I have had a months hiatus and apart from the little one minute it's here, one minute it's gone chapter 87 - of which 3 of you picked up - I have four new chapters good to go. These are pivotable for our hero Rex and lead up to the beginning of the end for It Happened So Fast.
I hope you enjoy the new chapter and please feel free to write a review if you feel so inclined.
Eighty Seven
"Look Dar, it's just a simple extract. In and out. Pick up the agent and bring him back. Pakod ner vod. Why all the angst?"
"I dunno. It's just different without Fi. It doesn't feel right."
Niner stopped and and watched as his friend bent to collect his kit.
Darman was right of course, but then again, so was he.
An easy extraction in a medium density enemy controlled area, but without RC-8015.
Fi.
He had been critically injured on Qiilura.
It was one of those times when there was nothing any of them could have done. The drama ensuing the accident and subsequent medical treatment Niner thought almost as harrowing as his brothers head trauma.
For the record, it was done; Republic Commando Fi Skirata had succumbed to his injuries and was designated as dead.
Fi may have been pronounced 'officially' dead but more importantly, he was safe.
And that's how they had to play it.
Safe.
They knew Fi was on Mandalore and about to begin extensive Force healing treatment with Jusik. Kal was frantic at getting him off Coruscant and transported on the QT to the hidden compound he had set up for his boys. Thankfully, everything had gone to his plan and Fi was out of harm's way and free from the prying Republic hierarchy who questioned their old drill sergeants motives for looking after his own.
Niner looked down at his hands as he sat waiting for the transport to the surface. Things had changed for Omega in recent months. Darman was in a relationship with a Jedi. He tried not to think of the logistics behind it, the Jetiise were a group he would never understand.
They were different; they weren't blood.
During the black op on Coruscant even Atin had begun seeing a Twi'lek, and now he had Corr on board; a munitions disposal expert who had two cybernetic hands to replace the ones blown off during a mission gone wrong.
Niner began scratching at an area on his cuisse.
He had never allowed himself the luxury of anything other than thoughts of a relationship. His responsibility to the team now heightened at the loss of Fi and the inclusion of Corr. He looked up and watched as the other two ambled their way across the hanger deck and smiled at the clatter of gear being dropped down in front of him.
"You right sarge?" Atin had now taken it upon himself to keep an eye on the Omega leader.
Just as Fi had done.
Niner smiled and put his bucket on, "elek, all good." Atin watched as Niner lifted himself up off the seat and pick up his pack. His sarge may have sounded as though he was alright, but the scarred trooper wasn't buying any of it.
Silently they assumed their spots on the gun ship. The three seasoned Omega stopped and stared as Corr sat heavily where Fi used to sit, next to the pilots hatch.
"What?" he questioned as the three eerie blue visors faced him.
"Nothing Corr, nothing," Niner broke the awkwardness and moved to sit next to him. It was just another change he had to get used to, his 'spot' usually being next to the gun ship door. He saw Darman shake his head slightly, it was fleeting, but he noticed it none the less. They were trained to be creatures of ritual, the ones that kept them alive but Niner decided that old habits had to die, then and there.
They were now a new unit and had to work as one.
"Atin, you and Dar will work together on this hop."
"Copy that Sarge."
"Corr, you'll be on extraction with me." Niner would have preferred to work with Darman, but thought it unfair to load Atin with Corr on their first assignment without Fi.
He knew the two were close, fek, they were all close.
The sniper of the group made it his business to ingratiate himself on his team brothers. He had been the joker, the medic, the sniper, the best friend and sage on many occasions. They were all feeling his loss from the tightly knit unit, but none more so than Niner.
"Are we all clear?"
"Sir," they all answered back.
They had fifty five minutes to pull the Republic intelligence agent who was being held captive in a house by a military group of Separatist sympathisers.
It was 0200.
With their night vision automatically activated, they sat in the cargo hold and waited.
Atin stretched his neck to the left and right. Niner could see he was nervous, but if all went to plan, they would be back in the larty, with the prisoner intact in just under an hours time.
