The Final Resistance

Raziel sat back into his reassuringly uncomfortable chair and pulled it up to his desk. As he did so the small, folded piece of paper that sat under one leg keeping the chair level came lose. The chair rocked back and Raziel cursed under his breath, he pushed the chair backwards, toppling it and knelt in front of his desk. He had applied for a new chair some months ago.     Ah the luxuries of officer hood he thought to himself. He began sifting through the piles of paperwork sprawled across his desk. As well as the usual paper work that he usually promptly ignored he now had various forms to fill in about the changes in structure of Raiders squad. Instead of using a datapad to sort through all the files that needed arranging Raziel preferred to have everything printed on paper, if only so he could spread it across his desk and lose most of the tedious forms.     His datapad flashed and beeped before he had the chance to begin pretending to fill out forms. He sighed. Raziel frowned as he picked up the datapad, reading the curious transmission. First of all it wasn't regular army chit chat, but rather a highly encoded message.     "Mmmm . . . lack of manpower . . . consolidation of forces . . . commissioning of new training program . . . All-Environment-Training, AET . . .extreme climates . . . Raiders squad . . . trial new procedures . . ." Raziel mumbled under his breath as he read the message.  Interesting, he thought, Obviously we're planning on going to some rather interesting locales soon. Well trialling a new training program couldn't hurt Then Raziel recalled his own sickening experiences in drop-ship training and realised he had thought incorrectly.     He looked at his paperwork once more and yawned. His comms system alerted him to an incoming transmission then, saving him from having to actually do some work. The alert noise told him it was a high level transmission. He put the call on hold and made sure that the door to his office was secure and had a quick check of the room before opening up a signal. Old habits died hard.     "Surface Marshal," Raziel saluted, immediately recognised Fury's face. Through old training Raziel noticed that Fury's features had the heavy-set look of a hard working bloodline, farming stock or industrial worker. Raziel had never really thought to ask exactly where Fury came from, but you could tell a lot just by the physical attributes of person if you knew what to look for.     "Lieutenant, what's the current status of Raiders squad?" Fury asked promptly.     There's no chit-chat here, straight to the point. It's time for business. Raziel thought. He stretched up towards the ceiling, flexing all the muscles in his body in a sub-conscious reaction to knowledge that action would shortly be required.     "The squad is still below full Strength, Mara is still on leave. Currently they're doing some urban training at the new facilities." Raziel replied. The army had recently created a purpose built training facility, specifically to simulated the 3D urban environment of many planets still in the VE's path, including Corucsant itself. The army had spent most of its time fighting in back water planets and lightly built areas and the high command wanted to be prepared.     "Get them ready for shipping out immediately. We have a small problem that requires Stormtrooper attention,"     "Oh?"     "Remember we left a small Republic force alive on Moorja?"     "Vaguely," Raziel replied.     "Well they've started causing trouble, they haven't been starved out and they've holed themselves up in some strange rock formations,"     "What the problem with bombardment?"     "We're doing that now, but they've built deep under the rocks and their defences are resisting conventional attack,"     "What's the problem with poisons, or heavy explosives?"     "You'll see when you get there, my man who requested assistance will brief you fully."     "Understood sir, we'll be ready to ship within two hours,"     **********     A week later and Raziel found himself asking the same questions of a regular forces captain on Moorja itself. Raiders were lined up behind him, fully kitted up for battle and ready to go. A massive bombardment was going on of the Republic base so they had taken shelter in an underground bunker so the stormtroopers could be briefed.     The Vast Empire had swept over the surface of Moorja some months previously, destroying almost the entire Republic army. A few companies of Republic soldiers had retreated to hidden defences in the rocks where they had slowly been starved or routed out. For some reason one group was defying the Imperials and Raiders were here to rectify the situation.     "Basically they've created a deep bunker in the rock formations here, the cliffs behind them stop us surrounding them and the rock is extremely resistant to damage around these parts. Light bombardment has had little or no effect and these natural defences," The Captain indicated a wall of rock surrounding the bunker. "Give them outer walls to defend themselves from,"     "How many men have you sent forwards so far?"     "Well we made several attacks a few weeks ago, we got mauled by heavy fire and had to retreat. In our largest attack some of our forces broke past their outer wall and made it to their underground base. They were quickly forced out, but they reported of a network of tunnels dug directly into the rock, maybe two or three levels deep. Like a nest of rebel scum,"     "Right what about gas?"     "Prevailing winds make it more than a little hazardous,"     "Tunnel under them?"     "We tried, they have a deep tunnel network that is filled with mines, set to blow when vibrated too much, or upon sensing close life forms, I don't know. Either way I lost a lot of good men and machinery when we tried to tunnel in,"     "Right . . ." Raziel replied. There was a brief pause."     "Well, what's the plan?" Jakrieth put in.     "Ok we've been putting them under heavy bombardment for a week now, they haven't been able to climb out of their little holes since. We've managed to wipe out most of their E-web nests with guided rockets and even damage some of their fortifications. If we're lucky we may have caused some of them may have been buried, but I doubt it." The captain began. "In the darkest part of night we'll cease the bombardment again, we're then going to rush their defences. First of all will be a group of local militia we grouped together, they'll be distracting the defences. The main attack will be two platoons of men, spearheaded by yourselves and another Stormtrooper squad, the Panthers. If you make it past the outer wall we'll send forwards reinforcements and then we'll try and clear them out of their underground tunnels."     "Won't they know the attack is coming?" Cyanus observed, showing his experience.     "No we've been stopping and starting the bombardment all through the week, just to keep them on their toes," The captain grinned.     "What sort of defence did they put up against the failed attacks?" Raziel asked.     "A good one, they spread out through the rocks, first of all thinning our ranks with heavy fire, then engaging at close quarters amongst the rocks. We're expecting heavy casualties tonight, but with Stormtroopers at the front . . . " the Captain's voice trailed off. "I'm going up, I'll leave you all to prepare,"     "Right," Raziel started. "This is not going to be easy. This is the last bastion of Republic forces on the planet and the only surviving soldiers are going to be tough. They're going to put up one hell of a last stand, but we need to have to kill every last one of them.     "Right equipment. Other squads will be providing covering fire so we need no heavy weapons in these conditions, A-280s will be a bit bulky for underground tunnels. Instead we'll be using E-11 carbines with bayonets, this is going to be messy. If anyone is trained for and wants a heavy weapon, take a cut down T-21 repeating rifle, that's the largest I can safely allow. Pass around these concussion grenades, we'll need them to clear them out of their holes," Raziel looked at the under-strength squad, feeling guilty to send then into such a horrid mission as his first command.     After gearing up the Raiders headed for the surface, where the noise of the bombardment was deafening. The rock formations the Rebels were hiding in were located just over a kilometre from where they were. Explosions lit up the ground in the dead of night, revealing a trench network that the imperials had dug to within five hundred metres of the rebel base.     "See that outer 'wall' of rock?" the Captain shouted over the noise. He pointed at a semi-circular, hundred metre stretch of rocks in front of the rocks the Republic soldiers were hiding in. "They'll have men all across that wall the moment we cease firing the guns, you'll have to fight then their before you can get to their tunnels,"     Raiders squad looked at the defences, noted how the explosions were doing nothing to the rocks themselves. Raziel knew what they were all staring at, the five hundred metres of open ground between the trenches and the rebels.     "How quick can you run that fast?" Zar asked.     "Just keep your head down and follow me, you'll be fine," Raziel replied. "Repeater fire will stop them from mowing us down, you'll see," Though he wasn't so sure himself, even from this distance he could see places where a rebel repeater could be mounted to fire on his squad without return fire.     A few hours later, in the darkest hour of night, and the squad were at the closest trenches, waiting for the time to come. Raziel felt the reassuring grip of a combat knife, tightened his fingers around it. In the other hand he held one of many pistols, this one a fletchette launcher for clearing the rebels off the rock wall.     "Here it comes," Raziel whispered, hearing the last round of artillery fire. A round of explosions rocked the ground beneath them.     Then with a hush over them, no loud commands, no shouting, they leapt from the trench and charged . . .

