With speed and precision the stormtroopers dashed out of the landspeeder and spread out around the large civilian house that was in truth a base of the local secret police.  At each entrance a trooper placed and set one of Gates' 'care packages' on the door's center.  Moving at least a meter clear of the door each imperial citizen-soldier covered their ears as the devices activated in unison; transforming the doors into fiery shrapnel blazing into the building.

The thundrous inferno drowned-out the screams of the wounded.  The instant the portals were clear the troopers rushed in, unleashing vengeance with slugthrowers and blastswords.

One enforcer struggled to aim an A280 heavy blaster rifle at Tank; Tank rushed him, driving the blastsword into his ribs.  The discharge of energy bored through his body and exterminated his last breath.

As the corpse slumped to the floor, Tank holstered the slugthrower to grab the more familiar A280.  Tank's skill with the IvP-18 S-FOX Machine pistol had improved but he was better with blasters.  Using up blaster packs from fallen enemies also helped to conserve ammo with his own weapons.

Grabbing what ammo packs the enforcer had, Tank barely had time to raise his blastsword to parry the blade of another enforcer!  Much sooner than expected, Tank found himself in a blastsword duel for his life.  Parries and thrusts were exchanged in a viscious flurry.  Maneuvering under the enforcer's attack Tank stabbed the tip of his blastsword to the enforcer's throat.

The hole went completely through his neck.  Hearing a vehicle starting Tank ran to intercept.  Tank arrived in time to see a vehicle exit the garage and rapidly distance itself from the enforcer headquarters.  Gates had the PLX shouldered and fired in the time it took Tank to assess the situation.

Unerringly the missile slammed home.  No survivors.  Tank joined the rest of BlackJack, mopping up and taking anything useful; gear or intel.  For the coup-de-gras, Tank assisted Gates in setting up the last device in the center of the house.

Purely incendiary and no blast, it created a massive pillar of fire, eating through the roof and reaching a few meters more.  It consumed hydrogen and oxygen from the air so voraciously the house collapsed inward, the debris feeding the blazing beast.  Until it burned itself out.

"Good work everyone,"  Sgt. Gates called out, "next stop is a hardened bunker." he finished with a wicked smile as the troopers filed into their speeder...

OOC:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Adumar

"We've got maybe, ten minutes." Gates assessed. "What with the rest of the chaos, one semi-classified bunker isn't going to warrant much attention.

The allied truck spun on its axis depositing its open maw near the door. Gates picked up a box of ammo, and passed it to Orobos, to Tank, to Tanus, to Saph and Alater who wedged box after box into the truck's rear.

Ammo and medpacs were first, then heavier munitions. Rations were jammed in where there was room, as they weren't key, and much less important. After all, you can fight on an empty stomach, but you'll die with no bullets.

In just under 8 minutes, the truck was loaded, closed, and running. BlackJack's speeders were warmed up and the soldiers jumped in.

They sped for the rebel assembly area; the sound of small-arms was already chattering through the streets. Blade-32's in the air dueled, rebels and loyalist forces clashed on the streets in only small numbers so far.

The BlackJacks disembarked from their speeders, and Tank cheered. His favorite toy was right in the middle, daubed up in urban camo and ready for a brawl.

A Resistance soldier in camo approached. "General Fennir congratulates you, squad BlackJack. He is glad that the Vast Empire has sent some of its best."

Gates remembered that the Resistance's leader was an ex-stormtrooper.

The Adumari soldeir continued: "We've made some serious advances in Quardants B, C, and G, but in A, we can't even get close. Their Chief of Defense is there, and he's an excellent military co-coordinator."

"We might be able to break the stalemate with the StrikerBreaker," Tanus said dubiously.

The soldier opened his mouth, but Gates answered first. "Undoubtably, the Resistance wants us to use the StrikeBreaker somewhere else, draw off some heat - a diversion, perhaps. Doesn't matter- I can take care of the Chief of Defense. Just let me get something out of the StrikeBreaker."

Gates dug through the arms locker. He put his PLX back, then pulled a small suitcase out.

"A suitcase?" asked Tank, rolling his eyes.

Gates opened the case - one of his folded down sniper rifles, a quaret of grenades, a couple flashbangs, ammo for the rifle.

"As I said, I can take care of the Chief."

"How?" asked the soldier.

"Infiltration- easy. I play the city refugee, fleeing past military cordons into center city, where its 'safe,' with only a few of my most prized possessions, not a lie, and get a shot off on the Chief. Easy."

"You'll need to ID the guy," Orobos rumbled.

Gates laughed. "Right you are. Uh, dude, can I get a picture of the guy and his likely whereabouts?"

The soldier typed into a datapad, then turned it. "We're picking up a lot of broadcast information from here-" he pointed out a major safehouse "-and this is what he looks like." The picture showed a handosme Adumari noble with short-cropped blonde hair, and bright yellow eyes.

"Interesting. He'll be dead within the next two hours." Gates said in parting, picking up the case, dropping most of his weapons save one heavy silence pistol and his case, screwed up his hair, rubbed a bit of dirt and smudge, and did the same to his case and blastsword.

