Well, here we are again! Another chapter! Bet some of you have guessed that the mysterious "mantis-looking droid" from chapter one is a Collicoid Annihilator. It is, as Leilani will unfortunately find out quite soon – but not for another chapter or two, I think. Anyway, obviously I haven't purchased the SWCW characters since I last updated, so I still don't own them.
Leilani approached Master Kenobi's command post, flanked by Scratch and Hiss and trailed by their pilot, Swoop. The tall, slim Jedi glanced up when they reached him.
"You scouted the factory?" he asked. Leilani hesitated.
"The area around it, yes. We'll have to go back for and interior run – if we can't just blow the whole thing up," she added thoughtfully.
Blowing it up would make Fireball, Bang, and Clap happy, she commented to Scratch through the Force.
And Static will complain about imagined signal interference from the blast, her Captain agreed.
"And you found…?" Kenobi prompted.
"Not as many Trade Federation droids as we thought there would be, but there were some nasty-looking black droids on four legs with an almost mantis-inspired torso and arm design," the Padawan reported. She would leave the tedious entry and layout reports for Hiss to make to Kenobi's Commander once this little conference was done.
"Mantis, you say? That's not good. Something that just might fit your description was reported on our eastern flank about half an hour ago," he murmured. Suddenly, a clone consciousness flared in the Force. Leilanin turned to meet the approaching, worried – no, make that terrified – gaze of an orange-armored Commander.
"Cody? What's wrong?" she asked, recognizing him. He spared her a short nod – not answering her question – before he saluted the General.
"Sir, we have a problem on the east flank," Cody announced without preamble.
"What is it now?" Kenobi asked tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Actually, we don't know what it was, sir, but it took out three platoons. The fourth is fighting it as we speak," Cody reported grimly. Shock flooded the Force from Kenobi, Hiss, Scratch, and Swoop.
Well, at least one of the platoons out east survived the initial assault, Leilani thought, trying to keep her panic at bay. Three whole platoons! They couldn't afford to lose that many! And I had friends on the east flank, she realized. Kenobi's Roll, for one. The shiny got himself killed. He was a pilot, not a trooper! She knew the new pilot – who had arrived only a few days before – was dead as surely as she knew her own name. She couldn't feel even a ghost of his mind in the Force anymore, even when she stretched as far as she could, well past the boundaries of the base camp.
"We have to take out that factory now," Scratch muttered.
"What? Why? We should be reinforcing our eastern flank," Kenobi snapped.
"Yes, that first, but that factory is what is making these mantises," Leilani answered with a calm she didn't feel. Something stirred in the Force, then jerked painfully. Death. "It's moved to the west flank. Clones are dying," she said out loud.
"Let's go, then," Kenobi replied. The clones donned their helmets and double-checked their blasters as they ran to keep up with the Force-aided Jedi. When they reached the battle, Kenobi and Cody stopped on a slight rise to assess the situation. Leilani signaled to Scratch, then thumbed the activation switch on her lightsaber hilt. The turquoise blade hummed comfortingly in her grip as she descended to the battle. Where was this enemy that slaughtered her troops like this? She couldn't –
Laserfire ripped through a cluster of troopers to her left. The huge black droid reared above them, its cannon arms spitting crimson fire. She brought her lightsaber up as she leaped over the targeted clones and found herself face-to-knee-joint with the metal monster. Leilani flipped forward, slashing just below that same joint. Instead of slicing cleanly through, her blade caught and began to slowly burn its way through the dense circuitry. One of the cannon arms jabbed down at her and spat lazerfire. She leaped away, using the Force to yank the lightsaber after her, out of the droid's leg.
"Are you all right, Commander?" Scratch asked. She rolled to her feet beside him, weapon in hand. Her Captain, scout, and pilot (who, unlike the unfortunate Roll, knew which end of a blaster was which) had arrived.
"I'm fine, Scratch, but those droids have armor so thick my lightsaber's not cutting through very well."
"Try hitting the joint itself," the captain suggested. She shook her head.
"Too close to the cannons. I need cover fire."
"We're getting slaughtered!" cried one of the troopers nearby – Web, one of Kenobi's snipers.
"Pull back!" Cody ordered a few hundred meters back. "draw it in, then close around it!" The troops started to obey, but the droid was too fast, cutting down groups of clones before they could move.
"We've got to do something fast," Scratch urged.
"Then get some of your brothers and cover me," Leilani ordered. Then she ran toward the droid again. This time, she leaped for the joint of its closest leg. It skittered away from her on three legs, still firing. Its cannons turned to her. Laserfire lanced into its back, then its cannon, and it swiveled away from her.
Good. It worked, she thought as she darted underneath it to slash another joint. The metal monster fell, nearly flattening her as she rolled away, and kept shooting.
"Take its arms off!" Kenobi called, his blue lightsaber severing the thin connection between the torso and one of the arms. Leilani scrambled to her feet and brought her weapon down on the remaining cannon joint. It stopped firing.
"Wonder what useful info you have in your ugly processor," she muttered. She searched the Force for two particular presences.
Static, Download, she called. Her communications officer and Kenobi's decryption specialist made their way over to the droid's carcass.
"Find something for us, Padawan Odelia?" Static asked. She nodded, grinning.
"I was just thinking that this hunk of Collicoid nastiness might have some useful info in its metal head," she replied, kicking halfheartedly at the torso/head section. Download hopped up onto the droid's laser-pitted body and surveyed the dome.
"We'll have some fun with this one," the clone assured the Padawan. Static, still on the ground, grunted noncommittally. He was not an exuberant clone by any standards, but he didn't get in the way, he was just there whenever he was needed. And if he wasn't needed, well, he wasn't there.
"Good luck – and bring the memory bank back to base camp to tinker with; don't stay out here," Leilani advised. Both clones saluted. She leaped down and landed beside Kenobi.
"Good job," he congratulated her gruffly.
"Where are Scratch and the others?" she asked. Kenobi hesitated. She searched the Force, but couldn't find her Captain right away. When she did, her blood ran cold. Their presences were so faint that she couldn't tell where they were. "I can't find them in the Force, Master."
"They might be injured. Have you checked the battlefield hospital they've set up?" Kenobi asked. Leilani had to count to thirty – slowly – to keep her sharp comment and incredulous expression from bursting out.
"I haven't had time, Master Kenobi," she stated calmly after a moment. He blinked at her.
"Of course not," he muttered.
"May I go search for them, Master?" Leilani asked.
"of course," he repeated. She bowed briefly, then cast her consciousness out into the Force, searching for Scratch's familiar presence. It fluttered on the edge of her Force awareness.
Scratch, she called, hoping he would hear her so she could find him more easily. He didn't. Scratch! He was either very distracted or unconscious. The Padawan didn't want to think about what would distract her captain so much that he wouldn't notice/respond to her Force call.
Leilani closed her eyes and immersed herself in the Force, clinging to the feel of Scratch in her mind. Near his presence she could sense Swoop, too faint to contact, and one of his fellow pilots, Funnel.
Funnel! The clone's mind flared in surprise.
What the kriffing heck is going on? I'm not crazy, I swear I'm not! He yelped. Leilani mentally smacked her own forehead. She'd never Force-called Funnel before; he didn't understand what was going on.
Hey, Funnel, easy. It's just me, Leilani. Is Scratch with you? She asked.
Yeah, but –
Good. Where are you?
The field hospital, but –
Leilani retreated from the contact and struck off for the presence of many wounded clones a few hundred meters away, firmly keeping the uneasy feeling she had from leaving the back of her mind. Scratch would be all right; he had to be.