He could hardly open his eyes when Platoon Sergeant Giovanni Bryden was rudely awakened by the beeping and vibrating of his data pad. One or two drinks with the boys turned into eight to ten, and soon after he lost count he found himself face down outside of his living quarters on the orbital platform over Tadath. The bright light creeping in through his window sent a dull pain from his eyes to the back of his head, and reminded him of just how late in the day it was.

    The data pad had beeped about seven times before Giovanni thought to check it. Apparently it was urgent, since he had now received three messages, each one from a different commanding officer, and each angrier than the one before it.

    He decided he would read Rizzit’s message and save himself some time.

------- LOGGED 0800 HOURS -------

To: PSG Bryden, Giovanni
From: MG Blackheart, Rizzit
Subject: WAKE UP YOU BUM!

    I hope your squad is ready to roll out, Gio. It appears we have a situation on Myrkr that needs taking care of. As you may or may not know, Myrkr is a fringe world, lying right between Imperial and Republic controlled space. For that reason, it is imperative that you assemble your squad and do a little snooping in the name of the Empire.

    We have reason to believe that the presence of Talon Karrde on the planet is attracting unsavory characters from all over the galaxy, and while Talon himself is not our target at this point in time, we need you to run reconnaissance on his base of operations on Myrkr and relay any kind of important intel you can find.

    Needless to say, this message is for your eyes only. Relay any request for equipment and the like to me. I have already taken care of all other preparations, and your shuttle is scheduled to take off and take you off-world tomorrow morning. As you know, Talon Karrde dominates the market in information, so just flying an imperial shuttle and landing it on Myrkr is out of the question. However, I have made arrangements for you to board a smugglers ship and take it through a popular trade route known as the Hydian Way. This will lead you right to Myrkr without rousing much attention.

    The shuttle will take off at 0900 hours tomorrow morning and drop you off on Rutan. You will meet our contact there and make your way to the Inner Rim.

- CC/PC/MG Rizzit/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE

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

    Giovanni hopped into the refresher booth, but not after sending a message to the rest of the squad over comnet. They were to meet in the briefing room in roughly two hours. There were important matters to discuss.

    “I can’t say I’ve ever been on a recon mission,” Giovanni thought out loud. He was a little out of his element. Usually instead of trying to avoid being seen, he spent the majority of his VE career making as much noise and shooting as many things as possible. He would need to consult with the rest of his squad on what, if any, equipment changes would need to be made, and how they would even carry all of their stuff on a smuggler’s ship without having him discover they were with the Empire.

    So many questions, so little time, he thought to himself.

    He exited the booth and checked his data pad. Replies of “Yes sir” rained into his inbox one at a time.

    His troopers were ready. But was he?

OOC:

Have at it, boys and girls! Get your intro posts in and i will board us onto the shuttle, and from there onto the smuggler's ship before friday (given i get all of your posts in).

Liam Hayes was sitting in the corner of the Iron Horse at-ease lounge running a sharpening stone across the blade of his combat knife. There really was no purpose behind the monotonous action other than to waste time. The durasteel blade would never really lose its razor-sharp edge, and Liam was pretty sure that even if it needed to be sharpened the stone he was using wouldn’t be able to do the job. The steel was simply too hard, too well refined.

A couple troopers were lounging about, engaging in various activities. One was reading, one was watching a holovid; a couple were playing some kind of board game. Most were feeling the same thing Liam was: impatience, boredom, and anxiety. They all wanted to get back out there on another mission, and yet at the same time they all feared going out on another mission. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions, one any trooper was familiar with. Any trooper also knew that there was no way to control when a mission would arise, and so one had to find ways of keeping occupied.

For Liam, it was sharpening his knife.

After nearly two hours of simply sitting and sharpening his knife, Liam rose from his seat and moved off towards his room. His plan was to take a nap, then go for a run. All that went out the door, though, when he arrived to his room and found his datapad beeping wildly.

Idly turning the small device on, Liam checked his messages. Two were junk, one was from a pretty corporal he had met in the bar a few nights ago, and one was from his squad leader. He immediately ignored the first three, instead selecting Gio’s message. It was only a few minutes old, and was marked “Urgent”. As he began to read the message a slight grin spread across his face. They had a mission.


* * *


Thirty minutes later Liam had packed his bag and headed out the door of the barracks. The message he had received had been very precise: no gear with Vast Imperial marking or make would be allowed. So, all Liam carried with him in his bag was a change of clothes, two M-4 pistols, and an A-280 blaster rifle. The clothes he had packed were casual, as were the ones he was wearing. On his hip he carried a holstered pistol and a sheathed combat knife. He carried another knife strapped to his lower leg, just above his boot. He hadn’t shaved in a week, and as a result he had more than a full beard’s growth on his face. His hair was also long, and the black strands shaded his eyes. 

