Chapter 1: Baptism By Fire

[Rogue 4]

Nat nodded at the Captain, entering the turbolift and gesturing for the rest of Two-flight to follow. As the doors closed he sighed, switching out his nearly empty powerpack for a full one he'd taken off of a dead Stormtrooper.

"Keep an eye out when we get up top. Three Flight probably moved ahead to the armory. Seven, I want you to take the lead."

***

"Elevator going up," Layla's eyes danced in amusement as she sent the lift up two floors, and turned to the rest of one-flight. "I feel like I should be working for the Diplomat Hotel on Coruscant. Would any of you like a complimentary mint on your pillow?"

[Drake 53]

Aeric smirked, "Sure, Three. Maybe once we're out of this mess, we can all take some leave at the Diplomat."

***

Lieutenant Daragon nodded as Two Flight rounded the corner and caught up with them. He opened his comm to the Captain. "Lead, this is Nine. We're ready to attack the armoury. Would you like us to wait for you?"

Aeric's voice replied, "Negative, Nine. Move on the armoury now. Take them out with extreme prejudice."

A cold grin crept across Jareth's face. "Copy that." He turned to Nat. "Sir, we have two choices. Slice the door or blow it and go in loud. Your call."

Edited July 22, 2007 by Drake

[Rogue 4]

"There's an idea." Layla grinned at the Captain. "Unfortunatly I don't think you guys pay me enough to afford a few nights at the finest hotel in the core worlds. We ready to go up?"

***

Nat thought that over. "It'd take a big blast to get through those doors, and we don't know what kind of munitions are inside. Probably just blasters, but we don't want to run the risk of setting something else off. Let's try slicing through first, and if that fails then Seven can have some fun."

[Drake 53]

Aeric motioned his flight into the lift and they rode it up. Two levels up, they found the bodies of Stormtroopers and Imperial officers scattered throughout the hallway.

"This way" he said and led One Flight down the hall to meet up with everyone else.

***

Jaim had just finished slicing into the door when the Captain and One Flight caught up with them.

"What's taking you guys so long?" Aeric asked.

"We're saving the explosives for later, sir" said Takeshi. "Door's open now." He slung his Thunderer over his back and pulled out his dagger.

"Everyone watch your fire. We don't want to blow the ammunition" said the Captain.

Jya palmed a flashbang grenade. "Sir, if I may? This'll stun them without damaging the ammo." When Aeric nodded and waved her forward, she moved to the side of the door. "You might want to close your eyes and cover your ears." She opened the door and tossed the grenade inside then closed her eyes and clapped her hands to her ears. There was a brilliant flash of white light and a sonic squeal that left the squadron's ears ringing despite them being covered.

"Move!" shouted Aeric.

They stormed into the armoury, finding Stormtroopers waving their hands around in front of them from their temporary blindness. One officer sat rocking back and forth in a corner, his hands covering his bloody ears from burst eardrums.

"Sir?" asked Takeshi, questioning if they should shoot or not.

Aeric shook his head. "Grab those stun cuffs over there." He pointed to a crate nearby. "Get them out of that armour then cuff their wrists and ankles."

Edited July 23, 2007 by Drake

[Andy 60]

While Takeshi, Jya and the rest moved to secure the prisoners, Jareth's eyes scanned the weapons cabinets. "Ehh, standard stuff. Nice big rack of E-11s over there if anyone fancies playing it the stormies' way and firing a thousand shots without hitting anything... Lots of standard blaster pistols.

"Nothing more powerful?" Takeshi said, sounding dissapointed.

"Well, there's some nice BlasTech T-21 light repeaters but I don't see the generators for them," Jareth mused.

"There's powerpacks for them here," Aston offered.

"Nah you'll only get 25, maybe 30 if your lucky, shots out of a T-21 without the generator," Jareth looked around a bit, "looks like a backpack, weighs about 20 kilos, they'd be pretty obvious if they were here."

