Dante grabbed the man by the wrist and pulled him off his feet. Sniping 101 took the traitory by the scruff of his shirt and half dragged, half carried him into a conveniently unlocked diagnosis room. There, the Platoon Sergeant bodily threw him down on the chamber's examination table. Gashin lay where he had been thrown, whimpering slightly and seemingly stunned by the impact. He looked up at Dante, who shrugged and pointed at Sniping 101.

The Platoon Sergeant rubbed his hands together, as though in anticipation, then motioned for a RAIDER to close the door. As the doorseal hissed closed and the dim lights flickered, the traitorous doctor's eyes widened in terror. Sniping 101 eyed the man's quivering figure, then smashed his rifle's butt into his stomach. As he doubled up, the RAIDERS Squad Leader continued to pummel the white-coated figure.

The RAIDERS troopers watched in silence. Some of them no doubt found the scene distasteful, but there wasn't a great deal of sympathy for the doctor. Dante himself only regretted that he couldn't have done it himself. Whatever distaste he'd had for the mission had long since vanished, replaced by a desire to get to the sods as soon as possible.

Finally Sniping 101 paused, breathing slightly heavily than normal. The wreck on the table whimpered, then spoke through mouthfuls of blood and smashed teeth.

"Please...mercy."

"No mercy for traitors."

"I'll tell anything."

"Start now."

The man babbled for several minutes, and the RAIDERS listened in silence. Sniping 101 wrote down everything he said on a datapad. When he finally fell silent, Sniping 101 nodded to Vox. The grey-black armoured trooper walked up to the doctor, whose terrified ruin of a face was reflected in his armour.

"Plea..."

He was cut off in midword by Vox's blaster bolt. The corpse slumped back down, smoking.

"Thus die all traitors."

Tanus peered out the front view port of the Strikebreaker, making sure that no one was going to make a move. No one seemed to be manning any weapons, or at from what he could see. It was almost as if they were waiting. I can’t imagine what for though. We won’t be making the first strike anyway. Tanus sat back in the seat and took off his helmet; it was beginning to get stifling. He turned around to the others, who were either looking outside the ship for any signs of movement or patiently waiting near computers. Tanus got up and walked back to the men.

“Okay boys, it looks like nothing is going on right yet. I say we leave here for now and go back to our patrols. Maybe we’ll pick something up in the streets.”

As they were about to leave, the thermal scanners started to ring. Tnepres turned around and started to look them all over; something seemed wrong.

“Boss, you may want to look at this.”

Tanus walked to the computer and stared at the screen very carefully: at first glance, there appeared to be nothing wrong on the readout. Then Tanus saw what Tnepres was concerned about. It was a large pocket of heat coming from inside the building to the center. From the look of it, it appeared to be radiating outward and through the building itself.

“Okay boys, it looks like there is a power generator in the building, and from the heat readout, it appears to be a large one. Man your weapons and get ready. I have a feeling we’ll have a fight on our hands soon.”

As Tanus walked back to his seat and put on his helmet, alarms went off in the Strikebreaker. Something was wrong.

“Weapon locks are coming in from three directions! It’s a trap!”

Tanus grabbed onto the controls and pulled up hard on the control yoke as blaster fire started pelting the Strikebreaker’s hard armor.

“Grab onto to something! And for the love of God, someone give me a target!”

Sratchet and Anival couldn’t help but laugh at the paralysed enemy vehicle. While they hid behind their destroyed transport, the turret of the enemy vehicle was spinning and blasting in all directions. Quickly looking around, they saw Giovanni and Hayes running inside a building, blasts chasing them.

“We won’t last long once the snipers give up on Gio and Hayes!” Sratchet yelled over the roar of blasts.

“I got one more left!” Anival replied to Sratchet, handing him a thermal detonator, “I’ll cover you!”

