"Take your time, Master Jedi," Lieutenant Stazi grumbled through his helmet's vocoder, "Its not like we're in a hurry or anything."
"Didn't anyone ever tell you..." the Justicar, Yvette, punctuated her words with the effort it take to keep cutting through the reinforced blast doors, "Not to rush a woman with a blade?"
"You would be surprised just how many," Sol grunted back, his carbine barking out a stun blast that caught a station defender in the arm, sending him spiraling backward onto the ground with a groan.
Between the Justicar's blade and the engineers' torches, they were making progress on this, one of the final blast doors between them and their objective of central ops. The schematics SIS had provided them with were very accurate, but designs changed from the time they were constructed, and in attempting to translate an abstract holographic representation into a real live three dimensional space, the Lieutenant didn't know their precise location, but he had a general idea. At least enough of one to know they were still on the right track.
Unfortunately, the outlaws seemed to have by now figured out their target, and the closer they got to where central ops should be, the fiercer and more organized the station's resistance became. Yvette had almost finished cutting through, but focused as she was with her saber occupied, it was down to the Sixty-First to fend off the outlaws. They had figured out by this point that the Alliance strike team had been given a mostly non-lethal ROE, so the latest tactic was driving the lowest dregs of the station out in front in wave after wave of charge towards them. The stun blasts would do not permanent damage, and it was only a matter of time before the sheer amount of targets overwhelmed their position.
"I'm through!" the Jedi shouted at last, and not a moment to soon. Immediately Sol ordered his men to clear out the section beyond with flash grenades before retreating back through the newly created breach in smaller teams. Freed from her task of cutting durasteel, Justicar Yvette covered their advance from the rearguard, holding off the barrage of blaster fire still headed their way. Despite knowing better, the blade of a lightsaber waving in their direction was enough to slow the horde of advancing sentient shields even despite their masters' lashes at their backs.
Stazi was in the middle of the pack as they cleared the twisted remnants of blast door, and by the time he had made it through the two remaining squads at his disposal were performing sweep and clear tactics with practiced efficiency. Many of the outlaws had been temporarily blinded by the non-lethal ordinance that had preceded Twilight's advance, and the troopers of the Sixty-First had no qualms about blasting the defenseless with stun rounds to make sure they stayed that way until they could be cuffed.
"Hundred Eyes! Overheat! With me!" Sol jabbed his hand out in the direction of two other troopers, before turning back towards the Jedi still covering their six, "I'm going to scout ahead. If you don't hear back from us in ten minutes, you take my men...and you come rescue me."
Without another word, the duros army lieutenant disappeared around a corner perpendicular to the one containing Twilight and the ruined blast doors. For a few seconds, there was silence, save for the occasional wild blaster shot coming from behind them. Situated now behind some defensible cover, Yvette did not even have to dedicate her full attention to deflection any rounds that came too close for comfort. Then, suddenly, a distinctive voice boomed out from around the bend.
"How dare you, Alliance dogs!" those who had payed more attention to the briefing would easily recognize the owner, "Jiun Klem will not go down easily!"
A barrage of blaster fire peppered the bulkhead in front of Yvette and the remaining Twilight grunts, and as the light show scored a few dozen holes in the station walls they began to hear a building scream, as if someone had begun yelling unintelligibly from far away and were now headed very quickly in their direction. As the shout reached its crescendo, Sol appeared from back around the corner and skidded to a halt, wheeling around and returning fire in the face of the hailstorm of lasbolts. A few seconds later, Hundred Eyes appeared hauling a wounded Overheat behind him. When they were both clear of the kill zone, Lieutenant Stazi dove at last for cover.
"Well Master Jedi," he panted, glancing up at the companion of [member="Trextan Voidstalker"] with considerable effort, "Any ideas?"
Meanwhile...
"We did it!" Armando shouted when the last of the outlaw's attacking the hangar began to route, "Good shooting, third squad!"
There had been a disturbance outside the landing bay moments ago, and the tell tale sound of an activated lightsaber, that had let the hangar's defenders know they had received reinforcements of their own. Between a Jedi Justicar on one end, and both sniper fire and heavy ordinance raining back down on their position courtesy of Lieutenant Commander [member="Choli Vyn"] and her co-pilot, the surviving outlaws had either thrown down their arms in surrender, or were struggling even now to escape through any avenue they could locate that wouldn't send them back towards Voidstalker.
As the Rodian Sergeant hustled over to his men, he slowed down and frowned in confusion as they leaped back up frantically and started to run towards him. He could hear their voices over battle comms, but for some reason could not make out the details, as if he were submerged underwater or something. When the first trooper reached him and peeled off his helmet, the blurriness he had assumed was due to residue on the helmet lens remained.
"Sir, look at me! You're going to be fine," they were the first words Armando had understood since the firefight ended, but the frantic tone of his troopers' voice confused him, "We're gonna get you some help."
What was he talking about? the Sergeant wondered, and then he glanced down for the first time. The scorch marks on his armor, the smell of burnt flesh, the still functioning analytical part of the Rodian's brain noted the shot had been low center mass, which meant...
Armando collapsed onto the deck floor.
