Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Operation Torch

Union-class Assault Carrier Ocean Tide, somewhere in deep space

Gir walked down the carrier's corridors, noting an unusually motley array of peoples plying its corridors. He could see the familiar green-blue suits of the Directorate marines mixed with the armors and uniforms of Republic soldiers and mercenaries. Gir eyed a pair of Republic troopers as they parted ways for a bulky battle droid to pass through him. Gir followed suit, pressing himself against the glowing corridors to let the behemoth amble towards one of the ship's countless hangars. He felt a brief draft of warm air around him as a shadowy figure came up alongside him. He turned his eyes onto the defel.

"Have you acquired any new tidbits of information?" asked Gir.

The information broker shook his head, "Not anything worth mentioning. Only some rumors about a street gang fight on the north sector of Taxon City."

"Nothing that we can use to our advantage?"

"Not likely," replied Tibbs.

Gir nodded. While Gir still felt uneasy about the defel, the information broker hadn't lead them astray yet. Yet he couldn't help but feel that Tibbs was hiding something from them. He know that was almost the nature of information brokers, yet Tibbs did a poor job of concealing that to him. Gir had contented himself into knowing that Tibbs would likely reveal it to them sooner or later, whether he meant to or not. After all, the man's own people were keeping on eye on not only Tibb's personal actions, but his electronic ones on his ship as well. The two figures passed into a large conference room into which a large number of soldiers were gathered around a holo-projector. Gir parted from the defel's company, letting the alien step up to the holo-projector.

"Greetings...soldiers," started Tibbs, "we will begin discussing the Taxon City operation, with which we will hopefully be able to capture some wanted criminals to bring back to Republic court. I trust that you all have read the datafile that has some of the basic information on this case? While it would be ideal to take all suspects into custody, it is vital that Tessk, Julia Sal-Horn, and Mon Glomis are captured. If we have them, we can track down their followers eventually. Captain Quee?"

Gir stepped forward towards the holo-projector, which flared to life to display a green and blue moon that orbited a large, amber gas giant. The projector quickly zoomed in on the moon to show a city built out of metallic spires that rose up a lush grassland. At a quick glance, Taxon City appeared to be in the height of its splendor, but a closer glance revealed rusting buildings and trash-littered streets.

"This is Taxon City," stated Gir, "the Ocean Tide will move in to hover overhead the city. We hope that in doing so, we can achieve the necessary air superiority which will allow your peoples to do their part on the ground. ships and droppods from the Ocean Tide can then take you to the ground to complete our main objectives. The biggest question is how do your peoples want to accomplish that task. So what approach do your peoples intend to take?"

Gir turned his eyes from [member="Valkren Calderon"], one of the Republic's more elite ground soldiers, to [member="Face"], a mandalorian mercenary, and then to Major Goins, a relatively seasoned Directorate marine officer. The trifecta of forces that they were represented showed a variety of motives and capabilities, yet he had no doubt that they could turn those attributes into an effective team.

and hopefully
 
Sergeant Valkren Calderon moved his jaw just enough to where the toothpick between his teeth rolled from the right side of his lips to the left, both hands firmly planted on the edge of the holo-projector. Such a spacious insertion point, so many variables that could hurt or help their chance at capturing the HVT's. Yet, that's why the Sergeant and his team were there, right? To be thrown into the crucible once more in hopes of coming out victorious with their allies..

He shifted his weight back, taking a step away from the projector and taking a moment to observe the group of soldiers around him, before looking back to [member="Gir Quee"], finally speaking up. "You know Saber team is ready for anything, Sir. You tell us what hill to take and we'll have your operators dug in within minutes." Valkren nodded as he spoke, having been under the Captain's command on a handful of missions before Saber team dropped off of the map for a lengthened period of time.

He folded his arms across his chest plate, or atleast the remains of it. His team no longer sported the full Heavy assault armor that had been designed specifically for the likes of their missions, but a more scrapped' type of design. The only white and grey plating left on Valkren's body was: his chest plate, now fitted with extra tactical pouches on the lower half of it for utilities during operations; both shoulder plates, which had now been thinned out to provide more ease of movement; The back of his hands were covered in a greyish-plate that stopped right where his fingers began, which then extended a black glove-like substance over them. His knee and shin guards were still there, although the plates that rested on his shins had been thinned out just the same as his shoulder plates. What could be seen where his Republic armor was not was almost civilian-like clothing. His undershirt reached his elbows, revealing some marine related ink resting on his right forearm. His full visored helmet rested on the corner of the holo projector in front of the group, with a good many scrapes to show for the young Sergeant's time in the Special forces.

Valkren turned toward Goins, moving his left hand to his waist as he shifted his weight onto that leg aswell. His right hand reached up and scratched his now dirty-blond hair. "However, I'm not one for sacrificing lives, and I'm sure we know that the Major's marines are going to take the brute of the battle there..So I'm leaving it up to you, Captain." He said as he turned back to [member="Gir Quee"]. "My team can take five drop pods straight to the first HVT right when we have line of sight and get baggin' and taggin' right away..Or you can drop us directly into any enemy defenses that they may throw at us. We'd be right in the mix but we could get targeting down for air support and help spearhead the marines right through."

