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Post by Xuku on Dec 14, 2009 22:05:37 GMT -5
Kaeso looked out over the barren Tatooine climate. Sand, sand, and something else that came as no surprise - sand. The sun was glowing orange as it neared the horizon, and it would be dark within the hour. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the weather around them was very nice - at least, very nice by desert standards. But in the distance sand storms could be seen. In fact, there was a storm several kilometers in front of his current location. Kaeso would have welcomed the storm as visual cover if he hadn't already been planning to wait until nightfall; but the combination of night and storm would allow Kaeso and his men to move in without detection; surprise would be total.
The LAAT began to rock back and forth as they approached the storm; Kaeso had to grab onto the handle on the ceiling to prevent being knocked through the open side of the assault craft. The two LAATs would not be able to move much farther in these winds and still be able to fly; they would have a longer walk then expected. Kaeso radioed in to the other LAAT to inform them of the earlier landing. Ten-four was the response. The LAATs slowed to a halt as they decreased in altitude, eventually coming to rest on the planets surface. Mere minutes of sunlight remained; once night fell they would proceed to the objective. Kaeso took this time to go over their mission again.
"A local gang has hired the MOTG, us, to extract a certain person of interest from enemy territory. This VIP is located in a high-security facility, guarded by numerous and well-armed hostiles. The VIP is in the detention level of this facility, which lies underground. A vast tunnel network lies beneath the surface near the facility, and there are several topside entrances to these. These tunnels are patrolled regularly.
"We will move in under the cover of darkness and enter one of these tunnels from the surface. We will then make our way to the detention level, access the main computer, find the exact location of the VIP, and proceed with extraction of the VIP. Stealth is our primary concern when moving through the tunnels - if we allow a patrol to call in for help, stealth must be disregarded and our only focus should be to find and secure the VIP - if the VIP does not make it out of this alive we do not receive payment - do I make myself clear?"
"SIR YES SIR!" came the response.
"Good."
Darkness now covered Tatooine - or at least this hemisphere of Tatooine - and the squad began making its way towards the facility, from which they were still a good ways out. Kaeso hoped this operation would go as smoothly as he made it sound.
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Post by Xuku on Dec 15, 2009 13:52:22 GMT -5
The squad stopped about a hundred meters away from the first tunnel entrance, which was located quite a ways away from the main facility - those who built it thought it would be safely hidden, being built into a sand dune, but what they didn't think about was the heat signatures from the guards. In the daylight the sand would easily cover the guards' heat signatures, but at night when the sand cooled off the guards stood out on thermal vision. Kaeso discovered via thermal binoculars that there were two men standing guard at the surface entrance. They would be dealt with easily enough. Kaeso told the other guards to wait where they were while he carefully climbed up the opposite side of the sand dune. When he reached the top, he peered over and saw the two guards, casually sitting on the ground below, talking. Realizing that shooting them would make two much light and noise, he took his blaster rifle in one hand and his pistol in the other, set them to stun, and dropped to the ground, stunning a guard with each of his pistols at point blank. He then tied and gagged them, removing their weapons and communication. He radioed back to his squad, ordering them to proceed to his position outside the tunnel entrance. Kaeso hoped all the guards would be in pairs: that would make things easier.
After more extensively searching the guards, he discovered two datapads, each with tunnel layouts as well as patrol schedules. This will come in handy, he thought. He studied the datapad: there were two guards at each exterior tunnel entrance, and guards in groups ranging from one to four patrolled the tunnels. There were vary few stationary guards in the tunnels; most were on the move. He searched the map for the detention level readouts, but there were none - they would have to find those later.
