Leon came flying out the stairwell, crimson bolts flying all around him creating a brilliant light show, a very deadly one at that. The sound of a roaring E-Web could be heard above all else, ripping through almost anything that stood in its path. An orange ball erupted not to far  from him, tearing limbs off of allied soldiers, sending them hurtling through the air.

Leon dug himself into a heap of durasteel, trying to make himself as small a target as possible. He flinched again as a thermal detonator exploded not to far from him, sending pieces of shrapnel everywhere. A small tiny piece had grazed his left cheek, the warm blood slowly trickling out. His adrenaline suddenly started pumping, pushing him to take action… To try and take control of the situation.

He brought a hand down to his utility belt, fumbling to unclip one of the three Thermal Detonators that were hooked onto it. A familiar metallic click sounded as he pulled the explosive off. Pressing his thumb on the red glowing button, Leon held it there for three seconds before releasing and launching the grenade from his make-shift bunk.

He quickly ducked back behind his bunk, listening to enemy trooper’s frantic shouts of terror. A millisecond later, he heard the familiar sound of a grenade detonating, sending pieces of shrapnel in all directions.

“Auughh my leg!! My leg!! Medic!!”

Leon couldn’t keep himself from smiling, but quickly regained his composure and took a peak out of his bunk. He had dealt a nasty blow to the Thrawn trooper’s, but just as soon as he took some out, more came to replace them. He brought his A280 Blaster Rifle up to firing position, and began triggering three round bursts of crimson death. He managed to take one enemy trooper out before ducking his head back in, narrowly escaping a quick but painful death.

“C’mon, don’t stop firing, bring the heat!!!” Shouted one eager VE Trooper, trying to encourage his fellow squad mates. “We gotta show ‘em that they can’t win, do not let them push forward!!”

Two allied trooper’s launched grenades at the opposing force, sending enemy trooper’s scattering about. The E-Web was there to cover their backs though, and the result of the VE’s efforts were almost useless. Even then, the VE was beginning to fight with more intensity, showing that even though they were out numbered, they could fight just as hard. Leon quickly snapped two, three round bursts, successfully landing a hit on one of the enemy trooper’s. The E-Web caused him to duck back behind the bunk again, letting out a frustrated grunt as he did so.

Leon turned his head around, seeing one of his allied troopers get cut down just as he did so. Seconds later two more fell, but Leon still maintained his composure, not letting the allied losses get to him.

BOOM

A loud eruption sounded on the opposite side of the corridor, and Leon couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was to good to be true.

“We did it, they’re all gone!!” Shouted one triumphant soldier.

Leon stuck his head out of his bunk, not believing what he was seeing. What seemed to be an unstoppable force was now obliterated, pools of blood and limbs strewn across the metallic white floor. Among the gory scene stood eight white clad trooper’s, one of them being a very, very, VERY familiar face.

Leon let out a small grin, one that contained sincere happiness, and one he hadn’t used in a long time….

The explosion was a classic affair, almost like a holovid blast. The energy cells erupted in a fireball, sending shrapnel everywhere and converting the E-Web into an oversized frag grenade. The gunner's charred remains were thrown into a wall before sliding to the ground. Bits of melted armour dripped off the man's frame and onto the ground.

His comrades didn't fare much better. They had taken cover behind a portable combat barrier, with the E-Web stationed behind them. Ironically, this arrangement ensured that they received much more damage from ricocheting sharpnel than they otherwise would have while shielding the Loyalist troops.

Raiders had also been under cover, ensuring that damage from the E-Web's destruction  was minimal.

Dante did a quick scan of the area but saw only shattered torsos and bloody limbs.

"We did it, they’re all gone!!” shouted Rogueboy.

Are you sure? There might be more on their way.

Dante was about to express this sentiment to Rogueboy when blasterfire erupted anew. A Vast Imperial stormtrooper fell face first, a smoking hole in his back. Before he hit the ground, five more red beams lanced through the air, with two htting their targets.

Chaos take this mission.

Thrawnist reinforcements had arrived too late for the fighters in the cafeteria but they were doing a good job of taking out the Vast Imperials. They had brought another E-Web and they were lugging it down the stairwell. Dante aimed and shot a single bolt.
On the other side of the room, one of the troopers supporting the E-Web screamed and fell down the stairs, the left side of his his T-visor shattered.

