Hello everybody and I suppose firstly I owe you all an apology for taking so long with this chapter, Firstly while I am sorry it is Christmas and as well as college assignments I am drowning in, I also have a job I have to go to and at Christmas, it is a slaughter. It is here now and I hope you enjoy, review replies are down below as usual however I will just say from now on can we leave anything political outside of the story (it was my mistake to even mention the US election in the first place)
We are now up to 504 combined follows and favourites, the story is growing and I love to see that. I have considered changing the theme to Halo/Star Wars instead of clone wars because I knew when I posted it that there are a lot fewer stories in that area because it is technically a sub-section of star wars. Let me know what you all think.
Apart from that enjoy.
Previous Review Replies:
Guest DCDGojira: Thankyou I was glad a lot of people like the re-writes, I think I was way too eager when I started and missed some major writing vitals (length, continuity, grammar, etc.)
Guest Cullen: The first two chapters were...I guess remastered is what I'd call it.
Guest L: Cheers, yeah I thought the reasons from the original seemed to cliche and full of holes and in my own opinion way too much like another story, The Mantles Promise which partly inspired mine anyway. I did do some thinking about the Spartan project and the Clones origins being similar and it does give more plausibility. Even more amazing Armour/Allies ideas, too many to count now but I do have the ending planned out and it is still a good few chapters away but I think you will all love it.
L: I hadn't really considered an epilogue but I am now, I'll give it some thought but considering how that does plan on what happens in this story I can't really take any idea's into account yet because there is still much to happen.
Joeyginse: What exactly do you mean by spacing and yeah I'll admit my punctuation could do with a little work.
Guest: Sorry but I checked that and I don't watch or have much interest in anime or Halo crossovers with them, again sorry.
Axcel: I'll gladly respond to proper reviews but from now on I am going to delete any politically related posts for the sake of the story and fans. Just leave it alone. I am not arguing but I am not going to tolerate any attacks, discrimination, political hate arguments, etc.
Axcel: I don't know how much louder I can scream about laser/plasma weaponry in thew star wars universe so I won't I have already written about the writing error that sounded wrong, Also the two main reasons ray shields aren't used in the star wars universe is because there is little to no space combat where projectiles are used and because they are enormously difficult to power and sustain, especially in battle. Also even completely ignoring the MOR, torturing prisoners of war for information is definitely a war crime in every possible way. Finally, the Infinity has, and this is the official aircraft inventory (not including drop pods or D96-TCE Albatrosses, 150× F-41E Broadswords or D79-TC Pelicans or GA-TL1 Longswords. I had to even it out.
Guest: You are correct Torturing POW's is a war crime and just because they are okay with it in star wars (seriously the amount of war crimes in star wars is unbelievable once you watch it again and realise) doesn't mean I am putting it in hear, also if there was any pretty certain ONI would cover it up and If you ever spoke about it you can count on a one way trip to the midnight facility.
Animes Doramas Y Mas: Cheers x7
Guest, I did change the character tags because even though the Jedi will be more frequent later on it is mostly the clones, Spartans, ODST's and the navy I have been putting more focus into I now realise.
Guest: I have noticed that I am not that good at ground combat when compared to space combat, that is mostly because when it comes to the science and physics of weaponry in space I am brilliant and in my element, on the ground, it just doesn't give as much inspiration
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Chapter Thirteen: Search and Destroy
From above in the black sky dark thick clouds poured down vails of rain to the ground with the dirt and sand on the surface drinking it up and turning into a dense pit. In the middle of a large canyon running through the surface for endless miles was a large installation that took the form of a large square formation and in the centre was a giant circular dish with red lights at the edge spaced every metre. Three miles out on the top of the canyon ridge looking down at the complex were two members of Fire squadron Resolute.
Looking through the scope of his suppressed SRS99 anti-material rifle, Lance Corporal JD assessed the terrain and hostile count. His armour was fully black with dark silver streaks running in a centre line from his helmet splitting off at his legs. His Helmets visor was a polarised black. "Rook, how many?" Fives asked next to him with his SRR hardlight rifle unholstered, his armour was a cloudy white with blue markings all along.
"I count 40 outside the complex, all commando droids, automated turrets on the roof and outer perimeter the internal structure is shielded though" He responded.
"Captain, hear that?" Fives aksed
A mile to the west and on the floor of the canyon, Captain Jack responded "Affirmative" he said while pulling up the live projection of their view "We'll follow the canyon to the facility and dispatch these three commandos guarding the maintenance access" he briefed from within his forerunner alloy coated amour, he had customised it reminiscent of his suit with a crossed lightsaber and energy sword on his front left chest plate distinguishing it.
