Vanguard
Chapter 6
"Truth and Cain"
[Hyperspace, on route to Dantooine]
While the two were walking towards the cargo bay, Longarm asks "So how did you know about the Covenant?"
Ahsoka was close behind when she asked worriedly "You want the truth?"
Longarm turned his head towards her as they walked "That's all I expect . . ."
Ahsoka took a moment to figure out where to start with then said "Well, of all the times I asked you questions I felt you were holding out on me. So when I got into my room I started to meditate and focus my energy on you, through using the force I could find out what you really know. Turns out I found one of the many things you kept hidden and now I know why."
Ahsoka was waiting for the SPARTAN to lash out and scold her about personal privacy, but instead he calmly said "I kept things from you for good reasons, if you wanted to know then you could have simply asked instead of poking around in my head."
"You're not angry at all?" Ahsoka asked carefully not expecting what Longarm would do.
"Angry? No. Upset that you have trust issues? Slightly but I can understand why" the SPARTAN explains as they came to the door that led into the cargo bay.
Ahsoka waited for Longarm to open the doors and walk in after him, she was expecting everything to be a plain and simple cargo bay with crates stacked up on each other. Instead she found that Longarm had turned the entire bay into his personal makeshift workshop, various workbenches made out of scrap metal that looked like they been slapped up onto each other with various components displayed on several tables, opened crates revealing their contents while others were closed and stacked up in a corner, a large crate acting as another table with a holographic projector displaying a luxury droid broadcasting a radio channel playing cantina music, there was even a makeshift crane which utilizes a orientated bar for Longarm to use when transporting a heavy component from table to table.
Longarm gestured with his hand to an unopened crate for Ahsoka to take a seat on and asked while returning to his work "So you Jedi can see into peoples' minds and read them out like a book?"
Ahsoka sat down on the crate watching the SPARTAN assemble something when she answered "Some Jedi do, it's not easy but it can be done."
The SPARTAN took a quick glance at a magnetic conductor rod sitting in a crate then returned to his work while beginning his answer to Ahsoka's earlier question "The Covenant is a collective alliance of multiple alien species united under a religious hegemony devoted to the belief of something they call 'The Great Journey'. The religious leaders of the Covenant, known as Prophets, had declared my kind as an affront to their gods and ordered our immediate destruction."
Ahsoka comments "So this is the war you mentioned on Senator Amidala's shuttle, the one that lasted nearly twenty-five years and counting."
Longarm nods "Right, at first we had the advantage over them but that was simply because they underestimated us. Eventually they brought down the hammer and devastated our first responding forces consisting of several fleets and armies, when conventional warfare began to fail; we had to resort to the use of nuclear warfare and the use of SPARTAN super soldiers."
"What's the progress of the war the last time you heard?" Tano asked.
Longarm stopped wielding a component to another and thought about that, he then said "As of four years ago since I first came here . . . the UNSC had just lost another human colony and the Covenant slowly pushing through our defenses towards to our core worlds, even home."
Ahsoka noticed Longarm simply staring at the tools in front of him, she could sense his anger and frustration then asked "Hey . . . are you alright?"
The SPARTAN snapped out of his deep thought saying "Hmm? Oh yeah . . . of course you were asking me about something . . ."
It came clear to Ahsoka that Longarm wasn't thinking straight at this point and decided to change the subject before it could get worse, she comments while looking around the cargo bay "You weren't kidding about specializing in mechanical engineering . . . I'm very impressed."
Longarm saw what she was trying to do but simply decided to go with it for his own sake, he said "Oh yeah? Wait till you see what I can do with a long-range anti-material rifle, you'll be amazed by how far I can hit a target."
Ahsoka asked "What is it like, to be a sniper?"
Longarm began speaking from experience "Well . . . you need a large amount of patience and a good eye to put things in short. Maybe one day I could teach you on how to handle a rifle and sharpshoot."
"I know how to handle a blaster, I think I know what I'm doing" Tano claims confidently.
Longarm corrected her "You forget, my weapons are projectile based. You'll need me to teach you how to handle one if it comes to that."
Tano thought about that for a moment then said gratefully "Thanks, I'd like that."
Longarm grinned underneath his helmet and went back to work, to Ahsoka it appeared that Longarm was making some sort of slug-thrower but none of the parts she recognized other than the pistol grip and the main housing mechanism.
She soon asks "What are you making?"
