I passed around breach charges, special ammunition, and some cluster charges. Dilloi took a cluster charge and smiled just a bit too much. I resolved to keep watch on his placements.

"All right. We're ready to go," someone said over comms.

Lika looked up. "EE-ONE-D is coming in for overwatch."

"Drones ready," Maloia said, tapping her wrist.

"EMP grenades are charged."

"Cluster grenades full."

Ezra looked at me. "Breach Charges ready."

I looked around the assembled warriors. They all had Mandalorian armor (Including Ezra!) painted in several different colors. We all had weapons. We all had gadgets. We all had the knowledge that everyone inside the house was a bad guy.

"May the Force be with us," I said, before leading my team out of the SpecForce speeder and towards the building.

"Through the top?" Lika asked. I nodded and aimed a grappler to the top of the building.

"Remember, go around to your entry points," I told the group. Four of my team ran around the building to their entry points. Ezra stayed by me.

"You've done this before, haven't you?" he asked. I nodded, looking over his armor. It was primarily orange, with lines of blue running down the left side of his helmet and onto his armor, tapering off into points near the waist. Around his visor, there was a silver outline that contrasted beautifully with the orange.

"Cleared out an enemy force barricaded inside of a house seven times," I said simply. "Did an assault of this kind twenty-two, mostly during the early stages of setting up Lothal. Lot of gang activity, some Imp holdouts. Too many people wanted the government to be under their control, so for a while it was hard for the Democrats to have any real power. Anyone who tried to move forward was killed. So, the LDC was tasked with making sure that didn't happen again. Neutralize gangs and Imps and whatever."

Ezra just stared at me. I guess explaining what transitioning from a Empire to a Democracy entails will shock you a bit. I took out a breaching charge and placed it on a window, unfolding it and priming the charge.

"Team One is in position," I said over comms.

"Team Two is in position. EE-ONE-D is beginning scan," Maloia responded. Three outlines lit up in the room that I was facing. Each one was outlining an enemy combatant.

"Team Three is ready," Dilloi said.

I smirked to myself. These people had no idea what was coming for them. "Breach on three. One, two, three!"

I clicked the detonator on the charge and blew out the window with a resounding BOOM! Three terrorists looked towards the window as Ezra and I rappelled in, one bringing his rifle up slightly faster than normal, but he was too late to shoot me as I brought up one blaster and blew his face off. Without totally realizing it, some sense told me that Ezra had killed another enemy with his lightsaber, so I fragged the final one. I heard a gunshot from a room off to my left. That would be Davide and Maloia. Over the comms I heard Maloia say, "Three E.K.I.A. Moving to stairs."

"Three E.K.I.A," I responded. "We're heading down East Stairs."

"One E.K.I.A," Dilloi reported. "Beginning top-floor sweep. Guess we have to catch up to you, Al'verde."

"Good luck," I responded. "Moving down East Stairs."

"Copy," Dilloi responded. "Have fun down there." He reminded me of Rockhopper, our original pilot. Of course, we originally had six members, too...

Ezra and I descended the stairwell quickly but carefully. I flicked up a wrist-mounted electronics detector, highlighting seven or eight nitro cells. They were nasty little things, being entirely made of explosives and activated with a comm call. I held up one gloved hand to make Ezra and I hold position, then I shot at the nitros. I heard several blaster shots throughout the house and several calls of 'one E.K.I.A' and such.

The basement door was heavily reinforced, with a blasterproof wall. I struggled to not laugh, which wound up with me shaking violently.

"Sabine, are you okay?" Ezra asked. I looked back at him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just trying to not laugh at these preparations. They reinforced the doorway but not the walls," I explained. "Breach charges ready. Stand back." I lay a charge on the wall and primed the detonite outlets, then stepped back, moved a bit to the left, and placed down a cluster charge. Then, I clicked the detonator on the cluster charge, waited three seconds, and blew open the wall.

I was greeted with five enemies. Only catch was, none of them were alive, and two of them were in three different parts.

Ezra looked around the small hell that had been created inside the room. After several seconds of silence, he spoke.

"Well, the charge worked."

I looked over the broken bodies. One had been tossed into a corner. I looked away for a second, then some sense made me turn back, just in time to see their hand move. Instantly, I raised a blaster towards their face. They groaned.

"Who are you?" I asked. No response. The terrorist made a gun motion with his hand and pointed it at himself. I noticed that the floor around him was rapidly turning blood-red.

I raised the blaster and put him out of his misery.

Ezra looked at me. I shivered a little bit and explained.

"He was in too much pain. H-he wanted it to end." I couldn't stop my voice from cracking.

Ezra lay a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, Sabine, it's okay. He was going to bleed out anyways. You did him a favor, okay?"

I looked at Ezra's helmet. Even through his visor, he looked understanding and sympathetic.

I turned away, struggling to keep myself from shattering. All of a sudden, a wall of clarity hit me. This was why I was trained to kill and leave the scene immediately. To not think about pulling the trigger and just… do it. "Let's focus on the mission."

"Of course. I think the hostage is in the next room.

"How can you tell?"

"I'm just guessing from the fact that I can feel panic in there."

"Makes sense." I turned to a reinforced doorway and activated a small torch on my gauntlet, using it to cut a small line in the doorway. "Watch my back. This is gonna take a while."

