An Old Enemy

Metal and Tech grabbed the crate, and moved it to the CR90 Corvette. After two hours, every set of Phase II armor was transported to the corvettes. Now, all they had to do was distribute the armors, and the 303rd would be ready for the next battle.

"Dageer, if the loading is over, get the corvettes out of there, the 327th needs to dock."

"Yes, sir."

Dageer looked through a window, and saw that another group of Republic ships had come out of hyperspace.

"Lieutenant, get everyone back to the ships, and return to the fleet. The 327th need this space."

In a few minutes, all the 303rd clones were back in the corvettes. With almost no shaking, the ships took off from the moon surface, and joined General Di's fleet just in time to catch a transmission Commander Keeli sent to Dageer.

"Dageer, we received relevant information about our next mission. I've sent it to your datapad. I also sent the jump coordinates to your ship's computer. We will make the jump in ninety seconds."

"Yes, sir."

Commander Keeli ended the transmission straight away. Dageer first warned the pilot to prepare to jump, and then looked at the info he received.

"Sixty seconds."

"Thirty seconds."

"Ten... nine... eight..."

"Sir, there us a ship coming out from hyperspace!"

"What?"

The mechanic voice was in the middle of the countdown when Brain warned Dageer. A slim ship, about half the size of the CR90 Corvette came out of hyperspace dangerously close to Hell Squad's ship.

"Five... four..."

"Evasive maneuvers! Evasive maneuvers now!"

However, it was too late. Even before Dageer had finished yelling, the cannons of the unknown ship had already fired.

"Two... one..."

The whole ship swayed, and clones and objects were thrown from one side to the other. As Dageer fell to the ground, he saw the pilot hit the control panel, and push the hyperspace lever.

"Coordinates altered, initiating jump."

The space around them distorted, and became white and blue lines. Dageer got up and went to the control panel.

"Falco, how are you doing there?"

"I bit dizzy, sir, but all right."

"Do you where in the galaxy we are going?"

"No, sir. The coordinates were altered in the last second. Until we are out of hyperspace, there is no way to pinpoint our location. But I can get us out of hyperspace as soon as you want."

"Wait. First, scan the ship. Find out what is damaged. I don't want us getting out of hyperspace only to find out that the ship will leave us dead in the space."

"Yes, sir. It will need a few minutes."

Seeing Falco and the co-pilots get back to their seats, and start scanning the corvette, Dageer went to find Brain.

He found him, Tech and Cell putting some tools that went flying back in their places.

"Brain. You saw the ship first. Who the hell was that?"

"I don't know, sir. It wasn't like any ship I have ever seen."

"Tech? Cell?"

Both troopers shook their heads. Dageer was also lost. Who would attack a Republic fleet? The answer was obvious: the Separatist. But why would they use a single ship? That was suicide. Still, Dageer didn't believe that the ship attacking right when they were jumping to hyperspace was a simple coincidence. But there was another thing bothering Dageer. Was Hell Squad's ship the target, or was it just another coincidence?

------------------------

At one moment General Di's fleet was there, the other it wasn't. Only Hiigi's ship was left in the space.

Inside the cockpit, Hiigi sat at the captain's chair as immobile as a statue. Then, his mouth opened, like he was about to scream, but no sound came out. He smashed his fist at the control panel, and it passed straight through it, until it was elbow deep in the control panel.

"Alarm! Alarm! Thermal signature 24.870 meters and approaching."

Hiigi looked up, and saw two missiles coming from the moon below. Unperturbed, he pulled a lever, and his ship disappeared in hyperspace.

-----------------------

"Damage report is ready, sir."

"Tell me."

"Engines 2 and 3 are dead. Engine 4 is slightly damaged, but it's still working. Compartments A12 to B2 have all suffered some kind of damage. And we also lost our long-distance transmitter."

"Any good news?"

"The hyperdrive is still working, and we probably have enough fuel for another jump or two, no matter where in the galaxy we went. Also, the scanners are still up, and so are the defensive systems."

"What about supplies?"

"That is the bad part. Since we were moving the Phase II armors, most of the supplies were moved to The Sincerity for the sake of storage. We might have enough for four days, or a week if we split it."

"Let's hope we can find supplies here, wherever here is. Falco, take us out of hyperspace."

"Yes, sir. Everyone, brace yourselves. Forcefully getting out of lightspeed can be a little bumpy."

Falco couldn't be more right. Even with his warning, when the corvette got out of the hyperspace, most of the clones almost fell, and stuff went flying again.

"What are our coordinates?"

"Just a minute, sir... we are in Sector B, Olinda System."

"Any planets or settlements near?"

"Yes. Iktotch. It is small, but our archives say it should be habitable."

"Land on it. We will try to find the necessary supplies, and if possible, fix the transmitter."

"Yes, sir."

Dageer flipped through his datapad, trying to find out more information about Iktotch, but all he got was that it was a rocky planet. There were no intelligent beings, although lifeforms were abundant.

But since there were animals, the clones would be able to at least get the supplies they needed. Hopefully, they would be able to fix the transmitter, or else they would have to travel all the way to the next Republic planet.

...

Falco landed the CR90 Corvette on a rocky plateau. Just as they had expected, life flourished in Iktotch, but since the planet was so small and distant from everything, no race was interested in colonizing it.

Dageer got out of the corvette, with his helmet on, just in case the air wasn't breathable, but it was. Just near where they landed, a herd of horned creatures was grazing.

"Lieutenant, start looking for the supplies we need. Hell Squad, let's have a look around, see what we can find."

"I am not sure there is much to be found. Our scanners detect nothing but this animals. There is a slight bigger signal to the west, but it is probably just more of them."

"We have nothing to lose. It is going to take some time to get the supplies we need, so let's go to the west. I have a feeling there is more to this planet than we think."

"Uhmmm... all right."