To say that Alater walked back and forth along the catwalk of the Savior's engineering deck was an inaccurate statement. The movement of the massive of midnight scales and hardened muscles would have been better described as stalking back and forth. Barabels, being a cave dwelling reptilian people. Normally did very well with small spaces; Alater had always hated ships of all kinds. The massive bulks of metal held together with minimal weight did little to calm his nerves during space travel. He had been on too many ships, Imperial and not, that had found themselves riddled with holes, gushing atmosphere from every possible orifice, and headed at an alarming rate towards some unforgiving planetary body or another. Alater shook his head.

Passing engineers and marines gave the Barabel a very wide birth, as much as the constricted space of the engineering catwalk would allow at least. Alater was used to this; Barabels as a species did not leave their hellish homeworld very much and they had a nasty reputation. The reputation was well earned. Very few Barabels joined the Empire despite the great favor done to the species by Alater's namesake. Most instead freelanced as pirates or mercenaries and found themselves in combat at one point or another with Imperial troops, and the few survivors of these encounters always brought with them horrible stories of slaughter and brutality. Alater sighed in exasperation at the entire thought.

When an Imperial ship like the Savior operates like that weapon of war that it truly is the Captain's simplest command sends a ripple of activity throughout the ship. In engineering this is most apparent, especially when combat orders are issued. Alater shifted his weight when the entire ship did the same as a result of massive acceleration. Not a problem on most ships but the Savior was not built for comfort. The haroo of the combat alarm was the only message Alater needed to start pounding towards the crew quarters.

If the ship itself was small then the quarters that the Elite Blackjack squad had been assigned to was a fraking closet. The entire squad was crammed into an area smaller than Alater's apartment back on Tadath. He watched the expressions on the members of Blackjack squad who he didn't know, which was everybody. Most of his squadmates assessed him with a military eye, but a few did just stare. He let out a slight hiss as he passed by towards his locker and one of the newer members jumped a bit. Alater did not blame them for their stares, he knew what he looked like. He stood well over seven feet tall, was covered in black armor-like scales, and his body was riddled with horrible scars from injuries that would have instantly killed a smaller creature. To look at Alater was a beast amongst sheep, but he knew better.

Most squads would have been scrambling to put on their gear this soon after combat quarters was called. Some would still be hauling ass towards quarters, but not Blackjack. All of the non command members were present and already geared up besides Alater who had been at the other end of the ship. The blood red armor of the Elite squad was all too familiar to Alater, although he was used to seeing black.

Alater reached into his locker and began to put on the very few pieces of armor that he actually wore. Barabel scales being as hard as they were the armor served very little purpose. Anything that could punch through he scales would probably punch through a breasplate too. Instead he attached his spauldron, wrist strap, weapons belt, and few other pieces of miscellaneous equipment. Grabbing what passed for a medium repeater for him, a chaingun that most had to use a stand with. For a moment he thought about bringing Long Fang but decided against it. They were in space, not down on some planet where he would have maneuvering room. Instead he grabbed a pair of heavy gauntlets.

“Blackjack, this is Gates. Meet in bay six with a boarding loadout. More info on arrival. Hop to it!” The all to familiar sound of Garryll's voice came through Alater's ear piece. Alater joined the rest of the squad as they double timed it down to the appropriate bay to find the squad leader and his ASL waiting on the loading bay of a Jadthu landing craft.

“Troops. I'll spare you the nitty gritty and get down to it. A Remnant Star-galleon has been caught here in VE space. Through superior ability and firepower we have disabled weapons, shields, and engines but seizing this thing is another matter. The Galleons are built like fortresses on the inside and are extremely hard to take. The captain has requested that we assist the marines in taking this vessel. They will be here sometime this month.” Garryll stopped to wait for the short chuckle from the squad to stop.

“Board up, strap in, and sit tight.”

The squad filed into the shuttle and strapped themselves and their gear down tight. Two minutes later the marines from the ship arrived, eyed the blood-red armor of the stormtroopers with a measured degree of weariness, and settled themselves in as well. Alater turned to Garryll.

“Sir, suggest breach entry.”

“Mmm, agreed Alater. Good to have you back with us.” The grizzled Lt. responded.

“Yess.” Alater agreed, a bit of a hiss coming through razor sharp teeth. Garryll turned to his Comm.

“Savior, coordinate with our pilot. Blast us a nice hole in the Galleon. We're going to go through with a breech entree.” Half of the marines turned white.

