"Commander, probes have returned." Reported one of the special operations troopers as he marched onto the bridge where Victor, Talina, and the bridgecrew of the IS Archer, the Arquitens class light cruiser provided to their task group for this particular operation. Small, fast, and relatively well armed and armored, the Arquitens provided enough firepower to get the job done, without compromising their stealth or mission. Alongside the Special Operations squad, the Archer also carried a platoon of Stormtroopers and a platoon of regular infantry, on the off chance extra manpower was needed.
"How's it look?" Victor replied, hands clasped behind his back, helmet clad head staring at the rocky ball floated in space before them.
"We've got readings of life signs within the ship- a scattered few, but they're in there. Surroundings in a 5 mile radius are clear- not a whole lot of life on this rock in general.
"Good." he half said to the trooper, as he turned to Talina. "Well, Ms. Eriston, it appears the time for action is now."
"Captain, have the Archer the stormtrooper platoon on standby We'll call you if we need you."
"Troopers, dismount!" Victor barked as the transport reached its designated landing position. The first four troopers out the door immediately began spreading out, and took a knee, rifles leveled and outward facing, on the watch for any targets. The rest of the troopers dismounted the transport and took a knee as well- hands scooping up handfulls of dusty sand and dirt and patting it onto their armor. The dust wouldn't camoflauge their figures in the open, but it'd dull any shine left on their armor.
The dropship had let them off in a short ravine a few klicks away from their destination. They could use the rocky and rough terrain to cover their advance towards the downed cruiser. With a sharp bark from Victor, the squad broke into two elements and began fanning out, to increase their coverage of the area and preventing any explosive ambushes from eliminating more than one trooper.
Talina shifted out of the transport, her boots kicking up dirt as she set foot on the barren world. Pride tore through her as she watched the highly trained soldiers under Victor's command spread out into formation. The Rebel scum sure as hell didn't have any troopers like that in their command. She did the same as the others did, rubbing dirt onto her armor. It was a wise tactical decision. As she rose to her feet, Talina gave a long gaze at her surroundings. She let out a deep breath, then smirked underneath her helmet.
It had been too long since she had gone on a mission like this. It was refreshing to be away from the constant chaos and filth which filled Hutt space. Far too long since she had last worn armor like this, the awe striking design of it that caught her eyes the first time she remembered seeing Stormtroopers. As the teams split in two, she led one, which included Victor, while the second element peeled off make their own way to their specific objectives. A small detachment took their place above the battlefield, as ordered earlier. As they inched closer towards the corvette, a tinge of nervousness went through her. But she quickly shut that away, putting faith in the Empire's elite soldiers.
Dagger Squad broke into its seperate elements, their sniper team taking a concealed position at the top of a ridgeline overlooking the crashed corvete, Talina and Victor's team followed the trail left behind by the crashing corvette to breach it from the main port side airlock, while the B group swung around wide to breach the ship from the starboard airlock. The approach to the ship itself was clear, and aside from an occasional comms check, the trip was silent.
As Victor, Talina, and the rest of their element made their way to the airlock door of the corvette, a quick sharp hand motion from Victor sent their remaining squad members rushing up and stacking up against the main door of the airlock. One of the troopers- Gator, swapped out his blaster rifle for a scattergun, while on the opposite side of the door frame, Jakal pulled out a stun grenade. While the rest made a few last minute checks to their weapons.
"A team, in position." Victor murmured over the comms.
"B team, in position." Echoed Fred, the trooper in command of the other element.
"Sniper team, all clear up here."
Victor glanced at Talina and set his blaster to automatic fire mode, and took a position behind Gater. Taking a knee, Victor pulled a small slicing kit out of his pack and hooked into the airlock's door system. "All teams standby."
The CR90 used a standard security system- already damaged by the crash, making the hack a quick and simple task. Within moments he had the controls to the central airlock door slaved to his wristpad. He took a deep breath, and almost unconsciously, the other members of the element mirrored him.