Kaeso and his men entered the tunnel. It was extremely bright and well lit, the walls a dull gray color. Knocking out the lights would attract too much attention, so they would have to make due with the unfortunately excellent lighting. Kaeso had all his men switch to stun, which, being at a weaker power level, made less noise. "Remember, do not let the patrols call for help at all cost," he reminded the troops. This being said Kaeso slowly looked around the corner, blasters in hand. It was clear. Kaeso and men slowly moved down the tunnel, blasters readily aimed at the other end, where it turned to the right. As they approached the corner Kaeso heard conversation and signaled to halt. He moved closer to the corner and could make out the words of the guards, which was just casual conversation - the mercenaries had not been detected. Kaeso ordered his men to stand back a little ways and to aim at the corner. This being done he kicked the wall with his foot; the guards' conversation stopped. He kicked it again, and the guards began to move towards him. They came around the corner, shocked at the number of people they saw, however shortly afterward all they saw was black; they would not be waking for a very long time, having been shot by so man stun blasters.
After securing the guards Kaeso checked them for a more detailed readout of the facility, but all he found was a copy of what he already had. The next segment of tunnel was short, and at the end the tunnel inclined up to the man facility, and shortly before that turned once again to the right. Luckily at the top of the incline was a door, which meant that they would only have to watch the right as they turned the corner. According to the readouts he had acquired, around that corner was a guard supply station. The readout showed that there were normally four guards guarding it. There were no tunnels leading off from it but this one; it was a dead end. Kaeso decided that a well-placed frag grenade would effectively take them out while not disturbing anyone else; the door to the upper level looked pretty thick.
He took one of his soldiers' grenades and pulled the pin, tossing it around the corner. Four seconds later a loud pop was heard, and Kaeso turned the corner and walked into the guard room, seeing several bodies on the ground. He walked into the supply room to see if there was anything that would be useful to them. He walked first over to the bodies, of which there were only three. At that moment he saw a flash of red shoot past his head, coming from the rear. He whirled around, seeing a guard positioned in the corner behind an overturned table. Kaeso opened fire on the guard, but the table was metal and provided solid cover. Realizing that standing the open was not the best defense against a shielded enemy, he dove behind a box of ammunition, and suddenly realized that that was also not a very good defense, giving the explosive nature of ammo cartridges. But he needn't have worried, for his men had rushed into the room and taken out the last guard.
Kaeso rose and searched the guard, hoping he didn't call in for help; he found a small device on the guard's body, which was flashing red. Looks like we're gonna have to speed this thing up, he said, looking around for anything which would help him do that.
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Post by Xuku on Dec 15, 2009 15:09:37 GMT -5
In the corner Kaeso noticed a box containing a varied assortment of grenades. He issued them amongst the troops, and kept a few for himself. Above the box on the wall Kaeso saw a terminal. Unfortunately, it was locked. He knew they would have no time to hack it, and searched the rest of the room for a key. While doing this he discovered a fairly large quantity of mines and remotely detonated explosives; those would be extremely useful for "speeding things up", and the soldiers stocked up. Realizing he had not searched the other three bodies, he did so, finding a security key code to the nearby terminal. He crossed the room and slid the security key through the slot. After doing this he discovered a far more detailed readout of the facility. Hearing the door to the upper level begin to slide open, he quickly downloaded the info to the datapad and, with the help of his troops, turned over several table in order to make defense a bit easier. Eight guards turned the corner, and immediately opened fire, ducking back into the doorway to dodge returning fire. Grenades flew down the hall, which began to pile up bodies. Suddenly the attacks ceased and the hostiles disappeared back to where they had come.
While the wounded were treated by the medics, Kaeso and five other men carefully moved to the corner and looked around, and all they saw was a closed door. At first Kaeso wondered why they retreated until he noticed all the lights that were previously green on the door had turned red; they had locked the door. He heard a whirring and whizzing which emitted from the door, and realized that more layers of durasteel were being added to the other side as the blast door was shutting. Looks like we won't be getting through this way. He returned to the room and began examining his other options. He was fairly confident that the hostiles wouldn't be returning from that route, but he had his men guard that direction just in case. He looked at his downloaded readout, able to study it in more detail now. Through the locked door was the central processing area of the detention center; exactly where they needed to be. It had information such the names and locations of those currently being held, as well as turbolifts to the various levels.
