Landfall
[IC] Star Wars: Into Hostile Territory
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4 days ago
"Breathe Charuri."
Her master's wisdom clinging to her ears Charuri released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Around her, the hangar bay of the Acclamator I-class assault ship the Reclamation had been overrun with moving bodies. Starfighters taking off and landing in waves. Refueling and maintenance teams rushing performing an interact dance as they bobbed and weaved around one another to get each and every ship out on schedule. All the while there was the constant drumming as the quad-lasers from a Lucrehulk-class battleship slammed into the Reclamation's shields. Followed by the rumble of the Reclamation's own turbolasers as they fired a volley back in response lighting the space above Ossus ablaze.
Ossus, Charuri regarded looking up at the blue-green of the planet that dominated the view above them, the interior of the Reclamation separated from the cold and hungry void of space only by a thin transparent veil of shimmering plasma. Charuri had read about Ossus; everyone did during their youngling days it was up there with Ilum with being the closest thing the Jedi has to a holy site. (Though unlike Ilum not many ever traveled to Ossus save for members of the ExplorCorps, the urge to delve deep into ancient Jedi history was not a favorite field these days amongst the Order.) A world that was nearly destroyed in the crucible of war so many thousands of years ago, but Ossus survived and the life on the world steadily began to regrow and replenish.
And who are we again to bring ruin once more? Charuri questioned in her own contemplative thoughts.
"Ma'am" Her attention snapped upward, a clone trooper was looking back at her. He was dressed in the swirled dark green and brown recon armor of a scout trooper, the distinctive square helmet clutched beneath one arm against his torso. Like all clones, he carried the face of his genetic predecessor the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett. Yet there was a single spark of identity told through the single short mohawk that he carried his bleached blonde hair in. His expression was stern but relaxed as he raised a brow at the young Jedi.
"Yes, Twoshoes?" Charuri asked the Clone who gestured towards the LAAT parked behind them.
"The boys just about finished packing," Twoshoes explained, "we are ready to depart when you are Ma'am."
"Lead the way Captain," Charuri answered.
With the snapping together of feet and a quick nod of his head, Twoshoes made a quick about-face towards the LAAT. There clustered around a group of empty crates were five other clones dressed in the similar green and brown armor. They spoke amongst themselves as they cleaned and double-checked their weapons the occasional well-timed joke sending the entire group into a fit. Charuri wondered if they found it strange that all their laughter sounded the same, a reverbing echo that seemed to only get louder and louder, she did sometimes. The group began to calm down as Twoshoes and Charuri approached. Posture and general air aligning itself from friends joking around to professional soldiers with ease.
"Alright boys," Twoshoes announced propping one leg up on one of the crates, "you all know our mission: we fly down there, we rendezvous with Commander Reath and the assault team and we take out those AA Guns. Any Questions?"
"No sir!"
Twoshoes grinned in approval taking his helmet in both hands and locking it in position. The squad began to file into the waiting LAAT. Like the squad it was carrying the dropship was painted in the same tones of forest green and brown. The only breakage in the pattern near the cockpit where there was a vibrant splash of orange in the form of a reclined Twi'lek dancer with a flirtatious smile that had been painted on. Following closely behind, Charuri grasped an outstretched hand from Twoshoes who easily pulled her up and into the main cabin. The door closed behind her sealing with a hiss as the entire cabin was pressurized.
"Bantha 1 to Reclamation command" A voice came crackling into the cabin, the audio from the cockpit being piped in "Repeat Bantha 1 to Reclamation command."
"Go Bantha 1."
"Requesting permission to launch"
Charuri felt the metal plating beneath her feet begin to rumble as the repulsor engine was kicked on. Twoshoes and his squad began to anchor themselves into place with the large clips that hung from the ceiling of the cabin. Charuri followed suit taking the clip that dangled above her and attached it to her robes. As a secondary measure, she also reached up and grabbed one of the handles above her.
"Permission granted Bantha 1. Good luck!"
The entire cabin lurched as the LAAT lifted from the ground. A buzzer rang out through the tiny space as the running light shifted from an easy green to a harsh red that filled the entire cabin. Charuri closed her eyes and breathed as the LAAT began to move taking its position with the two other LAATs that made up Bantha Squadron. Slowly the dropship began to tilt upward and upon finding the precise angle began to accelerate.
As they left the Reclamation's gravity field, Charuri began to feel her feet began to slightly lift off the ground before the LAAT's inboard gravity generator pulled them back against the floor. Almost immediately the ship began to pull a hard right to avoid a barrage of blaster fire. Another rumble begin flight as another starfighter screamed across the top of the dropship.
"Hopefully they are as terrible shots as you Torque" Commented one of the clones as he readjusted the optic on his DC-15x sniper rifle.
"Love you to Scratch" Torque grumbled as the cabin began to be filled with nervous laughter as the cabin continued to rumble.
Charuri closed her eyes trying her best to block out the noise. Falling away from the shaking cabin with each breath. Her vision began to fade replaced only with the tug and pull of the Force. There were the clones that surrounded her not only in the ship but in the entire field of combat, hundreds of souls all joining together like the largest choir in the world as they each worked as smaller cogs in a bigger machine. There was also the pull of Ossus itself, the planet, despite the death and the horror it had experienced in its past still practically breathed with the force, it was almost magnetizing in the way it Charuri felt pulled towards it. But there was another feeling as well, it hung over the rest like a heavy fog that seemed to drain and dilute the colors of the rest, the dark side. It was still growing stronger and stronger as the war pulled on and here in the violence that surrounded her, Charuri could feel it resonate clear around her.
"Beginning descent"
The crackle of the comms cut its way into Charuri's mind breaking her concentration as the LAAT began to pitch downward. The rumbling began to increase as they began atmospheric reentry, the shaking growing more and more intense until Charuri could feel it in her bones. Heat began to radiate upward through her boots, the thermal shielding cooking away as it dispersed the heat so that they didn't end up cooking. Just as Charuri began to doubt the Rothana engineers that had bolted the thing together waiting for the whole ship to be ripped up by the friction, the shaking stopped as the LAAT began to level out.
"Welcome to Ossus boys! Now, hold on tight!"
