Location: City of Munto, Planet Commenor
Wyatt and the rest of Echo company had managed to draw the short straw on this day. Their mission was to take a shopping center on the left bank of the valley city of Munto, which was in the depths of winter, and this place was a ski resort town. Ideally suited in its placement the city was covered in snow, and they were heavily distressed to see that the city's streets were compact and difficult to navigate for their armored vehicles.
It was an old city, with the rustic exterior look still holding modern appliances, fittings, and whatnot. But the structures were still solid gray stone facades with brick walls on the terraces and balconies of the resort shopping center, with natural pine wood posts and railings and a solid mix of stone and wood in the bridges over the frozen creeks that flowed amongst the buildings. The snow was well-tended whenever the civilian grounds crew were around, but with war being brought to their front step the troopers found themselves crunching over an inch or two of snow and patches of ice. There were no lights on, power having been cut to the city by the Separatists.
"First platoon! On me, let's go fellas," Lieutenant Yuno called out, gathering the platoon to him.
"Oh man," Hal, one of Wyatt's two new replacements in his fireteam, whispered as a speeder truck carrying dozens of civilians came past them along with numerous civilian speeders with civilians and their possessions packed in.
Others were walking by in the falling snow, many of them children, cuddled up in their heavy coats. This, seeing civilians having war affect them in such a way, was troubling. This was especially true of the youngest children just blankly staring at the massive white armored soldiers that towered over their tiny frames and large loud tanks rolling by them, shaking the road under their very feet. What shook the soldiers the most was seeing one small girl being carried by her father with a bloody bandage around her head and tears going down her cheeks, a casualty of war. One couldn't help but pray that this wouldn't happen to their own homes.
"Hey, pay attention rookie," Wyatt said, grabbing Hal and pushing Kyly towards the platoon's gathering point under a balcony, "They'll be okay, they're borrowing our tents for shelter until we take the city."
"Right…"
The troopers were all in their standard uniformed armor, white with their red markings. They didn't have much else to carry into battle except their necessary combat gear. Wyatt had his fireteam set up by the book. He himself carried the CLS (Combat Lifesaver) kit and Eva had the DLT-18 and a couple extra powerpacks. The main extras were carried by Kyly Gori, their other new replacement. Hal had the team's rocket launcher on his back with a special rocket carrying pack with five extra rockets inside, giving them six in total, counting the one loaded into the launcher itself. They had additional water canteens strapped to their backpacks' outer webbing pocket along with a shovel clipped into its holder. Their utility belts were also fully stocked, and a bit heavier than Clone ones, with a small med kit on their right hip, a canteen on their left, and a folded up poncho in a larger pack on their backs on their loaded up belts. Many had taken to attaching their knives to their right forearms or shoulder plates with their SSK-7 Blaster Pistols in their preferred hanging magnetic armor pad that hung from their belts on both sides to the upper portion of their thighs.
To say the least the Republican Guard appeared to fall into the guise of heavy infantry, with more equipment and firepower than Clone Trooper units of similar sizes. And this coming fight was exactly what they were meant for, and many of the rookies were intent on proving this.
"The battalion's swinging down to cut through to the space port, Echo Company is leading the way. Between here and the battalion's objective is a Separatist strongpoint in a large shopping mall with a large droid garrison," their company commander, Captain Lurean, said to his troopers, helmet off, "Echo Company will destroy that garrison. Any questions? Good, 1st Platoon leads out, we will approach along with armored support down the secondary streets. There's not much armor out there anymore, but watch for anti-tank teams and hiding gun positions."
It seemed simple enough for them, simple was good, it meant there was less to deal with. And the word of no enemy tanks to deal with a nice surprise. Droids never went anywhere without vehicle support, and those vehicles, unlike their biologically crewed opponents, didn't fear death. But this was normal to them by now, having been engaged in several pitched field engagements against the droids. However, for the Tanaab boys, this was a new place for them to fight. The 3rd Guards Legion had never been engaged in true urban combat before.
