As soon as his new Squad Leader left, Garet felt compelled to leave the room as well. This was his first mission, and to say the least, he was a little nervous. He walked at a quick pace down the hall towards the locker rooms thinking about how little time he had to prepare himself. He had never felt this tense before, he had no reason to.

He burst through the door to the locker room and quickly took a seat. He glanced over at his locker, thinking about what was inside it. [i]Am I ready for this? Should I be here?[/i] He thought. After a few moments of thought, he answered his question: yes, I did not go through weeks of training for nothing. He felt more calm now, so he took a look at the blueprints on his datapad. He felt a sudden urge in his gut, so he ran over and fell onto a toilet and threw up. Obviously he was still nervous.

He was panting afterwards, partly because he couldn't breathe as his throat was clogged, and partly because he had a new problem. He couldn't let any of his squad mates see this, image was everything in the Imperial Army. He was a stormtrooper, so he was going to behave like one.

Garet stepped into the showers, took off his training clothes and turned the water on cold. He needed to relax, and at the same time be mentally excited for the mission. He didn't wash himself. He didn't move. He just stood there, soaking in the cold water. After about five minutes he turned the water off and dried himself. He carried his clothes and wore a towel around his waist. He didn't loo kto see if anyone was there, he just walked over to his locker to get his suit on, trying to hide what he was feeling.
 
-----------------------
Private First Class Garet Daimun
-=Lancer Squad=-  -=TRP=- -=Blue Lancer 1=-
TRP/PFC Garet Daimun/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA

Having left the briefing room Slick walked towards his office. His boots echoed down the deserted hallway, and it made him grin. Soon these boots will be walking in a combat zone he thought to himself. He reached his office, and the first thing that he noticed was that the door was opened a crack. Knowing that he had left it locked he pulled his DL-54 from it's holster, and entered slowly.

The first thing that he noticed was that someone was sitting in his chair. The man had his feet propped up on Slick's desk, and was grinning at the squad leader. Frowning Slick holstered his weapon, and looked at the intruder.

"You're in my chair, and you're getting my desk all scuffed up." said Slick slowly.

Grinning the man got up, and approached Slick. "Well I apologize for that, but I got bored."

Shaking the man's hand, Slick addressed him once more. "What are you doing here TK?"

TK-112 grinned even more. "As you know I'm an Army Advisor now. The army wanted to check out it's new squad leader in action. I'm here to evaluate your leadership abilities, and advise you."

Frowning Slick said, "Fine, but you had best be in the hanger in," Slick checked his watch, "Two hours or I'll leave you. I got a mission to do remember?"

"Of course. I'll see you in the hanger." said TK as he walked out the door.

Walking to his locker, Slick pulled out his E-11/L and placed it on the desk. While he was thinking about it he grabbed his vibrobayonet as well. The bayonet had saved his life a time or two. He quickly got everything ready, and walked out of his office. He locked it, and headed to the hanger.
 
-----------------------
Lance Corporal Slick
-=Lancer Squad=--=SL=-
SL/LCPL Slick/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/BAT/VEA/VE/Tadath[LoR]

By the time Garet had gotten his armor on it was only an hour away from the meeting time. Thinking that this was a great opportunity to take a nap and calm down, he walked to his room down the hall.

Outside his door were two packages stacked on top of each other. The bigger one was about 1m by 1m, and the smaller one was roughly 1/5 the size of bigger. He pushed both inside and started opening the large package.

Inside were three boxes. He tore open the biggest of the three and remembered what the package was. Three weeks ago he ordered some weapons from the Imperial Center Store, but it had ben such a long time that he forgot about it. Inside that first box was a Bi-polar Blaster BMC-150 Carbine and a shoulder strap. He spent about five minutes putting it together before he moved on to the next box.

He found that his order had been completed. IN the second box was a DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol and a D'Skar Dagger. He glanced at each, lifting them and seeing how heavy they weighed. After he had inspected those, he put them down and grabbed the third box. Inside he found accessories for his dagger and pistol: a leg holster for his pistol and an armstrap for his dagger. He placed the holster and strap in their respectful places, put the weapons in, and slung the rifle over his shoulder. "Not bad, I think I'm gonna like this."

He was just going to leave when he remembered the second package. HE sat down and tore it open. Inside were some mementos sent by the Hapkido Academy. He apparently forgot them at home on Dantooine. He took time to look at everything. Holopads, ribbons of honor, anythign and everything in the box. At the bottom was a small jar of green paint. Garet recgonized this. At the academy, there was a tradition at graduation. Green paint would be put on your face in the symbol of the school. It was to honor the founders of the school.