The atmosphere was an entirely different monster than space. Up there you had to infer everything that was happening to you, the lack of air meaning there was no sound only the vibration of the metal around them. Atmosphere by contrast was loud. Almost immediately the grumble and roar of the repulsor engine beneath them began to fill the cabin battling the sound of air rushing past as the dropship began to pick up speeds of 600+ kilometers per hour. There was the thud and scream as the mass-driver missile launcher fired below them strafing ground targets below them. And in response, there was the roar from Separatist AA Emplacements as volley after volley of laser fire flew by the LAAT trying to land on target.
"This is Bantha 3! This is Bantha 3! I've been hit! I've been hit! Arghzkkt---"
Charuri was nearly thrown from her feet as the LAAT swerved hard to miss colliding with the steadily expanding fireball that was once its compatriot. Charuri gripped the handle tightly trying her best to just breathe and stay calm. It was hard sitting there and just trying to wait out a bad situation that you couldn't really help with it all. The running lights in the cabin flickered for a moment as a round of anti-air managed to hit its mark connecting with the side of the LAAT causing a shower of red sparks as the blast shield flickered and failed.
"Another hit like that and we are dead before we hit the ground" Torque commented checking his weapon for the twelfth time during the descent.
"We all appreciate your endless optimism and skills of observation Torque, truly." Twoshoes quipped back but there was no laughter this time.
Charuri ended up feeling it before anything else like she just pressed her fingers into a hot stove. "Hold on!"
She shouted as another volley of fire connected headlong into the cockpit of the LAAT. A yell and static began to fill the intercom as the entire dropship began to drop downward immediately. She winced in pain as she was thrown into the dropship wall as the rapidly descending ship crashed into a tree and ricocheted off.
Almost automatically Charuri began to pull herself into a hibernation trance. The blaring alarms of the falling apart dropship, the yells of the clones, and the whine of the failing repulsor engine all begin to fade away. To those around her, the Jedi seemed to have just closed her eye and her body gone limp held aloft only by the metal clipped that she had attached to her robes. A moment later the LAAT crashed into the ground
----
When Charuri opened her eyes, the world around her was turned upside down, the floor of the cabin somehow in the crash ended up in the air. She still hung suspended the clip holding her in place as her feet dangled limply in the air. She grunted as she struggled to reach the clip. Eventually, she gave up and withdraw the lightsaber from her belt pointing it upward towards the cable and engaged one of the halves. A brilliant flash of green filled the darkened space of the cabin as the lightsaber ignited cutting through the cable.
Catching herself as she fell, Charuri checked herself over. The hibernation trance seemed to have done the trick, forcing her body to go limp so that when the collision occurred that it would do the least damage to her as possible. She was definitely bruised but nothing was broken and that was certainly something of an accomplishment.
She looked around the wreckage of the cabin, daylight spilling in through a large jagged crack that had ripped open during the fall. She saw the limp form of Twoshoes in the corner, and she quickly rushed over, bruised body yelling in protest. Checking his vitals, she thankfully found a pulse, he was still alive just knocked unconscious in the fall. She quickly went around checking the other members of the squad all in similar condition.
"Well, this won't do..." Charuri muttered to herself as she looked around at the wreckage around her. "Wait a second!"
Quickly Charuri stumbled over to the closet clone by her that being Scratch and quickly removed his helmet. "Come on, Come on. You gotta still work."
She placed the helmet on her head and checked on the onboard HUD. Vitals...Motion sensor... Ammo counter...Communications! Charuri almost did a little dance when she saw that the long-range communicator was still marked as functional. Pressing the button on the side of the helmet, she began to speak trying to ease the excitement out of her voice.
Her master's wisdom clinging to her ears Charuri released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Around her, the hangar bay of the Acclamator I-class assault ship the Reclamation had been overrun with moving bodies. Starfighters taking off and landing in waves. Refueling and maintenance teams rushing performing an interact dance as they bobbed and weaved around one another to get each and every ship out on schedule. All the while there was the constant drumming as the quad-lasers from a Lucrehulk-class battleship slammed into the Reclamation's shields. Followed by the rumble of the Reclamation's own turbolasers as they fired a volley back in response lighting the space above Ossus ablaze.
Ossus, Charuri regarded looking up at the blue-green of the planet that dominated the view above them, the interior of the Reclamation separated from the cold and hungry void of space only by a thin transparent veil of shimmering plasma. Charuri had read about Ossus; everyone did during their youngling days it was up there with Ilum with being the closest thing the Jedi has to a holy site. (Though unlike Ilum not many ever traveled to Ossus save for members of the ExplorCorps, the urge to delve deep into ancient Jedi history was not a favorite field these days amongst the Order.) A world that was nearly destroyed in the crucible of war so many thousands of years ago, but Ossus survived and the life on the world steadily began to regrow and replenish.
And who are we again to bring ruin once more? Charuri questioned in her own contemplative thoughts.
"Ma'am" Her attention snapped upward, a clone trooper was looking back at her. He was dressed in the swirled dark green and brown recon armor of a scout trooper, the distinctive square helmet clutched beneath one arm against his torso. Like all clones, he carried the face of his genetic predecessor the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett. Yet there was a single spark of identity told through the single short mohawk that he carried his bleached blonde hair in. His expression was stern but relaxed as he raised a brow at the young Jedi.
"Yes, Twoshoes?" Charuri asked the Clone who gestured towards the LAAT parked behind them.
"The boys just about finished packing," Twoshoes explained, "we are ready to depart when you are Ma'am."
"Lead the way Captain," Charuri answered.
With the snapping together of feet and a quick nod of his head, Twoshoes made a quick about-face towards the LAAT. There clustered around a group of empty crates were five other clones dressed in the similar green and brown armor. They spoke amongst themselves as they cleaned and double-checked their weapons the occasional well-timed joke sending the entire group into a fit. Charuri wondered if they found it strange that all their laughter sounded the same, a reverbing echo that seemed to only get louder and louder, she did sometimes. The group began to calm down as Twoshoes and Charuri approached. Posture and general air aligning itself from friends joking around to professional soldiers with ease.
"Alright boys," Twoshoes announced propping one leg up on one of the crates, "you all know our mission: we fly down there, we rendezvous with Commander Reath and the assault team and we take out those AA Guns. Any Questions?"
"No sir!"