He stepped forward, grabbing his helmet with both hands, then letting it dangle from his right idly. "Up to you, Sir."
 
"Major Goins, your thoughts on this plan of action?" asked Gir.

Major Goins, who stood at the front of several Directorate marines, shifted his weight to one side as he considered the plan. Having taken a look at the man's service record, Gir knew that most of the man's experience had centered around starship boarding operations, rather than orbital assaults. But Gir also knew that several of his subordinates had had experience in the latter through service in other militaries and the Directorate contingent that had helped invade Coruscant. The chiseled jaw of the commander swung down into action.

"They say no plan survives contact with the enemy, and I am hesitant to commit my people into a plan of attack without more up to date information. But assuming that we do not discover any significant defenses, I do believe Sergeant Calderon's plan could work. How close can you bring the Ocean Tide down to the city?"

"We could literally land on the city," said Gir, "but I would prefer to have some elevation over the city in order to provide precise, supporting firepower to the troops as well as being able to better control the aerospace around the city. I would imagine that the Tide will hover around 200 meters over the city."

"If Saber team can make that fast of a contact, our marines can jet out on rocket packs from the ship itself to swing into action to support them."

The very image of armored men jetting off onto the battlefield conjured up images of ancient mandalorians and old school Republic Rocketjumpers, yet Gir knew that this wasn't merely a flashy way of entering the battlefield. Singular people would be much harder to pick off with anti-aircraft weapons, and they would be able to precisely maneuver en mass to exact points on the battlefield. Yet those maneuvers wouldn't have the speed or surprise of a drop pod attack that would enable the quickest and less bloodiest capture of their targets.

"All of the marines?" asked Gir, "or just certain elements."

A grimace flickered across Goins face. Oh, he doesn't like this inquiry...

"Certain elements," said the man, "doubtlessly, if we are to deploy any vehicles, they will have to come through dropships or the Tide will have to land."

"I would like you to allocate a company of men to land in drop pods around the perimeter of the city just after Saber Team lands," said Gir, "this landing party will form a security cordon around the city to ensure that no-one escapes on foot or by vehicle on the ground. Does anyone have any objection to this addition?"
 
Valkren shook his head, completely agreeing with any plan that his higher-ups went through with. Not only that, but he saw Gir as one of his only friends beside his teammates aswell. It was quite difficult to hold firm relationships in a profession where life expectancy isn't high once your boots hit the ground.

He stepped up to the projector once more, nodding towards the tower. "You wan't Saber's six drop pods hitting that thing, Sir?" He asked, attempting to bring up a bigger display of it so they knew what they would be working with. Saber team was considered some of the best even with their unconventional methods, but still..Valkren liked to do certain things by the books so his team wouldn't take any casualties come gametime, even if this meant cracking down on every detail during the briefing.
 
Gir eyed the tower, taking in its lines to better understand its construction. Clearly, at one point, the duros colonists who had made it had intended it to be a thing of both strength and beauty. Burnished beams of mirrsteel wove up and down the facade of the tower in gentle arcs. It seemed likely to Gir that the tower could survive the impact of drop pods even if the pods' arrestor repulsors failed. Dropping right on top of them is a bold move. But it won't likely be something that is expected...His eyes scanned the building and the nearby building tops for any suggestion of anti-aircraft weapons, but he saw none. While that didn't mean that they weren't necessarily present, it did mean that they were concealed if they were present. And if that was the case, they likely would need several seconds to come into action, which was all the time needed for the drop pods to hit the tower top. Gir tapped another button on the controls, adding even more zoom to that already caused by [member="Valkren Calderon"]. With a few adjustments on the controls, the holo-projector displayed the upper landing pads of the tower.

"It's your people's lives on the land," mused Gir, "so ultimately, I will leave the decision up to you. But if you decide to land on the tower, I would recommend landing pads as your drop zone. I imagine that most of their security is probably set up to prevent people from breaking their way in on the ground floor and working up. A pinpoint aerial assault from pods right there probably isn't something they're expecting, but I imagine that they'll bring out some means of defense against airborne targets if you linger up there too long."
 
"You know Saber team, Sir. My men know the risks.." He spoke up, nodding at the Captain. "Six pods, six commandos. We'll get the job done."

The Sergeant knew that this was probably one of the riskiest insertions Saber team would have preformed, the drop would require pin-point accuracy to land perfectly incase of any malfunctions in the pods' systems. One mistake and they could hit the building in its side or roll straight off of the landing pad.

That was just a risk they'd have to take, they were ready for the mission.

[member="Gir Quee"]
 
"Any other questions?" asked Gir, looking around the room.

Major Goins's jaw slackened for a brief second, "What do you think about the rumors regarding the Nanth'ri pirate fleet being present?"

"I think it's likely that some of their vessels will be present, as will some of the Blue Sun's craft," said Gir, "simply because that's their means of their transport. But I do not think that we will see any ships, or any collection of ships, that will be able to challenge us on an equal footing."

"I'm not concerned about the Tide, no offense captain," said the major, "but about my troop's transports and drop pods."

