"This is Tyne. Do you copy?”

Mai paused where she had lodged herself in the ventilation shafts. The schematic displayed on her HUD stilled and zoomed in as she did so, displaying her position amongst the network of adjoining shafts.

“What?” She hissed through her teeth.

“We have an idea about what we’re dealing with.” Tyne seemed unpeturbed by her angsty response. “But we need to determine how the virus was carried.”

“Not my problem,” Mai answered immediately, “Get your own team groundside.”

“You’re all we have Sergeant,” Tyne said, his tone finally colouring with frustration. “I’ve cleared it with Katash.  She insists that you co-operate.”

“I bet she does.” Mai growled deep in the back of her throat. “Fine. Likely point of entry?”

“First report came from the maintence block on the third level, but the air reclamation units there are linked all over the station.” Tyne replied. “Katash seems to think it was dropped via the port-side hangar maintence shafts.”

Mai closed her eyes briefly beneath her helmet. She had spent the last ten minutes moving in completely the wrong direction.

“You there?” Tyne’s voice echoed in her ear.

“I’m five-by,” Mai pulled in a deep breath, held it, and then let it slip steadily out between her sharpened incisors. When she spoke again her voice was deathly calm. “But you can tell Katash that she needs to make up her fracking mind.”

“I don’t think-“

Mai cut off the call with a flick of her tongue and slowly wedged herself around so she was facing back towards the way she had come. With the bulk of her armour she only just fit in the shaft. Progress was slow going, inch by inch on all fours. But with the station in emergency lockdown elevator shafts were not an option.

The rumble of blaster fire sounded somewhere above her head, reveberating down the shafts to her right. The echo of battle had been following her ever since she’d left the command centre.  Either the remnant was giving the VE boys a hard time or they were mopping up what was left of their smoking corpses. One way or the other it was hard to care. Even if the whole station went down in flames with both squads on board she would still get paid.

The trip to the hangar was painfully time-consuming. As she went Mai flicked back in to the squad channels. After earsdropping for several minutes she felt some of her trepidition melt away. Both the squads were still alive. Blackjack were still lurking behind, set off-course by the remnant, the explosives still not set in place. Their incompetence would give her the time she needed.

As her HUD flashed in warning, alerting her that she was above her objective, Mai stilled and snapped her pistol up from its holster. Forced to hold the weapon to her chest in the enclosed space, she used her spare hand to manipulate the catch on the grate beneath her. The metal groaned in warning before abruptly giving way beneath her. Mai extended her arms as she fell, bringing to pistol up before her even as her powerful legs bent to bleed the momentum from her fall.

The maintence corridor before her was empty. Mai swept the pistol around in an arc, letting the light mounted on top of the barrel distinguish the reclamation units from the monitoring stations mounted on either wall.  The unit itself was difficult to miss. Twice the size of the stations, it took up the very end of the hallway, its dusted surface dim where the operational lights had flickered off one by one.

Moving quickly to the front of the unit Mai shipped her pistol and placed both gloved hands on either side of the control panel. She ran both hands around the edge of the raised sheet of metal, searching for any strange attatchments, before casting the panel open and leaning forward to look inside. The lights mounted on the front of her helmet flicked on at her command, bathing the interior of the machine in bleak clarity. At first glance nothing seemed out of place. Resisting the urge to curse Katash, Mai forced herself to take another deep breath, then began running her fingers up and down the length of the pipes responsible for transferring filtered air. Almost immediately the bump of a strange device caused her to hesistate.

Dropping down into a crouch, Mai once again used her helmet to zoom in, examining the cylindrical dome plugged into the core pipeline. It was small, no bigger than her hand, its unmarked face bearing a single light with a button next to it.

“I have something,” Mai reactivated her comm. “A cannister of some kind.”

“We can see it,” Tyne replied, his excitement once again evident. “Grab it and bring it back.”

“Wait,” Mai tilted her head, her attention drawn by a flash of red light behind the pipe. She shoved the core pipeline aside and reached for the cluster of smaller pipes behind it. Amongst them, dangling on one side, was another cannister. Unlike the first the light on its side was flashing. Mai gingerly pulled the cannister free and held it up so the in-built camera in her helmet could perceive the device.

“An active one,” Tyne sounded sighty breathless. “Excellent.”

