Lucky's throat tightened, this was bad. She didn't like the sound of this turnout one bit. Her comm crackled to life and she heard Nick's voice clearly in her ear.

"Lucky, we have a problem."

"What is it, Nick?"

"They want to sabotage the communications and that's their main goal on here."

"Thanks a lot for echoing my thoughts. we realized just the same, so let's not sit around here for too long. we have to act-quickly."

"What do you suggest?"

"We regroup for now until we find the main communications center, we inform the Officers of what's going on and have them switch to backup power."

"So where do we meet up?"

Stay at your current position, we're coming to join you."

"Roger that."

"Let's move out!"

Blaster bolts flew across the area. It was a living nightmare. Nick hid behind the corner of the wall just in time to dodge another blast.

‘’Alright Nova, charge out.’’ Nick suggested.

Nova flipped out of cover accompanied by Nick and Requiem, they then fired at the last of the mercenaries. They hoped they wouldn’t get any more surprise attacks. The fire team then heard heavy footsteps coming towards them. Nick hid along the wall. When the sounds got close enough, Draxen jumped out of the corner and held the approaching person at gunpoint. Only to see that it was Lucky.

‘’Sorry, ma’am. Thought you were one of them.’’ Nick apologized.

‘’Its alright. Next time, try looking at the target so you can identify first.’’ Lucky said.

The paladins regrouped in the Corridor. Now that they were together again. There was only one question.

‘’So, what should we do ?’’ Requiem wondered.

‘’ Perhaps we should hunt them down. But we have our orders.. We need to watch over this Corridor, and possibly the mess hall since its close.’’ Nick reminded.

‘’Well then.. Lets go visit the mess hall?’’ Zeshaun said.

The hanger was cleared by the BlackJacks, Raiders and marines, and once that was done, the Navy Personnel could get the TIE's out and the hanger shields and blast doors closed. No more TIE-pods would get in this way.

Gates called to the soldiers. "Count off!"

The BlackJacks called off, minus two. "Where's Tanus?"

Tank shrugged. "Said he was tied up somewhere, I dunno."

"Where's Corporal Verkur- nevermind," Gates came across the body of the corporal. "Medic! Get over here!"

Gates removed the corporal's helmet, checked his pulse and vitals.

"Slight concussion- nothing serious." He waved the medic off, then stuck dug through his gear until he found what he was looking for. He waved a small pack of smelling salts under the man's nose, trying to wake him, and when that didn't work, administered a very mild sedative.

He slapped the corporal on the face, lightly. "Wakey wakey, corporal. We've got mercenaries to kill."

The soldier shook his head, then tried to stand. "Get your bearings, then stand."

Gates turned to the rest of the squad. "Tank! Any luck in getting Tanus on the line yet?"

"Sir, I'm no comm tech."

"Well, Verk here is, and he can take over for you. Here's the plan- Orobos, Verkur, and BARman, find Tanus. Then link up with the rest of us, we're going hunting."

The BlackJacks nodded, accepting their orders, and jogged off to get to it.

Gates, really starting to get angry at the stupid Snowtrooper costume, ripped the helmet portion off and tossed it into the dropship. "I'll wear the damn thing when it gets cold."

He twisted a small comlink into his ear, and tuned it to the squad frequency. "Okay BlackJacks, let's move out."

The four remaining members of BlackJack followed their ASL deeper into the belly of the Imperial Destroyer.

They quickly came upon a running light fight, a pair of security guards and stormtroopers fighting against several more commando mercenaries. Unfortunately for the mercs, they were right in front of the BlackJacks.

Gates threw a series of hand signals, then put his DC-15 up, and pulled out his knife and pistol. His pistol in his off hand and knife in dominant, he advanced slowly. Right behind him was Saph, with Tank and Dinin covering them.

He came within two yards of the furthest back merc, and, when he judged the moment was right, grabbed the man with his dominant hand - his right- and took him into a headlog hostage hold, while firing his pistol into the others. The other three BlackJacks fired rapidly into the other five soldiers, and three fell right away. The other two had only one avenue of retreat-right back towards the other Imperials, who cut them down.

Gates then cut the man's throat open, leaving him to bleed to death.

"C'mon!" he ordered, waving to the soldiers. "We've got more bastards to kill!"