Twoshoes grinned in approval taking his helmet in both hands and locking it in position. The squad began to file into the waiting LAAT. Like the squad it was carrying the dropship was painted in the same tones of forest green and brown. The only breakage in the pattern near the cockpit where there was a vibrant splash of orange in the form of a reclined Twi'lek dancer with a flirtatious smile that had been painted on. Following closely behind, Charuri grasped an outstretched hand from Twoshoes who easily pulled her up and into the main cabin. The door closed behind her sealing with a hiss as the entire cabin was pressurized.
"Bantha 1 to Reclamation command" A voice came crackling into the cabin, the audio from the cockpit being piped in "Repeat Bantha 1 to Reclamation command."
"Go Bantha 1."
"Requesting permission to launch"
Charuri felt the metal plating beneath her feet begin to rumble as the repulsor engine was kicked on. Twoshoes and his squad began to anchor themselves into place with the large clips that hung from the ceiling of the cabin. Charuri followed suit taking the clip that dangled above her and attached it to her robes. As a secondary measure, she also reached up and grabbed one of the handles above her.
"Permission granted Bantha 1. Good luck!"
The entire cabin lurched as the LAAT lifted from the ground. A buzzer rang out through the tiny space as the running light shifted from an easy green to a harsh red that filled the entire cabin. Charuri closed her eyes and breathed as the LAAT began to move taking its position with the two other LAATs that made up Bantha Squadron. Slowly the dropship began to tilt upward and upon finding the precise angle began to accelerate.
As they left the Reclamation's gravity field, Charuri began to feel her feet began to slightly lift off the ground before the LAAT's inboard gravity generator pulled them back against the floor. Almost immediately the ship began to pull a hard right to avoid a barrage of blaster fire. Another rumble begin flight as another starfighter screamed across the top of the dropship.
"Hopefully they are as terrible shots as you Torque" Commented one of the clones as he readjusted the optic on his DC-15x sniper rifle.
"Love you to Scratch" Torque grumbled as the cabin began to be filled with nervous laughter as the cabin continued to rumble.
Charuri closed her eyes trying her best to block out the noise. Falling away from the shaking cabin with each breath. Her vision began to fade replaced only with the tug and pull of the Force. There were the clones that surrounded her not only in the ship but in the entire field of combat, hundreds of souls all joining together like the largest choir in the world as they each worked as smaller cogs in a bigger machine. There was also the pull of Ossus itself, the planet, despite the death and the horror it had experienced in its past still practically breathed with the force, it was almost magnetizing in the way it Charuri felt pulled towards it. But there was another feeling as well, it hung over the rest like a heavy fog that seemed to drain and dilute the colors of the rest, the dark side. It was still growing stronger and stronger as the war pulled on and here in the violence that surrounded her, Charuri could feel it resonate clear around her.
"Beginning descent"
The crackle of the comms cut its way into Charuri's mind breaking her concentration as the LAAT began to pitch downward. The rumbling began to increase as they began atmospheric reentry, the shaking growing more and more intense until Charuri could feel it in her bones. Heat began to radiate upward through her boots, the thermal shielding cooking away as it dispersed the heat so that they didn't end up cooking. Just as Charuri began to doubt the Rothana engineers that had bolted the thing together waiting for the whole ship to be ripped up by the friction, the shaking stopped as the LAAT began to level out.
"Welcome to Ossus boys! Now, hold on tight!"
The atmosphere was an entirely different monster than space. Up there you had to infer everything that was happening to you, the lack of air meaning there was no sound only the vibration of the metal around them. Atmosphere by contrast was loud. Almost immediately the grumble and roar of the repulsor engine beneath them began to fill the cabin battling the sound of air rushing past as the dropship began to pick up speeds of 600+ kilometers per hour. There was the thud and scream as the mass-driver missile launcher fired below them strafing ground targets below them. And in response, there was the roar from Separatist AA Emplacements as volley after volley of laser fire flew by the LAAT trying to land on target.
"This is Bantha 3! This is Bantha 3! I've been hit! I've been hit! Arghzkkt---"
Charuri was nearly thrown from her feet as the LAAT swerved hard to miss colliding with the steadily expanding fireball that was once its compatriot. Charuri gripped the handle tightly trying her best to just breathe and stay calm. It was hard sitting there and just trying to wait out a bad situation that you couldn't really help with it all. The running lights in the cabin flickered for a moment as a round of anti-air managed to hit its mark connecting with the side of the LAAT causing a shower of red sparks as the blast shield flickered and failed.
"Another hit like that and we are dead before we hit the ground" Torque commented checking his weapon for the twelfth time during the descent.
"We all appreciate your endless optimism and skills of observation Torque, truly." Twoshoes quipped back but there was no laughter this time.
Charuri ended up feeling it before anything else like she just pressed her fingers into a hot stove. "Hold on!"
She shouted as another volley of fire connected headlong into the cockpit of the LAAT. A yell and static began to fill the intercom as the entire dropship began to drop downward immediately. She winced in pain as she was thrown into the dropship wall as the rapidly descending ship crashed into a tree and ricocheted off.
Almost automatically Charuri began to pull herself into a hibernation trance. The blaring alarms of the falling apart dropship, the yells of the clones, and the whine of the failing repulsor engine all begin to fade away. To those around her, the Jedi seemed to have just closed her eye and her body gone limp held aloft only by the metal clipped that she had attached to her robes. A moment later the LAAT crashed into the ground
----
When Charuri opened her eyes, the world around her was turned upside down, the floor of the cabin somehow in the crash ended up in the air. She still hung suspended the clip holding her in place as her feet dangled limply in the air. She grunted as she struggled to reach the clip. Eventually, she gave up and withdraw the lightsaber from her belt pointing it upward towards the cable and engaged one of the halves. A brilliant flash of green filled the darkened space of the cabin as the lightsaber ignited cutting through the cable.
Catching herself as she fell, Charuri checked herself over. The hibernation trance seemed to have done the trick, forcing her body to go limp so that when the collision occurred that it would do the least damage to her as possible. She was definitely bruised but nothing was broken and that was certainly something of an accomplishment.
She looked around the wreckage of the cabin, daylight spilling in through a large jagged crack that had ripped open during the fall. She saw the limp form of Twoshoes in the corner, and she quickly rushed over, bruised body yelling in protest. Checking his vitals, she thankfully found a pulse, he was still alive just knocked unconscious in the fall. She quickly went around checking the other members of the squad all in similar condition.
