The Mando Jetii
Clone forces rally. As the war escalates in the Outer Rim, the jedi knights are spread thinly across the galaxy. Many new clones are pushed into service to support their Jedi generals. Unfortunately, because of the relentless demands of battle, many young clones must join the struggle before their intensive training has been completed. These clones manning a vital network of tracking stations, are all that stands between the Republic and invasion.
Onboard the Resolute
Obi-wan Kenobi currently stands on the bridge looking outside the viewports with a contemplating look upon is face before turning away and walking towards the CIC section of the bridge at see his former padawan standing, hunched over the holo-net terminal.
"Still here Anakin? When was the last time you slept?" Obi-wan asked.
"I'll sleep after we find General Grievous." Anakin replied before closing his eyes and pressing on them with his thumb and index finger before opening his eyes and continuing.
"Clone intelligence spotted him in the Balmorra system. That was weeks ago. Since then, he vanished." Anakin informed his former master.
"Well, unlike you, maybe he's getting some much-needed rest." Obi-wan said with his usual sarcasm
[R2-D2 BEEPS]
"Excuse me, generals. Incoming transmission from Commander Cody." Admiral Yularen informed the Generals making his way over from the bridge.
The image of a globe vanishes as a holo-image of Commander Cody standing at ease appears in front of the two Jedi General.
"General Kenobi, General Skywalker." Marshal Commander Cody said respectively nodding at both of them.
"Cody. How goes the Inspection?" Obi-wan asked his most trusted Commander.
"The tracking station in Pastil is fully operational. Commander Kryze, Captain Rex and I are proceeding to the outpost in the Rishi system." Commander Cody reports.
"Good. Report back once you've arrived." General Kenobi ordered.
"Copy that. Cody Out." Commander Cody replied standing at attention before the transmission cuts out.
"Good man, that Cody. Don't worry, Anakin. If General Grievous comes anywhere near this quadrant, we'll know about it." Obi-wan said confidently to his former padawan.
xxx Line Break xxx
Meanwhile onboard a Nu-class attack Shuttle
Javak Kryze is sitting in the back of the Shuttle performing weapon maintenance as he has done to preoccupy himself while traveling between Outposts. The GAR had setup a hundred outposts on Outer Rim worlds and even moons to act as early warning systems of Separatist surprise attacks or movement of any potential important target that passes through to which the outpost will relay this information to command. He understands how important these inspections are, they're just... Incredibly boring.
Still, he reminded himself that he had to present himself as a Commander and conduct himself as expected. And with that in mind he made sure to speak with the commanding Officer of each outpost, trying to acquire information on what their duties are and what is the current situation of the system that the Outpost is base in. Along with any issue that they have whether that be threats or simply supply issues that they are having. He also took time to get to know Cody and Rex more learning about what it was like growing up on Kamino, their training and also military strategy tactics and personal stories about their batch mates and the other Commanders that they trained with under Alpha-17.
While Javak listened, he began to form a negative opinion on the Kaminoan's and that of Flash Training as he believed that no amount of training simulations can prepare you for the real thing as Geonosis was a wakeup call for a lot of them. A squawk from his commlink brought him back to the present as he tapped the left side of his helmet twice to respond.
"Commander, we are approaching Rishi Outpost." Cody informed him from the cockpit.
"About time. I swear if I heard Rex complain one more time, I was going to shoot him." Javak replied getting a laugh from both Cody.
"Contact the Outpost Vod, let them know we are arriving." Javak said as he finished doing maintenance on his blasters then putting them back into their holsters.
"Right away, sir." Cody replied before pressing buttons on the control panel in front of him.
"Rishi Outpost, this is Commander Cody. Do you copy?" Cody said attempting to contact the Outpost multiple times. However, they weren't responding.
"Sorry, Commander. We're um experiencing technical difficulties." A clone said over the holovid.
"This is the inspection team." Commander Cody stated over Rex's right shoulder.
"Inspection? Negative, negative. We, uh do not require an inspection. Everything is fine here. Thank you." The clone replied sounding very odd.
"We'll be the judge of that. Prepare for our arrival." Cody said ending the conversation.
"Roger, roger." The clone replied before the holoimage faded away.
"Something's not right here." Rex stated to Cody.
"Well, good luck. I'm putting you in charge of this one." Cody said back with a smirk.
As the inspection team finally reached their destination and set down on the landing pad things seemed out of place as Javak was the first off, the shuttle and became sweeping left to right as Cody and Rex came up behind him.
"This is not good. I don't see the Deck Officer anywhere." Cody said walking slightly behind Rex
"These boys are sloppy. There should always be an Officer on duty." Rex replied looking over his shoulder as both Clone Commanders continue walking when the doors of the outpost open and out steps a single clone, who starts walking towards them.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Cody said putting words to how the three are feeling.
