The door made a sound.  No doubt he was already coming in.  Everyone huddled behind something. Arnaut and Talstorin behind a beer crater, Fraot, Kanderin, Dixon and Kellenna behind another.  Jennabelle, Spartan and Gio had hidden behind a couple of old boxes, Snipes was behind a beer bottle and Leth was behind Snipes. 

    “I’m beginning to think there’s too many of us to hide,” whispered Kanderin to Arnaut.  A couple of legs were sticking out here and then.  The pilot would have to be blind to not notice.

    “Hey Arnaut.”  Talstorin tapped Arnaut’s shoulder.

    “Yea?”

    “I think we need a better plan,” he said.  Arnaut made a face as if to say “no duh.”

    “Well, unless you have some genius plan, this is the only one we have.”  The door creaked some more.

    “Actually, I do.  How about we gather all the girls and place them in the back.  Then when the pilot comes in, they can say they’re the beer girls and they came with the beer.  Since they’re in the back, the pilot has to walk all the way past us to actually talk to them so it takes the heat off us.”

    “So we sacrifice a few troopers to live?” Arnaut asked, adding in sarcastically, “Gee, now I’m glad I wasted my time listening to you.”

    “No, we can sneak up on him afterwards.”

    “Won’t the pilot be suspicious?  I mean beer girls?”

    “Please, what man will question drunk girls?”

    “True… , well worth a try.”  It took a minute to set up the plan, luckily, it seemed the  door was stuck.  The Wraiths ran around, picking better hiding spaces as the female troopers walked to the back, some of them stumbling, still dizzy from the drinks. 



    The door finally opened and the pilot, clad in ordinary clothes gave a sigh.  “Finally,” he muttered, wiping the sweat off his forehead.  Flicking on the lights, he looked around until he saw the girls.  “What the…”

    “You said he wouldn’t question them!” whispered Arnaut.

    “I dunno.  Maybe he’s gay?”

    The pilot walked towards the girls, ignoring everything else.  It seemed as though he thought he had already found what was making the noise.  “Who are you guys?” he called out, brushing his left index finger through his mustache.  The girls looked around.  Finally Jennabelle answered.

    “We’re uh, beer girls.  We came with the order.”

    “What?  We didn’t order any girls.”  Kanderin made a gesture, his face filled with surprise.

    “What the hell?   WHO is he?” he whispered to Arnaut.

    The pilot didn’t notice.  At least his attention was still focused on the girls.  “I’m afraid we’re going to have to arrest you.  If your story is as straight as it is, there will be no harm done to you.  Sorry, but this ship is heading towards a classified location.”  The pilot stepped forward, gesturing the girls to come closer. 

    Then it came.  BAM!  Shattered glass fell to floor as there was a bone breaking sound.  A beer bottle was thrown at the left side of the pilots face.  The pilot made a reach for his gun.  BAM!  Another beer bottle came down on the pilot’s head.  More shattered glass fell, this time along with the pilot.  Behind him stood a Snipes, who looked completely sober.  As he licked the few drops of beer that was dripping off the broken  bottle, he returned to his drunken state.

    “That works,” said Arnaut as the Wraiths sprung from their hiding space to clean up the mess.  It would only be seconds before the second pilot came to check on his partner.

Leth descended upon the unconscious man like a vulture upon a carcass, snapping pictures.  Talstorin grinned.  “Well, we’ve got both of them.”

    “Which reminds me,” interrupted Giovanni as he stepped towards the two men.  “If those were the two pilots.  Who’s driving this thing?”

    “I’m sure there are more.”

    “Really? I only saw two when we came in.”  Talstorin was bit a worried.

    “Look, not even NR pilots are THAT stupid.”  The Wraiths who heard looked around.  “Well, … look if we didn’t have pilots we’d be falling.  Just trust me on this.”

    Arnaut walked over, cleaning his hand of blood and alcohol.  “Yea, Kanderin’s right.”  Some squad members didn’t seem convinced but Arnaut’s word was final and everyone went back to what they were doing. 
   
    “You know, aren’t the rest of them going to wonder where their pilots went?”  Talstorin asked Kanderin, who all of sudden looked knowledgeable about ships.

    “Probably.  But not much, no one cares.  I wouldn’t worry about it.  We’re landing pretty soon anyways.”  Arnaut, who had heard the comment checked the time. 

    “We still got about a fourth of the way.”

    Kanderin shrugged and went to talk to Fraot.  It seemed as if nothing had happened, the entire squad went back to what they were doing. 
--------------------

    Strontium tapped his shoes against the floor.  When was that booze going to come?   It seemed like the New Republic had gone without beer for years already and it was making some of the soldiers restless.  Finally losing his patience, he called out to another soldier.  “Hey, you!”

    The soldier ran up to Strontium, he was skinny and frail with a face full of freckles.  “What is it?” 

    “That shipment is coming TODAY right?”

    “Yes, sir.”

    “Well where is it?  I thought you were the one keeping contact with the ship.”

    “I am sir,” the soldier was shaking, “they’ll be here soon.”

    “Better be.  When it arrives I want you to search the cargo, we ordered an exact number for everyone so if there are some missing, we’ll have to talk with that company.”

    “Yes, of course.”

    “That’ll be all.  Wait for the ship by the landing area.”  Strontium shooed off the soldier, who nodded and ran off.  It was a tradition to treat new recruits badly and Stront was simply doing his job.  Still, he kinda enjoyed pushing the kid around.

Talstorin groaned as the two walked out the cooler along with Kanderin.  This was a stupid idea.  To prevent Snipes from being seen, the two risk being seen.  Snipes was probably fine anyway, he had been in the army longer than anyone in the squad.  There MUST’VE been a reason why he’s alive.  Though nothing came to mind.  The ship was much larger than Talstorin had thought and now that he had seen the whole ship, Kanderin’s comment made sense.

    “We should be careful, otherwise we could get caught.  There must be hundreds crewmen around here,” Kanderin said, taking the lead.  Talstorin gave him a “duh” look behind his back.  A pilot passed by them before stopping.  The two troopers stopped as well.

    “Um.  Who are you guys?”  The pilot asked, his hand on his blaster.

    The two troopers looked at eachother.

    “We’re the ones who just checked the cargo.  You know?” Kanderin said.

    “Dahl?  Remember? Me?” Talstorin added in.

    “Oh.  Did you guys uh.  Do something with your hair?’  He was referring to Talstorin, who’s white hair couldn’t be more obvious.

    “Uh… yes.  You see…. Uh….” Kanderin started, unable to think of anything convincing.

    “I fell in white out.  You know me? Uh, heh, damn greens.  We’re so new we couldn’t find a potato in a cabbage farm!”

    The pilot narrowed his eyes, suspicious, but at last seemed convinced.  “So what was in the cargo?”

“Some beer bottles got uh, loose.  They spilled all over.  Nasty mess, we’re missing a few bottles, so yea, in case they ask.  We cleaned it up though.  Yea.”  Kanderin nodded.  The pilot nodded back and left.

“Whew” Talstorin said as Kanderin wiped the sweat off his forehead. 

“And by the way, Tnepres, the saying is: We’re so new we couldn’t find a potato in a potato farm,” Kanderin corrected his partner as they began to walk again.

“I know…”

OOC:

Kept it short cause I don't know where Kand is going with this.

OOC:

If "right after" means the next day, then yes Kanderin

    Minutes later, the two troopers were heading back, Kanderin with an unconscious Snipes slung over his shoulder.  The halls were winding and it didn’t take long for them to get lost. 

    “All of these halls look the same, how do people even navigate through them?” Kanderin asked, annoyed.

    “Maybe we should’ve paid more attention to where we were walking on the way there.”  The two met at yet another fork, they had passed by several by now.  “Should we risk being heard by asking Arnaut?”

    “We came here to prevent things from jeopardizing the mission, we’re not going to.”

    “So… right or left?”