Deadly bolts of crimson energy lanced through the air, filling it with lethal lines. Bolts impacted on the walls, causing a pilar to crumble. More troopers on both sides fell, but more Thrawnists were joining the fight.

Eventually they'll win through sheer force of numbers. We'd better come up with something and do it fast.

The E-Web lay abandoned in the middle of the room, a gapping hole in its barrel. Beside Dante, a member of the local garrison crumpled like a rag doll, chest turned into blackened slag. Dante was aiming and about to fire on a stormtrooper commander when he saw that there was a small, round objext hissing at his feet.

Stang.

In one fluid motion, Dante dropped his rifle, picked up the grenade and hurled it at the commander. It went off when it was halfway there, spraying all the combatants with shrapnel. One piece penetrated the man's skull, killing him instantly.   
One down, Force knows how many more to go.

The once pristine cafeteria was in ruins, with the tables and chairs overturned, the support pillars in ruins, and a carpet of corpses and pieces of corpses.

A light flickered then went out, leaving the cafeteria in darkness.

"Flashlights."

The room was filled with the bright glow of over a dozen flashlights, which cast harsh light over the room.
A trigger clicked as Dante activated his rifle's safety.

Better not to shoot myself in the foot.

He holstered his DC-17, as he was almost out of power cells, and pushed a full load of ammo into

"Majority of hostiles down. Two hostiles wounded."

"Roger that."

"Darr, what do we do with them?"

Darr Rann paused and Dante saw that the squad leader was pondering what to do.

We can hardly leave them behind to alert others. Yet if we execute them in cold blood, how are we better than the Thrawnists?

"Set for stun."

A trooper from Razor Squad hurried to comply, stunning both of the Thrawnists.

"Take their helmets, armour and weapons. Then tie then to the pillar."

The squad moved on, leaving the two troopers in their wake.

"So does anyone have any idea as to how we're getting out of this place?"

Run like a Dark Lord was behind us?

"I do know a way that can get us out of this place alive. There happens to be a secret service lift that's used for emergency's only."

Brilliant. There has to be something else. If we're getting off this easy, Thrawn is a lot less persistent than he should be.

"We need to manually access the backup generator in order to use the lift. Now way back when, there used to be a generator on every floor, but due to the lack of materials we've been forced to improvise, causing us to take almost every single one out. The only one left remains on floor 4B."

I'm overjoyed to hear it. Any other surprises?

"Alright then what are we waiting for? Let's get moving."

"Is there anyway we can level this place after we get out of here?"

"Yeah, there just might be a way we can do that. According to the last status report sent in by our troops, the Thrawnist Dreadnaught Unconquered made a crash landing close to the base after a proton torpedo vapped its bridge. All surviving personnel vacated the ship. The engines are still running and a slicer might be able to rig them to blow. It's a long shot..."

Marka shrugged.

"But it's the only one we have."

Darr stood still, pondering their course of action.

"Like you said, it's our only hope. Get moving."

Their morale boosted by the possibility of escape, the Raiders and the remnants of Razor Squad moved out, leaving only drained power cells and slagged walls to show that they had been there.

The footsteps of the squads echoed off the battered walls and blackened floors. Many in them were clutching bacta patches to gaping and blackened wounds. Almost all limped along, eyes ringed by soot and flesh charred and burned by sparks or near misses. Some were clutching E-11's, others slugthrowers raided from armouries or hostiles. All were clad in the stark white armour that, for better or for worse, was the defining sign of the Empire. The suits of many were barely recognizable as such, so damaged were they. Blaster-blackened craters in some sets attested to battles barely won or won at terrible price. Grimly, they trudged on.

There was a crackle and Darr instantly held up his hand, palm out.
The squads halted, bringing their weapons up to firing position.

Darr made a series of two two finger gestures, and all troopers with scoped or long range weapons hurried to the front of the formation.

Darr clenched his fist.

