((Hahaha!!! Amazing post, Arihad, my friend! AMAZING! Truly Mando! Haha! I've read and reread it several times now just because it's that l33t!))

Shaarn chuckled. He didn't cry out. He didn't yell. But, he, too, was riled up. After killing those Vong, he was ready. His subordinate was taking over his job, but, frankly, he didn't care. He preferred to be in the back supporting someone else anyway. He'd be sure to talk to his boss about giving Arihad some sort of rank promotion. Shaarn put his HUD back on and pulled a cloth poncho that came down to his ankles out of his sack and threw it on over all of his gear. He preferred it like that, and it helped him stay stealthy, even in his Mandalorian Armor. He turned to Arihad. "Take the men and take out this group of Vong. I'm scouting ahead, and taking out as many things that move and breath as I can." The Noghri hopped back and jumped up into the nearest tree.

There was a scream of pain behind the clearing, accompanied by a loud THUD. As if it were an echo, another scream and another thud soon followed, and Jacck emerged into the clearing with black blood on his vibrosword. "Got two more, but that leaves two unaccounted for," he said, trying to dissolve the battle euphoria currently rippling through the Mandalorians. There was certainly a time and place for celebration, but it helped if you made sure the enemy was dead first. In his scan of the clearing, Jacck had counted but fourteen dead Vong and Vong creatures, and combined with the four he had just killed that left two out of the original twenty...two that could even now be creeping up behind the exultant Mandalorians.

Jacck was young, but he was also more hardened than some of these warriors, and even the experienced Mandalorians had trouble containing their excitement after a battle. That was all fine and dandy for them, but Jacck was not going to let that get him killed, and he wanted them back on track.

And then he noticed the large patch of forest that had been just...blown away. He had heard the explosion but had chalked it up to mere battle clamor, but now it was plain to see that the Mandalorians had merely been...celebrating. Among the burning trees, Jacck's searching eyes stumbled upon several tall humanoid crisps: what was left of the Yuuzhan Vong. A sigh escaped his throat. Explosive devices were just fine when necessary, but to Jacck they caused far too much collateral damage and were overall a less satisfying way of killing an opponent than sticking a vibroblade in their face or a blaster bolt in their gut. While it was doubtful that there was anything out here that anyone cared about, he had drilled it into his head that the less collateral damage, the better, and it was hard to let that instinct go.

A rustling reverberated from the treetops. Two grunts, almost growls, sounded, and then two bodies of Yuuzhan Vong warriors fell, tied together, at Jacck's feet. The Noghri peeked his head down. "There's your two unaccounted for Vong, though they don't really count considering how many that detonator took out." He then jumped back down, next to Jaack. "Glad someone else noticed the two missing, though I thought it was 6." He chuckled.

Jacck chuckled, then began to wipe the blood off his sword. "And where do you think the other four went?" His cocky grin returned to his face, but it was tempered now with a little more respect for the Mandalorian captain. The one called Arihad was a very effective leader, but sometimes he didn't seem to have the practical elements of battle down, whereas the Noghri leader seemed to have them nailed. The two complemented each other, and the combination worked. "Alright, then," Jacck said, turning around. "Where to now? How deeply has this Vong infestation run?" He sheathed his vibroblade but kept it close at hand.

((Your postings caught me by surprise. But that's all good and fine; I was doing last minute things anyways. I'll keep close tabs on this post from now on. Let's make it clear that if you're online and if it's your turn to post, throw one in, regardless of if you think the others are on. Even if we're all logging on to the forum at different times of day, at least that way we get some rp's done in a day.))

Arihad used the HUD to keep track of the scout captains who were going through the battlefield with vibroblades, flushing Vongese out of the jungle with cold-blooded precision. Arihad didn't like his blood ran cold -- he liked it hot, warm with the thrills of warfare and glory, his armor damn with sweat caused by incindiaries going off near him, his fur raised in joy and excitement.

"Well done, vod'an! Oya, oya kodrete ar Vongese! Let's hunt and burn the Vong, my brothers!"

