Roleplaying: Mercenary Mission One

"Not yet. Kad's trying to establish some communications with the enemy, but he's only buying time for a shot I think. Sooner we get those guns, the sooner we can open them up on the enemy...then we can all go home." Saul entered some commands on his console. "I'm sending you some data on the forward sections. I'm also going to send Frender with you. He's on his way now, about 50 meters behind you present position."

Saul took a breath. "Good luck Gavin."

Meanwhile Frender high tailed it to Gavin's position. The adventurous Ryn merc had always loved getting some hand to hand action with the enemy. Besides blowing things up, it was his second favorite activity.

His breath was a little ragged from putting on so much speed. He literally pushed himself to get there as quickly as possible.

As he approached Gavin, he slowed down to a jog, then to a walk, catching his breath along the way.

"Gavin...ready to go...get some guns." He flashed a big smile in between breaths, eager for action.
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Gavin smiled back at Frendar pleased to see such eagerness. Gavin then turned his attention to the information Saul had sent to his data pad. He pulled out a stylus and began marking which gunnery positions were still in control of the New Republic and the best locations to set up defenses. He then examined the map more closely to figure out how best to approach the enemy position. Fifteen meters ahead he could see the corridor took a 45 degree angle towards the inside of the ship before straightening out again into the twenty or thirty meters of corridor that the forward gunnery positions were in. That gives us five maybe ten meters of space we have to cover before reaching the barricades, but if the troopers are at all skilled with blasters or have any heavy armaments they only need a few meters to mow anything hostile down.

Just a few meters ahead was a door and Gavin examined the map to see where it led. Hmm, it runs parallel to the main corridor and then opens back up to the main corridor right by forward gunnery station two, right behind where the first barricade should be. Its only a maintenance tunnel though so by typical military standards not worth barricading because it only has enough space for people to walk single file. That’s barely enough room for a fully equipped soldier to walk without brushing against the sides.

Gavin laid his datapad on the floor and motioned everyone to huddle around it.

“This is our location here, I believe the enemy will have barricades here.” Gavin said motioning with the stylus

“My plan is to split into two groups. One will go down the main corridor and will try to get them to surrender and if they refuse, which I think is likely, we will attack using flashbangs as cover. The other group will consist of two and will go down this maintenance tunnel here. The tunnel should emerge right behind the first barricade. They will likely have a second set of barricades which they plan to retreat to when the first position is overrun. The maintenance tunnel group is to prevent them from doing just that. Because we will be trapping the defenders in a pincer everyone is to holster their blasters to avoid any friendly fire casualties. After we overcome this line of defenders we’ll deal with the rest with whatever means are most appropriate.”

Gavin turned to look at Frendar and noticed the array of hand to hand equipment he carried in addition to the demolition equipment

“You’re fairly handy with a vibroblade I assume so you’ll lead the maintenance tunnel team. You know Bones Squad better than me so you can pick whoever you want from the squad to go with you or I can assign one of the Dawns to be your partner.”

Gavin then looked at the rest of the group

“Alright everyone check you gear and get anything else you think you’ll need. Get as many flashbangs as you can, I want three to a person minimum, we go in five minutes”

Frender didn't have to think twice about who he wanted with him, he immediately threw a wry smile at Ariel Skannis. "Ariel, you're with me. Lets go get our hand dirty."

"You lead buddy, and I'll follow."

Ariel was a human, even though she grew up on Duro. Before the war she was a freighter captain, and she also just happened to have a penchant for hand to hand combat, especially martial arts.

"All right kung-fu lady, just don't step on my tail."

Both of them grabbed a handful of flashbangs as they came around, then darted off for the maintenance tunnel. The passage was extremely tight with all their combat gear strapped on, but nevertheless they made it into position.

Frender pulled out his comlink. "Dawn leader, this is Skull 2, we are in position."
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The main force had reached the curve in the hall where the New Republic forces had set up their barricade when Frendar’s voice came over Gavin’s helmet comlink

“Understood Skull 2, main force is in position. Beginning video recon of enemy position, will transmit video feed to you, stand by.”

Gavin pulled out his datapad and attached a cable to it. At the end was a small video camera which Gavin held out around the corner. On the datapad view screen Gavin could see about 8 meters back was a stack of grey crates about 1.5 meters high in some areas with window like gaps in the top layer. This aren’t rookies, they’ve set up gunports to fire from that they can duck behind to reload. Behind that he could make out a second barricade of boxes, much lower than the first so that the retreating troops could easily jump over them. Gavin taped a button on the datapad which sent the video feed to Frendar

“Republic forces this is Captain Vendar of the Skar’kla Commando Corps.! Your position will be over run by our superior numbers. Surrender now and your lives will be spared, fight and you will die. The choice is yours what say you?”

