"How many d'ya reckon there are?" Hevy asked, his voice muffled and modified by the helmet's external speakers. He lifted up the six-barreled Z-6 rotary cannon, then hit the side power pack to make sure it was properly seated in the well. He aimed it toward the stairwell that led up from the landing pad. O'Niner shrugged as he readied his own DC-15A, checking it over and making sure the power output was nominal.
"On your order, Sarge," Cutup spoke as his hand hovered over the console. The sole thing keeping the Republic forces from coming to help reinforce Rishi right now was 'All-Clear Signal' being broadcast by the station's communication system. What the droids had taken out were sensors, but coms were still operational and transmitting that signal. Now, if the squad couldn't hold their ground, that meant that they'd need to disable it and fall back to either the barracks, or outside the base.
O'Niner showed him to halt as, beside him, Victor set up what looked to be an automatic, belt-fed weapon. Racking the bolt of his own heavy gun, the man peered down the scope and told O'Niner, "We've got enough forward firepower concentrated here. Someone should keep an eye out in case the Droids, whatever they are, decide to use some alternate means of entry."
"Only ways through are the windows and the vent system," Vesna spoke as she took cover beside the console, rifle in hand. She peered from between one of the Console stands and checked her own radio, while Katja and Paul took up positions on top of the catwalk, aiming their scoped BRs at it. She sighed and shook her head, then added, "Still no contact... Wait, stand by. Motion tracker detecting movement."
The UNSC Marines tensed, while their Clone counterparts readied themselves. Armed with a longer DC-15 blaster rifle, Fives shouldered the weapon and prepared himself to fire, thankful he had the AP capabilities to possibly take down even the bigger Droids of the Separatist military. He spoke to Hevy, "Betcha fifteen Creds that I'll have more kills than you by the end."
Hevy snorted, taking his firing stance again, "You're on."
Nub, meanwhile, tensed as he held close his own DC-15A Carbine, partially praying the Droids wouldn't start breaching. However, the moment his mind started registering the fact they were about to enter into a fight and he prayed it wasn't gonna happen, the door started thumping. Joy, he thought to himself. Least he could finally fire his weapon in something that wasn't just the weekly shooting training.
The Marines tensed, grips tightening on their rifles. Paul looked back at the window, listening for any movement outside, only for him to spot a shadowy figure move in the corner of his eye. He swiveled about toward the windows, going back-to-back with his childhood friend. Katja clicked her com twice, looking to Vesna. Ves nodded, then showed her to face the same way. She did, turning on her heels and giving Paul a pat on the shoulder as if to tell him she's got his side.
Cutup, meanwhile, held his blaster pistol up, carbine clipped to his belt. Echo himself was armed with a carbine and was farther in the rear, keeping an eye on the other necessary systems and the small grate that led to the outside through the ventilation shafts. Droidbait hummed from beside him, aiming his blaster at anything that moved. He spoke, "This is gonnae be interestin'..."
"First taste of combat, boys..." O'Niner murmured, "Hope you ain't cowering on me now..."
The Clones all let out short laughs at that, while the Marines didn't answer, simply letting their weapons do the talking when the time came. They all paused, however, when light flickered ahead and the console lit up. An almost monotonous voice came from the com system. "Brothers. Can you open the door? The outside is clear and I and the Pilot want to take cover..."
"Wide-Eyes?" Ves asked, obviously skeptical.
O'Niner shook his head, "No... Too weirdly monotonous," and he aimed his blaster, grip tightening on his weapon. "Eye swears up and down most of the time, too."
Cutup leaned over to the com console and murmured, "Are the clankers wearing his armor...?" a bit surprised. Everyone else looked at him, concerned, before Vesna peered toward it, too. Sighing, she nodded, then pulled the mag out of her weapon to make sure she'd loaded armor piercing. Slamming it back home, she looked to Paul and Katja, then to her husband. Vic gave a thumbs up, while the Clones nodded. The Droid wearing their dead brother's armor spoke again, making the request to open the door, but it only served to further anger the men.
Vesna thought that'd be useful. Anger would drive any man to fight like hell for their brothers. She knew just how driven her own comrades were to get them off of Reach, Earth and the Ark alive. She kept her weapon steady, while Paul aimed his Sniper. The door began to hiss more loudly and the flickering intensified into a blinding flashing as the Droids started cutting through the door.