"Sabine, step back," Ezra said. I complied and watched as Ezra tore the reinforcements off of the doorway.

"Well, that's one way to do it," I said, right before Jumping backwards to dodge three dozen bolts of blasterfire from the doorway. Ezra sent nine of the bolts flying back towards their sender and dodged the rest with a sort of…. Twisting, turning backflip. Rather impressive, as a matter of fact. I watched the nine bolts fly back in and heard three corresponding screams of pain. I looked over at Ezra, who gave me a single nod. Somehow, I heard his voice inside of my head: In you go. I'll watch your back.

I took out both my blasters and ran into the room, my helmet automatically tagging weapons and their holders. One was already aiming at my head. Doom on you, Bad Guy. I put three bolts into his abdomen, then pivoted on my heel and blasted away another, just before Ezra cut down a third and threw a fourth into a wall. That one sunk down to the floor, injured but unconscious. I checked for any other enemies and was rewarded with one that had dropped their blaster and was currently sprinting for a doorway. I adjusted my aim and shot him in the foot to buy some time, then I switched a blaster to stun and, well stunned him. What did you expect?

I looked down at a small Twi'leki girl, probably about fourteen, and her mother, about thirty-nine, both on their knees with bound hands. Both were gagged and, interestingly, both were blue skinned. Not sure why I noticed that. In any case, I knelt in front of them and took off my helmet.

"Ezra, secure the two E.I. ," I said, using the radio slang for 'Enemy Injured In Action.' Then, I looked over the two hostages. "Can you two walk?"

The mother nodded. The daughter shook her head and put out her leg, which was roughly bandaged and tinged red. Chit. I looked at it closer, and then looked at Ezra. He was finishing up binding the two remaining terrorists.

"Ezra, can you handle the doorway?" I asked.

"Yeah. Do you want me to call the rest of the squad?"

I thought about that for a second. "Call Davide and Maloia. They're Team Two."

"Alright."

Ezra put his commlink up to his mouth and began to speak as I tried desperately to remember anything, anything, about Ryl. The only thing I could think of was Basic translations. Well, I guess that's better than nothing. In any case, I crossed my fingers and hoped that one of the two understood Basic. "May I take a look at your wound?"

The older one translated. I guess she understood Basic. The small girl nodded and undid the bandage, revealing a deep red scar that had dried blood all around it. (It was actually worse, but since I don't know when you're reading this, I'm not taking the chance that it's right after a meal and I don't want you to throw up.)

In summary, she wasn't going to be walking for a while.

I must have had a look of total horror on my face because the older woman asked, "Is it bad?"

I shook my head, but kept my expression severe. "I've seen worse."

"How much worse?"

"Much worse," I responded, intentionally keeping my response vague. I noticed Davide entering the room. "Hey, Davide, can you check this girl's leg?"

"Yes, ma'am. Does she speak Basic?"

"No, but her… mother?" I began, aiming my question at the older Twi'lek. She nodded. "Her mother does."

Davide nodded and began to speak to the mother. I looked at Maloia, who was setting a 'Brimstone' charge on a wall. She cast me a look. I shook my head and pointed to Ezra, who was busily cutting a hole in the reinforced doorway. Maloia nodded and repacked the Brimstone.

"You and Ezra get ready," she told me. "I'll watch Davide's back."

"Don't want anyone sneaking up on your boyfriend?" I said, as seriously as I could.

"Yeah," Maloia responded. "Wait, no! He's not my boyfriend!"

I pivoted on my heel and stared very, very deeply into her eyes. "Do - you - seriously - expect - me - to - believe - that?" I said, very slowly.

Maloia activated a one-way channel on her comm. "He's my fiance."

I nodded. "Well, I'm not surprised. Anyways, you make sure he doesn't die. Ezra and I'll procure a way out. Make sure you don't break their ears," I said.

"All right. Make sure you and your boyfriend don't die," Maloia said lightly.

"I will." I walked over to Ezra, who had completed his… wall-slice-cutting thingy. The thing where he cuts a roughly-six-foot circular hole in a wall. I dunno what to call it. Sue me. (Please don't, I just dropped about 1,500,000 on a new house for me, my blueberry and my kids. Actually, about 1,600,000… nevermind, I'll hush before I bore you to death.)

"Alright, let's do this. Anyone beyond that doorway is a permissible target," I explained. Then, I called to the Twi'leks. "Cover your ears. We're going loud."

"Breach on three. One, two, three!"

And so began another small segment of hell that we call combat. I saw Ezra rush in and deflect three blaster bolts, then heard two cries of pain, so I ran in and began to fire at anything deemed a hostile. Person holding a blaster in the corner? Tagged. Tango trying to whack me with their gun butt? SOB down. Any of the three people trying to kill Ezra? Dead, dead, and dead. No need for mercy; I had seen what they did to hostages before. Just from looking at both of the hostages clothes, I could tell something had happened. They were ripped…. Suggestively. That was part of the reason my armor was black, gold, green, and blue. Gold was the color of vengeance. Black is justice. Green is duty, blue is reliability.

As the final enemy in the room went down, I looked at Ezra and everything seemed to slow down as he stepped into an explosive trap.