Alucard took the rear as Beta squad went to move out. Hex had his sniper rifle and vibroaxe secured on his back tightly to minimize noise. Using his Coynite Pistol for personal guard.  He also set up his Droid to directly feed visuals to his helmet to help keep from getting spotted in the first place. He had it trail close behind to watch their backs so they could concentrate on moving forward.

Hex had asked Dante, it being his first recon, "So what happens if everything goes wrong?"

Dante just replied "We never let anything go wrong, now stay focused Private."

That's exactly what Hex thought he would hear, however for some reason he wanted to hear it anyways. He knew that this was his first real mission so he knew he was going to make sure he did everything he knew he could and more.

Hex and Nova followed Dante's commands and lead as we moved, it even seemed Dante memorized the entire area in Hex's mind. For a short bit it seemed as if they were gonna have no problems until they entered the city, well no more problems that is.

"Remind me again what planet were on, Spah." Tyrantis asked.

"Corellia." Saph relplied.

He thought back to his later years traveling to the place, but for different purposes. He wasn't usually here to infiltrate a city and kill new republic troops, but usually to pillage a small corellian town or to take a pit-stop and empty a cantina of all their alcohol.

But she was right about another thing. It was quiet. But there is 2 quiets at this particular moment. The quietness that lets the senses open and hear the beauty of nature. The other is the quietness of the enemy.

As they continued the scouting, not too much was happening. But while they did it, he recorded the hike for future reference.

After a quick comm. check, they spotted a few troops dawning low-class mercenary armor. He saw them and pointed them out to the rest of the squad as they dropped into the grass.

"What should we do?" Tyrantis asked Saph.

"Just stay down... hopefully they wont notice us." Saph replied

"Oh yeah, because there not gonna notice 3 guys in stormtrooper armor." Tyrantis said with a sarcastic joke.

What should we do?" Tyrantis asked Saph.

"Just stay down... hopefully they wont notice us." Saph replied

"Oh yeah, because there not gonna notice 3 guys in Stormtrooper armor." Tyrantis said with a sarcastic joke.


Saphira turned to regard him with a glare he could see seeping from the eyes of her helmet. If it was one thing it was another or was that if it wasn't one thing it was another? She didn't have much time to think about that as the enemy was near. How to go about now?


"Ok we're going to -"


Riq interrupted her.



"Meet up at Beta team's position, avoid patrols at all costs. Beta team, move a little away from the tree line and hold position, we should be there shortly."



So much for taking that guard out. He's lucky.. for now..


Saphira thought as she motioned back and the three of them quickly got out of site before the guard would notice them. With quick footing they made it back to the meet point. Saph looked to Doc as he gave more orders out.



"Alright, there is a road off to our right, about 750 meters. You all need to set your blasters to stun, since we don't want too much blood spilled. ....."

Saph had a feeling that was directed more towards her with her happy go lucky killing streak she preferred. It was habit as she gave a mental groan. Thinking more that having a weapon on stun was pointless. It left your enemies alive to come after you later and let the who wants to kill you list grow longer.

"..... Saph, JK, and Nova, you guys wait on this side of the road near the tree bank. Hex, you will be on this side as well, but your task is to snipe the driver on your stun setting, you're assigned based on your marksman rating in basic. The rest of you, Dante, Beta, Wyrm, and Tyrantis, on the other side of the road. Same thing as the first group."

"Since the vehicles we want to hijack are moving slowly due to explosives in their rear, I will be in a tree above and drop onto the roof of the truck, as soon as I do that, Hex is to hit the driver. I have to get the truck under control before it crashes. Then you all need to take out the escort vehicles, Saph, JK, Nova, Hex you get the escort in front of the truck. Dante, Beta, Wyrm, and Tyrantis, you folks get the rear escort. They will probably be speeders with manned turrets on the back, so be careful."




" So... a waiting game. .You know I hate to wait while you get all the action first Doc.."

Saph piped in and looked to her comrades. Riq only gave a smile before he said anything.


"Saphy... You'll have plenty to do to take out the escort vehicles..."


The Twi'lek straightened when he said "saphy". She hated that nickname and gave a low growl.


