"Those things are gonna kill you one day." Green Two walked up behind Natros Uthria as he took another drag on his death stick. "I been tellin' you this for six months now. Those things cause..."

"Screw you," Uthria interrupted. "These things might kill me, if a stray blaster bolt doesn't get me first. And if I don't smoke 'em, it probably will. I get nervous otherwise."

"Suit yourself," replied Two. Even though Uthria was technically above him in rank, the intense training over the last six months had bonded Green Squadron together. Uthria, Green Leader, was the only one of the squadron that had any Special Forces experience before this new assignment. The others had come out of all three branches - army, navy, and fighter corps. Two had himself come out of the Imperial Marines.

"Y'know," Uthria said, "the thing I wanna know is why the heck we got stuck in this...this hell hole, while the others get the prime jobs. Heck, we don't even get to be backup. We get to guard the prison where our wonderful commander thinks nobody's gonna come. What, does he not think we can handle ourselves?"

Two simply listened in silence. He knew by now not to answer those kind of questions. Green Leader just needed to talk it out.

"Ah, well," Uthria continued, "I guess we'll just have to do our jobs and not worry about it now." He took another long drag and put it out. Blowing out the last vestiges of smoke, he adjusted the strap on his modified E-11 and said, "Alright. Let's make another round."

Uthria ordered the rest of the men by comm to make another round of their respective floors and check for any anomalies. Then he and Two began moving cautiously through the building, checking doors, closets, hallways, etc. It wasn't long before they were approaching the main gate.

Uthria, the rank insignia of a lieutenant clearly visable, stopped for a short conversation with the guard at the doors. "Anything to report, soldier?" he asked.

"Nothing new, sir. A few crates were a bit heavier than usual, but probably just extra rations for your men. We did a thorough search and found nothing."

Uthria thought for a moment. Could be nothing, but still...

"Thank you, soldier. Resume your duties, and keep a clear eye for suspicious activity."

Uthria and Two began to move on. They headed for the storage room slowly, checking doors and openings along the way. This might be the infiltration they had been worried about. If there was anyone there, they would be dealt with quickly.

When they arrived at the room, Uthria stood by the door, weapon raised, as Two punched in the code to open it. They entered quickly, scanning the room for threats. Nothing. They moved slowly around, checking everywhere they could think someone might hide. Still nothing. But Uthria couldn't shake the suspicion that someone might still be there.

As the two exited the room, Uthria, turned and stared once more. Then he headed out and down the hall. When he was out of sight of the doorway, though, he ducked around a corner and waited. Two did the same a little farther down. If anything came out that door...

"Is the cost clear - again?" asked J-1, as he squatted in an abandoned supply crate.

Again, J-5 whispered "Yeah, we're clear."

The agents sprawled out of their various hiding spots, gasping for air and making quiet straining sounds from the discomfort. "This is getting ridiculous," J-1 murmured.

J-3 was already at the door, removing a skinny metal tube from between his mandibles and poking it just under the door. He gargled into his electronic translator, that raspingly said "The two men are still in the corridor beyond - they mean to ambush us if we leave."

"Well it's obvious they don't know we're here for certain," said J-5. "Otherwise they would have sent a bigger force and stripped this place clean. Maybe if we wait they'll lose interest and go back to their patrol?"

"Or they might call for backup and initiate a proper search," J-1 murmured. He poked around at the wall, until a familiar hollow sound emanated from a wall panel. "J-5, this is your contact point."

"Roger," he whispered, as the tiny furry spy legged it over to the wall panel and got to work with his tool kit. With the panel gone, a series of colour-coded wires was revealed. After a few tries, J-5 managed to find the network connection, and the dim light of his laptop appeared in their dank little room.

"They're still waiting outside the door," said J-3's hissing translator. "No movement."

"It could be the same men we encountered earlier," said J-6. "What if this is a trap?"

J-1 shook his head, and moved behind J-5. "No, definetly not. They might be expecting us but this is no trap - otherwise they would have sprung it by now. J-5, how're you doing with that map?"

