Yuka, Northern continent
8:01:58  Mission Clock
21:13:07 local time

The darkness of the tunnel was broken only by the flickering glow of semi-functional helmet lights and the faintly bioluminescent colonies of fungus growing on the walls.

As the squad brushed against them, pods burst and relased spores into the already dusty air, choking filters and reducing visibilty.

Although the Raiders had destroyed one hive of spiders half an hour earlier, the tunnels were packed with the Gargian creatures and they were quick and agressive.

Every now and then, spiders would drop from the ceiling or leap from their nests in the walls, and the Raiders would be forced to blast them to pieces.

As yet another one of the creatures crawled from its hiding place, plated jaws moving and long, curved fangs extending, Dante fired an entire clip into the gap between its mouthparts. Even with most of its head reduced to a sticky goo, the creature managed to twitch twice and even move a leg before falling still.

The squad unleashed a hellish crossfire on the others, blasting them to pieces and setting their sticky nests on fire. As the last arachnids thrashed around before burning to ashes, the Raiders took a moment to reload. Dante stiffened, expecting yet another attack.

There was nothing, except the smell of burned flesh and the pop as the last few spiders burned.

With another hive destroyed, the squad advanced, only to find their progress blocked by a large metal plate that had been welded into place. On the other side, there were voices and Dante thought he heard the hum of computer equipment.

Rizzit made a gesture and a trooper placed a shaped explosive on the metal.

Three, two, one...

There was a flash, and cries of shock sounded from the room beyond the plate. Darr shouted "Now!" and the Raiders charged through the gaping hole in the metal.

Yuka, Northern continent,  hostile mine/research complex
8:12:01  Mission Clock
21:23:10 local time

The metal plate shattered into a thousand metal fragments, destroying consoles and severing cables. As a piece of molten metal hit, the light, Darr waved the squad forward. As Dante charged into the room, he opened fire, sending blue energy into the hostiles inside. Several technicians caught laser bolts and collapsed to the ground. Reflected bolts ricocheted into the ceiling, and the lights began to flicker.

As Dante turned ,searching for any survivors, he saw a blur of motion out of the corner of his eye. He turned, firing blaster bolts as he did so. Despite his efforts, the figure smashed into him, creating a tiny crack in his armour, and sent him crashing into a wall.

Dante felt a coppery taste in his mouth and he saw stars dance in front of his eyes. As the enemy trooper lifted it's carbine to end his life, Dante heard a whistle and the massive armour-wearing foe fell to the ground, a vibroblade sticking from its back through a gap in its armour. On the other side of the room, Namyr had knocked off the other enemy trooper's helmet. As the massive Rodian howled in rage, she fired a clip into its head. It stopped in mid step and fell to the tiled floor with an earth-shaking crash; its corpse landed hard enough to crack the tiles.

Darr cooly walked up to Dante, retrieving the vibroblade from the enemy's back. He nodded, face expressionless beneath the helmet.

"Thank you, sir."

Darr replaced the blade on his belt and turned to the rest of the squad.

"The Dragoons should be in cell B-14. If we go through that door and go down Corridor B, we might get there before a general alert is sounded. We'll have to hurry though. One of the armoured troopers might have been able to alert the enemy to our presence."

Just what we need, more foxtrots to slag...

Fury looked down below the rock outcropping he and Bob were laying on. "Hmm," he murmured. "This one is going to get tricky."

Their map had shown this to be an outpost a little larger than the first one they had run into. They had run into three more since. One they had gotten around. The other two? Well, suffice it to say no one was going to be using those facilities anytime soon.

In each instance, Fury and Bob had sabotaged each main building, rigged the vehicles to explode, and had now set mines out on the roadways, having "procured" a crate of anti-vehicle mines at the second waystation they hit.

This one, however, was not as the map described. Sure, it was a regional depot so it contained more stores, but it was to have maybe two squads of guards and techs. Right now a full company of troops and vehicles were provisioning at the site. 

They obviously were not planning to look for two saboteurs, but were likely to hit some of the squads. That said, there did not seem to be much that could be done to stop that many soldiers. The best they could do is report this in to someone.

Fury was trying to figure out just how to get around this mess. Their vehicle was back about two klicks off the main road, and another outpost was about 15 klicks up the way. They would lose their mines and their mobility. But with a company of angry troops after them, it wouldn't really matter what their gear was, they'd be dropping it.

