Teroch Squad--Zero Hour (RepCom Fanfic) Part 1

Here's Part One of Teroch Squad.

This one follows Fi's squad on Geonosis, in the first Hour of the war. I definitely think its an improvement over the last one, both in length (this first part is over twice as long as the last one) and in quality, but feedback of all sorts is appreciated.

Fi stood on the edge of the larty as it roared over the battlefield. He peered out, watching a AT-TE get torn apart by a trio of Hellfire tanks, then saw them shredded by the vengeful lasers of another gunship.

“Woah. This is nothing like the sims. The Kaminoans never had anything this size.”

Tal looked over at him. “They weren’t trying to wipe us out, either. Just "weed out the weak". These Seppie chakaare’s are. But from what I see, we’re pushing them back. Droids may not be surprised, but their wet officers can be, and its showing.”

Fi lifted his Deece, sniper attachment on. “Well, those poor white jobs need all the help they can get.” The larty slowed to 40 kilometers an hour to turn, and Fi blew away a Geonosian manning a sonic turret that was pinning down a squad of troopers.

He nodded appreciatively. “I tell you, that’s how it’s done. That wacko Sev from Vau’s batch may think he’s hot stuff, but he’s never shot next to me. I’d give him a run for his creds. If we had any.”

Kyram shook his head. “Vau’s men all give me the creeps. So….serious. They need to lighten up a bit. Say, Fi, when we get back to barracks, why don’t you and I find a few of their rooms and redecorate them a bit?”

Fi laughed. “Sounds good, vod.” He turned to Jaster. “Sarge, we got a mission yet?”

Jaster shook his head. “Nope. If you think the Seps are confused, our “Generals” are even worse. These Jedi have no idea how to fight a war.”

“Well, that gives us free reign, doesn’t it? We can just pick a spot, take out a group of droids?” Fi gestured towards the raging battle below. “I bet some of those troopers could use some help.”

Jaster thought for a moment, then nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” He switched his channel to the pilot’s. “Pilot! Take us down behind those trenches. We’re going to hit them from there.”

“Well, since you asked nicely…” The gunship’s nose dipped down, and it started losing altitude. Within moments, the larty was hovering a half-meter above Geonosis’s dusty soil, and Teroch squad was on the ground, real ground, for the first time in their short lives.

“And I just polished my boots, too.” Fi detached his sniper scope. “Guess I won’t be needing this any time soon.”

Jaster shoved him forward. “No, you won’t. Now get moving—every second we waste is a second those troopers are under fire.”

The squad moved towards the trenches at a run. Once they neared the entrance, they slowed, raising their rifles. Tal was first in. “All quiet. I was expecting a welcome party.”

“Guess the clankers are too busy with those white jobs to notice a drop-off in their back yard.” Kyram shrugged. “Their mistake.”

They reached a fork, where the trenches split into two separate paths. “Fi, Tal, you take right. Kyram and I will take left. Go.” Jaster raised his Deece and headed deeper into the trenches, followed by Kyram.

Fi looked at Tal, shrugged, a motion made extra noticeable by their armor, and followed suit.

It wasn’t until they got fairly deep into the trenches that they encountered any resistance. A pair of droids swung out from behind two walls, and another pair straightened from behind a crate. They immediately opened fire. 

“Osik!” Kyram pulled out a grenade while Fi toggled his com, flinching involuntarily at an especially close laser round. “Sarge, we’re taking fire from some droids.” He looked towards Tal, who was holding an EMP grenade. Fi shook his head—the blast might effect them, too, at this range.

“Fi, we’re under fire too. Looks like they figured out we were here, and decided to ambush us. You’re on your own, vod. Sorry.”

“Sure thing, Jaster. We were getting bored of this party anyways.” Tal was now holding a thermal det, and Fi gave him a thumbs up. Tal tossed it around the corner blindly, not that it would matter. Crates wouldn’t do anything to protect from a thermal det.

It exploded, and a head bounced off the wall and landed at Fi’s feet. He stared at it, then scooped it up and tossed it to Tal. “You first kill, brother.”

