After a second of thought Renji stepped forward."I will stay. I need to tend to his wounds anyway."

"All right then," Lucky said. "Make sure to watch the cameras and tend to his knee as well."

"Yes ma'am." he replied. He watched the others leave and then he went over to the guard and took out his med-kit. "So your an old friend of Lucky's?"

"Yes," he replied. "I knew her before she left."

"I see." He looked around the room for something to use to keep the leg firm. He eventually found a few pieces of wood from crates over in the corner. He walked back over to his kit and took out a couple of elastic bandages and placed the pieces of wood against his knee and wrapped the bandages around it to keep it in place. He then took out a few pain killers and handed them to the guard. "Take those. They will help reduce the pain that your feeling."

"Thanks," he swallowed the pills. "Thanks for cleaning me up."

"No problem as long as your on our side then I will fix you up." He suddenly looked over to the monitors. "Shit."

He turned on his comlink and tuned in to his squads channel. "Lucky do not move, there is a squad of guards coming from each corner in front of you guys. Turn in to the room next to you."

"Thanks Renji," she responded. He watched as his squad mates ducked into the room. He saw the guards pass by.

"It is fine they left." He watched his squad continue on feeling helpless.

Lucky looked at the coordinates Kantar had given her. It was halfway through the palace. They could get there in no time, if there were no terrorists in the same building that is.

"Renji, follow us with the cameras. I'm sending you the coordinates Kantar gave me so you can stay ahead of us wit hthe cameras."

"Copy that"

She sent him the coordinates and within seconds, his reply came over the comm.

"Got it. Good luck, guys."

They walked silently along many hallways, Lucky taking her time to look around. Remembering the place.

"I had good times here."

"I bet you did."

Kantar was walking right beside her. They were shoulder to shoulder, marching like everything was routine.

"Well then ' let's go meet your friend, shall we?"

"Go ahead, you'll be able to find anything you need, and if you cant, then you shouldn't eve be here," Kantar said with a smile.

Ror looked around in amazement and gasped as he ran his fingers over a huge blaster on a tri-pod, "Kantar where did you get all this stuff, I mean I haven't even seen half this stuff before in my life!"

Kantar laughed, "Ror now that is a secret, so just take what you like."

Ror watched as everyone went to different parts of the room and browsed for weapons that pleased them. Ror went over to the collection of daggers and other small blades. He found a rather flat vibro dagger and grabbed a wrist holster from the wall next to it. He slid it on his right arm and attached the blade to the underside of his arm, with the blade pointing towards his elbow. It would fit under his cloth without causing a bulge to give it away.

Ror walked over to the grenade boxes and looked for C-22s. He found them under flashbangs and pulled out 2 more C-22s. This gave him a total of 4 of them, more then he would probably need. As he put the flashbangs back in place he grabbed 2 of them. He knew this could end in an hostage situation so they would probably come in handy. He found a bandoleer pile next to the boxes and grabbed one.

His next stop was at the light body army closets and looked through them, "Hey Kantar got any armor that would fit me?"

"Uhhh Ithorian hmmmm.... yeah I might have a thing or two that will fit you."

Ror looked for a minute before finding a stealth suit that would fit him. He pulled off his council man's cloths and put it on. He put his bandoleer on and strapped the grenades on. He put his council man's cloths back on and realised he left his duffel bag with his rifle in it on the shuttle. Oh great! That had my blaster in it! He grabbed an E-11 marksmen and a D-10 Blaster pistol. Well isn't this convenient?

He put the pistol in a holster and put it on his leg under his outer cloths. He knew there wouldn't be a way to hide the rifle so slung it across his back. Lastly, he put his comlink on the inside of his collar.

He went to the front of the room and waited for everyone else to get down with their weapon selection.

Ror nodded, and snickered to himself, Didn't think you would get THAT mad. He walked into the hallway at a slow speed. He had thrown his rifle back down since he was going to scout for them all. It would blow his cover right away to be carrying a rifle so he just had to rely on his dagger and pistol for now.

Ror saw no one else was in the hallway, It is only a few hours before the meeting, we have to hurry.  He started down the hallway heading towards the throne room, figuring the rescuing king was the most important goal they had. The terrorists could be dealt with once he was safe.

Ror saw two guards outside the door that lead to the private part of the palace. "I am gonna have to figure a way past them, god why does the throne room have to be through there!" he said to himself as he watched the guards from behind the corner of the hallway connecting to the entrance.