Instantly, half a dozen sniper rifle and heavy weapons opened fire, vaporized the majority of the Thrawnist squad on the lower level of the main meetign hall. The survivors, shocked and disoriented, didn't even attempt to return fire. Instad they fled, only to receive blaster bolts in the back for their trouble.

That's done it. It's likely that one or more of them called for help and this room is too open. Up here on the catwalk, we have a slight advantage, but that'll evaporate once they figure out where we are and send another group through that door. Chaos take this blasted mission!

As if to prove him, right, several troopers burst through the main door and quickly fell to a hail of blaster fire. However more were on their way, a fact shown by the explosion of a doorseal. Through its slagged remains, even more troopers advanced into the room.

Dante turned a fallen trooper over and retrieved her supply of power cells. He shoved one into his deece severnteen and adjusted it to automatic fire.
If I have to die, at least I'll take a couple of the Sithspawn with me.
Gritting his teeth, Dante flipped the safety and opened fire.

Darr signalled a break, it was an odd move but the squad needed it for the wounded. Sentries were set up and Darr was talking to one of the Razor squad troops. There were bodies on the floor and Rogue turned over a nearby corpse and fished inside his armour; finding what he wanted he pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

Rogue used the slight flame at the end of his flamethrower to light up the cigarette and took a long haul; it was irregular for him to smoke he did it only when stressed/near death. Blowing the smoke out it seemed to lessen the stench of death and a few other troops lit up their own some with shaky hands but a lot of the troops seemed to draw comfort with their cigs.

Namyr sat down next to Rogue. “Stressed are we?”

“Just a little, you try walking around with an oversized explosive strapped to your back with frag grenades spitting shards of metal at you.” Rogue said bluntly. “There is no fate but what we make.”

The red Twi’lek gave Rogue a playful punch to the soldier. “Don’t go soft on me, otherwise who else am I going to rely on?”

“Well you have Leon.” Rogue said softly

“Rogue are you jealous about Leon, now too?” Namyr almost shouted.

“No, I’m just really not happy with our current situation.” Rogue was taken aback by Nam’s sudden outburst.

“Well Riq and I...” Rogue quickly cut Nams off.

“Not that situation, I’ve come to accept that I am not your number one anymore. I was referring to our situation down here.”

“Oh that...You know Rogue there is no point worrying about things you can’t change.” Namyr said matter of factly.

“You know its reasons like that I love you so much.” Rogue said.


OOC: Bah dunno what to do, also I started working on this before Leons post got out, so lets say it happened before the staircase

Two more room’s and we’re out of here… Sounds good to me.

A giant black door lay ahead of the group of trooper’s, with the Razor Squad Leader leading the pack. He walked up to the control panel on the left of it, entering a sequence of number’s and letter’s to unlock it. Apparently none of Thrawn’s forces had breached this area, and hopefully there would be none behind that door. With the way things were turning out though, Leon doubted that would happen.

“Everyone, prepare for what ever is behind that door. For all we know there could be a whole Platoon of soldier’s behind it.” Ordered Darr-Rann as he brought his E-11 up to eyesight.

Leon took a spot near the left wall, getting down on one knee and also bringing his A280 up to firing position. Who ever was waiting behind that door would definitely be cut down in a matter of seconds, even if they did out number them. The only problem would be if they had created bunker’s, and that would mean immanent death. All the VE trooper’s had was each other. No cover, and no where to run, or hide.

If I’m gonna die here, then I’m gonna take as many as I can with me.

He took one last puff on his cigarette before dropping it and smashing it with his foot, rubbing it in as he did so. Leon then retrieved his last Thermal Detonator from his utility belt, and waited patiently as the giant door began to open. He could feel his shoulder’s tense up, and his trigger finger began to itch from anticipation.

Slowly but surely, the insides of the room were slowly starting to be revealed as the door’s grew wider and wider. A loud grating sound could be heard from the strain; apparently they hadn’t been opened in a very long time.

“Wha-?” Leon said, sounding slightly astonished.

“Hmmm, I never knew they had this inside of here,” said the Razor SL to no one in particular. He turned around to face the rest of the group. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s get moving!”

