Alan stood up and shook himself.  This stuff is disgusting thought Alan as he felt the fuel covering his armour.  He shook his head as he watched Zeshaun light up a cigar. He glanced over at him.

"What?  Uh, their addictive” said Zeshaun looked to the squad with a large smile on his face.

“So help me Zesh, if we get out of here I’m going to coat you with jet fuel and have a cigar” said Alan.

The squad laughed at the comment.

“Is it just me that is curious as to why there is jet fuel here” called out Nick.

The laughing died down as the squad members looked at each other.

“I was wondering about that myself” said Lucky, “let’s head deeper down this way and see just what that creature was protecting”.

The squad started moving past the dead creature, their hands on their weapons hoping that this was the only creature down here.

“You stink” commented Requiem.

Nova growled in agreement as he held his nose.

Alan sniffed his armour and crinkled his nose as he muttered, “yeah, I do”.

The squad carried on deeper into the complex until they arrived into a large area.  Their eyes went wide as they took in the scene in front of them.

“Wow” stated Requiem.

Nova gruffed and roared in agreement.

“I couldn’t have said it better myself” said Zeshaun.

They looked at a large open area where there was a large and vast array of vehicles and ships all sitting there.  Lots of mercs were running around seemingly prepping the ships and vehicles.

Glancing around they noticed that the area seemed to be heavily protected by turrets that were scanning the vicinity.

“Well I guess we found out what the fuel was for” commented Nick.

“Indeed” replied Alan.

“So what’s the plan?” asked Requiem.

“Simple, we take out these ships and vehicles before they have a chance to launch.  If they launch then it will be a serious problem to the other squads that are planet-side” said Lucky.

Alan looked around at the defences and the amount of mercs that were there and thought to himself simple, huh.

Requiem stood gazing at The large amount of Ship's and vehicles being prepped for activation probably going to destroy the Dominion and the trooper's outside at the frontlines currently outside the building, fighting to get rid of the mercs outside and inside, Requiem listened to the squad as they made comment's about their problem.

“Simple, we take out these ships and vehicles before they have a chance to launch.  If they launch then it will be a serious problem to the other squads that are planet-side” said Lucky.

Requiem watched as the group than began to crouch toward a large incline leading to the loading of the large hangar which held all of the mercenaries and their Ship's and vehicles. Requiem held the small shield generator in his hand's bouncing it from palm to palm waiting if they would have to use it.

" Okay. . . their seems to be a small crate over their. . If i can read it correctly- "Lucky reached to her helmet and zoomed towards the small crate.

" What are you doing in Here ? " A large mercenary came up from behind the squad His body bulked them in their shadow as Nova crept behind him and Rammed his weapon into the back of his head. The Man fell to the floor in a clatter as the squad dragged him to a secluded area

" Okay they,ll find him soon enough so let's get this over with "Lucky said aloud as she signaled to the squad to follow. Requiem strafed behind them and crept towards the large durasteel crate looming in front of them.

" We need a miracle to get all of these pieces of equipment destroyed before takeoff " Zeshaun said behind him as he looked forward trying to make sure that they weren't discovered.

Requiem and Nick looked to themselves and walked to separate sides of the crate, which one connected heave they lifted it up and saw large Detonator pack's and Live Thermal Mine's .

" Okay something tells me these were going to be used against us. . ." Alan said as he rubbed his chin.

" Well than if so. . .let's return the favor " Lucky said to the squad as they than looked back to the large crate full of  explosive equipment and detonator packs. these are strong enough to take down anything in here. . . seems we found our miracle

Rogue stared at the oversized zippo that he was cradling in his arms, feeling extremely vulnerable as an explosion sounded somewhere above them, rocking the ice installation and sending small pieces of ice raining down on the troops.

Currently Raiders was walking around in a fairly aimless direction all he knew was that they would need to take an officer or two alive preferably captain or above.

“You know this, taking people alive business doesn’t sit too well with me.” Rogue said to no one in particular.

“I thought you liked it when they put up a fight.” Namyr instigated.

“Says the one who would know.” Said the squad’s newest member Gaz, while chortling with laughter.

“You might not want to believe everything you hear.” Rogue said before continuing. “According to rumours there was someone by the name of Gaz who while in basic was caught having sexual relations with a nerf.” RB said mockingly but kept a serious tone when referring to the four-legged beast that is the source of the majority of leather attire sold galaxy-wide.

“You shut your mouth when talking to me!” Gaz retorted, imitating a comedic holo-film.

“Shut the hell up you guys!” Snipes roared from the front of the line. “Listen up, the layout we got for this place is shit if anyone can find an active terminal we could hack it and get an actual map of this place.” Snipes said issuing orders.

Not for the first time and most likely not for the last but Rogue was amused with the fact that he had been equipped with a flamethrower. On a planet where the norm for things to do is freeze to death it was his job to burn shit into tiny little cinders.

“Got some movement at the end of the tunnel.” One of the Raider’s troopers said..

“Take it out.” Came the Snipes’ response.

A blaster bolt launched out of the trooper’s barrel and struck the target which had fallen forward, slumped over something. A closer inspection revealed an once active terminal with the exception of the fact that the target’s face had gone through it.

“Well…that kind of sucks.” Snipes said.

“Who the hell puts a terminal in the middle of a corridor?” Gaz had asked..

