Hades clasped his hands together and then spread them outward, cracking his knuckles satisfyingly. His black gloves muffled the sound, making them sound as if they were crunching, as opposed to cracking. A trainee next to him winced and glanced over at him, an expression of pure distaste on his face.

“Didn't your mother ever teach you manners, boy?” The trainee, an army recruit three years his senior asked him. Hades turned his piercing green gaze to the trainee, his expression one of cold apathy.

“I ran away from my parents the day I learnt to run. I lived off the street with little to no help, as a toddler. I survived among the dirtiest, most ruthless criminals you'd ever meet, in the underworld of Nar Shaddaa. So, to answer your question, no, my mother did not teach me manners because I was learning instead how to survive.” His expression remained blank and the army recruit fell silent, turning his gaze instead straight forward, becoming stock still. The recruit was obviously sorry he had said anything.

'Why was Hades in a room full of Army trainees?' one might ask. The answer was because the course he had chosen to take was employed mostly by Army personnel.. rarely was a Navy crewman present on these types of simulations. Hades smiled to himself as he recalled the NCO's stunned face when a Navy Pilot had put his name down on the roster for the Infiltration test. Infiltration was second nature to Hades, having grown up on the street, needing to steal food to survive. A flash of memories suddenly clouded his vision---

---The window eased open quietly, but not quietly enough. A youthful-looking Hades cursed to himself, as a creak emanated from the old window he had just eased open. Hades immediately froze, green eyes keenly surveying the dark room around him – there was no-one inside, but Hades paused anyway, head cocked to the side, waiting – listening. Sure enough, a few seconds later the sound of gentle footsteps pattered down a hallway outside, and the door slid open, a hand held glowstick causing shadows to flicker in the room, through the open door. Hades climbed back out the window carefully, bracing himself against the frame of two adjacent windows.. he looked downward and saw the 4 story fall that awaited him if he lost his grip on the window frames. The footsteps came closer to the window, so close that Hades heard the sound of laboured breathing through the partially opened window. He held his breath, heart pounding in his chest.

He was sure that the pounding could be heard by whoever was near, and would give him away.. but still he held his breath, not trusting himself to breathe quietly enough. 10 seconds passed, then 20, 30, 40.. Hades was running out of breath. He closed his eyes, willing himself to hold on when suddenly – the sound of the footsteps could be heard walking away. The young Hades heard the door slide closed again, and he exhaled deeply in relief, taking several deep breaths. He then levered himself around to climb back in the window, swinging his legs over the sill and landing quietly on the balls of his feet. He could feel that the floor was made of some sort of synthetic material, designed to be quiet and comfortable. All the better for him... he moved forward, into the darkened apartment room. His keen eyes could make out a kitchen bench, with a storage device of some sort built into it. This would obviously contain the food Hades sought.. but his eyes moved past it, onto a piece of art that hung slightly askew on the far wall. It looked like an expensive piece of art and it was relatively small too.. Hades bit his lip, pondering whether or not he should venture deeper. After all, he had come here for the food. He made up his mind finally and padded forward in a half crouch, placing each step gently, testing the floor before he put his weight on that foot.

He looked up at the painting – it was now less than 3 meters away – and as his right foot came down, he felt an obstruction. He immediately froze, keeping his weight on his left foot, balancing. He looked downward, and saw a model Star Destroyer at his right foot. He allowed a quiet sigh of relief to escape his lips. He gently lifted his foot off the model, and placed it slightly forward, avoiding the small replica. Taking two more lithe steps, Hades was at the painting. He smiled as he looked over it.. very nice indeed. He lifted the painting off it's mounting silently – and discovered, much to his surprise, a hidden compartment  behind it. How cliché.

The compartment was not locked, all it required was a gentle push and then, with a quiet hiss, it slid open to reveal a pile of credits, 3 blaster rifles, and two blaster pistols. From his experience, Hades could tell they were illegal. He hesitated for a split second, before slinging one of the blaster rifles over his back, grabbing a handful of credits and stuffing them in his makeshift pack, before finally attaching the two blaster pistols to his waist with their holster-belt. It was a little big for Hades, and the blasters slapped against his thighs as he moved. Hades sealed the compartment again, retracing his steps to the small kitchen bench. He was careful to avoid the replica Star Destroyer this time, treading around the kitchen counter and pressing a button on the storage compartment, careful to keep in a half crouch, allowing the bench to shield him from any sudden guests. He pulled out several tins of what looked like Imperial rations. Hades smiled; these were good – light, easy to carry and above all, full of nutrition. He stuffed them into his bag with the credits and made his way back to the window, careful to seal the compartment before doing so. Taking one last look around the room, Hades climbed through the window, easing it closed once more. He braced himself on the frames again, and looked upward. He was two stories down, and had a bit of a climb.. but this was the easy part. The 'hard' part was over---

---Hades was snapped back to the present by an unpleasant looking drill sergeant barking an order at him.
“Crewman Hades! Are you deaf son?! I said you're next!” Hades was careful not to react, instead nodding fiercely.

