I would once again like to thank all of the people who have favorited and followed my stories thus far. It's because of you guys that I keep writing and continue bringing you new and exciting chapters of my series.
To those who have favorited and followed this story, I once again urge all of you to read the first two stories to have a better understanding of the series as a whole.
Only a couple more chapters to go before we get to the event you all have been dying to see. Speaking of dying, I was originally planning on actually having my character build a Gundam but figured that would be a little on the overkill side, so I went with a couple of other types of ground-based weapons from two original Xbox games instead. Hope you guys will feel nostalgic when I bring them in.
Disclaimers are the same as before so please enjoy.
Chapter 28: In Hyperdrive
March 23rd 2019, 20BBY
1508 hours
Normal point of view
Most people would think that mountain ranges or plains have no military value, but for others they provide the perfect place for an underground storage base or outpost complex.
At the foot of a mountain that was over roughly about four-thousand feet above sea level, with a large clearing roughly ten football fields large, Togruta soldiers and royal guardsmen were digging trenches to engage the enemy. At eight feet deep and wide enough to maneuver through, soldiers continued to shovel load after load of dirt out of the trenches and wiped the sweet from their brows as they continued their task.
Soon the workers stopped as the sound of thirty-one ships flew overhead and they all looked up and cheered as the Destiny entered the hanger bay built into the mountain with their escort following behind. From his cockpit, Robert looked down at the defenses being setup by the Togruta military.
"Anyone think that these guys aren't going to last a second against the enemy with this kind of defenses?" Robert asked as the ships entered the hanger. "I agree with Robert on this. Trenches are good and all, but without armor and artillery support they'll be overrun quickly." Barney said over the commlink.
"General Mustha Haaks is the supreme commander of the military. Even he knows these defenses won't stand a chance against the droids. The question is, why are they still building trenches.?" Ranas asked as the group landed in the hanger. The moment they exited their ships a Togruta with yellow skin and green eyes in Togruta style combat armor with white and blue head tails with a repeating blaster rifle slung over his back approached the group with the princess and her advisor along with five other Togruta's with the same type of armor. Accompanying them was Delta Squad. "On behalf of the people Shili I thank you for saving our princess. I am Mustha Haaks, general and supreme leader of the military on Shili." The Togruta said extending his hand out to Robert. "Robert Lehner, Staff Sergeant 501st legion, aka The Lone Wolf. These are my uncles and aunt, The Expendables, Commanders Erik Valcara, Fenrir Bralor, Ahsoka Tano, Ranas Tano and the pilots of Red and Blue squad." Robert said shaking the hand.
"I have heard about you boy, you have quiet the reputation for engaging hordes of enemy units on your own. It is a pleasure to meet you." One of the Togruta's a female with green skin, black eyes and a sniper rifle like the Twi'lek resistance fighters used on Ryloth slung over her back and two LL-30 blaster pistols holstered to her side.
"I don't let fame or fortune go to my head. I fight for the people." Robert said to Togruta. "That's noble of you. My name is Aramna Kaasham. The one with the LS-150 is Subaa our heavy weapons specialist. The one with the Concussion rifle is Suvry." Aramna said motioning to the Blue and Yellow skinned male Togruta's.
"The girl with the Vibroknife attached to her rifle is Areno and the one with the swords is Suna. You already meet Ranas our resident pilot and explosives expert. Together we form Noble Team, the H'raani M'Kai's elite squad." the Togruta finished. "Noble Team, then where is Dot?" Robert asked playfully. "Dot?" Suna asked confused. "Sorry just something I remember from home." Robert cleared up and turned his attention to the four clone commandos. He was about to walk over to them when Tovraar got in his face.
"We had everything under control and you interfered. We were planning on getting the separatists to leave the planet peacefully when you attacked our escort." The advisor spat in Roberts face. "You really believe that shit, those droids were trying to shoot you down." Robert reminded the advisor.
"They were attacking us because our pilots attacked them first and were trying to kill us." Tovraar said in response. "That's enough. Advisor Nirnii you should go get that injury looked at, I will talk with the republic forces." the princess said to the older Togruta, who left grumbling to himself. "You'll have to forgive him, he is dedicated to our old ways of life, arranged marriages, women's rights and child labor. Those ideals turned our world into hell long before we were ever born." Zaa said.
"Hey Ahsoka, you notice that you and the princess look alike?" Erik said jokingly to Ahsoka. "One would think she is my twin." Ahsoka said.
"Compare later, impending attack now. Why are you guys digging trenches?" Barney asked as Halberton and the rest of the fleet touched down behind the base. "Nirnii was made the head of the defense committee weeks prior to invasion of Kiros and sent all of our old damaged tanks and artillery to a neighboring system for repairs and maintenance. But they haven't returned yet, so we have no heavy weapons or armor. We lobbied for an explanation but all he said that it would take longer to repair the equipment and we would have to rely on our superior air-power." Mustha said with much distain in his voice. "He hasn't fought a battle in his life and yet somehow, he is in charge of handling defense issues and has assured me that the separatists will only be bringing in air and infantry forces."
