Not Very Routine

[Subject 73 Red]

Kathryn Foster

Red continued to fire upon the pirate forces, covering their escape. The pirates had gotten to their speeders and ships, and were giving pursuit. The pirates fired back, blaster bolts flying all around as the high speed firefight continued. Red shot down a pirate driving a speeder bike, watching the bike crash into a rock and explode. A blaster bolt pinged off of the speeder Red and Kathryn were on, and Red returned fire.

Then, Kathryn came over to Red, telling him that they were alright. Then, she pointed out his shoulder wound and told him to stay still so that she could patch him up, she even asked to remove his armor. Red waved her away. "I'm fine! It's just a flesh wound! I'll be fine!" He told her.

Then, the pirate ships closed in. They fired on tthe speeders. A few STAPs exploded, and one of the landspeeders crashed into the ground. The gunner on their E-WEB got hit and went tumbling off the speeder. Red got up and got on it. "We need to destroy those ships! Otherwise we won't make it!" He yelled. A couple of the soldiers in their speeder pulled out rocket launchers. "Open fire!" Red yelled.

He activated the E-WEB. It started spinning up faster and faster. Then, he fired it. A hail of blaster bolts spun out as he fired out at the pirates. He killed one of their speeders, but they just kept on coming. "How much further?" He yelled over the battle.

"Two more klicks!" The driver yelled.

"Hurry it up! We need to get to friendly forces, or we'll be sitting ducks!" He replied back. Red turned his attention back to the chase, continuing to fire on the pirates.

 

[Kathryn Foster]

Kark, that man was stubborn!

Well, he would have it his way for now. It was true what he said though, that they better put laser in the air to gain firepower superiority over the pirates. Monumentaly tierd from both their internal arguing and exhausted from the fight with the pirates, Kathryn cursed inside herself. Curses and words that would have had anyone in her squadron to drop their jaws in surprise. Chit had realy been alot today. She threw a quick glance back at Nya and told her to stay down, before she decisively hauled herself and the BAW-88 carbine over the aft railing of the landspeeder.

''You'll be fine until we reach the base!''

Then he would get a scolding out of this world. She didn't say any of it out loud, but she thought it before again unsecuring the carbine and fired short, well considered bursts towards their chasers. About half of the blaster bolts hit their intended target, the exhaustion taking its toll on her accuracy. She still had plenty of battery left though so that she could join Red in his created firestorm from the E-Web. Their now combined professional firepower and the STAPs protecting them started to scare atleast some of the pirates off, only the stupiest remained on their tail.

Subject 73 Red

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Kathryn Foster

Red nodded to her, and continued firing on the enemy pirates. Another one of their speeders exploded, but they didn't seem to want to give up. Then, suddenly, the E-Web stopped working. Red checked the charge; it was empty. It was out of power. "E-Web's out of power!" Red yelled out. Then, a pirate gunship flew alongside them. Without the E-Web, there was nothing to scare back the pirates. The gunship flew overhead, firing down at them. The pirate speeders regrouped, and were closing in on them. Red got off of the E-Web and took cover alongside Kathryn. "Great, the one thing I didn't bring was a rocket launcher. It was just supposed to be a standard patrol!" He growled.

The gunship flew overhead, passing over them. It fired a rocket, it crashed into the ground near them. "How much further?!" Red asked the driver.

"Half a klick! We just need to get over this bridge!" The driver yelled back. Red looked forward, and saw the bridge. It was wide, enough for four land speeders to move side by side across. Red was appalled, it was too exposed, they would be easy targets. Their landspeeder flew onto the bridge, with all the others in tow.

"The gunship's flew off!" One of the soldiers said.

"Must have run out of ammo. Good enough for me!" The driver said.

"Yeah, no kidd- OH CHIT HE"S ABOUT TO TAKE OUT THE BRIDGE!" Red yelled.

The gunship flew back overhead, and fired multiple rockets at the bridge, exploding the section right in front of them, cutting them off from escape. Red watched as the driver tried to stop the land speeder in time. The land speeder in front of them flew off of the bridge, the driver not able to stop it in time. "Stop the bloody speeder!" Red yelled. The driver shut off the engines, but they were already moving too fast. The driver turned to the speeder to the side to try and prevent them from going over the side. The land speeder hit a piece of rubble sticking out, and flipped hard, throwing everyone out. Red flew through the air, and hit a piece of bridge sticking out, hard. He blacked out for a quick couple of seconds from the force of the landing.