“Yes Sergeant! I am ready to take the test!” the words came out of Hades mouth, sounding more enthusiastic than he felt. The Drill Sergeant gave a contented nod and gestured to the door that led to the preparation room. Hades stood and strode confidently from the seating area, into the preparation chamber. Three Sergeants waited inside, dressed in all black body armour – matte black. Hades began suiting up himself, taking a lighter suit of armour plates over his black jumpsuit. He placed the helmet over his head, eyes flicking over the HUD. They had been given an hour briefing on the armour systems, and Hades felt confident that he was ready. He took the silenced blaster from the table – just for show, as there would be no combat involved. One of the Sergeants approached him.

“Do you understand the risks involved in the mission ahead?” he asked Hades, to which Hades nodded. “and do you understand the mission objective?” to which Hades again nodded. “Very good. Myself and  Wildcard 3 will be your teammates for this exercise.” The Sergeant gestured to the shorter of the three. “Wildcard 1 will be overwatch. He'll be keeping an eye on your performance as well as providing mission intel.” Hades again nodded. This prompted a frown from the sergeant – although Hades could not see it.

“You don't say much, do you?” the Sergeant asked rhetorically.
“Just enough, Sarge.” Hades responded. The Sergeant grinned slightly and nodded.

“Alright then, let's go.”  The Sergeants led the way out the door, into the darkness of the night. Hades immediately switched to night vision, and looked around. He knew what he had to do. He and two of the Sergeants brought their weapons into the ready position, resting against the hollow of their shoulders. The third Sergeant – Wildcard one – sought a vantage point nearby. Their objective was nearly a kilometer from their present location. The three – Hades, Wildcard 3 and Wildcard 2 – proceeded over land quickly and quietly, hugging the deepest part of the shadows whenever possible. The sound of repulsorlifts could be heard on the wind, and Hades dived into a ditch, crawling as deep as he could get into the shadows. The two sergeants had done the same.
Hades' earpiece buzzed slightly, and the cool voice of Wildcard 1 came from the miniature device. -It is your mission from here on out. I'll be giving Operational Intel as you go, watching your progress. Do you copy, over.- Hades inclined his head, toggling his microphone.

“Roger that Sergeant. I read you loud and clear. Proceeding to objective now, over.” Hades spoke in a hushed tone. -Copy that. Good luck. Wildcard 1 out.- Hades smiled at the Sergeant's last remark.
“Hades out.” he responded simply. The sound of relpusorlifts had faded already. Hades pointed three spread out fingers forward, indicating that he and the two sergeants should move forward in a loose formation. Tight formations were always easier to spot.

After another few minutes of progress, they had been making good speed, and their objective was in site – a brightly lit compound, with a flag hanging in the middle. Several prefab quarters had been set down, with a few inches between their floor and the ground, Hades noted. He checked the grappling hook on his belt and kept moving, falling into a crouch as he got within visual range, sticking to the dead ground wherever he could. As he got within 100 meters, he fell into an army crawl, moving through the ditches toward the transparisteel barrier surrounding the compound, there was only one gate, and it was too heavily guarded form them to get in.

A spotlight roved constantly, flickering over the ditch ahead of Hades. He froze, waiting for the spotlight to move on.. it did eventually, and he continued his crawl, occassionally glancing back to monitor his teammates' progress. They had mimicked his own movements, following his path through the dead ground. Hades got to the base of the transparisteel wall. There was a duracrete slab at the base, approximately one meter in height. Hades grinned, knowing that it would be easy to hide behind it, as the transparisteel above it provided no cover whatsoever.

He lifted his head, glancing over the duracrete and into the base. He could see a break forming between two patrols – one had lagged behind and the other had kept going, making the gap longer than usual. But they didn't have time to grapple.

“Give me to fusion cutter! Now!” Hades gestured urgently to Wildcard 2, who complied instantly. He waited until the first was passed and turned the fusion cutter to low, so it would not spark brightly. A repulsor vehicle arrived at the gate, attracting the attention of most of the patrols. Hades began cutting urgently through the thin tranparisteel, creating a neat circle through which a man could dive.