O'Niner gave the Go-Ahead to Cutup, just in case. Better to turn that All-Clear off now, he thought to himself, than to let the Droids kill them all if push came to shove. He heard the distant thump of magnetic charges being placed on the doors, then showed the team to ready up. Paul tensed, weapon at the ready. Kat thumbed the safety off her Battle Rifle off, peering through the scope.
When the hissing of the torch stopped, the thump of the breach echoed and Cutup hit the off switch, the Signal dying as incredibly-agile droids, painted black with only their eyes visible, pushed forward. Their blaster rifles snapped as they fired volleys, advancing up the stairs. Vic shifted his aim and immediately started laying down a volley of bullets down the stairs, spent casings and links clinking on the floor.
The thunderclap of the Sniper and the snap-pops of the Clone Blasters followed up, alongside the burp of the Battle Rifle and Vesna's own slow-chugging MA40. The squad laid into the line, filling the corridor with lead and plasma. They'd caught three enemy Commandos in the volley, bodies sparking as they collapsed under the whittling barrage of firepower. The other Droids, however, were smarter. They took cover and fired back at the Clones and Marines.
Paul fired his sniper again, the loud shot ringing out indoors and nailing a droid as it tried to throw a grenade. One of the classic thermal detonators still flew through the breach, however, landing right beside Vic. The Romanian autorifleman scrambled off to the side and turned his back to the blast, covering his head. A few others ducked, too, as the detonator exploded in a flurry of heat.
That gave the Droids time to advance. The Commandoes pushed up, firing their blaster bolts toward the Sniper and his backup BR-wielding comrade. That gave the Clones at the rear, Hevy included, the time to open up. And Hevy, to his credit, "Welcome to Rishi, boys!" before squeezing the trigger. The rotary cannon spooled and spun, a trail of azure bolts leaving the barrels of the weapon.
"Nub, look out!" O'Niner called out. Nub stood up and opened fire, too, meeting one of the Droids head-on. The machine let out a strange, almost mechanical gurgle as it drew a hefty blade off of its back and swung it at the Clone. It cracked through the plasteel armor and drew blood, sending the Clone tumbling to the floor with a nasty mark. The Droid then performed some form of acrobatic and jumped up toward where Katja and Paul were set up.
The droid swung at Katja, nearly taking her head off, but Paul was quicker. Cocking back his prosthetic, the Marine swung for a hard punch and a massive, reverberating clang echoed as the Droid's neck was snapped and bent. It collapsed, falling backward and off the catwalk while the Marine reloaded his rifle. Katja grinned and gave him a pat on the shoulder, to which he gave a thumbs up.
Other Droids advanced, one of them taking a swing at Vic that Vesna intercepted, gunning it down with Armor-Piercing Ammo. Anger seemed to boil over in the woman's eyes as she fired burst after burst from her weapon toward the Droids. Vic soon followed up, having regained his footing, then stood to his feet while brandishing his LMG. He opened fire on the Droids as well, joining Hevy in the Cannonade and gunning down a Droid that was about to swing for Vesna's head.
She looked to him and smiled, then joined him, reloading her rifle in the meantime. Vic hefted his LMG and fired from the hip as more Commando Droids pushed through, sweeping both the entrance and the area ahead. One of the Droids charged O'Niner, with the man narrowly dodging swings from the Droid's blade as he tried to acquire a good shot on it.
Fives popped up from cover and headshot the droid, then aimed his blaster and said, "Cutting it a little close, sir!" while Echo and Droidbait joined up as well. O'Niner let out a sarcastic laugh as the group began falling back, before Vesna and Vic slowly moved around the console. She looked to Katja and Paul and whistled at them. When they turned to her, she balled her fist and showed them to form up.
Both nodded, Paul drawing his M6 and covering for Katja as she jumped off first. The girl ducked under a swing, blunted another with her armor plate, then headbutted the droid, sending it back. She aimed her rifle and fired the last 12 rounds in her mag to kill it, then quickly reloaded as Paul joined her, firing his sidearm. O'Niner, meanwhile, ordered, "Fall back to secondary defensive positions! Hoping someone realizes we need help..." he started firing.
