The icy chill from the planets air sprang through Urakai’s spine. As the gust of wind struck the squad, he felt numb and unmovable for a brief few seconds. It was as if he didn’t have the armor on, but how much worse would it be without it.

“Urakai,” Leon crackled over the comm, “you still with *zzzzz* us?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Urakai responded, catching up with the rest of the squad.

He had to laugh at Orobos’ comment, Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.

Yeah, by growing fur.

Once they had walked a few metres away from the landing zone, Leon began, “Dark Dragoon’s, set up a perimeter around the *zzz* landing area, and keep your eyes sharp. We’ll wait here until we *zzz* receive the final orders. Don’t let your guard down one bit.”

Everyone nodded as he continued, “We’ll go in pairs, all I want is to sweep circumference of the perimeter, then we’ll *zzz* guard it ‘till we receive further orders. Tanus *zzz* and Orobos can pair up, Urakai and Mako and I’ll go with Gates. Don’t go too far, and remember, you have white armor on a *zzz* white planet. Use it to your advantage. Move out!”

The squad split up in three different directions. It was hard to see with the wind tearing at your face and the snow falling like it was a machine gun. Mako kept his blaster close while Urakai mainly relied on his eyesight to spot anything. His two vibro blades at his waist clanked together, but no one heard with the howl of the wind. His electro staff, modified to fold down was hanging neatly at his back. With his E-11 in hand, his DC-15 and medkits, he ready for anything, at least he thought so.

The two stopped for a second as Mako checked the datapad, “Alright. So we’re here and, the *zz* others are there…”

Urakai could see six little dots on the datapad moving around a huge ice chunk.

“Ok, we’re good.” Make finished, starting again with Urakai.

With Mako’s datapad as a guide, they made their way, circling the perimeter, placing booby traps here or there and marking it on the datapad.

"Leon. Any idea when *zz* we get that boblsed?"

Suddenly, a loud buzzing sound slowly gained its way into the ears of all six.

“You guys *zzzz* hear that?” came Orobos on the comm.

“Yeah, we hear it too.” Leon responded.

“Yep.” Was all Mako and Urakai could say as they turned from side to side searching for its source.

After a while, Tanus replied, “The other shuttle?”

“Does it make that noise?” Garryll replied.

Whatever it was, friend or foe, the Dark Dragoons were having their doubts about this mission already.

As Dante got to his feet, faint humanoid outlines became visible through the falling snow. A wind wailed like a lost soul as he picked his deece up from where it fallen.

The last thing I need is to be weaponless in the middle of a storm on some blasted little snowball.

The Dark Draggons, most of whom had landed without incident, were clumped together. Dante paused long to comfirm their identities on his HUD, then took his finger off the trigger.

Better to err on the side of caution than to make a fatal mistake.

Dante made his way forward and identified himself. Static crackled again over his speakers, raising fears that it was a jamming system.

If it is a jamming system, why can we speak at all

Several of the Dragoon troopers were complaining to each other about the cold. Dante overheard them and walked over.

"You think this**zzzz** is cold? Illum would make this look**zzzz** like Tattoine."

Actually, that's a bit of a stretch but we have a squad reputation to protect, and I'll be damned if I let it be lost for lack of effort.

Dante tapped his headset, but the crackle of static did not cease. Although the storm was calming down slightly, the interference was, if anything, getting worse.

Why do I have a very bad feeling about this?

Dante looked around ,scanning for targets, and found only the slowly falling snow.

The way things are turning out, either the suspense or the cold are going to kill me.

Around him the Raiders and Dark Dragoons were scattered across the snowscape or clustered in small groups. Here and there a trooper was setting up equipment or a trap. Mostly,though, they were standing around, waiting for the arrival of the transports.

Great. If we don't all freeze to death, the enemy will simply roll out the turbolasers and vape us. Absolutely brilliant. At least on Illum we had a goal. Here, it looks like the krath hounds in charge of the VE have just forgotten about us.

Dante thought he saw something on his motion tracker and brough his rifle to firing position. Despite his best efforts, he saw nothing but snow.

