Namyr walked into the room feeling slightly lost, from behind the cloth that covered her mouth and nose as well as her Twi'lek Lekku cover her music pod quietly played traditional music.  She was dressed in a matching pair of pants and a pancho that extended to mid-thigh, both were a light yellow color, Namry's favorite color.  She still couldn't believe she was going to this meeting, it had been a complete surprise when she had found out she had been accepted to become part of ARC.  In fact the first time she heard about it was when Darr had caught her while she was training.  For a second she thought that she had done something wrong, which was what usually happened when Darr was carrying her overly large record around.

"Namyr can I speak with you?" Darr asked and Namyr had nodded wiping sweat from her brow.  She hadn't done really anything but train and work since the Phu mission.  Sleep still didn't come easily but Namyr was use to having one three hours a night.

'Yeah Darr what's up?" Namyr had asked eyeing her record, there was only a few bad things in there, the other 98% was missions, kills, and other things she had done in such a short time in the corps.

"Ever heard of ARC?" Darr asked his face breaking out into a large grin.

"Advanced Recon Commandos, yeah I've heard of them during bootcamp, why?"

Darr let out a sigh, "Namyr, they've chosen you to join them."

"What?" Namyr asked her mouth hanging open slightly.

"They sort through thousands of canidates and they picked you to join them, here are your orders," Darr said handing Namyr a simple white piece of paper, "You have twenty-four hours to accept, but Nams I know a lot of guys that would kill for this chance, and maybe it will be good for you to get out away from the Raiders for a while."

Namyr looked down at the paper and blinked a few times, "I'll think about it," she managed to choke out and twenty four hours later she had found herself wandering down the hallway looking for the room the meeting was in, her swords made slight clinking noises as she walked regularly not even bothering to slip into her silent walk.  Her pancho swirled a little behind her, from past experience most people didn't pay someone covering up their faces much attention.  But being a Lethan Twi'lek was another matter, Namyr prefered not to jeoprodize the mission by her skin and face.  She clutched the paper in her hand and came to a door, this was it.  Walking inside she found she was one of the last people to join the already small group.  But from what she saw the group wasn't that impressive, in fact she was a little disappointed, there was a short fellow, a guy who was staring distantly at a wall, a guy with a really dark tan, and of course once her eyes passed his tattoo face Namyr reconized Marka.  She was instantly glad that the other Raider had chosen to come along as well.  She silently sat next to Marka and respectfully turned off her music pod as the short guy began talking.

"Welcome, I know that this may seem sudden in terms of creating a team and going right into action, but we are apparently needed.  But before I go ahead and start talking about a mission, let me congratulate you on making Advanced Recon Commandos, Team Lambda.  Now I don't know most of you in actuality, but your files are most impressive, and I certainly hope to get to know you a little better preferably when we are not being shot at," the guy spoke and Namyr's yellow eyes widened slightly.  Wait, this guy was Sargent Riqimo Pershaw?  She glanced at everyone else wondering if this was some sort of joke, no it couldn't be, could it?  She stared at the short man, questions in her eyes.  From the stories she had heard from people at bars they made it sound like Riqimo Pershaw was almost 6'7 a giant among men.  Namyr felt slightly disappointed she was expecting a gladiator and she had gotten a shrimp.  She smirked slightly, at least she could throw him at the enemy if she had to.


"An Inquisitor was sent with 18 Stormtroopers to arrest this priest before any of this began.  The Inquisitor is now in ten separate boxes in a military morgue.  The Stormtroopers themselves are presumed dead.  This man is a veteran of twenty years, has received the best training that can be given, and is still considered in his prime. Excuse me, was considered to still be in his prime at the time of death.  To have died, even at the hands of a large mob of cultists seems impossible given his record.  Hence there must be a very well trained unit assisting this priest.  Our target is the priest himself, to bring him alive to avoid making him a mytre to his cause.  If any of these highly trained units present themselves, we are to eliminate them via any means necessary short of killing Sente.  Any questions?"

Namyr was silent for a moment, they were going to go do a job that eighteen Stormtroopers couldn't do, let alone the priest would probably be figuring out that the Empire would be sending out thrit big guns.  She grinned widely from behind the mask, she liked tough odds, she'd finally get to use her training.  She cracked her knuckles to loosen her hands in the thought of trying out her new blade techinque.  The cracking brought everyone else in the room's attention to Namyr, who had to admit with the mask was out of place in a group of troopers.

Riqimo Pershaw  stared right at Namyr before smiling, "At last, you must be Sargent Lythune, the man that's bandaging the Raider's back together," he spoke and it took all of Namyr's control not to laugh right in his face.  She enjoyed the irony of her assuming something about Riqimo Pershaw and now it was being turn back on her.  Not that she could blame him completely for the miscommunication, one she wasn't dressed as a woman, two how many people werew going to admit that a Twi'lek woman could kick thier butts to next Wednesday, and thirdly the number as far as Namyr knew for female Twi'lek's, good soliders, in the army was about two.  Not to mention the this wasn't the first time she had been confused as a male, in bootcamp she had almost been sent to a male division because they over looked the female check mark, just as Riqimo probably had with her file now.

"I'm not a man," Namyr finally said her voice laced with humor as she pulled off her clothmask and Lekku covers.  Her one of her long shapely Lekku tumbled over her shoulder the other fell down her back.  She folded her hands together, resting her chin on them and looked at Riqimo with bemused yellow eyes a smile tracing her beautiful features.  From beside her Namyr heard Marka cough to hold back laughter, she quickly elbowed him in the side before turning here eyes back to Riqimo, "Don't worry it's not the first time, and truth be told I was expecting the great Riqimo to be at least over five foot, with all due respect, but I guess rumors in bars and from young troopers will scew the truth a little," she said her voice still humourous but her eyes hardening a little as she spoke.

"And back to the mission I actually do have a question, when do we leave?" she asked casually leaning back in her chair her eyes never waivering from Riqimo's face.

Tanus sat at the table of the ARC squad meeting room, taking in the steel blue interior of the room, and the weight of the mission upon their shoulders. He looked at the three squad members sitting across from them, all looking intently at Doc. Tanus then realized that not too long ago, he had been sitting in this same exact room, listening to Ramon Stonefish giving him his first mission on ARC squad Delta. And now sitting with the newly formed ARC squad Lambda, Tanus couldn't help bit feel a sense of excitement running through his veins.

This is it, the big time, Tanus thought to himself.

Tanus sat there, intent on the mission ahead of him. He looked across the table and saw Namyr and Marka, whom he had known to belong to the Raider squad. He looked at the seat next to Namyr and saw the man occupying it: Arnaut, the leader of the Wraiths. Tanus silently agreed with Doc; these were some of the best members of the Stormtrooper Corps that he had worked with in a long time. Tanus was twirling a pen between his fingers to keep his reactions good. The mission was a disturbing one, however.

Hmmm, an Inquisitor taken down by a Heretic and his followers. I'm getting a bad feeling about this. If eighteen Stormtroopers failed, then it's going to be a push for we five.

Tanus was brought back by the sound of the briefing.

"&"I regret not being able to give more formal introductions, but right now, let me present a briefing, our socializing can happen on the way to Lotiath." Seeing the expressions, Riqimo answered the unspoken question, "Yes, Lotiath. The glorious capitol planet of the Vast Empire.  Anyhow, if you follow the holonews, you should be aware that a priest started some cult and has young men holding a city sector of about a quarter of a square kilometer.  Current forces are laying siege to them with no success.  What the holonews does not report is what happened before this outbreak.

"An Inquisitor was sent with 18 Stormtroopers to arrest this priest before any of this began.  The Inquisitor is now in ten separate boxes in a military morgue.  The Stormtroopers themselves are presumed dead.  This man is a veteran of twenty years, has received the best training that can be given, and is still considered in his prime. Excuse me, was considered to still be in his prime at the time of death.  To have died, even at the hands of a large mob of cultists seems impossible given his record.  Hence there must be a very well trained unit assisting this priest.  Our target is the priest himself, to bring him alive to avoid making him a mytre to his cause.  If any of these highly trained units present themselves, we are to eliminate them via any means necessary short of killing Sente.  Any questions?"

Tanus raised his hand, and Doc looked over.

"Yes, Tanus?"

"How are we to get into the city?"

Doc nodded and brought up a small outlay of the city.

"The Cultists are holding outposts here," Doc pointed to one of the areas of the city. "And here. We're going to get into the city by way of silent night drop. Once we're in range, we're going to go over the wall and bring Sente down."

Tanus nodded a "Thank you," and Doc continued.

"That's the mission overview. If anybody has any questions, they can ask me."

Doc began picking up his files and headed out of the room. Tanus followed suit, and headed down to his apartment for some meditation.

"Actually, if I was taller, I might not have been able to slip into those tight spots that got me my little moments of fame," so he did have a sense of humor, Namyr thought to herself still looking slightly amused.  She had to give the guy credit she had known men who were a few inches shorter then her and got in a huff if she teased them about their height.  Riqimo had managed a little respect in her book, not to mention he had looked a little flustered at his mistaking her for a man.  This could be interesting, she sized Riqimo up and figured that she could probably pin him during hand to hand combat training.

"We leave in about three hours, it will take about seven hours to arrive in orbit around the planet.  I don't know if you are aware, but ARC squad gives the troopers personal equipment choice.  I will trust you to be reasonable in your selection.  In two hours we will meet in the ARC equipment room to get our armor fitted.  Tanus and myself are already fitted into our current suits from the past ARC squad, but you others need to get fitted.  You will find it amazingly maneuverable I promise.  Dismissed."

"Making enemies one team at a time, aren't you Nams?" Marka murmured to her and Namyr shrugged, she was truthful and a little hot tempered, if people wanted to hate her for it, oh well.

Namyr rolled her eyes nothing like another hour long fitting only to have her chest crushed against the armor.  The same thing happened to her when she was fitted for her Stormtrooper Armor, one time it had even left marks on her skin.  She was definitely sure that the ARC armor wouldn't be any different, one thing was for sure the Empire wasn't ready for female Twi'leks in their ranks, if they did they'd make the breastplates a little bigger.  As Namyr stood up she looked at Riqimo to see him motioning with his finger to come talk to him.  Great, she was wrong, this guy didn't have a sense of humor and a half hour into the squad she was already getting a chewing out.

"Sorry about that little mistake of mine," was one of the first sentences out of Riqimo's mouth, the comment causing one of Namyr's eyebrows to curl upward.  That was a first an SL apologizing to her, usually Darr figured that she'd get over it, which she did, but she softened slightly to her new SL just for him apologizing to her.  The she had to force her face still to keep from chuckling a little as she really noticed the height difference between her and Riqimo, it seemed that he noticed as well, considering he was mostly facing her a little above her chest if he wasn't looking up at her.  Thank goodness he was on a podium or he'd have the perfect view of her chest, Namyr choked back a laugh and listened to what Riqimo was saying, she had to give him at least that if she was going to laugh.

