Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Rogue 4]

"And that's our signal." Layla grinned. "Let's go!"

She snuck them closer in towards the building, where the guarding stormtroopers each raised a hand to their heads at an incoming transmission. Layla held her hand out to keep Szen and Arlan from running past her. "Shh." she told them.

The stormtroopers finished their conversation and one waved them off, towards the far gate. Layla raised a finger to your earpiece. "You guys have incoming. Good job." She released it, looking around. "Two left. Piece of rhyscate. Follow my lead."

Emerging from the shadows Layla walked crisply up to the two guards. "Excuse me? Did you not just recieve orders to head to the South Gate?"

The stormtroopers looked to eachother than back to her. "Base said to keep two to--"

Layla flashed the badge Tak had given her earlier, her face set, stern, and Imperial---a complete separation from her normal personality. "The orders have changed. What's your operating numbers so I can report your insolence to high command?"

"That won't be necessary!" The first said. "We'll go immediatly."

Layla waited a long moment. "I don't see you moving..."

It was only a second later, after both looked to eachother--fear clear despite their helmets, and ran off towards the fight. "I didn't sign on for this...kriffing Intelligence Liasons..." One muttered when he thought he was out of her hearing range.

[Ayingel 24]

Szen whispered in LAlya's ear, "Smooth thinking."

[Rogue 4]

"Thanks." Layla said, swiping one of their stolen ID cards in the door. "I should have been an actress...pays way better than this. Oh well, kind of late now."

[Drake 53]

They had just finished off the original sentries and gone through the blown open gates, when the reinforcements started showing up.

A Stormtrooper with an orange pauldron, denoting the squad commander, stuck his head and blaster up from behind a duracrete partition. "Stand down immediately and surrender! Rebellion will not be tolerated! Comply or be killed!"

"You talk too much for a bucket head!" Tak yelled back. When the Stormtrooper turned to give an order, Takeshi lifted his Mandalorian Ripper and put a slug into the side of the platoon leader's head. The commlink in his helmet sparked before the trooper flopped out of sight.

The Revenants were already ducking for cover when the dozen reinforcements opened fire. Tak ducked down behind a slab of blackened metal that he assumed was probably part of the gate or one of the turrets. He popped back up, firing off quick bursts of fire at the Stormtroopers not behind cover, before dropping down again.

"Seven!" he shouted at Jya. "Give me some heavy weapons fire on that slab!"

He was referring to the duracrete partition. There were at least six Stormtroopers currently using it as cover while the blasted at the Revenants' positions.

[Vergere 1]

Before they got the blackout, Brier covered her eyes with dark goggles to help minimize the brightness of the heat the blasters and explosions would make in the middle of the night. She let out an animalistic war cry as they started to attack the stormtroopers. WHen she shot, she had surgical accuracy with her hits, hitting exactly where she meant to and using minimal amount of shots, making her shoot less but with deadly efficiency. She covered her eyes with her arm as Jya initiated another explosion, then turned once more to continue shooting at whoever was stupid enough to get in her sights.

[Ender 8]

Jaim ducked behind a partition, spraying blaster fire from his KX-60 as he went. When he hit the wall, he unclipped a grenade from his belt.

"Fire in the hole!" he yelled, and threw the grenade into the crowd of Stormtroopers. A few seconds later there was a deafening bang, strewing rubble in all directions. Five more troopers lay dead, with another two wounded.

[Vergere 1]

Brier peeked up and over their protection before hiding again. "Nice shot."

[Drake 53]

Ender has to kill at least two people in every combat post he makes. His ego demands it.

Tak popped back out of cover and picked off one Stormtrooper that lay sprawled from the grenade and another that was attempting to retreat to cover.

He was about to load a new clip into the Ripper when he spotted Jya sticking an explosives pack to the main support leg of a turret tower. Though the turret was still offline, Tak glanced up and found a Stormtrooper leaning out of a window to get a clear shot at the woman.

Takeshi slipped one of his throwing vibroblades from a sheath on his leg and whipped it at the trooper. It struck the soldier and sunk itself into the man's unprotected throat. He flopped over and started to fall from the window.

"Fall...fall..." muttered Tak.

The dead Stormtrooper stopped, slumped half out of the window.

"Damn it." He called over to Jya. "Blow that tower over! I want that knife back!" Tak dropped back behind cover when two more Stormtroopers and four guards rounded the nearby corner of the building.

