Chapter 9

Like a Droid to the Slaughter Corps

"Order 86: In the event a hostile base is discovered on Coruscant or any Republic-controlled world that is highly fortified, immediately send in local Republic forces to clear the base before it gets fully operational."

-Order 86 of the Contingency Orders for the Grand Army of the Republic.

Back on Coruscant, Dunkel was giving the last training of the day before midnight. They were to strike at one of the CIS's secret bases that was only revealed now. The only way to get to it was from flying, however. Because of that, Dunkel had engineers ready some of the 66th Slaughter Corp's LAATs to be ready right when they are armed and prepared to depart.

At last, the training was dismissed. There was plenty of time until everyone boarded the LAATs to prepare for this version of negotiations. Dunkel walked up to the command bay, where he found Captain Kicker.

"Sir. 77th ARC Unit ready," Kicker saluted to Dunkel. His title wasn't Captain anymore. Dunkel had forgotten that he was Cap-Commander Bullseye where promoted to Commanders. beside Kicker there where three other clone troopers who were in his unit, all sharing white armor instead of black with red markings. On his left there was Captain Rose. On his right stood other 77th ARC Unit members, all having the rank Captain as well. None of them where in charge of each other except for Kicker. That reminded Dunkel of his old Commando Squad, before they were killed.

Captain Rose's armor was more unique compared to the other clones. She was a volunteer who was placed in the 66th Slaughter Corps, then later more specifically in the 77th ARC Unit. Because of this, her armor was modified to fit her physical appearance. On the stomach of her armor there was a large image of a rose. The top of her top armor on the chest had two lines that went all the way around. On her arms and legs she had painted thorns all over them. In the palms of her hand, the same image of the rose on her armor's belly. Her helmet's face had a heart symbol covering it.

Dunkel looked over the four troopers. He could obviously tell which was which, but that was due to their armor. Each of them were unique in their own way. Rose was especially unique due to the fact she was a volunteer. However, she was serious when needed to be. One of the other ARC Troopers in the fire team would most likely say that as well, and add that she was still fun to be with when she wasn't serious.

"Sir, did you need us?" Kicker asked Dunkel. Usually, Dunkel would of passed by them, or anyone, by now. Obviously he hasn't yet, which made Kicker slightly worried.

"I was just checking in, Commander," Dunkel turned his focus on to Kicker, "I will leave you with your Unit."

"Alright, sir," Kicker acknowledged, "Oh, by the way. If you see General Galen, tell him we are ready for him to come," he requested afterwards.

"Aye," is all Dunkel said in return.

Dunkel turned around and took the stairs out of the command bay. The elevator always seemed to be broken in some way, so he never bothered to try it out.

In the hallway, he ran into Sky. Sky had a few troopers in his 1st Reaper Company behind him to back him up, but half of them were taller.

"Sir," Sky started up strongly, "I challenge you to a one on one melee duel. Melee weapons only."

"You'll regret your decision, Sky. No one has won against my in a practice," Dunkel took off his minacious helmet and stared down Sky right in the eye. Sky showed no fear towards Dunkel, however he could tell deep down Sky was a nervous wreck. The two of them continued walking out into the courtyard of the Republic base. Meanwhile in the courtyard, the news spread to all of the clones like wildfire. They left space for Dunkel and Sky to duel it out. They all knew who would win, but they knew it was going to be entertaining anyways.

Dunkel and Sky stood on opposite sides of the courtyard. Dunkel drew his vibro staff and Sky pulled out a vibroblade. Up above, Kicker shouted numbers. "Three. Two... One... DUEL!"

Dunkel made the first move. He charged at Sky and leaped over him before Sky countered his charge. He kicked Sky down with his foot and stepped on top of him. Sky used this time to strike and flipped Dunkel off. They both landed on their feet and began slicing at each other. Dunkel was overpowering Sky in both his speed and strength. Sky was fast, but he was too slow for Dunkel and was given a scar on his left cheek.

Sky began spinning his sword at Dunkel. Dunkel skillfully countered each of Sky's attacks. It almost seemed like he was trained by a Jedi in the ways of a melee weapon based on how much he was beating Sky in the duel. Finally, Sky found a weak point in Dunkel's defense. While Dunkel was doing an all out strike, Sky rolled under Dunkel and attempted to slash his back. However, Dunkel already figured out Sky found his frail point in his shield, so he spun around and slammed Sky into the ground. Sky managed to flip back in the air.

The two of them were now at each others starting positions. They began to charge at one another. Then finally, Sky leaped up in the air and slammed down to the ground.

However, Dunkel wasn't there, instead he was already far away and he pulled something from his belt. He activated a lightsaber he looted from a fallen Sith he once faced and threw it at Sky. The blade jabbed Sky in the right arm and he gashed to the floor.