    “I don’t know.  Flip a coin.”  Talstorin reached for a coin but before he could flip it Kanderin hushed him again.  “I hear people.”

    “Yea, that would be me,” snapped Talstorin, pushing Kanderin’s away from his mouth.  Stopping seconds later though, Talstorin began to hear footsteps and talking too.

    “Quickly, behind that container,” commanded the Assistant squad leader, but the trooper was already hiding.  Joining Talstorin, Kanderin crouched behind the huge bulky container, ears perked.

    The two voices soon got close, two males. 

    “So did you see our new recruits?” one asked the other.

    “No, how are they?” answered the second voice coming from an obviously older individual. 

    “Well, Jim back there said Dahl had fallen into white out.” The statement was followed by a laugh.  The second voice laughed too.  “He saw him walking out of the cargo room with white hair.”

    “Oh, that’s not far from here.”

    “Yep, two doors dow- “ the voice said before faiding away.  The two Wraiths looked at eachother.

    “We were that close?” asked Talstorin, getting up.

    “Seems so.”  The two men walked two doors down and sure enough, they found themselves in the cargo room.
    Arnaut looked up as the door opened but relaxed when he saw it was his own two troopers.  “What’s with him?” the squad leader asked, nodding to the unconscious Snipes.

    “Long story,” Talstorin answered.  “Don’t ask.”

    “Arnaut, we need a plan.  They’re planning on checking the cargo as soon as they arrive.”

OOC:

I've had a bit less time to write lately, and there were so other factors, but...let's get this mission underway!

Thunk. There was a bit of whispering. A quiet exchange between two people. Then the body of the NR trooper that had just dropped slid silently into the shadows, being pulled by his boots from his unseen attackers. A single, matte-black helmet poked out of the darkness. Did a quick take of the surrounding hall.

“Alright, wait here,” Arnaut said. Silently, he slid out of the dark corner of the hallway and made his way to the maintenance grate on the other side. Arnaut kicked it open and jumped down. Bundles of wires flowed past him, running down the length of the cramped space. At the end, the mini-hallway opened up into one of the main electrical generators for the station. Nice of them to place it so close to the hangars.

Slipping out of the hangars hadn’t been hard. They simply jumped out of the top of the shuttle and made it into one of the air ducts, which in turn had led to this hallway. Arnaut supposed that was Jaron’s, or Commander Strontium’, or whatever the heck his name was’ doing. Tensions seemed to be running high between him and that other woman, Ella. Arnaut got the feeling he had purposely let them go, if only to get back at Ella. He probably though he knew where they were going, too. They were there to sabotage the station, right? He would be expecting them to head for either the weapons or the station’s shields.

Which is why Arnaut always liked to do the unexpected.

The bundle of wire’s frayed under Arnaut’s knife, sparking a bit before dying. A generator behind him hummed to life almost silently. Arnaut tore that to pieces with his knife as well. Bits of plastic and wiring came loose. The generator died.

Outside, some yelped a bit as the lights dimmed, came back up, flickered again, and finally went dead.  Docking bays three through seventeen were now encased in the welcoming darkness. The red emergency lights bathed a lot of the hallways in an amber glow, but left ample shadow space for the Wraiths to travel just about anywhere they wanted. Perfect.

He came out and the squad removed themselves from the shadows so he could see them. They huddled around him in a semi-circle, all encased in either the black special operations armor, or one of their personal sets painted black.  Arnaut motioned for them to move out. They stuck to the sides of the hallway, out of the light and out of sight, eleven silhouetted forms stalking through the night.

The hangar bay was in panic. Workers ran back and forth in the darkness, groping for something, someone, anything to get their bearings. The emergency lights on the ceiling poorly illuminated the vast space of the hangars, so it was almost entirely dark.

One worker stopped not three feet from the squad as they reentrered the chamber. He took one look at their tall, armored forms and his eyes widened in shock. His mouth opened, but he had no time to speak. An armored fist came in from the side and put the man on the ground, bleeding profusely.

“Uh...he was like that when I found him,” Tnepres said standing over the unconscious form of the worker. Arnaut chuckled and the squad started to move their way through the bustle.

The man they were trying to find wasn’t very hard to find. He stood in the middle of the hangar, right next to the dark looming shape of the cargo ship, bellowing orders as loud as he could. They fell on deaf ears. His voice hoarse, his commands going largely ignored, Commander Strontium didn’t even notice the figures that came up behind him in the dark. One minute he was screaming about the incompetence of everyone, and the next his face was being forcefully rammed into the landing gear of the shuttle.

He screamed as his nose broke and tried to squirm his way out of Arnaut’s grip on the back of his neck. Arnaut rammed him again. Blood was pouring from a cut on his forehead now, staining his once perfectly trimmed uniform.

Arnaut pulled the head back to look at him, as he did with everyone he was interrogating. Something about the Spec Opcs helmet was very terrifying in the dark, apparently.

“Hello there. My name is...well, not important. I just have a few questions to ask you.  I’ll try to make this quick. And I’d advise you to stop trying to twist out of my grasp. At worst, it’ll end you with another visit to the shuttle’s landing gear.” The commander whimpered slightly, blood still trickling from his wounds.

“This is how it works. I ask a question, you give an answer. Question, answer, question, answer. You give an answer I don’t like, I shoot you. Got it? Good.” Arnaut noticed a faint smell and realized the commander had released his bladder onto the floor. Arnaut wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“Yeah. Alright, here we go. Do you know who we are?” Arnaut asked. The man nodded. Arnaut motioned for him to explain.

“Y-yes. Y-you’re...Wraith s-squad...” he stuttered out. Arnaut wondered why he never got the brave and defiant ones. He always pictured those as being more fun to interrogate. At least they didn’t pee all over your boots.

“Uh-huh. And do you know why we’re here?”

“To...to kill us all!” he yelped out.

“Much help he is,” Tnepres said from behind Arnaut.

“Ask him if he knows where the bathrooms are,” D’har interjected after. Arnaut turned to fix them with a stern stare. They fell silent.

“All over my boot, apparently,” Arnaut muttered as he turned back to the interrogation. But there was no more interrogating to be had. The commander had passed out. Arnaut tossed the body down and sighed.

“Well, that sure helped. Let’s see if anyone else knows anything useful. Someone catch a worker.”

Tnepres stuck out his arm, and, sure enough, before ten seconds had passed his arm had caught some unlucky rebel trooper by the neck and knocked him flat on his back. After some forceful questions, a lot of sniveling, and -- thankfully -- a lot less peeing, the man had given them the directions they needed.

The squad moved out of the confusion of the hangar and into the red hallways. They had a station to sabotage.

"Anyone else think it's a little too quiet?" Kanderin's calm voice muttered over the radio.

"Not really, they still think no one knows about this place. Plus they're too arrogant to even consider that anyone could break through their defences" Gio whispered back.

"Fair point"

Just then, Arnauts hand popped out in front of Kanderin's face, pointing a figure towards the other wall. He nodded in compliance and crept over to the other side, closely followed by Tnepres and Dixon. The gun's of the first two or three people in the other line followed them, Kanderin's eye caught a red dot circling just beneath his feet every now and again. He wondered why they were watching him and not the route ahead, until it occurred to him a guard might find a small red light glowing against the wall would be somewhat suspicious.

Now he thought of it, he wasn't quite sure why he had been sent to this side of the hallway. The only turn off was to the left, where he was stood before, and if he carried on walking much further he'd be seen by them quite simply.

"Arn...."Kanderin whispered through the radio.

"Told you it would work" He heard Arnaut's voice respond. "We can't even see you from over here, let alone anyone down there"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"That side is never walked on, look above you"

Kanderin and Tnepres looked up. There was no red light shining down on them. Anyone walking down took the inside route, so they stupidly decided not to light this part. Wearing black armour in near complete darkness, they must of been almost completely invisible. Smirking to himself, they wandered a little further down, allowing themselves a clear view of the security checkpoint.

