Thumbing the Com-Link off, Cody led the team out of the command center and into the hallways, weapons drawn. Cody looked back to Buck and said, "Gunnery Sergeant, may I suggest you let us take the shot? We don't want to kill the traitor, just interrogate him..." words which got a few groans of disagreement. Buck quickly silenced them with a swipe of his hand to the right, before turning to Cody and offering him a nod. The Commander, happy with the result, nodded and said, "Rex, see any-" before stopping as he saw a shadow disappear behind the corner.
Cody chopped his open hand forward, a scowl on his face. He, Rex and the ODSTs took off in a sprint to chase him. As they approached the intersection, Cody told Buck and his team, "Send some of your men to the right! It loops around to the Mess Hall!" as Rex readied his blaster pistols, thumbing the setting selector to 'STUN'. Or, at least, Buck hoped the strange word on the side of the gun meant 'stun'. Their alphabet was freaky.
Cutting that thought off and getting serious again, Buck turned back and ordered, "Romeo, Rookie, Dutch, hoof it! Dutch, if you see our runner, tackle his ass!" as he checked his assault rifle and silently cursed himself for not grabbing a droid popper or two out of a bag.
"You got it, Gunny!" Dutch grinned, putting his fists together and taking the right with his two assigned compatriots.
Rex looked back to Buck and commented, "Heavy weapons spec seems excited," with a grin. Buck nodded, revealing his face via depolarizing his visor, to show his own grin. The soldiers rounded the corner to the right, weapons at the ready. They saw the figure take another right, before Rex radioed in, "You three should be coming into view of him now! Watch yourselves!"
Reaching the end of the hallway and taking a right, the Troopers all met in the middle. Dumbfound, Rex looked around and then to the right, at the open door from where chatter, the clinking of dishes and cutlery and laughter echoed. Rex and Cody walked inside first, staring at the mess hall full of their brothers, before Rex stated, "Oh, this is gonna be tough..."
"Told you..." Mickey sighed as he looked around at the dozens of clones sat together, eating. He took his helmet off and hummed and stated, "We should call up a Platoon of Marines, Gunny. Scour the place from top to bottom with their help," before noting both Rex and Cody looking back at him inquisitively, if a little dismayed by the thought of their allies distrusting them this much. Sure, the alliance was new, but...
"Don't think the Clones will like us 'Basics' pointing fingers, Mickey. Let's not break the friendship before it's even begun, alright?" Buck replied half-heartedly, taking his helmet off as Mickey let out a sigh. He walked up beside Cody and Rex, then suggested, "Do we have any way to find out how the Droids got intel from us? Some transmission system or something...?"
The two Clone officers looked to one-another, then to Buck. Rex replied, "The Base as a com system, yeah. Plus terminals in each Barracks..." before he blanked. He looked to Cody, "... Which, while implausible, could be where our turncoat sent a message from when nobody was looking... I'll get R2 to the Command Room so he can help us search the mainframe."
"I and the Troopers will go back there, then," Cody stated, sighing. He motioned to Buck and his men to follow along. The groups each departed the mess hall. Moments later, in the command room, Buck was staring out of the window at the Republic's vehicles again, his helmet sat on the windowsill as Cody wrote a report on his tablet. Mickey and Dutch were playing cards and Romeo and Rookie were just quietly sat in a corner.
Cody had taken a moment to reflect on the matters at hand as he looked through the computer. The UNSC had arrived no less than a couple of days ago, but had already mass-deployed an entire corps to support the 501st and the 212th on Christophsis. Was it really all due to the Seppies firing first, or was it because the UNSC sought some form of ally in what must've been a foreign area to them? He didn't know. With a deep sigh, he turned to Buck, "Gunnery Sergeant."
"Yes, sir?" The ODST was quickly taken out of his thoughts, turning toward the Commander and saluting. He merely wondered wthat the Clone Commander wanted right then and there, honestly. Not a lot to talk about with a guy like Buck, so the Sarge was interested to see where this was going(As were his men, by extension). Cody seemed to notice a lot of eyes falling on him.
"Are you and your people good with fighting by our side?" He asked rather directly, seemingly surprising Buck. The Sergeant looked over at the Commander with an arched brow, all while Cody continued to tap into the mainframe. Rex was running a little late with finding R2, but that was no surprise. That Droid really liked to get into weird places quite often, being Skywalker's.