“Doesn’t count unless it was breathing before I got to it. This is just scrap to scrap.”

“Point taken. Lets move.” A few turns and 20 odd yards away, they ran into another ambush, this one timed less accurately—Fi ran a droid down before he even realized it was there, then fried another before it got a shot off, and it fell onto its back, blindly sending a bolt into the air.

Tal looked at Fi, then moved forward, slowly peaking his head around the corner. He pulled back quickly, barely avoiding a blaster round nearly as big as his head.

“Supers. Two of them. Regular clankers behind them.”

“Did you get a count?”

“I was trying to avoid getting my shabla head blown off, if you didn’t notice.” He rapidly assembled the anti-armor attachment. “On three.” Fi nodded.

On two he stuck his rifle around the corner, spraying wildly and hoping that return fire didn’t trash his Deece.  He pulled it back, and Tal popped out, firing the anti-armor round and pulling back as the nearest SBD had its legs blown off.

Fi rapidly pulled out an endoscope, patching the feed to Tals HUD. He nearly dropped the ‘scope in surprise.

Tal swore. “Bloody…is that thing still moving?”

“I think so. It lost its friggin’ legs, and its still up.” He stood, leaning around the corner, exposing just enough of himself to fire in controlled bursts. He pulled back, and Tal took his place, dropping the super for good this time, and ducking as the second returned fire.

Fi tapped Tal’s shoulder. “Toss another det, and cover me. I’m taking him down.”

“Are you out of your mind? For real this time?”

“Maybe. Just throw the det, will you?” Tal shook his head, but pulled the det out anyways. He moved in from of Fi, then sidearmed the grenade off of the wall, waited for the explosion, then stepped out into the trench and opened fire.

Fi sprinted past him, straight for the super. It had been thrown against the wall, and was struggling to retain its footing and return fire. Behind it were five battle droids, four firing at Tal, another smoking, and as Fi watched, a second joined it. One of the remaining droids started to shift its fire to Fi, who unloaded rounds towards it from his hip. It lost an arm and a leg, but unlike the super, didn’t get up.

Fi was now within arms reach of the SBD, who took advantage of this, and swung a massive arm at him. Fi ducked, dropped his Deece, and, ejecting his gauntlet vibroblade, plunged it into the vulnerable underarm area of the super, severing wires and cables. The arm went limp, and Fi rammed the blade into the crack where its sunken head met its chest, prying it open. He drew his sidearm and shoved it in the opening, firing into its interior as fast as he could. It suddenly fell, nearly taking Fi down with it, and began to twitch. Fi quickly blew the head off of the last remaining droid, then picked up his Deece and unloaded the rest of the clip into the twitching super. It stopped, and only then did Fi realize his hands were shaking.

Tal walked up behind him and smacked his backplate. “You are one gutsy di’kut, brother.  I don’t know if I want to hug you or shoot you. Nice job though. Bet that’ll be all over the the Implacable by the time we get back.”

Jaster came around the corner ahead of them. “What’d you do now, Fi?”

Tal shook his head. “He took on a shabla super with his blade and sidearm. Won too.”

Jaster just stared at him. Kyram burst out laughing. “Fi, brother, that is the dumbest thing you’ve possibly ever done. I’ll remember that for the rest of my friggin’ life.” He laughed again.

Fi shoved past them. “Alright, lets get going—the bunkers are just ahead, and they’re still firing on those troopers.”

Jaster nodded, “Agreed, lets move out. Tal, you’re upfront with me, Kyram, Fi, you watch our backs in case the clankers decide to ambush us again.” The squad fell in. Fi raised his rifle and externally was focused on the mission, but internally was berating himself for taking such a risk. If he’d been killed, his brothers would have been a man down—they might have all gotten killed. Maybe they’d need a medic, and he, their best one, wouldn’t be around. Or even if they’d just needed another rifle—

Kyram accidently bumped into him. “Sorry, Fi. My bad.”

