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ComNet > Stormtrooper Corps > Archived Stormtrooper Corps Story Board > ESC Storyline - BlackJack
 
 
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Topic:  ESC Storyline - BlackJack
Orobos
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Orobos
 
[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant
[VE-VEEC] Word Slinger
 
Post Number:  490
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
July 29, 2009 5:12:08 AM    View the profile of Orobos 
Orobos climbed down into the lift after several of Blackjack and was followed by the commandos. The slicer stepped up to a control panel and the lift was moving whit in several minutes. The grinding of smooth durasteal against smooth durasteal was audible in the completely silent lift. It stayed that way for the entire journey down towards the engines.

Orobos looked around. The commandos looked battered and bruised leaning against the walls of the lift taking advantage of the short break. The stormtroopers weren't as bad. Some had minor injuries, their armour wasn't white anymore but almost black from the scorch marks of blasters and lasers.

A small ringing noise indicated the lift had reached the right level. The squads raised their weapons and moved to the sides of the lift doors to avoid any fire that was bound to come through them once they opened.

The metal sheet slid into the wall revealing a part of the ship that was untouched by the combat that the upper decks had seen. There were no thrawnist stormtroopers or naval crew either.

The squad stepped outside the lift taking up positions covering each end of the corridor they stepped out into. It was deserted.

"This is weird," Orobos said looking around.

"I don't care how weird it is, let's hope it stays this way," Garryll said and began to move.

The squads flinched at this and their weapons shot into the air pointing in every direction. There were no cries of the enemies, no laser fire, it was just as eerily silent as it had been in the lift.

"Let's take advantage of this and get a head start to the engines," Tanus said.

The squad muttered their general assent and moved following the squad leader. They approached a door at the end of the corridor. It wasn't locked surprisingly and the squad filled through taking positions at either side of the corridor.

The Imperials were nearly halfway down the hall when a small clink resounded around the hallway.

"Grenade!" Corvin shouted who was towards the front of the group.

"Grenade!" Orobos shouted who was at the back of the group.

Another clink sounded as Corvin ran kicking the grenade back up the corridor. Orobos followed suit reaching the grenade. It exploded before he could draw back his leg to kick the explosive away.

Orobos was blown off his feet by the blast, he felt several streaks of pain run through his body as white hot pieces of metal ripped through his armour.

The sound of Thrawnist troopers piling into the corridor was audible but distant to Orobos as he hit the ground. He knew Wrex would be with him in a second and needed to tell him where he was hit. Concentrating Orobos could tell he was hit in both his legs and his stomach. Wrex loomed over him and shouted something.

"What?!"

"Where are you hit?"

"Legs and stomach," Orobos murmured he vision going blurry for a second but he shook himself,"Gotta stay awake!"

"Damn right," Wrex said and pulled his hand away from Orobos' stomach. He was clutching a four inch piece of metal, "This might be bad," the medic said.

"Just get 'em outa me and some morphine, I'll be good," Orobos said and stared at the medic propping himself up on his arms while he did so.

Wrex nodded and set to work.
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Rogueboy
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
July 29, 2009 12:23:37 AM    View the profile of Rogueboy 
As soon as the first grenade went off, Rogueboy wished he had his grenade launcher; the thing had run out of ammo in the previous battle. The last shot had been mildly beautiful; one of the enemies had almost blindsided him as Rogueboy turned he instinctively fired a round. The grenade struck the man in the unprotected spot between the helmet and the shoulders, the explosive then popped up in a rebound fashion, RB had used the grenade launcher as a piece of wood and batted it towards another Thrawnist.

The reflection only numbed Rogueboy’s sense of the presence as Orobos flew into the air, blood seeping out of a probably fatal wound. If there was one thing Rogueboy hated about fighting inside of ships it’s that any missed blaster bolt kicked up so much smoke that it was extremely difficult to see.

The battle became a pitched affair of angry red bolts flying through the corridor a few connecting others missing. Rogueboy’s arm still hurt like the devil from the shot that was scored on him, the wound itself wasn’t so bad the plastoid had melted into his skin cauterizing the wound yet probably at the same time poisoning him. The EE-3 felt unfamiliar in Rogueboy’s hands, having been with the A-280 for his entire army career the sudden switch had left him rather lost.

A bolt suddenly flew out of the smoke and struck the ground not a decimetre from where Rogueboy was crouching, another problem about corridors was the lack of cover. We should retreat, they’re fortified and we’re sitting ducks. Rogueboy thought as one of the marines got wounded with a blaster shot to the gut.

As if listening in on Rogueboy’s thoughts Tanus made the call to pull back. “They’re dug in too well, follow me guys.” The Blackjack squad leader yelled and took off in a sprint down another corridor.

Rogueboy helped Wrex carry the wounded Orobos. “We need to find a place to bunk up, with wounds like this he’s gonna die.” Wrex said to Rogue.

The semi-conscious Orobos muttered something and then Rogueboy dropped him by accident. “Careful with him!” Wrex yelled.

“It’s too damn slippery with all the blood I can’t get a decent grip!” Rogueboy screamed back before motioning for Wrex to let go of Orobos.

“This is gonna hurt like hell O, but I won’t get a bolt up my ass because you’re too heavy.” Rogueboy said as he grabbed Orobos’ arm and carried him over his shoulders.  A moan escaped from Orobos but Rogueboy paid it no mind as he ran after his squad with Wrex at his side.

One of the marines was doing exactly the same thing as Rogueboy except a quick glance at the fallen comrade showed that he was too far gone to be saved if he hadn’t already passed on. Running alongside the marine with the baggage Rogueboy spoke up. “I think he’s moved on.”

“I know his mother and she’ll kill me if I didn’t do all I could to save him.” The man responded.

“They’ll kill you if you don’t leave him.” Rogueboy stated before adding. “Have you checked his pulse recently?”

“Not since the first grenades went off.” Was his answer.

The three squads stopped up ahead and Tanus was giving orders. “Alright guys we’re going to pincer them, there’s got to be a way around them. If we can flank them we can take them out.”

“What if we’re moving towards another trap? For all we know they’ve completely cut off the entrance to the engine room.” One of the men said.

“Because there’s always a weak spot, and I have a good feeling it’s this way.” Tanus said.

“It could be that way.” One of the commandos said.

“My feelings agree with Solvanos over here.” Varth said.

“Well since we’re all talking about our feelings here, my stomach is pissed off at me because I didn’t take my ceremonial pre-mission dump.” Rogueboy said and was rewarded with a mixture of disgust and laughter.

“How is Orobos?” Tanus asked Wrex.

“Not too sure boss it might take a little while to find out if he’s going to pull through, he got hit really good with the shrapnel from the nade.” Wrex answered.

“Shouldn’t we leave him behind?” Varth asked through his comlink on Blackjack’s frequency.

“We could, but I don’t think the brass would send us three squads for a death mission so I think we should bring back whoever we can.” Tanus answered.

That got Rogueboy thinking there was no plan to get them off the ship and there was absolutely no way they could take out the entire crew. They could always steal a shuttle, Rogueboy couldn’t pilot it but he was sure someone in the three squads could.

“Alright move out, if the plans match there should be an emergency access hatch in a room about ten meters down the corridor.” Tempest said. “This route should put us slightly behind the barriers they set up.”

“Hey boss, wouldn’t it be better just to not engage those guys?” Rogueboy asked.

“What if they get called in by someone else we run into, do you really want to get caught between two squads of enemies?” Garryll interjected.

“Good point, didn’t think of that.” Rogueboy answered.

They entered the room; it must have been used as some form of technical training as there were terminals lined up much like a classroom.  Behind the teacher’s desk was a small locked door. “This shouldn’t take long.” One of the commandos said as he pulled out a small device and placed it onto the terminal socket. Within a span of two minutes the hatch slid open.

A confused engineer looked at the men for second before one of the men laid out a stun bolt on him. “Let’s move guys.” Tanus commanded.
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Kairo
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Kairo
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
July 29, 2009 2:55:42 PM    View the profile of Kairo 
As the two squads filed through the hatch into the maintenance hallway, Kairo led the way. Though he did not mind his role of guide, it definitely hampered his fighting. Having to hold the datapad in one hand most of the time, it forced him to constantly be switching it for one of his knives in his belt or just carry it the whole time. Plus, trying to exam multiple floor schematics and layout the safest courses while factoring in possible enemy counter measures was no fun task. He also had to drop his guard to look at the datapad in the first place, leaving him minutely open for any enemy surprise attacks.

Popping a quick look over his shoulder, he assessed the squads' statuses. The special ops were definitely hit harder, having lost their leader and a few members so far. Only one or two appeared to be practically uninjured. Blackjack had faired well until recently. Everyone had been injured in some form, but it was not until Orobos had taken the grenade that things started to really look bad. Rogueboy was helping him walk, placing both of them at increased risk. Carrying him the whole way would wear him out immensely and make them easier targets, even with Wrex helping. They had used almost all their grenades, and the loss of their heavy equipment was even worse.

I hate fighting on a ship. You can't retreat. Sometimes you really can't out position an enemy as you can on the ground. And there is no such thing as reinforcements. After walking about ten meters, they reached the second access hatch that would lead them into a room behind the enemy barricade. Squeezing past Kairo, the special op slicer started to hack his way through.

As the man went to work, Kairo took looked at the datapad again, hoping he would see something he had missed before. "Cozy," Corvin joked from his position pressed up against Garryll. The maintenance hallway had been made to barely accommodate the width of one man.

"Press any closer and people might get the wrong idea." Gates quipped.

There were a few chuckles. Most of this was lost on Kairo. He had found something. It was not what he wanted to find, but something. Opening a direct feed to Tanus, he spoke quietly. "Sir, this is a mess. First, we have a lot of wounded. Second, if we all head to the engine room like this, none of us are probably going to make it out alive."

"I realize this. Your point?" Tanus voice was strained. The situation was obviously apparent to him as well. Most of the men had probably guessed at it too.

"Well, looking at the schematics, we are about two hundred meters away from the engine room. Where we are now is about fifty meters away from the hanger bay, back in a similar direction we came from. Looking at this map and factoring everything in, including Cant and his men, I think I have the best solution." Kairo knew this was going to sound stupid, and probably would put him in suspicion of being a spy, but it was the only way. "We need to split up."

There was silence on the other end. "Almost got it," The slicer next to Kairo said.

"Explain, and be careful what you say." Tanus finally replied.

"Taking all of us to the engine room with the injured is only going to slow and hamper those of us relatively uninjured. Going all the way there and back to the hanger is also going to be hard, since once the engines are destroyed, their main objective will be to use whatever shuttles they have left and send the troops they have out. So, we split up. The injured, along with some men, break off and head to the hangerbay. They secure a shuttle and hold the position while the rest take out the engines. Same goes for Cant's crew. While this allows us to move quicker, it also has a hidden purpose. The two groups heading toward the bay are to hopefully cause half of the attention on the ship to follow them and stop them. This creates four groups for them to deal with. Two heading toward the engine room, and two heading toward the bay."

The plan was truly insane. Though it did have some merit. The main problem was the fact that splitting up would only work if they did send people after the group heading toward the bay. The slicer finished his work, and the door slid open. The room on this side was similar to the other one. It was empty.

"No," Garryll's voice came through the comlink. "I disagree. This plan sounds bad, and fishy to boot."

"Looking at the situation though, its really our only chance," Tanus replied.

"I think it could work," Cant's voice jumped in. Apparently Tanus had opened a communication for a minute with the leaders before turning it over to the squad frequency.

"It's already been decided Garryll," Varth added.

"Three against one. Fine, but don't expect me to like it."

There were some confused mumblings through the open channel. "Alright everyone, here is the plan. We are going to split up." There were a few objections. "Shut it. We don't have time to argue. Cant, Varth, and I have decided. Listen up, because I'm saying this once, and then we are moving out. Rogueboy, Orobos, and Garryll, you are breaking off with three of the special ops and heading toward the hanger bay. You are to make it appear as if we are retreating. A group from Cant is doing the same. Everyone else is coming with me and moving toward the engine room. Garryll's group, bring as many of them with you as you can, and make sure to get a shuttle ready when you get there. We'll wait in this room for a minute, while you pull those from the barricade before with you. That's it. Now move."

It had been a lot of talking, and a bit of time had past. Shuffling into the room, the group split into their groups. The special ops group gave the ones going with Tanus all the heavy explosives they had left. Kairo gave Garryll a short list of directions. It was not very far to the hanger bay. Everyone knew what to do. Now it was time to let everything ride on a chance. It seemed to be the way Blackjack liked it. With a final nod, Rogueboy hit the access panel on the door and stepped into the hall, carrying Orobos next to him. The special ops followed, then Gates. The move through the maintenance access had placed them at the end of a hallway from the barricade. It took a moment for the stunned soldiers to make a move. The enemy had been in front of them moments before, but now was flanking their exposed side.

Tanus hit the panel to close the door. Blaster fire could be heard on the other side. The sound of heavy boots running down the hallway soon followed. Then a yell, "After them. Our orders are to take them out before they cause more problems." A second wave of heavy footfall thundered in the hallway. Then silence.

"Alright. We go quick and fast. Kill the enemy quickly, before they can give away our position." Tanus opened the door again and ran into the hall, weapons at the ready. Kairo dashed after him. It was going to be a headlong charge the rest of the way. If they were spotted, they had to kill the patrol as quickly as possible. This trick would only last so long, but would hopefully allow them to get close to the engine room.

Turning in the opposite direction from the other group, they ran towards the barricade. Kairo had put the datapad away, and replaced it with a knife. During the conversation before, he had taken the time to memorize the route they would take. Cant had a similar set of directions. The two groups were going to meet about twenty meters from the blastdoors protecting the engine room. It was a t-junction and was the most likely place for their main barricade outside the room itself. The effect of coming from two directions would help to confuse them.

Moving around a corner, they saw a squad of thrawnists move into the corridor from an adjoining hallway. Throwing his knife, Kairo aimed at a second soldier with his blaster and shot him in the head. Tanus blasted a third trooper in the chest, and Corvin shot him in the head. Switching to a different target, Kairo continued his dash forward and shot the man in the shoulder. With a jump to the side, he dodged a few snapped of reaction shots. Altering his aim, he blasted the man in the chest. By this time, the enemy had been wiped out. It had taken only fifteen seconds to take them down. The element of surprise had helped. The group had obviously been sent to help chase down Garryll.

"Let's hope they didn't get to say anything." Tanus stated, without breaking pace. Kairo pulled his dagger out of the unfortunate soldier as he ran past.

"They probably had enough time to open communications and then die," Varth said, as he jumped over the pile of bodies, following Tanus.

After running about twenty meters, the group moved into a room and walked over to another access panel. "Try to get it open faster this time," Varth ordered.

"If I go any faster, I'll probably trip a hidden sensor and give away our position," The man replied, but did appear to pull out his equipment in a hurry. When the door slid open a minute later, the enter group shot stun blasts through the door and into the hallway, but it was empty this time.

The group pressed forward, madly running through the confined space. Even with all his training, this unending battle and dash was starting to wear Kairo out. They went fifty meters further before exiting. Following the same procedure as before, they crammed around the door and prepped their weapons. As soon as it opened, they shot a volley of stun bolts into the room. Two technicians and a man in uniform dropped to the ground with a thud. Sweeping into the room, they stopped at the door. "Only about eighty meters straight down this hallway until we reach the t-junction?" Tanus asked.

"Yeah, and it's unlikely to be completely empty." Kairo replied.

"Well, we all knew this group was on the suicide run to begin with really." Varth stated.

"Suicide?" Wrex asked.

"Yeah," Tanus laughed cynically. "We're also a distraction for the injured groups, so they have a chance to get out. With just two squads of men hitting the engine room defenses, it's unlikely we're going to be coming out in one piece, if at all."

"As long as the damn thing blows before the last of us falls then we're good." A special ops soldier grunted.

"Alright. Time for the last push." Tanus said, opening the door into the hallway. Kairo summoned all his senses to their peak, and followed him out.
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Corvin
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
July 29, 2009 5:15:03 PM    View the profile of Corvin 
And we are well and truly fraked. ran repeatedly through Corvin's head as he jogged through the corridor with the rest of the engine room group.

There was simply no way in hell a dozen bedraggled, exhausted troopers could take out the doubtless formidable force defending the engines, even if they fell for Tempest's ploy. Tanus had to know this. Corvin briefly wondered why the man had approved of the plan, then realized the thought was irrelevant. He repeated a mantra he'd come up with back during training.

This is irrelevant. Thinking about it will probably get me killed. I should focus on the mission.

Muttering the phrases under his breath, the Blackjack removed a nearly depleted power pack from his E-11's side and replaced it with a spare one. There was a hiss as leftover plasma gas escaped from the socket, filling the air with the smell of ozone. The weapon whined as Corvin flipped the safety back off, indicating it was fully functional.

Although less powerful than the EE-3 and considerably less accurate, the looted carbine would do the job. And if it didn't, Corvin suspected the outcome would be more or less the same.

"Blast door." Varth announced. The storm commando stepped to the side and tapped several keys on the wall-mounted control panel. It emitted a decidedly negative buzz, flashing red. "Kriffers locked it."

There was a hiss over Corvin's com headset as Tanus exhaled.

"May as well blow it. They'd know we were coming anyway."

"Roger that. Yaris?"

The storm commando Varth had called for stepped to the front of the group and pulled out an explosive charge.

"Only got two charges, Sarge."

"Do it," Tanus ordered.

The storm commando shrugged, kneeling next to the blast doors and pressing the magnetic base of the explosive into the durasteel. There was a click, and the commando let go, starting to type the activation code into the charge's central panel.

"What I wouldn't give for some thermal detonator tape..." the explosives expert muttered as he tapped the keys.

"Less chatter, more typing." Tanus barked.

The commando pressed the final key, then stepped back and leveled his blaster carbine at the door.

"Charge set."

Tanus pressed a button on his wrist panel, and the door vanished in a flash of light. Corvin looked away, temporarily blinded by the explosion.

He'd forgotten that he no longer had his helmet and its light filtering systems. An elementary mistake, and one that could have cost him his life under different circumstances.

Blaster fire started to fly through the hole, and he threw himself against the side of the wall. There were a series of rapid whines as the commandos and Blackjacks returned fire, and the corridor fell silent.

Corvin blinked rapidly, black dots seeming to flicker in front of him as his eyes recovered from the bright light. Tanus cautiously advanced to the shattered blast door, a thermal detonator in hand.

"Clear," the Blackjack Squad Leader pronounced, and the troopers followed him up to and through the destroyed blast door. Four Thrawnist stormtroopers were sprawled on the ground, one with the insignia of a sergeant. Two had evidently been caught in the charge's blast, while the other two had been brought down by the group's volley.

"Better hurry," Varth muttered. " There's no way they could have missed that."

As though to prove the storm commando right, a group of white-armoured Thrawnists appeared through the doorseal up ahead and opened fire on the squads. Blaster bolts hit the walls and doorframe all around the Vast Imperials as they returned fire.

At the same time, the sound of blaster fire errupted from the corridors behind the Thrawnists. Cant's group had evidently run into the same problem as the Blackjacks.

Corvin fired single shots in rapid succession, sighting through the carbine's scope with each shot. Two blaster bolts hit the lead stormtrooper in the chestplate, burning a smoking crater into his plastoid armour and throwing him into the Thrawnist directly behind him.

There was a sudden buzz over the headset, followed by shouting and the sound of nearby blaster fire. Cant's voice suddenly broke through.

"Cant here. We've reached the engine room entrance, but the sithspawn sealed the blast doors. We can't get through."

"Understood. We're on our way." Tanus replied, ducking as blaster bolts flew past his helmet. Pulling his war hammer from its back sling, the Gunnery Sergeant roared something incomprehensible and charged at the offending stormtrooper. The other Blackjacks followed his advance, with the storm commandos providing cover fire.

At this rate, we'll be lucky to get to the engine room doors.
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Read the bloody manual!
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Garryll Gates
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
July 30, 2009 7:57:01 AM    View the profile of Garryll Gates 
“This plan is crazy,” Gates had spat out across the officers’ band the moment Tempest had finished it. “There’s strength in numbers.”

“There’s strength in confusion, too,” Varth said thoughtfully.

“And there’s a trooper no one has ever seen before,” Gates said. “What the hell kind of new-recruit spur-of-the-moment transfer PFC comes up with plans like this?”

“The bright kind?” Tanus interjected. “The plan has merit.”

“Or it could get us all killed!” Garryll exploded. “He could be anything! A spy, or just plain wrong! When have my instincts been wrong before, boss?”

“They’re wrong frequently, Garryll,” Tanus chuckled. “Seeing as they’re usually shoot first ask questions never.”

“Let’s just put it to a vote,” Varth compromised.

“Alright, no way in hell,” Gates said immediately.

