Angel, Gio and Sam reached the brig as the guards were dragging out another of the captured mercs. The man’s face was a unrecognizable bloody mess that had more in common with the droppings of a bantha than the face of a human. A red smear followed the body being, leaving a trail to the interrogation room where janitors were already mopping up the pieces left behind.

“This was one tough SOB.” One of the guards said as they passed by the Jesters. “He didn’t spill anything…except his blood.”

The other guard chuckled, obviously having taken a lot of pleasure in the torture of the prisoner. Motioning to Gio and Jeg, who both looked on unphased by the brutality and gore, the trio approached the brig’s sergeant at arms. The rather corpulent man gave the three a quizzical look, and Angel had to admit, three snowtroopers approaching fully armed was a bit unusual. “Squad Leader Angel.” He said to the burly man. “We’re here to talk to Lieutenant Tim Reeves.”

“Ah yes. We were told to expect you. He’s in the last room on your right. We’ve…softened him up a bit for you.” The sergeant flashed a toothy sneer at Angel, and tossed a bunch of paperwork on the desk. Crumbs fell from the half a sandwich still in his mouth, spilling all over the papers. Using his thick, sausage like fingers, he tapped the pile leaving greasy fingermarks. “His personnel file.”

Cringing at the man’s breath, which smelled like he had just eaten the ass out of a dead Wampa, Angel merely nodded and picked the papers up, handing them to Gio. The Gunnery Sergeant promptly brushed the sandwich crumbs off the cover and looked at the greasy stains with disgust. “Seriously, have you moved from that chair in recent history?” Gio muttered under his breath. Jeg chuckled softly and puffed out his cheeks to look like the chubby sergeant.

Shooting Gio an icy look, Angel rolled his eyes then addressed the sergeant. “I’d appreciate it if you turned off the holocams and did not interrupt us.” Angel added a bit of malice to his words, darkening his gaze on the sergeant. “This is not a request, by the way. I was trying to be polite.”

“S-sure thing.” The greasy man stammered. His hand drifted over to the holocam control screen, and deactivated the camera. One of the screens behind him showing the cell Reeves was in flickered out. Nodding to the large man who was now staring at Angel in bewilderment, he led Gio and Jeg down the hallway to the cell. The guard buzzed them in, releasing the magnetic lock on the door. The three Jester troops filed into the room, Angel walking straight towards the bruised, battered, and bleeding man, while Jeg and Gio filled out to opposite sides of the room.

The former Lieutenant Reeves was tied to a chair, his ankles bound with steel wire, and his wrists tied under the seat the same way. Both binding points were ozzing blood from his struggling against the restraints. He groggily looked up to see who had entered. His eyes were glazed over, and sweat mixed with blood was pouring down his face. The man stunk of body odor and urine, most likely not having been able to use the facilities since his capture. His hair was plastered to his head, glistening with sweat and sticky with blood. He was clothed in what was left of a duty uniform; all insignia of rank and medals had been stripped off, and large swaths were torn away where the guards had gone to town with stun batons and vibroblades.

Fear…

Angel drank it in, using the dark emotions to fuel his power. The storm inside him flared to life, crackling with the power of the Dark Side. Fixing Reeves in his gaze, he slowly addressed the doomed man. “We’re going to play a game.” He said. “I’ll ask you a question. If you lie to me...and I’ll know if you do...you suffer.”

To emphasize his point, Angel reached into a hidden compartment built into the sleeve of his armor. He withdrew a slender black cylinder etched with silver angel wings. Four prongs extended from the end of the shaft, looking like a predator’s claws closing in on prey. His thumb drifted towards the button on the lower end of the shaft. A meter and a half long amethyst hued blade exploded from the end of the pommel with a *snap-hiss* as Angel ignited his lightsaber.

Reeves’ eyes went wide as he saw the weapon sweep towards his face. A small trickle of urine started to puddle on the floor at his feet. Angel turned towards Jeg, who approached the prisoner. He untied the man’s hands and held out his left arm. “W-W-What are you going to do to me!?”

“The question is,” Gio answered, lowering his voice. “What WON’T he do to you…or to your family on Lotaith.” Leafing through Reeve’s file, Gio stopped and pulled out a picture of his children. “You know, children have a very low threshold for pain…”

“No…don’t…please…” The traitor choked on his words. “They’re innocent.”

“They won’t suffer if you answer our questions.” Angel stated. Tapping into the ever brewing maelstrom within him, he projected an aura of malice, hatred, and anger around him. His eyes turned into the soulless void of the demon’s of legend, and his face paled as a ferocious grin grew across his face. The Dark Jedi appeared to grow in size as the room darkened. It wasn’t that the lights dimmed, however, merely that all the light was sucked into the void surrounding Angel, unable to escape to illuminate the cell. “Let’s begin.”

“Is there any other way into the base than through the storage bay?” Angel demanded, throwing every word out etched with the acidic evil of the dark side.

Reeves’ hesitated slightly before answering, his lip quivering with the thought of the pains to come. “Y-you don’t u-understand. They’ll kill me if I tell you anything. They’ll kill my family!”