"Breach!" Victor barked, pressing a button on his wristpad and roughly rapping against Gater's shoulder. The airlock door slid open and Jakal hucked a stun grenade deep into the airlock, detonating with a dull
thump as Gater swung into the door and fired her scattergun once. As soon as Gater and Jakal passed the threshold, Victor and Koss followed suit just as quickly. During a breach, the most dangerous place to be was in the center of a door's threshold. The name of the game during a breach was shock and awe: A stun grenade to disorient and confuse any potential contacts, followed by an extremely rapid and aggressive entrance to quickly neutralize any foes inside their target room.
Talina charged through the doorway as it came open, clenching her trusted 434 heavy blaster pistol in her gloved hands. The entire trek towards the corvette was near silent, no ambushes were sprung upon them and on the outside there was no signs of Rebel activity. She knew better than to think that meant they were alone here. Her nerves tinged once more as they entered the inside of the crashed vessel. It had been a long time since she had stepped foot inside one of these corvette's. They were an all too common sight amongst the rebellion's forces.
As Victor swung into the room, he saw a humanoid figure. It wasn't wearing stormtrooper armor. He shot it. It didn't matter what or who it was, if it wasn't one of them it was an enemy. There was a scream, the sound of a body crumpling, blasters firing, a scattergun reracking. The moments of a breach were always a haze for Victor- an adrenaline filled blur where all that mattered was fast reactions and a faster trigger finger. It wasn't until Gater yelled 'clear!' that Victor's vision returned to normal.
The airlock chamber was small, and they had still another door before them. But for now this room was clear. A pair of bodies lay slumped against the walls of the airlock. One wore the black vest and blue shirts of a rebel ship-trooper, the other wore the coveralls of an engineer.
As the sound of blasters going off echoed through the room, then bodies hitting the ground. Talina had slipped towards the left side as they breached, firing her weapon twice. Two corpses laid sprawled against the airlock walls, obvious rebels that had been expertly eliminated, entirely caught offguard by the door breach. She exhaled, releasing the raised tension from the breach, then smirked as she looked over the two dead hostiles.
"Damn fine job with the breach, these two didn't stand a chance. We should keep moving, I'm sure these aren't the only ones in the ship. Any word from the other team?" She asked, shifting her glance towards Victor.
"No need." Victor replied, his statement seemingly punctuated by the distant echoing of blaster fire. "Fred can hold his own, and we'd better keep moving." He pulled out a small holoprojector and activated it, displaying the standard blueprint of a CR90 Corvette. "We're going to take the main corrider and clear the cockpit, tactical room and quarters- thats likely where whatever we're looking for is. Fred is going to take his team through the hangar bay and side corriders, and clear out the midships."
The recap took but a second, and kept their objectives fresh in their mind. Victor opened the second airlock door, and the group found themselves face to face with Fred's group, who had finished clearing out their airlock as well. They offered eachother a slight nod, and Fred's team ran through first, rifles leveled as they headed into the side corridors. Victor offered Talina a gesture.
"After you, Commander."
With a nod towards Victor, she took the first steps into the corridor, slowly and cautiously with her weapon at the ready. If they planned it just right perhaps they'd get the drop on any rebels in the downed ship. Take those fools out quickly and keep moving along, like the well oiled Imperial machine they were. As they moved down the main corridor she swore she heard voices not far ahead. Then Talina darted to the side of the corridor, slipping into a doorway where she took cover, watching for any approaching enemies.
A couple surviving rebels crossed the hall as Victor and the rest of the stormtroopers filed into the corridors. Victor made eye contact with one of the rebels before he dove off to the side, the remaining troopers either following suit, or backing back behind the bend of the corridor. The rebels gave a start, and one of them shot a panicked bolt down the hall. The bolt screamed down the hall and collided with the corridor wall, sending a small spray of sparks and rubble against one of their troopers.
