Vanguard
Chapter 7
"Seven foot tall lab rat"
[Dantooine, old abandoned military facility]
The unlikely trio of beings passed through the threshold of the facility now traveling down through a tunnel that lead further into the facility, at first it seemed truly abandoned until they went further inside and begun to see droids walking about maintaining the place with the outdated equipment they had.
Ahsoka had to ask "What is this place?"
Ventress was keeping ahead of the group as she answered "An old republic military base used for weapons development back during the days of the old Republic."
Longarm was silent throughout the trip seemingly distrustful of Ventress after what happened on Coruscant, he thought to himself thinking he should of killed her then and there instead of going easy on her. The same could've gone for the enigmatic Cain but he could tell that Ahsoka and Asajj wanted the man alive for questioning, he finally makes the decision of no longer taking things easy, should anyone threaten him he would make them wish they were already dead.
Ahsoka sensed this feeling of anger within the SPARTAN and became wary of it, by that time they started walking pass a set of windows looking down into what seemed to be a combat simulation room, she asks "What's this?"
Asajj answers "Combat simulation, trainees would go here to fight against combat training droids armed with weapons set on stun. And guess who's going to be its first combatant in over several centuries."
The two stopped and looked at the SPARTAN-ll who stood behind them, Tano then asks "You ready to impress?"
Longarm simply nodded before Asajj said "Good" and turns to Ahsoka saying "Take him down to the lower level and have him prepped for testing."
On that note Asajj left to be somewhere else, Ahsoka crossed her arms frowning at the leaving assassin thinking she should say something but soon finding out it's not worth it at the moment, she turns to the SPARTAN and said "Come on Longarm, let's get you ready so you can show her what you're made of."
The SPARTAN-ll nodded and started to follow Tano to the lower level where he'll get prepped for the unnecessary observation session, he didn't need to be constricted to this sort of procedures or regulations. Although he was use to this sort of thing within the UNSC it was all for the better good of humanity to ensure the halt of the Covenant's advance into human space, this sort of thing he was going through now is only meant for Asajj and Ahsoka to find out who he was, find out what his intentions are, and decide whether or not he's too dangerous to be kept alive.
Ahsoka sensed his frustration and said "Something's troubling you . . . I can feel it."
Longarm responded "I don't need to be here."
"Where else would you be? If it wasn't for me you'd still be stuck on Coruscant."
"And I thank you for that, but I still have other matters to attend to."
Ahsoka thought for a quick second before asking "Your ship right?"
The SPARTAN sighed "It crashed on a distant planet with me as the only survivor. It's currently being repaired by the only one I can trust."
"Wait if you're the only survivor then who's repairing the ship?"
"Currently confidential, all you need to know is that I need to get back there one way or another."
"I can help you if you tell me where it is."
Longarm thought about it, while Tano is somewhat trustworthy for what they've been through together, the location of his ship was still too important for it to be revealed to outside ears, he says "I can't tell you that."
"And why not?"
"Because I have protocols to follow, I may be far away from home but that doesn't mean I get to do whatever on my own free will."
The Togruta sighed "Fine I understand, but if you're thinking about breaking out of here I'm pretty sure Ventress is not going to make it easy. Then again I don't think you ever understood the word easy."
The SPARTAN chuckled "Hmhm."
They soon entered an elevator where Ahsoka pressed a button and begun their brief descent, once the elevator reached its designated level the two resumed their walk to the entrance before the simulation room. On their way to their destination the SPARTAN began to ponder about that 'Cain' character he encountered earlier, a man that 'waved between the light and dark' as Tano put it.
They passed a pair of maintenance droids when Longarm asks "Do you know anyone that goes by the name of Cain?"
Ahsoka thought for a brief moment before stating "I've heard stories of a Cain Komari back when I was under the teachings of Master Yoda, he was a Jedi Knight within the order that openly opposed the Clone Wars but he normally kept to himself. Word has it he died while investigating the murder of his master. Nobody saw him ever since."
The SPARTAN let out a "Hmm . . ." prompting Tano to ask "What're you thinking?"