"Fine.." She ignored the nickname, though Riq could tell she was trying her best not to want to say something. " But I don't see why we have to set our weapons on stun.. They will only come back at us later.. and will they show any mercy? No..."


"It's a valid point.. I don't much care for it either.. but we have our orders... Besides we need to take their uniforms to sneak in and it looks better if they don't have burns or blood on 'em.""


"Great.. So the VE is softening up now eh? Next we'll be giving the enemy a meal and patting them on their back.."

Despite her understanding they needed the uniforms it was going to still be difficult for her to actually not just want to kill them. Although a few ideas came to mind.


A couple troopers chuckled at her comment.



"Dosen't matter. But if it comes to that I'll eat a Lazar bolt.." Doc finished and told them to move out.


Never said anything about breaking necks... and the uniforms will be still good.


With orders in mind Saphira turned to Hex and the others in her group and walked off to where they could hide a little better. Then again.. white armor was difficult to conceal. At least it was a little dark outside.

With the trucks apprehended, it was only a matter of time before the calm was broken and the storm started.

The Horses disposed of the soldiers and removed their armor to replace with the NR standard.

"Heh, fits me perfect. We get to keep this armor?" Joked Tyrantis.

No one said anything to him as they remained quietly working. With phase 1 completed, they moved onto phase 2 of infiltrating the city.

"So, whats the plan again?" Tyrantis asked.

"We infiltrate the city, locate the muntions and weapon factories, place some beacons, drag ass. Any other questions?" Doc said.

"Yeah, how do we see in the dark?"

"Hex and Saphira have thermal sensors with them, so they can point out where you will need to be. Anything else?"

"Not anymore sir." And with his questions answered, he felt somewhat better. He still didnt know how they would be able to navigate the city without being seen, as if this was all a part of a bigger plot. He cast away the thought for stupidity.

"Alright men, you know da drill. Board da ship, kill da innocents, take anythin' richy. What ya find is what yers. Lock'en'Load!" Screamed the squad commander, Bruskie.

Vaas turned the safety off his SLar_82 and prepared to board the civilian ship.

Within seconds, the boarder hit the hull and began drilling a hole for the Invaders. Soon enough, the wall fell and the troopers charged out of craft, firing at anything that didn't look like them. Men and women fell to the blasters of the pirates. They took rings, necklaces, credits, anything they found on the passengers.....

"Alright, were here men. From what Hex reports, there's a few guards up ahead, so let me do the talking," Doc said. "Remember, we're NR for the moment. Don't do anything like the VE and we'll be good to pass."

Tyrantis pulled out his E-11 and prepared himself, incase of anything about to go wrong.

OOC:

the italics are of a flashback i had during the ride. As you can probably tell, its from my piracy background.

"Unit Aleph Karn 23, why has your unit not arrived at its destination? Unit Alpeh Karn?"

Dante heard the irritable voice of the guard emerge through a speaker set just above the repulsortruck's transparisteel window and froze with his hands still holding his helmet. He risked a glance around the area, noticing that Doc was too far away to consult in time. It seemed he'd have to exercise some initiative. Placing his helmet down, he activated the reply function on the truck's internal comlink.

"Aplogies, control. Heading to destination now."

There was a frustrated sigh from the man on the other side.

"Understood, 23. The delay in arrival has been noted in your file and your continued employment will be subject to review at the next personnel evaluation. Control out."

The comlink channel closed with an angry buzz, leaving the cockpit slient. Dante stared at the speaker grille for several seconds before blinking and putting his helmet on. The Iron Horse ASL quickly opened a private channel with Doc. Quickly, he Much to Dante's surprise, Pershaw reacted not with dismay but with satistfaction.

"Perfect," Riqimo chuckled. Opening up a channel with Alpha and Gamma teams , the Iron Horse SL addressed the troopers.

"Saph, a small change in the plan..."

Unloader DF-45,34,male, real name Frederick Weran, watched impatiently as the hovertruck slowly drifted towards the unloading complex. Management didn't like delays, especially not those involved with munitions. That the late truck was packed with baradium destined for the torpedo factories only added to the urgency. The truck swerved slightly as it approached the squat building, and Frederick frowned. These contractors were none too reliable, and quite a few had been found using glitterstim or other drugs while behind the controls of the trucks. The contrast between the security of the complex and the quality of its personnel was bizarre. The unloading went smoothly enough, with the driver hopping out and walking in the general direction of the driver's lounge and loading droids carefully removing the baradium containers and placing them in storage racks under the oversight of the area's supervisors.

