The Mine Raid Pt. 1

"Speech"

"Radio or calls"

'Thoughts'

Bridge of the Vagabond

The crew, besides Feldt, looked at the gas giant from the displays on the bridge, their navigation guiding them to their objective. The sensors were still being a bit fiddly due to minor interference from the asteroid belt around the planet. Feldt had thankfully gotten the stealth drive up, so the ship was silent running as they made their way to the target.

Lyle kept his cool at the helm, already preparing for navigating through the asteroid belt. Tieria stood behind him, silently judging him. 'He said he was good, so this should be simple.' The crew was outfitted in their armor, weapons loaded up as they knew they had to work fast. Tieria had two thirds of a set of Mk.2 Clone trooper's armor, helmet currently resting on a console. The folded up Z-6 rested on his back, and a set of frag grenades and blaster pistol was hooked on his belt, a small combat knife there just in case he got in close quarters combat.

Allelujah wore an armored vest over his rebel uniform, preferring to be mobile, like Setsuna. A blaster rifle was held on a strap around him, a pack full of explosives on his back, along with a knife and blaster pistol.

Lastly Lyle wore his usual outfit, but he had modified to hide an armored vest under it, having learned the hard way years ago that being unarmored could be a weakness. He wore two modified heavy blaster pistols on his waist, his old reliables when it came to combat.

All the men had some form of mask, to hide their identity, and Christina called out, having been sitting at the sensor console, "Target is getting close. No long-range patrols and no active searching for us. If we are lucky, their guard is down."

Lyle grinned, "Well no patrols means that they don't expect anyone to know they are here. It'll be fun to ruin their day." He called out to Christina, "How long till we reach this secret hanger?"

"Five minutes!"

Tieria looked at Lyle for a split second before turning to the rest of the team, "Let's head to the boarding ramps. Might as well be ready to go." Lyle nodded a confirmation to that order and footsteps headed down the stairs, Lyle letting out a breath.

"Let's hope this goes well." While Tieria had relatively calmed down, Lyle was still on edge dealing with him, though at least it was nice to see he was focused when the mission started.

Christina responded with a roll of her eyes, "Let's not jinx ourselves. We haven't even reached our goal yet."

Lyle chuckled, "I suppose you are right. I remember the last time that you claimed a mission would be easy." A small object hit the back of his head and he turned to see Christina blowing a raspberry at him. He just grinned back and focused on guiding the ship into this hanger.

As the ship entered the asteroid field near the facility, Lyle found it relatively easy to navigate through the surrounding asteroids, which would also hide their presence. The approach to the facility was slow, Lyle not wanting to draw attention to them, even though they were invisible.

The facility grew is size as they got closer and closer. Metal structures rose out of the largest asteroid in the belt, a basic grey color as lights shined in the windows on the exposed structures. Small trusters sat along the surface, acting as a way to keep the asteroid upright and to avoid colliding with other rocks floating in space. Small turrets were positioned around the structure, currently lowered. 'Well it looks like they have a little more defenses that what was laid out. Not that it will help them that much.'

Ordering Christina to keep an eye out for any patrols, the Vagabond neared the marked secret hanger. Scanning visually, it took him a minute to spot the well-hidden entrance, guiding the ship into the surprisingly small hanger, passing through a ray shield. Landing the ship, which took up most of the space of the hanger, he stood up out of his chair and looked at the Zeltron, "What is the atmosphere like in here?"

Christina scanned the sensors, "It looks like we have oxygen where we are. And no alarms are going off, so I think we are good!" She gave him a thumbs up than reached to her right, grabbing something and tossed it at Lyle.

He looked in his hand to see a thin square electronic device with a small metal point at the end. He looked curiously at Christina, "What's this?"

"A new device I picked up at Mestare. It allows me to remotely access hacking ports from the ship. Just needs to be plugged in and it should function properly." She flashed a smile, "It's not like we really can bring along Haro, can we?"

Lyle laughed, "I think he would be offended by that. But thanks. Force knows we don't have the skills for that."

Christina gave him a grin, "You wouldn't be able to fight your way out of a box without me."

