I forgot to mention that my last chapter goes out to those that were affected by Hurricane Florence. I hope any of my readers that live there are doing ok after that massive storm and I hope none of you left your pets behind during that storm.
This chapter is dedicated to Ashely Eckstein the voice actress of our favorite Togruta padawan. Disclaimers are the same as before, please enjoy.
Chapter 6: Family Heirloom
May 28th, 2019 20BBY
Lothal
1200 hours
Normal point of view
Out of all the planets in the galaxy, no one expected the fighting to reach the outer rim world of Lothal. Known for being one of the few planets like Umbara and Batonn for being rich with Doonium a metal used for the construction of starship hulls, it was very strong and could also act as shielding.
Most starships in the Republic and Separatist fleets didn't use the metal, so it begged the question why a large droid force was sent to the planet to gather as much of the metal as possible. Surprisingly, three battalions of Tarkin's elite unit were on the planet and assisting the droids in mining the metal for some use. With all other fleets out on assignment, the 639th legion, renamed the Wolf's Dragoons were sent to liberate the planet and figure out what the droids were up too.
By the time the Dragoons arrived over the planet, only one separatist ship remained loading what Doonium was left in the small pockets scattered across the planet leaving the main mine untouched. Comm chatter indicated that an order to attack Lothal City making it look like another terrorist attack. Lately, terrorist attacks all over the galaxy had been occurring and each attack left numerous civilians dead, the survivors claiming that is a unit of special operations clone troopers responsible.
The military denied such accusations saying that they would never condone such heinous acts against the republic citizens and were determined to find the true culprits. Every lead they checked lead to a dead end, until to everyone's surprise Jabba the Hutt sent intel regarding the separatist attack on Lothal and learned that Tarkin's elite unit were the ones responsible for the attacks.
Wanting to prevent these attacks and ensure the safety of the people, Robert after fully recovering from his injury on Onderon, had no choice but to leave the separatist ship alone and focus all efforts on finding and disarming the bombs containing the chemical which was called 'The Green Poison' due to the green clouds that were released from the bombs.
With the goal in mind, a large formation of troop, tank and mech carrier gunships from the Retribution, Guardian, Judgement and Arc-Angel speed towards the city as quickly as possible before the bombs could be placed by the traitors.
In the lead gunship, armed with an HK416 in his hands, two Beretta 93R's strapped to his side, a USAS-12 strapped to his back and the Punisher, Robert looked out of the gunship as it flew over one of the many prairies that were all over the planet, praying that they wouldn't be too-late. From the papers he read when he returned to Earth, similar attacks were occurring all over his home. London, Moscow, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris and other cities were attacked just like this.
With this news, he vowed to put a stop to however was responsible for these atrocities and make them pay. "Alright men listen up. The moment we touch down outside the city I want Kilo to take the bomb squads and search the sewers, accounts from survivors of the other attacks said the gas came from underground. Once you find a bomb, disarm it and locate the other ones." Robert said turning to face the troops aboard the gunship.
"While the others locate the bombs, the rest of us will form a perimeter around the city and defend it. We can't let any enemy units breach our defense or else they could trigger the bombs with the old 'dead man switch maneuver.' Keep them away from the city, we need to show these people they can depend on us." He boomed.
"Lieutenant, intel says that Ryder Azadi, the governor of Lothal will be waiting for us at the main entrance to the city." Treadshot stated. "Good. Remember, we're here to protect the people. Anyone who spots a suspicious character, detain the suspect don't kill them. We don't want to be the ones who cause the terrorists to detonate the bombs before we find them." Robert joked. Truly, he was nervous. Any slip up could mean disaster.
The city soon came into view and the gunships soon landed. Men began to unload weapons and equipment from the gunships while walkers, tanks and mech's were dropped from their gunships which soon returned to the fleet to bring in more back up. Scanning through the members of the civilian population that had taken up arms to defend their home, Robert saw the governor. A man with copper skin, blue eyes and crimson hair. "Governor Azadi, Lieutenant Lehner, Wolfs Dragoons at your service." Robert said holding out his hand.
"Your timing couldn't be better Lieutenant. We just received word that the droids and these so-called 'special operations clones' have just made it to Grid Q14 a few minutes ago, they're getting closer and closer by the minute. We had all out of town residents evacuate to the city and have them in the capital building." Azadi said after shaking the Lone Wolfs hand.
