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Arnaut
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant

Post Number: 600
Total Posts: 903
Joined: Jan 2006
Status: Offline

Through the Scope (Wraith)

October 26, 2007 5:45:51 PM

“We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later. The whole planet was a mess to begin with. Governor Sidarm, with all respect to his memory, only delayed the inevitable”

–Anonymous refugee, on the subject of the destruction of Serrell

One Day Earlier

The land was dead. One could tell that simply by looking at it. Everything and everyone that had once been alive there had left hours before, leaving field thick with death and decay. Large, plumed columns of smoke rose into the air, weeping from the multitudes of fires blazing on the ground. The ground itself was shattered, deformed, and broken apart. Artillery had accounted for that. They’d also accounted for the dozens of craters that now sat where the once proud “Bastion Hill” had been. They accounted for the stagant, blood soaked pools, seeping into the craters in the lowest part of the field. It had once been the Berrell River. Without the smoke, one would’ve been able to see for miles, clear across the barren wasteland to either side of the battlefield. With the smoke, at least on the ground, one would be lucky to see his own hand in front of his face.

Small, broken, burnt-out husks of armor and grav tanks dotted the flat landscape, as if daring something to bring them down to the level with the rest of the land. Bodies lay everywhere, wrapped around each other, flung beside each other, locked in the agonizing forms of their final moments. They were caked in mud, so much so that one could hardly tell which side they were from. And most, now, despite whether they had been on the winning or losing side, were very well dead. Save one.

One soldier was different than the rest, though. His eyes didn’t hold the same lifelessness as the others. His chest rose and fell. Trooper Kall was alive. Of course, Kall, PFC trooper, third squad of the Ninety-Seventh platoon, couldn’t see any of the battlefield from his vantage point on the ground, where he lay sprawled on his back. He couldn’t feel anything below his waist, couldn’t stand, could barely manage to breathe, much less call for help. Not there was anyone around to hear him anyway. He coughed up a bit of blood and stared vacantly above him.

He stared, unmoving save for his chest, at the dark clouds gathering above him and wondered whether it might rain. His memories were hazy; he couldn’t remember much past the last five seconds. So, despite the state of his body, he stared at the clouds and wondered for rain.

Slowly his memory returned. He was Jennell Kall, Ninety-Seventh platoon of the Royal Army of Serrell. He was twenty-two, male, born and raised in the suburbs of Kallall, the capital city. He’d been enlisted a year ago, part of the Governments planet-wide recruitment campaign, and one of thousands. One by one the memories returned, each bringing back startling clear images of his life. It was almost like watching a movie. His first year in the Royalist army had been uneventful. He’d been assigned to twenty-two separate peace-keeping operations, all of them small. He remembered longing for some real action, the type of stuff in stories rotated around in the billets at night between soldiers. And then this battle had come.

Rumors of a large group of dissenters had spread quickly through the ranks of troops. It had seemed like the perfect opportunity to get some real field action. Join an epic battle, become heroes, return home triumphant. Morale improved dramatically. Until the troops actually got the field, that was.

The Royalist army was designed to take out badly organized, simple rebellions. Their strategies involved placing a nice forward line out front while two groups went around from the sides, in a Pincer move, and flanked the enemy. And with the mobs that usually sprung up on the planet, the tactics worked quite well.

No one had expected this group to be so well organized, so efficient, so…devastating. The artillery tore through the ranks before anyone knew what was happening. Frenzied reports came of small engagements between scouts and armor units on the flanks. They weren’t supposed to have artillery or armor. They couldn’t have those. The recon had said… The first push of the grav tanks had sliced the Royalist Army in two. Thirtieth and thirty-first platoon had been virtually wiped out, and the Thirty-third, the Illustrious Thirty-third, the ones who had conquered over Arellius the Traitor in one of the larger rebellions of the planet just ten years before, had turned tail and ran. And from there it was a massacre.

The seven platoons to either side, which had once made of the pincer of the Army, were destroyed shortly afterward, despite the care they had had to conceal themselves prior to the battle. Heavy shelling took out their positions, and the very few soldiers who had miraculously survived the sustained artillery attack turned and fled. It was almost like the enemy had known they’d been there the entire time.

The Ninety-Seventh, Kall’s platoon, had been caught on the outer side of the Royalists, not dead yet, but milling in confusion. It was confusion. Utter confusion. Until the one brief moment of hope. One of the Royalist troopers, a sergeant by his pins, rallied together the remaining elements of seventy-first, one of the platoons assisting Kall’s. Kall remembered thinking that, if he could rally his platoon together like that, they would have a fighting chance. And then the unthinkable: the seventy-first started firing into their ranks. With grim faces, they’d moved through the shattered remains of the Royalist army, cutting down their own men as they went. And they weren’t the only ones. Before Kall had taken the hit in the back, he counted at least twelve other platoon’s banners accompanying the seventy-first’s.

And so Kall had been cut down by his own brethren, forgotten and left for dead on that forsaken battlefield. His chest rose and fell as he tried to take another breath, but all he got was another coughing fit of blood. They’d been betrayed. That much he knew. But why, he kept wondering. Why had they been betrayed? And by who?

He groped for answers in his mind as slowly, darkness started to creep into his vision. They’d been betrayed, betrayed, why had they been betrayed, why? Who could’ve done this? They’d been betrayed, they’d been betrayed…

His chest rose, and fell, and did not rise again. The light slowly faded from his eyes. The rains finally came down and washed through the broken land.

* * *

Outside lightning flashed. The acidic rain drummed against the window, sizzling as it touched the exposed stonework. Planetary Governor Sidarm shuffled the stacks of papers on his desk. His somewhat graying hair framed a stern, age-worn face that had seen its fair share of troubles. His term as Governor of Serrell had been marked by a series of rebellions, each one larger than the last. He had ruled with an iron fist, inheriting his position after the last Governor had been killed in a civilian uprising right in the capital.

In his abnormally long, fifty-two years, reign he had controlled one of the strictest regimes of any planet in the sector. And he needed to. Their sector, lying just beyond Imperial space, was rife with division. In order to find the planet’s allegiance, the census officials had to survey each region separately. Even amongst the armed forces and the political hierarchy, there was unrest, sometimes degenerating into full blown fighting.

And so, through force of will alone, Sidarm crushed uprisings, quelled squalor, and brought the planet to heel. He was hated by some, quite a bit, but in the end he got the job done. And that’s what he cared about. No Republic, no Empire. Just a unified Serrell.

The door hissed open and he looked up from his work to see a very familiar face. Major Andareem Talos was one of his primary and most trusted military officials, surprising since he was one of the newest additions to the military staff. He’d proved quite essential in keeping the peace. He had a knack for knowing where uprisings would start before the fact. Sidarm opened his arms wide and grinned.

“Major Talos, what brings you at this late hour to my office?”

Major Talos said nothing, his face stern, but instead pulled out a pistol and shot Sidarm through the forehead. The old man was still grinning when his body hit the floor. And thus began the bloodiest rebellion the planet had ever seen.

* * *

Present

Arnaut looked at his datapad and smiled. Finally. Arnaut sent out messages to all Wraiths. They had clearance. Army High Command had granted them permission. They were going hunting.

By 0200 hours, just twenty minutes later, the Wraiths were all assembled around the briefing table. They were excited and expectant, but they still feared what this next mission was going to be like. Arnaut gazed at them confidently. He knew they could handle whatever was coming. Ever since their ill-fated mission to Phu, they’d been waiting for their chance to track down the traitor that had sent them on that wild nuna chase. And now…now they finally could.

“I would like to—“ Arnaut began. His datapad beeped twice. Annoyed, he glanced down and gasped a little when he saw who the message was from.

“I would like to adjourn this meeting until further notice. Plan on fifteen minutes. Dismissed.”

“Sir?” Tnepres asked as the squad shuffled for the door.

“Something’s…wrong,” Arnaut replied hesitantly to the implied question. Tnepres simply nodded and left. Arnaut took out the datapad, set it down on the table, and stared at it for a long while. Finally, he took a deep breath, picked it up, and flicked it on.

“Change of plans, Wraiths,” Arnaut said. It was fifteen minutes later and all the Wraiths had come back in the briefing room. There was no cheer in Arnaut’s voice. There was no longer and cheer in the Wraiths eyes either. They had been set. Ready to go. They had been so focused on tracking the traitor down.

“We’re…under new orders. Very different orders.” There were groans and muttered oaths from around the table.

“I know, I know. This is not what we’d planned. But as of yesterday, the neutral world of Serrell broke into civil war after the planetary Governor was assassinated. The Army needs us to go there and help get it under control. If we succeed here, this could mean a large gain of territory for the Vast Empire.”

Arnaut brought up a map of the planet of Serrell. Dense, noxious clouds covered the surface. They were part of the value of the planet as well as the problem. Some of the gases found in the upper atmosphere were especially useful in large munitions, such as starships and artillery. However, they made orbital actions, like bombardments or spying impossible. What was hidden on the surface stayed hidden.

“The planet has fractured into many small groups, based on natural and political territories. Almost all of them have some claim to the planet now that the Governor has been assassinated. Two of these, two allies, are openly Imperial. We’re going to assist them. High Command believes that by providing our infiltration skills and special operation skills, we might be of some use to them in gaining the planet. We’ll be leaving in two days.”

“And that’s it? Our other mission gets sidelined like that?” Snipes asked angrily.

“Yes, for now. Now sit down. We have a lot to go over yet. Such as our allies.”

“Goodie,” Snipes muttered and took a seat.

OOC:: Alright, here it is. Finally. At last. And yes, we will be taking along an NPC squad, one that will meet us when we arrive on the planet. I’ll talk more in depth about that later. So for now, just talk about getting ready. I’ll be back Sunday, and we can pick it up.

Gunnery Sergeant Arnaut
SL/GSG Arnaut/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE [ES2] [EW2]
-=Wraith PRIDE=--=SL=-
+ Advance Recon Commandos {ARC} +
~ W i l d c a r d P l a t o o n ~

"Take care of your equipment, and your equipment will take care of you"

"I read another article whining about how much violence is on television...I'd like to shoot the idiots who think this stuff affects me" -Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

[This message has been edited by Arnaut (edited February 17, 2008 5:36:30 PM)]

Tnepres
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Lance Corporal

Post Number: 560
Total Posts: 585
Joined: Nov 2006
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

October 26, 2007 8:47:40 PM

Before

Kanderin Draken, Sergeant, whistled along as the elevator played it’s music. The full glass walls were a bit pointless as the surroundings were the same at all times. There was a beep and the doors open, he had arrived at the roof.

The squad had been called back for a meeting, only 15 minutes after the first one. Strangely, Tnepres never showed up and Draken volunteered to go fetch the boy. For some reason, he felt responsible for that trooper. It was no wonder Talstorin had never responded, Kanderin had found his datapad lying on top of his bed when he arrived at the Lance Corporal’s room. The screen was still blinking from the new message. From there, he had decided to go to the roof, someone had seen Talstorin pass there.

Honestly(and he never mentioned this to anyone), Draken had begun to worry about Talstorin. His fellow trooper had been extremely quiet lately and at training, Talstorin had hardly acknowledged him.

Sure enough, Talstorin Yalmic, callsign Tnepres, was on the roof. He was seated on the edge, back turned. The man wore his usual black long coat, a new one apparently, though it didn’t look much different. “Kiddo,” Kanderin began. There was no reaction.

“Ahem,” he cleared his throat to get Talstorin’s attention. “We’re back in the briefing room.” There was no response immediately but eventually the man turned around, getting up. Standing six feet one inch, he seemed intimidating at first (something Talstorin never was before his vacation, which led many of the squad members to wonder what had happened during that trip to Tatooine.). Blood was dripping down his right sleeve, the leather sleeve covered up where the source was. “Wow,” Kanderin remarked. “You really have gone emo, haven’t you?”

Talstorin didn’t answer, walking for the elevator. A ball of fur fell from his right sleeve, confusing Kanderin until he realized it was a bloody mutilated animal. So that was where the blood was coming from. “Hey, buddy, is anything wrong? You seem different lately.” Tnepres didn’t answer. Instead, as he walked past Kanderin, he shoved the Assistant Squad Leader away a little. Not a smart move.

“HEY!” Kanderin started as he placed his hand on Talstorin’s shoulder, turning the trooper to face him. He then grabbed Talstorin by the collar and reeled him in. “Look, I don’t know what happened with you but I won’t tolerate this sh** anymore. I don’t give a f*** what you went through. It doesn’t give you any f***ing excuse to treat us like this. Now get a f***ing hold of yourself before I beat some sense into you. Got that?” There was no answer.

“GOT THAT?!” he repeated? He was pissed off.

“Oh put a cork in i-“ started Talstorin before a left hook caught him.

Kanderin growled, still holding the trooper by the collar, who was now bleeding on the right cheek. Sighing finally, he loosened his grip and pushed Talstorin away. “Go get washed up and report to the briefing room.” Talstorin didn’t respond as usual but simply walked away.

Kanderin waited as the elevator doors closed before he walked towards the edge to look around. What DID happen in Tatooine?

--------

Present

Talstorin looked on apathetically. Fun, another mission. He really didn’t care about catching some traitor, as long as there were blood to be spilled.

As the squad filed out to start packing and preparing, Talstorin did too. Luckily, his room was near and there was little walking to do. The squad had taken his attitude surprisingly well, well except Kanderin. Arnaut hadn’t even done anything for Talstorin lashing out him earlier. When Talstorin arrived back at the barracks, completely late from his trip, he had snapped and screamed at his own squad leader before he had begun training .

The rest of the squad surely noticed, well at least the troopers who had known him for a while now. Yet, no one said anything.

Without realizing it, he found himself holding his cortosis coated phrik sword again. It enraged him. The sword had brought nothing but terrible things, murder, betrayal to his loved ones, yet… A sword couldn’t be blamed for that. It was Talstorin. Talstorin and the sword had the same curse born upon them. The sword itself was beautiful, it’s luster had never dulled, not even from the blood that it had spilled. There was an engraving on the sword, a single long serpent winding around the sword. It was eerie…

----------

Tatooine

“So she was lying?”

“Most certainly.” The charade was up. The detectives realized she had been lying to them when a guest of the wedding had finally gotten themselves together to be a witness.

They had pinpointed the suspect to one man. Talstorin Yalmic, a man with several previous occupations. His last was a mercenary, working under the infamous name of Death’s Venom who had left his targets in a sort of crucifixion after they were killed. Talstorin had disappeared off the face of the planet several years ago and the records were not complete enough to know where he had left. His former roommate Durandal had also disappeared.

To follow the pattern, so had Sarah. When they came back to her house for questioning after it was revealed she lied, the house had been sold. Several residents in the neighborhood said that the girl went “searching”.

Detective Jarome assumed it was for Talstorin.

