Chapter 24: The Checkpoint (20 BBY)

"Why does it always have to be me?" Glitch asked rhetorically as he attempted to swat away the bugs that were nibbling at him. Razy went ahead of them to check for trouble. "I thought you liked attention?" Cindo said, a grin forming under his helmet. "Yes. But the right sort of attention, not this!" he retorted. He almost tripped on the roots of the trees a couple of times. "Can't you like push them away with the Force or incinerate them or something?" he begged still swinging his hands around wildly. "Sorry, haven't learned that trick yet," Cindo said moving away bushes with his hand. "How come they aren't eating you alive?" he said. He hit a branch with his head and fell to the ground. "I don't know. Try ignoring them," Cindo recommended, carefully navigating the dense jungle area. "Ignoring them?! Great…" he retorted, wiping sweat off his face.

It was a very hot day, and with the addition of them being in a very humid environment, it made for almost unbearable conditions. They've been navigating the thick jungles of Onderon for half a day now. Before they left they spent a day at the rebel camp per Glitch's request, but as it seemed he still wasn't prepared for the harsh jungle.

"Cindo, be careful. A probe droid's approaching your position," Razy said over the comm. Cindo enhanced his hearing with the Force, as a result, hearing the droid approaching them fast. He turned around and grabbed Glitch, who was still blabbering about the bugs, by the hand and pulled him down into the bushes. He wanted to say something but Cindo put his hand over his face, muffling his cries of annoyance. He finally quieted down when he heard the droid approaching.

After the droid sped past them they stood up. "You could have just told me," Glitch said. "It would've heard us then," Cindo explained before bringing his wrist comm close to his face. "Thanks for the heads up Razy. Keep us posted." "Got it," Razy said over the comm. "Let's go," Cindo commanded, Glitch reluctantly following him.

1 hour later…

"I think we're walking in circles," Glitch said desperately, his shoulders slumped in defeat. "No, we aren't," Cindo said confidently. "How do you know that? I've seen this shrub at least five times now," he said pointing at a Purple king's crown. "The last few we saw had three leaves less," Cindo responded. "Three leaves less? How? What?" Glitch asked, confusion spread along his face and body. "I spent five years living in isolation on a forest planet. I tend to notice such things," Cindo explained. Glitch only shook his head and sighed in response before they began moving onward again.

2 hours later…

"Yes, Glitch, you can take a break," Cindo said. Glitch stood behind him with his hand rested on a tree. "How did you kno…" he began saying before he was interrupted. "I know more about you than I wish I knew," he said, making Glitch smile slightly. Glitch sat down by a tree, leaning on it while Cindo attempted to contact one of the Jedi at the rebel camp.

"Jedi team at the rebel camp this is Cindo. Respond," he said over the comm. "This is Anakin what's your status?" Anakin asked. Cindo could hear droid poppers and droid movements in the background. "We're approaching the target. There have been some unfortunate slowdowns," he reported turning his head to Glitch who raised his arms in defeat. "But we're making good time. We should be able to attack the outpost sometime next morning. How are they progressing?" he added. "Better than expected. We're progressing fairly quickly, so we might be done with training faster than expected," he said. "Have you spotted anything weird about Ahsoka before you left?" he said after a short pause. "No. Why?" Cindo asked, becoming slightly worried. "She's acting weird. Anyway, I don't want to waste too much of your time. Good luck with your mission. Anakin out," he said before cutting the transmission.

The next morning…

They caught up to Razy the night before and made camp deep in the jungle. Razy found the checkpoint the day before and scouted it out. He reported the same thing as Obi-Wan – four guards at each ray shield and three two-man patrols around the area. They woke up at the first sign of sunlight and prepared for their assault. They moved to the edge of the tree line and scouted the place one last time. Three B1's and a droideka were at the gate they could see. The other one was on the other side of the rock in which the main part of the checkpoint was carved into. There was a small balcony that went all around the rock with multiple B1's patrolling around on it. The main road spread out into two in a V shape with the rock in the middle. They moved as close as they could to the ray-shielded gate, while staying in the cover of the jungle.

"Glitch, how good is your shot?" Cindo asked. "Decent," Glitch whispered in response. They were quite close to the droideka, which was alone while the three other droids were on the other side of the gate, closer to the entrance of the main part of the checkpoint. "Can I trust you to take out the destroyer?" Cindo said. Glitch tilted his head for a second. "Sure," he said with a nod. "Good. Razy wait here with Glitch in case he screws up," he ordered. "And what are you gonna do?" Razy asked confusedly. "I am going to destroy those three droids after you shoot the destroyer," he explained.

"There's no way you're going to get to the other side fast enough to destroy them before they alert everyone," Razy questioned. "Don't worry. I have a trick up my sleeve. As soon as you see that I'm not here with you anymore wait five seconds and then destroy it. Okay?" Cindo said, looking through the shrubbery to see if any of the patrols were approaching. "Got it," Glitch said raising his weapon slowly. "And when are you going to…" Razy stopped talking once he turned his head and saw that Cindo wasn't there anymore. He nudged Glitch slightly, gaining his attention. His lifted his hand and began counting down with his fingers.