In front of him was Kix and Cadmon both of whom had almost completely black armour with Kix having the red medic logo of the Republic of his left shoulder and the UNSC's on the right, his armour made more space for medical supplies at his request Cadmon, owing to his ODST blood, he had gone completely black as night with his armour save for the natural faded blue strip down the front of the armour. They both acknowledged the plan, as did Jun, Jesse and Roland who were further along hugging the canyon walls.
Jesse's armour almost mimicked his old with the inner white job and black and blue outer plating. Jun had not ditched his shrub green ghillie form and had adopted new and improved foliage covering that in the jungle and plains environment they were in would obscure him from view, a key need for a sniper despite his part forerunner armour ability to activate a cloak. Roland, on the other hand, was just as tall as Captain Jack with a pair of long, thin legs designed for agility and speed. Covered in patterns of light and has a fire-like glow inside of his head. He had with him a modified Z-250 lightrifle and SPMA.
As Captain Jack shut down the map path on their HUD's they all grouped up at a pincer point where the canyon narrowed and was only 20 meters apart. Split evenly, Jack gave the signal and they went in two by two in hast towards the compound. With every second they got closer and closer, the details of the building getting clearer. As soon as they got close enough to see the cluster of a half dozen commando droids on their scanners Jack raised his palm and they halted with Cadmon and Kix watching the rear. According to their rangefinders, they were less than 50 meters away, through the internal communications on his suit Captain Jack gave the order for him, Jun and Jesse to move forward.
"Rookie, you got your ears on?" Jun said through the internal comms
"Rodger", He confirmed
"We've reached the compound, half a dozen commandos at our twelve" Jun said
JD readjusted his scope with Fives on spotter duty "Copy that, I have you on my scope" He acknowledged
"On my command open fire on the two droids furthest back, standing underneath the light of the access way," Jack ordered
Fives spotted the ones he meant and relayed the elevation and location "On your signal cap," He said standing by ready to take the shot.
He looked through the scope of his rifle as he heard the Captain on the comm line at the same time, "3...2...1...Mark". As soon as he heard the order JD squeezed the trigger in double succession letting lose two suppressed 14x114mm rounds that took nearly four seconds to reach the droids but the bullets hit the droids before the suppressed sound wave did and the two of them went down with clean see-through holes in their head plates. The reaction time of the rest of the group could not have been more perfect with Jack, Roland and Jun leading as soon as the shots came within a half-second of reaching their targets.
Getting right up against the raised metal platform they leapt up onto it with Jesse, Kix and Cadmon aiming at the hostiles from the grassy shrubs that covered them. Before the two, shot droids could even reach the floor Jun and Jack had used their Suppressed sidearms to expertly dispatch the two commandos protecting the stairway up to the landing pad. It was only now that the remaining two droids had managed to turn around and raise their weapons but it was no use as before they had even processed their firing order Roland and the other three members of Resolute had fired a combined five hardlight rounds, shredding the droids platting and causing them to collapse. Walking up to the entrance quickly Kix covered the rear security putting a single hardlight round in each of the droid's heads just to be safe.
"On me, once inside, Roland, take point and lead the way to the command centre," Jack ordered. Stacking up against the entrance Roland promptly accessed the door controls and opened it. He and Jack were the first one through with their weapons raised. They moved through tightly in the corners. And corridors that were lit up with white lights in the walls of the dark grey architecture. Avoiding single droid patrols at several intersections Roland stopped when they reached the double doors of the control room.
"This is it, I'm not picking up any hostile forces, the door must be shielded" Roland assessed with his light rifle ready
"Stack up, Cadmon, Jesse cover our six, Jun get an EFD ready" Jack ordered as Cadmon and Jesse took up crouched positions covering the two hallways that led to the doors, the rest of them stacked up with Jack and Jun on opposite sides of the doors followed behind them by Kix and Roland.
"Roland open the door three inches for a two-second delay, then release them" He ordered
Captain Jack saw the acknowledgement light on his HUD as Jun stood ready with the Electromagnetic Field Distorter that would temporarily block all incoming and outgoing signals of any kind, except for Resolute.
As ordered Roland accessed the door controls and effortlessly breached the system opening the doors just wide enough for the round device to be chucked in by Jun, he did and two seconds later a blue energy field erupted and the door opened the rest of the way making way for the four-team members. Immediately they saw two commando droids posted at the other three entrances and three more in the centre using the controls on the command platform in the middle of the room.
They equally divided their fire as they breached the room with Roland and Jun on the far right shooting outwards from the centre and right doors and Jack and Kix doing the same on the left. Even with the element of surprise though they couldn't hit all of them before the three at the back, furthest from any of the fire shot back. One of them was hit by Roland just before his metal finger could reach the trigger, the final two fired on Kix and the Captain, being the closest. Five enemy shots went off as they rapidly avoided the incoming hardlight rounds.
