I stood beside Rex as we watched the two speeders enter.
Rex had came back 45 minutes after my little encounter with the Chairman. Rex told me that I did the right thing but should be more respectable.
However I knew the Chairman would die soon and that would be for the best.
Obi-Wan and Anakin stepped out as our troops checked their ships for problems.
Rex stepped forward while I remained behind.
"Glad you made it back, sir. It's getting nasty out there." Rex admitted.
"You don't know the half of it." Anakin said amusedly as they stepped up to the Chairman, his guards and the Senator.
I stood beside Rex the entire time.
"What did you find?" The Chairman asked Obi-Wan.
"It seems we've stumbled onto an inhabited planet." Obi-Wan said, and the Chairman immediately got angry.
"Impossible. Our explorers have spent much time here over the long history of Pantora. No one lives here. They're trespassers." He exclaimed.
"With respect, Chairman Cho, these creatures, the Talz, aren't advanced enough to master space travel. I think they may have been here longer than Pantora." Obi-Wan argued back, and he was correct of course. The chairman just were too radical to see it.
"Whoever they are, they belong to us. This whole system belongs to us." He exclaimed once again with anger.
Senator Chuchi stepped forward to calm him.
"Your majesty, if there are life forms here, then the Senate must decide jurisdiction."
"They are savages. Look at what they've done. They've slaughtered your troops." The Chairman tried, working hard to convince the Senator to agree with him. It would provide him a major boost.
"They only want to be left alone. The droids attacked them, and I'm afraid our outpost got caught in the middle." Obi-Wan tried to reason.
"They must be subdued. They're dangerous. Captain Rex, prepare your troops for battle." The Chairman said, it seems he knew Rex was in command and he probably gave up commanding me.
"We promised their chief there would be no retaliation." Anakin said as he stopped Rex, although I doubt Rex was thinking about following the Chairman either way.
"We've arranged a meeting between their high council and you and the Senator. They want peace." Obi-Wan said.
"We can't send troopers. They'll think we lied." Anakin admitted.
"These creatures are little more than animals. You can't lie to an animal. They can't be trusted." The Chairman said, obviously it wanting to be convinced otherwise.
"But, your majesty-" Senator Chuchi tried. I honestly felt bad for her.
"No! It is obvious these creatures are not covered by the convention of civilized systems. The Jedi Council has no say in the matter." The Chairman said.
"If the Jedi are able to communicate with them, their status is in doubt." The Senator acknowledged correctly, she was well within her rights to say that.
"Do you stand against your chairman, Senator?" The Chairman accused dangerously.
"Of course not, your majesty." Chuchi said, poor Senator.
"If we're going to meet with Thi-Sen and his council at the arranged time, we'll have to leave now." Obi-Wan said.
And with that we split up, I went straight to the pair of Generals.
"Generals, I'm afraid the LAAT's cannot take off in this weather, and our speeds can only carry 3 Squads." I told them, Rex too had the same idea as he approached us.
"Have the rest of the men stand by here. No matter what the chairman thinks, we're not going to war." Anakin told the pair of us.
"Yes, sir." We responded in unison.
"Vaughn, have Lieutenant Tyr remain here with Tornado Squad and have Blue Squad remain, however you'll be coming with me." Rex said, maybe he wanted revenge for me not coming to the CIS base.
"Oh no, I get to finally fight instead of argue with the Chairman, what a great sorrow." I said sarcastically into our comms, however I smartly shut off the helmet mic.
Rex just chuckled before we got a move on, directing men to the speeders.
And with that I got on and began driving.
...
Soon enough we reached the base, although flying a speeder is somewhat enjoyable, the fun kind of diminishes when your entire team is watching the Talz following us.
I exited the speeder and walked alongside the Chairman, somehow Kenobi's decision to have me assigned to the Chairman was just enforced after he came to the conclusion I knew the rules.
"Captain, have your men form up on those ice ridges, we'll attack as soon as the Talz arrive." The Chairman said, and I wisely shut up as Obi-Wan, Rex and Anakin approached us.
"There will be no attack, chairman." Obi-Wan told the Chairman as he approached us.
"You will do as I command. This planet is under my jurisdiction." The ever enraged Chairman shouted.
"Nothing is under your control, Chairman. The Talz are already here." Obi-Wan said, just in time for the Talz to come over the ice-ridge and stand up from under the snow, where they were this entire time.
"Rex, come with us. Vaughn, stay here. And don't enrage the Talz." Anakin said, Rex meanwhile shrugged from beside me before walking off.
I turned on the external mic.
"Alright, stand down. This is now a demilitarized zone and we shall keep it that way. Blasters in patrol position, stay near the speeders. The Talz have yet to be determined as hostile or friendly." I shouted, and they quickly put their weapons down, and with that the Talz relaxed a bit as well.
...
About straight up five minutes later the Talz walked out first, shouted something I couldn't understand.
It was followed by the Chairman issuing orders.
I stood at attention and listened to him, but luckily he walked away after;
"Troopers, mount up and follow me."
Obi-Wan, Anakin and Rex approached me.
"Bad news, I suppose?" I asked the trio.
"The Chairman declared war, and pronounced this as an 'Internal affair', he won't listen." Anakin said.
"Vaugh, Rex. You two will stay with the Chairman, protect him at all costs." Anakin said once again.
"Yes, sir." Rex responded, but I stood still before speaking up.
