Chapter Nineteen

Life and Death

'Alright listen up Bravo Company. I hope everyone had a chance to eat before we begin, if not then there's nothing I can do,' said Kit quickly. 'Okay, there are three shuttles in the main hangar bay waiting to take us down to the planet. What's going to happen there is you're going to go for vaccinations, and for the most part it's basically going to be just like your first week back in Basic.

'You'll get fitted for your armor, and then there'll be a quick classroom instruction on all the functions of your armor, and by the time you're done with that your armor set will be completed.

'After that you'll follow your guide to a room where you will remove your service uniform, which is the one you are all wearing now, put on the under suit. Once you have your under suit on notify your guide they'll come in and help you put on your armor properly.

'Now I've looked over the training program and most of it you've already covered so y'alls' training program will be shorter. Though you will have to redo the marksmanship section because from my understanding firing the E-11 Blastech Blaster Rifle is a lot different from firing the M-16, no real big surprise there. However, I am confident in Bravo's ability to adapt and overcome.

'So form up outside and follow the Midshipman down to the hangar bay, good luck Bravo,' said Kit.

Hermione slowly began edging her way out of the cramped ready-room. A sense of excitement and dread filled her as she waited for everyone else to get out of the room so they could begin the trek down to the shuttles waiting in the hangar. What if she was no good at firing the E-11? Sure she could shoot the M-16 beautifully, but the E-11 was a laser weapon, what if she couldn't understand the workings. What if they couldn't make armor small enough for her? Thousands of questions shot through her mind each one growing stranger yet increasingly dreadful.

Yet when they all began walking all sense of dread left her as the many weeks of training back in the room of requirement settled in.

Hermione winced as the last needle was inserted into her arm and extracted. Walking from the front of the line she pulled down the sleeve of her shirt her left shoulder was numb from the constant assault of needles.

Following the signs on the wall she rubbed her shoulder. She stopped outside of classroom eighty-seven and knocked on the door. A slender woman walked to the door. She was slightly taller than Hermione with piercing blue eyes and dirty blonde hair. She wore stormtrooper armor, her helmet rested in the crook of her right arm. Over her right shoulder was a gray pauldron. The woman looked Hermione over from head to toe, and then said, 'Name?'

'Granger, Hermione.'

'Take a seat in the third row, second seat,' said the woman.

Hermione felt the woman's eyes follow her all the way to her seat, and only left her when someone else walked up to the door.

Ten minutes later most of the seats were filled. The woman closed the door. She turned to face them and then spoke her voice soft yet commanding and edged with ice, 'Pay attention, I'm not repeating anything so listen. By the time we are done everyone's stormtrooper armor will be completed. We'll start with the basics.

'Your armor is your life it's as simple as that. Your armor is comprised of eighteen total pieces. These pieces are worn over a climate controlled full body glove. The armor has been specially reinforced to make it more resistant to blaster fire, unlike previous versions that were fielded a few years back this armor actually works. It will provide you with about twenty minutes worth of oxygen in hard vacuum. Your belt has attached to the back a single thermal detonator, an incendiary grenade.

'Your helmet has a built in com-link for communication between units, or whatever the situation calls for. Now your helmet has several view modes. You have night-vision, thermal imaging, and infrared. Also your helmet has a speaker unit.

'Once again, your armor is your life. There's an old saying that was taught to all clones during the Clone Wars and it was this, "Take care of your equipment and your equipment will take care of you". That saying, motto, whatever you want to call it still applies.

'Now your rifle is the E-11 Blastech Blaster Rifle. You will all qualify with the E-11 first, and then you'll go onto familiarize yourselves with the other weapons and then you'll be assigned to support weapon teams. But regardless the E-11 has four fire modes: single, burst, full auto, and a single shot stun setting.

'The E-11 power cell has enough power for thirty shots per cell. For recharging spent power cells you'll either have someone in your squad with a charger, or you'll just have to get new ones.

