No Man Left Behind (Resistance)

A bank of screens flickered images rapidly. A pair of eyes shifted frantically across all of them, trying to see everything at once. Fingers cracked loudly across the worn control pad. Occasionally he reached up and smacked a screen that had gone momentarily dark.

Second rate electronics. That was what he had to work with. There was only so much you could do with a control center build out of stuff pulled from dumpsters and purchased from pawn shops. His personal rig back on Vaynai was more powerful than this entire cobbled together cluster. He would have it now if the blockade wasn't keeping him from leaving to go get it. It wasn't worth the chance of getting caught and thrown in a cell. If that happened who would be the one to decipher the Imperial comms and find out where he was being kept?

That's what he was doing now. Endless feeds of information, holonet entrees, and reports from field agents. Cormack's team was compromised and caught last night while raiding an Imperial comm's facility in the next city over in order to elicit a blackout. It would have been great, if it had worked. It was a risky mission, and they knew it. That didn't mean that they were going to be left out to dry. Oh no. Far from that. If there was a way, even a chance, that they could blow them out of whatever hellhole those Imperial Dogs had already thrown them into then they would take that chance.

"Got it." He said aloud, to the empty room, as he smacked another key and found it. A entree on a less than secure channel. New prisoners records, and a request for transfer to Coronet. It was already approved. It had Delgreedo's slimy signature on it and everything. Time frame placed it at tomorrow afternoon. He checked for a troop deployment notice, but found none. They were a lot more protective of those records. Damn. That meant going into this blind with no idea if those shit heel Knights were going to be either at the prison or on the convoy.

Slamming a few more keys and tapping several screens made screen captures of the records, in case anything was moved or made more secure, and then he transferred those to his datapad and ran out of the room.

"I found Cormack's team." Judas said excitedly as he reached the next room. A bunch of Resistance fighters were milling around in the room, peeking out the blinds, preparing weapons and equipment, or catching a nap. All waiting for either something to happen or someone to make the call to arms. "They're still in Kolene. Imps got 'em. Coronet is sending a convoy to pick them up tomorrow. No deployment info. No Knight chatter. It's the best I could find."

"I say we blow those cheeky bastards to smithereens."

Shawkyrr was position to one side of the room, where she was standing at a coffee table that came up to her hips. Across it's laminate top was an array of knicks, knacks, and the occasional doodad. All the necessary parts to make her homemade ignition switches, remote detonators, and adhesive couplings. Everything a bomb needs sans the explosive payload itself. Despite there being no explosives present in the room, everyone had taken up position in the room away from her. Occasionally she would intentionally knock something off the table and feign surprise just to watch them jump a little.

That always brought a smile and a laugh to her little blue face.

"If they have any brains that prison is going to be reinforced with any troops they have. We wait for the buckets to pick up our guys and then hit the convoy on it's way back. That'll give us time to set up an ambush point, with explosives. We could blow the repulsors right off their transports, pick off the survivors, and take our boys back. Bam!" She smacked a small fist into the tabletop, causing it's contents to jump into the air. "Just like that." She shrugged her shoulders and flipped her white hair out of her eyes. "That's my two credits, anyways."

Seated quietly on a bunk within the older apartment, Cabrin cleaned his X45 sniper rifle as his Morellian was already taken care of and laying on the bunk beside him. Listening to the grumbling and joking back and forth between the men always made him grin at the personalities that it took to make up a group of fierce fighting machines. His appreciation for all that they would possibly sacrifice only made these individuals more eager to put it off on their enemy instead and endeared this life to the ex-mercenary. He had seen his share of it over the years and was glad that Maggewetok had talked him in to joining the Resistance instead of being a gun for hire. Now at least if he did get it, his kids would be proud of what he was fighting for.

Sliding the barrel back into the stock, he twisted and blue eyes glanced up to see their intel gatherer rush back into the room with excited news, gaining everyone's attention. Perking up himself, the plan that was now being formulated would have to be well thought out, for he assumed that the Imperials would have at least two squads guarding the prisoners. Possibly even a drone following to keep an eye on things, he assumed. Placing the sniper rifle across his lap, he then shifted his gaze to the demolitions expert and smiled at her exuberance about using her creations in a dramatic way. Placing the X45 on the cot, he rose and moved toward their larger dinner table, accessing a holomap of the areas between Coronet and the prison. Zooming in, Cabrin began assessing the best spots for an ambush that also had good escape routes should things go south. Deep in thought, three others of the team eyed the map with him and began discussing their own ideas.

