I am going to choose to have the RVC's bomber squadrons use the BTL-A4 Y-Wing from now on. I like it as a strike bomber, and it'll see good use with the RVC. If you are unfamiliar with what it looks like google "BTL-A4 Y-Wing hull plating" and you should find the same Y-Wing the Rebels use but with its hull plating. It's a different variant of the same family of starfighters that the GAR used, and it ended up having the longer lifespan in the context of this fanfic.
Chapter 9
Location: Jedi Cruiser, Resolute
The Jedi Council had declared an emergency strategic meeting within the briefing room that had come to find use as the place where the senior Jedi Generals decided matters of strategy. Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi were currently finishing their mission for the Council in delivering Jabba's son to him, right in the nick of time. Also standing there next to her new master was Ahsoka Tano, brand new and witnessing her first strategy briefing as per Anakin's suggestion.
"You asked for us Master Windu?" Obi Wan asked as the transmission came through, go-figure they were last.
"Yes Master Kenobi," Windu started and nodded to Anakin and Ahsoka, acknowledging their efforts in garnering Jabba's favor was warranted, "Well done Master Skywalker and you as well Padawan Tano."
"Thank you master," both of the younger individuals responded with a slight bow.
"Now, on to the urgent matter at hand," Windu started and the holomap table of the Resolute lit up and they saw the Yag'Dhul sector of the galaxy show up in front of them, "We have just received confirmation of a powerful hammerblow against the enemy. But it was not launched by us, it was launched by the Republic Volunteer Corps against what we believe to be the strategic reserve of the Separatists' 15th Task Group at Yag'Dhul. Holonet reports and our own intelligence have confirmed that three hundred enemy ships have been destroyed there and as a consequence we destroyed another two hundred and fifty more. But as that happened, the RVC attacked Mechis, and then bombarded the factories from orbit."
"An orbital bombardment?" Kenobi asked in complete surprise.
"Yes, effective it was, but caused great ripples among the local peoples of that sector it has," Master Yoda stated firmly, "Frightened they are of the Republic's wrath."
"This is not how the Republic wants to deal with the Separatists," Windu continued, "While we understand that the RVC did what it did for the sake of their own troops the people of galaxy are nonetheless frightened. Especially after footage of their engagement on Harrin was broadcasted over the Holonet."
"I saw," Anakin nodded.
"They wiped out an entire army," Ahsoka remembered, her young mind still in a state of wonderment as such things, not having been involved in a battle like that one, "It was amazing."
"Ahem," Anakin coughed at her.
"For now the Republic Volunteer Corps will continue its advance, so long as they refrain from another orbital bombardment, if they even start to do one with their dreadnought the results against a population center could be tragic," Windu stated, extremely firm in that assertion.
"A dreadnought? I thought that the dreadnoughts weren't allowed outside of the Core?" Ahsoka asked.
"Theirs is the only one to see action thus far," Kenobi nodded, "And so far its effectiveness has certainly put a fire under the feet of the Navy to deploy the others."
"I doubt that the politicians will allow such a thing," Ki Adi Mundi said sourly.
"Many political leaders have thrown their weight behind bringing the RVC into the full Republic Military," Kit Fisto said quickly.
"I doubt that we have enough Jedi to allow ourselves to be stretched amongst both the RVC and the Clone Army," Anakin sighed.
"But it seems that the RVC is doing just fine on its own, whereas we're struggling," Kenobi responded, "Perhaps it would be best we stayed with the Clones, the RVC's officers are trained for war, we're trained for peace. They might not even like having Jedi generals."
"Have a leader they do, Admiral Drexel, led them well he has. Continue to lead them he will wish," Yoda decided, "If wish to have a Jedi they do, try we must, but not necessary it is."
The other Jedi agreed, it was a calculated gamble. The Jedi themselves were not on par with the experienced officers of the RVC's established career personnel. But the Clones were much superior to the RVC's troops, so they gave the Jedi some wiggle room to learn the ways of war and the Clones were far more numerous than the RVC thus far, but they had no idea if that could change soon.
Location: CIS Naval Headquarters, Planet Raxus Secundus
A Separatist strategic meeting on the planet Raxus Secundus was going on and had taken a worrying turn. The assembled officers, a variety of different species and ranks were looking through the different situations that their meeting were going over, but the offensive in the Bestine system had effectively ground to a complete halt. The circumstances of this and consequences were entirely unforeseen and the casualty figures had exceeded their estimates. Mechis had been lost, and Yag'Dhul now under the Republic's control. But worse still were the material losses Separatist forces had incurred.
