Dante was silent throughout the briefing, his mind on what he was about to do. Images of blaster bolts tearing through unarmored flesh, screaming humanoids running from the plasma-blackened barrels only to be shot in the back; these and more ran through Dante's mind before he forced himself to think of something else. Still there was one thought that he couldn't stop thinking, one that repeated endlessly like a corrupted message on a datapad: He was about to help commit genocide.

Oh, of course they didn't call it genocide but what else could you call what they were about to do? Their orders were to "pacify any hostiles and secure specimens of the Cleoggi". On the ground that translated to "kill everything that moves and grab the wounded so we can vivisect them in our labs". According to rebel propaganda, the Empire had viewed such actions as normal, even building death-ships with the sole purpose of wiping out entire species. Dante had always written such reports off as the product of rebel sympathisers and propagandists. Now, with the flimsies ordering to do what the shadowfeeds had always claimed, Dante felt a moment of doubt.

I am about to help with the destruction of an entire species, except for those unlucky enough to be caught. I am about to destroy a culture, a civilisation, and then help with the destruction of a world for a handful of raw materials. And the funny thing is, I don't feel more.

Brushing the thought aside, Dante heard Riqimo dismiss them and he got to his feet.

Walking through the corridors of the Dominion, he passed many other troopers and VE personnel, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to look into their eyes.

May mercy be shown for what I'm going to do today.

Verkur listened intently during the briefing, though his mind did wander. He leaned back in his chair, rocking it a bit on its rear legs, keeping perfect balance so that he did not fall backwards and make a fool of himself. Verkur looke over to the rest of his squadmates. Most were Jester, and he felt comfortable and at ease knowing he had friends by his side.

Once the briefing was done, Verk set his cahir on the floor and stood. He nodded to Aeos, and then left the room. He walked down the hall towards the equipment room to get his gear. As he walked down the halls of the Domonion, Verk felt nothing. Not an ounce of pity or remorse, nothing. Nothing at all for the species he was about to help destroy, and easily at that.

After several minutes fo walking, Verk finally came to the equipment room. He walked in and found other troopers in the room, but saw none of his own. He moved over to the side and watched the door, waiting for someone of his squad to enter so that he had soemone to walk and talk with on the way to the drop ship.

Lucky listened intently to what Doc was saying to the group during the briefing, though she did glance a few times Alan's way. He was staring ahead, looking straight at Doc. Once they were dismissed,

Chairs scraped as everyone got up, almsot at the same time and Lucky waited for Alan to reach her side. She felt his hand on the small of her back. It felt good to have him there. Together, they moved off to the equipment room and grabbed the things they would be needing.

"Wonder what the mines on Strak look like."

"Guess we'll find out shortly."

She grabbed some manacles, an E-11/M, DC-15 blaster pistols and a blaster rifle. She moved off towards a desk which had six huge drawers. From one of them, she removed a few flash bangs.

The mining species they were getting rid of were most likely very sensitive to bright light, so these wer perfect. And what was good about them, was that they didn't blow anything up in their paths. all they did was emmit light.

Once she had everything she neede, she went to her quarters for armour , put it on and left for the shuttle bay. Once there, she saw that a few members of her group were already there, waiting.

"Hey, Lucky" came Aeos's voice.

"Hey Aeos " she replied back.

Lucky climbed into the shuttle, not wanting to stand around outside, waiting for everyone else to join them. The advantage of being alone was that you could think more clearly. Technically, one was always alone. No matter what. Which mean sthat the phrase she knew so well, was so true. She had experienced death more than once. in the hands of doctors who never wanted to listen.

Live Together, Die Alone...

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath in, and a minute later, heard people start to come aboard the shuttle.

Verkur pushed himself off the wall as the squad he was with entered the armory. He waited for everyone else, and then moved over to the quatermaster to get his rad suit. After several minutes fo fighting with the damned thing, he finally got it on. The real suit felt a little bit more comfortable then the one he wore in the sim room. He nodded to the quartermaster and walked away.

Verkur moved to the weapons rack and grabbed his two carbines, attacking the first to the back of his armor. The second he held in his hand. Verk then moved over to the melee weapons, and instead of grabbing a regular vibroblade, he took a pair of ryyk kerarthorr blades. He had a pair of his own back on Tadath, but was told to leave all of his weapons there. He was glad they had at least one pair on board. Verkur attached the ryyk blades to his back as well, and in a position so that they were easily accessable. He then grabbed his carbine and went to retrieve his explosives.