Dante suddenly could only see white and grey. Cursing in several languages, including Rodian and Huttese, he used a gloved hand to wipe off the ice that had formed on his T-visor. He then checked his deece to find that many components, including the safety and barrel had almost been filled by ice. Dante only shook his head and sighed.

The damn planet is wreaking havoc on my sensors and equipment. I only hope the effect applies to both sides...

Dante swore as a particularly jagged piece of loose ice pierced several layers of armour and padding. Drops of crimson fell from his gaunleted palm and onto the fields of snow.

"Sithspawn!"

As the cut was not serious, he simply bound up the wound and ignored the little pain from the cut.

If I can't stand pain, I picked the wrong job.

Leon and Darr were vainly trying to contact others squads, but the jamming was foiling all their efforts. The others were mostly huddled behind bolders, seeking shelter from the murderous cold.

Because of the idiots in charge of logistics, they had no heated tents or even portable heaters. The standard chemical heaters, found in ration packs and many other pieces of equipemt, only created moments of heat before emiting clouds of black smoke and freezing. As he watched, another one was tossed onto a growing pile near his feet.

If I survive, I'll have a few choice words for the Logistics officer and I think a few others will too. That's if I survive, which is looking less likely by the minute.

He tried to use the comlink and was rewarded with a loud burst of static. He winced and closed it down. The trooper next to Dante was shivering, despite the heated suit.

How much longer before the damn sleds arrive?

Dante;s only consolation was that those few members of the HC that had accompanied the shuttles were probably not much better off.

If they don't help us soon, they may as well not come at all, as there won't be anyone to help.

Despite himself, Dante shivered and hunched over even more. Darr and Leon had given up and had also taken cover from the snowstorm's murderous cold.

Damn it. where are the sleds?

Soon after the morning briefing...

***

It was bright and early at Yuka, the sun was just rising above the horizon and gloried in the deepest sulfurous light. The hinges of the Dominion ostentatiously drew the troopers out of their dormitory. Back at the Paladin corridors, Brock gestured the last stretching’s of his already tired body. He glanced with his eyes irritated by the light through the windows of his quarters and looked upon a miasma. Not sure what the hell where he was, Brock shrugged his eyes as he began to realize there was a mission at hand. The alcohol was more than enough to knock his every understanding of the mission, that he forgot that there was even a mission. As he watched the ground troops settling down camp, he hurried up and hindered himself from the window that was open to the public. He ran towards his Shock Trooper armor with all possible expedition, and savagely fitted it on his body accordingly, taking deep breaths in between and continuing throughout. Before putting on his headpiece, Brock grabbed his equipment and placed his helmet adequately on his head. Then grabbed his standard issued squad weapon and held the handle tightly between his palms, gently letting his fingers adapt to the surface, then gripping them around for a secure hold. In the other hand, he grabbed his luggage and exited the room, leaving no time to put a lock on it.

The rest of his squad was ready at their lounge and as usual Giovanni was feeling oddly cataleptically, but was conscious enough to do a quick briefing and carry on the mission. Luckystar who was just sitting besides Giovanni, held a salute as each trooper who came about the room. Like always, Giovanni’s speeches were short and straight to the point. He didn’t feel like sugarcoating any information, especially without enough time, and with his condition.

“Well it’s about time you pansies woke up, as you’ll notice, we should be heading down immediately. We are probably the only squad on the ship anyway, and that doesn’t seem for a good impression now does it? I want camp to be set up as soon as you get there, and prepare while you’re at it. I’ll give you all another proper briefing when we get there. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir!” The squad followed in unity, leaving only echoes to sheer the sound back to their ears.

Brock and the squad took off the corridors and headed towards their private shuttle that was held back at the hangar. Surprisingly enough, they managed to sprint all the way through the ship and make it to the hangar quickly, that was not a whole lot distance away from their location. But nevertheless, the ship was rather huge.

At first sight, Brock noticed their Ship Captain Aldur Wyndaru wondering about the area impassively. As soon as Giovanni caught his attention by the waving of his hand, Aldur was able to salute the man who was just about his sight. A salute in return from Giovanni soon followed. Without much any other formalities, everyone rushed and entered the shuttle. Aldur made quick preparations before the launch, and the shuttle was ready to head off.

