The medics arrived first and took the kids to a hospital in one of the 'safe-zones' Kollsa's troops kept secured.  Before they left they patched up Tanus & Baraka, administering some stims to the latter.  The power Tank felt was overwhelming, then his senses as well as his awareness slammed into crystal clarity.  They had been hurt but were gonna be okay.

They were a man down but it was their duty to press on.  Tank learned a lot from Tanus' interrogation techniques.  He couldn't tell whether his Sergeant enjoyed the work or not, but it was damned efective.  Tanus commed Kollsa and relayed the crucial intel.  Tanus cursed.  "Kollsa can't spare any vehicles to get us to the BRC any faster; we're hoofing it.  You up to it, trooper?"

"Three city blocks infested with scum that has the high-ground?  Sounds like it's time ta' kick some skulls in!" he proclaimed enthusiastically.

In this situation, a stim-happy trooper might be a good thing.  If it doesn't get us killed Tanus mused.  Tanus readied his rifle "Alright, let's do this!"

Tank held his E-11/H in his right hand and the E-11/F in his left; he simply gave a single nod to his Sergeant and bolted out the door.  Spotting snipers on rooftops he cut loose with unrelenting rapid shots, killing most and sending the rest to duck-and-cover.

Tanus dashed like an athlete to the doorway of the next building; as some snipers tried to line up a shot Tanus termiated them and Tank got the straglers.  Leapfrogging cover to cover they continued like this for a block and a half; apparently they exterminated all the snipers they had as gangs of melee combatants rushed them.

One fool got close to Tank with a blaster pistol for a point-blank shot; Tank shot the pistol with his E-11/H.  The pistol exploded satisfyingly; energy from the fully-charged powerpack feuled the blast, disintegrating the assailant's hand and head.

Two men with stun batons charged Tank; Tank sidestepped and shoved one man into his compatriot.  They got a full charge of each others' batons as they went down.  Quickly he holstered his blasters and drew his own Merr-Sonn taser stave.  Dodging a stun baton he whipped the man's back with the taser stave; something in the man's spine cracked and popped.

Soon the Stormtroopers were swarmed and lost track of each other as they were pummelled by the mob.  Adreneline and stims amped Tank up higher and higher.  With an angry roar he threw his attackers off and pummelled them with a brutal flurry of blows using taser stave and armored fists.  Wading clear of the pile of bodies he saw a man runnung at him spinning a force-pike in deadly arcs.  Tank timed his move and brought his left foot up to waist-level; the terrorist payed the price for cheap equipment as the force-pike snapped in two, the still-charged ends swung out of control into his own torso.  The full charge dropped him like a sandbag.

Tank was about to rush the last pair of thugs he could see, but Tanus dropped them with an efficient headshot each.  "Move it trooper!" Tanus ordered as he jogged the last few meters to the BRC's guardhouse.  Tank blinked and followed...

OOC:

I wanted to do more but the comp crashes more frequently on weekends.

Explosions were rocking the city. Buildings were crumbling as rockets and tanks rounds pounded into their frame, and all Tanus could do was stay alive long enough to make sure that he got his job done. Reaching the guardhouse to the BRC was not exactly a picnic. He had pelted more balconies with blaster fire than he would have liked, and to top it off, his robs still hurt. As he rounded a corner, terrorists opened fire on him. He managed to dive behind a truck just as blasterfire erupted into the wall behind him. He pulled a frag grenade from his belt and tossed it at the terrorists, hearing them scream orders just as the grenade went off. He looked out from behind the truck to see a small crater in the ground, and three bodies blown in various directions and pieces. He ran out from behind the truck and towards the first checkpoint of the BRC. He peered inside and saw that the local militia was attempting to move in troops. However, to Tanus’ dismay, the terrorists had seemed to take the main entrance. But then Tanus noticed something: The terrorists weren’t going inside, and that meant one thing.

“They haven’t found a way in yet. Now it’s time to do something fun.”

Tanus called over Tank and LK. The came together in a small huddle, hearing the sound of explosions rock the ground.

“Okay, listen up. The terrorists haven’t managed to get inside the facility, meaning that either local security has managed to keep them out thus far, or that they have something planned. I don’t want to test the latter scenario, so we’re going to hit them hard and fast. You run to the tactical leaders and tell them who you are and who you’re with. I’ll talk to the head officer here and see if we can get anything going.”

As Tanus walked over to the main commander, an RPG streaked overhead, striking the building behind him. Fragments of steel and stone struck the ground, causing the ground to quake. The main commander was looking through a pair of binoculars when Tanus appeared next to him.

