Straf cursed under his breath. He really should have remembered he was in a simulation and not in real life. He turned to his squad mates, hopping on one leg. The recruit reached at his belt to grab his simulation grenades, which he had been saving for close quarter combat once he got to the fortified position. Hoping that they'll fulfill their purpose without him, he handed the weapons over to the rest of his squad who might needed them. Then he turned to the nearest member, who happened to be Andros. "I'll only slow you down inside. No need for us to all get a failing grade. Help me to a nice firing position by the entrance. I'll make sure you guys get some privacy inside." He grimly smiled as he lifted his simulation blaster rifles, showing his intent on what he planned to do to any terrorist trying to get into the bunker after his squad.
"I've got you Straf. You're a better shot than me, I'd carry you if I could!" He helped the wounded man to the entrance and sat him down near debris that he could use as cover. "I'm sure we'll be back soon brother." Turning to head inside he stopped one of the other Soldiers that appeared less injured. "Hey check for an operational heavy weapon and establish a perimeter up here near the entrance. One can't be too well prepared!" With that he followed the group inside the dark labyrinth. ------------- Inside it felt cool and damp compared to the oppressive humidity of the jungle outside. He preferred the close confines better than the open area they just left. All that could be heard were the slow trudging foot steps of the men and women around him, as well as the eerie sound their breathing made as it seemed to echo from everywhere at once. He continued his slow pace following the lead squad and the last officer in charge. He quietly moved up to the officer and in a whisper, "Ma'am, what are we looking for exactly?" He knew it was foolish to hope for an answer but he asked the question anyways.
Advancing cautiously, the female officer didn't even stop to turn around and address him as she spoke. "Anything that looks like it will end this shit hole. Probably the generator room supplying the cloaking field preventing the artillery from locking onto this place and blasting it sky high. Essentially....just keep advancing." Focusing slightly, her form stopped shaking as much as her breathing began to slow. Regaining her composure, the woman began to clip out orders to the rest of the survivors as the corridor continued even deeper without any end to it. After what seemed like hours but was probably only a few minutes, they came to a open doorway giving way to a darkened room. Smoke and sparks oozed outwards from its depths and despite anyone's best effort, it was impossible to pierce the gloom. "Looks like whatever we're looking for should be in here. Let's finish thi...bleegh!" She screams as a baton hits her so hard in the chest it pierces the armour and comes out the other end splattering the entire group in rich sprinkling gems of blood red. Before her body can even fall to the floor, a horde of Rebel soldiers followed by what would appear to be a Jedi if it could even be called that. Spitting beams of emerald and sapphire towards the survivors, the holographic enemies surrounded by the shimmering form of the Jedi advance brutally onto them. Yet for what should be a training simulator....is most definitely not. Where before those who were hit were only receiving excruciating electrical shocks from their armour, these recruits were being torched and blasted apart. Energized blades speared through one recruit as he attempted to hold the line even as another was cut in half, their intestines waving a bloody banner as their arterial spray coated the ceiling and walls. All the group could do was retreat backwards and hope that they could escape the sudden change...... ____________________________________________________ Outside, the group of recruits who had not gone inside to "secure" the flank were busy chatting and joking as their nerves wound down when all of a sudden the entire world began to erupt in sirens. Though the world continued to hold its current shape, Stormtroopers in black armour and red markings began to appear through what were once solid walls as they ran down the entrance way their comrades had only left minutes before. An equally stern faced officer in crimson and gold combat armour began to yell orders at the recruits to orderly file out to the exit even as he simultaneously barked out commands to the freshly arrived elite troops. There was no knowing what was going on, only that something was obviously wrong. Electrical static began to wash over all of the fallen recruits armour as the simulator slowly powered down...or so one would of thought as the tunnel way they had been protecting maintained its form even as the entirety of the simulator began to reshape back to its barren form. Gunfire, screams, and chaotic laughter echoed from the now light flickering passageway lit only by flashing discharges of Blasters being fired on full auto. It was time to high tail it out of there or perhaps...try and be a hero. ____________________________________________ +++Fifteen Minutes Earlier+++ Growing tired of the mediocre training exercise, the Inquisitor laid down her now drained glass and casually flicked open one of the compartments on the left hand side of the chairs arm rest. Beneath the hidden capsule lay a single red button more akin to what would be seen in a movie regarding weapons of mass destruction except no warning sign, or marking to begin with could be discerned on its surface or covering. Grinning mischievously, the woman pressed the button and watched as the central command center that was to be the