The Imperial-Class Star Destroyer Mediocre
loomed over the icy planet known as Hoth ominously.
Hoth…a desolate and worthless location that he
certainly should not be wasting his time on. But then
again, the emperor sounded urgent when he ordered the
takeover….so there must be plausible cause. Chris
watched as the TIE Fighters returned from their
preliminary patrols, the system checked out
peacefully. With hands clasped behind his back and
chilled breath, more from the sight of the planet than
any real weather, he walked back down the bridge,
watching the personnel working diligently behind the
consoles. It was an exhilarating thought, controlling
such an awesome piece of equipment, something that had
to be manned by thousands of people, that could crush
entire star fleets and leave unscathed. Liberi felt
like the emperor himself now.

However any delusions of grandeur were quickly swept
away with the voice of Commander Rendalies, the
special forces commando assigned to the takeover of
Hoth. “Sir, the Star Destroyer is in position and the
TIE’s are back, nothing more than a few pirates in the
asteroid field on the far side of the system. Our
troops are beginning to launch on the planet now,”
Rendalies reported, standing properly at attention.
Chris Liberi’s gaze fell onto the commando, eyeing the
snow combat armor he had been dressed in. A rank
patch was sewn perfectly on his right shoulder,
obviously he took pride in his rank.

Chris responded with nothing more than a nod of his
head, before turning back to the people of the bridge.
He would be going down himself, he knew, but for the
moment he wanted to be sure that everything had gone
well on the bridge, and that the soldiers knew exactly
what they were doing. And thus far, they did. The
commander by now had relieved himself, and began
giving the orders to the next wave of snow troopers.

To the armory Chris walked, eyeing all the workers as
he passed them. The dark corridors and narrow
passageways of the Star Destroyer reminded him of the
days of the Civil War, for some reason. However…he
had no memory of being alive during the war…but yet he
had memories and flashbacks specific events. An
annoying occurrence to say in the least, but he would
not let that interfere with his mission, Fearsons had
ordered this himself, it must be done under all
circumstances.

At the armory were, strangely enough, two PeFauna
guards standing properly. The captain quirked an
eyebrow at the two, under normal circumstances…they
would not be here. To the right, the leader it
seemed, dropped his large axe-like staff to the
ground, looking straight at Liberi.

“Emperor Fearsons has ordered us here to prevent
anything from happening to his….missiles,” the guard
explained, and immediately Liberi knew what he was
talking about. Angel Missiles….possibly the deadliest
weapon in the history of man.

“Very well then, keep up the good work,” he responded,
knowing that they did indeed have more power than he
did. With thus he slipped his authorization clearance
to them, and in a matter of seconds, the passageway
was opened for his examination. Inside was truly a
marvel of power and weaponry that the Rogue Empire did
not take lightly. At least fourteen hundred different
kind of guns, and three thousand different types of
blades and armor lay properly in their orders along
the walls. At the end however, was what he was
looking for…the one thing that truly made up the power
of the Rogue Empire…a suit of Dark Trooper armor.

The beautiful suit danced and flashed in his eye, it
was a beautiful sight that most would simply cower in
fear over. His left hand stroked the Rogue Imperial
emblem across the left breast, the shiny exoskeleton
was in mint condition. However, with this suit he
felt something…another flashback. This time it was of
the Empire, an assault on a defenseless city. He
could see people running, screaming, being chased by
three of these monstrous figures, and yet they did not
fire on the civilians, only on the specific
measurements. It was like Yaga Minor all over again,
only it was…Bortras? Why am I seeing this? he
thought to himself as the vision continued, his hands
raising to the sides of his head, sweat developing at
his scalp. What is this? Who are these
soldiers??

But as quickly as it began…it ended, and he was again
standing in the armory, looking straight at armor
piece one one dash double oh nine. He looked at the
cannon and could only wonder, how much blood was
spilled with that cannon with the previous gunner?
Was this machine liberated from the Empire during some
grand scheme or did Fearsons make it to slaughter and
masscare? No, I must not think these heretical
thoughts! he forced any thoughts that Fearsons was
a monster out of his head at once, he was a servant to
the Rogue Empire, and he had to act as such.

