“Turn on nightvision.” Darr-Rann said over the squad channel, doing so himself. The darkness of the cave was banished in an instant, replaced with a colourless passageway that led forward and down into the earth.

Rizzit quickly issued orders, “Alright everyone, we’re expecting a presence of both living and droid guards, be ready to use lethal force. Our job is to find out what they’re mining, and to put a stop to it as quickly and silently as possible. Move forward, and keep your eyes open.”

The squads moved forward, without flashlights. They found as they went deeper into the cave, there was slight illumination from weak lights strung along the roughly carved walls. Half of them didn’t even work. “Yeah, there’s definitely people down here.” Said Rogueboy, looking around.

“What makes you say that?” Replied Urakai. Rogueboy pointed up at the wiring.

“They wouldn’t put up lights for droids – It’d be easier to just switch on their nightvision like we did and leave it at that.” The Raiders ASL replied. Darr-Rann pondered Rogueboy’s logic, and decided it made sense.

“And if there’s living guards down here, there’ll be barracks and multiple teams. Droids can stay active for twenty four hours a day – Humans can’t.”

An echoing sound  reached them from further down the caves. Whatever was down there, they were getting close.

He could only chuckle. He was glad to see his squad bonding with each other. Sure, Lucky and Finch had been here previously and were longtime friends, but seeing LegiT in the mix and the camaraderie between the three reminded him of his early days as a new recruit with the Dark Dragoons.

"Well guys, I'm gonna make some preparations. If you haven't already, check in with your sled leader, and if you are one yourself in Lucky's case, round up your group. We're gonna be setting off soon and time is of the essence." He made eye contact with each of them to make sure they were on the right page.

He made a mental note to talk to Aravan, ViperX, LunaTick and Baretz. They were either at the barracks or walking around camp. He needed to make sure they were also on-board with the plan.

Walking in to the barracks, he saw Baretz. He was gathering his things and his helmet was already on. His gung-ho attitude meant he rarely had to tell the man what to do. He was usually ready before anyone else, and eager to do battle.

"All set, soldier?" Giovanni asked Baretz, leaning over and picking his things up. Baretz gave a vague nod and walked out, on his way to his sled assignment.

Giovanni picked the lid of the cargo crate and slung his cargo bag over his shoulder. He put the bag down, almost forgetting his helmet, and placed it on his head.

He headed over to the sleds, and they were all lined up facing east. People were beginning to arrive and checking in with their sled leaders. Giovanni heaved his things onto the sled and leaned against the vehicle, waiting for the first of his group to arrive.

Yuka, Northern continent
6:47:08 Mission Clock
20:00:27 local time

-before Leon's post-

As the squads splashed through the meltwater streams that flowed through the cave and stepped around razor sharp mineral deposits, Dante noticed the light coming from recesses in the all and noticed the flickering.

Either the enemy doesn't maintain their equipment or they haven't used this cave in a while. Either way, we had better be careful.

As the other discussed the usage and implications of the lights, Dante scanned the area for any hostiles or security measures.

We really don't want to set of an alarm or, worse yet, a bomb.

The bat guano that had covered almost the entire cave floor was vanishing, and what little guano was visible was drier and could have been secreted months, even years, ago.

Darr's voice crackled over the comlink on the intersquad frequency.

"Turn on nightvision."

Dante sighed and did as he was ordered. The dim light of the cave was replaced by a sickly green glow and the walls became much clearer.

A sound piece of advice.

Dante heard something and froze in his tracks. Slowly moving his hand, he laid the thermal imaging option over the night-vision. The effect was drastic. Dull yellow and orange highlights indicated the location of his squadmates, while the orange of the lights stood out agianst the unoform blue and green of the cave walls. However, the stretch of wall ahead was a blinding yellow, and even stark red in places.

With that kind of heat, there must be an active installation of some kind up ahead.

The thumping noise Dante had heard earlier was now much louder and very hard to ignore. On the bright sidde, the enemy wouldn't hear them coming. On the other hand, it meant there were probably a lot of them.

Pistons would generate that much noise. I suspect it's a factory or geothermal power plant of some sort. Regardless of what it is, we're blowing it to kingdom come.

