Here we go with the chapter to start the week off! I don't have much to say so here we go!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN STAR WARS!
"If there was one thing that Jango instilled into us Arcs, it was the concept of fear. '' Cresh thought to himself.
"Fear was a mind killer. It was a little evil that ate away at the sanity of one's mind, making its way to the forefront. Once it made its way to the forefront of the mind, from there disaster ensued. The greatest of all fears was one. Death. The fear of death broke most men. It could make the best soldiers break the simplest of protocols all in order to live." He continued. Cresh recounted the words of Jango in his head. He would never forget them.
The Fear of Death…
It made you sloppy. Scared. Prone to make mistakes. It did the exact opposite of what you were attempting to do.
Survive.
However a man who learned to overcome his own fear—to break loose of the shackles imposed upon by it—was truly a man not to be trifled with. From a young age, Cresh and his brothers were subjected to numerous deadly scenarios all in the hopes of weeding out this one minute thing,
Needless to say after years of training, and numerous close encounters...It worked. The Alpha- Class Arcs had become the Republic's most deadly, non-death fearing, war machines.
The same could not be said of the wounded organic they were tracking now. Cresh knew that by inflicting a grave injury upon him, he would start to panic. Start to make more mistakes. Rookie mistakes.
He was afraid. The Gossam commando knew if he didn't receive aid quickly he would more than likely die a slow and agonizing death. So what should he do?
Report back to his companions. The mission was complete anyway right? They blew the building, killing the planet's officials. Yes one of their number died but that didn't matter. He got away. The Republic dogs didn't have the capability of tracking him. There was no way they could do something like that with their drone-like fleshy automatons.
These were the thoughts that Cresh was positive on ; these were the thoughts passing through the commando's mind as he hobbled back to his little hidey-hole, unknowing of the predators that lurked on the horizon. Cresh had taken the Jabiim 9 bar Garm and Talon for this raid. Though he greatly cared for the two, this mission was not their forte.
Silence and swiftness were needed for this mission and their manner of war did not fight that type of battlefront at all.
They would need to be swift as they moved, sticking to the shadows so that they would not get caught. He knew the two wanted to get their hands on the kriffin bastards that inflicted such pain on this world and his brothers but he had a different task for them.
Out of everyone remaining in their battalion, those two were the ones who kept their ragtag band of survivors together. He needed them to be there for Tracyn.
Though he tried his best not to show it , the poor ad was deeply pained by the loss of the boy. With all their training and instruction the one thing the Kaminoans never taught them how to deal with was the pain of loss. This was something they each had to learn on their own.
Cresh held up a closed fist, signalling for his small squad to stop. Every now and then the commando would stop to scan his surroundings and make sure his tracks were covered. The urgency of his actions had lessened.
He was more lax now. That let Cresh know that they were close now.
He pointed at Mags then gestured to a nearby building.
"Mags get into position on that building and begin overwatch." Cresh commanded.
Mags nodded, hefting up his rifle and moving in a crouch towards a position. He then signaled for Cliffjumper, Springer and Stag to take an adjacent ground position.
"You three, take position in those ruins." he continued as the three clones ran off towards the area.
He kept Kir and Sif at his side. He needed them for what came next.
The three trailed behind the commando for a few more feet then stopped. Hearing voices they all ducked behind cover. He heard voices. Alien voices.
"Jackpot~" he thought.
He countered six of them in total. Small squad. They were conversing probably. Questioning their comrade on his injuries and the whereabouts of their missing companion. Cresh turned on his internal comms, hailing Mags on the squad channel.
"Mags, what do you see vod?' he inquired.
Almost instantly, the clone sniper responded.
"I count six bogies captain. Five newcomers and our injured quarry. I believe the one talking to him right now to be the leader, sir." Mags reported.
Six man squad. Their leader probably had them pair off and hit various locations while he remained at their operation base to watch their progress. Besides the center, a medical bay, supply depot and another center where clowns were stationed with the planetary militia, were hit. Now that they had their targets, the fun was gonna begin. The one thing that Cresh excelled at during his training was psychological warfare. Many of his brothers completely abandoned the notion of fear. Cresh did not. He used it. Made it into one of his many weapons for situations like this.
"Target the one closest to the leader." said Cresh
From his perch, Mags took aim at the head of the commando on the left of the squad leader.
"Target acquired." He said.
Cresh peaked over from his cover. He would be sure to make every single one of them suffer for what they did. Not only to the people and his brothers..but for what they did to Tracyn.
"Take the shot." Cresh said.
"This is for the kids you killed ya dirty seps.." Mags whispered silently to himself.
Mags then pulled the trigger, dropping the commando's body, a hole burned through his temple. The commandos all froze for a second then the wounded one started panicking, speaking frantically in their alien language.
The leading commando took out a pistol, aiming it at the injured one. It began to utter a series of long croaks and extended syllables. Cresh knew a little of their language and could make out some of it.