“Patch in Katash.” Mai straightened with the cannister in her hands.

“I have operational clearance Sergeant,” Tyne told her, “Orders are orders.”

“I’m not just another grunt Tyne.” Mai bit back. “The only person who gives me orders is Katash. Now patch her in on the damn line!”

“I’m here.” Katash’s voice sounded. “And no, you can’t.”

“I haven’t even told you what I want to do yet.” Mai replied smoothly, running her tongue over the smooth expanse of her teeth.

Katash’s tone was cold. ““I know what you want to do. And you’re not getting the clearence.”

“The shuttles.” Tyne spoke again, having slowly come around. “You want to lace it into the enemy shuttles.”

“I can make it look as though it was a contamination breach,” Mai continued, her voice still deathly calm. “I can make it look like whatever you want it to.”

“Brilliant,” Tyne interjected. “If we can smuggle diagnostic equipment on board with the virus we can actively monitor its spread. We can also determine method of contraction, monitor the breakdown of core systems and-“

“Enough.” Katash spoke again, each word icy. “We are not deploying the virus.”

There was silence on the other end of the comm. before Tyne spoke again, his own tone heated. “Don’t make me go over your head Katash. You know I can.”

“Then have fun swimming through the intelligence paperwork Tyne,” Havock answered him. “I’ll be waiting.”

During the conversation Mai had once again switched off the lights of her suit. She hovered in the darkness as Tyne cut off communication with a brief snap of static.

“Orders?” She requested, stroking the metal of the pistol once again in hand.

Katash struggled to grind the words out, her anger evident. "Hold position."

Drex pressed the loose remainders of the wall protruding from rough cut hole in the wall before stepping forward into the chucks and gravel left on the other side. Karash already stood in the corridor beyond with Khalldryn who both stood with purpose and ready triggers. Drexhel was assured that this would have caught the attention of someone out there but he had no regret as it marked the end of any covert operations, this stood to his own delight.

The corridor was longer and much less narrow than any previously travelled; it seemed to be a main route of sorts with better lighting. Drex made the assumption that this would likely lead straight to the core of the station. The squad leader was last to emerge from the room behind, as his feet found the ground stable enough his head rotated around the scene then he nodded.

“This looks like a clear route, we need an update on RAIDERS and they’re progress, try to bring up the coms with them, lets finish this already” as his last words travelled from his mouth he’d already walked off to the side of Karash.

Drex brought his hand up to activate the short range coms and with a quick push the channel opened “RAIDERS this is Drex Helban Blackjack ASL, Platoon commander Norith Skarr is requesting a situation update, do you hear me? ” the official tone he took over the com unit left a foul taste of bile in his mouth. 

“We hear you Drex, Dusk speaking, patch us through” Drex tapped a few buttons that made it audible to the squad, he knew how to operate the unit but to him it may as well have been sorcery.

“Skarr speaking, what’s your situation Dusk” he spoke calmly as he meddled with his primary weapon.

“We have Latryl, interrogation begins shorty” Dusk paused for a moment before he spoke again “We have a man on the station network, he seems to think you have a problem, Mox explain”.

“The explosion you guys have set seems to have set of some kind of security measure, you’ve got incoming” Mox said as the background clicking of a console could be heard beneath his fingers.

“What kind of incoming? I thought we crippled them” Drex hadn’t been listening, not until a threat was mentioned “How many? And how much time do we have?”

“They’re coming up as artificial, possibly the stations own defence, looks roughly twenty in number, about thirty seconds ETA”.  Mox replied with urgency “Also we’re picking up the signature of an incoming shuttle, NR signatures”.

Skarr grunted in frustration before speaking “Take care of Latryl and find out what you can about the shuttle, Blackjack out”.

Drex moved up to point with his loaded T-21 and crouched next to Skarr in turn Dac stood beside him and Karash has already been at point since entry. Jamasis took cover a short distance back behind a supply crate, opposite and unparalleled across the corridor was Terre, Therex and Khalldryn. The fog of distance cleared and the corridor was illuminated red, a constant hail of blaster fire, Drexhel could barely see what was shooting as he pulled his own trigger unleashing rapid bolts in return. He could see the barely visible mirroring of his own feelings in the corners of his sight, they would not be supressed and they would not relent, they had become a target gallery. Why aren’t they hitting us? Drex thought as his clip ran dry, he stayed low and moved back as his three forward companions moved similarly while the ranks at the rear covered them.

