"Give that here, you slug." 9-Alpha-1 swiped the bottle from the Chadra-Fan to the laughter of the rest of the crew, swirled the contents at eye level with mock disapproval, and then swung it back, finishing off the alcohol in one gulp before carefully placing the bottle in the middle of the makeshift table that some of the others were using for their various games of cards. "Alright punks, time to get serious." He kicked at the Nautolan who tried to continue his game, and once he had everyone's attention, he continued.

"Easy mission, fellas. Get in, blow brix up, get out. They don't know that we're coming; they're not gonna know what hit them. Stay with your squads; Beta, you're going with Gamma; Zeta, you're with Alpha. 37 and 23 have the northern and southern batteries, we're taking the third and sixth objectives. Let's leave nothing of this frelling Mount Hanlo, right boys?" His underlings gave generally rowdy confirmation, and he clasped the last connector for his jump pack. "We jump in three minutes, get this brix cleaned up." He gestured to the cards and drinks and unholstered blasters that littered the craft's cargo area.

Lu, rank 9-Alpha-3, quickly completed the winnings transaction on her wallet, smiling as the number in her gambling account grew another few thousand credits. Having an AI whispering advice to you all the time certainly made winning easier. She was standing up when the ship took its first hit, sending her sprawling onto the Devaronian who was looking forlornly at his own wallet. "Captain, are we-" she asked, scrambling over the surprised red fellow to try to regain her footing.

"Shields activated," Wolf informed her, and then the world became a brilliant red and blue light show as a lucky blaster bolt ignited the ship's fuel tanks. The explosion jettisoned her high into the air, and as her shields recovered from the intense energy that they'd absorbed, she could see through their bright distortion. A fireball hung in the air where the ship had once been, blaster shots still piercing through the path the larger chunks of debris continued along. A few smoking contrails signaled the descent of some bits to the forest below. The smoking hulls of the other two ships hurtled beneath her, having not been immediately incinerated by a lucky shot as her transport had been, but obviously incapable of further flight. [i]Suicide[/i] lasted the longest, falling beneath the reach of the anti-air cannons largely intact.

She only hovered for a few moments, and then turned herself to face downward, activating Wolf's thrusters to send her quickly down to the planet's surface before the enemy could start training weapons on her. She pulled up at the last moment with practiced ease, landing at a run and darting into the cover the trees might grant her.

"Frak," she muttered under her breath, glancing back up at the magnificent cloud of smoke that had once been her transport. Could anyone else have survived that? She certainly would have been killed had Wolf not activated her shield at the first sign of trouble. But surely someone else had survived, right? They were tough guys! Surely...

"Lu, I'm not detecting any distress signals on the 9 band," Wolf informed her, his electronic voice low and subdued.

She flicked her comm on, shortly pressing the distress signal and then following it verbally. "This is 9-Alpha-3, I landed without incident, roughly..." She checked her HUD for Wolf's estimation of her position. "... 16 clicks from the drop zone. How's everyone else doing?"

"Without incident?" Wolf's intonation was mildly accusatory.

"Well, beyond the obvious." Lu unholstered her rifle, giving it a quick once-over to make sure that nothing had been damage, and then repositioned it to a ready position, flipping the safety to Incinerate. Mandalorian armor cared little for any of the other settings. That done, she grabbed one of her drones and tossed it out into the open, where it quickly ascended and then began streaming her its video. She called it back as she set her heading for the nearest parachute that was caught in the dense canopy. Sure, the enemy was likely to look there, too, but she couldn't not check. Perhaps it was a squadmate, knocked out and incapable of responding to comms.

"Message on 37's band; apparently a Padawan is stuck... somewhere with trees." Wolf sounded like he smiled wryly at the last part, and Lu shared his amusement with a tense chuckle. " At least two Jedi are moving to his position."

"Keep me informed," Lu answered, picking her way quickly through the jungle until the crackle of blaster fire and the sound of speeders flying overhead forced her to slow down a bit for a more tactful approach. As she rounded a tree, she came face-to-face with a Jedi, a Falleen female who was just unholstering her weapon.

"Friendly," Lu called out, staking out her own tree to cover the Jedi's back, scoping out the speeders through the canopy. "What's the situation?"