Corvin felt the ground shake as an AT-ST walker stormed past, leaving craters in its wake as its foot-claws dug into the durasteel. The scout walker strode down the street, head turning from side to side, looking for targets. Two squads of Army troopers followed in its wake, a Sergeant bawling out orders to his subordinates as they passed.

"Krivan, you're on point! Deras, get that launcher loaded and ready to fire! Curn, I don't know why you're hiding back there, but get up here now!"

The troopers rounded the corner and vanished from sight, their leader's orders still echoing through the streets. More and more dropships were pouring down through the top of the dome, landing at staging grounds across the city.

Corvin snorted, looking down as he turned the A-280 over in his hands.

"About frakking time they showed up. Could have used them a few hours ago. We were doing fine without them anyway." he muttered to himself, checking the rifle's barrel.

"Corvin." Garryll said wearily, glancing over from where he was picking up a satchel of grenades. "One squad cannot take on a city and win. Now get moving."

"Sir!" Corvin replied, getting off the ammunition crate he'd been sitting on and jogging to where the other two squads were waiting, armour partially replaced and holding new rifles. Tanus was standing there impatiently impatiently, hands clasped together behind his back as he waited.

"You're getting sloppy." the former Blackjack SL said jokingly as Garryll walked up to him, troopers in tow. "The Blackjacks weren't that slow, when I was in charge."

"Feh." Garryll replied with a grin. "Not my fault some of them couldn't decide which guns they wanted."

The Stalker Squad leader quietly cleared her throat.

"We're moving out now that you're equipped." Tanus announced after a moment of awkward silence. The Colonel's troops should keep the militia distracted, allowing us to find wherever Stoen's holed up and drag him out. Time is of the essence. Any questions?"

There was silence.

"Move out, stormtroopers!"

The three squads broke into a trot, boots pounding against duracrete as they ran down the sidewalk. Distant blasterfire echoed across the dome, accompanied by sirens and the deeper thud of cannonfire. Heavy stuff by the sound of it, probably fixed turrets.

The public address systems were still blaring reassuring propaganda, repeated orders for surviving enforcers and the locations of nearby shelters for any civilians still on the streets. The outdated messages echoed through the deserted streets.

"Just like old times, eh?' Garryll said as he strode along, a faint smile in his voice.

Tanus waved him off.

"Keep moving, and watch for contacts."

"Yes, boss." Garryll replied.

The squads made their way through a maze of narrow streets, past the charred bodies of squads of enforcers and streets riddled with blasterfire. What the Army squads lacked in accuracy and fire control, they made up for with volume, and they'd done an effective job of clearing this sector of the city.

In the distance, tank cannons boomed again and again, with the lower-volume crack of rifles a continuous buzz in the background.

The Platoon Commander suddenly raised one hand to his earpiece, frowning.

"Army squads are reporting heavy resistance. It's not just militia, either. The civvies are taking up arms."

Garryll swore quietly.

"Seems they're still advancing though." Tanus continued. "The Colonel knows his stuff."

The squads rounded the turn and found themselves directly in front of a desperate battle.

Four squads of grey uniformed troopers were exchanging blaster fire with almost equal number of militia troopers. The area had once been a plaza, dominated by a massive statue of some Arkanian hero. The statue had been reduced to a pair of legs and fragments scattered across the plaza, with the broken shell of a rocket tank crushed beneath its torso. Three military speeder hovered behind make shift barricades, their cannons booming in unison every couple of seconds.

The Army troopers were firing whenever they could get a shot off, ducking back behind cover whenever the incoming fire became too intense. Behind them hovered a pair of angular TX-130 repulsortanks, one of which was spewing thick clouds of smoke from its cooling fans and looked decidedly worse for wear.

There was a buzzing noise, and a pair of bright green particle beams emerged from the tank's turrets, sweeping left and right as they cut a swathe through the miltia formation. Troopers screamed as they were set aflame or were bisected by the energy beams, and the Army troopers cheered as one.