"Alright, I see....four people. Maybe five, there might be one in an office off to the right. Large scanner, big enough for two people walking side by side to fit through in the center. Road cuts again another fifteen metres past it and there's a camera on the corner. I haven't a clue how far it can see though"

"No turret?" Arnaut replied, slightly dumbstruck.

"Nope" Kanderin shook his head "Told you security seemed a little lax. Guard's aren't really paying too much attention either. The one watching the monitor's and scanner just spilt coffee everywhere, too busy cleaning it up to watch. The two guys stood either side of the scanner are alert though, they're carrying automatic weapons. And the one off to the other side is on the net, by the looks of it. Have a guess what he's looking at"

"I'd rather not" Arnaut replied "Anyway, a plan people?"

Arnaut took a deep breath, feeling every single ounce of air to enter his lungs. He exhaled, the air whistled softly as it went past his teeth. His finger twitched, then pulled back. The silenced laser bolt tore across the corridor and went perfectly through the man’s forehead. He stood for a second, looking dumbly in front of him. And then he fell backwards, the hole in his forehead already smoking.

“Nice aim,” Snipes muttered behind him.

“Only when I try,” Arnaut replied. His aim hadn’t been that great when he’d entered the army. It’d been good for smuggling, only ‘okay’ for the army. His extended use of knives to the exclusion of rifles certainly hadn’t helped much.

The squad moved forward, dragging away the body into one of the side corridors and hiding it in the shadows before continuing on. No sense in leaving a trail for the station’s guards to find. So far they’d taken out one service member, a rebel officer, an entire guard post, and now this unfortunate trooper. Quite a count for a ‘covert’ mission. And then again, they were already halfway compromised.

The corridors were still illuminated in the red emergency lights that the blackout had caused. Arnaut wondered how much longer it would last. It provided ample cover, but still…he’s only taken out the lights around the hangar area. Most of the complex was still running.

As if to prove the prove his point, the next hall they turned into was illuminated by the normal, white bathing glow. No shadows, no cover. Arnaut peered around the edge of the hallway. All clear. He motioned for the squad to move forward, but before they could react, someone appeared at the end of the hall. The Wraiths held their breathe. If he just kept coming forward, he would find them. They prayed he didn’t.

* * *

Commander Strotium might have considered himself a courageous, strong-willed, decent commander, but even he knew when to run. away. Which is what he was doing now.

He panted as he made his way into the corridor, exhausted from the long sprint. Blood dripped between his fingers and spotted the ground beneath his feet, a line leading all the way back to the darkened hangar he had fled. And not all of the blood was caused by the blasted Wraith Squad. He’d made enemies in the station in the short time he’d been there, and, in the dark confines of the hangar, they’d found their opportunity to strike. Strontium was still limping from where the knife had sliced a chunk off his thigh. He considered himself lucky to have made it out alive. Still, while he was temporarily safe from his personal enemies here, he still had to worry about the Imperial Special Forces squad on the loose in the station. The one he had set loose.

He stopped in the middle of the corridor. Had something just shuffled around the next corner? His heart beat sped up and breathing became harder to do. Near panic, he punched in the code as quickly as he could on the access panel on the wall. It confirmed and the door slid open, with it, the promise of safety and seclusion. He took one last glance back down the halls as he entered. There was nothing there. Nothing he could see. He rushed on inside.

The security center for the space station, a nondescript little room off to the side of a lonely hallway, was a bustling hive of activity on the inside that the quiet exterior didn’t betray. Camera analysts sat constantly watching holovids from around the station. Station life support and defense systems were monitored and controlled by a staff of no less than a dozen, all huddling around various holo screens as data readouts flowed down the screen. Adjutants and assistants ran back and forth between groups of people, datapads clustered with information clutched tightly to their bodies as they relayed it back and forth.

In the center of all the confusion stood Major Briggins, head of the space station. At his side, Strontium noted with disgust, stood Ella. Both were looking over the same datapad. Neither looked pleased. Strontium cleared his throat. They turned to look at him, in all his ragged glory. His straw colored hair sat awry atop his head, so rumpled, it almost looked as if it didn’t belong. His jacket was stained with blood, mucus, and urine. It tore in many places. His hand was crimson as blood flowed down it, still dripping onto the floor. His boots had lost their pristine luster somewhere along the way. All in all, he was one sorry sight. And considering that the two people before him didn’t like him much anyway, it didn’t help matters.

“Would you look at this?” Briggins cried out to no one in particular. The only one that looked up was Ella.

“What’s happened to your sector, commander? It’s in near panic mode!”

“Well, sir—” Briggins didn’t give him time to explain. Instead, he decided to point out what had gone wrong.

“Here, just a little over forty-five minutes ago. Power to the lighting systems surrounding Hangars three through seventeen went down. They’ve yet to be fixed. And here, twenty-seven minutes ago, after the shaken personnel collected their wits and started taking head counts. Senior Crewman Lenkins reported as missing. Last time they saw him, he was servicing the hangaryou were stationed in.”

“But—”

“And here, nineteen minutes ago. The entire security detail of post 11-39B, not too far from that same hangar, goes missing. Holovids were blocked, and no one seems to have seen them since.”

“I had no id—”

“And finally, here, not two minutes ago. Private Algus Lewold, sent to check on the Post 11-39B, failed to report. He has not been seen since he was sent out. Can you explain…any of this?”

“Sir, I—”

“I can explain,” Ella spoke up. “There is a woman I have a personal vendetta against, in a squad in the Vast Empire. I lured her here to dispose of her. Strontium was supposed to do the actual ‘disposing’ once they arrived. Apparently, he was unsuccessful.” She sneered bitterly at Strontium.

“You…you unleashed this? In my station!?” Briggins roared.

“Sir, I had no idea they were so good!” Strontium blurted out. It was the best he could think of, besides stating the obvious that he had let them go, just to jab at Ella. He sensed Briggins knew that. Whatever the man thought, he changed the topic.

“Well, at least do we know what they’re after?” he sighed wearily.

“Yes, data readouts and such. They came alone, for sensitive data, I believe they were informed. They’ll try to nab as much as they can and then get out via one of our ships. They have no backup, as far as we can tell.” Briggins thought over this for a second, before giving out his orders.

“Alright, I want all personnel in the station on full alert. There is an enemy squad roaming about, and they are to be shot on sight. Do I make myself clear?” There were two brisk ‘yes, sirs’ before Strontium and Ella scurried off away from the still fuming Briggins.

Outside, Arnaut retracted Tnepres’ listening cord from under the door. There was a grin on his face, one shared by most of the squad. He had made sure to link the conversation to all their helmets.

“Well, boys, looks like we’re wanted men now. Let’s go wreak havoc!”

Jenny followed Dixon as the squad went inside the security center by the door that they had listened in on. Unfortunately for her, Ella had went back to the hangers to rally all the men she could with Commander Strontium, but she’ll be back, Jenny was sure of that. The major was still there in the center of the security center for the space station, contemplating about what to do, the analysts watching the holovids more focused upon the screens, almost as though they would become a part of it or something. The place was even busier when the alert ran out throughout the space station, the adjutants and assistants running really fast between groups of people, which were the analysts and rebel troopers as well, by the looks of them, dressed in uniform and wielding E-11 marksman rifles, the same models that were carried by the mercenaries that they had first met on Euceron. They took positions behind a wall near a handrail which beyond it was the center where Major Briggs stood as Jenny took a peek around the wall to spot the rebels not far away from the analysts looking at the screen, ready at a moment’s notice. The sergeant of the squad was instructing his men about the task they were set out on, which was to protect the major and the analysts, and if needed to, hand out weapons to the workers. Jenny chuckled silently at the idea as she looked at the response of the twelve corporeal and lance corporals listening to the sergeant’s briefing, they looked grim but ready, with their rifles cocked and loaded, their blaster pistol or knives or vibrobayonets slung around their belt, medium armor wore on top of their uniforms. The sergeant took out his loaded blaster pistol as he ordered the men to start patrolling the security center, for if this place ever fell in the hands of the Imperials, that would destroy this entire station.

