Snipes paced meathodically around the lounge area of the new Jester barracks. He was clad in his dress uniform of grays and blacks, the crest of medals on his right breast standing out by it's colors. His boots were shined, his hair pulled back in a non-regulation pony tail. Despite the pony tail he stood in at six feet and three inches tall with broad shoulders that experience had shown could crush a man to death. Yet here he paced, waiting for his new squad as his hand picked assistant squad leader sat upon the couch.

Snipes looked at the chrono on the wall. They, to the man, were already five minutes late. As he turned his dissaproving gaze to an equally as unimpressed Brightstar the door finally opened. An out of breath young man stepped in, carrying three fully loaded duffel bags and red in the face. Snipes thin, sharp face shot him a frown that made him drop his bags and salute.

“Are you saluting me Private? Aw hell no!” Snipes pointed at his rank, “I'm an NCO, I work for a living.”

“But I'm reporting.”

Snipes slapped his face with a hand and let it fall away, “No, you're reporting for duty, there's a difference. Dammit, I've got some work to do. Just sit down, kid.”

Over the next fifteen minutes the rest filed in, equally as flustered troopers, all eager to report to their first permanent duty unit. Snipes mostly growled and glared at them as they came in.

It wasn't that long ago he'd been running black ops solo, a lone operative who knew who he could rely on and who to trust because he picked each contact personally, there hadn't been a chain of command to report to, but now, now there were supposed to be rules and according to these rules he was babysitting and training; well if they wanted him to train he was going to train. As one of the handful of qualified Special Forces troopers left still alive in the Stormtrooper Corps he was going to train them to his standard, and to hell and high water with the Corpse standards.

When the last of them had arrived, a codename Psycho, Snipes called them to formation. A squad only made one rank, they stood in front of him knowing little more what to expect than he did. Snipes walked up and down the line of them as Bright stood to the rear.

When he was done inspecting them he stepped in front of them and folded his hands behind him, “I am First Sergeant Sniping101, for now you can call me First Sergeant. You kids are ate up like a dick sandwich at a gay bar, but don't worry, that won't last. You're Jesters now, and perhaps you don't know the history that entails, but it's a history of excellence. You will be the best that I can make you, you will be extraordinary troopers. You are here by chance, but Lady Luck know's what she is doing, so have no doubt that through the trials that lay ahead you will become stronger, you will become what you need to be to defend this empire from the forces that seek to destroy us. Remember always the Jester Motto: Who's Laughing Now, Bitch!? Relish the day when you should shout that into a dieing foes face.

“Sadly there is no time for us to get to know each other,” Snipes let out an irritated groan under his breath, “We already have mission. In exactly two hours we will be on a shuttle to a small sandy region in the outer rim to collect intelligence from a rebel outpost. You may not know shit about infiltration but I have broken more necks and had more fake identities than you've ever had hot meals and Brightstar here is a veteran of the former Jester squad, we will see you through this if you have the presence of mind to listen.”

Snipes looked over them as they tried to assimilate this information, it wouldn't happen all at once. Snipes, however knew how to make men of beasts and beasts of men and quitely he admitted that he had been given a damn fine squad to work with. Another breifing would come later, when he laid the plan out in detail, for now it was enough that they knew who was in charge and what they were getting into.

“Squad! Atten-tion!” He yelled, snapping them all to attention, “Dis-missed!”

Therex was infuriated. Within his first couple days in the RAIDERS squad, he was given orders to move out into the new squad. He was sitting in the change room at a small medical ship. After the last batch of wounded came through, he was supposed to meet up with his new squad.

---Hours Later---

  Therex was standing in the Commanding Officer's office, listening to him prattle on. Everytime the CO looked in his direction, he never made eye contact. Therex had noticed that lots of people had trouble with that. His eyes had absolutely no pupils making it hard to tell where he was looking. Even when he lost his left eye, he made sure that the new eye had the same coloration.

  After they were done with the mission briefing, the whole squad moved out to gear up.

  I hate this part of the job.

  He grabbed his customized armor, loaded with his medical gear, his knives, and his collapsible electro-staff. As he walked out the door, someone thrust a rifle in his hand. At that exact moment, his brain shifted gears and he could feel the thirst for blood welling up.

  No! I don't want this again!

  Slowly the feeling subsided and the trooper who had handed him the rifle patted him on the back and asked, "You all right?"

  Shaking his head Therex looked the trooper in the eyes and lied, "Yeah I'm fine."

Arriving at Eclipse operation zone, Hector looked to find no troops around him except for reconnaissance troopers who were doing scans of the area. Meeting up with them he asked “Where is the rest of the Squad, I was informed to be with Eclipse at this area.” he mentioned, waiting for the trooper to acknowledge.

