DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN STAR WARS
The Squad walked in a looser formation, spread out with the Gelagrubs in between them. Dune and Wildfire took the front, as Wildfire was their guide and Dune the de-facto squad leader. Once more Cresh held up the rear, just in case the 104th's made up concoction didn't repel all the acklays.
Dean and Weiss were on the opposing left and right of the Gelagrubs covering the sides. Umbra ,that was the name of the trooper with the injured Mojo, was riding on had personally assured them that it was one hundred percent effective. Geld was on top of Wildfire's gelagrub, helping guide it to the base.
The sergeant was a quick learner and after the boys from the 104th explained to him the riding process, he instantly caught on.
Personally, Dune knew it was so that he could keep a better eye on the injured Mojo from his similar position of elevation. Geld considered the rest the squad his kids and cared greatly for their safety. .Just like Erg.
They had lucked out that Umbra was a field medic in his old squad and still had some supplies. He had stripped the commando's chest armor and applied a cold pack and bandages to the commando's side. Apparently the impact had shattered the Katarn armor and broken his ribs. Commando's were highly resistant to pain but even they had their thresholds.
Umbra had applied bandages and cold compress to Mojo' side and fed him some homemade pain meds to keep him stable until they made it to their base of operations. According to Wildfire they were almost there. Dune decided to use this time to inquire on how the two Wolfpack troopers had survived this long out here.
"Wildfire." Dune said as he matched paces with the trooper.
"Sir?" came the crisp response of the trooper. He had not even broken stride, maintaining his forward gaze on their trek.
"You and Umbra have been marooned here for a long time away from your brothers and the rest of the Republic. What happened and how have you both survived.. Were there any others?" the arc asked carefully.
At this, Wildfire turned towards the Arc.
"I think it'll be better if I show you sir. We're about here anyways." he said as he pointed to a ramshackle base ahead.
Cobbled together out of broken gunship parts, and Felucian wood, this was all but a base in name. It was little more than grit and miracles that was keeping it together.
"Umbra! Take the commandos to the center! I'll take the commander to see our brothers!" Wildfire yelled to his brother.
Dean, Geld and Weiss all instinctively turned towards Dune in questioning, only for the arc to nod as a form of all clear. The squad and Umbra continued onwards while Wildfire took Dune down a separate path.
Eventually they came to a small clearing a short distance away from the base. Dune saw there were six burial mounds, upon which sat three helmets and three rifles planted into the ground.
"This is what's left of our squad. The helmets are that of the pilot and co pilot and our brother Ark. We weren't able to get the others. The acklays and the planet's fauna got them so we use rifles to mark their tombs." as he said this, Wildfire removed his helmet and turned to face the arc.
"Our gunship was shot down as we were attempting to evacuate. Crash killed the pilots only because they angled it so that the troop bay wouldn't be too banged up and saved us. When we realized we couldn't get in contact with command we resolved to survive until somebody came back.. Minutes turned into hours into days and days into rotations. Lost more of us to the planet as the days went by." As he said this, Wildfire turned towards the helmet that belonged to the trooper known as Ark.
"Ark was the last to go. Died not long before yall got here. Nasty infection from an open wound took him out. Started eating him from the inside out..We..we..had to put him out of his misery sir. Couldn't live with seeing him like that and the screams got too bad for Umbra. He still has shivs everytime he thinks about it." Wildfire responded solemnly.
Dune had traumatic flashbacks of the horrors of Parcelus Minor. The screams of his brothers as they were burned alive. His last sight of Erg. He bit his lip, a new coping mechanism he had developed over the last couple of tours.
"I..know the pain, Wildfire." He said as he placed a comforting hand on the trooper's shoulder.
"They teach us how to deal with battles. How to face death and the concept of dying but never how to handle surviving. How to deal with the memories of brothers lost while we can do nothing but watch. Even us Arcs have traumas,little..brother. All the more reason for us to look out for each other and no one else.." With that he gave Wildfire's shoulder a comforting squeeze.
"I will get you and Umbra out of here trooper. This I swear."
~OOO~
"Wildfire. You say you know a route that can take us tot he base without having to worry about running into any Acklays?" inquired Dune.
After his heart to heart with the 104th trooper, the clones had convened in the center hub of the makeshift base. Dune had opted to fill the two troopers in on their missions s a sign of trust and due to the fact they could prove useful to the mission's completion.
