Not too bad of an update if I do say so myself.
It didn't take me four months either, imagine that.
"Don't move!" The shout was issued with the feeling of a DC-15S being pressed into the back of hardened armour plating. In retrospect, Anakin thought while he put up his hands to placate his aggressor, walking into a clone encampment with a disguise on wasn't the best idea.
"Trooper, it's me, General Skywalker," Anakin clarified while he removed his helmet.
The blaster was lowered so quickly, the Jedi thought the clone's arm might have been sprained. "My apologies sir."
"At least I know your time didn't go to waste in creating that defensive perimeter," The General said with a grin.
"Quite," The clone who Anakin now recognized as Master Corporal Cove replied.
"Where's Ashoka?" Anakin asked more to himself than Cove, looking to where he had last sensed the Togruta girl at his right side.
"Fifteen metres to your right sir," Cove answered before Anakin could even stretch out with the Force, already pointing right at her. "Its part of the reason why I engaged you sir, I recognized your padawan and thought she was stalking a target."
"You did that on purpose didn't you?" The Jedi asked once his apprentice stepped into view, a slight smile on her face at his query.
"Maybe," A sheepish smile on her face, "You have to admit that was priceless." She looked at Cove, her smile turning into a frown, "How did you know?"
"I'm not called the best at stealth for no reason Commander." Cove said while he started walking back to camp, his two superior officers following him in. "I'm just surprised that the General didn't know you had left his side sir."
"I was distracted," Anakin said defensively. Truthfully he was, he and Ashoka had spent the remainder of the daylight hours combing their way through Tyfex to look for Separatist garrisons or buildings, neither of which had been found. To say it was frustrating was putting it mildly, no progress had been made, and the Jedi was running out of ideas.
"Of course, sir," Cove said in response to the General's defence.
Ashoka laughed at his disbelieving tone, making the Jedi Knight pull himself from his musings and look at the trooper, "Are you being sarcastic to me Master Corporal."
"Possibly," Cove said once they had entered the main encampment, his amused grin hidden from both Force-sensitives as he headed back to his sentry post.
The weary Jedi sighed, his eyes looking at what the clones had been working on while he and his padawan had been occupied. All of the ships were covered with camouflage nets, making their shapes difficult to decipher even from a close distance, leaving the General with no doubt that it would be almost impossible to spot from long-distances or from the air. Half-circle trenches were excavated in the corners, providing outward firing arcs where the majority of the forest's wildlife could still be heard chattering away. Three pilots from Vibro Squadron were in the north-eastern trench, paying their respects with a simple nod at the two's approach, knowing a salute would only give prime targets to any potential enemy forces lurking nearby. While neither the clones nor Jedi had seen any droids outside the city, they couldn't afford to take chances.
The General squinted his eyes shut once he and Ashoka left the shadows provided by the trees, bright rays of sun bombarding their retina. Not much sunlight filtered to the lower levels of Tharen and it was only now that the two were out, that they realized just how much time their search had gone on for. With the sun so low on the horizon, it was clear to the Jedi that several hours had passed since departing for the capital city.
Stepping further into camp, the Jedi caught sight of six tents. Rex and the others had taken the liberty of creating makeshift tents from the survival gear stored on the assault shuttle. Each of the improvised shelters were composed of survival blankets on the bottom with a small tarp propped up by multiple stakes to form a dome top. Cove had tried to place them in ideal locations, resulting in the tents being scattered close to the camouflaged ships.
The idea of sleep was extremely tempting, but the General forced it down. He still had things to take care off before he could indulge in such a luxury. Ashoka, however, didn't have that responsibility so the Master dismissed his apprentice. A quick conversation with Lieutenant Marks let the two Jedi know that the tent next to the assault shuttle was for the two Force-sensitives while the rest of the troops were lodging up six to a tent. Anakin watched his apprentice head to their designated tent, her final comment at being able to 'finally remove her annoying suit' making him grin. He waited until she was out of his sight before setting out to find Captain Rex.
He found his company captain in-between the north-west and north-east trench, with Sergeant Bombard next to him. The two appeared to be talking, judging by their body language, but the Jedi couldn't hear what they were saying, even when he moved closer. It didn't take him long to realize that the two had probably deactivated their helmet's external COM speakers, in order to converse freely without fear of giving away their position. "Rex," The former slave called when he was less than ten metres away.
The two soldiers instantly stopped what they were doing and turned to face their mission leader, "Sir?" Rex questioned once his external speakers resounded with a slight pop.
