Rukver looked up from his terminal; he was designing the latest simulation which would allow troops to spend days in training while being fed through tubes so that they do not run the risk of dying. This project has been a long time in the making as they have run into certain mental difficulties; troopers cannot seem to run for more than three or more days before collapsing from exhaustion and in a few isolated cases this has caused death. It was his job to design a program that would allow troopers to garner some kind of rest while inside the simulation that would allow them to feel refreshed in mind.

Seeing someone approach his glass door, Rukver quickly closed the newest sex simulation that was on his screen and opened the files containing his actual work. A knock on his door caused the Imperial technician to push the button that unlocked his door. Since one of the other techies went crazy and shot up the offices all techies with their own offices got a lock and blaster resistant windows. The man that walked in wore an army commander uniform and his rank denoted a gunnery sergeant.

Gunnery sergeant who’s also a commander? Things have changed since my kids served in the army. Running his hands through his salt and pepper hair before saluting the commander. Tipak, Rukver’s youngest had always told him that commanders always looked older, and it was apparent with this one.

“What can I do for you commander…?” He said hoping that his guest would fill in the blank.

“Rogueboy, I have need of your services.” The commander said as he pulled up the seat facing Rukver without asking.

“I am here to serve, sir.” Rukver said while internally moaning at all the distractions this man will cause him.

“Good, I have approximately forty troops who need to go through a radiation trooper armour simulation on a planet following these constraints.” Rogueboy said as he handed the technician a data cube.

Popping it into is terminal the holograph reader kicked in and showed the planet of Strak with its light gravity and short days. Rukver personally preferred light gravity everything seemed to require less energy unlike standard or heavy gravity.

“I’m guessing from these files there’s a plan in the making to form an offensive on Strak?’ Rukver asked, even though he wasn’t expecting an answer.

“Not allowed to discuss it, sorry.” The commander said flatly.

“I didn’t expect you to, it never hurts to ask. What weapons do you want me to load them with?” Rukver said as he opened a drawer filled with files, pulling out a folder he started searching through it.

The commander raised an eyebrow at the hard copies that Rukver kept. “It makes the likelihood of them being destroyed so much smaller.” He said as he pulled out a sheet quickly scanned the top and emitted a content sound. “This is the one; the squad will need to take a radioactive city while engaging New Republic troopers, well it’s really more of a town then a real city but it conveys what we want to accomplish. Is that satisfactory sir?”

The commander hesitated as he processed what the technician just said. “Yes that will do, I expect you and your team to personally run the simulation rooms. You will send a report to me every fifteen minutes detailing the squads’ progress, and allow them a more unrestricted load out short of their armour. Strak does not have radiation levels that would hamper or restrict weapon choice.” Commander Rogueboy said as he stood up to leave. “Oh and before I forget, Rukvek?” He continued.

“Yes sir?” Rukvek said as he groaned in his mind.

“I was instructed to let you know that you may find yourself rewarded should the training guarantee successful results while in mission, dare I say a boost in your budget to fund additional research?” The commander left the room leaving Rukvek with his thoughts.

Working throughout the night Rukvek had his team assembled and all the simulation rooms prepped when the first of the groups started arriving. They were meeting in an auditorium where the commander would give a speech detailing what was going on, than the teams would follow a technician to a room.

Rukvek hurried to the auditorium as he could hear the commander starting the announcement.

“You will each be assigned to a simulation room, where a member of our technical staff will load up a simulation that will hopefully gain you each some radiation trooper armour experience. I will be monitoring your progress and any I deem unsuitable will not be participating in the upcoming mission. You have your orders ladies and gentlemen I suggest you start filling them out.” As platoon commander Rogueboy left the podium the huge holoplate behind him broadcasted how the groups were to be split up.

The first group filed past Rukvek as a technical assistant carried a huge flimsiplast board with a huge black. “1.” Written on it.


OOC: The squad will start off in an urban radioactive environment, your objectives are to hold the city against an onslaught of NR troops while wearing rad trooper gear.

When Rogueboy finished his little speech Alhzen looked at the holoplate and saw his name in-group 3 along with a few others. He saw a technician carrying the number 3 on a board so he and a few others followed the man into a simulation room.

He saw there were tables inside of the room with tons of electronic things around them. "Lie down on the tables please." said the technician and everyone did as told. He then gave everyone a datapad with a list of acceptable weapons on them and they were supposed to choose a few. Alhzen chose an E-11 blaster rifle, a DC-15 blaster pistol, a vibrosword and a few different grenades. When everyone was finished he took the datpads and placed them into slots in the control panel behind a glass door.