Arihad raised his fist, wirled it in the air, and then made a forward gesture. Multiple Mandalorian acknolodgement lights went on inside his helmet, and the Mandalorians spread out into an offensive wedge, a search and destroy formation. This wasn't to say that they were vulnerable

-- some proceeded up faster than others, and they moved in at least pairs, sometimes trios, making sure that all directions were checked every two or three yards, many of them keeping their eyes up on the trees. The front line were searchers -- they were tasked with probing, seeking, drawing the enemy to them. They were comprised of warriors who knew battle, but the veterans, the true veterans, like the one he'd had reporting the status of the battle and himself, were in the second line, their guns ready to be trained on any particular location. Only he was an exception; while normally, veterans like himself were the second line, Arihad went forward, at the leading edge of the wedge, with his blades in hand, beskar sabres ready to twist into arcs that would create bloody fountains out of his enemies.

The second line covered the first, and the central line maintained lines of sight, ordering soldiers into position, making sure that no part of the wedge got overbalanced, that no part of the formation got too far ahead, and most importantly, that nothing hit the flanks or rear. The wedge was a powerful formation ina city or urban enviroment, or inside a structure, but in the jungle, creatures could come from miles a way, sensing the disturbances of so many. The flanks had to be watched -- this was why the quietest, the most discreet, and the most stealthy were in the center, with orders not to fire, but to inform. The second line would form off into a squad, a hunter killer team, devoted to firing into the ambushers who'd flanked them. If that squad was too pressed, the whole formation would break into a tight infantry square, two lines strong, with one group kneeling and the other standing, providing two overlapping arcs of fire per block of the square.

These orders had been communicated via a single hand gesture. This was the reason, Arihad thought, that the arutiise failed at war where the Mando succeeded. Every Mando had an eye on the small and large pictures, and they all knew where they should go after being given only a single directive.

Arihad stopped, his boots coming down on a carcass. It was in badly delapidated Mando armor, burned acidcally, and the insides had been pulled out, though the skin and bones had been left intact, leaving the top part of the body chewed out and off while the back formed a half-human-structure cast of the previous owner.

"Mando, ar baar kute. A Manda, boys, still in his armor, at least, parts of it. Dead, quite dead. I think we're looking at an unfortunate individual who made hard contact in this blasted jungle. Let's not get seperated, then, shall we?"

More acknowledgement lights. Arihad was nervous, and he brought his sabers up into defensive positions, ready to pivot, roll, dive, and make clearing sweeps while rotating to check all directions.

That saved him. A large creature, along with some of those mutatated human-like Rakghoul vong jumped from out of the trees, surrounding him. His intiial clearing sweep with the saberstwisting his blade as he struck, decapitated one, struck another with the flat, and with his other blades, he cut the leg off another at the thigh. As he dove forward, he clubbed one with the handle, sweeping in a vertical arc with the blade which had gotten the Vong in the leg, cutting him crotch to midtorso, pulling out a trail of guts on the curved blade.

He finished his roll, coming up facing his opponents, and spun, bringing full momentum into play, striking the lead Vongese creature as it loped forward at a low crouch, trying to reach up at him and push him down at the shoulders. It lost both arms and head for the effort.

He spun again, building more momentum, as he pivoted to the left, this time catching a large creature, which now looked like a Vong-coral-plated Boma, only more agile and predatory in appearance, across the eyes, causing them to fountain green ichor.

Now he backed up, catching the creature under the chin with his parting strike and ripping it's throat out, while whirling to catch a creature with the hilt of his saber who'd snuck up on him, then pointing one blade outward while finishing the one he'd just struck, crouching as he did so.

He was a flurry of actions, and soon he realized that he was outnumbered. A now thrilled, battle-crazed Bothan began fighting for his life, while issuing an Orange light, requesting assistance from the second line, as an afterthought.

((Yeah...I was going to post this morning, but I didn't have time to read your post :P))

The sight of the Mandalorians, all spreading out to cover each other, served to reinforce the fact that Jacck was the outsider here, the one who was alien to the Mandalorian's tactics and way of life. Not that this bothered him, but it did kind of irk him that everyone else knew what the game plan was and just assumed he did, too. Then again, he wouldn't have been too pleased had one of them started giving him orders, either. Jacck was a loner who sometimes fought WITH a group, not a team player who fought FOR a group. He was in it for the money and the fame and the rush that total victory brought.

