Chapter 110: Chapter 100
"Two more droids up ahead," Renn whispered quietly over the comm as he peeked around the corner.
"Okay, Slicer, Mort, you're up. Take them out." Spoon ordered and the two republic commandos crept forwards while the others covered them.
The clones moved silently until they were so close to the pair of droids that they could have reached out and caressed the backs of their heads if they had wanted to.
Instead, the two clones lunged forwards in unison, the vibro-knives hidden in their armoured gauntlets springing out as they drove them into the droids' necks before twisting and severing the now lifeless lumps of metal.
"Clear," both clones whispered, and the rest of the small team moved up to meet them.
Renn and the clones had been hunting a trio of high ranking geonosians deep into the tunnels bellow the arena, and this was one of many separatist patrols they had met along the way.
They had been informed over the comm that Dooku and most of the separatist leadership had managed to slip out through other tunnels and entrances across the arena, mainly because the lack of a proper map of the tunnel system was slowing Renn and the others down considerably.
The three geonosian generals had remained behind though for some reason though and Spoon had been determined to at least catch one high value target before the end of the battle.
"How far now?" Spoon muttered and Renn checked his Heads-up-display.
Thanks to the force crystals Renn had used to make the wiring for his armour he could use his connection to the force to amplify its systems and extend the range of his motion tracker.
He could also use his force ability to sense life signs and match them to the any pings on his motion tracker to differentiate living enemies and droids.
And more recently as Renn's sensory abilities had grown he had become able to identify people based of their emotions.
Renn had identified the three life signs as being important because of the sense of authority they were exuding, as well as the sense of respect, fear, and subservience, coming from the geonosians that they were near.
"One hundred metres, they seem to be heading to some kind of hanger," Renn said as he checked the three dots he was tracking on his HUD.
"Well, best get a move on then" Spoon muttered and began stalking forwards.
The group continued down the maze of tunnels until they reached a large underground hanger.
Transports and other spacecraft lined the walls and a small army of battle droids moved between them, loading supplies and other things under the orders of a group of geonosians.
The three geonosian leaders Renn and the clones had been tracking were obvious thanks to their more ornate and expensive equipment, and the fact that they were the most vocal in bossing the droids about.
"Looks like these guys got left behind to oversee salvaging any leftover gear while the rest of the separatist leadership evacuated." Renn observed and Spoon nodded beside him.
"Yeah, so hopefully they've got some useful intel on them, so let's try to take at least one of them alive." Spoon said as he mentally calculated the amount of violence he was about to commit.
"What's the plan then boss," The clone commando sergeant Tex asked Spoon quietly as he and his squad took up positions around Renn and Spoon.
The hangar contained around a hundred droids as well as fifteen geonosions, including their three targets, so if they wanted to reach their targets, they would have to think a bit creatively.
Renn watched Spoon look around the hangar and waited for him to come up with a plan of attack. He wasn't technically meant to be there anyway and so he would just follow Spoon and the clones lead.
"Sergeant," Spoon said turning to Tex, "You and your squad move round the side and flank the enemy when I give you a signal, then push forward and grab the VIPs. We'll cover you and provide a distraction."
Tex nodded and soon the four commandos disappeared behind one of the transports as they began sneaking around the side of the hangar.
"So, we're causing a distraction?" Renn asked his friend who just shrugged.
"Sure, lets go with that." Spoon said as he checked his weapons and equipment.
Renn grinned behind his helmets visor as he realised what Spoon was planning, "So, the subtle approach then? Lovely."
-
"Ready?" Spoon said quietly and Renn nodded. "Alright, let's go."
Renn and Spoon stepped into the geonosian hangar and began advancing towards the separatist forces.
Spoon dropped down to one knee and raised his westar m-5, flicking the selector on its side to activate its underslung grenade launcher, and fired.
A high explosive grenade arched away from Spoon to bounce once before hitting the leg of one of the separatist battle droids loading crates into one of the transports.
The grenade detonated a split second later consuming the droid and the crates it was loading in fire and destruction, crates that were crammed full of rockets and blaster charge packs.
The crates exploded moments later in an immense fireball that ripped apart the separatist transport that the crates were being loaded into and destroyed a large section of the droids in the hangar.
Renn raised his own blaster rifle and began firing grenades from its underslung grenade launcher over Spoon's head.
Unlike Spoon Renn had opted to load his grenade launcher with emp grenades and so rather than aiming for the crates filled with things that might go boom, he just sent them straight towards the densest clusters of droids.
Blue arks of electrical lightning burned through droid processors as Renn's grenades detonated amongst them.
Spoon fired a second grenade and once again a massive explosion erupted in one corner of the hangar, decimating the separatist troops.
Fires spread across the hangar and droids rushed forwards to try and face the threat that had suddenly appeared in their midst.
In the span of a few seconds Renn and Spoon had destroyed almost half of the droids in the hangar and Renn could see the three geonosian leaders shouting orders and pointing towards him and Spoon.
The trio of geonosians hung back as they ordered the ten geonosians that had been in the hangar with them, it had been twelve but two had been incinerated by Spoon, into the air to harass Renn and Spoon from above.
"Now!" Spoon ordered over the comm as Renn began cutting down the airborne geonosians with automatic blaster fire.
The four commandos sprang from their hiding spots on the perimeter of the hangar and began firing on the droids and geonosians.
