Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
So, quick update about the Wiki. Several people have said in reviews that they couldn't access the wiki. I fixed the link in my bio, so just copy and paste it into your search bar.
Alright. So this one will loosely be based on Episode 2 of Season 7, but not really. It'll be a bit shorter. I hope you're ready for it. Let's get to it.
CT7567Rules: We may see the Bad Batch one or two more times before Order 66. But, as for what they'll do when that order comes, I won't spoil anything.
Guest DCDGojira: Yes, we'll see Adams' son in the second story. In fact, most of the children of the members of the ASAT team will probably have roles in the second story. Haven't yet figured out what to do about Barriss. Also, I'm not going to be sending a task force to Tatooine in the second story, so Luke will meet his love interest another way. As for characters from Fallen Order, it's a definite possibility.
Dalej0523: Yes, the Terrans will find other inhabited planets in the Milky Way, who will join the Alliance.
RandomFanAuthor: That would be amazing. I'll let you know if I want you to make something for me.
Sectrooper: I think the new season is amazing so far. I'm really looking forward to the Siege of Mandalore.
Chapter 56- Raid on Skako Minor
Colonel Han makes his way over to the holo-projector, where Anakin is waiting. Han had been assigned to lead a special mission to Skako Minor As he approaches, Anakin looks up at him.
"Colonel," Anakin says.
"General," Han says respectfully in heavily accented English.
"I have spoken to the Council. They were extremely hesitant to allow this mission, but they agreed. However, they have some strict guidelines you must abide by. Casualties among the natives must be kept as low as possible. The Council also wants the only damage to any structures to be to the structures the Separatists are using to predict our strategies," Anakin says.
"Understood, General," Han says.
Anakin steps forward and lays a hand on Han's shoulder. "Good luck, Colonel," he says.
Han just nods before doing an about face and walking away.
Han makes his way out to the flightline, where his team is waiting. Anakin had helped Han pick the men that would be flying the mission. Much of the team was comprised of Pakistani SSG commandos, but also included the Bad Batch, Echo, Jesse, and several ARC troopers from the 212th.
As Hann approaches, one of the Pakistanis, Fahad Khan, stands up and says, "Good morning, Colonel."
"Good morning, Major," Han replies. Han then looks around at the rest of the strike team and says, "Alright, men. Let's go."
Everyone nods and gathers up their gear. They make their way over to two Black Hawk helicopters that are waiting for them. Once the men are all aboard, the two Black Hawks take off and start heading up into the sky.
In the sky over the Republic base is the Terran Star Destroyer TAS Dauntless. The Dauntless was assigned to take them to Skako Minor, and would then wait to pick them up.
The two Black Hawks fly up to the Dauntless, and proceed to land in the main hangar bay. The doors of the two Black Hawks open, and the team disembarks from the helicopters. They then make their way to the mess hall.
On the bridge, Rear Admiral Gary Roughead is waiting to hear that the team has arrived on the ship, while staring out of the front viewport. He's really hoping that this mission will work. They need such a success if they want to win at Anaxes.
Right then, an officer walks up behind Roughead. "Admiral," the Spanish officer says to draw Roughead's attention.
Roughead turns around. "Yes, Commander?" he asks.
"The team is aboard. All systems are go. We're ready to depart," the officer says.
"Very good," Roughead says. He then looks at the navigation officers and says, "Prepare to make the jump to hyperspace."
The Dauntless throttles up its engines and begins to climb out of the atmosphere. As it leaves the atmosphere, the bridge crew alter course to enable the ship to evade a battle taking place in space.
"Are we ready to make the jump to hyperspace?" Roughead asks.
"Yes, sir!" the hyperdrive officer responds.
"Make the jump!" Roughead orders.
The hyperdrive officer pushes the buttons, and with that familiar sight out of the viewport, the Dauntless makes the jump to hyperspace.
(Hours later)
Dauntless drops out of hyperspace. Out of the viewport, Skako Minor comes into view.
"Maintain course," Roughead orders before turning to leave the bridge, heading down towards the hangar bay.
It doesn't take him too long to reach the hangar bay, where he finds Han and the 18 men of his strike team waiting besides the two Black Hawks that will carry them to their target.
