Hey guys it's Able, might see a little less of this because the stress is mounting. Close to getting out of the army and there's a lot of moving parts as well. This is not a hiatus, merely a warning that the updates may not be as frequent.
Thanks for reading :)
Arantara.
21:15 Hours.
They met with the second strike team out in the shipyards. Evading the patrols was becoming increasingly difficult.
"Time check." Asher said.
"Twenty minutes until both Alpha and Bravo are scrap." Cord reported.
The ramshackle Seperarist shipyard was decently lit, the night vision would've blinded them to all the white light.
"Droid factory is six-hundred meters out." Jace explained.
The path had droids patrolling up and down, the constant clanking sending a pang of anxiety through the Medic Captain.
He clocked the patrol, watching the throng of droids carefully. The gap presented itself as a platoon passed them by.
"Now let's go." He barked in a harsh whisper.
The two strike teams moved swiftly to the other side, bounding as low as possible.
Asher huffed as he made it to the other side, turning to cover the men behind him.
One by one they covered the distance, Dead sprinting across the kill zone.
Every man made it, the droids were none the wiser.
Cord sliced the door into the factory and Asher's heart sank as he saw the production lines.
Hundreds maybe thousands of them assembled one after the other on massive conveyor belts. B1's, B2's, Droidekas all were being made to be sent out to the front.
It had to fall.
"Cord, you got the schematics?"
"I do, some charges on the main power generator should do the trick. Isotopes get exposed, radiation leaks and this place goes up in flames."
"Let's move, stay sharp, if we have to engage do it as quietly as possible."
He got a series of thumbs up gestures in response.
The droid factory was a maze of moving parts and noise, heavy machinery whirring and clanging as it assembled the fodder for the Seperatists. It was efficiency made manifest as the assembly never seemed to cease.
They crept low under conveyor belts, dodging hanging racks of B1 parts. Racks of their characteristic blasters sat shiny and new still coated in factory oil.
The brief respites of quiet in machinery was a rhythmic clicking that made Asher's blood run cold.
He raised a fist and his men froze, he gestured rapidly for them to hide and they did, the Medic Captain crouching behind a crate.
It was the same clicking and chittering he heard in that cave, the same dull chortles and snaps that haunted him every night.
Geonosians, worker caste if he remembered right, wingless peons that manned the droid factories to ensure maximum productivity.
His hands tightened against his weapon, his gloves straining over his white knuckle grip as he stared in disgust at the insectoid species. A cluster of workers chattered and gestured to the line of droid production, their bulbous eyes glancing this way and that.
He took aim, drawing a bead on one's head.
His finger twitched over the trigger, his nostrils flared and all he saw was red.
Captain Aldane's blood spurting over the white of his armor as they skewered him, the blood of his company staining the sand as he tried with everything he had to save every precious drop of life force.
The scar throbbed with the shadow of sensation, a blade being drawn down his face slowly… and a creature relishing in his pain.
He exhaled, controlling his breathing before the shot.
But a firm hand lay onto his shoulder and Asher froze.
The Geonosians finished their discourse and scampered off down the line.
Jace gave his brother a firm squeeze and gently bumped his helmet against Asher's.
The Medic Captain lowered his carbine and took a few steadying breaths.
"I know vod." Jace whispered so quietly, Asher almost didn't hear him.
Asher banished the ghosts to the back of his mind and Jace withdrew his hand.
"Let's move." Asher muttered.
As they advanced into the lower levels Asher called for a time check.
"Fifteen minutes until detonation of the core ships." Cord reported.
"Good time." Asher mused.
As they proceeded deeper, they reached the power room at the base of the factory. A pair of Geonosians chattered at the entrance.
They remained out of sight, and Asher turned to his men.
"Those two bugs are mine." He announced.
He left no room for argument.
The Medic Captain primed a flash grenade as he advanced on them.
Asher strode into view and the Geonosians turned. Their eyes beheld the clone slowly, not reacting at all as they stared mouths agape.
He tossed the flash grenade at their feet and it detonated, sensory overload overtaking the insectoids as they grasped at their heads and shut their eyes.
He downed the first with a boot to its leg and a blade to its neck as soon as he closed the distance. The other tried to run, and he flipped the knife and threw it into the runner's back, flooring it.