Opening and slipping into the armor itself, he felt a
rush of excitement go throughout him, his adrenaline
soaring to new heights. Every step he took was met
with a loud clank from his exoskeleton boots, every
breath amplified in the Vader-like helm. Liberi
proceeded out of the armory, past the two PeFauna
awaiting him, and toward the deck.

Of course, the dark trooper was forced to take the
back route due to his size and complexity, but
nevertheless, all who saw stopped and stared at the
marvelous creation, the sign of sheer ground power in
the Rogue Empire. But then again, many had to ask…why
here? Wasn’t Hoth supposed to be completely abandoned
asside from a few smugglers and pirates? These
questions could only be answered by one man, and that
one man was back in Despayre, ruling as the very right
wing of the empire.

When he finally reached the hangar, the other two
soldiers who were going with him were also loaded in
their suits, and were preparing to launch. They were
cradled in the rocket bays, where they would be
launched at extreme speeds to break the atmosphere’s
attempt to push them back. The first one, after
flashing a nod to Liberi, was sent with a great
booming roar of engines, disappearing from any line of
sight. The next went with an equally dramatic show,
and by that time, Chris was already set up in his
booster. He closed his eyes, and prepared himself for
the extreme launch. No matter how many times he’d
done this before, it was that initial launch that
always managed to startle him, but perhaps that was a
regular thing for everyone.

Looking up at the data screen, he could see it5.…4.…3.…2.…1and then, as his
breath left him and reality tested his constitution,
he saw only the white, snowy planet of Hoth racing up
toward him. The entire suit shaked and smashed as the
gravity of the atmosphere attempted to throw him
back…but his boosters managed to push him through.
When he finally got through the atmospheric
turbulence, he was able to see the clear blue skies
and snowy texture that made up the fourth planet of
the Hoth system. Then, just as quickly if not quicker
than it started, it was over, and he was attempting to
stand in the icy snow. Fortunately, the armor was
very warm in such a climate, and he had no issue, but
for the snow troopers….

He looked back and forth, attempting to find the
rendezvous point, but thus far seeing nothing but
clear white snow, occasionally a few rocks or mounds.
Looking down at the radar in his suit, he was able to
determine that he was a good few moments from the rest
of the group, as, like most atmospheric travels do, he
went through the atmosphere, he was thrown a bit off.
So in less than a minute, he was among his allies.

The first Dark Trooper, four six nine four, came to
meet him, nodding the metallic head in greeting. But
Chris did not return the gesture, and only looked
among the men. So far there were twenty snow troopers
and three dark troopers (as that was the only three
the Rogue Empire had, so still a question was
raised…why would Fearsons relocate ALL of these
awesome suits to one desolate location? What was he
hiding?) who were ready to move forth and tackle any
obstacles that seemed to come their way.

“Everyone, we don’t have too long until nightfall, and
the last thing we need is to be caught in a snowstorm,
or be ridden off by wild animals at night, so let’s
find this location ASAP and take the planet,” Chris
ordered prudently, seeing on his chronometer that they
certainly did not have too much time until the
nightfall. They may not even make it…

The snow troopers, being the disciplined storm
troopers that they were, did not question his
authority, and went on about their orders. Their
attentions were up, and their weapons were on full,
they knew full well that Hoth held many dangerous
creatures, and for certain…the Wampas would be up and
about. Of course they were no issue for a band of
well trained Imperial personnel, at least one would
suffer from the attack, and one was too many.

“Sir, I’m picking up multiple life readings at mark
one one decimal three four,” Six Seven Nine Seven,
the second Dark Trooper, explained. Liberi looked at
him and thought for a moment, checking his own
scanners to find out exactly how far that was. It was
not far at all, around twenty meters from their
current position, a bit to the right.

