Chapter 2: Finding Shelter
It was a near close to the first day being stranded on a dark planet which the clone troopers had used to escape the Confederacy forces that were on their tail. After a few hours, after setting up camp, it suddenly began to rain quite hard. The clone troopers grabbed any gear they could and left the camp area. The spider, infected with Sith powers was intrigued by its prey as it watched the clone troopers scatter to get out of the rain.
"How the heck are we going to get out of this crazy weather?" asked one of the clone troopers.
"I don't know" replied the captain, "we should just keep on moving, maybe find some shelter like a cave or something."
"Bah, I wouldn't bother heading into a cave on a strange planet like this" stated another.
"Look, we just need to find a way to get out off this planet, so that we can go back to the Republic and give them the necessary data we have extracted about the Confederacy" replied the captain, "so keep moving!"
The clone troopers kept on moving through the brush of the swampy jungle. It was getting quite darker by the second, and the night vision on the helmets were becoming quite useless as well.
"Darn, the night vision is starting to get a bet fuzzy here" said one of the clone troopers as he was trying to fix his helmet on right.
"Just deal with it, and follow my voice" said the captain.
While the clone troopers were trying to find their way out of the swamp, and a strange spider creature following their every move, up above the planet, Grevious was rather quite impatient in interrogating the lone Jedi that was captured. Xavier sat meditating in his cell while Grevious was at the other end.
"Listen Jedi, you better tell me what you stole from the Confederacy" said Grevious.
"Ha, you call this an interrogation?" asked Xavier as he opened his eyes, "I'm sure your superiors up high in the Confederacy would be ashamed to see you doing something like that."
"Oh is it going to be like that Jedi?" asked Grevious as he was about to lower the shield of the cell to enter it.
"You really want me to acquire one of those lightsabers, by doing as something stupid like that?" continued Xavier as Grevious was about to make his move.
The General grumbled as he was about to enter the code to lower the shield, and stopped.
"Bah, I don't need this" said Grevious as he walked out.
As Grevious continued to head away from the prison, a battle droid came up toward him.
"Sir, we have launched a search party for the clone troopers like you've ordered" said the battle droid as it began to walk with Grevious.
"Excellent" said Grevious as he continued walking, "how long before will the search party land?"
"In a few more minutes sir" replied the battle droid, "should be easy picking by then."
"Excellent" said Grevious as he then made his way toward his private communications room leaving the battle droid behind.
After with a failed interrogation of the lone Jedi that was captured, the General sat down on his armchair, which was close to a round table. On the center of the round table, a hologram of Count Dooku appeared before Grevious.
"Ah, General Grevious" said Count Dooku, in a somewhat polite manner, "have you acquired the necessary data that was stolen?"
"Not yet" replied Grevious, "the Jedi's being too crafty. He thinks some mere clone troopers would be able to help him hide what they stole from us."
"I'm just disappointed that you weren't so quick in doing in the Jedi" said Count Dooku, "is there a reason why that he hasn't been killed?"
"I would have had the chance if HE was the one who had the vital stolen data" replied Grevious, "but for some reason he had no need to fight me!"
"I see" replied Count Dooku with a bit astonishment on his face, "well, perhaps if you allow the Jedi to escape, he might lead you to the missing clone troopers whom do have the data that's vital to ours in their pocket."
"Are you saying we let the Jedi escape?!" cried Grevious.
"It might only be the right strategy to ensure we acquire the data that was stolen first, then you can deal with however you wish to the Jedi" replied Count Dooku.
"I'll think about this" said Grevious as he got up to head back to the bridge of the ship.
"You do that" replied Count Dooku as the hologram then disappeared.
While General Grevious was plotting some sort of way to ensure he'll acquire the data on the Confederacy that was stolen by the lone Jedi. Back on the dark planet below, the clone troopers were still having trouble getting out of the rain. That was, until the captain of the clone trooper squad saw what appeared to be a building in the distance despite all the pouring rain.
"Shelter, about time!" cried the captain with joy as he and the rest of his squad moved toward the abandon building.
As the squad of clone troopers headed to the abandon building, the door appeared to be locked. The captain then signaled one of the other clones to kick down the door which was quite easy since the door was quite old. After that, the squad of clone troopers then headed inside, to dry off. But as soon as the captain stepped inside, something inside of him didn't feel right about the place. Some other members of his squad expressed similar feelings.
"I think I would have preferred to have stayed in a cave" said one of the clone troopers as he then turned on the light that was on his weapon.
"I don't blame you" replied the captain as he also turned on the light on his weapon, "we should also conserve batteries on these lights as well."
"So who do you think might have built this place?" asked another clone trooper, while the rest of the squad continued on its path into the building.
"I'm not sure" replied the captain to which he stepped on something quite hard on the ground.
The captain then looked down and noticed some sort of a strange rock, but as he began to pick it up and turn it around. It turned out that it wasn't a rock at all, but a human skull on the floor. This spooked the captain a bit, to which the other members of his squad rushed over.
"Who do you think use to live here?" asked one of the clone troopers to the captain.
"Well, whoever they are they are long gone" replied the captain as he studied the skull.
But as the clone troopers were prepared to settle down for the night, the spider creature that was following them finally arrived near the entrance of the abandon building. Instead of making an entrance to the building, the spider decided to instead take the back way in through a network of tunnels underneath the abandon building itself. The clone troopers were still unaware of their unwelcome host.