Landing at Point Rain
Tessa sat on her bunk, inspecting everything, from her helmet, comm unit, Vibro-Blade, and her Rifle. Everyone else in the barracks could be heard doing the same thing, no one said anything as they worked, and the only sounds in the room was the movement of others, and equipment being sorted.
The reason for all of this silence, and somewhat nerve-racking atmosphere, was because they were all getting ready for the Second Invasion of Geonosis. The planet that held the first battle that started the Clone Wars.
Sometime after the Zillo Beast incident, which also included the blunder of having the beast sent to Coruscant. The original plan was to study it, and possibly use it's armor for new clone armor in the future, but it broke free, and went on a rampage across the city. It would've caused more damage, and also kill the Chancellor, but it was soon defeat and killed by using the Malastare gas. Sometime after that, intel acquired by Senator Amidala with the help of General Skywalker, found that a new droid factory was being made on Geonosis. It was settled that they had to destroy the main droid factory, and any other factor on the planet, as soon as possible, before any new droids came off the assembly line.
The forces that were assembled for the planet wide invasion, that were to take out the main Droid Factory, were the forces that were commanded by General Skywalker, Kenobi, Mundi. While the rest of the planet would be taken care of by their clone troopers weren't a part of the main droid factory assault force, and General Unduli. From the small amount of time they were given, everyone had to get their gear ready, research the landing zones, where to attack, and what to do once they got there. And also if they didn't make it to the landing zone, and had to rendezvous with the ones who did make it to the landing zone.
The plan for the main droid factory was to surround it with three attack forces, take out the shield generator protecting it, and then destroy the factory itself. All the while dealing with native Geonosian's, and whatever droid forces they had.
The thought of fighting where the war first started, was something that Tessa never thought of. But she and her batch mates had read and done simulations, with the help of some of the clones who had fought there, back on Kamino that detailed the battle itself, back when they were still in training. Those were done to help clones learn from past mistakes, and the flaws, and other issues that had happened during the battle. Tessa could see the logic, it was the first battle of the war after all, and everyone who fought there was green and new, and had no prior experience in fighting. So to work on mistakes, and learn from veterans, it helped them improve, and be more ready for when they were finally going to graduate, and be deployed.
Tessa was brought out of her musings when she heard the intercom go off, and heard Admiral Yularen's voice.
"All troops, we are preparing to jump out of hyperspace. I repeat, we are preparing to jump out of hyperspace. For all of you who are part of the ground team, report to your gunships, and await further orders. And good luck out there."
She then heard her comlink go off, and answered it.
"All members of Carnivore Battalion selected for the assault on the shield generator, report to your gunships. And Beta squad, report to General Skywalker's." Captain Rex said.
"Figures we're going in first class. That just means more droids and bugs for us." Nax happily said.
"Yeah, I got my Rotary here to greet them with." Attie said, and chuckled.
The squad, and other members of the Battalion, headed straight to the hanger. The 501st were going to come in from the South, and in the off chance if any of the attacking forces didn't make it to the land zone, then the ones who did were told to hold out, until the others arrive.
"So uh Sergeant, where you are the rest of the original members of Beta, present during the first battle of Geonosis?" Fives asked.
Zeer shook his head and said," Afraid not, but Captain Rex, and a few others were present during it. I understand your nervousness, son. Don't worry, everything will be relatively okay."
Everyone heard this, and they gave their Sergeant confused looks under their helmets."
"Uh… relative, sir?" Cutup asked.
Zeer shrugged and said," If I said that we were going to be fine outright. Then I would've jinxed it."
No one had the heart to question him, due to finding his response acceptable. No one was superstitious, but if something like the Force was real, which everyone understood the basics of, but not on a Jedi level, then they had to be somewhat cautious in a sense.
Once the squad, and the other designated squads got onto their gunships. Beta saluted Captain Rex, and waited for General Skywalker, and Commander Tano, who arrived minute later. And once they were onboard, the gunship took off, along with the rest.
"We all ready, Rex?" Anakin asked.