“You have ninety-six targets, thirteen of which have heavy ordnance capable of taking out tanks. From what I can tell, they have positions for counter fire, but have nowhere to run if they start getting hit hard. If you want to turn this around, now is the time.”

The commander turned around, stunned. Tanus could tell that he wasn’t used to this situation, nor was he used to someone outside of the militia giving orders. But Tanus didn’t have time to wait. He opened the comm to Tank and LK and gave them attack coordinates. As the tanks lined up for a strike, a salvo of missiles flew from the roof, annihilating the tanks in a storm of fire and shrapnel. Tanus was blown off his feet and was sent skidding along the ground. He groaned as he got to his feet and saw a group of four men in black suits fall back from the roof. No, this can’t be right. That attack was too coordinated. Were they Special Forces? And how the hell do these guys have them? Shit, this is worse than I could’ve thought. As Tanus stood there, the smoke started to block out the sun. The clock had begun ticking, and Tanus was running out of time.

"Boss, I think its time to get the hell out of here," Gates remarked as they cleaned up the latest batch of scum.

"Copy. The civies should have enough room, and there's a few undamaged speeder trucks over there." Leon replied.

The three stormtroopers wheeled, sprinted for the building. They ran in, blasting the terrorists to hell. Leon called the corporal on his comink.

"It's safe! Come on down!"

The militia escorted several civilians down the stairs and out of the building; they loaded into a couple trucks and figured out how to hot-wire them.

Leon and Zolos got in to provide protection; Gates hesitated. "Sir, request permission to neutralize a few more terrorists."

The other sighed. "Fine. Make it quick, and come home after a few are dead."

Gates jogged easily from the trucks, which shot off towards the command center. He climbed the stairs of an office building, and then set up his sniper rifle. He peered through the scope, and sighted on a small group of rocket terrorists. He opened fire; 12 shots later, they were all dead.

He moved onto the next group.

Tank sneaked up behind a truck near the last artillery position that was firing at the BRC.  He and Tanus had already felled the rest and Tank was impressed by his Squad Leader's btrutal tenacity; what he did to the terrorists in the guardhouse was medieval.  Spotting an open munitions crate Tank hurled a Frag at it and ran.

A terrorist heard the granade land.  Seing it in the munitions crate he reached for it but was too late; the frag set of the mortars in the pile of crates.  The Inferno consumed the artillery unit, terrorists and all, raining fiery shrapnel in all directions.  Tank thanked the Force as his plasteel shell made a musical pitter-patter as bits tinked harmlessly off his armor.

Tanus was already done destroying his share of the enemy positions around the BRC and was inside coordinating tactics with BRC Security.  Tank was about to head inside when Aeos commed him "Sorry trooper.  There's a small armor platoon headed your way.  The AATs are the biggest threat; the rest are converted speeders with guns."

"Roger that." he answered as he read the tac update on his HUD.  Running away from the BRC to give him some distance, Tank scanned the street for a tall vehicle.  Perfect he thought, spotting a parked speeder truck.  Ran and scrambled to the roof of the truck and lay prone, waiting.

He let the first trio of homemade ULAVs pass by.  When the first AAT tank glided past the truck he got up and simply dropped onto the Armored Assault Tank.  Using his fusion cutter he made short work of the top hatch, dropped in using the fusion cutter to take the head off the tank commander.  As he tossed the corpse out the head rolled down into the crew pit.  As the terrorists started screaming he chucked a gas grenade down; their excited breathing sucking in great lungfulls of poison.

Taking the controls, Tank used the main cannon on the two companion AATs, then used the secondary lasers to turn the homemade ULAVs (the front formation) into a wall of blazing slag.  turning about one-eighty he loosed a salvo of missiles into the AATs and ULAVs; most of the ULAVs were destroyed but the AATs suffered only minor damage.  Fire-linking all cannons he fried two more ULAVs before veering down a side street.  The enemies' missiles struck the building and the rubble blocked off the side street.

Maneuvering into the building he saw it was a mega-mall and could cut through the building rather than go around the block.  Cruising down the mall he stopped in an intersection/food court, thought about grabbing a bite before seeing an AAT passby the entrance his AAT was facing.  Firing lasers and missiles caused the target to explode with such fury it collapsed that entrance and the next building over, filling that street with a mound of rubble; another barrier to foil the terrorists!

