11 aby...what was she still doing sitting at this desk. Aryanna had to start to wonder if this was it. She had managed to survive in ARC for this many years, which she had to admit, was a miracle. She saw friends killed before her eyes, comrades mangled by enemies, and others just disappear into thin air.

In the past two years she had made an effort to get to know her sisters, given their inherited stubbornness she hadn't made much hedge-way there. ARC Theta had gone on several missions and it all lead up to this. A stupid little planet in the middle of no where. This was supposed to be one of the lynch pins which would lead the Vast Empire to the core. She shook her head and continued to glare at the crumb of a planet on her star chart, the last of her cig burning to embers and dying at her lips. Shumogi, pfft. She flicked what was left in the direction of the trash bin. That was one thing that had increased, the number of cig's she consumed in a day.

“Commander?” A light rapping on her office door interrupted her thoughts.

She ran her hand through her blond hair and slouched back in her supposedly comfy chair. Lying  bastards those manufacturers. “Come in.”

A dark haired woman peeked her head in the door then came to stand at attention in front of the large yet surprisingly organized desk.  “We are all set, miss.”

Whiskey nodded thoughtfully. “Good work Deadeye, so you managed to get Target and his gear on board without him blowing himself or others up? You deserve a promotion.”

Deadeye raised her eyebrows. “It wasn't easy, he nearly dropped his pack at least three times.”

“I swear how that man has all his limbs is beyond me. I think I just keep him around because he's either  blessed or just plain lucky.”

The darker woman got a particular look in her brown eyes, one Whiskey knew. She was about to start the interrogation that began with the incessant poking about her feelings and ended with the commander kicking the overly concerned woman out of her office to 'get a life of her own'. Better to nip this in the ass. “Right.” She quickly folded the map and gathered her own gear she had neatly piled next to her desk. “Let's move then.”

------------------------~~~~~~~~---------------------

E-9 Explorer Transport 'Vixen'

“Alright I'm bored. Explain to me again why when you could pick any color in the galaxy you would pick one green one blue eye?” Whiskey let her datapad drop to her lap and she rubbed her own tired eyes before finally turning to squad medic.

Jester shrugged. “Maybe I was bored that day, huh?”

The blond woman threw her hands up in surrender. “Yea, bored or just plain indecisive.”

She scowed and crossed her arms looking off in the opposite direction. Whiskey smirked, sometimes she liked pushing the troopers buttons, if only to find where they were located.

She glanced at her chrono and resigned to the fact that it was time to get back to work. With a heavy hand she slapped the chair in front of her, using it to pull herself up out of her seat. Whiskey sighed and walked over to the holochess table in the lounge. The E-9 was a decent sized transport with some very nice amenities, especially compared to your standard trooper transport vessel. The big advantage was that it looked like it contained anything but stormtroopers.

“Boys a moment of your time.” She gestured to Target and Eagle, by pointing towards the main crew cabin.

Once everyone was assembled she took a deep breath and decided to get started. “Okay guys you know the drill. First order of business we are going to rendezvous with the warlord, goes by the name of Bryce Levi. He's going to show us around and get us set up with a place to stay. His facility also has all the gear we need while we are there to get the base of operations set up. It won't be far from where he is located.”  She dropped the datapad in her hand she was reading from. “Keep your gear on, bring your helmets but they are optional to wear. I doubt we will be getting shot at but you never know do you?” Her eyes met with Marauder's. “I need you before we land, the rest of you get set up we should hit atmosphere in ten minutes.”

She walked down the aisle and motioned to Maurader to follow her. She had a makeshift office on the 'Vixen' which she decided wasn't a bad idea after a particular series of missions that kept them away from home for several months. It was far from the organization she basked in back on Tadath, but it was adequate.

They entered the small room and she dropped the datapad on her desk with a loud clank. “Have you looked over the information I sent you?”

The short man nodded solemnly. He wasn't as furry as most Gank's but he kept the blond hair and general scowl of his portion of non-human predecessors. The one thing the man could do was hack into computer systems, and given the nature of this mission she needed that particular skill.