“Vendar, this is Lieutenant Draven. We will never surrender to the likes that conspire with the Empire. The tyranny of your masters will die, and so shall you!”

Gavin sighed And I’d hoped they would see logic and avoid useless blood shed. He then turned and nodded to Zoomer who had two flashbangs ready, behind him Ulrand and one of Bones Squad stood with a flashbang in one hand, melee weapons in the other. Gavin took one from Zoomer and switched to his helmet comlink.

“Skull 2, Dawn Leader here, enemy has refused surrender. Prepare to attack on my mark”

Gavin activated his falshbang and threw it, Zoomer’s closely following. As they detonated Gavin leaped up from the crouch he was in and surged forward. As soon as he was around the corner Ulrand and the member of Bones Squad threw their flashbangs. The second flashbang barrage Gavin hoped would ensure that the enemy was unable to fire on the main attack force as they closed on the barricade.

“Skull 2 attack!”

Gavin was now within 5 meters of the first barricade with the rest of the main attack force close on his heals.

The Republic soldiers behind the barricade stood dumb and dazed as the effects of the flashbangs riddled their senses. But a three of them had been wise, or lucky enough, to be wearing riot masks. The three unstunned soldiers leveled their blaster rifles at Gavin's charging forces as they began to squeeze their firing studs.

But the hapless victims had their backs to Frender and Ariel. The Ryn merc bounded toward the soldiers but the wily brunette freighter captain got there first. Ariel grabbed one of the men wearing masks by the back of his skull and jerked his head back. As his exposed throat yielded itself, she snapped a vicious hand chop to his larynx, collapsing the man's windpipe.

By that time Frender finally got to his intended target. Selecting another one of the soldiers wearing masks, Frender took a long, wickedly curved knife and ran it across the man's throat. As the body collapsed to the floor, he whirled around and caught the last masked defender just as a deadly blaster rifle was training on the Ryn's chest. Frender's blade caught the Republic soldier in the neck. He fell to his knees emitting a sick gurgling sound.

Now the other stunned soldiers were snapping to, and Gavin's troops had already cleared the distance. They were about to enter a battle royale of close quarters combat.
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Things seemed to proceed in slow motion as Gavin covered the last few meters, which felt like they might as well have been kilometers, between him and the barricade. He saw Frendar and Ariel exited from the maintenance tunnel and kill at least three of the New Republic soldiers.

Then Gavin found himself at the barricade leaping through one of the gunports he landed on the other side and spun to his left delivering a brutal horizontal slash to the still slightly dazed New Republic soldier. Gavin turned and saw Zoomer leaping through another one of the gunports. He landed slightly crouched and pivoted to face a soldier who lunged with the vibrobayonet fixed to his blaster rifle. Zoomer used his pivoting motion to dodge out of the way of the bayonet, grabbing the soldier’s wrist with his left hand to pulling the soldier off balance and delivered a punch with his right hand which launched the trooper into the barricade with a sickening thwack. He then finished his attack by wrestling the blaster rifle out of the falling trooper’s hands and firing it into the now defenseless trooper’s torso at point blank range.

Gavin turned his attention back to his own fight as he saw a New Republic trooper coming at him from his side with a raised vibrosword. Gavin spun to face the trooper and parried the blow from the vibrosword as it arched downward. Unlike some mercenaries Gavin had fought who had bloated images of their skills Gavin could tell this was an experienced swordsman from the way he recovered from Gavin’s parry and assumed a defensive stance that would play to the large vibrosword’s weight. Gavin likewise moved into a defensive stance that would allow him to utilize his vibroblade’s lighter weight to perform quick, though less powerful, strikes. I’ve wondered if I had managed to keep my edge in sword fighting, now I guess I’ll find out

Ariel and Frender continued to clean up the remains of the barricade's defenders, now with the full force of Gaven's Dawn Flight. With the handful of hardcases already taken care of, the rest of the dazed and shocked Republic troopers were easily detained and put down. The ones who weren't wearing full storm gear were too disoriented to put up a real fight. Frender and Ariel simply tossed and slammed them to the ground then quickly binded their hands and feet to immobilize them.

Frender noticed a few of the Republic troops still trying to put up a fight, swinging wildly as their sense rolled from the temporary blindness and deafness from the flash bangs. But what caught his eye was Gavin engaging in a sword fight with one remaining nutjob of a Republic marine.

