The two Jedi beside the Arbiter ignited their blue lightsabers as well, just as Asajj Ventress, Sith Assassin, prepared herself to engage. She dropped the 'skirt' she was wearing onto the floor, revealing her gaunt legs, both wrapped in bandages and protective layers. She roared, jumping from the high ground with both her scarlet blades brandished. Lifting them over her head, she brought them down as she was about to land...
And the Arbiter's reaction time allowed him to lift the Prohpets' Bane to deflect them. With a hefty kick, the Elite sent the Dark Jedi apprentice skidding back across the steel floor. Cocking his fist back and taking a combat stance familiar only to Elites trained in the art of wielding an Energy Sword, the Arbiter said to Obi-Wan and Anakin, "Go. Retrieve any intelligence we require. I will deal with her."
"No disrespect meant, Arbiter, but Ventress is more cunning than she looks," Obi-Wan stated as he took the Arbiter's left flank. Anakin took the right, a grin on his face, before the Alien looked back at the two of them, before huffing as he watched Ventress pacing ahead of them. Curteous of her to let them talk, so Arbiter would, at least, give her the same courtesy. He looked back to Obi-Wan and tilted his head. Obi-Wan raised a brow and said, "If you're sure..."
"I am," The Sangheili replied, "Find intelligence, discover who the spy might be..." and he turned to the Dathomirian Witch ahead of him, blade ready.
Ventress let out a low laugh, before pointing the tip of her right lightsaber at him and stating, "Rather bold for an alien! Do you have the Force?" words to which the Arbiter didn't answer. He simply waited patiently, facing Ventress as they circled each-other like duelists of old times. The two Jedi turned toward another door and ran for the exit. Ventress tried to chase, but the Arbiter bounded toward her, intercepting her mid-charge and slamming her against a wall, before slashing down.
The woman barely ducked under the heavy swing of the Elite, the blade digging into the wall like a hot knife would through butter. A bright-orange gash, thinner than what one would get out of a lightsaber strike, was left in the wall as the Arbiter retrieved his blade and swiped strategically toward Ventress's midsection, almost catching her off-guard. She barely shifted her blades into position to blunt the swipe.
The Elite, however, had performed a motion that one would not believe possible due to the size of his frame. He spun about with such grace and speed, Ventress was stupefied enough to take a hammer-punch to the face from the Elite's balled left fist, before staggering and finding herself on the defensive again. He thrust the blade forward, forcing her to block, before pressing the attack to break through her defenses.
To her credit, Ventress was holding stubbornly to her defense, despite the taller Elite's bulk and swing power. Thel could commend her for that, at least. It was not going to help her, however. He swiped down to the right, feinting a strike, before redirecting the blade and catching Ventress unaware. He'd clipped her hip, causing her to scream out in pain, before said pain got channeled into anger.
The woman thrust both her hands forward, sending a shockwave that caused the Arbiter to stagger, moving a couple of steps back. He huffed, then parried a strike from the girl's twin blades as she began swinging wildly at him. The Elite remained incredibly calm at this display of clumsy swordsmanship, deflecting each strike with the same impassive gaze he had had so far.
Meanwhile, the woman seemed angry, calling out, "You're as worthless as those Jedi, not even bothering to strike at me properly! You barely nicked me, you reptile!"
The Arbiter hummed, before shifting his blade to the right and lifting one of his own hands up. Ventress yelped as she felt her own right hand caught by the Arbiter's left, before the man twisted her arm. She grit her teeth and stabbed toward him, catching the side of his helmet. The blade deflected off the Armor's energy shield, but the Arbiter was forced to let go.
He hummed, looking at the small scorch on his helmet, then nodded and said, "Good. You're learning..." before switching his stance. Ventress took pause upon seeing that, watching the more aggressive gaze of the Elite sweep over her, like he was sizing up his prey. Ventress took her own stance, one blade behind and high and one low and pointed at him.
Before she could even blink, the Elite had bounded halfway to her. She gasped, ducking under an oblique swing from top-left to bottom right. She felt the blade singe a bit of her skin, then gasped as she saw Thel thrust at her chest. Once again, the Elite swiped upward with the blade, deflecting one of Ventress's attacks to the right and one to the left. He struck forward again, cutting inches away from the woman's head.
She staggered, but counterattacked sloppily. Energy sparked against energy as the trio of weapons collided, with the Arbiter utilizing his strength and reach to keep Ventress's own weapons away from him while trying to inflict damage via his Energy Sword. He could potentially use the energy dagger in the left gauntlet to 'even the odds', but he had confidence in being able to defeat the girl without it.
He parried another strike, hoping Generals Kenobi and Skywalker used the delay wisely.
That, they did, too. Obi-Wan tapped into the mainframe of the base's computer and said, "Seems like they'll be receiving reinforcements soon enough... This is not good..." and turning to Anakin. His young Jedi friend had also searched through some of the logs in the place. Obi-Wan hummed and said, "I'm surprised they've even left this little bout of information in their consoles..."