A couple of seconds later, Red woke up on the crumbling section of bridge. He was laying face down, on his stomach. He breathed heavily. He coughed and looked around. His vision was blurry, but it started to clear up. His helmet got knocked off, and was nowhere to be found. All around him, debris and rubble lay as the bridge slowly crumbled. Red got to his hands and knees, then managed to stand up, though uneasily. A small splatter of blood was on the ground beneath him. He walked forward. His part of the bridge was dangerously lower than the rest, leaning down at an odd angle, barely being supported by the now exposed durasteel foundation. The bridge cracked a little, and the piece of bridge he had just been on fell down into the chasm.

Red carefully moved through the unsteady bridge. Near him, one of their speeders exploded. Pieces of the bridge dangerously shifted and crumbled and cracked. Red raised his commlink. "The bridge isn't going to hold! Move move move!" He yelled out through the comms to the survivors. He walked forward. He saw the girl, Nya, laying on the section in front of them. Red moved over to her fast. Then knelled down next to her. "Hey, you alright?" Red asked her, gently shaking her.

She seemed startled, then relieved to see Red. She nodded to his question. She must have thought that she was the only person who survived, and that she would have to go back to the pirates. She seemed... shocked, and scared. She did have some wounds, and was bleeding lightly. Red took out a bacta spray and started spraying her wounds. "You're gonna be alright. You hear me? You're gonna be alright. We're gonna make it. I'll make sure you don't go back to them." Red told her. Nya seemed grateful. Sure, he had been a bit rough with her when interrogating her, but that's what you were supposed to do in an interrogation. Now, he didn't have to scare her.

"Come on, let's get moving. Can you stand?" Red asked her.

"Y-yes. I think so. I think my ankle is broken, though." She said, trying to moved her foot, and then wincing at the pain.

Red helped her to her feet. He draped her left arm over him, so that he could support her and help her walk forward. They had to get off the bridge, at least from their crumbling section temporarily. Red could hear blaster fire from where they had come from. So there were other survivors. A section of bridge tilted and laid against their section creating a ramp for them. One of their soldiers ran past them. "It's about to collapse! Get your ass outta there!" He yelled before running off towards the fighting.

But wait, where was the Major? He couldn't see her anywhere, and he sure as hell wasn't leaving her behind. "Major! Major Foster! Where the bloody hell are you?!" He yelled out.

 

[Kathryn Foster]

The rapid fire coming from beside her suddenly stopped. Having to check it, Kathryn stopped too and turned her head towards Red and the E-web. Her guesses was confirmed and sent a chill down her spine - what superior weapon they had was down and could not be counted on anymore!

Kathryn fell into a droop. A sigh of defeat left the exhausted major. As a realist with both feet on the ground, it was hard for her not to do. The odds were against them once more, even though a small spark of hope was to get within reach for the bases sensors and defenses. The seconds passed as the driver tried to utilize the airspeeders abilities to the maximum. Trying to outrun the pirates still following and using the short-range sensors to send a distress call to the base.

Kathryn glanced over to Nya who sat in cover of the airspeeders railing. Defenseless and without an extra weapon to spare, Nya was unable to contribute to the fight, even how much she wanted to. She was also just a little girl, about fifteen or something. Everyones lives depended on Red and Kathryn now. She could not let this setback bring her down. With those thoughts and the sight of Nya, the major felt the energy and hope coming back to her.

The sound of larger engines now reached them and Kathryn threw a glance to her side of the speeder. An old and outdated, but well armed gunship was about to align itself with them.

''And I thought we couldn't get any more screwed!'' she replied to Red's equally annoyed statement about their situation. An ordinary patrol, yeah right!

Kathryn ejected the power cell and let it hit the dusty floor of the airspeeder, before she fiddled up another one from one of the gear vests pouches and quickly inserted it into the carbine. Its display glowed with the number ''90'' again - fully loaded and ready to fire. She mustered the carbine up over the railing and aimed for the gunships cockpit and pilot. It was their best shot now when they lacked explosive weapons.

She managed to get a few shots away, before the airspeeder suddenly hit a rock and sent them slap-bang flying out. Kathryn hit the ground with a hard thud which made her grunt, but the adrenaline hid the agony, for the time being. The force of which they had been thrown out of the speeder sent her into a violent roll down a small hill.