Feebly it tried to crawl ahead, groaning and screeching.
The Clones hoped that the noise of the factory drowned out the screams.
Asher walked forward, his boots thumping ever closer to the downed worker as it dragged its body forward.
He pinned it under his boot and with a rough yank he pulled the blade, eliciting a short screech from the Geonosian.
"Bug filth." He seethed.
His fallen brothers ran through his mind a mile a minute. He could do anything right now, all he had to do was start cutting.
A blaster bolt to it's head silenced it and Asher jolted as it impacted, he turned to see Jace standing firm with his pistol out.
Jace shook his head and holstered his weapon, Asher seethed and stepped off his foe.
"Get the charges set." Asher commanded as he wiped the blade on his thigh and the men moved without a word.
Jace's gaze lingered on his brother for a brief moment before he proceeded inside.
The Medic Captain turned and pulled rear security, readying his carbine
Carbine leveled, in his mind's eye droids and bugs were coming en masse.
They never came, the noise of the factory had drowned the commotion and he breathed a sigh of relief.
A smaller, darker part of his mind was not disappointed more Geonosians were coming.
They owed him a debt of blood, and he intended to collect.
Reha poured a canteen on her hands and for the rest of her life she would never forget the red that followed it.
Sweat matted her hair, mixing with the dirt and grime. Her hair was too long despite the helmet keeping it out of the way. She intended to cut it as soon as she got the chance.
The air wing dropped off the tent, the mechanism that deployed it engaging as soon as it hit the ground designated by Kincaid's smoke grenades.
The Clones got to work, she could see the sluggish exhaustion setting into them with every movement. Heads lulled from side to side as they shook them into focus, hands had lost their dexterity as they moved.
Reha could feel it in her body too, they'd all been lucky to get a few uninterrupted moments to nod off.
"Get the generator set! I want vitals gear up and running, long range radio set in ten!" Cutter roared.
The First Sergeant however did not seem tired in the slightest. He stood with the unwavering posture of a statue, the rotary cannon he cherished was held atop his shoulder.
Asher couldn't have chosen a better trooper for the job, the man was harder than beskar and the bark of his voice was a comfort to Reha, the droids would never withstand Cutter.
As she turned to help push the generator into place she heard the First Sergeant's voice behind her.
"Are you alright ma'am?" He asked, tone softer with her and her master than anyone else.
"Yes Cutter I'm fine thank you." She smiled behind her helmet.
His eyes eyed her up and down and he became the gruff non-commissioned officer everyone had grown to know.
"Shab ma'am, you're coming apart." He said bluntly.
His words halted her in her tracks, and she sorely wished she was wearing the helmet now, it would hide the shock on her face.
"Isn't what you expected is it?" He asked.
She shook her head.
"No, no it isn't." She whispered.
His helmet tilted curiously, and she could imagine his face, lips forming into a thin line.
"It wasn't like the simulations on Geonosis, not at all. The long necks never could convey it right but you do what you trained to do and you find you're better than you thought."
She hugged herself, peering up into his visor.
"Is that what it was like for you?" She asked,"Getting used to all this violence?"
He shrugged, hefting The Pig as he switched it to his other shoulder.
"When you shoot nothing but holo targets and training droids and you're shooting tinnies or living breathing beings it..." He paused.
She could feel it well inside him, like a storm looming over the horizon, a streak of distress she could feel like a hand clenching over her heart. Wherever Cutter was, he was lightyears away and it was nowhere good.
His visor stared vacantly, he stood rigid but there was a slight tremor in his shoulders.
"Cutter?" She asked.
He shook out of the daze and she pictured eyes blinking into focus. The Clone First Sergeant gathered himself and the dark feeling she felt was banished but lingered like poison over him.
After composing himself he spoke.
"You'll... get used to it, all the blood. You'll be even better than before I wager."
He turned toward the line and moved to the men moving the equipment.
"I gotta get back, take a breather ma'am."
"Cutter."
"Hm?"
She stammered with the words.
"Did it... did it get easier for you? Killing I mean."
The gaze was hard, and he drummed his fingers on his weapon.
"It did, and I got very good at it."
He turned on his heel and left her to that.
The storm followed him.
The charges were almost set, Asher joined them shortly afterward, Cord had found a console and sliced into it.
"Talk to me Corporal." Asher asked.