Despite their manoeuvrability, the Spartans, Clones and AI put them down simultaneously as the fifth and final shot went off three of them had hit Kix and none had hit Jack. His shields were down to 71%. "Wow, wish we had this armour before, clankers don't stand a chance," he said confidently as his shields quickly recharged to full strength.
"Cover the doors, Roland plant the scramble virus" He ordered as they all went to their stations surrounding the central station where Roland was uploading the virus into the system that would render their entire system useless. It took several seconds which for Roland might as well have been days.
"Upload complete," He said
Before Jack could issue any orders red lights and alarms started blaring throughout the facility "Roland!?"
"It wasn't me, they must have found the droids at the maintenance entrance," Roland said back reequipping his hardlight rifle.
Jack quickly formed a plan "Move out, the same way we came in, Fives, Rook draw their fire from the complex it'll give us the distraction we need to slip away" He relayed to the team.
From their vantage point, Fives and Rookie immediately start opening fire on the droids stood outside the complex that at first attempted to run into the compound as soon as the intruder alarm went off but as soon as the first round from the pairs SRS99 rifles striking one of the commando droids in the chest half of the droids in several positions spun around and opened suppressing fire. "Cap we've engaged the enemy force out here but you've still got at least a dozen inside headed your way," Fives warned, ducking as the droids' fire started to get dangerously close to them.
"Acknowledged, the jammer is still in place and active, we're going to plan B," Jack said as he closed the channel
Fives let off another two shots hitting a droid that had attempted to rush and climb up to their position "Plan B? we never discussed a plan B" he asked in confusion
"Spartan Plan B, escape route in events of less than ideal surroundings," Rookie said while still shooting at the droids that were attempting to charge their position while other droids laid down suppressing fire, seconds later part of the east wall of the complex blew open from the inside, it was small and precise with smoke pouring out followed moments later by the squad, red blaster fire also chased after them as two commando droids shooting blindly into the smoke ran out trying to kill them but fail as Jesse and Kix open fire from the sides of the exit breach.
The droid on the left fires while charging at Jesse until getting close enough to try and bash him with his right arm but it misses and Jesse ducks under while rolling forward and firing his grapple at the droid, it punctures right through the droids upper chest plate but it is still active, Jesse retracts the cable until it reaches him almost instantly and he lets the force of the pull rip the droid off of his grapple hook and sends it into to wall, Jesse fires two rounds from his SRR hardlight rifle.
At the same time that the commando charged Jesse, Kix hits the droid in front of him right in the centre of its right arm causing it and the blaster to fall to the ground, it still tries to attack using it's remaining arm and legs to sidekick the clone to the ground but doesn't get further as Kix rolls to his right withdrawing his holstered SMPA but before he can get a shot at it Jack locks his arm around its head and lunges his energy sword through its chest. He throws it to the floor giving Kix a hand up.
"I had him you know" Kix remarks
"Your welcome" Jack replies, holstering his sword. "Fives, JD fall back to rally point delta, we'll huff it to the canyon wall make our way up and meet you there, how copy?"
"Good Copy, regroup and rally point delta, over" Fives replies in between sniper shots. As he replies he and JD both get out of their prone positions and pick up their weapons immediately making a tactical run for the rally point five hundred metres to their northeast, the fire from the droids stops but they know they'll be looking for them". Minutes later after traversing the rock pillars on their way they meet up with the rest of the group. Jack is about to give an order when a lone commando droid that had found their position charges from behind a corner.
Jun, with his sniper in hand, was less than a split second off of pulling his trigger when the droid stops and falls to the ground, all around them the environment collapses and loudspeakers start blaring "SIMULATION TERMINATED!, SIMULATION TERMINATED!" The gigantic room they are stood in is now void of anything other than the large access doors opening as another Spartan walks in.
"Commander Palmer, we were about to call the mission, why was it aborted?" Captain Jack asks while the rest of the team line up in front of Palmer.
"Because we're out of time" She answers
"What, Why? Mission launch isn't for another 3 hours" Jack asks puzzled
"It was, intercepted communications show that the slavers on that planet are preparing to make their biggest shipment yet, they're attempting to move half the planets, slaves, off-planet, we don't know why or to where yet but with the number of ships that have arrived and docked, we estimate that we have less than twelve hours before our mission becomes a fruitless endeavour".
The team look at each other with the change in mission time but look back at Palmer when she gives them their orders "Fireteam Resolute, report to prowler bay 7 immediately, mission launch is go" She says walking out of the arena-sized chamber.
"Alright, you heard our orders, let's move out," Jack said as the rest of them checked their gear. All of them in line marched out of the simulator and back out into the hallways of the Infinity, they were much more crowded than when they had entered the simulation hours earlier, due to the short notice of the attack happening earlier operations had to be hurried. Quick marching down the corridors the team makes a stop at one of the many armouries on the ship and stock up on supplies and ammunition for the mission.
