Tanus didn’t mind his job; it was relatively easy, despite getting shot at on a consistent basis by dissidents who occasionally had bigger guns than he did. But things were beginning to look up for Blackjack squad. Despite the loss of several ASLs, Tanus was doing a pretty decent job of keeping his squad in check and managed to get two new members, men he had known for a long time. Now all he needed was something to do. I wonder if a training exercise is a good idea for the squad. At least that’ll keep them from going insane. As Tanus went for his paperwork on his desk, his datapad started to ring. He picked it up and glanced at the number, realizing quickly that he had to take the call.

“Good morning Kami. How goes the day for Storm platoon?”

Tanus’ response at first was the ruffling of papers and heavy swearing; Tanus was glad to know that the work load had not changed. Soon however he heard Kami’s voice on the other end.

“Good morning Tanus. All is going well for me, thanks for asking. And I have a feeling your day is about to get a whole lot better for Blackjack squad. I’ll be over to your office in a few minutes. I have something you’ll be most interested in.”

Tanus smiled as he put down his datapad; he knew what Kami meant. Finally, another mission for Blackjack. Now I can keep the men happy. Tanus put on his caf machine and waited a few minutes for it to brew. Just as it finished, Kami walked in. Tanus gave her a rigid salute; Kami returned it with vigor. As she took a seat, Tanus handed her a cup of caf, two creams and two sugars.

“Wow, you even know how I take my caf? Good lord, what else do you know?”

Tanus smiled as he took a seat and put in his traditional five packets of sugar. “Yeah, well considering if anyone takes it the way I do, they might die of a heart attack. I just generally cut the diabetes count in half.” He grabbed a stirring rod and handed one to Kami as the smell of caf filled his nostrils. Kami laughed.

“Well, I can’t have you dying on me yet. I have a mission that Blackjack is very much qualified for. It involved political takeover and a trade agreement.”

Kami slid Tanus a file, rather thick considering, full of photos and profiles on various government figures. When he opened it up, he saw a picture of a rather large planet, covered in red and cities everywhere: Adumar. Tanus had heard the planet was in recent turmoil, but apparently it had gotten bad enough for the Vast Empire to send in some of the Stormtrooper Corps. Tanus spent some time looking over files on the officials as Kami quietly sipped on her caf. When he was done, he set the file down and looked across across to Kami, who had a knowing smile on her face.

“So, there’s something you’re not telling me. Knowing us, we just don’t go on to a planet and topple a dictator’s regime in good faith. What are we getting out of this?”

Kami set down her cup and looked up at Tanus; now it was time for business.

“The current system is a dictatorship; you’ve gathered that much and that is part of the reason of why you’re going there. The other reason is the undermining party that is going to be helping you. The second political party is being either killed off or put in prison more and more each day. Having said that, there is a resistance movement against the government. But there is more to the story. The new government group really likes the Vast Empire, and has seen some of our work first hand – the leader is a former Stormtrooper. At any rate, they want to set up a trade agreement with us for arms and supplies if we topple over the current regime, which at the moment has no allies and won’t even come close to settling with us. That is where you guys come in. You are going to do lightning raids on the army, just to scare them into thinking that something big is happening. At the end of that, you’re going to strike them hard and fast. I’m giving you one week to make this happen.”

Tanus sighed and sat back in his seat; he was used to this kind of work, especially since he was an ARC. But this didn’t sound like a mission – it sounded like suicide. Then again, what mission doesn’t? Tanus thought.

“So you want us to go on this planet, topple a dictator, establish a new government and set up an arms trade in one week?”

Kami simply nodded; Tanus sighed a little and started to massage his temples as he knew what his next question would be.

“When do we leave?”

Kami picked up the file and looked it over quickly; he could only assume that she had to make some calls to get them in safely.

“You leave tomorrow morning. The shuttle will have you there by mid-day, Adumar time. The trip takes about eight hours, so rest on the shuttle. You’ll be going with all of your gear, so be aware that you’ll be being watched. I’m going to see how I can get you down there undetected. I’ll tell you as soon as I find out.”

