RP Log: From Caspar with Love

Arrival on Caspar by way of the Imperial Embassy side-stepped customs entirely - the strike team and its leaders, First Lieutenant Loreck Hawkins and Agent Kelbris Cooper wholly unknown to the Caspian authorities.

Countless man-hours had narrowed down the warehouse where their quarry was to be found - the Imperial Security Bureau and Naval Intelligence were in agreement. This was the place. It is an unassuming building a short distance from Union Starport - the large structure a square two story building ringed by dense foliage, a single ferrocrete road providing easy access to a rolling hangar door.

A half dozen guards in uniforms of a civilian trading company patrol the perimeter, blast vests, helmets and heavy-blaster side arms apparently coming as standard.

LT Hawkins is fully decked out in an inspectors outfit, his men wear the loose coverall suits of an appropriate technician. Some carry duffel bags, others are in command of push hover hand carts with technicians gear inside. Most are packed with the equipment needed to accomplish this mission. One of the men pilots the tansport skiff casually towards the facility. Upon arrival, Loreck strides slowly down the exit ramp, pausing at the end as his men begin to unload their gear. He observes the guards and the facility, checking to see if the layout holds true to the blueprints which they were able to acquire. He folds his arms across his chest and says, "Let's not take all day boys, time is money in the repairs business..."

Kelbris :is decked out in the same sort of attire, as he slowly walks down the ramp he says to Lt Hawkins and his men "that's right, hustle everyone, let's get this show on the road. Time's a'wastin"

"Hold it!" The sharp bark of a guard calls out, his voice echoing off the dense tree line as several of the patrolling men begin to close in. "What's all this?" the lead man asks, one hand resting on his holstered side-arm and the other gesturing to the equipment being unloaded by Hawkins' men. "Who are you people?"

Kelbris says, "we are repairmen, we were sent here to check your technical and computer systems, your system should have mention of our planned visit today. Unless there is a malfunction, all the more reason to let us do our job.""

Loreck turns to the guard and smiles, "Ah, hello there..." He unfolds his arms and begins to advance while his men look to the guards. They make sure to remain close to their gear. As Loreck draws near to the guard he looks to Kelbris from the side of his eye, "What my associate means to say is that we have a work order for us to repair your HVAC systems. It says here that the computer systems that run them are malfunctioning...though it may be a bigger problem, this model is often having problems, but we have all the equipment need to...fix you." He produces a small datapad with the work order, complete with the proper certification encoded into it

"Let me see that..." the lead guard's hand leaves his blaster, though his compatriots have now located theirs, fanning out in an inconspicuous manner distinctly not part of general security guard training. He swipes through the datapad with a grim expression, fingers drumming on the side in thought as he looks past the pair to the eight men unloading equipment.

"...they don't /look/ like technicians." he remarks, each one of the disguised stormtroopers a strapping physical specimen. He gestures to a hover cart, beckoning it over. "Open it."

Kelbris says in a reassuring tone "I assure you there is nothing to worry about, your system has all the required information to prove that what we are saying is correct. If you do not let us do our job, it would make it easier for criminals to gain access to your systems. We assure you that we will ensure that this does not happen."

Loreck nods, "Some of this equipment is sensitive to light and dust, At least let us step to the inside before we open it...otherwise we will be forced to return another day, and your facility could get quite...uncomfortable." He then looks back the men nodding, "Yes, many of them work security at some of the local establishments...takes a fit man to deal with the riff raff around here, especially when they've had one too many Corellian ales in them." he grin slightly, doing his best to stay calm and not make any sudden moves.

The guard steps back - its a veteran move - as he reaches for his blaster. The weapon smoothly drawn and levelled with Loreck, his men following suite, covering the work-crew. "Open. The. Box." he demands in a gruff manner of a man accustomed to having his orders obeyed.

Kelbris says, "ok, I guess we have no choice, open the box, carefully men. We don't want to ruin any of the equipment, however, I would like to say that I am going to make a note to your supervisor about this...insubordination.""

Loreck turns back to his men, locks eyes with one of them and then nods, "Very well men...time to open up..." As the men begin to open the case he says, "On them." knowing that this is already going bad, he gives the order to arm themselves and initiate the fire fight. He himself takes a defensive stance and moves to reach for a blaster. Bad luck!

Kelbris pulls out his blaster and proceeds to run and duck behind the Cargo Skiff. Yelling "you could have made this easier on all of us" as he did so.

Loreck immediately moves to the skiff the take the best cover he can, shouting, "Arm yourselves men, and take cover!" He says it in that order, not wanting to see any of them fall if not needed. He wields his blaster and ducks behind the skiff, ready to begin taking targets out in the near future. He shakes his head saying, "Should have just gone for this at the beginning..." he mutters to himself.

The guards waste no time in opening fire - the screams of blasters filling the clearing as the Imperial Stormtroopers drop their charade - equipment discarded and blasters drawn as they dash for the cover of the cargo skiff, the hail of responsive fire largely going wide and bouncing off the rugged vehicle leaving angry scorch-marks in their wake.

The advantage now lies with the Empire - armed and in cover, their enemies exposed.