He looks down at her saying "Nothing yet, just possibilities."
She suddenly stops and asks "You think the guy you fought was the Cain Komari?"
The soldier stops as well and says calmly "Like I said, possibilities."
The two resumed their walk passing by several more droids, the idea of them walking nonchalantly through an old republic base being manned by outdated droids mixed in with what few separatists battle droids Ventress managed to recover seemed odd to the two. It also evidently became clear that the assassin was not taking any chances hoping to make sure the SPARTAN-ll was contained and unable to escape or bring the whole place down on their heads, which he could do easily once given access to explosive ordnance. They were beginning to near the entrance to the simulation room, the muscles tensed in the SPARTAN's arms and his hand was already prepared to draw his blaster and shoot on a moment's notice on every potential threat he saw pass by. They finally come by the door where a pair of reprogrammed B1 battle droids stood guard armed with their typical E-5 blaster rifles.
One of the guards steps up and orders "Hold it right there" before bringing up a facial scanner and pointed it at Ahsoka, after a brief moment the scanning was complete and the droid says "Alright you're cleared to enter by the Mistress's command."
Tano was tempted to cut the droid down with her lightsabers but that was past experience and training yelling to her to do so, but she suppresses those feelings and calmly says "Thank you" before gesturing the SPARTAN to follow her in.
The droid steps back and presses several keys on a door pad causing it to open with a hiss of air allowing the young Togruta and SPARTAN to walk inside where he'll ready himself for combat, the door calmly slid back closed behind them making the prepping room dark until a dull red light came on seconds later. Longarm then got to work readying his blaster, his mass accelerator rifle, and the electro-staff taken from one of Grevious's guards back on Toydaria.
In the process of preparing for combat, Tano states "Ventress and I will be watching from the observation post on the higher level, I don't have to explain what you have to do here."
The SPARTAN sensed a hint of worry in her voice when she told him that, he stops what he was doing for a brief moment and looked down to her saying in a calm and confident "I'll be fine . . ."
Ahsoka took a moment to think about those words and that tone he just spoke to her in, a second later she silently nods and walks out of the room where the droids allowed her out. Longarm watched her leave before putting his focus back to himself and his weapons, he was nearly done with everything except for his rifle, he takes that out and inserts another cartridge into the magazine feed and presses down on the breech loading the round into the chamber. With the rifle charged and ready he slaps it back onto his back magnetic strip and brings out his compact DC-15S blaster carbine, soon the large bulkhead door opens up in front of him revealing the floor of the simulation room, as expected he calmly walks out into the bright room and looks up to his right to see Ventress and Tano watching from above behind blaster proof windows.
Inside the observation post, Ahsoka glances at Asajj who was staring down at the SPARTAN and says "I don't think this is a good idea . . ."
Ventress hissed "It's none of your concern. You already done your part so there's nothing holding you back here."
"Wait what do you mean?"
"I mean you better leave while you still can, before I decide to kill you and collect your bounty."
Tano frowned at the assassin that was threatening her, it became clear now that this little alliance of three was now broken and there was nothing holding them back from killing each other but Ventress seemed more focused on Longarm than her.
The former Jedi sighed and said "Fine, have it your way . . ." and begins to walk away leaving Longarm in Ventress's control.
The SPARTAN watched as Ahsoka started to leaving abandoning him here with the bald wicked witch, at first he seemed angry feeling he has been betrayed by one he was beginning to think of as a friend but he calmed himself believing that this was bound to happen sooner or later. He then saw Asajj make a hand signal to an OOM-Series battle droid commander marked by their yellow stripes, the droid nodded and pressed several buttons on a board. Seconds later on the far side of the room across from Longarm, three doors embedded in the wall began to open showing nothing but darkness inside but soon enough he heard that distinct clank of B1 battle droids marching. Three by three battle droids marched out of each door with more stacked up behind them, the SPARTAN takes aim with his clone blaster carbine and waits for the first shot to ring out.
One droid calls out "Target sighted! Attack!" followed with a large chorus of "Roger Roger!"