"Yes, sir. General Kenobi is already under way."
"How about you guys? Ready?" Ahsoka asked her squad.
"We're ready as well, Commander." Zeer said.
"Yes, sir. Just point us where to shoot." Tessa said.
The occupants of the gunship felt the telltale sign of flak exploding outside, and it seemed to become even heavier the farther into their destination. Through the slit of the gunship door, Tessa could see the heavy flak fire, Geonosian fighters harassing the other gunships, or both gunships, and their tanks getting hit, or getting blown out of the sky.
It reminded her of the events during the rescue of General Secura, and Commander Bly, and how her gunship was in the midst of heavy fire, and had soon crash landed into the Venator. She wasn't particularly interested in repeating a crash landing, but from the looks of what was going on outside, it was a high possibility.
And her thoughts on the matter came true, when a particular flak shell hit the gunship, and it started to lose altitude. Everyone hung on for dear life, and waited for the impact of the crash. Once they did crash, Tessa jolted, and fell to the ground, and her ears were slightly ringing. She shook her head, and got up with the help of Nax.
"You alright?"
"Fine."
General Skywalker was already starting to open the door.
"Come on, get up! We have to keep moving."
"Alright you grunts, get ready to move! Let's show these insects what will happen when they mess with clones!" Zeer said.
Anakin got the door opened, and immediately jumped out. Everyone else soon did, and were met with a hail of blaster, and rocket fire. Tessa hid behind some debris, and picked her targets, all the while explosions, small and machine gun fire went around her. She got up and fired a couple of shots, and ducked, and repeated it. The others were doing the same.
"Move! Move!"
"Watch those wrist rockets!"
"Get some fire there!"
"Del! Front and center! We need the radio to contact the other landing parties!" Captain Rex ordered.
Del sprinted to Captain Rex's position, and handed him an extra comlink.
"Here you are, Captain."
"Any surviving units in our vicinity, form up on our position. Cody, Jet, if you can hear me, we didn't make the landing zone! Our position-"
Tessa saw the two Jedi leading the charge, as they deflected blaster bolts, and cut down Geonosian's that were close enough. And she couldn't be more grateful that they were on their side. Tessa tapped Fives on the shoulder, and signed at him to follow Commander Tano. He nodded, he then signed to the others, and they all moved from their previous position, and formed up in a trench near the Commander. Tessa looked up briefly, fired a couple of shots, and was able to see a machine gun emplacement nearby.
"Attie! Gun emplacement on the tower to the north!" Tessa shouted.
"Got it! Take this you buggy freaks!" Attie said, as he fired a rocket.
The rocket hit the structure, which then caused it to collapse, and take out a couple of Geonosian's. This caused the others to start falling back, and gave the Republic forces more room to move."
"Good job you two. They're falling back. Come on!" Ahsoka ordered.
Everyone soon charged from their positions, and took out Geonosian's as they went. While also taking cover from trenches they cleared.
"Did any of our tanks make it?" Echo asked.
"No, they were all shot down." Del said.
"Kriffing perfect!" Cutup cursed.
Tessa gritted her teeth, from what she was hearing so far, only General Kenobi's forces had made it to the landing site. While the others were too far away. She didn't expect for everything to go smoothly, but nothing like this.
The Captain then sprinted over to their position, and said,"All right you grunts! We're going to rush the guns! Be at the ready to move! Sound off! Zeer."
"Reporting sir."
"Fives."
"Here, sir."
"Echo."
"Here sir, reporting."
"Attie."
"Here sir, ready to blast some bugs and droids."
"Nax."
"Here as always."
"Del."
'Reporting, sir."
"Cutup."
"Still here, sir."
"Huntress."
"Same, sir."
Rex nodded, and said, "Good. Get ready. Form up." He said, and sprinted over to the Jedi or to tell the other surviving squads.
"You heard him, get your bearings, and keep together." Zeer ordered.
The squad formed up with the others, and waited for Anakin's signal.
