IC: E-i-E - Ardent Emancipation

[Major]

"If we have a spy leaking our every mission then rushing to run in and ignoring it will not help." Kelaeon says annoyed, "We barely succeeded at the Wheel and that was more luck than anything. Do we really want to form a plan, walk in, and find them sitting there waiting for us? I realize it is urgant and we don't have time for a full spy hunt, but what we do need is a way to lessen or eliminate anymore threats. Communication jamming, whatever." Kelaeon says clenching his fist. "Impersonation and stealth don't work when they know what we are doing."

[Mithric Gunn]

Dr. Sharka nods, leaving the room. He heads to his quarters, ensure his kit is packed well. Then he reports to the ship and calmly waits for the others.

[Thundercracker]

Ice
"What if there's no spy and they're just using the Force?" Ice asks, sliding off his chair and making a beeline for the door, "can't you guys see the future? And if you can see the future, can't they?"

[Major]

"Note quite like that, and not the ability to pick individual tiny groups." Kelaeon says, "It is on thing to know a wide-scale change, and even then that is limited to seers, it is a whole different one to TWICE in such a short amount of time know what one specific squad's mission is going to be."

[Thundercracker]

Ice
"Well then, there's probably a spy somewhere, and it's above the team, since the Sith knew about the Wheel mission before we did," Ice says, stuffing the emergency ring into a pocket, "we'll have to put together a plan to figure out who it is, eventually."

[Major]

"That's fine. I agree now is not the best time for a full examination, but at the same time precautions need to be put in place until the mission is done. Right now anyone who knew about our mission knows what our mission is, so the Sith are on the way to retrieve the doctor, but only the people in this room know the actual plan. As such, I'm suggesting something is done to ensure that the specific details of our plan do not leave this room and get to the Sith. Be it a communications lockdown of everyone here, or whatever."

[Felhammer]

After an hour of faster-than-lighttravel, you arrive in the Feldrona System, or rather just outside it.

[Thundercracker]

Ice
Ice shows up on the bridge just as the ship exits hyperspace.

"Emergency ring is linked to comlinks," he says, tossing the ring to Sairen.

"Well, what do we have in the system? Do they know we're here?" he asks, attempting to peer beneath a crewman's arm to get a good look at a sensor screen.

[Noedig]

The briefing ended without a solid plan, but maybe that was best. No plan they'd ever made in the past had lasted longer than first contact. He stood and motioned for Jax to follow him. He issued his orders as they walked.

"Jax, get my boys and girls ready for war. I want everyone to double up on ammo and grenades. If we get pinned in the prison, I want to be able to last. Make sure they've all got at least one medkit on them, because this is going to be messy and we've only got four medics in the platoon. This is op is probably going to go sideways in a hurry once we get groundside, so go ahead and bring some of the heavy weapons. Tell Staff Sergeant Kenzee we're packing an extra load of detonite and timers on top of our standard sapper kit. We may need to make some doors, and I'll be damned if the Panthers run out of Boom. Tell Mynock, Banshee and Acklay to do the same. You've got one hour. Get it done Sarge, I've got to speak with Bones."

He split off from Jax and went to find the Felucian. They had business to discuss.

[Major]

With a sigh, Kelaeon gets up and heads out to get his disguises, beckoning for Bail to follow. He didn't particularly like having to look like a Sith, but the mission was the mission. Hopefully between the dark side crystal and the disguise, he'd be able to get this done. Shame the spy chick had left. He bet she would have probably had a holoshroud or something to do the job even easier.

Once they were out of the room and walking to get his disguise, Kelaeon spoke, "I'm leaving you in charge of looking into this spy. Use the Force, draw on instinct. Look for suspicion and strange factors. While our strike force is gone, it is highly likely the traitor will take this chance to warn the Sith of our plan. Do not act unless it is an emergency, gather the information, trust your instincts, and let me know upon my return."

[Mithric Gunn]

As Jarik walks onto the ship, Sharka is sitting in meditation. His eyes dont open, but Jarik hears, Can I help you Lieutenant Jarik?

[Iron Victory]

Sairen was twitchy, he hated the quiet before the storm. Producing a small flask, the Chiss takes a swig before retrieving a small disk from around his neck. He smiles longingly as it projects the hologram of a young Chiss woman. Tucking it beneath his uniform he departs for the shuttles. As always, Titus follows, programmed to defend his charge.

