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Space Station White Mantle

Lobacca and his squad entered into the shuttle, as ordered. None of Lobacca's men, or Lobacca himself, ever felt comfortable in a shuttle, at least not any more after their shuttle crash a couple of months ago.

Looking outside the shuttle, Lobacca could see the White Mantle space station, one of the only Marine barracks the Tibrin Defense Force owned. It was named after a legendary squadron who served during the Clone Wars. The station was positioned next to Plah, the only moon of Tibrin.

After they entered atmosphere of Tibrin, Lobacca looked over his men.

Private Dalamar "Rez" Stinger was playing with one of his lucky charms. Dal was maybe one of the most superstitious Ishi Tib Lobacca ever had met, but also one of the best sharpshooters Lobacca ever had seen. Dal got his rather weird call sign after one of his habits, namely to yell "rezz me" when he got stunned in a training mission. No one ever managed to figure out what Dal meant by it, but there were some odd rumors going around.

Corporal Bazz "Shiny" Madril was checking his rifle for any possible malfunctions. Bazz' parents were rather rich, hence the nickname. Bazz was also known for his unbelievable knowledge of laws and the likes and was especially good at finding ways around them. Due to the military way of thinking, Bazz had to start with the rank of private like everyone else. There were ways around it, but it was said Bazz demanded to start off like anyone else. Bazz didn't think of himself as superior to the rest of the squad at all though. He was the best heavy weapon specialist of the group.

Private Copper "Elf" Jantine was the newest of the bunch. In fact, no one nicknamed him yet, so he was still using his old training squad number: eleven, shortened to Elf as that sounded better. Copper knew how to work with explosives—a bit too well.

Sergeant Lobacca "Wazzy" Varss, of the Tibrin Defense Force stationed at the White Mantle space station, was the squad leader. Lobacca was a specialist when it came to droids; to be correct, Trade Federation weaponry. Lobacca had risen through the ranks quite quickly, mainly thanks to the reputation of his grandfather, who had been one of the resistance leaders at the time the Imperials were in charge, although some people still knew Lobacca's granddad from his Trade Federation days. In fact, most people seemed to put more respect behind the last one. As far Lobacca knew, during the Clone Wars, his granddad had worked as a security officer on a Confederacy research station somewhere on the planet.

The shuttle landed at the Tibrin Defense Force headquarters, located on the southern part of the planet Tibrin. Lobacca and his men were guided by a military protocol droid to the office of General C. Albert where they would receive their next orders.


Tibrin Defense Force Headquarters

At about the same time Lobacca entered the shuttle a human female entered the office of General C. Albert.

"Hello, Colonel. I hope you had a pleasant trip," the general said, handing over a datapad to the Colonel.

"Thank you, General. And yes, it was very pleasant," the colonel responded.

The colonel let her eyes scroll down the datapad for a second. "May I ask why you assigned these four Ishi Tib to me? From the looks of it they aren't the type to go by the rules."

"Ha-ha. Ah, yes. I know they have blown up a lot of suspicious cargo for safety measures, but all of that was with reason, I believe," the general said.

"Six in less than four days? That's a record if you ask me," the colonel responded.

"There has been an increase in Black Sun operations in this area, a very high increase. Most of them are trying to scavenge old Trade Federation droids. We can't let that happen so I have given orders to use extreme caution in all situations and authorized the immediate destruction of all suspicious cargo," the general answered.

"Still, why these four?" the colonel asked.

"Well the Sergeant knows a lot of Trade Federation weaponry and it could mean the difference between failure and success in this mission. The other three... let's just say they are a quite good team. Assigning a sergeant to another team would only make problems," the general said.

The colonel raised an eyebrow. "The sergeant would be a problem? Or the other squad ?"

"The other squad mainly. The sergeant has well known relatives, well at least within the military," the general answered.

"He is the son of a ranking officer?" the colonel asked.

"Something like that," the general responded.

"I see."

* * * * *

All a bit nervous to receive orders from the big man, the squad entered.

"So you're Lobacca Varss, eh? Hmmm. I served alongside your grandfather for a while in the Clone Wars. A great man he was in those days and he still is, I hear," the general said.

"As you say, sir," Lobacca responded, slightly nervous.

"So you know something about the research station he worked on?" the general asked.

"Yes sir, they researched a way to transport materials from one place to another, without the use of hyper systems or ships, by the use of wormholes or something. The main idea was to beam droids from the capital transport ships directly to the ground. They used some ring-like artifact which they claimed could do all that, but they never got further than ideas, nor did they understand a how the artifact worked or if it even worked in the first place," Lobacca responded.