“Good. Once we are on the surface break off and see if you can locate the terminals in the Imperial Ordinance Research Facility, then report back to our location. I don't want anyone missing you, so be quick. Once we know where we need to go we can make plans to get the data on the  designs for the Heavy Walker mechs.”

He nodded again. No surprise Marauder  was not someone who spoke often, he hated the way he sounded in basic and preferred to stay silent unless absolutely necessary.  Good enough for Whiskey.

“Okay lets go get ready for the landing.”

-------~~~------

The spaceport was not huge by the standards of what Theta had encountered before. The city that spread out before them was decently advanced. Mostly houses surrounding the central complex of the Ordinance factory. The factory itself was no small facility. Two large brown towers rose from a ten thousand square foot main building. There were several overwhelming hanger structures surrounding a tarmac that must have been used to transport the vehicles to the testing grounds somewhere nearby. Whiskey could make out several vehicles in various stages of production and testing. Well my sister would certainly be in heaven with all these high tech jalopy's just sitting around.  

Movement towards their transport caught her eye. A rotund man smoking a large cigar came puffing out, chattering excitedly to the two men on either side of him. They looked as though they had no sense of humor whatsoever, so Whiskey figured they had been born to be bodyguards. Another man also trailed behind looking just plain agitated to be taken from his self declared important work.

“Time to get this party started.” Whiskey muttered as she drew herself up to full height and waited for the Warlord near their transport.

OOC:

Okay the Warlord will introduce himself and give us a tour, throw in what you like I will probably use it later on Just make sure that Marauder  conveniently disappears for a while and then rejoins us. Marauder  feel free to post on your journey's as well, just for gods sakes don't get caught. The annoyed man is Levi's second in command. He totally does not trust us and is the lead designer on the heavy walker tech project. As you can imagine, he will be a pain in our ass. Our job on paper here is to set up a crude VE base on the planet so Levi will be pointing out construction type tools and a nice large location for us to build in. None of you know about Madman's job that Whiskey has given him, but you will soon, but not before I tell you so no posting about finding out what he's up to, you can realize he is gone but you would know better than to say something where our host's could hear you. If i've missed anything grab me and ask. Have fun with this one guys.

There was a groan as the durasteel blast doors slowly slid apart, accompanied by a grinding noise as the servo-motors stopped turning.

Dwarfed by the massive hanger behind him, Bryce was rubbing his hands together briskly. The warlord was grinning from ear to ear, which made for an interesting contrast with the sour look on his aide's face.

"Come, come!" he boomed, gesturing with one meaty hand. "I'm sure you'll be impressed by what we have to show you."

Bryce chuckled loudly as he finished, the noise and his words echoing off the hanger walls. There was a quiet snort from the aide, Tarrus, and the guards shifted from foot to foot, slightly uneasy. The ARC troopers stood in place, resembling a gallery of holo-stills more than anything else.

A moment of awkward silence later, Whiskey gave a slight nod. There was a rustling noise, and the ARC troopers moved forwards, giving off a veritable air of menace despite their rifles being slung over their backs. Their helmet lenses glowed in the half-light as they followed Bryce and his entourage into the hanger.

Bryce seemed entirely at ease with their presence, but Tarrus was starting to look even more like a rock-vulture, his thin features drawn into a rigid frown.

Her hands still clasped behind her back as she strode forwards, Whiskey triggered her helmet comlink using its built in activator.

"Might want to tone it down, boys and girls." the ARC lead said dryly into the encrypted channel. "We're making the locals nervous."

There were clicks of acknowledgment over the com channels, while those troopers who'd forgone helmets simply continued walking, having no way to reply without their full headgear.

Oblivious to the second conversation taking place under his nose, Bryce continued to babble.

"...and I'm sure your superiors will be most interested once they've seen the combat footage!" the warlord concluded.

"Combat footage?" Whiskey asked, her filtered voice little more than a harsh rasp.