"Well, this won't do..." Charuri muttered to herself as she looked around at the wreckage around her. "Wait a second!"
Quickly Charuri stumbled over to the closet clone by her that being Scratch and quickly removed his helmet. "Come on, Come on. You gotta still work."
She placed the helmet on her head and checked on the onboard HUD. Vitals...Motion sensor... Ammo counter...Communications! Charuri almost did a little dance when she saw that the long-range communicator was still marked as functional. Pressing the button on the side of the helmet, she began to speak trying to ease the excitement out of her voice.
To all secure Republic channels. Repeat to all Secure Republic channels. This is Jedi Commander Charuri Rol, my gunship has been shot down. I'm in need of immediate assistance. My coordinates are...
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mickilennial is trying to survive
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4 days ago
Naat Reath never did like desert planets.
It reminded her of Tatooine with her first master, back when she was barely old enough to really comprehend much of the war. All she knew was her brother and the vengeance she desired after she heard a Sith Apprentice had ended his life. It almost felt like eons ago. It was eons ago. Three eons, to be exact.
She wondered if she had made the right choice, to hide her master’s self-imposed exile from the council. She wondered it every single night since she told them that he had perished with Sev’rance Tann. In part, she had convinced herself it wasn’t a lie. The dark side had consumed her master in his final duel with Tann, after all, and nobody knew the temptations of the dark side when enthralled by vengeance as well as Naat believed she did. It remained a landmark experience that she refused to forget going forward as she and the forces assigned to her continued to investigate Ossus and battle the Separatists who had followed them to the husk of a world.
A husk of a world that had remained eerily quiet over the last three days.
She wasn’t sure if the Republic was winning the war or not. Even on a small, isolated world like Ossus, the Sepratists were present. Not only were they here, they were searching for something and Naat’s arrival in the last month very nearly caught them off-guard. They were fighting nastily and desperately; they didn’t have the kind of resources they had on Genosis or even Sarapin so they had to approach them with a different tactic. It was a different kind of fight. More different than any she had fought before. Their intensity was overwhelming and they knew the planet well. Too well. The clones had trimmed down their forces well since they arrived, though whatever bases the Separatists were operating from, they hadn’t found all of them. They hadn’t driven them out yet and Naat's aptitude with the force was not great for tracking things down. She was a Knight, not a Sentinel or Consular. It was one of the reasons she had called back a request for aid from Coruscant. As far as she could tell, such reinforcements had yet to arrive.
While the call for reinforcements from the Republic had already been made, something concerned Naat. Despite the guerrilla war she had been fighting there was little-to-no word from the enemy. No blaster fire. No detonators. Nothing. Had the clones she had grown fond of not been conditioned against such things they would’ve felt the same doubting concern she did. Maybe it was the echo of the past. Ossus speaking to her through the force; clouding her mind and filling it with anxiety. She couldn’t be sure, but any adept would be able to feel the ghosts of the past.
“Commander. Bantha 3 has entered orbit.” One of the clone troopers spoke up, causing Naat to look up at the skies as she pulled a stand of blonde hair behind her ear.
“About time.”
Her comment was one of relief, though she couldn’t quite place why, but the air just smelled wrong. She had a bad feeling.
As she tapped her communicator to the frequency of Bantha 3, she nearly jumped back as she pulled the metallic device off her head in an instant. A distant explosion. Panic. She pulled the communicator back, “Bantha 3, this is Commander Naat Reath. K—”
Naat bit her lip as the line went dead. She looked back at the sky, trying to see any kind of trail of smoke and fire.
How had the separatists been waiting for their reinforcements? How did they know? Did they hack into their communications? She narrowed her brow, before one of the troopers shouted out that there was activity in the valley below. Without thinking she jumped on the nearest speeder to her right and flicked the ignition.
“Commander?”
“Don’t worry about me! Make sure that valley is clear! You’re in charge until I get back!”
As the speeder flew in the opposite direction of the valley, Naat hoped that everyone on the Bantha 43 had survived. She hoped she could find it only knowing the general direction. This was not how she expected the day to go.
----
By the time she had passed into one of the few areas on Ossus with overgrowth of Bambwood and Kingwood trees, Naat’s communicator came back to life. She had kept it set on Bantha 3’s frequency, though it was rough; a distorted static covered the reception like flies to a dewback. The voice was female—a jedi? If there was any good to come out of Naat’s situation, it was that the Republic had sent another jedi as part of the reinforcement detail. She listened closely as she received proper coordinates and the speaker's name. Charuri Rol.
The blonde punched in the numbers, ducking between several trees as she moved forward in the forest toward Bantha 3's direction.
“Charuri? This is Naat Reath. I read you. I’m on the way. Get clear of the landing zone. You might have separatists on you very soon.”
It reminded her of Tatooine with her first master, back when she was barely old enough to really comprehend much of the war. All she knew was her brother and the vengeance she desired after she heard a Sith Apprentice had ended his life. It almost felt like eons ago. It was eons ago. Three eons, to be exact.
She wondered if she had made the right choice, to hide her master’s self-imposed exile from the council. She wondered it every single night since she told them that he had perished with Sev’rance Tann. In part, she had convinced herself it wasn’t a lie. The dark side had consumed her master in his final duel with Tann, after all, and nobody knew the temptations of the dark side when enthralled by vengeance as well as Naat believed she did. It remained a landmark experience that she refused to forget going forward as she and the forces assigned to her continued to investigate Ossus and battle the Separatists who had followed them to the husk of a world.
A husk of a world that had remained eerily quiet over the last three days.
She wasn’t sure if the Republic was winning the war or not. Even on a small, isolated world like Ossus, the Sepratists were present. Not only were they here, they were searching for something and Naat’s arrival in the last month very nearly caught them off-guard. They were fighting nastily and desperately; they didn’t have the kind of resources they had on Genosis or even Sarapin so they had to approach them with a different tactic. It was a different kind of fight. More different than any she had fought before. Their intensity was overwhelming and they knew the planet well. Too well. The clones had trimmed down their forces well since they arrived, though whatever bases the Separatists were operating from, they hadn’t found all of them. They hadn’t driven them out yet and Naat's aptitude with the force was not great for tracking things down. She was a Knight, not a Sentinel or Consular. It was one of the reasons she had called back a request for aid from Coruscant. As far as she could tell, such reinforcements had yet to arrive.
