Frustration flowed through Zafo and it was quite evident in the way he carried himself as he ventured towards the first, most logical place to check for sabotage, the power core. He had a decent knowledge of vehicle sabotage from his own experiences. Back before he joined the Empire, he was known for his unconventional tactics and methods for a capturing and occasionally eliminating his targets. He had never been on this side of the problem though, and there many different ways a vehicle, especially as big as an AT-ST can be rigged to explode or dangerously malfunction.

Zafo peered into the small compartment and searched for any obvious explosive or foreign object. At a quick glance, everything seemed to be all right. Kario's hypothesis did make however, complete sense. Why would Gio's captors leave Kairo, Sam and Zafo the three walkers? It just didn't add up right.

Next, Zafo checked out the wiring and circuitry. All the wires could have easily been slashed, not letting Zafo and Kairo start their walkers to begin with. They were up against a more clever, dangerous adversary. Gazing at the power core, Zafo could tell something wasn't right; he just couldn't put his finger on it. He began to go through the engines process step by step to try and see if he could find a problem.

"So it starts here...goes through these absorbers...into this here amplification chamber..." Zafo thought to himself as he continued to scan for problems "...then it should go to...wait a second...that's not right..."

Instead of going to a second amplification and distribution box, the thick wires that were fed the vehicles power from the core was not attached where it was supposed to be. Zafo's eyes followed the cord through the mess of wires and let out a curse as he saw where it had been reconnected; to the power cell itself. Binding it in place was a small, watch sized explosive bearing an insignia.

Another stream of curses escape the Sergeant's mouth as he took off his glove to feel the power cell; incredibly hot. This time Kairo noticed;

"What'd you find?" Kairo demanded quickly. It was quite obvious he was just as stressed with the whole situation as Zafo.

"The power cell..." Zafo said drifting off. This was too close for comfort. Had the walkers been running for not even a minute longer, there would have been a mighty display of fireworks and two huge scorch marks on wasteland's surface.

"What about it? I haven't noticed a problem yet." Kairo answered

"Follow the red absorption tube, and you'll see what I'm talking about." Zafo replied

Zafo heard Kairo gasp and emit a couple of curses, after it sounded like he too, took of his glove to give the cell a feel.

"That was close." Kairo said, sounding a bit shaken

"Too Close." Zafo added

"Whoever did this to us," Kairo began "Knows what they are doing. We have to assume there are many other undetectable, creative methods like these..."

"They are criminals." Zafo cut his Squad Leader off in mid sentence.

"So it would seem." Kairo answered, sarcasm seeping through the comlink.

"I worked for them before." Zafo added, monotonously. His mind shifted and recalled him that he was in a simulator "The real them anyways."

"They are pirates." Zafo continued "They refer to themselves as The Spiders. Not much is known about them except that they have executed many big raids on both imperial and new republic commercial convoys. There secret based is rumor to be around this system, but I highly doubted it actually was. Then again, in a sim, anything is possible."

Kairo was momentarily quiet. "How can you tell it was them?"

"That small, watch sized thing with the spider on it are one of their trade-mark weapons. Very easily concealable, with the disadvantage of being very easy to deactivate. Simply pop off the front panel, then cut the yellow wire."

"Yellow?" Kairo inquired

"Yes, yellow" Zafo confirmed as he too popped open the small explosive and cut the yellow wire.

"If I somewhat know these guys&which I do. This defiantly isn't the only thing they did. They always do at least three things. Luckily, I know a lot of their secrets..."

With that, Zafo began checking and explaining various things the Pirates may have done to sabotage the brand new, but simulated walkers...   

 
-----------------------
~ZaFo
*DarkDragoons
+ Advance Recon Commandos {ARC} +
ASL/SGT ZaFo/2SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE
~Keep on Rocking in the Free World

(Hey guys, sorry for being gone so long...really busy.  I think a lot of people will agree with me when I say that I hate school.  any, I'm back, and I'll be trying harder to stay in touch.)

