A.N. ~ hello, hello people! I knew what I wanted to say earlier, but I completely forgot what, so I'll just give the disclaimer and be on my merry way. Enjoy the chapter :)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Star Wars or anything created by the brilliant mind of George Lucas. I only own my ONs (Original Nouns). That is all.
Activity in the workout room was at a maximum. Twitch was lifting weights beside Read, Arrow and Cheshire were at the shooting range, trying to outdo each other and prove aiming superiority. Songbird was at the punching bags, sparring with Bucky among them as though the equipment were part of a landscape, Dream was taking a break in one corner, and Rogue and Steam were apparently determined to beat each other in sparring.
"So when's our next mission?" Read puffed.
"No idea. Whenever High Command thinks we're needed. But at this rate, the girls'll be ready to kill a dragon in minutes if they don't have something to do." Twitch grunted. She recalled Kat asking similar questions, almost expecting the same words to leave her second's mouth.
"No kidding. So, anything interesting happen recently?"
"The 501st hasn't been on leave for almost six months. They've gotta be getting worn down by now."
"Six months? Really? Well, can't say I don't envy them."
"Yeah, the lucky jerks. Oi, widen your stance, Bucky!" The captain called.
"R-right! Thanks!" The enthusiastic girl replied.
"You're getting bored too, huh?" Read sighed.
"Going crazy. My name still applies."
On the other side of the Military district, the 659th and 104th were returning from the Beast Zone, worn out and sore, but containing a few eager troops. Kat and her nexu, Claws, were sharing the burden of five cubs. The grown feline had given birth months earlier, and she was excessively protective of her first litter, as all queens were.
Zeta Squad was looking forward to meeting the girls, both under Twitch's command and Wolffe's. The separate parties beelined for where they knew they would find the captain, meeting at the door with obvious excitement at seeing the cubs.
"They're cute." Darys, an Umbaran, grinned, reaching out to touch one of the young nexus. Claws nearly bit his hand off.
"And they're her first cubs, so she's kinda touchy about them. Even Ranger hasn't gotten to hold one yet." Kat shrugged. Ranger was a trooper she had come to know in the 104th, and for some reason, the teenager's companion had a soft spot for him since the moment they'd met.
"Hey, you know we can see you, right?" Someone called from inside the workout room.
"Coming!" The troops walked in and took in the nine teenagers in front of them, all doing something or other.
"She had her cubs!" Twitch grinned, delighted at the sight of the small nexus.
"And all five of them are a pain in the shebs. They're worse than Claws." Kat replied, putting down her two charges. They let out high-pitched whines and their mother scooped them closer with her tail, moving to a corner before lying down to suckle them.
"Well, girls like you have that affect on children." The captain quipped.
"Ha, ha. Just say hi to your brother, ya big jerk."
Hi, vod. How was the Zone? Twitch asked through her telepathic link with Tail.
Not boring. How was whatever it is you lot do? The scout walked toward his close sister so they could talk aloud without raising suspicion. Telepathy wasn't exactly on the regular list of clone abilities, so the two tried to keep it quiet.
We've had nothing to do. It's worse than when we were independent commandos, she complained.
"I'm always confused when you two are near each other." Read muttered. "You show suppressed signs of conversational body language, but don't say a word." Tail nearly said 'we're telepaths', as he and Twitch always did when someone said things like this, but his sister-by-choice warned him to stay quiet.
"We like messing with people by saying we're telepathic. You should try it sometime, it's really fun." The fifteen-year-old patted her second's shoulder.
Tail, trust me, you can't lie to Read. She'll pick it up so quickly your head will spin.
So you get to say stuff? He challenged.
I'm a better liar.
"Heh, I will. Sounds like it really would be a nice way to freak people out."
"Hey, captain." Darys walked over, saluting at Twitch and earning rolled eyes. He knew the other teenager hated being treated as an officer during down time.
"Hey, shiny." She shot back, getting a scowl. Just as the Umbaran knew Twitch's pet peeve, she also knew his. He was definitely past the rookie stages, but that didn't mean he couldn't still be called one.
Read looked back and forth from them before bursting into laughter.
"What?" They asked.
"I think she's noticed something that you two haven't." Tail grinned. Darys' pale cheeks turned a blackish-red color in an embarrassed blush. Seeing it only made the older girl laugh harder.
