Flight of the Intaari'rai'raa (Infiltrators)

[Hesko Noreem]

((Split from Pride Goes Before the Fall (http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=21315)))

The Cizeri freighter, the Intaari'rai'raa, had entered hyperspace bound for Keppaa Brens close to a hour ago having departed the Liberty once the infiltration teams and their supplies were loaded aboard. Its main cargo hold was now littered with a number of weapons crates, clone soldiers, and few members of Diamond squad who were gearing up for the mission ahead.

In the forward part of the hold a few crates had been lined in a semi-circular fashion around a holo-imager which was flipping through images of the target stations with briefs on enemy units suspected to be defending the structures, as of yet no one showed any interest in the display. The majority of the troopers' focus was towards the rear of the hold where several clones were setting up a makeshift target range in order to calibrate their weapons. Three of the troopers had stood up a number of emptied crates on there sides and braced them against the rear wall while another trooper with a torch had scorched circular bull's eyes on them for targets. Once the setup was complete an ARC lieutenant ordered the range to be cleared for use and the first squad of troopers began lining up to fire.

Elsewhere aboard the ship ARC Commander Alpha-88 was making use of a workbench in the mechanic's quarters reassembling the jetpack he'd carried onboard. The GAR's variant of the JT-12 he used hadn't been in many combat operations, and as such hadn't taken much in the way of damage aside from the usual scratches, but still he figured it deserved a good cleaning and inspection before he'd entrust it once more with his life. Plus, it was an easy way to kill time before the mission commenced.
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[Adia Issoris]

Unlike the rest of Diamond Squad, Adia's equipment was mostly off the ARC menu. The dark gray scout helmet liner and goggles were still on her head, and the rest of the helmet was with her equipment stash, neatly organized. The shoulder and arm armor was pure ARC. Her own aftermarket bits and pieces for her hourglass torso and wide hips intermingled with the pieces of the Phase II clone armor that fit, which were padded with flame retardant fabric in key places for easier infiltration. Her kama was heavy, and splashed with random flecks of dark brown. A WESTAR-M5 hung from a clip on the left side her belt, while a DC-17 was snug in a shoulder holster. A vibrosword from a BX-series commando droid occupied a specially made sheath hung from the right side of her belt. None of it made more than a whisper when she moved.

She hefted a pair of Z-6 rotary blasters like they were DC-15s. One was for Grraw. It had been damaged in a recent mission. He would be happy that Adia had put it back into working order. She gave the triggers a half squeeze, and the barrels spun with a whir.

The rest of Diamond Squad seemed to be getting on fine with the ARCs, she noted. They shared remarks and tactics for Cizerack while plinking targets on the makeshift range. Diamond Squad didn't have as much of a reputation within the clone ranks, partly because they worked separately, and partly because Diamond's operations were kept very quiet. One of the troopers lifted an eyebrow when Adia returned with the pair of Z-6's.

"You need a hand with that, Commander?" One of the ARC lieutenants cracked.

"No." Adia responded, and handed Grraw his Z-6. He urfed appreciatively, and gave Adia a pat on an armored shoulder.

"...like I was saying, I think the reports about hand to hand with the Ciz are overblown." the same lieutenant spouted to En-Ti, while he waited for her to finish at the makeshift range. En-Ti was studiously ignoring the clone. Adia, however, was not.

"Hotshot." She said, and prodded him gently with butt of the Z-6. She flipped the heavy weapon, and caught it one-handed. It got his attention.

"I wrote some of those reports. I can rip your arms off, and I got this from one of their big males." She lifted the liner up to her lower nose. Her cheeks and lips were a series of scars. There wasn't a chance any of them could recognize her in this state, especially since her throat was still healing. Her voice sounded husky and raw. The hotshot held his surprise well.

"They're stronger than you. Even the medium females. They all have nasty claws, and they love a fistfight. So don't give 'em one."