Longarm finishes putting together an optical scope when he answers "Well, back on Toydaria I noticed the blaster wasn't quite strong enough to put those larger droids down faster than I hoped, so right now I'm going with a more unconventional weapon design that'll make those thick armored tin cans a thing of the past, that's if I can figure out the power supply."
Ahsoka was glad to know that Longarm was a no nonsense kind of guy and is willing to take the initiative to do something but she asks "Why not take a DC-15A, they pack a little more firepower than what you have?"
Longarm thought about that for several moments then said "Nah, better to stick with what I know how to use and how to make it better, are we nearing our destination?"
Ahsoka climbs off the crate saying "I'll go check, be back in a few."
Longarm resumed his duties while Ahsoka leaves the cargobay/workshop towards the cruiser's cockpit, on her way up she began to wonder about the war Longarm's kind was still fighting. It was no doubt that his kind has fought hard against alien aggressors for over three decades purely on the need of survival as a species, she also began to wonder why the Covenant would call humanity an affront that should be eradicated. She eventually puts those thoughts aside as she comes aboard the cruiser's cockpit and took up her seat where she began checking the controls in front of her, judging from the instruments they will drop out of hyperspace over Dantooine in several minutes. Just then her ship began receiving a transmission from Asajj once again.
Ahsoka takes a quick glance at the door behind her before she presses a button allowing a hologram of ventress to appear, Ahsoka states "We'll be exiting hyperspace soon and will be making our descent down to the surface."
Ventress replies "Good, the facility I'm in will provide us the isolation and means of studying our metal friend. Speaking of which did you find anything about him?"
Tano answers "Yeah . . . he's not from our galaxy and from what he told me he and his kind are at war with an alliance of aliens called the Covenant, he's been fighting for nearly three decades. That'd explain his skills at unarmed combat and shooting."
Ventress didn't seem surprise but this definitely caught her attention "Really? I've heard of talks and theories about extragalactic beings but this is certainly is interesting. I'm sending you the coordinates of the base, I'll be wai—wait what was that?" Asajj now seemed distracted by something off hologram.
Ahsoka raised an eyebrow asking "What's going on?"
The former sith assassin then quickly drew her dual lightsabers and was immediately attacked by a unknown figure wearing a cloak over what looked like to be Mandalorian battle armor, the figure didn't wield any sort of lightsaber but instead shot out a storm of lightning and tossed Ventress off hologram. Ahsoka watched as the figure simply walked off hologram in a calm manner before the transmission ended, now was the time to tell Longarm the truth and help him prepare for combat against this unknown assailant. She gets up from her seat and rushes for the door when it opened revealing the towering SPARTAN-ll standing there and that's when she became utterly afraid, he heard everything.
"Longarm!?" Ahsoka cried out in surprise moments before the SPARTAN lunged at her grabbing her by the throat and slamming her against a wall holding her just above the ground.
She tried to make a move for her lightsaber but the super soldier was quick to disarm her and bring his DC-15S blaster right up to her head growling "Give me one damn good reason not to shoot you right now!"
The SPARTAN's grip on her throat made it difficult for her to breath or even speak for that matter but she manages to utter "I—I'm s-sorry . . . I was g-oing to tell you-"
"A little too late for that don't you think!? What was Ventress planning to do anyways?"
Ahsoka couldn't help but be frightened as she looked into the black narrow visor of his E.O.D helmet and sense the anger and betrayal within him, she tries to loosen his grip with her arms but his hand wouldn't budge an inch, she said "Ventress wanted- me to—bring y-ou to—Dantooine so—she could s-study you . . ."
Longarm loosened up his grip seeing Ahsoka start to black out and simply decided to let her go completely allowing her to fall to the ground desperately gasping for air, he kneels down next to her and said "I'd appreciate it if you didn't hide things from me like that again. The more I know the better I can handle situations."
Ahsoka managed to get her breath back to say "You really have a way of getting people to talk don't you?"
"You're lucky I could've done worse" he says before he presents her lightsabers in his hand, she takes them into her hands and got back up to her feet where she starts seeing the SPARTAN walk back through the door but before he left bridge he said "I solved that power situation for my new weapon, I'll be ready for combat in two minutes" and left.
Ahsoka rubbed her hand around her neck luckily feeling no bruises but the power behind his grip was unbelievable, nonetheless she returns to her seat just as their cruiser exits hyperspace above Dantooine and begin their descent to the surface below.
It was about ten minutes later when she sets the ship on auto-pilot and meets Longarm fully equipped for combat waiting down at the off ramp, she was hesitant to say anything to him after that stunt he pulled on the bridge but she didn't blame him, his kind was losing a war she knew little of and for all he knows they could be dead by now leaving him as humanity's sole survivor.
She watches him prime his blaster and holster it onto his thigh plating, next he drew his little pet project that consists of a typical grip, adjustable stock, and a breech loading firing mechanism where a single projectile is loaded into the chamber, the barrel however was nothing like she seen before made up of two twenty eight inch magnetic parallel conducting rails one above the other with a two inch gap in between. She sees him pull out a rather unusually looking solid object and insert it into the empty breech before pressing it down into locked position with the object now in the firing chamber, next he pulls out a small cylindrical power cell roughly the same size as the projectile used to power large mining equipment.
He inserts the cell into a small empty pocket located under the stock of the rifle plugging it in and powering up the weapon that gave a low hum, this new weapon of his prompted the young padawan to ask "What is that thing?"
Longarm answers as he gives one last check over "A mass accelerator rifle system, not as streamlined as the ARC-920 but hopefully just as effective."
"Mass accelerator rifle system? You mean like a railgun?"
"Simply put yes."
"And what are you using as ammo?"
"I've managed to use unorthodox methods with some high-end burners to melt some scrap metal and mold them into what you see. I've only managed to make seven of these during the time you left and the . . . well you know."
Ahsoka for a moment fell silent until they felt the ship shift as it begins to arrive at the designated landing pad outside the large facility Ventress was based in and she says "Look I'm sorry . . ."
"No I'm sorry, if you said you were going to tell me then I believe you. It was just bad timing and I didn't react to it all too well."
"Right . . ." Tano said before the ramp automatically opens letting out a hiss as pressurized air rushes out into the outside world.
At first they couldn't see anything from the initial blinding daylight but their eyes quickly adjusted and found the landing pad beneath their feet, in the distance they heard Ventress's typical battle cry as she engages her seemingly unarmed attacker in close quarters. On that note the SPARTAN holsters his makeshift rifle and draws his blaster before rushing down the loading ramp and leap off before the cruiser made a gentle landing, he quickly sees Ventress in the distance swinging her two red lightsabers trying to cut away at a figure in a grey cloak that was all too agile. Ventress swings high hoping to decapitate her foe but the enigmatic man quickly ducks backwards avoiding the blade before dropping down and perform a low sweep with his right leg and catches Ventress's feet knocking her off onto the ground.
The man spoke down to the downed assassin with a deep voice full of power and authority but with a sense of eerie calm "Asajj Ventress, you will atone for your crimes before a proper court."
Ventress growled angrily "You will never take me back to the Jedi temple!"
The man corrects her however "I did not say anything about the Jedi . . ." and then creates a blade comprised of focused electricity ready to strike her with a stunning blow.
Ahsoka finally comes out of the ship after it has landed and spots Ventress at the figure's mercy, she turns to the SPARTAN next to her and yells "Longarm!"
He nods and moves in firing off accurate blue bolts of energy from his compact blaster, the first bolt passes by the man's head much to his surprise when he turns to see this towering seven foot black soldier in bulky armor, at first glimpse the helmet seemed to be the makings of a clone trooper but the physiology was all wrong for it to be a trooper 'Interesting. . . I do not sense the force within this one' he thought. Nonetheless the soldier fires off a shot bound for the man's head and so he makes the only proper response, he lets go of his saber of lightning allowing it to dissipate into thin air before drawing his actual lightsaber erecting a yellow blade and deflect the incoming shot back to its origin.
The bolt came screaming back and slams itself into the SPARTAN's chest where the shields reacted and countered it visibly making an orange-yellow ripple across his body, Ahsoka calls out "Longarm!"
Longarm responded "I'm fine! Re-engaging!" before continuing his assault on his primary target.
After realizing the soldier had shields protecting his body the man realizes this being must be subjugated immediately or else getting away will be much too difficult, he turns to face the attacking giant and begins sprinting forward dodging and weaving through blaster fire and deflecting those few that was close to hitting him. He had to admit this soldier had far better accuracy compared to other soldiers in the Clone Wars but this was proved irrelevant once he got into close range with the giant. He deactivates his lightsaber holstering it right away before throwing a fast palm thrust against the soldier's lower gut breaking the failing shields and land a successfully blow, the SPARTAN however didn't even flinch and throws a strong lift handed fist but the man backs away in time to avoid the would-have-been fatal blow and quickly after that he and the giant were locked in a quick and vicious brawl. Longarm quickly holsters his blaster and immediately follow up with a one-two uppercut but the man avoided those knowing just one blow could be it, he in return swings a karate chop directed towards the SPARTAN's right neck and shoulder joint but the soldier throws up his armored gauntlet blocking the hit and come back with a debilitating punch to the gut.
The man staggered backwards reeling from the hit and recovers quickly before shooting out a shard of lightning making contact with the soldier all around the body but to his surprise it did not seemingly phase the giant one bit due to the heavy armor, the SPARTAN quickly breaks free from the lightning storm in time for the man to say "I must say I'm impressed by your durability, I have underestimated you."
Longarm replies "Never underestimate a SPARTAN-ll" before lunging at the man once more.
The man backs away performing a backwards cartwheel before returning with a high kick impacting against Longarm's left side, the SPARTAN immediately responds by wrapping his left arm around the man's leg and virtually immobilizes his target. This gave him enough time to grasp the man's coat with his right arm and yank it off revealing more about the figure to find out his target was a Cerean, a species recognized by their enlarged skulls over their foreheads, with a black beard and no visible hair.
The SPARTAN demands with a threatening tone "Who are you!?"
The Cerean calmly replies "Cain . . ." before unleashing a violent storm of intensified electricity engulfing the giant in pain and shock forcing him to let go of his leg.
Cain then took the moment to spot Ahsoka helping Ventress up and realize that he was hopelessly outnumbered, there was no way for him to effectively hold up against a jedi, a sith assassin, and whatever this 'SPARTAN-ll' was and so his only option was to retreat. He quickly turns back to the SPARTAN to see him recovered and a combat knife drawn in his right hand held in the reverse grip position, Longarm takes a quick swing but Cain ducks and delivers a roundhouse kick to the soldier's gut causing him to heel over before dashing away for a small speeder bike located not too far away.
Ahsoka yells "Longarm stop him!"
The soldier looks up to see Cain making a run for the bike and said gruffly "Oh no you don't" before drawing out his mass accelerator rifle and take aim.
Shortly after he pulls the trigger allowing the magnetic rods to charge up and the initial firing mechanism spooling up as well, there was a five second delay between the pull of the trigger and the firing. The weapon reached maximum charge before launching the shell at speeds up to six kilometers a second, the round zipped past the fleeing Cain and shredded the bike in two once it made impact followed up with the massive kinetic force that traveled behind it. Cain hesitantly stops before finding no other option but to pull out a thermal detonator from his mandalorian armor and hurl it over at the pursuing jedi and sith.
Ventress catches sight of the detonator in mid-flight and calls out "Grenade!" before she and Ahsoka dove for cover while the SPARTAN shields himself.
The resulting blast was massive throwing a shockwave in every direction but causing little structural damage to the pad and facility, once the smoke and dust cleared everyone looked around to find no trace of Cain leading them to believe he had gotten away.
Ventress stands next to Ahsoka and asks "You couldn't have come at a better time could you?"
Ahsoka shrugs with a sarcastic grin "What can I say? Traffic."
The former assassin rolls her eyes before finding the SPARTAN walking up to her looking as if he was about to beat the living hell out of her, once he comes up to them he says with a hint of animosity "You better have a damn good reason we're here right now and who the hell that guy was."
Asajj answered "I don't know who he was but the force within him was strange . . ."
Ahsoka adds "Waving between the light and dark . . . he seemed misguided but yet his intentions were clear. Something we don't understand yet."
Ventress comments "Yet. As for why we're here we'll talk more once we're inside" she starts to walk away with Ahsoka and Longarm close behind but she stops momentarily to say "And please, don't shoot up the place would you dear?"
The SPARTAN made no response after that and soon followed the two into the building where they plan to truly find out Longarm's personal past and intentions in this galaxy.
I am ABSOLUTELY sorry for the long wait everyone! Things came up that demanded my attention and I only had little time to write parts of this chapter while on the go. Also I would like to thank my friend, Laurent Chartier, in creating Cain's character. As always leave your comments and thoughts.