Kami walked up and out of the room, her datapad already in her hand. Tanus looked over the file one more time. This was going to be long trip.



Tanus made the call to everyone to meet him down in the ready room in ten minutes. Most of the squad was there and sitting before that. Tanus was glad to see some new and old faces, most notably Alater, who has gone on leave while Tanus remained leader. When everyone was seated, Tanus fired up the holoprojector.

“Good morning everyone. I’m glad to see that everyone is awake and alive, which is good, because I’ve just been given a mission for you lot. The mission entails us going to Adumar and ridding them of a dictator and his regime. In its place, we are to set up a new form of government that will also establish Adumar as an ally of the Vast Empire. Having said that, the current regime is absolutist, and will kill or imprison anyone that speaks out against it. For that reason, we will be working with a rebel organization whose task it is to undermine the current system. We’ll be hitting the same targets as them, be sharing in the same resources and working with the same men and women for one week. Any questions thus far?”

The room was silent; Tanus knew that the understood as well as he did the weight of the mission.

“Excellent. Now, I don’t have a clue as to where we’ll be landing when we hit planet side, nor do I have any idea who we will be working with; Kami is handling that as we speak. However, we will be using our squad standard equipment, and I will be letting you take two personal weapons of choice so that when we hit targets, it looks a little more random. I do not want anyone coming home in body bags gentlemen. Let me make that perfectly clear. When we do hit planet side, we’ll be meeting up with someone from the rebel unit and from there we will be hitting targets all over Adumar. When the week is done and new government is set up, we can come home. As for deployment, all I know is that we’re taking a Sentinel, it’ll take eight hours to get there, we’ll be landing in mid-afternoon and that we’ll have a contact on the planet to bring us in. Beyond that, I have nothing to add. Chances are I’ll find out where we’re landing as we get on the shuttle or when we’re halfway to Adumar. That is all Blackjack. Dismissed.”

Tanus shut down the holoprojector as the others started to file out, one by one in silence. As he left the ready room, he looked down at his chrono. By this time tomorrow, I’ll be on Adumar, probably getting shot at by someone who really wants me dead. Let’s make the best of it. Tanus walked back to his condo in silence, hands in his pockets, thinking about the mission at hand.

After listening to the briefing, Gates returned to his barracks room. He gathered some personal equipment, when his comlink started to buzz.

"Hello?" Gates said cautiously.

"Hey, G-man!" an over friendly voice came over the link.

Gates groaned. His kid cousin picked really bad times to call him.

"Hey, are you groaning!? Aren't you happy to hear from me?" said the rather annoying voice again.

"Sure," grumbled Gates. Let's see... 500 Squad Repeating Blaster Riot Gun...ooh, lookit, a PLX-rocket launcher. Yay! he thought to himself, pulling the heavy weapons from their lockers.

"You don't sound to happy cuz, is it all that smoking?"

Gates rubbed his hand over his eyes, and resigned himself to trying to get the other to shut up.


*************** Some time later (and a few headaches) ****************

Gates woke from a light nap, turned to his bathroom, and swallowed a couple pain killers.

He lit up a cigarette. Then he shoved the two weapons into his backpack, grabbed his armor, placed that onto a trolley, and rolled the thing towards the armory. There, he gestured to the corporal-at-arms, a young, bright looking fellow.

"Sir? How can I help?"

"BlackJack standard load."

"Of course sir, right away."

An E-11 and a riot stick were handed under the metal mesh divider.

"Thanks mate."

"Welcome, sir."

Orobos lay staring at the ceiling. He'd spotted out the single crack over the corner and had counted the tiles twice. He had been asleep for three hours until he'd woken up to the empty room. He was still tired but for the love of him he couldn't go back to sleep. Deciding what could prove to be some useful hours for training or preparing himself for the mission ahead of them.