"We've lost the entirety of the 15th Task Group, nearly six hundred ships, our entire fleet in that sector," the commander of that area of space, Admiral Siik, stated firmly, "My forces are severely depleted, and Republic forces are continuing their offensive down the Corellian Trade Spire."
"Holonet transmissions across Republic space are broadcasting Republic victories from this, Republic Volunteer Corps, it is giving them a massive moral boost we can't afford to give them," another officer stated, and then General Grievous himself through a holo-transmission from his place overseeing the construction of the Malevolence.
"Your concern matters little," the cyborg firmly stated, "We will soon have a ship that will wipe the Jedi Fleet from the galaxy."
"We know that your new flagship is almost complete General, but for those of us who don't have such weapons at our disposal what do you suggest we do?" Admiral Siik responded testily.
"Prepare a counter-attack, Yag'Dhul must be retaken," Grievous ordered them.
"I have no ships to spare General, a third of my forces were cut off and destroyed, half of what forces I have left are being held in place at Eriadu protecting Sullust and the other half are scattered trying to protect the rest of our territory and are taking losses. RVC starfighters are launching massive attacks throughout the sector, they're damaging and destroying isolated ships and squadrons, forcing us to deploy our reserves to keep force strengths up enough to keep them from attacking en masse."
"You have allowed the Republic to take operational control of your sector. I will send additional forces to ensure your success," Grievous replied, "A Task Group from our new shipyards in deep space should suffice."
"How long will it take for those forces to reach me General?"
"Within the week, soon you will have another six hundred ships to destroy these Republic upstarts. Their run of good fortune will soon be at an end."
Location: Orbit of the Planet Vogel
Things had been quiet for the isolated CIS naval squadron of eighteen ships. The twelve Munificent Class Star Frigates and six Resucant Class Light Destroyers were a token force, but it had been calculated that the force was all that was needed for the moment. That previous belief and the lack of priority on its reinforcement would soon cost it dearly. The ships sat in orbit, on their normal stationary routine until a mix of ten squadrons of T-42 F-Wings and five squadrons of BTL-A4 Y-Wings dropped out of hyperspace. In total a hundred and eighty starfighters were attacking the fleet, among them was Flight Lieutenant Teela Abya in the cockpit of her reliable F-Wing with four Vulture Droid emblems painted onto her starfighter below her cockpit.
"All fighters let's clean house, Y-Wings ion cannons to full charge, accelerate to attack speed!"
Teela heard everyone acknowledge the order and pushed the fighter to its combat speed, flying at the large enemy ships as she saw the first enemy starfighters start to deploy. But she saw that they were too late, the starfighters had dropped almost on top of the droid ships. She saw the swarm of RVC starfighters launch themselves into the fray, tangling with deploying flights of Vulture droids and opened fire.
"Silver Eight deploying Vultures ahead!" her wingman called out as she banked hard around the nose of a frigate that they had just strafed.
"On me Silver Nine!" she said as she flew towards the ending stream of droid starfighters which ended right as they dove in behind them, "Take 'em!"
She locked on with concussion missiles, and loosed a rippling fire of six missiles that streaked into the rear of their targets and exploded. Teela laid into her trigger and blue bolts smashed into two more Vulture Droids while another four missiles smashed from her wingman smashed another four fighters. Both laid into the horde of fighters and the Vultures fell one after the other as other F-Wings joined the fray. She chased a trio of droid fighters and shot one to pieces when they tried getting in behind some Y-Wings that obliterated the hangar bay of a Recusant-Class Light Destroyer and set off secondary explosions that cut the ship in half.
"The bomber boys are doing work!" she smiled as she continued the chase and fired again at close range and destroyed the last two Vulture Droids as they tried to evade her.
She saw four Y-Wings hit a frigate with a volley of ion cannon blasts that sent green and red energy fields spreading and shorting out the ship, disabling it in every way. The craft spun lazily on its axis as fighters avoided hitting it and she knew it was now a viable target.
"Silver Nine, that frigate's disabled, I wouldn't mind a frigate on my scorecard how about you?"
"I'll cover you!" the man said and fell in behind her to cover her attack run.