“I see them too, alright everyone let’s keep weapons
at full, monitor mark one one decimal three four,”
Chris responded. “And let’s pick up the speed a bit,
double time.” His order sank right into the well
dressed storm troopers, and they immediately increased
their speed. In the snow, the large metallic clanks
were replaced with deep crunches of equal sound from
each soldier, the dark troopers however, taking up the
front.

For several minutes they walked with no issue, which
was expected, but as soon as the light began to fade,
everything on the planet came to life. Wild “birds”
could be heard all over, but yet forever unseen, every
now and again the troops would hear what they thought
were footsteps following them, but when they spun,
they only saw their own. But what was worst of all,
was the constant roar of a feral creature somewhere
off in the distance, only getting closer with every
roar.

Liberi was especially tense, for being the leader, he
was expected to make snap decisions no matter what the
circumstance. Sweat began trickling down his face, a
fog swelling up on his helmet’s “glass” visor. His
strides became less smooth as time rode on, his
demeanor less impressive, as was the rest of the
group’s. For always was there the fear of what was
beyond, what was unknown.

<font color=red>Aboard the Mediocre, things were going relatively peacefully thus far. Captain Mydock, whom was the true leader of the Star Destroyer, was patrolling the bridge's corridors, making it a goal of his to become acquainted with everyone in the heart of this incredible warcraft. So far there was Gunnery Sergeant MeleMichael, he was indeed a husky man, but he was also brilliant in hand to hand and close quarter tactics, few rivaling him.

Then there was Major Relkeens, a very enthusisastic Corellian, whom was anything but stuck up. He stood around 5'3", but took great pride in everything about himself. His uniform, his weapon, his strategies, they were all so very relashed in his private world, but that was truly accepted for he had pulled The Rogue Empire out of many a problem.

He was strolling down toward Rear Gunnery Commander Polins when he heard the sirens going off, they were being attacked. The entire bridge went red with the flashing lights, the personnel not even hesitating in the slightest as they manned their stations to prepare for an imminent attack. With a cool head and even cooler attitude, Mydock found his way over to the radar scanner, seeing that it was indeed quite the attack force, approximately fifteen Y-Wings and three Carrack-Class Light Cruisers.

"Launch all fighters, prepare them for space assault," he ordered, nodding his head to the flight officer and moving back toward the viewport. </font>

Mydock was issuing orders to the bridge crew when Snake entered.Snake had always considered Mydock a competent commander.But in this Case Snake was in charge.

"Captain Mydock,here are my orders."

Mydock glanced at the datapad once then did a double-take as he saw what was on it.

"You are in charge now?"

"Yes"

Snake looked at the Tactical readouts.

"Tie Fighters, change course to....four mark three-two-five."

Mydock raised a curious eyebrow at those orders.

"That will bring them right back here"

"Yes it will.Observe,Captain.All turbolaser batteries.......fire at the Y-Wings"

The Y-Wings,so intent on their prey didn't notice the turbolasers untill it was too late.The turbolasers incenerated 12 of the fighters.

"Tie's,you may attack the surviving fighters.Helm,lay in a straght course to the Carracks and engage."

He looked upon the fields of ice that stood before him and admired it’s vastness… it was amazing to see so much… and yet so little. He would find the rebel base that was here… he had located it… and it was only a matter of time before conquest was in his grasp. It would be only a matter of time before this planet was under the rule of the Rogue Empire… not that there was much to rule over. The mere fact that this place was filled with snow and nothing more amazed him that any life could servive on the planet for any given time. He looked at the other troops as they appeared to be adapting well to the new enviroment. The ATAT started walking slowly towards the destination as the second ATAT walked behind it. The troopers were going to be in for a fun day… that was for sure.
On the land as they traveled across it, vastness… it was overtaking to see the beauty of it, but he remembered that it also had it’s dangers… wompas were the main threat on his list for this mission… there could be other defenses set in place, but those were not for certain. The wompas were a comfirmed threat and would be treated with utmost care. As the land scape seem to stretch on for eternity, Chris wondered about what would be in store for his life… and why was he always having these flash back memories that were patchy… he shrugged it off and consintrated on the task at hand. He watched as the AT AT stood aside the other and slowly made it’s way towards the rebel base. Chris looked upon the readout provided by the Dark Trooper suit, allowing him to enhance the image without any other aid. A small dot could be seen on the horizan. This was the rebel base, but he could also see a few other things… but couldn’t quite make them out at this distance. The men looked at the target, with an almost eagerness about them that soon they would be upon the target, and eventually, the enemy. This was what they were waiting for, the chance to prove themselves in the face of danger and further the glory of the Rogue Empire. As they got closer to the base, he started estimating the current status of the base. It appeared to be offline from every given intentions but looks did quite often deceive… that was one of the many things that made his job interesting…

