The Clone Wars: Containment - Chapter 8a

Chapter 8

Light pulsed sporadically into the room from the windows and the cracks in the ruined front door, casting strange shadows onto Captain Maze and the other clones.  In between flashes from the market’s street lights, Maze thought he could make out the winking of more distant lights from the city as well.

    It was working.  The worm had gotten into the system and in another few moments, the shields would shut down.  All six clones stood stiff and silent, rapt by the flashing lights and the promise of success that they represented.  The flashes seemed to intensify and just as Maze was about to take a cautious step forward, they abruptly stopped.

    He blinked a few times as his visor readjusted to the sudden darkness and fought a childish urge to step out into the street and gaze up at the sky to see if the shield was really gone.  Instead, he followed the plan and keyed for control of one of the surveillance remotes.  Its EM sensor picked up no signs that the dome was up.  Just to be sure, he guided the small, hovering sphere upward and beyond the shield’s maximum altitude.  Rather than meeting an explosive end, the remote continued to ascend safely.  The shield was down.

    Finally, one of the commandos gave in to his curiosity.  “Is that it, sir?  Did it work?” Slab asked.

    “It worked all right,” Maze murmured.  Switching over to the team comm, he repeated the news.  “Shield is down.  I repeat, confirmation that the dome shield is down.”

    Commander Reach replied, a touch of satisfaction creeping into his normally neutral tone, “Roger that.  Patching you through to all GAR forces.”

    Maze noted the new frequency on his HUD and rattled off the code words that he’d memorized for the mission.  “Blue Actual to Red and Green teams.  The nuna is in the cage.  I repeat, the nuna is in the cage.  You’re clear to commence with runs drayfill and welter.”

    The first voice to reply wasn’t the one Maze was expecting.  “Roger that Blue Actual.  This is Red-Two.  Preparing for our run.”  Red-Two was General Hett, and Maze tried not to wonder why he was giving Red Team’s orders instead of General Auset.

    “I advise that Blue Team was unable to complete secondary mission objectives,” Maze added.  It had been a long shot, but the plan had included the hope that Maze’s team would have time to sabotage the perimeter ion guns before the shields went down.  That had gone out the window with the Morgukai’s counter-attacks.  Fortunately, no one had fully expected it to be possible, and Red Team’s fighters were prepared to eliminate the guns on their own to allow Green Team to land the assault forces.

    “Understood.  Stand by for—” Hett’s words were swallowed in a wash of static.  Maze checked the frequency and keyed the comm to reconnect.  It wasn’t working.  Blue Team’s frequency was the only one available again.  His first thought was that the CR-25 had been hit.

    “Azure to Indigo.  Confirm that our comm equipment is still functional.”

    Reach’s voice was back to its usual tight, clipped delivery.  “All boards read green, Azure.  Long range communications are being blocked.  We’re either being jammed or…”

    Maze’s thoughts finished Reach’s sentence for him.  He switched back to the remote he’d sent above the city.  Its feed was filled with static and was unresponsive to controls.  Keying for another, he switched to the EM filter and felt his breath catch at the results.

    The massive, curved shape of the dome was back in place.  How?  Maze thought disbelievingly.  The remote showed that the rest of the city was still pitch black and devoid of all but a few scattered EM fields.  But there was no doubting it.  Somehow the reactor had re-booted and was still shunting power to the shield generator.

    Failsafes built into the grid that we didn’t know about?  Or has someone been on to us from the start?  The different possibilities for how things had gone wrong rushed at Maze.  Stop it, he ordered himself.  Giving in to despair wouldn’t help the situation.  They’d known going in that the mission was a long shot.  Things had been bad from the start.  They were just worse now.  But Maze and his team were still standing, and they still had a job to do.  And he’d come up with contingency plans for a reason.

    Maze could sense nervous tension from the other clones, especially the commandos of Totten Squad.  He was going to need them at peak performance if they stood any chance of salvaging the mission.  Re-focusing their resolve was going to be as important as what came after.

    “Alright lads,” Maze said into the silence.  “Time for Plan B.”  He held up his index finger and pulled up the team comm to address Reach and Heke.  “It didn’t work Blue Team.  The shield is still up.  Time to review our options and choose a contingency plan.  First, let’s have a sit-rep.”

    Heke cut in first.  “The substation is dead.  They must be routing power straight to the generator, because they’re sure as shab not sending any here.  I’m pulling us back to our transport.”

    Maze nodded.  “Acknowledged, Cobalt.  Proceed.  Indigo?”

    “We’re dug in here,” Reach answered.  “All defenses are in place.  We’re picking up images of enemy forces throughout the city.  Looks like they’re marshalling for an assault on our position in the very near future.”