"How do I look?" Gates asked.

"Plenty desperate."

"Not like they will after I kill their defense co-ordinator." Gates grinned evilly.

Gates waved a cheery good-bye as he jogged out of the resistance camp and headed towards the Adumari Loyalist Forces. He doubled back a few times to discourage anyone following him as well as to confuse the guards at the cordon as to where he was from.

It took him a half hour to get within sight range of the heavily-fortified cordon. A small line of refugees sought to hide behind it, and they were checked randomly.

Tanks and infantry stood behind a cement wall with barbed wire and other nasties strung across the streets. Heavy trucks moved on a road behind the vehicles.

Gates scowled. The Defense Coordinator was good. He'd secured several major chokepoints, set up checkpoints, and had his logistics secure. However, the set-up looked complex. The young ASL didn't think that anyone could really take over after he was dead.

He wiped the scowl off of his face, and replaced it with panicky relief, and added a fake limp as he neared the cordon.

He reached the end of the crowd, and was soon hemmed in by more refugees. This was a good and bad thing; camouflage, but also no escape routes.

He made it past the checkpoint with no trouble. The guards, set up in such superior positions, were cocky.

Gates smiled, but it was at these fools' expense. Most of them would likely be dead before the day was out.

He made his way deeper into the city, occasionally consulting his datapad. He found the building, and almost laughed out loud. The idiots! They had the most glamorous, window-filled building they could find, and made it a safe house!

He looked around for a good sniper spot, and found one in a building across the way. He 'limped' over to it, and it was an apartment. He re-initialized his desperate manner.

"Can I help you?" asked the owner of the building.

"Hello, I'm one of the refugees, can I stay here until the war is over, I can pay you back."

"Um, okay, just don't damage anything please."

Gates mentally pumped his fist. All Adumari were pretty naive.

He was led to the fourth story, and it was a great sniper point; a view of the entire building, including the main halls and the long side of the windows.

Gates locked his door, pulled on his gloves, and assembled his rifle, screwing the silencer on.

He put on a pair of shooter's glasses, and peered through the scope.

In window one, we have a secretary. Nope. Window two has some guy doing paper work. Uh-uh. Hmm, ooh, window 13. Unlucky thirteen, bye-bye, Mr. Defense Coordinator. Gates thought, then chuckled. This op was so easy.

He zoomed in, realizing that the meeting was just in the middle, looked down at his 'pad. There was all the major features; nose, eyes, hair, but... this one had a weird patch of skin, maybe a birthmark, and the one he had his sights on didn't.

"Fuck. Fuckin' decoy." He looked around, then it was obvious; a line of 'covert' secret service types were guarding a walkway leading to an armored car.

The target appeared, talking rapidly into his comlink.

"This time for real, you SOB," Gates muttered, and blew off his head.

The secret service men flailed, but one zeroed in one Gates position, who slammed the window shut, dissembled his rifle, and slammed it back into his case, and quickly changed into a different disguise; a different refugee. He grasped his pistol, and tapped his ear-bud comlink.

"Boss, coordinator neutrialized, unless they can put his head back together, but the situations FUBAR and I'm gettin' out."

Gates clutched his suitcase and sprinted into an alley. A fireteam of Adumari troops marched past, bullying a poor merchant into showing them his ID.

"This was not part of the plan," Gates muttered, and cursed.

His comlink grumbled. "Yes?" asked the ASL.

"Senior Sergeant Gates? Stormtrooper, Storm Platton, BlackJack Squad, Assistant Squad Leader?"

"Uh, yeah, who the hell is this?" Gates responded.

"This is General Fennir. We recieved your call to your Squad Leader, and an advisement of 'FUBAR' situation. What the hell is that lingo?"

"Yes sir, it means, uh, Fucked up beyond all recognition," responded the soldier.

"What? Never mind, I caught some of it. I'd like to get you out of there, you've been a tremendous help."

"Thank you, sir."

"You have a map, correct?"

"Yes sir."

"Go to coordinates 102-45, Sector 'A', building address 34. A few of my underground agents will give you some ID's and other stuff to allow you to get out of there."

"Excellent, sir."

"Codeword is 'Holdout'."

"Thank you, sir. I look forward to meeting you in person once we win."

"Semper fi, Gates."

"Yessir."

Gates closed the comlink, and looked at the map, then headed off. He reached the address, and knocked. "Holdout!" he whispered, and the door whipped open, letting him tumble inside.

With a final pass the last of the enemy artillery units was toast! Countess Vana chechked her fuel.  "Tank, head back to the hangar.  We're done here."

"Roger, Countess."

As they landed they recieved word about the ambush on Orobos and the force he's leading.  Vana's troops were mopping up the Enforcers.  Running logistics in her head she came to a decision and started barking orders.  "Liuetenant Phaeton!  I need 300 soldiers and ten APCs and I need them yesterday!"

"Yes, Countess!"  the LT saluted and marched off to carry out his orders.

"Lance Corporal Tank, lets see if your Strikebreaker is ready for action."