After obtaining his gear, Verkur moved over to the door where Jinx waited for him. When they were both ready, they left and made their way to the hanger. Both soldiers boots thudded lightlty as they walked through the halls. Verkur gripped his rifle, and then eased his grip.

"So how you doing? I mean since the sim room?" Jinx asked.

"It was alright. Aeos went and got herself killed in the sim room."

"Oh really?" Jinx laughed.

"Yea. She's insane, and it was a bit strange. Just hopped in the vehicle I stole from some dead guy and drove off. Rammed the thing right into a bridge." Verkur shook his head.

"Yea well, thats Aeos for ya. Always wants to get things done. Its nice that most of Aurek has Jester members in it. Makes it easier for us to work together since we have already gotten past the get to know you stage."

"I suppose thats a plus." Said Verkur

There was a pause in the conversation as they continued to walk.

"So you ready for this?" Verkur sighed.

"Yea. Though I wish there wasnt any radiation. These sui are annoying, and uncomfortable."

"Yea. They can be annoying. I find the real thing better then the sim ones though." Verkur chuckled.

The two Jester members reached the hanger rather quickly, and once onboard the shuttle, they sat next to eachother so they could easily chat, rather then shout across the shuttle. A few of the other Aurek members were already onboard. Verkur sat quietly waiting for either a conversation to start, or for everyone else to board the shuttl,e and hen take off.

Marka had always felt a great deal of discomfort during the transition between gravities; the simultaneous sinking and rising feeling, being able to taste his breakfast again. And this was no exception. As the shuttle slid out of the Dominion, the sergeant clenched his fists around the edge of his seat and held on, white knuckled. It was over in only a few short seconds, but it was long enough to cause some measure of discomposure. Even after every drop he had ever been on, it was still a bother to his senses.

Once the gravity had settled and it was deemed safe to leave their seats, the majority of the squad had crowded around a small table for a few hands of Sabaac. And it hadn’t taken them long to throw a whole bunch of credits in, raising the stakes quite interestingly. One of the soldiers was being quite foolish, throwing cards in too quickly, seemingly without thought. However, the rest of the squad seemed quite content in letting him do so, as it increased their chances of winning.
  While a large portion of the squad was playing, three were left sitting, minding their own business: Aeos, Arnaut and Marka. Each of them were sitting by themselves, seemingly wrapped up in their own minds and issues. Marka had begun to drift back off into his meditative state, not comfortable enough with the squad to join in with the game. He imagined Aeos running over strategies and back-up plans, sifting through every anomaly she could imagine twice over, making sure the squad would get back alive. But when he looked over at Arnaut, he hadn’t the foggiest what was on his mind.
  The two had served together in the ARC a while back, before Marka’s absence. But neither of them had spoken since, and the last mission they had taken together had been a twisted horror. Marka knew that he himself had been altered by it; but for Arnaut, he could not be sure.

Within a few minutes, Marka had completely submerged his mind, closing it off to whatever was around him. But, where his usual period of meditation would kick in, this time he slipped gently and easily off to sleep; something he had not had much of for many weeks. Of course, he hadn’t actually realised he had been asleep until he was awoken by someone’s hand gripping his shoulder.

Aeos raised her tight secured gloved hands to her face, not bothering to stifle the instinct to rub her eyes when she woke up.
Oh shitz it she thought, when her HUD flickered back online across her helmet visor as soon as it stopped detecting REM patterns in her system.
She stole a glance at the squad, already settled with each other, just like any regular squad.


“ATTENTION, seven minutes till touchdown-please report to the drop-zone of the shuttle,”
“Rightio Marki-boy, let’s get going,” Aeos muttered, leaning over to the seat that faced her, she grabbed her carbines that was resting on it, and bolted up. Around her, a new air washed across the atmosphere.
The calm before the storm was about to get a rude awakening.
The group rushed through several doors, before the final one shut closed behind them.  The yellowed floor beneath them were blinking in various arrays of red and green lights, which Aeos supposed was some mechanism in placed linked to the radioactivity measured as soon as the drop-zone’s hatched opened hell.
“One minute to drop-down, expect three enemy targets from mission objective, probably curious about the ship. They may not alert their clans-I repeat, they cannot alert their clans, clear them-“

There was a bump as the shuttle hit a pocket of turbulence, and Dante abruptly woke up. He rapidly turned his head both left and right until he remembered the events of the previous day: the summons five units after they got back from their last mission, the sims, the briefing, and now this. Sitting in a shuttle with a group of officers who outranked him by three or more levels and on his way to a radioactive hellhole to wipe out an entire population of primitives. Oh joy.