As they achieved medium altitude on the atmosphere of Yuka, Brock noticed other shuttles that already landed on the freezing surface, and few others still wondering around the flight area. Aldur neared to the landing zone of a decently big circumference and landed the ship few meters away from the ground headquarters. Upon arrival, everyone seemed anxiously nervous, that they couldn’t stop from grasping their weapons any tighter, as they reached for the trigger. Giovanni was first to head out the door, and soon followed Luckystar and the others. The freezing temperatures can be felt as they touched land. Everyone shook the warmth off their body, signifying a huge change in temperature.

Without much thinking, everyone took off and settled their perimeter in the boundaries of the Storm Platoon area. Giovanni halted the squad from going on any further as they neared their base camp, where preparations were barely made yet.

“Keep your eyes open… Just because we look badass in these costumes, doesn’t mean those scrubs can shoot us at any given time…. “Oh… And I almost forgot… The words for this mission are…. Stay Alive” Giovanni showed an abated grin noticeably on his face, as he gestured his hand and grasped the palm with his fingers and extended his hand upwardly, leading the rest to follow his actions unhesitatingly.

Even with snowtrooper armour on, Alan could feel the cold air as it whipped around him, sending chills right through him to his very core.  He shivered, wishing there was some kind of internal heater inside the armour.  Perhaps he should suggest that to the tech guys when they returned to Tadath.

“Sir” said Verlock.

The sudden voice of one of his squad mates brought Alan instantly back from thinking about the cold as he replied “yes?”

“I’m picking up several signals Sir, it looks like some of the squads have started placing sensors” said Verlock.

“Excellent” replied Alan, “Vince, Ken, lets start and place a few sensors of our own, maybe we’ll eventually get to see what’s going on in this world”.

Vince and Ken nodded as they set to work setting up the first sensor.  The rest of the squad stood watch over them, making sure they were safe.  Although Alan gazed around at the desolate world, he wondered if they were ever going to find anything.  If there indeed was a threat to the Vast Empire here, he wondered where it was, it was certainly very well concealed.

Dwarf moved over to Alan and stated “first sensor is in place Sir”.

“Very good, then let’s move on and place a few more” replied Alan as he motioned for the squad to move on.

The squad trudged through the snow, their boots making noises as they sank into the undisturbed snow.  Despite there being nothing around that posed a threat to them, everyone was on high alert, weapons raised and ready for anything.

Alan wondered to himself whether they were going to see any fighting at all.  He hoped that they did, otherwise he would be sorely annoyed at having been dragged from Tadath and having his ass frozen off for nothing.

There was a lull, the previously unrelenting wind dying down slightly,and the snowstorm fading into normal or what passed for normal on ice planets.

Finally, a break from the elements. We'd better make use of it.

Even as Darr waved the Raiders forwards, Dante leaped from the depression in the snow he had been sitting in, grabbing his deece from his waist as he deactivated the belt clip keeping it in place. He quickly turned it, searching for any damage. Although the barrel was partially clogged up, the rest of the weapon seemed to be in relatively good shape.
The operative word being relatively.
Using a durasteel tool taken from a belt pouch, Dante quickly cleaned the weapon. Bits of ice and snow, stained black by oil and lubricant, fell from the barrel as Dante walked just behind Darr.

From what he had heard, the squads were going to split up, with the Dark Dragoons covering the North and the Raiders heading south. That was fine with Dante who prefered moving around and actually doing something to sitting around and waiting to be attacked.

Leon knows his stuff. The Dragoons will be fine, if they don't go stir crazy or freeze to death.

The squad moved towards the area where they were supposed to  set up the sensor, leaving footprints in their wake.

He walked into one of the tents and damn near tripped onto his face. He forgot operational planning said to dig a three foot hole before trying to throw up a tent in a frozen wasteland.  Lesson remembered.

He took off his helmet for the first time since getting groundside. He could only see his breath and the air he took in didn't - quite - rip into his lungs. 