"Yes Ma'am!" he barely answered before breaking into a run to keep up with the Countess.  Sure enough, repairs were complete.  They even cleaned the gore and debris from the stun barricade.  The Countess didn't waste any time suiting up in body armor so Tank retrieved his TX-3 armored flight suit from his locker on the BlackJack Zero and suited up.  Not as good as his usual armor but good enough.

Tank was only mildly surprised to see the soldiers carrying shields.  Vana split her troops into platoons and loaded them into the APCs; the BlackJack Zero was to be the lead vehicle.  Vana joined Tank at the vehicle's controls, stowing a pair of shields between their seats.

Tank powered up the repulsorlifts and drove out of the garage, the APCs falling into columns behind them.  Tank accelerated as he aimed for Orobos' position.  Orobos' transmission indicated he saw enemy tanks and vehicles, but nothing was showing on satellite or the sensors Tank installed on BlackJack Zero.  As he drove Countess Vana gave her troops a rousing speech.  Tank heartily aggreed with the pledge of not dying today, and teaching their enemies a lesson...

Soon some T-1b tanks came in to view; they were integrated with modified Adumari tanks and support vehicles.  Their line was between them and Orobos' troops, so Tank gunned the engine all-out, smashing through the lighter vehicles and breaking the line.  The remaining halves of the two T-1bs he plowed through exploded, destroying or crippling the nearest adumari craft, but they way was now clear for the APCs when they catch up.

Gunners used BlackJack Zero's arsenal to devastating effct.  As Tank turned BlackJack Zero to engage more enemy armor the gunners fired at will, dishing out death.  Modified tanks exploded with such alacrity and fury tank crews were abandoning their vehicles and running for their lives.  Tank and Vana both reached for the controls to open the hatch.  As the men and women poured out of the Strikebreaker,  Tank and Vana grabbed shields and ran out to join the fray.

With a shield secure on his left arm Tank spotted a man in a New Republic uniform running away.  Tank ran at the man and slammed into him shield-first, bringing him down.  Tank added a couple blows to the head for good measure.  Seeking prey Tank saw another Reb-Republic trooper charging at him with a force-pike.

Tank parried with the shield as he drew his blastsword.  Each combatant desired nothing but to inflict severe harm upon each other.  *clang*clang*  Again and again the blastsword and forcepike clashed.  The bladed tip of the force-pike nearly grazed Tank's throat.  Tank stabbed his blastsword onto his opponent's gut.  The blast boed through to his spine.

As the body hit the ground Tank looked around.  Vana and all forty of the soldiers from BlackJack Zero were still standing.  In all directions the ground was littered with dead tank crews and the infantry that was supposed to protect them.

Through the opening Tank made came the APCs.  Soon the APCs had disgorged their passengers and Countess Vana led 300 Adumari soldiers, descending upon the Enforcers' heavy weapons quads like a wave.  Tank shared the Adumaris' exhileration as they decimated weapons crews in brutal close combat.

Tank wasn't sure which was more impressive when he finally reached Orobos.  Vana's assault on the 'ambushers' or that Orobos had not caualties (wounded yes, corpses no).

Gates fell into the building. The door was hastily closed and locked behind him.

"How'd you know the password?" a strong voice threatened.

"General Fennir sent me, I'm with the stormtroopers."

"Prove it."

"I've got a suitcase, I'm 6'3", and I killed the defense coordinator."

"Fine. You're who you say you are."

"Thanks." Gates helped himself to his feet. He followed the man into the kitchen.

There were two other people, a man who was obviously the first's twin, and a woman.

"Gates, correct?" asked the second twin. Gates designated him 'two' in his mind.

"Correct."

"We are Resistance Cell 43-A5-999. We specialize in false ID's and disguise."

"I see."

"You want something to eat while we prepare your ID's and passports?"

"Sure."

The woman bustled around the room, and removed a bowl and a can from a pantry.

She dumped the can's contents into the bowl, stuck it in the microwave, and waited about a minute, then took it out and gave it to the soldier.

"Thanks." Gates replied, then dug in.

He was about halfway done when a knock came at the door. The first twin answered it. Meanwhile, the second twin handed Gates his ID, finished.

"That was quick. Thanks."

Before the second twin could respond, the first said something.

"What!?" asked the woman, walking a bit into the hall.

"I said, 'That's funny!" the first twin replied, his voice got closer.

"Haha funny or we're about to die funny, 'cause if it's the we're about to die one I need to finish my soup first."

"There's a tank out-" the twin replied before the front of the house exploded.

The woman screamed. Gates threw his chair to the side, and ran over. The first twin was in tatters, his body ripped apart by the tank round that had destroyed the door and hall.

The woman had shrapnel in her face and legs, and was bleeding heavily.

The third member of cell 43-A5-999 was nowhere to be seen.

Gates wrapped the woman's legs in bacta tape and did the same to her face.

A voice in front of him, from the door said, "Hands up! Adumari military! Present your ID!"

Gates stood up, his hands raising in front of him.

There were three men; a leader, in corporal's bars, was holding his hand out, the other two had their rifles at their sides.