The readout also revealed what the above-ground section of the facility was: a fuel refinery plant. Apparently the detention center had been built here because no one would suspect a fuel plant to have or need its own detention center; the hostiles apparently thought otherwise. The large quantities of fuel stored upstairs provided Kaeso with some interesting ideas relating to the large number of explosives they had discovered. But first they had to figure out how to get upstairs. Studying the readout further, he found that the processing center which was up the ramp spread out over the floor above them, part of it reaching over the room they were currently in. However, the ceiling was thick, so explosives would be ineffective... but not if the explosives could be placed in the ceiling. Kaeso looked around for any holes or cracks, and discovered a vent. He raced over to it, standing on a box and opened the vent up. The vent was small, too small for a person to fit into, but not too small for some explosives. Kaeso had his men hand him crate of explosives, and he packed the small vent full of them. After the wounded had been treated for the minor injuries sustained from the earlier firefight, the room was evacuated and the explosives detonated. A deafening roar ensued and flame filled the supply room as the ceiling caved in and shrapnel flew everywhere.
Kaeso and his men rushed back into the room, generously tossing grenades through what had been the ceiling into the room above them. After the grenades had all detonated they proceeded to climb up the rubble and emerged in the detention center processing room. There were still a couple enemies left alive, but these were quickly dealt with. There were two parallel tunnels branching off from the room, both lined with cells. There was a turbolift in the corner from which the other levels of cell-tunnels could be accessed. Kaeso had his men shut down the turbolift and guard the tunnels. Then he used a code found on a body (or what remained of it) to log into the terminal. He was surprised at the small number of currently held captives; seems like a lot of security for so few people. He also found it strange how all the captives were being held on separate levels: the ground level, as well as the two levels immediately below that. The name of the VIP was Tebo Laike, which the system reported as being held on the level immediately below.
He downloaded the detention level data to his datapad, and prepared to move to the level below when suddenly enemy forces appeared at the other end of the hall. His troops started blasted towards them, and sent several smoke grenades followed by frags towards them. Kaeso ran to the turbolift and sent it to the level below, but did not get on it. When he saw that it had stopped he threw several 'nades of all varieties down the shaft, which bounced off the turbolift and into the room below. Kaeso then ordered his men onto the fairly large turbolift; the wounded had to be dragged. Smoke grenades covered there escape, and Kaeso had one man put a timed explosive on the walls surround the lift in order to block anyone from coming after them. When the turbolift came to a halt the men quickly got off in order to avoid being smashed by the debris which soon fell. The few remaining guards were quickly silenced.
Kaeso and his men rushed down the hall, blasters blazing, 'nades flying down to the other end, at which there were several hostiles. Once they reached the VIP's cell, they used the key code obtained at the processing center to open it, and a few men entered while the rest covered them. Inside was the VIP, safe and unharmed. They informed him that he would be coming with him, and two of the men were assigned to make sure he did. With the VIP in their possession, now all they had to do was tie up loose ends, which involved a very large explosion.
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Post by Xuku on Dec 15, 2009 16:50:02 GMT -5
With the tubrolift they had come down on being blocked, Kaeso scanned his readout for any way out. At the other end of the tunnel was a small supply room, in which was a turbolift which ran to several other supply rooms. By taking the turbolift to the highest level, they would then be in the fuel refinery section of the facility, and at this point that seemed like the best place to be considering how security was really tightening down on the lower levels. All they had to do was take out the guards in the supply room and they could access the turbolift. Kaeso informed his men of the new plan, and after a countdown they all burst around the corner, surprising the guards who had been walking down the tunnel; they had forgotten which one they ducked into. After taking them out there were only three enemies left on this level, and all were in the supply room. Blaster fire rained down on Kaeso and his men and they ducked into nearby cells, returning grenades and their own stream of fire. Soon the guards fell and the squad of mercenaries advanced to the supply room. They refreshed their supply of grenades, as well as taking on a few more explosives. Once this had been done they took the turbolift up to the highest level, blasters ready. Surprisingly, the room they arrived at was empty. They destroyed the turbolift, and Kaeso downloaded a detailed map of the fuel refinery from the nearby terminal.