Jegora eyed Hunter, surprised, and quite sure that his asinine plan would never, ever work. To his surprise, Angel nodded thoughtfully, and Aeos let out a small smile. Jegora couldn’t keep silent after that.

“Are you serious? You’re going to beat these guys by spreading booze all over the floor?” he asked, incredulous. Aeos looked over at Jegora, and her small smile broke into a big grin.

“What’s the matter, Jeg, were you planning on drinking it all instead?”

Jegora looked around, suddenly very self-conscious. That itself came as a surprise. Jegora hadn’t felt self-conscious in a long, long time, not since he had first joined the Naval Academy nearly six years ago. Glancing around at the other Jesters, who all seemed to be staring at Jegora with smiles and grins on their faces, Jegora nearly blushed.

“Ah, what the hell,” he muttered, grabbing a bottle of Corellian Ale and moving to the door of the bar. Standing in the doorway Jegora chucked the bottle of whiskey straight down the hall, towards the direction of the advancing enemy troops. The bottle hit the floor and shattered, leaving glass and dark brown ale all over the slick floor. “Might as well give them something to cut themselves on,” Jegora said, smiling himself.

***

Fifteen minutes later the hallway approaching the bar was littered with shards of glass and was covered in various forms of alcoholic beverages. If all went as planned the enemy troopers would enter the hallway, slip in the mess the Jesters had created just for them, and then cut themselves on the bottle fragments. If all went as planned.

In any case, Jegora thought to himself, surveying the scene, if worse comes to worse we can always light it all on fire.

Jegora turned away, heading back inside the bar where Angel and Aeos were studying a blueprint of the Dominion. Jegora walked over, still uncomfortable in his pink bathrobe, which was considerably shorter than he would have liked. Leaning over the table next to Angel, he also took a look at the map.

The bar was at one end of a four-way intersection. The Jesters had come from the hallway right of the bar. Left led to crew bunks and another bank of turbolifts. Straight ahead would lead one to a gunnery bank…and a set of escape pods. That was the direction the bad guys would come from. How many of the invaders would come that way, Jegora didn’t know. He hoped it wasn’t too many. There were only nine Jesters.

“Here and here?” Jegora asked, pointing to two places just outside the bar. Angel nodded.

“On it, boss” Jegora said, grabbing Jager and Jori and instructing them to help him set up some tables as cover. The invaders would probably be boarding by now, and Jegora estimated the Jesters had about ten minutes until the bad guys showed up. They would have to make the most of the time they had.

Orobos stopped in the middle of the hallway when he heard the call for their assembly at the hanger. Verkur and Barman stopped behind him. They would head back to the hanger and meet up with Tanus there.

"Alright, let's get going," He said waving at the two troopers. Orobos heard his comlink crackle and Gates voice filled the inside of his helmet along with the sound of ships in the back round,

"Orobos you get that?"

"We heard the announcement no worries we're on our way back,"

"Find Tanus?"

"Yes it was a simple matter of following the convenient body trail,"

"Really?!" Gates sounded like he was stifling a laugh,

"What do you think?"

All Orobos received as an answer was a muffled grunt and then the static disappeared. He motioned for the troopers to follow him again and they set of back down the corridor. Many Bodies of borders and some Navy personnel littered the floors of the corridors near where many of the strikes seemed to have been concentrated. The walls were scorched and fragments of the interior lining of the ship had been broken off.

As they arrived at the hanger they spotted Gates talking with Tanus. The rest of the squad was gathered around them in a huddle. Verkur, Barmen and Orobos joined the group.

"How long?" Orobos asked the moment they pushed through the crowd of gathering troopers,

"Oh, We're leaving right now don't worry about that. Just waiting so that we have everybody. Now that you three are here lets mount up," Tanus said jerking his thumb over at the shuttle standing by. The engines were running and the ramp was open. It looked heavily armoured, more so then usual.

The squad rushed over and up into the shuttle. The ramp closed up abruptly after them and only half of them had sat down before it was out of the hanger. It felt exhilarating and terrifying to be part of the assault. Exactly on what Orobos wasn't sure, all he knew was that command had spotted an enemy and now wanted them dead.

The squad were about to chase after where they believed the mercenaries had gone to when they got the call over the com system to report to the hangar and that the remaining mercenaries had been repelled.  Thank goodness for that thought Alan.