In the brightest light,
We find darkness...
-=Wraith PRIDE=-
[]CommunicationsTech[]
~WildcardPlatoo n ~

TRP/LCPL Tnepres/4SQD/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/Tadath/VEA/VE[LoR]
Memoirs of a Withered Soul- Compendium of Short Stories on Talstorin's Background/Story of Talstorin and Durandal( out now- read it on army story board)
Tnepres/HellKite

-=Wraith Squad PRIDE=-

Arnaut
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant

Post Number: 603
Total Posts: 903
Joined: Jan 2006
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

October 30, 2007 9:59:06 PM

Arnaut stirred. It was three in the morning. Light had not even begun to touch the horizon. Outside, precious few people were awake. Just the guards doing night rounds. Virtually no sound. But something had awoken him. Arnaut got out of bed. His eyes were bleary, but thankfully there was no light in the room to burn at him. Well, almost no light.

There was a buzzing sound, the sound of something small, heavy, and plastic vibrating against the table. Arnaut almost immediately saw his datapad light up for the second time, indicating he had just received a message. Tiredly, and not just a little angry at having been woken up, Arnaut stalked over to the table and snatched the datapad off. He didn’t even bother turning on a light, but instead flicked the small computer on and read what it had to say.

Halfway through the one sentence it showed, Arnaut tossed the datapad back onto the table and went back to bed. Right before the screen flicked off, the words could be picked out quite clearly:

We would like to inform you that, as of 03:05:06 this morning, Imperial Standard Time, the Special Operations team Derrond, Liberator Seventh Platoon, jumped out of the Sian system en route to the planet of Serrell, where they will await your arrival for the continuation of the mission.

Nearly six hours later, fully dressed and combat equipped, Arnaut stood ready next to the shuttle that would soon bear them out of the system as well. He was still tired; he hadn’t gotten much sleep after being woken. But he bore it incredibly well. Even if his eyes did sometimes wander with his attention and his smile was a bit feeble.

The Wraiths gathered around, sitting on crates, bags, the floor of the hangar, or anything else that was a suitable place to rest. Kanderin came in carrying a tray laden down with battered mess cups, steam rising as the hot brew inside bubbled and frothed. Arnaut took his cup and took a long sip of the hot caf as Kanderin passed out cups.

“Well, here we are. This is probably the first time we’ve had a good sit down before a mission that doesn’t involve beer and dancing of some kind.” The squad chuckled. “This mission we are about to embark on,” Arnaut continued, taking on a more serious tone, “might be one of the harder missions we’ve encountered before. This planet we are travelling to…no place is safe.

“There will be no nice and tidy urban crowds to blend in with, no organization provided safe houses, probably not even a definitive enemy. This world is in flames. It’s dead; it just doesn’t know it yet. I’m not sure if what we do can bring the planet into Imperial rule or even keep the planet from disaster at all, but at the very least it can buy some time for the real, true Imperial citizens to leave. It’s going to be messy, confusing, and taxing. This mission will expect the best of yourselves and will accept no less.”

He looked around at the faces before him. Grim. Set. Determined. Ready as always. The Wraiths, ever ready for the next challenge. Arnaut hoped there would be a next challenge. If they made it out of the hell-hole that was Serrell intact, Arnaut would be surprised. The state on the surface of the planet was getting so bad, from recent strangled reports coming through, that Arnaut wasn’t even sure how the majority of the planets inhabitants still resided there. Too much money to be lost, he guessed. The planet and its economy and its people were built around its exported gas. It was a very wealthy business. No one wanted to part from that treasure trove.

“Well, now that I’ve sufficiently dampened all of your spirits,” Arnaut said, provoking a few grins from the squad, “let’s get out there and win back a planet.” There was a loud ‘oo-rah’ from the squad, and then they bagan moving onto the shuttle. Arnaut was the last on.

Standing in the doorway of the shuttle, Arnaut took another sip from his caf and gazed out at the Imperial hangar for what he hoped would not be the last time. Finishing off his cup, he turned around and entered the shuttle, closing the door behind him. He didn’t look back again.

Tnepres
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Lance Corporal

Post Number: 565
Total Posts: 585
Joined: Nov 2006
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

October 30, 2007 10:33:02 PM

Snipes nudged Kanderin. “What’s with him?” he asked, nodding towards Talstorin who had taken his usual seat furthest away from the center. It was normal for Talstorin to be a bit anti-social, he was that Wraith that was part of the squad in spirit in missions but not exactly in the family. Something like a distant cousin three times removed. It wasn’t normal, on the other hand, for Talstorin to drink or drown out his surroundings with music.

Kanderin blinked, it was true. Talstorin looked out the window as music blasted from his headphones. In his right hand held a glass of wine. Well, at least he’s not drinking beer like the rest of us. Still, the assistant squad leader grew a little worried. Was the trooper still fit to go through with this mission?

“I think we should just let it go,” mumbled Arnuat as he passed by the two, absorbed in looking through mission data. He looked up for a second to say, “he’s going through something personal or something and it won’t be brought into this mission unless we drag it in.” With those terse words, the squad leader walked away.

Talstorin hummed softly as he took a sip of wine. It was his first glass, and his last for the trip. He didn’t want intoxication to get in the way of the mission, after all how could he savor death if he was drunk. A smile formed on the mouth from the grim thought. There was nothing noteworthy outside the window so Talstorin turned away, slightly head banging to the music. His left hand drooped off the chair and rested on the hilt of the sheathed blade that was slanted in rest. It was stupid of him to fear a sword, his past was his doing there was no point in running away. Fearing his past would only cause him to be more reliant on others and that would’ve made him weak.

The trooper sighed. Was it wrong to think that way?

    The flurries of snow fells lightly, weightless almost. The soft, delicate flakes of powdery diamond dust fell on a soft mattress of eternal white. Talstorin exhaled as he watched his breath turn a dusty white before dissipating. From what he could see, there were no objects within miles and miles from him. A simple snowy field lay before him. The sky was a bright blue despite the weather and the light from the star shone through the sheets of white.

    Suddenly, the sheets of white grew heavy, falling with more momentum. The light started fading and as the luster stopped sparkling on the flakes the objects themselves took on a different color. The white slowly turned gray, fading to black before growing a purplish tone and turning a blood red. The temperature stayed the same, yet the snow was no longer slow, it started falling heavier, then the flakes became liquid and before he knew it, a bloody shower rained from the heavens.

    His eyes shot open, his pink pupils dilated from the light. It had only been one drink…

“Ug,” he groaned as he lifted his head up. He still had to get used to drinking.

In the brightest light,
We find darkness...
-=Wraith PRIDE=-
[]CommunicationsTech[]
~WildcardPlatoo n ~
~Phantom~
TRP/LCPL Tnepres/4SQD/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/Tadath/VEA/VE[LoR]
Memoirs of a Withered Soul- Compendium of Short Stories on Talstorin's Background/Story of Talstorin and Durandal( out now- read it on army story board)
Tnepres- Wraith Squad/HellKite- Viper Squadron

-=Wraith Squad PRIDE=-

Jennabelle
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Lance Corporal

Post Number: 561
Total Posts: 814
Joined: May 2005
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

November 3, 2007 11:53:48 AM

OOC:: Enjoy, write your comments on the squad topic.

Jenny looked at Talstorin while sitting down next to Kanderin, watching him with interest and wonder as he drank that wine down and fell into an almost deep slumber, until not long after, he snapped awake in horror and tiredness, his head slowly rising to face Jenny, the terrified look still lingering in his eyes. Since the hostage takeover of Didium, a small town in Corescant, Jenny had been able to tell the ghastfulness then, upon the terrorist's eyes, rescue her sister Freje, from his evil grasp.

Looking upon Talstorin, Jenny had obviously felt the same with him, a nightmare that creeped upon him in when his guard was at its lowest, it shook him awake, but it didn't end his endless silence. She turned to Kand and asked:

"Has he always been like that?" Kanderin seemed alarmed at Jenny's curiosity and got up, gesturing her to come to a nearby bunk. She did so, and asked again, while Kanderin said, closing the topic:

"Jenny, Talstorin went to Tatooine for vacation, something happened during that time, but we have no idea what." There was the one instant tense look in his eyes that Jenny could tell that some of those words he said was a lie, but she put that thought down and decided to tell Kand about Ella. She explained, looking him straight in the eyes:

"I know you've probably haven’t heard of Senator Cornek, the new leading senator of the New Republic, who enacted a lot of actions that was pointing the galaxy's restlessness' fault on the Imperials, assassinating and murdering those who wanted only peace and prosperity for the galaxy.

"Well, my dad, Senator Nottak, is a very respected and important man in the Galactic Senate, if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have all those planets out there in the galaxy allied with us. But Cornek hated Nottak, the ‘Betrayal’, a plan to kill Nottak, because of his peaceful policies, as Cornek said: ‘toying with the enemies when you could just kill them all, drive them to extinction.’ He went too far with it; I mean the planet we’re going to on this mission, Serrell, if it wasn’t for him butting in, this planet wouldn’t be so scattered in belief, shattered in hope. He destroyed everything that he thought were signs or signals of a change against the imperial tradition, everything, including those who only wanted the planets to be joined peacefully, so that the Imperials don’t have to keep looking over their shoulders for mercs who want them dead, but focus themselves upon the rebels, their main enemy. I mean, the planets out there aren’t all rebel, some of them are loyal to the imperial, yet in their own way.

    “Ella, was Cornek’s right hand in the group that Cornek calls the Black Commandos, gathering followers, spreading their cult out in the announcer, in one of the secret radio channels that require a password, and of course, assassination. She’s the working brain of the cult, she has a wild side, an evil side, I mean, there’s no end to this girl, she comes back to haunt you when you least expect it.”

    “Like when your parents were assassinated twice, the second time, ending up dead?” Kand said smartly as she nodded, responded in amazement:

    “That’s good, so you figured out that Cornek want Nottak dead, along with his family, which is true. Unfortunately though, the original intention wasn’t the whole family, until it got personal in school with Freje and her bully, Ella’s younger sister, Shina Tarcin, they had a fight over their fathers, Shina took out a knife to stab Freje, Freje saw it coming, she wanted to knock the knife out of Shina’s hand, but used more strength than she needed to, the knife comes stabbing down upon her hand, the protégé’s hand is wasted, and it was her work hand, she had to use it, plus she ended up dead the next day, Freje’s tendril bands planted at the scene of the crime, the motive being that Shina threatened Freje that she would kill Freje’s father unless she told her that her father’s ideals were stupid and should be left behind, clearly that was a mistake. Though the motive was inspiring, ---Jenny faked a puking motion on that word--- the truth came out at the sentencing in the trial, a rebel scumbag, Shina’s boyfriend killed her, and plus the judge even said she deserves it, for trusting the unworthy.”

    “That’s what your father is, right? That’s why your whole family was killed, because of his daughter’s mistake, added onto Nottak’s soft heart?” Arnaut finished, apparently listening in on their conversation.

    “Something like that, me, mom and Leia was framed too by Cornek, killing Ella’s entire family, just for her to come as his right hand, for her to kill my mother. But she accepted it, to my disgust, demonstrating to me what my father’s been always fighting against, like having a bully whisper bad things in my ear, I had to listen. Her belief changed from all the things that she was shown by Cornek, Nottak’s speeches vs the reality; she was once against him, now she’s with him. I still don’t know why she changed her views.” Jenny replied, surprisingly, now sitting herself upon the bed.

-=Wraith PRIDE=-

*HeavyWeapons *

TRP/LCPL Jennabelle/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/VEA/VE/Tadath

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force. " -Darth Vader

"Remember, Remember, the fifth of November" -V

"So do all who seeks to live, but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." -Gandalf the Grey

Kanderin Draken
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Sergeant
[VE-VEEC] Journalist

Post Number: 711
Total Posts: 1849
Joined: Mar 2006
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

November 7, 2007 12:55:02 AM

OOC:: Im carrying on with the current situation, but I'm aware some things have been said behind the scene

"Kand, a word?" Arnaut asked, nodding his head towards the corridor leading away from the bunks. Kanderin looked for approval from Jenn, before following Arnaut away.

Arnaut checked back again, making sure they were a reasonable distance from the bunks, before opening his mouth.

"I think it might be dangerous for us to take Jenn any further with us"

"What do you mean?" Kanderin asked, biting his lip somewhat bemused.

"Her relations with all of the groups attached to this situation are deep, to say the least. I think if word of her existence upon the planet spreads, this could escalate from civil war between various gang threats, to a New Republic operation. I'm suggesting we drop her off at the next Imperial shipyard we pass"

"You have a point" Kanderin shrugged "But you should know her by now, she wont take that order lightly. I think we're over calculating a risk and trying to fix it with a solution that could prove even more disastrous"

"Did you eat a dictionary or something?" Arnaut grinned

"Nope, I'm just tired and I'm oddly philosophical when sleepy" Kanderin smirked back.

"Fair enough. You're onto something though, what do you supposed we do?"

"Leave it as it is" Kanderin shrugged again "There isn't any NR activity on the planet right now, at least we think there isn't, so the mission should continue as planned. If the NR stick their noses in this, then maybe we should rethink our options. Until then, I want Jenn with us. She's a good addition to this squad, and we could do with all the help we could get"

Arnaut laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. He called a halt to the conversation, patting Kanderin on the shoulder as he walked past.

"Sometimes I think you'd make a great Squad Leader"

"What do you normally think?" Kanderin asked.

"That you're just too soft"

"You'd be spot on" Kanderin winked, disappearing off in the other direction.

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

"Do we even have an attack plan?" Kanderin asked, moving his feet closer to his body as he lounged across the large circular table.

"Do we ever?" Arnaut replied, sipping at his coffee cup. He had taken a far more conservative seating position, with only his feet resting on the table.

"No, but has there been a mission where we haven't turned the whole situation into something resembling a nuclear device?"

"I doubt it" Arnaut nodded.

"Exactly, notice the correlation?" Kanderin smiled

"I hate it when your right Kand"

"I hate myself as well"

The doors into the briefing room suddenly flung open, and fraot had flung herself on top of Kanderin before he could even greet her.

"Well someone has to love him" Fraot grinned, trying to get a comfier seating on Kanderin's chest.

"No, your just proving your only using for my body. And your gaining weight, you weigh a ton" Kanderin grimaced.

Fraot jumped up, flinging herself into a seat in the corner of the room with a loud 'Hmmph!'

"Just kidding" Kanderin smiled.

Sergeant Kanderin Draken/ Petty Officer Second Class Skar Darkanto
-=Wraith PRIDE=-
-=Assistant Squad Leader=-
~ W i l d c a r d P l a t o o n ~
Wraith Squad Motto: When staring in the face of death we see our reflection
ASL/SGT Kanderin/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE/[ES2][EW2]
Stamp Card
~Phantom~
Phantom Lead Xephilus Sekine/Alpha Squad/Alpha Team - 1/VE
Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain, or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands! - Auron, FF X

Arnaut
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[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant

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RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

November 7, 2007 10:48:52 PM

Arnaut yawned tiredly as he sat on the edge of his bed. It really wasn’t his bed, but it felt comfortable. And it allowed him to sleep. That was a plus in his book. Abandoning his pack to the corner, Arnaut tested the springs on the bed with a little bounce and then proceeded to pass out into deep sleep.