Liam may not have been wearing his white armor that had earned the Stormtroopers the nickname of “The White Terror”, but he was no less terrifying for it. He made his way to the hangar Gio had specified, looking every part the hardened criminal he was supposed to portray.

When Liam arrived only Gio was standing outside the ship. Liam nodded to his squad leader, who returned the nod, dropped his bag next to the ramp, and leaned back against the ship. He despised waiting, but he had waited weeks for the mission. A few more minutes couldn’t, and wouldn’t, hurt.

Gio sat by, feeling uncomfortable in his civilian clothes. He was used to having his face hidden behind the cold vacu-formed helmet that he had relied on so heavily for his living. It was only the second time he had been on official empire business without his stormtrooper armor.

Hayes leaned heavily on a crate as he played with his combat knife, playing the part of just about every smuggler he had ever come in contact with, from his years in Coruscant to his many dealings in the Army.

Anival on the other hand looked to stand out a little bit. He was young, and his eyes hadn't yet been dulled by lack of sleep and the abundance of enemy fire.

Giovanni looked down at his wrist and saw that there were only five minutes to go until the shuttle was scheduled to take off. He looked around at Hayes and Anival and attempted to strike up a friendly conversation.

"I hate to think this is it for our crack operative team. I don't know about you guys, but i'm a little nervous now..." The Iron Horse squad leader chuckled, smoothed his dark blue cargo pants and tucked his hands into the pockets of his worn, black jacket.

"They should be here any minute, Sarge," said Hayes, whose gaze never left the sharp edge of his knife. "I don't know a blue-blooded imperial who would pass up going on a trip to Myrkr."

Giovanni nodded, and looking up he noticed the rest of the squad pile in. It was strange to see them all dressed up in non-standard issue equipment. It was like watching a bunch of strangers arrive on their first day to the Academy on Tadath. He had an incredible urge to scream obscenities to them and shave their heads clean.

He shook the instinct off motioned them to gather around.

"Okay, looks like we're not missing anyone. Good." Ken, Fayeena, Brock, and one other he didn't recognize at first put their bags down for the technicians to haul and stow on-board.

"Sorry soldier, i don't recognize you. Your name?" Ken and Brock stirred uneasily and looked elsewhere.

"Gunnery Sergeant Rigar, sir. I'm your assistant." He snapped a salute and was then at ease.

"So you are. Pardon the confusion." He returned the salute and went back to the matter at hand.

"As you probably gathered from the short briefing message i sent to you, we are off to Myrkr on reconnaissance. We are to stay deep undercover. And i mean deep." He paused for a moment to add emphasis to his previous statement.

"Revealing yourself as a soldier of the empire could not under jeopardize this mission, but also future operations to Myrkr."

Aldur Wyndaru, pilot of the shuttle that would take them off-world and Giovanni's cousin came out to the loading ramp to tap angrily at his wrist and remind the squad that they were scheduled to take off two minutes ago.

"You heard the flyboy. Get comfortable on-board. We'll talk more later."

Liam was first onboard the transport. The small-ish ship wasn’t luxurious, but it was somewhat comfortable, and Liam was content. He had seen too much war and too much pain to be anything but content; merely being alive was a feat all its own. Liam couldn’t even begin to count the number of times he had just narrowly escaped death, and he didn’t want to. Such things didn’t bear thinking about, and Liam wanted to use the trip to study up on smuggler habits. If this was supposed to be a deep cover operation, then Liam would play the part to the best of his abilities.

The shuttle Iron Horse was taking to Malastare was nothing special. It consisted of three main parts: the cockpit, the passenger seating, and a small cargo hold where all the gear was stored. As Liam climbed up the ramp into the shuttle he threw his bag nonchalantly into the cargo hold and made his into the passenger seating. The shuttle was rated for twenty four passengers and their gear. As a result the half-dozen Horsies that were using the ship had plenty of room.

Before Liam could settle in and begin to study he needed to download the information. He moved into the cockpit and spoke to the pilot.

“Can you do me a favor?” he asked the young-ish looking pilot.

The pilot through an irritated glance in Liam’s direction, but gave a sharp nod. Liam let out a slight smile. For some reason or other, Liam found that people just had a hard time saying no whenever he asked them for something. He didn’t know why, but he wasn’t about to begin to question the useful skill, if it was a skill at all.

“Plug this in to the ships comp? I need to access the Imperial database. If you can hook me in I can do the rest,” Liam said.

The pilot did so as he quickly finished his preflight routine. It only took a second for his datapad to display the database user interface. Liam quickly typed in his service number and password, and not long after that he was rewarded with access to a wealth of information. It took him a couple minutes to find what he was looking for, and several more seconds for the information to download itself into his datapad.

When the information was downloaded the pilot unplugged the datapad and handed it back. Liam thanked the man and returned the passenger seating area, plopping down in the very front row. By now the rest of the squad was seated. Some of the Horsies were reading various materials, some appeared to be listening to music, and some were even napping. Liam noticed that Gio was chatting quietly with the new ASL, no doubt filling him in on the situation. 