"I have worked with female troopers before, and I don't want you thinking I don't want you here because I found out you were female.  Nor do I want  you thinking I want you here more because you are female.  If at any time you feel I am treating you unfairly, please just let me know," Riqimo said making sure to look Namyr in the eyes, this last comment caused Namyr's other eyebrow to join the first.  This was something completely new to her, a SL that was, well, courteous to her.  Namyr wasn't sure how to take it, mostly with Darr she brushed him off and went back to work.  But Riqimo really seemed to mean what he was saying, and Namyr felt herself softening a little more.  She did have to notice that with him looking up at her most of his hair had fallen out of his eyes to reveal a really nice blue-green color.

Namyr smirked, she'd let that thought go, at least for now, "I think you might be the one being treated unfairly, shorty," she told Riqimo before turning suddenly and walking away, perhaps she turned a little too quickly realizing how flirtatious she sounded, which wasn't how she wanted to sound at all.  She winced as she felt her Lekku make contact with Riqimo's face.  "Keep going, just keep going before you make an even bigger idiot out of yourself," she thought exiting the room.

She had gathered all her stuff and put it on the ship before the meeting, she didn't want to have to go back to her apartment.  So Namyr took the little extra time she had and wandered the building, that is until she sound of men grunting and shouting brought her attention, the training gym.  She easily slipped inside to see what the rest of the ARC troopers were training, seemed like hand to hand combat today.  She spent about fifteen minutes watching bad form and horrible cliché movie lines before she had to beat these guys into proper soldiers.  Namyr checked her watch, she had plenty of time, casually she shrugged off her poncho and placed it on a nearby chair, next she placed her blades on top of her poncho.  Now wearing yellow pants and a brown tank top Namyr made her way to the mat.

"Hey beautiful come to watch?" One of the guys asked a cheesy grin on his features.

"Actually, I was hoping for more of a hands on display," Namyr said with a sweet grin and stepped out onto the mat.

"Babe, we'd break you in half," another guy said before chuckling.

"Why don't you amuse a girl, I'm pretty sure plenty of women have done it for you all in bed," Namyr snapped back her eyes blazing a little.

"Alright lady, but don't say we didn't warn you," The guy said getting into a fighting stance.  It was stiff and Namyr could already tell that he was going to charge before he even moved.  She let herself get into a relaxed position and waited for the guy.  Just as she predicted he charged forward, slowly though, Namyr was sure she was a lot faster then this guy who was a tad on the beefy side.  Rushing towards her Namyr ducked down to avoid a fist and easily came up between the guy's arm and chest and slammed him in the chin with her fist, knocking him back.

"Keep you arms closer to your body so you can protect yourself easier," Namyr told the guy as he came towards her again.  She turned her head in time to miss another punch, backing up a few paces, she hadn't expected the guy to learn so quickly.  She smirked and her and the guy circled around one another.  Obviously he didn't want to get punched again, the guy held his arms to his body and near his face, there was no way that Namyr could slip between his arms again.

She hopped a few steps backwards as the guy tried to rush her again, seeing him coming she dropped into a crouching position, rest her weight back on her arms she brought up her knee, her arms held her up as the, guy's stomach slammed into her knee.  As he slumped over Namyr kicked her knee up and flipped the guy onto his back, he landed heavily on the mat. 

"Rushing an opponent never guarantee's a strike, in fact rushing only makes you look stupid when you hit the mat," Namyr said sharply.  Standing up Namyr motioned for the next guy to come forward, checking her watch again, she still had plenty of time.  As she checked her watch she didn't notice the nodding between the guys.  Before Namyr could prepare herself one of the guys came out of nowhere his fist almost connecting with her stomach if she hadn't taken a step back.  She glanced behind her to see another guy running towards her.  Namyr frowned and dodged out of the way, it was just her luck.  She flipped to her feet, "Fine if you want to play rough let play rough," she growled slamming her fist into one guy's nose before turning around and getting a fist to her eyebrow.  She managed to shake off the blow only to feel a pair of hand wrapping around her Lekku and pull.

Namyr screamed in pain, blood running down her cheek as she slammed her elbow into the guy holding her Lekku.  One of them must have thought that pulling her Lekku would have immobilized her, but Namyr had spent the last few years numbing herself to such tactics, at least to the point where she could still fight, it still hurt like hell.  Namyr, after her elbow slammed into the guy's stomach brought her shoulder into his chin as he went down throwing him a couple feet.  By them pulling her Lekku all mercy Namyr would have spared them was lost from Namyr's mind as she launched herself at the remaining five guys.  One received a fist to his nose and eye, another found his shoulder dislocated, she kicked out a guy's knee that resulted in a horrible crack, a tall fellow got a knee to the groin, and the last guy was head butted and thrown across the room.  As the men who could stand, try to do so to try to fight Namyr a voice spoke up.

"By the fighting style and the blades over there you have to be Sergeant Lythune, or as I recall when you were in my recruit squad, red-skinned distraction," a voice by the door snapped Namyr out of her fighting state of mind.  Those recruits who could stand snapped to attention their eyes widening that they had just tried to take out a Sergeant.

"Well, well, Platoon Sergeant Lutheran," Namyr said giving her former drill instructor a cheeky grin, he smiled back then turned back to the recruits.

"See you're still beating the crap out of recruits that seem to think that Twi'lek women are weak?" he asked curiously before barking, "All of you, yeah all of you, you're lucky the Sergeant here didn't kill you, no don't go muttering apologies, just get your asses to the doctor and you can explain what happened so you can be the laughing stock of ARC by morning.  Be lucky she didn't have her blades or she would have cut you to pieces."

"To be fair a couple of them did get a few hits in," Namyr said smoothly nodding to the recruits that did, "They'll make fine soldiers at least."

None of the recruits looked at Namyr as they passed her on the way to the infirmary, "So hear you were chosen for ARC," Platoon Sergeant mentioned to her as she picked up her poncho and blades.

"Yes sir," Namyr said wiping away some of the blood with the back of her hand, she then checked her watch, "I should be going, we're moving out in about two hours."

"Very good, I knew that something would come out of you," Platoon Sergeant mentioned with a smirk and passed by Namyr, whose face was drawn up in shock, after months of harassment from him, he was complimenting her?  She had always figured the man had hated her.  Namyr watched him go before realizing she was still bleeding all over herself.  After a quick stop into the infirmary to get the cut over her eye patched up Namyr, and another quick stop at the hangar for some non-bloodied clothes to wear.  Namyr made her way down to the armor shop, only to be left out in her white tank top and black pants under clothes waiting for someone to get back from the armor storehouse for something that would fit her.  It was only now that she found out that they did have sizes for women like her, only they had to be special ordered, figures no one would have told her.

She sat in a backwards chair her elbow resting on the back of the chair and her chin in her hand as she waited for them to deliver her armor.  She looked up at the sound of someone jogging into the armory and smirked as Riqimo's short figure filled the doorway.  She shook her head as he looked completely involved with his thoughts as he passed her.

"Women, not my field," he muttered loud enough for Namyr to hear and she laughed a little, some little filly was obviously giving him some trouble, poor guy, he looked like any woman could snap him in two, literally.

"Don't worry Riq, people will be shooting at you soon," Namyr said her Twi'leki accent curling around the R in his name.  She smiled fully her white teeth contrasting with her red skin as Riqimo turned in surprise to look at her.

"What happened to your face?" was the first thing out of Riqimo's mouth as he got out of his surprised.

"A couple of recruits needed some extra training, don't worry they came out worst then me.  I guessed they figured pulling on my Lekku would momentarily disable me, so as a Twi'lek I had permission to kick their asses" Namyr said her eyes moving towards the ceiling as Riqimo took her chin in his hand and lifted her head to get a better look at the cut, "Come on Riq it was only six stitches, and my eyebrow will cover it up if it scars," she said looking impatient as she waved away Riqimo's warm hand.  She was really fine, he could hold of his motherly doctoring until she really was hurt.  He took her chin again as if he didn't believe her about the six stitches and prepared to peel back the small bandage, Namyr quickly grabbed his hand and sternly held it in her own.  "Seriously Riq." she said looking him in the eyes, 'I'm fine, I'm a medic too and I'm able to triage myself and go to the doctor," she told him slowly before letting go of his hand.  It took a moment before Riqimo realized that Namyr wasn't suited up, he looked her up and down and frowned.
   
"Where's your armor?" he asked.

"They had to get a runner to go down to the warehouse to get my size," Namyr said and shrugged her shoulders, the scars she had obtained from two different swordsmen were still light pink against her white tank top.  Let alone the scars on her back could be seen around the openings of the tank top and where her tank top stopped right before her bellybutton.  The scars were faded and one shade lighter then the rest of her skin, they crisscrossed her back, but other then that they gave her no pain anymore.

"Your size?' Riqimo questioned, his eyes moving to the scars on Namyr's shoulder and back.

"Well," Namyr said with a smirk standing up and stepping out in front of Riqimo and signaling to her chest, which was actually pretty funny considering where his eye level came to her, "The armor that's in stock isn't made for women with my sizes, don't worry they'll have it by the time we leave," she said stepping around Riqimo and seeing a person come in with armor in hand, 'Speaking of three Lekku devils," Namyr commented before she began pulling on the armor over her body.  She looked up at Riqimo as she put on her breast plate and noticed he was staring, as if the taste of citrus wasn't enough, him staring made Namyr roll her eyes again, maybe the whole pointing to her chest was a little too much for the small guy.

'Riq, move your eyes or lose them," Namyr said snapping the clips to her breast plate shut and standing up straight to look at herself in the armory's mirror, she let out a sigh of relief and smiled broadly, "Yep you were right these are more comfortable and lighter then the Stormtrooper armor," she said flexing an arm.  She then walked over and picked up one of her blades, moving back to give herself some room, Namyr spun her blade around before flipping it behind her back and catching it with her other arm and doing the same rotation.  She then turned to the clerk and nodded, "It's perfect, thanks, I can get the squads decal put on once I get back," she told the clerk before looking back at Riqimo, his eyebrow was raised and his eyes were looking at her blades.

'They said you were good, but I wasn't sure," he said holding his hand out to inspect one of Namyr's blades.

Namyr handed them to Riqimo and shrugged, "Why do you think I was chosen, the team only needs one medic.  I was chosen for my ability with melee weapons, hand to hand combat, speed, stealth, language skills and general 'butt kicking,' potential.  Thought you Riq, are quite talented with language I am able to pick up the basics only by listening, it's a Twi'lek thing," Namyr said with a cocky smirk.

"I'm aware, I read your record as well Namyr, and you know you can call me Doc, everyone else does," Riqimo said handing the blades back to Namyr who in turn put them back in their sheath and tied the belt around her waist.

"Smartass," Namyr commented turning to make her way to the hangar, "And I know I can call you Doc, but I like Riq better," she said over her shoulder before smiling at Riqimo and disappearing around a corner on her way to the hanger, her Lekku tied up in a undercurled fashioned with black ribbon slapping against her shoulders and her helmet under one arm.