"Ready. Now!" He said as he and Ahsoka ignited their Lightsabers, vaulted over the trench.
"Go, go, go!" Rex ordered.
Tessa got up like and rocket, vaulted over the ground, and sprinted, all the while explosions and blaster fire came at all sides. She fired at any target that was moving, she heard everyone yelling out commands, and positions, and ignored the best she could when she heard the screams of her brothers falling. She remembered during her cadet days of when she would throw caution out the window, and would try to help or save her brothers when they needed help, or were injured. The latter was mainly when they actually would get injured during simulations, or fake injuries. The others had joked that if she wasn't such a natural shot, and made the squads marksman, then she would've been a Medic. But she wasn't interested in that in the slightest, cause apparently she felt sorta queasy when she saw blood. She couldn't explain why, so she just thought it was a unique quirk or trait she had. Even though her as a whole was pretty kriffing unique to begin with. But yeah, she felt like she came along way from who she used to act, and be, from her shiny days.
The assault lasted a few more minutes, and they managed to take out all the bugs in the vicinity. They couldn't take a break, because they didn't know how much time the others had. Tessa had heard the snippets from Captain Rex, General Kenobi's forces at the landing zone were getting hit hard.
So they were running along canyon now, and as soon as they turned the corner, they met with a huge wall… that had gun emplacements in the wall, and Battle Droids on top of it.
"Move, get to cover!" Rex ordered.
As everyone scrambled for cover, all hell broke loose. Tessa ended up hiding behind a couple of big boulders with Echo, and Cutup.
"Hang on, I studied those maps, we weren't so supposed to go this route." Echo said.
Tessa got out of cover to fire a couple of shots, hid again, and said," You di'kut! Why didn't you say anything earlier?! We could've gotten out of the particular mess sooner!"
From the looks of it, taking out the wall was going to be hard, and they didn't have a lot of time. But, considering they were being led by General Skywalker, who was notorious for achieving victory under dire odds, then taking out the thing wasn't going to be too hard.
"Well it's not like I have a map inside my helmet! Now that's a feature that would be useful!" Echo shot back.
"I don't think arguing is going to help. Just keep blasting!" Cutup said.
Nax came running to their position, hid next to Tessa, and said," The Generals got a plan. They're going to scale the wall, and use explosives to take it out. They want all of us to distract the tinnies."
Attie handed Anakin his backpack, and he placed it on his back.
"Thanks Attie." He said.
"Don't mention it General. Just make sure to blow that thing sky high. Also, besides the bombs, I have two rockets left in there. So it might add a bit of a punch."
Anakin smirked and said," Thanks for the heads up. You and the others better stay alive after all of this."
Attie chuckled and said," We'll try our best General. And kid, stay safe."
Ahsoka winked at him and said," Always am."
She and Anakin sprinted out of cover, and ran straight an opposite, so they can climb it.
"Huntress, Nax, I want you both to focus all your fire on the wall turrets. The rest of us will focus all fire on the top of the wall." Zeer ordered.
"Yes sir!" They both said.
Nax looked at his sister, and said," Let's see who can take out the most."
Tessa smirked under her helmet, and said," You're on."
She did know it was nostalgia or not, which probably wasn't a good thing, considering the situation. The wall turrets reminded her of the ones from the Citadel simulation from her final test, back on Kamino. And the plan they had by shooting the turrets, and using them as steps. So she knew how take them out.
She was already up to 6 when she saw the sight of the Captain being levitated into the air. And then dropped, followed by the General and the Commander. A second later after that, the entire wall exploded, and debris rained down. She found it amusing, when she had managed to hear the Captain scream as he came down, even though she knew one of the Jedi would catch him.
Once the action died down, General Skywalker gave the order to move again. They continued to run inside the canyon, when they started to hear blaster fire, and screeching. They all looked up to see Geonosian's falling from the sky, all on fire. And they were coming from a cave. They could see General Mundi, Commander Jet, and their forces, coming out of the cave.