"Sadly, that's not the case, we blew up a couple tank platoons prior to linking up with the Togruta army, but recent intel says the clankers are bringing in more armor, including the prototypes they stole from us." Fixer spoke. "These guys don't even have enough explosives to handle tanks, repeating blaster turrets and even rocket launchers. Just blasters, Slugthrowers and a couple of Concussion rifles." Scorch added.
"Good thing we came prepared. We got a lot of weapons from my home world. They may be 'Slugthrowers' as you guys call them, but they pack a punch. .50Cal, 7.62mm, 5.56mm, 12.7mm and .30-06, we have enough firepower to give the Atlantic wall a run for its money." Robert said and pulled out his commlink. "Treadshot, get some men and start unloading the weapons from earth and get some engineers to the trench line and setup some pillboxes. Also get some scouts and setup some IED's along the main road. We'll give the droids a surprise when they get here. Breach, take a squad and scout the forest for any remaining droids. We don't want to be caught with our pants down." Robert said to the commander of Keeper Company and his squad mate.
Two 'yes sirs' were heard over the comm and turned to Mustha. "My aunts and uncles can instruct your men on how to properly use The M16 and AK47, but right now I think you need to come clean with us. The separatists are looking for some kind of weapon that will give both sides vehicles a run for their money. We need to trust each other so show us the weapons and I promise you the separatist won't get their hands on them." Robert said the supreme commander of Shilian Royal army and guard.
Mustha looked into Roberts eyes and stared at the boy for what seemed like eternity. "I know that look in your eyes, that's the look of one who is willing to put his life on the line for something he believes in. As a general I have a duty to lead my soldiers into battle but I also have a duty to protect the innocent. Very well, follow me and I will show Shili's most closely guarded secret." The general said as Halberton and Shaak Ti arrived with Rex and followed the general and Noble team to the nearby turbo lift. "Delta Squad, assist Breach and the troopers accompanying him and eliminate any remaining droids you encounter." Rex said just as the lift descended to the lower levels of the base.
"So, what's on Shili that's so important?" Ahsoka asked Mustha.
"During the days of the Mandalorian wars, the people of Mandalore were developing a new weapon to use against the republic as replacement for their terror walkers and to match the old Manka-class walkers and their tanks. Every time they had successful prototype, the Republic would attack and destroy the finished work." Mustha began as the lift stopped and the group exited lift. "They tired earlier versions of droid brain operated tanks and walkers, but all of them failed. That's when the head of the project, Goed Truul and his wife Liraborn came up with the idea for weapon similar to the Terror walkers but larger and operated by a single pilot. As well as a new type of tank, atmospheric air combat vehicle and battle suit, all of which have twice the firepower of anything the republic had in the old days." He added before pressing a button on the wall and the lights came on.
As the lights came on the entire group gasped with awe and amazement. In front of them were thirty, nine story tall two-legged walkers, twenty-two of which had arm like appendages while eight of them had no arms. Two of them had skull like faces and two of them had five cannons mounted near the 'face'. Another pair had a pair of claw gripped like launchers mounted above them.
Six of the walkers had multi-barreled missile launchers mounted on them while six of them had a four-barreled missile pod mounted on top of them above their cockpit. The last two had an aircraft nose shaped cockpit and six barreled missile tubes mounted on them.
From a glance, Robert almost thought they were mobile suits but the lack of a head section proved him wrong but he could tell that almost eighty percent of these machines were mounted with an anti-personal weapon like a machine gun.
Another light came on and a smaller human sized armor with a large claw, a mortar and cannon arm surrounded by thirty tanks with twin barreled turrets, a multi-barreled gatling gun like weapon mounted on the side of the turret with four large caterpillar tracks like the NR-N99 droid tank. But the most shocking surprise of was over thirty-six aircraft with features similar to UD-4L dropship from Alien's but featured two wings instead of a pair of fold-up wings each which contained the aircrafts twin engines. (A/N. I don't know what the engines are called.) Mounted under the nose of the cockpit was a single cannon.
"This is a lot of firepower." Robert said letting out a whistle. "What are these things?"
"The Mandalorian's called them Terror Walkers MK. II, but our ancestors call them Mech's. The tanks are called Rhommel MK. II, the aircraft are VTOL's and the human sized armor is a form of battle armor similar to your own armor, minus the weapons and claw Lone Wolf." Mustha said.