“Wrong answer.” Angel snapped back at him. Lowering the blade of the lightsaber to mere microns above the man’s arm, he slowly moved the blade upwards from his wrist to his shoulder. White hot pain seared through Reeve’s mind. The skin instantly bubbled, blistered, popped, and charred as the intense heat of the blade melted his skin away. The sweet aroma of burning flesh filled the room, flowing into Angel's nostrils and stinging his senses. He let out a sharp cackle, and with the Force, moved the blade ever closer to the prisoner's arm.

At first he screamed. But his lungs ran out of air in mere seconds. His faced was gripped in a silent terror and his eyes bulged to the point Angel thought they would pop out of his head. He tried to thrash around to free himself, but Jeg was too strong, and held him in place. Skin gave way to muscle, muscle to bone, and it was in this moment that Angel lowered his saber with a quick swipe, and severed his arm at the shoulder. The agony overwhelmed the main, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he faded into oblivion.
But Angel was too quick. Reaching out with the Force, he quickly soothed the pain of the burns and returned Reeves to consciousness. His breathing came in startled fits; deep, heaving gasps as if he wanted to consume all the air in the room. But his eyes were clear, and Angel knew he almost had him.

“Now. Let’s try this again.” Jeg this time held out the man’s right arm. “Is there any other way into the base!”

“YES!” Reeves shouted, with no hesitation this time. “On the southern slope!” Tears streamed freely down the man’s face as he broke into sobbing heaves. “There’s a rock formation in a semi circle. The middle rock is actually a turbolift which leads inside. Now please! No more!”

Angel smiled inwardly. There was nothing else he needed from the man, save for one last thing. “Thank you, Mr. Reeves. Unfortunately, you’ve seen who we are and what we can do.” The prisoner’s eyes grew even wider, as if knowing what was going to happen next. The Dark Jedi lowered his lightsaber towards his own hand. Opening himself fully to the Force, Angel drew the power of the saber into his body. Pure power rushed through his veins as his circulatory system felt on fire. His own palm started do blister as the dark side grew from a maelstrom to a full hurricane, threatening to consume him…until he shut off the lightsaber.

Tilting his head to one side, Angel said quizzically, "Why so serious?" Focusing the power within him, he grabbed Reeves’ head in his palm, and channeled the energy back through his body and outward.

The poor man never had time to scream.

**  **  **  **

Ten minutes later, Angel, Jeg and Gio were in the shuttle bay, joined by the rest of Jester, Raiders, and Wraith. Activating the holoprojector in the hangar, Angel pointed out the entrance on surveillance photos. “We should be able to enter the base through here.” He said. “We’ll be able to get in behind them. From there we will destroy this entrance, forcing them to funnel towards Paladin and Blackjack. There will be one way out, and that’s through them.”

“Let’s get to it then.” Snipes, the Raider SL and former compatriot of Angel, said with a fiendish grin.

Heavy fire from the entrenched mercs had BlackJack pinned down, but the Paladins, on the far side of the hanger, were advancing quite nicely.

They had managed to advance methodically, dashing from cover to cover, popping off a few blind shots when the situation called for it, and now they were just a dozen meters away with no cover left.

"Hey Orobos," Gates yelled at his friend. "Think we're close enough?"

"Dammit, Gates, I've seen you throw. It goes about ten feet the way you frickin' side-arm it."

"Yeah, but I always hit the target, eh?"

"Shut up."

"Gimme the grenade!"

Orobos tossed the explosive device across the small hall that was made by the boxes. Gates loosened his helmet, cursing the design, it lacking an up-to-date HUD, and so, a piece of crap. He grinned maniacally as cold air smashed into him.

"Sir, I must admit, you do seem insane," muttered BARman from further back.

"I get results, be quiet." Gates peeked around the corner, and then tossed the grenade into the air. The grenade - minus the pin, smacked into his hand, and he prepared to throw. He dashed into the open space during a lull in the shooting, and before the mercs could appreciate how absolutely insane it was, the grenade was sailing towards them, and the BlackJack ASL was diving back behind cover, where he scopped his '15 up and put his helmet back on, connecting it back to his armor, and giving his teammates a thumbs-up.

In the time it took him to do this, the grenade rolled to the feet of one of the mercs, who, in order to escape it, dove over his cover, only to be shot by one of his comrades, who was then killed by the resulting explosion.

Screams filled the air. Gates laughed outright. "You should have seen that guy's face!" He howled, then just for show, put his DC away. "And for the coup de grace!"

The flamethrower on the man's back twisted in its straps, until it was in front of him. "Burn, baby, burn!" he yelled, dodging around cover and spraying liquid fire into the surviving mercs.

Of course, it has been researched in several pyschological war texts, that behind AT-AT's and overwhelming firepower, the most scary thing to face is a flamethrower. Now, an AT-AT with a flamethrower, that would be scary. Gates squirted flame into the mercs' cover, igniting their armor and sending them screaming, burning, and dieing to the snow-covered ground, where the flames continued to burn until put out by flurries of snow mixed with ash.

By now, the mercs were outnumbered by the soldiers of BlackJack, and, while well-trained, no match for the superior firepower and accuracy of the stromtroopers. A bum rush finished them off, with the Stormtroopers boiling out of cover and into the midst of the last survivors, killing them to a man.