"First sword fight I've seen in a maybe twenty years...talk about old school." He muttered out loud.
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The Republic Marine moved forward and in the same motion made a brutal horizontal cut towards Gavin’s head which he just barely managed to avoid by ducking. This guy is decently skilled with sword play, he’s not at all off balance from missing despite the weight of the vibrosword. Gavin rose from his crouch and dodged to his left as the Marine delivered a diagonal follow-up blow towards the floor space that Gavin had occupied moments before. Acting on instinct Gavin quickly slashed to his right and slightly behind as he regained his footing after dodging and was rewarded with feel of the tip of his vibroblade biting into the Marine’s forearm.

As they both turned once again to face each other Gavin saw the Marine clutching his arm with his left hand, a thin stream of blood trickling between his fingers. “You’ll have to do better than that merc scum, I’ve had worse” the Marine said in a taunting voice. He’s baiting me to do something stupid Gavin then noticed a momentary twitch in the Marine’s right eye Ahh, so that’s it he’s trying to deceive me into thinking the wound is a very minor flesh wound when it isn’t.

“And I’ve seen Hutts with more skill with the blade than you, come get me.” Gavin said in an equally taunting tone and took a defensive stance holding his vibroblade in front and perpendicular to him with the tip of the blade pointing at about throat level.

The Marine let out a howl of pure rage and lunged forward throwing all his strength into a brutal downward chop that looked like it could even knock a wookiee off balance if blocked. Gavin sidestepped to his right but rose his blade up to block the blow in case the Marine redirected his motion. As the two blades just barely made contact on the tip of Gavin’s vibrosword but Gavin agained stepped to his right putting him directly to the left of the Marine and in the same motion whipped the pommel of the vibrosword into the Marine’s jaw. The corridor filled with a load crack as the metal of the pommel made contact with bone. The Marine staggered and fell to one knee, and looked up just in time to see Gavin deliver his second blow which fell diagonally across the Marine’s torso from the left side. The Marine, now severly wounded fell backwards onto the floor and Gavin stepped on the Marine’s right wrist before he could securely grab his vibrosword to deliver a strike at Gavin’s shins. The Marine howled with pain and Gavin realized his boat was firmly dug into his opponents forearm wound.

“Surrender you are beaten” Gavin said firmly pointing the tip of his vibroblade at his fallen opponents throat. The Marine moved his lips as if to speak but instead just let his head fall back onto the floor and laid there moaning.

“Bind him and get a medic here to see if his wounds are treatable.” Gavin said, addressing no specific member of the group

“Yes sir” said a slightly shaky voice. It took Gavin a moment to recognize it as Ulrands. Surveying the rest of the barricade and satisfied to see that all resistence seemed to have been crushed for the moment Gavin pulled out a rag from his utility belt and began cleaning off his vibroblade.

“Let’s see if we can’t find this Lieutenant Draven to see if he’d like to reconsider surrendering or offer any useful advice. Secure the guns before anyone gets the idea to sabotage the controls them.”
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((Seeing that this thread has gone dormant, I shall try and continue on. Please feel free to join back in. Smile

))

Gavin interrogated Lieutenant Draven and quickly received the formal surrender of the remaining Republic troops on the ship. Frender let out a sigh and was finally able to relax a bit.

The ship was secure.

But now they had to finish the battle. The Skar'kla commandos promptly manned the guns on the Republic ship and prepared to finish off the last remaining Republic vessels. A lone gunship was closing in on them. With such a short distance between them, the shoot would be fierce.

Frender clinched his jaw in resolution. Taking command of a gun battery, he positioned his men and had them train their guns on the gunships shield housing.

"Take good aim men, and once the shooting starts, don't let up. Once their shields are down, we'll shift fire to the bridge or port side batteries."

Time slipped slowly as the silent countdown continued.

"Steady...steady..." The silence hanged like the shadow of death, "FIRE!"

And then the silent black space between the two ships erupted into a blizzard of green and red turbolaser beams.
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Gavin had moved up to the bridge and was busy examining the communications station for any valuable information that could be sold on the black market. After all if the Imps take control of the ship they’ll naturally wipe the memory of any valuable information before they turn the ship back over to us. Gavin looked up from the monitor and reflected for a moment IF they return the ship to us, and that might be a big if.

Gavin returned to looking at the monitor and pulled out his datapad and several datacards. These are the latest codes the New Republic is using, certainly will fetch a good price on the black market, but will be even more useful to me. Just then the ship rocked as the first volleys were exchanged. Warning klaxons began going off in the bridge as the shields absorbed the damage. People began scrambling to stations.