Initial mission: Clear the republic defenders from their outer wall of rocks.
Primary mission: Enter their underground tunnel complex and eliminate every last rebel soldier.
Equipment: E-11 carbines with bayonets. Concussion grenades. 1x T-21 light repeating rifle (Barrel cut down)

 
-----------------------
+ Advance Recon Commandos {ARC} +
PL:A/1LtRaziel/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE/{EW1} (WoS1) 2x(VP:1) {IG} {CDS} {BoA} {PoC} {BC} {GRoM} {SoS}
Assistant Squad Leader - Squad4 Wraiths
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989.

"God does not play dice with the universe" - Albert Einstein
"Who are you to tell God what to do with his dice?" - Bohr
"God does not play dice with the universe. He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time." - Terry Pratchett
CM/DJK Raziel/lion 1-5/Krath/VEDJ/VE (WoS1) (VP1) (VP2)

Zar moved forward following the rest of the squad. Moving cautiously he made sure to be alert, he didn't want screw up on his first mission. He was looking forward to this for a while, but he didn't expect this though. Raziel signaled for the squad to move forward, but something caught Zar's eye. He saw someone behing him take cover behind a rock. He turned around and moved forward quietly keeping his E-11 raised ready to shoot the rebel scum that was hiding there. Suddenly out of nowhere one rebel ran accross the field. Zar took aim and fired. The shots just missed his head.
"Dammit" he thought to himself. Realizing where he was and where he was supposed to be he started to run back to the tunnels. There he saw who appeared to be the same rebel going in one of the tunnels. Zar quietly followed him through what seemed to be a maze of dark hallways. "So this is their little hidout. Pathetic" he whispered.
"Hey you! Over there. Get him!"
Zar quickly charged forward running towards the group of enemies taking out their blaster pistols. One came from behind and opened fire. Zar grabbed one of the rebels by the neck and snapped his wrist so he dropped his pistol. Bolts of heat whizzed by Zar's head as he took cover behind his human shield as he aimed and fired a flurry of shots barely hitting any of them. He couldn't see so he decided to try something else.
"Drop your weapons or I'll kill him!"
The rebels stopped firing but did not drop their weapons.
"Do you think I'm kidding? Drop your weapons now!"
Zar heard the clatter of weapons being dropped on the floor. " Sucker", he thought to himself as he advanced still holding his sheild close to him. In one action he threw the rebel he was holding into the one in front of him then turned around and shot the other one behind him. Moving forward he bashed the enemy remaining in the back of the head who had bent down to pick up his weapon. He searched the bodies but all Zar found was a comlink and  a fragmentation grenade. He took the frag grenade and the comlink then walked forward deeper into the tunnel. Someone had to have heard what just happened. Zar reached for his wrist communicator. "Raziel? Raziel come in. Jakireth? Anyone?"
No answer. Great, he thought to himself. Well, it was no use going back outside, he would probably be pounded by repeater fire. With any luck he would meet up with the rest of the squad somewhere inside. In the distance he heard blaster fire. Yes, he thought to himself as he ran down the tunnel.
 
-----------------------
Private First Class Zar Mulix
TRP/PFC Zar Mulix/3SQD/1PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/VEA/VE [LoR]

"When the big man jumps, the world shakes in terror"- Zar Mulix
"Experience does not exist, nor does it have value, for it is just a word used to describe our past errors."

Continuation: Infiltration of Underground Rebel Tunnel Network

Jakireth cleaned the barrel of his blaster and the edge of his bayonet with a cloth he kept hanging from his belt, it somewhat calmed him to cleanse his weapon of the dirty Rebel blood that had recently stained it. In their current line of work, you need an outlet from killing others, because it can and will catch up with anyone who pulls that trigger, even if it can somewhat relate to killing itself&
Jakireth laughed at the though: Ahhh well, at least I'm trying
Raziel suddenly spoke, everyone could tell he was thinking about something, and that "something"" was bothering him
"Lets hope we can all stay together, I really want to have each others backs in these tunnels, the Rebels have a better advantage than we do here. They know the ins and outs, and how to seal the enemy in, and we unfortunately are the enemy from their perspective.""
"He's right"" Jakireth responded accordingly, and the others added in their means of approval.

In that moment, the Raiders changed course to match with the winding network of tunnels, and just then, their worst fear was confirmed.
"Damnit..."" Cyanus swore under his breath, but it was definitely loud enough for the squad to hear, he made sure of that.
The tunnel had suddenly split into two right in front of them, which meant that they had to create two teams from one if they were to effectively clear out all remaining Rebel forces that might be hiding deeper in the base.

"Well, you all know what has to be done: Zar, CJ and Zhannik are with me, the rest of you can go with Raz. If there is any blockage within the tunnel, attempt to blast through or come back to this area and move into the tunnel we're covering. We'll do the same if the situation arises. Alright, lets move."" Jakireth said confidently.
With that, they all made a move for the tunnels with their respective parties, knowing that splitting the squad up is the worst possible thing to do at the moment, short of shooting another trooper.

Once inside the tunnel, the squad members Jakireth was currently leading all stopped for a quick rest. The journey within the tunnels was extremely tiring, and it added to the puzzling idea of how the hell they actually dug them anyway.
When they were all situated, they all started exchanging plans and ideas to overcome certain problems they might encounter inside the enemy base, in that time, CJ had managed to sneak away. Apparently, he had heard blaster fire (that conveniently no one else heard) and ran off to either help the other team, or eliminate any Rebel forces. When the team realized, they alerted Jakireth and let him go on ranting about sticking together.
"How did we not see him?!?, come on, a full grown man walking away from a group of fully-trained stormtroopers...When we get back home, we are all getting our eyes checked."" He laughed at his attempt at a joke, although the situation they were in was not a humorous one.
Zar stood up and the rest of the team followed hastily. "Come on guys, the faster we find CJ, that better. One less team member brings our strength down immensely, and that is the last thing we need.""
"Agreed, lets move guys"" Zhannik stated confidently
The team moved on through the tunnel, with the spotlights from their rifles shining brightly against the dark, grimy tunnel walls. After they had walked a ways on their current course, Jakireth suddenly shouldered his blaster, and aimed it into the dark, although it looked as if he knew for sure what he was looking for. He put his hand up and motioned the team to move forward, they all did so and followed his path ahead cautiously. He then shut off his blaster spotlight and edged near the wall of the tunnel, the others did so almost immediately after.
The seconds after that illuminated the tunnel greatly, not from standard light, but from the sparks that were flying away from their blaster barrels. The team took out 7 Rebel soldiers that were positioned 15 yards away in the tunnel. For some reason, they thought it would be a good idea to sneak around in the dark with Imperial troopers moving in on their position, never a good thing to do.