Grinning at the thermal detonator in his hands, Sratchet waited for Anival to begin firing at the scopes sticking out of the windows. Once Anival stuck his head out, he let loose a flurry of blasts all around the building, causing some scopes to retreat into the building darkness. Using this to his advantage, Sratchet ran full paced, getting closer to the building. Once he was close enough, he activated the thermal detonator and pegged it right into the heart of the window.

The following scream-filled explosion shook the ground as chunks of the building crashed on the street below. Feeling proud, Sratchet looked back only to be to have the nerves knocked out of him as Gio pulled him to the hard ground. Sratchet could feel the turret’s laser heat up his should as it whizzed past. Hayes then sprinted from the small building across the street to the over turned transport with Anival covering him, providing a decoy so Sratchet and Giovanni could escape.

“Keep moving Sratchet, no matter what happens.” The squad leader said to the newest member.

“Yes sir, I’ll remember that.” Sratchet replied in acknowledgment.

Hayes quickly ran to their position, “We’ve got to get rid of this thing before it takes us out!”

Just as Gio was about to reply, three armoured vehicles came down the street, letting an array of blasts all around the street, into the windows and into the turret. With a final shot going into the air, the turret exploded along with the rest of the transport. The relieved squad then split themselves up into the three transports. Sratchet climbed into the back of one of the transports. Gio jumped into another and Anival took hold of the blaster turret of the middle transport with Hayes right behind him.

As Liam climbed up into the transport filled with regular army troopers, he couldn’t help but notice their stares. He understood perfectly: he was a Stormtrooper, part of the elite corps of the Vast Empire Army. They weren’t. That fact left them divided, and everyone knew it. Liam and his fellow troopers were simply better than the regular troops, and the regulars didn’t want to admit it. They shot glares in his general direction, disliking him on mere principle. It didn’t bother Liam. He didn’t need their approval, and if he was honest their approval didn’t mean much to a Stormtrooper anyways.

But it wasn’t just their training and appearance that set the Stormies apart from the regs. As a Stormtrooper Liam was called into the most dangerous situations to handle the dirtiest of jobs, and the troopers knew it. They knew that he had committed atrocities that were so far outside of their moral code that they seemed almost incomprehensible. They knew it, and he knew it. It was just one more divide that separated the troops.

Liam pushed the thoughts away. All the soldiers, both Stormtroopers or otherwise, were disciplined enough to work together effectively. Liam didn’t need their friendship, didn’t even want their friendship. He just wanted them to cover his ass as he would cover theirs. In the end, he knew he could trust the regular army troopers, and that was enough.

Keying his mic, Liam opened a frequency to his squad leader sitting in the turret above the vehicle. “How’s it looking boss?” he asked.

There was a second of silence in which Liam could feel the heavy gun letting off a few rounds, and then Giovanni answered. “Not so good. I don’t know where these Delta Ohm blokes get their troops, but they sure have a lot of them. Some light armor too.” There was another pause, and more firing, and then Gio spoke again. “They’re throwing everything at us. We must really be in their home city.”

Liam thought about that for a moment, then shook his head. It didn’t matter. They would succeed, as always. After all, they were Stormtroopers.

Dante gave the corpse a kick, and carbon ash crumbled from it. At Sniping 101's command, three RAIDERS picked up the body and bodily stuffed it into a nearly empty wall locker. After draping a sheet and a few instruments over the body, partly camoflague partly some gesture at last rites, Dante closed and locked the door on the late ,none too lamented Doctor.

As the clang echoed through the room and faded away, Sniping 101 tapped the side of his helmet, evidently closing a com channel. He then turned to his squad.

"Right. Time for us to perform a hospital evaluation. Thanks to the good Doctor, we know where the majority of the Delta wounded are concentrated. A least a few will still be able to fight back, so be cautious. If you see a doctor or supposed civvie, slot them. You all heard him. Everyone in here who isn't a RAIDER is a traitor. Any questions?"

The nearly minute-long silence that followed this speech was more eloguent more than any reply.

"We'll split up into three groups. I'll take Famus and Tortus. Virus, you're with Cursed. Vox and Dante, set up the charges like we discussed in the briefing. RAIDERS, move out."