Pulling himself from the bed the springs screeched at him as he removed his weight from them. He pulled on the belt he wore in public just to have some resemblance between himself and the high tech civilisation he was living in. He walked down the hallways. Messengers and technicians ran past him.

He stopped for a large crowd of people also heading towards the training room they kept the droids in. The large group was made up of medics and engineers.

"C'mon the droids beaten him half to death!" a panicked medic shouted at the rest of the group who sprinted around the corner.

Orobos stopped then turned heading towards the sparring room. He decided he didn't want to train with the droids. Not tonight..... not ever again. He stopped by a small shop and picked up a bottle of a strong, water like alcoholic beverage. He was sure he'd need it. Most of the new recruits and veterans in the Stormtrooper Corp had joined either knowing some martial art from their homeworld or had learned it over the years of active service.

Walking in sure enough leaping around the place flips and twirls and all were two new recruits a few other watching as they danced lashing out at each other with sparring staffs. Orobos new he'd be battered and bruised. They would run circles around him and his brute force approach.

Sitting down he watched for a while. The taller man flipped the other man smacking him to the ground. Orobos realised that the man who'd won was the same man who beat him the day before. He seemed to realise this as well as he pointed towards Orobos. He wasn't much for being bossed around by a corporal but he wasn't about to pass up a challenge either.



Orobos stepped out of the sparring room with his drink half gone. He was sure he had a cut on his head but it wasn't bleeding that badly. He had a hell of a lot of bruises too. He'd been smacked repeatedly to the mat by his opponent but had managed to bring the man down a fare few times as well.

He felt even more tired then he had before both mentally and physically. He headed off towards the barracks bottle in hand. The air conditioned air was nice and cool. Cooler then usual thought they were having some sort of heat wave in the local area. He reached the door he'd been looking for. It slid open and he stumbled in and towards his bed. He fell into it falling asleep nearly instantly.

Great...

The word rang through her mind as Saphira was handed her datapad. Already late to hear the brief she had to do with  reading  what was on the datapad.

"At least the mission should be intresting."

At least she knew one of the squad members. Alater was probably the one that knew her the most as she left her newly quarters. At least  Saph was already packed! All her gear was  in bags. Those that wern't needed were saflty in her gear locker. So with nothing much else to do, the twi'lek walked down the  halls until something tickled the back of her neck. Her eyes looked  up to see  a few personal walking back and forth. Knowing her instincts she went down the way they were leaving. It wasn't a long walk  before she came up to a room and peered inside to see Alater sitting on the floor.


"Alater?" Saph asked. Her voice filled with concern as he looked up to her. "Are you alright?"


"I'm fine.. Just an excercise." He paused for a moment as he stood. "You missed the breifing.."


"I know. I had some issues getting my transfer papers over here. Someone in Dispersing lost some of it.." She replied, crossign her arms under her chest.  "Don't change the subject.. You look worried.."


Alater shrugged. "I'm not worried.."  He moved forward towards her as Saphira stepped in front of him. Reaching to his sleeves as she  felt the divice still clining to his arm.

"Then what is on your mind?" She asked. Alater regarded her for a moment before he reached up with a hand and took hers in his. Almost squeezing it to o much as Saph winced and pulled it away.

"Nothing..Its not much to concern you with.."


Saph glowered as her lek twitched.  "Alater.. Don't make me fight you to find out whats always on your mind. I need to work with you again. Not wonder if we can still work as a team..."

"A lot actually." Alater replied, shifting his weight from one foot to the next. He stood there for a moment in the doorway before Tanus seemed to realize his social fo-pah.

"Oh, sorry, come in come in." He said, gesturing as he swept into his own appartments. The rooms were spacious enough and well designed; symptoms of somebody who'd been on the upper ends of the food chain for a little while. Nothing compared to the specialized living arrangements of his own home, but ARC was a little less rewarding than the people he worked for. None the less the appartment was comfortable, even for somebody of his size.

"So, long time no see big man. I was told that you were back in the ring, but didn't really have the time to meet up with you and get a full debrief. So, what's happened in your absence?" Tanus asked, pouring a drink for himself and offering one to Alater, who politely declined. Tanus raised an eyebrow at that but said nothing.