"It's not easy, boss," said J-5. "The files here are really well hidden. I can see the other user stations, though, so that gives me something to work with. Okay... I think I've got something. Localized map information - that's all I can get from here, until we find a terminal with better access." J-5 unhooked his laptop from the cable, carefully retaking his connection wire.

"Are there any other ways out of this room?"

J-5 frowned as he examined the mapping information. "Just one but... you're not going to like it. Neither will he." With that, J-5 gestured offhand to J-6.



"Are you totally sure this will work?" said J-1, who was already feeling reservations about the whole plan.

"I am a master of my craft, sir," said J-6, as he selected a specific charge from his belt. "If everything is as J-5 says it is, it shall work flawlessly."

J-6 had carefully torn panels off of the ceiling where directed to by J-5, and had from there gently disassembled the space between the ceiling of their room and the floor of the one above. With the space suitably cleared by Azguard muscle, the last punch was to be made by a highly expensive and highly adjustable seismic charge.

The room above them was a maintenance tunnel, almost certainly empty at this time of night, and sealed off from the complex to keep it from being used for an escape. Once the charge was set, J-6 replaced the ceiling tiles and moved away from the targeted point. "The sound will be muffled, but audible. We'll have to move fast."

J-1 nodded, and pressed down on the detonator.

There was a brief flash and an audible thump, as J-6's seismic charge cracked and fractured the floor above them. Quickly, J-6 rushed forwards and pushed in the ceiling panel. With his fist, he thrust through the weakened floor and made a hole to the other side, pulling himself up with the help of crates to stand on. After him followed J-2, J-3, J-4, and J-1.

J-5 squeaked with panic, jumping up and down from the top of the crate stack but far too small to reach the hole. The sound of footfalls clearly meant that investigators were on their way. Finally, J-5 threw up his laptop and clung to the connecting wire - J-1 grabbed the laptop and wound him up into the hole just as the door slid open. Quickly, the team replaced the ceiling panel and held their breath.

Nothing.

J-1 gestured down the dark, shadowy, and dusty length of the maintenace corridor. Move out.

Green Leader held his place for a solid five minutes before deciding that there was nothing to be found here. Delusions of grandeur, he thought forlornly to himself. Nothin's gonna happen here. He motioned to Green Two to continue the patrol and rose to join him. At that moment, a muffled thump drifted down the corridor from the storage room.

Uthria reacted quickly. "Green Squadron, this is Green Leader," he commed in. "I've got a possible break-in, PL-1 storage room. Get your butts down here." Shifting his carbine to a ready position, he moved quickly down the hall, Green Two following as backup. When he reached the door, Two pulled out a flash grenade and prepared to toss it as Uthria smacked the door lock.

The flash, which would have blinded anyone left in the room, barely escaped the door, and was followed quickly by two rolling bodies. Uthria came up behind a stack of crates, weapon ready, and scanned the room. Empty. Green Two landed behind a repulsor cart. It was he who noticed the slightly disfigured ceiling.

Silently signalling Uthria, Two moved cautiously towards the point of interest and examined it. It looked as though the tiles had been hastily replaced after having been pushed through. Interesting. Two was about to explore when Uthria stopped him. "Better to wait for the others," he whispered.

In less than three minutes, the rest of the squadron had arrived. Uthria had Green Ten slice into the console there and pull up a map of the facility, as best he could. The security of this place was tight. Still, Uthria deciphered a maintanance tunnel directly above the room they were in.

Plotting all the possible exits, Uthria began issuing orders. There were just enough men to send two to every spot. Uthria himself took Green Two and began to poke his way up into the tunnel itself.

As the rest of the squadron disappeared out the door, Two began removing ceiling tiles. The hole made by the explosives was fairly obvious. Green Two took a small device, a periscope scanner, and poked it through the hole. "No life forms," he reported quietly. The intruders were almost certainly gone by now. Or maybe not.

Alright. Time now to call for backup. Uthria switched to his commander's personal frequency. "Captain Vos, Green Leader here. We have infiltrators. Pursuing now, backup requested." With that, he pulled himself into the maintanance corridor. The hunt was on.



