-1)/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)(=*SA*=)[VC:B][LSM][BRC][SWC][GWC]

The VEN`s #1 writer as of ESC `06

Clearly Canadian!

A half an hour of relaxation. In the speeder, things seemed to be going smoothly. Smooth was always bad. For Nazgul, 'smooth' was code for disaster. Nothing ever seemed to go right for them. It was a constant deal. But for the moment, Tokijin was going to relax as much as she could. She felt comfortable and content just sitting there. She began messing with the radio station, trying to find something in basic and without the constant static that hurt the ears. But before she could find the right position, all went to hell.

She was jerked away from the radio as Jack made a sudden move, the speeder narrowly avoided a man in the road, but they went he had wanted them to go. Toki was pulled to Trevor's chest, his arms wrapping protectively around her, but she could peal her eyes away from the windshield. Suddenly they were at a 90 degree angle, and she was staring down at the ground. She was sensitive to the movement of the car and could feel as it flipped, her eyes still wide with terror.

Blood had begun to rush to her head. They were upside down; they had finally stopped, as had the horrible screeching sound of metal against concrete. She was breathing heavily; the scare from the bomb had left her holding her breath, and the seatbelt that was pressing against her body felt like if she wasn't going to unbuckle soon it would soon meld with her. She wanted down, but before she could get herself down she heard the thud of Trevor falling against the roof. She grimaced. That had to hurt.

She looked around the speeder, slightly surprised that the roof hadn't been crushed in from the force of the collision; the metal had held up very well. Before Toki had noticed, Jack had let himself down, and after seeing what Trevor had done she was a little reluctant to let herself down. She was in no mood for headaches. But when she saw Jack and Trevor move around to help her down she unbuckled herself, and slowly let herself down while the protective hands guided her. They wouldn't let her fall.

Suddenly her face burst in a fire of pain. Trevor saw her face contorted with pain and he pulled her close. She reached up to touch her face, only to cringe as the hand she pulled away was covered with blood. She hadn't even felt the glass rip through her face. The wound on her face burned, and she noticed blood trickling down her neck. She couldn't see how big it was, but it was a shocker to see her own blood covering her fingertips like that. It was probably the reason Trevor was holding her like this. She was sure she looked like hell.

She looked over as noises came from Jack's lips, but what they said she couldn't tell. Was she still in shock? Probably since his words hadn't registered. But she soon understood when a rifle was pressed into her hands.

She looked around the speeder roof for a moment and spotted the bag filled with their uniforms in it. They weren't going to be able to bring it along so she dug inside and quickly yanked three sets of medals off three different uniforms, stuffing them in her pocket quickly. Jack was starting to shuffle forward when a crashing noise filled Toki's ears and startled her slightly.

Oh right. Time to fight. Trevor had crawled back to the end of the speeder and proceeded to smash out rear window. She was surprised it had lasted up till this point in time, especially since the front window had been eradicated. Toki quickly followed behind Jack, positioning herself in between Jack and Trevor.

Tokijin's eyes locked upon the on coming threats. She felt the heavy metal in her hands carefully, and shot out, testing the weapon, not exactly aiming with expertise. Her face was overtaken by determination, and her eyes grew cold as she stared upon the men. She shot carefully this time, firing at the black targets before her.

She shot at one with careful aim, only disappointed to see she had missed any death blow. But he had thrown a grenade, and she wasn't going to let him get away with anything else. They had had their fill of fire and explosions for the day. After Trevor had killed off the last threat, Toki climbed out of the speeder with haste, wanting to get her hands on the final target to dispose of him, but the moans from coming from the dying man diminished was was left of any desire for vengeance. He was a man. She slowed pace to match that of Jack and Trevor and approached him carefully, wary of anymore tricks he might have.

Trevor crouched down to interrogate the masked man and Toki listened to the conversation intently as she and Jack kept their rifles raised, guarding their occupied commander, wary of any other attackers. When the conversation had stopped Toki looked down and gazed at the  man and watched as he ate one of his teeth. What the hell?

