The rearguard was in place, shots were being fired, and five Wraith troopers were sprinting as fast as they could through the blinding snow and wind to get away from the ambush. The snow was thick and relelntless, blinding out the world in white. It had started to come down harder, and, without comlink lines or radar, which had gone out about fifteen minutes ago with the snow, the Wraiths were effectively blind.

“Stick close. You go out there and you might never come back,” Arnaut relayed over the short distance comlink. No one said anything, but Arnaut could tell from the way they suddenly huddled closer together that they’d gotten the message.

The snow came down even harder and now visibility was limited to the legnth of Arnaut’s arm.  Snipes was next to him, he assumed, and Tnepres on the other side. Rik and Tellen were the two other recruits that comprised Wraith squad on this mission. They lagged a bit behind, still troubled over the death of Malen. All three of them had come through the academy together, gotten placed in the same squad together. And then Malen had taken one in the back of the head. Arnaut wondered if either of the two surviving recruits would be of any use in their depressed state.

“Keep up,” he stated crisply into the comlink. They hurried forward. Or, at least, tried to. The first shots caught them unaware, ripping through Rik’s thigh even as the Wraiths were turning to face the new threat. Rik went down hard, blood gushing from his already freezing wound. The open skin, unprotected by the gash in his armor, didn’t stand a chance in Yuka’s icy weather. Rik whimpered over the comlink.

“Frig, frig, frig,” Arnaut was muttering, firing blindly into the snow. Tnepres and Snipes went prone, laying down opposite waves of fire in the enemy’s general direction. Tellen was dressing Rik’s wound.

“Snipes, right flank, covering maneuver now!” Snipes rolled into a squatting position and hurried off to the right, disappearing into the snow. Silence. Then an exchange of shots. Arnaut and Tnepres hurried forward, using Snipes’ distraction to allow them to get within range of the enemy. They could see them now. Five troopers, fully geared. They must’ve had some very strong IR scanners, because Arnaut hadn’t been able to pick them up. They were looking away from the pair of Wraiths.

“Aw, we can take them,” Tnepres muttered.

“On three,” Arnaut said. Tnepres nodded. “One…”

“…three!” Tnepres was off, charging at the monstrosities who were still unaware that he was even there. Arnaut muttered a curse at Tnepres’ lack of self regard and charged forward. His blades unsheathed even as he started to fire, springing forth from their compartments on Arnaut’s bracers.  Arnaut smiled. He’d been waiting a long time to do this.  Knives held forth, Arnaut lunged.

And was batted aside. The weight and power behind the hydraulic enhanced body armor of the troopers sent Arnaut tumbling through the snow, ending up on his back gasping for breath. Tnepres managed to put a round through on of the troopers armor before a fist slammed him into the ground. Arnaut lunged up again, filled with rage. He ignored the pain in his side all together, darting toward the nearest enemy trooper. He dodged the first swipe, the second, the third. Arnaut had a clear line for the thing’s throat. Then a round from one of the other’s hit him in the square of the back. He tumbled out of the giant’s reach, gasping for breath, and had to roll as the second trooper aimed to fire at him again.

Arnaut wasn’t sure if he himself had been hit or if his armor had taken the blow. His chest hurt immensely, and somewhere – he couldn’t tell where- somewhere inside his suit, a warm sticky fluid was leaking out of him. He coughed and the coppery taste of blood filled his mouth.

They were just too immense, too tough. They were invincible, they were ultimate, they were… A small, hard cylinder clinked off the nearest one’s helmet and landed at his feet. A perfect throw. He looked at it thickly for a long second, turned, and exploded. The concussive force sent snow, metal, bone fragments, and blood into the air in one, giant cloud, and then brought it raining down again. Fragments of the grenade caught two others, tore open their armor and the pinky flesh underneath, and left them bleeding on the ground.  The last two were simply knocked flat. Snipes appeared out of the gloom, landed on the nearest one, and knifed him to death. As the other enemy giant tried to rise, Snipes turned neatly and blew out his throat. He fell like a rock.

“Thought you could use a hand,” Snipes said, pulling Arnaut out of the snow. Arnaut spluttered and coughed, spitting out more blood into his helmet’s filter.

“Thanks,” he mumbled weakly. He suddenly realized Tnepres was still lying face down in the snow. He hurried over and rolled the fellow Wraith onto his back. He was alive.

“Nearly clubbed me to death, he did,” Tnepres coughed. His chest plated was nearly caved in, and spidery cracks climbed almost all the way to the back of the armor. When Arnaut commented on this, Snipes chuckled.

“Your armor doesn’t look so fancy either, Sarge.” Arnaut felt around the back of his armor and was dismayed to find a large, jagged hole in the pack attached to the back of the suit. The power supply still looked good; it hadn’t been hit. Half his rations were smoked, though, with the other half already freezing in the weather. And his only supply of lukewarm water in the suit had been punctured and frozen over.

“Well, looks like the techs back at base camp will have some stuff will have no shortage of work.”

Tellen and Rik were still huddled over in the snow when Arnaut got back. Rik was unconscious and Tellen, in his frantic, depressed state, was crying over what he thought to be Rik’s corpse. Kind of pitiful, Arnaut thought as he looked over the two, before going over and finishing fixing up Rik’s half-dressed leg. They started to move again, albeit a lot slower with Rik only semi-conscious and Tellen a nervous wreck. Tnepres and Snipes were out stalking on either side of the trio, almost as far as the short-range comlinks could reach, making sure they weren’t passing by an enemy patrol again.