Yuka, Northern continent
7:04:11 Mission Clock
20:17:30 local time

As the squads descended further into the tunnel, for it was obviously not a natural formation, the air grew warmer and warmer, to the point where several troopers had to turn their heaters off entirely.

How thick is this snowball's crust anyway?

Dante felt a bead of sweat trickle down his brow and had to resist the urge to wipe it away. Silently cursing under his breath, he blinked and felt the salty fluid slide into his eyes, making them water. Despite his discomfort, Dante never showed any reaction or took off his helmet.

Have to keep appearances up...

The temperature increased until it became hellishly hot, to the point of causing heat waves in the air ahead.

Giving in to practicality and the examples of his fellow Raiders, Dante deactivated his suit's heating systems and tucked his helmet under his left arm.

Nearby, Gates was puffing like an ancient steam engine, and many other troopers were red in the face from the heat. All too soon, the squads had emptied their canteens from thirst and were walking along in the hellish heat with parched throats.

Dante scanned the area and noticed that there were regularly placed vents in the wall, from which steam continually puffed out.

That explains the heat..

Also, mats of heat-loving bacterial mats started to appear, coating the walls and floor like marroon carpets. When stepped upon, they released dark brown dust into the air, starting coughing sprees and making the dry air seem even worse. Suddenly ,without warning, there was a huge cleft in the side of the apparantly solid rock wall. Dante replaced his helmet, ignoring the heat, and followed Leon's lead. His jaw dropped.

Minions of Xendor. It's so big...

The pit was immense with hundreds, maybe even thousands of workers. Dante started to scan the area then stopped as a though struck him.

How are we going to neutralise this facility? Even if they're unarmed, they could overwhelm us with sheer numbers. More importantly, can I bring myself to kill hundred of unarmed workers with lives and families?

Yuka, Northern continent
7:05:14 Mission Clock
20:18:33 local time

Dante watched the mining operation in mute fascination, taking in the details. He tried to see the number of hostile security officers, but smoke and dust from the mining made it almost impossible. Cursing under his breath, Dante retrieved the DC-17 sniper attachment from where he had clipped it and carefully inserted onto the weapon's stock barrel. The weapon emitted a quiet ping and a small, octagonal scope appeared on Dante's barrel.

Now I can see what's going on down there.

Dante pressed a button, and the image zoomed by a factor of five. Scanning the area, he noted the presence of guard towers.

Minions of Xendor, it's pretty heavily guarded. The billion credit question is whether the workers are slave labor. If they are, neutralizing the facility should be a blue milk run. If not, we'll be ripped to shreds even if we knock out the security teams.


Dante let his finger rest on the weapon's trigger, just in case an overzealous enemy saw them. Moving the rifle left and right, he saw the bedraggled condition of the workers, the thick layers of grime and dust that coated all of their faces, and the lack of hope on many of their faces.

I'm betting they're slave labor. These barbarians...

Dante's helmet speaker crackled.

"Check this out, Mako.  It was on the ground over there." 

The rock Gates was holding was somewhat unusual; it was dull red with veins of gleaming metal running through it. As it turned, the metal glinted in the flickering amber glow from the light mounted into the solid rock wall.

Mako rolled the rock between his fingers, looking at it closely.
The helmet speaker had an undertone of static, most likely because of the rocks, as he thought out loud.
"You think this has anything to do with their supposed ability to 'Take care of us'?"

Dante pondered this for a moment. The fact they had such a large operation here meant the facility was probably of some importance.

"I suspect so. May I see the rock for a minute?"

Mako quietly moved to Dante's position and handed it to him. He turned it over, looking at the odd metal embedded in the rock. Dante drew his blaster pistol and fired a shot into the rock. To his surprise, the blue energy bolt bounded off, narrowly missing Mako, and flew into the floor; the impact blew a small cloud of atomized rock and dust into the air. Quickly, Dante holstered his blaster.

That's one experiment I'm not trying again. Whatever the metal in that rock is, it's pretty damn tough.

Trying to ignore the thumping of mining machinery, Dante handed the rock back to Mako and turned back to the mining area, looking for something the squads could act upon.

Mako watched as the blaster bolt rebounded from the rock and went toward his feet.  It narrowly missed him and sank into the ground. 

"That's great.  I guess we better watch our fire in here.  Those shots could go anywhere."

