| abstract
| - Deep space around Talasea, the very small civilian station by any standard sits surrounded by cargo containers, being protected by a small Imperial military force a small minefield specled around the area. It would seem the civilian depot held critical military supplies. Cargo containers were strewn about, 40 in all - some of the more important equipment for the area was already removed after the first recon, but since no strikes were made much of the important material was in the station itself, the small outpost used to take in new cargo and distribute it or place it in containers in the space surrounding it. The only other defenses that were here were a Heavy bulk cruiser with two squadrons of TIEs, today the TIE MkII fighters were in their patrols, all deployed. But the reason for the patrols was the precense of a Victory MkI star destroyer, its skeleton crew here just as a stop off until it could get to the shipyards for refitting. Dropping out of hyperspace comes a Lambda class shuttle, flanked by two skipray blastboats. Aboard the shuttle was none other than Marshal Inrokana, bound for the space station to assess the defenses of the area and remove vital supplies to a more secure location. Sitting in the enclosed confines among the ten troopers including himself, 'Link' takes a moment to reflect on how many events had to transpire in such a precise order for him to be sitting where he is today. He glances around himself, seeing the other white skeleton like soldiers sitting, patientily waiting for touchdown. Keline is sitting in the meeting room of the VSD with it's commander, information on the ship's maintenance schedules and other information floating in the air from the holo projectors installed in the tabletop. Keline has spent some time studying the data as she turns to look at the captain seated opposite her. "This looks sufficient enough to last us where we're going, Captain. We'll make the jump as soon as the final engine and systems checks are done." "Transmit the security codes, and begin docking procedures." These orders are given to the co-pilot, before Delede slips out of the pilot's seat, and heads into the hold of the supply freighter, his mechanized armor blending right in, as there is a platoon of New Republic Marines, among others. The freighter, bearing Imperial markings, is docking with the supply depot, and the men and women within are all heavily armed, prepared to disembark, and seize the cargo stored aboard it. A glance to his wife, Twila, and Gren flicks the safety off on his ST-II Blaster Rifle. "I'm not quite sure what we'll be facing, but your primary goal is maintaining our line of retreat, and keeping the 'haulers' clean, as they steal our prizes, Blue. Got it?" A final glance at the soldiers' as he approaches the airlock, and glances to the man in charge of opening it. "As soon as we dock. Go. The Republic will be here in minutes." The ship shudders, and attaches itself to the Depot's airlock, and less than a second later, the main hatch opens, and Gren steps out, followed by an orderly, but hurrying formation of soldiers. His blaster rifles comes up, and he takes stock of the situation. Twila nods as she follows just as quick as the others, staying closer to the rear as she does so. She knows her job and knows how to do it right and it shows in how she carries herself. "Alright..let's do this and get home. Want to hit the cantina." Smirking at herself, she shrugs and gives her weapon one last look over even as she shuffles forward. Docking at a smaller hangar at the top of the station, Krieg and his STs disembark, the hangar being silent as they arrive. Only a single commander is there to greet them as the ramp lowers to the deck. The other man says, "Welcome Marshal," with a salute. Returning that salute Krieg nods, "Thank you commander." Turning to his STs he says, "Post a guard, we're headed to the bridge to speak with the station commander." He makes his way to the turbolift, STs in tow. Since the station's main hangar wasn't monitored, the rebels are not noticed and no alarm is sounded, as of yet. Keeros follows the group of troopers into the hangar, glancing from side to side to check his surroundings, although he's not expecting any trouble. Just another routine cargo run. He cradles his rifle in his arms as he marches in formation with the ten other ST's to the turbolift. Being in the end of the formation, he is the last one into the turbolift, turning around to be the first one out. Keline leans forward to deactivate the holoprojectors as she leans back in her chair and reaches for the mug the steward provided her at the start of the meeting which contains a liquid that