Thirteen Kairo mentally tracked the number of droids remaining, since the two squads had begun the fight. Running forward with covering fire from Slash and RK, Kairo tried to ignore the mesh of laser fire darting around him. Sliding forward feet first, Kairo slide across the ground underneath one of the spider droids. Drawing one of his knives, he threw it into the blaster cannon, cutting through its large barrel. Rolling out from underneath, Kairo stood and ran, firing a shot from his Kylon-3 at a probe droid. As the spiderbot tried to fire its damaged cannon, the broken barrel caused a backwards chain reaction, blowing the droid to bits.
Eleven. Nine. Six. Kairo continued the tally as more droids fell from the other two groups attacks.
"Kairo, duck!" Slash's voice came through the comlink. Not waiting a moment, Kairo dropped to the ground, narrowly missing the criss-cross fire from two probe droids.
"Thanks." Kairo responded, as he flipped to his back and tried to take aim at one of the retreating probe droids. Before he got a lock, he was forced to jump to his feet and sprint back to his group, closely followed by a spiderbot's laser fire. "Can you take its cannon out?" Kairo asked, trying to keep ahead of the steady stream of laser fire closing in on him.
Spotting Slash lift from the ground with his jet pack, Kairo swerved to the side, allowing him a clear shot with his sniper rifle. Realizing his mistake, Kairo couldn't slow down enough before he ran right off the summit's edge.
Bantha Shit. Kairo groped for his jet pack controls, as he plummeted downward. Initiating them a moment before he made an impact with a protruding bolder, Kairo slowed his descent enough to land on the bolder without injuries. Re-orientating himself, Kairo was about to return to the summit when a noise from below distracted him. Leaning over the bolder's top; Kairo muttered a curse and engaged his jet pack again. Blasting to the top, Kairo looked down again to make sure of what he had seen. Dropping in with RK, Slash, and Nicholas, Kairo pulled back on his DC-17's trigger, sending an EMP blast into another swooping probe droid.
"Nice of you to join us. Have a nice trip?" Nicholas joked.
Scanning the area, Kairo started to run towards the outpost. "Just had to get some fresh air," Kairo returned with a quip. "Now move!" Kairo ordered with a quick glance behind him. "NS, Jester group two, come in. Are the droids in your vicinity taken care of?"
"Only two probe droi... make that no probe droids; nice shot Jak." Merrick's voice said into Kairo's helmet.
"We're all clear over here." Kairo turned to see Phenix wave his blaster at Kairo's group. "Where are you running to?"
"Get to the outpost now. I don't know how many droids are scaling this mountain towards us, but from our side I counted at least three more spider bots, along with a few probe droids. They were only a hundred meters below, I think, and were moving quickly." To reinforce Kairo's words, a probe droids rose above the summits edge, only to be met by a shot from Kairo's gun.
"We copy." Merrick spoke for both her group and Phenix's group. Without aiming, Kairo fired a few shots behind him as he continued to run over the droid ridden ground.
What am I doing? Droids don't have fear. The won't pause because of a few blaster shots. Focusing into his helmet's read out for his jet pack, Kairo checked to see how much energy it had left.
Three fourths; should be plenty. Nicholas and RK were running backwards now, keeping a watch on the mountains brink for any more droids. Slash was still running with him. When they reached the outpost's damaged walls, they were met by the other two squads. "A little slow there, aren't we?" Merrick stated, even though her group had arrived only a moment sooner.
"Doesn't matter. We'll have a few more droids here shortly. I don't know how many for sure, but logically, they would be sending the same amount from each direction, thus, about nine spiderbots and probably fifteen probe droids-well, fourteen now." Kairo said, stepping through a blasted whole in the wall.
"So, do you have a plan?" Phenix asked, following closely behind Kairo.
"I'm working on it." Kairo answered truthfully. Noticing he only had a shot left in his Kylon-3, Kairo absently fired it outward from the outpost and replaced the cartridge.