The trooper nodded, with a hizz from his communicator then passing a pad over to Hector “Soldier, it looks like you were given new orders, report to Jester squad, we will inform Eclipse of your departure and new orders. Proceed to mission objective.” The soldier nodded then tapped Hector on the shoulder once with his blaster and waved.

He looked over the orders for some time recalling the new information as it was displayed on the pad. It was confidential information privy to only his eyes. Opening the article he read intently.

Opening message....

To: PFC Hector Vandaval
From: Imperial Army High Command
Subject: Reassignment

Hello Soldier,

Perhaps your wondering why you are being reassigned, take for a moment this new information about getting into a different squad and the possibility of new opportunities. It is not that you are not that good or havent done what the empire wanted, its a matter of procedure and your duty with the imperial army. We wish you good luck on your new assignment and congrats in Jester.

Long Live the Vast Empire!

End Message...

Taking a moment to understand the information he had read, Hector took a deep breath, opened his pack to rearrange his gear, putting away the pad and closed the pack. Stepping back onto the speeder, he put in new coordinates to a Imperial Shuttle landing zone and pushed the throttle giving him increased speed and launching him from eclipse zone onto open land for the time. Traveling Hector looked through his visor seeing a few animals and climate changes, otherwise keeping mental notes about his introduction with Jester.

The speeder finally had disengaged from travel, Hector found himself by one of the imperial liaison officers, saluting he handed them his pad “Sir, I have orders to proceed to this area, once the next shuttle arrives I will be taking it to my squad destination. Thank you”

The officer nodded to his request, tapping on the terminal next to the private, the orders were relayed via comm station to the lambda shuttle in mid flight. A few hours had passed before the shuttle had arrived. Hector walked aboard while the landing ramp was down. Giving his pad to the shuttle officer, the officer acknowledged and the ramp was closed behind him with the shuttle making way to orbit.

A few days had passed since his arrival at the shuttle station, once the shuttle stopped hyper it made a scan of the nearby planets. Sending a communication the officer waited for the reply from imperial intelligence on the ground. “Imperial shuttle Zeta Zero B77Y, you are cleared for entry, make your way to imperial army station.” The shuttle officer touched the terminal and the shuttle followed reentry into the planets atmosphere.

After landing, Hector walked down the shuttle ramp, and walked through the station to the squad barracks. After saluting officers on his way, Hector found himself before the barrack entryway and personnel already suiting up for mission. Hector met with some of the squad recruits first before speaking with the ASL and SL. All of them he didnt notice before but worthy of both comradship and loyalty. Putting his pack down by one of the lockers, Hector walked over to speak with ASL Brightstar.

“Hello Sergeant, its good to be with the Squad, I just received orders. I understand im with Jester Squad. I already put my pack down but would like to know where I should keep my belongings from here on out. Do we also have a mission objective? In the meantime ill catch up with the rest of the squad.” Hector replied before walking to meet with the other squad team members.

Snipes had taken the guise of the SCOPE armor, it was more awkward than the Storm Commando armor he had been accustomed to, but it would suffice. He sat in one of the cargo-net seats of the small Lamba Class craft with his helmet off and a cigarette burning slowly in his mouth. His face was set and grim, with maps and guides arrayed before him on his knees. This was, without a doubt, not a combat mission, but even the most well planned and executed 'off-the-books' operation could become little more than a combat patrol if the situation escalated. That was, ideally, avoided, that did not mean it could be practically avoided and the more he looked over his maps and the more he thought about his squad the more he came to accept that this might be labeled, posthumously, a routine combat patrol.

Snipes looked over the map, his cigarette ash falling occasionally upon it for him to swipe away absently until Brightstar stepped into the cargo area, “Ready for inspection, First Sergeant.”

Snipes looked up and and into the violet eyes of his assistant, then nodded and stood up. The inspection had nothing to do with the maps, they were separate but mutually relevant issues. Snipes picked up the battered E-11 near the door, carrying in in both hands at the near-ready. He wasn't wearing his helmet, but considering their position in the belly of Dominion, it would have been redundant.

Infront of him the Troopers stood, toeing the line with their hands crossed in the small of their back at parade rest. Snipes walked up and down them, looking at their armor. He was new to the SCOPE armor , but he had studied it thoroughly, researched it and asked old friends about it.

He knew it as well as a man could without wearing it themselves. He checked their shoulder straps, making sure they were as tight as they needed to be, checked their first aid kits, to make sure they were full and not filled with other things. He checked their magazine pouches, making sure that each power pack was full. With each Trooper he found something that wasn't quite right, that he could tell them to fix; it was an important part of the process. To ensure that they knew he was competent; for he had seen so many battles in trenches and out of them that he refused to let a lack of familiarization with the equipment undermine his experience. He wasn't going to let one of them die because they didn't trust his opinion.