Gates took a random card from his wallet - in this case, a 4 of flasks sabbacc card- and tossed it to the corporal.

All three Adumari's eyes followed it, at which point Gates pulled his pistol from his shoulder holster and shot each one, a barely perceptible 'tink' as each bullet fired.

He knelt, grabbed the woman, who muttered, "Nice shot, but easy, easy!"

He propped her up to a limping position and they ran.

The comlink in Tanus’ helmet crackled to life.

“Sir,” said the voice.  “Sorry I’m late, I just got transferred into the squad, and I’m positioned to jump into the mission as we speak.  I can be down in about 40 minutes, requesting permission to descend.”

Tanus thought for only a moment. “Permission granted.  We’ll take care of introductions later.”

“Roger sir.  I’m coming live and loud.  Corporal Dinin, out.”

Dinin Parker terminated the comlink and took the time for one last check of his supplies.  His Katarn Class Commando Armor was shining nicely after it’s last polish, and he wore it with pride.  In the extra storage pack on his back, he had an extra oxygen tank that would allow him to last about 40 minutes in a vacuum, which is about twice the time he needed to get planet-side. His DC-15 Rifle and accompanying pistol were stowed safely with a few grenades in the weapons hatch of his magnificent Basilisk War Droid.

The Basilisk was his Pride and Joy, standing ready in the hangar of the ship on which he had gotten a ride to the planet where his new squad was having all the fun.  He had named the droid Baen-Rae (pronounced Bay-in-Ray) and had trained with it extensively, coming to treat much as a master would a pet, a pet with huge claws, 4 laser cannons and two rocket launcher, but a pet none the less.

Dinin climbed with the ease of practice onto the back of his Basilisk and calmly punched in its orders.  On his signal, the blast screen of the airlock rose slowly from its closed position, sucking out the extra air.  His Basilisk’s turbines roared to life and Baen’Rae jumped through the hatch and into the emptiness of space.

The disorientation lasted only a moment, but Dinin soon got over it and made sure that his legs and arms were firmly locked into their positions before giving Baen’Rae the go-ahead to fly into the atmosphere of the planet looming in front of them.  The computer paused only for a moment before kicking to life at full-throttle, straight for Adumar.  He was glad he had invested in his armor, because he didn’t feel any heat as he and his droid plunged headlong into the atmosphere, throwing entry-flames from their quickly descending course.

Just as the Basilisk itself began to become white-hot they were through the atmosphere and plummeting through the clouds towards what looked like a city.  His targeting computer flashed in front of his eyes, showing him the placements of his squad mates, and he quickly pointed the Basilisk towards an outcropping of tanks that was bearing down on a skirmish between the squad’s forces and a small group of the dictator’s men.  He didn’t have to offer much insistence, though, because his Basilisk seemed more than eager to join in the fray.

The ground was becoming very large very quick, but the Basilisk easily slowed the decent some by down firing it’s thrusters, it had already formed a plan, and Dinin was used to it’s formulas enough that he could generally hold his own from its back as it did what it was designed to.  The group of tanks, he could see that there were four of them now, had just moved into firing position when the Basilisk’s attack began.  The tank at point was aligning it’s turret when the Basilisk turned it into it’s own personal landing pad.  Dinin felt the reverberating crunch before what was left of it exploded underneath it.

Dinin quickly flipped open the front weapon hatch and grabbed one of his two anti-tank grenades, hurling it at the closest tank, blowing a hole in its side that ignited the ammunition, blowing the rest of it away, taking a few men with it.  As he hoisted the second grenade out of the case, laser fire began to bounce off the sides of the Basilisk, and he quickly tossed the second grenade into the side of the next closest tank, making short work of it.  The Basilisk, not to be outdone, turned and fired a salvo of rockets into the face of the last of the tanks before turning and engaging some of the troopers standing around the wreckage of their vehicles of war.

Between its claws and Dinin’s DC-15 pistol, they managed to scatter the two squads that had accompanied the tanks.  That finished, he guided the Basilisk over to his comrades, but dismounted when he was about 100 yards away from the conflict.  He attached the pistol to his belt holster and pulled out his rifle, before patting the Basilisk on then side of the “neck”, and dismissing back to space.  He didn’t need that much firepower anymore, but if he did, it would be a short command word to bring it running back to him to assist.

As Baen’Rae flew away, Dinin turned and ran towards his comrades under fire; a tank, and a Twi’lek and a bunch of not so friendly people shooting at them.  He got to a point where he could accurately shoot, and worked his way towards the tank while taking out any targets that presented themselves.

"Gates," a voice crackled in Gates' ear. "This is your boss."

"Oh yes, Tanus, my good friend. Can you call back later? I'm sort of in a really bad bind right now."

"No, Gates don't pull some of that spec ops bull on me."

"Yessir," sighed Gates theatrically.

"Corporal Parker has made landfall, that was the sonic boom and the flying meteor. He's got a Basalisk War Droid."

"Right sir, I'm looking for transport right now."

"Tanus out, good luck, sergeant."