It wasn’t the soundest sleep he’d ever had. His dreams were plagued by visions of mysterious people he didn’t even know, popping out of Jennabelle’s story, all trying to kill him. Well, him and Jennabelle. He rolled and sweated and moaned on his bed until suddenly he jerked upright again. The bed chamber was dark and, for a brief horrifying second, he thought he had missed the shuttle and was still in his bed on Tadath. But then he saw the room that he occupied was much smaller, much less homely. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed he slid into his boots and wearily went out into the lounge section of the shuttle.

The squad members he encountered looked up at him dejectedly and then went back to staring at the floor. None of them were in a good mood. No one felt like talking. Morale was still vaguely low. They were glad to have a mission just…it wasn’t the one they’d wanted. Sighing irritably, Arnaut trudged back to his quarters and began to review the known material for the mission, instead.

There wasn’t much. The small holoprojector flipped into his palm with a deft motion of the hand. Arnaut had grown rather fond of being able to do that. Now if he could just do it and turn it on at the same time… He shook away the idle thoughts and flipped the small, round disc on. The holographic world popped into view.

There were roughly twenty-eight or so territories, claiming most of the landmasses on the surface and even parts of the ocean. Each one was outlined making the surface of the planet look like a puzzle. On the larger of the two major landmasses, there were two particular territories that were shaded, along with a small pinprick of light, stabbing through the heart of the planet. The two Imperial territories and the Wraith’s landing site. Arnaut enlarged the image in that area.

They were landing in the first territory, Herrell’s, capital city. It was quite an immense city, sprawling around, a large acidic lake. All the water on Serrell was acidic. The vast, domed structures of the purifiers rose to the east of the city. To the west were mountains. To the north and south: plains. The city itself was a jumble of buildings, intertwining and intermingling, reaching ever higher into the sky, the only thing breaking them apart being the vast, flat plazas, and of course, the main Territory Governor’s palace. The city looked defensible enough, but, hopefully, Arnaut and the Wraiths wouldn’t have to do any such thing. Hopefully.

The ship rocked and the holoprojector went skidding to the other side of the room. Arnaut cursed fluently, just at the time his door slid open.

“Sarge!” Kanderin gasped in mock offense. “My ears are bleeding!”

Arnaut stood up, still a bit grumpy, and retrieved his holoprojector.

“Keep up with that tone, and your ears won’t be the only thing bleeding,” Arnaut growled. Kanderin barked out a small laugh, and then, a bit nervously, asked, “Really?” Arnaut, already past Kanderin and into the hall, whirled suddenly and quickly, bringing himself eye to eye with his ASL. Or, would’ve brought himself eye to eye with him had the other man not jumped back.

“No. But you should’ve seen the look on your face.” Arnaut grinned and headed for the cockpit.

Outside, what he saw wasn’t exactly what he had expected.

“Um…where are we? Where’s the planet?” Arnaut asked the pilot. Kanderin sprang up at his side, huffing from the mad dash he’d made to the cockpit in Arnaut’s wake.

“That’s…what I…came to tell…you,” he choked out. “We can’t get near the planet yet…some type of…aerial battle…or something.” Arnaut frowned. “We got a message urging us to come out of the jump early and wait for it to end.”

Two wearying, interminable hours later, the ship finally jumped again. When they got to the planet an additional hour and a half later, the sight of the brown-gray, mottled orb hanging in space before the ship was greeted with cheers from the squad.

The cloud surface, as the shuttle got closer, could be seen in more detail. Dark patches of smoke lingered on top of the clouds, rising from wreckage that seemed suspended in air.

“What are those?” Carnon asked, looking out the window.

“Gas processors and miners,” Snipes whispered back. “They’re on fire.” Neither of their eyes left the scene. Looking out the adjacent window, Arnaut whistled softly under his breath. The stations looked small from how far away he was in the shuttle, but he could tell they were massive. And most definitely on fire. It must’ve been some battle, Arnaut reckoned.

Soon clouds engulfed the shuttle, and their lovely view was obscured. Arnaut began to review the intel again when his datapad beeped. He had a message. A very short message.

Meet us at the Tarkin Plaza, north of the palace.

It was signed by none other than Gregor Villman, Squad leader of the Derrond Special Operations Squad, of the Liberator Sevenths. Villman made sure to include all of that in his signature. Typical Villman.

Arnaut’s history with Villman went back to the Imperial academy. Not a very good history. They’d been more of…enemies, than anything else. Far past rivals. Villman had made sure Arnaut knew when he made squad leader of Derrond. Arnaut had made sure that Villman had known when he’d made squad leader of Wraith.

And now they were expected to work together. Arnaut set back his head and sighed. This would be one mission that he wouldn’t relish.

OOC:: Okay, sho…here’s the sitch. Dang, I hate that ‘word’. Anyway, yes, Derrond is the NPC squad we’ll be working with. Villman (the SL) and Arnaut have had…feuds…in the past, so there’ll be some animosity between the two squads, especially between me and him. So, right now, all you have to really be doing (besides posting) is thinking of a cool NPC character name and backstory to go with your NPC character from the other squad. What’s that? I didn’t mention having NPC character? Go check out my post on the Wraithnet. I’ll explain betterly.

Kanderin Draken
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RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

November 9, 2007 1:54:01 AM

"Derrond is a pretty wimpy name for a squad, don't you think?"

Arnaut quickly placed his comlink back into his pocket, grabbing Kanderin by the nose and pushing him off his shoulder.

"Hey! What was that for?" Kand shouted, shortly after crashing into the back wall.

No answer.

"Rough subject huh?"

This time he got a nod. It was something so he left Arnaut to his own devices and turned to the squad.

"Everyone be ready to leave in tn fifteen minutes. We don't know how long it will be till we can get back to the ship, so make sure your equipped for the long haul"

The squad nodded and ran in their separate directions. Kanderin smiled slightly at the scrum of bodies now all trying to squeeze through a hallway that was only designed to hold two people stood side by side at once. Typical Wraith, everything was a competition. He turned back to the large screen, and looked down on the murky planet they would be throwing themselves onto, possibly literally, very soon. He counted on this planet being the definite cause for the space battle, and almost in agreement, he noticed a small, and very battered ship coming in the orbit several thousand metres to their right. How it hadn't noticed them was a reasonable question, but it was probably down to the fact the majority of the ship was still on fire. Either that or large ships hovering over the planet were nothing new these days.

"Sarge?"

Both Kanderin and Arnaut turned around, but upon seeing Jennabelle looking at Kanderin, Arnaut mumbled something and turned back away.

"Am I coming on this mission or not?" She asked.

"Come again sorry?" Kanderin replied, somewhat bemused

"I know what you guys were talking about, it didn't take a genius to work it out. So what was your decision?"

"You always seem to find new ways to surprise me Jenn" Kanderin sighed, scratching the back of his head "Yes, your coming. Your an excellent soldier and we could really do with the help"

"Wow, really?"

"Nah not really, we just cant afford the bill of keeping you shacked up here for a few months"

"Very funny"

Arnaut
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[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant

Post Number: 613
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RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

November 14, 2007 6:05:49 PM

Their shuttle came down hard on the landing pad, bouncing in a bone-jarring bounce that made Arnaut wish the Empire had sent a more capable pilot to bear the squad to the planet. Outside, cabs and airspeeders zipped around the city at varying altitudes, going about daily business despite the war that was going on. Arnaut took a long look out the window, and then popped the door and walked outside.

The air was surprisingly cool, blowing crisply against Arnaut’s exposed face. It wasn’t very bright out as the clouds blocked out the system’s sunlight from reaching the planet most of the time. The whole city was bathed in a subdued gray-blue glow from the feeble light that the cloud cover let through. Overall, it was a pretty calming. Arnaut took small step forward, and instantly regretted it. A small, unnoticed puddle from a recent rain splashed up against his shin armor and sizzled as it made contact. Arnaut had to remember that the environment was acidic; that might prove useful for not getting himself and the squad killed.

He took another, if more hesitant step forward, and continued on to the edge of the landing pad. He was roughly sixty feet up from the ground, he guessed, peering down on the crowded streets below. Specially favricated awnings covered either side of the street, protecting the milling, jostling crowds from being exposed to the planet’s hash climate. No one left the cover of it. Standing out, without an awning overhead, Arnaut felt exposed. He looked up at the sky for a small, frightening second, and then shook the feeling off. He was wearing some of the best armor the Empire could buy; it was enough to stand a little acid. Hopefully.

Back at the shuttle, the squad was finally disembarking. With them came droids and crew members, all carrying numerous crates, bags, gear, and field supplies; just about everything they might need ever to do any job. Arnaut thought that High Command had been doing a bit of overkill, sending them with all the stuff, but then again, they still didn’t know what their missions would be.

“Think we got enough stuff, sarge?” Kanderin asked, waving his hand generally at the mounds of supplies still being taken off the shuttle. Arnaut laughed.

“We’ll see soon enough.” Overhead, thunder boomed. Klaxons around the city started to blare as the first drops of rain started to patter down. “Let’s meet up with Derrond first though,” Arnaut said, already moving toward the stairs and the safety of the street below.

“They want us to do what?” Arnaut repeated, staring at the occupant of the chair on the other side of the small table. They were in a small café, just off the side of the plaza they were to meet Derrond in, not a half hour after leaving the landing pad. Villman and Arnaut both sat at the same table, a dog-eared, paper map spread out between them and a cup of caf next to each man. Both Wraiths and Derronds milled in separate corners of the café while the two squad leaders had their chat. There wasn’t much intermingling. Villman took a long sip of his drink before looking up at Arnaut and replying.

“They want us to travel there,” he began slowly, indicating to a city denoted by a red circle on his paper, “and assassinate the rival governor of that province.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“Did they…did they give us any parameters? Directions? Inside support from the city? Intel, for Emperor’s sake?” Villman shook his head sadly.

“Well, that’s it then. I guess we’re…just going to have to get over there. Somehow. With no…resources. At all.” Arnaut paused. “What the hell is wrong with them?”

“You haven’t been spending the last day and a half trying to get their help,” Villman said bitterly.

“Or else we would actually have some by now,” Arnaut muttered. Villman shot him an acid glare.

“We’ll leave within the day, if we can. We’ll work out positions and plans after we arrive at the city. I managed to procur some independent speeders that will take us over there, but there’s a short window in which he can leave. Will you and your drunks sober enough to leave by then.” The Wraiths drunken status was truly golden. Arnaut just shook his head and motioned the Wraiths toward the door.

“So…what’s going on?” Tnepres asked as the Wraiths moved out into the cover of the awnings. It was raining again, and the klaxons were blaring again.

“Oh, if you thought this rain was bad…” Arnaut ventured.

OOC:: Let's get thise characters written up. We'll be using them soon enough. Just PM them over to me, have them include the information I listed in our squad topic, and you'll be set. They don't have to be as long as a normal bio, just enough to base a small, temporary character off of.

[This message has been edited by Arnaut (edited November 14, 2007 6:06:20 PM)]

Tnepres
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[VE-ARMY] Lance Corporal

Post Number: 579
Total Posts: 585
Joined: Nov 2006
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RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

November 21, 2007 4:52:46 PM

“Rain? I kind of enjoy the rain. But I assume I’m going to like this a lot less than rain?”

Arnaut nodded before walking out. Talstorin shrugged, looking back at their “company” before opening the door again. By the time he turned his head to see what was in front of him, it was too late. His vision went black for a minute as he felt a strong force hitting him. A sharp pain shot down his back as he fell on the cold floor, the sound cups falling and liquid spilling. Opening his eyes again, the trooper found himself on the floor, staring at the ceiling.

Groaning as he got up, Talstorin found himself in front of a black haired girl who still seemed stunned from the impact. She was sitting on his right leg, holding her head as if she had a migraine.

“Uhm,” he started, his voice coming off very quietly. “Mind, getting… well, off my leg?” He tried to sound as polite as possible, it didn’t feel right to yell at that kind of girl.

“H-huh?” she asked, seemingly snapping back. “O-oh! Oh my god! Sorry!” she began, stuttering. “It was an accident, I should’ve looked where I was going!”

Trying hard not to laugh, Talstorin simply formed a grin. “It was partly my fault as well, but that doesn’t help the fact that I can’t feel my leg.”

“Oh! Right, I’m sorry!” she jumped off, scrambling almost to pick up the cups that were now only half full.

Getting up to help her, he made a face. There were several cups on the floor now, all filled or were filled at least. “Wow,” he said with a stupid looking grin, “you must drink a lot.”

“Huh?” she asked as she lifted up her head.

Was she always this clueless?

“Oh, these aren’t for me,” she answered, realizing his question. “My squad is over there,” she accompanied this statement with a nod towards Villman, “they just usually make me get the drinks.”

“Well that’s not right, shouldn’t it be the other way around?” Talstorin asked as he picked up a cup. As he grabbed the cup, his legs suddenly felt wet and the trooper looked down to find them wet. The girl noticed too and made a yelp.

After once again apologizing, she reached for a napkin. “Here, I’ll dry you off,” she offered, extending the hand with the napkin. Talstorin responded by jumping back.

“No, it’s ok, seriously. I can do this myself.” The girl seemed satisfied and handed him the napkin along with a few others a second later. As Talstorin grabbed a seat, he realized that his whole squad was probably still waiting for him. That, or they didn’t notice he was missing yet. “Oh snap,” he said, standing up. “I- uh, realized I have to go.”

The girl threw away the cups before turning to him. “Hm? Oh, alright. Sorry, really… I’m -,” she said before she was cut off.

“Sirena?” he asked, raising a brow.

“Oh, how did you know?” she asked with a puzzled face.

“I overheard a couple of your squadmates talking about you. I’m from Wraith, we’re here to help. So this isn’t exactly good-bye.”

“Really? Wow, okay, I see you then. Now go, weren’t you in a hurry?”

“Right,” he said, taking a step out the door. “Let’s just hope you’re better with a gun than with cups,” he teased as Talstorin looked back for a second. Grinning again, he ran out the door. Sure enough, the squad was waiting for him nearby.

“Fell in the toilet?” Kanderin asked sarcastically as he saw Talstorin catch up. Talstorin glared at him before continuing. “I was just conversing with the other squad. You know, establishing some connections.”

Arnaut butted in by clearing his throat. “Ahem, as I was saying. We have a day before we leave. Somehow we’re going to have to do this alone. I suppose we’re coming up with a plan later.”

“Like plans ever work,” Talstorin heard someone mutter. Talstorin was a bit lost; apparently Arnaut had already explained everything while he was gone. Whispering to Kanderin along the side, he tried to get some info. “So what are we doing?”

