The troops and crew on the Sovereignty vessels filled towards docking bays, intending on taking ORS shuttles down to the planet until more ORS transports could arrive. When they reached them, they found some Anthos troops there.

"We request permission to transport ourselves down to the planet, to prevent causing any problems to you and your government."

Their airspeeder having delivered them, the majority of dBale's second strike team struck out on their mission. Breaking up into groups of five, they quickly took control of what turbolifts they could find (namely, by shooting the lights out of them, and then using a few pack-along repulsor-pads to navigate the lift-tubes) and what other systems they could find.

Team 2.3 struck gold on the first floor they entered. "We've got a datacore here, Sir," said 2.3's leader over the intercom. "Beginning search now. Request backup, in-house security coming up."


The men left behind at the airspeeder quickly started running diagnostics, praying that nothing had been damaged too badly. As intended, nothing had been. Apart from the dented nose, which had been reinforced for this purpose, only the starboard laser-cannon had suffered damage. After disengaging it, they fired up the engines and started performing scans, searching for hostile forces.


Teams 2.1 and 2.2 coagulated on a corridor. "Cover our exit," said the team leader. "Get the evac-lift ready. We have incoming hostiles." He tapped his in-helmet mic. "Repeat, we have incoming hostiles, both birds and ants."

"Acknowledged"


Team 2.3 stood protectively over the data-core they had found, their techie searching and copying as quickly as he could. "Almost done, c'mon, c'mon..."

The body of a dead scientist lay bloodily splattered on the floor, one of his eyes missing. Authentication had been required to access the database, and he had been the most superior in rank. The rest of the faculty crew the team had encountered were either stunned, or laying prone on the floor.

2.3's leader cocked his head as the men manning the speeder buzzed him. "We read around thirty to fifty ants entering the building at the bottom. Two turbolitfs are still active, suggest you move to terminate."

"Negative," he replied. "We're almost done here."

"Acknowledged. Hurry it up, you only have a few minutes before they're on you."












Meanwhile, beneath the surface of the planet a slightly different scene was taking place. For this data-team finding an available data-core had cost them dearly. The defense troops here had been more ingenious than those on the surface, and only fifteen members of the original team were left.

"Frack... Is that it?" cursed the team leader.

"Yeah."

"Get to work."

"it's just one of thirty."

"...sithspit."

They stood in the middle of the main data-room, scattered in defensive positions, weapons ready, and remote grenades placed. Their techie was standing with a gun to the groin of a scientist, forcing him to access the database.

"You just went past W." he stated impassively, and the scientist twitched. "Do you want me to pull this trigger?" continued the techie. "It's a slow, painful way to die. Very painful."

The scientist blanched, and scrolled up.



Both stalkers, receiving updates from their respective teams, began to move into strategic positions, and prepared to drop cloak. Weapons were charged, and aimed, and escape vectors planned.


In space, two a detachment of TiE Phantom's, numbering twenty each, broke off and headed down to the planet to provide escape vector cover-fire and assistance.

In the under-water research lab, the scientist looked down at the blaster the enemy soldier was holding to him.

"Fine, fine, I'll do it."

He started to go back to 'W' when the first squad of troops had reached the door into the room.

"All right, on three we burst into the room, and stun everyone."

"Yes sir."

"One, two, THREE!"

The commander quickly opened the blastdoors and the troops rushed in. The second and third squads had their weapons, and the commanders had begun to make up a plan.

"Your men go to this hallway here, plant a shaped charge, and blow this wall in, to gain access to the control room. Then throw a bunch of grenades in. My group will go to this door. I'll open the blastdoors right after I here your charge go off, and we will through in various grenades. At the same time our total of four flechette launchers shoot in one canister of anti-personal flechettes each, and after the grenades stop exploding we use our thermal scanners in our helmets to see through the smoke and stun everyone else inside. Sound good?"

"Yep."

The two teams of troops moved off to go to their positions...


In the water, the sonar bouys had managed to locate the mini-sub, and were sending it's path, and traveling speed to the the submarine that was moving after it.

In the ground facility, the troops on the ground quickly found out that the turbolifts did not work.

"I want everyone except for myself and Scottie to go up the stairs to get there. We wil go to the command room and prepare to use stun gas on the enemy troops. The squad, now reduced to 8 men, started climbing the stairs, while the other two men went for the control room. The MC-10s had launched, and were moving in for the kill on the airspeeder parked onto of the building. The 6 friendly airspeeders moved in, and blew a hole in the wall of the building, and began dropping off troops.

"Sir, we have 8 friendlies moving up the stairs to the room. The other two are moving to the control room."

"Tell squad to stop outside of the room. We will quickly open the blastdoors, throw in a bunch of stun, concussion and smoke grenades, and then shut the door. After the grenades have stopped going off we charge in, using thermal scanner on our helmets to see through the smoke, and then stun everyone inside. The squad on the stairs will set up numerous stun traps, anti-personel mines, and prepare to stop the troops from retreating down the stairs. Does everyone understand?"