Alan was thankful that they had repelled the mercenaries.  He had never before heard of the Dominion’s security being breached before and it was too close to home for his liking.

“You heard them, let’s get geared up and to the hangar” ordered Lucky.

Lucky set off at a brisk pace back to where the Paladin’s were stationed with the rest of the squad following close behind her.  Once they were there they quickly got geared up.  Alan wasn’t very happy that they had to get their snowtrooper armour on but he was looking forward to taking the fight to them.  It wasn’t right that they had the guts to attack the Dominion but now it was payback time.

They headed towards the hangar bay, fully geared and loaded with all their assortment of weapons.  They wandered around the hangar bay for a bit before finding the ship that would be transporting them to the surface.

Lucky stood at the entrance of the ship and watched as one by one the squad members boarded the ship ensuring that all of the Paladin’s were onboard.

“I’m looking forward to taking the fight to them” commented Alan as he took a seat on the ship.

Nova roared in agreement.

“You said it” replied Zeshaun.

“Let’s just make sure that none of the bastards escape” said Alan.

“Agreed” replied Nick.

“Settle down people” said Lucky, trying to bring order, “we have a job to do and we will get it done just as we always do”.

“Go Paladin!” shouted Alan.

The rest of the squad looked at Alan and chanted back in unison “go Paladin!”

-= 2 Hours Later =-

Cosmic folded his arms over his chest and stared down at the holographic battle map, disgusted at the events that had just transpired onboard the Dominion and what was materializing planet side. To his right, Commodore Kara Elith was barking orders to several of her lieutenants. Once they had walked off, she looked over at him and began to make her way over to the holographic map.

"Sithspit." Kara crossed her arms and looked down at the battle map, "Damn traitors."

"You find who it is?" queried Cosmic, raising an eyebrow.

Kara nodded, "Unfortunately, yes. First Lieutenant Tim Reeves – one of my finest." She shook her head and whispered "Son of a bitch" under her breath.

Cosmic smirked, "It's always the ones closest to you."

One of the Dominion's crewmembers, Ensign Vrak Silva approached Cosmic and handed him a datapad, "This is the STC casualty report you requested, Surface Marshal." Cosmic nodded and accepted the data pad. He placed the data pad down onto the holographic map once he had finished sifting through the report.

"How're your troops?" Kara asked.

"A few cuts and bruises, nothing major." A small grin spread across his lips, "Jester managed to keep their bathrobes from flying open as well. How about you?"

Kara nodded and unfolded her arms, "We did alright. Only twenty-three wounded and sent to Sick Bay. We've got three surviving mercs that are currently being interrogated at the moment as well. We're hoping to find out more about this facility down on Anteevy."

Cosmic nodded and released a brief sigh, "And the rest of the three-hundred and fifty-seven corpses?"

The Commodore shrugged, "Dead weight. They were vented into space. Those asinine makeshift escape pods were also ejected from the holding-ports. We lost nearly a fifth of our escape pods because of that escapade." Kara motioned over to the scanning console to her left, "We haven't detected any other inbound enemy craft. The skies are clear for a while – you might want to get your guys down there while things are still quiet."

Cosmic chuckled, "It's quiet up here." The Prefect brought up a grid of the planet's surface on the holographic battle map and zoomed into a particular location on the north-western hemisphere. "Two hours ago, anyone passing this planet would've thought it to be a dead rock, but not anymore." He zoomed in a little further onto the continent and pointed to the numerous units walking across the holographic screen. "It's like a colony of womp rats suddenly emerged from their burrows. We've detected massive amounts of life signs just beneath the planet's surface, and a few squad-sized units have emerged from the ground and positioned themselves around what I think are the primary entrances into their facility. The other life signs must have been able to shield themselves from our scanners by hiding deep beneath the planet's surface."

An Ensign walked up to Commodore Elith and gave her a crisp salute. She quickly returned the salute and nodded, "What is it, Ensign?"

"Captain, one of the mercs in the interrogation room cracked and gave us some details on the Anteevy facility. It isn't detailed, but he gave the general layout of the facility before…"

Kara raised an eyebrow, "Before what, Ensign?"

The Ensign frowned, "Before he died, Captain. A combination of blood loss and an excess use of serum caused his death. The other two are unconscious."