Hevy slowly backed off, firing his gatling blaster alongside Vic, the latter sweeping the area ahead in a 180 degree angle, each bullet and spent casing hitting or near-missing a Droid's important internals. The group rolled back behind the cover of the walls and support struts as blaster bolts started hitting their position. Vic knelt behind cover, dropping the empty plastic box and locking in a fresh one, before slotting the belt in and opening up with the weapon. Vesna beside him fired her MA40, noting, "Backed into a corner! Any plans for escape, Sergeant?!"
"Got a couple!" O'Niner quipped as he took cover. He ordered, "Dominoes, form up and prep smokes! We're getting our outpost back!" before priming what looked to be a smoke grenade. The Marines hummed and looked to one-another, before Paul grinned and drew his Sniper. He poked out and fired, doming another Droid as Vic and Hevy kept the enemy suppressed.
As the Troopers prepared the smoke grenades, Vic activated his Radio and told Ves, "I think we've got a link to Captain Heikkala's cruiser! They should be in a nearby system!" before hefting his LMG and firing. Their transmitter system had been linked to the base's communication system. They only had to hope the bastard droids hadn't jammed their coms, too.
"I'll try to give them a call, get us reinforcements!" The girl replied, then radioed, "Mayday, mayday, this is MISFIT BLUE to UNSC Pass Me The Ammo, the Rishi Outpost is under direct attack! A Droid Commando force has infiltrated the place and we are engaging it as we speak! Requesting reinforcement!" before listening in. At first, she could make out Heikkala's voice, but the radio was slightly distorted by something. She sighed and said, "Only hope is they heard it..." before turning to O'Niner and nodding.
They threw the smoke Grenades, only to hear a Commando Droid speak, its voice thick, deadpan "This is Unit 26, requesting support from overhead assets. Enemy resistance is greater than expected..." which made chills shoot up their spines. The enemy's new Commando Droids were terrifying, though Vesna. However, so were UNSC Marines. She primed two fragmentation grenades and showed O'Niner to wait before rolling them forward into the smoke.
"They just called for backup!" O'Niner spoke as the two grenades thumped, shattering a couple of droids.
Vic replied, "We've gotta pray our Mayday got to Heikkala's ship!" before peering out and stabilizing his LMG with his hand. He squeezed the trigger again, tracers lighting the silhouettes of the machines in the darkness as Hevy's gun cooled. Hevy himself aimed and fired a volley as soon as the damn thing stopped emitting steam, with Paul and Katja close behind, firing their rifles into the clearing visual impairment ahead.
Two Commando droids surged forward, one of them slamming into Hevy. He pinned the heavy gunner to the floor and aimed its blaster rifle right at the Trooper's face, but Paul grabbed it by the neck with his prosthetic and slammed it against its sibling that was trying to kill Vic. The two machines creaked and broke, sparks flying as the Marine then used the corpse as a shield from the last two droids.
Vesna stood up while Vic now covered her, then surged forward. She drew her blades from their sheaths, two heavy-duty combat knives, then charged one of the two Droids as blaster bolts whizzed by and even struck parts of her armor. She slammed into one, cocked back her hand and buried the blade deep within the machine's central processor.
Katja, immediately beside her, put several AP slugs from her rifle into the last on just as it was aiming to kill her boss. The two blonde women smiled at one-another, then gave nods of approval and looked back. The Clones and the two men lowered their weapons and reloaded them, with Hevy commenting, "I'm actually gettin' kinda jealous..." toward Vic and Paul. The two Marines grinned and bumped fists, then walked forward.
Cutup approached the com console while Fives ran up the Catwalk and pulled out a pair of macrobinoculars. Using them to peer up into the sky, he swore, "Kriff me! They've got an entire Droid Fleet up there! I'm seeing three Lucrehulks and maybe half-a-dozen Frigates on approach. They've started deploying troop ships toward us," only to lock onto the first massive transport vessel, what resembled a one-legged table that had a wide cut right down the center to him, slowly swung in for landing.
"They were planning for an all-out invasion. Kamino must be their target..." Murmured O'Niner.