'Now that you all have a basic understanding of your armor, and weapon system let's move on to suiting up in your stormtrooper armor. First you begin by…' the woman took them step by step through the process of donning their armor.

'Need any help Angelina?' asked Hermione as she finished fastening the right shoulder strap.

'No, no thanks I think I've got it,' said Angelina.

'Okay, if you do need some help just give me a shout okay?' said Hermione.

'I will.'

Hermione picked up her helmet from where it sat on the table. She tossed her hair over her shoulders and held her hair up in her left hand. With her right hand she placed her helmet over her head. Making sure that there were no loose strands of hair dangling from the bottom of the helmet she sealed her helmet.

Hermione grabbed the desk to steady herself; it was slightly disorienting looking through the two lenses to view the world instead of using just her eyes. The disorientation only lasted a few seconds. When it passed Hermione grabbed the E-11 that was lying on the desk. It was heavier than her M-16, but not enough to cause any problems. A couple of days of handling it and it'd be fine. After a quick inspection of the rifle with her eyes she placed it in her holster that was located beside her right thigh.

A cold icy voice began speaking in Hermione's right ear, 'Proceed to rifle range four, follow the signs.'

'How'd you do?' asked Angelina as she removed her helmet.

Hermione finished chewing the piece of, what she was told it was called, nerf meat before responding, 'Three short of perfect, how about you?'

'Certainly nothing as prestigious as that, but I got fifty out of sixty,' replied Angelina sitting down beside Hermione.

'There you go, see I told you you'd get better. I mean come on, none of us could hit our targets two days ago,' said Hermione patting Angelina on the back.

'True. How's the food today? If it's anything like yesterday's dinner I'll go hungry,' said Angelina looking warily at her food tray.

'It's not bad, the meat tastes like steak, but watch out for the red things in the noodles they're really sour,' said Hermione.

For a few minutes neither said anything to each other but ate in silence. The woman who was in charge of them walked past their table carrying a tray, talking with Kit.

'Know anything about our CO besides her rank?' asked Angelina reaching for her glass.

'No can't say I have, have you?'

'I've heard a few rumors, want to hear 'em?'

'Sure.'

'Okay, I overheard a couple of the guys from Charlie Company talking about what their CO had told them about our CO. Well apparently no one but higher echelon officers knows her real name. Everyone knows her by, get this, her ex-mercenary name "Beth". Not exactly what I would call a name to intimidate her targets. But whatever aggressiveness her name lacks she made up ten-fold in brutality, marksmanship and everything else she did.

'And remember all that stuff about the other companies doing more than we do, like on foot marches and such?' said Angelina.

'Yeah.'

'I was talking with Katie, she's in Alpha and she told me that their foot march is only twelve miles, and so is everyone else's. That is except for Bravo. She says we're doing twelve, but don't you think it's a bit odd that all the other companies' are always back before we are. That's because we're not doing twelve we're doing upwards of fifteen to twenty mile marches. And our runs last fifteen minutes longer than everyone else's. And that's at a faster pace too.

'We've got the toughest, meanest, and most aggressive CO that probably back in the old days would kill you in the worst possible way just for looking at her wrong. And you know what makes all this so great?' said Angelina trying to suppress a smile.

'What's that?' said Hermione a smile breaking across her face too.

'I think Kit likes her, in more than just a friendly way,' said Angelina chuckling slightly.

Hermione couldn't help but shake her head. Though Hermione often saw Kit talking with "Beth", she had never thought anything of it until Angelina had pointed it out. Hermione felt a like she had lost something. This surprised her, was she jealous? There was no reason for her to have any jealous thoughts towards Kit for talking to "Beth". Hermione cut a piece of her nerf meat and chewed it slowly. A few minutes later she came to the realization that she only felt the way she did because she wasn't used to Kit talking to anyone other than herself, Mara, or Leon. Hermione decided it wasn't worth brooding over. Shrugging she went about finishing her meal.

From across the mess hall Kit became aware that he had been asked a question.

'You do love her don't you?'

'Who?'