Then he strapped a helmet on to everyone and placed gloves and boots on them to most likely for motion sensing purposes. Then the man flicked a switch and began counting down "5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Simulation starting." said the voice and all went black.

In the Simulation

Everyone was flung into a small town, fully equiped with radiation armour and weapons of thier choice. Alhzen sighed as he shifted in his radiation trooper armor, this is the first time he has worn it in his short time of being a stormtrooper even though it wasn't real it sure as hell felt like it. The simulation his group was in was much like the real thing. He looked around the planet which was very realistic from every rock on the ground to smoke in the air, he also saw the rest of the people in the group whom he didn’t really know since all of their faces were covered by helmets. “So who is who here, I am Alhzen.” He said.

“I’m Arnaut.” Said one of them.

“Jinx.” Said another.

“Leon.” Said one of them.

“Etai here.” Said one more.

“I am Renji.” Said one.

“Jelly Bean is my name.” Said the last one.

“Ok glad to meet you all.” Said Alhzen with a nod. He sighed as he gripped his E-11 the group was supposed to take and hold a small town for as long as possible, and as soon as they walk into the town the men would start attacking. Alhzen tapped into the helmet’s comlink “So, anyone have any idea what to do?” he asked.

"Yes we are supposed to take the town and hold it for as long as possible." said one of the men.

"Sounds simple enough." said another getting a few yeses from the rest of the group.

Alhzen sighed as the simulation finally came up and running to full , they soon took notice of the group and began firing. Everyone had dove into a hiding place as not to get shot. He had dived behind a small run down building. He reached for his grenades and threw a fragmentation grenade towards a group of NR soldiers in the middle of the street a few dove away to escape the blast but the rest were unlucky and were filled with small bits of metal from the grenade. He then peered out of the corner and began firing on another group of soldiers, and then he saw that one of the other stormies was firing heavily on one of the men behind a trashcan. The trooper ran out of ammo and was in the middle of reloading when the man shot up from behind the trashcan and shot the trooper.

When he saw this Alhzen took down the man quickly sending 3 blaster bolts into his chest and ran towards the wounded trooper. He didn't know who excatcly the man was because he had never seen his face before. As soon as he reached the trooper he dragged him behind a wrecked speeder and pulled his medic bag from his back.Sometimes I hate being a medic… he thought and unzipped the bag pulling out some burn salve and applied it to the blaster wound. He then quickly pulled out gauze on placed it in the hole in the armor. Then he took out an elastic bandage and wrapped it around the armor. He didn’t have anything to fill the hole with so he hoped this would be enough to stop the radiation.

Alhzen got up to a kneel and fired from behind the speeder, one of the NR soldiers was firing back at him but after a few well placed shots he took the man down. He then saw more new republic soldiers come out from the buildings in the town. “Damn, they expect us to take this over and then defend it from an onslaught of those soldiers.” He muttered under his breath and continued firing on a man who was throwing grenades towards them. One landed to near to him and his hand shot down to pick it up, when in his hand he whipped the grenade back at the man. It had exploded when it was only a few feet away from the man sending shrapnel into his body.

Soon after firing on a few more NR soldiers his clip ran out and he knocked it out of his gun quickly replacing it with another one. The group of stormies was making good progress in the simulation taking out about a sixth of the soldiers in the town so far.

Resistance let up, but only for a second. Then the rest of the town’s garrison came crashing down on their heads. Arnaut spun out of the way as bolts tore up the ground next to him, and found cover behind a dilapidated tool shed. There had to be at least thirty NR troopers out there. He looked around through the smoke, which was just starting to choke the streets, but couldn’t see any of his team members. Just great.

Shots were thwacking into the other side of the tool shed, and it wouldn’t be long before grenades followed. He sprinted across the narrow alley between the shed and the building behind it and slipped inside.

It was a warehouse, that much was obvious. Wooden crates were stacked up to the ceiling, which loomed over Arnaut. The air was musty and smelled faintly of mildew. Of course, it probably would smell a lot worse without his helmet’s rebreather and air filtration systems. He crept quietly into the warehouse, trying to keep his noise at a minimum. It wasn’t exactly easy, wearing the rad-suit and all. There was a crash from somewhere off to the left. Arnaut spun around, his A280 extended out in front of him. He inched forward, placing every step carefully and deliberately. He was not alone.