His gambit had paid off. Wildfire had knew the location of the base and would be able to take them with no worry of running into the Felucian wildlife. With Mojo still out of commission, that left them down a man. Wildfire happily agreed to fill in for the injured commando.
Though he wasn't as specially trained as the others, Wildfire had still managed to survive on Felucia for this long with no support and he was certain the trooper's skills would come in handy. With that the newly assembled squad set out. Umbra was left to look over Mojo while they completed the mission.
When they succeeded in their objective they would double back, retrieve the two and hit exfil. A smooth plan in mind but reality always begged to differ…
~OOO~
True to his word, the path that Wildfire took them was not only safe but quicker compared to their original path laid out by intelligence. Though they did have to cut their way through much of the fauna it was much better than having another run in with the Acklays..despite the misgivings of dynamic duo of Dean and Weiss.
The six soon found themselves at the abandoned research station. The station had seen better days, completely overtaken by plant like growth and rusted. Dune could tell no one touched it in ages. He wondered what was so important to warrant his team coming back for it seeing as its been left alone for so long? What could the separatist want from it so bad?
Dune split the six man team up into two cells. The commandos would be team two, tasked with blowing the base generators. His team would be team 1, tasked with data retrieval.
The two teams went their separate ways, maintaining strict comms between them while his team entered through the front of the base while Zeta entered through the rear, closer to the base acted as pointman, inputting the giving codes and watching as the door slowly slid open with a wheezing hiss. "Switch to night vision. Lights are still out" he ordered as they entered.
The inside of the base was just as worse as the outside. It looked like something had run rampant within the base. The corridors were completely damaged and he noticed specks of dried blood splattered on the walls. Yet he found no bodies.
"Dune checking in. Zeta respond. How are things looking on your end?" he spoke into the comms.
Geld's response came quickly. "Zeta reporting in. Entered with no resistance. Base looks to be in disarray. Plenty of blood and destruction. No bodies. Will keep updated." "Affirmative. Dune out" Dune responded.
Talon, who was watching their rear, spoke, breaking the silence. "Any clue what the eggheads were working on in here ner vod?" Talon inquired
"Your guest is as good as mine brother. Whatever it was I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. Any clue Wildfire? You and your boys were stationed here." Dune asked. Wildfire shrugged
"Couple rumors sirs if those are any interest."
"Humor us." The arc replied as they pressed forward.
"Couple of the boys heard rumors of some secret project R was running here. Something biological. Made no sense since our enemies are the clankers and rarely organics. Never gained much traction but just something they picked up." he responded.
Dune's ears perked up, catching a slight scuffling nose from behind the bulkhead door blocking their entry to the command center.
"All rumors have some truth to them.." he said as he readied his rifle. He motioned for Talon to open the door while he readied for whatever lay behind the doors.
"But we'll find out soon enough if there was a merit of truth." he said as he stepped towards the door, rifle raised. With a nod, Talon opened the door.
The first thing that fell out was a corpse, badly decayed and emaciated . Dune stepped out the way as the body fell to the ground with a loud thud followed by a horrendous stench.
He visually examined the corpse. Torn clothes, broken and once bloodied finger nails . He prodded the corpse with his foot.
No movement.
"What do you think happened to him, sirs?' Wildfire asked as the all looked over the corpse.
"Looks like he was stuck in there and trying to get out." Talon responded, drawing a similar conclusion as Dune from the initial assessment.
"Yeaaa but somebody didn't want him to." Came Dune's own response as he pointed to the one blaster wound on the back of the head.
"Im not liking this at all Dune" said Talon.
"Me neither, brother. The faster we get this data and go, quicker we can get out of here. Search the control room and find the center console. Let's get the data and go" the veteran arc responded as they entered the command center.
He activated his helmet comms, reaching to Zeta squad.
"Geld report. We've found the control room. Status on those generators?"
Geld's response came a few moments later. He could what the sounds of Weiss coughing on the comm lines.
"We've found the generators. Got the boys working on them now..but sir. We found bodies. Plenty of them. Most seem to be researchers. Bad shape, decayed and falling apart. We've ran across a couple of covert ops boys based on the armor and markings. Looks like they. executed the researchers before killing themselves. Must have been something pretty and to have happened here. I don't like it." came the Commando's response.
"Copy. Set the charges and get back to base. We'll follow behind shortly. No chance of survivors. I know how these boys work. They won't leave anyone alive. Dune out."
"Sir! We found something!" came the voice of Wildfire as Dune cut the comms. He soon found Talon and Wildfire standing over the body of another clone. An Arc at that. Alpha class.