is, unsurprisingly, quite cold. She takes a sip, pulls a face, before setting the mug again and standing up. "Let's go back to the bridge, Captain. I want to stare at something besides a holoscreen." Delede glances around the hangar bay, going over the standard lay-out of a depot in his head, before starting on giving his orders. "Blue, take a man and set-up a choke-point on the main corridor entry...it's located through that large door, and to the left, I believe. That is the most likely point of attack." A glance at the more lightly armed men that appear, those designated as cargo-haulers, as they have repulsor-skids, as well. "The rest of you, follow me. We're going to start getting this cargo, and we're going to move fast." The one-eyed man takes point, himself, and steps into the corridor, heading in the direction of the primary cargo bay, moving quickly, but carefully...realizing that an alarm is going to be sprung, sooner or later. Security can't be this terrible. "You believe...oh great, Blinky. Good time to not be sure." Wrinkling her nose, Twila points to ten men in a quick fashion and motions to them to follow her which they all do without question. They carefully maneuver themselves into place once the proper door is located, and then the order to take cover is given, Twila opting to use a hand motion to make it know what it is they are to do. They swiftly find a way to get out of the line of sight, pretty much in the position Gren wanted them to be in. Making their way to the bridge Krieg looks back to a Trooper and says, "TK 4457, take 4 other men with you and check on the cargo of this station, I want to make sure it is still here and able to be recovered. I wish to have it removed before the rebels can strike this station." Looking to the commadner on the bridge he says, "Alright, show me what you have on this station and in the depot and we'll see about removing the critical items to our secure facilities on Carida." The captain nods to him, and they start to talk about what all needed to be done. Snapping his head head to look directly at Krieg as he hears his designation being called, he instinctively nods and replies in a monotonous mechanized tone, "Sir, yes sir." He turns around and nods to some troopers, who quickly fall in line behind him and follow him to the turbolift. Once on board the turbolift, one of the soldiers activates the button for the cargo bay, sending the turbolift into motion. They stand, waiting patiently, for the turbolift to stop. After what seems like an eternity, it does so, the doors sliding open to reveal the cargo bay to the 5 troopers. "Son of a bi...." Delede's ST-II comes up to his shoulder as he steps into the cargo bay, only to see five stormies in a turbolift appear at almost exactly the same instant. A burst of red blaster fire is fired instinctively toward the lift, and the lead trooper, even as he calls over his shoulder. "Spread out, take defensive positions, and return fire....Blue...if they're smart, they'll try to hit us from two sides...keep that choke-point covered." The Marine equipped with a skid stays behind, while the marine rifleman return fire from hastily found cover. Twila winces as she finds they are all in combat and she shakes her head, standing as she aims the granade launcher she came with. "Alright, men! Fire as targets become avaliable and do not begin to stop shooting until they're all dead." With a slight growl, Blue pulls the trigger, sending one of her 'nades into the group. ...and the battle had begun. One by one the New Republic's amassed portion of fleet assigned to this raid began to arrive. A wave of starfighters, twenty-four evenly divided X and Y-wings suddenly appear. Behind them is the familiar analog of a Corellian CR90 corvette. However, the head of the small force suddenly forms as the form of a jagged Nebulon B-frigate is pulled to a stop. Like ants from a hill, twelve A-wings launch from the "Trident" Mon Calamari Cruiser, and the force begins to approach the minefield... the fighters approaching hard to clear the mines on entry as the Y-wings protectively screen the gunships like bees from a hive. However, as the strike force unfolds itself, five new signatures appear. Slow, hulking cargo container shipment freighters with claw-like arms exit hyperspace behind the fleet, hungry to feast themselves on the containers protected by the station. One lone green and white A-wing from the capital ship defense group moves into position to assist the X-wings and Y-wings, 1st Lt. Raxis "Spider" L'ygr, newly assigned to a new squadron, prepares to make runs over the cargo containers to scan them for the haulers. "Falcon Five standing by." He adds, over the