Back at Company HQ

Wes Vos received the message from Green Leader with a bit of shock. Why would the Coalition spies want to infiltrate an Imperial prison? he asked himself. No time for questions now, though. It was a good thirty minute speeder ride from HQ to the prison. Time to move.

He got on the comm. "Gray Squadron, we have infiltrators at Maximum Security Prison 8A-23. Green Squadron is requesting backup, ASAP. So let's move!" As he ran towards the speeders, he commed in to the other squadrons as well. "Black Squadron, Red Squadron, pull your men together and head for MSP 8A-23. Infiltrators detected." His final call went to his superior. "Major, I've just received word that spies have infiltrated Maximum Security Prison Facility 8A-23. We're moving all squadrons to intercept. Request that you give me clearance to requisition prison guards to aid in the apprehension of the infiltrators."

A long pause on the other end. Finally the reply came back as Wes was reaching the hangar. "Permission granted, Captain. Use all available means to eliminate this threat. We cannot allow them to leave that facility alive. This is Priority One, Captain. There are prisoners in that facility that could seriously damage the reputation of the New Order with their lies should they be released. Do you understand, Captain?"

Wes paused as the gravity of the situation descended upon him. "I understand, Major." With that, he boarded the speeder and punched the throttle, heading with all possible speed for MSP 8A-23. He only hoped his team could keep the spies occupied long enough for the rest of his men to get there. He didn't know how many there were, but surely all forty-eight of his men could take them. Probably even the twenty-four from Gray and Green Squadrons could overwhelm them. But Green Squadron by itself...Wes could only hope they survived the encounter.

Of course, the maintenance tunnel was sealed - nothing would be more embarrasing than a prisoner escaping from his cell and finding his way out through an open door.

Naturally, this assumes that the prisoner is on the inside of the prison complex. Some lockpick work by J-3 was all it took for someone on the other side of the door to get in.

The inside of an Imperial prison... J-1 thought to himself. Not the sort of place I want to be. They were in the heart of the cell block, a vast multi-storied room with rows of cells and zig-zagging walkways connecting them. At the far end, a control-room jutted from the wall to give a commanding view of the cell-block, its' mirrored windows reflecting nothing in the pitch-black of the fortress's center.

"Keep it quiet," he whispered to the rest of the team. "Do nothing that'll give you away in a recording, and tread carefully." The agents filed in behind him as they inched past cell doors, J-1 watching the walkway in front of them for signs of danger.

As they approached a door at the end of the walkway, J-1 heard footsteps. He gestured frantically for the team to get down, and in the shadows they lurked as the door opened.

Two armored guards emerged, wearing insignias similar to those the team had met earlier. The light from the corridor they had just exited momentarily blinded J-1's night vision filter.

J-1 prayed their concealment would be sufficient as the guards looked over the chamber. After seconds that lasted hours, they began to circle the chamber - heading in the other direction. J-1 allowed a slight sigh of relief.

As the two men moved away, the door began to swing shut after them. Thinking fast, J-1 plucked an ammo clip from his belt and slid it across the floor, where it glided into the door frame. The door just barely caught on it as it swung shut, keeping the door open. J-5 and J-3 scampered forwards, sneaking through the doorway and pulling out the ammo clip as they passed. Again J-1 held his breath, but the slight disturbance went unnoticed by the guards.

This is where it gets tricky...



J-3 and J-5, an Aqualish burglar and a Bimm hacker respectively, scurried along the stone-grey halls of the fortress, slinking up stairs and slithering around the heavily-armed patrol groups. The control room at the top was bound to be well-guarded, but it would also give J-5 access to the facility's own systems. To find their man, they needed that room.

Reaching an impressive-looking blast door, J-5 screeched to a halt at its' bulk. "You think you can crack it?"

J-3's whispering mechanical translator replied "Maybe, but it won't be easy - especially if there's guards on the other side."

"Wait..." J-5's ears perked up, and the tiny spy's eyes widened. "I can hear someone approaching! Someone's coming this way!"

