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The Clone Wars: Containment - Chapter 3d

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    Captain Maze braced his stance to keep from falling as the ship once again burst into motion.  After making planetfall and travelling for a short time, they had been holding position, waiting for the shield to drop.  The sudden acceleration probably meant that had happened and they were on their way inside.  Of course, it could also mean they’d been spotted…

    Maze’s gut felt the giddy sensation of a quick drop in altitude.  That’s us coming over the ridge into the caldera.  We’re in.  A moment later, the lights in the cabin flicked back on and there were two hard bangs on the cockpit door.  The crew chief, Sergeant Ten, banged his fist against the bulkhead, repeating the signal back to the pilots and roared, “Buckets on, boys!  Charge it all up!”

    The familiar wash of adrenaline pulsed through Maze’s veins as he sealed his helmet and powered up his blasters.  The cold dread that had been building in him during the hours of forced idleness ebbed away, replaced by the alert feeling of living only in the present.

    Maze heard the engines to his rear whine into life and the pilot of the CR-25’s voice cracked onto the speakers, “Engine checks on all larties.”

    “Azure team, green,” the pilot of Maze’s gunship reported.  Cyan, Teal, and Cobalt Teams all reported ready as well.

    “Disengaging docking clamps in three, two, one.”  A magnetic pop, accompanied by a loud clank went off above Maze’s head and their gunship peeled away. 

    The CR-25 would break off now and head for a natural amphitheater in the northwestern corner of the city.  The overhanging rock would provide protection from enemy strafing runs and mortars.  Commander Reach and one squad of the ship’s full platoon would remain on station to function as forward air controllers.  The amphitheater would also serve as their primary fallback position if things went to osik and they had to hole up in the city.

    The remaining three squads from the troop carrier would proceed to launch an assault on the air base.  The attack would only be a feint, as would those carried out by the troopers of Cyan and Teal teams on the magma reactor and shield generator, respectively.  The diversionary attacks by the infantry troops were the key to allowing Azure team, lead by Maze, and Cobalt team, lead by Heke, to carry out the true purpose of the mission.

    The two ARC Troopers and their individual commando squads would head to the substations that diverted power from the magma reactor to the main shield generator and the smaller generator that protected the AA guns on the hilltop.  Taking out the substations wouldn’t shut down the shields forever, but it would work long enough for the reinforcements to invade the city.

    Maze felt positively electrified to finally be in the thick of things after all of the days of planning.  I’ve needed this.  No sitting back, safe and sound, playing advisor to others this time.  He didn’t kid himself about the very real danger he and his men faced, nor about the responsibility he held for putting their lives on the line, but his fears were focused now, and he’d use them to complete the mission.

    It was time.  He switched his helmet comm to the secure team channel and spoke to every man on the infiltration team, “Alright men, we’re in.  No reinforcements and no way out until we get the job done.  Carry out your orders and we’ll see each other at the extraction point.”

    It’s a good start.  Now let’s just make sure there’s a good finish to match.

***

    Blue dots streamed onto the holographic scene, depicting the dozens of droid starfighters that Skorr could see launching from out of the window.  Ravaal had clearly thought it was foolhardy to leave them without any fighter support at the base, but he had known better than to argue about it.  He also didn’t have the same handle on the situation that Skorr did.  If they were going to remove those Jedi fighters from the situation quickly, it was going to take overwhelming numbers.

    The black shapes of the droid fighters disappeared over the ridge, and Skorr switched his gaze back to the holotable where blue dots streaked toward what remained of the swarming red ones.  Tiny symbols that represented the Separatist tank units were retreating back towards HQ, suffering casualties all the way.  As the blue dots closed in on the reds, V-wings and ARC-170’s began to show up as kills on the board.  One of the Etas even winked out of existence.  Skorr could feel the Jedi’s death in the Force.  He briefly wondered if it was someone he had known at the Temple.

    The remaining red dots regrouped, then began flying west, toward the low hills and the Republic’s crashed Venator.  Yes, run away little bugs.  Lead the droids right back to your nest.  Before reaching the ship, however, the Republic starfighters cut hard to the north, and the swarm of blue droid dots followed, intent on chasing their enemies to the ends of the planet.

    Suddenly, blue dots began flashing and disappearing from the display.  Skorr rushed to the window, and he could see the afterimages of green lasers shooting into the northwestern sky.  He wheeled towards Major Ravaal, anger contorting his face.  “I thought you said our air raids had destroyed the last of their defensive batteries, Major!”

    Ravaal was staring at the screen, unwilling or unable to meet Skorr’s gaze.  “Th-th-they did, Commander,” he managed.  “They must have effected repairs.  I don’t know.”

    A warning klaxon sounded and another red shape appeared onto the screen, shooting off in pursuit of the air battle.  More blue dots winked out of existence.  A pit of dread filled Skorr’s stomach.  He knew just who was in that starfighter.  Vos.

    He almost started marching toward the door and directly to his own starfighter, but then thought better of it.  The modified Headhunter that he’d brought to Saleucami was only a temporary replacement for his last ship, and he knew it was no match for the nimble Jedi starfighters he’d be facing.