Lyle chuckled and walked towards the stairs, mentally preparing himself for this mission. It was the most dangerous he had faced so far with such a small team, so they would need to be careful. His comm crackled, Tieria's voice filling his ears, "Cheridum, where are you? We are waiting in the hanger."

Lyle took a breath; Code names was Tieria's idea, which he had to admit wasn't a bad one. It would hide their names from being identified. Tieria was Virtue, Setsuna was Exia, and Allelujah was Kyrios. Slipping on his mask, Lyle made his was off the bridge and down the boarding ramp, which closed behind him.

The hanger they were in looked very weathered. Rusty metal contained, weakened supports and the walls were gunmetal grey. It was empty and Lyle was happy this wasn't just a giant trap, though this was the easy part. Getting out was going to be harder. The three other men were waiting for him near the exit to the hanger, Setsuna leaning on the wall, which Tieria was probably heavily frowning at, though his helmet covered any expression on his face.

Looking at the three men, he opened up comms with the ship, directing his attention to everyone, "Alright everyone, it's go time. Christina, once we split up, you will be assisting Setsuna. Feldt, you will be guiding the main team." The two women called out, saying they understood. Lyle brought out the device, showing it to the team and tossed it to Setsuna, who gave him a silent question. Lyle nodded, "This will allow Christina to access imperial systems remotely. Just plug it into their security room and you should be good."

The infiltrator responded gruffly, "Got it."

Tieria reiterated a point that was discussed in the briefing on the mission, his voice slightly electronic as he spoke, "Once we get out of these tunnels, we will separate and head to our targets. Do you two understand that?" He seemed to be focusing his attention on Setsuna, which Lyle wanted to stop, but knew it would not be a good move at this moment.

"Yes." Setsuna and Allelujah agreed at the same time. The four men exited the hanger, weapons at the ready and the traveled through the decrepit halls, the paint peeled away to reveal the barebones structure of the place. Setsuna recognized this as what happened to many places that weren't considered important, so the imperials would ignore them. Granted this was supposed to be a secret location, so they may have just missed it.

The air was stagnant and heavy, and each man tried to remain as quiet as possible. They had no idea if there were any sensors down here, so they had to be careful. The hallway was relatively small, so they walked single file, reaching the stairs that led up to the main level. Allelujah had spotted a cargo elevator, but kept walking, seeing the others spotting it as well.

The stairs went up and up, and it became very apparent why this place was so low on the asteroid to the group. No sane alien would want to climb this many stairs unless you were willing to take that risk for some extra money. The stairs came to a merciful end, all the men a bit winded as they reached the top of the stairs, taking a break as the entered a small antechamber. A door was the only real sight in this room, attached to a rail and vertical handle.

Lyle looked around at the group and pointed at the door, "Setsuna, see what's on the other side." The Kiffar nodded and slid the door open as quietly as possible, peaking his head around. In the room in front of him was what looked like a small loading elevator, two stormtroopers looking away from where Setsuna's head was. It was more well maintained, imperial colors on the walls, but Setsuna would say the place wasn't really getting as much attention as it needed. Setsuna then noticed the room the team were in was hidden by a sliding wall that seamlessly blended in with the wall. 'Clever spot.'

He looked back at Lyle, "Two troopers. Small loading bay."

Lyle just nodded and gave him the signal to go ahead. Setsuna slipped silently into the room, the sound of machinery coming from beyond a door that presumably led further into the facility. Sneaking up on one on the left, he shoved his vibrodagger through the neck of the man, keeping him from yelling out.

He avoided grunting as the weight feel back on the Kiffar, he gently placed the body on the ground, the other stormtrooper not seemingly noticing his friend had died. He disposed of the other man in a similar fashion, stashing the bodies out of sight. With a quick knock on the hidden door, he alerted the rest of the team it was all clear, and the four men entered the room.

Tieria scanned the bodies, narrowing his eyes, "We are going to have to move fast. Who knows when they have to check in."

Allelujah chimed in helpfully, "I think we hit them right after the switch, so we should be good."

"Team, gather up." The group gathered around Lyle, who brought up a map of the facility. Pointing to a small square a good distance away from the first target, Lyle continued, trying to stay loose, "We are going to pass by a three-way junction in the hallway up ahead. That is where we split." He pointed to that, then the northern hallway off of that, "Setsuna, you know where you are going, but stay in communication."