"Indeed, and according to some intercepted Imperial Remnant chatter, they are quite interested in it," the general said.

"But sir, the Imps could have easily entered the station. I believe it was abandoned shortly before we came under official Imperial control. In fact, my granddad told me they even left all the lights on as they expected the Imperials to take it over," Lobacca responded.

"I know. I served on that station too. But did we ever really understand the Imperials? Anyway, the Republic takes it seriously and sent in one of their experts to assist you four in a mission to investigate that station and if needed, blow it up," the general said while looking at Copper. "If needed." he repeated.

"Understood, sir!" Lobacca's squad yelled.

The general grabbed his comlink and said something into it and a moment later a human female entered the room.

"Gentlemen, Lieutenant Colonel Corry Vrecken," the general introduced. "Colonel, Raccoon Squad Delta 9 of the Tibrin Defense Force."

"Your shuttle is up and ready. Good luck and only blow it up if needed," the general continued.

After the additional salutes, the group was guided by a maintenance droid toward their shuttle.

"Where did the pilot go? Not good," Dal said grabbing for his lucky charms.

"The general wanted to keep this on low profile and fortunately I can fly one of those, so we won't need a pilot," Corry Vrecken said, gesturing toward the shuttle.

Lobacca followed Corry's pointing finger and then suddenly grabbed his own lucky charms and quietly repeated Dal. "Not good."

Bazz and Copper followed his example.

Corry entered the shuttle and sat down in the pilot's seat. Unwillingly Lobacca and his men entered the shuttle.

"Something wrong with me flying?" Corry asked.

"Well actually, yes. We once got onboard a shuttle flown by a human claiming the same thing and we ended up crashing into the space station. Since then none of us feel safe onboard a shuttle flown by a human claiming he can fly one without proper documents. No offense, of course," Lobacca answered.

"I see." Corry smiled. "No offense taken." She switched on the ship's comm. "Control tower, Shuttle Beta Five requesting departure clearance."


CIS Research Station

The shuttle finally arrived at the CIS Research station, a lonely island composed mainly of jagged rocks. The island was avoided by the Ishi Tib because of stories of dragon-like creatures breeding there. Although all Ishi Tib knew that the monsters didn't exist, they didn't feel like tempting fate.

Aside from the legends there was also a problem with landing a shuttle on the island, mainly because of the high amount of tornado activity in that portion of the planet.

"Might be a rough landing!" Corry called to the men, as the winds began to buffet the shuttle. "Better brace yourselves."

Maybe I shouldn't have said that, Corry thought after a quick look at the passengers' seats.

"Steady ground at last!" Copper yelled as he jumped out of the shuttle.

"How are we going get in there? By the looks of it, it won't be the front door," Corry stated.

"Actually, we are going in by the front door," Lobacca said while he walked toward the front door.

"Security panel… security panel… found," Lobacca mumbled.

Lobacca laid his right hand on it and after the scan he punched in the code.

"Colonel Varss, welcome," the computer said while the front door slit open.

"Colonel?" Corry said, frowning.

"His granddad served here and Ishi Tib fingerprints are more or less the same for up to four generations," Bazz answered Corry's question.

"How do you secure anything?" Corry asked, surprised.

"Codes mainly," Bazz responded.

Lobacca entered the room and the rest of the group followed.

"Hmm," Lobacca said thoughtfully.

Corry looked behind her and accidently stepped on a cloaked mine which stated to flash red.

"Ah, there they are," Copper yelled.

"Couldn't you have warned me?!" Corry asked, angry and scared and not moving an inch.

"Maybe." Lobacca said while walking toward a security panel. "I just didn't know if those really existed." He punched in a code. "But it seems that cloaked mines do exist after all."

"Mines de-activated, Colonel," the security panel announced.

Suddenly an entire field of mines appeared around them.

"Well we won't have to worry about those buggers anymore," Dal said.

A couple of corridors further Lobacca punched in a code, walked into a room and walked back out a few minutes later.

"What on Earth… what did you just do?" Corry asked wondering.

"Data pads, data cards and some old junk belonging to my granddad, so mainly junk collecting I guess," Lobacca responded. "We should be able to get into the control room and the including computers with these."


Security Chamber

"Sergeant, figure out how useful your grandfather's codes are." Corry ordered. "The rest of you are on guard duty."

"Not much to guard," Bazz responded.

"Just do as you're ordered," Corry said.