Once listening to their thoughts, knowing the timetable they had to work with, he also developed an idea based on what had already been offered. "We're going to need the speeder truck that we acquired for the communications facility raid, that's at the repair shop. I know Mardy's got it done by now. We're not going to be able to use theirs that the Imps are using to transfer them in, they'll have trackers. Last thing we need is to rescue them only to have all our asses shot off by TIE's." He pointed to a remote pass that the highway went through. "I'll position myself here with one other that can verify how many trucks we'll be dealing with when they return, maybe even get a head count using that LFI that you fixed," he glanced up to Judas. "From there, once the team arrives," he motioned to a cut in the nearby mountainiside that followed a narrow river. "We park the truck here, the team lines within the woods underneath my position and we hit them on this stretch." Cabrin glanced to the blue skinned demolitions expert. "Can you make any ion mines, or have any? Rather not blow up our friends that we're trying to rescue," he grinned.

"If it goes boom I can make it." She replied very matter of factly. "But I just so happen to have a few ion grenades I can modify into mines. I'm assuming we'll want remote detonators. If we get there with enough time we can set up signal relays to boost the signal on the detonator so that the button pusher doesn't get spotted by those Imperial devils. Don't want to tip them off or they'll miss the party."

It was hard to keep from sounding excited by the prospect of detonating explosives, but she tried to at least not vibrate with joy. Her large eyes looked over the holographic map display, looking for any other advantages they could take or details they might have missed. It was hard to stay on task. Her mind was already elsewhere, calculating what she would need to modify those grenades into mines, thinking up a proper placement set up for optimal dispersion, and what to eat for lunch.

"We could set up a second array of mines, stun mines. The IMPs, see, their repulsors will get knocked out by the ion mines. They'll come pouring out like angry Jakobees, looking for trouble, and then we set off the stunners and put them all down. That way we don't hurt any of the passengers. They'll still be inside and save from both detonations. Every John and Molly isn't gonna jump out, but it'll clear most of 'em out. From there probably two teams of sweepers come in from both sides and clear out the rest. Any stubborn sons of bitches you drop. Pow." She made a little gun with her fingers, sighted down it with one eye closed, and dropped her thumb like the hammer.

Judas walked over to the map and listened to the battle plan being formulated. It really wasn't his place to say one thing or another. He was just the trawler that found information on the holonet for the Resistance to take advantage of. The actual combat was always dictated by others. He stayed home at base camp and acted as the eye in the sky, voice of god to keep the squad together, informed, and, hopefully, alive. Drumming his fingers noisily on the edge of the table, he divided his time between listening, coming up with wild plans of his own that he immediately discarded, and letting his eyes casually slip down the front of the Lannik's shirt.

Not his fault she was so short and bending over the table, right?

"I have a comm scrambler you could deploy to keep them from calling in for reinforcements. It's old tech, which is the best kind. They won't expect that. Of course, it needs a dedicated power source, like a mobile generator. It's yours if you want to lug it along, but please, bring it back in piece. Old tech doesn't grow on trees.

You guys seem to have a pretty good plan, but there's always an option to call in Asset K19." He was, of course, referring to the Jedi Knight that had recently joined their ranks and had already become a bit of myth. Not everyone was sure if he was real or just propaganda, but Judas had met the blond haired man, and he was the real deal. The others would know who he was referring to. The code designation was there to help keep the enemy from knowing just who they were talking about. The lexicon changed often. You never know who might be a spy.

Taking in what Nerrani offered, he knew that time was of the essence and they weren't going to be able to make this plan too complicated. "Only issue with placing those mines near the trucks is we're going to have to do that in the highway, which is still busy with traffic. I say place them," he pointed to the opposite bank across the road. "Back here. Troopers disgorge once their trucks go dead, running for cover since we're on this hillside," he motioned to the initial rounded, mountainside where he had picked a good overwatch position. "Firing at them. They move to cover on that bank and those stun grenades or mines take them out, then all we have to do is move the captives out of the trucks while ours in the river," he pointed to the depressed area covered by trees, "Moves up to gather us all and we exfil back or to a good pickup point to get them out of here." He looked up to Judas knowing the intel man would have to arrange that part of the mission.

"Unless the plan is to keep them in the area to help us keep pressure on the Imps." He hadn't ignored the suggestion about the elusive Force user, but didn't know much about the Asset. "What do you know about this asset? Would he be close enough to help us? I plan on moving out tonight to set up so we're in position for tomorrow. That gives us about," he glanced at his chronometer, "About fourteen hours to get all this in place."