After ten minutes of this, Arnaut pulled Tnepres and Snipes back in. Two large, menacing cliffs rose to either side of them creating a narrow passage that they could rest from the wind in. Kanderin should’ve been catching up with them by then. As if on cue, Kanderin’s call came over the comlink.

“…least seven in tow, possibly more. We’re un…fire. Fraot…bleeding badly…Arnaut, this is…reply?”

“Keep coming, Kanderin, we’ll cover you,” Arnaut responded. He turned back and was happy to see that Snipes and Tnepres were almost done.

“Alright, let’s pull back and allow them to come through.”

It was almost twenty minutes before Kanderin, Fraot, and Jennabelle finally staggered through the pass. Fraot’s side was punctured and the bandages were black. Arnaut winced upon seeing the wound. It was bad. She would live, but it still was bad. The three ran in between the narrow pass of rocks, and continued running through the other side, down the gently sloping hill, away from the pass, just as Arnaut had told them to do.

Then came the enemy soldiers. Eight of them, Arnaut counted. He idly rubbed the side of his chest where he’d taken the hit from one of their friends not too long ago.  He would enjoy this.

The eight of them surged forward, a monstrous tide of metal and plasteel, four armored colossuses striding through the snow. They were hunting their prey with ruthless efficiency and speed, and gaining on them. It would be a matter of minutes before they reached the three Wraiths. They had eyes only for their prey. They had not even considered the fact that they themselves might be the ones being hunted. It all worked to the advantage. The eight stepped into the pass as one. Arnaut hit the button on his gauntlet.

The fifteen carefully concealed det packs, buried in the snow and the surrounding rock walls, simultaneously exploded. Eight soldiers disappeared in a flurry of snow and fire. When the smoke cleared, there was nothing apart from a few pieces of shrapnel and a large blast crater. Arnaut let out a sigh of relief. Coming down from his perch overlooking the narrow pass, he rushed over to where the rest of the Wraiths waited.

Someone had put fresh dressings and a helping of bacta on Fraot’s wound, but she still hunched over and gasped for each breath. Kanderin was pained, Arnaut could tell easy enough from the way he constantly looked over at her and back to the surrounding area, as if daring an enemy to come and try to get a second hit. Arnaut decided that there was nothing more his feeble medical skills could do for her, and keyed his comlink.

“Snipes, report.”

“Well, we're in what appears to be a…valley, of sorts, or so. I dunno. Anyway, this might be a shorter path back to the main base, or it might not be. It doesn't really matter right now, either way. There’s a relatively large structure ahead, like a hangar or something. I’d bet we could find some nice medical supplies in there. Better than risking a trip down an unknown path down to a base camp we don’t know the location of.”

“Any hostiles? People? Anything?”

“Yeah, there seems to be a few trucks moving in and out. Enemy trucks, it looks like, but security is lax. None of the giant troopers it seems. More of a militia. We could get in easy.”

“Roger that. We’ll be at your position in about fifteen minutes. Then we’ll see about this hangar.”

"By the way, what happened to your armour?" Kanderin called, trying to smile.

"Oh we had some problems on the way down here" Arnaut responded "Seems we're not the only ones"

"Yeah, it was my fault. I signalled the all clear and we sprinted, I didn't see the two hiding down the alleyway. I really screwed up"

"The snow's too thick for anyone to be sure on anything Kand, you cant blame yourself too much"

"I guess, but I should've taken that shot. I was going to be the first one to get in their line of site but I lost my footing in the cold and stumbled. Fraot overtook me and then it happened"

He glanced down towards Fraot again, who was sleeping silently in his arms. Or at least, he hoped she was sleeping. Her wound had least stopped bleeding, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking down towards the hanger they were approaching, his morale had taken somewhat of a shot. He had been feeling good about himelf for some time now, as for some reason he seemed to carry out every task of his impeccably. Then, due to his own error one of his soldiers was down. And it was the one he was the most protective over.

Suddenly, a hand patted him on the shoulder.

"You okay Kand?" Jenn smiled at him.

"I guess" He shrugged in response.

"You're too hard on yourself, you did an amazing job in a tough situation back there. You charged two hugely armoured men solo, if you hadn't done that Fraot would of probably took a second shot and that'd be it for her"

"if you hadn't helped when you did, I'd of followed her. They beat the crap out of me, remember?"

Jennabelle shrugged, gave him what looked like a smile and carried on ahead.

Yuka, Northern continent
VE base/command center
10:33:04 Mission Clock
23:49:34 local time

The food was good, much better than the nutrient bars Dante had been choking down on the way. Despite the flavor of the freeze-dried steak and greens, Dante found himself unable to enjoy his meal. As he ate mechanically, his mind continually returned to the faces of Yush and the Dragoon who had died earlier in the mission and he soon lost his appetite. Setting his knife and fork down, he wiped his mouth and headed for the other side of the shack. There he started to take off his battle-damaged and clawed armour, setting aside damaged pieces. As he took off his helmet, he hesitated for a moment. He had retrieved it from Yush's corpse after his own had broken. He had not felt any guilt at the time and he felt none for the deed now, as he knew the trooper would not have wanted his equipment wasted. Indeed, had their positions been reversed, the PFC probably would have done the same thing.

His family...they need something other than a dog tag to remember him by.