"Alright first platoon move it out!" Lieutenant Yuno called out as they moved up towards the front of a line of fifteen T1-APC's and four T4-A tanks, "First squad, up front! Second and third behind them!"
The three other platoons including Weapons fell as well with 2nd Platoon on the left hand side of the road paralleling 1st Platoon with 3rd behind 1st and Weapons behind 2nd. The first two leading vehicles, T4-A's, were followed by four of the APC's and then with two more tanks in the middle with the rest of the T1's in the rear of the formation along with a pair of medivac vehicles in the far rear. The column began moving shortly after they all got into position.
Wyatt found himself with Hal behind him, Eva behind him, and Kyly behind her. This fireteam was the second in line of their squad, with their squad leader up front and Lieutenant Yuno next to them. The tracked tanks rolled forward, their turrets aiming forward as they advanced off center, so that both turrets were able to be brought to bear to the front. Wyatt was up front, their responsibility being to clear the houses and keep an eye out for enemy anti-tank teams and scout for enemy vehicles.
They had a position on a curving road that went down to the next terrace with a line of buildings with some having alleys to the back and a long service alley in the one on the right side where the main road button hooked to the right and went down to the next terraced level. A couple burning AAT's were on the road already, one with a wing shattered and on its side, and the other tilted over on its side with a handful of droids on the ground already. A Platoon Attack Craft with a shattered droid deployment rack sat empty on the ground just around the corner. An HMP Droid Gunship burned against the shattered front facade of a building and they could feel the heat from its burning fuel cells and the occasional pop of its munitions going off. The buildings were simply ones, with balconies with snow and ice on the edges and some icicles hanging from the overhangs. The snow was stacking up on the road itself and the droid vehicles was already becoming coated in a thin layer of fresh white powder. In the dark of the night and falling snow the unit had a hard time seeing all that far except for isolated lights and fires burning orange.
"First building, go!" Lieutenant Yuno quickly ordered his squad leader and their first fireteam stacked up on a small caf shop, and then ducked inside, there were no shots and they began to work their way to the back as the platoon advanced past them, "Lullian, take that shop," he then ordered the young fireteam.
"On me," Wyatt said as he moved up to the wall of the shop and then pointed his blaster inside and flashed his rifle's attached flashlight, immediately he was glad he was in cover, "Contact!"
Red blaster bolts flew at his head and shattered the glass and he ducked back and calmly pulled a grenade from his belt and tossed it in. A loud explosion surprised him and it was then that he realized he'd grabbed a thermal detonator instead of a droid popper. But without hesitating he turned the corner and stepped over the hip high brick wall into the destroyed restaurant. With their flashlights cutting the darkness they could see tables and chairs were laying everywhere, some of them on fire and all were badly charred and damaged. The others in his fireteam followed immediately as they took up their positions within the room as Wyatt moved up along the wall and kicked at the two droids he came across, thrown roughly against the wall and fired a shot into their heads.
"That was it?" Hal asked, and then they all heard a low clang of metal on metal.
"Check the kitchen," Wyatt ordered, pointing to the swinging door in the back corner.
The group made its way to the back and Hal poked his rifle through the hole behind the bar where orders came from the kitchen. He immediately fired several bolts from his rifle at two B1's trying to set up a Dual Barrel Repeating Blaster Cannon and destroyed both quickly.
"Got two!" he triumphantly yelled.
"Breach, there's gotta more," Eva said as Wyatt went to the back and pointed his rifle into the swinging door, seeing nothing.
"Kyly, kick it in," Wyatt ordered and the young replacement nodded and kicked in the door, and the two girls moved in with Wyatt right behind them, "Clear."