“Go, go!” Hades gestured through the hole; Wildcards one and two dived through, bringing their blasters up immediately. The patrol had lagged behind even further, talking with the driver of the repulsor-vehicle. Hades dove through the hole last, rolling to land in a crouch. He quickly turned and placed the round piece of transparisteel back into place, applying a tiny layer of sticky explosives around the edge to keep it in place. Improvisation was not hard for Hades.

He looked around, saw the patrol beginning to come toward him. He ran in a half crouch to the nearest prefab structure, diving under it. He was biding his time, wildcards one and two were under an adjacent prefab building, doing the same.  The patrol crunched past, several meters away. Hades motioned for Wildcard 1 and 2 to stay put, sliding out from under the building, coming up in a crouch. The flag stood exposed in the middle of the compound. Hades cursed again silently – how would he avoid being seen while the flag was in the middle of a courtyard, brightly lit and with patrols everywhere? He could create a distraction, blow up the sticky explosives.. but that would compromise their escape route. Suddenly, it struck him. He felt around on his belt, grabbing his grappling hook. It was one of the new models, that had a sort of claw, instead of just a hook. Good for  grabbing onto vertical surfaces.

But Hades would have to time the claw just right. Luckily for him, the flag was hanging limply, as there was no breeze tonight. Hades rested on one knee, mindful of the patrols, and aimed his grappler at the flag. He wasn't even sure if this would work. He pressed the fire button, sending the claw whizzing toward the flag.. he heard a feint ding as the claw struck the pole. As he heard the ding, he immediately pressed the 'grab' button, and the claw latched onto whatever it could find. Hades squinted – Yes! - it had latched onto the flag. Hades wound it in slowly, pulling the flag away from the pole to which it was tied. The grappler strained, stopped by the firm rope. Hades cursed, and ramped up the pull. A satisfying snap was heard, and the rope fell limp as the flag whizzed toward Hades. He hooked the grappler and flag onto his belt, quickly rolling under the building again. He gestured happily at Wildcard 1 and 2, and they returned a thumbs-up. Another patrol crunching by snapped Hades out of his jubilation – they still had to get out.

Hades smiled – he had just the tool to do this. He waited for the next patrol to go by, and rushed to the hole in the transparisteel, kicking the circle outward. It was not held very strongly by the sticky explosives, and so collapsed outward. Hades turned and gestured for Wildcards one and two to hurry after him. They did so, diving through the hole. Hades waited a few seconds, then tossed a 30 second delay stun grenade into the middle of the courtyard – a powerful throw, sending it sailing above the buildings and clanking onto the courtyard floor, centimeters from the flagpole. On second thought Hades quickly primed a 20 second live grenade, and hurled it after the stun grenade. He dived through the hole, sealing it up again, and looking at his chrono.. when it reached 0:10 until detonation.. Hades spoke quickly.

“Move!” He sprinted away from the compound, still in a half crouch. A loud BOOM emanated from behind them and Hades, Wildcard 2 and 3 dived into a hole.. they had made it approximately 35 meters from the camp, and turned to watch the flagpole lean lazily, before toppling completely. Soldiers rushed to the center, seeing the commotion, where they were met by the longer timed stun grenade. A sonic wave rushed through the troops – not injuring them, but disorienting them. All spotlights turned inward, believing the attackers to still be inside. Hades and the Wildcards sprinted into the shadows, not resting until they reached the first place they had taken cover.
“Good work, Crewman. A bit sloppy on the escape, but mission accomplished, over” came wildcard 1's calm voice over Hades' headset.
“Thank you sergeant..” He said, switching to quieter tone “Could have used that operational intel...” he mutterd.

“What was that last? Please repeat, over” Hades grinned.
“Nothing sergeant. Over and out.” Hades and the two other sergeants made their way back to base and were shortly joined by wildcard 1. Hades took off his helmet, wiping the sweat from his forehead as they entered the preparation room.
“A good time.” Wildcard 1 told him. “Smashed the times of all the Army kids” he said, a little disgruntled that a Navy crewman would outshine someone from his own division.
“Yes sir. Thank you sir.” Hades kept his grin from shining outward.

“We'll look over your performance and let you know if you've passed or not..” Hades kept his frustration from showing as well – 'he had completed it in less time than anyone, and they still had to decide whether or not he passed?' he thought to himself. He let out the slightest of sighs and nodded.
“Very good, sir.” He said evenly, and turned crisply, walking off to the 'freshers.. he badly needed a shower..

OOC:

Word count: 2,850 on the dot. A bit long for an Ancillary skill, I guess.. but I got carried away with the story. Hope I pass