Once General Skywalker commed him, and then Admiral Yularen, then linked up the rest of General Mundi's forces, they double timed it to the landing zone. They made it in time to see the bombers take out the Geonosian forces. Once they all got there, they handled the retreating enemy forces, and finally got time to rest for a moment, except for Coric, who was helping the other Medics with the wounded. While the Generals planned out their strategy for taking out the shield generator. An interesting thing about the former, that he was a mentor to a new medic, who went by the name Kix. Tessa had actually talked to him, and he was alright. She had also talked to the other members of his squad, with the two he was closets to, who were named Jesse and Hardcase. And they were cool to hangout with, when she had the time.
"So, I take it we're the only ones left on our assault force?" Cutup asked.
Tessa looked at everyone, even though this wasn't everyone in the 501st, other parts of the Legion were around the planet, but still hurt to see their attack force wasn't much. Only two squads worth. She sighed and said," It looks like it, Cut."
Zeer walked over to them, and said sympathetically," I know this may look bad, but it's the price we have to pay in order to achieve victory. No matter how many loses we have."
"Yeah, I mean, we told you we were the only survivors, besides the Captain, to survive Teth. It was because of that, that we got the Hutts to agree to let us use their Hyperspace lanes." Nax added.
Tessa and her batch mates knew the story. Zeer and the others were the only survivors of the Battle of Teth, and the original Torrent Company. That brought them closer, and made them work better as a squad, because of that. Tessa and the others could relate, they were the only ones to survive Rishi, and it hurt more for them, due to two of their batch mates perishing during it. And they were the new kids at the time, who were then folded into Torrent Company, and placed in Zeer's squad.
And they all welcomed them, and made them feel right at home in their new unit. But, they all had one thing in common in the form of loss. But they didn't let that stop them, they continued to push on, work together, become closer, and fight on.
Echo placed his hand on his sister's shoulder, and said," Hey, I have a feeling we're all going to be here for the long run. And I wouldn't want to be with anyone else but you all. Especially you, sis."
"I guess we're the same, but in proxy. Glad to see you guys and girl make it." Waxer said, as he and Boil walked up to them.
Tessa grinned under her helmet, and said," Glad to see you two made it okay. Like the designs on your armor."
She was referring to the little cartoon of the young Twi'lek girl, Numa, the three of them saved back during the events of Ryloth. Last they chatted on the holo, they decided to honor her by having a small sketch of her somewhere on their armor. Waxer and Boil went with their helmets, while Tessa went with her shoulder pad, where her previous sketch was. She decided to scrap that, and place the Aurebesh on the side of her left knee. She had changed her armor's look a couple of times, feeling as if it wasn't done properly.
But she kept the marking on her helmet, the ones that paid tribute to Ahsoka. Her squad, and the others in the 501st kept on joking that were multiple female clones around the Legion, who somehow bore the same personality and demeanor as her. She didn't really pay them much mind, she just wanted to look perfect, and cool. She was lucky that the Quartermaster and her were friends, or else she would've been paying a lot of credits, just on paint.
Although she had to roll her eyes on the quips on buying makeup, she wasn't interested using that stuff in the slightest.
"Same here. And knowing how General Skywalker runs this outfit, I have a feeling he'll be the one to lead the charge on the shield, with you all with him. Hope your ready." Boil said.
Tessa looked at where the Generals, and officers were conversing, and said," We're ready."
Like Boil thought, they were part of the plan to take out the shield generator. General Skywalker and Commander Tano would lead a small squad , their squad, through the shield generator, and go as close as they could to the gun emplacements. And then jam the guns, so they wouldn't be able to target the tanks, and General Mundi's forces would arrive after that.
All them got into position, which was outside the shield, everyone was checking their gear, and getting ready.
"Remember, we use the formation for when we assault a position. Let the General's lead, while we have our heavy hitters in the front, blaster in the middle, and good shots in the back." Zeer said.
"You all and snips pretty much thought of everything, haven't you?" Anakin observed.
"Well, we aren't slacking off, you picked us for a reason, sir." Tessa said, and everyone nodded.