Gates tapped his ear bud comlink off, then turned to the woman who was sitting on the ground, rebinding her legs in bacta tape.

He opened his suitcase, its stainless steel case smothered in dirt and dust and even a laser blast that had come to close from their pursuers.

"About time," is all she said.

She held out her arms for help; the ASL leaned over and helped her up.

"What we need is to get to sector A-33-1B."

"Why?" asked Gates.

"Blade-32's hangers. We can hotwire one and get the hell back into our lines."

"Excellent idea, uh, whoever you are."

"Oh yeah, I never told you; I'm sector chief Carly Wests."

"Interesting, let's go Wests."

He helped her over a few hundered feet, a dozen blocks, until they came to the hanger they were looking for. There were few ships there, most unclaimed prizes from duels, which explained why they were still on the ground; most of the ships had been taken by honor-seeking teenage pilots.

They stumbled into the area, and Wests pointed. "There, there's a non-combatant one, a referee."

"Why would we want one of those? It has no guns."

"Because it can carry two, Gates, now get me over there and let me get it in the air."

"Right."

Gates and Wests were only a few feet away when a blaster shot rang out. It splashed against the hull of the ship over his head.

"Hell, they caught up!" Wests muttered. Gates set her down, and turned, firing his pistol one-handed, taking cover behind a mechanic's trolley. With his other hand, he opened his suitcase and pulled out a concussion grenade.

"Fire in the hole!" he told Wests, who ducked behind her own cover while trying to open the Blade-32r.

The grenade exploded in the Adumari soldiers' ranks, disorienting them for a few key seconds. In that time, Gates pulled his sniper's parts from the case, and assembled them double-quick.

He fired at their leader, blowing him apart, but then the rest overcame their dizziness and charged him, spraying laser bolts.

He fired again and again, downing the front runners and forcing the ones following to dodge around the bodies.

He managed to kill them all before his clip ran dry.

Effortlessly, he thumbed the release, letting the clip clink to the ground, and slapped another in to counter the next wave.

"How much time, Wests?" asked Gates, peering through the scope.

"Two minutes. In one, I'll have it open, and we can hide in there while I get this son of a bitch started."

The next wave came, and Gates started shooting.

Wests took the Blade-32r in a series of gentle evasive maneuvers to avoid a smattering of missiles launched from the ground.

"Wests, get me back to command!" Gates clenched out. He was a damn soldier, not some idiot in a starfighter, or airplane for that matter. He liked shuttles, gunships.

"Having fun, Gates?"

"No."

The Blade-32r zoomed back to the Resistance assembly zone, where a pair of Blade-32's patrolled. After giving the correct pass codes, they were admitted into the area.

The Blade landed near the middle of the zone; a group of soldiers ran around it.

"Oh, I didn't know I was that important," Gates said, flashing a winning smile.

Wests smiled and rolled her eyes. "I'm sector chief and I don't warrant that many troops."

"General Fennir?"

"Oh yeah, he would."

The architect of the combat came with two guards in heavy armor flanking him. He had greying hair in a buzzcut, and had a very upright posture.

The two stepped out of the Blade-32 and saluted.

"At ease!" ordered Fennir, waving off his guards.

"An honor sir," said Gates, who heard Wests echo it.

"The honor's all mine, a stormtrooper in the flesh. I haven't seen one of the old boys in over ten years!" He shook hands with the ASL. "Sector Chief, go get checked out. I'm sorry about your cell, I understand your brothers are KIA or MIA."

Wests nodded, and with the help of a soldier, limped over to the medcenter.

"Pardon my asking sir, do you want a smoke? 'Cause I sure as hell could go for one," Gates said.

He already had his cigar in his mouth and lit when Fennnir laughed.

"Awww, sir, you blew the smoke out, now I gotta light it again..." Gates said, offering a cigar and lit his again.

"You are one piece of work, Gates. So- my troops are doing decent, but the surprise is starting to wear off. The Loyalist bastards are regrouping, moving armor and other assets around, mainly to stop your comrades penetrating Sector A. That is their citadel, we break that, we'll win within the hour."

"Well sir, I already did my part."

"Ready for round two?"

"Uhh, yes?"

"Right answer."

The General highlighted the plan. Tanus was already in combat, on the far side of Sector A, with a dozen tanks and Blade-32 airsupport; Orobos, Tank, Saph and Dinn were in the fray, and were punching up into Sector A with heavy support; that was the main battle. Gates was to take a wing of gunships and attack from a third direction. This would spread the Loyalists out so much one of the strikes would get through.

"Right away, General, soon as I find my transport."

"Godspeed, man!" the General saluted.

Gates jogged to his assigned transport, designated Freedom One. "Okay boys!" he yelled to the Adumari resistance shock troopers over the whirling turbines. "We're punching a hole and killing those sons-a-bitches were they're hidin', who's with me?"

A roar over the battalion line. Oops, I just spammed the entire wing. Heh heh heh.

The corporal leaned over. "Sir, you know you just gave that motivational speech to the entire wing."

"Shut up."

