Anival waited patiently beside Joamer. Anival wasn’t a great shot, but he was fairly competent.

Anival spotted something in a distance it looked like a body. Anival took out a pair of binoculars, and looked.

“Joamer look.” said Anival handing Joamer the binoculars.

“Kand.”

“What?”

“Where’s the mortar team?”

Kand held his breath.

“We got separated when we were attacked. Why?”

“I think we found them they are shaken but alive.”

“I can’t get to them right now” replied Kand, sounding defeated.

Anival thought for a while.

“I can.” Turning to Joamer, Anival said, “Cover me.”
Anival made his way to the fallen mortar team, going from building to building, he finally got to his destination after what seemed like an eternity.

The building they were in was a joke, it was one of the few that the squad hadn’t barricaded. It looked as if it was merely shut down for a holiday, no markings betrayed it, except for the tired looking soldiers on the ground.

“You made it” stated Anival.

“Barely” muttered someone on the floor, it looked like he had received a bolt to the arm, it hung limply to his side.

“Joamer, can I take them over to where the squad is?”

Anival heard  two thuds.

“Ok now you can go.”

“Lets get out of this poor excuse for a shelter.”

“Ahem, there’s a problem sir.”

Anival turned around.

“What is it?”

The soldier motioned at his legs.

“How many of you can go by yourselves?”

All but two lifted their hands.

Anival sighed, and walked to a fallen soldier, picking him up, Anival noticed as he winced.

“Your lucky, we have two medics.”

They made their way slowly, painfully slow.

“Anything Joamer?”

“Just……….about………….and…………..picking up………….”

Anival barely understood the message but he sighed and kept moving, spotting the building Anival hurried.

“Kand, their here, but two are wounded, I’m taking half to the roof, better range.”

Anival carefully put the soldier he was caring on the floor.
Kand nodded, and started to tend one of the injured soldiers.

“Come on.” They followed Anival.

“Corporal.”

Anival turned around, Kand had never called him by rank, unless introducing him.

“Sir?” asked Anival in a neutral tone.

“Next time tell me what your doing before you do it.”

“Yes sir.” replied Anival and walked out.

When they were positioned in the roof Anival looked at the sky.

“We need an extra hand.” came the voice from one of the mortar troop.

“Anival, help them.”

Anival walked over and started setting out their things.

“Here” said on of the soldiers handing Anival a mortar launcher. “It fell from one of our comrades, we held it for him.”

Anival didn’t say anything, he just set it down, and nodded.

Anival noticed a bend behind some of the building it was perfect for a fallout spot, it was sheltered, and had room for a covered retreat if the need arose.

Rogueboy surveyed the town, from their side there was only one main entrance which was depicted by the main stone road. The acting fire team captain wished that they had mines or at least sensor modules to attach to the detpacks. While wishing for those he might as well wish for another platoon, three star destroyers a hooker and a case of beer. On the road there was a makeshift barricade that an unmanned E-web was standing behind. Beretz had previously used it until Ron saw a grenade go off, oddly enough there was no carcass or signs of Beretz anywhere. Upon reflection the village had been poorly defended, however it had been hard to set up proper defenses. The village had been undamaged when they had arrived; no scorch marks no destroyed buildings. That is what makes it much easier for soldiers to hide in, the rubble and destruction is the natural camouflage. In the untouched village it’s impossible to hide from someone looking around, a gun is always out of place in the land of peace.

Sighing, Rogue saw something move inside the village. Quickly he swung his sniper rifle over and took a glance, dirty white imperial armour stared back at Rogue. Quickly RB jumped out of the door and near fell off the roof as he made a mad dash for his escape rope. It has to be Beretz, and he’s alive.

As soon as Rogue reached the downed trooper’s side, he knew that unless the soldier got some serious medical attention he was going to die. Quickly RB swung the soldier onto his shoulders and made for what the squad had called “the doctor’s house”.

Opening the front door while precariously balancing Beretz was hard and it took RB three tries before he finally got the door open. Proceeding past a small desk Rogue shouldered open a swinging door. This was the operating room; cabinets of pharmaceutical equipment and stuff gazed back at Rogue, and a table was set up in the middle. Placing the semi-conscious Beretz on the table RB, then quickly stripped him down to his underwear. There were grenade fragments that had pierced him in a dozen places. Dispensing with the familiarity with drugs that numb the senses Rogue went to work by quickly searching for the deep fragments.

An hour later and Rogueboy had stabilized Beretz who was snoozing on the operating table despite being covered in blood and bandages. RB was no medic but he had been wounded enough times to know what to do and pulling shrapnel out was fairly easy as long as no vital organs had been hit. As the situation stood, Beretz had a high fever but there was nothing that Rogue could comfortably give him.

RB was returning to his sniper point when as an after thought he decided he was going to make sure that no one could get in without Beretz’s say so. Unsure how Rogue was going to do that he gave up and as fast as he could returned to his post, mindful of the traps he had set up.

Ananzi looked around the small house.  Kand and Helena were doing their best to tend to the wounded mortar team soldiers.  One of them looked like he was going to lose an arm, he was pale and sweat beaded on his forehead.    He peered out the window to see the storm outside getting worse.  A fork of lightning illuminated the sky, followed a few seconds later by a loud crack of thunder.  It was dusk and the light was starting to go, He wondered if the enemy was waiting for the cover of darkness to mount a full assault.  It seemed like those they had faced were just scouts, testing the strength of the defenses. 

    Kand looked up from the man he was treating, “Private, I need you to get on that E-Web and give us some cover.  With us stuck here helping these two we’ll be an easy target.”

  “Yes sir” Ananzi replied, thinking this was a hell of a first mission. He had a few very close calls but one of his squad mates always had his back.  He could tell if they made it out of here alive they would be a tight group. 