The Arkanians responded with a volley of missiles. The projectiles flew through the air, leaving streaks of greasy black smoke in their wake as they impacted against the Imperial tanks. There was a muffled thump as the damaged TX-tank took several impacts and fell onto the paving stones.

Then it exploded.

There were yelled warnings, then screams as the power cells overloaded and pieces of the tank flew in all directions. Four Army troopers were vaporized by the blast, killed before they could even scream. The other tank shook violently, damaged by the blast. Its crew recovered a moment later, resuming their barrage.

"Why the kriff haven't they taken the rocketeers out?" Tanus asked rhetorically, then shook his head. "We're stepping in. Target the rocketeers, then the speeder. Cut them down!"

The squads opened fire.

A grin spread across Corvin's face as the speeder violently exploded, scattering shrapnel everywhere. Brock whooped loudly at the kill, discipline forgotten.

"Speeder downed!" he proclaimed with a laugh, gesturing for the Tritons to change targets. The demolitions troopers quickly started to target the stunned militia, even as the Triton Squad Leader continued to chuckle. It was surprisingly infectious.

Corvin started to cackle too as he fired across the plaza. Continuous volleys of blaster bolts were pushing the Arkanian troops back and sending several sprawling with their chests blown away. None of them were running in panic. Instead, they were continuing to fire as they calmly walked backwards, acting as though they were target drones.

The effect was strangely chilling, but Corvin shook off the brief discomfort. They were aliens, and enemies of the Empire. Nothing else mattered.

"They're running!" one of the Army troopers cried, waving his blaster in the air wildly. "We've got them on the run!" The others jeered at the retreating Arkanians in between volleys, the echoes their mocking catcalls blurring with those of blasterfire.

One of the Arkanians stopped firing and barked something to the troopers around him. As one, the eight surviving militia turned and fled.

Corvin snorted.

"Cowards." he muttered, then started to run after them.

"Kill them all!" he yelled, firing as he ran across the plaza. Tanus was yelling something, but Corvin couldn't quite make it out. It couldn't matter, couldn't have been important. Everything except the militia suddenly seemed very distant.

Yelling as one, most of the two squads of Army troopers broke cover and followed him, charging towards the fleeing Arkanians. They were still running, not even firing at the troopers cutting them down. Another one went down, cut in two by a stream of high-powered shots.

The Arkanians weren't even firing back as the squads mowed them down, instead running. They didn't seem to be panicked.

Then Corvin heard the humming and his blood seemed to freeze.

"Speeder!" he yelled, skidding to a stop. The Army troopers did the same a moment later, suddenly confused and uncertain. The militia had stopped running too, Corvin noticed.

The humming grew louder as a bulbous shape appeared from a side lane, accompanied by squads of miltia troopers. The Seraph speeder was an antique design, but the repeating blaster cannon on its back was not. The massive gun swiveled around to face the plaza.

Corvin realized he was about to die.

"Get down!" someone roared into his ear, and he obeyed instantly. The area was suddenly filled with streaks of red light as the repeating blaster opened up, and there were yells and calls for medics from the Army troopers as the blasterfire cut a swathe through them.

Then the massive gun fell silent as a pair of missiles streaked through the air, blowing the speeder apart. The Imperial repulsortank hovered forwards, with the stormtrooper squads charging. Blasterfire criss-crossed the plaza once again as the militia reinforcements recovered from the surprise of the speeder's destruction and opened fire.

"Pull back, you idiots!" the person shouted again, and Corvin realized it was Tanus.

The bedraggled Army troopers quickly moved back, taking potshots as they stumbled towards the safety of the repulsortank.

Corvin could just stand there, blinking.

What did I just do?

OOC:

No, I didn't kill off both of the Army squads. Just several troopers from one of them. And, yes, Corvin's an idiot.

The three squads emerged onto a side street. Tanus waved at either side of the street and the three squads separated to the sides of the street, minimizing the chance of all being taken out by one shot and also giving them cover. They moved up the street at a jog.

