Snipes pulled the gloves tight on his hands, they fit perfectly, his bare fingers poked through the  cut of finger sleeves, but otherwise the black leather adhered perfectly. Once finished pulling together his vanity and making sure his boots were clean, Snipes moved out of his cabin on board  his ship the Hades. He looked around, the YT-1760 wasn't the roomiest ship in the empire, nor  was it the fastest, but with a few modifications it became quickly adequate. He'd removed a good deal of engine equipment that only hindered performance, sure he wasn't the most fuel efficient in the galaxy, but compared to flat out speed it was a small price to pay. He'd enlarged the cargo hold, heftier engines, better computers, a good many pay checks had gone into this little project. Forcing himself to think on the task at hand he looked around, his squad mates were milling about, loading their equipment into their respective, and shared, rooms. Snipes had claimed the right to his cabin because it was his ship and he was the pilot. Snipes, sighed and walked to the cockpit that jutted out of the front, the design was not unlike the YT-2000 only smaller, which Snipes viewed as an advantage.  Taking his seat in the pilots chair he was quickly joined by Lukas, who made Snipes more than a little uncomfortable, he had the authority to yank this entire project out of the Gunnery Sergeants hands, and yet he had been playing along so far, Snipes was more than a little perplexed, but he kept that too himself, in fact he kept most of emotions to himself, that was why everyone liked him, he was excellent at faking things.

"So, where are we headed?" Lukas asked, punching up the nav-computer.

Snipes panned the view down until it centered on the Corellian Trade Spine, then pushed it core-ward. "Here, Teyr, they aren't going to want us there very long, in fact we'll be closely watched, and possibly guarded, and the locals hate off worlders, good news is they're human, and the ship i want is there, then it's a quick hop to Bassardo, then Teyr and then home."

"That's pretty far coreward, TIE fighters that far in? Wouldn't he be using smugglers?"

"You'd think so." Snipes answered enigmatically, in truth not comprehending the move entirely either.

"Right," Lukas said, Was that amusement in his eye? "Well, I'll go tell everyone who doesn't want to know, I'm sure you can handle taking off on your own." He was gone too quickly for Snipes to retort.

Cigarra clenched in his teeth, Snipes fired up the engines, checked off the preflight list, requested clearance, when it was granted he was quickly out the atmosphere, and with the absence of any traffic quickly enveloped in the friendly blue lines of hyperspace.
 
-----------------------
{Comnet Hermit}
TRP/GSG Sniping101/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][IH][BoA][CDS]


"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "Whoo, what aride!" -Who knows?

(OOC: This starts before Virius's post and ends almost right with his. He skipped the part about stealing the YT-2400  /OOC)

    Arnaut sat down as the ship shuddered and launched into hyperspace. My first mission. Time to get my hands dirty. The rest of the squad had already moved into their rooms. They now were just hanging about in the lounge, since the trip was going to take three hours. He stepped into one of the cramped cabins and set his only bag down on the bunk underneath CJ's. Unlike most of his squad mates, just about all the possessions he owned fit in his backpack. The only exception was his stormtrooper armor. That he stored in a small crate, which was leaving behind. They didn't want the targets to know they were imperials. The only armor he had was a relatively light chest plate and a helmet similar to the Imperial trooper's helmets.
    He looked around his cabin in dissatisfaction. Besides two bunks, the only other thing in the room was a small, gray table. This room needs a little livening up. He walked over to his pack and pulled out his suction-cup ewok. Right after he the Battle of Endor, while he still worked for the Rebels, the Rebels had been selling the little things in celebration of their victory. He had bought one to bring a little life to his barren smuggling craft. He stuck it to the wall of his cabin. The poor pathetic ewok sat there, all lonesome by itself on the wall. Arnaut sighed. This was going to be a long trip.
   