final objective went dark. Gunfire flickered in the ominous gloom followed by brief flashes as holocrons flickered in and out of existence. "Now...let's see how my new pets handle an orthodox training assignment...I'm sure it's bound to be...delicious."The woman cooed as she folded her hands together and focused on a single monitor which enlarged to cover the entire viewing screen. "Anything that looks like it will end this shit hole. Probably the generator room supplying the cloaking field preventing the artillery from locking onto this place and blasting it sky high. Essentially....just keep advancing." The female officer said leading the rest of her squad down the hallway. She walked unknowingly towards a trap unknown to even the masters of the Academy. Her ignorance was blissful, her death, to be a delicate artistry....yes my pet soon you shall feed. "Looks like whatever we're looking for should be in here. Let's finish thi...bleegh!" Shock crossed the officers face as she coughed out a regurgitated spray of crimson fluid. The expressions of those surrounding her twisted in fear and disgust as they saw the unexpected happen right in front of their eyes. Reaching a hand down to touch her abdomen, the officer looked in surprise and revolted the thought that she was dying. Falling to her knees, she continued to lay there looking down as the rod held her up even as her life blood trickled away and out of the corners of her mouth. Recruits fell around her lying in heaps of an unseen geometric pattern and the onlooker could only laugh in a twisted, sick demeanor as she watched the terror unfold. Heavy percussion's began to beat on the entrance way and the Inquisitors outburst was suddenly quelled at the unwanted and unexpected interruption. "YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO USE AN ARTIFACT IN MY ACADEMY! OPEN THIS DOOR IMMEDIATELY OR I WILL BLOW IT OPEN!" An elderly male voice laced with extreme rage rants followed by the sound of heavy plasma cutters as the door is being breached. Sighing heavily, the Inquisitor takes out her Blaster Pistol and rotates in her throne to face the entrance, the gun raised towards the doorway as the seal breaks and the door explodes inwards.... _____________________________________________ +++Current Time+++ "All recruits evacuate the training ground...this is not a drill. Evacuate the area and let the professionals deal with the situation. Make no effort to continue the training, evacuate the area immediately!" An officer yells at those too slow to vacate the area. Equipment and training weapons lie discarded across the ground as hundreds of recruits quickly are funneled out through the twin exits, their processions stopped at man made fords by Stormtroopers in heavy armour and shields aimed at the tunnel entrance. The sound of battle draws ever closer as blaster fire can now be seen in the darkness, its ferocity increasing..... GM Note: Those of you still in the tunnel are not dead yet but you REALLY want to be running right now
Straf yelled as some recruits grabbed him and threw him in with the river of students pouring out of the war simulation room. "Get off me! My squad's still in there!" He struggled to free himself from the dozens of hands holding and carrying/dragging him toward the exit. "I said, get off!" He finally used the butt of his simulated blaster rifle, which he still carried, to smash himself off the groping appendages. Freed from the panicking recruits fleeing the scene, Straf began to run back toward the entrance of the tunnel and the sounds of carnage that reminded him so much of the Undercity. EDIT: On the way there Straf planned on grabbing one of the actual blaster rifles off of a dead Stormtroopers and either join the fight with the present enemy from a further distant back from the Stormtroopers or standing guard to the entrance of the tunnel, finger at the trigger, eager to shoot any one not wearing Imperial colors coming out of the bottleneck. Otherwise he'll just stand to the side of the entrance, staying out of the way of the Stormtroopers rushing inside.
As Screaming and blood shed began Valpine was one of the recruits realizing that this wasn't in the simulation anymore she dropped her blaster and began running as she saw Straf was trying to be carried out she wen't to assist him to only get a blaster but in the helmet denting it. She quickly took off her helmet and put it at her waist As she saw Straf Running back towards the Tunnels. "STRAF GET BACK HERE! THIS ISN'T PART OF THE SIMULATION YOU'LL GET KILLED!" She yelled as black storm troopers began entering the tunnel she soon saw As one immediately ordered her To get moving with the other recruits. She Nodded and began heading with the others she could See Andros had also got was coming out of the tunnels she quickly wen't to him and grabbed his arm. "We NEED TO GO NOW GET TO THE REST OF THE BATTALION!." she quickly shouted helping him out of the tunnels before she began running after the rest of the battalion trying to catch up with the squad hoping the others were behind her.
Dropping the useless blaster, Andros ran for the exit. It seemed like their training simulator was breached by ACTUAL rebels! He heard the thundering footstep of the stormtroopers before he saw them. He held his arms out as he ran to show he was unarmed as he ran for the exit. Finally making his way out of the tunnel he felt an arm grab him and heard Valpine's voice. "I KNOW LETS GET OUT OF HERE! COME ON STRAF!! THE OTHERS DIDNT MAKE IT!" He tried to resist the current of the pulling students to see if Straf was following them. He wasn't able to hold out for very long as the mass of pushing and pulling dragged him further and further towards the exit.