    Maze clicked his teeth together.  That had been the point of the deliberately sloppy evasive maneuvers from the infantry teams after their feints in the city.  It looked like the Separatists were falling for it and were preparing for an all out attack on Commander Reach’s position.  This was one of the main reasons that Maze had hoped it wouldn’t come down to contingency plans.  His next order could mean the difference between life and death for Reach and his men.

    If the Seps were willing to divert so many forces to assault Reach’s position, it would give Maze and Heke’s teams the breathing space they needed to make their move.  “Okay.  Good luck Indigo.  Cobalt, looks like we get to draw straws for the nerf and the bantha,” Maze said, using the respective code words for the reactor and shield generator.

    “We’re closer to both than you are at the moment,” said Heke.  “And I like my chances on the nerf better.  Might have better luck hitting one together than splitting up anyway.”

    Heke was right, Maze knew, but he hated the idea of putting all of their eggs in one basket again.  Then a sudden thought struck him.  Taking the shields out wouldn’t do them much good if they couldn’t guarantee their assault forces could get in.  Red Team’s fighters had started their attack run only to be thwarted when the shields went back up.  They were likely scrambling to re-engage the enemy droid fighters.  If Heke’s team took the shields out, the ion guns would have an easy time cutting down any aircraft that tried to approach.

    Maze didn’t like where that conclusion led him, but his course was suddenly clear.  “Hold that thought, Cobalt.  You’re going to have to assault nerf on your own.  I’ll be taking Azure off to deal with the hawkbat problem.”

    Heke laughed shortly, “Yeah, I had a feeling that’s where you’d end up.  That’s alright.  We’ll make out okay on our own.”

    Maze knew that that was a very optimistic way of looking at the situation.  Heke had maybe a dozen men to assault an entire installation with.  It was another suicide mission.  But his team had managed to get their hands on that mysterious transport, and Maze knew they stood a better chance of getting close to the reactor than any other team with such camouflage.

    “Okay Indigo,” Maze said as he redirected his attention back to the bulk of their forces, “Azure and Cobalt may be out of contact.  You have tactical command of all available forces.”  Maze felt a sudden desire to give the infantry soldiers a way out of their dead end.  “If you think you can break off after the enemy begins their assault, you have permission to do so.”

    Reach’s icy-cool demeanor finally cracked.  “Ha!  I wouldn’t dream of it.  You lot have gotten to have all of the fun so far.  Our turn now.  Besides, we’ve got a few surprises for the Seps that I’d hate to see go to waste.”

    “Roger that,” Maze said.  Reach was a good egg.  Maze resolved to make sure there would be reinforcements to bail him and the others out before it was too late.  “Where do we stand on air assets?”

    Captain Forr, the leader of Teal team that had remained on-board their larty to direct units from the air, popped onto the comm.  “We’re still holed up, avoiding those Predators.  Cyan reports they just finished repairs to their larty and are standing by for orders.  Also, remote feeds show that Azure’s larty is still intact and abandoned near the Sep air base.  Crew appears to be KIA, but I could run replacement crewers and get it back in the air.”

    Now that was welcome news.  One larty wouldn’t have done much good with all of the enemy gunships in the air, but three was a slightly different story.  It also gave Maze an idea.  “Hold position for now.  Cobalt, do you think you could spare your pilot and a few troopers after they drop you off at nerf.  I want that bird in the air ASAP.”

    “I doubt Lock’s going to like it, but we can definitely spare their help,” Heke replied.  “We’ve got wounded that I wasn’t thrilled about leaving behind anyway.  I’ll redirect them as soon as we’re in.  Cobalt, over and out.”

    With that, it was done.  The situation was no less bleak than it had been a few minutes earlier, but now the clones had a plan.  They’d seen through what they needed to do and knew how to carry out their orders.  The final obstacle Maze had to worry about was his battered and weary team.  Spread out among the pottery of the abandoned store, the soldiers stood silent and ready.

    Maze spread his hands out in front of him.  “Okay.  Now’s the time for comments.”  Turning his gaze to Totten’s sergeant, Maze could see the man’s hands bound into tense fists.  “Sergeant?”

    “Yes sir,” said Case.  “I request only that we trade jobs with Cobalt Team.  We’re the better squad for assaulting the reactor.  Totten’s done jobs just like it before.  Back on Jabiim.”

    And look how well that battle turned out, Maze thought.  “Denied, sergeant.  Cobalt’s closer and they’ve got a way inside.  We’ve got more than our work cut out for us with the ion guns.”  The ARC paused to lock T-visors with all five members of his team.  “Any other input?” he asked earnestly.

    The clones were silent.  Totten was standing rigid with the tension at being left out of what they thought was the harder, more prestigious job.  It was a blow to their pride, but as Maze had noted earlier, the men were professionals and they were hardly blind to the reality of the situation.  Meanwhile, Plaz stood rock-solid, his mind clearly focused on the present.

    “Alright then,” Maze said at last.  “Let’s move out Azure.  We’ve got a job to do.”