Bob had other plans.  He looked and Fury, winked, and put his helmet back on.  Fury concentrated on sighting the nearest officer he could see. This was not going to go well for somebody.

Bob ripped two fuel lines from a tank and began whipping them about. The concentrated fuel-air mix coated vehicles, soldiers, and one ammo dump alike.  He then flipped a vehicle carrying artillery pods near the spill. One spark from colliding pod crates, that's all it took.

Bodies flew through the air and fires spread everywhere. Bob laid a hand on Fury's rifle and lowered the barrel down. Fury got the hint and pulled out a ration bar and continued to watch the show.

Bob skillfully manipulated barrels and rockets and "exploded" them towards individuals and groups of soldiers.  Those attempted to fight the fire would suddenly find a vehicle on top of them.

In short, it was a rout.

Those that remained were busy pulling the wounded and the dead out of the path of the flames and loaded them up on the remaining usable vehicles.  Then they hightailed it back towards what looked like a base camp according to the map.

What remained after twenty minutes were about two squads who were finally allowed to use fire suppression systems. Anyone who showed leadership potential were cut down by flying glass from the main building, which Bob had set alight from it's own fuel supply and fusion reactor.

After the fact someone would realize this to have been way too coincidental. At the moment though, dozens were dead, dozens more were either wounded or assisting those who were and those left were totally dazed and astounded as to their bad luck.

And Fury still had a full charge on his blaster.

"Bob, I take it all back. That Force stuff is pretty damn cool. Even better than an airstrike. Good job."

Bob grunted and took a nap. A few hours later, the fires were out and only a small detail of six were left to hold the base.  Fury and Bob went down the hill at dusk, eliminated the guards, dumped the bodies in a light tank, set charges on all the available vehicles - other than the one they weren't taking) and headed off down the road. They got another ten klicks and pulled off the road before the clock ran out on the timers. The remaining dozen or so vehicles brewed up, bringing out the contingent from the nearest waystation, which predictably ran into the mines Fury and Bob set.

Taking care of them, they ditched yet another vehicle and moved off down the hill.

The Dark Dragoons crept through the catacombs, looking for a comm network to plug into.

Tanus, on point, suddenly raised his hand, a closed fist - the sign for stop.

Gates could see a half-dozen contacts on his radar, and, at another signal from Tanus, ran silently over to the other side of the hall. He poked a tiny cam around the corner, and saw 6 guards. They stood nonchalantly in the intersection, talking, heavy repeaters in the 'at ease' position.

"Fish in a barrel," whispered Tanus as the rest of the squad redied their weapons.

As the squad reached good cover and set up for fire, Gates did the same, kneeling and pointing his DC-15 down at the clump of guards.

At a signal from Leon, they opened up.

Red, blue, and green laser and plasma bolts tore down the hall, ripping right through the enemy squad. Two dropped immediately, not even getting off a shot. Another took a blast right in the face, as he was turning, falling with his head smoking.

The last three turned and fired. Blaster bolts pinged off of rocks and their armor. The sustained fire from the Dark Dragoons wore down another's armor, eventually shattering it and cooking the man inside.

Brilliant ricochets bounced off of the near-impervious rocks, and one found a target.

"Shit!" Garryll yelled as a bolt tore into the armor of his shin. "Dammit!"

He fired again, and the last two of the guards dropped. The squad's weapons reloaded, and Urakai bent over him.

"Not too bad a injury, all considered. Burned your armor, you're bleeding, but nothing too bad, really. Bolt cauterized almost the entire wound." He slapped a bandage and wrappings on the burn. "You should be able to walk."

"You okay, Gates?" Leon asked, which was strange, since he had been a prick since this op started.

"Fine, sarge, thanks."

"Least we've finally got our comm array." Mako remarked.

They jogged over to the terminal. Incredibly, the thing had avoided any harm by flying blaster shots.

"OK, set up, and defend this terminal while Mako cracks it and gets the Raiders on the horn."

"Copy," the rest of the 'goons said. "How about we use all these dead bodies as cover?" asked Orobos. "Might as well get something out of these pieces of crap."

"Good idea. Set up a small fort, and take cover."

Mako started to hack the terminal as the rest of the Dragoons moved enemy bodies into position.