Mako pulled his multitool from his pouch and extended the torch bit.  He sat the rock on the ground and touched the bright flame to the rock, holding it there for a second.  The flame seemed to dance off of the rock, not hurting it at all.  Seconds later the small fragment grew an even brighter red and started glowing oddly.

"Maybe you should stop, Mako" Dante said.

Mako pulled the heat away from the rock and it immediately cooled down.  Mako touched it, then switched to his thermal vision. 

"I don't think it ever even got hot!  How could it have cooled down so quickly?"

Mako looked in astonishment at the minerla.  It was blasterproof, and apparently flame proof as well.

"Well, at least we know that their armor isn't totally made out of this stuff, as the one caught fire a little bit from that thermal detonator, but he did cool off pretty quick.  I assumed that it was because of the cold outside, but now I wonder."

"Leon, do you think their armor has fibers of this stuff in it?  It may explain why they were so hard to shoot, and why they had such low heat signatures.  The only place for heat to escape would have been in the joints where they couldn't put sheets of this mineral in the plates."

"Won't stop a well placed bullet, even if it is the case." Leon said.

Mako went to report their finds to Rizzit, who was off at a bit of a distance checking out some of the other spots in the cave.

After explaining all of the properties that they had found of the rocks, Mako handed the small piece of mineral to Rizzit.

Rizzit inspected the rock, running it between his fingers and noticing teh weight of it.

Mako wondered at their find.  "What do you think Rizzit?"

"if they had armor out of this stuff, they must have had some high tech hydraulic lines helping them hold it up.  They wouldn't be so agile if not. More like nearly unstoppable dreadnaughts."

"They were a bit robotic in their movements.  Maybe they do have hydraulics in their suits.  I wonder if they make them here as well."

OOC:

Dante:  Gimp is in Eclipse.  Gates is who handed me the rock.

"Sarge! We're trapped! And we've been seperated from the Raiders and Rizzet!"

"No shit, corporal obvious." grumbled Tanus.

"What, they think they can keep a squad of stormtroopers with full combat loads locked up for some time? Piss-poor odds for them." Mako laughed.

Leon just nodded. "Open up this can, I want out."

Mako and Orobos walked over too either side of the bars, and started trying to cut the bars open. Even as the bars heated, they didn't register on Gates's thermal sensors.

"Mako..." he began, just as Mako lifted the fusion cutter from the bars, just as it had begun to glow strangely.

"Damn, it's those rocks we found earlier." Mako cursed.

The two guards outside of their cell, hearing the commotion, turned, and laughed at the futile efforts of the VE troops.

Leon looked like had had enough. He grabbed a vibro knife and threw it into one of the man's helmet, right into his eye, and into his brain.

"I've been waiting to kill something all day!" he snarled on an open channel.

The rest of the squad brought up weapons, Gates included, and opened up on the remaining guard. He was ridled with plasma and laser bursts, and his armor ripped, burned, and shredded as he was filled with hot energy. He dropped, and his hand spasmed, firing a blast into the air. It ricocheted off a couple walls, and flew right into the padlock, which fused into a melted gunk.

"Shit! Door's still locked." said Orobos, pushing and pulling at the door.

Yuka, Northern continent
6:59:26  Mission Clock
20:10:33 local time

Dante groaned as something hard poked him in the ribs, then jerked as it poked him again. His eyes fluttered and he heard mocking laughter as he forced them open. Dante found himself lying on the floor, his head pressed agaisnt the wall. As a matter of reflex, his right hand dropped to his pistol holster and found it empty.

Stang.

He wasn't surprised to find that his deece and his equipment were missing. The laughter returned, echoing through the small rock hollow that Dante recognized as a cell . A harsh voice came from just outside the bars.

"Get up, you Imp scum."

As Dante took in the scene, his eyes narrowed . Almost without thinking, he started to plan a possible method of attack. Quickly, he took in the scene. Unconscious troopers were lying on the ground around him. Just to his right, there were a pair of guards, one of which was sneering at him and holding his own deece. In an unthinking fury, Dante grabbed for the weapon, only to be clubbed back by the weapon. He tried twice more, with the same result, and landed heavily on the ground with blood flowing freely from his mouth. He spat some out, and heard the laughter of the Rodian.

"Get up, weakling. I'm not done with you yet."

