Chapter 12

Their hideout, secret base or whatever one might call it? It was a warehouse in an abandoned region close to the capital. It can't get any more cliché than this is what was on everyone's mind.

After leaving the restaurant, it didn't take long to meet up with the rest of the team. They were already decked in their armour and weapons with two boxes that contained Sabe's and Freia's equipment on the side.

After changing into their gear, it didn't take long for them to arrive at their destination and Valin decided it would be nice to use this opportunity as a test run for some of his droids. They could easily deal with the enemies but gathering data from real combat in different situations with the exact specifications of the Marines was rare as of now.

A quick call to the ship later, they were transported to their location and ready to receive their orders. Valin took a look at the droids before addressing them, they looked every bit as intimidating as their counterparts from his former life's fiction.

"I want all of you storm this building as the vanguard. If someone retaliates or shoots you, just end them. If they surrender, get information out of them and deal with them afterwards."

"Affirmative." MA-01 replied with few words. It was no surprise, they were designed to be efficient after all. As they were already informed of the details, there were no questions left to be asked.

"As for your squad," Valin addressed Dunn, who was acting as the squad leader during this mission. "I want you to keep a more passive approach this time and prevent anyone from running away or attacking us from the back."

"That's fine with me, I want to see them in action as well." Dunn replied through his helmet.

"Alright, start whenever you are ready, I will keep to the back to gather some data and provide cover fire should it be necessary." Valin stated as they checked their weapons one last time.

He himself didn't wear much armour, as it was more restricting than helpful in his current role. He did however carry a device on himself that would deploy a personal shield around him, if by any chance he would get targeted by enemies and couldn't get into cover or retaliate in time.

In a way he was a living droideka, he chuckled to himself, as they silently approached the side of a wall. Most basic security systems only monitored deliberate openings and guards would stay at those strategic points as well.

The logical conclusion was to just attack a seemingly safe and reinforced spot. Pretty laughable as there were no safe sports if you had the right explosives.

Freia quickly made her way over the wall as the rest kept their distance on the side. She carefully placed a few of them in a square shape before making her way over to the rest, leaving only a slight beeping sound in the background.

Valin, as the only one not wearing a helmet, covered his ears with his hands as the countdown reached its end, and a controlled explosion blasted a hole big enough for them to enter the warehouse.

As previously agreed upon, the ten Marines were the ones to lead the attack. Valin had their first person view on a small data pad he was carrying. The first people that came into view were a few different humanoid species that took a break. Overall there were seven of them and aside from one that was far to shocked to react, all of them began to grab for their weapons.

That part was definitely a mistake as according to their orders, the Marines began to deal with them with frightening precision. One second of blazing rifles later, they continued their swift but controlled march into the enemy base as alarms began to sound in the distance with occasional shouts.

Valin however, stopped inside the room as Brachium stayed back together with him. He made his way over to the left-over criminal that fell on his butt in trepidation.

He had green skin colour different from Mirialans, together with an ape-like snout. Jogging his memory for a moment, he realized the individual in front of him was a Hamadryas, a species known for their lack of a carotid artery and not having the need to blink.

The former was the reason why their throat was not a weak sport as it was for other species in the galaxy. Stopping his thoughts from getting side-tracked again, Valin kneeled in front of him as he took out his dagger from the small of his back.

Brachium meanwhile was vigilantly standing guard on his back, slightly to the side.

"Hello there, since you are the only one left, you will have the honour to answer a few questions of mine." Valin asked in a calm voice, only making the man shiver even further and wet his pants.

Putting the tip of his dagger in front of the man's eyes, he continued. "I don't think I need to remind you what would happen if you were to lie to me, do I?"

The Hamadryas quickly shook his head. The suddenness of the whole situation and the sounds of battle and cries of pain from the back, stopped him from getting any ideas of defiance.

"Wonderful, I already know who you are working for, and I doubt anyone of you are good people here. You are a secret unit to deal with undesirables after all if you want to call it that. So my patience is rather thin and I am sure there are others willing to talk if you don't." Valin put a bit more pressure into his words.

Honestly, he just wanted to make their mission a little easier instead of wasting their time and possibly get discovered by the authorities before they were done. There was never a plan to leave any survivors. As of now their whole group was a big unknown, not even a ghost as they didn't have any appearance in the grand scheme of things. And if things went like he wanted, it would stay like that until the war was close to starting.

"I- I will s- speak!" The criminal stuttered before finding his voice and nearly shouting at the end. He was probably still hopeful to survive this debacle.