"Ah well, will do then," Bazz said while walking back to the door.

After Lobacca got the computers from passive into active mode, he checked the logs.

"Seems someone already got their hands on the research materials and the artifact," Lobacca said.

"Frell. That means I came all this way for nothing," Corry sighed. "I'd really hoped to find an operational Gate." She shook her head. "Can you tell who got it?"

"From the log dates it looks like it was either an early Republic scout unit or a Trade Federation squad, but seeing how it was removed, I bet Trade Federation," Lobacca answered.

"Hopefully that means the Imperials don't know about this yet," Corry mused.

Suddenly one of the computers started to make a lot of noise.

"Oh dear, these are the long range scanners," Lobacca said. "According to this two parties are blowing each other to pieces and one of the ships, the readings make it look like it is an Republic Star Destroyer, seems to be trying to get smaller ships into the atmosphere. Two ships of seemingly the same type as the previous one are defending it… oh not good, one of the ships is quite big, apparently a Victory-class Star Destroyer. Four ships of different types are attacking," Lobacca said.

"So the Imperials have arrived. Does this place have defensive systems?" Corry asked.

"Actually yes, all the battle and maintenance droids are still here and the antiaircraft turrets are not broken. By the looks of it, I should be able to activate them," Lobacca answered.

"Will it work?" Corry asked.

"Should, yes. Will, I dunno," Lobacca answered while punching in activation codes.

"Ha! Most of them seem to be still operational, although we do have a small problem," Lobacca said. "Most of the turrets are still able to blow stuff to pieces, but the first landing wave will be here before they are actually blowing stuff up, if you get what I mean," Lobacca answered.

"Why?" Corry asked.

"They have to run through all activation cycles before they actually can be used, to avoid potential malfunctions. Plus a lot of the turrets seem to have plants in them," Lobacca answered.

"I hope we don't have to go clean up the turrets ourselves." Corry answered.

"The turrets can do that themselves and the maintenance droids are already on their way, and those aren't the only ones. The battle droids are taking up defensive positions." Lobacca said.

"I guess we can go help those out. Or will they shoot at us if we come in range?" Corry asked.

"Nah, they think we are friendly. Droids always seem to like me somehow," Lobacca answered.

"Sarge! Droids heading this way!" Bazz yelled as he came into the room, his eyes scanning for any aggressive stance from the droids.

"Relax, they're on our side," Lobacca said.

"Elf and I will hold the blue entrance, the rest of you take the red. And may the Raccoon Spirit be upon us!" Lobacca yelled, followed by a roar from his squad mates.


Blue Entrance

"Greetings, sir. Defenses up and running. Ready for impact," a droid bearing sergeant's insignia said.

"Nice. Assign half the operational droidekas on this side to me and the other half to my friend. The rest of you hold position," Lobacca said while readying his rifle.

"This will be fun," Lobacca said while looking at the droidekas test running their three barrel blasters.

"Almost feeling sorry for the Imperials?" Copper asked

"Never will do that Elf, but well… they're going to get owned big time," Lobacca said, smiling while he made himself ready behind the quickly set up barricades of the droids.

"How long before contact?" Lobacca yelled to a communication droid.

"Immediate, sir. Four shuttles moving in this direction," the droid yelled.

"Any of you equipped with missiles?" Lobacca asked.

"Ten of us, sir," a droid responded.

"Divide them up!" Lobacca ordered.

"Roger, roger," Lobacca heard and he saw the droids taking in their new positions.

"Elf, how are you?" Lobacca asked.

"I'm okay, Sarge." Copper responded.

"Nice," Lobacca said.

Four shuttles appeared in the sky, in a loose formation, obviously not expecting resistance. They appeared to be more concerned with the winds than with the station.

"Nicer," Lobacca said.

Suddenly, ten defender missiles flew through the sky, obliterating the two unlucky lead shuttles and creating an amazing view of their almost non-existent burning remains tumbling to the ground in an highly fascinating way.

"Nicest!" Lobacca yelled while taking aim, waiting for the first Imperial to leave a shuttle.

The shuttles landed while taking quite a beating from droid fire and finally started returning the favor.

"What in the name of the Raccoon Spirit?" Lobacca yelled when he saw the Imperials were assisted by metal wearing creatures, using long sticks to fire bolts of energy toward the droids. Some of the droids who got hit had nasty blast wounds and some even were destroyed, but luckily the droidekas shields could handle it.

Lobacca aimed at one of the metal armed creatures and fired a salvo, seeing happily how his shots flew through the armor as easy as they flew through the normal Imperial armor, eliminating one of the metal armored ones.

