Project Ares Gold Edition

Chapter 43 - Searching

Pillar of Autumn - Yavin 4

When news of Blue Team's capture reached the Jedi base on the surface, a shuttle was immediately scrambled as Anakin, Shaak Ti, Ahsoka, and Obi-wan all went up to the fleet to see what they could do. In the war-room, most of the clone officers were already present, the only missing being Wolffe, Bly and Appo, all of whom were out on missions and unable to help.

Cody was taking a backseat on this particular issue, he was already in charge of the rest of the fleet and had so many problems that needed his attention like their constant need of resources and repairs needing to be made to the vehicle pool. Thorn was also preoccupied at the moment, having been placed in charge of co-ordinating comms and intel for over a dozen currently active missions around the galaxy.

That left Rex and Fordo to handle the massive search that was going to be placed on Blue Team. When the Jedi arrived from the planet, Shaak started brimming with tears when she received the full brief about what happened. According to the last logs recovered from the Forward Unto Dawn, Blue Team was ambushed by a massive Imperial fleet made up of at least three cruisers and a Venator. Having taken damage to the engines, Blitz and Streak were apparently forced down to the planet's surface where Blue Team held off the stormtroopers for as long as possible before all comms were lost. "Alright then, what are we doing to find them?"

Regretfully telling Skywalker that there wasn't much they could do given their current position, Rex hoped that the returning Spartan had some plan to get them back. Just then, the massive blast doors opened to the war-room as the heavy footsteps of the Spartan could be heard as Chief moved to the table. Saying that he has a reliable intelligence source on Coruscant, Chief explained that all they could currently do was hit a variety of old Republic military intel sites and communications hubs to try and decrypt some data with a possible location. It was here where Fordo reminded the group that they should still have searching for Project Orion as their main priority.

Despite Shaak and Anakin's protests, Obi-wan sided with Fordo, stating that they all knew just how efficient Master Chief was during the war and if these new Spartans were even half as capable as 117, then the galaxy would truly be lost. Agreeing with Kenobi's wisdom, the group turned to Chief and asked what their next targets were. Given his history serving among the GAR's intelligence community and black ops, Chief gave each their respective assignments, which would typically involve pairing a Jedi alongside a few clones for the sake of numbers.

Chief, Cody, Waxer, and Boil would depart and go to Maridum and investigate the crash site of the Dawn to hopefully get a lead as to where the clones might have been taken. Meanwhile Anakin, Ahsoka, Rex, and Kix were going to do some light recon around a known Imperial facility on Ryloth that processed prisoners and resistance fighters in hopes of maybe accessing their judicial database. As for Kenobi, Shaak, and Fordo's team, they were tasked with continuing to slow down the Empire's plans for the stormtrooper program.

With Chief flying a V-wing and the rest of his group in an ARC-170, the team set course for Maridum before jumping into hyperspace. They were not expecting to find much, but it was worth a shot and currently it was their best lead to try and find Blue Team. At best, they would be able to recover valuable intel regarding who took them specifically, whether that was a clone unit, stormtrooper force, or some special forces team. This would help narrow down where that unit might be stationed and provide an opportunity to gather more intel.

Forward Unto Dawn crash site - Maridum

Dropping out of hyperspace after a few tightly cramped hours in their fighters, the ARC-170 and V-wing made their way down to the planet's surface and approached the crash site. Initial observations showed that the shuttle was in decent shape, with only one of its thrusters damaged and some small arms fire damaging the exterior. After landing and inspecting the wreckage, the Dawn was almost completely intact, credit to her pilots' amazing flying skills.