Varth and Tanus both nodded. Gates looked to the Marine officer expectantly. His unit was so shot up, he ought to side with Gates.

“Aye,” the marine finally said. “Let’s go with the lad’s plan.”

“Unbelievable,” Gates groaned.

Tanus flipped back to the main squad frequency. “Thinking it over, the plan looks like our only choice.”

“I think it could work,” Cant added.

“It’s been decided, Garryll,” Varth put in.

“Three against one. Fine, don’t expect me to like it,” Gates said, and then flipped back to the officer’s channel. “And let it be put on the record that this plan sucks.”

Tanus laughed and addressed the troops. Gates tuned him out and inspected his rifle.  He looked up when his team was assigned, and Tempest gave him a short list of instructions. Gates recited them back to the trooper dutifully.

At least, he mused. If I get stuck with this job, I’ll be damned if I don’t do it right.

Gates waved his team up. Rougeboy carried the limping, bleeding Orobos, and all three Spec Ops men were in various states of disrepair. They took a left through the nearest door and the door hissed shut behind them, sealing them off from the rest of their squad.

“Hangar,” Gates ordered, annoyance forgotten as the mission became tangible. “Fast as you like, move out.”

The least-injured Spec Ops soldier ran point, with the three injured men clutching bandaged sides and being supported.

“Contact,” whispered the point man. Gates made his way forward to the front of the fireteam.

A half-squad of Stormtroopers were standing stiffly at attention across a doorway. The Vast Imperials were out of sight behind a corner. Gates nodded at them, and the Spec Ops man readied his rifle.

“Simple plans work best,” Gates muttered, and walked around the corner firing.

His EE-3 coughed and spat bright laser bolts into the formation of Stormtroopers. At point-blank range, the powerful shots tore right through the men’s armor, cooking them alive.

All six were dead before they could raise their rifles and respond. Gates dug through their belts, removing grenades and extra clips, and tossing them to the rest of his team, who were running low on ammunition.

“Get to the next room,” Gates pointed down the hall the Stormtroopers had been guarding. “Those doors, the ones blasted apart. Get there, now.”

The team limped as quickly as possible to the opening, and emerged into a battle field. Bodies were still strewn across the floor in their positions of death. The injured men quickly found cover. They moved them over to the next door quickly, and took positions. Gates and Rougeboy scrounged ammo from the dead Stormtroopers and Marines that lay in the room.

Gunfire sounded from another door into the atrium they had decided to meet the marines in, and Gates turned around, his hands full of blaster packs and grenades. A half-dozen marines ran out the door, blindly firing their rifles behind them as they ran. One collapsed with a blaster bolt through the head.

Seeing their comrades, the marines made a beeline for the improvised cover. The Spec Ops troopers gave them some cover as a squad of Stormtroopers ran out the door in pursuit. Two dropped from the accurate fire of the Spec Ops troops. Rougeboy ran back to cover, but Gates was out in the open. He yanked the pin off one of the grenades as fire splattered around his feet, and tossed it lightly at the Stormtroopers before running back to cover.

The explosion blew up a pair of Thrawnists and the rest pulled back.

“Wonderful,” Gates groaned, having finally reached cover. “The plan is working.”

"Could you help me with him?" Rougeboy complained. "The damn Whipid weighs more than I do."
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[This message has been edited by Garryll Gates (edited July 31, 2009 6:56:52 AM)]
Corvin
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
July 30, 2009 2:53:56 PM    View the profile of Corvin 
There was what sounded suspiciously like a frightened squeak. There was a clang and a clunk. The more or less headless stormtrooper officer fell to the ground. Standing over the man's body, Tanus lifted the phrik hammer, shaking blood and brains from its head.

The surviving stormtroopers retreated through the blast door, firing as they went. One went down to multiple blaster hits, but the others escaped with their lives. This, if anything, was even less comforting. Stormtroopers didn't just run like that, especially not Thrawn's vat-grown elite. Their retreat, then, implied that they intended to return, probably in greater numbers.

Tanus led the squads in pursuit of the retreating stormtroopers. Another went down, blaster bolts penetrating the back of his helmet and backpack as he ran. One of the two surviving troopers turned, reaching for a blast door control panel.

"Shook the kriffer!" Corvin yelled, realized that he planned to lock the squads out. It wouldn't hold them, of course, but it would allow the Thrawnists to get away and possibly for reinforcements.

One of the storm commandos squeezed his blaster's trigger, burning massive holes in the man's armour. He slumped against the wall, hand dropping, just as his partner disappeared from view.

"After him!" Tanus ordered. The blasterfire was louder now, and Corvin could hear yelled orders and screams.

Abruptly, Cant's voice was echoing in his earpiece.

"Tanus, what in the Nine Corellian Hells is keeping you?"

"Keep your hair on, Cant. We're on our way."

"You'd better be. These sec troopers have us pinned down. I've only got six boys left."

"We're on our way."

Tanus gestured as he ran, and the Blackjacks moved to either side, raising their weapons as they did so. They came to the corridor's end, and saw a half dozen troopers lying in wait waiting to the left.

Behind the Thrawnists, over twenty of their comrades were in a firefight with Cant and his men. The Imperial Marine leader was surrounded by white-armoured corpses, his helmet visor cracked and partially missing. He was shouting words of encouragement to his surviving men, firing an E-11 on full automatic as he dodged return fire.

Tanus swung his warhammer, catching the nearest trooper in the side and throwing him into the wall. The man managed to raise his arm as though to ward off the blow before Tanus brought the hammer down again, breaking his neck with a loud crack. The five others opened fire, calling for reinforcements as they did so. Several troopers disengaged from Cant's group to join them as the Blackjacks and Praxis opened up on the Thrawnists.

Corvin fired the E-11 in rapid bursts, dropping to one knee as blasterfire flew through the air. Red enenrgy beams flew back and forth, catching troopers from both sides. A storm commando was thrown off his feet by a blaster bolt to the chest plate, getting back to his feet and resuming firing moments later.

Corvin felt a blaster bolt hit him in the centre of his chestplate, burning into the breath hose connector and causing a heatwave to wash over his helmetless face and neck. Corvin choked for a moment as the force of the hit pushed the breath from his lungs, then recovered and pulled his E-11's trigger. The stormtrooper who'd fired dropped, his neck blackened and smoking as the bolt burned through bodyglove and flesh alike.

More and more stormtroopers were attacking the Blackjacks instead of Cant's group, giving them a chance to stand their own and go on the counter-attack. Caught between the two groups, the stormtroopers were cut down without mercy.

Gasping for breath, Corvin replaced his weapon's power pack with one looted off a dead Thrawnists. Cant waved cheerily as he stepped over a dead stormtrooper.

"What took you so long?'

Two of the Imperial Marines were supporting one of their injured comrades. The man's ornate shoulderguards were blackened and partially burned away, and his chestplate air tank was missing.

Tanus shrugged.

"Some of these fellows got in the way."

His tone abruptly shifted.

"We'd better blow the doors and get off this hunk of metal before more arrive."

Cant waved one of the Marines forwards, and the man started to place a det charge on the blast doors. The other Vast Imperials watched and waited, glancing nervously around. There was no telling if hostile reinforcements were on the way, and the last thing the vastly depleted squads could afford was to be caught between two enemy groups.

"And...ready." the man announced.

Oh dear.
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Read the bloody manual!
"Never believe a rumour of my demise. I have as many lives as a cat. Also as many teeth, as many claws, and the same cheery, cooperative disposition." Peter Wiggin, Xenocide
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Rogueboy
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Rogueboy
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
July 30, 2009 8:00:48 PM    View the profile of Rogueboy 
Rogueboy and Garryll each had both of their arms around Orobos’ and were dragging him down the corridor. The Whipid had entered a trance like state which would allow him to heal himself better, or so Wrex had explained to the squad. Three of the commandoes were on point, their guns staring down the deserted corridor, expecting something to jump out and end their existence.

“He is one heavy mother lover.” Rogueboy complained.

“Yeah, and I hear he’s small for his race.” Garryll explained.

“We need to find a small repulsor lift for him or something because this is ridiculous.” Said the platoon sergeant.

“Once we get near the hangar we’ll look for one of those flat shipping repulsors, or something, whatever shows up first.” Garryll confirmed.

The sound of a blaster going off immediately caused Rogueboy to drop Orobos and swing his EE-3 around, and move to a more defensive position. The only cover he could find was one of the durasteel columns that were placed to add some decor to the ships while supporting the above floors, the three commandoes did likewise. The hallway was silent until the sound of boots started to echo, two pairs of feet echoed right past Rogueboy and as they walked by he noticed that they were dragging a body.

“What the hell is that?” One of the two men asked the other.

“Don’t know it’s a big fury creature...” The other answered.

“Is it dead?” There was a sickening thud as the corpse’s head hit the cold durasteel floor.

That was the moment when Rogueboy sprung out from his hiding place within a second so did Garryll, the two shots that Rogueboy fired went wild; one hit a door on the left of the guard, while the other shot went tall. The third shot however found it’s mark in the man’s arm, and the fourth shot burnt a hole in his plastoid breastplate. Garryll has been much luckier than Rogueboy, and he had been able to take the man out from a distance without having to get as close as RB did.

“Who do you think the dead guy is?” Garryll asked Rogueboy as the three commandoes started to slowly make their way over.

The man in question was clothed in the black of a stormtrooper corps officer, as to which stormtrooper corps Rogue was unsure; as far as he was concerned they were the only Vast Empire presence on the ship. “I’m going to chalk him up to a displeaser, probably failed to stop us and he was killed for it.” Rogue finally said after some careful thought.

“It’s a shame we had to kill these two.” Garryll said motioning to the two dead stormtroopers. “We could have used them to carry Orobos around.”

“I think they would have caused us more trouble than they were worth.” Rogueboy said before continuing. “Clones seldom see the point in living.”

“You see a point?” Garryll asked curiously.

“Hell no, but at least I enjoy getting drunk and screwing around as much as the next guy, speaking of which I still don’t even know how my relationship with Jaenna is.” Said the former Raider.

“Whose Jaenna?” The assistant squad leader inquired.

“Um...She’s the squad leader of Raiders. Technically we’re dating, but we haven’t really talked to each other since I transferred. I’m sure she feels like I betrayed her or something like that.” Rogueboy voiced.

“Yeah, you’re relationship is definitely over, I don’t think any words are even required. My advice is get drunk, forget about her, and hook up with someone else. It’ll probably make you a happier person on top of that.” Garryll advised.

The three commandoes made their way over. “So are we going to talk about girls? Because I’m sure as all hell my wife wants me to be home in time for supper.”

“It’s twenty o’clock.” Stated Rogueboy.
“One of these days is good enough for her.” The man remarked. “Let’s move along.”

Their trek continued through the corridors and through a tube lift that took them a floor under, everything seemed unguarded and abandoned. They had run into a few civilians who attempted to run at the sight of them; however a few blaster bolts insured that they would say few words.

Eventually the Vast Empire soldiers found what Rogueboy had been looking for, a small cargo repulsor lift. The lift was floating right outside of a door, and sitting on top of the repulsor were numerous small boxes. The door was opened, as soon as the group arrived a man stepped outside of the door humming. “Hi guys, shouldn’t you be upstairs stopping those other imperials?” The man asked. “Why are some of you in black armour?”

The three commandoes looked at each other and started laughing. “What’s so funny?” The man’s demeanour immediately changed.

“Because, we’re going to kill you and take your cart.” One of the commandoes answered as he equipped his vibro-bayonet and drove it through the man’s chest.

The man screamed the entire time the bayonet pierced him, again and again and again. All in all it took the man something like twenty seconds to die. The commando turned to Rogueboy and Garryll his armour covered in blood. “What? I was running low on ammo.”

“Was that really necessary?” The stunned Rogueboy asked.

“No, but it was fun.” The commando said.

Rogueboy bit back his remark which had to involve how fun it seemed to feed that commando to a rampant rancor.

Once again time seemed to move slowly as the squad made their way down seemingly endless corridors until finally they went down a narrow flight of stairs and stood outside a large door that had a large Hangar C on top of it. Once again the halls were oddly quiet, there was a smaller door built into the bigger door and while the little door would hiss open sideways Rogueboy knew the large door would slowly open top to bottom.

Looking at Orobos, Rogueboy was amazed at how fast the Whipid was healing. Already the wound was beginning to look like a couple of days old, Rogueboy silently wished that in the next life he would be a Whipid. “Alright, this is it.” Garryll announced as he walked up to the door, the barrel of his gun trained on it as if expecting Thrawn himself to appear.

The door opened and the the Vasties were greeted with chaos. The sound of klaxons resounded throughout the entire hangar, TIE fighters were coming and going and quite a few of them looked like they had seen some actions by all the blaster scoring on them. The amount of pilots were few, however there were engineers everywhere and a small squad of security personnel were nearby as well.

“Shit.” Rogueboy muttered to himself.
Heavy Weapons Specialist

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Garryll Gates
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Garryll Gates
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
July 31, 2009 7:42:00 AM    View the profile of Garryll Gates 
Gates leaned over and pressed the ‘close’ button on the control panel. The door hissed shut.

“Damn it,” Gates muttered to himself. “I just knew this was going to be a bad idea.”

Rougeboy leaned against the repulsorlift they’d managed to find, and checked his ammo. Gates could hear the bustle of TIEs, engineers and mechanics in the hangar. They were so close to their goal, but they couldn’t move forward with such a large portion of men in front of them.

“How the hell are we going to secure that room?” muttered one of the marines. He was clutching a carbon-scored arm wound and his armor was badly dented around the legs.

Gates fiddled with his rifle and enunciated exactly what he thought about the entire mission, Thrawnists, and space combat in four letter words. Rougeboy snapped his fingers in front of Gates’ face, snapping him out of the depressing tumble.

“C’mon,” the Platoon Sergeant grumbled. “What’s the plan?”

Gates sighed. He opened the door again and quickly shot a glance over the entire room. Just as quickly, he closed the door.

Then he turned around and grinned. “I’ll need one of their suits. One of the Stormtroopers.”

Rougeboy shifted Orobos over to the side and helped Gates separated a Thrawnist Stormtrooper’s armor from his body. Gates quickly exchanged plates for the other suit, quickly becoming a faceless, indistinguishable Thrawnist Stormtrooper, albeit one with some slight blaster scarring.

“Alright, now this is a long shot that it will work,” Gates said. “But it could.”

Rougeboy shrugged. Gates tossed his EE-3 to him and picked up a fallen E-11. Then, he turned and marched smartly to the door, opening it wide and walking through. The door hissed shut behind him. Moving quickly, he marched down a ramp and off to the side of the room, where a mechanic was refueling a shuttle. Gates silently moved up behind him, and, after a quick look around the room, cut his throat. The man fell, gushing blood from the gaping wound. Gates dragged the body off to the side, out of sight, and then removed the fueling device.

He flipped it on, and liquid fuel quickly poured out of the device. He laid it on the floor and it pumped fuel onto the hangar floor. Casually, he walked over to the next refueling shuttle, and repeated the process. Soon, the pool of fuel was spreading across the ground, slowly covering the main space of the hangar. Casually, he walked towards the center of the hangar, where a large canister of liquid Tibanna was parked, awaiting loading onto the TIE fighters. Gates carefully unscrewed the top, and the liquid Tibanna sloshed heavily.

He looked around warily, and then quickly knocked it over. The barrel made a large, gong like noise, and the liquid gurgled out. He hastily made his retreat towards the hangar door he had emerged from, while mechanics and engineers looked curiously at the spilled liquid. A Stormtrooper officer in black yelled for him to halt, but Gates tuned him out.

Finally, the Imperials caught on, and a pair of guards opened fire with their rifles. Gates turned lightly and sprayed from the hip, catching one man in the arm and winging the other. Both dropped into cover. Threat removed, he turned his aim to the emptying fuel stations, and fired rapidly. At least one shot hit the spreading pool of fuel, and ignited it.

Pandemonium broke out, as Security guards tried to fight their way to Gates’ position while engineers and mechanics screamed and ran from the spreading flames. Gates watched as the fuel-fire sprinted across the deck. He checked where the liquid Tibanna met the fuel, and cringed in fear. He slammed the door open and dove through. The door hissed easily behind him.

A rifle prodded Gates’ head. The owner of the rifle was Rougeboy. Gates gave him a thumbs-up and a cheeky grin. Then an explosion came from the hangar.

“See?” Gates said, removing the Stormtrooper armor and swapping it for his own. “I knew that would work.”

The three Spec Ops men carefully opened the door; it was carbon scored and so was much of the room.  Incinerated corpses dotted the room where they had been melted to the deck. Secondary fires burned all over, and only a couple TIE fighters could even be recognized as such. Miraculously, a shuttle tucked off to the far side of the hangar was relatively undamaged, and they made for it. The three Spec Ops men opened the door and stormed into the ship, checking it for hostiles.

“Clear!” the senior of the three announced, and the Marines trooped up into the large shuttle. Gates took Orobos’ repulsorlift from Rougeboy, and the platoon sergeant entered the ship himself. Gates prepared to follow.

A blunt instrument slammed into the back of his head. Blackjack’s ASL hit the ground woozily, and rolled over in confusion. A second attack smashed into the ground where his head had been. Stars flashed before Garryll’s eyes, but he could blearily see a half-melted Stormtrooper wielding a steel bar with both hands, ready to drive it down onto Gates’ head. His twisted, melted feature contoured into what Gates assumed was a smile, and Gates prepared to dodge again.

The attack never even began. The man’s head disappeared in a flash of brain matter and blood.

“Did I do that?” Gates mumbled. “Holy shit, I’ve got the power to blow people’s heads up.”

He clambered to his feet unsteadily. Orobos was sitting up, grimacing from his injury, with his disruptor pistol in hand.

“What’d I miss?” he asked, grinning.
ASL/SFCGarryll Gates/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/VE [RoM][ICE][IH][CCA][BC][SRP][AS-1][ES1][CoS][EW1]
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If these people want to fight me, I'll blow 'em straight to Hell!
Kairo
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Kairo
 
[VE-ARMY] Sergeant Major
[VE-DJO] Acolyte
 
Post Number:  1332
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
July 31, 2009 11:38:30 PM    View the profile of Kairo 
With a flash, the blastdoors blew apart, sending most of into the room. As a few smaller pieces clattered against the group's armor, the two teams of fifteen soldiers fired blindly through the smoke cloud and ran into the room. It was larger than the previous generator rooms had been. Built as a semicircle, the main generator pulsed in the center of the far wall. Control panels had been arranged to match the semicircle pattern, expanding away from the generator in two rows. Except for the shrapnel that had been strewn across the room, it appeared pristine and shiny. A second balcony level ran around edge of the half circle, held up by a few scattered columns. Two narrow, spiral staircases were positioned on opposite side of the room. Towering control panels ran along the outer edge of the room on the first floor, concealing potential enemies. Flashing lights and glowing holovids displayed readouts of the engines current status.

Bursting from the smoke left from the detonator, the two teams came to an abrupt halt. The only visible occupants of the room were a few lifeless technicians draped across the control panels they had been operating a moment before. "This bodes ill." Cant whispered.

"Don't let your guard down," Tanus absently ordered as the group slowly edged their way across the room toward the generator. Everyone kept their eyes pealed for any movement. Some taking aim at the still balcony level above.  Two special ops personnel moved along the outer edge of the room in opposite directions from the door. Kairo went with one, while Corvin followed the other. "This feels like a trap."

As if on cue, a voice called from above, "Freeze, you're surrounded." Out from behind the large control panels along the wall stepped fifteen troopers, all pointing weapons at the group. Ten more soldiers stepped forward into view along the perimeter of the balcony, blasters aimed at the pinned group. In the middle of them all stepped a man in black uniform. "Drop your weapons.

The surrounded soldiers had taken up battle positions. Each one had spun to aim outward from the group. No one dropped their weapon. "I said drop your weapons, or we'll be forced to kill you." Tanus had his pointed directly at the officer. Slowly lowering the weapon, he gave the minutest of hand signals for Corvin and Kairo to stay in position. "Now, you will come peacefully and end this foolish chase."

"We're not going anywhere." Tanus replied.

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Because when we go to do something we do it. And at this moment, we're gonna make a nice big hole in that generator." Tanus put his left hand behind his back and sent Varth a signal. Opening a communication with his men, Varth whispered an order.

"That's precisely why we laid a trap here for you. Really now, this bores me. Either surrender or die." The man pulled out a pistol and leveled at Tanus' head.

"Wait, before you do that, there is one thing you should know."

"And what's that?"

"Well, when I said we were going to make a hole in the generator, I should have phrased that differently. I actually meant we were going to turn this whole room into a giant fireball." A loud chirp went off in the room. The sound of a bomb being armed. "You see those two men at the back of the group here? They just armed all the charges and explosives we brought here to take that thing out. If you shoot us, I think they'll have enough time to chuck it and blow the thing up."