The shuttle took off and began to barrel towards the Remnant vessel. While designed for entree into the atmosphere, the shuttle handled itself quite well in space. A few flinched when a pair of crackling turboshots were launched right above the shuttle into the Galleon. The resulting hole was just a bit smaller than the shuttle. Fire was all that could be seen as the shuttlecraft slammed into the Galleon backwards, the high intensity shields bursting against the hull of the Remnant shield and the escaping atmosphere catching. The ship shuddered as it settled.

“Alater, point.” Garryll ordered, the rest of the squad securing gear. Alater grinned and grabbed a pair of EMP grenades.

As the shuttle's side door slammed down Alater stuck his head out into the fire and smoke. His eyes shifted colors as he scanned through the infrared spectrum. The hall the ship had slammed into had been a noncritical area, but a few of the Remnant ship's marines and crew had been in the area. They had most likely been dispatched as soon as the squad left the bay. Alater's grin widened. The EMP grenades rolled down into the hall and Alater slipped off into the smoke after them. A small pop of the grenades was the first note, but soon the smoke was filled with a lovely symphony of sound. Screams, shouts of surprise and panic, blaster fire, and one final curse were the only thing that could be heard before an unnatural silence filled the area. Alater reappeared at the shuttle exit as silently as he had left.

“I've said it before, but I'm really glad you're on my side.” Garryll said when Alater reported the drop zone clear.

“Alright boys, let's crack this nut.”

OOC:

Probably some other spelling errors, but I was apparently hungry when I spelled entry as entree

Dev "Psycho" Bandoran was taking a brief nap aboard the Longhorn-class Escort frigate the Savior in the designated Black Jack squad room. Around his limp body, the squadron casually chatted with each other while he hogged up most of the seating. Though Dev was so tired that the noise didn't bother him at all. In stead, he drept of his forest home on Anaxes. It was a beautiful dream, and it pleased him...until his father showed up. His father was mean and cruel, and his precense made Dev angry. Though Dev's father had redeemed himself, Dev still shuddered at his childhood past. It was a perfect dream turning into a nightmare, but then the squad leader Garryll aruptedly woke him up.

He looked at Garryll with surprise.

Why would Garryll wake me up? he asked himself. Only something important.

Garryll quietly said to Dev, "Alright. We're going out into the void to disable a Remnant ship. Its your first mission. You thank you can handle?" Dev's heart began to beat rapidly and he go very excited. His first mission!

Dev nodded with excitement and Garryll patted him on the back.

"Get your gear on and then we'll head out." Garryll walked out of the empty squad room. Dev slowly got up and streched a little bit. You wouldn't want to be all stiff jointed in the middle of a firefight! He walked over to his locker which he decided was too small to hold all of his gear. Most of the other troopers wore some of their gear but Dev wanted to be comfy. He pulled all of the stuff that was in his locker and it fell to the floor. His chestplate. His shin guards. Some toothpaste. In a few moments time, the suit was fully assembled onto him. He secretly painted the Anaxes planet emebelm onto his chestplate. He wasn't sure if he was allowed to do so, so he kept it to himself.

He put on his helmet and proceeded to the shuttle port. He passed other VE army members both low rank and high rank. He swore he passed a high ranking General micro-managing a trooper but he waved the idea away. With each step closer to the shuttle more adreniline pumped into his system. He was amped! Then another thought crossed his mind. Dying. He could potential die, and the thought scared him, but he decided not to worry about it.

When he finally reached the shuttle it was almost full. He stepped inside and realized the only person missing was Valthir, the assistant squad leader, but as soon as he realized it, Valthir had stepped into the shuttle. In a few brief moments the shuttle rocketed toward the Remnant ship.

He quickly checked his HUD to check the mission details. Nothing really important...they would blow a hole in the ship, and storm into it. Nothing he couldn't handle. The shuttle shook a little as it blew the entry hole into the Remnant craft.

Time to battle! he thought excitedly. He was like an anxious child, but then he reminded himself that he was a trooper, and this was no fun and games. This was war.

The first to go through would be Alater. The shuttle doors opened and Alater happily entered the ship. After a couple of brief moments and explosions the rest of the squad entered with there guns up. Dev was of course last since he was the new guy, and he tightened some straps securring his gear. He hopped up into the hole to examine the hall. Air pumped into his mask as he did so. It was a space saving hallway thus quite thin and scorch marks were populating the walls and floor.

The squad slowly walked down the hall waiting for something. Waiting for anything. He wasn't sure why he was last in line. Why he was picking up six. If he was the newb, why did the squad want him to protect their asses?...literally.

He was lightly giggling in his helmet now. He wasn't sure why, but this...this war made him happy. It was almost creepy. Was there something wrong with his head? He didn't think so. He was very smart, but still...

He stopped as shots rang out in the distance...

