Rescue On Devaron

by FourShadow


Chapter 5: Master Sandalwood

Bubbles and his small pack of clones continued trudging along the outpost. Still kept together in a cluster, and watching every inch around them.

"Any word from the other group?" Bubbles asked.

"Nothing sir," Bounce replied. "But the last check with them said that Stretch had gathered back to General Hooves' group."

"Good. Hopefully he had no trouble along the way," Bubbles nodded. "But we better keep moving. We need to find Master Sandalwood and fast."


Derpy and the clones kept on patrol, moving closer. She could feel Master Sandalwood's prescence nearby, she could feel it! The Force called to her senses, letting her feel him nearby...

She walked through a single door, And right out of nowhere, the door just whooshed shut, right between Derpy and the clones.

"What!?" Derpy panicked. She tapped into the console controls, hoping it would open the door. Nothing. And it wouldn't be a wise idea for her to slice the wiring with her lightsaber, that wouldn't do anyone good.

"General, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine! I think someone shut the door on us!"

"Hold on, we'll try to cut it open," Fuse said from the other side. He squatted down to look at the wiring control, starting to mess around with the power cords. But even on that side he wasn't having much luck. Nothing. "General, it looks like the power is out on this door. I don't know how, but it doesn't seem like we'll be opening it easily."

Derpy felt like she was going to panic. Now she was separated from her clones, all alone, with no help whatsoever. Even though she was a Jedi, she still feared doing operations alone, worried that someone would find her real quickly and end her life in nano-seconds.

But she remembered a trick from Master Sparkle. Breathe in... and breathe out. Breathe in... and breathe out. She analyzed the situation again. She wasn't too far from the prison cells. And there were still five clones all together.

"Okay. I'm going to head to the prison cells. If you five can, try and stay out of sight, and don't let yourselves get caught," Derpy said, communicating with her troops.

"Understood General," Patch said.

"Can't you just cut the door through with your lightsaber?" Stretch asked.

"I would, but I don't know if there's anyone else down here!" Derpy squeaked.

"Alright, alright," Stretch said, holding his hands up in protest, despite not her being able to see it.

"Look, just keep yourselves safe, I'll let you know on my progress."

Derpy walked past a few of the cells, checking to see if anyone was inside. If anyone was around, she would sense it. She looked up, her head faced the steel door.

"Wait a minute..." She pressed the button for the door. But when she saw who was inside, she blinked. It wasn't Master Sandalwood she was hoping to rescue, but she saw something that was equally good. Two clone troopers were in the cell, and one of them was clearly a commander. Blazed in bright green highlights and with a few touches of blue as well, like planetary colors. Pauldron around his shoulders, and holsters at his side.

"Um... hi," Derpy blushed.

"A Jedi," The trooper gasped.

The two troopers pulled themselves off from the benches, giving quick salutes.

"My name is Derpy Hooves. Who are you two?"

"General. My number is CT-3947. Captain Planet," he saluted.

"What are you two doing here?"

"We were taken prisoner along with General Sandalwood. Though I fear we might be the only ones left," Captain Planet said with some distress. "General Sandalwood said that in the event that they kill him, he passed along half of the secret information to me."

"So the other half remains completely useless?" Derpy asked.

"Exactly," The captain nodded.

"Well don't worry, you're not alone. Where is Master Sandalwood?" Derpy asked.

"They put him in the other cell next to us."

She gave a nod, and dashed over to the other cell. And now that their chance of freedom was available, the two clones got up and followed Derpy out of the cell. She hit a button on the door, watching as it slid open. And there he was; still alive, still breathing, Master Sandalwood. His head raised up, hearing the door. A smile grew, seeing those he recognized.

"Captain! You okay?"

"I am, General."

"Whoa, dude. Derpy, good to see ya!"

Derpy blushed again. "Heh, good to see you again Master Sandalwood." She ignited her lightsaber, slicing the restraints that held Sandalwood up in the air. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay dude," Sandalwood nodded. "Though the electric shocks don't help," he said, holding onto his stomach.

"Can you walk?"

"I think so. But I don't have my lightsaber, those blasted droids took it from me."

"Great..." Derpy held her face. "Well, don't worry. We'll get out of here!"

"How did you even get here?" Captain Planet asked. "Did you sneak in?"

"Not alone, I did. I have a small batch of clones with me," Derpy nodded.

"You? And Clones? Wow, I didn't think you would have it in you to lead," Sandalwood complimented.

"Well... they were kinda, dropped on me last minute," Derpy twiddled her thumbs. "But they're really great! So far, no one's died!" She sheepishly cheered.

"Then lets go find them!"

Sandalwood, Derpy, Captain Planet, and the other clone trooper began to run down the hall. Now was the time for them to get out of there and fast. But they wouldn't be leaving real soon. One of their security droids was watching them over security cameras, and he wasn't gonna have any of it.