"Tempest, you hear me?" Tanus's voice suddenly filled Kairo's helmet.

"That would be a problem." The officer above stated. With a sigh he said tiredly, "I really am growing tired of these games. Chasing you throughout my ship for this long has put a bad mark on my record."

Kairo nodded. "Glad to hear it," Tanus quipped. "Good. You see the column about two feet to your left." Tanus whispered. Again Kairo nodded.

"So what are we to do? I can't very well let you blow that generator up, and I can't just let you go either." The officer's voice echoed through the room. It had grown deathly silent. Everyone was ready to snap into action at a moment's notice. Now that the Vast Imperials had armed the explosives, they could not be just gunned down. Though the chances were low, if they managed to cause an explosion close enough to the generator, a fireball would consume the whole room.

Tanus whispered again, "The officer is about three feet to the left of that. Once these two grow tired of chatting, think you can lob a grenade up there?" Tanus was playing a dangerous game, switching between his comlink and the discussion with the officer. "Well you see, we already knew something like this was going to happen. So, we are quite prepared to die as long as we blow the thing up."

Kairo slowly reached down and unclipped his last thermal detonator. Lifting it up, he nodded one last time. "It appears we're at a stalemate then." The officer replied. "Of course, I could always just wait until enough reinforcements arrive to kill you all before you can even move."

"Then I guess this discussion is over Thrawnist pig." Kairo armed the detonator. "Speaking with trash like you just leaves a bad taste in my mouth anyway."

"Kill them!" The officer lost his composure. The sound of forty blasters going off almost simultaneously was deafening. The group in the center of the room had dived for whatever cover they could make of the control panels. Two marines were riddled with bolts before they could move. Everyone else appeared to have sustained a minor injury. Around the room, a few Thrawnists had been hit. Those that survived moved back into cover. The ones on the balcony were the squad's main concern.

While all of this happened, Kairo had stepped forward and reach out from under the balcony. Flipping his arm back, he hurled the detonator onto the balcony above. Two other detonators followed it from the special ops men. Varth had apparently had the same idea as Tanus. Three seconds. He had left little time for Thrawnists to knock it back. Spinning around, he found himself facing the barrel of a rifle. Throwing out his right hand, he battered the weapon to the side, but received a punch to the face from the man. One. Pulling out his knife, Kairo feinted at the mans waste but abruptly brought it upward, stabbing into his unguarded throat.

A moment later, his detonator went off. The fracturing of material followed the sound of it. Kairo snapped his head upward, just as the floor visibly cracked all the way through. As he jumped to the side, rubble and troopers plummeted from above. The balcony had not been designed to hold that many men on it in such a small area. The added blast from the three detonators had apparently fractured the support struts.

Caught in the downpour, Kairo felt something collide with his back and pin him to the ground. Everything went black for a second. As his eyes cleared, he tried to push himself up from the ground. His first effort was futile, but it had at least let him know his arms were not broken. With a second push, he lifted himself off the floor a few inches, pushing the rubble up with him. He pushed with all his effort, but the weight was too much. As his muscles gave out, he was slammed into the ground again. If it had not been for his armor, he was sure he would have been crushed. As it was, he was sure his helmet had been fractured and dented, and he probably had a mild concussion.

Relaxing his body, he pulled his senses together and calmed himself. The sound of blaster fire was stilling going off in the room, though it was muted through the rubble. While he waited, he tried to wiggle his toes. A minute later, the thumps ceased. Well, someone won.

A voice said something from the other side of the rubble, but it was too soft to make out. His comlink crackled in his ear but was too damaged. Another minute passed. Then, he heard something move above him. A second later, whatever had pinned him was lifted off him. "You dead?"

As he tried to speak something, Kairo found he could only cough. Something wet crossed his lips. Helping hands pulled him up. He noticed that the eye lenses had been broken as well. "Help me get this helmet off him." Wrex appeared in front of him.

"Hurry it up. We don't have much time until more arrive." Varth's voice interjected.

"Shut it Varth." Tanus snapped.

Well this should be interesting. Kairo thought as Wrex delicately pealed the helmet off, trying not to cause any more damage. Blinking a few times, Kairo spit up a glob of blood. "Probably have a broken rib or two. Can fix that later." Wrex injected a stimulant into Kairo. "That should keep the pain at bay enough so you can walk."

"Can you stand Te…" Tanus began to ask from Kairo's side with an extended hand but dropped it a second later. "That can't be."

"What?" Wrex asked, helping Kairo up.

Taking a deep breath, Kairo felt the stimulant course through his body and seemingly revive him again. Wrex had been right. He had two broken ribs and was sure to have enormous bruises elsewhere. "We can talk later Tanus. Stop looking like you've seen a ghost." Kairo glanced sharply at Tanus then scanned the room. Only three marines had made it from Cant's group. Cant looked to have obtained another blaster wound. Only Varth and one of the special ops had made it through. Corvin had a gash along his side, probably obtained from when some of the balcony had collapsed. Tanus and Wrex probably had some injuries, but nothing sever enough for Kairo to notice. Only the part of the balcony the officer and his men had been standing on had collapsed.

"A ghost. Damn it. You're more than a ghost!" Tanus blurted out.

"If this discussion can take place later, I think it's time we make our escape and blow this place." Cant interjected.

Tanus and Kairo looked each other in the eye. "I'm just Tempest. Nothing more, sir." After one more brief pause, Tanus composed himself, though Kairo knew he had a lot more questions. He would play along until the time was right.

"Wait till we get down the hallway and send this place up in smoke," Tanus ordered, leading the group over the rubble and through the blasted doorway.

Taking a step forward, Kairo wobbled. Wrex caught him. "Woah now. It's not so easy to walk so abruptly after sustaining those injuries."

Summoning all his reserves, Kairo forced himself upright. "I've had worse," he stated, spitting the last bit of blood from his mouth to the side. If he could focus his mind and rest for a bit at the shuttle, he would be better. Following the now decimated group down the hall, they joined the rest around the bend.

After running for a minute Tanus said, "Blow them to hell,"

"Been waiting for you to say that," Varth replied, thumbing the trigger.

The explosion was devastating, shaking the entire ship around them. Even this far away, smoke billowed into the hall behind them. "Time to get to that hanger and off his piece of metal."
Sergeant Major Kairo

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Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will be victorious in one hundred battles.
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Tanus Solvona
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Tanus Solvona
 
[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant
[VE-ICS] Pirivateer Captain
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 2, 2009 2:36:26 AM    View the profile of Tanus Solvona 
Tanus didn’t give orders; he said nothing at all. He simply turned around and ran. Varth and Cant took up positions at the left and right; Wrex and Corvin fell in behind them, with Kairo in the middle and the Commandos and marines at the back. Tanus sneaked a glance back at Kairo, and was still utterly flabbergasted. Kairo? What the hell is he doing back here? He looked around to make sure no one was coming; the last thing they needed was the escape attempt to go sour. As Tanus came to a bend in the hall, he skidded around and took off, the others in his wake. He opened up the squad channel and hailed Garryll. He was met with swearing and gunfire. Huh, and here I thought Cant was with me.

“WHAT!?”

Tanus was taken aback by the sound; he was more used to Garryll screaming at other people.

“Careful now, boyo. I can demote you.”

“Oh. Right.,” Garryll said sheepishly; Tanus couldn’t help but smile.

“So I take it you made the ship shake like fatties on the dance floor?”

“Oh, the show was fantastic. I wish you could’ve seen it. Only thing that was missing was popcorn. Oh, and we almost died! It was great.”

“Well, I’m so happy you had a great time. I bet it’ll be a story to tell the kids. But right now, I’d really appreciate it if you GOT BACK TO THE FREAKING HANGAR SO WE COULD GO!”

The line went dead as Garryll unloaded on someone coming near him. The smile faded from Tanus’ face as he started to speed up. He drew his disruptor and kept it at the ready.

“Double time boys. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

The klaxons were blazing now, and rumbling could be heard from deep within the ship; Blackjack had done their job well. We had best be getting compensated for this. The pristine white walls were abuzz with the sounds of the ship going into full and utter chaos. Engineers and technicians could be heard screaming from all over. Tanus smiled under his helmet. Smoke was pillowing out of panels on the wall as power nodes began to blow; the lights started to dim overhead. Varth chipped in.

“We’ve caused so much internal damage that the main power core can’t compensate for the damage. I’m guessing we’ve got about 10 minutes before this whole thing goes to hell.”

“Aye,” said Cant, a grimace in his voice, “and I’d rather watch the show from the safe distance in a shuttle heading home.”

“Then let’s not keep the boys waiting any longer. If we can avoid a fight, we will. But I wouldn’t mind taking a few more of the bastards down before we make our exit.”

As Tanus said that, a small team of engineers hustled out of a turbolift flanked by a team of security personnel. As they stepped out and stared at each other, it also seemed as if time stopped. No one made a move, and it almost seemed as if the two groups of soldiers stopped breathing. Tanus opened up the channel to all of the men with him.

“How far until we hit the hangar?”

“About 1000 meters, give or take.”

“And I take it we’re going to run into a few more security teams on the way there?”

“Of course.”

“Works for me.”

Tanus raised his disrupter pistol and fired. The green bolt sailed across the room and slammed into one of the engineer’s chests, knocking him to the ground, lifeless and cold. Then the Thrawnists raised their rifles and started to fire. The men backed up against a wall, while Corvin and two of the marines made a run for the hall, firing as they went. They took up cover across the hall, putting up a defensive wall of blaster fire as the Thrawnists split themselves between the two groups. Tanus swore as a blaster bolt hit the wall next to his head, sending up sparks and a carbon score across his helmet as the bolt glanced off the his temple.

“Does anybody have any more grenades!?”

“I do Sarge.”

“Then can you please use it?”

A proton grenade skidded across the ground and landed on the left side of the group of Thrawnist, absorbing about five of the fighters in light and fire and knocked three more off their feet. Tanus drew his EE-3 and opened fire.

“We need to get across the hall! Covering fire on me! Drive them back into the lift! Oh, and someone get me a grenade!”

He heard and felt the footfalls of the stormtroopers of the Vast Empire get up and move as Kairo, Tanus and Varth fired on the Thrawnist security team. He looked down and saw a sole proton grenade resting at his feet. Perfect. The others made their way over flawlessly, and drew the fire from the opposite side of the hall. Kairo nudged Tanus’ shoulder.

“It’s now or never.”

Tanus nodded, got up and ran. As he did he primed the grenade and looked at the Thrawnists huddling themselves into the turbolift, which was now closing. He watched the door slide shut, and the toss seemed to happen in slow motion. He flew through the door just as it slid shut; a muffle explosion told Tanus everything he needed to know. He didn’t stopped running as he reached the men; he blew right by them and through the hallway. He passed by the second set of doors that they got through to get to the engine room. He stopped short in the hallway and everyone came to a screeching halt behind him. Cant came up next to him and looked around.

“Something wrong?”

Tanus held up a hand for quiet and looked up at the ceiling as the intercom system kicked on. Tanus’ heart sank when the message was broadcast:

“All available security personnel report to the hangar. I repeat, all security personnel report to the hangar.”

Tanus looked back down the hall as a group of security personnel rounded a corner and trotted down the hall in front of them; they hadn’t seen the men of the Vast Empire yet. Time to make our presence known. Tanus raised his rifle to his shoulder, aimed down sight and fired. The last two troopers in the column fell dead on to the other two men in front of them; a domino effect ensued. Tanus ran up, rifle still blazing, smiting all those in his path. He leapt over the bodies and continued down the hall, rifle pumping in his arms as he raced to get to the men of Blackjack in time. Kairo was keeping pace with him while the others fell in behind.

“Ya know,” Kairo said, “that was heroic and all, but you could’ve been killed. I know I taught you better than that.”

“We both know that if I died, you could take over the squad till Garryll took command, and he learned from me.”

“So he likes charging into the fray willy-nilly too?

“Usually with a lot more screaming too.”

“You two are idiots.”

“I hate to interject,” said Varth, “but can we save the banter for after we get away from here?”

Silence fell on the group as they picked up the pace and passed through the first set of doors to the engine room. To their right was the door to the hangar. Tanus pressed a button on the wall, and the doors slid open. The men on the other side looked up just in time to see a wall of red light end their lives. Tanus stepped over their bodies and walked over to the wall, resting up against it for a quick breather.

“So how much further till the hangar Kai?”

“About another 700 meters, give or take 10.”

“And how much longer till we hit the hangar?”

“At the rate we’re going, provided we don’t hit any more resistance, maybe another six minutes.”

“Okay, and with resistance?”

“Maybe 8 or 9. They haven’t been putting up much of a fight to be honest.”

“They won’t need to worry about the corridors for now. If they can cut us off from getting out from the hangar, then they can clear us out easily enough.”

“So what do we do?”

“Same thing we’ve been doing: Cut a swath and hopefully when we bust in to the hangar, we pull enough heat from the others to give them a fighting chance.”

“So what are we waiting for?”

“Catch our breath. If I’m to go in there and possibly kill myself for the sake of you bastards, I’d like to do so coherently.”

Another thirty seconds passed by, and the men stopped to relax a bit, which was something to be said for what they were charging in to. Tanus lifted himself off the wall and nodded to the door pad next to Kairo. He hit the button and the door slid open. Tanus raised his rifle for the inevitable shoot out, but was disappointed to see no one on the other side. He stepped through the threshold, half expecting the Thrawnists to leap out of the wall panels, guns blazing. Kairo walked in behind him, rifle held loftily in his hands. He took a spot next to Tanus and looked down the hall.

“They’re getting sloppy.”

“They’re getting scared. And they think they’re cornered. A cornered, scared animal is a dangerous animal. We can’t take any chances this time around.”

“So no charging for you?”

“Guess not.”

Tanus sighed as he walked on, and Kairo just shook his head. The walk soon became a full out run as the men blasted through the hall. All of the other doors were locked tight, and on occasion they would run past teams of engineers going to different areas of the ship; they couldn’t stop for a fight though. The klaxons were still blaring as the hit another door and blew on through it. Tanus kept count of the meters left in his head. 500… 470… 430… The dead sprint was murder on his body thanks to the full complement of gear, but right now the only important thing was to get to the shuttle and get out of the ship in one piece. When they hit the last 200 meters, the ship gave a violent shake. It managed to knock Tanus and the others off balance. When Tanus got back up and looked around, Varth put his mind at ease – sort of.

“The power core must be going crazy. The shutdown of those major systems does not sit well with the ship.”

“It won’t sit well with us either if we’re dead.”

He righted himself and took off once more. The more he ran, the more he wished he was sitting down with some scotch in his hand. That’ll happen soon enough, boyo. Just get to the damn shuttle. Tanus opened up the squad channel and got Garryll again.

“WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!?”

“We’re on our way, about 150 meters out.”

“Well hurry up damn it! We’re about this close from being torn apart.”

“Got it. Garryll, how high are the ceilings in the hangar?”

“About fifty meters or so. Why?”

“You’ll see. Just get the shuttle ready.”

“You got it.”

Tanus flipped over to Kairo, and got the heavy breathing of a man running for his life and the lives of his comrades.

“So listen. I have a plan.”

“Okay, go.”

“We’re going to provide air support. Get ready for that jetpack.”

“Oh boy. Copy that.”

Soon they hit the final door, and no man was in sight of the squad. Tanus didn’t wait to hit the door; he simply shot the panel. The door slid open as the panel sparked and died. As the door opened, the men on the other side turned around and started. As they tried to raise their weapons, Tanus and Kairo raised their rifles and fired, taking them down. As jumped over the bodies and while still in air, Tanus shouted, “Now!” The pair of troopers flew into the air and looked out over the field of battle. The others on the ground momentarily froze and looked up at the flying troopers. Tanus and Kairo wasted no time in wiping the looks of awe from their still breathing faces with a hail of blaster fire. The others on the ground ran and fired at the same time, taking out all they could. The push from the door left many of the enemy off guard, and as such the final drive was rather easy. They made a B-line for the shuttle through a hail of blaster fire. One of the commandos was taken down in the crossfire. Tanus heard a buzz in his ear and knew who it was immediately.

“You wanted to know ceiling height for that!?” Garryll asked incredulous.

“Of course. I had to go for that last bit of flair before we left.”

“I hate you, I hope you know that.”

“It keeps me up at night. We ready to go?”

“Just about. Come on down or we’re leaving you.”

He started to ease up on the thrusters of his jetpacks, gently coming down from his heightened position and coming down to ground, rifle still blazing. Kairo shoved a fresh power pack in his rifle and started up throwing up another wall of blaster bolts. Wrex and Corvin were standing in the doorway, waving them to them to get inside the shuttle. They landed and sprinted to the shuttle, hitting the ramp with a stomp of armored feet. Kairo went up first, and Tanus topped at the foot of the ramp. He turned around and looked at the other two, who were still offering up covering fire.

“C’mon you two, let’s get going.”

“Just a sec,” Wrex said. “I want to take care of this bastard who’s been giving me trouble for ages.”

As he finished the sentence, the grenade went off, knocking all three of them off of their feet. When Tanus got up and looked around, he saw Wrex on the ground, completely still.

“WREX!”

Tanus ran over to his fallen friend, hauled him over his shoulders and ran up the ramp. As soon as he got inside, he set him down on one of the seats.

“Someone take care of him! And for the love of The Maker, get us the hell out of here!”

The shuttle lurched to life and shot out of the open hangar doors. Tanus took one final look at a still Wrex and fought back the tears that may come on: The mission was a success, but the cost was too high.
SL/GSGT/SF Tanus Solvona/2SQD/2PLT/1CMP/1REG/1BAT/Tadath/VEA [EW1][ES1][LM][BC][CoR][LoS][SRP][CDS][SCA][FCE][VUA-ARC-Lambda]

CA/PRVC Tanus Solvona/YZ-775 (m) Iron Victory/The Osk Company/ICS/VE

Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken - House Martell words, A Song of Ice and Fire
[This message has been edited by Tanus Solvona (edited August 2, 2009 2:44:32 AM)]
Angel
ComNet Marshal
 
Angel
 
[VE-ARMY] 1st Lieutenant
[VE-DJO] Sith Infiltrator
 
Post Number:  3115
Total Posts:  3342
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Status:  Offline
  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 3, 2009 9:57:18 PM    View the profile of Angel 
OOC:
BlackJack

Phase II Objective 1: Now Boarding - BlackJack, Party of Six?
Location: ISD-II Nemesis
Equipment:
  • Standard Squad Loadout
  • One (1) Personal Choice Weapon
Orders: Utilizing heavy assault shuttles, BlackJack boards the enemy ISD in search of Faith Moraal, the traitor who betrayed Jester aboard the Chimera. Due to the need to capture Faith, the AHC selects BlackJack, as Jester may have a score to settle
Opposition: Up to 75 Active Duty Security Squads
Add'l Equip.: None
NPC Support:
  • 3x Star Corps Squads (Marines)
  • 2x Commando (Spec Forces) Squads
Max Posts: 15
Additional Information:
Tactical Officer - Army High Council | Company Commander - Phoenix Company
TO-CC/1LT Angel/HCA-4/Phoenix/Dragon/Osiris/Stormtrooper Corps/Tadath/Vast Empire
Imperial Network Star Wars Image
----------------------------------------
Darth Phoenix - Dark Lord of the Sith
DLoS/SI Phoenix/DC-04/Lopen/Dark Jedi Order/Vast Empire
[VP:1]

[This message has been edited by Angel (edited August 4, 2009 4:15:16 PM)]
Tanus Solvona
ComNet Member
 
Tanus Solvona
 
[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant
[VE-ICS] Pirivateer Captain
 
Post Number:  560
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 4, 2009 10:03:03 PM    View the profile of Tanus Solvona 
Beep. Beep. Beep. All other sounds seemed to fade away as Wrex was carted down the hall on a hover-stretcher, doctors and nurses frantically patching up open wounds and trying to keep him stable. All Tanus could do was stand there and watch on as his friend and comrade in arms fought for his life – and this time with no weapons to call his own. The rest of the squad had waited off in the waiting area while Tanus stood there, speechless and empty eyed. Soon a doctor took a spot next to him and looked on down the hall, watching the doors swing shut as Wrex was carted to intensive care. Neither man looked at the other; all eyes were staring down the pristine white hallway. Soon, the doctor broke the silence.

“Your friend is in pretty bad shape, soldier. How did it happen?”

“Grenade. Just as we were getting ready to blast out of there.”

“I’m sorry. He’s lucky he’s alive right now.”

“Just keep him that way, doc.”

Tanus turned around and started to walk off back to his waiting squad in the main atrium, but the doctor called after him.

“Will you be around for when we have news on your friend’s condition?”

At that exact moment, Tanus’ datapad started to vibrate; he knew what the contents were before he even turned off the device.

“No,” Tanus said as he started to walk once more. “I don’t think I will.”