He started to walk towards the target, the bodies of men appeared to be frequent like there had been a fight or someone had left corpses to rest in this forsaken place. He started to wonder if someone had killed these people, left them to die… or if something was eating them… he notices that most of the bodies were not complete. Arms were missing, so were legs and other body parts. Arms were scattered everywhere and a few had blood trails running from them off towards a snow bank, which disappeared behind a hill. Chris looked at the hill slightly and wondered if there were wompas on this planet, but then decided he needed to finish the mission. He had come here not to hunt wompas, but to capture a base. This was his job and so that is what he would do.

The base appeared to be deserted, but still had defenses in place… he closely examined one unit after blasting it with an Ion blast. It appeared to be in fine condition considering the time it had spent up in the freezing lands. It appeared to be trigger reacted by something… but what is the question was the trigger attached to. It could be anything from a hand held unit to a sensor uplink… this would be interesting to say the least. He started to walk over the snow as 2 anti infantry batteries surfaced from under the ground and started firing at him, he quickly took the first one out with a shot and the second one was caught by the ATAT. He shook his head from inside his helmet, he would need to be more careful in the up coming times… not that he was in any danger, just sometimes he got cocky which could endanger the others around him.

He started walking towards what appeared to be the relay point in between the first wall of defense and the second one. He quickly looked at it and examined the general outfit of it. He smiled slightly as he started to snip the wires to the defenses in the front line. He quickly then applied them to a small box he had carried with him for this… just in case any other enemies came, he could apply the first line of defense against them… which could definitely come in handy if anyone got too nosy around Hoth. He smiled slightly as he started to walk towards the next line of defense and started to notice mines on his scanner screen in his visor. He looked over the field carefully and started shooting the mines to clear a path for the other troopers as they cleared the mine area. He ordered a few to go in front to clear the area for vehicle mines. The ATAT suddenly started receiving fire as a Golum laser battery appeared from under a small snow bank. The ATAT returned fire, instantly blowing up the laser battery. He looked at the battery for a moment… it had been cleverly discuised and appeared to be the top of it’s model… a few years ago. He smirked slightly as he went over to it and found a small medal detector hooked up with it… very clever indeed… this would definitely be a most challenging attack against the base. They appeared to have planned the area out very welll… which would only make his job all the more fun.

OOC: I can write more later... this is just a start

Mydock nodded at Snake, who in turn replied with saying he needed a nap. The captain, after receiving a distress signal from both Despayre <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> and<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> Yaga Minor decided the mission needed to end, and soon. He made his way to the comm link, flipping it on and contacting the darktroopers down on the surface.

"Attention squad, attention squad. We have receieved a distress signal from the emperor, we must hurry with the situation. I am dispatching the rest of our forces to help take the base," Mydock ordered before switching off the commlink, preventing any from responding. He made his way slowly back to his seat, sitting in it with a slight hint of worry. If Despayre was under attack...who could it be for their fleet to have sent a distress signal? Were they THAT large? Was it the Republic? Mydock forced these thoughts from his head, the slightest misconcentration on the matter could result in the death of many aboard his carrier.

His thinking was disturbed by Lieutenant Maldoon however, who greeted him properly with a salute. "Sir, the soldiers are dispatched, and we are reading a distress signal from KL-1091, he says they're under attack."