“Tactical retreat! Stop at check points and gun down what you can, if we stay here they’ll run over us” Skarr roared over the top of the on-going gunfire “there should be a lab back this way according to briefing schematics”.

Drex looked up and let loose a few shots from his DE-10, hitting nothing he could see but instead caught a glimpse of a droid as part of a formation just before a flash of red brought it to the ground. Looking for the source it had been Jamasis who lay prone still covering the forward positions retreat. Drex made it to the back as he banged one of his three remaining clips into his repeater, without hesitation he fired this time with more purpose landing three shots into one of the front standing droids. He then knelt to give cover as Skarr, Karash and Dac joined him to allow the other four to get back.

“How far till this lab?” Drex called out.

“Only a few corridor turns from here” Skarr shouted back.

Drex slid down prone to stabilise his rifle and prepared to give covering fire, yet again with a smile.

OOC:

I've set down 20 droids in total 2 down, for the purose of the bonus objective I think we should use a little foot not for how many are down, we're a few corridors from the lab we're retreating to, damn our blowing stuff up
WC: 801
Droid count: 18

Agathius took cover behind a wall as the group of droids approached. He was getting straight into the fight, in the infancy of his career. It was a genuine surprise to him. Agathius expected that after basic, he would at least be granted a short period of R&R, but it was not to be. Somehow, Agathius disregarded the fact that the Vast Empire had many enemies. New threats against the empire were surfacing every day. There was simply not enough time to give the greenhorns a break.

Unfortunately, Agathius was a bit too naive to see past the Empire's propaganda. To him, service in the military was all about patriotism and duty. The concept that he could be maimed or killed had rarely crossed his mind over the past few months. But it was understandable considering the Private's age. He had only recently passed the stage of childhood, turning eighteen only a few months prior.

The group of droids that pursued them were no match for the squad. The group of twenty droids that attacked them had been reduced to fifteen. Agathius had been in cover for most of the engagement. Peeking out of cover every so often and taking a few potshots. But he had not earned a kill yet.

He moved his head out of cover and spotted a security droid. With the sights of his E-11 aimed at the center of the target, Agathius pulled the trigger five times. The five bolts flew through the corridor and struck the droid. The droid dropped to the ground and futilely attempted to get back up. It struggled on the ground for a few moments, then it deactivated.

It would be the first kill of his career. It wasn't an actual living, sentient target, but it still felt quite satisfying. He wondered if he should start keeping count. But as an infantryman on the front line, this would probably not be possible. This would likely be just one of many kills. Chances were that he would lose track fairly quickly.

He then heard a cry from nearby "Floater!".

He jumped as he saw a flying drone approach. Its attached blaster took several shots at the group. A few of them nearly grazed the young Private, but he was able to jump out of the way in time.

He then witnessed another trooper take a blaster bolt to the shoulder. But before he approached him, he worked with the rest of the squad to eliminate the attacking droid. He fired a couple shots at the droid and it went down a few moments later with the assistance of his squadmates.

He then turned his head to the trooper and shouted "Hey! Are you okay?"

But before the trooper could respond, Agathius noticed that the bolt had only damaged the trooper's armor. He breathed a sigh of relief and continued to fire upon the group of droids.

Sharp marched on her rifle shouldered at all times. Silence was an enemy you could not touch but it sure could leave you with a suspicion that something is behind you with every step you take. Sharp knew how badly silence could turn to a firefight and wasn't going to drop her guard until they were off the station. She was happy when the squad had proceeded to the point where they would find their target. Silent she followed her orders and followed the three other troopers grouped with her.

Sharp was slightly disappointed that the targets had been taken out. That was until she heard her fellow rookie Crimson call over the com that he had found something. Her red eyes fell on the SL as he walked trailed by who she assumed to be Heliwer and Mox. Crimson gestured towards the small screen and then pointed at a door way across the room.

A tingle ran down Sharp's spine when she heard blaster fire and spun around her legs instinctively falling into position. Her eye met her scope and she realized it was one of the troopers killing an enemy. Sharp sighed slightly as she stood up once more. She then turned her attention back to the group at the screen.