"The people are scared. They don't know if the Republic is either here to help us or destroy us." Another man, this one with same skin color as Ryder but dark blue hair and blue eyes said approaching the two with a blaster rifle similar to Suu Lawquane's 6-2Aug2 hunting rifle cradled in his hands. "Ephraim Bridger, at your service." The man said. "Pleasure. Treadshot, is that Raptor ready?" Robert asked his second in command.
"Yes, sir. Fully armed and ready." Treadshot replied. "Good, if we can soften up the enemy forces before they get here that can make our job a lot easier, but the main concern are the civilians that haven't made it back yet, their going to need an escort." Robert stated before heading to the medium mech and climbing into its cockpit. "I'll go escort the stragglers heading for the city. Treadshot get the perimeter setup before they get here. Breach, you guys find those bombs and disarm them." Robert ordered before heading out into the vast prairie.
As Robert headed into the prairie, down in the sewer's members of Tarkin's unit had just finished arming the last of the bombs and were quickly exiting the sewers through a tunnel they had recently dug, heading for the pickup point when they were ambushed by Breach, Dutch, Blake, Gearshift, Charger, Longshot and the bomb squad, killing the terrorists and acquiring the deactivation codes and locations of the other bombs. "Split up into to squads and deactivate those bombs." Breach instructed his brothers before he and Charger took a squad and headed west.
Back above the sewers, Robert was five miles away from the capital when he his radar picked up a group of contacts coming towards him from Kothal, a small settlement to the south and home to numerous vendors and stands which sold numerous goods of all types, that were legal.
His fingers were poised on the trigger and was about to fire a salvo of missiles at the unknown contacts when an explosion from behind the approaching contacts told him that the enemy was attacking civilians who were trying to reach the safety of the capital.
"These bastards made a big mistake. Attacking civilians just makes me mad." Robert said to himself and targeted one of the attacking GAT droid tanks and sent a pair of missiles streaking towards the tank destroying it before targeting the enemy gunship and fired four 120mm high-explosive anti-armor shells towards the enemy LAAT, knocking it out of the air and sending it to the ground in a fireball.
A squadron of STAP's attempted to strafe the escaping civilians from twelve 'clock high and disabled a few of the speeders that were fleeing the town. As the enemy repulsorlift vehicles came around for another pass, a barrage of red pulse laser rounds downed the scout vehicles sending them crashing to the ground as well.
The civilians of the damaged speeder exited the craft and began to repair it while other speeders sped towards the capital and a few others stayed behind and covered the people attempting to repair their vehicle as enemy infantry, droid and Fist units pressed on the attack.
"You boys ain't getting away with murder today." Robert quipped and fired his pulse lasers again strafing from side to side downing more infantry and taking the pressure off the civilians and getting the enemy to focus on him.
The enemy tried to use rocket launchers to take down the Raptor, but the mechs armor kept the damage light and only just scratched the paint. The rocket launcher soldiers were dealt with but soon disruptor wielding enemy units exited a MUT transport and began to fire on the Raptor. Luckily, the mech was short circuited for a few seconds from several lucky hits that the enemy scored giving Robert the chance to take out the enemy transport that dropped the enemy reinforcements off taking the soldiers with it from the ensuring explosion.
The moment the enemy forces were dealt with, Robert rotated the mech's cockpit and activated the loudspeakers. "You folks ok?" he asked. The civilians said they were alright, but they had to leave early and leave the Pryce family behind when the enemy arrived. From what he gathered, the Pryce's owned Pryce mining which had been mining Doonium for some time and was the main source of income for the family.
The mine was a mile away, but before Robert could even move another speeder came barreling towards the others, its end smoking and being pursued by several T.I.E fighters. Quickly, Robert acquired a target lock on the enemy fighters and a salvo towards the fighters, this one larger than the first salvo he fired at the enemy.
Many of the T.I.E's tried to break off from their attack but weren't quick enough and about half of the attacking squadron was shot down while the remaining fighters turned around and retreated.
