Rukver looked up from his terminal; he was designing the latest simulation which would allow troops to spend days in training while being fed through tubes so that they do not run the risk of dying. This project has been a long time in the making as they have run into certain mental difficulties; troopers cannot seem to run for more than three or more days before collapsing from exhaustion and in a few isolated cases this has caused death. It was his job to design a program that would allow troopers to garner some kind of rest while inside the simulation that would allow them to feel refreshed in mind.

Seeing someone approach his glass door, Rukver quickly closed the newest sex simulation that was on his screen and opened the files containing his actual work. A knock on his door caused the Imperial technician to push the button that unlocked his door. Since one of the other techies went crazy and shot up the offices all techies with their own offices got a lock and blaster resistant windows. The man that walked in wore an army commander uniform and his rank denoted a gunnery sergeant.

Gunnery sergeant who’s also a commander? Things have changed since my kids served in the army. Running his hands through his salt and pepper hair before saluting the commander. Tipak, Rukver’s youngest had always told him that commanders always looked older, and it was apparent with this one.

“What can I do for you commander…?” He said hoping that his guest would fill in the blank.

“Rogueboy, I have need of your services.” The commander said as he pulled up the seat facing Rukver without asking.

“I am here to serve, sir.” Rukver said while internally moaning at all the distractions this man will cause him.

“Good, I have approximately forty troops who need to go through a radiation trooper armour simulation on a planet following these constraints.” Rogueboy said as he handed the technician a data cube.

Popping it into is terminal the holograph reader kicked in and showed the planet of Strak with its light gravity and short days. Rukver personally preferred light gravity everything seemed to require less energy unlike standard or heavy gravity.

“I’m guessing from these files there’s a plan in the making to form an offensive on Strak?’ Rukver asked, even though he wasn’t expecting an answer.

“Not allowed to discuss it, sorry.” The commander said flatly.

“I didn’t expect you to, it never hurts to ask. What weapons do you want me to load them with?” Rukver said as he opened a drawer filled with files, pulling out a folder he started searching through it.

The commander raised an eyebrow at the hard copies that Rukver kept. “It makes the likelihood of them being destroyed so much smaller.” He said as he pulled out a sheet quickly scanned the top and emitted a content sound. “This is the one; the squad will need to take a radioactive city while engaging New Republic troopers, well it’s really more of a town then a real city but it conveys what we want to accomplish. Is that satisfactory sir?”

The commander hesitated as he processed what the technician just said. “Yes that will do, I expect you and your team to personally run the simulation rooms. You will send a report to me every fifteen minutes detailing the squads’ progress, and allow them a more unrestricted load out short of their armour. Strak does not have radiation levels that would hamper or restrict weapon choice.” Commander Rogueboy said as he stood up to leave. “Oh and before I forget, Rukvek?” He continued.

“Yes sir?” Rukvek said as he groaned in his mind.

“I was instructed to let you know that you may find yourself rewarded should the training guarantee successful results while in mission, dare I say a boost in your budget to fund additional research?” The commander left the room leaving Rukvek with his thoughts.

Working throughout the night Rukvek had his team assembled and all the simulation rooms prepped when the first of the groups started arriving. They were meeting in an auditorium where the commander would give a speech detailing what was going on, than the teams would follow a technician to a room.

Rukvek hurried to the auditorium as he could hear the commander starting the announcement.

“You will each be assigned to a simulation room, where a member of our technical staff will load up a simulation that will hopefully gain you each some radiation trooper armour experience. I will be monitoring your progress and any I deem unsuitable will not be participating in the upcoming mission. You have your orders ladies and gentlemen I suggest you start filling them out.” As platoon commander Rogueboy left the podium the huge holoplate behind him broadcasted how the groups were to be split up.

The first group filed past Rukvek as a technical assistant carried a huge flimsiplast board with a huge black. “1.” Written on it.


OOC: The squad will start off in an urban radioactive environment, your objectives are to hold the city against an onslaught of NR troops while wearing rad trooper gear.

