Chapter 20: Working Together
The sounds of screams, and alarms suddenly turned into the screech and groans of durasteel as it tore, and the shrieks of sentients as they were tossed around like rag dolls.
Will did not remember anything until his eyes cracked open and he saw blurry blue sky above him, however, the sky was darkened by black smoke, smoke which stung his eyes. He noticed Sergeant Jabal Tali, one of the regiment's medics was hovering over him.
"Ah, finally awake." She said in a happy tone, a smile on her face.
"How long was I out?" Will asked as he closed his eyes once more.
"Less than ten minutes, you are a very stupid man Will!" She scolded him, " you did not even bother to wear a seat restraint." He attempted to sit up, but fell back to the earth in a groan of pain. His lower back hurt, but he knew that he had just banged it, it was a minor injury seeing as he thrown clear of the crash, and he thanked the Force for such a miraculous escape. He used his limited force training to take away the pain; the only problem was that he did not know how. He decided to half ass it and just think happy thoughts, and to his astonishment, it seemed to work. Taking a deep breath he once more tried to sit up, and this time he was able to with a lingering pain, but nothing near as bad as the previous attempt.
Sitting up he looked over his body, checking himself for any major wounds, other than a sore back, and a small scrape on his cheek, he was just dirtied from impacting the earth. Looking around he tried to locate his men, his eyes went to the small transport shuttle they had been riding in; it was relatively intact for such an impact, and Will hoped that meant that all of his troops had escaped major harm, however, the fact that he had been apparently thrown from the vehicle upon impact sent a cold feeling to him.
Standing to his feet, he once more checked himself over, his clothes were still on, his hat was missing, and his belt, along with blaster and hunting knife still snugly around his waist. To his surprise his dark red Semian officers sash was also still around his waist, the color standing out in contrast to his dirt covered dark green uniform.
He scanned the scene around him once more; he began to hear cries for help coming from inside of the smoking and crumpled shuttle, but could not see anyone. He urged his stunned body to move, and slowly he began to make his way towards the direction of the cries, his pace increasing with every step he took.
He ran towards the shuttle, the smoke growing heavy and thick as he neared the wreckage. As he came upon the shuttle he noticed that the wings and stabilizers had been sheared off in the crash, the crew compartment looked relatively intact, although it was crumpled, gouged, and crushed in some places. He rounded the fuselage and found some of the other survivors. Lieutenant Rogers, clutching her arm and her face bloodied, kneeled over one of Will's troops as she tended to his wounds. Other troops were also tending to the wounded. Will walked over to his trusted lieutenant; the woman noticed him and gave him a nod, nothing more.
"What is our status Rogers?" He said in a weary voice.
"All of our men accounted for; the pilots sustained injuries, but they are alive." Rogers' face was a mask of relief.
"Are they still in the cockpit?" Will asked.
Wordlessly Rogers shook her head.
Will sighed. "Where are they?"
"They are helping out with some of the wounded." Rogers said before she looked down once more upon the man she was aiding.
"Any serious injuries?" Will questioned, hoping there were none.
"Dryse." Rogers said in a sad tone.
"What about Dryse?" Will said with worry, the young private was only two years his junior
"He sustained a head injury when we impacted the surface; he has not woken up or moved his extremities since the crash." Rogers said sadness still in her voice as she expected the worst.
"He's not going to die on my watch, the lad still has a long life to live… we all do." Will said in a soft voice. He quickly walked away from Rogers intent on finding the young private. He walked past many injured soldiers, some lying on the soft ground, others leaning against trees, and others simply standing in place. He spotted a large group surrounding a prone body; Sergeant Tali kneeled over the inert forum. Guessing it was Dryse, Will hurriedly walked over to the group, upon seeing their commander; his troops parted and allowed Will to get a scope of the damage. Dryse's head was bloodied, a large gash traversing his entire forehead, his features were still and relaxed, and if Will did not see his chest rising and falling he would have guessed the private was dead.
He knelt down and looked to Tali, the woman's freckled face wore a worried look, and Will did not like that one bit.