Liam was unsure about his new ASL. It wasn’t that he wanted the spot for himself. No, Liam wasn’t one for responsibility. The fact was Liam didn’t take orders well in the first place, and he had high expectations for his superiors. More often than not his superiors failed to meet those expectations, and Liam would end up doing or saying things that he would regret later out of disgust for what he deemed as incompetent leadership. It had happened before, and Liam new it would probably happen again.

So far, though, things were going well. Gio was a more than capable squad leader, and Liam was happy to take orders from such a man. But now a new guy had been thrown into the mix, and Liam didn’t know anything about him. This mission had gotten a lot more interesting, and the causes were internal. Liam just hoped that the squad members would be able to overcome their unease with each other before they reached Myrkr. If they didn’t things would get a lot harder.

Pushing such gloomy thoughts from his mind Liam sat back in his chair and began to browse through the information he had downloaded from the database, trying to find a good place to start. As he read he failed to notice the ships gentle take off and it’s acceleration to hyperspace. Liam was on a mission now, and he was one hundred percent focused on his objectives. Right now, that was to become a smuggler, and Liam would do the best he could to nail the part.

Anival was tired of just standing there and watching everyone talk so he decided to begin talking to the rest of the squad.

Anival walked over to Ken remembering when Verlock was killed.
He shook the feeling.

He remembered walking down the corridors to when he first walked into the barrack of Iron Horse.

He chuckled, Saphira wasn’t even appointed to IH when he was, yet he still felt like an outsider.

He walked over ken and said “Hi stranger”. Ken looked at him and smiled “hey, long time”
“Yes” responded Anival, looking down, “but I’m back, for good hopefully” he smiled and gave Ken a friendly punch on the shoulders and walked away.

He didn’t feel like talking to ken, o instead he went to Laim.


“Hey” he said to Laim.

“Hey” he responded with a gruff voice.

“How long have you been on IH?” asked Anival.

Laim just grunted

Suddenly Anival didn’t feel like socializing. He still felt like part of him was missing.

Suddenly Anival remembered the good old days back home.
He was solely responsible for keeping the Yosefin system in the empire.


He missed most of all talking with familiarity among the troops.
Now he just couldn’t wait till they arrived. Anival enjoyed what he did.

He loved the empire, and would gladly give his life for its ideals, but he wasn’t sure he would if the time where to come and he would have to.

And that bothered him most of all.

He felt that a trooper should give his or her life without questioning it, there were times he doubted he would.

So he was here to prove to himself that the only thing important was that the empire would survive.

He went to the bathroom.

When he looked in the bathroom he didn’t see a seasoned warrior, instead he saw an eager trooper straight from the academy. This he felt wasn’t the Image he wanted to portray.

This he felt was maybe one of the reasons most of his comrades had gotten promoted and were either now ahead of him by what he felt where light years.

He went back out and noticed everyone looked every bit relaxed, yet he and Fayeena looked like a couple of banthas on Coruscant.

He chuckled at the thought.

He relaxed his shoulders, and decided to look nonchalant, and act likes the seasoned warrior he was.

Watching  the others over the past hour at least was starting to  make a boring impression. At least to  Saphira who sat still and silent  after they had  taken off. Her eyes flashed over everyone  until she decidesd to move. KNowng she had to play the roll of a smuggler wasn't hard. It was more she needed to get to know the others sense her transfer over to the squad.




I  still woudl like to know why...


She thought to herself as she stood, streached and walked over towards one of the new faces she didn't know . Knowing that these were the people she was with now. Not her old Squad. These new troopers would be her comrades. Brothers-in-arms. People she would have to work and help protect. Hopefully they would all make it wout of whatever mess they were all going to.


"You're Liam.. right?"

Saph asked as her boots clicked on the steel bottom.

“Give me five minutes,” Liam told his squad leader.

With that, Liam Hayes was first off the shuttle, and the first to discover that high gravity was quite uncomfortable. Not unbearable, but definitely uncomfortable. Everything was harder than it should be, and Liam suddenly had doubts about his job as a distraction. He was quite sure he could start a fight, but he was unsure if he could end it without getting seriously injured. Not only would the high gravity cause him to act and react slower, it would also make it harder for him to breathe.

Breathing was as essential in combat as a weapon. If a combatant didn’t breathe, then he began to get weak. He couldn’t think straight. He became lightheaded. He tired faster, and more easily. Breathing was so important that many martial arts began instruction by first teaching proper breathing techniques. Although Liam wasn’t much for showy martial arts, that’s one thing he agreed on: breathing was the first step.

And here it was hard.

The feeling made Liam very uncomfortable. Every breath he took required more effort than normal, as if he was trying to suck air in through a pillow. It wasn’t too bad, yet, but Liam knew that as he begin to exert himself more and more physically, his breathing would get more and more labored.