Verkur sat in the back or the auditorium as the meeting began. Rougeboy stood and told them what they were in for, and then left. Verk stood and looked at his datapad. Group One. He looked around and saw a group standing around a sign with a large '1' printed on its white surface. He easily moved over to the group, slipping between the other troopers in the room.

Once he reached the group he greeted his squad mates for their training, and they followed a techie to the assigned sim room. After reaching the sim room, the group chatted a bit more and then the techie told them what was to become of them now. They were each given a sim helmet.

Verk sighed as he slipped the sim helmet on over his head. Darkness, then light. Blinking, Verk put a hand in front of his face to block some of the light and looked around. Verkur and those with him stood in the middle of a street. Around them were destroyed buildings, smoke billowing from a few. In a few places he could see bodies. Verk shook his head.

"I never really liked these sim rooms. Always liked the real thing better."

Verk looked down at his weapon, a DC-15. What luck. He moved around a bit getting a feel for his rad-suit, and taking in more of his surroundings.

"There seems to be plenty of cover. But are we staying in this spot or moving else where?"

Verk reached to his side and grabbed his datapad and looked at the mission objectives.

Objectives: Hold and defend position from New Republic troopers.

"Seems easy enough. So, lets find some cover."

Verkur then moved to one of the dead bodies and inspected it. The body was burned, and he was glad he couldn't smell it. Standing he looked at the building in front of him and moved closer to it. Verk attached his rifle to his back and began climbing to get a better vantage point, and to see a bit more of where they were.

Once Verkur got a good spot to look from, he looked in all directions, looking for any signs of where they were. To the east he saw more destroyed buildings like the one he was in now. But to the south he saw a building that looked easily defend-able. He climbed back down and rejoined his team.

"Just more destroyed buildings in every direction. Though there looks to be a multileveled building to the south that looks promising. I think we should check it out."

Verk waited for any comments.

It was not a good day for stormtroopers, A town infested by radiation, the equipment that he had on him was somewhat uncomfortable but he got no other choice, Sergeant Aeos ask to scout the area with our microbinocular.

Hart started to advance cautiously toward the communications tower to find a proper shelter to start scouting while the other team would be working on the jamming system, he had no time to waste He had to find a good observation point for the element of surprise on the enemie, while walking toward a building near the tower he found a small shelter to begin the observation, the last thing he wanted was to be seen at this time, is purpose was to remain silent and hide otherwise the enemie could be aware of our strategy. The only thing in this city he saw for now was dust, debris and buildings no sign of activity for now.

He stand up and continued to walk with precautions in direction of the tower to have a more overall view of the area, Two hundred meters further away from his original position hart found a building with two floor and was about  four hundred meter from the tower, with a good view from the roof edge and which could serve as camouflage, the building seems empty and without apparent activity,''that would be the perfect place to see anyone get in vicinity'' he said to himself.

He entered the building and climbed the stairs to reach the roof, For two seconds he had trouble breathing but it passed immediately he said to himself that was probably the effect of wearing this gear in such unwanted condition.

while on the roof , He remained the lower possible the edge could possibly hide him. He resumed the microbinocular observation and began to zoom on the comm tower, he take his comlink put it on a secure line and make his scouting report ''PFC Hartigan to sargent Aeos no activity in front of the tower at the moment and i find the perfect place to cover your back and give you intel on enemy movement, PFC Hart off.'' He put away his comlink and continue the observation.

All the computer panels seemed to look alike to Kanderin. He'd never been one for technology like this. Give him a speeder, or indeed a rifle, and he could master it in half an hour. Give him a computer panel, and he'll just sit and stare at it for days before someone gives him an instruction manual.

Fortunately, some of the panels had labels burned into the metal they hinged on. Unfortunately, some bright spark had decided to give them all impossibly long and complicated names.

Would be so much easier just to blow this place to pieces

He smiled as he heard the idea escaping Snipes' mouth in his head. As infuriatingly unlucky as Wraith Squad managed to be ninety-nine percent of the time, he had to love how explosive all their missions seemed to become. Apart from when the explosion hurts someone, normally himself.