He didn't know why they sent it to him, but he immediately looked over at his helmet. He dipped his tumb into the surface of the paint and grabbed his helmet. He slid his thumb across the surface, gliding in the shape of a crescent where his tatoo would be under the helmet. He wiped the excess paint off his thumb and put his helmet on. It wasn't much of a change, but enough to make it different.

He looked down at his datapad. He was due in the hangar in twenty-five minutes. He walked off through the halls, his armor clanging up against itself, weapons slung all over his body. He arrived in the hangar, and leaned against the wall right next to the doorway.


 
-----------------------
Private First Class Garet Daimun
-=Lancer Squad=-  -=TRP=- -=Blue Lancer 1=-
TRP/PFC Garet Daimun/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA

Turning away from senior sergeant TK-112, Slick quickly faced his troops.  He attempted to keep his anger under control, and barely succeeded.  He looked over the troops, and saw eagerness and fear on their faces.  He smiled to reassure them.  For a moment his first combat mission came back to him, but he quickly shook it off.

"Alright troops.  You all know the mission, and I expect that this will be an easy one.  We aren't facing New Republic Commando's here.  We are against poorly trained Imperial traitors.  This shouldn't last long, and I expect none of you to come back dead." he paused for a moment as he say the sickly expression on some of their faces.

"This is the ship we will be taking.  It is a Omikron-class Dropship.  When we are within half a kilometer of the target the ship will drop my team on the ground.  There we will find three speeder bikes, placed there by Imperial Command.  We head out from there.  We should arrive at "Rat's Nest" about the same time Corporal Yillis' team arrives on the roof.  Senior sergeant TK will stay aboard the dropship, and monitor us from there.  We will attack on my signal.  The signal will be, "Unleashed."  Let's mount up."

With that the troops hurried past him onto the dropship.  Slick watched them all, and could not help but grin.  Once all the troops were aboard, Slick joined them.  TK jumped on last, and signaled to the pilot.  The pilot quickly lifted off, and Slick realized that he was grinning broader than ever.  This is going to be one hell of a mission he thought to himself.
 
-----------------------
Lance Corporal Slick
-=Lancer Squad=--=SL=-
SL/LCPL Slick/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/BAT/VEA/VE/Tadath[LoR]

Sitting in his seat, Slick was lost in thought.  He was absorbed on the current mission, and trying to plan for any difficulties, and it was proving harder than he thought.  He didn't hear the first time Jennabelle talked to him.  When she repeated his name a second time he snapped back to reality.  He looked around to see the squad looking at him.  He smiled thinly.

"I was thinking of the mission, and of all the things that could happen." he said slowly.

Garet glanced at him, "But I thought this was supposed to be an easy mission?"

"If all goes well it should be.  But you never know exactly what is going to happen.  Plan for the worst.  Then you won't be surprised when all hell breaks loose." Slick advised.

Darr smiled. "Well at least the squad leader plans ahead.  For those of you who don't... you got the medic.  ME!"

The squad laughed nervously.  Slick gave them a heartfelt grin, and looked around.  The troops were all holding their weapons in a death grip, and fear was written across their faces.  Yillis was looking at the ceiling as if all this was routine.  Slick shook his head slowly, and turned his thoughts inwards again.

The pilot called back over the com. "We're reaching the drop site now.  Get your team ready Lance Corporal."

Slick stood, and looked at Darr, and Garet. "This is it.  Let's finish this quick."
 
-----------------------
Lance Corporal Slick
-=Lancer Squad=--=SL=-
SL/LCPL Slick/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/BAT/VEA/VE/Tadath[LoR]

The dropship flew to the roof of the building as Jenny saw three dots of what looked like speederbikes heading toward the building.

Must be Slick's team, I hope he does well, it doesn't seem like his first mission to be if he was behaving angry and having a big grin the next second as if ---- Jenny thought as Yillis looked at Jenny with a worrying face and said:

"Hey, Jenny, you okay?"

"Well, it's just I think that Slick's not telling us something, Yillis, knightwind, I know you may not believe me, but something tells me this isn't Slick's first combat mission as perhaps a leader, he's troubled, guys, very troubled." Jenny said as they headed over to the target building.