OOC:

Word Count: 714. Yes, it kind of sucks, but it sets up the very excited and amped Psycho for the rest of the story. Had a bit of a tech problem the first time I posted. It posted a minimal version of my post...which was strange, but I had the saved copy so I'm good now.

The reptilian trooper moved into the smoke quickly, following the EMP grenades. As he disappeared from view, Val’s thoughts turned from the mission to the trooper. His species was unknown to Val, which is the area in which he focused his thoughts. He pondered it for a few moments, before realizing that he had the information he desired right at his fingertips. Or rather, his eyes.

With a few blinks in specific places, Val accessed a databank and pulled up the files of the Blackjack troopers. Scanning through them, he chose the one he wanted and looked through it, noting certain bits of information.

Ah. A Barabel. Incredibly dangerous and deadly. Hmm . . . note to self: Never make him mad.

About that time, the Barabel - Alater, he was called - returned with good tidings. The drop zone had been cleared.

Garryll’s voice rang out, “Alright boys, let's crack this nut.”

Silently, Val padded out into the hallway, where the receding smoke revealed a grisly scene of shattered bodies. His keen eye noted that some seemed to have been torn apart, their entrails scattered around them. Glancing back behind him, he glimpsed a faint red sheen on the Barabel’s claws. The conclusion came instantly, and Val turned away with a grimace.

The corridor stretched onwards a ways, with passages that branched off placed at seemingly random intervals along the walls. It was incredibly dangerous as they could be overwhelmed on all sides and decimated with ease. Val relayed his musings to his squad leader.

“I see that. This will be difficult. We need to split up into two groups, to make us harder to track. With the entire squad together, we’d be able to handle most of what they throw at us, but it would make for slow moving and we need to take them down before their reinforcements arrive, because they will call for help.” Garryll responded quietly, thinking as he talked, “Val, you take Alater, Alan, and Psycho, and I will take Kilroy and Fain. We break apart at the end of this corridor.”

Each squad member muttered affirmatives and they were off, moving down the long hall as they checked each of the side passages. It wasn’t long before a patrol stumbled over them. Blackjack reacted instantly, taking out half the patrol in the matter of a few seconds. It was close quarters, so many resorted to melee to dispatch them. As the last body dropped, minus an arm thanks to Alater, Garryll motioned for them to continue. Up ahead, the end of the corridor came, a stark grey wall with arrows pointing in either direction with the names of certain locations below.

“Alright. This is where we part ways. Remember to keep in constant communication. This is enemy territory and it is unknown to us. So stay sharp. My group to the left. Val, your group to the right. Move out!”

OOC:

Incredibly short, yeah, but I moved us on.

“Alright. This is where we part ways. Remember to keep in constant communication. This is enemy territory and it is unknown to us. So stay sharp. My group to the left. Val, your group to the right. Move out!”

Val’s group moved to the right and Alater taking lead with Valthir following behind him and Psycho, looking nervous, took the rear.

“Hey Psycho I’ll take the 6 o’clock you just stick to close to Valthir and watch and learn from him, he knows what he’s doing.” Virius told Psycho whilst moving to take the rear of the formation. Which in his mind was one of the most important positions and he prided himself on more than one occasion of being able to make sure no one shot his squad mates in the back.

Alater moved down the corridor, and stopped at a tee intersection with a turbolift access door located on the top of the tee. Valthir ordered a short halt to consult his integrated HUD to determine their next course of action.

“We’re going for the bridge and according to my map it is located down the corridor to the left and up three decks. Keep your eyes out for any maintenance access ports to maybe scoot up a deck or two. I want to try and stay away from any main access areas like the turbolifts or stairwells. They will for sure have those either booby trapped or guarded like crazy. Team move out,” Valthir ordered and signaling to Alater and Psycho who simultaneously cleared the corners down both corridors.

Alater moved down the left hallway and Virius took up security down the right corridor after tapping on Psycho’s shoulder to follow Valthir. After moving down the hallway 10 feet, a door to Alater’s right opened up and a grenade rolled out towards the team’s position. Alater quickly kicked the grenade back towards the door while simultaneously yelling “Grenade!” The whole team dove backwards and to the deck to get out of the explosives kill zone.

A second later the grenade detonated with a concussion that shook the deck plating and billowed smoke out of the room where the grenade originated and in turn exploded. The team quickly got back up and established 360 degree security to wait for the smoke to clear or for the shooting to start. After 10 seconds passed Valthir spoke on the team’s comm. Channel. “Everyone in one piece?”

“I’m good, I’ve survived worse,” Alater commented.

Psycho with his voice a little shaky said, “Well I’m glad I survived my first grenade attack.”

“We’re all glad we did,” Virius said also acknowledging he was up as well.