“Fifteen minutes”
“Shit…”  Kanderin cursed.  Aeos flushed in cold sweat, the ticking clock of her biological watch already going haywire.  It wasn’t off much help that she was only Combat Engineer in this room. An unqualified one at that mind you.
“Gimme the clamps,” she held out her hand to Kanderin who immediately place a clamp into her gloved hand.  She squeezed the object at it’s hinges, forcing it to gape wide open as she parted more wires from the desk box of the main frame system.  Another three minutes or so passed.  Throwing the tools down to the floor, she was finally finished.  She scooted away from underneath the large screen frame, and dashed to the keystrokes mechanisms for the Comm. systems.

“I’m no Comm.-Tech, so let’s hope this frakked thing works,” Aeos muttered almost feverously-
“Five min till ETA,” Verkur sounded slightly on edge, strain could be detected in his vocal voice patterns.
“Thanks, spread out, keep your rifles ready-you lot, move out” she pointed to the doors, while finger typing a string of command into the prompt-boxes.  Kanderin and Draco both seemed to feel protesting but Aeos only pointed her finger again.

“I’m almost done, once done here, the jamming will be in place, just need to load it into an satellite, that way the city will be covered and we can move out to the Government Hall,-“
“They will be heading there,” Kanderin muttered, his thoughts drifting quite vastly across the mission objectives.
“Exactly, now go-I’ll catch up”
Kanderin threw a quick salutes quickly followed by Draco before the two left through the door, leaving Aeos alone.

***
“Verkur, right flank dammit!”
More rapid shots flew through the air, rainbow coloring the poisonous air as different types of carbine models clashed in combat.  The jamming was a success, and right the NR was thrown into a chaotic state of disorder, worsened by Kanderin’s quick, smart yet basic thinking of tipping down the one or two commanders that were accompanying the platoon of enemy forces.

Once down, the two Squad leaders followed soon as well. With communications lost between each other, and enemy fire that coiled through the air from various unknown sources of directions, the favor of life was tipped hugely in Imperials’ favor.
“Where is Aeos?” Hartigan asked through clenched teeth as he took aim again.
Kanderin opened his mouth, stole a quick glance at the Comm.-Tower and grit his teeth.

“There, done,” she muttered to herself, falling back on her behind while gazing at the main frame with pride. For an unqualified Combat Engineer, and even less of a Comm. Tech, she didn’t do a bad job, the systems were jamming, and her squad was given more time.

Or…

She felt something tapping against her helmet.
“Kanderin I said-“
A hard hit reeled by the butt-end of a carbine sent her sprawling across the floor. Gasping for air and fighting against the black spots.
For a moment the two NR troopers only glanced at each other while making several gestures to one another in some form of militaristic sign-language.  Aeos turned her face to the floor, biting her lip as she tried to push herself upright again. Someone grabbed her by the strong metallic-like fabric tucked at her neck, sealing the helmet and her torso armor together.
She made hard connection with the keyboard of the main frame.  Shaking the attack of blinding star-away, she turned around and glanced at the trooper. He pointed to the main frame system, then back at her.

Fix it?

She only grinned insanely, before storming from her slightly crumpled position on the dashboard at the nearest trooper. The world hit black. Someone was pinching the fine, sensitive wiring at the back of her neck that kept her life-support alive.