“It probably opens an access panel or something similar.” Virius suggested.

“Perhaps it’s a systems checkpoint on certain functions?” Dante suggested.
“What do you mean?” Snipes asked.

“Well when you have a huge installation like this should something go wrong the main systems will tell you what’s not working or what system is offline. However it does not tell you what is wrong with it, therefore they install terminals such as these which could facilitate an engineer into better locating where the problem lies.” Dante responded matter of factly.

“Where do you get this shit?” RB asked with his eyebrow raised, not that anyone could see it but it was a habit of his when asking questions.

“I read it somewhere.” Replied the Raider’s veteran.

“Alright back to the objective, terminal or officers either way we’re going to get some locations of where the command staff is camping out.” Snipes replied as the squad moved further down the icy corridors.

Joamer ducked as the thermal explosion sent debris spinning over his head. Rising above the table he was hiding behind he squeezed the trigger of his Frontier model B pistol twice before ducking.

"Reinforcements!" Someone shouted.

Rising to fire again he suddenly stopped, three muzzles were pointed at his head. Turning slowly he scanned the room and grimaced. The 'reinforcements' had not come through the front door, but through the ceiling. All around him Wraith squad were being unarmed.

Standing up he allowed two men to take both his pistols and his DC-15 rifle. One of the men motioned with the blaster and he walked into the center of the room, quickly the other members of the squad did the same.

"We have one of the enemy groups." One of the men said into a hidden comlink in his glove. Nodding a couple times he then said "Yes sir, delta group out."

Tapping a code sequence into his glove Joamer activated his private extreme short range comlink and said "Online."

All around him the other members were doing the same, with the encrypted comlink and with helmets on it would be impossible for the mercenaries to overhear them.

"You get the code sequence in before they attacked Ron?" Kand said quietly.

"Yes, lights set to auto shutdown in six minutes."

"Move out!" The mercenary leader said.

The squad was rather rudely shoved into motion, and forced to march down the hall. Every member of Wraith squad was counting quietly, the timer was getting shorter and shorter, and they saw no signs of stopping at any of the rooms they had passed. With one minute remaining, the mercenary commander suddenly stopped in front of a door and hit a key sequence into the keypad.

The squad was pushed into the center of the room, their captors spread out around them. Joamer was starring at the mercenary in front of him, he was pointing his own DC-15 back at him.

"Take off your armor, you are now prisoners. Any attempt at escape means we simply fill you full of holes." The commander said.

"Really?" Kanderin said into his external comlink. At that moment the lights shut down and the room was bathed in pitch blackness.

Bringing up his arms Joamer hit another finger sequence, twin wrist blasters popped up from under his gauntlets. All around him the squad had drawn hidden vibro blades, or small hold out blasters.

"Did you really think you would capture Wraith squad that easily?" Someone said in the darkness.

Requiem's emotions were on the fritz as he was running with his squad through the deteriorating Storage bay, Requiem jumped over some mercenaries on the floor in a crumpled heap and winced. Requiem had passed by other mercenaries on his running who had been crumpled by rubble from the ceilings above. Requiem saw the surprise on their faces as they too heard the large explosion from the lower level's of the Storage base and new from than on that their comrade's had been destroyed by it. Requiem just didn't want to be the ring leader of the mercenaries if he was either alive or not because Requiem feared his expression would of been of dismay and uncontrollable anger.

Requiem rounded a corner with his gun rattling against his 18-piece Stormtrooper armor and Reloaded it in sequence and fired it off after a group of mercenaries in another direction. The squad ran towards a separate hallway only to stop in a large banquet hall. The hallway was lined with a gold like engraving on its large steelton plates for wall's, Requiem thought it was a celebration hall or some sort of meeting room,  a large group of mercenaries came from the opening on the other side of the hallway through 2 large double doors as they saw the Trooper squad and began to fire.

there was one other hallway to the squad's left and they ran in it's direction. The room began to shake ominously Not again. . . Requiem couldn't handle anymore surprises and stepped back in fear as the ceiling fell through and rattled down onto the floors below them presumable the Storage bay hangar. Requiem walked over to the Large Ceiling opening to his left and looked at it. The plate was just lying their cautiously with loud groan's accompanying Requiem's step's he was followed by his squad when loud groan's and metallic creak's was heard, Requiem than noticed the floor itself was under too much pressure, and was beginning to pull in on itself.

" Get Back! " Requiem scrabbled to the other hallway in his attempt as the metal flooring below them suddenly crashed through and fell into a black pit.

Requiem got up and searched through the large Dust haze in front of him he coughed and weezed even though his trooper mask had a breathing filter. He searched the smoke and blew it out from in front of him, Did they fall through ? Requiem saw them behind him scrabbling on a torn Edge trying to get up, he assisted them and looked forward listening for the oncoming fire of the mercenary group on the other side of the hall only to see the group of crumpled bodies laying motionless under a large pile of rubble probably from the large shock of the floor collapse. Requiem stumbled over with his squad in tow and looked at their expressions, pure astonishment of their plan failing one objective at a time.