The alien was laughing so hard, it never noticed Dante's slow rise or his lunge. It wasn't until he was strtuggling to remove the cold iron fingers that were crushing his windpipe that he realized his mistake. As the guard went limp, Dante retrieved his weapon and opened fire. He heard the whine of a blaster set just over stun and lost consciousness as the footsteps of the second guard, the one that had shot him, sounded in his ears.

Yuka, Northern continent
7:02:36  Mission Clock
20:13:45 local time

The world swam in and out of view as Dante slowly regained consciousness. He blinked, and the images that had been white blurs resolved into his vod and the yellow blurs became the harsh lights that cat long ebony shadows over the interior of the cave. Slowly, Dante regained control over his body and pushed himself upright. He swiveled his head, and saw that several of the Raiders were now armed.

Dante stood up, albeit slightly unsteadily and straightened up, ignoring the crusts of dried blood around his mouth and nose. He spoke, running his tongue over his teeth and doing his best to ignoring the bruises from his fall and subsequent beating.

"What happened?"

It was Darr who replied.

"Several of us woke up as the second guard stunned you. We managed to retrieve your deece and blew the son of a krath hound's head off."

Looking at the remains of the sentient sprawled right outside the cell, Dante understood the peculiar odor that he had smelled after he had woken up. Someone handed him his weapon and his helmet. Turning the helmet over in his hands, Dante frowned. A thin crack had snaked its way through the reinforced plastoid and left view-screen. As Dante put the helmet on, the HUD flickered then died again.

The fall must have damaged it more than I thought...

Grimly, Dante deactivated the HUD. It looked like he would have to fight the old fashioned way: without sensors or night vision.

There was a click from the other side of the cell, and everyone turned to watch as the cell door slid open. Rogueboy was standing there,whistling cheerfully, a set of keys in his left hand.

"Anyone want to leave this party?"

The squad filed out in single file, with their liberated weapons at shoulder height and safeties off.

Time for a little payback.

Yuka, Northern continent
7:02:51  Mission Clock
20:14:00 local time

The Raiders quietly crept through the dimly lit corridors, weapons aimed at the bend. With most of their built-in equipment disabled by the fall or by the abuse it had gone through afterwards, the squad was forced to rely on the old fashioned way. Several of the troopers had retrieved chemical lights and were using them to guide the others through the tunnels.

In the dark they were clearly visible and if the enemy had bothered to patrol the area, the Raiders would have been slaughtered.

I can't believe they're that stupid. There's something else going on here...

Finally, the Raiders navigated their way to an area of the mine where the floor was paved, and terminals started to appear. While the rest of the squad covered him, Darr started to slice  it, searching for information on the Dragoons and Rizzit. As Darr bit back a curse and started to type furiously, Dante started to become nervous.

Where's Patch when you need him?

He had seen the odd R-series astromech droid in action several times  before, most recently on the hellhole know to the galaxy at large as Garg II.

Even that was better than this miserable snowball.

Darr typed a series of commands then smiled thinly as data flashed across the small screen.

"Raiders, I think we hit pay-dirt. The Dragoons are directly above us, and...wait."

Darr started typing quickly again. The rest of the squad was bunched around him, nervously scanning the area for any other hostiles.

"This is interesting. This place is honeycombed by old tunnels. If we use some of the older, abandoned passages, we could rescue them without any fighting. Take the datapads; I've copied the intel onto them."

As the troopers each took a datapad from a dispenser next to the console, Dante scanned the area but found nothing. Not satisfied, he looked more closely at the walls but found nothing out of the ordinary.

Damn it, why does it feel like someone's watching us?

Gimp hopped on the back of one of the sleds and looked back at Doc and Alater. They seemed to be shuffling toward him in an odd, slow motion kind of way. He looked around and wondered if he might sound like too much of a sissy if he screamed for help. He glanced back at the pair when they were about twenty feet away and they suddenly started moving like normal. He could even hear them speak.

"So all you need to do is go take care of that special business. I'm counting on you Alater." Doc finished some directive but Gimp didn't know what they were talking about. The next thing Gimp knew, Alater had vanished and Riqimo was hollering for attention.