He came to the end of a large row of crates. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Someone was on the other side of the row. Quietly, he checked his clip, and made sure his knife was easily accessible. Finger on the trigger, he counted to three silently, and then spun...face to face with another rad-trooper. Screaming a curse, he tilted his gun off to the side quickly and his shot plowed through a couple of wood crates on the far side of the room.

“Jeez, what are you trying to pull? I almost shot you!”

“I-I did shoot you...” the man mumbled, indicating to Arnaut’s suit. There was a long, partially melted groove along the left shoulder guard. It was already cooling. Arnaut’s eyes instantly flicked to his internal breach sensor, on the HUD of his helmet. It read nothing. The suit was still contained. He let out the breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding.

“Lucky for you...,” Arnaut said, suddenly sounding very weary. “I’m not dead.” He moved past the soldier and to the door behind him. It was exactly on the opposite end of the room Arnaut had entered from. “You have a name?” Arnaut asked, just before opening the door.

“Leon,” The trooper said.

Arnaut and Leon made their way back into the streets. There was very little noise, aside from some distant exchanges of firearms. No NR troopers could be seen.

“Let’s move,” Arnaut said. They moved.

Two streets down, they found their first signs of a firefight. Three NR troopers were dead, their corpses still cooling. The entire street was scorched black from all the laser bolts. It had been a big one. And none the Imperials had fallen. That was good. What wasn’t good was this probably meant that Leon and Arnaut were behind the main NR contingent. There were about twenty five fully armed, trained NR troopers standing between them and the other Imperials. Leon was shaking his head. He had realized it as well. They continued down the street, hugging cover, making their way to the center of the city.

Around the next bend, they finally found resistance. Arnaut spun the corner only to find an NR trooper staring him in the face. The man’s hasty punch knocked the A280 out of Arnaut’s hands and skidded it across the road. He punched again, his gun apparently forgotten. Arnaut blocked one, two, three, and then got tired of wasting time. He flipped his knife expertly into his hands and lunged at the man. Thrust, twist, pull, retract. Like gutting nunas. Arnaut had had to do that once, he vaguely remembered from his childhood on Tatooine. Messy business. The NR troopers throat and a large quantity of blood spattered onto the flagstones, and the body fell over limply.

Arnaut look down at his knife and wiped it the armor dividers, the only pieces of cloth in the man’s armor, in between the radiation resistant plates. He was still quite angry that the simulation hadn’t been able to load up his custom combat knives, the one’s he’d had inserted into his bracers outside of the simulation. They would’ve made the fight much quicker, cleaner and they were self cleaning. Much better than this, Arnaut thought, sheathing his blade.

He was aware of gunshots around him, and he quickly backpedaled around the corner. The NR trooper had friends. Leon was firing, gunning for the troopers as they popped up. Arnaut picked up his A280 off the ground and began to fire as well.

There were so many of them. Wheerver one fell, two more came. Soon it became too hard to continue using the corner of the building for cover. They moved back, away from the city center and their Imperial support, as more and more New Republic troopers clogged the streets. They hadn’t even taken the city and already they were losing. Well, I’m not going down without a fight, Arnaut thought, shattering the visor of a nearby trooper with a spray of shots. He would take as many of them as he could.

The situation regardless if it was in deed a simulation was hectic.  The blaster bolts hitting the buildings and leaving scorch marks looked real enough and the smell of burning debris increased that ten fold.  For Jinx this was his first simulation like this but he couldn't think of it as that, it was a fight and he would treat it as one.

The NR troops never ceased their onslaught, it seemed as if their were reproducing on the spot.  A few would go down under a volley of blaster exchange only to have more replace them right away.  Being pinned down had to be almost an afterthought at this rate because it would be very hard to recover from that situation.

Several of the other troopers had broken off from the group, and Jinx could get a round about location just from the sounds of blaster fire being exchanged in the nearby areas.  He tried to remember the names of his group, from what he could recall he was currently with Etai and Jelly Bean.  Arnaut, Leon and Renji were off fighting in a second location.

Jinx's group was currently engaged with a small but very aggressive and determined NR group of about five soldiers.  Jinx had his E-11 putting a volley of fire down the street at the NR troops but they had pretty decent cover and he had to be careful not to waste rounds on just keeping them down.  Etai had his weapon going, and took two down as one popped his head up to take a look and the other tried to gain some ground and sprint to an advanced cover location.

Jelly Bean began to lay cover fire down and Jinx waited for a nod and sprinted over to an upturned speeder.  This would give him some room to fire on the NR troops and another angle and should allow him to catch a few as they come up to return fire.  Etai was able to take another one, as did Jelly Bean.  This left a single NR trooper and he knew it.  He decided to try and retreat at a full sprint back to a building but with three VE troopers firing on him he only made it a few steps.

