Part 12 – New Friend – Part 5
"The clones are still not letting up," the Sergeant B-1 droid in command of the ones firing at the clones said into his communicator.
"I don't care," the T-series droid in charge of them replied, "Fire another round of missiles into the hanger, try and hit the fuel lines."
"Roger, roger," the B1 droid replied as he turned to his men, "Give them another round of rockets."
A small group of rocket droids armed with E-60R rocket launchers marched up, but before they could fire, a round of rockets came from their right side, destroying the ones armed with the rocket launchers, and a few of the B2 droids.
The B1 turned to see a squad of clones they didn't recognize stand on the ridge above them and begin firing a salvo of blaster rounds toward the droids he was commanding, "What's going on now," the T-series asked.
"We have a new unit of clones flanking on our 9 O'clock," the B1 said, as he pointed at them, "Return fire!"
"I'm sending reinforcements." the T-series said.
It was then that Obi-Wan and Anakin jumped off the ridge, and ignited their lightsabers, "Send the tanks," the B1 exclaimed, "We've got Jedi!"
Anakin and Obi-Wan ran at full speed toward the droids, deflecting the shots from the droids blasters, meanwhile, Bruce and Vekkif's group had just made it to the side of the Tribunal, "Think your packs can reach up there," Bruce asked, pointing to the top edge of the Venator's side.
"A distance that far," Sergeant Crys asked, "Easy."
"Then what are we waiting for," Bruce asked as he readied himself to jump.
"Mind if I go with them?" Vekkif asked.
"I figured you would," Bruce said as he steadied himself, "See you up there."
One leap got him to the lower lip of the Venator, and another got him a grip onto the upper lip, a simple heave was all it took to hoist himself onto the top of the Venator, the clones and Vekkif arriving shortly.
"Where to?" Vekkif asked.
"Let's head that way," Bruce said, pointing towards the rear of the Tribunal.
The sound of battle followed the group all the way to the rear of the central hanger where there was a small opening that seemed to have been blasted open via some kind of charge, "This our way in?" The clone that carried Vekkif up asked.
"I wouldn't," Crys said, "The clankers probably made this hole, and if they did, then the 332nd probably set up some kind of trap to keep them from using it again."
"Agreed," Bruce said, "Anyone got something we can throw down there?"
"Right here," one of the medics said as he reached into his pack and pulled out a small canister.
"What's in here," Bruce asked as he took the canister.
"It's a can of bandages," the medic said, "I always carry a spare."
Bruce looked over at Crys who shrugged, "Ok then," he said as he dropped the can into the hallway which was followed by the explosion from a laser trip mine.
"That way's a no-go," Cry said, "We need to find another entry."
"Let's keep moving," Bruce said before pointing at the neck that led to the command deck, "What about going through the necks?"
"Lot of wires in the way," Crys said, "But I think we can make it."
"Good," Bruce said, "Move out."
"How's it coming over there," Cody said over the clones' communicators.
"We're moving to attempt entry," Crys said, "Will advise when entry is made."
"Keep working," Cody said as he looked over the ridge to see Obi-Wan and Anakin slicing into the droids that kept coming from the Separatist ship, "We've got plenty to keep us occupied here."
"Copy that," Crys said, "Keep us apprised."
When they reached the necks, Bruce couldn't help but look up, it's really hard to get a sense of scale when the ship when viewing a Venator from the screen of a TV, or when your only reference is a 13"x22"x43" Lego model.
"You're the expert," Bruce said, looking at Crys, "Where should we make entry?"
Crys walked toward the center of the neck (give or take, a few feet), and pointed at the side, "This should be where the lift should be," he said, "A few pounds of explosives should expose the inner walls."
"Then I suggest we stand back," Vekkif said.
"This way," Bruce said, leading the unit around the back of the neck while one of the troopers pulled out a detonation pack, and attached it to the side of the neck.
"Here we go," he said as he ran around to take cover with the rest of the squad, "Fire in the hole!"
The explosion appeared to have left a nice cavity, but when they ran up to observe it, they saw that the explosion had only left a small hole that didn't go through to the exit.
"Sith spit," the clone said, "I thought I had primed the charge well enough!"
"Use another." Crys said.
"Hold on a second," Bruce said, "Let me propose an alternative," Bruce pulled out his saber, and all it took was a couple of minutes for a to cut circular hole out of the side.
A simple use of force was all that was required to pull the piece out of the wall, "Don't think I've seen someone with a yellowish-orange saber." Vekkif said.
"It's copper," Bruce said as he walked up to the hole, "Found the crystal on Tython, and we've taken well to each other," he simply stuck his head through the hole, and peeked inside.
The phrase, 'that's quite a step' was an understatement, the opening led to the inside of one of the turbo lift shafts, and below he could see that several of the lifts were currently resting off the tracks, "How bad is it?" Crys asked.
"Very," Bruce said, "We've managed to open a passage into one of the lifts. There's a door about twenty feet below, on the adjacent wall."
"We can climb," Vekkif said as he reached into his belt, and pulled out a climbing.
"Simple enough," Bruce said, "Avoid the lifts, we don't know if they're safe to use or not."