"Will do." Setsuna wiped of the blood of the dagger on the floor, ready to get a move on.

Lyle looked to the other two, "Just stay close and keep your blasters cool. If need be, only shoot when the sound of machinery can cover it up. These hallways are probably very echo-y."

Tieria pulled out his blaster pistol from his belt, trigger finger ready. The men stood up and crept through the hallways as the exited the room. The four men hadn't really understood how big this place was, the hallways practically devoid of people, soldiers or otherwise. The small garrison was definitely a skeleton crew. Lyle would feel bad for doing this to this commander, but all materials here would be sent to the warfront or other production facility, so that thought flew out of his mind.

As the three managed to avoid detection reaching the junction, Setsuna nodded at Lyle, disappearing into the small hallway as he heard Allelujah mumble something about the Kiffar disappearing so quickly. With his route memorized, he quickly made his way through the hallways and rooms he needed to travel though. A few patrols were spotted, and the occasional civilian was seen loitering, but they were quickly reminded to move or get back to work, which the men and women obey, if begrudgingly sometimes. 'How many of these people are doing this willingly?'

Something in Setsuna's mind told him this was too easy. His instincts sent a shiver down his spine, but he couldn't place what. Despite the little practice he did with Feldt on the ship, this was all still a bit of a confusing mess for him.

The hallways blended together as he followed his path, Setsuna luckily able to avoid having to take out any soldiers. That would create another way for him to be detected, along with raising the alarm.

He eventually reached another long hallway, but to his concern, a large metal hover palate of ore was being taken through the hallway, half a dozen stormtroopers on guard, with a few workers on and around the palate. There seemed to be an issue with one of the repulsors and an older woman was yelling about getting it fixed.

Hugging into an alcove, he opened up comms with Christina, whispering, "We have an issue."

Christina's voice was calm, "What's going on?"

"Hallway blocked. And there are too many guards to take on. Do I have any alternate routes?"

Christina spoke with serious concentration, "Where are you?" Setsuna took a look around the alchove to see he's not drawing any attention, then filled her in on where he is. Christina took a few seconds to bring up the display of the base, scanning the map and with a chipper voice, the Zeltron responded, "If you look to your right, you should see a door. It leads through the officers' quarters and feeds back into the route you were on."

Setsuna looked to his right, seeing only a wall, a few voices getting closer, his voice tense, "Christina, to my right is a wall."

Christina laughed awkwardly, "Right! I meant your left!" He looked to his left and saw a simple door that was labeled officer's quarters.

"Found it. I'll update you if I have any other issues. Thank you."

"You're welcome!" Communication cut as he quietly opened the door, the metal sliding with a hiss as he was presented with a simple hallway with several doors on each side. None of them stood out, but the names of the officer was placed above the room.

The voices from the hallway before passed by him, and he wiped some sweat from his forehead at the luck. Cautiously advancing, a tingling began to grow in the back of his mind, only getting stronger as he progressed further. He placed a hand on his head, trying to focus. 'It feels like the sensation with Feldt on the ship. Was this the force?'

He took a deep breath and let the force guide him, which brought him in front of a room labeled Lt. Colasour. Pressing the button to access the door, he was surprised it opened. The room was well kept, a comfortable bed, shelf with a medal display on it. There were a lot of injury medals. There also were a few pictures of the leader of this facility on his bedside table. 'That seems…strange.' But he was drawn to a crystal on a necklace, casually resting on the table. The cyan crystal leaked force energy, and as he grabbed it, a pulse went through him. It wasn't alive, but it felt like it…belonged in his hand.

He closed his eyes, focusing on the rock in his hand. It was warm and he couldn't help but lose track of the world around him. He took deep, steady breaths and wondered what he would do with this. But his concentration was broken when a familiar, severe voice filled his ear, "Exia, what is your status? Have you reached security?"

Tieria's hard tone brought him back to reality and he quickly pocketed the crystal as he responded evenly, lying a little, "Had to take a detour. Should be there in a few minutes." Sounds of blaster fire and explosions reached through the comm and Setsuna responded, confused, "What is going on?" Alarms began to blare in the hallway, and he had no doubt that it was all over the facility.