Gates removed his knife from the cranium of his foe, wiping the blade off on the downed merc's pants. The rest of BlackJack spread out, taking positions of cover and offering covering fire to the Paladins engaging the other Mercenaries. "Tanus, what's up? Where next?"

Anival was toweled and covered when Helena dropped by to tell the squad to get on the ship.

Anival looked around and chuckled, Antos had barely been able to cover himself.

He waited till she got out, got dressed, and spoke. “Hey , Antos keep your blaster tucked away at all times.”
At that’s half the showers occupants laughed and Antos turned beet red. Anival walked by him patted him on the shoulder and got out.

He was still chuckling to himself when he got out. He waited by the door for the rest of his teammates.

They were talking among themselves, and joking at Antos’ expense when, Anival asked “Joamer, and what does a Cyborg use?” Now it was Joamer turn to be embarrassed. He chuckled again not knowing if Cyborgs felt embarrassment or not.

They were interrupted by Kand. He had just ordered them on the ship. Anival just got on the ship and waited.

Aeos whipped a bang of stranded hair out of her face while staring down at the glowing datapad in her hand, trying to soak up any last-minute data. She pressured her gloved fingertips against the temples of her head, trying to prevent any massive brain spasm of pain that might occur.

The squad had just hauled themselves onto the shuttle, with the vehicle itself still making some pre-flight checks about the engines and weight formulations. Aeos huddled, her knees drawn together awkwardly through the thick armor while she busied herself. Brightstar, who has long since gotten used to Aeos and not feeling too intimidated by the rather large difference in their position and rank scale plopped down next to the ASL sighing.  Aeos smiled.


“Good to be back Miss?”  Aeos queried.

“You’ve got no clue, meds were killing me,”
Aeos bit back a chuckle while she kept her eyes glued to the datapad.

“Miss, it was the lesser of two evils,”

“Don’t remind me, “ Bright muttered with a glare at her fingers.
Aeos stealthily snuck a glance away from her datapad, lingering it on  Jeg who was seated a few meters away for a split-second before her eyes darted back to the lettering of the azure screen.

He had just gotten back along with Gio from some special session time with Angel. The latter was doing a last minute check with Kami along with the other squad leaders.  A final word of good luck perhaps. Aeos and Jegora had little time to speak since meeting each other again in the simulator. She felt so confused. His emotions seemed recognize the familiar air between them yet his thoughts failed to process the memories. Not that he told her that, but judging from his behavior and skimming over his service record, Aeos had no other choice but to draw that conclusion. Searching through Jegora, and then noticing the MIA check against him, Aeos had her suspicions.

“Aeos, if you think I didn’t see that, then you’re really stupid, “ Bright muttered in a suddenly hushed voice, now staring at her gloves unceremoniously.

Aeos suddenly felt her face flaming up, if slightly drawing a mischievous glitter into Bright’s unusual eyes.
“Bright, you need to lay-off on those books Jelly bought you, because it ain’t like that, I met Jeg previously, under very stressful circumstances,  okay?”  Aeos muttered stirring in the small white-lie which might end up getting her into trouble as the awesomeness of the galaxy usually works.


Around the two women, the rest of the troopers were hushing and cluttering about in a quiet and orderly manner. No matter the experience level, but every soldier went through a short period of pre-mission jitters, and right now everyone was dealing with it as they saw fit. Whether this involved delving into a mystic trance, or chatting away fourteen clicks an hour. Everyone had different approaches to relieve themselves of pre-mission jitters.  Aeos cast a glance to Jager who was lazily staring off into nothingness, a cigarette hanging from his lips while he propped up his feet on his helmet.

“Aeos!”

Bright snapped her finger to Aeos, but the two were interrupted with Angel making a ceremonious entrance by banging his carbine against the entrance of the shuttle as he stepped in.

“Rightio, good to go!” he cried over to the pilot who scuffled up the small flight of stairs, squeezing past Angel and bee-lined for the pilot cockpit.

A sudden lull of excited foreboding settled across the small armor-covered crowd. The jitters were replaced with nervous yet calm excitement that spread like a contagious disease.
The shuttle roared subtly to life, yet the small lift of vibrations stirred everyone into anticipation. They were leaving the comfort-zone. The next moment they exit through that shuttle door, it will be enemy grounds, bloodied snow and kill or be killed.


***Some time later***

“Jesters, gather, be sharp,” Angel softly commanded, breaking the silence that had lingered between the nine seats where they had gathered. Were they nervous? No. The silence did not speak of nervousness. They were focused. Many lives will be destroyed today. This was not a game. They need to be wary.

The shuttle didn’t bother to even touch ground, and the troopers with little trouble jumped the two meters down with practiced ease.  Through the thick of the white haze, Aeos managed to identify the other squads also dropping down. She even imagined old Snipes yelling something crazy, though this howling wind had strange effects despite wearing the protective headgear.

“Jesters, I am interested in this job getting completed speedily yet effective. We have our briefing. The others have theirs. Don’t stray.”

Angel’s voice calmly spoke into her ear through the small earpiece. His voice was clear, firm and strong, a strong contrast to the muffled whines of the whipping snowy wind that raged outside their helmet’s interior.

