Hangar

[Dav Man'Sell]

[Lita Trykk]

[Dav Man'Sell]

[Dav Man'Sell]

Seated upon an empty ordinance case, Alex scribbled into the small, nerfhide bound notebook, finishing up one of the longest updates he'd ever made to his journal. The action of the two days before, the turmoils, and all the thoughts and feelings he'd wanted to record, had come pouring out onto the page in a rambling stream of consciousness, one that had not been curtailed at all by the need to handwrite his entry. He was, just now, reaching the point in the narrative where he had finally crawled into a bunk, nearly forty hours after he had left his on the station above. And he would yet have to transfer all this to his digitally held version, though with power rationed as it was, and his free time severely hampered by the gruelling routine that his squad were keeping, that wasn't likely to happen soon. Even then, seated upon the crate, he wore full body armour, and had two weapons at his side, a pistol on his hip, and a vibro-blade attached to his thigh. Even then, he was on duty, gathered his squad, waiting for the arrival of the rest of an attack force. Even then, the update to his diary came in a snatched moment.

He didn't begrudge the gruelling routine at all. When he had been assigned to the Peacekeeping Taskforce's Marine Corps first squad, widely accepted to be the most elite of the broadly elite soldiers serving in the taskforce, he had known that he would be expected to serve under conditions more extreme, more dangerous, and far more unconventional than a standard soldier. When he had completed his training, he had come out equipped to do so. He did not begrudge the routine, at all. But having to live by such a routine when he was on Yavin IV still made him uneasy. The world, or at the very least, the station in orbit, had been his home for some years now, and the Praxeum... despite the obvious military applications of the Jedi Knights, despite their most fervent and important duty as peacekeepers and law enforcers... the Praxeum, to him, was a school. And a monastery. That it had come under such violent siege...

He shook his head, scribbled the last few words of his sentence, and shut the notebook. It was returned to the pouch on his pack that he had chosen to set aside for it, and he looked up to see that Jedi Master Madoon, who was to command them into battle, was crossing to meet them, followed by his astrodroid. He stood, picked up his helmet, and slipped it on, not bothering to fasten it just yet. They had a briefing to listen to first, and then, no doubt, a bit of a trek ahead of them.



The doors to the hangar parted, and, Greatcoat swirling around him, a rhythmic, determined beat in his footsteps, Dav Man'Sell entered. The coat was sealed now at the front, and over the top of it, across his shoulders and chest, dulled, brushed-metal armour. His lower arms and legs also were armoured, where the same dulled grey metal formed vambraces and greaves. Over the Greatcoat, at his waist, a heavy combat belt, heavy and more equipped than even his usual belt, was full of pouches, mounts, and connectors for various weapons and equipment, though the mounts for holsters remained unoccupied, and only his two Lightsabers hung from the belt as obvious armament. Both hands were gripped tightly around the straps of a pair of large cases, upon which were emblazoned various identifier codes, and the markings of the Galactic Alliance's Special Peacekeeping Taskforce.

His eyes carried still a fire in them, and as he crossed the Hangar, a few eyes turned to look upon him. Some stopped in their work completely, others continued, but fell silent, and yet others still turned to more experienced colleagues, questions on their lips. The Jedi Master paid most of them no heed, simply continued on his path, to where his own team for his next mission were meeting.

Two were already there; Lita Trykk, and Chalco Gannor. The Falleen was not the first person many would have expected to see on the battlefield, but Dav knew the Jedi's skill; he knew his past, from before the great Jedi Purge. There was only one more to join them.

The Jedi Master looked to the Zabrak, giving her a small nod, and then lifted the two cases up, setting them on top of a packing crate.

"This, my friends, is our escape plan."

He opened the first case, and set into each half of the case was a repulsor pack; two per case, and one per Jedi.

"We'll be going over the cliff. These will prevent us being smeared over the forest canopy below."

[Joshua Kierra-Solo]

"I'm not really a big fan of heights..."

[Zuli Madoon]

"Greetings one and all.." "We are about to undertake a dangerous, but vital mission to slow and hinder the Mandalorian forces.."



"Now, from our location here at the Praxeum, we have an sizeable force to our South East based. Scouts report they have built a FOB up around the Temple of The Blueleaf Cluster. They are constructing a bridge across the river to increase troop movements, and, possibly prepare for an attack.."



"We cannot be certain of troop numbers, but we can assume that there will be troops stationed on both sides of the bridge. And no doubt there will be forces hidden in the jungle surrounding it. Regardless of this we must move to engage the enemy here.." "And this will enable us to plant demolition charges at key points of the bridge and bring it down.."



"It will be a hazardous undertaking, and there is a chance we might fail.. But we must do anything we can to stop the invaders having a straight shot at the Temple.."

[Dav Man'Sell]

Alex frowned, eyeing over the battle location. Their side of the river didn't present him with many vantage points, which would make it difficult for him to make any real impact; in fact, it presented far more challenges than it did opportunities. Even with their detailed knowledge of the terrain, the Peacekeeping Taskforce soldiers would be at a disadvantage as new-comers to that particular theatre of combat. There were dozens of locations that the Mandalorians could have hidden forces for a flanking maneuver, and without a thorough - and very, very noticeable - search pattern, there was no way that the small force they had could see them all without stepping right into the kill box.

And Alex was a sniper. He didn't step into another's kill box. They stepped into his.

He frowned, raising a hand gingerly, and awaited the nod from the Shi'ido. When he received it, he gestured to the hologram.