The group waited a few seconds before coming out of their cover to advance down the roadway through the town.  Blaster fire and what sounded like frag grenades exploding was coming from several buildings to their right.  The group advanced two buildings down and took a side street to make their way over to the next road.

This brought them not with the second half of the group but rather about three buildings behind a decent sized NR squad that was firing away from their location.  It appeared that they had gotten lucky and cough the NR squad in what could turn out to be a crossfire.

Jelly Bean and Etai quickly took cover after checking to their right for any incoming NR troops.  Jinx took a low crouch and sprinted across the roadway to a small alleyway.  Jinx raised his armored hand and signaled for them to commence firing at the NR troops.  Jelly Bean lobbed two frag grenade in a perfect arc and put them only a few feet from the main group.  This was devastating to the troops.  With those two lobs Jelly Bean was able to take out three for sure and easily wound tow or three more.

And with them being caught in the crossfire the threatening squad quickly became not a threat at all as the last one went down under three blaster bolts, two from the front and one from behind.

Alhzen coughed out some blood into his helmet "For a simulation this sure hurts like hell. I think they made it a little bit to damn realistic." he said and pulled the backpack from his back which contained all of the medic equipment. He sighed as he reached through the bag and pulled out rubbing alcohol, burn salve and an elastic bandage.He looked at where he was shot one in the gut and one in the shoulder which were the more severe of the wounds he had taken. He rubbed the wound on his shoulder down with the alcohol and then applied the burn salve, after this he wrapped it up in a bandage and did the same to the one on his gut. The blaster bolt that his helmet for some reason only affected the helmet. Which he was very thankful for.

He tried staggering up from the ground and onto his feet and coughed again more blood coming out which made him fall down. "Damn..." he said and pushed himself up again and clumsily got back onto his feet. When he had gotten up his comlink flickered back on.

"Alhzen, this is Arnaut. We have secured the town and have a map. Also are you ok now?" asked Arnaut.

"Ya, I am doing better and good that we have secured the town. So any plans figured out yet?" queried Alhzen.

"Yep we have established were we will go if all else fails. A heavily guarded building with a staircase. The rest really hasn't come together yet and we are expecting the attack in a few minutes." said Arnaut. "So you might want to get over the central square where we are at." he said.

"Roger that." said Alhzen as the comlink crackled off. He began limping his way towards the general direction he thought the square was in and in a few minutes he reached it and saw his 6 other fellow stormtroopers huddled over a holopad. He walked over and knelt beside the rest of the men just as Leon and Arnaut began explaining everything.

Renji ran down the eastern streets looking for some thing to block the roads. He stopped and looked around for something, anything. He eventually saw a building with its foundation beginning to crumble. He took one well aimed shot and watched the building crumble to the street. He knew that it would not hold but it had to hold the flow of troops back. He ran through the ally to the next street. He looked around but saw nothing. He suddenly got an idea and ran over to a building that seemed to have the least amount of stability out of them all. He quickly took out to two frag grenades and set them up at the foundation weak points but left the pins in. As he stood up a bolt grazed a lamp post two steps away from him. He turned and saw a squad of troops running towards him. He smiled and ran back toward the central square. He turned and saw the troops reaching the point where he had placed the frags. He took a careful shot and it hit one of the two. They went up instantaneously, incinerating the troops and bringing the building crumbling down to the street.

As he began to turn and run to the next street his comlink suddenly came to life. He suddenly heard Arnaut shouting at the other end. "They have brought tanks, I repeat they have brought tanks."

They had to bring tanks, he thought to himself. As he reached the next street and began laying down more frags he heard an explosion and turned to see a 2-M tank coming down the street towards him. He paused briefly in a combination of fear and shock with the grenades still in his hands. He began to move and lay the grenades as soon as another blast destroyed half the street close in front of him. He got up and sprinted down the street and turned. He saw th tank advancing towards him. It was still to far for him to shoot the grenades. It fired at him and he had to duck and roll to avoid it. As he did so he felt the heat on his back as the shot whizzed over him. He looked up and saw that the tank was in place so he aimed his gun and took a shot. He saw it connect and as it did the tank was lifted up and flung into the building across the street. He watched as both buildings crumbled down onto the tank and the troops guarding it. He stood up and looked at the rubble. That should hold them off between the two buildings and the tank. Ah well, on to the next one.

