‘As soon as several droids reached some type of cover, the real battle had begun.’
‘Blue and red laser beams were flying left and right. It was impossible to completely understand the situation, even with the help of the force.’
‘The clones, especially the commandos, proved to be invaluable in this type of scenario. They were trained to remain calm and stoic, even in the middle of a battle.’
‘I aimed with my blaster and destroyed another b1 with a shot melting its face plate. Then hastily ducked behind the piled up crates as three red lasers almost simultaneously flew through the empty space where my head was mere seconds ago.’
‘These droids were good. I learned a little about their tactics and abilities in the library after I got the assignment of being a commander of the Republic army. Basically, each droid works as an individual, which means there is no central computer that controls their movements. It’s a clever design, since that exact computer would be the greatest weakness of the system.’
‘On the other hand, the droids can still share their camera footage with each other through military-coded wireless signals. Each droid has its own signal, with its own code. Therefore, there is no reason to try to hack into the system, since we would need to hack every single one of them.’
‘The individual signals only work effectively for a few hundred meters, though. This means any droid in that range can see everything that the other droids see around them, and a possible hacker also needs to be in that range for the whole time to successfully break into one system.’
‘This is the reason the separatist’s droid army was so powerful and the most feared one in the galaxy. Not even speaking of the fact that battle droids have no sense of fear. They just fight on until every one of them is destroyed.’
“INCOMING!” — Shouted Watcher.
‘I looked up and saw a b1 with a rocket launcher aiming towards our position.’
‘I knew that I couldn’t let that rocket hit our barricade, or we would be pinned down without cover and killed one by one. I looked at Dozer. Maybe he could kill the droid before it shot the rocket, I hoped.’
‘Then I saw that the guy was trying to reload his weapon with another grenade. That would be too late. I turned back towards the b1 unit, it seems that I will have to do it myself.’
‘The rocket was launched. It was flying towards us, gaining even more speed with every second. I reached out to the force with my complete focus and continuously pulled the air upwards in front of us, creating a strong air current.’
‘The moment the rocket hit it, it was unbalanced and flew over our heads by a few meters. I didn’t look after it to see where it landed. There was no time for such things. The droid was reloading another rocket.’
“Focus fire on that b1 behind the crates! It has a rocket launcher!”
“On it, commander!” — Shouted Dozer, who finally reloaded the grenade launcher.
“Ahsoka! Create cover for Dozer to aim!” — ‘I shouted at the togruta.’
“Okay!” — She jumped off the cover of crates and began to deflect the lasers back at the droids, effectively annoying them and gaining their disdain. Most of them started to aim at her.
Using this opening, Dozer shot, and his aim was true as the droid with the rocket launcher blew up in an enormous cloud of fiery smoke.
‘I nodded and also shouted at Ahsoka to jump back behind cover before she gets herself killed. She didn’t really want to at first, so I let her be, focusing on the b1’s instead. After a few more seconds of jumping around while a whirlwind of laser beams followed her around, she reconsidered.’
Eventually she landed behind the crates, breathing heavily, drenched in sweat.
‘She looked at me and said this with obvious annoyance.’
“You were supposed to argue with me to get my ass behind cover immediately.”
‘I gave her a long look.’
“I am not your master girl. If you want to risk your life stupidly, it’s your choice.” — ‘Of course, I didn’t really think that seriously, but I hoped saying that would deter her from such irresponsible acts, at least for the near future.’
‘I shot down another droid in the meantime.’
“Crusher, what is the overall battle situation!?” — ‘I asked my second in command.’
“Not good commander, most of the other clone squads began to retreat from the main hangar. They had received heavy casualties.”
“We can’t let them capture the hangar while half of our fighter ships are still inside it!” — Shouted Ahsoka, actual fear finding its way into her voice for the first time.
“I agree with Ahsoka. We have to push them back somehow.” — ‘My eyes hovered to the LAAT’s form behind our barricade.’
“Get that LAAT ready to fly as soon as possible. Stinger and Handy will use the ship’s guns to cleave through the droids. Brain, you drive it! We will distract them until you get the ship ready! Move!”
“Understood!”
‘A sudden blast that shook the steel floor under our feet froze us in mid motion. If only for a second, everyone looked towards the same direction. There was a giant ball of flame rising towards the ceiling a few hundred meters from us. Watcher checked out the situation with his scope and began his report.’
“One of the clone squads got decimated by suicide bomber droids.”