Quietly Dante walked over to the Raiders SL, who was still in his battle-damaged snowtrooper armour.

"Sir, this helmet was Yush's and I thought that perhaps his family...would want it?"

He trailed off as the Raiders SL turned towards him, faceless beneath a layer of plastoid and a pair of ebony view-screens.

Great work. You just made a fool of yourself in front of Darr.

“I understand. I’ll see that it gets to his family.”

Dante could only nod as the SL turned back to the piece of durasteel serving as a  dinner table. Slowly, he returned to his bunk and continued to sort his armour.

Yuka, Northern continent
VE base/command center
12:39:04 Mission Clock
1:55:34 local time

The barracks were almost completely silent, with only the quiet hum of the power generator and the clink of armour on armour to disturb the otherwise perfect quiet.

As Dante finished stripping, he threw his right boot into the discard pile, where it landed with a loud clank. Damaged plastoid was melted down and was reused in the newest sets of armour. Any intact electronics were removed and reused, a  process that had become necessary as the Empire lost territory and resources. 

Standing up, he walked over to the storage area, where pieces of armour were arranged in neat nows on the makeshift shelves. The dull yellow light from the overhead lights glinted as it was reflected off the bone-white plastoid and space-black angular viewscreens of the  replacement helmets and armour. Dante quickly picked up the seals and reinforced plastoid armour that needed replacing and brought them to his bunk.

As he suited up, starting with the leg plates, Dante found his mind once again returning to Yush and the others who had perished on this mission.

The look of agony on his face, the way he cried out for help and all of us just stood there, the curved fangs spilling their thick venom into his torso...I thought that I had seen the worst death the galaxy could offer. I was wrong.

"Enough." Dante muttered, eliciting a puzzled look from Rogueboy, who had the bunk next to his.

"Enough what?"

Enough of this mission, enough death, enough taking crap from the kriffing HC...

Aloud, Dante spoke only one word.

"Nothing."

Rogueboy looked concerned for a moment before shrugging and turning back to his own armour.

Several minutes later, the trooper had finished putting his armour on and was slowly lowering his helmet onto his head. He felt a  string of magnets inside the helmet tug gently, straining to connect with their counterparts in the suit, and he let go. There was a quiet hissing as the helmet seals and the suit's heating system activated. The visor emitted a ping followed by a string of beeps as the suit's diagnostic systems activated. Cursing under his breath, Dante activated the override and changed the settings.

I know how to use the HUD, thank you very much.

He had just picked up his DC-17 rifle when a crackle of static sounded and Darr's voice came through the helmet's com system.

"Pack your things and suit up, Raiders. It's time to go back into hell."

"Sithspawn..."

Yuka, Northern continent
VE base/command center
12:40:09 Mission Clock
1:56:39 local time

Dante pushed the reinforced carbon-fiber door aside and felt the gale-force wind stab like a knife into the gaps in his armour. His footsteps sent flurries of snow and ice into the air, where they were blown away into the darkness. Beyond the defensive perimeter, powerful floodlights sliced the darkness into geometric shapes and swept the frozen tundra beyond the camp.

Darr waved a gloved hand, and the squad followed him through the snow that had piled up, breaking through the thick layer of ice that formed its top. They walked through the camp in almost complete silence, and only  the ice crunching beneath their boots and the wind disturbed the silence that lay over the sleeping camp. They broke into a half covered trail that ran through the camp center, which made their passage much easier. The wind howled like a soul in torment and blew  tiny ice crystals onto his visor. Slowly, they melted from the armour's heat and the water trickled down the helmet before freezing from the cold less than an inch from where they had fallen.

Dante opened a com channel with the rest of the squad.

"It's as cold as Chaos out here."

There was a crackle of static and the crisp voice of the Raiders Squad Leader boomed through the helmet's improperly calibrated audio systems, deafening the Lance Corporal.

"Get used to it, trooper. The weather will probably get even better soon."

Even as part of his mind registered the rebuke and filed it away, the trooper was already reaching for the helmet control systems and fixing the overly loud com system.

Damn technicians. They can't get anything just right, can they?

Soon, the squad members had left the base and found themselves breaking through ice inches thick. Dante pushed, and found that the ice wouldn't give way. Frustrated, he pulled his DC-17 from where he had slung it over his back and used the rifle's butt to smash the ice. The snow's frozen top layer gave way quickly enough, and Dante waded through the soft snow that lay underneath. Darr held up a plastoid-covered hand, and the squad came to a halt.

Looking around, the trooper saw that they were underneath the AT-AT vehicle that he had seen on his arrival at the base. The behemoth was almost completely dark, with only a few running lights to betray the walker's position. Looking up at the massive assault vehicle's underside, Dante almost wondered out loud how they were supposed to enter but caught himself as thin cords with grips on their ends fell from the rear of the walker's undercarriage. Darr gestured and Dante grabbed onto the  nearest. Around him, the other Raiders were doing the same. There was a whirring, and the others vanished one by one. There was a gentle tug, and Dante pulled off the ground and into the belly of the beast.

OOC:

Sorry if it isn't that good, my access right now is limited...

The room was filled with Bacta tanks. Row upon row of tanks. Alan did not like the look of it one little bit.

"What are they doing with so much Bacta?" queried Vince.

Alan had no idea why this place had so much Bacta but what he did know was that whatever the reason was, it could not be good. Maybe they're planning on launching a war against us and this supply will be used to heal all their casualties thought Alan.