"I haven't got time to open the door that quickly," said J-3. "We need a distraction."

Looking down the stairs they came, J-5 spotted a security panel on the wall at the base of the last level. Quickly unholstering his pistol and affixing the silencer, he took careful aim. "It always worked in the holo-films..."

One silent shot later, the panel was fried and a blast door slammed into place. "It'll take them a minute to figure out why the door won't open. Get to work on the blast-door."

Uthria flipped on his night vision goggles. Starting down the dusty maintanance corridor, he could follow easily the tracks left in the dust by the infiltrators. Well, I guess Captain Vos was wrong about the prison, he thought. But what could spies want from here? The question remained unanswered as the two followed the trail silently.

So intent was he on the tracks that Uthria almost slammed into the door through which they led. Sliding it open, Green Two dropped down into a cellblock and nearly landed on Green Four, who jumped out of the way just in time. After the customary explatives from both, Uthria dropped through the hole. "Did you see anything?" was his first question.

"No, Sir," came the reply. "Are you sure they came through that way?"

"Of course I'm sure," Uthria replied, frustrated by now. "You must have missed them. Come on!"

As they ran, Uthria got on his comm. "Green Squadron, get your butts down to Cellblock 11C-3. We've got a shot at the infiltrators."

That was just before they came upon the sealed blast door. After slapping the control panel a few times, Uthria, now immensely frustrated, said, "Blow the kriffing thing!"

Green Four, who happened to be the demolitions expert, moved quickly. It took him less than a minute to set up four magnetic charges that would send the four corners collapsing in on themselves, sending the door flying into the chamber beyond. He set the timer for a minute as Green Five and Six ran up. The six operatives took off and rounded a bend just as the charges blew. True to expectations, the blast door collapsed and flew into the stairs.

Uthria tossed a smoke grenade into the hallway and several seconds later rolled through the smoke and took cover. Green Two, Three, and Four followed as Five and Six covered from the recently widened doorway.

"Faster, faster," murmured J-5 as J-3 fiddled with the locking mechanism. The Aqualish agent growled an unintelligeble reply and jammed two wires together, which fused with a spark.

The huge security door rumbled open, pouring smoke from the stairway into the chamber therin. J-5 scuttled from the advancing smoke and into the control room, which had been powered down for the night. "Quick!" he hissed to J-3, who fumbled his way through the smoke and into the room.

The jury-rigged door mechanism sparked again, before exploding in a mineature fireball. This triggered the sprinkler system embedded above, as well as bringing the security door down with a clang. J-5 waited, looking at the door, expecting at any moment for it to spring open and ranks of armed men to storm out of the smoke, but nothing happened. He let out a gasp of relief. "We're in. How long until they break through?"

J-3 approached one of the consoles and appraised it critically. "Depends. How long until they burn through a maximum security door that could take a Proton torpedo?" J-3 tapped a few of the controls, to no effect. "What is it that's so important here? Nothing seems to work."

"Locks and doors are your thing, J-3." J-5 leapt into a chair situated before the darkened controls and one-way mirrors. "Computers are mine." With that, the little agent unstrapped his laptop and hooked it up to the primary control panel. After a few moments of relatively boring action (so far as J-3 could tell), the Bimm smiled with satisfaction and the lights in the room flickered on.

"Now that that's taken care of, time to find out what cell our target's in. But first..." J-5 scanned the controls for the threatening red 'emergency measures' controls. "We should do something about those guys snooping aroud the door. Looks like they've discovered us anyways, might as well make it official." J-5 tapped one of the red buttons and sat back contentedly.

There was a pause. J-3 crossed his arms. "Nothing's happening."

"That's because there's a foot thick metal door between us and the corridor beyond. Use your... imagination."

J-3 gave the door an uneasy look. Considering J-5's sense of humour, he really didn't want to.

The prison guard sat in his control room on the top floor of the prison. The night had been slow so far, and only the hot caf that was constantly being refilled kept him awake. He was the only one manning this room at the moment, and he was getting a bit lonely, though he did have the newest biography on Simon Kaine to keep him company.