"You won't be going anywhere," a sinister voice said, watching their attempts to run.

Just as the group continued to run, the doors in front of them suddenly slammed shut on them. The four of them came to a grinding halt, and when they looked behind them, the doors also slammed shut too.

"Looks like we may have to fight our way out," Derpy gulped.

The four of them stood still for a moment, looking for something, anything. Something wasn't right. A strange whirring sound emitted in their ears, sounding like something was activating, or something was about to open up.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Sandalwood said, sensing something off.

But just then, without a lick of warning, the floor from beneath them dropped, sending them all falling down and screaming. The two Jedi managed to cling to the ledge just in time, but the two clones were falling. Captain Planet however knew what to do! He shot a cable to the top, saving himself just before he fell. And he shot another cable down to the falling trooper, giving him something to grab just before he could fall deep into the pit of flames below.

"Hold on!" Sandalwood shouted. He pulled on the cable, pulling them both up. But his grip wasn't strong enough, and he felt his hands starting to slip. That is until Derpy grabbed on as well, giving twice the strength to lift them both up. And soon, the two clones were out of the pit, cheating death.

"Okay... too close," Derpy panted.

"I think I know who did that," Sandalwood stated. "One of those tactician droids said that he had ways of trying to get me to talk. And I think he's the one operating this entire outpost."

"There's always a clanker," The clone trooper replied with some snark.

"General. With all due respect, that droid wanted to obtain the information regarding those plans out of you. I think we need to find ourselves an escape."

"But we can't leave yet! I have clones with me, I can't just leave without them!" Derpy exclaimed.

"We're not going to leave without them," Sandalwood said, calmly. "It's okay, dude. I promise. But right now, we need to get out of this area. So how do we get out?"

Derpy looked around, gazing at the walls. Something had to have been out of place for sure. Something that was a design flaw, something they could climb through and go into another room. A vent, maybe? Wait, a vent! Right there underneath the floor! Just past the space where they almost fell!

She sliced through the floor with her lightsaber, opening up the grate. She offered the entryway to the captives first, letting Master Sandalwood and his two clones follow right after. Once they were gone, Derpy crawled right behind them, underneath the floor.

Earlier...

"What do we do now? We can't just leave here," Mix asked.

"Wait a minute guys," Patch said, getting their attention. "Look here."

The clones looked at the stone wall. It didn't look out of the ordinary, just an ordinary wall.

"It's a wall, Patch. It's nothing you haven't seen before," Coil said with some sarcasm.

"Coil, stop. Something's here, I know it. Wait a second..." Patch said, observing the floor. A small trail of water. It was hard to distinguish, but when the light was just right, he could see what seemed like some indentations of footsteps leading right through the door. "A passageway. And someone's been down here before," he said, looking to his teammates.

His hands started touching and grabbing several of the stones. If anything, one of the stones should have been the button to open the door. And wouldn't you know it, one of them was pushed in, and just like that, an entire door of stone began to slide open, revealing a passageway within.

"Oh here we go."

"Careful, it's dark," Fuse joked.

"Yeah, real funny Fuse," Patch snarked.

The clones reached up and flipped on the headlights attached to the sides of their helmets, providing better vision. And so the five clones started to walk on through. And before they knew it, the stone door that opened up behind them, shut behind them with a loud slam. All heads zipped back in surprise, looking at the closed door.

"Okay, I guess we'll keep on walking then," Mix commented.

The troops kept marching forward, pushing through the darkness. Looking around, they saw nothing but more caverns. It was dark as ever, and wandering through made them admittedly a little tense. Walking through was like entering a monster's living area.

"Feels like walking into a Geonosian hive, doesn't it?"

"It does, and I won't feel unhappy to get out from under this dirt. This place gives me the shivers," Coil said.

A small crumble of rock falling behind them made them all jump, forcing them to turn around and point their guns and flashlights towards that direction.

"The wind's probably tricks on us, right?" Mix asked.

"Look around. There's nobody here but us," Patch replied.

"I hope so," Coil replied.

"Wait a minute," Fuse halted. "Look."

His headlights shined down to the floor. Footprints made in the muddy ground... heading the opposite direction where they came.

"Someone's been through here before," Fuse squatted down, running his gloved hand through the print. "Quite recently, I might add."

"Doesn't feel right," Coil shook his head.

"Hey Stretch, you alright?"

The trooper was silent, looking down at the footprints. Very... eerily, quiet.

"Stretch?" Mix asked.

The chef of the team stood straight up, waving his hand in front of his mask. "Whoo-hoo..."

Stretch finally moved, looking right at his hand.

"Hey, welcome back to the land of the living," Fuse joked.