"Sithspit." She gave Cosmic a quick glance before returning her gaze to the Ensign, "Get those layouts on data pads and bring them back here immediately."

The Ensign nodded and saluted, "Aye, Captain."

Kara turned back over to Cosmic, "Looks like I made your job a little easier."

Cosmic nodded, "Indeed."


-= Twenty Minutes Later =-

Cosmic stood at the head of the conference table with the five squad leaders of both WildCard and Storm platoons. The Prefect activated a holoprojector located at the center of the table and enlarged a real-time holographic video feed of a zoomed-in north-western hemisphere.

"This is the deal: we've got two-to-three squad-sized units guarding a central entry point into the facility. Thanks to Commodore Elith's interrogation team, we've managed to get the general layout of this facility – this information is in the data pads you hold in your hands. Before our friends decide to pay us another visit, we're going to give them a bit of a surprise ourselves and knock on their door first… and we're bringing house-warming gifts."

Cosmic looked over to Senior Sergeant Angel, "Sergeant, Jester's task is to locate the central computer systems hub and download as much information about this virus as you can. If possible, see if there are any traces of an anti-virus information file." Cosmic pressed a button on his end of the table, and the general layout of the facility materialized on the holoprojector – various moving life sign indicators were activated as well.

"First Sergeant Sniping101, Raiders' task is to identify and terminate high-ranking enemy officers and leaders. Be sure to keep one or two alive for questioning. Eliminate any other threats as you see fit." Cosmic turned his attention to Platoon Sergeant Kanderin Draken, "Wraith's objective, Sergeant, is to find out who's in charge of the entire Anteevy operation. I want names and details. There are a lot of men down there without any official tags on their arms, so they must all be mercenaries of some kind. My problem is that there's way too many mercs down there to be from just one faction – there must be at least two or three factions working together down there, and I want to know who's calling the shots."

Cosmic nodded to both First Sergeant Luckystar and Gunnery Sergeant Tanus Solvona, "Your squads will be sent in first. The mercs are apparently protecting what appears to be a storage bay of some sort, and perhaps the largest entrance into the facility. Once you've finished wiping those mercs, the other squads will move in with your objectives. You are to continue your support by entering the facility and terminating all other threats."

Cosmic shut down the holoprojector, "We've only got a little under eleven days to remove this virus before it completely compromises the entire STC database. Whatever information you find down there, be sure it's helpful. The entire division's classified information is at stake, and we're the only ones that can do anything about it… You're dismissed."

OOC:

The full HSC plot line and new squad objectives have been sent to your Squad Leaders. They will help coordinate your posts to ensure that most (if not all) of your posts progress the story.

Good hunting.

‘’Hurry up guys. Take only what you need!’’ Lucky commanded.

Nick equipped himself with Snowtrooper armor, An A820 Armor piercing blaster rifle, and his Interchangeable combat system and his Annihilator pistol. To him, it looked like all he would need. Just in case, he brought a ‘’Renegade’’ assault pistol. He clipped each weapon onto his armor.

The squad ran towards the bay, where the shuttle was stationed. The door was open, and they entered the shuttle in single file. They were greeted by the pilot who settled them in as he went towards the cockpit. The shuttle ascended, and took off out of The Dominion

‘’Whats the Estimated time of arrival ?’’ Lucky asked.

‘’Hmm. Possibly around thirty minutes.’’ The pilot said.

With that, Paladin squad waited patiently for the shuttle to take off. Nick swung his DC-17 combat system into his arms. A multi-purpose weapon like that would definitely be useful.

Nick was easily tired of waiting at this time. He wanted the action to start as soon as possible. He got up and went into the cockpit, to look outside. 

‘’How is the flight coming along ? ‘’ Nick asked.

‘’Nice and steady, Lance Corporal. I hope you are all prepared for this. By my guess, you could get ambushed as soon as we land. Or as soon as we are in their range.’’

Nick nodded. He could tell they were probably going to be in for a rough start. But he hoped they wouldn’t get shot out of the sky.

‘’Blackjack squad is on our tail. They will land shortly after us.’’ The pilot said, as the ship began to finally touch down.

Nick hurried out of the Cockpit and regrouped with his squadmates.  They were all facing the exit, weapons in hand. 

