Chapter 5

Phantom couldn't believe it. One of his closest brothers is now trying to kill him. He had hoped anyone he was close to died or came to their senses, but that obviously wasn't what happened. How had they survived? It is Blue Squadron after all, tough ass clone pilots that never went down easily.

Phantom spins to avoid a volley and dives down. R6 boosts as the Y-Wing swoops down and eventually docks after a hard landing.

Having picked his droid, Phantom pulls up with Snake firing the ion cannon at the TIES above them.

Ace tails a fighter and sends it spinning with a couple shots. Dagger flies in behind and clears out a couple that were turning toward Ace. Phantom swings around amd clears out a few more, his shields getting peppered.

Dagger resecures the comms and says, "we need to get out of here, the going team can take of the rest until for now."

"I know," Phantom replies, "but it'll be tricky. how's the barge?"

"Fixable, but not while we are getting attacked like this."

"Anything you got on there that could be useful?"

Comms go silent for a moment as Dagger thinks. He remembers the previous owner saying that it belonged to wranglers and poachers before and that there were still creatures trapped in it before the ship was abandoned. Dagger remembers all too well what's on that ship.

Reluctantly he says, "I have a remote unlock for all the containment cells..."

Dagger waits in silence for what seems like ages, waiting for Phantom's response.

"Do it, release what you have. we will fly out and hope that they will have to respond to the distraction."

"Well, let's hope that that the ground team is inside already."

Meanwhile on the Ground

The ground team rushes through the halls, taking out stormtroopers here and there as they make their way to the control room. Upon getting inside the room, Elara immediately connects to the main console.

"Time to bring up some intel."

"Where are the Commandos?" Sage asks.

Elara does some quick typing, "looks like they are in the containment sector, cell 232."

The Commandos all shuffle out, a mental map from the screen in their head. They rush down the halls, firing at incoming stormtroopers. Several turns later They arrive in the containment sector. Tightly locked cells lined the walls on either side, bars that rose up from the floor preventing the exit of the inmates. The team arrives to find the cell unnaturally dark and quiet. The light was out in the cell and the hall was flickering in that area. The Commandos cough.

"What's that smell?" Sparrow asks.

Vermillion hits the button the right to lower the bars. The rods slide down quickly the room is exposed. The squad turns on their night vision and step into the cramped room.

The sight that greeted them was gruesome. Blood painting everything as well as what looked like guts. Two bodies lie crumpled in the back, slashed and torn open, guts spilling out, faces mutilated, limbs torn off. Sparrow kneels down and takes a sample of blood from both of the unfortunate souls and analyzes them on his datapad.

After a bit he says, "confirmed. Former Sergeant Buzz and Lieutenant Shadow."

"Damn," Frostbite walks out.

"Wasn't Phantom close with both of them?" Sage asks.

"That's what Dagger was saying," Sparrow answers.

After a bit, they all make their way back to the control room where the two Mandalorians have been awaiting their return.

"We need to leave. Reinforcements are coming in and we can't hold all of them off," Elara warns.

"Did you get anything?" Vermillion asks.

Raider cuts in with, "we can talk about that later, we're about to be rancor chow if we don't get out of here now."

"Fine, follow us."

The Commandos lead the Mandalorians down halls, which are surprisingly quiet. The group rounds a corner into an open bay and is met with with a volley of blaster fire, but no hostile in sight. The Commandos turn on thermal vision.

"Shadow troopers" Sparrow says as more fire comes in, "quite a few of them."

He gives some hand signals and the squad moves out and splits up. The Mandalorians look at each other and just go with the flow, taking the middle. They all find cove behind metal crates and vehicles. Frostbite tosses a stun and Sparrow pops out and finishes the two that were affected. The two Mandalorians suppress while the others make the kills. Vermillion and Sage crouch around the left side, sneaking up and breaking necks, then flanking the last troopers.

"Looks like we're clear," Sparrow annouces.

The group moves out of the building and heads out into the more rugged landscape. Moving along a ridge, they quickly put some distance between them and the facility.

After some distance had passed Vermillion asks, "so what did you find in there?"

Raider looks to Elara, "we found some information regarding a project by the code name Blackwing..."