  He walked over to RK, who was hunched over against the wall.  He looked shaken but was showing signs of recovery.

  “I’m all right, thanks for getting me out of there,” said RK.

  “Forget about it,” Ananzi answered, helping him to his feet. 

      He moved over to the E-Web, which had a good view of the street.  It would take a lot of fire if a force moved in, but hopefully the shield would hold up and the snipers on the roof would keep the enemy from getting too close.  There was something about these barbarians, he thought, remembering the crazed look in their eyes.  It was like were happy to die. He realized if there were enough of them they’d just be overwhelmed.  They would kill many of them, but who knew how long they could defend this position? 

  “We have movement in the trees outside the village gates” Anival said, his voice crackling in over the comlink.

  “Copy that, I also have activity in one of the buildings over in that area.  I don’t know how they got in there though,” added Joamer. 

    Ananzi remembered seeing a sort of trap door on the floor of one of the houses when they entered the village.  He had a sinking feeling in his stomach and his heart was pounding.

  Using the comlink he reported,  “I think they are using tunnels underneath the houses.  There could be more of them coming in that way in any of these buildings.”  He hoped the message made it through to Raiders as well.  If they were only expecting an attack from only one direction, they would be vulnerable. 

  Switching on the E-Web, he was relieved to find an auto-configure mode.  Without this he would have been lost.  The weapon hummed to life, the screen showed a bar labeled “powering up” and a timer counting down from five minutes.  If the barbarians started moving in en mass before then he was going to be up the river without a paddle  . . .

Cursing, Jori held his head in his hands and thought about what had just happened. Some frakking idiot had unintentionally dropped a concussion grenade with the pin almost out. In the panicked atmosphere, they were rushing off, quickly leaving it behind. Jori had happened along and kicked it, dislodging the pin. He had a moment’s notice of it when it spun into the air in front of him. Realizing what it was, he scrambled backwards in an effort to get away. That effort was in vain. The grenade went off, sending a shock wave of pain in Jori’s direction. His vision went hazy and his eardrums popped with an excruciating amount of pain. Leaning against a nearby building, he breathed heavily until he recovered. Standing up, he was swept by dizziness and tried to steady himself. A minute later, he shook it off and continued on what he was doing, cursing silently all the way.

“Sergeant!” someone yelled.

Jori perked up when he heard his rank being called. Looking around, he saw nobody else above Corporal except for another Sergeant standing next to a building a few meters from him. Gesturing to Jori, the Sergeant waved him over.

“I’ve got a job for you. Wraith, right?” the Sergeant said after Jori jogged over.

“Yes sir.” Jori replied with a nod.

“One of your teammate has reported that there are trapdoors in some of the buildings that lead into tunnels. We have eliminated some of the buildings that Wraith and RAIDERS member have taken up temporary residence in.” he said as he pointed out the cleared buildings to Jori, “I need you to go check those out and possibly rig up some kind booby trap in case the barbarians decide to take them. Watch out though, some of the barbarians have already gone through the tunnels and are in some of the buildings. Another Wraith is on the roof and is trying to keep the barabarians inside the buildings that have been overrun.”

That’d be Joamer for sure.

Even though this was his first mission with Wraith, he had already learned some about the squad and knew that Joamer was the only decent sniper in the squad. Jori himself was ok, but was nowhere near the level of skill that Joamer had already demonstrated.

“I’m on my way.” Jori said, giving the man a half-salute, even though he was technically not required to.

Taking off, he cleared the first two buildings, but struck gold in the third house. There were not one, but two trapdoors, both tunnels leading off into different directions. Taking some demo charges off his belt, he rigged them up on the tunnel walls that were right at the trapdoor and instead of setting it to a certain time, he changed it to motion sensor. Stepping back before it activated, he climbed out and entered the other tunnel, setting up a similar trap.

That should do it.

Satisfied, he left and entered the next building. A couple buildings and a whole lot of demo charges later, Jori was walking up to a building that was like every other one, but felt weird.

It feels like I shouldn’t go in there, but I’ve got to find out if there are any trapdoors in there.

He had just layed his hand on the handle when his commlink crackled.

“Don…open……door…there……arbarian…..there. Do…yo….ead?” Joamer said.

Jori, getting the gist of message, replied, “Yeah, I read.”

Stepping back, he started to move to the next building, but stopped when he was struck with an idea. Taking out some different demo charges, he placed one part of the charge on the edge of the door itself and the other exactly beside it, on the building. What would happen is when the door opened, the beam between the two parts of the charge would be interrupted which will set it off.

“Thanks for the warning.” Jori said into his comm.

Moving on to the last building he had to check out, he noticed movement inside. Narrowing his eyes, he picked out the different bodies, but couldn’t identify them further than them not being barbarians. Letting out his breath, he approached with his rifle raised and opened the door. He let the rifle drop when he noticed the figures were in fact a couple of RAIDERS who he couldn’t identify other than Beta, who had had a very brief stint in Jester and a few Wraiths; RK, Ananzi, Helena, and Kanderin to be exact. Grinning, Jori entered and walked over to where Kand was crouching.

“Orders?” Jori said.

“Uh… nothing really. Most of the defenses are in place and we’re too busy at the moment. Go find Joamer, he just left up those stairs in the corner.” Kand said, without looking up.

Jori could tell he was concentrating on other things. He gave a curt nod and walked over to the stairs. He was halfway up it when a loud bell sound rang out.

What the hell was that

Confused, he looked back down the stairs, but the rest of Wraith was too busy to notice. Shaking his head, he jogged up the stairs and emerged on the roof. Looking around, he saw the bell tower immediately for it was being assaulted. The bell must have been hit by something because it was swaying back and forth. Jori could see a figure standing near the bell, but couldn’t see who it was. He couldn’t do anything for the figure at the moment so he continued on across the roof.

