Welcome to the penultimate chapter of this arc. Next chapter will be the last and will mark the beginning of my hiatus until winter break.
Storming the base (Clone Force 99 pt8)
There are many shades of grey
The invasion was commencing as planned. Aliyah and a large fraction of her forces were going in from the front entrance, pushing back any retaliation they encounter.
Plo, Wolffe, and several of their men leapt down from the clifftop onto the roof. They cut their way into the building and stopped anyone from attempting to use the backside exits, forcing them to flee towards the front.
Kal and the remaining troopers ran to the location of the hangar. They immediately seized control of it and prepared for anyone else who would attempt to escape from here.
The Bad Batch entered through the front with Aliyah and eventually got the point where they needed to split up, according to the route drawn to them by their captive engineer.
"We'll go down from here and get to the interrogation room," Hunter said to Aliyah. "If the commander's still in there, we should be back before you have this whole place subdued."
"If he's there…" Aliyah repeated ominously while deflecting another bolt.
"Don't worry too much, general. We'll get your 'treasured one' back one way or the other."
"Yeah you'd better—wait! Who told you about that?"
"See you in a bit!" Hunter said before running down the hall with the rest of his squad.
A somewhat speechless Aliyah was left to continue pushing back the retaliating forces with her troopers. From the corner of her ear, she could hear Dogma telling Compass in between blaster shots, "Think she'll refuse to let you die this time?"
"Heh. Ask me again once the battle's won. If I'm still alive, you know your answer."
~ O O O ~
All over the hideout, people were running around in panic. Droids and guards were deployed to handle the Republic invaders, but it only slowed down the inevitable. A few Separatist Senators met up together in their scurry to escape to safety.
"How did this happen?" One asked.
"I'd like to know too!" Another added.
"That clone we captured! Think he somehow brought them here?"
"How could he? He was tied up this whole time!"
"Ugh! Someone just call Kerch already and ask him what to do!" Atell demanded.
Nodding in agreement, one of the assistants took out their commlink and attempted to contact Kushi.
Seconds later, Kushi answered. "Hello?"
"Senator Kushi, we—"
Atell took over the commlink. "—Where are you right now, Kerch? We're under attack!"
"I'm well aware of that."
"So what are you doing right now? Don't tell me you're abandoning us!"
"Not abandoning. Just doing what I need to for the sake of democracy."
"Kerch!"
"Don't do anything you'll regret. Chances are the Jedi leading this attack will more than likely take you all in alive. Or so that's what our captive clone commander says."
"You really believe him—!?"
"—If you value your life more than our cause, then feel free to take that chance. I'm willing to put my life on the line."
Kushi hung up.
~ O O O ~
Inside the interrogation room, Steele was sitting patiently. Quietly. A single guard stood in the middle of the room, watching Steele with intent eyes. He was called in by Kushi the second after the alarms went off.
Kushi ran off without saying where he was going as soon as the guard came. And since then, neither he nor Steele spoke a word to each other.
The sound of the attack going on outside was made more obvious thanks to their silence.
Eventually, all the blasters and screaming going off got to the guard. He changed his no-mood stare at Steele, to a hate-filled glare.
"I know you did this, clone."
"I've been in here this entire time."
"I'm not stupid."
"No, you're not. But you will be if you refuse my recommendation of getting outta here right about now."
"Now you're the one who sounds stupi—"
The guard suddenly fell down to the floor, stunned unconscious. Crosshair's rifle barely peeked out from the scarcely opened door of the interrogation room. The door opened wide soon after and the entire batch entered.
"Looks like you're still alive and well, commander," Hunter remarked as he walked up to Steele, still strapped to the chair. "Give us a sec, we'll get you uncuffed from this. Tech, search the guard for a key or something!"
"Yes, Sarge!"
"Thank you," Steele appreciated. "I'll be honest, I wasn't quite expecting you lot to come for me."
"Yeah well. I more or less caused this to happen," Crosshair muttered while trying to look for a lock mechanism on Steele's cuffs.