With that, the squad began the small trek towards their target area in a formation of three different team groups.

The BlackJacks were more than holding their own - they were pushing the mercenaries back. Several of the Stormtroopers pushed after, stretching their advantage whilst the Mercs fell back.

"Hold the line!" ordered Gates, "We have to hold the line until the others arrive! Do want to go in there and die, man? Hold the line!"

The soldiers caught out of position stiffly fell back to the make-shift defensive barricades they had hastily constructed.

Gates propped his DC-15 with bipod up onto a crate that had taken heavy fire. He sprayed a line of plasma at a trio of mercs huddled behind a few crates. Bright lights scattered all around the room, from lasers chewing away at cover in methodical shoot-outs to the occasional accidental ambush.

Gates managed to get another one of the men he was shooting at, by shooting him in the knee and then the neck, when he fell out of cover. The dead man's two surviving comrades returned fire.

"Garryll, I just encountered a wookie, killed the bastard, but, you know, they have wookies."

"Got it, Orobos, ah shit!"

Gates finished with a curse because several mercs had managed to get into the box maze before they could be mowed down. "Tank! Take my position!"

"Gotcha, boss!"

As the stormtroopers shifted position, Gates put his DC-15 back over his shoulder.

In response, he pulled the flamer over into his hands. Garryll checked the fuel gauge. Another 30 seconds of shooting left.

He flipped on his thermal imaging visor, looking for the mercs who'd managed to escape into the maze. Six of them- easy.

He climbed up on top of a half-dozen crates, prepped the flamer, and waited.

Quickly, the merc point man poked his head around the corner, and spotted Tank supressing a few others. He sighted, and waved the rest of his comrades up.

Gates whistled. All six looked up stupidly.

He hit the trigger, spewing 1000-degree flames onto the men, roasting them alive.

"Hell yes!" he yelled, pumping his fist.

Orobos strolled behind Garryll feeling the heat of the flames, strong even through his armour. The butt of the rifle rested against his hip. He sent a few rounds towards a writing corpse Garryll had stepped over. They moved on the occasional scream and stream fire from up front interrupting the otherwise silent bay.

As the squad moved on moving around non the inside of their defensive ring around the hole in the blast doors there was a scream from above. Orobos looked up in time to see a group of six or seven mercenaries leaping down from the crates blades and pistols out and ready for close quarter fighting. One of them pushed heavily of the crates and towards him.

As he flew through the air towards him Orobos reached up and grabbed the man mid flight, without stopping he moved in one swift motion to turn him around head pointing down and with the man's momentum continued his journey face first to the rockcrete floor. A sicking crack met his ears as the man neck was snapped with the force.

Bringing up his rifle he slammed the end of it impacting the temple of Verkur's second assailant. Garryll hosed the rest of the men down their dying screams interrupted as the group finished them off with a shot from pistols and rifles. The squad walked back to were Tanus and Tank were. Tanus was on the radio to Paldin. Once he'd finished he turned to the group.

"I think that's all of them sir," Garryll said,

"Yeah. We can......" Tanus began but the sound of running filled the air and they all ducked down by the barricades readying their weapons.

There were no grenades this time but strangles war-cries and yelling came through followed by the people making the noise. They rushed headlong fire random sprays of fire in every direction. Blackjack retaliated with controlled, steady fire from their various weapons taking down the large group in their twos and threes as they rushed towards them.

The sound of gunshots only died away when the body of the last attacker fell slumped over the barricade it's armour resembling something that had been hurled through an asteroid field and them had Gate's flamethrower set of it.

"Let's hope that's the last of them," Orobos said slumping back against the crate he'd taken cover behind.

The wind whipped through the air and against Jester squad, who were now close to their target area. The biting chill crept through Jori’s armor as he moved across the snow that blanketed the ground. He had felt it since the first moment he had left the shuttle and he had no doubt he would be feeling it for a while longer. Sighing, he focused on keeping his eyes on Gio, who was walking in front of him.

I can’t believe I’m actually in a squad with these guys. They are like the best of the best. Jeez. One day we were reduced to four members, then three when Bright got sick, and then we skyrocketed up to a nearly full squad and then finally a completely full squad when Bright recovered and came back. And now, Jester has some of the most experienced veterans still in active duty. It’s just unbelievable.

Off to his right, Jori saw Jager stumble. He moved over to help Jager up and received thanks. Nodding, he moved back to his spot just as they reached the “back door”. Angel poked his head through and looked around before waving the rest of the squad through. Jori held his submachine gun, the “Silent Death”, up as he moved through the door right behind Gio and Wicket. Moving over to the left, Jori searched around, looking for anything. He had nearly given up when he found what looked to be a turbolift. Stepping near it, he raised the Silent Death as the doors whooshed open. Seeing no one in there, he stepped forward and peered inside.

“Hey guys. I think I found a turbolift we can take.” Jori said over the comlink.

Aeos was the first on there, quickly followed by the rest of the squad. Nodding, Angel told them to look around some more to see if they could find anything else on this level and then they would take the turbolift. Jori nodded and moved on, looking for something note worthy. Noticing a blinking light in the corner of his eye, he turned and saw what looked to be a computer terminal. Moving towards it, he saw that it was activated. As he reached it, he set his hands on the keyboard. As soon as he did so, the screen cut on and he saw that it was a simple information database.