Then there was the sound of metal feet clanking in the back hall, where Wyatt knew the freezer and back entrance to be. He walked to the entrance of the hall and when he got there the door was just opening and a B2 Super Battle Droid with a rocket launcher leveled its deadly weapon down the hall towards them. Eva didn't flinch and fired a fully automatic burst from her cover below Wyatt against the wall. The rocket was beaten by the laser bolts and the droid's chest was riddled with holes and the droid's rocket arm spun slightly and fired into a stack of bottles of cooking oil and exploded, sending slick flaming oil spilling into the floor. The smoke came out immediately as other boxes of food caught fire and the black smoke choked the hall as red laser bolts from B1's came firing down through the smoke and flame.
"Get out!" Wyatt called out and fired a grenade down at the source and a flash and concussion silenced them temporarily. He retreated out through the area that they had come as the flames from more spilling bottles flooded towards them, enlarging the fire.
The fireteam came staggering back into the open, black soot from the flame darkening their armor. Lieutenant Yuno was right there beside the building, eager to hear the story about why a restaurant had just caught fire.
"Corporal I hope you have an explanation!" the man called out.
"Rocket Super, fired into a stack of cooking oil in the back hall, choked it off, no one could survive that," Wyatt dutifully reported, "They're hiding in the alley, gotta be at least another squad back there, we got four B1's and the Super, no telling how many I got with the launcher in the back hall."
Lieutenant Yuno nodded in response, looking at the building starting to pour out thick black smoke and orange flames spread from the back to the wood decorated front.
"Not a good start to being an NCO, burning down a centuries old building. I suppose it couldn't be helped, fall in as planned."
"Yes sir," Wyatt said as the four of them.
As ordered they took cover, waiting for the rest of the company's infantry to pass them by as the rest began to clear forward, the tanks grinding forward. By now the restaurant was burning hot and fast and the building's fire suppression system was going at full power and a pair of firefighter speeders came up to the building, hovering over the column as they began spraying the building. Firefighters dropped to the ground with backpack mounted spray canisters.
Wyatt couldn't help but intervene in their duty, this being a warzone and all.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Wyatt called out to them as he grabbed one of them, unable to see their face or eyes through their bulky gas mask and goggles, "Don't you see we're in the middle of a war?!"
"If that fire gets any bigger the whole street's gone, we gotta move now to save the area," the muffled voice came back at them as white fire suppressant was pouring into the fire and they began beating it back.
"Corporal what the hell is going on here?!" their company commander called out, walking up as the firefighters entered the building.
"We can't let this fire get out of control!" the fire chief responded in turn and so the argument began.
Eva however was watching the firefighters carefully, and saw them get to the back of the room and then three were spewing out white material into the back as they fought the flames. But the young troopers what awaited behind the flames. She was not at all surprised when the sounds of blaster fire rang out and the firefighters, through a much lesser amount of smoke and fire sprinted out and the troopers snapped into action again.
"I told them! I fekking told them!" Wyatt snapped angrily as they ran inside and they saw a long line of droids emerging from the kitchen, firing at them all.
The troopers engaged at point blank range, firing into droid after droid in seemed to be an unending counter attack. The T1-APC's unleashed their own turrets as more infantry joined the battle as an explosion rocked one of the other buildings next to it as droids began pouring from there. They'd taken cover in the alley, over two hundred of them awaiting the chance to ambush the advancing company of Republic troopers and vehicles. A missile was fired from the kitchen and punched into the side of the closest APC and the vehicle dropped to the ground and the crew scrambled out, one of them having his right leg torn off and another with his arm on fire.
Other buildings that hadn't been thought to be able to be fed from the alley were blown open in the back and the droids began swarming them from close range as more rockets got fired and another T1-APC got smashed into its flank and began burning. Wyatt was grateful that his fireteam was in cover behind the front wall where they were starting to put the droids down as quickly as they emerged. But the droid counterattack ended rather quickly when two large cannon shots pretty much shattered the kitchen wall and the droids inside were wiped out in the blast. Wyatt turned to see a T4-A Tank rolled up behind them and fired again into the next building over, blowing open the wall in a cloud of dust and smoke. Several more volleys finished the droid attack and Wyatt could breathe again.