Frederick heard a whistling and turned in time to see the cases distort before the detonators concealed in the cases were remotely activated, setting off a chain reaction which vaporized the unloading area, the rest of the building, and a sizable portion of the perimeter wall. All in all quite a distraction for the compound's security.

"Alpha, Beta, Gamma, move in!"

With the distraction in place, the Horses hurried in while the soldiers went to investigate the explosion.

Wyrm scouted for the squad as they searched for the weapons factory. If they found the weapons maker, then the munitions wouldn't be too far away.

Tyrantis and Saph were un-easy about the mission, for the fact they just infiltrated and were still expected to use stun. Not much of a good idea, for the fact the enemy is trained to shoot-to-kill, while the Horses will fire and just kick them on the ground pretty much.

But, on the other hand, that was before, and now Tyrantis has his M3 pistol with attached silencer as his main weapon now.

"How much of this shit-hole you think we'll have to cover until we actually find the factories?" Tyrantis asked.

"Probably more than we actually need to. Now keep focused on the mission." Saph replied, in her even more un-happy state.

________________________________________________________

About 10 minutes and Tyrantis has a feeling of them being followed.

"Wyrm, cover our six. I have a feeling that we're being tracked." He told the private. With a quick nod, he moved behind the pair and kept point, to make sure his fear wasn't real.

Fortunately, he was wrong, as wyrm didn't spot any hostiles.

________________________________________________________

About another 5 minutes later, the squad managed to find a militant factory. What was made in it was the question. The factory was about a medium sized factory with a large, open spaced lot for any human or humanoid workers.

"Lets go check it out." Ordered Saph. And with that, the triple pack proceeded to infiltrating the factory, of what knows inside of the beast.

"How much of this shit-hole you think we'll have to cover until we actually find the factories?" Tyrantis asked.

"Probably more than we actually need to. Now keep focused on the mission." Saph replied, in her even more un-happy state.

They moved onwards to their goal.  Thanks to the wonderfull distraction they managed to slip in without being seen or having to "stun" anyone. Not that Saph wasn't happy about that. It seemd pointless  to  just sneak in and then go poof.


"Why the heck does the navy get to have the fun  exploading  this place up? I think we could do alot more damage.." Tyrantis spoke up as they slipped into a dark corner of the hanger.

"I  think we would leave a fare better mark.. Not taking anyone out is making me feel like a Jawa.."  Saph retorted. The others with her snorted through their helmets as  Saph  looked around. There was a single guard near a set of doors and a numbe ron top.


Sithspit.. Were on the wrong side. Looks like this is just a pre-entry hanger. Our goal is on the other side of that door... But one guard?



"Saph.. did we  get lost.. This dosent' look like the hanger we need to be in..." Tyrantis asked again.

Clutching her  blaster the female tunrd and stared at him through the helmet.  Even with the emotionless helmet one could feel her razer slit eyes underneath.


"We're not lost. Looks like this room was just newly added. We need to get by that guard.. but I don't like the feel of this. Just one? With the  distraction? Somethings funny.. From the guess of this room.. it looks like the inspection/buyer area..  so it's probably  loaded with security. Let's get this over with.."


They started to move when she finished. Staying by the walls as they fanned out. Looknig for anything suscpcious as Saph stayed near the boxes and moved silently.

The managed to  move along quietly. Saphira hidden  against the boxes as she watched Tyrantis sneak up to the side of the enemy. It still didn't feel right as she looked around the room. There wasn't much. A few boxes piled high and an old speeder sitting by some doors as  she patched a  link  in to Dante.


"Striker here. Beacon's in position. Gamma's on its," There was the whine of an E-11 being discharaged, followed by a thump. "Contact, contact! Get down!"


Tyrantis looked to  the man who  had fallen with a  hole smoking  up from his chest. At the same time their coms were jammed and Noone could patch out to the rest of the squads, or hear them call in.


"What the-"

ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!