Flooring the accelerator she readied her single proton torpedo tube and prepared to fire right into the bridge. She once more fired her lasers into the ship, aiming at the blinking green bridge glass, and shattered it immediately and fired blew out of it.
"Torpedoes away!" she sang out and loosed two powerful proton torpedoes.
They struck home, penetrating through the weak walls leading into the guts of the ship. There, they exploded and the whole of the front end of the ship started to detonate as she fired into the tensor field generators with her lasers all along the spine, blowing apart the ship along the entire length of the ship. As she passed it the ship blew apart slowly, splintering in a wave of fire and debris. Satisfied a great deal with her biggest kill yet she saw that the other capital ships were being heavily bombed after they were all disabled and their droid fighters inside were consequently also disabled.
"Nice kill Silver Eight," her squadron leader noted, "But leave the ships to the bombers stay on the fighters."
"Roger Silver Leader."
The two F-Wings swung around to avoid an exploding frigate and in behind another pair of F-Wings from their own squadron and then ran headlong into a group of Vulture Droids that fired on them the moment they came into headlong contact. The group opened fire and three of the Vultures exploded immediately and Teela saw the leading two Silver Squadron fighters explode as well.
"Silver Four and Five are gone!" she immediately yelled in fury and turned around hard and tracked the remaining nine fighters and locked on, "Die fekkers!"
She loosed her remaining six concussion missiles. The excellent projectiles struck home, blowing apart individual fighters and leaving the last three to her alone. Without thought she fired into them from long range and blew one apart almost immediately and the remaining pair split up and her wingman took the other one and pursued it. She trailed the second Vulture Droid and opened fire, missing at first and the Vulture Droid dove to lose her through a debris field from a collision of two light destroyers. The fighter spun around the debris and she chased through the field and fired again. The droid then took a sharp turn as it fled further into the remnants of the fleet that was now nothing but destroyed hulks. Teela let loose one final shot that struck the droid and sent it cartwheeling into the side of a frigate's shattered wing.
"All fighters! Prepare to make the jump! Hostile reinforcements have entered the system," the attack force commander called out.
"Silver Squadron, break and jump!"
"Silver Eight acknowledged," Teela said, and her wingman joined her as they pulled away from the exploding field of debris as she looked to see a larger force of thirty Separatist ships coming around the horizon of the large blue gas giant.
"Helluva job Silver Eight!" Silver Nine whooped as the large strike force joined into formation and began jumping away.
"Those buckets all deserve scrapping!" she snapped, fuming at the loss of two friends.
"Well you did the best out of any of us kid, nineteen kills, not too shabby," the squadron commander said as the F-Wings jumped away, "Makes your total twenty-three right?"
"And a frigate," she added as well, decompressing from the mission, "How many did we lose?"
"Hood and Winx were it, coulda been worse gang. The Y-Wings disabled most of their fighters before they could launch."
She sighed in relief, their squadron had already lost two of their number, meaning their squadron of twelve was down to eight. A third of their strength was gone, theirs was among the worst hit in the Dauntless air group. Rumors and scuttlebutt of entire squadrons wiped out from other ships in Task Force Six abounded of course, as they always did. However they knew very well what their role was and how dangerous their duty was. They didn't complain, but mourning was indeed something that they would do in private. Their kill counts and pilot bravado lessened the impact, and that was something they would have to rely on as the war dragged on.
"An hour before we arrive home, naps are permitted kids."
"I might take you up on that," Teela chuckled in good humor.
She saw a private comm channel get sent to her from Silver Nine, Flight Lieutenant Dev Zsen. She accepted the channel and listened for her fellow Corellian.
"You alright? I uh-I know Winx and you were close," the man started.
"Doesn't matter now, she's gone. Not the place to dwell."
"We can at least talk about it y'know."
"Not right now," she said with more hostility than she'd originally wanted to say it with.
"Teela come on," Dev continued, "I'm trying to help you out here."
"You're one word away from a fat lip Dev," their squadron commander butted in, having listened in with his squadron commander's override, "Everyone needs a bit of time to process. I know you're trying to help, but shut it."
And he did, and Teela decided to just shut her eyes and let her astromech pilot the ship en route back to the Dauntless and the fleet. When she was a few minutes out the droid would alert her and they would land, recuperate and head out for their next assignment as it came down to them. The problem was that, while tired, she didn't dream, it was just an unsatisfying blink of an eye and her droid was beeping in her helmet loudly waking her.