Why is there a jungle inside of here? Are they running experiments? Kinda weird…

Leon stepped through the giant doors, his jaw dropping in awe as he looked at his surroundings. All kinds of foreign plants and tree’s could be seen, forming a dense jungle bottom. He turned his head up to find out he couldn’t even see the ceiling of the complex, due to the dense foliage that surrounded them.

There’s only one thing mi-

“Did you hear that?” Asked one of the trooper’s.

“What? What is it?” Replied the Razor Squad Leader.

“I thought I heard footsteps… C’mon let’s get out of here this place is giving me a bad feeling.”

Leon looked over to Rogue, meeting eye contact with him. He could tell they were both thinking the same exact thing. What ever it was that this place held, it definitely wasn’t friendly, and it was still most likely in here.

And its watching us right now…

(OOC: thought I’d make things more interesting by making a jungle that the researchers created that has really dangerous animal’s and such, just to give it a little twist and not keep things boring.)

“Whoa watch out there!!” Shouted Leon, directing it to his squad mate Dante. He watched in horror as his friend barely ducked a claw, before swiftly diving away with incredible agility. Leon brought his rifle up to bare, aiming it directly at the Acklay’s head. He pulled the trigger, a crimson bolt jetting out of his blaster rifle. It shot towards its target, but by the time it managed to reach the Acklay, it had already moved. “Damnit! Screw this I’m going full auto on this bastard.”

Seconds later Leon was letting fourth full volleys of armor piercing rounds, many of them hitting dead on with the Acklay. Bits and pieces of metal flew in every which direction, but so far no good. They needed to bring out the heavy weapons, and they needed to do it now.

“Leon watch out!”

Reacting as soon as he heard the warning, Leon rolled to the right, a metal plated claw smashing down into the very spot he had just been standing in. Things had just gotten worse. Now there were two armor plated Acklay, and they were angry. A loud hallow shriek pierced the air, and the second Acklay once again turned its attention back to Leon.

Looks like it wants a piece of me.

Remembering he had another Thermal Detonator left, Leon unclipped the bomb from his belt and activated it. The Acklay shrieked again, making a very bad mistake by doing so. As soon as its jaw’s opened, Leon tossed the bomb in, taking cover behind one of the many trees. Second’s later, a muffled explosion sounded off from within the creature, blowing it up from the inside out. Bits and pieces of its organs rained down onto the jungle, followed by huge metal chunks of armored plating.

That’s what you get for opening your mouth. Hope you have fun in the after life.

Leon turned his attention back to the battle that was taking place, except now there were three Acklay instead of just one.

“Everyone fall back and regroup! Don’t get caught alone we don’t have a chance!” Shouted Darr, trying to take control of the situation.

This is going to be a tough one…. Let’s just hope we survive.

(OOC: Sorry for the short length, I’m dead tired and I’m not really writing to good but w/e I tried. Have a good night Dante.)

Flames splashed one side of the acklay as Rogue unleashed a blast from his flamethrower  and it turned its grotesque head at him and started sprinting as fast as it could towards him.

Shit!

Rogue quickly stopped firing and turned and ran into the dense underbrush of the jungle without looking behind him, he quickly realized the acklay was no longer following him. The Raider’s ASL did a full three sixty degree turn and tried to pinpoint where he came from; he quickly found the probable direction when he noticed a part of the forest was downtrodden, he quickly started jogging in that general direction.

This is definitely not the way I came from. Maybe I should turn around.
Why? Your squad wouldn’t wait that long for you.
True, in that case I’m gonna continue on and hope I meet up with them.

The bushes rustled and immediately the entire squad turned and started firing into the brushes. “Stop it, Sith, you almost hit me.”

Rogue stepped out from the bushes and realized two things; the squad had more men previously, and secondly this wasn’t his squad.

“Thought you were another one of those damn acklays, which squad you from?” A clone squad leader said as he tried to make out Rogue’s insignia from his dirty armour.

There were perhaps four men in the Thrawn squad, closely grouped together two of them seemed bored and had their rifles shouldered, the other soldier seemed intent on the conversation but only had a pistol lowered to his side, and finally the squad leader who was a corporal seemed relieved to find another trooper here and more importantly an apparent Thrawnist. Rogue had to act quickly as any delay would create suspicion, because he could not holster his rifle anyways he quickly pointed it at the SL and fired a blast of fiery doom.

