Chapter 14: Fen Kar'fon (CT-0099 'Buzz')
Murkhana
Two minutes earlier...
Fen and all of his ARC Troopers were on high alert.
While it did not look that way from his formal calm and collected expression or mannerisms, Tarkin had become increasingly unhinged. Now it appeared very much like someone might end up killing Tarkin in self-defense. Under his helmet, Fen now wore a triumphant smirk on his face.
"Uncle, please calm down," Miralo urged, setting his own blaster down. "I am sure once Jazal has had a good look at the Amedda Directive, see that you have dotted all your shens and crossed all of your forns, she will understand your situation."
"My situation?" Tarkin asked calmly, aiming his blaster towards the turbolift doors. "The Jedi were never to be involved with the Strategic Advisory Cell, you see. Bringing them in was a mistake."
"—Uncle, please lower your blaster," Miralo pleaded.
Most of Team Cresh were now staring at Tarkin, mouths agape in shock at what they were seeing. It was very out of character. He was clearly having a breakdown of sorts.
"Governor, I agree," cautioned Trip, one of the Clone interrogators, as he stood behind Tarkin. "You should lower your blaster."
"Sir," Mesh muttered on the ARC Trooper channel, "what are our orders? It is clear to me that Tarkin is no longer a part of the legitimate chain of command."
Fen bit his lower lip. If we side with Jazal, arrest Tarkin, there will be no reason for her to kill him. "Hold position Sergeant. None of you do anything unless I authorise it."
"Roger that," Saul grunted.
"Understood sir," Cash added.
"This doesn't make any sense, Buzz," Mesh hissed. "Jazal has relieved Tarkin of duty. Why are you siding with Tarkin?"
"No Mesh," Fen corrected, "this situation doesn't make any sense. The chain of command is ambiguous and we do nothing until it is re-established. It isn't our place to decide whether Tarkin is the commanding officer... Or Jazal, or—"
"—I am sure you will all find this most enlightening," Tarkin said suddenly, reaching for the comm station with one hand, maintaining his aim at the door with his other. He flipped on the intercom.
To Fen's complete astonishment, Wulf's voice came through, echoing from speakers in every direction. "Dubs is right. How many factions were you working for?"
"Wulf, it was just the Wookiees and the Spynet," Sey'les's voice said with a sigh. "I wasn't a spy, I was a consultant. As I said before, I didn't view the Spynet as an enemy. The Wookiees… They are our friends. They still are."
Fen opened his mouth to say something but only made a confused groan. Sey'les is telling them this… Holy hell. My cover's blown! Without hesitation, the not-Clone whipped out his DC-17m and backed up against a wall to ensure no one was behind him.
"A team led by a Spynet operative is on its way up the turbolift as we speak!" Tarkin yelled in a rallying voice. "Allowing anyone to relieve me of my command is tantamount to treason!"
As Sey'les's voice came through again, Fen was overcome with panic and fear. He pointed his blaster into the rubber joint of the armour over the back of Mesh's neck. "I am sorry you heard that," he gulped. "It was really nice working with you."
"What the kriff are you doing?! Buzz, point that somewhere—"
—Fen squeezed the trigger. The shaded rim under Mesh's helmet glowed hot orange and steamed as a blaster round eviscerated his neck at point blank range.
Cash swore aloud in a panicked, reaching for his blaster pistol.
Gritting his teeth, Fen aimed at Cash's kneecap, sending a spray of blasts into the armour until it burned through. As Cash fell to the ground screaming, he aimed his blaster at Saul, but Saul ducked out of the way into cover.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Tarkin yelled in the direction of the dying ARC Troopers in the corner of the room.
"WE HAVE GREEN ON GREEN!" Cash screamed in shock, lying on the ground with a burning leg. "BUZZ SHOT MESH! WE HAVE—"
—Fen sprayed a dozen rounds into Cash's helmet then pulled out a thermal detonator.
"GRENADE!" Miralo screamed, diving out of the way as the thermal detonator landed in the centre of the room. Tarkin and the rest of Team Cresh followed suit. Three on Team Cresh were caught in the bright flash as shrapnel flew around the room.
o.o.o.o.o
Razal Wulf
"The kriff is going on?!" Itoll snarled, aiming his blaster at the turbolift doors.
A low rumble shook the floor. It sounded like a thermal detonator.
"Holy shtak, same plan, weapons on stun!" Wulf yelled, fear in his voice as he stepped out of the turbolift. Smoke filled the air.