"Good find Crimson, Mox get the door open. Raiders get ready to capture our target." Dusk commanded over the com as he marched followed by Heliwer and Crimson.

Sharp looked at her ammunition and nodded and lined up against the door way awaiting the doors to drop and their chance to grab Commander Latryl.

Another trio of the floating droids zipped through the confusion. Khalldryn started to take aim, but the stream of baster bolts arced around towards his position. He dropped back down behind cover as the torrent of fire pattered across the surface of the overturned transport crates. He lifted his head above cover and saw the metal surface faintly glowing from all the absorbed energy.

More blaster fire ensured that his head didn’t stay above cover for long. A moment later he had to shift position as a squadmate dropped into position beside him. The repulsor droids were turning the fire fight. BlackJack had now been forced back into one position and were tightly packed behind cover. The elevated firing position of the floating bots was keeping them low whilst the last four humanoid droids advanced on their position. One grenade could have wiped out most of the squad.

It was not a good position, Khalldryn knew. They were pinned down and relying on Terre and Rex to get them into the lab. If they could fall back, fortify another position and gun down the repulsor droids they would be fine. The problem was that the door was taking time.

“Khalldryn!” Skall called out, his voice crsytal clear in the Barabel's ear despite the noise of the firefight.

“Yess?”

“They still run clay pigeon shooting at the academy for R and R?” Skarr replied, he held up his shotgun to emphasise the point.

“Hah! Indeed! Apt given the situation.”

“Well we're going to give it a go.” Skarr said. Khalldryn considered this for a moment. The sport involved picking off small rapidly moving disks, and the trick was to keep the gun moving with the target and through the shot.

“On three,” Skarr continued. “If they go down, break from cover and bring the rest down.”

“Got it,” Khalldryn replied, and more affirmative responses came from the rest of the squad.

He pushed his back up against the piece of cover and tried to visualise his next moves. In his mind he pictured his stance, felt the weight of the fletchette launcher as he swung it around. Khalldryn considered the layout of the corridors and picked his point of aim. He adjusted the settings on the fletchette launcher for a mid-sized spread.

“One . . . two . . . three!”

Khalldryn pushed himself to his feet, steadying his stance with his tail. The rifle came up in the same motion, the stock pressing against his shoulder and the barrel swung upwards. His heart raced; he had put his whole body in view and made himself an obvious target .

His mind reeled in confusion as he struggled to make out the smoke filled corridors ahead of them. Instead his hunting instincts and subconscious took over. As he swung the barrel infront of him his fingers pressed the trigger twice. He only realised he had seen the floating droids after the sounds of metal shards hitting their round bodies rang out.

Khalldryn lost his bottle and ducked back into cover as he heard Skarr's shotgun blasting twice.

“Are they down?”

“Confirmed, all three flyers down.”

“Covering fire! Spread out and flank them!” Skarr shouted.

As a repeater rifle started firing again Khalldryn convinced himself to get back to his feet. He bounded over the cover and rushed to their left looking for another shelter.

The fog of war, he thought to himself. They talk about it at the academy as if it is something that used to happen when communications were poor. Yet in all the frenetic firing and trying to live another few minutes, I barely know what the squad is doing. I'm trapped in my own little world as hell breaks out around me.

He fired a few more shots towards the droids and then rushed down a corridor on the left, hoping to get closer to flank the droids and also find a position where the fletchette launcher could do some serious damage.

There was a clang to his left and he started to turn, but too slowly.

“Lower your weapons!” sounded another pre-recorded message. “You will be detained. Local law enforcements have been notified of your actions!”

Khalldryn slowly lowered his weapon to the ground and turned to regard the small droid. It held a pitifully small carbine blaster at his chest. If the droid put the weapon away he could charge it. Even then whilst he had the advantage in weight droids could be remarkably strong. He couldn’t see
any obvious weak points to attack on its body, there wasn't even a guarantee that pulled the thing's head off would slow it down.

Khalldryn braced himself for a charge and waited to see what the droid would do next.

OOC:

6 left. Squad was pinned down, so we played skeet with the flying droids and fanned out to take down the rest and claim Havock's bonus before entering the lab...