"That was it?" she groaned to her astromech droid and got a beep in return, "Yeah I know my back hurts, shouldn't have napped in the cockpit."
She waited as the fleet of starfighters dropped from hyperspace in front of the large fleet of RVC warships now over Wroona, protecting its shipyards along with a sizeable fleet of Clone and Jedi warships of the 19th Sector Army. All of these fighters were split into their flight groups and sent back towards their ships of origin which opened their hangars and Teela gently landed in the busy hangar bay.
"Welcome home," she said as she opened the cockpit as stairs were wheeled over by the knuckle draggers in their red uniforms and black.
"How'd you make out Lieutenant?" the crewman who'd wheeled the stairs over asked as she got out of the cockpit.
"Nineteen Vultures and a frigate," she said proudly, putting on her usual pilot's bravado and swagger, "Get 'em painted on for me will you?"
"You got it ace!" the crewman said proudly, almost living through her in the usual manner of flight deck personnel, who saw pilots as symbols of their own successful accomplishment of their jobs.
"Quadruple ace actually, this takes her to twenty-three kills," their deck chief corrected the young man.
"Thanks for the language lesson Chief," Commander App, CAG for the Dauntless and the number one ranked pilot aboard ship interrupted.
"Commander sir," Teela snapped to attention.
"Nice job Lieutenant, making us proud out there," he smiled and patted her on the shoulder as she took off her helmet and noticed the camera droid behind him, watching the conversation carefully, "A few more of those and you'll be competing with Jedi."
"As long as I beat clones and splash droids I'm happy sir," she smiled, winking at the camera and flashing a cocky smile, one she knew would go over well with the folks back home, and maybe anger a few Clone pilots.
"Very well," Commander App nodded and saluted once as he dismissed her and she flashed a two and a three to the camera droid which ate it all up as she joined her fellow squadron mates for debriefing.
"Loving the attention kid?" Captain Synk asked as he looked over his shoulder at his new celebrity squadron member.
"Not as much as it looks skipper."
"Well don't make too big a deal out of it, some of the Jedi aces are into triple digits."
"And I do believe we're all aces now, so there's that," Dev added as they walked into their squadron barracks and then as they noticed the newly unoccupied bunks of two of their members they paused upon entering.
What followed was a very solemn ceremony. In the back of the barracks was a patch of wall with a red Republic flag hanging off of the top and connecting to the ceiling. Captain Synk pulled out a pair of pictures of their lost comrades from their personnel files in his cabinet and a pair of magnetic pins that he went and put on the wall, Hood and Winx's pictures were placed right next to the two they had already lost. The pilots in their flight gear stood silent in respect as they looked at their fallen comrades' faces, memorialized on the wall of their quarters and set about opening up their gear for storage and sorting through issued and personal possessions.
"I'll take care of Winx," Teela stated as she stood in front of the empty bunk and kneeled down and opened the first drawer and placed everything inside on the bed as two bags were placed there by Captain Synk.
Officially pilots weren't supposed to take care of this part of the process, the justification being that the act was hard on morale. But the officers that had tried before had found that an outsider shuffling through their dead friends' possessions was even worse. So the pilots took it upon themselves. Teela quickly and silently put uniforms (with the exception of Winx's dress uniform) and issued equipment in the first bag, and anything with her name on it or her own personal possessions in the second bag. A datapad she placed in a smaller third bag for screening by intelligence officers for sensitive information. She hated doing this, and when she finished two of her comrades took the bags and placed them by the door for collection and delivery to Hood and Winx's family.
Teela, in a haze, sat down on her bunk and averted her eyes from the bags and the four empty bunks in their squadron room. A few of the others sat at one of the two small tables in the room and broke out a set of shot glasses and a bottle of Corellian Whiskey was produced and shots poured. A hand with a shot glass poured for her was offered and she took it.
"Thanks Dev," she said quietly and held the glass tightly, staring at the liquid.
"No problem," he replied and saw next to her, a glass of his own in hand as the two waited for the toast.
"To Hood and Winx," one of the others finally stated, holding up their glass.
"To Hood and Winx!" everyone responded and raised their own glasses.
Teela downed the whiskey, sighing as the burning smoky flavor flowed down her throat. She liked Corellian Whiskey, but the Bottle of Death was not a drink she wanted to be provided from.
"You alright?" Dev asked now that they were in their quarters.
"I'm gonna miss them, like the others," she responded as she looked up at the memorial wall.