A few more sound sof blaster fire splatered against  the box near Saphira. One towards the others in her group.


Sithspit! A trap!!! Someone knew we were comming in this way..  But how?


Instint took hold of her as the Twi'lek raced in.


"Get down!!!"


"I didn't  shoot him.. I promise!" Tyrantis  yelled as they  rolled to the side.  Both now  looking up to the celing to see automatic  blaster turrots that had lowered.



" I know.. It was a bait.. Somehow they knew we were hear. .But we didn' tmake a - The door!!!"


"What?"


"The door trooper. There was a sensor there when we all snuck in." Saphira turned her head to see  the two others had managed to take cover by the  boxes.



"We need to  get out of here!"  he cried and looked over to see their comrades pointing towards the celing above them.  Panales opened and  slowly decending  were two more  of the damned things.


"I have a bad feeling about this..."


Saph heard him mutter. There was no time to waist. They couldn't  get away unscathed. The only chance was the door and there wa sno time to do a gentl opening cycle.



"Just move.. NOW!"


Saph yelled as they started all shooting up at one turrot. Sparks flew from the first as  someone got a lucky shot off. Yet, as  Tyrantis  moved the second and third locked onto him and the others.


"DOWN!!!!! NOW!!"


She screamed to them all and  leapt forward. Slamming  Tyrantis aagainst the others. A hiss of  pain lanced through Saphs  right  flank as the bolt found the weakes point.

"She's hurt! Sargent? Are you -"  whoever spoke she didn't know as Saphira ignored it.


She was on fire and only grunted in pain before ignoring it. Reacting  as she pulled out her  Thermal Detonator and  pressed the  button to deadmans switch. Thh others saw it to.


"Uh.. Sargent??"


Someone questioned as the  little red light begain to flash rapidly.


"I think we wern't suppose to blow anything up -" Another piped in.


" Do you see any othe roptions? We dont' have time to  walk up and  gently knock on the door. " 


ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!

"Uh.. Good point.."


They  continued firing  back to draw fire as the smell of charred  cargo  goods started to flare. Saohira hoped whatever was in the holds was proteted. Mainly for the fear if anythign was super explosive or defermantial to their health.



" We need to bust in.. and run through th esmoke. Get in..  Bantha Poodoo on the ordrs of no kill.. Take cover and Tryantis.. Plant the beacon.. The debrea cover shoudl give us  long enough to get in.. and hopefully we'll find a way out to the others..."


there was no need to say that the coms were being jammed somehow. Either from a static frequency or something they didn't know.  With a deep breath the Twi'lek yelled for them to  hit the ground and through the  TD  towards the door.. Thankfully  they  had enough distance to not be harmed.. much...


Hopefully the crats will  be enough cover from that... and pray to whatever  gods that we live...



The moment the TD hit the gound there was a beep and then nothing but a big explosion.....

A blaster bolt whizzed past Dante's shoulder as he ran with the others towards the RV point. At a hand gesture from Riqimo, Dante and three other troopers spun around and returned fire.

One of the two Republic troopers who had been following them took two shots in the gap between his chest-plate and his helmet. As he collapsed with smoke drifting from his armour, the other dropped to his knees, then squeezed off a burst at the Horses. A bot hit Dante's shoulderpad, leaving a crater in the blaster-resistant plastoid. Pain erupted at the point of impact, and Dante dropped his rifle, scrabbling at the wound as he did so.

Beta threw a thermal detonator, and both Republic troopers vanished with a bang and a flash of light. 

Dante straightened up, retrieving his rifle  vitals jerked erratically, then stabilized as Dante prompted his suit to inject him with the appropriate painkillers. There was a prick as the needle pierced his bodyglove and skin, but the pain seemed to lessen.

4:03

Riqimo waited a moment to make sure there weren't any other troopers in pursuit, then gestured. The Horses ran as fast as they could, throwing away any pretense of stealth. They ran down the paved path that ran through the complex, coming closer to their evac transport with each step.

3:12

The rectangular outline of the factory that was their evac point came into view, surrounded by speeders and troops. Wisps of smoke drifted from a gaping hole in the structure's side: their ride had been quite busy. The throbbing of a repeating blaster on full automatic echoed towards the Horses, punctuated by bursts of E-11 fire. As Dante watched, one of the speeders vanished in a fireball and shrapnel cloud as the LAATi's particle cannon tore through it.