"So you forgive me for almost breaking your jaw?"
"I almost forgive you, for almost breaking my jaw."
That was good enough for Steele. Tech returned with a keycard. Hunter and Crosshair discover a single lock on each cuff that held Steele's appendage—arms, legs, and then his torso.
One by one, they unlocked his cuffs, and before long, Steele was out of the chair. Finally back on his feet. He stretched like he never had before.
Once he was done, Hunter decided it was time to head out. "Let's head back to the generals. We'll search for your gear later."
"Hold on. Let's not yet," Steele said.
"What?"
"I highly doubt Senator Kushi is out in the main halls right now. The generals will be able to subdue everyone but him."
"They'll find him soon enough."
"Not in time," Steele insisted. "He values his doctrines more than his life, more than his allies…they won't find him in time."
Hunter cocked his head. "So what are you suggesting? We find him?"
"Yes. If he's not going to be out in the main building. There's only so many places he could be."
"The restricted area!" Wrecker shouted. "It was part of the route the engineer drew for us. We're literally right outside of it!"
"Then that's where he should be. And that's probably where the datachip is as well," Steele predicted. "If we find him before everyone else does, I think I can talk some reason into him."
"Wait wait wait! You're not armed or armoured! Is this even wise?" Hunter challenged.
Steele picked up the stunned guard's blaster pistol. He nodded to the exit. "I'm armed now. You can be my armour. And this is wise. Unless you want to take the chance of Kushi getting away with the datachip again."
Hunter thought back to the previous hideout they explored. And how quick the Separatists were in abandoning the place the second they realized they've been caught. Did he really want a repeat with only Kushi escaping with the datachip this time?
"Alright. Let's go find that son of a bantha."
~ O O O ~
Out in the halls of the building, panic was at its maximum. Despite what Kushi said, Atell and several others still assumed the worst from the Republic invaders.
"This way! Hurry!" The guard accompanying them yelled.
But then he was promptly shot by a clone from Aliyah's forces. Atell and her company immediately rushed in the other direction upon sight of the incoming wave.
They went down the hall and were met with more confusion and chaos. It seemed that there was no safe place to run to now.
Out near the hangar, a couple of underlings, assistants, and a Separatist Senator managed to run out of the brawl-filled hallway. They wanted out of here badly.
"Are you sure we shouldn't go back for the others?" One underling asked.
"I feel bad too! But I can't save everyone!" The Senator shouted as they entered the hangar. And were immediately met with a sea of blasters pointing at them.
"On your knees!" Kal demanded the Senator at blaster-point. He shakily did as told. Along with everyone he was with.
Atell and her company met up with Fonti and Bluss, who were being guarded by a couple of droids. But they weren't in any better shape than her. They had lost a lot of their protection and underlings in their struggle to reach here.
"There's an exit in the back." One of the droids announced. "Let us go there—"
The droid was cut down by Plo. He and his clones came up in front of the Senators and their company. Turning around, the Senators could see Aliyah and her clones pull up from behind.
They were subdued.
"On your knees," Plo demanded in a hard voice.
Having no other choice, Atell, Bluss, Fonti, and everyone they were with, went down on their knees. And held their hands up.
"Bind them!" Wolffe ordered.
Clones who held the restraining equipment immediately went up the kneeling lot.
~ O O O ~
In the restricted area of the building, the batch and Steele navigated the halls carefully. Trying to find Kushi before he escapes with the datachip, or worse.
Luckily for them, there weren't a lot of hostilities in this area. So they were able to move around a lot quicker and smoother than in the main halls of the building. But they weren't able to find anything remotely lead-worthy yet.
"Think: if you were a Separatist on the run from both the Republic and the people you once sided with, were would you hide something like the datachip?" Hunter asked to everyone.
"In a place of high security," Tech answered. "A place of advanced calibre…"
"A place like that?" Wrecker pointed at something around the corner.
The clones rushed around to see what he was pointing at. It was a large bunker door with a passcode lock.
"Yes, exactly like that!" Steele praised as he and the batch walked up to it.