--- --- --- --- ---


Tanus walked out past the soldiers wounded and dying in the hospital and into the main atrium and waiting area. The squad was assembled near a large couch, buckets off and solemn in their silence. As Tanus walked up, each of them lifted their heads to look at him. At first nothing was aid; nothing needed to be said. Then Garryll noticed the datapad out and in Tanus’ hand. He got up and grabbed his helmet. The others now looked at the pair of soldiers with apprehension.

“So,” Garryll said, “what’s the story?”

“Wrex is alive – barely. The grenade really tore him up. Docs said he’ll be okay for now, but they have to keep a keen eye on him if he wants to make it through the night.”

“Okay. And what’s with the datapad?”

“No rest for the weary it seems. Army Command has just given us new orders. Looks like we’re heading back up to the fight, only this time aside from chaos, destruction and fire we have to take back some living cargo – one Faith Moraal.”

“And what’s so special about her?”

“Well, she screwed over Jester a while back when they were on the Chimera, and for that reason no one is happy. On top of that, she’s an intelligence officer, and from all accounts a damn fine one at that.”

“So what are we doing?”

“We’re taking heavy assault shuttles and hitting their ISD II, Nemesis, hard and fast. We’ll have 3 teams of Star Corps Marines and 2 squads of Commandos to cause a panic and break them up internally. While they have at that, we’ll be searching for Moraal.”

“So the others get all the fun?”

“Pretty much.”

“Great,” Garryll said, rolling his eyes. “When do we leave?”

“Well, we’ve been given the chance to get back to barracks and refit ourselves for the mission. That said, let’s leave the J-4 here for now; I don’t imagine we’ll be needing it.”

Tanus heard Corvin sigh in relief from the back of the group; the others said absolutely nothing at all. Without another word, Tanus lead his squad out of the hospital, full of screams and nightmares, and back to the barracks in preparation for a whole new set of screaming and nightmares.

--- --- --- --- ---


The trip back to the barracks was quiet; every so often the army personnel would look up at the armored white troopers and cower back to the walls. Tanus watched as the squad cut through the throngs of people like a large white knife, cleaving their way back to the barracks. As soon as they got in, they wasted no time refitting and rearming themselves. As Tanus slammed a set of fresh power cartridges onto his belt, Kairo walked up to him.

“Tanus, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Fire away, Kairo.”

“No, don’t call me Kairo.”

Tanus stopped packing and looked at the man with weary eyes. After a few seconds he turned back to his packing, continuing on with his first squad leader.

“So what am I calling you then?”

“Call me Tempest.”

“Okay. Can I ask why?”

“No. You can’t”

“So I take it the answer might involve you killing me then?”

“It might.”

There was no smile on Kairo’s face, nor any laughter in his voice; Tanus knew the man was serious. He shrugged and shut his locker and walked into the center of the room, where the others were just getting ready to move. Soon, the squad stood before him, armed head to toe in various forms of ready and able destruction. Tanus only nodded.

“Let’s go.”

--- --- --- --- ---


The hangar was once again abuzz with activity as Tanus and Blackjack looked for their shuttles. They were relatively easy to find in the end: Two solid black MAAT Gunships were resting on the ground, with five squads of soldiers preparing to board. Tanus jogged up to them and stopped just short of the black-armored commandos. The marines and commandos turned to stare at the new additions to the group. Five soldiers walked up to Blackjack and saluted; Tanus returned the salute and got down to business.

“So who are you people?”

“I am Sergeant Maxus Vare, squad leader of Aurek squad.”

“I’m Gunnery Sergeant Tobias Karr of Onith squad.”

“Senior Sergeant Orion Babel of Panther squad.”

“Sergeant First Class Damien Rowl of Piranha squad.”

“And I’m Sergeant Jared Cosae of Gundark squad.”

“Good to meet all of you, gentlemen. I’m Gunnery Sergeant Tanus Solvona of Blackjack squad. Do we have any idea on how we’re loading out?”

“Aye,” said Vare. “Your squad and the two squads of Commandos will take one shuttle; the Marines will take the others. Once we get inside the ship, one squad of Commandos will go with the marines, while the other will go with you. Beyond that, it is catch as catch can.”

“Excellent. Well then, gentlemen, let’s not keep the Nemesis waiting. Board on up.”

The men clambered into their respective gunships and took a spot at each of the wall rungs. When everyone was aboard, the heavy durasteel doors slid shut with a slam and soon Tanus could feel the gunship lurch to life underneath him and felt the g-forces hit as the gunships hit the air and flew towards their targets at breakneck speed. Okay, you bastards, this one’s for Wrex.
SL/GSGT/SF Tanus Solvona/2SQD/2PLT/1CMP/1REG/1BAT/Tadath/VEA [EW1][ES1][LM][BC][CoR][LoS][SRP][CDS][SCA][FCE][VUA-ARC-Lambda]

CA/PRVC Tanus Solvona/YZ-775 (m) Iron Victory/The Osk Company/ICS/VE

Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken - House Martell words, A Song of Ice and Fire
[This message has been edited by Tanus Solvona (edited August 5, 2009 2:27:22 PM)]
Garryll Gates
ComNet Member
 
Garryll Gates
 
[VE-ARMY] Sergeant First Class
 
Post Number:  836
Total Posts:  2159
Joined:  Sep 2007
Status:  Offline
  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 5, 2009 7:57:00 AM    View the profile of Garryll Gates 
The MAAT slammed through the void of space, engines roaring. The black-on-black ship was very nearly invisible to the naked eye, so the gunners of the Nemesis would be slow to fire.

Gates stretched against the pushing g-forces as they slammed towards their target. He turned his attention to the two Spec Ops teams. “Who’s who?”

A tall man with a red marking on his helmet waved weakly. “I’m Sergeant Maxus Vare, Aurek squad.”

The man next to him, a slightly shorter, wider man, said, “I’m Karr, Onith Lead.”

“Which one of you is going to be following us, and which are going with the marines?” Gates asked casually, as if they had just sat down at a restaurant and not screaming towards an Imperial Star Destroyer with several hundred hostile soldiers on it.

The two men shrugged, and then both ran over the other in their effort to claim the position. Gates grinned and opened a private comm. to Tanus.

“My, my, we are popular today, aren’t we?” he said.

“Put ‘em out of their misery, Gates,” Tanus replied dryly.

Gates laughed and then reopened the comm. with the Spec Ops team leaders, who were still arguing. “Rock, paper, scissors.”

“Excuse me?” repliedVare. “You want us to play a child’s game for one of the most important objectives of our careers?”

“Uhh…yeah,” Gates said. “Just do it.”

Karr shrugged and the two men went to it. They shook their hands and Vare won, as paper beats rock.

Karr sighed and turned to his men. Vare crowed triumphantly, and Rougeboy looked at him pointedly. The celebrating Special Ops man quieted.

“One minute out!” cried the pilot over their comm. “We may experience some turbulence soon. I hope you all strapped your seatbelts. In case of a hull breach, you may want to pray for your God or ask for your mommy. Thank you for flying Vast Empire Navy Spacelines, and kill some bastards for me!”

“Let’s go find a traitor,” Gates said into his comm., loading a full energy pack into his EE-3.

The ship began to shake as unseen turbolasers and point-defense cannons opened up on them and flew past, shivering the shields and hull. The ship fired some missiles in return, the huge mounted launchers spitting out air-to-air missiles at gun positions in an effort to blind their sensors. It apparently worked, as the fire suddenly dwindled.

Suddenly, all the men were pushed into the backs of their seats again as the ship lunged forward again.

“We’re in the ship,” announced the pilot. “Let’s just clear the hangar, shall we?”

Now that they were in an atmosphere, Gates could hear outside the ship as well as inside. Four anti-personnel turrets buzzed as they spat death in bars of light. Rapid-fire laser cannons mounted on the nose of the craft echoed loudly, and several explosions could be heard. Some tiny-sounding blaster rifle and pistol fire bounced off the hull for a couple seconds until the lasers played across unseen men and women, burning them down.

They dropped a dozen feet and then the doors slammed open. Tanus ran out first, rifle in one hand, other bracing on the door frame. Gates was right on his tail, a new flamethrower in his hands. The rest of the squad poured out, while the Spec Ops men emptied out the other door. The other MAAT as also disgorging its marines, and the three squads started for the blast doors, weapons raised and ready for a fight.

“Let’s go Blackjacks, Aureks!” Gates yelled, waving them towards a second blast door. “Let’s go find us a traitor!”
ASL/SFCGarryll Gates/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/VE [RoM][ICE][IH][CCA][BC][SRP][AS-1][ES1][CoS][EW1]
Imperial Network Star Wars ImageImperial Network Star Wars ImageImperial Network Star Wars ImageImperial Network Star Wars ImageImperial Network Star Wars Image
Imperial Network Star Wars ImageImperial Network Star Wars ImageImperial Network Star Wars ImageImperial Network Star Wars ImageImperial Network Star Wars Image
Muse rocks.
If these people want to fight me, I'll blow 'em straight to Hell!
Gear up, Last Chancers - Time to Die!
Equality
Smile!
[This message has been edited by Garryll Gates (edited August 6, 2009 7:02:39 AM)]
Corvin
ComNet Novice
 
Corvin
 
[VE-ARMY] Private
 
Post Number:  78
Total Posts:  818
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Status:  Offline
  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 5, 2009 6:42:27 PM    View the profile of Corvin 
The blast doors silently slid open, revealing a corridor packed wall to wall with security troopers. The lead black-helmeted clone managed to get a shot off before a dozen blaster bolts tore him to shreds and cut down the troopers immediately behind him. The rest of his squad returned fire, prompting the Blackjacks to move to either side and out of their line of fire. There was a sudden whump, and the blaster fire stopped. Vare had fired a grenade from his rifle's underslung launcher, the impact killing most of the tightly packed Thrawnists. A survivor twitched feebly, trying to reach for his dropped pistol. Vare casually shot him in the back, sending him sprawling against the wall. His subordinates moved up behind him, covering their squad leader.

"Get a move on, shiny-boys." the First Sergeant called over their shoulder. "We've got a turncoat to catch."

Tanus stared for a moment, then seemed to come back to reality. Waving the Blackjacks forwards, he strode past the Aurek troopers until he was shoulder to shoulder with the Spec Ops squad leader.

In the hanger the two squads were quickly moving away from, a firefight was raging between the Marines and a second group of security personnel. There was the rapid stutter of blaster rifle fire, punctuated by the thuds of grenade detonations and the landing shuttle's support fire.

From his position behind and to the left of Tanus, Corvin winced in sympathy, recalling Cant and his tattered group of Marines. Turning around and helping the other group was out of the question: the longer the Blackjacks and Aureks delayed, the higher the probability that the Nemesis' captain would get his act together and bury the squads in security personnel.

Corvin was slightly surprised that their entrance had gone off so well: the Nemesis must have noticed the Aggrevator's fate, and there were certainly enough troops on a fully-manned Star Destroyer to overwhelm a handful of squads. The possible causes for the lack of resistance were therefore none too comforting. Either the Captain was concentrating his forces in more important portions of the ship or he was laying a trap. Neither option boded well for the squad.

Corvin's finger tightened slightly on his EE-3 trigger, his nervousness leading him to glance at the doorseals as he passed. All of them had been sealed, their access holpanels grey and powered down. Corvin took some comfort in the fact that he'd been able to replace his battered, blaster-torn armour with an undamaged set. Lacking squad colourings, it was nevertheless reassuring for the Private, who preferred to have a HUD and centimeter of plastoid between himself and a hostile environment.

The squads stopped in front of another blast door. This one's access lights were flashing erratically. Tanus looked significantly at his Spec Ops counterpart.

"Any ideas?"

Vare rubbed his gloved hands together, nodding slowly.

"Got a few. Baric, do us a favor and slice this thing open."

The red-highlighted trooper the SL had called made his way to the holopanel, pulling a datapad and a series of cables from his belt pouch. The other Aureks and the Blackjacks took up positions around him, blocking him from possible enemy fire. Baric started whistling as he worked, fingers dancing over the datapad's touch screen as he tried to bypass the security.

"Dum, da de dum..." Baric hummed, seemingly oblivious to the tension.

"Yes, very nice," Tanus snapped. "How much longer?"

The slicer didn't respond, continuing to whistle to himself as he worked. A fist-sized "baby" mouse droid rounded the corner, beeping constantly as it whirred along the polished floor. One of the storm commandos crushed it under his boot with a loud crunch.

"How much longer?" Tanus repeated, shifting his grip on his war hammer for emphasis.

"Not much," the slicer replied. "Almost got it....there!"

There was a buzzing noise from the holopanel, which was now spitting sparks in all directions. The noise was abruptly drowned out by a dull, metallic groan as the blast door plates started to move apart. The thick durasteel plates slid into hidden recesses, allowing the squads to pass through into the stretch of corridor beyond it.

Corvin followed Tanus and Vare through the opening, his EE-3 held in a tight grip and at shoulder-height.

"Our target will probably be on or around the ship's bridge," the Blackjack SL announced. "We're here, between the main hanger and the reactor on level Theta."

As the squad leader spoke, a diagram appeared in the corner of Corvin's helmet display, emphasizing Tanus's words. A red line appeared in the diagram, crossing many corridors and several levels.

"We need to take this turbolift up three levels, make our way to the central corridor, and get to the bridge."

There were nods from the Blackjacks.

"There'll probably be heavy resistance, even if the Marines distract the sithspawn."

The squads came to the corridor's end as Tanus spoke. There was a long row of turbolifts in front of the Vast Imperials.

The two squad leaders stopped, looking around for passing crewmen or signs of an ambush. Finding none, Tanus gestured for the Blackjacks to advance.

"Looks clear. We'll take the centre turbolift."

There was a beep, and one of the sets of turbolift doors slid open. Half a dozen troopers emerged from it, fone of them shouting in surprise as he noticed the Imperials. Corvin and the other Blackjacks fired almost instantly, mowing them down, but at least one of them had managed to get off a warning. A siren started to wail and stormtroopers emerged from side corridors, advancing on the Vast Imperials as they fired. Worse still, the activation panels on the turbolifts flickered and died, cutting off that escape route.

"Frak." Corvin muttered as he fired a burst at the nearest stormtrooper. The Blackjacks and Aureks had moved into a triangular formation with their backs to the lifts, exchanging fire with the ever-increasing numbers of the security stormtroopers.

I am really getting tired of this kind of thing. Corvin thought, then brought his rifle butt down on a stormtrooper's helmet.

OOC:
Stairwells or reactivation of lifts?
TRP/PVT Corvin/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/VE
*HeavyWeapons *
Read the bloody manual!
"Never believe a rumour of my demise. I have as many lives as a cat. Also as many teeth, as many claws, and the same cheery, cooperative disposition." Peter Wiggin, Xenocide
Washington:"I knew this plan would never work!"
Church:"None of our plans ever work."
Caboose:"That's why we carry guns."
[This message has been edited by Corvin (edited August 5, 2009 6:46:42 PM)]
[This message has been edited by Corvin (edited August 5, 2009 8:09:01 PM)]
Garryll Gates
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Garryll Gates
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 6, 2009 5:51:30 PM    View the profile of Garryll Gates 
“We’re going to get buried in enemies at this rate!” Gates yelled, blasting an opportunistic sword-wielding Stormtrooper off of his feet with a burst from his EE-3.

“Baric!” yelled Vare at his slicer. “What’s the situation?”

“Bad, sir!” the Special Operations man replied. “They’ve got high-level encryption on the most basic functions! They really don’t want us going anywhere!”

“Blast it!” Tanus yelled. “There! Stairs. Gates, burn us a hole!”

“You want ‘em rare or well-done?” the pyromaniac ASL replied, slinging his EE-3 and prepping the flamer.

“I was hoping you could do incinerated,” Tanus replied, taking a man off of his feet with his trademark hammer.

Gates shrugged. “It’s their funeral.”

The flame spat out with a thoom as liquid napalm spat out of the barrel and was ignited by the front flame. A man a few paces in front of Gates caught the first burst and screamed inhumanely as his armor melted and his features deformed. His comrade, another faceless Stormtrooper, rasied his E-11 and aimed it squarely at Gates’ eye until he caught a burst of liquid flame in his gut.

Men withered back from the torch and several more were cut down by rapid laser fire from the other Vast Imperials. The rest of the Thrawnists pulled back rapidly, firing blind shots as they ran away. Tanus pointed, and Gates flipped the flamethrower off. Corvin and Rougeboy rushed the staircase and charged in, securing the stairwell.

“Which way to the bridge?” asked Corvin.

“We’d better make sure that she’s at the bridge,” Gates cautioned. “It’d be just like Thrawn to hide what we want somewhere secret and unexpected.”

“We’ve got to find a terminal then, or an officer,” replied Vare as they ascended the stairs.

The point men exited the stair case’s upper door and checked the hallway. “Clear,” hissed Rougeboy, and the rest of the squads poured out. Tanus sealed the door with a blast from his rifle.

“Which way?” asked Tanus. One of the Special Operations men consulted a datapad and pointed down the hall to an empty conference room. The two squads rushed down the hall, leap-frog covering one another as they moved up.

Baric and two other Spec Ops men entered the room and turned on the lights. The slicer dashed over to the computer terminal that was implanted into the conference table. Blackjack and Aurek squads took cover in the sparse hallway, hiding in doorways and in alcoves.

“Baric, ETA for the hack?” Tanus whispered into the comm.

Gates felt a trickle of sweat drip past his eye, and blinked hard. The fact they weren’t already drowning in enemy troopers was a plus, but seven hundred plus enemy soldiers were hard to dodge even in such a huge ship.

“The encryption on this entire ship is top-notch, sir,” the slicer replied to Tanus. “It’s going to take me a few minutes.”

Gates peered around at the two squads. They were like statues, but the comm. was full of banter and whispering. A small trooper in jet trooper armor was standing in the next cover over. Gates blinked hard. There was no one that short in the squad.

“Tanus?” Gates opened up a private comm. with his Squad leader. “Who’s the new guy?”

“It’s a new girl,” the SL replied. “Doc shipped her upstairs for some backup when he heard that Wrex was hit. She’s a medic too, and Doc says she’s got promise.”

“Alright,” Gates replied with a shrug. “As long as-“

“Contacts!” hissed a commando, and a second later, there was gunfire.

“Stormtroopers!” howled the first contact Spec Ops soldier, blazing full-auto laser fire into a stunned Stromtrooper patrol.

Other nearby Vast Imperials added their fire, and soon, the patrol was scampering away, tail between its legs. Gates swore with feeling.

“They’ll be all over us within minutes,” he grumbled.  “Baric!”

“It’s too well locked down, sir,” the slicer groaned. “The encryption is way more complex than I thought at first glance.”

“We’re going to have to find an officer or someone with this particular piece of classified information then,” Tanus said. “Move it out! Quick, before backup arrives!”

The two squads squared up and jogged away, but as soon as they left cover, men poured from the other end of the hallway from their first attack, now at Blackjack and Aurek Squads’ rear. A spec-ops soldier was cut down mercilessly, but he managed to pull the pin off of a grenade and make it a pyrrhic victory.

“Fall back!” Tanus yelled, firing suppressive fire behind them. “Fall back or we’ll be buried in troopers before you can blink!”
ASL/SFCGarryll Gates/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/VE [RoM][ICE][IH][CCA][BC][SRP][AS-1][ES1][CoS][EW1]
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Muse rocks.
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Corvin
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Corvin
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 6, 2009 7:54:14 PM    View the profile of Corvin 
Corvin screamed in pain as a blaster bolt hit his arm, dissipating against the fabric between his shoulderplate and upper armpiece. The  hardened bodyglove melted away, the top portion vanishing into whisps of gas. Dropping to one armoured knee, the Private dropped his EE-3, fingers reaching for the wound.

The other members of the two squads retreated past the wounded trooper, firing at the enemy as they advanced. Gates glanced at the trooper as he retreated, laying down a steady stream of flaming fuel to cover the others.

"Get back, Corvin!" the ASL yelled. "They won't stay back for long!"

As though to prove his point, two stormtroopers charged into the still-flickering fuel, the dying flames licking at and blackening their plastoid boots. Behind them, the others provided cover fire through the smoke-filled corridor, random shots flying through the air and bouncing off the walls. Gates roared defiantely, spraying another wave of flame from wall to wall. The two stormtroopers vanished mid-stride, reduced to pools of melted plastoid in an instant.

"Come on, come on, move!" Gates muttered through gritted teeth, one hand scrabbling to remove the now-depleted fuel canister. More shots were flying through the air now, and the clouds of acrid smoke were dissipating.

Tightly clutching his wounded shoulder, Corvin got back to his feet, staggering unsteadily for the side hallway the other troopers had moved into. Gates followed, firing a blaster pistol with his left hand while holding onto the flamer with the other.