The pointman, a Stalker with a large visor on his helmet, held up a fist, the sign for "stop." Gates, third in line, moved up.

"What's up?" he asked.

"APC contact," the Stalker whispered. He pressed a button on the side of his helmet and a small moving image appeared on Gates' HUD. The Blackjack SL realized it was feed from the visor the man was wearing.

There was a heavily built APC, a repeating blaster cannon mounted on the top and a squad of Militia in cover. The APC's repulsorlifts were off, and it rested on the ground in order to minimize its chance of being spotted. They looked like they were ready for an ambush.

"They're facing the wrong way to ambush us," Gates said to Tanus. "Looks like they're waiting for the Army Troops up the main drag."

"We'll use that to our advantage," Tanus replied. "Wait until the Army shows up and then flank 'em. We need to get across this square anyway."

Gates snapped his fingers at a Triton and the soldier handed over his rocket launcher. Garryll was proficient with most weapons and rated expert with a few more, thanks to heavy weapons training and an early start as a teenager. He checked the sights, load, safety and made sure there wasn't anything behind the launcher that would catch the explosive rebound.

They didn't have to wait long. The rumbling of a repulsorlift tank could be heard. Gates opened up a private line with Corvin.

"You wait for the bloody signal this time, Corporal," Gates said. "War is not an individual sport. It's serious and requires we work as a team if I want to bring home as few body bags as possible."

"Copy, sir," Corvin replied.

Gates shut the link and turned his attention back to the APC. Its gunner was slowly traversing the mounted gun to the right, expecting the VE tank to emerge any second. Gates sighted on the APC's middle, the largest target; after all, APCs lacked conventional armor, and were designed to hold off infantry assaults, not armored vehicles.

"Get into position," Tanus said over the link. The three squads moved off the walls and forwards a bit, to give themselves a good shooting position. "Fire on Gates' fire."

Gates' thumb flipped the safety, arming the rocket. The iron sights rested on the tank, the small metal circle depicting where the rocket would go.

"Fire," Gates breathed, pulling the trigger. The rocket spat from the barrel, spitting fire from its rear. The rocket launcher's exhaust exploded behind him. The explosive warhead streaked across the square and exploded into the APC, gutting the three-centimeter thin armor like it was wet paper.

The rest of the Stormtroopers opened up a split second later, laser bolts flying at the Militia in cover. The Arkainians were stunned by the loss of their APC, and were soon fighting for their lives, shooting back from poor positions at the Stormtroopers. Their problems were only compounded when the VE army troops and tank came around the corner and opened fire too.

The Arkanians were outclassed, outgunned, and badly outmaneuvered, but they didn't give up, fighting to the last man to desperately hold off the Imperials. Gates sighted with his A-280 and shot the last man in the chest when the man stood up, activated grenades in both hands and charged defiantly at the Stormtroopers.

"Damn, these fellows are committed," said Corvin, inserting a new clip into his A-280. "Good thing they aren't very skilled."

The activated grenades the last Arkanian had used exploded, scattering rubble and Arkanian body parts all over. Gates grimaced at the spectacle and handed the rocket launcher back to its owner.

"The target is in the main government building," Tanus said. "We've got a couple platoons of army troopers converging on it. They're going to fight their hardest to keep it from us."

"Watch your angles and keep moving up," Gates ordered. "Let's get this done."

OOC:

Okay, plan is to get us to the main gov't building by this Sunday; throw some more skirmishes in on the way.

"Contact." Corvin said calmly as a blaster bolt whizzed past, raising his rifle as he did so. "Six or seven, no heavy weapons."

Another couple of bolts flew past as the other stormtroopers advanced, opening fire as they strode forwards. These militia evidently didn't understand the concept of a tactical retreat. Corvin repressed the urge to charge again. His zeal had led him to disobey orders, and had led to the deaths of several other troopers. He never wanted to cause that again. Orders were given for a reason. They had to be followed.