Tech got to work on unlocking the door. As usual, it took less than a minute. The door opened and the clones rushed inside.
Inside, they were greeted with the sight of Kerch Kushi, holding the datachip in one hand and a detonator in the other. He had his back turned to them, prepared to leave the bunker out of a dark hall shaft, but immediately jolted upon hearing the clones enter.
Kushi turned around, fear and determination written in his eyes. He clenched the detonator. "This bunker is rigged to explode the second I press this button. I suggest you all back out right now, and no one needs to get hurt."
Steele carefully chose his words. "You didn't treat me horribly during my stay here, Senator. And for that, I'm forever grateful, but we won't back out. Not we have the datachip."
Kushi hardened his stare at them. Squeezing the detonator in his hand dangerously tight.
"I've got a clear shot, commander. I can take him," Crosshair offered.
"I WILL blow up this room!" Kushi shouted in response to that. "You think I'm bluffing? You're fools to think that."
Steele had Crosshair and the entire batch lower their weapons. He faced Kushi once again. "It doesn't have to be like this, Senator. Remember what I said earlier about the chances of being spared?"
"I make my own chances," Kushi swiftly retorted. "And the only chance I care about is the chance for the galaxy to have an actual future. One that isn't governed by lies and deceit or fear and blood."
"So what you're saying is Chancellor Palpatine isn't just your enemy, he's straight-up evil," Hunter suggested.
"He IS evil!" Kushi pressed. "He may hide behind his dozens of personas and rake up tens of millions of supporters but that won't erase the fact he will plunge this galaxy into its doom!"
None of the clones could truly accept what Kushi was saying. Sure Palpatine was mysterious and morally-questionable at times, but evil? Evil sounded too far. He had yet to do anything that warranted that level of description.
"You say you don't want 'fear and blood' but you don't seem to mind letting me 'commit mindless mutiny' just to demonstrate some point!" Steele argued.
"Sometimes sacrifices must be made for the greater good." Kushi held the detonator up as it was trailing out of sight from the clones.
"Senator, please." Steele slowly inched towards him. "Just handover the datachip and yourself, make it easier for all of us."
"You really believe the Republic will not chew me up and spit me out, as they do to any 'war criminal?'"
"I believe what I've been through. Pretty sure I already told you that."
Kushi exhaled in irritation. He wanted to leave. He didn't want to blow them up. They won't let him leave. He hated this situation he was in right now.
~ O O O ~
It didn't take long for all the members of the Republic information heist—with the exception of Kushi—to be handcuffed and separated in different groups to be watched over. The group consisting only Separatist Senators were brought before Plo and Aliyah for questioning.
"I'm going to ask this once and only once," Plo said as he walked across the line of kneeling Separatists. "Where is the datachip? And where is Senator Kerch Kushi?"
"I have a better question for you, Master Jedi," Atell spat. "Where is Chief Engineer Keemon Tille? Were you the ones who kidnapped him this morning?"
"We were. And he is alive and well. We'll bring him back once we got what we came for," Plo promised.
"And then what?" Bluss asked. A disturbing look crossed his face. "You're going to hand us over to the Republic are you not? You know as well as us what they're going to do. Why not kill just us now?"
Aliyah sucked in a breath. She was tired of all this beating around the bush. "Tell us where the datachip is. Now."
But still, none of the Senators dared to speak. After a long moment, Plo shook his head in reluctance. "Must we always do this the unethical way?"
He had the clones take all the Senators except for Bluss away. Kneeling down in front of him, Plo exerted Force influence over him.
"You will tell me where you keep the datachip…"
Bluss opened his mouth to speak. "I will tell you…where we keep the datachip…"
~ O O O ~
"Come with us, Senator. There is still some good left, in the Republic," Steele urged.
Kushi squeezed his eyes shut, his detonator shaking in his hand. "The things I do for democracy…" He finally gave in, and took a step towards Steele. "Alright…I'll come with UGH—!"