[Tionne Thanewulf]

"Commander Noreem?" Tionne inquired softly, leaning on the doorframe of the mechanic's quarters. Hoping to get a chance to speak to both commanding officers before the commotion started, the redhead armed herself with a candid smile. In the endless expanse of space, warmness was rarely to be found, lone warriors rocketing through the universe in an attempt to save the crumbling giant of the Republic on whos shoulders all stood.

The last ARC captain she was posted with was killed in battle of Tal Morden, sacrificing himself to save the life of a Jedi. Albeit severely wounded herself, Tionne held his hand when last breath left him, fingertips gently trailing over his face to close his eyes forever. Titus might have been a clone, yet he lived and served as a man. Such valour was rarely to be seen, even with the Jedi.

"Am I disturbing you?" asked the Knight upon stepping in. A chocolate power bar was tossed in the general direction of the commander, with Tionne trusting his quick reflexes to catch it.
"Look what I found... a hidden stash. Probably the last two Trammistan chocolates (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Trammistan_chocolate) in the Outer Rim." said Thanewulf, opening her own package with her teeth. She then munched on it, letting out a small moan.
"So, what's the plan?" the Coruscanti quizzed, eager to hear how the commander envisioned their infiltration of the rings.

[Hesko Noreem]

"Not at all." Hesko said as he turned and caught the bar. He gave it a quick look over before slipping it into one of the empty pockets of his belt and securing the flap.

"The plan…" The ARC paused putting it all together in his head. "Well, we'll be making a crash landing with escape pods into the outer ring's hangar bay. If we survive the impact and land with our forces intact, we'll bust out and disrupt power from the generator housed there to kill comms. From there it's just eliminating resistance as we work our way to the control room, and with a bit of luck they'll be thinking this is an emergency situation as opposed to an attack giving us the advantage of surprise.

"We still aren't sure what kind of resistance there will be, though we can be sure that the Cizerack will be the ones in command. It'll be up to them if they choose to fight or surrender when the time comes, but I've got orders to kill any who show hostility. We scrap any droid we encounter though, inactive or otherwise."

Hesko looked the General dead on trying to judge her impressions on what he'd just told her. He'd noted from previous missions that Jedi always seemed to have mixed feelings when it came down to killing sentient beings that, unlike droids and clones, had a life to live. This was a vulnerability he didn't care for his COs to have in battle as it often endangered themselves and others if they hesitated to kill when they needed to.

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[Tionne Thanewulf]

The Jedi scratched her head; his plan sounded just fine in theory, yet it wasn't quite certain how were they to crash land into the hangar bay without drawing any attention. The element of surprise was tricky to pull off, since most ARCs weren't trained to be overly covert. This is where Tionne slipped in, making sure they penetrated the defences without being noticed.

"The hangar bay will be full of droids and Cizerack marines. Ain't exactly the safest place to crash-land. Even if I somehow manage to maneuver the escape pod through that bottleneck of an entrance." the redhead asserted, giving her armour another casual check. She polished the gauntlets with the edge of her cape, the polymer the suit was made out of harder than steel. It was a prototype of a new generation of armours the Jedi would use if this war was to continue; Thanewulf had the honours of testing it first.

"We will have to breach from the outside, through the garbage disposal. The hull is the thinnest there, thin enough for me to cut through it with a lightsaber." she explained, lifting the comm to hold it close to her mouth.
"Commander Issoris, report to the mechanic's quarters." the Coruscanti spoke into the communications device, then eyed the ARC again before adding -
"But that's just my opinion. I want to hear one from a person who actually survived a clash with a Cizerack male."

[Adia Issoris]

Adia held the comm up.

"Affirmative." Adia responded, and pulled the liner back over her damaged face. She set the rotary blaster down gently with the rest of Diamond Squad's equipment.

"General Thanewulf?" Adia asked in a very clone-like accent, and saluted.

"At ease, Commander. We wanted your input regarding our breaching plans." Adia's posture relaxed, but still was balanced, ready for action. Tionne gestured to the two holo images, one displaying the hanger, the other with the garbage disposal system. Adia studied both briefly.