Dinin, or Dragon by nickname, was alone in a barren, wintery wasteland.  He wasn't technically alone, because of the comtech's Slash and Marcus, but how much company can they keep?  Not much.  But he didn't have time to focus on that now, he had orders.  As soon as his squad mates left, he set about trying to reinforce the defences of their ship.  He surveyed what could be worked with.  Sam and Gio had done a decent job with the E-web and F-web, but the fact that they were only technicians showed blatantly.  Having actually trained in heavy weapons, Dinin saw that the guns had been set somewhat badly, and that they hindered eachother's effectiveness.  Plan forming in his quick mind, Dinin set to work on the cannons.  Only minutes later, he was satisfied with them.  By moving them only a couple of feet, he had optimizied their firing range, and allowed them to cross their scans over eachother, which was very good.
   
    Finishing that, he set about perimeter defences.  He had the benifit of only having to gaurd one door, so his task was not an especially hard one.  Taking some of the sheets of metal from the kits, he made a type of dome over the door, that extended 10 ft out in all directions.  The metal was about 2 in. thick and would serve the purposes of defence.  He did, however, put an average quality blast door in the side, just in case.  Doing it by himself took longer then he had expected, over 2 hours.  But just as he was starting to head inside, he remembered something.  He had to make it so that they could take off at a moment's notice.  And you can't really take off with a defencive structure bolted to the side of your ship.  Thinking about what he could do, he drew a blank.  As he stormed inside, his foot jambed into a box of small explosives.  Cursing with built up frustration, he hopped about for a second, then stopped, thinking.

    As he inspected the explosives, he figured out a solution to his problem.  There were some minor plasma mines in this box.  Smiling, he picked up a hanful and went back out into the dome.  Carefully, he placed a mine at each bolt, and set them to remote detonation.  Laughing at the bolts in their futile attempt to stump him, he walked inside and quickly became bored.

    "Kairo...Come in Kairo...do you read me?"  he asked into his comlink.

    "Loud and clear, but we have problems, what do you need?"

    "I fixed up the defences like you asked, what now?"

    "Nothing, Darkness is falling, so we are coming back in a bit, we'll update you when we get back."

    The comlink crackled off.  Dinin scoured the ship for something to do, finding nothing, he settled for his favorite pass-time, tinkering.  He never looked it, but he liked to tinker with things, take them apart, see how they worked, and put them back together.  Even though it was a sim, and his creation wouldn't be real, he decided he needed the practice.  Again searching the ship, this time looking for spare parts, he found a lot of potentially useful things.  Sitting down with an array of various items ranging from lenses to power packs spreading accross his floor.  He took out his pistols, and layed them aside, he didn't want to mess with them.  They were his greatest acheivements in tinkering, and he didn't want to make them otherwise.  Through shear luck, he had doubled their firing rate and increased their power output by 50%.  He still wasn't sure how he had done it.  Instead, he brought his newly issued E-11 rifle and disassmbled it.  looking through the parts, he removed any that dissatisfied him.  What he removed was the standard-issue focusing lens, the standard-issue power pack, the grip, the stock, and the barrel.  This left little to work with, but that suited him just fine.  Looking around, he found a power pack that would fit his needs, it was about twice the power of the standard-issue, but slightly smaller, making it much better for practical situations.  His choice in focusing lens was a lens that was thicker then standard, allowing for a stronger blast.  The stock he replaced with a long rifle stock.  The barrel was 1 1/2 ft long, with a notch for a silencer.  He set to work with these components and produced a semi-ready rifle.  Thinking off the top of his head, he grabbed a top of the line scope and slapped it on to.

        What he had in front of him was a really good sniper rifle.  Dinin had tripled the power output, and increased the accuracy by 200%.  What he was, was satisfied.  Quickly making mental note of what had been used, he decided he would have to try this out in the real world.  Finding nothing more to do, he turned on his datapad to a music program and played rock tunes for a while.