Ror thought about killing them but didn't know if they were guards or terrorists. There isn't another way into there without going around the whole fricken palace and there is probably guards there too. He sighed and walked out towards them.

"Hey stop right there, who are you?" one of the guards shouted shouldering his rifle.

"Oh me, I am here for the meeting, I was told to go through this entrance." Ror lied with a great poker face on. And who says being good at poker isn't a handy skill!

"Well uhhh okay let me see your pass then sir," the guard said lowering his weapon.

Ror smiled as he pulled out his data pad, "It is on a message right here!" he pointed to the center of the data pad. The guard looked down at it and was dumbstruck when he saw a blank screen.

"Huh?" he asked about to look up. Before he could Ror slammed and fist down onto the back of his head knocking him out cold. The other guard scrambled back and fumbled with his weapon.

"Nu uh" Ror laughed as he kicked him in the gut and watched the guard fall to his knees. Ror pulled his jacket back and saw a blank neck. "Well your not a terrorist so your lucky," Ror said as he punched the guard straight across the face, knocking him out.

"Ror, Ror you there!" he heard Lucky call into his com.

"Yes Lucky, I got us a way into the private section of the palace as well, I'm sending you the coordinates right now" Ror responded typing the coordinates into his data pad.

Kantar took up the rear of the Squad, and while doing so, he oticed the look Lucky gave his "friend".

"I know that look Lucky, don't worry, that idiot isn't either smart or stupid enough to talk to anyone. He knows his place." Kantar said.

"Let's Hope so Trooper, something about him gives me a bad feeling."

"Don't worry, everyone I know feels the same way, why do you think the Hutts wanted to kill him."

"If you think so Kantar."

"..."

"What is it Kantar?"

"We're being followed. Four, definenly not guards, but their movements are too tactical to be just Mercs. We should post up and  ambush, shoot to incapacitate, i want to know who these guys are."

"You heard Kantar people", Lucky said," Ambush Positions!"

OOC:

Lucky told me to go ahead and get in on this so here I am.

Gimp knew he would be in trouble.

Hours earlier, in the hanger, Gimp had enjoyed a tasty sandwich made by Wicket. That had apparently been a bad idea. He didn't know if the sandwich had done it or if he was already doomed to drastic weight loss. Within minutes of eating, Gimp knew from the very core of his being that he needed to get to a bathroom immediately. Even after his body was finished with it's violent purge of excrement, Gimp could not move. He sat weak on the toilet for what felt like hours, sure that he would die a most humiliating death there. By the time he had regained enough strength to stumble out of the latrine he saw his squad was gone.

Damn.
You can say that again.
Damn.

Deciding that his situation might warrant a change of plans, he went back to the barracks and made a quick change of equipment. He made it back to the hanger just in time to catch the next shuttle. It would be some time before he would be able to catch up to his squad.



Gimp walked toward the palace in the robes of a councilman. Hidden beneath was his shadowsuit, set of adhesion discs, Beil hatchett, D'skar dagger, and a eight gauge shotgun. His Pac-20 wrist com was set to silent, hidden beneath an extra layer of shadowsilk. He had purchased an extra shadowsuit and used the material to make "shadow pockets" for many of his weapons. He felt himself quite clever.

Gimp made his way into the palace and found a spot where he was alone. He snatched off the council garb and tossed it behind a large potted plant. Like any palace, this one had very high ceilings. He used his four adhesion pads and quickly, silently, made his way up to the ceiling. Slowly, he crawled across the ceiling to a more populated area. He was very nervous, not because he thought he would be seen, but because if he was he would jeopardize the whole mission. Gimp needn't have been worried though, hardly anyone below him bothered to look around as they went about their business, much less look up.

Gimp crawled around some more until his wrist com started to vibrate softly. He moved from the ceiling to the top of a wall in a corner, so that he was basically sitting against the wall high above the rest of the people in the hall. He exposed the Pac-20 and read a message from Renji: Watch the guards. They are not all as they appear. You will see soon. Gimp contemplated this message as he went back to the ceiling and wandered the halls. He traversed the halls aimlessly for quite some time. He didn't contact his squad because he wanted to be able to turn the tide in the event anything happened. He also was a sneaky person by nature and didn't consider the possibility that his squad may be better off with him actively involved in the mission.