"Anything to report?"
"Negative sir. We had a run-in with a couple of Macta during set-up," Rex pointed to the south-east, "Nasty creatures, but that was a few hours ago. We did manage to kill one, they actually taste pretty good after cooking for a couple of hours sir."
"You ate one?" Anakin asked, his voice a mixture of disbelief and amusement. Leave it to Rex to say one of the galaxy's most aggressive predators was tasty.
"Yes sir," Sergeant Bombard answered with his own hidden grin, "It took us a while to decide which were the best parts to eat, and even longer to skin it."
"And here I was, spending the last thirty minutes in Tharen getting food for all of us."
"You brought food sir?" Rex asked
"Of course," Anakin said with a grin, "Did you really think I was going to leave us all on a diet of rations if it could be avoided." He smirked at the two, "Of course if you want to keep hunting for the rest of our time here…"
"Uh….that's okay sir." Rex said quickly, "Macta take too long to cook anyway."
"I left the supplies inside the shuttle, let the others know." Anakin looked at the nearby trenches to find them occupied by a few of the Vibro Squadron pilots. "I assume you've already sent up sentry shifts."
"Yes sir. Rotations are every two hours."
"Very well, appraise me of any concerns," Anakin said, moving to his designated tent.
"As you wish sir," Rex replied, "Oh and General?" The company captain waited until his commander stopped to face him, "Good to see you finally armoured."
Anakin grinned in reply, moving to manually check the camp's layout before turning in. Sunlight was quickly diminishing in the southern hemisphere, with Tyfex's continual rotation, making it harder for the Jedi to see with every passing minute. The clones seemed to notice as well, a soft COM transmission could barely be heard by the General. "Visibility is at thirty percent of optimum, switch to image enhancement."
"Roger, changing visual filter. Wait a minute, I've got a malfunction here." Anakin passed by the south-west trench to see a pilot tapping his helmet.
One of the other occupants in the trench gave his partner a good punch to the helmet. "Okay, that's got it wor—," The pilot cut himself off with two more strikes impacting into his helmet, one of them managing to make his protective attire dig into his skull. "What the hell was that for Primer!"
"I told you I'd get you back Rico, this is just a sample you little saboteur."
"Oh, you're one to talk. I know all about your own 'modifications' to training simulations."
"What are you talking about?" Primer asked, his voice betraying slight nervousness.
"You screwed up a simulation my team and I were in. I'm sure you remember, the one where the Kaminoans first started conducting field exercises with their holographic simulators. It was two days after digging an entire trench, two days of three to four hours of sleep and in the distance of our little forest scenario we see a pink Bantha come lumber across the narrow clearing."
Primer couldn't help but let out a snort of laughter. "Everyone thought it was a system malfunction," Rico continued, "Except me, I checked the system later and recognized your slicing signature. The Kaminoans, unfortunately, bought into the idea of a malfunction so we had to do the entire exercise all over again, the next day." Rico shot a smirk at Primer, "That's why I sabotaged your DC-17A. I hope you enjoyed your sight continually falling off during your marksmanship evaluation."
The two let out a good laugh at that, "All right," Primer said with a grin, "Fair's fair." Out of curiosity, he continued, "What exactly did you first think when you saw that pink Bantha?'
"What else?" Rico shrugged, "We thought we were all hallucinating from sleep deprivation."
The two pilots shared a good laugh at that, with the Republic General smiling to himself while he headed back to his tent, confident that the area was more than secure enough to deal with wild animals and prying sentients. Even before reaching his sleep area, the Jedi could sense that his apprentice was already deeply immersed in slumber. He quietly laid down across from his padawan, so as to not disturb her.
Anakin closed his eyes, expecting sleep to overcome his senses. Although his mind felt sluggish, part of him couldn't help but try to work out methods of discovering the Separatist communications centre. He knew from over-hearing conversations, and his own assessments of Tharen's citizens, that some type of resistance was active in the city. His attempts at trying to coax someone out to approach him, however, had failed. Since he didn't know who was in the organization he couldn't approach the freedom fighters and with his distinct lack of Separatist building locations, nor could he raid any Separatist garrison and gain their trust. The General had no way of planting a trail for the resistance to follow.
The Jedi was aware that he could take the time to unearth the organization's contacts but that would take days, possibly weeks. With a mission as important as this, timing was everything. Frustration was starting to mount and it was making the former slave restless. Knowing he wouldn't be able to find sleep any time soon, Anakin sat up and decided to settle for meditation to at least rejuvenate his mind. It took a minute to let go of his frustration, but once he did he found himself slipping into a trance.