Dante and Vox ran through corridors, leaving rows of doorseals hissing closed again behind them. Speed was of the essence: if the Vast Imperial presence was detected, the RAIDERS would have a two pronged fight against both Delta sympathizers and Loyalist security forces on their gloved hands.

Dante was full aware of the security cams following their movement, and mostly ignored them. Still, this had to look real for the analysis teams so Dante turned mid sprint, fired a few haphazard shots over his shoulder and had caught up with Vox before the last fragments of the holocam had hit the ground. They burst through a larger, fancier set of durasteel doors and found themselves in the level's lobby. Dante glanced from left to right, hoping for a stairwell, but none presented themselves. Vox had already activated the turbolift, and there was nothing the RAIDERS could do but wait for it to arrive.

The bell chimed, the lift doors hissed open, and Dante found himself looking into the very surprised eyes of a lab assistant carrying a tray of used syringes. Acting on instinct, Dante emptied his WESTAR-34 blaster into the Rodian. The first shot killed the alien and sent its tray clattering to the ground, spilling its contents everywhere. The second and third shots slammed into the turbolift walls. Dante and Vox hastily dragged the body into the lift with them as they sprinted in, hitting the holocontrol for Subbasement 2. As the lift plummeted like an airborne Hutt, Dante heard alarms begin to sound overhead.

"Oh, lovely."

The doors groaned apart, and the two RAIDERS all but threw themselves through. In direct contrast to the sterile, polished veneer of the hospital's upper levels, the basement had a distinct air of abandonment. Without the air filter he normally used in such situations, Dante found breathing the particle-filled, musty air difficult.

Adding to his problems, the partial Delta HUD and helmet affair wasn't equipped with a low light setting, forcing Dante to rely on the dubious lighting provided by the roof mounted glowrods and his own unaided vision. In the half-light, he could barely make out the outline of his fellow trooper shifting from side to side. Vox's armour colour hardly helped his efforts. The stolen helmet's HUD glowed an eerie green in the near-darkness, with bright spots acting as a motion tracker and weapon status indicators.

The WESTMAR glinted as it caught what little light it could. The pistol had caught Dante's eye from the rows of pistols in the station armoury because of the dallorian alloy's bright shimmer. Upon hefting the weapon and testing it on a few holotargets, Dante had decided to use the weapon. He would have prefered his deece-17, but it would be all to easy for someone to identify the unusual scoped rifle attachment and blow their cover to Chaos.

As he crawled along an access tunnel, consulting a datapad for the route to the structure's foundations, Dante saw a red glow up ahead.

"Stang."

Sensor arrays. Someone's being very paranoid, and I want to know why.

Dante swore quietly to himself for a moment, then took the risk of opening a private channel with Vox. Better to take the risk of an eavesdropper than to let his squadmate alert every hostile within a two mile radius to their presence and objectives.

"Vox. Sensors." Dante's voice was quiet, but the worry bled through.

"I see them. The kriffers set them up at every entrance to the foundation."

"Osik!" Dante muttered as he started crawling backwards down the tunnel he'd entered barely a minute ago.

"Excuse me?"

"Never mind. We'd better shut the array, and any defenses down before we try that again."

Vox shrugged, then brushed himself off before heading for the turbolift shaft.

"Those scanners won't shut themselves down. We'd better hurry."

With that, he reentered the turbolift, with Dante hurrying to following him. The doors closed just on Dante's heels, and his stomach lurched as they shot up the shaft. The holo icon had almost reached the ground floor when they came to a sudden and rather jarring stop. Dante's insides seemed to take a little longer than the rest of him to realize the change, but that was the least of his worries. The car swayed slightly, refusing to move, and the two RAIDERS looked at each other. That was when the power cut out, leaving them in a small box lit only by the holopanel's emergency settings. Dante brushed the side of his helmet, fumbling for a control. Two helmet lights came on at around the same time, and the two began trying to get out this trap, for it was almost certainly a trap.