“We’re doing some assassination of some governor of some sort,” he responded tersely, quickly walking away afterwards.

Arnaut
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RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

November 21, 2007 11:20:21 PM

The general sizzle and patter of the rain, combined with the monotonous blaring of the city’s klaxons, began to really grind on Arnaut’s nerves. The noise wasn’t immense so much as it was aggravating. No one else in the crowd seemed to notice though. They didn’t notice anything. Drab, soot smudged faces averted their eyes as the squad came through. They were beaten, wearied gas processors coming down out of the upper atmosphere at the end of their shift. The only thing they saw ahead of them was a cold dinner in a cramped apartment with a few hours of sleep before the next shift.

Even so, the crowd seemed to part around them as the nine, fully-armored troopers came walking through. Arnaut had to push a few people out of his way roughly as they moved through, but they largely had their own space to themselves. The squad made good time going down the crowded streets. Even so, they didn’t arrive at their hotel until late, thus shattering Villman’s hopes of leaving within the day.

The hotel they were at was a nondescript building, run-down, acid-eaten, and nine stories high. That was tall, especially in this neighborhood, compared to the buildings around it. Arnaut took a second to gaze up the height of the building, and then stepped in. The lobby was dimly lit and smelled faintly of smoke. Blue clouds wafted out of the lounge, connecting the lobby, along with the sound of men’s laughter. Arnaut ignored it and went straight for the counter. Snipes ignored the counter and went straight for the lounge and a sure bottle of Corellian whiskey. Arnaut let him go. They wouldn’t be leaving for a while yet.

The lobby-keep looked up as soon as Arnaut approached the desk. His snowy-white hair was combed over his apparently balding head, and he grinned with an elderly, gap-toothed smile once he saw Arnaut.

“You must be the Wraiths. I have your room cards here somewhere, let me just fetch them out,” he grinned. Arnaut was shocked.

“You…you know who we are? You know we’re the Wraiths?” Arnaut asked incredulously. The government should’ve at least provided a cover story, something not involving a military squad on a special operations mission. The old man stood up abruptly and turned his gaze toward Arnaut.

“Why, yes,” he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe. “Everyone knows you!”

It took fifteen minutes for Arnaut to find out just who everyone was. When he did, he practically threw his datapad through the telescreen in his room. The news was running, a gibbering mash of propaganda and demands for support in the war. And picture of the Wraiths. Shots of them leaving the shuttle, shots of them traversing the streets, shots of them entering the hotel, only a few minutes ago. They were described as heroes from the Empire, named as super-troopers coming to help liberate the world, and they were most definitely being used as propaganda by the government. Arnaut was disgusted.

“Who knew they could sink so low,” Arnaut muttered, kicking his pack into the corner and laying out his personal effects on his bed.

“Who could sink so low?” Jan’re asked, coming out of the bathroom. He had been assigned the same room as Arnaut, his belongings carted to the room like everyone else’s, long before Wraith squad had come to dispute it. Assigned. Whoever was doing this was intentionally trying to piss of the Wraiths, it seemed to Arnaut. It really didn’t seem to matter too much. The only change had been moving Fraot out of Carnon’s room and into Kanderin’s. That had only one that really needed to change. The point still stood that they had been assigned rooms, though, and Arnaut didn’t like it.

Arnaut pointed to the screen, in response to Jan’re’s question. Jan’re chuckled ruefully and stared for a moment.

“I think I look rather dashing in that one,” he said, pointing out a picture of them moving down one of the streets. Arnaut groaned and flopped down on his bed to catch a little bit of sleep.

When he came to, little over seven hours later, the room was still dark. Sunrise wasn’t for another two hours, he guessed by his chronometer, and on a planet covered by constant cloud cover, night always seemed darker. The citylights didn’t do much to push back the overall sense of mute silence and blackness. Arnaut rolled out of bed and made his way over to the room’s one, lone desk. His datapd was buzzing. A cursory glance told him that he’d already missed four messages. All of them were from Villman. Arnaut sighed and picked up the pad, deleted the messages, and turned on the lights. Jan’re blinked awake in the sudden light.

“Hey, what gives?”

“Rise and shine. It’s a new day, with things to see, places to go, and people to assassinate.”

“I’m rising, but it sure isn’t shining,” Jan’re grumbled, pulling himself out of his bed. Arnaut grinned maliciously, threw on a jacket, and went out of the room.

Each Wraith was ordered to pack light and for stealth. Knives, silenced pistols, glass-cutters, compact body armor – the works. Kanderin was bringing along a collapsible auto-turret, one that just barely fit in his pack. Just in case they needed some heavy support, or needed to make a clean getaway. Arnaut put Snipes on the Whisper sniper rifle, only because, without Virius, they had to have someone as their marksman. Snipes had the self-proclaimed ‘steadiest hand’, and therefore got the rifle. Arnaut loaded Dixon with the comm, recon, and surveillance supplies, once again allocating one of Virius’ former roles out to another person. Arnaut did kind of miss Vee.

Once the squad was ready to go, bleary eyed as they may have been, Arnaut led them out and to the landing pad where no doubt Villman had been angrily waiting for the past four hours. And, indeed, that was what they found. Arnaut apologized, citing a distant, and crummy hotel as the cause for delay. Villman muttered something about having a distant, older relative who could go faster, but Arnaut decided to ignore the comment. After a small debate on how to separate the squads supplies and troopers - eighteen of the Vast Empire’s best special forces troopers loaded onto the large, waiting transport - they made there way out of Imperial territory. Even before they entered the target city of Marrus, Arnaut had a bad feeling about the way the mission was going to turn out.

OOC:: Let's get rolling. We're just going to pop into this city for the small side-mission of assassinating this guy. I don't plan to spend too long on it, but this requires all of you to actually post on the story. Please? I have cookies...

[This message has been edited by Arnaut (edited November 22, 2007 10:42:53 PM)]

Kanderin Draken
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RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

November 22, 2007 11:13:53 AM

Kanderin glanced behind him, at Fraot, Carnon and Snipes, all of who were accompanying him onto the shuttle. He smirked at Snipes, as they both caught glimpse of another short fuse moment between their squad leader and Villman's.

"I get the feeling this might be a long day"

"Hey, at least s going to be fun" Snipes responded

Kanderin shrugged and hoisted himself over the partially opened shuttle door. They always seemed to take too long to open. Inside the ship were two other people, who he decided must be from the other squad.

"Hey" Kanderin called, before turning to take his bag back off Fraot.

"Oh great, the scum is here" One of the men sighed.

"Excuse me?" Kanderin asked, with the sort of tone that would normally follow a punch in the gut.

"The almighty Wraith squad "The man stood up, coming nose to nose with Kanderin. "The squad everyone's talking about. Or perhaps you'd prefer the truth? The squad full of useless dropouts that simply want to steal all the limelight?"

"And who the hell do you think you are?" Kanderin snarled back, the shock being replaced by anger.

"Alexar Kinnote, ASL of Derrond squad"

"Kanderin Draken, ASL of Wraith squad"

Kanderin offered his hand out, but the man simply slapped it away. Something in that response made him full with rage, and before he could even blink he'd pushed him, as hard as he could against the other wall of the transport. The Derron ASL recovered quickly and pushed Kanderin back.

"Stop it, right now!" Fraot shouted, pushing in between the pair.

She was more than useless though, as both men were far taller, and stronger than her, and probably hadn't even noticed she was there. They simply carried on pushing each other back and forth, until Snipes got involved and pushed them apart. He grabbed Kanderin by the back of the neck to stop any further charges, while the other n from Derron squad did the same to the other ASL.

"Normally Kanderin, I would have no problem letting you beat seven shades of shit out of the gay" Snipes whispered in his ear "But that's not going to help the mission. So for the sake of the squad, cool it"

Calming down, he finally managed to get a proper look at the man. He was actually several inches smaller than Kanderin, and quite a bit scrawnier. By the somewhat distant look in his eyes, he also seemed to wear glasses, although right now they were absent.

He had cropped blonde hair, which gave the impression that his forehead was abnormally large. His eye's were the same tone as Kanderins.

Tnepres
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Lance Corporal

Post Number: 580
Total Posts: 585
Joined: Nov 2006
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

November 22, 2007 1:48:15 PM

“Heh, looks like our squads are going along well,” Talstorin chuckled from his seat. It was near the back, his whole weight was rested on the back of the seat, his feet tapping on the horizontal portion of the seat. The girl that was seated next to him, snapped her head up in surprise, letting out a small yelp.

“Hey, Sirena,” the trooper said as he smiled, turning his glance downwards at her.

“Oh, I didn’t notice you. Shouldn’t you be with the rest of your squad?” She looked up at him, obviously still a bit shaken.

“Nope,” answered Talstorin quickly, hopping off the back and falling into the seat, positioned quite comfortably. “I’m not really in the mood to talk with them. I haven’t been lately, anyways.”

“Why not?” Sirena asked, suddenly seeming concerned.

“Eh? Don’t worry about.”

The shuttle door closed as he said the last line. By then, most of the two squads were seated. From the looks of it, it didn’t seem the two squads would get along. Each squad sat on opposite sides, sitting in pairs. Of course, out of 9 members, 1 was left. Then again, Talstorin never really minded sitting alone.

Soon after, the shuttle engines bursted to life as the ship started to vibrate and hum. As the awkward silence was broken, Kanderin muttered something to Fraot and then suddenly, as if it were the cue to start talking, everyone bursted into conversation.

Talstorin looked around, a bit tired from the lack of sleep. All throughout the night, he had been getting nightmare after nightmare. Deciding to see what was outside the window, he noticed that Sirena was staring outside also.

“So what’s your excuse for being so quiet with your squad?” he asked.

Sirena didn’t answer at first but turned back when she realized the question was directed to her. “Oh, I’m always like that. I’m not really a talker.” As if to prove that, she turned back towards the window again. Talstorin frowned. What a boring person. Staring at his own squad, he found them laughing, probably at some joke that wasn’t even funny. A sudden anger boiled in his chest but it was quickly suppressed. Giving a heavy sigh, Talstorin figured it was best to get some sleep.

A hand tapped his shoulder a couple of hours later. Talstorin grumbled, flailing his right hand in the air before waking up. Kanderin had a strange grin on his face, his datapad at hand.

“Guess what they named you in the papers?” the assistant squad leader asked.

“What…?” Talstorin mumbled in reply, hardly in the mood.

Arnaut
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant

Post Number: 620
Total Posts: 903
Joined: Jan 2006
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

November 22, 2007 11:35:42 PM

“A bit cliché, dontcha think?” Arnaut snorted with a small laugh looking down at the extended datapad hovering beneath his nose. Tnepres muttered something obscene and turned back toward his chair at the far end of the shuttle, tossing the datapad back to Kanderin in the process.

“Hey, I was just saying…” Arnaut called after him.

“Yeah, well, don’t. I don’t think anyone would like to be labeled as a slightly sociopathic, brooding, killing-machine.”

“You’re one to talk. With the description they threw on me, I should be able to level any city by blinking my eyes. And somehow get every woman on the planet to sleep with me in the process.”

“And we all know that can’t possibly be true,” Kanderin laughed from his seat. Arnaut shot him a glare.

“We’ll be having a little talk with the people in charge when we get back,” Arnaut muttered, returning to his seat next to Dixon.

“Whoever that is.” Dixon didn’t take his eyes away from the window. Arnaut nodded slightly and closed his eyes. Soon the low murmur of conversation and the swaying motion of the ship lulled him into sleep. It was quite a while before they entered the enemy held territory, and even longer before the city was close. When Arnaut woke up, the early morning city lights were just peeking through the window as the shuttle flew, steet-level, through the outskirts of the city. Outside, the citizens looked much the same as they had in the other city –weary, dejected, soot-stained. Arnaut peered out, looking with a cautious eye for anything that might somehow blow their cover.

There wasn’t much. For a city at war, you couldn’t really tell. Just as in the other city, business went on as usual. It was as if the whole planet was at war except nobody knew it. Most of the battles were being fought well away from the main cities, Arnaut guessed. The citizens had no real reason to fear. But still, it seemed wrong somehow to Arnaut.

Arnaut noticed a man in the corner, one from the other squad. He was wiry, thin, and had a crazy glint to his bright, ice-blue eyes. His jet black hair, matted and in wild disarray, seemed to be haphazardly sitting on his head. He clutched his sniper rifle case close to his body. Every look around he took screamed paranoia. Arnaut suddenly wanted to be very far away from the man. There definitely was something wrong with him. Arnaut began to scoot, but the intercom crackled suddenly.

“Checkpoint ahead,” the pilot announced suddenly. Arnaut froze up.

“Oh frig,” he whispered under his breathe. Outside, he could see the checkpoint officers, waving along the two shuttles ahead of them before trotting up to their shuttle. Everyone suddenly became quiet. There was a long, tense second as the pilot and the officers exchanged a few clipped words and documents were handed between the men. Arnaut held his breathe. Any second, there would be yelling. They’d pull their blasters, and charge into the shuttle, and everything would fall apart. Any second. Any second.

And they were threw. Arnaut breathed again, along with just about every one else in the cabin. Arnaut looked out the window in time to see the officers waving along the shuttle behind them. They were in the clear. They’d made it into the city. At least, Arnaut had thought they had.

“Another checkpoint,” the pilot announced. This time, instead of frightened, confused glances were shared among the squad members.

“We’ll get through,” Villman announced confidently, trying to convince everyone that it was going to be okay. There was a slight twinge to his voice that made Arnaut believe that he was trying to convince himself as well.

There were words from the front of the shuttle. A few exchanges of documents. Then more words. Loud questions. Some yelling. Everyone began to sweat again. More loud questions. And then the officers were punding on the sides of the shuttle, trying to pry open the door. Something had just gone terribly wrong, he knew, and they were no going to pay the price.

“Frig,” he managed to say. Everything happened very quickly, all at once. The door ripped open, the officer stepped in. His dark blue fatigues were covered by a black, slug-deflected body armor piece, and his head was hidden behind a bulky riot helmet. Neither the helmet nor the body armor stopped the two rounds that went through them. Turning around, Arnaut saw that the crazed man that had been sitting in the corner now held, in outstretched hands, a fully assembled, polished rifle. And he was taking aim again.

Two shots blew the second officer out of the door frame and onto the street. Arnaut whipped up his A280 in no time flat and pupled the third and last officer.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Villman was saying, dragging the emergency packs toward the door. Arnaut jumped to the doorway and cut down another guard as he tried to run back toward the checkpoint station and call for help.

“Let’s move it, we’ve got to get out of here!” Arnaut yelled behind him. Outside was a mess. People were screaming, running, shoving, and trampling each other in a frenzied attempt to get out of the way. The noise of the panic was immense. Someone tossed Arnaut his helmet, and he slipped it on. The stark silence that greeted him was both calming and welcomed.

“We’ve got to get to ground. Wraiths, on me!” Arnaut ordered. He jumped down and darted forward for the sidewalk. The other troopers were grabbing everything they could hold and coming as fast as they could after him.