"Oh, yes, of course!" the man replied happily, his footsteps echoing off the walls of the hanger. Technicians and guards paused in their duties as the group passed, some whispering to each other once the warlord was out of earshot.

"We would never dream of providing our worthy Imperial allies with untested equipment. Our walkers have proven themselves most useful against rebel armour formations and…ah…dissidents." he declared, another chuckle forcing its way through his lips. None of the guards or the aide seemed to find this behavior odd.

A foot behind Whiskey and slightly to her right, Target blinked, staring at the warlord. Alleged ally or not, the man struck him as being a few growth vats short of a proper clone farm.

The irony of that particular thought flew completely over the Lieutenant's head.

Target didn't like this. He didn't like it at all. Planetary warlords were hardly loyal servants of the Empire at the best, and he had a nagging feeling that something was wrong here. The hanger-ons were far too jittery, even for backwater scum seeing stormtroopers up close for the first time.

His frown concealed by his Kerberos's bowl helmet, the ARC trooper glanced from side to side. Most of the floor space in the hanger was taken up by rows of hulking walkers, their details obscured by the gloom. Armed guards stood in between the walkers, saluting the warlord as he strode past them.

Still beaming, Bryce all but skipped towards the nearest of the war machines. There was a strange gleam in the man's eyes, and he had started to rub his hands together again.

"This," the bear-like man announced. "This was one of our first successful designs."

Bryce punctuated the sentence with an emphatic slap to the walker's leg. There was a dull clang.

"The design team called it the 'Standardized Trooper Multi-purpose Platform'. The test pilots just called it 'the Stomper'. You see why, yes?" Bryce chuckled.

The walker certainly looked impressive, Target had to concede. Vaguely similar to the standard Imperial scout walker, the most notable difference was in the cockpit. Wide and short, the walker's body was covered in thick armour plating. The machine’s three plate-like feet were tipped with wicked claw-sensors.

"We're quite proud of this one." Bryce boomed. " A most useful design, and more tactically flexible than your 'chicken walkers'. Much more stable as well. I'm sure you'll be equally impressed once you've seen the footage."

"Indeed." Whiskey replied, and was about to continue when there was a quiet cough from nearby.

Tyrn nodded apologetically, then stepped forwards, one hand still raised to his earpiece. His voice was harsh and dry, as though he rarely spoke.

"My apologies for the interruption, but I'm afraid we'll have to continue the tour of the facility at a later time. We're experiencing some technical difficulties, and..."

"Tyrn, Tyrn," Bryce cut in, chuckling weakly. "I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. Technical difficulties, bah!."

The aide shot the warlord a venomous look, but fell silent.

Target blinked again. This Tarrus either had a lot of clout or a lot of nerve.

"My friend here," Bryce said mock-solemnly. "He spends too much time with his toys. Thinks of them as his children. Isn't that right, Tyrn?"

"Quite so, sir." the second in command replied sardonically.

“There’s no need for concern.” Bryce declared. “And I’m sure you’ll find the next part of the tour much more to your liking.”

"Now," Bryce boomed, turning his back on Tyrn and glancing at the ARC squad. “Shall we continue?"

"This is what that Bryce guy calls, accommodations? I'd hate to see where he keeps his dogs." Deadeye scoffed as she continued to examine the glorified tents they had been given to sleep in.

The site for the base was an abandoned field adjacent to the Warlord's factory. Shumongi offered little in the way of night life, or any life for that matter. Whiskey rolled her eyes at the dark haired woman as she secured the tent. Something was off though, Target kept on looking around nervously and if left to himself long enough would scan the sky for some object that no one else seemed to care to look for. The last thing she needed today was Target distracted, as if he wasn't enough of a death zone to begin with.

"You okay boss?" Jester had knelt down near Whiskey's feet so she could check the medical supplies. They had brought extra for Target and the fact that they would be constructing structures which seemed to increase the number of injuries even more than a battlefield for some reason.

Jester had been with Whiskey since they joined team Theta together two years ago, along with Target they made up the original members of the bunch. Jester had always been a woman of few words, in two years Whiskey still knew little about the medic that had saved her ass countless times.