This could get interesting.

The red-orange, absurdly cheery glow of the turbolift's disabled controls contrasted horribly with Vox's datapad as he fought to slice the lift controls and allow the pair to return to the upper levels. Dante, who had little experience with programing, stood as far back as he could, pistol in hand in case the Deltas any funny business.

Vox muttered to himself as the device screeched and another "action failed" sign appeared on the screen's growing list. Dante felt something slippery under his boots as he shuffled from side to side and realized that it was the ex-Rodian aide.

"Charming."

Vox shot Dante a glare upon his speaking, then turned back to the console. Minutes passed, and Dante began to hope that it had been a pure mechanical failure. Still, a purely mechanical failure wouldn't have been ignored for this long. Vox typed another long string of commands into his datapad, and was rewarded with yet another beep. Letting out a frustrated sigh, he deactivated the device and removed it from the control panel.

"This isn't working." The Sergeant Major was clearly annoyed, and he didn't seem to notice the crack developing in his datapad screen. "We need to try something else."

That was when a large thump sounded inches above them. Both the stormtroopers were alert in an instant, their weapons trained on the rough source of the disturbance. A glowing circle of light appeared in the lift's top, a circle which began to move, carving a hole in the durasteel.

"Fusion cutter. Don't fire until you have a clear target."

Dante would have been annoyed by how Vox had yet again treated him like an Academy-fresh recruit, but he was too busy eying the growing oval in the ceiling. As sparks and metal hissed down, he had a bizarrely random thought.

Wouldn't it be completely idiotic if I was killed in a faulty elevator?

The clump of molten metal came down, followed a moment later by a uniformed figure. The Iridonan glanced from side to side, eyes still dazzled by the glare. It had started to rub its eyes when the pair of blaster bolts tore through its body and reduced its organs to ash.

The second investigator wisely remained above. Not so wisely, it remained where it was, giving the two Imperials trapped in the lift a clear line of fire.

Three seconds and two shots later, it flopped forwards and fell into the lift with an unappetizing splat. Wiping the splashed blood from his face, Dante eyed the rappel line, which lead to a rectangle of white a few meters above. The Gunnery Sergeant then pulled himself up the rope, relying heavily on his cybernetic right arm for the brute force needed. Vox followed a moment later and the two RAIDERS found themselves in the same luxurious lobby they'd been in earlier.

Unfortunately, they had half a dozen none too pleased and heavily armed doctors for company. Every one of them had the same expression on their face, regardless of species or gender. Anger, with a considerable dolt of fear mixed in. A Twilek, who seemed to be in charge of the mob, addressed the two.

"Drop your weapons."

Dante put the most harmless smile he could find on his face and tried to talk the posse leader down.

"Now, now, let's not do anything we'll regret later..."

"Shut up."

"Bad idea..." Vox muttered, checking his rifle's power level while he did so. Dante had to agree, and changed tactics.

"You do know your treason will become found out soon enough, even if you kill us." It wasn't a question.

The Twilek didn't reply, and Dante realized that this one, at least, didn't care. They acted at the same time, both firing, and all hell broke loose.

Blaster bolts flew in all directions, screams and the hisses of energy melting flesh filled the air as the firefight escalated. Dante's WESTSAR whistled with each shot as he filled the air with green energy. A human screamed as a stray shot tore his lower body apart, then became quiet when a second bolt took his life.

A trio of the doctors had figured out that they were almost unprotected and were taking potshots from behind the now-deserted receptionist's desk. Mentally calculating trajectories, Dante took a half step forwards, turned, and let a frag fly through the air and under the desk. The doctors had enough time to yell before the explosive tore them apart and splattered the circular table with crimson.

There were a few more bursts, a series of groans, and then things were quiet again. Dante saw feeble twitching from one of the bodies and strode over. The Twilek who'd been in charge of the ambush force was now lying helpless with burned sumps where his hands should have been and missing one of his brain tails. Upon seeing Dante approach, the Ryloth native tried to spit at the Imperial but missed.