"I can't fully discount the possibility of them attacking our transports," replied Gir, "but our combat air patrols combined with the defensive weaponry of the Tide should be great enough that I doubt that this will happen. Pirates of the Nanth'ri and Blue Sun's caliber typically are interested in attacking easy targets with profitable cargoes. Our transports will not be easy targets, nor will they will have cargo that is worth the risk of attack. Does that answer your question, Major?"

"It does," conceded the other man

"Any other questions?" asked Gir, "if not, we will move to doing last minute equipment checks and drawing weapons from the armory..."

[member="Valkren Calderon"]
 
Valkren was glancing at the Major during this tiny dispute. He understood completely the Major's concern for his men and ships, Valkren had the same concerns. Although his team would have a better chance of not being hit by any anti-air, they'd be the reason the anti-air would go up..They'd be the reason more lives would be lost.

The Sergeant pondered this idea for a few, horrid moments, before stowing them away. The thought of BLUFOR soldiers plummeting to their deaths from winged dropships and destroyed pods wasn't something he wanted in his mind before climbing into a pod of his own.

"No objections sir, Saber team will prep for launch." Valkren would snap off a quick salute out of pure respect for Gir, then nod and turn on his heels, heading to the armory to meet with his team.

As he reached the armory, he could easily tell where his men were, walking past rack and rack of weapons, he came to a side where the other marines were seemingly avoiding. There they were, five other commandos with the same rag tag armor that Valkren sported, none were in full suit. O'Riley's loud music was blaring to where no intercom transmissions would even be audible..Valkren was meaning to get him some headphones..Beside the loud music and the lack of full body suits and combat suits, they were prepared. Calderon nodded his head toward a table in the far side of the room, the rest of the team lifting up bags of equipment and their helmets and walked toward the table.

"What've we got?"

Lance-Corporal Young was the first to remove items from his bag. "Man, you wouldn't believe how much equipment they have on this thing." He dropped several EMP's, restraints, and sedatives onto the table in one corner, no doubt for their HVT if they were to extract them non-lethally. It was true, with almost half of the Republic's special forces dropping off the grid for a good while, including Saber team, they had limited access to grade 'A' hardware.

"No kidding." The designated marksman said, lifting a heavy set of ropes and harnesses for fast roping/rappelling. "Incase we want to get a few levels lower without the hassle of an elevator."

"Good idea, I've got a feeling it'll come to that at some point. Might even be our extraction come time to leave the tower." The team's leader responded, looking to the others.

"Explosives!" Michaels almost shouted as his mechanical prosthetic took out over a dozen thermal detonators plus placeable charges, plastic, AKA the good stuff.

"No door's going to stand a chance against one-arm over here." O'Connor laughed out, revealing a Z-6 Rotary cannon that almost looked like it had been shaved down for closer-quarters.

"Piss off, Irish."

"Right back at ya, handsome."

"Got some tear gas here." O'Riley piped up as he came back from recovering his music-playing device. He threw the small ball-like detonators on the table, three of them. "We can smoke out the HVTs."

"Isn't one of them a clank?"

"Doesn't matter, Sabers always get their marks. Remember not to stay in the gas too long..Our helmet's systems aren't what they used to be boys."

Valkren looked among his men as they began to fill their utility pouches and pockets full of supplies, picking up a few extra weapons each to stock into their pods. He smiled, almost proud as his men picked up everything ready to move. After a quick exchange of glances and nods, Valkren turned, leading the way out toward the pods. Valkren slid his rag-tag helmet over his head, the visor flickering blue as a sign of stress on the systems. The Sergeant's voice pierced the comms system, "Sabers are Green, Captain."

[member="Gir Quee"]
 
Gir watched as [member="Valkren Calderon"] left the room, starting a trend which saw most of the other ground pounders leave the room, but not before Goins spared a quick glance between the sergeant the captain. Gir stared back silently at the major before the Directorate officer marched out to the logistical hubs of the Ocean Tide. The giant storerooms which were originally designed to hold all manner of scouting, colonization, and construction gear now held a myriad of war materials, including countless blaster rifles and armor suits. Even if was a somewhat common type of weapon or technology, there stood a good chance that the Ocean Tide had at least a few examples stocked up in holds. The ship's captain, a lanky brown-haired man strode up to him.

"We are set to revert within a half-hour," reported Captain Hopkins, "long-range sensor scans showed no new developments."

Gir started to exit the briefing room, "That is a good sign. Did our operatives on site provide us with any new information?"

Hopkins merely shook his head. Figures. They hadn't had time to set up any sort of deep cover identities, which meant that the handful of Directorate operatives had only been able to do superficial work. While even knowing the condition of the streets, detours, and other almost open source information was essential to an operation, Gir longed to have more detailed and confirmed information than what Tibbs was providing. Gir suddenly remembered the broker, and turned back to look into the briefing room. While a handful of staff officers and technicians remained, Gir couldn't see the defel. He must have slipped out already...I'll have to call him to the ops center if he's not already on his way there...Hopkin's almost melodic voice broke Gir's reverie.

"Oh, I got you this as well," said Hopkins, handing Gir a holstered blaster pistol, "I know you probably won't need it...but just in case..."

"But it never hurts," said Gir, accepting the weapon.