Alan looked over at Vince and replied "Whatever reason for them having so much Bacta cannot be good. Destroying the generators is no longer an option, we need to destroy this place completely!"

"How are we going to do that Sarge?" queried Ken, "there are only three of us after all".

Alan mulled that over. He desperately wanted to bring this place down but he also knew that if the depleted Iron Horse squad attempted to do it then the chances of success were not good and the mission would fail. Alan knew that that could not happen as Command might never find out about this place.

"We're leaving" said Alan.

"Sarge?" queried Ken.

"We have to get back to base camp and inform command. They can dispatch the Wraiths to deal with this".

"But Sir" objected Vince, "with are here right now, we can do this ourselves".

"We are leaving, now!" said Alan, "this is not open for discussion. If we did try to take out this place and fail then command would never know about it and that is just not an option. Let's move".

Alan could see that Vince was unhappy with the decision. He knew that he would prefer to stay and fight. Alan wanted to do the same but he knew he had to look at the bigger picture.

The squad exited the room and returned to the lift. They took the lift back up to the top and came face to face with drawn weapons.

Alan looked down the barrel of a blaster. As soon as he seen it he thought the mission was at an end, that was until he saw who it was that was holding the blaster.

"Arnault!" exclaimed Alan.

"It's nice to see you alive" replied Arnaut, "I thought you had returned back to base".

"Well we would have done but we came across this place and we just had to have a look" said Alan.

"So what can you tell me about this hangar?" queried Arnaut.

"Well they have a vast amount of bacta down there" reported Alan.

"Bacta!" exclaimed Arnaut, "why would they have a large amount of bacta?"

"I don't know" replied Alan "but whatever the reason it cannot be good. There's only three of us so I figured it best to report our findings to base camp".

"You did good" replied Arnaut, "now get back to base camp and let command know what's going on out here. I'm going to take the Wraiths and destroy this place".

"Good luck" replied Alan.

Looking at Vince and Ken, Alan said "right, let's commandeer one of these trucks and head back to base camp"

With that the Iron Horse squad headed back to where the trucks were parked, leaving the Wraiths to destroy the hangar.

Lucky looked back behind her at Gio, slumped in his chair in the back of the sled. She was seated up front with Brock behind her, and the rest of the squad in between them. The noise the sled made when it glided onto ice patches amde her jaw itch. She hated the feeling , it was the same thing with styrofoam padding.

She looked ahead at the white landscape, she was searching for any rebel soldiers who would try to attack them like they had done just a little while ago.

Starting to get bored, she started to hum a tne her mother used to sing to her when she was little and she had just had a nightmare. It told the story of a man who's daughter had been in an accident. She was still alive, but shards of glass had gone into her eyes and so she might be blind for  ever if she wasn't treated right away. And so , the father brought her to the doctor's as fast as he could, and the doctor said she'd have to live in the hospice for a little while with her eyes patched up. Two months later, after extensive treatment , they take the patches off and the little girl can see her father, which means she still had her sight. The father, ecstatic with joy, takes her in his arms, gives her loads of kisses while saying her name and thanks the doctor. That day was Christmas Eve. And so they both went home and took great care of eacho ther , the girl's mother having died a few years back.

When she had finished her song, she looked at Eclipse's sled and aw Wicket and Jelly doing a bit of fooling around. She grabbed a handful of snow, rolled it into a snowball and threw it at Jelly. He looked at her with a crooked, wide smile on his face, then faced back front.

"Least this time, we won't have ourselves outnumbered 200 to one and with no support! Oh, no! We get ourselves a tank this time."
Gates said grumpily.

Orobos grimly laughed. Already the mission was crap - they'd lost a trooper, Mako was WIA, and the Raiders had lost a trooper. And the two squads had been through hell.

The rhythmic up-down-forward movement of the AT-AT was soothing compared to the running, jumping and sliding they'd had to do all to much of in the caves.

He felt himself drifting off, and he shook his head and checked that all of his HUD's functions still worked from their latest session of destruction.

Then he checked his rifle, pistol, ammo packs, grenades, suit integrity, etc.

Then he took off his helmet, stretching his neck, and broke out an energy bar. He munched on it, looking around. His squadmates and fellow stormtroopers were doing the same thing, or playing cards or sleeping. He decided to try the latter.

"Sarge," Gates said, getting Leon's attention. "Could you wake me up when we get close?"

What the hell am I doing here? I've barely graduated from the academy and now I'm on some backwater ice planet in an AT-AT for an assault or... something.

Zorgn sighed and tried to stretch in his seat. The place was cramped and Zorgn was freezing in his armor. It was better than nothing, but still worse than most things he could imagine. Someplace warm would do nicely. In fact he knew of a little asteroid a friend of his had turned into a space hotel of sorts and in several of the habitation bubbles you could sunbathe from the...

Almost drifted off there. Falling asleep in the cold... Even with the heating systems on in here it's cold.

Zorgn itched to take his helmet off. Others in the vehicle had theirs off, but if there was a need to leave the vehicle quickly, he might not have time to put his helmet on. So instead he sat and breathed his filtered air and inspected his weapons.

His 'Doombringer' high capacity scatter pistol, he loved the name, was his current favorite weapon. The dealer told him it packed quite a punch, and though he had yet to try it out, he expected it was so. The flared head design sent chills down his spine. Somebody was going to have a bad day.