"Cozy," he murmured as he went to grab a mug of caf.

"We aim to please General," said Touli, being remarkably upbeat. Then again, he and his crew were likely the only Imperials that weren't hunkered down trying to dodge what felt like a demonic blizzard outside.

Fury took a couple sips of the lukewarm brew. Warmer didn't mean warm, but the tent did stop the wind.  "Alright, here's the deal. It'll be dark in a couple hours and we've got our squads setting out the perimeter comms. I need you guys to bundle up and get these auto-defense pickets out. We've got six autoblasters and two anti-air units, just in case."

One of the navy noncoms openly grimaced and forgot his place for a second.  "Yeah, who's gonna make us do all that now that we're out of the elements?"

Fury grinned. "Well...for starters," he pointed behind the crewer, "that guy."  No one turned around, they knew no one else was in the room with them.  That's when the lippy naval crewman got shot outside as if from a cannon. Then they turned around, totally befuddled. And why not? When the heck did you EVER see white Royal Guard armor?

"Hey Bob, nice to know I was on the right path with the color pattern. When'd you get in?"

Bob just shook his head as if disappointed then gave a spinning motion with his hand.

Fury got the hint and ducked out of the way as the crewman tried to tackle him by the legs. He flew into a crate. Hard.  This should have been bad enough of an experience, especially since his head and hands were already beet red from just a few seconds exposure.

It should have been enough of a lesson.  The Force Choke and levitation was probably just for Bob's personal entertainment.

Fury passively watched the man float four feet off the ground fighting for air for a few seconds before muttering, "Erm, down boy?"

Bob let go of the man.  Then he glared at Fury. Obviously, he couldn't see it with the helmet and all, but he just knew. Definitely a glare.

"As I was saying...."

Tuloi continued his ability to catch on quickly. He was already throwing overboots on over a cold weather set of coveralls. "No problem General. We'll get those systems deployed."  It took a couple minutes and soon they were all gone.

"I've got to go step out and check on a few things Bob. Thanks for the help. Take off your helmet and have some damn coffee for once. No one here to see you and all." Fury waved and left the Guardsmen alone for the moment.

The wind was cold and the snow was enticing for something so cold. Must.....not......eat.... Rizzit kept telling himself over and over again. As long as it was clean snow was actually a tasty treat (provided it wasnt bitterly cold like the wind was on this planet.) Rizzit hated the cold...so why did the snow seem so appetizing? Possibly because it was something that he never had from the gourmet kitchens on Tadath that served crisply, burnt food at best (which would have been welcome now mainly because it would be hot.

Fury was like a little kid in the snow. He was the total opposite of Rizzit. Whereas Rizzit seemed to detest the snow and cold weather, Fury seemed to be actually enjoying himself. Fury had left to take care of something, so Rizzit got a break from Fury's antics. Well, I might as well chip in and help set up base. Rizzit said to himself.

Rizzit left the tent he was in and went to find AlanRJ, Riqimo, and Giovanni who were basically the taskmasters at setting base up. Jester and Wraiths hadn't checked in quite yet, and Dark Dragoons were off scouting with Raiders. That left what commanders there were, Iron Horse, Eclipse, and Paladin Squads. When Rizzit found the three Squad Leaders, they were giving out various orders to their squadmates to ensure that everything was set up properly. This wasn't exactly the kind of wether you wanted to be repairing something in. "So...how can I help?"

"Well the horsies are trying to get the sensors set up before dark. Paladin it looks like is just finishing with the communications equipment. My squad is trying to help the people Fury brought with him set up the auto-defense pickets before dark. Seeing as how those are the most important Rizz, you might want to help them out." Riqimo said all friendly-like.

"Hmm...not a bad idea. Gio...when the communications are ready contact the Dominion using whatever channel you can that won't be traced and request that they drop the sleds. That reminds me...all of you. When using comlinks here don't use the regular channels use the ones that are the least likely to be checked!"

