Hey guys,
Here's the next chapter, enjoy!
Ciao
Disclaimer: You know the drill.
The Forrests of Shili
After a lot cursing, on Bloodbath's part, they finally got him down from the snare. It was relatively simple task, Arsenal simply shot through the cord holding him and Bloodbath came crashing down which ultimately led to the cursing.
"Couldn't you have simply lowered me slowly?" Bloodbath asked incredulously.
"Would you have preferred I leave you hanging there?" Arsenal retorted. Rever started towards her but was stopped by Ramik's arm and the two snarling Anubas.
"You got a problem, buddy?" Arsenal asked, stepping towards him. Rever, of course, didn't answer. "What's wrong? Tooka got your tongue?" She asked.
/You should watch your mouth, di'kut/he signed.
Bloodbath cleared his throat. "Rever says you should watch your mouth, he's kind of protective of me," he said, then forstalled her next question by quickly continuing. "Rever is a mute, blaster injury during training."
Arsenal just stood there, quietly studying Rever. She turned when Des cleared his throat. "Sorry, but we need to get moving, we've got less than six hours to complete our mission and our target is still an hour away."
The fell into line behind Arsenal and were silent as they progressed, the two Anubas, named Nolan and Ves, split off from the group and dove into the foliage.
As they walked Arsenal was observing Rever with her 360 degree vision as he scanned the forrest around them, taking in every detail while they moved. He is kind of hot when he's focused like that..., she snapped off that train of thought. What am I doing! She thought angrily to herself, I just met him and we've already come close to gutting each other! I need to focus on the mission and my objective, anything else will have to wait, she thought with resolve.
She was startled from her thoughts by Bloodbath.
"So, you a bounty hunter?" Bloodbath asked. Arsenal nodded.
"Why do you call yourself Arsenal?" That was Des.
"My father and brother nicknamed me that because I have a tendency to carry a variety of weapons with me at all times," she said.
"So you have a family?"
"No, they were murdered by a man they were hunting, my Anubas are my only family now," she replied.
"You're father and brother were also bounty hunters." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Arsenal nodded again.
"My father was Nolan Arin, he taught me and my twin brother, Ves, everything we knew."
"So you named your Anubas Nolan and Ves in their memory," Bloodbath said. This time Arsenal just nodded, and moved ahead, indicating that the conversation was over.
The group ran into an occasional droid patrol but successfully evaded them. They reached the fortress just after midnight, Shili standard time.
Keeping an eye on the top of the wall, the squad crossed over the clearing to the north side wall.
"Okay, if the blueprints are accurate there should be a door with an encryption pad beside it, switch to internal comms," Des said before the group divided into smaller groups, Ramik with Des, Bloodbath with Rever, and Arsenal with her Anubas.
It was almost an hour later when Ramik's voice came over the comms. "Found it," he said.
"Good. Rever, do your thing," Des said. Rever nodded and approached the electronic console, everyone moving out of his way as he did.
In less than five minutes Rever signaled Bloodbath. "He's in," Bloodbath translated, a moment later the door opened.
"Good job, Des said, taking point he led the way into the fortress. A quick scan showed no droids in sight and the rest of the squad followed him in, closing the door behind them, but leaving it unlocked.
"Okay, so far we have remained undetected, but I don't expect that to last long," Des said. "We need to blow the central power core and we have only three hours left, Rever, hack into the surveillance system and keep an eye out for any patrols.
Rever nodded and got to work, giving a thumbs up when he had access.
"Alright let's move out, Bloodbath and I will take point, Rever, warn us of droid patrols, Arsenal..." he said turning to her. "We need you to watch our rear with Ramik, think you can handle it?" Arsenal nodded and snapped her fingers twice, the Anubas took up their usual positions beside her.
Des nodded in return and the group moved forward.
Someone was here, Sladner could smell them. The Devaronian accessed the security system and smiled, he then turned and motioned a droid forward.
"Send for Lok Durd, there's something urgent he needs to see,"
"Roger-roger," the droid said. Ten minutes later the droid returned with Lok Durd in tow.
