"When times are good, you only take what's best. When times are rough, you take what you can get. And a year and a half into the dark days, we weren't very picky when it came to targets or recruits." – Varrin Torrik-Time in Kessel System – 1 hour
-Time after Droid Shut Down – 444 days
The blaster fire ceased as the last perimeter guard fell. The relentless onslaught of red and green bolts burning through the air directed right into the poorly prepared unit was more then any of them could have hoped to survive. One by one the five men had dropped to the ground when the column of thirty metal warriors marched on them, with a man in a dark blue and gray uniform and armor leading them forward, shrouded beneath a dark colored coat.
"Move it up, clinks!" Varrin yelled out to his platoon of mixed battledroids, using a slang term that some of the more individualistic droids may have taken offense to.
It was a very strange sight, seeing a lone human lead a pack of mismatched mechanical men and monsters of war at a large single building.
"That means you too 55." He directed at his B1 right hand droid. "No time for a tic-tock march" Varrin said referring to a standard B1 formation.
"You're the one who's getting shot today if you move too fast, Sir." 55 replied, in his higher pitched B1 sarcasm.
"Never got me shot before. You're the one who's taken the heavy to the chest, maybe you should update strategy." Varrin noted the battledroids getting hit in the chest during the clone wars, though the blaster bolt did not manage to deactivate him.
"I have updated strategy. And the update says you should slow down." 55 retorted quickly.
"Just shut up and help me drive this herd." Varrin ordered to his droid.
Varrin and the droids made it to the large metal building. Its metallic texture conflicted their surroundings greatly. It was dark and gray and stood several stories tall. It sat in a rocky crater, surrounded by several naturally formed hills.
The structure sat alone in the crater, and held a small elevated landing pad several floors up. On top of the structure there were a mass of antenna as well as a dish. There were several cables that that ran down from the antenna which stretched all the way to the ground.
The building was the communications center for the prison complex. Kessel's natural make up had a number of wave blocking metals, and a special station was needed for short range communications. The communications center received all small transmissions on the asteroid and boosted their signals out to be able to link with all points of the asteroid.
The trouble with the design however, would make any malfunction on such a facility considerably devastating in terms of coordinating an apt response to any major breach in the prisons security. It's location in complete isolation on the asteroid kept it fairly safe, and orbital defenses made the likeliness of outside attack nearly unfeasible.
The attacking Confederates however had managed to utilize massive censor jamming on the orbiting fleet to bypass their defenses, and sneak right through. But they would only have a limited amount of time to conduct their operation before the jamming was stopped. And in that time they needed to stop the Imperial forces on the ground from being able to adequately repel them. And that was where Varrin came in.
"Breaker Squad. Strap on the keys" Varrin ordered.
Several of the droids moved up, and placed charges on the door. They worked quickly and armed the explosives.
"Explosives ready, sir" A B1 replied.
"Everyone clear." Varrin checked. "Breach the door!"
A swift explosion followed, but it was very controlled. The blast drove straight through the door. And before the smoke even cleared, a pair of Q-series Droidekas, with shields deployed, entered the facility blasters blazing.
After only a few seconds, the entire entry way was clear. Droidekas struck with a relentless efficiency when it came to killing, and their shields made them nearly invulnerable. They were still an invaluable asset to the Confederacy, and Varrin made sure he only put them at risk when necessary.
"Nice work Q's." Varrin said to the Droidekas, who did not respond at all.
He turned and looked at the other droids. "Smasher group, move in and have some fun. But just shoot the imps and the guards. Don't kill the Cons."
The order was very specific, but the droids were easily able to discern the difference between the orange prison outfits, and the armored personal of the facility.
As a large portion of the droids moved into the facility quickly, Varrin looked at the remaining droids. "Watchdogs." He said a group of B1's and Dwarf Spider droids. "You're on guard duty. Anyone comes in visual range that isn't ours, you shoot it till it stops moving."
"Roger, Roger!" a B1 battledroid answered for the group.
"The rest of you, with me." Varrin finished, and entered into the building himself, followed quickly by 55 and a grouping of B1 and B2 battledroids.
Several minutes passed of minimal fire. The Imperials on duty were more prone to attempting to flee then fight, and the few that did found themselves falling to an endless stream of red blaster fire until they were no more.
