Alrighty, onto our next milestone, chapter 20!
I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Day with your families ^^
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or anything related to the movies and shows
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"Damn it, stop moving!" "Why are you so god damn flexible?!" This would be Domino Squad yelling various things as they try to hit Ryuko, who was dodging every punch and kick. "I said you'd be more skilled than commandos, so I'm gonna train you like it, try again." Hevy growled in annoyance and went for a strong right hook, only to have it blocked and be sent flying with a palm thrust from the Jedi Knight. Then Echo and Fives both came at Ryuko together, causing her to work a little harder as they throw quick but powerful jabs and kicks in her direction.
"This is what I wanted, teamwork!" She then narrowly dodges Fives's fist, only to get kicked in the side of the head by Echo and sent tumbling away before she got her footing. She shakes off her slight dizziness and stares at the clones, who had formed a circle around her. "That's more like it, now I'll actually have to start trying." Once they hear this they all rush her at once, only for Ryuko to pull some breakdancing moves and kick them all in the head multiple times and send them to the ground.
"Ugh, my head.." "That rung my bell, fuck." "My ears are ringing now, lovely." This makes Ryuko chuckle a but as she lifts the clones back onto their feet with the force. "You did good, I'm gonna have a real headache later. You can rest for the day, we've still got a few weeks of training before your first mission at the Rishi Outpost." They all nod and speak in unison. "Yes Admiral Nakamura." Ryuko sighs softly and smiles a bit. "While I get protocol is your bread and butter at times, it's Ryuko."
They all nod and relax a bit, smiling happily. "So you think we're ready for our first assignment?" Ryuko chuckles softly and crosses her arms. "You five will be assigned to the Rishi Outpost. It'll be a boring job, but remember not to complain as it can go from boring to a nightmare real fast. You're Kamino's spotters for enemy attack, so they'd want to hit the base hard and take it over swiftly before moving on to where you were all made." Hevy stares at her in shock. "H-hold on, we're basically gonna be Kamino's first line of defense?"
Ryuko nods and smirks, chuckling a little louder this time. "I thought that part would stick with you more Hevy. Yes, you lot and a few others will be the first line of defense, so try not to let me down, ok?" They all nod and start to laugh happily, giving each other fist bumps and talking about how excited they were. "Alright everyone, you can celebrate when we get back to base. After about two months of being on the job I and two clones, Commander Cody and Captain Rex, will be showing up at the outpost for an inspection, and we expect everything to be in tip top shape."
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Timeskip: 2 months later
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As Ryuko had said, this new job for Domino Squad was quite boring, but they knew just how important it was, so they didn't complain too much. Fives and Droidbait were watching holograms of Twi'lek dancers while Hevy and Cutup were arm wrestling, and Echo was doing his job as Ryuko could never get him to relax too much. "You know guys, we should be looking at the scanners at all times, you remember what Ryuko said about this job." Hevy swiftly slams Cutup's arm onto the table and laughs victoriously. "Oh come on Echo, you need to relax a bit, I can see my station from where I am now, nothing's on the scanners."
Just then another clone trooper walks in without his helmet on, prompting Echo to stand up straight. "Sergeant on deck!" Sergeant O'Niner was a clone with dark grey hair that might've once been jet black, his face donned a permanent scowl from his time serving on the front lines. "At ease cadets, it's nice to see that while taking a break you still take time to look at the scanners, the others don't." Hevy nods and walks over to his station. "Yeah, the importance of this job was hammered into our heads quite well. So when's the inspection?"
O'Niner has to do a double take when he hears this. "How did you know there'd be an inspection today? The point is to not know so you bust your ass cleaning up." Domino Squad all chuckle and point to a display showing Ryuko during her speech on Mandalore. "Ryuko decided to give us some personal tutoring before sending us here, she's supposedly putting together an elite division of clone troopers meant to be more skilled than commandos. She's the one that told us, since she's gonna be with Rex and Cody when they arrive."
O'Niner sighs and shakes his head. "Of course she told you. She's a handful, but she does take care of her troops more than any Jedi I've seen, leading the charge miles ahead of her army at times." Echo shrugs as he stares at his scanner, searching for even the slightest hint of activity. "We're clones of her uncle, of course she''d wanna make sure we didn't get killed... Hey Sarge, I'm picking up something entering the atmosphere." Fives and Cutup go to look out the window. "Hmm, looks like a meteor shower to me." "Yeah, but something feels a bit off about it, look at the tight spread."
O'Niner narrows his eyes and walks over to the scanners, noticing that the 'meteors' indeed had a very tight spread compared to the usual meteor showers, which would usually just have the meteors come down at random. "I don't like this.. I'll go have our guy on patrol duty go check it out if any get through." Much to everyone's dismay, four of the meteors got through. "Fuck, Hevy, you're getting bad vibes from this right?" Hevy looks to his fellow clone and nods, putting on his helmet with a determined look and heading to the armory. "That's why I'm getting my minigun."
Echo and Fives look to each other, nodding to each other and standing up. "Sergeant O'Niner, we'd like to request that we lift the all clear signal, just in case." "Yes, we feel that it would be better to be cautious and wrong, than relaxed and right." While the sergeant was debating whether or not to give them the ok to disable the signal, Hevy comes back with a bunch of weapons, as well as his minigun strapped to his back and a normal blaster rifle over his shoulder. "Alright boys, take your pick. There's plenty to go around."