“Alright, people, silently take them out, adding the sergeant too, but leave the major alive or disabled so he can’t hurt us, we’ll need him to understand this space station’s layout and find how the defense grid is laid out. Jenny, if Ella comes back in here, you have my permission to kill her, I know you can fight her better than the rest of us.” Arnaut ordered as Jenny nodded in kind, seeing that even squad leaders had their soft spots.

Snipes was up and ready as he, Leth and Spartan walked up to the first two rebels, laughing at the analysts on the first holovid panels, and carefully walking behind them, knocked them over their head with a trash basket and a hard fist, their bodies caught in Snipes and Leth’s right hand’s quick reaction as Spartan helped them carry the guys slowly back to a nice hiding spot in the ventilation system which Arnaut had slowly banged open in the dark so as not to make too loud a sound. He and the new rookie, Carnon, did the same thing to a third and fourth rebel, who was disgusting commenting the sick joke the first two rebels had made. It seems to go smoothly, except for when Dixon strangled the guy with transmitter wires, the bastard couldn’t resist groggling for air, and that seemed to attract quite some attention, for the laughing and chatting stopped and was replaced by silence as Ella and Strontium came in with Dakine, her sweetheart, wearing a prompt screen attached to his comlink, more rebel troopers like the ones the squad had been knocking out. Ella was about to speak, when Dakine turned on Dixon’s position, dragging the body slowly back to the ventilation system, where Arnaut was waiting impatiently, when he whispered the info in Ella’s ears, who reacted quickly as she ordered the sergeant to tell his men to get to Dixon’s position, now making his way past the first holovid panels that the squad had encountered.

Jenny wasn’t even aware of the blaster pistol held against her head until it rammed itself harder into her lekkus, although angry at this, Jenny still stood up, with her stolen knife that she had stolen from Raines and thrown at a rebel in the beer cooler thrown down on the ground, aware that Dixon’s position was given away by the night vision and x-ray prompter on Dakine’s left eye, which Jenny had saw at the wall near the handrails when he came in. He had noticed the sound and followed it carefully, zooming his prompter to Dixon, confirming him to be a imperial by his uniform, finally x-raying him at the first holovid panels. She was dragged in front of the major, who was standing firmly with Strontium, looking happy and laughing mockingly as he stared at the angry state of Jenny, who was looking into the dark eyes of Leia’s murder ‘victim’ on Tatooine, Ella Zarell.

“Jenny, you are an interesting specimen, for you have escaped two of the times that I have caught you in an ambush, but there won’t be a third strike. Dakine, prepare your Renegade Heavy Blaster Pistol to kill Jenny. I’ll deal with the rest of the squad.” Ella said clearly as Jenny saw out of the corner of her eyes that she was about to turn around to the rest of the bruised squad when the major stepped on Jenny’s back until she uttered a cry, which attracted Ella’s attention, as Jenny watched from her uncomfortable slouched position, and made her grab Major Briggs quickly and pin him against the edge of the handrail, which was only a thick wall of glass away from endless space.

“You may be in charge of this space station, but I’m in charge of taking care of these pests, so don’t try to step on my specimen until they are dead. Got it?” Ella threatened firmly, holding a D-18 blaster pistol to Briggs’ neck, who spit in her face and shot at her with his Gambler’s special Hold-out blaster pistol, which he had taken out during her grab and pin and now revealed it. It only made a light wound on the side of her stomach as she dodged the blast and blasted his head to pieces from the neck and threw him down in anger. Just then, as if on cue, help arrived in the form of Leia Tarkin as Jenny got up to a kneel and turned around to look at Leia when Jenny heard the banging noise behind her. Leia came with some men in white uniforms, herself wielding her trusty annihilator pistol, while her comrades carried DC-15 blaster rifles. They started shooting at the rest of the sergeant’s men, the leader himself being the first victim of a headshot as he was about to shoot Fraot. Jenny took this chance to take out her vibrobayonet from its sheath and vibroblade from its scabbard, stabbing the former at Dakine’s right hand trigger finger, which was about to shoot her in the head as she stood up. Ella responded the intrusion by knocking Jenny on her back with her right boot, grabbing the still painful Dakine and pulling him to get to the other side to the handrail to the hallway leading to the exit.

“Jenny, forget about them, the important thing is we’ve got the situation under control. Oh, by the way, the boys here are my squadmates from the Pacific Order.” Leia told Jenny as Jenny was about to rush Ella, now running into the hallway, disappearing behind the same wall that Jenny herself had peeked around.

“Oh, guys, the workers just turned killing machines.” Dixon warned as Jenny saw that now joining the four poor rebels were the determined, driving analysts, assistants and adjutants holding the dead men’s weapons, fighting with the white men behind a turned over shelf-cover and Jenny’s squadmates crouched with them, unknown who they were, but noted them as the friendlies when explained by their leader, a corporeal.

OOC:

I hope it's okay to add a few more NPCs, although they'll be here only for the duration of this mission.

Giovanni gripped his rifle and popped out of cover to find that everyone was dead, and just about everything in the room that could be destroyed, was. The haze of smoke emerging from burnt instrument panels, screens, and the occasional charred body was now slowly dissipating.

The firefight was hectic, sure. But the numbers were low. This was a heavily guarded station. Why wasn’t an entire battle regiment after them? All this unsettled Giovanni, who slid across an upturned file cabinet and began to search the fallen enemy soldiers for a keycard, ammo pack, or anything he could put to use. He looked over at the rest of the squad, less concerned with the hell they had just wrought on the room, their attention focused solely on the squad mates around them and the reloading of their weapons.

“Anyone else thinking this is a bit too easy?” Giovanni heard from somewhere behind him.

“What, you don’t think we’re this badass?” Giovanni commented, jokingly. “In all seriousness, I think this has all been a bit too easy. Too few guards, and they were all pretty unskilled. I’d hate to think we’re being lured into a trap, but it won’t be the first time it’s happened to a squad of mine.” The rest of the squad had their own doubts and suspicions, but none felt the need to address them. They all knew something fishy was going on, and they didn’t like it.

Giovanni shrugged the notion off and continued to search the rebel corpses. A charred man in a technician’s uniform had a high-level security keycard that he promptly removed and took over to Arnaut.

“Found this on one of them. Thought it might come useful.” Giovanni handed the card over to Arnaut, who took a break from looking around the room and examined the object in his hand. Kanderin and Snipes walked over and looked at the card as well. “Seems like a high level security card. Anyone in the control room could link us to this card and see where in the station we are… but they don’t know we have it yet.” he put the card in his utility belt and got up from kneeling. “But for now, we need to find a way out of here and scram before more of these damn rebels show up.”

The squad nodded and circled around Arnaut and Kanderin, awaiting further instructions.

Kanderin spoke up. “We need to continue the push towards the center of the station. Once we disable the life-support systems, we’ll have this entire place in a choke-hold…err….no pun intended.”

Giovanni nodded and understood the objective at hand. There was no doubt in his mind that they’d run into more rebels on the way to the main control room, but whether they’d be in small, unskilled groups like they had encountered before, he really couldn’t predict.

To hell with it, he thought to himself. He holstered his pistol and stood up by the door. The rest of the squad followed suit.

Snipes smiled and eased the pistol out of its holster. He carefully set his G8 down and stepped forward, keeping to the shadows, there was a good deal of smoke and fumes to disguise them, the burning corpse of the flame trooper illuminated a small area, but the black smoke did what it could to make up for that. There was little noise, burning and sparking, Snipes switched his helmet to filter out some of the smoke, and hoped the enemy didn’t have the same functionality.

