[Within Reason] The Collaborateur

Lavi

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The gentle hum of the hover-van was all that could be heard as Marcella and her troop sat inside. There were three of these vans in total, each numbering a squad of six armed troopers. The quiet atmosphere no longer made Marcella nervous; this is the fifth sting operation that she is taking part of as a member of the ICA: Imperial Consolidation Authority. The local Corellians have taken to calling it the Imperial Collaboration Association.

"Collaborators," they would spit with disgust. A word that has become lower than scum.

Many of those who joined the ICA were like Marcella: those who found it futile to challenge the change in the status quo. For Marcella herself, being a secret agent of the Republic meant that she had nowhere to go if the Republic did not exist anymore. Without a means of income, Marcella turned to the Empire for employment.

Her expertise as a highly skilled cyber-security analyst has been instrumental in uncovering false identities of several Corellians in the system trying to smuggle weapons for various resistance groups. Although not a particularly good shot with a blaster, Marcella's skills and cooperation within the ICA has placed her in command of a Garm Unit: the ICA's elite combat team. They look nearly identical to the Empire's own soldiers, including weaponry, with the exception of possessing red stripes along various armor pieces to clearly mark them as ICA regulars. Marcella herself was similarly geared, but maintained the officer's cap as the team leader.

The plate behind them sounded with a knock.

"ETA 2 minutes," the driver reported.

The team double-checked their arms, voicing words of encouragement to each other as they made the final approach to the warehouse. It was located by one of the smaller spaceports around the city of Tyrena. Being part of the wealthier side of Corellia, the planet itself notorious for its rebellious attitude, the city was ripe with potential sponsors for insurgencies against the new galactic order.

Their target is Kislyi Valorum, who has been the kingpin of the local weapons trafficking ring. By tracing the complicated list of transactions, undoubtedly designed to make the average slicer lose track, Marcella could only conclude that Valorum has a wealthy benefactor supporting him. The man needed to be taken in for questioning, hopefully to provide information that would allow them to shut down the problem at the source of the money.

Marcella keyed the cross-team intercom. "Garm One reminding all Garm units that the target is to be taken alive. The rest are to be dealt with at your discretion."

The caravan came to a stop as she finished and the doors opened.

"Sweep the area. No escapees. Garm One out," she ordered and shut off the comms.

The ICA troopers exited their vehicles with proper coordination, covering each other as they fanned out to cover as much ground as possible.
 

RedTie

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Rheg hated the ICA he even had a pet name for it Imperal captivity agency. He had been on his way to correla to see if enething had changed and it seems it has. A local kingpin had approached him in a bar and asked for his help. "The blasted imperials are breathing on my neck I think they may be planning to attack my warehouse" the kingpin said. "Most of my guards are little more then common gangsters I need some professional help", Normally he would decline but killing imperials he smiled at that thought and accepted the offer. He organized the kingpins men into small groups hiding around the warehouse ready to open fire at the single. Rheg had also placed 4 remote mins under the ground. It did not take long for the ICA to come rolling in *Blast* Rheg thought there was only supposed to be one van. The vans stopped and soilders filled out ready for combat. Rheg hummed as he detonate the mines destroying a van and killing some soilders. As soon as the dust settled the kigping's groups open fired at the ICA members but Rheg had feeling they would not be enough he pulled out his blasters and walked off the roof and towards the front door.
 
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Lavi

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The action heated up quicker than Marcella expected. Two men were dead from with another injured from the lead van that was destroyed. However, they still had a job to do. Rather than step outside with the rest of the soldiers, Marcella sat down at her small station within the rear of her van. It was equipped with communications relays as well as counter-electronics measures. She had her own job to do as the unit leader.

Outside, the ICA troopers opened fire on the rebels as they spotted them. This wasn't any ICA rabble: this was the Garm Unit. Their marksmanship were easily superior to common thugs, using their rifles to lay down effective suppressing fire against the better positioned rebels. The other two vans revealed their own remote controlled weaponry, operated by the co-driver, providing a base of fire that the rebels could not readily fight. The Garm Unit prioritized the rebels on the edges of the defensive line, leaving the vans to suppress the center line unmolested.

Inside her command center, Marcella monitored the action through various camera feeds. The intelligence provided to her did not indicate that the traffickers were well prepared to deal with the ICA, but the wreckage of one of the combat vans indicated otherwise. It's unclear at this point if the weapons dealers are getting help from an unknown benefactor or they were just tipped off early enough to make preparations.

"Watch your flanks. There may be additional hostiles," Marcella comm'd her men.

Lights blinked to indicate the acknowledgements of the three fireteam leaders. They cannot waste too much time with this distraction. Kislyi Valorum cannot be allowed to escape.

Once the rebels outside have been thinned, Marcella designated a fireteam to start clearing the warehouse. The six men started with the nearest section of the warehouse as the two remaining vans repositioned to fill the gap that they left. The Garm fireteam knew to fully expect remote explosives and other booby traps that can be laying in wait for them and were equipped to search for electronic signatures that could suggest such traps. However, the need for caution will surely prevent them from sweeping the building in a quick manner.
 