"Downloading data that could be useful." He explained.
"Anything good?" He asked.
"Let's see…" Cord mused, skimming over the data.
"What in the Nine Corellian Hells?" He whispered.
"What is it?" Asher asked, leaning over the slicer and peering at the data.
"I've got schematics for some new droids, T-Series tactical droid and BX-Series commando droids."
"Tactical and Commando droids?" Asher raised a brow.
"Tactical droids are a learning computer, they're higher brass, the clanker version of officers… the commandoes are some higher speed killing machine." Cord read off.
"This place built them?" Asher asked.
"They have three tactical droids built, two on the core ships. One overseeing the battle and a platoon of commando droids."
"Where's that platoon?"
"A squad is here, on standby as security the rest of them.. oh kriff." Cord cursed.
"Where are they Cord?" Asher demanded.
"They're heading to the front!"
Asher turned and opened up the comm.
"Cutter, this is Asher." The Captain said, throwing radio etiquette away.
Static was the answer.
"Cutter! Kincaid! Nero!" Asher roared.
Static.
"Kriff." He spat.
Sixes set the final charge and gave Asher a thumbs up.
"Charges set sir."
Asher nodded and sighed.
An inhuman screech echoed through the factory, and the alarm followed just behind it.
"Contact!" Jace cried firing his carbine at the entrance.
Geonosian warriors clamored into the reactor bay, sonic weapons at ready their leader, a high crested elite let loose a burst of his beam weapon as Asher dove for cover.
He fired blind from behind his cover, rounds going nowhere. He propped up and nailed a bug from abdomen to neck, flooring it.
The rest didn't last long, the Grenadier fired a round that whistled through the air and struck a Geonosian like a sledgehammer, sending it careening to the ground where it detonated.
Bug gore splattered everywhere and Asher had never been more pleased with the result.
"Helluva shot Mickey! Cord, time check!"
"Five minutes sir! We have to get out of here!"
When they came they moved unlike any droid Asher had fought, bounding forward in an unrelenting sprint, blasters held aloft as they maneuvered and fired almost like organics.
Commando Droids entered the fray, surging forward in a dead sprint and firing their weapons with deadly accuracy.
A bolt whizzed by Asher's head and before he could bring his weapon up it kneed him in the faceplate.
The helmet tanked the damage but his head snapped backward as he was forced to the floor, instinct kicked in as he groped for his pistol.
Blue blaster fire rocked its chassis and Asher sent a bolt into it's head to finally silence it.
"I'm hit!" Cried a clone.
"Stay in cover I got you!" Jace shouted.
Asher shook his head, his ears rang and everything rang.
"Sir! What're we doing?!?" Cord shouted, voice muffled by the blow to his head.
Asher winced and blinked, dazed as he shook his head.
The world focused, he could see three men down, Jace frantically working on the worst of them.
"I don't know…" He whispered.
"Sir?" Cord cried.
The Medic Captain grit his teeth, smacked the side of his helmet with his palm and fought against the pain and vertigo gripping him like a vice.
"Bring up the heavy guns, we fight our way out. Get the wounded to their feet, painkillers and a stimulant. We're gonna steal a ride and get the kriff out of here."
He scooped up his carbine and rolled his neck.
"Sir yes sir!" His men chorused.
They brought up their weapons and got to work.
"Cutter?" Reha asked as the First Sergeant glanced at his comm, confusion showing in his body language.
"Somethings wrong, the Captain is trying to comm but it's coming out broken."
Further up the line, a 501st clone scanned the horizon with his macros. He sighed, bored out of his mind, the earlier combat high had worn off quickly enough.
His brothers slept all around him and he envied it, luckily his shift was over in ten minutes so he could catch a few moments of sleep.
The silence was broke by the dull hum of something.
He raised a brow, it sounded familiar but he couldn't place it.
The vibrosword severed his head in one fell swoop as the commando droid leapt upward from its prone crawl.
A sleeping clone jolted awake at the force of a blow and glanced downward and screamed at what had fallen into his lap.
His brother's severed head, blood staining the armor on his thighs.
"Contact!" He shouted before the same commando droid sent a bolt through his helmet.
Reha turned toward the sound of the shot, a droid unlike any she'd seen before stood with a blaster in one hand and a vibrosword in the other.