"We could go at the hand to hand," Merrick said perfectly blandly. "It shouldn't be too hard." Smiling under his helmet, Kairo wondered if any of the new recruits got the joke. "Or we could take them out from in here, while they have to cross that no droids land.
"Can we go with choice two?" Leon asked, with total seriousness.
"I think we should vote on it." Kairo answered. Deciding Merrick and him should act serious, even with the adrenaline pumping through him, Kairo said, "We're going with option two of course. I don't know how many holes there are in this wall, so RK and Leon, I want you to quickly around the wall and get back here ASAP." Nodding at his orders, the two troopers ran off around the inside of the wall. Realizing he could see the main portion of the outpost now, Kairo examined it while RK and Leon were scouting. Except for a few scorch marks on its sides from blaster bolts that had made it over the wall and shots from the probe droids, the main structure was unmarred. Stepping over some rubble from the wall, Kairo nearly slipped on a pool of blood. Grimacing, he brushed his boot in the dust and tried to ignore the realization that the wall had collapsed atop some unfortunate souls. Before he had time to look inside, Leon and Ryan Kenobi returned. "Report?"
"Only four holes, sir." Ryan Kenobi said.
"It seems they came from four directions last time," Leon added.
"Sith spit." Kairo said vehemently.
"What?" Leon asked. "Did we do something wrong?"
"No, that just means that there are probably more than nine spider bots. I was thinking they came from three directions like us, but if we assume from what you said that they came from four directions, that means. . ."
"That there are twelve spider droids and twenty probes." Merrick finished for Kairo.
"Right." Kairo nodded. A blaster shot from Nicholas broke into their discussion.
"I don't think we have any more time to chat." Nicholas stated. Looking through the hole, Kairo saw the first two arms of a spider droid reach over the edge, followed shortly by the droid's body.
"We'll just have to adapt then." Merrick growled. Nodding to Jakireth and Leon, she led them around the wall, quickly disappearing around the building's curve.
"Where are they going?" Phenix asked.
"Same place we are. Phenix, take Darkknight and Keef and guard one of those other gaps. Yillis, take PhillipG, and Slash, find another hole that way." Kairo pointed the opposite direction that Phenix's group was running.
"And us?" RK asked.
"We're guarding this one of course." Kairo stated, pushing back against the outpost side of the wall. Leaning around the side, Kairo took aim at a zooming probe droid with his Kylon-3. Tracking it, Kairo squeezed the trigger and felt satisfied when it exploded in mid flight.
Only three more for us. Two. Kairo corrected himself and Nicholas took out another probe droid.
It's the spiderbots I'm worried about though. One. Kairo added as he took out another probe droid.
They shouldn't have built them to be such easy targets. I guess the New Republic commander just wanted these outpost disabled and didn't want to waste money on the droids for protection. Of course, maybe we got here in time to stop them from disabling this place. Now it's just the spider droids. I wish we had Slash's rifle with us still. That was quite handy to take out their blaster cannons. Dodging back behind the wall, Kairo felt the impact of a shot from one of the spiderbot's blaster. "I think it, and it happens." Kairo muttered, feeling his body shake with another vibration through the wall.
Glancing across to Nicholas and RK, who had positioned themselves on the other side of the gap, Kairo asked through the comlink, "Any ideas?" They shook their heads. Kairo nodded.
That's your job Kairo. A voice mumbled in the back of Kairo's mind.
Right. I just hope my plan doesn't kill them. "Here's what we're going to do then. Did either of you bring any grenades with you?" They each pulled out two. "Good enough. Roll them to me." Picking them up as they came, Kairo spared a glance around the wall. The spider droids were half way across the barren surface. Sliding them into his belt, Kairo gave them one last order. "Now, we're going to rush them. Just trust me. On three. One. Two." Kairo grasped a slab of wall on the ground. "Three." Heaving it up, Kairo held it in front of him as stepped into the gap. "Help me hold this up, and don't stop running." Kairo managed to gasp through his comlink, as his muscles already began to yell at his brain.
