So when I write original chapters, I tend to do it while listening to episodes of cartoons and anime provided it's something I have seen already, like Rwby and He-Man the 2002 series. I find it helps me focus with the background noise and keeps going when I want to stop writing.
Anyways, here is the first part of My Citadel Arc and the appearance of a new enemy the Lone Wolf will have to deal with. Disclaimers are the same as before. Enjoy.
Chapter 8: The Citadel
July 28th, 2018 21BBY
Jedi temple, Coruscant
1400 hours
Roberts point of view
Nearly two weeks had past since the 'Mortis incident' as I called it and now I was worried beyond belief.
Jedi Master Even Piel a member of the Jedi Council, the same Council member that my Aunt Cassie had been ordered to accompany on an important mission was captured by the separatists during his return to Coruscant. He carried vital information about secret hyperspace lanes called the Nexus Route, a secret hyperspace lane that connected the very hearts of both the republic and separatists. If either side had the coordinates they could be used for launching an attack at the very heart of both governments, or in Dooku's case allow him to meet with me and tell me more about my mother. A risky move on his part, but he didn't care.
Normally this wouldn't be a big deal since the archives had a copy of the route, but it was out of date that we needed to rescue master Piel and the survivors before they gave the data to the enemy.
The bad news was that they were being held at the Citadel, a prison built five-hundred years before the Clone War with the sole purpose of containing rouge Jedi. To make matters worse, the planet was guarded by two banking clan frigates, one droid control ship and one enemy capital ship all of which were equipped with life-form scanners rendering the idea of a sneaking in with the team useless. Not only that but the planet the citadel was located on, Lola Sayu was located deep within separatist occupied space.
The good news however is that both Echo and Fives would be accompanying us on this mission. Hevy, Kilo, Erik, Fenrir, the Lagoon crew and the rest of the Expendables were away on another assignment, leaving Ray as the only member of the unit to assist with the mission.
Originally, I wasn't to be a part of the mission. But Masters Plo and Yoda deemed it necessary for me to join the mission. I had Blake's hacking program which was vital for us to maintain our secrecy. Stealth was the key here so I originally decided to leave the BFG behind and take only my Morita with its Shotgun barrel and Hand Cannon but figured it would be better to have my hybrid weapon with me just in case things went south.
"This is going to be a challenge." I said to Obi-Wan, Plo and Anakin as we left the war room. "Agreed," Master Plo stated. "Based on the archive schematics, we've narrowed it down to three possible locations they could be holding him at." The Kel Dor Jedi added. "My greatest concern is infiltrating their outer security. The lifeform scanners will not be so easily fooled." Obi-Wan remined us.
"Unless we find a way to trick them, we're going to get shot down before even setting foot on the planet." I chimed in. "I've got a thought about that." Anakin stated just as Ahsoka came rushing towards us.
"Master. I'm sorry I'm late. I just heard about the briefing. We're going to rescue Master Piel and General Cage, right?" Ahsoka asked with an enthusiastic smile on her face. Plo and Obi-Wan left us leaving me and Anakin to talk to her.
"Ahsoka, I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but you won't be coming with us on this one." Anakin said to his padawan, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Not coming? But your breaking into the Citadel. No one's ever done it." She asked and stated. "Sorry Ahsoka. But the Citadel isn't a normal prison. It wasn't designed like Arkham, it was built to hold Jedi who lost their way." I responded.
"Robert is right, its not a place for padawans." Anakin added.
"Your just being protective again. How am I suppose to learn if you won't let me share the risk?" Ahsoka asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "This isn't a mission for learning. You either do or die and that's not a risk I am willing to share." Anakin responded, leaving the two of us alone.
"I wasn't to be a part of this mission, but my Aunt is at that hell hole. I won't abandon my family. That's one of the reasons I am going." I stated to Ahsoka. "And the other reason?" she asked. "I can use Blake's program to keep us from getting spotted by the droids." I added before following Anakin towards the hanger leaving Ahsoka behind.
Along the way, I ran into Master Kota. "Sargent." He said as he walked alongside me. "I heard about the mission to rescue Master Piel and your aunt. I thought you should know that General Piels captain doesn't think very highly of us Jedi and that he doesn't very highly of you either." He stated.
"Thanks for the info General. I'll keep my guard up." I said, leaving Master Kota and entering the hanger approaching Master Plo who was tuning up his fighter. "Master Plo, can I trust you to have my fighter ready in case we have to use the secondary landing zone?" I asked to which he agreed.
