Zenna gave up on the lock and ran to the forward cab. "Alright. Go, go, go."

Daron tossed his rifle back in and scooted over towards the middle of the truck so that he could make room for Zenna. It appeared as if they wouldn't be getting into the back of their truck this time around. So far it seemed like about half this mission was going to be a bust. When they got done with all this, they would probably be in for an earfull from the Imperial who had put them on this job.

Exilim glanced ahead to the truck approaching them. He silently prayed that it was Jamie and his new toy. Leaning out the window he continued to try and hit the T-16 even though he knew he was unlikely to even get close to it.

Flash scanned the empty horizon.  It was rather unnerving, knowing that your teammates were out there getting shot up, and there was nothing you could do to help.  That had to change.  Deciding that they'd get enough warning if one of the T-16s was to come their way, Flash hopped up into the back of the truck to help Devon search.

Jamie braces himself as comfortably as he can as he takes aim on the T-16 strafing Mark's truck.  Taking a slow breath, he exhaled slowly, allowing his tension to flow with it.  Shutting out everything else, he focused entirely on the enemy airspeeder.  In his mind he could almost see the trajectory he needed, he envisioned the missile striking the speeder.  Almost unconsciously, he pulled the trigger.

The missile flew straight and true.  The airspeeder, not even seeing the approaching missile, was just going through a left bank when the missile struck the craft.  The projectile failed to explode, but succeeded in tearing off the top fin.

The T-16 went into an immediate, uncontrollable lateral spin and plummete dlike a stone.  It struck the ground upside down and slid several hundred metres on the cockpit roof.  The entire cockpit (and its occupant) were shredded and crushed to pulp.  Finally the speeder came to rest.  Miraculously it did not catch on fire and explode.  The underside in fact looked largely undamaged.  However with the extensive damage to the cockpit, the ship would never fly again.

Mark watched, thoroughly impressed at Jamie's accuracy.  "Bandit down.  I repeat bandit down.  That makes two.  Regroup but keep your eyes open people.  They could have friends."

Ignoring his own order, Mark ordered his driver to stop and moved over to the downed airspeeder.


OOC:  Well the Talons have prevailed again!  Nice work!  Oh and the air cover should be there in a minute or two!!

Bishop acknowledged the last communication with a simple phrase, "Eight copies."  He looked at his driver to make sure he wasn't too shell shocked and then put his attentions back to looking for air and ground obstacles.  He quietly wondered if they had just taken out some bandits or if they just crippled their own Alliance allies.

Jamie pulled the trigger and watched the missile slam into the doomed speeder.
He simply sat back in his seat, watching as the craft tumbled to the earth and saying not a word.
He sat like that, staring at his knees, before reloaded the weapon and ordering the driver to follow Mark's vehicle.
I should be excited, he told himself.  I should be proud.  Or should I?  I just killed two pilots who opposed the Empire.  I'm helping the Empire again...killing for them...I won't do it.  I won't.

When Flash first scrambled into the back of the wrecked truck, he got a momentary shock as Devon reacted quickly to his presence - whipping round and levelling his blaster pistol in one fast and deadly movement.  Then the shipjacker recognized his visitor and holstered the weapon instead of shooting.
'Sorry' he said 'For a moment I figured you were a bad guy...'



Straightening up, Devon kicked a couple of ration packs out the way as he clambered back towards the exit.  'Seven copies.  Two and I have nothing worse than a fun collection of bumps and scrapes, but our driver is dead and I think the truck is toast.  Fairly sure I heard the engine blow.  We'll see if we can get it mobile quickly.  If not, we're going to be on foot.'

Devon lowered his comlink and glanced at Flash.  'Come on - lets see if we can get this crate moving - I for one don't fancy walking home.'  Suiting actions to words, Devon padded back to the front the truck and began to assess the damage...

