4. Missons and Memories

Coming into the armoury, very early into the morning, I opened my locker. Taking all the gear out, I put on the majority of it. The black bodysuit was skin tight, hugging my body up to my neck, hands and feet. Desro and Onar came in, changing into their own gear. Compared to mine, theirs was more standard, but they shared the same higher spec base gear I had.

I finished first, and told them I would be at the rendevous later. I head to the quartermaster, getting my share of grenades and ammunition cells. I also took a multitool, detonite, and a vibroknife to sheath into the holster across my chest. Saying goodbye, I left for the engineering lab. It was too early for anybody to be up, so I was alone.

I put my multitool and helmet onto the table, next to my assault cannon. I had left it here because I was modifying it yesterday. The kyber crystal inside had not been a joke, and while ammunition wasnt an issue, overheating was. I managed to subvert most of the problem with modifying the materials, making it heavier but more resistant to internal heating. I double and triple checked to make sure everything was working, then turned attention to my armour.

Everything needed just a few adjustments. I made the size more perfect by just adjusting a few bolts and straps. I connected directly to my helmet with my hud, allowing it to show up on the body camera the command could see and the built in hud the helmet had already. Finally, just because I had time, I added insulating wires across the chest and arms and a recon visor to the exterior of the helmet.

The set looked compeltely the same, but the interior has become far greater. I met everyone right outside the barracks. Desro had his gear on, without a helmet since it would interfer with his lekku. He had two vibroblades, across his chest of all things making a cross. He also had a backpack, with all our supplies inside. My own cannon took up the large part of my back, so I couldnt carry it. Onar was more conservative with his armour, electing to forgo extra plating for more straps to carry his abundant grenades and ammo, atleast he had a helmet. Errim had just her boots and chestpiece on, with the bare minimum plating she was allowed to have. Her sniper was slung across her back, and she had a more advanced version of the visor I added to my helmet.

Pawn arrived shortly, "Sorry sir, it took me longer than expected to get out of bed."

I almost coughed, but supressed it. Looking back, I thought I saw a ghost. Instead, it was a short woman with an all black body suit. Not a single bit of plating on her body, she just had the under armour and some gloves plus boots that went with it. If the commander hadnt put her on my squad, I would have asked if that was allowed in the field, even officers were allowed to go out without a chest protector.

She seemed to notice, "Its okay sir, I wont get shot."

I wasnt suprised she could guess what I was thinking, "Im still going to request that the commander gives you more advanced gear, to protect you and hide you." putting emphasis on the 'and'.

Onar spoke from behind my back, "Im sure sarge is distract by more than that." laughing at his joke.

"Oh hush." I said back to him.

I led the way to the transport. The details of the mission were mostly up to me, but that only applied once we touched down closer to the ravine. I continued to study the information they sent me about the ravine, it was stored inside my brain by my cybernetics the first time I read it. The strategim my hud could come up with was only supported by my own brain, but running it overnight was enough to prepare a few plans depending on hwo the situation changed with the empire's support.

I stepped onto the shuttle and stood in the far back. Holding onto the wall and talking to the pilot was my job. The ramp closed the door of the shuttle and it lifted off.

Desro seemed bored with the silence so he was searching for something to talk about, "Hey Errim, you left early so we couldnt talk much. Why did you join the military?"

She was focused on something else again, "Huh? Oh, well my family is in it, so I was trained early and eventually just felt home in a barracks."

"Thats sweet, what are your parents names?" Desro asked, ever talkative.

She responded, "Oh, well admiral Clarene and major Jameson."

Onar jumped in before Desro responded, "You mention them by rank? Do they make you salute them too?" he asked as a joke, but laughed when she nodded.

"Really? Thats terrible." Desro commented.

Errim shook her head, "Its not that bad."

"So you joined to make big papi proud huh?" Onar asked, just trying to push buttons.

I told him to stop, Errim was giving him a sour look. He just sat back in his seat and shrugged at her. Pawn did not get involved and Desro looked conflicted. After a final word about getting along, the light turned green and the shuttle began to decend. Shortly we were on ground, and the ramp went down. Speeders were waiting for us outside. Just as the mission detailed, we each got on one and drove closer.

