As AlanRJ made the the call to hector to move out, there was only the footsteps of Hector and Anival followed by AlanRJ to be heard nearing lift areas.

Hector on the approach, knowing full well that anything he wish that he would do, that if he go full knowingly into battle trying to tackle all the enemy forces would not be the likely proposition, so he needed to stay close and with the team in order to stay alive and well.

Following the team near the lifts, there was a set of explosion heard from the distance and Hector and the team could hear what was happening, but closely stood by one another in anticipation for the next enemy movement.

The republic soldiers from the anticipation of the explosion went on there way towards the squads location, Hector gripped his weapon and preppared for the attack, aiming his weapon, five soldiers geared up near the side corner ran there way into the oncoming squad.

Hector ready and willing fired the first shots. Two soldiers died from incoming fire, watching the rest of the soldiers getting shot by the rest of his squad, hector, in amazement looks in motivation and awe as his squad mates protected him before they had arrived at the lift.

It was going to be a hard stretch but hopefully they would get to where they were going. Hector now would look up to his squad for anything because they had protected him in the time where he would have almost gotten shot, but now seeing that his new squad was true and willing to do anything for him he would go and do the same for them.

After the lift had arrived Hector walked around it to check to make sure that anyone coming out would be shot, preferably republic soldiers, but to there amazement, the lift was empty so they all gathered in and move into the lift and continued there advance.

Alan was rarely wrong and sadly he was not wrong in this instance.  Walking slowly and keeping to the shadows, he approached section 21 carefully, ever alert for enemy soldiers or traps.  Sadly he wasn't alert enough as when he rounded a corner a shield dropped down from the ceiling and enveloped him.  The shield was large enough to contain several troopers and Alan was glad that he hadn't committed the entire squad to going to the weapon.

No sooner was he trapped in the shield when several enemy soldiers surrounded him and ordered him to lower his weapon.  Trapped and outnumbered Alan had no choice to surrender his weapon.  The shield lowered and one of the soldiers took his weapon.  Alan studied the man's face carefully and thought to himself when my squad comes to get me, I'll be coming after you and getting my weapon back.  Alan then hoped that his squad was faring far better than he was after thinking that.

The soldiers marched Alan down the corridor to section 21.  When they arrived Alan finally came face to face with the weapon.  He had seen detailed schematics of it but he gasped in amazement at its sheer size.  It was one thing to see schematics of it but a totally different thing to see it face to face.  I know now why the New Republic wanted it so badly thought Alan.  Then Alan spotted him and his face dropped.

On his knees was Captain Kent Pryce of the Vast Imperial Intelligence Division with a blaster pointed directly at his head.  Alan had completely forgotten about him.  Alan suddenly wondered whether the ship had been boarded after their departure or had the Captain come after them to assist and was captured.  Alan dismissed his thoughts as right here, right now the Captain was in their hands and in danger of being shot. 

The man holding the blaster glared at Alan and said "enter in the code for this weapon or this officer dies".

The Engineers must have locked the weapon's functions before they left thought Alan as he was asked the question.  "I was never given the codes" replied Alan. 

"Give us the codes now or he dies!" shouted the officer, his hand quivering on the trigger.

Alan's brain went into overdrive.  He didn't want Pryce to be gunned down in cold blood.  The Intelligence Division needed good officers like him.  At the same time he knew that the New Republic must never get this weapon.

"He dies!" shouted the officer as his finger started depressing the trigger.

"Wait!" shouted Alan, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead.  He could see that the man was serious.  I hope my squad gets here soon thought Alan as he kneeled down and entered in the code to unlock the weapon.  Alan heard an audible click and knew that the weapon was now theirs.

"Thank you" said Pryce as he stood up.

Alan gasped as he watched Pryce.  No thought Alan he can't be a traitor.

"For a moment I thought you weren't going to give us the codes, now the Vast Empire and all the rest of you Imperial scum will die" said Pryce.

It all became clear to Alan as to how the New Republic knew about the weapon and to their arrival, what wasn't clear was why.

"Just tell me one thing Pryce, why?" queried Alan.