“Good, Alater check that room and see if that grenade did its job,” Valthir ordered.

Alater moved into the smoke filled room and called back that the blast did do its job. Also that the men inside were probably guarding a maintenance access door that was located in the back of the room.

“Well there goes the theory that they would only be guarding the main access routes,” Valthir said while moving into the room to check out the maintenance door, “Looks like a turbolift maintenance  access tube, it runs parallel to the turbolift and shouldn’t be guarded on the inside other than maybe a maintenance droid or security turret. We should be able to climb up the three decks and surprise anyone inside the other maintenance room from behind. Virius you can take point and team, turn on the IR vision on your helmets to see any activity around us. Virius when we get to our destination use your fiber optic probe to see what is on the other side of the maintenance hatch so we can be ready for whatever they have waiting for us. Hope nobody is afraid of heights.”

Virius nodded and moved to the open access hatch and looked up and then down before taking a hold of the rungs of the tube’s ladder. I hate how I can jump out of a shuttle at 30,000 feet in the pitch black with only a repulsor harness to stop me from dying, and the short heights always get to me…well if I fall at least Alater should be able to catch me. Virius shook away his fear and blinked to turn on his helmet’s IR vision and started up the ladder. Alater followed behind with Valthir and Psycho taking the rear.

The team moved up the three decks without any incident and Virius climbed up the the maintenance access door and stepped off the rungs and onto a small balcony where the ship’s maintenance techs could safely work on the turbo lift controls. Virius crouched in front of the door and pulled out his fiber optic cable from a pouch located on his armor’s web gear. The fiber optic camera had a wireless uplink to his HUD and a small view of what the camera sees popped up in his view. He carefully slid the cable through the corner where the door met the frame and a clear view of the maintenance room came into view in front of him.

“Room is clear,” Virius radioed to his waiting ASL on the ladder.

“Alright, open up that door then and let’s get off this fraking ladder, my arms are starting to get tired.” Valthir responded.

Virius keyed the door’s access panel and the door slid quietly open, he moved into the room and double checked to make sure it was clear and signaled for the rest of the team to move in.

Psycho was the last to step off the ladder and he closed the door behind him and the team massaged their worn out muscles.

“Virius check the corridor with your fancy camera and we can move out to see if we beat our SL’s team to the bridge,” Valthir said smiling under his helmet.

Virius moved to the door and slid his camera underneath the door and checked left and right for any hostiles, finding none he pulled out his cable and wound it up and stuck it back into its pouch. Virius signaled that it was clear, Alater took the lead and punched the access panel which opened the door and he moved out into the hallway his claws eager to dig into something.

OOC:

Well that wasn't to bad for a first post after I think around 3 years or so, hope it was good.

Alan followed his team up the ladder and into the room. Until now he had remained virtually silent other than confirming when asked. Outside of being assigned to a fire team it was almost as if he was not even there. Alan had grown up learning from his father who was a Stormtrooper himself, and had experienced a lot of hard times in life, and even was raised in by the Government in a military academy. Nothing could have prepared him for the thrill of his first mission. Though by text book, this was a simple breach and capture mission, but when in the middle of it every mission feels as if it is the largest, greatest, and most dangerous. The excitement within him was brewing, but it was an odd combination of fear as well. Regardless of his emotions, he had learned well to not dwell on them during these times.

"Think about it later boy.. ..if you really want to that is.." was a familiar quote his father always told him.

He watched Senior Sergeant Virius run a small camera under a door to check the way ahead of them. It was at this point that Alan unfolded his stock on the E-11 he held. He was quite a shot with it as is, but he always preferred to carry his stock out for two reasons. It gave him better accuracy, and if need be the unfolded stock made an excellent melee weapon. The E-11 was in fact an outdated weapon, many troopers had moved on to the E-45. Despite the fact Alan was in love with the sciences of sharpshooting, and hoped to one day master the art, but he knew you could not sacrifice dependability for a few new gadgets and better accuracy. A stormtrooper without his blaster holds little ground against an enemy with his.

After a few moments Virius called the room clear and Alatar punched the access panel and moved forward into the hallway. Moving quickly behind him moved the ASL, and then Alan made his entrance into the hallway, the opposite direction of the ASL and Alatar. His e-11 scoped up he kept his eye down the hallway until he felt a tap on his shoulder from whatever squad mate was last to enter the hallway. As he went to lower his weapon and turn, a glint of white caught his eye.

A rookie trooper who had over polished his armor gave away the position of he and his two fire team members.

With a snap reaction Alan barked "Contact 6 O'Clock!!" and threw his blaster back to his shoulder, firing four rounds, three of which ripped through the first trooper's chest leaving only smoking holes where three inch portions of flesh and bone once was.