"I'm fine Jester, something just doesn't smell right."

Eagle gestured next to her. "I just thought that was something they were doing in the factory causing that smell."

"No not literally a smell..." She turned to the taller man that had just joined them. She had so many new faces and personalities to learn, but part of her didn't even want to bother learning their names, it was easier when they got themselves shot that way. She sighed, "I just have a bad feeling."

Movement out of the corner of her eye revealed Marauder, creeping around the makeshift camp. Whiskey nodded to Jester and walked over to the masked man. "Sergeant, report."

"Commander, I couldn't get much. I was tailed. I know the location of the terminal and scouted possible routes. The second in command is a problem."

"Yea, tell me something I don't know. Okay we'll just have to do this the hard way, how long will it take you to get  a copy of the walker tech?" She rubbed her forehead subconsciously as she stared at a line of speeders parked in a near by storage lot. She knew she had one sister that would love to check those out.

Marauder's unique voice broke her from her revelry. "Fifteen minutes, no more."

"Great okay, well it looks like we will be building some hangers, fun right?" She smirked then rolled her eyes as the man next to her couldn't have reacted so she would see regardless given the mask that covered his features. "Right."

She was walking back towards the camp when a small man could be seen running full tilt towards the troopers. Given their background, they all reached for their weapons and immediately fell into defensive positions.

"Whoa, whoa, geeze don't shoot me. What's wrong with you people?" The little man had to lean over to grasp his knees as he attempted to catch his breath.

Deadeye shrugged. "Don't run up on a group of trained soldiers and you won't get shot kid."

That made Whiskey smirk. "Alright kid, what is it?"

His eyes remained wearily on Deadeye as she held her sniper rifle at the ready more to mess with him than actual intention to use it. "One of your guys just arrived, he's on his way up but he seems in a big hurry and wanted me to get up here and tell you."

"Seems useless but okay. So where is this mystery man?"

"Right behind you." Whiskey turned fast, drawing her pistol in one swift movement to point directly at the man in trooper armor who appeared completely unaffected as he ate some kind of fruit. "You guys really need to work on your defensive stance, you were totally distracted by the kid."

"Who in the hell are you?" Whiskey didn't lower her weapon and made sure that Jester was still watching the kid using her peripheral vision.

"Lancer. Which one of you is Target?"

Whiskey dropped her weapon but her stance remained aggressive. "No, more information first."

He crossed his arms. "You must be Graves, they warned me about you. Look, Target is being transfered back to Tadath. Something about needing him to give a full report on something that happened on a classified moon a few months back. I'm his replacement for this mission."

Jester started laughing and silenced herself with Whiskey's glare. "Target!" He slowly padded over to his commander. "I told your ass not to blow up that military munitions factory."

"Yea, I remember. So what? I have to leave now?"

"Yep, I parked the shuttle I rode in on back at their little spaceport. She's yours to take back to Tadath, you have two days to report to the good high command people, and frankly I wouldn't be late."

Target nodded and gathered his stuff, it definitely wasn't the first time he managed to get himself in trouble regardless he was taking it rather well. A few troopers including Whiskey tried to speak to him and he consistently waved them off before slowly walking towards the transport.

"Alright, Lancer I guess we are stuck with you. Lads, lets get some rest. Tomorrow we need to pick up the gear and build a command center. Joys abound." She finished the sentence allowing her voice to drip with all the sarcasm she was feeling. She couldn't help but curse bureaucratic public relations all the way back to her sleeping roll.

OOC:

Okay so after a quick nap its time for us to get to work. We will start by building a command center. Nothing too fancy, just some basic equipment set up. Also in the morning Whiskey will tell you about Marader's side quest and we should set up something insidious that will help us steal the walker tech later on. BUT no trying to actually go back in the Warlords building to steal the walker tech yet. So everything in the command center and any contact with the warlord and his second in command is up to you guys. Make Lancer feel welcome warm and fuzzy.