Chapter 23
The gunships continued to circle the base, waiting for any kind of communication from Captain Rex and the others.
Commanders Jester's voice then came through everyone's communicators.
"I mean don't get me wrong I love circles as much as the next guy, but can we honestly do some other kind of pattern. Like a figure eight or maybe a triangle, oh I got it, how about a smiley face pattern. Bravo and Alpha can continue to make circles, for the eyes, while we make the smile," Jester said with much enthusiasm.
"Can you believe this guy?" Pitch asked "No wonder he's being taken off active duty,"
"I've heard that he once helped the enemy ambush the unit under his command because he supposedly "lost them" and needed help finding them," Black chimed in.
Shade shock is head as he continued to make sure Florarmoa was alright.
"Are you alright, ma'am?" Shade asked in a hushed whisper.
Florarmoa barely made out the question the shadow trooper asked, too focused on overcoming the emotions she felt flowing from the base, however she managed a small reply.
"Yes, I'm feeling much better. Although it's going to take me awhile to get use to things, I have never felt anything like this before," she answered, steadying herself.
Suddenly the gunship veered from it circle pattern and headed to the closet hanger.
"We've been given the okay to land" the pilot explained. "Along with Charlie, were suppose to land in the south hanger while Bravo heads for the north one,"
Alpha's and Charlie's gunships flew close together as they approached the south hanger, Bravo flew over head as it headed for the north hanger. The blaster door keeping the hanger closed slowly began to open to reveal the destruction the hanger contained.
"By the Force," The pilot stated, in awe "It'll be a miracle if we can find someplace to land in this heap,"
The two gunships slowly moved into the wreaked hanger, careful not to run into any of the wreaked or destroyed droid fighters and ships. Finally the gunships managed to find an area of the hanger that wasn't too surrounded by destruction and landed.
"This place looks like a warzone," Pitch commented.
"You'd think the droids would be kind enough to clean the place up a little," Jester said as, he approached Alpha's gunship.
Pitch and Black ignored the clownish commander and began to secure the hanger along with Charlie Squad. Shade hopped out of the gunship and offered a hand to the Jedi. She gratefully took the hand and stepped off the gunship, only to nearly collapse on the ground. Shade was quick to help her back on to her feet.
"Getting a little handsy there aren't we trooper?" Jester asked
Shade gave a quick punch to Jester's stomach while Floaroma steadied herself again.
"I should be alright but I'll be a little slow going," she told them.
"Take your time; it'll give you plenty of time to take in all this lovely scenery," Jester said, gesturing to the carnage of the hanger.
Shade again delivered a quick punch to Jester's stomach area before pulling out his blaster. Jester rubbed his stomach, despite the padding there, Shade was able to deliver quite the punch.
Florarmoa turned to the pilots "Will you be alright here?" she asked
One of the pilots nodded. "We're use to having to stay with the ships, but do you mind sparing a couple troops to stay with us? This place gives me the creeps,"
"Of course, you four stay with the pilots," Floraroma said.
Four clone troopers nodded and came over to the gunships.
While the pilots got acquainted with their guards, Floarmoa began to walk amongst the wreckage of the hanger, Shade following close by her side. The two walked amongst the wreckage of the hanger, stumbling across several destroyed, super battle droids, battle droids, and the wreckage of vulture droids and other droid ships that had gotten caught in the crossfire between the droids and their unknown enemy.
"Hey! General Florarmoa, Shade! You guys got to check out what I just found!" Jester shouted at the two.
The two turned to Jester waving his arms wildly in the air to catch their attention.
"What do you think he's found?" Florarmoa asked
Shade shrugged his shoulder.
"Well I guess there's only one way to find out," Floarmoa said.
The two then carefully made their way over to where Jester was standing. He was standing at the far side of the hanger by the wreckage of a vulture droid and what looked like several crates that were stacked against the wall in a makeshift barricade.
"You guys won't believe what I found!' Jester told them excitingly. "I saw the barricade here and thought well now why would the droid set up a barricade against the wall, so I tried moving some of the crates, but they were wielded together pretty well. Then I had this brilliant idea that I could probably get a good few of the hanger from the top of it so I started to climb it and that was when I saw something lying against the wall, trapped between it and this vulture droid. I went to get a closer look and oh man let me tell you, your minds are going to be blown at what I've found,"
Jester then moved close to the wall and grabbed something that was hidden from view by the vulture droid's wing. Jester huffed and pulled until he managed to pull out the upper half of a strange alien, creature. Jester dropped the upper half on the floor and gestured at it.
"Pretty cool huh? I mean just look at how ugly and scary it is! Ha ha, oh man I would hate to run into this thing in the dark," Jester said.
Shade turned his head to the side as he looked at, while Florarmoa slowly began to approach the dead creature.
"Do you this is what the droids were fighting against?" Jester asked, kicking it gently in the side.
"No" Florarmoa said "Not just one of them,"
"Huh?" Jester asked
Florarmoa knelt down and slowly reached out a hand to touch the creatures head. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and laid her hand flat onto the ridged surface of the creature's elongated head and reached out into it with the Force. She suddenly let out a loud gasp as she was hit with a huge wave of Dark Force energy, knocking her back onto the floor.