A brightly-coloured lightsaber suddenly jutted through Kushi's chest. He fell forward into Steele's arms, dead. The datachip clattered onto the floor.
Standing in the doorway Kushi was originally going to use for escape, was the leader of the CIS droid army, General Grievous. He held the brightly-coloured lightsaber that just ended the former CIS Senator's life.
"You weren't easy to track, Senator Kushi," Grievous spoke to the dead body. He looked up to the shocked clones before him. "Guess I should my owe my thanks to you, for doing most of the hard work for me…"
He suddenly began eyeing the ground for the datachip. At the same time, Steele's eyes landed on the very same object of desire. That didn't go unnoticed by the batch.
"Get down commander!" Wrecker shouted before immediately opening fire at Grievous, giving Steele a split-second window to grab the datachip and roll away to safety.
The rain of blaster bolts didn't keep Grievous back for long, who attempted to make a lunge at the clones. But suddenly, the lights went out. Tech had managed to hack into the power system of this room.
The clones quickly pulled down their night-vision goggles as the emergency lights came on and Steele turned on the built-in night-vision function in his own goggles.
Crosshair immediately made a shot at Grievous. It knocked one of his lightsabers out of his grip. He did it again and knocked another one of Grievous' lightsabers out of his cyborg hands.
Before he could attempt to pick up his dropped weapons, Wrecker opened fire on him again. This time with the intent of keeping him immobile while the rest of them slowly backed out of the room and into the hallway they came from.
As soon as they closed the door and ran to a safe distance away from the bunker, Steele handed Wrecker something. It was Kushi's detonator.
"Make it quick," he said.
Wrecker immediately took the detonator from Steele and pressed the button. The bunker blew up. The clones waited for a while to hear if there was any activity coming from inside. There were none.
"Alright let's go," Hunter decided.
He turned around to take the first step down the hall. And was struck in the head by a piece of debris, nearly knocking him to the ground.
"Sergeant!" They all shouted.
Behind them, Grievous crawled out of a lightsaber-cut hole from the bunker's door. He had managed to take refuge in the hall shaft he came from during the explosion. And then cut himself a way through the ruins get to the clones.
"No more tricks!" The half-cyborg general coughed as he attempted to seize Steele for the datachip.
But suddenly, he pushed back into the wall by the Force. He was then met with an attempted lightsaber strike by none other than Plo.
Bluss had revealed the location of the datachip to him and Aliyah a couple minutes ago and they raced down here to retrieve it. But didn't expect to see this situation.
Plo and Grievous immediately engage in combat. Down the hall, Aliyah recuperated from her recent Force-push to save her commander, and quickly jumped into the fray. It was now two against one.
The battle between the three lightsaber-wielders slowly brought them out of the restricted zone and back into the main area of the building, where several surviving clones awaited them.
After making several attempts to cut either Plo or Aliyah off-guard, Grievous realized he wouldn't be able to emerge victoriously. Not with Plo's constant dealing of incredibly heavy blows and Aliyah's ability to always keep both him and herself well-guarded.
Grievous attempted to escape through one hall.
"Blast it!" Wolffe suddenly shouted.
The hall Grievous attempted to escape through burst into flames and ruin. Courtesy of several rocket-launcher-holding clones.
He attempted to escape down another hall, but Wolffe had the clones blast at that exit as well. Groaning in frustration, Grievous kept attempting escape. And the clones and two Jedi kept attempting to stop him.
Until he finally managed to leap through an opening in the side of the building's exterior wall. He disappeared outside. Livid at the fact he had to leave the datachip behind. Well, at least he managed to kill Kushi. That was priority number one on Count Dooku's list.
Back inside the building, the two Jedi retracted their lightsabers, and practically sighed in relief. Along with all of their troopers behind them.
Finally, it was over.
From the hall to the restricted zone, the batch walked out, one by one. Steele was helping hold a highly-disoriented Hunter upright.
The second he transferred the injured sergeant to the hands of the medics, he was immediately assaulted by a gang of his own men. They all embraced him tightly as if he came back from the dead.