Now to find Joamer. Ah, there he is...

He kept low in case there were barbarians nearby and spotted Joamer on the roof of the adjacent building. Running forward, he took a leap over the gap and made it, rolling into a crouch. He must have surprised Joamer because he jerked to the side and swung his rifle around. Throwing up his hands, Jori grinned crazily, trying his best not to burst out laughing. With a relieved sigh, Joamer slumped against the barricade and, shaking his head slowly, turned back around. Crawling over to Joamer, he clapped the other Wraith on the back and chuckled a bit.

“Don’t ever do that again, ok? You scared the hell out of me.” Joamer said with a little bit of a grin.

Setting up his rifle in the sniper’s holes, he settled down and looked down the scope at the empty terrain in front of them.

OOC:

1058 words...

Joamer handed back the Macrobinoculars to Anival and grumbled quietly.

"I just don't get it." He muttered a few moments later. "Why go through the trouble of setting up an attack over there, if your main attack never gets initiated."

Shaking his head he peered around the edge of the barricade and sighed. The barbs were sitting just at the edge of the village, doing nothing. He knew a few were inside the village, but nothing remotely dangerous, not in those numbers. The force outside outnumbered them three to one, that was what everyone was worried about.

He moved back inside the safe zoom of the barricade and stopped himself from snarling.

The run down rooftop was about twenty feet across, the house was square. They had used anything they could find and created a wall three feet high about a foot inside the outside perimeter of the rooftop. This gave them room to move, but this was the only one like that. Six other houses had simple barricades setup in strategic places on their rooftops, with beams spanning the empty air between buildings. The job was hastily done, he wished they had more time.

Why waste the effort of setting up an attack like this and not use it. Just why. His thought was cut off as off in the distance he heard the ringing of a bell. Peering that direction he could not make out anything, since it was nearly pitch black outside.

"Frak!" He shouted as he jumped up and raced down the stairway. "Anival, Jori stay there. I just figured out why they never attacked."

Racing down the narrow ladder, he jumped the last few feet and made for the stairs. Slowing down at the last step he came to a stop, the noise he made caused the small group to quickly take positions. Shaking his head he walked out into the center of the room and breathed deeply a few times.

"This whole thing was a double ruse. The attack on the Raiders side was the first one, to make us think they planned it so they could bring their main force on this side. The main force is on this side, but they are not attacking. This was the second ruse, they hoped we would fall for it and send reinforcements here, leaving a few to guard the other site. That bell was pure luck, the ones we left are under attack." Joamer said in a rush.

Two seconds ticked by before everyone started scrambling. Ron hit his commlink and began ordering everyone back to this location. Star stood near the center and shook her head a few times.

She cleared her throat before saying "We will go, leave your men here. If this is true they won't attack at all. Maybe this was all a ruse, to just hold us here."

"Hold us here for what?" Ron said as he clicked off his commlink.

"What about the army?"

Everyone turned at the sound of the new voice, Ananzi stood in the back doorway, a sheepish look on his face. He breathed deeply once before continuing "Think about it, we keep hearing about this army that is massive, but we never see it. This would be the perfect time, try to get us trapped here so they can wipe us out."

Kand had begun nodding, everyone exchanged glances and then began nodding slowly as well.

"Makes sense." Star said.

"Alright, game plan. Raiders fall back to their original location. If they do not attack we spend the time we have left building more defenses, we have to hold out till help arrives, if it arrives." Kand said.

"Raiders, meet up at this location. We are going to rescue our friends." Ron said as he exited the door.

Joamer exchanged a brief glance with Star before she turned around and walked out. Turning around he began walking back up the stairs, he shared a look with Kand for a instant before he mounted the steps.

Kand turned to Helena and scowled at the small smile she wore.

Off in the distance the peels of the bell cut off.

Anival looked around and spotted a barbarian.

“Kand I’m going scouting.”

“Alright, but hurry up.” he sounded tense.

Anival cradled his blaster, and climbed down from the roof.

“When I get out of this mess, I’m sending so many complaints to High Command, maybe I’ll get a fat compensation check or something.” Anival was talking to himself, he did this occasionally when he was overly stressed.

Anival heard the pitter patter of feet and looked around, he didn’t see anything, switching to infrared, Anival leveled his blaster, not wanting to let the enemy get the jump.

“Barbarian, alone, should I engage?”

“r….er……as……enience.” came the garbled reply.

“Alrighty then.”

Anival cautiously walked toward the giant red signature that was the barbarian. Anival turned off the infrared, and peeked, a giant axe came rushing down, nearly chopping his head off, Anival rolled and let blaster bolts fly, but the barbarian was already fleeing.

Strange, thought Anival.

Anival followed suit. Around a corner, over ruble, again the axe came flying down, this time Anival wasn’t as quick, and it’s managed to chip a piece of his helmet.

“Son of a bantha!” roared Anival tackling the barbarian, big mistake. A giant hand hit him like an hydraulic hammer, sending him flying towards a pile of debris, Anival hit it an stood up dazed, he followed the retreating barbarian.

Anival turned a corner, and saw that the barbarian wasn’t their anymore, it had vanished, Anival could taste bile on his tongue, sitting down were he stood, Anival contacted the squad.

“Barbarian got away, tackled the nerf herder and, when I got back up, well, wasn’t their”

“Tackled…….why………him?……..pid…….what?” Anival got the message.

“It was one of those spur of the moments things.”

Anival stood back up and took of his helmet, the cool breeze, rain wetting his hair.

“I really need a haircut, hey Joamer After we get off this planet we can both go to a barber shop eh?”

Anival heard audible laughs from the comm.

“Just wait till you get back here.” said Joamer.

