Commodore Corise Lucerne, relaxing in his command chair, contemplated the swirling lines of hyperspace. The Kashan fleet officer had grown use to using them as a sort of ambience with which to relax himself. His second battle was just over the horizon.

It had been three weeks since he had signed the treaty for Kashan making it a member of the Coalition. Two weeks had passed since the Kashan delegation had arrived back home with the visiting Coalition dignitaries. And already, some of Kashan’s forces were marshalling for war.

The ship he sat in wasn’t from Kashan. It was a Haven-class Light Cruiser which had had more captains than Corise could possibly ever remember. There were two other Havens and a troop transport under his command. Nothing like what the Kashan Fleet had to offer.

But the Seraph crews and their counterparts were being mobilized for war by High Command, most likely for an attack against the Black Dragon Empire. Not wanting to spare any of its precious cruisers in the action, Kashan High Command had instead opted to send several squadrons of S9 Deathsabers to accompany the Light Cruisers and had provided Kashan troops and naval crewman, including himself, as the first part of the integration between the Kashan and Coalition militaries.

Nonetheless, it was a formidable force with which to take Genon, a lawless planet formerly aligned with the Black Sun. Since the Black Sun had fell under the pressure of larger factions, any law, including that of the Black Sun, had crumbled, leaving nothing but chaos on the planet. It was a planet occupied by criminals. A planet in which constant civil wars between its various factions were commonplace.

The populace of Genon was not homogenous nor was it a system where the Coalition would be welcome; ships from Genon routinely smuggled goods and occasionally attacked Coalition shipping. But then again, Genon treated all the factions in a similar manner. Most factions hadn’t bothered with Genon because the planet had little to give; no manufacturing, no agricuture, and an unruly populace that only numbered in the hundreds. Thus, the criminal element itself was actually significantly smaller than those worlds which many factions already controlled and had to deal with. This had all combined to leave Genon unbothered by the rest of the galaxy, until now.

“Dropping out hyperspace…now.”

The brownish orb of Genon was suspended in a sea of black. Through the viewport, Corise thought he could see the shimmer of the stars where a squadron of Deathsabers had emerged. He shook his head as he looked at the command monitor; none were there. His mind had managed to play a cruel trick upon him.

“Commodore, the initial recon reports are correct. There are no enemy capital ships in the area. We estimate that at most, we will have to deal with several squadrons of enemy uglies.”

“Very good, Sub-lieutenant. Take us to our target…”

The three Haven-class Cruisers, Warspite, Hood, and Superb, drifted peacefully above the dusky planet of Genon. Throughout those ships, business was as usual, except for the bridge, flight control, and army areas. Corise paced back to his command chair and sat down.

“Status report?”

“The Deathsabers have engaged and destroyed a flight of Uglies. There do not appear to be any more enemy aerial forces present,” replied the flight liaison officer.

Desente frowned. It wasn’t particularly surprising that several squadrons of Deathsabers would have a problem with a flight of hack-job uglies. What worried Corise was the lack of enemies; there should have been at least five times more. Adding to his troubles, most of the areas occupied by the criminals according to the earlier recon flights, were abandoned. It was almost as if it had become a ghost planet.

“Keep me informed, and have our perimeter flights keep an extra eye out for anything suspicious.”

A voice rose from the crew pit. “Sir, we have an update from ground recon. We have a facility that is occupied by some kind of enemy ground forces. Our fighters have taken fire from it. It looks like only small-arms fire, though.”

“Hit the area with magnetic pulse warheads and prepare to launch of couple of shuttles to clear out the scum. I want prisoners if possible.”

“Aye sir.”

Corise pensively clasped his hands together. The mission was working too well. For all the enemies encountered thus far, he could have sent in a squadron or two of starfighters, destroyed the uglies and in the process bomb the facility to oblivion. He sighed.

“Sub-lieutenant, see if you can find any records about that facility...”

Six shuttles glided over the tropical surface that was Genon. They continued their descent through the valleys filled with exotic trees and flowers, making it seem like paradise. As they reached the clearing with the only active facility, the Coalition transports folded their wings and set down.

