A voice came over the radio. "This is Overlord, you are cleared for jump."
Tyler turned to the squad that was to accompany him through the front door. He faced his back towards the open door of the LAAT and saluted. "Happy dropping boys." He then proceeded to fall backwards into freefall towards the tree cover below.
A mage named Titus turned to the priest next to him. "Did he have a parachute?"
The priest named Moo chuckled and she replied. "No, no he didn't."
Each squad of experimentals was made up of five players and one commander. With the total of six players, they would have two healers, two tanks, and two damage classes. This was a much more balanced and effective combination than the current classes that only had limited medics in terms of healing.
Since Tyler was a Jedi, his squad was made up of a mage for damage, a priest and a paladin that were set up for healing, and then a warrior and a paladin set up for tanking.
Titus called out. "Well you guys know the formation. You better catch up before he gets in trouble like usual."
The warrior named Drax laughed heartily. "HAHA! It's not like the boss can't handle himself. I'm excited to see him in action!"
All of the remaining squad members jumped out of the LAAT, none wearing parachutes. Although they couldn't use the force like Tyler to cushion their fall, Titus the mage can use a spell called Slow Fall to have them gently descend to the ground. He waited until they were about 30 feet above the ground before casting it.
When they reached the ground, Tyler was already cutting through the blast doors with his lightsabers. Drax scoffed. "Boss, let me handle this!" He then roared like a wild animal, the force being excited by his battle shout. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Drax charged towards the blast doors, using his twin battle axes he struck them right in the middle. With that one strike, they shattered, exploding inwards with an explosion-like sound. "HAHA! NOW THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!"
Tyler chuckled. "I like this guy. That definitely got their attention!"
As he said this, a sea of droids began flooding the hallway, red blaster fire raining upon them. Tyler was waving his lightsabers, elegantly reflecting the blaster bolts into the droids before him.
A paladin named Nathaniel ran forward, warhammer in one hand and tower shield in the other. As a tank, he had a massive strength stat. "I got this, sir." He raised his hammer into the air, the force converging on it in the form of a warm and gentle light. It was almost holy in appearance. He then pulled his hammer down before slamming his tower shield into the ground. The energy formed a bubble around him, absorbing all of the blaster fire coming towards the squad. It resembled a droideka's one way shield.
Tyler smirked. "FORM UP BEHIND THE BUBBLE!"
The six players slowly advanced from behind the bubble, shielded from anything coming their way. As they moved forwards, a steady stream of damaging spells and strikes demolished the sea of droids.
*B1 Battle Droid, Infantry*
*Level 81*
*B2 Super Battle Droid, Infantry*
*Level 86*
Despite the players in the group only being an average of level 80, their output of DPS was more than enough to plow through the droids like a field of wheat before a tractor. With Tyler being nearly level 100 by now, he was doing quite well for himself.
Draco, 21 years, Jedi Master (Revanite)
Level 97
Mandalorian Human
At this point in the game, the average level of front line players was just under 75. Being the top guild, the average player level in Limitless was just under 78. The reason these experimentals are not higher levels is due to the fact that they had to spend years learning their classes from scratch. It was especially difficult for the players that were not already Jedi since they needed to learn to feel the force. Most of their time was dedicated to training while they would occasionally get power leveled by guild elders in order to remain competitive.
The game was released almost 4 years ago at this point. The unbelievable thing was that new players were still coming around. There are even massive professional esports within the game. Developments in the esports as well as general game changing events in the galaxy are considered front page news. Limitless, usually in the form of Tyler wearing a shit eating grin, often headlined due to their dominance within the game.
Nathaniel called out. "FIVE SECONDS!"
With this, the priest, Moo, prepared for the bubble to expire by gathering energy to cast a spell known as Power Word: Shield. This would allow the warrior to substitute in tanking the massive amount of damage being thrown at them. They were nearly through the battalion of droids so this was the final push they needed.
As the bubble expired, Drax dashed forwards. "HA!" The force rippled out as he screamed, forcing all of the droids to focus on him. All of their blasters now focused on him, ignoring the rest of the squad. By now, the shield had been cast on him by Moo.
Tyler smirked. He decided it was time to move on so he charged forward. With each sweep of his twin purple blades, swathes of droids were cut down, rendered as scrap. Quickly, the remaining droids were cut down with the combination of the damage from Tyler and the mage. Fortunately, they finished the droids before the six second effective period of Drax's taunt expired.
After the last droid was cut down, Tyler sat down on top of a super battle droid's torso. "You guys made this too easy. With this, the CIS is done for."
Titus sighed. "I wish it were that easy. I'm sure Sidious has something up his sleeve. Just think about how quickly the ion cannon was developed following the start of the war. If we get a big gun, they'll reveal something just as big if not bigger."
Tyler shrugged. "I wanna take a crack at Darth Grandpa, see if he's all he's talked up to be."
Everyone laughed at that. Tyler had a knack for coming up with demeaning nicknames that were pretty funny.
Tyler stood up after drinking some water. "Alright, break's over. Let's go find Dr. Nosecone."
Nathaniel led the way with his tower shield, advancing steadily towards the main lab. This was most likely where they would find Vindi, Padme, and Jar Jar.
Tyler was curious to see what Jar Jar was really like. Since he completely disrupted the gungans helping during the Naboo Crisis, he wasn't too sure how their relationship had developed. The guilds that are stationed on Naboo must have had something to do with it.
As they were walking, Tyler began to feel something cold in the force. Looking around, he noticed that his squadmates also seemed to be feeling a bit uneasy. "Stay vigilant. I sense the dark side up ahead. We might not be the only players here." Something just didn't feel right about this whole thing.
Suddenly, the cold feeling dissipated, vanishing as quickly as it appeared. It was quite unsettling.
Then, Tyler thought of something. "No, it can't be. That was just speculation…"
It was quite unusual. They met no resistance on their way to the lab. They doubted that all of the droids in the facility met them at the front door. Quickly, they reached the blast doors that led into the lab. Unfortunately, they were sealed shut.
Tyler started barking out orders. "Titus, get in position to blow the door open. Healers in the back, tanks right next to the door, prepare to charge in. On my mark."
He then pressed a button on his comms. "Gamma Squad, are you in position?"
A voice replied. "Gamma Squad is in position, sir."
The other squad was heading to the staging bay while Tyler's squad was heading for the lab. They would breach and clear simultaneously since the other squad's presence was not known as of yet.
Tyler nodded and smiled. "On my mark. Three… Two… One…"