"We don't have time for that pretty boy. I'm sure K19 has bigger fish to fry." Shawkyrr interjected before Judas could answer. As far as she was concerned Judas was just an intel man. He had no authority to make any real decisions. "Let's go light and fast, and smash 'em bucket heads 'fore they know what hits them. Too much and we risk them peeping us. I say we get ready, move out at dark, and get everythin' in place for the ambush tomorrow. Let's not overcomplicate it. Just blow 'em up good." She had a big grin on her face while she spoke. She was so excited to build and subsequently detonate explosives.

"Yo Judas, who we got in the area that we can pull for this op?" The others in the safe house had come out to see what the commotion was about. Biggle was a fearless field medic and Zazx was a slimy Rodian with a reputation for making people disappear from existence.

His glare softened into a frown as Shawkyrr threw a request at him. "One minute, keep your little shirt on. I'll pull up the DATABASE." he walked back into the other room and sat down behind his rig. The others followed him in, including the cheeky little blue she-devil. A lot of system handshakes and back doors later, he was finally granted access to the secret operations roster. "Let's see... Looks like your sister Jaayza is on standby and... oh shit. Gregor. Those are the only available operatives in the zone. It would take time to contact another cell and pull in more. Think you can pull this one off with a fireteam of six?"

He arched an eyebrow at Cabrin. He seemed to have a better handle on this operation that Shawkyrr, who was more interested in explosives and was not the type to lead an operation. She was the lone wolf type, that liked to crawl through a mile of muck and tunnels just so she could place an explosive charge in the perfect place. She was all about the spectacle. "Zazx can be your spotter. Gregor is a bloodthirsty machine. He'll keep those bucket heads busy while you pick them off. I'm told Shawkyrr and Briggle are decent with a blaster, but I don't know. They are awfully small." He said, winking at the Lannik and Drall. If you stacked them on top of each other they would make a normal sized person.

Grinning at the little blue skinned firebrand, Cabrin followed them into the room with all the tech and comm gear and listened to further ideas on help, shaking his head. "Not unless they can get meet us at the time we arrive, and not be followed. Otherwise," blue eyes glanced to the team that he had available,"I think we got this. Especially if those mines are as exciting as she's boasting," Cabrin's gaze fell to Shawkyrr and he grinned. "The smaller the group, the better, plus we've got surprise on our side." Just ensuring that those on the fireteam were in a good position and not asleep when this all went down should be enough, he mused. Thinking on the jammer, he scanned across the tables and stacks of crated gear and modules, "That jammer have a wide enough range to keep in the truck then? Keep us from having to worry about lugging it around and having it get hit during the fight."

Taking in the techno geek's response, Cabrin adjusted his plan from there and turned, heading back into the main room to gear up. "Take time to get your mines put together, unless you can do that in the truck," he mentioned, strapping on his web gear as the rest of the grunts began doing the same.

Shawkyrr shrugged her little blue shoulders. "Gregor is a pain in the ass, but he goes through bucket heads like a fat kid through cake. I think he's compensating for the galaxy's smallest penis." She had worked with the brute in the past. Everyone had. The giant with the chip on his shoulder had become a necessity in this war, and he was in high demand all across the Resistance. He's ability to put bodes in the ground was unparalleled. The guy was a machine, and had the personality to match. A bigger asshole does not exist.

"I didn't know Jaayza was in this sector. Get her on the horn! It's been awhile since I saw my twin. Tell them to meet us at the ambush point. We're going to need them, especially if either of those two Knights show their faces, and I hope they do. I want to blow the fur off that big one."

Nodding his head in rhythm with his fingers tickety-tapping across the controller he entered the necessary command and boom, the call was sent out. Coordinates. Details. Strategy. All heavily encoded with the new weekly cipher.

"Sent. To answer your question, yeah, we can get the jammer in the truck. The generator is portable enough. It's not too big. You should all fit. I'll get right on that. I should have it done by the time you get all your gear together."

With that Judas got up from his nest of electronics and walked past the squad. The truck was out in the garage of this otherwise unassuming home in Coronet's lower income housing district. Thank the gods he still had the repulsorsled that was used to deliver his rig, otherwise getting the generator and jammer into the back of the truck would be difficult for him to do on his own. Nothing a little hard work and back breaking couldn't get done. Once the lifting was taken care of it was a simple matter of strapping down the equipment and plugging it in. He fired it up real fast, just a second, with one eye on his comm unit and the other on the readout. It worked. His comm lost connection in that moment before springing back.

Clambering out of the truck, he headed back inside to see if the squad was ready to roll out. "The truck is ready, jammed, and fueled."

