Clone Wars: Desperate Tactics
Disclaimer: Don't own Star Wars. Rayo Verrani/Shidyk D. Shade owns Dorado the Cragmoloid.
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Chapter 1: The Job
Since the Clone Wars started, the Grand Republic Army and the CIS Droid Army battled each other across the galaxy, fighting for supreme dominance. The Grand Republic Army was led by Jedi Generals and Jedi Commanders with billions of Clone Soldiers, who were cloned from the late, but infamous bounty hunter Jango Fett, serving under them. The CIS Droid Army was a massive force of "clankers", the Clones called the battle droids serving under Count Dooku and his commanding droid warrior, General Grievous.
The two armies went from system to system, receiving casualties on both sides. Ships were blown up, planets were razed, soldiers were killed, anything one could imagine in the horrors of war. However, these two great armies weren't the only ones taking part in this war, no. There were planets who supplied Bacta, the healing liquid that allowed injured soliders to return to the battlefield or wounded civilians make it through the night, and planets who supplied each army with various types of weapons as well as military support.
Still, they weren't the only ones having a hand in the Clone Wars.
Aside from the Droids and Republic, another, but much smaller, group of people were experiencing troubles during the Great Clone War, people who would do anything to make their lives easier by earning a living off the money of people and the odd jobs that they had.
This group of people are called mercenaries, and this is a story of two mercs who got into more than they thought they could handle.
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Somewhere, in the Outer Rim, the droid General Grievous stood on the bridge of a large battle-cruiser, looking out at the stars and planets as his droid minions went about their duties behind him. He was waiting for new orders from his master, Count Dooku, but all they received so far were reports from factions of their armies. As he stood there waiting, Grievous gave a loud, hacking cough, much as he did every so often. Many people he had encountered would think it was strange, a droid coughing and hacking like he did, but they didn't know him and he rarely gave them enough time to learn because he usually had them shot or he cut them down himself.
"General!" a droid called from behind, "Incoming transmission from Count Dooku!"
"Good...," Grievous turned and headed for a holocom, "I want no interference with this transmission, so do not let any get through!" he barked.
"Roger, roger," the droid who called nodded before pressing a few buttons.
Grievous watched as a life-sized, blue-ish transparent image of his Master appeared before him. Dooku was an intimidating man, what with his tall figure, his face filled with years of experience and knowledge, and not to mention the lightsaber he wore at his belt. If Dooku made people nervous when he was a Jedi, he made many more people nervous since he turned to the Dark Side and became a Sith.
"Count Dooku," Grievous bowed his head slightly.
"General Grievous," the holo-image greeted, "I have a new assignment for you,"
"Good!" the droid commander flexed a metal claw, "What will you have me do?"
Dooku smiled, "I have received word that the Republic and Jedi are doing something secretive, something that could very well tilt the scales of war in the favor of the Republic. While I do not know what this is, I do have intelligence on who may know what it is. You will be receiving data on them shortly, but I will tell you now that they are two Jedi,"
"What is it you want me to do with these people, Count?"
"I want them captured and interrogated, I want to know what it is the Republic's up to," Dooku explained.
Grievous gave a haughty laugh, "That's simple, Count, my droids will find them and-,"
"Do nothing of the sort," Dooku cut him off, "I do want you to handle their interrogation, General, but I do not want you to capture them,"
"What?!"
"Instead, I want you to hire some help, someone who knows how to handle a Jedi to capture these two. When they do, they are to bring them to you,"
Grievous couldn't believe what he was hearing: hire a mercenary to capture Jedi?! Absurd!
"I know you would like to do this yourself, General, but this is a delicate mission and I prefer we execute it with as little loss of our droids as possible. It's bad enough the Clones and the Jedi are tearing them to pieces here and there, I don't want to risk anymore losses,"
"But Count, with our factories-!"
"Just follow my orders, General," Dooku cut him off, "I already have someone in mind to carry out the first half of the mission for you, you will be receiving information on them as well. Do not fail me, General Grievous,"
As soon as the holo-image disappeared, the General turned to a passing droid and knocked it's head off with a quick jab to it's metal skull.
"Why hire mercenaries for a job like capturing Jedi?!" he seethed, "I can do that just as easily without having to pay the scum for a job that's not guaranteed to be carried out!"
"General!" the droid who called him earlier held up his hand, "We're receiving the data from Count Dooku,"
The large droid growled, then started coughing again as he made his way to the console. As soon as he approached, the droid pressed a button and a handful of small holo-images appeared floating about the computer console. Grievous stared long and hard at the images, his cold, yellow eyes locking on the images of Jedi.
"Should I make contact with the hired help?" the droid asked, turning it's head to face Grevious...just before the General knocked that droids head off as well with another punch, "Ow...,"
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BAM BAM BAM
"Vash, wake up!"