"They probably know we can't do much without hyperspace lanes to the Outer Rim planets like Christophsis under our control. We're already spread pretty thin here," Anakin replied, then sighed and looked to his master, stating, "I got nothing left here... We should get the Arbiter and leave before the place starts swarming with Droids. Ventress probably didn't expect to fight an alien duelist."
"Agreed," Obi-Wan replied, stowing the data on enemy troop arrivals in a pouch on his belt, "Let's go retrieve our friend, shall w-"
Their com-links pinged. The two Jedi looked to one-another and noted the 'caller ID' of a sort was from nearby. They both tapped in to listen to them, before an Elite's voice filtered in, calm and quiet, "Generals. This is Sergeant 'Zadom, of the First Watchers. We've news of an impending enemy deployment... And calls from Shipmaster 'Vadum about the arrival of new enemy forces..."
The two paused, listening to the outside. The whirr of antigravity engines and thumping of machine feet, though muffled by the walls, was clearly audible. The two men ran outside, opening the door to the sight of an entire armada of Droid vessels coming in for landing. Some had already deployed their troops, battalions of tan-colored B1s and silver B2s marching toward them.
"Oh, this is not good..." Anakin sighed, "Let's go get the Arbiter..." before he radioed in, "Sergeant, maybe pull your men back. Doubt it's a good idea to engage the enemy without tanks or reinforcements. We'll go retrieve the Arbiter." and received an affirmative ping. The men saw the Elites' cloaks engaging from afar, somehow, then felt more than watched as the Elites bounded back to cover their escape.
The two Jedi looked to one-another, nodded, then ran inside, lightsabers drawn. Entering the area where the Arbiter and Ventress were dueling, the men saw Ventress get punted across the floor, slamming against a wall. The woman roared, letting out a blood-curdling scream as she charged the arbiter, yet again swinging wildly at him. The two Jedi were stunned, however, to see that the Arbiter was calm and collected when fighting the Dark Jedi.
Deflecting a blade strike to the right and slamming his head into the girl's chin, Arbiter almost seemed like he was playing with his food. She swung at him again and, seeing this as an opportunity, the Elite shifted his blade. The twin-sided energy sword caught Ventress's own lightsaber between its two prongs, before the Arbiter quickly twisted his wrist to the right, stunning and disarming the Sith by tossing her right-handed blade aside.
He then grabbed her by the other lightsaber-wielding hand, spun and threw her against a glass pane, shattering it. Anakin hummed, surprised, then said, "Why'd you...?" before shaking his head, "Nevermind! Arbiter, we gotta go! Enemy reinforcements are en-route to us!" to which the Sangheili offered a nod. The group rushed out and boarded their Speeders and the Ghost, before swiveling them about and pushing at maximum speed toward the base. As they were being joined by the Elites, Anakin said, "Let's hope the boys found the traitor! Tomorrow's gonna be a busy day!"
Republic Base.
The ODSTs and Clone Commanders chased down Slick, keeping pace with the man despite the formers' seemingly heavier gear. Turning a corner as they chased slick, the ODSTs hefted the blasters and aimed, before a volley of stun rounds left the magnetic coils of the weapons. Slick ducked and weaved past one of his comrades, the energy shots narrowly missing him.
Mickey swore, "Fuck! He's a slippery one!"
"Guess the name fits!" Dutch called out, garnering a couple strained laughs from the troopers. Cody and Rex led the way, following Slick out and taking another left with the team, before descending down a flight of stairs and exiting out into the Motor Pool. UNSC Marine EOD teams had removed a good chunk of explosives, considering the stacks of charges laying on the floor without detonation command receivers.
One of the Marines noticed Slick and drew her rifle, shifting to lead the target. A burst of automatic fire left the barrel, clearly an intended disabling shot, but the burst went high and struck the wall, only one round skimming off Slick's back armor and ricocheting off a really narrow angle on his armor. It still seemed to take a chunk of plasteel with it and droplets of blood did hit the ground, but Slick had slipped away.
"Easy on the rounds, Marine!" Buck ordered as they ran past, "We're trying to nab him!"
The girl nodded, "Sorry, sir!" as she watched them move. She looked over to the explosive pile and, with a couple of hand signals, told her other members to make sure every single pin had been removed. Her teammates nodded, going to do the fourth checkup of this kind, all while the rest of the EOD teams scoured the rest of the cache for any signs of Slick's little playthings.
Cody, Rex and the others entered the base yet again, through one of the motorpool doors, with the captain following the trail of blood while the commander tailed behind him and the ODSTs kept their weapons close. They trailed the blood all the way over to its endpoint, specifically, an access grate to the vents. Buck swore to himself, "Shit..." before stating, "How the hell are we going to find him now? He's gone into hiding..."