"Oh damn, what if they captured CJ?"" Jakireth said as he switched his blaster light back on and slid the lever to its highest level of intensity.
"If they did, it wouldn't be to hard to get information out of him, he might be a stormtrooper, but he hasn't been around long enough for anyone to know exactly how strong willed he truly is."" Zar replied
Jakireth remarked confidently: "Well, we know the Rebels and their pathetic attempts at torture techniques, I doubt they could pull anything that would be able to make him talk, and besides, we're not even sure if they got him. We should be prepared for the worst, but this current situation just makes us work less effectively. Lets just continue on, and see if we can find him, I'll let Raz and them know whats going on so they can look as well.""
Zar and Zhannik agreed by shouting words of approval while Jakireth fussed with his ComLink.

"Raz, this is Jak, we have a little problem here..."
The ComLink responded with the familiar sound of white noise, which was never a good thing. They must either too far underground, or the Rebels had sent a jamming signal, both did not appeal to Jakireth. Now they were not only away from the team physically, but now they were unable to brief each other about certain situations and problems, not to mention one squad member is currently gone and hasn't been in contact with the rest of the squad for at least one hour.

"Lets hope this doesn't get any worse, and right about now, the only plan I have is to keep advancing until we meet up with the others. That unfortunately is our only option at the moment, so lets just do it."

The team lifted their blasters and placed the scopes in front of their eyes, advancing through the tunnel and keeping an eye out for any enemy forces. They hoped that the network would reunite the Raiders once again, but at that point, no one knew for sure. . .


  -----------------------
Private First Class Jakireth Cadrimos
Army of the Vast Empire
FTL/PFC Jakireth/3SQD/1PLT/1CMP/1RGT/1BAT//VEA/VE[LoR]

"Courage and bravery are your two primary weapons on the battlefield, without them, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to prevail"-Jakireth Cadrimos

Continuation: Jakireth's Fire Team continues to advance through the tunnel network and meet with the others

    An explosion rippled through the corridor like passage the team was standing in. The force from the explosion took them all back a few steps and when they were all situated and done removing the dust from their respective uniforms, Zar muttered the words sonic grenade. The rest of the team nodded in agreement, and they all took off sprinting through the now narrow passage.

About a hundred yards back, the tunnel shortened and the walls became lined with what looked liked a projectile resistant material, which meant something else what being kept beneath those walls, like power conduits or communications equipment. Jakireth made a mental note, and continued on. The passage suddenly bottlenecked to form what looked like a security checkpoint. The team slipped through the area with the utmost stealth, and continued towards the area the explosion was most likely set off. Jakireth moved up ahead of the rest of the team, and peered around the corner. He grinned as Raziel's eyes and his met, and glared as the Rebels surrounding them tried to move in closer. Jakireth kept one hand on the rifle, and lifted the other giving a signal to the rest of the troopers. They all crouched down and quickly moved across the tunnel passage. Jakireth moved backwards and whispered into his ComLink: "Raz, whenever you're ready""

The room was instantly filled with the scream of a Rebel soldier having his throat slashed by one of Raz's splinter pistols, and the rest of the squad followed his actions, along with Jak's fire team. Within seconds the Rebels had been defeated, and the squad looked on to see if more were coming. The noise that was just made would definitely attract enemies.

The squad all turned back to each other and exchanged words of praise.
"Did you see that one Rebel's face when my blaster round hit him? I wish I had a camera..."" Zar said as he nearly danced along with his words.
Jakireth shot a look of confusion Zar's way, and said:
"Yeah.....well then. Anyway, I lost communications with the above ground forces, the only way I was able to contact you with the ComLink was the short distance between us, I've been trying to get this damn thing working for hours. Anything you wish to add?""

The look on Raziel's face was the least bit reassuring, something bad is going to happen, if it didn't already...
"Well, I've been able to hear bits and pieces of conversations held above ground, looks like they sent a couple hundred more troops in after us, and then realized that it might be harder to flush the Rebels out then they thought. So if they don't have contact with us in a few hours, they're going to flood the tunnels with explosives, and well....you can figure out the rest.""

Jakireth sighed and lifted his blaster:
"If they need to talk to us, then they will. There must be something underneath those panels, why the hell would you put armored tiles on tunnel walls? They're still not strong enough to resist full on explosions, so they must be there to help against stray small arms fire. If there is communications equipment in there, someone might be able to rig it up into a makeshift Com booster, so we can really figure out whats going on"."

The rest of the squad nodded, and moved along the corridor as quietly as possible in order to avoid any unnecessary contact with the Rebels. The area they moved into was very much unlike the tunnels they had braved for the last god knows how many miles. The squad was finally allowed the simple luxury of light, since the tunnels before were equipped only with unknown species of insects and a grimy substance that made the ground slippery.