"A lot has happened since I've been gone Boss. Most of it really doesn't matter at this point, but there's something I'd like to show you before anybody else." Alater said, and began to roll up his left sleeve. There, a device was surgically implanted into his scales and down into his skin. A small blue light flickered every now and again, but for the most part it seemed dormant.

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, what the hell is that?" Tanus ask, putting down his drink before he dropped it. Alater had been acting weird lately, and this may or may not have been the cause of it. Normally the large lizard had barely understandable speech, and prefered to just kill somebody rather than seek a solution. Instead he had been calm, fluid, and generally creepy for a species known for their lack of self control. Lastly, this device pointed to something; Barabels were what one could call 'pure'.

"It's better if I just show you. Close your eyes." Alater said, and took of his shirt and layed it on a spare chair. Tanus closed his eyes and frowned.

"You know I don't like," Tanus started to say before a blinding light flashed through the room, painfull even through his closed eyes, "Surprises" He finished, opening his eyes.

Before him stood a large human male of the same size and muscle mass as Alater. He fit exactly as Alater had in what left of his clothes, and seemed to be pretty much the same, minus a tail. There were minor differences between him and a very large human as well, including what appeared to be scale like tattoos on most of his body. Lidless feral yellow slits stared down at him.

"That's um, that's something." Tanus said, reaching for his drink again.

"I'm not going to go into where or why I got this, but it's served its purpose and I thought that it may indeed be usefull again in further operations; I had them leave it in. I just thought you should know beforehand." Alater said, shifting from one foot to another.

"Yes well," Tanus stammered, regaining his ground, "I can see were that would be usefull. Why don't you stay, have a drink, and we'll catch up?"

"I'd love to Boss, but I've got to go." He said, starting to walk towards the door.

"Hot date?" Tanus asked, chuckling a bit.

"Yea, something like that." Alater said, leaving Tanus standing open mouthed at his own door.



"We need to still work as a team." Saph said, looking up at him. Alater continued to walk, heading back towards his own little appartment. Saphira followed, right at his side.

"It's just all this, the device, you, I'm apprehensive on how it will affect the squad, and our careers." He said, suprisingly articulate. Something of the device was definately rubbing off on him.

"Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." She said, arriving at the building that contained Alater's appartment. With a toothy grin he opened the carded the door and headed towards the turbolift to his appartment.

Orobos woke empty bottle in hand. He hadn't remembered drinking the night before. Then it came back to him. Being slammed to the floor mat repeatedly. He remembered getting the guy a few times but Orobos was sure he probably wasn't as sore as he was right now. Lifting himself from the bed he was happy to find that the bruising wasn't bad. He put his hands on his head. The fur on his back was matted with blood. He felt the large cut on the top of his head where he'd been hit.

That'll leave a mark.

He checked the time. Good he had nearly an hour before he was expected to be at the shuttle thought he wanted to be there around five minutes before just in case. He moved towards the small bathroom running the cold tap which wasn't particularly cold in this case he washed the dried blood out of his hair. Then grabbing his belt he made for the armoury.

Walking down the corridors he stood up straight and lifted his shoulders out. He walked through the billowing crowds which seemed to part In front of him. It was good for getting around but for making friends his size wasn't helpful then. He saw over the crowds walking in the opposite direction the new addition to there squad Saphira.

Walking with her was a large man. Taller then Orobos. He was massive for a human. Orobos had never seen the man before thought when he glanced up at him he thought he'd recognised something. There was something about his eyes he found so familiar. Dis-regarding the thought he continued on nodding in acknowledgment as he past the pair.

