Chapter 10: Battle of Oddworld
The occupants of the marines' armored personnel carrier had traded one form of hell for another. Only a fraction of the original team survived the botched assault on the xenomorph hive only to be met with the sight of the Separatist Droid Army fighting the Grand Army of the Republic.
The Galactic Republic had staged a sneak attack on Oddworld. The surprise attack would have worked out better but the CIS was in a very good position to defend the planet from invasion. General OOM-9's troops were positioned all over the place to prevent the infestation in Rupture Farms from spreading anywhere else. But instead of fighting xenomorphs, the Confederate battle droids, humans, mgalekgolo, sligs, and unggoy fought clone troopers instead (and they were very practiced at fighting clone troopers).
Fighters and bombers and transports of all kinds filled the sky. Black plumes of smoke rose of from vehicles that had already been destroyed. Separatist infantry fought clone troopers.
The xenomorphs had abandoned their hive to chase after the APC but ultimately were lost in the chaos of the battle. When the clones started to come under attack from the xenomorphs, they had no idea what they were. In fact, the clones thought that they had merely come under attack from some of the planet's native wildlife.
Somehow, the remaining paramites and scrabs in the pens of Rupture Farms' stockyards had gotten loose and were attacking anything in their way as they fled back into the comfort of nature.
The whole thing had devolved into a messy four-way battle between the CIS, Republic, xenomorphs and what was left of Rupture Farms' animal stock.
And that was the sight that Abe returned to after completing his journey. Abe had gained massive power thanks to Big Face and had gone to shut down Rupture Farms and free his fellow mudokons. But from what the blue mudokon saw, it looked like Rupture Farms had been shut down for him. Clones and droids and aliens were scattered all over the place, and Abe had a sudden urge to turn around and just leave. He wasn't exactly sure what he could do about this… sneaking around and taking out a few slig security guards in Rupture Farms was one thing, but he wasn't so sure about challenging entire fucking armies.
Grid had heard the queen's call to action in defense of the hive. But he was a bit preoccupied at the moment the call came. He had killed two of the predator aliens and was hunting down the third.
By the time Grid silenced the third and final hunter, the queen had given out new orders to her hive. All xenomorphs were compelled to abandon their hive and attack. Their current hive under serious threat, the xenomorphs were moving out to find a new home.
Xenomorph queens were very intelligent. They were much smarter than the other xenomorph variants that served them. Xenomorphs in general excelled at observational learning. Before the battle, the xenomorphs that had been slinking around Rupture Farms had observed CIS troops using transports and shuttles, the queen understood what the new ships in the sky represented: a way to spread and grow the species.
The xenomorphs were to fight their way onto the new ships and Grid intended to do just that. His only problem was that he was far removed from the rest of his hivemates. But he would still carry out the queen's will without hesitation or question.
Grid did manage to pick up one companion: a single facehugger that was wondering around the interior of Rupture Farms on its own. While not a smart as adult xenomorphs, the facehuggers still understood their orders from the queen. The facehugger latched onto Grid's left arm, catching a free ride. Together the pair slinked off to find the nearest ship. Unlike the other xenomorphs Grid was not going to engage the enemy directly, he didn't have enough hivemates for that. He would have to use stealth.
A LAAT/i gunship hovered in slow and low near Rupture Farms before moving further away towards a larger assembly of droid forces on the outskirts. The Jedi Aayla Secura and her second-in-command Commander Bly were aboard the gunship, observing the situation from the air. They were both shocked at how fast the Separatists were able to respond to their invasion force.
"This attack was planned under a shroud of secrecy. I wonder how the droid army learned of our impending invasion?"
"I don't know, General. Perhaps a spy tipped them off?" Commander Bly offered.
"We only gave information to Jedi and high-ranking clone officers precisely to prevent that problem."
"I don't know what else it could be, sir."
Aayla Secura rolled her eyes. The clones addressed everyone as 'sir' regardless of their sex.
It was supposed to be a quick and decisive battle. Oddworld was not supposed to be this heavily defended. Another troubling aspect was the Force had given Secura no insight into the future. If she had foreseen something the Republic could have changed their strategy or cancelled the attack altogether.
But it was too late for retreat now. Not without getting what they came for.
"Pilot!" Secura called out, "keep us away from that cluster of tanks!"
The Jedi's warning to the gunship's pilot came too late. The aircraft came in too close and an AAT hit it with its primary laser cannon.
"I can't hold her! We're going down!"
Aayla Secura and Bly jumped from the dying gunship, the Jedi using the Force to gently glide them down to the ground.
"General Secura, how nice of you to drop by," the command battle droid at the top of the AAT said.
"General OOM-9. I should have known you would counter our surprise attack. You move your armies as if you were guided by the Force."
