Talon Intelligence Squad - Chapter 9 The Changing Empire

<<Is Insei alive or dead?>>
*****
Darth Alex Krycek arrived on Admiral Carre's ship just in time for the unloading of the prisoner's ship. He walked swiftly to the bridge, bowing.
"My Lady, I see you have been successful in the capturing of some Talons." She scowled, letting him know that the group she wanted wasn't completely there. "Not to fear about the others, Admiral."
Carre raised an eyebrow, starting to walk toward the hanger bay. "What do you mean?"
Krycek smiled, remembering to lift his hood up so the rebels couldn't see his face. He pulled out a small device that was blinking. "Homing Beacon One."
Sondara Carre cheered up a little bit, but not much. "Counter-intelligence will sweep those like there's no tomorrow."
Krycek shook his head. "Counter-intelligence will only work in New Republic hangers. They can do all the scans they want, but they'll never find this one. Counter-intelligence, however, will find this."
Carre growled. "That doesn't do us any good."
Krycek nodded as they rounded a corner. "If Homing Beacon One ceased to exist, Homing Beacon Two will detonate."
If there was any expression of elation at the comment, the Lady Carre didn't portray them on her face. She was set with determination; the rebels were here.
The loading ramp opened, and several stormtroopers came out, carrying with them three rebel prisoners.
"Mara, Kendrick, Jaren," Krycek said in his best imitation of the late Darth Agent Mulder's voice, his head still lowered. "Welcome to the fleet."

[This message has been edited by Darth Agent Mulder (edited 06-19-2000).]

 

Yeah, you just confused me also. Am I alive or am I dead? I guess I could wait out for the storm to blow over, but not really posting any stories until it has, if you all really want me to stay.

 

"Stop for a second, Obi-Wan."
This was the twentieth time they had needed to stop running from the legions of stormtroopers still roaming the ground. Trika hadn't given her arm a second thought until it started throbbing painfully.
Coming across no Talons, they had been forced to try and find a ship that wasn't overrun with Imps.
Trika slid to the floor, leaning against a wall. "Stay here," Obi-Wan told her. "If we can't find a ship, we might as well signal for help. I'll try to find the necessary parts."
Trika nodded, grinding her teeth involuntarily with the pain. Obi-Wan left, and just as he did, here came another group of stormies.
"Oh Force," she muttered under her breath, taking all of her concentration to conceal them both from view. The illusion lasted as long as they were there, and the result was a very pained Trika Kenobi.
Obi-Wan returned with several boxes of miscellaneous items. "This was all I could find."
Trika looked inside. It didn't look too promising, but it was worth a try.

 

http://www.nba.com/theater/images/gallery_thumbs/whazzaap_game3_thumb.jpg
Whazzaap?!
Where are you guys?

[This message has been edited by Darth Agent Mulder (edited 06-21-2000).]

 

Watch Darth Agent Mulder run.
Watch Darth Agent Mulder push his sister off the computer.
See Darth Agent Mulder get online.
See Darth Agent Mulder curse the rebels for being so slow with their posts.

I guess I'm the life of the party here.
Up!

 

Greywolfe marched to the bridge of the Coyote as his fleet slowed to a stop. He watched as the Raptor became a singularity in the night sky, stretching to lightspeed and making the hyperspace jump. He signaled his fighters to return. A repair crew swarmed around him. "Prepare my shuttle," he demanded. "While you're doing this, I shall report to my Admiral."

Ty-gon laughed happily- they had made it to hyperspace. "They never saw that move before!"
Homer and General Ski just smiled at their victory, but Quis was laughing with Ty-gon.
"I just hope Team Two gets out fine," Homer mused.

Obi-wan rummaged through the parts- finding an old commlink. "Do you have a Talon datacard?"
Trika did- she inserted it.
"We just need a magnifying device to make the signal stronger," he told her. "We could make this thing have an antenna if we could wire some metal to the top." He pulled out a metal rod, a coat hanger, a zenji needle. "All of these would work if we had something to attach them with."
Trika pulled out a hairpin. "Here, this'll work."

Team Two and the Osprey lifted off the planet Montague. In seconds, it had cleared the atmosphere.

Commlinks began buzzing all over the three Dark Star fleets blockading the planet.
"What's going on?" Carre screamed.
By the time they got to the window, the Osprey had already screamed past, doven through a loose spot between SSD bridges, and jumped to hyperspace.

Obi-wan activated the old-reprogrammed-complete-with-homemade-amplifier-commlink. "Here goes nothing," he told Trika.
It began sending out a Talon distress signal.
"It works!" Trika said happily.
Instantly, they were surrounded by stormies. The amplifier let anyone hear it, whether it was a Talon signal or not.