Dune approached the body. He had no helmet, and like the corpse before the flesh of his face was badly decayed and gaunt.
The pistol that lay in his hand told Dune all he needed to know about his death as he kneeled beside him.
"Oh..Forty-Five..what happened to you?" he uttered under his breath.
"One of yours, ner vod?" Talon asked, worry evident in his voice.
"Yea..one of the first of our fellow alphas that Cresh and I befriended. We called him Forty-Five but I heard he took on the name Zim as the war progressed. Lost all track as him midway through this war. Makes sense now if CO got him." Dune said as he stood up.
Luckily no damage had befall the consoles so thy could get all the necessary data without a hitch.
"You boys head on out and meet up with Zeta. I'll make sure the data is uploaded. I wish to have a last moment together with my brother." the arc said, lying through his teeth.
Wildfire nodded, headed off. Talon stayed a moment longer then followed behind.
"Udessii brother." he said as he passed Dune, running off to join the departing Wildfire.
"Calm..yea I'll be calm little brother. Once I find out what happened here to make our brothers kill the researchers and themselves. Zim..was kinder than most of us. He would never do this without purpose." Dune said to himself as he started to data upload to a portable drive.
He kneeled down, removing a small cord from his helmet and attaching it to that of Zim's.
This new armor of theirs allowed them to upload directly to their helmet feeds from other sources including other trooper helmets. He was gonna upload the audio and visual from Zim's into his own to find out what truly happened. It'll be scrubbed before they knew he had checked the recordings .."
~OOO~
Dune said nothing to the others about what he saw when he left the base. They blew the building and returned the Wolfpack's base of operations. Mojo was up but not fully moving when they returned. The clones took what they could from the base, allow Wildfire and Umbra and Wildfire to say their final goodbyes to the base an their gelagrubs then booked it to the Evac zone.
The others conversed and joked , despite what they saw, on the ride back. Even the boys of the 104th joined in with talks of their plans once they got back to their own battalion.
He joined in ,not wanting to worry his brothers about the thoughts that swirled in his mind.
When they made it back to base Cyrene and two Special Operations officers were waiting for them. Dune dismissed his squad and approached., bringing Talon came along with him.
The two approached Cyrene and her entourage. No salute was necessary.
"Mission completed. No casualties. Research base was destroyed and all necessary data recovered." Dune said in a stoic tone as he handed the data device to Cyrene.
She took it in her hands and handed it to one of the offices flanking her and dismissed him along with the other.
"Good and I see you picked up two lost clones form the 104th. Did you tell them anything of the mission?" she asked.
"Nothing that would damage the success of the mission and raise questions. Everything was on a need to know basis and neither needed to know." he responded curtly.
"Good…Final question. Did you see anything of interest you would like to talk about commander? Anything else outside of the data?" she asked, as if she knew he had peeked further than mission parameters allowed.
"No ma'am. Nothing else." he said.
She stared at him for a few seconds, smiled then walked away.
"Very well then..Dune. Until our next operation." she said as she walked away.
When she was out of ear shot, Talon removed his helmet and looked at Dune.
"You did see something didn't you, Vod? You haven't said anything since we left you with the bodies and data. What happened?" the junior arc asked, concern evident in his voice.
Dune bit hard into his lip, drawing blood before finally answering.
"Nothing to worry about Talon. Just sad to see another cherished brother go." he said once more lying to his brothers again.
Talon looked him over then placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently.
"Cresh taught us never to pry when a brother is holding on to something painful deep within. I'll always be here for you if you need me just as Cresh was for me and the others. Don't be afraid to ever contact me ner vod. No matter how far away we are from each other." Talon said before removing his hand from Dune's shoulder and walking away.
Dune wasted no time after getting to his private bunk. Once inside he removed his helmet and launched it at the wall.
He dropped to his knees, holding his face as warm tears streamed from his eyes. He was finally alone and able to release everything he was holding in after going through Ark's helmet.
What his brother was forced to stand watch over. The acts he was forced to commit on civilians. .His own brothers was horrific. It had broke Zim.
Perhaps to atone for his sins or even to escape the horrors, the Arc had deliberately released what they were working on and doomed everyone in that base. Himself included. He heard his brother's final words. The fear in his voice. The hurt.
Zim was afraid. Afraid of what the Republic was going to do when the project was complete. "Project Blackwing." Dune said to uttered to himself. He was never going to forget this for the rest of his life.