After firing his shots, Alan swiveled on his right foot to take cover behind the wall and door he had just walked through. Fortunately there was cover for the remainder of the squad in the hallway. Some behind pipes, other behind computer terminals. A stream of red lasers came bursting down the hallway at the fire team. Alan watched the amount of bolts and could determine that there were more than just two troopers there now. Perhaps four, maybe five now? Alan remained crouched and behind the wall until he heard his first order in the squad.

"Towers! Show these bastards how we cook in BlackJack!" ordered the ASL.

Towers took one of the C-22 grenades from his belt, pulled the pin and popped the spoon and cooked it for a few seconds.Alan then held his breath and pivoted around the wall and lugged the grenade down the hall. Just as soon as he had appeared he vanished back behind the wall. His timing was near perfect. The grenade bounced once about thigh high and exploded taking out two of the six troopers that were there. The other four had moved to cover behind a large container and a terminal. Alan heard over his HelmCom.

"Good work Towers!" right before he heard "Alright BlackJack, lets Rock n' Roll!!" and the BlackJack Fire Team began returning fire.

“Sit tight, boys. We’re on our way; we’ve just hit some light resistance and we should be in there in five mikes or so,” Gates spoke into his comlink.

“This is light, sir?” Fain asked incredulously. He waved at the laser bolts flickering around them. “I’d say this is pretty heavy.”

“I knew this was a bad idea, sir,” Kilroy interjected.

“Please - the Siege of Bastion had laser fire thick enough to walk on. This is nothing!” Gates replied nonchalantly, carelessly throwing a grenade in the direction of the thickest concentration of enemy fire.

“Grenade!” yelled one of their enemies, and the gunfire pattered down a bit. The explosion scattered fragments of metal on the metal boxes that the adversaries were huddling behind.

The brief lull in gunfire let the Blackjacks slightly emerge from cover and lay down their own fire on the Remnant troopers. One man toppled out of cover, his chest turned to char and a trail of blood leaking from the side of his mouth.

“Kilroy, move left. Fain and I will cover you,” Gates ordered crisply. “Get an angle on them, and hurry.”

“Roger, el-tee,” the younger man responded, and scampered down the row of crates towards the end. Gates and Fain fired their rifles at the enemy positions, their blaster fire splattering against the boxes the Remnant troopers were taking cover behind.

“I’m in position, sir. Opening fire now...”

The Remnant troopers fell like grain before a scythe, totally blindsided by the sudden source of blaster fire. “Area clear! Move out!” Gates said. They’d dealt with the first couple of fireteams easily, catching the Remnant kill teams by surprise and tearing through them along their way without much trouble. This team had been the last between them and the exit of the cargo bay towards the bridge, and they’d been dug in.

“Valthir, we’ve cleared out the last team in our way, and we’ll be with you imminently. What’s the roadblock’s location?” Gates said into his link.

“Intersection 13A. We’re south of it,” Valthir’s voice crackled back.

“Ah, we’re going to be approaching from the west. We’ll distract it, you guys take it. We’ll be there soon. Gates out.”

The three-man team moved quickly along the corridors, following Gates’ instructions towards the intersection that was their goal. No new Remnant teams jumped in their way. By luck or design none of them knew, but all of them were grateful to avoid a firefight in a tight corridor.

Kilroy poked a tiny strip-cam around the corner into intersection 13A. “They’re here, alright.”

The image on the camera was beamed to Gates’ HUD, and he nodded. “Dug in tight. Barricades, E-WEBs, a whole squad of men. Wonderful. Let’s get it done. Valthir! Move your team in after we have their attention.”

“Right.”

“On my mark - mark! Move in, team one! Go, go, go!”

OOC:

Another shortish post, but it gets the job done, hopefully. Not great, but it’ll link us back up and get us moving onwards

Alright. This is where we part ways. Remember to keep in constant communication. This is enemy territory and it is unknown to us. So stay sharp. My group to the left. Val, your group to the right.”

Valthir, Alater, Alan, and Virius started down the hall with Psycho shortly behind. He walked nervously while pointing his rifle ahead, ready to shoot anything that moved.

A veteran trooper turned around and said, “Hey Psycho I’ll take the 6 o’clock you just stick to close to Valthir and watch and learn from him, he knows what he’s doing.”

Psycho was instantly relieved and he moved to the front watching Valthir. The team stopped at a “T” intersection and Valthir suggested to avoid turbolifts and stairwells. He signaled Psycho to clear the right corner down the hall. Psycho stepped up looking through his sights down the hall. Nothing. The squad started down the left side and Virius tapped Psycho’s shoulder to follow Valthir.

