Republic Commando: Phi Squad

Part One: Geonosis

"The RepublicCommandos are the best.I'm honored to have taught and led these incredible soldiers. They'reeasier to work with than most Mando'ade I've encountered. I am sureyou will realize the benefit of both their genes and their training."

Sergeant Rav Bralor,Cuy'val Dar, in a transmission to Master Arligan Zey

0700Hours, Battle of Geonosis, Month 5, Day 22, 22 BBY, remote canyon 2km South of front lines

Thunder. Andlightning. Or was it the booming and flashes of explosions? Ka'rtacertainly couldn't tell, taking the sounds and flickering light to bethe weather on his homeworld. He was abruptly woken by his sergeant,now that they were in the field, Ajax. Sergeant Bralor was still onKamino. They had been deployed so rapidly, none of them had had thechance to say a proper goodbye. It tended to leave a gap.

It wasn't thethunder and lightning of Kamino Ka'rta had been hearing all thistime. He'd fallen asleep to the sound of explosions and blaster fireon Geonosis.

"Welcome back tothe land of the living," came the familiar, smooth sound of Ajax'svoice.

"Were wefighting?" Ka'rta said weakly. "Did I get shot?"

"Yeah, you werehit. We got evacced from the battle zone and you were still incapped.Buckler gave you a quick dose of bacta, and you slept prettysoundly."

"Good to know.Thanks, eight." Ka'rta blinked his eyes, activating his HUD. Aflurry of data came rushing at him, in all shapes and colors. A quickglance off to the side, and he could hear the sounds of battlechatter through the audio system he'd just activated. He wanted tofind out what was going on on the frontline two klicks out. Throughthe static, he could begin to make out the chatter. He knocked on hisbucket a couple of times, and just like that, the static was gone.

"...point fivetwo, headed your way."

That's not aCT's voice,Ka'rta found himself thinking. Soundslike an Alpha ARC.

"Copy that,Commander. Two tin cans, mark five two."

Commander. Thatexplains a lot.

The unforgettablesound of Geonosian wingbeats came through the comlink. Ka'rtainstinctively ducked.

"Did I forget tomention the bugs?" The voice of the commander.

"Yes, sir," thetrooper replied. "You didn't tell us there were bugs around here."

Ka'rta slowly beganto get up from his instinctive duck.

"Listening in onthe battle?" inquired Ca'ad. He looked quite relaxed, sittingthere in his matte black night ops armor. Ka'rta tuned his audiosystems back to the squad channel. The nice thing about thespecialized Katarn helmetwasthat nobody could tell what was going on in your bucket unless youhad the comlink on, or you didn't hide your body language. You couldbe having a heated argument underneath those helmets, and nobodyoutside would know the difference.

"Yeah. Remind menot to do that so soon after sleeping. Especially after theflashbacks I keep having. You remember some of those sims, don'tyou?"

"Don't listen tobattle chatter this early," Ca'ad responded, reaching out to Ka'rtawith a joke, something to lift his spirits.

"Yeah, thanks. Bighelpnow,"Ka'rta said, rolling his eyes, obviously responsive to Ca'ad's littleattempt at humor.

Buckler looked upfrom calibrating his explosive DC-17m anti-armor attachment. "Lookwho finally decided to join us for caf. Now I get to be a littlelouder, nobody left to wake up."