"Welcome to Rishi, Commander. As you can see, the outpost is operating a peak efficiency. Thank you for visiting, and have a save trip back. " The clone said making weird gestures with his arms.
BD-9, Cody, Rex and Javak exchange looks with each other at this.
"We need to inspect the base just the same." Cody told the trooper stepping forward, with Rex and Javak following.
"Uh, there is no need. Everything is fine and fully operational." The trooper said attempting to stop them from going inside.
"Take us to the sergeant in command." Javak ordered stepping forward having had enough of the trooper's strange behaviour while firmly grasping his blaster.
"Roger, roger" the trooper replied making Rex and Cody exchange another look with each other as Javak grasped his lightsaber.
[Flare Screeching]
"A droid attack flare?" Cody said out loud confused.
While Javak ignited his lightsaber and slashed vertically at the head slicing the helmet in half revealing the droid faceplate underneath when Rex raised his blaster and shot the droid right between the 'eyes' taking it out.
"Just a I thought." Rex said as the three kneeled next to the body
"How did you know that wasn't one of us sir?" Cody asked turning to Javak
"The force exists in all life; Cody and I couldn't sense this one at all and the only way for that to happen is if you are cut off from the force or you're already dead. but now we have a bigger problem. There is no way a single droid took over this outpost there has to be more of them." Javak said to the two clones.
He is proven correct moments later when they come under blaster fire from both sides of the platform as commando droids come out from behind the supply crates.
"Ambush!" Rex shouts moving back towards the shuttle returning fire.
"Get to cover!" Javak shouted over the sounds of the blaster fire as he deflects blaster bolts back at the commando droids in which one get hit twice in the torso but springs back up unlike the usual droids.
"Aah! Those clankers have tough armour." Cody exclaims as he ducks out of the way of an incoming blaster bolt.
Both Rex and Cody duck behind some crate using them for cover, returning fire meanwhile Javak stays in the open standing ten feet from them as he adopts form 3 Soresu and is moving with grace as deflects blaster bolts back at the shooters with fluid, precision movements.
Two Commando droids come running out of the outpost carrying something which revealed to be thermal detonators that they throw rolling past them and towards the shuttle
"Off the platform!" Shouted Rex.
[Explosions]
Cody, Rex and Javak survived the explosion by jumping off the side of the platform and firing their ascension cables at the underside of the platform before lowering themselves down.
"Well, that sure complicates things, commander." Rex said looking at the wreckage.
"We made it through Christophis and Teth, Captain. We'll make it through this. Anyway, we need to get back up there and take the outpost back before the Separatists carry out whatever plan they have." Javak said before igniting his saber again and pointing the blade at three figures that appear to be clone troopers coming through the smoke.
"Hands above your heads. Take your sun bonnets off." Rex orders as both he and Cody raise their blasters expecting another droid.
"Uh... Sir?" the middle trooper asked confused.
"Take them off! Now!" Rex ordered.
The tree troper did as told revealing that they were in fact not droids. Rex and Cody lowered their blasters as Javak deactivated his weapon then secured it to his gauntlet. Only for a giant eel to come burrowing out through the tunnels behind them ready to claim a meal. The large eel roars at the group only for Rex to quickly shoot its right eye, killing it. (A/N: That was one of my favourite moments just Captain 'No fuck's given' Rex, just not giving two fucks about it.)
"And that's why he leads the 501st." Javak said quietly to BD-9 and Cody who beeps in agreement while Cody nods as Rex removes his helmet and kneels down next to the eel examining it.
"Nice shot." the trooper on the right commented.
"The name's Rex. But you'll call me "captain" or "sir". Rex said after getting the eels blood on his hand.
"Sir, yes, Sir." The three troopers replied standing to attention.
"I'm Commander Cody, your new boss." Cody said before removing his helmet too.
"And I'm Commander Javak Kryze, your other new boss. And this Godsend is BD-9" Javak said hitting Cody in the arm before gesturing to the little droid standing on his left shoulder who beeps in greeting while Javak removes his helmet as well.
"My designation is trooper 27-5555, sir." The trooper on the left identifies himself but the one on the right buts in.
"We call him fives. I'm Heavy. This is Echo." The troopers said introducing his fellow clones to their commanding officers.
"Where's your sergeant?" Cody asked them getting to the point.
"Dead, sir. We're all that's left." Echo replied lowering his head in remorse.
"Looks like we've got ourselves a batch of shinies, Commanders'." Rex said walking over to the three troopers."
"Shinies, sir?" Echo asked Captain Rex.
"that's right. Your armour, its shiny and new, just like you." Rex replied placing his hand on Echo chest leaving a blue handprint.
"Sir, me and my batches are trained and ready. We'll take back our post, shiny or not." Heavy said with a serious look.