Orobos moved round the corner and through the crowds towards the armoury. Checking the ancient time-piece he'd acquired it showed that there was still forty minutes for him to reach the shuttle. He walked into the armoury showing ID to the guard. He grabbed his converted shocktrooper armour he headed over to the weapons cache. He picked up the heavy assault rifle, some grenades, a DC-15 pistol and his vibro-axe which hadn't seen much action in a while. Checking all of his equipment out he carried it in a duffle bag out of the armoury and headed towards the docks.



once he arrived there he moved to the shuttle sitting with its rear hatch open, almost welcoming after the long time of nothing but routine. Walking in Orobos found a few members of the squad sitting inside already. There was the other new member of there squad. He struggled to remember his name. In fact orobos was sure he hadn't even been told his name. He turned and stowed his equipment above and sat himself down.

After sitting through the meeting, Gates hummed, hefting a heavy backpack, a plastoid block that was laser resistant. In it were a dozen rockets, a couple dozen clips for his rifles, rations and medpacs. He carried his 500 Riot blaster in his hands, his PLX slung over his shoulder, and his E-11 and machine pistol on his hips. He had a few grenades and clips in his belt.

He walked through a few semi-empty halls, and spotted the shuttle. He grinned, taking off his helmet and breathing in the fresh air from outside of the base, then got into the shuttle.

He could see that the Stormbreaker was already on board, and therefore, Tank had been as well. He stuck his heavy pack under one of the seats, and set his helmet on the seat as well. He looked around; Orobos and one of the new soldiers, Tnerpres was here.

Gates set the rest of his weapons down, then dug through his pack for a lighter and a cigarette. "Smoke?"

Gates, once he was on the shuttle and it had taken off, removed his shock trooper armor, as per orders. "No armor is risky, boss. They could easily kill us with a slug."

"Better than being mobbed by dozens of military."

"I see, sir." he finished removing his armor, stacking it into a locker and locking it. He kept his backpack out, though; he painted it urban camo. His comrades did the same.

A few of the soldiers smoked; a few slept; a few talked quietly. Some finished with gear prep; this went on for the next 8 hours.

Eventually, they dropped from hyperspace. "Sergeant, BlackJack, we are dropping into the Adumar system. ETA for landing is 20 minutes."

Tanus nodded, shut off the intercomm. Gates rubbed his leg to get the circulation going again; it had fallen asleep.

He stood, grabbing his weapons from where he'd placed them, and slung his PLX over his shoulder, his E-11 and pistol at his side, and his 500 in his hands. He placed the backpack on, too.

The planet Adumar was dark; nothing like what Coruscant was rumored to be like. There was no real megalopolis there, just a hive of blood-thirsty men and women who dueled to the death over tiny things like spilled caf.

Gates racked his charging handle back. The loud noise interrupted several other's thoughts. "Sorry," he grinned, grabbing a rung to hold on to.

The others also stood and grabbed weapons. The comm crackled to life again; "ETA 30 seconds."

Tanus moved to the point position. "Touchdown!" announced the pilot, opening the ramp.

The Black Jacks carefully and quietly left the ship, which closed the ramp and accelerated back into space, waiting until the rest of its cargo was needed.

"I feel naked without my armor," Gates muttered into the tiny ear-bud comm receiver-transmitter comlinks- hands free. "But these comlinks are cool."

"Gates, can it. We're not in armor, someone might hear you, and then we'll have to slot 'em," Tanus muttered; he had his silenced Samurai Edge out, ready to kill anyone who spotted them.

They quietly advanced through the suburbs for a couple minutes.

"Contact!" Tanus hissed, and  the BlackJacks spread out among the walls.

Gates took cover behind a person's fence. Tanus was on the same property, ready to leap over and subdue the Adumari if it became necessary.

Just as Gates was lining up for a shot in case Tanus couldn't handle him- a sensible precaution, as it insured through redundancy- Tanus stood and waved. "What the hell?" Gates thought. "Does he want to- oh."

The man was their contact, one Soro Vanga.

Saphira wasn't too happy about the idea of not wearing her armor. She like some of the others felt naked without it. To her,  it compared to a married couple that had their wedding bands and was told not to wear them for something. Her thoughts were inturpted when  Tanus broke into her thoughts.

