***Aliso***
***Plains Outside of Aliso City***
A cool afternoon breeze played with the loose edges of Kul’s cloak as he tried to place himself distant from his immediate surroundings. With legs crossed in traditional K’thri style, and eyes closed, he instead focused solely on the vibrant echoes of the Force as it embraced the plains around him. He was still close to the main city in case he was given a mission, but during his downtime often found himself enjoying the solitude with his faithful Massiffs. They were currently lounging about, but every so often would poke and prod at each other when bored. The bare ecology of Aliso left much to be desired in terms of hunting. Regardless, Kul still found this time to bond with his pets to be amicable and good reinforcement for his training.
Trying to ignore the incessant snapping of fabric being pulled too and fro, Kul finally sighed and opened his eyes. His pets noticed the agitation riding at the edge of his thoughts and glanced over. He waved a reassuring hand.
*Assurance. Follow. We return.*
Kul rose to his feet and threw his hood back over his horns. He noticed one of his Massiffs perk up with his short ears prickling and turn towards Aliso City. Thinking they were excited to return to the hustle and bustle of Willing at work, the Zabrak chuckled inwardly.
*Patience. We return now.*
Shar’kala, the female, came up to him and nudged at his legs.
*Correction. Warning. Scent of smoke. Direction of masters’ caves.*
The Massiffs had never really understood the term “building,” instead labeling them all as caves. They also had no terms for the many races of the galaxy, instead referring to them as masters, while emphasizing his own role as Master through their mental speech patterns. Their nned to simplify most things made more complex statements difficult, but emotions worked just as well, most times.
Kul shifted his gaze to Aliso City, and saw that his pet was indeed correct. The city was burning. Or at least part of it. He thought he could hear the sound of rumbling coming from that direction, as well. He was not sure exactly what the cause was, but the scale seemed to indicate an attack of sometime. He quickly snatched up his gear he’d set to the side and began running towards his waiting Delta-class T-3c shuttle.
“Shar’kala, Shor’kir, follow.”
Within the folds of his paraphernalia, a sharp beeping was emanating with the vigor, and annoying habit, of a klaxon. Still moving, Kul struggled with the mess of items until he pulled out his comlink and activated it.
“Drol here.”
“Ah, lord Drol. We’ve been trying to reach you. The Dread Lord has called for full mobilization of Plagueis’ forces. Aliso City is under attack from a droid army of unknown origin.”
“Lieutenant Grifen? I am pleased to see the attack has not claimed you. Tell HQ I’m on my way.”
“Thank you milord. I was hoping to find you alive and well. Actually, we have a set of coordinates ready for you. Apparently, the Quaestor of Ajunta Pall is in need of assistance.”
Kul frowned.
“Uscot? Copy that, send me the coords and I’ll head over.”
“Affirmative, Commander. Good luck.”
As Kul arrived at his shuttle, he huffed loudly.
“This battle won’t be decided by luck.”
***Aliso***
***Aliso City***
Another droid fell its chest sizzling as it melted away. Laren quickly shifted his aim, never slowing, in order to maximize his firing rate. His mind clocked slightly on overdrive with the aid of adrenaline, his eyes swiftly determined friend or foe and he pulled the trigger accordingly. What had once been a strong front holding the line had deteriorated into madness as droids emerged from places behind the defensive lines. His casualties had shot up since then, with only a handful of squads operating at effective levels. What wounded they could grab they had stashed within a small complex near one of the intersections of the street, along with a multitude of civilians. He’d received word that reinforcements were inbound, but with the seemingly never-ending tide of droids threatening to wash them all away, he wasn’t sure it would matter.
Another eruption pelted his group with shrapnel and dust, forcing them down. One of the buildings down the street suddenly began to creak. A rumbling shook the ground, and finally the building gave way and tumbled down. The screams of the civilians left inside pierced the air even as the raucous scene threatened to deafen them all. Laren turned away, remembering his focus was on the task at hand. He threw a few rounds of hot plasma in the general direction of the droids, but the thick dust had yet to settle and his vision was too impaired to pick a specific target.
*How had it come to this? Surprised by an army of relics from a time long past. How did they slip past our sensors and defenses?*
He was pulled out of his reverie when a hand clasped itself on his shoulder. He turned to find a soldier standing at attention, having removed his hand and snapped it to salute.
“Quaestor, we have a problem!”
The soldier was clearly trying not to panic, but having a hard time fighting the emotion. The mercenary waved the man down behind cover.
