Chapter 3.

"Big Easy" managed to make it back to headquarters, "Home Plate" they called it. They were more than happy to walk up the temple steps, past the machine gun emplacements, sand bags in the near-blistering heat. The machine gunners, playing pieshow, never looked up at the squad. They somehow knew it was them. That was the thing about being in the army: You could just tell who's who in your company, just like that.

The men trudged up the final set of steps and walked into the mouth of the abandoned Air Nomad temple.

Author's note For those of you who play Star Wars Battlefront 2, picture the Yavin 4 temple forest area map.

The temple overlooked some of the swamps and woodlands in the area. It blended in perfectly with the wilderness, thus making artillery attacks futile.

Once in a while the place was shelled.

The soldiers then walked to their bunks. They were very thankful to be in the shade. The temple had three floors: The bottom floor was the armory, as well as the sleeping quarters for the men. The first floor also contained the sleeping quarters. The third floor was reserved for the high ranking officers who made the command decisions. There were also gun emplacements on that floor and the roof as well.

"Honey! I'm home!" Hollered Outlaw as he threw down his gear next to his bunk. This earned a laugh from his fellow squad mates.

"Another successful patrol! Proclaimed AG. He laid down his rifle on his bed and lay down.

Rudiger looked at him and replied coolly, "A whole squad got wiped out today, and we could've helped, remember?"

"Hey," began AG, "At least we didn't get ass raped by the Firenation like last time, right One Half?"

"Yeah, One Half." teased Dudewhattheheck, stripping off his sweat covered shirt. "No more jacking off to the side while keeping watch, alright?" Everyone laughed. This was just life at HQ; nothing but cracking wise and joking around. That's the way Rudiger liked it: casual and calm.

"Man fuck you!" Angrilly replied One Half. He stood up from his bunk and pointed at Kalypso and said, "Fuck you too!"

Kalypso was too exausted to retaliate. He was laying down with his eyes closed, but somehow found the will to growl, "What the hell did I do?"

"You fucking held us up." Retorted One Half. This was met by some of the men disagreeing with him.

To the side, Taunt and Gotag were continuing their chess game.

"With all due respect sir, I'd love to just shove my Beretta into that fucking mouth of his." Complained Gotag.

"He is who he is, Gotag." Replied Taunt.

Gotag let out a frustrating sigh and changed the subject. "Anyway, I've got a question. Why does Rud suddenly have a fetish for patrols?"

Taunt turned away from the game for a moment to glance at Rudiger. He was chatting with Lt. SBD.

In a low voice, Taunt whispered, "You know Capt. Mediakiller?"

Gotag slowly nodded. "Yeah, he's MIA, right?"

"Word on the street is, he's dead. The whole damn patrol he was leading was ambushed. We haven't heard from it in weeks. We have reason to believe that the Firenation's little brat Princess Azula may have killed him. Of course, Rudiger doesn't know about this." Said Taunt.

"Jesus…" Breathed Gotag. Suddenly, Taunt stood up from the chess game and walked away.

"Where the hell are you goin', dude?" Asked Gotag, "It's your move!"

"Checkmate." Replied Taunt, pointing to the board.

Gotag cursed at himself.

Not too far off, SBD and Rudiger were chatting.

"The colonel just drives me crazy." Complained Rudiger. "We COULD have saved them."

"Well, they're dead for sure. Maybe the same thing happened to-" Began SBD.

"No." Rudiger replied sternly. "I know Mediakiller. He's out there somewhere. I don't know how he went missing. I know him too well, he could get himself out of anything…Unless there was a traitor."

SBD's eyes widened. "A traitor?" He asked.

"Think about it." Began Rudiger, "The Firenation are ambushing on a very frequent scale. They are also attacking our weakest points on the base. Remember Fox Company? They had the most secretive hideout for their base, and the Firenation blew them up to kingdom come. Some fuckin' rat is talking to em, I know it!"

A few bunks down, Pvt. Kalypso was recovering from the hell that he experienced earlier that day.

He thought that he made a mistake joining the military. He couldn't stand the conditions here. His tension was about to reach a breaking point.

Some time later it was nighttime. Everyone went to bed. Kalypso just stared at the ceiling and listened to whatever sounds were being made. The hums of the nearby computers and communications equipment were the only things making noise in the sleeping quarters. He then decided to sleep. Maybe he would feel better tomorrow……

….

BOOM

Kalypso shot up from his sleep. A huge explosion rocked the temple. He looked around. The men of Big Easy were shouting and yelling, grabbing their weapons and sprinting towards the entrance of the temple base.

"We're under attack! Get your shit and follow us!" Shouted AG. He was carrying ammo belts and a pillbox while slinging his M4 over his shoulder. Kalypso was wide awake. He grabbed his rifle, flipped the safety off, checked the chamber for live rounds, and followed AG.