Requiem grimaced as Alan placed his arm on his shoulder to calm him down, Requiem felt dishonor on himself for wishing to not had let them die like this but knew that they were his enemy. Requiem brushed Alan's hand off and let Lucky lead the way. They rounded a small corner and than reached a small widened Hallway, it broke of in 8 direction's all of them opposite each other and running off into the darkness. The Squad was hesitant in their plight and carried on, footstep's Requiem heard a loud clamping of boot's as he placed his back along the wall. An exceedingly large mercenary group ran past, one of its member's stood thier looking off into the darkness where the squad stood wondering if he would call the rest of his group. He stopped shook his head and ran past going back after his comrade's further down the hallway. Paladin than stepped out of the shadow's and than resumed their jog.

" Damn this is getting bad " Requiem said this over his ComLink as to not cause more attention to his surroundings.

" Okay theirs the door it,ll probably lead us to outside " Nick said after Requiem's Reply eager to get out of the decomposing building. Lucky walked over and than swung the door open and rammed her back on the wall waiting for something. She calmed down and than looked into the White Blur of snow somehow it was calming to the squad. They saw a giant mass of pure vehicle and weapon's fire on both side's of the large fight going on in their vision. Blaster fire could be heard from miles, even over the loud howlings of the wind and snow on the Ice Planet Anteevy.

Alan was glad to be out of the Storage bay, although as soon as he was out he could feel the cold air beating against his armour.  Damn useless snowtrooper armour thought Alan as he shivered inside it.  Looking down, he could see blaster fire dancing around the snow.

“Looks like the rest of the squad’s are hard at it” commented Alan.

“Yes” replied Lucky, “we should go and give them some assistance”.

“What’s that?” asked Nick, pointing in the distance.

“What is what?” queried Requiem.

“I don’t see anything” commented Zeshaun.

Both Alan and Lucky started using their visors to zoom in on whatever it was that Nick had spotted.  Their visors scanned the frozen wasteland.  Alan was beginning to think that Nick was seeing things when he spotted it.

“Wait a minute” said Alan.

“You see something?” asked Zeshaun.

“Yes, go to co-ordinates” said Alan as he rattled off a set of co-ordinates that his visor was displaying.

“Oh no” commented Requiem.

The squad looked on as they spotted a vehicle and around twenty mercenaries advancing on the squad’s.

“Where the hell did they come from?” asked Zeshaun.

Alan looked through his visor and he started to backtrack the mercs movements as they left a distinctive trail through the snow.

“My guess is that they managed to escape before we detonated those explosives.  There must have been a back door to that place and now they have manoeuvred so they are advancing on the main entrance” said Alan.

“But the other squad’s won’t be expecting them, they are busy enough as it is” commented Requiem.

“Then it is up to us to put a stop to them” stated Lucky.

“You heard her, let’s move out and double time it, we need to get to them before they get to the other squad’s!” shouted Alan.

The squad started running as best they could through the snow, hoping that they could get to the mercs before the mercs got to the squad’s.

Zeshaun started breathing heavier as he tried to run as best as he could through the snow. This armor is heavy Zeshaun thought cursing the makers for trying to protect him so much.

"I think they've seen us." Nick said.

Sure enough the vehicle had changed it's direction slightly and was coming at an angle toward the squad. Zeshaun took hold of his shotgun.

"Try to spread out so that they can't hit us with any heavy artillery they might have." Lucky ordered.

"(Well, let's hope they don't have any heavy artillery, cause I'm not exactly a bottomless pit of grenades)" Nova roared.

Zeshaun laughed, unfortunately most of the squad was left not getting the joke because they couldn't speak wookie.

"I hear you." Zeshaun said.

He checked his ammunition as well and saw that he was not low but did not have enough to last him forever, he would have to make every shot count.

"Everyone make your shot's count." Zeshaun warned, he was sure others were running low on ammo as well.

The vehicle got steadily closer to them and Zeshaun became more and more nervous. There were twenty distinct figures on the vehicle and he couldn't see if there was a closed cockpit where two or more people could be hiding. that makes about twenty people, we are so done.

"Shouldn't we tell the other squads we're out here fighting." Requiem said.

"I already told them and they give us their thanks for getting them off their backs for the moment." Lucky said.

The cold wind buffeted them, Zeshaun was almost knocked over. god, if I never see a snowflake or never get cold again, I'll die the happiest being in the world. Zeshaun thought steading himself.

"They should be getting in range now, try to stay as elusive a target as possible." Alan suggested.

Sure enough, large bolts started to land near the squad leaving holes in the ground where the bolt had melted the snow. Zeshaun pointed his shotgun and fired. It didn't have much effect, he saw some people shield themselves from some sparks that were created when a few bolts hit the ship itself.

Damn. they've got a pretty big advantage on us Zeshaun thought firing again.

"If you have grenades now would be a good time to try to get them in the vehicle." Lucky said.

Zeshaun watched Requiem and Nova launch two grenades toward he vehicle. It was no use, the vehicle had to much time to move out of the way and the blasts were far right of them when they exploded. The mercenaries countered with a long streak of bolts causing some of the paladin's to dive for cover.

This is getting to be one big pain in the ass Zeshaun thought as he picked himself up and brushed the snow from his visor.

Jegora watched as Bright led a captive to where Angel was standing over the remains of the charred hostage. The captive in question was a human female, youngish, and bright looking. As she passed Jegora the woman grimaced at him, and Jegora just grinned behind his helmet. Secretly, he was disappointed someone had come forward so soon. He was looking forward to killing more of these nerf-herders who had threatened the Vast Empire.