He moved slowly, half crouched, along a terminal, he came to a corner and peered around carefully, he didn’t see anything and continued, he reasoned the enemy would try moving around the sides, to try and flank the Wraiths and the Wraiths would do the same, so Snipes would move down the middle and flank one side of the enemies; He came to another corner and peered around, just in time to see one of the armored attackers move past, down another row. Snipes turned down the corner and quickly moved on the enemy, popping right behind him as he checked a corridor much as Snipes had. Snipes left hand quickly grabbed the back collar of his armor and Snipes pistol barrel moved between the back and the helmet, ringing off a shot through his spine. He made a gurgling noise, but the bullet didn’t exit, lodged somewhere within in torso. Snipes eased him to the ground. He quickly checked the area again and started moving.

Less than a second later though an arm wrapped itself around his neck. Snipes panicked for a second then brought his gun up and shot at the elbow, then pulled him self down and spun around, but his attacker was already recovering and had his gun in Snipes face. With just milliseconds to react, Snipes knocked it out of the way with his own and sent his left fist towards the enemies wounded elbow, he spun though and tried to bring his gun to bear again, Snipes quickly rang off three wild shots, two bounced off his armored torso, one lodged under the attackers left shoulder, his gun arm. Snipes didn’t let his momentum die and pushed up from his crouched position, bringing the top of his head under the enemies chin. He fell with a crash and Snipes wasted no time moving in and putting three bullets through his neck.

Knowing someone had to have heard that he moved again, deeper towards the enemy side, now he was fallowing the right hand wall, carefully keeping to the shadows. He stopped behind a terminal and changed his clip, remembering that the last three shots had emptied it. He didn’t get time to finish though as a series of blaster bolts rang out around him, three connecting with his torso. He wheezed for a second in shock, then bailed over the terminal he was against and looked around. Shots rang again, but they weren’t aimed at him, he had been caught in the cross fire. He turned around, leaning his back against the terminal and ran a hand across his armor, he hadn’t been hit by anything very powerful, the armor hadn’t been penetrated, it was probably another Wraith, the antagonists had been using some powerful weaponry, if he’d been hit my one of them he’d probably have been ripped apart.

“I’m getting too old for this crap.”

Snipes didn’t know which side his guy had been on and which was the enemy, but he moved in the direction the opposition had moved in from, carefully he snuck around the terminals, once he saw and enemy through the smoke, only to see a figure silently move behind him and shove a knife under his arm. The figure looked right at Snipes and gave him the thumbs up; Snipes returned it and continued moving.

Seconds passed and Snipes didn’t see another enemy. A few more seconds, he was almost to the door, he could see the outline of the doorway, he was getting closer. Then a torrent of red blasts rang out to his left, and rolled to his right and managed to avoid getting hit. It puzzled him though, the enemy should have been able to take him out easy there, a hit from whatever heavy piece was firing that would have easily penetrated Snipes armor. It must have been driving him back into the maze, which was a discomforting thought. Discomforting enough that Snipes felt the need to do something about it. He cast his eyes around for anything that he could use. Then he saw at the far end an enemy body lay, his throat ripped out, Snipes made his way over to him.

Their armor was heavy, very heavy; nothing Snipes regularly carried with him would penetrate it, although it had fair sized weak points at each of the joints, which probably meant it was experimental. Either way Snipes grabbed the back of the corpse’s armor and tried to lift him, he was heavy, very heavy even, but Snipes thought he could do it for a few seconds, long enough for his plan. He dragged the corpse back to the terminal closest the exit. Then Snipes pulled him up and held him in front, and then Snipes walked towards the exit. The plan seemed to be working but Snipes still wasn’t out of the smoke enough to see the enemy. A few more steps and a shape started to emerge, a few more seconds and Snipes saw the shape lift its gun to its shoulder, it must have noticed its friend lacked a throat these days. Snipes crouched and quickly heaved with all of his body’s strength, the corpse flew, only about five feet, but far enough to tackle his friend, taking him to the ground, Snipes quickly stepped out of the smoke and squeezed the trigger. One, two, three, four times, then he tossed his pistol aside, only a couple bullets left in that last clip.

It was all a very eerie scene. A labyrinth of computer terminals, spouting thick white smoke into the air, clouding everyone’s vision.

Spent ammo packs on the floor, the occasional corpse, and the scorch marks of a barrage of blaster fire peppered the far wall. All they could hear were their own footsteps. At least they thought it was their own. How could they tell them apart from the enemy? How would they know if the dark silhouette in front of them wasn’t their good friend?

Perspiration dotted Giovanni’s forehead. His trigger finger was no longer rock steady, ready to contract on a moment’s notice. He was hesitant, and he didn’t like it.

He snapped back into reality, and had no idea how long he had been kneeling for. The place was still terribly quiet. He could only hear the clanking of heavy armor and the dull thud of boots on the floor.

Occasionally  something would drop to the floor, and gurgle out a dying breath. But once again, he could not distinguish friend from foe. And his jammed COM link made things even more stressful.

The sound of crushed glass behind him.

He spun around and caught a fist to his visor. He spun with the force of the punch and brought his fist around behind him, hammering it squarely on the temple of some armored friend or foe. His fist pummeled the man’s head, driving it into a destroyed computer terminal.

The satisfying crunch of the man’s helmet against the metal edge of the terminal kicked Giovanni’s adrenaline into overdrive. He grabbed the man by the shoulders and leaned himself back, driving a foot into the enemy’s groin in an attempt to launch him over and into the far wall, but this was no ordinary foe. The man knew very well what he was attempting and was already planting his hand on the ground, to cartwheel out of the throw. He rolled and landed on his feet a few feet behind Giovanni, and now had the upper hand.

“Shit!”

His first instinct was to turn around, but he knew it would be a bad idea. As soon as he turned to face his adversary, the cold steel of his blaster barrel would be pressed onto his helmet. A split second later, he would die.

Not here. Not now. he repeated to himself. Not here…not now.

He dove past an upturned chair by a terminal and narrowly missed two shots from the man’s blaster rifle. The third and final shot caught him in the thigh, right as he kicked back towards the chair with all his strength. The chair knocked the man in the knees and tripped him on his face. He stumbled for a second for his weapon, but he was too late.

The senior sergeant stood over the fallen man and gripped his head with his arms. The rebel fought back, but it was no use.

Giovanni breathed a heavy sigh and let the man’s head hang awkwardly from his shoulders.

“Alright, Carnon’s here alive with me. Everyone else check in?”

“Well, not exactly. We still haven’t heard from Jennabelle, Dixon, or Jan’re. Their comlinks could be down.” Or they could be dead, Arnaut thought.

“Alright, Kanderin. Keep hutning, and check in regularly,” Arnaut said over the comlink.

“Aye, aye. Will do Sar—“ The link went dead.

“Kanderin? Kanderin!?” All Arnaut got back was white noise. The links were jammed again.

“Friggit,” Arnaut muttered. He motioned for Carnon to move forward.

The room was smoking very badly now, and a part of it was on fire. They couldn’t stay here much longer. The smoke alarms had, no doubt, gone off by then, and reinforcements would be on their way. They had to get out, and soon.

There was a gap as the row of consoles stopped momentarily to allow an aisle through. Arnaut peered around it, looking for anything that might make crossing deadly. Nothing. Arnaut counted to three, checked one more time, and ran. He made it across fine. Carnon wasn’t as lucky.

He took a slow step forward, getting ready to make the dash across. The floor erupted as a heavy cannon tore it apart. Carnon leapt backwards.

“Aw, hell,” Arnaut muttered. He signaled with his hands. I’ll move around. Carnon nodded vigorously.

Arnaut crept under the cover of the consoles. The room seemed more quiet than usual. The smoke had gotten even thicker, and Arnaut switched the filter on his helmet to keep up with decreasing visibility. Something moved ahead, and Arnaut almost shot at him. It was an enemy, of that Arnaut was sure, but now Arnaut had the element of surprise on his side. He crept forward, a hunter stalking its prey, confident in the upcoming kill. His grip tightened on his rifle. One of his knives slid out of its sheath in Arnaut’s bracer. He was ready. He turned the corner.

