Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
Let's get to it.
Chapter 61- Infiltration
(February 4, 2051)
In the cockpit of an SC-90 Hades shuttle, the pilot flips a few switches and glances down at his navicomputer screen. The display shows that there is less than a parsec to go until there destination.
"Captain?"
The pilot turns around and sees Colonel Archie Taylor, commander of the strike team the pilot is transporting, leaning his head into the cockpit. "Time to target?" Taylor asks.
"Three minutes, Colonel," the pilot responds.
"Good," Taylor responds simply. He gives the pilot a respectful nod and ducks back to the passenger bay.
As he re-enters the passenger bay of the shuttle, Colonel Taylor sees the rest of the Zulu strike team doing final checks on their gear and weapons. There are eleven other Zulus in the strike team under Taylor. All individuals he's worked with before, and Taylor knows is a team that will get this job done.
"Three minutes until we drop out of hyperspace. Be ready!" Taylor orders, his British accent standing out as he issues orders to his team.
"Yes, sir!" the Zulus all shout in response.
"Good. Strap in and be ready," Taylor says as he takes his seat on the edge of the passenger bay.
After Taylor straps in, he turns and looks at the commando on his right. "You ready for this, Aleksandra?" he asks.
"Couldn't be more ready, Colonel," the young woman he spoke to answers his question.
Taylor nods in response. Aleksandra Kowalski, a 29 year old woman from Poland, is the newest member of the Zulu Force, and is the first woman to be appointed to the Zulu Force. Previously a member of Poland's JW GROM special forces unit, she had distinguished herself in operations again the Grysk during the Grysk War and against the First Order during their offensive. Near the end of the First Order's offensive, when another Zulu Force operator was forced to retire due to unexpected health problems, Aleksandra was picked to fill the opening on the Force. She had only had a few missions as part of the Zulu Force, but was already proving herself a very capable warrior.
"Good. Then let's get this done," Taylor says.
As the Zulus make their final checks of their weapons, up in the cockpit, the pilot and co-pilot ready themselves to drop out of hyperspace. The pilot rests his hand on the hyperspace throttle as he watches the navicomputer screen count down the seconds. Finally, as the timer runs out, he pulls back on the throttle, and the shuttle drops out of hyperspace. Up ahead, the planet Bestine comes into view.
Recently, there had been a slight buildup of First Order forces along the border between the First Order and Terran Alliance in the Inner Rim near Thyfera. Worried that the First order might launch their first offensive operation in months to make another attempt to take Thyferra, the Alliance was moving more forces into the area and launching raids to disrupt the First Order's movements in the area.
This raid was the latest operation in this campaign. Unlike others, it was not meant to destroy anything. It was going to be carried out in a way that would give the impression of an intelligence gathering mission. However, that was not it's true purpose. One of the Zulus had a device meant to be plugged into a computer console. Instead of downloading information, the device would upload a hidden program onto the First Order's network in the region that would allow the Alliance to monitor the First Order's network and help keep track of their plans and movements.
The pilot maintains his look out of the viewport as the co-pilot checks the ship's scanners. "No sign of any fighters. No sign they know we're here. We are in the clear," the co-pilot says.
"Good. Starting our approach," the pilot mutters.
The flight crew starts their approach to Bestine. In the back, the Zulus ready themselves to deploy.
It doesn't take long before the Hades shuttle reaches Bestine and enters the atmosphere. Night has fallen over the target region of the planet, so the shuttle descends towards the planet's surface completely undetected.
As the shuttle descends through 5,000 feet, the co-pilot shouts back to the passenger bay, "Prepare for deployment!"
The Zulus hear this, and make their way towards the back doors, ready for the jump. As the shuttle flies towards the target facility, the pilot flips the switch to open the back doors. Colonel Taylor calls out, "Get ready to drop!"
The 12 Zulus ready themselves to jump. Then, as a buzzer sounds in the passenger bay, Colonel Taylor shouts, "Let's go!"
Two by two, the Zulus leap from the back of the shuttle. All twelve are out of the shuttle in ten seconds. The shuttle then turns and flies away to a spot that had been decided as the spot where the shuttle would wait for the team to finish their operation.
The Zulus fall towards the designated landing spots just outside the perimeter of the facility, spread-eagled as they fall to slow their bodies down. As they get within a hundred feet of the ground, they briefly fire their jetpacks to slow themselves down. One by one, the Zulus land gently just outside the facility.
As they first land, the team is spread out over an area about the size of a football field. They quickly scan the area to ensure there are no enemies in their immediate vicinity before they all converge on each other. Once the strike team has assembled, Colonel Taylor silently motions them towards the facility.
The twelve Zulus move silently towards the facility, weapons raised and pointing out in all directions. With their armor painted in darker colors, they blend into the night well.
Reaching the outer wall, the team sets up to get over the wall. With two standing guard and keeping their weapons trained out away from the wall, the rest of the team fire off grappling cables from their vambraces and haul themselves over the wall, not using their jetpacks to avoid having the light and sound alert the facility's inhabitants. Once the other ten are over the wall, the last two follow them over the wall.