Seeing the towering girl scream at him made Straf double take, then his mind clicked together as Andros and the rest of the squad ran past him. He fell into the rapidly retreating squad at the back as they hurried past a bunch of Stormtroopers rushing the other way.
Advancing in a uniformed column, the first ranks of the Stormtroopers left just enough space for the survivors to move through them as they took a double firing position. With their first rank kneeling as the second rank stood behind, the twin ranks began to fire in disciplined volleys. Where before the holograms had dissipated in electrical backwash of lightning blues, now they shrieked as they died in crimson red the color of dried blood. Yet for each one that was taken down, two more seemed to be there to fill the gap. Scrambling over each other and the left over limbs of those who had been dismembered, the terrorist force clawed their way towards the forward ranks. Watching in the background, the corrupted form of the Jedi looked on before disappearing into thin air as the entire facility's lights went out. Darkness overwhelmed everyone lit only by the pulsing beams of the Stormtroopers blaster rifles which in turn slowly died out as the last of the targets disappeared even from the enhanced helmet overlays. Torches flashed into existence as the troopers helmets swept back and forth across a now blank landscape, the only feature dominating it in the center of the compound on a small plinth. Hovering above it on an anti-grav generator and protected by a shimmering force field, an artifact that could not be mistaken for anything other than a Sith Holocron menacingly rotated in invisible fields. Retreating for now and ushering any recruits who were still somehow within the training facility, the entire squadron backed away and sealed the entrance. ___________________________________ Outside, the Academys senior officer was there to greet them. Flanked on either side by a heavily armed, crimson robed elite guard, the elderly man looked very different from the several hours earlier. Gone were his elderly features and in place was half a face of untouched flesh, the rest wrapped in bandages dotted with bloody splotches from where he had been wounded from some unknown enemy. Gesturing for everyone gathered to remain quiet, he spoke with a commanding authority. "Students. Soldiers. Servants of the Empire. I cannot express the audacity of those responsible for this....this outrage to our dear Academy. To my own state, to the state of those comrades of yours lost, to that of the Imperial Empires territory." Arms gesturing to each in turn as he spoke. His eyes awash with justified fury. "You now have all seen first hand what the rebels for the so called "Republic" are capable of now. How low they are willing to step to undo the peace and stability the Empire has worked for. Their blatant disregard for the loss of life. It is regretable that many have died in what was supposed to be only a training exercise....but to those of you who fought with courage, continued onwards to the best of your abilities, I see no greater test of your loyalty to the Empire. With this said, training Battalion 6629. For your acts of cowardice, and conduct unbecoming to those of the Imperial Army, you will all report immediately to the detention center for eight mandatory hours in the pain gloves. I will not tolerate cowardice from any of you, your comrades have shamed all of you even if a few stood to stand against the task. You are dismissed." Turning away without another word, the man walked with the assistance of a uniformed aide towards the now sealed entrance to the simulation compound. Without missing a beat, another aide quickly took the vacated spot and began to bark out instructions to the gathered recruits and troops. Perimeters were set, recruits funneled towards the disciplinary quarters and those with more experience pulled aside for questioning. Four Stormtroopers in void black armour moved forwards to secure them as their helmets locked down on their surgically implanted identification chips on their shoulders and gestured that the three of them move in the direction of the simulator room where the senior officer had last been. Prodding with their guns as encouragement, they said nothing and made no move to explain why the three recruits were being led away from the main group. [The plot thickens] GM Note: In case you didn't already figure it out, that means Valpine, Andros, and Straf.
Straf ran outside, filing into formation behind what was left of his class. He looked around, not able to see everyone but counting a lot less recruits now within his training Battlion. He also saw a few of the recruits actually limping toward the gathering area, with real injuries. Straf was just about to yell for a medic when an old, injuried man stepped up into view and began talking in an commanding tone. Despite his wants, Straf felt his heart sank as he heard the wounded man talk and issued the verdict for his training Battlion. Anger welled up in his heart as he followed the defeated masses of students towards their disciplinary actions. He was so caught up in that anger that he didn't even felt surprise when he got pulled out of the line and led somewhere else with Andros and Valpine. As Straf received another prod by the Stormtrooper, he barely resisted the urge to turn around strangle the elite trooper behind him, knowing that would most likely result in all three of their immediate deaths. So he took a deep breath and honed his fustration at his current lack of power, his anger towards the unfairness of the situation, and his hatred toward those who would do harm to him, and followed the Stormtroopers' instructions.
Cowardice! How could that be! What could they honestly expect any of them to do! He began trudging along with his head down towards the detention center, when he was grabbed by a stormtrooper in void black armor. The Stormtrooper didn't say a word but just prodded him along. He noticed Straf and Valpine being brought along as well. He looked from one to the other without saying a word. He didn't say anything for fear of what the silent Stormtroopers would do.