He quickly fastened the holster to the side before he drew the weapon for a quick functions test. Satisfied that it was fully charged and operational, Gir and Hopkins continued down the corridors deeper into the ship, running into a variety of peoples headed to report to their stations. Eventually, the two men walked into the operations center of the Ocean Tide. It was an octagonal room lined with linked holo-tanks and com-scans consoles: a vast information system capable of keeping track of even the most minute movements of a squad's troop. Gir walked up to the room's central holo-projector, noting the count-down timer it displayed.

"Twelve minutes to reversion," mused Gir, turning his face to Hopkins, "and hopefully something that they aren't expecting."
 
Valkren led his team of merry men down the corridor that passed more of their allies in the combat that would surely ensue once the Sabers' touched down. The Sergeant slapped the shoulder plate of a passing soldier as his team split along six drop pods that were spread out among a floor flooded with hatch-like coverings. Each of the Sabers clambered into their own pod, securing the extra weapons they brought into the sides of the pods. Valkren walked infront of each pod to assure that each of his men were ready, taking an extra moment or two when he stopped by Michael's pod.

"Everything good, Corporal?" Valkren placed a gloved hand on the pods open hatch, looking through to the visored comrade that sat infront of him.

The explosives specialist raised his mechanical arm up and gave a thumbs up, before making the entire arm rotate around clockwise in an informal manner. A laugh erupted from both Michaels and Valkren across the team's comms, followed by the Sergeant punching his friend in the chest plate to force him back into the seat. After locking his 'Valor' close-quarters combat rifle into place, Calderon took his own place in his pod and watched the countdown as it appeared on their HUDS.

"Hey Captain? You remember what they called a Commando in a drop pod back in the Republic?" Valkren sent his team's comm system to open with [member="Gir Quee"] aswell.

After he made this remark, all the doors of the pods slowly came to a close, several marines glancing through the unshielded part of the door at the six Republic Commandos...Just staring..Almost as if they were animals in a cage.
 
Gir fiddled with the controls of the holo-projector, eventually pulling up their route on the astronavigation map. His eyes briefly wandered among the familiar stars before settling on a faint visage of the Ocean Tide and her escorts as they sped along a dotted line towards Tesfedsi IV. He glanced at the counter, noting the rapidly diminishing distance as the seconds passed. He marveled to think that over the course of a single short hyperspace jump, he had covered more distance in mere minutes than he would walk in his lifetime. That sense of wonder diminished as he caught sight of a shadowy form lurking on the other side of the projection.

"I was just about to call you, Tibbs," said Gir, walking around the projector towards the defel, "have you heard anything from your people?"

"Nothing new," replied the broker, crossing his arms, "but not all of my sources have the goods to communicate with a ship in hyperspace. I expect that we will get several tightbeam transmissions once we enter the system."

Gir glanced at the countdown. In three minutes...His headset comlink crackled as [member="Valkren Calderon"]'s voice poured out of its speakers. He dug into the recesses of his mind for the answer to the question. ARC troopers clad in their characteristic armor and even more ancient rocket-jumper troopers populated his consciousness, yet he knew they were not the answer. What did they call them? Crazy, perhaps? He shook the thought from his head.

"I don't remember, Calderon," said Gir, "What did they call them?"

As their exchange took place, the Ocean Tide flashed into realspace above the Taxon City.
 
Valkren's young, rugged voice made for a rather healthy laugh in this moment of calm before the storm. "An actual Can of Whoop-Ass!"

Following his sudden outburst, saber team all cried out in agreement, and then were cut off with the sudden flooding of light from the hatches opening below them just as they flashed above Taxon City. The six men only had moments to take in last few sights of all the marines aboard the Ocean's Tide beginning to mobilize before the pods took a rough initial jerk, then were released from the claws of the mighty ship. "Good lorrr-" Young stated, clenching onto the handles inside the pod, "Never get used to this sithspit!"

Valkren scanned over the brief sight they had over Taxon City, breathing rather heavily, his vocoder making them sound much deeper than they actually were. "Impact in a minute and 10 on the dot...Sabers check in."

"Saber two is diving."

"Saber three is on track."

"Saber four is green."

"Saber five, good to go."

"Saber six, five by five..Tower in sight. We're off-course."

"Pods auto-adjusting course..Mark." With his words, all six pods jumped several meters to the left using thrusters on their right sides, aligning themselves back on course for the tower's landing pads. As Valkren kept his gaze switching from directly outside the pod to all of the gadgets and instruments within the pod, the emergency lights suddenly flashed an intense and hellish red. What the kark is wrong now?

"Anti-Air up on scanners!"

"They're setting those guns up, Boss!"

"Is it because of us?!"

"Negative, they wouldn't have picked us up yet..It's for the ship!"

Thirty seconds until Impact..

Valkren would guess that not all of the pirates were true professionals, so the time it took to line up their Anti-air and spot all six pods..There was no way, right?

Twenty seconds until Impact..

Even with the guns up, Valkren trusted [member="Gir Quee"] as a leader among the battlefield, he knew he'd make the right calls and they'd all follow him. Gir always thinks somethings up.

"Brace for Impact!" O'Connor's voice pierced the comms system once again as an AA round burst almost directly infront of Valkren's pod, making for a shaky impact. All Six of the pods had hit their mark.
 