comm as the squadrons begin checking in. "Allright boys let's ruffle their feathers so I can get a couple good streaks through and we can get out of there. Get those jumps coordinated to us on your flight computers. We're going to be leaving quick this time. Falcons...let's keep our ships in good repair. Good Hunting. Spider Out." He adds, clicking off his comm as he slides into position. As the Trident approaches its exit from hyperspace, the crew visibly tenses. This is for the most part a veteran Calamari crew, having seen its fair share of combat. But that doesn't make walking into a potential fight much easier. Sitting amidst the Calamari is Ensign Ohao Ostivort, the lone Bith on the bridge. As the ship shudders slightly from its drop from hyperspace, the captain barks out orders and the crew springs into action as it has so many times before. Ohao's long fingers seem to fly over his keyboard as the initial sensor readings are fed to his station. His custom computer program assigns each one a numerical designation, and these are forwarded to the other ships in the task force. As he waits for detailed scans from the fighters to arrive, he says into his headset, which is patched through directly to the cargo freighters, "This is Trident, please confirm designations and stand by for instructions." As the blaster fire breaks out alarms are sounded as word is relayed to the bridge. Krieg and the captain of the station look up to hear the alarm as one of the officers on the bridge shouts out, "We have blaster fire on the main hangar deck! There seems to be an altercation happening, something to do with the new freighter crew!" Looking at the officer with a glare Krieg says to the captain, "You were unwise to not move this cargo off the station." Looking between the two men Krieg says to the bridge as a whole, "Alert the system patrol and notify all ships in the system to be battle ready..." Before he can finish the statement the NR shows up, a force to be reckoned with and not something Krieg wanted to be staying around for. "FRACK." Turning to the other STs he says, "Take all your men and repel the attackers to the best of your ability." To the captain he orders, "Secure your station as you know how. You have reactor fuel and tiabanna gas aboard. If /you/ lose that, it will be /your/ head." The emphasis on the station commander's position didn't go unnoticed to the other man, as sweat becomes visible on his forhead. Stuttering he says, "ye ye yes Marshal." Turning Krieg moves to the communications officer to watch the intial portion of the battle. There were 2 skiprays that could take him out of here if he needed, but coordination of the defense was critical at this very moment. Barely a second passed from the turbolift door opening to the first incoming bolts of blaster fire. Keeros takes a shot to his chest, and although it was a glancing blow, it still sent Link backwards ungracefully into another trooper. The last place Link wanted to be was trapped in a turbolift under enemy fire. "Move out right now!" He yells into his helmet, regaining his footing and stomping out into the hangar bay, quickly finding cover behind a large crate. The first two troopers out behind him follow him to his spot of cover, and as the others exit the turbolift, Link motions with his hand for them to take the left flank. He flicks the tongue switch of his in-helmet comlink to the on position and says, "Marshal we are under heavy! We need reinforcements down here immediately!" He switches off his comlink and then searches for a target, just as a grenade bounces nearby and explodes, sending a trooper off his feet. Realizing the grenade launcher to be the most serious threat revealed to his unit so far, Keeros carefully pokes his head up over the crate and scans for the user. Spotting a woman with a grenade launcher, he takes careful aim and fires. On the VSD the crew is suddenly sent into brisk but rapid activity as the NR raiding force makes the transition into normal space. The captain, too, seems equally surprised as he turns to look at Keline with widened eyes. "Captain, we..this is more then we're preprared for. We can't.." Keline, however, silences him with a look before she moves closer toward him and leans down. "Deploy all your fighters. They're using Y-Wings..tell your fighters to break up the Y-Wing squadrons before focusing on the X-Wing.Our priority should be the Nebulon B and the transport ships. In your own time..but hopefully before we get blown up. "Tibanna gas, then reactor fuel. That's the order of importance. Get to work!" Yes, Delede is sending men into the firefight to start claiming cargo, but the armed troopers are providing a lot of