  Kairo was alone inside his walker. He had told Sam to stay in Zafo's walker while they moved back to the dropship. Emotions had run through him like wildfire. First sending waves of fear, then doubt, finally ending with a small furnace of anger that he would unleash on whoever held one of his most trusted troopers. Giovanni had been of the first to readily accept Kairo as their squad leader when Kairo rejoined the army after his year of roaming the galaxy. Naturally, he felt that the original people in the squad when he had received command were the ones he could trust the most. Sam, Zafo, and Giovanni were all the remained of the group of troopers. They had been through many missions. When one of them was in danger, the other three would stop at nothing to help them. They were truly brothers in arms.

  Thus, Kairo's thoughts ran through circles until they arrived back at the drop ship. The first thing he notices was the vast amount of improvements that someone had made to the base. An outer wall had been established around the blast door, giving it an even extra amount of security. Even though the blast door could close on its own, having the extra wall would aid them if they were ever attacked. The two turrets had also been moved to different positions. Kairo guessed that this was for some purpose that would allow the cannons to function as best as they could. When they approached, Kairo sent a message through to Marcus and Slash to have Arrow or Dinin make sure the turrets wouldn't fire upon them.

  Once, the two walkers were safe inside the hanger bay, Kairo and Zafo moved through their shut down processes then disembarked their vehicles. Zafo and Sam moved to the ladder and climbed out of the lower level. Before Kairo left, he crossed to the blast door and slapped the control button. As it ponderously closed, Kairo moved like a ghost across the floor and up the ladder. As he arrived, he heard from upstairs inside what he assumed to be the communications room, Zafo explaining to the four troopers who had stayed behind what had happened to them while they were searching for the scientists.

  Making his way to the next floor, he moved to the communications room's door, bringing their conversation to a halt. "Tomorrow morning, at seven hundred hours, we are taking the walkers and getting Giovanni back. Arrow, you will be with Zafo inside his walker. Sam and Dinin, you will pilot the AT-ST I used today. If you aren't sure how it works, then read up on it before you get to sleep. I know you have seen me and Zafo plenty of times, even before this mission, using the walkers. You should have no problem Sam. You and Dinin are really only using it to get you to wherever we are going. If worse comes to worse, I'm sure one of you can pilot as the other person fires. Just be careful."

  As he started to move to the ladder that would take him back to the dormitory section, he heard Zafo ask, "Wait, if we are taking the two AT-STs, then what are you doing?"

  Kairo stopped in the hallway and said, "I'm taking the third walker. I want to see what it can do. I've already checked its systems and familiarized myself with the controls. Oh yeah, and Slash, you're with me. Marcus, you have the task of keeping in touch with us and making sure you can maintain contact with Tadath. If things go wrong, send them a message and hold out as long as you can."

  "You're taking the AT-UE?" Someone asked.

  Kairo grinned for the first time since Gio had been captured. "Aye." He then left them to talk amongst themselves. Once he arrived in his room, he pealed off his armor and set aside neatly. I'm going to need that tomorrow. He then took of his two blasters and two daggers. Placing them to the side, he picked out what he would be taking tomorrow. First, he attacked an extra belt to the armor. The belt held a couple of extra pockets for him to place tools inside. He placed his datapad, an extra comlink, three small flash grenades, and a length of durosteel cable. To the original belt of the snowtrooper armor, he attached a Kylon-3 blaster, two slightly larger daggers then before, two small heat charges, and a short metal staff. He grinned as he pulled it out from his dufflebag. Haven't used this since& Kairo decided that that was all he would be able to carry without slowing himself down or giving away his whereabouts. Time to catch some shut eye.

  Fifteen minutes later he greeted Zafo as he entered the room. They exchanged a few words about the plan for the next day before going to sleep. Zafo also gathered a few of his favorite tools and what he discerned he might need. As they went to sleep, Kairo went over the plan one last time in his head. First, we scour the area in which we were heading before we had to stop. If that fails to show anything, we will shoot into the ground and sent shockwaves back to the drop ship, where Marcus will tell us if there is something between him and us. After repeating the process couple of times without finding anything, we will send out an ultimatum on a wide spectrum telling them to return Giovanni. If we have to resort to that, we won't have the element of surprise. If they don't respond and we are forced to still find him, we will search in an even wider area for as long as it takes. Kairo knew it wouldn't come to the last part. He was certain they would find them before they had to send out a message. If they couldn't easily find them, the shockwave method was sure to work. Once we find the base, then Zafo, Arrow, Dinin, and Slash will try to find a way in without too much detection. Sam and I will take care of any defenses they send at us. Of course, that means I'm going to have to some very interesting maneuvers, but with some tactics and planning with Sam, the outcome is set in stone. I'll do it through sheer determination if I have to. Once the bases defenses have been neutralized, Zafo's team should have gotten inside the base. If things go well, they might have even found Giovanni by the time we are finished. If they have, then Arrow and Slash will escort him out of the base to one of the walkers. Zafo, Sam, Dinin, and I will then find their leader, order their surrender, and then find the scientists.