"What are you thinking Tali?" Will asked the medic.
Tali looked up and blinked before responding. "To give you an honest answer, I do not know. He has not woken or moved a muscle since he hit his head during the crash."
Will nodded knowing that it was the most he would be able to get out of his medic right now. "Stay with him, if anything changes, and I mean anything, notify me at once. "
Tali nodded but said nothing. Will was anxious, anxious that he did not know if Private Dryse was going to survive. At any other time, such anxiousness would have caused him to fiddle with his thumbs; however, he used his time to go check on his other troops.
Phasma had checked and rechecked herself many times over as she tried to find any injuries she may have sustained as a result of the rough landing.
Rough landing was an understatement.
The shuttle had been ripped in two, she had seen three of her men ejected from the craft when it shattered, and their lifeless bodies were found a good distance from the crash site.
She now walked around the crash site, smoke blanketing the area as the forward section of the shuttle burned. Surveying it along with getting a head count of her men. Even in such a situation, Captain Phasma still maintained her gruff composure. Her once shiny chrome armor was now speckled and smeared with dirt, and scratched from the impact. Her once solid black facing cape was spotted with dots of mud and dirt.
After getting an accurate headcount of her men, she walked over to her second in command, Sergeant Nines. His orange pauldron was partly singed after he had pulled an injured trooper from the burning shuttle. His pale white armor was scuffed in places, and dirt covered a good portion of his legs. Nevertheless, he snapped to a salute as Phasma walked up to him.
"Sir!" He said in a collected voice.
"Sergeant, status report." Phasma's voice boomed out.
" Four dead, seven wounded, the rest are able bodied." Nines listed off the statistics in an almost droid like voice.
"What about our weapons?" Phasma asked, noticing the blaster strapped to Nines' thigh. Her chrome gauntleted hand moved down to feel the butt of her blaster strapped to her thigh armor, ensuring that it had not moved.
" All of our weapons are accounted for." Nines said, he stood in silence, waiting for his commander to respond.
"Good, continue to treat the wounded, station men around the perimeter of the crash site. Our fall from the sky may have alerted any gangs in the area." Phasma ordered the sergeant.
"Yes sir!" Nines said, moving away to carry out Phasma's orders.
As Nines gathered men up, Phasma once again began to walk around to check on her men.
Every trooper she walked past stiffed up and saluted her. She came upon a heavytrooper she knew well, the vest wearing man limping as he walked around.
"Trix, it is advisable that you not put more weight on your leg more than necessary." She said, sounding more like a teacher scolding a student than a captain of the First Order.
Trix had stopped walking around and turned to face Phasma. "Of course, captain." He said in a curt tone of voice, although Phasma could hear the pain coloring his words.
She walked past Trix, but stayed close by, however she loathed admitting it, Trix was one of her most steadfast and dependable troops, she did not want to see him injured again.
She came upon a group of four soldiers standing a few meters away from the hobbling heavytrooper. A flametrooper and three stormtroopers, one wore the black pauldron of a squad leader. "Spark, is your equipment undamaged?" Phasma asked the flametrooper.
"Sir, the tank sustained heavy damage during the crash and my nozzle was bent as well. It appears that I will be using a blaster for the duration until we receive reinforcements." A distinctly feminine voice sounded from the helmet.
Phasma sighed in frustration. Their comm units were jammed the moment they hit the ground, the whole planet was dark; apparently, the criminals on planet decided that jamming all comm signals was a step in their favor. Without any way to communicate to the destroyer, they would have to wait it out until their silence caused suspicion among the First Order. When that happened, reinforcements and recovery teams would finally be sent to pick them up. Until then, they were on their own.
Thirty men was not the largest group she had been trapped with, but they were on a planet surrounded by hostiles, which made surviving all the more difficult.
She then turned her gaze to the black pauldron wearing stormtrooper. "Whip, take Spark and check the shuttle for any potential classified equipment, if we are attacked and the shuttle is looted; I do not want such valuable equipment to fall into enemy hands."