"Ugh, sometimes I think you need a blindfold." The captain growled.
"No matter. I'd just listen to your voices." The three glared. Meanwhile, the two remaining members of Zeta Squad were split up, Hazard trying to out-snipe Cheshire and Arrow, who had somehow, at one point, gotten ahold of a Nightsister energy bow. Go figure.
Streak was talking to Kat, and they seemed extremely interested in what they were discussing. The rest of the people in the room went about their business as though nothing new had happened, though Songbird nearly clobbered Bucky since she was so distracted by looking at the arrivals.
"Finally!"
"About karkin' time!"
"Let's do this!" The girls were abuzz with the news that they were being deployed on a mission to investigate a possible prison on Teth. No ordinary prison, though. It was likely a Separatist building holding war prisoners.
It was Twitch and her subordinates' jobs to find it, search it, and free all prisoners they could, if there were any.
"Easy, you guys. If this is a Sep prison, there'll be guards. But nothing we won't be able to handle. If it's small, we may just take the entire thing over." Twitch grinned, getting more excited babbling from her girls.
Tail, we'll be leaving tomorrow. Wanna do something before then? She asked.
Absolutely. What'd you have in mind?
The girls had insisted on naming the Lambda-class shuttle they'd traveled in Serenity, and Twitch was fine with that. R2-K5, a lively, curious astromech, was with them, and had downloaded medical files in case of the very likely event of injured people for Twitch and the others to access. Mainly for Songbird, who'd shown quite a knack for healing.
Most of the girls were in the passenger area, but Read and the captain, along with Kayfe, stayed in the cockpit.
"So, what had you laughing earlier?" Twitch asked, firing up the engines. Her second was in the co-pilot seat, helping speed things up.
"Oh, just some stuff. You know he likes you, right?"
"Darys? He used to, a couple years ago."
"How about now? Because he and you seemed to be quite friendly." The C.O. glared.
"We were squad mates and we are just friends."
"That's not what your body language said."
"Okay, that's the line. He may still feel an attraction, but I'm not interested."
I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, Twitch mentally repeated as they left atmosphere.
"Your mouth says yes, but your body says otherwise." That got Read a venomous scowl. "Okay, okay. But avoiding this is just going to eventually make it blow up in your faces.
"Good thing I know how to stop explosions, then."
The prison was, in fact, real, and built into a cliff, so there was no telling how large it really was. That knowledge was the squad's first priority.
First, Cheshire and Arrow took out the two cameras visible, but from the sides so the droids on watch, two B1s, didn't notice and raise the alarm. With a couple more shots from the snipers, they couldn't do anything.
All nine girls ran to the door, getting in the ventilation shafts as quickly as possible before placing the covers back on them. They split up, following a previously created plan. Twitch, Read, Dream, and Rogue, the oldest of the girls and therefore the largest started searching for where the prisoners were being kept.
Cheshire, Songbird, Bucky, Steam, and Arrow split up to find the schematics of the prison, as well as its warden. If they found him, and he was flesh and blood, that would make commandeering the building far easier. They also were to shut down whatever they could, especially the surveillance system.
Twitch had been clear that they only use hand signals, no speaking. Noise of any sort wouldn't be helpful. The girls slid quietly through the dark, dusty shafts.
Read had her mace and a DC-15S blaster, Cheshire had her DC-15x sniper rifle and beskade – Mandalorian swords – as did Songbird, though she carried the same gun type as Read. Dream had borrowed Twitch's electrostaff for close range, since both girls liked using it, and had a '15, too. Rogue was using a single DC-17 heavy blaster pistol, not bothering with any close range weapons besides her own body. Arrow still had her energy bow, which she considered all the weaponry necessary, Steam had a DC-15A rifle, which was good for close or long range combat, and Bucky was packing her favored shock whip, along with a '17. The captain was with her usual blaster pistols, gauntlets, and wearing her cloak.
It didn't take the squad long to reach their objectives. Twitch's group waited in the vents above where some droids were patrolling up and down a hall. Low male voices could be hear every so often. Somewhere, a clone was screaming, likely from torture.
Meanwhile, Arrow's sub-squad found what appeared to be the control center. Only B1s were present, so the girls spread out to the three grates that opened into the room. Cheshire and Songbird took one position, Bucky and Steam to the second, and on a silent count, they burst into action, shooting, slicing, or otherwise destroying the machines.