"There's hold for you yet, Rookie." Rex replied with a smirk.
"Saying it is one thing, but you've got to prove it and it we are going to take your post back. You're going to need some firepower." Javak said before walking inside the burning compartment of the shuttle before coming back out with a damaged weapons case.
All five clones gather around Javak as he forces open the case revealing an assortment of blasters surprisingly undamaged. Rex and Cody are unsurprised by what they see and share an amused look of their unorthodox Jedi Commander.
Javak takes out two DC-17 Hand Blasters and holsters them then takes out a Westar M5, DC-14 EBR and DC-249 SAW from the case and hands them to Fives(m5), Echo(mk14) and Heavy(saw) who each take them and does a quick weapon check on them.
"I thought Jedi didn't use blasters." Echo said to the others looking at Rex and Cody who simply shrugged.
"Now that you three are armed, let's take this outpost back." Javak said.
"Any idea, commander?" Cody asked standing next to him look up at the platform.
"I do. When we get up there BD will slice in and Rex, Heavy and myself shall rush in taking advantage of the fact that those died think we're dead. While You, Echo and Fives will use ascension cables to scale the walls up to the observation deck." Javak replied putting his helmet back on and began climbing using the climbing claws making scaling up the wall easier.
"I like simple and effective." Heavy said then began climbing followed by the others.
Eventually after much climbing the small group finally made back onto the platform and followed Javak's plan as Cody, Echo and Fives were getting into position. Rex, Heavy and Javak stacked up on the side of the blast doors as BD-9 got to work.
"Alright once these door open Rex and you go in first and take the door that will be guard this door. And from there when we reach the main room Heavy goes first and we back him up with Cody, Echo and Fives joining from there. Got it?" Javak asked making sure everyone understood the plan.
"Got it/Understood/Yes, Sir." Being the responses, he gets back over the commlink.
"On you, BD." Javak said to his trusted little droid who seconds later opens the doors.
Rex and Javak react quickly taking out the three commando droids that were standing guard at the doors and moving inside they run up the stairs with Heavy opening fire on the first droid that had its back turned and joined him firing at the droids on the left and right side and are shortly joined by Cody's group who with their help overwhelms the droids as Javak engages the leader droid in hand-to-hand. He sidesteps the downward slash and gets behind it, gets it in a headlock and ends it while Echo and Heavy team up on the last droid.
With the last of the Commando droids destroyed they all regrouped in the room
"Good work, you three." Javak said to the three shinines. Which made them look at each other smiling
"Cody. Status?" Javak asked as Cody stood looking over a terminal.
"Get to the Window. It looks like we have more visitors." Cody said.
As they all ran up to the observation deck, they looked outside as Echo put his helmet back on and pulled down his rangefinder.
"It looks like a Separatist fleet." Echo said.
"That's why they commandeered the outpost. They're mounting a full-scale invasion." Cody said
"We have to warm command." Rex told them.
"Echo what's the status of the beacon?" Javak asked looking over his shoulder.
"Those clankers sabotaged our transmitter, and they hard-wired the all-clear signal. It'll take time to repair" Fives told them.
"We don't have time." Rex said to Fives.
"Look." Cody said getting everyone's attention as a droid troop transport came down.
"Haar'chak! Well, that makes things a lot more complicated. Alright we won't be able to hold this base against all those droids and we can't alert command so we'll blow this outpost up." Javak said catching all the others by surprise.
"But, sir, our mission is to defend this facility at all cost." Echo said.
"We have to warm the Republic about the invasion. They'll take notice when the all-clear signal stops." Javak said as Rex and Cody each had looks of realism on their faces.
"That's right. When they stop receiving our beacon, they'll get the message that somethings wrong." Fives said coming to the same conclusion.
"Thermal detonators won't be enough to take out this base." Javak pointed out.
"We could use the LT. This moon freezes for over half the year. We use liquid tibanna as fuel to heat the base." Echo explained.
"Liquid Tibanna: Highly Explosive." Cody said looking at Javak who had a smirk on his face.
"That'll work. Bring the tanks here and prime the detonators." Javak ordered
After a rousing speech from Captain Rex, they get to work.
Heavy picks up the SAW while Javak grab the Z-6 and head down to the entrance while the others carry on.
When the droids reach the doors and ordered that they open up, the doors open revealing Javak and Heavy
"Didn't say please." Heavy said as both open fire on the droids quickly taking out the first group and focus on the second group laying down heavy suppressive fire as Cody and Fives come running down the stairs joining the fight. Fives throws a thermal detonator, taking a good chuck of the droids. Eventually the droids push ahead and the amount of fire forces the group back sealing the doors.
After a few minutes of respite the droids blow the doors open and march in, firing at the group who quickly return fire.
