Chapter 3

The twin suns rise on the horizon, starting a new day. Sand sweeping across the land as it is carried on the breeze. For most, it's just another normal day on Tattooine, but for Phantom, it is something different entirely.

Snake sits up, groggily rubbing his eyes and yawning. He looks up to see Phantom walk in through the entrance.

"The ship is prepped and ready to go," he says without looking at Snake.

"You have a ship?" Snake says astonished.

"Yeah, a modified Y-Wing. It has a few bells and whistles that'll come in handy," he says as he gathers the few things he has. Snake stands up looking impressed.

"So what's the plan?"

Phantom finishes packing and turns to face him saying, "I met up with Dagger this morning. He's waiting with a bigger ship several klicks past Mos Eisley. We will dock inside once once we leave the atmosphere and then head to Sullust."

"Why Sullust?"

"A couple Commandos were captured there doing pretty much the same thing we are. Someone tipped off the troopers that they were coming. So we are going to go in, rescue the Commandos, help kill the recover their friends, and move on."

Snake stands there and thinks for a moment. "That's a bit risky but doable," he says after a moment.

"And going to Mustafar isn't?" Phantom counters with a grin.

"Good point"

On that note, the two of them walk out of the cave and start walking to where Phantom's Y-Wing sits. It's a bit of a walk, but it keeps the ship hidden amongst the ridges. Crossing through multiple tunnels and climbing ridges, they arrive at their destination with R6 mounted in the Y-Wing. He greets the two clones as they arrive.

"Well that is definitely interesting," Snake says as he sees the ship. With the Y-Wing being a mix of colors due to being repaired and parts being replaced, it does look rather odd. It also looks bulkier and longer due to the internal modifications that were made to it.

"It may look weird, but it is beautiful. You'll see what I'm talking about later on."

Snake hops into the gunner seat and Phantom the cockpit, and they take off. They fly across the barren and harsh land to Dagger's location. Upon reaching it, a large freighter takes off from a canyon and flies ahead of them, heading for the atmosphere. Phantom pitches the Y-Wing upward and follows them. The freighter stops once it leaves the atmosphere and the Y-Wing docks, entering from the back. phantom shuts down the ship as they land they all hop out.

"Hey buddy! long time no see!"

Phantom turns to see Dagger, a pilot that was part of his Squadron once, walk out of a corridor.

"Hey," he says as he brings Dagger in for hug.

"Nice ship. where'd ya get it?"

Dagger gets a guilty look as he says, "well...let's just say I borrowed it."

Phantom lets out a grunt, understanding what he said.

Looking uneasy Dagger quickly says, "so! let me introduce you to the crew." He walks to the corridor, motioning to follow.

The other two follow Dagger onto the ship. the walk through some hallways and arrive in the main hold to see a couple Mandalorians and a few other clones.

"You must be the Phantom everyone keeps talking about," one of the Mandalorians, a male, says.

"That's me."

The Mandalorian walks up and shakes Phantom's hand. "I'm Raider. This is my companion, Elara. We are bounty hunters from the planet Mandalore.

"Nice to meet you both."

One of the other clones walks up and introduces his crew. "I'm Sage. These are my brothers, Vermillion, Sparrow, Ace, and Frostbite. We were with the 41st Elite Corps. Ace is a Headhunter pilot and the rest of us are Krayt Battalion commandos. We've heard a lot about you."

"Is that so? It's nice to meet you all, and to see that I still have brothers out here. This is Snake, a brother from my unit. He is an exceptional sniper."

Raider pipes in, "oh good, we can definitely use one of those. Especially going to Sullust."

"Yeah that'll be fun," Phantom says, totally with a ton of enthusiasm. "We just need to make it quick, that place is pretty secure I imagine."

"Oh of course," Sparrow chips in. "And some 327th clones are there. They aren't exactly happy with us investigating them before 66. They put a bounty out on us after they found out. Almost killed us a few times."

"They're just regs though," Frostbite adds.

Phantom counters, "yeah but you can't underestimate the 327th though. That will be a grave mistake, trust me."

"Yeah, Sparrow and I know that all too well," Vermillion says with a sigh. "They are definitely a formidable force."

"So what's our plan of attack?" Sage pops in.

"Phantom and I can hang back and provide emergency air support," Ace answers.

"Play it quiet huh? I can provide overwatch then," Snake adds.

"Us commandos can sneak in behind here," Vermillion says as he pops up a holo map from a console. "And the Mandalorians can flank one of the sides."

"I can hang back with R-6 and guard the barge," Dagger says.

The former commandos look at each other. "we can flank the East side," Vermillion says after a bit.

"Well, let's get to it I guess," Phantom offers.

They all agree and start getting everything ready to take off for the assault. From prepping ships, to gathering supplies, and establishing comms, there was still work to be done. It only took until sundown, though, And they were off.

They pull out of hyperspace just as they enter the atmosphere and skim the surface of the world for just a moment. The ship rocks, throwing everyone around.

"I did tell you guys to buckle up," Dagger says.

"Yeah, well, you didn't say you were going to nearly kill us," Sparrow groans, holding his head. "I've had worse though."

"Get ready guys," Phantom orders, "we are almost there and we have to be quick."

The pilots hop into their starfighters and fire up. The commandos get ready to drop and the Mandalorians to fly out. R-6 decided he would go with Phantom to be his gunner, even though Phantom tried to persuade him to stay with Dagger because he could use the help. The Y-Wing wouldn't need a gunner he would say, but R-6 wasn't going to accept that. He knows all too well.

The two ships take off and get in position while the barge continues on. Smooth flying until the ship gets rocked by multiple explosions.

Losing altitude for a moment, Dagger scrambles to figure out what happened.

"What the-. What was that?"

"Dagger, you got bombers on you," Phantom clicks in.

"Well get them off me!"

"We can't, we just engaged fighters and we're about to lose comm-"

Comms go static and Dagger slams his fist on the panel.

"They knew we were coming somehow."

"Tattooine is a small place," Snake offers.

An alarm starts blaring.

"Great, they hit the fuel cells somehow."

Another barage hits them.

"Shields are down. We are too big to maneuver, and we can't fight back." He grabs the mic to the ship's speakers and says, "listen up! y'all are jumping early, we are about to go down" He sets down the mic and looks at Snake.

"You should get ready."

"Right."

Snake turns and starts to walk away as the ship gets hit hard and plummets, crashing into the volcanic land below.