Theory to Reality

[Rhoden Carbine]

Rhoden entered the hall, several Rebels turned, froze up as they saw his armor and charging form, and died as Rhoden sent shots into their chests and heads. Slowing as he came to the end of the hallway Rhoden glanced down the fork leading left. The corridor was empty.

"Here." Rhoden said, thrusting a datapad and several high-yield detonators into Tybar's hands. "The shield generator should be down that corridor, the rough base schematic is on that datapad and on your helmet's display. I'll deal with the weapons." Rhoden was undoubtedly taking a risk by throwing Tybar at something like this, but if worst came to worst the Hydra could make do with only the weapons disabled. "Meet up here." Rhoden gestured to a point on the map just off the command section.

Rhoden turned and sprinted off. Rounding the corner he met more rebels. Rhoden glimpsed a heavy weapon and threw himself into a doorway, cursing. The heavy turret warped the door frame as it belatedly fired, but Rhoden had already began moving again. He pushed off hard from the sealed door and fired a reasonably accurate shot into the tibanna canister of the weapon. There was an explosion and the closest rebels to the turret were incinerated, the further two were thrown in Rhoden's direction. He simply drew his vibroblade and cut their throats, not bothering to ensure their deaths.

Rhoden continued to the weapons-control room. The door was thankfully unlocked, negating the need to blow it open. Rhoden keyed it open a quarter of the way and rolled two detonators inside. The door slid shut to terrified screams and as Rhoden sprinted down the hallway the station shook with a great explosion, followed closely by another. it would seem the Cadet had succeeded in his task.

[Rake Tybar]

Rake had continued with the task simultaneously with the officer, and there was a distinct sound of destruction a minute or two before his own objective had been blown to a hot-metal wreckage. Now he just needed to get to the rendezvous.

He darted through the door way that lay open, assuming it remained open due to systems failure on the station, but was as surprised as the troops were when he ran straight into two rebel soldiers who had been galloping his way. He seized the initiative, even as one of them seized him. He punched one square in the forehead, sending a horrible shock up his own forearm and into his shoulder joints. He yelled out but it was muffled by his helmet. As the second rebel grabbed him from behind, trying some sort of arm and neck lock, Rake managed to get off three pot-shots with his pistol, sending two into the gut of the stunned rebel, who fell over, cradling the smoking marks on his abdominal area. This just angered the other rebel more though as he tightened the grip. This time it was too tight and Rake's pistol fell from his hand, his instinct was to grasp and claw his way free, but after a few moments in that futile idea, a better one occurred to him. He struggled with his feet, where he and the rebel still had even footing, pushing back against the wall, once, then twice. The second time was harder, and allowed him the brief opening he needed.

His left arm dropped a little, enough for Rake to grasp around his own filter pipe leading into his mask. He pulled violently at it until it ripped out of it's socket, releasing a gust of fumes the helmet had been collecting to disperse and vent later. Unfortunate the rebel it went straight into his own airways. Now instead of clutching at Rake, he was coughing and grasping his neck, as if it would do much good. He'd need medical attention, but that wasn't going to happen. The Imperial Cadet scrambled for his blaster but found another, slightly chunkier but felt balanced in the same way. It had fallen out of the Rebel's own holster. He got up, aimed, fired.

After leaving a trio of shots in the rebel who'd came close to subduing him, two in the chest and one in the head, he finally arrived at the meeting point, a little messed up but amazingly, in his eyes, still holding it together.

"It's done. I had a struggle with some of the rebels but it's done." He said, waving the new blaster he found, like a battlefield souvenir. At least it would be, if he got out of this alive.

[Rhoden Carbine]

Rhoden smiled beneath his helmet and keyed open the door. There were only two soldiers among the officers, one of which was staring Rhoden in the faceplate, a shocked look on his face. He never got the chance to surrender, Rhoden swung the butt of his blaster into the mans ribcage, promptly breaking bone. Gurgling he fell, his heart stopped from the shock. Rhoden heard a shot from behind him and the second soldier fell to the floor.

