The Clone Wars: Shadows of Darkness/Chapter 2

Boomdodger peaked around the large Felucian plant and looked down at Spite Fortress from atop the hill he stood upon. Spite Fortress was not large, although was definitely intimidating, but not to him. He turned back and made sure his weapons and armor were completely prepared, and then he began to sneak towards Spite Fortress as he thought of Dulgan Rethana, wishing the farmer would help him with this assignment. But he could not entirely blame him - perhaps he did not want to risk his life again, he never had to. Rethana led a simple life, Boomdodger had crippled that life and brought upon him a new one. Maybe if Boomdodger made it out of Spite Fortress alive, he would apologize to him, if necessary.

Boomdodger rolled behind a pile of crates near the main entrance to Spite Fortress, and he saw that it was being protected by several B1 battle droids. He looked around for an alternative entry way, but was abruptly stopped by the sound of something, or someone perhaps, kneeling beside him. Boomdodger turned around and nearly jumped when he saw Dulgan Rethana hiding behind the crates with him. "Where did you come from, Rethana?" Boomdodger immediately whispered at the farmer, who was also looking around for another way in.

Rethana shook his head, waving the question to the side. He pointed to a window far above them, and said, "That doesn't matter. Do you have any wall-scaling equipment? We can climb up there and break in through the window. In fact, it looks like that window goes straight into some sort of a control room." Rethana stood up, helping Boomdodger stand up as well. The clone winced slightly as he did, the pain returning slowly.

"Yeah," the senior clone commander said. The two moved towards the wall, and Boomdodger took his blaster rifle. He fired it at the wall just above the window, and once the cable was all set, he told Rethana, "Climb on my back and hold on. This shouldn't be too hard." Rethana climbed onto his back and he began to climb up the wall, once they were near the window Rethana used his spear to shatter the glass, and the two climbed into the control room, looking around them once inside.

They were met by nothing but a large terminal. Boomdodger rushed to it, placing his weapon on the ground beside him. "Guard the entrance." Boomdodger removed his helmet and placed it on the table, and then began to type into the terminal. After a quick search, he found something that would surely prove quite useful. "This says that... there's some sort of a conspiracy? Supposedly against the Jedi, from what I am reading... I need to find more." But as he said that, the alarms began to blare, and Rethana was met by the blast doors opening, an alien figure walking in, followed by several droids - one of which was a super tactical droid. "Wat Tambor," Boomdodger spat at the ground in front of Tambor, taking his helmet and blaster. "Hands up, Seppie scum."

But Tambor only laughed. "You have set yourself and this local up, clone." He lifted a small hand-held button, his thumb over the button itself. "Turn yourself in now, and this place won't be blown to bits. Retaliate, and you will perish."

Boomdodger knew Tambor was not that stupid, although he was a coward. "If you blew up this place, then you'd be going down with it."

"For a good cause, of course." Tambor held out the hand-held button, "What will it be, clone?"

Boomdodger turned to Rethana and said to him, "Download the files I found, and gather as much other intel as possible, and jump out that window. I will follow you shortly after." Rethana raised an eyebrow, and Boomdodger said, "Trust me." Rethana moved to the terminal and began to download files onto a small drive. Tambor cried out for the droids to blast the farmer, but Boomdodger took a grenade and threw it at the many droids, destroying many of them. Tambor and the super tactical droid survived, however.

"LI-05, destroy!" Tambor shouted out as he ran out of the room. The super tactical droid moved towards Boomdodger, but shot it in a weak spot on the leg. He ran at the droid and removed its head with a quick blow, and then pointed his blaster at Tambor, who leaped out of the room as he pressed the button. Boomdodger turned to Rethana, who was already jumping out of the window. Boomdodger also ran for the window, knowing it would be too late.