A series of images flashed in his mind, the armour he was currently wearing, the abundant presence of mercenaries in the ground level, and scenes of bounty hunters such as Jango Fett, Cad Bane, and Aurra Sing.
Anakin regained his senses with the passing of the final image. His mind now feeling freshly rejuvenated, it didn't take the Jedi Knight long to realize he had been going about his mission the wrong way. He was thinking like a Jedi, when in a situation like this, he should be thinking like a mercenary. The Confederacy of Independent Systems was well known for hiring bounty hunters, and with a capital city full of the guns-for-hire, a lot of them would be on Confederacy payroll. Someone here knows where I can find a Separatist building, Anakin thought, his movements taking him back toward the very metropolis he had recently departed. If I'm to think like a mercenary, then I'll get what I'm after, using any methods necessary.
The troops had seen their General leaving, but had not said anything, sentry duty demanded that only important information be relayed. Friendly movement throughout a defence area could hardly be classified as pressing. The Jedi knew of one person he could inform, and he could sense him just as he was on the edge of Captain Rex's established perimeter. "Master Corporal?"
"Yes General?" Cove asked, his voice coming from somewhere above the Republic leader.
"I'm heading back to Tharen, I've some unfinished business. Inform Captain Rex."
"As you wish sir," Cove responded, watching the General depart before doing as ordered.
Trudging through the ground level of Tharen once more, Anakin moved with purpose to the area's market district, the local citizens going out of their way to avoid crossing his path. With his helmet re-equipped, the reluctant mentor had no doubt that he gave off the appearance of a bounty hunter with a timetable. While the middle and upper rings had a variety of exotic stocks in their respective trade sites, the majority of the ground level was stocked only with the bare essentials. There were, however, a few places off the main area where other items could be purchased. While drug holdouts and other such places were common in the narrow streets, there were a few buildings home to traders who were forced to work their way from the bottom up. The General knew from his own scouting that one such trader could be found here.
As was custom for areas off the main streets, the nearby buildings looked to have been built centuries ago. Flickering advertisement signs and piles of fresh debris were the only indication that the area was still inhabited. His helmet's integrated illumination feed swept through the darkened sections, allowing him to find his destination and move toward it. A small door was the only obstacle barring entry. Seeing that it was unlocked, the Jedi moved inside.
Mechanical parts strewn across various tables were the first scene to greet the General's vision. The deactivated chassis of droids, along with the abundance of engineering equipment solidified the formers slave's believe that this was, in fact, a droid shop. "How can I help you?"
The sudden query might have startled Anakin, if he hadn't sensed the merchant's approach. As it was, he simply turned to face the one who'd spoken. The trader was an Arkanian male, which was surprising to say the least. Generally, their species did not venture far away from Arkania. Though it was not surprising that one was trying to make his fortune by building droids. Intelligence was as abundant among the Arkanians as the aggressive nature was to the Aqualish. The Jedi was starting to think that this trader might have set-up his business down here in order to obtain a higher profit from the many mercenaries in the city. It would help explain his unusually calm demeanour in the presence of an armoured buyer.
"I'm in need of seeker droids," The sound of Anakin's harsh filtrated voice made him sound more menacing that he intended.
Unfazed by the tone, the trader thought for a moment. "I may have just the thing. Give me a moment."
The merchant retreated to his back room, where the sound of rustling machinery and moving parts resounded throughout the store. The Arkanian returned a few minutes later, a small spherical shaped droid held in the crook of his arm. "This droid is the ultimate tracker. Repulsor lift engines allow it to effortlessly move, a holo-transmitter will patch visual and audio feed to the owner, up to a range of 300 metres. As an added bonus, it comes equipped with a cloaking device."
Anakin grinned beneath his helmet; the cloaking device was an unexpected bonus. "Do you have any more?"
"Of course," The Arkanian said as though that were obvious, "How many do you need?"
"Two more should be sufficient," the Jedi said after a moment of thought.
"This is going to cost you," The Arkanian warned, looking over his customer carefully, as if comparing the retail value of his equipment with what his droids would cost.
"A reasonable amount, I assume," Anakin said, his helmet doing wonders to amplify his threatening tone.
"Of course," The Arkanian stated with casual dismissal, "A minor price of 20,000 credits."