He was fitted out as best he could be under short notice. When he had come down from the ISD in orbit, he'd only been able to bring a few weapons. His E-11/F with vibrobayonet, his Doombringer, two frag grenades, and a Class-A thermal detonator. He'd been stuck with the snowtrooper armor because his scout armor "wasn't suited" for the ice.

Evil quartermaster. The armor would survive in vacuum, some time in the cold wouldn't do it much harm. It probably had a better climate control system too. Maybe his was malfunctioning and he was freezing because he didn't know the controls.

We better get there soon.

The Iron Horse squad crouched down and made their way swiftly to the location of the trucks. Alan was happy to see that the trucks were still there and were unguarded.

"Everyone get in now, I'll drive" said Alan.

The truck's cab was able to accommodate both a driver and two passengers, so they all got into the cab. Starting up the motor, Alan started moving the truck to the front gate.

"Look Sir, reinforcements!" exclaimed Vince as he pointed to the front gate.

"I see them" replied Alan as he brought the truck closer to the gate.

In front of the truck, Alan could see that the gate had been closed and was being guarded by several soldiers that hadn't been there earlier.

"What's the plan Sarge?" queried Ken.

"Same as always" replied Alan as he revved the trucks engines and headed straight for the gate.

The soldiers guarding the gate immediately noticed the truck heading straight for them. Blaster bolts came flying around and onto the truck.

"Hang on!" shouted Alan as the truck smashed its way through the gates. Blaster bolts flew all around them until eventually they were out of the guards range. Alan could see several smoldering holes on the trucks bonnet and he was thankful that he truck was still operational as he guided it to their base camp.

The squad made it back sucessfully to base camp and Alan had briefed Rizzit on what they had found. Alan had also been told that Verlock and Anival had made it back succesccessfully but that Quasi, Hunter and Dwarf had gone AWOL.

"Sir" said Alan after the briefing was over, "permission to take the squad back to the bunker and assist the Wraiths".

"Negative" replied Rizzit "the Wraiths are on their own".

"But Sir" interrupted Alan, "they might need our help".

"The Wraiths can take care of themselves and besides, I have a new assignment for the Iron Horse squad" replied Rizzit.

"Yes Sir" said Alan as he waited to find out what the new orders would be.

"The ISD Dominion’s scans have revealed some sort of structures north west of the current base. Take a sled and find out what is going on over there and take it out if you can" ordered Rizzit.

"Yes Sir" replied Alan as he saluted and exited the tent to find the rest of tbe squad and to get the mission underway.

As the sleds came closer to their destination , Lucky constantly looked around her for signs of danger. As always, there were on;y trees and the white wilderness, but you never knew what could be hiding in the snow or the bushes. As she turned her head away from a grouping of bushes, a single bolt landed in the snow beside her sled.

She whipped her head around , used a setting in her HUD to zoom in on the bushes and saw the barrel of a rifle trained on them. She took out her E-11/M and started shooting. she shot in the area surrounding the small , dark barrel and at one point,  she heard a scream and the rifle disappeared. She waited for another minute or two, watching to see if anything else wold come up . When there was no activity, she settled her weapon on her lap and sat back.

Ten minutes later, the sleds slowed and finally stopped. She opened her eyes and looked around. They were at the canyons, there was no wind here, and everything was silent.

They waited for a signal from Doc before hopping out of the sleds. She walked to the edge of the canyontop and looked down. She was surveying the bottom , looking for any visible signs that the enemy was watching, waiting.

When she was satisfied, she walked back towards her squad and they all watched Eclipse unload their equipment from their own sled and make their way down to the bottom.

As they watched in silence, Eclipse made their way down the canyon side and shortly afterwards, were on solid ground at the bottom. paladin squad didn't have much to do at this point other than make sure no unwelcome guests showed up while Eclipse was down there.

She walked to the back of the sled to a storage compartment and took out a tent, a few sleeping bags for those who were in great need of rest, and a folding table . These , she set beside her while she closed the compartment door, and set the whole thing up in a matter of minutes. When she was done, they had a tent that could hold them all comfortably, a few sleeping bags on the sides for those who planned to bunk down soon and she had taken out a map of their current location from a drawer built into the table.

Gio joined her, and they both looked at the map. She could've accessed the files from her HUD, but she didn't feel like doing that at the present. According to what they could see , there was a small ridge going down the canyon side all the way to the bottom. Together, they discussed who would do what after they had taken a short nap in turn.

Lucky lay down on a sleeping bag and closed her eyes, keeping her comm on so that she could hear if someone called out for the Pallies for help. She had set her chrono to wake her in 40 minutes time.

Forty minutes later, when her chrono beeped, she jumped up and headed outside. Gio was standing in front of the tent , looking down at the base of the mountain. She touched his arm and he turned around and met her eyes. It had been decided that she would go down the mountainside and check for any enemies before the rest of the squad followed.

With a last glance at the tent and its warm, welcoming feel in this icy terrain, she quickly, but very silently started down the mountain.

It was a long way down. it would take her awhile to go down the narrow, slippery path. She wished they had another vehicle than the sled. an AT/ST/c would be nice. still, she made her way down, down until she reached a mound of snow taht went up to her waist. It was piled on the side of the path in such a way taht it could serve as pretty good cover should they get fired upon. As she walked, she heard some shuffling above and a yell came down "Lucky, watch out!"

She leapt back just as a grenade buried itself in the snow and exploded. the blast sent her flying forwards a few feet and she slipped off the path and hung on for  a minute, trying to get her bearings and gathering her strength to pull herself up back to safety.

