Episode 2: Rookie Courage

Chapter 1: The Meteor Mystery

"Trust in your friends, and they'll have reason to trust in you."

-Star Wars, The Clone Wars, quote of the day

Intro: The yellow giant star system of Polaris, known in ages past on ancient Coruscant as the North Star, is one of the Galactic Republic's countless bustling metropolitan districts, famous for manufacturing spaceship components, industrial machinery, unique metal alloys, electronics and other forms of high-tech products.

More than 300 billion people work ceaselessly in vast factory buildings on 5 dozen planets to supply the greater Republic with these goods.

But Polaris is also important to the nation for a very different reason- in the far-flung asteroid-filled outskirts of the system, specifically on the blue rocky crystal moon of Koentus, there is a Republic Navy outpost which functions as a communications station, transmitting, disseminating and relaying messages between ships and planets that are oftentimes tens of thousands of light-years away.

If this outpost station's functionality was compromised, a large chunk of the Republic's naval forces would be completely cut off from contacting each other.

But what adversary would be bold and cunning enough to attack a target of such paramount importance? Time to find out!

Oh, and also: Here's a preview for some new faces I'm introducing in this episode of the SH50k anthology. They're special enough to be featured in multiple episodes, unlike (most of) the huge character cast of episode 1.

CHALLENGERS APPROACHING:

Thianna Frostborn: The main protagonist of Lou Anders' Thrones And Bones novels, which were made into a DnD campaign setting in late 2021. She is an adventurer and mercenary who is half giant and half human, and even though she is too short to be taken seriously as a giant, and too tall to blend in with humans, her name is nonetheless HIGHLY FEARED on the battlefield.

I highly recommend reading Thrones And Bones if you like good strong female characters, and if you wanna get into Dungeons and Dragons.

Clone Captain Rags: He was mentioned last episode, as a potential replacement for Clone Captain Rex. He'll be a major player in this episode.

The main difference between him and Rex is that he doesn't work with the Jedi, preferring to stay in the company of Astartes and Spartans, as he finds he has more in common with some of the super-soldiers personality-wise, and also, he's armed with a custom Bowcaster instead of dual blaster pistols, which he got from a Wookiee warrior who he challenged to a sharpshooting contest.

Noelle Youngblood: Oh look, it's Noelle, the knight maid from Genshin Impact... except now she pilots a freaking Battlemech! She's no pushover outside her walking war machine, either, wielding a massive two-handed chainsword that can cleave through rock and smash down reinforced bunker doors. However, she doesn't have a lot of experience in combat, as she is still technically considered a squire instead of a knight. As a rookie, she relies more on brute force than actual tactics.

Ahsoka Tano: Definitely the most well-known of the four people in this preview, a colorful Togruta Jedi Padawan as brash and reckless as she is talented.

Anakin Skywalker, her Master, chose to drop her off on Koentus so she could get to know other kinds of people in the Republic's military besides Jedi (having spent most of her time training in the Jedi Temple, she's never seen a Space Marine, a Spartan OR any kind of elf, giant, dragon or dwarf.)

Story Starts Here

-Azurite Outpost, Blue Moon of Koentus-

-Polaris Star System-

"It's been so boring, staying at this isolated base and passing on communications. Do you guys agree with me? We need to make this place feel more lively and comfortable, like home, as any privileged and lucky civilian would say."

Clone Captain Rags was talking to the squad of rookie soldiers and cadets who were stationed at Azurite Outpost.

They included a small group of clone troopers and Guardsmen, two astromech droids named Finn and Jake (after the two protagonists of that Cartoon Network show, Adventure Time,) Thianna Frostborn, a mighty half-giant warrior, Noelle Youngblood, a Mechwarrior pilot and squire from House Anniera, and Ahsoka Tano, a Jedi Padawan under the tutelage of Anakin Skywalker.

And they all agreed with Rags. The outpost was boring as hell, lacking any sort of luxuries, entertainment or distractions that the cadets could make use of while off duty (which they were, like, 95 percent of the time.)