Grinning at their demo expert's fire, Cabrin had to admit she was definitely the right person for that career field and even though he had his own experiences with demolitions, it wasn't his forte'. It took someone as crazy, but with a steady hand to do what they did. And patience. Things that many soldiers didn't possess regardless of how they liked to proclaim that the military was nothing but "hurry up and wait", he knew that this team was going to be here long after this rescue mission and he was proud to serve with them.

His gear on and situated with medpac in the same place as always - the way that their medic had instructed so he knew where to get to it, he shouldered his assault rifle, then his X 45, the lieutenant moved toward the others as they began filtering toward the garage as Judas re-emerged. "Thanks," Cabrin nodded to their tech expert. "We'll keep in touch if anything comes up, otherwise we'll see you when this is done. Let me know if anything comes up on the sensors beyond our capability, especially if they have reinforcements on their way. Hate to save these guys only to have their asses shot off somewhere else."

That done, he followed his team out into the garage, maneuvering around all the other gear and clutter lining the walls and climbed into the large speeder truck. Grabbing a seat behind and to the right of the driver, Cabrin relaxed as the corporal fired up the engine and prepared to leave.

The squad dispersed to their respective corners of the safe house to gather their gear. Zazx grabbed his vibroknife, repeater pistol, and long rifle. Briggle on the other hand went straight for a medpack, trauma kit, and only a cut down scattergun for his weapon. Even with the barreled filed down and the stock removed it still looked huge in his little hands. Shawkyrr was busy gathering up all the bomb supplies she was going to need. Each was tossed, and in some cases delicately placed, into a crate. A compact grenade launcher with a very home made look to it was slung over her shoulder and an E-11 blaster looted from the hands of a dead buckethead was balanced on top of the crate.

Ready to go, the squad headed for the garage. Shawkyrr gave Judas a stool assisted kiss on the cheek and a pat on the head before running after the others. Loading her create of goodies into the back she wedged herself between the corner of the enclosed truck bed and the bench seats to give herself a little room to finish building the mines, and other goodies. Briggle was too small to operate the truck, so he took up a spot beside Cabrin behind the driver, and Zazx took the wheel of the repulsur truck. After carefully adjusting his mirrors, he finally hit the garage door remote and backed the truck out of the garage. Putting it in gear, he sent them down the street at a healthy speed. No reason to draw any attention.

-----

The drive out of the city and into the countryside was uneventful. A careful mapping of check points and troop patrols allowed them to slip past without a chance inspection. Almost too easily. They had many operations going on in the city all at once. Many different cells all wrecking havoc on the Imperials. They must have had their attention drawn elsewhere. Good. They'll take whatever opportunities they can get.

When they arrived at their target location, two individuals were waiting for them. The first was a blue-skinned Twilek dressed in camouflage fatigues and armed with a light repeater rifle. The second was a mountain of a man. Square jawed, giant forehead, and a grumpy disposition about him. He was heavily armored and armed with a heavy chaingun the size of Briggle. Zazx parked the truck out of sight from the road in the treeline. Everyone piled out, and Shawkyrr emerged from the back with an armload of mines ready for placement. The load was carefully placed on the ground so that she could run over to the Twilek and wrap her arms around her waist.

"Heya Jaayza! Hi Gregor... This is Cabrin. Our pew pew sniper guy. Okay everybody, get into position. Briggle, give me a hand with these mines willya love?"

Touring through the outskirts of Coronet, they eventually rode into the mountains and as they cruised down the two lane highway, Cabrin mused over past missions and knew few had this kind of danger, especially with the Empire being only an hour or so away from the operation site. There were a lot of things that could go wrong with this rescue, but he also knew that typically a simple plan with a straightforward goal was always the easiest to execute. Not too many moving parts and everyone seemed to be on the same page, he mused. Hopefully they would all be safe and sound within twelve hours and the captured members would be taken care of. There were going to be a few non-ambulatory that had been interrogated, he knew. ISB would never give up an opportunity to question captured soldiers in enemy uniform.

Within an hour, the truck diverted into the forest and away from prying eyes as almost no traffic was on the narrow country road this late. Keeping the lights off and using nightvision, the driver eventually arrived at the designated spot within the narrow river and stopped, greeted by the pair of intel members they had been promised. He hoped. Keeping his pistol at the ready as they climbed out, he then nodded to the two as Shawkyrr introduced them. Reholstering his sidearm, he then pulled out his datapad and accessed the topographical map of the area. "Going to need you guys to take up positions in the cover of the forest here," he pointed below his chosen overwatch position. "And here," his finger moved several yards to the left of the last one. "Everyone else is going to be between you two until the fireworks start. Keep in cover and use any foliage around you that you can. It's going to be a bit of a wait, so."