Her lightsaber found home in her hand immediately and she charged in, Cutter not far behind.
Dozens of them, armored and armed cut into the clones like a scalpel.
She pulled the first droid in with the force and cut it in half, flinging it's legs and torso away.
General Skywalker was in a similar state, slicing droids left and right, a whirlwind with a lightsaber. The clones leveled their blasters and joined their commanders.
"Padawan what is it?" Master Nema cried, igniting her weapon.
"Some new kind of droid!" She announced, deflecting a bolt.
"Jet droids!" A clone shouted as a rocket atomized him.
Super Battle droids slammed into the earth, rockets and heavy bolts downing clones left and right.
They were dead or dazed, no one cried medic.
"Cut them down! Heavy gunners lay down suppressive fire!" Rex shouted.
Cutter spun up The Pig and fired ahead of a flying droid, reducing it to scrap.
For a moment she couldn't take her eyes away from the carnage he inflicted, Cutter was bringing down this raiding party down with ease. Every bolt he fired sent their foes down, cutting them down in droves.
And between all the screams, all the blaster fire, the rockets and the chaos.
She could hear him laughing.
He wasn't lying when he said he was good at this.
Reha leapt up, slicing at a super as it flew, cleaving it's arm off. Cutter stitched it with laser fire as she landed with the grace of a cat.
A rocket was fired from the last droid as it was shot down, and she exhaled slow and focused, reaching out with the force and halting the projectiles dead in their tracks. They levitated a solid foot away from Cutter, and his shoulders sagged as he gazed at what would've been his death.
Splaying both hands in front of her, she sent the rocket careening hundreds of meters away where it detonated.
Cutter gave her a single nod in thanks and she smiled.
It calmed down not long after that, Shaman and Witch Doctor medics moving to help the wounded, and policing up the dead.
Reha took the calm and shut off her lightsaber, clipping it to her belt.
She breathed in a grateful breath that it was over, the pure Arantara air unfiltered, her helmet was left back at the aid station.
A dull rumble broke the peace and she screamed as soon as she felt the bone shatter.
The Commando droid she had bisected had crawled over to her and driven it's fist right into the side of her knee.
Reha sank to the ground and the droid backhanded her.
Her cry of pain echoed over the front as she fell onto her belly. Panic surged through her mind as she grabbed fistfuls of soil to get far away from the enemy droid. Blood filled her mouth and she coughed, her eyes widened as she spat up chips of her teeth.
It clawed forward as she feebly tried to crawl away from it, grabbing a fistful of her hair and yanking back, bringing her onto her back.
It raised a fist leveled for her throat, intent on caving in her trachea.
"Get off of her!" Roared a familiar voice.
Cutter slammed his boot into the Droid's head, sending it off of her, it's vice grip on her hair ripped some off her scalp and she screamed once more.
On its back it feebly tried to block the bulk of The Pig as Cutter slammed it down onto the droid. It's eyes cracked from the blow, and it's voice modulator gurgled and groaned before he silenced it with a burst from his weapon.
His shoulders heaved from his heavy breaths, hatred pouring from the emotionless visor as he drank in the sparking ruin of the commando droid.
Cutter snapped back to reality and turned to the downed Jedi.
"The Commander is down! Medic!" Cutter roared, sliding over to her.
"I've got you ma'am." He said soothingly.
This entire battle, Reha had been the person kneeling over someone, it was terrifying now to be the one on the ground.
"Cutter." She whimpered, tears streaming down her face, "It hurts so much."
Her knee was completely out of place, her leg at an odd angle at the joint.
"Reha!" Her Master cried, sliding over, Skywalker close by but keeping his distance. Eyes wide in shock.
"Shore up security! This is not happening again!" He ordered, moving to command the clones.
The look of worry on her master's face scared her more than the droid had, scared her more than the thought of being a casualty.
"I-I-I'm sorry Master… I thought it was dead I thought it was dead." She cried.
"It's okay Reha it's gone." Her Master soothed.
"Medic get your shebs over here now!" Cutter barked.
"Cutter is it dead?" Reha asked frantically, white glowing eyes and the groan of metal fresh in her mind.
Wordlessly Cutter drew his pistol, and fired another four bolts into the heap of scrap.
"If it wasn't before it definitely is now, don't worry ma'am I got him. We're going to get you out of here."