Rizzit grabbed what he needed and went to work on an autoblaster turret. It was highly unlikely that airships would be coming to their location so Rizzit decided it was best to work on an autoblaster. Rizzit no sooner started working on the turret when he was interrupted. Giovanni came over asking for some sort of help. Apparently, the communications were all set up but they were not able to contact anyone at all....this was troublesome. Great....where's MaraJade when I need her? Rizzit went over to check out the communications equipment and such and didn't see a problem with the setup whatsoever.

"I'm no expert on this stuff, that's why I always had Slicers and Comm Techs in my squad to do this kind of stuff for me; but if I had to guess I'd say our communications are being jammed."

"Great...so we can't get our supplies dropped to us?" Legit asked in Panic. "So no sleds?"

"No Sleds."

"Wait...Rizz...how can they be jamming our communications if they don't know we're here? Something's gotta be wrong." Gio asked.

"I'm not sure Gio...but I do know that we're not getting those sleds until we can get some kind of communications around here..."

This wasn't good. If Rizzit was indeed right they had three squads at base with a few officers. Two squads were off scouting and two more squads had yet to check in. Rizzit needed a quick break from the stress looked out over the snowy landscape. It was actually quite peaceful here aside from the demonic wind and the cold that came with it. Spotless white snow stretched out for miles, yet something caught Rizzit's eye.....footprints. I must be seeing things... Rizzit said to himself I'd be hopeful and say it must be the Wraiths, but their footprints are in a straight, single file. Snipes would be sure to stagger a bit. Just as Rizzit was about to pass off the footprints as previous ones from earlier, he coulda swore he saw something else....something.....moving.....

"Tanus, we're now heading over to the last check point, how're you guys doing?" Leon called over the squads private frequency.

"We're 'ey ok.' Heading over to the northern most check point as ordered."

"Roger that Anus... I mean Tanus. Sorry about that, the cold makes me miss-pronounce certain words," Leon said sarcastically, trying his hardest to suppress a laugh.

"Thanks, thanks a lot Leon, as if I don't get that enough." Replied Tanus bleakly before cutting the channel off.

Apparently Leon wasn't the first to call his Assistant that, but even then, no matter how much it bugged his ASL, Leon would continue to do it. He needed a good laugh every once and a while, and if Tanus were to be the cause of that laugh, he would continue to do so. Three heat signatures up ahead caught Leon's attention, instinctively bringing his gun up to firing posistion. He slowly lowered the Carbine, realizing that it was just his troopers.
Still a bit jumpy I see, gotta watch that.

As the squad grew closer together, Leon began to get a slightly bad feeling. Aside from the incident that had happened earlier with Urakai, things had gotten disturbingly quiet. You would think by now some sort of enemy scouting group would have came in contact with the base, but no such thing had happened. No enemy sightings, no signs of life, and not a structure in sight aside from the mountains.

That was when Leon saw it. "Dragoons, stick to procedure, act as if we don't notice a thing. I think we're being watched.... No, I know we're being watched. Weapons at the ready, and I'll give the signal."

The squad did as ordered, planting the last sensor and getting it started up. In the distance, tiny specs of orange, just barely noticable, were slowly moving closer to the Dragoons location. They must have been wearing some form of high tech armor, because their heat signatures were almost null. Leon noted that there were at least six, all coming in from the North East.

"Alright now I want everyone to turn around and just act as if we're heading back to command. That'll leave the bogies South West of us, fire on my signal."

The Dark Dragoons just turned around in response to their SL's orders, doing a very good job at ignoring the on coming threat. Leon quickly switched over to the Raiders private channel. "Darr-Rann, head over to our location, we got some baddies on our tail and chances are we're gonna need reinforcements. Get over here ASAP."

He switched back over to the Dragoons comm channel, ready to commence the fight. "You guys ready? This is the moment we've been waiting for. Remember, South West, that means turn to the left, not right. If someone has a nade, feel free to use it."

Without waiting for further acknowledgement, Leon decided to start things off. With in- humane speed, Leon whirrled around to the left, his Carbine in firing posistion, and let off a volley of crimson red bolts. He emptied round after round into the general direction of the enemy, his squad following their SL's lead. Blaster fire tore through the howling winds, signaling the start of an epic battle, one that would be remembered for an eternity.