The shuttles had barely landed on Genon before the doors burst open, spilling out a wave of the white-clad Kashan Shock Troopers. In a frenzied flurry of effort, the driven troops spread out, completely encircling the facility. The shuttles lifted off back to the cruisers to get more troops as the takeover of the building commenced.

Second Lieutenant Roger Fuller, of the Kashan Defence Force, viewed the target though his HUD. It was a squat duracrete bunker, with no windows or external features save a single door, resembling the barracks of the Kashan Army. To his view, it was probably as tough though; not exactly a good thing since they did not carry very weaponry to breach the walls. An airstrike was an option, but that would destroy the bunker’s contents and occupants. That left the only option of storming the facility through the main door.

Wielding his E-11 in his right hand, the Kashan officer waved his troops forward towards the door. The troops converged upon the door with their blasters leveled, ready to fire at anything that popped into view. Four unscathed squads reached the locked durasteel blastdoor. There had been no opposition, yet.

“Alpha Three, you have demolitions?”

“Negative sir. Five has them.”

“Alpha Five?”

“Beta Five,” spoke the trooper from Beta squad, carrying a pack with proton grenades.

“You know the drill trooper.”

“Yes sir.”

The troopers backed off slowly as the demolitions expert placed the explosive charges to blow down the door. As the rest of the shock troopers took cover within the forest, Beta Five activated the delay sequence as he sprinted away from the door. He had just cleared the blast radius when the grenades went off, unleashing a black cloud of debris and a deafening thud.

“Move it! Let’s move!”

The soldiers had little difficulty hearing their commander yell through the helmet com-link. Roger watched as his HUD filtered out of the smoke, producing a crystal clear image of a scorched doorway into the building. His peripheral vision showed that other troopers would be in there within seconds. He extorted his men to move faster but to no avail; shock trooper armor somewhat limited the speed that a person could move at. He plunged into the darkness while his HUD activated the Nightvision.

“Are we sure someone’s here?”

“Two, we had Deathsabers scan it at point-blank range…”

“Sensors can be wrong.”

“That’s rare.”

“Two, Three, quiet up; take that corridor.”

Both of the Kashan troopers nodded and crept up to the entry of the passage. Alpha Two leveled his blaster and swept it through the dark outline of the corridor. His HUD showed that nothing was moving or alive for the matter. But it did show that there was a power fluctuation 50 meters away, a sign that some electronic was operating.

“Three, Do you see that?”

“Yeah Two. I’ll inform command about our findings.”

Noiselessly, Alpha Two and Alpha Three braced their blasters against the sides of the wall; a precaution in case any of the facility’s occupants decided to strike. Behind them, the soft rhythmic tread of boots informed the duo that more shock troopers had arrived. Alpha Three turned around to take a quick glance at them. He silently nodded at a new squad leader, who in turn nodded back.

The two original soldiers crouched down into a classic fighting stance as they waded through the darkness that consumed the hallway. Behind them, several squads of Kashan infantry followed at a distance; the infantry commander had diverted more resources to this tunnel, labeled Delta Four, as the other passageways had no sign of lifeforms or electronic activity.

A single click from Alpha Three permeated across all of the comlinks of the exploring troops. In Kashan military protocol, a single com-link click was the equivalent of an upraised hand, meaning to stop in one’s tracks because a possible threat. Alpha Two quietly jogged forward to his partner, now fulfilling the point position for the men.

It was an open turbolift. Like the rest of the hallway, it was plated in some variant of durasteel. Clearly, the occupants of the building were not concerned about looks and more about durability. But that in itself was normal for most industrial buildings or military outposts. Three’s rifle pointed a something a little more disturbing: a body lying sprawled on the Turbolift’s floor.

Hood, Coalition flagship of the Genon Attack Squadron

“Sir, we’ve pulled up reports on the facility from Intelligence. It’s pretty old, I’d say from the days of the New Republic.”

“Patch it through to my main console,” ordered the Kashan commodore.