As words were exchanged between Angel, Bright, and the newly cooperative hostage, Jegora glanced around the room. It was a fairly large room with a blast door on either side, one of which the Jesters had used as their point of entry. The other door, however, was completely intact, if as rust covered as the first one. Taking another look around the room and seeing that everything was under control, Jegora wandered over to the door’s control panel and began to examine it.

It was a simple device, utilizing a four-digit code as the locking mechanism. Jegora began to absently press buttons, trying to determine if the console was still active. He hit the 1-4 keys in order, and to his immense surprise the doors began to grind open.

Quickly turning back to his quad, Jegora took a few steps away from the door. “Uh, boss…” he said sheepishly.

Angel, who had been watching the technician work at one of the consoles, turned to where Jegora was standing and cursed silently. Pulling his helmet back on, Angel was about to reprimand Jegora when two square devices clattered through the slowly widening opening.

Jegora looked down. The two rectangular shapes had slid past his feet, coming to a halt directly in front of him. As he looked at the objects it took his brain a moment to process what was going on. Suddenly Jegora understood, and immediately dove to his left, shouting, “Flash bangs!” over the squad channel.

His warning came simultaneously with the detonation of the anti-personnel devices. Luckily, the Jesters were encased in their Snowtrooper armor, Angel having luckily pulled his helmet back on only moments prior. The helmets, designed for just such purposes, immediately dampened the sound and light filters to tolerable levels. Still, the surprise of the attack left the Jesters semi-stunned, and they were still disorganized as blaster fire began to pour through the blast door’s ever-widening opening.

As the enemy fire started Jegora was already rolling back to his feet, trying to get a grip on the situation. The squad was spread out among the room, and most of the technicians were holding their ears or eyes and swearing profusely. The woman who had decided to help the Jesters was slumped against her console, using it as a support to keep herself upright. As Jegora watched he saw Bright drag the young woman from the console and push her behind a terminal. “Stay there!” he heard her order the hostage.

Turning back towards the door, Jegora found that there was some good news. He was far enough to the left of the door that he was out of the immediate line of fire, which gave him a few extra seconds to think. Checking his submachine gun, Jegora turned and located Angel.

“What do you think, boss?” he asked, his voice mostly cold and professional, but with worry creeping in towards the end, despite his experience and skill.

Angel shook his head. “Stay out of the way, let them come through. They don’t know we’re not incapacitated,” the squad leader told the Jesters. As if on cue, the enemies began to pour through the door.

After that there was no more time for thinking. Jegora brought his weapon to his shoulder and picked up the second target to come through the doorway, squeezing off a short three round burst that was quickly followed by a second. The rounds took the enemy soldier in the torso, and although he was wearing body armor the force of the impacts knocked him of his feet. Someone else finished him off with a round to the head, and Jegora turned to the next target in line.

There was no time for another shot, however. The troopers were alerted to Jegora’s presence, and he had little choice but dive for cover as the next soldier through turned and immediately sprayed blaster bolts in his general direction. None were well-aimed, and all missed, but Jegora wasn’t ready to bet his life on his enemy’s incompetence. As he squatted behind a console, Jegora pulled the clip out of his gun, making sure he still had ammo. Upon observing the 10mm slugs resting in the clip, Jegora quickly reassembled his weapon and peeked his head around the corner, trying to locate another enemy to shoot. As his head cleared the console he was greeted by yet another spray of inaccurate but still deadly blaster bolts. Cursing he ducked back behind the metal device and began to crawl in the opposite direction, trying to find a more favorable position.

As he moved Jegora could hear the battle rage around him. Grunts and violent cursing sounded through Jegora’s helmet as the Jesters fought desperately against the surprise attack. They were rewarded with cursing that was just as foul and the occasional scream as their shots connected with enemy troopers, or as an unfortunate hostage was caught in the crossfire. Still, there were more enemy troopers than Jesters, and the Vast Empire troopers were scrambling to push the hostiles back out of the room.

In the space of a minute, the tables had been turned on Jester squad, and things were suddenly looking very grim.

Screw this Angel said inwardly as he had to quickly retreat to cover before managing to get a shot off. His decision to let the enemy into the room turned out to be the wrong one. He had gravely underestimated the enemy numbers, and now the entire squad was pinned down. Laser bolts flew overhead with such rapid succession, that the entire room was lit up as if there was a small sun burning in the middle. The stench of ionized ozone filled the room with its familiar reek. He looked frantically around the room and, seeing the other Jester's on the extreme defensive, knew he had to come up with something quick.

Scanning his surroundings Angel found the body of the first technician that Jeg had shot laying nearby. His mind whizzed through the possibilities, finally deciding on the most practical. Grabbing the body's leg, he pulled it towards him. Thankfully, the technician had been a rather short and scrawny man, allowing Angel's muscular body to easily move the him. Removing his helmet, he grinned stupidly as he placed it on the head of the dead man.

Turning to his right, he saw Wicket ducked behind a rapidly shrinking computer console. The constant stream of laser bolts was slowly eating away at the metal, and would give way relatively soon. Motioning to the Sullustan to get his attention, he shouted "Cover me!"