Operation Time: 0210 Hours

"He...help...me ...please...UNH...please......" A wounded soldier had been attacked by a beast, that had escaped back into the jungles of Tormar... The medic, a young Riqimo Pershaw, kneeled over the trooper, trying to find a way to help him.  His eyes following the deep gashes that went all over the trooper's torso.

"...my size." Namyr interrupted Riqimo's memories.

"Your size?" Riqimo questioned as the vision faded back into focus, his eyes following each and every scar, Namyr's red skin easily becoming the deep crimson blood that he had seen all those years ago...

Sweat dripped off of his nose as the medic tried to find any possible way to save the trooper, until he had only one possible action left.  Riqimo almost hated himself, but earned a medal for it, leveled the barrel of his pistol with the solder's head, whispered "May you rest in peace," and fired.

When Riq's vision blacked out to reality, he was staring at Namyr's chest, who was gesturing at it,  trying to remember tidbits of the conversation, he tried to figure out what had gotten him standing a foot away from a women cupping her chest.  Size? Armor?  Yeah that was it

His eyes followed her to the man bringing a specially crafted suit of armor that should fit her form.  She growled a minor threat that no doubt she had plenty of practice using in the male dominated Stormtrooper Corps.  Turned to Marka, Riqimo gave a quizzical glance.  Namyr's squad mate in Raiders just gave a small shrug, as if he was used to it. So she is always this way?

When the Twi'lek came back, she picked up her blades, and Riq made a comment on the well cared for weapons, extending his hand as an unofficial request to examine one of them.

While giving one a small swing, Riqimo listened to Namyr brag about some of her skills.  The medic made a mental note to make sure she didn't get cocky in the field.  He had to watch out for his troopers.  It was something Kairo talked to him about, what made the short fellow a great leader.  Kai called it a 'fatherly instinct,' something that was foreign to Riqimo as anything outside of this Galaxy.  Whatever it was, Riqimo had it, and he had plenty of it.

"I'm aware, I read your record as well Namyr, and you know you can call me Doc, everyone else does," Riqimo replied to her immodest statement, while carefully giving Namyr the hilt of the weapon.  I wonder how she knows so much about me?  It is not like I am some legend that every Stormtrooper hears of.

"I know I can call you Doc, but I like Riq better," she flashed a smile over her shoulder, leaving to do some last things before showing up at the shuttle.  Not again...  I swear she is playing me.

Rubbing his eyes, Riqimo went to look for Arnaut, who was complaining about something to the quartermaster in charge of the ARC supplies, "So what if I want to mix and match sets?  Not everyone has a perfect body like a mannequin."

Riqimo smirked, Arn was having a small issue of the coveralls of one set being the best size, but the torso plates that went with that set did not fit as well as another set, of which the coveralls were a little too tight.  Riq placed a hand on the quartermaster's shoulder, "Hey Fre'nel, let him do what he wants, I'll take any blame if there is an issue."

Sighing, Fre'nel gave in to the demands of the Wraith Squad Leader, and made some marks on his datapad.  He was slightly annoyed with the inventory report he was going to have to write to explain the mixed set, but Riq didn't care.  "So, how does it fit Arn?"

"Not as comfy when they first fitted me with it back when," Arn rolled his shoulders, testing the weight and balance of the armor, "What changes did you guys put on this baby?"

"Well, getting a little more flexible was the first priority, so some changes happened there.  Also, the coverall has some heat shielding, reducing our heat signature on thermal scans.  Some other modifications as well."

Riqimo saw Marka trying a helmet one and grinned at the Raider, he nodded to Arn to put his helmet on as well.  Once all three had their helmets on, Riqimo gave an order over the comlink, "Both of you, flick the red switch near the bottom left with your tongue."

Within seconds, small screens appeared on the bottom of Riq's HUD, showing a camera view of the other helmet's line of sight.

Marka and Arnaut were obviously impressed with the system judging from the chatter on the comms, Riq managed to catch Arnaut asking, "Doc, think that Wraith could use this system?"

"Afraid not, Army spent a good amount on these suits, normal squads are not allotted that sort of budget." Riq removed his helmet, and saw Tanus come in out of the corner of his eye.

OOC:

Here are some armor specs for you folks unfamiliar with it:


The Kerberos armor system, with its distinctive red spectacles (ARC Squad's signature psychological terror weapon), is an update on an older design that once belonged to an elite government military unit in charge of defending a Capital district. Similar to the Coruscant Guards in purpose, this unit was brought in to take out terrorist and rebellious elements challenging the ruling power. (and yes, the red spectacles do have an off setting.)
The armor is lightweight, modular, and capable of deflecting blaster bolts better than standard Stormtrooper armor. This is due to an improvement of the original Impervium composite used by Clone troopers on down.
Mobility has been deemed more important than coverage, thus the armor kit is not a full-body enclosing design. Instead, a micropore utility coverall will be worn. It is a self-sealing garment and provides some protection against chemical and biological weapons, and emergency protection against vacuum.

Picture Here (I wish it came in pink then we really would be fearsome )

Tanus was thinking about the mission, and how hellish it was going to be. He was contemplating this all the way back to his new condo, which he bought three days before and, miraculously, had all of his gear moved into the place. He was also happy with some new gear he got at the Imperial Center, because he could test it out on the mission. He walked into the foyer, with R6-F7, his astromech droid, rolling in to greet him. "Hey, R6. Just going to grab some gear, then I'll be gone again." The droid twittled his disapproval, and Tanus smiled as he walked back into his weapons room.

Tanus' weapons room was a step up from his weapons chest back in his apartment. He walked in, and was immediately caught between suits of armor hanging on his wall. On the opposite wall, he had hung his melee weapons. On the back wall hung his rifles, pistols and other small melee weapons along with survival equipment. He walked towards the back wall and examined it carefully, scanning it for what weapons he needed. He found them, in the form of his Mistryl climbing claws. He reached for a small satchel bag to put the weapons in. He then reached for his newest additions to his arsenal, a pair of DE-10 blaster pistols. He then went to his close combat weapons wall and grabbed his modified Ryyk blade, sliding it into its sheath. He slung the satchel across his back and put he blade at his hip. He walked out into the main hall, told R6 to watch the place while he was gone, and headed out the door.



Tanus walked toward the ARC "weapons chest" with his gear with him in the bag. The engineer behind the desk was Fre'nel. The man had a smirk on his face and nodded to Tanus; he had dealt with him before for the last mission the ARCs had. Tanus nodded back and grinned.

"Hey, Fre'nel, how's life?"

Fre'nel put down a paper he had been reading and glanced at Tanus.

"Not too badly. Just keeping busy. Now, it appears that I have some work ahead of me. What've you got in the bag?" He had gestured to Tanus' satchel.

"Just some gear I need for the mission. You still have my armor specs back there right?"

Fre'nel nodded.

"Good. What I need is these put on over my gauntlets," as Tanus took out his climbing claws and put them in front of him. "I also need duel holsters for these bad boys," and showed Fre'nel his DE-10s. "And finally, I need some straps on the small of the back so I can attach this to it," and drew out his blade. "Think you got all of that?" Tanus added with a smirk.

Fre'nel returned it in kind. "Yeah, I gotcha. What I was think though was that I could give the sheath a rotating interlocking attachment; you can detach it whenever you want too."

Tanus looked at his sheath. "Fre'nel, you're a genius. I'm gonna leave this stuff with you, I'm gonna go spar in training room or something." Tanus dropped his gear on the desk and turned on his heel and left. The Fre'nel called out to him:

"Tanus, what ARC weapon you taking?"

Tanus considered for a few seconds, and then turned to Fre'nel. "Pack me the Acklay-12. I want a balance with my types of ranged weapons." Fre'nel nodded and went to do his work.


Tanus walked into the training room where there were already a good number of people sparring with both weapons and hand-to-hand. He walked up the head trainer.

"Excuse me, sir, but do you have anyone interested in a little sparring?"

The head trainer looked at his roster. "Yeah, we have a few. Looks like three. Now, do you want to take them on one at a time, or all three at once?"

Tanus needed no time to think: "All three at once, please."

The trainer nodded and went back to two men and one woman sitting behind him. He gestured to Tanus and then to a sparring circle. The training officer came back to Tanus.

"They accept. Just head down to that training circle and wait for them to get ready."

Tanus nodded and headed down to the sparring circle and closed his eyes, standing in its center. He centered his chi, bringing them up in a meditative stance. He opened his eyes after thirty seconds and saw his three opponents filing into the circle. Tanus assumed his Baguazhang combat style, as they assumed others. The training master stood beside the ring: "BEGIN!"

One of the men charged Tanus with a furious haymaker. Tanus ducked inches below the hit and came up with a swift uppercut, sending the man into the air. Tanus then followed with a back kick that sent the man hurtling back ten feet. The woman charged next, unleashing a furious barrage of punches and kicks. Tanus blocked many of the hits, but took some hits due to the speed of the attack. Tanus finally managed to push her back, but the final opponent came flying in from behind, aiming a kick at the base of Tanus' spine, but luckily for Tanus, he moved before the attack connected. Now the other man he had floored was back on his feet, and he wasn't looking too happy. Tanus merely smiled. Perfect, he thought.

The man he had floored charged again, leading with a kick aimed at the stomach. Tanus saw the kick coming from a mile away, knocking the foot aside and coming in with a hammer fist to the collar bone, hearing a sickening crack as it broke under the attack. The man reeled back, gripping his neck in pain. Tanus finished him off with a swift kick across the face.

Tanus turned back to his other two opponents, gesturing them to come forward. The woman charged, as did her friend. Tanus merely got ready. The woman extended her fist for a punch, and Tanus saw his opening. He grabbed her wrist and spun her around, slamming her into her comrade, sending him toppling over and rolling across the ground. Tanus finished it by releasing the woman from his grasp, sending her flailing through the air, going outside of the ring. Tanus nodded to the training officer and turned his back.

"See you next week."



Tanus walked back to the ARC squad room, saluting Doc as he passed. He opened up his locker and saw that Fre'nel had done his job well. Tanus removed his clothes and put on his underlayment, followed by his leg and chest plates. He then put on his arm plates and grabbed his DE-10s and placed them in his holsters. He then took out his Ryyk blade and found the interlock that Fre'nel had spoken about. He attached the sheath to its secure point. He then saw that along with his Acklay-12, Fre'nel ah also added some grenades: Class-A thermal grenades. Tanus smiled and slung the bandolier of grenades over his shoulder, grabbing the Acklay-12's silencer and putting it in an equipment pouch. He shouldered his rifle and took his helmet under the crook of his arm, resting it against his hip. He turned to Doc and nodded.

"OK, lets move out."



Tanus stepped out towards the black Lambda-class shuttle with the rest of the ARCs, all carrying their weapons. The dockworkers were loading what looked to be extra ammo into the shuttle. Tanus looked around; the hangar looked deserted. Doc stopped the group right before the boarding ramp.