My theory about the traitor in the military began to grow more with each passing day. After Admiral Jahcort, an old friend of my Mom's returned with Master Kota and the survivors of his convoy and learning the seppies had stolen the prototype walkers that were to be tested made me more and more suspicious of certain military leaders, like Major Kendal Ozzel to be the possible traitor. But those like Yularen, Killian, Jahcort and Coburn were above such possible accusations. They were loyal to the republic while Ozzel would look down on his contemporaries and showed a complete bias towards women and non-humans in the republic military, jedi or not.
Approaching Cody and the other troopers, I turned around upon hearing the familiar whistle and beep of good old Artoo and to my surprise saw that he was being followed by four B1's and four B2 battle droids all with a blue paint scheme. Threepio was originally alarmed by this, but until R2 explained that he had reprogrammed them to follow his orders, he left the hanger. "Makes sense. If we are going into the belly of the beast, Droids are the best chance for us to get by the scanners." I said to Echo and Fives who were unsure about having the droids getting them inside.
"Besides, if we get caught they can make it so that we are being transferred to another prison by Dooku's orders." I added as Ray, with twin .40 S&W P99 pistols in his side holsters, a DSA-SA58 with a forty-five-round magazine, forward handgrip and ACOG sight slung across his back and a short barreled M870 with its stock folded walking towards them with a short-barreled XM8 carbine with a fifty-round magazine in place of the standard thirty-magazine, red dot sight, retractable folding stock and laser sight, a Calico M960A submachine gun with a one-hundred-round helical magazine and two nickel plated .44 magnum Desert Eagles in a duffle bag for Cassie to use, since she didn't take any of the weapons from the range or bring her fathers revolvers.
I turned my eyes towards Rex who was inspecting his pistols for the fifth time now. "Hey Rex." I called over as I took my Morita from Echo. "Don't worry, she'll be alright." I assured the captain of the 501st. patting him on the back.
"This your idea? Carbon Freezing?" I heard Obi-Wan ask Anakin in confusion as the two walked over with the rest of the infiltration team to carbon freezing machine. "Kenobi, if we want to fool the lifeform scanners then this is the best way to do it." I heard Ray call as he made his way towards the machine.
"Are we sure this thing is safe? I don't want to end up a wall decoration." Fives asked in concern. "Try to relax, we'll be unfrozen by the time we arrive." Obi-Wan assured the ARC trooper as the Ugnaught engineer activate the terminal and froze all eleven us. None of us knew that when we were unfrozen we would be in for quite a surprise.
Normal point of view
R2 waited with concern as the carbon pods were lifted out of the freezing chamber. A medical droid checked the team's vital signs and it was clear that they were all alive.
His team of droids having finished loading the team on the stolen shuttle, powered up the ship as the temples hanger opened and the land pad extended. "May the Force be with you." Master Plo said as he watched the shuttle take off.
Exiting hyperspace sometime later, the ship arrived over the semi-destroyed planet and were soon hailed by the Citadels sadist warden Osi Sobeck. "Citadel command is contacting us." One of R2s droids stated.
On the surface of the dangerous prison, the tactical droid in the command center demanded their identification. "This is shuttle 81572. Requesting access to Citadel prison." The droid responded over the comlink. "Make sure every part of that ship is scanned for lifeforms. Make no mistake, the Jedi will be coming for their imprisoned brother. They're not about to allow one of their own to be tortured in the handing of information that will help the Separatists win the war." Sobeck said as he spun his chair around giving the droid its orders.
"What is your cargo?" The tactical droid asked.
Back aboard the shuttle, OOM-10 R2's second in command began to panic. They weren't expecting to be asked about their cargo. But with R2's quick thinking they avoided be detected. "Supplies and frozen rations." OOM-10 replied.
Maintaining their current course, the captured shuttle neared the enemy ships as it was scanned for lifeforms. "I don't think its working." One of the B1 droids said nervously. "Quiet, your going to blow it." OOM-10 responded as the two other battle droids and four super battle droids waited in the cargo hold.
Soon the scan was complete and they were clear to land. Osi however wasn't so sure. "Fear, a Jedi spends his whole training against it." he said as he turned back to the monitors. "But at the Citadel, breaking Jedi is our specialty. Within these walls, they will learn to fear us. If not, they will die." He added as he watched with delight as two commando droids jabbed Master Piel with their electro staffs before turning his attention to the monitor showing Cassie pacing back in forth in the officer's cell.
Landing at a cavern closet to the Citadel, R2 and his droids began to unfreeze the rescue team. Once they had offloaded the carbon pods, they began to thaw each member out. As he rubbed his sore arms Anakin looked to the behind him and thought he was dreaming because he saw Ahsoka. "Hey, Ahsoka." Anakin said.