The shuttle shook like a thing possessed, and Dante could feel more than hear the whine of the repulsorlifts as they tried to compensate for the ship's weight. Great, just what we need: a repulsorlift failure. Grabbing one of the handholds, he clung onto it as the shuttle tilted first to the left then to the right. Nearby, the others were chatting as though nothing was wrong. Calming himself, Dante tried to ignore the shaking and instead shoved a power cell into his primary E-11 carbine. The weapons glowed a dull red for a second, then emitted a beep. A pair of circles appeared on Dante’s HUD, with a superscript giving such details as distance. Satisfied, Dante reholstered the carbine and pulled out the deece pistol he had brought with him over the protests of Gensius. The small but powerful weapon would be easier to pull out than a second E-11 carbine and had roughly the same rate of failure. 

If it did fail…Dante shrugged. That was what the vibroblade was for wasn’t it? Still, it was unlikely the natives would be able to resist. Watching your comrades get gutted and burned alive tended to have somewhat of a demoralising effect on infantry, especially badly trained or untrained ones. A voice still whispered to him, telling him to reconsider, to stop, but Dante ignored it. It was time to fight, and moral considerations would just get him killed.

There was a crackle of static, and the pilot's voice echoed through Dante's sealed helmet.
“One minute to drop-down, expect three enemy targets from mission objective, probably curious about the ship. They may not alert their clans-I repeat, they cannot alert their clans, clear them”

In other words, blow their brains out.

Dante turned off the safety on his E-11 and was the first out the hatch as the shuttle came down, its repulsorlifts sending up clouds of dust in all directions. The first thing he saw was two of the natives fleeing. They had obviously seen the large transport and were on their way to warn their kinsmen.

“Sithspawn…”

Lucky jumped out of the shuttle and landed hard on her feet. She looked around slowly, taking it all in, Aeos and Marka were standing at Verkur's side, looking at one of the creatures. It was facedown on the ground, presumably dead.

They looked like ugly, brown tree roots to her.Out of curiosity, she used a stick to open one of them's mouth. Its teeth were yellowed and its breath smelled like a mix of sulfur and dirt.
"Yuck" came Jinx's voice who was looking over her shoulder.

"Deal with it. You'll see far worse things later on in your career."

The look of surprise on his face was priceless. I bet he's not used to being spoken to that way. He looked like he was going to say something, but decided to keep it to himself. When she heard Aeos say that they should make sure they had everything they needed, she smiled to herself. She always came prepared.

At the mention taht the tunnels were somewhere near, she took another slow, long look at her surroundings. The land here was barren, the soil hard as though completely made of rock, and shiny in places where wetness had been created but had not dried.

She got up from her crouching position, picked up her E-11 , held it against her chest and watched as the rest of the group busied themselves: Gathering their things together, helping out other members and meeting up with Aeos and Marka who were standing not far from her .


"All ready to go?" she heard Aeos ask the group.

Arnaut was told to kill. He killed. Behind the black visor of his helmet, he was just another trooper, another soldier lost in the chaos that was the Vast Empire. He was a designated number, possibly a casualty statistic in the future. Matters of killing species were in the hands of soldiers above his position. When he was told to annihilate, he did so. The notion that he was just an insignificant grunt, a mere screw in the mechanism of the Vast Empire, made it slightly easier to do his mission. Morals were for sissies. Though, looking at the odds stacked on them, Arnaut was soon starting to think that his notion of being a casualty statistic might be a present cause for concern, not future.

Arnaut lifted his E-11 and started firing, shots peppering the enemy. They didn’t even flinch. From all around, the cleoggi were appearing in large numbers, zeroing in on the small band of intruders that had had the misfortune of stumbling across their planet. The Imperials were outnumbered and outclassed.

“Hold them back!” Aeos was screaming, stalking the impromptu circle of Imperial soldiers that had been formed. She was holding her carbine in front of her, choosing shots, and bringing down cleoggi with ruthless efficiency.  “Don’t let a single one near! The Empire demands it!"