A commlink buzzed, and Greywolfe answered. "My Admiral, I have two more of them for you. Obi-wan Jinn and Trika Kenobi are now my prisoners."
"Very good, Greywolfe," Carre said, "But I guess you were due for a sucess pending your last failure."
"I was relying on my forces, and it's true what they say- you can't get good help these days."
"Nevertheless, I would like you to head up a team to retrieve them."
"Of course, My Admiral." He turned to Krycek. "I leave my prisoners in your hands." Back to Carre. "I will return with the Talons, rest assured."

-----

Darth Agent Mulder-
I have just delivered a way for you to torture your sister.
Just keep that in mind next time Krycek wants to toy with Greywolfe.

 

Kendrick wondered what the Imperials were waiting for.

The torture hadn't begun yet, but he tried not to think about that too much. Ken knew that for the Imps, half the fun of having prisoners was keeping them in agony about when they would be taken away. It was psychological pain as much as physical, but worrying about it would only make him weaker when his time finally did come.

His cell was tiny and simple. It more resembled a closet than anything else. There wasn't even a cot to sleep on; the 'fresher consisted of a hole in one corner of the floor. There was a surveillance camera mounted on the ceiling, which swivled to look at him according to his movements. Ken spent most of his time in the spot the camera could least easily see - directly below it. It was a simple pleasure, irritating his captors in the ways he still could.

He recieved no rations and had no visitors. He napped frequently. Minutes after they'd first placed him in the cell he'd scoured it for any hint of an escape route. It had taken him more than two hours to conclude there was nothing for him to find.

He did know that Jaren was in the next cell over, though Mara's location was a mystery to him. Sometimes he'd go and rap his knuckles on the rightmost wall. Jaren would rap back to let him know he'd heard. So far, it seemed he was receiving identical treatment.

Neglect and starvation.

Kendrick thought a lot about Quis. He was glad she'd made it out with the others. Ken hoped she'd open up his present eventually, or would sometimes think of him the way he did her. He hoped she was happy. If she was, then he was too.

Once or twice, he did try to speculate what Krycek and Carre planned to do with them, but decided to stop before he went very far.

He had a feeling he'd be finding out soon anyway.

 

The Jackal came out of hyperspace right behind the fleeing Raptor and Osprey.

"Watch it!" Homer yelled. "We have company!" The Raptor spun over to guard the Osprey.
"Go!" Ty-gon screamed into his commlink, and the Osprey rocketed away, back to Coruscant.

"They're moving into attack position, my lord!" someone called to Greywolfe.
"Excellent," he said. "Let them come."
Only a few men had accompanied him in the small confines of the Interceptor, they were the best in their fields of weaponry. "Let them come, sir?"
"Trust me."

The Raptor started rushing toward the Jackal.
"Prepare the Concussion Missles!" Ski yelled.
Suddenly, something appeared behind the Jackal. It was the Coyote, coming out of hyperspace, tractor beam activated.
"Retreat!" yelled Quis.
"We're caught!" Homer yelled back.

"We have them, my lord." Greywolfe's commlink announced.
The Jackal landed in the hangar, and when Greywolfe stepped off, the Raptor made a forced landing next to him.
Stormies surrounded the Raptor, and the Talons were taken into custody.
"I'll take these myself," Greywolfe said, taking Ty-gon, Homer, and General Ski, recognizing their Force-sensitivity.
"That seemed too easy," he commented.

Greywolfe had Team One tied up, heading back to his allies.
He leaned in to talk to Ty-gon. "We have some of your friends already. Would you like to help get the rest? We might not execute you."
Ty-gon spit in his face.
Greywolfe wiped it off, and punched Ty-gon in the face.
The other Talons started yelling.
"Captain, set for stun."
A trooper set his blaster, and fired.

Obi-wan was shoved into a cell next to Kendrick. It was a small space with a hole in the floor and a camera.
And he still hadn't seen Mara.
They could sure torture a person.