The ravine was only a thirty minute hike from where we parked. Pawn went ahead of us and we followed after a minute. Our boots were heavy across the rocky floor. We had an elevated position and had to use tight paths to get to our position. Errim split off, heading up the clif face like a professional climber. Pawn was our guide as we arrived over a sepratist encampment, which was above the ravine.

Mounted guns lined the side, pointed down at the bottom. Tents lined up against the rock face, with supply crates piled up next to them.

A signal was recieved from Errim, and Pawn reported she was already on the otherside. Onar, Desro and I spread out, sticking to the rock wall to not get spotted. Errin had already picked off their lookouts. The three of us dropped to the ground at the same time on my signal, landing behind various parts of their camp.

I was behind crates of food and munition that belonged to the empire. Two speeders of their own were parked next tos them. It was a civilian speeder, modified to have a wider front and reinforced glass. Making sure the other two were hidden, I took out my multitool and tinkered with the nearest speeder. By remotely connecting to the other, I started it up. The nearest tent to me moved with activity, and a sepratist officer came out at the disturbance.

The speeder I controlled remotely moved to run him down, trying to pass it as incompetent driving. He was shocked and dived out of the way, yelling at whoever he thought was inside to come out immediately. The rest of the tent's occupants quickly came out with the disturbance, I stopped the speeder and let them bother with it. Rolling under a flap of the tent, I placed a scrambler on the communication equipment inside. They, and any of their other communicators nearby quickly lost all contact with the other side of the wide ravine, but they would have no clue until it is too late.

I signalled the other two into open action. I ran out of the tent with my cannon raised, ramming into the back of two infront of me. They fell forward into the speeder and looked behind them, but I had backed up into the tent and my barrel was pointed at the speeder. I clicked, and an explosive round shot out. It and the speeder exploded at the same time. Shockingly, the explosion from my round was greater than the speeder. Clearly the kyber crystal was the key, because the explosion was slightly plasmic and red, when it is usually a typical balistic.

Ignoring it, but planning to investigate later, I just confirmed the dead and turned my barrel to the sides. Onar had been using his explosives generously, giving them out like fanning out presents. With his blaster pistol, he accurately picked off anybody who didnt get caught in a blast. Desro was far more silent, using a blaster rifle and vibroblade. He always moving from cover to cover, weaving through cross fire like it was just a law that he couldn't get hit. My third of the camp was dealt with in the blast, so I focused on picking off their extras and communicating with Pawn and Errim.

Pawn had sabatoged the other side's camp and rigged it to blow, and Errim finished with the lookouts a while ago. They were just waiting on us. It did not take long, the entire camp of sepratists quickly fell under the ambush. Desro came out without a scar, but Onar seemed to enjoy the scorch marks on his leg and arm.

I quickly pinged command, letting them know to start bringing troops through. The boys grabbed a mounted blaster and pointed it at the other side. It was quite a distance to try and accurately hit someone, but the pressure fire would be sufficient. I just stuck to my assault cannon, since it would be far more accurate, and its what worked best with my aim assist.

Pinging Pawn, she detonated the dot charges she placed. Many sepratists were blinded, or tazed depending on what they were next to. The entire time, they never knew she existed. Errim let herself known too, hitting a mark each time, thining their numbers quite rapidly. The base was decimated very quickly, with very little return fire.

Sending an all clear, tanks and walkers quickly funneled into the ravine below. With them were units of troops following behind. They would be quick to clear out a safe space and set up a base. Once that was done, its only a matter of a few missions and blocking off supplies until the rest of the area is under republic control.

We had no way of joining them yet, and evac was in an hour. For now until them, we could do anything to help or relax. I pinged a rendevous point for Errim and Pawn to meet us, and we head off. They were waiting at the spot when we arrived, relaxing and letting the nerves out.

"Good work you two, excellent job." I said to them, sitting down next to Pawn on a log.

Errim seemed to notice, "Walk in the park sir." happy about the praise.

Desro was keen on relaxing, "Will we rest here until evac?"