The ramp immediately swung open. And the Paladins stormed onto the surface.

Requiem dropped to the floor once the squad began to open fire and than followed suit. Requiem than crawled over to a crate on their side and then rested his back upon it, him with his new DC-17M interchangeable Combat System changed the Weapon to it's Blaster and than began to use Blind fire upon the enemies ahead of them. He than heard a sound of a hit and someone screaming on the other side of his crate. he than replaced his DC-17M for his M82-G Assault Rifle and than placed placed it across his lap, He jumped from his place reached to his sides and grabbed his 2 engraved FSK-7 Combat Knives and than threw them to 2 Men on the other side of the warfare. Requiem smiled as the weapon's hit their mark and than resumed his cover position. this is getting annoying

Nick to his side nudged him to get this over with. He than nodded his head and than counted down from 3 with his finger's Requiem than reached to his side and grabbed a C-22 fragmentation grenade and than threw it over his crate. It landed near one of the Men as a loud Yell was heard.

" HIT THE DECK! " Requiem smiled as he looked up over his crate and saw at least 6 of the men fly into the air and than land onto the ground In a crumpled heap. Lucky signaled for the Squad to continue further and they got out of their cover and rounded the side of the building.

" okay make sure theirs no survivor's check for information. "Requiem saw one man slowly coughing up blood on the spot with tear's in his eye's, he knew what that had felt like and grabbed his FSK-7 Combat Knife out of his chest and pulled, the man than keeled over and his eyes rolled up into his head. Requiem wiped it off on the white snow and than closed his eye's.

The Squad looked around the rubble and saw a large Storage Bay in the distance with its door slightly ajar. Requiem followed towards it as he than saw one of the men wearing the same equipment the mercenaries were using aboard The Dominion . at least were in the right place Requiem grabbed his other Combat knife from another mercenary and than took out his FlyHigh Combat knives.

" Well lets get to it "Alan said over the ComLink. Lucky signaled and continued towards the large storage bay in the distance, 1 Large Atgar P-Tower began to fire towards the squad's the machine was heavily camouflaged and was not seen earlier by any of the other member's. It seemed that every member of the squad thought the same word at one time Sithspit

other people have objectives too The Paladin squad finished up the rest of the guard's and than walked towards the front of the Storage bay, The door was lowered and closed shut. The squad looked to each other and placed their finger's under the large blast doors. To no avail did it work, even though the hangar Door was frozen solid and could be punched through. Requiem began to get aggravated and told them to stay put. They stood in their sepereate spot's surveying the area.

A Loud shock was heard as the Atgar P-Tower was fired to the large door's the explosion was massive as the cortosis fortified ice door was sent to the ground in large shard's thank you Ice planet Requiem looked forward and than grimaced at the 2-M Saber-class Repulsor Tank Now active and ready to fire the moment the hangar was opened " COVER! " The Squad ducked to the sides and than ran towards the crates around them as it than fired into the Crate's on the other side The explosion alone could kill a squad member and the crate's were slowly being hit one by one.Requiem looked to Nick to his left and they grabbed their Interchangeable Combat System's They changed them to Anti-Armor and got up from their Cover.

Here Goe's

" Fire ! " Nick and Requiem fired toward the Large Repulsor Tank in Desperation.

Angel scowled as he left the briefing. A sour taste had crept into his mouth ever since hearing the "battle plan." The look on his face sent several techs and grunt scurrying out of his path. His eyes had darkened almost to the point of being completely black, and his teeth were grinding endlessly. His boots made heavy thuds as he trudged towards the turbolift, resounding through the durasteel corridors like the hammers of the gods striking anvils. He was outraged.

Somehow, Jester had gone from taking point in the operation, to sitting on their arses waiting for less experienced and less talented squads to clear a damn supply shed. At least we won't have to wear those god awful uniforms. He said inwardly with a faint smile. As he reached the turbolift, a hand clamped around his curled fist and fingers forced their way in between his own.

"Calm down a little ok, you're giving me a headache." Kami said soothingly as they stepped into the turbolift. Her green eyes met his, and she gave his hand one more squeeze. They were never very public about their relationship, especially given their positions in the Army with Angel as her Adjutant, and moments like these were very rare. The lift stopped one floor down as a repair and cleaning crew stepped on and Kami immediately released his hand.