"Yes sir."

"Excellent."

The troops began moving towards the blastdoors, while the troops on the stairs set up their traps...

[font=Times New Roman]In the underwater installation, the first squad of troops charged into the room, managed to stun a couple Anthos troops, and then the remote mines detonated. The squad was wiped out in the flash on an eye. The scientist the Anthos troops had captured was lying on the floor, stunned. The second and third squads were almost at their targets when they felt the shockwaves go off. When they tried to call the first squad, they got no response.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]"It looks like the enemy had some kind of trap ready. The sacrifice made by the first squad should have eliminated it. Lets hurry up."[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]The squads quickly began setting up their plan...[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Outside the facility, the submarine had the mini-sub within weapons range.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]"Flood torpedo tubes 1 and 2. Load them with torpedoes, and target that sub."[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]"Yes sir."[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]The sub go its torpedo tubes ready, and then launched the 2 torpedoes at the mini-sub.[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]In the facility above water, the troops on the stairs had their traps set up.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]"Does everyone have their grenades ready?"[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]"Yes sir."[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]"How about the station's troops, are they ready?"[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]"Yes sir, they just reported that they were finished sir."[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]"Excellent. I'll start counting down to mark. At this point the blastdoors will be open, and everyone will throw in their grenade. I'll shut the doors right after your done that, and then after the explosions are done, we charge. Everybody understand?"[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]"Yes sir."[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]"Good."[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]The commander moved over to a wall panel.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]"Three, two, one, Mark!"[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]The doors opened and the troops quickly threw in their grenades. The doors were then quickly shut again. Soon the troops would charge inside the room, where the Anthos troops were being nocked to the ground, stunned, and couldn't see, due to the grenades that the troops had just thrown in.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman][/font]
[font=Times New Roman]The MC-10 finished strafing the airspeeder. It was shot to pieces, and completely inoperable.[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]Up in space the ORS troops had been ignored, so they again asked their question to the officer who appeared to be incharge.[/font]


[font=Times New Roman]Spread across the planet all other military installations were at high alert, and prepared for an attack. The troops armed with chip missile launchers scanned the sky for any opponents. The planetary ion cannons across the planet were prepared to shoot at any target that presented itself...[/font]


[font=Times New Roman]Meanwhile the subs had retrieved around half of the wildlife that the Imperials had dumped in the ocean, and were scanning the ones they had captured for any abnormalities. They continued to try and retrieve more of the squids.[/font]

OOC:I edited things, in three different GC posts, so I hope it is more kosher now.

*

Mon Calamari Orbit


Perrin Descartes watched the planet as those ships visible to enemy scanning devices regrouped around the risen VSD, each maintaining their battle alert status.

"I don't understand..." he murmured to the Captain of the battlecruiser who was monitoring as the yards passed beyond the scanning horizon. "What is the point of what we are doing?"

"Watch and learn, then, Sith." the Captain stated a bit irreverently and Perrin briefly thought of running the man through with his blade for a little attitude adjustment.

Still, a curiosity burned within him as to the tactics that he could not quite put a reason too.

He felt confusion from some others though not from any senior staff official. Still, the thought of him not being alone in his inablity to understand strangely comforted.



*


General Ming stood like a rock against a rising tide of agitation. His weapons crew were itching to begin boiling the oceans away and he felt their frustration. These fish people had rebelled against their lawful government and, even worse, had succeeded in establishing their own government (albeit illegal) in opposition to the Empire. And recently they had declared war on the Empire. Kaine and he thought to preempt the strike with a surgical strike of their own.

As the data flowed from Imperial Center, the fish people HAD attacked Corellia enmasse and though he did not care for Lupercus Darksword, even he could not sit still for such an affrontery. Such a slap in the face of the most powerful government in the galaxy.

And now... NOW! They wanted to negotiate with half their fleet destroyed and the other half in Corellian space.

Kaine had called him leverage. With negotiations beginning he wondered if the diplomatic maneuverings would go the way he expected them too.

"Signal coming in, Sir. It's the Grand Marshall!"

"I shall take it in private." Ming announced and he entered a spartan office accepting the transmission.

"How goes Mon Calamari, General." Kaine asked without preamble and Ming went on to relay the yard transfer going well and that they held superiority the enemy capital. The Fleet of the Anthos Republic had also come which was a deciding factor against the Sovereignty trying to protect their puppet.

"And the.. presents?" Kaine asked.

"Delivered. They seem to be fighting with Anthos Republic on the water but we kept them away from our area for the most part. They are trying to capture the beasties but they are beginning to scatter."


"General, the negotiator is being obstinant. I think it's time we repeated our position. Go to Phase 2."


"With pleasure, Marshall." Ming said happily. He turned to the scanning officer asking for a very specific reading to look for.

It took a few minutes but the officer did it. Coordinating with the rest of his ships (minus the Shrouds), they began firing from orbit at a spot of ocean that was devoid of any intelligence life. Each beam weapon was held at an odd frequency and the water began to simmer.

"Education commencing, Marshall."