"Everyone okay?" he asked his fireteam.
"I'm good!" Eva called out and Wyatt nudged Hal, sitting there next to him.
"Hal, you good kid?"
"Is this what you guys all the time?" the young trooper asked.
"Nah, this is a slow day," Wyatt chuckled as Kyly moved up to look in at the wreckage that had been inflicted on the building, and saw that all the walls inside were pretty much gone and the flames had been mostly extinguished.
They looked back to see their own forces had taken a bit of a shot in the nose, with several troopers on the ground and more than a few firefighters trying to tend to them. Both of their own disabled T1's were burning now and the firefighters were redirecting their hoses to extinguish those flames. All-in-all it was a rude introduction to urban warfare. And that was only the couple hundred feet.
Location: Orbit over Commenor, Star Destroyer Dauntless
Task Forces Three and Four had linked up with the Basilisk and Task Forces One and Nine after they'd secured orbit, bringing the Guard fleet up to a hundred and forty one ships, including four Imperator and twelve Venator-Class Star Destroyers and an additional two Guard Army Corps totaling a hundred and twenty thousand ground troops fresh from Corellia. However, even with the reinforcements and the already engaged Clone fleet the Separatists had been assumed to have amassed a sizeable fleet to even dare attacking so close to the Inner Core as Commenor.
Finding that fleet and disrupting that fleet's operations was now top of the priorities list for the Republican Guard. The probe droids and spies were handling the finding part of this job, and the starfighter squadrons were handling the disruption part. The newly minted Captain Teela Abya, in charge of her own flight of four F-Wings, had a mission that was just part of that particular duty. Standing in the hangar of the Dauntless she was one of sixty pilots from five squadrons drawn for the purpose of a new mission.
On the ground a holo emitter was showing them the view of a Separatist base that had somehow sprung up overnight on the moon Vivyis-12, a temperate world orbiting a gas giant. It was a nice little place with a breathable atmosphere and a handful of Wookiee colonies. The planet's forests in the more equatorial portion of the world had massive trees that the local Wookiees had used for their homes.
In the middle of an isolated and sandy desert the Separatists had managed to build a fairly large base in secret. The large square walled-in facility was defended by circular twin autoturrets located on the towers that were spread over the tall and thick walls every fifty meters. There were twenty of these turrets on the walls along with perhaps dozens of smaller Dual-Barrel Repeating Blaster Cannons mounted on the walls and in pillboxes. A pair of hangars were lined up on the west wall and reconnaissance probe droids had seen Scarab Droid Starfighters flying back and forth from the hangars and intelligence estimated that as many as sixty of them could be inside both hangars. A vehicle depot had tanks and other armored vehicles inside a command center with a big sensor dish connected to a hundred meter tall communications tower. There were also droid storage and repair shops along the walls and in the center of the facility around the main comms center. What it was assumed to be was a large sensor and communications hub, transmitting data to Separatist space and was likely helping to coordinate CIS Intelligence's efforts as part of their offensive.
"Intelligence has made it clear that this is a priority target everyone, command wants it reduced to sand. For that, we've got two squadrons of Y-Wings. In attack formation you lot will execute a long range low-level precision torpedo run and clear out their turrets. Then the three squadrons of F-Wings will mop up and the Y-Wings will execute a high-altitude run, carpet bombing the whole base. It's pretty simple so don't screw it up, your approach vectors will hug the ground, with a single squadron on overwatch to engage their pickets. You will approach from the dark side of the moon, angling your atmospheric approach away from their sensors at full speed," Commander App, their CAG, summarized the briefing.
"Which of us is on overwatch sir?" another squadron commander asked.
"The Squadron 43, the Silver Blades," App responded, "Squadron 56 will be on the right flank and Squadron 78 will be on the left with the bombers in between. One last thing, maintain a loose formation, don't want any collisions at low of an altitude. Any other questions?"