The wing if gunships - 20 all told- roared over Adumari. Blade-32's were tied up on the other side of the city, most of both sides, but private owners were joining all the more often in order to gain honor.

"Sir, we're within the LZ in one minute!"

At this point, the gunships seperated into two groups; would land in a large square; the other half would land all at once in ten different locations, to create havoc and destruction; the main force would establish a beachhead and open up a way for more troops to arrive.

Orobos' call for help almost drew a few gunships off.

"Hold! They can hold out until we've landed. First four gunships to land get over there and give them air support! Everyone else, stay here and protect us!"

Gates gunship, one of the ten that was going maverick, landed deepest into enemy territory.

"Our objective as a whole is to secure Sector A. My personal objective is to grab their power grid. We need to keep it intact for this to go smoothly. After, we can hand it off to some of our comrades with tanks and then push deeper."

24 other soldiers jumped down; two squads' worth. Two corporals, four support experts, a couple snipers, and a bunch of riflemen made up the group.

Their gunship spun on it repulsorlifts, and flew into the air. Sporadic blaster fire could be heard all over the area, as well as the grumbling of tanks and RPGs.

The platoon spread out into two lines, one on each side of the street. Gates led one, a scout, the other.

They came to an intersection. A tank was firing at something, but Gates didn't care. He gestured. An RPG was handed up; he focused the iron sights just an inch or so over the barrel to compensate for gravity, and fired.

The grenade flew out of the weapon, and smashed into the tank; it damaged it, but didn't kill it. The tank's commander jumped out, began firing with the mounted gun. Gates dispassionately fired a single burst from his 500. It blew the man apart.

The RPG was reloaded, handed up, and fired; it killed the tank.

The squads progressed.

All over the city, small-arms fire chattered. In sector A, the Resistance was converging with almost everything it had, and the Loyalists were overwhelmed on some fronts, but held stiff on others.

The Loyalist forces were stunned at how many tanks and weapons the Resistance had managed to get its hands on, but the solution was simple; most of the Resistance forces had worked in the factories, and had stolen small pieces of tanks every day, and when you had thousands of people doing that, you'd have hundreds of tanks.

The weapons had been sent by covert Vast Empire forces disguised as merchants.

That didn't really matter to the Loyalists as they were pounded from all sides; gunships buzzed in the air, blowing tanks up on a whim, but were not attacked in return, as the air cover was tied up with the Resistance's Blade-32's.

Gates and his two squads finally made it close enough to the power plant to see it was well defended; tanks, a company or so of infantry, and engineers.

He knew they couldn't take it by themselves, so he called in a bit of support; a pair of gunships and another platoon. The two platoons got set up by Gates' directions; RPG's would kill the tanks, snipers would take out the Triple-A gunners.

The soldiers set up; on his order, the snipers blew apart the gunners and the tanks took hits, blowing two of the four apart, and crippling the last two.

The gunships roared over, playing out lasers and rockets in a paradigm of precision, destroying the last of the tanks and turning the AAA guns into rubble. After only one pass, they had destroyed almost everything except the facility.

"Thanks for the assist, Guns 5 and 7," Gates said over the comlink.

"Good hunting, Gates," replied the pilots.

The two platoons charged the base, jumping through holes in the walls, and slaughtering the overwhelmed and overmatched Loyalist forces. A half-dozen surrendered, and were escorted over to a corner and watched over by some of the Resistance forces.

The men not on guard duty (about three squad's worth) went into the power station.

Gates went in first, being a veteran of close-quarters combat. He had his pistol out, his 500 repeater slung and his PLX rocket launcher still in the StrikeBreaker.

BlackJack's ASL crept along a wall, until he found a door. Voices could be heard inside. There was also the clink of metal, and the undoubtable sound of a clip sliding into a gun.

He aimed by his best guess, and fired at each sound. The wood splintered as the heavy slugs smashed through, and hopefully killing its targets.

He stopped to reload and kicked the door open. There were two dead bodies, one with his chest torn apart by a hollow-point, the other with only shreads for arms and legs, and bleeding to death.

Gates whistled. These hollow-point rounds really were worth it.

A strangled scream came from his left; Gates ducked and whirled, which saved his life; the Adumari Loyalist's blast sword swung where his neck had been.

Gates brought up his pistol, firing twice into the torso of the attacker, and ended with a headshot.

The rounds blew the soldier off his feet and to the wall behind him.

Gates inspected the room he had infiltrated.

Gates' comlink buzzed in his ear.

"This is the ace in the hole, what the hell is it?"

"Sir, this is Orobos."

"Dammit man! Did you forget the codenames I gave everyone?"

"What?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell everyone...right. Whatever- what's the holdup, why aren't you blowing holes in Adumari clerks to send a message by now?"

"I hope you're kidding, Gates."

"Of course I'm kidding. I hate bloodshed. I'm going pacifist, proclaiming this war as unethical."

He looked at the mangled bodies in the room with him.

"Sir, it's not fair when you sound so serious."

"Fine, I'll act like I always do, just give me the damn news so I can give you a smart-ass answer."