Kaine nodded, distracted by something else nearby. Then his focus returned. "Keep it up another 10 minutes and then maintain your position relative over the planet until these people see the reasonableness of our terms."

"Aye, Marshall. Ming out."


And the firing went on for another ten minutes before abating.


*

"Why are we firing on this useless part of the ocean?" Perrin asked in anger. He was angry that he could not figure out the General and Grand Marshall's strategy.

It cannot only be negotiation tactics! Otherwise we'd be levelling the reefs to pebbles on the ocean floor.

He did realize that keeping their position fixed over the area they were focussed allowed them to move with the planet thus ensuring that no planetary weapon would come within range.



*


The scans on the squids captured showed a device embedded within each one. The outside scans did not reveal to the operators just what the device was or what it did.


The squids, of course, squirmed.

Ground-based R&D Science Station
"Shavit!" cried the leader of 2.3, as he heard gunfire. "Damage report, now!" he barked into his mic.

"Massive casualties for the MC forces," said the voice in his helmet. "A few of our guys down. It's going to be hot here in a few minutes though, Sir. Better hurry it up."

"Roger that sergeant. Get your men ready to pull out."

Pivoting on his heel, the commander barked orders to his dazed men, preparing them to withdraw. Then, he glanced at his tech. Without waiting for a reply the man held up his hand. "Done," he said. "I just dumped the raw files into the datalink, no decoding. That can be done later."

"Pack up," said his commander. 'We're out of here. Arm the shock charges, move to the extract point."

As his team ran out of the data-center the squad commander pressed a remote detonator. There was no sound for a moment, and then it seemed like his eardrums would implode.

"I think that data-core is destroyed..." he muttered, as his men moved up the floors of the building, heading toward the roof.

Outside
Having received the message, the cloaked Stalker moved into position above the building, and prepared to receive its commando's.

A squadron of TiE Phantom's appeared over the horizion, a few minutes away.



Sub-marine Station
Most of his squad was in shock. Team 1.3's tech sergeant was bleeding from the nose as he grabbed at his datapad. Blasted shock mines had been set too close to the squad.

He highlighted the entries under 'W', all five thousand two-hundred of them, and archived them to his datapad. In the blink of an eye the file was transmitted to a Stalker hovering above the station.

"Damn suicide missions," muttered the tech, as consciousness slipped from him. The datapad dropped out of his hands. He didn't see the warning that the file he had sent had been interrupted halfway during transmission.

Above
"Contact lost with the team."

"Move out."

Simple and cold, not humane at all. The captain glowered to himself; dBale had better have one really good explanation for these orders.

A squad of TiE Phantom's appeared over the horizon.







Space

"Sovereignty Crewmembers, prepare to make the jump to hyperspace."

The sovereignty craft, slaved to dBale's command craft, began to align themselves with the Anthos fleet, and prepare for the trip.

Underwater, the 2 torpedoes connected with the mini-sub, destroying it.

In the underwater facility everything was set up.

"Everyone ready?"

"Yes."

"Proceed."

A hole was quickly blown in the wall of the room and grenades were thrown in. At the same time grenades were thrown in from the door, and the four flechette launchers fired in a canister of anti-personal flechettes each. Then right after the grenades had exploded the troops rushed in through the door. Using thermal images the troops quickly stunned the Anthos troops.

OOC:
Casualties here:
Anthos:
3 killed from Flechette Launchers
2 stunned by grenades
Everyone thrown on ground
4 stunned by troops rushing in

Probably no NGC forces, the grenades interfeared with your abilities to resist.


IC:

At the ground facility the team that had come in by airspeeder had lost contact with the team from the ground. It seemed that the Anthos team that was protecting their way out had gone below and done some pre-emptive action against the troops coming up. Somehow they had managed to avoid most of the traps and had suffered mimimal casualties.

"Tell those troops in the control room to block off all access to all levels below Level 2."

That would stop the Anthos troops from escaping down to the ground level.

Then the grenades exploded in the computer room, knocking down and stunning the troops there. The NGC main force, made up of 30 troops, ran into the room, and quickly stunned the Anthos troops there.

"Control Room, what do we have for enemy troops now?"

"We have one team, probably about 10 men, on the level below you. That's the team that wiped out our troops on the stairwell. Then we have another team, similar size, on the level above, probably holding the way out. But their airspeeders on the roof have been destroyed."

"Doesn't matter, they have cloaked ships, they could just land one here and then get them aboard that way. All right, here's the deal. You shut down all access down to the roof. We will go up there, and deal with that threat first. Then we go down and deal with the second threat."

The access was quickly shut down, mainly by blastdoors closing, and security traps activating, and then the troops moved forward to attack the troops on the level above them.

Casualties:
My force on the stairs was wiped out(your previous post)
You force at the datacore was wiped out

OOC: Please note this is only a reminder of TNO to post. We have skipped Antho's turn, since they didn't post during the time allowed.

And I edited out the IC part because I realized that ORS has surrendered, and it is cheap to then make them fight.