The fall of House Dredd 4

"Republic troops incoming." Ash spoke calmly into his comm.

He was watching the column of republic troops advancing towards the palace through the scope on his sniper rifle from a prone position on top the large slanted roof of the eastern wing of the palace.

"Understood. We are going to start heading to the palace hangar bay and defend that position until he have a window to escape to orbit. There should be some droids coming to help us but otherwise we're on our own.

You're cleared to engage the enemy, try and harass them from a distance and keep them scared and confused. Once they get too close fall back and join us at the hangar." Cliff's voice sounded over the comm in Ash's helmet and he just clicked the comm channel off and on to show his acknowledgment of the order.

Ash watched as a jedi stepped out of the lead vehicle in the republic column and centred his sights on the man's head. The jedi was a Gran and his third central eye was perfectly placed to act as a marker for the centre of Ash's targeting reticule.

Ash squeezed his trigger and a split second later the jedi's goat like head exploded into a mist of vaporised blood and chunks of blaster burnt flesh, before splattering across the armoured vehicle behind him.

The republic soldiers following the jedi then scattered for cover but not fast enough to stop a soldier with the markings of a republic captain on his armour collapsing as a shot from Ash's blaster rifle went straight through his heart.

Ash fired a few more shots before repositioning, which proved to be a wise choice as moments later a rocket fired by one of the republic soldiers impacted the bit of roof he previously occupied to explode and send a shower of roof tiles arcing into the sky.

He continued moving and firing, every shot claiming the life of another soldier of the republic, but was unable to stop the large mass of republic troops form storming into the palace. He just hoped that the others were able to get lady Lilk safely to the hangar bay.

-

Lilk moved down the palace corridor at a brisk jog. She could see Cliff and Sabine moving just ahead of her, checking to see if there were any enemies lurking ahead of the group as they made their way to the hangar bay.

She could hear the others behind her, the servants and their families weren't in as good physical condition as the warriors of house Dredd and the old warriors who acted as Lilk's teachers were past their prime and so the run through the palaces long corridors was taking a toll on them.

Lilk was used to long runs as part of her training so wasn't bothered herself but both she and the warriors protecting them were conscience of the others and so were setting a slower pace.

Three of the four warriors protecting them were with the group. Cliff and Sabine were taking the lead and the third Xaz was protecting their backs. She could hear the distant boom of the fourth warrior, Ash's sniper rifle from the palace roof as they ran.

Sabine reached the end of the corridor first and Lilk watched as before the woman had a chance to turn the corner a squad of republic soldiers rushed from round the corner to greet her.

Sabine didn't slow down and instead accelerated towards the republic soldiers and threw herself forwards to tackle the lead soldier. The bone crunching sound of the collision between the high speed warrior and the soldiers midsection resounded through the corridor as they both went down to the ground in a heap.

Lilk almost winced in sympathy for the republic soldier, his ribs had definitely shattered to tiny little pieces by the collision, but he was here to invade here home so, screw him.

She watched as the rest of the squad who had been caught by surprise when form their perspective an armoured figure had suddenly appeared and tackled their soldier they had taking point. Lilk kept watching as the republic soldiers surprise turned to fear as Sabine drew two combat knives and buried them through the downed soldier's visor before diving towards the nearest living soldier and slashing through his femoral artery.

The man screamed as Sabine rose to a standing position, dark red arterial blood dripping down her armour. She then moved forward in a burst of speed to stab another soldier through the neck and at the same moment threw her second knife at a different man killing him instantly.

Sabine then drew a third knife as she danced through the republic squad like a violent and bloody hurricane. She used the force to control the knives she threw and soon the republic soldiers didn't just have to worry about the angel of death moving through their midst but also a series of wickedly sharp knives spinning round and slashing at them from behind.

More republic troops charged into the fight but were quickly either forced into the close-quarters death match with Sabine or were shot by Cliff who had rushed forwards to help and was firing away with his blaster.

Lilk used the force to pull the blaster of one of the fallen soldiers towards her and grabbed it and began firing away to support Sabine and Cliff. She might not have been as skilled as Cliff yet but she was still deadly accurate with the blaster and the republic troops were suffering under her well-aimed shots.

A Jedi knight charged through the crowd of republic soldiers and swung his lightsabre at Cliff who was barely ably to dodge it in time. Cliff was then forced to set aside his blaster and draw his Vibro-knife to duel the jedi at close-quarters.

The two were too close for Lilk to help without running the risk of hitting Cliff by accident and so she had to trust he would be able to best the jedi in the duel, she knew he was probably more skilled and his armour would help him greatly but the sight of him using a small vibro-knife to clash with the jedi's lightsabre was causing her some concern.

Cliff parried an over head strike from the jedi but was forced to use his free hand to block a force push that the jedi sent towards him soon after. He used a force push of his own to cancel it out but was forced to defend again as the jedi swung his lightsabre down in a two-handed strike towards his head.