"You haven't given us a reason not to be yet." Buck replied as he shifted his assault rifle off his back and leaning it against the wall. He turned to Cody, crossing his arms and offering a quick addendum, "And until we find our way home, we sure as hell hope you don't." which garnered a few mischievous snorts out of the ODSTs and, somehow, sent a chill up Cody's otherwise-normal spine.
"As much as we appreciate the reinforcements," Cody wanted to be tactful in choosing his words, "I'm sure you've heard some mumbles from the men, too. Both sides, I mean." And he looked at each Shock Trooper as they turned to him again. Mickey shrugged, Romeo hummed and the Rookie kept quiet, arranging his helmet and hitting it twice to make sure it worked.
"Honestly, can't blame'em. We've had a genocidal war with a coalition of alien species before-hand, Commander. One difference is, they weren't using Clones..." Dutch remarked as he stood up and walked to one of the computers, to try and see if he could figure out how it works. He hummed, sighed and shrugged, "Then again, lord knows, they weren't democratic like the Republic seems to be. As for the Clones, well, you probably know why your brothers ain't that hot on us."
"Go back a second... What?" Cody seemed confused. The ODSTs soon realized he was referring to the 'genocidal war' part.
"The Arbiter," Buck replied without skipping a beat. Wow, no problem through their alien buddies under the bus? Or was Buck being serious about this? One of their allies was an old enemy that had killed their people, unless he'd openly misunderstood what they meant by 'Genocidal'... Cody needed to know more, so he gave them all a nod to go on with the tale.
Mickey took his helmet off and ran a hand over his buzzcut, boot-camp-style haircut, before offering a snide response, "Supreme Hinge-Jaw was one of those aliens. To say we're still not very fond of'em is an understatement..." And, upon seeing Cody's eyes widen, he also clarified, "But Chief's made friends with him and his people for us, so... We're okay now..."
"Oh..." The Commander paused, before noticing Romeo looking at a set of Dog Tags. He hummed, then asked, "How bad did it get?"
"Over the span of about twenty-seven years... Nearly a dozen or so worlds turned to glass via orbital bombardment." The Sniper actually replied, then looked up to the Commander with a blank stare, "Thirty-three billion dead," and those last few words caused Cody to double over. That amount of casualties, both Military and Civilian, through orbital bombardment...
The Commander let out a deep sigh, shoulders sagging, "... Force... I'm sorry..." before gazing upon the men of the unit with understanding, "I can't believe you can look at the Elites without..." and he bit down on his words. He wasn't sure he should say anything. Force only knew what drove the UNSC forward into the alliance anyhow, but he assumed that they'd won, at least. Being here and not being worried in helping the Republic told him at least that much.
"Yeah... Not an easy thing to forgive, but they were fooled into the war, just like we were unwilling participants to witnessing our own Genocide..." Buck replied softly, then let out a sigh as memories of his home flooded his mind, "A story for another time..." and his gaze turned back to the motorpool. He had a gut feeling something was wrong with it, but he just couldn't quite pin it.
"Right..." Cody sighed, suddenly feeling mighty awkward. He hummed, just as he heard the sound of armored boots touching steel and the whine of an AstroMech's rollers. Rex walked in first, pistols dangling off his hips as, beside him, rolled a trash-can-looking droid with two legs and a central wheel. He was painted white with dark-blue accents and had two cameras and a color-changing 'bulb' as a mouth. It began to beep at the UNSC Troopers.
"... The hell?" Buck turned toward Rex and the Droid.
"This is R2D2. General Skywalker's AstroMech droid," Rex stated, "He should be able to help us more quickly search the Database."
"It's kinda cute," Laughed Mickey.
Buck walked up to R2, then knelt in front of him. The droid turned his camera to face him, before 'twoooo'-ing at him. Rex snorted and said, "They're our new allies..." which caused the entire room to look at him like he was speaking a foreign freaking language. Which, to be honest, he may as well have been, considering the fact he could understand R2.
"Nevermind..." Buck shut down any discourse before it started, then looked to R2 and said, "Alright, little guy. We're gonna need some help here..." before hearing the droid chirp away a seemingly-jovial response. He rolled over on all three wheel pods toward Cody, before straightening up and retracting the central little leg. A connector of some kind emerged out of R2's chest and locked into a port in the computer. The droid began to spin it around, the click-clack of turning gears and whirr of electrical machinery working filling the troopers' ears.