[Noedig]

"Your dossier is an interesting read, Bones. Says you can do some crazy stuff, like walk through walls. Can you?"

[Mithric Gunn]

Sharka's black, alien eyes open. It is not easy, Lieutenant. Even for me, it takes great concentration, and may require multiple attempts to succeed. But I am capable of such a feat.

[Noedig]

"Can you move more than one person? Say yourself and one or two others?"

[Mithric Gunn]

Unfortunately not. I could maybe sneak you past guards and electronic surveillance, but I can only phase myself through walls.

[Noedig]

Jarik sighed.
"Aw, see that's a shame. Was looking forward to walking through walls. You can't imagine how damned useful that would be in my profession. The ESP is pretty sweet too. Beats the hell out of comlinks."

[Thundercracker]

Ice
"Kel," Ice said over the comm, connecting directly to Kel's comlink, "all they've got are a few frigates in orbit, and a few thousand troops and ground vehicles, maybe some armor, but it's all spread out across the planet."

He pauses for a moment.

"What's the call?" Ice asks.

[Major]

Kelaeon sighed and lifted the comlink. He hated giving the order, but while he might have been in charge, the group was a team and ultimately they had mostly wanted to lead the direct attack.

"It seems the desired objective is to blast them hard, fast, grab the VIP, and get out. If we can move fast enough we can hopefully get in and out while they are still mobilizing." Kelaeon said rubbing his temple. "Let's try and get the ship as close to the planet as we can without being picked up as hostile. If possible use codes or whatever so that we can get our ground teams headed down. The longer we can keep up the act that we are friendly, the bigger the surprise when we start the blaster and the less time they have to react."

"We'll get close, get our troops on the ground, and then begin blasting as much of the defenses as we can from orbit until the frigates get involved. The more they can blast to help us before having to defend themselves, the better. Any concerns or problems?"

[Felhammer]

Commander Zarn activates the outdated IFF and gleefully commands the Kestrel into the system. None of the Frigates take note of the new arrival, preferring to take the IFF at its word. "Excelent," says Zarn, "We have them right where we want them. Knight Kaeleon, we stand ready to commence the attack at your leisure."

[Noedig]

Jarik sighed as Kel came over the ship-wide comm.

"Good talk, Bones. Suggest you get kitted up, it's going to get ugly down there. See you groundside."

He stepped out of the Felucians room and jogged down to the hangar where his platoon was hopefully waiting to go. The lift ride was short and as the doors opened he could see his troopers bustling about getting ready. Some of them were still dressing, and there was a playful bit of 'grab-ass' happening, but that aside Jax was keeping things ordered.

He moved quickly to his locker and pulled out his armor. It was a new set of his old Stormcommando armor, modified to his likings, but it still felt a bit unfamiliar. His 'new' weapons were also waiting for him.

Jarik grinned as he picked up his IWS. He wasn't sure how, but Broody had heard a bit about the Wheel, and she had sent him her own rifle. Delta-45 had etched words of encouragement on the various modules. The sniper mod had Broody's 'One Shot' in flowing cursive, the anti-armor had Drang's nearly illegible scrawl and read 'Go Loud'. Carga had signed the rifle itself, 'Check your corners', a private joke between them.

He clipped the rifle to his harness and grabbed his sidearm. It was a DC-15s, like his old one. They were even harder to come by than the IWS, and it had come with a note from Wren. She spent most of it chewing him out, but it was otherwise friendly. She had also etched a message for him along the side of the slide. 'Kill 'em all.'.

Jarik slid the sidearm into his holster and walked to where Jax stood presiding over the chaos.

"You mind shutting' 'em up for a second, Jax? I've got an announcement."

[Major]

Kelaeon bid Bail goodbye, trusting the young man to do his mission well as all Imperial Knights should and then he moved quickly to get to the hanger.

"Commence." He ordered once everyone was ready.

[Noedig]

Kestrel, Pre-Attack order:

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Jax called for quiet twice but the noise in the hangar drowned him out. Jarik smirked and pulled out his sidearm.

"You want somethin' done right..."

He aimed it at the ceiling and fired three shots. The whole platoon jerked their heads in his direction, some even going so far as to reach for their weapons. Instead of an attacker they saw Jarik chuckling quietly and Jax silently glaring at all of them. Jarik hollstered his weapon and stepped up on a crate.