"OK, folks, this is it. This is our ride in and our ride out. You know the mission, so I'm not going to say it again. Just stay alive. I'm not losing anybody now."

And with that, Doc turned on his heel and walked up the boarding ramp, followed by the rest of the ARCs in silence, one by one. After twenty minutes of waiting, the boarding ramp closed with a gaseous hiss. Tanus felt the ship lift up off, and he closed his eyes, meditating and waiting for the fires of war to blaze around him.

Operation Time: 345 Hours

"Doc?"

Riqimo turned around to see Tanus in the cockpit's doorway, nodding to the trooper, he gave a slight shrug, "What do ya need?"

"Just wondering about our last ARC mission, how it all went wrong."

Riq sighed, "That was beyond our control Tanus, we had to adapt.  No one could have predicted that an anti human merc group would attack that villa that night.  In fact you could say it was for the better, for if we came a day earlier, we would have only taken Kelssk.  Thus, we would have been leaving his family to their deaths the next night."

"Yeah, but you risked your life to save that one girl, you jumped out a window...  How did you even manage to think of a plan like that?"

Riqimo looked out the cockpit window for something to stare at, but the vast expanse of space offered nothing to distract him, and he turned back to look at Tanus in the eyes, "I don't know, I just did it.  There was no thinking, it was foolish.  Brave, but foolish all the same.  I know what you are thinking, Tanus, 'Can I do the seemingly impossible to save a life at the risk of the mission?'  I will tell you now.  You will never be able to know until that split second, when..."  Riq paused, seeing another trooper behind Tanus, "Can I help you Namyr?"

The Twi'lek gave a slow roll of her shoulders, drawing Riq's eye's slightly downward, despite the armor she was wearing.  He quickly realized what he was doing and jerked his eyes back upward towards her  face.  "Just looking around Riq," the squad leader blinked at how her voice curled around his nick name, trying to determine if it was the accent or something else, "Marka and Arnaut are not the best conversationalists."

Doc shrugged, "Some troopers like to keep to themselves, I am certain there is something in your own past that you keep hidden, we all do."  I certainly do...

Namyr gave another of her casual shrugs, "If you say so, Riq."

Riqimo turned to the pilot, "Will you let me know when we exit hyperspace?"

The dark skinned navy pilot nodded, and as Riq left the cockpit, gave a small sigh of relief of being away from the ARC constantly looking over his shoulder.

Riqimo smirked slightly as he entered the storage hold, everyone was cooped up in the small shuttle's cargo area of only a hundred fifty square feet or so for the next seven hours.  Luckily though there was enough legroom to give them some comfort between the troopers, crates, and various gear the ARCs had placed down to relax.  Stepping over an E-11 that was set against a wall earlier, Riq found one of the metal outcroppings from the wall that passed as seats.  The steady hum of the engines vibrated anything laying loose in the small area; Riq's datapad, for instance, which had just been placed down on another rear-numbing 'seat,' began a steady, annoying vibrating noise that caused Riq the snatch it up and tuck it into a pouch on the side of his armor.  Seven hours should be enough for us to get to know each other a little better...

Riqimo stretched his arms before settling his back against the durasteel wall of the shuttle that separated him from the pilot's cockpit.  Smiling, he tried to start up a conversation, "So everyone ready to have our first mission?"

A few affirmative nods and phrases followed, but not much actual conversation resulted.  Gonna have to better than that Doc

"So, anyone want to get around to more formal introductions?  I'll start.  Sergeant Riqimo Pershaw, Eclipse Squad Leader."

Going around the shuttle in a clockwise movement, each trooper gave their rank, name, and squad position, until it came back to Riq, who tried to start an actual conversation, this time going counterclockwise, "Namyr, you haven't been with the Corps as long as we have, but you certainly found some good experience, just wondering what your favorite mission was so far."

OOC:

I am not tagging Nams here, anyone can post next, as if Nam's already replied and give themselves a question, and so on.

/me kicks the training wheels off

I am not guiding you anymore ARCs, you are to lead yourselves, we are a team, not a squad!

When Nams muttered something that sounded to be her native language, Riqimo made a mental note to learn some of the lekku motions and Ryl.  If it was like any other language that the medic knew, he should have the basics in a standard month or so. 

Heaving a small sigh, Riqimo listened to the troopers give their names, then Namyr went a little inventive, then giving a very amusing gesture.  Riq was still unsure whether she was flirting with him or just joking around, and it was starting to drive him a little crazy.  Dammit, I need to focus on the mission.  One more thing like this and I will have to talk to her.

Throwing a question towards the Twi'lek, he hoped to get her a little more open to the squad, "Namyr, you haven't been with the Corps as long as we have, but you certainly found some good experience, just wondering what your favorite mission was so far"

She blushed and gave an answer after a moment of though, "If you think getting me to speak about one of our missions will get you out of being stuffed in one of the overhead bins, you have another thing coming."  What?  She wants to what?  Stuff me in a storage compartment? "...all I have to say now, if you want more information I would prefer to do it in private, no offense but it's a sensitive subject for me."

Riqimo gave a mental sigh as she turned away from the squad,  When her lekku covered the side of her face, Riqimo rubbed his eyes and knew that he had to get this over with, "I'll take that private conversation now then, let's find one of the empty rooms on the shuttle and discuss this."

Namyr gave a slightly worried look, but complied, heading down the corridor with Doc right behind her.  Riq heard a small laugh back at the cargo area and mumbled to Namyr, "Give me a second here please."

Walking back to the other ARCs Riqimo addressed them, "You guys are wrong about three things."  Seeing their blank faces, Riqimo flipped his thumb up, "Firstly you think that I can't hear your stupid giggles."  The medic folded his thumb before flipping his forefinger up, "You also think that we are here to have fun, just hanging around like girls at a slumber party."  The squad leader folded that finger once again and flipped up the next, "And, lastly, you think I am going to do something vulgar with her."

The troopers had just seen a side of the squad leader that they did not know existed and sat in stunned silence as he walked back to Namyr at the end of the corridor.  Gesturing her into one of the rooms that would normally be an officer's room if they were on a normal shuttle layout, Riqimo gave a brief sigh as he closed the door behind him and looked up at Namyr.

Using his right hand to brush the hair away from his face, Riqimo stared straight at Nams and asked, "I do not know what you are going with here, but let's be upfront.  I am trying to get us all together as a team.  You seem to be singling me out for something.  I want to know what."

Namyr said nothing and stared straight at Riqqi, feeling slightly vulnerable with his forehead exposed from the previous brush of his hand, Riqimo shook his head slightly to allow the hair to cover his eyes slightly.  "Well...?" He fought off another urge to smooth back his hair, still staring up at her.

Her lekku seemed to droop, and her eyes darted for something to focus on in the barren room.  Her gaze settling once again on her commanding officer, she mumbled something in her native tongue, to which Riq assumed to be some apology.

Pershaw took a deep breath before heading for the door, "When you think you can talk to me in a language I already understand, let me know."  As he left the room, Riq rubbed his eyes yet again.  God, I sound like a damn teacher.  I am supposed to address the issue and leave it, not have her linger over it... Why can't I follow any of those instructions from officer training about how to deal with this stuff?  Hell, they don't even teach a guy how to deal with flirting soldiers.

The other ARCs stared uneasily at Riq as he came back.  Apparently they had started a sabacc game, which had paused at the squad leader entering.  Giving a sigh, Riqimo shrugged, "Sorry about that outbreak guys.  I shouldn't have done that..."

The troopers gave a staggered chorus reply of, "It's fine," and a few shrugs.

Giving a slight smile, Riqimo nodded, "I'll join in the next round boys, be ready to lose a few creds."  Pulling out an old datapad that he had kept for several years, Riqimo created a new file and began to write:

I do not know how much longer I can keep up this image of the perfect Imperial... Sometimes I feel as though I should have been born as someone else, or done something different at some point in my life. Instead, I've spent this entire time trying to please my superiors, and at the same time pushing them away. Frak, I never realized how screwed up I was until the other day. We are heading to Lotiath, and it just suddenly hit me while I was sitting in the shuttle. Every day, that urge just keeps growing. Sometimes I just want to run away from it all, stop being the bad guy. I hate that role, the big bad Stormtrooper. Frell, all I wanted to do was help people. Kind of went the wrong way with that one. God, I should really stop writing this stuff. If Kai or Riz find it, or even Jell, then the Empire will charge me with treason. Everyone knows what happens to those people. No, now I have to sit and act the part of a proper Imperial soldier...

"Doc?  You ready to play?" Tanus called out, interrupting Riq's entry, "Corellian rule set."

"Of course I am ready," Riq stood up, tucking his datapad back into its pouch.

Just as the squad leader was about to take a seat for a round of sabacc, a familiar voice curled around his nickname that had been haunting him for the past couple hours.  Riqimo pushed back from the crate that the game was being played upon and stood up, "Yes Nams?"

"You want to talk?"

"If you are sure." Riqimo shrugged, trying not to look over joyed at the possibility that she was finally going to get along better with him and the squad.  Well, him at least, he didn't know why he was concerned with that fact, he really should have been worried about squad chemistry the most.  But anyways, he needed to look professional, at least in front of the troopers.  "Want to talk in the back again?" She nodded timidly and Riq followed her once again down the corridor after nodding to Marka to deal another hand out without him.

There was a grinding, metallic noise. The ship rocked. And then silence. Arnaut let out a tremendous curse, and picked his winning hand off of the decking. The damage had already been done however. Marka hid a tiny smile behind his cards as he conceded, right before Tanus followed.

"I hate you all," Arnaut muttered, taking away the small ante pile in the middle of the floor. The ship rocked again, and more scrapes could be heard on the hull. Normally, not a good sign. Arnaut had been flying around in ships long enough to know an asteroid collision when he heard one.

"Sorry 'bout that you guys, we stumbled into a small asteroid field --nothing big enough to really hurt the shields-- so make sure to hold onto something,"

"Sounds like it got through the shields just fine to me," Arnaut mumbled, now intrigued. He stood, his dark armor clinking slightly as he stretched out the knots in his back. The armor worked well, was super-techy, in Arnaut's opinion, but it was still fully body armor. And that meant cramps. As he walked over to the window, he casually massaged his back. After their latest mission, he'd almost gotten used to wearing civilian armor.

Outside, the blackness of space loomed, speckled occasionally by stars. And other objects. Dark, shadowy objects, larger than the vessel. Quite capable of smashing through the ships shields if not the ship itself.  Small, my eye. Arnaut stormed off toward the cockpit. Tanus and Marka came behind him.

The pilot lounged back in his chair, watching the asteroid swirl and smash outside the cockpit. The flickering, inconsistent light played tricks on his face and the surrounding space, shadows dancing around. All in all it made for a very creepy atmosphere. Arnaut scarcely noticed any of this. He spun the chair around so that the pilot was facing him.

"Small asteroids? We'll be dead in a matter of minutes, if not earlier if we don't move now." A small smile quirked in the upper corners of the man's mouth, and his eye twinkled with barely contained delight.

