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Post by Jalua Solast on Jul 21, 2009 1:43:17 GMT
The Joint Reaction Force was in with the Reapers. These were the very best the Coalition had to offer. Out of millions of troops, only the best mentally and physically was chosen. In total, one-hundred and twenty men and women formed the group, which was trained to use any weapon they would ever come across, from an enemies hands if necessary, tortured and trained on how to resist it and techniques to improve themselves mentally and all of the usual biological and weapons training. They didn't just know their environment, they thrived in it. Forty of them was on the transport, others was scattered throughout the galaxy from hunting Sith to protecting areas of interest or gathering intelligence for assassinations and pitched battles.
On other shuttles were the Naval Strike Commandos, the Naval Special Forces, they had their Void Regiment with them to help strike from space itself. The Army had also brought in some specialist squads to help with the close-quarter fighting on the mining station and possibly some vessels too. In total, there was around four hundred soldiers which were simply the best of the best. They were the finest amongst millions, a small select group.
The Naval Strike Commandos were the first to land, the ramp lowered within seconds on their modified transports and they separated out, counter-attacking the enemy positions in the hanger bay and overcoming them within a few more valuable seconds. They were the largest of all the groups brought in by the Coalition, apart from the Marines of course which were still stationed on the fleet ready to deploy. They headed out from the hangerbay down the main shaft and entered the main facility. Their vessel storming training had paid off, they effectively and quickly eliminated the resistance waiting for them, showing no mercy on their quest to find the Empress. Amongst them was the Army's squadron, they also headed out to try and locate the Empress, but had no luck in the cells.
Meanwhile, the Void Regiment had cut out a portion of the mining station's outer hull and got themselves inside the facility, spreading out and eventually meeting up with the other marines and soldiers. On their way back to the hanger bay, they did a quick search while they radioed back to the fleet. "No luck Admiral, she must be in one of those shuttles" said the Captain, already heading back into the transports which had brought them to the station. Sure enough, the remaining Void Regiment was on the case, storming what shuttles they could before they reached hyperspace. The R-Wings were doing a fantastic job of keeping the shuttles pinned and their escorts while Chariots raced to stop the rest from fleeing. Eventually the Naval Strike Commandos also launched.
Ahead of all these groups however, was the Joint Reaction Force, with the Reapers. At the head of them was Colonel Iram, who turned to Dan Zorko. "I want to tell you something before we go in there. But you need to keep your mind focused on the job" she looked at the helmet but decided not to wait for a reaction from it. "I had blood samples taken once i had met the Empress, I found out that I am related to her. I'm her sister" she gave him time to think about this for a moment, wondering what he might say.
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Post by Dan Zorko on Jul 21, 2009 1:47:40 GMT
Dan cocked his head. "Congrats, I'm happy for you, but how is that going to really distract me from the mission at hand?" he asked, confused.
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Post by Jalua Solast on Jul 21, 2009 1:50:20 GMT
"Because" she said, a smile on her face. She had the helmet under her arm, but she saw other soldiers preparing to equip theirs. "I'm going to be an Aunty". With that, she put her helmet on and her suit powered up, her helmet giving her and the suit a systems check.
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Post by Dan Zorko on Jul 21, 2009 1:55:03 GMT
Dan paused. He looked at the ground, looked up, looked back down again, then finally reached up and took his helmet off. He set the helmet on the ground, and grabbed Colonel Iram by the shoulders. Turning her so she was looking directly at him, he said "Say that agian, but slower this time please."
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Post by Jalua Solast on Jul 21, 2009 2:08:12 GMT
Colonel Iram chuckled and picked up Dan's helmet. "Keep alert and alive Admiral, it looks like someone else will be needing you too". With that, the colonel proceeded to the front of the transport, using the railings to support her walk to the front. She looked back and saw her soldiers ready in front of the reapers, they had gotten into the transport last because they knew they would get out first. "Standby for boarding!" she shouted and heard the readying of forty short blasters, perfect for close-quarters combat. "NSC boarding two transports, ours is believed to be prime. Proceed with standard procedure and rescue the Empress. Void Squadron will be hunting Nubai" she said into her helmet, letting the others in her regiment know what was happening outside the transport. Soon enough, they reached their target, a long white transport, looked like an old cruise liner converted into a supply ship. Readying her weapon, Col. Iram slammed the button above her and the ramp began to lower, but not before the transport slammed into the side of the shuttle. With a huge transport in the side, they could no longer go into hyperspace, not only that, it meant the defenders didn't get a clear shot at them as they spread out. The Force-field protecting the inside of the transport faltered after the collision and Colonel Iram charged forwards with her soldiers, shooting fast but with brilliant accuracy at the few defending soldiers. Taking up positions, they progressed forwards with no mercy, already sticking charges onto closed blast doors and within seconds having a smoking gap to run through. Turning right towards the main hallway stretching along the ship, they soon came under immense fire. "Zorko, I need your men up here to cover us!" she shouted, realising that she would need to lead her squad of six forwards along this route, luckily, they had lots of explosives to do the job. Meanwhile, more of the Joint Reaction Force was spreading with Reapers across the ship, taking an aggressive but controlled approach to clear out rooms and check them to see if the Empress was not at the back of the shuttle like expected from the life-scans of the ship.