After amassing all they needed they resumed their path and arrived at one of the many massive hangers on the Infinity where their Winter-class prowler, modified to carry eight SOEIV pods was waiting, the captain of the ship stood by the entrance and spotted the team of soldiers in their unique armour, even amongst Spartans, their forerunner inspired armour stood out".
"Captain Jack?" He asked
"Affirmative" Jack replied
"I'm Commander Vesso, captain of the Blackbird, mission has been given the green light, get on board and we'll depart ASAP" He informed with Fireteam Resolute boarding the long sleek prowler followed by the captain.
Once onboard they made their way to the seat harnesses as the ship prepared for launch, minutes later the ship jolted around as it's platform raised and it's engines start-up slowly raising in power until the ship nimbly pulled out of the ship's hangar and into open space. After gaining enough distance from the Infinity it opens a slipspace portal and bursts through it with the rift closing behind them. Onboard the ship Resolute are gathered around the circular holotank in the main fuselage.
The same maps from the simulations are shown with the surrounding mountains and canyon in high near-perfect detail. "ETA to Kessel is 38 minutes, we'll exit slipstream space ninety thousand kilometres out and once we're within the planet's gravity well we'll make our way to the surface via drop pods". Jack briefed with the addition of eight drop pods appearing heading for the planet's surface. "Drop location is 3 klicks out from the target building as planned, once we launch, the ship will activate a localised signal disruptor stopping any communication between this sensor hub and it's command, any questions?"
Fives raises his hand "Are we the only team running this op Sir?" He asks.
"Yes, the detection systems we're disabling may be accurate and effective but they can only cover so much area around the planet's system, we take this one down and it creates a blind spot for the invasion fleet to attack from, plus we can't risk another operation failing an alerting them". Jack answers.
With no more questions the team made their way to the rear airlock of the prowler, they all checked their weapons and armour as the time clicked passed until eventually, the stealth ship exited slipspace with its active camouflage and other dampening abilities activated, masking the ship from any detection. Commander Vesso gave the all-clear to the fireteam. Atmosphere starts venting out followed by the airlock door opening with a metallic groan, the only light in the room provided by the red stealth lights. After the lock is open the team departs.
They use their suits thruster packs to manoeuvre to the underside of the ship where the drop mods were mounted, opening them the soldiers get into the entry vehicles, "Systems are automated to guide to our drop coordinates" Jun says over the comm.
"Are we sure these things are safe Sir?" Jesse asks.
Cadmon and JD chuckle "Relax trooper if the shock troopers can handle it so can we, especially with this new armour taking some of the force, besides we're only hitting the ground at around a hundred klicks a second". Cadmon said.
"How reassuring" Kix remarks.
"Ten seconds to launch," Roland said as the micro boosters on the pods were about to activate.
Seconds later the booster rockets at the bottom of the pods burst to life as they detached from the ship causing the drop pods to build up the speed needed to break away from the ship and head towards the surface. The outer plating started to glow red as the atmospheric friction built up, soon after entering the upper atmosphere the pods reached their terminal velocity and free fell a long way down to the surface until eventually, they could make out the planet's surface and their air brakes deployed, slowing their speed down dramatically.
The planet looked dead with the dark clouds in the sky and mountains with old wilting bushes and dead trees scattered for miles.
"Comm check, numbers callout" Captain Jack ordered.
"5597 Checking in"
"6116 Checking in"
"5555 Checking in"
"MK17 Checking in"
"1220 Checking in"
"A226 Checking in"
"Signals looking good we'll hit dirt in-" Jack was cut off as several explosions rocketed around them shaking their drop pods, heavy blaster fire flew past them clearly trying to hit them.
"Blackbird come in! We're taking heavy AA fire" Jack commed out getting a response almost immediately.
Commander Vesso responded to him "Understood Captain, Signal disruptor is still active they must have close in sensor systems, I'm sending down an AV-49 Wasp armed with EMP missiles to disrupt those guns, recommend you adjust your course to these coordinates, they are the closest to the complex and the weakest section" He said while sending to LZ coordinates to the Spartan.
Within their pods getting closer to the ground every second the team noticed the AA getting thicker and closer to them, a small object came into view in the distance above them though. "Captain, I've got incoming, is it the Wasp?" Fives asked.
Captain Jack looked towards his left viewport and extended the range on his helmets scanners "Affirmative, the drone will launch remote EMP's and temporarily eliminate the guns, Roland, take control of the pod's propulsion and directory controls and get us to the landing zone". Jack ordered and immediately Roland accessed all the fireteams pods and inputted the new coordinates.
Above them, the AV-49's afterburners maxed it's thrust and it shot passed them with the turbulence shaking their pods as they changed their heading. On the ground, half of the anti-air guns swivelled to target the incoming drone. Each turret fired heavy and powerful rounds several times a second but the small agile drone banked and evaded to quickly for them to hit it. Getting right over the complex it dived straight down to a 45-degree angle and it's underside opened.