Dusk aproached the bound man. He now had a breath mask on that he wasn't wearing before the breach. Obviously, the room had it's own filtration system and he hadn't been worried about infection. "Mox," the sergant called. "Get the doors sealed up again. This cool has scrubbers and will be able to remove the virus from the air"

The corporal nodded and got to work. In a short time the doors were sealed and the air scrubbed. Jacen removed the commander's breath mask first and awaited his reaction. Seeing no change, Dusk removed his own helmet; a few others did the same. Slipping on his external comm unit, the SL called into command. "Command, this is RAIDERS. We have the commander and will be working with him shortly."

"Record everything he says Sergant. We need everything in his mind."

Dusk pulled a chair up to Latryl, "Please, sit." The commander did. Pulling up another chair Jacen flipped it around and sat on it, resting his elbows on the back. He pulled out a cigar he'd recently started smoking and lit it with his ever present lighter. Filling his lungs with the smoke, the SL blew it into Latryl's face.

"Ship Commander Tye Latryl, you were an officer in the New Republic military but took early retirement to command this run down pile of bantha poodoo. Can I ask why?" The young man waited a few moments. "Not much for talking are you? Well, I think you'll be quite chatty once we get to know each other."

The sergant retrived the kit one of the new recruits had been carrying. Placing it on a table he opened it up and brought out a multitude of instruments of torcher. Dusk made careful movements to make sure their guest saw each one. After putting each one on display he walked back to Latryl. "So, commander, now you know what's going to happen. Why dont you save us all the trouble and answer some simple questions?" Tye, glared at the younger man. Jacen began circling the Commander. "You're still not talking. How can I convince you?" In a swift movement, Dusk drew his Bullstoper slugthrower and bashed Tye's knee with it. He felt the bone break under the blow from his mechanical arm.
i
Latryl grunted in pain from the sudden blow. "Are there any survivers?" Jacen asked his squad. An officer about three years younger than Dusk, barly old enough to be in the military, he grabbed the man by the uniform and held him up to Tye. "Do you know this boy?" More silence, "No? So you wouldn't mind if I put a cap in him right now?" He held the boy up in front of Latryl and pressed his gun against the boy's head. As the commander blinked, Dusk pulled the trigger. A bullet passed through the boy's skull and out the other side, spraying the commanders face with blood.

Jacen pulled his cigar out of his mouth and held it in his hand. "What is the purpose of the RnD on this station" More silence. Dusk pressed his cigar into Latryl face. He called out in pain. "Answer the gorram question!"

OOC:

I have finaly posted and have begun interogating Latryl.

Agathius kept himself tucked into cover as the onslaught of droids continued to converge upon the squad's position. The continuous stream of bolts kept the Private tucked behind cover.

Agathius refocused his attention upon the oncoming droids. The continual onslaught of blaster fire showed no signs of halting. He stayed in cover, leaving it only every so often. Aside from an occasional potshot, his blaster remained unused.

He began to reminisce, back to his experiences at the academy. Having to crawl beneath obstacles as blaster fire soared over head. Exercises such as those were intended to accustom the recruits to situations like these. The training regimens were supposed to teach the recruits to maintain their composure under fire. He had participated in those exercises dozens of times during basic. As time progressed, Agathius slowly lost his fear and was able to complete the exercise without hesitation. There were few differences between basic and  his current situation. The bolts from the blasters were no less lethal and yet this current experience seemed far more horrifying.

As graduation approached, he would often brag about how many kills he would attain over the course of his career. He was a naive greenhorn. He knew nothing about war outside of the HoloNet films. This would be his baptism by fire, his awakening.

A trooper beside him took notice of this and nudged him in the arm.

"You're not going to survive this by hiding. You need to get into the fight."

Agathius nodded silently and conceived the courage to get back into the fight. He slowly raised his head from cover and witnessed an approaching security droid. The muzzle of its carbine was pressed against Khalldryn. Time slowed as more adrenaline rushed through him. As if by pure instinct, Agathius fired a shot in the direction of the droid. The bolt narrowly missed the trooper and struck the droid in its center mass. The trooper was able to stagger away as a swarm of blaster bolts shredded the security droid to pieces.

His eyes now darted down the corridor at the small contingent of remaining droids. Having suffered significant casualties, the security droids were now attempting to retreat. The droids continued to fire their carbines at the squad as they backpedaled down the corridor. But the droids were no match for the squad's superior firepower and training. One by one, the droids were annihilated by the torrent of blaster fire. Moments later, the corridor was silent. But this was short lived, as Skarr was already relaying new orders to the squad.