Tanus and two Spec Ops troopers were next to the doorway, with the others standing in a semi-circle behind it. The moment Gates stepped through, Tanus slammed his fist into the control panel. There was the screech of metal against metal as the blast doors began to slide together.

A stormtrooper appeared from the smoke, his armour covered with soot and scorched where a stray blaster bolt had hit its shoulderpad. A volley of EE-3 fire hit him in the chestplate, throwing him off his feet with the front of his torso blown away. Another came through and then another. The blast doors were sliding closed, still half a meter apart from each other. Four more stormtroopers advanced, firing as they came. Blasterfire flew through the rapidly shrinking gap, hitting troopers on both sides. There was a clang as the two plates touched, followed by a series of pings as the Thrawnist bolts hit the blast doors.

The Spec Ops slicer, Baric, moved up to the control panel, plugging his datapad in. A moment later, he looked at Tanus and shook his head.

"Can't lock it, sir. Countermeasures are set to maximum."

Tanus clenched his fists.

"Move aside."

"Sir?" the slicer asked, but complied.

The Blackjack Squad leader reached over his shoulder, pulling his war hammer from his sling and holding it above his head in one swift motion. Then he brought it down on the control panel. There was a crunch accompanied by a flash of light and shower of sparks. Judging by the fact the door remained closed, it seemed to have disabled the opening mechanism.

Corvin felt someone grab his arm and twist it. Jerking his head around, he saw a trooper slightly shorter than he was with medic shoulder markings. The newest member of Blackjack, called Tide or something to that effect, she evidently didn't have much of a bedside manner.

"Turn your arm." the woman said, her tone detached even for its going through a filter. Corvin complied.

"Moderate burns, no apparent nerve damage."

There was a sudden pain as the woman applied a bacta patch, followed by the sensation of liquid on Corvin's skin as the healing fluid seeped onto the wound. The medic turned away, ignoring him now that her job was done.

This newcomer seemed about as friendly as a medical droid, Corvin mused. Competent enough, though.

"Right." Tanus declared. "Given that our presence appears to be known, we need to confirm the target is still on board. To do that, we need to get off this level. As the turbolifts are locked down, we need to use the stairwells."

Which will no doubt be guarded or sealed off. Corvin glumly thought. This mission was getting more unpleasant by the minute, and was rapidly overtaking the Felucia op in unpleasantness. They'd at least had Katarn on Felucia.

"Frak." Corvin muttered to himself as the squads set off, swiftly leaving the blast doors and hopefully-contained Thrawnists behind them.

OOC:
Ran out of time, sorry Garryll. Next poster have us try grab an officer to confirm and try to interrogate him but fail- suicide is a good option.
TRP/PVT Corvin/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/VE
*HeavyWeapons *
Read the bloody manual!
"Never believe a rumour of my demise. I have as many lives as a cat. Also as many teeth, as many claws, and the same cheery, cooperative disposition." Peter Wiggin, Xenocide
Washington:"I knew this plan would never work!"
Church:"None of our plans ever work."
Caboose:"That's why we carry guns."
Rogueboy
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Rogueboy
 
[VE-ARMY] Platoon Sergeant
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 6, 2009 10:55:03 PM    View the profile of Rogueboy 
The squad started running up the staircase. Where do you find officers in a time of crisis? Rogueboy asked himself. Why, at the bridge of course.

“You know I really wish we could have taken the tube lift.” Huffed Rogueboy. “I’m not as young as I used to be.”

“Shut up you lazy bastard, you’re only twenty-one.” Garryll yelled back.

“Yeah, don’t you know most twenty year olds sleep in until fourteen hundred?”  Rogueboy retorted.

“Yeah but you’re not twenty!” Tanus yelled.

“Told ya I was an old fart.” There was a small amount of chuckling, enough to signify that this was not the time for jokes.

“Are we there yet?” Rogueboy pressed on.

“We’re going to be there in approximately, fifty seconds.” Baric responded.

“Kill joy.” Rogueboy muttered under his breath.

As the group neared the top of the stairs the sound of many people running on metal echoed through the staircase. Rogueboy looked down. “Boss there is a shitload of them, on our tail.” Yelled the former Raider.

“Not a problem.” One of the Aurek guys yelled out. As he pulled out some sort of incendiary and threw it back.

Reaching the top Rogueboy looked down to see what exactly was happening. The grenade exploded and released a orangey cloud that covered the stairwell. “What’s that?” Rogueboy asked the trooper.

“Not too sure, but from what I know is that it eats the metal, pretty soon that whole section of stairs and railing are going to fall apart, effectively cutting them off.” The man said as he took a few deep breaths.

Rogueboy watched from above as the enemy hesitated at the cloud of orange before one man attempted to make a mad dash across it. When his foot touched the softened metal the stairs seemed to shake with a loud sound the metal gave way causing the man to fall through.

“Impressive.” Rogueboy remarked.

“We’re almost at the bridge.” Baric said. 

They turned down a corridor and at the end of the hall were the tube lifts, and the command bridge. One of the bridge crew glanced up from a terminal and looked at the armed Vast Empire troops, the man sighed before he leaned over and pushed a button.

The blast doors started hissing as they began closing, the Vast Empire troopers started running full tilt towards the bridge but it was obvious to everyone that it was hopeless. As the squad nears the blast shields the tube lift emits a ding sound.

“Shit!” Rogueboy yelled out.

“Everyone go the opposite way!” Tanus yelled out while he pulled out a thermal detonator and pressed the button and threw it into the elevator at the same time that it opened.

Rogueboy looked over his shoulder just in time to see a swarm of security guards attempt to exit the tube lift but only to get swallowed up by the explosion of the thermal detonator.

“Alright guys, on to plan B, find an officer.” Tanus said before continuing. “Now exactly where do we look for an officer if the bridge is locked down?”

“Let’s see...every section should have an officer of some sort so we have; the detention center, the hangars, tractor beam control, I’m sure even the cooking staffs have an officer somewhere. On a ship officers are a dime a dozen, now as to an officer who would know the answer to our questions. I don’t know where to begin.” Maxus Vare said.

“How about the security center?” Tempest suggested.

“Where’s that?” Maxus asked.

“It’s actually not far from here.” Baric said. “Down this corridor, and make two lefts.”

“It will also slow their reaction time, sounds like a plan” Tanus added. “Gates, take point and bring you’re flame squirter.”

Together the squad moved out, they met no resistance until they reached the security center, there was a blast door but it was nowhere near the size of the command bridge’s, and unlike the bridge’s this one was not closed.

A man walked by the blast door reading a flimsiplast, he looked up, his eyes widened and then Corvin shot him with a blaster bolt. “Not this time Thrawnist!” He said with contempt.

The two squads quickly charged into the room, there were numerous guards however they were equipped only with their side arms. Rogueboy admired them; even as they were outnumbered, and outgunned a good seventy percent of them drew their firearms and went down in a hail of gunfire. An officer was just pulling his hand away from his mouth when Rogueboy brought his hand up to the man’s throat and started choking him. Using his other hand, RB stuck a gloved finger down the man’s throat causing him to throw up.

Unfortunately the bile landed on Rogueboy’s arm, causing the trooper to be infuriated as he let go of the officer’s throat. “For the Grand Admiral!” The man screamed at Rogueboy as he made a move to recover the blaster of a fallen comrade. A shot from the short Blackjack trooper ended that man’s attempt.

“Wonderful.” Tanus exclaimed. “Now how are we going to find out where that traitorous bitch, Faith Moraal is?”

“Do you know where Faith Moraal is?” Garryll asked of one of the security guards.

The man shook his head, so Gates put a blaster bolt into the man’s foot. Moving onto the next man Garryll repeated the process.

Baric moved to one of the terminals and started tinkering around with it. “There might be something here...” The man muttered to himself.

“Ah ha!” Instantly every holocam monitor turned to one image; that of an attractive woman with long luxurious auburn hair, and cold blue eyes.

“And here we have the queen of traitorous whores.” Baric announced.

“Where is that?” Half the squad said in unison.

“The brig.” Was all Baric said.
Heavy Weapons Specialist

He will give them death, and they will love him for it -Gladiator

Eat a hearty breakfast men, for tonight we dine in hell -300

A man, can be an artist, at anything food, whatever... it just depends on how good they are at it. Creases art is death... he's about to paint his masterpiece -Man on Fire

TRP/PSG_Rogueboy/2SQS/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/TADATH/VE [LoR][ES1][CDS][CoR][EW2][IH][GRP][CCA][SC]

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Tanus Solvona
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Tanus Solvona
 
[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant
[VE-ICS] Pirivateer Captain
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 7, 2009 6:45:51 PM    View the profile of Tanus Solvona 
“Wait, wait,” Tanus said, breathing heavy from the running through the corridors. Some of the others had taken seats around the office they were in, the monitors blinking on and off and various alarms going off, indicating chaos and disorder somewhere else in the ship.

“Did you just say she was in the brig?”

“Aye. That’s what the monitor’s telling me, and it doesn’t look like a hologram.”

“Why in the hell would she be in the brig?”

Corvin was laughing to himself; it was almost a giggle. Tanus took a couple of steps back. I need to keep an eye on that boy. Tanus stepped over to look at the monitor. Sure enough, there stood Faith Moraal, pacing back and forth, hands clasped behind her back. Outside her cell were two armed guards. Tanus looked at each of the guards and then back to Moraal. Outside in the main detention block area stood at least another thirty guards, and a suited and armed lieutenant with a DH-17 at his hip.

“So what’s out course of action?”

“Get down to the brig and bust her out. Keep her alive until we get back to Tadath and give her over to the Brass and see what we get.”

“Works for me,” Vare said, adjusting his Stormtrooper Two in the other hand. How do you propose we’ll get there?”

“Well, being sneaky is more or less a joke at this point. Considering we took the security hub, the guards are going to be on full alert, if they weren’t already. The marines and the rest of the commandos will keep some of guards busy while we take the rest out and get to Moraal.”

“But isn’t everything locked down?” one of the commandos asked from the back.

“Of course. We’ll just have to improvise. The thing is that the brig is in the bowels of the ship, which means we’re going to have to fight through just about everything Thrawn has to offer. That is not something I’m looking forward to.”

“But we did it before. No doubts that we couldn’t do it again,” Garryll said from a seat near some terminals. The group murmured in agreement. Tanus nodded.

“Okay, this is what we’ll do. Baric, go to the terminals and get some of the codes to get through the lockdowns on the doors and lifts. That said, we’re going to have to be careful now. They know we took out the security hub. They will NOT be happy.”

Tanus stepped towards the door and looked outside and down the hall. No enemies were in sight, which counted for something. He walked back into the room and started to change around some of the monitor images. He flipped through several where the marines were fighting through the forces of Thrawn’s troopers. Good going, boys. Keep it up. He flipped through several more images before looking back at Baric, who was dutifully typing away on both his datapad and terminals, siphoning through lengths of code.

“How much longer on the codes, Baric?”

“A few more minutes. Why?”

“Because we have company.”

The screen flashed twice and up came 20 or so armored stormtroopers running down the hall, ready to kill the invaders sitting in their ship. Tanus turned towards the door and started to bark out orders.

“They’re coming down the west hall, they’ll be here in thirty seconds. Garryll and Orobos, set up cover. Rogue, ‘nade them to kingdom come. The rest of you give them fire support. We need those codes, and I’ll be damned if I’m getting stopped by these idiots.”

Tanus ran out into the hall, EE-3 in his hands; the others fanned and took up positions around the hall. We don’t have any cover. This could get ugly quick. Best option is to give them hell and hope it sticks.

“As soon as they round that corner, light ‘em up. Show them no mercy, because you sure as hell won’t be seeing any.”

Tanus got down into a crouch next to Orobos, who had the particle cannon raised up to his shoulder. Tildie and Corvin took up the center and right side to cover Garryll and Rogueboy. It was odd without Wrex somewhere in the mix, cracking jokes or being snide. You’d better pull through, you little twerp. If you don’t, I swear I will never let you live it down. Metaphorically speaking, of course. A small grin spread on Tanus’ face: He was going to enjoy this. As soon as the first white-heeled boot rounded the corner, Tanus pulled the trigger on his rifle and watched as a red bolt sailed out of the barrel. It hit the oncoming trooper in the shin, and he went down with a shout as he laid there, a sitting duck for the ravenous soldiers of Blackjack squad. Fire leapt down the hall, licking at the walls and charring them black with scorching hot death filling in every nook and cranny with roaring napalm. A grenade flew through the sea of fire, going off mid-air and sending a cascade of destructive force through the air, knocking several security guards off their feet and killing many more. A solid white beam of pure energy shot forth from Orobos, slamming into a wall behind the troopers and sending up a shower of debris and death in its wake. The others were putting up a steady stream of blaster fire, keeping the guards securely behind the wall of red-hot flames. This is almost too easy.

A red blaster bolt sailed past Tanus’ head into the wall of flames in front of him. He turned around to see another twenty guards charging them, weapons drawn and firing in force.

“Where the hell did they come from!?” Rogue shouted as he swung his grenade launcher around, firing two grenades down the hall. They exploded at the feet of 6 troopers, blowing them back through the air as the others charged through the smoke and debris.

“We could use some help damn it!”

Kairo was through the door first, throwing one of his trademark knives as he did so. It hit the one of the troopers in the liver, where he backed away, bleeding and screaming. Two more commandos came next, firing their Stormtrooper Twos in a frenzy of blaster bolts.

“We’re going to get killed at this rate!” Kairo shouted above the din.

“Tempest, where do we need to go from here!?”

“Down the hall the new guys just came from. Why?”

Tanus turned around and pointed at the ceiling.

“Orobos, take the ceiling out! Grenades, into the breach now!”

Tanus unclipped a grenade from his belt, primed it and threw it into the wall of fire in front of him. It went off with a tremendous explosion as the napalm mixture fed the explosion as it went off. It did so several more times before Orobos angled the particle cannon up and fired off several shots. The white bolts streaked down the hall and hit the now charred black ceiling, slamming into the ceiling with incredible force. Tanus watched as portions of tile and entire pieces of thick wiring fell down into the fire. Smoke leapt into the air as the intense flames ate at the cables and tiles.

“Fall back!” was heard from behind the flames; Tanus could make out the remaining guards running back and down the hall, disappearing from sight. He raised his rifle and fire on the remaining guards down the opposite hall, who were already falling back at the loss of their pincer. Soon they were gone as well. Baric and Vare came running out of the room, rifles in hand; Baric was pocketing his datapad as he looked down the hall.

“Did we miss anything fun?”

“Oh yes. Loads of it.”

“Aw, now I’m sad.”

“Good for you. You got the codes?”

“Aye. They can’t keep us out from anywhere now.”

“Good. Then let’s hightail it before the fire suppression system kicks in and we have even more angry stormies on our hands. I’d prefer less opportunities to get shot at.”

“But where’s the fun in that?”

“I prefer breathing. I’ll take point along with Maxus; Tempest and Baric, you’re with us as navigation and entry. Everyone else, keep us breathing long enough to get Moraal. Let’s move.”
SL/GSGT/SF Tanus Solvona/2SQD/2PLT/1CMP/1REG/1BAT/Tadath/VEA [EW1][ES1][LM][BC][CoR][LoS][SRP][CDS][SCA][FCE][VUA-ARC-Lambda]

CA/PRVC Tanus Solvona/YZ-775 (m) Iron Victory/The Osk Company/ICS/VE

Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken - House Martell words, A Song of Ice and Fire
[This message has been edited by Tanus Solvona (edited August 7, 2009 8:49:06 PM)]
Rogueboy
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Rogueboy
 
[VE-ARMY] Platoon Sergeant
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 7, 2009 10:08:35 PM    View the profile of Rogueboy 
Rogueboy leaned up against the wall and opened up his grenade launcher, he had fired three of six slots so far. Using his free hand RB pulled out a grenade from the bandoleer he had adopted after escaping the Aggrevator. After reloading Rogueboy followed the rest of his squad towards the tube lifts.

Baric connected his datapad to the tube lift terminal and within seconds the tube lift door opened revealing a single man pushing a tray of what smelled like food. “Evening meal, for the captain.” The man said with a snotty attitude as he tried to push the cart through BlackJack.  As soon as the cart hit Garryll’s foot the man realised his mistake.

“You know the food isn’t that bad.” Tanus said as he took another bite of an egg that had a sweet liquid in the center.

“You think the captain’s gonna be pissed what we did to his personal cook?” Rogueboy asked.

“I think he might congratulate us.” Orobos said as he stared at the food.

“It’s much better than it looks.” Tanus insisted. “Anyone else want some?”

Rogueboy passed on the food as he reflected on what they did to the cook. Using the small repulsor try as a base, the squad buried one of their vibro-bayonets through the man’s throat and left him on the tray outside of the bridge’s blast doors. Of course Tanus was feeling hungry so he had stolen some of the food from the trays before doing the deed.

The two squads took the tube lift all the way to the bottom floor, there was no interruption as Baric had used a special override code that would prevent it from being stopped. “I have an idea.” Corvin said through the comlink.

“I’m listening.” Tanus responded.

“Well how about instead of using the front door we look for an alternate entrance into the brig?”  Corvin said while trying to elaborate. “Like use the ventilation systems if we can.”

“Orobos would definitely not be able to fit through any vent. Mind you I don’t think Tildie will have a problem with that.”  Garryll said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” BlackJack’s newest addition asked.

“Well...you’re not exactly the tallest person in the squad...” Gates said defensively.

“Enough love talk you two, well how about it Tempest, you got the lay outs.” Tanus interjected.

“Well there are definitely no vents that we would be able to pass through, even if we take off our armour. There is however a vent that’s shared between a few cells and a briefing room, I guess they wanted to cut on costs.” Tempest said before adding. “Mind you the vent cover on the cell side is rather thicker than the usual standard five centimetres thick.”

“What are you suggesting?” Tanus asked.

“Well I think Tempest over here and I am on the same track.” Maxus interrupted before continuing. “Open one side of the vent; plant a demolition charge on the inside. When we detonate it, there should be a little passage directly into the cell. How thick is the wall and what material is it made out of?” Vane asked.

Tempest looked at the datapad. “Uh...it’s approximately a meter thick, both sides made of duracrete, with a thin durasteel support in the middle.”

“So we’re going to need about half a pack of detonite. Fieldings you bring enough?” Vane asked.

“Yes sir, I had brought two packages like you had requested I do since that run in we had when the Thrawnists boarded the Victorious.” The soldier in question responded.

“Excellent so the plan is set.” Maxus gleefully responded.

The tubelift dinged, signalling that they had arrived to their designated floor. As soon as the door opened one of the Aurek’s pulled the pin to a smoke grenade and threw it out. The hissing sound of the gas escaping was signal enough that the thing was working. The precautions seemed unnecessary as there was no greeting party.

“I’m starting to feel a little lonely.” Rogueboy said.

“Aw, why do you feel lonely?” Fieldings asked.

“Because, there’s no one here to shoot at me.” Rogueboy responded.

A few snickers greeted Rogueboy’s attempt at a jest but overall the squads were silent. The walk through the corridors proved uneventful until they reached the briefing room. The squads stacked up on the door exactly how they were trained to. Maxus reached for the handle while Tanus prepared to rush in, as soon as the door opened the squads were rushing in. The briefing room was empty, as was mildly expected as the ship was on code red.

“Let’s do this.” Tanus said.
Heavy Weapons Specialist

He will give them death, and they will love him for it -Gladiator

Eat a hearty breakfast men, for tonight we dine in hell -300

A man, can be an artist, at anything food, whatever... it just depends on how good they are at it. Creases art is death... he's about to paint his masterpiece -Man on Fire

TRP/PSG_Rogueboy/2SQS/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/TADATH/VE [LoR][ES1][CDS][CoR][EW2][IH][GRP][CCA][SC]

Clearly Canadian!
Garryll Gates
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Garryll Gates
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 8, 2009 8:33:52 AM    View the profile of Garryll Gates 
Fieldings immediately went over to the wall and removed the grate. He crawled halfway into the duct and pulled a bar of detonate from his backpack, and stuck it solidly to the wall inside it. He wriggled out, dug around in his backpack, and pulled out a small device, the detonator. He crawled half-way back in and slapped it into the explosive.

“Set, sir!” the demo expert called, and got to his feet, dusting his armor off.

“The minute this goes off, troopers move in. Rogueboy, you’re first,” Tanus said, pointing. “Gates, you’re on his six with the flamer. Don’t kill Moraal.”

“Duh,” Gates said, and there was a subdued sigh. “In and out, quick as you like. Whenever you’re ready, Fieldings.”

“Fire in the hole!” cried the demo expert, and the explosive thumped. It was quickly missed as the ship took another hit from some unseen turbolaser or missile. Smoke leaked lightly from the destroyed grate.