Hmm… I know nobody in the squad are good at slicing, so maybe I’ll take my chances at it.

Getting to work, he skipped over all the stuff that was meant to be seen and headed right to the hidden files that were hidden for a reason. He sliced through a few security checks and managed to access an important encrypted file. Though he was good enough to find, in no way was he good enough to be able to encrypt it. Looking around in a few drawers on the side of the terminal, he found a disk. Inserting the disk into the terminal, he copied the encrypted file and moved on to other files, searching for ones that would be useful. Any encrypted file he came across, he copied onto the disk. When he finished, he ejected the disk and walked over to where Angel was looking around at.

“I found a terminal over there and I sliced into. I found a ton of encrypted files and a few other files that looked promising. I copied them onto this disk.” Jori said, handing the disk over to Angel.

Angel nodded and Jori turned away.

Now, maybe if we can find a better terminal, I might be able to get more files off of it because that terminal was only limited to a certain part of the database and I wasn’t good enough to bypass the security systems that protected the other parts.

"Funny thing is, I cant ever remember splitting away from Jester"

Kanderin smiled to himself at Helena's comment, before signalling Joamer to help him scan the next two corners.

"Thats because we were never actually with them, always about fifty feet behind. Thought you guys'd prefer it that way"

"Would of liked it better if you'd of let us prank them before we had to dash off though" RK added in.

"I don't want you idiots causing trouble, thats why!" Helena shouted forward.

"You big spoil sport, I had cards and stun grenades all prepared too" Kanderin winked back, disappearing around the corner.

"Suppose we could still use them if they come into our vision again" Rk added, following Kand around the corner.

"No" Helena finished, the last one to move.

Wraith had heard Jester absorb a lot of the gunfire shortly before departing, but that had unfortunately managed to drive away any resistance Wraith would of me. A few times Kanderin had considered going back to offer help, but he was sure a squad of their calibre would be fine on their own. That and Angel would probably take it offensively anyway. Instead he settled on being close by, so that he could call for help if they were needed.

One man was the largest group they faced, but he was easily dispatched as he blindly stumbled into the squad, Kanderin taking the chance to insert a small knife into his neck. It took the squad less than a minute to then scan the body, and store it away in the next storage room they could find.  It unfortunately then took them several more to work out which way they were to go. The maps of the complex they found pinned to the walls were far bigger and more confusing than they had ever expected. There were no obvious "You are here" labels, so anyone without a knowledge of the complex had no idea where they stood on the map.

"We go this way" Kanderin finally decided, storming off in a random direction after constant arguing back and forth in the squad.

"To look for what anyway? If we're looking for the personnel rooms I'm pretty sure its that way..."

"Ten seconds before that you thought it was the other way" Helena snarled, slapping Antos playfully around the head.

Antos was about to hit her back when a blaster bolt came very close to beating him to it, cutting a sizeable amount of her armor loose from her arm but somehow sparing the flesh. She responded by simply hitting the ground and drawing her weapon, stuck in a piece of the hallway and unable to roll to any better cover. Luckily however Kanderin, Joamer and Leon had managed to find a better place to set up, and were laying heavy fire into the currently unknown numbers. With Kanderin's free hand while he was reloading, he signalled back to Helena and the rest with Wraith sign language. There were at least five in the immediate vicinity, but they appeared to be communicating with more that he couldn't see.

Jegora pressed up against the right-hand wall, just behind Jager. Aeos and Bright lined up behind him, and the other five Jesters pressed up against the left hand wall.

“Five hostiles on the left, six on the right,” Angel informed the squad after taking a peek around the corner. “Who has flashbangs?”

Wicket, Bright, and Jori each raised a hand. Motioning to the two senior troopers, Angel informed them of the plan. “On my mark, toss ‘em as far down each hall as you can.”

Nodding, the two troopers moved to the front of their respective lines. Angel began a slow countdown. “3…2…1...NOW!”

Jegora watched as Bright and Wicket pulled the pins on their grenades and tossed the them around the corners. After a short delay there was an unmistakable bang, accompanied by a brutal flash of light. Angel wasted no time in ordering the squad around the corners, and Jegora followed Jager around the corner, the two men skirting around Brightstar. As he entered the corridor Jegora brought his submachine gun to his shoulder, searching through the telescopic sights for any hostiles, and hoping he wouldn’t get shot in the back.

One enemy, who was probably blinded and disoriented from the blast, staggered out from behind his cover. There wasn’t much showing, just the top of his head and an arm, but it was enough. Taking a deep breath and training the easy-to-aim sights on his newly acquired target, Jegora depressed the trigger and let loose a three round burst from his 10mm weapon. All three slugs found their mark, connecting with a wet thump as the hostile trooper fell to the floor, his upper body slumping into the middle of the hallway. He was missing the top half of his head.

“Bogey down,” Jegora said automatically upon confirming his kill.

“Nice shot,” Aeos commented. Jegora grunted and went back to work, making sure that if anything stepped into the open view would die a very quick and brutal death.