BAM BAM BAM
"Get your ass out of bed, human!"
A low groaning came from the bunk inside the small cabin. Something stirred from underneath the thick blankets that covered the bed and soon enough, a human male in his early 20's sat up, having one major case of bed head.
BAM BABM BAM
"VASH!"
"I'm up!" the human called, his voice hoarse, "Dammit, Dorado, I'm up! Stop your pounding!"
Damn Cragmoloid, he's gonna break that door down... the human called Vash muttered inside his head as he climbed out of his bed and stretched. Scratching himself, he looked down to see where his left arm was once connected to his body. Cursing, Vash Zionz looked around his cabin, searching for his synthetic one, but couldn't find it anywhere.
"Don't tell me...," Vash groaned and slammed an open palm on a nearby switch, causing his cabin door to open with a whoosh. He walked out into the corridors and looked around, "Oi! Dorado!"
"What?!" the familiar, deep voice shouted from somewhere.
"You seen Argos?"
"I haven't seen that mutt, why?!" the Cragmoloid shouted back, "What, he steal your arm again?"
"Yeah!"
A deep laugh was heard.
"It's not funny, Crag, I need my arm!"
"This is why we don't get droids, Vash, that damn Kath Hound of yours keeps running off with your arm! If we were to get anything, that damn mutt would be dragging pieces everywhere,"
Vash rolled his eyes and made his way down the corridor of the Shadow Stalker, a starship of the YT-1210 light freighter-class, and a ship that he shared with a sometimes very annoying Cragmoloid called Dorado. He passed through the kitchen area and the lounge before coming to the cockpit where a massive, elephant-esque man sat in a huge seat, staring out at space.
"We need to get Argos' bad habit fixed or something," the human muttered as he plopped down into his seat, "Why'd you wake me up? I was having a great dream about two Twi'lek dancer girls and-,"
"We have a job,"
Vash blinked a few times and turned his head to face him. Dorado was big, even for his kind. While most Crags were about three meters, at full height Dorado stood past the four meter mark. He was also missing half of his left tusk and sported a nasty scar over his left eye. With his stringy black hair and red eyes, combined with the usual features of the Cragmoloid species and the wicked facial features he wore, most people would think that Dorado was nothing more than a scary thug.
However, Vash knew different.
"What's the job?"
Dorado reached up and scratched his trunk of a nose, "We got a message from the CIS Droid Army not too long ago,"
"Aw man, we're working for Separatists?" Vash moaned, "C'mon, I hate working with either side of this stupid War, you know that! We should just whore ourselves out to the credits of a Hutt Lord or something,"
"They offered us 10,000,000 Credits for it, and 30,000,000 Credits if we do it right,"
Vash sat there for a few moments, letting that sink into his head for a bit.
"...what's the job?"
"Grab and bag two Jedi and-,"
"Whoa, hold on!" Vash held up a hand, "Jedi? As in, Jedi Knight?!"
"No, as in Jedi janitors," Dorado smacked him upside the head, making the human lurch forward involuntarily, "What do you think? Yes, Jedi Knights,"
Vash held his head and climbed out of his seat, "No frickin' way! No way in Hell am I gonna try and capture two Jedi, I don't care how much they're willing to pay us, I'm not doing that!"
"I've already accepted the job, though,"
"You what?!"
"I got a call, was offered the job, and took it,"
"Without asking me first?! You're supposed to run it by me and see what I think before we do a job, that's how this partnership works!"
Dorado gave him a look, "Run it by you?"
"Yes!"
"I seem to remember a time when a certain 'partner' of mine took a job without asking me about it. Let's see, what was that job? Oh yeah, going through a Republic armada after trying to abduct a commander in their army because his ex-lover wanted him back!"
Vash glared at him, "That was different...they didn't have Jedi with them at the time,"
"Whatever, the point is, we're doing it," Dorado rose from the chair and brushed past him, "I'll wait 'til you pull yourself together before making the jump to hyperspace,"
The human growled and followed the Cragmoloid, "Don't you remember that I have a problem with Jedi?" he pointed to the metal stump of an arm, "Remember how I lost this?!"
"All I know is that you got into a fight and lost the arm thanks to a lightsaber," Dorado muttered boredly, "You tell me this story alot, human,"
"Because it's important!" Vash snapped, "I don't wanna do any job that involves going up against a Jedi, let alone two Jedi,"
"We are anyway, so tough crap,"
As soon as the Cragmoloid had his back turned, Vash, out of frustration, leapt onto his partner's back.
"YOU IDIOT!"
"GET OFF ME!"
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Kilnorc: Alright, not bad, not bad -nods- I got a good feeling about this incarnation since I know more about Clone Wars than the Knights of the Old Republic game era. I liked writing Dorado's and Vash's part...they're fun to write about.