=Corporal Alex Owains=
"There's a lot of potential for ambush there, Master Zuli, sir. All the sharpshooter opportunities are on the far bank as well, meaning that the Mandos will have the opportunity to flank us and get us under the scopes of long range rifles, and we won't have much to counter it with."

He saw out of the corner of his eye Sergeant Don turn to look in his direction, and just barely held back the sigh from escaping his lips. Carnor Don, his direct superior and the commander of Marine First Squad, was an excellent soldier, truly exceptional. But the past few days, he had been tense, on edge, and even more sharp with them than they were used to him being. Something had him rattled. No one had yet figured out what.

=Sergeant Carnor Don=
"What's your point, Corporal?"

Alex turned to the Sergeant, offering a small shrug.

=Corporal Alex Owains=
"Nothing much, just that getting to the bridge itself to plant the explosives, under those conditions, is a big ask even for us, Sarge. Even for a Jedi."

He turned back to the Jedi Master.

=Corporal Alex Owains=
"Wondering what the plan was on that front, sir."



Dav looked up at the Falleen, arching an eyebrow at his words.

All the years I've known Chalco, I've never known that.

He offered the other Jedi Master a small, dry smile.

"We often have to face things we're not comfortable with as we walk the path of a Jedi. Sometimes you have to push the boundaries a little. I have every faith that you shall overcome your discomfort. You're a Jedi, after all."

The Jedi Battlemaster reached into the case, drawing out one of the repulsor packs by its straps, and reaching out, handed it to Lita. He took a second, and took the few necessary steps to Chalco, standing just a little to the Falleen's right, and laid one hand upon the shoulder.

"Besides, the height isn't anything that you have to worry about. Really, it's quite harmless."

He slapped the pack into the Falleen's arms, and the smile grew a little wider.

"The sudden stop at the bottom, however; now that'll get you, every time."

Giving the Falleen a wink that had just a hint of cheekiness about it, he turned to the second case, popping it open and digging out the third pack, checking it over quickly before he set it down. The final pack he now drew out as well, and instantly started adjusting the straps on it. As he worked, he spoke.

"We'll take seventy-four-zed speeder bikes out to a point approximately three miles north of the siege cannon; from there, we're on foot. Stealth approach. Crossing the river will be tricky; storm season usually causes it to break its banks in many locations, and the current is almost always terrifyingly rapid at this time of year." He shot a glance at Chalco and Lita, before returning to his repulsor pack, on which he was now popping open an access panel, revealing the repulsor coils within. "But there's an area it should be possible to ford. A series of large stones span the river about two and a half miles from the cannon's location, close enough together that it's possible to Force leap between them quite easily. The area around it is heavily overgrown with some of the tallest trees in the region, so it's unlikely to have been discovered by the Mandalorians yet. We'll cross there."

He gave another dry smile as he closed the access panel again, his examination of them complete.

"Then we've just got to fight or sneak our way through any Mandalorians we find defending the cannon, disable or destroy it, and get out without getting shot. Easy peasy."

[Lita Trykk]

*In a simultaneous mirror image to Chalco that could not have been choreographed with more humorously exact precision, Lita's gaze flickered to the falleen's, silently expressing the full recoil that her disciplined muscles managed to control, then also dropped to the device a second time.

Her lip curled with distaste, but the words she was about to hiss were whispered instead by the voice of another.

"I'm not really a big fan of heights..."

She pressed her lips firmly together and remained silent. There was no point in arguing that the dense body structure of a Zabrak was not designed for aerial feats. She knew the thrust in those packs could more than hold her weight, but the thought of stepping over a cliff made her stomach flip.

Ever since she had stepped backwards into open air out of that pirate ship, she knew she never wanted to be in freefall again. She swallowed the groan that rose to her throat with a wave of nausea. And this was my idea.

At least she would have the repulsor pack this time.

Acknowledge the source of your fear, understand it, control it.

Her hands were steady and fingers strong as she took the pack from Dav. She adjusted her own straps while her eyes and attention were on the Master Jedi, listening to his brief and responding with a single nod of her horned head.*

"...Disabling the cannon will be the easy part, I have no doubt of that. Who will have comm to synchronize with the other units?"

[Joshua Kierra-Solo]

"Every time? I'd have thought once from that height would be pretty permanent..."



"We wont need comms. I'm sure we'll have the Mando's rounded up by tea-time..."

[Dav Man'Sell]

Dav offered a glance - just a momentary glance - at the Falleen's last remark. He could see the trepidation in Chalco's face, he could see the discomfort in the shoulders and the uneasiness in the movements. Dav may not have known about Chalco's discomfort with heights, but he was completely aware at just how much the other Jedi disliked combat and aggression. The Falleen's discomfort was something that, in truth, Dav welcomed, for it would remind them all that as much as this war surrounded them, they had to avoid getting lost in it.

His attention turned back to Lita, returning to the question at hand.

"We'll all carry comms, but for the majority of this mission, we'll be listeners only. The Mandalorians are unlikely to have cracked our encryptions yet, but they might still be able to pick up encrypted transmissions and trace the transmissions themselves back to us. If, when it comes to our departure, we need to call in support, we'll carry standard Taskforce marking equipment to help provide targets for our air support. We might also be able to call on the main force striking at the Mandalorians at the river -" He shot a small glance over at the group gathering around Zuli, across the hangar from them. "- though I wouldn't want to count on it, as they may well have their hands full. As much as possible, this will be an autonomous endeavour."

He arched his eyebrows, setting his own repulsor pack down.

"Which means we'll have our work cut out for us. The four of us will have to be ready to think on our feet."