Kelbris is hit by the shots from the enemies before he can retaliate, he falls to the ground unconscious from the shot.

Loreck exposes himself just enough to take a shot at the lead guard. He pulls his trigger smoothly, confidently and a red blaster bolt zips towards the lead guard. Blaster bolts zip past, some impacting on the transport skiff. After taking his first shot and ducking back to cover, "Fire, take them down immediately." He then yells, "MOVE FAST!" His men, having taken cover return with, "STRIKE HARD!" back to him and all take aim, picking their targets and firing.

Loreck's target, the lead guard who'd proven so difficult to fool drops into a combat roll as the stormtrooper levels his weapon, narrowly avoiding the blast and leaving a black carbon burn on the ferrocrete behind him. "Get to cover, circle round!" he roars, as the stormtroopers form a gun-line from behind the cover for the skiff and unleash a volley of well-aimed fire, bringing down two of the guards, blast-vests blown open, the smell of smoldering flesh mingling with tabanna gas, as the remainder return fire.

Loreck takes a blaster bolt right in the shoulder, it spins him around and he slumps to the ground, unconscious. One of his troopers kneels beside him and pulls out a stimpack, slapping it on him. A brief second later, Loreck sits up immediately, breathing deeply, gasping for air and coughing. He immediately hears the blaster bolts flying around him and instinct takes over, he reaches for his blaster, nearby and takes place back behind the skiff, though not moving near as smoothly as he normally would. He gives a weak thumbs up to his men and says, "Don't wait for me, put those pricks down!"

Kelbris stays unconscious despite the best efforts of the soldier that tried to heal him.

The stormtrooper's fire lances through the scattering guards as they dash into cover of their own - bringing down another of their number. The two wounded men lying out on the ferrocrete rolling over and reaching for their dropped blasters.

"Supressing fire!" their leader barks, a volley unleashed from the newly strengthened position as he himself makes an evasive bee-line for the freshly wounded man.

The stormtroopers continue firing their blasters, yelling "TAKE NO PRISONERS" as they did so. Killing two of the remaining guards in the process.

The fire-fight rages on for several volleys, but the advantage is clearly with the Imperials - the heroic guard leader no sooner has the wounded man over his shoulder when a blaster bolt tears through his chest and he collapses to the ground, stone cold dead. One by one, the remainder fall under the stormtroopers' fire.

Finally, Loreck and his men put the guards down. He rises from his position, still not 100, but motions to his men, "Quick, you 6 get to those bodies and get them inside, Medic, take care of the intel officer." he directs his men to follow up, "You and I will get this gear inside...and tie up anyone that's still breathing." His men go about their direction, all of them none the worse for wear, "Nice work Victors.'

"WIN sir!" is their reply as the STs go to work.

Loreck extends his hand and takes the dog tag, "Hmmm, not the normal hourly wage guards that usually guard these places....Let's get in and get out, move quickly troops." he says loud enough to keep them moving and begins to move into the facility with his men, heading straight to where they need to be. "4 of you search the facility 2 of you post outside as guards, the rest of you watch the prisoners and take care of Kelbris." With that he begins to move to find a computer terminal to hastily get the connection done, "Monitor your comms and be ready to adapt rapidly."

The stormtroopers follow his orders to the letter. As they did so they called out "YES SIR" in unison, 4 of the troops following Lt Hawkins, 2 standing guard whilst the rest load Kelbris back aboard the skiff.

The warehouse is much like any other, two stories high and filled with large durasteel crates. A small office raised above the ground to minimize its obstruction of cargo sits at the top of a flight of stairs.

The office itself is similarly bland - an unassuming data terminal rests against the wall opposite a slightly worn couch, a water-cooler, kaff pot and refrigeration unit serving to keep the staff supplied while a small cubicle with a closed door is, presumably, the refresher.

Loreck's data-slice is efficient, if not strictly elegant and the system yields up its information - a complete manifest of the warehouse's current contents and the last half dozen shipments indicating only foodstuffs and finished goods, inspected and approved by the CDU government. The patent falsehood exposed as the stormtroopers begin cracking open crates that contain proton torpedos, laser cannons and componants of turbolaser weaponary.

"Sir! Take a look at this, we found these weapons in these crates that are supposed to contain foodstuffs." One of the stormtroopers said as they opened up a crate labelled 'foodstuffs' that instead contained laser components.

Loreck punches some keys, navigating the system's encryption, he stares intently at the screen and then, "There it is...got it..." he looks to the men breaking open the crates and makes his way over to one of the proton torpedo crates nodding. "Looks like we've found what we're looking for...begin collecting evidence, take pictures, I've downloaded the logs..."

The stormtroopers say "understood sir" before they start taking some of the components and holos of the items being shipped out. Wondering at the same time what would cause the CDU to breach the treaty like this.

Loreck watches as the men begin to gather what's left of the evidence. "Profiteering, being misled, a love for chaos...the things that lead all beings to betray." He begins to gather up the computer and says, "Let's get those 6 bodies out of here, bring them with us, cover us while we prepare to move out." He presses a button on the commlink and says, "Bring the skiff around, we're leaving." **"Roger sir."**