Millions of a Face

Chapter 4

The lift to the training room was filled with tense silence. Ka had opened his mouth to speak at one point, but a glare from Hiccup kept him quiet. It really wasn't doing much to lessen Faces' nerves; while he didn't doubt his own ability, he had never worked with this group of vode before and was worried about the outcome.

Once the lift door opened Hiccup barked out orders. "Ka, you and Dinii head to the left and try to flank the droids. Jumper and I will take the main fire. Faces," he paused, turning to look back at him. Faces swallowed, Hiccup's ever-present scowl sending a burst of anxiety rocketing through him. "You'll stay at the rear and take out as many droids as you can. Got it?"

"Yes sir," the four of them saluted simultaneously, readying their blasters. They were the standard DC-15s that every clone got for training, modified to shoot training rounds, being made for versatility and all that.

"Alright, let's head out." As soon as the starting buzzer sounded they were off, sprinting towards the closest form of cover, a slanted half-wall.

The room layout was pretty bare, with a few scattered barriers between the starting area and the far wall, where the droids would come from. All white, of course. The Kaminoans seemed to love their sterile blankness.

They made it behind the wall with a slam of plastoid against duracrete, shuffling in their kneels to ensure everyone had ample cover.

As the first droids entered the area, Hiccup signaled to Ka and Dinii to get moving, to which they hastily complied. Training bolts were already hitting the wall they were crouched behind, the noise echoing through the room.

Faces, Hiccup, and Jumper laid down cover fire for them, bringing the droids' attention away from the running cadets. There were about a few dozen B1s and two B2 battle droids.

The B1s could be shot down easily enough, but the B2s would be trouble.

"Faces, stay here when we go in," Jumper said over the helmet comms, barely casting a glance back to him.

"Yes sir," Faces replied, nailing a B1 in the head with a blaster bolt. Nice. A little under half of the B1s were shot and out of commission, the differing angle Ka and Dinii had to split the droids' attention.

"Jumper, get ready to press our advantage, on my mark." Hiccup shot down a few more droids. "Go!"

The two of them ran ahead, Faces doubling down his shooting to cover them, the hum from his blaster being a sound he knew well. He was suddenly extra glad that he spent more time at the practice range, worried that he might not get used to the feel of shooting quite as quickly as his batchmates.

This went on for a few more minutes, the two teams alternating their approaches while Faces stayed back and took down any droid that got too close to his squadmates. He occasionally changed covers when the droids figured out where he was shooting from.

Apparently, their plan wasn't careful enough. In the middle of aiming for his next target, Faces heard the clank of metal feet and the charging of a blaster from behind. Acting fast, he rolled out of the way, shooting behind him as he went. The bang of a droid hitting the floor signaled his success.

Two B1 droids stood next to their fallen third, pausing in their firing for force knows what reason. Faces didn't think about it too hard. He took advantage of it, running towards one while firing at the other, in a zig-zag motion to avoid the bolts.

Faces shot one droid a few times in the chest, decommissioning it in a cloud of smoke.

To the other, Faces bashed the blaster out of its hands with his own weapon, roundhouse kicking it in the head to crash into the ground, ending the fight with a bolt to its head.

Huffing, Faces reported to his comm. "Some droids got around to the back. I took care of them, but I'll keep a lookout for any more stragglers."

"No need, cadet," Hiccup replied, sounding a bit out of breath. "We just took out the last of them."

As if waiting for him to say that, the alarm signaling the end of the exercise blared, startling Faces. He didn't realize how quickly his new squad could finish taking down all those droids.

"Wait," Dinii blurted out after the alarm. They were all making their way towards the lift again but hadn't yet regrouped. "How many droids snuck up on you, Faces?"

"Just three," he shrugged to himself. Being the closest one to the lift, Faces made it there first. He could see his squad approaching through the leftover smoke caused by the blaster fire.

Ka got on the comm next, excited. "Woah vod, how'd you take 'em out?" Faces could see him gesturing, arms splayed outwards.

"Shot them." Faces didn't really know what to say. Sure, he added some physical maneuvers, but in the end the blaster did all the damage. He didn't want to bring attention to something so trivial, after all.

Entering the lift with Faces, the squad took off their helmets, releasing a collecting breath. Training was always taxing, especially when adding in the factor of a new squadmate.

Hiccup sighed then straightened, turning to Faces. Clasping a hand onto the younger's shoulder, he spoke:

"Well, cadet, you might just make it in this squad after all."