"Alright, everybody who's with me, let's get it together." Doc bellowed. "Gimp, Finch, Beretz, LunaTick, Tnepres... gather round." Gimp stayed where he was because he was pretty close to Doc. Within a few moments, the rest of the group had formed a loose circle. When Riqimo saw that everyone was there, he spoke to the assembled crew.

"O.K. you all know whats going on but just to recap, here it is. First thing we gotta do is drop off Tnepres back west so he can meet up with the rest of the Wraiths for some recon out there. After that the rest of us will head east, a good fifty five k's past this point to a winding canyon. You Paladins will go blow some stuff up while Eclipse sneaks around and does that recon stuff we're so well known for doing." He added a good bit of sarcasm to his last statement. "I get to drive, the Gimp will work the brake and the rest of you will keep any tangos ducking with these super sled guns. You got five minutes to gather what you need and then we move out."

Gimp pulled the brake stick once to make sure it was still working. He had left all his equipment that wasn't a weapon back home, and his weapons were on him. The ones who didn't need to go back to a tent were standing around the sled for the last few moments they could before a long ride. Gimp figured this may be a good idea and stood up to stretch until go time.

Orobos watched as Garyll and Tanus set off in the armour. Mako sat outside the cell his knife in the keyhole twisting and pressing it, but to no avail.

"Any Luck with the lock Mako?" Orobos asked hopefully, "This cell is getting kinda old."

"Nothing is giing way. Actually there doesn't seem to be any of the usual things you'd find in a lock. The key must have something on it that gets scanned in the lock."

"Anyway we can replicate that?"

"not with the stuff we have and we don't even know what it supposed to look like."

"Damn, anything else you see out there?"

"Nothing much there's a desk with loads of papers on it hang on."

"Maybe you should check it out," Leon said walking up to the bars and kicking them.

Mako walked away from the cell out of their line of vision and they heard some rustilng and banging. Leon slumped down on the floor beside him.

"Did you guys do anything to that hot chocolate back in the barracks?"

"You noticed did you?" Orobos said nervously,

"Either that, or every store our system makes drinks to the imperial standard," he said chuckling at his joke,

"Thats what'd I'd expect if you dumped a quarter of a bottle of alcohol in it,"

"There was that much in it?" Leon said staring at him, "how much did you guys drink?"

just then Mako came back over giving Orobos an excuse not to answer the question.

"Anything?" Leon asked hopefully,

"There was a porno slate, a few discs and this," he said sliding a load of ruffled papers through the bars of the cell. They had picts of the material they had found further down in the mine in them.

"We'll do good to keep them Leon said taking the papers, folding them and sliding them into a pouch on his utility belt."

There was a faint clanking and they saw to guards approach. They did nothing at the site of Mako outside of the cell so it was obviously Garyll and Tanus.

"Well," Tanus said sliding his helmet off," looks like the other shift should be here in an hour, apart from that we didn't hear anythnig else."

"We found this though," Garyll said holding up a small item resembling the melted key from the other guard.

Mako took it and moved over to the keyhole.

"Nothing doesn't fit," he said slipping it away.

"Looks like we should just sit and wait for the other guards to come then,: Leon said.

Yuka, Northern continent
7:31:56  Mission Clock
20:43:05 local time

Dante watched as the flames consumed Yush's corpse, crackling merrily and casting harsh shadows. The once pristine armour buckled as the highly flammable padding ignited and fed the inferno. The chest plate cracked down the center from the heat and split into fragments from the heat. Dante turned, no longer able to force himself to watch.

Was it worth it?

Yush had died a horrible death, even quicker than that of the luckless Dragoon earlier in the mission. Dante tried for a moment to imagine what it must have felt like and was forced to repress a shiver.

To be forced down to the ground, to hear the shouts and screams of  your squadmates, and then to see ,to feel, the curved fangs descending into your neck and the poison turning your body to a sticky soup...that must be the closest thing to hell. I only hope it was quick.

Dante's motion senor pinged, showing bright yellow friendly contacts on all sides. Yush's helmet had rolled off, and Dante had retrieved it from the fungus-covered floor. His own helmet had been cracked by an earlier fall and the HUD had been destroyed. Yush's, on the other hand, was almost completely intact, with a small, superficial crack near the bottom.
Dante took it off and looked at it, thinking about the fallen trooper. He had joined the squad shortly before the Garg II debacle and had shown himself to be clever and fairly good with his hands. Dante thought back and recalled that Rogueboy had told him how he had killed half a dozen troopers by reprograming a service droid. He had been the trooper every army would want: cool headed with the ability to think even when being fired upon.