  As he finished, Kairo saw that their plan had some small faults in it, but felt that it had a great chance for success. He knew it by the same way he knew when they would fail or succeed. Rolling over, Kairo went to sleep.

______________________________ 700 Hours ________________________________

  It was a sunny day, light glinting off the three walkers as they exited the bases perimeter. They had all woken earlier to get prepared, grabbing something to eat and getting anything they needed. The rescue group of six troopers met in the hanger bay, armed in a fierce show of power. Each and everyone one of them had their own unique set of weapons and tools. Some were carrying heavier based weapons, while others were going with equipment packages and a light array. Still others carried a medium amount of arsenal, a mix between blasters and close hand weaponry. Kairo's amount of tools and weaponry were what he preferred to use. He even carried a weapon that he hadn't used for a long time but was one of the deadliest. The metal cylinder hung at his waste. It only had a small depression on it. Other than that, it was featureless. It was one of the first weapons he had ever learned to use. Even as a child, he was deadly with it. This would be the first time he would use it in front of his squad.

  It had taken him a few minutes to properly acquaint himself with the AT-UE's controls. He had had it equipped with the concussion grenade launcher and the gatling blaster cannon. The walker moved slightly different the AT-ST but was slightly more adaptable in certain situations. Its true potential lay in the urban environment, but Kairo felt it could even be used as a primary unit. Its ability to change its height, its smaller size, and its ability to change weapons made it very valuable if used properly, and Kairo intended to use it to its fullest. As the three walkers moved even farther away from the base, Kairo felt as if his spine was set with steel. He led the other two walkers in a triangular formation. Zafo and Arrow to his right with Sam and Dinin to his left, they sped across the snowy wasteland in search of their comrade.

 
-----------------------
Senior Sergeant Kairo
Squad Leader
*DarkDragoons*

SL/SR.SGT Kairo/2SQD/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [CDS][BoA][CoR]

Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will be victorious in ten thousand battles.
You may forget the past, but it always has a way of haunting your future.
Men can die, but a symbol is eternal.

    As Kario led the way, Sam began to think of plausible ways to man the guns of the AT-ST. He not being proficient in vehicle mechanics made this a bit more difficult.
    Sam hadn't associated with Dinin much to know whether or not he had a clue as to what he was doing. The fact that Dinin let go of the controls without realizing it made Sam uneasy.
    "I don't really care that the walker kept moving, the auto pilot could have taken over or something," Sam thought to himself, "But the fact that he let go of the controls in the first place doesn't really insure that he won't do something hasteful should problems arrise."
    After a few moments of radio silence, Kairo spoke.
    "I'm going to head left from here and scout on my own. ZaFo you go to the right, and Sam, you guys head straight," Kairo instructed.
    "You got it," ZaFo replied.
    "Sure thing!" Dinin said.
    "Dinin, you didn't activate the comlink," Sam laughed, "Try it again."
    "Sure thing!" Dinin said again with the active comlink.
    The walkers headed their different ways. Then Kairo said, "Oh, I all most forgot. Should you run into trouble of any kind give the rest of us the heads up and send your coordinates. That way we don't lose any more people."
    No-one replied. They continued along their paths.
    "So, what are we looking for?" Dinin asked.
    "From what I saw of the science outpost yesterday, I doubt that anything is going to be above ground. So, what I'm going to do is scan for heat signatures and hope that we come across something," Sam replied.
    Sam pulled out his data pad and began to read over the notes he took of how to scan in all spectrums. This information Sam got from Kairo. Sam knew that he wouldn't be as quick as Kairo was but at least it would get done.
    Sam began to flip switches and press buttons, slowly, but gradually he completed his task.
    "What was all that?" Dinin asked.
    "That was to setup a full spectrum scan. That way we don't miss anything that could be of importance," Sam said as if he knew all about that kind of stuff.
    "Okay, I hope you know what you are doing," Dinin laughed.
    "Don't push me, kid," Sam said glaring at his squad mate.
 
