Bomber Blues.
Carth looked down at the clearing, and shook his head. There was a fire slowly creeping along the forest to his right one either side and he knew who did that. Revan...why do you have to go overboard dealing with your enemies?
He was with a platoon of Republic troopers who had been called to re-secure the landing zone. Most of them were already busy holding back the newly arrived reinforcements, careful to avoid the star craft in the area. The others had gone into the clearing proper and had begun to help clear out the Sith between ships.
That damn droid was still spreading the fire, Hasn't that thing done enough already? Well, no time to muse. He was already heading into the clearing himself to help clean up, he pointed to four of the riflemen, "You four, with me. We're going to make sure the zone is cleared. Squad three stays here to prevent any Sith from escaping. The rest of you, do a perimeter sweep of the landing zone and clear out any hostiles. Let move!" Most of them did a salute and went for their appointed tasks. Carth started running towards the clearing, both blasters in hand.
With his recent promotion to captain in the Navy, Carth thought he would be happier. After all, Dustil was still alive. Though the question of if his now full-grown son would let him back into his life now was a whole different story. And the Republic had won a major victory with the Star Forges destruction.
Instead, he felt tired on the inside. This whole damn ordeal was tiresome and he wanted to make a bee line right for his son to see if they could at least be civil with one another now. Instead, he was on a planet somewhere out in the galaxy, trying to repel an amateur ambush party.
He ordered his four troopers into a wedge formation to give a bit more cover. He didn't want these green soldiers to be picked off easily from the forest snipers or the rifle crossfire from the Sith and Republic soldiers battling it out in the clearing now. The Hawk was near the west edge of the clearing, and most of the ships between it and the path to the party were clear, allowing the astromech droid on board to give the Republic covering fire with the ships' turrets. Carth spotted a squad of Sith nearby, and opened fire, "Have a group of Sith over here, give me some backup!" He exclaimed as he tore one of the troopers a new hole in his armor.
They were being rapidly pinned down by Blaster fire now. The ships and grass were providing cover, but they needed to flush out the forest snipers if they wanted to get minimal casualties here.
As if on cue, Carth's comm-link beeped, "Captain Onasi, report." it was Admiral Dodonna, she had left him in charge of the defense force down here. He was a Pilot, but he was also a keen grunt with a grasp on basic tactics, and he had earned enough respect from the Admiral that she had let him try his hand at leading a ground force.
"We're having some problems here, ma'am. We are being pinned by blaster fire from the forest, and there is a slow but steady stream of Sith troopers coming out to try and take us down. I suspect there are more on the way. If we want to re-secure this zone with minimal death, we're going to need to cut off their reinforcements." Carth nearly yelled into the comm-link over the blaster fire, "There was a wildfire quickly spreading through the forest, but the Sith seem to have found a way to contain it, so they are going around it now. Is there a chance of a precision bombardment by the fleet?"
"I'm ordering two squads of bombers to intercept any reinforcements to your location now. That should hold them for a bit. I'm also bringing in a few interceptors just in case of Sith air support." Dodonna seemed to be barking out orders left and right on the other end, "I don't know where they are all coming from, but I intend to find out. I want you to get onto the Hawk and see if you can find them."
Carth grimaced, she acted like she owned the ship, but now wasn't the time to argue, "Yes ma'am, I'll get right on it." He didn't want to lead soldiers anyway. He was a pilot.
"Ross, you take command. I need to do some scouting." "Yes Sir!" Was the stiff reply as Carth ran for the Ship.
He spotted HK-47 picking off Sith troopers left and right on the ramp, "HK, we're going to go find the source of this little invasion. Get on the ship."
The droid had other plans, "Negatory: the Master has not said we are to lift off yet." All the while pumping blaster bolts into Sith.
Carth's face hardened, he didn't have time to argue. "Your Master is not here. I need this ship to scout for where these Sith are coming from. Don't you want the chance to kill more of these Sith then there are here?"