Making a hard left he shot down the mall and back into the street.  Seeing the last of the ULAVs rounding the corner he slagged them with the laser cannons, trapping the AAT.  Or so he thought.  The AAT plowed through, sustaing some damage, but still fired several missiles at Tank's AAT.  Sithspawn!  Maneuvering is shot...  As the enemy AAT was sluggishly righting itself to fire another salvo, Tank gunned the accelerator, locking in all-out forward, climbing out and jumping from the vehicle.  The AATs collided and obliterated one another, unspent missiles and fuel fed the conflagration.

peeling himslf off the durcrete he was kissing, guesstimating bruises upward of two-hundred, started staggering back to the BRC.  Then a sound he dreaded filled his ears.  Dropping and rolling he narrowly dodged fire from a ULAV that survived.  Taking cover he grabbed his termal detonator.  Waiting for it to get close enough, he tossed it.  Now I'm finished he thought as he limped back to the BRC.  I'm gonna soak in bacta for a week on Tadath...

Tanus was inside the main lobby, trying to push the terrorists back, but they had holed themselves in deep. Leon and his group had managed to join up with them and were taking care of the situation outside, but Tanus could have used at least one more of his soldiers with him; the BRC wasn’t prepared for this type of onslaught. The terrorists had managed to dig themselves in pretty deep, and were holding their ground despite what Tanus was throwing at them. Tanus watched as another one of the crew on an E-WEB went down from sniper fire. Tanus found his target via scope and put a bolt between his eyes. He ducked down behind the greeting desk as blaster fire pummeled its outer layer. He raised his head over the top and opened fire with his Samurai Edge, spending the clip and downing three terrorists. He slammed a fresh clip in and drew the slide back to put a fresh round in the chamber. As he looked up at the balcony, he saw two more terrorists bathed in black armor. He opened fire with his E-11, sending a shower of red up to the balcony. The terrorists ducked as the wall behind them was pelted with blaster fire. Tanus turned to one of the fire teams behind him.

“Concentrate fire on that balcony. Make sure that none of them get an RPG ready.”

Tanus looked around, putting up suppressing fire whenever it looked like the terrorists were getting ready to open up with any heavy ordnance. He heard screams and orders being shouted outside. He looked back to see Leon standing highest among the troopers, ordering fire teams to keep the armor away from the building. He commed in to Leon to get a report.

“Well, Sarge, to be honest, things could be going better. The terrorists have managed to get a lot of armor rolling, and from what I’ve heard, Gio is pinned down trying to get into the factory. Aeos called in a gunship for assistance, but I can’t be too sure of what else is happening. My team managed to set the terrorists back in the city, and the garrisons finally seem to be moving. I’ll keep you posted on anything out here.”

Tanus turned around just as s nipper round shattered the wood paneling next to his head. He looked up to see a black-clad fighter in the wings. Tanus got up and jumped over the desk, igniting his taser stave as he did so. The man looked startled and started firing faster. Tanus switched the charge to its highest setting and ran up the stairs. Blaster bolts and slugs shattered the wall behind him. As he got to the top of the steps, he rammed the stave into the terrorists stomach and wrenched it hard. Electricity shot through the fighter’s body and he slumped over, dead. As he looked at the body, various types of ordnance flew his way. Tanus ducked behind a banister and started firing with his Samurai Edge, praying that he got a few hits on someone. As Tanus turned his head to see what he had hopefully hit, an explosion knocked him flat on his back. As he got back up, he looked around to see that the balcony had been blown apart, and bodies of terrorists lay in various states of dismemberment. Tanus crawled over to where the hole was, still slightly shaken by the blast. When he looked out, he saw Leon holding an RPG, and he most likely smiling under his helmet. Tanus just shook his head has he got up and dusted himself off. I swear to God, I’m working with children, Tanus thought. As he looked out, there were casualties on both sides of the field, mostly in Tanus’ favor. He came down the stairs and walked up to Leon and grasped his hand in thanks.

“Despite the over-the-top explosion, I’d be dead if it weren’t for you. Tanks.”

Leon shook his head. “No sweat. I got to use a very explosive weapon. My day has been made.”

Tanus shook his head with a smile as he turned to the remaining security forces. Most of them looked worse than Tanus did, with various wounds floating among all of them. Tanus picked up an RPG and handed it to the nearest soldier.

“All right, listen up. I can almost guarantee that they have more people inside the compound than they do anywhere else. For that reason, grab anything you can: weapons, ammo, everything. We’re going to need all of the firepower we can if we want to get out of this. Leave the cannons; we can’t have anything slowing us down now.”

As the soldiers began picking up spare weapons from the bodies, Tanus commed in to Aeos at the command center.