While the call for reinforcements from the Republic had already been made, something concerned Naat. Despite the guerrilla war she had been fighting there was little-to-no word from the enemy. No blaster fire. No detonators. Nothing. Had the clones she had grown fond of not been conditioned against such things they would’ve felt the same doubting concern she did. Maybe it was the echo of the past. Ossus speaking to her through the force; clouding her mind and filling it with anxiety. She couldn’t be sure, but any adept would be able to feel the ghosts of the past.
“Commander. Bantha 3 has entered orbit.” One of the clone troopers spoke up, causing Naat to look up at the skies as she pulled a stand of blonde hair behind her ear.
“About time.”
Her comment was one of relief, though she couldn’t quite place why, but the air just smelled wrong. She had a bad feeling.
As she tapped her communicator to the frequency of Bantha 3, she nearly jumped back as she pulled the metallic device off her head in an instant. A distant explosion. Panic. She pulled the communicator back, “Bantha 3, this is Commander Naat Reath. K—”
Naat bit her lip as the line went dead. She looked back at the sky, trying to see any kind of trail of smoke and fire.
How had the separatists been waiting for their reinforcements? How did they know? Did they hack into their communications? She narrowed her brow, before one of the troopers shouted out that there was activity in the valley below. Without thinking she jumped on the nearest speeder to her right and flicked the ignition.
“Commander?”
“Don’t worry about me! Make sure that valley is clear! You’re in charge until I get back!”
As the speeder flew in the opposite direction of the valley, Naat hoped that everyone on the Bantha 43 had survived. She hoped she could find it only knowing the general direction. This was not how she expected the day to go.
----
By the time she had passed into one of the few areas on Ossus with overgrowth of Bambwood and Kingwood trees, Naat’s communicator came back to life. She had kept it set on Bantha 3’s frequency, though it was rough; a distorted static covered the reception like flies to a dewback. The voice was female—a jedi? If there was any good to come out of Naat’s situation, it was that the Republic had sent another jedi as part of the reinforcement detail. She listened closely as she received proper coordinates and the speaker's name. Charuri Rol.
The blonde punched in the numbers, ducking between several trees as she moved forward in the forest toward Bantha 3's direction.
“Charuri? This is Naat Reath. I read you. I’m on the way. Get clear of the landing zone. You might have separatists on you very soon.”
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Hexaflexagon
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4 days ago
“Glad to hear your voice Reath…” Chauri stated with a sigh of relief before shaking her head. “but that’s going negative on my departure. My people are alive but incapacitated and I will not just leave them for the Separatist. I’ll hold them off for as long as I can, but hopefully you and the welcoming party will get here before things get too rough.”
Placing Scratch’s helmet back on the ground, Chauri’s hackles rose as she heard the distinctive shriek of a Haor Chall Engineering Ion Engine as a droid starfighter made a flyby overhead. Chauri knew that the autonomous software piloting the Separatist craft would have already pinged the location of the crash and soon enough an extermination crew would be on top of her and her team to mop up any survivors. She only had a small window to prepare and she intended to make the most out of it.
She placed her outstretched palm on Scratch’s face. The Clone got the nickname after a Geonosian had nearly clawed out his eye during the rescue of Masters Skywalker and Kenobi, the Genosian had evidently missed his mark and left a deep and unpleasant looking gouge across the left side of his face. Clone humor always had an unmistakable element of morbidity to it. Chauri could not blame them, she would probably have some odd feelings about death if she was born to kill and be killed.
Chauri took a deep breath and pulled on the energy surrounding and inside of her. The Force was strong here there was no denying that and pulling on its power was easier than usual. The young Jedi wonder if it something was engrained into Ossus itself or if the sheer history of force users that had inhabited the place had changed it somehow. Either way, Chauri was not going to complain as the extra jolt to her system was doing wonders to clear her mind from the concussion that she probably had as she fixated and harnessed that energy and directed it into Scratch.
Chauri had always been a better healer than she was a fighter. Even before going to the Temple, Zulo’s pleasure palace was a rough place and Gren was always getting into fights and she had to figure out quick how to patch him up. Healing through the force was certainly a different experience than using some tape and a shirt sleeve as makeshift gauze. It was at the same time less extensive than actual medical work, but somehow more stressful because there was always that temptation to push yourself, to pull on more than you could handle, to step towards the dark. Thankfully at the current moment, Scratch’s injuries were nowhere severe enough to warrant any such temptations and a quick pulse of force energy was more than enough to awake him.
He let out a groan as his eyes flickered open.
“Are we dead Ma’am?”
“We won’t be throwing your retirement party just yet Soldier.” Chauri explained with a grin as she offered Scratch his helmet.
He nodded appreciatively and pulled it back over his head, a reassuring click sounding off as the magnetic seals on the helmet activated. Scratch pushed himself to his feet having to crutch in the lopsided space of the downed LATT.
“What’s the situation Ma’am?”
“Commander Reath and her team are on the way. Unluckily for us, we also have some clankers inbound as well.”
“Good thing the Kaminoans didn’t make us for easy days Ma’am. What do I need to do?”
“I’m going to try and wake up the rest of the team.” Chauri stated gesturing to the rest of their still unconscious comrades. “You have any bright ideas to shore up our defense while I do that, I’d love to here them.”
Scratch placed a gloved hand underneath the chin of his helmet as he thought for a moment.
“Torque was bringing the extra droid popper,” Scratch explained already moving towards his squamate’s body and carefully removing the satchel at his side. He opened the satchel up and showed it to Chauri who could just make out the shapes of several spherical objects in the red emergency lighting. “I could set them to proximity mode and lay them out around the wreck. Give us some sort of warning system.”
Chauri nodded appreciatively.
“Sounds like a plan. Just be careful out their soldier. I need all of you in fighting shape if we are going to make it through this.”
---
By the time Scratch had returned from perimeter setup, he could see that the rest of his team was up and moving. Torque was standing near the entrance of the crashed LATT pointing his Z-6 rotary blaster cannon out into the tree line. The monstrosity of a machine gun might as well of been a fifth limb for Torque consider how often he carried it around, the joke back at the Company was that he even broke into the armory so that he could cuddle with it.