Shade quickly moved to her aid and lifted her up so that she was able to lean back into him as she gasped for breath. Jester kicked the upper half to the side and knelt down next to her and Shade.
"Are you alright general?" Jester asked.
She shook her head as she tried to speak.
"This…this creature…I've never felt anything like it, so…so much hatred, so much evil. It's…it's death and the Dark Side of the Force personified. We…we have too…" She managed to say before passing out.
Jester looked back at the creature and swallowed loudly. Shade gently picked the unconscious Jedi up, cradling her so that her head rested against his chest plate. He then began to run for the door towards the front of the hanger, Jester following quickly behind.
Pitch and Black saw the two moving quickly to the door with Floraroma in Shade's arm and quickly rushed over to them.
"What happened?" Pitch asked as they reached the group.
"I don't know, alien and then" Jester, told them making a strange poof sound as he touched the top of his helmet. "And this,"
Black ran ahead of the group and opened the door, allowing Shade to run through it, the rest of the group following behind. The hallway they found themselves in was barely lit by the flickering lights that lined it. The door at the end of the hallway took the group into another hallway that outlined the pentagonal shape of the base. After following the hallway to another door on their right, the group found themselves and large room with a cylindrical structure in the center of the room.
Much like the hanger they had arrived in the, the room they found themselves in was littered with the bodies of destroyed battle droids. Shade quickly moved to the door at the base of the structure in the center of the room, Jester right on his heels. Jester pushed a button next to the door as Pyro and the troopers from Bravo Squad came through another door.
"Hey do you mind sparing a couple troopers to help two of my boys unload the explosives?" Pyro asked before he saw the body of the unconscious Jedi in Shade's arms. "What happened?"
Pyro quickly moved to join the others by the elevator.
"It's a long story," Jester told him.
The door opened and Shade was quick to duck into the elevator Jester following behind.
"We'll go help unload the explosives, get to the control room and make sure the general is alright," Pitch told them.
"Right I'll ride up with them and find out where Rex wants everything until then boys, set up a perimeter and stay frosty," Pyro told the rest of the group.
With that Pitch and Black left through the door Pyro and his men came through while the doors to the elevators closed. The short ride to the top floor was made in silence as the group waited in the half dark elevator. Shade ran out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened.
Shadow saw the Jedi in Shade's arms and quickly moved to help him, while Pyro and Jester joined Tech at the main control computer. Shadow quickly cleared a place on the floor for the Jedi, making sure it wasn't close to any of the holes in the floor. Shade began to slowly lay the Jedi down as Shadow placed some of the padding he removed from one of the chairs in the room on the floor so that the Jedi's head could rest on in it. One the Jedi was safely laying on the floor Shadow and Shade began to talk using a private communications signal that only shadow troopers could access.
While the two shadow troopers talked to each other the others in the room were unable to hear their conversation but were aware that they were talking by the occasional nod of the head from one of the two troopers.
Tech seemed oblivious to the whole situation as he looked over a map of the base that was projected on the screen in front of him. He had removed his helmet so that he could view the map better.
"Do you have access to any blue prints or schematics through that thing," Pyro asked.
Tech turned from the map and appeared surprised by the appearance of Pyro and the others.
"Sergeant Pyro when did you get here?" Tech asked.
"Just a couple of minutes of ago, some things wrong with the general," Pyro told him, pointing to where the Jedi lay, the two shadow troopers still hovering over her as they talked.
"Oh well I'm sure she's alright. Anyways, the answer to your previous question, yes I do have access to the bases schematics," Tech said, turning back to the computer.
"Good pull those up and we can begin to plan on where to place the explosives,"
"Hey where's, Captain Rex?" Jester asked scanning the room.
"He's umm looking over some datafiles he found in Emotion's quarters," Tech answered, as he pulled up the bases schematics.
Jester, having found the door to another room was about to enter when Tech stopped him.
"The captain doesn't want to be disturbed while he's working," Tech said, turning to look in Jester's direction.
Jester stepped away from the door, allowing Tech to turn back to the computer to assist Pyro and finding places to plant the explosives. While the two worked Jester moved over to check on the Jedi. Shadow and Shade stood up when Jester reached them.
"How is she?" He asked.
"She'll be fine, she just needs to rest and get her strength back," Shadow told him.
"Commander Shadow, why don't you and your shadow trooper go see what weapons you can gather from the weapons building" Tech ordered them. "There might be something useful there that we can use to help with the bases destruction,"
"Sure, but I think I'll leave Shade here to keep watch over General Floraroma" Shadow replied back "I'll take Jester with me instead."
Tech pondered this for awhile before saying "Very well, you can take him along. I'm sending you the coordinates now and when you get to the main floor send half of the troopers up here to provide security and about four to investigate the research building,"
"Right, come on Jester, let's go grab some new toys," Shadow said heading for the elevator.