“Well, things are starting to turn around. Gio finally has the air support that he needs to get into the facility, and some of the army has managed to send a few tanks his way to help shell them out of the factory. And I’ve managed to pull something for you as well: A small detachment of the army is headed your way for support. And from what I’ve heard over the comm, we have enemies heading my way too. But I should be all right as long as the barricades hold.” There was a slight pause in the transmission. “Are all of you missions like this?”

Tanus just laughed. “Yeah, pretty much. But that is what I signed up for. And I can’t wait for the army to get here; we have to move now if we want to get home alive.”

Aeos sighed. “I understand. Good luck, Tanus. And please don’t die. I can’t afford another squad leader at the moment.”

“Understood. Tanus out.”

Tanus attached his taser stave to the small of his back and collapsed it down to its portable state. He walked up to Leon and called the rest of Blackjack around.

“Okay, what we’re doing now is we’re going inside of the compound to try and smoke these guys out, or kill them; whichever comes first. Leon, I need you to coordinate the defense out here with the army and also relay information to them about trouble spots; I’m guessing Aeos will be doing that as well, but since you’ve seen it, you have a better idea of what to look for than she does. I’ll keep things up with Gio, since his mission is about as important as ours, if not more so. When we’re done, we’ll meet up at HQ and get out of here. Dismissed.”

Tanus grabbed his gear and pointed at the door, with Tank and LK behind him.

“Gentlemen, let’s finish this.”

--

The security doors opened up and immediately Tanus and his company of troopers were bombarded with blasterfire. Three troopers went down before they even made it in the room, and two more were wounded while trying to find cover. Tanus issued battle orders to try and stave off the onslaught, but the entire thing looked pretty grim. Tanus grabbed cover behind a heavy desk as fire riddled it with holes. Tank was grenading enemy positions, and from what Tanus saw, was doing a pretty good job of getting them out in the open for Tanus and the others to take care of them. LK was busy healing the others, firing intermittently to keep from being wounded himself. Missile salvoes from both sides managed to keep each side at bay for a while, until Tanus managed to push his forces up, setting the terrorists back even further into the compound. Unfortunately, that also made them more ferocious than before, but at the same time, made their counter measures sloppy. As Tanus finally started to turn things around, three figures dress in black appeared on a balcony above, carrying a Z-6 Rotary Blaster Cannon. Tanus swore as the mounted it on the railing and opened fire, spitting out hundreds of blaster bolts, downing several of Tanus’ men.

Tanus fell back behind a call set of canisters, hoping that the Z-6’s one weakness would play out sooner than later. And for eight seconds, the blaster fire continued, ripping bodies and the ground to pieces as the terrorists were slowly shredding any hope Tanus had of making it out alive with his squad. His breathing got heavy, probably in no small part to his bruised ribs. He winced as he looked around to see the terrorists stop to changed blaster cartridges. Tanus knew that this was his only chanced, and he had to take it. He got up and ran towards them, grabbing an RPG as he did so. As he got them in his sights, they spotted him and swung the muzzle of the blaster towards him. As Tanus closed his eyes, waiting for death to come, blaster fire rang out to his left. He looked and saw Tank and LK firing at the terrorists, giving Tanus just the window he needed to bring them down. He put the RPG on his shoulder and stared down the sight. He waited for the targeting reticule to turn red, and a beep signified that it was ready. Tanus pulled the trigger and watched the RPG fly towards its target, detonating as it hit the blaster and as it swallowed the balcony in flames. Tanus dropped the launcher and dove behind crates as the terrorists sent fire his way in retaliation. Tanus commed in to the others.

“Thanks guys. I owe you one. Now let’s push them back so we can finish this. Tank, you take the left. I’ll take the right. LK, you stay with the wounded and move up with those with RPGs. When we get up to the door, plant a charge and move in. Open at any target you can get your sights on. On my mark, we move.”

Tanus fell back, firing all the way; the terrorists still had a sizable force under their control, but hopefully Tanus could smoke them out. He grabbed ten men and ushered them behind him; Tank did the same. LK stuck back with the wounded as commanded and laid some covering fire for them to use.

“Get ready guys. 3… 2… 1… Go!”

Tanus ran forward, laying fire down while his men brought up the rear. One of soldiers crouched down next to him and opened fire with his A280, splintering wood and singing metal. Tanus looked over to see Tank firing one handed, running while his men laid down suppressive fire. LK brought fire up from the center, while two of his troopers fired a pair of RPGs. The terrorists were swallowed in flames, and Tanus heard screams as their bodies were ripped asunder. Tanus ran forward over bodies and discarded weapons to the door. He threw himself against the wall, Tank on the opposite. Tanus nodded, and Tank started to set the charge. Tanus held up his hand for execution. He clenched his fist and Tank pushed the detonator.

