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Synopsis:
RAID ON PENGALAN IV
A Republic agent reports the Confederacy has set up a
secret factory on Pengalan IV, working on experimental
missiles designed to punch through the armor of Republic
starfighters. The troop transport Sea Legacy heads there
at once and investigates a reactivated manufacturing
facility with a group of gunships containing
clonetroopers. Among the troopers is a Republic
Intelligence accountant named Joram Kithe, assigned to
observe the troopers and report back whether more money
should be invested in the clone armies. The platoon
heads up to the facility, planning to set explosives.
But the whole thing turns out to be a trap – gunship
after gunship is blown to bits by Geonosian corvettes,
Trade Federation starfighters, the works. The gunship
Joram came in makes it back into the air, but it doesn’t
get far and crashes into a canyon…
Joram and six troopers survive the crash, and the
surviving troopers are left wondering who’s in charge
now that their lieutenant’s dead. Joram is forced to
take charge of the stranded platoon, and he comes up
with the idea of luring in a Confederacy ship and
seizing it. Since the troopers don’t have names, he
gives them nicknames – Tooth, Digger, Mapper, etc. To
his surprise, the troopers warm to this and seemingly
adopt him into their group. They reactivate their
wrecked gunship’s inertial compensator and wait in
hiding. Ten STAPs and an airspeeder eventually pick up
the compensator on their sensors and fly into the
ambush. The troopers and Joram take the airspeeder with
two STAPs loaded in the back and head for the village of
Tur Lorkin through the canyons. Setting up a temporary
camp, Joram admits the troopers are everything the
Kaminoans promised. If they lack anything, it’s….”come
to think of it, you don’t lack anything I can think
of,” Joram lies. “And since you men are exactly like
all the other thousands of clone troopers, the Republic
obviously has one magnificent army.” The troopers
exchange strange looks at each other at that.
Tur Lorkin turns out to be deserted – too deserted.
Why is this town here, Joram wonders. And why does it
have three spaceship bays?? Joram and Tooth pick the
biggest one and investigate. They find some big
spaceships and a load of containers – the missiles
they were sent to find! The facility is underground!
Joram’s all for calling in the Republic, but Tooth
disagrees – they were sent here to blow up that
facility, and they’re gonna do it if it takes every
last one of them! After an argument between Tooth and
the troopers, they ask Joram (who admitted earlier he
was a coward) to join them. He agrees reluctantly, but
says it’s Tooth’s mission to lead.
The mission is a success, though Tooth and two other
troopers are killed in the process. The surviving
platoon members, including Joram, take off in a stolen
yacht to rejoin the Sea Legacy. One of the troopers,
Digger, tells Joram there’s something he should know
– he and his fellow platoon aren’t regular
clonetroopers. They were made to be a little more
self-reliant than the average, more capable of
initiative. Joram, he tells him, was supposed to assume
they were normal troopers and report as such to the
Republic. Joram agrees – “It’s never a good idea
to foul up a cover-up until you know what it’s there
for. But why did you tell me?”
Synopsis taken from Christopher
G. McElroy's Time Tales, www.theforce.net/timetales.
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