Forcing himself to move, Kairo kept moving them across the ground until they were only a few meters from the droids. Letting go of the slab, Kairo pulled two of the grenades pins and threw them at the two spider droids. Without a second spared, two more grenades were closely following them through the air. Glancing around the slab, Kairo almost laughed out right as both droids caught the grenades with their special hands. Dodging back behind the slab, Kairo helped RK and Nicholas pick it up and motioned for them to start moving toward the next two. Smoke and fire gushed past the sides of the slab as the four grenades went off, blowing the spider droids to pieces. A blaster cannons shot hit the slab a moment later, causing the three men to stop in their tracks. Straining, they continued forward. Dropping into place one last time, Kairo pulled the two grenades he had brought with him and lobbed them over the slab.
Waiting for the explosion, Kairo nodded for Nicholas and Ryan Kenobi to move out from behind the slab. Letting go, the three troopers let the slab crash to the ground and rolled out from behind it. Coming up in crouches, the scanned the area for any more droids. A robot arm spasmmed next to the broken remains of a droid. The second spiderbot was in worse condition. "That went better than I thought." Kairo exclaimed into his helmet. Turning around, Kairo saw that the rest of the droids on the summit had been disposed. Switching on his comlink, he asked, "I take you guys are done?"
"Been waiting for you, like always," Merrick responded.
"Right. Jester, move to the eastern side of the summit. We have one last stop. You can take this side from here, right Merrick?" Kairo asked, as he began to move toward the edge of the summit.
"Could have done this ourselves." Merrick responded. "Thanks for the help anyways."
"Right. You too." Kairo stated. A few minutes later, Jester had formed up along the eastern cliff.
"What's left." Phenix asked
"One last stop. The second summit. It is much small than this. It is actually just the outpost, and a little bit of ledge. The second peak was much smaller. Is everyone ready? I doubt we'll see much resistance on this trip. We lost communications with that place before this one, which means they probably attacked that one first. That second force we just fought. I believe that to have been the force they sent against the second outpost." Kairo quickly checked his weapons before he grasped the jet pack's controls. "Ready?" They all nodded. Engaging the jet pack, Kairo flew out from the summits. Deciding not to glance down into the bleak drop, Kairo knew that if his jet packed malfunctioned now, it would be a very long drop. Jumping from peak to peak was much more dangerous than climbing the mountain.
The trip took longer than Kairo had guessed, but what met them was exactly as he had predicted. Landing fifteen minutes later with silent thanks, Kairo looked at the smoking shell of the second outpost. A quick sweep by the squad found now droid signs. Picking up a high powered comlink attached to his belt, Kairo thumbed it on and said, "Come in headquarters. This is Jester and Nightstalkers. Come in headquarters."
A moment passed. "This is Imperial headquarters, please state you business." A trite voice responded.
"Send a message to Raziel. The mountain complexes have been security. Outpost one is being guarded by Nightstalkers at this moment and outpost two is being held by Jester. Tell him that outpost two looks have sustained more damage than outpost one as well. Also, he can send any recovery teams he wants now. We can hold the summits until further orders," Kairo finished.
"Is that all?" The voice asked.
"Yes."
"Very well. The message has been sent. Hold tight Jester." A click came through the comlink telling Kairo there was no more connection.
Turning to his squad, Kairo said, "Ok men. We've completed our mission. Patch up any wounds you received with anything you can find and dig in. We'll be holding the summit until further orders." Glancing up into the clear sky, Kairo could see the stars clearly beginning to poke through the dimming light.
(OOC That raps this one up. Kind of short, but activity was a little slow this week. Great work everyone that was active.
)
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Gunnery Sergeant Kairo
Platoon Commander
PC/GSG Kairo/2PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/Tadat/VEA/VE [CDS][BoA][CoR][BC][CoV]
Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will be victorious in ten thousand battles.
You may forget the past, but it always has a way of haunting your future.
Men can die, but a symbol is eternal.