The ebony viewscreens reflected a distortion of his visage back at Dante as he sighed and closed his eyes.

Although he hated the necessity of using a fallen Raider's equipment, to not do so would mean that Yush's death was wasted. Dante intended to make the man's demise count, preferably by greasing some of the krath-hounds responsible for it. To do that, the squad needed to know where they were heading.

I'm sorry Yush but I have to do this.

With that, he replaced the helmet back on his head and heard a hiss as the seals activated.

Darr took one last look at the pile of ash and blackened plastoid armour, then straightened up, looking as if he had aged twenty years. His voice was grim as he addressed the squad.

"We're moving as quickly as possible through the tunnels. If you see anything move, shoot it. We can't afford any more casualties."

With that, he shoved a new power cell into his weapon and started to slowly walk towards a branch in the tunnel. Gathering their weapons, the rest of the squad followed, still numb from the second death on this poorly planned mission.

We may be "loyal to the end"...but when is the end?

As the squad advanced into the inky blackness, the last few embers that were all that remained of Yush Kharin smoldered and vanished.

Their troop transport cart had given out the evening before. It wasn't meant to cross mountain passes and that left Fury and Bob on foot through the treacherous but mind-numbingly dull terrain. Oh, it was pretty enough and majestic even, but they had not run across another sentient being since sighting the small mountain village two days before.

"Seriously Bob, we've got to get a ride before we die out here," Fury was saying. They were at the top of a large hill/small mountain and we scanning the local area. He stopped and tilted his head. Bob did something similar. He boosted his helmet comms but could only get the slightest scratchy transmissions. He couldn't figure out what was being said, but it was definitely over the channels the troopers had planned to use.

"Bob?" he asked. The Guardsman held up one hand to stop him and did whatever one did to analyze the Force. He dropped his fingers, all but one.

"Sithspit" cursed Fury. One more dead trooper and no clue who they were and how they died.

Bob considered something else and then took off at a jog down the mountain they had just crested. Fury could do nothing but follow.

Twenty minutes of extreme aerobics later, Fury wanted to yank his lungs out, give them an aspirin and then put them back inside. Filters, heated elements or no, eventually the altitude and temperate were hell on a body.

Bob had stopped behind the largest boulder on the mountain. They were beginning to get near the tree line again, which was making Fury a lot more confident about their chances of not getting automatically picked up by a lone sentry. Thus far, the weather or just the cold itself had prevented the enemy from any overhead patrols. Maybe they were just that confident. Either way, it was fine by the Corps so far in that regard.

Bob drew a few shapes in the snow. First, their position, then a box designating some kind of outpost or just a cabin. Then he detailed seven ticks designating targets. He claimed four, and gave three to Fury. Apparently Bob was getting tired or something.

Giving Fury a moment to catch his breath, Bob rolled out to the left and advanced through the stubby tree line. Fury did the same to the right. Since they were without a vehicle and away - presumably - from a civiization center, the rules of engagement had changed. Fury came up on a lone sentry foolishly hunkered down by a small fire behind a rock. No one was really expecting anyone coming over the mountain so the guards were lax here. Fury went full spectrum, looking for another warm body or the telltale signs of a motion sensor, maybe a minefield. Nothing.

He came up near the guard, popped him with a stun bolt and then pulled him back into the trees and finished him off with a knife. He then covered the body with snow and some fallen branches and moved on.

He was still trying to figure out how to quickly dispose of the next two targets without someone lighting up the comm lines to the whole planet when he crept up towards the building Bob had sensed.

It was a wooden structure, some kind of cabin actually. Half of it was built into a hill, with the remaining structure looking strong, sturdy, and welcoming. If you were a tourist looking for relaxation. Otherwise it looked formidable.

Fury saw two men, one watching the road headed downward and another fiddling with a repulsorlift vehicle. In fact, there was quite an array of utility vehicles for the taking.  Fury slowly crept up and eliminated the machinist and moved him behind a vehicle. As he was prepping to take out the guard, a blast of lightning hit the buildings antenna. Fury had seen enough of that bluish-purple Force lightning to know it for what it was.  The guard quickly turned and winced as the feedback from the comm antenna hit his ears. Fury went hi power and quickly put a bolt into his chest.