***
“She’s awake! Thank the sith, she’s awake,”  Kanderin’s voice was a tad bit loud.
Aeos only groaned, and rolled her head to the side while trying to willing her eyes to open.
A flash of bright and the world around were starting to make more sense visually. Distorted images finally gave way to sharp outlines of her HUD that remained online while she was out cold along with the helmet visors of her group glancing at her in what she assumed, was worrying glances.
“Status report,” she meekly muttered and uttered another groan. She slowly started to push herself upright into a sitting position. Kanderin was quick at her side, supporting her back.
“Twenty-five rebels sent to hell. They figured that the Comm. Tower was jamming and blew it up, Verkur and Hartigan pulled you out just in time. They are currently scouting the east gate for more arrivals,”
“Element of surprise is through the roof?”
“Sure is, but we gave them a run,” Draco muttered cockily, grinning while he polished his carbine.
“Right, Kand-“She stuck a hand out to him, silently asking him to pull her in a standing position.
“Move out to the government building. Get on the roofs; hold the rebels off with snipers and grenade. Station Verkur and Draco at the front doors of the building, they’ll engage those who got past our shots, move out”

Kanderin quickly darted from one squad member to another, making sure that as many exits as possible were covered. They were, but it didn't give him too much confidence. They might just try and blow the whole thing to pieces like they did the comm tower. And you don't need a door for that.

"Aeos, we're going to have to keep them away from the tower, too close and we might be history"

Aeos nodded, with the sort of look stretched across her face that meant she had been thinking the same as Kanderin. "I wouldn't put it past these NR troops to start using suicide bombs, they're desperate enough with the hole we've blew in their command"

"I'll make sure everyone doesn't go trigger happy" Kanderin nodded " And i think it's better if I make myself busy on the roof. Hart has virtually no experience with a long range rifle. I might not be a trained sniper, but I'd like to think I can handle myself pretty well with one"

Aeos nodded, and Kanderin saluted once again before sprinting off. It was times like this he was happy in his choice of rifle. It's ability to swap from a simple assault weapon, to a sniper rifle, to a tank buster, came in useful a lot.

Around the corner, Verkus was just setting up a makeshift barricade.

"Verk, they might try to throw some explosives our way. If you see anyone with any sort of device anywhere on them, get their location to me as soon as possible, and I'll take them down with a rifle. Don't shoot at them unless you have no choice, you risk killing us all. And make sure everyone else knows that as well"

Verkur dodged between a few buildings, trying not to be spotted. Aeos had sent everyone out to get anything that would make a nice explosion. After several minutes of dodging and running around, he came to a partially collapsed garage. Ducking inside he flipped on a flashlight so he could see. He smiled when his light fell upon a heavy transport vehicle. Verkur moved up to the six wheeled truck and opened the driver side door.

Sitting in the drivers seat, Verkur grasped the wheel. It took him a few seconds but he found the ignition. Please work. With the first push, nothing. A second push and vehicle rumbled a little in its place. [i]Damn radioactivity.[i] After a few more pushes the transport finally sputtered to life. Verkur smiled. Stepping on the gas, Verkur slammed the front of the ransport through a flimsy sheet metal door. Now that he was in something that could easily smash through a few piles of rubble, Verkur did just that all the way back to the squad.

He pulled up under the building and left the transport running not knowing if it would start again. He stuck his head out the window.

"Where do you want this?"


***


Verkur parked the transport closest to the road the NR troopers would be coming down. Luckily a destroyed building next to the building let one of its higher up walls fall into such a position that would block the transport from anyone looking at the building from the road. Hopping out he made his way over to the rest of the squad.

"So what next?"

"Well me and Orobos are going to wire that transport you found to blow out a few pillars, and hopefully it will come crashing down on tose NR troops." Aeos answered.

"Right. So what do we do now?"

"You and Hart go keep watch. Let us know when those bastards get closer to us."

Verkur nodded and he and Hart moved over to a two story building. They made their way up to the second story and found a good spot to view the road. Several minutes later they saw a large group of soidlers moving in their direction. Verkur got a link going to Aeos.

"Sergeant, we have visitors. A ton of NR guys are moving in our direction."

"We just finished. Get back here so we can blow this thing."

"Copy that."

Verkur turned to Hart.

"Right lets go."

Verkur and Hart easily made their way back to the rest of the squad. The truck was hooked to a simple control detonator, and several lines of wire ran across the buildings floor to three more pillars. Aeos handed the trigger to Verkur.