The separatist droids had formed up in a rough line to face Renn and Spoon and hadn't expected an assault form their flank and so the clones were able to rake the unprepared droid line with blaster fire.
Mort, the commando's sniper, began picking off the geonosians in the air with steady, carefully aimed blaster bolts while the rest of the four-man squad started pushing forwards to drive their attack deep into the side of the separatist formation.
Renn and Spoon similarly began stalking forwards, firing rapidly, and moving as though they were completely in sync.
The years of training and practice both men had spent on honing their combat skills, as well as all the time the two of them had spent training together on kamino, had turned them into killing machines.
They covered each other as they moved forwards, fighting as a team and tearing through the separatist ranks like they were mythical warriors from some story.
Renn and the clones reduced the entire droid army present in the hangar to scrap with ease, the separatist's advantage in numbers proving no matched for their own advantage in skill and equipment.
Soon the only separatists remaining in the hangar were the three geonosian leaders, and Renn switched his aim to them as he saw them try to flee.
The first geonosian flapped his wings and took to the sky in an attempt to escape. Only for Spoon to launch an electrified wire from one of his gauntlets that wrapped around the geonosians midsection, and one quick yank sent the zapped bug-man hurtling to the ground.
Renn fired a single blaster bolt at the second geonosian as he attempted to scurry away and blew off its leg just bellow the knee. Sending it screaming to the floor, severely injured but still very much alive.
The final geonosian turned and began running towards the open hatch of one of the few remaining transports in the hangar.
He only made it a few steps before a white armoured commando speared him in the side with his shoulder, the force of his tackle driving him to the floor.
"Nice one sarge," Slicer said happily as he wondered over and watched Tex wrench the geonosians hands roughly behind his back to bind his wrists with a pair of stun cuffs.
"Yeah, not quite as hardcore as those two, but points for effort." Flow joked as he and Mort joined the other two commandos.
The four of them then watched as Renn and Spoon lead the geonosians that they had captured over to them, Renn carrying his over his shoulder as the legless bug-man was having difficulties walking.
"Well, mission accomplished then," Renn said dropping the geonosian in front of the commandos, "Good job team."
-
Renn and Spoon sat on top of the crest of small hill that overlooked one of the republic staging areas and watched the lines of white armoured clones filing into dropships waiting to ferry them up to the massive capital ships orbiting above.
Zombie squad had already left the planet with their prisoners, but Spoon had stayed behind to wait for the rest of his brothers to be evacuated off planet first.
The battle for geonosis was over and the republic had emerged victorious, but not without a cost.
Tens of thousands of clones had died in the battle, including nearly five thousand clone commandos, fifty percent of the entire special operations brigade.
Mercifully there had been no casualties among the ARC troopers, neither the Alphas nor the Nulls, but Renn could tell his friend was still deeply upset about his dead brothers.
The jedi dead had been recovered from the battlefield, to be returned to the temple on Coruscant for a proper burial. Jedi General Yoda had ordered the recovery personally, but not such orders had been given to regarding the clone dead.
Instead, their bodies had been left out in the desert to be buried under the geonosian sands or picked over by scavengers.
"You know… I'm starting to regret not joining Spar and the others… this… this doesn't feel like I thought it would." Spoon said softly as they watched clones loading their wounded brothers into a waiting republic LAAT.
Renn looked over at the motionless ARC lieutenant but didn't know what to say. He couldn't even begin to imagine the feelings going through his friend's head. The loss of knowing so man of his brothers had been killed in such a short span of time.
He did know about Spar though, as he was technically the former ARC trooper's current employer after Spar had become the clone armies first deserter.
Spar had somehow inherited Jango's memories, along with his hatred for jedi and the republic, through the cloning process which had led to the man trying to desert rather than serve under the Jedi.
Jango and Renn had found out about it and helped Spar escape kamino a few years earlier, and also offered the rest of the ARC's a chance to leave the republic army.
They hadn't been able to extend the offer past the ARC's though as they figured that if a large portion of the republic army deserted with the help of a foreign power it might provoke conflict between them and the republic.
At the time and the New Aruum Commonwealth didn't have the strength to survive a war with the republic, and even now it would be a struggle to survive one, and so Renn and Jango only had the power to save a small number of clones from the war.
Only four of them chose to join Spar in deserting however, the rest staying for a variety of reasons but most like Spoon had stayed because they didn't want to abandon the rest of their brothers.
"Sup losers," An armoured hand slapped Renn on the back and a blue armoured ARC lieutenant dropped down to sit next to him.
"Alright Eggy?" Renn grinned and even Spoon snapped out of his grim mood to chuck some sand at his brother.
"Yeah, can't complain, thought I'd join you guys in getting a tan up here." Egg joked, as he lounged back and looked up at the geonosian sun, his high tec armour blocking all its UV rays.
"I take it Prudii's with his Null brothers but where's Badger?" Spoon asked looking over at his brother and Egg shrugged.
"The captain sent him out into the desert to oversee the demolition of some Separatist bases, so I guess right now he's probably throwing a thermal detonator at something," Egg said with a snicker before the three men lapsed back into silence.
They watched the LAATs flying back and forth between the waiting clones and the ships in orbit got fewer and fewer, and the line of clones get shorter and shorter.
The geonosian sun had begun to set but the three friends were content to just sit in a companiable silence, as they enjoyed what little quiet time they had left.
They all knew that this battle was just the beginning and that soon war would be raging across the galaxy.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone