Chapter 3
We tried to keep our comms up as much as possible, but after a while the distance between us got too big, and anything Manny and Rex said was too static-filled to understand. The last thing we heard from them was something like, "****approaching battle*****heavy resistance****only one way*****get to General Mundi*****FOR THE REPUBLIC!" then a series of sniper rifle discharges. If I had to pick a couple of Deltas to fight through waves upon waves of battle droids, I knew I could trust Rex and Manny.
Zan, Alex, and I tried our hardest to look for clues upon where the Separatist base would be located, but after 30 minutes of walking, we ran out of craters to follow. Apparently, the tank didn't fire until it thought it was close enough. So much for the easy way. We were trying to figure out another plan when we heard a strange humming noise.
"BLAST! Another tank?" Zan blurted.
Alex shook his head. "Nah, it's too high pitched."
As the sound got louder, it separated into multiple pitches. It sounded like an army of repulsors. That's when I realized...
"Speeder bikes."
"WHAT?" yelled Alex.
"You heard me right, speeder bikes. Probably IG Lancer Droids."
"You're kidding me," said Zan, exasperated. "I thought those were only spotted by General Kenobi on the Battle of Muunilinst."
"Apparently, now they're building 'em here, too," I replied, just as disappointed as Zan.
We could handle a single tank, but a platoon of IG Lancer Droids might be a little much for three Scouts to handle. Things were about to get crazy. As the first wave was coming out of the fog, Zan gave his orders.
"Let them pass the first time, but take out as many as you can before you have to dodge. I want you BOTH to give yourselves enough time to roll out of the way. No risky maneuvers!"
He looked at me.
"What?" I replied. "Just because I like to toy with the enemy - "
"RYAN!"
"Fine..."
I turned to face our black bodied metal enemies. They were coming in fast (duh, they were riding speeder bikes), so I brought my rifle up to my shoulder and fired. The shot went straight through the IG's chest, and as it slumped over, its bike slammed into another one on the left, which happened to be the one aimed straight at me, then it started sliding sideways along the ground towards me. The front end of the other one tipped into the ground, crashed, and went flying into the air, flipping as it sailed over my head. The sliding speeder bike skidded to a stop just a few feet in front of me as the wail of the rest of the speeder bikes raced by. It would've deafened me as they passed had it not been for the sound filters in my helmet. Unlike me, Zan and Alex had to duck and weave quite a lot to avoid The speeding droids and their lances, but they managed quite nicely.
As we turned around to face the rest of the IGs, I had an idea. I rushed towards the speeder bike that was stopped a few feet behind me. The IG droid was still slumped over in the seat. The bike itself was badly scraped, but still functioned. Drawing my vibrosword, I kicked the broken IG to the side and mounted the speeder. I smiled to myself, the tables had turned. As the rest of the IGs turned, Alex and Zan were still firing into the group. I revved up the bike, and raced past them.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Ryan," Alex said into his comm.
I chuckled.
"I do, too, Alex. I do, too."
The gap closed surprisingly fast, and within seconds I was narrowly avoiding lances and slicing droids to pieces. Now there were enough empty, functioning speeder bikes for Alex and Zan follow in suit with their own bikes and swords, and after a few passes, we had narrowed the IGs down to three. Unfortunately, we had shown most of our tricks to these three, and they seemed to be getting smarter. With another roaring pass, the three IGs were still alive. Unfortunately for them, we were, too. It was time to get fancy.
"Alright," I said, "We might have to single one out so that we can take them out one at a time."
"The middle one," Zan ordered.
With Alex in the middle of our formation, that droid was headed straight for him. Either that, or Alex was headed straight for the droid. Zan and I hit our accelerators and shot ahead of Alex towards the droid, Zan on the left and I on the right. We tried to time our attack, but the IG managed to dodge both of our swords. But Alex had a plan. His bike was still headed for the IG, but at the last second, Alex stood up, and jumped as high as he could, and both bikes collided in a fiery explosion. It was glamorous. It was stylish. It was beautiful.
It was going to get him killed.
Zan and I both said a few choice words as we slammed on our brakes, trying to turn around as quickly as possible.
"I got him!" Zan yelled as he locked onto Alex's landing point, trying to match his flight speed to catch him. I hadn't even noticed I was holding my breath when I let it out in relief as Zan skillfully caught Alex on the back of his speeder bike. But there was no time for celebration, there were still two droids left, and the same trick wouldn't work twice. That's when the idea struck me. The droids were still riding in close formation, and Alex didn't have to focus on driving anymore.
"Alex!" I shouted as we were flying next to each other, "Grenade!"
Alex nodded. He flipped out one of his two Thermal Detonators and set it. As we about to pass the IGs, Zan and I didn't even try to hit them with our swords as Alex neatly threw his grenade at one of them. It stuck with a satisfying *clunk* as we zoomed by. One second. Two seconds. Boom.
We turned just in time to see the explosion tear apart both the droids and their bikes.
My Scouts had overcome yet another obstacle. And now we had a pair speeder bikes. With navcomputers. And the last entry had return coordinates. Now we could accurately track where they came from. The hunters had become the hunted.
I grinned.