"My brother died when a band of outlaws attacked his colony.  The colony was a protected colony and the Intelligence Division knew of the attack but they told no-one.  They considered it to be an acceptable loss when they heard of a new threat on Yuka.  So everyone was sent to Yuka and my brother and everyone else on that colony died, and for what.  I swore revenge on that day and now I will have it.  Now you and the rest of your pitiful band of so-called soldiers will die" replied Pryce.

Alan gasped as Pryce raised his weapon.

Vince was once again the first one around the corner, his heavy blaster rifle spraying lasers at the Rebel troopers. He noticed Pryce was standing with the NR soldiers. Dread filling the pit of his stomach, Vince dropped his rifle when Alan entered the fight. Pulling his combat knife out of its sheath, he waded into the fray.

The first man in Vince’s way got knocked into the air and landed ten feet away with a thud. He then got a throwing knife in the chest, also from Vince. But Vince was already moving, choosing his next victim. A man approached him with a knife held in one hand. Vince grinned. A normal man would have felt fear at a brawl like this, but Vince had lived on a rough planet for his entire life. He had grown up around rough men who fought often. This was the kind of fight Vince lived for.

Holding his knife in his left hand, point down, Vince advanced. Before the man even knew what happened Vince’s right foot snaked out of nowhere and swept his foot out from under him. On his way down, Vince elbowed the man in the head. The man’s head snapped back with enough force to snap his neck. Nearby a Rebel soldier looked up and stared right at Vince. Vince grinned, the grin almost a feral snarl. The trooper took a step back and dropped his pistol. Vince lunged for him, and his knife was in the young trooper’s chest before the other soldier could even react.

Vince twisted his knife and yanked it from the young mans body. He turned, looking for his next target. He also took a quick count of his squad mates. Everyone was alive, including Alan, and Pryce was dead. Impressive, Vince thought to himself. He had gone toe to toe with Pryce and had failed. Vince felt a stab of respect for his squad leader.

He didn’t have any more time to think, though, as another man lunged for him. Vince immediately turned to face the new threat.

The battle did not last long as one by one the enemy soldiers fell due to Iron Horse's deadly accuracy.  The smoke cleared and Alan looked around, ensuring that all the enemy troops were dead.  He signalled to the rest of the squad to keep their eyes peeled for any further soldiers and they quickly took up defensive positions.

Kneeling next to the weapon, Alan accessed the control panel.  He quickly started pressing buttons and hoped that he would not be interrupted.  Once he was done, a counter started flashing.  It read 15:00 and the numbers started decreasing.

"All right guys, we've got 15 minutes before this weapon self destructs.  It should take out a good portion of the station so we don't really want to be here when it goes off.  Let's move" said Alan.

The squad needed no further instruction as they were immediately jogging to the nearest elevator.  Alan was hoping that they did not run into any trouble between here and the spaceship.

The elevator seemed to take an eternity before arriving but thankfully it was empty and the squad had no trouble returning back to the ship.  Alan was starting to think that for once everything was going to be nice and simple.

Things however are never that simple, especially for the Iron Horse squad.  Arriving at the hangar deck, the doors slid smoothly open and Alan's eyes widened when he took in the sight before him.

The ship was there and still intact but around it were several New Republic soldiers guarding it.  Alan and the rest of the squad quickly crouched behind some barrels before they were detected.

Damn it, we don't have time for this thought Alan.

"What do we do now sarge?" queried Ken.

"Nothing else for it, we fight" replied Alan.

Alan and the rest of the squad prepped for battle.

Vince quickly unslung his A280 as Anival sprinted away. He didn’t like the plan, but there wasn’t much he could do about it, and he had no better ideas. Quickly making sure that his rifle had full power and gas levels, he took up a position behind one of the boxes. Using his A280, he could lay down suppressive fire for Anival and the rest of the squad.

He quickly kneeled behind a box. The box came up to shoulders as he knelt, the perfect height for cover. Sighting down the scope of his rifle, he picked out several targets. He didn’t fire yet, however.

“Wait until Anival manages to grab their attention,” Alan’s voice said in his ear. Vince flinched. This comm. stuff would take some getting use too.

Vince glanced around and saw that the rest of the ssquad had taken up positions similar to Vince’s. most were wielding E-11 carbines, and all were tensed, waiting for the command to open up on the NR soldiers.