Wicket nodded in return and stuck his assault rifle over the top of the console and held down the trigger. Sweeping the rifle left to right, he laid down enough firepower to give a slight opening in the enemy assault for Angel to exploit. He lifted the tech, and with one big heave, shoved the man out into the open. Immediately upon seeing the white helmet, the mercs converged their firepower on it. At least a dozen bolts tore through the body, ripping it apart.

That was all the distraction Angel needed. "GO!" He shouted to Wicket, who was momentarily free to find new cover and pop off a few well aimed rounds. Catching on, a few other Jesters did the same and moved to find better positions while taking down some of the enemy force. Himself, Angel had immediately rolled the opposite way of the tech and ran in a dead sprint for the enemy line. Drawing a vibroblade, the sergeant said to himself Time to get up close and personal. He reached the front line of the assaulting force, a trio of soldiers, before they could bring their weapons back around to meet the new threat.

He hit the first merc square in the chest, the blade easily piercing the armor more conducive to energy dissipation than physical reliability. Pulling the vibroblade downward to open his chest and abdomen, Angel shoved the man back towards one of his companions. Twirling, he swept the leg of the last solider and finished the complete spin by driving the blade down through the man's helmet. Withdrawing the blade, he rolled under a volley of laser fire from other enemies and almost decapitated the last of the three mercs who had just managed to get free of his first victim. His blood spilled out from under his black helmet, staining the floor red and pooling at Angel's feet.

A small twinge in the back of his mind made Angel whirl and throw the vibroblade directly behind him. The blade struck home in the abdomen of another solider bringing his weapon to bear on the SL's back. Squatting to one knee, Angel took a deep gulp of air and re-evaluated his situation. That's four down, plus the two Wicket hit, the three Gio took down...

Feeling the sudden need to move, Angel vaulted to his feet...but not quickly enough. A stray bolt caught him in the right shoulder. The impact spun him around like a rag doll and dropped him to the floor. Pain shot through his body as he tried to roll onto his back. He vaguely heard someone shout "ANGEL!" but his head was pounding with the pain. The world seemed to slow down around him, laser bolts flying by in slow motion, voices blurred and muddled together as Jester and merc traded volley after volley. He tried to clear his mind, but the pain refused to let him focus.

A white gloved hand grabbed him by the back of the armor and pulled him up to a sitting position. Raising his head, Angel made out the face of Jegora kneeling over him, firing his sub-machine gun at the enemy troops trying to take advantage of the momentum swing. His rifle clicked empty, but he immediately grabbed Angel's SLAR and took down four more mercs.

A few tense moments passed, but Angel finally managed to get his mind under control and fight through the blurring pain. Grinding his teeth as he rolled to one knee, he drew one of his IR-5 blaster pistols with his good arm and tapped Jegora on the shoulder. The big man nodded in affirmation.

Around the room, Jester it seemed, had manged to turn the tide, and the opposing soldiers' numbers were cut almost in half, equaling the battle. Sam andd Jori were working together on the right side of the room, while Aeos, Jager, and Gio were trading off covering and reloading while they advanced on the left, leaving Jeg and Angel in the middle. Bright was still guarding their defecting technician, keeping her under cover and out of harms way, while managing to fire off a few rounds that hit home.

Shouting over the continuing roar of the firefight, Angel commanded, "Let's finish this Jester!"

The stormtroopers stared down at the terrified technician. He had cured up in the fetal position and didn't look like he would budge without some serious persuasion. Tanus seemed to be considering his options.

"He'd be a burden in a fire fight," he said which brought a whimper from the man who remained in a ball on the floor,"Though he would be useful in securing ways further into the bunker," Tanus finished after another pause.

The technician mumbled a bit and seemed to be nodding frantically, something which was hard for him to do with his arms and legs trying their best to cover his head.

"So what?........ we take him?" Orobos asked. At this a wash of laser fire acme down the corridor from the other end interrupting their conversation.

"Grab him, we've gotta move," Tanus shouted ducking into cover,

Orobos grabbed the man's cuffs and dragged him into cover behind the rest of the squad. Then turning he popped out of cover and fired down the corridor. The bolts smacked the corner and wall behind which one of their assailants were taking cover behind.

Having gotten a good indication of where the enemy was he pulled a frag from his belt. Pulling out the pin he threw it down the corridor the cap flying off. The frag bounced off one of the walls and rolled along the tiles towards the enemy. The crunk of the grenade was followed by the pattering of shrapnel as it impacted everything a few meters around it. Several screams were cut short.

The squad moved up the corridor to check. Orobos dragged the prisoner with one hand and held his rifle steady with the other. There were only four of the mercenaries and they all lay now in bloody tatters. Ugly fragments of the grenade shell jutted menacingly from the mercenary armour.

"Alright let's move," Tanus said gesturing down the hall the enemy seemed to have come from.

Slinging the man over his shoulder Orobos walked with the squad his two arms gripping his weapon now. The man started to beat his fists against Orobos' back his legs swinging wildly in from. He ignored this protest. Gates walked around to face the man.

"Stop that this instant or I'm turning this thing around!" he said to the technicians bemusement.

"I'm guessing by this 'thing' you mean me?" Orobos asked looking back at his ASL,

"It's a joke,"

"I don't get it,"

Sighing and shaking his head Gates walked back into formation. Moving along the hall there were several doors. Each one was marked with several stripes. |Some were blue some yellow and some red. Tanus held up a fist. The squad stopped taking up firing positions. Turning to the Orobos he nodded. Orobos took the tech from his shoulders and stood him in front of Tanus.

