Kamino
Lightning painted the room a stark white for a half second, before it faded, leaving them in the near complete darkness of the ready room.
The white armoured figure nudged the identical one next to him. "Lightnings cheering for you Sparky." The voice teased.
"Shut it waterboy." The figure responded, returning a two finger jab.
"Gundark squad, you're up!" Was the roaring command of Alpha-17, the two jostling figures were joined by a further three white armoured figures.
The lift began to rise, and the clones conversed.
"Alright boys this is it, one final challenge. Let's keep it simple." The lead one began, shouldering his DC-15 longrifle.
"One final sim. Let's do it." Another answered, spooling up his Z-6.
"Be shipping out in no time boys." A slightly shorter one said.
"Just blast some clankers boys. You ready spooky?" The second to last asked, nudging the last one, who nodded.
The lift reached the top, the clones now in the large simulator room known as the 'citadel'. The large klaxon alarm blared, indicating the beginning of the simulation.
The squad charged downwards off the elevator, diving behind the first bit of solid cover.
"What's the plan sparky." Riptide asked, as a hail of simulated blaster bolts slammed into their cover, the noise fading to a constant droning.
"Why do you always ask me?" Sparky replied, his face visibly scrunched up in annoyance through the training visor of his helmet.
"Because you're the one always barking out orders to us." Elf replied.
"Quiet short stack." Was the reply from Anvil, who muscled his Z-6 up.
"Well?" Riptide asked again, green eyes visible through the yellow tinted glass.
Sparky sighed. "Anvil, give us cover fire. We will sweep left and work our way forwards. Spooky and Elf, watch our flanks."
"Sir yes sir." Elf mocked, as the group rushed out of cover.
The firing of Anvil's Z-6 near matched the rate of boot falls from the rest of the squad, as they dashed across the open area and behind another barrier, Riptide levelling another pair of droids with some well placed shots.
"Tower behind us!" Sparky called, as the white painted mock commando droid jumped up behind the mounted gun atop the tower.
Anvil was quick to spin on the spot, unloading a barrage of blaster bolts towards the mounted turret.
The first thirty or so shots forced the droid to duck down, before three ripped through its faceplate, deactivating it.
An increase of fire from the other direction caused the rest of the squad to look over as a pair of super battle droids stomped towards them, wrist blasters raised.
Riptide peeked around the side of the low wall, firing a three round burst towards the right droid, who advanced through the impacts.
"Kriffing supers." He cursed, as sparky leant around the other side and fired at some regular battle droids.
The rest of squad all took turns peeking out and firing taking down some droids on each go, whilst Anvil sheltered, waiting for the heat sinks on his Z-6 to cool.
"Droids flanking right." Spooky called.
"Anvil, can you take them?" Sparky asked.
At the call, he attempted to spool up his heavy blaster, the signature whine being interrupted as it puffed out smoke and fell still.
"No, bloody thing won't spool." He shouted angrily.
"Guess I have to do the heavy lifting huh." Riptide snarked, standing up and firing at the droids attempting to flank them.
"Let's move whilst he covers!" Sparky called, vaulting overtop of the barrier to press up to the next set of cover.
The rest of the squad followed whilst Riptide stayed kneeling, cutting down the attempted flank.
The squad was now halfway through the simulator, and had left an impressive trail of droid parts in their wake.
Dispatching the last of the flank, Riptide pushed up, taking the centre whilst the rest of his squad huddled to the left side.
Posting up, be opened fire, creating a brutal crossfire with the rest of his squad that cut down a large amount of droids.
"I'm running for the citadel, cover me!" Riptide shouted, leaping out from cover and sprinting toward the slats at the base of the tower.
Laser bolts streaked past him as the droids failed to adjust their aim, and his squad were quick to return a flurry of precise fire, dropping the remaining droids that were close.
Leaping out from cover, they ran towards Riptide, who was taking cover in the slanted foundation of the main citadel tower.
The last remaining watch tower's occupying droid swung its swivel turret around and opened fire, forcing the clones into cover.
Again, the sound of Anvil's Z-6 spooling up was heard, before the heat sinks huffed angrily and it spooled down, it's safety mechanisms preventing it from firing.
"My gun's broken!" He cried.
"Give it here!" Elf called, and promptly caught the heavy weapon as it was tossed at him.
His quick fingers immediately went about taking off the paneling from the base, exposing the complex wiring, tibanna gas cell and the cooling system.
"Got a coolant leak and cracked heat sink." Elf called, causing a groan from Anvil.