"It's all under control. We just had a slight hyperdrive malfunction, that's all. It's been sorted out." And with that, he turned and began to pilot the ship. Arnaut had piloted before; he knew the basics of how to fly and land a craft. But he'd never seen someone as deft as their pilot was as he swiftly maneuvered them out of the asteroid field. There were near misses to be sure, but they were just that. Misses. In less than a minute, the pilot had cleared the field and was already powering the ship back into hyperspace.

"I told you. Now, if you would kindly take your seat..." the pilot asked in an all-too-smug way, indicating toward the door. Arnaut knew when he was beat. With a resigned nod, he walked out of the cockpit and plopped himself down next to the pile of scattered sabacc cards. Tanus and Marka were already there, waiting for him to rejoin them.

Marka looked up as Arnaut came down. "What was all that about?" He asked inquisitively.

"Nothing. Apparently it's all under control," Arnaut replied, mocking the pilot's voice. Tanus snickered. "What's done is done," Arnaut continued, "So let's play some sabacc!"

As they played, Arnaut found his mind kept straying. There was something not right about what had just happened, and he couldn't put his finger on it. Sighing, he tried to push it from his mind as slowly, his pocket change began to be distributed between Tanus and Marka.

With a jolt, Arnaut lurched forward. His cards stayed in his hand, though, thankfully. The round chips of the sabacc game weren't as lucky as they went rolling off under one of the seats, spinning around to a stop. There was stillness. Well, stillness and with the almost vague sense of movement. Space travel. They must've dropped out of hyperspace, Arnaut supposed. Laying down his winning hand, he gathered the stray chips, pocketed them, and hopped into his chair.

The seat's strap locks clicked together after three tries, but seemed safe enough. The faded seats were tearing, and the straps looked ratty, but he trusted them to get him to the ground safely. Safe enough. In one piece, at least. Outside the window, a swirling blue-green orb of a world could be seen. Wisps of white cloud drifted almost lazily across the surface, shadowing parts of the land and ocean. Lotiath was like many populated worlds in the galaxy: temperate, cool climate, and generally a whole lot a better place to live than planets like Arnaut's homeworld. Arnaut's memories of growing up on Tatooine were dimming, year after year, having not seen the planet in a while, but he remembered the sand. Always sand.

The sped into the atmosphere, their craft slowing as it went, until they almost casually floated down to the landing platform. The ship shuddered as the landing skids made contact with the ground. With a roar of the reverse thrusters the ship bumped again, and then they were landed. The doors hissed and opened revealing the bleary outsides. Idena, in itself, was a beautiful city. The architecture was created of all hard lines, stretching into the sky with massive skyscrapers and residences. The lower buildings were far shorter and squatter, but no less magnificent. They stood in rows, imposing, along the perfectly straight streets of the Vast Empire's capital, still looming over the few pedestrians dotting the sidewalks. The whole view made for a strong, prideful, almost arrogant atmosphere. Or it would've, had the southern sector not been in flames.

The smoke from the raging fire curled up into the already blackened sky, blocking out most sunlight. A steady trickle of ash-rain fell, coating everything in dust. As Arnaut stepped out into the pale light, a thin coat began to collect on his armor. The ground around him was thick with it, despite the regular cleanings of the service droids.

The spaceport was empty, yet the same could not be said for the outside. Hundreds, thousands, of people crushed up against each other trying to push and shove their way onto the next flight out of town. They were officially in a war zone now. Part of their city was burning. An ash was falling from the sky that most likely used to be things they would rather not think about. There were bloodthirsty cultists running amok through the southern streets. This was not the place for the average day-to-day Imperial citizen. The fear was almost palpable.

Arnaut crunched his way through the ash drifts to the open air ticket counter that stood between him and the outside of the spaceport. Two squads stormtroopers and a platoon of Imperial infantry stood, almost overwhelmed, trying to keep the masses at bay. They looked tired. They'd probably been at this station all day. Arnaut pitied them, but if the ARC squad's work went well, the troopers would soon be relieved. Behind him, the other members of ARC were jumping down out of the ship. Arnaut turned away from the chaos at the front of the spaceport and went to help them unload.

The weapons crates came out first. The contents made jiggling noises inside, but that was it. Somewhere in there, Arnaut's flamethrower lay buried.. He had added them to his personal list of supplies mainly as an after thought. All he needed, really, was the blaster on his hip, the A280 rifle slung over his back, and the twenty or so knives hidden about his person. He'd done his work fine so far with just that. Their packs came out next. They were expecting on staying for a while, and the packs held enough for them to set up in any environment or condition. They weren't expecting on having a whole lot of supplies provided from the city in the state it was.

As the last things were carried off, including new weapons and medical supplies for forces operating inside the city, ARC squad rallied around Riqimo and awaited to move out.

"So...where are we going?" Tanus asked, as soon as they were all gathered around.

"Well, there's a nice hotel down the street. It's the...the Prancing Pikobi," Riqimo replied, looking down at his datapad. " It'll be our base of operations for now, just until we can assess the state of the forces in the city and get to doing our job. We might as well get moving there now. I don't expect the crowds to thin any, so it'll probably be a long walk." He sighed an exasperated sigh and walked off, followed closely by Namyr and Tanus

"Well, that leaves us with the weapons, I guess," Arnaut said to Marka. Marka nodded tiredly and picked up one end of the crate as Arnaut got the other. Slowly, they walked out of the spaceport and into the pressing crowds. With a barely audible click, so soft only the stormtrooper could hear it, one of the riot controlling officers captured a fuzzy pict of the duo leaving with the crate and sent it off to his master. With glazed eyes, he turned away from the ARC squad members as they were engulfed in the crowd. The pain from the cuts on his left arm were immense, where he had carved the prayers of the Emperor into his own skin, but he ignored it. Just as he ignored the crowds, his fellow squad mates, and the immense eight pointed star burned onto his chest. He had already played his role. There was nothing left that mattered.

"Ka, now can you let go of my hands so that I may get feeling back into them," Namyr rolled her golden eyes.  Kinda funny how I never really noticed those... Smiling slightly at a small idea, Riqimo released Namyr's hands from his own and sat up, and felt her slide down the mattress towards him, coming to a stop on his lap.  She gave a brief smile, 'You don't like making things easy for me do you?"

Riqimo nodded slowly, his grin slowly turning to a slight discomfort while trying to squirm slowly to reposition himself.  Much more room than Stormtrooper Armor down there...  but still... urrrrg... uncomfortable...  I might need an little more room down there next mission, talk to... errg... Fre'nel about that.

"No, not really," Riqimo replied, trying to keep the pitch as close to normal as he could, "so Ka, means yes right?"

"Yes it does," Namyr nodded an approval while scooting back onto the mattress much to Riq's relief.  Hiding a slight sigh, Riqimo took one of Namyr's hands in his own and discretely used his elbow to make himelf slightly more comfortable.

Staring into her eyes again, trying to appear serious, Riqimo tried begging like a little school child, with no doubt his height helped finish that image in Namyr's mind, "Hey teach me some more;  In fact I want to know more about you, what's Ryloth like, what are Twi'leks like on Ryloth, what's the differences between clans?"

"You ask a lot of questions for such a short man," Namyr replied, her yellow eyes seemingly distant, lost in a daydream.

Riqimo gave a broad grin, "Hey I'm a small guy with a big appetite to learn."

Nams seemed to chuckle, "Geez, are all human males like this?"

"Nah just me," Riqimo assured her, "Now come on teach me more, we have about six hours left on this shuttle."

Squeezing Nam's hand slightly as he felt himself rising again, Riqimo felt Namyr stiffen her muscles and then pull her hand away.

"Don't," She warned Riq, massaging her hand slightly, "I will teach you my language, but don't touch me unless I want you to."

A little stunned by the sudden recoil, Riqimo stuttered slightly, 'Um alright, so how do you say hello?"

...  ...  ...

Riq and Nams went back and forth with a few questions on the language, and eventually Riq seemed to gain enough trust for a small piece of her childhood. 

In the conversations Riq had not even felt the exit from hyperspace or even entering the planet's atmosphere.  Only the harsh push of landing the shuttle on a landing platform interrupted the lessons, Riqimo was surprised at how fast the time had flown and even more so at how he felt... at ease, yes that was the wording, at ease.  Yet there was that tiny feeling that Riqimo pushed aside that there was something familiar about this situation.

Standing up at the same time as Namyr, he shook his head once, trying to get used to being the short one.  As Namyr seemed to think something and turn away, Riqimo took her hand being careful not to squeeze too hard.  Making sure she was looking at him, Riq took a deep breath and tried to recite a line he had been putting together during the lessons.  He wasn't sure why he wanted to do it, impress her maybe, but that didn't make any sense.  "Hey, Arni'soyacho, I'm really looking forward to Friday Namyr'Olma."

Riqimo wasn't sure if he did something wrong as she glanced away, but she then gave a fleeting look and replied, "Me too Riqimo'Eswo, perhaps I'll treat you to some Twi'lek food and drink as well."

Riq blinked, and as she left the room asked her what the 'Eswo' was attached to the end of his name.  Not getting a reply, Riq sighed and tried to get it out of context clues, her lekku seemed to show a subtle movement of respect, but he wasn't quite certain.  And it seemed to resemble a clan name, but it wasn't mentioned in any that Namyr went over with him.

Back in the cargo area, Riqimo holstered his dual pistols and shouldered his Acklay.  Before stepping out of the shuttle, he took his helmet off the rack and held it under his arms.  He desired a quick look at the planet with his own eyes before he resorted to filters.  The smoke prevented any reasonable breath after the filtered air of the shuttle, and Riq resigned to putting his helmet on quickly to let the breath filters do their job.

Namyr was already ahead of the group, keeping her head on a swivel, while Arn and Tanus each carried a small crate filled with miscellaneous items that the ARC Troopers might need.

Arriving finally at the Prancing Pikobi, Riqimo nodded to the ARCs to stay behind him as he approached the front desk, "Do you have any rooms available to be checked out for Empire uses?"

The clerk looked at the party behind Riq and gave a small shrug, I only have two single occupant rooms, rooms 23 and 24.  You can probably try and squeeze three into one room if you want.  Afraid there are no other options."

Riqimo turned around to his squad to see empty space behind him, and three bodies just starting to rush up the stairs.  It was amazing how fast Tanus and Arn were moving with their crates.  One trooper was unaccounted for...  searching about the lobby that doubled as an pub, Riqimo spotted Nams over in a corner observing something on the wall before she turned to see that only she and Riq were the only ones in the 'lobby'  sighing Riqimo gave the desk clerk a credit chip and went over to Nams to explain what had just happened.

Namyr's yellow eyes darted around the lobby of the hotel. Already she had counted five cameras in place, but for some reason she didn't know. She could understand the one over the head of the man behind the counter due to there being a cash register, but the others she thought could possibly be in place to track people who came in and out of this hotel. Come to think of it, knowing the Empire this was probably a common spot they put troops up for the night, god forbid they take a book out of their own teaching and training and move from hotel to hotel to keep from being tracked. Namyr let out a sigh, not only that but if the cultist had control of most of this city like Namyr thought they did, then everyone would have to sleep with one eye open.