Cody looked to R2 and said, "See if there were any outbound messages from barracks terminals within the last forty-eight hours, R2. We'll need the details... Filter them by destination."
"Little tin can can do it, right?" Mickey asked with a whisper. Buck shushed him as they watched the droid work. R2 turned his head toward the group, camera panning menacingly up at Mickey, to which the Demo Expert ODST greeted the droid with a wave of his hand. R2 let out a dismayed series of beeps, presumably addressing Mickey's manufacturers' family history, before turning back to work and projecting the data onto a screen on the computer. Cody leaned over and hummed.
He then turned to Rex, "One message, to unknown receiver... It's encrypted. And it's been sent from Slick's barracks."
"Slick's not gonna like this," Rex murmured, scratching his chin.
"I bet," Buck sighed, "Should we let you guys handle it? Act as backup?"
"No..." Rex sighed deeply, "As much as they probably won't like it, we need the backup. We can get you blasters and set them to stun for you. We're not here to kill our brothers."
Buck had finally registered the fact Rex called the other clones his 'brothers' with a hint more fondness than one would call his fellow soldiers 'brothers in arms'. No, Clones were Clones, identical in genetic makeup and born from the same machine wombs that grew them and millions more like them. It was only natural, Buck soon realized, that they were all brothers. He nodded to them and said, "We'll take it. We're keeping lethals on us, though... And Captain, Commander? I've had a nagging feeling about the Motor-pool since this entire clusterfuck started... You mind if we send for a team to scout the place out?"
"Why?" Cody asked without any hint of malice. Rather, genuine curiosity.
Mickey hummed, then said, "I think Gunny's scared the traitor might've put bombs on your vehicles."
The two officers looked to each-other, then Rex nodded and said, "Call up your EOD team, then. Make it covert... If the traitor suspects we know, he might touch off the bombs as we search for him. And if he's in Slick's platoon? Best bet's to keep him occupied while the search is conducted."
Buck nodded, "That's fine by me..." before sliding his helmet on his head. He radioed in, "Echo Zulu Seventeen, this is Alpha Niner, requesting EOD within Republic base Motorpool... Possible sabotage may have occurred. Be careful, keep it stealthy," and got an immediate affirmative. Taking his helmet back off, Buck turned to the Clones and said, "Guess this means we're grabbing blasters."
"Right this way, gents... Thanks, R2," Rex nodded, then looked down to and patted the Droid on the head. It chirped appreciatively at the Captain, before turning around and rolling off somewhere else in the base. After leading the ODSTs to the armory to hand them Blasters and calling Slick's men to the Barracks unbeknownst to him, the Clone officers marched them to Barracks No. 7. Slick's Barracks. Entering it, Cody began talking to the very clone officer in charge of the platoon.
"... There's no way!" Slick protested, "My guys are the best! No way they're capable of something like this!"
"Something like what?" A Clone voice echoed from the doorway. Slick turned toward them. Buck looked to Cody and Rex and motioned to the rear of the place, to which the officers nodded. Gunny then led his men to the rear, keeping the blasters close-by in case the traitor decided to make himself known from among the Clones' ranks. The men leaned against the walls, eyeing the Clones as they interrogated their troopers.
"Feels a lil' off, sir..." Dutch said as he watched them go from trooper to trooper, starting with a guy that was only cleaning his rifle after battle. Apparently, he loved to do that, almost like an obsession according to some of his squadmates. Dutch and Mickey could understand it. Any weapon not cleaned properly is a liability, a chance for it to go off in your face due to obstructions.
"Agreed. Something ain't right about this at all." The Gunny murmured, shifting the strange Blaster carbine in his hands. He extended its stock and shouldered it, before asking, "Why would one of their own betray them?" as he gazed back upon his team. All that stared back at him were confused faces of the troopers he'd been working with since before Mombasa.
"Honestly, Gunny, best bet's money," The dark-skinned sniper quipped, a grin on his face as they watched the Clones interrogate their next guy:A fella who went to the mess hall. He shrugged to them and said, "Hell, I know I've seen people do similar things for less at times..." before murmuring to himself, "My ex who's with the Innies, as an example..."