"Chesh, the doors!" Arrow ordered. The eleven-year-old began darting around, trusting her squad mates to distract all opponents. By the time she found the controls to seal off the room, all threats had been neutralized.
"That was awesome! Let's go again!" Bucky bounced on the balls of her feet, retracting her shock whip back into its handle and belting it.
"First things first, let's see what we're dealing with and all the other fun stuff." Arrow sat down and began hacking into the prison's mainframe.
Twitch signalled for her group to move, and they spread out before jumping down and killing the guards. While Read, Dream, and Rogue searched the rooms, the captain left to find the clone that was being tortured.
She stumbled upon a pair of commando droids that were standing at the door to a chamber, both of which were promptly dealt with, before she opened the door and shot the torture droid several times, blocking the laser bolts of more commandos before dueling and destroying them.
A clone hung in chains, covered in blood and wounds. Twitch cut him down, catching the man and nearly falling under his weight. She could tell he was far lighter than usual, but a grown man was a grown man.
"Hang on. We're getting you out of here." The veteran grunted, supporting and basically dragging the clone out of the room.
"My…men." He rasped.
"I've got my squad working on that."
"Y-you're a kid?"
"Fifteen, but that's not relevant."
"Captain, these guys are in bad shape." Read panted, supporting another prisoner.
"Then let's wrap this up. How many are there?" Twitch peered around the seventeen-year-old.
"Nine. We found some dead ones."
"How many can walk on their own?" The second hesitated.
"Not sure. When we meet up with the others, movement'll be less of a problem.
"Good. We've attracted attention by now. Double time."
"They're not getting through, are they?" Bucky grinned, holding in a laugh. Droids had been trying to enter the room for several minutes, but had had little success.
"Not in time to stop us. We're almost done here." Arrow replied. In a couple minutes, the girls jumped into the vents and left to rendezvous with the older group, finding them in a firefight with droids.
Cheshire and Songbird drew their beskade and jumped down behind the machines, followed by Bucky, who readied her whip, Steam, preparing to shoot and take cover, and Arrow, following her hotheaded sister's plan. The droids were outmatched and outgunned, killed quickly enough.
"Good work. There are some men who need help in the back. Let's go before somebody else notices we're here." Twitch ordered, transferring her charge to Arrow's shoulders. "I'm going to set this place to blow. Comm me when you're clear." She aimed the last statement at Read, who nodded and took charge as the captain ran back the way they'd gone.
Serenity was crowded with nine girls and nine men, all of whom were injured. Songbird was busy with Kayfe, flitting around with her medical supplies and treating the most severe injuries first. The rescue team was in the cockpit minus the medic, giving the liberated prisoners more room to lie down.
Lieutenant Ridge had insisted on being up at the front of the ship, where he could check on his men with a glance and still talk to Twitch.
"A captain?" He repeated incredulously.
"Yes. You're sure you don't want to lie down?"
"I'll be fine. But what I'd like to know is why a bunch of kids were sent to investigate that prison."
"Look, if you want to go back and wait for a bunch of other guys—"
"Steam, why don't you concentrate on your station?" Read cut in.
"Highly trained kids, lieutenant. Sorry we aren't men in armor, but stealth was the better option." Twitch answered.
"Since when…is sneaking around the better option?" A trooper grunted, staggering into the cockpit, closely followed by Songbird.
"Sorry, cap. He won't stay still." The medic sighed, scowling.
"Stealth got us in and out with no casualties, didn't it?" Read smirked from her spot at the co-pilot's station.
"Ace, you shouldn't be up." Ridge faced his subordinate with crossed arms.
"Neither should you. Back to the passenger section before I put you both out and have to carry you." Songbird's temper started to flare. "Medic's orders." She added sharply when the men began to protest.
A.N. ~ I'll work on Chapter Two. Hope you liked it. Oh, and please R&R. It really is appreciated. :)
MANDO'A DEFINITIONS AND PRONUNCIATIONS:
Shebs: [shebs] butt, backside, rear, buttocks (also rear of building, ETC)
Vod: [vohd] brother, sister, (less formally) friend
(Mando words are often pluralized with either 'e' or 'se', just in case you lot forgot that in the day it took me to make this chapter ;)