"Your home planet, right?" Vic asked as he walked over to the console, too. The Sergeant and the Clones nodded, to which the man replied, "We ain't gonna let'em take it. We may be 'Basics', but we're all way too familiar with the concept of losing our homes..." before looking to the others. The three members of the Misfits present nodded their approval, while the Clones, a bit surprised, looked to one-another.
"I think we figured you Basics were on our sides when you came down to help us in this dead-end job, sir," Hevy commented, leaning his heavy gun on his shoulder. He took his helmet off, revealing a grin, then asked, "Question is, what the hell do we do to stop them? That's a Droid army coming down on our heads, presumably their last resort before having to ditch this op. We're... What, ten people and ten guns?"
"We'll figure something out, Hevy," Echo quipped, hefting his Blaster, "Maybe if we hold long enough..."
"Bastards started jamming our coms..." Cutup sighed, "Can't raise our own defense fleet, so..."
"We pray to whatever Gods are listening up there that that UNSC Cruiser heard our calls. Until then," O'Niner took charge, cocking his blaster as to emphasize what he was about to say next. "We hold the line as best we can. Last resort, we blow this place... Stop them from getting any form of control over it," before turning to the Marines and asking, "You folks any good at setting up IEDs?"
"Bet your sweet bippy, kurwa," Katja grinned, "Hand me any grenades you have. I'll booby trap the main door."
"What did she say?" Droidbait asked, crossing his arms to his chest. The three other Marines laughed awkwardly as they watched Kat depart with several kilograms worth of explosives. The Sergeants convened while the Troopers looked around, with Droidbait adding, "We're gonna have a battalion coming down on our heads... One ship first, then another and another 'till we're all dead or we run outta ammo."
"Fangs out, then," Paul commented, patting him on the shoulder, "You're all Rookies, but you've done just fine."
"We've got incoming!" Cutup then called out, "Ship's being chased by enemy fighters!" with the soldiers scrambling to the top of the catwalk. Indeed, in the distance, a three-wing shuttle was coming in with five fighters on its tail, plasma raining hell on its engines. They burst aflame as the rear shields failed, the aircraft crashing into the surface of the moon.
"Son of a bitch..." Murmured Paul, "We should send a team to rescue them, sir. Might have the extra guns on board we need to fight the coming 'Bots."
"Good idea, corporal," O'Niner replied, then said, "Fives, Echo, Cutup, head out and find them. Take the 'side exit'..." And he pointed at the grate in the main hallway with two fingers. He looked over to Katja, who racked the bolt of her battle rifle and asked, "Mind if you back them up, Corporal?" to which she grinned and shook her head. Paul put a hand on her shoulder and she put one back onto his, smiling. The two nodded to each-other, denoting the years of trust, before the girl rallied the men.
"Let's go, lads. We got some fellow troopers to rescue," She stated, then jumped down from the Catwalk. The three men looked to one-another, nodded, then followed the girl down, blasters at the ready. O'Niner's thoughts had been the same as the boys'. Why would any sane military send a squad of their own to what was basically a dead-end job in the middle of nowhere? Especially Basics like this 'UNSC'.
He was glad they did.
Crawling through the ventilation shaft, the girl quipped, "Well, if this doesn't feel like Die Hard..." as she held close her BR75. The three clones stared at her, confused. She looked back and grinned, then said, "Oh, we have so much shit to teach you about, boys. 600 years of human cinematography..." before she turned a corner. She quipped, "Just don't stare at my ass so much!"
The men snorted, with Cutup commenting, "Aye, aye, Corporal..."
"These guys are really strange," Quipped Fives as they crawled through into the red safety lights of the tunnel.
Echo replied, "Could be much worse... And hey, we're still alive," just before they reached the grate leading to the outside. Katja kicked the grate off of the wall and climbed down first, then swept the ridge they were on with her rifle. Looking up, she saw the Droid ship coming in for landing and hummed, then stepped forward to let the lads climb down and felt her foot catch on something.
She looked down and gasped, eyes wide. The corpse of a stripped clone lay on the floor, his throat slit. Beside him, Clara, their pilot, lay dead as well, a blade having pierced through the back of her neck. She knelt beside the woman and turned her over, feeling a fury bubbling up in her heart. Gently, she slung her rifle onto her back as the Troopers joined her. She took the dog tags off of Clara and slotted them into her pocket, before closing the woman's eyes, then turned to Wide Eyes and did the same for him. For the latter, though, she handed the tags to Fives.
