Gregor made it to the shuttle
In the mine on Abafar
D Squad and Gegor moved between the building surrounding the mine before stopping right before the surrounding clearing.
"Ok. Let's see what we're up against. Gregor?"
Gregor nodded before putting on his helmet activating its built-in binoculars and looking into the sky, trying to find the ship Mr. Borkus talked about.
"Wait, there! There's a cruiser up there."
He then paned downwards to get a look at the mine proper, settling on a shuttle in the middle of it.
"And that shuttle, I think – Yes, it's being loaded up with Rhydonium canisters."
He then removed his helmet and turned to Gascon.
"Hun. I guess Mr. Borkus was actually telling the truth… for once."
"What exactly is Rhydonium?"
"It's a fuel WAC. Mostly been mined out on Abafar. It's volatile and dangerous.
[We have to stop them from blowing up the shuttle.]
[Defently]
[Let's save the cruiser!]
"Yes, we do have a new mission: Stop the Separatists from blowing up that cruiser."
"I'll cover you and clear the way, Colonel. You all head straight to the shuttle. I'll take care of those clankers."
"Hmm, sounds like a good plan. You soldiers ready to get dangerous?"
The droids all cheered together in support of their mission. Gregor once more dawned his helmet climbed up onto the barrel next to them and took aim.
"I'll meet you at the shuttle sir."
Gascon just nodded. "Let's roll." He then closed the hatch on BZ before the droids marched forward in a single-file line towards the entrance of the mine.
As they approached, the droids guarding stepped forward to block their path.
"Hay! You need authorization to enter this area."
BLAST
BLAST
With two quick shots, the droid guards were down, allowing D-squad to walk through the gate unopposed. Gregor then raced forward to reach a better firing position overlooking the mine to further cover their advance. As he did so, other guards moved to stop the droids and clones.
"Get them!"
BLAST
As the guards were quickly dispatched, the group split up. The droids went down the ramp into the mine proper, while Gregor climbed on top of the machinery to have a better angle of fire and draw attention away from the droids.
Upon his new perch, he saw just how large a force was guarding this mine. He lowered his weapon for a moment as the words of Borkus rang through his head.
"You are no soldier. You are a dishwasher."
No, I am not. I am a clone commando! I am a soldier! Above everything else, I am a brother. And my brothers need me to get these droids to that shuttle!
He then raised his weapon once more and began opening fire on the guards closing in on his droid companions.
"Good job, Gregor!"
With WAC's words of encouragement, Gergor found the strength to move forward to the next firing position on top of the equipment.
"Look, he's up there!"
That's it you clankers. Keep focusing on me and not the droids behind you.
As battle droids, super battle droids, and even drodicas move in Gregor's direction to take him down, D-Squad was able to race through the rhydonium unopposed. As they passed a pair of battle droids, one of them began to speak up.
In one world, that droid signaled others to fire upon them, leading to an explosion that would layaway Cournal Meebur Gascon enough for Gregor to have to sacrifice himself to save him.
This isn't that world though.
"Hey, I don't-"
BLAST
One of Gregor's shots hit the droid in the head before he could finish the sentence, prompting his buddy to return fire ineffectually in Gregor's direction.
This let D Squad reach the shuttle altogether, letting Greggor make his way over on the supports of the mine itself
"Did everybody make it?"
Gascon emerged from M5-BZ's head. "Yes, now it's time for WAC to do his part of the plan. Corporal, get us out of here!"
"On it Colonel."
As WAC ran up to the cockpit, Gregor continued to lay down covering fire against the droids as they advanced. The lifter droids continued following their programming and brought more rhydonium into his line of fire.
Gregor didn't let this opportunity go to waste.
BOOM!
One well-placed hit took out a dozen of the droids, and the chain reaction continued to take out more.
BOOM!
BOOM!
Barrel after barrel was shot by Gregor, even as the ship began to lift off. He only stopped firing when the rear door finally sealed, and even then he made sure to get one last shot through the crack before it disappeared.
As such, he didn't see the bolt triggering the chain reaction that would destroy the mine and all the droids in it.
"Good work Captain Gregor."
"Thank you, Colonel Gascon."
As the ship flew into the sky, Gregor sat down and took off his helmet.