Under the red glow of the emergency lights, Wulf could recognise the shape of the room up ahead as that of the Shadowfeed control room. It was heavily damaged. The terminals down the hallway sparked, revealing outlines of other furnishings through the smoke.
Wulf looked to the right, and Itoll stepped out of the Turbolift looking to the left. The rest of Team Muun spilled out, blasters aimed cautiously ahead.
"All clear," Wulf grunted, stepping ahead of the group. Blaster shots were going off. Panicked yells filled the air from both Clone voices and non-Clone voices alike. What the hell is going on?
A blaster shot cut through the air behind Wulf.
"CONTACT!" Dub screamed from the hallway behind, still the turbolift. "NOT CLEAR! WE HAVE—"
—From somewhere to the left, a different direction than the Shadowfeed control room, the hot blue blast punched through his chest plate. It sounded like a DC-17 pistol.
"FRIENDLY FIRE!" Knot yelled in a panic. "FRIENDLIES! HOLD YOUR—"
—A blaster shot cut into Knot's armpit. The Clone fell with a scream as Fojo stood over him, pulling him out of the line of fire.
Grath stepped back around the corner in front of the turbolift, squeezing off stun blasts.
"WE HAVE TWO DOWN!" Fojo yelled over Knot's pained screams.
"HOLD POSITION!" Wulf ordered, aiming ahead down the hall. Retreating to the turbolift would expose them to friendly fire. Advancing into the room ahead while they were being shot at from behind was unacceptable for the Ardennian.
"Kriff it," Sey'les from the rear snarled as blue shots cut through the air behind them. "I can't get to Dub. They're shooting lethal rounds! It's—VISUAL ON TARKIN!" She withdrew her head right as two blasts that sounded again like they were coming from a DC-17 pistol flew by. The Bothan turned to face Wulf, yelping furiously. "HE SHOT DUB AND KNOT! TARKIN SHOT THEM!"
Wulf held both of his blaster pistols up ahead, pointing into the unknown, ready to return fire. "Sey'les get the kriff back!" he yelled angrily back in her direction. "Everyone, switch to lethal shots. As far as I am concerned, killing Tarkin is self-defense."
"Copy that," Itoll, Dubs, and Grath acknowledged in nervous voices, changing the settings on their blasters.
Tarkin is right over there, which means he is behind us. What the hell is in front of us?
As if the universe answered Wulf's question, Miralos pleading voice screamed from the smoke ahead. "No, please!"
"I can't see you!" Wulf yelled. "Miralo, come out with your hands up. I won't shoot. This is between us and the Admiral, not you."
A hot glow flashed through the smoke for a moment. The shadowy hulking outline of an ARC Trooper standing over Miralo Tarkin's plump kneeling figure was burned into the Ardennian's mind.
o.o.o.o.o
Fen Kar'fon (CT-0099 'Buzz')
After the thermal detonator had gone off, Team Cresh and Tarkin had scattered in every direction. When he tried following Tarkin into the hallway leading diagonally away to the corner of the floor, Fen found himself pinned down in the centre of the room by Clones.
Then a body stirred at his feet. Or Miralo pretending to be dead.
A naive observer might have thought Fen killed Miralo because the Spynet was now actively targeting the entire Tarkin family. However, Fen was making this plan up as he went along. Then he heard Wulf's voice calling from the smoke.
There is no way I can kill all of Team Muun, Tarkin, the survivors of Team Cresh, and the surviving Clones all by myself before Jazal gets here. "Sey'les! Itoll! I will spare you and the rest of Team Muun if you help me clean up this kriffing mess you created! We want the same thing right? Wilhuff Tarkin."
Two blaster shots cut through the air at once, whizzing past his head. A third blaster shot clipped Fen's shoulder armour. The not-Clone screamed in pain as he took cover behind a console. "YOU IDIOTS! ONE MORE SHOT AT ME AND YOU ARE—"
—A furry grey, purple, and tan hand holding a blaster pistol cut through the darkness, jamming a DC-17 into Fen's faceplate as he looked up. Fen dove under the desk for cover as blasts went off where his head once was.
Fen extended his dagger from his wrist armour, reaching forward to stab Wulf's feet but was stopped. The desk he was ducking under had a solid wall underneath, not allowing feet to go all the way through.
"You think you can hide under a desk?" Wulf snorted. Fen heard the desk creak under the Ardennian's feet, then a thud as he nimbly landed.
Most Ardennian-sized creatures in the Galaxy were not intimidating at all to an ARC Trooper. Fen and his entire squad however had essentially lost to Wulf single-handedly in a brawl. It was almost a year ago in the Coruscant Underworld, during the Lurmen incident—the first time Tarkin attempted to invoke the Amedda Directive. Proportionally, Ardennian arms were as strong as their legs, and they had four of them.
