Chapter Nine - Geonosis

"Hold the transport for five minutes while I grab my gear, Captain," I said.

"Sir, we're supposed to be gone," Fordo responded.

"That's an order, soldier. Five minutes."

"Yes, sir."

The next few minutes were a rush as I darted around the small apartment, strapping on armor pieces while I slung weapons into my bag. Quite frankly, I had no idea what we were going into other than one hell of a fight, so I brought everything I could think of. My Verp went into its holster on my hip, my knife into its shoulder sheath, and DC-15a long rifle on a three-point sling around my shoulders so it hung across my front out of the way of my legs. A Trandoshan APC array gun went into my kit bag, along with my disassembled DH-447. A few other pieces of kit and weapons followed, then I was out the door, following Fordo to the staging area. "Sitrep, trooper?" I bit out as we ran through the halls. I was hauling, but Fordo was keeping up, even despite my stat-boosted physical abilities. My men were the epitome of human ability. Eat your heart out, Erskine.

"Anti-Republic insurrectionists took a group of Jedi prisoner about eighteen hours ago. One of the Jedi was here a day or two before that, and chased the Manda'lor off-planet. Now the Jedi Council is calling us in to support a Jedi rescue mission," Fordo explained between breaths.

Everything was as I remembered it. I hoped I could save Jango in the melee that Geonosis was about to become, but I wasn't holding my breath. At the least I would find Boba and raise him as a proper Mandalorian. "Got it, captain," I said as we arrived at the staging area. We jostled our way onto one of the last gunships of 77th troopers right before it lifted off of the platform. Looking around, this was the first time I saw my men in their proper combat armor outside of limited training exercises.

Each of my men wore a slightly bulkier variant of ARF trooper armor, the distinctive helmet augmented with extra sensors and the body armor with higher-grade plating, roughly equivalent to the clone commando's Katarn armor. The base color was the same dark orange as my own Mandalorian armor, though each trooper was free to personalize it from there however they liked. The ja'ig eyes above my own eyepiece had been earned by several other men in the battalion, including my company leaders. We all wore webbing of a similar type to what I had worn in my previous life, minus the plate carriers obviously. Shimmercamo cloaks were stored on the back of the webbing, though I was the only one whose cloak hang off of my shoulder plate, similar to the small cape Boba wore in ROTJ. My men carried a motley assortment of weapons, from the standard issue DC-15 series weapons, to the commando DC-17, to more exotic weapons like sniper rifles, bowcasters, and slugthrowers, both Verpine and others.

My men were a motley crew, but they were also just as lethal as Skirata's Null ARCs. Speaking of which, one of them was on my gunship, smashed against a bulkhead. A few shoves and I was across the gunship, leaning against the bulkhead next to him. "Su'cuy, Mereel. Ready for a real fight?" I said.

His face was covered by his helmet, but I could hear hear the smile in his voice. "Ready and raring, Commander," he said.

"Stay close once we're on the ground, soldier," I returned. "It's going to get hot real fast down there."

"How do you know that?"

"It always does, Mereel. It always does."

A few minutes later, the gunship touched down on the deck of an Acclamator-class Star Destroyer. I couldn't resist a moment of internal fanboying. For God's sake, I'm a nerd and I was standing on a fucking Star Destroyer! How cool was that? After a moment I reigned my emotions in, and started giving orders, clustering my men together in one section of the hangar. A few commo conversations with my company commanders, and men from the other three companies began to filter in. Soon enough, the entire company of five hundred and seventy six men were assembled in one corner of the cavernous hangar. I stood over them, perched on top of a pile of ammo crates. "This is the real thing boys. You're the best trained, you're the best equipped, you're the best period. Get some shut eye while you can and get ready to kick some shebs."

It took several hours to transit to Geonosis. Luckily, I knew we'd arrive in time, but it was still amazing to me how perfect the timing would be. I'm not sure where we were when Yoda and the other Jedi who hadn't gone with Mace linked up with the fleet, but I felt it. A massive surge in the force, impressive when nearly a million of the three million strong clone army was all clustered in one place across a small fleet of warships. It was a few hours after that that we shuddered out of hyperspace above the rocky planet. When they had announced over the tannoy that we were closing in, I had ordered my men back onto the gunships. I rode one, and each of my company commanders and Mereel rode separate transports. If one was shot down, I had issued contingency orders on who took command of which unit.