It was reassuring to know that other troops were on their way, but not many receive the training the Raiders have. Most troopers are right out of drill, so pulling the trigger on anyone who's not wearing Stormtrooper armor is all they basically know.

Well, so much for a reassuring mindset... Jakireth thought

He could tell the rest of the squad wasn't thinking the best of their situation either, he could see a pattern of random grimacing and angry looks appearing on the squad members faces.
The passage they were walking through opened up in front of them, and it revealed a section of doors and lifts. A slight whisper was heard above them, and they could all hear their names called one by one until the noise disappeared, and CJ appeared in front of them after jumping over a partition on the floor over the squad.

"Hey guys, don't know how we got split up, I went chasing after a few Rebels and couldn't figure out the way back, they disappeared in a concealed section of the tunnel and I followed..."" CJ was interrupted by Jakireth:
"What the hell possessed you to run off after Rebel soldiers by yourself? I don't know what profession you were in before joining the Empire, but we work in teams here. There are a ton of things that could have gone bad because of that decision, I hope it doesn't happen again.""
"I know, but are mission was to eradicate all Rebel forces right? I was just making sure that was going to happen..."" CJ replied
"I don't care what happened, stay with your team!"" Raziel added sternly

Zar sighed, then spoke: "I'm glad we're all together again, but lets move. If the Rebels have security cameras in this section, they're already up to speed on our position and can have soldiers on their way as we speak, we need to keep moving"."

The squad lifted their blaster rifles and sweeped the area, taking everything of usefulness they could possibly find. Jakireth managed to dismantle a communications grid he found on the upper level of the section, and started soldering wires together on his ComLink with a electronics pack that Revan was conveniently carrying. The makeshift ComLink was no where near anything a self-respecting soldier would carry around, but it was functional, and that was all that mattered in their current situation.

Raziel and Cyanus walked over to where Jakireth was standing, and they watched as he switched the piece of equipment on, and spoke into the mike:
"This is Jakireth from Raiders squad, we are in the lower levels of the Rebel main base..."" The three waited for a response, and Jakireth repeated the message 2 more times. When no message was heard, Cyanus grumbled and said: "Maybe that was a jamming signal, now there's no way to let the commanding officers above ground know that we made it, they still might think we were captured, or possibly dead...""

"Well if that's true, then they're going to try and eliminate the Rebels by flushing the tunnels with explosives or gas in a matter of hours. I'm guessing that if we don't make contact or get out of these tunnels by nightfall, we're all dead. One squad cannot compare with the safety of the entire Empire, even if we are Raiders."" Raziel said softly

The entire squad fell silent for a few minutes, thinking that they might not make it out of this mission in one piece, or out of it at all. It was difficult for the squad, especially for the newest members. The Empire didn't make a good impression when you're sent on your first mission, and well....die.
"Sitting here and worrying about it isn't going to help anything, lets just keep going until we find the equipment that is sending that signal, and kick some Rebel ass in the process."" Jakireth said suddenly, his words were laced with confidence

With that, the squad continued clearing the area they were in until they were able to move into the next section. Time was a precious thing at the moment, and the squad knew that they had to move fast, and get the jamming signal off-line ASAP. If the above ground forces continued with their plan before they know that troops were still alive down inside the network, their would be little chance of survival. . .


Current objectives:
-Move through main Rebel base and eliminate any renegade forces
-Take jamming signal off-line by destroying communications equipment deeper within the base

  -----------------------
Private First Class Jakireth Cadrimos
Army of the Vast Empire
FTL/PFC Jakireth/3SQD/1PLT/1CMP/1RGT/1BAT//VEA/VE[LoR]

"Courage and bravery are your two primary weapons on the battlefield, without them, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to prevail"-Jakireth Cadrimos

Me too okay, Jak

 
-----------------------
Darkness is one way to Life and the Light leads to death and that is why i am Dark and Immortal!!!!!!!!!
HaHaHa!!!!
Surrender to the Darkness you are weak to resist and Strong to Bask in the dark energy!!!! HaHaHa!!!

