Open Terrain

*Several hours pass as Leliana and the three shistavanen make their way across the countryside towards the city. They approach the outskirts and Grimlock slows his pace to check the map in order to pinpoint the location of the apartment block where they are set to ambush the military patrol. Crouched behind a full-height duracrete privacy fence surrounding a residence, he notes that the apartment buildings are only a few blocks away. Having had no contact with any of his fellow protestors, he has no idea when the patrol will arrive. He only knows that they will likely come in along the main road, heading east into the city. The military base is several hundred klicks west and it is a routine patrol now that martial law has been in effect for the last month or so. The troop movements are very standardized, so Grimlock has little reason to believe they will act any differently this time.*

*Leliana nods in hearing Grimlock's plan. When he asks her what she wants to do, she thinks for a moment. Observing the area in front of her, she looks for a good vantage point. Seeing a good spot further down the road, she turns to Grimlock.*

There is a spot up the road a bit where I'll be covered until the group goes past. When the first shots start, I'll move out and provide fire on their flank. If done correctly, we will decimate their forces a good bit before we have to retreat. I will also place some mines hidden along the road to increase the confusion if needed or to further hinder their chase of us. So..is everyone ready?

*Now that the plan is in place, Slag and Sludge sneak out to the front of the apartment before quickly running across the street to the foodstuffs shop. A few minutes later, they appear on the rooftop and wave at Grimlock to signal that they are ready. Grimlock then heads inside the apartment tower and climbs the stairs to the fourth floor. One of the rooms overlooking the street is held by the rebelling workers under a falsified ID. It has been hiding a 24 hour live holocam feed to monitor the military patrols, now Grimlock opens one of the windows and sets up his rifle. When he is ready, he waves back to Slag and Sludge. Once Leliana has set the mines and is out of sight, all will be ready for when the troops approach. The holocam will be much more interesting today.*

*Leliana activates her personal stealth generator ans disappears from sight. Moving down the path, she sets mines in several key points. Most of the mines are frags, but a few in the front and rear are plasma and concussion mines. They are used to hinder any pursuit. After a few minutes, she deactivates her generator, lets Sludge see her, and then rushes to her hiding point, where she crouches down, waiting for the troops to arrive.*

*Once Leliana is safely hidden there's nothing to do but wait. Fortunately, their timing is good and less than an hour passes before the soldiers appear in the distance. They are marching quickly through the outskirts, but likely will slow down once inside the city.
A civilian speeder zips around a corner in between the soldiers and the ambush point, coming down the street at an alarming speed. Grimlock cringes, awaiting the explosion that will ruin their element of surprise and prepares to give the order to retreat.
Just as suddenly as it appeared, however, the speeder is gone, turning down another street before it gets near the mines. Grimlock heaves a sigh of relief and steels himself again as the soldiers come up to the ambush zone.*

*There are 20 soldiers, marching in two columns down the street, with a speeder carrying 3 officers bringing up the rear. The first few rows of soldiers pass the mines, either avoiding them by luck or not striking them hard enough to trigger them. Just as the first two soldiers have passed the mines, one steps out of ranks behind them and bends down to look at the road. Too late, he realizes he's looking at a partially exposed frag mine.*

*Sludge decides that when the first soldiers pass the mines, that would be his cue to open fire. He squeezes the trigger a little early and the heavy repeater whirrs into life, spraying the troops in the road with blaster bolts. Grimlock and Slag join soon after, trying to keep the soldiers in the road and away from cover.
Some of the soldiers return fire, but it's mostly just a reaction to being fired upon and wildly aimed.*