"Supress and advance." Victor barked into their comms. Behind them Jakal and Koss switched their weapons into automatic and began spraying blaster bolts down the hall as they rushed forward- the sheer volume of blaster fire forcing the rebels to keep themselves behind cover. Following behind them, Victor and Gater followed, the former producing thermal detonator.
"Detonator out!" Victor called into their comms as he triggered the explosive and lobbed it down the hall. He was rewarded a few seconds later with a scream of surprise followed by an explosion. A few seconds after that, the sounds of once airborn bodies hitting the ground.
As the chaos began within the crashed corvette, the sounds of battle echoed through the compact corridors. Talina stayed tucked behind cover for a moment, as blaster bolts rang by her on both sides. She kneeled down, then quickly peeked out from behind the doorway, and fired her 434 twice. The powerful blaster shook as it laced two shots down the corridor towards a rebel that was firing upon another stormtrooper. The rebel went down with a scream of pain as the bolt struck him in the gut, the second shot crashing into the wall behind the now collapsed rebel.
Talina went back behind cover as Victor's thermal detonator went down the hallway, exploding with a loud bang only amplified by the tightness of the corridor. She dashed out from behind the doorway, switching sides and moving forward as the surviving rebels scrambled to recover from the explosive blast. Two surviving rebels fired out towards the rapidly approaching troopers.
"Two more left! Keep it up." Talina muttered into her comms as she blindfired her heavy blaster pistol twice, causing the two surviving enemies to flinch and remain behind cover for a moment.
Victor and his squad continued advancing down the hall, intermittently firing to keep the rebels from poking out to fire at them in the exposed corridor. As he reached the corner, a rebel soldier stuck his arm out to fire down the hall. Victor grabbed at the rebel's arm and pinned it against the corridor wall, blaster bolt firing off to the side before the blaster pistol fell out of the rebel's hand. Pulling the rebel out of cover, Victor twisted his body and threw the rebel soldier over his shoulder. Before the rebel could get up, Victor brought up an armored boot and sent it crashing through the rebel's plastic helmet.
Glancing over, Gater had similarly dispatched the remaining rebel trooper. Victor took a moment to get a good look over at the rebels. They were ragged and unprepared. Likely still fixing up after their crash. They had a collection of beat up pistols and rifles to their name, and most of them were carrying tools with which to fix up the ship. All the better for them, it meant that they weren't prepared for a fight.
"Let's keep moving. There shouldn't be that many of them left."
As the last remaining rebels were vanquished in the corridor, Talina watched as Victor brutally finished off a particularly unlucky one. That's what they got for daring to go against the Empire. The rebels in this downed ship weren't prepared for a battle, they had executed their approach well enough that it didn't give the scum any time to set up a defensive.
"Yes, let's keep going, whole entire ship be needs tiared out. Radio the troopers on the outsider, ask them for a status report." Talina ordered as she took her eyes away from the beaten and brutalized corpses of their enemies.
Almost in response to Talina, Ashe- the sniper they left outside radioed in. "Hey Boss, we've got company, a flight of Rebel U-Wings on the horizon. They look like their in a hurry. I estimate 15 minutes before they reach the ship."
"Radio the Archer, have them scramble the stormtrooper platoon." Victor replied as they continued through the ship. While he had no doubt that his squad could take on a Rebel rapid response force- why fight a hard fight when they could call in back up of their own? The regular stormtroopers would minimize the risk to Victor's specially trained Special operations troopers, who were far more difficult to replace.
"Gater, Jakal, go clear the tac-room and download everything, find what we're here for. Koss, you're with me, we're clearing the cockpit and quarters."
It seemed as if the rebels were going to make a move and launch a counter attack upon them. Talina was confident they'd be done with the mission by the time the rebellion had amassed their forces and begun their own attack. The platoon of elite, standard stormtroopers would be enough to deal with that problem. Inside the corvette, she could practically sense how close they were to getting what they needed, clearing out the vessel and making their escape.