[Vergere 1]

Brier ducked as the tower blew, and then she turned as she heard someone coming up from behind them, and with two shots took out both of their rear attackers. "Idiots." She readjusted her goggles over her eyes since they'd slipped earlier, and kept her ears and eyes open for more attacks.

[Rogue 4]

"Just act like you belong here, walk like an Imperial and whatever you do, don't make eye contact." She strode inside with all the crispness of an Imperial officer, and led them over to the closest computer terminal. She turned to Aston. "Plug in. Find out where we need to go to do our thing."

[Ayingel 24]

Szen followed diligently, keeping a hardened face with her hands behind her back.

"I trust this shouldn't take long."

She eyed Aston before glancing at the rest of the room.

[Drake 53]

Takeshi slipped back behind the fallen tower. The dead Stormtrooper was hanging out of the window, now at the top side of the tower. He lay wedged between the turret and the edge of the window, with the vibroblade still sticking out of his throat. Tak peeked over the edge and was met by blaster fire.

He fired back then hopped up and yanked the blade free while the Stormtroopers were occupied with the others of the group.

Tak was about to fire again when he heard the clanking coming from behind the Imperial position. He dropped down behind the tower and shuffled over to the side. From this angle, he could see the wardroids as they made their approach. They were of no model that Tak had seen before. There were only five that he could see but they were large. Each was a few feet taller than a human but were very bulky, covered with thick armour shielding. Their heads were vaguely humanoid in appearance but were blocky from the plating and had red eyes. One arm ended with a large robotic hand while the other sported what looked to be a blaster cannon. Each weapon had two barrels: the top one smaller and the bottom one larger.

The Stormtoopers fell back as the wardroids stepped up. Tak's eyes widened as the large bottom barrels of the droids' blasters began to glow white-hot and bright with an energy charge-up.

"Fall back now!" He shouted. Tak began to run and jumped behind a slab of metal just as one of the wardroids fired its heavy weapon. The ball of energy hit the downed tower, which Takeshi was just using for cover, reducing it to molten slag and sending fiery debris in all directions. Tak could feel the heat from the energy wash past. "Get back. GO!" he ordered.

The group quickly ran back out of the blasted gates and into the streets beyond, followed by streams of fully automatic blaster fire. In a matter of moments, they were clear of the south entrance. Hoods and bandanas were thrown into an alley trash bin and incinerated. Before the Stormtroopers could sufficiently rally and set up a cordon of the area, the four Revenants were already back up the emergency stairs and turbolift and in their room.

Tak sat down on the couch with a sigh. "Anybody want to venture a guess as to what those droids were?"

Jya shook her head. "New model. I've never seen anything like it. That blast cannon was a killer, though. Probably requires a cooldown before another shot. The other weapon was some kind of repeater carbine. They were built like tanks too. It would take a well-placed grenade or explosive pack to punch through that armour."

Tak looked to Jaim and Brier. "Have either of you heard anything about these?"

Both shook their heads. That meant that the Imperials had kept the production of these new wardroids a top-priority secret.

Tak nodded. "I think we may have found an additional target for the squadron. We need to locate and take out those droid foundaries."

[Vergere 1]

"That's for sure." Brier lifted up her goggles and wiped at a cut on her cheek before getting up to get some clean water and a cloth to clean the cut before returning to the room where the others were. "Those things were nasty."

[Chickenman 9]

With Arlan's crisis averted, the squadron settled down, and a bored Aeric commed the shuttle accompanying the Revenants.

"How are you guys holding up?"

"Bored as hell, sir. When do we insert?"

Aeric checked his chronometer. "Hopefully not too long. The other team should have started by now. We're only waiting for the all clear signal."

"I copy."

Aeric settled into his seat.

[Mara 29]

Kaden stifled another yawn while pulling out another ration bar to chew on. Then he picked up his datapad again to go over some old sim missions and stats, anything to keep his brain focused on what was to come.

[Ender 8]

Jaim glanced around at his squadmates. "No one thought to pack the rocket launcher this trip?"

[Drake 53]

Jya shrugged and offered Jaim a small smirk. "Not enough room in my carry-on bag."

[Andy 60]

"I'll only be a moment..." Aston said as he plugged his datapad into the terminal. He downloaded the building's schematics and displayed them on his screen, looking for where they had to go.