*Three Hours Later*
   
    Arnaut hoisted his light chest armor plate over his torso. Grabbing his E-11/H and sliding his combat knife into his boot, he stepped out of his room and casually walked into the ship's lounge. The rest of the squad was already lying around in the lounge. Arnaut dropped down on the couch next to Virius, who was enthralled in his Gamedroid. The comm cackled and everyone sat up attentively. "We're coming out of hyperspace. Make sure you have all you equipment, now. We need to sneak in and steal the ship as quickly as possible. Just because the family's away doesn't mean they don't have guards."
    The rest of the squad jumped up and jogged off to their respective cabins. Arnaut rested his head against the back of the chair and waited for them to return. A few minutes later the crew was assembled back in the lounge, ready for action.
    "We're starting our descent toward the planet. We're taking a route far from the villa and close to the planet's surface so they won't detect us on their radar. We'll drop down about three klicks from the target villa. It's on a hillside, far from the local cities and towns, so we should have all the privacy we need."
    Arnaut could feel himself sag as the artificial gravity of the ship gave way to the planet's gravity. He looked out the viewport and was treated to the images of serene waterfalls surrounded by dense green jungles. The ship started to lower and suddenly his view was blocked by hundreds of trees. As soon as they hit the surface, Snipes strolled out of the cockpit and ordered everyone to line up.
    "Alright," He said, "This needs to be quick and efficient. I've uploaded maps of the villa into your datapad." He pulled out a small holoprojector with a 3D map of the villa and pointed to the front entrance.
    "Lukas you'll take out the guards here. After that we'll make a run through this corridor to the ," He said indicating to another hall. "From there, we'll use the turbo-lift to get up to the security room, and get access codes to the ship. The guards should have it somewhere in their databank, in case they ever needed to use the ship in a hurry. Once we have the codes, it's a dash down this hall, and to the hangar where the ship is parked. Any questions?" No one spoke, but instead just stared at the holo, getting a mental picture of how this was going to work.
    "Alright, lets get moving."
    Everybody filed out and down the ramp into the dense jungle. Arnaut, CJ, Virius, Hunter and Snipes covered the ship with a camo netting to make it harder for aerial patrols to see the ship. Once the YT-2400 was stolen, no doubt a search would be made of the surrounding forests. With a groan, everyone lifted their packs onto their backs and started marching, single file into the jungle.

