Randon Orbit

Farragut sat poised to strike above the capital of Randon. Major General Satnal Gor had personally threatened the alliance when the ship took up a low altitude orbit and as of yet had not attacked. Captain Kerstan did not really give the mans threat much weight. The planet had little in the way of orbital defense. What it did have had been tested and did not offer much of a fight. Captain Lerin and his crew had faced off with the orbital defense station, which was nothing more than a up gunned traffic control station. The station had not responded to hails and opened fire once Lerins ship closed to weapons range. The Ranger Gunship Had fired a few salvos before the stations commander relented and surrendered. A team of marines now controlled the station and the planetary defense crew had been put in holding until they could be delt with. For now they were just locked in their quarters but after the battle to come more permanent accommodation would be found for them. Captain Nurt's Gunship had suffered major damage in the battle with the pirate frigate. He and his crew had taken up a high orbit and were working on stabilizing the ship for its trip back to Ventil II. The Farragut, thought damaged , was still ready to serve. Her flight decks wee now a organized yet chaotic scene of Marines boarding assault transports and bombers loading out planetary heavy bombs. The full strength of the 1st marine reaction force was preparing to take Veandin City.

3 km Outside Veandin City
Connors had spoken to his men and they were o ready to strike. The wookiees had been given their orders and assigned target and sent off to carry them out. Lieutenant Kowalsky. And his force were now moving to flank the city and deal with the speeder patrol as it moved around the city. Connors had given the Lieutenants men new equipment and out fitted them with anti armor weapons sent down from Farragut. His men were holding at the 3km point waiting for the clock to tick down and the attack to begin. They would storm the defensive forces at the main gateway into the city. The remaining forces from Farragut wild drop down into the city and take key locations with as little blood shed as possible. He wanted one last time to give the Randoni government a chance to surrender. Up to this point all of his attempts to contact them had gone unanswered. He would try one last time, he truly hoped he could reason with the Provisional Council. He sent the message and waited then to his surprise the image of Lisith Kentar appeared.

"Colonel How dare you threaten me, I am first council of this world I sent for you. You are here on this world of my pleasure. I demand at once you remove your forces from this world and leave our system."

Connors smiled and said nothing for a moment. He really had no response for the man. The orbital station had opened fire on his ship. That was in his mind an act of war. Just his military leader threatening his force was enough for him to consider this government an enemy. Then there was everything he had learned about the government from the local cel and from the questioning of prisoners.

"Forgive me Mister First Council, I have called you to offer you a chance to surrender and save the lives of yourself and your people. I do not wish to put innocent beings in the line of fire, but i will do what it takes to pull you and your lackeys out of that building and make you pay for the crimes you have committed to both this world and to my people. You have twenty stardard minutes to reply. In twenty one minutes I would start planing a mass funeral for your council and the poor unfortunate souls who will be caught in the crossfire. Because I am coming to kick down the door that palace you call a council buildings and will see to it personally You get special treatment from my interrogator."

The man drew back in shock. He looked at Connors like he had committed a crime and had disgusted him. Connors knew the type, seen plenty of his kind in the service. Political elites who placed themselves higher in the order of living beings than anyone he seen lesser than himself. The man scoffed at him and closed the com channel. Connors shock his head then closed his eyes for a moment to calm himself and focus on the task at hand. A moment later a group of fighter craft shot out of the center of the city. The odd craft resembled tie fighters without the solar panels. Nothing much moe than a ball with wings and engines to either side of the cockpit. They had seen Lieutenant Kowalsky men working their way towards the city and were closing on his team. Connors shock his head and clicked on his com.

"Kowalsky, you have incoming!"