Flash's hand brought his blaster up  even as Devon whipped around, even though he knew perfectly well who he was.  He wasn't about to get shot down by someone he thought of as a friend.  Not again.  Seeing Devon lower his blaster, Flash followed suit, warily.  He kicked at a few crates, frowning at the contents.  Uniforms.  How useless.  He hopped back out, disgusted.  He heard One's message, and followed Devon around to the front of the truck, inspecting the damage as he went.  "Looks pretty toasted to me.  How good are you at fixing things?"  He reacehd back for the tool kit on his belt, leaning forward toward the engine to examine it more closely.

This wasn't Daron's truck. He'd been stupid enough to let his driver get killed, shot clean through by one of the T-16's. The weight of what he'd allowed/caused began to settle in on him now that it seemed like they were out of immediate danger. With his rifle in hand, he rode the middle seat in Zenna's truck, waiting for her to decide what they were going to do now that it looked like they were in the clear.

Devon looked up from his examination of the engine.

'I do OK, usually.'  He grinned at Flash, 'The ability to start a vehicle in a hurry is one of those career skills, where I come from.'

"Ok. Let's go see if there's any cargo from your truck Daron." Zenna gestured for the driver to turn towards the burning wreck.

Exilim cheered as the second T-16 was shot down. Over the next few moments just how lucky they were really sunk in. With that, he also realised that they had been woefully under prepared for all the possible eventualities. Berating himself silently great start to my efforts at leadership, one dead, two transports hit and really under prepared.... " he quickly started to reassess their situation.


"All Talons, Four here.Report in. Great work Five, you really came through. Six and Eight, take your trucks to where Three's transport is. Salvage what you can. Five, join One and myself at Seven's truck. Everyone keep an eye out, there may be more of them out there. Six, when you get to your location I want a sitrep."

Turning to Mark and his driver "Lets get back to where you picked me up from."

"It... well, it didn't look too good. I was concerned that if there was ordnance in the back of the truck, that it wouldn't be good for me to go rifling through the back when it could explode at any minute."

Daron was along for the ride with Zenna. He was the idiot that had gotten his own truck blown up. Now he was going where ever she was going.

Bishop indicated for his driver to make their way to where Three's truck was disabled.  He thought to point out a minor problem, "Eight copies, moving.  Just one thing, where are we going to put the salvaged items, if any, since we can't get into the back of most of our trucks?" afterall, he was just a grunt, perhaps they had some brilliant plan he just didn't know about.

"Roger that," Jamie called to Xil.  He pointed out Mark's truck for the driver.
"Follow that truck," he said curtly.
As an afterthought, he added, "Nice driving today.  I appreciate that; I'd hate to be one of the casualties."

The convoy regrouped as best it could.  With two trucks and a speeder disabled, the group had to divide their forces to maintain the area.  A perimeter was agreed upon and people were just setting out when the roar of TIE fighters could be heard overhead.  A full half-squadron of TIE fighters took position overhead, setting up a combat air patrol.

"Never thought I'd be glad to hear that noise" Mark quipped to Jamie.  The commander had returned from the wreckage of the second speeder, now carrying the light repeater that had been turreted underneath.  THe weapon had survived the crash, unlike the pilot.

Less than five minutes later an assault transport arrived and set down.  Two squads of stormtroopers rushed out, led by a pair of lieutenants.  One squad immediately moved to the secure the area whilst the second approached Mark, Jamie and Xil who were standing together, reviewing the situation.

The officer halted before the trio.  "Lieutenant Serro, 5th Company.  I am ordered to take command of the convoy.  You and your men are to return on the transport for debriefing immediately."

Looking up from the engine he was upto his elbows in, Devon made a disgusted sound as the stormtroopers began to deploy.

'Imperials,' he muttered, just loud enough for Flash to hear 'I feel safer already.'

Giving up on his repair attempt - he wasnt going to make things easier for the Empire troops if he could avoid it - Devon perched on the edge of the truck, wiping his oily hands on the leg of his pants as watched the Imperial Lieutenant issing orders.

