Mission 301: Gizor Delso Strikes Back
March 18th, 1999
Mustafar Orbit
Corporal Julia Rodriguez
WRO Squad, 10th Junon Division
"After we had successfully defeated Deepground on the Genai's home world, we had received reports of possible Deepground activity in the Mustafar system. So we went to the Mustafar system only to be met with a fleet of droid ships. This time we were accompanied some demons, a monk, two demon slayers, a half-demon and a reincarnated priestess from the Feudal Era. As we entered the Mustafar system a droid fleet came to engage us. We were caught off guard a bit but as soon as we learned that a Genosian fugitive named Gizor Delso was behind this attack, the commander quickly mobilized the pilots and Marine counter-boarders. It wasn't easy as we thought it would be. Delso apparently was brought back from the dead in hopes that the CIS droid army could help Deepground accomplish their mission. The commander, even though we were caught off guard, did not panic but raised the alarm to repel the boarders and send'em to hell."
You could hear it in the hangar, explosions, gunfire and soldiers talking smack to their opponent. Gizor Delso had readied his fleet to attack any ship that wasn't controlled or hijacked by Deepground or his droids.
Cortana kept four simple messages running through the ship's COM channels repeatedly, "This Cortana, the hangar is under fire, this not a drill," "All Shadow Marines man your battle stations," "Pilots and Space Marines report to the hangar area" and "Our ship is under attack, stand by to repel boarders." The guests were amazed at Neyla's ability to remain calm and perform her duties as commander of the Shadow Marines. Most of them had no clue on what was happening.
"What's going on here you wretched mortal?" demanded Jaken, Sesshomaru's demon assistant.
"Metal soldiers have boarded our ship and are trying to it over," answered Neyla avoiding Jaken's insult and turning to Cortana, "Initiate Cole Protocol procedures now that we're engaging the enemy. Make sure all valuable information we have is destroyed and the backups as well."
"Initiating…Done!" replied Cortana.
Sesshomaru was curious and confused, why did Neyla have to destroy information and what was this Cole Protocol she spoke of.
"What is this Cole Protocol you speak of?" Sesshomaru asked Neyla, "And why must you destroy information if it's valuable?"
"The Cole Protocol is a set of laws that tell us how we have to get back to human controlled worlds and what to do in the event of capture or retreat," Cortana answered for Neyla, "We can't let the enemy learn about our weapons, where our men are, and most importantly we can't let them find our main base."
"So the destruction of valuable information is necessary in order to keep your enemy from learning more about you," gathered Sesshomaru.
"That's correct," answered Cortana, "If we don't follow the Cole Protocol, it would be considered treason and punishable by life imprisonment or death, by UNSC standards of course."
"I see," replied Sesshomaru.
As Cortana talked with Sesshomaru; Neyla got her friends to help repel the droids and destroy their dropship so they could take the fight to them. When the dropship was destroyed and the last droid was dead by Jaken's hand, Neyla ordered her fleet to prepare to fire on the droid fleet.
"All right warm up every turret and charge up every MAC cannon," ordered Neyla with calm tone, "We need to down their shields and cripple the droid fleet before we disable the main capital ship and capture it."
"Aye, commander," acknowledged every AI in the fleet, "Warming up turrets and charging up MAC cannons."
"Ready a Shiva nuclear warhead just in case," Neyla ordered the AIs.
"Aye, commander"
As the fleet warmed up their ship to ship weapons the droids launched fighters and frigates to attack the fleet. Neyla had the AIs ready their anti-fighter turrets to counter the threat. Inu Yasha and company watched as the Shadow Marine fleet engaged Delso's fleet in ship to ship combat. They saw plasma and six hundred ton MAC rounds completely decimate Delso's fleet. The droid fleet had no shields and was vulnerable to the onslaught of plasma and depleted uranium. With the droid fleet in disarray, Neyla ordered the pilots and Space Marines to capture an enemy capital ship and a Trade Federation star ship. Inu Yasha and everyone else wanted to get in on the action, so they found Foehammer and she took them to the main capital ship, under protest. They made swift work of the droids guarding the hangar, well Jaken did any way. Neyla put the impression that droids were after Lord Sesshomaru in his head and he started striking them down left and right on a wild killing spree. Many of the pilots and Space Marines helping take the capital ship praised Jaken and told him, "Glad you're on our side" or "That's okay, I'll let you kill'em all." Mirokyu and Kagura were frightened because of Jaken's wild droid killing spree. When the capital ship was captured, Neyla snapped her fingers and Jaken returned to normal.
