Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
So, this chapter will feature the return of some characters I'm sure you all have been waiting to see again.
Let's get to it.
Peter Hong Kong: Each solider in the Terran Alliance Armed Forces uses either firearms or blasters depending on their preference. However, for special ops missions deep inside enemy territory, they stay with firearms, as those can't be seen when fired.
Guest DCDGojira: Haven't worked out when Vader will find out about Luke's love interest.
Dalej0523: I hadn't thought of that. let me think about that.
the mysterious Mr.E: I'm not going to cross that line, especially regarding Christ, to try and avoid being sacrilegious. But, I will say that the Alliance has begun to suspect that people from many cultures over the millenia that have been believed to have powers or abilities, such as shaman or priests, may in fact have been Force sensitive.
Guest 221: I actually mentioned this briefly in the last story. I'm a member of what's commonly called the Mormon or LDS church, though the real name of the church, which we prefer, is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I mentioned this when I wrote the chapter in the last story that included the Terran Jedi Temple, as I drew part of the inspiration for the Temple from my church's temple in Salt Lake City. And no worries, I didn't think you rude at all.
Chapter 24- Zulus and Clones
Calvin slowly pokes his head up and over the boulder, examining the Imperial facility up ahead. It's definitely an imposing structure. But nothing he and his team can't handle.
He hears a shuffling behind him, and looks to the side to see Fives made his way up to him. Calvin smiles. Despite Fives being in the equivalent of his 60s, he's still an excellent fighter. The Terran Joint Command had in fact been ready to decommission Clone Force 5 not long ago, but when it became clear war with the Empire was about to begin, they decided to keep the unit intact.
"What do you think?" Calvin asks.
"I think this ain't gonna be harder than anything we've trained for," Fives says.
Calvin grins. "That's what I like to hear," he says. He pauses for a second, then says, "Let's get back to the team and make a plan."
Fives nods once with a smile. Although he is in overall command of the mission, given that he is now a Brigadier General, he has been letting Calvin take the lead for the most part.
As Calvin and Fives back their way back to the rest of the team, Calvin reflects on his mission. The Terran Alliance had learned of the existence of an Imperial engineering archive facility on the planet Orinda, meant to serve as a replacement for the former archive on Scarif. They also heard that there was a new model of TIE fighter under development, and the current schematics were stored there. Calvin had been assigned to lead a team to attack the facility, retrieve the plans for the new TIE fighter and several other designs, then destroy the facility. Orinda was a heavily occupied planet, so the mission was also meant to show the Empire that the Terran Alliance had the ability to launch covert missions deeper and deeper into Imperial territory, and further undermine Imperial morale.
The team had come on a brand new stealth shuttle made for special forces missions. The shuttle was now hidden several miles away from their current location.
Finally, Calvin and Fives come around a boulder, and see the rest of the strike team. Jesse, Hardcase, Echo, the Bad Batch, and six Zulus.
"Alright, men. The facility is just half a mile in that direction," Calvin says, pointing in the direction of the facility, "It's heavily guarded, but the patrols are fairly spaced out. What I want to do is set off an explosion here in the forest. Draw their attention to it and create an opening for us to get in. And once we're inside… we just follow our training."
"Sounds good to me," Hardcase says excitedly.
Calvin and several of the Zulus make their way through the trees until they reach a spot that Calvin decides is good for their purposes. They start setting down several explosives, ensuring that there are enough that a simultaneous detonation will definitely draw the attention of the Imperial garrison. They then carefully make their way back to the rest of the group.
Calvin preps his assault rifle and cocks it, then looks at the men of his team and says, "Alright, men. Let's move."
The strike team follows silently behind Calvin. The Zulus armor, as well as the clones' armor, have been painted with forest camouflage patterns, enabling them to blend in well with the trees. They move slowly, weapons at the ready.
Finally, they reach the edge of the treeline, only about 50 yards from the facility. Calvin turns to one of the Zulus, Major Alsakan, a Torfan who is the first non-Terran to become a member of the Zulu Force, and gives a single nod. Alsakan nods and presses a button on his left vambrace. Instantly, the charges detonate.