"Well if you didn't throw the Kriffing thing around so much we wouldn't be in this situation!" Elf retorted.
"Yeah Yeah yeah." Anvil blew off, "If my guns can't take a beating like me then they're not deserving of me to fire them." He preached.
Riptide, in the next slat over, facepalmed at hearing the exchange. Elf's fingers quickly resumed tinkering with the weapon, the droids closing whilst the clones remained suppressed.
Elf opened up another panel, continuing his work on the weapon. "Oh for Kamino's sake." He swore, inspecting the damage. "Right, Anvil you're gonna get three minutes with this thing before it actually explodes in your hands, so use it wisely." Elf called out, ripping out small components of the weapon.
"What? Elf what did you do?" Sparky asked incredulously.
"I removed the safety matrix, heat sinks and coils, and the coolant chamber, whilst also removing the tibanna safety mechanism." He replied.
"So you turned his weapon into a bomb." Spooky surmised flatly.
"Well when you put it like that..." Elf trailed off.
"Ah whatever, give it here." Anvil demanded. "No danger like holding a bomb."
Elf shrugged and tossed the rotary cannon back to Anvil, who quickly spooled it up, the now lack of safety features resulting in it being ready to fire near instantly.
Anvil chuckled deeply in anticipation, stepping out from cover and squeezing the trigger.
The newly modified Z-6 had been turned into what could only be described as a laser hose. The rate of fire was faster than anything the squad had seen before, and Anvil painted his surroundings with laser bolts, the six barrels beginning to glow orange as it overheated.
"Anvil! It's gonna go!" Elf warned.
"Awww," He sulked, before spotting a pair of commando droids hunkered down behind a box. He rushed forward and tossed the weapon over the box, it landing at their feet.
The overheated weapon, with no way to cool itself besides the air around it, quickly superheated and spread to the tibanna gas canister within, detonating it due to its temperature.
The explosion shredded the battle droids, leaving the squad to climb the tower unopposed. They reached the top together and raised the beacon, signaling the completion of their final trial.
They stood at attention whilst the trainer paced up and down.
"Well boys, I think that's the most," he paused. "Innovative method of dealing with a weapon failure I've seen." He commended.
"Your time was excellent too, and you work well as a squad. Until you're deployed, I'm placing each of you on specialized training, Elf yo-"
The ARC trooper's speech was cut off as the alarm blared, the lights turning to red.
"All troopers report to your battalion mustering points. All troopers report to your battalion mustering points."
Gundark squad shared a look.
"You're assigned to the Three-Seventy-Fourth battalion, mustering point at platform Epsilon six. Move it troopers!" The ARC ordered.
The squad grabbed their weapons and rushed off, the calm and sterile white halls of Kamino had been turned into a rush of clones running in each direction.
Entire platoons dashed out of barrack rooms to make it to their landing points. Reaching a door to the outside, the squad ran through the hailing rain to the designated platform, where a lieutenant was shouting orders at other waiting squads.
"Hey!" He shouted at them, and they quickly rattled off a salute to the officer.
"Grab two crates and get aboard the next gunship." He ordered, pointing to a large stack of crates. The squad huddled together and lifted the crates, with two men per box, as a Low Altitude Assault Transport flew rapidly down to the pad, pulling a hard turn and touching down on the pad, side doors opening.
Gundark squad hurried towards it, crates in tow, and climbed into the infantry compartment as the doors shut behind them, the blast slats sliding closed as they entered space.
Soon, their momentum slowed, and the ship levelled out as it ascended into the central bay of an acclamator assault cruiser, moving laterally until it settled in a landing zone, doors opening.
Somehow, inside the large logistics hangar of the acclamator was busier than that of the surface of Kamino, gunships were being slung onto the overhead revolving rack, walkers were being stowed and infantry were running about with crates.
Gundark squad hopped out with the crates, another lieutenant was there waiting for them.
"Move that crate to section four, then report to the barracks hall." He ordered hotly, as another gunship entered the hangar, whilst their one was loaded onto the carousel.
The group hustled over with their crate, depositing it in the designated area, before following through the ship towards the barracks area.
They turned the corner to see a sergeant waiting for them. "You boys Gundark Squad?"
"Yessir!" They rattled of, saluting.
"Airborne training?" Was the simple returned question.
"Yessir!"
"Good stuff, dump your bags here and head down to the armory, They're waiting for you." He instructed.