No sooner had he done that and swung around that another soldier came bursting out the front door of the cabin, rifle strafing the area around Fury. He was thrown back with two bolts to the chest, which brought him to his knees. Armor being what it was, he was able to stabilize his rifle and put three bolts into the firing soldier.

Bob came out the front door, looked around, and waved Fury inside.

Once inside, Fury began to go over the files and maps left by the soldiers. Bob looked so ashamed of letting an enemy shoot him that Fury couldn't bear to bust his chops about getting sloppy. Besides, his chest hurt too much to laugh.

Warm and relatively safe, Fury mended his chest plate, slapping some emergency patches to it. In truth, both shots had done little more than burn some holes in his new overcoat, which he was miffed about, but there was about a centimeter of damage to the plate, which required some heavy resin patching. You never could be too sure, especially on a lonely planet away from your forces.

Bob was out burying the bodies under rocks. He had sensed a patrol coming up and had taken care of the four soldiers in that vehicle. Perhaps they were a relief column. Either way, someone would come looking for these soldiers soon.

As he left the resin harden he ate some of the actual food left by the soldiers and checked their next move.

Yes, there were residential cities on the planet, but this part of the planet was a series of guard outposts and military installations. Sure, there was the potential for collateral damage but more likely than not they could assume that anything moving was either a beastie or someone out to kill them. 

Bob tucked into a meal and got warm as Fury set up a string of thermite grenades and some det cord. They had maps, and they intended to keep that a secret as long as they could.  They'd leave the place boobytrapped in hopes that the next person through the door would flame out the inside of the building and cover some of their tracks. 

Both of them headed out, grabbed the most utilitarian vehicle they could, headed down the road about twenty klicks, pulled off at a particularly wooded spot, covered their tracks and pulled a couple guard shifts so they could catch up on rest.

Now that the 'Goons were sprung from their cell, they were on the prowl.  They had been tricked once, but not again.

"Rizzit:  We are free from our cell. Please respond."


Still no response.  These walls must be thick. 

"Let's move out and find the Raiders and Rizzit."

The squad moved out of the door that the guards had come in through.  The Dragoons all checked their weapons and switched back to night vision. These caves were likely to be patrolled heavily, and they were not willing to be trapped again.

Mako switched back to the blaster attachment quickly on his DC-17.  It didn't look like he would be sniping anyone for a while yet.  He moved to the front of the squad line, keeping an eye on the dark spots in teh caves ahead.  They moved left at the fork in the caves, noticing the marks on their HUD where they had already been tracking off in the other direction. 

A door lay ahead on the side of the hall.  They crept up to the door, silently stalking it as if it were prey.

They opened the door quickly and killed the lights.  A single worker inside was distracted long enough for Tanus to slide a knife under his throat. 

"Kill the power" Tanus said into the man's ear.

"I...I..."

Tanus tightened the knife against the man's skin and the man quickly complied.  The lights shut down everywhere the "goons could see.  A small generator started to give power to the control panel. 

"Does that kill any automated security too?"

"Ye..Yeah...Don't kill me..I just work for them..."

"Who is them?"

"I...I...I can't tell you...they have the room monitored...they would know and kill me..."

The man was pulling up files on the computer that were detailed reports on the operations going on on Yuka.Tanus, noticing that the man was trying to help, withdrew the knife but kept up the speech.

"I will kill you if you don't help us."

"Please..." the man said, "I shut down the power...What else do you want?"

"Is this the main control panel?"

"Just for this sector.  The cells and labs, you know?"

The man was handing Tanus a datapad that had the files loaded on it.

"Yeah.  I see."

"Alright.  Time for you to go night-night."

"Thank y...."

The man was out.  Tanus had planted the butt of his knife into the side of the man's neck, hard enough to knock him out, but not enough to hurt him too badly.

Tanus stored the datapad away for when they saw Rizzit again.


"Anything else we need from this thing?" Leon said.

"Don't know what else we can get from it."

Leon responded by throwing a few rounds into the mainframe.

"Let's go"