"You led them to us! Fool!" it spat while pulling the trigger, and killing his own subordinate.
He saw the surprise on the remaining commando's faces. Now was the perfect time to strike.
"Now boys." Cresh said over the comms.
With those words uttered, Stag, Cliffjumper, and Springer began to fire on the enemy position. Cresh inched away from Kir and Sif, giving them a subtle nod as he did so.
"You boys know what to do." he said as he vanished into the darkness.
The two got up from their position,and began to fire away as Cresh slipped away into the shadows . He saw the leader give an order. Two of the commandos got into their combined fire position, and began firing into the darkness. The leader and remaining commando fled during the turmoil.
Cresh chased after them, using the darkness to his advantage. The good thing about his armor being colored black, meant that it made it easier to blend in with the shadows during night raids. His plan was working perfectly now.
He had his troops split up and take different firing positions to give the illusion that the gossam commando's position was compromised,and that the Republic troops had come to attack, believing them to be yet another Seperatist force left over. The leader, in fear of capture, would then flee, leaving behind some of his forces and buying time for his escape.
That meant that they probably had a ship for quick exfil in case of situations like this and Cresh had a good idea of where it would be.
The two commandos would make their way towards their evacuation place while Cresh waited in the darkness for them. When they closed in, Cresh activated a detonator, blowing up the charges he had planted on the ship when he found it.
His enhanced physique made it easy for him to outpace them,and find their ship before they arrived. From there all he had to do was plant the charges and wait. With their main of transportation destroyed, the two commandos took off once more, in hopes of escape. Again, Cresh followed in silent pursuit.
The two had turned into a dark alleyway,with the leader at the forefront, his companion watching him from behind. Cresh waited within the darkness of the ally. When the trailing commando passed by, he emerged from the shadows, grabbing him and dragging him in.
Before the commando could even respond, Cresh snapped his neck, killing him instantly.
The leader progressed a few more steps before noticing the disappearance of his subordinate. He turned towards the darkness behind him, brandishing a rifle. Cresh took aim with his own, firing off a single burst that hit commando's trigger hand.
Perfect and precise, as to not hit the rifle. The gossam yelled, dropping his weapon and holding his burnt hand. He then looked towards the darkness, from where the shot came.
Cresh emerged from the shadows, rifle slung across his back.
"You're not going anywhere..Gossam." He spat.
The Gossam leader had a look of confusion on his face, obviously surprised that he had been outsmarted by a clone. He went to use his remaining hand to draw his holstered pistol, only for Cresh to quickly draw his own, and shoot in the shoulder, causing him to stagger. Jango was always a quick draw with his pistols and that was one of the things that Cresh had most certainly inherited.
"Aht.. ..not so fast~" he cooed teasingly.
Cresh then fired off another shot, hitting the Gossam's left knee, causing him to drop down to one knee. He fired off another, forcing him down to both knees as he approached. Cresh could see it now, the Gossam had a look of fear on his face. He looked at Cresh, only seeing the black void of his T-visor and began to speak in his native language then he changed it.
"Spare me!" the Gossam pleaded. "Your jedi generals wouldn't like that would they. You clones have to be lo- his sentence was cut off as Cresh whipped him with his pistol.
He kept his pistol trained on the commando's whimpering form as he activated his comms.
"Stag, status report." Cresh said.
He heard the sound of a single blaster being fired then Stag came up on comms.
"We have just finished off the last of the commandos. Awaiting your return sir!"
Responded the trooper.
Cresh smirked beneath his helmet as he looked down upon the sole remaining Gossam commando.
"Roger that. I have just apprehended the Gossam commando leader. I will be making my way back to you all shortly. Oh and have Kir on standby, the leader suffered...injuries during my capture of him." Cresh said.
"Understood sir. We'll be waiting for you at their base. " Replied Stag as he cut the comms.
Cresh holstered his pistol, cracking his knuckles while staring down at the shaking commando. The Jedi wanted him alive..yes..but they didn't say what condition he had to be in. Cresh wasn't going to hurt him too bad, but he did have some payback he needed to give for the people of Cerea and his brothers.
He only had a few minutes so it wouldn't be too bad but he would make sure that it would forever haunt the commando for the rest of his life. By the time he was done with him, the poor sop would be more than happy to share all his secrets by the time they made it back to base. If it's one thing Cresh was good at..it was breaking people.
"I hope you don't think you're getting off scott free for what you did...Killed alot of civies back there...and lets just say I'm here to..enact retribution for their lost souls….
Hope yall liked this chapter. I wanted to dive a bit deeper into what Fett's training for the arcs could have consisted of, and being as they were essentially the Republic's War Machines I could see some form of fear training implemented. Regardless don't forget to rate and review, also I'm taking ideas for clone, jedi and various other ocs to be added into the story later on for other arcs so please feel free to pm me your ideas and I would be glad to add them in. Also there are no new terms for this chapter.