Gates lay prone behind a corpse, and setup his bi-pod for the DC. Having finished, he checked his grenades and extra ammo.

Just as he was about to check his vibroblade, his radar lit up with contacts.

"Enemy contacts," he said, "And lots of 'em!"

Just as he finished the sentence, a dozen spiders charged around the corner.

"Shit! I hate spiders!"

Yuka, Northern continent,  hostile mine/research complex
8:12:01  Mission Clock
21:23:10 local time
00:00:03 units after activation of alarm


Crimson and emerald energy bolts filled the air as the guards began to exchange fire with the Raiders. Dante aimed, seemingly shooting and the ceiling, and pulled the trigger.

A gleaming grenade soared  through the air in an almost perfect arc, leaving a trail of black smoke in its wake, and blew itself to pieces in the chest plate of an enemy heavy trooper. The explosion and shower of shrapnel ripped completely through the front of the trooper's reinforced chest-plate and sent deadly pieces of molten metal flying through the room.

As pressurized gas leaked from the cooling and hydraulic systems of the fallen hostile's suit and caused his corpse to spin like a top, the last enemy sank to its knees, helmet lying at its feet and hands clutching its bleeding right leg. The alien looked up and, upon seeing the Raiders, went for the blaster carbine it had dropped. Before it retrieved the weapon, it had been shot by five blaster bolts. The hostile fell dead the ground, its corpse smoking and armour blown off in multiple locations.

Overhead, the alarms were still blaring, and Dante heard shouting and footsteps.

We’d better get out of here quickly.

Darr made a series of gestures and, as the squad moved to cover both doors, he typed a series of commands into his datapad. The blast doors slid smoothly closed, followed by a second
pair.

These guys were pretty paronoid, weren’t they?

Darr disconnected his datapad, then drew a sidearm and fired a series of shots into the controls. As the panel smoked and began to emit sparks, the squad ran towards the other door, hoping that the blast doors would delay the enemy long enough for them to escape.

Yuka, Northern continent,  hostile mine/research complex
8:22:05  Mission Clock
21:33:15 local time
00:10:08 units after activation of alarm

Raiders squad had put several doors between themselves and the research room, sealing the blast doors as they went when their comlinks crackled and a familiar but very tired voice sounded though their helmet speakers. The FOF-tag identified the speaker as a Dark Dragoon.

"Raiders.  We have broken free from our cell.  Rendesvous at of Corridor C.  We are under fire at Comm Station C-3!  Repeat:  Rendesvous at Corridor C!"

Dante quickly pulled his datapad from his belt and checked the location of the Dragoons. He was surprised to find it was in a deserted area of the facility, and was crisscrossed by spider-infested service corridors.

If they've manged to disturb enough of the colonies, they probably need our help pretty badly.

Darr glanced at his map and replied, voice distorted by the helmet speaker.

"Copy.  Corridor C."

Darr closed the connection then waved the squad forwards.

"Let's go!"

As the squad ran towards the door-seal, it was blown to pieces, sending smoke and pieces of metal flying into the room. As Dante blinked, trying to recover from the blinding light, and as his visor depolarized, red bolts of energy came through the wrecked portal, narrowly missing several of the Raiders, and blasted huge holes in the opposite wall and blast doors. Dante hazarded a look into the next room and saw a squad of heavy troopers, two of which were using E-Webs.

Darr activated his comlink and tried to contact the Dragoons.

"We've got problems of our own here. Dragoons, do you copy? Dragoons?"

Hearing nothing but static, Darr sighed and closed the channel.

"Stang."

As the enemy continued to pound the room, the Raiders began to return fire.

OOC:

Mako, I'll have us meet up in a couple of posts.

OOC:

Did I get it right, this time?

Duck. Run, dip, dive, roll.  Rinse, repeat. Arnaut came up into a sitting position, directly behind on eof the sparse, snow-covered trees dotting the landscape. He peered out around it. Nothing so far. His hand came up and ushered the troops behind him to move on.  Tnepres trudged up behind him, blatantly ignoring the cover of the trees.

“I don’t think anyone’s impressed,” he said sarcastically, jerking a thumb toward the remainder of the Wraiths and Iron Horses who were walking up in the same lackadaisical manner. Arnaut snorted.

“If they want to get gunned down, that’s their problem.”