“The forest is on fire!” one of the Razor troops yelled as he had climbed a tree to get a vantage point to try to find out where the generator might be.

“Rogue.” Namyr whispered to herself, she had felt isolated when the acklays were dead and he was nowhere to be found.

“Saw him running into the forest like a Sith lord was after him.” One of the Razor troopers had said while another laughed at the imagery.

Darr was in a bad mood up until the trooper spotted the fire, it gave him hope that Rogue did not run off in an attempt to save his own hide and doom the squad to being a man short. “We’re heading towards it.”

“C’mon let’s finish these Thrawnist’s and then get out of here!” Shouted one of the up-beat Razor member’s. Leon squeezed bolt after bolt into enemy trooper’s, watching them twist in agony as they fell to the ground, blood flowing fresh from their injuries. Enemy after enemy fell victim to the trigger happy Raider’s, their morale slowly decreasing as they went down. Pretty soon they’d have to retreat and call for back up, and by that time, they’d be long gone.

Second’s later, just as Leon had predicted, they scurried back into the facility, hiding behind what ever they could use as cover.

“Let’s go, we’re out of here!” Shouted Darr-Rann waving the squad over to him.

Leon took one last glimpse at the enemy location, making sure none of them were trying something sneaky. Seconds later, they were off, sprinting through the mini jungle that housed the mutated Acklay. He swiftly hopped over giant roots, expecting one of them to turn into a giant snake and devour the squad. Paranoia was beginning to set in on Leon, maybe because the sudden change in his surroundings. He had never been in jungle combat and had never even set foot inside of one.

The stories, however, made it seem like it was worse then hell. Not only did you have to worry about the enemy, but you also had to worry about the wildlife. Monstrous creatures lurked in the tree tops, some camouflaging with its surroundings so it could stay hidden until it’s pray was close enough to strike. Those were only the least of your worries though, because then you had to worry about the many parasites that could somehow get through your air tight armor and infect you with some incurable disease. It was definitely a place you didn’t want to be caught alone in, and definitely a place you didn’t want to have as your battle field.

A minute later, the two battle wary groups had reached their last and final destination. The Razor Squad Leader stepped forward, inserting his Data Pad into an access panel on the right side of the giant door. A series of beep’s and other noises could be heard as the SL tried to get the door open, groans from injured troopers also chiming in. Seconds later, a loud familiar grating sound emitted as the door’s slowly pulled apart.

Leon turned to face the jungle again one last time, looking for any kind of hint that showed they were being followed.

Nothing.

He slowly back peddled into the generator room, sweeping his rifle along a horizontal path, ready to pull the trigger at any hint of enemy movement.

Still nothing.

Now all we have to do it hope everything goes well from here on out…. Let’s blow this joint.

Leon took one last look at the lab, pondering what the VE could be doing with these biological weapons. And out of all the places, why would they be here? It was an unnecessary risk, and one that could cause a huge turn around for the VE. A bad one at that. He scrolled through the contents he had just recently loaded onto his Data Pad, all written in an unfamiliar language, some form of code.

“Darr-Rann you have any clue what these symbols could mean?” Asked Leon, handing over his Data Pad to the Raiders SL.

The clean cut Squad Leader examined it, his face distraught with confusion. “Hmm… Its definitely written in some kind of computer language, a highly complicated one,” he paced back and fourth, running his hand through his hair. “I think… Oh this isn’t good. We CANNOT let this get into Thrawnist hands. We need to get out of here now, everyone get onto that Turbo Lift ASAP.”

Doing as ordered, Leon quickly strode over to the Turbo Lift, fingering his A280’s trigger nervously, a bad habit he had established on Tatooine. A mechanical whirring sound emitted from the bottom of the lift, which in return started to rise, slowly picking up speed. The walls around them seemed to be plummeting downwards, almost as if they were being sucked into a black hole. Fortunately it was only Leon’s imagination playing with him.

Now all we have to do is blow this place up, and we’re out of here.

“Be ready for anything, the surrounding area is probably crawling with Thrawn Trooper’s. We’re planting that bomb, and then getting the hell out of here, everyone got that?” Ordered Darr-Rann in total seriousness.