The Lieutenant was less than poised in his response. He garbled something then the channel went silent. In the distance Connors saw the contrails of the missiles before he heard the sound of their launch. Kowalskys men had fired on the incoming fighters a full fifteen minutes before the attack. He had no other choice now. Blood had been spilled and the attack had been started because a young inexpedience Lieutenant could not sneck up on a city and got himself and his men noticed a full kilometer away in thick forest. How that happened Connors had no idea. In his mind he thought there had to be more to the story. But what ever that was was not important now. Two of the fighters had been shot down but the others now strafed the wooded area where Lieutenant Kowalsky team had been set up. They were on their own now his team had to go now or lose any momentum they could gain. Connors gave the order and the Thirty battle armored marines jumped from behind the small hill they had been hiding and move towards the gate he had sent word to Farragut of what was going on and hoped the wookiees would have noticed Lieutenant Kowalsky mistake and the incurred attack on his position and not waited the full twenty minutes to engage. His air support would not arrive on time, his men were out in the open, and Major Lent was not in position. Just another day in the Alliance Marines he thought then he engaged his repulsors and jumped into battle.

Inside the Randoni Council Building

Major Lant and his men had managed to get inside the building. They had neutralized the guards on the basement entrance and worked their way into the security office. They man who had been manning the security room had not put up a fight. He was tied up in a corner and was assisting Lant and his team, he truly did not want to die. Lant looked over the camera images and took note of all the fortified locations. The building had locked down after they had managed to work their way in. Now a army of planetary defense forces were stationed outside the building waiting for the Alliance to attack. He hoped for their sakes it did not come to that. A group of troopers seemed upset and ran to a window on the forth floor. Then Lant heard the thud of an explosion, barely noticeable but still apparent. A moment later the security inside the building went nuts. In faint thud of a second explosion went off far outside the building and Lant knew something had gone wrong. It was fourteen minutes till go time. He had no idea what was going on but he could not take the chance and wait. He looked at his men then nodded. The four ment stormed out of the security room and to the private delegate lift. The lift was small but large enough to hold him and his three men. They pressed the highest floor which they now knew was three floors bellow the council chambers. The lift slowed as it reached the three hundredth floor of the massive building. The doors lurched then slid open. He and his men had taken up positions to return fire once the doors had been opened. To their surprise the doors opened and no one was there. He and his men quickly exited the lit and took up position. They each looked down a different corridor. Each silently scanning and evaluating the floor. The guards had been down a corridor just past the lifts and were watching the fight from a balcony. Lent heard the familiar sound of a twin ion engine as it flew by the open balcony. The planet was attempting to put up a fight it seemed. That would not work out well for them. He looked for the private lift to the council living and meeting areas. He took a right and was face to face with a Randoni woman who seemed to be carrying data reports. He grabbed her and clasp his hand over her mouth.

"Listen lady I do not want to hurt you but if you make so much as a murmur I will. I am going to tie you up and gag you to keep you out of the way while me and my fredaines pay your boss a visit. Now please nod if you understand me."

The woman nodded and Lant handed her to one of his men who proceeded to tie her hands and gag her with tape. The put the woman in an empty office and moved on. The lift to the upper floors was unmarked but apparent. The access code the man had given them at the spice shop worked and the doors slide open. The four stepped in and waited for the doors to close.

"Ok, when we hit the office I want to attempt to not kill anyone. But if one of the sons of bitched even looks like they are going to fight back I would sooner have them not."