Engrossed in the book, he missed the security holo image of the door being blown. What he didn't miss was the massive power surge that followed soon after. His eyes widened as he saw the spike, then he screamed in pain as the caf spilled on his hand and uniform. Cursing, he wiped himself off, then looked again. This was bad. The surge had been caused by the security defenses near the control room in Detention Block 11C-3. And if he remembered correctly, no one was supposed to be manning that room tonight.

He grabbed up a comlink and quickly called in a code. "All available guards, be advised, Code Black in Detention Block 11C-3. Repeat, Code Black. Follow Plan Alpha. Repeat, Plan Alpha is in effect. Permission to use lethal force if necessary."

He smiled and went back to his monitoring task. He hoped no Imperials had been in the Detention Block. That would be very, very bad.


Detention Block 11C-3

Green Squadron had entered the corridor safely. Surprised at the lack of fire, they had waited just a moment too long. When the security door slammed shut, Uthria knew they were in trouble. Motioning frantically, he stood and ran for the open hatch of the maintenance corridor.

The others followed, knowing their commander wouldn't run unless absolutely necessary. Uthria hoisted himself into the corridor, then turned and pulled Green Two up. Green Six and Four followed, but Four's feet had just been shoved through the hatch when a buzzing sound was heard. Knowing it was too late for the other two, Uthria, with a sick feeling in his stomach, closed the hatch.

Green Three and Five didn't know what was coming, but when they saw the look on their commander's face and the hatch slam shut, they knew it wasn't going to be pretty. The grasped each other's forearm in a soldier's handshake, then saluted.

The defenses for this prison were unlike most throughout the Empire. Because of both the nature of the prisoners and the former role of the building, the Empire hadn't found the need to install standard defense mechanisms. There were no warning signs, no mercy shots. Instead, at the push of a button, the entire block would come alive with electric bolts of energy, similar to the dreaded Force Lighting of the Sith, that would fry anyone and anything inside. The only warning was a buzzing as the electricity built in the walls.

When it hit, the two squadron mates were still saluting each other. The electricity took Green Five first, jolting him forward so he collapsed into Three. He then became a conductor for the electricity that now flowed into his companion. It was only milliseconds, though, before it no longer mattered who was conducting the energy. The entire detention block was alive with it. The screams of the soldiers mixed with the screams of the prisoners in their cells as all were fried alive.

The smell of burning flesh drifted past the shut hatch, as did the sound of the screams. Uthria sat unmoving, but the others couldn't help themselves. Vomit now graced the floor of the corridor, and tears welled up in the eyes of Four and Five. Both of them had just lost a wingmate and a good friend. The sadness they felt was only matched by the hatred that welled up inside them. Someone was going to pay.

The sound of the electric bolts continued for a few minutes even after the screams had ceased. When no more sound could be heard, Uthria pulled out a gas mask and attached it. Motioning for the others to do the same, he quietly opened the hatch and dropped into the Detention Block. Stepping over his comrade's now-unrecognizable bodies, he moved silently up the hall to the stairway.

The four of them were alone now, sealed off from any help. The only access to the Detention Block would come through the maintenance tunnel. Uthria had done his research on the prison; when the security measures in a detention block were activated, all entrances were sealed until cleaning droids could dispose of the mess. The sight and stench of electrically-fried humans was not a sight most people could take, even Imperials.

And their situation was even more complicated. Green Ten, the squadron slicer, was still outside, and they had to get through that security door. Uthria spoke softly. "Four, do you think you can blow the door?" The answer wasn't immediately forthcoming, so Uthria spared a glance in his direction. The soldier was staring off into space. Uthria spoke again. "Men, I know we've just seen two comrades killed in a brutal fashion. It's tough, but we have to keep going. The best way to remember them is to avenge their deaths, and the only way to do that is to get through this door. Now, can you blow the door?"