Jya spoke up from further down the room, "well there are plenty of grenades over here. Might be an idea to stock up."

Edited July 22, 2007 by Andy

[Ender 8]

Jaim took the offer up, taking three grenades and putting them on his belt. "Where do we go from here?"

[Drake 53]

"We go directly to the bridge" said Tak. He then turned to the Captain. "Sir, I have an idea."

Aeric nodded. "You seem to be full of them. Let's hear it."

Takeshi went over to the pile of Stormtrooper armour they had piled up and picked up a helmet. He tossed it to the Captain. "We put these on, sir. Then it's just a simple matter of walking onto the bridge and shooting until we win."

Nat Riamor made a cough and said, "Aren't you forgetting something, Thirteen?" He made a purposeful flick of his headtails.

"Not at all, sir. Once those of us who can, suit up, we call whoever is in charge of this tub. We tell them that we, being the loyal Stormtroopers that we are, have captured the Captain, XO and two non-human pilots." He motioned to Atuarre and Nima. "Knowing Imperial captains, they will be full of themselves and demand we bring at least Captain Tunon to the bridge for public interrogation. We will be given access past the laser turrets mounted outside of the turbolifts and unquestioned access onto the bridge itself. Once there, we neutralize the bridge crew, lock the doors and slice the ship to our side."

"That's...very thorough" said the Captain. "Very good, Thirteen. So I take it I won't be needing this then." He tossed the helmet back to Takeshi who caught it and put it on.

"No, sir" replied Tak in the tinny voice of a trooper.

Aeric sighed. "Well, if we're going to be captured prisoners, we might as well make it look realistic." He turned to Nat. "XO, punch me. Don't look at me like that. It's an order."

Edited July 23, 2007 by Drake

[Rogue 4]

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Nat remarked, pulling back the sleeve of his flightsuit and flexing his midnight-blue fist. His lekku writhed with distaste.

Well, at least I can get out a bit of my recent frustration... He pulled his arm back and and thrust it forward, his fist colliding with Aeric Tunon's left eye. Judging by the impact it wouldn't be too long before it turned as blue as the hand that hit it.

"Stang...I wish my old Commanding officer had asked me to give him a shiner." Layla remarked idly.

Nat's gaze fell on her. "Three---"

"Shutting up, sir."

[Princess 35]

Nima frowned. "I guess I'll have to do this for the good of the squad." She held out her wrists. "Ok, someone lock me up before I wuss out of this."

[Drake 53]

Aeric clutched a hand over his eye. "That's going to smart in the morning. Commendable job, Five." He looked over to Tak who was already dressed to the waist in Stormtrooper armour. "Thirteen, contact the C.O. of this ship and tell him you've just captured us."

Tak said, "Yes, sir" and slipped the white helmet back over his head. Immediately, the heads-up-display turned on, providing Takeshi with different information including those on 'his' fellow troopers, still located in the pile on the floor. He looked at the stun-cuffed Imperial officer. A name appeared beside his head, reading 'Lieutenant Jaster Rosk'. Also displayed were health monitors, currently showing zero as the breastplate was not attached, and ammo counters, also showing zero.

Not as detailed as my armour back at the base...but it will suffice.

He opened up a comm channel to the bridge. "Captain this is..." he checked the trooper ID at the top of the HUD, "...TK-821."

A gravelly voice came over the other end of the line. "What is this? Where is your commanding officer?"

"Lieutenant Rosk is dead sir. Killed by the intruders."

"Is that all you called me about, trooper? If I wanted you to waste my time, I could have tortured you to death!" came the Captain's annoyed reply.

"No, sir. I called to report that we have captured the leader of the intruders and his executive officer as well as two non-human pilots while they tried to take the armoury."

There was a pause at the other end and then, "We saw them throw a flash grenade in your midst before the cameras were burnt out. Are you saying you caught them despite this?"

"Yes, sir" said Takeshi. "A few of us locked down our suits at the last second. We were ready for them."