Varrin led his team of droids to an elevator. It was locked down with power diverted elsewhere. It did not matter, as Varrin had a B1 with a 'hacker-pack', and he got power back to the elevator almost immediately.
"Alright, the B2's, your on. Up and in. Once your at the top and it's all nice and secure, call us up." Varrin ordered to the tall and broad silver droids.
The B2's silently obeyed the order. They stepped into the elevator, which was made to look tiny in comparison to the pack six foot tall droids.
"And remember. Just shoot the imps, no need for collateral here." Varrin said, just as the door shut.
There was a quiet whine as the elevator went up several levels.
Varrin and the other droids stood awkwardly waiting for their time to move up the elevator. They did not move. They just stood their with their weapons in hand looking around in complete silence.
"Do you think the B2s will actually figure out who's imperial and who isn't?" 55 asked in the silence, drawing the attention of the other droids
Varrin shrugged "They're prone to doin' a lot of damage, but they're also a hell of a lot better at followin' orders then you are."
"It's not my fault you're bad at explaining things." 55 replied with a high pitch tone, without a moment of hesitation.
The sound of random blaster fire continued for a minute. Dull shots of energy hitting against durasteel plated walls, and every now and again the shake from some sort of explosion.
While conventional wisdom would suggest that no one would want to use explosives in such a confined space, the droids did not feel friendly fire in the same way that an organic soldier would. A bit of shrapnel did not bother them, if it even pierced their metallic exterior. And Varrin encouraged the droids to use them as a scare tactic frequently, which worked to great affect.
With a small light beep, the elevator before them began to descend to their position.
"Our turn." Varrin observed. "Get ready to move 55."
"What if B2's didn't get the job done and there are Imperials up there, sir?" The B1 asked, with as curious of a look as a droid could give.
Varrin bit his upper lip a moment. "Then we'll… just close the doors and go back down and try again."
To Varrin that was as sound of a plan as any. He highly doubted the Imperials would have been able to beat what he sent up, but he had grown accustom to unorthodox tactics such as that even before the Clone Wars ending.
The doors opened up before them, revealing an empty elevator.
"After you, sir." 55 said, which was obviously more of a jab at having Varrin go in first for once.
"Careful, 55, or I'll have a handle put on your back so I can use you as a shield." Varrin replied.
The droid stepped into the elevator with several others following behind him.
The elevator then closed and a very short, and the short ride to the upper command level began. It was quiet in the elevator with the exception of metallic servos turning every time one of the droids moved a joint even slightly. But it was such a common noise for Varrin at that point he did not even notice it.
The door then opened, and immediately Varrin stepped out with his E5 Blaster Rifle in hand and looked over the scene.
Before Varrin and the droids that exited the elevator was the image of roughly ten people, and several bodies. Three of the men before them wore Imperial uniforms, cleaned and pressed nicely, and completely up to code with the exception of the terrified looks on their faces.
The other seven wore the orange colored jumpsuits of the prisoner residents of Kessel. They did not look quite like the usual grizzly criminal scum that one may think of when they thought of a convict sent to Kessel, but at the same time they did not look entirely tame. They were basically average looking beings. An Aqualish, a few humans, a Chiss, an Ithorian, and two Rodians were what made up their numbers, and they seemed in the same state of mind as the Imperials.
"Good afternoon shavit sippers." Varrin came in swearing. "Or whatever time of day it is here, honestly I have no idea."
Varrin stepped to the center of the room. It was not very large. It had a number of control consoles all around it, and one in the center which was set up in a circular fashion. It had a walk through area just wide enough for Varrin to step through and he did so in order for everyone to see him.
"You are currently experiencing a raid, curtousy of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. In case you have never been involved in one of these before, I will explain the procedure in simple terms. Cooperate, and this goes very smoothly. Do not, and you will wind up like them." Varrin pointed at the dead men on the floor.
He walked towards the Imperials. "It's that simple, are there any questions."
"Separatist Scum! What could you possibly want from us!?" The superior Imperial officer demanded aggressively.
Varrin rolled his eyes. "I need to know the fastest way to shut this building down." He said plainly. "No need for anything fancy. Just need to know what I cut, snap, or shoot to get this whole operation into off-mode."
"You won't get an answer out of…" The Imperial officer was cut off suddenly by one of the prisoners speaking.