Next to Torque scanning the tree line with his binoculars was Niner - the team’s communications officer. For somebody, whose job it was to communicate, Niner was not the talkative type, he was always just starring out into space somewhere with those binoculars. It didn’t bother Scratch much, Niner was a good soldier and the one that had gotten the ugly bugface on Genosis off of him before it could take his eye. So there was a sort of shared experience there between himself, Niner and Twoshoes, being the only survivors from that original team, the others had all come in overtime as their other brothers had fallen in the line of duty.
Torque gave a wave as Scratch jogged over.
“What’s our status Torque?” Scratch asked as he approached.
“Better than expected all things considering LT. I have two broken ribs but at least we have bacta to take down the swelling eh?”
“How about the rest of the team?”
“The pilots are KIA and it looks like Twoshoes blew something in his knee. Commander Rol and Bunks are trying to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself more as we speak.”
“Just a regular workday…” Scratch replied with a sigh. He had hoped that after Commader Rol had woken up that others that they could of followed Commander Reath’s instructions and evac to a better position, but a banged up leg complicated matters. The droids were bound to catch them if they were moving at a limp and it might be better to just hunker down where they were. At least the wreck provided good enough cover.
“Niner, how long until the Clankers make contact?”
“Any moment, I suggest that you get the others ready.” Niner stated in a matter-of-fact whisper.
“10-4.”
Scratch moved past his two squad mates and entered back into the wreck.
Coming out of the cockpit door to his left was Twinkle carrying in his hands the dog tags of the dead pilots.
“…figured we should grab these. So that we can add them to the records.” Twinkle explained looking down at the floor. His armor still twinkled with the assembly line sheen of a fresh out of the tank recruit. The war had been going on for so long and the casualties had been so high that command did not have any clones with actual experience left. Instead they put the new guys through a gauntlet of sadistically programmed simulators back on Kamino to at least ensure a level of standard competence. Comptenece though never could replace experience, at least that was what Scratch had learned. His old drill sergeant told him that War was about “using what you had”, so that’s what they did new guys included.
Scratch clapped him on the shoulder reassuringly and nodded his head.
“Good call rookie, Niner says that we have company inbound shortly so get out there and follow whatever instructions Torque gives you.”
Twinkle nodded and made his way for the exist just as a grunt of pain echoed through the small space from the other side of the cabin. The grunt caused Scratch to shake his head as he moved through the crumpled space to the other side crouching down to pass through the middle section that had caved in when the LATT met the earth.
On the other side of the collapse was Commander Rol and Bunks both crouched over Twoshoes who was sitting propped against the far wall.
“Sir, I have to insist that you don’t move again, or you’ll just aggregate the wound more.” Bunks responded in the dry tone that he answered everything in. Everything seemed to bore the team’s medical officer, everything except the possibility of going to sleep.
“So, I’m just supposed to sit here and wait for the Clankers to shot me then?” asked Twoshoes with clear frustration.
Scratch sympathized with his captain. Even in basic training he was always assertive, always leading from the front, it made him a natural fit to run the squad. His injury was preventing him from doing all of that. Someone had removed to metallic knee pad on Twoshoes left knee and the thermal skintight synthetic fabric beneath did no favors for Twoshoes showing just how bad the swelling had already become.
Commander Rol shook her head and placed a hand affirmatively on Twoshoes’ good leg.
“You’re not much good to any of us Captain if Bunks has to amputate. So stay put and don’t make me have to say that as an order.”
Twoshoes hung his head solemnly and nodded.
“Understood Ma’am”
Scratch was continually surprised with Commander Rol. He knew that she was not trained to strictly be a warrior like some of the Jedi. Yet despite that, she was able to channel authority through her as well as any of the hardest drill sergeants back on Kamino. It was a skill that not many had, fighting was one thing, but being able to command even born leaders like Twoshoes was something else.
The Jedi must of heard Scratch approach and turned hear head to face him.
“Mission accomplished Scratch?”
“The poppers are all set.”
“Great,” Chauri responded with a smile “now we wait.”
---
The droids punctual as always came roughly three minutes later. A drop popper sounding off from somewhere deeper in the jungle right ahead of where Chauri’s clones had set up their defense perimeter around the LATT entrance.
Twinkle had been positioned inside the craft next to Twoshoes who they had propped up opposite the door with his blaster so if worst came to worst, he could go down fighting. The recruit took a deep breath as he could hear the barrels on Torque’s Z-6 begin to spin. The simulations had done a lot for him, but they couldn’t’ replace the real thing and unlike the others, Twinkle had only been in a handful of live-fire combat scenarios and nothing ever like this.
“Ease up recruit,” assured Twoshoes as he braced the butt of his rifle against the wall. “those clankers won’t know what hit them.”
One…two…three more pops fired off in the woods as the enemy force approached. And then the first beige form of a battle droid broke the tree line.
---
The hair on the back of Chauri’s neck rose reflexively as Scratch bellowed the order to the Squad. Almost immediately, Torque pulled the trigger on his pre-revved machine gun and sent a wave of bright blue blaster fire into the tree line. Scratch and Bunks popped up from their own foxholes to begin shooting down range as well. And somewhere above resting atop the roof of the wreck was Niner was his rifle configured into a long-range configuration to pick up those that he could.
Swallowing the knot of fear clogging her throat, Chauri rose from her own position and rushed forward igniting her lightsaber. The twin blades igniting with a fierce green flash as snapped into existence.
The battle droids were laying down their own fire in response. It come in precise and inhumanly coordinate volleys of death that seemed to leave no breathing room for response. A trained guardian like Natt might have weaved through the spaces like water flooding through the cracks, but Chauri completely out of her element managed as best as she could.
With sweeping strokes, the young Cathar twirled her double-bladed saber like a baton smacking away angry bolts of blaster fire that strayed too close. Using her lightsaber like a mop to clean her path forward to the nearest droids that managed to break through the tree line.
As she approached her first target, Chauri used the momentum from his latest forward parry with the right to pull her left side upward and cleanly bisect a battle droid. Sparks and oil spurted outwards as the collapsed wreck of metal and electronics crumpled to the ground. It’s cohort moved in from the rear swinging its rifle at her as an impromptu bludgeon, but a clean shot from Niner left a smoking hole through its head and it sputtered to the ground.