"Well, we're here, Jenny, so we can talk about this later." Yillis replied as he jumped off onto the roof.

Jenny jumped off too and as she did, she could not help but think that something was up with Slick and it was not good, something happened in a combat mission before this one that made him regret taking on another squad, something...

They started down the stairs from the roof leading to the top of the building.

"Here we go." KnightWind said as they decended into the top of the building.

 
-----------------------
Lance Corporal Jennabelle
-=Lancer Squad=- -=TRP=- -=Red Lancer 1=-
TRP/PFC Jennabelle/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/VEA/VE/Tadath

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force. " -Darth Vader

Garet was positioned leaning up against a large plant pot in the corner of the entrance hall. Blaster shots were hitting the pot, as well as hitting the wall where the pot did not take up space. Occasionally, when shots weren't being fired in his direction, he would quickly turn, fire a couple shots with his Heavy Blaster Pistol, and return behind the pot. "What's going on here?! How did they know we were coming?!" Garet yelled into the Comm. Noone could really answer that question now, so the Comm. remained quiet. He got up to shoot again, but immediately turned back.

He hadn't noticed before, but there was a giant window behind the "rebels". The sun was shining through at just the right spot that he was blinded as he looked for a target. "Gah... That sun. I can't see a thing."

"Garet," came a reply from Slick, "You gotta get close to 'em, we'll cover you! On my mark..."

Garet readied his knife.

"Go! Covering fire Darr!"

Garet ran parallel to the wall to his right. A couple rebels in front of him were shot by Darr and Slick, but some still shot back at Garet. He stood next to a door where a Rebel was firing from, and apparently the Rebel hadn't seen him. With one full breath, Garet jumped in front of the door, pushed the rebel inside, and stabbed him in the kidney. The rebel fell to the ground shooting, and by chance hit Garet in the arm.

Garet immediately dropped his knife. "Ah... I'm hit!" He was lucky though, he wasn't exposed to any gunfire inside the room. He managed to sit himself against the wall near the door so he could see. "There's at least five more here, I can take 'em out of you guys can get them to come near me. AH!" Garet instictively pulled out his pistol, but he used the arm that was shot. It started bleeding even more, but he managed to get his pistol to his other hand.

All he could do was feel semi-helpless. Only five minutes into the mission and he was already injured. He took a quick look out the door again for any intruders. He didn't see anyone.
  -----------------------
Private First Class Garet Daimun
-=Lancer Squad=-  -=TRP=- -=Blue Lancer 1=-
TRP/PFC Garet Daimun/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA

Without another word Slick turned away from the console, and headed back into the lobby with Garet, and Darr close behind.  He gave the room a quick once over, and smiled.  He had figured that the traitors wouldn't come back down, but one could never be careful enough.  He could hear them running on the second floor, and it made him laugh softly.  He turned to his troopers.

"Alright by the sounds from upstairs, they are trying to barricade the doors.  A smart move, and one that will slow us down a bit.  When we reach these barriers I want you to take them out Garet.  I hate to use explosives inside here, but now they have left us no choice.  You got it?" said Slick softly.

Garet nodded slowly. "Oh I think I can take care of that."

"Good, and try not to get shot this time." Slick said with a large grin.

Garet mumbled something that sounded like a curse, and Slick laughed.  The three troopers found a stairway that led to the second floor landing, and they entered the hall cautiously.  Directly in front of them was a makeshift barrier in the middle of the hallway.  Garet quickly placed a charge on the barrier, and blew it away as soon as everyone was clear.  Almost immediatly the three troopers were fired upon.  The three were crouched behind pieces of the debris that now littered the hall.  The firing stopped for a moment, and the Lancers looked at each other.  Darr raised an eyebrow, and Slick answered with a shrug.

"Get out of here stormtroopers!  This is our territory, and unless you leave we are going to kill you!" yelled one of the traitors.

Slick shook his head, and mouthed the word, checkmate, to the other two.  Then without warning Slick did a combat roll out into the open, and fired an impressive amount of laser bolts at the enemy.  Before the enemy could return fire, three of the traitors were dead, and Slick had rolled back behind covor.  As blaster fire filled the air around then Slick grinned.

"I think they got our answer!" he said as the other two laughed.
 
-----------------------
Lance Corporal Slick
-=Lancer Squad=--=SL=-
SL/LCPL Slick/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/BAT/VEA/VE/Tadath[LoR]

----meanwhile----
The need to finish this mission quickly was overwhelmed by how prepared the enemy was at dealing with them, so when the sixth floor was clear it was to no surprise that there were explosives in the stairwell.