A few muffled “yes sir’s” and some nods came in reply. Leon studied some of his fellow trooper’s from Razor Squad, noticing that one of them was shifting from foot to foot, another twiddling his finger’s. From Leon’s point of view, it seemed that they didn’t have much battle experience, but considering the situation, they were holding up very well. Not many people could do some of the things they did today… No, scratch that, only the strong could do what they did today, a seemingly impossible task.

Heh, the Raiders motto should be: ‘We make the impossible… Possible.’

“Alright this is it, here we go!” Shouted Rogueboy as the Turbo Lift came to a halt.

A door above them slowly started to open, bright white light pouring through the Turbo Lift shaft. Thanks to the automatic lens adjusters on their helmets though, they didn’t need to squint their eye’s. Snow flakes could be seen pouring in through the shaft, and seconds later, they found themselves in the middle of a snow covered wonderland. Tree’s could be seen all around them, their leaves picked dry from the winter cold.

“Alright, lets find that Dreadnaught, rig it, and call for E-Vac. Razor Squad, if we’re not back within an hour, get out of here, there’s no need to lose every single survivor. We’ll see you boy’s later.”

Darr-Rann sighed to himself. Their situation seemed quite dire – They were outnumbered, outarmed, and their new mission seemed suicidal. But a stormtrooper’s duty came before all else.

Suddenly his comlink beeped – Indication of communications – over the local command frequency. He quickly clicked it on and placed the device to his ear, and a voice rang out, ”This is Vast Imperial ISD Pandora, searching for forces on the surface. Does anyone copy?”

Darr-Rann sighed with relief, but then frowned.  Possible rescue had arrived, but their comlinks didn’t have the strength to broadcast to the ship if it was in orbit, and they didn’t have any com-packs.  He paused and debated the situation.

“Sir,” Said Dante, walking up to the squad leader.  They had all heard the broadcast, and it apparent he wasn’t the only one who had recognized their predicament. “How many smoke grenades do we have?” Darr-Rann understood immediately and grinned.

“Everyone, activate all of your smoke grenades and drop them around here – We need to make them realize that we’re here.”  He said, proceeding to follow this procedure himself. Soon the area was filled with smoke. Now they only had to hope that help arrived before thrawn troops did.

“Sir!” Rogueboy said, “Thrawnists to the east, attacking with a tank!”

Darr-Rann swore and turned, only to find the earth shatter in a blast of dirt and fire directly in front of him. He flew backwards, the world going black around him…



Rannik dreamt. He was back on Corellia, in the slums of coronet. There was smoke everywere, and the only thing audible was blaster fire and the screaming of it’s recipients. He was running, terrified, when he stumbled and fell.  He pulled himself  up, looking into the face of the man he had fallen oven. Cold terror filled him as he recognized this man.

“Take it…” The man gurgled, holding out a weapon to him. It was of fine make, a family heirloom. Rannik shook his head, but the man instisted. “I wont need it where I’m going. Take it. Protect them.”

He nodded and took the blaster shotgun, holding the weapon reverently, knowing the responsibility that he took in the process. He saluted the man, but he was already gone. Rannik got back onto his feet and ran back the way he came, back towards the bloody conflict…




Darr-Rann awoke, wincing as bright light entered his eyes. He looked around – He was in some sort of hospital. Leon and Rogueboy looked up from a game of Sabaac they were playing on a nearby table and ran over to him.

Darr-Rann sat up, gritting his teeth as his head pounded. Leon grinned. “Welcome back to the world of the living.  You had me afraid there, with all the thrashing around you were doing.”

Darr-Rann rubbed his eyes and looked around again. “How long have I been out?”

“A good couple of hours,” Said Rogueboy, “shortly after we were attacked, a dropship came down and bailed us out. We’re currently aboard the Pandora.”

Darr-Rann nodded and got out of the bed, shakily. He was still dressed in the now-ruined uniform he had been wearing. “We’re on the star destroyer? Are we headed home then?”

Rogueboy and Leon looked at each other, and then back at Darr-Rann. “Not exactly,” Said the assistant squad leader, “You’d better come with us.”


TO BE CONTINUED