The troopers stood back up, walking down the dark and damp corridor again, nothing else to say or do. But Stretch watched as they went on down, and he slowly followed behind after muttering something quietly.

"Thank you, sir..." He said in a low voice.


Commander Bubbles and his team were still on the move. By now, they were just trying to evade capture from everyone nearby. Battle droids, security cams, mouse droids, anything. They stopped in their tracks, looking down and seeing a grate in the floor beginning to shake and rattle.

"Commander, look!" Bolt pointed.

Their weapons pointed towards the bottom floor, and a piece of the board was lifted up and pushed to the side. Emerging from the hole was Sandalwood, Captain Planet, the other trooper, and Derpy.

"General, you're alright!" Bounce exclaimed.

"That's a shock," Bolt deadpanned.

"You're all okay!" Derpy squeaked.

Bubbles chuckled. "Yes, we're okay, General. And it seems like Master Sandalwood's alright, too."

"You got it dude," Sandalwood nodded. As they stood, the general looked at the small group of clones that stood together. A small little team, it seemed. "Wow. Small group managed to get in here?"

"Derpy's face blanked. "Wait... where's the other five?"

"General!"

A door flew open, and so Mix, Patch, and the others were seen rushing through, finally rejoined with the others. "We found a secret passageway that led us to another corridor. The destroyed clankers that Commander Bubbles warned us about? I have a feeling whoever did that is real nearby."

Sandalwood's head tilted up. "I think you might be right." He slowly looked back, facing the empty wing. "I know we can't see him, but... I feel like he's close. Someone who shouldn't be here is... steadily, nearby..."

Derpy nervously chuckled. "Well, hopefully he won't catch us before we have to leave. Bubbles, contact the freighter, we need to get out of here."

The commander nodded before reaching for his comlink. "Bubbles to Watcher base, come in," Bubbles spoke into the comlink.

"Knight here, over," the trooper responded.

"Bring the ship on the south side of the outpost, there's a hangar bay you can dock the ship. We're going to need to get out of here as fast as we can."

"Right away, sir!"

"They have been notified," Bubbles replied.

"Okay, great. Now that we're all together again, I think now's the time we retreated and escaped," Derpy announced.

"I agree," Sandalwood replied.

"Then everyone, lets get out of here!"

Derpy led the charge, and soon her clones began to run behind her, staying in a group formation. The last ones remaining were Captain Planet and Sandalwood who ran behind the pack, covering them. The pack ran down the left hallway, and then down the right hallway. And then down another left. All they had to do was just go down to the hangar, and they'd be home free.

Unfortunately, just like before, they were spotted.

"The prisoners have been freed. Let none escape," The tactician ordered to the battle droids, watching from the security cameras.

"Roger, roger," the battle droids responded.

The group was still on the run. But just then, around the corner, three rolling droids appeared out of nowhere. Legs unfolded, a head, blasters, and bubble shields formed as they all made themselves appear before them.

"Droidekas!" Bubbles exclaimed.

"There's no way we're getting past them at this rate," Bounce shouted.

"I got an idea. Turn left!"

Derpy led everyone down the hallway, going right past them. And just up ahead were a group of regular battle droids, who's attention turned to them.

"Another left!"

They ran again, dashing past the battle droids who fired at them. But this time, all of them went through a single door, and then slammed it shut behind them, sealing it, and destroying the control console. But the battle droids were able to see where they went, and stood in front of the door.

"We can't get through. We'll have to go another way," the droid commander ordered.

"Roger, roger," the other droids replied.

The clones and Derpy were panting and breathing heavily, thankful that they had evaded their scanners.

"Okay, thank goodness... is everyone here and accounted for?" Derpy asked, looking to her troops. "Okay, quick head count; Sandalwood, Planet, Bubbles, Bounce, Coil, Fuse, Mix, Bolt, Mohawk, Patch, Tap, trooper who's name I don't know, Stret--where's Stretch?"

"Stretch?"

The troopers looked around the room, their missing trooper wasn't there.

"Where'd he go?"

"You don't think we lost him when we made a run for it, do you?" Bubbles asked.

"I hope not. But if he's still out there, I'm going to get him."

"We can't go anywhere," Captain Planet exclaimed. "If we do, those droids are going to finish us before we can even escape."

"Yeah, but I can't leave him behind! I can't leave anyone behind, not on my first assignment!" Derpy argued.

The two continued to butt heads with each other to the point they didn't see what was right behind them. Tap was first to notice, and then Bolt, Mix, and Bounce saw. And then the rest of their troops slowly saw it as well, gasping in shock and awe.

"What the!?" Sandalwood exclaimed.

"What in blazes..." Commander Bubbles said in awe.

"What... is that?" Derpy gasped.