-----------------------
TRP/CPL Sandwich Sam 2SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR]
*DarkDragoons*
Roses are #FF0000
Violets are #0000FF
All my base are belong to you.

  Surprisingly, Sam came through pretty well on the weapons controls.  They had dispatched the last walker with relative ease with the assistance of the other AT-ST.  The good thing about this though, was, as Kairo had said, was that they were obviously close to the base.  Heading in the same general direction, they again scanned the area.  After several very agonizing minutes, they picked up another heat signature, but since Dinin's walker was leading, he had to relay the coordinates to the others.

"Guys, I've been practicing something for a little while now, and I'd like to see how affective I've gotten at sharpshooting."

Kairo crackled over the comlink, "But you don't have any formal training!"

"I know, I've been practicing in my free time, and I used to be really good at it when I was a kid.  Sniping compititions were popular."

There was an aggravated silence, then Zafo shouted, "Why don't we just storm the base and get Gio back!?"

Kairo was next, "Because then you'd have the entire compound on us in minutes.  No, Dinin has a point, he could take out the gaurds pretty efectively, and keep it pretty quiet at the same time.  Ok Dinin, you do what you have to do, but stay hidden."

"Yes sir, Kairo."  With that, he signed off.

"Sam, I'll be right back.  Keep this thing warm while I'm gone."

  Dinin grabbed the ladder, climbed down, and headed in the direction of the base, with his modifed E-11 on his back.  For the first time, he realized just how good his snowtrooper armor was.  It kept him warm in the deepest patches of snow, and made it impossible for him to be seen if he didn't move.  Good, this'll make things easier.  Pulling up a radar in his helmet visor, he saw that he was nearing the enemy base.  However, before he came in site of it, he stopped and closed his eyes.  He began to run himself through his meditation excercises that he had learned in his martial arts training as a child.  He carefully balanced his level of emotions with his natural born instincts.  This, he had been taught, was the makings of a true and perfect warrior.  feeling he was ready, he blocked all other thoughts from his mind and slowly proceeded.

  Hunkered low to the ground, he gradually came within sight of the base,200 yards away, and saw that he might have a bit of trouble with his task.  There were constantly two gaurds at the main door, two on either side, with reinforced battle armor, and modified E-11s.  There were also two man groups patrolling all sides of the compound at the same time, each with their own battle armor and E-11.  Thankfully, there were no gaurd towers, obviously trying to stay hidden, but that didn't diminish the fact that his shots had to be near perfect in accuracy and timing.  The adjoining corner of the front and left wall was facing him, putting both in clear view.  Settling down on his bellie with his modified E-11 sniper, he decided to go with the Left wall face as his starting point.  Quickly attaching a silencer, he lined the scope up and waited.

  He watched the patrols for about six minutes, carefully keeping track of how long it took them to traverse a wall.  He figured it took about two minutes for the groups to make it accross, and then the next group would appear around the other corner.  As the fourth group rounded the corner, he ticked off one minute in his head, then lined up his sight on the leader's head.  Wait...wait...wait...now.  Click.  The first gaurd dropped with hardly a sound from wither the gun or him, the second stood stunned in his place, at least until he took a bolt of energy through his head to.

  He quickly circled back to where the next patrol would appear, knowing that his next few shots would be important.  5...4...3...2...1...now.  The next patrol wheeled around the corner.  Almost immediatly they caught site of the fourth group, and ran to them.  They stopped to inspect the bodys then with two clicks from an unseen gun, were added to the pile.  The next two could only be allowed fifteen seconds of patrol, or they would sound the alarm, so Dinin patiently waited for them to come around.  Exactly ten seconds after they appeared around the corner, right before they could see the corpses, they to dropped in place.