She turned to mention something to the squad to see that Riqimo was the only one left in the lobby. Namyr frowned at Riqimo walked up to her, "Where did everyone else go?" she asked glancing back at the cameras making sure to get a good shot with her helmet.

"Well, they went to stake out their room," Riqimo said his voice cracking a little through the comlinks, "The empire, the cheap bastards only gave us two rooms."

Namyr looked at Riqimo and then shrugged, "So we're rooming together, come on we need to get to work," she said taking the room key out of Riqimo's hand and heading up the stairs, "Shesh you'd think that they'd know that we're professional enough not to do anything on a mission," Namyr said glancing back at Riqimo and had the funny feeling that he was staring at her backside. She let out a sigh, "Let's just set up the computers okay?" Namyr said unlocking the room and stepping inside. It was a small room, even for hotel standards, it had at the usual dresser, television, but Namyr had to raise an eyebrow at the lone queen size bed, she really wondered if her life was being written out by someone with a bad sense of humor and too much time on their hands.

"So," Riqimo said letting out a nervous chuckle as he took off his helmet.

Namyr didn't say a word, instead she placed the small suitcase she had been carrying on the bed, opened it and began stripping out of her armor. She was down to her under garments when she guessed Riqimo had found his voice.

"What are you doing!" he managed to stutter out in such a way that Namyr laughed looking over her bare shoulder and smiling at him. Suddenly glad that she had chosen her nice under garments compared with some older ones she had.

"Changing actually," she replied pulling out a black dress for the suitcase and slipping it on over her head. She turned and sat down on the bed, now having something covering her front, and began putting on a pair of pointy high heals. Once that was done she went over to the mirror and began putting on make-up before explaining herself, "There's something more to this cultist group, hold on," Namyr said grabbing a shirt from her bag and getting up on the dresser and overing up the AC vent where she saw the glint of a camera, "Warn the others about these, they're everywhere, and make sure to lock the door when I leave. Where was I? Oh yeah, didn't you notice there was a lack of women and children on the street, and the ones that were out were surrounded by a group of family members or men? These people are terrified Riq and I'm going to find out why, there's always someone willing to talk somewhere if you know how to ask the questions," Namyr said applying black lipstick, blotting it with a tissue before straightening up, she then put a little communication device in her ear before putting on a black Twi'lek headband. Take a purse out of the suitcase she placed a pistol in it and turned to Riq, "How do I look?"

"Good," Riqimo squeaked out, the pained look on his face, identical to the one on the ship, reappearing.

"Alright, I'll see what I can find out, I know there's a club nearby, most likely there's were I'll get some answers," Namyr said checking her reflection one more time, satisfied she quickly walked up to Doc and did something without thinking, she leaned down and kissed his hairline before she walked towards the door, "dont' stay up, I'll be back late," she said over her shoulder as she opened the door.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Riqimo asked turning around to face the door.

"Not unless you like dancing, drinking, and over all spy type stuff," Namyr said with a grin before leaving the room, the door clicking behind her. She let out a small laugh, Riqimo's face had been priceless that was for sure.

'Yeah but you wanted him to come with you," a voice in her head said sounding a little smug.

'Yeah, but work is work play is play," Namyr thought back and smirked heading out the door of the hotel and heading down the street. She easily glided through the crowds, her mouth open slightly, the strong taste of fear overwhelmed her until she closed her mouth. She didn't like this at all, and the more she thought about it the worst she felt. She stepped past a bouncer into a sparsely filled club and headed for the bar. Ordering a drink she looked around, studying the faces in the club, then her eyes focused on a hallowed skinned man, whose thin lips were drinking some orange liquid. Somehow he didn't fit in and he looked unhappy, a perfect candidate for someone who was willing to blab.

Namyr sauntered over to the guy and sat down beside him and gave him a sultry look, "Hey there, can I buy you a drink?" she asked, the guy almost fell out of his chair in surprise and stared at Namyr.

"Uh sure," the guy replied, within an hour Namyr had the guy boozed up and he was answering any question she was asking. Feeling satisfied but still disturbed she headed back to the hotel. She unlocked the door and stepped inside, smiling gently, at seeing Riqimo sleeping on the bed, still fully clothed, he had probably tried to stay up, the smile turned into a more soft caring smile, one that she would have never used if Riqimo had been awake. She quietly changed into a pair of pants and a t-shirt and went over to where a computer was hooked up. Sliding on her reading glasses, he sat down at the computer and began to work, from time to time she wrote down notes on a sheet of paper, and drew out a couple maps. She then began furiously typing into the computer until she hacked into the government files and found the blueprints where the cultist were supposedly staying.

"Oh shutta," Namyr cursed looking at the blueprints.

"Nams you're back," Riqimo said looking at Namyr, he frowned as he looked at her face, "what's wrong?"

"We're walking into a giant labyrinth, a giant trap," Namyr said sitting down again and rubbing her eyes.

"What do you mean?" Riqimo asked swinging his legs over the side of the bed and coming over to the table where all of Namyr's work was and looked at the holograph that held the blueprints.

"It use to be a church of some sort, when the cultist took over it they kept adding onto it, gutting the inside, making mazes and paths, digging deeper into the catacombs expanding their networked. It wouldn't surprise me if they had opening to this thing all over the city for easy appearance and easy vanishing acts. Let alone we might be standing on part of their underground city right now,' Namyr said taking off her glassed and chewing one end.

"How did you learn all this?" Riqimo asked placing his hand on Namyr's shoulder as he looked at the files she had put up.

'Like the Empire there are always people not happy with how things are run. I took a chance and was lucky finding someone at the bar that opened up after a few drinks, he went into detail about where the main entrances were, what types of guards they have, they have sixteen year olds running around with trained tusk cats and gundarks wandering the tunnels. Riq this is something we should have known before being sent here, no wonder those troopers were torn apart.  And the people here have good reasons to be afraid, women, children, and young men are being kidnapped in the dead of night, the mass majority of them show up again, dead, their bobies carveded up and some language carved into their skins," Namyr said her forehead wrinkling as little with worry, 'I can make plans for this, have us split into groups, but there's so many factors that any plan will probably be broken within five minutes."

"So this mission is next to impossible?'

"Yeah pretty much."

"You know I like those odds."

"And now I stop questioning why they put you in charge of the squad," Namyr said with a roll of her eyes and straightened her glasses.

Riqimo glanced about the room, and placed his helmet on one of the hooks near the door, giving a nervous laugh upon seeing the single bed, "So?"

His companion said nothing as she headed straight for the lone bed, opening a small case she had brought along.  Staring in surprise as she slipped off her torso armor, he was not exactly prepared for when she slipped the coveralls entirely, revealing almost everything, finally finding the word caught in his throat, "What are you doing!"

Namyr laughed and peeked over her shoulder, a broad grin on her face. "Changing actually," she grinned while pulling a black, low-cut dress over her  head.  While she was primping herself up at the mirror, Riq was unable to take his eyes and pin them anywhere else in the room.  She didn’t seem to notice though, and interrupted her makeup for something she spotted, which was revealed to be a small camera hidden.  After alerting Riqimo to that, she continued explaining herself, concluding with an almost jokingly comment, "How do I look?"

"Good," Riqimo managed to wince in with his earlier pain, didn’t hurt as much because he was standing this time around, but it did manage to make him squirm slightly.

"Alright, I'll see what I can find out, I know there's a club nearby, most likely there's were I'll get some answers," Namyr glanced one more at her form in the mirror before coming up to Riq, surprising him with a soft kiss to the forehead, and gave him instructions as he was a child, which no doubt he looked like with the confused expression (hinted with some pain) and short height.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Riqimo questioned, taking a small step towards the door, trying to reposition his legs in the process.

"Not unless you like dancing, drinking, and over all spy type stuff," Namyr smirked before closing the door, not giving Riq a chance to reply.

Shaking his head, after giving himself a few moments to relax himself, Riq rubbed his eyes as he went towards the air conditioning vent.  Pulling the grating off, he pulled the camera out of its place and flicked it off.  Recoginizing an Imperial logo on the side combined with a serial number that started with three certain letters, he knew it was an ISB camera.  Figures, but we don’t need any babysitting at all... So just check for a few others and tell Arn and his gang.  Finding only one other camera, Riq picked took one and left the other sitting on the nightstand next to the bed.  Taking a quick glance towards the door, he slipped his armor off and tried to find something a little more casual for lounging in.

Walking down the hall to the next room over, Riqimo invited himself into their room. Spotting Arnaut all alone on the he gave a questionable look.

"What, you expect us to all sleep in it together?" Arnaut rose to a sitting up position, a smirk on his face that seemed to hint at some victory in achieving the bed.

Riq, you probably don’t want to know... "Just came over to tell you about these," Riqimo tossed the ISB camera onto the bed. Arn held it up.

"These are basic surveillance cameras. My smuggling group used to modify them so we could keep tabs on our suppliers. Where'd you get something like this?" Arnaut looked questionably at Riq, still examining it in his hand.

"Namyr found it in our room. You should probably check this room extensively. That wasn't the only one we found."

"Well, lookee here," was already searching and found one.

"Told you. There'll be more. Namyr will be back sometime late, she said. She's collecting information around town. Feel free to rest and relax until then. This'll probably be the last time in a while." Riqimo left the boys to do whatever they felt like and headed down the stairs.  Meh, if Nams is getting a drink and stuff, I have the right to one myself.

Finding a seat at the bar in the pub downstairs, Riqimo orders a beer and tried to relax.  A small voice came to his right and he turned to face it, “Hi there...” a woman took a seat on the stool next to him, trying to turn her chest into his line of vision.  Having gotten some earlier practice with Namyr, Riq was able to keep his eyes at her face.  Besides... they are not as... bah what am I thinging?!

“Yes?” Riqimo asked her while nodding a thanks to the serving droid that just gave him a beer.

“Want to try and find a little fun?  100 credits for the hour.” She tried to make her eyes swell with lust and smiled, “Discount for you, 75 since you have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen.”

Shaking his head, Riqimo replied with a quickly composed excuse, “No, maybe another night, another place, but not tonight.  Already taken, she just went out to do some things.”

The girls eyes seemed to darken as she squinted at him, “That scarlet schutta Twi’lek?  Ruining my business just by walking past me?”

Blinking, Riqimo shook his head quickly in the negative, not wanting to get into any trouble that might draw too much attention to himself, “No, she’s about my height, I doubt you would notice her walking through a crowd.”

Still a little flustered, she tried placing a hand on Riq’s thigh, “Think we can get a little time before she comes back?”

“Um...” You could Riq, you could... “No, I’m faithful.  Nams is my only one.”  Idiot... idiot, you used her name…

Looking disappointed, the woman replied, “Such a pity, a handsome man as yourself...”  Walking away to flirt at another man in the pub, she left Riq to finish his beer.