This time, I am willing to kill though, Fen thought. Are you? He lunged forward, jabbing his knife at Wulf's feet.
Wulf jumped up and out of the way, leaving Fen an opportunity to crawl out—
—Or so he thought. The moment the not-Clone's upper body came up from under the desk, the Ardennian leapt down from the desk above, slamming both booted feet onto Fen's helmet. Fen squeezed his blaster blindly, firing into the sky, screaming as the Ardennian stomped on him.
Next second, Fen's armour glove was stomped into the ground. Even through the metal, his fingers jammed, bending in different ways as he dropped the blaster. Another stomp, and his helmet's faceplate cracked, leaving nothing but static and an HUD "Error" message.
"WULF STOP!" Sey'les's voice yelped from somewhere unseen as Fen felt himself being dragged to his knees. "WULF!"
Fen reached up to his neck, trying to stop the Ardennian's stubby finger from getting into his helmet joint like last time. He groaned as Wulf forced his hands away, unlocking his helmet.
"You like putting bombs in people huh?" Wulf asked, ripping the not-Clone's helmet off.
Realising he still had a weapon, Fen raised his wrist knife, but was sicked in the face. A ringing noise sounded in his head as Wulf stepped down forcefully.
"Wulf, stop. You've had your fun," Sey'les urged. "Buzz will kill you."
I am going to kill Wulf? If Fen had the wherewithal, he would have laughed at the absurdity. He spat out a wad of blood as Wulf picked him up, carrying the weight of a human male and his armour.
"Wulf, no!" Sey'les snarled, changing her tone yet again. "We have to secure the room! Wulf that's an order! Itoll! STOP HIM!"
"Ha," Itoll snorted sarcastically.
In his double vision, Fen had difficulty determining what anything was, but he could tell the Ardennian was carrying him towards one of the offices surrounding the Shadowfeed control room.
"WULF!" Sey'les sobbed. "PLEASE! HE IS GOING TO KILL YOU! HE IS GOING TO SHOOT YOU IN THE HEAD! I don't know what I'll do without you."
Wulf grunted, heaving Fen over his shoulder as he staggered into a room with a radio transceiver. Sey'les's angry snarls, terrified yelps, and sad sobs grew more distant.
"So you like putting bombs in people?" the Ardennian asked again, setting Fen down. "What I don't get is why you killed that fat kriff Miralo. Why you shot those other people… Why you did any of this. Why does it have to be Jazal who kills Tarkin? Why did we have to hurt each other? Why couldn't you have killed them? Why did I have to kill a Clone to survive? Why did I have to shoot friends? Why did Dub have to die?"
Fen wheezed, coughing up blood that was running from his nose.
"You know, if I had enough time, I'd shove this in you. But I don't. This'll have to be the closest thing to what's coming for you."
Fen felt the Ardennian's fingers running in the turtleneck of his black under-armour bodysuit. A cold metal sphere was now against his neck, then the arming chime of a thermal detonator.
Peeling his eyes open, Fen saw Wulf's hazy outline disappear into the doorway and whimpered. He put a thermal detonator in my suit. To Fen's surprise, he was able to fight the pain of his jammed fingers, reaching into the front of his turtleneck to grab the detonator.
With a gasp he threw it behind the radio transceiver on in the middle of the room, and crouched into a prone position. Duck and Cover.
Somewhere Sey'les's was still caterwauling. Blasterfire began going off again, and Fen swore he could hear Tarkin's voice. But I can't focus on that. Duck and cover, he told himself. Duck and cover. Duck and—
—An explosion ripped through the room, pressing Fen hard against the wall. A giant square that felt like a computer screen slammed into the back of Fen's armour, knocking the wind out of him. He could now hear nothing but the ringing sound in his head.
Fen opened his mouth to say something, to verify that he was alive through his own ears. He could hear nothing, but he could feel bruises all over his body. And he could see.
My spare blaster… He groaned silently, reaching for the DC-17 on his ankle armour. Once it was in his hand, he flipped the safety switch off, and staggered to his feet amongst the smoke and flames.
When he emerged from the office, all he could see were bodies and beings opening their mouths silently. And Wulf.
The cocky Ardennian was walking towards the centre of the room, not bothering to look back.
Then Fen's hearing returned so suddenly he winced, covering his ears.
"TARKIN LET HER GO OR I WILL KILL YOU!" Wulf screamed, facing away from Fen.