  The next piece had to be delicately handeled, for the front door gaurds should have noticed that the patrols were not coming, so they were coming towards the corner nearest Dinin, while the third group was, as Dinin knew, approaching on the other.  Lining up with the front gaurds, he saw that they were sided by side in such a way that he could use one bolt, and drop them both.  He took the shot, and executed it perfectly.  Not taking a moment to revel in the shot, he wheeled back to the other corner and took out those gaurds who were coming around.

  "Kairo, I'm finished with the gaurd units, go ahead and run in the walkers, I'll be waiting for you."

  "Roger that Dinin."

Giovanni awoke suddenly to the low rumble that he had grown so accustomed to over his year in the VEA.

Explosions..., he thought.

He looked around his grimy jail cell. The small puddle of blood from the last time he was conscious was now a maroon splotch on the sticky ground. He had been out for a while.
He tried to get up but couldnt coordinate his movements. He was so cold he could barely turn his head to inspect his surroundings. For the first time since he was on the dropship, he looked down at himself. He was stripped down to nothing but his mesh underarmor. His armor lay on a table on the other side of a durasteel bar gate. His hands were now brown and purple, which worried Giovanni even more.

I hope im not frostbitten. That would definitely put the icing on this shit cake...

Giovanni summoned his strength and used his arms to tip himself on his side. He squirmed using mostly his thighs and wrists and inched his way towards the cold, gray gate. From there he could hear a faint radio chatter. The base was under attack. Kairo, Zafo and the guys were coming to get him. He grabbed onto one of the bars and laboured to get himself on his feet. He couldnt feel his hands, feet, nose, ears.

"Where do you think you're going?" said a familiarly eerie voice. She looked at Giovanni amused at his failed attempt.

"Looks like your friends are working pretty hard to try and get you out... Several of my men have already been picked off, including a couple of my perimeter scout walkers..." She pulled out a blaster rifle and set it on the table, next to her black radio, standing in stark comparisom to his shiny white stormtrooper armor.

"They might think you're worth all those lives..." her tone was now menacing. Her bottom lip quivered as she reached in her utility belt and pulled out a blaster pack. She slammed it on the table, and the sound echoed all around the dingy room.

"But I certainly don't..." she turned to raise the volume on her radio. "They'll never get past the base guards... But if they do..."

She got up and stood directly across from him, making a gun with her index finger and thumb.

Bam...
 
-----------------------
*DarkDragoons*

*Corporal Giovanni A. Bryden*

FTL/CPL Giovanni Bryden/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE/[LoR]

Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.

  As Kairo was waiting he remembered he had one last task to perform before he settled into waiting. Hitting a button on his control panel, he let out a breath. He had just launched a subsonic wave frequency to the drop ship, giving Marcus the signal to tell their pick up ship to be prepared to pick up the squad quickly. Marcus had also been told to tell the space ship to send a message to the authorities in the system that there was a group of pirates on Daylid. Now, it is up to Marcus to see my signal and pass on the message. This way, even if the pirates escape the planet, there is no way they can escape the system.

  Ten minutes passed as Kairo waited for something to happen. Finally, not being able to stand the wait, he ran his hands along the controls and set the walkers weapons on auto targeting. He also rigged it so it would send a message to his comlink if the AT-UE fired its weapons. He wasn't going to go far anyways. Pulling himself out from the walker's hatch, he had to wriggle his way to the back end where he could climb down. He had moved the walker so close the opening he had blown from the bases main gate, that the walker filled the entire gap. As he dropped to the ground on the side of the walker facing the interior of the base, he pulled out his Kylon-3 and started to scan the area around him.

  Four pirate bodies lay limp on the ground around him. Scorch marks lined the walls where his squad and this unlucky unit had entered into a fire fight. He was glad to see that none of his men were around. At least I know they got into the base relatively safely. Kairo put his blaster back in its holster. As he pulled his hand away, he felt it brush against the metal cylinder clipped at his waist. I almost forgot I had this on me. As he grabbed it with his right hand and pulled it off of its magnetic clip, a rush of memories flashed through his head. This simulation is just one big flash back for me. Kairo thought as he shook his head. Suddenly, a door opened to his right and a pirate stepped out.