"Gentlemen!" Roughead calls to get their attention. Everyone turns to face Roughead, and they all snap to attention.
"At ease," Roughead says, and the team relaxes.
"We are approaching Skako Minor. The ship will enter the atmosphere and deploy the helicopters. The helicopters will land you 15 miles from Purkoll. From there, you will infiltrate the city and locate the target building. Once you have destroyed the target building, you will retreat to the pickup point and signal for the helicopters," Roughead says. He pauses, then says, "I also remind you of your orders regarding the natives. No inhabitants on the planet are to be harmed unless absolutely necessary. And you will minimize the effect your explosives on local inhabitants or other buildings."
"Understood, Admiral," Han says.
Roughead looks at every member of the team, then says, "Good luck."
Every member of the team salutes Roughead, then moves to gather their gear as Roughead returns to the bridge.
Once back on the bridge, Roughead sees that the ship has already entered Skako Minor's atmosphere.
"Are we ready?" Roughead asks.
"We're nearing the point, sir," one of the bridge officers says.
Roughead nods and waits. After another minute, the same officer says, "Sir! We've reached the point!"
"Deploy the Black Hawks," Roughead orders.
The bridge crew immediately move to follow Roughead's order. Within seconds, the massive doors to the main hangar begin to slide open. As they do, in the main hangar, the Black Hawk pilots lift their helicopters into the air and fly out of the hangar.
The two Black Hawks make their way clear of the Star Destroyer, then immediately descend towards the terrain.
The Black Hawk pilots hug the terrain, keeping as close to the ground as they can, flying through canyons and around hills, trying to keep out of sight of any Separatist or Techno Union forces.
It's nearly a 120 mile course towards the drop point near Purkoll. As the helicopters fly towards the city, the men on board pass the time by just chatting.
Finally, in Han's Black Hawk, the pilot calls out, "Three minutes to the drop point!"
"Gear up, men!" Han orders.
In both helicopters, Pakistanis and clones alike grab their gear, check their weapons, and prepare for the drop. The two helicopter pilots press on until the landing zone comes into sight.
"Get ready!" both pilots call out. They guide the two Black Hawks to the landing zone, and then lower to the ground.
"Clear!" both pilots yell back. The doors of the helicopters are thrown open, and the strike team springs out of the helicopters one by one. Only the pilots and two Americans manning the miniguns mounted in the doors remain on the helicopters as they lift off again and move to a secluded spot about 15 miles back along their course to wait for the strike team to call for them.
As the helicopters fly away, Han turns to his men. "Alright, men. This is it. This mission cannot fail. If we succeed, it will turn the campaign on Anaxes around," he says. He pauses, then says, "Let's do this."
"Yeah!" a number of the men say.
Han cocks his assault blaster, and says, "Let's move!"
The assault team sets off across the landscape of Skako Minor, moving quickly and trying hard to keep out of sight.
Moving at their fastest possible pace, it takes them only about three and a half hours to reach Purkoll.
As Purkoll finally comes into view, Han halts the strike team. He takes a few moments to analyze the layout of the city, and compares it with the intelligence he's received to try and identify the target building.
It doesn't take long for Han to identify it. As soon as he does, he points up at it and says, "There's our target building. Follow me, boys." He then begins leading them down a steep slope down to the very base of the buildings, where lifts are located.
It takes the team only about 15 minutes to reach the base of the target building, and find the lift leading up into the building. As they reach the base, Han says, "Tech. Get us in."
Tech nods as he walks forward and begins tinkering with the lock. It takes him a few minutes, but the doors soon open up.
"Sorry it took so long," Tech says
"Clear it, Crosshair," Han says.
Crosshair walks in slowly, his blaster raised. After a few seconds, he lowers his blaster and says, "Yeah, it's a lift."
"I think we already knew that," Major Khan says as he walks in. The rest of the team walks in as well, except Wrecker.
Wrecker looks all the way up the building and says, "Wait, wait, wait. A lift? How far up are we going?"
"Don't worry, Wrecker. I'll hold your hand," Hunter says.
"Hey, cut it out, Sarge! Just give me some droids to crush!" Wrecker says. He walks in with Hunter, and the lift begins to ascend.