"If we run into enemy patrol ships in orbit what's the plan?"
"If you are compromised you'll keep your distance and report. We're getting a live feed from our probe in orbit however, no enemy ships in planetary orbit or in the nearby moons."
After waiting for more questions, of which there were none, Commander App dismissed the five squadrons and they all began to jog to their starfighters. They'd been prepped already, and they themselves had just now had their own preparation. The attack force was ready, and the squadrons began getting sealed into their starfighters quite quickly. Teela gave her flight a bit of advice as she climbed up to the cockpit of her starfighter, glad to see the kill markers for the more than fifty enemy starfighters she'd brought down. But they were mostly Vultures and Hyenas, she wanted some Scarabs to add to her today. Scarabs were a rare sight nowadays, due to their expensive price tag and aged status compared to newer cheaper enemy fighters like Vultures. Couple that with their light shields and nabbing a few of those fighters was an accomplishment whereas a Vulture Droid, a single one, was no big prize. However, as usual, the mission always came first.
"All fighters, launch by sequence, good luck and good hunting," the fighter controller called out to them and Teela acknowledged by lighting up her engines, and zipped her starfighter straight out and followed the line of other F-Wings into open space.
"All fighters, group up, section formations, let do it by the book," the mission leader called out as the Y-Wings joined them, "Make the jump, now."
The squadrons all poured into hyperspace, all sixty of them. It was a good start to returning to combat for Teela and her squadron, nothing massive like their initial baptism by fire at Yag'Dhul, but nothing small like four-ship patrols to sensor sweep blind spots in the moon belts of big gas giants which was just hours of boredom. This, a strike mission against a ground target with slow, nearly obsolete enemy starfighters as opposition was a nice way to get back in the groove.
"Silver Squadron, do one last systems check," her squadron leader quickly ordered the twelve F-Wings under his command, "Make sure everything's good to go."
"Copy Silver One," she responded, "Let's make sure we've polished the guns kids."
Teela tapped her systems check button and after it ran for five of the fifteen minutes it took to get to Vivyus-12 the result came back green as it was when they had jumped. She clicked the already activated safety on her weapons and rolled her shoulders back as she waited for them to jump out of hyperspace. The rest of the flight was probably doing likewise, and she could see that they were almost there after a fairly short hyperspace jump.
"Remember the plan, we jump in, accelerate to the Y-Wings' attack speed, and Silver Squadron stays above the formation to shield the bombers from enemy air patrols. The bombers engage with long range torpedoes and once the guns are gone the fighters jump the Scarabs that will start deploying. Bombers will break off, climb out of the engagement zone, and in formation will carpet bomb the base and we jump back to the fleet after disengaging. When we drop out of hyperspace we go black on comms."
After everyone gave a quick copy the fighter pilots all saw the blue of hyperspace disappear and the fleet of F-Wings and Y-Wings jumped out of hyperspace as the visual image of the planet in front of them grew in size. Teela pushed her throttle to the marked speed and the fighters zoomed towards the planet with the Y-Wings close behind, matching speed. The atmosphere quickly buffeted the formations as they entered on the dark side of the planet. The cloud enveloped them as they all dove for the deck, and Teela could see the forest below her as the formations entered a mountain range at speed.
Teela caught sight of several settlements, glowing on the mountainous ground as they passed, and was surprised to see that due to the Wookiees supposed love of the forest. But ignored it as they swerved through the rain break that created the desert the droid base was built in. They exited the mountains fairly easily, with their night vision and sensors working precisely as promised the Y-Wings were easily kept up with. The F-Wings of Silver Squadron began to climb and took position over the line of friendly formations as the desert came into view and the Y-Wings began lining up. Silently, the F-Wings did likewise, and Teela saw the first signs of the enemy on her scopes. Two flights of four Scarab Starfighters patrolled at high altitude, circling their homebase. Teela saw the red dots on her HUD clear as day, and waited for the signal from the Y-Wings.
