Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Ayingel 24]

"Good." Szen replied as she continued firing on the generators. "Wouldn't want them to tell everyone else we're here." Just as she finished speaking, an explosion went off in one of the generators. Comet chirped. "No kidding that was just in time."

[Rogue 4]

"Revenants, form up." Nat's voice came over the comm. He didn't speak unless it was important, but the rest of the group seemed about as talkative as he was. What was important was that the mission was going smoothly. "Now that their defenses are down I want you to focus on the main buildings. We're going to start with the ammunition building."

[Drake 53]

Aeric quad-linked his lasers on the second pass, blasted through the sheilding on the second generator and destroyed the core within. He and Szen brought their X-Wings around. Jya and Nima had already returned from destroying the comm towers and were now mopping up the last remnants of starfighter resistance.

So far into Imperial territory, Aeric thought to himself, These pilots aren't combat veterans. They're probably just Planetary Guard. Part-time recruits... Over the comm, he said, "The shielding over the main factory complex is too heavy. Proceed to landing coordinates and prepare for infiltration."

Aeric brought his starfighter low to the ground and set it down on one of the large landing pads built for transports that would fill their holds with new starfighters. It would suit the needs of the mission now, as it supplied a direct and largely undefended entrance into the starfighter production facility.

After setting his X-Wing to idle and grabbing the gear he needed, Aeric popped the canopy and climbed out.

***

The four Revenants of Flight Three quickly took out the rest of the defensive turrets and the Boomer droids stationed along the wall surrounding the factory. Since the droids were rather cumbersome and fired slow-moving plasma bursts, they were ineffective against the aerial attack, they were easily defeated.

"Three and Four, make your run on those towers. Two and I will clear us a landing zone."

Tak and Arlan split off from Layla and Atuarre, taking their X-Wings down low to the ground behind the wall. There were several tanks and dozens more wardroids surrounding the facility but the tank operators were hardly prepared for this surprise attack and the Boomers fell victim to their speed weakness once again. Soon, the two Revenants had picked off most of the ground forces and were circling back to the landing coordinates while Layla and Atuarre finished off their part of the mission.

[Rogue 4]

"Copy that, Lieutenant. I've got your wing, Four." Layla replied, pursing her lips as she turned her X-wing towards the nearest of the remaining anti-air turrets. She switched over to quad lasers, hoping to punch through the towers quickly, so they could proceed with the rest of the mission. Her storm gray eyes were focused as she juked and jinked to avoid the turret fire, using her shields to cover both her and Atuarre so the sniper could make the shot. Layla knew her wingmate was more accurate than she was, and speed was of the essence.

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

"Copy, Blades." Atuarre swung her fighter in tandem with Layla's, grateful for her wingmate's shields overlapping her own. She armed a proton torpedo and let it fly. It struck precisely where she intended in a weak point in the tower. The structure crumbled in a cloud of dust and rained durrecrete on the complex below. Maximum damage. One down. "So, Blades, when does the hard part start?" she asked teasingly over the comm.

how many towers are there? was i snoozing during that part of the briefing? ;)

[Drake 53]

Takeshi landed his X-Wing amidst Atuarre questioning him. Peering over the nose of his fighter, he could see several security personnel running out of the base and taking up firing positions behind a pair of deactivated binary load lifters.

He grabbed his weapons, flicking the safeties off his blasters. Grinning he replied, "I don't recall saying there would be a hard part, now did..." he trailed off as a pair of Boomer droids stepped out of the docking bay entrance and trained their weapon arms on him. "Uhh...scratch that. Maybe now!" Tak was about to fire up his X-Wing's weapons when a burst of quad-laser fire hammered into the durasteel plating of one of the wardroids. It's chest blossomed with internal explosions and fire. A moment later, the second fell to a similar fate.

Arlan's starfighter set down next to Takeshi's.

"Great shooting, Two!"

[Princess 35]

Nima swung around the building with Szen and aimed for where Aeric had just landed. "This seems too easy." She muttered and then could have kicked herself for even thinking that. She landed, popped her hatch and grabbed her bag of gear.

[Vergere 1]

Brier just leaned back at the table, listening to the discussions of the other officers and imputing her own 'ideas' from time to time, but gathering intelligence the entire time, conciously or not. She takes their words and commits them to memory for later, in case for some odd reason the conversation proves to contain valuable information.

[Mara 29]

"Yes, sir," Kaden clicked his comm and toggled his sensor display to light up the ammunitions building. He arced his fighter around to get a better look at the building with his naked eye, looking for the best, most economical area to target with his lasers.

"Hold on to your gears, Artie..."

The droid chirped shortly and quickly reverted his attention back to the mission and his job, also analyzing the building for weak or easily exploitable locations.