'Granger.'

'That's just not cool.'

'Well, do you?'

'That all depends on what you mean by the word love,' said Kit, 'If you mean love in a fatherly way, well it would be unfair and untrue to limit it to Granger as I love all of my soldiers in that way.'

'Kit, I'm not doubting your care or concern for the welfare of all of your soldiers. But it is obvious that you care more for Granger than you do the others. Potter included, especially if he's as important to the wizarding world as I have heard.'

'Potter is the key to the down fall of Voldemort, but Granger has a larger role to play, and is just as, if not more, important to the wizarding world than Potter. She just has no real idea, yet.'

'I see. Kinda makes one miss the directness of war. All this secrecy surrounding these things must get old quickly.'

'Oh, it got old really quick. But one finds ways to make it interesting. But enough talk about the wizarding world. How long until Bravo's ready for combat?'

'Not too much longer, most of the stuff taught here had already been taught. But what's all this I'm hearing about several of our assault transports being refitted with exit doors on the side. Exactly what is this about?'

'The doors on the side will be for mid air exits, basically what'll happen is the shuttles'll fly behind enemy lines, slow down to like 140 knots. The doors will be opened and then we jump out. And upon landing we gather together and begin to conduct offensive operations against the Rebels from behind their lines, meanwhile the front line troops begin their assault while we clear the way, and cut off the Rebels retreat. But I was also thinking about retrofitting the Zero-G trooper jetpacks for use in the atmosphere, allowing us to have the most effective hit and fade troops. The Admiral thought the idea had merit and from what I understand they've begun doing some tests on the ideas. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and we can use them when we hit Corscant. I mean the jet packs used in the Clone Wars worked only for short bursts, but they worked and it would've made it a lot easier to modify them for longer flight time.

'But, who knows… well, I've got to get back to the Chimaera, and work with General Covell on some stuff, so I will be back later. See ya,' said Kit standing up to leave.

'Hermione! Hey, Hermione!' yelled Angelina as she pushed her way through the crowd that was standing around the notice board.

'What's up?' asked Hermione.

'Come on let's get out of here,' said Angelina.

When they reached their room Angelina was grinning broadly and once the door was closed she turned and exclaimed, 'Hermione, we're being deployed!'

'Where? When?' asked Hermione excitedly.

'Tomorrow, we're being transferred to the Chimaera and we'll either be the lead element of an invasion force, or part of the occupation force. If the Admiral manages to take the planet without an invasion we'll be sent down just long enough to help establish the garrison and then we'll be taken back to the Chimaera and so on until we win,' said an ecstatic Angelina.

'Looks like we'd best start packing now then,' said Hermione, suddenly feeling as if there was not enough time for anything else. 'Our first deployment, oh Angelina this is so exciting!'

'I know! And we're on The Admiral's flagship too!'

'Hang on a second; won't we be assigned a new CO?'

'Nope, I checked the deployment order twice. Beth is coming with us. Oh, Alpha Company is being deployed to the Mount Tantiss project as a garrison incase C'baoth goes completely crazy and tries to take over the operation there.'

Hermione shuddered at the mention of C'baoth. Jedi Master Joruus C'baoth was the insane Jedi Clone that Grand Admiral Thrawn had enlisted to aid the Empire in the destruction of the Rebellion. Hermione had only seen him a few times in passing, though the last time she had seen him he was in a contest of wills with the Grand Admiral. And he had climaxed his portion of the argument by using the force to take control of everyone around him that was outside of an ysalamiri's bubble. Ysalamiris were odd four legged creatures whose bodies were covered in tan fur; ysalamiris had an interesting feature that went along with them. They had the ability to push back the force in a bubble, thus rendering any force user that entered into the bubble unable to use the force, a handy thing to have around when dealing with jedi.

'Hey, Hermione, you okay?'

'Yeah, just… it's just that we've been working up to this point for the past few weeks and now it's finally come and I'm not going to lie, but I'm scared,' said Hermione quietly, dropping down onto her bed.