Then suddenly the droids fanned out and started firing a barrage of lasers towards the SPARTAN-ll who responded immediately firing off accurate bursts of fire already putting down four droids within the first two seconds of fighting. Asajj watched as countless battle droids fell one by one to this single super soldier who ducked and weaved through incoming blaster fire with surprising agility for such a large a bulky figure as he effortlessly destroys a number of battle droids with a mere carbine commonly used among clone troopers. Nonetheless and seemingly endless number of droids marched out of those three doors and began to slowly push the SPARTAN back that was not showing signs of giving up in the slightest despite the heavy blaster fire he was facing. One bolt slams into Longarm's side and his shields reacted as expected and held, that instant he holsters his carbine and simply vanished into thin air causing the droids to cease fire and look around confused.
Ventress eyes opened wide not believing he had simply disappeared, she turns to the commander and yells "Report!"
The commander said "Scans indicate a lifeform is still present in the room Mistress, it appears he has optical camouflage."
That statement calmed the assassin and prompted her to start looking for any signs of movement, at first none could be seen until she noticed a distorted ripple smoothly moving through the unsuspecting crowd of droids, but even if she could warn the droids, it was far too late. The next instant the SPARTAN reveals himself armed with his electro-staff and immediately takes down the five droids closest to him with a fast series of swings and jabs, a sixth droid responds quickly and charges at the soldier but he counteracts with a powerful roundhouse kick slamming his right foot against the metal combat chassis and virtually destroys the internal components inside the droid with the sheer concussive force of the impact. Quickly afterwards the remaining droid army responds and begins to close in on the lone SPARTAN who was still far from quitting, Longarm quickly draws his carbine once more and wields it single handedly as he begins to shoot down more droids that continued their assault. The next instant his carbine was shot out of his hand by a lucky droid who then became unlucky when the SPARTAN hurled his electro-staff like a javelin and the staff pierced through its armored body. Longarm then proceeded to pick up two discarded E-5 blaster rifles dropped by a pair of dead droids and begins shooting down the remaining droids but not before taking some rounds himself that shattered his shields after the third hit, with his armor now exposed the droids pressed the advance firing their weapons. Blaster fire slams and bursts against the hard Titanium-A plating while deflecting the occasional glancing blows but his bodysuit still remained quite vulnerable to enemy fire despite its Titanium-nanocomposite material. But those shots didn't slow the seven foot soldier down from viciously gunning down the remaining droids until none were left standing.
The droid commander reports to Asajj "Mistress, all sixty units have been destroyed."
Ventress looked down at the battle fresh SPARTAN super soldier and said "He's certainly no Jedi but anyone can best a simple B1 . . . send in the B2s."
"Roger Roger" the commander responded before pressing several keys on the board in front of it.
On the floor, Longarm tried to relieve himself of the pain by taking a tiny syringe, filled with morphine mixed with a serum containing similar properties of the standard issued biomedical foam that helps repair damaged tissue and nerves, and inserts it into one of his injector ports on his MJOLNIR Mk. V armor. The suit automatically injects the contents of the syringe and he slowly begins to feel the relief of pain thanks to the morphine though it would take more time for the serum to act as it makes its way through his bloodstreams to the damaged area around his abdomen. Soon enough more marching was heard coming through the center door and when he looks inside he could see that ominous red glowing circle and a pair of white slit eyes he realizes his next set of opponents. The first trio of super battle droids marched with a heavy footstep as they taking aim with their wrist-mounted dual repeating blaster cannons and open fire with much greater accuracy than the B1s. The SPARTAN readies his dual blasters and returns fire sending several bolts slamming against the hardened durasteel plating of the dark grey walking tanks and only managing to take one down. Realizing that the typical blaster was not very effective against the enhanced armor, Lonagrm tossed his blasters aside and bring out his accelerator rifle out loaded for bear taking aim almost immediately. He pulls the trigger initiating the charge up sequence and five seconds later launched the projectile inside out towards the center droid, the hypervelocity round slams into the battle droid's chest and visibly tore it apart with metal and limbs breaking apart as the round continued on its projected course with enough kinetic energy to pass through two more droids and destroying the fourth where it remains embedded inside. The other droids pressed the assault firing away at the SPARTAN-ll as he reloads inserting a new round into the empty breech, once loaded he begins another charge up sequence and sends another round downrange against the approaching droids and destroys another three in the process. The droids however continued pressing the assault and the super soldier didn't have time to load another round and fire before they were on top of him, he slaps the rifle onto his back and charges the super battle droids. The next instant he felt a strong rush of adrenaline, a byproduct of bio-chemicals in his body, and his perception of time became distorted, this was the last trump card Longarm had up his sleeve.