The team waits silently among the bushes and trees, watching the facility. Sure enough, within seconds, patrols start racing in the direction of the explosion, and more stormtroopers start racing out of the facility in the same direction.
Calvin raises his right hand and waves it forward, silently signaling the team forward. He stands up alone with the rest of the team and charges towards the facility, with the rest of the team following behind him.
When they reach a small maintenance door in the wall of the facility, the team spreads out a bit, with most of them taking covering positions around the door, weapons pointed in all directions. Calvin then looks at Wrecker and silently motions with his hand from Wrecker to the door. Wrecker nods and moves over to the door, wrenching it open with one hand.
Calvin motions his team into the facility and leads the way in. The team moves silently, weapons at the ready.
Calvin recalls the design data they have on the facility thanks to an Imperial defector, trying to remember how to reach the data vault. He quickly recalls it, and turns a corner, assault rifle still raised, and continues down the hallway, the rest of the team following behind him.
They make their way down several corridors before reaching a set of stairs. Calvin motions for everyone to gather around. Once the whole team has gathered around him, Calvin looks at Fives. Fives looks around at everyone and says in a very soft voice, "Colonel King, take your men down and activate the self destruction on this place. Calvin, you and Force 5 with me."
Calvin nods, then turns and starts up the stairs, the rest of Clone Force 5 following close behind him. They move silently up the stairs, finally emerging on the floor where the entrance to the data vault is located.
As they emerge from the stairway, Calvin sees a team of 4 stormtroopers approaching, which quickly stop short at the sight of them. Before any of them can even say anything to sound the alarm, Calvin raises his assault rifle and fires, gunning down two of them. Fives and Echo kill the remaining two with their assault rifles. Normally, they still use their blasters, but for this mission, they were armed with assault rifles that, like everyone else's were fitted with silencers to muffle the sound.
"Move," Calvin whispers urgently, and the clones follow close behind him, all of them now moving a little faster.
After rounding several corners, they finally reach the door into the data vault. Calvin looks over his shoulder and says, "Tech, Echo, with me. The rest of you, guard the entrance." He then moves through the door to the data vault.
Tech and Echo follow Calvin into the data vault itself, where they find a large control panel sitting at the base of massive towers holding data tapes.
"Tech, find the tapes we're looking for," Calvin orders.
"On it," Tech says, immediately getting to work on the control panel to locate the data tapes they're after.
Meanwhile, the six Zulus, led by Lieutenant Colonel King, slowly make their way down to a control center where the controls for the facility's self-destruction sequence are located. They move forward in a column of three pairs, with the rear pair covering the team's six o clock.
As they round a corner, King and the Zulu with him, Major Alsakan, see two stormtroopers directly in front of them. Alsakan guns one down with his P226 pistols, while King raises his left vambrace and torches the second stormtrooper with a jet of flame. The six Zulus then move on.
They reach the doors into the control room moments later. King looks back at his men and nods once before opening the door. As he does, the six Zulus see at least 20 stormtroopers and about 15 technicians around the room.
The Zulus snap into action. Two of the Zulus open fire with their assault rifles, as well as Alsakan with his pistols. King takes to the air with his jetpack, letting out jets of flames from both vambraces. The last two Zulus draw vibroblades and attack stormtroopers and technicians hand to hand, moving smoothly from enemy to enemy, with none of the Imperials even managing to land a blow. In a matter of moments, every Imperial in the room is dead.
"I guarantee somebody heard that. We need to move fast," King says. He and Alsakan hurriedly move to different control consoles and begin hacking into the Imperial database. Within a minute, they've successfully hacked in and gained access to the self destruct program. King types a few things in at his control console and sets the timer for the self destruct sequence.
"Alright. We got ten minutes. Let's move," King says. The other five Zulus form up around their leader and hurry out. As they go, King gets on his commlink and says over it, "General Fives. We set the self destruct sequence to begin in 10 minutes."