"Go back to that building you were just in and wait for the NR to get close enough for the bomb to inflict the most damage. The rest of us are going to head towards cover closer to the government-buliding."

Verkur nodded and ran back the way he came as the others went in the other direction. Ten minutes later and he pulled the trigger. The bomb worked great. The NR had no idea what hit them until it was too late. The make shift bomb took out several pillars, causing th upper floors to lean towards the weaker side of the building. That accompanied with the radioatcive decay caused a considerable amount of damage.

After the smoke cleared, and the dust settled, Verkur looked out the window. More then half of the group was either killed in the explosion, or buried under the building. The other half of the group was blocked off by the huge pile of building blocking their way.

From his spot in the second story he saw movement. Using his micro binoculars he zoomed in on the spot. Half trapped under the rubble was a comms tech NR soilder.

"Sergeant. The bomb worked great. Anyone not killed was blocked off by the rubble. Though I see movement."

"What is it Verkur?"

"Looks to be a comms tech. Maybe we can use his radio to out advantage."

"Ok. Me and Orobos are on our way. Stay put."

OOC:

My idea for the comms tech, is to use his radio to call in an air strike on his own guys.

"Question, why are you carrying an NR cripple down the road with you?"

"He might be useful in a while" Aeos replied "You should of heard us discussing it on the radio"

"I wasn't listening. Was too busy stopping them from blowing holes in the back of your heads. You're lucky you reached that guy when you did, I was about to put him out of his misery"

"What do you mean the back of our heads Kand?"

"They were evr so slightly smarter than we thought. There was two snipers watching you, possibly more. Try and keep under cover on the way to wherever you're going just in case, me and Hart will follow you and provide assistance. And if one of us tells you to, keep your head down and whatever you do, don't move"

"Not going to argue with a man who has a sniper rifle trained on us" Aeos laughed, pointing a thumbs up towards Kanderin and Hart. Considering they were at least two hundred feet down the road, it was quite a feat that she could see them. They carried on down the road, trying to keep close to buildings or under canopy's wherever possible. It wasn't difficult at the moment, the debris littering the streets was perfect cover.

Kanderin noticed they had created a formation around Orobos. Aeos and Verkur had took the lead, but on opposite sides of the street. The city blocks were fixed in perfect squares, as if the lines of a chess board, making every turn a four way junction. This method meant whenever they approached one, they could see in every direction immediately. Hovering in between them was Orobos, carrying the complaining man on his shoulder as if he was nothing more than a ragdoll. Whenever the man opened his mouth, he would shoot him a look and his jaw would immediately close again.

Kanderin and Hart had also split their vision up. Hartigan trained his sight behind the group, making sure they weren't about to be ambushed, while Kanderin always kept a while ahead, scanning down each of three junctions they met. The system seemed to work quite well.

They’ve reached a decent spot that would provide as temporary shelter for the time being.  Orobos dropped the poor man to his knees without second though and only grunted in amusement as they managed to hear a muffled scream etching past the visors of his helmet.
“Gently, gently Oro,” Aeos muttered, if only for protocol.  The NR slumped down on his hands, and turned around in some vain effort to relieve him of the pain. He jerked spasmodically as Aeos grabbed him by his collar and pulled him back up again. He was weak enough for her lift him, if barely. Didn’t mean he lost any weight.  She unsheathed the small blade at her utility belt, while her fingers expertly searched for the small plating at the left side of his head, right where the ear would be situated. The HUD technology and circuitry was located there. She didn’t bother with sensitivity, force prying the mechanism open and yanking at the specific wires she knew that would cut him from the NR. Till now, they were able to track her group through him.