Gir ruefully shook his head at [member="Valkren Calderon"]'s voice filtered through the comm waves, but even as he did so, a grin flickered across his face. It was probably not the most professional comment that he heard, yet the fact that it demonstrated Saber team's high espirit de corps was satisfying. As the drop pods sprang forth from the ship, he became aware of a large murmur running through the bridge crew. To some extent, that was to be expected as they suddenly had to act on and process new information that was coming in real time through the ship's sensor arrays. Yet the tones of voices that he was hearing were far too disconcerting for his own liking. Hopkins growled.

"They are firing on us already," muttered the man.

Gir looked at the holo-graphic image of Taxon city as viewed from the ship's EPRs. He could see sporadic flashes of red ruby light lance out from various discrete spots around the city towards the blade-shaped craft. Yet a glance at the ship's shield indicator suggested that the weapons were not very powerful: probably adapted ground artillery weapons meant to support platoons. Yet that worried him still. There's two problems with this. If one of those shots manages to hit a hangar while its shield down and launching craft, we're going to lose people. But maybe just as important, they seemed to have known that we were coming based on their response time...which means that they probably have other surprises waiting for us to.

"Flight Control," started Gir, "redirect all craft through the ship's vertical launch doors. I want launch priority to go to the gunships which will be targeting those guns."

"Aye sir."

Gir turned his eyes back to the projection of the city, looking for various other traps and other military movements by the opposition. As he did so, a flight of gunships launched from the ship's upper hangar proceeded to dive in on the artillery pieces. It seemed doubtful to Gir that such weapons would be able to effectively hold up against such mobile pieces. He stroked his chin. They had to have known that something similar would be our response...so why do it aside from to delay the inevitable assault? Perhaps as a distraction? But if so, for what?
 
All six drop pods landing on target. Luck, was the first thought to pop into Valkren's mind as mere seconds passed after their impact. He and his team only had seconds to gather their thoughts before the pod doors shot out from hinges it was previously held by, a thruster placed on each side of the doors helped clear through whatever was blocking the front of said pod. For the Sergeant, it just happened to be a human pirate that was attempting to regain himself after suffering the blast from the impact. There was a brutal metal-on-bone sound as the pirate was almost obliterated by the launched door, and just as the air rushed into the pod, Valkren reached for his weapon and unlocked it from it's resting place it one swift manuever, taking one step down from the pod and leveling his VLR-5 'Valor' Assault blaster at the highest threat to him at the time. At this moment, it was a pirate who was almost still in awe at what had just happened to his comrade.

He was unlucky.

As the enemies' body crumpled after being delt a brief burst of blue blaster bolts directly to the chest, a sure method to end any combatants life, Valkren took another two steps before moving himself into a crouched position with his weapon readied. After initial scans and before his head was completely adjusted, it seemed to be that the roof was held by no more than a squad or so. This didn't mean they'd send more to the roof when this firefight had concluded. His team needed to find cover, all six were out in the open simply exchanging fire with the enemy squad of Pirates who were still recovering from the sudden drop-in from the Republic. As the Sabers continued to engage their enemy Valkren lifted his hand and fanned it to the side in a quick motion, "Saber team, move up and find cover!"

As his orders were issued, the team began to move at a hustled pace as they suppressed their unprepared enemies, keeping a five meter spread among them so they wouldn't make themselves bunched up targets for the pirates to easily pick-off. Eventually they reached the end of the landing pad, by this time they had easily eliminated each of the targets on the roof top and making it for a very short engagement. As Valkren hopped down off of the pad, himself and O'Riley hustled over to the remains of the pirates that weren't next to their pods, assuring that each body was lifeless and the pad had been secured. "O'Riley, staircase door. O'Connor, Michaels, secure the rest of our gear! Young, check the rest of the bodies. If they aren't on our HVT list then they don't need to be breathing. Watson, keep an eye out for any hostile air..You let us know if any ship comes in to make a strafing run on us."'

After a brief exchanging of 'Yes sirs' and agreements, the team went on their way completing the task at hand. O'Connor and Michaels trotted off back to the pods for the rest of their weapons and supplies, while Young checked over each body for positive ID and to see if they all were 'still dead.' O'Riley lifted his own shortened assault blaster up and moved cautiously toward the stairway door, pushing it open and relaxing abit at the sign of no hostiles yet. He kept his weapon trained down the stairway, waiting to see if someone would turn the corner.

Valkren scanned over the rooftop briefly, before checking the charge and ammunition level of his own rifle. After assuring that everything in his kit was working properly and was located in the correct places, he'd make his way to Young.

"Negative on the positive ID, none of these guys are our people." The intelligence specialist stated before looking up at the ship that they had just plummeted down from moments before. "We're on the clock here, sir. The Ocean's tide is going to start to take a beating if we don't finish quick."

"I hear that, brother." The Sergeant returned as he aswell looked to the ship above them. He reached two of his left fingers up to his helmet, engaging the long-range communications with [member="Gir Quee"].

"Saber-One here, we're all green. We've cleared off the landing pad, unknown if we're being expected yet though sir. Permission to continue into the tower?"

"Hey Boss, if we know what floor they're on we could use two of the ropes to get down faster!" Watson exclaimed, looking over his shoulder after taking a brief moment away from the mix of ships in the sky surrounding them. "Could also work as our method of extraction."
 
