“Keep an eye on him, Kait. He’s too valuable to lose,” Skarr ordered. In truth it had nothing to do with his worth to the Empire at all. It had to do with what he was worth to Skarr. Anival had been a steady friend for as long as Skarr had known him. The man did not deserve to die this day. Parts of his armor had been thrown off in smoking heaps. His real hand was missing two or three fingers, Skarr had not quite checked closely. And Anival’s prosthetic was almost completely gone.

The rest of the squad kept working on cracking the codes and gathering the information they needed. Skarr and Gorm kept and eye on the door, watching for any sentries. Lancer was working on the main computer, fingers flying over the keys. The others were busy collecting what they could. The squad leader watched them grimly. His chrono was counting down. It was almost time for them to complete the objective they had been ordered to complete. This meant traveling to the command center as soon as possible.

“Leave the rest,” he commanded. “Torch the place.” Eclipse squad blasted and destroyed every monitor and tower in the room. After that was done, Skarr found that Kait and Zippy had constructed a makeshift cloth gurney to carry Anival on. Aneshi and Edgter were the ones chosen to carry him. The man had yet to regain consciousness. Hopefully he would soon, preferably before they reached the command center. The Sergeant Major ushered the squad out of the security room, leaving the smoking consoles behind.

***

The command center lay just ahead. Skarr told the two young troopers to set the gurney down. Anival had since awoken, but Skarr insisted that they carried him the rest of the way. He would barely be any use in the fight to come. The squad leader had Eclipse huddle together.

“Alright, the battle plan is simple. Kill anyone who isn’t leading the operation. Take the leaders prisoner or kill them if they decide to shoot at you,” Skarr explained. The squad nodded enthusiastically. They each had more explicit orders, most of them involved where Anival was supposed to go and what he was supposed to do. Bernadette and Drex pulled the double doors open slightly, only to be introduced to a hail of blaster bolts. Luckily, the door was not open far enough to admit them in. Skarr tossed his last thermal detonator through the gap in the door, allowing the two troopers to close the doors again.

The squad leader heard the gratifying calls of terror from inside. This was followed by the boom of an explosion. This was Eclipse’s clarion call. The doors were kicked open and the squad funneled into the circular room, taking up cover as the mercenaries inside recovered. Skarr spotted more of the exo-suited guards. And they each looked as if they toted different weapons. There were two of them, and Skarr could see they both had different weapons. They each looked equally nasty and powerful.

All hell broke loose in the command center as blasters began firing. The first few mercs went down easily in a hail of fire. The first exo-suit stepped forward, bearing his gun on Skarr. The squad leader tried diving out of the way, but the concussive force that the gun fired hit Skarr almost straight on. The squad leader flew across the room, hitting the wall behind him. He tried fighting it, but his vision darkened and he lost consciousness.

***

He slowly regained consciousness to the sounds of blaster fire. The fight was still going on, and Eclipse needed Skarr. But he ached all over. He didn’t know what the gun had did to him, but his muscles felt dull and dumb. When he looked down, he seen his armor had literally crumbled away to dust. It surprised him and he tried to muster his thoughts on how that would be possible. Perhaps enough sonic energy would disintegrate armor. Either way, he tried moving to his feet.

It was a tough going, but Skarr managed to get to his feet. He seen that most of the mercenary force had been eliminated and one of the exo-suits were down. Another thing Skarr noticed was the most puzzling. The room was covered in ice. His squad was sliding from position to position trying to take out the last exo-suit and the remaining mercenaries. The exo-suit left was the one who had shot him. And he was currently facing away from the squad leader.

Skarr noticed that there was some kind of pack on the exo-suit’s back. He hoped it was a heating or cooling system. He raised the blaster and fired three shots into the exo-suit’s back. The hulking figure fell forward from the force of the explosion. It had been something important, that was for sure. He noticed a man running from the scene of battle. Skarr’s helmet marked him as a positive I.D. for Cartias, Fikk’s assistant.

The squad leader took his shot, taking the man’s knee clean out. He watched as Cartias fell, by now, Eclipse was finished killing the remaining mercenaries. Skarr hobbled up to Cartias, grabbing the man by the collar of his shirt, lifting him clean in the air.

“Where are the others, you bastard?” Skarr questioned.

“Gone,” Cartias spat, “No longer on the base.” The Sergeant Major shoved the prisoner into Zippy’s arms, allowing the man to cuff him.

“Base, this is Eclipse One, hostage secure. I repeat hostage secure. Prepare a med exfil at the arranged rendezvous,” Skarr spoke into his comm. He stood a little straighter to give more orders to his squad when his head began to feel fuzzy once more. Perhaps, that gun had done a lot more to him than he thought. His head swam and he once again fell into blackness.

***

When he came to once again, he was on the shuttle leaving the atmosphere. “What the hell?”

“Relax, Skarr,” Lancer said, comfortingly, “You’re going to be fine. The medic said something about residual effects or some such stuff. Either way, the objectives are complete and we’re heading back home.”

“And Anival...?” Skarr asked.

Lancer looked extremely grave. “I’m sorry, Skarr...I...he...he,” the tall man began laughing almost uncontrollably, “The son of a bitch will pull through Skarr. He’s a tough guy.”

The squad leader was glaring daggers at the ARC trooper. That kind of joke did not sit well with him. “You’re an ass.”

OOC:

This is the kind of post I hate making. The one where I have to tie up a lot of loose ends and stuff. So I left parts blank. I wll be mucho happy if someone in the squad would fill in the blanks before midnight tonight. Squad, you have about 2 hours before the story closes for good. Happy HSC to you guys, you did wonderful.