Eventually, Gimp saw Lucky, Kantar, and Ror passing beneath him. Finally having something to do, he kept pace with his squad mates. Kantar led the group to a dead end and started knocking on the wall. Gimp was quite surprised when Kantar made the wall slide open. Gimp went to the edge of where the sliding wall had opened and looked around. Kantar spoke with a Rodian who appeared to be some sort of guard. The Rodian fumbled around under his desk and another door opened. As the lights came on and the squad started to enter, Gimp could see what looked like an armory. He moved his head back as the wall closed and waited for his squad to return.

Ror was the first one out and his tentative movements made it clear he was the point man. Gimp watched as the Ithorian contemplated what to do when he came upon the guards. He was pleased to see how quickly Ror gained composure and controlled hte situation when the guards approached him.

He may be a worthwhile squad mate after all.
You are too trusting.
He's our squad mate, we should trust him.
Whatever.

The squad started to move again, this time with Kantar bringing up the rear. They did not make it far before Kantar sounded the ambush alarm and Lucky whipped the squad into shape. Almost instantly the squad was positioned around a corner, a snake in the grass waiting to strike.

We may as well let the squad know we're here.
You're right. No time like the present.

Gimp went around the corner far enough away so that his squad wouldn't leap out and shoot him along with the enemies. The giants had no idea only one of them would survive the next minute. They made their way past Gimp in a sort of check-mark formation. One man was in front, another in back, and two in the middle. Gimp knew these very large men would be no match for his speed and the surprise of his attack. He smiled to himself as the last of the giants went by, their fate sealed.

Gimp leaped off of the wall to a spot behind the last victim. He already knew what he was going to do, and he knew it would go down as one of his favorite attacks. He seemed to hang in the air forever, sailing towards an oblivious target. He pulled his hatchet out and wound up for the strike. His body flew through the air like a backward letter C, until, with all the strength he could muster, he swung the weapon over his head and yanked his knees toward his chest. The hatchet made an amazing noise as it split into the skull of the giant. Gimp held on and used his momentum to swing his body forward. The giant lurched backwards to the ground as Gimp flew by, the hatchet still stuck in the large man's head.

His momentum sent Gimp sailing past the nearest enemy and toward the leader of the pack, who had turned his head to see what the noise was he had heard. Gimp leaned his body to the side and got ready to catch the leader by his neck. The man never saw him coming. Gimp wrapped his right arm under the man's neck as he prepared his feet to land on the wall. As soon as his first foot hit the wall Gimp tightened his grip on the man's head. Now nearly running along the wall, Gimp used the strength from his legs and wrenched his body as hard as he could while he jumped off the wall. The thick neck of the enemy was no match for the amount of force applied to it. It snapped in three places as his body was launched into the air, spinning like a corkscrew.

It must have been a sight to see. The man in the back had a stunned look on his face, his mouth falling wide open. Gimp was still in the air and though he wasn't yet looking at the man, he knew he was the next target. Without thought Gimp's hand unsheathed his D'skar dagger. Gimp smiled again when he looked at his target, arm invouluntarily in motion to throw the blade. He let go of the dagger and then landed almost immediately after. The knife flew through the air and plunged deep into the man's throat, right in his open mouth. Gimp had yet to take a step when he switched his focus and engaged the last enemy in hand to hand combat. Gimp could see defeat in the man's eyes as the noise of a choking, blood gurgling man filled the empty hallway. Gimp had fun attacking every punch the man tried to hit him with. Feeling this needed to end, Gimp used his metal leg in a vicious kick to the large man's knee. He started to let out a scream and was almost instantly silenced by a brutal elbow to the side of the head. The dazed look that had developed on his face quickly vanished when Gimp cocked the pump of his eight gauge shotgun.

The man lay frozen as he looked down the large barrel. The sickening noise of the man with the dagger in his mouth became absolutely disgusting when he was able to dislodge the blade. Blood splattered all over the floor as the man unwittingly hastened his own demise. He crawled around for a short moment before he collapsed into a pool of blood. Gimp heard the footsteps of his squad coming and kept his new prisoner under strict security.

Ror was leaning against the wall when he saw his squad mates walking up, Ror saw that there was a man with them, he was wearing the same uniform that the others were wearing and looked familiar like Ror had seen him somewhere before, "Eh Mame, Wicket, the rest of you what took you so long?" Ror asked saluting Lucky as a formality.

"Don't be so formal Ror and to answer your question we were ambushed by a couple of terrorist in the hallway," Lucky paused for a second before starting up again, "Oh yeah Ror this is Gimp, he is in our squad but he missed the shuttle and had to catch up with us.," she pointed to the new man that was in the group.