"Just Robert is fine, what are the armaments of the vehicles?" Robert asked. Mustha was about to answer when the lift came back down and stepping off it were four armed individuals. Two of them were Mandalorian males one with a brown mohawk, one with short brown hair. The other was a female with jet black hair going over her shoulders each wearing different colored but had the insignia of Fenrir's clan and the symbol of True Mandalorian's. The last figure was a Zabrak wearing customized Mandalorian armor with gold markings all over the armor and spikes on the shoulder pads and helmet.
Each of them had a vibro-knife tucked into a sheath and DC-15x sniper rifle and a DC-15A blaster rifle slung over their backs and a pair of WESTAR-34 blaster pistols holstered on their sides, jetpacks, crushgaunts with spiked knuckles and appeared to be in their early to mid-twenties.
Robert and the others got defensive, but Fenrir smiled as Lycan ran forward and jumped up on the Mandalorian with black armor and began to lick the man. "Ok, it's good to see you too Lycan. How you doing brother?" The black armored figure said to Fenrir. "I am doing fine Vaer. Lucia, Kolyar, Garrod how have you bruisers doing?" Fenrir asked.
"We are doing fine. We took down the last remnants of the Zygerrian Slaver Empire on Nar Shaddaa before we recovered some of the loot the separatists stole from Ryloth on Skako and gave Tambor a real headache." The women, Lucia said with glee.
"Easy their sister, what's important is that we saved those children from a life of servitude. Thought I can honestly say that many of them died an honorable death." Kolyar, the Zabrak said gruffly while the last one, Garrod began to laugh. "Slavers have no honor, they are just scum who deserve to be killed." He said.
"Someone mind telling me who these guys are and why did Vaer called you brother?" Robert asked confused.
"We can answer that latter, but right now you need to know that the Royal advisor sold out his people to the separatists and was promised to be the new ruler of Shili." Vaer said causing the royal guard and princess to be taken aback. "How can that be, he served my parents long before I was born. Why would he…" Zaa began before Robert put the pieces together. "He must have been jealous of your father and felt that he should be the king. When the war began, he must have struck a deal with the separatists and promised to give them these weapons to use against the republic. In exchange he promised to weaken the planets defenses and give them either the king and queen or the princess and force them to declare him the new king. He probably only cares about himself than his people." Robert surmised, causing the others to look at him. "What? I know about the classic story Hamlet. I ain't one for that kind of stuff, but I learned about it in Jr. High." Robert said before making his way towards the lift.
"Where are you going?" Mustha asked. "We got a rat and I am going to snuff out the rat. No doubt he is already planning his escape and knows things we don't. He may be a traitor, but we need him alive. Barney run a check on the weapons of the Mechs, Tanks, VTOL's and Battle Armor. Something tells me that some of them have weapons similar to a machine gun." Robert said to his uncle and the general of the Togruta army before deactivating his armor, leaving his guns behind and taking only his sabers.
Roberts point of view
It amazes me how someone working for a royal family can just decide that they should be the next ruler of a kingdom or planet and just throwaway all they had done just for power. Scar, Jaffar, Ursula and other baddies from movies and games have done it, but I never thought something like this was possible in real life.
Nevertheless, it was clear that Tovraar had sold out his people and pledged his loyalty to the separatist cause, just so he could become the king. He might have even forced the princess to marry him when he became king and would just killed her. Stuff like that happens, I think.
The lift stopped and I was about to make my way towards the medical center when I spotted the traitor himself, clad in combat armor and eying one of the Flare-S swoops that Nym and his forces brought with. "Hey advisor." I called out. This made him hop on the swoop and quickly speed out of the base. I ran after him but failed to stop him in time. But lucky for me, I had my own Flare-S that Erik had acquired for me, which I painted in the scheme of a certain blue female alien that turns into a motorcycle. "LET'S REV IT UP!" I shouted as I jumped on my bike and followed the traitor, as soldiers and royal guards dived out of my way.
(Coruscant Chase begins)
At top speed I kept my swoop under control like I did on Tatooine but this time I was fueled by vengeance, I was fueled by the goal of bringing this traitor in to answer for what he had done. I was plagued by the thought that he may have rigged the king and queen's other ship to blow up and make it look like an accident, but I was unsure at the moment.
Soon enough I was right on Tovraar's rear and was quickly closing the gap behind him. I pulled up alongside him and pulled out Revan's lightsaber and ignited its violet blade. "PULL OVER!" I shouted, but the former royal advisor didn't pull over. Instead he pushed his swoop to full speed and quickly sped away from me. "Slow down speedy." I shouted just as we found ourselves speeding over a lake.