"DROIDEKAS, PICK YOUR OWN TARGETS AND FIRE AT WILL!" Lobacca yelled, while taking down some Imperials on his own account.

At will? I really have to come up with better lines, Lobacca thought.

"Elf, grab your comm and ask how well the others are holding, and ask about the, err, metal ones." Lobacca yelled while reloading.

"Will do!" Copper activated his comlink. A moment later he yelled back, "That Republic colonel says that they're called Goa'uld and are after the artifact."

"Mercenaries or something?" Lobacca yelled back.

"Guess so, supposedly treasure hunters of some kind," Copper answered.

After the Imperials took quite a hard beating it seemed Raccoon Delta 9 had won.

"You three droids move in and look for survivors," Lobacca ordered. "Communication droid, give me a report on the antiaircraft turrets status."

"95% up and running. Ready to eliminate, sir," the droid responded.

"Status on the space battle?" Lobacca asked.

"The four ships of different designs received help of another four ships, giving them a swift victory upon the original three vessels," the droid answered.

"Did the three ships send in extra waves of shuttles?" Lobacca asked.

"Negative, sir," the droid responded.

"Nice, put the turrets on passive, put the long and short range scanners on alert and give me a full scale damage report," Lobacca ordered the droid.

"Roger, roger," the droid answered.

"It's over, Elf," Lobacca said.

"Seems so," Copper responded.

"All hostiles are eliminated, sir," one of the three recon droids reported.

"Nice, return to your old defensive positions," Lobacca ordered.

"Roger," the droids affirmed.

Suddenly Lobacca's comlink beeped.

"Sergeant did you manage to hold off the hostiles?" Corry asked.

"Yes and I really don't get why we don't use droidekas anymore, ma'am," Lobacca responded.

"I've been wondering about that myself. What is this raccoon thing all about?" Corry asked.

"Well the raccoon is a mythical creature which, according to the legends, fought alongside the Ishi Tib against the dragon-like creatures, which used to live here, well at least according to the legends. The raccoons lived on the land and washed their food in the water. They weren't war-hungry but did know how to fight. The dragon-like creatures lived both on land and in the sea and tried to enslave the other two species, hence the war. The legend also tells that after the war was won all raccoons left through a ring-like object with the promise to come back when we would ever run into trouble again. Ah well now I think of it, the raccoons did come to save the day again," Lobacca said.

"Yes, it seems so," Corry said.


Tibrin Defense Force Headquarters, several days later

"Nice work, gentlemen. Too bad the Trade Federation got their hands on that research. Ah well, it was theirs anyway," the general said.

"You are all dismissed except for Sergeant Varss, who I'd like to speak to privately," the General said.

After the other three left the room, the general spoke. "The colonel was quite impressed by your skill with Trade Federation goods. In fact she asked me to ask you if you would like to join their unit," the general said.

"Well sir, I wouldn't know, I think I'm of more use here," Lobacca responded.

"I wouldn't be so sure, from what I heard this particular unit gets into a lot of action. From reading your report I think you are quite interested in the Goa'uld," the general said.

"I am, sir. But if they run into the sort of trouble that we saw at the research station, I'm certain it wouldn't be smart to join," Lobacca said.

"Ha-ha. You're totally your granddad. You do understand you'll start back as a private, since the Tibrin Defense Force isn't an official Republic army unit?" the general asked.

"Yes I know, sir. Do they run into droids a lot, sir?" Lobacca asked.

"I believe they do run into droids now and then," the general responded.

"Count me in, sir," Lobacca responded.

"You leave for your new unit together with the colonel in two days. This is top secret, so you'll tell everyone that you have a job as a mine guard. Get yourself ready, you will supposedly not be getting back for a while," the general said.

"I understand, sir," Lobacca responded.

"One more thing, your granddad wants to speak with you," the general said.

Lobacca nodded.


Grandparents' House

The house of Lobacca's grandfather was located in a small village on the western part of the planet.

Lobacca was sitting on the terrace with his grandfather watching the sunset. Lobacca's grandfather was an old Ishi Tib with one bionic leg. He lost the original one in the Clone Wars.

"Congrats on your promotion," his granddad said.

"Thank you," Lobacca said taking a nip of his drink.

"I wanted to give you these. They were mine when I was in the army and I have to say they served me very well," Lobacca's granddad said while handing Lobacca a Trade Federation blaster rifle, an Ishi Tib ceremonial axe and some lucky charms.