Thank the Galaxy I’ve got veterans looking out for me.

Suddenly a grenade rolled into the hall. Alater casually kicked it and dived away from it. In the process he landed on and pushed Psycho. The grenade exploded and the blast stunned Psycho who was already staggered from Alater. The team swiftly got up and waited for the smoke to clear. A few moments after, the smoke cleared.

Psycho said in a trembling voice, “Well I’m glad I survived my first grenade attack.”

Alater cleared the room where the grenade came from and he called the rest of the squad in. The room had the distinct smell of “grenade” and in the back was a small maintenance shaft. Valthir ordered the squad to head up the shaft, so they could reach the bridge floor. The team entered the tube, though Alater had a hard time squeezing through the hole, and Psycho was the last to go through. The shaft was dark and when he looked down, he couldn’t see the end. He gulped and continued upward.

In a few moments time the squad had gone up three decks, and they entered an empty maintenance room. Virius checked under the door with a camera for hostiles. He signaled that it was clear and the squad entered the hall with Alater in the front. Valthir and Alater went left and Alan, Virius and Psycho went right. Suddenly, blaster fire flew down the hallway at tremendous speeds. Alan responded immediately and began to squeeze rounds into troopers ahead. Psycho responded by moving across the hall to a computer terminal. It was little cover but it would have to do.

Psycho propped his rifle on the terminal keyboard and pumped a few rounds into the enemy’s direction. His aim was true, and a trooper fell to the ground with a thud. Alan looked over his cover and threw a grenade down the hall. The grenade fell perfectly at the enemy’s feet and it exploded taking out two of the troopers.

Valthir ordered the fireteam to clear up the remaining hostiles. Virius and Alan began firing blasts at the enemies, while Alater and Psycho moved forward. Psycho, who was fast, charged up the hallway. They took cover and the rest of the team moved forward. Psycho began waiting for the enemy to pop out from cover, and then he would nail them with a blast to the face.

I think I’m getting the hang of this!

Suddenly a blast door ahead started to close. Alater rushed into the enemy’s fire and grenaded the enemy. Smoke began to fill the hallway, and he used this cover to go hand to hand with the enemy. A gruesome way to die. He then swiftly hopped into the closing blast doors. Valthir sprinted to the doors and made it through. The rest of the fireteam sprinted as fast as they could, and Psycho quickly slided through the narrow slit. Virius dived behind him, and landed hard.

Psycho helped him up and they continued forward. They soon stopped at a corner and Virius reported that there were ten men with an E-Web and barricades guarding the bridge. Not good. Valthir then quietly radioed the squad leader. A few second later, Val reported that Garryll’s team would be over soon, and that they were to attack the enemy when Garryll distracted them.

They sat quietly for a few moments. Psycho was at the rear and he was twiddling his thumbs. Suddenly in the calmness of the moment, he heard blaster fire down the hall that Psycho judged were Garryll and his team’s. Blaster bolts flew by them, and the E-Web’s distinct sound could be heard. Val nodded to Alater who turned around the corner and lobbed a frag grenade and a flashbang. The grenades bounced into the barricaded area where they exploded.

The team jumped out from cover where they slowly advanced on the barricade which was surrounded with smoked. Behind them they could hear Garryll’s fire team follow. As the smoke cleared they examined the damage. The barricades weren’t affected, but the E-Web was destroyed. Several bodies lay on the ground covered in blood. A few of them moaned and groaned, but Alater quickly put them out of their misery with a blast to the head. Psycho tried not to look.

"The answer to everything is a grenade," Psycho quietly said.

“Good work,” Garryll said catching up with them. “Now let’s deal with the bridge!”

OOC:

Eh. The post writing is bad, but it moves us forward. I wasn't sure what tactics to use, so Saint told me to use a grenade. Hope this'll work.

EDIT: DANG IT!!! I posted as Echelon. I also posted as Psycho in the Navy thread. :P

“Valthir, status update,” Gates pinged his ASL. They’d breached the first door in their way, the blast door that had been at the backs of the now-deceased squad of Remnant troopers.

“We’re making good progress,” Valthir’s voice crackled back, static blurring some of his words. “We’ll have the auto-turrets down in a few minutes.”

“Roger that. Alpha’s moving in. Move into the bridge on my command. Gates out,” the Blackjack SL said, cutting the link. He switched his comlink to the public VE channel. “Control, how’re the marines doing?”

“Comms are acting up, Liutenant. Last I heard, they’d secured one of the hangars, and were moving onto seconday objectives. We should be dropping more troops in, but it’d be nice if you could secure the bridge and clean up these comms.”