The two squads, intermingling, trudged forward through the snow. There was no sign that the scouts had been there ahead of them, aside from the occasional mark on a tree trunk, or tied string around the end of a branch. They had passed through and left the pristine landscape unmarked in their wake. It made finding them a lot harder.

The only things they had to go on were the last comlink communications with the scouts and the fact that they’d left those few markers, signaling their passage. Overall, they really had no clue what had happened to the scout group, or the comlink signals, and they were walking in to possible enemy territory blind. Arnaut’s fingers twitched on the trigger of his A280 rifle. Every gust of snow was an enemy soldier, every rustle of leaves a sniper.

Arnaut stalked forward four more meters before he finally found more footprints. They weren’t Imperial standard boot-prints. Whoever had passed there hadn’t been on their side. Arnaut called back to the squad, telling them to hurry up. They weren’t alone out here.

A few more minutes walking along brought them to the ‘hot spring’, lying nestled in the snow. The flurries had already started to cover up the pipe, and it was just barely visible above the snow. Arnaut kicked at it a few times, knocking off the snow, before peering down its length to where it disappeared into the fog of snow.

“No sign of Vince or Ken,” Alan murmured over the comlink. Arnaut was surprised to hear the voice in his head. The short-range comlinks must’ve not been knocked out

“No sign of Kandy or Snipes, either,” Arnaut said, looking out from the clearing to the forests on either side. “Maybe they went to scope out the ‘encampment’ ahead.”

“Well, if they did, we should follow,” Tnepres said simply.

“Really? You think so?” Tnepres glared beneath his helmet. “Take point,” Arnaut added. “We wouldn’t want to waste such a brilliant man as you by putting you in the back of the group.” Tnepres obeyed, if a bit slower than what was called for and with a bit more foot stomping than was needed.

Tnepres led the Wraiths through the trees, at all times walking directly with the pipe, until finally the encampment could be made out through the hazy air. It was still, the buildings just dark shapes looming out of the fog. The squad halted and took a look at the place.

“Looks dead,” someone muttered over the comlink. Arnaut ignored the voice and took his first few steps into the encampment. More like a village, actually. And, indeed, it looked dead. The empty buildings stared out at Arnaut, like the skulls of so many dead giants. Arnaut felt a shiver go down his spine, and not just from the cold.

“C’mon,” he said, motioning further into the village.

There was an underlying silence, a quiet that was almost palpable, pressing down on the troopers with it weight. It was stifling and made concentration hard as the two squads combed through the buildings for any sign of their scouts.

The house Arnaut entered was musty, and looked like it hadn’t seen occupants for a long, long while. Arnaut poked through a few of the rooms, pushing through empty drawers, opening empty cupboards, closets, a basement. He peered down into the dark gloom of the basement, and suddenly had a very acute desire to simply close the door and walk away. There was something wrong about it all. Just a feeling, a deep feeling in his gut, that told him he shouldn’t go down there. He keyed his comlink instead.

“Tnepres? Get over here, I need someone to cover me.” Once together, the pair made their way down into the dark depths.

The cold of the empty house and the outside instantly abated, and Arnaut had to tone down his suits internal heaters. It was almost room temperature down there. Arnaut flicked on a switch and was surprised when two, rectangular lights in the ceiling flickered on. The generator was running something, after all.

The room they were in was pretty sparse. There was a table, three worn chairs surrounding it, small cup standing upright. In the back there was an antiquated looking computer terminal taking up most the wall. It had three terminal stations, but only one lonesome chair. Arnaut walked over to the computer, and was surprised to find no dust on it. Odd. He plopped down in one of the chairs and looked at screens and buttons. It wasn’t Imperial standard, that was for sure. Not even one of the old models. Come to think of it, it didn’t look like New Republic, either. What the frig was—

“Sir?” Tnepres spoke up suddenly, bringing Arnaut out of his reverie. He was holding the polysty cup in his hand. Arnaut cocked his head quizzically, and then went over to grab the cup. It was warm to the touch, almost hot, and filled with steaming caf. Everything clicked into place with shocking clarity.

“Oh frig,” he said, and ran for the door.

* * *

Malen, the ninth member of the Wraiths, and the newest addition, added after their last foray with the enemy to close the ranks, lifted up the vase with nimble fingers, trying very hard not to drop it with the suit. The water in it had all but frozen in the glass, making the vase dull and unwieldy. Could bash someone really well, probably…

He was still holding the vase when Arnaut’s frantic message came through. Arnaut was his squad leader, the veteran of quite a few special operations missions. Malen had a certain respect for his squad leader, almost admiration. When Arnaut spoke, Malen listened.