2:05

Doc gestured, and the squad opened fire. Three, then four, Republic troopers collapsed with blaster holes in their chests before the other realized what was going on and reacted to this new threat. A second firefight began to rage as two squads of troopers began exchanging fire with the Iron Horses.

Dante sighted through his WESTMAR's scope, keeping his aim steady. Carefully, he flipped a lever mounted on the rifle's side. There was a click as the M5's undermounted PLX launcher's safety deactivated. Dropping to one knee, Dante squeezed the trigger. An anti-vehicle rocket roared from the undermounted launcher, spiraling as it homed in on the speeder.

1:02

Troopers threw themselves in all directions as the rocket slammed into the speeder firing its laser cannon at the factory entrance. There was a loud explosion, and what remained of the vehicle landed with a clunk as its repulsorlifts died. The other repulsorcraft hummed as it turned away from the factory towards the Horses.

Dante threw himself to the ground as the speeder's cannon opened up on the squad. Cannon rounds blew massive holes out of the duracrete shed the squad was using for cover. Suddenly, three thermal detonators flew through the air, landing on the speeder's side with a clang. The beeeping intensified, then stopped as the baradium grenades detonated, destroying the speeder. A group of figures walked through the smoke, then resolved into a group of stormtroopers.

The lead trooper, whose armour was embellished with red stripes and a pauldron, jogged up to the Horses and saluted.

"Sergeant Crenid reporting. We'd better get offplanet before Captain Vorn gets tired of waiting and blows this dump."

0:00

As the trooper spoke, there was a roaring, followed by a pressure wave. A triangular outline came into view as it dispelled the clouds miles above in Corellia's atmosphere, followed by three smaller triangles. Task Force Bantha had arrived.

Doc nodded to the Sergeant, waving the Horses into the LAATi as he did so. As the 1st Lieutenant climbed into the gunship's troop bay, its repulsorlifts hummed and it began to climb. It seemed the mission was almost over.

Even before the Horse's LAATi had landed in the Hand's shuttle bay, Task Force Bantha had started to disengage.

Death's Hand, due to being the first to emerge from hyperspace, was the deepest into Corellia's atmosphere. Spirit of Justice, the other Imperial Star Destroyer in Task Force Bantha, was positioned several layers high and had been tasked with executing the bombardment. Three Victory-IIs completed the task force, quickly destroying several defensive laser satellites and the Dreadnought cruisers that composed Corellia's meager defensive fleet.

Taken by surprise, the home fleet had lost four of its eight heavy cruisers before its commander had called a retreat. Now, what remained of the fleet was arranged several kilometers away, occasionally lobbing an ineffectual volley at the Imperial fleet.

Despite their apparent victory, the Vast Imperial Imperial forces were in a hurry to leave: the other vessels of the Corellian fleet were doubtless en route, and there was a sizable Republic presence in the sector. The only real advantages that Bantha had were surprise and superior firepower. They'd used the former to enter; Captain Vorn was hoping not to lose the latter.

As the Horses filed into the Hand with their wounded comrades carried between them and as Vorn gave the order to retreat, the Spirit of Justice's gunners fired a last volley at the last of the marked factories. They were rewarded by a gout of flame as the plasma burned through durasteel, particle shields, and still-active machinery.The rectangular structure seemed to distort and fall in on itself, then completely collapsed, sending clouds of debris and smoke in all directions.


Taking a last look at the planet below as his Task Force began to drift upwards, Vorn nodded to his second in command. Spirit of Justice flickered and vanished as it entered hyperspace. The Hand followed three seconds later, leaving Corellia's orbit empty of everything but charred shells of ships and shimmering debris clouds.

=====

As was standard for such missions, holorecordings of the bombardment and its targets had been recorded and transmitted to Abrae and Tadath for Intelligence to dissect, along with the helmet recordings of the Horses and other information. Hundreds, if not thousands, of such reports arrived each day at both locations: it would be weeks before anyone analyzed this particular set.