"Gather round boys and girls, your CO has some things to tell you. First, the chain of command on this op may be a little new to some of you, so I'm going to lay it out nice and plain for you. You have Imperial Knight Kelaeon at the top, then the company captain, then me, then Jax and then your sergeants. Having a Knight over us might irk some of you, but let me be perfectly clear: get over it. That's the C-O-C, you don't have to like it."

He paused, pulled out a cigarette and took a long pull.

"Secondly, this op is going to be a knife fight. The definition of CQB. Hall to hall, room to room. As far as this platoon is concerned, every one of those halls and rooms are heavily defended and every door and lift is booby trapped tohell. Check your corners, and keep your damn heads on the swivel.

He puffed on the cigarette for a moment before continuing.

"Thirdly, there are some True Imperials being held down there. Some of you may even have friends there. Much as I hate to say it, they are not the objective. We'll try to rescue them of we can, but if it comes down to a choice between the mission and them, the mission comes first. That being said, I'm checking with Kelaeon and the captain about taking some extra weapons down when we assault."

There were some murmurs, some less than pleased at his most recent announcement.

"Lastly, quit karking around and get kitted up. We drop in ten, and I want us ready well before that. We'll do comms and signs on the way down. Dismissed."

He stepped off the crate and checked his kit one last time.

[Philistine]

Shortly before the reversion of the INS Rogue Kestrel to realspace near Feldrona

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Squadron Ready Room, 1st Imperial Navy Fighter Squadron, Imperial Navy Ship Rogue Kestrel
The tall, lean form of Squadron Leader Graff entered and marched to the lectern, and the room grew quiet as thirty pilots and flight crew broke off their conversations. "Eyes front," he began - a formality, as the assembled fliers had already directed their attention to the front of the room.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen. You might be wondering about the unannounced high-speed hyper transit - though no doubt some of you already think you know what's going on," Graff said. His eyes flicked toward where Homer and Songbird sat, one eyebrow and the corners of his mouth quirking up almost invisibly as quiet chuckles swept around the room. The Ronto's flight crew were notoriously well-connected to the shipwide scuttlebutt network - it always provided answers fast, though whether or not those answers were right was a different story. After a brief pause, he continued, "We're going to Feldrona. Intelligence tells us there's a prison down there, and we have a short window of opportunity to break it while the Usurpers are redeploying to cover their losses. And when I say "short," I mean our best information has us beating Darth Krayt himself, personally, to the system by five hours or less." Graff paused again to let the chorus of muttered profanity subside. "That's right. The Big Bad Boss Sith himself. So we want to be long gone by the time he shows up."

He tapped a sequence on his bracer datapad, and a schematic of the system, centered on the prison, appeared on the room's central projector. "Here's what we've got. Science Division is confident that we can spoof the Sith IFF, at least for long enough, so we're going to put up a patrol - just like it's business as usual - as soon as we break hyper. Jester, I want you and Easy for this one, and I'll join up as your number three. I'll fake an in-flight emergency to get me in close enough to blow the facility's comms, then set down on the surface. Then Snoot and Boost are going to escort the Red Dawn and the Ronto down as well, and Green and Gold Flights will pretend to conduct a CSAR op while our Stormtrooper contingent, who will be riding down on the shuttles, storm the place from ground level. Papabear, you'll have the Red Dawn with a command crew for this run, and Snake, you'll ride down as well to pick up Hellhound. Though you'll have to keep it on the ground until time to leave, or until local security arrives on the scene." Graff's mouth twisted in a parody of a smile, "I'll be going in with the ground team."

Graff shook his head and spoke into the stunned silence that filled the room. "I told you I used to be ImpInt; Command wants me back in the saddle one more time. Whisper. While I'm dirtside, I want one Predator flight covering Gold and another covering the Kestrel at all times, rotating people through to keep everyone fresh. The assault team will signal Gold Flight for dustoff. Snake, that'll be your signal too." He stopped and looked around the room again. "Not much point in asking questions. This is a target of opportunity, and our intel is limited. Local forces are expected to be significant, but spread thin. Major forces are supposed to be completely out of position for the next few hours. Well, we'll see."

"All right, Gunfighters. You shouldn't have to fire a shot if this mission goes according to plan. If it doesn't, then we'll kick their ass so hard their kids will be born with their ears ringing. So make sure you've got today's comm frequencies and challenge codes, and good hunting!"