Echo and Fives would grab the standard short blasters, but Fives grabbed some pistols as well. Cutup and Droidbait grabbed the long blaster rifles and extra ammo, as well as some EMP grenades. Meanwhile Hevy would take the minigun off of his back and replace it with his own long blaster rifle, hoisting the minigun up like he was ready to go. Domino Squad then turned to their commanding officer and stood at attention. "Domino Squad reporting for duty sir!" O'Niner couldn't help but chuckle slightly and put his helmet on. "Well I guess you're right. Jack, you can come in, we're disabling the all clear signal."
O'Niner waited for a few seconds and tried again. "Jack? Trooper are you there? Oh hell, Fives, check the scanner." Fives would nod and walk over to his console, only to find that his scanner was malfunctioning. "Sir, scanner's down, we need to disable the all clear signal now!" O'Niner would nod and quickly run over to his own console, typing furiously and muttering to himself. After about ten seconds he growls and punches the console. "Damn it, they're jamming everything, I can't turn the damn thing off!"
Just then the doors were blasted open, revealing dozens of droids which the clones began shooting swiftly. "Sir, grab your gun and move!" O'Niner tried to do just that, only to receive three shots in the back courtesy of a Commando Droid. "Get word to the fleet! We have to warn-" That was all O'Niner managed to get out before be was shot in the back once more, this time falling over dead. Domino Squad took a second to look on in horror before they started backing up, with Echo running to the next room's door and starting to fiddle with the controls.
Once he was done, he opened the door and turned around, firing upon the droids over everyone's shoulders. "Come on, the door's gonna shut in ten seconds!" Nobody had to be told twice, they all quickly bolted for the door and managed to get inside just before it shut them out. Once they had a moment to breath, Hevy slumped against a wall and took off his helmet, feeling out of breath. "Fuck! If everything's jammed, then Ryuko, Rex, and Cody are all walking into a trap!"
The clones who were in the room previously and didn't hear the gunfire before were looking at them with fear on their faces. "W-what the hell happened in there? What was all that noise?" Fives decides to explain what happened in a solemn tone while Cutup messes with the ventilation cover against the wall. "Y-you're kidding, right?" "Sarge's dead?!" Fives nods sadly, looking to the clones with pain filled eyes. "Yes, but he wouldn't want us to mourn right now, we need to warn the fleet somehow.."
He turns toward the door when he hears an odd sound, noticing sparks coming from the door. "Damn, they're cutting their way through. Cutup, you got that vent cover off yet?" Cutup's response was to simply place the cover off to the side. "Well yeah, Ryuko would kill me herself if I couldn't get one off this quick. Let's go boys, someone grab that flare gun too, we'll need it."
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Timeskip: 10 minutes later
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"Oh come on Rex, it's not gonna be that bad." "Ryuko, everyone there besides Domino Squad is just gonna be another batch of Shinies, and you know I'm not good with new recruits!" "Oh will you two shut up?" Ryuko and Rex were currently arguing while Cody flew their shuttle to the landing pad of the Rishi Outpost for their inspection. "You don't have to say much dumbass, just throw in your two cents and keep your mouth shut if you're gonna whine about this!" "I think I know how General Skywalker felt about his padawan at first now.."
They're both interrupted when Cody makes a particularly harsh handing, sending the arguing pair to the floor. "Oops, sorry, never really flown one of these transports before." Ryuko and Rex groan and slowly stand up, with Ryuko crossing her arms. "Yeah yeah, let's do this already. I wanna see how my squad is doing." Cody could only chuckle as he opens the access ramp, with Ryuko being the first one out due to her excitement. As they walk towards the outpost, a lone clone trooper walks toward them, but Ryuko couldn't help but notice that his movements were slightly robotic.
"H-hello! Um, what brings you here General?" Ryuko would take a glance at Cody and Rex, before putting her attention back onto the clone. "We're here for the inspection, did you sleep in and forget or something?" The clone seems to grow even more distressed when he hears this. "U-um.. There's no need for any inspection, everything's in tip top shape." Cody walks forward and tilts his helmeted head forward in a way that made the light reflect off of his helmet in a rather intimidating way. "We'll be the judge of that soldier."
The clone simply nods once. "Roger roger." Once Ryuko had heard this she had heard enough, quickly drawing her lightsaber and stabbing the man in the chest only for sparks to erupt from the stab wound, letting him fall to the ground and activating her other lightsaber. "Holy shit!" "Ryuko, what're you doing?!" She then uses the force to remove the clone's helmet to reveal a battle droid. "Venting some anger, we've walked into a damn ambush." A bright red light from behind them would cause them all to turn around, seeing a bright red flare coming from a ways away. "Must be the cadets that survived."
All of a sudden the base's front doors would open, revealing dozens of droids. "Oh shit, take cover!" Rex and Cody would quickly dive behind some crates as the droids open fire, with Ryuko using the fluidity of her style to her advantage as she deflects the blaster fire back at the droids. Soon after the ambush started however, multiple commando droids would come out of their hiding places by the shuttle and start firing on Rex and Cody. "We've been surrounded!" Then a few droids on either side throw grenades at the trio, making Ryuko's eyes widen. "Shit shit shit, off the bridge!"
She would then tackle them and dive off the bridge just before the grenades exploded, landing with grunts of pain as their shuttle blows up, along with the communications array it had within. "Great.. They'll be jamming the all clear signal, and now we've got no way to contact the fleet." They all groan and slowly stand up, with Ryuko gritting her teeth as she punches her left shoulder and everyone hears a sickening pop. "Well, what're we gonna do Ryuko?" "Yeah, they've probably hot wired the all clear signal to broadcast no matter what if I had to guess."
Ryuko sighs and rubs her temples as she feels a headache starting to form. "Look, let's focus on finding the survivors first, then we can come up with a plan." She'd pull her lightsabers back to her and growl in irritation. "Grievous has made this personal, nobody messes with my squad and gets away with it."