OOC:

Sory for the short post, I usually don't do that kind of thing, but I gotta get some sleep, and I also wrote it from my Sidekick. Good night VE.

Mako wondered if Leon knew what he was doing to Tanus by pairing him with Gates.  At least with Orobos he could keep the roughhousing to bad jokes, but with Gates he had to play more.  He couldn’t resist, really.

So the three went off to set up sensors and were following Tanus about, all the while picking at each other with smart comments like:  “I think I see a snowman,” or “The only thing colder than this rock is your moms icy heart.”

The comments grew progressively worse as the time went on, and eventually turned into Mako grabbing some snow on the sly.  He walked along, balling it up into the tightest form he could manage, all the while trying to keep it from Gates sight.  Then he screamed into the private channel:

“Gates, to my right!”  Gates reacted with lightning speed, only to catch a snowball in the visor at point blank range.

Mako tried his hardest to say “Incoming” but he was laughing so hard that he couldn’t breath well at all.  Gates tackled him in the snow and the two went at it for a solid minute, like two brothers horseplaying under the eyes of a wary parent.  Tanus stared at the two for a second, then said:  “Cut it out you two!  Back on duty, now!”

The two straightened up quickly and went back to work, the whole thing being settled with a brief exchange.

“Mako, you hit like a girl.”

“That’s cuz I am used to playing with your mom and I can’t leave marks or your dad will get mad.”

“Whatever.  You are getting it.  One for this and one for my pillow.”

“Cut it you two, NOW!”

Mako went back to watching the horizon for enemies. 

“Turn your *zzzz* to therma-*zzz*-ion…”

Mako got the gist of it, and switched to thermal.  The screen lit blue into his visor and the color played havoc on his eyes for a minute, the contrast between the blinding expanse of snow and the dim blue almost too much.

They placed the last sensor and made their way back toward Leon and the others.  When they were almost back, they heard Leon instructing them to remain steady, that they were being watched, and to keep cool.

Mako readied his DC-17 on burst fire and checked the safety smoothly, without looking.  They kept in formation and acted as if nothing was wrong.  He checked the thermal HUD and barely noticed the heat signatures, but they were very close. 

Leon gave the go-ahead and Mako turned and started firing like a madman.  He threw shot after shot at the armored soldiers.

“Take Cover!’  He yelled to the others.

He managed to hit them pretty easily, but the shots mostly absorbed into the armor, nit seeming to do much at all.  Urakai went ballistic and started lobbing heds and hands around with his blades.  He ran in, with a few close calls, and managed to cut most of the party down in only a few short moments.  Mako had saved his sin once, and thankfully the blaster shots went right through this time. 

Mako watched as Urakai and Orobos decimated the men.  He could not believe the thickness of their armor.  “I bet those guys are warm and toasty with that kind of armor on!”  mako watched as the last man went running off.  HE threw a few potshots at the man just to remind him that he did not have a free pass.  When the frey was over, he went to join his group.

Mako started to inspect the bodies of the troops they had just laid down.  He noticed some weird devices at their sides.  He threw a blaster bolt into one of the boxes and a little of the frizzle left the com channel.

“You guys think that those are jammers?”

He was wary of the field now, and noticed a few other soldiers running up the hill.

“Hold!  It’s the Raiders,” Someone said.

Mako lowered his weapon for a second, and then saw more low heat signatures on the HUD.

Mako remembered the ok for grenade usage and mapped out the path of his hand to his thermal detonator in his mind, waiting for the new opponents to get in range.

When the new onslaught came through Mako turned, grabbing the thermal detonator, and threw it hard as he dropped to the ground for cover.  He watched as the grenade sank in the snow right in front of one of the soldiers.  He saw the man drop onto as if out of instinct, and then watched as he was ignited into a black, shredded form with small flames coming from his corpse. 

Mako could feel the small gust of heat rush over him from the buried thermal detonator.  He had hoped to get a few more of the enemy with such an expensive grenade, but he would settle for watching the poor guy roast in an ice desert.  “How often do you see that?” he thought.