As soon as we cleared the asteroid belt, the gunships launched, flying out into the blackness of space and angling down into the gravity well towards the planet. Vulture droids began launching from asteroid-based charging docks almost immediately, only to be torn apart by V-19 Torrent starfighters launching from behind us. As the asteroid field turned into an aerial battlefield, the gunships carried on towards the ground, the concussion missile launchers mounted along the dorsal ridge and the forward laser cannons firing at the occasional ground-based Vulture.

We broke out of the clouds, the doors on either side of the transports swinging open to allow troopers to clamber into the bubble turrets on either side. Looking out, I saw a massive open-air arena down below, right at the terminus of our approach. Sometimes the universe just dropped things right in my lap. I looked across at the other gunships and saw a diminutive figure that could only be Yoda in a nearby transport. We closed within range on the stadium, and I opened a comms circuit to the men on my gunship. "Snipers! Take any shots you can get! Heavies, take over once we're in range!" I shouted over the wind.

A pair of troopers carrying DH-447s stepped forward, hooking their webbing to hardpoints on the hull to hold in place. A second later the steady bdapp of sniper fire began, audible even over the sounds of aerial combat all around us. Four more troopers moved up behind them, hooking in to other hardpoints and bracing a pair of Z-6 rotary cannons and another pair of Merr-Sonn reciprocating quad blasters between themselves and the hull. As soon as we entered range, the snipers stepped back, stowing their long guns and drawing DC-15a carbines from the small armory on board. The heavy troopers cut loose, the rotaries spewing a massive stream of blaster bolts at the bunched up droids in the arena below. The quads added their heavy fire to the mix, blasting apart groups of B1s and smashing super battle droids into the dirt. Even droideka shields went down after a few blasts from those heavy guns.

When we hit the dirt, I was the first one out the door, my long gun up and firing. A pair of troopers, one with a Z-6 and other with a 15a carbine, flanked me on either side, destroying droids around the landing site while the rest of the three squads on board unloaded. We pushed in, firing almost non-stop at the waves of droids coming at us. When we needed to reload, another group took the front, while we paused and swapped power packs. The shock of our attack had worked in our favor, even against droids. There were dozens of destroyed droids behind us, and only two or three trooper corpses. I winced inside. I had always hated losing men, and nothing had changed in this life. There's a reason I had worked alone until Kamino.

After about twenty minutes and twenty years of fighting, we broke into a more open area in the middle. Droids destroyed by lightsaber strikes now outnumbered ones wrecked by blaster fire, and a ring of Jedi stood separated from the droids by a meter or so. We broke in right in front of Anakin and Obi-Wan, who both tensed for a moment at our sudden appearance, then relaxed when the rest of the company I had assembled across the battlefield turned and engaged the droids.

I stepped toward the Jedi, transferring my rifle to my left hand and clapping Obi-Wan on the shoulder with my now freed right. "Su'cuy gar, Kenobi. How you been?" I said, grinning under my helmet.

"Ryn?!" he said, the shock evident on his face.

"Good to see you to, jetti," I said. "Fancy a ride out of here?" It took less time to fight our way back to the LZ that Trauma and Alpha's men had secured, largely because my unit linked up with the rest of the company led by Fordo and Gregor's company, augmented by whatever troops Mereel had scrounged together. My men held the area while the Jedi loaded onto the gunships. As we prepared to lift, I pulled Trauma aside. "Lieutenant, pick two men and have them secure Jango's body. Boba should be around here somewhere as well, tell them to grab him as well and take it all back to the staging area," I said.

"Copy that, commander," he said, then turned around. "Banks! Jek! Draw some ammo and whatever weapons you want for a solo op!"

The troopers he had indicated moved towards the gunship that carried the majority of Vornskr Company's spare weapons and ammo. While they were busy pulling out what they needed, I walked up behind them. "Pull a couple of speeders," I said. "We may not be able to spare a gunship and the staging area is a long ways away with an armored corpse and a kid."