The price would sound far from minor to most, but for three droids equipped with cloaking devices, the amount was more than fair. Powered by stygium crystals, cloaking devices were able to make objects invisible to both sensors and the naked eye; the former through absorption of sensor scans and the latter by way of shielding the host's reflected energy and emissions. With the galaxy's only known primary deposit of the crystals having been depleted on Aeten II centuries ago, modern cloaking devices were few and far between, with only the truly rich and powerful able to acquire them.
Even so, 20,000 was a little steep.
"Make it 12,000 and we have a deal."
"Unacceptable," The Arkanian exclaimed, "But I could be persuaded to lower it to 15,000."
"Done," Anakin stated before repeating the same thing he'd done with the Ubese arms dealer. His credit chip was placed with the Arkanian who handed it back a minute later. "I also require the use of one of your workbenches," Anakin continued, the droids now in his possession.
The Arkanian thought about it for a moment, "I suppose I can extend such a privilege to a good paying customer. Very well, but make it fast. I have other orders to fill after all."
The Jedi waited until the merchant retreated into the back room before taking the first seeker droid and placing it on the bench. The droid was quickly powered down so that Anakin could take hold of a hydrospanner and unfasten the droid's casing. With the droid's internal circuitry exposed, it was a simple matter to reprogram its electronic signature to the same as his helmet, in order to be sure that any visual feed would be transmitted directly to his Heads Up Display. It took a lot longer, however, to program the droid to immediately focus on conversations with keywords such as 'bounty,' 'target,' 'employer,' and 'Separatist.'
It was an hour and a half later by the time the General had performed the modifications to all three of his seekers. He left the merchant's shop and back toward the entertainment district, heading toward the closest building overlooking the district. A quick series of Force jumps was more than enough to get him on top of a three story building. With his interactive HUD, the Jedi only had to think about a task for the three droids to perform and the electronic signature, now shared by his helmet and seekers, would transmit the information. So all Anakin had to do was plot a course to three of the closest cantinas on his HUD tactical map and relay the information to the droids. A confirmation beep resounded from the machines, with the units moving off to three separate destinations, their cloaking enabled with one more command.
Visual feed from the seekers' now active holo-cams filtered on the right side of his HUD, the image constantly swivelling as the droids wound their way through oblivious citizens. The General decided to sit back and wait for the mercenaries in the various drinking establishments to relay some useful information. With so many amateur mercs in one place, Anakin thought with a slight grin, it shouldn't take long for one to get drunk and start spilling secrets.
Two hours passed before the sound of conversation jerked an armoured Jedi Knight out of his slumber. Dimly, he thought he had fallen asleep in a crowded location before he remembered his seekers. A quick glance to the right of his HUD confirmed that one of the droids had heard a conversation with one of his given keywords and was now focusing solely on the individuals involved.
Focusing on the small screen, the General could see that his target was a clearly drunk human male, his speech was slightly slurred and his coordination was askew, his hand having already knocked over his glass in an attempt to pick it up. "Got…big pay check, ya know?"
"Really?" A clearly uninterested patron responded
"Oh yeah…big time pay. My employer was pleased…real pleased. Good hunt….big time reward."
"Braxis, I think you should go home," Another human, a female this time, stated sternly. Judging by her armour, it was clear that she was his partner. Considering this Braxis, Anakin amended with a smirk, the entire reason for any operation.
"Yeah, home! Can…count my big time reward."
The other bounty hunter rolled her eyes and left, leaving Braxis to slowly make his way out of the cantina. Anakin quickly tasked his seekers with tracking Braxis' movements. A quick consulting of a tactical map let him know that his target was only four blocks away. The Jedi wasted no time in sprinting after his prey, his mindset fixed on how a mercenary would handle the situation.
Not many citizens spared the General a second glance, his form winding through narrow streets and passageways, giving testament to the fact that Tharen, at least the ground level, was a prime centre for bounty hunting. When he was less than five metres from his staggering target, Anakin moved ahead to the only place the hunter would be going, a narrow street that led off a dead-end road. As soon as Braxis rounded the corner, he only had time to flinch in surprise at the sight of Anakin before the Jedi reacted. In two swift movements he had his prey slammed against the wall on his knees, his previously holstered disruptor pistol now pressed into the man's forehead. "Who do you work for?" Anakin growled, his filtrated voice making the man's already dilated eyes widen even further in fear.
"What's it to you?" Despite the current situation, Braxis tried to maintain his hunter demeanour.
"Don't test me scum, there's a bounty on your head that I could collect but I'm after someone bigger." A blatant lie on the Jedi's part, but the helmet's respirator made his voice sound menacing enough that he almost had himself convinced.