"Fine sir, that will be most thankful. Ahem, we have captured a retired Adumari General whose been assisting the Loyalists, at least not shooting at them. He shot at me."

"Oh. Too bad. D'you have a boo-boo? Does the big tough stormtrooper want someone to kiss it? Well screw that. Do what I always do. Shoot problems in the head."

"Sir, you have to keep all your serious thoughts in one line, and keep all the rest in a straight jacket."

"I'm going to write that in my memoirs. Shoot the bastard."

"Okay s-"

"On second thought, introduce the name 'General Fennir to the man.' If he reacts favorably, take him prisoner, if not, consult me."

There was a bit of quieter noise over the comlink.

"Sir, he blanched. He knows who Fennir is, at least."

"Excellent. Take him prisoner, give him to Fennir. Maybe Fennir's psy-ops teams can use him. Don't contact me unless our glorious leader is out of commission, Orobos."

"Copy."

The comlink went back into standby. Gates looked around the room. There were splatters of blood from the guards, the guards' mangled bodies, and a large terminal.

He walked over to it, then, seeing nothing of use, and left the room, and delved deeper into the facility, neautrializing Adumari Loyalists where he found them and helping secure the buildings.

The battle communications had gone wild. Orders were requested and fired off every few seconds. Gates isolated the Stormtrooper link. There was the breathing of nine soldiers. He smirked. The BlackJacks were so well trained they didn't need orders or help, practically.

He looked around the Power Station that his platoon had secured. The Loyalist prisoners were kneeling in the plaza in front of the complex, hands on heads, with soldiers watching over them. Gates brought up his tac-map. It showed Tanus' tanks advancing rapidly into Sector 'A'- the previous stronghold of Loyalist resistance was crumbling, and from three angles at once. The General's Estate, a well-defended man's mansion-he used to be a war hero- was surrounded and taken by Orobos, Tank, Saph, and Denin. His gunships roared all over taking out tanks whereever they wanted to and his wing of soldiers caused chaos.

Gates' comlink buzzed in his ear, an annoyance. He answered it. "Hello?"

"Gates, this is Fennir. That General your men captured, he's got influence with the Adumari council, and we're using him for Psy-ops. He actually became quite friendly when we told him he was captured by one of the best soldiers in the Resistance. He seems to just appreciate war-making ability."

"That's great, sir. How can I help you?"

"We need the BlackJacks to break the citadel. All available forces are to go there now. I'm tasking BlackJack to go in there and arrest the Adumari Council."

"Right away, sir."

He called a gunship down, and jumped on. He ordered the pilot to fly towards the plaza in front of the capital's Military HQ. The other stormtroopers were ordered to do the same. As he flew, a dozen more gunships formed up into a flying wedge, and occasionally picked up soldiers on the ground.

He consulted his Tac-map again. Tanus was aboard an APC in a quick moving convoy with light tanks and other APCs, the other stormtroopers were aboard BlackJack Zero and heading towards the HQ at speed. Tanks, APC's, gunships, and even soldiers in speeders or on foot streamed from finished skirmishes and advanced towards Military Plaza.

Gates' gunship cleared the last set of buildings, and came upon a huge square and the largest building in the city. "There's the HQ!" yelled a soldier.

"No shit, maybe there's a different massive building somewhere else."

In this giant plaza, there was a huge battle going on. Tanks in the dozens on both sides exchanged fire at long range, infantry fired at one another and took cover and fired RPG's at the tanks. Gates' wing strafed the tanks, then dropped them off near the mouth of another road. A scream and an explosion followed his rappelling. A gunship had exploded from a half-dozen RPG's, and another to a Blade-32 that had come from nowhere.

Rounds were flying everywhere, and the afternoon air was thick with smoke and burnt blood. Gates fired off a dozen rounds at a position, then took cover behind a broken speeder.

"BlackJacks!" he barked into his comm. "On me! Pick up Tanus on the way!"

The Zero roared to him, guns blazing. He jumped on, and counted his squad. All accounted for. He shook hands with Tanus and Tank.

"Good to see you sir. Good driving, Tank."

The Zero stood still, releasing a squad of Adumari soldiers who charged into the fray, and then emptied fire into tanks and other targets of opportunity. Tank grounded the vehicle. Gates walked over to the weapons locker. He pulled his Shocktrooper armor out and quickly put it on.

"Suit up!" ordered Tanus. "We're going in there and we're going to secure the Adumari leadership."

"Hoo-rah!" yelled Gates, adjusting his torso and arm pieces.

The rest if BlackJack bustled about, sticking on plates and readying weapons. As the last of them finished putting an their armor, they put the Zero back into gear, and flew at the Adumari Loyalist forces. Tanks exploded on both sides, but the Loyalists morale was crippled by the General's capture and the fact that they were fighting with their backs to a wall.

Occasionally, as soon as the Zero moved within range of a squad of infantry, the soldiers would throw up their arms and surrender. Adumari soldiers following quickly subdued the surrendering Loyalists and moved them back behind their lines.