As the crew finished loading onto the lift, the one nearest Angel turned to his buddy and said, "Those goddamn special forces squads. They never think about what they do."

"No kidding Bob!" The other answered. "Idiots were throwing grenades around on a Star Destroyer...in space! Who the hell throws explosives on a ship when a breach in the hull could suck you out a hole the size of a bottle!"

"You said it Dave." Another janitor squawked from the front of the lift. "Sometimes I wonder if there's a brain amongst them. At least one squad only made cosmetic damage. I nearly pissed myself laughing when I saw them running around with pink bathrobes and bunny slippers."

Kami tried to suppress a chuckle both at the man's comments, and Angel's facial expression. One hand was over his face, and he was shaking his head from side to side endlessly.

"Yeah, although it was nice to see a squad with some self-confidence." The first man answered. "Damn shame they roasted the hallways to the bar. Used up all the booze on the ship!"

"It's gonna be a long ride home."

The turbolift dinged as it reached the barracks level, and both Angel and Kami pushed their way past the cleaners. "They had a point." Kami said, allowing the chuckle to finally pass her lips.

Giving her the evil eye, Angel opened the door to the Jester barracks, where the rest of the squad was prepping their gear for departure. "You coming down with us again?" Angel asked with a wisp of hopefulness in his voice.

"Not this time pinky. I don't look very good in bunny slippers." Kami replied with a wink. "Besides, your squad is back to being full. Bright is back."

Feigning indignation, Angel flashed her a somber half smile and entered the barracks room. Jager was asleep, his snowtrooper armor fastened except for the helmet. His booted feet were propped up on the small table in the middle of the room and he was snoring loudly. Angel noticed the empty bottle of whiskey under his chair and just shook his head. Probably stole it from the bar....

Jori,(he assumed), was once again pacing around the room, unable to sit still before a mission. Gio and Sam were talking in the corner, each fully prepped and ready to go. The big man, Jeg, was leaning calmly against the wall in the back of the room, his eyes flashing over to Aeos every few seconds, who was typing furiously into a datapad. Approaching his ASL, he flipped her the datapad with their orders. "Get the squad up to speed, I need to get ready." Flashing her a quick smile, Angel gave her a pat on the shoulder and was surprised to see Jeg flinch a little from his otherwise stoic demeanor.

I'm going to have to find out what's going on with those two Angel made a mental note to definitely look into it after the mission. Approaching the rear of the room, he was surprised to find his quarter's door open. He stepped inside and was greeted by the smiling face of Brightstar, his former ASL. She was already in her armor, save for the helmet held at her side, with full weapons compliment shouldered, harnessed and clipped.

"Welcome back Bright." Angel said evenly. "Glad to see you've recovered well from your illness."

"I'm back to full speed now." She replied quickly. "Being cooped up in the bacta tanks and medical wards has me all pent up and ready to go."

Chuckling at her eagerness, Angel replied, "Good to hear. Aeos will be briefing the squad, so you should get out there." The sergeant saluted and left the room quickly. As Angel picked up the first piece of the snowtrooper armor he could hear Aeos' voice in the background starting the briefing.

Putting the armor on, he took a few deep breaths to wash away the last bits of indignation from his mind. The breastplate clicked into place, and Angel started on the leggings. He couldn't help but feel satisfied at the status of the squad. They were a group of combat experienced veterans. Some, like himself, Gio, and Sam, had been doing this so long that Angel did not have any reservations about going into battle with them. Even Jori and Jager had completely proven themselves in the short time he had been their SL.

He had just finished pulling on his greaves and arm plates when his comlink beeped. Pulling it from the utility belt wrapped around his waist, he was greeted by Cosmic's voice. "Sergeant, I want you to go to the brig and...interview...Lieutenant Tim Reeves, the traitor aboard the Dominion. See what you can get out of him regarding the base, and if there's anyway for Jester to slip in the back."

"Unsuspected and undetected. I like it. Are there any...rules...I need to follow?" Angel answered, knowing the Prefect would catch his drift.

There was a slight pause before Cosmic replied. "Negative. This man will be executed once we return to Tadath anyway. Do what you need to get answers. Cosmic Out."