From the exposed section of the drone, a long cylindrical object lowered, held by a small metal tether until the rear of it lit up with a powerful blue light and it broke free of the tether and zipped towards the surface faster than the Wasp, Once it launched the drone banked and made a 180 heading back up to the upper atmosphere. The tiny EMP was too small and fast to be picked up by the AA guns and they didn't even try to hit it.
It took less than three seconds for it to reach the target when it was fifty meters out from the enemy compound the outer shell of the missile exploded in half separating from the insides of the weapon. All that was left of it was a long thin shiny metal arrow-like body that with no propulsion fell where it was towards the surface, as it got halfway to the ground from where it was it too exploded but not like its casing.
The metal turned into shards and a massive halo of blue and white energy dispersed in the middle of the building expanding and coming into contact with all the roof-mounted weapons systems and several droids acting as sentries. The guns would only be down for so long but the high energy blast completely fired the droids. From the lead Spartan Jack and the others could see the defence turrets stopped firing.
"AA is down but it won't stay that way, Roland, maximum burn, get us down ASAP!" Jun ordered as their speed increased against the system warnings in the pod that they were exceeding the recommended contact speed.
Seconds after the boost the eight pods slammed into the ground hard causing small craters of dirt to form around them with rocks and debris flying. Within them, the group got a hold of themselves "Everyone, access your HUD" Jack ordered.
Kix, Jesse and Fives gathered their heads as quickly as they could have never experienced such a violent planet entry, not even in a crash. They could just make out the captain's orders and used their wrist-mounted suit controls to enlarge their maps on their helmets HUD. The rest of the team did the same with their neural implants given to nearly all special UNSC military personnel.
On their maps was the objective location, surrounding terrain and yellow tags for friendly identification, they had landed in a side crack of the canyon on flat ground with the path to the objective being a decline in the ground that formed into a relatively narrow passway and then out into the centre of the canyon where the complex was. As well as this, dozens of small red discs appeared and got closer to them.
One by one the doors on the pods blew off and they grouped up immediately checking and racking their weapons.
"Listen up, we've got incoming hostiles, they still have no contact to their command, we need to get Roland inside that compound, Roland, you Jun, Jesse and Lasky follow the wall that goes along this side ravine and rappel down at the end, Fives, Kix, JD and I will handle the commandos heading here and provide you enough time to get inside the facility". Jack explained.
The commandos were getting closer, the team split in half with Roland, Jun, Jesse and Cadmon running alongside the ravine walls and the rest charging down into the dip in the ground that led towards the main canyon. They reached the middle and took to cover behind two large boulders. They could hear them getting closer, "Captain, commandos don't have motion sensors, if we let them pass we can ambush them," Fives said.
Jack poked his head out from behind cover and could see two groups of commando droids heading their way at full speed, "they must be heading to the crash site" Jack muttered to himself, "Alright there's two groups, let the first one pass then we ambush them, deploy bubble shields to the rear, stop the second group from firing on us". The Spartan Captain said.
He got an acknowledgement light on his HUD from Rookie and two confirming nods from the clones. The dust from the running droids became more visible and they could feel the disturbance in the ground, less than five seconds later more than half a dozen armed commando droids ran right past their position towards where the SOEIV's had landed. Jack, with one hand on his lightrifle, raised his other flat in the air and at the perfect moment clenched it giving the troopers the signal to attack.
Upon stepping out from behind cover and being seen by the further back grouping of droids both Jack and Fives throw out their bubble shields, improved with adjustable diameter, and just in time as the commando droids with their superior reaction times than that of the B1 and B2 series battle droids, had started firing less than two seconds after the soldiers had emerged from cover.
The eight droids in front had turned around completely after the shields had been deployed and two of them had been shot down. Despite the cover around them the droids instead charged right at the enemy after being ambushed and used their excellent agility and speed to dodge the incoming rounds. The distance closed on them, still partially in cover they managed to take down two more enemy droids before the distance finally closed and their cover was almost useless.
Jack saw an opportunity as the enemy charged at them "Give me covering fire!" He shouted. The three of them all laid down suppressing fire causing the droids to focus more on avoiding the incoming hardlight rounds than shooting, the rounds were incredibly fast though giving the droids almost no time to react, at this point Jack had swung his rifle unto his back and made a beeline for the three droids closest to each other, in one hand he primed a plasma grenade and got close enough to draw fire from one of the droids.
Several shots landed causing his shields to drain but he managed to plant the grenade in the centre most droid and used his suits thruster pack to boost himself away as half a second later the coolant emptied and the grenade exploded in a blue, white flurry. The three droids in its three-metre kill range were all annihilated and the last one being flung by the explosive force into the ravine side wall, Rookie then fired several rounds from a distance at it making sure it was truly destroyed.