The door split open and splintered, showering the ground with wood. Tanus and Tank were the first in the room, firing at anything that moved. Bodies hit the floor as red blaster fire pelted every inch of the large holding area. When the smoke cleared, Tanus saw it: the turbolaser pulser. It was absolutely massive, with the central repulsor dish facing outward, and several facets of crystals in its frame. On the sides were two large twin heavy laser cannons, while on the top and bottom were a pair of heavy quad cannons. It was sight to behold, but Tanus didn’t have time to sight see. He crouched behind a desk as blaster fire his cover. He looked up and saw several black clad soldiers, and they had more weapons than any other enemies that he had faced as yet: They had a pair of E-WEBS, several heavy repeating rifles, grenade and rocket launchers, and many anti-infantry blaster and projectile weapons. Tanus swore under his breath; the entire scene looked fairly grim for him. As he considered tactics to run and try to get around the cannons, an RPG flew out from behind him and hit one of the E-WEB cannons, annihilating it and its operators. Tanus looked back to see a soldier and Bakuran military garb smile and pump his arm in victory. Unfortunately, soon after, he was hit with blaster fire. He fell to the ground dead. Tanus looked back up to the front of the battle. Well, at least with one of those cannons gone I can concentrate on taking out the others more easily. The only question is how? Tanus thought. He got up a little bit and started looking around for firing positions. Unfortunately, the only one there were were on the balconies above, and they were well behind enemy lines. If Tanus could get just one man up on either side, even with just a blaster, that would be more than enough. Then Tanus got an idea.

“LK, Tank, I have a plan. Tank and I are going to flank these bastards, but we’re going to need some cover. The only way I can think of without us getting killed is to toss in a few smoke grenades. Then Tank and I will go up to the balconies and handle the situation from up there. I figure with fire coming from three positions, regardless of numbers, these guys will be too harried to make anything happen. Each of us toss in a smoke grenade on my mark. Oh and LK: You’re in charge down here till I get back.”

Tanus grabbed a smoke grenade off of his belt and primed it. He commed in to the others; they were all ready.

“Okay, now!”

Tanus arched the grenade high into the air; many of the terrorists dove for cover, which is something that Tanus had been hoping for. Within seconds, white smoke filled the area. Tanus got up and ran for the ladder to the balcony above the action. S he got to the ladder, the smoke started to clear. Unfortunately, in doing so, his cover was given away. Several of the terrorists looked up to see both Tanus and Tank getting ready to open fire. Many of them ducked for cover, but a few were not as lucky, and were taken in the crossfire of the three-pronged attack. The E-WEB cannon was completely decimated by blaster fire. Tanus was picking out targets anywhere he could, just hoping to get a clear shot at his enemies. Within five minutes, it was all over. There were dead on both sides, but somehow Tanus had won. He commed in to Aeos at the base.

“Congrats, Tanus. I had a feeling you’d pull it off. And I want you to know that Gio’s attack went well; the leader is dead from all reports I’ve gotten and he’s on his way back now with the army. The terrorists never got a chance to make it here, as Leon provided combat data and positions to the army, and they routed them about three miles away from here. If you come back here, I’ll debrief the personnel here and then we can go; I’ll call in the shuttle to pick us up now.”

Tanus nodded. He was just happy it was over. Now all he needed was a good scotch and he’d be all set.

--

Blackjack squad met up outside of HQ, waiting for Aeos to arrive. She walked out, attended to by two guards. She waved them off as she came up to Blackjack. When they were away, she turned tot rest of them and smiled.

“I’ve just gotta say how proud I am of you guys. You made me proud to have you in my platoon today.”

Tanus nodded. “Well, that’s what we do. Would you expect any less?”

Aeos chuckled. “Hell no I wouldn’t. An APC is on its way to pick us up and take us back to the shuttle port. There is going to be a lot of clean up here, I can tell that much already. But with those terrorists gone, I think this city can start to recover.”

Tanus nodded as the APC came up to them. Its main hatch lowered and Blackjack shuffled inside, taking seats wherever they could. Tanus removed his helmet and looked out the window; he saw his reflection for the first time since the mission began, and he wiped his brow off and realized how badly he needed a shower. As he looked out the window and saw the fire, the bodies, and the tanks rolling through the streets, Tanus realized how close he came to death today. And he just hoped he would never come that close again.

OOC:

Okay guys, here it is. The final post. Good job on the story. I know it ran a little long, but hey, such is life. Expect another story to be up soon. Until then, ciao.