She woke up looking at the geonosian sky after what felt like hours, but she could still hear blaster fire from up the hill, so she couldn't have been passed out for that long.

"Major! Major Foster! Where the bloody hell are you?!"

It was Red that called for her. Now she felt the effect of the hit to the ground, but could drag herself up quite good. All dusty and dirty, with the helmet asquint, she got to her knees and looked around for the blaster carbine. It was gone. She felt and looked down her leg holster and luckily the blaster pistol was still there. She drew it and made a quick check to it before she stumbled to her feet and with the arm wiped some sweat and dust from her face.

''Red?! Nya?! I'm here! Stay in cover!!'' she yelled back and took herself up the hill as fast as she could, unaware of what might meet her.

Subject 73 Red

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Kathryn Foster

Red heard Major Foster yell out back at them. Good, so she was still alive. Although, it sounded like... Oh god, she was running into the combat. "Major! No!" Red yelled out. He climbed up the broken piece of bridge laying on theirs, then helped pull Nya up. The pieces of bridge were still crumbling, leaving some sections still dangerously unsteady. Red helped Nya further down the bridge, trying to get to a safe position.

Red looked further down, and saw the fighting taking place. The pirates had trapped the Confederate soldiers on the bridge between them and the gaping crater in the bridge. The Confederate forces took cover behind anything they could find, mainly large pieces of rubble. The firefight was intense, with the pirates that had stayed behind now arriving, reinforcing their ranks. They came by both speeder and gunship, rappelling down the gunships via cables coming out of the gunships. Red helped Nya into a good piece of cover, then set her down in the cover. He handed her a blaster pistol. "Anyone aims a blaster at you, shoot them." Red told her. Nya nodded. Red pulled out his blaster rifle.

"Right. Stay here! Wait until me or Kathryn comes back!" Red told her.

Red ran off into the fight. He took cover behind another piece of rubble. The pirates were coming further to the middle of the bridge. Red fired at the pirates. He shot one down, then mowed down another. One tried to aim from their piece of cover, but Red saw him, and shot him down. Red continued to fire at the pirates.

Red tried to contact command. "Command! This is Recon! We're under heavy fire! Requesting gunship support at map grid 382747!" Red yelled into his comms.

"Copy that Recon. Ah, we'll see what we can do. We have information that CDC Platoon 738 might help you, but we cannot confirm at this time. Command copies all, good luck, out."

"Useless nerfherder!" Red swore.

"Major Foster! We have no support! We're on our own, ma'am!" Red yelled out to her.

 

[Kathryn Foster]

With the blaster carbine nowhere to be seen, the odds was considerably worsen. Kathryn didn't have the time to look for it, either. She needed to move now to where the blaster fire was coming, helping Red and her comrades to finally get out of here. Crouching and peaking up from behind a sand dune, she saw Red advance while the few others that were left was protecting their position at the damaged bridge.

Her mind raced, thinking of what to do to buy them more time. She took a quick look around and found out that she could get closer to the pirates using the sand dune and a few large rocks that was conveniently placed on their right flank. She knelt down and checked her gear vest, she had two grenades there that could pick a few of them off if she made a good throw. They could also serve as a distraction for Red and the others to regroup and reload.

Cursing once under her breath, she hurried hidden along the sand dune and up to the first rock. She took another careful peak to get her bearings. The pirates was all busy with fighting the others. With their leader dead, they only had a few minor chiefs with an agenda of their own and would not think twice about assasinating each other when the opportunity revealed itself. The difference in tactics and discipline could clearly be seen between the pirates and the Confederacy forces. She had never seen such a well equipped rabble of space pirates, though.

Major Foster advanced one rock at a time closer to the pirates and finally within an estimated good throwing reach, she made a halt and pulled the pin of the first grenade. She made the other one ready in her other hand, aiming have it blow close after the first. She aimed on a group of pirates gathered behind cover and threw the first one, then pulling the pin on the second and threw it at an advancing group of pirates.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds...

The violent explosions disintegrated a good couple of pirates and wounded a few more. It stirred up dust and made the cover of the first group of pirates crack. Hopefully, they would not know what hit them or where it came from. Even if so, Kathryn quickly changed position to a rock closer to the bridge and could pick off a few more with her blaster pistol. What a dog day afternoon this turned out to be!

Subject 73 Red