"COMMANDER!" Compass cried, squeezing him. "YOU'RE ALIVE!"
"We thought we'd never see you again!"
"Where's your gear?"
"Did they torture you?"
"DID YOU MISS ME?" Compass asked. "Tell me you missed me!"
Steele mumbled something that was barely audible.
"What?"
"You're suffocating him!" Dogma pulled Compass back. Egad pulled everyone else. They all gave him a quick breather before hugging him again—this time gently and one at a time.
They still asked him a million questions a minute though.
"What were the Separatists like?"
"Were you able to learn anything about the contents of the datachip?"
"Why are you being so quiet?"
"Yeah! Tell us something!"
"Well, what do you wanna know?" Steele asked.
"I'd like to know this!" Aliyah walked up to him and his entire company of embracers. "What the hell happened to 'I sure as hell ain't gonna risk my life for one of them?'"
She pointed at Crosshair to validate her point. Steele instantly drew a blank.
"Yeah! What the hell happened to that, Steele?" Wolffe backed up, crossing his arms. "Do you have any idea how many hours of sleep we had, that night you were captured? Go on, take a guess!"
"Four?" Steele guessed.
"Five!" Wolffe corrected.
"Three," Aliyah said.
"What?" Wolffe looked at her.
"What?" She asked back.
"Actually, it was six…and a half," Plo confirmed. "I don't know how either of you got a 'five' or a 'three' for an answer."
Steele subtly smiled in response to the interaction just now. "I'm touched to be so cared for." Aliyah came into his line of sight again and a memory from the other night resurfaced. Probably more than I should…
Eventually, Plo decided to end this brief moment of happiness. "Alright, everyone. Time to refocus. We need to inform the Chancellor of this so he may deal with the thieves."
All clones immediately returned to work.
Next time on The Clone's Hero, things are finally wrapped up at the hideout. Arrests are made, farewells are said, and new developments occur…
Review responses~
Starpottergeek: Not yet. This is the start of his suspicion. Next arc will dive more into Order 66 and the inhibitor chips. :)
KarajeJinsta: It's not weird at all. I liked the engineer too while writing him lol. The chips will become slightly more prominent in the next arc. :)
Akira-Hayama: Something I love to write about is the POIs of characters that are supposed to be 'villains'. Every time I have a favourite film or tv show or video game, I always try and think of reasons behind why the antagonists are what they are. Steele hasn't had anything bad happen to him yet because Kushi isn't the type to harm captives. Aliyah's calmness is somewhat of a front, a facade that she needs to always keep up, because that's the way of the Order.
RedShirt1453: 1. I can't tell you the countdown to Order 66, I can just say that it'll occur (somewhat) in the final arc. 2. Ummmmm. Not now, that's all I can say. XD And even if they do eventually, I'm probably not gonna write it out in detail. Trying to keep this story T rated XD 3. I think 'happy ending' might be subjective to each and every reader. Some may think the ending I'll be writing is 'happy' and others will say 'sad' and many others will say 'bittersweet' or 'as expected'.
Lau-SR: Interrogations are always something I love to watch in films, tv, and video games. Please don't be too sad about this arc ending soon, I will be back by winter break with the next arc, which I think will probably be the strongest arc I've written. :)
MisterStarWarsFans: Only online learning for you? That's not too bad. If you choose the in-person option, it's really weird! XD
A/N. Man the way schools are being conducted this year is confusing! Took a look at my younger sibling's schedules and it was a mess. Thankfully, my university isn't being overly-complicated! XD Also, I decided to make Grievous slightly more competent in here than he is portrayed in the show, to highlight his determination in the getting the datachip (which many of you suspect contains stuff about Order 66; and you're right).
Also want to apologize if the quality's fallen a little. I returned from my cottage a few days ago and since then, I had to deal with all sorts of before-the-semester activities. Ranging from purchasing additional course material to paying my fall semester tuition, and all the issues in between.
Anyways, I hope you'll favourite, follow, and review if you enjoyed!
See you all next time! :)
- MiraLake