Chapter XIV

No one said a word after that; not one word. We were silent most of the trip, our gazes in different directions. I couldn't tell you if any of the thoughts that were going through Ace's or Jace's heads, as they would have certainly spoken up. I wasn't doing anything that pertained to our oncoming battle, but searching a bounty scanning program I had hacked into my HUD, with the help of Tawny; she got it to synchronise with the program on my ship. Nothing was jumping out at me, screens of criminals and outlaws flying by my eyes.

I rested my eyes for a few moments, then there was another lurch; our gunship was on the move. Our handler came on, and gave us the rundown. We were heading for the Petranaki arena.

"Triton squad, welcome to Geonosis. We're going on an advance force mission, in which you'll take out key targets before the main force comes in for the blunt of the attack." He showed up key points in the structure we had to neutralise, the hologram shimmering, schematics uploading quickly to our HUDs.

"Once this is complete, the main attack force should have no problem extracting the Jedi. Your secondary mission is to destroy this droid foundry, 20 Kliks beneath the arena. This will help cripple the production of battle droids tenfold. Other Commando units are working to destroy other Droid foundries as well."

We nodded in acknowledgment, and soon we came to a hover just a few hundred meters away from the arena. We rappelled down from the Larty, hitting the ground with ease. I made a quick scan and made a move towards the coliseum like structure. Ace and Jace were behind me all the way until we hit the wall.

"We're going up," I said, the three of us unanimously readying the grappling hooks. We fired, and when we felt the line was tight, we followed through. Slipping in through an opening, we infiltrated the hostile territory. We meticulously inspected our targets, setting the charges. We came to an opening, where we had a perfect view of the arena and the spectator's platform.

"Hold up, squad," I ordered, switching to my sniper barrel. I scanned the arena, seeing Geonosians, the set to be executed Jedi… a Senator? Hmm. I looked up to the spectator's platform and took note of a couple of Neimoidians. I spotted a figure, and took a sharp breath. Jang'buir was there, and another human that seemed familiar. The beasts had already been unleashed, and were seemingly unable to successfully kill the Jedi. This went on for a few minutes, and I still watched. Ace and Jace were starting to get impatient with me.

"Sir, we have to keep moving." Jace said.

"You two keep going, I think I found a nice position to hold up in. I need you to set the charges and then find positions to defend. We can give them a whole lotta hurt that way."

Ace was physically displeased, but he went ahead anyway. Jace was a little more hesitant to go. "You sure, sir?"

"You know I am, Jace. Get going; we're still in each other's ears. Isn't that right, Ace?"

"Aye, Sir." Ace replied back. "Charges set, moving to a cover position."

"Copy that, I'm on my way." Jace said, taking his leave and moving swift to his new position to continue our mission.

Soon, it seemed that the three set to be executed had won the day, and I focused on the spectator's balcony.

"This isn't how it's supposed to be… Jango! Finish her off!" the Neimoidian exclaimed.

"Patience, Viceroy, Patience, she will die." said the elderly gentleman.

Droids quickly rolled into the arena and surrounded them, and the beast they had managed to tame and ride. I noticed a figure walk up next to my father, and ignite a purple blade. I furrowed my brow and continued to listen, holding my shot.

"Master Windu. How pleasant of you to join us."

"This party's over."

With that, I saw many different colored blades ignite all over the arena. So many of them…

"Brave, but foolish, my old Jedi friend. You're impossibly outnumbered." Said

"I don't think so."

From behind him, there was blaster fire. He turned to defletct the bolts, and my father quickly put his helmet on and forced the Jedi Master off the balcony with his flamethrower. The outer robe Windu was wearing was ablaze with a flame, but he quickly got rid of it. So the battle began, with battle droids filling the arena with the newly made Super battle droids.

"Sir, what do we do? Do we open fire?" Jace asked

"Negative, we wait until-"

"Fett's in trouble!"

"Repeat?" I asked, looking around, and found that Jango had jumped into the fray, after killing a Jedi on the balcony. He held his own for a little while before being trampled by the raging Reek. The beast charged him again, but Jang'buir quickly dispatched him with a quick shot to the face. He rose, to find Windu charging him. Opening fire, he slowly backed away from him. The Jedi effortlessly batted away the bolts, and when he was in the right range, my father attempted to get away using his jetpack, but it failed. I watched in horror as I saw the saber swing and separate Jango's head from his neck. Tears stung my eyes as I blinked them away, trying not to open fire upon my father's killer. Moments later, the Jedi were surrounded by the droids, encircling them and mowing them down.