  Leaning forward, Kairo dodged the first shot sent by the pirate. As he hit the ground, he ducked and rolled. When he came out of the position, he was holding a two and a half meter long staff with a menacing vibro blade on one end. Sweeping it to the side, he diced the man in half. A special function of this vibro blade caused the metal portion to be heated, cauterizing any wound it created. Spinning the weapon around his back he performed a twisting maneuver as it came around his left side that plunged the bladed end into the pirates head in a flash. The next instant he had drawn it out and was standing over another pirate's corpse. That was unexpected. Touching the depression in the metal staff, it shrunk into its original size with the sound of many metal pieces hitting each other as they all slid into place. I'm waiting guys.

_______________________ Deep inside the Pirate Base _________________________

  Zafo and the three other Dragoons had fought against multiple groups of pirates as they had tried to find their way to the prison section of the enemy base. They had been fortunate so far to have not received any wounds. When anyone appeared from behind or around a corner, they blasted through or fell back and attacked the enemy strategically. Finally, after Sam and Dragon had been able to hack into a computer terminal, they group knew where to go. Now, they were standing in front of the main door to the prisoner compound. Zafo nodded to Sam from down the hall. A white figure touched something next to the door then ran all the way back to where the rest of the group waited.

  "Is it set?" Zafo whispered.

  "What do you think?" Sam responded as he crouched down next to the lead white figure. Zafo nodded to the rest of the squad, and they all tightened their grips on their respective choice of weapons. Five seconds went by agonizingly slow. Then, the door to the prison block erupted into bright flames. Sam grinned. Once the flames had died out, the four figures rushed through the flowing smoke and entered the next area. Blaster fire flew from the ends of their blasters when they saw shadowy movement in the smoke. Three abrupt screams sounded then three hard thumps as the guards fell to the ground.

  Zafo motioned for everyone to fan out and find Gio. Zafo knew that Giovanni was probably being guarded, and he knew that the guards could probably tell that the place was under attack. The three white shapes ran out from the smoke and entered the area. It was a maze of hallways, with many doors leading off from the sides. After a few minutes of opening doors and finding the rooms empty, Zafo told everyone to not open any more doors and make their way to what they thought was the center of the area.

  Unfortunately, Zafo's order didn't pan out very well. The four soldiers were split apart in enemy territory with out any idea where they were. "Damn it. What was I thinking?" Zafo cursed to himself. He heard a movement off to his left from another hall. Spinning toward the area he aimed his blaster and waited. Another snow white trooper moved out from around the corner with his blaster pointing at Zafo as well. Nodding toward each other, they made their way down another hall. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thought. Fortunately for Zafo, the prison had been planned out so that they all joined and made the person move into a general direction.

  The hallways were all deserted. Finally, the four troopers met up with each other in front of another door. An eerie silence hung between them. They all felt that things were too quiet. Leading the way, Zafo pushed the door open. Four pairs of blasters entered the room in a second. Two technicians jumped in their seats and spun around with their hands in the air. Flicking his thumb, Zafo switched the mode into the stun and hit the first technician. Sam followed suit and had the other man down a second later. While everyone else moved into the room, Arrow stayed outside to guard the door. "Let's find out where Gio is, along with a map showing the area." Zafo ordered.

  Sam, Zafo, and Dinin sat down at three consoles and set to work. They were of one mind, formed from the will to save their comrade. Three minutes later, the group swept from the area and headed for where Gio was being pinned down by a crazy woman. Unfortunately, they didn't know that, but Zafo had a feeling they were going to have to do this just right and that Giovanni might not be making it out of the area with all of his limbs in place. Once they had arrived at the room where Gio was being held, they knew something wasn't right. They could feel it in the air. Hitting the panel for the door to open, they rushed the room and were immediately surprised by what they saw.