"What is it, Sladner?" Lok Durd demanded, annoyed that Sladner had disturbed his sleep.
Sladner growled at him, causing Lok Durd to take a step back, before speaking. "We appear to have a security breach," he said, stepping aside to allow Lok Durd to see the screens.
Lok Durd stared at the Republic troopers moving unchallenged through his stronghold. He punched the intercom button. "Attention,we have intruders, all droids are to converge on the Republic troops in sector B9!" He said, a slight note of desperation in his voice.
Sladner turned to him. "Allow me to accompany them, I could use a good hunt," he said. Lok Durd just waved his hand. "Yes yes, fine, just make sure they don't reach their destination."
Sladner smiled in an evil way. "Don't worry, they won't."
Following the blueprints in his HUD, Des got them within sight of the core. Then all hell broke loose as a voice came blasting out of a small speaker in the ceiling. "Attention, we have intruders, all droids are to converge on the Republic troops in sector B9!"
Bloodbath cursed under his breath. "There goes the element of surprise," he said. All of a sudden blasterbolts came out of the darkness, the squad returned fire.
"Ramik, Bloodbath! Get to the power core and plant the charges, the rest of us will hold them off as long as we can!" Des yelled.
"Yes, Sir," the two of them said and hurried off.
The droids came in waves, firing at the intruders with everything they had. "Rever, on your left!" Des shouted when one droid got too close for comfort. Rever clicked his comm twice in acknowledgement and blasted the droid to bits.
"Commandos!" Arsenal yelled from his right as a squad of commando droids rolled around the corner. Rever slung his weapon over his shoulder and drew both his vibroblades and charged.
The first droid came at him hard, firing a blaster as it went. Rever didn't dodge the bolts, barreling through them, trusting his armor to protect him, and swinging his blades when he was within reach. The droid attempted to grab his wrist but Rever thrust the blade into its central power core, the droid shut down immediately and Rever threw its frame at the one coming at his right side. The droid was pinned under the frame and Rever, in one swift motion, twisted the head from the body.
Des and Arsenal took care of the other two commandos and resumed their fire on the incoming droids. Des had just lobbed a droid-popper into the approaching ranks when Ramik and Bloodbath came up behind them.
"It's done," Bloodbath shouted. "We need to get out of here before the droids can flank us!" Des shouted. "Everyone, fall back to the exit."
The Anubas led the way back down the hall and disappeared from view around the corner with Arsenal right behind them.
When Canon Squad came around the corner they froze. The Anubas were growling at the huge Devaronian blocking their path.
"You're not going anywhere Republic scum, and Arsenal, I never thought I would see you here," He said.
"You can't kill me Sladner, I'll just keep coming after you until you're dead," she snarled.
"Arsenal, we need to get out of here, the droids are closing in on us," Des said.
"Unfortunately, none of you are going to be leaving here alive, I was beginning to get restless because there was nothing to do, but I think you'll provide a bit of entertainment" he said and pressed a button on his belt.
There was a sound like grinding metal, then a door started to come down on top of Arsenal.
"MOVE!" Des yelled, but Arsenal was too focused on Sladner to notice. All of a sudden she was thrown forward and the door came down just inches away from her boot. Des and Rever were with Arsenal and Sladner while Bloodbath, Ramik, and the Anubas were trapped with the droids.
Rever jumped up from where he had fallen after knocking Arsenal aside, drawing his blades as he went. Sladner charged at them, knocking Des aside and heading straight for Arsenal.
Rever intercepted him, swinging his blades at his head and throat, Sladner ducked under the blades and threw Rever to one side. Arsenal and Des opened fire, but Sladner knocked them aside, focusing completely on Rever as he stood back up.
"You've got spirit, it will be a shame to kill you," he said, unsheathing his own vibroblade.
Rever, as usual, said nothing and came at Sladner. He had been aiming for Sladner's mid section but was diverted to the side by Sladner's blade. Arsenal brought her own blade to bear on Sladner and the ensuing knife fight was hard for Des to follow but he could see that Rever and Arsenal were no match for Sladner.