Within moments the veteran rebel soldiers were back on their heels. From what Raziel could see there weren't very many of them around, maybe a hundred or so, but they were using their numbers effectively. If the raiders tried to counter attack, the rebels quickly formed up and pushed the Raiders back with concentrated firepower.     "They really are quite good," Raziel admitted under his breath.     "That's the room!" Zar shouted. Indicating a set of blast doors ahead.     "Get it open, everyone else covering fire," Raziel shouted.     Raiders quickly formed up around the door, taking what cover there was, Raziel stood protectively in front of Zar, taking aim with a stolen rifle. The first rebels that had been sprinting after them in pursuit were greeted with a hail of blaster fire and dropped instantly.     The rest of the republic soldiers approached more cautiously and the Raider soon found themselves boxed in by blaster fire.     "Grenade!" Jakrieth called and hurled forwards a frag grenade, buying them a few seconds.     "Door?!" Raziel shouted.     "Done," Zar replied, and sure enough the blast doors behind them shot open.     Cj and Napleon covered the door as the rest of the squad fell back. Seeing their opportunity the rebel soldiers surged forwards. Unabated, they let loose and blaster bolts filled the air around them. Napleon took a hit to the leg and went down on one knee. Raziel could only watch and the next three shots hit his chest and dropped him to the floor.     Raziel quickly reached out and grabbed CJ by the arm. He wrenched backwards and pulled CJ through the door, pausing only to shoot the controls outside the door.     "Doors!" Raziel shouted. Zar pressed down on the activation plate and the doors snapped shut, Raziel just caught a glimpse of Napleons body before the doors shut between them.     "Right," Raziel started, looking around, "Are there any other exits from this place?"     "Yes!" called jakrieth from around a corner.     "Right, keep that door open and guard it, its our only way out. Zar try and intercept any republic transmissions, CJ, see if there's a map or anything anywhere. Revan come here," Raziel said, heading for the communication equipment. He typed some codes into a console. "Stand here with your blaster pointed at this console, I've just entered Imperial channels and codes, if there is any sign of them coming through that door, blow it up!"     "Understood,"     Raziel stayed at the console, with Revan behind him, pistol resting on his shoulder.     "This is Raiders, code 04215,"     "Code 56498, channel open," came the reply. They were through, there was a brief pause as a comm tech on the surface patched them through to command.     "Raiders? Where the hell have you guys been?"     "We're down," Raziel paused to check his instruments, "3.2k under the surface,"     "How in the name of the Emperor did you get down there? We've only reached 1.6k down so far."     "We stumbled across a lone tunnel that led down to a complex much lower down, what's keeping you all so long?"     "They've started using sonic mines and grenades to collapse corridors around themselves, my casualties are mounting quick, we've already lost panthers. They seem to know this is the end and they're determined to take as many of us with them as possible. I'm afraid I'll be moving over to plan B soon. Sorry,"     "Understood, by the way we'll be resuming normal communications again soon, any interference you've been subjected to will end soon as well,"     "Good work soldier, hope you can make it out," The channel went dead and Raziel quickly erased the codes from the console.     "Sir!" CJ shouted from across the room. Raziel turned to see a huge holomap illuminating the room. he immediately recognised the complex 3d array as the tunnel network they were in. Raziel headed over to CJ's console.     "Look sir, they have another way out!" Sure enough 4 kilometres beneath the surface was a long, straight tunnel that went on for 15 kilometres. At its end was an elevator shaft connecting it to the surface.     "That comes up at . . ." Raziel started.     "The Imperial storage complex. Its all down here, log times for journeys etc. There's a tram down there, must have been built before the invasion. Its got five seats and enough cargo room to take all of us out of here," CJ said bringing up diagrams of the tram.     "Where is the tram now?"     "According to this it's still here at the base, it hasn't been moved for days, its not suitable for evacuation though, each journey takes twenty minutes and at a push they could fit fifteen men inside." CJ said, reading off information from the republic computer.     "Sir?!" Zar shouted from across the room.     "CJ, download that map and plot all possible routes from here to that train, see if you can find out about where most troops will be located . . . What is it Zar?"     "Managed to get into their comm system, I can listen in on any communication now. Unfortunately most of it is in battle code. However there have been a few things I've worked out.     "Go on,"     "Seems like they've got sonic mines all over this base, by the sound of it and I'm not entirely sure here . . ."     "keep going"     "Looks like they want to bring this whole place down around them."     "Any idea how soon?"     "Sorry sir,"     "Right so we're going to be flooded by gas, or caved in?" Cyanus asked     "Yup, CJ you have those maps?" Raziel shouted, the squad sensing his urgency were hustling around now, picking up any weapons or ammunition lying around and preparing their weapons.     "Sir!" he replied affirmatively.     "Hey got something handy here!" Revan shouted, brandishing a bandolier of sonic grenades.     "Excellent, pass me one of those. As for the rest: as we descend to the train collapse the corridors behind us. Jak, is the other exit still clear?" Raziel asked.     "Yes, Sir," said Jak, not looking up from down the length of his rifle's sight. There was a loud bang on the door behind Raziel.     "Ok we're going to make a break for the shuttle down below us, we have around two miles of narrow tunnel and a few hundred rebels all around us. Stick close and move fast. Go!" Raziel said. Jakrieth covered the exit as the Raiders filed out. Cyanus took the lead, with CJ just behind him shouting out directions. Raziel waited for a moment in the communications centre, priming the grenade. He pulled out some wires from a console and rigged up the sonic grenade to blow as soon as the blast doors were forces open.     He picked up his splinter pistols and hurried after his squad. As they descended deeper underground they heard a high pitched wail of a sonic grenade, followed by a crash as the communications room was buried under a few tonnes of rock.     Immediately afterwards communications resumed with the forces aboveground. Raziel's datapad displayed a final encrypted message.     3 minutes until we have gas canisters in place, should take another 5 to reach the lower levels, good luck. His datapad then automatically started a countdown         2:57     "Go! Go!" he shouted over the top of CJ's directions.