"That's good to hear, how many of you are outside of this base at the moment." Valin asked.

The Hamadryas' eyes averted themselves slightly for a moment as they trembled. Valin in return pressed his dagger slightly besides the eye, making him freeze.

"The truth, please."

"Th-th-there a-are three more o-of us outside. I swear it's the truth!" He cried out to the end after he got over his nervous stutter again.

"That wasn't so hard, was it? Now what are they doing outside?" He asked, already knowing the most likely answer.

"The were sent to Grandma Boro's to kidnap the children. The just wanted to make a point, they wouldn't hurt them, I swear!" He exclaimed.

Valin internally scoffed about this. He had seen a lot of people that were the lowest of low lives on Tatooine. The children would have probably ended up as either slaves or dead.

"Where is the information about the others you were targeting?" He asked his last question. It was the only thing left he wanted to know. They wouldn't have any other important information anyway and their objective was to stop their activities until new personnel appeared and warn the other people that might still be targeted.

"It's in the centre of the building, at the top floor. It's where the office of our leader is." He said as Valin put away his dagger and started to walk away. The Hamadryas sighed in relief as they were leaving, not seeing Brachium pointing his rifle at him, ending him with that flash of red light.

"To the centre boss?" Brachium asked.

"Inform the others first and then we'll go. By now they should have dealt with most of them." Valin answered as he looked at his data pad again. First, he sent a message to the ship to transport their three new members up, before those goons would appear.

Afterwards he concentrated on the live feed again. One of his objectives was to observe the droids after all and he was surprised at the scene presented to him.

It seemed for whatever reason, there were combat droids stationed in case they had to fight. Most of them were B1 battle droids, but there were two additional droidekas as well. Valin thought it was a waste, but on the other hand it would have been a waste to just let them collect dust until the war as well.

The reaction of the Marines was swift, and they showed that this number and quality of opponents was far from a challenge for them. As he wanted them to have perfect teamwork, they had three modes of communication. The first two were through voice and hand signs respectively. The last one was instead of radio communication they were linked as one unit and could share their information in real time. The information ranged from visuals, to sounds and others that were gained from the different sensors installed into them.

Shortly, they were every military's wet dream. Six of the Marines dealt with the left over B1 battle droids as four of the Marines dealt with the droidekas.

The first shots at them showed the iconic shields of the Trade Federation's trump card, making them take cover again. All of them quickly put explosives into the grenade launcher at the bottom of their rifle, before one of them took a shot to test the waters.

The shield shimmered slightly before stabilizing again. Seeing how close they were with one shot, the Marine reloaded as they acted simultaneously, peeking out of their cover and shot the explosives at the droidekas, successfully destroying their shield. Afterwards they flawlessly switched back to mode three of their rifles and blasted apart the enemy droids, leaving barely any scrap metal behind.

Valin was very pleased with the work they did so far. Seeing their efficiency, he naturally had to think of another iconic battle droid, that had a high amount of advanced knowledge and experience for combat, just waiting the get downloaded.

Putting the data pad back into a pocket, they made their way to the room in the centre. Aside from the rare criminal trying to hide, which is very much impossible with scanners for heat signatures and more, the base was left empty.

"Have you found the information?" Valin asked and received a nod from Corvus in return as he handed him another data pad. Taking a quick look at it and scanning the contents, he handed it back to Corvus.

"Give those mentioned inside a warning and suggest they leave or get into another business."

"I will do it right away, just one moment, boss." He replied.

"The base is cleared. Not survivors left. No objects of interest found." MA-01 appeared behind them and made his report.

"Well done, contact the ship and go back. We will follow shortly after." Valin replied.

"Affirmative." MA-01 answered as shortly later all the Marines were gone in a flash of light.

"Alright, prepare to leave, we will wait for the others to come back a few buildings away. They are yours Sabe." Valin instructed. While it was underwhelming, it was good experience to see that they had proper backup in form of droids should they ever need it.

Sabe only gave a thumbs up with a wicked smile.

-o-

"Ah what a pain in the ass, they were already gone. Do we need to search for them now?" One of three humans said as he stepped down from the shuttle, they arrived in.

"I don't get it, why would we need to go after them. Wasn't it our goal to make them leave in the first place?" Another one replied.

"I don't think you remember how vindictive our boss can be." A third voice interjected as they all snickered.

They fun was only short-lived however, as projectiles pierced through their hearts in short succession, before they were finished off with a bullet to the head.