While Coda and Qui-Gon were talking still. The Dauntless touched down to retrieve strike group Princess. Trilla stood in the hangar bay to greet them. ''Welcome back, everything go well?''

''Yes, Lady Trilla. Everything proceeded within expectations, we recovered this as well.'' RG10 presented Tann's lightsaber. ''Now if you'll excuse us, some of us are in need of repairs.''

Trilla inspected the hilt while the new arrivals moved to secure the prisoner. Blue skin? Wonder why he wants her.

Standing on the bridge, Beatrix was in the middle of monitoring battle chatter when a message stood out.

''We are under heavy fire! Dropped sep ship is spewing clankers out and we've lost our AT-TE, we require ''INCOMING GET DOWN'''' An explosion could be heard before he started up again. ''We need immediate assistance, over!''

Running through maps and routes in record time, Beatrix opened up comms to the war room. ''My lord, a clone advance group has been pinned down and are requesting assistance. It is highly unlikely they'll survive until they get reinforced. What are your orders?''

Responding over the comms. ''Sounds like a job for the friendly neighboorhood merc group. Let's go, what do we have in terms of anti-armor weaponry?''

''Our plasma weaponry while not as effective as designated Anti Armour should be effective against most vehicles in concentrated fire. In theory, at least. We have not yet designed and developed any AT weapons my lord.'' She explained while ordering navigation to make their way towards the groups' location.

''Copy, I'll head down. What are our forces looking like?'' Coda asked as he started making his way towards the hangar.

''674 RG's, HK-Tank and 2 ODP's. Recommend deploying 150 unit's towards relief effort, while the rest head's towards FOB location provided by operational command.'' She advised after running the numbers.

''We'll follow your idea then, Trilla and Qui-Gon will be commanding on the ground when you get there. You have overall command. They'll follow your orders.'' Coda said as he watched the ramp lower. Donning his mask again as the wind started blowing his hair around.

''Solid copy Lord Coda. Stay safe.''

CC-93 was having a very bad, no good, horrible time. Lasers, missiles, and explosions had been flying at them for the last 20 minutes. A separatist ship had been taking off when it was hit with the broadside from one of their ships flying overhead.

Said ship promptly had to leave as it got chased away from the area as the seps had wanted to make it a permanent resident of this planet. The ship didn't explode when it went down, resulting in it deploying most of its cargo to secure the surrounding areas.

To make matters worse, the impact had revealed multiple tunnels between them and the fallen vessel. This led them to believe that the mountain the ship had crashed next too was a droid factory, this was further supported by the fact that droids and geonosians started exiting the tunnels.

He'd already lost about a dozen men, the only reason they hadn't been overrun yet was the fact that they could use the grounded AT-TE as cover. Though that wouldn't last much longer as they were about to be surrounded.

''Incoming SBD's on the left!'' Someone shouted, bringing his attention towards the advancing clankers moving crater to crater. Those fucking things are such a goddamn pain!

Screaming an order over the area. ''Get me some repeaters downrange on the left! NOW!'' Right away two troopers started sprinting towards the left flank. Once there they split up and setup crossfire from two sides. A deluge of laser fire opening up on the SBD's, managing to junk two of them before they returned to cover.

Two seconds later a missile impacted in front of one of them, throwing dust and rocks everywhere. Looking back up he saw that the explosion had removed the upper torso of the gunner that stood there previously. ''FUCK!'' Quickly opening comms again. ''We need those fucking reinforcements now!''

''Captain! More of those small spider droids emerging from a tunnel down the middle!'' One of his men shouted at him. Of course there are!

''AT! Focus on those tanks!'' He ordered before making his way down to the left flank himself to help out.

That wasn't the end of the bad news. ''We only have two shots left captain!'' One of the AT troopers informed him.

''Then fucking make them count!'' He answered with irritation. Arriving where they were holding on the left flank, he laid down next to a sergeant.

The sergeant spoke up with a light-hearted tone. ''This isn't looking very good captain.''

Replying in exasperation. ''You're telling me! If we get out of here I'm going to sit that Jedi down and explain what the word minimal means. HOW IS THIS MINIMAL PRESENCE!?'' Getting a chuckle from the men around him. They soon saw two rockets fly out from their position.

The two projectiles barreled down the middle of the desert, impacting one of the tanks while the other flew down the tunnel. Shortly afterward a tremor could be felt as the tunnel collapsed, resulting in a cheer from the clones. ''As far as misses go, that one was alright soldier!''

While he was running over ideas on how to deal with the second spider tank he saw a flood of plasma fire turn the tank into its base components. Surprised he turned to look behind him and saw a black floating ship firing at the droids.

Jumping from the ramp the RG's sprinted towards the bogged down troops as they took positions and started firing. 93 watched all this happen when he spotted an oddly dressed Jedi. ''Who are you guys? Not that you aren't a welcome sight.''

With a slight chuckle, Coda responded as he watched out into the battlefield. ''My name is Coda. Leader of the mercenary group Invisible Sun. We've been contracted by the Jedi Order to assist in this engagement.''

''Mercs? You aren't a Jedi?'' He asked as he could clearly see his hilts.

Scoffing Coda replied. ''No, I'm not one of those monks. A soldier, like you guys. Now, what's the rundown?''