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Post by Dan Zorko on Jul 21, 2009 16:05:35 GMT
Dan jammed his helmet back on. "You heard the lady! Reaper 1, with her, Reaper 2, with the JRF!" Both Reaper 1 and 2 were made up of 20 Reapers each, 10 with regular AVALON armor and weapons, 10 with AVALON/s armor, and their wrist weapons. Dan moved up with Colonel Iram, helping clear the defenders as they made their way up. As they moved, a Black Guard soldier popped out out of an alcove, and started to fire at the approaching group. Activating his armor, Dan went invisible, and snuck up behind the man. He grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck, raised him in the air, and with his free hand, slit the man's throat with his wristblade.
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Post by Jalua Solast on Jul 21, 2009 17:33:50 GMT
The JRF was equally vicious, storming forwards, jumping over makeshift cover and slicing the enemy to bits or shooting them into stardust. They continued forwards and shot down resistance, until finally, the tactics seemed to change. Instead of openly fighting and losing, the Black Guard was waiting for the attackers, in ambush zones. The JRF changed tactics, quietly moving forwards but when entering a possible ambush site, racing forwards and using surprise together with their agility to stun their opponents and shoot them down. The same tactic was used for rooms, sneak up to the doorway and sprint into the room, gaining distance from the entrance and then shooting whoever was turning their weapons towards you. It worked well in the smaller corridors of the shuttle, searching each room desperately.
Finally, Iram crouched with her shoulders on the corner of another corridor. "Dan" she whispered, calling him over, "I've tweaked my sensors. They are picking up heartbeats in all of these rooms, but there is two heartbeats, one strong and another quiet echo in the background. It should be her, but she is surrounded". Her gloved hand came off the barrel and indicated down the corridor and then with her finger, to the right. "Second from last room, on the right. Every room's got people inside though, we cannot prove they are not armed, so treat them like they are". With a round-up hand signal, she crouched silently forwards, quite slow along the carpeted flooring. She took the door next to the room she had indicated, her plan was simple. The room she was about to enter was a storage room, she would go in and kill the one life form in there silently. Then her squad would place a frame charge along the wall and detonate it from outside, giving them a new entry point and giving them the element of surprise.
Pulling out a canister, she planted it near the door and pulled out the ring. A light green gas emitted from the can, it was a toxin that when inhaled, would produce a thought disturbing effect. Essentially, the subject would become confused and unable to make decisions, exactly what she needed. Although all of them were wearing helmet's which protecting them from the gas, it slipped easily under the door and with such distance from the canister, the gas would not be seen. Sure enough, by checking her wrist display, Colonel Iram could see that the heart rate had fallen and decided to act. Grabbing a smoke grenade from her belt, she silently entered the room and walked towards the unarmed civilian. Being unable to think properly, he just stood there, staring at her, he couldn't have been older than sixteen. She walked around him and grabbed his mouth, opening it wide while stuffing the smoke grenade inside. With her finger along the side of the canister, she pulled the ring back and out, and sure enough, the smoke entered his mouth, lungs and bloodstream, slowly choking him to death. Dragging him out of the room, the smoke could be seen spilling out from the sides of his mouth with the canister firmly shoved into his throat, just the back of the grenade visible. Another squad member entered with a frame charge, and stuck it quietly to the wall, unrolling the detonation cord and indicating the three second countdown with his gloved fingers. He formed a fist and the device exploded violently. Blaster fire was shot through the doors of the surrounding rooms in the corridor to stop the others from coming out and ambushing the Reapers or Joint Reaction Force. Four soldiers including Colonel Iram rushed through the gap in the wall while another two kicked the door in and also opened fire. In total, nine bodies lay dead on the ground, but there was more footsteps. "Dan! Give me cover!" she shouted, furiously kicking at the bathroom door to try and rescue her sister, while hopefully the two elite forces would provide enough firepower to keep the counter-attacking Black Guard at bay.