I was about to kick my swoop bike into high gear when several dual cannon blasts soared overhead. I turned around and noticed that a dozen STAP's had been following us. STAP's had a top speed of 400 KM/H, but these ones were faster than the standard ones. "These clankers their knockoffs of a Duel-Runner can take me on, then let's see what they got." I said before aiming my left hand towards the advisor's swoop and fired a tracking beacon from my gauntlet and it latched onto the bike. "You won't be getting away from me anytime soon." I said before turning my own Swoop into one-hundred-eighty degree turn and faced the droid scouting vehicles. "COME AND GET IT!" I roared and with a press of the trigger fired my bikes twin cannons and speeding towards the oncoming droids at the same time.
I splashed the first two attackers and swung my ancestors saber at a third sending the aircraft into a spiral before it crashed into nearby rock. Three more STAP's came at me from six-o'clock high and tried to strafe me, but thanks to my bikes own modifications I activated its secret boost system and went over 880 KM/H and led the droids right towards a nearby ledge. I slowed down just enough to perform another one-hundred-eighty degree turn and left the droids behind me, hearing the explosions of their repulsorlift vehicles smash into the rocks leaving me with just six more attackers left.
"Ain't got time to stick around and play, I got a traitor to catch." I quipped and once again activated my Swoop's boost system again and zoomed across the lake in the direction the tracker was coming from. As the enemy droids continued following me and firing their cannons, I entered a narrow canyon at the edge of the lake and reduced my speed. I didn't want to end up hitting a wall and becoming a fireball.
"Going to have to slow down." I said to myself and reduced my speed to three hundred letting two of the STAP's overtake me allowing me to blast them with the swoops cannons and send them crashing into the walls. Another STAP had slowed down and its driver tried to pull out their E5, but I used my new saber to slice the STAP into pieces before deactivating my saber and returned to keeping my speeder under control.
(Song ends)
The last three STAP's had somehow vanished from behind me and for a moment I wanted to think I was in the clear, but I knew better than to let my guard down. Once the canyon had ended I saw that the traitor had slowed his own swoop down to about two-hundred which allowed the droids to flank him on both sides. "I need this bastard alive. So, it's time for some scrapping." I chuckled to myself and prepped a few Semtex grenades I had with me.
Once I was close enough I threw all three grenades at the droids and used the force to push the grenades a little further latching onto the droids and in no time at all, the droids were scrapped. Some of the debris lodged into the swoops drive unit, slowing the speeder down to a crawl before stopping completely.
Try as he might, the advisor tired to flee the scene but leaping off my own Swoop I got in front of him and sucker punched the bastard in the face. He pulled a blaster on me, but with a quick swing of my ancestors saber I severed the hand and he clenched his hand on pain. "YOU BASTARD! I AM THE RIGHTFUL KING OF SHILI! IT IS MY DESTINY! I WILL BRING PROSPERITY TO MY PEOPLE AND I WILL HAVE EVERYTHING!" The sellout roared.
"Well, now the only thing you'll get is the peoples justice. You betrayed your people." I said taking out a bacta patch and placing it on where the hand used to be numbing the pain. "You don't understand. The Vashee's were bringing this world to ruin. Their negotiations and replacing our old ways. Shili was prosperous in the days before the Clone War." Nirnni said as he crawled away from me like a whipped dog. "My family used to be the rulers of Shili and we were a powerful force to be reckoned with. Anyone who defined and attacked us were destroyed and made examples of them, conquering their worlds. But Vashee's took that from us when they overthrew my great grand-father and my family was forced to live like normal people."
"We barely got by over the generations but I climbed the ladder and became the advisor for the royal family and began to plot my families revenge. My parents and their parents before them and their parents before them never wanted to take revenge, but I wanted to restore the throne." Nirnni added as he crawled further and further away from me, but I followed him.
"All I ever wanted was the survival of my people, those weapons brought us nothing but trouble. You must see why I had to betray my people…" he said trying to plead for his life.
I just kicked him over onto his back and stared at the pathetic man down below me. "You didn't betray your people. You betrayed yourself." I stated and drew back my fist. "HAVE MERCY!" Torvaar shouted before my fist made contact with his face knocking him out.
I picked up his unconscious body and placed it over the seat of his stolen Swoop, before attaching it to my own with cable and carefully piloted the bike back to the Togruta base with the traitor in tow. None of us knew that watching the entire event was probe droid which flew back to the capital.
First part of the Shili Arc completed. The vehicles I brought in are the mech's, tank, Vtol and battle armor players can control in the Mech Assault games for the original Xbox system. Great games and some of my favorite.
The new characters I brought in like Fenrir were given to me by Spartan-626, who has been a great supporter of my story. Thanks again for the characters I appreciate it.
Next time, the loadouts of the Mech's are given and work begins on getting ready for the upcoming battle. Delta Squad, Ahsoka and Robert conduct recon in the capital and discover a newer more dangerous threat than the droids encountered on Kiros.
To those that answered my poll, please tell me what your favorite Gundam is.
Until next time, please read and review.