"Hey Master." Ahsoka responded stretching as well. No sooner had she did, Anakin looked back in surprise. "I must have carbon sickness because I swear that's Ahsoka." Obi-Wan stated in surprise. "Your eyes are find, its Ahsoka's hearing that needs help." Anakin said sending a small disappointed glare at his padawan as Robert walked over to the three, placing his helmet on.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Robert asked checking his weapons in the process. "I received orders to join the team. I thought you knew." Ahsoka replied.
"Orders? From who?" Anakin asked his padawan. "I discussed it with Master Plo. You two were already in carbonite." Ahsoka answered. "I see that Anakins new teaching method is 'do as I say not as I do'." Obi-Wan joked before welcoming Ahsoka to the mission, before leaving R2 and his squad to guard the shuttle.
Later as the group walked along the cliff to the entry point, Robert waited for Ahsoka. "You didn't get orders to join the team. Did you?" Robert asked his friend. "Even if I didn't it doesn't change the fact that I am here. Face it, you need me." Ahsoka responded as she raced to catch up with the others. "One of these days." Robert said to himself as he followed the group, checking his ammo supply. He had thirty magazines for his rifle, fifteen packs for his blaster/launcher and twenty clips for his pistol, which he recently modified to hold ten rounds per clip. Along with his knife and sabers, he was ready to go loud the moment things would take a turn for the worst.
In front of them was the citadel.
Taking out his electro binoculars, Anakin spotted the entry point. Cody then stated that Skywalker was correct that the wind conditions were to strong for jetpacks. "Looks like well have to do it the old fashion way. With ascension cables and a steel grip." Obi-Wan stated.
"I don't think that's going to work." Anakin said to his old master. "They've rigged the wall with electro mines. There's no way to put a grappling hock up at that height and if we hit one of those mines, they will know we're here." Anakin summarized. "I suppose that means we free climb it. Looks like the Sargent had the idea before you general." Rex stated as Obi-Wan and Anakin looked and saw Robert standing below the entry point.
A while later, the team began to climb the wall taking extra precaution not to hit one of the mines. As they neared closer to the top, two super battle droids and a destroyer droid nearly spotted them were it not for Obi-Wan giving a signal for the others to hug the wall and wait for the droids to go back inside.
The moment the droids did, a ray shield activated blocking their way. Ahsoka however spotted an opening to the ventilation system which could get them inside. The only problem was the only Ahsoka could fit through so Obi-Wan instructed her to go in through the vents and open the door for the inside.
While she did Anakin, Robert and Obi-Wan helped the other members of the team up just as Ahsoka shut down the ray shield. As Echo was about to help the last trooper up, the rock his foot was on gave way and began to fall. "CHARGER!" Echo shouted.
No sooner had he started to fall, Robert caught the clone with the force and brought him safely to the landing pad, keeping their presence a secret. "Thanks, Sarge." Charger said as he followed the others into the jaws of hell.
Rays point of view
The moment we entered the prison, we ensured that we checked our corners and kept our eyes open for any droids that might spot us.
The kid kept our presence a secret when he saved Charger from falling and had finished inserting the virus into the citadel systems, making it so the droids couldn't see us. Even so, we continued to take out the enemy surveillance systems in case they were able to get past Blake's virus.
Fives and Echo were about to fire their blasters at the camera's but the kid beat them to it and fired his own pistol at the camera's the sound of his pistol silent with the suppressor he had attached to it. He then fired his weapon at the small laser turrets on the wall, emptying his pistols current clip. "Show off." Echo stated as the group moved further into the prison. "If we went loud, then the turrets would have activated and they would have electrified the walls." Robert stated loading a new clip into his pistol before returning it to his holster and unslinging his Morita.
Soon we arrived at one of the prison cells and upon opening the door the two ARC's of Domino squad destroyed the four commando droids guarding the general while Rex blasted the medical droid. Destroying the stasis field generator with his saber, Anakin ordered the men to secure the entrance while Obi-Wan returned Piels lightsaber to his rightful owner.
Piel than explained that while he erased his ships computers when the droids boarded his ship and had himself and his captain each memorize half of the coordinates. "He's being held with the other officers and General Cage I presume." Piel stated as Anakin mentioned they we are going to need a new plan.
It didn't take us long to arrive at the cell where Cassie was being held in. Activating his saber, Anakin stabbed his weapon through the door destroying the first enemy guard while Ahsoka swung into the cell and took out the second one.
Piel entered the doorway and turned his eyes towards a man with auburn hair and blue eyes wearing a republic naval officers uniform. "General." The man said.
"Captain Tarkin." The general replied while I searched for Cassie. "I didn't expect to see you again and you brought friends." Tarkin said with a hint of surprise in his voice. "This is Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. That is Ray McCall and that is the Lone Wolf." Piel said introducing us to his captain. "Where's my aunt?" Robert demanded from one of the naval officers. "The droids took General Cage not to long ago. They believed that she had the half of the Nexus route that I have memorized and took her for interrogation." Tarkin explained.