Anival chuckled and head toward the base.

“Eh, I think I will fortify the surrounding area first.” said Anival

“What’s wrong Ans? To afraid to go see Joamer?”

“Uhh, no just the area looks like it could use some work.”

“Sure”

Anival could just imagine his head crunching, and Joamer electro drivers whirring.

Anival smelled in the fresh air, it was a relief, to smell the air during the rain, it was such a rare occurrence now for Anival, ever since he left his home planet.

Anival felt home sick.

Opening one eye at a time Baretz felt like a piece of meat that had gone through many grinders. Trying to piece together how he got undressed and covered in bandaged, the memories were eluding him. Either way he needed to get himself clothed; looking around the room he noticed a lab coat was hung on a peg on a door. Ever so slowly Baretz stood up; feeling the world spin he took some slow deep breaths to slow his racing heart. Walking towards the peg was a lot harder then it looked and he could feel a wound on his thigh open up. Slipping one arm into the white coat a flashback struck him; he had panicked and ran just as a grenade exploded in front of him.

Grabbing a blood soaked scalpel Baretz realized that he would need any weapon he could find considering that any weapon was better than no weapon. Opening the door lead to a sitting room of some sort, an office desk was set up with a comfy looking chair and a terminal. The front door had a piece of see-through glass and it showed that outside was dark and wet. Figuring that staying indoors would not answer any of his questions Baretz opened the front door.

As soon as the door was opened a hulking figure made its way towards Baretz as fast as it could wielding a huge axe. Seeing the weakened trooper it roared out a challenge and was about to swing the axe when Baretz quickly shoved the scalpel deep into its throat.

Rogueboy watched as the barbarian took a step back as it was stunned by Baretz’s audacity; with one hand it clawed at it’s throat in an attempt to dislodge the blade while the other hand buried the skull had hard as it could into Baretz’s skull. RB watched in mute fascination has hair, skin, bone, and gray brain matter was cut in half. The barbarian didn’t last much longer than it took for Baretz to fall to the ground; shame Rogueboy could have used the soldier to get him some of the numbing agency inside the Doc’s house.

Ever mindful of overheating the batteries to the E-web RB felt like he was putting up a heroic defence; well at least that’s how he felt. Killing more than three enemies for an engagement was heroic for Rogue, even when he had his sniper rifle he had only killed about five of the enemy before he had been forced to retreat. If the traps had any kills those would of course be attributed to his confirmed kill count when they read it out at his funeral. Then again perhaps RB would not have a funeral, if he died to the barbarians they would most likely take his body leaving Raiders to dismiss him as an official MIA. The reason the army loved to stamp MIA on a most likely dead soldier was that they then did not have to spend the money on the aforementioned soldier’s funeral. It was realized a long time ago that this was a quick money saver.

Sighing Rogue wished the barbarians would kill him, or that Raiders knew he was in trouble; something had to happen soon.

Havock could hear bolts being fired from an E-Web off in the distance. Ron and Jae were on point again checking around every corner before they advanced through the crowded village streets. Flimsy and other forms of trash blew by the troopers as they sprinted and crouched in unison. It seemed the RAIDERS were chasing ghosts today. Hearing and running towards an enemy that just kept eluding them.

The Wraith’s had been under heavy fire then the barbarians just disappeared. Now the fire was coming from the RAIDERS side of the village. Rogue was a capable fighter and Grahim was pretty good with a sniper rifle, Havock didn’t know much about Baretz but she hoped that the three of them together could hold out until they got back.

Ron and Jae were going to make a b-line for the communications hub, which was located in a building Havock had seen from a distance but never went in during their preparations. Ron was carrying his datapad out in front of them, checking for any traps they may have set up before leaving. 

Havock was sweating profusely, it had been a long day the humidity was killing her. The weather alternated between suffocating her with humidity and raining that annoying slow rain, the kind that doesn’t look like much but can soak you before you know it.

The group came together as they reached the street behind the building Karash was using has his med bay. They could hear a scuffle then a horrifying wet crack a few seconds before something heavy hit the floor. 

“What was that?” Raelene whispered with a shaky voice.

Havock looked at the girl, they were all crouched down below the windows. “Just stay down, Rae.”

“Rogueboy, do you copy?” Ron was trying desperately to raise anyone from the team they left behind on the comms, but they were crap until the two comm techs could get back in that building just north of their current location.

He shook his head in a negative then motioned for Havock to come closer. Hav scooted along the bottom of the building until she was close enough to hear her squad leader.

“Jae and I need to get these comm’s working, for ours and Wrath’s sake. You need to find Rogue, find out what the situation is here.”

“Sir”, Jae interrupted Ron, which he growled under his breath but did not object. “Why don’t we take Beta with us, he can cover us while we are working.”

Ron nodded. “Yes, okay. Beta comes with Jae and I. You take Raelene and Karash and find Rogue and the others. Let’s clear these barbarians out of here and get the comm’s working. Then I’m pretty sure we are going to need to do some more fortification they have probably made a mess of anything we did earlier.”

Havock nodded, the instructions seemed pretty straight forward but for some reason she couldn’t shake the feeling it wasn’t going to be that simple. “Yes, sir.”

Ron called Beta over and the three turned to leave. Havock grabbed Jae’s arm before she left. “Hey, be careful.”

Jae nodded, “you too.”

Havock watched them go around the corner towards the communication’s hub. The rain started to fall again giving a musty smell to the world around her. She looked back at Raelene and Karash. “Okay, we are going to find the others, kill any barbarian in our way, and not get ourselves killed. Got it?”

Raelene just nodded nervously, the girl looked like she was going to pass out. Karash kept an eye on her for a second before turning to Havock. “This building has my med supplies, it’s a fair bet someone is injured at this point. I’d like to stop in and pick up some more supplies before we move on.”