He quickly grasped the Mandalorian tactics and followed along, joining the second line, but he hadn't gone too far when the sound of battle caught his ears. Quickly moving forward, the mercenary drew his repeating blaster and headed towards the sound, expecting to find a fierce battle between the Mandalorians and the Vong. Instead, he found only one Mandalorian, the over-eager Bothan, now outnumbered and having the fight of his life. Jacck did not hesitate; his first bolt, a precision shot, burned the throat out of the nearest Vong. That first bolt was soon joined by many others as his repeater blaster spat out round after round of concentrated energy bolts. The Vong began to fall around the beleaguered Bothan, and openings appeared for him to strike.

After the first few precision shots from the repeating blaster of the scout captain, who'd been participating in the second line, Arihad was able to tell who he would pick off next, and the wily Bothan went on the offensive, totally ignoring everyone that he knew was about to be shot and going for the ones who were just squaring off, catching them suddenly off guard. WIth every swing, he hit once, sometimes twice, and made sure to throw in the occasional kick or body slam for good measure. The method was extremely effective, and Vong that backed off just gave the scout a clearer shot. Green and yellow ichor was running off his blade, and they were actually beginning to become overbalanced as the liquid weighed heavily on the weapons. As he fought, harder, faster, more aggressively, his attacks became less precise, but far, far more efficient -- every motion flowed directly into another, less elegant motion that did more damage. Thrusts became corscrewing thrusts that caught two enemies as they curved, then became slashes as they were ripped outwards, which became smashing blows of the hilt-cap as he came forward instead of drawing the blades back for another strike. Those who stayed in close combat with him, died. Those who backed away to re-asses were shot. The two Mandalorian veterans did it true Mando style -- few against many, the victorious against the inept.

However, Arihad was starting to have worries. The entirety of the second line had given him a lime green light of acknowledgement; this light meant that help was being delayed due to Hard Contact. Arihad swore, checking the HUD markers for positioning. Center line, composed of hidden scouts, had just reported swarms of small creatures coming from the flanks and rear, moving through the bushes. The whole second line reported Double Impact, which was to say, Hard Contacts that were of the magnitude of a full battle. First line and began drawing back, and infantry squares, small, usually six or eight man ones began to form in light of the absence of any clear ability to regroup -- they needed to return fire, and they needed to return it now before they were taken out. Double-purple lights began flashing, indicating that the enemy was engaged in fire -- that implied projectiles. They were being fired on by creatures, and the trees meant that the enemy likely was firing with the advantage of surprise. No red casualty lights were on, but multiple sky-blue lights of 'wounded' appeared.

Arihad's display was a barrage of lights, and it was overwhelming. One light caught his attention, though, because every single unit in the platoon was making it. Two, actually. The first was brown, for surrounded. THe second was a flashing black light -- a request for orders.

He gave them, ordering all units to reform on center, second line to retreat to center, and first line to retreat, low to the ground, ordering full use of ordance and automatic weapons fire on anything that moved. Arihad realized that he was on the first line, and that he'd just ordered his own troops to begin indiscrimately using lethal force in his direction if it meant killing something in his vicinity.

He looked to the Scout Captain who'd assisted him, knowing he'd have heard the orders.

"Tok'kad, Tok'kad! Dammit! Tok'kad Mando!"

Mando was Arihad's first language, and he didn't care if the captain understood. Still, his running cover to cover back away from the enemy could probably be sucesffuly interpreted as ''retreat, dammit.''

Arihad ran for his life.

The skill with which the Bothan had worked to take advantage of Jacck's attacks impressed him, and they had had little problem dealing with the rest of the Bothan's attackers. As the last Vong fell, victim to a barrage of fire from his repeater blaster, Jacck permitted himself a sigh of exultation. He walked among the fallen enemies, making sure all were dead, as the other warrior checked his signal lights, which were flashing uncontrollably. The mercenary scanned the surrounding area for any remaining enemies, but one of Arihad's orders caught his attention. An order for retreat...Jacck swore internally. His natural instinct was to never retreat, never surrender, and perhaps, by such methods, to catch an enemy off-guard. While there were times in which a retreat was necessary, Jacck was always reluctant to issue them until he knew the situation was hopeless.

However, there was no mistaking the tone of the Bothan's voice as he screamed something incoherent, perhaps in the Mandalorian tongue, perhaps in the Bothan one. His voice was alarmed, and as he began to run at top speed back towards the line of Mandalorian troops, Jacck swore and rushed to follow. Something was wrong, horribly wrong, and no matter how reluctant he was to retreat, neither was he going to simply stand around while his companion, by all appearances a valiant man, felt the need to flee...and while he had no idea of their current situation.