"Then we need to get her out. They will kill her when she doesn't give them what they want." Robert stated as he left the cell.
"We don't have time to rescue her. The Nexus Route must be returned to the republic immediately. General Cage's death is an acceptable loose in this war." Tarkin said with his hands behind his back. "Listen here bub. The Expendables never abandon one of their own, no mater the situation. We are going to get her." I stated and followed Robert, not knowing that the traitor in the military was in front of us.
Normal point of view
No sooner had Robert and Ray left the cell where Tarkin was held, the alarm blared across the Citadel. "They know we're here. I thought you planted the virus in the systems?" Ray asked his Nephew. "I did. They must have discovered it and countered it." Robert responded as he shoulder charged one of Citadel commando droids before flipping it over and bringing his armors boot to its face, destroying it. "Curb stomp." Robert said before firing a long burst of rifle fire at several incoming droids, gunning them down.
More droids appeared from behind, their weapons fire hitting Roberts armor, weakening his shields. Pivoting 180 degrees he fired another burst of rifle fire, sending spent .308 rifle rounds clattering to the ground and downing four more droids.
From behind him, Ray fired his DSA at three approaching commando droids in quick three round bursts gunning them down before they could even fire their weapons at his nephew. "Don't think I'm letting you have all the fun." Ray joked as he fired the rest of his weapons current magazine at two approaching super battle droids. "Try and keep up." Robert replied as he fired a long burst of rifle fire at an approaching destroyer droid, killing it before it even uncurled and emptying his current magazine.
Loading a fresh one into his rifle, Robert entered the cell and used the force to send the two droids guarding his Aunt into the wall before punching the stasis field generator holding his aunt, destroying it and freeing his aunt. "Glad to see you kid. You too Ray." Cassie said weakly as Robert helped her up. "How bad they treat you?" Ray asked as he dropped the duffle bag holding Cassie's weapons in front of her. "Not that bad. It takes more than the shock treatment to make me talk." Cassie replied, pulling the receiving bolt of her carbine back just as the rescue team and Tarkin arrive.
"Now that you've found your aunt, how do you expect to get us out?" Tarkin asked, crossing his arms. "If they've locked down this fortress, there's at least ten squads of droids on their way. Its going to be impossible for us to escape."
"Gee glad to see you asshole." Cassie joked.
"What if we split up? My team will create a diversion, while Anakin and Robert lead the others away. That way if one of us is captured, the enemy will have only half of the information." Obi-Wan suggested breaking up the potential argument between Tarkin and Cassie.
Naturally, Tarkin disagreed with the idea and suggested that it would be better for the group to stay together. Master Piel however agreed with Obi-Wan and went with him while Tarkin went with Anakin and his group.
"Miss me Rex?" Cassie asked the clone captain.
"I was worried about you." Rex admitted. "Like I told Robert, it takes more than the shock treatment to get me to talk." She replied as she followed Anakin and the others towards their exit point.
A while later after splitting up, an explosion occurred shacking the prison and destroying a good portion of it. As Anakin and his group made their way further along their route, he stopped and cut a hole in the wall with his Lightsaber creating an exit.
Exiting through the hole, Ahsoka ran forward to check for enemy units. "This is one of the original fortress tunnels." Echo said. "The advantage of old archive data." Fives added, while Robert looked down the hole and saw lava. "Why does it have to be lava?" he said to himself as Ahsoka returned claiming the tunnel was clear.
"Looks like Obi-Wans distraction worked. Things seem to be going as planned." Anakin said.
"Its when things don't go as planned that concerns me. What then?" Tarkin asked. "It's when things don't go as planned that we Jedi are at our best." Anakin responded.
"I reserve my trust for those who take action, General Skywalker." Tarkin said firmly before Robert came face to face with the captain. "Then let me be the guy to remind you that we rescued you back there and I reserve my trust for who understand gratitude, 'Captain' Tarkin. If you'd like you can go back to your cell, I'm sure the droids would be more than happy to accommodate you, as a prisoner." Robert proclaimed before following the others as Echo and Fives resealed the hole Anakin cut.
"I don't take orders from children. But one day, I will have more power than anyone can imagine and with that power, I can do whatever I feel is necessary." Tarkin said to himself, eyeing Ahsoka with a sinister smirk.
First part of the Citadel done. I figured I'd keep Charger and Longshot alive for now, like with Gearshift, Trap, Ponds, Redeye, Mixer and Havoc I have plans for the troopers I keep alive.
So now Tarkin has made his appearance and is hiding something. Question is, what is?
Next time, Counter Attack and a change in Echo's future. Please leave a review and I will see all next time.