When he was done looking them over with suitably dissaproving glares and minor facial fluctuations he once again took a position in front of them as Brightstar stood behind him, “Alright, squad, I didn't put it out before so I'm going to let it slide for now; but you will not be taking personal weapons on mission in the future. The Vast Empire Stormtrooper Corps has layed out a specific SCOPE loadout for a reason, the weapons on the list are durable, ammunition is cheap and easy to find and not esspecially heavy. If you do not currently carry either an E-11 or E-45 as your rifle then I suggest you report to the nearest armorer and get yourself properly equipped. In the future you may carry whatever damned blade you wish and as long as you have the basic loadout I don't give a damn what you carry in addition as long as it doesn't adversely affect the mission; all personal weapons requests will be approved through me. Understood?”

“Hooah”

“Good, that being said, fall out to the shuttle interior for a more in depth mission brief.”

Snipes did an about face and strode into the belly of the small shuttle without looking back, the sound of boots and moving Troopers behind him told him he didn't need to turn around. Inside the dark confines of the interior Snipes took his seat infront of maps and mission details as the squad gathered around him, standing at ease as befitted his rank.

Snipes pointed to a spot only a mile or so south of the installation, in a small canyon where the shuttle could land without raising suspicion, “We land here, from here we'll move north towards the outpost perimeter. Intel, damn their sightless eyes, says that this outpost is covert, with only a platoon of combat troopers and maybe a company of support personnel on hand at any given time,” Snipes reached into the pile of papers and drew out an orbital photograph, “From these photo's we should be able to approach relatively undetected under the cover of night; they have only a single squad guarding the walls at any one time and the compound is made up of these five buildings. Of the five I've determined this one,” Snipes pointed at the second largest, “contains only showers and latrines, it is the only one that is likely to give off light at this time of night,” Snipes pointed at the third largest, “This is the tactical operations center, it's an indigenous building, should be made up of a series of small offices, we do not know which office is our objective, but it's the most logical starting point. We will be at our most vulnerable inside it as we are going to have to split up and look for either the commander or Sergeant Major's office, either one should be fine.

“Because moving in there is going to be the most risky part of this operation I'm going to split us into two teams, one fire team lead by Brightstar and one by myself. Brightstars' team shall move to this building” Snipes indicated the largest building, “That we've determined is the barracks, there are only two entrances or exits, so your job is going to be to lay siege to those exits. As of right now we have zero air support. Co-ordination is going to be important, so com-checks are mandatory twice an hour on the half-hour.

Questions?”

“Um, First Sergeant, Uh, why are we going in locked and loaded, couldn't an operative accomplish this much more. . .safely?”

“Yes, Towers, they could,” Snipes fixed him with his cold stare, never knowing it was that cold, “but orders from higher say this is what we're doing. It's rumored that they have information pertaining to an imminent attack that makes this a high priority mission.

“Kids, this is going to be a stressful mission, this is not a matter of who can shoot the straightest, it's a matter of who can go without shooting when everything in the their body and mind tell them they need to shoot. This is a matter of not just our lives, but our fellow troopers lives. We'll persevere, patience and methodical movement will see us through it. Keep your eyes open, and if you see an opening, let me know at any time, if you have questions, state them, if you want to live, listen; not just to me, but to your fellow troopers.”

Snipes looked to each of them and saw the green on their faces, but beneath it was determination and the small jitters that even a veteran like Snipes felt before a mission. He looked in their eyes and saw both doubt and perseverance, often both in the same set of eyes. He would see them through it, and they too would see him through it.

Towers watched a late trooper run on board, further more he was not even wearing a helmet.

{What an idiot.. I swear the people they let into our Corps these days..}

Towers kept his opinions to himself. He was merely a Private Second, and plus from what he could tell about the Squad Leader, this trooper would most likely either be sitting on the shuttle for the mission, or wished he was sitting on the shuttle for the mission. He moved his attention to the briefing.

{Sometimes I wonder if the Empire even thinks before they assign these operations. The definition of Intelligence is misinterpretation. Do they really expect this to work? Well whatever, this guy seems to know his shit..}

Towers began checked his weapons over the best he could without disassembling them. He would have taken his E-11 apart, but they were already on the way and should the shuttle get shot down for any reason, he did not want his rifle bouncing around in 36 different pieces. He gripped his knife in his hand, knowing he would most likely be using this weapon as a primary weapon for the start of this mission was not a good feeling to him. He was a shooter, not a melee specialist. He knew what to do with it, but still he preferred looking at his targets either through a scope or down his sights. He glanced over the Troopers present. Like him most all of them were new to his legion of elite warriors, but all of them seemed ready. A couple struck him as odd, and these troopers he had an odd feeling of needing to keep a closer eye on them than the enemy.

He glanced over to the Squad Leader and Assistant Squad Leader, discussing things under the chatter of the other troopers. Towers cleared his throat and asked the question he knew several of the other troopers were wanting to know.