"Nah, there must be something else." Mickey waved the suspicion of Romeo off, much to the Sniper's chagrin. Sure, money was probably a factor, but there must've been something else in the middle. He continued with a quiet question, arms crossed and cradling the Blaster rifle to his chest, his SMG sitting pretty on his thigh, "The hell are Clones to the Jedi or the Republic anyway...?"
"Soldiers," Buck said without even flinching, "Hopefully, the average Rep Civvie can see that they're more than just same-faced cannon fodder..."
"That's what I'm worried about." Their Demo expert stated rather bluntly, watching as one interrogation got a little more heated due to the fact one of the Clones had some battle droid fingers strung up on a chain like a trophy. No comment. Mickey got that, but he still told his mates, "Maybe some of the whole 'being a soldier and nothing more' thing might've gotten to one of'em... What if it gets to all of'em...?"
"Doubt it will." Dutch stated, humming and readying his blaster, "Unless some of the Jedi genuinely treat these guys like shit, we might just be seeing an isolated case."
"Sure hope so, Dutch..." The Gunny replied, watching as the team now zeroed in on Slick for something he said. Could it have been the TL, then? After he held such a short, but passionate speech about his men not being able to betray a fly, much less their own brothers? Buck didn't know. He shifted the blaster back to his dominant hand and made sure it was ready, before murmuring, "Hope my HUD can help me aim, cuz the Iron Sights look like shit..."
The laughter of his team was tenser than prior. They watched Slick's expression change to a threatening one, before he cocked his fist back and slammed Cody straight in the face. He turned toward the Troopers, all of whom lifted their carbines and opened up. Sparkling circlets of electricity lanced forward from the weapons' maws, striking the ground as the Clone Lieutenant dodged and rolled out of the way, before bounding it across through the halls. Rex ordered, "After him!" as he drew his pistols.
The troopers, all of them, ran out into the halls to chase Slick down...
Near the CIS HQ...
A rising tower of crystals and concrete, among a jungle of such items and situated amidst a massive plaza, lay undefended. Two speeder bikes were being followed by half a platoon of Ghosts, painted in the dark-green of the Swords of Sangheilios. The Arbiter tensed, his fingers wrapped tightly around the controls of the hover-bike as they worked to keep up with the two Speeder Bikes and their Jedi comrades.
The Sangheili leader looked to his escorting soldiers and, with two motions of his hands, ordered them to split up. Dividing into half, the supporting element moved to various positions, presumably more advantageous, to provide supporting fire and scouting. Meanwhile, the Arbiter utilized the boost on his Ghost's engines to catch up to Kenobi and Skywalker. The two Jedi looked to the armed bike and the Elite, then nodded, before they all began to slow as they reached the stairs.
Stopping, the trio dismounted, before the Arbiter said, "I have had my Elites secure an escape route, should we need it..." as he tensed. The two Jedi offered approving nods to the Sangheili, before they began their ascent up the stairs. Even Skywalker quietly commented on the lack of defenses for what was supposed to be the Confederacy's biggest control point on the planet.
The Arbiter's hand wrapped around the hilt of Prophets' Bane. He unclipped the ornate Energy Sword off his belt as they entered the tower, with Anakin noting, "You okay, Arbiter? You're looking a little tense..." Before getting a huff and a nod from the Alien. Anakin didn't ask anything again, however both he and Obi-Wan seemed to notice the fact the Elite was sensing something of an ambush.
As they entered the main halls of the building-turned-headquarters, the Arbiter's suspicions seemed confirmed. A young woman, bald-headed, pale and with tribal tattoos and odd clothes, stood atop a platform, a smirk on her face. It soon vanished, however, as the Arbiter ignited the Prohpets' Bane. Obi-Wan said smugly, "Ventress. You seem surprised. Was this not part of your plan?"
"I see you have a new friend, Kenobi..." She replied with the same Snark in kind, drawing her own lightsabers and igniting them. She spoke, "He seems rather... Bulky..." before flashing a cocky grin at the Arbiter, "No matter, really... He'll die with you and your little apprentice here..." before both Jedi ignited their Lightsabers, prepared for the duel...
"You seem to misunderstand the situation you're in," The Arbiter replied calmly, the scarlet blade in his hand glimmering. His voice booming with the confidence of a swordsmaster trained by the generations before him, the Elite challenged, "Surrender... And you may yet be offered mercy..." words which garnered a laugh out of Ventress. Both Jedi looked to the Elite, who sighed and shook his head.
"So be it..."
