The Battle of Ryloth

[5ame_heart]

The role of the 501st in the liberation of Ryloth has been mostly one of orbital support, but Captain Rex has his eye on the boys from Domino Squad.  He's assigned Echo and Fives to the 91st Mobile Reconnaissance Corps for the operation.

According to Rex, his reasoning is that as neither Fives or Echo can pilot worth a damn, they'd better make themselves useful in the ground assault. Echo is optimistically convinced this attachment to an elite Recon Unit is serving as field training for eventual promotion to ARC-Troopers. As Rex has been friendly with them since Rishi and has continually expressed his respect for them as soldiers, Fives doesn't have a reason to disagree.

A major difference between the 91st and the 501st is that the men of the 91st like and respect their Jedi General with the sort of fondness and respect that comes with reliable, understandable and well thought out plans - General Windu seems to like and respect them back, to the extent of their lives as equal to his own, and as highly as they value each other. Skywalker is the same, of course, but the 501st are generally of the opinion that a healthy culture of talking back is a key part of letting your General exactly what you think of showy recklessness.

But one way they match, of course, is that all plans are lucky if they last five minutes' contact with the enemy.

The 91st are engaged with the droid army in the approach to the capital city of Lessu. Ryloth is all mesas and gorges around here; it's hot, much drier than the jungles where they staged earlier engagements, and the ground has a bad habit of crumbling under one's feet - especially when hit by stray blaster bolts.

Fives is right by Echo's side one second, and the next he finds himself slipping perilously down a near vertical face into a gorge, sandy rocks racing past him to the sound of his name being yelled by his brother above. He shouts in annoyance and in shock, and then when his foot makes contact with a rock a few feet down, with pain. 

The rocky nature of this planet acts to his advantage, Fives realises. He's sliding rather than falling, and is able to holster his blaster in time to grab another rock, which jerks his shoulder violently but stops his descent before his fingers slip and he falls again. The Force obviously has plans for him because he's able to combine what purchase he can get with what obstructions there are to turn a death fall into a painful tumble into shadow.

Eventually Fives lands hard on his feet at the bottom of a crevasse deep enough that the fighting above is only distant flashes of light, and next to the less fortunate body of a trooper who turns out to be CT-89-2874 - Fives doesn't know him and so doesn't know what his name was.

He stands up slowly, his legs screaming from the landing, his headache informing him that he may have hit that part of him on the way down. His armor is more than scratched - some of his plates have broken in clear shards, and he's entirely lost one of his  He keys his wrist comm.

"Echo? Sarge? Anyone?"

But there's no signal. And there's no reason to come look for him either, so as far as Echo and the others is concerned, CT-27-5555 is one more casualty of the Battle for Ryloth.

He leans against the rocky wall, and considers his options. 

And that's when he hears something.

Comments

[for_everyone]

"They're not coming up," she agrees, quietly.

And as she speaks, she moves her hands from the ground and the canyon wall, picking up the rifle again. She takes a step back, and gives Fives a nod.

[5ame_heart]

Fives checks his own pistol is loose in its holster and grabs the vibrosword in both hands, shoving it down between the plastoid and the rock. With a foot against the canyon wall, he heaves it away, pushing away the dirt heaped against it from the outside.

Inside is quiet, but the dug out tunnel has deep scores and gorges along the walls - the lines of mechanical diggers and durasteel scrapers, and the floor is scattered with drag marks and droid footprints.

Fives stands for a second, sword up, and then lowers it gently.

He turns back to Hera after a moment's thought:

"Stay here or some with?"

Whatever makes her feel safer.

[for_everyone]

An actual gutkurr's burrow is narrower than one might think, as despite their size, the plated sections of their body could fold into one another. Which means that, even without the dead giveaway of scraping and droid footprints, this one was obviously modified to become something else.

All of this comforts Hera - as somehow, it seems less scary than crawling into a normal gutkurr's den.

She looks back up to him, and says, "It's better not to be alone."