*One and 1/2 Hours Later*

    The villa was finally in sight. There had been no resistance in the forest. All the animals on this planet seemed to be non-aggressive. Within a few more minutes of walking, they could finally see the front entrance to the villa clearly. Arnaut took his macrobinoculars from his pack and zoomed in on the front entrance. Two guards were all that could be seen guarding the door, but he had a strong suspicion that there were auto-turrets hiding in the bushes next to the doors. "Alright stop here. We need to take out thse guards before they spot us." Lukas rushed forward bearing his Whisper Sniper rifle. He went prone on the ground and aimed at the first guard. Arnaut zoomed in closer so he could see all the action. He heard the small click of Lukas pulling the trigger. Suddenly the rightmost guard's brains were all over the wall and he crumpled to the ground. Arnaut's suspicions about the auto-turrets were confirmed when out of the bushes two turrets emerged. The other guard rushed over to his fallen comrades aide. As he reached down to pull out his comm, a fair sized chunk of his head burst off and he too slumped to the ground. Two more shots, and the auto-turrets were destroyed.
    "Alright, let's go men."
    They jogged up to the front entrance. Arnaut started at one of the dead guards. Pity. I'd hate to be them. The rest of the squad was already examining the doors. Their wooden appearance belied their actual strength. Snipes took out his combat knife and carved a piece of the flimsy wood off the door revealing the durasteel behind it. He tapped it once and pressed his up against it to listen to the metallic echo. "Sounds like it's about five to six feet thick, definitely impenetrable except by large explosives. We'll have to find another way in." The walked off of the stairs that led up to the entrance and circled around the building until they found a relatively low window. 
    "Gimme a boost," Lukas ordered CJ. CJ hoisted him up to the windowsill. He silently peered in.
    "Coast is clear," he whispered down to the quad. Lukas helped the rest of the squad onto the windowsill. Then pulling out his pistol, he blasted through the glass window.
    "For all the security at the front doors, they could have at least put bars on the windows&" he mumbled as he stepped past the shards of broken glass.  He spoke too soon for as soon as he stepped into the hall, sirens started ringing throughout the entire building.  He mumbled a silent curse. "Tripwires, I should've known."
    "We should be a hall over from the turbo-lifts," Snipes yelled over the screeching sirens. "Hurry, everyone, follow me. Guards are sure to get here soon"
    Snipes took the lead, sprinting down the hall, followed closely by Lukas, Virius, Hunter, Arnaut, and finally CJ as the rear guard.  They turned a corner and ran headfirst into a group of guards rushing to meet them. Hunter and Virius jumped to the right, CJ and Arnaut to the left, and Lukas and Snipes charged headfirst into the group of guards, knives drawn. There were pillars lined up against the walls that stuck out about three feet. Just enough room for two people to hid behind. The guards backed up concentrating their fire on the pillar Virius and Hunter had jumped behind. Blaster bolts scorched the pillar's stone surface. Arnaut ducked down and rolled right next to the nearest guard. The guard let out a scream as Arnaut swept his feet out from under him and buried his combat knife into his skull. One down, about fifteen to go. 
    He looked around and saw Hunter and Virius pinned down behind the pillar with blaster fire flying around them. They needed help. Arnaut put his knife away and pulled out his E-11. Aiming at the guards that were firing upon Hunter and Virius, he unleashed a volley of shots. Two managed to roll out of the way, but the others weren't so lucky. They took the blasts full in the chest and fell without a word to the floor. Hunter and Virius sprang from their position and started firing on the other two guards. Lukas and Snipes were currently engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with the main group of guards and CJ was just finishing off another guard with a sharp kick to the throat. This battle was just about won.
    "Help me finish off these guards!" Snipes called just before a guarded kicked him in the gut. He stumbled backwards with a groan. Knowing using a gun would just endanger their squadmates, CJ and Arnaut drew knives and charged into the fray.  The guards noticed Arnaut first. Stabbed at Arnaut with a knife. Arnaut kicked upward sending the knife tumbling into the air and followed through with a punch to his face. The man backpedaled just as CJ's kick connected with his jaw. It shattered into about a thousand pieces. As the guard fell, he tried to scream, but his mangled jaw wouldn't allow him. One quick knife in the head put him out of his misery.
    There were only about seven guards left. Seeing as how they were losing in melee combat, they retreated backward and started firing. The squad jumped out of the way and returned fire. Seeing as how he had to keep changing weapons, Arnaut ducked behind a pillar and took out some adhesive. He stuck his knife onto the front of the gun, making and impromptu bayonet. I should've done that in the first place. Arnaut aimed the front of his gun with the first guards chest and fired. The shot went high and hit the guard in the neck. He fell down right on one of his friends, who took a split-second to push him off. That split-second was all the time the squad needed to shoot him four times through the chest. Arnaut aimed his rifle at another guard, and fired. Unluckily for the remaining guards, a live grenade one of them had thrown blocked Arnaut's shot. They were consumed in fire and shrapnel. Their mangled, scorched corpses were blasted backward into the wall.
    "Good job, men, but we have to keep moving. More guards are sure to be in the villa."
    Arnaut started to move but his left leg screamed out in pain. He looked down to see a tear in his clothing and blood seeping out. One of the pieces of shrapnel must've hit me. He cursed to himself. On the good side though, he noticed that the alarms had been turned off. Still, he knew he couldn't run on his leg.
    "Snipes, I'm hurt. Got a piece of shrapnel in my leg." Snipes turned around, pulled a small medkit off his belt, and tossed it to Arnaut.
    "There should be some painkillers in there," he said. "Take them and bandage the wound up. You know basic field first-aid, right?"
    Arnaut nodded as he swallowed two painkillers. He then ripped off a piece of bandage off the roll and tied it around the wound tightly. The painkillers had already started to kick in. The cut was no longer a sharp pain, but more of a dull ache. They hurried along until they got to the turbo-lifts that led up to the security room. Virius, Snipes, and Lukas went up. Virius was the best slicer, and he was going to get the info from the databank. Most likely the info was encrypted. Arnaut, CJ, and Hunter were left to guard the turbo-lifts and make sure no one followed them up. A few minutes later, Lukas, Snipes , and Virius returned with access codes to the ship. They continued sprinting down the hall, as fast as Arnaut's leg could carry him.
Upon reaching the hangar, they were surprised to see no guards. The setting sun glimmered off the steely surface of the YT-2400. The family obviously maintained it well. The squad sprinted for the ship and ran up the open entry ramp.
    Arnaut went back to one of the cabins to lay down and attend to his leg, while the rest of the squad busied themselves with pre-flight checks. A few minutes later the ship rumbled, and flew out of the hangar. After taking a few more painkillers, and, through clenched teeth, removing the piece of metal from his leg. Adding more bandages, Arnaut hobbled out to the lounge and sat down next to Virius. He was busy looking through some of the other files he had managed to snatch from the villa's database.
    "Well the reason we didn't see any more guards after the initial battle was because, they only had twenty or so posted in the house to begin with. Talk about low security&" He murmured to himself. Virius stood up and headed off to his cabin. It would be another few hours until they got to the convoy, and Arnaut needed a rest. He leaned his head back against the chair and drifted off to sleep.