I shook my head, "I wanted to give the girls a rest from the running earlier, and you two a break from the fighting. Im going to contact command, survery, and get orders. Stay here and R&R."

Getting up, I swiped a few rations from the supply bag. Munching on them as I walked from camp, I found a good spot that overlooked a large part of the area. The troops on the ground were already engaging in combat. The tanks were pulling forward and crushing the sepratist droids, acting as a big cover for units to evade incoming fire from. It was a win for the republic, undoubtably. My comms unit pinged with a call, and I turned it on. The figure of the commander in her officer attire appeared, standing at attention, likely infront of a holo table that was showing extacly what I was seeing.

"Sergeant Rhodium, I think an opportunity has presented itself. We caught a sith intercetor trying to slip through our radar near location."

The helmet hid my facial expression, "I understand, send the coordinates of its landing site."

The commander smiled, "That will be easy, do you want any support?"

I didnt have to think about it, "No, his overconfidence will be his down fall. Sergeant Rhodium, out." cutting out the comms, I scanned the horizon. A small dot, with all the hate in the world, was getting bigger.

-Later

We had our backs to large rocks at the edge of a clearing. Pawn had advised us to not think of catching him off guard, but I had explosives set regardless. Even if it took dragging him to the position and setting it off, it would be worth it.

When the ship landed, my hearts squeezed. It was intimidating and terrifying, even if I had done it before. I had no clue how the others felt, but the elevated heart rates in each of them as the time passed told me enough. Everything that could be done has been done, the only moment remaining is the moment itself.

The ship depressurized, steam shooting out of the bottom. The ramp slowly lowered and extended, showing a black door with red lights. It opened. Death incarnate, a sith himself stepped out. Armour as black as night from his toes to his neck. Large shoulder guards that clung to a black cape. A lengthy lightsaber on his hip, a bulky and rough make with purple metals. His red skin and boney ridges was a species I have only seen on coruscant, during the sacking. The race of the sith, aptly named sith.

He, and an entourage of five well armed imperial soldiers, marched down the ramp. It had only been half a minute, but the plan was ago. The area around him exploded, kicking dirt up to cover his vision. A bolt streaked across the sky and the sith had a knee jerk reaction. The bolt hit the man behind him, dropping him dead. Grenades landed at their feet, and I poked around my cover at the same time. As the sith jumped away from the grenade, which caught two more of his men, I shot an explosive round at him. The fast and deadly, kyber enhanced round caught him by suprise. I watched as it moved slightly in the air, and he bent slightly to the side to make up for what he couldnt push away. I fired three bolts, and at the same time, more came from his flanks. My bolts were red now, and far more dealier than before.

He finally used his lightsaber. The damned doubled blades deflected everything except the one aiming at his foot. I noticed a reaction, no scream, but a face twisting in anger and humiliation. Not risking my bolt being reflected back at me from this distance, I stepped forward and shot three explosive rounds. He did the same trick for the first two, but before he could do it for the third I shot a bolt and charged forward. The explosion happened right in his face and my cannon began to run hot from the religous use of explosive rounds. When the cloud of red plasma dissipated and he could see, I was right infront of him. I uppercut him with my assault cannon. My entire weight and momentum was in the charge, and he flew through the air like a ragdoll.

I spammed pings to the comms of the squad, and they quickly switched their focus away from the remaining imperial trooper. My assault cannon whirred as I held the trigger as tight as possible, letting out the full might of its insane rate of fire. The rest of the squad too, using the full might of their weapon. When my cannon felt hot to the touch I let go, and only then did the others relent too.

My scanners pronounced him dead before he hit the ground. His body was a hot mess of char, and his armour was melted at parts from the heat. My explosive round probably put him into a vital state alone. That said, the magic of the sith can make them live through wounds they shouldnt be able to sustain.

The last imperial soldier was delt with shortly. And all that was left was the smell of charcoal and an empty ship. I opened comms with command, Briefing the commander on the success of our mission.

"Sergeant Rhodium, excellent job, we watched through your body cam. We have already sent evac, rest as well as you can, you have preformed admirably today. Make sure you take the lightsaber."