Standing up, she said, "This right here is why we're backing you boys up. These tin cans shot at us first... And this is how they care for the dead..." then she checked her rifle over and gently pulled back the bolt to see if there was brass in the chamber. Nodding after completing the check and letting the bolt slam home, she showed them to follow, mumbling something in her language that the three men didn't understand.
The girl raised a balled fist as she heard the screech of chitin against rock, then showed them to take cover. Fives asked, "What is it?" in a whisper as he readied his blaster. She looked back at him and shrugged, pointing to the tunnels dug into the walls, to which he said, "Oh... Probably one of the local worms. We may wanna stay way from it. They're carnivorous, I think. Right?" And he looked to Echo.
Echo nodded, "Yeah..."
"Move low and keep quiet, then..." She told them. Crouch-walking by the wall, the group continued their ascent as the engines of the enemy landing ship droned loudly above them. They were about to make the climb when the girl saw a silhouette up ahead. She whistled and aimed her rifle, with the boys all readying their guns as well. However, it wasn't long before that giant worm emerged from hiding, hissing as it opened its four massive armored jaws at the group. The girl and the Clones turned about and opened fire on it, bullets embedding themselves in the armor and blasters not penetrating, somehow.
It dived toward them, Katja suddenly seeing her entire life flash before her eyes...
... A blaster rang out again, the azure bolt piercing the eye of the beast and sending it collapsing to the floor next to the men and her. They kept their weapons trained on the dead creature. It bled blue from the hole pierced into its skull and Katja got a full, good look at the brown chitin that made up its body, including the holes pierced by her rifle and the scars left by the blaster.
She dropped the half-spent mag into a dump pouch and slid in a fresh one, murmuring to herself annoyedly as she made a count of how many rounds she had left, noting it was half her load spent both in fighting and in shooting this thing. Scoffing, she swiveled about as she heard rocks get kicked out of the way, then paused as she saw blue stripes, a black 'skirt' and a strange collar cover on the man ahead. She smiled, however, then saw the man in the orange-striped armor following close behind.
"Well, Rex, old boy..." Cody spoke, arms crossed, "Guess we found our staff. Corporal Zielinska."
"Commander Cody. Captain Rex, sirs," She saluted, grinning.
"Glad to see you're alright after what we heard... We picked up the Distress when we were on our way here," Rex spoke, "Bounced it off our com relay to the Pass Me the Ammo before we entered the system, but we didn't expect things to be this bad..." And he paused, looking over her shoulder at the three Clones. He hummed and asked her, "Taking care of a bunch of Shinies, are you, Corporal?"
"They're holdin' their own decently well," She nodded while watching Rex approach the dead creature. He ran his hand over the blood and rubbed his fingers together, looking at it with a little concern. She chuckled as she watched the man approach the Troopers, all of whom took their helmets off. Rex and Cody both did the same, noting the confusion the three looked at them with.
"You got names, troopers?" Rex inquired.
"Sir. Cutup, Echo and Fives," Echo spoke, though he also asked, "Also... 'Shinies', sir?"
"Yeah, you're shiny and new," Rex quipped, putting his hand on the right side of the man's chest, basically emblazoning the white of his armor with the blue handprint, then smirked and told him, "Just like your armors. Though I'd like to think you're a little more than that now that you've tasted combat," and he saw them smile, too. He nodded proudly at his brothers. New kids or not...
"Speaking of, we should get to the Outpost. Defenders still whole?" Cody asked. Katja nodded in reply.
"We've barricaded the main 'lobby' area and mined it, so we'll have to go through the vent shaft we came out of," She told them, smirking, "Hope you don't mind scraping your knees a bit..."
"Back in the hole?" Cutup sighed deeply, "Man, I hate tight spaces..." and that got some laughter out of his brothers and a couple nods of approval from Rex and Cody. They showed the boys to lead the way over to the vent, which Katja did by taking point. There, the Clones and Marine helped each-other climb to the top, with the first one in being Katja, while the last one was Echo. They'd also seen the corpses and the two Clone Officers had quickly paid respects.
Then, it was back into the Lion's Den, so to speak.