He then switched on his comlink. "One tip, use the crumbling building and frags to handle the tanks."

He dashed down the ally to his last street. As he came out of the ally he saw that he was behind an advanced scout squad. He lobbed a grenade in the center of them and it detonated flinging them into the buildings near by. With them taking care of he turned to defend the street.

Jinx had put a good little distance between himself and the main square.  He knew that the NR troops would be coming and would come in fast and in large numbers.  He had to get somewhere and that he could see them coming and take them out in large quantities if possible.

He veered off to his right, heading almost south of the main square.  He wanted to try and close at least two streets if possible.  This would lessen the entrances the incoming troops would have access to.  He knew that he couldn't totally close them off but if he could bring down a building or two it would make the going very difficult for them.

Jinx came up alongside one building that had already seem some combat, as it had several blaster scorches and a few holes in it's walls from either heavy rounds or possible frags going of nearby.  He only had a few frags but he had to bring this building down.

He placed one at its bottom corner, and hoped that this would work.  He sprinted across the street, crouched down and fired three rounds at the grenade.  It exploded and left a huge gaping hole in the bottom of the building but to Jinx's dismay did not bring down the building.

In frustration Jinx fired a few more rounds at the building, with a large resonating boom the building came down win a huge dust filled cloud.  Jinx was in shock, there was no way that he had brought it down with a few simple blaster shots.  he then heard another loud boom and the building just before his exploded in a rain of debris and dust.

jinx jerked his head back around the side, and then leaned back out to see what had happened.  Then he saw the reason, NR troops were beginning to fan out slightly as a large hulk of a tank clambered through the street in the middle of them, it's cannons were smoking slightly.

Lucky for him but not for the NR troops their own tank had brought down the building Jinx had been trying to.  It now lay across the road in a pile of rubble.  It did not cover the road completely but enough to not allow the tank to cross.

Jinx was unsure of what to do next, he had no desire to go sprinting across the street and become a target for the incoming troops which so far appeared not to see him yet.  but that made Jinx wonder why the tank had fired on the buildings.  As the tank turned to it's left and the troopers split he understood why.

The NR troops were doing the same thing he wanted to do, close off the streets, but they weren't trying to prevent people from entereing the city, instead they were blocking of the exits.  Damn them Jinx thought to himself.

His comlink chimed and he heard a crackling voice come over it.  “Save your frags, don’t use them on the buildings. There are T4-Bs moving into the city, I repeat, T4-B tanks are moving into the city. Their tracks are vulnerable to frags, so save all you can.”  It was Gunnery Sergeant Arnaut.

He chimed his comlink and responded, "sergeant this is Jinx, they are coming in from the south also.  One heavy tank looks like a T4-B.  They have closed off the main southern exit by taking two buildings down.  They have split in two groups with the tank headed toward the square I believe."  He hoped his message went through.

Jinx decided to sprint across the road now that it was finally clear of enemy soldiers.  He wanted to take out that tank but knew that it would be a chore just getting close enough to it already.

Once he crossed the road he made his way between two buildings and came up short as he could hear the troops and the tank approaching.  He still could not tell if it had turned or kept going.  The square was still two streets away and a ways up from this side road.  He waited a bit and watched four troops go passed him, they did not even look down the small alleyway.  Wow, what luck on that, he thought to himself.

He waited for another few seconds and peeped his head out and looked left, it was clear.  Then he looked right, the troopers were almost one building past him.  He took three crouched steps out of the alley and brought his rifle up, and began to fire.  Two went down right away as he put rounds into their backs.  The other two spun around and tried to fire back but Jinx was able to bring them down also.  Again a good turn of luck on his side.

He popped back in to the alley and waited for the incoming troops responding to the blaster firing.  None came, hmm must be either to far or next to that loud tank Jinx thought.  He stood up and sprinted across the road.

This brought him up to the a small office building,  He entered and began making his way to the rear of the building.  He could hear the loud grinding of the tank's tracks and knew he was very close.  He was able to catch the rear of the tank crossing in a window.  He saw a door just to the left of the same window but waited as he saw three NR soldiers cross the window also.

He waited a minute longer and then headed to the door, opened it slightly, looked to his left through the opened door, saw that it was clear and pulled the door open enough for him to lean out.  The tank was withing throwing distance so jinx grabbed a frag and tossed it.  It landed and rolled under the rear of the tank.  Jinx lobbed two more frags, one on each side of the tank as fast as he could.