"I'm not Force-sensitive. I'm just smarter than you." In this particular instance OOM-9's success was due to pure luck, but Secura didn't need to know that. From what OOM-9 knew of the Jedi, they didn't even believe in luck.
Aayla Secura had no idea how the battle droid was so successful but she was sure it was more than just his ability to think.
The armored assault tank fired all weapons, but Secura was able to dodge them all though channeling the Force through her.
OOM-9 aimed his E-5 and shot Bly in the head before the clone commander could cause him any trouble. The battle droid was in no mood to put up with any antics from highly experienced clone commanders.
An IFT-X fighter tank came to the Jedi's defense, distracting the AAT. From the top of the tank, OOM-9 still chose to fire at the Jedi but his one blaster rifle wasn't going to do the trick. Not unless Aayla really messed up with blocking the blasts with her lightsaber.
General OOM-9 wasn't the only one who had friends. The Jedi suddenly had to dodge oversized needles… needles that came from a special ops hunter's needler cannon. Deadside seemed to have materialized out of nowhere. The mgalekgolo had to drop his active camouflage in order to fire his weapon, but he was sure he had the shot. The Jedi proved him wrong and charged past the needles, bring up her lightsaber to cut the hunter down.
Deadside rose up the metal shield attached to his arm and blocked the Jedi's weapon. The hunter's quick movement knocked the Jedi away. Secura was stunned for a moment; her lightsaber should have cut through with no problem. Then she remembered hearing some reports that the Separatists had started adding a layer of phirk to hunter shields specifically to help them defend against lightsaber attacks.
Aayla Secura had to move again, now she had to dodge OOM-9 and Deadside's attacks. But it wasn't the battle droid or the hunter that hit her.
The Jedi was so focused on the enemies she was already fighting that she didn't even sense or see the third one. Even if she had, there was nowhere else to go between the needler cannon and the droid's E-5 blaster rifle.
A pink beam of energy punctured Aayla in the gut from behind. The Jedi dropped her lightsaber and it shut off. As a reflex she tried to grab at the blade that had gone through her, only to slice up her hands. The ultra grunt Curlap was behind her, he had snuck up with his active camouflage. The twi'lek twitched for a second more before Curlap deactivated his energy cutlass and let the Jedi fall the ground.
"Pull this damn thing over!" Zako demanded of Ripley. "I have to get out there and fight!"
"This isn't my war," Ripley said.
"I'm not asking you to fight."
Ripley pulled the APC over. It wasn't like she had anywhere specific to go so long as it was away from the xenomorphs and the battle. If the commander wanted to get off and get himself killed that was fine with her.
"Yayap, I want you to watch over the quaria-" Tali shoved Yayap into Zako and took off out the door.
"Damn it! Stop her!"
None of the Colonial Marines were inclined to help. They were exhausted from fighting the xenomorphs and had no intention in getting roped into any conflict the CIS had with the quarian or the clone army. Only Yayap made a move to follow Zako out of the APC and chase Tali.
Yayap would have stopped Zako and told him what Tali was doing and that she wasn't a threat, but considering the current situation he wasn't in a position to do so. All Yayap could do was follow his orders, like a soldier should.
Yayap had no idea where Tali was running to. She probably didn't even know, as long as it was away from the Separatists chasing her. A few times Yayap and Zako had to stop and shoot some clone troopers before moving on, allowing Tali to gain a slight lead.
Zako wished some of the battle droids would help him out. They were all over the place, but they were all busy fighting the clone army. If even just one battle droid would turn and grab the quarian as she ran by, then the chase would be over.
Unexpectedly someone did try to grab the quarian, but it wasn't a droid. It was the slig with the custom color violet visor that had been chasing Tali earlier.
He missed grabbing her of course and fired off a few rounds of his assault rifle to give her a scare. He still remembered the order to take the quarians alive.
"That's slurg shit! I had her," Krunch said as Yayap and Zako caught up to him.
An orange freighter flew overhead and swung around, eventually touching down near the edge of Rupture Farms. Another quarian got out; carrying a grenade launcher and firing it in any direction she pleased.
"Lena! Careful!" Tali yelled.
Krunch, Zako and Yayap were held up by a trio of clone troopers. Tali would have had her chance to escape if not for the fact that she had to help Lena fight off a pair of clones that took offense to her grenades flying everywhere.
All the while no one was paying attention to the Ebon Hawk. Almost no one. Waiting at the edge of Rupture Farms, Grid saw his chance to board a ship. The xenomorph took off in a blur, making a mad dash for the Ebon Hawk's open and unguarded loading ramp. The xenomorph (and the facehugger still clinging to his arm) made it inside the old freighter without anyone noticing them.
Zako and his team finished killing their clones before Tali and Lena had killed theirs.
