Krest | A Star Wars Story

Chapter 24: Reconnaissance

1145 hours, 21 BBY

West Wing, General Rakarth's Fortress, Kogg Sector, Planet Heldia

"Tell me, something Commander, if these guys are supposed to be 'masters of the siege and defenses, how come they had to call us in to help? You know, during a siege? Why not just shell the place till there's nothing left?"

"Heldia is a tricky planet with a tricky situation." replied Alpha-42 better known as Commander Rays of the 525th Elite Battalion - "The Scorchers". "General Rakarth is a vile woman--if you can even call her that--who is not known for her hospitality to the enemy."

Fortitude ran his flashlight across the dark corridor as he continued his survey of the maintenance tunnels underneath the main level of Rakarth's fortress. He was under direct order from Krest himself. Although Rays outranked Krest, Krest was the one in charge here. This was doubly so as General's Skittarr and Yao'l had gone up to deal with the newly arrived Separatist reinforcements that were trying to break through the Republic blockade. Krest had told him about Rays' reputation and what she'd done to Yao'l's padawan. ordered him to do digging into the fortress to see if there were any "guests" that she had locked up somewhere.

"Aaaaarghh," replied Major Vaargalou or 'Gala' the Scorcher's Wookie officer.

"Yeah, the padawan too...the Captain just wants to make sure he covers all his bases." Rays shrugged as he started down a small vent shaft. The comms fell silent as he crawled along the tight corridor. While he did trust Krest's intuition he did have to agree a bit with his subordinate's point. Why did they have to call them in?

Eventually, he came upon a vent grate. Rather than use his flashlight and alert any potential enemies in whatever room the grate leads to he pulled down his helmet's macrobinoculars and switched on their night vision. His mouth silently fell open as he gazed upon a horrid sight. The room was filled with people, some wore civilian clothing while others wore the militia BDUs that Rays had seen the other militia wear when he first arrived. A handful of clones were also in the group. They all sat on the ground, shackles on their wrists. They looked battered and exhausted. Rays kept scanning the room looking for signs of possible entry and possible cameras or security turrets when he spotted a series of dark silhouettes along one of the walls. He zoomed in for a clearer view and saw captives hooked up to horrendous machines. Their faces were gaunt and several mumbled incoherently. Rays quickly activated his comm and contacted Krest.

"Krest, you were right! There's a whole dungeon in here!"

Infirmary ICU, Republic Staging Area Outside Rakarth's Fortress, Kogg Sector, Planet Heldia

"GET ME TWO BACTA PADS AND A PAIN KILLER SYRINGE NOW!" yelled Triage, the 76th's newest medic as he desperately tried to operate on a militia man's leg. The militiaman was laid onto a stainless durasteel table, contracting and yelling in pain as Triage worked. "WHERE'RE THOSE PAINKILLERS??"

"If you can hold him, I have some plants in my back that can numb the pain. It'll calm him down." Shaman suggested, holding the militiaman down as he thrashed about on the table.

"What? You mean that poison?" Triage scoffed. No thank you, we'll treat him like we treat all the other patients."

"But it'll help our supplies last, we gotta play this smart." Shaman retorted.

Triage looked up from the man on the table and scowled at Shaman. "There is no way I'm treating one of my patients with whatever pagan ritual you've got cooked up."

***

Krest stood idly, reading over the same datapad containing photos and some recorded video of Rays' findings when a shouting match erupted. Shaman followed by Triage stormed out of the medical tent yelling at one another.

"You cannot go around treating troopers with some backwater gobbledygook!" Triage scolded, jabbing a finger at Shaman who threw up his arms in protest.

"This happen often?" Rays asked as he took the datapad from Krest.

Krest didn't even shift his gaze as he sighed exhaustedly. "Not these two again."

"It has worked before! I know for a fact that it works!" Shaman retorted. "Many of these troopers had been treated with my remedies! It's not some backwater gobbledygook! It's medicine just like those chemicals you keep in those syringes! The difference being: that this is all-natural!"

"You're not gonna find some mystical healing plant in the middle of a battlefield! Medical science has proven to work 100% of the time!"

"I'll deal with this..." Krest sighed, walking over to the bickering couple.

Triage immediately stood at attention and saluted. "Captain, I was just voicing my concern for Shaman's fondness of using non-"

"Both of you need to lock it down NOW!" Krest hissed. "You have half the company watching you bicker like an old married couple. Either you get along or one of you should put in a transfer request!"

"Skipper..."

Krest didn't even reply as he turned around and returned to Fortitude who just looked at him with a hint of concern. Krest was stressed out more than he'd ever been in his life. He wasn't a stranger to being the sole commander for a campaign, after all that's how he spent most of his service. But those photos that Rays took. He didn't want to believe it but...Vera could be in that photo, in that room. It'd been weeks since the assault and there was no word on her whereabouts. He found it incredibly difficult to accept the possibility that she was gone but now, he could barely come to think about her strapped up to whatever machines were in those photos.

"This just makes things a lot harder," Krest muttered as he looked over the photos again. "We have two objectives now, rescue those captives and capture Rakarth."

"I understand that in times of war they punish POWs but this isn't punishment, this is just cruelty. As much as I'd like to go in and rescue those captives right now. But we can't let her keep getting away with this."

"And she won't," said Bric as he approached. "I think I speak for General Yao'l when I say she's either facing a trial or a firing squad."

"Bric, good to see you, how goes things in orbit?" Rays greeted.

"Our blockade is holding but we're taking hits. The General put out a call for reinforcements but who knows when they'll arrive." Bric explained.

"Any word of either of the Generals coming back down to the surface?" Krest asked.

Bric shook his head, brushing a hand through his mohawk. "No clue, Yao'l was leading a fighter squadron last I heard and Skitarr was up at the command ship overlooking the whole thing. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if either return."

"Well, either way, call in your men. General or not, we gotta move this campaign forward."   

(A/N: WOOOOH THIS TOOK A WHILE! First off I wanna apologize sincerely to all of you for the lack of chapters. I just finished my Uni semester and was moving house the past few weeks. But I couldn't leave you guys hanging like this any longer! I know this chapter isn't too eventful but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. Also, KREST IS 1 YEAR OLD WOOOOOH. May 13th, 2020 was the day I uploaded the first-ever chapter of Krest | A Star Wars Story titled "The Crystal Planet". So happy 1 year anniversary to Krest and to all of you who've shown me an astonishing amount of support and love for Krest since day 1 and I hope you guys keep sticking by us! Thanks again to LP Marcus Writes Fanfiction for allowing me to use his OCs the Scorchers! we got to see a bit of them in this chapter but there's more to come! I'll keep on chugging and I hope you guys keep on reading!)