The comms ended. Picking up the lightsaber, I held onto it and put my cannon on my back. I didnt bother trying to ignite it, the thought felt wrong. The others were exhausted, and I was too. When Pawn gave the all clear that the ship was empty, we head inside. It was a luxorious vessel, the same ship the previous sith used, yet it was equally advanced in systems. Without the access codes they could not fly it home, but they could definetly use the lounge area to rest their legs.

Pawn messeged us all about keeping quiet in the case of bugs, so we just silently sat and played holochess on the table it had. Onar even made the choice to prepare a meal in the canteen. Desro went to explore and Errim was silent as ever. It was an ironic place to relax, to be certain, but it worked.

-Later

Getting up from my bed, avoiding waking up the chis sleeping beside me, I slithered into casuals and went to the engineering lab. The lightsaber was waiting for me there, aswell as another gift the commander prepared. It had been a day since we killed the sith, and apparently it was stirring up more drama and politics.

It was fine for me though, I only had to follow orders. Arriving in the lab, I immediately began to search for my next gift. A stack of metal plates and wiring sat ontop of the modification table. It was entirely black, so it was clearly the metal the sith had used for his armour. Apparently it was mustafarian steel, so it was no wonder he and the armour survived the explosove round at first.

It was the perfect material to fix his overheating issue, which had yet to show its nasty face with bad timing. It was best to fix an issue before it became one though. I began working on replacing the components of my cannon that involved the heating issue, sticking to the bare minimum so I could avoid using it all up. In the end, the design was far more black than before. Thats when I realised, the true value of the plating.

I immediately pulled up the schematics of my body armour, removing all the plating until it was the bare minimum. With this, and the plating from the sith, Pawn could wear more than just a body suit to hide in the shadows. I began the work immediately, using synthetic molds that the lab could create.

I got a ping as I put the metal in the molding machine, having it run and create the armour automatically. The message was from the commander, telling me to come to her office for a breifing. I head there right away.

My squad was waiting inside, already sitting down. I joined them on a couch to the side, scanning the unknown visitor that stood next to the commander. Her armour was not standard. It was white and red instead of the standard orange, and it was segmented into parts that were connected by a light brown robe. The visor she wore covered her eyes entirely, and did not seem to have any cameras. They seemed human, but the way they reacted to my soundless movements, as if she could see, said otherwise. Most notably, she had a lightsaber on her hip.

The commander spoke to us, "This is jedi knight Palentia, sent by the order to retrieve the lightsabers of the sith and assist us in dealing with them."

The jedi in question clarified, "You five will assist me in finding them, but you wont interfere when I engage. This is a battle between force users, and I do not wish for you to risk your life and nearly die like that time."

I noticed the eyes of the commander, understanding what she meant when the jedi said that. Word hadnt gotten out that we killed a sith. This might lead to the loss of that doubled bladed lightsaber, but thats fine.

"Hey hey hey, who do you think you are ordering us around? I bet we can smoke the sith before you can finish your month long peace talks with the local shoplifter." Onar said, laughing at his joke. I would have worried if it was anyone other than a jedi, clearly he understood their lack of emotion.

She certainly was not visually perturbed, "You are kicked from this squad, I will have you reassigned to another at a later date." words like venom, Onar looked shocked.

I stood up from my seat, "You dont have the authority to kick people from my personal squad Palentia, Onar is a needed member of our squad."

Tbe jedi looked back at me, "We have no use for someone with his attitude. We are fighting against a sith lord sergeant Rhodium, you nearly died to his apprentice and he could end her life with his mere thoughts."

"Thats even more reason to keep Onar on the team, his sense of humour is needed on the field and he is very professional when it counts. Getting rid of someone like him is a loss, and we have already became friends with him." I shot back.

Onar was quietly sitting, touched by my actions. Desro stood up too, "I agree with sarge, we need him on the team." he said. Errim agreed too, and Pawn nodded her head as well. The jedi paused at the sight of Desro supporting Onar.

"You really learned nothing, have you?"

Desro was shocked, I jumped back in, "You are very passionate for a jedi," it was her turn to be shocked, "dont say another word to my team, you talk to me and ill take it from there. The sith are our enemy, not people who wound your pride." putting emphasis on pride.