"Repeat, this is KL-1091, we are under attack, heavy resistance being found at the base!" the stormtrooper yelled into his comm link. KL-1091 was the communications officer of the squadron, and he was expected to get the back up they needed so desperately. The darktroopers had taken the initiative against the ferocious droids, but they were slowly being pushed back. Nearly forty war droids had been set up around the base, and the small attack force that had actually gone in could not repel them, and the droids did not seem to want to fall out to the AT-AT's. And to make matters worse, Fearsons demanded that they take the facility undamaged.

"Dammit we need back up NOW!" he screamed into his comm, but still no response. The Darktrooper Chris piloted leapt from his hiding place behind a wrecked speeder, taking several shots at the oncoming droids, tearing one apart with his flurry of shots, but it seemed like they multiplied with their forces.

"Don't pull back, keep moving in!" Liberi yelled, walking completely over the speeder. He lifted his right arm, and squeezed the trigger on his grenade launcher, causing two more to explode. The other dark troopers continued to fire, but met heavier resistance than they expected. Two stormtroopers fell as well during the heroic charge, but they continued. Several shots nearly hit Liberi, but he managed to fall into a roll, skipping the blasts and returning them, eliminating another droid in his ripostes. "Go go go!"

The stormtroopers too returned fire, taking down another war droid. Liberi then got a very crazy idea, but one that would have to work. Looking around he found exactly what he was looking for, a large power grid sitting snuggly on the wall. He lifted his right arm, and took aim. Letting lose a flurry of laser shots, blowing the power grid to nothing. A small electromagnetic wave was unleashed, but strangely enough the droids did not jitter and explode like he thought. Instead...they just stopped.

"You got their power source!" one of the stormtroopers yelled excitedly. Liberi let out a sigh of relief, seeing as the droids were stopped. Unfortunately, twelve of the thirty stormtroopers sent in lay dead, with four wounded. Liberi however had to let it go, and, being the stern leader he was, continued on. But again he was haunted by memories, memories of screams and torture in this facility. He saw, where a chair once stood, a man kicking and screaming, blood pouring from his body. With a blink...the image was gone.

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> What is this?<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> he thought to himself, but continued, not wanting to lose focus. He lead the soldiers into another room that he knew had the specimens...but he knew not how. Opening the door, he saw a simply exquisite, yet horrific sight. Frozen corpses, dismembered parts, broken and stable computers presented all amongst the rubble and rubbage. But that was not what was most marvelous. No...it was infact the nude forms floating in glass tanks, it seemed they were relatively warm...and alive. An eerie yellowish glow emitted from the tanks, and everyone nearly stepped back in shock and horror...but they proceeded.

He looked at the many different forms… he was almost shocked that anyone that would possibly leave so many people in such a place. He looked at the different bodies, carefully examining them… he sighed heavily, what kind of people would leave clones in tanks? It wasn’t a pretty site. He examined what appeared to be a young lady a moment before turning back to the others. “Alright, I want to make sure this place is secure, call in the tech crews, I want this bobbing humans examined to see if they are a threat to us, or if this is some odd way to get high paying citizen, alright, move!” He said as the storm troopers left the area and started searching over the base more carefully. He looked into one room… a beast of sorts. Looked like a human… but not quite one. It appeared to be the evidence of trial and error on clones to make a perfect human. He scoffed at the idea of there being such a thing as a perfect human. Everyone had flaws, which gave people a weakness for him to expose. He shook his head slightly and continued down the hall.