Above her, she could hear blaster fire. With a heave, she shoisted herself back n the path glad she hadn't fallen down off the mountain. She raised her weapon and searched for targets. Just as she found one, it crumpled to the ground and fell off its perch. She watched ot fall in slow motion and heard a Whumpf! As the body hit the ground below.

She waited a minute to see if she could hear more blaster fire, when she didn't, she continued on but a bit slower this time. She calculated that she was at the halfway point at present.

A half hour later , she was down the mountain near where Eclipse had stationed themselves.

"Gio , you guys can come down, but i'd leave someone to keep watch. Just in case."

"Agreed" came her SL's voice over the comm. "We're coming ,  hang tight."

Jenny took over the guarding of Captain Nakin as Kand went over to unlock the safe in the corner of the equipment room.

    It was quite silent nearby, but Jenny knew that the enemy was well aware of their presence if an entire squad of soldiers were missing and their sergeant and captain along with them.

    “Where does it come from? I know you guys have a source for this material. The manufacturers can’t be you guys, the conditions to make or produce this kind of passcode chip can’t be existent in this hellhole.” Jenny asked harshly as she put pressure on Nakin’s injuries with her right hand and covered his screaming mouth up with her left until he nodded obediently.

    “Alright, Alright!” He protested weepingly as Jenny removed her left hand from his mouth, he spat out a bit of blood and answered, every word sounding like it’s not from his mouth:
    “We were only supposed to do the replication and the finishing touches on the comlinks. They’ve sent their best replication machine for this, but the company that made this chip is known as Kryotech, and it’s located in the heart of the demon, the NR planet of Naboo. ----ah--- They could kill me if you knew, Jenny, but the other half of the disk, what you’ve been hunting for all those years since you killed Pake, I can---“The last words sounded so dear to Jenny, as if Nakin was a true relative of hers, but they were interrupted by a groan coming from Nakin, who now saw a knife bulged out of his side, and fell on his knees. Jenny got down and held him in her left arms as she saw a ninja-like assassin running by, blond hair flashing from his or her mask.

    “Jenny, it’s Arnaut, tell Kand I’m coming your way, I’m in the elevator now. We’ve took some encrypted chips from the bacta tanks for the rest of the squad, and what’s left will be destroyed very soon.” Jenny heard Aranut call on the comlink, sounding tired but happy.

    “That’s good, Aranut, I took the liberty of unlocking a safe filled with comlinks, we’ll need to take these back to base, the commander would love to see this. We’ll need to get into the control room though.” Kand responded with confidence as Nakin explained slowly and quietly, spitting out his last words, taking out an odd vial filled with blood and a keychain wrapped with keycards and keys:

    “You’ll probably be destroying this place, well, I can help. There’s a fail-safe system that can blow this place up completely, plus the chips, just cut off my hands, right eyes, this vial of DNA imbedded within my blood, and this keychain. The codes for clearance are 7774, and your birthday for the disk, Jenny. Now carry me down to the fourth sub level, we’ll extract the data there.”

    Jenny took the vial and keychain without questions and stuffed them into her pack without telling what she was going to do with them. She told Kand to tell Arnaut that she’ll be back in a few minutes, and she passed Arnaut getting out the elevator as she went in, carrying the injured Nakin on her back.

-----------Ten minutes or so later----------

    Jenny appeared out of the elevator, still carrying the bayonet in her right hands, but her left hand was now carrying a keychain with one less keycard, a right eye ball and two hands. Arnaut was waiting for her, disapproved of her private exploration but still keeping his cool as he warned calmly:

    “Jenny, for the last time, please don’t do that on me again, I don’t want to see you chase your personal vendetta and get yourself killed for it. Now let’s get to the control room, the sub level’s clear except for the control room, Snipes’ team will be coming soon, they said they ran to some trouble and is coming back up.”

    “Jenny, is that an eyeball in your left hand?” Kand questioned, looking horrified at the items in her left hand, Aranut and Rik did the same when they followed Kand’s eyes to Jenny’s hand, although Arnaut looked more concerned than horrified in Jenny’s eyes.

    “It’s how we’re gonna get inside the control room. Let’s go.” Jenny replyed quickly as Aranut led, gesturing them to follow and quickly shrugging off his questionable stance. Jenny followed, with Kand and Rik behind her, stuffing the valuable items in her belt as she took out two tear gas grenades. They quickly made their way towards the control room door, which sounded quite busy inside as they got nearer to it, and security-locked so well.
    “Jenny, get the door open, the captain probably told you how. Kand, Rik, cover us and wait for Snipes’ team to arrive.” Jenny heard Arnaut whisper to her and to Kand and Rik as she got to work on the keypad.

------------------------------------------------

The control room was the largest room on this sub level, with the files and computers at each station, techinicans at every one of them. But what was large about it was the amount of space that the main computer took up, which controlled all stations and had data that could fill up a whole planet. Nuke and Mote Zarturus were just enjoying their midnight coffee, sitting near the big giantus of a computer that was the main computer, watching their minions at work, erasing all the important data to the invasion, everything. Sipping his coffee, Stan said in a clear and serious tone:

“Doesn’t it feel great to be the head tech, you get to mastermind the backbones of this invasion, the imperials will be at an end, and you can happily ever after with your wife and children.”