Kincaid came up soon, jamming a hypo into her neck as soon as knelt next to her. His hands trembled as he got to work at removing the trace amounts of armor on her.
They never trembled before.
"I've got you ma'am." He reassured, his voice cracking.
Between the ebb of pain and the painkillers she could feel Kincaid's emotions, and it was a flood of worry.
He cut away at the legs of the body glove she wore, she wanted to look at the ruins of her leg but was too medicated to even care anymore.
As they hefted her to a litter the Infantry clones from Sword Platoon formed a protective circle around her, a full three-sixty as they carried her to the aid station.
Her master held her hand the entire way.
The fluorescent lights of the aid station should of stung her eyes if not for the painkillers, the medics within froze as soon as they saw who was on the bed.
"What are you all gaping at?!?" Cutter spat, "Get to work!"
They did immediately, and Reha could barely make out the medical jargon through the haze of drugs.
"Twenty year old female…"
"Blunt force trauma to the knee and face..."
"Painkillers administered three minutes ago."
Her master set to work herself, gloving up and grabbing necessary supplies.
They stripped the rest of the armor, and cut away at her clothes with a mix of trauma shears and strap cutters.
"Cutter…" She whispered.
Her hand reached out to air and was suddenly filled with a familiar warmth. His gloved digits giving a gentle squeeze.
"You'll be alright ma'am." He said, taking a knee at her side.
They injected another hypo and her vision faded to black.
They advanced slowly, droids and bugs hampering them every step of the way. Asher had taken a round to the chest, his armor tanking most of it, but the burn from the broken skin throbbed with pain and every breath was agony.
Cord had sealed the doors to the reactor room and blasted the console into uselessness. Couldn't have the Seppies disarming what they'd worked so hard to achieve.
"Where's the vehicle bay Cord?"
"Around the corner sir."
Asher had made a new plan on the fly, exfiltration would be via AAT tank.
Jace hefted his casualty, pistol out, the wounded Clone's arm draped over his shoulder.
"Contact front!" Asher announced as he opened up on a super backed by regular B1's.
The grenadier pumped the action and let loose a round, shattering the loose formation the droids kept together.
"Black on grenades!" Mickey groaned.
"We'll be out of here soon vod." Asher affirmed.
"Brother the resistance is soft, this is a whole factory and we've just dealt with bits and pieces." Jace grit,"They're wearing us down."
Asher knew he was right, small units to strip their supply, bleed their ammo dry. Whatever this was they were walking right into it.
But they were fresh out of options.
The vehicle bay was just ahead, AAT tanks awaiting the front and to be assembled.
"Time check." Asher rasped, sucking in air that his chest protested with another stab of pain.
"Two minutes." Cord explained, a slight tremor in his voice.
"That one there!" Asher announced pointing to their prize.
The alarm shifted, a massive guttural roar from within the facility.
"Go go!" He commanded, waving them into the tank as he guided the wounded up.
Cord hopped in first to slice the tank's systems, Jace helped the wounded inside, the Clone Captain turned and saw a plethora of red lights snap on. His hand guided the last trooper in the team inside, his palm flat against the rocket launcher slung on his back.
B1's, B2's and more clattered to the ground from the aerial conveyor belts, stepped off the ground racks as their systems came to life.
Hundreds of them, thousands, all at once.
They advanced on him but did not fire, blasters leveled right at him. He dare not raise his weapon, lest he be shot to literal pieces.
"Surrender Republic trash." A mechanical voice demanded.
The droids made way but never lost their sight picture on the Clone.
At the apex of them all was the Tactical Droid, advancing forward with the haughty air of superiority.
Asher stared down his foe, the droid hefted a pistol aimed right for the Clone Captain. The droids congregated forward, weapons never leaving him.
"You are surrounded Clone, inside and out, you have lost." It warbled.
Asher's dominant hand dropped his carbine, the weapon clattering to the floor which seemed to ease the droid somewhat.
Two B1's advanced to him, and he slowly raised his hands.
Asher had been the last man in the line for a reason, he wanted to see his men get into their transport and he knew exactly who awaited in the turret.
"Bedlam!" He roared.
Bedlam was their rocketeer, and he popped out of the turret of the AAT with the rocket shouldered.
