The Roughnecks

[Chazcon]

"GRENADE!" Chaz yelled, as he stepped out into the corridor and threw a sticky grenade at the advancing battle droid.

 

He winced as blaster bolts glanced off his armor and he quickly ducked back behind the corner. A volley of bolts tore chunks of plastisteel off the wall next to him. He looked across at Kash and they both grinned as they waited the three seconds for the grenade to go off.

 

When it did, they both stepped out and poured full-auto fire through the smoke, ripping the hull of the droid apart and sending showers of blown electrocircuits into the air. The destroyed droid slumped to the ground, nothing more than a pile of junk now.

 

"Like that?" Kash said into the intercom.

 

"That's how it's done, nice work!" said their leader, Firan, as he stepped forward. Chaz was picking a chunk of metal out of the burning droid. "Let's move." Firan directed.

 

Moving down the corridor at a fast combat walk, Chaz took one side and Kash the other, weapons up and ready, Firan sensing forward with all of his Force powers, carrying his lightsaber in a ready guard. Their goal was the main generator, located deep within this building. In low orbit above them was the entire 43rd Strike Brigade, ready for vertical assault, waiting for them to disable the pulse cannons that defended this region. The Sith would chew the assault transports to bits with those cannon. The Roughnecks had been inserted an hour before the attack to take them out from inside. Five thousand Republic soldiers and Jedi depended on them. The success of the attack, which would begin the invasion of this planet, depended on them.

 

Everything depended on them.

 

 

"Hold up." Firan said. They were approaching an intersection and he sensed a disruption in the Force, minor, a subtle ripple that indicated the presence of the enemy. As on most of these missions, they were on their own in dealing with each tactical fight. Depending on the situation, Firan could count on unique mix of The Roughneecks to handle anything that came their way.

 

Chaz was a Vanguard, geared up in heavy armor, a Republic trooper who had paid his dues on many worlds before Firan had met him on Arda. He was someone they could all count on to draw the enemy's fire, to take the hits so they all could survive.

 

Kash had also come from the Republic Army, a Commando who was a damage specialist. Expert in the use of all weapons in the aresenal, he could lay down the hurt like no other. Fighting regular troops, even droid busting was nothing for him, taking out a Sith leader the only real challenge. He was the main firepower of the group.

 

Firan himself had been trained in the ways of the Jedi from a young age. Master of the lighsaber, and conncted deeply with the Force, he had fought the good fight for many years. His devotion to the cause of the Republic was unwavering and he had shown himself a capable leader of elite forces in the wars across the galaxy. The Council had chosen him to lead The Roughnecks, a great honor and also a great responsibility.

 

Their elite group was expanding; Firan, in his many travels, had selected new members for the team and the Council had approved them all. Chaz and Kash would meet and train with them after this mission. But for now they all had one goal in mind; take out this generator, no matter what.

 

 

There was a stack of shipping packs halfway down the corridor ahead. Firan motioned for all of them to move to cover. From this concealed postion they could see the Sith squad, deployed in defensive positions behind blast shields. No doubt the Sith knew of their presence already, and had to know why they were here. It would be a hard fight to the target room. Twelve minutes left. They all were thinking the same thing.

 

Kash looked at Firan. "Run and gun?" he said.

 

"It's what we do best." replied Firan.

 

"Roger THAT! Chaz pitched in.

 

All three men got ready, like runners at the start of a race. And it was a race - the ultimate race. "Go." said Firan, quietly.

 

With this Chaz charged forward first, screaming "FOR THE REPUBLIC!" under his helmet, into the intercom and into everyone's ear. The Sith soldiers all jumped a foot in their surprise. This was a mistake; they should have dove for cover instead, because the first salvo from Kash's assault cannon tore two of them in half, and knocked down two others, wounded. Firan had his eye on the Sith squad leader and watched him raise his hand to his ear, obviously to make a comm call for backup. Firan summoned the power of the Force and chanelling it through him, out through his outstreched arm and hand, and into the Sith leader, he blasted the man back against the wall and up against the ceiling where he hung, pinned, paralyzed, choking.