As the damaged speeder came to a stop, one of the occupants a girl of about twenty-two years old with pale skin, blues and black hair wearing a standard miner's uniform with a pistol strapped to her side approached the Raptor and looked impressively at her savior. "My thanks for the timely assistance. I can tell that you must be the Lone Wolf. I am Arihnda Pryce, the future manager of Pryce mining. My parents and I are pleased to finally meet you." Pryce said gratefully.
"No problem. But that speeder of yours doesn't look so good and I think there isn't enough room for you and your parents on one the other speeders." Robert said as he put the mech into 'power down mode' and let the ladder touch the ground. "Get in, I can give you a lift." He added.
Pryce excepted the offer and boarded the Raptor while her parents Elainye and Talmoor Pryce got on the back of one of the other speeders and began to head towards the capital with their mech escort just as a call came over the commlink that the enemy forces were getting nearer and nearer to the capital. "Hope you're up for a fight Pryce, because it looks like your world is about to become a battlefield." Robert stated, pushing his mech to full speed and got ahead of the civilians but kept close to them. He wasn't going to abandon them just to complete his objective.
Unfortunately for the Dragoons, the enemy was much closer than they thought. Almost a second after Treadshot sent the message to Robert, enemy artillery exploded just inches from the cities defense lines and kicked up a large cloud of dust, obscuring the view of the defenders, catching them off guard. The second the dust was almost clear a large volley of blaster fire and missiles streaked towards several of the ATTE's that were placed in several locations along the cities outer wall and were destroyed taking the crews and those nearby walkers with them.
"All units. OPEN FIRE!" Treadshot shouted and a barrage of blaster and mass driver fire rained down on the enemy units.
"Sounds like the battle has begun." Pryce said as she noticed the enemy artillery directly in their path. "Lieutenant Lehner to Retribution actual, requesting air strike on coordinates A1 to G14. Enemy artillery is hammering the defenders. Bring the rain." Robert requested and painted the target area.
"Coordinates received. Air Strike inbound in thirty seconds." Halberton said over the commlink. "Roger that," Robert said before turning his attention to the other civilians. "Listen up, we can't use the main entrance. All of you need to get to the west entrance and get to the capital building. That means you too miss Pryce." He stated.
"Unfortunately, Lieutenant, I will stay and help protect my home. The comm tower over there is a perfect spot for a sniper. I'm a natural sniper and I can hit anything with a KiSteer 1284." Pryce stated. "I think you can." Robert said in agreement and allowed Pryce to exit the Raptor and proceeded to the top of the comm tower with her rifle in hand while Robert exited his mech and charged forward to join the battle.
While the dragoons fought the droids, inside the city walls several members of Tarkins unit had donned the armor of the 501st which they were given by their 'supplier' and were proceeding to the capitol building with orders kill the civilians and frame Skywalker for the crime. They were almost at the building when a shot nailed one of the disguised soldiers in the head before the rest were taken down before any of them knew what hit them.
From their spot, a female figure in combat fatigues with tan skin, brown eyes and blond hair lifted her head from the scope of her sniper rifle and jumped down from her position and moved over to the clones she just killed and removed the helmet of one of the dead soldiers. "Just as I thought, these men weren't clones. Some one is trying to disgrace the republic." She said before Breach and his squad arrived after hearing the blaster shots.
"What did you?" Breach said angrily thinking that the girl had killed his brothers. "First off, my name is Maketh Tua and I just saved the lives of the people in the capitol building from being massacred." Maketh calmly stated and gestured to the 'clone' whose helmet she removed revealing it to be Duros male.
"We can worry about this later. Charger, police these bodies and inform the Admiral of the development. The rest of us need to get to the front and help with the battle." Breach said before turning to Maketh. "That means you too girl." He added and they rushed towards battle.
Back outside the city, the enemy artillery was flattened by Red Squads airstrike, but they failed to track the course of the last separatist ship that fled just before the battle had started. Taking cover behind one of the wrecked GAT's that was destroyed in the airstrike, Robert fired off several shots from his HK before firing his rifles GLM grenade launcher and blew up an incoming squad of destroyer droids before they could react in time. Slamming a new magazine into his rifle and loading a new 40x46mm grenade round into his launcher, Robert was almost a super battle droids next kill when it was taken down from afar by a precise shot to the chest. "Target down." Pryce said over the commlink and took down more droids in a span of fifteen seconds.