covering fire. Gren's target remains constant, his aimed burst streaking toward Keeros, most likely thanks to his targeting of Twila. His blast fired, he leans back behind the crate that provides a bit of cover. "Keep your bloody head down, woman!" A shot toward his twi'lek wife. Twila shakes herself out of the surprise being shot at creates and she laughs a bit, a moment of celebration even as her small knot of men continue to fire upon the STs. Another 'nade's loaded and shot into the same area, the Twi'lek trying to take out as many troopers as she's able to with one shot. "Hey, Blinky. You guys are doing alright out there?" Taking another hit, Keeros ducks down behind the crate, dropping his rifle for a minute to check himself for serious injury. Finding none, he reclaims his rifle, looking up to see a multitude of blaster bolts streaking overhead, hitting the bulkhead just beyond his covered position. He switches on his comm unit frequency to transmit to his squad and says, "Half of you, see if you can sweep around from the side and come in from behind them..." He switches off his mic and leans around the corner of the crate to take aim at the most exposed trooper without exposing himself. Finding one such target in his sight, he fires and then ducks down behind the crate again. The VSD, with Keline aboard, fires up it's engines and begins to move toward the fleet of transport ships while trying to keep out of firing range as much as possible. Keline is remaining out of the picture for the most part, occasionally delivering advice to the ship's captain which, initially, runs to advising him to plot firing solutions on the transports before she turns away and activates the portable comm system she had carried with her while she attempts to get in touch with Krieg. Pushing through the minefield, the X-Wings begin opening fire on the minefield. Rows of explosions light up the starfield as one by one the minefield is nullified. With the aid of the encroaching Y-wings , the initial attack group pushes its way into the secured perimeter of the station. X-wings begin streaking towards the approaching group of TIE fighters, S-foils uncoiled and ready for attack as the Y-wings remain behind in the protective grid of the gunships. "Attack squadron move into range and support our corvette!" The grumpy and guttural voice of the Captain of the Nebulon B Frigate "Trident" calls over the offensive secured line, as rows of Mon Calamari in white and tan turtlenecked uniforms swivel in their seats to push the assault. One tan wearing Mon Calamari sends a texted signal to the pilot of the marine freighter, currently assaulting the station, to let them know the fight has begun. The captain, seated in a hanging swivel chair surrounded by holoscreens, selects a map to tactical 3-d display before him as the view screen lights up in initial explosions. "Prepare to fish-hook on exit. We're going to hurt what we don't steal and get out." He calls. Scene shifting to the starfield, the lone A-wing streaks from the defending X-wings and rushes at breakneck speeds to run a gauntlet through a circular formation of cannisters, flight computer prepared to gather all sensor data in passing. "Spider in, running sensor sweeps now, Trident. Standby for relay data. Spider over." He finishes, as cannisters begin to rush past him. Sensor readings relayed from the fighter begin showing up at Ohao's station aboard the Trident. As they flash on his screen, he compares them to the priority list he was given prior to the mission. He begins assembling a list of the fifteen cargo containers to be liberated. The death of a marine is never a good thing, but it happens, and the others move up to take his place, as the nearest crates begin to be loaded onto repulsor-skids, and double-timed back to the waiting ship. Gren sights down his rifle's barrel and sends a single bolt streaking toward one of the stormtroopers. "Throw that body onto one of the crates!" A shouted order at a 'hauler', and Delede shakes his head, calling back to his wife..."We're fine...just keep the explosions coming." Shot fired, he slides back behind cover, glancing at his chrono. "Fleet should be here by now...move." "Move closer, get into better range. I want to see nothing but red on the deck!" Twila's jaw sets as she takes a quick appraising glance about, her lekku twitching wildly as the adrinaline really starts pumping now, causing her hands to tremble slightly as she tries to load another round into the weapon she carries. It takes a moment but she's eventually able to and she shoulders the weapon and takes another shot at the men under Keeros' command.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)