“Reinforce the shields; draw all remaining power from the inoperable gun batteries to do so if you have to. Our shields must hold!” Shouted one of the Skar’kla Commando officers.

Just then Gavin began picking up messages at his communications station which was still set to the New Republic military frequency. “The gunship has just alerted the remaining New Republic ships to our ‘treachery’”

The sensor opporator chimed in almost at the same time “I’ve got an unknown vessel, fighter class from the looks of things, closing rapidly.”
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Without the element of surprise, their chances of eliminating the last remaining Republic gunship were slim and none. The wounded Hailstorm was still trading devastating blows with the [/i]Glitterclaw[/i], along with the commandos' gunship.

Technically the duel between the two Republic gunships should be even since they were identical models. However, the one the commandos' occupied was damaged, plus it was only partially crewed.

Back at his operations center setup, Saul Razaar managed to get Tempest Flight on the com.

"...Pajji, we need strafing runs on that last gunship. We can't kill it alone in a straight up gunfight, and unless the Hailstorm drops off the grid in the next few minutes, your are only hope. The only way we can make this work is if you can nail their bridge hard enough to make them flinch."

Paiji's refined, aristocratic voice replied. "Will give it our best Saul. Stay in there and hold on. We'll win this thing yet."

Saul wondered about that. They might very well win this battle, but he wasn't sure whether he'd be around for the victory toast.
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Gavin put his datapad and datacards away, and began wiping the comm. stations memory of the information he had copied Some of this stuff we can sell for an extra profit, but it will only be valuable so long as we’re the only ones that have it. We might even be able to sell it to Thrawn if we play our cards right.

Gavin then looked out of the bridge and saw three small ships closing on the rear of the New Republic gunship. Even though they were relatively far away he could see one of them had engine damage from the steady flickering of light coming from the rear of the ship. Moments later the trio of ships opened firing, and despite the battle damage Gavin knew they must have suffered he could see no significant decrease in the lethality of their fire.

Out of the starboard viewport he could see that the Glitterclaw was slowly hammering away at the Hailstorm. While it looked like both commanders had given up trying to out maneuver each other and had settled for a straightforward slugging match Gavin couldn’t tell at the moment who was winning and only hoped that the New Republic commander would surrender soon. At this point I don’t care what the terms are so long as they give up and I make it out of here alive.
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((OOC: I'm ready for the New Republic's surrender. I guess we need Jedi Christopher to finish things off...))
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((OK, since alot of stuff has happened since I posted last, let's suppose Aden has made his way back to the Glitterclaw on the med runner))

The medical shuttle touched down on the deck of the Glitterclaw, and as the ramp lowered, Aden hurried as fast as he could towards the turbolifts. After the fighting, he felt like he'd been hit by a stampede of banthas. He'd gotten out of shape commanding the fleet from the bridge.

Two minutes later, he was on the bridge, hand pressed against his throbbing side. Head pounding, lungs screaming for more air, he pulled off his helmet with his free hand. Captain Tistell was standing near the view port, shouting orders, acting as crisp and proper as she always did. She turned at the site of him. “Are we done playing commando, sir? Because the Republic fleet just issued a cease-fire to they're ships. They want a link to you. They want to surrender."

A Lieutenant appeared on the screen. “Commander of the Skar'kla Commandos, we're done with this. We surrender. We just lost our commander in a decompression. Take out ships... just let our crews go. We've got enough shuttles to get everyone of the ships." Aden thought it over. " Very well, Lieutenant. You and you're crew may abandon ship. I'll have boarding crews ready to take control. If I find this has been some sort of hoax, then I'll blow you're shuttles to the other side of Kessel. Got that?"

The Lieutenant nodded. “At this point, sir, we just want out with our lives." Aden smiled. “You made the right choice, then."

Cheers erupted from the bridge. This battle was almost done. And it had turned out even better than he had hoped.
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Gavin was diligently watching the communications traffic at his comm station, secretly wishing there was some way he could do more to help bring about victory, when a transmission from the Glitterclaw popped up on his screen. Gavin quickly keyed the button that linked him to Saul's command station "Saul, Gavin here. We've got an incoming transmission from the Glitterclaw. I'm rerouting the incoming signal to you."

Gavin pressed a few buttons so that the transmission would be retransmitted from the ship's main communications post to Saul's command station. A few seconds later an image of Commander Kad appeared on Gavin's screen

"Attention Skar'kla Commandos, at this moment negotiations for the surrender of the New Republic Fleet are underway..."
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