The droid seemed to think - if droids could even do that, "Affirmative: I believe the Master went in search of them as well. We can provide him backup." Carth then looked around, "Where is Bastila?"
HK turns its head to look within, "Explanation: the Masters love interest is within the vessel, she sustained a wound to her leg."
Carth frowned; Bastila was one of the better Saber users he had seen during the groups' journey. "Get on board and tell her we are going scouting then." The droid didn't reply, only walked into the ship and disappear around a corner. He arrived at the cockpit in time to see the Republic air support showing finally, followed by a series of deafening explosions.
Those boys sure know how to make an entrance. He began to prep the ship for takeoff.
Bastila limped into the cockpit, "What are you doing Carth?" She was in the classic hand on hip pose, aka; I'm irritated, stop being annoying.
Mentally chuckling at the thought, he looked the Jedi over, "I'm prepping for takeoff, what does it look like?"
She narrowed her eyes at Carth, if her gaze was any stronger, he wouldn't be surprised if she made blaster bolts. "Why?"
The pilot sighed, "I'm going to help the Republic find where all these Sith are coming from. Now, are you going to stand there suspicious of me, or are you going to help me to lift off?" His eyes set on the controls now as the ship hummed to life.
Without a word, Bastila sat down and started to help Carth start the ship up. They saw another series of explosions on the opposite end within the forest. Bastila let out a loud gasp and clutched her head.
Concerned, he looked up and saw Bastila looking wide eyed in the direction of the last bombing run, "Bastila, what's wrong?"
She immediately turned pale, "Re-Revan is out there..." Carth looked in the direction where the bombers were, and he put two and two together. Damn!
"What's wrong?" He was more insistent now, "He.... he is hurt badly Carth. He was in the path of those bombs and just barely survived them." She immediately shot out of the cockpit, "Bastila, wait!"
Too late, she was already gone.
"Damnit!" Carth swore. He had to let her go. He keyed the ramp to open and began to punch in the codes to trigger final liftoff preparations. He hit the comm. system, "HK, get on one of the turrets. I have a feeling we're going to need the extra firepower."
The droids synthetic voice filtered through the speakers, "Affirmative: I will endeavor to protect the Master." Carth rolled his eyes, but then, he was much the same as the droid. They both wanted to protect something.
Suddenly, a voice rang out, "And where are you going?" Carth turned around to spot Jolee and Canderous behind him.
"I'm going to find the place all these Sith are coming from. Want to strap in and help me?" Carth went for the boarding ramp switch then and put it up.
Jolee came up to the co-pilots seat and began to key in, "Canderous, go help that droid with turret manning." Canderous didn't like to be ordered around, but the old man was right.
Carth took the ship up into the air, leaving another open spot for the crossfire to spray cross.
"Now tell me, what are we doing up here." Jolee seemed to be busying himself with the controls, but Carth was sure he was just fiddling around.
Carth began to pilot the ship to the north and upward, "We're looking for a base camp or something similar where all these Sith are coming from. So let's start scanning." Jolee knew how to do that at least.
After about a minute, Jolee broke the silence, "What was Bastila running for? She looked like she saw a force ghost."
Carth looked grim, "She felt Revan get seriously injured with that last bomb run."
The older man frowned, "I told that kid to be more careful...but does anyone listen to the old man? But noooooo.... he's senile and doesn't know what he is talking about. Humph, Youngens."
"There isn't anything anyone can do about it now. We will help Revan more if we find out where these guys are located. One thing that has been bothering me though...where are the Dark Jedi here. I didn't see even one."
Jolee sighed, "Half of them died with that last bombing run. They were going after Revan, Carth..."
Suddenly it dawned on him, "That's why they didn't attack the party. Why didn't I think on it sooner?"
Jolee smirked, "Doesn't matter now. This whole ambush seems to be engineered to try and kill or capture Revan. The others should be able to take care of him, lets just try and find our target here."
Carth nodded, and concentrated on flying.