“Roger that. We’re moving on the bridge first. Blackjack lead is oscar mike,” Gates said, reassured by the marines’ progress.

Fain and Kilroy turned their heads to Gates as he raised his rifle. Garryll gestured to move out, and they eagerly stepped forwards. The three men stepped through the opened blast doors, rifles following their eyes, moving quickly down the hallway. At the end of a twenty-meter hallway, another door sat barring their way.

“Let’s take this one quieter,” Gates said. “Cover me.”

Fain and Kilroy turned their backs on the door and covered the hallway from which they had come. Gates pried the control panel off the wall, and poked at the mutli-colored wires inside. Gates pulled a mini-datapad off of his belt, and unwrapped some attachment cables from around it.

“Eh, so this works by...uh. Do I just attach these randomly or something..?” Gates muttered to himself. He solved most problems by smashing them or shooting them. He pulled the cables off of the device and attached them to random wires inside, then tapped the device to start it hacking a simple slicing program into the even dumber door controls.

Gates drummed his fingers on the body of his rifle as he waited for the device to hack its way through the door’s control program. Kilroy looked over his shoulder, and Gates could feel the slight combat nerves that were bothering the younger soldier. He checked the datapad again; it sat mutely as it hummed quietly, oblivious to the impatience of the Stormtroopers.

After a minute of waiting, the ‘pad beeped twice, and flashed a completion message on the screen. “Stack up, ‘jacks.”

Kilroy and Fain moved in closer to the SL, and Kilroy turned to cover the door. Gates pressed a button on the pad’s face, and the doors slid open, quiet as its magnetic locks disengaged. A couple Remnant Stormtroopers had been guarding the door, but their backs were to the Blackjack fireteam, though they turned quickly as the door hissed open. Kilroy lept forwards, clubbing the man on the left with his E-45, the stock smacking the man down.

Gates dropped his rifle and datapad and took a long stride forwards, right fist coming around in a ferocious short-arm punch into the man’s throat.

The Stormtrooper choked, but tried raising his rifle. Gates took a half-step closer and drove an armored knee and thigh into the man’s crotch, hard enough to lift him off his feet, then flopping to the ground. Gates stomped his foot down on the man’s shoulder and drew a wicked, serrated 30-centimeter warknife from his thigh scabbard and punched it through the man’s neck joint, killing him instantaneously.

“Move it out,” Gates said, wiping the blood off of his knife on the man’s leg and spinning it in his palm before sticking it into his scabbard. Kilroy and Fain nodded. “This is the last door.”

“Valthir, we’re about to breach the bridge. What’s your situation?” Gates commed.

“On the way. We’ll be there, boss.”

“Roger,” Gates said. “Okay, we’re doing this one loud. I want to have all eyes on us. Breach on my command.”

Kilroy and Fain stacked the door, and Gates stood behind Kilroy, with the control panel across the hall from him. Gates aimed at the panel and blasted it, the laser bolt loud in the hall. The doors hissed open as the control panel sizzled.

A trio of security personnel and a dozen-odd officers turned as the door hissed open, and laser bolts started flying only a moment later.

OOC:

Feel free to write Bravo team’s mission, and end with their entrance, or however far you want to take it. PM me if you’ve got questions.

Room clearing is hazardous to an infantryman’s health.  Every doorway is a fatal funnel, every room a mystery.  Being the point man often increased the potential to become another name in a long list of causalities.  As such, in the scant seconds it took for the door to open, Kilroy had taken three in the chest and another two in the legs before he ever got the chance to fully enter the room.  The fact that Kilroy was more worried about throwing up than about being shot drew a slight raspy chuckle as he dove towards some cover in order to avoid the wall of fire that headed towards him.  “Incoming fire has right of way.”  He muttered.

“What was that?” Someone, he couldn’t tell whom, asked over the hail of laser blasts.

“Nothing!  Just watch that first step!”  Kilroy replied back as he quickly searched for a flash grenade.  Wincing as he found what he was looking for, the Cadian also caught a glimpse of something rather gruesome.  If I didn’t know any better, I should definitely be dead.  But then again….I have been in worse shape.  He thought, grimacing as he primed the grenade in his hand.  Without even bothering to warn the others, the wounded trooper quickly tossed the live grenade into the air; hoping that the Remnant soldiers couldn’t tell the difference in time.

It’s a good thing the others aren’t here to see me like this.  He thought, throwing up before the grenade went off.

---

“It’s a good thing Kilroy isn’t here to see you like this, throwing up and what not in front of the Marines Cipher.”  Nagase heard Tanner say to their medic, whom amusingly had a case of space sickness.  Although the LZ was secured quite a long time ago by Galm squad and the Marines, she still felt like something bad was going to happen.  Where is John when you need him? She thought, aware of the fact that whenever she felt nervous, scared, or sad her fellow Rhyzan was often there to comfort her. 

