Operation Homefront: Tunnel Rat

	[occurs concurrently with "Finding the Way"]

	You'd almost want a pad of quarter inch graph paper and a pencil,
Jambavan was thinking to himself. He was creeping along a corridor as
quietly as he could, eyes alternately sweeping the space in front of him
and checking the readouts on the sensor package he was waving along the
walls to check for security linkages. Being one of the best equipped and
experienced to deal with electronic security, he was walking out front and
disabling whatever he came across. It was a delicate task, requiring
patience, timing, and an attention to detail, not all of which they could
really afford. And now that they were well off the map which their
intelligence had supplied, it was difficult to tell whether or not his
efforts were being wasted.
	The one mercy was that they had not encountered any resistance. It
would have been extremely messy. The layout of the base, with relatively
large, bare passageways, gave some particularly inviting fields of fire.
Any fighting that they ran across would be decided by whomever could put
out the highest volume of fire. There was nothing to hide behind and
nowhere to dodge, and there were enough warm bodies behind him to ensure
that even Sponge Minions wouldn't miss. Jambavan gritted his teeth in a
death's-head grin and motioned for everyone behind him to stop. In the
corner of his eye he noted people dropping into alert ready stances,
tension visible in the occasional white knuckles gripping weapons.
	Jambavan mentally checked the time it would take him to sprint down
the hall with the sweep time of the security camera, hesitated for a
moment, and ran for it. Pressing himself against the wall, he popped open a
junction box. With an eye on the camera lens which was beginning to return
in his direction, Jambavan inserted a few bypasses and loops into the
system that the designers had not intended, effectively convincing the
security system that it had not just had it's arms chopped off. Jambavan
flashed the all clear signal and everyone else moved down the hall towards
him. Trooper Thaleia moved past him to take over the point position, giving
him a tired smile. They had been trading off the duty of Not Being Seen,
the better to give each other's nerves a longer chance to recover. As the
troops moved cautiously along the hallway, Jambavan tried to work some of
the kinks out of his neck and back before moving forward himself. Finding
himself in the vicinity of Will and Selene, he cocked an ear in their
direction.
	"...probably right. Any advice on which way to go?" Will was asking.
	Trooper Cecrops, eager to be helpful, noted, "I hear the other
force attacking from that direction," and waved a hand in the general area
to the left and back.
	Commander Burdoo was making a comment when Jambavan slipped forward
to replace Thaleia, who had just disabled a pressure sensor in the floor,
coupled with some infrared beams. With a half articulated compliment on her
work, he moved on ahead to spot the next stumbling block in their way. Not
for the last time, Jambavan thought of quarter inch graph paper and pencils.

	Several changes of position with Thaleia and a couple of abortive
turns later found them going down a very long corridor. Thaleia was at the
front, but Jambavan was the one who spotted it first. Letting out an urgent
whistle of alarm to freeze everyone in their tracks, he slipped forward and
pulled a palm-sized metallic disc from a webbing pouch. Pushing a few
buttons which elicited soft, electronic beeping, he hefted it in his hand
for a moment before sending it sailing up and away with a flick of the
wrist. There was a muted click as it attached itself to an innocuous
looking box at the junction of the wall and ceiling, and Jambavan let out
an audible sigh. He turned around to see many expectant eyes on him.
	"Routing hub for the security systems in this section," he
explained. "B'harnese centralization lends itself so well to single point-
of-failure attacks. That," he gestured towards the disc, "ought to disable
them all for about an hour or so, so we can safely move faster and not
worry about being detected by anything other than patrols now."

	As it turned out, they encountered resistance not too long after
that. Commander Keith deftly avoided being cut in half while going around a
corner without looking, and suddenly they were in the thick of it. As Will
and Selene began to bark orders, Jambavan made his way to a position where
he could both fire and keep track of what was going on. The Sponge Minions
were actually set up in a reasonable defensive position, with stuff to hide
behind and some very dangerous looking `Bots for heavy support. The one
thing against them was the fact that they had their backs to the door and
no place to retreat to. Which unfortunately meant that they couldn't be
chased off.
	Will asked him for a damage assessment, and he gave it. Not having
expected heavily armored opposition of the sort offered by the `Bots,
nothing had been brought along which was capable of quickly dealing with
them. The Sponge Minions, demonstrating a rare bit of common sense, were
staying hidden and letting the heavily armored things take (and shrug off)
most of the damage.
	"We need to do something about those `Bots," Jambavan shouted
across the hallway.
	Selene concurred. "We'll just have to up the damage rate." Will
just gave them a Look[tm] before turning to Trooper Cecrops and explained
his plan. The resulting destruction of the `Bots a moment later solved the
majority of their problems, and the Jihaddi charged into close combat.
	In the extremely confusing melee which followed, Jambavan found
himself back-to back with Cecrops. The Trooper was defending himself with
Shield and Sword, while Jambavan was laying into the enemy with a pair of
energy pistols.
	"Hey Cecrops," he asked between punching holes in the chests of
several Sponge Minions, "Could you extend that Shield to wall off a
corridor?"
	"Well... I think so," Cecrops replied as he continued to parry and
thrust.
	"Good, because I may be able to save us some time the next time we
run into a mess like this." Dropping one of his pistols to hang from the
lanyard he had looped around his neck, Jambavan fished out a golfball-sized
metallic orb. Holding it where Cecrops could see it, Jambavan explained.
	"This contains approximately fifteen cubic meters of compressed
air.[1] Push this button, toss, and it goes off, like a grenade but with no
explosives. Now imagine what the sudden change in pressure would do in a
hallway like this..."
	Cecrops's feral smile indicated that he had a general picture of
the result. "It would be the pimp-slap from hell, all right."
	"So if we could just shield ourselves from it with, say, your
Shield, we may be able to render an entire patrol detachment unconscious in
a single pop. Quicker than this at least," Jambavan finished as he was
forced to switch charges on his pistol. "I figured on using them as
booby-traps to discourage anyone following us but if we can use them
offensively, I say why not."
	"I'll be ready if the opportunity presents itself."

	Busy with the nasty business of dispatching Sponge Minions at a
range where you can see the carrot bits stuck between their teeth, Jambavan
did not note the arrival of Lieutenant Turbo, but he did note the hordes of
Sponge Minions on his tail when they showed up. He turned to Cecrops and
yelled "On three" as he readied the metallic orb. His thumb was about to
press down on the activation switch when he felt an external will (no pun
intended, really) attempting to take over control of his actions.
Unconsciously he resisted it, and the music and costume changes began to
happen around him while he remained frozen and unaffected. It was a few
seconds before his conscious mind began to override his unconscious
resistance to the magic and he let the flow carry him. When the spell
finally let go of him, he suffered a cold shivering sensation, but the
music continued and the Sponge Minions danced on.

	The Jihaddi were standing in front of a large set of doors marked
"Do Not Enter". Behind them, Sponge Minions were swing dancing like
nobody's business, and in front of them, everyone with any technical
knowledge was trying to get the doors open. Jambavan was having visions of
Han Solo at the shield generator bunker in Return of the Jedi, but the
problem was eventually solved with the repeated application of a very large
hammer. The large doors slid open a couple of inches and with the muscle
power of several helpers were parted enough to allow people to slip through
one by one.

	to be continued in "A Journey..."

	[1] Concept brazenly stolen from an early "Gold Digger" comic book....