Anakin ignored the proud, and full of herself look, from Ahsoka. He knew all about the personal stories, and exploits that she got into with them. it gave him and Rex headaches sometimes, but they knew they always got the job done, and they all had good heads.
Zeer got a call on commlink, heard what was said, and said," We got the go ahead to begin the attack sir."
Anakin and Ahsoka ignited their Lightsabers, and the others got their weapons at the ready, and they charged into the shield. Intense fire me them, and they ran as fast as they could, all the while trying to take shots. There was one particular scary situation, when a Geonosian screeched at her as it flew at her. She had heard the stories of them carrying Troopers away to who knows where. The main theory was that they were eaten.
She had no intention of that happening, so with all her might, she gave it a haymaker by hitting it with the butt of her rifle, and then saw it get hit with a blaster bolt. She looked next to her briefly, to see Nax giving her a salute. She had to dodge a couple times from incoming blaster bolts, and explosions. All of them soon made it close enough to the guns, and they all took positions behind some cover.
"Huntress, Nax, time to throw." Anakin said, and tossed them two Droid Poppers.
The both them nodded, and tossed them with all their might, at the gun emplacements, and they were all disabled once they went off.
"Bulls eye." Nax said, and he high-fived Tessa.
Anakin called in the tanks, and they soon rained fire on the shield generators, and the surrounding troops, and gun emplacements. They were all destroyed, and once the shield started to dissipate, the gunships arrived, and General Mundi's forces got out, and joined the fray. The remaining Geonosian's soon surrendered, and the battle was won.
The squad was later taking a short break from getting everything situated, and securing the other parts of the area, along with the surviving forces that weren't injured. While the wounded were being tended to, which also including General Kenobi and Mundi, and being sent to a Medical Station. It would be some time before the attack on the droid factory, due to the need of more troops, and setting up defenses.
"Hey guys, how is everything?" Ahsoka asked, as she approached them.
"Okay so far, Commander. We're just waiting for our next orders." Zeer said.
Everyone, with the exception of Echo, rolled their eyes at their Sergeant. Him and Echo would be the ones who would look forward for orders.
"Well, that's good. But I got nothing for you boys and girl, for now. I just came by to ask you what your count was for the battle so far. Apparently General Mundi got the highest at 65."
Everyone looked at each other, Huntress smirked under her helmet, and said," Over a hundred, Soka."
Ahsoka blinked at them, realized what they meant, and said indigently," That's not fair! I meant what are your individual kill counts."
Fives glanced at Echo, who nodded, and said," Well sir, the rules stated that you asked us what our kill count was. Not our 'individual' one was."
Ahsoka crossed her arms with a huff, looked at Tessa, and said," Tess, please tell them. Help a girl out."
Tessa shrugged and said," Sorry sir. Rules are rules. You didn't say all of us individually. So we all win."
Ahsoka tried to look mad at them, but failed when she started to giggle. The others started to follow along with her.
Once Ahsoka stopped, she gave them grateful looks, and said," But, I am glad that you all made it. And did such a great job. I couldn't be more prouder."
Everyone felt a swell of pride at her words. And they all soon lapsed into casual conversation. The time to take out the droid factory was fast approaching, but having this moment to talk, and hang out, was something that they needed.
Anakin looked up from the portable holomap, with a fond smile. He was in close proximity to where Ahsoka and Beta squad was, and he could hear the easygoing laughter from his position. It was nice to see his Padawan relaxing, and not worrying about the upcoming battle. He knew a lot had happened in the past couple of hours, and something like that, could make someone nervous or something more.
Rex looked at the Jedi, and asked," Do you want me to get the kid, sir? We're still in the middle of planning, and getting everything situated.
"Not yet, just give her a few minutes. She earned it."
Rex looked at the Padawan Learner, and had to concede General Skywalker's point. From the looks of it, she was having fun socializing with her squad.
So they continued on with the planning of the attack.
As and you shall receive, I've been getting a lot of messages asking for a new chapter, and here it is. Thanks again for all the support!