Rogueboy was already crawling in on hands and knees, EE-3 ready and in hand. Gates was after him a second later, flamethrower clumsy in the close confines of the make-shift tunnel. The edges of the exploded area were still hot to touch.

Faith Moraal was sitting in a heavy metal chair, eyes bugging out in fear as first one, then two large Stormtroopers emerged from the smoke. The pair of security guards right outside her door crashed it open, and met a laser bolt the hard way.

Gates climbed out of the vent and rolled his shoulders. “Rogueboy, get her back! I’ll melt ‘em.”

The trooper nodded and yanked the woman from her seat, and pointed to the grate as he steadily kept the rifle pointed at her head. She crawled fearfully into the tube. Gates flipped the flamethrower on and it gurgled happily.

A Stormtrooper dashed across the opening, randomly firing from the hip. The bolts flew past Gates’ left side, and he wasn’t even close to being hit. Another poked his gun around the corner to blind-fire. Gates splashed a burst of flame across the hand, melting the gun and the holding hand. A groan of pain was returned.

A grenade bounced in, and Gates kicked it back out. It exploded harmlessly in the hall. More blaster bolts flew in at oblique angles as the Stormtroopers tried to find a clear shot into the cell.

“First thing you learn about flamethrowers,” Gates murmured, guessing at the positions of the firing troopers. “It can shoot around walls.”

A torch of flame spat out and met a steel wall, and rolled off, cooking the men who had been trying to shoot Gates.

“Get back here,” Tanus ordered.

“Copy,” Gates replied, and sent another jet of flame. The sound of scampering footsteps greeted the inferno, and Gates dropped down and crawled quickly back into the briefing room.

The rest of the Vast Empire Troopers had their guns pointed at him as he crawled out, and he raised his arms in mock surrender. A couple chuckles came across the comm. and the guns were lowered. Orobos helped him to his feet, and he walked casually over to the traitor.

“Faith Moraal,” Gates began. “You are a traitor to the Vast Empire. Usually, it is my pleasure to shoot traitors in the head, but apparently, someone up there likes you, so instead, we’ll be handing you over to the tender hands of a military tribunal.”

The woman shivered, but opened her mouth. Gates almost cut her off, but decided to listen to what she had to say.

“First of all,” Moraal said, biting her lip, “I’m not Faith Moraal.”

She removed the long, auburn hair and was revealed with a short brown hair cut. “I’m a double. Thrawn put me here to throw people off, and I guess it worked. I’m totally innocent, I didn’t do anything.”

She started crying.

“Dammit,” Gates muttered into the comm. “Is she telling the truth?”

“We’ve got a scanner,” Vare inserted helpfully. “And a DNA test of Moraal. We like to come very prepared.”

Gates shrugged and plucked a strand of hair from the crying woman. Baric accepted the wisp of hair and stuck it into the hand-held scanner. After a minute of churning, it spat out a ‘No Match’ icon.

“Alright,” Gates said. “So where is our good friend Moraal?”

“I d-don’t know,” the woman sobbed. “All I ever saw was the inside of that cell and this one guy, every once in a while.”

“Who’s the guy?” Gates said, pressing. “An officer? Black uniform? Name tag?”

“Yes…” she sighed. “Lieutenant Willis. Intelligence officer.”

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Gates said brightly, and stunned her. The woman slumped to the side.

“Why didn’t you shoot her?” asked Rogueboy.

“Well, there is the possibility she was lying or telling the truth. If she’s an innocent VE citizen captured by Thrawn, we might be obliged to swing by and get her out of here. If she’s feeding me a line of bull, we can ask her some ‘pointed’ questions,” Gates said, patting his knife. A couple men groaned at the poor pun.

“Find us another computer,” Tanus ordered Baric. “Different room. We need to find this Willis.”
ASL/SFCGarryll Gates/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/VE [RoM][ICE][IH][CCA][BC][SRP][AS-1][ES1][CoS][EW1]
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Muse rocks.
If these people want to fight me, I'll blow 'em straight to Hell!
Gear up, Last Chancers - Time to Die!
Corvin
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Corvin
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 8, 2009 5:57:52 PM    View the profile of Corvin 
The room was quiet, its occupants evacuated or reassigned when the news of boarders had filtered down to the level's staff. The hum of the various monitors and the beeping of holopanels were the only audible noises. At least on this side of the room.

There was a deafening bang, and one of the three blast doors positioned around the monitoring room vanished in a blinding flash of white light, spraying shrapnel everywhere. White armoured figures stormed through the gap, aiming blaster rifles at the most likely hiding points and the other entrances. One of them moved further into and then around the room, raising one gloved hand to his helmet and adjusting the imaging systems as he did so.

"Room's clear, sir." Corvin announced.

Tanus nodded.

"Get to it then, Baric."

"Yes, sir." the storm commando responded, walking up to the center array of consoles and sitting down. Putting his carbine down on the chair's armrest, he started typing rapidly, the noise reminding Corvin of a slugthrower on full automatic.

"I'm in, no surprises there," Baric murmured. "Using the codes to get access to the personnel files..."

There was a beep, and information rapidly scrolled across the wall displays.

"Gods, I'm good. Looking for our black-uniformed friend..."

The Blackjacks and Aureks shifted from foot to foot, clearly uneasy about waiting.

The lines of data vanished, replaced by images of Lieutenant Willis and his file's contents.

"Right, now to track his personal transponder..."

The screens flickered, then went blank for a moment.

"That's odd." Baric commented. "Dunno why that happened."

"Can you fix it?" Tanus snapped.

"Working, sir." Baric responded, hands moving over the touchpad. The screens flickered again, and the previous display returned. A moment later, they and Corvin's helmet display were showing schematics of the Nemesis from various angles. All of them had a flashing red dot near the top of the ship.

"That's the..." Corvin began.

"Command bridge. Well, that's convenient." Tanus wryly commented.

"If by convenient you mean likely to be a suicide mission, I quite agree." Vare replied.

"Regardless. Baric, we have what we need."

"Got it."

The screens flickered again as Baric spun back around and began to type. In the distance, muffled alarms started to whine.

"Baric?" Tanus asked, raising his rifle. Footsteps and shouted orders began to echo through the corridors.

"We're frakked." Baric muttered, slamming one armoured fist into a console. "Kriffing Chiss-lovers went and locked us out. Must have triggered an alert when I accessed the file."

"Stang." Tanus sighed. "We need to get out of here, five minutes ago."

Without further ado, the two squads quickly gathered their equipment and started moving toward the doorway they'd entered through. Before any of them could reach it, a blaster bolt flew through, followed by several others.

"Contact!" Corvin yelled, throwing himself to the side. A flurry of red bolts buzzed through the area where his head had been, hitting a wall holo-display and causing it to flicker.

Tanus leaned over into the doorway and threw a small silver sphere down the hallway. The thermal detonator exploded in the middle of a clump of stormtroopers, throwing fragments of the wall panels and pieces of white plastoid in all directions.

"Not looking good, Sar-!" Baric yelled, firing a burst from his Stormtrooper Two. Three energy bolts of return fire hit him in the side of his helmet, melting it away and causing his lifeless corpse to slump against the wall. The Aurek squad medic rushed over, shaking his head after a moment of examination.

There was a flash of bright light, and another blast door exploded in a fireball, catching an Aurek commando in the blast. Stormtroopers stepped through the hole, firing as they came.

"Frak you!" Corvin yelled, firing his E-11 in rapid bursts. In what was becoming an uncomfortably familiar scenario, he'd taken yet another rifle off a dead Thrawnist after he'd lost his EE-3. 

A stormtrooper forcing his way through the doorseal stumbled and fell as Corvin's shots hit him in the face. His body partially blocked the entrance, making it harder for the other Thrawnists to get through.

"Blow that door!" Tanus yelled, gesturing for the only doorseal that didn't have Thrawnists pouring through it. One of the surviving Aurek troopers rushed up to it, quickly placing a charge against the durasteel before stepped aside. There was a quick three-beep warning noise, and the charge detonated. Tanus gestured for the troopers to retreat through the newly-made exit, firing his EE-3 one-handed. The Aureks and Blackjacks rushed for the exit, stepping through the gaping hole made by the explosive. Tanus was the last one through.

Stormtroopers rushed into the control room, advancing towards the retreated Vast Imperials. Tanus readied and threw two thermal detonators into the room in rapid succession. There were a pair of loud detonations, and the computer room's ceiling collapsed, burying the advancing Thrawnists.

There was a moment of silence, broken when Tanus shoved a new clip into his rifle.

"Better get a move on, boys and girls. We have a traitor to catch."

For the Vast Empire and all loyal to it. ran, quite randomly, through Corvin's head.
TRP/PVT Corvin/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/VE
*HeavyWeapons *
Read the bloody manual!
"Never believe a rumour of my demise. I have as many lives as a cat. Also as many teeth, as many claws, and the same cheery, cooperative disposition." Peter Wiggin, Xenocide
Washington:"I knew this plan would never work!"
Church:"None of our plans ever work."
Caboose:"That's why we carry guns."
[This message has been edited by Corvin (edited August 8, 2009 6:02:37 PM)]
Tanus Solvona
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Tanus Solvona
 
[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 9, 2009 1:41:23 PM    View the profile of Tanus Solvona 
Tanus sprinted down the hall, looking behind him every so often to make sure they weren’t being followed. Damn it! A double! Figures that this wouldn’t be easy. Next thing they’re gonna tell us is that she’s on another bloody ship. The hallway was colored black and gun metal gray, with red lights adorning the wall in strips that glared back at the running Stormtroopers. They turned a corner and sprinted down the hall.

“How much further to the lifts, Tempest?”

“About 100 meters. Get ready for a gunfight?”

“Get ready for a gunfight.”

As soon as they reached the turbolift access point, two of the doors slid open, and two security teams started to spill out. Blackjack and Aurek squad made short work of them as they funneled through the small door frames; Tanus watched as the bodies piled on top of one another as they clambered over their dead brethren, hoping for one final defiant act before they were ushered on through Death’s door. Soon only smoke and death permeated the room as Tanus and Vare stood staring at the turbolift.

“Well, at least we know they work,” Vare said, sounding grim.

“Aye, but for how long? I’m guessing they’re going to realize that they sent two teams down here, when only thirty seconds later they return unscathed.”

“Good point.”

A silence stretched between the two men that seemed to go on forever. Finally Tanus bridged the gap.

“Listen, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry you lost Baric. He was a good man.”

“Aye, that he was. But he knew the risks. If he were me, I’d expect him to move on. The mission always comes first.”

“Aye.”

And with that, the conversation was over. It had really only just hit Tanus as to what a soldier expected when he entered combat: That he was going to die, but if he did to make sure the mission was a success. Wrex found that out the hard way. I hope the little bastard’s all right. The lift doors refused to close with all the bodies in the way, which for the nonce made their job slightly easier: If the doors couldn’t close, then they couldn’t lock down. Thankfully Vare had several backup slicers on his hands, which made the task of getting into systems and through doors slightly easier, but with Baric gone, they lost morale and experience. Tanus cracked his neck as he turned around and faced the squad, who were all edgy after the small firefight that had just broken out and the prospect of charging the bridge.

“All right, so here it is. The turbolifts down here seem to be working, which is good for us. The bad news is that can be fixed at any time. So we’re going to have to play some mind games with the command here. Every few levels we’re going to switch lifts. If they don’t know where we are, then they can’t very well stop us, and by doing that we force them to run the risk if shutting down the lifts in a critical sector. Since I’ve gotten nothing from the other three teams, I can assume they are doing either very well in causing mayhem, or are all dead. That said, with the computer room down here blown, we’re going to need alert codes and hacks for when they do shut down certain lifts. Tempest has a map, and you guys have the hackers. We just need one more piece to the puzzle and then Faith is ours.”

“What about stairs?”

“Stairs? Are you nuts? Tire yourself out running up flights of stairs in full armor? Please, I am not so archaic.”

That brought a few chuckles up from the crowd; Tanus was glad to at least lighten their spirits, if only slightly. At least if they were happy, they may live a bit longer.

“All right. Let’s boogey.”

--- --- --- --- ---


The ride up was short and for the most part pleasant; Tanus was sure that somebody had farted, and at the rate their metabolism worked, they eggs had hit them hard. They had taken two separate lifts up three levels. When the doors slid open, Tanus jumped out to breathe fresh air. He looked around and heard the familiar klaxons and saw the same pristine white tiles that adorned every inch of the halls, and the gun-metal gray floor pattern. It’s good to be home. Vare walked up to him and patted him on the back.

“How was the trip?”

“Bloody awful. Somebody farted, and I think I’m going to limit their diets as soon as we get back to Tadath.”

Vare gave a good hearty laugh as he called his men over. Tempest took a place next to Tanus, and Garryll took the other. Tempest pressed a few buttons on his datapad and looked at the screen with apprehension.

“All right, we’ve got a computer hub up here about 100 meters out. I’m guessing we’ll run into more than a few guards on the way.”

“I agree. Keep on your toes gentlemen.”

They ran down the hall at breakneck speed, speeding past technicians along the way. 75… 60… 45… The door to the computer room came up fast. Tanus hit the panel and the door slid open. Before him sprawled a vast bank of computers, and technicians sat before each terminal. Two guards raised their weapons to fire, but were soon cut down by a barrage of blaster fire. Tanus walked forward and looked at the technicians, or all appeared horrified.

“Hello there. We’re the invaders. Do you think you could help us out with an insy, teensy problem? Ya see, you’ve locked down some of the lifts, and that doesn’t sit well with us. So if you could give us the codes all nice and happy-like, that’d be great. Oh, and don’t even think of contacting any security, because I WILL disintegrate you. When you have the data up, just call over out slicers and they’ll take care of the rest. Thanks a lot and have a great day.”

Tanus turned around to Garryll and nodded to the door.

“Take the squad outside and guard the door. If any contact shows, cut ‘em to bits. We’ve come too far to screw it up now.”

“You got it.”

Garryll nodded towards the door and walked through it, flanked by the rest of Blackjack squad. Tanus turned back to the technicians, who were now frantically typing away at their terminals, desperate to exist as more than a pile of ashes.
SL/GSGT/SF Tanus Solvona/2SQD/2PLT/1CMP/1REG/1BAT/Tadath/VEA [EW1][ES1][LM][BC][CoR][LoS][SRP][CDS][SCA][FCE][VUA-ARC-Lambda]

CA/PRVC Tanus Solvona/YZ-775 (m) Iron Victory/The Osk Company/ICS/VE

Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken - House Martell words, A Song of Ice and Fire
[This message has been edited by Tanus Solvona (edited August 9, 2009 1:55:05 PM)]
Garryll Gates
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Garryll Gates
 
[VE-ARMY] Sergeant First Class
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 9, 2009 2:53:51 PM    View the profile of Garryll Gates 
Gates crouched in the darkened doorway of a storage room for infantry supplies, like rations and extra uniforms. He’d stormed into the room eagerly when it had been marked ‘Infantry’ on the door itself in large, blocky letters. Maybe there had been weapons in it.

Gates pouted. “Why would you need this many extra uniforms normally? I mean, I can understand it now, what with us boarding and everyone and their uncle shitting their pants.”

A couple chuckles wafted over the comlink. The rest of Blackjack was scattered in the hallway, taking cover behind whatever they could find.

“May I just say I hate spaceship fighting?” Orobos grumbled.

“I can’t imagine why,” Rogueboy replied, checking his EE-3.

“Frak this. I hate waiting,” interjected Corvin. “They almost certainly know we’re here. What’s taking them so long?”

“I don’t care,” replied Gates. “Cut the chatter back there.”

“I’m in front of you.”

“Rule number one: don’t mouth off,” Gates laughed back.

“I thought rule one was don’t eat yellow snow,” inserted Rogueboy.

“I spy contacts,” replied Corvin. “Opening fire.”

The relative silence of the ship – a background hum of massive generators and engines punctuated by the heavy rumbles of guns and torpedoes firing – was split by the sound of an E-11 on burst fire.

Corvin dropped a trio of Thrawnists in a few seconds, and then scampered back to the rear position of their defense. They were still a good grenade’s throw from the encryption room, to prevent a random shot or grenade from damaging the vital equipment.

Orobos kneeled from behind his cover and fired a bar from his powerful weapon, disintegrating another man and the one behind him. Stormtroopers dove for cover, firing rapid bursts of energy from their rifles. Orobos rolled back, focusing on falling back and not on standing to fight, as per orders.

Rogueboy fired his EE-3 from the hip, and Gates rose from the other side of the corridor, flamethrower spitting out hot death, catching a Stormtrooper’s upper body in the torch and incinerating it.

The man’s legs balanced for a second before falling into one of the ex-soldier’s comrades. The comrade jumped up in horror and threw the legs off of him, gasping in relief before a well-aimed blaster bolt took him in the crotch. The man collapsed, to say the least, rolling around in pain.

“And that takes the shot of the day,” Gates said brightly into his comlink. “I’ll buy you a beer if you can prove you did it.”

Corvin laughed in victory, and fired another few shots off. A few Stormtroopers emerged from cover, having realized the tactic the VE troopers were using, but were surprised and subsequently gunned down as the Blackjacks dug in their heels and put up a blistering volley of laser fire.

With half their number dead, the remnants of the Stormtrooper security squad decided enough was enough. They pulled back hastily, losing a few more men as they ran.

Blackjack cheered as the last Thrawnists rounded the corner, disappearing from view. The pulled-back troopers moved back up to their previous positions and Corvin scavenged some ammo for his E-11 from a dead Stormtrooper. The rest of Blackjack reloaded and prepared for the next, inevitable wave.

“Boss, we’ve fought off the first wave, no casualties for us,” Gates reported, checking the fuel gauge on his flame thrower. “Digging in for the next wave. What are the Aurek slicers saying for the data?”

“The technicians are slowing us up,” Tanus grumbled. “They are afraid of us and are spitting out typos and incorrect searches like mad. If it looks intentional I’ll shoot one, at this rate.”

“Well, good luck with that,” Gates replied cheerily, and then spotted Corvin’s hand signal. “We’ve got more contacts coming up.”

“Give ‘em hell,” Tanus replied.

“That’s my middle name. It’s three words long,” Gates replied, cutting the link.

A blaster bolt ricocheted off the wall and nearly took Gates in the hand, and he fired his EE-3 in return. A dozen Stormtroopers were firing madly from their positions, rushing forward and taking closer cover. They left three more men for body bags as they pressed aggressively.

“Coroner’s going to have a field day you sons-a-bitches!” Gates yelled over his outer comm., eliciting another wave of fire from the Thrawnists. A grenade sailed across the hall and bounced next to Gates’ boot.

He leaned over to throw it back when he realized the pin was still in it. Snorting in disbelief and his good fortune, he plucked the pin out and cooked the grenade off before tossing it back to the Thrawnists. A man had enough time to bring his boot back to kick it before it exploded, taking him apart and sending his sprawling corpse into the back of a Stormtrooper aiming carefully.

The man’s aim was thrown off and he fired a bolt into the ceiling, hitting a security camera and scattering sparks across the hall. Rogueboy made the best use of his grenade launcher, taking a tightly-clustered group out with a well placed ‘nade.

As the smoke cleared, there were no more Thrawnists in sight. Gates stood up and flexed triumphantly.

“We win!” he crowed, and kicked a discarded E-11. It skittered across the floor and bumped into the heavy plastoid boot of yet another Stormtrooper. Behind him were a dozen more. Gates’ victory died in his throat as he dove back behind cover, narrowly beating a laser bolt that was aimed at his head. The rest of Blackjack fired their rifles, but the weapons’ cells were mostly depleted from the last frenzy of fighting, and they dropped hard as well, digging for more clips.

“Contacts!” Gates yelled into the comm. “Lot’s of bloody contacts! Fall back! We need backup!
ASL/SFCGarryll Gates/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/VE [RoM][ICE][IH][CCA][BC][SRP][AS-1][ES1][CoS][EW1]
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Muse rocks.
If these people want to fight me, I'll blow 'em straight to Hell!
Gear up, Last Chancers - Time to Die!
Tanus Solvona
ComNet Member
 
Tanus Solvona
 
[VE-ARMY] Gunnery Sergeant
[VE-ICS] Pirivateer Captain
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 9, 2009 6:46:47 PM    View the profile of Tanus Solvona 
“Damn it to hell,” Tanus said as he peered out into the hall only to see Blackjack being hemmed in. He looked back to the room and saw some of the commandos taking cover. He looked over at the technicians, who were still busy typing, probably taking their sweet time and still making mistakes along the way. Only to hold us up. Of course. Tanus walked over to one of the technicians typing away on his terminal frantically; he seemed to pick up the pace as Tanus neared him.

“So, what’s the story Sparky?”

The man started to stammer and sweat a little bit. He looked from his screen back to Tanus, horror in his eyes and the color leaching from his face.

“I… I can’t get in. They locked me out.”

“Oh, is that what they did is it?”