Finally, someplace to turn all my frustrations. The wicked smile that had crept over his face widened into a ferocious, toothy grin. In the background, Angel could hear Aeos wrapping up the squad's briefing. Angel grabbed his StA52-SLAR, and holstered his twin IR-5s. Snatching up the helmet from the bunk, he exited his quarters and shut the door behind him.

"Ok boys and girls. I'm headed towards the brig to interview our traitor. Gio, you and Jeg come with me. Aeos, get the squad to the shuttle."

"Stupid vague briefing" Kanderin muttered, resisting the urge to kick the next robot that scurried past him. How on earth they were going to find out the information they needed completely eluded him, the only option floating around he had was to grab the first mercenary they could find and beat it out of him. Which in foresight, might not be a bad idea. He was afterall still pretty ticked off at their nerve, attacking them on their own damn ship. Some payback would be nice.

"You look ready to kill someone Kand" Helena smiled, sipping from her coffee cup gently. She looked like she'd been awake far too long, her once need clothes now ruffled and creased, her face mostly hidden by her unruly hair. Helena however had the ability to, no matter how silly or harmless she looked, still inspire fear in everyone she wanted to.

"That's pretty much the idea. We gotta head out to planet side pretty much now, go gather the squad up and meet me at the hanger, I'll explain once we're set"

"That might take a while "Helena responded nervously.

"Why would it? You guy's were in combat less than an hour ago" Kanderin asked, trying not to growl.

"Well, I kinda assumed that we'd be having a rest for a while. The squads showering and stuff, they might be a while"

"Well, go turn the hot water off and towel-whip them till they're ready" Kanderin grinned, eyeing a small droid waddling behind Helena at just the right speed to really annoy him.

"Even with them all naked?"

"Sure, why not. Would be good for them to learn a little humility"

Helena gave Kand a half thumbs-up before dashing back off down the hallway towards the showers. Kanderin racked his brain to remember where that little droid had gone, and immediately gave chase. He turned right up ahead, and then followed the turn of the corridor around to where it got significantly darker. A large set of dark door's seemed to bridge the gap between their side of the ship and that side. They didn't seem any different to any other doors on the ship, apart from that they were black and the rest were white. That slight change however was enough for him to seriously consider whether he should go through. Instead, he decided the little thing had to die, and he pushed through the doors.

Inside was a giant room which was almost all visibly metal. There were huge racks lining each side of the room with slopes leading down into the centre, large spikes carrying clothes and weapons around them. And robots, there were lots of robots. There were at least twenty in the room at the time, and another two sped past Kanderin's heels as he stood there. What was worse, was that every single one looked exactly like the little one he had saw previously.

"Sith spit" Kanderin muttered.

post deleted

Alan was glad when he saw the tank destroyed.  He never liked taking on anything heavier than troops.  He walked past the burning tank and hoped there wouldn’t be any more.

“Nice work” said Alan as the Squads passed the damaged tank.

Suddenly tons of troopers started to swarm towards Paladin and Blackjack.  Alan grinned under his helmet and he grabbed both of his blasters from his hip.  This is more like it thought Alan as he dived for cover.

Peeking out from his position he let loose several volleys of blaster bolts from both blasters.  Several mercenaries fell down with sizzling bolts evident in their foreheads.

“Nice” commented Zeshaun as he fired at the mercenaries.

“Guys, keep the chatter down to a minimum, there’s still a lot more of them” stated Lucky.

Alan nodded and stood up, firing repeatedly before diving for cover.  His position was bombarded by blaster bolts but he grinned knowing that several mercenaries had fallen by his accurate shots.

“This is fun” said Alan.

Lucky fired off several shots and glanced over at Alan.

“Sorry” stated Alan, shrugging slightly and added “but it is”.

Nova roared and Alan wasn’t sure whether he was agreeing or disagreeing with his comments.

“Fire in the hole” called out Nick.

Alan glanced over and saw that several of the Blackjack squad had hurled grenades at the mercenaries.  Diving for cover, several screams could be heard as multiple explosions went off.  I hope they left some for us thought Alan as his hands tightened around his DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistols.

Peeking out from his position, he glanced around and surveyed the situation.  The mercenaries’ lines had definitely thinned but there were still plenty of mercenaries there.  Just the way I like it thought Alan as he prepared to make full use of his blasters.