Intelligence Report, by Kir Kanos

This bunker was made by Grappa the Hutt as the headquarters for his operations. The bunker’s layout is a fairly typical model designed by TaggeCo for high-security industries. Presumably, Grappa built the bunker at last several years before Endor.

It is reasonably durable, being made up of alternating layers of durasteel and ferrocrete. From my own stay there as Grappa’s prisoner, it seemed to be kept in fairly condition all the time. I never got to see more than the upper levels of the bunker, but apparently lower down, Grappa was performing some sort of cloning experiments. Data is pretty sketchy though. The Hutt’s forces abandoned the facility after the Zanzibars captured Grappa. Rumour has it that Grappa’s underlings stripped the bunker as they left and that the Zanzibar who briefly occupied it later continued the salvaging until next to nothing was left. In any case, regardless of the current condition of the bunker being unknown, I am recommending that the NRI take a look and set it up as a base of operations due to Genon’s proximity to Imperial space...

Second Lieutenant Fullers watched as the body was unceremoniously dragged off the turbolift. The body had been wearing an orange jumpsuit with only a serial number on it. And by the looks of the wound, he had been hit by a blaster of some sort.

“Sir, what are your orders?”

Fullers turned to the junior trooper.

“Set up a communications between us and the Hood, and get our computer specialists to try and link the facilities computer systems to that as well.”

“Right away sir.”

The other trooper jogged off into the darkness that pervaded the entire facility.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Flagship Hood, orbiting Genon

“Commodore, we’ve completed the connection between us and the facility. Our computer specialist is splicing us in…now.”

Corise nodded and tapped a few keys, bringing up a full-screen view of the Kashan hacker’s work. The facilities’ computers, located on the last level of the bunker, were online, meaning that someone was doing some work down there. Corise watched as the hacker began to override security codes and passwords….
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Grappa the Hutt’s Facility, Genon

“All right men,” stated the Kashan commander, “our hacker up on the Hood has managed to activate the turbolift, so we will be heading down there soon. I’m not sure what we’ll find. My best guess is that we have criminal elements holding down the lower levels. They’ll be prepared, so be cautious and never, ever underestimate your foe. Last call for equipment checks as well, I want everything working properly: blasters, suits, powerpacks, you name it. If something’s wrong, see Theta One. Any questions? None? Good. Move out.”

The facility’s turbolift car was an open freight model used by many industrial buildings to move large amounts of men and equipment efficiently. Fuller guessed that he could take 2.5 squads down at a time. With those twenty men, he could secure the area around the lift and allow the passage of the other Kashan infantry into the facility for exploration. A slight jerk announced that the lift was quickly moving downwards. They had passed what should have been several stories before they came down to the first door; whoever had built this portion of the bunker wanted it fully secure from bombardment and the outside world. The doors opened revealing only more darkness.

The HUDs on the Kashan Trooper’s helmets immediately switched to night vision, revealing overturned tables and more dead bodies. Oddly enough, they all appeared to be wearing the same orange jumpsuit that the man on the lift had been wearing. More importantly, the HUD showed more men behind the tables with their blasters already leveled at the Coalition troops. The men already within the room and the Kashan troops simueltenously opened fire, starting a brilliant show of lights.

The dark emerald bolts from the Kashan soldiers slammed into their opponents, sending some of them sprawling onto the floor while nearly all of them screamed in pain. Meanwhile, the ruby red bolts of the defenders also found their marks, hitting the Kashan troopers.

But instead of piercing the flesh of the Coalition troops, they hit the armor, which in turn absorbed the energy of the shot and rerouted it to help recharge some of the suit’s systems. Thus, the only force that the Kashan troopers felt was the kinetic impact, which from the carbines and pistols that their opponents wielded, was similar to being hit by a small rock.

In the end, there was only a single casualty among the Kashan troops; a glancing wound that didn’t hit the white armor, but rather the black undersuit. Several Shock troopers walked up and used their medpacs to heal the unfortunate men. Other troopers had secured the room and rounded up the few prisoners taken during the assault.