That makes sense. Havock nodded but stopped him from looking in the windows. She slowly peered up through the closest window herself. She could see him standing there, a barbarian. He seemed to be struggling with something stuck to the floor. A rod of some kind embedded in something that just looked gross, but Hav could not make out what it was.

Sighing she squatted back down. “Barbarian, but he is distracted. Karash you and Raelene take this window, I’ll get to that one right there. When I give the signal just give him hell.”

Raelene’s shaky voice came through Havock’s helmet speakers. “But, are you sure he was alone?”

Havock nodded from the other window. “There is something on the floor but it’s not a barbarian…not a living one anyway.” Hav gave some directions for them to point their weapons using hand signals and watched as Rae and Kar pulled out their rifles and got ready.

Hav gave the signal and they both shot up, their initial fire caused the glass in front of them to shatter and come smashing to the ground around their feet. The barbarian did not know what was going on. He went from shock, to action, then faltered and fell to his knee before finally slamming into the ground next to the object he was trying to re-acquire from the floor.

The three troopers climbed through their respective windows. Havock wanted to know what was so important this barbarian let his guard down, she walked over to the object protruding from the ground. It looked like part of a weapon, her eyes followed the rod down to the ground then jumped back from it. “Shit.”

“What is it Hav?” Kar had his face in boxes gathering supplies up into a duffle to take with them.

What is it? Better who is it? Havock looked at the barbarians axe, the metal was buried in the skull of a stormtrooper, his helmet snapped in half. The floor was covered in dark red blood from the blow, combined with the darkness it was nearly impossible to see what was imperial white armor from the window.

She looked at him and the weapon he used. He wasn’t gungan so that ruled out Grahim right there, and his weapon…no it wasn’t Rogue they were looking at. That just left Bartez. Poor bastard.

Havock swallowed she could see Raelene standing in the far corner, her hand covering her chest as she tried to get her breathing under control.

Karash was standing over Havock she looked up at him and stood. “We need to find Rogue and Grahim, and we need to find them now. Do you have everything you need?”

Karash only nodded his eyes on what was left of Baretz.

Havock swallowed to keep from vomiting. “Right, let’s move.”

BARman's thoughts were brought back to the present immediately as one of his fellow squad members yells out "Incoming! Looks like the others noticed BARman's little barbecue!" As BARman whirls around, he sees the creatures coming at them, quickly he brings up his weapon and opens fire, although he does carry the Flame Carbine still, the weapon does not have that much ammunition, and BARman wants to save it for use up close to the enemy where he can use the shortest length burst to do the most damage.

As the stormtroopers fire at the oncoming enemy, they are able to bring down two of them with concentrated fire before the enemies reach them, but then they find themselves once again fighting for their lives. Doc yells to BARman as they fire on one of the creatures,

"Private, either you use that Flamethrower or you give it to someone who will, that is an ORDER!"

BARman responds instantly, drawing the Flame Carbine he aims it at the creature, and with short burst he kills the creature, then turns toward the other creature, but finds it already has been brought down by the concentrated efforts of the rest of the team. He turns to Doc for further orders, and his Squad Leader instructs him.

"Get moving soldier, we don't have to worry about those things anymore, and the rest of the squad is out there somewhere, with wounded."

"Yes Sir!"

The group trounced as quickly as they could with the injured. Unfortunately, working their best to keep quiet and a good pace was practically impossible to do. Pushing through some underbrush and the occasional snap of a twig underfoot, it was fairly certain that their foes had a good idea as to where they were at all times.

Sam assisting JB in aiding the soldier with the broken leg kept a sharp eye on the surrounding area. He felt it was his duty to recall the path they had take to get to the downed TIE and work on a possible alternate path back to the village encampment. Yet, with assisting he limited his ability to get the best understanding of the surroundings.

“How are you holding up there, buddy?” Sam queried his comrade quietly.

“I have a broken leg, how do you think?” the soldier snapped back.

Sam did not even bother responding. So much for being a kind soul, he thought to himself. Seconds later, Saphira threw up a fist halting the group.

“Ready yourselves, I have a feeling company is real close,” she whispered.

Sam could only guess as to what was going through his leader’s head at that moment, but he was pretty sure that it was close to what was going through his. Plain and simple, we are about to get messed up.

JB nodded to Sam, without a word spoken the two eased their wounded ally up against a nearby tree. Both, Sam and JB, were needed in combat, should in ensue, and holding up one would doom the whole team. JB handed the soldier his weapon with a glib, “Point and shoot.”

The air was electric with silence. Pressure was building on each of the troopers’ shoulders. Each was on pins and needles, ready at the slightest of movement to fire without a second thought. To Sam it felt as if the temperature in his armor had risen a good ten degrees as the sweat dribbled down his face.

Come on, just hurry it up. What is taking them? Sam thought. It was unusual; the brutes had not ever been ones for holding off on an attack. They’ve always just bolted in swinging away in rage. Sam looked towards the group leader for any sign of picking up and heading out on their way again, but to no avail.

It very well could have been a gut reaction to nothing, but in Sam’s experience, gut reactions can save lives. In situations like these cautiousness is not ever unwarranted.

The tension in the air could be cut with a knife and any sudden movements would break it into pure chaos. The racing hearts of the team was nearly audible. Off in the distance, a roll of thunder sounds. Saphira stands and signals for the team to continue on. The sigh of relief eases the minds of all near. JB and Sam head back to the soldier against the tree. They hoist him to his feet and prepare to move out.

Havock knelt down as she covered another detpack with dirt. Part of her wondered why in the hell she volunteered for this crazy job. Rogueboy suggested they rig some detpacks to a pressure sensor, that way if anyone stepped on it…bam!

