Serran

Chapter 15: Terror on Chandrila

She then looked over at the squad to the far left. "Squad Bonvoy, you will stay on the ship as a lookout." She looked over at the squad that had the trooper who mocked her. "Squad Xaz, you will stay on standby until further notice." The trooper rolled his eyes at her.

"That's what you get for making fun of your superiors." A trooper next to Xaz joked quietly. Xaz shot him a dirty look.

Meera cleared her throat. "Squads Snyder, Pekula, and Droth, you will scout the east, west, and south areas of the building and outside areas. Squad Coomes, you will accompany me with the north side." She explained.

A trooper with dark red hair raised his hand. "If we encounter any terrorists, do we shoot to kill or capture them?" He asked.

"To answer your question Coomes, shoot to capture. Only shoot to kill if you have to." Meera answered.

~

The ship landed on a large landing pad on Chandrila. The mission officially began. Meera stepped off the ship first and was followed by squad Coomes. The remaining three squads followed after them. When they exited the spaceport, all the squads split up and headed in their respective directions.

The city they had been assigned to was full of tall buildings made of white. Coomes could already tell that everyone who lived here was filthy rich. It disgusted him. The rich always had their way with everything and could easily buy out homes and leave the occupants stranded with nowhere to go. It had happened to him on Coruscant.

Atrus Coomes was his full name. He and his mother had owned a cantina in a middle-class area on Coruscant many years back. The people loved the little cantina and they would always get crowds of customers. These stories were always told to him by his mother. Soon after the war had ended, the republic bought the cantina and left them on the streets with no money and nowhere to go.

When he was old enough, his mother enlisted him into an academy where he was made into the trooper he was today. He happily did it though. His mother needed the money somehow and being a trooper would get the two of them back on their feet quickly.

Even though he was a republic trooper, he disliked the republic. He was fine with the Jedi, they were keepers of peace after all, but he still held a grudge against the republic for discarding the poor.

"Coomes, you lead your squad into the basement. I'll search the outside area." Meera ordered. He hadn't even realized that they had already gotten to the building.

"Got it." He said. He turned to the rest of his squad. They were all clad in white armor. "Let's go." He ordered his squad. He marched towards a flight of stairs that led down to the basement.

The building was dirty and looked as though it was being renovated. The stairs to the basement were made of dusty concrete that blew dust on Coomes's white and orange boots.

"Be ready to fire your blasters," Coomes said to his squad. They reached the bottom of the stairs where they were introduced to a large dark room. The troopers flicked on the lights attached to their blasters and showed the light into the room.

The room was completely silent except for the quiet footsteps of each trooper. Coomes noticed a storage crate a few meters in front of him. He quickened his pace as he walked to it. He dragged a finger across the crate; there wasn't any dust.

"This is new," He mumbled to himself. He then opened the crate and placed the lid down gently. Inside the crate were stun grenades. Some of them had been taken.

Coomes hit a com attached to his forearm. "Master Tendulkar, we found stun grenades in the basement. You should-"

Blasters started firing at them from the dark. Coomes immediately ducked for cover behind the crate but others in his squad weren't as lucky. Due to the darkness of the room, no one could see anything.

Coomes aimed his blaster in the direction of the oncoming fire. He fired blaster bolts in the direction of the person aiming at him. The person then stopped shooting and he heard a scream.

The remaining person on his squad was firing at anything he could. The opponents most likely had night vision goggles. "We need backup! I repeat we need backup!" Coomes yelled into his com.

He kept firing his blaster. The room was filled with the sounds of blaster fire and bolts hitting the walls. He reached into the crate that acted as his cover. A shot was fired into his arm and he yelled in pain. He quickly grabbed multiple stun grenades and went back behind his cover. Without hesitation, he threw a stun grenade across the room where electricity exploded out of it, making multiple terrorists immobile.

"Damn it, where the hell is our backup!" Coomes yelled. The remaining trooper was shot down and killed. "Elian! Damn it!" He yelled at his fallen comrade. He was all alone now. Blaster fire whizzed past him and he could hear the terrorists talking to one another.

"Atrus, find some cover real quick," Snyder said over the com.

"Already have that covered," Coomes responded. Suddenly, a grenade was quickly tossed down the stairs that led to the basement and rolled across the floor, and passed Coomes.

The grenade exploded, killing multiple of the terrorists instantly. The explosion had knocked Coomes over as well as the crate containing the stun grenades. He kicked the crate off of him and slowly stood up, still holding out his blaster in case there were any attacks.

He heard cracking above him. He looked up and saw a piece of concrete falling toward him. He stumbled back as the concrete stopped midair and was then floated safely to the ground. Meera had finally come.

"I'm glad to see that you're safe. Squads Snyder, Droth, and your squad will arrest all the terrorists down here. Squad Pekula and Xaz are searching for any escaped terrorists." Meera explained.

Coomes clenched his gloved fist. "My squad is dead." He muttered with a trembling voice full of hate.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Meera answered as she lifted rubble out of the way using the force.

Coomes grabbed his helmet and threw it to the floor, revealing a contorted face of fury. "My men are dead! They were slaughtered here and you don't even care!" He shouted at the jedi.

Meera faced Coomes with a sympathetic look. "When we are done, you will be able to mourn your fallen comrades but right now you need to focus on the mission." She went back to removing the rubble and clearing a path to the immobilized terrorists.

"And I thought Zeltrons were supposed to use their telepathic abilities to make people feel happy." A trooper joked whilst patting Coomes shoulder.

Other troopers made their way to the terrorists and put them in handcuffs and led them away. Coomes though stood in the same spot, not moving. He slowly lifted his blaster without thinking and switched the stun mode off. He then slowly pointed the blaster at Meera.

A hand grabbed his wrist tightly. He looked over and saw Snyder beside him. "Don't. You'll only cause trouble for yourself." He whispered. Even though he was against it, he knew that Snyder was right.

Coomes picked his helmet off the ground and slid it back onto his head. His men were all dead. All the people in his squad had been slaughtered. His friends whom he had known since the academy were nothing but lifeless husks now.

"An era of peace my butt." He cursed under his breath.