"Spread out and search around here. Supplies, information, anything you can find is great."

Agathius nodded and proceeded to search the area. He came across what appeared to be a utility closet. He pulled on the handle to discover that it was locked. He used the butt end of his blaster rifle to force open the door. Immediately he could tell that something was amiss. He slowly entered the closet and felt something brush up against his feet.

He looked down to find a bloodied corpse. The sight of the body almost caused him to scream, but he was able to restrain himself. He looked at the corpse. It was a young man, probably not too much older than him. His face had contorted horribly in his last few moments of life. He flipped the body over to see if he could find anything of use. A small datapad lay under the man's corpse. It appeared to be a personal datapad, used for entertainment. It was unlikely that the datapad contained any useful strategic information, but it would give him an insight into the man's life. That particular brand of datapads contained a journal feature, maybe he could discover the man's identity and return it to his family. Agathius stored the datapad in a pocket within his armor and searched the shelves of the closet. There was nothing of use to them, so Agathius exited the closet and decided to link up with the squad.

“Apparently everyone is going to Rayjoy today.” Havock grumped before taking another swig from her cold caf.

Garryll glanced up from the datapad he was reading, then shook his head and turned to Tyne. Havock had grown tired of the Colonel’s never ending desire to play with viruses. He had chosen the right career field for himself, playing with test tubes all day and pretending he understood the impact of his actions. She always preferred a straight up fight to canisters of sickness sneaking into an enemy’s nostrils.

The New Republic was on the base, there were still straggling Remnant troops, a gaggle of bots, and a partridge in a pair tree were all wreaking havoc on her objectives.

“Look, will the command code work or not?” Havock’s aggravated tone broke into the growing heat of the men’s conversation.

“I think it’s a mistake to blow up a station when we could…”

“Shut up Tyne. Gar, the charges screwed us, will the command code start the self-destruct on that pain in the ass station?”

Garryll nodded. “Yea it looks like they are set, but both squads are holed up pretty bad right now. Raiders only just finished whatever they did to Latryl, and no I did not ask why it took so long nor do I ever want to know. I think based on what I’m seeing they can shut down the bots.”

“Good, Mai can disable the shuttle so our NR friends are staying right where they are.”

“Really General I must protest.”

Havock grabbed a handful of the Colonel’s shirt and slammed him against the console. Her eyes remained on Garryll as she spoke.

“Where is Blackjack?”

The TO’s eyes darted over to the head of Research and Development as he squirmed against the woman’s grasp then continued. “If the bots are deactivated they can make it back to the shuttle and make sure the way is clear for Raiders.”

“Excellent, send out the commands. Raiders deactivate the bots and run to the hanger, BJ get to the hanger. They may have some NR troops to deal with but the objective is retreat. I want them a safe distance before we initiate the self-destruct.”

A muttered grumble of a voice came from the console. “You damn meat-head, we should bring back samples.”

Garryll nodded to Havock and started barking orders into his comm.

“Colonel, the assholes I’m paid to kill are using germs to fight their war. I am not stooping to their level, we are not them. You got technical data on the germs from Mai, that’s all you get for Life Day this year.” Her fist released his uniform tunic. “Be grateful the paperwork involved in shooting you is more than I can bare and get out of by CIC.” 

OOC:

RAIDERS will use the code they got from Latryl to deactivate the Bots and start the self-destruct sequence. Blackjack double time when the bots drop to the hanger, once there secure our transport and ensure that there has been no sabotage. Raiders get to the hanger ASAP. Once the shuttle is a safe distance the station (and hopefully everyone on it) go boom. The next chapter will be up by Sunday Night so let’s tie this one up guys 

Agathius exited the closet and returned to the desolate corridor. It became apparent to him that he had spent a much longer time within the closet then he had previously thought. By the time he had returned, the rest of the squad had already regrouped and stood in formation, eagerly waiting to move out. The image of the dead man in the closet still stuck with him. The disease had resulted in significant disfigurement to the man's face and yet something about the man's face seemed vaguely familiar. The datapad that the man once owned still lay nestled in the Private's armor pouch. He would find answers soon enough.

