[center][h1]Arosha Tye[/h1][hr][code]Standing guard at the Shuttle[/code][/center]

The command to hold back was given and Arosha nodded, holding herself and her squad back as the rest of the squads and their leaders set out, watching them with mild interest as she prepped her rifle and chose a few of the stragglers to stay with her. Ten in all including her. It wasn’t too bad, a perfect mission for a squad. The place they were told to hold wasn’t too large or spacious, though the way the corridor was set up in relation to the shuttle did pose a bit of a problem, but she could handle that.

Once everyone else had left the shuttle, she turned to her men. “Right, we don’t have a lot of cover here,” she said, “we better make some. I imagine the others are going to take their sweet time with things, so we better get comfortable.”

They nodded and began getting to work. Arosha stepping in to help them move the boxes around. Thirty paces from the entrance on either side to make a sort of bluff of hard-shell boxes as cover. But because the place was so damn empty and nearly devoid of anything worth using as cover, they had to get crates from within the shuttle. Emptying them and placing them behind the boxes or around them. It took them a while, and while they were working, Arosha had two men stand guard and keep an eye out.

“Three on that corner over there and another three there,” she said pointing the positions out, “privates Lianlin, Carohai, and Darran with the shuttle.” 

“Yes, sir,” they said in unison and began getting into position. Arosha herself stayed in the center of it all, her A280 blaster rifle in hand, wearing her black and grey combat suit with her custom-built Togruta helmet, visor drawn up. She looked around, her sensors picking nothing up. And nothing for several long minutes. That was the thing with battles and war. Lots of waiting and lots of lounging around. It reminded her of her days back on her home world, waiting in ambush for the storm troopers and invaders.

Funny how they were the invaders now. Funny how fate worked like that. But she was glad she was in this. Doing this work – not standing around the shuttle – but with the Scarlet Moons. Fighting back against the tyranny. But damn could it get boring sometimes. She moved several paces back so her back was against the wall next to the shuttle and looked over at her squad mates. They all looked just as bored as she felt, some of them taking out their rations and eating, a couple playing cards with a stack of credits on the side.

“I hate this,” she heard one of them grumble. Brones, a private with dark hair and green eyes, tanned skin. “All this waiting around. You’d think storming a base would be more interesting than this, but instead we’re stuck on guard duty of all things.”

“It’s not exactly fun, but it’s important work,” Carohai said from where she was sitting. “What if we need to make an emergency evac, or things get dicey and everyone needs to haul ass back to the shuttle. Could be the stormtroopers set something like that up. Could be they set themselves up to wait at the shuttle.”

“Reminds me of a mission I’d been on in Ithor,” corporal Joenis said, “had to root out an imperial base that was launching attacks on our position. Go in under cover of night, stealth our way into their base and set up a load of bombs to go off at the right time. Sergeant got hasty, left only a couple men to watch the ship and an imperial patrol passed by. Decided they’d wait around the ship and see what comes back. Invited some friends over with them too. It wasn’t a particularly fun night for us.”

“How’d you get out alive?” Darran asked.

“I legged it with a few others. Hid in the nearby forests and lived off the land, hiding everyday from trooper patrols until we managed to call an evac our way.”

A few of the others piped up with stories of their own as they waited, Arosha listening to their tales while also tuning into her sonar every now and again to see if anyone was making their way towards their position. It seemed no one was, and eventually a lull settled over the squad once more, everyone going back to doing their own thing. A lot of bored looks.

Which quickly changed when the sounds of blaster rifles going off sounded from the other levels of The Crown. Everyone, including her, turned from bored to alert in an instant and from alertness to restlessness. The sound of combat and their friends and comrades potentially going down while they waited in the back wasn’t exactly great for morale, she imagined. She saw the eager faces of her squad, the frustration that she shared with them of not being able to go out and help. To potentially save some of them.

Arosha wanted nothing more than to send her squad forward, clearing out the halls and providing aide. But she had her orders. And she’d stay put. The fighting continued for a while longer, almost becoming a constant drone above and below them when she suddenly picked up movement from her montrals and stood alert.

“Positions everyone,” she ordered, “movement ahead.”

They dropped whatever they were doing and whatever conversations they were having and began maneuvering themselves to get into cover. Rifles and pistols at the ready. Arosha moved up, getting into cover behind one of the crates, feeling several figures approaching from ahead, hearing their footsteps clanging on the metal floors. She signaled their number to the squad. Six. 

A second later something was thrown and clanged a couple of times as it approached them. “Brace!” Arosha called out as she ducked behind cover. A soft blast followed with a plume of smoke going up. Then blaster lasers started coming out from the other side. Hitting the boxes, crates, and the wall behind them. 

“Return fire!” Arosha commanded, and peeked out of cover herself to fire a few rounds.