The remaining 5 percent of that time was spent relaying messages between the Republic's Starfleet battle groups and checking for meteor showers, which were all too common in the scattered disk and asteroid belts surrounding Koentus and its host dwarf planet, Hefru.

"So what should we get to make this place more hospitable?," Noelle said. "I'm fine with cleaning all the messes that might happen, I am a maid too, after all."

Thianna started flexing one of her arms, and announced what she wanted to buy to spice up the base.

"A punching bag, a gymnasium room, and lots of weights."

Noelle sighed in exasperation.

"Of course the big, strong half-giant wants those things. And besides, every military base has a punching bag."

"We don't," Thianna replied.

"Screw that," said Ahsoka. "Maybe we can get bullseye targets so we can practice with our laser guns! And maybe a pinball machine, a terraforming garden, a swimming pool, and a better cooking station..."

Many of the cadets nodded in agreement.

"Those sound like good ideas!"

"I'm all for making a garden for fresh vegetables."

"Maybe Finn and Jake can serve drinks, if we modified both of their chassis."

The conversation was bringing up some great concepts for refurbishing and overhauling Azurite Outpost, but then a loud alarm interrupted everyone, catching them off guard.

The rookies all recognized the sound. It was a meteor shower! And the base's shields were off!

"Shit, shit, SHIT!," Thianna said as she stomped up a staircase and got to the control center of the outpost. She mashed the big red button, and the energy shields came online just in time, blocking the rain of flaming debris.

Many other meteors struck the land just outside the base, where they wouldn't cause any harm, but something weird happened on Thianna's scanners: The ocular detectors registered the big space rocks as being completely intact! They hadn't disintegrated upon impact!

"Guys, you might wanna see this," the giantess said.

Rags looked at the scanner screen.

"How did those objects not explode when they collided with the ground at that velocity? These are no ordinary meteors. Contact the security personnel on the base's outskirts."

Sergeant Orloff and his Vostroyan Firstborn Guardsmen were the soldiers responsible for protecting the outer layers of Azurite Outpost. They had seen the meteors fall when Clone Captain Rags contacted him on his comlink.

"Sergeant Orloff! Keep your eyes peeled for danger! Prepare to defend your positions! Whatever landed out there, it's not ordinary space rocks!"

But foolishly, the Vostroyan sergeant ignored Rags' warning, instead believing his forces to be ready for an offensive skirmish. He hung up on the comlink.

"Pfft! That clone trooper doubts the capabilities and vigilance of my own troops? He wants them to just be on the defensive? You know what, I'll send some of them to see what fell from the sky! Platoon one, search the craters!"

The guardsmen put on their armored space suits and oxygen tanks, left the habitable area of the station, and hopped out onto the desolate deep blue rocky landscape, keeping their formidable, heavy lasguns and blasters primed for action. They approached the craters and saw that the fallen objects had indeed survived the collision.

Nothing else seemed abnormal. The Vostroyans began to think that Rags was incredibly stupid for telling them to stay put.

BUT THEN...

Slimy, oozing black vines burst out of the crater's edges, grabbing the guardsmen and dragging them towards the "meteor," which wasn't a meteor at all- it burst open in an explosion of gore, revealing grotesque, faceless creatures with flower-shaped maws, that fell upon the screaming soldiers and began to devour them whole.

The faceless monsters didn't need oxygen to breathe, and extreme temperatures didn't bother them, which is why they were able to survive on Koentus' airless surface, and furthermore, they were all dedicated killing machines that could take a tremendous amount of punishment before dying.

They swarmed out of their landing site and stalked the remaining guardsmen on the outskirts of the base, coming up to where the artificial oxygen atmosphere was, killing them one by one, until only Sergeant Orloff was left.

He tried contacting his troops... but no response came. He assumed the gunfire that he heard had taken care of any enemies that had emerged from the craters.

Suddenly, a 9-foot tall abomination with no face knocked the sergeant off his feet, and as he realized with horror why his comlink remained silent, the monster bit his head off and feasted on his organs.

Rags tried contacting the security personnel again... but there was only grim silence.

The Mind Flayer's army has arrived.

You remember our old friend, the Demogorgon, right? Maybe Vecna will show up in the finale of this episode.