"Hi there Gimp, so Lucky am I still scouting for us?" Ror asked as he nodded towards the new man in the group.

"Yes Ror take up a forward position and warn of us of EVERYONE in the hallway, from here on it get more dangerous. We will give you about a minute's head start," Lucky said right after Ror finished in a hurry.

Ror quickly nodded to them and went through the door and started down the hallway. The first leg of it was empty as most people were probably heading towards the meeting that was about to start. Ror yawned as he checked in over his com link, "Ahhh Lucky," he said slowly as he finished his yawn, "Nothing so far, its an empty hallway so far, will report back in in two minutes."

When the transmission was sent the ground next to Ror's feet exploded and the tiling there was sent flying in all directions, Ror covered his face and ducked down behind a potted plant to that was to his left. Shit shit shit this is not good, what the hell is shooting at me? God I can't see anything in the derby. The shots kept coming and the hallway around him exploded as the paneling and tiling was shot off the ground and wall. After a good thirty seconds or so of firing the gun stopped and Ror could hear it being reloaded. Using this as his chance Ror shot up and drew his pistol and unloaded a half of a clip at the direction he THOUGHT the gun was in. Suddenly the gun started up again and Ror was forced back down behind the potted plant. He grabbed his com and switched it on as fast as he could, "Lucky, come in Lucky there is an ambush at my position, I repeat an ambush at my position. It is some type of heavy gun and is pinning me down. I do not, I repeat I do not know how many or where they are over. At the moment I am holding out but I don't know how much more this pot can take before it gets through,"

Ror nodded and blushed a little feeling like he was being scolded for coming across the turret, "Yeah sure, sorry about that Lucky.'

Lucky put up a faint reassuring smile and said, "No problem Ror just looked out for it next time so it doesn't pinn you down. Now take lead again, the king is only in the next hallway or so it should only be a minute."

Ror nodded once again and started down the hallway a head of the rest and turned to the left towards the kings chamber. The hall way only had one door in it and that was to the kings chamber where five guards stood out, two with E-webs and three with E-11 blasters. Ror pressed up against the wall and peered around the corner and saw that guards standing there and signaled for the rest of the squad to come. "What is is Ror? Another turret?" Lucky asked in a whisper as she approached.

"Sorta, it's five guards, two with turrets, the rest with blasters" Ror said as he grabbed his pistol and made sure he had over half a clip. Lucky and Gimp also grabbed their guns and readied them.

"Wait why are you grabbing weapons?" Wicket asked looking around as the rest of the squad picked theirs up right after the three.

"Come one Wicket we don't know if they are terrorist or the real guards we have to be prepared," Lucky said as she switched places with Ror and peered around the corner. She sighed after a second of staring at the closest guard. There were tattoos one their necks symbolizing that they were part of the terrorist group. "Well lock and load we got terrorist to kill," Lucky said as she formulated a plan in her mind. "Ror you got frags right?" she asked, Ror grabbed his vest under his council men cloths and quickly nodded. "Good, good, now the Ror will tost two of those frags into the hallway, it doesn't matter where. Then as soon as he does me, Wicket, Gimp and Renji will wait for the explosion and follow in as soon as it goes off. The rest of you are going to provide cover fire as we advance and we will take care of the rest. Any questions?"

"Yes actually," Wicket called out, almost to loudly, "do I have to go in with the you Lucky?"

"Yes Wicket, you have more combat experience then most of the rest." Lucky said as Ror threw off his disguise and unhooked two grenades and took a breathe and mentally prepared himself for the fight.

Lucky smiled at the look on Wicket's face as Aeos tossed him the grapple gun. at first, he looked surprised, then confused and then a little angry.

"Me? a girl?"

Sensing his temper rising just a little , Lucky rushed in to intervene.

"Aeos is just trying to loosen us up a little. Our work here is almost over, Wicket. just get up there first since you're the shortest."

Mumbling something she could not distinguish, she watched Wicket aim the grapple gun at the grill on the vent shaft then shoot. a hook and line shot straight out and caught in one of the fissures in the grid. Wicket pulled gently and the grid came loose , but thankfully did not fall to the ground. breathing a sigh of relief, Lucky urged Wicket to egt up there. begrudgingly, he jumped up and was able to grasp the grid to haul himself up. It really wasn't high, though he was quite short so more effort was required from him.

Peeking out from inside the shaft , Wicket called softly to Aeos "Did Doc really say hi?"