Up at the entrance to the data vault, Fives responds, "Understood. Retreat to the door we entered from and hold it. If we're not there in 9 minutes, leave without us." He then cuts off the transmission and hurries into the data vault, where he finds Calvin and Echo still standing over Tech as Tech works.
"We have ten minutes until this place blows. Where are we at?" Fives demands.
"I've located one of the data files. I'm still looking for the other one," Tech says, his fingers dancing across the keys.
Calvin and the two other clones wait impatiently for Tech to finish. As they do, they hear gunfire from outside in the hall, and Jesse calls out, "Guys! We've got company! You might want to hurry it up!"
"Hurry, Tech!" Calvin urges.
"Almost got it," Tech says. A few seconds later, he says, "Got it!" Tech then moves over and uses a retrieval device, similar to the one in the data vault of Scarif, to retrieve a data tape from the tower. He lowers the tape down to his level and grabs it, securing it to his belt next to a tape he's already retrieved.
"Alright. Let's move!" Fives orders, and the three hurry out of the data vault.
As they exit the data vault, they find stormtroopers rushing in from both ends of the hall, and the other clones of Force 5 firing away at them.
Calvin sees a pair of stormtroopers racing forward, firing their blasters. In a flash, Calvin yanks his two lightsabers off his belt and ignites them, their brilliant silver blades shining brightly. Calvin leaps forward, lightsabers whirling, and he easily cuts down the two stormtroopers. Several more stormtroopers fire on him, but Calvin deflects their blaster bolts aside with his lightsabers before the stormtroopers are gunned down by Hardcase.
"Let's move," Calvin yells, and he starts running down a hallway, with the clones following behind him.
The nine of them race back down the staircase they came up, then race for the door. As they round a corner, they run right into a team of six stormtroopers. Without even blinking, Calvin cuts down all six stormtroopers, moving so fast he and his sabers are a blur. Without stopping to take it in, he hurries on towards the door.
It doesn't take long before they reach the door, and find the six Zulus just finishing gunning down a squad of stormtroopers.
"Let's move!" Calvin yells. Major Alsakan opens the door, and the team sprints out of the building.
"How long do we have left?" Calvin asks.
"Six minutes and 7 seconds," King responds.
"Let's hurry back to the shuttle, provided the Imps haven't already found it," Fives says.
The team sprints into the jungle before any Imperial forces can spot them and starts heading straight for the shuttle, running as fast as they can. All of them are in prime physical shape, and it's just a three mile journey to the shuttle.
When the team is almost a mile from the facility, the ground beneath begins to shake from a series of violent explosions. They stop for a moment and turn around and watch as the facility vanishes in a series of explosions.
The team stands there for a moment to take in their accomplishment then turns and continue onwards towards where the shuttle is hidden.
Almost twenty minutes later, they finally reach the location of the shuttle. Sure enough, it's still there, completely untouched.
"Let's get out of here," Fives says.
The team hurries aboard the shuttle, and Major King, the one who piloted the shuttle there, hurries up to the cockpit. He quickly powers up the shuttle, and as soon as the engines are at full power, he lifts the shuttle off the ground and starts climbing up and out of the atmosphere.
"Let's start prepping for light speed," King says to Tech, who is serving as copilot. Tech quickly starts making the calculations for the jump to lightspeed.
As they climb into orbit and starts heading away from the planet, the shuttle suddenly rocks from laser blasts. King turns to the side, and his face falls as he sees two Imperial class Star Destroyers appear off his nose.
"We're in trouble," King says as more turbolaser blasts from the leading Star Destroyer fly all around them.
"We need to get out of here," Tech says.
Suddenly, something unexpected happens. Without warning, the rear Star Destroyer suddenly opens fire, but to the surprise of both King and Tech, its turbolasers begin firing on the first Star Destroyer. At the same time, TIE fighters and TIE bombers flying from the second Destroyer begin attacking the first.
King and Tech are so shocked that they hold their course towards the two Star Destroyers. After several moments, King says, "What the h*** is going on?"
"I have no idea," Tech says.