The Arkanian's head filled his rifle score. A twitch, and the militiaman fell with a puff of smoke. His comrades were firing nonstop as they were cut down, with the Sergeant yelling into his helmet speaker. A moment later, it vanished, along with most of his head, as Tanus's warhammer crashed into it.

Corvin hoped the man hadn't been able to finish his transmission.

"Forwards!" Tanus yelled. "We have to keep moving."

Corvin ran with the others.

The squads passed down the street, with the Blackjacks and Tritons in the lead. The Stalkers followed in their wake, long-barreled rifles half-raised.

Corvin wasn't sure what he had expected to find around the corner, but it hadn't been a pair of APCs and several squads. He somehow noticed that there were several still smoking narco-sticks on the sidewalk.

"Someone take down that APC!" Tanus yelled as the lead armour vehicle came to life and started to rumble forwards.

The troop carrier shuddered as several grenades arced through the air and impacted on its armour. Then it fell in two pieces as two rockets impacted it in rapid succession, penetrating its side armour. 

Brock pumped his hand in the air, yelling new orders to his squad.

"Drec, Posi, take the next one. We're riding from here!"

The two demolitions troopers ran towards the armoured vehicle, fusioncutters and carbines in hand.

While they were still several meters away, the vehicle's running lights suddenly blinked on. A moment later, the carrier opened up with its roof repeating blaster.

Drec shrieked as blaster bolts holed her chestplate, an avian, inhuman cry of pain, then fell as another burst slammed into her jutting faceplate. Posi glanced over his shoulder as his friend and comrade fell, which was enough to seal his fate.

The APC shuddered forwards, and Posi disappeared under its treads with a crunching and snapping. The carrier, its hatches now sealed, rolled towards the fireifight, its mounted guns spraying punishing fire at the stormtrooper squads.

"Would someone please knock out that damned carrier!" Tanus yelled, throwing himself behind a parked hovercar as the APC rolled over the position where he'd been standing a moment later. A Stalker went down with a cut-off yell.

"We're out of rockets!" Brock reported from where he was firing on the moving APC. "Plenty of detpacks, but no way we could get close enough!"

Tanus swore. Corvin felt like joining in, his faceplate presssed to the ground as blasterfire holed the wall inches above him.

Thank the Force for lowest firing positons. he thought as the metal behemoth rolled past. He sprayed a burst at the vehicle, only to watch as it bounced off its thick hull plating.

"Frak! Blasters won't get past it's armour, sir. We'd need a heavy cannon or a PLX. Maybe a-"

"Corvin." Garryll said, teeth gritted from the sound of it. "Stop stating the obvious or shut up."

"Sir, what do we-"

"Shut up!"

Corvin shut up.

He had an unpleasant feeling this wasn't going to end well. The six surviving miltiamen were taking full advantage of the APC's fire, and there was nowhere near enough cover. Sooner or later, they'd cut all of the Imperials down.

Corvin saw a blur of grey, and then his world went white. There were screams and an explosion loud enough to overload his helmet filters and make his ears ache. Something slammed into the side of his helmet with extreme force, and he felt a prick of pain on the side of his head.

When his vision returned, the APC was just sitting there, wreathed in flames and unmoving. There was a massive hole in the middle of its front hatch. The militia were sprawled all around it, their bodies contorted and holed by stray metal.

"Fergis..." Lotte said softly. Corvin was surprised to hear real emotion in her voice. There was no sign of the Stalker trooper. It seemed he'd somehow grabbed a detpack and run up to the tank in a suicidal charge. The recon trooper had just reached it when the charge went off.

"No time to wait." Tanus cut in, voice harsh. "We have to keep moving. There's going to be a lot of resistance between here and the objective."

"Actually, sir." Brock said thoughtfully, looking at his feet. "I might have a way around that."

Corvin had a sudden bad feeling.

"I'm not going to like this, am I." Tanus replied slowly.

Brock explain.

"No. Absolutely not." Tanus said automatically. "It's insane."