Ah well, nothing else for it, he thought. With that he headed towards the bar just across the street.  As he stepped inside the dim room Liam immediately blinked, giving his eyes time to adjust to the dark conditions. Once he could see he looked around, taking in the scene.

The bar was fairly empty. There were only about ten people sitting around. Four men were sitting on tall stools at the bar, three were sitting around a table chatting, a man and a woman were sitting at a table looking over some papers, but it was the tenth man that caught Liam’s eye.

He was a rough looking fellow, about Liam’s own height, but not nearly as massive. Still, he had a rough look about him, and Liam knew that he would be perfect. As he walked towards the man, Liam prepared for a fight. Luckily, as he neared the rough looking individual, Liam had a better idea.

When Liam reached the man, he spoke slowly, making sure to keep his arms at his side. “Want to earn some credits?” he asked.

The man looked up, his hard eyes boring into Liam’s. Liam met the stare evenly. After a long moment the other man spoke. “Depends on what I have to do,” he said.

Liam gave a tight smile. “Hit me,” he answered, “hard.”

The man blinked, looking dumbstruck. Then he gave a slight smile. “Credits first,” he said. Rolling his eyes, Liam flipped him a credit chip worth several hundred credits. The man’s eyes lit up at the sight of the credits, and he stood up, flipping the table over in the process.

By now he had the bars attention, but he didn’t showboat at all, for which Liam was thankful. Instead he took one step, cocked his fist back, and hit Liam right in the mouth. The force of the blow was staggering, and although Liam was prepared for it he still almost lost his balance. He quickly recovered, though, and returned the punch in kind.

The scene disintegrated into an all out brawl. Liam made sure to throw several things (occasionally even people) out the glass windows in order to draw attention. By the time the authorities arrived Liam’s breathing was extremely labored, and the bar was in shambles. Several of the other patrons (those who had managed to avoid being knocked unconscious) immediately pointed the finger at Liam and his opponent, who immediately confessed to starting the fight. Not wanting to push their luck with what appeared to be two hard cases, the authorities arrested the other man and let Liam go free.

As he limped out of the bar, Liam noticed that there was a great crowd out front, emptying the surrounding streets. He smiled to himself as the crowd parted for him; if that diversion wasn’t enough, then there was nothing Liam could do about it.

Anival got of the ship with the rest of the squad, the gravity was heavier than usual true, but Anival didn’t have difficulty moving since he had grown up on Yosefin, the gravity was a little heavier here but it just felt like walking with a few extra pounds.


Anival made his way out of the crowd and passed the cantina, in which a few moments ago there had been a “bar fight” Anival chuckled, Laim, had done a good job.


Anival passed one of the few remaining initial members of Iron horse, he couldn’t place a name on him but kept walking he wanted to know why Allen had left, and talk about the “good old days” but there had never been any “good old days”.


He sighed and walked on he saw a shop and walked in, nothing in there interested him, he was walking out when he saw something that caught his eye.


He stopped and walked over to the shop keep. “Excuse me” he said first in basic the shop keep turned around and said in basic “Yes” the shop keep had a deep gravely voice.


“I didn’t know you could sell weapons like that one” asked Anival with curiosity, the shop keep took it the wrong way “you dun look like your from around ere “ he said in a accent Anival couldn’t place.


“No disrespect, just wanted to know if you would sell that thing” Anival replied sensing that the shop keep thought he was a security worker.


The shop keep looked at him for a moment then walked out from behind the counter and walked to the door and locked it, then he picked up the weapon and pointed it at Anival he then squeezed the trigger.


The weapon didn’t fire, and the shop keep laughed “yes, I sell weapon………….for right price” he said rubbing his  finger together.


Anival smiled and took out his credit chip, this he thought might come in handy, he paid for the weapon and walked out, he felt the weapons weight under his clothing.


Then he got hungry and decided to go somewhere and eat while he waited for Gio to contact them, he walked into a cantina and spotted and spotted a empty table

Anival took the seat and placed an order with the service droid. He took a sip of Ale, and looked around waited.

After the bar fight Liam had to find something to do out of the way. He doubted anyone would recognize him, but he really didn’t want to take that chance. He wandered around the backstreets for a while, staying off the main roads and out of sight. He did this for about ten minutes, and was fast becoming frustrated.

There has to be something to keep me occupied, he thought to himself. And that was when he found it.

The door was recessed, and the sign was faded, but Liam had no problem telling what he was looking at: a boxing studio. Liam didn’t know what pulled him towards the run-down building, but he wasn’t going to think too hard about it. By this time he was happy to have something to do besides wander around.

As he gently pushed the door open, Liam was assaulted with a variety of sensory information. The most prominent was the smell: sweat, blood, mold, smoke, and more sweat. Liam took a deep breath, trying to get accustomed to the odor. It definitely wasn’t the most pleasant thing he had ever smelled.

Then there were the sounds. The giant room was fairly quiet, with only a few dull thuds indicating that people were actually in the building. A few meters away Liam could hear the grunts and the dull thuds that indicated a fight was taking place. The mere thought heated his blood; he loved a good fight.