"Destroying the central circuiting grid tower." The Prisoner said pointing to an observation window on the opposite side of the room as the elevator.
"Quite! You insolent…" The Imperial began but was cut off, this time by Varrin putting his blaster rifle in the man's chest.
"Shut up." Varrin demanded, and then looked back at the convict. "You're sure?"
The other convicts all began to nod their heads.
"Glad to see we have cooperation for once." Varrin said with a smile "6-E. The window." Varrin said referencing one of the B2's
The B2 began to fire its wrist mounted blaster and destroyed the window, which Varrin quickly looked out.
Before him was a large metallic column, filled with wires and lights doing any number of things he could not comprehend. He was able to piece together though that it was routing all of the communications. Without the very large circuiting system the communications would be down for a very long time till they realized exactly what had happened at that specific structure.
"Everyone!" Varrin called out, reaching to his back to get his E60 Missile Launcher. "Heads Down!"
The large missile weapon went over his shoulder easily, an action he absolutely loved since he knew what was to follow. He quickly isolated a central portion of the tower in his sights where he knew backfire would not be terribly damaging. The E60 then gave a slight bwooop and Varrin squeezed the trigger.
Stepping away from the window, Varrin covered his head, and a bright flash and explosion was heard.
It was an anti tank weapon, so while the effect would be devastating, it was a highly directed shell he had had just fired. So when Varrin stuck his head back over the window and saw that the column was nearly sawed in half by the blast he was not surprised, and no more lights shown on the column.
Varrin had used that weapon for nearly the entirety of the war. He knew it as well as he knew his index finger. And he loved it for how light, cheap, and incredibly effective it was.
System readouts all over the command center noted that the installation was offline, and that back up systems were not working.
Seeing this Varrin placed his finger on his ear. "Daggs, their talkin' has been shut down, and we're pullin' out."
Varrin did not wait for a response, he just looked at everyone in front of him.
"Stun them." He ordered to his droids that were guarding their Imperial prisoners.
The droids did so without a moments hesitation, and after a blue beam hit all three of them they fell limp to the floor.
Varrin then looked back to the seven prisoners. "So you can stay here, or come with us. Your call. Just don't try anything… because these droids will kill you, very quickly." Varrin said plainly. "Squad, move out."
Varrin got into the elevator, and the convicts all quickly came in right after him. It would take another trip to get the rest of his droids out, but he could deal with that.
"That's what I thought." Varrin said, not worried about them doing anything once they were all in the elevator.
They got to the lower floor and Varrin again put his finger to his ear. "All squads, back to the MTT. We're done. Bring everyone you got and lets move."
Varrin and his group quickly made their way out of the compound, and trickling in various sized groups came his remaining droids. Each group came out with a number of prisoners and unconscious Imperials.
Varrin stopped just outside of the MTT as they approached, with 55 stopping just beside him.
"Everyone get in there and sit tight, we're takin' off in three minutes." Varrin ordered, likely giving the convicts the best order they'd been given since they'd arrived.
Stretching then a moment, Varrin looked at 55. "Maybe we should just be fishermen, 55. I mean look at this catch."
He was clearly commenting on the large group of prisoners which they would have become conscripts, and hostage Imperials they had just taken on. All over Kessel the same image was being played out, only with hundreds more convicts.
"We'll be lucky if we aren't in the catch one day, sir." 55 replied. "And I don't think you'll be able to save yourself if that happens."
Varrin shrugged. "Then you'll have to come save my ass, won't you 55?"
"No, sir." 55 replied. "I'll be busy being a fishing droid, like you ordered."
Varrin laughed. "Frell you, 55. Get your ass on the transport and tell Z-21 to start the engines and get us outa here."
Varrin waited outside for just a minute more as the last of the droids came back in. He then stepped up onto the transport after a last look at the smoky desolation his droids left on the small complex.
He came inside and activated the door shut, which caused the large doors to begin to close at a very gradual pace. Varrin was already halfway up the ladder to the upper level by the time the door closed, making his way through the various convicts and droids that littered the deck of his MTT.
Varrin then came into the cockpit just as the MTT lifted off. The slow moving craft got airborne at a snails pace but then began to move with increased speed.
And all around Varrin could see flames and smoke from where the CIS forces had landed, leaving the Imperials completely confused and overwhelmed for the time being.