Mako hoped to God that the man stayed lit, as he wanted to warm up by a fire when this battle was over.  He threw a few rounds of blaster fire toward the forms in the snow, but they were already dispersing from the sudden attack.  “Man, I hope this is over quickly.  That fire looks so warm.”

Alan spotted Rizzit approaching him and the other squad leaders.  Riqimo filled him in with what was going on, whilst Alan carried on getting the squad to place the sensors before it got dark.  Getting these sensors in place was going to make Alan feel an awful lot easier as no-one would be able to sneak up on their base without alerting them of their presence.

"Sir, how many more of these do we need to place?" queried Vince.  It had seemed like hours since they had started and also felt like they had placed hundreds of sensors.  In actuality, it had been a lot less than that.

"A few more should do it" replied Alan.  He wanted the base to be secure and didn’t want any gaps in the sensor grid.

Several more sensors placed and soon the base was secured.  Alan was relieved when the last sensor was in place and working.  Once the last sensor was placed, Alan guided the squad to their tents and told them to rest up.  He did not know when they would be called into action so he wanted to get them rested whilst they could.

After showing them their tents, Alan moved off to find Rizzit.

"Are you not resting up Sir?" queried Dwarf.

"Not right now" replied Alan as he headed off.

He wandered around the base for some time before he finally found Rizzit at the communications area.  When he approached he heard the conversation about the communications not working.  That's not good thought Alan.

Rizzit noticed Alan approach and said "sensor's in place?"

"Yes Sir" replied Alan, "the squad's taking a breather whilst we wait for our next orders".

"Good idea" replied Rizzit, "we'll need fresh troops".

"Sir?" queried Alan, "we seem to have brought down quite a bit of equipment, any chance that we also brought the cantina down as well, and I'm freezing".

Rizzit laughed and Alan hoped that his next words were going to be 'of course we did' and then to point Alan in the right direction, he wasn't that hopeful though.

True enough, Alan's fears were realised when Rizzit assured him that the cantina had not travelled down to the planet.  He had hoped on getting a drink before getting some sleep but that wasn't going to happen as he remembered his frozen canteen.

Leaving Rizzit to his communication problems, Alan wandered around the base hoping that the communications would be up and running soon.  As he walked around, Alan noted that a lot of troopers had finished their assignments and was either sitting around chatting or playing cards.  Alan was offered at more than one place to join them and play a few hands.  Knowing how bad he was with card playing, Alan graciously declined and moved on.

Alan returned to the Iron Horse tents and spotted Dwarf and Vince playing cards.  He noted that Vince seemed to have the bigger stack of credits and decided there and then that he shouldn't get involved otherwise he would lose a lot of credits.  He graciously declined their invite and instead crawled into his own tent.

Removing his helmet as he entered the tent, he decided on keeping on his armour for warmth.  Collapsing down on his bunk, Alan pulled some covers over him in the hopes of getting some warmth.  He wasn't sure whether or not he was going to get much sleep but he decided he might as well try to get some sleep.  Besides which if he or the Iron Horse squad were needed then he was sure someone would come and get him.

Lying on the bunk, he started to get sleepy.  His mind started to wander and he began to think of the mission and of the newly formed Iron Horse squad.  Eventually, he drifted off into a light sleep.  He tossed around several times as his dreams sometimes haunted him.

"Goddess be, it's cold enough to freeze the tits off of winter witch in December," Namyr complained, she had always hated the cold, prefering the dry heat that reminded her of home.  Home, Ryloth, there was one place she hardly thought about anymore, let alone she wasn't planning any vacation even near that planet, she consitered it her personal curse.

"Well Nams we can all strip down and huddle together naked, they say that's the best survival tactic," rogueboy mentioned sounding innocent, though Namyr wouls practically hear the grin on his face.

"You would like that too much, then again when you have to take a pee I'm going to laugh my ass off when you manhood freezes and falls off," Namyr snapped back the grin showing in her voice as well.

"That would be a tragedy, many women would weep."

"And plenty of men as well," Namyr mumured only to have Rogueboy shover her over so she landed in a rather deep snowdrift.