She will remesh it back together when needed. But right now they were doing fine without him.
“Right, let’s see if this ape can read,”
Orobos grunted in protest, and snarled,
“Not you, you rug, this one,” Kanderin muttered grinning while he shoved at the Comm. Tech.
“Aeos….we don’t really need him alive; in fact….we might be better off without him,”
“And the airstrike idea?”
“Text code red to the airstrike?”
Orobos and Aeos glanced at one another. They were the only Combat Engineers, Kanderin is Heavy Weapons, and goodness knows, the privates aren’t even in a league yet.
“You lot know that despite what we’ve managed to accomplish so far…that we need a Comm.-Tech to hack a Comm. tech, Oro and I don’t  have the skills, we don’t…we could simply remove his helmet and break the HUD open, connect it to our own HUD, but even then I suspect the NR will make use of sort of code to do that, if we ask him to relay it for us…we can’t tap into his channels, we don’t know what he’s gonna say, “
Aeos sighed, slightly frustrated.
“Dispose of him, Orobos, I’ll let you to the HUD tapping of his helmet, meanwhile, let’s try and stay focused here.  The NR is now definitely aware of our existence here. The buildings we blew up will only slow them down, now Kanderin came up with an idea, since they’re still a bit away…”  Aeos gestured to Kanderin who quickly got down to explaining his plan.

“Right, privates, while Orobos is hacking the HUD, or attempting it, I want you lot to find any vehicles you can that can still be operated. Park it around the  Gov-Building, circular if possible and even down the street from their approached location. Aeos and I will get down to booby trapping it,”

Aeos wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw stars in Kanderin’s eyes, and she could only imagine the innocent boyish grin on his face at this idea.

“Basically, we’re gonna turn those vehicle into landmines, of course we should try and attached it to an remote control type of device, luckily this urban environment provides enough resource to execute such an idea, though we’re still playing against time, once radioactivity has rendered this junk completely useless, then we’ll start blasting with the carbines, now privates move out, Orobos, just kill the Comm. tech already, he’s getting on my nerves…”

“Right, privates, while Orobos is hacking the HUD, or attempting it, I want you lot to find any vehicles you can that can still be operated. Park it around the Gov-Building, circular if possible and even down the street from their approached location. Aeos and I will get down to booby trapping it,” Kand ordered.

Even before the discussion had finished Hart was already in search of  vehicle to booby trapp, he went directly back from where they arrived from, he had noticed some vehicle which seemed to be working but he was afraid that they no longer starts due to radiation and other problems.

He spoted the nearest vehicle opened the door, sat on the driver's side and prayed to get it starts, But at the time the vehicle was to start he received a transmission on his comlink.

"Em, guys we have company," Orobos said.

At the very moment he heard the message he closed the door of the vehicle and head directly to the gov-building, Hart told himself that at least aeos and kand was already in position to trapp all vehicle that was near the gov-building, after that i could stay with them and cover their back during preparations.

Once he arrived at the Gov-building he saw aeos and kand trapping  the last car, so Hart park the vehicle on a great spot and get off.

"Sergeant, i got another one here that needed to be trapp."

"Okay private we dont have much time left like you already heard, we should see NR in not a lot of time so find some cover and prepare our defence,"

OOC:

HOOAH!! twenty replies keep up the great work Group 1

OOC:

Draco, I kinda have no idea what you just said in your post:P So if my post is kinda out with yours lemme know, I just continued on writing

Aeos shook her head,
Silly privates she thought to herself while waiting the explosive rumbling to cease.
“Orobos…-“
“Dangit! Sorry Sarge, the explosion threw me off for a sec, I cut the wrong wire,”  he relied at her in a most regretful tone.
“Don’t sweat it, isn’t the end of the world,”
“Right, your next orders?”
For a moment the group merely waited for the Jester Squad Leader to process some thoughts.
“Orobos, any location the NR mentioned when you were hacked in?”
“Yes, the mentioned about securing the bridge,”
“Right, the rest of you stay here and keep this building secured, may I suggest in taking up a position across the street at the cafes?” 

Currently the squad was huddling behind one of the big pillars that sported the overlapping marble roof of the Gov-building.  Orobos was still elsewhere and talking through Comm. Verkur and Hartigan remained scouting.