Now that Arihad was in retreat, the Bothan could see Mandalorians moving ahead of him, many in low cover, always working in pairs, usually a spotter and a gunner, the spotter to make sure that they weren't flanked, to track the Vongese forms through the jungle. The gunners were providing covering fire, and with full accordance with the orders Arihad had given, those orders were followed with extreme prejudice. Five Mandalorains, ahead of them, were supplying cover as Arihad ran straight for them, jumping off his course to duck behind a tree as the Mandalorians would unleash a full volley of covering fire, usually striking forms. Arihad had 360 degree range of vision, due to his helmet, and a brief flick of his eyes showed that the jungle had come alive behind him, alive with shambling, almost camouflaged coral covered forms.

He'd pissed off something very powerful in this jungle with his overly coordinated group of Mando's.

Arihad's retreat, while straightforward, was also intelliigent; he ran straight towards the five Mando's near the fallen log, and when he did so, he would obstruct their lines of fire, denying them clear shots. The creatures behind him would then move up, coming out of the shelter and trying to run him down. But then, once his helmet revealed all contacts were out in the open, he would go prone, or duck behind a tree, or dive into a set of bushes, and generally just get the hell out of the line of sight of his men. Then they would open fire -- they didn't even have to be accurate, or fire in controlled bursts. Fully automatic fire, swept into a crowd of hard contacts downrange, almost every time. THey began getting wary, and then the spotters became more important, with one dedicated to locatiung the leading enemy targets, telling the three riflemen to put down fire and grenades when the spotter found someone. When targets were more hesitant to come out, even to follow Arihad and the scout, who had been doing the same evasive reveal that Arihad had been, the frustrated, adrenaline driven Mando's began using grenades. Someone pulled out a NeroXan grenade -- a liquid phospher grenade that burned when it made contact with moisture. Which, in this jungle, meant everything -- but it was a very controlled battlefield weapon, and burned no further than it's blast radius...of fifteen yards, or forty-five feet. Then, seeing the effectiveness of the weapon as they light green flames, which often caused dancing, terrified, burning Vong to be revealed, another pair were thrown. This secured the retreat of Arihad...and gave him an idea.

Orders were given over his comm. "Full retreat! Stop with this lagged retreat crap, we're reforming we're ranks, and we're going to buy time to do it. Everyone who's got combustible waepons, like a NeroXan grenade, throw them!"

Triple green acknolowedgements were on now. Triple green wasn't just ''yes sir.'' It was ''yes sir, we are following your orders to terminate enemy operations, with extreme prejudice, SIR!"

Of the twenty five Mando's, not counting the more independently operating scout captains, like the one helping him, roughly eleven had such weapons, and a few more pulled out their flame thrower canisters, overpressured them, and threw them as makeshift grenades. While not feeding off of moisture in the same way, fire was fire.

Soon, lines were reformed, and an infantry triangle was formed -- twenty five men, with Arihad kneeling while keeping one eye on his hud, tracking targets. The infantry square was tight, with five men kneeling and five men standing over the kneeling people, done to form a neat triangle, which gave outbound fire with high efficiency. Arihad was at the tip of one of the triangle's corners.

"I want friend-or-foe confirmation on anything spotted in the open at 25 meters and a KOS zone at 18 meters. Controlled bursts on exposed targets, one round fire on another. Standing units, act as spotters, paint targets and mark them as red dots on our tacMAP. I want a tacmap open for everyone, now!"

TacMAP, or Tactical Mark-Aquisition-Platform, was a map that appeared in the upper left corner of everyone's hud. Anything one person saw was registered as a yellow, blue, green, red, or orange light. Each stood for varying colors: Ally, unconfirmed, civilian (or the equivilant), out of range threat, or in range threat.

The Mando's waited, staring into the jungle, most giving low curses in Huttese or Mando as green marker after green marker appeared. There were no unconfirmeds -- Arihad still waited for the unconfirmed light that might be the Noghri.

The count was at thirty-two greens. And rising. Steadily, at a rate of six per half-minute count.None stepped inside the killzone, so the Mando's waited.