 

Half the Sith squad was down, but the other men had recovered and were firing back now, directly at Chaz who stood his ground in front of them, firing away and taking hit after hit on his armor. Kash stood in a combat stance, leaning back to absorb the recoil of his cannon, laying down a murderous fire on the Sith position. One Sith, seeing his squad leader in Firan's death grip, jumped up and charged the Jedi. Still focusing the Force at the squad leader's neck, Firan stood calmly until the charging Sith was close, and with one sweep of his lightsaber cut the man down through the shoulder and nearly in half. His bleeding, dying corpse crashed in a heap at his feet.

 

Chaz was firing explosive rounds over the blast wall, but time was critical and he knew they had to move. He stormed the remaining distance to the position, jumped the wall, and let go with his ion surge. Electrical energey engulfed the panicking Sith ans they twisted and turned in their death throes.

 

"CLEAR!" shouted Chaz and took off running down the corridor. Kash yelled after him, "Dammit bro HEAL!" and Chaz stopped for a moment, punching in the regen code into his weapon.

 

With a twist of his hand, Firan broke the neck of the Sith leader and released him. His limp body crashed to the floor with a dull thud. As Kash ran alongside Firan, he said "Remind me never to piss you off!"

 

Firan started to say something, but it was cut short by the sound of blaster fire ahead. Chaz was into the next group of Sith already. Now Kash was grinning. He looked at Firan and said, "Rock and roll brother!"

 

Firan rounded the corner and saw Chaz taking heavy fire. He sent a wave of healing energy into him to keep him alive. Kash was one step behind but already had his finger down on the trigger, and the walls shook from the blast of the cannon. Above the massive wall of sound Firan yelled, "ROCK AND ROLL INDEED!"

 

 

 

 

It had been a hard running battle into the depths of the Sith held building. All three of them had fought the last ten minutes at full throttle, stopping only to heal or reload. Firan looked at his arm display. Two minutes left until the orbital assault began. They sat on the floor, backs to the walls, breathing hard. Sweat streaked down the sides of Kash's face. Chaz tore off his helmet to get some air. "Goddamn..." panted Chaz, "...I could'a gone to Slicing school instead of joining the Army..."

 

Kash laughed. "Yeah bro, but you'd be bored as hell."

 

"Don't get too comfy, we got less than two minutes left. The generator's on the other side of this door. Let's move." Firan said, and everyone got up. Chaz pulled his helmet back and and Kash set a blast round on his cannon, saying "Stand back!"

 

"Wait!" Firan shouted, sensing something wrong. Chaz and Kash had long ago learned to listen to Firan and what the Force told him. "Look, that door is made of Terminex explosive!" he said, pointing. Sure enough, and what a dirty Sith trick! Kash's blast would have killed them all.

 

Firan brought his hands together, and bowed his head, summoning all the power of the Force he could muster. His fingertips touching, vibrating with power, he suddenly pushed a mighty blast of energy out and blew door, frame, and part of the wall into the room with a crash. Instinctively tyhe two Troopers were in the room in a flash, Chaz going left and Kash right, sweeping the room for targets. The room was devoid of people, only the giant humming generator and all the control equipment filling the space.

 

"Now you can use that blast round brother!" Firan shouted at Kash, and that was all he needed to hear. Kash lined up his sights on center of target mass and fired the rail-generated armor-piercing blast round into the heart of the pulse generator. For a second nothing happened, only the sound of the round that was just fired ringing in thier ears. But then the generator erupted in an enormous explosion that blew Chaz and Kash back out the door, sending them flying into the wall across the corridor. The plastisteel was dented where they hit it, three feet off the floor. Kash rubbed his head, cursing. Chaz was dazed and sat up, trying to clear out the cobwebs.

 

Firan still stood in the room, one hand up, an invisible wall of Force protecting him. Even the smoke and flames rolled around him and he finally walked out, untouched. His hand went quickly to his earpice as he signaled the Brigade commander. "Target down." he said. His arm display said that they had 4 seconds left. The invasion had begun.