The Captain laughed. "Good! I want you to bring them directly to me, TK...whatever-you-are. Is that understood?"

"Completely, sir." Tak said with a grin.

He removed his helmet. Already, the other Revenants were mostly dressed in their Stormtrooper armour and Captain Tunon, Nat, Nima and Atuarre were in deactivated stun-cuffs.

"Captain" he said to Aeric, "he did just as I had thought. We're to bring you all directly to him on the bridge."

Aeric nodded. His eye was beginning to swell up and turn purple. "Excellent. We'll move out once everyone is ready."

Tak finished suiting up then looked over at Layla who had just finished her own ensemble with the helmet. He chuckled and said, "Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?"

[Rogue 4]

She shifted her weight to one hip in a quite feminine gesture, head tilting to the side as she looked at him. "Isn't that helmet a little small for your big head?"

[Drake 53]

"Nah, it's plenty roomy, thanks" Tak said with a laugh.

[Rogue 4]

She threw him a skeptical look that was lost somewhere between their two helmets. "You know, it's no wonder these bucket-heads can't shoot. It's hard to see past all these heads-up-displays."

[Drake 53]

He nodded and had to overexaggerate to make the motion noticable. "Yeah, they take some getting used to. I've been in these suits before and...similar ones. So I can probably sort it out better than most of these plastic boys."

[Rogue 4]

"Do they always smell like a locker-room?" Layla joked, checking the powerpack on her blaster. The stormtrooper who's armor Layla had taken looked clearly offended.

[Drake 53]

"Most of them, I'm afraid. Plus...I think these guys were nearing the end of their shifts. Lucky for them" he added, sarcastically.

Tak refastened his utility belt around his waist and holstered his weapons.

Aeric's eye was now sufficiently purple. "Everybody ready to do this?" he asked.

Edited July 23, 2007 by Drake

[Mara 29]

Yeah, I'm gonna back up a bit then catch up...

Kaden had swung around to aim his lasers at another TIE when he heard Tak's idea over the comm. He thought it would be crazy to take on an Interdictor like that. But, he wasn't in charge. Not anymore. Plus, Kaden knew he had to get used to the idea of doing extended missions like this. He wasn't in an ordinary fighter squad any longer. They had extra duties now.

So he merely steeler himself for what would be coming. Kaden knew he wasn't as good a shot with a blaster as he was with a snubfighter.

On their way in closer, more TIE squadrons came in to intercept them. He fired off some lasers to discourage them a little. But them he heard Atzena over the comm. She was hit.

Oh, no.... not again....

Artie's excited beeping snapped him out of it. He couldn't allow himself to slip now. She didn't know her all that well, but she would be missed. He knew.

"Thanks, Artie. Now, let's go land in this thing."

...

A few moments later, after a close landing inside the Interdictor, Kaden popped his canopy and grabbed his sack. He pulled out his small secondhand blaster and was checking it when he spoke to Artie.

"Artie, keep an eye out down here. I'm afraid you can't come with me this time." Kaden tried to swallow away the uneasy feeling he had deep inside. Artie almost always was with him. Artie was all he had left. If something happened to the little droid....

Kaden tucked the blaster into a belt on his flightsuit, then removing some of the life support systems he wouldn't need onship. But he opted to leave his helmet on. He may not be the worst shot, but he knew he needed a little help on his side.

....

He followed along with the rest of Three Flight, aiming and shooting at stormies as much as he could. He tried not to think about Three's missing member. He had to focus on their new mission now.

He also didn't want to think about being alone in the respect that Artie wasn't with him. He took deep breaths before aiming his blaster. He didn't land a lot of shots, but he felt he was holding his own. They ran through the halls, shooting. It was chaos. But Kaden noticed that these 'troopers didn't seem to be as accurate as others he had encountered.

All the better....

Eventually they had jacked into a turbolift and had made it to the armoury. Kaden was relieved when Daragon took over with his grenades. No more need for his blaster at the moment. He glanced down. It was almost empty anyay. Kaden looked around for a spare from one of the prisoners or fallen stormies.