Red and emerald bolts flew back and forth between the Ocean Tide and the emplaced weapons spread throughout the decaying city. A handful of heavier weapons opened fire from lofty perches among the towers. Judging by their power and design, Gir guessed that they had originally been built and put into place by the duros colonists. Gir watched as one of the ship's quad laser cannons attempted to drive away the crew of one of such weapons. Hopkins began to shake his head as one of Tessk's men was incinerated by the weapon.

"Tibbs, why didn't you tell us about these weapons?"

The defel shrugged, "I don't know everything. You're expecting the impossible of me. No-one I have talked to has ever seen these used before."

"Seen them used," repeated Gir, sparing a glance from the holo-tank, "but you knew they were there?"

The defel shifted his weight from side to the side as he considered how to respond to Gir's question. He was taking far longer to respond than Gir had seen him react before. While that wasn't necessarily a tell that the broker was lying, it made Gir think that Tibbs was being exceptionally cautious in choosing his words. The alien glanced to the side before turning his gaze to exclusively focus on the central tower which Saber was assaulting.

"Taxon City is very old," snorted the broker, "and it holds many possibilities simply because of its age. I can't possibly inform you about every possibility given the funding that you have given me. Certain leads and possibilities require money to follow up on or to purchase. If you had given me more funding or time, I would have found out that they were functional."

"I understand," said Gir, "perhaps our expectations are too high. Nonetheless, I would like you to go talk to Lieutenant Tanqew over there, the gentleman with the black hair. I want you to tell him every possibility that you know of that could affect this operation. I don't care if it's an old weapons system or a potential escape route. If there is a reasonable chance, say greater than ten percent, our intelligence man needs to know it. Understand?"

"I do."

"Good."

Gir watched as the defel slipped away to walk up a set of stairs to the intelligence analyst's station. Tanqew was new to the Tide and the Lucerne Labs fleet, but the man had earned high marks while he was in the Republic's academy system. It only remained to be seen if Tanqew would be able to make use of Tibbs's knowledge of possibilities to aid the rest of the operational planning cycle.

"He's trying to play us," muttered Hopkins.

"Maybe," said Gir, "but that's not our job. If Tibbs is, Tanqew should be able to figure that out from our own ground intelligence team and the ship's sensors. We need to focus on actually fighting Tissk's people and the pirates..."

Gir's headset made an audible clicking sound before [member="Valkren Calderon"]'s voice flowed through.

"Permission granted," said Gir, "Saber One, be advised that our intelligence appears to be incomplete. I would expect heavier resistance than initially estimated..."

***​
Somewhere on the Fifth Floor of the Tower...

"It's a fine warship," noted Tissk, pointing at a holo-graph of the Ocean Tide, "now imagine if that was our ship. You could sail among the stars and take more prizes that any of us would have previously thought possible. You could subdue worlds by simply appearing over their cities..."

"You think the opportunity exists for that?" questioned Sal-Horn, "it doesn't seem particularly vulnerable now."

"They've come for us," replied the crime lord, "all of us. And in doing so, they have provided us with the opportunity to make it vulnerable."

A muscular man with a cyroban rifle craddled his arms slowly shook his head, "You engineered this all, didn't you?"

The trandoshan crimelord barred some teeth, "To an extent. They know some about my fair city, but not all of it...and certainly not some of the...changes that I've made to the place. We will go underground and force them to land to conduct a search. When they do so, our people will have a chance to board and take the vessel from them."

"That's a gamble."

"Perhaps," admitted Tissk, "but all great successes require an element of risk. Come, let us go down into the underground tunnels."

"I ain't doing it," replied Glommis, flicking a switch on his weapon, "not like that. I'm going to take out at least one of their people first."

Tissk regarded the pirate curiously, "I do not think it wise. But if you must, I am sending up a handful of older battle droids to delay them. You might be able to take advantage of their attack to fulfill that incurable bloodlust of yours..."
 
As the Sergeant received this information, it was run through his head several times before replying. Heavy Resistance. After hearing the words and acknowledging them all well and good, he spoke up and made a circular motion in the air with two fingers to signal a regrouping. "Copy that sir, Saber team is moving! Saber One out." As he finished his transmission, the rest of the team would converge to his position. He grasped his assault blaster with both hands, looking to his team through his visor, his HUD showing all of their vitals and outlining them aswell. "Stack on the door, O'Connor stay behind me with the Z-6, keep the cannon spinning once we go down."

"Copy that, boss." The assault specialist replied as he lifted the customized rotary cannon up, moving toward the exit from the roof.

As Valkren reached the door, he patted O'Riley on the shoulder plate as he was still covering the stairs, moving past him to lead the way. The sergeant kept his weapon trained infront of him as he advanced down the stairs, Saber team close on his heels. They had to be ready for anything, especially clearing out an entire tower with close to no intel. If it was in any other situation, Valkren probably wouldn't have gone in that tower blind. The only reason his combat boots were taking their cautious steps down the set of stairs that led to the roof was because his adrenaline from the previous firefight and impending engagements made his thoughts clouded. Survival mode was engaged, meaning he'd do anything to complete the mission and get his team out of there.