"Yes sir." Whip said in his usual rough voice, and he and Sparks walked towards the wreckage.
Phasma had turned around, just about to talk to the remaining stormtrooper when an explosion ripped through the site, followed by the sounds of blaster fire. As she and her men scrambled to take cover and return fire, Phasma thought that they were being attacked by members of the Resistance shuttle that had followed them down to the surface. It was not until she blasted a scruffy looking alien that she knew that they were being attacked by a gang.
They were outmatched and she knew it, she and the men around her gradually stepped back, giving up more ground as the gangers advanced ever closer. Phasma used her quick thinking and changed her position, moving out from behind a fallen tree stump, she raced over towards a dry creek bed. In it she found Whip, Nines, Sparks, Trix and three other troopers.
All of them fired at the oncoming gang members, but their position seemed to give them an uncanny advantage. The gang members did not seem to notice them as they fired from behind the deep gully, even as their bolts dropped the criminals like bugs.
It was then that Phasma noticed something peculiar. The bolts spewing from the gangers' blasters was not the bright colored red or blue bolts used to kill, these shot blue rings towards her troopers.
"What are they shooting stun bolts for!?" Sparks yelled over the sound of battle.
Phasma wordlessly shook her head; she did not have an explanation for such actions. Why would these criminals not want to kill her troops? It made no sense.
She saw her men dropping like rocks, knocked unconscious by the stun bolts impacting their bodies, Phasma and the other seven kept up a blazing fire until Phasma ordered them to halt. While she wanted nothing more than to kill every last one of these criminals, she knew that if she were to get herself and the rest of her men off planet, they would have to evade capture.
She watched in mute anger as the gangers gathered up the incapacitated troopers and cleared the area. When Phasma scanned the area with her internal HUD and was confident that no more criminals were in the area, she and the others came out from the gully. Now she had to find a way to keep them alive.
Boy this was going to be an experience.
Will, Tali, an inert Private Dryse, and three others were at the shores of a small pond when they heard the sounds of fighting coming from the direction of the crashed shuttle. Determined to keep Dryse alive, Tali decided to move the still unconscious Dryse away from the crash site and to a spot of peace and quiet. Will allowed the move, not knowing if it was militarily sound, but he would do anything to see the young private open his eyes. He had followed Tali as she moved Dryse, she had told him that she had heard stories of the apparent medicinal healing purposes of Yavin's water. Will did not know if he believed it, but it got his morale up.
They were located less than two minutes away from the crash site and the main group. When the sounds of fighting suddenly reached his ears, Will wasted no time in running back towards the crashed shuttle, ordering all but one of the soldiers to follow him, the other two were to remain at Dryse's side. It took only two minutes, but when he and the other soldier got to the scene they were stopped in their tracks. A group of criminals were loading the bodies of his troops onto a small transport shuttle, before the ramp closed; Will was able to get a good look at one of his troops. The man was still breathing, and did not appear to be harmed in any way.
Stunned? What in sith hell? Why would they stun them? Will thought in surprise. He was rocked out of his thoughts by the shuttle lifting off the ground and blasting away.
Will and the other soldier were left alone, seven of his men had been taken, and he would get them back. He would not stop, no matter how long, or how far, until he had each and every one of them back safe and sound.
He walked back to the pond, and found the four he had left still in the same spot. Walking up he was given quite the surprise.
Dryse's eyes were open, and the young lad was giving Will a small smile.
"Sir." Dryse said in a horse voice.
"Private Dryse, nice to see you in the land of the living." Will said, his face and body sagging with relief.
"Thank you sir." Dryse said.
Will looked at Tali. "We have a problem."
"What?" The woman said with worry.
"A group of criminals attacked and stunned the others, all of them have been taken, destination, unknown." Will noticed that Tali and Dryse's faces quickly turned from looks of happiness to looks of worry.
"We going after them?" Dryse asked.
"Of course." Will replied with a tone of finality.
Well here's another chapter. I apologize for any errors in spelling, I am dead tired as I write this.
-LittleP