And then there were the sights. It was dark in the studio, so Liam had a hard time seeing, but what he could see pleased him. The studio may have been in a bad part of town, but it was definitely run by professionals. In the center of the gym were four regulation sized rings. Lining the walls was various equipment and training pieces. On the far side of the room there was a small office, its windowed wall overlooking the studio. All in all, it was a fairly common setup.

Liam took a few steps into the studio, intent on meeting the manager and seeing if he could use the gym to work out, or even fight. He was quickly interrupted by a tall, lithe man younger than Liam himself who jumped down from one of the rings…right in Liam’s way.

Taking a deep breath, Liam tried to hold on to his fast-disappearing patience. He wasn’t very successful. With a sinking feeling he studied the young man, trying to figure out what was going to happen.

From what he could see, none of the options ended well.

Immediately, the man was right up in Liam’s face. Never a very sociable person, Liam really didn’t like people close to or touching him, especially strangers who appeared to pose a threat to Liam’s wellbeing. With a casual movement so quick that it was a blur, Liam extended his thick arms and hit the man square in the chest, pushing him back several feet.
   
The man looked astonished. Liam just stood patiently, waiting. Suddenly three other men closed in from various angles, and Liam had to sigh. He had come here for a good workout and a clean fight. Instead, he had found another brawl. Spreading his feet slightly farther apart, Liam set his shoulders, ready to move in any direction.

He wasn’t really worried. Not only was he a natural boxer, but Liam had shallow backgrounds in martial arts, which he blended into his fighting style. The result was an interesting form of fighting that was hard to predict and hard to counter, but was also extremely tiring. This fighting style, coupled with Liam’s almost unnatural instincts and reflexes allowed the platoon sergeant to overwhelm almost any opponent (or opponents) fairly quickly.

Speed was the key. If Liam didn’t manage to even the odds in the first thirty seconds, then things would get interesting.

It took the man Liam had pushed several seconds to realize what had just happened. Then he began to get angry. His face turned deep red, and he spluttered a string of expletives in a language Liam didn’t recognized. He cracked his knuckles and started forward, obviously intent on doing Liam bodily harm. The other three men also began to close in, but they stayed far enough away that Liam only had to focus on the threat approaching directly from the front.

The man made his move, lunging at Liam with both hands outstretched. Moving decisively Liam sidestepped. As the man flew by Liam quickly slammed his elbow into the back of the man's head, driving him to the floor. He didn’t get up.

Now the other three men rushed in. Liam swept his leg around, tripping one of the men. He pivoted, reflexively raising his arms just in time to deflect a punch aimed at his head. He lashed out with one of his massive arms, catching one of the men above and right of his right eye, causing him to sag to the ground.

In less than twenty seconds Liam had evened the odds. The other three men were lying on the ground in various states of bodily harm. Liam faced the last man, who now wasn’t looking very confident.

Liam moved towards the man, intent on ending the fight right there. He never completed the first step as a voice rang out and stopped him. Standing five meters or so away was an elderly man with a blaster pistol. With a sigh and a silent curse, Hayes froze.

“Raise your hands above your head and step away,” the man said in a voice that belied his age.

Having no choice but to comply, Liam moved away from the four men and waited as they picked themselves up. As he did, he couldn’t help but berate himself. Why had he ever entered the studio in the first place?

He had been walking for a few hours, taking random turns at random times. He had no particular destination in mind, he was just your ordinary run of the mill Bounty Hunter. People shied away from him because of this, or maybe it was due to the small baby Strill perched on his shoulder softly growling and drooling at everything.

  Her name was Lurk, since when they were alone she would lurk around exploring everything, but now she was in full defense protection mode, even though she was less then three pounds. He had found her three months ago, on a backwater moon on the outer rim. Even at a young age she was intelligent, often cocking her head to the side and churping after he said something to her. He knew she could understand him, in some fashion at least.

Slowing slightly he studied a young man who had just turned the corner onto his street. The young man looked like a normal pedestrian to untrained eyes, but Joamer had spent years in the Commando trade. He knew the signs of New Republic fighters, the dangerous glint in the eyes, the way they walked. Oh, the young man made great strides to conceil this fact, but he still fell slightly short of it. No amount of going on missions, or teaching could truly teach you the art of staying hidden. You had to become something, something you did not like. For Joamer this was a Bounty Hunter, he just hoped it was working.

Taking a random turn Joamer began walking away from the Rebel, he did not know why one of them would be here, but he knew it could not bode well for their mission.

Having walked just about as far as he cared to he stopped at a run down tavern with no sign. Stepping inside he knew instantly this could of been a mistake. Nearly two dozen figures, all rough looking, all highly armed turned to stare at him for a moment, then turned around and continued what they were doing. Quickly translating a small sign beside the door he figured his disguise as a Bounty Hunter did work, since the sign read Hunter Hall, Bounty Hunters only.