"No. Now shut up and move so we can get up there!" aeos hissed softly at him. he moved away from the opening in the ceiling and Lucky made her squad go up in turn. she would go up second last. The two women watched the men hop up and disappear and soon, it was her turn. She turned her head towards Aeos and gave a short nod before climbing up. She was unable to move mcuh however, everyone was crowding the small space.

"Move up, you guys there's no room for teh rest of me and Aeos."

Wicket moved along, followed by the rest of teh squad and soon everyone was dispersed so that they all fit in the small space as comfortably as possible. Lucky moved along followed directly behind by Aeos. It was getting to be very warm in there, but they would be out very soon if everything went according to plan.

She moved to a grill that looked down over a room. It was definitely the throne room. They had accomplished one part of their objective. Now came the part where the king had to come out of there alive.

She took out a scope and took a cartridge of sleeping darts out. She slid the muzzle through the cracks and aimed at the guards heads. There were only six in the room wit hthe king which she found surprising. She thought there would have been more.

As she was taking aim, she sensed aeos doing gestures behind her and heard weapons being passed around. They would take them by surprise. The unspoken plan was taht Lucky would take teh first shot and take down the first guard. When they were all alerted to enemies watching them, the terrorists would turn their attention to them by which time Paladin would be one step ahead of them. She heard soemone undo the first two of four screws that held the grid in place. Someone held on to the grid as Lucky took the shot. She had aimed at a guard just beside their position. He went down like a rock and before teh otehrs had the chance to turn towards them and fire, tehy were already moving into action.

The person holding the grid let go, it slid down to form a door while simultaneously, Lucky jumped down and a few smoke bombs were thrown to mask her presence temporarily and throw the guards off for a few seconds.  The rest of teh squad jumped down and tehy all sprang into action. Using laser sightings, Aeos, Lucky , Gimp and Wicket shot the rest of the guards o sleep.

"Get the king to safety the rest of you!" shouted Lucky to the rest of her squad. When the smoke had dissipated, she saw every guard asleep and the king and most of her squad gone. They ahd left the door ajar.

Everyone hurried to tie the guards  and got them all tied up until the VE could have a cargo ship on the planet. Looking around to see f there were anymore surprises and seeing none, Aeos shouted "Move out, people!"

Everyone jogged to find all the otehr Paladins. A few minutes later, everyone was reunited in the cafeteria. lucky looked at her squad with pride. They were all surrounding the king, creating a sort of safety net. Looking at a wall clock, she realised taht tehy were about to be late for the meeting.

"We have to move people, form up around his Highness and let's get to the meeting hall on the double!"

"Yes, ma'am!" shouted her squad members. aeos looked at her and gave her a nod of approval before they both followed behind everyone. The journey to the meeting hall was uneventful and a few hours later, they found themselves standing in the king's private chambers.

"Thank you for saving my life and the ones of my servants and assuming a great job assuming security for the Conference. how may I repay you?"

"You don't owe us anything your Highness-" Lucky started speaking but Aeos cut her off.

"We were jsut doing our duty as soldiers of the Vast Empire."

"Nonsense!" the king shouted.

"I will have my finest soldiers ready to aid you in the future and will be in a stromger alliance with you all from now on."

Everyoen remained speechless for a good two minutes before Lucky bowed low, it was curtsy to do so when standing in front of the king on Tatooine. Everyone looked at her for a split second before copying her gestures.

"Stand up all of you." said the king a little exasperated.

"Celine, you have been a good civilian on this planet. we should talk more often, you olook great my dear."

"thank you" she simply replied , blushing a little. The awkward moment was broken by aeos's words.

"The cargo ship should be here soon. lwt's go grab the man we tied up."

"But why?" Wicket said,  in a whiny voice.

"Stop whining you or I'm making you scrub the floors of the barracks by hand" warned Lucky with a smile at the corner of her mouth.

Sighing, they all went back to the Throne room, grabbed the men and walked out of the palace to wait for the cargo ship which should be arriving shortly. As they marched to the rendezvous point, they heard a whirr of engines and saw the cargo ship in the sky.

"Finally!" shouted Wicket a little louder than necessary, both women gave him a second warning look  before turning away. They all boarded , put their unconscious prisoners in a seperate holding bay before going to their own bay and sittign on the floor. before dozing off, Lucky heard Aeos say "HC will be proud of us , of all of you"

"Agreed" she just managed to say as sleep overtook her.

OOC:

Feel free to write your ending posts everyone. I'll leave you guys a few days  and only ONE post per person. The next story should be up soon. Good work everyone, I'm proud of all of you.