His team nodded in understanding and The doors slide open to a small ante chamber. Two guards stood with their backs to the lift, no doubt expecting the woman. Instead Lant grabbed one and broke his neck while one of his men grabbed the other and shoved a blade into the back of his neck. The silently let the lifeless bodies slowly fall to the floor and moved on. The doorway to the council chamber was thirty meters down the south west corridor and to the right of the lift. Lant looked around the corner and saw two more guards standing at the doorway leading into the chamber. Lant pulled out his silenced bolt pistol and rounded the corner. Hey made two shots each catching one of the guards in the throat slamming them back against the wall. He moved to the doorway and waited for his men to drag the bodies off into a side room. Two separate blood streaks now stained the carpeted floor tracing the trail of where they had been drug into the room. His men joined him and they took up positions. Lant placed his silenced weapon back into the holster at his side and drew his blaster. Two of his men took up position kneeling in front of the door, Lant and his other team member, each flanked the doorway and prepared to enter. Lant stepped out and kicked the door open. Two guards across the room were alerted as the door slammed open and they drew blasters and prepared to shoot. The had no chance as the two kneeing marines fired taking both men out. Lant ran into the room scanning each person evaluating their threat level. A man from the corner of his eye, draw a weapons and fires. Lant dropped to the floor and rolled bringing the man into his sights and fire three shots rapidly. The mans body shook and was knocked back as the bolts struck him center mass. His body feel lifeless to the floor as Lant rolled up from the floor and onto one knee. Two other men drew weapons but were delt with by his men as they entered the room. Lant stood and looked around the room. Lisith Kentar and eleven other councils cowered under tables and in corners afraid for their lives. From the corner of his eye he noticed a door closing. Lisith Kentar looked in the direction of the door then back at Lant. He pointed his finger at the door then spoke.

"The man you want, the Imperial, he is heading for the speeder."

Lant stood still for a second letting the word wrap around his head. Imperial, now pieces of the puzzle started fitting together. He motioned for another of his men to check the door. He opened the door and looked around the corner. Red bolts shot out the doorway across the room hitting a Randoni women throwing her against the wall. Lants backed against he wall flanking the door. Hie man made a hand signal then spoke.

"Sir Helmets"

Lant closed his eyes and thought. He was not facing security forces now. He was up against trained imperial storm troopers. Red bolts blew apart the door as the Imperial troopers fired. There was no way he or anyone else would get through those doors as long as the Imperials were on over watch. Down the hall he heard the engines fire up on the imperial transport. He was under radio silence but he knew Connors needed to know what was going on.

"Colonel?"

Lant waited for a reply. The imperials stopped firing and lants man looked around the door corner. He nodded then fired a few shots at the now escaping Imperial troopers. Lant rounded the door just as the troopers ran up the ramp of the shuttle. He fired a shot off which struck one trooper in the back dropping him to the floor of the shuttle. A moment later the ramp closed and the shuttle was lifting off.

"Lant! I'm kinda busy, whats the situation there?"

Front gates of Veandin City

Connors answered Lant as he hid behind a overturned speeder and returned fire. The Planetary defense force had been far more equipped than Connors ever imagined. The entrance to the city had a line of defensive auto turrets and a pillbox with heavy lasers on each flank. Three of hie men were cut down before the defenses were even apparent. Lant seemed flustered and for him to break radio silence he had to have had something go very badly. Lants voice sounded winded and his tone was very strange. His next words hit Connors like a artillery shell to the chest.

"Sir, Imperials."

And a moment later Connors saw the shuttle leaving the upper repulsor hanger of the council chambers. It shot across the sky's heading off tot he south. Connors shot off a group of heavy blaster bolts but missed the shuttle. He watched as it disappear over the horizon. Now much more made sense to him. His mind cleared. That was important news but for the time being he had a fight to concentrate on. The planets defensive force seems to not understand they were fighting a losing battle. Then as if his thoughts summoned it the Ranger gunship broke through the clouds accompanied by twelve Bantha Assault shuttles.

Veandin City

Before the Colonel had arrived on the world of Randon, Vryyr and his wookiee compatriots were referred to as the Aurek Team. Whenever a situation was a known risk or the odds were just a little too overwhelming, Aurek Team had been sent in as the first wave. Vryyr’s wookiee brothers-in-arms saw the designation as a badge of honor, a true sign that they were considered a vital part of the Rebel framework.

Vryyr saw it for what it truly was, and that was that the Randoni thought of the wookiees as fully expendable, even those who were willing to fight for a supposedly fair and just planetary government. Although hardly the only species a victim of malevolent Randoni sentiment, he could not help but feel it always seemed more extreme as it pertained to his own people.