The pilot's voice broke their silent thoughts, "three minutes to the drop zone gentlemen."
"Who's in the box office?" Darman cocked his head, Niner could tell he was grinning under his bucket.
"I believe we are in the capable hands of Flight Lieutenant Shades," the sergeant replied.
"Shades! I thought you were assigned back on Triple Zero after another DPE?" Darman couldn't help himself.
Shades bit at the comment, "Fek you Darman. We are two to dirt, repeat two to dirt."
Darman continued to chuckle as they calmly stood and waited for the go ahead to disembark.
"Keep it tight," was all Niner said, bouncing with the air turbulence as they approached the ground.
All internal larty lights went off and Shades announced, "the nose is cold Omega."
They were on radar blackout.
The larty hovered just above the ground and the four were given the 'all clear' by the trooper in the hold. They alighted and stealthily ran into the forest, weaving their way down, over the terrain to the small village.
Reaching the outer wall they kept low, Atin bringing up the rear and covering the group's collective.
Niner raised a closed fist and, checking his coordinates, signaled to the small white building on their left. With several hand gestures the group silently spread out; Atin watching for an enemy patrol as Darman made his way up and laced the door with explosives. He pressed himself hard against the wall and counted down with three fingers to mark.
Pwoof!
A spray of bright green light littered their HUD as the small explosion opened the door on the building. Niner was the first to enter followed closely by Corr. Darman and Atin remained vigilant outside as the sarge talked them through the op.
The Intelligence spy was tied to a chair in the middle of the room.
"I have a visual of the prisoner, we are negative for enemy, repeat we are all clear."
With a head hung low, it was difficult for Niner to ascertain whether the person they were sent to extract was still alive, let alone able to walk. Niner placed his weapon down next to chair and began talking as he untied the bindings from behind the seated figures back.
"We are here to rescue you. Do you understand?"
The head moved in acknowledgment. Niner breathed a sigh of relief; at least the prisoner was still conscious.
"I need to verify a Republic code with you." Again he repeated, "do you understand?"
Another nod.
"Mern Yirt Nem Aurek Mem Esk."
With a husky, dry voice the prisoner replied, "Isk Senth Jenth Aurek Nem Esk."
"Correct," then to the unit, "we have a positive confirmation code, standby to exit." Turning back to the prisoner, "I am RC-1309. We have a transport picking us up in approximately thirty minutes. Are you able to walk?" Niner spoke quickly as he moved around to the front on his knees. The prisoner immediately began rubbing the red welts the cord binding had left behind, the marks obvious to the commando even through the green night vision.
"I think so," came the quiet reply.
"OK, when you are ready, we'll stand up slowly." Niner knew that after being tied up for a long period, it could be hard to stand, also he was unaware of the injuries if any, that had been inflicted on the intelligence agent to try and extract Republic information. Two hands reached out and were placed on Niner's vambrances for balance. He immediately noticed the dirt and blood that had dried around the nail beds. Something wasn't quite right though and he continued to stare at them when he heard the comment from Corr over the comm.
"What the fek?"
What the sergeant wasn't prepared for was the face staring at him when he looked to see exactly who, they were sent in to retrieve.
"Seven minutes and counting sarge," Atin sounded edgy over the comm, Niner had lost focus momentarily.
"Copy that. Exiting now."
Darman didn't bother to look back as he watched the three leave the building. The two commando's dwarfed the figure as they moved towards the perimeter wall and into the relative obscurity of the tree line.
They continued on in silence, weaving their way back through the undergrowth until they reached the RV site. Their training impeccable and without fault. They may have been a new unit with the inclusion of Corr, but Kal had prepared each and every one of Omega to perform as one.
Niner let the person slide onto the ground before Corr broke the silence and spoke first.
"Did you know we were collecting a woman?"
Darman swung around and looked at the figure crumpled on the ground, "sarge?"