Spartan Time.
In the SPARTAN's eyes everything had slowed down to a near halt, droids continued firing but at a much slower rate and the bolts of ionized energy slowly made their way through the air towards their intended target. Longarm slowly ducked and weaved past every bolt of energy and soon got face to face with the closest droid, he cocks his right arm back as far as he could and launches it like rocket sending his fist smashing into the hardened metal chassis with such brute force. With time slowed down the SPARTAN could see the resulting shockwave caused by the devastating impact ripple across the droid's body and the armor around the impact zone began to buckle and warp trying to compensate for the force but it ultimately failed allowing his fist to pass through the outer shell and cause internal damage on a massive scale. He pulls his arm out of the now deceased battle droid and turns his attention to the next close to him, he reaches for his combat knife and brings it out held in the reversed grip position and twirls his whole body around clockwise sending the blade straight into the optical sensors within the droid's featureless 'face'. The seven inch titanium-ceramic carbide blade pierces the droid's right eye and practically shredded whatever was behind the optics causing the machine to immediately power down and the SPARTAN turned to his next unfortunate target.
In real time, Ventress was unbelievably shocked by the vicious brutality and force the soldier was capable of, after watching a super battle droid essentially disintegrate under the SPARTAN-ll's tremendous force, she orders the droid commander "Send in the droidekas now!"
The commander acknowledged "Roger Roger" and pressed a lone key on the board.
Ventress then resumed watching in surprise and interest as the SPARTAN literally tore the remaining few droids apart with such ferocity, she mutters to herself quietly "This could be what I need to finally get my revenge on Dooku . . ."
Longarm just finished eliminating the last super battle droid that was left standing and started to breathe heavily thinking it was finished until he started to hear something rolling his way, seconds later a pair of rolling droids plated with maroon red armor appears out of the center door way and quickly deployed into three-legged machines with a skeletal-like chassis with three small red optics and armed with two dual-linked repeating cannons, what made matters entirely worse was once they deployed themselves into combat status a bluish clear shield developed around them and they began firing away at a rapid pace. This time the SPARTAN was outmatched and quickly cloaks himself to avoid fire, during he moves off to the side wall and brings out his mass accelerator where he loads the last round he had brought with him into the breech and takes aim at the droid standing to his left. The roller droids searched vigilantly for their target until a hypervelocity metal slug shot out of nowhere impacting of the droid's shields, once the projectile made first contact against the energy barrier the shield seemed to have stopped it but the massive kinetic energy traveling behind the slug caught up and overloaded the droid's shielding output allowing the metal round to smash right through the shields and on its way to the droid's fragile exoskeleton and tore it in half. The second droideka quickly turns catching sight of the SPARTAN appearing out of thin air and begun firing away sending bolts of energy smashing into the human's energy shielding and eventually breaking through to the exposed armor. Shot by shot sent the SPARTAN hitting his back against the wall until several rounds later when the soldier slumped down against the wall with his armor riddled with blast marks.
Minutes passed when the barely conscious SPARTAN heard light footsteps accompanied by the distinct metallic ones and a figure appeared in front of him, he looks up to see Ventress standing there as she bends down and says "You've shown skill and courage which is hard to come by, but with you I can finally exact my revenge on Count Dooku. But for now rest, because once you wake up I want to know everything that you know . . ."
Longarm attempted to stand but his body wouldn't allow it, he has taken too many blasts from the droids and he was slowly starting to succumb to his pain, eventually . . . he passed out with his vision fading into darkness.
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