Green Four looked up. The man was little more than a kid, just out of his teens. He'd seen more than anyone his age should have to see. But he pulled himself together enough to answer. "Not a chance, Sir. Those doors can take a proton torpedo without cracking. We don't carry anything strong enough. Sir," he asked then, "can whoever did that do it again? 'Cause I don't wanna get fried like that."

"Don't worry about it," Green Leader replied. "I did my homework. Those measures can only be activated once without being reset in four different places, specifically to keep someone from accidentally destroying service droids and personnel. We'll be fine. So can any of you slice the door?"

Green Two examined the remains of J-3's work. "I think I can do it. Give me a second." He began twisting wires and examining the ends. After a few moments, he touched two of them together. Nothing. "Hmm." A few more moments. "Oh. Alright, cover the door," he said. After the others had spread out to either side, blasters ready, he touched two more wires together and rolled out of the way. The security door slid open.

"Come on, hurry up!" said J-3, looking at the security door uneasily. "Have you found the cell block yet?"

J-5 simply scowled as he filed down another list of prisoner locations. "Hold on already, this isn't like dusting crops." Finally, the Bimm breathed a sigh of relief. "There we go. 21-87, Grewal."

It was just then that the security door began to rise slowly and protestingly. J-5's eyes went wide as he hurridely deleted the security records from the cell-block. He tore his laptop free of the control panels, turning to face the door. "What are we supposed to do? We're trapped!"

"Forget that," said J-3, who hurled a fearsome looking dagger straight into the one-way mirrors that surrounded the control room. Cracks spread like a spider's web from the point of impact.

Grabbing J-5 as he rushed the window, the door lifted enough to allow the first sporadic blaster shots go whizzing through the air, scorching and melting the screens and controls all around J-3. The Aqualish agent charged headfirst into the glass, which shattered spectacularly and sent the two of them free-falling down the heart of detention block 11C-3.

Beneath them, the darkness of the detention block was illuminated suddenly by the shafts of light escaping the shattered window. In dull grey, the rest of the team was visible far below, towards whom J-3 and J-5 now fell.

With unnatural speed and agility born of an Azguard's inborn instincts, J-6 rushed under his two fellow agents, bounding to catch them mid-air and rolling to absorb the impact. The three agents ended up in a heap on the ground, groaning and struggling to stand.

"The cell number, quickly!" exclaimed J-1, as he rushed to J-5's side.

"It's... It's 21-87," J-5 managed to cough. With that, J-1 and J-4 were off along the sides of the block, leaping up hanging catwalks that were ringed with cells.

Seizing upon the correct one, J-4 stood watch as J-1 blasted the lock into so much disfigured slag. A swift kick brought the door swinging inwards, revealing the paltry cell within.

An unpleasant sight, to say the least.

Fortunately, J-1 was of stern stuff, and had seen much in his tour. The blood stains - the only remarkable feature of the otherwise empty room - were the only thing keeping the cell's occupant company. A terrified man with scars and signs of malnourishment evident in his features.

"Mhmm... mhmm... Master?" the former agent whimpered. "What do you want now, master? Can't you leave me alone? I am so... so.. tir-"

"On your feet, Grewal," said J-1, pulling the man roughly up by the shoulder. "We haven't got time for this. Talk later - for now, just follow me."

Feebly, Grewal nodded. Without another word, J-1 half-guided, half-carried him out of his cell. In a moment, the agents had regrouped around the door to the maintenance tunnel. "Status report."

"Multiple enemy contacts confirmed," said J-3. He had recovered with only a few surface cuts not deflected by his infiltration gear. "They look special-ops, not just common security."

"So the same ones from before..." said J-4, who quickly turned to J-1. "I'm picking up a lot more voices on their way here. I think they mean to trap us in."

"The maintenance tunnel will be no-go," said J-1. "Options?"

"The team guarding the way we came is at reduced strength," said J-3, which was a casual way of saying that they'd killed its' members. "We can force our way out through them."

"We'd be blind," said J-2. The Rodian sniper didn't even turn to the group as he addressed them, scanning the broken control room for movement instead. "We need a map."

"I've got one," said J-5, who brandished his laptop in triumph. "Downloaded it before our escape. If you can clear a path, I can guide us out."