"Sar'nt! Who will be going with who?" asked Towers.

Snipes looked at him with a glare that he still was not aware he was casting. "Come again son?" replied the vet.

"The fire teams Sar'nt? Which troopers will be going with which fire team?" replied Towers.

"Son, I assure you I'm not going to let you go piss without holding your hand. When its time for you and your fellow troopers to know, I will let you know. Now sit down and enjoy the ride."

"Aye Sir." said Towers mocking the Imperial Navy response. He could tell that kind of irked Snipes, but he did not bother wasting his breath on the private and went back to discussing things with the ASL.

Under his helmet Towers smiled and thought.

{Heh, well at least he likes me. Well guess I better just kick back and enjoy the ride.}

After several hours of flight the pilot stepped back to the Jester troops and noted. "Ladies and Gentlemen.. oh and Jesters too. We'll be arriving at our destination within the hour. Get ready to roll guys."

With this said, the Squad Leader wasted no time in filling in the squad with what they needed to know for now.

"Okay shut up and listen. For a lot of you, this may be your first time out. This is going to be a lite entry, and for those of you that have forgotten, that means DO NOT, and I repeat DO NOT run into this spraying bolts all over the place. No need for the entire base to know we are coming, or that we are even there. Remember that you WILL be outnumbered 6 or possibly 7 to one."

Snipes laid a pocket projector on the floor of the shuttle and the Jesters gathered around to see its images. The lights inside of the dull gray dura-steel shuttle dimmed, and the hologram projected. A blue hue of glowing light bounced from he trooper's armor, making them glow blue as well. The projection was off a star system, one that the Squad Leader was making move by moving his hand over it.

"Okay Jesters, this is a hologram of the Talcene Sector, not of any real importance to you outside of knowledge."

He then poked a yellow dot in the projection causing it to zoom in on a mass scale of several different planets.

"This is a little important, just in case you may want to know. This is the Metalorn System.. ..I'm sure most of you know a bit of the history here, if not study it upon our return."

Alan knew a bit about the Metalorn System, and even more the planet Metalorn. What once was a beautiful tropical planet was ruined by the CIS and even the Empire. Not one of the things he or any Imperials bragged about, but it was a well known fact. There were bits and pieces of its paradise still left, but nothing compared to its former glory. Now that he thought of it, Alan instantly hoped they were not going to Metalorn.

"And this my friends, is the planet Metalorn."

"Fuck.." said Alan out loud, catching everyone's attention.

"You got a problem Towers?" asked Brightstar.

"Ma'am, it just slipped. A bit eager and excited." replied Alan.

"Control yourself Towers, we don't need any of your slips should we get into a firefight."

"Yes ma'am." replied Towers.

"Agreed Towers, but his insight on the planet is correct. This planet is in fact a shit hole my friends. It was once a haven and now a wasteland. Now, on to the stuff we need to know."

Snipes moved the globe around to face the troopers and zoomed in on a certain spot. Rapidly a red box got bigger and bigger until it faded away and the forces of Jester Squad were now viewing a large complex mad up of anywhere from 4-5 buildings on the planet's surface, next to a very large canyon. The color of the hologram now shifted to the actual color of the planets surface, a very desolate orange-red hue. The colors brightened the shuttle's troop bay, and caused some of the troopers to put on their helmets to keep from getting a head ache.

"This is the Rebel base AX1191V, but use to be Tora Gora Prison. This complex is made up of 5 different buildings, each being massive. Many of them are former dormitories for inmates and we believe they have pretty much saved the same purpose since then. Then you have.."

Snipes began labeling the buildings for the troopers and informing them what each building the Empire believed to serve the alliance's purposes.

"Now our LZ is approximately a 1 hour march through the desert. Due to he extreme heat on this planet you guys may wanna keep an eye on your hydration. Once we get planet side Brightstar and myself shall assign Fire Teams and we will give you the final briefing before commencing operation. Understood?"

"HOOOOUUUUAAA!!!" replied the Jesters.

Therex stopped off the shuttle, wearing a spare combat helmet, that only protected the top of his head.

  Better than nothing, he thought, adjusting it.

  He sat down on a rock not too far from, where the shuttle had landed. Checking the level on his blaster, he started to remember some of his training from Csilla. He looked around real quick to see if anyone was watching. When he was sure he wasn't going to be seen, he pulled a couple pieces out of his gun.

  About five minutes later, he started replacing parts of the gun. Some minor rewiring had increased the weapons effectiveness. It my not last as long, but Therex saw it as an acceptable risk.

  Around that time, the rest of the squad started to move out. Grabbing his helmet and knife, he jumped up and ran up behind the rest of the squad. When the squad split, he stood with Snipes waiting for updated orders.

  Another day in the glory of the Empire. Right.