"You, how do you know so much about the sith code?"

"Ive heard it once or twice, please for the love of the force let the commander brief us."

I sat back down, and the jedi backed off, "Please excuse me." she left the room quickly. The senses of my cybernetics were no joke. I caught the tale end of her voice outside the room, but it was only enough to know she talked. I would have to review it later to know what she said.

"Right," the commander started, "anyway, lets begin. Yesterday, you dealt with a problem, and youve just learned that there is a bigger problem controlling them." she explained, clearly avoiding the use of the word sith. Thankfully everybody else understood.

She continued, "We have a visual of the big problem, provided to us by the intense talking going on with the empire. All we could get out of them is its appearance." placing a holo device on her desk. It turned on and a figure appeared.

My hearts clenched at the sight. I couldnt hear what the commander said next, but I think it was a description. I felt a hand on my back, shaking me out of the stupor. Pawn was beside me, her arm was on my back comforting me. I was starting to sweat.

I was taken aback to that day, the day coruscant was sacked.

The skies were red, triangles of grey death hung above the world and obliterated the skyscrapers around my apartment building. Red lazers the size of my body rained down like carpet fire onto the surface of the planet, destorying anything they touched. They were glassing the planet, and I was on the edge of it. Fire hit the top of the building I was in. The alarm system went off and blared in my skull, I had to tune it out with my cybernetics. My mother grabbed me and my girlfriend, pushing us toward the door.

She was scared, and so was I. My girlfriend was crying, her parents lived in the complex across from us. It was glassed first, the level they lived on was ruduced to hot rubble. I turned off my pain receptors, and I forced my brain to not produce hormones. My emotions dimmered and went numb.

We reached the elevator first, others were piling in and someone pushed the button. The door closed and the elevator decended. I wss pushed up against the window and could see outside. The entire sky was filled with ships. They brought an entire fleet. The glassing stopped and they focused on the republic ships. Large shuttles were decending to the surface, many of them were open and black figures were standing inside.

The elevator door opened and the people pour out, my mother and I were running toward the enterance. My girlfriend was behind me, she was so emotional, but her feet kept moving. Something happened at the entrance. They shouting and screaming about something. I saw a flash of red. The entire crowd was mowed down before my very eyes. The large sith was blocked the exit, a firing line was behind him but nobody could even get that far. He didnt even use both of his hands to wield the double bladed saber in his hands. He was playing like a kid in the sandbox with his favourite action figures. My mother dragged me to the side, we went down a hallway to the side. She was basically dragging me and I could barely keep up.

I lost sight of my girlfriend. I could not see her blue lekku anywhere. I did not think about it, not wanting to find the conclusion. There was a loud yell in the main hall, we were farther away now, but it had so much force behind it. My mother was still dragging me. We turned a corner into a hallway filled with corpses.

My close family was piled against the wall, their scorching clothes assaulting my nose. My mother attacked the imperials I did not notice until now, they were standing right next to an elevator. It was right next to the one we took. The wall was covered in scorch marks from stray fire.

Mom had a blaster before I realised it and the soldiers dropped like flies. They were all dead and she just emptied a cell into their bodies.

A metal hand grabbed my skull, my face was turned to meet the eyes of the sith. He seemed like a giant to me, even though I was already six feet tall. He was covered in synthetic muscles and hydralics, seemingly more machine than man. His helmet was like a skull, death itself, metal framing and big red glowing eyes. His lightsaber ignited through my abdomen, he let go of my head as my hearts stopped beating. I collapsed to the floor.

My defibulator shocked me out of my daze, activating from the pause my heart made at the memory. Pawn was shaking me with her hand on my thigh. I was gripping her wrist tightly, probably hurting her. I quickly regained focus, the commander was saying something about a building, and the locations of the remaining sith. I dazedly listened to the rest of the briefing and left with the squad. I soon got a message on my holopad with the details, everything in the brief and more. I went straight to my room after arranging a meeting with the others, Pawn followed. I slept for the rest of the day, giving my hud a task to fufill.