"Me too, I always thought I had a chance with Winx y'know," he smirked, trying to shine a positive light with some good memories.
"You and Winx? I don't think I could have seen it," Teela shrugged with a reluctant smile.
"Don't think so? Doubt my abilities?"
"Very much so," she smirked.
"Fine, it's a bet."
"Oh, great, I'm your bounce back girl huh?"
"Hard to be a bounce-back if there was a never a first to bounce off of. Like you said, it didn't happen, and not for the reason I'd prefer."
She looked to the bunk of the girl in question, "Yeah me too."
Location: Detention Cell in CIS Command Center, Planet Harrin
"Wake up kids."
A splash of ice cold water in her face woke up Eva Quartin as she gasped at the cold water hitting her hard in the face. She'd passed out earlier, the last thing she remembered being an artillery bombardment on their own positions after being left behind by their unit in the midst of an enemy counterattack. She looked around and shivered at the cold and began struggling immediately but found her hands bound by restrainers behind her back and seated in a cold metal chair.
Another splash behind her and a yell from Wyatt and she could draw a breath now that she knew he was at least alive. As she sat there trying to blink out the haziness in her vision and the bright light shining in her face she tried to figure out what their current predicament was. That didn't take very long to figure out as her captors confirmed it for her.
"Welcome to Separatist Headquarters," a man with a deep voice smirked as she saw the black uniforms and armor of Sabaoth soldiers and a single Sabaoth officer in dark blue and light blue standing in front of her, holding an empty bucket.
"Not gonna tell you anything Seppie!" she said savagely, spitting as best she could at him, but her mouth was dry and didn't get much out of the effort.
A vicious right hook smashed across her face for her defiance and then another into her unprotected abdomen from a second soldier. She looked down and saw that her armor was gone and only her black undersuit remained. She gasped from the air being forced from her lungs and then had to even gasp worse as another gutshot was landed. A fourth punch across her face got Wyatt on his game and he too showed his defiance by speaking out.
"Hey fekkers leave her alone!" he yelled at them over his shoulder but was then beaten himself as his nose was broken in the first punch and a series of three gut shots and a few more shots to the face let him know how little the Sabaoths cared for what he had to say.
"Now, do I have your attention?" the Sabaoth officer asked as he looked down at them sitting back-to-back before him, two young Republic troopers, now his prisoners.
"Fek you!" Eva snapped again in a half-gasp but the officer slapped her with a back-handed blow that cut into her cheek thanks to his large silver ring, but she regained her senses and looked straight ahead and smirked, "Quartin, Eva, PFC, RT-4355."
"Lullian, Wyatt, PFC, RT-4354," Wyatt also followed up, remembering their training as to what to do and say when captured.
"Oh look at you, your drill sergeants must be so proud," the man laughed, along with the other mercenaries, "Won't matter anyway, you're just grunts, you don't matter enough for me to waste truth-serums on you. I'll just stick you both in front of a Holonet broadcast and shoot you."
"Quartin, Eva, RT-4355," Eva said again, not wanting to give him any satisfaction in seeing her afraid.
"Lullian, Wyatt, RT-4354."
"Shut them up."
Then beatings really began…
Location: Near Separatist Command Center, Planet Harrin
"Dagger-6 to all stations, mission is go, all Daggers proceed to phase line Alpha," Colonel Myec said into his helmet and saw the numerous troop symbols of both Caridan Commandos and regular infantry and armored units.
"Let's move," he said to the group of commandos around him, spread in the eight feet of grasses.
All of the experienced commandos moved forward in their skirmish line. The entirety of the team was assembled and moving now, their large armored suits with built-in jetpacks ready for use. A280 Blasters were trained forward with Viper Grenade Launchers and silencers ready to knock out any hostiles that they came across. Each of them knew their mission, and it was an important one.
Two troopers from the 3rd Legion had been captured, and the Sabaoths had gone onto the Holonet, threatening to kill them if the RVC did not halt its advance. The rest knew of such a public relations nightmare this would be should the two troopers be executed in so public a manner. But rescues were the Caridans' forte, and the Sabaoth Squadron was a favorite opponent. Caridan Commandos had met the Sabaoths on several undocumented occasions in the Outer Rim and both had shed one another's blood time and time again. But the Caridans always ended up having the best of the engagement. The Caridans now had the chance to officially put the Sabaoths in their place, six feet under.