"Forget it, I—" The butt of a pistol to the side of the skull cut him off.
"You're not worth my time; now talk before I'm forced to make a decision. Alive or dead," The disruptor digging into the mercenary's forehead a little more forcefully with his last word, "I get paid either way."
"Okay! Okay!" Braxis shouted hurriedly. Even with his mind sluggish from intoxication, he recognized the danger he was in. "He's a low-level Separatist enforcer, works in the small tower across from the government quarter, on the middle level."
"For your sake," Anakin stated coldly, "I hope that information is accurate."
"It is! It is!"
By the time Braxis felt the courage to look up after feeling the disruptor recede from his skull, the armoured figure was gone.
-
Admiral Yularen rubbed his weary eyes, setting down the fleet status report he had just obtained from Commander Praxton on a nearby console. While the starboard batteries on the Resolute were either destroyed or inoperable, the rest of the fleet had suffered far worse. The Arrestor's fire control centre had been severely damaged, rendering the targeting systems of every weapon useless. The Pinnacle's life support system had been damaged during the violent battle, forcing the majority of the crew to evacuate to both the Pinnacle and Resolute while a few volunteers remained behind in zero gravity suits to attempt repairs. If that wasn't enough, three of the fleet's Acclamator marks IIs had been completely destroyed, their positions having been too far away from the Venators when the Separatist reinforcements hyperspaced in.
The fleet was now holding position five light years away from Tyfex after jumping on a randomized vector. The badly scarred vessels had been holding position for almost a day and they were still no closer to battle readiness. While the Admiral had never believed he would be able to win against Tyfex's new defence fleet, he had hoped to at least distract the Separatists when General Skywalker signalled, in order to get the Jedi Knight back to friendly territory. Such a hope, however, was now as bleak as the internal lighting of the damaged capital ship.
"Commander," Yularen called to his ship's second-in-command, "What's the closest friendly shipyard?"
Praxton thought for a moment before responding, "Bestine is our closest facility Admiral." The Commander looked torn about something, so Yularen didn't respond, knowing that Praxton was debating whether to speak his mind or simply follow the Admiral's orders. In the end, curiosity won out. "Sir, aren't we going to pickup General Skywalker?"
"As much as I hate to leave comrades behind Commander, we don't have a choice. Our fleet will never be repaired in time if we remain here. The facilities at Bestine, however, may be able to get us fully operational in time."
"And, if not sir?"
Yularen looked out the bridge viewport and didn't answer. Instead, he asked, "How long until the Pinnacle's life support systems are repaired?"
Praxton glanced at a datapad in his hand, "Last time index from the workers estimated completion to be two hours from now."
"Very well, we'll wait two hours. If the repairs aren't done by then, we'll have to scuttle her."
"Understood Admiral."
The sudden flickering of the bridge's lights brought a scowl to Yularen's face, "What was that?"
Commander Praxton strode to a system display screen, finding sections that once been marked as repaired were now a flashing red. "The power generators on decks five and seven are damaged sir."
"That's…unusual," Yularen said, his expression becoming thoughtful, "Contact those decks, I want an explanation now."
Praxton moved to a COM terminal, relaying the Admiral's command. Silence on the other end of the channel prompted the clone officer to face his superior, "They're not responding sir."
Yularen paused for a moment, "Send a combat team to investigate, something's…not right." He finished with a slight shake of his head.
"Security Team Six," Praxton said, his voice echoing throughout the ship, "Move to junction echo, section two on deck five, investigate the area and report."
To say Sergeant Charger was surprised to the order to combat readiness during a fleet-wide repair crisis was putting it mildly. The senior non-com jerked involuntarily with the sudden sound of Commander Praxton's voice, making him smash his head on the diagnostic readout he'd been underneath attempting to fix. He sent back his acknowledgement to the Resolute's second-in-command after shaking his head and started barking orders to the rest of his squad.
"This is Charger, everyone link up on deck three, sub-section four. We'll head to the armoury and then proceed to the objective."
He waited for his squad to acknowledge before closing the COM channel and following his own orders. A lift ride and ten minutes later gave way to a newly armed security team standing just outside their objective. The squad was already broken up into their individual fire teams, four groups of two made a horizontal line outside the entrance to the auxiliary power systems. The formation was a classic room clearing method for teams of this size, the first group would move to the far right corner, the next, to the left, while the last two would move to either side of the door. This ensured the creation of overlapping firing arcs, giving enemy forces no quarter. While the sheer prospect of intruders on the cruiser was beyond slim, Charger thought it best to assume the worst.