A second later he leapt back as a single, intense jet of flame shot down the length of that aisle. They’d gotten the flamethrower back. Arnaut popped out of the cover of the consoles and sprayed the vicinity with shots before turning on his heel and dashing away. His shots went wild, but the flamethrower didn’t have to worry about fickle things such as aim. The next jet of flame licked the back of Arnaut’s armor. Heat sensors started flashing inside on his HUD and sweat popped out on his forehead. The flame trooper, his cover-man, and three other troopers hurried after Arnaut, guns blazing.

The maze of consoles was even more difficult to navigate standing up. Firstly, there was the debris on the ground. Bits of tech consoles, dropped clips, rubble, craters, and bodies made a fairly aggravating obstacle course for Arnaut to stumble through. Arnaut cursed his luck.

The troopers coming up behind him weren’t having such a great time either. The stumbled just as many, and sometimes more than Arnaut, cursing fluently as they went. Arnaut heard at least three different languages, one of which he didn’t recognize, although it sounded extremely crude.

Arnaut spun, squeezed off enough shots to make them duck, and then hurried on. What he failed to see was the body lying spread-eagle in the middle of the path. He tripped and fell flat on his face, his rifle skittering out reach. The enemy troopers were up now, and coming after Arnaut with renewed vigor. The flamethrower was almost in range. Arnaut didn’t have time to get his rifle, didn’t have time to think. In one fluid motion, he flipped his pistol into his hand and squeezed the trigger.

The fuel tanks of the flamethrower exploded in an expanding fireball. It consumed all five troopers simultaneously, sending them flying in opposite directions. They rolled on the ground screaming as they were burned alive, armor and clothing falling off like burning leaves.  After a minute or so of agonizingly painful screeches, all five had quieted, their corpses still burning. On one of them, the short-range jammer was burnt to a crisp and the comlinks became operational again.

“I think that was the last of them,” Arnaut said into the squad comlink.

He stood up, breathing hard. Around him, above the consoles, he could see all the members of Wraith squad, and Jan’re. They’d all survived.

Despite himself, Arnaut smiled under his helmet. They’d all survived. Against, looking at the bodies, somewhere close to three times their number, they’d all—

There was a hissing noise, loud and clear. The smoke, before having been floating lazily through the room, started to collect toward the corners, disappearing up the vents.

The holoscreen, in the middle of the far wall and quite large, lit up suddenly. It was Strontium. His nose was slightly bent, and he had blood stains and tears down the front of his jacket, but he seemed immensely pleased.

“I’m sorry to see that you’re all still alive. Those troopers were some of the finest. They shall truly be remembered. But not so for you, my enemies. No, right now the room you are in is being pumped of oxygen, allowing you to die a painful, agonizingly slow death as you suffocate.” Strontium began to laugh.

Arnaut looked down at the gauge on his wrist. The oxygen levels were dropping fast. Running over to the nearest standard console, tapped a few buttons and got up the oxygen map for the station. It set out a grim picture.  Nearly all of the compartments surrounding the sensor room were being pumped of oxygen. They’d all been scheduled for immediate lockdown. Halfway through Arnaut’s survey of the map, the terminal shut down. Arnaut tried to get back in, but the system wouldn’t let them. Strontium had locked them out.

Strontium was still laughing when Arnaut’s round blew out the screen.

“Should’ve killed him while I had the chance,” he muttered.

The doors, unsurprisingly, were locked tight. Arnaut knocked on them, but they seemed pretty sturdy.

“What now?” Tnepres asked, eyeing his wrist meter. The oxygen levels were at about half the normal amount. He didn’t sound scared. In fact, mainly, he sounded angry. Arnaut felt that way now too. Angry at getting them into this, angry at letting the fight escalate so far that they didn’t realize what was happening. But, mostly, angry at Strontium, that bastard. He was going to be in for hell when the Wraiths got out of their mess.

Arnaut started to put his combat engineering skills to work. He went around the room, knocking on each panel of the wall in turn. Finally, he found one that was relatively thin, compared to the others.

“Charge,” he called back. Kanderin tossed him two and he attached them to the wall. The squad backed up into the safety of the console maze, and Arnaut hefted the trigger up in his hand. Oxygen levels were at twenty-five percent, and now they were running on their armor’s oxygen supplies. They had enough for six hours, plus spare oxygen tanks, but there was no telling how long it would take to blow out of nearly one hundred metres of metal space station. And that’s if their explosives didn’t swindle. They had to start somewhere, though.

“Here goes nothing.” Arnaut hit the switch.

“Vents, vents, vents. Always with the vents,” Snipes mumbled, crawling through the cramped space. In front of him, the only thing visible was Giovanni’s boots, taking up most of the air space. “I’m going to catch claustrophobia.”

Standing below, Arnaut chuckled. “I don’t think you can catch claustrophobia, Snipes.”

“You know what I mean!”

The oxygen levels were almost entirely down by now. The pumps were making good work, sucking out all the air quickly and efficiently. Their armor’s oxygen tanks had been running for thirty minutes; they still had time. That didn’t mean Arnaut wasn’t worried. Only two and a half hours and the fleet would be jumping into the system. They didn’t have time to waste as people got stuck in air vents.

“How you doin’ in there, Gio?” Arnaut asked into the comlink. Giovanni’s reply was a muttered profane oath. Finally, Gio gave up.

“Screw it.” There was a short, quick staccato of blaster bolts. Then, with a shriek of strained metal, Giovanni fell through the broken air vent and into the room on the other side of the wall.

“Found my way over.”

Using the air vents, the squad moved from room to room. Most of the air vents were large enough to fit the troopers through, however uncomfortably, although a few were more troublesome ones.

“Everyone down to vacuum suits and helmets,” Arnaut ordered as they came upon the next shaft. It was to small for any of the troopers to fit through, armored up as they were. After a few precious minutes of de-armoring and trying to squeeze through the narrow metal tube, they had made it to the next room. And this one had oxygen.

The meter had spiked, Arnaut saw as he attached his bracers. Oxygen levels were at a somewhat normal level. They’d made it out of Strontium’s killzone. They could stop using up their oxygen tanks. Arnaut was going to strangle that man the next time he saw him. And make sure Strontium knew who exactly was killing him as he did it.

Around him, the rest of the squad almost had their armor entirely on as well. Jennabelle and Fraot, who, for obvious reasons, had gone through first, lounged against the wall, staring with some humor as the other troopers strained to get their armor back on quickly.

“Hey, Sarge,” Jennabelle said, pulling on his last glove. “Lookee there.” He jerked a thumb toward a metal plate drilled onto the wall. The hallway they were in seemed to be a navigation room of sorts, with various technical maps of the station covering the walls. The sign in particular that Jenn was pointing at had only one word and one arrow scratched onto it.

Shields.

“Well, I guess we know which way to go,” Jan’re said. “Shall you lead?” Arnaut’s eyes lingered on the sign a while longer before he looked at Jan’re.

“No, you can take point. Wraith squad…form up! These shields aren’t going to destroy themselves!”

There was a  loud  'oo-rah' and the squad filed out.

I thought those two promised to keep their public displays of affection out of this mission. Giovanni mumbled.

Kanderin and Fraot were being openly affectionate. Had they forgotten they were on surveillance? Their every step within the station was being monitored in way or another. It would be unfortunate for their relationship to be taken advantage of and for it to be used against the whole squad.

Women… Giovanni scoffed.

He was but a young man of 24 but he knew a little better than to let a member of the opposite sex come in the way of business. Or maybe he was just bitter about his last relationship.

It didn’t matter. This was a highly touchy situation. A situation where personal feelings could place one or all of them in a precarious situation.