Once all of his fingers were closed into a fist Glitch shot the destroyer. At the same time, a lightsaber could be heard slicing through droids. They lifted their heads and saw Cindo standing in the middle of the tree now destroyed droids. Glitch and Razy quickly dragged the droideka into the jungle before running across the road. They hid the other droids behind a few rocks and waited for the patrols to do their rounds. All of them had the same route they just travelled separately to keep everything monitored. One by one the patrols passed them and they were all taken down. They were below the walkway up top when they were doing this, so they were completely hidden.

They then moved to the entrance. Two droids were guarding it. Cindo approached them slowly. "Hey. You aren't supposed to be here," the droid on the left exclaimed. They raised their blasters at him. "Sorry to bother you, but the droids at the gate aren't working," he said innocently. "Let's check it out," the droid on the left said, nudging the other droid with its rifle. "Roger, roger," the other one said and they began moving. When they passed Cindo he ignited his lightsaber and cut their heads off.

The three of them then moved on to the other gate and cleared it out in the opposite way. Razy and Glitch took care of the three B1's while Cindo used his force invisibility to get to the other side and take out the droideka. They then moved back to the entrance. "Glitch work your magic," Cindo said and Glitch immediately jumped towards the panel and took the front off, revealing the wires.

Cindo sensed the Force sending him warnings and placed his hand on the door. He could very faintly hear blaster fire. "Glitch get it open, quickly," he ordered. "Why? What's wrong?" Razy asked. "There's shooting going inside," he told him, and they ignited their lightsabers. The doors opened, and they jumped in, swinging wildly at the droids. The droids began slowly turning away from the original target once they realized that they were getting attacked from behind, but they were too late. All of the droids fell to the floor, either by being cut to pieces or shot dead-center in the head. Another droid attempted to run into the room they were in only to get shot in the head almost instantly.

"Wow," Glitch said, as the hole in the droid's head began smoking. They all had a good look at the man they just saved. It was a casually dressed man with brown hair and a mustache. In his hands was a blaster unlike any Cindo has seen before. "A pleasure meeting you gentlemen," he said with a slight bow. His free hand was cuffed, but his other uncuffed. "The pleasure is all ours," Cindo said, as Razy readied himself to attack the man. "Tobias Beckett, Galactic businessman. Who would the gentleman who cleared my way out be?" he said with his blaster lowered.

"Cleared your way out? Explain those cuffs and we'll talk about letting you out," Razy demanded. "These," he said dangling the cuffs around. "A slight miscommunication," he said. "Would you mind explaining?" Razy asked with a raised brow. "I was on my way to a meeting in Iziz when I was rudely interrupted by the droids at this checkpoint. I may have tried schmoozing my way through, but they took it as an act of aggression believe it or not," Tobias said.

"No, 'galactic businessman' would know how to use a blaster like that," Cindo analyzed. "Okay, let's not start throwing accusations around. I was only here to claim a certain item for my employer," he said, staying completely calm. "And who might your employer be?" Cindo asked. "That I cannot say. But, I can tell you who the man who stole the item is. It's the king himself," he said with a smile. "So, your intentions are aligned with ours. Damage the king's rule." Cindo pondered something for a second. "Okay, let's let him go," Cindo ordered. "Let him go? We can't just let him go. He'll probably backstab us," Razy said. "As proof that I will do no such thing," he said spinning the gun around masterfully in his hand and grabbing it by the barrel. "Take this," he said before he began removing his gun holster. "And this." Cindo moved in to take the items. "Sadly, I will not be able to complete my job, but I will make it up to my employer I assure you. Pleasure doing business with you," he said as he walked by them.

After Tobias left the checkpoint Razy turned towards Cindo. "Are you crazy! We just let a bounty hunter go!" he yelled. "You don't know that. He looked and sounded like a cool guy. And besides, he would've done more damage to the separatists than us anyway." Razy was about to say something, but he just sighed in defeat. "Come on. We have a job to finish," Cindo said, before moving deeper into the base. The hallways, rooms, and stairs were filled with droid wreckages. They came upon an elevator which lead straight to the control room.

A droid was standing in front of the elevator when it opened, probably waiting for it. "Hostiles!" it managed to yell before being shot by Glitch. Razy and Cindo ran into the room slicing droids which desperately reached for their blasters. Cindo jumped over a set of terminals and impaled the commander droid before it could sound the alarm. Glitch meanwhile took out the droids which were patrolling the outer walkway. "Clear here," Glitch said peeking through the window. "We're clear," Cindo declared and Glitch moved over to the main terminal. "Everything seems to be locked down," Glitch said, pressing a few buttons. "Can you get through the security?" Razy asked. "Shouldn't be a problem, but it might take a while."

"Take your time. I'm gonna contact Obi-Wan," Cindo said. He went outside to the walkway and quickly scanned the area. His comm began beeping. "That's convenient," he said quietly before opening the channel. "This is Cindo," he said. "Cindo it's Obi-Wan." Cindo could hear that he was somewhat out of breath and blaster fire could be heard. "The droids found the base. We were forced to retreat. Did you take that checkpoint?" he said. "Yes, we did. Glitch is currently slicing the gate controls," Cindo reported. "Good. We're going to be proceeding as planned. We'll be there in a few hours. Obi-Wan out," he said.

"What's up?" Razy asked from inside the base, standing next to Glitch. "The camp was attacked, but everything's proceeding as planned. You help Glitch out with anything he needs I'll stand watch."