Banks looked up, startled at my sudden involvement. "Yessir," he sputtered. "Right away, sir."

"Relax, Banks," I laughed. "I'm an officer, not a kriffing jetti wizard."

That drew a chuckle. "77th! Mount up!" I yelled, turning and boarding the nearest gunship. Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme were all aboard the same ship. "You really do have a penchant for getting in the middle of problematic situations, your highness," I said.

"Senator now, actually," she responded.

"Of course, how could I forget about Naboo's elected monarchy?" I said drily. I turned towards the Jedi as the gunship lifted. "Obi-Wan. Good to see you again. I presume this is the boy from last time?" I indicated Anakin with a nod of my head. I knew the answer of course, but I couldn't have them knowing that.

"He is," Obi-Wan responded. "You know, I was… inspecting this army not long ago. I didn't see you anywhere in my tour of the facility."

"Ah, so you're the surprise visitor that had Lama Su's pants in a twist," I said. "I had my men out on maneuvers while all that business was going on, missed all the excitement. Seems wherever you go excitement follows. Anywhere in particular you need to be dropped?"

Anakin had been leaning out the gunship door, but now he pulled his head back inside. "Master! Dooku's right below us on a speeder!"

Obi-Wan turned to look at me, but I held up my hands helplessly. "I have my orders, Kenobi. They don't include chasing random nobility on some jetti apprentice's say-so."

Anakin rounded on me. "Nobility?! He's Sith, he's the one behind…"

Obi-Wan cut him off with an upraised hand. "I understand that, Ryn. Is there any way you could transfer us so we can pursue?"

I thought for a moment, then opened a tight band to a nearby gunship, not one of mine. "Pilot, prepare for midair passenger transfer. I'm sending a couple jetti and a Senator your way."

Apparently I was known enough outside my unit for my orders to be followed, since the response came back fast. "As ordered, Commander." The gunship matched our speed and edged as close as it could, the wings almost touching ours.

I looked back at the small group. "There's your ride, fellas. One of you grab the Senator and jump for it. The pilot'll hold there until you're secure."

The two Jedi looked at each other for a moment, then Obi-Wan turned back to me. "Ryn, perhaps something a little less risky, we can't afford to endanger the Senator anymore than we already have…" Behind him, Anakin grinned stupidly at Padme, then grabbed her around the waist and jumped. They landed safely, and Obi-Wan realized what they had done even before he finished speaking. He sent me a plaintive look, obviously asking what the hell was wrong with his apprentice, then turned and hurled himself through the void.

He landed safely, and the gunship split away from me, angling away on the same vector Dooku had taken. Meanwhile, my small flotilla of gunships carrying myself, Fordo, and Sleen Company angled towards the primary staging ground. Alpha and Nek company had been deployed to secure the area around the coliseum, Gregor and Acklay had been sent after a weapons and ammo dump, and Trauma and Vornskr had gone hunting for Poggle the Lesser, an entire company necessary because of the size of his escort unit. On landing, my men quickly secured a perimeter while myself, Fordo, and a couple of his sergeants circled up to figure out our next target. Yeah, I lied to Kenobi. What? I remembered what happened to the gunship they took and I needed as many of my men alive at the end of this as possible.

We were working out which nearby droid factory would make the most sense to hit (and I was trying to figure out which one Delta would be raiding so we were out of their way), when someone I had been hoping to avoid until much later in my plan, if not completely, came storming up. Mace fucking Windu, flanked by Aayla Secura and Kit Fisto. Them I wasn't worried about, but the man who single-handedly ruined the word motherfucker might be a problem. "Clone! Gather your men and follow me!" he shouted at Fordo.

"Request denied, General," I replied at normal speaking volume. I knew he heard me based on the double-take I saw out of the corner of my eye. This was not a man used to be being refused bluntly.

"I don't think you understand, Mandalorian," he spat the word out like an epithet. "This is our army," he gestured at himself and the two Jedi with him, "and I'm commandeering this unit for the duration of this battle at least by my authority as a general in the Grand Army of the Republic."