He was an outcast amongst outcasts, and until he had met the Rebel marines that crewed the Farragut, he held little faith in the realms or men, or the cause that they were fighting for. Truthfully, Vryyr had been fighting merely because he had forgotten how to do anything else. The reality of the galaxy had held him down, like a weight, and it seemed sometimes as if the harder he fought back against the tide, the heavier that weight became.

Connors and Lant were of a different sort, the type most only heard distant tales of, true Alliance men. They were the type of men who would sacrifice everything for the people beside them for no better reason than that was their way. The Randoni resistance was, by comparison, little better than the deeply embedded prejudices of its own people.

The Colonel had, of course, not been able to change Randoni thinking overnight, so as a soldier he had come up with the best solution he could given the choices at his disposal, and that meant giving the wookiees some autonomy in terms of their command structure and disposition. Segregation; a common military compromise when components of a unit simply could not co-exist.

And so, while Kowalski’s men had their own mission to secure a vital road that could be used as a potential escape route for the planetary leadership under the cover of the quickly evaporating darkness, Vryyr was given command of an officially recognized Aurek Team. Their mission: precede the first wave of Connors’ men and neutralize any lookouts and scout parties with extreme prejudice.

In other words, the Colonel had asked the wookiees to do what they did best; hunt the hunters. The cover of the forest receded as they neared Veandin City, and soon they were relying more on the steel embrace of city streets and massive high rises than the more comfortable bark and root of the Randoni wilderness. As Vryyr dispatched a sentry overlooking one amongst many market squares, he heard the staccato hail of blaster fire just outside the city limits.

A near-human likely wouldn’t have been able to use their senses to pinpoint the direction and distance, but Vryyr was wookiee, amongst the greatest hunters in the galaxy. He knew right away it was his old unit, those under Kowalski’s command. Growling softly, he knew he held no obligation to the Lieutenant now that Aurek Team had been splintered off.

No obligation, except the man had fought with him. Bled with him. Risked life with him. Detecting the second eldest’s position amongst the wookiee unit, he swung over to the rooftop of the apartment unit and growled some commands quietly in Shyriiwook. The second grunted in mild surprise, but Vryyr’s hard stare and demeanor prevented the other wookiee from asking specifics. It was a matter of honor, and that was all the two of them needed to know.

Leaping from the apartment rooftop, Vryyr made his way through the duracrete jungle of Veandin City to the outer limits, leaving only a whisper of sound and a shadow of vision in his wake. Block by block, rooftop by rooftop, it did not take long for the warrior to find himself deep behind enemy lines. This sector of Veandin’s defense force was supposed to be surprised and distracted by Kowalski’s ambush plans down the road.

They were alert alright, although not in the way the Rebels had intended. Instead of redirecting their focus outside the city walls, doubtless assurances that the situation was manageable had reached those in command, and the mercenary forces had redoubled their efforts to ensure that, at least this sector of the city, was impassable. Either from without...or within.

It made no difference to Vryyr, but it did slow down his timetable, and he growled softly at the thought of his former unit as atmospheric craft whizzed by overhead, no doubt on their way for a targeted strike. He was out of time, he couldn’t afford to play at stealth anymore.

Clenching his hands into fists, he examined the sheen of bone and gave a soft sigh as he consigned himself to the necessity of violence. It was time to get his claws dirty.


Forest
Veandin City Outskirts

Vryyr gave a sharp hiss of pain as he applied the bacta pack to his left shoulder. One of the T’doshok had gotten a lucky shot off that had grazed his upper back on the left side. Thankfully, the wookiee was right handed, meaning he could still trust in the aim of his bowcaster to be true, if somewhat more difficult to reload.

Half a dozen mercenaries dead, three of them before any sort of alarm had even been raised. It was a likely bet that the Sergeant had unintentionally accomplished his former platoon’s task, the wookiee had obviously been exiting the city, leaving the mercenary forces likely sending out scout parties to track him but ultimately unsure which direction to be focusing on.