"What did he do?" She was a little slow on the uptake; right after she voiced her question she realized what he had done. She sighed and sagged her shoulders, looking at the speeder. It looked so pathetic. If it hadn't been burnt to a crisp she would have been reminded of a beetle stuck on it's back. But the burnt tinge of the speeder just made it look sad and depressing. They also had to walk to the base. She wasn't really up for walking. She was just about totally drained at this point. It seemed like this whole thing had been going on for weeks, but only a number of hours had passed. She rested the rifle on her shoulder and they began their long trudge.

Usually she wouldn't have minded any sort of by-foot travel, but today was an exception. Her seemed to throb in beat with her walking, which made her want to stop all together if it would stop the throbbing. She felt her forehead gingerly, looking for the source of the throbbing. She located it quickly, up towards her hairline. How in the world had she gotten that? She shook her head, supposing it didn't matter much anyway.

She turned to look at Jack and Trevor, sighing as she did. They looked about as drained as she felt, and they both just concentrated on the road in front of them, watching their footfalls with their guns held at their sides.

After a few moments Toki began to grow tired of the sound of hard boots against stone, the sound of crushing pebble under their heavy weight. Slowly her lips parted, and a soft lullaby escaped Toki's lips quietly. She half mumbled, half sang, singing a few words before simply humming through opened lips. She sang a lullaby song from her childhood, one that had stuck in the back of her mind. She was surprised she still remembered it actually. She had just opened her mouth and out it had come. She felt glances from Trevor and Jack, but ignored them, focusing herself on her quiet little song, thinking of all the verses and notes, thoughts of her childhood and moments in time when this song.

She had been absorbed in this small act that she didn't notice as time began to drift by, and soon the base was within sprinting distance. She looked to Jack and Trevor, and she set out in a steady run, but slowed down so Jack and Trevor could catch up so they would arrive at the gate together.

Tokijin watched as Trevor spoke to the guard and she stuck her hand in her pocket, pulling out their medals, quickly picking one up off the ground as it fell from her hand.

"I pulled these off our uniforms, and I have my ID on me. Our uniforms got burnt, but this has to be enough to prove we are who we are." She stuck her hand through the fence, showing them to the guard. She also pulled out her ID, showing it to the guard as well. She really didn't think much of the guard not letting them in at first. With all these armed maniacs running around with bombs it was probably wise to be cautious as they were.

She returned the rank bars to her pocket, careful that she wouldn't lose one. The three of them quickly went inside and approached a nice big desk. Trevor spoke to the secretary for a moment before motioning Tokijin over and whispering in her ear.

"Can you get my bar rank out again?" He asked her with a sort of sigh and she dug back into her pocket, carefully drawing out a handful, looking for Trevor's own precious rank bar. She handed his to him and stepped back, looking around for Jack. He had the medical kit and he was motioning her over to a bunch of chairs by the window. Toki put her hand on Trevor's arm before she walked over, silently wishing him luck for whatever he was about to do.

She walked over to Jack and they began digging around in the white box for bandages and antiseptic. She felt her neck and winced as the dried blood pulled away some hair as she brushed it off. Her cheek was no longer in throbbing pain, but she figured unless she had a mirror, Jack was going to have to apply her band aid to her face for her. It was like applying make-up: It was best done with a reflection. She and Jack set to work, all the while thinking about Trevor and his current activities. But it wasn't long before they found out what he was up to. He returned looking frustrated, but she could tell the wheels were turning in his head, thinking intently.

She set a hand on his shoulder and voiced her concerns aloud.

"Well, they aren't going to give us a task force or shuttle to raid the temple." Trevor gave her a look that took her only seconds to decipher. Oh no.

