Chapter Text
Tacts had taken the hour to get acquainted with his new squad. Sitting across from him, Mute was leaning forward, staring at the dejarik board.
Tacts was faced towards Bite. “So this is a stealth squad? I haven’t been on many stealth missions.”
“Stealth and ambush is our strategy. Works ninety percent of the time.” Bite said.
Mute finally made a move on the dejarik board, smirking at his decision. Tacts glanced at the board, then eliminated one of Mute’s creatures. Mute’s smirk immediately disappeared. He returned to leaning forward and staring at the board.
Tacts turned back to Bite. “This is an unusual set up for a small team. One Commando, one defective clone, you in modified commando armour,” Tacts pointed to Bite. “and myself, an ARC.”
“This squad was slapped together, Tiger’s kind of picky about who joins.” Bite glanced at Tiger, who was resting in the corner of the room, eyes shut.
The team was pinged to report to the hangar bay for departure. Mute’s attention lingered on the holoboard until it was out of view as Bite pulled him out of the room. The team was given time to prep however they’d like before heading out. Investigating the factory had a generous time window, unless the separatists decided otherwise.
Mute stuffed a few thermal detonators onto his person and hauled a rotary cannon towards the LAAT, looking at Bite.
Bite sighed. “I won’t stop you this time, we might need that, just in case.”
Mute grinned ear to ear as he hauled the canon onto the LAAT.
Once the team was prepped and in the gunship, Mute climbed into the cockpit and flew out of the venator. The ship’s nose then tilted downwards.
“I’m just glad we’re not in the juggernaut.” Tiger remarked, white-knuckling the overhead grips.
Tacts’ head turned to Tiger. “The juggernaut?”
After some time, the gunship landed gently on solid ground. Tiger and Bite were thankful for such mercy. The doors slid open and the crew stepped out.
A few B1s stood guard outside, one pointing at Tacts. “Look! The commander is back!”
“Welcome back sir!” The droids saluted as the team approached.
“Keep a lookout for the ship.” Tacts pointed his thumb to the ship behind him.
“Roger roger!”
Bite, Tiger, and Mute stared at the droids they passed on the way inside, blasters, and rotary canon in hand. Tacts hadn’t armed himself, but he kept his hands close to his holsters.
“Commander.” A handful of droids marching through the hallway saluted as the team passed by.
“I don’t think I can get used to this anytime soon.” Tacts commented.
“Same here.” Tiger said.
Bite stopped and turned to one of the saluting droids. “Bow.”
The droid now stood at ease. “To you? Fat chance.”
Bite pointed his rifle at the droid, earning a surprised noise from it as it put its hands up.
“Hold on.” Tacts pushed Bite’s rifle downwards. “What are your orders?” He asked the droid.
“Our last order was to stay here and hold down the fort.” The battle droid replied.
“Besides that, anything else?”
“No sir.” The droid shook its head.
Tacts hummed, eyeing the droid with suspicion.
“Let’s see if we can pull information from the terminals.” Tiger proceeded onwards, the rest of the group followed behind him.
The squad had no trouble getting to the central hub. The droids they encountered didn’t shoot at them, but the troopers refused to let their guard down. Around battle droids, their stroll was suspiciously unhindered. With caution, they headed through the doors to the central hub.
“Commander.” Some of the droids straightened up and saluted.
Tacts only gave them a heavy sigh. Hearing ‘Commander.’ repeatedly from the same high pitched droid voices chipped away at his patience. Mute shoved a spindly battle droid over and posted himself at the terminal with Bite hovering over his shoulder. Tacts was questioning the droids for anything they knew while Tiger stayed alert and still armed.
“What do you need us to find?” Bite asked.
Tacts pushed a couple droids aside and walked over to the terminal. “Might as well grab shipping manifests. I’m interested in where these droids are being sent.” He said walking up to the terminal. He continued after a brief pause. “I was hoping these droids can be spies for us.”
“Would that work?” Bite glanced at Tacts.
“If these droids don’t hiccup, it might.” Tacts replied.
Mute unceremoniously jammed a dataspike into the terminal’s port and began searching for manifest data.
“I was also thinking… I want to take over a separatist star frigate.” Tacts added.
The whole team turned to him.
“That’s ambitious. What for?” Tiger questioned.
“It’ll be a way to transport a bunch of droids.”
“But we have venators.” Tiger pointed out.
“I wouldn’t trust a bunch of these droids on our own ships. If anything happens, at least it will be on an isolated ship we can blast to pieces. Besides, a separatist vessel will make it a lot easier to implant our spy headquarters.” Tacts said.
Tiger hummed. “Good point. Still ambitious though.”
“It’s a reward I’m willing to gamble on.”
“How will we execute this plan?”
“I’ll brief the droids. There’s only hoping they stay loyal. But first, I have something I need to do here. Continue grabbing data.” Tacts left Bite and Mute at the terminal. “Droids, come with me.”
The droids straightened up. “Roger roger!”