That's what's going on. Tarkin came and got Sey'les while you were killing me. Huh. Fen squeezed the blaster, sending a shot into the back of Wulf's helmet, noting how eerie this was as Wulf fell to the floor. Sey'les said I'd shoot you. She was actually right. Imagine that.
"WULF!" Sey'les wailed at the top of her lungs. "LET GO OF ME! WULF! SHTAK. YOU COULDN'T JUST LISTEN TO ME! YOU STUPID ASSHOLE! WULF! NO!"
Fen could also hear Itoll's voice yelling from somewhere, but conspicuously, not Fojo's. He moved his blaster to Sey'les and Tarkin. Oddly, he found that he did not want Sey'les to die.
This is strange, Fen noted, squeezing the trigger and sending a blue shot into Tarkin's ribcage.
Tarkin screamed, falling to the floor. "BLAST!" he screamed in his posh Eriaduan accent as he clutched his side.
Sitting on the floor, Itoll slouched. His snout was bloodied and looked like he had been smacked in the face with a blaster pistol. Fojo was lying on the ground on top of Knot, steaming from multiple blaster wounds. Fen cocked his head curiously, staring at the Rodian's corpse.
As he wiped the blood from his nose, Fen felt he had more mixed feelings about the Rodian's passing. At the very least, I could use a medic right about now... Who shoots a medic and a wounded guy on a stretcher? But... This is a good development in some ways. It's just the Bothans left. I'll finish Tarkin off, then it's just me, Sey'les, and Itoll.
Sey'les approached, sniffling, fur flat in fear.
"You can live if you help me clean this up, then we go back to Kothlis," Fen murmured to her. "You, me, Itoll… We're the only survivors. I kill Tarkin, then we get out of here." He tried to look intimidating in his bloodied state, but Sey'les ignored him completely, running around him to Wulf's side. "Both of you just tend to my wounds. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. Deal?"
"Wulf! Shtak… I need help," she sobbed. "Wulf just stay with me."
"NO DEAL!" Itoll snarled to Fen.
Fen raised his blaster at Itoll's snout. He found he didn't feel the same sense of protectiveness he felt for Sey'les. Guess it's just me and Sey'les then.
As he started to squeeze the trigger, something beyond his understanding happened. Fen felt himself levitating into the air. His fingers were squeezed by an invisible force, yanked apart until he dropped his blaster.
Am I dead? No… I can't be… This—
"—WHAT IN THE BLAZES IS GOING ON?!" Jazal screamed, entering the room.
"Help me!" Sey'les yelped, "Wulf is still alive! He's… He's still alive!"
Still alive? "That's impossible," Fen slurred. "I shot him in the head."
"General," Tarkin wheezed, clutching his ribs. "Sey'les and Itoll are traitors to the Republic—"
"—Jazal to Liberator," Jazal spoke into her wrist-comm. "We need security here. Friendly fire incident. I sense eight wounded. One with a blaster-wound to the head. Prep the medbay for neurosurgery. Liberator Security teams 3 and 6 report to the sickbay."
"Yes ma'am," a Clone voice said.
She then switched to another channel. "All forces, withdraw to a designated LZ. We are pulling out in thirty minutes."
"But General," Tarkin stammered, "surely we can't withdraw. Such a victory in the heart of the Tion Cluster. It would be demoralising—"
"—SHUT THE HELL UP!" Jazal screamed at the top of her lungs.
Fen sighed in relief when Jazal dropped him. A Clone medic grabbed him under his armpits, and another grabbed his legs, hoisting him into a stretcher. He looked over to his right as another Clone kicked away his blaster.
Two medics had already put Wulf in a stretcher and were whisking him out of the room. Meanwhile, Sey'les had her wrists extended, sniffling pathetically as a Clone security officer handcuffed her.
A sensation of fear overcame Fen, causing him to shudder as he laid on his stretcher. Wulf is alive…
"Wulf, you stupid son of a bitch," Grath yelled hysterically. The bloodied Clone had teary eyes as he was being put into a stretcher. "Of course you survived. We told you, if this went down like MGX… If this… Kriff you better hope you die in brain surgery. I AM COMING FOR YOU."
Certain that Wulf could survive whatever Grath had to throw at him, Fen laughed out loud then winced in pain. It hurt to laugh.
"Good luck with that, Trooper!" Fen yelled as loudly as he could. A Clone security officer cuffed his right hand to one of the bars of the stretcher. Taking in the scene, the not-Clone muttered cynically to himself, "luck… I am going to need it."