Sitting down at an empty table he told a young watress he would like a saucer of milk but nothing else. Shaking her head at the strange request the young lady walked off and returned a few minutes later and placed the saucer on the table. He slid a few credits her way just as Lurk jumped off his shoulder and began slurping the milk with wild abandon.

Leaning back in the seat he got comfortable untill word reached him of what the next plan was.

It wasn’t long before Giovanni had circled the market square for the umpteenth time. He flirted with the idea of going back to that cantina he had grown so fond of when his data pad buzzed once and then was quiet. He sat down on a bench and took a look around to make sure he was being watched. The fact that he was scanning the area, with his data pad cradled in his arms probably made him look more suspicious than if he just pulled it out and read it, but he didn’t care. If this was the message he was eagerly awaiting, they wouldn’t be on Malastare for much longer.

The message was short, but disturbing.

    It read: I SEE YOU. It had no date, was sent from an encrypted location, and at the moment, Giovanni wasn’t quite sure if it came from his contact on-planet or some third party that had noticed their presence and was now trying to play games with him.

    Whoever he was, he saw Gio. It was just a matter of waiting now. He was almost sure that the typical miscreant that called Malastare home couldn’t get his hands on the kind of technology needed to send an encrypted message through their VE Intel monitored com line. This fact should have helped to settle his nerves, but it opened up an ugly possibility. He was told they would meet with a lowly smuggler and hitch a ride with him to Myrkyr. Clearly this person, whoever he or she was, was more than met the eye.

    He took a look around for some kind of landmark and pulled up a map on his data pad. Baskol square eh…?. He quickly typed up a message and sent it to his squad. Putting the data pad back into the inner pocket of his jacket, he leaned back on the bench and rested one leg on top of the other. He brought his arms up and behind his head when he felt the all-too familiar sting of cold, weapons-grade durasteel against the back of his skull.

    “Don’t move a muscle, imperial scum.” The mysterious man spit the last word out as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. The voice sounded raspy, and almost forced. Whoever was behind him either had a severe respiratory problem or was trying very hard to conceal his identity.

    The tension in the air was almost tangible. Giovanni’s first instinct, instilled in him at the academy on Tadath and honed by almost four years on the front lines fighting for the Vast Empire, was to subdue the man. However, a quick look at his surroundings told him that it wasn’t the best idea. Baskol square was crowded, even as the day began to quickly transition to night. There was also the additional gravity. If his reflexes were slowed even by a fraction of a second, he could be In deep trouble. It didn’t take very long for an armed assailant to squeeze a trigger and end a life.

Mostly, however, Giovanni just wished that he could get through a single altercation without resorting to gunfire.

    “Alright get up…slowly. Turn around and I’ll make sure your comrades never see you again.” It was the run-of-the-mill exchange between the captor and the captive. The captor would spew out clichéd lines about the horrible things he promised to do if the captive didn’t obey him. The captive would be immobilized with fear and would follow every little command in hopes of getting out of the situation alive. Giovanni would play his game…for now. He only hoped they moved into a more secluded place where he could turn the tables.

    At the other side of the marketplace, Giovanni recognized Hayes, who now stood still and wide-eyed wondering just what the hell his squad leader was up to. Giovanni chuckled to himself. He gave Hayes a subtle signal with his hands telling him to stay put. He felt the barrel of the blaster pistol slide down from the nape of his neck to the small of his back. The captor knew what he was doing. One shot to the lumbar and Giovanni would very much be out of commission.

    Gio’s data pad vibrated once again. Apparently the rest of the squad had also gotten to the square, though he couldn’t pick them out from among the residents of Pixelito, shopping, talking, and generally milling about before dark.

    He felt a tug at his jacket, and for the time being, he had no choice but to submit. They were walking back slowly, and little by little they snuck out of sight of the many people in the square and more into the darkness and shadow of the buildings behind them.

    “Don’t struggle, Sergeant. I wouldn’t want this to end unfavorably, for the both of us.” The voice seemed familiar now. It was the still the same man that held him up in the square, but at this point the was no longer trying to conceal his voice. He could almost pin-point where he had heard it before, but he pushed the absurd thought of his mind. How could he of all people be here? Wasn’t he supposed to be on his way back to Tadath? What in the hell was he doing pulling a gun on him in a crowded market square?

    “Aldur…?” Giovanni asked, almost embarrassed to even suggest the notion that his cousin could be under all of this. He hardly seemed like the kind of person who would be involved in the nefarious activities so commonly tied with the profession of a smuggler.

His captor let out a laugh and removed the barrel of his weapon from his back.

    “You got me, you son of a b-” Before the man could finish his sentence, Giovanni spun around and punched him straight in the mouth. Aldur was stunned, fell back against the wall, and kept laughing. His hand was over his mouth, and his sleeve soaked up the small amount of blood trickling from his lip. “Mind telling me what the hell that was all about?” Aldur’s words were muffled by the sleeve of his shirt.