Once they're all on the other side of the wall, the team sets off into the facility. Colonel Taylor decides to dispatch one fireteam to the main security room to keep an eye on the inhabitants of the facility and prevent the security team from sounding the alarms. The rest of the team is to make its way to the server room to plant the virus on the system.
The two teams separate once they enter the building. The detached fireteam heads for the security office, while the other two fireteams head for the lifts near the center of the floor, led by Colonel Taylor himself.
In the fireteam sent to the security office, Aleksandra is bringing up the left side of the group. The team leader, 1st Lieutenant Mikhail Svetkov, is leading the fireteam.
As they make their way up to the 2nd floor via a staircase, Svetkov hears footsteps around the corner at the top of the stairs. Raising a fist to signal the people behind him to stop, Svetkov moves quietly to the top of the stairs, stowing his blaster away and drawing his knife.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Svetkov raises one of his fists. A cord extends from one of his vambraces and curves around the corner. On the end is a miniature camera that feeds directly to a display inside his helmet. Sure enough, around the corner are two First Order officers, walking slowly away from the stairs.
Seeing his chance, Svetkov springs around the corner and sprints towards them. The two officers hear him as he comes up behind them, but cannot move fast enough to save themselves. Svetkov reaches around the neck of one of the officers and slits his throat before tackling the other officer, driving the knife into the side of his neck several times.
As Svetkov takes out the two officers, Aleksandra rushes up the stairs and turns to the left to make sure nobody comes up behind Svetkov. At first, she sees nothing. But only a moment later, two stormtroopers come around the corner. Aleksandra immediately raises one of her fists and roasts one of them with a jet of flames from one of her vambraces. She then fires a cable around the neck of the other trooper and yanks him to the ground. She then whips out one of her blaster pistols and dispatches the trooper with two quick shots to the head.
The other two Zulus rush up the stairs, scanning the hallway with their blaster rifles. Seeing nobody else, they turn their attention towards Svetkov. Svetkov motions one of them to help him while sending the other to help Aleksandra. The four Zulus move quickly to hide the bodies. Thankfully, there's a storage closet in the hall, and they are able to hide the bodies in there. After securing the door, they reassemble in the hallway, and Svetkov motions them onwards.
The fireteam moves towards the security room. It takes them only a minute to reach the room, where they find a single stormtrooper guarding the door. One of the other Zulus fires a dart from a wrist launcher, which hits the trooper in the neck and kills him. The trooper drops to the ground.
The fireteam rushes to the door. Svetkov raises his wrist and shoots a small explosive charge onto the lock. He then motions to Aleksandra to take up breaching position.
Svetkov watches Aleksandra. As she gives the thumbs up, Svetkov presses a button on his vambrace, and the small charge explodes. Svetkov then puts his weight into his leg as he gives the door a strong front kick. The door flies open immediately.
Aleksandra storms into the security room, where two stormtroopers are standing guard and a number of officers are monitoring various security consoles. Everyone in the room turns towards the door, and several eyes widen in fear to see someone in Mandalorian armor rushing into the room, the flag of Poland on one of her pauldrons and other unique markings on the helmet and breastplate. Then, before anyone in the room can make any moves, either aggressive or defensive, Aleksandra fires her blaster rifle, dispatching everyone in the room with a single shot each. Everyone in the room is dead in just two seconds.
The other three members of the fireteam race into the room, and the last one in pushes the door back into position to lessen the chances of anyone noticing anything if they walk past.
Svetkov makes his way over to the main security console, where a number of direct feeds from a number of security cameras are playing. He removes his helmet and sets it down on the side of the console before sitting down at the console. He types in a few commands before he says, "Alright. We have eyes on everything."
He raises his wrist up to his mouth as Aleksandra and the other two members of the team are facing towards the door, ready to engage anyone who comes into the room. Svetkov speaks into the commlink in his vambrace, "Colonel, we have the security room in our control. I'm looking at the security cameras, and I can see a least two platoons worth of stormtroopers guarding the server room. All appear to be regular troopers, no specialty troopers."
"Copy that. Maintain watch," Colonel Taylor responds, not taking either of his hands off his weapon and maintaining his focus as he makes his way down the hallway.
Taylor and his fireteams continue on their way to the server room. They've just exited the lifts on the lower floor, and are only moments away from their target.
All of the Zulus are now on alert, as they now realize the number of enemies they'll have to face. But they press on, not intimidated in the slightest.
Less than a minute later, the team enters the large open area on the bottom floor that contains the server room. Almost immediately, they see the stormtroopers that Svetkov alerted them to. A quick look shows about 50 troopers in the room.
Two of the Zulus immediately take to the air with their jetpacks, throwing out grenades into the midst of the stormtroopers. The grenades explode and kill half a dozen troopers. They fly down into the midst of the troopers, whirling through the air as they shoot jets of flame from their flamethrowers, killing half a dozen more troopers.
The rest of the Zulus storm forward, firing their blaster rifles at rapid speed. Ten troopers are gunned down in just 2 seconds, and the rest of the troopers scatter.