    Thinking of his last ship, the Hell’s Anvil, filled Skorr with bitter memories.  He had acquired it on an Intel gathering mission for Count Dooku.  His clues had led him to a derelict KR-TB “Doomtreader” starship that had once belonged to a Mandalorian named Montross, a dead rival of Jango Fett’s.  Skorr was convinced that the information Dooku wanted was in the Anvil’s databases.

    He was wrong.

    Quinlan Vos had once again beaten him to the punch and successfully completed Dooku’s mission.  Skorr would never forget the humiliation of standing next to his prize on the landing platform, where the count and Vos had come to meet him.  After letting Skorr know how miserably he’d failed, Dooku had still seen fit to let him keep the ship.  He could still hear his master’s words:

    “Keep the ship, Tol.  I think it suits you.  Come along, Quinlan, I have a mission for you.”

    Vos had beamed at Skorr and strode off with the Count, who was still speaking loudly enough that Skorr knew he’d been meant to hear him.  “There’s some poetic justice here, Vos, isn’t there?  Skorr now owns the ship of the loser of a contest, while your own ship so closely resembles its winner’s.”

    Quinlan’s ship, the Skorp-ion, which did indeed resemble Fett’s iconic Firespray-class patrol ship, had eventually shot down the Hell’s Anvil on yet another failed mission.  After that, Skorr hadn’t even bothered to have it repaired.  As nice a ship as the “Doomtreader” had been, he’d never been able to look at it without seeing Vos’ smug little smile.

    Skorr was brought out of his miserable reverie by the sound of the comm chirping.  Bulq must have returned and was now wondering why so many of his starfighters were being blown out of the sky.

    “Don’t answer that, Ravaal.  Not yet.  I need to think.”  Sora Bulq didn’t tolerate failure and Skorr wasn’t about to let himself be held accountable for this mistake without coming up with a plan.

    As he was trying to think, the command droid in the doorway spoke out.  Skorr had been so focused on the battle that he hadn’t even heard it clanking up the stairs.  “Commander, one of our STAP patrols reports that enemy gunships have been spotted inside the city.”

    “What?” Skorr roarded.

    “Commander, one our STAP patrols reports that enemy gunships have been spotted inside the city,” the droid repeated in exactly the same tone as its first report.

    Skorr’s vision was tunneling in as he turned towards Ravaal again.  All he wanted right then was to bring his hand up and crush the stupid Koorivar’s wind pipe with the Force.  “This is your fault, Major!  Didn’t you check the sensors before dropping the shield?”

    Ravaal’s dark skin had gone as close to pale as possible.  “Of course, sir.  They were blank.  No enemies.  Nothing.”

    “Then why the hell are there enemy ships in my city?”

    “I, I don’t know, Commander.  They must have…  I don’t know.”

    “You don’t seem to know much, do you, Major?”

    Ravaal simply shook his head, apparently hoping that if he remained silent, Skorr would forget he existed.  For now, Skorr decided to grant him this wish.  The Koorivar was a distraction, and he needed to think.  Without the fighters, what do I have left?  There were the STAPs, but the light patrol craft didn’t stand much of a chance against Republic gunships.  He also had several tanks and a lot of battle droids.  I’ll send them out in a search pattern and—”

    “Lorda Skorr.”  He turned towards the voice of one of the Morgukai clones.  The four of them had been standing at attention like statues at either side of the door.

    “What, Clone?”  Between this clone’s demand for his attention, Ravaal’s stammering, the droid’s monotonous updates and that incessant chirping of the comm, Skorr was ready to be done with the lot of them.

    “We have patrols with heavy weapons out in city, Lorda.  Mebbe we use droidies to lead bad guys into trap, eh?”  The clone had a broad smile on his flat face as he proposed his idea.  Skorr hadn’t known the flash-grown warriors were capable of such creative thinking, let alone that they had a sense of humor.  Right now, though, both qualities were exactly what he needed.

    “Yes, that’s exactly what we’ll do.  What was your name again, warrior?”

    “Ogdai, Lorda Skorr.”

    “Well then, congratulations, Ogdai.  You’re my new major.  Ravaal, you’re relieved of your rank.  Keep monitoring the comms, but you can consider yourself a private.”  Skorr smiled, suddenly feeling a lot better.  “Now, let’s kill some clones.”

The final sub-chapter in Chapter 3 of containment.  Its a bit on the long side, and features both a Maze POV and another one from Skorr.

Thanks for reading so far.  The next chapter finally gets to some much-anticipated action.

First: Prologue
Previous: Chapter 3c
Next: Chapter 4a
© 2015 - 2024 zang-zip
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Crimson-Mando's avatar
Poor Ravaal, he shouldn't be blamed for the troops' smart thinking. I also find it hilarious that Dooku mocked Skorr, and I also noticed that Skorr seems to be what Kylo Ren should have been. Should I expect a Clones vs. Clones in the next chapter? Great work yet again, I'll check out Chapter 4 in a little bit.