"I think I just found the Dragoons newest member." Robert chuckled before pulling the pin on two of his six M67 grenades and lobbed them towards a group of fist soldiers with disruptor rifles killing them before they could even fire the illegal weapons. Taking his shotgun and putting it in his left hand and his HK in his right, he charged forward downing enemy combatants with a combination of 5.56mm and 12-gauge gunfire with the skill equal to that of action movie hero.
Each time he needed to reload, he ejected the spent magazines and tossed the weapons into the air flipping them down and attaching the newer loaded ones into his guns before continuing his charge towards the entrance of the city. He gunned down a squad of battle droids before he was tackled from behind by a commando droid, knocking his weapons out of his hands. Jumping back to his feet quickly he took out his handguns and emptied both clips into several droids before he reloaded and picked up his dropped weapons.
The moment he did, the weapons fire stopped and the droids were deactivated. Each of Tarkins soldiers had dropped their weapons and place their hands on their heads indicating they surrendered. "What the fuck?" Robert said puzzled. Surprisingly, the battle was over.
Hours after the battle ended and Pryce and Tua excepted the invitation to join the Dragoons, Robert looked over the casualty list from the battle and began to think. 'It doesn't make sense. They had us outnumbered and yet they surrendered and deactivated their droid forces. What's going on?" he thought.
His thoughts were interrupted when Halberton contacted him that they had received a distress call from the Jedi Training Cruiser Crucible in the Florrum system. Not wanting to have the prisoners escape, Robert took a Nu-Class shuttle along with his pulse rifle, revolvers and a newer weapon along with his sabers to the ships last known location.
Roberts point of view
When I got back from Onderon, Aunt Cassie's pregnancy and Rex asking for her hand in marriage wasn't the only surprise I got. Barriss also learned that she was pregnant, Fenrir and Riyo, Lucia and Vaer along with my aunt were getting married and the weddings for all three couples happened at the same time. Most brides hated a double wedding, but a triple wedding was something else but for the couples they didn't care one bit.
Just like Erik and Barriss's wedding, I gave the newlyweds a good firework display only this time Ahsoka helped me out, but I ended up almost crying into her dress, but she heard from Hevy about my sensitive side and planned ahead and brought a handkerchief for me to cry into. I even joked at the reception party about our wedding to which her lekku darkened.
Due to the many weddings, the Expendables were left short handed so Barney thought it would be best to bring in Grace and Jess as extra help. Both women excepted the offer and much to anyone's surprise, Boomer came with them and became friends with many of the clone army. When they met Ahsoka, they joked and said I scored big on a good-looking girl. They didn't know I agreed with them.
Ever since Naboo, I have spent a lot of time with Ahsoka but we kept our relationship on the downlow to avoid getting her into trouble with Mace and the other council members who believed that the code was the Jedi's way of life.
Most of the time we just spent our time at the Range and watched a movie or show on the homemade theater system my uncles and I made, hell we even began work on her own version of my own armor and modified my own armor into the Hayabusa armor but kept the Jaig eyes I had on my helmet. Seeing her standing in the hologram of her armor, which I called Huntress since her species is known for being fierce hunters.
Last I heard before I left for Lothal, I heard she was accompanying a group of younglings on their gathering and wouldn't be back until the day after. But somehow the Crucible didn't make it back to Coruscant and its current position was in the current area that Grievous was last spotted in. "I just hope I'm not too late." I said to myself as I exited hyperspace and Florrum came into view.
R4 soon got a lock on the Crucible and in no time, the sight of the damaged Jedi cruiser came into view and it looked like the younglings were about to leave the ship. "Those kids have a lot of guts." I said, landing in front of the group.
The moment the boarding ramp touched the floor, I was greeted by a lightsaber blade pointed at my face. "Make any moves and you're dead." One of the younglings, a human said to me. I looked to the others and saw them to be a Wookie, Tholothian, Ithorian and a Nautolan standing in front of me while R2 and a Rodian stood on the boarding ramp of the Crucible with a damaged Huyang behind them.
"Put that thing down, you're going to hurt someone with it." I said to the boy.
"Petro, put it down, he's the Lone Wolf." The Tholothian said to her friend. Petro deactivated his saber and relaxed his guard. "Sorry about that, we were attacked by pirates recently and they took our chaperon when we detached the ship." Petro explained.