 

<<How cruel, Ty-gon! Can't believe you...>>

Trika's elation was short-lived, and now she was on a Imperial ship.
Someone who looked vaguely like Darth Agent Mulder, upon her arrival, had circled her a few times, lifting her chin to his face and finally threw it to the side.
Trika sat in her cell. To the best of her knowledge, only two Talons were at large still: Nash and CiCi. The rest had been caught.
Her arm still throbbed painfully, and she knew as well as anyone else with a wound like that that she would be unable to hold up during an interrogation.
All the more reason to get out of here now...
Trika stood and walked to the locked door of her cell. Peering through the small opening, she could see stormies at the ends of the hallways, but none in the general vicinity of her cell.
Trika found the section of panneling she was looking for. She took out a hair pin and got to work.
It didn't work, that was the problem.
"Oh Force," she grumbled, grasping her arm and wincing. The pain kept jerking her concentration away from her wound, and she couldn't think straight.
The grating was another solution to her problem, but it would be very hard to open.
After thirty minutes of prying the cover, praying, and silently wishing that it would work, it came right off.
"Security breach my lightsaber," she mumbled softly as she jumped through the opening, exiting her cell and hiding in the cargo space beneath. An idea, she though wryly. She really wished it was here.

[This message has been edited by Trika_Kenobi (edited 06-22-2000).]

 

<<Okay, I've posted alot saying I'm sorry. I am. And Iv'e been reading back, but there's so much. So, could someone, once again, tell me where I am and whats going on? Please? If you haven't already killed me? thanks!>>

 

Nash and CiCi raced away from the explosion, dread filling their hearts as they heard several walls and ceilings collapse behind them.

Nash dodged in and out between buildings, intent on leaving the base and it's secret installation behind, far behind. They had important information, but they were cut off from their escape route.

Escape.

Did Insei escape that blast?

The Trianni had no way of knowing, so she bent lower over her speeder bike and urged it to even greater speed.

Nash knew that a hunt had been started for them. In order to avoid it, they needed to either escape the search area of go to ground and hide so deep that the search would go right past and never see them.

Escaping the area was the better choice, but without a ship, and all the ships were back at the base, the prospects for that were not good. Stealing a ship might be a viable option, but they'd have to do it quickly. The information they had was needed desperately by the New Republic and they had friends in danger.

Time was running out.

 

I noted that you have 2 open spots on your roster. I assume that means that you are accepting new recruits? What are the qualifications?

 

Oh great, no new posts are showing up...

 

Hey Jedi Obi-Wan, and welcome to Talon Squad. Basically, our qualifications are that you be able to post fairly regularly. Feel free to post a character outline and stop by the http://pub9.ezboard.com/btalonsquadbasethenestEZBoard sometime.

[This message has been edited by Idiots Array (edited 06-21-2000).]

 

>hey guys, guess who's back? Insei is in da house!<

Luck. That was all that allowed him to survive. Pure Sithspit luck. Insei?s eyes traced the small crack in the ceiling that had been caused by the detonators. There was one of his greatest lucky breaks, in a way. One of the grenades had been a dud, thereby saving him a double death, but giving him wicked burns on his entire body. The other thermal had rolled out of his hand, nearly to the door, causing most of the stormies to be essentially shields for Insei from the blast. The other lucky incident was that the blaster shot barely missed his heart, and just stopped short of frying his lung, too. Now how the Force was he supposed to get out? Looking out the hole he had caused during his heroic entrance, he could just barely see the last remaining speeder bike, the other two already gone. However, several slabs of duracrete were blocking the way, impossible to move of their tremendous weight, yet another lucky break. They had just barely missed crushing his skull by inches. A stormtrooper nearby was nearly as fortunate as he was, almost surviving the blast, but a piece of duracrete had fallen onto his helmet, and bouncing off, but it still gave the man a concussion and the impact rendered the man dead in an instant. Then an idea came to his head. Grabbing the dead stormie, he ripped off the armor and bodysuit, leaving the deceased wearing only some boxers and a short-sleeved undershirt. He hurriedly put the bodysuit and armor on, and donned the helmet. Even this was luck. They guy was almost the exact same size as he was. He took a deep breath and began to push a huge slab blocking the entrance back to the base, his only way out. He had just pushed a slab out of the way when sparks began flying through from the other side. Stepping back, he waited a while until the rescue team had cut through the obstruction. It was a good thing his New Republic ID had been so badly damaged in the blast that you couldn?t tell who the picture was of, so he quickly planted it on the dead stormtrooper. He was getting off his feet when the two rescue stormies, two medics, and an officer came through the hole.

The officer looked at the carnage, then at Insei, ?Soldier, what happened here??

Insei, still dressed as a stormtrooper, said what fairly much happened, ?W-we had cornered the R-r-rebel spies in this a-a-area, b-b-but they had some supp-p-port in a mine. Blew a h-h-hole in the wall. Then, one of the guys behind me shot him. The d-d-detonators were on a d-d-dead man?s switch. When he d-d-dropped the bombs, they blew up.?

The officer nodded gravely, then turned to a medic, ?Get this man to the medcenter. Treat him for any injuries he might have.?