Unlike the rest of the complex seen thus far, the room looked more fitting for an advanced institution; it was a white-tiled room about 50 meters long and 30 meters wide. Instantly noticeable were the frequent metal beams which obviously played a role in keeping the room from collapsing. Aside from the overturned tables and men, the only other features were several computer terminals along with a blast door opposite from the entrance that the Kashan men had entered from. In the mist of the war-torn room, the Second Lieutenant activated a private channel with Commodore Lucerne.

“Sir, we’ve secured the room that the turbolift took us too. It seems to be a storage area or maybe a mess hall. In any case, we have taken a few prisoners and are beginning to question them. I’d say from the looks of them, it’s a mercenary or criminal outfit; I’m guessing it’s a crime syndicate, maybe even the Black Sun. I’ll report back to you when I have more information. What are your orders?”

The response from the Seraph was somewhat marred by static.

“Fuller, you know what you’re doing; search and takeover the entire facility. I want every room searched and cleared off any opposition. Do whatever takes to fulfill that. Any guesses about the people in the orange jumpsuits?”

“While they look somewhat like those that the Alliance starfighter pilots used, they don’t have any pockets. I’m guessing that it was either a civilian staff or maybe, prisoners of some sort.”

A more junior soldier ran up to the commander and merely pointed at the upturned orange bodies that the Shock Troopers had been piling up. Although his helmet concealed it, Fuller’s jaw dropped. All of the men had the same face and build; they were clones. He just stared at the carnage.

“Fuller, are you there?”

Second Lieutenant Fuller stared at the carnage and shook his head. The clones had been unarmed before being brutally massacred. Questioning from the guards revealed little, only that they had been charged with the protecting the facility. They never knew about the clones, until one had attempted to escape and was killed in the process. Whoever was paying them had then revealed the rest of the clones and ordered them killed when the Coalition fleet had arrived. Fuller shook his head and motioned over a Trooper whose HUD ID read Theta-4.

“Theta-4, I’m placing you in command of a squad of troopers to check out what appears to be a utility corridor. Our slicer thinks that it may lead to a private landing path in the forest, but that’s unsure. Check it out.”

Theta-4, whose real name was Jon Roepert, nodded and motioned for his men to fall out behind them. They made their way to the corridor…

Jon was tired of receiving orders, but if he didn't screw this up maybe he would be the one giving them! They went through the corridor which had no lights now and they turned on their HUD lights and marched through. They entered a side door which showed a armory full of blasters Jon has never seen before.

He ordered his men to check the room next to him while he gathered some blasters so he could study them. Then though he was partially deaf because of that monstrous scar in his ear he still heard one of his men yell for fire backup. He quickly ran to where the yell came from and saw a hangar full of...

Before Jon could catch a glimpse of anything, a torrent of red blaster bolts flooded the area. Under such heavy fire, the white-armored Kashan troops quickly retreated back into the room full of blasters to get cover. They shut the blast door and looked around at the contents of the armory. The room itself was a simple square made of ferroconcrete reinforced with durasteel beams. A quick lookover showed that someone had already taken several blasters from the racks as well as the room’s grenades. What was left was a couple dozen blasters of various makes and sizes. A trooper noticed a discarded datapad ,with the armory inventory and statistics for the weapons, and picked up.

Datapad:

Armory Inventory:
12 BlasTech EE-6 Blaster Rifles
4 BlasTech DL-18 Blaster Pistols
2 SoroSuub RB-407 Medium Repeating Blasters
12 Merr-Sonn Fragmentation Grenades

Weapon Entries:

BlasTech DL-18
Model: BlasTech DL-18 Blaster Pistol
Type: Blaster pistol
Scale: Character
Skill: Blaster: blaster pistol
Ammo: 100
Cost: 500 (power packs: 25)
Availability: 1, F, R, or X
Fire Rate: 1
Range: 3-10/30/120
Damage: 4D
This is the most common weapon in the galaxy. It is popular with urban police forces, traders and anyone else who needs to pack respectable firepower in a compact package. Ownership of these weapons is restricted in many systems.