    “Why choose me as the guinea pig, you know I never meant to kill her, she was a rebel, she killed my family during the Coruscant assassinations.” Ned whined sadly, looking like a man who lost his ways, desperately begging for a last chance. Stan reacted in the disgust, changing the subject as he asked:

    “Are the stations done wiping their memories yet? You know I can’t erase the main computer’s memory without theirs already being erased.”

    “Almost. Are you sure about this? Cause she just came in with the news of the sergeant’s death and the captain’s. She looked depressed like I’ve never seen her before.” Stan flashed his eyes in anger for moment, but hid it with a smile as he replyed, look at the main computer’s signal for sub-erasing complete as it automatically began wiping its own memory:

    “I’m pretty sure, let’s go, they’re waiting for us in the hanger down on sub level five, there’s an elevator through here, let’s go, quickly!” Stan gesturing Ned towards the back door of the control room as Ned quickly exited, with Stan nodding to one of the armored soldiers guarding the room, before following Ned out the door.

    The female armored soldier gestured her teammates to stand behind each station’s two techinicians, she prepared to give the order to fire when she heard the sound of a grenade and felt a stab in her heart, as she fell backward, turning to see her twilek assassin before expiring.

    Jenny took out the bayonet out of the dead soldier as she blasted the last soldier in the neck on the second station row near the main computer, who was the only one who didn’t suffer the range of tear gas from the grenades. Then she rolled behind cover near a station, keying in Arnaut:

    “Arnaut, this is Jenny, I’m about two rows of stations away from the main computer, and I need some cover over here so that I can get to the main computer!”

    “Jenny, good to hear you voice, I’m across the row. Thanks to that sergeant’s intel, Kand also found some thermal binoculars that helped us to overhear the conversation that went on, take it, we need to get it back to base, I’m already carrying the chips and Kand is taking the comlinks.” Arnaut responded as he tossed Jenny the binoculars, Jenny catched it and thanked Arnaut the row, as she saw him nod and went back to shooting at the soldiers, whom scattered and took cover at the new threat, wielding the technicians as their shields, after that she felt a growing pain in her backside by a knife stab.

    “Feeling lucky, twilek? This’ll be your end, and the mistress will reward me well, oh yes, she----” The soldier’s head came off as Jenny turned around to see Snipes throwing the headless armored trooper’s body away, then taking out the dagger in her side, and eased her up, explaining what had happened, groaning a bit at the huge scar on his face:

    “Kand filled us in on what’s going on, we got ambushed on the third sub level, the bastards are coming this way, and they’re pissed because we might have killed their leader, Ella, whom you must know about. We heard her take off in her private cruiser; I take it, as we went up the elevator, while these guys didn’t seem to hear a thing. Kand and the others are covering us back here, so we’ll be fine.”

    “What happened to your face?”

    “It’s just the price I have to pay to protect Fraot. I’m gonna meat-grind these bastards!” Jenny saw his face light up with those last threatening words in rage as she saw him hold tightly to the blaster before she heard Rik come up and calmed him carefully and nicely, even with his depressed tone:

    “Calm down, Snipes, it’s not your fault.”

    “Thanks, Rik, for the comfort. You should look after Jenny, I’ve got to get back in the fight, Arnaut will be coming soon, Jenny, to help patch up the wounds.” Snipes looked a bit happier but still troubled by the scar on his face as Jenny watched him go off back to the fight, which was intensifying, although the Wraiths were firing with precision, now knowing the armored troopers’ weakness.

    Jenny saw Rik came up and escorted her to a seat near the mainframe as he starting patching up his wounds, while she carefully reached under the keyboard to take out a large taped envelope with the words: KS 527 code 854 on them, handing it to Arnaut, illustrating carefully, while looking at him with patience:

    “Commander Rizzit would love this, I bet, everything on the Invasion of the corporate sects that don’t support the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances or also known as the Galactic Alliance, and had involvement or interest or something to gain from the Battle of Hapes, which killed many Corellian Alliance, those who wanted to protect their own planet, like Ella, and so she joined the rebels to find the men responsible for the deaths of her brothers who fought in that battle and got his life handed to devil when he chose to side with the Corellians, as its birthright son. Look, let’s get this fail-safe system up before these soldiers overwhelm us.”

    Jenny turned back to the main computer, leaving Arnaut dazed in thinking about the whole thing and patching up her wounds. As she plugging a disk into its system through the hard drive, as the computer automatically ceased its memory wipe, which was at 50%, and turned quickly to the self-destruct sequence, which required a passcode and a bar print.

    “A bar print? What is this, Jenny?” Jenny heard Arnaut ask confusingly as she quickly, answered, every word taking her back to the conversation she had with Leia after taking that rebel ship:

    “It must be the one on the envelope, KS 527, aka, oh my lord, Leia is not going to believe this.” Jenny quickly typed in the passcode and bar print, pressed enter exactly 4 times, then confirmed that the computer was going into auto-destruct without reset, pushed the chair away as she sat up, stinging a little bit at the last patch on her backside, which led Rik to go finish up on Fraot and Tellen, as her eyes turned to the battle.