That signal came when her sensors picked up the base ahead of them, and the Y-Wings unleashed their planned two torpedoes and broke away. The red glowing weapons zipped away at high speed, and closed in on the base. The sudden sensor signals of incoming proton torpedoes caught the droids' sensors off-guard, but as per standard practice, their response was rapid. The Scarabs above them began to form for an attack and Teela jerked her nose upwards to meet them and targeted them with her missiles a moment before ordered to do so. Her rapid and aggressive attack made her flight stumble to keep up as she increased to full throttle and fired two missiles up at the formation of diving Scarabs.
"All wings attack! Engage those fighters!" Silver One called out as Teela watched with anticipation as both missiles homed in on their targets and smashed both old model droid fighters, crushing their shields sent both spinning downwards in a bright orange explosion that lit up the night sky.
"That's two! Try to keep up!" she teased her squadron mates and closed in with her prey.
She began firing slightly out of range and the laser bolts began slashing by the Scarabs and several hit their shields as they came down at the F-Wings. Red laser bolts slashed right back at her from their four cannons and she spun to evade the fire that was quite accurate. The others engaged as well and the two fighters burst into flames as they were struck repeatedly from Teela's own flight. The other four airborne Scarabs got picked off at long range by the other section of Republic fighters as the enemy began scrambling.
This happened the same moment the Y-Wings torpedoes struck the base's autoturret defenses. The explosions lit up the desert as the entirety of the base's anti-aircraft weapons were destroyed or damaged. But not all were knocked out. Four of the weapons were still operational and began to pepper explosive fire up at the formations of fighters that approached them. The other two squadrons of fighters engaged with missiles and dropped several enemy fighters as they flew out of their hangars. The explosions lit up the airspace as Teela nosed over and locked her sights onto three Scarabs that had left the base's confines and were starting to circle to engage the Republican Guard formations.
"Three squirters Bravo Flight, let's take 'em," she ordered and the four fighters swung down, dipping their wings and inverting themselves as Teela led them into a tight diving left turn to get on the Scarabs' tails.
An unannounced missile was loosed from her wingman and the warhead smashed into the pontoon wing of the trailing Scarab, severing it and sent the enemy fighter tumbling to the dark sands below. They engaged now with lasers as the four F-Wings tore into the slow fighters and peppered their shields until they both exploded one after the other and smashed into the desert below. Before pulling them out of the turn an enemy flak burst exploded directly in front of her fighter and she felt the F-Wing buck badly as another one exploded below the fighter's belly.
"Bravo Flight scatter!" she called out immediately as she checked her instruments and saw a flashing red light for her starboard repulsorlifts.
"Silver Eight, you're trailing smoke," her wingman called out, "Underside of your right wing," the voice of her long-time friend advised.
"I can tell, my steering's kinda sluggish," she said as she tried pulling away from the fight.
"Silver Eight, pull out, no need to take chances," the voice of the squadron leader advised.
"Roger that," she said sourly, not liking the fact she'd just gotten taken out of the action, which was starting to simmer down as fewer and fewer enemy fighters remained, "Heading home."
Teela pulled her stubborn and damaged starfighter upwards to begin the trip back towards the mountains, just the way that they'd come. Still sour about having been ordered to withdraw from the fight Teela had her attention split by the flight through the mountainous valleys and listening to the comms to make sure she knew what was happening. The sensors and sky were clear as she got to the entrance to the mountains from the forests. Nothing much was happening except for her noticing that the F-Wings all of a sudden turned to static as she was flying around a bend and saw the settlement below that she'd initially thought to be strange.
"What the…Silver Eight to Silver One come in," she said aloud, clear as could be as she tapped a few controls. But her droid answered her instead with a few beeps, "What do you mean we're being jammed? Jammed by who?"