With the initial excitement gone doubts, thoughts of horrible deaths, and millions of other possibilities began to run through her mind.

'Me too. But there's no use in dwelling on all of the bad things that can happen. I over heard some of the people in Charlie talking about organizing a party, you gonna go?' said Angelina.

'Maybe, I'm not really sure. I might, though I think I'm going to try and get some sleep I haven't slept in thirty-six hours. Tell me, how do you manage to stay awake longer than I do even though we've done the exact same things?'

'Coffee.'

'Oh.'

'Well, I'm going to try and go figure some more stuff about the party I'll see you there?' said Angelina.

'If I wake up in time I'll go,' said Hermione lying down.

'Okay, see ya,' said Angelina walking out of the room.

'Kilo, comm, requesting guidance for landing—'

'—Up phase shifter—'

'—Twenty-one tower one-one-niner-five-six-oh, all cleared to land. Forty-eight on request. Come to the top; set frequency one-one-seven eight—'

'—Still not responsive one-zero-niner-three. Directive seven twenty-eight—'

'—Departure frequency one-one-niner-one-four—'

'—Roger that now returning bound ten miles northwest with a D through six thousand—'

'—Country six seventeen J seventy nine thousand—'

'—Check the deposit yard twenty-seven—'

'—Terminating—'

The chatter from the cockpit of the shuttle was confusing and didn't help ease the tension that Hermione was feeling at all. She had no idea what half of the things that the pilots were saying meant.

'We're goin' in, hold on!' yelled one of the pilots.

The cockpit door slid shut to sound proof the cockpit and to prevent the vacuum of space from reaching the cockpit should any part of the back half be opened by enemy fire.

'We are going in with the first wave, so there's more Rebs for us to kill—'

The shuttle began to shudder violently as the shuttle hit the first layer of atmosphere.

'—You sweep the entire area, you kill anything that moves. The red flags have flown—'

The shuttle bucked upwards once last time before settling into a calm flight, which was quickly interrupted by the Rebellions anti-aircraft emplacements. The engines groaned as the shuttles banked wildly to avoid being shot down.

The shuttle suddenly lurched to one side and began to fall in a wild spin. Hermione's heart beat faster and faster as the shuttle cascaded violently to the surface. The pressure against Hermione's body grew rapidly as the spin grew worse and worse.

Silence.

Red.

Black.

Kit watched silently from the bridge of the Chimaera as the shuttles began their descent onto Corellia. Things had gone well for their campaign against the Rebellion, in the months that had followed the arrival on the Chimaera, and the destruction of three-fourths of the Rebellion's fleet at Bilbringi.

'Resistance so far has been light, only minor anti-aircraft fire so far,' muttered Kit, 'this is not going to be pretty.'

Kit watched the tactical display burst into life as the shuttles descended towards the ground. Switching the view to holographic mode Kit watched as flak exploded between the shuttles. Kit paid special attention to the lead shuttle as it contained in its cargo hold Beth, Hermione, and some of the best soldiers in the seven twenty-fifth.

The pilots never saw the shots coming that obliterated the left wing and engine, and Kit watched silently as the shuttle plummeted to the ground.

Whether anyone was alive or not, Kit didn't know. But he couldn't dwell on it, so he switched the view back to an overall view of the entire invasion.

'Lead shuttle six-four-seven-two is down Admiral. So far we've only lost three shuttles,' said Captain Pellaeon, risking a glance towards Kit, who stood beside him emotionless.

'Thank you Captain, what was six-four-seven-two's last known trajectory?

'Scanners show that it would have crashed some seven or eight hundred miles behind where our projected beachhead will be established. Without anything to delay a rescue unit it would still take about a week to reach them, with all of the entrenched rebels down there it could be much, much longer.'

'Very well, thank you,' said the Grand Admiral softly, 'proceed with the invasion. General Lightningstrider if you will accompany me to my quarters momentarily.'

'Yes, Admiral,' said Kit turning to follow the Grand Admiral.