[5ame_heart]

He smiles, knowing full well she can't see that expression, and she's come all this way with a usually faceless alien leading the way. He appreciates the trust.

"Come on, then," he says, hauling his sword up. "Let's go see what the clankers are up to."

[for_everyone]

Hera settles the blaster between her hands, and follows Fives down the slope into the carved out burrow.

As they first enter, she doesn't see any source of light ahead at first - there's only the bright sunlight behind them, that climbs higher and touches less as they go deeper. She knows gutkurrs don't need light, and maybe droids don't, either. She hadn't brought any kind of light - even if she were desperate enough to hunt at night, she'd only do so by moonlight.

Walking into the dark with a blaster and possible gutkurrs inside only makes Hera more uneasy, but she knows it means she'll just have to listen harder, and so she tries to focus on this instead.

[5ame_heart]

Fives comes to her aid with that - when the dark gets too much he switches on the light on his helmet. One broken with the fall, so it's a half, flickering light, but it at least makes things visible.

But he also draws quiet, his steps slow and careful as they head down and he listens.

There is a low hum of electricity, which wouldn't be out of place in any base usually, but there's also no obvious powered devices. Which suggests he's hearing something further away, and loud.

[for_everyone]

Hera draws closer to follow the light. The tunnel is wide enough for both of them to walk comfortably down it, and Hera can still make out the scrape marks and droid footprints once Fives' light is on. But she hopes the droids didn't build something that's about to collapse in on them.

Sound in the tunnel has a funny quality, though one Hera's used to, having also lived in them. Everything seems louder, from the scrape of Fives' boots and her own shoes, to any soft tumble of rock or soil. Each little sound is like a pinprick in the dark.

And so it stands out when there's a sound that's longer, that like their footsteps feels deliberate.

[5ame_heart]

Eventually Fives draws to a stop - the darkness ahead of his light stops retreating at the same rate as something begins to loom ahead of them. He adjusts his grip on his sword to rest against his shoulder and steps forward even slower, drawing close to another makeshift door.

The electrical sounds are greater now, and he can here the unmistakable chatter of the B1s, combined with the lower pitch of a Tactical droid, though the words can't quite be made out.

[for_everyone]

Hera steps sideways, toward the right wall of the tunnel. While she could do this quickly outside, her steps are slower now, as she tries to keep her footsteps as quiet as possible.

She holds her rifle up to the makeshift door. Without speaking, she looks over to Fives, as though for instruction.

[5ame_heart]

Fives stands in the middle of the tunnel, his sword in his left hand, his right held towards Hera, as he makes the mental calculations.

He knows what they're going to have to do, but he's not happy with the risk it puts her in.

He points at the rifle, and then at the door. Then he holds out all five fingers on his right hand.
- He tucks his thumb in. four
- He heaves the sword in both hands, the last thing showing on his right hand before he grabs the handle is three fingers.
- He shifts a foot back, extending just index and middle fingers. two.

And then he rocks back onto that back foot and runs at the door.

[for_everyone]

Hera's eyes linger on Fives as he counts down, finally flickering back to the door once he's at two.

And she keeps two things in mind: she'll have to shoot at the droids as quickly as she can to get them out of Fives' way, and she'll have to not hit Fives as she shoots.

So when the door falls, she waits for Fives' movement, and shoots straight from where he had stood a moment ago, firing into the square face of the tactical droid.

[5ame_heart]

The droids have just enough time to say "It's a clone!" before Fives heaves the sword through the first B1. The second droid to rush him has a foot planted directly into its torso and kicked away, and while the third actually manages to punch him in the helmet, he only staggers a little.

He focuses on the tactical droid, swinging a wide arc to get through its neck, until another droid hitting hie from behind makes him stagger again, and drop the vibrosword.

He's not too worried about hand to hand with battle droids, but he hopes Hera can take out a few more.

[for_everyone]

Hera jumps forward, to the edge of the makeshift doorway, giving her a better view of the remaining droids beyond. Her eyes flicker from the fallen vibrosword to the droid behind Fives, and she fires twice toward its chest, before she sweeps her view around the room, watching for movement among the shadows.