The first exploded, rocking the tank, the NR troops jumped and began to look around in total confusion, the second and third exploded tearing the tracks of the tank apart and several of the troops.  Jinx began firing on anyone that was still standing taking two down before return fire made him jump back inside.

He ran from the door and climbed up the steps, stopping at a window on the second floor he shattered it with the but end of his rifle and began firing once again.  This time he took three down but again had to nearly throw himself back onto the stairs as blasters scorched the area and inside walls where his head had just been.

He could now hear shouts and foots steps inside the building.  They were getting louder and now coming up the stairs.  Wild blaster fire came up at him from below, he leaned back and rolled a frag down to the landing.  It exploded as two NR troops hit the landing on their way up to the second floor.  They were instantly killed and thrown back down onto another trooper who had been slightly behind them.  Jinx brought his rifle up and fired.  Most of his shots were wild but one connected as the trooper stood up in a daze.  He fell back down in a slump dead.

Silence, Jinx wasn't sure why but it was the best thing in the world right now.  Silence, his luck had brought him through so far but he could hear explosions in the near distance.  He stood up, slightly dizzy and began making his way downstairs.  He breathed in and hurt, he didn't think he was hurt at all, but as he looked down he had black scorch marks in his armor and his right side and arm were dented slightly.  He smiled again, and sighed with a slight grimace this time as the adrenaline rush began to wear off.

Pop. That was the sound a helmet made as a round passed through, forcing it to depressurize quickly to cope with the lesser pressure of the air outside. Arnaut knew this because that was the sound that the New Republic trooper’s helmet made as Arnaut shot him at near point blank range. The solid A280 slug passed out the other side, along with a good deal of blood and brain matter, and left a messy smear on the wall behind the corpse.

“These simulations are getting far too real,” Arnaut mumbled, turning away from the grisly death and marching up the wooden stairs. At about the third floor, he paused and ducked into a room. It was spacious, with only one door leading into it, and had a nice amount of windows. Arnaut went over to the first one and smashed the butt of his gun against it. The rebound whipped back against his wrist and left his hand numb. Arnaut shook it out in pain and silently cursed the grossly thick, radiation-proof windows . He lowered his rifle and blew the window outward in a hail of rounds.

The glass tinkled loudly on the street below, causing the five or so troopers to look around. There was a pop, and a trooper fell, fluid leaking from the massive hole in the back of his helmet. They stopped waiting for their squad members that had followed Arnaut into the building; they all knew what had become of them.  Arnaut fired down into their midst, taking down two more before the cover forced him down. Quietly, he crept underneath the sill. He shot out the window the farthest from him, just to get their attention, and then broke his, jumping up and firing down into the street. There was no one there.

Arnaut cursed and jogged out the room and down the stairs, his gun held out. Halfway to the second story a fist lashed out suddenly and knocked the gun from his hand. Arnaut wasted no time in barreling head first into his would-be killer. His lethal rounds were diverted to the ceiling. Arnaut grappled with him, taking him to the floor. They wrestled, rolling off the stairs, onto the floor. If Arnaut could only...just reach...his...knife.

He got it in hand and plunged it into his opponent’s throat. Quickly, still hyped up on adrenaline, he pulled the body on top of him. Just in time, too, as the second NR troopers rounds punctured Arnaut’s new shield. Arnaut cast off the body and flung a second knife outward. Through some extreme luck, deflected off the gun and sliced past the man’s right wrist. He dropped the gun, his radial artery jetting pressurized blood all over the floor. Arnaut retrieved his gun and shot the man twice, before he got any last-ditch ideas that men think of as death looms near.

Arnaut sagged against the wall, utterly exhausted. He hadn’t meant to get into such a battle with them .That was too personal, too close. He’d just been jogging, and then they were there, and then he’d entered the building, and then… Still shaking, he retrieved his knives and moved back out onto the street, a bit more cautious this time. His quarry was still out there, Arnaut knew. His quarry probably knew that Arnaut knew, but it made no difference.

Arnaut was hunting. Before his latest encounter with the NR troopers, he’d been hunting an enemy arguably more dangerous than the brute-force tanks. He was hunting one of the few NR snipers. Arnaut didn’t know when they’d entered the city, or if anyone else had met any yet, but this particular one had very nearly taken off Arnaut’s head, and now he was on the move. It was a slow business of second-guessing, retracing steps, and keeping to cover. A virtually deadly game of cat and mouse.

All of Arnaut’s spec ops training from the Wraiths was coming up to bear. It wasn’t easy being a knife enthusiast trying to take on a sniper. The two didn’t exactly get along well. Arnaut privately wondered if the simulation was running the sniper specifically for Arnaut. A custom-tailored trooper the exact opposite of Arnaut. If so, Arnaut feared for the others – they could be having the same problem.