"I am aware of that, I was sent by General Kenobi to get you guys back to the temple. Where's Ahsoka?" I asked with much concern. The Wookie growled and the Nautolan, Zatt translated. "The pirates took Padawan Tano when we jumped to hyperspace. She's their hostage." Zatt explained.
"Damn. Alright, you guys stay here. I'll go get her." I said. "But." Petro began to protest, but I quickly interrupted him. "You kids have seen enough excitement for one day, pirates are no joke. I've dealt with Hondo before so I can handle him. I don't want you guys to get caught in the potential crossfire." I stated and began to walk towards the pirate base.
Normal point of view
"You know the republic won't pay a ransom for me and the separatists can't be trusted. They'll betray you and kill both of us." Ahsoka reminded Hondo. Currently she was suspended in a stasis field with her arms bound by a set of binders behind her back and her lightsabers in Hondo's possession.
"Yes, I know this, my dear." Hondo spat holding a knife to Ahsoka's throat. "The Separatists are no friends of mine, don't ask me why, but Dooku doesn't hold such a grudge as he did after the whole 'I held him hostage' affair, pah! Truthfully, I am more concerned about this Dark Star women."
He then removed the blade from Ahsoka's throat. "Besides, I have my sights set on more nefarious criminals than I, a business man who will pay handsomely for a Jedi, a female Jedi at that." He admitted. "You don't scare me, Hondo." Ahsoka admitted.
The other pirates laughed and Hondo was about to mention something else to Ahsoka when one of his men rushed into the bar. "BOSS! BOSS! WE GOT A BIG PROBLEM! HE'S HERE! THE LONE…" the pirate tried to say before he was flung into one of the tables as the doors to the bar were kicked open.
Standing in front of the pirates, was Robert.
Immediately, twelve pirates drew their blasters and were about to open fire when Robert drew his six-shooters and fired at the pirates, disarming them instead of killing. "Hondo." Robert stated as he walked towards the pirate leader.
"The Lone Wolf. Well, what a surprise. What brings you all the way out here?" Hondo asked. Robert removed his helmet. "I want my girlfriend back now." He demanded.
The pirates then laughed. "Girlfriend. Hah, that's a good one." Hondo laughed before he looked to Robert right in his eyes. "I'm not joking. You'll release Ahsoka, or else I'll blow off your 'assets' and it will be very painful." He threatened.
Hondo wasn't laughing anymore. "You're serious aren't you. Well I'm afraid I can't do that. I have a buyer set up for your friend and he already paid in advance for my 'product'. I don't like to break deals, its not good business." The pirate stated.
"I can tell you're a gambling man." Robert began and deactivated his armor and dropped his rifle and revolvers to the ground. "So how about a competition. You verse me in single combat. Vibroblades vs Lightsabers. I win, Ahsoka comes with me and you tell me why my Uncle gave you some M16A2's." Robert said.
This caught Hondo's interest. "And what happens if I win?" he asked.
"You can sell me and Ahsoka for profit. Two Jedi will make you more money than one. Especially if one Jedi is the Lone Wolf and the son of Linda Shan." Robert added. There was a long silence before Hondo finally had his answer. "Agreed, but you won't be just getting the girl if you win." Hondo said before turning to a few of his men.
"Go clear out the courtyard. We got us a fight." Hondo shouted before two of his men guided Ahsoka outside. "Just so you know, I have never lost a duel before. Well, maybe I did with Skywalker on Felucia, but that is a different story." He stated as he walked past Robert.
Within minutes, a makeshift ring was setup in the courtyard and both combatants were in their separate corners. While Hondo was preparing himself his way, Robert warmed up with a few deep breathing exercises and couple of punches. "Hondo won't fight fair, so I better be ready for what ever he throws my way." Robert said to himself before quickly dodging the spit from one of Honde's goons. "I hate liquor." He added before leaping into the ring.
"Its still not too late to back out of this." Hondo called as he unsheathed his swords. "I can even make sure you and your girlfriend are together when I sell the two of you." he added.
"Sorry, but no dice. After all is said and done, your going to be short who knows how many credits." Robert quipped before taking out his sabers, igniting their blades and took a stance, waiting for one of Hondo's men to start the fight. A blaster was fired and Hondo surged forwards.