"It's settled then," said J-6, who hefted his prisoner over the shoulder. "We'll release the prisoners Xarrin named, and then make our way to the outer wall."

In other groups there would have been a moments' silence as the other members considered how to make their teammate aware of his error without causing a heated debate, but the sound of a small army drawing nearer spurred J-1 to think fast. "The other prisoners are secondary. We can't risk the mission for their safety."

"In that case," said J-6, who lowered Grewal and passed him to J-4 instead. "I request permission to hold this position until they've been evacuated."

J-1 cursed the situation, but knew that arguing with an Azguard was pointless, even with lives on the line - especially with lives on the line. "All right, damn it, but you and J-2 will provide covering fire from the center of the detention block. J-3, you unlock the cells belonging to Xarrin's prisoners according to J-5's list. J-5, J-4, you're with me." The squad leader unholstered a smooth, silenced pistol. "We're going to clear a path."

J-6 positioned himself in the center of the room, back-to-back with the far-smaller Rodian. J-2, for his part, reassembled his sniper rifle and began to scan the doors and contact points for hostiles. J-3 began searching for the cells suggested by J-5. With all set in the detention block, the three remaining agents moved over to the door below the control room.

On the other side, surely, the enemy had begun to gather. With nothing but a pistol and a knife, minimal fire support, and no idea what he faced, J-1 wrapped his hand around the door handle. "Let's do this." He slammed the door open.

Green Leader was mad now. He hadn't quite gone into a frenzy yet, but Green Two knew his commander was getting close. Their quarry had escaped once again, this time crashing through a mirror and jumping to what should have been their deaths.

The four Imperials had begun shooting under the door as soon as it had risen enough, which probably hadn't been smart. Or maybe it was. Their presence had been announced either way. Apparently none of their wild firing had hit; there wasn't even a bloodstain. The four had burst into the room as soon as possible only to find it vacated and the mirror destroyed. Uthria growled in anger.

Even in his frustration, though, he was wise enough not to stick his head through the hole. These guys were too good not to have a sniper somewhere watching them. Pulling out a strange-looking tool, he opened it into a portable periscope holo camera. This he pushed into the hole and stared at the image on the other end. Tweaking the camera, he got a clear view of what was going on.

"Alright, here's the situation," he said to the other three. "There's six of them. Mostly aliens. One's an Azguard, so for sure they're GC." That elicited a snarl from Green Two. He'd lost a father recently in a skirmish with the Coalition. "It looks like they've already freed one prisoner, and one of them's moving to free more. Two of them are in the center of the room - the Azguard and a Rodian sniper - and the others are moving towards the door directly under us. Green Four, you're the best shot here. Think you can take the sniper out before we go down?"

Four hesitated a moment, then took the camera. He scanned the lower chamber again, focusing on the sniper. "Maybe. I can sure try." He removed his carbine from his shoulder and detached the barrel, quickly replacing it with a longer one. He swapped the power pack as well, exchanging it for one with fewer shots but a higher shot velocity. "Alright. Here goes."

He moved next to the mirror, then slowly slid his head and rifle around the corner. He waited a few moments while lining up his shot, which ended up being a moment too long. As he stared down the barrel, sighting in on the Rodian, the alien noticed him and quickly swung towards the opening. A shot was heard, and Green Four flipped backward, a hole burned in his forehead.

Uthria started cursing. Four had only been a kid. Nineteen years old. Now he was dead, and that made Green Leader mad. Really mad. Or at least so it seemed to Green Two. And when the commander pulled out a thermal detonator, Two knew he was right. "Sir, wait. Our men are down there too. A detonator won't work. Use a frag grenade."

Uthria stopped, stared, and switched weapons. The grenade went flying out the hole, followed immediately by a flash-bang thrown by Two. As the two went off, the remaining Imperials stuck their weapons out the hole and began firing rapidly, filling the chamber with blaster bolts. They weren’t as concerned with accuracy as their rate of fire, though they did aim in the general direction of the GC spies. Three SF guys had died already – the Coalition would pay double for the loss.