Of course, Arnaut couldn’t tell. Comlinks had been shut off ten minutes ago, isolating the Imperial members in the streets, more or less alone. It had been twenty minutes since Arnaut had last heard one of their voices, and nearly an hour since they’d spread out from the square. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Arnaut hoped they were doing well. In the distance, not even in the direction of the square, he could still hear the exchange of gun fire, so that meant that they were at least alive, and hadn’t yet had to fall back to the center of the city. Of course that could also mean that the enemy controlled the center again and…Arnaut stopped worrying. He had a sniper to kill.

He caught a slight glimpse of motion in a building ahead, about two stories up. As far as he could tell, the sniper was running from him, but from time to time he got the impression that he was actually toying with Arnaut. It wasn’t a happy thought.

Arnaut moved forward, scanned the window line, and sprinted across the street. Silently, he moved into the building, ready to jump back at a moment’s notice. The storage room was deserted. There was food piled up the walls, virtual food of course, and barrels of wine stacked to the ceiling. Nothing living though. He nudged the door open on the other side of the wall, and snuck into the next room. It was a hotel lounge, long abandoned, with stairs at the far end and large ornate doors, flanked by large, ornate windows, directly in front of him. He was standing behind a bar as dilapidated as the rest of the building. The paint was peeling in places and at least half the stools were missing. For a second, Arnaut wondered what the place might’ve looked like when it had been alive and full of people. But, of course, this was just a simulation.

“Too real, nowadays,” he muttered for the second time. A thunk from the second story brought him back to attention. He looked at the stairs half expecting to see someone there, ready to shoot him. There was no one. He moved forward, ever aware that at any second he could be toe-to-toe with one of the simulations most ferocious troops. He arrived at the bottom of the stairs and looked up. Nothing. He began to move again, up the stairs, ready for anything.

The lounge on the second floor was empty, except for one lone door, gently rocking in the wind. Outside was a small terrace, along with a few run down chairs and a table. Arnaut got the edge just in time to see a man turning the corner a few blocks down the street, running at full speed. Arnat cursed.  The noise had been the man swinging the door open. So close, and yet he still got away. Arnaut turned back into the room.

There was a package sitting in the middle of the room, on the only table. It was small, black, and fairly lumpy. Arnaut took two steps before realizing what it was. He spun, ran to the terrace, and jumped, his gun shattering the window. Arnaut fell through amidst flying shards of glass at about the same time as the det pack exploded the building next to him.

Sixty second fuse. Arnaut didn’t use them often, usually he had not need for fuses at all, but he knew how to recognize them when he saw them. Though, Arnaut wondered why the sniper hadn’t just use a remote trigger. It could’ve killed him easily, right when he entered the room. Unless…that had been a test. The fact that it was all a simulation shocked to Arnaut yet again. He was getting way too sucked into the battle. He sighed, shook out the kinks in his neck, and jogged down to the street. A painful simulation, he though twisting his arm as he ran, but a simulation nonetheless.

OOC:

I think we could run with the idea that there are specially designed "super-soldiers" for each of us, that we have to tango with personally while in the middle of the battle, to test our skills. I mean, this is a test for the real mission. This seems like the thing they'd do.

Arnaut was a dead man. At least, as dead as the simulation could render him. It was over two and a half hours since the beginning of the siege, just a mere one and a half hours since he’d nearly blown himself up, and a half hour since his chase with the sniper had gone all to hell. He sat, quite alone, just a tad bit scared, in the back room of some rat infested cellar. The last time he’d seen the sniper, it had been the merest ruffle of movement in a window, about the time the tables turned on him. A ruffle of movement, so fleeting, so...calm, almost. Right before Arnaut’s head had almost been blown off. Since then, Arnaut had been on the run. Everywhere he went, sniper fire followed him. Everywhere.

They had designed the trooper well, Arnaut concluded. It was the only logical explanation for the sniper’s apparent fascination with him. He set traps, he played hard to catch, and now...now he was gunning for Arnaut with every skill he’d been programmed with. It was like...like he knew where Arnaut was going before Arnaut did. Which was scary. In some ways, many ways, Arnaut would’ve preferred a human opponent. They weren’t trained to know your subconscious thoughts. They hadn’t, as Arnaut now rightly guessed his little sniper had, been trained on every holovid of you fighting, every session you used the simulators.