[Rogue 4]

As the group flew towards the ammunition building however, Nat's astromech droid Ven let out an electronic equivalent of "Uh oh." A cursory glance at the sensor boards showed why. "Revenants, pull up! The building's are shielded, I repeat! The targets are now shielded!" He pulled the nose of his own fighter up, avoiding the invisible shields protecting their targets.

[Bad furday 57]

Arlan popped the canopy and clambered out, taking cover alongside his ship.

"It's to my benefit to keep you safe. I don't want to know what Layla would do to me if I let anything happen to you!"

Arlan trained his blaster on the hiding security personnel, while turning to await the lieutenant's orders.

[Mara 29]

Artie was just spotting the same as Kaden barrel-rolled his X-wing away to port, going to the side of the building.

"Artie, quick, find the generators..." He moved to form up with the rest of the flight.

[Ender 8]

Something impacted Jaim's starboard engine as he pulled up and away from the buildings, sending his X-wing into an uncontrolled spiral. Not even taking the time to send off a mayday, Jaim hit his ejection pad and shot up into the air, leaving his flaming snubfighter to crash in the jungle.

Luckily, his chute still worked, and he was able to collapse in a heap in a clearing, not far from the facility. After lying still for a few minutes, he rolled over with a groan.

"Not your best landing, Adarra..." he said with a cough, bringing up some blood with it. With some effort, he was able to sit up and cut his chute free. Tugging off his helmet and flight gloves, Jaim grabbed his comlink from his belt, only to find the casing cracked and a faint buzzing coming from within.

Swearing, Jaim threw it aside. He'd have to do the job on his own.

Edited March 25, 2008 by Ender

[Mara 29]

"Twelve...?" Kaden shifted in his seat to look behind him for his wingmate, hoping that his equipment was indeed malfunctioning. But it wasn't. Kriff...

Artie trilled something like "Oh, well," then got back to work looking for the source of the shields.

Kaden grit his teeth and forced himself to remain calm.

[Rogue 4]

Nat's lekku writhed in concern and disconcert as Jaim's fighter blinked off the screen. He flicked on the comm, "Twelve, do you hear me?" He repeated himself before asking, "Eleven, did you get a visual on what happened?"

[Drake 53]

Takeshi slid out of his X-Wing, landing in a crouch before ducking behind his forward landing strut as blaster fire peppered the ground he just occupied. There were seven security officers hidden behind the loadlifters, occasionally popping up to fire at Arlan and Tak's positions.

Peering out for a moment before ducking back to cover, Tak took in the situation and broke down his options in a matter of seconds. He realized that his current position was not optimal for succesfully neutralizing the Imperials and that he would need to get between the two starfighters before being able to do anything constructive.

He opened his commlink. "Arlan, I need some cover fire. Distract them while I make my move then get down, close your eyes and cover your ears. Now!"

The Lieutenant counted to three before Arlan started firing sporadically and somewhat randomly at the security forces. Once they shifted their focus and fire to the droid expert, Tak slipped out from behind the landing strut and rolled out into the open space between the two X-Wings. As he came up into a crouch, Takeshi rolled a stun grenade between each of the two loadlifter's legs.

A shot lanced out and struck Tak in the shoulder, knocking him to the ground. He grunted, closed his eyes and covered his ears right before the stun grenades went off. An intense flash of light followed by a pair of sonic blasts were enough to knock out the security forces.

Sitting up, Tak inspected the damage to himself. A blaster shot had impacted his chest near his shoulder. The body armour had taken the hit, leaving a small scorched and smoking pockmark.

"All clear. You okay over there, Arlan?" he called over to the droid expert.

[Rogue 4]

Layla and Atuarre finished off the last tower, then came around to land. Layla landed her ship smoothly, reaching under her seat for her combat supplies. She strapped the belt with her blasters across her hips, and popped open the canopy of the fighter. She took off her helmet, placing it on the seat and looked to her droid. "You know the drill Sexy. Watch the fighter hun."

Sexy tweetled in annoyance.

"And don't give me any lip either!" She said, dropping down to the ground below. Pulling her blaster from it's holster, she made her way over to Tak and Arlan, Atuarre on her heels. "You boys weren't having too much fun without us, were you?"

[Drake 53]

"Far too much fun, I'm afraid," said Tak. "I got shot and the fun times just spiralled out of control. It's a good thing you two showed up to put a stop to it."

He winked.

[Rogue 4]

Layla's mischievous storm gray eyes suddenly looked concerned. "You got shot?!"

[Drake 53]

"Oh yeah," Tak said, pointing to the charred spot on his chest. "Armour took the hit though. No need to worry." He looked over the members of his team, ensuring they had their gear and were ready, then turned to the entrance of the building before them. According to intel, this was the primary entrance for maintenance droids and personnel. It would have direct access to the droid foundaries.

"You guys know the drill. We go in fast, plant the charges, then get out. Quick and easy. Just don't get shot."