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Post by Dan Zorko on Jul 21, 2009 17:44:46 GMT
Dan and the normal Reapers moved directly behind Colonel Iram, forming a semi-circle. This not only covered the Colonel, it gave them a wide firing arc which kept the enemy pinned. The JRF had taken up position along the sides to provide even more fire to the mix, while the stealthed Reapers moved from room to room, taking down any BG soldier they came across. BG soldier after BG soldier seemingly just appeared to be split in half out of nowhere, or a blaster round appeared in the back of their head as if out of midair.
Dan turned and noted the Colonels progress, which didn't seem to be very much against the locked door. He grabbed her shoulder, and said "Hold on a second." Pulling her back, he raised his arm and placed his fists at 2 points along the frame. He made a slight cocking motion with his arms, and the wrist blasters fired. "Try now." he said, and turned to fire at another BG soldier.
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Post by Jalua Solast on Jul 21, 2009 17:58:48 GMT
Iram nodded and ran up to the door, kicking it once more and watching it half fall to pieces. On the floor tied up with a bag over her head was Jalua. Grabbing a knife, she quickly undid the rope around the bag ready to be used to strangle the Empress and the bag lifted easily off. Cutting her hands and feet free, she pulled her up and took a quick look out of the door. It seemed that there was still blaster fire streaking down the corridor, the bolts zooming past the open door to the room. Luckily for Jalua, Colonel Iram was carrying a blaster which she gave to Jalua, knowing that she would need to help defend herself if they was going to get out of the shuttle. That's when she heard a voice through her helmet. "Get the Empress and your squad out of there Colonel, Void and Strike squads have found timed explosives on other shuttles, its possible yours is set to detonate too". She looked at Jalua, who was still squinting from the bright lights of the room and grabbed her wrist. Pulling her along, she left the room in a hurry, guiding Jalua with her, shooting at three Black Guard militia who was shooting at the ends of the corridor. "We need to go!" she shouted, going forwards with the others, although slightly slower of course. By the time they reached the bottom of the corridor however, it was filled with blaster fire. She lifted her wrist which was showing the heartbeats and walls of the shuttle around them, there was also green and blue dots representing the heartbeats of allied squads. "Take her with you! Get to that squad, they can use your reapers better, we shall hold them off here until you get away!" she shouted, pulling her wrist back down so that she could hold her short blaster rifle with both hands and shoot accurately at the distant militia who was firing quite accurately down the corridor. Crouched down, she fired in bursts, a double-tap so that each tango she hit would be likely to die by the two shots in seconds. With the six members of the JRF here firing down the corridors, it allowed Dan to run with Jalua and his reapers across the corridor and head towards the other squad which had secured their rear but was facing an increasing number of hostiles forwards of their position. The route which Dan would no doubt take, would lead him to the back of these hostiles, giving him the perfect opportunity to free the squad and allow them to escort him to the hanger bay.
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Post by Dan Zorko on Jul 21, 2009 18:08:11 GMT
Dan grabbed Jalua and threw her over his shoulder in a firemans carry. "Move!" he yelled to the Reapers, and they went sprinting down the corridor with the Dan and the Empress in the middle of their formation. Dan activated his helmet comm. "Reaper 2, where are you?" "We're with that squad sir!" came the reply. "We're going to need help soon!" "Hold tight." said Dan. "We're on our way. Just be ready to move." He cut off the comm, and as they skittered around a corner, Dan shifted Jalua to his shoulder so he'd have a free arm. "Left!" he yelled, and the Reapers turned to the left to find themselves at the back of the BG soldiers who were pinning down the squad of JRF and Reapers. Dan threw himdelf into a corner and placed Jalua so he could fire around the wall with his free arm, but his body was shielding her fully. Another Reaper took up the other side of Dan to make sure that the Empress was fully protected. "Fire!" yelled Dan, and the Reapers opened up. With the BG soldiers caught unaware at their flank, they were quickly mowed down by the fire. "Colonel Iram, we've taken care of the BG soldiers." he said over the comm, while picking up Jalua again.