"Contact front!" O'Connor yelled into the comms as Valkren walked in his sort of daze, this actually snapping him out of it and bringing him back to the world of the living. As the soldier's eyes adjusted, two Pirates would come into view as they came out of the door that was their destination. After a few brief moments of trigger pulling from Valkren, both were put down with ease before they could get a shot off. After clearing the way, Valkren stepped over each body to assure they were both dead, and not the targets they were looking for.

"Stacking on the door."

"Set?"

"Set."

"Breach it."

With this last command, Michaels lifted his replacement for an arm and tapped the door's console, the door sliding open as a result. Valkren entered first, his eyes taking in all aspects of the hallway they just entered. The roof was the easy part, things were about to get a whole lot more sporty now that they knew who their guests were.

[member="Gir Quee"]
 
Gir rapidly typed in commands into his console, bringing forth a flurry of program windows which displayed information gathered by the ship's sensors. The Ocean Tide didn't carry any particularly arcane types of sensors that would easily detect any subterfuge by Tissk or his people. Instead, Gir would have to rely on the typical full spectrum transceivers, Electro photoreceptors, and dedicated energy receptors that most ships its size were equipped with. A quick glance at most of the screens didn't show him anything that looked out of the ordinary, though several strata on the ground scan by the ship's portside full spectrum transceiver looked unusual. He tapped a button on his Calor series computer to start on enhancing the data processing from that sensor. Hopkins cleared his throat to catch Gir's attention.

"Multiple small vessels are appearing in orbit above us."

"Type and transponders?"

"It's a mixture," replied Hopkins, staring intently at his console's screen, "some have blacked out transponders, others appear to have...modified civilian transponders. Mostly tramp freighters and the like, but there are also several dozen snubfighters."

Gir nodded. Probably regular customers of the port that came to land before realizing that we're attacking the city. Gir punched in a few commands to see for himself, but the computer noticeably lagged before bringing up the coalescing formation of ships as seen by the Ocean Tide's long-range EPR. Look mostly like smuggling craft...He contented himself to look through the various makes and models of the ships out of his own side interest before spotting a wide, almost hexagonal craft with a red blazing claw mark emblazoned on its left wing. He wracked his mind for the model type before the console helpfully identified it as a Scurrg H6 bomber. This one appeared to be one of the original models made hundreds of years ago, rather than the modernized version made by the current incarnation of Nubia Star Drives. He steepled his fingers. That is no smuggling craft...and that is potentially a problem.

He typed in several other commands into his console, pulling up the carrier's hangar manifest. Most of the ships were dedicated transports and ground support craft, but the Tide continued to carry a handful of starfighters for its own protection. Gir quickly dismissed the idea of deploying the ship's heavier fighters against the bomber, simply because they would likely be fast enough to chase it down. That left him with the only real option of deploying the ship's sole squadron of Typhoons, which he had hoped to save as a reserve to counter any attack runs on the ship. He flipped through several channels on his headset comlink.

"Captain Reize, I am deploying your fighters to counter a Scurgg H-6 bomber with a blacked out transponder running above us," started Gir, "I think it may contain one of our wanted pirates, so it would be ideal if you could capture the craft or at least the ship's occupants."

The man's baritone voice flowed back through, "If we have some time, sir, we could exchange our warheads for ion torpedos, which would allow us to do that relatively easily. Otherwise, I can't guarantee that outcome with our current loadouts."

Gir spared a glance at the screen, noting that the starbomber appeared to be merely coasting along with the other ships.

"Do it."

***​
Inside Arapos Tower, Taxon City

Gloomis watched as the last of Tissk's bodyguards slipped down the stairs to rejoin the others during their trek down into the city's catacombs. They're crazy if they think that they can pull this off...The man spared a glance at the three-legged droids as they crept up the hallway towards the main entrance onto the floor. While Tissk had described them as cannon fodder, Gloomis thought that they would have compared favorably to the more popular droidekas if the droids had been equipped with energy shields. A scuffed up RA-7 droid waddled up next to him.

"You are their controller?" asked Gloomis.

The protocol droid nodded, "Regretfully."

"Good. Put them in the doorways of the rooms on either side of the hall."

"Trying to make them clear the hall slowly?"

Gloomis nodded, "And I want you to wait next to the door to the level next down."

"And where will you be?"

"Behind that very door..."
 
The next floor was cleared with little resistance, the few pirates that had not retreated several levels down had actually had some time to prepare, taking up defensive positions along the hallway and in the open doorways on either side. With a brief suppression of their enemies from O'Connor's rotary cannon, the team was able to move ahead and take over their entrenched positions, operating with close-quarter combat to eliminate all the targets.

"All-clear." Michaels piped up after checking the identity of one of their kills.

"Copy, next floor." Valkren said, lifting his blaster up once more and passing O'Riley and O'Connor, who had both of their weapons trained on the exit to the next floor down.

"On your six, boss."

This was strange, to say the least. It didn't seem like there was much resistance at all for this to be a meeting of some of the dangerous pirates the Republic knew of. They'd have to remain cautious, and so he did as Valkren led the way down to the next floor. This time they were met with no men trying to take their lives on their way to the door. The Sergeant approached the door and waited several moments for the rest of his team to get in place, preparing once more to breach the next door. This seemed somewhat repetitive, going through the same process on every floor, but it was the safest method.