He unclipped the button on his holster and started to draw his Rebel-1 disrupter pistol slowly. When he brought it fully to bear and allowed the man’s eyes to gaze at it’s horrible beauty, the man seemed ready to faint.

“Well, Sparky, I have faith in you. And so does this disruptor. Now do you think you can make nice with the computer and get us what we need?”

The man said nothing and started to stammer again; Tanus’ patience was starting to wear thin. He drew himself to his full height, his shadow looming over both terminal and operator. He leveled the barrel of the disruptor at the man’s temple, and in a high clear vice as sharp as a razor and as cold as an ice storm, he issued an ultimatum.

“Let’s get something straight right now. I am NOT here to play games with you. I am here, however, to get the layout and codes of operating lifts on this ship. If any of you decides to be a hindrance to my operation from this point forth, I will turn your friend here into gray dust. Am I clear?”

The operators slowly started to nod, and Tanus’ hostage began to cry. That was way too enjoyable. I need a holiday. Tanus lowered the pistol and stayed planted in his spot next to the terminal and crying technician. He looked at each of them in turn, cold contempt seeping out of every pore in his body.

“Good. Now get to work.”

Tanus turned and looked out the door, watching as blood red balster bolts streaked across the open air. Shouting and screaming was heard in the hall, and Tanus identified some of them as Blackjack. He looked to Vare, who was holed up behind the door, taking careful shots at some guards too stupid to get out of the way. Vare eventually turned his head and caught Tanus’ eye.

“Vare, send some of your men out. Mine need back up.”

“Right. Sten, Carna, get out there and give ‘em a hand.”

A half-second later, two commandos jumped up and ran into the hall, tossing grenades as they went. The ground shook at the force of the explosion and screams were heard over the sound of grenades. A bright red-orange glow from the hall told Tanus that Garryll had been using his flamethrower to great effect. Tanus channel buzzed as he was being hailed. He answered with Garryll on the other line, cackling as fire danced before his eyes. Why do I have all the psychos in MY squad?

“What’s the ETA on those codes, Tanus?” Garryll asked at a fever pitch.

“Hopefully soon, considering that I’ve threatened disintegration if they don’t get it together.”

“Wow. Hardcore.”

“I aim to please.”

“Well, hurry up. I’m running out of napalm and I want this bitch to know how much work we’ve put in to get her.”

“Fair enough. Just hold ‘em for the time being.”

“Can do.”

The buzzed out as Garryll unleashed another high laugh and a jet of flame out at the aggressors. Tanus turned to the sound of clicking away as two of the slicer commandos moved to the terminals and looked at the screens.

“What’ve we got?”

“Well, it’s a start to what we need, but it’s not the whole thing. We need a feed into what lifts are in working order. So far all we’ve got are layouts.”

“So they’re stalling?”

“Yes and no. They are keeping us waiting, but there is only so much info they can access in a given amount of time.”

“All right. Let’s see what I can get out of my man over here.”

Tanus walked back over to the sobbing man at the terminal, who by this time had finally stopped. His eyes were red and puffy and tear tracks could be seen on his face. Such is war. Tanus crouched next to the man, who looked up at Tanus with absolute terror. Tanus looked the screen over and clicked his tongue a few time before addressing the man.

“So, have anything new for me Sparky?”

“N-no. I’m sorry.”

“Huh, well then.”

Tanus stood back up and all eyes turned to him, all eyes gone wide. The man started to sob again and closed his eyes and started to back away from Tanus, who still had the disruptor in his hand. When he arched his back and cracked it, a collective sigh was released from the room. Tanus only chuckled.

“I’m not that dark kiddies. Unless you want me to be. Now get back to work.”

Tanus turned back to the man at his left, who had slowly made his way back to his computer.

“What’s your name?”

“It’s Jorel.”

“Ah. Well, Jorel, it seems that my time here has run out, and I would really appreciate those codes.”

“But why do you need them?”

“Haha. Oh Jorel. If I told you that, I’d have to kill you.”

“Weren’t you going to do that anyway?” he asked in a dark tone.

“Not unless you give me a reason.”

At that comment, the man seemed to soften. He turned back to his terminal and started to type away with a new fervor. When he wasn’t looking, Tanus opened a channel with Vare.

“Set up some big charges near the door and set it to remote detonation.”

“What? Why?”

“Just do it.”

Tanus chanced a look back at Vare and another of his commandos started working on setting high-yield explosives near the door. He looked back at Jorel, who was now navigating through a very complex looking window of subcategories and operations. Here we go. Soon he stopped and let his arms fall to his sides and lowered his head, taking a deep breath as Tanus leaned over to check the screen: This was exactly the information they came for. Tanus slapped Jorel on the back, which seemed to being him back to reality.

“See, Jorel? Was that so hard?”

The man didn’t say anything; he simply continued to stare at the ground with empty eyes. Tanus waved over the two slicers and pointed them to the terminal.

“Download all of this. If one of you goes down, I want a spare.”

“You got it, sir.”

The slicers got to work, meticulously taking down all of the information on the screen in front of them. Tanus turned to the door and walked through it, holstering his Rebel-1 and drawing his EE-3, firing it down the hallway in salvos. Troopers were cut down before him, silenced forever by wave after wave of blaster fire.  The remaining guards fell in droves, or fell back further down the corridor. Tanus then turned around and opened fire. Tanus looked over to Rogueboy, who was readying his grenade launcher.

“Rogueboy!”

Rogue looked up at him after attached a new drum clip to the underside of the launcher.

“Make ‘em hurt.”

“With pleasure.”

He raised the launcher up to his shoulder, peered down sight and fired. The explosion was deafening and blinding. Several guards were blown off their feet, and many others were consumed by the blast. When the smoke cleared, many lay dead, smoking or missing limbs. The others had gone. Cheers rose up from the squad. Pats on the back ensued and congratulations were offered. But Tanus said nothing; he simply stared down the hall, his eyes travelling over the marks of war.

“We’re not out of this yet.”

The cheering abruptly stopped, as did all motion from everyone around him; Vare stepped out of the room, holding a detonator pin in his hand. He handed it to Tanus, who without looking grabbed it and held it in his clenched fist.

“We still have a while to go yet. Don’t concern yourselves with this firefight, because they will get harder. Now, we have the codes and the information we need. I say we get to the bridge and get there soon.”

The squad fell in ranks and started to move out, weapons held tightly in their hands. His ear buzzed at the sound of being hailed. He answered the call; it was Garryll. He had opened up the channel to the whole group.

“So, how’d the disintegration go?”

“I didn’t have to. I asked him nicely, and then he complied.”

“Really? That seems sort of anticlimactic,” Rogueboy chipped in.

“So what are we going to do with them? Just let them be?”

At that moment, Tanus raised his hand to his helmet so everyone could see the detonator in his hand. And then, without stopping, without looking back, Tanus pushed the button. The explosion roared as the door was blown out of the wall and the ground quaked from power of the blast. Klaxons went off as smoke and fire billowed out of the room in great waves.

“No,” Tanus said, his voice cold and sharp as a razor. “I don’t think I will.”

And onwards the men of Blackjack and Aurek walked, a trail of fire, blood and death going on for eternity behind them.
SL/GSGT/SF Tanus Solvona/2SQD/2PLT/1CMP/1REG/1BAT/Tadath/VEA [EW1][ES1][LM][BC][CoR][LoS][SRP][CDS][SCA][FCE][VUA-ARC-Lambda]

CA/PRVC Tanus Solvona/YZ-775 (m) Iron Victory/The Osk Company/ICS/VE

Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken - House Martell words, A Song of Ice and Fire
[This message has been edited by Tanus Solvona (edited August 10, 2009 1:37:00 AM)]
[This message has been edited by Tanus Solvona (edited August 10, 2009 1:38:00 AM)]
[This message has been edited by Tanus Solvona (edited August 10, 2009 1:40:28 AM)]
Angel
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Angel
 
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  RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
August 10, 2009 7:20:33 PM    View the profile of Angel 
OOC:
BlackJack

Phase II Objective 2: Now Boarding - BlackJack, Party of Six?
Location: ISD-II Nemesis
Equipment:
  • Standard Squad Loadout
  • One (1) Personal Choice Weapon
Orders: Discovering Moraal's location BlackJack will secure her for extraction and trial by military tribunal.
Opposition:[list]
  • Remains from Objective 1
  • Up to Additional 75 Active Duty Security Squads
    Add'l Equip.: None
    NPC Support: Remains from Objective 1
    Max Posts: 15
    Additional Information:
  • Tactical Officer - Army High Council | Company Commander - Phoenix Company
    TO-CC/1LT Angel/HCA-4/Phoenix/Dragon/Osiris/Stormtrooper Corps/Tadath/Vast Empire
    Imperial Network Star Wars Image
    ----------------------------------------
    Darth Phoenix - Dark Lord of the Sith
    DLoS/SI Phoenix/DC-04/Lopen/Dark Jedi Order/Vast Empire
    [VP:1]

    [This message has been edited by Angel (edited August 10, 2009 9:03:57 PM)]
    Garryll Gates
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    Garryll Gates
     
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      RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
    August 11, 2009 7:00:50 AM    View the profile of Garryll Gates 
    Alarms screamed and fire suppression crews and Security squads hustled and bustled around. Anyone that had the misfortune of stumbling across the Vast Empire soldiers was quickly shot up and the bodies dumped into nearby rooms, be it an empty storage room or someone’s quarters. Provided the Nemesis managed to get out of here alive, they’d be in for quite the surprise when dozens of rooms contained dead bodies.

    Tanus held a hand up and the troopers scrambled to cover. Vare and Garryll scurried up to him. Vare held out one of the datapads with an ISD-II layout on them. Tanus tracked his finger across the heavy glass screen and tapped it lightly on where they were.

    “Damn, that excursion to the brig may have really cost us,” Tanus said, tracing their footsteps. “It was about a klick – yeah Gates, an entire klick – away from the bridge. There are dozens of chokepoints we’re going to have to go through to get there.”

    He pointed out a half-dozen possibilities, and they all had annoying bottlenecks or chokepoints perfect for E-WEB crews or simply massive numbers of troops. Vare stared at it hard, and then took the datapad from Tanus.

    “How about this way?” he said, highlighting a route. “We could take a shortcut through this auxiliary hangar. It’s the only chokepoint going this way, so we should take fewer casualties and such. Only problem is that the hangar is pretty damn big. A hundred plus meters end-to-end, so we’re going to have a hassle trying to get across when we get there.”

    “I don’t mind open spaces,” Gates said. “More room to stretch your legs.”

    “We are in agreement, then,” Tanus replied. “Get the men in motion.”

    “Let’s go, Blackjacks, Aureks!” Gates ordered, waving them up. “Move it out!”

    The two squads rose, with Blackjack gripping one wall while the Aureks had their backs to the other. Tanus and Gates took up their positions on the Blackjack line and Vare took point of his own squad. They quickly moved up the walls, checking any corner they came across and then dashing across the intersections one or two at a time.

    At one intersection, when they peered around the corner, they saw the backs of a security squad. The Stormtroopers appeared to be guarding a larger room sealed by a blast door, and they watched the hallway carefully. Tanus waited until they looked the other way before sprinting across the deck. A yell followed his run, and Gates knew they’d spotted him.

    “Get ‘em, Blackjacks!” he yelled, and the squad rumbled around the corner, recklessly firing their EE-3s into the stunned security squad. Three were immediately cut down, so riddled with laser fire you could see charred bone through some of the holes. The other seven men dove for cover. The Aureks managed to get to the other side of the hallway in the meantime.

    “Grenades!” bawled Gates. “We don’t have time for these guys!”

    Half the squad pitched grenades at the Thrawnists, a messy mix of frag, concussion, and thermal detonators that bounced wildly around the Thrawnists’ cover before exploding in a series of random intervals. Smoke clogged the hallway, and the VE strike team double-timed it towards the bridge.

    “Where’s this hangar you were talking about?” Gates asked, panting lightly.

    “Another couple hundred meters, then the hundred meter hangar, and then a few hundred more to the bridge,” Vare summarized quickly. “There are several light doors between us and the hangar, but it should be no trouble with the codes and explosives.”

    They came around a corner to see the first such door; a couple helmeted security guards cradled short blast cannons, perfect for fighting in the tight confines of a space ship. Tanus spotted them before they spotted him, and blasted the first apart with a long burst from his rifle. The other aimed quickly and the cannon boomed, but the man, so soaked with adrenaline, had missed a ten-foot shot. Tanus put a blast into the visor of his helmet, and he dropped, smoke leaking out of the hole.

    “Get the door open!” Vare yelled, and one of the Aurek slicers ran up, and tried to jam his datapad’s wire into the feed.

    “They fragged the door panel, sir!” the slicer yelled. “We’ll need to blow the door open!”

    “Someone get a breaching charge on the door,” Gates said. “And do it fast – we’ve got company.”

    Gates, having been at the rearmost position, had no friendlies in his way. As such, he could be quite liberal with the flamethrower, and cooked the first two men that spotted them. The others dashed for cover, but he managed to nail another by bouncing the flame against the ceiling and behind his cover. The others of the Security squad pulled back, hoping to escape the flamethrower’s limited range. Another burst of fire filled the hall with an inferno and soon, the oxygen in the hall was becoming thinner and thinner.

    “Door charge set!” cried one of the Aureks. “Fire in the hole!”

    The door blew out, the two halves of the centimeter-thick metal door crashing into the next hall. Blackjack and Aurek dashed through, firing suppressive fire at the battered Security squad behind them. Gates let off one last plume of fire before turning to follow.

    “Another few hundred meters to the bridge,” Tanus said. “Get frosty.”
    ASL/SFCGarryll Gates/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/VE [RoM][ICE][IH][CCA][BC][SRP][AS-1][ES1][CoS][EW1]
    Imperial Network Star Wars ImageImperial Network Star Wars ImageImperial Network Star Wars ImageImperial Network Star Wars ImageImperial Network Star Wars Image
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    Muse rocks.
    If these people want to fight me, I'll blow 'em straight to Hell!
    Gear up, Last Chancers - Time to Die!
    Corvin
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    Corvin
     
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      RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
    August 11, 2009 7:27:08 PM    View the profile of Corvin 
    Another blast door vanished in a flash of light. Almost inevitably, there was a squad of troopers on the other side. The Thrawnists seemed to be learning, however, as they were standing away from the blast doors and against the wall. Blaster bolts flew through the hatch even before the smoke cleared, bouncing off the wall panels and burning craters into the end of the corridor.

    None of them hit the Vast Imperials, who'd moved to either side of the corridor before detonating the charge. Precisely aimed EE-3 bursts cut down the Thrawnists before they could adjust their aim, their bodies coming apart as the energy beams burned through their armour. Tanus strode through the wreckage and blaster-scorched corridor, war hammer clutched in his hands. Vare followed moments later, as did the troopers.

    Looking past Tanus and Vare, Corvin saw another blast door. If the schematic's the late Corporal Baric had obtained were accurate, there were two more between the squads and the hanger.

    "Nera," Vare declared over the com. "You know the drill."

    "Roger that, boss."

    The short Aurek demolitions specialist slid past Corvin, walking towards the two squad leaders. Clipping her Stormtrooper Two to her belt, the commando removed another charge from the bunch clipped to it and activated the magnetic seal. She was about to place it against the durasteel door when it slid open of its own accord.

    Frak. ran through Corvin's head in the moment before the firing started. There were a good dozen stormtroopers standing around, weapons leveled at the Blackjacks and Aureks.

    They weren't the problem, however. The problem was the E-Web(15) set up in the middle of the corridor and manned by two black-uniformed crewmen. Capable of taking down armoured speeders and even some aircraft, it would cut the Vast Imperials down in seconds.

    Tanus had evidently come to the same conclusion.

    "Everyone down!" he yelled, and the corridor was suddenly full of blasterfire. Red energy bolts flew in all directions, with the sudden shriek of the E-Web cannon echoing in Corvin's ears. Dropping the charge, Nera drew her Stormtrooper Two as she threw herself for a niche in the wall.

    Taking advantage of what little cover there was, the Vast Imperials returned fire, taking down several of the stormtroopers. The E-Web sprayed fire down the corridor, hitting one of the Praxis troopers in the gap between his chestplate and helmet. He fell soundlessly, head flopping back as most of his neck and lower face vanished on impact.

    His stomach pressed against the ground, Corvin fired his E-11 on full-automatic, screaming incoherently as he did so. Blaster fire whizzed past him, one bolt coming close enough to leave a blackened scar in the top of his helmet. He saw a flash of black jump out from cover, and saw a silver sphere in the figure's hand.

    Nera threw the thermal detonator, feeling a pair of blaster bolts hit her chestplate and shoulderpad as she did so. She fell heavily, her Stormtrooper Two falling from her fingers as she hit the ground. There was a shout, and the crewman manning the E-Web stopped firing and looked down. He saw the detonator at his feet and had just started to reach down for it when the explosive went off.

    The baradium-fueled explosion sent shrapnel and superheated gas in all directions, incinerating or crippling six of the twelve Thrawnists. A moment later, the shrapnel-riddled power supply went off. The corridor and its occupants didn't go up in flames so much as simply vanish as the fuel cells went up. The entire corridor seemed to shake, and Corvin felt the floor shudder.

    Slowly, Tanus got back to his feet, picking up his warhammer as he did so.

    "Report." the Blackjack SL coughed. The Blackjacks replied one by one, most suffering minor shrapnel injuries but no casualties. Private Regit of Aurek Squad, however, hadn't been as lucky. The E-Web fire had more or less decapitated him in the firefight's opening moments. Nera was on her feet, but swaying unsteadily. As Corvin watched, the Aurek medic made his way over to her.

    "Right," Tanus grimly stated. "That little welcoming party means there's probably going to be a lot of the buggers waiting for us in the hanger. Be ready, Blackjacks."

    Vare looked away from Nera, looking over the Blackjacks.

    "You lot'll have to cover us once the charge blows. Nera, hand me a charge."

    The wounded Spec Ops trooper nodded weakly, removing one of the det packs from her belt and handing it to the Squad Leader. Vare cautiously walked to the end of the corridor, placing it on the door and priming it. The Blackjacks and surviving Aureks were on either side of the corridor, weapons aimed at the portal.

    "Detonating." the Aurek Squad Leader announced.

    The blast doors exploded, and the squads charged through.
    TRP/PVT Corvin/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/VE
    *HeavyWeapons *
    Read the bloody manual!
    "Never believe a rumour of my demise. I have as many lives as a cat. Also as many teeth, as many claws, and the same cheery, cooperative disposition." Peter Wiggin, Xenocide
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    Church:"None of our plans ever work."
    Caboose:"That's why we carry guns."
    Garryll Gates
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    Garryll Gates
     
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      RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
    August 11, 2009 9:03:38 PM    View the profile of Garryll Gates 
    Two squads of Vast Empire soldiers burst through a destroyed blast door into a wall of smoke created by their most recent endeavor in the useful work of blowing doors apart and killing everyone in front of them.

    Immediately, gunfire streaked from the still-hidden Imperial soldiers, bursting from the smoke in a chaotic salvo. The Stormtroopers inside the hangar cringed and ducked behind the shuttles and their E-WEBs for cover, but several lucky shots took men apart. The smoke quickly cleared, but the VE forces had managed to procure cover.

    The Thrawnists, glad to finally have a target, opened up; another E-WEB was stationed at the far door, a hundred meters away and there were at least thirty Stormtrooper security guards in the room as well. Gates poked his head above cover and then dropped back down again, not before drawing a laser bolt bouncing off of the hull of the shuttle he was hiding behind. Corvin and the Aurek medic were crouched with him.

    “Name?” Gates asked cordially, taking his scope out of his belt and carefully fitting it onto his EE-3.

    “Dane, sir,” the medic replied calmly, despite the heavy blaster fire pinging off of their shuttle. He fired a burst from his Stormtrooper-II around the corner, drawing more fire to his end of the shuttle.

    “Nice to meet you,” Garryll replied. “It’s always nice to meet someone new, isn’t it, Corvin?”

    “Yes sir, it’s nice to meet new people,” Corvin replied. “But those frakkers are really trying to send me home in a body bag. I don’t suppose you could help that, could you, sir?”

    “Right, your wish is my command,” Gates replied. “I’ll just walk around the corner and we can discuss the issue with them over coffee and cookies, how about that?”

    “Sir, it would be more reassuring if I knew you were kidding…”

    “Righto! Blaster bolts and grenades it is,” Garryll said cheerily. “Got to run.”

    He dashed madly from cover, eye glued to his scope, firing rapidly. Laser fire bounced off the floor and splattered past him as men began directing fire his way. Aiming in a scope bouncing crazily was no easy task, but he was a pretty good shot. A pair of single blasts took a man off his feet, throwing him to the ground. Another burst flashed from the rifle, taking a man in the hip, gut, and shoulder, and messing him up pretty well.