Dunkel marched towards his fallen comrade. He had won the duel against him, and he pulled the lightsaber out of Sky's arm after pulling him back to his feet.

"Medical droid to Republic courtyard," Dunkel slightly mocked Sky, but he actually did call a medical droid to come over to patch Sky up.

Galen and Kira, who were also observing the battle, confronted Dunkel. "Amazing job, Commander. I am glad you are with us," Kira smiled. Galen only nodded to what she was saying. He didn't like it when Dunkel dueled violently like that, but he was impressed.

"My thanks, Generals," Dunkel sounded somewhat polite when he said that, "I believe it is time we get the troops into the LAATs. Where is the kid?" Dunkel looked around. Sala'kun was behind Galen.

"Are you sure this is a wise idea, Dunkel?" Galen tried one last try to convince Dunkel to find a way that didn't risk the boy.

"I know what I am doing, sir," Dunkel showed no hesitation. "Oh, and by the way. Kicker is ready for you to join him in the command bay. The 77th's ship is the last one to the left."

"Thank you Commander, now we must get going," Galen nodded.

Dunkel began to make more calls on his comlink, contacting the leaders of divisions in the 66th, including Sky's 1st Reaper Company, 84th Assassin Elite Squad, and the 44th Elite Recon Unit.

"General," Dunkel was now facing Kira, "This is where the fun begins!"

The 66th Slaughter Corps troopers when aboard the LAATs. None of them knew what was going to happen, they just had their orders.

From the main gate that entered the base, seven speeders drove in. They were lead by the Senate Commando Commander Bullseye. His black cape flew against the wind before the bikes parked on the republic symbol in the base.

"Ah, Bullseye. I heard you also got a promotion to Commander, like Kicker," Dunkel greeted.

"Indeed I have, Dunkel. Now were is my LAAT?" Bullseye went straight to the chase.

"Right over there, adviser," Dunkel pointed to a LAAT. Bullseye and the six other Senate Commandos ran to the currently empty LAAT. Chancellor Palpatine believed they wouldn't be doing much because Bullseye was only Dunkel's adviser for him. Back when Dunkel was in a squad, Bullseye was their adviser for their missions. Now that Dunkel's squad mates are dead, Bullseye was only Dunkel's adviser and sometimes went with Dunkel on secret operations.

At last, everyone got in a LAAT, and they all took off, away from the Republic base and the Senate building, and they headed towards the coordinates given to them earlier.

Inside of the LAAT, Dunkel and the others in the same LAAT as him, which was Kira, Sala'kun, and four other Slaughter Corps clones, all were holding on to the handle they were suppose to. Dunkel kept his DC-17M and DC-17 hand blasters holstered on him. On his back was his currently sheathed Senate Guard vibro staff along with a DC-15x Sniper Rifle sheathed in the opposite direction as the vibro staff. Current on his belt he had two Sith lightsabers from Sith he killed. He rarely used them, even when he was facing other Sith. Along the belt was also some explosives and other important things. He attached his helmet to his armor, trying to make sure his eyepatch stays in the same position.

Sala'kun, standing in between Kira and him was terrified. He didn't know of Dunkel's plans and thought he was going to actually be given up to the Sith in exchange for a Senator. Kira didn't try to cheer him up. She felt no need to and didn't want to waste her time, even though there was nothing to do while the LAAT flew.

The whole trip was silent. No chatter was picked up over Dunkel's comlink, just dead silence.

At last, Dunkel's hologram went off. He detached it from his belt and enabled it. A blue image of Bullseye and another Senate Commando appeared. The other said nothing, he only watched.

"Dunkel, sir," Commander Bullseye greeted himself to Dunkel once more, "The LAATs are in position. We are only waiting for yours to arrive and start the plan."

"Aye. Good Bullseye. We are just arriving there now," Dunkel informed. Bullseye signed off the hologram and the LAAT at last landed on a small bridge connected to the building. It was far away from all of the other buildings on Coruscant. The ones high in the sky, anyways.

Kira and Sala'kun emptied from the LAAT first. They were followed by Commander Dunkel and then the other four Slaughter Corps members. In front of them awaited some mandalorians. One of them was obviously Zerd since he called them there in the first place, but the other two were just some of his crew. Dunkel took note that both of Zerd's companions were female. It was hard to tell due to the helmets who they really were. The one who had a kama and the two lightsaber handles on his belt had to be Zerd.

The mandalorians' armor was painted black and marked with red. They all wore red capes that covered their right arm.

Zerd walked up to Sala'kun and Kira. "Where is the Senator? Tell me!" Kira demanded. Zerd only laughed at her.