RedTie

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The battle was not going well Rheg could tell his plans were not going well. He was approaching the warehouse door when 6 imperial spoilers ran in Rheg jumped behind a pulled firing 3 shots with pin point accuracy killing the first 3 soilders. The rest found cover and began to fire on his position. "Group B get your blasted butts over here NOW!" Rheg yelled into his comms. 8 rebals ran out from the 2 floor firing on the imps but only killing one more 3 of the hamsters were killed by the skilled imps before they could find cover. *This is not going to end well* Rheg thought considering falling back.
 

Lavi

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It did not take long before the fireteam sent to sweep the warehouse reported heavy casualties. In fact, it was the moment they entered the first room that they encountered heavy resistance.

What in the blazes...

Four dead in the span of a minute is entirely unexpected, especially for the ICA's best. Under normal circumstances, Marcella would have chosen to avoid delivering the order she was about to commit to, in the case that collateral damage would include her own troopers, but the remaining two troopers within the warehouse will die anyways without immediate assistance.

"Sweep the building with suppressing fire," she told the driver of her van. After a moment's thought, she switched to her comms. "Fireteam Cresh, brace for heavy fire support."

With a gentle hum of the turret rotating onto the building, the gun began shredding through the warehouse wall. The weapon stalled the rebel counterattack inside the building almost immediately as the rebels scrambled for cover. The remaining two troopers took quick shots at them before hunkering down at whatever cover they were able to find.

In the confusion, Marcella rewound the video feeds on the Cresh fireteam to try to identify what surprised them. It did not take long to see that it was a single shooter. The lighting made it difficult to tell exactly who the individual was, but the silhouette is definitely a humanoid.

"Be advised, there is an expert shooter among the hostiles. Be cautious," she comm'd to her troopers.

Marcella pinged the co-driver, her XO on this operation. "Take command. I will be taking the field."

"Copy that," was all she heard as she stepped out of the hover-van.

The fighting outside has largely concluded with the rebels, as expected, retreating from the area. The troopers will be hunting them down and there are additional non-Grom units standing by to assist with the clean up. After flipping off the safety on her pistol, Marcella started walking towards the building where Fireteam Cresh is still at. Her hover-van was still firing into the building, but with more practiced bursts than full automatic now that the immediate danger has passed.

The unknown shooter is the greatest danger to this operation and Marcella wants to make sure that he stays out of the way long enough for this operation to be an assured success.
 

RedTie

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Rheg's world had turned into red blaster fire as the turrets on the imp vans open fired on the warehouse shredding the walls. Rheg started climbing his piller and made it to a small arch hanging off the side of the piller. Rheg now had a clear view of the two remaining imp soilders. He fired two more shots aimed at there heads. They connected send the imps heads rolling across the ground. Rheg jumped down from the arch and onto the 2 floor were the rebals held cover. Rheg joined them in there cover and waited for the turrets to stop firing after all they can't take a where house if none of there men can get in.
 

Lavi

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It didn't take long for the survivors of Fireteam Cresh to stop responding. With that, a third of the unit was killed attempting to enter the warehouse alongside the several wounded in the outdoor gun battle. In other words, a disaster. However, that was not to say that there were no other options to conclude this operation. There is no indication that Kislyi managed to escape in the confusion. That alone meant that her Imperial overseers will see to the continuation of the operation, even if it meant double the casualties. That is not even a fact of their supposed cruelty: Garm Unit are Republic men and women, not Imperial.

"Prepare the loudspeakers," Marcella spoke through the comms to her command van. They had a message prepared in the case that Kislyi was trapped but unwilling to turn himself in. In light of this unknown shooter, it was better to avoid sending more men into his crosshairs.

"This is the Imperial Consolidation Authority. You have been surrounded. Turn over Kislyi Valorum and we will guarantee leniency for those who surrender themselves peacefully. If you fail to comply within 30 minutes, we will be forced to resort to less than desirable measures."

The ICA would not be sitting around and waiting during that grace period. Even if they did not anticipate the level of resistance that these rebels were providing, the ICA was prepared for a manhunt. Heavier ordnance will be brought in to assist, including a gunship and several sniper-spotter teams set up to try to spy on the warehouse interior. The perimeter manned by the ICA grunts will be reinforced. Medical staff will be brought in to evacuate the wounded, though their ambulance is stopped a distance away for safety purposes.

The medics checked their own first, carrying away the wounded and leaving the dead for later. The medical team was instructed to not assist the wounded rebels outside, in case they booby trapped themselves or intend to use their own as bait. Such tactics were employed against the ICA in the past, some with deadly results.

Meanwhile, Marcella looked around to see if she could locate any indication of a surveillance system around the warehouse. However, the arrangement of wires around the complex made it difficult to determine with the naked eye.

"Deploy some droids to scout out the complex more thoroughly. Further casualties are unacceptable," Marcella ordered.

Her use of the word unacceptable was only understood by those who served in the organization long enough to experience loss as non-Imperials. Of course their Imperial overlords wouldn't care; to the more grim ICA veterans, the Empire saw the Authority as a means to tear the remnants of the Republic further apart.
 
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