He blocked the blow with his vibro-knife but the power behind the strike caused it to keep coming and the lightsabre's blade impacted Cliff's armoured shoulder. The jedi tried to push his blade further down to cut into Cliff's shoulder but Cliff used his vibro-knife to push back against the blade and gripped the jedi's hands with his free had and tried to push the man back.

The two became locked together neither side moving an inch. The jedi's lightsabre was still resting against Cliff's shoulder and although it hadn't cut through, the armour around the blade was beginning to glow as it heated up and was sending Cliff warnings about its integrity through the HUD in his helmet.

Cliff gritted his teeth and decided to break the deadlock by moving laterally. He tightened his grip on the jedi and dived into the wall next to them, activating hidden jump jets in his armour as he moved.

He hit the wall and the force of his dive carried him on through it and out into the open air on the other side before he started falling towards the courtyard down below. The corridor they were running through had been on the third floor of the palace so it was a short fall.

Cliff's armour protected him from the impact and from the jagged shards of stone from the broken wall, but the same couldn't be said for the jedi pulled along with him.

The jedi's bones were shattered as his unarmoured body, unable to beak through the wall itself, was dragged through the hole that Cliff had made. His robes did little to protect him from the jagged stones and great strips of his flesh were flayed from his body.

Cliff let go of the jedi as they fell into the courtyard and landed in a crouch. The jedi laned next to him a second later, his bloody form smacking head first into the ground never to move again.

Cliff looked ahead of him and just sighed as a republic armoured vehicle began adjusting its heavy turret to aim at him. Of course the courtyard he had fallen into was currently occupied by an entire company of republic army soldiers plus their armoured vehicle.

He heard his name being called and turned his head slightly to see Lilk standing in the hole he had made in the palace wall holding his blaster, that he had left behind when he had been forced to fight with his knife.

Lilk threw the blaster towards him and he used the force to pull it to his hand even as he dived behind the cover of a low wall to avoid the heavy blaster turret aiming at him.

He might be outnumbered but he was going to inflict as much damage on the enemy as possible before he even considered meeting his end. And besides with so many of the enemy troops in one place would just make killing them easier. At least now he wouldn't have to go looking for them.

Lilk watched Cliff begin battling with the republic troops in the courtyard before a armoured hand pulled her away from the hole in the wall and out of sight from the firing republic soldiers. The old warrior who was her teacher in force abilities strode past her towards the battle between Sabine and the remaining republic soldiers in the corridor.

Sabine had killed most of the soldiers and now there were only seven left who were aiming their blasters at her as she stood behind the corpse of a fallen republic officer, using his dead body as a shield.

The old warrior then raised his hand and the seven soldiers began flailing and shouting in alarm as they floated into the air. Their panic shouts were suddenly cut of as the old warrior closed his hand into a fist and seven sickening snaps were heard as the republic soldiers necks broke.

The bodies dropped to the floor and the old warrior kept walking forward, checking to confirm the way ahead was clear. Sabine rushed back to check on Lilk before ushering her to keep moving forward towards the hangar bay.

"But what about Cliff? We can't just leave him." Lilk said concerned and Sabine shot the hole in the wall a worried look before looking away.

"He'll be okay. We have to keep moving towards the hangar. He's a good fighter, I'm sure he'll meet us there." Sabine said, trying to convince both Lilk and herself as she began once again leading the group towards the hangar.

-

"Alright you rust buckets, we're hear to kick biologic ass and rescue lady Lilk and her companions. These republic fools probably outnumber us over a hundred to one so evidently they've decided to go easy on us, lets correct that thinking." A HK-51 Assassin Droid in charge of the first squad of droids, designated as Prime, yelled to the two squads of droids following him.

They were approaching the back doors of the Aruum royal Palace at a run and were ready to charge through any obstacle separating them from Lilk Dredd and the members of House Dredd she was with so that they could offer her their help.

"Haha, who are you calling a rust bucket? You're the one who's plating's still rusted from the time you fell in that ocean on that ice planet." The Hk-51 assassin in charge of the second droid squad joked as he ran beside Prime.

"You won't let me forget that will you?" Prime laughed back.

"Ha, nope." The second Hk-51 laughed.

The two droids had known each other for a long time and were as close friends as two droids could be. The bond they shared made them almost brothers.

They had been manufactured on the same day long ago on Nar Shaddaa back during the Great Galactic war and they had been stored next to each other on the same transport ship once they were exported off world.

Their transport had crashed during its journey and they had been trapped in the wreckage for many years, quietly sleeping away the boredom. They had been rescued by warriors of House Dredd who had then taken them back to Aruum and repaired and upgraded them.

House Dredd had rescued a number of droids from the crash and also the schematics for the HK-51 assassin droids, house Dredd's leader at the time had then decided to use the HK-51 design as squad leaders in house Dredd's droid army.

The two droids had each been given command of a squad but still remained close and would quite often be deployed together as part of a larger team. As the leadership of house Dredd's droid army had recognised that they worked well together.

"You're not perfect you know," Prime said jokingly as they reached the palace doors, "You've done plenty of stupid stuff too Alpha."