A few moments later the rest of the squad joined them.

And, of course, then Tak had another idea. But this time Kaden didn't think it all too bad. At least, now they could try to blend in a little instead of barging around shooting like crazy. Plus, he was all up for something that would allow him extra armor for any stray bolts.

So they cuffed up the non-humans and Lt. Riamor prepper the captain for capture. Kaden figured that Riamor probably enjoyed it more than he should have.

Kaden stowed away his helmet and replaced it with a bit white one, complete the ensemble with lots of white armor and a belt. It felt weird, and it was hard to see through the helmet. He was wishing that he had practiced in Imperial gear also, not just in their fighters. It would have come in handy. He made a mental note.

Having stuffed his sack with his small blaster inside his suit, Kaden hefted the rifle that had come with his suit. It felt heavy and awkward in his hands. But he tried to make it look like it wasn't. He stood around with the rest of his squad, waiting to move on to the bridge.

Edited July 23, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

Takeshi spoke up. "Okay, how many of you have at least been in one of these suits before?" He waited for replies then said, "Okay, not many of you. That's alright. For those unaccustomed to these suit systems, let me give you a brief rundown on the heads-up-display. It's fairly simple to use but a little harder to get used to all the information displayed on it. First, take a look at the Captain here and thrust your chin straight forward in your helmet. It should hit a button that will activate the targetting display. Hit it again and it will change to the next closest hostile target, being the XO. Holding the button down while over a target will mark that target as a priority and will display it on your group's HUDs. Also, if you move your chin left, you will toggle your helmet's view modes, one being night vision. Move your chin right and you can seal up your suit in the case of, say, a gas leak. Finally, move your chin down and you'll toggle the comm system. I think that's how the Imps keep their bucket-heads from dozing off on the job."

"Great" said the Captain. "Any questions?"

[Rogue 4]

"Seems pretty straightforward to me." Layla remarked, turning to the Captain. "My only question is...should we shoot to kill or set to stun?"

[Drake 53]

Aeric thought it over for a moment then said, "Shoot to kill. There won't be any way to secure these guys once they wake up again."

[Rogue 4]

"What about the bridge officers, Captain?" Layla asked, wishing that her armor hadn't come from some too-tall Imperial.

I wish I could say this was the first armor I've stripped off a stormtrooper too.

"It might be a good idea to detain them, take them back to Coruscant for interrogation, sir. At the very least they know a few Imperial codes. Best case scenario we can get a good lock on whatever Imperial Warlord they're working for."

[Mara 29]

Listening to Tak's instructions on the helmets, he tried out all his options. It wasn't bad; once he got the hang of tapping it all the right way, he had it working great. Then he turned to his blaster rifle, checking out the settings on it.

[Drake 53]

"Good idea, Three" said the Captain. "We'll stun the bridge officers, kill the plastics."

[Drake 53]

Once everyone was ready, they moved out. Jareth and Takeshi led the group with the four 'prisoners' following. Jaim and Jya flanked them and Layla, Aston, Arlan and Kaden took up the rear. They split up into the two turbolifts with four 'troopers' and two 'prisoners' in each.

Tak noted their their easy entry. "Stormtrooper armour comes equipped with resonators that grant access through locked doors and into secure areas."

Once at the top of the lift, the doors slid open and the groups were met by two ceiling-mounted laser turrets. The automated sentries swung around to target the prisoners then stood down once they saw their white-clad escorts. There were six normal Stormtroopers stationed outside of the bridge. They nodded to the Revenants, thinking they were their comrades. Tak and Jareth nodded back then led the group through a set of large blast doors onto the bridge.

[Mara 29]

Kaden followed his squadron mates through, albeit a little uneasily. He was still a little wary being without Artie, but he was getting used to it. But the main thing he was worried about was whether one of the real stormtroopers might talk to him or one of the Imperials. He tried to walk as much as a normal 'trooper as he could.