"Just great..." KnightWind said, looking down at the long line of explosives.

"Well, it isn't that bad, I have to tell you guys something." Jenny looked at Yillis and KnightWind, both looking over at her. "My parents were always hunted by bounty hunters, my dad was mercenary, and had occasionally quarrels with rivals, ending in a fight, he paid, but the return was always some stuck-up challenge by a ---"

Jenny swore as she continued:

"Anyway, my mom, though, was the real target, a jedi, and a good one too, with an apprentice, I don't like the jedi, no attachments, no hate, no emotions felt by a real human, just the peace, sincerity, I mean Luke had anger, he just didn't give in, wait till he gets a wife.... anyway, explosives was at our house on various occasions and nobody liked it, especially my parents. At the age 13 or so, me and my sister were taught survival skills including disabled or disarming explosives or turrets or cameras or hacking computers, real basic survival skills, maybe not that basic, so I got this."

"Hey, Jenny, do you still keep in contact with your sister?" KnightWind asked, all confused after Yillis filled him in on the training mission, including people's lifestories, like Jenny's, he had just came back and was hit with this story about a woman growing with parents of the light side of the force and hating them, wishing someday she would be gone to a better place.

"Yeah, via letters or e-mails, but the intelligence people likes to keep checking it for the DJO to track down any jedi, since there's still some left, not a good thing too, cause the jedi are smart, anyway, back out of the staircase, but keep a watch for more of those traitors. these bombs blow when something moves near it, so I better hurry." Jenny said quickly as she went down to disable the explosives.

As Jenny did, the two watched her and KnightWind commented:

"Impressive, she would make a good engineer/hacker if she ever wanted to do that."

"Nah, she's heavy weapons and she hasn't start yet, but I heard that she would like to be in the DJO." Yillis replyed as Jenny started on the last of the explosives.

"Yeah, but they're strict, anyway, hey, Jenny, how are you doing?" KnightWind asked, starting to walk down the stairs to where Jenny was.

"Good, come here," Jenny replyed sadly, as Yillis and KnightWind made their way toward a locked, small door leading into the structure of the stairwell. "Locked and most likely containing explosives to blow this entire stucture, sounds like they're timed, cover me."

Jenny started on the lock as the traitors on the fifth floor got agitated and broke down their blockade with a small explosive, which led to a fierce fight.

As the lock was broken, and Jenny opened it into the timed bombs, she quickly started the process of disarming as the fight continued in her ears. At the near end of the fight, she was hit in the arm by two new arrivals, with a remote denator in one of their hands and a blaster pistol in the other. One of them said:

"We have the trigger in our hands, surrender or ---" that was broken by shots from KnightWind, who had been looking for the guys with the triggers, said, "gotcha," and continued shooting.

"Jenny, just get on with the disarming, you've got 10 secs, quick!! come --- on --- " Yillis said quickly as he finished the 3 traitors on the other side of the door and reloaded.

"Got it, hey, KnightWind, check this floor, will you?" Jenny suggested as she turned off the timer and took the bomb, "Just in case."

Ten seconds later and KnightWind came back, waving them to come with him.

"Well, there's no one else here, it's all clear, there's still two computers that's not smashed, one is the security station," KnightWind explained as they made there way to the two things KnightWind was pointing to, one was a security monitor, the other was a ordinary computer with a holoprojector, "They have been keeping tabs on the security floor, which is the floor downstairs, because it's heavily, and I mean, heavily guarded the place is filled with all sorts of alarms, security cameras, turrets, the whole security on one floor, not likely but we have to tell Slick what's going on, and also,

"This man is the commander," Knightwind now made his way over to the computer and started looking at the commander in charge of this rebellion, "He's been arrested for several rebellion against our rule, his tactics are just the man the jedi needs, but he's now on that floor, dreading his death, yes, he's wanted killed and done with, his influence could be useful in convincing people to turn to the jedi, I just found that out."

"Yes, We must also tell this to Slick, but come, Jenny needs to patch up." Yillis suggested as Jenny quickly said:

"no need, I already have patched up, it wasn't too bad, BTW, I do want to join the DJO even though they have strict rules, KnightWind, but thank you for reminding me, now, KnightWind, I think you should tell Slick since you found this out." Jenny suggested with a smile upon her face.