But as Arnaut spoke hurriedly into the comlink, Malen found it very hard to listen and comprehend at the same time.

“Sir, are you sure? This place looks as if its been deserted for quite a number of years. Everything is broken and overrun.”

“Listen to me, Malen. We have to regroup now. This place insn’t deserted, and—what was that shattering noise? Malen? Malen? Malen, are you listening?” Halfway across the village, in the farthest house, Malen had stopped listening because Malen was quite dead. The knife retracted itself from the base of Malen’s skull, and the armored man moved out into the open.




Arnaut was still furiously working with his comlink, thinking he’d lost the signal again, when the first shots rang out. Arnaut suddenly knew why Malen had stopped responding, and, uttering a small prayer to the stars for Malen’s soul, brandished his rifle and began to return fire.

Tnepres, still making his way out of the old house, heard the shots and started cursing as he leapt into the doorframe of the building. Arnaut spotted him, turned, almost got his head blown off, and sprinted to the relative safety of the house he’d just evacuated. Leaning out of the door, he blasted down the length of the road at the figures emerging from the buildings. This wasn’t good, he thought. The squads were strung out, separated between buildings, and now the enemy was bearing down on them.

A few feet away, Tnepres, crouching low at a windowsill, was probably thinking the same thing.

“Just regroup and return fire!” he shouted fiercely over the comlink, his voice cutting through all the sudden, urgent questions that had started to be voiced. That shut everyone up. From buildings, out popped the Imperial forces. In windows, and door frames, they started laying down withering fire on the enemy soldiers. The enemy soldiers who were no longer there.

“What the frig?” The street was empty. A small breeze kicked up a flurry of snow, but that was about it. Arnaut edged out of the doorway, just a little, and got large, burning graze along his left shoulder guard as a reward. Cursing his stupidity, he flung himself into cover even as the enemy troopers emerged from theirs. They poured out of run-down buildings, out from behind crates, out from behind snowdrifts, copses of trees. Seven, nine, thirteen, seventeen…too many. Way too many. And worse yet, each one was heavily armored, standing nearly a head taller than any man in the two Imperial squads. They soaked up the shots and powered forward.

“Fall back! For the Emperor’s sake, fall back!”

"Fall back!" yelled Leon, as the squad blasted spider after spider. A wall of spider bodies was in the middle of the squad's firing lane.

Gates lept up to keeling, and almost was killed. A spider jumped to within inches of his face plate. He grabbed the pincers, feeling it trying to crush into his face and suck his guts out. Garryll ripped at the thing, stressing its neck far further than a human's would go before it broke.

"Uh, help?" Gates screamed into the comm.

Orobos's melee weapon carved the spider apart, and it twitched and died.

"Thanks, I owe you." Gates said, as the Dragoons fell back, firing into the swarm.

"No problem," grunted the large stormtrooper, firing his blaster as well.

"Raiders! Where the hell are you?" Tanus and Leon said into their squad comms.

"Right where we told you we'd be! corridor C! Tons of spiders!" The connection dissolved into static.

"Shit! Move it! Go, go go!" Leon ordered, and the squad broke and ran for the RV point. "Someone drop some explosives and cover our retreat!"

"On it, sarge!" Gates responded, dropping a trio of grenades into the hall, setting their detectors to max.

The squad charged toward the blaster fire, to see a scene straight from hell. A squad of the Empire's finest were firing into a literal wave of spiders from Satan. The Dragoons reloaded and charged right into the frenzy.

"Fire, fire!"
"Watch it! Watch your six!"
"Kill it!"
"Torch 'em! Kill 'em all!"
"My god! Are they ever gonna quit?"
"Yah! Ya want some more? I got plenty!"
"Hey look! Goons! Late for the party like usual, Leon!"

Gates heard the grenades he'd dropped earlier detonate. "Sir! More spiders incoming! We gotta get outta here, ASAP!"

Yuka, Northern continent, hostile mine/research complex
8:21:23 Mission Clock
21:38:33 local time

Blue energy bolts tore into armoured and boneless flesh, ripping it apart. Legs and body parts flew in all direction, sending thick, olive-green fluid everywhere. As the spiders paused, unsure whether to act on the clear danger or to continue to follow the pheromone trail, several shells from Dante's deece soared into their midst and exploded, consuming the creatures in a massive fireball.