A riot truck, armored and equipped with a rapid-fire turret on top, pulled into sight at the end of the street. The man station on top squeezed off a few shots before a quick round from the sniper blew off his head. He was good, Arnaut mused. But the truck was still coming, disembarking troops as it drove, and new shots were coming their way.

Arnaut looked back and saw that everyone, including their piss-frightened pilot, was off the shuttle now. Now they just had to get out of there. Arnaut spotted a small alley, and made toward it, everyone trailing behind. Shots rang out behind them, and Arnaut ducked a little as a few went whining overhead. For the most part, though, their former shuttle blocked the street and the throngs of people choked the sidewalks in either direction. The city’s security detail had no way of reaching them, and very little firing angles.

Once in the relative safety of the alley, they stopped to take a breather and figure out what was going on.

“This…is not good…” someone gasped out.

“No, you think?” Villman responded snidely. “Alright, we’re officially frigged as of right now, so let’s get our arses in gear and get out of here before heavier support shows up.” For once, Arnaut agreed with him.

OOC:: Yay! Posts!

joamer
ComNet n00b

[VE-ARMY] Corporal

Post Number: 16
Total Posts: 997
Joined: Sep 2007
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

January 8, 2008 11:47:59 PM

The stretched out star field of hyperspace flooded the front viewports of a old space beaten Feeg Liat-Class Transport, even though it had been modified years ago to carry cargo and not people. Still, it did the job and did it well.

Standing in one of the cargo holds, a half cybernetic half human male stood in front of a full suit of freshly painted clone commando armor, stealth black paint still dripped as he applied the last few details on the armor. All around him crates of various sizes were strapped to the bulkheads awaiting delivery, though in all honesty the crates held his arsenal of weapons and things that exploded. Part of the ruse central command had thrown together in haste for his arrival on Serrell.

Removing the Corporal insignia pins on his body suit, he shut the blastdoor and made his way to the cockpit. Sitting down in the seat he brought out a datapad and began reading, nothing but time he muttered to himself as the ship hurled itself through hyperspace.

Two hours later the navcomputer began beeping, setting down the pad he pulled back the hyperspace control levers and the stretched out star field became a junkyard filled with burning ships floating around a murky gas planet.

Keying in the entry vector and cruise speed he entered the turbulent atmosphere a few hundred miles away from some backwater village he had been told to locate. It was as good a place as any to begin his search for his squad he had been told.

"This is landing port seven to unidentified craft. State your business and registration numbers."

"This is cargo ship Tryuil, I'm a freelance gas shipper. I'm picking up a shipment bound for some private contractor." Joamer said as he keyed off the mic.

"Landing lights on, on pad four. Land and prepare to be boarded."

Setting her down quickly he quickly walked to the cargo hold and snapped on his now dry commando armor. Keying his mics frequency to the Wraiths own, he began hearing reports of retreat and find cover, followed by loud explosions and screams.

Grabbing one of his DC-15s pistols he walked to the rear hatch and popped the lever just as three men in somewhat offical looking uniforms walked up.

"Sorry sir, this just isn't your day." One of them said as they brought blaster rifles to bear though before they could get a good look at him. Three quick shots took all three men down.

Joamer flipped the lever again and ran for the cockpit. Kicking the ships repulsorlifts straight up he punched the engines and the keyed the weapon systems on. Hearing that both squads had taken refuge in a small building he opened fire along the length of the street outside. Whatever heavy artillary they had managed to bring to bear on the squad had gone up into flames.

Setting the ship down in a very confined square he keyed his mic on and said "Wraith squad, this is Corporal Joamer Resitlin, clearance code, charley six bravo 110453. I heard you boys needed some help getting the hell out of here. Rear hatch is open, get in and lets get the hell out of dodge."

Corporal Joamer Reistlin

~WildcardPlatoo n ~
"Shuffle up the Wildcards, and deal them."

-=Wraith PRIDE=-
I am what Death fears.
*HeavyWeapons *
Hes big, hes bad, he will make things vanish. Just hope he never runs out of ammo.

TRP/CPL Joamer/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/ [LoR] [ES1] [EW1]

"What do you hear?" "Nothing but the rain." "Grab your gun and bring in the cat."

[This message has been edited by Joamer (edited January 9, 2008 12:01:42 AM)]

Arnaut
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant

Post Number: 653
Total Posts: 903
Joined: Jan 2006
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

February 6, 2008 10:43:03 PM

The first night was hell. Of course, when one was stuck in an enemy city, with all the guards alerted to your presence, and nothing but a thin sheet of metal between one and agonizing death at the hands of the acidic rain that plummeted toward the ground periodically, one saw everything as a sort of hell or another. But the first night was truly horrific. They ditched the craft in an abandoned lot after one too many militia patrol spotted them. It was on foot from their. The first few hours after their desperate escape at the city entrance left them weary and worn out, and not the least bit scared. Klaxons blared well into the night, and the militia seemed to pop up everywhere they went. Morale was low, and most of people in each squad wondered whether they’d be making it back alive.

They made shelter in an abandoned, acid-eaten factory. Its former inhabitants had stripped everything down to the wire out of the walls, leaving just a few sheets of rusted metal and some rotten planks of wood. That and rats. They fried the first few, but the noise of their blasters seemed unbearably loud in the silence of late night, and so they gave it up. There was no talking, no conversing. There wasn’t really anything to talk about. They knew they were in deep, and it had a sobering effect on the otherwise jovial squads.

In the distance, rising above all the other buildings, their goal could be seen. The governor’s palace was an immense building, towering hundreds of stories into the sky, defying the acid rain to tear it down. Few buildings around it came even near it’s height or immensity. Apparently the governor thought very well of himself. It would be so easy to break into, Arnaut reckoned as he stared out one of the dingy windows at its massive bulk in the distance. So close and yet...so far. Arnaut turned away and went to sleep.

The second day wasn’t as bad. No rain, no militia, and the city had finally shut off the blasted klaxons. They made a good march toward their goal, finally coming within roughly a mile of the building, without any sign of militia. They stuck to the back roads and alleys as much as possible, even if that meant trudging through long troughs of human feces and piss. It wasn’t pleasant. But the alternative of dying seemed even less so. They were in civilian clothes, but with eighteen of them travelling in a group, each with large, bulging armor-filled sacks over their shoulders, and covered in shit no less, they were sure to draw attention. And their only change of clothes were their military fatigues. That would’ve gone over well.

About a mile out, though, they found that moving forward would prove to be impossible. The major business, with their tidy office workers and clean civilians bustling all over the place, it was just too crowded. The cleanest one happened to be Villman, and he collected a small sum of credits from each squad member and went off to get them some better clothes and a decent place to sleep for the night. Surprisingly, as Arnaut learned later, Villman didn’t see a single militia member through his entire excursion.

* * *

Arnaut stripped out of the clothes Villman had bought them. They were starchy and pretty uncomfortable, but it was the design of suits that most of the business men wore, and they had been forced to suffer through them for a day. Arnaut hurriedly pulled on each piece of his military fatigues, feeling good to finally be back in something comfortable. He put on the armor nest before shoulder his now near-empty pack and peeking his head out the door. There was no one. Quietly as he could in his matte black spec ops armor, he snuck over to the suite where the two squads were meeting.

Outside, the night life had only just started to ebb; as one thirty hit the clocks, bleary-eyed drunks were stumbling out, sometimes with assistance and sometimes without, to their parked speeders to make the perilous drunk drive home. If the squads were lucky enough, nobody would be sober enough to notice the eighteen black shadows that slipped out of Hotel d’Alderaan just before two.

Arnaut took point, followed by most of his squad and then Derrond squad. Shops had started to turn off their lights, and the ever-present cloud cover made their journey toward the palace a bit less tense. Even so, the palace was immense, and grew in size the closer they got. Arnaut’s confidence just the night before seemed to slip away so easily now that he was actually next to the building. Someone in the back uttered a curse as their foot caught a loose stone, and Arnaut whipped around.

“We’re within a street. Keep noise in check.” Arnaut didn’t want any citizen to suddenly look out their window and see the two armored squads standing there. They’d have to be silenced, and quickly, otherwise they’d probably never get a shot at their target again. Two of the Derrond’s helped the person onto their feet before staring at Arnaut. He could almost feel their glares. He led them on.

Once they reached the walls of the palace, they learned all too quickly where the militia had been all day long. In the outer courtyard, what must’ve been at least two hundred militia either stood on guard duty or patrolled the darkness. Not to mention the ones that were out of sight, or inside the building itself. Obviously the governor saw the encounter in the street for what it really was; he knew that someone wanted him dead. And obviously he’d given up on trying to root them out of the streets. Now he was all but impossible to get to.

“This is going to be a lot harder than we thought,” Tnepres muttered into the comlink.

“Any alternative ways in?” Arnaut asked, not to anyone in particular. Almost instantaneously, one of the Derrond members from the back spoke up.

“I’ve been pulling up old schematics on the palace, and it seems the place is pretty old. All the normal routes we’d take are definitely guarded. They’ve probably also got guards on the sewer tunnels, which I could probably take out for us no problem—” Villman slapped him on the back of the helmet. The squad member uttered something pretty vile under his breath, but Villman seemed to let it slide.

“Tell them what else you found,” he commanded quietly. So Villman had required the unnamed squad member to report to himself before the Wraiths. So much for a team effort. The squad member uttered something else, invoking another slap to the helmet.

“There happens to be an older, much more abandoned sewer tunnel leading directly beneath the main sewer lines. We could...go through there and blow a hole to get into the upper sewer lines,” he said reluctantly.

“Sounds reasonable,” Arnaut said, nodding his head. “Lead the way.”

“We’ll be missin’ a helluva fight, though,” the still unnamed trooper muttered under his breath. Villman gave him a look but said nothing.

D'har Leth
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Lance Corporal

Post Number: 482
Total Posts: 501
Joined: Feb 2006
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

February 7, 2008 4:11:20 PM

Villman stopped, coughing like mad as a cloud of smoke drifted in front of his face from around a corner. A familiar face, and a body covered by ox-blood armor stepped out from behind a corner. The tip of the cigarette glowed red, and Leth let out another puff of smoke into Villman's face.

"Well, if this isn't the sorriest bunch of boys I've seen in my life."

Arnaut cocked his eyebrow. "Leth. . ."

"You smell like shit, Arn."

"And you smell like an ashtray."

"Fair enough. Hey everybody, look who's here. I just got back from a very nice vacation and heard you were here. I couldn't resist."

Villman looked very taken aback. "Well I haven't seen clearance for you to be here, now get going before you further jeopardize the mission!"

"Oh, I'm jeopardizing the mission. You're the one shouting, tightass."

The Derrond sniper chuckled a little bit at Leth's comment, and Leth flashed him a grin. Arnaut looked at Kand and Kand nodded.

"Derrond squad, this is Leth. He's one of us Wraiths and he'll be coming with us. Don't piss him off." said Arnaut with a smile. It seemed that Villman still had his doubts.

"Now wait just a minute. You're telling me that this ass is coming with us without clearance from above?"

Leth balled up his fist as he threw a questioning look at Arnaut. Arn shook his head, much to the disappointment of Leth.

"You'll get yours, dickhead," Leth muttered to Villman as he made his way toward the rest of his old buddies. He threw down his cigarette and crushed it with his foot before looking up at the assembled Imperials.

"So, where are we going, guys?"

Lance Corporal D'har Leth
TRP/LCPL D'har Leth/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/Nar Shaddaa
*HeavyWeapons *

-=Wraith PRIDE=-
~WildcardPlatoo n ~
Stamp Card

Purely Pwcci
My Country

Kanderin Draken
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Sergeant
[VE-VEEC] Journalist

Post Number: 800
Total Posts: 1849
Joined: Mar 2006
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

February 8, 2008 11:44:45 AM

"Fishing, apparently" Kanderin mentioned, walking right past Leth with nothing more than a pat on the shoulder to acknowledge his existence.

"Don't worry about Kand, he's not in the best mood" Tnepres called over to Leth.

"I figured, ticked off about how the mission's gone?"

"Nope, ticked off that we wont let him beat the hell out of the other squads assistant leader"

"Well he never did like competition" Leth shrugged, before making his way around the rest of the squad.

"I don't mind competition, I don't like people that try to create it though" Kanderin sighed and looked back at Leth, managing to smile.

"Your ego attracts competition Kand" Alexar called over, apparently catching up with the Wraith's.

"If you're not careful those glasses will attract my knee in a second"

"Watch your mouth Kand, we're a team remember" Arnaut called over.

Kanderin mumbled an apology, before getting up and waving the squad to follow him. Hopefully he'd get to shoot something very soon.

Arnaut and Snipes got involved in conversation with Leth again, however all the time keeping one eye on Fraot, giving Kanderin a quiet lecture. The exact words eluded them all, but it made Kanderin smile, more than he had done for some time.

OOC:: Small post, but I really want to give everyone else as little direction as possible in this story. I'll keep you guys company in putting out posts, however. We're on a wave of posts and I dont want it to be dying anytime soon

Sniping101
ComNet Sage

[VE-ARMY] Sergeant First Class
[VE-VEEC] Journalist

Post Number: 3149
Total Posts: 3940
Joined: Oct 2002
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

February 9, 2008 12:55:56 AM

Snipes moved his back slightly, getting more comfortable. He was wedged at the top of a large arch way in the wall, hidden among the ornamental metal work, his black armor blending in well with the shadows, sky and ornaments. A cigarette hung half way out of his mouth, his helmet was slung from his belt and his long hair was thrown over his left shoulder. On his right shoulder rested the large sniper rifle. He liked to claim he couldn't use them very well. That wasn't true. He stretched and contracted his right hand, making the joints crack. The rifle just brought back memories of his RAIDER days and the faces of fallen comrades. The Crazies they'd been called, yeah, he remembered it well, Mara, FA, D-13, Otto, Jyse. There had been other too, many others. Snipes sighed.

"We're inside" Arnauts voice rang in his ear.

Snipes grunted and flicked the lung blaster butt into the rain, it was put out before it even hit the ground. Snipes pulled the helmet back over his head and lit up the HUD overlay. He could see a bunch of green dots fanning out underground, Snipes switched them to red so they showed up easier. Snipes job was to cover the escape, and provide sniper cover threw the windows and likely some walls with the giant gun he was using, his custom loaded rounds could probably punch through tank armor. Wraiths only needed to leave a beacon to shoot at and pay attention to thier own HUD, making sure to be out of his line of fire.

Snipes scanned around, watching patrols, when they finally decided to extract he was going to have a hey day sending rounds through entire platoons at a time. The other squads sniper showed up on a building top just outside the wall. He didn't seem to take the same delight Snipes did for being the middle of the action.

Snipes grunted, he wanted another smoke, but he knew he needed to keep his helmet on. The waiting was killing him. He scanned over to look at the other sniper again and saw a muzzle flash. There was no sound, a silenced weapon, Snipes gun was far too large to efficiently silence.