Then a single purple rocket motor caught her attention, but it was far too late because when she looked at it the warhead of the seeker missile exploded under her F-Wing's belly, shattering the engine housing and igniting her fuel cells. Teela was thrown almost from her seat, smacking her helmet on the side of the canopy and cracking both with such force that she blacked out. The fighter's pilot safety protocols sensed that she'd been rendered unconscious, and her astromech made the call to eject its pilot, seeing as the starfighter was now losing power and slowly nosing over towards the forest as it passed over the settlement below.
Teela was unconscious when the rocket-assisted motor was activated and the explosive bolts under the cockpit housing detonated and the canopy was blown away and she was lifted away. Her poor astromech went down with the fighter, her friend since becoming a pilot for the RVC died with her T-42 F-Wing in a fireball as it was shredded by the thick trees of the forest. Hanging beneath a canopy the chill of the cold night air finally awakened the young captain, and she stirred as she felt the strange sensation of not being in her cockpit. When she opened her eyes she saw and felt no ground under her feet and the pinching of her parachute harness digging into her thighs as the white circular parachute was guided by the wind, blowing her towards the forest floor below. Grasping the strings of the chute she looked around for any sign of her fighter, and saw it in the form of a dull glowing fire off in the near distance.
Lifting her comm link that was connected to her astromech she desperately hoped beyond hope that her companion had made it.
"C12! C12 do you read?" she gasped out aloud, feeling nauseous at the sudden exertion, but pressed on, "C12 come in!"
After that, she knew the droid was gone for good. So she began to search the ground for how she was going to land and saw that it was not going to be good, a curtain of trees was beneath her, and she could now see it through the cracked visor of her helmet on the right side. The young pilot was infuriated as she drifted downwards, cursing herself for not reacting fast enough to what she should have recognized as a clear jamming attempt and taken evasive action. But her cursing was cut short by her feet plunging into the thick broadleaf canopy, smashing through it as branches whipped at her face and uniform tore as more stubborn branches gouged the red cloth. By the time she stopped she was still fifteen feet off of the ground, her parachute completely hung up and her right arm tangled in the cords above her head.
"Dammit, fekking trees, fekking branches, fekking useless piece of shit!" she snapped as she ripped off her helmet and cap and tossed both to the ground, undoing her blonde hair from its bun to fall into her face.
It didn't take too long for her untangle her arm, and she undid the harness out of frustration and instinct to get down and clung on to the harness itself as she looked for somewhere to swing to. Seeing a stand of vines nearby the young pilot easily swung over to them and then let go of the harness and slid down to the wet mossy ground below. The experience of training told her to move immediately, seeing as whoever had shot her down was now more than likely searching for her landing site Teela willed her legs forward, and stumbled off downhill, in the general direction that she knew friendly Wookiee villages to be located. She had trouble with this however, and had to stop and fight down the head trauma-linked nausea that repeatedly threatened to stop her cold. Reaching her glove up to her head she could feel slick warm blood on her temple, and sizeable lump on her head.
Training told her to get it wrapped in a bandage and she shuffled through her survival gear strapped to her legs and dug out a small roll of gauze and an adhesive bandage. Sticking it on and wrapping the green gauze around it the bacta lined patch began to cool her wound and numb it up as she sat back to let work its magic as she finished tying off the bandage around her head as she checked the rest of her gear. The holomap she carried was still there, as was her SSK-7 Blaster Pistol, knife, multi-tool, first aid kit, a water canteen, and two days' worth of compact ration bars. But her rescue beacon was missing, the pocket it had been in torn open and its key lone occupant missing. However her comm was still present, and she could use it, if it wasn't showing that she had no signal, the product of the jamming again. Groaning at her predicament Teela set her mind straight as to what she needed to have happen.
In the midst of her basic planning the warbling sound of repulsorlift engines caught her attention, and she ducked down between the roots of the tree she was leaning against and drew her blaster. The young pilot peered into the darkness but couldn't see much except for a few scattered lights moving towards her and the shapes of skiffs hovering through the bush. As they grew closer she could see the forms of beings on them, and they weren't Wookiees. Unwilling to move she watched searchlights scan back and forth as the skiffs moved closer and closer. She recognized the three of them immediately as Bantha-II's, the most common skiff for low lives in the galaxy. In behind them was a bigger vehicle, a modified WLO-5 Speeder Tank with more bandits on it. She needed help and needed it now, and desperately tried her comm.