"Where am I?" asked Jaken looking around then spotting all the headless droids he put out of commission, "What happened, do I all of this?"
One Space Marine took Jaken set him on his shoulders, Jaken protested at first but he learned he destroyed a lot of the droids he let the man carry Jaken on his shoulders.
'I've never gotten this much attention before,' thought Jaken as the pilots and Space Marines chanted his name; 'These mortals admire me because I destroyed most of these metal soldiers without thinking. Wait, I remember that mortal girl Neyla saying Lord Sesshomaru would be attacked if I didn't protect him. Ah, I was under one of her spells! No, I'm glad she did that, maybe my lord will tell me 'Well done.''
As they returned to the Ascendant Justice, Neyla and Sesshomaru waited for the return of the boarding party and their hero Jaken. When the dropship carrying Jaken landed, the Jaken came out escorted by the pilots and marines who boarded the capital ship. Jaken saw Sesshomaru and quickly and got on one knee and bowed in fear. Jaken feared Sesshomaru, better to be on his side then in his way. Sesshomaru looked at Jaken, still trembling in fear, and said nothing for a minute. Sesshomaru turned away and finally said, "Well done Jaken." Jaken raised his head toward his master and felt relieved, the pilots and marines gathered around him again as Sesshomaru walked away. Neyla approached Jaken and he froze, he didn't want to fall under another spell.
"All right war hero," Neyla said to Jaken, "Since your wild droid killing spree broke a previous record I'm going to let you lead the attack on our target on the planet's surface."
"Me lead an attack?" asked Jaken in shock, "But I've never been a leader before."
"Commander," spoke up one of the pilots on behalf of the pilots and marines who helped capture the main capital ship, "permission to tag along with Jaken on the mission."
"Permission granted," answered Neyla.
The pilots and marines saluted and Jaken felt relieved, his friends would back him up and protect him. Inu Yasha protested and tried to convince Neyla letting Jaken led the attack was a bad idea and he would hide while his friends fought and died. Jaken stood in front of Inu Yasha trembling.
"I'll prove I can be a good leader," said Jaken still shaking, "please just give me a chance!"
Neyla smiled and said, "That's the spirit Jaken."
Corporal Julia Rodriguez
Mining Facility
Surface of Mustafar
"When the droid fleet was wiped out, we quickly set up orbital positions and headed down to the mining facility. Our mission commander was Sesshomaru's personal assistant, Jaken. With quickly acquired fame as the "Droid Reaper" he led us down there and we saw why he was called the "Droid Reaper." Some of the soldiers with us said they couldn't stomach the thought fighting droids in another war; they were soldiers of the 501st Vader's Fist unit that were captured during a failed siege on the Ocean Kingdom. Jaken even helped us find Gizo Delso and he terminated Delso with Sesshomaru's help."
"All right Jaken there's a control room on the left side of the entrance as you enter the facility," said Neyla through the COM, "Take that room and wait for further instructions."
"All right lets take this control room," shouted Jaken with authority, "Which is where now?"
"Sir, we've been here before," spoke up a couple stormtroopers, "Permission to lead the way, sir."
"Yes, permission granted," said Jaken, "I will let your men lead the way through out this area."
"Sir, thank you, sir," said the lead trooper as he saluted.
The former Imperial stormtroopers took point as they led the unit down the hallway engaging Delso's droids. Jaken took one look at the droids and started whacking the heads off every droid in his path. The WRO soldiers forgot about being hot when they saw Jaken beheading the droids and focused on supporting the commander and making sure the mission succeeded. Jaken and his personal guard quickly made quick work the droids in the control room and captured it in two minutes and thirteen seconds.
"Nice job Droid Reaper," complimented Neyla over the COM, "All right, now the bridge should be up, cross the bridge and capture the command post. There might be a sniper or two, so watch out and keep your eyes open."
"Forward my fellow reapers!" exclaimed Jaken, "We must cross the fire and capture the command post on the other side."