Blaster bolts streak through the open space between the two sides as the Zulus rush their enemies. Two Zulus are each hit once, but their armor protects them.
Colonel Taylor raises a fist and fires a wrist rocket at a crate that two troopers are hiding behind. The rocket blows up the crate, sending the two troopers flying. Taylor then raises his blaster rifle and kills both troopers with single shots from his blaster. He whips to his right, and sees two of his men trying to hit some troopers hiding behind more crates. However, from his position, the troopers are exposed. Taylor raises his blaster rifle and fires at the troopers, killing three of them in seconds, leaving just one left. One of the airborne Zulus then flies over and kills the trooper with three blaster shots.
In a matter of seconds, the troopers guarding the server room are all dead, with no injuries among the Zulus. Colonel Taylor makes sure that all of the troopers are dead before he calls out to his men, "Alright. Move in."
The Zulus quickly make their way into the server room, which is thankfully empty of personnel. While six of them stand by the doors to keep enemies out, Colonel Taylor and the man carrying the device that holds the virus make their way through the room to find the console they need. It doesn't take them too long.
"Frank, do your thing. I've got your back," Taylor says.
The man, Captain Frank Irvine, pulls the device out of a pouch on his belt. He plugs it into the console and types a few commands into the keypad. "Alright. I'm in. Uploading the virus," Irvine says.
Taylor waits as Irvine gets the virus to start uploading. In less than a minute, Irvine says, "Got it. Upload complete."
"Good. Cover it up, and let's get out of here," Colonel Taylor responds.
Irvine types away and erases the few signs of his actions, leaving the virus an invisible force on the First Order's systems. Once he's cleaned up, he removes the device and returns it to his belt. He then quickly takes up his weapon again and nods to Colonel Taylor.
"Alright, men. Let's go," Colonel Taylor says to his fireteams. The men all nod in response, and Taylor leads them out of the room, while ordering Lieutenant Svetkov's team to head out as well.
Meanwhile, as the fireteams are heading out, on board the shuttle, an electronics officer working in the passenger bay is monitoring his computer screen. He was in charge of testing the virus before the strike team left the planet. As he watches his screen, a pop-up comes up, showing he has access to the First Order's network.
"Yes," he mutters. He starts typing away, trying to see how much access he has. Within moments, his smile grows even wider. The virus has worked, and he has an in-depth access to the First Order's network in this sector. While he doesn't have access to the entire First Order network across the galaxy, thanks to increased cybersecurity the First Order has implemented, what he does have access to is enough.
"We have access!" he shouts.
Immediately, the pilot starts firing up the engines, ready to go pick up the team, while the electronics officer continues his work, exploring the First Order's network.
In only a minute, the pilots lift the Hades shuttle into the air and head towards the facility. As they near the facility, the pilots see spots of light down on the ground, rising into the air. It takes him only a moment to realize that the lights are from the Zulus' jetpacks as they are jetting up to the shuttle.
The pilot opens the back of the shuttle, slowing it to a near complete stop. One by one, the Zulus fly into the passenger bay and land gently. One of the Zulus flies in so precisely that he drops right into his seat.
As Colonel Taylor, bringing up the rear of the group, flies into the passenger bay, he slaps a button on the wall on the way in that closes the bay doors behind him. He immediately takes his seat as, in the cockpit, the pilot sees a light flash showing that the doors have closed. "Alright. We got 'em aboard. Let's get out of here."
The pilot shoves the throttles forward, and the shuttle quickly accelerates. The pilot holds the shuttle on level flight for a few moments to build up speed before he pulls back on the stick and starts climbing towards orbit. It takes him about 5 minutes to reach orbit. And almost immediately, the pilot shoves the throttles forward, and the shuttle jumps into hyperspace.
In the back of the shuttle, the strike team is starting to relax. Now that they're in hyperspace, they can relax.
In his seat, Colonel Taylor turns to Aleksandra. "Lieutenant Svetkov told me you did well today. You're really making a good addition to the force, Kowalski."
"Thank you, Colonel," Aleksandra responds.
The colonel rests a hand on her shoulder. When she first joined the team, Aleksandra had suffered from a bit of self confidence issues with being the first woman on the force and one of the youngest members, and was determined to prove herself, to the point she sometimes pushed herself too hard. Taylor had kind of taken her under his wing to help her improve and reach her full potential, and become her mentor in the Force.
"You're doing well, Aleksandra. Keep relying on your team, and with your skill, you'll be one of our best," Colonel Taylor says.
"Thank you, Colonel," Aleksandra says. She then looks down a bit, looking over her armor. She knows that wearing this armor is a great privilege. She knows the stories of the hundreds of Zulus that have worn the armor, and knows she has a lot to live up to.
And, I'll end there. Hope this was a good chapter.
So, I figured it was about time to introduce a woman into the Zulu Force. We'll see Aleksandra a few more times in this story.
Next chapter will go back to Ben and Rey with their return to Earth. It will be up soon. Until it's up, please leave a review and stay tuned.