He sat on a large tree stump, the trunk itself likely having been obliterated by artillery and air to ground fire. Surrounding him, dead Rebels lay strewn about in almost comical positions, many of them missing limbs or in pieces or, if they were luckily, merely riddled with high velocity blaster fire, maybe even turbolasers. Next to him, the body of Lieutenant Kowalski leaned against the stump, still warm from the life that had just left him.

Kowalski had been alive when Vryyr had finally arrived on the scene. Perhaps the only one to have made it through the mercenaries’ final assault, although at that point “making it” was somewhat of a relative turn. The LT had been holding his own guts in with shaking hands, aware that he was about to die but unwilling or unable to surrender to it so easily, and so he had fought to hold on.

“Outlander?” he had whispered, no doubt amazed to see Vryyr’s face and likely half-convinced that he was hallucinating, “Fucked up...Outlander.

Should have...kept better discipline...kept em in line…” he trailed off there, then picked up again, “Kid got hit...forget his name...Wotley, Wotlish...don’t matter...fore I could even order we pull back, other kids start firing...filt the forest up real good, too!” he laughed, and it turned into a groan, “F’only they coulda been so fucking precise when the heavy stuff started...started coming down...and then the strafing runs, it...I wanted to help them, to save them, but I look down and I got a piece a steel in my gut, just hangin there. Shouldn’t have...shouldn’t have pulled it out, I know, but I…”

“Rest, Lieutenant.” was all Vryyr could offer.

“Its that fucking Connor’s fault,” he managed, after a while, “Hadn’t taken Aurek...hadn’t taken you...I knew we counted on your boys too much...just never figured...shit, I never figured not having a bunch of crazy...crazy wookiees would get me...get me nullified. Fuckin nullified.”

Those had been his last words, and so Vryyr sat on the stump and triaged his wounds as best he could. The T’doshok scouts around the perimeter of the blast zone must have assumed that he would be an easy kill, out in the open and injured such as he was.

The first bowcaster shot had been fired one handed, one’s neck snapped through sheer brute force of being tackled into a tree at precisely the wrong angle, two more to stab wounds from the dirk-like vibroblade Vryyr kept on his belt, another to a bowcaster reload, and the final scout, the Trandoshan…

That kill, Vryyr had made with his claws and his honor alone.

The Battle lasted for only an hour but the death toll was far greater then either side could have imagine. While Connors men fared far better than the Randoni It was the planetary rebel forces that payed the price for the planets freedom. in the aftermath the Randoni Provisional Council had provided Connors with the real story and the truth about what had transpired. It had been like he thought but he had not suspected the true instigator of the events which had transpired. The Mercenaries had been hired by an Imperial operative who the council said simple went by the cone name Durrant. He had never given them or any of the captured mercenaries a real name. He had only given them credits. It had been him that had provided the slavers and mercenaries with weapons and the ship that were used to bait the Alliance into coming to the assistance of Randon. It had been the Imperial how had made the council order the evacuation of Poast. Connors mind flared with anger. He could not believe he was blind to this. He should have seen it from the start. The forces had been too coherent and equipped. There could have been no other explanation for how a band of slavers and mercenaries could have pulled off the attacks and raids they had. He had watched from a hill side as his regiment landed. all around the city shuttles and assault craft landed. The massive forms of the ranger gunships sat over had guns posed to strike any rogue commander who might think he could turn the battle once again. The world of Randon had been taken and was now free of the curupt Provisions council. It now had the long  and difficult chore of rebuilding and reforming its government. The population was split  and the upper class would not like the new stat of the world. They would have to share power with the lower beings as they called them. Connors did not care. He had wanted to slap a Randoni who called him a terrorist. He just walked away. It would take time and it would not be easy but the world of Randon was now free. Free to govern themselves, free to do as they wished, and free to support the Alliance.