If anyone had done so, however, they would have noticed certain anomalies about the helmet footage of the factories and the actual bombardment. More specifically, two of the structures which Intelligence had claimed were explosive processing plants appeared to be biomaterial manufacturing facilities and certain shells were being loaded with chemical and biological agents instead of high explosive. They might then have correctly concluded that Intelligence had been wrong again.

For the inhabitants of Kryit, however, the consequences were drastic and immediate. The dust clouds and flying debris, punctuated by nearby turbolaser impacts, caused panic and injuries but no deaths. Then the clouds followed. People fell choking in the streets as gas clouds spread across the city, ironically spread by the harmless detonations of baradium shells. Dozens of poisonous gases drifted across the populated area, killing and sickening entire sectors at a time. Those that survived would die days and weeks later from the viruses and bacteria inhaled from destroyed bio-weapons.

On the whole, it would be safe to say that it would have been kinder to have simply razed Kryit and granted its inhabitants a swift death. Republic shadowfeeds and official broadcasts made no mention of the incident, afraid of backlash from the public against themselves and their Corellian allies. Perimeters were set up and the survivors quarantined, but the veil of secrecy was maintained. Kryit died slowly, and in secret.

=====

The Iron Horses, unaware of all this, rested. Some were confined to the medical bay, attended to by doctors and droids, but most of the squad had managed to avoid serious injury. These troopers were either sitting around in the barracks alloted to the Horses or training with the Hand's complement of stormtroopers. Dante was one of the latter, sparring with Sergeant Crenid of Vornskr Squad.

Dante stepped to the side as Crenid lunged with the training pole, brining his own pole around and stabbing at the Sergeant's chest plate. Crenid swung his weapon around in time to block, pushing Dante's pole to the side before swinging the other end into Dante's chest plate. Panting slightly, the Platoon Sergeant nodded at the Vornskr Squad Leader.

"Nicely done."

There was a hiss as the doorseal to the sparring room opened. An unfamiliar trooper wearing storm commando armour walked through and saluted.

"Private First Class Malik reporting for duty, sir. I was told I could find you here."

Taking in the situation, Dante put his pole down. Several of the other Horses in the room looked over at the newcomer, curious.

"Welcome to the Horses, Malik."

OOC:

Do some character development, meet Malik, whatever. Just please post.

"Meh, im not too good at greeter. I'm gonna go get some rations. And Saph, don't turn him into a Bantha Burger on his first day."

She gave a laugh, meaning that could either be innocent or guilt. Her file begged to be questioned on emotions.

"Don't worry, if anything, he'll become raw Bantha Steak."

As he left, he wish he could have Bantha steak about now. Not exactly pleasing to him, but it sure as hell beat standard rations. Now being on here less that a day, it was easy to figure out where he was going with the fact they put directions on the walls. But it failed to mention that it would take about 10 minutes to actually reach the cafeteria. Not many troops were in there, since it was mostly pilot squadrons. He guessed that they were doing some type of training excersizes.

As he walked up to get "synthesized gourmet", as he called it. Surprisingly, it didn't seem like a low-budget pub in the middle of Ord Mantell.

"Well well well, if it isn't a stormie from dat... uh... mission. Have fun while i make low pay for giving food out?" Said the worker. He sensed he was jealous that Tyrantis got to shoot people, and the only thing a cafeteria worker shoots is the alcohal shots.

"It's not all glamourus as you may think it is. Almost lost a troop on the first day. Not very fun." Tyrantis truthfully telling him.

"Well... it sure beats this dump. Now, what will it be?"

As he read the menu, he saw food he hadn't even heard of before.

"I guess i'll take the jerked Dewback meat and some Fizzade."

"That's all? Huh, thought after that mission you would want plenty of food."

"Well, I -" Tyrantis was interrupted by the broadcast throughout the ship.

"All Iron Horse members, please report to briefing 3B." the voice said.

"Can i get that to go?" Tyrantis joked.

"Yeah, i guess... ill just give ya the fizz and the meat raw. Im sure you can cook it up with sticks."

After a minute, the man gave Tyrantis his food and drink. With his stomach mission completed with, he darted to the area.

OOC:

was pretty brief, but i said i would post and i did what i said i would do... anyways, all set up for you Doc.