"I'll go with Koss and you, those rebels won't stand a chance with us three coming for them." Talina stated with a smile. Then the the group split up, though with constant radio chatter they'd know exactly where they all were within the downed ship.
The cockpit of the corvette was crampt and tight quarters, and Victor had opted to switch his longer rifle out for his more compact, automatic blaster pistol. As the three men and women filed down the hall, Koss at the front took a knee and started scanning the sectors ahead of him- he'd secure the hall while the rest of them secured the rooms. There were four rooms in the hallway, they'd clear them out two at a time.
Taking one door, Victor gestured for Talina to take the door opposite him. Keying a button on his wrist, he forced the doors to slide open. Swinging into the first room, pistol raised, he found himself in what was left of the power-control room. Here a pair of engineers rushedly worked on a set of power converters.
Talina nodded and took up position at the opposite door, her 434 clenched tightly. She let out a deep breath, clearing her thoughts and steeling her nerves. As soon Victor's door came open and he darted inside, the door she was at shot open and she charged inside. Three men sat inside, apparently talking amongst themselves when she barged in.
"What the hell?" One exclaimed as Talina unloaded her blaster into the man's chest, three shots sending him to the ground hard as he fell backwards over a table. The second and third reacted with surprise. Then one scrambled for a blaster rifle leaned against a wall while the other fumbled for their sidearm.
Noticing him as he turned into the room, one of the engineers fumbled with a blaster pistol and was shot twice in the chest for his efforts- his blaster pistol clattering to the ground and firing off into the side of the room, sending sparks flying from the nearby console.
"Ah shit! Wait! I surrender!" the remaining engineer cried out, wringing his hands and raising them above his head as quickly as he could.
Victor shrugged. "No prisoners." He said as a way of a reply. The engineer's eyes widened and he screamed out something unintelligble as Victor put another pair of blaster bolts into his chest.
Talina quickly fired her weapon, supressing the trigger and unleashing several shots towards the two rebels. One went down hard, a shot to the arm and two the gut causing him to lose his weapon and fall to the ground with a scream of pain. The third got their hands on the rifle but was unable to use it as Talina cut him down with a shot the shoulder, then the neck. Another shot mised narrowly and hit the wall, covering it with black residue.
The room reeked of smoke, an all too common result of laser hitting flesh. Talina look over the bodies, ensuring they were dead. Then her eyes drifted through the small room, an apparent storage area. Food and other supplies, nothing related to the mission. She stepped back out into the hallway, glancing towards Victor as he stood over the dead in his own room.
"Last room." Victor said quietly, motioning up towards the door at the end of the hall- the cockpit. As they did, Victor's commlink bleeped. Picking it up, he was greeted by two faces- both identical underneath their stormtrooper helmets.
"This is Fred, we're done mopping up here."
"Gater, we've finished downloading the ship's databanks."
"Good." Victor replied. "Rally at the airlock, we'll be joining you shortly."
Talina leaned against one side of doorway, Victor posting up on the other side. She couldn't hear any voices in the room, or footsteps. She gave one glance towards Victor, nodding just before the door came open and the two elite Imperial soldiers charged inside. They were greeted by a duo of rebels, one seated at in the pilot's chair, fixing the controls. Another hooking up wires to the side.
Both men stared at the door as it came open, looks of fear on their faces as the soldiers beared down upon them. The one in the chair swiveled around, yanking out his sidearm. He quickly squeezed the trigger, a split second before Talina did. A shot rang out from each weapon, Talina's striking true as the rebel's bolt slammed into the wall, narrowly missing the armored Imperial. Victor quickly disposed of the other enemy, putting him down with consecutive shots to the chest. Two corpses sprawled onto the floor of the cockpit, the last of the rebel scum in the crashed vessel.
"We're done here. Let's get a move on it, excellent work, soldiers." Talina said into her communication device, smiling at a job well. She expected no less.