When Tali and Lena started moving again the Separatist trio of nearly upon them. Lena fired a grenade, but the shot was wide. The ripples of the blast were enough to startle Krunch and Yayap but Zako kept running at full speed.
"You're not going anywhere, quarian!"
Tali hit the armored cyborg with another energy drain blast from her omni-tool. He staggered forward, his gun still pointed in her general direction. Zako was nearly on top of Tali now. He fired a trio of shots, one of them hitting against Tali's personal shield. When he tried to aim his blaster specifically at her face she knocked the gun away, pulled the combat knife strapped to her leg, spun the officer around and used him as a meat shield. She held the knife up to his neck.
When Zako felt the knife he dropped his E-5 blaster to the ground.
Krunch fired off a few shots.
"Don't shoot!" Zako yelled as the bullets impacted on his armor's personal shields.
"Try anything and I slit his throat." Tali started to back away, still holding onto her hostage. Lena ran up the Ebon Hawk's loading ramp. Krunch stopped shooting but still slowly followed after Tali and her prisoner. A nearby dwarf spider droid stopped shooting at the clones and turned to focus his attention on the captured CIS officer.
Tali kept her eyes on the slig and the spider droid as she backed away… she noticed that the grunt… Yayap was missing. She had no time to worry about that now.
Tali had just reached the edge of the loading ramp and started to slowly backpedal up it. Just as they came fully into the ship, Zako decided he didn't want to be a prisoner anymore. He grabbed at the quarian's knife hand and the two struggled.
Krunch saw this as his chance and charged in at them, tacking them. Zako and Tali fell back but instead of hitting the floor they hit something else… something invisible.
Yayap had switched on his active camouflage and had snuck aboard the ship before Tali. But Krunch's tackle of Tali and her meatshield had revealed his location. His camouflage fell away, revealing where he was.
The Separatist officer started to laugh through his helmet. "Surrender, we have you outnumbered."
"I don't think so. You surrender or I blow us all into meat chunks." Lena'Xel leveled her grenade launcher at the Separatists. In such close quarters, one shot would kill them all.
"You wouldn't dare."
"Try me."
"Fuck…"
"Penn!" Tali yelled towards the cockpit. "Get us out of here!"
The Ebon Hawk lifted off. The dwarf spider droid fired a few shots, hitting the ship but not bringing it down. The spider droid updated the network that Commander Zako had been taken hostage. The entire droid army was quickly updated with the new information and knew not to destroy the ship.
That didn't stop the Republic from taking a few shots at the escaping freighter.
Tali had gone up to the cockpit to check on Penn.
"What the hell are those bucket heads shooting at us for?"
"They're just shooting at everything." Tali sat in the co-pilot's chair.
"We're not going to be able to take much more of this."
"We have hostages," Tali said, "the droids shouldn't shoot us at least. One of their spider walkers saw us take them on the ship."
"Perfect. Then they'll chase us!"
"They would be doing that even without the hostages!"
"Set a course for hyperspace."
"Where?" Tali asked.
"Anywhere but here! Just make it quick! My ship's gonna fall apart at this rate!"
"There's not a lot out here…"
"I don't care! Let's just go!"
Zaeed Massani didn't mind not having his team sent in to deal with the infestation at Rupture Farms. His small band of mercenaries had gotten paid for their simple investigation in which they really weren't all that helpful. The glukkons had told them they were still scheduled to wipe out a group of rogue mudokon natives. But the mission was put on hold until the issue at Rupture Farms had been resolved. With the arrival of the CIS droid army Zaeed assumed they were no longer needed. But he was still told his mission was going to go through anyway and that his team was still going to be paid.
Hanging around the central hub of FeeCo Depot wasn't so bad. There were extranet feeds they could watch and the food on Oddworld was delicious. But when the clone army of the Republic suddenly invaded the planet changed things.
Zaeed and his team weren't getting paid enough to fight the clone army. The damn clones didn't seem to care who they shot at. Zaeed and his team had boarded the Millennium Falcon and were all set to take off when they received a transmission from the leader of the droid army.
"Make it quick." Zaeed said, "we're getting the hell out of here. We aren't being paid enough to fight the goddam clone army."
"That's not what I want you to do. A group of quarian fugitives has kidnapped one of my officers and is using him as a hostage in order to escape the planet." OOM-9 said.
"And you want us to bring him back?"
"Yes. You may use any means you deem necessary but I want my officer returned to me alive. I'd prefer you capture the quarians alive as well but you're free to terminate them if that's what it takes."
"This won't be cheap."
"I don't have time to deal with this myself. I have an army to fight. Money does not concern me. I'll pay your special rate. Just get it done."
"Alright, you got yourself a deal, droid."
"Excellent. We have the shipped tagged and are sending you the projected coordinates."
"We're on our way. We'll bring you back your officer."
The Millennium Falcon lifted off and followed the path of the Ebon Hawk.