Unfortunately, the rest of the enemy troopers were smart enough to stay behind the barricades they had set up for cover. Sighing silently to himself, Jegora stopped his advance nearly twenty meters from the crates, keeping his gun to his shoulder just in case any of the bad guys decided to pop their heads up.

“We have two down over here,” Sam said after a moment. “The rest are holding behind their barricades.”

“Same thing on this side,” Aeos commented. “Any ideas?”

There was a moment of silence, and then Jager unclipped a thermal detonator from his belt. “We could always burn ‘em out,” he said, his voice only slightly laced with sarcasm. There was yet another moment of silence.

“Do it,” Angel ordered.

Once again Jegora took the observers role. Jager took a moment to figure out just where he wanted to throw, and then played with the timer on the detonator. A few seconds later he depressed the safety, and tossed it gently over the enemy barricade. On the other side, Jori did the same. As one the Jesters turned back towards the intersection. A split second later the two detonators exploded simultaneously.

The first thing Jegora noticed after the initial explosion was the screams. The baradium explosive in each detonator instantly ignited anything within its blast radius, and the enemy troopers were no exception. After a moment the screams ceased, and only the occasional groan could be heard.

“Alright boys and girls, lets mop this up,” Angel said.

As the Jesters advanced on the barricades, Jegora heard someone say, “Well, in any case, they know we’re here now.”

If it was one thing Saphira hated, it was wearing the Snowtrooper outfits. Considerign all else she  hated that it made her look more like a clunk of plastic with the modded version of her helmet.

Not that it mattered now. Amidst  her squad she  was too occupied as  bolts of blaster fire  shot past her head. Splatterign into the wall behind her and leaving a smoking charred mark on the walls.

At least I can still see..

Saphira mused as she rolled to the right andplastered herself to the wall. Shooting out her free hand she shot back and took one of the enemie down with a shriek. The sound was never plesent, but the fight was. Another mission and this one huge! It was only when Gates whistled and they all looked up to see  Gates press the button to the flamer and set out the  jets of flame.  They all cheered, Saph included.

"Way to Go Gates! Make em Burn!! "

She shot out and moved from her position. It was  hardly over as th emaze would be nothign but a nest of  traps and  corners to hide in. With the  screaming dying down  they moved forward and Saph picked up a fallen  blaster and poked the overdone remains.


"Wow Gates.. Next time we have a BBQ, lets not have you cook the meat.."


She smiled and heard a few chuckles as they    saw another wave of men comming back . Her eyes looking over she  hit her sensors and saw they wre carrygn bigger weapons this time.


"Uh-oh.."

Big guns didn’t bother Dinin much.  In fact, he quite liked big guns.  They were usually shiny, had a lot of pay-load, made very nice THUNK-ing sounds when they fired and usually made very nice hell with Dinin’s enemies.  Sure, they weren’t his favorite type of weapon, he preferred to see his enemies a little closer when he ended their lives.  It was more personal.  But he still liked the heavy weapons...

...When they were not pointed at him.

This new wave of mercs were packing, and they were packing very very heavy.  And they were aiming those weapons at Dinin and his squad mates.  His pistols weren’t going to be enough this time.  He hunkered behind the crates and quickly holstered his dual DC-15 pistols, and swung his DC blaster-rifle over his shoulder.

He patched his comlink through to his squad mates and to those of Paladin squad.

“We have some very big boots coming to stamp out the garden of civilization that we of the Vast-Empire are trying to plant in the flower bed of dissension.”

“What the hell are you talking about Dinin?” barked Garryll.

Dinin sighed.  “They have heavy weapons at 12 o’clock getting ready to blow us full of holes, sir.”

“Well let’s beat them to the punch, Corporal.”

“Yes sir!  With pleasure.”

He motioned to Saph to move forward, and as she strafed from one cover to the next, he tossed a grenade at the feet of a merc holding a gattling blaster and sprayed a salvo of auto-fire into a few men that tried to dive for the grenade with the intentions of sending it back at Dinin.  When asked about the grenade, Dinin liked to say that it blew the balls off of the man he threw it at.  In actuality, the blast tore the man’s legs off, sending him flying backwards as the power-pack of his oversized blaster overloaded and had a massive discharge taking out five more mercs while also causing someone to accidently release a rocket from it’s launcher.

Unfortunately, it had already been aimed at him so the only accidental thing about it was it’s slightly off-center trajectory that left the crates next to Dinin sporting a freshly smoldering hole and leaving him with the impression that he’d be pulling splinters out of very funny places for a few days after the mission.

He dived into a cover as Saph reached her new position and continued to work the line of mercs, trying to keep them from getting to an advantageous firing position with the very deadly firepower they had brought to bear.

Jester slowly made its way down the three flights of stairs to bottom floor which housed the mainframe. A moderately sized, slightly rusted blast door greeted them as they descended the final steps.

"Just when you thought it was going to be easy, eh" Jager stated as he walked up and gave the door a quick tap. 

Sam headed back up a flight with Jori to make sure there weren't any surprises coming Jesters way, while the rest of the squad pondered on a way to overcome this new hurdle.