    She clutched her bayonet without knowing it was there in her left hand, holstered it and readied the rifle that was shouldered in her right hand. The battle was intensifying between the Wraiths and the mysterious advanced armored troopers, although the Wraiths were fighting with experience now, Jenny now joining them in the fight to keep the troopers in dismay and panic, the recruits filling up most of the remaining ranks of the one squad that was left of the two organized squads that they face. She found the sergeant, who was the main nuisance, sought to kill Kand, who was controlling the squad with accuracy despite their low numbers, he took a tech as his shield while he made his way closer to Kand when Jenny, who now had switched to the sniper attachment of her DC-17 rifle, fired two shots into the showing limbs on the side of the sergeant as he got within one feet of Kand. The sergeant pained but blasted his rifle into the techinician, killing him as Jenny, in return, killing the sergeant with one shot to the head, switching back to the main blaster attachment of the rifle.

    “Nice job, Jenny. Alright, Wraiths, the white rat is dead, repeat, the white rat is dead. Let’s get the hell out of here, system is in fail-safe, repeat, system is in fail-safe, get your men out of there, Kand, quick.” Arnaut called into the comlink as the squad quickly and effectively retreated their way towards the back door, the wounded led first by Rik, covered by Jenny and Kand, as the enemy, with their scattered numbers, slowly advanced on them. Jenny felt like picking off crows in a crops’ field, making sure the rest were dead and no longer a threat to them, as Kand tapped Jenny on the shoulders to signal her to move, with Arnaut and Snipes remaining, standing near the dead female trooper that Jenny had killed, gesturing them to go on.

    “Don’t ask too many questions, Jenny, the binoculars, the chips, the advanced armor, the imperial would die for this technology, it could help them be at the same pace as the rebels, if that is who this Black Commandos is providing this equipment for. Just think the IR scanners that detected us out there in that thick of a snow, if it used against them!” Kand imagined richly as Jenny sensed a far too proud tone in him, as they pressed the elevator button for up, which was the only command for this elevator.

    “Well, we better get back up to the surface. I hid the snow sleds somewhere where any passing enemy truck won’t notice it. The commander’s gonna wanna see this and hear what you have to say about this invasion. Jenny, this is big! Too big for words! We get to watch the Conferderate-Alliance War go up again in flames while we reap from the rewards, let them suffer their ends!” Arnaut said, chuckling at every word, holding the female trooper in his left hand as Jenny replyed fiercely, almost like she was opposing Arnaut in a political battle:

    “In the corporate sector, there is our assets, Arnaut, in case you haven’t forgotten. We may rely upon ourselves, but we still need the Confederates for our trade and economy to continue. Foreign companies are needed to make money on the outside world, the trade routes for the galaxy, the rebels would be so happy at their controls, the tax dollars they would make. Sorry, I was a bit out of hand, but your words were kind of offensive to me.” Jenny gave Arnaut a look of wonder as Arnaut changed the subject, putting away the tough attitude and laid in its place the serious tone as he ordered:

    “Jenny, let’s put the Empire’s issues aside for now, we have a serious problem on our hands. They’re targeting Imperial industries, already reporting some of their employees and work area missing or destroyed by ‘terrorist bombs’, the news call it, since the rebels don’t claim responsibility and there is no proof pointing to them. Here take this girl with you, along with those binoculars across your neck, which you probably didn’t notice dropped on your way to the main computer. Thank Kand for that and don’t drop the dead bitch too, she’s a serge by the looks of her and the emblem chiseled into her armor. Let’s go” Arnaut said, holding up the large envelope, opened with Imperial insignias across the various companies marked with Xs, while handing the death trooper to Jenny, who took her over with ease, which didn’t take up much weight.

    Must be someone who exercises well, she’s light and cute. Jenny remarked at the dead female soldier as she got into the elevator with the rest of the squad, its doors closing and making its way to the surface.

OOC:

I hope this post won't affect anything.

Gates emptied out the rest of his rockets, which blew up the occasional speeder. Then the AT-AT stepped on one.

"Gates!" Leon yelled out of the tank, "c'mon! Time to go!"

Gates slithered back into the armored walker, which was doing a good job of slaughtering the enemy forces. There were pockets of resistance, and a few men sporadically fired at the tank; the enemy armor was burning, and the turrets were scrap.

"Go, go Go!" Leon ordered, and the stormtroopers rapelled down. Leon and Tanus hit snow first, followed by Gates and Orobos, and then the Raiders.

"Ok, we've got our radios jammed because this is a comm station. The Dominion is jamming everything. We have to go inside and smash-and-destroy everything that's not to any use of us. Then we download their main computers' hardrives and blow them up too. And then we run, so the AT-AT can blow this place; the Raiders will keep them from shutting off the power or destroying the building while we're in it. Hand signals from now on."

The stormtroopers, advancing in a reverse arrow, like a 'V', with two point men. Gates pulled a scope and a rifle extender from his pack, and slipped both onto his rifle, effectively doubling its range and accuracy. He sighted on the area they were running to, fired twice, killing two soldiers with Plex rocket launchers. He changed aim, taking out a soldier running for an E-web. They reached the trench, dove in.

Spread out Leon motioned. Rendezvous at the door

Gates slung his DC-15, brought up his E-11, with a heavier firing rate and shorter profile than the DC. The squad split and went different ways, but always trying to make their way to the entrance. He heard some firing behind and ahead of him, and sped up, in case one of his mates needed help.

Leon and a couple of mercs were trading fire, about twenty feet from the doors. Gates, in a good flanking position, opened fire, killing one, and exposing the other to a pin-point shot to the other's head.

"Thanks, Gates," said his SL.

"No problem, sarge."

The two stormtrooper non-coms crouched by the doors, waiting for the rest of the squad.