'Safest'

Michaels tapped the door console, letting Valkren swing around the corner and raise his blaster to the readied position. What the Sergeant came to face in the next hallway couldn't have been in any briefing that they had received before the mission. a hail of red bolts came down at Saber team, forcing them to find cover behind the pillars on each side of the hallway. "Move! Move! Move!" Michaels exclaimed as the commandos pulled each other into the small amount of cover that they held. "Get small, saber team!" Valkren stated as he leaned around the corner during a lull in the fire, spotting the Grey-plated battle droids that almost clogged the hallway. "Those are B8's, the real deal!" He shifted his grip on his assault blaster for a moment, adjusting his ket on his chest plate aswell as O'Riley leaned out to catch a peak, "I count four..We only have three EMPs.."

Sergeant Calderon nodded to himself, taking in the details of the situation they were in as his comrades returned fire. After a few moments of contemplating, he'd offer his hand out, in which O'Riley would place one of the ball-shaped EMP detonators. "We'll just have to do with one for now then." After his comment, he'd press a button down on the detonator, crouching around the corner to roll it toward the group of droids. He didn't expect to knock any of the large droids out, but impair them for the firefight at hand.

[member="Gir Quee"]
 
Gir watched as the first flight of Typhoons rose up through the vertical launch hatch before they sped away into orbit. It would take at least another minute or two before the squadron's second flight would be able to exit through the same hatch, and minutes more for the third flight to launch after that. It was hardly an ideal solution to have the squadron form up so slowly before initiating a pursuit, but Gir decided that it beat having to attend funerals. The sensor readout showed that several of the starships orbiting over Taxon City had started to pull away from the swarm of craft in orbit. Gir guessed that those were the more skittish ones interested in evading any sort of entanglements with legal authorities. His thoughts on the orbiting craft were quickly derailed the voice of Major Goins flowing through his headset.

"All drop pods teams have secured their sections of the perimeters," reported the marine officer, "I think we are ready to put more boots on the ground, Mister Quee."

Gir pulled up the sensor windows to look for potential landing sites for the shuttles. As he did so, he came across the resolving scan of the full spectrum transceiver. While Gir only knew the basics of the actual analysis of the readings, he knew enough to know that the underground of the city was far more expansive than that of most normal cities. Certain outlined areas also appeared to have a different structural style than the rest of the city, particularly around the central tower itself, suggesting to Gir that Tissk or someone else had made some modifications to the original subterranean infrastructure. Gir narrowed his eyes. There's easily enough room there to probably hold at two thirds of the original city's population. Gir silently swore as he glanced up at Tanqew and Tibbs still conserving over the intelligence officer's console. While the defel seemed to be engaged in some lengthy explanation, which the lieutenant received with unusually blank body language. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it's probably not good...

"Major Goins," said Gir, pulling up the plan of the city's official sewer system, "I will be designating new drop zones and areas to secure shortly."

"Sir?"

"The enemy appears to have access to a large network of tunnels and complexes underneath the city streets," said Gir, "that do not appear on the plans we obtained from the broker. We will have to modify our containment plan to not include some of the street checkpoints, but some underground as well."

"Cat and mouse."

"Exactly," said Gir, noting a previously unknown tunnel that appeared to stretch out past the city limits, "I have the first area for your vanguard to secure..."

***​
Inside Arapos Tower, Taxon City

Gloomis cradled his weapon as he hard the sounds of guns and other munitions ring out from behind the door. He found their noise equally terrifying and comforting, almost like a haunting love song. He lived for the battle and the thrill of the fight. The corellian even took pleasure in simply surviving such encounters. Yet separated from his own crew and placed in an unfamiliar setting against unknown foes, this seemed like his most challenging fight yet. Yet he took some comfort in that he had a little surprise for the unknown attackers. He briefly removed his hands from the rifle as he heard sounds get closer. Yet at the same time, he no longer heard the characteristic whine made by the droids as they fired their blasters. Glancing at the datapad propped up against, railing, he could see that some of the old battle droids had quickly been subdued by a well-placed EMP weapon of some sort: they were completely offline. That only left him the hapless protocol droid that officially been pressed into the role of the battle droid's coordinator. He tapped a button on the datapad that signaled the same droid to wander up to the intruders. At the same time, he hit a countdown timer for the proton grenade concealed within the droid's chassis.

[member="Valkren Calderon"]
 
As the B8's remained in-operational, Saber team moved up as a result. O'Connor leveled his rotary cannon as they moved forward, stopping by every droid to unload a good charge into their head plates. After the Saber's cleared the hallway, much faster than Valkren initially expected with a single EMP charge, a lone droid seemed to catch Young's watchful eye causing him to raise his own blaster up. "Contact front! Protocol droid!"

Valkren was staring at the battledroids that they faced moments before, contemplating how something as big as this could have been missed by the information analysts and the broker that had briefed them before. The statement from his intel specialist snapped Valkren out from his daze, forcing him to spin about and train his rifle onto the approaching droid. "Cease your movements, droid!" The Sergeant commanded as he stepped out infront of his team, Young the closest to his side.

[member="Gir Quee"]
 

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