The first Star Destroyer starts turning to engage the second Destroyer, but further turbolaser fire and attack by TIE bombers begin blasting huge chunks out of the Destroyer. In a matter of moments, the first Star Destroyer begins to explode.
King and Tech watch as the first Star Destroyer begins to explode. Then, their ship rocks. Tech scans the instruments, and says, "They've locked onto us with a tractor beam."
"Any chance of escaping it?" King asks.
"No," Tech responds simply.
"Well, let's get ready to fight," King says as he begins to power down the ship before walking into the back with Tech.
As King and Tech walk into the cabin, King announces, "We just got locked onto by a Star Destroyer's tractor beam. We'll be pulled into their hangar bay in moments."
Fives stands up a second later and looks around at everybody. "Alright. If we're going down, we're going down fighting. Ready weapons," he says. Everyone begins gathering their weapons, ready to make their last stand.
The team stands in silence for what feels like an hour before the ship shudders. "We've landed," Fives mutters. Everyone nods and readies their weapons before moving to the ramp.
Tech puts his hand on the controls and looks back to the team, awaiting Fives' signal. Fives readies his assault rifle and nods once. Tech nods in return and lowers the ramp.
Instantly, the team rushes down the ramp, weapons raised. However, to their surprise, the hangar is nearly empty. There's only a few scattered personnel around the hangar. However, they quickly see a man with high rank insignia, flanked by two stormtroopers.
They aim their weapons towards him, but the Imperial officer quickly raises his hands and says, "At ease. I mean you no harm."
"Why should you trust you?" Fives asks.
"Because I just saved your lives, and I could have easily killed you already if I wanted," the officer says. He walks slowly towards them, hands still raised and says, "I am Captain Firza, captain of this ship, the Star Destroyer Inquisitor. And on behalf of my entire ship, I am hereby requesting to defect to the Terran Alliance."
The team exchanges a few looks before looking back at Captain Firza. "You want to defect? Why?" Calvin asks.
"Many of us have had our doubts about the Empire for some time, mainly after learning of that battlestation. And, when we heard you Terrans had returned to the galaxy, many of us began to believe that we had to choose between the Empire and defection, and we considered the former choice much more likely to lead to our deaths. So, defection is benefical to us in addition to be the more correct thing to do. So, I announced it to the crew, those who opposed were dealt with, and we began to plan our defection. When we saw your shuttle, we thought it was the right time," Captain Firza says.
Everyone is silent before Fives walks forward to Captain Firza and extends his hand, which Firza reaches out and takes.
"Well, let's head to Naboo, and perhaps Admiral Zambellas can speak with you," Fives says.
"Fair enough," Firza says, a grin on his face that does not seem at all malicious.
(Hoth system)
As the stars twinkle as they always do in the peaceful Hoth system, a single London class Star Destroyer, the TAS St. Petersburg, drops out of hyperspace.
On her bridge, her captain, a Russian named Igor Slavin who is in fact from St. Petersburg, looks out at the planet Hoth as it comes into view. In consideration for locations of a new rebel base, the Terran Joint Command had looked for viable planets, and one planet that was emerging a favorite was the sixth planet of the Hoth system, the planet Hoth.
"Dispatch the SR-71s and prepare the shuttles. Let's begin our assignment," Captain Slavin orders, and the bridge crew hurry to relay his orders.
And, I'll end there. Hope you liked this one.
So, I decided it was high time we feature Clone Force 5. And yes, while they're in the equivalent of their 60s, they're still in service.
Also, to quickly address something I put at the end of the chapter, and I mentioned in a previous chapter. The Terran Alliance has created space capable variants of the SR-71, classified as the SR-71D. They are just as fast in atmosphere as the normal Blackbird, and in space, they're as fast as the Millenium Falcon. They're used for reconnaissance.
So, we have finally seen the first instance of Imperials defecting to the Terran Alliance. I thought this chapter would be a good instance to feature that.
So, next chapter will be the next major battle of the story. It will be up soon. Until then, please leave a review, and stay tuned!