"We're going to raid the temple?" Why in the world would he want us to raid this temple? "But we're pilots. . . Just pilots." She shook her head, pulling her eyes away from Trevor's gaze. But. . . We weren't built for this stuff. Why would he. . . ? She looked up at him right as he began to pull her into his arms.

"Yeah, we are. But we're Nazgul pilots. We've been through a lot worse." Tokijin recollected on everything Nazgul had been through and buried her face in his chest, taking in his words. Heh, he's right. It's just a temple. We've been through hell and back. Let's leave Misoo with a bang, shall we? She nodded and pulled away from him, forcing him to let her go, but she gave him a small smile. Even with the petty words she told herself doubt still hovered in the back of her mind like a dark solemn storm cloud. She stared out the window for a moment before figures began to form behind the dark glass. Wait. . . Is that. . .?

"Isn't that Tomas?" She stood up in excitement from seeing her excitement. "And that other guy too!" Oh, god, how can I forget his name! "Skar! That's his name. He's here too. Looks like Darius is hurt though." She pointed out her comrades to Trevor. She watched him turn around and she desperately wanted to pull him out of his chair and take him outside. So looked at him and then back to the window and took his hand, waving to Jack to get up and went to the door to greet her fellow squadron mates.
 
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TECH/SCPO Tokijin/Phoenix Wing/Str Doashim/1FL/VEN/VE (=*A*=) (=*SA*=) [BWC] [VC:B]

Again with the medical business...

Skar sighed and lost himself in his own thoughts, as he dragged slightly behind the rest of his flight. He knew they would be weaving in and out of hallways at a ridiculous pace, but that didn't stop him from staring at the ground.

Trevor's speech was strong, he had to allow that, but he still wasn't convinced. He still wasn't sure they'd be able to attack a temple successfully, if at all. They might well get shot down before they get anywhere close. What does it matter if these temple nuts aren't military trained, they still outnumber us one hundred to one. Even his friend Kanderin, a known risk taker would hesitate at those sort of odds. Not to mention he was far better trained in this area as well.

Skar crashed into the back of Darius and mumbled an apology. Darius was too distracted down the hallway to pay any real attention. Skar eventually got the message and poked his head out as well. Two men, dressed in full army gear, were patrolling the path just short of the medical bay.

"Just typical" Darius spat "We always have to get the armed guards"

"One of us could distract them" Sol whispered. Darius looked round, somewhat confused by his idea.

"I mean, if i deliberately get their attention, odds are they're going to chase me. I can lure them away from the door and you guys can creep in, swipe whatever you need and meet me later. They're in full army gear, there's no way they can catch me"

Darius looked down and contemplated the idea. He shrugged his shoulders and admitted he had no better idea. Sol nodded and scampered off in the other direction.

Skar had to see this. He poked his head out down the hallway again, watching the two guards idly converse. Then suddenly, the shouting started. The things he shouted were completely disgusting, but they definitely did the trick. The two men charged down the hallway towards the voice without even a look back.

"Now we move" Darius was already half way towards the room, moving surprisingly fast considering his condition.

Skar jogged down the length of the hallway, only stopping to peek one eye down the way the two men had ran. he then darted into the room, waited for Darius and the other man to join him, and shut the door behind them.

"Kind of lucky we're here actually, my bandage could do with a change" Darius grinned.

He sat down in the corner of the room, and waved off Skar and the other man, who then disappeared off behind the various shelves.

Skar never quite realised just how much medicine there could be in the world. He knew the medical world was huge, but not this huge. The shelves just seemed to go on forever. You'd reach the end of one line, just to find another which goes on for even further. The names on many of the bottles didn't help either. He wasn't able to pronounce half of them, yet alone understand them.

The box of bandages was simple to find. Skar was also able to find painkillers, disguised under one of those fancy labels. He had been given them once, and for some reason had never forgotten the name. Skar really hoped he would never have to take them again, they tasted terrible.

Skar wandered aimlessly among the aisles for what seemed