What made it worse was that the comlinks were all down. Done on purpose, no doubt, to “simulate reall-life planet-side atmospherics”, or some story like that. It really had been done so that the Imperials couldn’t coordinate, now that the soldiers Arnaut had dubbed “super-troopers” had been sent in. Any time Arnaut had tried to head in the direction of other gunshots, hoping to reach another team member, the sniper had hedged him off and sent him in the opposite direction. Arnaut couldn’t call for help, couldn’t even reach aid, and was pretty sure that he wouldn’t make it even back to the square. Arnaut was quite literally alone in this.

So there he was, huddled in the farthest, most remote place he could find. Arnaut had gone against his gut instinct to start hunting for the sniper again. It had been over ten minutes since Arnaut had heard the crack of the sniper’s rifle, since the wall or ground next to him had exploded abruptly in a spray of rubble. But Arnaut knew that the sniper was just waiting. Arnaut wouldn’t take the bait, wouldn’t go after him. He had all day to wait. All day. He drummed his fingers against his rifle nervously. All day.

The sniper got tired before Arnaut, luckily for him. It wasn’t long before Arnaut heard the door silently open and floorboards directly above him began to creak. Someone else was in the house. Arnaut could guess who. It was now or never. Arnaut chose now. He turned his gun directly up, aiming at the sound and fired a hail of rounds.

He was taken completely off guard when his rounds hit the two det packs the sniper had laid and blew the floor upward. Arnaut was flattened against the back of the cellar, his gun knocked out of reach. He should’ve known. The sniper had been expecting that, too. He should’ve know all along.

The sniper dropped down through the hole, fragmented floorboards and dust still raining onto him. His armor was custom made, or so it appeared, looking like it had simply “flowed” onto his body. It was matte black, with just a slight silver trim around the edges. Arnaut would’ve loved to have armor like that, but, at the moment, that wasn’t high on Arnaut’s priorities.  The black clad soldier lifted his rifle, a silver monstrosity of a weapon, and aimed it at Arnaut. Arnaut seized the oppurtuniy.

Arnaut flicked the knife out of his hand and dove, all at about the same time as the rifle fired. The round completed shattered the blade, but Arnaut had more. He rolled, coming up five feet closer to the sniper than he had been a second earlier. Another knife sprouted from his hand and shot out at the sniper. But the sniper was already moving again. He jumped off to the side, his rifle barking, tearing up the wall behind Arnaut. Arnaut lunged onto the ground, shots whistling overhead, and at the last second pushed off with his hands to the left, propelling him past his gun. He ever so kindly scooped off the ground and landed in a mess of what once used to be a shelf, already firing. The shots didn’t hit anything but forced the sniper into the cover of the stairwell leading out of the basement.

Arnaut was forced to move again as the sniper reemerged, firing with a pistol this time. His rifle was on the ground, temporarily forgotten, its round spent with no time to change it. Arnaut ducked behind one of the wine barrels, shots thunking the back of it. He leaned his back against it and pushed it off with all his might. The large barrel went rolling straight for his adversary he was forced back into the stairwell, As he moved, Arnaut managed to put a round through his thigh. He privately congratulated himself, even as he ran in for the kill.

The rifle’s butt swung outward viciously, knocking Arnaut;s head sideways into the wall. Arnaut stepped back, his vision blurred. The sniper was in front of him now, holding his rifle from the barrel and weilding it like a club. Arnaut staggered backwards, holding his hands in front of him for protection. His rifle was lost somewhere. The sniper swung again, knocking Arnaut’s left arm away painful, and then again. Arnaut caught the rifle this time, holding it back from his face. The sniper stepped forward and punched Arnaut squarely in the visor. The blow landed Arnaut on his back, staring up at the silhouette of his soon-to-be killer. The sniper took out a second pistol and slowly aimed it down at the dazed Arnaut. Arnaut tried to lash out with his feet, but the sniper’s boot came down hard, sending pain throughout both legs. Now it was truly over. The sniper adjusted the aim, aiming directly for Arnaut’s head. Truly, irreversibly, without a doubt—

There was the crack of a gun, and then a second and third. The sniper’s head exploded, followed by his chest cavity and one of his legs. A tangled mass of leaking fluid and spasming muscles, the sniper fell to the ground. Another figure dropped down into the cellar, carrying a standard issue E-11 and wearing Imperial rad-trooper armor.

“I saw him duck in here, and followed him. It looks like you needed the help,” Lance Corporal Alzhen said, offering out his hand. Despite himself, Arnaut started laughing.