“Down man, do you want to die?! Now spit it out, what’s the problem?”
The soldier never had time to respond as a spray of bolts peppered the area from the direction the building had gone down. One of the bolts struck his back and the soldier fell dead. A few of the more seasoned soldiers saw the new threat and began to engage. Laren’s eyes grew wide as he realized the new threat was another wave of droids came clambering out from below the building’s foundation. So that was it! They were using tunnels under the city. But droids did not dig of their own accord, so who commanded them to? Those were thoughts better left to a more luxurious moment, however. Laren quickly sprinted, bent over to lessen the chance of the crossfire clipping him, and joined the new defense. He quickly gazed over their makeshift barrier of debris and enemy corpses (and some allied here and there, gazing pleadingly for vengeance with their open-eyed stares) and counted as many as he could in a short span.
*One...five...yep. There’s a kriffton.*
With the lines buckling on all sides, Laren needed to make a decision: hold until help arrived, or try and move to a more established defense. He could not be certain there was a more established defense, though. The assault had surprised the entire Plagueis military. What hope was left was dwindling with the defender’s numbers.
The dull hum of a shuttle’s boosters roared overhead. Laren looked up to see a shadow cross over the thinning dust cloud. What appeared to be a black shuttle opened its rear hatch, and a squad of jump troopers began to rocket down, raining blaster fire into the droids’ advancing lines. The shuttle itself began to rotate and its laser cannons opened fire, obliterating the frontline of droids advancing from the collapsed building. It passed over Laren’s position while continuously pelting what droids it could find. It began to lower and on the ramp Laren could make out a familiar form. Kul dropped from the hatch and landed on bent knees. He surveyed the wreckage around him while pulling his lightsaber from its clip and approaching the Quaestor.
“Fine mess, you’ve made here, Uscot.”
“When they told me they were sending reinforcements, I didn’t think they meant trash cleanup. Best get to work then.”
Kul huffed and activated his saber. Without waiting for Laren he leaped over the barricade and waded into the debris, slicing anything metallic that came near him. The shuttle passed over again, and this time two medium sized furballs came charging out quickly trying to catch up with their Master. They hit the ground rolling, but fixed themselves and dove for the combat. Using their weight they could crash into the droids’ knee joints and topple them over, then remove their weapons by snatching them with jaws. The squad of troopers that arrived with Kul formed up and finished off ones that had fallen or picked off any from their shuffling formation. Laren gave out orders to his remaining squads, and they reformed on the flanks to strengthen the line. Not as many droids were left in the open street, so the original attackers must have broken off from a different emergence tunnel and made their way here originally. Their main focus would be to keep that new tunnel contained.
Sweeping his saber side to side, Kul deflected bolts with his saber as he advanced. The droids had realized their predicament now, and so they had begun to retreat slightly to get behind cover. Behind their lines, Kul noticed a small insect-like creature hopping about. As his men pushed forward, it suddenly dived in the tunnel. It flapped some kind of translucent wings and had a bulbous head that stuck out weightily. Kul thought he knew the creature, but it would have been impossible for one to be here on Aliso of all places. Or was it? The Confederacy of Independent Systems had utilized this planet for some time. It wasn’t too far of a stretch to imagine they had brought others. But for what purpose?
“Uscot. Did you see that?”
“See what, Drol? The teeming scores of droids I’ve been dealing with for the past hour or so?”
“No...it was...A Geonosian, I think.”
Laren paused at that, a perplexed look shadowing his face.
“A Geonosian? They’re extinct aren’t they? Killed off by the Empire.”
Kul pointed his left hand towards the tunnel entrance.
“Apparently not all of them. They must be the one’s controlling the droids. I just don’t know why.”
Laren blasted a droid off to the side as it emerged from a building. Then tossed a thermal detonator in when a few more popped their heads out. Their group pushed on and eventually reached the tunnel itself. Kul and Laren both peered into the gaping hole before glancing at one another. Laren shook his head as a wide grin began to spread across Kul’s face.
“Ohhhh no. I don’t need mind reading powers to know what you’re thinking, Drol. I am not going down there until we have a full grasp of the situation. We need to report to HQ and let them know what we’ve found, there are civilians and wounded left to escort…”
“Like that’s stopped you before, Uscot. Your caring attitude isn’t exactly one of your strong points. Besides, I didn’t give you a choice in the matter really.”
With that Kul pushed the Pantoran into the hole. As a string of life-threatening curses followed him down, Kul and his Massiffs joined him.