Of course, Havock was far from a combat engineer. She longed for a vehicle, any vehicle. She could rig a vehicle to blow up in so many ways, but these things were making her nervous. Meticulously she set the boobytraps up and overly precise when she logged their location into her data pad.

Her hands shook as she lifted them from the covered detpack, she was holding her breath. “Whew.” Havock brushed the sweat from her brow with a gloved wrist. Squatting, Hav rested her elbows on her knees and looked out at the village and forest beyond.

The buildings had pitched roofs and were tall. It looked like something out of a children’s holonovel, if they weren’t surrounded by death it would almost be quant. The forest stretched as far as the eye could see around the village, but there was a clearance between the first buildings and the thick trees.

Havock was on the north-west road, she had already placed detpacks on the west, and south-west road. They needed to figure out how to cover the main road, the center road running north-south. Wraiths and RAIDERS were split at that point, and it was a weak spot for both. They were running dangerously low on detpacks.

Havock wiped her hands and stood up, taking a deep breath as she did. The rain was dripping down at a slow pace, Havock didn’t have her helmet on she needed all the vision she could get setting up the traps. Taking a few steps backwards, Hav turned and snatched up her helmet as she walked back towards the town. She stumbled a little, an effect of not sleeping enough and her head which still ached.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she walked up to the building which contained Rogue, Karash and Raelene. Rogue was trying out the crutches Karash and Rae had cobbled together using things they found, his leg was bandaged with a splint to keep the knee from moving.

“Hav, everything set up?” Rogue was practicing standing on the crutches as he spoke.

Havock leaned against the doorframe, closing her eyes to rest them. “I set up three detpacks in each of the roads, except the main road. We still need to come up with a plan for that one. We are almost out of detpacks though. Oh and don’t forget the AA guns, they are rigged to remote detonate.”

Rouge nodded and glanced at Karash, they had obviously been talking about something just before Havock got there. “Good, well Rae and Grahim can handle the north-south road. I can tell them what to do. You need to rest.”

Havock frowned and wiped her face, her hair was dripping from the incessant slow rain that had been falling. “No, I’m fine. How are we going to cover the roads? The E-webs should be good where they are I think. What do you think?”

Hav’s eyes scanned the three other troopers, she met their blank stares evenly. They were looking at Havock like she had lost her mind. Maybe she had.

Havock shook her head and pulled out the datapad. “I’m just going to go give Jae and Ron these locations. I’ll be back.”

“Hav…”

“I’m fine!” Havock turned and yelled at the room. She chewed on her lip and rubbed her face, she really didn’t mean to yell like that. “I’m sorry. But I’m not going to just sit around and rest when we need to get stuff done.” Some of the words slurred, which was another bad sign, but Havock didn’t give them the chance to argue. She turned on her heel and walked down the street towards the communications hub.

The rain, over the past few days, had been brief, coming in bursts of hard rain and then disappearing for a few hours. Jori always had liked the rain, but not like this. It was comforting to sit under a shelter and watch a light rain come down and hear the soft pitter patter of droplets hitting the roof. But this rain was harder than that, it actually hurt. Cursing as another short rain shower started up again, he walked through the mud, kicking off whatever clung to his boots. He looked over all the defenses they had put up so far and tried to think of more. It was hard going because they had limited resources and an uncertain amount of time until the barbarians attacked so they couldn’t spend too much time on one line of defense.

We have a good chance of repelling whatever forces come at us from any direction except for that big road. At least for a little while. So the main worry is what defenses to put on that road. None that we have tried so far will work because there aren’t enough detpacks to effectively cover it. There isn’t enough furniture to make a maze like the others, but wait. What if we didn’t use the furniture…

Turning to gaze at the house beside him, Jori quickly raised a boot and kicked, eyes widening as the rotting wood gave way.

“That’s it!” he shouted.

As fast he could, Jori ran towards where he thought Kand might be. Opening the door, he burst in and looked around for Kand. Spotting him in a corner, Jori bounded over. Kand looked confused for a little bit until Jori started talking. Crouching down, he began.

“I think I may have an idea for the defense of the main North/South road. Most of the houses are rotting, though some are strong, right? Well, what I think we can do is break down the houses in the middle of the town and carry the wood to the road. Using that wood, we can arrange it where it’ll basically be a barricade with some points open to purposefully let barbarians through. When they go through there, we’ll shoot at them and when they go down, that’ll be all the more obstacles the next barbarians have to go through. We can put dets in spots around those points in case the barbarians make it through our fire and get farther than we expected. We can sharpen some of the stronger wood from the houses and put them in the ground right beside the barricade on our side so that if they decide to go over the barricade, they will land on the sharpened wood, impaling them and allowing us to shoot them before they get any further.” Jori said quickly, wide eyed in excitement.

Kand looked thoughtful for a few moments and started nodding.

“That just might work.” he said with a grin.

Soon, after everybody was told of the plan, they set to work. All the rotting wood was easy to get while the hard wood took a bit of time because it was so strong. Soon they had all the wood they could get without taking down the outer ring of houses and they began to work on the barricades. Slowly, it took shape and the sun had just begun to set when they finished building it. Quickly, they dug holes near the open points and placed detpacks in them with pressure sensitive plates over them. After they had finished, Jori stood back and looked at it.

“It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing.” Jori said to no one in particular.

OOC:

That takes care of some of the N/S road. Like the post said, its not perfect, but its better than nothing.

Karash had spent the last hour or so trying to get Rogue in state where he could walk and not have to be sent back for emergency treatment but in this so called medical centre there was nothing to make crutches from so Karash and Rae had to make them from rubble. There were not perfect but they would stop any permanent damage as well as making him as comfortable as possible.

"Havock is looking very tired." said Rae.

"I know but she refuses to rest and I can't force her to do anything." replied Karash.