"One of us can squeeze in there and find him, sir," Mickey suggested. Rookie looked ready to go, thumbing the charger on the DC-15 carbine he had at the ready. Buck shook his head, then looked to Cody and Rex, both of whom hummed. They gave a tilt of their heads in-synch to the ODSTs, all of whom noted the motion. They followed them along toward the command center.
Cody whispered to them as they walked, "He's taken the Vents. They go everywhere in the base so, if he wants to escape, he just needs to take them all the way to an exit... But he probably won't..." because he probably wanted to wipe out the base or at least severely cripple it, were the unspoken chunks of the sentence. Alpha-Niner exchanged glances, then nodded to Cody.
Marching into the command room, Cody left his blaster on the holotable, though it was lacking the mag as the ODSTs noticed, before he stepped up to the console and started playing up the part, "Best guess we have is he's heading for an exit. I'll lock them down and declare red alert..." with as convincing a voice and poker face as he could put up. He turned to Buck and his team and said, "You troopers divvy up and secure the exits! Be ready for anything!"
"Sir," Buck and his men saluted and turned to 'leave'. They fast-marched out of the room and a bit down the hall.
Rex spoke to Cody, "I'll head on out and see if I can't find some way to cut Slick off..." to which the Commander gave a nod, still tapping into the 'sensors' to see if he could locate Slick. Rex ran out as well, his footsteps growing all the more distant. Slick was, of course, well-concealed above the Commander, laying in wait in a vent. The man peeked out and looked for others, before he slowly slinked his way down from the vent, grabbing the blaster from the table and marching up to Cody. He pointed it at his head as the Commander grinned and said, "Hello, Slick..." with a hint of venom in an otherwise joyous voice. He lifted the tibanna gas clip of the weapon and stated, "Gun's empty."
Rex and the ODSTs appeared and surrounded him, with Cody grabbing the annoyed-looking traitor's weapon out of his hand and reloading it, before aiming. Rex spoke to him, "Good evening, traitor..." venom behind his words as well. Slick grit his teeth, raising his hands as the ODSTs pointed their blasters at him as well. It was a textbook ambush, it seemed. And Slick fell right for it.
"I'm no traitor..." Slick replied in a low growl, "I was doing this for my brothers..."
"You were betraying your brothers, you moron. A good chunk of'em nearly died when the ambush failed," Romeo replied, crossing his arms to his chest. Slick stared at him, grit his teeth, then lunged toward the Soldier. A burst of stun rounds struck from the Troopers like a hammerblow, sending Slick slumping forward against the floor. Romeo sighed and said, "Guess he ain't that 'slick' anymore, is he?"
Several groans filtered through the room, with Buck patting him on the shoulder and stating, "Don't, Romeo. Just don't."
The black sniper rolled his eyes and sighed, before taking a knee and checking to make sure the bastard was still alive. Cody and Rex sighed at the sorry sight of their brother, before picking him up. About thirty minutes later, as the Arbiter and Jedi returned, they found Slick tied up, being dragged out by a pair of Clone MPs. Anakin stopped them, then said with a hint of surprise, "Slick? You were the traitor?"
The Clone glared up at Skywalker and spat, "I was, if you consider trying to free my brothers from your yoke 'treason'..." anger behind his voice. Nothing the confusion in his eyes and the glares the ODSTs were giving him, he lashed out, "None of you Basics would get it! We're soldiers, bred for war. No better than cattle to the Republic and you, Jedi. My brothers live and die by your will..."
"And you think betraying our strategies to the Separatists would help?" Cody asked, looking Slick dead in the eye.
Rex crossed his arms to his chest, "Kid. Like the Basic pointed out, more than a few of your brothers died because of you... You are not innocent to the same crimes you accuse anyone here of," before seeing the Clone's face shift. First to anger, then to introspection, then to fear and surprise. He was about to say something, before Rex waved him off and growled, "Get him out of here..."
Anakin and Obi-Wan watched the MPs drag Slick away, with Obi-Wan commenting, "He was one of our best..." as he seemed in thought. Anakin, too, seemed to be considering the situation, while Buck and his men had already considered it. Buck hated to admit it, but both sides had points here. The Clones, as Buck figured, were born and bred as war cattle, pretty much. He didn't know the full context of the Clone Army, but he was pretty sure it violated a lot of sentient rights charter bullet points in one go.
"A damn shame," Cody murmured, shaking his head, "His squad had perfect cohesion, too..."
"They were Pod Brothers, after all," Shrugged Rex, then he sighed. He turned to Skywalker, Kenobi and the Arbiter, saluted and said, "Sirs? What should we expect, now that we're down a Platoon lead?"
"A lot of droids..." Anakin replied, annoyed, "We saw them landing before we arrived. Tomorrow's going to be busy."
Just about every man in the room let out a collective groan of annoyance. Of course, things weren't going to be easy, no matter what they were going to do. Things would always be hard, considering the things they were facing. Uncaring, sleepless automatons armed with energy weapons that would attack headlong toward them, meaning the UNSC and GAR would have to prepare even more proper defenses...
At least, they had the bloody armor saved to back them up...