*So far, things look good for the small squad of insurgents.*

*Leliana sighs in relief as the speeder goes down a different road and then covers her mouth. One of the officers looks in her direction curiously and was about to get off the speeder to check it out when the sound of blaster reach Leliana's ears. The officer turned to see what the commotion was about and Leliana quickly deactivates her stealth field and launches two rockets from her wrist launcher at the speeder. Both rockets hit dead-on and the speeder explodes. All three of the officers were sent flying and only the one that got off partially survived, but was knocked in an alley to the side. Running towards the entrance to said alley, Leliana looks back in time to see all the troops in range of the explosives. With a push of a button, she detonates the one thermal detonator she places in the middle. It blows, causing a chain-reaction and setting off all of the other mines. By now, less than three quarters of the original troops were left, the rest were either dead or too injured to continue. With the odds more in their favor now, Leliana ties the surviving officer up and turns back to open fire on the rest of the soldiers. Within a few short moments, the rest of the soldiers are dead. Motioning for Grimlock and the others to join her, Leliana heads back to the officer.*

*Sludge lets the repeater wind down and the weapon ticks repeatedly as it cools.*

"She's good."

*The three shistavanen take their time climbing down from their hiding places, making sure to leave as few signs of their being there as possible. Grimlock surveys the bloody scene in the street as they pass; twisted chunks of speeder provide stark contrast to the bodies.*

"That was a lot cleaner than I expected. Good work everyone."

*They make their way over to the alley where they saw Leliana run, not knowing that she has taken a prisoner. The captured officer, though, knows that he's in it deep and is planning an escape as he attempts to loosen his bonds. When Leliana returns from signaling Grimlock and the others, the captive stops fidgeting and gives her a cold, blank stare.*

*As the skirmish ends, one NOE LR AW mechanized walker and a squad of soldiers approaches the city outskirts. They proceed slowly and cautiously in order to avoid an ambush similar to the one that just occured. Farther away, two NOE LRAG 665 helicopters lift off and fly at top speed towards the city.*

***Elsewhere***

*Lech and Jeden have finished training the first group of soldiers in Mandalorian methods. It has been a long and difficult process, but now that they have an understanding of it, the improvement shows. Accuracy and efficiency statistics are up across the board, combat ratings have increased, and so has cameraderie and teamwork among the squads. The command structure and method has been simplified, leading to clearer orders and faster response times.

The next step is to train a second set of soldiers and this is left to some of the other Mandalorians that came along with Jeden. Her second, a gruff man named Dva, takes charge over this group; it's a bit smaller than the first group, but there's only one commander instead of two. Also, a third and fourth group, much smaller even than the second, are being trained by the top candidates from the first group. Each is supervised by two other Mandalorians as a quality control measure. Eventually, the plan is to have elevn groups all being trained by local commanders with the Mandalorians acting soley as quality control and advisors, leaving them free to handle special ops duties and training.

All the while, Lech and Jeden are continuing to plan a way out and off-planet. The Acclamator-class cruiser presents a tempting target of opportunity if enough crew can be found. Otherwise, there are several smaller ships which would provide an excellent complement to Lech's JM-5000 and Jeden's Vanguard.*

*Training of the Shistavanen continues, under the close eye of Mandalorian supervisors. Now there are eleven training groups led by a Shistavenen and guided by one Mando each.

Sometime during the night, Lech takes a few of the Mandos with him in a LAAT/i and flies it as covertly as possible to the nearby factory for repairs. It's risky, but the ship needs more help than can be provided at the military base.

The LR AW walker and its accompanying squad enters the city and slowly proceeds down the road towards where Grimlock, Slag, Sludge, and Leliana remain with a captured officer of the planetary militia. The two LRAG helicopters remain on rapid approach and can now see the city in the distance, though they are not yet in weapons range.*

*As the others join her, Leliana suddenly has a bad feeling. Turning to the shistavanen, she motions for Grimlock to follow her and the other two to guard the prisoner. Following the alley to another intersecting street, she sees no one else in sight.*

This place should not be this empty at this time of day, should it? Where is everyone?

*Grimlock follows Leliana down the alley. Also seeing no one, he answers her.*

"Maybe the battle has scared them away?"