"Wow! Thank you very much!" Lobacca said when he saw his new toys.

"Now I want to tell you one more thing, grandson. Watch out for Sith and Jedi if you want to keep your limbs," Lobacca's granddad said while pointing toward his left leg. "And some more advice, no one survives four droidekas firing at the same time. Really, no one," Lobacca's grandfather said.

"I guess you were more than just a security officer," Lobacca responded.

"Much more than just a security officer. And you're more than a mine guard," Lobacca's granddad said.

"Well, I should be going. I have a mine to guard now," Lobacca said while standing up.

I guess that security officer or guard is one of the oldest cover-up stories in history, Lobacca thought smiling.

"Wait, a minute, I still have to tell you one thing," Lobacca's grandfather said.

Lobacca turned around and gazed in surprise at his grandfather.

"I think it is time I tell you who I really am and how I really lost my leg. I kept all of this secret for your own good and because your mom didn't want you to follow the same road as I did, but it seems it is too late for that. I led the White Mantles in the Clone Wars," Lobacca's grandfather said.

"The legendary White Mantles!?" Lobacca yelped in surprise.

"Yes the White Mantles. But we aren't—weren't—a legend that's for sure. Anyway, I learned a couple of things when I was up there and I think you just better hear the story. It's about the last battle fought by the White Mantles," Lobacca's grandfather said.

"The one of the victory on Kashyyyk?" Lobacca asked.

"Yes that one, we won the battle but it wasn't a victory at all. We were dug in deep in a forest and fought off wave after wave of 501st legion troops and Wookiees.

"The opposing battalion we were fighting was let by three Jedi, two Padawans and one Knight, or a Masters, I don't remember clearly. At some point I had enough and requested a ceasefire to bury our losses. In the other battles I had fought it was always accepted. But these Jedi, they just kept yelling about the dark side and the likes the entire time. Drove me insane and made me feel sorry for the clones. They refused the cease fire, they freaking refused. These Jedi don't have any idea how the real world out there works. They are always busy about not turning to the dark side but threw the clones lives away in a way I never saw a Confederacy general spill droids!

"Now where was I? Yes, at some point both sides had taken quite a nasty beating and neither side felt like attempting another push, so we were mainly waiting to see which side would get the first wave of fresh troops.

"I don't know what got into the head of those Jedi, but they pushed. They pushed with every man they had left in one final assault wave. The battle that followed was slaughter, a real blood bath. Got halfway through the fight and the Jedi themselves joined in. Clone troopers always tried to make your death fast and swift but these Jedi, they used their Force tricks to make your weapons blow up in your own hands and then finished you off, or slashed off your weapon arm and left you in your pain. Just plain sick. The fight didn't look like it would be won by either side. At some point I lost it, my built up hatred for these Jedi got the better of me. I charged in towards the last remaining Jedi swinging with my axe like a madman.

"My trusted droideka guard followed, guns blazing, tearing apart each Republic loyalist that tried to gun me down—if there was one, they all looked too terrified to do so. Finally I stood in front of the last remaining Jedi still swinging my axe like a madman. The Jedi Force-tricked my weapon out of my hands and slashed off my left leg and got ready to finish me off. But just at the moment he wanted to do so, the remnants of my droideka guard showed up and blasted him to pieces. He fell to the ground still muttering his Jedi mantras as if he didn't believe he was dying.

"After the Jedi died the remnants of the Republic troops surrendered. What was still left of the White Mantles had won our bloodiest battle. And bloody it was... of the two hundred Ishi Tib that fought up there only fifty who came out of the fight alive and none of them looked good. After that battle I was promoted to colonel and transported to the research station you just visited. I personally requested that because I had done my part in the war," Lobacca's grandfather said.

"I see," Lobacca said, while he looked at his grandfather with new respect.

A silence followed.

"I think it is time for you to go now. You have a shuttle to catch," Lobacca's grandfather said.

"Yes, I have. May the Raccoon Spirit bless us," Lobacca said.

"Yes, may the Raccoon Spirit bless us. But remember try to keep your limbs and stay away from Jedi, Sith and anything like them. They only mean trouble," Lobacca's grandfather said.


Cargo Freighter

"Hi, ma'am," Lobacca said while saluting.

"Nice new weapons you have there, private." Corry said while returning the salute.

"Thanks, I got them off an old security officer," Lobacca responded.

"Security at a durasteel mine?" Corry asked.

"A droid research station," Lobacca answered smiling, while the small freighter entered hyperspace.