"Unless you plan to cook the hangar with the pod's atmo thrusters, you'll be cut down before you can breach the hangar door. Every alarm on the rings will go off before you can breach. Given cooking the bay, more Marines will be on the other side of the blast doors, and they'll take you apart." Adia poked a hole in the holo with her finger. She shook her head.

"If we had two more spare pods, it would be a decent distraction." She added.

"This..." She tapped her finger at the garbage disposal system "...this is what my team concluded was the best breaching point. Most of the corridors leading to and from the control room are long with tolerable cover. Good for us, not as good for the larger Cizerack." Adia paused for a moment, and reached for the controls of the holo-projector.

"May I?" Adia asked, her voice still raw and gravely from healing. Tionne nodded. Adia united the two views, and zoomed out to a nondescript point on a shielding ring. It was a maintenance junction for the electromagnet arrays that lined the outer hull. Adia zoomed in. The pressure door was thicker than the point Tionne was going to cut through, but Adia had different equipment.

"Diamond Squad plans to breach here." Adia stated. "It's a bit farther from the ring controls, but if both teams breach the same point, we might have an unwelcome party to greet us." She stood back, and waited for the Jedi and her ARC commander to critique.

[Hesko Noreem]

"Hmmm, we'll need to move a lot quicker to reach the command center if comms are still intact, though these routes will bypass the majority of the enemy force. Its a good plan." The ARC said with the barest hint of a smile. "Once in control of the station we'll need to bunker down while the fleet moves in, and that'll no doubt be a fun fight against these Cizerack marines. How many shots does it take to bring one down would you say Commander Issoris?"
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[Keerrourri Feessaarro]

Keppaa Brens - Outer Orbital Shield Ring

It was the most boring post in the Cizerack Navy, and Lieutenant Teissaa Naileerra was counting the days until her post was relieved. Wake up, relieve night watch, give status report to the planet's surface, and begin the brain-meltingly boring task of identifying incoming and outgoing space traffic and checking registries. She went to space to fight in combat, to see exciting new planets, pay for her college education, and to find more than a few good sexual conquests.

Okay, so the latter two were taken care of. The Pride kept short-term officer classes tied to an escrow account for their education, and she had another year of service before she would be out. And of course, this boring post gave her a dozen Jaani'saarri Pride Marines to enjoy, even if they were also divvied up between the other three officers on duty.

Still, she was painfully short on any combat, or any real travel. She had the grades for duty on a galleon, or at least a Seeva, and with the Confederacy being sent to just about all points in the galaxy, wouldn't it make sense to send a capable young officer such as herself to fight in a true flashpoint?

"jI don't underrsstand whjy we don't jusst leave thjiss posst to the drrojidss, Alieerraa."

Her subordinate ensign for the day watch, eschewing her duty uniform for casual PT gear, tied her hair back into a ponytail as she prepared for the morning checkdown. Her eyes fixed to a younger Jaani'saarri, she realized that Teissaa was talking to her, snapping her out of her runaway thoughts.

"jYou know whjy."

She rolled her eyes.

"On the orrderrss of the Emjissarrrjy hjimsself, we arre to rreprressent the Prrjide jin guarrdjing thjiss jimporrtant possjitjion. A drrojid jiss not fjit to command ssuch a...ahem...hjigh rressponssjibjiljitjy."

They both regarded that line of talk as bullshit. It was a PR move to put Cizeri faces in a high profile position, even if it was absolutely boring. Sure, they had a few squads of battle droids in storage on the rings just in case something happened, but what were the chances of that? Even still, Command wanted Cizeracks in charge, so they were consigned to this boring place.

Lieutenant Naileerra finished her morning check-down, beaming the information to their sister shield ring and to the planet surface. All space traffic from night shift reported as normal. Shield tunnel was performing under nominal conditions. Nominal. Nominal. Nominal. Maybe even less than nominal, since traffic this morning was light.

"Fjinalljy."

A ship blinked into view from hyperspace, making its way slowly to approach the shield rings. It looked like any of the thousands of Cizerack freighters she'd seen come and go. But at least it was better than nothing.