-----------------------
Private Arnaut
Wraith Squad
Vast Empire Army
TRP/PVT Arnaut/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/VEA/VE

    Virius shut down the turret controls and floated down the access hatch and into the main area where the top airlock was located. Listening to the gunny's advice Virius prepared his BMC-150 blaster carbine, slapping a power pack in and racking back the charging lever and setting the weapon on full auto.
    Virius also thought about Arnaut and picked through the small armory that Wraith's techs sent with the squad. Virius threw an A280 armor piercing rifle to Arnaut, as he caught it his eyes lit up as he checked the weapon once over before they headed through the airlock.
    Snipes looked the squad once over and flicked the safety off his shotgun and said, "Lets roll."
    Snipes made sure the seal indicators were green then turned a lever to open the inner hatch. The airlock popped open and Snipes checked the small tunnel then floated through. Virius followed right behind him with his slicertool at the ready to break through the corvette's security system.
    Snipes tried to pull the release hatch on the enemy ship but was unable to move it.
    "Virius, crack this security so we can get to the fun part," Snipes said moving aside so the combat slicer could do his work.
    "Affirmative, gunny," Virius said pulling a cord out of his laptop.
    Virius worked with the systems, most of the security was disabled because of the mole Snipes had on the ship. Within fifteen seconds Virius had cracked the security lockout and popped the hatch.
    Virius let Snipes go first and followed up second, Lukas next and CJ and the rest of Wraiths floating up through the hatch.
    Surprisingly the insertion was uneventful with all of Wraith dropping down into the artificial gravity of the corvette. The squad covered both ends of the hallway, until everyone was through, then by Snipes command the squad split up, Red team would head for the special cargo that they need to steal and blue team would run around and disrupt any systems to make it seem that the "pirates" are running around just looking for stuff to steal. "I will lead Red team which will consist of Arnaut, CJ and myself, while Lukas will lead Blue team which will consist of just you," pointing to Lukas, "And Virius."
    "Alright people, lets move out," Snipes said leading red team toward the cargo bay.
    Lukas nodded to Virius and started to head the opposite way of where red team was headed. Virius checked his schematics of the Corvette and put up some nav points on Lukas's HUD, where it would be a good place to start off to cause trouble.
    Finally the two blue team members heard the stomping of armored boots, both of them froze and spread to both sides of the hallway to set up an ambush. Lukas readied his whisper sniper rifle and Virius sighted his carbine.
    The duo waited until two stormtroopers rounded a bend and then opened fire, Lukas's rifle coughed twice which in turn took out one with two shots to the chest, cracking the armor with a spray of crimson. Virius opened up on the second trooper and five bolts impacted in various places around his armor, which sent him sailing into the next trooper who was surprised by the flying white coming at him.
    Lukas immediately sighted the third trooper being knocked to the ground and put a shot through his neck seal. Finally after their squad leader and XO just got killed the remainder of the stormtrooper guards backed off, laying down covering fire to keep any more shots from coming at them.
    "Blue one to Red one. We have engaged the enemy, three enemies killed the rest have retreated, breaking off, heading down one level toward the crew quarters, over," Lukas said over the comm.
    "Roger that Blue one, we have not run into any resistence yet, I will signal when, you should start to head back to the airlock, Red one out," Snipes said snapping off the comm.