    He dove behind the cover he’d been sprinting too, another shuttle that Tanus and Vare were crouched behind.

    “You are insane,” Vare said calmly. “Utterly mad. What could possibly have possessed you to run across a killing zone?”

    “I’m invulnerable,” Gates replied deadpan. “Blaster bolts bend to my very will, flickering around me; the powers-that-be smile upon my every step and have given me the gift of infallible luck. Good fortune is my middle name.”

    “You said your middle name was ‘danger,’” Tanus replied. “Not two missions ago.”

    “A name for every occasion,” Gates said mildly, shrugging. “I’m adaptable.”

    “How are we going to break the deadlock?” asked Vare, interjecting. “We are in the middle of a battle, here.”

    “Well see, that’s what I ran over here for,” Gates said seriously. “I have a plan.”

    “Brilliant. Does it involve headlong charges? Cavalry?” Vare asked. “Perhaps a tank advance, or maybe even artillery barrage?”

    “No need to be a smart-ass,” Gates replied. “We’ll simply use the jetpacks to gain an elevated tactical advantage. My backup plan includes calling in one of the MAATs to fly to this hangar and blow the living shit out of them, but that would take a while and they’d likely shoot him down before he could get here.”

    “Do it,” Tanus replied. “Alright Blackjacks, jets in ten!”

    A scattered affirmative came from across the squad comlink.

    “Up and at ‘em, Blackjacks!” Gates barked. “Give ‘em hell!”

    As one man, Blackjack squad activated the jetpacks, bouncing dozens of feet in the air in a couple seconds. EE-3 fire came from the now-flying troopers, taking out a dozen men with cover inadequate to defend against two radically different firing angles at once. The E-WEB was incapable of aiming high enough or quickly enough to target many of the Blackjacks, and wasted a bunch of shots trying to hit the fast-flying Stormtroopers.

    The Transits turned their attention to the Blackjacks, and it was a huge mistake. The Aureks, waiting for such a move, sprang from cover and mowed half a dozen men down in their first barrage, firing quick bursts at troopers they’d been ineffectively dueling with for the last few minutes.

    The remaining Thrawnists guards sprinted back for the cover the E-WEB would afford them, and the gun turned its attention back to the Spec Ops men, driving them back into cover.

    “Get closer, Blackjack!” Gates yelled. “Kill ‘em all!”

    The airborne Stormtroopers zoomed across the open space, dumping laser fire into the retreating backs of the Thrawnists. Any who turned were just standing still targets. The E-WEB crew began to panic and shot wildly and in a constant burst of fire. The Aureks, again free from the suppressive fire, sprinted to more forward cover, wisely letting the Blackjacks act as a flaming, firing, and killing-machine distraction.

    The E-WEB overheated. Its power cell was dangerously depleted and the thick energy hose that connected the gun to its power was half-melted. The crew jumped from their weapon and few seconds before the Blackjacks landed amongst the remaining Thrawnists near the door and engaged them at point-blank range. Gates took the opportunity to roast the gunners and the E-WEB cannon with his flamer, while Tanus crushed a man with a massive swing of his warhammer. Tempest flicked a couple knives seemingly carelessly and the blades went up to their hilts into the eye holes of a Stormtrooper. The man collapsed, grasping at his face. Orobos swung his axe and nearly decapitated a Stormtrooper, while Rogueboy was using his grenade launcher like a club.

    A heavy body hit Gates in the back and knocked the flamethrower out of his hands. He tried to turn, but the man was driven by hatred, anger and a huge burst of adrenaline. Gates grasped at steel-like muscles that had clenched around his neck, and he saw his vision fill with stars. Desperately, he swung a foot around to hit the man in the crotch, but he scooted back, dodging the blow. Unfortunately, that put his head in perfect reach, and Gates slammed his elbow back and up, taking the man’s helmet off and breaking his jaw.

    The hands let go and the man staggered back, grasping at his bloody face. He was a great slab of a man, all hard angles and brutally-cut hair, at least a half-foot taller than Gates. The Thrawnist Stormtrooper took a low, powerful stance and produced a combat knife. Gates yanked his own knife out of its sheath and held it point inwards, up his forearm.

    He tuned the world out, the close-range blaster shots, screams and panting over the comlink as Blackjack fought the Thrawnists. His opponent made the first move, a huge lunge that was intended to take him apart in one move. Gates nimbly stepped back, but tripped over a corpse, its head smashed flat.

    “Thank you, Tanus,” Gates swore as the man bore down, face displayed hatred and sensing victory. As the knife plunged down, Garryll shot his legs upward, catching the Thrawnist hard in the gut and flipping him head over heels.

    Instantly, Gates was up and jumped onto the stumbling man’s back. His left arm snaked around the man’s neck and lower jaw, drawing a scream of pain from the injured Thrawnist. The man blindly stabbed backwards with his knife, crashing it against Gates’ armor.

    Garryll tried to twist his arm and break the man’s neck, but knew that wasn’t going to happen with the man struggling so insanely his neck muscles stood out like bridge cables.

    “Shit,” Gates muttered. “I just cleaned my armor.”

    He swept the foot-long knife across the man’s throat, severing the major artery there. Gasping at his ripped-open windpipe, the man collapsed, quickly bleeding to death. Gates shook a stain of blood off of his gauntlet and replaced the knife carefully before looking up. The Aureks had covered the last few meters in the seconds Gates had been fighting the man, and were now slashing into the remaining Thrawnists.

    The last man fell, his face blown apart from a laser rifle at close range. A dozen dismembered or blown-apart bodies littered the ground around Blackjack, who had miraculously escaped largely unscathed, with only a few more minor injuries to speak of.

    “Everyone good?” Tanus asked, and a the squad rattled off their eagerness to go kill some more Thrawnist scum. “Very good. Move it out!”
    ASL/SFCGarryll Gates/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/VE [RoM][ICE][IH][CCA][BC][SRP][AS-1][ES1][CoS][EW1]
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    Muse rocks.
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    Gear up, Last Chancers - Time to Die!
    Tanus Solvona
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      RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
    August 13, 2009 2:53:56 AM    View the profile of Tanus Solvona 
    The pounding of boots on floor was the only noise Tanus paid attention to as the troopers of the Vast Empire ran through the halls of the Nemesis, searching for Faith Moraal. The first two blast doors had not given them much trouble; unfortunately, the commandos were being cut down to size. Tanus had still not heard a word from the other squads. He feared the worst, but soon pushed it out of his mind as he rounded a corner and found a group of security personnel coming down the hall in two columns. Tanus took down the first three, and soon the others fell as Blackjack squad opened fire. They ran over the bodies and down the stark white halls.

    “How much further to the bridge? Anyone know?”

    “We’re about 200 meters out. Another two turns or so and we should be there.”

    “All right. Expect heavy resistance up to the door, gentlemen.”

    “You always say that,” Corvin said wistfully.

    “I always mean it.”

    Tanus grabbed a thermal detonator off of his belt and held it tightly in his hand. In the other hand he held his EE-3, the solid black weapon a sharp contrast to his stark white armor. Klaxons blared in the background, and on the loudspeakers came the voice of a frantic sounding woman, asking all remaining forces to come to the bridge. Well, they know we’re headed. As they rounded another corner, Tanus was staring down the barrel of a squad behind an E-WEB.

    “Open fire!”

    A wall of blaster fire met the security guards as the threw up some blaster fire of their own form the E-WEB and surrounding personnel. Tanus fired his EE-3 one handed and tossed the grenade. It went off with a resounding explosion, consuming the security personnel and E-WEB in light and fire. The tibanna gas and power generator were consumed as well, and the resulting destruction knocked all of the Blackjacks and Aureks off their feet. Tanus got back to his feet in short order, cracking his neck and looking back at the others. They groaned as they got to their feet and sighed or started to laugh. Tempest opened up the channel as a whole.

    “Jeeze, you could have warned us before you did that you know.”

    “What? And ruin all the fun? I thought we loved surprises!” Rogueboy said, much to Tempest’s chagrin.

    “Yes, only when they aren’t shooting at us,” Vare said as he pushed himself off the wall.

    “Like strippers and cake?” Corvin asked, and some of the others started to laugh.

    “Yes, Corvin, like strippers and cake. That reminds me, I should call those two blondes when this thing’s over…”

    “I’m loving the reminiscence, really I am. But please, for the love of The Maker, can we hurry it up? I want this bitch gone.”

    “Aye, you’re right. One more turn and we should be at the door.”

    “What do you think will be on the other side?”

    “Sunshine and candy, of course.”

    They finished their last round of popping and cracking their bodies before they all came up. Tanus grabbed his hammer of his back and started to spin it around in his hand and drew his disruptor. He looked behind him to make sure no one was there before he started.

    “All right. Chances are the door is going to be locked down. That said, slicers need to be protected and in the middle of the pack. If we get in any firefights, keep them short. Explosive solutions will be preferred here. When we get to the door, we’ll cover the slicers, and make sure all of the other guards are dead before we head inside so we don’t pincered. Aside from that, it’s going to be a smash’n’grab for us to grab Moraal and bugger off before anybody gets wise to her missing. Everybody got that?”

    They all nodded, or gave a response in one fashion or another. Then Tanus turned and started to run. The hallway was a vast expanse, a tundra of pristine white plasteel and durasteel plates. Tanus and the men of Blackjack and Aurek pulsed through the halls like a violent disease, overtaking and demolishing all they came across. They rounded another corner and at the end of the hall, saw the door to the bridge. 85 meters to go. Then you’re mine Moraal. In front of the door stood two full squads of security guards. Tanus pulled his last grenade off of his belt.

    “Boys, blow ‘em apart!”

    They didn’t break stride as the tossed their grenades, and felt the resounding explosion ripple through their bodies as the guards died. The smoke cleared and Tanus picked up speed and came to a skidding halt in front of the door. He waved the slicers forward and they got to work immediately.

    “I want this door open five minutes ago, got it?”

    “You got it, sir.”

    “Yeah, no pressure or anything.”

    “Save the cheek, son, I don’t have time for it now.”

    He turned around and watched as, without a word, Blackjack and Aurek set up cover positions in the hall. Rogue had his grenade launcher at the ready and Orobos had the SA-40 raised to his shoulder. Tanus put his hammer and disruptor away and drew his EE-3 and stared downsight towards the end of the wall. At first all was quiet, except for the sound of the slicers hacking the door behind them, their tools buzzing as they dug further and further into the system. Tanus’ mind was racing. You’re finally mine, you traitorous wretch. Finally, you get something you actually deserve – and hopefully that’s a firing squad. And then he heard it: The slow rumble of feet hitting floor panel.

    “Here they come boys! Get ready!”

    And then, just as quickly as it started, it stopped. The squad lowered their weapons momentarily and looked around and then at each other.

    “Where’d they go?”

    “I dunno. Waiting for something?”

    “I don’t want to find out what.”

    And then suddenly, the walls forty meters down the hall blew apart. Troops started piling through the opening and started to charge the stunned troopers, firing as they ran. What!? Tanus raised his rifle and started to fire, dropping anyone he could, watching as blaster bolts hit the door and missed the men by mere centimeters. After about twenty or so troopers fell, the commotion finally stopped. Tanus breathed heavy as his pulse started to return to normal. And then 40 more men rounded the corner.

    “Oh, you’ve got the be frakking kidding me!” Corvin shouted as he opened fire.

    “Does anybody have any grenades left!?”

    “Aye.”

    “Well, use’ em!”

    Grenades flew down the hall in one form or another, either from the hand or from Rogueboy’s hip. Orobos threw up a wall of pure power with the SA-40, blowing the walls apart and sending people into the air. And then, just as quickly as the fight began, it was over, people lay screaming and shouting as the lay dying on the ground. Tanus looked at Rogueboy and then to the group of dying guards.

    “Rogue, shut them up.”

    A single grenade went through the air, hitting the middle of the group, consuming them in fire and death. Tanus turned back to the slicers at work.

    “How’re we doing?”

    “Almost done sir.”

    Another thirty seconds or so passed before the slicers backed off and stared at the group. Tanus smiled under his helmet.

    “It’s show time.”

    Tanus pressed the button on the panel and door slid open. The troopers of Aurek and Blackjack squad walked through the doors and stopped on the landing. All eyes turned to them as they entered, and then all personnel stopped moving. The two guards nearest to the doors made a move to fire at him, but Tanus was too fast. In a flash his disruptor was drawn and fired two shots, dropping the two guards in a flash of green light. Tanus took one stepped forward and looked around, and then said in a high, clear voice:

    “Faith Moraal, in the name of the Vast Empire, I hereby place you under arrest.”

    No one moved. At first Tanus didn’t register the sound, but then he heard a high, cold laugh coming from down below. He looked down to see a tall blonde man with green eyes staring up at him; he wore a black uniform and had a sneer on his face.

    “You won’t find her here cretin. Lieutenant Moraal is long gone by now.”

    Tanus imply chuckled before holstering his disruptor and grabbing his war hammer.

    “Lieutenant Willis, I see. Well, if that’s the case…”

    Tanus turned on his jetpack and rose about a foot and a half off the ground.

    “I guess you’ll just have to tell me where she is.”

    He aimed himself down at the man, and as he activated the thrusters, the firing started.
    SL/GSGT/SF Tanus Solvona/2SQD/2PLT/1CMP/1REG/1BAT/Tadath/VEA [EW1][ES1][LM][BC][CoR][LoS][SRP][CDS][SCA][FCE][VUA-ARC-Lambda]

    CA/PRVC Tanus Solvona/YZ-775 (m) Iron Victory/The Osk Company/ICS/VE

    Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken - House Martell words, A Song of Ice and Fire
    Corvin
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    Corvin
     
    [VE-ARMY] Private
     
    Post Number:  93
    Total Posts:  818
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      RE: ESC Storyline - BlackJack
    August 13, 2009 7:48:53 AM    View the profile of Corvin 
    Corvin's first impression of the bridge was one of gleaming, polished floors and wall to wall transparisteel viewports. His second was of plastoid and a few dozen unfriendly blaster pistols pointed in their direction. Next to the centre viewport, a tall, black-uniformed man stood, his eyes locked on the commando and jumptrooper squads and a heavy blaster pistol held in one clenched fist. This, then, was Lieutenant Willis, Thrawnist Intelligence officer, their current objective, and an all round pain in the arse as far as Corvin was concerned.

    Red energy beams flew in all directions as the Vast Imperials charged, or in Tanus's case flew, towards the far end of the bridge. Smoothly, and without ceasing fire, the Thrawnists stepped backwards, forming a solid wall of white armour between the squads and their target. Tanus cursed, cutting his jetpack's power and dropping a meter to the ground. Blasterfire flew into the ceiling and walls, through the space he'd been in seconds earlier. Getting back to his feet, the Squad Leader swung his hammer, catching one of the stormtroopers who'd broken formation in the faceplate.

    One of the Aureks took several blaster bolts to the neck, toppling over midstep with his lower face a charred ruin. Dane didn't even bother ceasing fire to check on him. The Blackjacks and Aureks moved to either side, taking cover behind the bulkheads. The Thrawnists, hampered by the need to protect Willis, had no such option. It was almost a nerf shoot.

    The Vast Imperials' return volley sent half a dozen of Willis's bodyguard sprawling, their chestplates penetrated by accurate EE-3 and Stormtrooper Two fire. Energy beams criss-crossed the bridge, hitting control panels and bouncing off viewports. The twelve surviving Thrawnist troopers were still standing and fighting, despite the numerous cracks and blackenned craters covering their once-white armour. One took three bolts to the faceplate and was thrown back into a comrade. The man stumbled, faltering for a moment, and was instantly riddled by blaster fire. That left ten.

    "They're frakked." Corvin smugly noted over the com, firing as he spoke.

    There was a yell followed by a squelch as another stormtrooper fell to Tanus's warhammer. Supported by cover fire from the Blackjacks, the Gunnery Sergeant was bringing Willis's bodyguard one by one. Corvin briefly wondered what the man had been thinking when he'd jumped through an enemy-filled bridge, then shrugged. The SLs mental state wasn't any of his concern, his orders were.

    "Mop them up, grab the target, and make for the hanger bay." Vare ordered. Another Thrawnist went down with a dozen charred patches in his body armour.

    Corivn had just emerged from cover to get a better firing position when he heard the clang of boots on durasteel from directly behind him. A blaster bolt hit his backpack, causing him to stumble forwards a half step. An E-11 round hit his lower shoulderguard a moment later, burning through the reiniforced plastoid as though it were flimsy and eating at his already wounded flesh. Corvin's world vanished in a haze of pain and contradicting sensations. Dimly, he felt someone pulling him to the side, saw a grey-black helmet with red markings. Dane, ever the medic, was dragging him to the side. Tilde was nowhere in sight. Bloody typical, Corvin's disjoined thoughts ran, give the newbie a target and she forgets her duty.

    Armoured hands removed the upper half of the damaged shoulderplate and the remains of the previous field dressing, then slapped a bacta patch onto the wound. There was a prick as the Spec Ops medic emptied a needle into Corvin's arm, followed by a sudden regaining of full consciousness. The combat drug, a combination of painkillers, among other things, cleared the Private's mind and allowed him to function again. For now.

    Blaster fire echoed deafeningly through the ship's bridge. Caught between the fire of Willis's survivng bodyguards and the several dozen newcomers, the Vast Imperials found themselves outgunned and on the verge of a quick and painful death.

    Whether it was a side effect of the combat drug, adreneline, or even simple fear Corvin couldn't say, but he found himself muttering the same phrase under his breath over and over again.

    "We're frakked, we're frakked, we're frakked..."

    With each repetion, he squeezed off a burst from his SE-14 sidearm, which he was holding with his uninjured left arm. To his complete lack of surprise, this didn't do wonders for his accuracy. Still, he was an Imperial Stormtrooper, with all the training that implied. One of the charging stormtrooper stumbled and fell as a burst from the automatic pistol hit the gap between his helmet and chestplate.

    "We're frakked, we're frakked, we're frakked..."

    "Yes, thank you." Dane irritably snapped as he snapped off a shot from his Stormtrooper Two. "How about something a bit more cheery?"

    The rebuttal was all Corvin needed to come back to his senses. Shaking his head, he continued to fire, this time in silence.

    The stormtroopers had numbers on their side, but the Vast Imperials still had several distinct advantages. The attacking stormtroopers had to charge through a narrow corridor to enter the bridge, just as the Vast Imperials had been forced to. That small advantage meant the attackers were always at a managable size, at least for the time being. That comforting thought had just passed through Corvin's mind when he heard a deep rumble followed by a scream. One of the Aureks came apart, drilled by
    blaster fire.

    "Prowling heck, they've got an E-Web!" one of the other commandos shouted. Sure enough, there was the distinctive long barrel of the heavy blaster cannon and its boxy power supply behind the first row of stormtroopers.

    Corvin mentally repeated his earlier mantra.

    There was panicked shouting from the bridge's far end, followed by another crack. Glancing over his shoulder, Corvin was surprised to see Tanus standing triumphantly over several dead stormtroopers.

    Cursing rather creatively, Willis aimed the pistol at the Blackjack SL, managing to get two shots off before the man's warhammer casually swept down, wrenching the pistol from his hand and reducing it to a bloody mess. The Lieutentant dropped to his knees, face paling and other hand clutching at his mangled fingers. Tanus reslung his warhammer, then cheerfully knelt down by the wounded officer and dragged him to his feet. His free hand was holding Willis's own DH-17 to his head.

    The firing abruptly stopped.

    Tanus looked at the scene in front of him.

    "As you can see," Tanus declared, pushing the blaster pistol's barrel against Wilis's forehead. "We have Lieutenant Willis. Cease fire, or I'll blow his brains out."

    A brittle silence fell on the bridge.

    Standoff Corvin mentally sighed. This sort of thing really shouldn't happen outside of badly done holothrillers, but here we are.

    "Tilde, Dane, one of you get over here, now." Tanus whispered furiously over the com. "I don't care who, just make sure you still have the interrogation drugs."

    Out loud, the SL said "Well? We don't have all day, and neither does the good Lieutenant."

    Corvin waiting, finger on his E-11 trigger. Corellian standoffs inevitably broke down when someone's trigger finger slipped, and Corvin preferred to be the one doing the shooting if that happened.

    The stalemate continued.
    TRP/PVT Corvin/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA/VE
    *HeavyWeapons *
    Read the bloody manual!
    "Never believe a rumour of my demise. I have as many lives as a cat. Also as many teeth, as many claws, and the same cheery, cooperative disposition." Peter Wiggin, Xenocide
    Washington:"I knew this plan would never work!"
    Church:"None of our plans ever work."
    Caboose:"That's why we carry guns."
    ComNet > Stormtrooper Corps > Archived Stormtrooper Corps Story Board > ESC Storyline - BlackJack  |  New Posts    
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