The Present, above Feldrona
At the Imperial Knight's order, a trio of Predators drop clear of the Rogue Kestrel's hangar and curve out on a standard patrol course. Moments later, a bored-sounding voice drawls over the open comm, "Home Base, this is One-Three. I'm getting some anomalous readings from my nav system - request telemetry check." A heartbeat later he returns, sounding slightly more excited, "Kark! Home Base, One-Three. I've got crazy feedback on my comms, and my weapons system just kicked itself offline! Declaring an emergency at this time, request immediate vector to the hangar bay for RTB!" Suddenly, the number three fighter in the formation breaks away and screams down toward the planet's surface below. The Predator plummets on an erratic course, while the pilot's cries of "Mayday" fill the ether as his transmitter locks open.

Scant meters above the ground, the fighter suddenly rights itself and opens fire on the prison's communications array. The pilot brings the Predator to a wrenching stop just up-slope of the fireball, settling down on the repulsorlift drive and killing all transmissions. Waiting.

[Thundercracker]

Ice
On board the Red Dawn, Ice was in his customary seat at the sensor station, next to the pilot's chair. He monitored the Sith communication frequencies, listening for anything that might indicate they suspected anything.

"Did I ever tell you about the time I jury-rigged a holding cell's force field projector into a plasma beam?" he said casually to the pilot, "good trick if you're ever stuck in a prototype star destroyer's brig that hasn't had all the design flaws ironed out."

The ship angled towards the prison, in response to the 'distress call'.

"Take good care of my ship while I'm out, would you? I spent a lot of time on her," he said.

[Noedig]

Jarik swayed with the turbulence. The ride down in the Ronto was far from the most unpleasant shuttle ride he'd ever taken. He slipped on his helmet and did the comms check.

"This is Crash. 4th Platoon report in, over."

It took about a minute for the platoon to report in and he used the time to ask the Captain for a sign-countersign call. What he received amused him.

"Listen up. Sign for this op is 'Hammer'. Countersign is 'Stumbles.' Do not karking forget it, because that'll get you killed. Sergeants will make the calls. Copy?"

A chorus of affirmatives rang in and Jarik smiled.

"For the True Emperor. And remember, we've got a deal with Death. We keep the void packed with souls, and he leaves us alone. Don't renege."

[Felhammer]

With a "hoorah," the Stormtroopers of the 4th Platoon pile into their LA-AT. Graff takes a Predator down to the planet and pulls off the ploy like an expert deceiver and marksman. Meanwhile, the Kestrel launches all of the LA-AT's as well as the Ronto and the Dawn. The Ardent then zips forward to shield the invasion force and to quickly disable the enemy frigates. With a timing and precision only Commander Zarn could pull off, all four of the enemy Frigates' shields, engines and communications and power grids are wiped out. The Rogue Kestrel now has complete control over Feldrona's Space.

The landing party swoops down to the planet and finds little resistance... In fact, none. As you zoom over the nearest city, you see mountains of contorted, dessicated, almost mummy-like corpses. There doesn't appear to be a soul left alive in town. As you speedily race to the prison, you find only the automated defenses are active. There are no troopers, no guards, no shields, just turrets.

Graff:

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As you near the planet's surface, you get an eerie, unsettling feeling in your gut. You also feel itchy.

[Mithric Gunn]

Upon seeing the empty city and prison, Dr. Sharka stands up. "I need a hazmat suit and equipment for taking samples. Knight Keleaon, with your permision I'd like to take a team down to take samples. If this is a new bioweapon, we need to develop a cure."

A look of concentration distorts his alien features, and Sharka reaches out with the force, trying to get a glimpse of what happened here.

[Major]

"If it does not endanger the mission. We can't just land and check things now and it is unlikely we will have time blasting off." Kelaeon says calmly. "Right now it'd be too dangerous, I can't see a safe way you'd do that."

[Thundercracker]

Ice (on board the Red Dawn)
Ice quickly scans the immediate area for life forms, and if he finds none, scans any area within line of sight. If there are none (or very little), he'll send an encrypted message to the Kestrel to scan the planet and the four frigates.

"Don't open the airlock or the cargo hold until we know what's going on, I'm much too pretty to end up like those corpses," he says to the pilot.