Dante chuckled for the alien's benefit, then gave it a parting shot.

"So much for 'do no harm', eh?"

He fired, and the alien writhed before finally becoming stationary. Vox had already moved into the corridor beyond, headed for the basement computer controls.

"Come on!"

"Watch your angles" Angel reminded his fire team as they moved in a staggered formation up the stairs to the second floor. The Squad leader had decided to alternate the floors, in order to clear the building more efficiently. One fire team would hit every odd floor, while the other cleared every even one. This of course meant that if a team encountered a considerable collection of Delta's, that they would have to call the other squad back to assist.

The feint sounds of blaster fire echoed through the buildings Air conditioning ducts, causing the three men to slow their clearing action.

"Third floor clear. Three DO's KIA." one of the second fireteam members chimed in over the Comm,

"Copy, Almost done on the 2nd, wait for my O.K before continuing. Stay on your toes. Angel out" the SL stated as he signaled Squall and Jager to continue with the sweep.

The second floor was clear, it was apparent that someone had been taking potshots out of the windows as melted and shattered glass lay scattered around the large windows.

"They must be falling back" Jager stated as they reached the door to the east stairwell,

"Second floor clear, lets keep it moving" Angel announced over the Comms, followed by a double click from the second fire team. Jager stood back and let Squall take the point for the stairwell, giving the Sergeant a slight bow and waving him through. Angel shot Jager a rather annoyed glare upon seeing this, which only made him miss Kami that much more.

"Alright... I'm moving..." Jager mumbled as he moved to his corner of the stairwell and began covering Squall.

-------

Floor after floor the squads progressed, occasionally running into one or two Delta Ohm fighters who were shoddily armed and poorly trained, probably left behind as a cheap ambush.

"Twenty Fifth clear, awaiting your go." Bright reported over the channel,

"Twenty fourth cleared, Almost done, Stay on your guard." Angel replied

"You know, if they had of dropped us on the roof this would of been done about thirty minutes ago." Jager remarked as they began to ascend yet another flight of stairs.

"Not another word Luth," Angel ordered as he moved out of the office doorway and into the stairwell.

"Yeah yeah...." Jager responded followed with something muttered under his breath,

Angel sighed, "Sorry.. Didn't catch that"

Again Jager mumbled it but finished with an audible and emphasized "Sir" 

"Not the time and place for this Corporal." Angel added, clearly fed up with Jager's attitude.

The problem was that he was right, but Jager didn't really care. Angels tolerance for smart ass  comments and squabbles was considerable less then Kami's, a fact that Jager couldn't seem mesh with.

"3, 1, Clearing" Jager announced as Squall opened the door. The twenty sixth floor was just like all the floors before it, bunch of empty cubicles, some papers scattered around, the occasional black monitor and boring. So Jager approached it like any other room, a few quick pans and a quick but good look in each cubicle and movement towards the opposite stairwell door.

"Should of dropped us on the roof" he said to no one in particular as he passed over a few cubicles, giving them nothing more but a half a second. This proved to be a mistake as he passed the last cubicle. Jager couldn't of been more then a foot away from the stairwell door when a delta Ohm fighter jumped out from under one of the desks Jager was supposed to be Checking.

The lance corporal was taken completely by surprise as his attacker shoved him out the door and onto the metal railing that stopped people from falling down the center of the stairwell. The fighter made quite an effort to strangle and blind Jager as he held him on the rail. All Jager could do was let out a weak cry and struggle for his secondary weapon, which he just couldn't reach. Just when all seemed lost Squall appeared and grabbed the Delta Ohm by the belt and collar and hurled him down the twenty something flights to the ground floor, before pulling Jager back to his feet.

Angel had finished the rest of the sweep by himself. Pushing past Squall he prodded Jager on the forehead,

"What did I say?, FOCUS" he stated rather irately,

"My bad... Sir" Jager managed to stammer out as he retrieved his weapon from the ground, still rubbing his neck.