The doors leading into the complex slid open, granting them access. Either the Imperials had yet to initiate a lockdown or they had something better in store for the intruders. Taking a few moments before going further, the four Revenants set several trip mines around the entry hallway.

"Nice surprise for anyone trying to get to our ships," Tak noted. "We can remotely deactivate them in case we have to make a hasty escape." Looking down the hall he said, "Let's get moving."

Edited March 25, 2008 by Drake

[Rogue 4]

Layla whistled appreciatively at the trip mines. "Perhaps our Lieutenant earned his rank after all." She winked.

She double checked the power-pack on her blaster before moving down the hall. She looked kind of comical, the small Zeltron woman carrying a large blaster rifle in both arms. "And let's just hope that when they decide to start shooting, they don't hit the explosives. I'd rather take a hit to the armor personally."

[Bad furday 57]

"I'd rather not be hit at all." stated Arlan. He slung his pack over his shoulder and followed the others down the hall.

The hallway was brightly lit, by Imperial standards. Large glow panels were placed every other ceiling tile, giving the floor below

sections of light and shade.

Arlan thought that if anyone ran really quickly down the hall, they might have a siezure.

The four Revenants stealthily hurried down the hallway. Beyond it, they could see an open foyer, with lifts for various departments, as well as an information desk.

The job would have been easier if all the doors in the hall didn't have small windows embeded in them. Normally, this would have been a routine 'sneak down the hallway' affair. However, the designers' desire to add a touch of class worked against the infiltrators.

"This would have been easier if all the doors in the hall didn't have small windows embedded in them!" growled Atuarre. Being the tallest of the team, the Trianii was walking on all fours. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem for the feline-like species, except that she had to place her weapons and bag of explosives on her back, where they were threatening to fall off.

The humanoid members of the team were nearly bent double, in order to avoid passing infront of the windows.

Arlan briefly considered imitating Atuarre's on-all-fours walk.

"We could call it, 'Walk Like a Trianii!" he thought.

[Ayingel 24]

Szen landed her X-wing and jumped out. Comet beeped. Szen looked up as she was checking her gear. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. We'll have more...bonding...time later." She hurried up to meet Aeric and Nima. She pulled her blaster from her belt and checked the settings before placing it back into the holster.

[Drake 53]

While the rest of his team landed and joined him and Nima on the landing platform, Aeric scanned the surrounding area, looking out for any more potential threats. Aside from the ever-looming possibility of more enemy fighters being called in, there were none that he could see.

Once Szen and Jya had joined them, Aeric led the way up to the entrance. The largest opening was a huge set of durasteel doors set inside a docking apron, which would open and extend to couple with transport ships. There was also a smaller door, off to the side of the platform, for the ship and factory crews to come and go. The Revenants went to that one.

It was locked down.

Aeric stepped to the side and motioned to their demolitions expert to setp forward. "Jya. An entry, please."

***

Takeshi slowed to a stop, raising his hand to signal the rest of the team to do the same. The light shining from the small doorway windows had suddenly changed from the cool and bright fluorescent lighting of offices and meeting rooms to the warm diffused glow cast by fires and molten durasteel.

He crouched, with his back up against the wall, beneath the window and pulled a small, thin metal rod from his utility belt. From one end, he pulled out a small length of cable and from the other, he extended the clearly collapsable rod to nearly two feet long. Turning to Layla he gestured to her with an open palm, then tapped the palm with the fingers of his other hand, as though pushing buttons.

Layla nodded and passed him a datapad. Tak plugged the wire from the metal rod into the datapad and immediately a darkened image of the hallway appeared on the screen. Turning the rod slightly, the image changed to that of the other three members of the team. Showing them the video feed from the small camera in the tip of the rod, Tak made a gesture with two fingers pointing them first at his eyes then up toward the window. He was telling them that he was going to use the camera to see what was on the other side of the window.

The Lieutenant raised the camera up until the tip passed the edge of the window. The feed view on the datapad revealed a massive factory floor filled with conveyor belts, hanging racks and construction machinery, all of which were moving in harmony as they built hundreds of droids en masse. Tak turned and angled the camera around, getting a good view of the facility.

After a few long moments, he lowered the camera and collapsed the rod. After he disconnected the cable and returned the device to his belt, he gave Layla back her datapad and said softly, "Big place. We don't have enough explosives to take it all down. We'll need to find the droid ordnance bays. If we detonate the plasma canisters, the blast should be enough to level most of this building. Another thing: they have a security team and a few Boomers waiting for us in the factory complex. Another reason not to go in there. We need to go two levels down. We can't trust the turbolifts. Stairs are at the end of this hall."

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

Suddenly Atuarre regretted her flippant remark about a "hard part." This mission was becoming more and more "fun"--as Beskar had put it--by the minute. She was used to having more cover than this; trees, brush, large rocks, but not sneaking down a hallway full of windows.

"So what are our chances of running into a few heath-conscious Imps? Or do the lazy bums always take the turbolifts?"