  -----------------------
+ Advance Recon Commandos {ARC} +
PL:A/1LtRaziel/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE/{EW1} (WoS1) 2x(VP:1) {IG} {CDS} {BoA} {PoC} {BC} {GRoM} {SoS}
Assistant Squad Leader - Squad4 Wraiths
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989.

"God does not play dice with the universe" - Albert Einstein
"Who are you to tell God what to do with his dice?" - Bohr
"God does not play dice with the universe. He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time." - Terry Pratchett
CM/DJK Raziel/lion 1-5/Krath/VEDJ/VE (WoS1) (VP1) (VP2)

The First mistake they had made, Raziel reflected as he moved around the rebels position, was that they had chosen to hide within the darkness  that was his own hunting ground. Secondly they had now spread themselves out to avoid the repeating blaster fire. This meant they wouldn't notice their numbers thinning until it was too late.     Raziel appeared as only a shadow as he moved around into the midst of the rebel soldiers. From here he looked back at his own squad, if he was unlucky one of his own squad could end up shooting him. He unwrapped a length of long carbon-nanotube wire from his hair and wrapped the thick ends around his hands.     He moved to within a few feet of a rebel soldier, even without the loud noise, the darkness and the smoke, the soldier would not have noticed Raziel sneak up on him. In these surroundings the poor soldier had no chance. Raziel paused for the opportune moment, then quickly sprang forwards. The micrometer thick wire went over the soldiers head and Raziel pulled it forcefully back into his neck. The thin wire cut flesh so easily and sliced all the way back to the soldiers spine. Raziel dragged his silent victim back a few feet and laid him on the ground.     When Raziel looked up he noticed another opportunity. He dropped a small blade into his hand. One of the rebel soldiers was about to move position, as he did so Raziel launched the small knife forwards. The knife struck him in the side, the rebel soldier rolled to the floor in the open. Wounded, the soldier tried to get to his feet, but CJ dropped him with a single shot.     Raziel believed he could now slip through the rebel group unnoticed, and unless a Raider accidentally shot him, thin the rebels down to a few men. Then he saw Jakrieth make a break for the tram. He had to dive to the floor just to avoid his own squads cover fire.     Jakrieth nearly made it, however just as he was nearing the door a republic soldier dropped a few blaster shots in his path and Jak dived to the floor. Raziel could only watch as Jakrieth rolled along the floor. Several rebels opened fire on the prone soldier, but somehow Jak kept moving. Unable to get through the tram door, he slid down into the gap between the station and the door  down under the tram.     There were only around fifteen rebel soldiers left, but they still had the better position and more guns than Raiders. Raziel quickly realised that he could see no way for this stalemate to be broken in the Raiders favour.     Even as Raziel crept unnoticed between a pair of rebel soldiers, heading for what he thought was the squad leader, a group of rebel soldiers broke away and made a run for the tram. He thought they were going to make it, they were almost at the door and Cyanus had only managed to bring down one of them as he swivelled his E-web around.     But then Jakrieth popped up from under the tram again, between them and the door. The five rebels were running single file towards Jak, he shot the first in the chest and he fell back onto his comrades. In a moment it was over, with Jakrieth blocking their way and being exposed to the raiders firepower. The odds were evened. Jakrieth took the opportunity to pull himself up into the tram and head for the controls.     The rebels could only watch as the tram pulled slowly forwards to right next to the raiders. But Raziel could see that his squad were unable to all pull away from their cover. Whilst most of the squad had made a jump for the tram, Cyanus and CJ were left trading fire with the rebels.     Raziel reacted quickly. He memorised the position of all the obstacles around him and the rebel soldier positions, he memorised a route to the tram and a precise serious of movements to get him there. He covered his eyes with a bandage and pulled a small sphere from his pack.     The sun-sphere was a small concoction of chemicals that produced a blindingly bright light for a few seconds when introduced into the atmosphere. Raziel dropped the sphere to the ground. Instantly a blinding light exploded out from the centre of the rebel position. Raziel heard the cries of the rebel troopers around him as they tried to shield their eyes.     He ran forwards, only knowing where he was going by memory. He slashed out with his knife whenever he heard movement nearby and twice was pleased by the feel of it striking flesh. He feet pounded on the floor as he rushed forwards towards the tram, knowing that he was in the open and that the light would fade soon . . .     But where he thought the door was he crashed into something and felt himself falling forwards. He rolled to his feet and ripped the bandage from his eyes. He found himself on the tram, along with the rest of Raiders squad. CJ was sprawled on the floor just inside the door, where Raziel had blindly collided with him.     "All on board, get us moving!" Cyanus shouted.     "We're going!" Jakrieth shouted from the control panel just ahead. Zar stayed by the door, he fired off a few last shots as the tram sped away from the station.     "That wasn't any normal flash bang!" Someone commented, but before Raziel could reply Zar interrupted.     "Wait! They all ran for the tracks as we left, even as there was no tram there!"     "Did the computer say anything about a spare tram!?" Raziel quickly enquired of CJ.     "Not that I saw,"     Raziel rushed to the rear window and sure enough spotted another set of headlights rushing up through the tunnel towards them.     "Jak, Speed up!" he shouted, but it was too late. "Brace yourselves!!"