Thinking for a couple of seconds he simply nodded. ''Right, we were sent here to investigate some sep activity. The intel suggested that we'd encounter... minimal.'' Coda cocked an eyebrow at the troopers' odd inflection. ''Resistance. What intel didn't say was that we're fairly certain that there's a factory in that mountain somewhere. We were flooded once the ship crashed.''

Seeing the tunnels Coda pieced it together from there. ''Understood.'' Opening comms to the Dauntless he continued. ''Beatrix, send extra troops down to fetch the wounded. Then proceed to cover us as we make our way into the tunnel system.''

Looking down at the captain he asked. ''Ready for some sightseeing Captain?''

''One of the few perks of being in an army, we get to travel. BOYS! Group up, we're going on a trip!'' Receiving a 'Yes sir!' from the remaining 60 or so odd troopers.

As soon as the Dauntless got the last wounded on board it elevated slightly and started spraying fire from the 8 different turrets mounted on it. Smoke and dust started spreading everywhere as they started a mad sprint towards the closest tunnel.

Lighting his sabers he and the rest started taking fire as they made their way onwards. Any RG unit downed self-destructed as soon as they cleared it's range, further adding to the chaotic swirl of dust and noise.

Finally hitting the tunnel Coda's comms came alive. ''Their fire has switched its focus unto the Dauntless. We have to pull out. Be safe Lord Coda.''

''Roger that, thanks for the assist B. Good luck!'' Cutting down a geonosian, he took a glance at his surroundings. Multiple paths branched out in every which way. ''Troopers! Split up and stay close to the RG's, they're capable of mapping it out as we go. Captain, you're with me!''

The troopers didn't move right away until 93 spoke up. ''Do as the man says! The last one to the factory is picking up the tab once we get some R&R!'' A 'Yes sir' sounded out around them as they followed behind the RG's and disappeared into the dark labyrinth.

''What do they call you captain?'' Coda asked as he watched the friendlies split up.

''93.'' He answered succinctly while firing down the tunnel, splattering two bugs.

''Alright, 93. Let's go see if we can go make some friends.'' Looking back over his shoulder, he ordered the nearest RG unit. ''Leave fifteen units here to make sure we aren't followed. If you're about to be overrun, retreat and blow the tunnel.''

''Yes my lord.'' Nodding, Coda's group started moving.

3 hours later.

Coda, 93, six Rg's and 4 troopers were sitting in an outcrop of rocks. It was overlooking a massive chasm, on the other side was the entrance to what they believed was the factory. Scorch marks, geonosian blood, and embedded debris was something all of their armor's had in common.

They were surveying the only bridge over the chasm, the other side had two turrets covering the bridge as well as a generous contingent of clankers. They'd long since established that trying to count the geonosians was an exercise in futility, so the just chalked it up to a lot. Always a lot.

''You know 93. I'm starting to get the distinct feeling the locals don't want us here.'' Coda said with mock resignation.

Laughing darkly 93 rebutted. ''After the first 200 or so I wasn't sure, but the 200 or so after that. I'm inclined to believe you might be on to something.''

''I don't like our odds if we try and make it over that bridge. You getting any of the others on the comms?'' He asked.

Shaking his head. ''They're useless down here. Do we wait?'' He asked, looking over the other members of their little group. All but two of Coda's droids were out of black matter, having lost it in explosions or suicide attacks. They all had varying degrees of injuries, though the droids were using the nanites without reserve to heal the most pressing ones.

''Yeah, there's no reason to try any heroics. What about you guys, you getting anything from the other RG's?'' He turned to ask.

''Comms seem to be impossible my lord, I can confirm that many are still active.'' A bare RG unit responded.

''Then we give them time, we can't be the only group to make it.'' They'd felt tremors when they were fighting in the tunnels and even twice saw other groups fighting across chasms they had to traverse. Ending up with firefights across and in front as they pushed on.

''Try and catch some shut-eye guys. The RG's can keep a lookout.'' Coda sat down with his back towards the wall. He didn't know how many Droids and bugs he'd had to cut down at this point, but just like he was. They were all exhausted.

He didn't know when, but he must have fallen asleep. Jolting awake he almost force blasted the RG in front of him into the other wall due to how it looks without its shell.

''What?'' He said rapidly calming himself down.

''There's movement from the inferiors on the other side of the bridge, and we heard explosions.'' The RG reported. They'd for some ungodly reason started to refer to the Sep droids as inferiors halfway through the battle.

Getting on his knee he took a look over the outcrop. Most of the droids were entering through the door into the facility. ''Ok guys. Looks like they're being hit from somewhere else. This is our chance.''

Getting their bearings they stacked up by his side. Seeing there was only a skeleton crew defending the door at this point, 93 nodded. ''Agreed, I don't think we'll get a better chance. How do you want to play this?''

Tapping the mask that was now a mix of black, white and yellow with his finger. ''RG's will focus fire to bring those turrets down. I'll run point and deflect what I can, once we're inside we try and regroup with any friendlies we come across. Sound good?''

''It can't be much worse than waiting here.'' 93 said.

''You can't say something like that!'' Coda hissed as they started gunning for the bridge.