“Its fine.” He shook his head—he had to focus. Jaster held up his arm. “Here’s the entrance to the bunker. Kyram, you place the charge, Tal, Fi, take the left side of the door, toss an EMP in. I’ll take right.”

The squad quickly fell about their tasks. Seconds later, the door was open and Fi lobbed the EMP in, quickly pulling back behind the doorframe. It went off, and he and Jaster led the squad in, firing on the twitching droids they saw, then securing the corners of the room.

“Clear left.”

“Clear right.”

“All clear.” Kyram crushed the head of a fallen droid. “Too easy." He looked down at the troopers further down the hill, taking cover behind the wreckage several gutted tanks. They slowly emerged, wondering at the lack of incoming fire.

Tal waved, and they rushed forward, instinctively taking cover, securing ground for their fellow troopers, who moved up further and repeated the process.

When they reached the top, a slightly out of breath trooper in the green livery of a sergeant nodded at the squad. “Thanks for that one, we owe you. Those blasted clankers had us completely pinned down. We were preparing a charge, but it would have gotten a lot of us killed.”

Jaster nodded. “Glad we could help, Sergeant. What was your objective?”

The Sergeant just shook his head. “Are you kidding me? Objective? We just got dropped off and told to take this hill. Its not remotely strategic—the droids could have been largely taken out with a few strafing runs by the very gunships we got dropped off by. Heck, we could have taken it better from the rear, but that’s not what our Generals wanted. Too many bloody holodramas, with courageous charges up enemy occupied hills.”

Jaster nodded again. “We weren’t even given orders. We just decided to come down and help.”

“Well, I’m glad you did. What do we do next?”

“We call for extraction, and if we don’t get orders, we’ll do it again, help where we can. If you want to do the same, be my guest.”

“Sounds like a better plan than I’ve seen since we shipped out.”

“Good.” Jaster turned away, and opened a channel to their larty. “Hey, pilot!”

“Yeah, what is it? I’m kinda busy here….”

“We need extraction, soon as you can. Grab some pals, we got around twenty troopers waiting too.”

“Aww, you’re making friends? How cute…”

“Just get us off the ground, will you?”

“Hold your aiwas. Wait one….alright, I’m clear. That friggin’ fighter was on my back for over a minute straight. Alright, on our way to pick your shiny backsides up. Be there in sixty.”

Just over a minute later, three gunships touched down outside the bunker. “Your late. That was sixty-five.” The squad jumped into the hovering gunship, and it took off, followed by the others.

“Yeah, well, we swung back buy Kamino to pick up your blanket and some tissues. For such big boys, you whine an awful lot.”

Fi cut in. “Only when we got something to whine about. No orders and bad drivers tend to make us cranky.”

“Oh, so I’m a bad driver now, huh? Lets see how bad I am when I accidently tip you out the side when I’m evading missile fire, why don’t we, shiny boy.”

“Aw, you talk tough, but outside your glorified hoverbus, you’d be crying like a baby nerf without his mummy. Just be glad you do have us shiny boys, or you’d actually have to kill things with blasters and vibroblades, up close and personal, not with fancy cannons from a couple hundred meters away.”

“You make it sound so easy. You Arsee’s just have to point and shoot, and not hang your ugly gobs out in the open for too long. You’ve never had to pilot a gunship at over 600 with half a squadron of fighters behind you, dodging lasers and rockets, as well as firing back at the same time.”

Fi just laughed. “And you make our job sound like a joke. Ever tried to set a detonator with lasers hitting inches from you, while your hands are shaking because you’ve only gotten four hours of sleep in the last two days, had one square meal in over 24 hours, and haven’t taken a leak on over 8, and your body is pumping adrenaline?  Ever tried that?”

Tal butted in. “That’s enough you two. You’re bickering like a pair of Jawas. So cut it out, you’re giving me a shabla headache.”

Fi fell silent, but that didn’t stop him from glaring at the pilot’s cabin. Jaster let his head bang back onto the bulkhead. This is going to be a long flight.

Thats it for now, I've got more I plan on doing, but not entirely sure where I'm going to take it. So enjoy this, and I'll post more as soon as possible.