"Alright," Aston frowned. "It's going to be interesting anyways; we have to go four levels up, and follow the corridor along... Which may sound easy enough, but the route takes us through some pretty busy areas of the base. Lot's of potential for being sussed out unless we're extremely careful."

[Rogue 4]

"Well if it makes you feel any better, you're the one that stands out the least." She smiled at Aston. "Okay, transfer it to your datapad just in case. And let's go."

Once he was finished, they headed in the route Aston indicated to the nearest turbolift. Sliding her card through to grant them access she entered the turbolift and pressed four. It took them up, letting them out on the proper floor, so that all they had left was a length of corridor ahead of them. That, and most of the base's personnel. Everyone just has to keep it cool. It's going to be the extraction that's the fun part.

[Ayingel 24]

Szen kept her composure as the turbolift brought them to the fourth floor. Her eyes widened at the sight of all of the personnel. She slightly leaned over to Layla.

"So this is where everyone went."

And with that, she stepped off.

[Rogue 4]

"you bet, hun. Just like the kid said." She began to lead them down the corridor towards their objective when she realized that she didn't hear the telltale sound of blasters and demolitions anymore. I hope everyone's okay... She thought as she walked through the crowds. They have to be. Tak knows what he's doing. This is probably as much of a blue milk run for him as it seems to be for us. We're both in our element.

"This is the room." Aston said at last. "It should all be through here."

"Be ready to get aggressive, just in case." Layla hit the door access, allowing them to walk inside.

Inside, five men turned to regard them from their stations. "This is a restricted area." The highest in rank said, rising to his feet. "Do you have clearance to be here?"

"Of course we have clearance." Layla said, looking at him as if he were an idiot.

Off to the side, two of them were talking about them."Since when do they let women do man-work anyway...?"

"And kiddo there looks like he should still be holding mommy's hand." The other laughed. Layla tried not to pay them any attention.

"I'll need to see your clearance then." The officer said, approaching her.

Inwardly Layla was smiling, knowing that it was time to have some fun. Outwardly she looked heartbroken. She willed her body to produce more pheromones, and were they visible they would have appeared as an ever expanding cloud around her. I just hope Aston and Szen can handle the pheromones... "You don't trust me?"

The officer looked to her in horror. How had he managed to offend such an attractive woman? She seemed to have flitted right inside his body to snatch his very heart. "Of course I trust you. It's only a matter of protocol..."

She nodded over towards one of the other guards. "I bet if he was here and I was there you wouldn't be asking him for clearance."

"I...well....listen," He raised his hands pacifyingly. "Now now, there's no reason for us to worry about such a silly thing right? How about we forget about it? Would that make you happy dear?"

"Almost..." Layla said, "But what would make me really happy is if you'd all back away from the consoles and throw your blasters in the corner." She grinned. "Now if you do that, I promise you'll get a nice surprise."

[Ayingel 24]

Szen started to find it very hard to keep her attention focused on the men in the room. She didn't know why, but she kept of looking at her...and it was entrancing. Still, she pushed to stay focused, but the harder she tried to resist, the harder it became to resist. Not wanting to give in and break, she looked at Layla, hoping that would be enough

[Rogue 4]

Once the men all threw their blasters to the side, they made quick work out of tying them up, and placing gags over their mouths. "Surprise time boys." Layla said, turning to Szen. "Pump a stun bolt in each of them will you?"

[Ayingel 24]

Szen grin wickedly at Layla.

"Gladly."

Then, turning to the men, she said, "I'll enjoy this." Szen flicked her blaster to stun and from near Layla, shot each of them in the chest.

[Drake 53]

Layla waved Aston forward. "That's your cue, babe."

Aston nodded and quickly took a seat at the largest and most complicated-looking computer terminal there was. Working as fast as he could, the slicer hooked up his datapad and began jacking into the Imperial systems.

"They have some heavy security but it's a little sloppy," he said. "It'll take me a few minutes to bypass these passcodes and firewalls. Then I'll need to find a way into the main network."

In fact, it only took two and a half minutes to get past the firewalls. Now he was clear to work on accessing the sensor network systems.

Aston started talking again, more to himself than the other two. "This is where it gets a little more tricky. Some of this encryption is intense. Might take a bit to work through. No problem though..." He held one hand out to the side while the other continued typing at the computer console and datapad. "Can I get those coords," he paused his work and glanced back at Layla, taking a moment to remember her false name, "Imana?"