After another half-hour of heavy fighting, the forces outside the Citadel were all dead or surrendered. Unfortunately, a company or two of Loyalists had managed to retreat back into the Citadel and now the place was a fortress. Light artillery tried to shake them loose, but the Adumari Council was defiant - a mocking 'come and get us' erupted from the intercomms outside.

The battle for the city still raged all over. As the mission clock approached 1700 hours, and the local twilight, Fennir and his advisors arrived. He made a beeline for the Zero, and his guards followed him.

"Excellent job, men."

Saph made a noise.

"And women. Well, just one final effort remains: break the citadel, and capture the Adumari Council. Any ideas? I know they have a lot of troops in there."

"Sir, I recommend that we cut the power and send in commandos," Gates offered. "We can see in the dark by Infrared or NVG's, and they probably won't be expecting it. Even if they have emergency power, it is likely insufficient to power the entire Citadel."

The rest of BlackJack agreed, and Fennir did as well.

"We cut the power, our troops move in. Here's a map of the Citadel."

The general ordered his troops quickly, and nine other commando teams were brought up to the front and dispersed to entrance points. The BlackJacks checked ammo and Orobos readied a set of directed explosives to smash through the wall.

Fennir's men cut the power, and the BlackJacks and other commandos stormed the Citadel.

The wall detonated inward into practical darkness ten times, and soldiers poured in. BlackJack had entered near the front door, and the lobby was full of Adumari Loyalists frantically looking around in the dark.

Gunfire poured from the stormtroopers, killing a dozen in the opening seconds of the fire fight. The surviving Loyalists returned fire, sending the BlackJacks into cover. Gates tossed a frag into the largest clump of soldiers, who died with heavy shrapnel wounds into their backs.

The rest of the entrance guards were cleaned up in under a minute.

Gates consulted a map while backup soldiers poured in the opening, securing the lobby against counter-attack.

"The Council is in the very center of the building, fifth floor."

"Elevators?"

"Guarded almost certainly. Stairs, maybe. Order the commandos up, and so are we."


The BlackJacks finally hit the fifth level, one of only three teams to do so. The other seven were dead, swarmed by Loyalist forces. However, they were only two rooms away from the Council, who were still there, benefit from a computer slice.

Gates reloaded his 500 repeater - his last mag - and stood in front of the door. At a nod from his squadmates signifying their readiness, he kicked the door open. Loyalist fire, only a few soldiers, flashed past the soldier, who returned fire in short bursts, killing two, before diving into the room behind cover. The othe members of BlackJack poured in, mowing down the six survivors.

"Last door!" Gates cried cheerily, checking his ammo. At less than half, he put it away, and pulled out his pistol instead, taking off the silencer.

The Stormtroopers stacked the door one last time, and it was kicked open by Tanus this time. Even less fire was returned then the room they were in had, and the Stormtroopers quickly killed the guards. Behind a half-dozen tables and chairs that had been overturned were the Adumari council, firing a few hold-out pistols and slugthrowers.

Gates put away his pistol and pulled out his stun stick. He cranked the power down to a slight stun, not enough to knock you out, but enough to daze you, and nodded to Tank and Orobos, who were doing the same.

"Okay, Adumari leadership, surrender!"

"Never!" cried they, continuing their blind-fire.

"Fine. On three, guys. One, two, three!"

The three stormtroopers sprinted across the open room and jumped over the Councilors' cover, and flailed all around with their stun sticks. The ten-member council were all dazed for about a minute while the rest of BlackJack secured them in stun cuffs.

As they came back to their senses, Tanus read them their rights. "You are under arrest by the Vast Empire Stormtrooper Corps for conspiring against the Glorious Empire and firing on its soldiers. You will be tried in a Military Court and on your planet, and will be assigned the greatest punishment bar none. Do the accused have anything to say? Remember; anything you say can and will be used against you in your trial."

The Council was speechless. Gates chuckled behind his faceplate, then walked over to the holonet connection on the wall.

He clicked 'Planetary Address' and started talking into the mic. "To all Loyalist forces, this is Senior Sergeant Gates of the Vast Empire Stormtrooper Corps. We have captured the Adumari Council, and call upon the Loyalist Forces to surrender. If you don't believe me, listen to this guy."

Gates waved for any one of the Council to come forward and address the planet. "We'll lessen the sentance one part for cooperation."

A nervous-looking man stepped forward.

"Excellent."

The man addressed the planet- "People of Adumari, this is Councilman Caine. The planet has fallen to the Resistance, all my l-loyal men, please, don't waste your lives, surrender!"

Gates comlink buzzed. "This is Fennir. The Loyalists are surrendering."

"Oh good," muttered Gates as more commandos came into the room. "We're done."



The VE diplomats had established trade relations and a other helpful, diplomatic things. Gates, encased in his armor for a week having to help group the surrendered and the still rebellious, finally took his helmet off. He lit a cigar and found the rest of his squadmates, then got their attention.

"Guys, meet up at the transport at 1000 hours. Then we're off."

The rest of his squad, most as tired as he was, left.

Tanus walked up, his helmed under his arm, as well. "Command's said something's up- classified."

"Hell, there's no rest for the weary, is there?"