The rest of the officers scrambled for weapons or dived for cover. Between Rhoden and the Cadet none survived more than mere moments. Rhoden walked up to the main database and inserted a datacard. "This shouldn't take more than--ah--very good." Rhoden said as the entire database was loaded onto the card. "Intelligence conjured this up so we wouldn't have to spend hours on what only has to be a smash and grab." Rhoden explained as he turned from the console, pocketing the datacard. "Back to the ships."

Rhoden and Tybar made it back to the hangar without further complication and were soon out among the other fighters. None of the rebels had survived in space either. "Hydra is inbound, sir." the Starwing captain reported. And sure enough the Enforcer cruiser jumped in at that moment, blasting several small asteroid into oblivion.

"As soon as you've landed we can safely dismantle the base, Commander." Lieutenant Commander Jodine Mercado's voice came over the comm. Rhoden smiled once more, "Coming in now." Rhoden responded, switching back to the direct comm with Cadet Tybar. "This, Cadet, is the Enforcer-class cruiser Hydra. Welcome aboard." Rhoden said. "I'll be contacting Grand Admiral Kraiov once we're aboard to see about getting you a posting."

[Rake Tybar]

Rake flew uncharacteristically casual as they escaped the hanger's gravity pull and made their way to the Enforcer Class starship. Hydra - he wondered if it had been named to it's many different turbolaser emplacements upon it's hull. Shaped like a miniature star destroyer, it was far more efficient for this type of task, but no less imposing.

The Imperial cadet was ushered into the hanger by flight control, sounding notably different from the stuck up instructors back at the school. Probably because they were fully fledged Imperial Navy, and they knew it. There was a certain degree of confidence in each message, it was more reassuring than some trainee hoping not to clip your wing on the hanger crane. The phantom swooped in and was clasped by two docking clamps, which helped ease it to the ground where a ladder descended to the cockpit door.

A hiss of thin oxygen escaped as the door opened, the TIE's after all didn't have any atmosphere within, hence the need for the helmet and the tubing during flight, but now was a good time to remove that too. He shouldered his helmet under his arm and looked around, listening out for the unmistakable sound of turbolasers. He didn't want to miss it, having never seen an Imperial warship unleash a barrage of green turbo lasers before, it was high on his 'to-do' list. Though, he imagined it would become customary and normal soon enough.

He almost walked away before remembering to grab his souvenir. Luckily, it fit nicely in the regulation holster. He glanced over to the Commander, snapping off a quick salute before addressing him.

"Thanks for the welcome. It's not something I've experienced before, despite my career choice, I was never allowed onto a warship. Just planetary duty. It's 'difficult' at best to follow your designated career path when they don't allow you near your trade." He continued.

[Rhoden Carbine]

"Indeed it is." Rhoden said, smiling as he took off his own helmet. "With me." he said walking confidently towards the hangar's exit. Two AT-ST's sat a ways off in the hangar, as did two assault transports and a Lambda shuttle. Rhoden's YT-2000 had also been brought aboard and was being looked over by a bustling group of technicians. The squadron of Starwing's were likewise undergoing minor maintenance following their battle, the TIE Phantoms required no maintenance as they had sustained no damage whatsoever.

Five of the Hydra's twenty Stormtroopers and ten of the sixty Naval Troopers greeted Rhoden, checked over the Cadet, and allowed them to proceed. Rhoden lead the Cadet to the bridge where the ten other members of Inferno Squad were waiting. Dirys Jorvan looked up from a datapad, nodded, and went back to whatever it was he had been doing. Haly Sopol glanced at the Cadet curiously, gave Rhoden a warm smile, and went back to talking to a crewman.

Rhoden walked up to the holotable and keyed in the Admiral's contact information the image flickered to the revolving logo of Inferno Squad while it waited for the Admiral's signal. "Hopefully this should be over quickly." Rhoden said.

[Rake Tybar]

Rake followed, keeping a steady pace behind the Commander. He noticed the collection of Imperial hardware and wondered about the capacity of the larger vessels, Star Destroyers, for example. He couldn't imagine fitting an entire brigade into one vessel, but it was required as per imperial doctrines, so it must be true.