"We cant go under it" Jager smirked as he recalled a rhyme from his childhood,

"We cant go over it" Ae added

"Then we go straight through it" Angel finished

Jager raised a finger in objection, "That's not how it goes... but I'll give you points for originality"

With that Jager got back to his feet and moved back over to the blast door to take a closer look. The thing was ancient, and at best guess it was only there to prevent a fire or some other form of outside force from damaging the precious equipment inside. Then again, this entire facility was probably used for something else long before these mercenaries reappropriated it so the doors actual use would have to left up to speculation.

"Do you know anything about blast doors Corporal?" Aeos asked as she walked over next to him and examined the door.

"I'd be lying if I said I did... but its all common sense really" he replied with that familiar mix of sarcasm, overconfidence and arrogance that was synonymous with anything that left his mouth.

A set steel guide rails, one high, one low, ran out from the left hand side of the door. Slowly Jager strode over and began examining them. They looked weak, strong enough to support the doors weight, but not strong enough to survive a close proximity blast.

"Thermals" He announced, spinning around on his heel to face the squad, "I need about five and I guarantee that this door will come down"

"It wont, its a blast door... it's supposed to survive those sorts of things" Jegora stated as he walked over towards the door to check it for himself,

"What do you suggest, we go out and find someone who knows how to open it, then ask them politely if they could?... Last time I checked their up there shooting everything that moves" Jager retorted

"At least we wont waste five thermals" was all Jegora said as he finished his inspection .

"Well then, Fearless leader...  Jager queried as he turned to Angel hoping for some sort of support for his 'Lets use copious amounts of explosives' plan "what do you think"

Angel stared at the door for a few seconds before saying anything "Your plan is full of assumptions and poor logic... but we have nothing else, give him the grenades"

"In your face" Jager rejoiced as each squad member handed him a thermal.

Jegora stood shaking his head slowly, "Thousand credits says this doesn't work"

"Your on, prepare to lose a thousand credits"

Immediately Jager got to work placing the detonators on the wall supports that held the top bar up while the rest of the squad moved back up a flight of stairs to get out of the blast zone. Jager was no explosives expert, and like most times when handling any form of explosive device he was reminded of why he was in the Corps, and why he was minus a right hand.

The thermals were armed but not put on a timer. Jager was counting on one explosion to trigger the rest of them.  Setting '1:30' on the final thermals timer, Jager moved back up the stairs to join the squad.

"Ready?" Angel asked

"In about a minute twenty we'll be inside" Jager replied

One minute and thirty seconds doesn't seem like that long normally, but when waiting for explosives it seems like years. The entire squad stood in silence as they waited for the inevitable... and they waited... and they waited...

"You did turn them on, didnt you?" Jegora queried as he eyeballed Jager,

"No, I thought it'd be funny if I jus.." Jager began before an all mighty roar echoed up from the ground floor, causing Jager to hit the ground and the rest of the squad to shield themselves.

After pulling himself to his feet Jager hastily descended the stairs to check if his plan was successful. A large scorch mark now adorned the wall were the thermals had been placed. The dust began to settle after a few seconds revealing something unexpected.... The moderately sized, rusted blast door was still standing as if nothing had happened.

Jager simply dropped to his knee's and began screaming profanities.

"I'll take my credits when we get back" Jegora stated triumphantly

Bright was the only one to walk over and actually check the door, and with a simple nudge the moderately sized, rusted door creaked and began to fall towards her. The sergeant quickly side-stepped the falling door as it slammed into the ground, kicking up more dust.

Jager immediately jumped to his feet and began pumping his fist in the air.

"FUCK YEAH, JAGER WINS AGAIN" He announced turning to Jegora, "I'll take my credits when we get back"

Jegora began to shake his head, "No..."

Jager quickly began to nod, "Yes"

"No... because you didnt bring the door down, Bright did"

Jager's jaw dropped to the scorched, dust covered ground.

"Bantha Shit, Angel..."

"Enough" Angel ordered, "We've wasted to much time here... Bright brought the door down, Congratulations Sergeant.", Causing Bright to smirk and give a quick bow.

"But" Jager began before Angel raised his hand to cut him off,

"No buts, Lets get in there and get this done. Jeg, Take point"

Jager stood dumbfounded as the squad reassembled itself and began to move down the long corridor that the blast door was covering, which in turn led to the mainframe room.

"Sam, we're moving, come down" Angel announced over the comm before turning to the still shocked and slightly confused corporal.

"I said no buts, get moving"

"Yes Sarge" Jager replied, giving his squad leader a half-arsed salute before raising his weapon and moving into the corridor.

Helena peered around from one of the corners, she saw Kanderin giving some secret hand signals. She knew exactly what they meant, and he was unfolding a plan to them. The fires coming straight at them were coming from 5 visible people. She knew there must be more hiding somewhere, but she didn’t know where. This was something she’d just have to find out. The chunk of armour she had missing was still on the floor, she quickly picked it up and shoved it into her pouch bag she happened to be carrying on her back just in case she needed it like now for example.

“Guys, we need to move quickly, I know there’s more people but not sure where” She voiced over the comlink.

“There could be millions!” Joamer freaked, firing some rounds around the corner.

“I doubt it” She reassured him, also returning a few fires.