The Wraiths chatter kept Snipes alert, he wasn't going to be napping on this job, which was a damn shame in his opinion. He shrugged to himself and was contented to lean back against the wall and rest his eyes. They Wraiths would let him know if they needed fire support, all he had to do was keep from getting seen, and as far as he could tell the militia didn't have the kind of training that pointed out the obvious possibility that the enemy could be above them. Idiots.

{Comnet Hermit}
-=Wraith PRIDE=-
VE Smoker Association - De facto CEO.
Diligo, Laus, Sors quod Fortuna.
The few, The proud, The CrAZy RAIDERS.
----------------------------------------------
TRP/SFC Sniping101/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][IH][BoA][CDSx2][CoR][ES1][EW1]
Author/JRN Snipeth/Lotaith/VET/VE
----------------------------------------------
The liver is evil and needs to be punished

[This message has been edited by Sniping101 (edited February 9, 2008 9:09:57 PM)]

Arnaut
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant

Post Number: 657
Total Posts: 903
Joined: Jan 2006
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

February 10, 2008 10:30:39 PM

With a lot more screaming than Arnaut would’ve liked, the militia soldier finally died. Arnaut wiped his blade of the blood and dragged the corpse behind a potted plant. As far as he could see, no other militia were currently charging into the darkened place hallway, ready to blow apart Arnaut, so maybe it wasn’t that bad. He signaled the squad to move in. In their assault leading from the sewer line, they had left quite a few militia corpses in their wake. There were just so many. Statistics told Arnaut it was only a matter of time before one managed to reach an alarm before dying and wake up the palace. And they still had a lot of walking between them and the target.

Arnaut pushed the thoughts from his mind. Until that did happen, he would focus on the mission at hand. Kill every militiaman between the two squads and their quarry.

As Derrond and the rest of the Wraiths pulled up next Arnaut, they dragged two more bodies behind the same potted plant Arnaut had used. Arnaut pitied the maid that would find the three bodies stacked on top of each other come morning. But hopefully the Wraiths would be gone long before that happened. They moved out.

The next hallway was longer and arguably darker than the last. Not that Arnaut minded the darkness. Nor any of the Wraith members, for that matter. It helped them be sneaky, and that helped them do their job efficiently. And efficiency kept them alive and well paid.

“Kand, left side. Ten, Leth...you got right.” Villman quietly sent three of his men forward as well. While the six did their sweep of all the adjourning rooms, the main bodies of the squad moved forward to the end of the hall to make sure no one tried to sneak up on them as they made their sweep. The only guard in the hall was soon dropped, and then there was silence. This was how it went. They secured a hall, posted a look out, did a thorough sweep. They couldn’t be careless with this one, let the governor slip by unnoticed. They had to make sure they got him, and got him on the first try.

“Sir, we’ve found something.” It was Leth’s voice. That was new. Usually they just found broom closets and random, pointless rooms filled with junk.

“The governor?” Arnaut asked, getting a bit excited. Just a bit.

“No, no, something else.” Arnaut was slightly put off, but went over to Ten and Leth anyway. What he found was almost as good as finding the governor.

Arnaut whistled softly as he took in the vast array of pictures, data, computer consoles, and holograms spread in a disorderly sort of order throughout the intelligence room. From the outside, it looked just like any other room in the hallway, except for the high grade lock on the outside. The one Ten and Leth had blown off just seconds before Arnaut jogged up.

“Someone’s been doing a lot of spying..” Arnaut said, admiring the picts from varying provinces. The governor, or at least his intel network, had spies seemingly everywhere. There were holograms of the inside of the Imperial palace, even! Out of it all, though, one thing caught Arnaut’s eye. In the corner, it seemed, there was a whole table of fresh information. One of the holorecordings was still playing, it’s continuous loop repeating every twenty seconds or so. It was frightening.

The pictures were blurry, and it looked as if the man had been trembling as he took the shots, but what Arnaut was seeing was clear. It was a factory, and they were assembling warheads. Not just vacuum, space-fleet warheads, but atmospheric ones too, from the look of some of them. That wasn’t good. With those in their arsenal, any province could take control of the planet.

Next to the holoprojector was a table of seemingly out of place supply run schedules, and then a list cities and distances, scribbled in a rough scrawl on a piece of outdated carbon paper. There was also a map that that had a place in the middle of nowhere circled. The cities that were on the list made a rough circle around the area. Obviously, someone had been ingenious and tracked the supply trucks making their way to this factory from each city and gotten a rough idea of where it was located.

Arnaut started picking up everything he could see related somehow to the factory. The holorecording for one, along with the map, the distances from each city, and all the other extraneous information on the table. After their mission was over, if they were still intact, Arnaut knew where they’d be headed.

“Alright, let’s move!” By then the sweeps had been finished, and the two squads took back to the shadows.

After a few minutes, Arnaut had a strange feeling. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. It felt like...like...

“Are we being watched?” someone from the back said quietly. Arnaut was about to reprimand him when suddenly, the column to his left started to unfurl and...move. Arnaut’s gun was up in flash.

“Don’t...don’t shoot.” Came the reply from the shadows. It sounded odd, almost reptilian. Arnaut soon found out why. The barabel that stepped out was tall, towering above Arnaut’s entire squad, nearly seven and a half feet tall. And his jet black scales told Arnaut exactly why they hadn’t noticed him before.

“When...what...how long have you been trailing us?” Arnaut asked. He half-recognized the alien before him. It seemed he had seen him before, and not as an enemy.

“About five minutes. It wasn’t hard to pick up your scent. You smell like shit.”

“Told you,” Leth said from the back. Arnaut grimaced underneath his helmet.

“No, not just Arnaut. All of you.”

“The sewers were not kind to us. Are you alone? And how’d you know my name?”

“I’m your reinforcements. Or, part of it.” The barabel nodded to something behind Arnaut, causing both squads to whip around and find not only another barabel, but another human. The barabel was green scaled, about a foot shorter, and looked rather angry. The human was just hidden by his helmet.

“Great, let’s all play sneak-up-on-the-covert-squad. Maybe we can get some of the militia to play! Heck why not the governor himself!?”

“Well, speaking of which, we did manage to find out where the governor is sleeping. Just, you know, in case you might want to assassinate him or something.” Arnaut sighed heavily, slightly annoyed at being shown up in front of his own squad, but glad that they could finally end their monotonous sweeps and get to the point of the mission.

“Lead on,” Arnaut said rather grumpily. The barabel seemed delighted.

Kanderin Draken
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RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

February 11, 2008 7:10:30 AM

OOC:: Screw it all, I messed up again. Just carry on like I said and I'll be back after getting my head sorted out

[This message has been edited by Kanderin Draken (edited February 11, 2008 11:52:43 AM)]

Alater
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RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

February 11, 2008 4:17:19 PM

Don't shoot." Alater hissed as he unwrapped himself from the pillar. The so called 'covert' squad had made a rather large mess of themselves and could literally be smelled a mile away. After engaging in some small talk with their Squad Leader, Arnaut, he motioned Dax and Dra'kah out of their spots in the darkness. Though no Black Arm, Dra'kah was still a barabel and very much a hunter.

Wearing little more than scale tight pants, Alater formed a formidable addition to Wraith Squad. His size alone deterred many a foe and the strength behind his massive arms could cleave skin from bone. Strapped upon his waste hung the sword Long Fang, which he carried at all times.

"Don't mind if I smoke do you?" Alater half asked as he reached into a belt pouch and grabbed a cigar. Smoking had been a bad habit he'd picked up from Riqimo, back before his Special Forces days. With a quick flick of an unseen lighter, Alater proceeded to puff away as the group slowly approached the next checkpoint Alater had given them.

"So," Arnaut said, turning to Alater and his companions, "Tell me a bit about yourself big fella."

"Sergeant Alater Osted, born of the Strong Arm. I am the sole survivor of my clan's Egg family, and the largest. I have served the empire for many a year, and am a trained combat specialist. Other than that I can say only that I am a Special Forces member. As for him," Alater said, motioning towards the other Barabel, "you'll have to get that story from him."

TRP/SGT Alater Osted/4thSQD/1PLT/1CMP/1REG/1BAT/Tadath/VEA [EW1] [ES1] [SoH] [[VUA-Eclipse]] [ROC:HW] [AS-6M] [IG] [RoM] [BC]
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Jennabelle
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RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

February 17, 2008 8:58:27 AM

Jenny waited for the barabel’s story, checking her DC-17 rifle to make sure it was cocked and ready as she stared at the girl constantly staring at her through her helmet, her brunette hair showing in the slits between her helmet and neck. Her slender and sexy body showing itself like a model as those yellow penetrating eyes kept staring at Jenny, up and down, especially at her special parts.

    “Wow, I never had been hit on by a girl before except by a clone of mine. Who are you, my mysterious lady? I’m Lance Corporeal Jennabelle Altex of Wraith. I’m a heavy weapon specialist, and a damn good one at it. ” Jenny said oddly as she couldn’t take in all the staring at her, and removed her helmet, revealing her tendrils and her pretty face.

    “Altex? I recognize that last name. You wouldn’t be related to Freje Altex, would you?” The mysterious female removed her helmet as well, showing her beautiful face and cute smile, plus that sleek tender brunette hair.

    “Yes, she’s my sister, why?” Jenny answered oddly as she got a bit pissed at the way she referred to her sister as if she was a leaf that this bitch could brush aside.

    “I met her in the Bulletpoint College that she went to in Dakshee. We had a run in about her fiancé I heard it was last, Corin’s mother, although I didn’t kill her. Dakine did. The bitch had the same sexy body you do, same pretty face. But she was a bit more affectionate than you, less wanting to fight, good trait I like in women, by the way. Although her kicks pack quite a punch, if you know what I mean.” The female replyed affectionately, almost as much affection as Jenny received from Freje.

    “You will not speak about Freje in your disgusting lesbian ways! I am not attracted to women like you! I have a spouse!” Jenny shouted in a whisper as she slammed the female against the wall at the end of the hall with her left hand, keeping her face as far as possible from the lady, although she just stung at the blow in satisfaction, continuing fantasizing with her eyes closed, as she laughed and stated in lust at me, still staring upon my special parts:

    “Oh, you’ll soon change your mind, honey, name’s Melia Logana, by the way. In the meantime, you might want to your Alater boy to stop smoking. I hate people who smoke, especially men. You smoke or drink, dear?”

    “Stop doing that, will you, Melia? I’m not your honey, and I don’t smoke or drink, I eat mint and drink grape wine, plus any health drink to keep my body in shape and prevent obesity, lung, and alcoholic diseases.” Jenny stated back, rejecting this beautiful yet sassy bitch that called herself Melia Logana.

    “Really? You are one healthy bitch, although I had taken your looks as a good thing, you lacking of the essential taste in cigarettes and alcohol. Such a f***ing waste of----” Alater struck back as if it was a argument, before Melia pushed Jenny lightly on her chest and jabbed him hard on the mouth, making him spit out a couple of tooths, and threaten hardly like Jenny never heard a women had before:

    “I have never such things to a person before because I was always careful not to get into fights with others. Freje was a exception, but I took care not to hit her too hard, thus the blow on her cheek. You, my friend Alater, deserved a little bit of punishment for the crappy mouth that should get cleaned by a soap and mocking of a great women named Jenny.”

    “Alright, Alrighty, stop your bitching, I already had enough with this common creep that calls himself Kand and you in the squad, but now…..” The foolish man that called himself Alexar croaked as he pushed Melia and Alater aside. Jenny got there just in time to block Kand’s punch to his nose with her left hand, warning him in a cold voice:

    “Kand, what did Arnaut tell you? Don’t get in a fight with worthless scum.”

    “Who are you calling a worthless scum, you piece of----” Alexar swore before getting himself a major royale knee in the groin, while Jenny threatened too in the same cold and dark voice:

    “And you, Alexar, keep your mouth shut if you don’t want any trouble. Don’t think that I’m just a weak little girl. Combat experience tells me guys like you don’t last too long on these battlefields with all that self-glorifying.”

    “Now can all of you just calm down, we’ll get this governor once we heard the barabel’s story.” Arnaut said calmly as his talk deprived the situation of its dangerous state. Thank god, now I won’t have to beat this son of a gun up, what’s his deal with talking to Kand like that, so bitchy. Jenny reflected in disgust at Alexar as the barabel started telling his story.

OOC:: Sorry about the long wait, here's my post, enjoy. I might've added a few traits to Melia, but everything else is there.

Arnaut
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RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

February 17, 2008 5:25:42 PM

OOC:: Let's get the story moving again!

“Can we get moving please?” The barabel said grumpily. No story then. Fine enough. Arnaut ushered Alater to the front and they moved forward at a brisk jog.

They were still making their same pace, and still no indication that Alater had any idea where he was leading them. Every so often he would pause, sniff the air, nod and then move on, but aside from that and the occasional killing, the trip to the governor was quiet. Almost too quiet. Arnaut began to get nervous. Where were all the militia they’d seen earlier? Now, they only seemed to appear every so often, and only in groups of one or two, as opposed to six or seven like in the beginning. It was...unnerving. Arnaut wondered where exactly Alater was leading them to. Arnaut had expected more guards than this, especially on the way to the governor.

Finally, Alater signaled a halt. Quietly, he spit out his cigar and rubbed it into oblivion in the thick carpet.

“We’re here,” he said simply.

Here was more of a general term. They were barely inside the hallway that led to one of the largest chambers they’d seen in the palace yet. From ground floor to what looked like the top of the palace ceiling, their was one massive room, complete with a skylight at the top. Complete with furnishings, of course. A small waterfall, a fountain, many reclining sofas and chairs, two bars, a reception desk, and a large stage. All of this was flanked on the walls by thirty or so levels of rooms. It was like looking into the best hotel in the world. Except it was owned by one man.

“Like an obstacle course,” Kanderin murmured. It was true. But at least there would be cover while they were in the room. They would need it, and sooner than Arnaut or anyone else expected.

“Fourteenth floor, third room from the left on the North wall, facing us,” Alater said. He indicated toward one of the nondescript doors. It could’ve been like any other, except that, now that Arnaut looks hard at it, there were two guards hiding quietly near the door. They hadn’t noticed the two squads yet.

“Derrond, take the left. Find some stairs or something. No elevators. We’ll take right.” There were some grumbles about taking orders from a Wraith from the Derrond group, but they started to move. Until the guards came bursting into the room, guns firing.

“Trap!” Was all Arnaut could shout before both squads were forced into cover. Arnaut glared at Alater, who, for once, showed some expression. It looked like fear.

“It was me!” he exclaimed, lunging forward as the sofa he’d taken for cover was chewed up by auto-fire.