"Better than the alternative, sir."

Tanus sighed.

"You're right. Do it."

A few minutes later, Corvin's bad feeling was confirmed.

"Orobos is stuck again."

OOC:

Cue Garryll's sewer idea.

The sewer came to an abrupt end down the side tunnel. Behind the overturned barricades and bodies of the militia, there was only a solid wall and several small grates. A ladder filled most of the space, stretching up and out of sight. The whole scene was tinted green by Corvin's visor, and his breath seemed to fog on the inside of his helmet. At least, he hoped it was his breath.

Glumly, he wished for his standard armour, or at least the helmet. The snowtrooper helmet filters didn't seem to be working, and he had to constantly resist the urge to retch. He'd never smelled anything as foul as the sewer. Sludge made a squelching noise under his boots as he shifted from foot to foot, and the smell seemed to get worse.

"What a wonderful  sme-" one of the Tritons began, only to be silenced by a gesture from Brock.

"Don't." the Triton Sl said firmly. "No jokes. We need to do this quietly."

Tanus nodded, and held up a finger. Brock stood there for a moment, then turned to the trooper who'd spoken up earlier.

"Maude."

"Sir?" the indicated trooper replied tiredly.

She didn't seem to be too thrilled, Corvin noticed.

"You know the drill. Get up the ladder, report any contacts."

"Right away, sir." the Triton trooper sighed, slinging her shotgun over her shoulder as she pushed past Corvin and the other Blackjacks. "I live to serve."

"Damn straight. Now hurry up and do it."

Maude slowly shuffled over to the ladder, head down. Grabbing the rungs with both hands, the trooper started to climb up the ladder, the clatter of her boots on rusted metal echoing down the sewer tunnels.

Abruptly, the noise stopped. There was only the splashing of the stormtroopers moving around and the constant dripping from leaking pipes.

"It's covered, Sarge!" Maude shouted down, her voice echoing. "Doesn't seem to be welded though. Think I can move it."

"Do it!" Brock yelled back. "Report any contacts."

"Got it."

There was a screech of metal on metal, and light drifted down to the previously pitch-black sewer level.

"Ok, moved it." Maude reported. "No militia in sight. Wait, scratch that. Two troopers. One's got his helmet on."

The transmission dissolved for a moment.

"Hang on, I've got interference...What's that rumb-"

The com channel dissolved into noise.

====

Herian Veric was proud to serve in the militia. He'd served in the vehicle divisions of the Arkanian militia for ten years, and had fought in several battles against pirate raiders on the system's outer planets. He still had the scars from a near-miss which had killed his copilot and slagged the tank he'd been serving in. Still, he'd survived, and had been hoping to leave the service sometime next year. Then, the Imperials had come.

Herian grimaced. His family had lived here in the Zern Sector of the capitol for several generations, and he knew the city's backstreets better than most of his fellow crewmen.

To see the dome-city like this: in-flames, with inferiors occupying its boulevards and destroying its ancient buildings...it filled him with rage. The only consolation was that the Zern Sector was still safe, under the protection of several companies of the milita's finest.

How much longer that would be the case, Herian had no idea. Still, he'd fight for as long as he could, for his caste and for his family.

"Everything up there, Ques?" he called.

"Pure as Arkanian genestock!" the gunner shouted back, both hands clutched tightly to the turret's mounted cannon.

Herian chuckled, and pushed the tank forwards, over a half-open manhole cover.

He didn't notice the brief flash of white or the surprised yell.

====

There was a yell of surprise, and something grey fell down the shaft, arms flailing. It landed heavily with a splash, splattering the surrounding troopers with foul-smelling muck.

"Maude!" Brock yelled. "Maude, you all right?"

There was a faint groan from the crumpled trooper, and Brock sighed in relief.

"Maude, report."

"Think I sprained my shoulder, Sarge." the trooper replied, slowly pulling herself back to her feet. One of the Tritons advanced, helping her up. "Didn't see the tank. Nearly lost my head."