Apparently the door of the supply room they were currently in led to an open, ceiling-less room of several levels, in the middle of which were the fuel storage tanks and pipes which transferred fuel as it was refined. However, due to the open nature of the room and the many levels of floors covering the walls, there would be large amounts of firepower concentrated on them; the readout showed that there were several guards on each level. Because of the open roof the LAAT would be able to give air support, but first Kaeso radioed the LAATs, who told him that the sand storm had been moving at high speeds and had moved on out soon after they entered. Kaeso ordered the LAATs to provide air support while the ground units made their way to the ground floor and planted a bomb on the fuel tanks. The LAATs started their engines and began flying in low towards the facility, and once they neared it they curved abruptly upwards, as the facility's walls were almost a hundred feet tall. After searching the roof they located the opening, and flew down inside, and began using their anti-personal guns to suppress the infantry, who were not prepared to counter an air raid on the inside of a facility.
Kaeso and his men opened the supply room door and moved out onto the platform which overlooked the fuel tanks, taking out the two infantry who were facing away, towards the LAAT. Kaeso and his men then rappelled over the side of the platform to the ground level, sustaining minor casualties as the LAATs whirled around to suppress the enemies which were firing on them. On the ground cover was quickly found to treat the wounded, and two of the men began placing explosives on a nearby fuel tank. The LAATs were successfully suppressing and annihilating the infantry on the upper levels, but had not yet made their way to the lower where Kaeso and the men were. The ground squad was under heavy fire, and without air support the were quickly pinned. Grenades flying, but being careful not to hit a fuel tank, the number of enemies thinned, but was quickly replaced by more from what appeared to be the main security room. Kaeso thought that it probably would have been a better idea if he had thought this through a little more, but it was too late for that. Kaeso's infantry were being injured fast and the medics had their hands full. Kaeso was waiting on the bomb to be planted so the LAATs could extract them and get them out of there.
Meanwhile the enemy infantry were busy pouring down firepower into their position, and several pipes were accidentally struck and burst into flame. Luckily there was an automatic fire prevention system and the flame was put out before it could cause too much harm. The bomb planters said they would still need a few more minutes, and Kaeso realized that they didn't have a few more minutes; but he and the few non-wounded infantry could buy a few more. They stocked up on grenades from the wounded, found the freshest rifles, and leaped out from behind the cover they had taken, moving quickly from pipe to tank, dodging the incoming fire as they tried to take as many out as possible. Kaeso saw a small fuel tank near the enemies, and a well-placed grenade would cause it to explode, and hopefully take out the enemies which were crowded around and behind it. Kaeso didn't want to risk hitting a fuel tank, but he had no other choice at this point: he would have to risk it. He threw the grenade, and it detonated, causing the tank to burst into flames, throwing metal fragments everywhere, many of them impaling the nearby enemy infantry. That bought them the time they needed, but also caused a fire that was spreading. The infantry in charge of planting the bomb informed Kaeso that it was ready, and he told them to set the timer for sixty seconds. The LAATs swooped in low and slow as the infantry jumped in and the wounded were carried in, and then shot at maximum speed out of the opening and into the dark Tatooine sky. The LAATs stopped a little ways out and turned around so they could see the fireworks display. The bomb went off, resulting in a huge explosion of the fuel tank it was attached to; the shrapnel from it flew into other tankers which lead to similar explosions, which flung shrapnel into other tanks and threw walls, striking the pipes inside. The fire spread too quickly for the automatic fire prevention system, and the fire traveled rapidly down the fuel lines into other storage areas, bursting even more tanks into flame. With seconds the whole facility was on fire, and tanks of fuel were blowing up everywhere, and the explosion of the facility could be seen for miles around, illuminating the surrounding terrain and sky.
"Good job, men. Now lets go return the VIP and receive our payment for a hard days work!"
"Hoo-ah!" the men all shouted.
The successful squad of mercenaries stopped shortly at the employing gang's headquarters to return the VIP and receive payment, and then proceeded to go to the nearest cantina and spend the rest of the night there, celebrating their victory.
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