He smirked slightly as he walked into the meeting room of the base. He looked at the various folders in cabnets that were against the wall. Other storm started scanning the area for any types of traps. The area appeared to be secure… it looked like the place was still in great condition… except for a few breaches in the wall, but guards were posted near those areas. This would definitely be an interesting day to say the least. “Sir, the techs will be here in 5 minutes, any other orders you want sir?” Said Lt. David. Chris looked at him, “Yes, I want you to make sure that there is no AA batteries installed in the area, after all, now that we have the base, we wouldn't want our techs getting blasted out of the sky because of a few people’s failure to check for AA batteries, now would we?” he said with a smile. Lt. David saluted him, “Yes Sir! I go immediately,” he said, then turned and left. This was definitely a start to a great day and this would be another stepping-stone for the Rogue Empire. This definitely could be a good day… he thought as he looked over a past few reports from the previous months. It looks like everything was going well… he wondered why anyone would want to take the part of the creation of someone else’s life other than the natural way. It was completely sickening the idea of trying to manipulate someone’s DNA to be the ‘perfect person’. It was just a horrible waste to think that a clone was just a thing… a clone was a living thing and shouldn’t be left bobbing in a tank. He read on through the reports. Last connection from the outside was nearly 26 years ago… he shook his head, “Lt, how could anyone forget about people for 26 years?” He said as he stood up. The lieutenant replied, “I honestly don’t know sir. It doesn’t seem very likely to me that they would just forget about them.”

Chris walked over to the next room. He shook his head slightly as he saw a big whole in the wall and a bloody mess of what appeared to be a cloning area that had gotten hit by wimps… a big bloody mess. He stood outside as Lt. David came up to Chris. “Sir, all the AA batteries have been brought offline for the landing of the techs. And Just in time sir,” he said as the shuttles landed near the base as the men started to come into the area with storm trooper escort. He smirked slightly as he watched them start working and breaking into the computer databanks… that would be were the true information would be. The info, the equipment… could all be brought online. With this his mission would be complete… but he wondered what else was there. Suddenly a tech ran up to him, “Sir, you have to see this, we found something that might interest you, sir!” he said as he led the way to a heavy door. “Sir, we just sliced through the codes, you will want to have a gander at this!” Chris smiled slightly as the tech said the words. He waited patiently to see what kind of new treasures they had in store for him. This sounded very promising in his book and would be interesting to see. He smiled as the doors slowly opened he looked into the room. It appeared to be dark except for a single cylinder shaped tomb that appeared to contain a clone in it, but it was covered by a casing of metal. “Open it up, now!” Chris said with a strong voice, “I want to know what is in there, to be kept behind such doors. The techs went to work and a moment later, the casing slip up and everyone gasped. It was a very well preserved clone of Mon Montha… the readings on her heart rate was completely stopped. He shook his head slightly, such a great diplomat was rare and few, and she was a site to behold… if she had clothes on. He looked at the techs, “Dead, right?” The techs looked at him and nodded their heads, trying to look at the readings instead of the older woman. He shook his head, “Cover that back up, get on to the rest of the clones to see if they are still alive. I want this done stat, I don’t have too much time around here you know.”

He looked out into the hallways as storm troopers and techs were going every which way, the power systems had been brought online successfully and now the automated defenses were on their side. This was definitely a good start to the invasion. Now… to get everyone back to the mediocre. He quickly ordered everyone to pack up the live clones to the shuttles and smirked as he entered the lab. There had been three samples of DNA of each person cloned…he figured he would take one for himself on two people… Mon Montha and one of a great female admiral… for good memories of the base. He smiled as he looked in the room as clones were being taken to the shuttles, he thought a moment, “Bring all the bodies, even the dead ones, I want to figure out what killed them. The live ones are to be kept alive, they will come in handy one day for our cause. Now lets move out!” He said as he watched the first batch of shuttles being filled with the clones. He opened up a com to the ship, “Send down some more shuttles, we need to get these clones out of here and get going, we have already spent enough time as it is with this campaign. A lot of valuable research had been copied and would be used later, but now they got a cloning facility for free… free was something he had always liked.

He watched as the tank that carried the dead Mon Montha to the shuttle and smirked slightly, another great person dead… except for a DNA sample he now had with him… but he went to the shuttle as it started to lift off… another victory for the Rogue Empire. One that wouldn't be forgotten soon. He smiled slightly knowing that the men he had left down on the planet would carry on the work they had been intended to do. He smiled as the shuttle docked with the Mediocre. He entered the command deck and gave the order. The crewmen worked diligently and then the Mediocre went into hyperspace towards Yaga Minor