Kand signalled a few more signs before moving swiftly into another hiding spot. As Helena and the rest were about to follow, a few shots aimed at their feet. They were stopped in their tracks. They easily out numbered the enemy, but they were open to fire, they quickly shot a few rounds before following Kand down some corridors. They were coming up to a clearing, they luckily had lost them. This clearing had an option of 5 doors, of which were numbered, and extremely old. They still had a lock and key method of locking.

“Which one are we trying first?” RK asked.

“Not sure, what takes your fancy?” Kanderin replied, scratching his chin.

“I pick this one” Helena said.

“But it’s locked…” Antos replied, trying to heave it open and shrugging.

“Not a problem!”

Helena took her helmet off and placed it on the ground. Everyone looked at her puzzled as she frantically searched through her hair for a hair pin. She then fixed her hair up and placed her helmet on.

“This had better work now…” Kand sighed.

She walked up to the door and knelt on her knees. She placed the pin into the lock and began twisting and turning it, making it click and chink. The door then flew open, and Helena rose to her feet, polishing her knuckles.

“What, these things have more than one purpose” she winked.

The squad moved in and started to search it. There were many filing cabinets and computers. The room was set like an office/study.  The computer screens were set to a login page which required a username and a password. Antos and Kand were already set to cracking and hacking into them. Helena and the rest were searching through the reams of paper that lay in the cabinets.

Alan wasn’t very happy with the order to split up but Lucky was the squad leader and what she said went.  He watched the squad members spread out and go into different directions.  Good luck he thought as he watched them leave. 

He grabbed both his blasters and held them in his hands, his fingers twitching slightly on the triggers as he moved slowly down a corridor that no-one else had chosen.  He didn’t know what to expect but he was certain whatever was down here would not be good.

Rounding a corner Alan immediately heard voices.  He glanced around desperately trying to find somewhere for cover.  He had noticed a door a little bit back so he hastily backtracked and hid as best he could in the doorway.  He was certain that if they looked closely they would detect him but he hoped they wouldn’t be looking too closely.  He heard their voices as they approached.

“Damn Imperials, who do they think they are coming here” said one merc.

“Yeah, well they’ll soon be dead Imperials once I see them” replied the other.

Alan was happy that they didn’t see him as they walked slowly past him.  He slipped out from his hiding post and moved up behind them.

“Dead Imperials huh” commented Alan.

The mercs stopped dead in their tracks.  They whirled round but Alan already had his blasters pointed directly at their heads.  They never stood a chance as Alan’s blasters opened fire and they crumpled down dead.

“You hear something?” asked a voice.

Oh hell thought Alan as he heard a voice and more footsteps approach.  Alan tried the door but it was locked.  He glanced down at the bodies and knew there was nowhere for him to stash the bodies.  Guess I just have to fight my way out of this thought Alan.

His com sputtered to life as Lucky’s voice crackled through “Paladin’s, status report”.

Alan spoke into the comm. informing Lucky that he was about to be attacked by a number of mercs, the number unknown to him at present.  It seemed that other squad members were in the same situation.

“Alright” said Lucky through the com, “this is senseless, we are just going to get picked off one by one if we keep this up, rendezvous at the co-ordinates and we will fight them as a full squad”.

Alan received the co-ordinates and thought to himself good, that’s not too far away.  He started backtracking the way he had come, looking forward to rejoining the squad.

Alan was happy that the squad was back together again.  They carried on down the hallways and met up with sporadic groups of merc.  The squad quickly took down the groups.

“This is easy” said Zeshaun.

“Please don’t say that” replied Alan.

“Why?” asked Nick.

“Yeah, it is easy.  I think we are coming across the less trained mercs” commented Requiem.

“It’s just that when someone says that, things suddenly get difficult and right now I am enjoying easy” said Alan.

The squad laughed and Nova chuckled.

“Pipe down” ordered Lucky as she held up a fist.

The squad immediately stopped and kneeled down.  They listened intently and could hear what Lucky had heard, voices approaching their position.

“Here we go again” whispered Zeshaun.

Indeed thought Alan as he brought his blasters to bear on the hallway.  True enough a squad of mercs approached their position.  As soon as they were visible the squad unleashed a torrent of blaster bolts. 

The initial wave of mercs collapsed instantly.  The second wave of mercs however pressed a button on their belts.  Immediately a shield surrounded the mercs.

“That’s different” said Nick as he fired repeatedly, only to find his bolts bouncing off the shields.

“Grenades!” shouted Lucky.

Alan rarely carried grenades so was happy when he saw Nova grabbing two grenades and tossing them towards the mercs.  The squad shielded themselves as explosions rocked the hallway.

“Good job Nova” called out Alan.

“Um, guys” said Zeshaun.

Alan whirled round and through the smoke he could see the mercs advancing on them once more, their shields intact.

“Fall back” ordered Lucky.

The squad started moving back down the hallway with the shielded mercs advancing on them slowly.

“This is all your fault” said Alan as he glanced over at Zeshaun

“My fault?” asked Zeshaun.

“Yes” said the squad in unison.

“Sorry” called out Zeshaun as blaster bolts whizzed past the squad.

This is a fine mess we have gotten ourselves into thought Alan.