As the lift makes its way up the building, Han says, "Remember. We have to be quick. We need to be in and out as soon as possible. Stay out of sight if you can. Any droid you see, you take them out. Any organics, you kill only if threatened. I want minimum collateral damage. Understood?"
"Yes, sir," the men echo.
Seconds later, the door opens up, revealing a number of Techno Union droids. Wrecker charges out with a battle cry, along with two of the Pakistanis. Wrecker crushes several droids and fires his blaster at several others, as the Pakistanis gun down the others.
"They probably heard that. Let's move!" Han orders firmly.
Han leads the team up towards the upper floors. As they emerge from another lift, Echo and Khan gun down several droids within range.
"Alright. Split up. Clones with me. SSGs, you follow Major Khan. Let's find the main control rooms and set the charges. We'll meet back here in ten minutes," Han says.
The men nod and split up. The clones follow Han one way down the corridor, while the Pakistanis make their way down the way.
Han moves around a corner, his assault blaster at the ready, and runs right into several droids. Immediately, he lets go of his assault with one hand, keeping the other hand on the weapon, and draws his lightsaber. He ignites it, and swings its blue blade through the droids in front of him.
Han glances to the left, and sees a heavy set of doors off to the left.
"There," Han says.. He walks over to the doors. The clones follow him, and Tech hurries up to try and crack the lock.
As the team is standing there, they hear something. They glance to what looks like a small mirror above the lock Tech is trying to crack, and a split second later, an image of Watt Tambor comes up.
"You clones and Terrans are so predictable," Tambor says.
"Wat Tambor," Han says in a low voice.
"The algorithm predicted nearly every move you made to infiltrate Purkoll," Tambor says.
"Well, guess what. Your algorithm has reached the last of its usefulness," Han says. He then punches the projector, destroying it.
A second later, Tech says, "There we go." As he says this, the doors open.
Han leads the team into the room. Looking around, they see that the room is full of computer consoles.
"This is it. The nerve center," Han says. He then turns to Tech and says, "Crack their system, Tech."
Tech nods and walks over to the main console. As he does, Han hears noises behind him. He turns around, and sees droids coming into the room. He raises his assault blaster and guns them down.
"Those won't be the last. Men, cover Tech. Nothing gets through us," Han says. The clones form a line in front of Tech.
Meanwhile, the SSG commandos make their way around a corner and see another set of large doors.
"In there," Khan says. He and the other 9 Pakistanis make their way over to the door and set a charge against it. Stepping back out of range, they blow the charge, which blasts a hole in the door.
The ten Pakistanis move into the room, and quickly realize they've found the power generators.
"Set the charges," Khan says. His men move around, pulling out explosive charges and setting them against the generators, making sure to set them out of sight so that only somebody actually taking the time to look for them would see them. Once the charges are set, the Pakistanis race out of the room and head back towards the lift.
As they hurry back to the lift, in the control room, Tech says, "I've cracked the system. Downloading intel now."
As he's saying this, the rest of the clones and Han can barely him over the sound of their blasters firing as they fire into the midst of droids attempting to get into the room.
"Hurry, Tech!" Han shouts.
Only moments later, Tech says, "All information downloaded."
"Alright! Echo, Jesse, start setting the charges!" Han orders.
Echo and Jesse put their blasters away and start hurrying around, setting charges against the various consoles, making sure that everything necessary will be destroyed.
It only takes them a minute to get all the charges set. Once they do, Echo shouts, "Sir, they're set!"
"Retreat back to the lift!" Han shouts. He then charges towards the droids, firing a grenade from his grenade launcher and destroying a large number of the droids. He and the clones then charge out of the room.
Once the team is out of the room and running back towards the lift, Han shouts, "Blow the charges!" Immediately, Jesse, who's holding the detonator, presses the button. The charges detonate within a few seconds, completely destroying the room and all the systems.
As they reach the lift, they find the Pakistanis already there, trying to hold off a large group of droids coming from the other direction. Han and the clones join the fight, firing at the droids. It takes only a few more moments before all the droids in view are destroyed.
"Let's move!" Han shouts. They hurry into the lift, which closes just as a hundred more droids begin to come into view.