Their ambush had worked but right at the moment of Rookie firing the bubble shields they had deployed ran out of energy and collapsed, the fire from the fourteen other commando droids again started to hit them taking away chunks of their shields as they scrambled for the boulders. Immediately they returned fire but struggled to even get out of cover long enough for an effective shot with the near-constant fire from the cluster of hostiles.
At this point, Rookie noticed what they were doing "They're moving up with suppressing fire, we try and fire we get hit, if we stay we get overrun" he informed the team.
Jack saw and knew he was right, they were slowly trying to get on top of them, they needed a plan, "Riot manoeuvre!" he thought and shouted over the comm channel.
"Riot Maneuver?" Kix asked loudly having not practised or heard of such a move.
"Hardlight shield wall, move and fire, force them back!" JD explained as briefly as he could while taking what shots he could at the enemy.
All of them activated their armours hardlight shields on their left arm and blue hardlight emerged instantly from particle emitters in their left arms armour, they were a foot and a half wide and six-foot in height covering nearly all of them. On captain Jacks signal they all ran to the centre between the two boulders and formed a flat wedge with Jack and Fives in the middle and Rookie and Kix at the side with their shields facing inwards to defend against shots from their flanks.
Stopping their attempts to move up the commandos fired on the soldiers with better accuracy but their single unified push proved tough to breakthrough, not breaking formation the four of them used brute strength to hold up against the countless incoming blaster bolts, slowly but steadily they got closer and closer to the enemy, firing from their protected position and managing to wipe out three that had attempted to run around them and flank their tight formation.
Despite their small loss in numbers, the remaining eleven commando droids kept up the fire while moving as rapidly as they could to avoid the incoming fire. "They're getting closer, hold formation!" Jack shouted aiming his pistol over his shield and firing several hardlight rounds at a droid dodging the others shots with several leaps and managed to graze it's faceplate enough to damage its optics, it started firing at random vectors not knowing where the enemy was and even nearly hitting its allies.
Its confusion was cut short when it ran blaster first into the four troops and was bashed backwards by the shield wall and Fives dropped his shield with force right in the middle of the droids head, splitting it in to. Up ahead five more commandos charged forward "Halt!" Jack ordered.
Almost instantaneously the four of them stopped and watched as the droids ran with haste towards them while firing their weapons managing to hit their helmets on several occasions but only lowering their energy shields further, "Shields are getting pretty low captain, I don't think we can keep this up forever" Kix informed Jack.
"We don't have to, they're coming in for melee, on my order, we push," Jack told them with the droids mere seconds away from them.
They got ever closer not stopping they're firing but definitely getting ready to attack them in close quarters. Both Rookie, Kix and Fives looked towards the droids and then their commander. They were barely a few feet away when he finally shouted: "Push!"
In perfect unison, they bashed their shields forward breaking their formation and smashing through the small droid cluster in front of them sending them all back and to the ground, before they could even get back up or fire once more on them both Jack and Fives had ditched their shields drawing out their twin SPMA hardlight pistols and each took out two with the remaining one being blasted into nothing by Rookie with his Bat Shotgun.
Even with their hardlight shields lowered their numbers were even and the remaining five commando droids were no match for a Spartan and three special operations soldiers all in the best armour the UNSC had to offer, even so, they fired as much as they possibly could but started to fall back until the half of fireteam Resolute started to catch up and pin them down with equal fire, once Kix had managed to hit another one as they pushed up the four stopped firing and focused on their retreat.
Behind their helmets, the toppers were pleased with their small victory until they noticed almost instantly where they were going, "Ah hell, they're heading back to the complex, come on!" Fives said as they suddenly sprinted towards the complex with the droids just ahead of them.
Jack tried to contact the other half of the squad "Jun? Jesse, do you copy!? Does anyone copy!?"
Soon after his call out a voice comes through the comm and blaster fire can be heard in the background "Roger Sir, we're inside the command systems scrambler is active but one of the exits is sealed and the other two are full of destroyer droids, we can't get passed!" Jun manages to shout with Jesse's voice coming through warning Roland to get down in the back.
"Hold your position, you've got four incoming commando droids, we're on their tail but they'll get there before we do, hold tight" Jack orders.
"Understood Sir, we' 'll hold the command centre, those destroyers are getting closer though I don't know how much longer we can hold out" Jun explains then cuts off the communication.
"Double time it troopers!" Jack yells as they push themselves further and can see in the short distance ahead, the four remaining commandos entering the building the closest entrance.
Almost twenty seconds later they reach it and Fives goes to open it at the controls but nothing happens "Ah, clankers must have busted the controls" Fives said.