Jester followed behind and entered the elevator before noticing Shadow give Shade a small nod. The door closed as Shadow entered the elevator before he could see Shade return the signal.
"I know it's not my business to get involved with secret covert stuff, but I have to ask what, was that about?" Jester asked as they rode down to the main floor.
"I'll tell you later," Shadow replied.
Once they arrived on the main floor, Shadow relayed Tech's order and quickly left the room, Jester running to keep up. Once in the hallway Shadow replaced his DC-15 with his DC-19 "Stealth" carbine, the standard shadow trooper weapon. The two then moved down the hallway through another door and into another seemingly dark hallway that was longer than the one they had left. The two began to move down the dark hallway, weapons at the ready. Once they were far enough into the hallway, Shadow lowered his blaster and turned to face Jester.
"I can I trust you, Jester?" Shadow asked.
"Of course you can. You may be from a different batch then me but were still brothers," Jester answered
"And you're willing to do anything to protect your brothers right?" Shadow asked
Jester nodded "Anything" He said.
"Good, now then I'm about to tell you something that you can't tell anyone else got it?"
"I may talk a lot, Shadow, but I know how to keep a secret,"
Shadow did a quick look down the hallway, back to the door they came through, as if he expected to see somebody standing there or find someone hiding in the shadows before looking Jester in the eye.
"Tech's a traitor,"
Jester let out a loud, obnoxious laugh before stopping and seeing that Shadow was serious. "Wait your serious aren't you?"
"Yes, he shot Captain Rex with a stun round when Rex decided it was best to abandon the mission,"
"Why would Tech do something like?"
"I don't know, but it's clear he has his own agenda and it involves finding Emotion and his research,"
"What should we do?"
"Right now we should follow our orders and grab whatever weapons we can find in the weapons building. When the time comes I'll deal with Tech. Until them keep quiet about what I told you,"
Jester nodded and two resumed their mission to the weapons building, the hallway eventually lead the two clones to a strange circular pad on the floor. Above the circular pad was another one just like it and, like several of the floors in the base, there was a large hole jutting out of the floor in front of the circular pad.
"Are you sure this is the way to the weapons building because I don't see a door anywhere," Jester stated
"Yes I'm sure; this is where the coordinates Tech gave me lead," Shadow answered, looking around the hall
"Hmm well do you think this weird pad thing as anything to do with it?" Jester asked, stepping onto the curricular pad. "Maybe the door only opens when someone is standing here,"
As Jester stood on the curricular pad a humming sound could be heard coming from the pad. As the humming increased the pad on the floor and on the ceiling began to light up. Shadow took a step back as the pad began to activate.
"See" Jester said "This has to mean the door is opening,"
Before Shadow could make a reply the clownish clone commander disappeared in a flash of light. Shadow was amazed by the sudden disappearance of Jester and was about to try to reach him when he reappeared in another flash of light.
"Wow Shadow did you see that!" Jester exclaimed
"What is that thing?" Shadow asked as Jester rejoined him.
"I don't know it's like some of transporter or something. All I know is that one second I was standing there on the pad waiting for a door to open up behind me and then a flash of light. Next thing I know I'm in a room full of weapons," Jester explained.
"Amazing," Shadow said in awe.
"I know right! You have to try it," Jester said
Before Shadow could protest, Jester had managed to drag him on to the teleportation pad. Shadow was about to step off of the pad and insist that Jester go back again first but it was too late. The flash of light engulfed the shadow trooper and the next thing the confused and slightly stunned clone knew he was in the weapons room.
Shadow stepped of the pad and scanned the room when another flash of light signaled the arrival of Commander Jester.
"Oh man we have got to have Captain Emotion install these things on Kamino, it would make things so much more interesting there," Jester said admiring the teleporter.
Shadow shook his head and moved to examine a rack of droid weaponry on the left wall. The rack was full of the standard droid weaponry along with a few other Separatist weapons. Once Jester was done fascinating over the teleporter he joined Shadow as the two began to search the racks and crates of weaponry that the building contained. As Shadow was looking over a rack of captured Republic weaponry he heard the clatter of metal falling to the floor.
He quickly spun around with his blaster ready to see that Jester had a large pile of weapons in his arms and that a few had fallen to the floor. Shadow relaxed and shook his head in disappointment.
"What? Tech said garb weapons so that's what I'm doing," Jester said
Shadow was about to go back to examining the weapons when he heard an even louder clatter of weapons falling to the floor. Ignoring Jester he went over to inspect some of the heavy artillery when he heard a small whimper. He quickly raised his blaster and motioned for Jester to remain quiet and slowly began to move towards where the sound emanated from.
As Shadow got closer to his point of interest he saw a small, dim black light coming from the corner, the same corner as to where the sound came from. He then quickly spun around the corner to take a look at what was hiding there.
"Jester, come take a look at this," Shadow said, lowering his blaster.
"Why what is it?" Jester asked, approaching cautiously with his weapon raised.
When Jester reached the corner he saw that huddled in the corner, clinging to the upper halves of two droid commanders was Captain James Emotion.