The Song of Infinity

The Package

The group had climbed back up into the building, only to be met by a blaster at the grate. However, when the Clone Trooper, namely Hevy, noticed it was actual Clones and the two Misfits returning, he took a step back and offered his hand to the leading man. As they all stood up, Hevy snapped a salute at Commander Cody and Captain Rex, having probably noted who they are. He then said, "I'll be damned if you aren't a sight for sore eyes, sirs. We've got a lot of clankers coming up the proverbial hill now."

"Uphill, every way, Trooper," Rex spoke with a nod, then looked over to see the Sergeant in charge of the defense arraying their troops in various positions. The distant thrum of the landing ship's engines caused the gentlest vibrations in the outpost's air, but the presence of the two Clone officers seemed to have been felt. The Sergeant and the others soon turned to salute them, with Vic, Ves and Paul immediately smiling.

Rex hummed, then quipped, "You know, if I knew they sent a bunch of the Misfits over, I might've just brought the rest of you lot. Good to see you, Corporals, Sergeants," and offered the group a salute back. He and Cody approached the Sergeant, giving him a nod to relax, before asking, "Sergeant O'Niner. Situation on ammo count and your troops?"

"All in the yellow, still, sir. We'll see what happens when the Clankers send in that battalion they have on board their ship," O'Niner replied, checking his blaster carbine. He told them, "They really want this outpost... We think it's because they wanna strike at Kamino," as he took his helmet off, clearly dumbfound by the droids' strategy for this battle. Why try to take the outpost when what must've been the main objective, keeping the All-Clear Signal online, failed?

"They already lost the element of surprise if that's the case," Cody stated, taking his helmet off. He told the group, "Before we got blasted out of the sky, our sensors detected a large gravitational disturbance matching UNSC FTL at the edge of the system, meaning at least a Cruiser's coming here already..." And that got a few of the group to smile. The message had gotten through. Cody noted that they must've called the Cruiser in, then continued, "You can be sure they've probably sent out for a squadron of Venators to come support us. Either the officer of the fleet above wants us all dead for interfering, or he has a different plan."

O'Niner shrugged, "I don't know, sir. I'm not paid to think on wider strategies," and that got some laughs. He then told them, "It might just be the sunk cost at this point. They lost a platoon of Commando Droids for taking out two of our boys and the UNSC Pilot that the Misfits came here with," motioning to the Marines. He continued, "We turned off the All-Clear, too."

"That, we noticed," Rex nodded, then crossed his arms to his chest, "We thought it was the Droids jamming us when we spotted the fleet, though, so it's nice to have the confirmation of foresight. Well done, troopers," only to look toward the Droid with the bent neck and then to Paul's robot knuckle being scraped. He snorted at the thought of the man punching a droid's neck in like that.

"Sir," Droidbait grinned, "Just doin' our jobs, protectin' our home..."

"With some Basic lovebirds backing us up, mind ya," Cutup added as he readied his blaster, pointing jokingly toward the four Misfits. The other clones and the Marines let out laughter at that quip and the two Clone officers gave their nods of approval. Cody excused himself to go check the mines, to which Katja followed him in to ensure he wasn't going to step on any of the placed mines.

"Sergeant Toma," Rex looked over to Vesna, who nodded. She and Vic walked up to him and he told them, "How much of your platoon is currently away with the Infinity?"

"Rough estimates of of Seventy-Five Percent," Vesna replied as she shouldered her rifle, "Our officer, the Lieutenant, isn't with us, obviously. We've got a few more of our fellow Elite troopers with the Infinity for now, but they're waiting for injuries from Christophsis to heal, so we're the only ones who were capable of deploying here. Seeing how small the Outpost is, it's a good thing."