"What do these symbols mean?" Tanus asked. He received no reply from the man in the orange uniform. Orobos put his hand on the man shoulders and pushed him closer to the Squad Leader. After another nudge the man answered,

"They.. the stripes indicate different power generators..... they're small but each one power different thing like lights and doors, beacon, control room power........."

"There was no beacon coming from the planet when we approached?"

"It's... it," the man shifted nervously,"It's a jamming beacon...."

"Alright. Now your going to open each door for us," the man shook his head in response to this,

"You not going to?"

"No, and you wouldn't kill me... cause... because you need me to open them,"

"Did you see how we got in?" the technician shook his head,"Let's just say those blast doors were closed and we didn't have any of your fancy keys or pass codes," Tanus said cheerfully,

By now Orobos could feel the technician shaking it seemed to be only him that was keeping the man from falling over. The tech seemed to realise what Tanus was implying and that he was being offered a chance to get out of this alive.

"Alright, so are you going to get to work or what?"

"Whew! These bodies are starting to stink a bit." Jori said, waving his hand in front of his nose in a vain effort to rid himself of the decaying smells.

Sam nodded and looked over the bodies and down the corridor. He suddenly stiffened and whipped his gun over the stack of bodies and let off some shots. Jori immediatly repeated him and saw that mercs were starting to pour back into the hallway.

"Here comes the second wave, Jester. Get ready." Sam yelled loudly.

Jori pulled the trigger, not even bothering to aim, and was dismayed to figure out the submachine gun was out of ammo.

"Ah frak." Jori said, silently wishing he had checked his ammo before he started shooting.

He had some more ammo for it in his utility belt, but he didn't have the time to reload it. So he opted for the next best thing, his shotgun. Pulling it off his back, he pointed it and shot, and was happily surprised to take down four of the mercs in front with that one shot. It was then that he figured out that since the mercs were so close, the shotgun would be better suited to the task at hand. So he continued shooting until the mercs were forced to take cover behind the mounds of dead bodies in the corridor.

"Sam, cover me." Jori said, waiting until Sam nodded.

Whooping and hollering, Jori jumped over bodies that he and Sam were taking cover behind and ran down the corridor taking a shot at whatever moved. He was finally forced to take cover and he motinoned back at Sam to follow him.

"I'll cover you. C'mon." Jori yelled.

Sam nodded and hopped the stack of bodies, staying low to the floor. As he got closer, Sam moved to the other side of the corridor. Reaching a mound of bodies, he climbed up on it and peeked over the top. He lined up aim with the tops of another mound of bodies. Whenever a head popped up it was immediatly blasted off. Jori quietly moved forward, nearly face to face with the floor. Reaching a small stack of bodies, he ran around it, surprising two of the mercs, who were quickly blasted. He then took cover behind a large stack of bodies to the left of him when lasers started coming at him. Soon, the laser barrage slowed down and suddenly stopped. After a few more seconds, Jori and Sam stood up carefully. Searching around the bodies, they discovered that no other mercs were there.

"I just had an idea. All the mercs are coming out of that doorway right? Well, all we have to do is clog the doorway and the flow will stop." Jori said slowly.

Jori started moving bodies forward to block part of the doorway at the end of the corridor. Sam caught on and quickly followed suit. Before long the only place a merc could get out at was the top of the doorway and if the merc did try that, then they would quickly get shot by Sam and Jori.

"Nice job." Sam said.

"You too." Jori replied.

Jumping back over the stack of bodies into the mainframe room, Jori saw that technician was nearly finished. He sat down with his back to the wall and waited for them to get finished.

He was not sure who moved first, but the instant the lights went out his night vision kicked on. Friend or foe idents came pouring into his HUD. Ducking as the mercenary with his DC-15 began firing, Joamer raised both arms and double fired his wristblasters. Running forward he caught the DC-15 before it hit the ground. Slipping the harness around his shoulders he rolled out of the way as mercenaries began randomly firing into the darkness.



RK remembered saying "Did you really think you would capture Wraith squad that easily?" the problem was when the lights went out, he could not see. His night vision did not instantly engage like it was supposed to, so he pretty much spent the first few seconds trying not to get shot. Making it to a far wall he hunkered down and began hitting keys into his datapad.



"Kill them! Do not let them escape! I do not care for pris..." The commander cut off in mid sentence then proceeded to slump to the floor, Helena withdrew her knife from his back and smirked.

"Stupid man, trying to get the better of my squad." Running forward she performed a running kick that sent one mercenary crashing into the far wall.

Firing his wristblasters again Joamer spun as a blaster bolt bounced off his shoulder pad. Shaking his head he said into his external comlink "You need to reload when you fire that pistol."

  The mercenary who had fired had a night vision rig on, walking up slowly Joamer raised his arm and punched the man in the face. Picking up both his Frontier Model B pistols he slipped them into their harnesses and turned around.

All around him mercenaries were either down, or holding their hands up.

"Lights on in five seconds." Ron said.

"Aha!" RK said as he spun around. He had just managed to get the night vision mode active when the lights turned on and nearly blinded him. "Ahh, turn it off!" Slapping keys his night vision disengaged and he muttered.