"Plasma charge" Rookie says as he and Fives plant two cuboid thermal plasma charges on the frame of the door, they all take cover behind the outer doorway as Rookie activated the explosives, using similar technology to the type 1 plasma grenade, destabilizing its core by leaking coolant. Not even three seconds after he had triggered the chargers the two munitions detonated causing a massive rupture.
They all came around and saw that the door was heavily damaged and hanging on by a thread until Spartan Jack came forward and planted his right foot flat against the caved metal door and utterly smashed it off of it's mounting, sending it to the floor with a massive crash.
Once inside they could hear the blaster fire much more clearly and hoped it had masked the sound of the thermal detonators, on their HUD's they could see they were getting closer to the other half of the team and followed one of the corridors with two destroyers and three of four commando droids, Jack stacked up against the wall of the corner wear the hostile forces were and could see ahead of them was the command centre with fire coming from inside.
"Check fire, we're right outside the command centre," Jack said quietly but clearly through the open channel. "Can you close the doors to the command centre?" he asked.
"Negative, we only managed to seal one of them when they caught us off guard" Jun replied.
"Acknowledged, standby," Jack said taking out his bubble shield and adjusting the range.
"Rookie, do we have any fusion charges?" Jack asked.
JD replied hesitantly "Yeah but if we try and use them to take out them it'll take down half the building and all of us along too" he warned as he took out his fusion charge.
Fives heard "What, how powerful is this thing?" he asked with him and Kix covering their six.
"They're micro nuclear-powered charges, used for demo ops" Rookie quickly explained turning back to the captain.
"Give me covering fire and brace yourselves," he said as he ran out from the corner with his deployable shield in one hand and the fusion charge in the other, through his neural connection he surged the power to his armours energy shields and as soon as he got passed the first droid was fired at by one of the commando droids and a destroyer, Fives, Rookie and Kix tried to at best get their attention but only managed to do so for short burst as the droids would fire between all their targets.
Jack's shields were down to 40 percent, another commando in front of him tried to attack him but he dodged it by a hair length, the last one in front of him tried to do the same but he turned his shoulder and pushed right through it, taking fire while doing so. As he pushed through the third commando droid he landed right in the middle of all of them and activated the fusion charges 5-second timer followed by the bubble shield, he looked again to his shields, he was down to 5 percent.
With no time to run back through the hail of dorids, he cautiously but without choice used his jetpack to boost himself forward past all hostile targets taking fire while flying past them, his shields ran out completely and his armour starting taking fire for the last two seconds of his flight but he managed to evade it just long enough to make it through the bubble shield as the timer hit zero and the charge detonated.
Everything within the transparent dome shelter turned a burning white as the temperature within sored into the tens of millions of degrees and disintegrated everything inside, lights above them sparked and burst as the wires and structure of the building within the shield turned into nothing, the explosion only lasted for an instant shadow of a second but felt much longer as the bubble shield was taken with it and all that was left when they could look again was the charred debris that laid just outside of the shield.
Jack wasted no time "June your clear move-out!" he shouted as the other four of them gathered themselves, the rest of them came out of the command centre and regrouped. "Glad to see you, Sir," Jesse said.
"You to trooper, is the scrambler secure?" captain Jack asked.
Roland answered "Absolutely, I programmed it with a continual character changing algorithm, it would take a fifth-generation AI a week at least to break it" the AI replied as they hastily made their way to the exposed section of the corridor and looked below, the explosion had completely wiped out the wall and circular section of the floor exposing the outside.
"Sir look down there" Jesse pointed outside towards the west section of the building a solid hundred metres in front of them, four separatist scout speeder bikes.
"Engage grapple hooks, we'll descend through here and use those speeders to make it to the exfil point" Captain Jack said as they deployed their compact grapple hooks, except for Roland who jumped straight down, not damaging any of his mostly forerunner alloy form. The rest of them quickly rappelled down to the ground, not slowing their descent. Landing slightly hard they rapidly winched back their cables and made a run for the speeders.
They covered their rear as they made their way forward as there were still droids within the complex that would be after them. Quickly they made their way to them and climbed up the railing in front of the bikes. Jun was about to speak when from behind them a high powered blaster bolt scorched right passed them and hit Cadmon in his left arm.
As soon as they round struck him the team scattered to cover "Can you see him!?" Jack shouted over to Jun who already had his sniper rifle out and looked down it's linked scope. Another round struck the storage cache Jun was behind going straight through and hitting the ground in front of him.
"I got a bead on him, it's the missing commando droid, he's on the roof," Jun said.
Jack looked over to Cadmon, he was alive but couldn't move, the round had struck his armour in between the armour plating and badly grazed his shoulder. "Everyone on my mark lay down suppressing fire, Kix got to Lasky and got him on a speeder to the exfil point, we'll be right behind you!"
"Yes Sir, I'll take care of him don't worry," he said as he looked to Cadmon getting ready to run to him.