"I don't just mean for the compliment. Thank you for reminding me who I am, and helping me get back into the fight."
Gascon just chuckled. "I think we're squared after you got us off that rock and helped us with the mission. If you think you still owe me something, I can have you assigned as a bodyguard after my inevitable promotion to Brigadier General if you want."
As the shuttle neared the Jedi Crusior, Gascon brought it up on the screen in the loading bay.
"Hmm, looks like the Jedi cruiser is expecting this shuttle. Well, I'm sure there is someone aboard who can put this encryption module to good use." He then turned towards his team. "Well, soldiers, this is the end of the mission. Colonel Gascon has succeeded. R2, contact the bridge."
As Gascon continued to give his instructions to R2, Gregor just gave him a flat look. "Don't count your chickens until they hatch Colonel. After we get onto the cruiser, we still need to get to Republic space and deliver the chip. A lot can happen on that flight."
[Cournal, I still can not make contact with the ship]
"What do you mean you still can't make contact with R2?"
It took all of Gregor's self-control to not say 'I told you so.' Gascon however, still heard it and shot him a dirty look before turning back to the view screen to look at WAC, who just showed up.
"I've got a bad feeling about this, Colonel. Something is not right."
At this, Gregor put his helmet back on and began to ready his weapon for immediate combat despite Gascon's ineffective attempts to convince his team everything was fine.
When the shuttle landed, he was the first out. Immediately he noticed the empty hanger bay and closed blast doors.
"WAC is right, this is not good. There should be several clones down here working, and why are the blast doors closed?"
"Well, maybe there was damage to the ship. Yeah! That's exactly what happened. The separatists below attacked the ship, killing a lot of the crew members and causing massive damage to the hanger bay. They fixed the runway first to help get supplies onto the ship, but the rest is damaged so severely that they are keeping the blast doors closed until they can repair them in case of an accident on the pad. Don't want to make more work for the few repair teams they have left. Everyone else is probably waiting for us to crack the Separatist code."
Every droid in the group began to beep at Gascon in annoyance for dismissing the idea that anything was wrong. Gergor just shoot Gascon a look. Even with his helmet on, it was plain to everyone that he was giving his superior a raised eyebrow. Even Gascon recognized this.
"All the same sir, why don't I go first and treat this like a hostile area until we see some clones? If I get us into trouble, we can blame it on me spending too long in the Void and you humoring me until I could get into medical."
Gascon pondered for a bit before nodding. "Fine, but when we meet clones and you are proven wrong, I will be saying 'I told you so.'"
"Understood."
With that, Gregor began checking around the corners with his blaster ready as he led them to the bridge.
Not a single clone was encountered on the way.
The Bridge
When D Squad reached the bridge, even Gascon's confident facade was beginning to crack. When the doors opened to reveal a room full of clones, he immediately jumped out of BZ and pointed right at Gregor.
"HA! I told you there was nothing to worry about." He then turned to the man working at the hub and saluted.
"Sargent, Colonal Meebur Gascon."
As he jumped onto the table with no one in the room acknowledging their existence, Gregor started to get worried again.
"You have no doubt been expecting me. I am delivering the Separatist encryption module…"
As Gascon dropped his chip into the hand of the clone, it fell right through it, causing the whole man to ripple land pixelate.
Gregor immediately stepped forward and plunged his whole blaster through the man to no effect.
"It's just a hologram."
All the droids began moving around, passing through the clones like they weren't even there.
[They all are holograms!]
"What in the blazes is going on here?"
The ship then began to whirl and entered hyperspace.
"I do not know. But we just made the jump to hyperspace, which means somebody is navigating this ship."
QT then looked down into the crew pit, he saw a group of droids manning the controls.
[R2! There are battle droids here!]
As the other astromechs began to panic, one of the battle droids raised his head and began to look at them.
"You, droids! What are you doing on our ship?"
De squad then realized there were a dozen battle droids and a tactical droid piloting the ship.
"Surrender or you will be destroyed."
Gregor then took the opportunity to shoot the commander before the droids could pick up their blasters. With the help of the astromechs shoving the droids that tried to leave the pit back into it, R2 and QT used their electro-prods to take out some of them, and C4 blasted one with his laser at the cost of sending him flying back.