Wow. He'd been a general for an hour or two and he was already throwing his weight around. I hate kriffing Jedi. "This unit doesn't fall within the GAR command structure, General," I said, turning and facing him directly. "As such, you have no authority to take my men. Oh, and that's Commander, not Mandalorian. I'm sure the quartermasters could use some help sorting supplies if you want to actually make yourself useful." I was going to regret that line, but this role was the only one I had ever seen Samuel L. Jackson in that made me dislike him.

"I don't know who you think you are, mercenary, but…" he started talking more, but I was sick of his bullshit. Screw it, I was already on his radar. Might as well shoot the moon.

I had turned back to the table after my little rant, but now I rounded back on him, my hand dropping to my belt. And past my Verp, to the other bit of hardware I had started carrying. I had never seen someone's expressions change so quickly, unless you counted changing to fear right before they died. Mace didn't get scared. He just got very, very calm when the tip of my lightsaber rested in the hollow of his throat.

"We've been trying to figure out who managed to get in and out of our security on Illum for months," he said. I only shrugged in response. "Do you know how to use that?" he asked.

"This may be the first lightsaber I built myself, but it's not the first I had to practice with," I said. "Understand?"

Mace's face had darkened at those words, then understanding seemed to come across his features, and he actually stepped back. "You're the one Kenobi met during the Naboo Crisis, aren't you?" he said. "The one that killed Jedi at Galidraan."

"I am," I said. "Now, are you going to keep trying to poach my unit, or will you find your own?"

"We'll be talking about this," he said, a flicker of anger crossing his face. "For now, we'll be on our way, if you'll have your men stand down."

Now that I wasn't focused on Mace's reaction, I realized that at the same time I had lit my saber, Fordo and his sergeants' weapons had been drawn and aimed at the Jedi, leading to the rest of the company that wasn't on perimeter guard either taking aim at them or at least lifting their weapons to ready low. Shit. That probably wasn't the best impression. Then again, neither was threatening to take his head off with a lightsaber. Though that seemed to have played out better than I expected, since he seemed to have more respect now. "Stand down, troopers," I said. "The jetti were just leaving." Mace nodded, then turned on his heel and strode away, the two others following after a moment. Fisto seemed amused by the entire situation, though if I remembered right he found most things amusing. Secura looked murderous. She always had had issues with emotional detachment.

I turned back to my men. "So. 92a looks like a promising target," I said.

"Yup. Looks good, looks good," one of the sergeants said.

"Agreed." Fordo threw in.

"So..." I began.

"Yeah, let's go," Fordo said. "Sleen! Prepare to move out!"

Troopers rushed around, securing spare ammo, swapping out damaged armor plates, and swapping weapons for gear better suited to fighting through tight tunnels. I dropped my long rifle, swapping it out for my APC array gun and a 15s carbine. The carbine went into a long holster just forward of my Verp, and the scattergun went around my neck on a sling. I had just stood up from checking my ammo levels when a pair of BARC speeders came skidding up, a small figure bailing off of one of them before it had even come to a stop and heading straight towards me.

Boba Fett smacked into my armored leg at full speed, and locked his arms around my waist. He turned up his face towards me, and I could see one emotion on his face: pure unbridled rage. His face ran with tears and snot, but the look on his face would make a rancor take a step back. I understood. I had been there before. The first time I lost a man in combat. The second time. The third and fourth too. Point being that I understood his need to do something. To strike back, to take revenge. But I couldn't let him. It would be counterproductive to my plans. Counterproductive to Boba becoming who he needed to be as well.

I crouched to his height and wrapped him in a hug. "I know, ad'ike. I know," I said.

"I'm going to kill him. Mace Windu. He's dead meat," the boy muttered.

I was suddenly very glad that Mace had cleared out as fast as he had. "Okay," I told him. "Okay. We'll kill Windu. But not now. First we need to survive this battle. And even after that you'll have to wait. You'll need training, weapons, armor. Most importantly you need time and experience, or you'll make a stupid mistake and get yourself killed."

"WHAT?!" he shouted. "You want to let the jetti shabuir that killed our father live!?"

I pulled off my helmet and cut him off with a look. "No," I said. "There are bigger things going on here than our need for revenge. Have patience, and everything will work out in our favor."

"How do you know?"

"Because I'll make it work out our way."