"Squall, point... Luth, Rear. Lets go" he ordered, still shaking his head.

OOC:

787, I've got school and such during the week... I need a big post to make up for my lack of posts.

OOC:

Urrm....disregard Homeword's last post...

Thing's weren't exactly running smoothly. His set plan for who would attack first, and at what time had been rushed slightly, throwing things a bit into a panic. And on the contrary, the enemy had managed to capitalise on the confusion and use their home turf advantage to lay down some serious damage. He'd made a mistake, and as much as he hated to admit it, it was an amateur mistake.

However, everyone makes mistakes, and leaders only make bad ones if they follow up a mistake by even more. Kanderin wasn't going to let this happen though.

"Everyone fall back, retreat to a suitable distance and wait for my command" He called into his comlink.

The soldiers immediately around him turned and ran behind him, while he and Helena laid down covering fire. On the other side of the base, he could just glimpse RK and Ror doing the same.

As the last man passed him, Kanderin began to step back, still laying down fire on anyone that dared to pop their head out. In one satisfying moment, he managed to take down a man clutching a detonator, only for it to explode against the ground below him and blow a very large hole in the base. The confusion that caused allowed Kanderin and Helena to stage their exit.

"So, care to tell us why we're retreating now Kand?" Helena called, a lot of the soldiers around him nodding agreement.

"Well, I needed you guys out of there before we all got killed" Kanderin shrugged. "They're not going to give chase, they'll take the gap to prepare for another attack. However, this time I want them to be the disorganised ones"

"And how are you going to do that?" One of the regular soldiers asked.

"Easy, any of you guys got a lighter?"

Helena’s eyes widened. She reached into her side pocket on her trousers and pulled one out. Every looked at her in amazement.

“What? You never know when you might need it” She giggled, handing it over to Kand.

She smirked, it seemed he was rubbing his hands together in a maniac type way.

“What do you have planned Kand?” RK asked, scratching his head.

“You’ll see Kiddo, you’ll see”

Helena nodded, she finally clocked on to what Kand was getting at. She slowly backed away from him, holding her arms out as if she was covering the others. She made them back up into some wall type thing; it was sheltered from any noise and also debris that might end up flying their way.

Kand looked back to Helena who was smiling back at him. They both exchanged a few facial expressions and winks before Kand looked for the okay signal.

RK and Ror both smiled at Helena, they seemed excited almost.

“Helena, you sure we’re safe here?” Ror questioned.

“I’m sure” Helena reassured him.

Helena touched Kand’s hand briefly before whispering in his ear softly.

“Just be careful yeah?”

“I promise” he followed with a brief nod.

And that’s when it happened…

Lucky was not impressed by the show the Delta Ohms had given them, and when they stated giving out orders, she thought of them as plain stupid. She heard Alan's protests and saw him shoot one man and injure another. Smiling inside her helmet, she readied her E-11 and did some killing of her own.

Afterward, there were a few minutes that they used to regain their senses and asses their injuries. Seeing that Zeshaun was probably the most injured of them all and that she only had a few medicine patches, she only used the meds on the most seriously inured of her squad including Zeshaun.

"It's a bummer having a broken wrist, if you'd like I could snap it back in for you." she told him after giving him one of the last medicine patches she carried.

He didn't look too sure of himself but finally agreed when she assured him he would be in a lot less pain once she would have completed the task. He agreed hesitantly and she had the squad give her a little room as she positioned herself for the procedure.

"One, two, three..."

With a crunch, his bone snapped back in place and he howled but she then saw a look of relief on his face. "That is much better, I hardly feel it at all."

"Good, just don't use it or you'll make it worse."

Taking point once more, she downloaded the sewer schematics from a database and brought it up on her HUD. there were only a few more likely spots where the remaining sixteen men could be hiding, one was eastward, they would head there first then go back north.

"Zeshaun, you watch yourself and try to stay in the middle of the squad as much as possible. we don't need you getting any more serious injuries."

"Understood."