A cloud of dust filled the air, and Dante started to report. As the other squad members reloaded their weapons, Rizzit walked over to the large pile of rocks that stood where a yawning crevice had been only moments before. There was a twitching spider leg sticking out of the pile, and Dante could hear the spiders scratching at the rocks and angrily vocalizing on the other side.

Rizzit casually crushed the insect's limb with the butt of his rifle and turned to the main passage. The sound of blaster fire, contrary to Dante's fears, had not died. If anything, it had increased.

That means they're still alive.

The Raiders followed Rizzit's lead, running as fast as they could in the armour, sending puffs of dust flying into the web-covered air. The corridor they were running through suddenly became cavernous. Dante scanned the area and saw a horde of spiders on all sides. Every square inch of wall was covered in sticky webbing, with the damnable fungus growing on the floor.

There was a loud crunch as Dante stepped on a rodent skull, and all activity in the chamber stopped. He felt every single faceted eye in the chamber focus on him in that moment, and his hand dropped down to his blaster.

As he scanned the massive area tunneled out of the rock by the Gargian spiders, he saw small, white creatures being carefully carried away from the room.

This must be a nursery. Just our luck.

As Dante quickly switched back to the anti-armour variant of his deece, the spiders twitched then charged as one. The torrent of invertebrates flowed towards the Raiders's position in the cave.

Emperor's black bones, there are so many of them!

Finger tightening on the trigger, Dante let sent a trio of shells into the formation. Elsewhere, grenades and concentrated blaster fire were thinning the enemy ranks. As their casualties registered, the spiders stopped in confusion for a brief moment, then resumed the offensive.

Dante started to reload, then realized he was out of the anti-armour  rounds.

Stang.

Letting the heavy weapons attachment fall to the floor, he opened fire, sending bright blue energy into the enemy's ranks.

Yuka, Northern continent, hostile mine/research complex
8:23:31 Mission Clock
21:41:41 local time

The sound of hissing seals filled the air as many, Dante included, took off their sweat-filled helmets. As he tucked his battered and dented headpiece under his arm, he took a deep breath and almost retched in disgust. The air was putrid beyond measure, with the rotting body parts of the spiders victims and the wastes of the creatures themselves sending their foul odors into the air. Dante took a second, much smaller sniff and decided that he had smelled worse.

But not recently. Star's End, this place smells like a cross between a refresher station's solid waste tank and Hutt slime.

He quickly replaced the helmet, and was thankful for the filters that made the the clean and odorless air possible.

Darr turned to face the squads, helmet held in his left hand. The thin beams of bright white light from the glowrods and the dull green glow of the mats of fungus were enough for Dante to make his face out. The thin streams of light wavered this way and that, casting distorted and over sized shadows over the cave walls.

The Raiders Squad Leader nodded at Leon and spoke.

"Bit late, weren't you? What took you so long?"

The joking tone in his voice removed any possibility of the latter taking offense.

"A few of the locals were a bit too friendly."

Dante barely managed to keep a straight face, although in the near-complete darkness and with his helmet on it hardly mattered.

As Darr opened his mouth to reply, there was a clacking noise and the sound of many clawed feet scratching on a stone floor. Worse still, the sound was growing louder.

"Looks like the buggers are ready for round two..." Dante muttered under his breath. Rizzit heard him and replied.

"We're not staying around for round two. We'll exit through one of the corridors and blow the exit down behind us."

Oh well. If it doesn't work, at least we'll go out with a bang...

As the squad regrouped not far from where Eclipse was located, lucky slently did a head count. Everyone was there. She turned to Gio and nodded her head. No one was missing.

"Alright, listen up Pallies!" bellowed Gio.

A quick silence fell on the squad. "we've been given our orders. We are to distract the enemy while Eclipse is off doing recon work. Anyy questions?"

He looked deeply into each Trooper's eyes before putting on his helmet and standing up straight , like they had been taught in the Academy. Lucky did the same and everyone followed suit.

In silence , they marched in the snow. She could hear some hushed talking behind her, she assumed it was some of the PFCs. She turned around and saw Aravan talking with LunaTick. she put a gloved finger to her visor, where her lips would be. The both of them suddenly felt silent, and marched on not daring to say another word.