"Well knock her the hell out." Rogue suddenly began to speak. "And why can't I have any pain meds?"

"I have told you that I have to ration them and your pain looks bearable. Now quiet this sounds like her." Karash was right because Hav then walked in.

She really was showing signs of fatigue as she was slightly hunched and deep circles seemed to engulf her bloodshot eyes not only this she swayed every now and then also slurred her speech; she appeared to be drunk in actual fact. Hav searched the room with her eyes and could tell that something was not right and looked uncomfortable.

“Good, well Rae and Grahim can handle the north-south road. I can tell them what to do. You need to rest.” It was not long before she began to speak again “...I’m just going to go give Jae and Ron these locations. I’ll be back.”

“Hav…” Karash, Rae and Rogue seemed to speak all at once.

“I’m sorry. But I’m not going to just sit around and rest when we need to get stuff done.” Havock then rushed out of the building.

The three remaining troopers looked at each other for a moment before they all made there way to got after her. "Rogue stay off that leg for as long as possible and Rae keep him looked after, I'll deal with Havock." Karash said as he left.

Karash had no idea what he was going to say or do but if something was not done she would end up endangering herself and the entire squad; she was making her way across the road to the location where Ron and Jae were.

"Hav... Havock wait!" Karash shouted but there was no reply. "very well then... Lance Corporal Ayme Katash stop!"

Havock stopped dead in her spot and tuned to Karash, she gave a soul defying look that was far worse than anything that the barbarians could give. "I am not in mood for your petty comments Karash or any other your stupid 'medical facts' now go away." She looked like she could fall down at any moment.

"Havock you need to sleep and if necessary I will get Jae to hold you down while i put you to sleep!" Karash had no idea why he was becoming this involved after all it wasn't his business and he did not usually like to get involved.

"I would like to see you try." She scowled before turning around once again.

"Havock I am no longer speaking to you as a squad mate or as medic but as a... friend." The words actually left Karash's lips he had managed to say friend, he had never called anybody a friend before and felt strange to do so now.

At that moment Hav stopped and turned once again but this time she looked at Karash in a more vulnerable way and looked as though she about to relent to what he had said; this moment was odd because they both realised something about themselves. Karash knew that he did actually care about his squad mates and Hav realised she could accepted help even if she did not want to.

"Okay Karash but no meds, I will sleep myself but only for a bit." A small grin was now on Hav's face.

"Good I hope you realise how much of a pain you are becoming?" Karash was trying to return to his usual self.

It was then that the squads SL and ASL appeared and looked very strangely at the troopers "What are you two doing."

"Havock has decided to regain a sense of conscious stability." replied Karash.

"What the hell are you talking about?" said Jae.

"I going to have a rest." answered Hav.

"Why didn't you just say that and its about time you did. I didn't want to have to make ya." Jae said in a joking fashion.

"Pfft." Karash said in response to Jae first words.

"Anyway, we need to talk about what we going to do. We need to get the squad together." said Ron.

"I think we should do it here because Rogue still can't really walk." suggested Karash.

Jae looked worried by Karash's words and quickly made her way into the building; Karash did not know what her problem was but he could guess what was going on. "Very well, the coms are fixed and I have spoken with Kand."

As the remaining troopers made there way into the building it began to rain once again and hopefully dissuade any more attacks at least for the time being because no one really wanted to have to fight again.

It was starting to get dark by the time their little party moved around the forest and stayed as quiet as they could. Saphira was sure Sam was in a foul mood for what she said. Yet she was ASL and they were under her orders. Had he even attempted to try anything he would have been down.. She thought some time later as she sighed. The stress level was so tense it could choke any of them right now. It was a bad sign, and Saph had been in enough situations to see that one wrong move could set someone off.

"We're almost there.. Keep it up guys. It's over the hill and we should be there before it's too dark." She replied with hope in her voice. Hope was all they had at the moment. No one knew if the brutes could see well enough in the dark or not, but at least at the downed ship they would have some cover.

"Easy for you to say. We could be lost for all you know." Came Draca's voice from behind them. Not even looking back, she squeezed her hand around her blaster handle tightly. As if she was picturing her hand around his throat.

"Ease up. I know the way. I was given the coordinates. Soon as we are there you can relax. The others need us."

"You keep saying that.. and we've been marching for hours.." He complained.

Just count to ten and breath... She thought, keeping the pace. So far they had been lucky enough not to encounter another group of the enemy. "We will be alright."

They pressed on and for a few minutes more until they heard some crunching and movement in the brush and trees to their right. Everyone froze and Saph signaled to have everyone take cover. Moving slowly she lifted her E-11 into a ready position and pushed a branch aside. Brock tried to follow her when she let go and it whacked him in the helmet and he stumbled back. Rolling her eyes she hoped it wasn't heard. Calm easy.. Saphira thought as her pulse beat faster against her throat. The sound seemed different. It could be anything at this point. Another moment she shot up and was face to face with another masked trooper.


"Stop!"
"Saph?!"

She paused and lowered her weapon.

"Doc?"


"In the flesh." He chuckled under his helmet before taking it off. His face was matted with sweat as well as her own as she took hers off.


"I.. We've been jumpy. Glade to see your all ok?" She asked and cocked her head to the side slightly. Her Lek'ku flickered as she glanced over to see everyone else.


"I can see that."


"Least you made it through. No time to chat though. We need to go."

"Won't argue with you there. " Doc turned and nodded to everyone else as they created a path and walked back to her group.


"Whoa. Now this is one good piece of news I've seen all day!" Brock replied as the rest of their squad and Alpha's came together.


"Right you are.. Now let's go. We took care of the ones behind us.. But not sure ahead. Lets move.." Doc replied. Saphira nodded and placed her helmet back on as Doc nodded to two of his men and had them trade off carrying her wounded to give the others some rest. With new vigor and hope they marched onward and over the hill and sure enough there was the downed ship. Thank god... Lets hope what we find is good..