"Good idea," Crys said as he turned to his men, "Stick to the walls, we'll climb downwards until we find a door, be sure to have at least three points of contact, and make sure you test something at least once before you grab a hold of it. I'll go first."
"I'll follow behind," Bruce said, taking off his jedi robe and tying it around his waist.
Crys climbed through the hole and found a small ledge he could get a foot hold on, "Alright, there's a ledge right below the opening," he said, "There's also a set of grates at the edge of the lift, we can use that to climb down."
He began shimming down the ledge, when Bruce entered, he found that the ledge stuck out only about half a foot from the wall, and his feet were hanging over, "This is the wrong place to be wearing boots with heels."
"No kidding," the trooper that had climbed in after him said.
The entire unit was able to climb onto the ledge, along with Vekkif and Bruce before Crys was able to reach the grates, "Here goes nothing," Crys said as he lifted his foot, and stepped down onto the edge of the grate, "So far, so good," he put his second foot down, "Seems good," he then turned around to grab hold of the edge, and then began climbing towards one of the tracks the lifts ran on, "It's good, follow me."
"Roger that," Bruce said as he stepped down, and began climbing himself, "Seems there's only room for about three per grate," he looked up at the clones, "Medics, team up with those with a jetpack, I have an idea."
"What idea is that?" Crys said.
"I'll show you," Bruce said, looking up at his partner, "Vekkif, you're up," he then looked over to Crys, "Excuse me, sergeant," he climbed over Crys' back to be on the other side of him, and when Vekkif climbed down, he jumped to the opposite side of the lift tracks, he then looked back at the, "If you would be so kind to be on the other side of the sergeant."
"Excuse me," Vekkif said as he climbed over Crys' back, "What now?"
Bruce held out his hand, "Toss your climbing rope over here, please."
"What?" Vekkif asked.
"Your climbing rope," Bruce said, "Please."
Vekkif simply extended the rope from his belt, and after a few swings, tossed the rope over to Bruce who wrapped it around his forearm.
"What now?" Vekkif asked.
"Can you lock the distance in?" Bruce asked.
Vekkif simply pressed a small button attached to the pouch where he produced the climbing line, "What am I going to do?"
"You're going to jump," Bruce said, "You let go, and I use momentum to swing you across the gap."
"You sure about this?" Vekkif asked.
"I'm stronger than I look," Bruce said "Ready?"
"Whenever you are," Vekkif said as he steadied himself.
"Go," Bruce said as he gripped the rope as tight as he could.
Vekkif jumped upwards, and as soon as Bruce felt the rope tense up, he swung his arm, and despite the pain of the line clamping down on his arm like a string of wire, he held on, and the momentum carried Vekkif to get a hand hold on the grate.
"That didn't tickle," Bruce said, shaking his hand, "It worked, though."
"Credit where credit is due," Vekkif said as he kept climbing.
"Good enough, sergeant," Bruce asked, looking back over at Crys.
"As you said, it worked," Crys said before looking back at his men, "Let's move."
Meanwhile…
One of the rocket droids lined up a shot at Obi-Wan, but when he fired, a simple push was all it took to send the rocket flying straight back at him.
He was standing next to two others, and I think we all knew what happened when the rocket came back at him at roughly the same speed it exited his launcher at.
"We're getting torn up out here!" The sergeant droid exclaimed.
There was an audible sound of what could pass for a droid sighing as the T-series grasped his head, "I'll send the tanks."
Cody, up above with his men providing supporting fire against the droids who were trying to get a sniper's position on Obi-Wan and Anakin looked over to see AAT-1s along with an accompaniment of DSD1 dwarf spider droids.
"General," Cody said into his communicator, "We've got incoming armor."
Obi-Wan looked up, "They're not holding back this time," is what he said when he saw the AAT-1s and spider droids, then looked over at Anakin, deflecting two shots that came his way, "Anakin, we've got company!"
As Anakin deflected another few shots, he looked over to see the advancing tanks and spider droids, "You want to take this one, or should I?"
"Be my guest." Obi-Wan said.
Anakin reached out with the force, grabbed hold of one of the Super Battle Droids, and hurled him through a line of droids, making a trench for him to run through toward the tanks.
The driver of the forward-most AAT-1 stuck his head out of the top of the main turret, and saw Anakin heading his way, "Jedi on his way," he exclaimed, "Fire! Fire now!"
Let's head back to the main event…
While Obi-Wan and Anakin began to deal with the tanks, the team inside the Tribunal were still climbing, but Bruce and Vekkif had made it to the door they were climbing towards.
"Shall I take the other side," Bruce said as he stepped onto the lip of the door and shimmied to the other side.
"You do that, and I'll take the door." Vekkif said.
"Force, or lightsaber?" Bruce asked.
"Easiest way," Vekkif said as he drew his saber and when he ignited it, Bruce found something he had never seen in traditional Star Wars media, Vekkif had a purple ghostfire crystal.
You could almost see all the way through the blade, and the sound it made as Vekkif maneuvered it was so faint, you could barely hear it.
It worked just the same as he plunged it into the control panel on his side of the door, and it melted through the controls, allowing it to lift freely.
"We're in," Bruce said as he looked down the hall, then motioned Crys, "Come on down, sergeant."
I promise the next chapter will be the last chapter of the "New Friend" arch…