 
-----------------------
Lance Corporal Jennabelle
-=Lancer Squad=- -=TRP=- -=Red Lancer 1=-
TRP/PFC Jennabelle/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/VEA/VE/Tadath

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force. " -Darth Vader

Garet stood up against the door with his hand on the handle. He saw Slick open his door, so he did the same. The room was dark, but there was some device on the ceiling with a red light that lit up the room. Garet slowly walked in and closed the door behind him.

Something made a noise in the corner of the room. Under instinct, Garet looked over. Something was rolling towards him. He pointed his gun towards it so if it got too close he could shoot it. In about half a second, a bright flash went off. Flash grenade was the first thing that came to Garets mind. He heard more noise behind him, and by the time he had realised somone was there, there was a cord wrapped around his neck. Garet dropped his gun, and tried to pull the cord away. He couldn't breathe, and the red light around the room was fading.

Garet lost all strength in his arms and they fell to his sides. As they hit his quickly dieing body, he felt something. He remembered the knife on his arm. So with one last burst of energy, he reached over to his left arm and grabbed his knife. He managed to get the knife into his assailant's leg, and he screamed with pain. The constriction on his throat was relaxed so Garet could breathe. He fell to the floor gasping for air.

Garet almost had the strength to get back up when he recieved a hard blow on his kidney. Again, he fell the to floor gasping. The attacker had gotten up and hit him, and from somewhere, gotten a blaster pistol. Garet was as good as dead, or so the rebel thought. He had pushed Garet onto his Blaster Rifle, concealing it under his big body. With one swift move Garet rolled over-grabbing the blaster-and shot the rebel.

Garet finally had a few moments to rest. He took deep, long breaths, and din't even realise when Darr came in.

"Everything alright in here?" he asked.

Garet, taken aback by his question responded "Ya, sure."

"Good. We don't have time to spare, you should get off the floor."

"Yeah."
 
-----------------------
Lance Corporal Garet Daimun
-=Lancer Squad=-  -=TRP=- -=Blue Lancer 1=-
TRP/LCPL Garet Daimun/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/Tadath/VEA

      Meanwhile, Slick, Garet, and Darr-Rann were encountering a new problem.
"God dammit!" Slick swore, pounding on the panel that was supposed to open the door.
"It seems they disabled it from the other side, and we don't have any more charges to blow it down with." He continued, sighing and turning away from the door.
Darr-Rann walked up and took a look at the door. He slammed his fist against it, the door shuddering slightly.
"It's not very secure, maybe we can bash it down." He looked to the squad leader for approval.
"Um..." Garet tried to cut in, but Darr-Rann already threw himself at the door.
"Guys..." He continued, but now slick was at it too.
"Guys..."
"I think its starting to give." Darr-Rann said. "Lets both hit it at once."
They ran at the door, but just as they reached it it slid open, the two of them tumbling into the room.
"The panel wasn't disabled, you were just doing it wrong." Garet said, a grin spreading across his face.

      "Alright, the room looks clear." Darr-Rann reported, still looking slightly Embarrassed from his earlier actions.
"There's a computer over there, but it all looks encrypted, and non of us are exactly splicers, are we?"
Slick smiled. "You're forgetting something." He took out the splicing device.
"The room ahead is a safe room, totally impregnable by electronics, not to mention its blocked by double blast doors. Nothings getting through there without it being unlocked from the inside or by being unlocked by this incredibly encrypted machine. Luckily, the system was designed the VEMP, and therefore we have the key." He strode over confidently and put in the device.
"Okay, inside is some of this rebellion's top officials. We can afford to kill them, but if we can, we should capture some of the..."
Suddenly a metal screen slammed down in front of the blast doors.
"Um... I take it thats not a part of the door-opening process?" Darr-Rann said.

      Slick swore, kicking the computer. "Dammit! They must have changed the encryptions."
He sighed, shaking his head.
"How the hell do we get in there now?"
Suddenly the screen slid aside, and the blast doors opened.
"Okay..." Garet said, taking a step forwards.
Suddenly blaster fire rained forwards. Rolling aside, Slick called out to his squad.
"Assassin droids! Its a trap!"

 
-----------------------
-=Lancer Squad=-
FTL/LCPL Darr-Rann/2SQD/2PLT/1COM/1RGT/1BAT/VEA/VE/Tadath [LoR]
LANCE CORPORAL
one of few - A vast Empire medic
Read Losses of Vandetta by me and Hellra