"Cheridum got caught by some schutta worker and now we are trapped in the equipment room!" The sounds of a man calling out for reinforcements, as well as Lyle swearing. Tieria's next words were a clear order, "Get us out of here!"

A determined look formed on Setsuna's face, "Understood. I will get there ASAP." Keeping the line open, he threw some caution to the wind, rushing through the hallway. 'Hopefully they will draw men away from my route.'

With the Other Team

Only taking a second watching Setsuna head off, Lyle took the lead, signaling Allelujah and Tieria to follow him. One of his guns drawn, the three men stayed on the sides of hallways, using cover as they advanced through a side passage, avoiding any main routes. Setsuna may be able to do it, but three men not looking like imperials would be more obvious.

The three soldiers crept through the base, avoiding detection as patrols and workers passed by them. There were very few people in this section, and very few seemed to loiter. Just based on intel and what he had seen, Allelujah guessed that this base was barely populated. 'Makes it easier for us.' The facility was certainly remote, so he got why it needed a shuttle to bring workers back and forth.

As they began getting nearer to the area where the heavy mining gear was, Tieria kept his eyes on the wall, looking for these supposed tunnels that were in the place. Lightly tapping the wall as he rounded a corner, a hollow sound greeted him as he stopped, testing the spot again. Hearing the same sound, he called out to the team quietly, "I think this is our path."

Lyle focused on when Tieria was resting his hand, nothing standing out, and he pursed his lips as he nodded at the purple-haired man, "Why isn't it open yet?"

Tieria scowled under his helmet, not holding back his annoyance, "I haven't had time to do it, team leader. Give me a second."

Allelujah just looked at the pair and glanced between the two hallways they were between, "I'll keep watch."

"Good. Try to be as quiet as possible." Lyle looked at Allelujah as he spoke, and Tieria just rolled his eyes. 'Blaster rifle? Quiet?' Getting on with it, he tried to slide the door manually, but found himself hitting resistance. He pulled on the section of wall hard, but it refused to budge. Swearing under his breath, he contemplated just hitting the wall till it broke, but that would be a very obvious noise, and it would almost certainly get them caught. He wasn't a fan of this team, but a mission was a mission.

Lyle tapped his shoulder, "Hey Virtue, if this is a maintenance tunnel, then they would have better security than just moving the door. Especially in the middle of the base." Scanning along the wall with a scowl, just nodding in response, he glided his hand over it, hoping to find a hidden switch. Seconds passed as he found nothing, just metal walls.

Sweat dripped down his forehead and he swore there were footsteps coming, though it could be the blood pumping in his ears. Taking a deep breath, he heard a clunk as his finger sunk into a small hole next to the panel, and with a hiss, the hatch opened. Inside was a small pathway surrounded by pipes, an unbearable heat radiating out of it. It galled all three men that the button was so well hidden, but they wouldn't bite a gift horse in the mouth. A low, droning hum came out of the tunnel.

Taking the leading with a reluctant smile, Lyle lowered himself into the tunnel. Tieria fell in behind him, Allelujah taking the rear, pressing a button to close the door behind them. It certainly wasn't an easy fit, and Allelujah wondered how they fixed things backed here, but the pipes didn't exactly look great. 'Either they know about this and don't care, or don't know, which does not speak well to their efforts here.' The hetero-chromatic soldier wiped some sweat on his neck, hoping they would be out of this tunnel soon. The explosives would be fine, but the three men wouldn't be having fun.

For the next couple minutes, the team followed the tunnel, following the markers in it that said where they were going. Tieria's Z-6 hit the pipes a few times, and the sound did reverberate, but the sound of active machinery in the background must be drowning that out, though Lyle did glare at Tieria the first time it happened.

When at last they did run into their exit, Lyle opened the door and craned his head in. The door sat behind a large storage container, several containers of other gear lined up near a wall. Gesturing to the two, he pointed to behind the crates, which each man nodded at and broke for the crates, closing the door as a patrol of four stormtroopers passed by. The men all took a deep breath, taking in the room.