"Contact!" Tanus hissed, and  the BlackJacks spread out among the walls.

It was always the training that kicked in. Though Saph was probably mor elikly to go into a fight with a broad smile. She watched as one of their own nearly took out their contact. Raising an eyebrow she stood back and figured a few people were a little edgy.


I would be a little too.. But I would think this squad needs some downtime with a few sims


She thought as she watched Tanus check around to see there was no one else to be seen. Even contacts could be followed or be a trap for the team. Either way the twi'lek kept her hearing streached out as the plan was told. She wasn't paying to much attention to him, knowign that someone would tell her the exactness.

Better to watch out for a rat.. then to become the target for the wild cat..

Gates was inspecting the pins on a quartet of frags when the Soro guy came up to him.

"Do you mind if I ask who you are?" the contact asked through a heavy Adumari accent, the almost simple, uncivilized lisp that was actually somewhat pleasant to the ear, once you understood it.

Gates looked up. "Yea, I'm the one with the innocent expression and the heavy weapons. And the mischievous personality."

Orobos walked in, hands empty, having finished setting up the proximity sensors. "Catch!" said Gates, tossing a det and explosive over to the combat engineer.

"Shit! What the-" Orobos cursed again.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't toss you live ordnance unless the situation warranted it. And I'm sure you like this particular toy."

Orobos inspected the explosives; high-yield, directional; you could stand right behind them and set them off and you'd suffer no worse an injury then perhaps dust in you eyes.

"You've got the sensors up?" Gates asked.

"Yeah, they're up, I've wired them to the surveillance room."

"Great, here, take a look at the rest of the bombs, I've inspected most of 'em and you might find something else you like."

Orobos nodded, and Gates moved to the second wing of the bunker complex. He knocked on Tanus' door. "Come in," said the SL.

"Sir, Orobos has set up the sensors and cameras; Tank, Saphira, and Tnerpres are inspecting the StrikeBreaker and the rest of the gear, which got dropped off here just a few minutes ago. I'm on my way to monitor the security feeds."

"Excellent- where've we got cameras?"

"360 view around the bunker, pressure and movement sensors on the front a back walls, near the two entrances; sensors on the roof, and two cameras on the roof as well."

Tanus nodded, then looked back down at the papers that he had been inspecting; they looked like blueprints, orders, and maps of the city. With another salute, the soldier continued down the hall to his first night of caf, peering at basically unchanging views, and logging anomalies. And he actually liked it; he could focus on the views but also think about other things as well. It got him caught up on his thinking time; between combat, training, retraining, and general goofing around, there wasn't much time for thinking.

"Actually, I have a Shuttle Pod now.  It's a short-range fighter and too small to fit a hyperdrive.  Honestly, I'd love to see what you can do with her.  Though currently I'm saving for a ship large enough to hold all my craft."

"How many ships do you have, anyway?"

"The ISP-6 and the Ebon Shyrack are the only true ships I own; the LAAT gunships can maneuver in space but they're generally categorized as airspeeder transports as that's their primary role.  In addition to the LAAT/i and LAAT/c I have a Reconnaissance Troop Transporter, the Strikebreaker, the 3-2-XR Speeder Bike you already know about, an INT-4 Interceptor,
Dante's Inferno (an extensively hot-rodded ISP 'Swamp Speeder'), a Storm Skimmer Patrol Sled, a TX-130S Assault Repulsortank, 1-L Light Repulsortank, 1-M Medium Repulsortank and lastly a 1-H Heavy Repulsortank."

"Wow.  You really love your vehicles, don't you?"

"Guilty as charged!  So far i've been keeping them parked on land nobody owns, under tarps.  Now, you wanted to know more about the Strikebreaker.  Optimally it would be crewed by two drivers and seven gunners."

"But there are just the seven of us in BlackJack."