(He's a Pirate starts)
Hondo swung with a wild double strike catching Robert off guard before attempting a sweep kick to knock the earth born off his feet. Fortunately, Robert saw this coming and back flipped out of the way and countered with a more coordinated double strike.
Their blades locked in combat, Robert caught a small smirk from Hondo before he was knocked back a few feet towards the edge of the ring. "Don't worry, I promise a fair fight." Hondo stated before an electrical current was sent through the perimeter of the ring. "And by fair, I mean totally stacked in my favor." He spat just as Robert used a double Juyo strike towards the pirate sending him flying out of the ring.
"Just because you're out of the ring, doesn't mean the fight is over." Robert proclaimed and leapt out of the ring and landing in front of Hondo just as said pirate got to his feet and quickly countered the Earth born's Form V double 'Falling Avalanche' attack with an upper block.
"I haven't had this much fun since I fought Skywalker." Hondo exclaimed and kneed Robert in the gut. This proved to be a big mistake as Robert was able to quickly recover from the blow and knocked on of Hondo's swords from his hand.
"Big whoop. I snuffed Bulq and Skor." Robert retorted deactivating his green saber and held his blue saber tight in his hand in the same reverse grip position as Ahsoka favored.
"Well, looks like Mr. big bad earth boy is manlier than I though. You would make an excellent pirate." Hondo chuckled before attempting a low kick to Roberts groin which Robert avoided and leapt onto the cliff overlooking the front of the pirate base.
"Thanks, but I prefer to stay with the military." Robert countered waiting for Hondo's next move. He didn't have to wait long for Hondo to climb up the cliff and soon charged towards Robert. Backflipping out of the way, Robert deactivated his other saber and pulled out the Saber of Revan. "BURNING SLASH!" he roared and within seconds, Hondo's remaining Vibrosword was cut in half.
Hondo wasn't about to lose and pulled out a pistol from his boot and pointed it at Robert. "Leave it to a pirate to cheat." Robert said sarcastically.
"Who says I'm cheating." Hondo said and threw the pistol away.
(Song ends)
"That was one impressive fight my boy. Truly one I will remember for ages to come." Hondo said cheerfully as Robert deactivated his ancestors' weapon. "So, you're not upset that you are about to lose god knows how many credits?" Robert said puzzled.
"My dear boy. The moment you said Linda Shan, I knew that this belongs to you." Hondo said and pulled out a lightsaber from his coat. "I found this weapon long before I set up my gang. Almost immediately after I heard about your mother's disappearance, I knew this was hers. So now its yours." He said handing Robert the saber.
Robert than activated the weapon, revealing the sky-blue blade. "My mom's lightsaber. Huh, I never thought I would find it on a planet like this." Robert said and deactivated the weapon.
A few minutes later, Ahsoka was released and Hondo explained that he picked up a transmission from somewhere that someone other than him had a large weapons collection so Hondo wanted to start collecting weapons from Earth. "What's next, flowers?" Robert joked.
"I don't do flowers." Hondo stated.
"Right. Well now its my turn to tell you something. Obi-Wans fleet was destroyed and I have no doubt that Grievous is on his way here. If I were you I would back everything up and get the hell out of dodge before the head clanker arrives." Robert warned.
"I'll start preparing to move out immediately." Hondo replied and began to instruct his boys to start packing up their gear.
"You took a big risk in putting yourself in harms way for me. That was crazy." Ahsoka said to Robert. "Well, sometimes people do crazy things when they are in love." Robert said before putting his helmet back on and soon the two lovers force sped towards their ships, neither one of them knowing that two pirates were following them.
Again, I apologize for the long wait for this chapter, I had a lot of things come up.
Lothal got involved in the clone war, Pryce and Tua joined the Dragoons, Grace, Jess and Boomer are in the war and Robert reclaimed his mom's lightsaber. For a general idea of what it looks like, the hilt of the saber is basically the Retaliator hilt from Jedi Knight Jedi Academy.
I figured I would take a que from AVP 5's story 'Outlaws' and have it so that Robert saved Ahsoka instead of Katooni and her friends, don't worry the younglings will have their shining moment.
Again, this chapter is dedicated to the voice actress of Ahsoka Tano, will it is past her birthday I wanted to do it for her.
Anyways, please read and review and I will see you all next time. Don't forget my poll is still up.