"Oh, your Senator is fine. Just hand me the boy," Zerd pointed at Sala'kun, then gave a come here signal to him. Sala'kun obviously didn't do what Zerd attempted to order him to do, and stepped back towards Dunkel. After seeing the duel the Commander and Sky had in the courtyard, he felt he might be safer if he was near him instead of Kira. Kira slightly looked back and saw Sala'kun's movement. Scared. Frightened. Those were some of the few words she thought about Sala'kun because of that action.

"How about, no. Hand the Senator over or else," Kira repeated.

Dozens of LAATs sped towards the tower and surrounded both exits out of it. Two of them hovered above while the others engaged. The hatches of them opened up and revealed 66th Slaughter Corps, ready to fire at the bounty hunters.

Zerd didn't flinch or was even surprised about what happened, "I know your type, Commanders. You think you have won. You haven't." Suddenly after that, missiles fired and shot down a quarter of the amount of LAATs who engaged. Then a second later, four more mandalorians slowly dropped towards the ground, and many B2 and B1 battle droids came from the sides, as well as droidekas. Then, after it seemed like a counter to their own trap enough already, a robed figure dropped from the ceiling in the middle of the four mandalorians who where just up there with him. He pulled his hood down and looked dead at Kira.

"Darth Phalanx..." Kira muttered in both shock and anger.

Dunkel, Kira and Sala'kun were surrounded by droids. They only had four normal Slaughter Corps clones to cover them with the rest of the soldiers that came along to the now broken trap flying in LAATs surrounding the tower. The only hostiles who weren't droids around them was Zerd, his crew, and the dark lord, Phalanx. Sala'kun cowered in between Dunkel and Kira, however it seemed he was braver than when they first saw him do this. Kira was right, the dark side gave him courage, Dunkel thought to himself.

All of the droids made sure their guns were loaded fully. They had the chance to take out the Commanders of the attack before it even went halfway through. Sadly for them, the time they took to reload was an advantage to the Republic. Dunkel pulled out his DC-17M Commando Gun and started firing at the droids. All of the droids near them where now dead. Zerd began to return fire at Dunkel, but Kira reflected his shots towards the other droids. No sign of Phalanx again as of yet, it seemed like he disappeared into nothing.

Then, right after that thought, Kira was sent flying, landing into some droids in the process. This is when the other clones in the LAATs began to jump down from the gunships and joined the fight, flanking the droids from the east and west. The unsuspected first move gave them the advantage once more in the battle.

Blackout and Sky charged into battle alongside another, higher ranking clone than only Blackout. The Captain was named Sideswipe. Sideswipe wore black armor with red markings like the rest of the 66th Slaughter Corps. He had a black sun visor along with a red visor on his helmet. There were white scratch markings on the helmet's cheek as well. His armor was almost completely black except for two white lines in the middle from top to bottom. Both of his arm pieces had a white line going down from his shoulder pad to his gloves. The pauldron attatched to the top of his armor and around his neck had a red cobra painted on to it. Sideswipe also wore a kama around his legs.

Sideswipe and Sky were close since they believed they were the most elite clones in the army and could easily take down the CIS themselves. However, most people just saw them as normal clones, and knew if anyone in the army had to have that title, it would of been given to Commander Dunkel. Sideswipe was a part of Sky's 1st Reaper Company, and he was Sky's second in command.

Sky and Sideswipe both pulled out their melee weapons, Sky a vibroblade and Sideswipe an electro staff and began slicing droids. Blackout just shot around with his DC15A at the droids. They weren't living beings, so he couldn't do his favorite attack on them.

Meanwhile, Dunkel and Zerd got themselves into a private brawl. Dunkel used one hand to fly Zerd around above his head. When he tried to make him fly into a wall, Zerd activated his jetpack, then dived down, darksabers ready to jab Dunkel anywhere. However, Dunkel knows how to dodge melee attacks easily. He can dodge any attack easily, now that he thought about it. While rolling away from Zerd's attempt to stab him, he equipped his DC17M again and shot back at Zerd. Zerd also knew how to deal with others attacks, and reflects the shots to go all around him. Some hit other clones, the rest of them hit droids. Dunkel had no time for a duel that would last the whole battle, so he faked getting shot in the legs and purposely stumbled into a crowd of droids. Zerd turned his focus to other clones who he shot down with ease.

Dunkel, down on the ground, got his comlink out and activated it. "Commander," he started, "Send in the 77th ARC Unit."

"Aye, Dunkel," Bullseye replied. He pressed another button on his comlink.

One of the two ships that weren't invading the tower dispersed from circling around the top of it and flew down into an open spot. Inside, guns loaded up, last minute attachments where set, and a lightsaber ignited. The blast doors opened to show the 77th ARC Unit the huge battle waving before their eyes.

Commander Kicker and General Galen leaped out first. They were followed by the Captains Predator, Jinx, and Rose. The rest of the 77th ARC Unit jumped out as well and followed them.