The squad turned to exit, the corridors still a rush of rapidly moving infantry and crew. A small beeping caught their attention as a mouse droid popped out from a small hatch on the wall. They chased after the mouse droid as it zipped through the ship, dodging between large equipment crates being transported through the corridors.
Turning through a large set of blast doors, they arrived in a large store room, crates lining the shelves, a crew officer stood before an impromptu bar, made up of stacked rectangular crates. He saw gundark squad immediately.
"Gundark! Get over here!" He called. The squad quickly pushed through the crowd in the room.
Sitting on the crates were five airborne helmets, distinct from their standard T visored helmets, these had only one straight visor, a collection of three wrinkle-like bulges were below, filled with different air filters to allow them to breath at much higher altitudes. The squad reached down and deposited their own buckets, donning their new ones.
Further waiting, was an extra bandolier of both ammunition and supplies
"Standby for the jump to hyperspace. All squads report to the hangar for briefing." Came the announcement.
Yet again, Gundark squad went running through the ship, caught in the flow of their fellow brothers, a sea of white armour travelled through the corridors. Emerging, they grouped up and made their way towards the group of soldiers standing around a captain, who was atop a pile of crates.
"Listen up boys, this is it, we're going in." He began. He wore the classic black kama and shoulder pauldron, accented red with the rest of his armour to denote his rank. "The Three-Seventy-Fourth are being deployed to Geonosis to reinforce the jedi task force that has gone ahead of us, and to secure the planet Geonosis from the threat of the droid army and the separatist allied geonosians."
The hangar easily had a thousand clones all bustled together listening.
"We will be deployed to sector four, to secure a trade federation coreship, and eliminate an adjacent droid factory." An alerting alarm soon began to ring, and the hangar faded to the low red ready lights. "Your ships are marked on your HUDs. Those joining us, your sergeants will meet you by the gunships. Best of luck brothers."
With that, the hangar erupted into chaos as hundreds of clones made for their designated transports towards the surface.
Alighted on their Heads-Up-Displays through their visors, one of the many gunships lit up, indicating that to be their ride down to the surface.
The squad hustled over towards it, another clone donning an airborne helmet waiting for them, green highlighted armour signaling their rank.
They climbed aboard, stowing their weapons on the rack above the handholds, loading in the extra equipment, and slinging some of the rucksacks onto their backs.
Again, an alarm blared as the ship exited hyperspace, the commodore having planted it right in the planet's atmosphere, very low above the planet's surface. The gunship jerked forwards, as the mechanical carousel rack holding the gunship began to move forward, as it dumped the gunships one by one, out of the lower hangar. The transports were left to free fall for a moment, before their atmospheric engines kicked in,
The side doors closed, as they neared the ventral hangar exit.
"Brace yourself Elf, can you reach the handholds?" Riptide teased.
"Oi, I can reach them just Fi-ahhh!" Elf's response devolved to a panicked cry as the gunship pitched forward and dropped out of the acclamator, free falling for a handful of metres before the whiny drone of the gunship's engines kicked in.
Immediately, the side doors opened, letting the clones see their first sight of another planet, and the first of the deadly orange sands of Geonosis. The radio unit in the bay if of the gunship immediately blew up with comms, as all around them, gunships were intercepted by geonosian fighters and hit by the ground based flak cannons, natively developed by the Geonosians using their sonic weapon technology.
Sparky looked out the door forwards, just to see the lead gunship impacted by a droid J-1 Proton Cannon shell. Horrifically, it failed to detonate on impact, the two metre long cylindrical shell tore through the belly of the troop compartment, and outwards out of the roof engine and mass driver missile cannon assembly. The impact set off the stored mass driver missiles, igniting a grand plume of flame as both propellant and explosive warhead were damaged, shearing the roof of the gunship off and into pieces, leaving the lower troop platform to drop like a stone to the surface.
"Son of a cloner!" Sparky cried.
"Was that the captain?" Anvil asked.
"Yep." Was Spooky's solitary reply, as he watched the husk of the ship plummet to the surface like a rock.
AN:
No way? Another PJO X SW story? Are you insane?
Yes.
Yes i am.
I just wanna make a clone centric fic, and i love pjo. So we r gonna follow gundark squad through the clone wars.
Please comment to let me know: A) who should i kill of. B) who should i replace them with. C) Who do we want as Master / Padawan to command our boys.
I wrote this in one day, listening to Vode An, (republic commando theme) It slaps.
See ya,
Dudduuehehe.
(new wolfs head chapter is in the works, longtime followers can rest knowing its not abandoned :D )