“Hey Tanner?”

“Yeah what is it Nagase?”

“You think John’s gonna be alright?  He looked sorta like Cipher there before we all left.”

“Bro? Yeah he’ll be alright.  You of all people should know that they breed those Cadians like badasses out of hell.  Especially considering the fact that they come from Rhyza which is where you came from as well.”

“Yeah but, Cipher is also Cadian…..Nevermind.” the young private replied, her fears unassuaged by her friend’s demeanor.  Ever since she met John back in the Academy, she had noticed that they longer she’s known him for, the easier it got to get through difficult situations.  What she didn’t notice however, was the fact that whenever she thought of him, her face blushed immensely from deeper, sensual motivations.  Oh Saint Sabbatine, revered warrior of His holy church, I pray to you to please look over him, as well as the rest of the Black Jacks along their journey.

---

“Would you stop staring at me you damn blunt?”

“What?”

“I said stop staring and get the feth over here trooper.  I don’t have time for your shenanigans Fain.”  John Varl exclaimed despite the fact that he had vomit all over his face and part of his armor.  Although it wasn’t the smartest decision he’s done, but he took some dark satisfaction at the fact that after his helmet filled up with his own lunch, that he wasn’t the only one covered in it.  Old Vinnerman would have been proud.  He thought, watching one of the Remnant soldiers sit dejected off behind some consoles.

Soon, after the firefight, it will all be over for him.  Kilroy had it all laid out in his mind about what he would do after they finished securing the room and got back to their ship.  “Gonna eat some pie…..watch a few movies while in the bacta tank….No I’m not delirious, now stop staring at me like I am.”

“You should be dead!”

“Blunt.”

"Savior, we cleared up the comms. We've got something else we've got to handle, but be aware: hostiles may be inbound. ETA unknown. Blackjack out."

“Well lets go find what they were transporting and take it from their cold dead fingers,” Garryll ordered, “Alater you seem to want point so go ahead and be our ambassador of death to these remnants.”

Alater grinned, blood still dripping from his claws he moved toward the bridge door and out into the hallway securing the immediate area outside of the bridge so the rest of the squad could move out. The hallway was scorched and burned from the squad’s previous assault on the bridge and there were sounds of other skirmishes throughout of the ship echoing through the corridors. The team silently moved out and down the hallway towards their objective.

A short while later after moving down the corridors and moving two decks down towards the cargo area the team conducted a short halt to take a quick break before they moved down another deck to get to the cargo hold.

Virius removed his helmet and took a swig out of his canteen, savoring the cool crisp tasteless water. Shoving the canteen back into his pouch he replaced his helmet on his head and looked around to the rest of the squad doing similar things while Fain covered the rear and Kilroy had the 12 o’clock.

“Let’s move out, we don’t have all day and let’s get our job done so we can get back to our cramped quarters on the Savior,” Some of the squad members chuckled to themselves and everyone got back into their combat formation.

Virius took the lead this round and moved cautiously down the corridor, it looked as if no one has fought down this hallway which could be good or bad depending on if the enemy was in waiting. Reports from the other units showed that the enemy was pretty disorganized after losing the bridge and reports from the Savior said that some escape pods were being jettisoned and they were capturing fleeing remnant troops. Good for us I guess, that means less to shoot at us.

The team moved to a level access hatch, Virius opened it and Kilroy cleared it with his rifle and jumped down to the next level. Virius followed landing with a thud, and they secured the immediate area underneath the hatch which looked as if someone was using some pretty heavy ordinance to either attack or defend the area. The corridor walls were melted and the air smelled like ozone and burnt metal with a tinge of melted plasteel.

“Sir, are any of the marine teams using weapons that could do this type of damage?” Virius said to Garryll after he jumped down to the deck

“Not that I know of, these damage marks look like they are from some type of heavy plasma launcher,” Garryll said inspecting one of the torched spots on the wall.

“Make sure you guys keep an eyes peeled, we don’t want to be caught in the open with someone shooting whatever did that kind of damage, at us.” Garryll commented motioning at the damage to the corridor.

The squad all nodded and moved down the corridor towards the cargo bay, all of a sudden a large ball of screaming plasma burst through the corridor wall ahead of them and threw Virius and Fain, who were on point, to the floor.

“Everyone fall back,” Garryll ordered to his squad after he saw what did the damage…

OOC:

I was thinking of going somewhere crazy with my post but decided to stop at that, it all depends on what you have planned for the package they have in the cargo bay.