Arnaut looked around. A lot of the furniture was on fire, and there were guards surrounding the entire edge of the room. Just above, Arnaut could see a man leaving the room Alater had pointed out, flanked by the two guards. There goes their quarry, then, Arnaut thought. Arnaut had lost sight of Alater and most of the rest of the squad by the time his eyes stopped following the governor. About twenty meters in front of him was the fountain, which would provide a nice place for cover. If only he could reach it. He looked around, nearly got shot, and decided that, oh well, he was probably dead already, and ran.

Twice he was almost caught in the crossfire, but he made it safely over the lip of the fountain. The cool waters felt good. He rolled up almost immediately and began assessing the situation.

Seventy to eighty guards, roughly, standing about the edge of the room. No cover for them, but then again, they didn’t need much. They were systematically tearing the inside of the room apart. The two squads were all concentrated toward the center of the room. Kand and Ten were busy pulling some burning couches and tables to make a wall of cover, while two of the Derrond members hurriedly were patching up a wound in Villman’s leg. Jennabelle seemed to be the only one fighting back, but every time she got out of cover, she was forced back in. Her shots were erratic and didn’t hit much. So far, there were no guards on any floor but the first one. It was a bad move for the guards, and, at the very least, stopped them from getting a better angle on the two squads. Good, now, at least, the Wraiths had a few minutes to contemplate their death before it came.

A stray shot shattered the upper portion of the fountain, and Arnaut ducked down. He had to think. The guards basically had them. What would he do if he were in their positon? Well, besides getting some people on the upper floors, which they seemed rather disinclined to do, he would continue firing in the center until either heavy support came to finish it, or they finished it themselves. What would he not expect? Arnaut thought for a moment, and then he had an idea.

“Villman!” Arnaut shouted across the din. Villman looked up, his helmet on the floor beside him. His face was contorted in pain.

“What channel’s your sniper on?”

“Why?” Villman shouted back. Because yours is closer to the roof, because yours is a pretty damn nimble climber, or so he says, and because I said so, Arnaut thought.

“I need it!”

“Gamma alpha lambda!” Villman slumped back, the pain becoming unbearable. Arnaut didn’t do the courtesy of giving him a thank you. Instead, he opened up a link to the sniper.

“Hurry to the roof, now,” Arnaut commanded.

“What’s going on in there? All I see are lights flashing; is it blaster fire? Why do I hear blaster fire over the comm? Who is this anyway?”

“The Wraith squad leader. Move now, questions later!” Arnaut yelled. The sniper grumbled but moved.

“Holy...” he said, peering in through the giant window at the top.

“Yeah,” Arnaut replied flatly. “Alright, I need you to start some dissension in the ranks. We’re kind of...pinned down, as you can probably tell. First, can you see me? Fountain, center of the room.” Arnaut waved his arms and got an affirmation.

“Alright, edge of the room, my ten o’clock, there seems to be a line officer, giving orders. See him? I can’t get a clear shot, but maybe you—” There was a puff of red in the direction Arnaut had indicated, followed almost instantly by the crack of a rifle. The guards stopped firing and looked around for orders from their officer, only to find him partially exploded on the ground. The screamed and ran down the line. Now things were starting to turn.

“Nice shot,” Arnaut murmured, right before spraying the area with shots. Many of the fleeing ones fell as well as some of those still firing. It was only a part of the line, but all the guards were starting to back away toward the walls, nervously looking around. And then the real fun began.

One after one, gunners’ heads burst, like overripe fruit. Each one was followed by the crack of a rifle. And it wasn’t just on one side of the room, but every side. The guards didn’t know what was happening. How could the squads in the center be getting that good of an angle? At once, the pressure on the spec squads lessened.

“Give ‘em hell!” Villman yelled, feebly standing up. He still looked like he was in pain, but his leg was bandaged, and there was a mad glint in his eye.

Return fire trickled out slowly at first, but started to pick up momentum. It helped that most of the guards were inexperienced and broke easily. More than half of them had routed before the room was firmly under control. Arnaut picked his way through the mangled surroundings and looked up. The sniper waved at him. Arnaut saluted.

“Our target has a seven minute start on us. Let’s hope he hasn’t gotten very far in that time,” Alater said, pulling himself up next to Arnaut.

“We’ll have to split up to find him, though, now,” Arnaut grumbled. He knew it wasn’t right, but he still felt most of this was Alater’s fault.

“Alater, Blackout...you’ll be heading with Kand that-a-way...” Arnaut said, indicating toward one of the doors that the guards had come out of.

“I’ll take Tnepres, D’har, and Jenn. Villman, split up your squad and we’ll move on.” They did so, and soon Arnaut and four of his squad mates were alone, trekking through the halls. It wasn’t long before they started to see signs of the guards regrouping. Three or four there, following one off in some direction. A few here trading ammo before moving up in the same direction. It was always the same direction. The direction that Arnaut had seen the governor run. North. They were gathering, and Arnaut suspected that another firefight was approaching all too soon.

Arnaut tried to reach Snipes, who was still supposed to be stationed outside, to see if he had noticed anything going on outside. Irritatingly, Snipes’ had turned off his comlink. Arnaut wondered what he was up to, and why, of all the times, he’d had to turn off his comlink.

[This message has been edited by Arnaut (edited February 18, 2008 7:17:24 PM)]

Jennabelle
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RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

February 18, 2008 9:09:30 AM

“Darn it, Snipes isn’t responding, what the hell could he be doing? Come on, the governor’s this way.” Jenny heard Arnaut mutter to himself and lastly to the squad as she followed him North. They had not gotten very far when a conversation arose that made Jenny quickly drag Arnaut down behind some cover by some crates, with the rest doing the same. She took a peek around the large room in which they had followed the governor to, which was the armory from the looks of it, with boxes stacked up at the two corner of the other side of the room and weapons and ammo and grenades stacked up orderly upon shelfs and within containers, twenty or so men guarding the place.

“What the hell was that for?” Arnaut asked impatiently with an angry eye at Jenny as she replyed softly, as she ducked down and looked intently at him:

    “Just listen, Sir.” Jenny peeked up while Arnaut did the same as they both saw a man in governor robes in the middle of the room shouting loudly and looking scared out of his wits, to an Colonel, judging by the attire:

    “Do you know what this’ll mean, Colonel? My god… the whole rebel Empire will be on alert for Grand Admiral Thrawn’s invasion and he will fail. I can’t cooperate in such a thing that could kill me if the Admiral knew; maybe that’s why he’s got these men after me, oh my god! And the nukes, the nukes in the two corner of the room, in the factory, oh god! You’re gonna use it to blow up the planet, when the Imperials could take it over and---” Jenny saw him silenced at the stare of the pulled out pistol from the Colonel, aiming at the space between the Colonel's eyes, just above the nose:

    “I knew from the start you would flinch, but I never knew you would stoop to second-guessing yourself at this time. Don't test my tempers again. These aren't the ones we're gonna use for the destruction of the planet, the ones in the factory are.” The colonel said menacingly and exlaimed at the governor's stupidity as he ordered to the men quickly, while taking his pistol off the governor, who exclaimed in understanding:

    “The armament is inside this room, and I’d advise all of you to holster your rifles and take out your melee weapons. Keep this room clear of all enemies and I’ll double your salary, feed you a good meal, provide your family with a great place, whatever you like, but don’t kill the girl.” He left with the governor, holstering his pistol.

    “Jenny, thanks, we just got some grim news, quite grim. ” Arnaut asked in a frank voice that seemed more calm.

    “Yep, that's the first person in the world who I don't know probably, and I've met lots of people during my journeys through the galaxy.” Jenny responded, chuckling as she holstered her DC-17 and took out her vibroblade, ready for this battle.

    “I bet. I’ll have to take a look at those warhead crates. You guys go on ahead and kill everyone in this armory, but don’t use rifles, use melee weapons, that Colonel might be right about there being nukes in those crates on the corner seeing as how there are tracing of markings on them, nuclear weapon markings that they tried to erase. I'll report to Vilman and Kand once you guys are done clearing the room.” Arnaut stated orderly as Jenny and the other Wraiths scattered upon the unsuspecting guards.

----------about 10 minutes later or so later-----------

    “Meet us up in the armory here, Vilman and Kand, no questions asked, I’ll send you the coordinates. We have some ghastly new details.” Jenny heard Arnaut report in the comlink after she had killed the last guard that was sneaking up behind Arnaut. She stared in awe at the crate that he opened, inside was armed warheads marked with the letters, KS 527.

    “This must someone within the Imperial to get this kind of stuff. It’s a prototype of the new warhead that the Imperials have cooked up, only my boyfriend Melke knows about this stuff. He’s got pulls inside the Intelligence since he’s a senior member there; he tried to warn me that it could be used against us, now it is. We’re in deep shit, there’s no doubt about that.” Jenny explained clearly as if she understood this.

    "You certainly got that right. By the way, Jenny, what do you think of this whole counterattack business by the rebels? We'll decide on what do with the nukes and that factory soon, but I want you opinion on the intel they have received.” Arnaut answered with shock at her knowledge and in question as he forwarded the coordinates to Kand and Vilman on his datapad.

"Well, We saw on Yuka the intel. The nukes connected with this planet, one of the targets that they markers, the xs. We can't go digging into the Imperial Intelligence cause that's what Melke tried to do, and that almost got him killed, the bastards.... It'll delay us from preventing their counterattack, you know it, Arnaut, don't you? That I'm right?

"But he's too proud to give up now, he's always one step ahead of his enemies, why should he, the grand commander, give up on such a vital invasion? He can over-predict his enemies, making them think they have won when he's one step ahead of them.Thrawn's the one guy in the Imperial who promotes his followers instead of killing them when they make mistakes, which lets his followers express their own ideas, give reasoned considerations, just like the other Imperial Generals. He studies his enemies' weakness through their art, too, he uses his vast knowledge and intelligence to over-predict them through their weakness, there are rumors that among the known art, General Grievous' mask."

"You certainly studied up on him Jenny, and formed conclusions of your own, we'll see what to do about this." Arnaut decided as Jenny thought carefully, kissing her medallion, We certainly will and may the Emperor find the strength to protect my brother.

OOC:: Hope this doesn't change anything, I edited the post

[This message has been edited by Jennabelle (edited February 20, 2008 7:34:14 AM)]
[This message has been edited by Jennabelle (edited February 21, 2008 8:18:01 AM)]

Arnaut
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RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

February 23, 2008 6:12:29 PM

OOC:: Let's get these posts going!

“Fake,” Lâche, Derrond’s main technician, announced confidently. He took his hand away from the supposed ‘nuke’ and turned back toward the squads.

“Bu...wha...how can you tell?” Arnaut spluttered out, mildly shocked at how quickly the man came to that conclusion. The crates upon crates of the things sure looked real.

“They’re hollow. All the way through.” Lâche tapped the shell, producing a long, dull ring. Arnaut’s team had been afraid to even touch the things, much less hit them. “It’s a common scare tactic,” Lâche continued, “The government makes a lot of the shells for them, privately ‘leaks’ videos of huge warehouses of these things, and keeps other governments in check. Very sneaky.”

“So you mean all the shots of the assembly factory were fake as well?” Tnepres stepped forward, holding one of the vids in his hand.

“No, no, those were real. There were actually things inside those nukes. Too hard to replicate that. More likely is that the governor of this place got his hands on those videos and was trying to scare off whoever was doing, by proving he had more. Which he doesn’t, but he sure tried to make it look like that.”

Arnaut walked over to one of the crates, and gently tapped it. Another ring emitted.

“They look so real though.”

“Most anyway.” Lâche opened a box further back in the room. The shells were the same as the ones in the first box, but they lacked insignias, numbers, or any distinguishing mark. And as Lâche’s fist once again affirmed, they were hollow all the way through.

“Alright, I’ve seen enough,” Villman growled, pushing his way to the front. “The longer we wait, the longer the governor has time to get away. And the longer the militia have to catch up.”

“Fine, fine. Lead on.”

The hallways surrounding the room were quiet. Their only company were the few, scattered guards whom they’d pounced upon just a few minutes prior. The governor they had seen had turned out to be a decoy, but before dying, had been...persuaded to tell them where the real one was headed. The roof of the palace was actually a small hangar, carrying just one ship. And that ship was currently waiting for the governor. The governor was ahead of them, and gaining, knew the lay of the palace better, and had more men. The only advantage the Imperials had was that Derrond’s sniper was already on the roof. Last reports from him stated something around thirty dead, from a few well hidden explosives, and quite a few more as the sniper forced them out of the two collapsed hallways into the only one left connected to the roof. Still no word from Snipes, but Arnaut was pretty sure he was having a part in the battle as well.

They first started running into militia three floors down from the roof. Just a few, here and there, surprised by the sudden enemy at their backs, but then they started to grow in numbers, and in firepower. By two floors down, the Wraiths and Derronds had reached a stalemate.

Arnaut and the Wraiths huddled around the corner as the E-11 tore the hallway to shreds. They hadn’t lost anyone yet, but it was just a matter of time.

“Villman, silence that blasted cannon, I need a clear shot!” Villman, across the hallway, ducking with his squad behind the other corner, yelled some expletive but started to move. Three grenades were flung around the corner into the hall, and very quickly, the fire ceased.

“Shoot ‘em up!” Kanderin popped out, carrying the small, if such a term could be used to describe any heavy weapon, cannon that they’d brought along. He complied. The crew at the end of the hall, still dazed from the trio of blasts, were slaughtered under the fire. Derrond members popped out of cover and began systematically picking off survivors.

“Move up, clear the hall! Kand, get that cannon to the end of the hall and keep them running. Ten, Jenn, see if you can move the E-11.”

The E-11 was trashed, shrapnel accounting for most of the holes in it. The next hall cleared rather quickly, however, and the next one after that. The militia were on the move again, and the Wraiths soon found out why.

The staircase leading to the final level, below the roof, was immense. Nearly two hundred feet high, it stretched up and beyond the sight of even Alater, the tallest of the imperials. The militia, prone at the top of the stairs, had no trouble seeing the Imperial squads below at all, and opened fire just as the last member passed through the door. The two squads were forced to cover of the pillars, half-jutting out of the side of the wall, for cover. It wasn’t much, accommodating only two into its precious protection.

“Like they knew we were coming,” Arnaut mumbled, as he stood up straight next to Blackout.

“They probably did,” Blackout commented, peering around the round side of the corner. He ducked back as two shots shattered the smooth exterior of the pillar.

“Kand!” Arnaut called. He got a muffled reply from somewhere behind him. He used the comlink instead.

“Can you get a shot?”

“Negative, got us pretty well pinned down. And I don’t think any of us could lob a grenade all the way to the top.” Arnaut muttered a curse. He looked over at Blackout.

“Race to the top?” he suggested.

“What!? You’ll be shot before you even make it to the bottom of the stairs! You’d have to be crazy or...” Blackout stopped.

“Your loss.” Arnaut shrugged his shoulders and ran. The shots came down like rain, and Arnaut had to practically dance to avoid getting hit. He made it to the bottom of the stairs, to the middle, and then he jumped into cover behind a pillar. Fire followed him and destroyed the once quality marble. Arnaut was breathing hard, his legs were burning, but he felt good. He’d made it this far.