"Alright you two quit screwing around and get to work, unless you want your faces shot off by enemy fire," Darr commented.

"Spoilsport," Namyr growled chucking a snowball at the back of Darr's helmet hitting him straight on, she looked away innocently, Darr shakinf his head, probably to keep himself from killing half of his squad continued on while Rogueboy helped fish Namyr out of the snow drift.

The two squads, Raiders and Dark Dragoons, made their way back to the base. Leon kept his vision set on Thermal, not letting his guard down one bit. The enemy had somehow managed to mask their heat signatures to the point where they were almost invisible. What he didn't get was how they were able to stay warm. It had to be some sort of high tech armor he had never heard of before.

"Darr, any clue on how they were able to mask their heat signatures?" Asked Leon over a private comm channel.

"Only possible answer I can give is that they have some form of high tech armor. They could have used stims also, I've heard of certain stims that are able to do things like that. Just don't let your guard down, those bastards are quite good at hiding. I'm just worried about when the sun goes down. That's when things will begin to get tough."

"I'm not looking forward to that one bit Darr. I'm surprised none of the other squads even heard the fire fight, this weather provides the perfect cover for those sneaky little bastards. Anyways, we shoud go alert Rizzit right away."

"I concur."

Leon turned his attention to the multiple heat signatures and the medium sized tent up ahead. Various members from diferent squads could be seen digging fox holes, setting up auto defense pickets, and running around making sure everyone was on task.

"I'm guessing Rizzit is in that tent. I'll stay out here with Tanus while you and Leon go do your thing. Have fun getting warm..." Rogue said sounding slightly bitter.

"We will," replied Leon, unable to keep himself from laughing. "Besides, you have Namyr to keep you company. Hottest female in the corps, you should be honored."

"Well actually I heard there's a pretty hot fem trooper in Eclipse... I think I might go try something out with her."

"You wouldn't dare." Growled Namyr.

Leon followed Darr into the tent, leaving the two squads outside to freeze in the cold. As soon as Leon stepped inside, he noticed the difference in temperature, his body quickly warming up. The lenses on his helm automatically adjusted to the bright lighting, and he saw two authority figures standing side by side. One of them he made out to be Rizzit, and the other.... The other one feintly rung a bell, but he couldn't quite place his finger on who it could be.

A light hiss broke their conversation, which happened to be the sound of Darr taking his helmet off. Leon followed in suit, twisting his helm to the left, and then gently tugging it off.

"Ahhhh Darr-Rann, I see you're not drunk anymore?" Rizzit said as he came to meet him.

Darr-Rann saluted, Leon also jumping to a salute after he did so. "No sir." He replied, sounding slightly embarressed. Rizzit returned the salute, and then turned his attention to Leon.

"And you are?"

"Sergeant Leon at your service, sir. I'm the new Squad Leader of DD, the one that messaged you earlier."

"Oh, I couldn't quite recognize you with the beard, sorry about that. You've changed quite a lot since the last time I've seen you. For the better I hope."

"Leon?" Blurted the man who had been chatting with Rizzit. "Remember me? Riqimo?"

"No. I'm sorry it doesn't ring any bells." Leon replied, feeling slightly guilty.

"Heh, I was the Medic who treated you when you got your head bashed. I'm currently the SL of Eclipse." Replied Riqimo.

"Oh yeah! That... Heh, it still hasn't gotten any better. You know, the whole memory recovery process. I've basically gotten nothing back. Anyways, we have an update to give you guys, I think it may be quite important."

"Yeah about that," chimed in Darr. "We encountered an enemy patrol group when setting up the sensor's, and they were packing some sort of high tech armor that almost masked their WHOLE heat signature. We managed to take all of them out."

"Uh-oh things aren't looking so good then..." Replied Rizzit, who started to pace back and fourth nervously. "Our sensors are being blocked and we can't get the Drop Ships to bring the sleds. If things continue to go on like this... Well let's just say they won't turn out so good. We need those Sleds ASAP."

Yeah.... We really do need them ASAP, 'cus if not, we'll be the prey.