"Did you boys find anything?" Han asks
"Yes. We found the generator room, and set charges. Hopefully that'll slow them down from tracking us," Khan says.
"Good. Detonate the charges once we're out of the lift," Han says.
Han and the rest of the team wait impatiently. After what seems like far, far longer than it really is, the lift stops and opens up.
Han races out of the lift, the rest of the team following him. As they run, Han shouts, "Khan! Blow the charges!"
Khan presses the button on the detonator, and the charges detonate. Instantly, the entire building's power goes out.
"Alright. We need to hurry back to the rendezvous point," Han says.
The entire strike team races through a canyon towards the rendezvous point. Han keeps track of their progress on a holomap.
As the team gets within 2 miles of the rendezvous point, Han finally gets on the commlink. "Colonel Han to Black Hawk 1 and Black Hawk 2. We're 2 miles out from the rendezvous point," he says over the commlink.
"This is Black Hawk 1. We're on our way," the pilot of the first Black Hawk says.
Right then, they hear blaster fire. The team glances back over their shoulders, and sees four droids flying after them.
"Bring 'em down!" Han shouts. Crossfire whips around and quickly takes four droids out.
"They're not gonna be the last ones. We need to move!" Han shouts.
The team runs as fast as they can force themselves to towards the rendezvous point. But, by the time they reach the rendezvous point, the Black Hawks aren't there.
"Where are they?" Khan shouts.
"I don't know!" Echo shouts.
More blaster fire flies around them. They whip around and see more droids approaching.
"Get 'em!" Han shouts, and everyone opens fire.
Droid after droid falls, but more keep coming. Then, out of nowhere, they hear the sound of rotor blades, followed by the sound of miniguns firing. A second later, glowing tracer rounds begin ripping through the droids, shredding them into scraps of metal.
The clones and Pakistanis cheer as the Black Hawks appear overhead, their gunners firing down at the last few droids. Once the droids are destroyed, the two helicopters set down.
Han remains facing the direction the droids came from, his assault blaster still at the ready just in case more droids appear, covering as the rest of the team races towards the helicopters. The Bad Batch, two Pakistanis, Echo, and the two clones from the 212th leap into the first Black Hawk, while Jesse and the remaining 8 Pakistanis leap into the second Black Hawk.
Turning around, Khan, who is in the first Black Hawk, shouts, "Come on, Colonel!" As he hears this, Han turns and runs towards the Black Hawk, leaping into the back. Once Han is on board, the two Black Hawks take off and start heading back towards the Dauntless.
On board the bridge, Admiral Roughead is waiting for updates on the mission. Suddenly, alarms begin to sound, and one of the officers says, "Sir! Separatist warships are arriving in orbit!"
Roughead whips towards the officer. "What?!" he shouts.
"Sir, I count five Separatist warships in orbit," the officer replies.
"Send a message to those Black Hawks. I want them back now!" Roughead shouts.
The bridge communication officer immediately gets on the commlink. "Black Hawk 1, Black Hawk 2, Separatist warships have arrived in orbit. Get back to the Dauntless immediately!" the officer says.
In the lead Black Hawk, the pilot says, "Understood." The two Black Hawks immediately throttle up full power and race back towards the Dauntless.
When the Black Hawks are still 30 miles away from the ship, on the Dauntless' bridge, an officer calls out, "Sir! I'm picking up dozens of Separatist fighters heading planetside!"
"Scramble our fighters!" Roughead shouts.
Immediately, Terran pilots race to their fighters and begin to scramble as soon as they warm up their fighters.
At the same time, the two Black Hawk pilots hold their course. As they hold their course, they suddenly hear the sound of approaching Vulture droids.
"S***!" the lead Black Hawk pilot as he tries to push the helicopter even faster.
Two Vulture droids swoop down around them, firing their laser cannons. However, none of the bolts hit.
The Vulture droids swoop past, then turn around for another run. As they do, the lead pilot shouts over the open commlink, "This is Black Hawk 1! We're under attack!"
"This is Rapier 1. My flight is en route to your position! Hold tight!" a voice calls back over the radio.
The Vulture droids come in for another pass. The two Black Hawks swerve to try and avoid the laser fire.