He'd never seen Naval troopers before, despite being in the Imperial Navy himself, they were mostly trained and deployed away from the Starfighter academies, so if you never left the school, you were in for a lot of 'firsts' on your initial deployment.

Once on the bridge, he noted that it may not be the standard set up for a starship. Notably, a medium sized group, a dozen or maybe less, dressed similarly to the Commander loitered about the area. He assumed they all belonged to the same sect or regiment, judging by the familiarity. Rake started to wonder what position the Commander held on here, if he was the captain of the vessel, of the team and why he came to the Starfighter academy for a pilot, and not draft from one of the active fleet rosters or experienced squadrons. Still, after that little field trip, he was as experienced now as most other pilots in the mid-rim territories, perhaps more-so than the core worlds.

The Officer cadet stood quietly behind as the listed information detailed a lot, but enough for Rake to notice the Admiral rank. Standing at the back, he kept a low profile and remained to hear what was to be discussed.

[Rake Tybar]

((OOC: What's happening with this now?))

[Ben Kenobi]

OOC: Posting tonight. Sorry for the delay.

[Ben Kenobi]

The holo flickered as the connection was established after a short two or so minute wait in which a secure communications line could be established from well nearly half a Galaxy away. Once done however, the Grand Admiral himself appeared on the other end; uniform of pristine care, there was a pride taken in it. Rank studs polished and presented accordingly, a cape framed his broad silhouette with golden studs on the top of his shoulders. He stood hands clasped before him with a serious look on his face, he was relatively young considering his rank and station though that should not be taken into account compared to his experience and the effort it had taken him to get to where he was now.

Argus Kraiov, Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy and interim Commandant and Executor of the Imperial Military; waited patiently for the message connection to be established. "Commander Carbine, report." It was a short and blunt comment, something Rhoden had surely become accustomed to since his most recent posting; when it was time to get down to business, Argus was not interested in pleasantries. The mission was more important than a few courtesies. Aside from that, if Rhoden was communicating from this frequency then is was mission critical anyways.

In a moment Argus took in the setting, another was in the projected image... an Imperial Cadet? Curious, while at first he thought to dismiss the subject but he didn't immediately do so, if the Commander of Task Force Inferno had reason to submit this Cadet then there was something keen about him indeed. While not outright addressing the Cadet, he did cast a glance and regarded him appropriately. Argus had a certain respect for the men and women of the line branches of the Imperial Military, many a time he'd fought alongside them and bled in the same mud. The fighting men of the Empire were what bore the brunt of the Empire's work, to disregard them was to commit an injustice to their daily sacrifices. Indeed, just as this Cadet, Argus had also started from the ground up and he hadn't forgotten where he'd come from.

Patiently, the Grand Admiral awaited the Commander's report.

[Rhoden Carbine]

The Grand Admiral appeared "Commander Carbine, report." he said. "The rebel base in the system has been effectively neutralized, and the information from their database is on this card." Rhoden said holding up the card. Rhoden glanced at Cadet Tybar, "Now, this here is Cadet Rake Tybar." he went on. "He was involved with the--ah--convoy escort and fighter assault on the base." He pressed a button "The relevant data was transferred to you several minutes ago." Rhoden said, his back straightening. "The result of the convoy and it's somewhat delicate manner is that Cadet Tybar was summarily removed from the academy--which is an entirely different discussion that someone will need to have with the instructor." Rhoden finished, his face hardening. "Regardless, the end result is that Cadet Tybar has displayed exceptional skill in the handling of fightercraft--not to mention the ability to quickly adapt to drastically different circumstances. And while he is not what one would call the most skilled on the ground he could be trained up well enough."

Rhoden paused now, and drew a deep breath. "Requesting permission to immediately commision and asign Cadet Tybar to Task Force Inferno. Rank of Ensign during period of training, and following such training the promotion to Lieutenant and member of Inferno Squad." Rhoden said. "As you stated upon the commisioning of this force, I have the authority to handpick members of this force, I will personally ensure the Cadet lives up to the name." Rhoden said. "Assuming, of course, he is willing to take the job. If not he would make an excellent pilot somewhere else in the fleet."