Besides the large containers, there was a large pile of ore getting fed into a machine on the eastern side of the room, which rumbled at a high volume. A woman on a tablet sat on a walkway above, watching over the workers below. Fuel tanks sat near a blast door to the north, directly across from another one. Several large extraction machines and mining vehicles also sat on a large elevator on the western wall, which fed into a hanger below. Maintenance tools lay over that area. A handful of civilians, all in the same uniform, worked in the room, some on the machines, fixing up the machines. The patrol of four stormtroopers were the last remaining people, spreading out.

Lyle looked at the others, "Alright. Virtue, you will place explosives near the vehicles. Kyrios, you place them here. I'll head to the fuel tank."

Allelujah looked at him, concern in his voice, "You sure Cheridum? That's kind of in the open."

Lyle just gave him a confident grin, "I've seen more dangerous situations. And I know how to sneak around. Now let's do this!" Allelujah sighed and took off the explosives on his back, handing out some to each of them. He pulled out the detonator, offering it. Lyle grabbed it from his hand, and with a thumbs up, the three men went to work.

Allelujah found it easy to hide and do his, no one in particular coming over to his area. He placed them between the metal crates and on the large containers of ore. Tieria equally found the mechanics unobservant, one playing a game while the other was under one of the mining machines. Placing them around the vehicles, he hoped it would at least get a good chunk of the empire's gear, if the place was this empty.

Lyle moved from cover to cover, barely avoiding detection by a moving guard. After waiting several seconds to be clear, he dashed for a fuel tank, resting on it as he caught his breath, speaking under his breath, "Alright, just gotta place these explosives and we can move."

He set out to work, making sure each of the three tanks had a good amount of explosives placed on them, enough to make sure there would be no surviving this. This room would not be in good condition if all went well. The first two tanks went easy, but when he reached the third, finishing placing the explosives, his eyes met the woman on the walkway above, her eyes widening in alarm. 'Blast it!'

Lyle quick drew his pistol and was taking aim, but her voice echoed in the room, "Intruder! By the fuel tank!" A stormtrooper nearby turned in an instant, raising his blaster rifle. His voice spoke with an electronic tinge.

"Stop right there! Come out with your hands up!" Lyle responded with a blaster bolt to the chest, the soldier dropping to the floor with a heavy thud, and everyone turned to face the noise. The civilians screamed and the soldiers began to approach Lyle's position; but blaster fire coming from the other two rebel soldiers gunned them down before they had the chance to really react.

Tieria's voice nearly blew out his ear, "Cheridum, what did you do!?"

"I got caught. We need to get out of here." He saw both of the blast doors were closed, and he could hear approaching footsteps from both sides. He pointed to the door leading to their extraction route, "Gather there!"

The three men rushed towards the door, forming up as the door began to open up, revealing five more stormtroopers with weapons raised. The two groups began firing at each other, the rebel soldiers seeking cover as the imperial troops pushed onto the room, both of them drawn away from the door. The groups returned fire for several seconds, but two well placed shots from Allelujah and Lyle hit two of the men during the barrage of bolts, two more bodies hitting the ground.

Two of the imperial soldiers, hiding behind some thin cover, began to pull out a grenade, but were interrupted by the sound of rotating barrels as Tieria's weapon roared, dozens of blaster bolts ripping apart their cover and the men behind it. Tieria smirked under his helmet, a sense of satisfaction filling him.

The last man began to retreat, trying to get through the door. However, the door began to slowly close. But by the time he reached it, it had closed too far, leaving him an easy target for Allelujah. The rebels took a deep breath, and Tieria opened up communications with Setsuna, "Exia, what is your status? Have you reached security?"

A clear, even voice came through, "Had to take a detour. Should be there in a few minutes." The northern blast door began to open up, revealing another squad of stormtroopers, and Tieria internally yelled at Setsuna. 'He had a job, and now we are stuck in this shit! What detour did he need?!' Raising his weapon, he hoped Setsuna had a good excuse as the blaster bolts began to fly free.

Author Note

And we get to action! We have part 1 of their first mission, so I hope you are excited for more! I'll see you guys next time!