Niner went on closed comm, berating them initially for their lack of self control. "Cuy ogir'olar? My orders were to find the captive, verify the code and bring him, er, her, home. So what if it's a woman?"
The civilian watched the silent conversation unravel in front of her.
"Please," she whispered, "can I have a drink?"
The men continued talking seemingly oblivious to her question until she stood and cleared her voice.
"Can I have some water please?"
She cowered slightly as they swiveled in unison to face her.
"Yes, sorry ma'am." Niner slowly offered her his canteen after wiping the lid haphazardly.
The three then watched as she gulped the cool liquid down.
Atin jogged back into the site. He stopped and looked at the group assembled, raising his hands in question, "Dini'la? Really? Also, we have a problem," he said, all the time watching the woman.
"Like I could have told you that," Darman replied. His patience with Republic intel was wearing thin and unlike Niner, Darman wasn't as good at internalising his thoughts.
Atin ignored him. "I just had a communiqué from the Intrepid. They're busy with a Sep frigate who spotted them entering orbit. Not sure how long it'll be until they can send someone down for evac."
"Fek," Darman was obviously unhappy with the situation they were facing. "Thought you said pakod sarge?"
Niner looked over at the woman now standing next to Corr. "Ma'am, any idea of how many we are likely to face when they discover you're gone?"
She cleared her voice. "At least fifty."
"We have the advantage of the terrain being on our side," Atin added.
"That's only for the B1's. The commando's can still get up here," Darman chimed in.
"We can take them easy," even Corr sounded excited.
"I wasn't talking about droids," she said.
Darman took his helmet off slowly.
"Well? Just what were you talking about ma'am," he held a slight menace in his voice.
"If you would let me finish," she answered equally sarcastically, "there is at least fifty Krish."
"KRISH! You've got to be fekking joking?" Darman moved around in a circle, he was losing composure along with self control. Niner watched him for a second all the time thinking out the scenario.
"Haar'chak!," it was going to be a trial by fire for Corr.
"Ok, ok, listen up, we've been here before. Let's continue on over this ridge where Atin will send another message through to Intrepid. The higher we get the more advantage we'll have. Got it?"
They all stood silent.
"I said GOT IT?"
"Sir," they finally replied.
"Good. Atin, head up in front to the highest point. I want a continuous comm feed set up to the Intrepid."
"On it," he said and nodded at Darman before he jogged off.
"Ma'am, are you familiar with Republic issue weaponry."
"Of course." Niner handed her one of his DC17 hand pistols and watched as she tucked it into her waist band. Darman rolled his eyes at the small, brown haired woman. She looked at him and questioned, "you seriously think I've never used one of these? I'm with RI. Believe it or not, I know more than you."
"I seriously doubt that ma'am," Dar muttered as he placed his bucket back on.
"That's enough!" Niner was growing tired of the bickering and checked his chrono. This mission had been easy, too easy and now they were about to be in deep osik with a crowd of Krish bearing down on them once they discover the valuable Republic prisoner missing.
"Sarge, you'd have to be delusional to think we could fire our way out of this one."
"We're not going to Dar," Niner was busy rifling through his pack, "we're gonna outsmart them. I want a line of dets to blast the first group as they come up the hill. You are the so called expert, grab Corr and make it work ok?"
Niner's plan was to hide amongst the tree line out of sight until their lift came. The commando had made a risk assessment and decided that although they were equipped to make more than a stand against the Krish soldiers, this was not the time.
It was imperative that the Intrepid had their coordinates to extract them out as soon as they broke orbit. That was going to be Atin's job. Niner's, on the other hand, was to make sure they all made it out alive, even at a cost of his own.
Krish were humanoid aliens that were around the same size as the clones. They were thicker set though and good fighters. Where Niner knew they had the upper edge was their poor eyesight and lack of, for a better term, intellect.
"I want everyone to check in every five minutes."
"Copy that sarge," came the response. Niner smiled. If they played it smart, they would make it out with the prisoner intact.
"Now," he turned to the woman, "you're with me."
.