 
-----------------------
+ Advance Recon Commandos {ARC} +
PL:A/1LtRaziel/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE/{EW1} (WoS1) 2x(VP:1) {IG} {CDS} {BoA} {PoC} {BC} {GRoM} {SoS}
Assistant Squad Leader - Squad4 Wraiths
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989.

"God does not play dice with the universe" - Albert Einstein
"Who are you to tell God what to do with his dice?" - Bohr
"God does not play dice with the universe. He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time." - Terry Pratchett
CM/DJK Raziel/lion 1-5/Krath/VEDJ/VE (WoS1) (VP1) (VP2)

Continuation: Tram on course to evac elevator.

"You have got to be kidding me,"" Jakireth said as the events occuring began to take their toll on his attitude, "Look! Another tunnel and...""
He cut himself off as another tram sped in front of them, this time with a stationary weapon at its tail.
Cyanus swore loudly as 4 dozen blaster rounds barraged the left side of the tram where he was standing.
"We need some heavy weapons fire, if they keep that up..."" Raziel was interrupted by an enemy round racing past his head, "...if they keep that up, we aren't going to be able to reach the elevator with this thing intact"."

"Raz, you might want to see this"" Jakireth said as he pointed to the onboard scanner, "looks like we were wrong about this tram, it is connected to the entire base via an extensive track system with various stations and stops along the way. We're coming up on what looks like a supply station, I can slow this thing down and let someone out, grab a weapon and board again.""

Raziel nodded his head approvingly, but Jakireth then added:
"There's a slight problem, we have a heavily armed enemy tram ahead of us, if we stop long enough to grab a defensive weapon, they might gain the advantage in making it to the elevator first.""
"We'll have to take that chance, if we don't, they'll send us off the track anyway with that blaster fire. Not to mention, we might encounter other Rebels as well.""
"We're approaching the station, any volunteers?""
Jakireth noticed the squad was listening to their conversation and was already aware of what was about to happen. Unfortunately, no one seemed very thrilled with the news.
Raziel made an attempt at a smile and said "CJ...run...""
Zar started to laugh but ceased immediately after noticing Jakireth and Cyanus were glaring in his direction. CJ dropped his blaster and waited for the tram to slow. The others watched in suspense, and Raziel kept one eye on the enemy tram speeding away from their position.

Jakireth nodded at CJ, "if you're going to go, nows the time""
CJ sighed and leapt from the tram, running along side of it. Jakireth didn't slow completely because it wasn't worth the time to accelerate the vehicle from a total stop.
Jakireth looked around cautiously as something caught his eye.
He then shouted suddenly: "Someone take the controls!""
Cyanus was there instantly and guided the tram along at the same speed, while Jakireth jumped off the tram shouting orders:
"CJ, grab that case near the edge of the station! Hurry!""
Jakireth watched as CJ made his way to the specified case and darted in another direction. Without any noticeable difficulty he lifted another larger cargo case and tossed it in the tram.
CJ came sprinting from the other end of the station with the specified case in hand.
"That's it, lets move!"" Jakireth yelled
With that, the two of them jumped onto the tram. The others watched as they stood up and dusted themselves off.
Raziel shouted at Cyanus: "Alright Cy, get us going again. Full speed!""
Zar greedily opened the cargo cases, one revealing a surplus of ammunition, another containing 4 light repeating blasters.

Despite the name, the blasters were by no means 'light'. If handled correctly, a soldier could tear through another vehicles plating, which was exactly what they planned to do.
Jakireth and Zar removed 2 blasters and tossed them towards Raziel and CJ, then of course taking aim with their own.
The tram cabin was then filled with the reassuring 'click' of power packs sliding into their respective weapons.

As if on cue, the enemy tram came into range and the Raiders opened fire, surprising the Rebels with their newly found fire power. The Rebels were soon disabled, and their stationary weapon in disarray.

With their enemies greatly damaged and on the verge of derailing, the Raiders morale suddenly increased, but then dropped again after everyone got a look at Raziels face. Just then, the message they had all been dreading appeared on the squads helmet displays as well and read:
'Warning-Air levels are now dropping and contaminated with unknown substance, seek access to fresher source or quarantined facility. Air will reach fatal range within 2 minutes.'
  -----------------------
Lance Corporal Jakireth
- Raider Squad -
Fire Team Leader
Army of the Vast Empire

"Faithful to the end..." Raiders squad motto