Predator wore the normal 77th ARC Unit armor. Phase I ARC trooper armor with red markings all over the helmet and red strips down the arms. He wore a red and black kama to show he was in the 66th Slaughter Corps. Jinx wore the same. Rose seemed to be the only one who went fully creative with her armor and made her easy to identify besides the fact she is the only one in female clone armor in the unit.

"Fire Team A, with me!" Galen ordered, "Fire Team B, try to regroup with General Kira. Let's move out!"

Kicker, Rose, Predator and Jinx were in Fire Team A. Following orders, they followed Galen and shot droids along the way. Galen slashed at droids in his way as well, with the occasional force push to just move them away from their path.

During their charge, Kicker got a call from Fire Team B. He answered it after firing down some droids. "This is Fire Team A to Fire Team B, what's going on over there?"

The ARC informed, "Sir! Newbie is down and we are going to need your field medic over here because of the damage. Can you send her over?"

Kicker looked back at Rose for a second, then turned back to his wrist, "Fine, but if she gets killed we all know who to blame, alright? And I just mean Newbie not your whole team," Kicker spoke both sarcastically and seriously. He rather Rose not to die so soon, she had saved him out of many jams as well before this mission, and most likely after, too. He gave Rose the signal and she ran off in the direction of Fire Team B.

After firing down dozens of droids and nearly being shot by some, she had finally made it to Fire Team B. She saw them covering the injured clone. It looked like it was Newbie, and she heard it was, too. She ran and crouched down next to him. The rest of Fire Team B began to surround the two more, however it was hard to completely cover them without giving Rose no space to work with only three ARCs. So they tried their best and hope Rose wouldn't be shot.

Rose examined Newbie's body which seemed to be lifeless. There were shots all over him. One to the throat, head, heart, everywhere they can kill a clone if they were shot in. However, Newbie still had the ability to talk. Barely, but still something.

"Rose..." Newbie said weakly, "Make sure... that you tell Kicker that... he is..." Newbie never got to finish that, he died right there in front of Rose.

Rose pulled her wrist to her mouth and said, "Medical Operation failed, going back to Fire Team A."

After another round of firing dozens of droids she had returned to Fire Team A. No one spoke of Newbie's death. In fact, it seemed like they had forgotten about him and his death. They continued charging in through the droids, clearing them out along with a mandalorian or two.

Then, on top of some boxes there stood Zerd and the two female mandalorians who were with him when Dunkel, Kira, and Sala'kun first arrived. Kicker began to change his direction that way, as long as the others, when suddenly Galen stopped them.

"No, the battle is almost over, we will only make it longer and extend the casualties if you face them. Zerd is powerful enough, but," Galen sensed the other two figures for a moment, then looked back at the clones, "With the help of his sister and his most trusted member besides his sister, you will all die at their shots. This way." Galen ran in the direction where Sala'kun was trying to use the force to keep droids away from him. Kicker sighed under his helmet, then followed Galen's orders and paced towards Sala'kun to rescue him.

Fire Team B had yet to arrive with General Kira. It was probably best they hadn't yet, Darth Phalanx was beating her to a pulp and would do worse to them if they came in during their duel. Phalanx was using the force to almost fly in the air while throwing Kira around the battle grounds. Then after some focusing, he shot force bullets in Kira's direction. She finally regained her strength to fight and flung up at Darth Phalanx to give what would of been a deadly blow, however it was a trick. Phalanx's force shield blew up her face and she was sent flying.

"I have had my fun, girl. I'll see you later, with some more power to show you," Phalanx then just disappeared into thin air. Kira just laid half dead on the ground.

Zerd continued killing everything he saw, when suddenly he got orders from his client. He turned his radio on and contacted his crew in the battle, "We have orders to go, so get to my ship. All of you."

Zerd's ship shot down some LAATs and flew inside of the tower and hovered in the air while the bounty hunters got aboard their ship. Zerd just jumped on as the little droid pilot began to fly off. All of the blaster shots at it didn't even dent it.

Finally, after a long waiting from the clones, Dunkel gaves orders. "All of you, back to your LAATs, we are going back to base."

Some new LAATs arrived to replace the ones that were shot down. Clones started to get aboard.

Rose was following Kicker, Jinx, Predator and Galen when she saw Kira laying on the ground, beaten nearly to death. With all of her might she picked Kira up and half dragged half carried her to the LAAT. After Kicker noticed what she was doing, he came to aid her. He grabbed Kira's legs and helped get her into the 77th's LAAT.

After safely getting Kira's body into the LAAT, Kicker look at his wrist and spoke, "Dunkel, Kira is with us. Rose is gonna patch her up, she is half dead."

The comlink was silent for a while, then Dunkel at last replied, "We're going back to base. LAATs, depart."