The group moved forward and into the open where the Separatist Command Center was located behind the usual wall and guards in a central building. They knew what they had to do, attack and rescue the two troopers and kill every Sabaoth they saw, no questions asked. This was the Caridan way.
"Dagger-6 to Ranch, all Daggers in position," Colonel Myec noted as he walked to the final phase line, "At phase line Alpha, preparing to make assault."
"Ranch to Dagger-6, all units are in position, preparing to launch offensive."
Myec shrugged really quick to relax his muscles as he peered through the grass in front of him and moved forward. All of the commandos slowly moved step-by-step, their rifles forward to keep a sharp lookout only a foot or two in front of them the grass was so thick. They didn't take any time at all moving into their next positions, one platoon near the road to block reinforcements and cover any friendlies escaping by ground, another one for breaching the compound and another one to cover them. Myec would lead the breaching team, and his second-in-command would command the cover team with overwatch team being the third-in-command. The plan was very simple, strike hard and rescue the two troopers and get out.
"Dagger-1, overwatch in position," he heard his first platoon commander state firmly.
"Dagger-2 and Dagger-3 are in position now, prepare to assault. Three, two, one, execute."
All seventy plus members of the two platoons activated their jetpacks in powerful pulses that sent them flying into the air and angled right at the low wall of the Separatist HQ. The guards hadn't been expecting it and the whole south wall's droid guards were obliterated as Myec and his commandos leveled their weapons at them and opened fire. Myec himself landed a late shot on a B1 on the wall and flew right over it and made for the door to the front entrance of the circular headquarters building, some of which was actually underground, that was where the Sabaoths had their prisoners and their barracks.
"Blow it!" he ordered as he hit the ground and saw two of his men level their under-barrel rocket grenade launchers at it.
The two men fired and the first shot hit and blow open a massive hole in the door and the wall, the next one after it went inside and detonated there. Almost immediately upon the second projectile's detonation the commandos of 1st Platoon rushed the entrance, with Myec at the lead. He moved in immediately to see a darkened wreck of a room with orange fires lighting it a bit. The first enemy combatant he came across was a Sabaoth officer in an all-black uniform crawling on the ground towards a dead Sabaoth trooper's blaster. Without much thought he aimed and fired three shots that blasted burning holes in the man's back and then the Colonel continued. Other dead Sabaoths were shot for insurance and wounded one's shot for the sake of their blood feud with the Caridans.
"Hostiles!" a man yelled and the Caridans turned their blasters towards an opening double door entrance that a bunch of Sabaoths were rushing towards.
"Take 'em!"
The black armored enemy troops had no idea that they were under direct attack from RVC personnel, their immediate thought had been an artillery or air strike. But when the sixteen Sabaoths came up the stairs to aid the wounded command staff they were met with a hail of accurate blue bolts that pelted each of them in turn as they tried to fight back. But the fast-walking Caridans in their bulky camouflaged armor just mowed them down.
As was usual for him, Colonel Myec led the way, walking into the angled hallway and jerked his blaster rifle to the right and saw a Sabaoth trooper with a blaster pistol in the corner aiming at him and fired two shots that passed through the enemy soldier leaving burn marks on the wall. He returned his blaster's sights down the hallway and pulled the trigger on his grenade launcher and lobbed a powerful fragmentation round into an open door he knew to be a barracks. An explosion blew its excess force into the hall in a sharp blast of fire and deadly shrapnel and smoke started to gather in the hall.
Two Sabaoths tried to enter the hall from another room across from the one Myec had just devastated and he saw them both get popped immediately by Commandos forcing their way down the hall in force with rifles tucked to their shoulders and firing as they saw an enemy. Two teams split immediately and flanked the doors into the two barracks that were a cacophony of yelling and a man tossed a detonator into the second room and it exploded in a big way. Then, from the protected tubes on their backs five Marksman-M mini probe droids were deployed and the swarms entered the rooms and their tiny blasters began firing away into the Sabaoths inside.
Another Sabaoth rushed around the corner in the area where the detention cells were and Myec saw him lift his blaster to his shoulder and pour fire down at the Caridans. Quickly and swiftly the enemy was silenced as another team of twelve began rushing the cells, knowing that other enemy troopers were probably down there, and so were their primary objectives. Colonel Myec knew he had to check and verify that the two prisoners were indeed what and who they said they were, so he ran alongside his rescue team to the detention cells with the questions and answers pulled up on his HUD. He followed closely, and knew that it was fully possible the two troopers were already dead. When the door was opened he saw the two blue dots of their objective light up inside the room on his HUD and he sighed in relief, they were alive.