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Post by Jalua Solast on Jul 21, 2009 18:21:22 GMT
Over the roar of the blaster fire, she had to shout to make her words clear. "Good! Take her to the hangerbay! We are tied up here!". She looked at one of the other soldiers who had just turned to avoid blasterfire behind the wall, and looked at the Colonel. "What now?" he asked, taking a quick moment to shoot a couple of shots accurately down the corridor. "The explosives could go out at any moment, I'm going to get the shuttle ready" she replied, which made the soldier wonder what exactly she meant. They were getting pinned by two directions of blaster fire, soon to be three if reinforcements headed down to where Dan had cleared. "This is Iram, get the shuttle directly beside us, ramp lowered and forcefield ready to accept incoming. We're flying out" she yelled into her helmet, she heard a few words but they were disrupted by the blaster fire. "Just do it!" she yelled, not actually hearing what the person on the end had said, but guessing. With a set of explosives, she whacked them onto the inner hull of the shuttle and walked the few short distances to the corner of the corridor where the others was lying or crouched, returning fire at the militia. Tapping them all on their shoulders, she pointed to the explosives and pressed the trigger. The explosion ripped through the shuttle, sending debris out from the side. The great thing was however, was that air was carrying the six out of the shuttle and into space. They could only survive a few seconds in their suits, but that was enough, because the force of the escaping air shot them directly into the opened mouth of the armoured transport which was filled with the Naval Strike Commandos. Seeing the Joint Reaction Force flying towards them must have been a breathtaking sight. They entered through the force-field and immediately dropped to the floor once gravity took affect within the transport. With all six now safely in, Colonel Iram tuned her built-in radio to the frequency of the others in the shuttle, and overheard their chatter. "They are chasing them towards the hanger bay! Let's head back inside!" she yelled to the crew, who were on a bridge-like platform above the soldiers and marines, steering the armoured transport. The platform also stretched along both sides, where turrets were manned to provide fire support. Iram had an idea on what to do with these.
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Post by Dan Zorko on Jul 21, 2009 18:29:18 GMT
Dan, his Reapers, and the newly freed JRF squad were moving as quickly as they could towards the hangarbay. They were moving with JRF and Reapers covering both the front and rear, and unfortunetly, they were both firing at the time. But they hardly slowed down, and more than once a BG soldier was seen to be literally body tackled out of the way and shot. "We need to go faster!" yelled Dan, and the group quickened their pace. Reaching the hangar, they were greeted by a fresh wall of blasterfire. Diving behind some crates, Dan activated his comm. "Colonel, we're here, but we're pinned down. Where's our ride?"
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Post by Jalua Solast on Jul 21, 2009 18:33:45 GMT
"Hang on we're coming!" she shouted, gripping onto a handrail as the transport took a dive into the hangerbay again. There was another shuttle ready for take off, and there was some marines at the doorways shooting at the Black Guard who had obviously entered the small area in force. The armoured transport slowed down and turned, it's side guns firing, causing huge explosions which dealt serious damage to the militia on the ground. She caught a glimpse of a sudden movement from behind some crates as the transport continued turning to head back out of the small hangerbay. "Hurry to that transport!" she shouted into her mic, running up the steps to the bridge where she could look out of where the gunners were firing, to try and see if they made it.
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Post by Dan Zorko on Jul 21, 2009 18:37:16 GMT
Firing back at the doorway as they moved, the group ducked out from behind the crates and sprinted towards the transport. Shots peppered the air around them as they ran, and Dan crouched over to cover the Empress as much as he could. As they reached the transport, he handed the Empress up to some waiting soldiers, turned, and dropped to one knee to provide covering fire as the rest of the soldiers made their way inside. When all were in, he jumped up into the transport, and yelled "GO!"
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Post by Jalua Solast on Jul 21, 2009 18:42:54 GMT
Colonel Iram raced to the other side of the transport as it turned and headed back towards the fleet. As it almost went out of sight of the hanger bay force field, she saw a small shuttle rip through and begin to turn towards them. Shouting in delight, she yelled into her comm. "This is Colonel Iram! Empress secured and prime evacuated, returning to fleet". It was going to be a short journey to the fleet, but she would no doubt be unable to see her sister for a while. Behind her however, the shuttle they just left blew up, in a violent explosion as the explosives expected blew up. It was a lucky escape, but there was one piece of debris which continued to spin rapidly outwards. With the armoured transport beginning to slow down to dock safely with the flagship Battle Carrier, the twisted bit of durasteel pierced the back of the transport, spun through the air and hit one of the supports for the platform she and another two gunners were standing on. It tilted violently away from the side of the transport and Iram fell to the durasteel floor, breaking her leg in the process. Maybe it would be a bit longer before she saw her sister than expected.
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