-----------------------
Staff Sergeant
Frank "Virius" Carter
Combat Slicer
Wraith Squad
TRP/SSG Virius/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE[LoR] [ES1] [WM]

Snipes face sunk the moment he saw the actual treasure. Hidden away between large chunks of Styrofoam and packing peanuts was what was unmistakably a large painting in a horrible, horrible frame. Snipes gritted his teeth and pulled it out, it was a portrait, but of who or what exactly Snipes could in no way tell. The painting was baad even to Snipes untrained eye, the colors were all wrong and facial features were so grotesque Snipes wondered if it wasn't a species he had never heard of.

". . .or maybe we did?" Snipes corrected himself.

"Maybe the frame?" Virius offered.

Snipes nodded and brought the painting high above his head, then slammed it down on the edge of a crate, the frame flew apart, however all it reveled was white plaster beneath the overly ornate gold paint, Snipes sniffed it, then tossed it into a corner. Picking up the portrait Snipes looked around the wreckage area for any sign of something that could have been hidden on the painting, scowling finally in disgust Snipes rolled the painting up and stuffed it into a pocket, then went about prying the rest of the boxes apart, ordering the surrounding members of his squad to do the same. The results were all very similar, statues, paintings, paper weights, but none of it appeared to be of any intrinsic value and art was so very easily traced. Snipes sighed, looking around at the scattered ceramics, paintings and sculptures, many of which were damaged, broken or mangled. There was no value here.

"Grab some of those sleds, we'll hit the armory i guess, they should have a good supply of arms and armor." It was a functional enough back-up plan, but Snipes was boiling on the inside at the necessity of resorting to it, "Don't let your guard slip though, there should still be a few stormies drifting around just waiting for us to get careless."

The squad looked somewhat disappointed but went about pulling our the long flat hover carts that served to haul cargo around the ship. They could only take two, Arnaut was pushing one, CJ the other, Snipes lead and Hunter fallowed. The situation was decidedly unfriendly, so Snipes gritted his teeth, puffed angrily on his cigarra and vowed the next mission would go better.
 
-----------------------
{Comnet Hermit}
TRP/GSG Sniping101/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][IH][BoA][CDS]


"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "Whoo, what aride!" -Who knows?

Snipes looked around him and sighed, there was much more than they could take in one trip, and that's all the trips they could afford to make, the crew would be coming to sometime soon with a security force of their own. The few Wraiths, as formidable as they were, couldn't defeat the entire crew of a ship of this magnitude, the best they could do is be quick. Snipes marked a total of four boxes of ammunition to be loaded on, that's all that would fit; then the Wraiths went about piling heavy blasters and blaster rifles on top of the boxes. Once the piles got as high as they could they were fastened over with a cloth webbing to keep everything from falling. Once they were loaded up Snipes emitted a sigh and looked around one last time, they were leaving a lot, more than Snipes would have like, he glanced at wall covered in blaster racks, a good deal of the blasters were missing, then Snipes spied something, it looked like a door, he went over to it with a quizzical eye. It was indeed a door, he motioned to virius once he ascertained that there was no visible access controls.

"Open it, I don't care how." Was all Snipes said, Virius nodded.

Snipes trusted Virius but as the minutes flew by and he continued to find nothing Snipes finally had to push him out of the way, then he pulled forth his pocket torch, standard issue for Combat Engineers, rated to cut through two inches of durasteel. Snipes started the cut low, near the ground, then worked his way up about five feet, then over and then down, he was forced to pressure his body against the hot steel to push it inward, Snipes noticed Virius helped, silently Snipes thanked him.

When Snipes rose his eyes were met with a wondrous sight, a passed out crew member. Oooh, hostage. and a room filled with armor of various sorts, most of it one variation or another of imperial standard issue.

"Hunter, go get another cart, and be quick about it." Snipes yelled before the younger trooper had time to even see what was in the room.