“Verkur, come with me, Orobos, I need you to try and bring down some building around the Gov-base, slow the NR down from the other directions, the rest of you cover him, Verkur, come with me, we need to blow that bridge,”
She grabbed the soldier by his arm, while activating the map on her HUD to follow the source of direction to the bridge.  Behind them, the rest of the squad was already skidaddling around for the next phase.
“Right…Private, a minor explosive should do the job, radioactivity must’ve rendered that bridge unstable by this time, the trick here would be to literally sprint, plant explosive at one of the pillars, if the bridge is build like that, plant and run, their scanning equipment will most likely pick us up before we’ve reached the bridge, hesitation is our enemy,”

OOC:

We are currently located at the Gov-Building, lemme know if Im off track with the mapping, because Im starting to feel lost

Kanderin stood and grabbed his gear and Hartigan mocked him by grabbing his.

"Draco!" Came Kanderin's loud voice. Draco knew that Kanderin wasn't yelling on purpose, lots of blaster discharges and bomb detonations will do that to a man's hearing. "You will come to the cafes with me and Hartigen?"

Draco peeled his back off the wall he had been leaning against and stood. "I'm there." Draco said while bending to pick up his blaster. Draco loved war and relished the thought of flanking these bastards and dropping them like credits at a fixed Pazaak table. Draco's face twisted into and evil smile, but the famous petrified frown of his helmet concealed the fact. The sprinkles were now a full fledged down pour, no doubt absorbing the toxic mist and thus becoming acidic like rain. The three stood a let their gun sights scan the flooding streets beyond the building.

The others all knelt, stood behind door frames and used anything the scene would offer as decent protection as they prepared to lay covering fire for the three of them. Kannderin made a gesture with his free hand which meant that it was all clear. Draco ran out, blaster raised with Hartigan on his back and Kanderin on their rear. In Draco's perception, everything seemed to instantly slow.

As soon as they were out, the rain rushed over them like a waterfall. The rain beat heavily and violently upon their armor as their boots splashed in the puddles that mother nature had randomly placed across the street. As they approached the cafes, they turned and glued their backs to the walls. Hartigan then lifted a heavy foot and stomp kicked the door. The door frame splintered with a wet, rotten crack as it fell inwards and landed with a loud *whack* upon the cafe floor.

The inside of the cafe was littered with bodies, broken dishes, crusted over food. The walls, ceiling and floor looked to have been introduced to a hungery rancor. Dried blood and vomit coated certain areas in sickening splatter designs and the flesh on the bodies appeared to be boiled, blistered and in some cases, looked to be melted from the bone.

Draco, Kanderin and Hartigan couldn't help but pause and scan over the horrid scene, but for only seconds before looking at each other in turn, then returning to the reality of the present situation. Draco took a long bar like table and flipped it on its side as Kaderin and Hartingan began shattering out what remained of the massive window that ran damn near the full span of the wall with the butts of their blasters.

When they finished, the three of them pushed the table top up against the window. Then they all turned, dropped and placed their backs against the table, attempting to stay out of plain site until the time came. They stayed silent for what seemed an eternity before Draco broke the silence.

"Damn it! I could sure use a smoke." Draco said exhaustingly and gave a little giggle.

The other two looked at him and began chuckling. Hartigan the said, "Come on Draco, I thought were a bad ass."

This was followed by Kanderin, "Yeah, I thought a rough day for you was like a day in the depths of hell itself." They both laughed once more.

Draco just shook his head, "Don't get me wrong guys," he pointed outside with a hand gesture. "I love this shit. I eat, sleep, piss and drink war. But if it came down to a contest between the flames of hell and wearing this restricting suit in a radioactive city, I'd choose hell in a heartbeat."

Hartigan voice then came back, "Come on Draco. Your not going soft on us now are you?"

Draco looked over, "Oh hell no. But my point is that it can't just be a simple mission anymore. They've got to add the extra crap on top of it all." Just then, a distant explosion rocked and echoed throughout the city followed by a short period of blaster discharges. His head thumped slightly as he let the back of it fall to the table. He then looked again to the horrifying scene before him. "Man I'm getting to old for this shit."