They made their way around snow berms, when Gio told them to get down. Lucky risked a peek over the bermtop and looked out into the darkness. She turned on the night vision setting on her visor, and was able to see some of the Eclipse squad off reconing. She then knew taht it was their turn to play.

She got out a grenade and readied it , waiting for just the right moment to throw it.  When she saw Alater get to where she wanted one of Eclipse to go , she launched the grenade. It flew in the air , and landed in the snow in the other direction , away from Eclipse squad.

Once it had touched the snow , the grenade exploded and all she could see was a big cloud of snow. The Pallies took that as their cue and started launching a few grenades in the general direction that Lucky's had taken.

With a satisfied smile , she sent a message to everyone telling them to keep some in reserves andd to shoot any enemies they saw , no matter how far they were , as long as they were in shooting range of course.

Alan wasn’t happy that he had lost contact with Ken and Vince.  He was hoping that they were alright.  When Alan and rest of the Iron Horse squad entered the village it seemed quiet, almost too quiet.  Alan had hoped to meet up with his scouts but they were nowhere to be seen.

The Wraiths took up one part of the village whilst the Iron Horse squad looked around the other part of the village.  It looked and seemed deserted, yet Alan’s senses were on high alert.  He didn’t like it, one little bit. 

Then it happened.  The sound of blaster bolts echoing through the village.

“Iron Horse, with me!” shouted Alan as he rushed to the sound of the blaster bolts.  What he saw sent a shiver through his spine.  Enemy soldiers, lots of them, but who were they.  They were tall, taller than even Vince and their armour, it was just soaking up the blaster bolts.  Oh hell thought Alan.

Tapping his comlink, Alan spoke to Arnaut “Arn, get your Wraith squad out of here, I’ll take Iron Horse out a different direction, let’s see if we can get these soldiers to thin out a bit and maybe, just maybe we’ll survive this”.

“Roger that” replied Arnaut.  “Fall back, for the Emperor’s sake, fall back”

“Alright squad, let’s go!” shouted Alan.

With that the Wraith squad started falling back in one direction whilst the Iron Horse squad moved out in the opposite direction.  Blaster bolts flying all around them.

“What about Ken and Vince, Sir?” queried Dwarf.

“We’ll just have to hope that they got out of there.  Don’t worry trooper, if we find any sign of them, we’ll go after them but for now we have to get out of here”.

Alan didn’t like falling back but he knew that right now they had no choice.  He hoped that they would find Ken and Vince soon and that they would be alive and well.

Yuka, Northern continent, hostile mine/research complex
8:29:38 Mission Clock
21:47:48 local time


Dante listened to the carnage over the tapped com-system, eyes widening under his helmet.
"All HK units report in, repeat report in!"

"Labs C through F have been destroyed by cave-in, repeat Labs C
through F destroyed! All personnel presumed dead."

"Hostiles encountered. Security perimeter breached. Repeat..*zzzttt* There are too many of them!*zztt* Damn you, Mendoza! Fire!"

A bloodcurdling scream follow by the sound of rending flesh filled the comlink until some enemy closed that channel off.

Gates spoke out loud, his voice echoing through the tunnels.

"Looks like our old friends the spiders decided to drop in for a visit."

Darr closed the channel and tuurned to the squad.

"If you see any of the spiders, grease them at once. We can't afford another accident."

The squads made their way through dozens of deserted tunnels and storage areas, noting with some disquiet the rising number of  bodies and spider webbing. Without warning a ventillation duct overhead popped open and dozens of small spiders dropped to floor, charging for the Raiders.

"Open fire!"

The insectoid creatures were mostly vaporized by the first volley and a well thrown grenade destroyed the survivors.

Rizzit waved them on, and they advanced through several corridors. Without warning, he held up his hand and gestured at a large durasteel plate. Dante listened closely, and thought that he heard blaster fire and screaming from the other side. Gates made a gesture and the other troopers took cover behind equipment crates and durasteel pillars.

Quickly he wired the charges and inserted a detonator. Keeping his eyes on the high explosive, he quickly backed behind a pillar and pushed a button on his datapad. Instantly, the shaped charges of high explosive exploded and sent molten fragments of the durasteel alloy door into the room beyond. There were cries of shock and high ptiched shrieks as the Raiders and Dragoons advanced into the chamber, unleashing a hellish crossfire.