*It is a busy intersection in one of the larger population centers on Uvena III. There should be at least a few thrill-seekers or curious young people peeking out of windows to see what has happened. In the silence, the mechanical whirr-clank of the LR AW walker can be heard as it makes its way closer to where Leliana and Grimlock stand. The squad of soldiers spreads out across the street ahead of the walker and are slowly advancing from cover to cover. They know that there are enemies nearby and are actively searching for them. The two helicopters lower their altitude and begin to circle around the city for the proper approach angle.*

*The noise of the walker approaching alerts Leliana to the danger. Moving back down the alley towards Sludge and Slag. Signaling for them to pick up their hostage, she runs past them to check their exit.*

We need to move now! This whole operation was rigged from the start. They knew we would be here somehow. Make your way through the streets to the RP we discussed. Grimlock and I will try to distract them long enough for you to get away. If we are not back within five hours, head back to inform the leaders.

*Slag and Sludge grunt indisinctly as they lift the man and begin a moderate paced run. It's a good distance to the RP and the extra weight of their captive will make the journey difficult.*

*The new squad of soldiers are now within weapons range of the alley where Leliana and Grimlock still are hiding, though they give no sign that they have seen anything. The walker stands in the middle of the street a few meters behind the soldiers. It seems to be scanning the nearby buildings, starting with the opposite side of the street from Leliana. The helicopters remain on low-altitude approach from the opposite direction as the walker.*

*Carmen lands the Sacred Promise on the outskirts of a city, trying to keep a low profile. Carmen hops out, and pulls up the hood of her robe, and walks out towards the city, heading the the nearest Cantina. Her astromech droid waits in its pod on the starfighter, guarding the ship in a matter of speaking.
Carmen walks slowly, her head down slightly, and her hands tucked in the sleeves of her robes as well. She was here for covert reasons, nothing more. If she was advanced upon, she would decide then whether to become involved or not.*

*People in the city bustle about, mostly keeping to themselves. Some do stop and greet those that they know, but this is a busy time of day and the streets are filled with people who are in a hurry to get where they are going.

On a planet full of Shishtavanen, Carmen's smaller figure stands out, even beneath her robes. However, it is not unusual for secretive strangers to visit Uvena III looking for a backwater world to conduct illicit business. Often, this takes the form of evading and capturing bounties. Due to this, few locals are willing to get involved in the affairs of offworlders. Nobody bothers Carmen as she walks down the street.

Soon, the faded sign of the Burly Wolf cantina comes into view. One of the few places on Uvena III that is not intimidating to other species, it currently has a recurring clientele of a dozen or so Mandalorians who surely have a sinister side to their business dealings in the Seat of Government. About six are inside at the moment, along with several of their Shistavanen associates and assorted other patrons. There is no doorman outside at this hour, but likely to be one inside - not for checking identification so much as to prevent and deal with any problems.*

*Carmen looked up at the old sign of the Burly Wolf for a moment, contemplating going inside. Cantinas were well known for being hubs of gossip and information, but she was not familiar with this one. For all she knew, the Burly Wolf could actually just be a bar, having no part in the old trade of barkeeper-intelligence. There was only one way to find out, and she opened the door, letting the smell of those inside rush out.
It was like opening up a bottle of champagne, it all came out quickly, but she adjusted well. Past the smell of people was the food and drink, something she knew that she would have before the end of the day.*

Three speeders depart from the main city area and raise a cloud of dust toward Governance Area 51. The video they have of the lightsaber construction could be very valuable for the right person. They weren't looking to sell it, necesarily, though that was an option. Primarily, they were interested in practical applications for themselves. Lightsaber tech is something quite foreign to non-force users and the chance to recreate it has very promising benefits. Their main obstacle now is determining how to acquire the neessary materials. The most difficult, of course, seems to be the primary crystal.

These details, though, would be handled by those with much more skill than these nine simple soldiers. Right now, their only concern is its safe delivery.