She tapped the commlink to send a message to the freighter.

"Thjiss jiss Keppaa Brrenss orrbjital contrrol. Sslow jyourr apprroach to one quarrterr ssubljight and jidentjifjy sshjip name and carrgo manjifesst."

Teissaa spoke from memory, a line she'd said over, and over, and over again. She leaned forward at her terminal, propping her chin in a hand as she watched Alieerraa leave the command deck and pull the Jaani'saarri along, no doubt to have a little fun since there was absolutely nothing happening. After all, nothing ever happened.

[Adia Issoris]

"Orrbjital contrrol, thjis jis the Intaari'rai'raa. Ourr carrgo jis jindustrrial manufacturrjing equjipment.

Transsjimjitting a detailed manjifesst... no, jI don't carre thjat therre jis feedback frrom the subljights. Contrrol, transsjimjittjing now." Adia hit the mute button and coughed. One of the helmsman transmitted the cargo manifest. The accent made her throat hurt, but between herself and the other females, it was decided that Adia emulated the Cizerack best.

"Diamonds move out." Adia paused, and looked at Thanewulf briefly.

"What is it you Jedi say? Force be with you, General." She turned and headed into the escape pod with her squad. The ARCs had wired a hardline between the pods so that it would be impossible to snoop. It seemed like overkill, but when everything was depending on not being greeted by the Cizerack Jaani'saarri and droids, it was hard to argue with it.

Diamond squad would leave first, given the position of the rings. Thanewulf's method of insertion would take longer than the rig of plasma cutters Lesta and the Duros had devised for a different mission.

Adia pushed the comm button on the hardline.

"Diamonds ready."

"Confirmed." One of the ARCs responded. "Escalating feedback loop and emergency beacon." To the outside, what looked like a ship with a sublight engine issue was quickly escalating into a wide-spread power system failure. Her sublights flickered and died. The freighter listed slightly when a thruster errantly fired. Inside, the Intaari'rai'raa trembled as power was feeding back into the main reactor.

"Mark, Diamond."

"Mark." Adia repeated, and threw the comm into the hallway. Raanz elbowed the big red button. The pod's entry doors slammed together. Explosive bolts freed the pod from the hull. Small thrusters fired, which pushed the craft away from the dying Intaari'rai'raa. Pell manned the improvised controls they would need to attach themselves onto the hull of the control rings. Adia squinted as the pod rotated. She saw the flash of Tionne's pod's thrusters seconds later.

There was no big bang as the reactor failed. An invisible burst of radiation, some visible light, and the ship slowly drifted apart.

[Adia Issoris]

Pell expertly landed on the maintenance junction. The pod connected to the surface with a delicate clank of metal on metal. Diamond Squad all grabbed re-breathers in case the seal between the pod and surface of the rings failed. Grraw and the Duros hefted the plasma cutter rig. They would need to cut the hinges and lock of the pod’s pressure door, force it open, open the outer airlock door, and then cycle the airlock. There was no security on the outer airlock door. Who would need access except for scheduled spacewalkers?

The meter and a half metal ring allowed nearly continuous cutting by cycling on and off the plasma cutters. A simple suction clamp held the rig in place. A light would flash on the back of the cutter when it was near overheat, and the next one of six would be moved into position. Diamond squad turned away as the Duros began their work. The pod filled with heat. Grraw quietly grumbled. Adia turned on her helmet’s optical filter. Her fingers drummed against the WESTAR’s grip. 20 seconds had passed when the top hinge yielded to the plasma onslaught. There was an audible hiss where the hinge had been cut away. Air would hopefully fill the gap. Adia helped the Duros reposition the cutting rig to the other hinge, and then to the lock that held the two halves of the door together.

The briefest of pauses settled upon Diamond Squad, uncertain if the seal between the pod and the pressure door would hold. Adia and Grraw pulled the upper door down and set it softly on the pod floor. The lower door began to tip, and Grraw interceded with a well-placed leg. He urfed quieltly in discomfort. The Duros moved the cutting ring aside and lent a hand. With the seal and the door taken care of, Raanz set to work on the lock.