...

Back in the room, Riqimo made himself comfortable on the bed, staring into space, his thoughts the only companion he had.

Riq, you seriously need to get a grip.  Focus on the mission. Riqimo let out a yawn that he could not keep in, I have no idea what I think about her, just these random thoughts of whether I look good or not popping in my head.  Slowly his thoughts faded over the next thirty minutes and the stress of the day started to take its toll.  Soon he was dozing comfortably...

... ... ...

Riq awoke slowly hearing something soft in the room, a soft voice muttering to herself.  There was no mistaking that voice, almost musical and soothing and certain, and the definite effect that even imagining her closeness and caress had on his body. Damn tease.  Riqimo grumbled softly as he got up and straightened the wreck of sheets and blankets.  Squinting slightly he could see Namyr at the console,  Standing in the dim room, he couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge of longing for something he was uncertain of,  You’re an idiot, Riq. All those heavy thoughts and philosophical nonsense, just to get away from the real issue. Sneaky, sneaky ego. Bad dog, no cookie…

"Oh shutta," Namyr muttered at something on the screen, Riq hoped that it was not related to the mission, Or yourself a small voice spoke up in the back of his mind.  Shut up.

"Nams you're back," Riqimo mentioned, Namyr turned around and Riq knew that he was not going to enjoy whatever news she would have, "What's wrong?"

"We're walking into a giant labyrinth, a giant trap," Namyr sighed, rubbing her eyes.

"What do you mean?" Riqimo asked moving behind Namyr’s chair at the lone table of the room, looking at the blue prints that she was going through.

"It use to be a church of some sort, when the cultist took over it they kept adding onto it, gutting the inside, making mazes and paths, digging deeper into the catacombs expanding their networked. It wouldn't surprise me if they had opening to this thing all over the city for easy appearance and easy vanishing acts. Let alone we might be standing on part of their underground city right now,”

Riqimo blinked twice, quickly trying to spot what she talking about, he placed a hand on her shoulder and asked, "How did you learn all this?"

“Like the Empire there are always people not happy with how thing are run. I took a chance and was lucky finding someone at the bar that opened up after a few drinks, he went into detail about where the main entrances were, what types of guards they have, they have sixteen year olds running around with trained tusk cats and gundarks wandering the tunnels. Riq this is something we should have known before being sent here, no wonder those troopers were torn apart.  I can make plans for this, have us split into groups, but there's so many factors that any plan will probably be broken within five minutes."

Riqimo took a moment to look over what she had just showed him, his respect for her growing with each point that she brought up, "So this mission is next to impossible?'

"Yeah pretty much." She nodded in agreement.

Smirking Riq commented, "You know I like those odds."

"And now I stop questioning why they put you in charge of the squad," Namyr shrugged her shoulders slightly.

“Nams, you are a bit tense, you really need to loosen up, get some sleep,” Riqimo placed his second hand on her other shoulder and tried to massage some of the stiffness out.  Remembering that the lekku were mostly muscle, Riqimo slid his hands over to them.  Namyr’s entire body seemed to relax with both of Riq’s warm hands rubbing along her lekku, she had even stopped going through a file to lean back.  I’ll have to remember this for when she gets tense... Suddenly she jerked forward, and put turned around; Riqimo noticed the deep discoloration in her cheeks, and wondered if he had done something wrong.

She seemed to regret her sudden movement and headed for the bathroom, “Sorry, just a little tipsy from the bar I think, going to take a shower to clear my mind.”

Riq just nodded, knowing that it was an excuse to get away from him for a little while.  He slid into the seat, still warm from her former occupancy, and started to do some research on his own.  When he heard the water running behind the closed door, he switched from the mission research to answer some more personal questions he had.  Typing the keywords in, he browsed through the results until he found a file that looked like it would have the answer he sought, one line let Riq know instantly what he had done wrong...

”Twi’leks are perhaps the most sensitive species in the Galaxy, especially their lekku.  A sudden movement that jerks these can push the part of the brain within the lekku into the skull, causing migraines, or even commas.  Soft, subtle movements however could cause their entire bodies to quiver...”

Riq closed the file and rubbed his eyes, he had certainly done the wrong thing.  Remembering that one word she had used earlier that she refused to translate for him, Riqimo opened a Basic-Ryl dictionary and tried to spell the word, typing in ‘eswoo’ he asked for it to be translated and no result was found.

Perhaps you mean: ‘Eswo’? The light blue letters on the screen suggested.  Riq’s fingers danced rapidly across the keys and he pulled up the proper word:

Eswo - {Es-woe} – noun – beloved, or exceptionally favored.  It is made more meaningful with a noun or even more so with a name.

Riqimo reread the text several times, still not quite believing it, he would have to bring it up Friday.  For now though, he would have to go back to the research that Nams had stopped midstream, interrupted by Riq’s... sensuality.

Sighing, Riq decided to figure out if the creatures Namyr had mentioned had any weak spots, A good place to start as any...

[Edited for RSS feed validation - Kadann]

Tanus woke up from his sleep, staring out the window, watching the small amount of sunlight through the clouds. He looked out the window, watching smoke curl out from buildings all over the city, as cultists ran through the streets like mad dogs. It sickened Tanus to the core. Tanus slept in the chair for the night, while Arnaut took the bed, and Marka took the floor with his sleeping pad. Tanus still had his blaster across his lap and his rifle in easy reach. He saw Arn with his rifle next to the bed and Marka with his vibrosword next to him.

As Tanus rose from his chair, there was a knock at the door. Immediately, Arn was up with his rifle aimed at the door; Marka drew his sword his lightning speed, its sliver blade shimmering in the lamp’s light. Tanus aimed his pistol squarely at the door’s center. Marka walked towards the door, Tanus and Arn aiming around him. Marka opened the door and leaped back. But the behind the door wasn’t an assailant: it was Doc.

“Is this how you treat all of your guests?” Doc asked with a smile.

Tanus answered. “We had to be cautious. I’m not trusting anything in this hellhole.”

Doc nodded. “I agree. I’m glad you had those ready. I’m not walking around unarmed myself.” Doc gestured to the blaster at his hip.

“What’s up?” Arn asked, lowering his weapon.

“Namyr has formulated some plans, and we need to go over them. Get dressed and head over to our room in a few minutes.”

Tanus nodded. So it begins.

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

Tanus put on some light clothing, concealing his blaster under his lightweight jacket. He looked and saw that both Arn and Marka were ready. He opened the door and down both ends of the hallway. He nodded to Arn and Marka, and they headed over the Doc and Namyr’s room. Tanus knocked three times. Doc opened the door a little and looked them over, nodded then let them in. Namyr was sitting by the desk, papers in front of her, with reading materials on the bed describing the creatures that Tanus guessed were Doc’s. Namyr turned to them with a look that resembled a grimace.

“I’ve formulated a plan to get to the heart of this cult. It appears the cultists are using a very elaborate network of tunnels and labyrinths throughout the sector. And this leads us into a nice, neat trap. The church that was the hub of all of this is now much more than a church.” Namyr pulled out the blueprints. “The cultists kept adding to it, gutting the inside, and making paths, the whole nine yards. My guess is so that they can pull off vanishing acts with little difficulty, and regroup somewhere else in the city.”

Namyr grimaced again before continuing on. “These cultists are very well organized, if not sadistic. They have younglings running through the tunnels with gundarks and tuskcats. People are disappearing in the middle of the night, showing back up with these markings carved into their skin.” Namyr held up a pict of what looked like kanji carved into the body of an elderly man.

"I got these plans from some guy in the bar. He also gave me specs on their guards at the church, so we’re going to need a lot of firepower. You all have your weapons, so suit up.”

Doc spoke next. “We’re leaving within the hour. Just get ready and stay sharp.”

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

Tanus stood in the room, putting on his underlayment and snapping his armor into place. He grabbed his pistols from the desk and holstered them, ending with attaching his sheath and sword to his armor. He made sure that his claws were working just fine. He grabbed his rifle and shouldered it, holding his helmet under his other arm. He turned and saw Marka securing his vibrosword to his wait, gripping his rifle in his other hand. He then saw Arn grabbing his flamethrower and strapping it to his backpack. Arn nodded and headed towards the door. When they opened it, Doc and Namyr were already standing outside.

“OK,” Doc said. “Once we’re in the tunnels, we’re going to split into groups. Namyr and I will one route; you three will take the other. The plan is to get us into the cathedral and get this cult to halt. Other than that, anything that happens along the way is really up to you.”

Tanus put on his helmet. Soon after, the ARCs moved out in grim silence.


As the ARCs walked out of the hotel, a shadow appeared from the alley behind them. The ARCs didn’t hear it, but there was a low growl in the alley. And somewhere in that alley, a boy grinned an evil smile...

The tusk cat was a fawn-colored feline predator found on the world of Naboo and its moon Rori. Unlike most tusked animals their tusks did not grow from their upper jaw or maxilla, but were completely external to the oral cavity, and actually grew from their lower jaw or mandible...

Taking a deep sigh, Riqimo closed the file and rubbed his eyes.  As he did so he heard a ’thump’ and grabbed the pistol sitting on the table and swept the room for the source.  Glancing back at Namyr to see why she hadn’t reacted, Riqimo grinned and lowered his pistol.  After a few seconds she jerked up, her cheeks blushing with a deep crimson.

"Well that's about all my mind can take without rebelling, I need sleep," she yawned, heading for the bed and pulling back the sheets, "If you're not going to join me to sleep, do you mind waking me in a few hours, I still have some plans to draw out.”

Within minutes, she was asleep, leaving Riq’s mind open to the possibilities hinted in that statement.  Shaking his head vigorously, Riqimo reminded himself that he was on a mission, he had to be professional.  Besides, if any of the others walked while he was... occupied with her... no way that Riq was going to be able to live that down.  It would ruin his possible authority of command.

Blinking a few times, trying to stay awake, Riqimo decided he had to sleep himself.  Glancing at the bed he figured there would be enough space between them...  ”Dammit Riq, sleep in the chair, you’ll be a hell lot safer there if she is just playing with you.”

She can’t be just playing, she is so serious about everything.  Besides if I sleep in the chair, my back will hurt like hell for the mission.  I won’t operate at full capacity.

“Always and excuse Riq, you are sometimes too smart for your own good.”

Tell me about it... Riq checked his pistols before placing them within reach on the nightstand, if anything would happen, he would be ready.  Careful not to disturb Namyr, he crawled into bed and began to doze off.

...  ...  ...

“Riq...” A voice was calling, seemingly so far away... “Riq...” it called his name in an almost flirting manner, curling around the first letter...  “RIQ!”

Opening his eyes, Riqimo blinked a few times to try and see where he was, “Wha...?”

“Do you mind letting me go?  I would like to get up and prepare for our busy day.”  Blinking a few more times, reality finally came into focus for Riqimo, he had his arm over Nams and one of his legs felt... elevated over something... another leg perhaps?  And his hand felt something else... Soft… plushy...