Nodding, the smaller of the two turned and headed into the treeline away from the truck, preparing the climb over the verdant hill that separated them from the highway. The larger chafed a bit, "Not our first rodeo," he commented, then shouldered his massive weapon over his shoulder.

"Good to hear," Cabrin replied drily, then followed the others into the forest and followed their demo expert. Climbing, the eventual cresting of the hilltop allowed sparse, dappled moonlight to permeate the ground and the wraiths now making their way to their ambush points. Taking up his own spot at the top of a narrow open lane between the trees, he had a good enough line of sight of the predetermined spot where Shawkyrr would be laying the ion mines. Covering himself with camo netting, he laid down and then set out his rifle and began sighting in the distances to the road. Only eighty yards to the near side, which was almost too close, but it would have to do. This fight was going to be fast and violent, he knew. Especially with the chain gun.

The blue-white light of the datapad lit up the forest with it's muted light, and was reflected back in Shawkyrr's big, golden eyes. There was no removing the massive grin that was permanently plastered on her face. With their briefing over she ran back to her pile of mines and skittered out to the roadside. Waiting for the rare passerby to speed past first, she moved out into the paved roadway and began setting the mines. Convenient potholes served as the homes for several and the rest were laid out on the bare pavement. People all drove repulser vehicles so there was no risk of someone driving over them prematurely. She still had to carefully space them out so that each ion blast would not knock out it's neighbor.

Finally she gathered some twigs and leaves and hid the mines. The roads out here were not well taken care of regardless and it was out of the ordinary for debris to scatter about.

Satisfied with the placement, she slipped back into the bushes on their side of the road. She thought she could see the barrel of Cabrin's rifle framed in the moonlight, but it could have just as easily been a twig. She found Jaayza first, her blue skin standing out in the moonlight. She handed Shawkyrr a blaster rifle, which looked huge in her smaller hands. She would have preferred to have her homemade grenade launcher, but that would not bode well for the prisoners. No sense in killing everyone.

Taking up her position in the spread out formation, she ducked behind a bush and peered out through it at the road. "I hate waiting..."

"Welcome to the army," one of the other team members stated, whispering and gaining several chuckles. Cabrin glanced through the forest down below him and tried to find the other team members and was satisfied that they had all found a good spot to hide for now. Though he knew some of them may take a power nap at various points, as long as more than half of them were awake that would keep them from missing their target when the convoy arrived.

"Best job I ever had," another veteran chuckled, though Cabrin knew that for most of them who loved what they did and who they fought beside, that was true. He honestly couldn't see himself doing anything else.

"Only job you've ever had," the medic retorted. "But, keep it quiet guys. Sooner or later their recon bikes are going to be passing by and no doubt searching the route for anything out of the ordinary, or comm traffic."

Cabrin knew they all were aware of this, so didn't argue the point. Soon enough, they were going to be in a short firefight and then get out of here with their brothers-in-arms. Settling in himself, Cabrin glanced between the night and the sensor monitor next to him, keeping an eye on not only the road, but also the air.

*******

Three hours later, the sensor operator and his spotter to Cabrin's left woke those asleep. "Quartet of bikes, recon, approaching from the north," he warned. "Keep comm discipline." A short pause. "They'll be here in five." Shortly after, the approaching hum of the speeder bikes grew progressively louder and soon, the Scout bikers glided up to their hide and looked to be passing by....

"Psssh, if we are an army then this would be a war instead of a rebellion." She replied, her usually jovial mood sharpened to an edge for a moment. While the resistance enjoyed the aid of combat veterans like Cabrin, Shawkyrr would be the first to admit that she did not enjoy all these soldiers stomping in like this was their battle and that they were the only ones fighting it. This was a conflict started by those who lived on Corellia, the citizens who looked to the sky and said 'no, I will not let the Empire take my home from me'. These soldiers were just pining for the old days of the Civil War and looking for some action to sate their bloodlust.

A lot of them seemed more than willing to sacrifice the locals in order to play soldier. Hopefully Cabrin had his head on straight, or Shawkyrr would be first in line to frag him.

Time passed slowly, and Shawkyrr spent most of it fidgeting. If she wasn't doodling in the dirt with her fingertip than she was flipping the safety cover on her detonator open and closed. Finally the sound of speeders could be heard approaching, and her smile picked up along with her ears. The smile subsided a bit when she realized it was only the vanguard; a bunch of scouts going ahead of the transports. They were not the main targets, but she was still faced with the dilemma of wanting to blow up all things Imperial.

"We gonna blast these guys or let 'em pass?" She asked because the words 'comm discipline' had no meaning to her.