He stopped rambling to himself and picked up his pace to place himself near the front of the squad, jogging through the hallways of the space station. They all looked the same, and without the signs leading them to the shield control room, there was no doubt in his mind they’d be lost.

The oxygen levels were still a little below normal, meaning that whatever Rebel presence once resided these halls, whether they were technicians, guards, maintenance crew and the like, they had probably evacuated when the firefight with the Elite squad broke out.

The evidence of past life littered the place, however. It was almost like they were running through a ghost town. A squad of individuals all clad in black, running through this semi-deserted section of a space station like ghouls.

It must be a hell of a sight.

“Slow down fellas, I think we’re getting closer.” Arnaut sounded off.

Gio looked down and saw that the oxygen levels were now back to normal, a sure sign that there were Rebels nearby.

“Any plans Arn? I’d rather not wing it like the earlier part of this mission. They will be expecting us after all.” Giovanni voiced his concerns.

“We only have two hours till the fleet flies in and while we’ve done a good job of clearing the station out of everyone besides the command staff and the defense squads, we still need to take out the defense guns and the shields.”

The details of the mission circled through Giovanni’s head.

“I don’t mean to question the objective at hand, sir, but if we just went for the control room instead of individual objectives, we could knock the whole station out in one fell swoop.” He looked around to see if anyone would agree with him.

“It might work. I know we can’t afford to get kept up by another squad like we did in the computer room. We need to take the fight to them. We can’t keep fighting them as we run into them.” He continued to build his case. He was certain that their chance for success lay in hitting the control center.

Arnaut was deep in thought. Kanderin looked at Giovanni and pondered the matter at hand as well.

Somewhere off an Imperial fleet was headed on their position. Their lives and the success of the mission lay on their capacity to subdue the space station.

Giovanni just hoped he wasn’t trying to lead his squad into a trap.

OOC:

Like most my posts, this was written late. I was tired. If some parts are incoherent, bear with me. I'll work them out in the morning. For now...screw yer complaints, I'm heading to bed!!!

Arnaut pulled the body into the corner. Only one other awaited its presence. Around him, on the walls, there were very little signs of the brief struggle that had killed the two guards. Besides one blaster scorch running at head height, just to Arnaut’s left, no one would be able to tell that anything had happened.

By some strange stroke of luck, they’d managed to take the barracks with the barest of resistance. Not seconds before the attack had been signaled, most of the troopers on duty were called off to go prowl the halls. Apparently, Strontium had noticed that the Wraiths were no longer in his death trap. However, he didn’t notice that the Wraiths were currently sneaking up behind him, in a sense. Arnaut could almost pity the man. He shoved the corpse on top of the other roughly. Almost.

A few meters away, the rest of the squad was busy searching up and down the aisles for anything that they thought could do some damage. Beeping consoles, technical read-outs, flashing screens; none of it made any bit of sense to them. Or, at least not much.

“Hey, Sarge, lookee here! I found the technician’s lunch orders,” Jan’re yelled from the far side of the room. The man had taken to calling Arnaut ‘Sarge’, like the rest of the squad. It helped him integrate more with the other squad members who, despite his accomplishments so far, still regarded him as an outsider and more of a liability than help.

Arnaut walked over to a console, idly tapped a few buttons and shook his head.

“We’re wasting our time,” he said aloud. Every head turned toward him.

“What?” Kanderin asked incredulously.

“We’re wasting our time,” Arnaut repeated. “This ‘control’ room ahead is nothing more than a water routing station. The guard station just happened to be here too.”

“How can you tell?” Carnon asked walking over to the console. Kanderin strode up too, accompanied by most of the rest of the squad.

“Maps. As usual. Take a look for yourself.” The squad did.

“So it’s a map of all the electric wiring. Big deal.”

“No. It’s a labeled map of all the wiring. Look, the main shield generator runs it’s supply through this room…here.” He jabbed at a colored room on the vast map of the station.

“Ah…so…that’s air control. And that’s…that’s the defense cannon, way over there,” Kanderin said, pointing out other rooms. “So that means…that…oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, which is closest?” Giovanni asked, pushing to the front of the group. He got some disgruntled glares, but it had been his plan, after all.

“Luckily, that looks like it’s the shields. Unfortunately for us, that might mean another guard station on the way,” Kanderin said, eyes never leaving the map.

“Oh boy. This just gets better and better,” someone groaned in the back.

Though, technically, the water routing station and the main control for the station’s shields were only separated by a few meters of metal, the path was longer than the Wraiths had initially expected. And that didn’t include all the delays made by the patrols in the hallways.

“Security has really swelled in the past few minutes,” Snipes muttered contemptuously at Arnaut’s side.

Patrols were seen more frequently now, though, most of them didn’t seem to be going the same direction as the Wraiths. Strontium must’ve thought they were still around the no-air rooms. It hadn’t even entered the man’s mind that they were now en route to shut down the shields. It was all very unfortunate for him.

Arnaut passed a stairwell, still musing over Strontium’s ignorance, when they found trouble.

The first shot almost took off Arnaut’s head. The second and third grazed past as he jumped out of the way, leaving him with some searing burns on his thigh.

“Hard contact, hard contact! Three men, blaster rifles, on the stairs. I need two men up here now!”

The rest of the squad, still at the end of the hallway, hurried to meet up with Arnaut. Tnepres and Kanderin were the first ones to actually reach him.

“Alright, we’ll lay down fire, you get across the stairwell.” Tnepres nodded.

“One, two, now!” Carnon and Arnaut popped around the corner and blasted away. Up the stairs, the three troopers ducked back into cover, getting out of the way of the hail of shots. Tnepres took his chance and darted past the opening.

“Clear!” he yelled, and chucked the grenade in. There was as till second, and then the stairwell was blown outwards in a flurry of debris.

“So much for being silent,” Snipes said.

“Little time for finesse. We’re close to the shields now, and those guys probably just alerted half the station to our whereabouts,” Tnepres replied.

“And, there’s the guard station to contend with as well.” The two troopers followed Arnaut’s pointed finger to see a guard station, much like the one they had blasted into earlier. This time, the soldiers were armored, getting weapons prepped to head out. They knew the Wraiths were close, just not how close. The answer probably would’ve shocked them. Had they lived long enough to find out.

Trooper Fitzgerald, Corporal of the elite Magna squad, currently stationed outside guard post one-oh-oh-niner, whistled softly as he waited for the rest of his squad. He was frightened, nervous, and excited all at the same time. There were enemies in the base, and close. It could’ve been his moment for glory. He could do something important, live up to his squad’s status. Unfortunately for him, the silenced round took out his brains before he could accomplish any of this. He slid down the door silently, a small trail of blood following him. His partner fell shortly thereafter, a smoking hole in the middle of his visor.

“Damn. Only two shots.” Arnaut flipped Tnepres a coin, which he caught neatly between his fingers.

“Told you I could do it.” They were one hundred meters down the hall, just barely able to see the two crumpled forms of the guards they taken out.

Inside the guard station, the rest of the squad milled about, not even noticing that they’d just lost two of their number. They were gearing up for war; that was all that they could focus on at the moment. When there was a sudden thud on the window looking out of their station, the only one to notice it was Trooper Argros, standing closest. There was small pack looking things on the other side of the window. It was about the size of a helmet, squarish, with a few wires crisscrossing it. It was stuck to the window with some form of adhesive.

“Uh, sir?” he called back, touching the window. The det pack exploded, taking Argros with it.

The blow shattered the window completely. Glass shards took out two more troopers, one severing a man’s neck, the other going through an exposed chest directly into the heart. Another lodged itself in the eye slit of some unlucky trooper who writhed on the ground in vain, trying to pull his helmet off. His screeches were somewhat muted by the fresh flow of blood gushing from his wound, over his mouth, and out the bottom of his helmet.

Sustained blaster fire, coming through the smoke, cut down the last six dazed, battered, and cut troopers of the squad. Arnaut stepped over the window sill and the remains of Argros, putting a round through the still shrieking trooper as he did so.