"Nice enough of you to join us, RK." Someone said, everyone laughed, and within a few moments so did RK.

"Head count, anyone down?" Kanderin said as the squad quieted down.

"Negative, sixteen mercenaries dead or dieing. Two captive." Helena said after a quick tally. "Pretty good for a thirty second fight."

  "RK, Joamer, check the hallway. The rest of you begin searching the bodies. As for you two, let us start by telling me everything you know." Kanderin said, the helmet comlink made his voice sound truly evil.

“Alright, who the hell fired that stun blast?” Snipes kicked the down officer.

“I thought you did?” Dante said.

Snipes turned to Dante and hoisted his weapon, “Dante, I carry slugthrowers. If I'd shot that man he'd be a pile of blood guts and ass right now, if you didn't go charging in like a savage you might of noticed, and where was our tear gas? That would of simplified everything.”

Dante looked over at the grenade launcher, “Explosives.”

Snipes closed his eyes tightly, “Tear gas, I said 'tear gas'. Virius!”

“Don't look at me, I said tear gas.”

“Wonderful, but to the point, who the hell fired the stun blast?”

“I did.” Nams said stepping forward.

“Wonderful,” Snipes kicked the down officer again, “He's your problem now.”

Snipes looked around. He'd put the helmet back on, expecting tear gas. Now that there wasn't any he didn't see any reason to leave it on, so he pulled it off and nearly tossed it across the room. He was unhappy again. He kicked a crumpled piece of who-knows-what and let it fly across the room instead.

“Alright, lets get out of here, since the idea of taking the officers here is dead we'd better head the way our little mouse was going, he must have been taking those orders to someone and I'm not going home until I have the whole set, or at the very least a colonel or above.”

RAIDERS nodded, Namyr had the captain across her shoulders, but didn't seem to be hampered too badly. Snipes was in a pretty piss poor mood over the state of their prisoner, but lead the way towards where they'd questioned the man earlier without a word.

Snipes hated the smell of the place, it smelled like stagnant water and cold. The poor lighting lent it an eerie feel usually associated with dungeons and prisons. The smell didn't help that either, nor the sound of dripping water. Snipes hated places like this, he always had. Small confined places, if they caved in there was no hope of escape. Snipes grumbled and pushed that from his head.

They came upon and passed the poor fool Snipes had interrogated earlier. He was still quite did, that at least was a relief. Places like this always brought out the superstition in Snipes. Coupled with how poorly the day was suddenly going Snipes had half expected to see him shambling around.

He shook his head, released his left arm from the rifle and pulled his canteen from his belt. With one hand he screwed off the top and brought it his lips. Lovely whiskey poured down his throat. He cut himself off after gulping twice and replaced the lid and canteen to their proper spots.

His moment of respite wasn't to last, it never was. Snipes heard a struggle behind him and spun around. Nams yelled out, the officer had somehow woken up and was struggling furiously. Nams managed to spill him off her back, but in the process he was able to get his hands on her side arm. The squad hesitated, Snipes sighed and strode forward.

The captain was on the ground, M4 gripped in both hands. He was shaking slightly, probably out of both fear and the cold of laying on ice.

“Not a step more!” he yelled, pointing the gun at Snipes.

“Nice try, moron, that's a single action, and from the looks of it, yep, hammer hasn't been pulled.” Snipes had his LAR pointed straight at the idiot. “You think we issue those things because they look nice? Now drop it.” The man pulled the hammer back. “Wrong answer.” Snipes shot him in the knee, he dropped the gun reflexively. “Nams, hold his hands down, fingers spread.”

Nams moved forward, Snipes handed the LAR off to Gaz and withdrew his combat knife. He took the last few steps over to the man with a grin, he leaned over and stared him in the face, placed the knife on his trigger finger, the blade began cutting through the flesh with only it's own weight. Snipes kept it sharp. Snipes pulled his hand back and smacked the back with his palm, it crunched through the finger, bone, flesh and all.

“That was for struggling. Now that you're awake however, I have questions. My favorite being where are the rest of the officers?”

The mans face was tight with pain, but he refused to answer. Snipes moved the knife to his thumb and repeated the process, it took a couple more smacks, but in the end his thumb too was severed.

“Hrm?” Snipes asked.

His eyes were clenched shut, tears streamed down, “Why should I tell you when I know what you're going to do?”

“Oh this is your own fault, the amount I harm you is directly proportional to how stubborn you are. You choose this fate.” Snipes finished his little speech, put the knife on the mans index finger on his left hand and severed it as well. “So, where do I want to go?”

He shook his head.

“You really want me to get invasive?” Snipes said, setting the knife on his thumb.

“Wait, wait, I'll talk, just not the thumb.”

“Well, out with it.”

“Down this hall another three corridors, at the fourth take a left, follow that down all the way, there's a hanger, most of us decided to evacuate, parts of the facility have been caving in, we weren't sure how long it was going to withstand this battle.”

“And they won't be gone yet?”

“The hanger doors have been having trouble lately, we have to thaw some parts of their mechanisms before they can open, takes about an hour and we started evacuation less than half an hour ago.”

“Wonderful. I really shouldn't let you keep this thumb, but you've been a useful little puppy, so I'll let you keep it, for now.” Snipes patted him on the head.