They sped up and vigor was renewed in the troops. Though they wern' tout of the woods yet as they reached the fighter. there was no pilot waiting for them.


"Sithspit... Where is the pilot?" Doc replied as people took their helmets off.


"Calm down.. He's gotta be around here somewhere. If one of those things got here we would have known." Came her reply. "Right now we need to make a perimeter. I'm sure the pilot is around here somewhere."


"Right!" Came a few replies and off they went as Doc and her went towards the ship to look for anything useful that could be used to everyones advantage. The thing itself was a wreck, metal was twisted and pieces were scattered on the landscape.

"Well, it's damaged. Won't fly again.. But I think we can find something to work with." Saphira replied.

"Good.. Let's get this going while the others are busy. Find anything that might prove useful... "

"Yes Sir!" Saph replied and smiled as she jumped up and took hold of part of the cockpit and started to look inside.

Sam and Broc walked along side the west end of the downed ship. There was even more pieces of metal on their side then they first saw in the wreckage. As it grew darker, they switched to night vision and sat up markers.

"Do you think the pilot is really alive?" Brock spoke up. Sam looked over at him.

"Not sure. You would think once we got here he would be happy to see us. Besides, there's places to hide, co uld be anywhere." He replied.

"What makes you think the pilot is a he? Could be a she?" Brock replied and chuckled.

"You're right.. But if it is.. I'd watch it.." He replied.

"Why?" He tilted his head to the side as they approached a side of what looked like a covered hole in a large tree. Branches were littered around the ground and it was obvious that part of the ship had possibly hit it.

"Do you really want to even try pulling something around another female? Haven't you learned your last lesson from Striker?" Sam grinned.

"Nah.. It be nice to comfort a scared female for a change.." Brock started to say something else before Sam punched him in the shoulder and made him stumble.

"Hey! At least I'm trying to be funny.. You're the one that got the E-11 pointed at your face..."

"Don't remind me of that.." Sam replied, and ignored Brocks laughter. It was then they approcahed the tree when something caught their attention. Part of a boot was sticking out from the tree. Without a word Sam rushed over and pulled the branches away and found the pilot inside. Still in most of his gear he looked like hell.

"Is he?" Brock replied. Sam pressed his fingers to the mans throat and felt a pulse.

"No, Just knocked out. Looks like he needed it. We'll need to get him back to the others and get medical attention. Looks like he has a broken arm and collar bone. Must have ran for safety here and covered himself before dosing a sleep aid." Sam said. Without another word He pressed a com into Doc.



----------



"Find anything yet?" Saphira replied as she tore through the cockpit. It looked like pieces were melted together. The Stick was twisted and she could smell the feint scent of burnt electronics. It didn't look good.

"Not yet. Just keep -.. Hold on.. " Doc replied.

"What is it?" She replied and poked her head up to see him holding a finger up. Saph didn't have to know twice it was a message from someone.


"Doc.. It's Sam. Brock and I found the Pilot..."


"Is he alive?"


That caught her attention and she just stared at her SL with attentiveness. Unlike the others, her species could see even better in the dark so she could see the expression on his face was astounding. Not to mention if anything does come at us I have more of a chance seeing them first...


"Yes Sir.. He needs medical attention. Looks like a broken collar bone and arm. Not sure about anything else. I'm no Field Medic expert. But he dosed himself with something. Found him inside a hull of a tree."

"Good to hear something. Get him back and we'll go from there."


He cut the transmission and looked to her. Riq did not even have to say a thing as she nodded and went back to trying to open part of the ship.


"It's like this thing was burnt on impact. I'm surprised the pilot lived.. and that the brutes haven't been here."


"I think our arrival got their attention.. Just keep trying.." Doc replied.


Cursing in smugglers argot she went and brought out her vibroblade and sliced into the melted components. It took several more minutes and Doc trying to keep her from just trashing anything that might be worth finding before she got through. Around the same time Brock, Sam and the injured pilot came back and their SL was over with another medic taking care of him.

When this is over with I am taking a hot shower, and then going to make sure next time we're more prepped for something like this...


Another hour went by and they stabilised the pilot. He was in and out of consciousness, but relaxed after they set his broken bones and gave him a few bacta patches. When Riq tried to ask about the ship he couldn't say. Too weak and tired there was nothing they could get out of him. Then, as Riq walked back up to the ship Saph tossed a panel of the ship out and barley missed hitting their SL.

"Hey! Saphira.. Watch what you're tossing.."


No sound came from her, as her eyes opened wide when she found what they needed. It wa slightly damaged but built down in the flooring of the ship.


"Striker!" His voice came again and she shook her head, Lek'ku twitching with excitement as she ignored the irritation of his voice. With care, she took out a radio type object with a screen on it. It was scratched, but not as damaged as she thought from the way the rest of the junk was.


"Sorry Sir! I found something!" She replied with excitement and came out. Handing it over to him as she climbed out of the ship. It only took a few moments as they worked on it, giving it a power source and copying it over for their uses. It gave screenings of the landscape and showed several enemy encampments that were in the area.

"Great job! I need to send this over to the other Squads.. Hopefully it's not too late for them to use it.." He replied and walked off a few feet and sent messages out to the rest of the Squad SL's. With a smile on her face she breathed easy and looked to the others.

"We're good for now. And in a safer area. There's nothing around us for a few miles as far as the enemy camps. Just stay alert and start watches until we get further Directions!" Saphira replied. Those with helmets off smiled and she felt allot of tension lift from most of the troopers. She could only hope it was going well for the other Squads....

OOC:

Objective  reached and done. Awaiting further instructions!