"Silver Eight to any station come in," she hissed as loud as she dared, "This is Silver Eight are you guys kriffing out there?!"
"The signal's coming from over there!" a gruff voice now called out as she looked back and saw one of the skiffs moving its searchlight right towards her position.
"Oh shit!" she whispered as she looked at her comm, knowing she'd made a mistake, but had to keep trying, "Silver Eight to any Republic forces please come in, come on you guys come in!"
"There!" the light found her, the red flight suit she wore standing out in the white light and she knew she was in trouble.
Tucking away the commlink she stood and took off running into the bush, ferns kicking at her knees and fallen logs providing excellent obstacles that she tried leaping over to slow her pursuers if she could. But they were easily able to hover over the bush and when they were within mere meters of her a whipcord was fired towards her wrapped around her legs, sending her tumbling to the ground. The cord was stuck tight from her knees to her ankles, and in a growing panic she tried grabbing her knife to continue to run. Fighting never crossed her mind, seeing as it was certain death to do so.
"No ya don't!" a deep voice interrupted her as she tried to cut herself free, and she saw a massive Weequay jump down on top of her spot and made a grab for her.
Teela swiped at him with her knife but missed as the pirate backed away and then others, jumped to the ground as she scooted away as best she could. They all held blasters and she knew that she was in far more trouble than originally anticipated. When she tried to swipe at another pirate making a grab for her the original pirate dove on top of her, forcing Teela onto her belly as the pirates laughed at her attempt at resistance. Her arms were grabbed and painfully wrenched behind her back to be clasped by thin cuffs with her wrists crossed over one another.
"Let me go! You have no idea who you're messing with!" Teela snapped at them as she was dragged over to the parked WLO-5 tank, "The Guard will crush you and yo-rrph!" she yelled until a thick scarf was pulled between her teeth to shut her up.
"Easy on the profit-I mean pilot, after all," a much different voice said from the tank as a figure clad in a long coat jumped down to stand before her, "Profit, is what we're in business for."
The pirate Captain, well-known as Hondo Ohnaka, tipped her chin up towards him so he could see her face. She looked him dead in the eye, growling through her gag at ripped her face out of his grip. Being held hostage was not the most pleasant thing for an ace pilot of the Republican Guard to endure, and she would make sure her captors knew it. However, she had one last setback to go through.
"Captain, they're coming back!"
"Shut off the lights, all power off," Hondo ordered, "Sorry my dear, mustn't spoil the surprise too soon," he said as he signaled one of his men.
Her hair was pulled back and she cried out in pain as a damp rag was placed against her nose and she took several whiffs of the stuff before realizing what it was. Her vision started to blur, and she could only focus on the night sky above. Right before falling completely into the dark she saw the shapes of her own squadron's F-Wings and several Y-Wings fly overhead, their red engines glowing dimmer and dimmer until she fell unconscious. The last thing she saw were her comrades, flying within a few hundred meters of her, not knowing just how close she was to them.
Well, wouldn't that just suck? To be so close, yet so far away…but it happened, and I now have an excuse to use Hondo, yes our favorite space pirate is going to make a quick entrance in this story. I just couldn't help myself. Let's see how we can use this shall we?
And speaking of use, I have created a Google Community for my stories where I have and will post teasers, ideas, and images that I use for my stories. It is called: "BIG Z1776 Fanfic Stories". If you want to go check it out, please be my guest. I'd love to chat there with you guys and share ideas I have for stuff and just chill out.
Next Chapter Preview: Negotiating a deal with Hondo, taking back Commenor, and meeting the oldest enemies of the Knights of Anaxes.