Des opened fire again and Sladner diverted his attention long enough to swing a muscular hand in his direction, sending him flying and knocking him out.
Rever, distracted by Des's predicament, suddenly felt something sliced into the space between the armor plates protecting his right thigh. He barely had time to register the attack before a huge fist was launched into his chest, sending him flying, and caving his ribs in.
Arsenal saw both commandos go down and drew her blaster while Sladner was distracted. She fired a steady stream in his direction and when he recoiled from the painful bolts lobbed a thermal detonator at him as well.
Sladner saw it coming and turned to flee from its blast range when it exploded. Arsenal threw herself down beside Rever, feeling the heat from the explosion through her armor.
When the blast subsided she looked to where Sladner had been, as usual the hut'uun had fled. Des was waking up, he groaned and put a hand to his head.
"That guy has a mean swing, who is he anyway?" He asked.
"His name is Driso Sladner, and I've got a personal score to settle with him." She looked herself over, still in one piece, she thought to herself, then she looked over at Rever and froze. Blood was spilling out of a gash in his thigh.
She ran over to him and removed the armor plates around the wound.
"Oh shab!" She hissed, then yelled over to Des. "Des, Rever's been badly hurt!"
Des hurried over, ignoring the pain in his head. "How bad?" He asked, his voice calm as ever.
"It looks as if his femoral artery has been severed!" She answered.
Des quickly removed the armor from around the wound and used a length of cord to cut off the flow of blood by tying it just above the wound.
"Losing his leg will be the least of his worries right now," Des said. He checked Rever's pulse and swore when he couldn't find it. Arsenal looked sharply at him, even though she'd only known him for a few hours she'd never heard him swear once, even when the droids were attacking, that must mean this is really bad, she thought to herself.
"I can't find a pulse," Des said, he put his ear to Rever's mouth. "He's not breathing, help me get his chest plate off."
Arsenal helped Des removed Rever's chest plate, peeling back the bodysuit she gasped when she saw the scars that covered his throat and chin. Des began CPR, forcing air into his lungs and pumping his chest, Arsenal winced as she heard more of his ribs break.
"Come on, Rever, breath!" Des yelled. "Don't do this to me you di'kut, BREATH!" He yelled again, but Rever wasn't responding.
"Arsenal, do you have something that creates an electric current?" Des asked, still working on Rever.
"Yes, my energy whip," she said.
"I need you to hand it to me and take over here, can you do that?"
Arsenal nodded and they switched places. Des set the whip to its highest setting.
"I don't want to stop your heart, so when I give the word remove your hands from him," Des said, moving towards them. Arsenal nodded and ceased her attempts, making sure none of her body was touching Rever.
"Okay, in three, two, one!" Des said and touched the whip to Rever's chest. The current sent Rever into spasms and Arsenal checked for a pulse.
"No good, you need to try again," she said and Des repeated the action. Arsenal checked again and shook her head, but Des wasn't going to stop. He did it a third time, then a fourth, each time was negative. He did it a fifth time and was about to do it a sixth when Arsenal stopped him.
"I've got a pulse!" She said, and Rever began to breathe though it was labored. Some blood bubbled up on his lips.
"His ribs are broken and he's definitely punctured a lung," Arsenal said. "We need to get him out of here as soon as possible."
Des pulled out two syringes, a painkiller and a blood loss control agent, stabbing both into Rever's exposed thigh before grabbing a marker and drawing BZ on his armor.
"I agree, help me get him up," Des said. They replaced his chest armor and Des slung Rever over his shoulder while Arsenal grabbed Rever's helmet and leg armor. They were halfway down the hall when Des's comm crackled.
"Des, this is Ramik, are you alright?" Ramik asked.
"No, Rever was badly hurt by that bounty hunter and is barely holding on, how are you guys doing?" Des asked.
