Chapter 12

Work in the Wild

"Commander, you have arrived at a great time! Most of the 501st is severely injured and we needed some assistance... Focus fire on the acklays over there! When we are done here we will charge to the Separatist's cannons on that tree."

-Jedi Master Aayla Secura to ARC-0853, Regimental Commander Jax.

Commander Jax was patrolling Felucia with a small platoon of clones handpicked by Jax himself. Camo, Dakx, Green Wizard, Gamma, Weaver, Clip, Sharp, Lycan, and Kyr'Vhetine were some of the clones in the platoon. Jax left Captain Spine in charge with Ivan back at Fell Outpost.

Sharp was a sniper in the 41st. Sharp always carried around a DC-15x Sniper rifle. He also had his R-1 Recon Droid flying around beside him to scout out the area. Sharp wore a phase II sharpshooter helmet covered in camouflage to blend in easier with nature. It also helps him see more accurately. His chest armor had green markings around with more camouflage, and a kama with camouflage on it as well. He was a Sergeant in the army.

Kyr'Vhetine was also in the 41st. He wore normal 41st phase II armor, however he did have a mandalorian symbol on his shoulder pad. He was also a Sergeant. He mainly spoke Mando'a and rarely speaks.

Lycan was an ARC trooper in the 501st. He had blue markings on his armor and his pauldron. On his helmet had blue fangs on both side of visor. He wore a dark grey kama around his waist as well. He too had a DC-15x, however he also had a DC-15S and dual DC-17 holstered on his belt.

They were all just on a simple patrol. They needed to make sure everything was clear. They already had to go through a small battalion of droids and some acklays who got in their way as well. However, they cleared them easily. The rest are being kicked off of Felucia by the 501st and Aayla Secura.

Jax, Gamma and Camo led the platoon deeper into the forest. Clip, Weaver, and Lycan followed Gamma more than the other two, however. Weaver also tried to stay in the middle of all of the clones at the same time. He missed flying in the LAAT. But he also realized he had a duty. He was to serve the Republic as a soldier.

"Come on Weaver, pull yourself together..."

"I can't it's too much pressure!"

"You know you can, Weaver. It's only a patrol."

"Yes.. yes.. Just a patrol... Eh eh..."

Clip began to walk over to Weaver when he found that Weaver was talking to himself. It freaked Clip out and he decided to not talk to him. No one else heard Weaver due to some of the chatter already going on.

Jax wasn't talking like some of the others. If any of the high ranks were to blame about most of the chatter, it would be Captain Camo. Jax was going to stay back at the Fell Outpost to make sure Allia would be safe and fine. In fact, she would be waking up anytime today. Instead he had to go on a patrol with his temporary platoon. Jax took a smell of the air around this area. However, he smelt something odd about the air. It wasn't droid, plant, or even some kind of creature. Instead it was... smoke?!

"Hey, all of you! Quiet down!" Jax shouted. All of the clones became quiet and began to crouch down. Jax, who also crouched down, lead the pack, slowly walking towards the direction the smoke is coming from. Camo was going to move a plant out of the way, however instead of seeing the smoke's origin, Camo was greeted by three acklays, one who was about to cut Camo's face off. Jax tackled Camo down and the acklay instead hit an unlucky clone who ran up to get Camo down himself. The clone was flung into an over sized plant, and soon died from blood loss from is brand new gaping cut all down his body.

"Get down! Get down!" Jax ordered. The clones rolled away and began to open fire at the acklays. There were no Jedi to help them this time, except this time it wasn't a rancor. The small amount of clones who were in the 501st started to make their way towards Gamma. The 41st did whatever their specialty was. Sharp grappled on to a high branch and pulled himself up. He sat down on a branch and pulled out his DC-15x. He began to shot at the acklay's from above, however the acklays kept moving their heads, making it hard to hit them. Finally, he was able to shoot one of the acklays in the head, making it drop to the ground. The other two still ran free, and knocked Sharp off of his hanging spot into some tall grasses.

Lycan, Clip, and Gamma began to walk away from the rest of the 501st to take on one acklay. Clip and Gamma distracted the acklay while Lycan leaped on on the spine of the acklay. He pulled out both of his DC-17s and began to shoot down the acklay's spine. The acklay screamed in pain as the marks from the shots began to burn like hell. The acklay began to charge around crazily, still trying to tackle down the men he was going to attack. The acklay managed to make Lycan fly off into the sky, and it moved his neck up to stick its fangs into Lycan's torso. Then suddenly, before it knew what happened, Gamma shot its neck multiple times. The acklay let out one last scream of pain, and collapsed from blood loss. Lycan smashed the acklay's head on impact falling on to it, making it bleed out even more, however Lycan was fine and got up without aid.

Jax, Camo, and some other 41st troopers meanwhile were fighting against the last acklay. This acklay has already been injured from previous battles, and seemed like it could collapse any second from being tired. It still had fight in it, though, and swung its claws back at Camo again. Camo flung himself over the incoming attack, and grabbed on to the next claw that charged at him. Using this to his advantage, he pounced on to the acklay and began to climb up to his spine. Dakx steadily walked towards his commander while giving fire to the acklay. The acklay let out a roar, when suddenly the two ARCs jumped on top of the acklay alongside Camo. Camo already slit the acklay's throat with a stick. The blood shot out of the its neck like a fountain. Jax gave the finishing blow and stabbed the acklay in the brain, and more blood began to pour out as the creature tumbled to the floor.

With all of the acklays defeated, the clones regrouped. They lost nearly half of the platoon, but that didn't matter anymore. The clones began to march towards their original destination, the smoke ahead of them.

"Now, let's try this again," Camo joked. He grabbed the plant he held on to earlier before the acklays came and pushed it out of the way. Behind the branches was a sight that you wouldn't usually see on Felucia...

What the clones now saw, it seemed to be a crash. There were minor fires everywhere, but it should be safe to examine. The platoon sneaked in to the crash site to find out what happened.

Jax, Green Wizard, Kyr'Vhetine, and Camo were the first on the scene. Kyr'Vhetine walked with Jax towards the ship's wreckage, and Green Wizard followed Camo to find any survivors. The rest of the clones began to spread out to secure the perimeter. They wouldn't want another surprise attack.

Jax and Kyr'Vhetine kicked and pushed some rubble out of the way while entering the ship. They made their way into what used to be the ship's cockpit. They looked around, finding scrap of the ship and other various objects. Mainly metals and scraps. Finally, Kyr'Vhetine found the ship's control panel. He pushed some scraps off the panel and found a holopad. He picked up the holopad and looked it over. He activated it and viewed the information. Somehow, it was in perfect condition, after being in a crash, anyways. Kyr'Vhetine's eyes read the holopad closely.

"Al'verde!" Kyr'Vhetine shouted across the ship.

Jax walked over to Kyr'Vhetine, "What's this?" Jax questioned, he accepted taking the holopad from Kyr'Vhetine who was offering it to him, and looked it over. "...How is this possible?"