“Like Tnepres said, ‘Little time for finesse’,” Arnaut said casually, looking at the destruction they’d caused in the space of a few seconds.

Snipes walked in, casting disdainful looks at the mangled bodies on the ground.

“I’ll say. Most of these don’t even look human.” He nudged one with his boot, eliciting more blood.

“Alarms just went out to every guard station in the station. Looks like our little gamble with the explosive didn’t work after all. Great.” Kanderin was typing on one of the other consoles in the room. All the interconnected computers in the space station were really starting to help.

“Well, let’s just be gone before they get here, then.”

Two more det packs took off the door to the shield room. It really wasn’t all that heavily armored; apparently the makers of the station hadn’t planned on an incursion like this. The blast literally blew the door off its hinges on the wall and threw it back a good five meters, crushing one of the two guards stationed in the room. The other backed away, dropping his weapon, and submitted himself to the Wraiths. He was stripped, tied, and locked up in one of the most out of the way places they could find.

The shield room itself presented its own problem. They had no idea how to shut the thing down.

“Would be nice if they’d included a big red ‘off’ button,” Fraot said.

Arnaut prowled the rows, looking for something that looked familiar. Few things popped out at him. But there had to be something. He knew that there had to be.

Emergency cut-off. The words passed idly through Arnaut’s mind as he walked down the rows. He stopped. Half-turned back. Shook his head. The word floated across his consciousness again, and this time he seized upon it. Emergency. Cut-off.. He turned back, still only half recognizing the words. Then his eyes widened, and he dashed over to the terminal, grabbing it on both sides, and stared into its screen. Sure enough, there was an emergency switch to cut out all the power in the case that something bad happened. He punched a few buttons, hit the okay button, and prayed for the best.

Security clearance required.

He tried using the security card Giovanni had found. It didn’t work!

“Kanderin! Kanderin!” Arnaut called. “I found it! But I need a keycard or something! Search the squad leader!” Kanderin, on the other end of the room near the bodies, quickly went to work at the grim task while Arnaut tried everything in his limited computer programming skills to get clearance. But he was no slicer, and he just simply couldn’t do it. Not for the first time, he wished Virius were still in the squad.

“Sarge, I don’t think you’ll be using this,” Kanderin called back grimly pulling up the tattered remains of a security card.

“Frig,” Arnaut muttered.

“Sarge, I think one of the guys we killed back at the last station had a security card,” Jennabelle piped up.

Arnaut contained his anger, and instead called the troopers together. “We’ve got alarms ringing all over the place, troopers probably coming in from everywhere just to get a shot at us. And now we need to backtrack to go get some friggin’ security key we don’t even know will work.”

“Sounds like another run-of-the-mill day with the Wraiths,” Jan’re chuckled. Arnaut couldn’t help but smile.

“Let’s go!”

They sprinted down the halls, not caring whether they were seen or not. The station basically knew where they were now; no care to conceal it any longer. They just had to stay out of reach as long as possible.

Arnaut rounded a corner full speed and knocked an enemy trooper to the ground in a flurry of limbs. Arnaut had been prepared in case this happened, ever since they’d left the shield room. The enemy trooper, however, had not. He wound up dead, along with two of his buddies, in the hallway. The Wraiths moved on, leaving the first in what would be a long line of engagements behind them.

* * *

Commander Strontium paced back and forth in the main control room of the station. Briggs wasn’t in the room at the moment, otherwise Strontium probably would’ve been skinned alive. That is if Briggs found the time. The station was going crazy. Almost every soldier on duty had been called to action, and even some that weren’t on duty. Reports were coming in from a dozen locations of either meeting heavy resistance or finding traces of past resistance. Bodies, scorch marks, explosion craters; the havoc the enemy squad was creating in the station-center was taking its toll.

Latest figures calculated about thirty dead. Thirty! And the number grew as reports came in from various places. One after one, all the missing patrol squads were being found, gunned down in their own hallways, plus other troopers who hadn’t even been reported missing yet. Communications with one of the guard stations had been lost; who knew how many men had went with it.

This was all beyond Strontium’s field of expertise. He hadn’t a clue on what to do. So he picked the most simple, brutal thing he could think of. He sent every available trooper, save the barest minimum of guards, to the center of the station, and then quarantined the whole place. The station was effectively divided into two parts; the inter and the outer. Those on the inside risked death and worse. Those on the outside had to stand by and nervously watch it all unfold. Strontium didn’t know which side he’d rather be on.

Strontium didn’t know where Briggs was. He hadn’t seen him in a while, not since the argument. Neither had he seen Ella. For his sake, Strontium hoped he’d locked both of them on the other side of the station. Both would probably want to kill him at this point.

"Sir, another report from the--" the comm officer began, running up to the Commander.

“No! I don’t want every bloody report we get from the line! I don’t want to know how many we’ve lost! I don’t want any of this!” Strontium snapped at the young comm officer. The man flinched and darted back to his post.

Strontium, now beside himself with despair, sat down hard in his chair, and did something he hadn’t done in a long time. He wept.


* * *


Arnaut sprinted past a hallway, stepping over the latest body. So far, all engagements had been quick, brutally efficient, one-sided affairs. Wraith squad was ready when they ran headlong into a force of enemy soldiers around a corner, or in the hallway. Every second they sprinted down those halls, they expected it. The station-troopers, however, still had no idea what was going on and were caught completely unprepared. While they stood shocked, Wraith squad cut them down, moving on quickly. The station-troopers died probably still not knowing what was going on.

Arnaut darted past the next hallway. The rest of the squad made it halfway across before the shooting began. Hard, solid-slug rounds shattered and blistered the floor. The station-troopers had finally brought some heavy weapons to bear, and were using them effectively. Giovanni, Tnepres, Kanderin, and Carnon were the only ones to make it across the hallway before it was effectively cut off.

Jennabelle made a hesitant approach to the corner where the two halls intersected and jumped back quickly as auto-fire blew apart the wall.

“Keep going! We’ll find another way around,” she said over to Arnaut.

“You sure?” he asked.

“Absolutely. We’ll try and take out the bastards with the big gun while we’re at it, too.”

“Don’t get killed. We’ll meet you at the guard station.”

The guard station was just how they’d left it. Near immaculate, with that one blaster scorch, and the two bodies stacked in the corner. Arnaut rushed over, procured the key, and then they were off again.

When they went back to the hallway, there was no sign of Jenn, Snipes, or any of the other Wraiths that they’d left behind. Neither was the heavy cannon there. There was one, long splatter of blood, but Arnaut couldn’t tell whose it was.

Arnaut tried to raise the other squad members on the comlink, but all he got was static. He wished them his best, and then continued on toward the shield room.

There were guards now, standing watch outside the shattered guard station and the exposed shield room. Arnaut gunned down the two in the guard station, made a mad dash through a storm of shots, and made it to the good cover of the blown out room. He turned around to find Tnepres right behind him.

“Didn’t think you were going to make a suicidal run like that without me, didya?” he laughed.

With Giovanni, Kanderin, and Carnon on one side of the hall, and Tnepres and Arnaut on the other, they gunned the remaining troopers into a defensive position, inside the shield room. Arnaut closed the gap between the guard station and the doorway to the shield room, shooting a trooper as he poked his head out. Tnepres, ever close behind, jumped in first, guns blazing. The troopers popped out of hiding to shoot Tnepres, only to be gunned down by Giovanni and Carnon as they entered the room. Kanderin and Arnaut entered last, to a room held entirely by Wraiths. Arnaut made his way over to the same emergency console, every eye in the room on him, and plugged in the card.

“Let’s do this,” he murmured quietly, and hit the accept button. It thought about it for a second, and then the command went through. The station’s shields, the only defense for the critical points like the hangars and the crew quarters, went down. Arnaut sighed in relief.

The station was ripe for the taking.