Model: BlasTech EE-6 Blaster Rilfe
Type: Heavy blaster rifle
Scale: Character
Skill: Blaster: blaster rifles
Ammo: 50
Cost: 1,450 (power packs: 25)
Availability: 3, R or X
Fire Rate: 1
Range: 3-25/100/250
Damage: 6D
Game Notes:
Scope and stock: +1D to hit if used for one round of aiming
The preferred weapon of the Master Hunter Boba Fett, the EE-6 is an older model of rifle, but a very powerful one. Available with either a folding or fixed stock, it is relatively short when compared with other weapons of this power class, such as our DLT-19. The folding stock version is only about 7% larger than our E11 rifle, which is noted for it's almost carbine-like qualities. The fixed stock is more popular, as it has a "badder", sawed off look to it. Not to mention that it is the version that Hunter Fett is almost always pictured with (that guy does more free advertising for the arms companies than anyone else in the past century).
Model: SoroSuub RB-407
Type: Medium repeating blaster
Scale: Character
Skill: Blaster: repeating blasters
 Ammo: 15; Unlimited (power generator)
Cost: 3,020 (power packs: 25)
Availability: 2, X
Fire Rate: 1
Range: 3-75/150/400
Damage: 7D
Game Notes:
Must make a Moderate Lifting skill roll when firing without support (either bipod or mount), or suffer a +1D difficulty penalty due the weight.
The SoroSuub RB-407 is the standard issue medium repeating blaster to the Imperial Army (Expansion and Inner Rim regions). Like other medium repeaters, it has been over shadowed by light and heavy models. Designed to fill both the role of mounted or positional gun, and platoon or company level support weapon, it is considered to be a compromise, but a good one. In the fixed gun role, it can fired from the integral bipod, or mounted to a wide variety of pintle and tripod mounts, meaning that it can be used as a commander's gun on armored vehicles, or as a door gun on aerial transports. In the infantry role, its fixed stock and bipod are essential. Meant to be fired from the bipod due to eight, the RB-407 is capable of being fired like a big rifle by a strong enough individual. Despite this versatility, it has earned the unenviable nickname of "pig", due to its reputation for being temperamental (all of these problems are corrected by using proper ammunition and maintenance procedures) and it's considerable weight.

(O.O.C.: Stats property of WEG and entries courtesy of the NIF)

The troops themselves automatically carried the Blastech E-11, an excellent carbine that was standard-issue for stormtrooper units. However, the weapons from the armory could possibly be put to good use by the Kashan men.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Twenty meters away from the Armory Entrance…

“Roger Roger,” agreed a mechanical voice.

“Good. Pin them down until my shuttle departs.”

“Affirmative.”

As the mysterious man continued his way down to the hangar, the former Trade Federation battle droids began to surround the armory in preparation for the upcoming firefight, leaving Jon to make up his mind what to do.

They quickly scanned the room hoping to find a means of escape not knowing how many droids were surrounding them."There in the corner it seems to be a hidden door."said the third trooper behind Jon."Not for long,"replied a dry voice from Jon. They quickly ran to the hidden door and broke it down.

It was like a dugout except this held perfect cover for the men unlike the previous room. Then they heard a bang a blaster fire and then utter quiteness. Jon knew what to do he whispered to his men "we'll not die here, we will fight! We're Kashan Shock Troopers, the best! You men flank to their right. We'll cover you!"

The soldiers acted. The men that were issued to flank, did. Jon and the other men that promised cover fire, did. All of the sudden the area filled with blaster fire. Jon requested if there were any casualities on the Kashans the troopers reported with a joyful "no!"

He ordered them to come with him into that corridor they were in minutes ago. They ran into there and saw a light at the end then it went away.

They rushed towards the direction of the light and were stopped by two Super Battle Droids. Jon didn't know they were still around, but hastily acted, they took them out, Jon was wondering who they were making time for. He made it to the door that was opened seconds ago and saw a shower of blaster bolts...