A trio of droids and an enemy heavy trooper had been holding off swarms of spiders with concentrated fire and grenades. The piles of foul-smelling corpses scattered across the cavernous room attested to how successful they had been. The droids had been quickly destoyed through the sheer numbers of the enemy, and the enemy trooper had held them off on his own. Seconds before the squads had blown the panel, he had managed to activate the blast doors and seal the enemy on the other side.

Now, the helmet-less heavy trooper was lying on the ground, one leg bleeding profusely and the other one held at an unnatural angle. The enemy tried to rise, and Dante saw fear in his black eyes. Dante lowered his rifle, and in that instant the enemy's expression changed from fear to amusement.

With lightning speed, the hostile went for one of the slagged droids's blaster rifle. He had grabbed it and was about to fire when his head was blown to pieces by a trio of blaster bolts. Dante stood there, shaken at what his moment of hesitation had almost done.

They don't deserve mercy. They're worse than animals.

Do you honestly believe that?

Yes.

Then you're a fool.

Better to be a live fool than a dead philosopher. Dante retorted.

With that, the voice fell silent and Dante reloaded his weapon. Sighing, he retrieved a pair of grenades from the remains of the combat droids.

Those damn droids look familiar; I know I've seen them before somewhere...

Silently, Rizzit waved the squad forwards and Dante assumed his position in the formation.

OOC:

Unless the HC says otherwise, the droids are meant to be a continuation of the HK line (as in KOTOR I and II).

Yuka, Northern continent, hostile mine/research complex
8:49:40 Mission Clock
22:7:50 local time

The first volley of blaster bolts split the air into geometric shapes as they soared through the air. They bounced off walls, leaving blackened craters behind, and impacted on reinforced armour, literally boiling it away. The enemies themselves, however, seemed to be unhurt and merely shrugged the impacts off.

This was far from surprising, as the volley's purpose was to stop them from charging into the squad and overwhelming them with raw strength. As the enemy lifted their weapons and prepared to fire, a trio of grenades landed at their feet. They went off, sending shrapnel in every direction. One figure fell with a meaty thump but the others had aimed their weapons and were ready to fire.

Too late, Dante noticed the unusual nature of said weapons and prepared to shout a warning, but was cut off by the energy pulse that blew the equipment crates to pieces and sent him flying into a wall. As waves of static pulsed over his visor, he felt his head hit the wall, followed by the rest of his body. His suit's breach alarm pulsed as the plastoid cracked from the impact and  he lost consciousness for a brief moment.

The behemoths were much closer now, and their unusual weapons were glowing a bright green, meaning they were fully charged and ready to fire. Dante quickly lunged for his deece, which he had dropped when he had passed out. As his finger tightened on the trigger, blaster fire from all sides engulfed the figures.

They dropped their energy pulse weapons and fell to the durasteel floor, their corpses smoking. A series of loud beeps filled the tunnel and their weapons imploded in a cloud of smoke.

Self destruct. Very clever system.

As the other troopers got to their feet, Dante followed their example, using his deece as a crutch. The squads advanced, scanning the empty tunnels for any other nasty little surprises.

Paladin squad moved silently and swiftly as the snow started tp settle around them . Their current objective was to cover fire for eclipse while they were on recon duty. But why couldn't they do a bit more?

The small group of rebels had been subdued in a matter of minutes . Too quickly for Lucky to actually reflect on the good times she had on the job as a Vast Empire soldier.  They ducked behind small mounds of snow and half-walked, half-crawled along .

At one point , there was a small gap between two small snowhills and Lucky could see burning fires and tents. It was a very small camp  , but they were probably alot of people.

She pointed silently to gio what she was seeing , and he motioned for the squad to follow him. They would investigate the camp and kill any rebels. They knew for one thing taht it wasn't anyone from their camp since they knew the general area where all squads were located.

As they got down the hill , they split into two teams. Lucky would lead Aravan , ViperX  and Brock wit hher. They would take out all enemies guarding the outside of the camp and salvage supplies that they would need. Gio would take the rest of the squad and they would go inside the camp and stand outsode the tents to take care of the rest of the men that would be outside.

They would then regroup and eliminate the rest of the men taht remained in the tents. In silence , the group split up and got about doing what they had been assigned to do.