  Giovanni was sitting on the floor next to the twitching body of a women. He had lost an ear and was bleeding from a few wounds. "Took you guys long enough." Giovanni tried to smile, but swayed where he sat.

  Sam ran over and caught before he fell to the ground. "What happened man?"

  "Well, that crazy brod had a gun pointing at me and I was chained to the ground over there." Giovanni gasped out. "Then, when she lowered her guard and pretended to shoot me with her finger, I jerked at her. Being the idiot that she is, she drew her gun and shot at me." He paused as he coughed.

  "Tell us the rest as we go," Zafo said, leaning out of the room to check the halls. "People are bound to be on their way. "It's odd that there aren't that many people." A thought suddenly occurred to Zafo. "Maybe we already killed most of the pirates. Maybe they had just taken over this large complex, but weren't really able to completely man it." This thought seemed to make the most sense to all of them.

  "I'm all for getting out of here," Gio groaned.

  "Arrow, you carry him out of here. Dinin, stand guard in the back, Sam, you are with me." With that, they all moved from the prison. Zafo's prediction held true all the way through the base. It was quiet with no sign of anyone. Zafo was sure that the group of scientists were inside the prison area, but knew that whoever picked the squad up form the planet could bring in help to retrieve the scientists. When they finally made it to where Kairo was waiting, they were hot and bedraggled.

  "You guys all right?" Kairo asked.

  "We're fine. I think we killed all of the pirates. They probably had a harder time surviving out here than they thought they would. Gio is hurt though." Zafo explained.

  Kairo nodded, as he understood. "Help me get him inside my walker Arrow. The rest of you, head to the AT-STs and head back to the drop ship. Make sure you don't get too close to the destroyed vehicles out there. They could still be hot." After three minutes while Kairo and Arrow struggled to carry Gio up and into the walker, they were finally on their way. The three troopers were cramped inside the AT-UE's cockpit, but they could make do.

  Gio told Kairo what he had already explained to the rest of the squad. Finally, he arrived at the point where he left off at. "I had managed to dodge to the side, but she still got my ear. I would have been fine if my frost bitten limbs hadn't slowed me down. She was probably the leader of the pirates, so we don't have to worry about her. Since her first shot missed, she tried to shoot again, but I was already on her. She didn't last a second. I pounded her with my hands, and since I couldn't feel a thing, I used all my might. It wasn't too pretty." Giovanni coughed again.

  "Arrow, do you have any water?" Kairo asked. The wookie answered by shaking his head. "Can you hold out a little bit longer Gio?"

  "I& think so." After fifteen minutes of moving as fast as they could, the walkers arrived back at base. Once they were inside the drop ship's hanger, everything started to meld together. Then, they were all standing in the middle of the simulation room. Giovanni shook his head then leaned over and vomited.

  Rizzit entered the room. "Yeah, that happens when you come out of simulation where your mind is told you are hurt when your body really isn't. You'll feel better in a couple of minutes." He turned to the rest of the squad. "That was a very& interesting mission. I did play around with the simulation as you went along, so things were supposed to happen that way. One of you was going to get captured. If I let the simulation continue, you would have left the planet, Gio would have gotten better, and another ship would have picked up the scientists. They would also have found out that you single handedly destroyed an entire pirate base. So, you did horribly, and wonderfully. Good job." With that, Rizzit left the room.

  The squad exchanged confused looks. Kairo turned around and said, "He always does that. We all did pretty well. Things could have gone a lot better though. Unfortunately, they didn't. We both failed and succeeded. Things didn't go as desired or as expected, but we pulled through. You are free to go and recover as you wish. I advise some sleep." Kairo smiled. Following Rizzit's lead, he also left the room in a dumbfounded silence. Well, that was interesting. I at least learned a little more about myself. I wonder if we did well enough to get the equipment though?

 
-----------------------
Senior Sergeant Kairo
Squad Leader
*DarkDragoons*

SL/SR.SGT Kairo/2SQD/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [CDS][BoA][CoR]

Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will be victorious in ten thousand battles.
You may forget the past, but it always has a way of haunting your future.
Men can die, but a symbol is eternal.