"So did you find anything?"

Agathius hesitated. The odds of the datapad containing anything of importance were slim, but chances were that the intel division would like to take a look. And yet, some part of Agathius wanted desperately to discover the man's identity. He knew that he had seen that man some point during his life. He needed some closure. He was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.

"Uh, nah, it was just a bunch of cleaning supplies, it's of no use to us"

The inquisitive trooper detected his hesitation.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I've checked every part of that closet, there's nothing there"

With the entire squad assembled, Skarr gave new orders to the squad. They were now being ordered to fall back to the hangar. This new development brought much relief to Agathius. He had seen enough horrors on board this ship to occupy him for a lifetime. The images of bloody, disfigured corpses would likely haunt his nightmares for years to come. He nearly laughed, recalling how only a few days ago how desperate he was to get deployed. And now here he was, paralyzed with fear like a small child. But of course they weren't in the clear yet. The presence of New Republican forces was still a possibility.

The squad began to navigate through the endless corridors that led to the hangar. They were being ordered to expedite their retreat, the destruction of the ship was imminent. Their timing was crucial now, Blackjack could have the ship set to self destruct at any moment now. Agathius was taking point now, moving down the corridors, passing by the bodies of the dead and whatever they left behind. As they made their way towards the hangar, alarms went off, drowning the ship with a deafening blare.

“Self-Destruct has been activated. Please remain calm and head to any of the pre-designated evacuation points.”

Agathius began to sprint now, knowing that they had little time left.

OOC:

RAIDERS

RAIDERS were quickly traversing through the various corridors. Locked in his environmental suit Mox felt somewhat safe, but if they were late for the shuttle, no amount of armour would save him. He just hoped that the self-destruct sequence took long enough for them to manage an escape. Looking behind his shoulder he saw Crimson and Anival dragging Latryl. He slowly raised his eyebrow, questioning the integrity of the Commander's suit and thus if it was worth the effort, but in the end he concluded that taking him was a good try, regardless if it ended up being futile. They haven't finished their interrogation, and so taking him was the best chance they could have at gathering the valuable information.

Occasionally hopping over dead bodies, keeping his carbine high, Mox anticipated for the enemies to show up around every corner. The NR shuttle was bound to have at least 10 or more soldiers, but the young Corporal did not feel the need to get into a firefight. The stench and slight green mist were nerve-wrecking enough, and now with the alarms going on, the irritatingly calm synthesised voice and the red lights going off everywhere, it was even worse.

Suddenly Dusk stopped them, as they reached an intersection. Being also in front along with him, he could see the reason why. A group of soldiers, in sealed envi-suits was passing in a parallel corridor, about 20 meters left of them. Shaking his head, Mox knew they had to wait them out, otherwise they were risking casualties.

“Why don't we just kill them? Mox should have some more of these EMPs, right?” Heliwer asked through the ComLink.

“We can't engage ourselves and risk staying here longer than we should. We're trying to evacuate, remember?” Dusk said, as he peeked outside, onto corridor from which the enemy could be seen.

After a few moments, the danger has passed and so RAIDERS started moving again. Dragging Latryl was somewhat slowing them down, but the two RAIDERS handling him weren't too soft for him, and so they managed to keep a quickened tempo. After 20 minutes of uneventful walk, Mox could see the blast doors of the hangar.

“Finally...” he muttered to himself, as he saw the gateway to their freedom.

“Pilot, this is RAIDERS. We're coming in, open the blast doors.” Dusk ordered through the ComLink. The gates slowly opened, and by the time RAIDERS were by them, the doors were open fully.

“Get him into a contamination cell, if we have one. If not, just throw him into one of the closets and lock the door.” Dusk ordered pointing at Latryl with him thumb.

“Aye, aye.” the pilot said, as he took the half-conscious commander from the two RAIDERS dragging him.

“Are the BlackJacks back yet?”

“Not yet.”

Dusk nodded, thinking.

“RAIDERS, take defensive positions in the corridors in front of the hangar. If BlackJacks run in guns-blazin' I want you to cover them!”

OOC:

WC: 501
We're in the hangar, preparing for BlackJack's arrival.
Short post, mainly due to lack of things to write about. Perhaps some CD would be in place, but I don't think the context is appropriate for reflection.