"Sir?!" Jace questioned

"Wait!" I barked

Soon, the Droids stopped firing, and Tyranus spoke.

"Master Windu! You've fought galantly. Worthy of recognition in the Archives of the Jedi Order. But now, it is finished. Surrender, and your lives will be spared."

"We will not be hostages to be bartered, Dooku!"

"Then… I'm sorry, old friend." The Droids readied themselves to open fire once again. I could hear the Gunships incoming. They had to be a Klik away…

"Open fire!" I shouted, blowing the charges. The Gunships pulled down into the arena, firing upon the enemy, protecting our objective. We hit various targets, laying waste to the enemy until all of the Jedi had been extracted. The Gunships started pulling away, and it was time for us to leave. We exfiltrated just as quickly as we had infiltrated, killing bugs as we went along. We regrouped, and I just had to find Boba.

"Boba needs me…" I said, mostly to myself, but Ace interjected.

"Sir, we have a mission to do. You go AWOL now, we're all gonna be kriffin' executed."

"He just lost his father!" Jace shouted.

"Move on to the next objective, I'll join you shortly." I said, moving through the opening to repel down from the ledge.

"Fierfek…" Ace cursed and followed. Jace did as well. We readied ourselves and swung over the edge. We eventually made it down to the main arena battle floor, bodies of Jedi, Geonosians, and crumpled battle droids littered the field. I spied Boba, hugging the corpse of our decapitated father, sobbing, cursing Windu. I led my squad over to him, clipping my Deece to my belt, pulling my helmet from my head.

"Boba," I croaked, kneeling beside him, "Boba, look at me." he turned his head, tears flowing from his face like a river, snot dripping from his nose.

"Ori'vod," he stammered, burying his face in my shoulder.

"Shh… Bic cuyir tayli'bac euk vod... Kaysh cuyir nu kyr'adyc shi taab'echaaj'la." I whispered to him, tears stinging my eyes. Boba simply nodded, still weeping silently in my shoulder.

"Ori'vod… What am I going to do?"

"I don't know, Bob'ika. Try Buir's bank accounts… You should have some cash in there to help. I'd assume he'd have acquired a large sum of wealth over the years."

Boba nodded again and sniffed. "Help me bury him."

"Of course." We took out our small durasteel entrenchment tools, and began to dig. It took us little time before we were down six feet.

"Ace, help Boba lower Jang'buir in. I'll get him with Jace."

"Aye, sir." He lifted my father from the shoulders, Boba getting his legs and they lowered him in. Jace and I caught the body and lowered him down the rest of the way. I grabbed a piece of his armor, a shoulder pauldron, and I unclipped his holsters for Boba. I slipped it into my pack, promising myself that I would add it to my armor when I could. Ace helped Jace out of the hole first, then me. I retrieved my helmet and slid it back on. I handed Boba the holsters.

"Take his helmet and his blaster. Take Slave I and leave Geonosis… Find somewhere to start over." He nodded and hugged me again. He took our Buir's helmet, blaster and holsters and went looking for Slave I. As I watched him leave, I switched back to the squad link.

"Let's go, boys. We have a job to do." I turned my back and headed in the direction in which the battle droids were deployed. I had a feeling that if we went that direction, we'd be able to get to the droid foundry faster. Jace and Ace were quiet for most of our excursion, which didn't seem like them, but we pushed on. We eventually made it down into the Foundry, where we were absolutely stunned by the amount of Droids the damn thing could make.

Quickly and decisively, we moved through the catacombs, destroying droids and squishing bugs. We'd racked up a hell of a kill count by the time we finally blew the reactor core.

"Just like the simulation." Ace commented.

"Well done, boys," I said, "Let's exfil and RTB for retasking."

"Aye, sir." they said in unison and together, we escaped from that nightmare and got to the RV point for our extraction.

By the end of the first day of the Battle of Geonosis, there were so many casualties from all of the commandos that went to battle. Our brothers from Delta Squad were alive and well, and that was a welcome sight. Theta squad was obliterated… Darman was lucky to get the hell out of there. Prudii squad was annihilated, with Atin being the only survivor. Those two made up two of the newly made Omega squad, which was almost the laughing stock of the entire Spec Ops Brigade. I heard Teroch didn't make it out fully either, which was horrifying… I knew some guys there, and they were the best. Fi was the only one to live, and I suppose that was okay, since he was the funny man. Then there was Lamda squad… They all died too. I heard Niner made it out and he was stuck leading Omega, and Fi was sent to Omega as well. The Deltas called them the 'Mongrel Squad.' We all got along well enough, and even joked about it all. It had taken me awhile, but I finally found myself calling them my brothers.