“I should be asking you the same thing.” Giovanni retorted, visibly shaken and clearly upset.

“I’m your contact. Contact your troops. We’re leaving this sith-forsaken rock as soon as night falls.”

    Giovanni still couldn’t believe Aldur was in on everything.  It explained how he could bypass the security on his com channel, but there were still many questions that needed answering. He wisely left them for later. There would be plenty of time for explanations on the trip to Myrkyr. He had just about had it with surprises for a good day. All he wanted now was a drink and a nap.

“I hope you know,” said Gio, pulling out his data pad and getting ready to signal his squad. “You and I have some things to discuss once we’re in the air.” He rapidly typed the message in and sent it out. It was brief and vague. He loved to leave his troopers guessing.  “For example, how you’ve somehow gained a reputation as a smuggler while on the Navy payroll.”

“Navy payroll? I’ve been retired for almost two years now. Don’t play games with me.” Aldur scoffed and wiped the new blood accumulating on his lip.

“Lurk, no!”

“AGHHHHH! GET IT OFF ME!”

“HOLD STILL, YOU FOOL. YOU’RE GONNA ATTRACT THE LOCAL POLICE!”

“AGHHHHHHH! SHE’S TRYING TO EAT MY FACE. NO, NOT THE FACE!”

A man in a long trench coat ran up and tried to apprehend his pet Strill. She must have smelled the blood, fresh on Aldur’s minor wound, and instinctively pounced. Aldur was caught by surprise, which was bad for him. Instead of doing the logical thing and prying the baby Strill off of his head, he merely thrashed about in a panicky fashion.

It also didn’t help that his cousin took his sweet ass time getting to help him. It was actually a few seconds before Giovanni was motivated to do anything about this fierce hunting animal trying to eat Aldur’s face.

It wasn’t long before the man in the trench coat apprehended his pet and gave a very brief apology; brief considering his pet had damn near mauled an innocent bystanders.

“Let me get a look at you…” Gio leaned forward to try and inspect the damage. Aldur was a little more bloodied up, but the blood came from just a few shallow scratches. He wouldn’t need stitches, just a dab of bacta and a drink to settle his nerves.

Giovanni heard a buzzing sound, much like his data pad and reached in his jacket to see who had messaged him. Pulling it out, he noticed that the man who had picked up his pet was still there, and was reading a data pad. Aldur and Giovanni stopped what they were doing and stared him down for a few uncomfortable moments.

The man in the trench coat took a look around, and seeing that there was no one nearby assumed these two men were the ones he was looking for. He placed his Strill on his shoulder and bypassed the salute, instead reaching out to shake Gio’s hand.

“Sergeant Joamer, at your service.” it was then that Gio realized why the man had been so close to them and why he hadn’t immediately reported the suspicious looking pair to the authorities.

“Sergeant, good to have you onboard. The rest of the squad should be arriving shortly.” Giovanni returned the handshake, and within moments the rest of his squad arrived. Hayes limped in, looking a little worse for wear than the rest of them.

“I guess we’ll have to postpone the welcome party. It’s starting to get dark. I think we better head to my ship.” Aldur got up. The blood had been cleaned for the most part, but he still didn’t want to be seen and risk having questions asked that he sincerely wished not to answer.

The group walked under the cover of night. A mob of people walking around Pixelito after dark was commonplace, so they had little to worry about. Regardless, Aldur felt the need to make random turns every once in a while to throw anything that might have been following off of their trail. Behind him Giovanni could hear Joamer’s Strill growl softly whenever they’d enter a questionable looking alley.

After a good 35 minutes of walking, due in part to Aldur not knowing exactly just where he was going, they arrived at the small private spaceport, close to the outskirts of town. There lay Aldur’s spacecraft. It was unrecognizable. The number of modifications done to it had completely skewed and perverted the initial look of the craft. Giovanni had no doubt in his mind that the piece of junk would leave them stranded halfway to Myrkyr.

Aldur noticed the distressed look on his cousin’s face.

“Don’t worry about her. It’s all just cosmetic. Inside, she’s as strong as a horse. I can’t just play the part, cousin. I have to look the part too.”

“Well, if smuggler ships are supposed to look like crap, you certainly succeeded.”

The squad piled in and strapped into their seats. Joamer, interested in the type and make of the spacecraft entered the cockpit with Aldur. Giovanni settled into an uneasily sleep.

After the ship had jumped into hyperspace Joamer, now increasingly disturbed with the condition of the ship, walked into the cabin area.

  Shaking his head slowly he removed his long coat, then unhooked the weapons harness and laid both in an empty chair. Quickly checking over his cybernetic arms he scratched a baby Strills head gently as she chirped loudly into his ear.

