IntroductionSoon after the transition to Phase 2 armor in the Clone Wars, the Air Drop Shock Commandos were transferred to the small forest planet of Nokoi Mindar, specifically the Jaderona Region, a thick, wet mass of jungle and plains strangely occupied by the notorious CIS. Command sent out teams of three to scout out the region before the full-fledged ground assault and to collect data on enemy positions. One such squad was F Squad, consisting of Captain Ratay, and Corporals Athen and Keller.
Chapter 1JADERONA REGION, EARLY EVENING
F Squad was strung out in a loose skirmish line, with Kellar brining up the rear guard and Capt. Ratay on point. The planet's sun was starting to set, and the foliage was still damp after a light shower.
"Darnit, Captain, why are we out here? I haven't picked up a target on the tracker since we left the dropship," Kellar pouted, looking around the dense foliage with a DC held loosely in his gauntlets.
"Do you ever stop complaining, Corporal?" Ratay countered. "We're out here, for the tenth time," he added, "to scout out this region for supposed CIS activity."
"Specifically,"he continued, motioning to a larger cluster of trees, "to check out that group of vegetation about a klick south." Athen grumbled, and pulled his boot out of a puddle of mud.
"I've got movement 100 yards to the south," Kellar said calmly, spinning around to face the direction the target had come from. "It has no heat signature, so it could be a dr-"
There was a crack of a blaster bolt, and Athen was suddenly down in the mud with a hole punched through his right shoulder.
Kellar rushed over to the corporal to administer first aid while Ratay searched for the droid who fired the shot. "Gotcha," Ratay said quietly, and pulled the trigger, eleminating the sniper droid camped out in a bush.
Kellar walked up to Ratay. "Captain, Corporal Athen is hit pretty hard. He's unconcious right now, which isn't a good sign. The best thing that I could do is pump some bacta into him and bunker down for the night until a Gunship can come pick us up in the morning. He won't survive the trek back to Command. I would radio in for a Gunship now, but there's a pretty bad storm rolling in, and they wouldn't send out a bird in those conditions."
"Okay," Ratay agreed. "Let's cover him up and put down for the night." "Are you sure there won't be any more droids tonight?" Kellar asked. "I dont have any more signatures on my tracker, but you never k-"
"CIS never follow the conventional sniper rules," Ratay interrupted. "They always travel alone, and if we cover ourselves, we'll blend in pretty well with the night. I wouldn't worry."
Kellar covered Athen up with some loose foliage and laid him down in a small ditch.
Ratay sat back on a small hill and looked on thoughtfully. His first mission on Nokoi Mindar was not going well. One of his squad members was fatally wounded, and now they had to spend a night in droid infested unfamiliar territory.
Kellar finished up taking care of Athen and decided to try to sleep as well. He laid down, covered himself with loose groundcover, and switched off his comlink.
The Captain rolled over and decided to do the same, and slowly fell into a fitful sleep.
TO BE CONTINUED....
Well, I hope you like it. I don't have a working title yet, so please leave suggestions. LMK what you think. Thanks for looking.