Tank smiles and continues "That's the real beauty of the Strikebreaker.  Each driver can control any unmanned weapon on the vehicle.  Additionally, the Turreted Repeating Blasters can be fire-linked for more accuracy or for more damage.  The Medium Laser Cannons are mounted two on each flank; these can also be fire-linked.  The Turreted Grenade Mortar can take most any type of grenade; gas grenades, plasma grenades, stun or frag, even thermal detonators."

Saphira was as giddy as a kid in a candy store.  "Impressive.  Is this reinforced grille for ramming other vehicles?"

"That's the Stun Barricade; it's stun-charge hits nearly as hard as getting rammed by the Strikebreaker.  Though it can get quite messy at times.  After the last mission, I had to disentangle a rodian's arm from the barricade.  Don't ask about the rest of him; I don't know and don't want to."

"Oh"

"Naturally, I would really love to amp up the speed, but if we can raise the altitude range while we're at it it could really come in handy."

With a feral grin "Let's get started shall we?" Spahira invited as she and Tank got to work.  Meanwhile Garryll and the rest of the squad finished taking stock of the gear we had to work with, as Tanus worked the kinks out of Soro's plans...

After about half and hour, the other BlackJacks reported all of their gear intact and stashed in several armories and small rooms. The contact left another quarter hour after that, and the other soldiers turned in one at a time.

At about 3AM local, Tanus poked his head into the surveillance room.

"You're still up?" asked the SL, rubbing at his eyes.

"Evidently, sir," Gates replied, rubbing sore muscles.

"Go to bed, set the proximity alerts."

"Yessir," Gates nodded, put their survelliance equipment on standby and the proximity sensors to full, wired the connection to his comlink and datapad, and went to his room.



Gates woke, and rolled out of bed, a fell to the floor. He rubbed his head. "I hate falling dreams."

He shuffled off towards the refresher and cleaned up, donning a variation of the local dress.

Garryll picked the DC-15s from his bedside table, slid a clip into it, set the safety on, and slid it into his holster inside his jacket. It, through the window, looked rather dreary, rainy day. He sighed.

The BlackJack walked out into the main room of the bunker complex; no one else was awake yet. He grabbed a few meal bars from their stock, a cup of caf, and continued towards the surveillance room.

Halfway there, he heard a knock at the back door - the one door with no mines or other dangerous, intruder-stopping ordanance, though, if the door was opened from the outside without the correct code in 2 tries, it would spray a fine paralysis mist.

Gates set his caf down, but opened one of his meal bars, and bit into it. He leaned over to check the screen that revealed what was outside.

Vanga stood outside, nervously looking behind him and clutching a bag.

Gates let a hand stray towards his pistol as he opened the door. The contact, a small, almost comically round man, bustled in.

"Phew, these are heavy. Glad ya let me in."

The trooper smiled, picked up the bag, and set it on the table. "Caf?" he asked, retrieving a bomb sensor from a cabinet.

"No thanks, I'm allergic."

"Ahh, I see." he took a sip and chomped down the last of his meal bar. He opened another, at the same time removing some objects from the burlap bag.

"I was waitn' to get one of these!" Gates crowed, setting a blastsword, the first of about a dozen, from the bag.

He ran the sensor over the weapon; there was nothing wrong with it.

"My bosses decided you need to blend in with the populace better. Your accents are hardly obvious, but not invisible, and you may leave a trail- they decided at least, if you need to kill someone you could use these."

"Thanks Vanga," Gates smiled, finished another bar, and threw the trash out. He settled down to enjoy his caf and wait for the rest of his squadmates.

The early-morning meeting had begun with a few more of the squad trickling in the next hour, and eventually, all arrived by 8:00 AM local.

Tank and Saphira, the duo who had been working on the StrikeBreaker, reported huge success in the inner workings of the machine. They had increased most aspects of the vehicle, but not its weapons, lacking sufficient time to finish.

They stepped back; a few notes were jotted down by all present. Gates took a sip of caf.

He stepped up next. "Boss, Vanga here was nice enough to get us some civvy clothes, as well as a few other, nicer gifts."

"Continue." Tanus ordered.

"Well, he got us some 'legal' blasters and a dozen or so blastswords."

"The blastswords?" came from someone else.

"Yea, these things; they are like a sword, but they can be used like a blaster if the tip touches something."

He demonstrated on a combat dummy he had dragged in earlier.

A flourish-
A stab-
A burst of light-

And there was the dummy, largely on fire and with a pretty big hole through it, with blaster damage all around.

There was applause. "And the Adumari use these in their all-to-often duels to the death. But, on the bright side, we'll blend better! Just don't piss anyone off."

The ASL retired to his seat, and Tanus stepped up to give his briefing.

"Ahem. We are tasked with several objectives for this mission; I'm sending you guys the objectives now."

He hit a button on his datapad.

Gates looked at his- a message! "Wow, that was wicked fast! Holy crap! Do it again!" Gates joked.

Several of the others laughed, then consulted their 'pads.

(on the datapads  ||
                              V

Quote:TO: CODENAME: BLACKJACK
FROM: VES COMMAND

FORWARD: CODENAME BLACKJACK -> BLACKJACK SQUAD

/Message Starts/

Okay boys and girls, this one's a toughie. Adumari resistance fighters have requested Vast Empire support in their goals, and are friendly towards us. I.e, they're willing to join, negotiate, or at least trade with us, but that's not my problem, that's someone else's. Here are your objectives:
[*]Topple the dictator government
[*]Raid military targets
[*]Break the back of the government forces
[*]Establish guerrillas government officials
[*]Set up VE-Adumari arms trade
[*]Assist Resistance in miscellaneous ways

You've only a week to do this, BlackJacks. Get to it.
/Message Ends/

"Tanus, when are they gonna give us a target that doesn't sound like suicide?" sighed Gates theatrically, fiddling with his sidearm.

"When you get promoted, Gates."

Gates looked around. "Hey, lookit!"

The SL dragged a hand over his face at the antics of his rather immature assistant. "I meant when you grow some maturity, soldier!"

"Yessir, yezzir, yes sir!" Gates lept up. "The Sergeant only wishes to fulfill his Squad Leader's most desperate and insane plans to the best of  his ability, regardless of danger to life or limb." He struck an overly-heroic pose.

Tanus sighed.

Orobos sat down to rest after there practicing. It hadn't gone half as bad as he'd thought it would have when the idea was brought up to pass the time. most of the squad being experts in the marshal arts which were practiced on their individual planets of origin. He'd even managed to pick a few tips up from a few of his squadmates who had noticed the flaws in his style of combat.

They were all sitting around chatting and laughing with a good air around the room. Tanus walked back inside with a sort of urgent authority that got all there attentions.

"We've just received some information from the many spies and agents the rebellion has placed in the government. They have marked out specific ammo dumps and strategically military bases we are to target and destroy if they are to have any hope in this plan succeeding."

At this Vanga coughed. Tanus ignored this and went back to his briefing.

"The list of military bases includes a large civilian house. This acts as the headquarters of the governmental secret police. We take these guys out and the government will lose vital spies and assassins. Alright people you have one hour lets get ready."

Tanus walked out of the large room again. Thry all jumped up and headed to get there equipment. In other abandoned bunkers and houses such as these there were teams of rebels preparing for the coup of the government. With the aid of the stormtroopers it would make there storm of the Parliament easier.

Orobos grabbed a cloak and belt. The cloak was black with some dark camo over it. He grabbed his heavy blaster rifle and the vibro-axe. He had two grenades on his belt as well as his demolition pack. When he was sure he was kitted out with the essentials he walked back in to find most of the squad assembled.

"Will I go get the strikbreaker warmed up?" Tank said hopefully a gleam in his eye.

"No we'll be moving to the first ammunition dump in a civilian vehicle as to keep the element surprise. After the first ammunition dump has been destroyed we'll have members of the rebellion bring it up to support the rest of our attacks on our targets."

The squad now kitted out moved out of the bunker and followed Tanus to the civilian vehicle waiting to pick them up.