Well, not quite a lock. More like a panic button. The airlock outer door opened with a flash. Air wooshed like a light breeze and everyone’s ears popped. Adia took point, and Diamond squad filed into the airlock, mercifully designed for large Cizerack in bulky space-walk suits. The air lock cycled. Whirrs, woosehes, clicks and clunks came into hearing. The inner door opened, and Adia peeked outside the door. She signaled all clear, and the squad filed out behind her.

They worked their way through the empty maintenance junction’s gently curved main corridor. It probably wasn’t used very much, given that the rings were giant electromagnets, but they had been around for hundreds of years protecting Keppaa Brens’s shipping traffic and factories. Adia didn’t know this, though. All she knew was that Diamond Squad had to take the control room and hold it for long enough for the Republic fleet to make its way through.

Her WESTAR was in hand. She led the squad into the main corridor, while Lesta held the rear. From there, it was four hundred meters until the control room. The main corridor was boring grey metal, lined with regular maintenance access points which made for decent cover. They moved steadily, kept their feet quiet. Adia heard a distant clank of droids ahead of them. The squad was only 300 meters from the command center. She held her hand up, and gave a spat of hand signals before she ducked into a recess in the wall. Diamond Squad quickly filled the most advantageous points. Tun and Raanz occupied one entry way, Grraw needed the space of an inset all to himself. Pell and Fal were occupying opposite insets. None were visible from where the droids were as their heads appeared over the curve.

Diamond Squad waited. The droids moved closer, now within 25 meters. A large commander droid loomed above the smaller soldier droids, its armor a dark gray menace, its eyes glowed malevolence. A loud thwapcrack issued from Tun’s meter and a half large game rifle that nearly could be classified as an anti-materiel weapon. The bright red blaster bolt cored through the droid’s angry eye and consumed everything in the head.
“Oh no!” One of the battle droids managed before the corridor filled with blaster fire.

[Keerrourri Feessaarro]

Snow filled Teissaa's scope, and as the Cizerack lieutenant struggled to boost signal feed, she caught the radiation meter spiking high enough to tell her that the freighter was having a soft burn in the reactor.

"Damn jit!"

The radiation saturated at an intensity that was sure to slog communications, not just with the freighter, but also planetside, until the ship cleared the lane. It also fudged sensors and made her job rather miserable.

"Actjivate drrojid tug, and get the Intaari'rai'raa out of the shield column!"

Alieerraa heard the klaxon and was soon back on deck, in an ambivalent mood. Her fun with the Jaani'saarri was cut short, but this was at least more action than they were used to.

"Drrojid tug awajy."

Her mouth twisted as she looked at her scope.

"Too much rradjiatjion, jI need to do thjiss manualljy."

Under Alieerraa's controls, the spear-shaped droid tug cautiously detatched from the outer shield ring to ease ahead. Nothing could be done via automation, and even the slave-rigged control had to keep it's distance to keep the link integrity from being fouled by interference. This was going to take a little time, and the pair of command officers were startled by the second chime on their terminal.

"Ssomethjing'ss accessed ourr ajirrlock."

Teissaa pried herself from the oversight of the irradiated freighter and looked to the indicator that showed there had been a slight pressure modulation, and the inner bay door opened.

"Esscape podss frrom the frrejighterr?"

Alieerraa's theory seemed practical, but with the radiation in the shield tunnel, they had no way of confirming it. And why just indication on the inner airlock door, with no opening from the outer? The Cizerack Lieutenant rose to her feet, feeling unconsciously for the blaster holster at her belt.

"Majybe. jI'm gojing to check. Send battle drrojid ssquad one and have them..."

A sharper klaxon wailed out that indicated weapons discharge. Teissaa didn't wait to hear further on that. She took off in a full sprint down the curving corridor, shouting out a command to Alieerraa as she left.

"Keep on that frrejighterr and clearr the lane. We've got to communjicate wjith the planet!"