One or two troopers chuckled at the bad joke. Overhead, the tanks rumbled past, oblivious.

The troopers hunkered down, oblivious. A medic came over to Maude, placing the trooper's shoulder in a makeshift sling.

Finally, the tank convoy passed. Tanus glanced at the shaft of light.

"Let's try that again, and quickly. They'll come looking for the troopers soon enough."

The thought alone was enough motivation for the stormtroopers to hurry.

OOC:

Up and out of the sewers...

The wall vanished in a flash of light, and the stormtroopers charged into the breach.

Corvin felt anticipation and, unexpectedly, wariness. He was suddenly aware of his own mortality, of the consequences of failure, He was in short afraid.

I am not a coward. Corvin thought, then threw himself through the hole the duracrete wall. He dropped to his knees as he landed, carbine an inch above the dust-coated carpet. The wall was discoloured and pitted where shards of durasteel had sunk into it, and the carpet was charred around the hole. A holopic on the wall was flickering on and off, the image distorted.

"Contact."

There was a whine, and the holopic exploded into plastoid shards as a blaster bolt hit it. Figures were emerging from the gloom, carbines spraying fire indiscrimately.

The stormtroopers soaked it up and replied in kind. The lightly armoured Arkanian guards fell, their flak armour shredded by high-powered blaster bolts.

The stormtroopers advanced.

Corvin winced as he stepped over a body, and briefly touched his armplate where a lucky bolt had ripped apart the plastoid. A large chunk of the plastoid was missing, ringed by black soot.

"All groups, keep moving!" Tanus said into his com, his voice distorted by interference. "We have to regroup!"

"Katarn Group is in." Jager reported.

"Aleph is in." Garryll echoed a moment later.

Garryll was leading Aleph, while Jager led Katarn group. Tanus and his subordinates were taking the main doors with Besh.

The com went silent.

"You heard him." Jager said calmly over the local com, turning to the other members of the subgroup. "Move."


Fraking bolt-job. Sounds more like a service droid than a stormtrooper. Corvin thought, then snapped into motion.

Orders were orders, no matter where they came from.

The squad ran down a lavishly decorated corridor. Holoportaits of famous Arkanian leaders and,bizarrely, their genetic templates decorated the walls, seeming to glare down at the group.

The stormtroopers' once white armour was now stained every possible shade of grey and brown, and was all but covered in impact craters and scratches. The effect was still intimidating though, if the reaction of the clerks was any indication.

There were three of them, wearing some kind of uniform. One had a handful of datapads under one arm, which he let drop as soon as he saw the fire team rounding the corner. None of them were armed.

They froze for a moment. Then one started to yell.

"Take them." Jager ordered, and the troopers opened fire. The EE-3 shuddered in Corvin's arms as he fired a burst.

The three clerks were down before most of the troopers had even fired. Their bodies smoldered on the now-stained carpet as a fire alarm added its din to the others.

"Run." Jager ordered tonelessly. "We need to regroup."

How's he so calm? Corvin thought absently, and then he stumbled under another blaster impact.

OOC:

Now we regroup?

The cubicle wall seemed sturdy enough, made of solid metal and gleaming where the overhead light struck it.

Orobos sent it crashing to the floor in a crumpled, twisted heap as he stormed straight through the room. Stray blaster bolts bounced off the Whipid's armour, but the massive trooper shrugged off the impacts, then swung his vibroaxe.

There was a clack, and the miltia trooper who'd been standing behind the cubicle was suddenly holding half a rifle. The thin Arkanian was still staring disbelievingly at his ruined weapon when Orobos swung his axe back, a foot higher this time.

The trooper's decapitated body fell with a thump.

With a cry of "Blood and Iron", their favored warcry, the Blackjacks charged into the gap Orobos had created. Blaster bolts bounced off metal walls as the rest of the militiamen opened up, energy beams filling the room.

Corvin saw the edge of a helmet appear from behind a cubicle and raised his carbine. 