The Jedi had little time to celebrate as she heard the characteristic noise of a wrist-rocket being fired from the woods. She turned just in time to see the fast-moving shape strike across the air and slam into the wreck of LATT sending the clones scrambling for cover
Another angry roar of a rocket igniting filled the silence before she could think. This time though the rocket was directed at her. Running on pure instinct, Chauri threw one hand outward with an open palm and sent out a blast of directed energy. The resulting force push collided with the rock causing it to strike the jungle floor a few feet ahead of her rather than making impact. The resulting impact was still enough to blow Chauri off her feet as her ears began to ring harshly.
As she collided with the ground, she could taste blood in her mouth. Looking up from her prone position, Chauri could she the unmistakable shape of a B2 super battle droid breaching the tree line. It swung its hand down towards the young Jedi, but before either of them could react a stream of blue blaster fire slammed into its body as Torque unloaded a full blast from the Z-6 directly into it.
Chauri felt a hand on her shoulder pull her to her feet and she saw Scratch looking back at her.
“Snap out of it commander!” he shouted as he lead her stumbling back into safety.
As she collected her breath and Bunks quickly checked her vitals, Chauri hoped that Naat would get there soon.
But until then... the only thing she could do was make every inch as hard as possible for the droids.
Placing Scratch’s helmet back on the ground, Chauri’s hackles rose as she heard the distinctive shriek of a Haor Chall Engineering Ion Engine as a droid starfighter made a flyby overhead. Chauri knew that the autonomous software piloting the Separatist craft would have already pinged the location of the crash and soon enough an extermination crew would be on top of her and her team to mop up any survivors. She only had a small window to prepare and she intended to make the most out of it.
She placed her outstretched palm on Scratch’s face. The Clone got the nickname after a Geonosian had nearly clawed out his eye during the rescue of Masters Skywalker and Kenobi, the Genosian had evidently missed his mark and left a deep and unpleasant looking gouge across the left side of his face. Clone humor always had an unmistakable element of morbidity to it. Chauri could not blame them, she would probably have some odd feelings about death if she was born to kill and be killed.
Chauri took a deep breath and pulled on the energy surrounding and inside of her. The Force was strong here there was no denying that and pulling on its power was easier than usual. The young Jedi wonder if it something was engrained into Ossus itself or if the sheer history of force users that had inhabited the place had changed it somehow. Either way, Chauri was not going to complain as the extra jolt to her system was doing wonders to clear her mind from the concussion that she probably had as she fixated and harnessed that energy and directed it into Scratch.
Chauri had always been a better healer than she was a fighter. Even before going to the Temple, Zulo’s pleasure palace was a rough place and Gren was always getting into fights and she had to figure out quick how to patch him up. Healing through the force was certainly a different experience than using some tape and a shirt sleeve as makeshift gauze. It was at the same time less extensive than actual medical work, but somehow more stressful because there was always that temptation to push yourself, to pull on more than you could handle, to step towards the dark. Thankfully at the current moment, Scratch’s injuries were nowhere severe enough to warrant any such temptations and a quick pulse of force energy was more than enough to awake him.
He let out a groan as his eyes flickered open.
“Are we dead Ma’am?”
“We won’t be throwing your retirement party just yet Soldier.” Chauri explained with a grin as she offered Scratch his helmet.
He nodded appreciatively and pulled it back over his head, a reassuring click sounding off as the magnetic seals on the helmet activated. Scratch pushed himself to his feet having to crutch in the lopsided space of the downed LATT.
“What’s the situation Ma’am?”
“Commander Reath and her team are on the way. Unluckily for us, we also have some clankers inbound as well.”
“Good thing the Kaminoans didn’t make us for easy days Ma’am. What do I need to do?”
“I’m going to try and wake up the rest of the team.” Chauri stated gesturing to the rest of their still unconscious comrades. “You have any bright ideas to shore up our defense while I do that, I’d love to here them.”
Scratch placed a gloved hand underneath the chin of his helmet as he thought for a moment.
“Torque was bringing the extra droid popper,” Scratch explained already moving towards his squamate’s body and carefully removing the satchel at his side. He opened the satchel up and showed it to Chauri who could just make out the shapes of several spherical objects in the red emergency lighting. “I could set them to proximity mode and lay them out around the wreck. Give us some sort of warning system.”
Chauri nodded appreciatively.
“Sounds like a plan. Just be careful out their soldier. I need all of you in fighting shape if we are going to make it through this.”
---
By the time Scratch had returned from perimeter setup, he could see that the rest of his team was up and moving. Torque was standing near the entrance of the crashed LATT pointing his Z-6 rotary blaster cannon out into the tree line. The monstrosity of a machine gun might as well of been a fifth limb for Torque consider how often he carried it around, the joke back at the Company was that he even broke into the armory so that he could cuddle with it.
Next to Torque scanning the tree line with his binoculars was Niner - the team’s communications officer. For somebody, whose job it was to communicate, Niner was not the talkative type, he was always just starring out into space somewhere with those binoculars. It didn’t bother Scratch much, Niner was a good soldier and the one that had gotten the ugly bugface on Genosis off of him before it could take his eye. So there was a sort of shared experience there between himself, Niner and Twoshoes, being the only survivors from that original team, the others had all come in overtime as their other brothers had fallen in the line of duty.
Torque gave a wave as Scratch jogged over.
“What’s our status Torque?” Scratch asked as he approached.
“Better than expected all things considering LT. I have two broken ribs but at least we have bacta to take down the swelling eh?”
“How about the rest of the team?”
“The pilots are KIA and it looks like Twoshoes blew something in his knee. Commander Rol and Bunks are trying to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself more as we speak.”
“Just a regular workday…” Scratch replied with a sigh. He had hoped that after Commader Rol had woken up that others that they could of followed Commander Reath’s instructions and evac to a better position, but a banged up leg complicated matters. The droids were bound to catch them if they were moving at a limp and it might be better to just hunker down where they were. At least the wreck provided good enough cover.
“Niner, how long until the Clankers make contact?”
“Any moment, I suggest that you get the others ready.” Niner stated in a matter-of-fact whisper.