Arnaut backpedaled so that he had two Imperials covering his flanks. No need to try and play the hero and get himself clubbed to death outside the aid of his team. He wouldn’t look so heroic as a bleeding mass of broken plastek and fleshy meat pulverized into the ground.

He continued firing, trying to pick out shots. There he scored a shoulder hit, sending the cleoggi into fits of pain and rage. There he blew out one’s kneecap, causing it to flop to the ground bleeding. There he scored a head shot, a clean kill. Arnaut momentarily congratulated his fine skills with shooting, before realizing that both the one he’d hit in the shoulder and the one in the knee were picking themselves up off the ground, albeit with a slight disability. Arnaut cursed their fortitude and unloaded the rest of his clip into the two of him.

One fell, but the other continued on. Arnaut had no time to reload, no time to get his other E-11. Arnaut decided to beat him at his own game. Arnaut lunged forward, dodging the hasty swipe from the creatures club, and slid out his knives. The sprung forth from their sheathes in Arnaut’s bracers. Arnaut wasn’t sure if they were allowed or not but Arnaut didn’t care. As long as they kept him alive, they were staying.

Arnaut ended up crouching right in front of the creature’s lunging form. The swing carried the cleoggi off balance, and gave Arnaut the opportunity he need. He lashed out, drawing one of his knives through the meat of the cleoggi’s left leg. It cut the muscles, resulting in another howl of pain. The creature landed on the leg and immediately crumpled to the ground. Arnaut jumped on top and thrust a knife through the base of its skull before it could scream a third time.

Before Arnaut had time to move back to the ring, another cleoggi was upon him. The club came down swiftly and missed Arnaut by bare inches, hitting the corpse instead. There was sickening crack accompanied with what Arnaut assumed to be a look of dislike on the face of the cleoggi. Apparently it didn’t much like hitting its friends, dead or alive.

Arnaut stabbed, hitting it in the stomach. Ichor squirted down the length of Arnaut’s arms causing him to jump back suddenly. The beast roared and charged Arnaut, not even seeming to notice the blood pouring down and matting its fur. Arnaut, on his back, began to crawl away from the beast as quickly as he could.. If he couldn’t get on his feet, he was as good as dead. He tried to stand, only to slip off his blood soaked hands onto the ground again. The creature was close, almost upon him.

Two shots clipped it in the head and it fell just a little ways from Arnaut’s feet. Arnaut sighed relief backed up back into the circle.

Around them, there was a nice, almost clean line of dead cleoggi. Only three or four, including the one Arnaut killed, had actually managed to make it to the Imperials and engage in hand-to-hand, which was definitely their forte. The rest were pulling back, retreating into holes, and, for the most part, were pulling back into their tunnels.

All in all, the battle had raged a scant three minutes. Casualties on the cleoggi side were counted as only fifteen, despite the numbers that the cleoggi had brought to bear. Judging from the blood on the ground, Arnaut guessed a whole lot more of them had been wounded. And still managed to make it back. The creatures were tough, Arnaut gave them that.

No deaths on the Imperial side, although Alan was idly fingering the jagged scar one of the cleoggi had given his breastplate. Arnaut looked around at the aftermath, hoping to find the ‘leader’ Dante had felled with a stun bolt in the first seconds of the battle. The place where he’d fallen was empty. Considering how resilient the creatures were to the Imperial weapons, the cleoggi leader had probably walked off. Arnaut sighed. All that and not a single one captured. He hadn’t been expecting to get one so early, but still...the battle seemed like a waste.

“Let’s get moving,” Arnaut suggested. “They’ll be back.” Slowly, one by one they descended into the nearest tunnel. It was dark, darker than Arnaut would’ve suspected, but pretty spacious to accommodate the large cleoggi. And, surprisingly enough, it wasn’t connected to any of the other tunnel openings they’d seen. They’d coordinated their attack without face to face communications.

Either, they were very precise in their timing, or they had other means of communication through the tunnels. Whatever it was, it meant bad news for the Imperials. The notion that these were just semi-sentient barbarians was fading fast.

When the shuttle had landed there were three enemy contacts.  Troopers rushed out in front of Alan and swiftly dealt with them.  From his visor, Alan glared at the back of Aeos.  He thought back to her conversation with him and Lucky on the ship and his blood still boiled.  How dare she question his commitment to the mission, she obviously did not know him at all.  He had wanted to shout at her on the ship but Lucky had held him back,

His anger towards Aeos was pushed to one side as the squad was suddenly ambushed.  Alan quickly grabbed his heavy blaster pistol from his belt and prayed silently that it worked.  Aiming it at the nearest Cleoggi, he fired.  The bolt flew straight at the Cleoggi and its head erupted as it fell down dead.