"For the Empire!" Corvin shouted, then fired. The militia helmet vanished from view a moment before the enemy beams would have hit it, and they flew down the aisle. Muttering a curse under his breath, Corvin charged towards where the trooper had been, firing his weapon one handed to keep any enemies pinned down.

The other was drawing a combat knife.

Corvin reached the cubicle
, and stepped inside, carbine and knife in hand.

There was a desk cluttered with flimsi briefs and datapads, a rotating chair, and files scattered across the floor. But no militiaman.

Corvin frowned and was starting to turn around when the militiaman stabbed him in the back with a bayonet.

The force of the blow threw him forwards, even as the humming vibroblade cut into his backpack, tearing apart plastoid and cuttting fragments of circuitry loose. Oily black liquid started to drip from the damaged heater pack as Corvin fell. The bayonet  came loose with a tearing noise, leaving a jagged rip in Corvin’s backpack.

The Lance Corporal spun as he fell, bringing his carbine to bear even as the militiaman raised his own blaster. He held the trigger down.

The world was suddenly filled with noise and light as the carbine fired on full automatic. There was a crack, followed a moment later by a wet squishing noise, and the air suddenly smelt of something burning.

Slowly, cautiously, Corvin got back to his feet. The militiaman was lying face down, surrounded by a thin layer of ash. Most of his head was missing, and the broken remains of his helmet were scattered around him.

Corvin exhaled, wincing as he felt a twinge of pain just below his right knee. The miltiaman had gotten one shot off after all. Still, it wasn’t too serious. There was a prick in his arm as his suit automatically injected painkillers, and the twinge went away. Quickly, he stumbled out of the cubicle and made his way towards the other side of the room. From the sound of blasterfire, most of the squad was there.

“Contact!” Ryan yelled over the squad channel. “Two more squads.”

“No need to shout.” Tanus muttered quietly, then spoke more loudly. “Frag them!”

Corvin heard four simultaneous detonations as he finally reached the others, followed by screams. The miltia squads, boxed into the hallway beyond the room, had been mostly downed by the flying shrapnel. The few dazed survivors were quickly cut down by precise blaster fire.

“Keep moving!” Tanus barked at the Blackjacks. “We don’t have much time!”

Gates bounded over the shredded corpses of the militiamen who'd been had the misfortune of eating shrapnel a scant minute earlier. The Blackjacks were tight behind him, running quickly to secure the governor so that he could end the bloodshed. A heavy wooden door barred their way. Orobos held up his fusion cutter, but Gates shook his head.

He blasted the handle and main door mechanism with a half dozen A-280 bolts and then kicked the door open. The doors managed to open only halfway before they hit a dead militiaman, his back torn open by blaster bolts.

"That was lucky," remarked Corvin. Gates shrugged and kept moving. They moved across a corner, only to become under fire. Gates, on point, managed to get across the way, but everyone else backpedaled back into cover. For once, the militia had gotten a break, ambushing the Stormtroopers.

"We don't have time for this shit!" Gates yelled. "Smoke and flash down there on two, and then four on me!"

A moment's conversation of who would go and who would stay to hold off the militia ensued, followed by Abalar and Specter pulling grenades off of their belts. Gates nodded and they pumped the grenades down the hall, first smoke, followed a moment later by the flash, so as to use the expanding gray cloud to its greatest advantage.

Using the momentary blindness to their advantage, Corvin, Tanus, Hassar and Slick rushed over.

"Abalar, you're in charge!" Gates said to his ASL. "Make me proud."

She nodded back and turned to the reduced squad, pointing down the hall at the enemy. Gates turned and moved down the hall, the rest of his team moving behind him. The sound of blasters came from behind them as the rest of Blackjack opened up on the militia.

They sprinted through the government building, moving towards the governor's offices by memory of the evacuation plans. Gates turned right, into the final corridor. Around the governor's ornate office, a team of bodyguards stood. They had hand held SMGs and powerful handguns in their hands, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

They spotted the Stormtroopers and opened up. A trio of slugs caught Gates in the torso plate, and hastened his fall behind the corner.