Now that most of the militia fire was concentrated on him, a few of the Wraiths and Derronds were trying to replicate Arnaut’s mad dash. More were firing up the length of the stairs, trying to force the militia into cover. They succeeded. The men started to fall back, and once again Arnaut jumped from the relative safety of cover to make the last sprint up the stairs. He made it to the top and tackled the closest militia to the ground. The knives, hidden in Arnaut’s bracers, sprung forth and spilled the guards blood all over the floor. Arnaut hefted his body up, and none too soon as shots began to come his way. Quite a few hit Arnaut’s gruesome, make-shift shield, but Arnaut was on the same level as them now. He had the same angle as them. Flipping his gun to rapid-fire, he squeezed half his clip into a wild spray that killed at least half the militia at the top of the stairs, most only just getting up off the ground. The other half were falling back to, as Arnaut now could see, a quite impenetrable maze of fortifications the guards had set up in the hall, a vast array of tables, chairs, and whatever other cover they had managed to find. Beyond that, the entrance to the roof, just a small door really. It was too far to reach, with too many troopers in between Arnaut and the door. Too many shots were coming now, and Arnaut was forced back into cover again.

With no fire on them anymore, Derrond and Wraith made it to the top of the staircase, only to be forced prone by the guards at the end of the hall.

“There’s no way we can break that,” Kanderin announced, as two E-11s raked the top of the stairs. If anyone so much as tried to get above the lip of the staircase, they’d be cut down. Arnaut had been lucky that the guards had been so unwilling to shoot through their own to get him. Now he was stranded in the hallway, as cut off from his squad as they were from him.

“Too many of them! I’m falling back!” The reply was garbled, yelled into the comlink frantically, but Arnaut recognized the voice. It was the sniper. Arnaut had almost forgotten about him in the firefight, but now Arnaut realized that he must’ve been holding them off the entire time the two squads made their way to the governor. Arnaut looked out the nearest window, which occupied the space in between pillars on the far wall, and could see where the sniper was falling back to. It was a small tower on the roof, just next to the governor’s ship, which provided an adequate view of the door. Not very good, but enough.

“Move it quickly, we’ll give you time!” Arnaut replied. At his signal, grenades were launched into the air, landing in the midst of the fortifications. Arnaut peeked out, sprayed the area with what was left of his clip, and ducked back as the militia resumed fire on the Imperial squads. It would have to be enough.

Arnaut looked out the window, just enough to see the sniper precariously making his way across edge of the palace. Come on, come on, Arnaut thought, watching the man run. He almost made it. Halway across, fire lanced out and hit him in the back. He keeled forward, was hit again in the back, and tumbled off the building, just a dark shape falling out of view. Arnaut closed his eyes, and silently cursed. Down the hall, the militia were cheering, their work of the last thirty minutes complete.

Across the hall, the governor walked triumphantly out the door, stepping onto the roof for the first time. He congratulated the two soldiers who had made the kill quickly, who beamed as if he’d just told them that they were guaranteed to live forever, and then sent them on their way to help the counter push against the two squads still in the palace. Apart from himself and his two body guards, he was quite alone on the roof, all the militia preoccupied inside. But that didn’t matter. He could see his ship, just a ways off, and made toward it, his bodyguards following behind. He would recover from this. He would find whoever hired the assassins, and he would destroy them utterly, and he would—shots flew down among him and his guards. One was dropped instantly, hit in the back of the head, and the other managed to turn before taking two in the chest. The governor spun around, completely surprised and unarmed.

“Hello there, beautiful,” Snipes said cheerily and unloaded the rest of his clip into the governor’s face.

Back in the hallway, the guards were falling back. The few who had witnessed the governor’s death through the windows spread the news quickly, and morale died just as speedily. They fled, and were caught between Snipes guns on the roof, and the rest of the Wraith’s and Derrond’s from behind. The few still struggling to fight were cut down easily, and soon only Imperials were left alive in the halls.

“Form up. Gather anything you need; weapons, armor, ammo. Then we’re moving out,” Arnaut said, standing in the middle of the Imperials.

“What about Fen,” someone asked. Arnaut assumed that was the sniper. “We should...we should see if he’s alive! Or at least recover his body...”

“You know well enough that that was a sheer drop. There won’t be much of a body left to recover. Either way, soon enough the remaining militia in the building and city will find out about this, and I don’t intend to be around when they get here.”

Villman pulled Arnaut aside.

“Now look here. That’s my trooper you’re talking about!” Villman whispered, out of earshot of the two squads.

“And what about them,” Arnaut whispered back, just as fiercely. “Are they not your troopers too? Would you sacrifice them just to give another, already dead, a good burial .We have to leave, and we have to leave now.”

Villman might’ve been headstrong, but he knew good sense when he saw it. He nodded reluctantly, and started to hand out orders.

* * *

“Credits!” Arnaut spat, opening the paper letter he’d gotten. “And condolences! For all we did, for the man we lost, that’s it. We don’t even get to meet them in person!” Villman was equally angry.

“If they weren’t Imperial, I swear...the nerve of it all.”

“And the transfers! Ridiculous.” Snipes was being transferred to leadership of a squad, and was to leave at “nearest convenience” which was a fancy way of saying at that instant. Alater was similarly transferred, leaving the Wraiths two short. Alater’s barabel counterpart was gone from Derrond, and so was the tech Lâche. Reinforcements weren’t supposed to arrive until the next day. They had to be out there now! The factory would not wait for them, the war would not wait for them. They didn’t have a day, an hour, a minute to spare! All of it was so frustrating, he wanted to scream!

“Nothing to do but wait, now, I guess,” he said instead. Villman nodded. If only waiting were easier done than said.

OOC:: New members, there is your openeing. We will move onto the factory by Monday, possibly Tuesday. You have until then to post or we'll just assume you've been with us the entire time. The planet is a) acid-rainy all the time b) cloud-covered all the time and c) bleak (all the time). Feel free write about first impressions before meeting us, just a quick 'glimpse' of the world.

Hartigan
ComNet Novice

[VE-ARMY] Private First Class

Post Number: 30
Total Posts: 60
Joined: Feb 2008
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

March 3, 2008 11:28:01 PM

"Landing in five," The pilot announced.

Hart watched all the crew from where he sat, perched atop one of the computer housings at the back of the bridge. He had no purpose in this part of the ship's activities. If something broke, then he'd have to try fixing it. But, landing? It was not his field, he was trained to kill and do the hard work, its the reason for his transfer in wraith squad.

This is the first time he saw such a planet with such a Climate, although the temperature was not suppose to be good on this planet according to information given by his squad leader Arnaut.He was told to meet with is team on the planet.

"Hart," the Pilot bellowed. "Get down to storage, and make sure we're ready to offload." He looked over in Hart's direction. "And, don't you get yourself in trouble your squad leader seems to be waiting for you there."

Hart exit gracefully the ship and saluted. "Private first class Hartigan reporting in, i was transfer here from the academy, waiting for orders sir," he said.

TRP/PFC Hartigan/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE
Imperial Network Star Wars Image

-=Wraith PRIDE=-
~WildcardPlatoon~

[This message has been edited by Hartigan (edited March 3, 2008 11:30:49 PM)]

Jennabelle
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Lance Corporal

Post Number: 600
Total Posts: 814
Joined: May 2005
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

March 7, 2008 9:11:42 AM

Before Hartigan arrived

Melia started a conversation with Jenny, while she and the others waited for the recurits, cleaning up her favorite sword, the F'ar:

"Jenny, who are you?" Jenny heard an straight-up voice, which she could only find in... Odd, why does she seem to know who I am, yet ask me that question. Jenny considered as she answered quickly:

"That's not the first person who's asked me that question. I'm a loyal imperial soldier who's life has been messed up."

"But who are you really?" Jenny thought from her voice Melia sounded serious so she decided to lay it out:

"I've been through a lot, I've even gotten through a rankor, killed it after it was going to swallow my enemy Ella. But as I found out, she didn't die."

"You left her to rot though, according to Freje."

"Melia, there was no way to know if she was alive, the crowd overtook the prize and I never saw her or it after that, but I have her prized bracelet with me, the one that always brings her luck."

"So, you're human even when you kill, Jenny. You feel sad and piteous for her, don't you?"

"Such a great women, smart, sexy. She deserved that brute of a boyfriend, Mia, but even though she'd be great for the Empire, she was born in the Republic."

"Too bad, Jenny, too bad." Jenny started practicing with her sword in a corner by herself where she can see Kand talking to someone on the comlink. I wonder if the new recurit arrived, maybe I should tell Kand about Melia. Jenny considered once again as she saw Kand come over as if he had read her thoughts.

OOC:: Not too much, but just trying to kind of move the story a little bit

[This message has been edited by Jennabelle (edited March 8, 2008 6:23:19 AM)]
[This message has been edited by Jennabelle (edited March 8, 2008 7:32:36 AM)]

Jennabelle
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Lance Corporal

Post Number: 601
Total Posts: 814
Joined: May 2005
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

March 8, 2008 7:23:39 AM

OOC:: Sorry about the double post but this is my second post for the AWOL check

"Jenny, you seem to have something on your mind, your vibroblade techniques are quite violent because of it, I know because you have killed men with that blade and the techniques that you used to do it were the same as they are now. How are you? I just got off the phone with Arnaut, he's got a new mate coming, Private Hartigan, quite orderly and respectable, the chap is." Kand said in kind of a happy mood.

"Well, someone's happy. Kand, Melia's not the girl you think she is, the real Melia Logana is dead. I took her away from that cruel battle with Ella, her clothes were ripped into pieces from the sword slash, and she was gashing with a heavy chest wound, which she knew to be the coup de grace of her." She led Kand to a secluded room in the place where they were hauled up in, closed and tightened to door from eavesdropping, continued in a more silent voice:

"This must keep between you and me, Kand, until the rest of the mission. Entre nous, got it?---Kand nodded--- good. Now, Melia was taken to her sister, twin sister, who took the blow very seriously and wanted to hunt the killer down, she even was led to believe that I killed her by Ella. I heard the entire conversation between them, and that's why I challenged Ella to fight with a rankor, to make it clear to Mia that Ella was a bitch and smart bitch at that."

"Tall order for you, though." Kand commented quietly as Jenny nodded and responded:

"Quite, but I managed to overpower the beast. A whole crowd was watching and they gasped as I predicted, for Ella had waited for me to finish the beast so that she can kill me. But before she even overtook me, for my sword got stuck in the beast's head, it quickly swoop up and swallowed her whole, at least that's what I thought happened."

"So Mia understood what really happened as you told it to the crowd, because you knew she would be there. But Ella resurfaced later in Euceron, right? I heard about the whole bomb thing from up top. The commander really respects your loyalty." Jenny chuckled and that and replyed pleasantly:

"I bet he does. You're right, man, Kand, you're quite the resourceful guy, you managed to figure that out. You're correct and Ella did resurface. You remember Yuka, Kand? When I carried that Captain Nakin to the elevator. He gave me the other half of the disc which I couldn't get from the techinicans who I looked for to find the truth to my family and other imperial family's murder, in a hidden vault, but not before he was killed by Ella, who was informed by Mia. She still wasn't convinced of Ella killing her twin sister when she had such a good relationship with her."

"But then she spoke the words out of her own mouth, the bitch, and I heard everything, it's lucky she escaped from that dungeon of a vault. When you walked away, Jenny, I cut Ella out from the rankor's stomach before the stomach acids started killing her, and I healed the rest well, you did good, but not good enough. Let's get out of this shade, shall we? Entre nous, got it?" Mia chuckled as she led them out of the vault, Kand still reeling from this twist.

Well, Well, Well, I've finally got her convinced. Jenny chuckled as well as she nodded to Mia in understanding as they walked out of the secluded room.

Kanderin Draken
ComNet Member

[VE-ARMY] Sergeant
[VE-VEEC] Journalist

Post Number: 826
Total Posts: 1849
Joined: Mar 2006
Status: Offline

RE: Through the Scope (Wraith)

March 20, 2008 1:07:57 PM

The factory illuminated the sky, seemingly stealing any light that permeated the clouds from the area around it and twisting it into something un-nerving.

"Why cant these places ever be friendly" Jennabelle sighed.

"Try leaving a complaint form on the desk as leave" Kanderin winked, waving his hand for the squad to follow him down an alley to their right. The squads gathered around Arnaut and Villman, as apiece of chalk emerged from Villmans pocket and hastily started drawing a map of the complex. The inside was missing, unsurprising considering they hadn't seen it yet.

"Alright guys. my squad will head around the back and break into one of the fire escape doors, and cause a diversion large enough to cover Wraith. We're assuming the way to the important stuff will be easier to find through the front door, so hopefully Wraith can manage that without screwing anything up. However, we'll cover the back half of the plant just in case its there. Not much time to waste."

"Does screwing up include putting a round in you?" A voice from the Wraith side of the crowd called.

"Quiet back there" Kanderin shouted back sternly. Even though admittedly, he quite liked the idea.

"Alright Villman, we'll see if we can put a halt on their operations then we'll hightail it out of there and hope everything blows over" Arnaut pointed at various places on the map, but never actually made clear what he was pointing at it for.

"You make it sound simple" Jennabelle sighed.

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

The ASL of Derrond squad dropped silently over the back wall of the perimeter, blaster raised to put a hole into any soldiers that came too close. Or scientists, for that matter. However it was barren, so he tapped the wall to signal the rest of the squad to scramble over.

"Good work" Villman grunted, pushing the bar on one of the fire doors and wandering inside, shortly followed by the rest of the squad.

On the other side of the facility, Kanderin and Jennabelle slid into the wall on either side of the main entrance doors simultaneously. The rest of the squad took up positions a few metres back, covering the entrance with their weapons.

"Ok, all clear" Villman's voice crackled over the radio.

Kanderin raised a hand, signalling Tnepres and Hartigan to find their way over to him. His other hand, as soon as they arrived, lifted three fingers. At set intervals, a finger would drop, until his fingers clenched and all hell broke loose. Himself and Jennabelle stood up simultaneously, two boots kicking both doors open simultaneously. Behind them, Tnepres and Hartigan threw a pair of smoke grenades into opposite corners of the room. By the time the contents began to dissipate through the air conditioning system, all four wraiths had found their way into the entrance, every square inch of it covered by a pair of eyes.

"All clear" Kanderin said, pressing the button on his comlink. The four Wraiths met in the middle of the room, before long accompanied by the rest of the squad.

"Good work, all four of you" Arnaut nodded.

"Thankyou, but don't you think its strange there's no one here?" Tnepres asked.

"I agree, I expected at least some level of resistance no matter how big Villman's ambush." Arnaut nodded again, biting his lip "Just keep your heads on. Lets find our way to the labs and do what we need to do. This place gives me the creeps"

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