"Sirs, you do know. Because he declared it an 'Internal affair' we have no responsibility to protect him, nor Pantora?" I asked them. They looked at each others before sighing.
"You're quite the lawyer, eh. Vaughn?" Anakin joked, but Obi-Wan sighed.
"I suspect it to be something along those lines. But if we abandon the Chairman then he will return and exterminate the Talz, we need to make peace." Obi-Wan said.
I almost forgot these two were Jedi, they wont leave a species to extinction.
"Understood, General. We'll protect him." I told them as I turned around and walked towards the rest of the men whom were mounting the speeders.
The formation was simple, the Chairman in the middle. Rex infront and I in the back.
And with that we sped ahead.
Halfway through I had noticed that the Talz scouts were increasing.
"Chairman, may I suggest we form a defensive perimeter here?" I asked through the bike's comms.
"Captain, why would we do that. We have the advantage and these 'Talz' are no more than beasts, they're no match for our speeders." The Chairman said confidently.
"Sir, with all due respect. We are strongest on steady ground, we are not trained BARC Troopers, but the 501st is the best at direct confrontation." I told him, and with that he ended up actually considering it.
"Captain Vaughn is correct, we've fought multiple Battles. All on the frontlines, none in speeders." Rex said. Good thinking Rex.
However, the Chairman then spotted 3 of the Talz infront of us.
"Fire when in range!" He said, he sounded excited.
"Chairman! They're leading us into an ambush!" I exclaimed, and I saw we were approaching 2 large ice mountains on both sides of us, and I saw a slight reflection coming from it.
"It's an ambush! Halt your speeders and form a defensive perimeter!" I shouted and our speeders immediately began slowing down, although the Chairman wanted to continue he knew he needed us.
And we stopped just in time for Talz to stand up in front of us, coming out of the snow, however due to our stop we were still 10 meters away.
I stopped my speeder sideways in the front, as the speeders created a half circle.
However, the Talz decided not to wait on us and they were now rushing forward, on their mounts, meanwhile a few were throwing spears.
"Rex, we need to deal with the spear-throwers!" I shouted at him, I could use the helmet comms, but I didn't need to.
Rex nodded before shouting new orders.
"Triton Squad! Focus on the Talz on the Ice Mountains! Anakin's Squad and Phalanax Squad, focus on incoming cavalry."
I smiled at that before I began unleashing fire myself.
Cameron and Lucky remained at the base, but right now I'd prefer to have 'em here.
My eyes quickly discovered that the mount would be an easier target, I aimed at the closest one, and a single shot rang out.
It hit the Lion-Wolf Creature, forcing it to stumble and groan, but it quickly got up with angry eyes.
My eyes narrowed as another shot rang out, and this time it was gone for good.
"Focus on the Mounts! They can take 2 shots." I shouted out and I immediately saw a lot of the Clones previously aiming at the riders switch target.
The forward Talz's wave numbers were reaching a dangerously low numbers, but my ears then caught further screaming and I looked to my left, coming down the Ice Mountains were the Chieftain and his most skilled warriors, they were about 50 meters away.
"Rex, I suggest we move forward, They Chieftain has descended so they are unlikely to have a further ambush." I said, this time into the comms.
"Good plan." Rex said and both of us began shouting.
The Chairman, whom were previously standing in the Open lost one of his Guards, I approached him.
"Chairman, we're leading the Talz into a trap further down, you need to get in your speeder." I told him.
He looked reluctant at first but eventually got into his speeder.
The Chief was getting closer and closer, his troops coming in from both sides.
However just as the Chairman was about to take his speeder away, a Talz Spear speared itself into his back.
He immediately fell back.
Rex heard the grunt and looked back, he prepared to end the retreat.
"Rex, continue on. I'll protect the Chairman!" I said as I ran towards the Chairman.
I threw my DC15S away as I grabbed his left arm, and threw him over my shoulder.
I held him with my right arm while taking out my left DC17 Pistol.
I shot a cavalry Talz whom got a bit too close as I found a speeder without the drivers shield.
The one used on planets other than snow covered ones.
I threw the Chairman over the front, right Infront of the Pilots seat.
I then got on, while continuing to fire upon the incoming Talz.
I barely managed to get away, just in time for a Talz Beast to land where I once stood.
As I sped ahead I focused towards the front. I put my DC17 in it's holster as I focused on driving the speeder.
I saw a Talz Warrior stand up Infront of me, coming out of the snow. Be likely expected me to evade to the side but I steered right at him before shooting, killing him after releasing 4 shots.
I then evaded his falling body as I went back.
Soon after I caught up with Rex and the remaining attack force. We lost half of Triton and Phalanax Squad, at least according to my HUD.
However, our successful retreated ended with a dead end, the exact same as what happened in the cannon.
And the Chairman is about to die as well. It's good that too much didn't change.
As I joined the defense formation, Rex was already putting up formations. I formed my ship at the before carrying the Chairman to the speeder the furtherst behind me.
I turned around to look at the Talz, and hundreds, perhaps thousands of them have formed in a half circle and were charging at us.
Everyone was waiting anxiously, knowing unless reinforcements came, this would be the end.
And like that we waited anxiously, I crouched Infront of a speeder and aimed both DC17's at the incoming Talz.
However, the engagement did not last, I barely shot off 12 shots, killing 8 animals and 4 Talz before the LAAT's arrived.
And with that I relaxed, hopefully this mission would be over now.