"Son of a bitch," Gates spat, rubbing the center of the chest plate. The armor had protected him, but he'd have a nasty bruise later. "Alright, we go in hard and fast. Corvin, Hassar, Slick, cover fire. Me an' Tanus'll move up. Once we get to that opening, we'll cover you and you move up. No hesitation. The target's gotta have a back way outta here."

The Stormtroopers nodded. Tanus was impassive, but he trusted Gates' troopers to keep him alive. Gates nodded, and the three troopers moved into the corridor, filling it with laser fire. One of the men fell, grasping at steaming organs that were dribbling out of the six-inch hole in his guts. The rest ignored their screaming comrade and opened up on the Stormtroopers, heavy slugs and lasers screaming back down at the them.

Corvin shuddered as a laser bolt flickered off of his shoulder, but he snarled and yelled something unintelligible back. Gates couldn't hear it, but he knew what the man said every other time.

For the Empire!

Gates moved around the corner, crouched to minimize his profile, and rifle raised to his shoulder. He fired a few bolts, just to add to the mayhem, not expecting to actually hit anything. The opening was actually the entrance to a restroom, and he fell into it gratefully, a wall solidly between him and their enemies. Tanus fell in a moment later, his pistol glowing from recent discharges.

Gates blind-fired his A-280 around the corner, not even looking at what he was shooting. Yells and smoke began to fill the hall as missed shots burned into carpet and cinder blocks. The slug-thrower rifles spat smoke on every shot, and they were loud, booming guns.

"We don't have any more time for this crap. All up, NOW!" Gates barked. The three Stromtroopers at the end of the hall sprinted forwards, yelling unintelligibly and firing on full-auto. Tanus and Gates dodged around the corner; Tanus had his warhammer in one hand and Gates had pulled out his sidearm with his off-hand and was firing his rifle and pistol down the hall. The smoke had grown thick enough to blind everyone, but they rushed forwards, trusting fate to protect them from the lasers that crisscrossed madly across the hallway.

They emerged from the smoke, much to the surprise of the bodyguards. The expressions of shock were frozen on their faces as they were slaughtered at point-blank range by a combination of hammer blows, bayonets, pistols and rifles. Gates stepped over a shuddering bodyguard and ended his misery with a shot to his face. The governor's office had a metal door, and it was badly scarred from the laser blasts that had flown down the hallway. A small door panel was fused shut.

"Hassar, open the door," Gates ordered. "Though I'd like it best if there's very little shrapnel on the other side. We need him alive."

The engineer nodded and got out a long ribbon of det-tape. He rolled it around the edges of the door, sticking it carefully into the cracks between the door and wall. He stuck a tiny detonator into it and waved for clearance. They backed up a few steps, and then Hassar pressed the button. A small flash happened as the det-tape superheated and burned into the wall and door.

"That's it?" Corvin asked irritably. "Hell -"

Hassar shoved the door lightly, and it fell into the room. The Stormtroopers rushed in, rifles ready, but set on "stun." The Governor of Arkaina sat behind his desk, a sad expression on his face, hands crossed on an immaculate desk. A pair of bodyguards stood behind them, but their pistols were in their belts, and their hands were far away from their weapons.

"In the name of the Vast Empire," Gates pronounced, a touch of pride and relief in his voice; "You, sir, are under arrest. Please comply with us, and we can achieve a quicker end to this conflict."

"A conflict your government initiated," the Arkanian official replied. "Perhaps my people can win."

"And perhaps you could defeat me in unarmed combat," Corvin replied sarcastically. "We're knocking on the gates with conventional armies; your troops are too scattered and poorly trained to hold us at bay for long."

"They will die in droves, every last one," Tanus said. "You can save thousands of civilians, police, militia. These are your people."

The Arkanian governor looked down at his desk and nodded. Gates activated his comlink. "Colonel, Blackjack lead here. We've secured the governor."