"Bridge is secure colonel."
"Thank you, Gregor, and you too droids. All right, something very strange is going on here. It appears this ship has been hijacked by Separatists."
The wrist of the tactical droid began to beep and the voice of a battle droid began to emerge from it.
"Commander? Are you there?"
R2 then turned to WAC
[WAC! I need you to let me adjust your vocal modulator so you can sound like the commander and answer his com!]
WAC just jumped back in surprise. "WHAT! You can do that?"
[I have no idea. Do you or anyone else have a better idea?]
"What is it? I am very busy."
At the sound of Gascon's voice, both droids turned to look at their colonel answering the com for the dead tactical droid.
"I think this is an excellent idea."
[He is going to get us all killed. Even battle droids aren't dumb enough to believe he is-]
"We just placed the detonator in the Hangerbay overwatch station as you asked."
The rest of D squad looked at Gascon like he had suddenly turned into a fire-breathing bantha made of cotton candy being ridden by a sentient Jedi mushroom. Only weirder.
"Good job. I trust everything went smoothly?"
"Not really. It fell on top of my head for a bit. I am still mal-mal-malfunctioning a little."
At that, the rest of the squad felt better as the world made sense once again.
"Well, why don't you tell me the plan in detail to the best of your knowledge to see how good your memory is recovering?"
"Sounds good sir. We are going to fly this rhydonium filled ship into the space station Valor in the Carida system."
"GASP!"
Gascon threw his hands over his mouth, but it was too late.
"Hay, what was that?"
"Hay, what was that?"
Gascon looked at the droids nervously before Gregor wrote something down on a data pad one of the downed droids was holding and held it so Gascon could read it.
"What was what?"
"I thought I heard a gasping sound."
"I didn't hear anything. You're audio modulators must be malfunctioning."
"Ok, that makes sense. I'll go get that checked out."
"Understood. Over and out."
As Gascon deactivated the communicator and let it fall to the ground, he then began to panic."
"This is a disaster! Space station Valor is where the Republic Strategy Conference is taking place! The Jedi Council and a large number of Republic officers from around the galaxy will be there!"
[How do you know about it?]
"How do I know about it? I was making a report for the meeting when I was assigned to D squad!"
[We have to do something.]
"I agree R2! Make the ship drop out of Hyperspace, that should prevent this from destroying the conference."
R2 then moved over to one of the access ports in the crew pit and extended his prod to stop the ship. As he
When a buzz saw emerged from the shadow in the direction of R2, he immediately retracted his probe and turned to face the new foe.
"Buzz droid! Kill it quickly Gregor before it calls reinforcements!"
BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
As a loud sound was heard behind them, Gregor turned to reveal dozens of buzz droids pouring into the room from the door and ventilation systems.
"Too late Colonel."
With that, the battle for the bridge had begun.
Hello, Star Wars fans! To celebrate May the 4th, I am going to be posting Star Wars fanfiction once a week every Friday morning all month long. I focus my work on 2k-long chapters, so let's see what I can come up with together.
This is an idea I had ever since I saw the episode, what if Gregor made it to the shuttle and the Jedi Cruiser? I think a single clone commando with the element of surprise and a few astromechs with electro-prods that have been shown to take down battle droids before could easily clear two crew pits. Especially since most of them would be unarmed.
As for the "turned into a fire-breathing bantha made of cotton candy being ridden by a sentient Jedi mushroom. Only weirder" bit, that is a joke I made in an Amphibia fic I never got around to publishing. I liked it, so I put it here.
See you next week to see how things will continue to progress.
I decided for my New Year's Resolution to do one fanfic chapter a week for all of 2024. Who knows how long I will be able to keep this up, but next week's fanfic chapter is up on my . This is also being posted on , AO3, and Tumbler.
: user?u=10132890
: s/14051718/1/luz-appreciation-week-2022-from-1228248
AO3: /works/52823413/chapters/133608991
Tumbler: blog/brianedner
I am also doing fanfic info dumps, think wiki articles that go one episode at a time with some compilations at the end on certain topics that are sorted by episode.
Fanfic info dumps here: 1228248/gallery