“10-4.”
Scratch moved past his two squad mates and entered back into the wreck.
Coming out of the cockpit door to his left was Twinkle carrying in his hands the dog tags of the dead pilots.
“…figured we should grab these. So that we can add them to the records.” Twinkle explained looking down at the floor. His armor still twinkled with the assembly line sheen of a fresh out of the tank recruit. The war had been going on for so long and the casualties had been so high that command did not have any clones with actual experience left. Instead they put the new guys through a gauntlet of sadistically programmed simulators back on Kamino to at least ensure a level of standard competence. Comptenece though never could replace experience, at least that was what Scratch had learned. His old drill sergeant told him that War was about “using what you had”, so that’s what they did new guys included.
Scratch clapped him on the shoulder reassuringly and nodded his head.
“Good call rookie, Niner says that we have company inbound shortly so get out there and follow whatever instructions Torque gives you.”
Twinkle nodded and made his way for the exist just as a grunt of pain echoed through the small space from the other side of the cabin. The grunt caused Scratch to shake his head as he moved through the crumpled space to the other side crouching down to pass through the middle section that had caved in when the LATT met the earth.
On the other side of the collapse was Commander Rol and Bunks both crouched over Twoshoes who was sitting propped against the far wall.
“Sir, I have to insist that you don’t move again, or you’ll just aggregate the wound more.” Bunks responded in the dry tone that he answered everything in. Everything seemed to bore the team’s medical officer, everything except the possibility of going to sleep.
“So, I’m just supposed to sit here and wait for the Clankers to shot me then?” asked Twoshoes with clear frustration.
Scratch sympathized with his captain. Even in basic training he was always assertive, always leading from the front, it made him a natural fit to run the squad. His injury was preventing him from doing all of that. Someone had removed to metallic knee pad on Twoshoes left knee and the thermal skintight synthetic fabric beneath did no favors for Twoshoes showing just how bad the swelling had already become.
Commander Rol shook her head and placed a hand affirmatively on Twoshoes’ good leg.
“You’re not much good to any of us Captain if Bunks has to amputate. So stay put and don’t make me have to say that as an order.”
Twoshoes hung his head solemnly and nodded.
“Understood Ma’am”
Scratch was continually surprised with Commander Rol. He knew that she was not trained to strictly be a warrior like some of the Jedi. Yet despite that, she was able to channel authority through her as well as any of the hardest drill sergeants back on Kamino. It was a skill that not many had, fighting was one thing, but being able to command even born leaders like Twoshoes was something else.
The Jedi must of heard Scratch approach and turned hear head to face him.
“Mission accomplished Scratch?”
“The poppers are all set.”
“Great,” Chauri responded with a smile “now we wait.”
---
The droids punctual as always came roughly three minutes later. A drop popper sounding off from somewhere deeper in the jungle right ahead of where Chauri’s clones had set up their defense perimeter around the LATT entrance.
Twinkle had been positioned inside the craft next to Twoshoes who they had propped up opposite the door with his blaster so if worst came to worst, he could go down fighting. The recruit took a deep breath as he could hear the barrels on Torque’s Z-6 begin to spin. The simulations had done a lot for him, but they couldn’t’ replace the real thing and unlike the others, Twinkle had only been in a handful of live-fire combat scenarios and nothing ever like this.
“Ease up recruit,” assured Twoshoes as he braced the butt of his rifle against the wall. “those clankers won’t know what hit them.”
One…two…three more pops fired off in the woods as the enemy force approached. And then the first beige form of a battle droid broke the tree line.
---
“Fire!”
The hair on the back of Chauri’s neck rose reflexively as Scratch bellowed the order to the Squad. Almost immediately, Torque pulled the trigger on his pre-revved machine gun and sent a wave of bright blue blaster fire into the tree line. Scratch and Bunks popped up from their own foxholes to begin shooting down range as well. And somewhere above resting atop the roof of the wreck was Niner was his rifle configured into a long-range configuration to pick up those that he could.
Swallowing the knot of fear clogging her throat, Chauri rose from her own position and rushed forward igniting her lightsaber. The twin blades igniting with a fierce green flash as snapped into existence.
The battle droids were laying down their own fire in response. It come in precise and inhumanly coordinate volleys of death that seemed to leave no breathing room for response. A trained guardian like Natt might have weaved through the spaces like water flooding through the cracks, but Chauri completely out of her element managed as best as she could.
With sweeping strokes, the young Cathar twirled her double-bladed saber like a baton smacking away angry bolts of blaster fire that strayed too close. Using her lightsaber like a mop to clean her path forward to the nearest droids that managed to break through the tree line.
As she approached her first target, Chauri used the momentum from his latest forward parry with the right to pull her left side upward and cleanly bisect a battle droid. Sparks and oil spurted outwards as the collapsed wreck of metal and electronics crumpled to the ground. It’s cohort moved in from the rear swinging its rifle at her as an impromptu bludgeon, but a clean shot from Niner left a smoking hole through its head and it sputtered to the ground.
The Jedi had little time to celebrate as she heard the characteristic noise of a wrist-rocket being fired from the woods. She turned just in time to see the fast-moving shape strike across the air and slam into the wreck of LATT sending the clones scrambling for cover
Another angry roar of a rocket igniting filled the silence before she could think. This time though the rocket was directed at her. Running on pure instinct, Chauri threw one hand outward with an open palm and sent out a blast of directed energy. The resulting force push collided with the rock causing it to strike the jungle floor a few feet ahead of her rather than making impact. The resulting impact was still enough to blow Chauri off her feet as her ears began to ring harshly.
As she collided with the ground, she could taste blood in her mouth. Looking up from her prone position, Chauri could she the unmistakable shape of a B2 super battle droid breaching the tree line. It swung its hand down towards the young Jedi, but before either of them could react a stream of blue blaster fire slammed into its body as Torque unloaded a full blast from the Z-6 directly into it.
Chauri felt a hand on her shoulder pull her to her feet and she saw Scratch looking back at her.
“Snap out of it commander!” he shouted as he lead her stumbling back into safety.
As she collected her breath and Bunks quickly checked her vitals, Chauri hoped that Naat would get there soon.
But until then... the only thing she could do was make every inch as hard as possible for the droids.
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