The rest of them readied their weapons "3...2...1...Open Fire!"
The Spartan captain gave the order and they all rose from cover and opened fire on the droid snipers general location, the commando tried to fire on Jun as he was the first and closest target but fired prematurely when the six soldiers all fired their weapons at once pinning the droid down in a hail of white, light blue hardlight fire. The lack of fire from Jun was clear as he tried to get an accurate shot. Behind them, Kix had managed to make his way to Cadmon and pick him up over his shoulder and get him to one of the speeder bikes, once on the bike, Kix powered it up and made a getaway to the exfil as fast is the speeder could go, quickly he was out of the firing range of the droid.
When the suppressing fire from started to die down for a second as both Jack and Rookie reloaded the commando droid tried to get an accurate shot at them but as soon as it moved to do so Jun took the opportunity and squeezed his trigger, the round left his SRS99 rifle and from the distance took an entire second for the bullet to reach its target but when it did it struck the droid on the right side of its face and completely sheared off a chunk of the droids, it fell over the perched section of the roof and slid down to the ground.
With the sniper down the six of them made their way to the bike with their weapons still raised and covering all directions, "Roland, you Jesse and Fives are driving, get us to the extraction point, I'll make contact with command" He ordered as they quickly made their way to the speeder bikes, the clones take control of the bikes with the rest of them on the back covering security.
At the front of the three bike convoy were Fives and Jack, "Kix I have you on my scope, slow down" Fives said as the speeder ahead of them slowed down and joined the convoys speed.
As they regrouped Jack contacted the captain of the Blackbird "Blackbird come in, objective complete, I say again objective complete, Invasion force is clear, we've acquired enemy transport and are on route to extraction point Foxtrot 0 fatalities, 1 casualty, acknowledged?" He said.
Commando Vesso replied "Confirmed Captain, I'll relay the message to the battlegroup," he said temporarily cutting off the communication channel but opening it again a minutes later. "Battlegroup has entered slipspace, planetary assault is a go, you said one casualty, do you need medical extraction, are you at the extraction point?" he asked.
Kix heard on the comm and looked to Jack "He's alright Sir, busted up but fine" he told him
"Negative, wound is non-critical, ETA is 3 minutes" he replied.
"Copy that we'll be on station in- Hold on Spartan," he said as he stopped talking for several seconds causing the Spartan Captain some concern until returning.
"New orders Captain, Extraction plans are belayed, command has dispatched orders, you and your team are to head to these coordinates and await further orders from Admiral Lasky," He said transmitting the new coordinates to the leader of Fireteam resolute.
Jack looked vaguely confused at the data he received "Blackbird am I reading this correctly because these coordinates put us outside Spice mine K75, that's the focus point of the ground assault" the Spartan said.
"I don't know any more captain, that is all they told me, we have our orders we're to hold our position and wait for the fleet to arrive" Vesso replied
"Understood," Jack said
"New orders then sir?" Fives said
"We're to head to these coordinates and await orders from Admiral Lasky," Jack told them all over the team's comm.
They looked at him "That's...odd right? Admiral Lasky giving us our orders personally on the ground" Rookie said
"Something about it seems off but those are our orders, we'll have to see," Jun said as they slowed down upon reaching the new destination.
The exact coordinates landed them before a nearly vertical cliff, a large structure laid ahead of them overhanging and descending into the large hole filled with thick dark gas clouds, obscuring the view below. Kix laid Cadmon down next to the speeder bike, looking him over, he was still unconscious.
"How is he Kix?" Jack asked
"He is still out, must have hit his head hard, I checked his arm, the round managed to hit him just under the plating, one in a million chance really, it wasn't internal or deep enough to use any of that bio-foam, a deep graze to put it best, I bacta wrapped it, he'll be fine but his arm may be out of action for a short while".
"So that's the spice mine of Kessel?" Rookie asked partially disturbed, even from their distance, he could see both droid and Pyke slaver guards watching captured slaves be forced into the elevators that would be taken down into the mines.
"One of them anyway, the Republic was meant to stop these kinds of people, I can only hope that once the war is over, we get our priorities in order," Fives said
"Agreed," Jack said coldly looking down at the mine.
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Well so ends another chapter, some notes for this one, parts of the dialogue were inspired by other games, I'll let you guess which. Also, I tried to find Cadmons serial number but couldn't find anything in the official archives but I noticed in his armour in some images it says as far as I can tell MK17, this could be what type of armour he is wearing but I took a shot.
I know I kind of squeezed some new details and weapons into this chapter so don't get on me about the winter-class prowler not carrying drop pods or an AV-49 I know but this is why modifications and prototypes exist. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and to the person, I enjoy talking to and hopefully seeing soon (you know who you are lol, R) I hope you liked reading it.
See you all in the next one