Excellent thought Alan as he started to pick off target after target.  One of the Cleoggi charged Alan.  Before Alan could react the Cleoggi had bowled him over onto the ground.  Standing over Alan, the Cleoggi brought his heavy club down.  Alan rolled on the ground as the club impacted on the ground, narrowly missing Alan.

Not being able to bring his weapon to bear on the creature, Alan saw only one window of opportunity and he took it.  He brought his boot swiftly up between the creature’s legs.  The Cleoggi stopped its attack and howled in pain.  Alan soon put it out of its misery as he fired a shot into the creature’s chest.  The Cleoggi fell back dead and Alan quickly got up and resumed the fight.

Soon the fighting was over and the squad started making their way down the tunnels.  Alan did not holster his weapon, instead he had it in his hands, ready for anything.

The tedious marching through the tunnels was exactly what the squad didn’t need. Monotonous dredging through claustrophobic and dangerous passages, no doubt infested with incredibly resilient and bloodthirsty savages, was a definite burden on one’s will; especially due to the apparent corrosiveness of the very walls. And as this wore on, each soldier became less and less enthused about the mission. But when the squad had stumbled onto the bridge, everything changed. The room was hypnotic, mesmerising in its own natural way. It seemed to immediately eradicate any and all negative feelings about the mission, about life... about anything. The blue-white light lulled the squad’s senses, calming them. They became less edgy as they peered over the edges at the crystals and waterfalls, noting the refracted light as it danced about them.
  When the order was given to move out, there was an aura of regret being channelled from each troop. The mission would always be first, of course, but that chamber had a resounding effect on each of them. Marka wondered if it had any special significance to the Cleoggi, imagining them at the bottom of the pit, gazing up in wonder, awe-struck by the phenomenal beauty.

Once the gentle echo of falling water had all but disappeared, the squad began to regain a slight degree of restlessness. The passages wound away into the earth as they had been previously, and a distant grinding sound echoed its way to the squad’s attention, furthering their awareness. It was a nerve-wrecking experience, not knowing just how close the enemy was, half expecting a horde of the natives to appear from nowhere to tear the soldiers apart.
  An unnerving thought pushed its way to the surface of Marka’s consciousness. He toyed with the notion that these beasts were simply playing with them. The Empire troops were off their homeworld, facing an unknown number of hostiles beneath the surface of a foreign planet, strolling nervously through the centre of their power. It seemed an impossible and suicidal situation, but orders were orders. Then again, the idea of capturing one of these creatures alive had been violently forced behind the need to survive.

Rather suddenly, the passage broke out into a large cavernous room, its high ceiling far out of view. There was a crackling fire at the far end, perhaps seventy metres from the squad. Though somewhat obscured by the fire, the outline of a rather large Cleoggi could be seen, crouched down, facing away from the squad. Sensing the first real opportunity to snare one of the creatures, the squad shared an unspoken command and slinked into the room, barely making a noise. Lucky, who had grabbed a launcher before they had all set out into the tunnels, was skulking towards the Cleoggi, bringing the launcher up in aim. She turned her head to Aeos, waiting for the command. She was greeted with a nod, and Lucky fired. A steel net exploded from the launcher, trapping the Cleoggi quickly. It writhed about, letting out a bellowing growl that nearly shook the ground beneath them. Verkur stepped towards the ensnared beast and used to butt of his rifle to smack it in the skull.

“It’s not moving now,” he stated, prodding the lifeless body with his boot, “though I don’t know how long it will stay that way.”

Aeos nodded, “Good work both of you. Secure it as best you can, make sure it can’t move once we leave it.”

“Leave it?” Verkur asked, tilting his head.

“Do you want to haul it all the way back outside, and then trek through all that crap again just to get back here?”

Verkur nodded, content with the logic. Marka stepped over to Aeos, a thought playing through his mind.

“We should remove its tongue,” he stated bluntly, idly fingering the hilt of his vibroblade.

“Sergeant, I really don’t th-” Aeos’ words were cut off as Marka was propelled into her, crashing them both to the ground. A Cleoggi had appeared seemingly from nowhere and charged them.

No... this couldn’t have been a trap. How did they get behind us?