"Yes sir!" acknowledged the soldiers.
As they crossed the bridge of lava, sure enough there was a sniper set on a perch waiting to snipe them, a Space Marine saw the sniper and switched to his rocket launcher and blew sniper to pieces.
"Nicely done mortal soldier," complemented Jaken, "now to take this command post and move ahead to destroy the metal soldiers."
"Yes sir!"
As they moved to take the command post on the other side of the bridge, Delso's droids came to defend the command post and drive the Shadow Marines back into space. Jaken flinched and almost thought about running away, instead he chose to stay and fight. He wanted to prove Inu Yasha wrong, that he wasn't a total coward and Neyla had given him the chance. Jaken and his squad took up positions in front of the command post and aimed their weapons at the door ready to gun down any droids who tried to stop them. Boy, did they come hard. Had the Master Chief gone down there it would've been déjà vu, because it would've reminded him of the Flood on a Halo construct in the Threshold system. They came in pairs of threes, fours and fives. When the command post was captured Neyla came on the COM channel and gave Jaken more instructions.
"You're doing great Droid Reaper, keep it up" said Neyla, "There's an observation point up further, capture it, head into the facility and make sure they don't have any directions to make new infantry metal soldiers. If they do, make sure you destroy the plans."
"Master Jaken, pick up one of guns and we'll teach you shoot them," suggested one of the pilots.
"Uh… okay," said Jaken nervously.
He picked up a fallen blaster pistol and looked at it. This was some weapon; he had seen Neyla use one like the blaster in his hand. The pilot, Lance Corporal Antonio Gonzalez, gave Jaken a quick crash course in shooting guns.
"It's very easy," said Gonzalez, "just point, aim at your target, and squeeze this trigger. We prefer to shoot our opponents in head; they die faster then if you shoot elsewhere."
Jaken received the pistol and used it, but was hard for Jaken to aim for heads of his enemies because of his height. He was about three feet tall. Gonzalez and the rest of the team was patient and helped him until he could shoot right. They pointed out the pistol doesn't need to be reloaded like their weapons but it would overheat if he fired the pistol and didn't let it cool down. As they progressed the droids kept coming, and the Shadow Marines were running low on ammunition and would soon be forced to pick up enemy weapons. The Shadow Marines didn't like the droid's weapons and considered them inferior, but it beat going toe to toe in hand to hand combat with them. A break came in the form of supplies being dropped by Pelican at the landing pad where they started. Jaken's followers suggested that half of the squad move back to retrieve the badly needed ammo and med kits, the squad had seventeen wounded soldiers they left at the Control room. Jaken let them go get the much needed supplies while he and his personal bodyguards held their positions at the fork intersection.
"If we're going to survive this battle we must use the enemy's weapons," Jaken said bravely, "even if they're inferior to your weapons."
"Yes sir!" exclaimed the soldiers as they slung their weapons on their shoulders and picked up the enemy weapons.
As they readied to hold their positions, Delso's droids came in squads of ten to fifteen soldiers.
"Hold the line!" shouted Gonzalez, "Drive the enemy into the lava!"
"Charge!" shouted the droid commander, "Wipe out the humanoids!"
"You may fire at will on these wretched metal soldiers!" Jaken ordered with authority.
As the droids charged from two positions the Droid Reapers, as they were now being called, divided into three man fire teams, two man rocket crews, four person regulator squads and two ten man support teams to reinforce a spot in danger of collapsing. The system was suggested by Squad Leader Johan Weber in order to effectively maximize enemy casualties and reduce the potential of having heavy casualties inflicted. The droids' first wave was beaten back and pushed into the lava like Gonzalez suggested. But they didn't occupy the newly acquired territory; instead they fell back to their positions, gathering fallen ammo, near the command post they captured an hour ago. They didn't want to spread themselves out before fresh ammo and supplies came in and the rest of the unit could move. The droids came again with fresh troops and more numbers. This time they pushed the Droid Reapers back into a corridor leading to their command post. Half way to the command post, the Droid Reapers stopped the retreat and began pushing them back outside and back towards the lava. They only had five minute window to catch their breath. Jaken looked at his weary troops and they gave a slight nod to him.
"There's no chance in hell we're gonna surrender to bunch of wretched gear heads!" exclaimed the squad as one.