Dammit!  Rolling off to the side Riqimo’s face turned pale, expecting some form of punishment for something he unawaringly done in his sleep.  However, Namyr seemed to not care... Why hadn’t she just thrown me off?  Unless she actually means the ‘eswo...’

Deciding that it was probably not the best subject to bring up right now, Riqimo rose carefully to keep his backside to Namyr, and stretched his arms, “Long day ahead of us, yeah...”  Glancing over his shoulder, he made sure that she was busy with whatever she was doing before adjusting himself and grabbing a pair of pants.

...  ...  …

’Knock’ ‘Knock’ Riqimo waited a few minutes outside the door, still brushing his teeth while making sure the others were awake.  He heard some soft shuffling noises inside and heard the latch being undone slowly.  Then the door was thrown open suddenly.  Riqi didn’t flinch and strode into the room, still brushing his teeth, “Is this how you treat all of your guests?” Doc asked with a toothpaste-ish smile.

Tanus replied, “We had to be cautious. I’m not trusting anything in this hellhole.”

Doc nodded, spitting into a waste basket. “I agree. I’m glad you had those ready. I’m not walking around unarmed myself.” Doc tapped one of the blasters at his hip, still using his right hand to brush his teeth.

“What’s up?” Arn asked, throwing the sheets off of his legs.

“Namyr has formulated some plans, and we need to go over them. Get dressed and head over to our room in a few minutes.”

...  ...  ...

OOC:

I am not going to repeat our plan for the third time, you should know it by now

...  ...  ...

Glancing out into the street, and looking both ways to make sure it was clear, Riqimo waved his team out into the open.  Walking straight for the sewer grate that he was able to spot earlier from his window, Riqimo pried the grate off easily and lowered himself in first, one of his pistols ready to fire at anything that moved.  Before he was halfway down the grimy, blood crusted ladder, the stench was beginning to seep into the helmet, making Riq pause for a moment, wondering how the cultists could possibly breath down here without filters.

Walking down one of the tunnels on the right, Riq holstered his pistol and drew the Acklay assault rifle off his back, and cocked it.  Seeing Nams do the same he nodded and they both headed down the tunnel.  Noticing small marks appear on his map time to time, Riqimo realized what someone was doing in the other group and began to do the same.

The squad was silent on the comlinks for security purposes, the enemy was surprisingly well equipped, and they may be able to find the right frequency to tap into.

OOC:

Shorter than I wanted it to be, but I got other stuff that needs doing.  Should be more than enough though.  Might add on later if no one else posts

Tanus chuckled a little at Arnaut’s joke as they navigated the twisting hallways, farther into the labyrinth. Arnaut was making sure to stay true to the map that they had, not wandering into ‘unknown’ territory, but every now and then they had to stray off course to a tunnel they didn’t know. Grunts and howls echoed down from corridors, warning them against both the numerous cultists and the predators that lurked just out of sight.

The hallways were almost all the same: long, twisting mazes of stonework, lit by multiple flickering lamps, and adorned with sigils and runes that made Arnaut dizzy. Most were written in blood, hastily scribbled onto the walls. Occasionally they found whose blood it belonged to, whether that was a cultist lying dead in the middle of the hall, a rune half-finished, and blood still trickling out of his sliced open palm, or the unfortunate citizen, covered in multiple cuts, bled dry of blood.

Running along, they eventually came to what looked like a sacrificial room. It was large. Very large. The circular chamber extended for probably half a mile to the other side, where the tiny door could just be made out. The ceiling was cavernous, immensely high and barely visible in the dim light. The floor in front of them sloped down to the center in a gradual decline. And there were a lot of bodies. Most of them weren’t even intact. In the center, drawn with blood and outlined with dozens of small flickering candles, lay a huge eight-pointed star. The living occupants of the room, numbering more than even the corpses, looked up from their intent gaze on the star to regard the trio with blank stares.

“Uh...hi?” Marka asked hesitantly. As one, the mass body of over one thousand cultists rose, grasping blunt weapons in hand and surged forward. The room thundered with their approach.

“Crap,” was the only word that Arnaut managed to utter before the wave came crashing down.

The doorway to the room was narrow, only allowing two abreast to pass, probably to keep out large amounts of intruders. It also did a good job of keeping the cultists from overwhelming them. Arnaut wasted no times on knives; in a situation like this, with this many people, packed this closely, there was just no chance he’d survive. So he hit auto-fire on his A280 and raked the doorway with shells.

Bodies fell, were stepped upon, crushed, and then dragged out of the way so more bodies could fill their place and die just the same way. Arnaut ejected his second clip and reloaded. He didn’t have unlimited slugs. If this kept up, he’d soon run out. Next to him, Tanus dropped another smoking clip from his Acklay rifle and slammed a fresh one home. He groaned over the comlink. Marka was doing okay, but he was covered in gore and blood, trying to keep the few cultists that got through from making it very far. His sword had turned from silver, to crimson, to a blackish color now. There were body parts strewn around him.

A cultist made it past Marka and lunged straight toward Arnaut, a club swinging in each hand. Arnaut turned his gun to blast him out of the air, but it beeped as it ran out of the solid-slugs.

“Great,” Arnaut muttered as he dove out of the way of the frenzied cultist. He hadn’t been able to plan his jump well, and the landing brought him down awkwardly on his left leg. Cursing, he fell to the ground and his rifle went skittering across the flagstones of the floor. Arnaut brought his pistol to bear only to have it batted aside as the cultist lunged again. Arnaut grunted and rolled out of the way of the cultist’s next wild swing.

Without his support, Marka and Tanus were having trouble keeping the door under control. Marka was swinging as fast as he could, and still the bodies made their way forward. Tanus went to change clips, but brought out his pistols instead. Changing clips would be just the opportunity the cultists needed. Once those clips ran out, however... Arnaut batted the next swing away with his gauntlet. The force of the blow flattened him on his back. The man charged him. Arnaut kicked out with both feet, knocking the man off-balance. Seeing his chance, Arnaut lunged, his knife clicking into place. Six inches of steel entered right below the man’s jaw and jabbed right through his skull, up and out the other side. Sliding his knife back, Arnaut let the body fall. At the hallway door, Marka and Tanus were finally overwhelmed. As the cultists surged forward, they heard Arnaut yell one word.

“Back!” The obeyed, and not a second later, a steady stream of fire shot down the length of the hallway and into the mob. The cultists burned. Blackened, burning forms writhed and screamed as flesh, tissue, and bone were stripped off of them. Liquid fire dripping off the end of the flamethrower and sizzling onto the floor, Arnaut slowly walked forward, burning as he went. The mob slowly was destroyed, withering up under Arnaut’s relentless assault. With a triumphant step, he passed into the entryway into the sacrificial room – the first time in twenty minutes, when they had first arrived – and starting burning cultists left and right. Many fell. For a second it looked like victory.

One single, intensely bright bolt of lightning struck Arnaut square in the chest. Marka ad Tanus only got a glimpse of him being blown from the room before he crashed into a wall, covered by debris. In the room, the cultists were all dead, save one. The ones not burned by Arnaut now lie dead on the ground anyway. Simply...dead. Their savage, contorted faces sat staring at the ceiling.

In tattered, blood stained rags, the remaining cultist stood, directly in the center of the star. As Tanus and Marka watched, slowly, he rose off the ground, swirling around. The air crackled with some dark energy. The hundreds of candles flickered crazily, until, in one sweeping, circular motion, their flames erupted and swirled around the cultist at the center. He was charging up, using the cultists killed by the ARC members, along with the one's he'd sacraficed himself, to fuel him with the power he needed for proceeding ritual.

* * *

Arnaut wasn’t dead. Close, but not dead. He lifted his head shakily from the rubble and looked in on the scene happening in the circular chamber. Marka and Tanus forms could only be made out by their shadows on the single bar of fire that was burning in the middle of the room. The ground around it melted and bubbled as the heat intensified. It was almost too much to look at. The helmet’s darkened to almost opaque. In the center of it all, there was one figure, rotating slowly, surrounded by fire but not actually burning. And Arnaut had the sense that he was laughing.

His body hurt. Immensely. Every muscle was sore, every bone seemed broken. His breathes came raggedly as he sucked air through his helmet into his mouth. There was blood trickling from his nose, into his helmet, and onto his chin. He tried to sit up and got a sharp dose of pain from every nerve in his body as a result. Next to him, in the rubble, he recognized something. His rifle. If he could just grab it...

* * *

Marka shielded his eyes. The light was intensifying. And now there was laughter to be heard. The cultist in the center held back he head and roared mirthlessly. The sound was chilling. He took another step back, backing away from the flame even farther. Flickering shapes, bodies of people started to materialize around the column of flame. The cultist was somehow summoning them. Somehow. Slowly, they flickered more, and started to coalesce into more solid beings. Wraith-like beings.

This was the end. This was how they were all going to die. Killed at the hands of an insane and immeasurably powerful cultist bastard. And there was nothing that they could do.

There was a pop. The laughter ceased, the smoky figures disappeared instantly. And the cultist’s head exploded.

With a roaring whoosh, the fire blew outward and dissipated in the air. The temperature in the room spiked suddenly, and then started to cool off as the heat spread out. Arnaut lowered his smoking rifle, a smile on his face.

The star in the center was now just a molten crater of charred stone. It smoked and sizzled. The ground around that was blackened, and melted. The heat had burned away most of the runes that had been painstakingly inscribed upon each one in the room. Or, at least Arnaut thought it would’ve been painstakingly. They were pretty intricate.

A few minutes later, Arnaut was sitting on the ground next to the small, field med-station that Marka and Tanus had set up, tending to his wounds. The station only consisted of two med packs sitting on the ground, surrounded by what other useful items they’d found in the room. Surprisingly, much to the shock of the trio, Arnaut hadn’t broken every bone in his body. Slowly, he applied bacta to his left wrist, which had been crushed in the rubble pile. They’d made a splint out of some pieces of metal and debris they’d found in the room. Arnaut knew that from now on his left hand would be just a liability. But he had to live with it for now.

He sighed and slipped the splint on. It clipped onto his bracer, firmly keeping his wrist straight. It even allowed him to deploy his knife, though Arnaut didn’t know how he’d be able to use the knife with a broken wrist. Oh well. He would do what he had to do.

“So I’m guessing, because we’re going on, that that wasn’t the priest?” Tanus asked. Neither him nor Marka had really gotten a good look at the figure before he’d been surrounded by flame. Arnaut had played back the pict-recorder in his helmet, slowly, to try and find out a little earlier. It had seemed too easy a way to kill the man responsible for destroying a VE Inquisitor. Arnaut didn’t think that was the priest.

Sure enough, two frames before he’d been violently tossed from the room, he had a good picture of the man’s face. And it definitely wasn’t the priest. He had known how to throw lightning from his fingers, though, and summon those...things. Arnaut suspected it was just one of the priests elite. They would have to be more wary from now on.

“No. Probably some sort of elite troop or something. Get a hold of Riq and tell him what we found. This is worse than we thought.”