She stays in the doorframe, but isn't very hesitant in her fire.

[5ame_heart]

She's still too close for Fives' absolute comfort, but it's very convenient when he can grab a droid and turn it towards her so she can get a decent shot.

His armour is taking a battering from the close quarters combat, and hjim in side it, but with his sword lost he draws his blaster and shoots the last few droids.

The last droi standing, though, he doesn't shoot. He launches himself straight at it and rams it against the wall, holding it by the neck with the hand that isn't holding his pistol at its head.

"What's going on here?" he demands.

(Are battle droids programmed to respond to intimidation? He has no idea.)

[for_everyone]

Hera turns, looking down the way they came for any sign of movement. It's dark, but she doesn't see or hear any stir in the tunnel, other than Fives behind her.

And the droid, which whether or not it could feel fear, still makes a lot of frightened-sounding 'ehnnn' noises at being slammed into a wall.

She glances back, briefly, but tries to keep her attention on the tunnel beyond, just in case.

[5ame_heart]

"Come on," Fives is saying. "I know you're programmed with some self preservation."

The droid's vocaliser splutters in that freakishly organic way they do sometimes. "You'll never stop us, clone."

That's when the stolen commlink in Fives' vambrace bleeps into life, and the voice of another tactical droid speaks up:

"Device activated."

"What?" Fives pulls the B1 back away from the wall inorder to slam it back. "What device?"

[for_everyone]

Hera, however, finally turns from the tunnel beyond, stepping back into the room lowering her blaster, kneeling to the ground instinctively to touch it.

"I can feel it," she murmurs. It's not with any idea of what it is, but she can pick out mechanical vibrations from natural ones.

[5ame_heart]

"I can't disarm it," the droid is saying. "I'm just a B1..."

Fives glares at it, and drops it from the neck to turn to Hera. "Can you locate it?"

The droid scrambles on the floor, finds a blaster and lifts it to point at Fives. Fives shoots it in the head without even looking over.

[for_everyone]

Hera does jump slightly at the sudden burst of blasterfire, but she also quickly answers Fives' question

"I think so, it's -"

She goes quiet again, listening again, trying to guess what makes it feel almost echoing, louder but harder to follow. As she realizes - "- part of it's in the ground. Close to here."

Hera gestures a direction, though with Fives looking at her, she's pointing into the dark.

[5ame_heart]

Fives lifts his head up to shine his helmet lamp down the corridor she's pointing in, and holsters his blaster.

"I feel like I should be telling you to get out of here," he says, before he does anything else. "If I tell you to run, will you be able to, in the dark?"

[for_everyone]

"I can run if I have to," she says, lifting her blaster again.

"Even if I can't see."

[5ame_heart]

"Okay."

He heaves up his sword again, walking in front of her, but close enough that she can lead from behind, his lights illuminating not much, but his helmet is beginning to pick up the sound again. That an a few omnious beeps.

"Think we should make a move, though."

[for_everyone]

Hera steps forward into the dark corridor, her blaster raised in front of her, moving as fast as she can in the cave while trying to keep her steps silent. She hopes she's not imagining the vibrations as growing stronger, though it's not long before she can also hear a faint beeping.

And then a loud, animal groan that makes her freeze in her tracks.

[5ame_heart]

Fives stops, not quite a freez, and takes a very definite step in front of her, his vibrosword up and in front of him, ready.

"Was that one of those things outside?"

The beasts with the armor that blasters couldn't penetrate, who fought a unit of droids ot a near stalemate.

[for_everyone]

"Yes."

It's quiet, but certain. "I think there's just one."

There's no real 'just' about that, but though her voice stays quiet, it's just as certain, like she's made a decision. She's silent for a few seconds, listening for movement, but also taking light steps to the edge of the cave, where she lays down the blaster.

And then, she draws out the knife. "But no one can fight one alone."