As soon as they said that a third wave of droids came, this time the droids were going to win. They quickly picked up fallen rounds for their weapons and Bacta for their wounds. The Droid Reapers were anticipating an overwhelming assault when Pelican gunships and fighter air cover arrived to assist the Droid Reapers and the rest of the unit. Sesshomaru landed with reinforcements and dealt with the third wave of Delso's droids which freed Jaken and his Droid Reapers to carry out their orders. The 501st troopers pushed back the droids assaulting from the observation point and captured it. Jaken and the Droid Reapers destroyed the blueprints for the new infantry prototype droids. Neyla again came on the COM.
"I decided to send Sesshomaru to help you out since you guys were struggling," Neyla said in a concerned tone, "But now that's done, find Delso, he must be terminated."
"You're not going destroy the facility, commander?" Foehammer asked Neyla over the COM.
"No," answered Neyla, "The people of Mustafar need this facility to help with their economy. Once Gizor Delso is dead we'll temporarily occupy the facility and destroy the droid factory unless the prime minister wants it intact and they reprogram the droids for service or self defense."
"Understood," said Sesshomaru.
"Roger that," acknowledged Foehammer.
As soon as Jaken and the Droid Reapers came out of the observation room, Genosian soldiers started to swarm them and Gizor Delso was with them.
"Kill them, kill them all!" ordered Jaken.
"Hell yes sir!" acknowledged the soldiers.
The Droid Reapers battled with the Genosians for awhile. Jaken's skill with a gun was improving greatly; he was shooting the heads off of Genosian soldiers left and right. Then Gizor Delso stood in front of Jaken and examined him with a disgusted look.
"You are but a weakling," sneered Delso in Genosian, "you are small and pathetic and can not be of great importance."
Jaken was insulted when Delso made a gesture about Jaken's height. Jaken became furious and was red in face, not just from the lava, and went into the same kind of rage he went through when he went on the wild droid killing spree that earned him the nickname, "Droid Reaper." Jaken fired his pistol at Delso and missed because Delso dodged his shots. Then Jaken switched to his staff and shot out fire at Gizor laughing and thinking that Gizor was incinerated. Delso stood in front of Jaken and kicked him aside.
"Like I said," Delso sneered at Jaken in Genosian, "you're a short pathetic weakling."
After Delso kicked Jaken in the gut, he turned to the pathway and Sesshomaru blocked him.
"Another weakling like the short pathetic one," Delso said out loud in Genosian, "I will defeat you faster than the short one."
"So you are the one known as Gizor Delso," said Sesshomaru, "I expected someone more like a mortal or a metal soldier like the other ones. You don't look like much of a threat but you are to be put to death."
Sesshomaru pulled his demon sword Tokijin and challenged Delso, which he accepted. Delso was only hard to kill because he darted around to dodge Sesshomaru's demonic attacks with Tokijin. Jaken recovered to witness Sesshomaru's battle with Gizor Delso. Finally after going the wrong way, Sesshomaru sliced one of Delso's wings and Jaken finished him off by swinging his staff and beheading him. With Gizor Delso dead, the Genosians surrendered and were kept under guard until Neyla arrived. When she landed at the facility, she examined the carnage of the battle and nodded in approval. Kagome and Sango accompanied her and they were amazed that none of the Shadow Marines lost their lives.
Later, Neyla and the prime minister of Mustafar and talked about the future of the droid factory. The prime minister agreed to make sure that the droids manufactured would be programmed for service or for defending the planet. As for the Genosian prisoners, the prime minister handed them over to the Shadow Marines and told Neyla she could whatever she wanted with them. So, she had them executed by the Droid Reapers since they fought bravely. Jaken had Gizor Delso's head and body thrown in the lava and dead prisoners as well.
Corporal Julia Rodriguez
"After Delso's defeat, we left Mustafar to continue our battle against Deepground. The prime minister congratulated the Shadow Marines for their services, and for not destroying the facility like the Empire did 27 years ago. Jaken and the Droid Reapers gained respect among the Shadow Marines and were feared by droids across the galaxy. I guess they like keeping their heads. The commander did get a clue on a possible sighting of Deepground forces, a world designated P6F384, a world well known to the Kaiou family as Kashyyk."