"We're okay, Bloodbath got shot on his bad arm, other than that we're okay, tell Arsenal we've got her Anubas with us," Ramik replied.
Arsenal heard and breathed a sigh of relief that Nolan and Ves were safe.
"Hey, Des, we've got incoming droids, we need to book," Ramik said.
"Acknowledged, we'll meet up at the tree line, and please tell Bloodbath to avoid getting shot anymore," he added. "Over and out."
His comm crackled again before going silent. He turned to Arsenal. "We need to get out of here fast, those charges will go off in less than ten minutes and I don't want to be around when they do." Arsenal nodded and the three of them headed towards the side door where they first came in.
They had just made the tree line when they heard the distinctive sound of explosives going off, turning they saw as the fortress started to cave in a few areas, then it erupted in an enormous explosion which completely engulfed it. A few moments later Ramik and Bloodbath came running up.
They were mostly unscathed except for the burn mark on Bloodbath's arm between the plates and a scorch mark along Ramik's cheek bone.
"We hit a patrol of droids on our way out," Ramik said as he helped Des lower Rever to the ground. He was silent as he jabbed some painkillers deep into the muscles in Rever's neck. He finished checking him over before standing.
"We need to get him out of here now," Ramik said. "From what I could tell most of his ribs are broken, he definitely has a punctured lung, and he's lost a lot of blood, if we delay any longer he may not survive."
Ramik helped hoist Rever onto Des's shoulders as they couldn't risk damaging his ribs further. They started off at a fast walk with Bloodbath taking point and Arsenal bringing up the rear. Her Anubas fanned out to either side and Ramik stayed next to Rever and Des.
"When are the rest of the troops coming in? Arsenal asked.
"The signal was the stronghold blowing up, so we should be receiving comm chatter any minute now," Des replied. On cue his holoprojector beeped and a hologram of General Arcus came through.
"Canon Squad, I assume your mission was a success?" He asked.
"Yes, Sir," he acknowledged. "Sir, I'm requesting immediate extraction, Rever was severely injured during the mission, he needs medical attention soon," Des replied.
Arcus nodded. "I will send a gunship to your location," he said.
"Thank you, Sir," Des replied and the hologram fizzled out.
Jennel Arcus cut the transmission and stood back. They may have won the battle, but it would probably come at a high cost. He didn't know Canon Squad that well, but they had been assigned to his unit and he saw them as brothers. After a moment of silence his captain approached him.
"General Arcus, should I give the men the order to move out?" He asked.
Arcus started at the man before acknowledging him. "Yes,"
Risk, relay the orders to the rest of the men," Captain Risk nodded and turned to leave. "Just a moment, Captain," Arcus said and waited until Risk turned to him. "Send a gunship to pick up Cannon Squad, and tell them to hurry, one of them is very badly injured." Risk nodded and exited the command center.
Arcus watched him go and offered a quick prayer that Rever would survive.
The group quickened their pace towards a small clearing due east of their position. Just as they arrived they could hear the telltale sound of a gunship approaching.
Des turned to the rest of them. "As soon as the gunship lands we board and get out of here," he said, lowering Rever to the ground so Ramik could check him over. "We need to hurry, he's not doing well, he's lost too much blood, we may have to do an emergency blood transfusion just to keep him alive," he said.
The gunship came into view and began its descent. Bloodbath and Arsenal went out to meet it and were only a dozen meters from it when a missile came out of nowhere and impacted the gunship, turning it into a blazing inferno.
Bloodbath saw the missile just before it hit and, without thinking, turned and slammed Arsenal bodily to the ground, covering her with his body. When the blast died down he jumped up, raising his blaster with one hand and hoisting Arsenal up with the other, before breaking into a run heading towards the rest of the squad.
Just before he and Arsenal reached them a voice came out of the forrest.
"Did you really think I would just let you walk away without a fight?" Driso Sladner said, stepping out from behind a large tree.
Arsenal cursed and drew her blaster but something in the corner of her eye caught her attention and she turned just in time to see a commando droid coming straight at her. This was not good, not good at all.