The missile whistled through their air above Asher's head, right into the center of the cluster of droids. The Tactical droid was decimated in the blast alongside its more common brethren.
He withdrew the detonator and held it up.
"Actually I win."
It was unlike any explosion he'd ever been exposed to, a massive thundering roar that would've burst his eardrums if not for the noise cancellation in his helmet. The power grid becoming a network of explosions. The orderly calm of the factory, the monotonous productivity thrust into chaos.
The building was ripped apart by the bubble of force, crates of ordnance detonated as the ball of flame pushed outward, scrapping everything in it's path.
It forced him to his knees, the surviving droids being floored by their flimsy postures. Support beams came down, racks fell over and crushed would be war fodder beneath its weight.
Angry bursts of flame up and down the droid line sent metal and debris everywhere. The reactor was a highly volatile radioactive isotope based power grid. The charges merely exposed these isotopes and sent them into a critical state.
"Time to go." He mused, climbing into the tank.
He crammed in with his brothers, far too tight a fit but no better options necessitated it.
"Get us out of here!" Asher barked to Cord.
"Oh come on sir, we still have one minute." He shrugged as the engine roared to life, "Besides, we're fine, strap in boys."
The tank lurched forward, leaving an inferno of destruction behind it.
Droids scrambled about as they taxied out of the vehicle bay, Cord ran over droids like an overzealous Coruscant cab driver did to pedestrians. The droids paid them no mind it seemed, blissfully unaware of the true occupants.
The shield was gone over the base, the factory powered more than just itself, and Cord sped them right through the droid checkpoints with no issue at all.
When Asher was a cadet, he and his brothers had been taught broadly of their heritage as Mandalorians. And in his adult life had avidly read up on the Mandalorian wars as a pastime.
Mandalore the Ultimate had used nuclear weapons on multiple occasions during their conquests, and Asher and his team had just created three of these same explosions with naught but a few packets of plastic explosive and some determination.
"Gun it!" Asher spat.
"Sir!" Cord set the speed to its maximum.
They crossed into open desert, putting miles between them and their targets.
"Reactors should go critical in three… two… one." Cord droned.
Asher popped the hatch of the tank, and glanced toward the droid base. The factory was crumbling onto itself and the core ships shattered in the middle.
There was a brief moment of silence before all three structures seemed to pull into themselves, the air being sucked toward them before they finally exploded.
It was brighter than anything Asher had seen, no star in the endless expanse of the galaxy gave him nearly as much satisfaction.
Mushroom clouds burst high into the air in massive billows of smoke and fire, sand formed angry gusts that caught up to the tank in moments brought on with winds that almost yanked Asher free of the hatch. The hull shook and lurched forward and with a slight curse he crawled back inside and shut the hatch.
"Archangel-seven this is Archangel-five how me over."
"Archangel-seven to Archangel-five, I read you Lima Charlie over." Cutter blared over the comm.
"Archangel-seven be advised, Strike team exfil via Alpha Alpha Tango, please warn the boys the tank heading their way is not hostile over."
"Roger Archangel-five, I'll pass it on, hell of a view brother."
"Enjoy the fireworks boys." Asher announced on an open channel.
His words went up and down the line, every medic, every member of Hammer and Sword platoon, every 501st trooper and the armored heard it and let loose a cheer as the mushroom clouds billowed from across the No Man's Land that had formed.
Clone troopers threw their arms up and roared with victory, some fired bolts into the air in jubilation.
Reha from the litter she was on turned toward the mushroom clouds miles away and smiled softly. Without a word she was loaded onto a gunship bound for the Valkyrie.
The door slid shut and the battle was over for her.
Wounded, battered and exhausted, Asher and his team began to sing. Jace had started it a soft mumble of lyrics that increased in volume as more clones joined. It was simple lyrics from an old song Showtime played constantly, and Asher found himself joining in.
"All the leaves are brown,
And the sky is gray!
I've been for a walk,
On a winter's day!
If I didn't tell her,
I could leave today!
Coruscanti dreamin'
On such a winter's day!"
Asher had hated the pilot's constant playing of the song, keeping it stuck in his head at the worst times. But right now, leaving a Separatist facility in ruins, with a blaster wound in the chest to show for it and all his men alive made the lyrics feel like victory.
Thanks for reading :)