Five minutes earlier and one floor lower


"The doors are locked down," said Green Nine, the senior officer present. "I don't think we can get in."

"Now what?" asked his wingmate, Ten. "And where's Green Leader?"

"Inside, probably," came the response. "And now we simply attempt to block the exits. No one gets out unless they're in an Imperial uniform."

At that moment, footsteps were heard in the hallway behind them. The six Special Forces soldiers turned quickly, weapons trained on the entryway, but they relaxed when two squads of stormtrooper prison guards came trotting up. Their commander approached Nine and asked, "My men are at your command, sir. Where do you want us?"

Apparently a call had been made to the head of the prison about the nature of Green Squadron's mission. Perfect. Nine replied immediately. "Fan out. Cover all the exits to the detention block. We'll cover this one. Move."

The stormtroopers did as ordered. Within a few minutes, every exit was covered. No one would be getting out without a firefight.


Present


Green Nine got confirmation over the comm. The last stormtrooper unit was in place. "Alright men. Anything comes out that door, start shooting. We're cut off from communication with our men, but they won't be the first ones out. Not if there are any of the enemy left inside."

Even as he finished speaking, the door began to slide open, and the sound of blaster fire drifted out. Somebody was coming through. The soldiers took cover and aimed towards the doorway. At the first sign of the enemy, the doorway would come alive with blaster fire. For now, though, they held their fire. There was no sense in spoiling the surprise.

Blaster bolts rained down on the heads of J-6 and J-2 as they crouched in the the relative cover of a corner of the prison. J-3 was pinned down in one of the open cells, while shots bounced all around.

Cursing, J-6 struggled to remain in cover before saying to J-2 "Can't you see them? Can't you fire?"

"Negative," J-2 replied. "There's too much covering fire. I would not have time to line up a shot."

"We can't evacuate in this..." muttered J-6, as he tried to lean out for a better look at the enemy position. "Why do you think they threw a frag grenade and not a thermal detonator?"

"Friendly fire? Low ammunition?"

The Azguardian demolitions expert simply smiled. "I've come fully stocked."

With that, he reached into his explosives pouch and removed a thermal detonator. Even the normally unshakeable J-2 recoiled at the sight of it. "Be careful!"

"Obviously," said J-6, before hurling it skywards. J-2 privately wondered if it'd bounce back. It didn't.

The blast brought down the outer wall of the command room in a shower of rubble, driving the remaining Imperials back hard and kicking up huge dustclouds. The noise was loud enough to wake the entire building, but control had been reestablished.

"That was my last one, too," muttered J-6 as he retook his position. "Move it, J-3!"

J-3 let out an unintelligeable hiss as he ran from cell to cell, leaving his fellow agents to their work.



J-1 tore the knife sideways out of the trooper's chest, bringing a chunk of rib bone out with it. The man spasmed in pain for brief moments before ending up a quivering dead husk on the ground.

Turning to look at the hallway they'd just traversed, J-1's eyes fell on the other stormtrooper of the patrol they'd run across. J-4 was already wiping the blood from his clothes. "Where to now?"

J-5 struggled to bring up his laptop and figure out their current position. A moment's consultation was all he needed before pointing down another hallway. "That way! It isn't much further."

It really wasn't, although just to what they hadn't known. J-1 was about to round another corner when J-4 shouted "No!" and grabbed him, pulling J-1 back.

It turned out to be just in time, as a spray of blaster fire scorched the wall behind him. J-1 gasped in surprise, turning to J-4. "Where the hell did they come from?!"

"Don't know," said J-4, who rubbed his conical head in obvious discomfort. "There's too many of them, though. I think it's a trap."

"There aren't any more ways out of the building from here," said J-5 as he consulted his laptop. "If this is just part of a perimeter, we might not even be able to link up with J-2, J-3, and J-6."

Another volley of fire blackened the wall and floor around them, keeping J-1 back. The wiley agent hefted his pistol and eyed the edge of his cover. "Looks like we'll have to go forward. Don't worry, I'll think of something..."