"Fall back to the op centre. Move!" Javak shouted as he threw the Z-6 at the droids followed by a force push for good measure. As Cody and Javak being the last ones to fall back.
"Rex, time's wasting." Cody said using his commlink.
"Almost ready." Rex responds back.
"The handset isn't linking up with the detonator." Rex said to himself then looked around.
"Commander. This detonator is working" Rex said to Javak as he comes jogging up to him.
"BD. Have a look will you, Heavy. You and me will provide covering fire." Javak said heading back towards the stairs.
"You got it sir." Heavy said following.
As the droids reach the bottom of the stairs both Heavy and Javak open fire again taking more droids while the droids fire back and continue marching shortly push both back is when BD-9 calls over waving the detonator in his grasps showing that it is working again.
"Outstanding BD, Heavy let's go." Javak shouts only to see Heavy go down as he's hit in the back.
Javak force pushed the droid hard into the wall as he runs over to Heavy grabbing his arm and lifting him over his shoulder.
"Forget me, sir. Get out of here." Heavy said as Javak helps to the service tunnel.
"Don't even think about it, we don't leave men behind. Now shut up and in that hole trooper." Javak said as provides cover for him as BD-9 comes over with the detonator and goes into the tunnel followed by Javak who puts the grate back in place and starts crawling through the tunnel.
"Commander, where are you?" Rex asked over the commlink.
"We're on our way, standby." Javak responded as a few minutes both Heavy and Javak came out the other side.
"We're all present and accounted for Commander." Cody reported.
"Good. Heavy care to do the honours." Javak said handing him the detonator.
"With pleasure, sir." Heavy said as he pressed the button which was follow by a large explosion shortly afterwards that completely destroyed the outpost and landing platform the group watched as the transport fell deep into the cavern exploding on impact.
"I always did hate that place." Heavy joked.
Javak lowered his rangefinder trying to see what the Separatist fleet does not when a Republic fleet comes out of hyperspace and engages them forcing the Separatists to retreat.
"Looks like they're retreating, good work men." Javak said as the roar of engines behind him catches their attention.
"Gunships. We're getting of this crater boys." Rex said as two LAAT Gunships came into view with one hovering lower enough for them to get onboard while the other provided protection.
Xxx Line Break xxx
Back on board the Resolute
Cody, Rex and Javak headed to the bridge for debrief bringing Master Kenobi, Skywalker and Admiral Yularen up to speed on what happened down there. And to say that the three were surprised would be an understatement as they realised the of just how badly things could've gone had they not been alerted.
All three were congratulated for being able to adapting to the situation and for alerting the fleet as had they failed to do so then the Separatist fleet would've been able to strike at Kamino directly catching the Republic completely off-guard.
During the debrief Javak brought up the actions of Fives, Heavy and Echo stating that without their help, they would've been killed by the commando droids and that they were a great help in retaking the outpost, defending and later destroying it. and it was decided that to honour their valour and bravery in the defence of Rishi Outpost, that a small ceremony would be held for them in the flight bay.
"On behalf of the Republic, we thank you for your valiant service, and we honour your fellow comrades sacrifice." Obi-wan said to Echo, Fives and Heavy as he, Anakin and Javak pinned a medal onto their chests.
"You three showed the determination and fighting spirit of Mandalorian warriors, I'd gladly fight at your sides from the highest peaks to the deepest depths." Javak said as Obi-wan and Anakin stepped away.
"Congratulations. You're not shinies anymore." Rex said to them.
"With all due respect, sir, we failed our mission. We don't deserve this honour." Echo said looking down with regret.
"No, if it weren't for you, the Republic wouldn't have learned of the Separatist invasion until it was too late." Cody told.
"You warned us about the droid ambush that we were unknowingly walking into, had you not fired that flare, we would've been practically executed." Rex added
"You three fought with the determination and skill expected of any Mandalorian and that shows more about you than you will ever know and it showed me that you are the type of men we need in the 212th Attack Battalion" Javak said surprising them while Rex and Cody nodded in agreement.
"Sir, yes, sir!" They said together.
[orchestral fanfare]
The End
A/N: I spent an hour looks at Star Wars blasters on wookiepedia and didn't really like any of them and just decided that I'll add modern day firearms as many Star Wars blasters are based on a real-world counterpart
I have also updated Javak's bio on the Mandalorian section and to include DC blaster weapons along with modern military weapons as I later realised how problematic having your own weapons would be as the only ammo Javak would have is what he takes with him and trying to get more be too costly in both time and credits as his weapon are Mandalorian so the ammo for them would come from the same place so he'd be charged more because traveling across hyperspace lanes in the middle of a galactic war would be impossible.
I also to intend to include more modern weapons like M110 Semi-Automatic sniper rifle and the M72 LAW that shall be introduce within the next chapter or two.