"Let's open this quietly," Charger spoke into his team's COM channel, "Spike, slice the door."
"On it Sergeant," The closest trooper to the door terminal responded. His DC-15S carbine held against his left shoulder while his right hand swept across the electronic interface.
The wide blast doors started to slowly slide apart a few seconds, giving Spike more than enough time to return to his place in line. As soon as the door was wide enough for a human to slip through, Charger and Sig moved to the far right, weapons in the shoulder. Cord and Lander moved to the left, leaving Dek, Mag, Torch, and Spike to move in just by the door. Carbines and rifles alike swept through the room, no immediate threat was apparent and, aside from the quiet hum of machinery, the room was quiet.
"Left side clear," Cord said, his voice resounding through the team's COM.
"Right's clear," Charger said.
"Understood," Spike responded, "Room clear."
"Alright squad," Charger said, his carbine lowering slightly to a ready position, "Spread out in fire teams, look for any anomalies."
A quick acknowledgement was relayed while the pairs started to comb through the area. A large generator stood in the middle of the room, its cylindrical shape positioned horizontally in the area. While not nearly as immense as the Venator's main reactor, the generator ran all of the secondary systems on the vessel, everything from terminals to lights. Charger was quick to notice that something wasn't right.
The generator didn't appear to be functioning.
While not a surprising discovery, given the fact that more than half of the Resolute alone was in need of repair, it was strange. Obviously their team wouldn't have been scrambled unless the generator had been operating normally before. What really struck the non-com, however, was the absence of repair crews. Unless a system was designated as a low priority, repair teams would be in place to try and counteract the damage.
Setting down his carbine, Charger switched to an electro-magnetic visual filter. Instead of a bright blue shimmering outline around the generator, his sight was greeted with a black void. Suspicions confirmed, the non-com set his filter back to normal and started to manually examine the generator. It didn't take long to find that the primary wires in the generator's outer shell had been severed, resulting in an interruption in what would otherwise be a complete circuit.
"Just as I thought," Charger muttered darkly.
"What is it Sergeant?" Sig asked from his squad leader's side.
"Primary wires have been severed; this type of thing doesn't happen in ship-to-ship combat."
Sig looked at the damage, "So, we have saboteurs on board, great."
Charger smirked at his second-in-command's dry tone, a new COM channel being opened to the bridge. "Sergeant Charger to Commander Praxton." The non-com frowned when static was his only reply. "Sig, see if you can reach the bridge."
The squad leader's frown deepened when Sig reported the same thing, "I don't like this."
"Lander to Charger, contact! Contact!" The sound of blaster-fire resounding from deeper in the room, with an added echo on the team COM, was more than enough to make Charger pick up his carbine and move after Lander's last known location, Sig hot on his heels.
What a way to leave it huh?
The whole 'pink Bantha' concpet is a little reference to my own time during SQ training. Occassionaly when we were out on sentry duty, we'd see a bipedal pink rabbit sprint across the forest clearing. Being as sleep deprived as we were, a lot of us thought we were starting to hallucinate. Of course, it turns out that our instructors had decided to take turns doning the suit to make us think we were seeing things.
You might have guessed that the sight falling off is another thing I am, unfortuantley, intimatley familar with. Everytime we go out on the range, my damn optical sight falls off the top railing during a set of automatic fire. Personally, I think someone is screwing with my sight's wingnuts so that it doesn't tighten as much as it should. Still no evidence to support that theory though.
In case anybody is curious, Sergeants are referred to by their rank by ALL military personnel, ragardless of their rank. Just one other think about the Clone Wars that makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Call a sergeant a 'sir' in real-life and you'll either hear something like "I'm not a SIR, I'm a bloody Sergeant!" or "Don't insult me, I work for a living." The only non-coms referred to as 'sir' are Master Warrant Officer and above.
There's your fun facts for the day.
Anybody else think the newest Clone Wars episode was incredibly stupid? Zombie Genosians, c'mon. If it was a comedy, it definitely would have won first prize. I couldn't stop laughing, the sheer concept is beyond retarded. It was like a combination of the Flood from Halo and, I can't believe I'm gonna say this, the Borg from Star Trek. Two things that, in my opinoin, should never mix with Star Wars. What's next? Left for Dead, Clone Wars style?
But whatever, let me know how this chapter was.