He stood up, wiped the blood on some of the cloth parts of the armor and replaced the knife. He glared at Namyr for a second before grabbing his gun back from Gaz and taking the lead again. He lit himself a cigarette and let his face settle into apathetic distaste. By all rights he should head back now, but a captain wasn't generally all that useful for intelligence, well, not useful enough to warrant the time, at least not by Snipes standards

The tech, shaking like a leaf in a snow storm, stood next to the control pad. Orobos kept a 'comforting' hand on their prisoner, making sure he didn't do any damage or get rebellious. The other BlackJacks stood around idly.

"Stay frosty, BlackJacks," warned Tanus, circling his pointer finger. "The enemy are all around us."

"The enemy, sir, can frankly kiss my ass." Gates responded, drawing a few chuckles from his squadmates.

He stood next to the door while the others spread out, covering corners and other angles. Finally, the door hissed open. The tech nervously identified the room the jamming device's power source, and therefore, Tanus had prioritized it highly.

Gates snuck in first, and stayed low; Tanus turned the other side of the door. "Sir- two engineers, both attention off of me."

"Same here, Garryll. We have to take them out before we can sabotage the generator."

A couple more stormtroopers were about to be called up when one of the techs said to his buddy, "Hey man, what's going on in the rest of the base? Wasn't there some alert?"

The other responded, "I don't think so. Can you get me some caf?"

"Sure," said the man, and turned to walk out the door. Gates was pressed up in a very small cranny, mostly out of sight in the dark shadows of the room. "Shit, shit. I'm attacking on my mark, Tanus. We're going to have to take out all of 'em."

"Copy that Gates."

The engineer whistled as he walked, a jaunty jingle about holidays. "Mark!" hissed Gates, leaping from cover, and breaking the engineer's neck, snapping the trachea and the whistle died. Two laser blasts came from Tanus' position, and Gates brought his pistol up to fire at the engineer.

His target spun, his hand coming up from his waistband with a pistol. The two men fired each fired at one another, once, twice!

Gates shot hit the man in the neck and burned a hole in his forehead, while the engineer's first shot richochetted off the floor, and the second hit Gates in the lower torso.

The engineer collapsed, dead, crumpling into a heap; Gates fell back two steps at being shot, then inspected the hole in his armor, and the blood seeping out. The rest of BlackJack stormed in, shouting out, "Clear!" when the room was determined to house no more hostiles.

The tech shivered in a corner, covered by BARman, while Orobos, Tank, and Saph strung up explosives on the generator that dominated the room.

"Shot by a clerk," muttered Gates, removing the piece of armor, and spraying a bacta salve on it, then covered it with a bandage; the materiel was soon wet with blood, and he slapped a piece of tape over it to keep it in position.

He replaced his armor, wincing as it brushed over the raw wound, and inspected the engineers he'd killed, as well as the consoles the men had been working at.

One look determined Gates' fears- "Dammit!" he cried, waving his comrades over. "The bastard landed on the emergency call button!" He fired a trio of blasts into the controls, frying the emergency call and hopefully convincing the security that it was just a glitch or something.

Tanus yelled to the Stormtroopers setting up the explosives, "Hurry it up! We have to get out of here before we're swamped in mercs!"

Orobos held up three fingers- three minutes until they were certain to cripple the machine beyond repair.

Verkur, standing guard, yelled. "Contact!" the junior non-com said, firing his weapon at an unseen target.

"This just keeps getting better and better," said Gates, as he readied his weapons. "Every frickin' time."

BlackJacks, from limited fire positions, dashed out of the room, firing at the mercs, who had equally shitty cover. An explosion shook the base, filling the hall with dust and rubble, as well as laser blasts. Gates dove out of the room last of the Stormtroopers not working on the bomb, managing to get to another door, which had its power shorted by the explosion. He blasted the lock, and kicked the door in. A storeroom- whatever. He fired at the mercs down the hall, joining his fire with the other Stormtroopers'.

"Orobos, ETA for the explosives?"

"Two and a half minutes!" he yelled back.

"Dammit!" Gates yelled, firing.

‘’Then, I call the turret.’’ Nick said.

With that, they boarded the tank-like vehicle. There were small slits in the side of the vehicle. The Paladins went to the slits, possibly using it to pick off soldiers from the outside. Zeshaun hurried towards the controls while Draxen headed towards the cannon.
They had done what they were meant to do, now they were going to help everyone else.

The assault vehicle began to accelerate into the main war zone. Blaster fire covered the area. It wasn’t exactly a LARGE battle, but it was surely the largest Nick had ever seen, other than his time in the simulation rooms. Nick manned the artillery units weapon systems.  There was only one problem which had stuck to his mind.

‘’Lets hope I don’t blow up our own troops.’’ Nick said.

Zeshaun halted the vehicle when a large eruption shook the area.

‘’They sent in some Anti-Vehicle weapons.’’ Zeshaun warned.

‘’Quickly! Get out!’’ Lucky shouted.

The squad hurried out of the vehicle, knowing they would not survive if they had stayed there. They ran as far away as they could, then were slammed into the ground by the explosion of the tank.

‘’Well, that could have gone better.’’ Nova said.

Nick nodded in agreement. They were clueless on what to do.

‘’Alright guys.. Should we continue to assist the others?’’ Nick wondered.