"Medic to the detention cell, we have wounded," the squad leader called out as Myec entered and he saw the damage.
The blonde girl, the one he knew to be PFC Quartin, had been beaten quite savagely, her left eye was swollen shut, blood came from her nose, lips, and a large gash on her cheek. Bruises were forming over most of her face and her ears had dried, older blood going down her neck. Her black body glove was also cut open from the neck down to between her breasts. The Sabaoths clearly hadn't held back with her, and her friend Lullian hadn't been treated differently. He had a long gash in his arm, likely caused by a knife, and his face had blood coming from his broken nose, a few smaller cuts on his cheek and a missing tooth which was on the ground in front of him.
Both were unconscious, incredibly badly beaten as they were it was no surprise. They'd been through a kind of hell to the commandos, but it wasn't the kind of torture that they'd been expecting when compared to the treatment of other hostages by pirates and criminal gangs. Those were simply horrendous to witness, and nothing could ever prepare one for even seeing such results. But lucky for them, these two Tanaab troopers could be woken up, and Myec could ask his questions. The first was the girl, who woke with a slow start and couldn't even open her swollen eye.
"Easy there kid," he said while her restraints were removed and a blanket wrapped around her as she was laid down, "I'm Colonel Myec, Caridan Commandos, we're here to rescue you. Just need to ask you a few questions. What is your father's business?"
"A-a slaughterhouse," she whispered, voice horribly croaking.
"What is the name of your sister?"
"Eliz," she responded again and Myec nodded to the others to get her out.
He then turned to Wyatt, and kneeled down next to him as he was fighting hard to stay conscious, even with the medic's efforts.
"Private Lullian, what is the name of the ranch you worked at?" Myec asked him quickly, knowing he could go under again.
"Lakesfield…" the young man responded.
"What did the GAR task you with when you volunteered there?"
"Cook…nuts to that," he smiled back and chuckled dryly which made Myec nod in appreciation and pat him on the shoulder.
"Okay, get 'em outta here! Medivac is inbound!"
The rescue squad carried the two out on folding hovering stretchers and quickly made their way out and to the blown open entrance. There a battle was now raging with incredible viciousness. Dozens and dozens of the commandos' mini probe droids were zipping around on the walls firing down at a column of battle droids advancing upon them with armored support. Sounds of a larger battle going on in the distance let the team know that they were soon to have reinforcements. But right now the droids were bearing down upon them with at least two battalions with armored support. However the commandos had a surprise in store for just such an occasion.
"Whiplash, Whiplash, this Dagger-6, hostiles are laid out on a silver platter, you are weapons free, I repeat weapons free," Myec ordered after pulling his overwatch team out of the line of fire along with his cover team.
"Dagger-6, this is Whiplash, coming in hot," his comm called out and the sound of suppressed engines and the dark black shapes of three modified Kappa-Class Shuttles rose above the trees.
From three hundred meters away the three large shuttles opened up their weapons compartments on their stealth-coated hulls. On the forward corners of their boxy hulls two triple-barreled rotary laser cannons swung into position, their twin heavy laser cannons deployed from under the chin, the topside laser turret rose to fire-mode, and rocket pods swung out from protective housings in front of the wings. All of these weapons fired at the same instant, aimed at the droids advancing on the commandos now defending their former HQ. The stealth shuttles' combined firepower tore into the droid ranks and the AAT's advancing with them were targeted with rockets that blow open the droid-operated vehicles from afar without the droids even being capable of stopping the massacre. Immediately after the last droid had fallen the commandos fell back to their shuttles with their two rescued objectives in tow and boarded the shuttles.
Lifting off they could see the droid forces being pinned in from the south as RVC forces attacked towards the capital, aiming right at the city with a force that numbered nearly forty-five thousand troops and hundreds of armored vehicles. It was an awesome sight, one that Myec had hoped to one day see, and now that was one check on his bucket list, just the same as this mission was a check in the box that said "Mission Accomplished."
I loved writing this particular chapter I'll tell you that. Did it all in about two and a half hours. Very proud of myself. So I hope you all enjoyed it, and I'll see you next time.
Next Chapter Preview: Training the next batch of recruits and growing in fame.