The medic hastily agreed, then led Insei off through the halls of the Imperial complex. While no one was looking, he slipped the comm out of his pocket. Taking one last look around the hallway, he flipped it to the Talon Squadron frequency. click-click-click. That was the emergency distress signal. Hopefully they could get it in time before the Imps found out who he really was?

 

Jedi Obi-wan, the qualifications are just as IA said. Please give us a fairly good bio and start to post regularily. We are always welcoming new members. I think we have had, what, over 30 some odd members now? Maybe even more than that. So welcome aboard and please give us a good bio.

BTW, the rest of us need to come up with some good bios. Post them at the histories thread or at the EZBoard. Thanks.

 

Nomi Jade, you are are alive and well. I have been keeping an eye on your character. Kevin Ski is in love with you, so, it is my duty. So please read on and don't be discouraged.

 

I guess I don't need to change the roster after all... I was just going to butInsei is back.

 

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know I was back. I have some catching up to do on my reading. Sounds like a lot has happened! I will try to post tomorrow.
CiCi/Reyanna

 

<<Edit your post, Trika. You guys don't know who Krycek is yet.>>
*****
Darth Alex Krycek felt a twitch in the Force.
"Anything wrong, Krycek?" Admiral Carre noticed the change in his aura far before he could say something.
"Trika Kenobi has escaped."
Carre flipped around to meet his eyes. "Call security up. Tell them to watch the hanger bays closely, and-"
Krycek shook his head. "It'll be much more simpler than that. I've studied her for a long time. She'll come back, trying to free her companions. She won't make a run for it like other cowardly fools."
Carre didn't seem impressed. "I still want stormtroopers in the hanger bay."
Krycek stood, cloaking himself again. "As you wish, my Lady." He walked towards the security area, logging the order and returning.
Mara Jade was being brought in for interrogation. Krycek was beginning to think that Carre had something personal against the young hacker.
The stormtroopers had tied her to a table, and the Lady Carre was smiling. She enjoyed torturing rebels, and she had a whole line of them waiting for her.

 

redface.gif

[This message has been edited by Nomi Jade (edited 06-22-2000).]

 

Thanks TSL, I feel so much better now.

[This message has been edited by Nomi Jade (edited 06-22-2000).]

 

Just letting you know that I'm going to be gone for the next two weeks - starting tomorrow - on vacation and won't be able to post until I return.

See you all when I get back!

 

<Thanks to Lilith, Ty-Gon, TSL and Homer for keeping CiCi and Reyanna going while I was gone . Hope I get close with this post, I have missed a lot.>

Reyanna tapped her fingers on her blaster as she paced back and forth in front of the cells. Here were all her ex-squadmates from her days masquerading as a Talon. Her mind drifted for a moment, those months had been painful for her...pretending to love the rebellion had been a living hell for her, but she had done it for Mulder...for the Empire. It seemed so long ago.

She stopped her pacing and turned to face the General. He had once welcomed her to his squadron with open arms, now he looked at her with disgust. She laughed at him and leaned down toward him, "How does it feel General...to see your squad defeated?" She took her blaster out of its holster and pointed it towards another face she recognized...Obi-Wan Jinn, "Now you will watch your friends die, one by one."

As she motioned for the cell guards to assit her in removing Obi-Wan, the General rose to his feet and slamed his fists agaist the bars, "Don't get too confident Reyanna...you're time will come. I will see to it personally."

Reyanna could only laugh more and an evil smile played across her lips, "I look forward to that General...but, as you can see, I have more important things to attend to right now." The guards had taken Obi-Wan from his cell and she now had him in her grasp. She pushed the tip of her blaster in the back of his head. "Say goodbye to your friends!" She told him and marched him out of the cell block.

Lady Carre was in a chamber with Krycek and Mara Jade. Mara was tied to a chair and Carre had a needle pushed against the side of her face. A thin trickle of blood was making its way down her cheek and soaking her hair, which was matted and wet.

"Well Mara, it would seem that I grow tired of this...it has been done before." Carre removed the needle, whiped the blood onto Maras tunic and neatly tucked it into her hair. "It would give me great pleasure to entertain you tonight...and I have the perfect show for you." Carre motioned with flick of her wrist and Reyanna entered with Obi-Wan.

As soon as they saw each other, the blood drained out of both of their faces. Obi-Wan tried to lunge for Mara, but Reyanna grabbed his hair and slammed his head against the table, "One worthless Rebel...as you requested Admiral." Reyanna stepped back and smiled, she was going to enjoy this.

 

Show LeiaB's post right now you stupid piece of **** server! mad.gif