“There goes Anival. Vince, be careful not to poke holes in our ship with that cannon, eh?” It was Alan’s voice again.

Vince grinned. “Will do Sarge. If Anival pulls this off, they won’t even be near the ship.”

“That may be, but still, be careful.”

“Willco,” Vince replied.

After that there was no more time for conversation. The NR soldiers had caught sight of Anival, and began shooting and running towards him. Vince snorted. He sighted down his scope one more time, waiting for the order to open fire.

Things were not going well as Alan shot another NR soldier.  Anival had distracted some of the soldiers guarding the ship but now more soldiers were arriving and they were running out of time.  Alan knew that the destruction of the weapon would take out part of the station but he didn’t know whether it would destroy this hangar bay or not.

“To the ship!” shouted Alan as he waved the squad in the direction of the ship.

Alan watched Anival double time it.  He was making good progress when suddenly Anival collapsed from a blaster bolt to his ankle.  Damn Republic soldiers thought Alan as he cursed the soldier that had shot Anival.  Locating the shooter, Alan quickly gunned him down. 

Alan was going to help Anival when he suddenly noticed Vince lifting the wounded Anival and started jogging towards the ship.  Alan and the rest of the squad started backing slowly towards the ship, firing repeatedly at the NR soldiers.  Some were cut down, others merely dived for cover.  Either way they finally made it to the ship.

No sooner had the doors closed on the ship than the ship lurched violently throwing Alan to the deck.  Son of a cursed Alan, hating the fact that the pilots had done such a poor job of lifting off.  He suddenly realised that the engines were only now starting up.  Oh hell he thought.

Racing to the cockpit he hastily shouted “get us out of here now!”

“We’re on our way” replied one of the pilots as the ship manoeuvred out of the hangar bay and into space.

From the back of the ship Ken looked out of one of the view ports and watched as explosions rocked the station.  “We did it” he said to himself.

On the flight back to Tadath, Alan decided to go round each of his troopers and congratulate them on a job well done.  He decided to speak to Verlock first.

“Hey Verlock” said Alan, “good job down there”

“Thanks Sir” replied Verlock.

Alan could tell that something was troubling Verlock, “what’s wrong?”

“You’re probably not going to like this Sir, but flying on this mission has inspired me to join the navy” replied Verlock.

“I take it there’s no way I can talk you out of it” replied Alan.

“No Sir” said Verlock.

Alan shook Verlock’s hand firmly and replied “I’m sorry to see you go Verlock but I wish you all the best with your Navy career”.

Alan met up with Vince next “good work Vince, Anival would surely be dead if it wasn’t for you”.

“All in a days work” replied Vince.

Alan then met up with Ken and he did not like what he was hearing.  “Sarge” said Ken, “when we land, I need to go on an extended leave break”.

“Well you’ll be missed” replied Alan, “I hope you come back soon”.

Hector then came up to Alan and said “Sir, I know that I have just arrived from the reserves but I’m afraid I have some unfinished business I need to take care of and I need to be placed back into reserves when we land”.

Alan was not happy, too many people were leaving.  “I hope you come back to us soon”.

His last stop was to the medical bay where Anival was being tended to by a medical droid.

“How are you feeling?” asked Alan.

“Pretty good Sir” replied Anival.

“Well you did a hell of a job soldier, now rest up” replied Alan.

The return trip did not seem to take too long and they soon returned at Tadath and were debriefed by High Command.  They had been delighted with Iron Horse’s mission.  After the debrief Alan sat in his office.  He looked out of his office window into the barracks and seen how empty it looked.  With Verlock now with the Navy, Ken on extended leave and Hector back on the reserves list, Alan feared that this may be the end of the squad.  Alan’s thoughts were interrupted by a knocking on his door.

“Enter” said Alan.

An officer entered and handed Alan some documents for his perusal.  Alan dismissed the officer and sat down at his desk and leafed through the documents.  His eyes widened as he read.  Maybe there’s hope for this squad after all he thought as he saw the appointment of DracoKorr to the squad and the transfers of Jelly Bean, Saphira Striker and Xenos.  He had never worked with any of them before, but he was looking forward to Iron Horse’s next mission.

The End.