Right as they think they're about to get away again, a single laser bolt hits the tail of Black Hawk 1, blowing the tip of the tail and rear rotor off.
The Black Hawk begins to spin and fall out of the sky. The pilot struggles to regain control, but immediately realizes its hopeless. He immediately gets back on the commlink and shouts, "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is Black Hawk 1! We're going down!" The Black Hawk continues to fall, and soon crashes into a small hillside.
Right then, Rapier flight, a flight of four Su-36s, arrives on the scene. They instantly shoot down the two Vulture droids, then form up around Black Hawk 2 to escort it back to the Dauntless. One Su-36, however, flies over the crash site.
"This is Admiral Roughead. What's going on?" Roughead says over the commlink.
The pilot that overflew the crash site responds, "This is Captain Alexandrov. Black Hawk 1 has crashed. But, it seems to be relatively intact."
"Escort Black Hawk 2 back to the ship, and we'll prepare a rescue mission!" Roughead responds.
As Black Hawk 2 and its fighter escorts head back to the Dauntless, a formation of 60 Hyena bombers and 72 Vulture droids flies down towards the Star Destroyer. Su-36s and SF-15s fly up to engage them, but a number of Hyenas manage to get through the fighter screen and laser fire from the ship and drop proton bombs on the Dauntless.
The proton bombs explode, causing heavy damage to the ship.
On the bridge, Roughead shouts, "Damage report!"
"Sir, we've suffered heavy damage fore and amidships. We can't take another run like that!" an officer shouts.
Roughead is quiet for a moment, wondering what to do. Then, making the tough decision, he shouts, "Once Black Hawk 2 is back aboard, get us out of here!"
The bridge crew nod and begin preparing to jump to hyperspace, not wanting to leave Black Hawk 1 behind, but knowing they have no choice right now.
Within minutes, Black Hawk 2 flies under the ship and lands in the ventral bay. All fighters cover the ship as it climbs out of the atmosphere. Once it's clear of the atmosphere, all fighters return to the ship. And once the last is aboard, the Dauntless makes the jump to hyperspace.
(Anaxes)
Hall looks out at the setting sun. It's been close to a day since the Dauntless left Anaxes, and they have not yet received word of how the mission went.
Suddenly, his commlink begins to beep. Hall holds it out, and a hologram of Admiral Roughead appears.
"Admiral. How went the mission?"
"The team destroyed the target. However, as the Black Hawks were returning, a Separatist task force arrived. A Vulture droid shot down the Black Hawk carrying Colonel Han and the Bad Batch, and the Dauntless was badly damaged by Hyenas. We were force to retreat once Black Hawk 2 was back aboard. And we're in no condition to fight. We had to leave Black Hawk 1 behind," Roughead says.
Hall sits there, stunned for a moment. Then he says, "Thank you, Admiral. I'll pass the news on to Joint Command."
Hall cuts off the transmission, then attempts to contact General Powell. After a few moments, the general comes up and says, "Colonel Hall. What is it?"
"General, I just got an update from Admiral Roughead. They accomplished the objective, but we have a problem," Hall says.
"What is it, Colonel?" Powell asks.
Hall sighs, then sighs, "General, we have a Black Hawk down."
And, I'll end there.
So, I hope you liked this chapter. I know it may have been a bit rushed, but I hope you liked it.
So, yes. The brief arc I'm doing instead of Echo's rescue will be centered on Han and his team trying to survive, and the Terran Alliance trying to rescue them. It will be called, after the events and movie that inspired it, the Black Hawk Down arc.
Next chapter will be up rather soon. Also, just a PSA regarding the wiki. The link I provided in my bio will take you to the home page. I'm still trying to set that up, so if you want to see the articles I've done, click on the Categories link on the home page, and look through the categories Characters, Clone Wars Battles, Conflicts, Fighters, Governments, Military Units, and Special Ops Units. All the articles I've published so far are in those categories.
Also, I've heard some people are still heaving trouble with the link. So, in addition to trying to fix it in my bio, I'm going to tell you all how to type it out. Type "terranalliance", then a period, then "fandom", then a period, then "com". Hopefully that will work. Let me know if it doesn't.
Alright. Next chapter will be up soon. Until then, leave a review, and stay tuned!