Snipes went about pulling things down and shoving them into emptied out ammo crates, Snipes managed to, through some miracle, fit two complete sets of stormtrooper armor into a single crate minus the helmets, which Snipes would have to find somewhere else for them to go, then he smiled and smacked the pair of helmets down on Arnaut and CJ's heads. Not giving them time to speak he motioned for them to help wit the next crate which they managed to fill with another two sets, finally Snipes decided to just put webbing over the helmets and lay them on top, but not after he had managed to lay another set on top of the two crates as soon as hunter breathlessly arrived. Then Snipes sent everyone to collecting as many weapons as they could possibly carry, this cleared out a good deal more since quite a few could be carried on the handle bars of the hover carts and more than just a few could be on each persons shoulders, it limited their movement, but in theory there shouldn't be anymore stormtroopers romping around.

The squad moved as quickly as they could, which wasn't horribly fast, the hover carries were weighted down pretty well and all the troopers were carrying a considerable amount of weight. Luckily they met up with Lukas and Virius on their way to air lock. Unfortunately signs the crew were waking up were everywhere, the squad started moving faster, but it was still several minutes before they reached the airlock and could begin the awkward loading procedure, each crate had to be hauled up individually, Snipes had a portable which that could bring them from one ship to the other, then once in zero-g the crates could be easily pushed around Snipes ship, but the which was slow and most of the squad wasn't used to working without gravity. So by the time Snipes loaded the last crate in and shut the hatch C-90 corvette alarms had begun going off, quickly Snipes swam his way to the cockpit and took off, paying no attention to the lack of gravity although Snipes was sure it was irritating the rest of his squad.

Red streaks of blaster bolts fallowed Snipes out as the turrets came back on line and Snipes maneuvered for hyper space. He turned the gravity back on before hyperspace, it had to be on, then he aligned himself right and pulled the levers, the ship stop-rocketed into the every friendly blue depths of hyperspace and finally Snipes relaxed, just a little bit. The mission hadn't gone according to plan, there had been a few extra stormies, the cargo had. . .well it had sucked, but overall the squad performed well enough, Snipes had made a few planning mistakes, next time he'd use animals to designate teams, red and blue were too easily recognizable as military terms. Fox and Rabbit teams. Snipes smiled at the thought. Like a fox.

As Snipes was deep in his relaxed state the ships comm unit beeped, Snipes brow furrowed and he punched it up, a holo display leaped up in front of him, but Snipes was displeased with the message. "Hull breached, code unknown, security breached." Snipes sighed, they'd found the Hades and begun trying to get in. Snipes leaned up to the keyboard and entered "Venting procedure 26", then sighed and pulled a new cigarra from his pocket. Looks like this is home now.

***

Denkar worked at the computer terminal, trying to slice into the bastard ship they'd found hidden in the forest, completely abandoned as far as they could tell, he'd been working at it for twenty minutes, but he'd gotten no where, the ship had sent out some sort of signal, but the soldiers smashed the transmission node as soon as they found out, Denkar had managed to save the incoming signal setup though, in case there was reply they could trace it. Dankar was lost in thoughts when his terminal beeped and he looked down, an incoming signal, he brought it up. "Venting procedure 26"? What the hell does that mean?" By the time he finished the thought though his question was answered, an explosion sounded, then another, and another from within the ship, explosion after explosion, Denkar tried to get out of the way, but he wasn't fast enough, a piece of flying ship hull caught him in the back of the head and he fell forward. The Hades, ironic. was to be his last thought within this universe.

***

Snipes took a look over the weapons, there were quite a few, Snipes had them stowed away in the ships armory, but the armor, the armor Snipes would deliver to Fury in person, it was of no use to the Wraiths but five more suits of imperial stormtrooper armor would save the Vast Empire at least some money and if nothing else it was a nice gesture to show that even in the absence of a true leader Wraith Squad was not entirely helpless. When Snipes finally finished his final inspection he made his way to the cockpit to brew on the name of his new ship. It took him awhile to think of something, something outlandish enough that he could proudly call it is own, then a smile crossed his face. I dub thee "The Bachelors Pride".
 
-----------------------
{Comnet Hermit}
TRP/GSG Sniping101/4SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR][IH][BoA][CDS]

Hard work has a future payoff, laziness pays off now.