Zenna was sitting in the truck with her driver when the Imperials finally showed up. She was sipped her canteen and wiped the crumbs of the ration bar as the troopers took control of the area.

She heard the orders to get aboard the transport. Zenna waited for Jamie or Mark to give the word before she gathered her gear and climbed into the transport.

Bishop snarled to himself as the Stormtroopers showed up.  Several memories flashed through his mind, but he kept himself in check.  As he overheard the Imperial officer give them the order to head back in he snorted thinking to himself they probably knew about the ambush and let the group take the hit.  Shaking his head he waited for the word from his own commanders since he certainly didn't like the idea of following a direct order from an Imp.

Flash extricated himself from the other side of the engine.  "Right," he commented dryly, and stowed his tools.  For a moment, his hand drifted toward his blaster, before he caught himself.  No, shooting them would be a bad idea, even if we could take them on.  We're working for them now, remember?  Put that way, however, the idea made him shudder.  He'd seen far too much of what the Imperials did to relish working for them, and he'd seen some of what they did to mercenaries they hired as well.  Frankly, he wasn't about to stay around long enough for that to happen to him.

Working to cover one side of their little circle of protection, Daron's eyes went to the sky when he heard the scream of the twin ion engines of the TIE fighters as they soared overhead. With their escort arrived, Daron relaxed and walked back towards the trucks that they still had in one piece, awaiting the arrival of the assault transport.

Daron to this point had not been this close to so many imperial storm troopers. The planet he hailed from had been far enough into the outer rim that Imperial presence wasn't standard until the infection took hold and resulted in the deaths of approximately 99% of his worlds population.

Even then, the Imperial presence had consisted of Imperial I-class star destroyers that simply hung in orbit to keep people from escaping a quarentine. Being this close to actual storm troopers was interesting to say the least.

Xilim looked at the Lieutenant, it was just the sort of greeting he expected. Typical he thought to himself.

Turning to Mark and Jamie with a slight grin on his face he said "We may as well do as they are ordering, a discussion out here  with the messenger will get us nowhere." He turned and started heading for the transport calling out to the rest of the team to follow them.

On Exilim's orders, the Talons began regrouping.  Stopping long enough to collect their gear and thank their drivers, they quickly converged on the transport.  On unspoken mutual agreement, nothing was said as the group travelled back to base.  As opposed to the much longer trip in the landspeeders, the space transport had them back to base in ten minutes.

Upon landing the Talons were escorted out of the transport and back to their barracks, escorted by a full squad of stormtroopers.  Whilst no weapons were pointed in their direction and the Talons were not relieved of their weapons it was clear that the Imperials wouldn't hesitate to shoot if their orders weren't complied with.

Upon reaching their barracks, the commanding stomrtrooper spoke simply, pointing at Mark.  "You are under orders to come with us for debriefing.  The rest of you are to remain here."

Mark shrugged and handed over his pack to Jamie, along with the light repeater he'd liberated from the crashed T-16.  He left his pistol in his shoulder holster.

"Five, your in charge until nine or I return.  Four, this was your show, commence debriefing.  Three, seven, due to your performance out there, you're stuck on cleaning duty, just like this morning.  By the time I return I want some strategies in place.  Nobody messes with us and gets away with it."  Wether the last part was genuine or piritical bravado for the stormtrooper's benefit was anyone's guess.

Mark was then marched away.


OOC
Well you're back.  A few notes:

Devon & Daron, you didn't clean anything this morning.  The only thing you did in the morning together was sweep the barracks for bugs and cameras.

I need to know if anyone kept any gear they 'acquired' from the run.  Mark has a new light repeating blaster he took off the crashed T-16.  A little more firepower for the upcoming missions.

Humble apologies for the delays in posting.

I will update the xp totals today as well.

Bishop feeling the fatigue generated by the adrenaline takes a seat and removes his poncho and most of his gear.  He espouses his displeasure with what had happened out there, "Well, that was a charlie-foxtrot." as he begins to wipe down his carbine.