  Unstrapping both his pistols, and laying them on top of the pile he grabbed a repair kit and walked into the engine compartment. Before the hatch shut Joamer shouted into the cabin "If anyone knows anything about engines, I highly suggest you grab a repair kit and follow me. The chances of us making it safely to Myrkr are slim. Next time we need to take my ship, instead of a rust bucket."

Years as a merchant had taught Joamer a few things about engines, and this one was no exception, tempermental, moody, spoiled, every engine was like that. Throw in a rust bucket ship, one with bolted on accessories and you had a nice recipe for something bad to happen.

The thing Aldur said about the inside being strong as a horse was only half correct. A sick horse maybe, sure she had speed and maneuverability, but she lacked grace and charm. Not to mention half the systems were twenty years old, Joamer did not know where exactly he had got this ship, but he was certain he did not want to know.

Days, hours, minutes later, it really did not matter. When the ship wide commlink buzzed and Aldur reported "Ten minutes till we exit hyperspace" Joamer nearly shouted, quickly walking to the front he picked up his weapons harness and began strapping it on. Likewise everyone else began putting on their disguises.

  "Remember squad, we are still under deep cover, we exit one at a time. Hayes, I need you to create a distraction for us again. I'll signal once we find a suitable headquarters." Giovanni said.

Picking up a weapons case Joamer walked over to Hayes, "Your A280 is stock, I found a couple upgrade cases back on the planet, take this one, I had one taken to my ship for me. I figured one of you would have need of it." He handed the case to Hayes and walked off.


A few minutes later Anival walked over and said " I hate your kind, Bounty Hunter. I do not know why you are here, but if you hurt any of my friends, I will end you."


"I am not a Hunter," Joamer said as he picked up his coat." I am a Trooper, like you. This is only a disguise I use when going into deep cover missions. Though, if it can trick a seasoned Stormie like you, I guess it does work. I'm Joamer, by the way. Sorry I have not introduced myself till now, but keeping this thing in the air was a bit more important."

Slipping his twin DC-15s pistols into their holsters, Joamer suddenly gripped the bulkhead as the ship shuddered violently.

"We have exited hyperspace." The comlink, buzzed again. "Entering atmo in five minutes."


"If we even last that long." Joamer muttered as he jogged into the cockpit. "I suggest you strap in, we just lost something, I'm not sure what it was, but it was something we needed." Joamer shouted over the comlink, the sounds of klaxons began blaring throughout the ship.

Joamer stood up and looked around, everyone seemed in decent shape, considering the landing they had just had.

  The ship had plummeted into the atmosphere, every system seemed to crash at the same time. They had been lucky to get the repulsorlifts back online right before touching ground, even with the lifts at full power the landing had been rough. The ship looked salvageable, but he did not ever want to fly in it again.


  Comforting Lurk, his baby Strill, who had climbed into a support beam during the free fall, he checked her over quickly seeing nothing was broken or damaged he shock his head and said "Well, we have landed."

"Alright, seeing as no ones dead or badly injured it's time to figure out just where we landed." Giovanni said as he stood up and looked around.

"Twenty klicks east of Hyllyard." Aldur said as he walked up from the cockpit.

"Gear up, without any other means of transport, looks like we are walking." Hayes ordered as he stood up fingering a scratch on his forehead.


  "Hyllyard." Joamer said as he helped Anival to his feet. "I did swear I would never come back to that bloody city."

"Why, what happened?" Anival said as he began collecting his affects.

"Nothing really, it has just become a den of smugglers and thieves. Makes Mos Eisley look like a vacationers paradise on the wrong days." Joamer half muttered.

"What happens on the right days?" Someone said.

"Darndest thing really, everyone becomes nice and kind. Freaks, the lot of them." Joamer said as he exited the ship.


The vessel had landed in a somewhat controlled manor. It sat in a dense jungle, the landed supports still locked in flight configuration. The sides had deep scratches all along the hull, the engines looked intact, and might even start up again after a bit of tinkering, and some luck.

"You think anyone saw our approach?" Someone said.

"We came in from the east of Hyllyard. The area we are in is desolate forest, if anyone did see us they will not care. The ship will be safe." Joamer said.

"Aldur, tell us what you know. You stay here and repair this rust bucket." Giovanni said.


"No, no. I should go with you. You will need my help!" Aldur nearly screamed.


  Lurk began making a deep rumbling growl as Aldur started advancing towards the group, seeing the Strill highly agitated he stopped and then said "Fine, fine! I'll stay. All the information I have is on the pad."


  Giving Lurk a few quiet soothing sounds Joamer took the pad and handed it to Giovanni.


  "Let us get going, squad. We have a long journey ahead of us." Hayes said as he started off.

  "Twenty klicks through dense forest, night is approaching fast. Oh, I forgot to add the Vornskr love hunting at night. Though, they have been known to attack during daylight." Joamer muttered half to himself.


The squads demeanor did not change much, only a few hands went towards blasters. Lurk hunkered down lower on Joamer's shoulder, her usual half purr growl was silent. It was going to be a long night.