Ahsoka blinked and asked, bewildered.
“Is that even a thing?”
“Of course it is!” — Said Targetman.
‘His armor had at least seven blackened spots on it, showing off the places where he got hit.'
‘Luckily, the clone commando is equipped with heavy plastoid armor. It can withstand three to five normal laser hits at the same place if it has enough time to cool down between each hit. It doesn’t take long to cool off, just about ten seconds, but that is a lot of time in the middle of a firefight.’
“Watch out for any droid who wants to get close to the barricade!” — Shouted Crusher, who in the meantime gained a long black burn mark on the right side of his helmet.
‘It’s my turn, I guess. I nodded at Ahsoka and tossed her my sidearm. She grabbed it, surprised by my unexpected actions.’
‘Before she could react, I jumped out from behind the barricade, holding out my left arm, creating a one-way force shield in front of my troops.’
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‘I also ignited my silver blade in my right hand, just in case. The others, realizing my plan, immediately stopped hiding behind the crates and instead started to shoot down the confused droids.’
‘They didn’t seem to understand why their lasers never reached their target. Their confusion lasted about ten seconds. In that time, the others managed to shoot down a great number of them. Seeing our heroic stand against the separatist droid army, the slowly retreating clones decided to join us for a last-ditch attempt to turn the tide of the battle.’
‘After the initial confusion, the droids decided that whatever was the reason for their shots to disappear; it was caused by me. That was the moment things started to become quite edgy...’
‘All the nearby droids focused their firepower at me.’
‘I was already feeling the strain from continuously disintegrating the lasers. But from that concentrated fire, my mind simply overloaded.’
‘I smirked under my helmet as the next step in my plan began. I gathered all the recycled energy into a gigantic force push and unleashed it on the enemy.’
‘The force push was so strong that it picked up the already destroyed droids, other steel scraps laying about along with quite a few still functioning ones and simply blew them away. Some crashed into each other in mid flight or into their own transporter ships behind them, only to fall on the ground at last with the clear sound of breaking metallic parts.’
‘I looked around the completely redesigned battlefield. There were still quite a few droids who managed to hide behind covers from my all-out force push.’
‘In those few seconds of relative silence following the unleashed force technique, reinforcing clone troopers began to reach our position, creating a new line of defense centered around the clone commando.’
‘A powerful wave of nauseating feeling appeared in my stomach as I saw that three new separatist transport ships flew through the destroyed gate’s still functional atmospheric shields, landing, this time, much farther from our location than before.’
‘I felt a burst of anxiety settling in the bottom of my stomach. I am starting to really hate these droids. It must be, because of my fresh, extremely negative experience with a certain one. Anyway, since they landed far from our effective firing range, the droids will have enough time to create their formations. If that happens, we won’t hold out much longer... They were outnumbering us by at least three to one...’
Crusher was shouting commands at the nearby clones.
“Repair the barricades. We have to hold out for as long as possible!”
‘I saw the remaining droids trying to escape and join their reinforcements. The others were shooting after them, thinning their numbers. Watcher was especially good at it, with his sniper attachment activated throughout the whole fight. He basically downed a droid with every shot.’
‘Thanks to the momentarily stagnating situation, I noticed as a big squadron of ARC-170 left the hangar joining into the raging battle outside. That should be good enough!’
“Soldiers, most of our fighters have already left the hangar. If we can’t stand their attack, we will proceed with systematic retreat and defend the corridors that lead to the main reactors!” — ‘Crusher shouted, before I could give the command myself.’
‘He was really good at split-second decision making. Well, to be honest, in my whole memory arsenal, the only person who had military experience was Revan. I sighed. Then again, half of his life was a military assignment. I guess he managed to traumatize every following master with his brutal war experiences... At least in this battle, our enemies are mostly droids. That wasn’t the case back then. A few flashbacks later, that contained mostly dismantled, burned alive, and many other likely ways deformed bodies. I stumbled a bit, a stable hand grabbed my arm and began to pull me aside, allowing me the time to sober from my daydreaming.’
“What are you doing, Nizzal? Don’t just stand there like a tree. Come behind the barricade already. The droids are about to start their charge!” — ‘Ahsoka was shouting straight into my ear protrusions with a force that caused slight trembles to travel through my lekks…’
“... I hear you, you don’t have to shout so damn hard!” — ‘I complained, leaning away from her.’
‘She looked at me with a worried expression, then said.’
“I was shouting at you because you wouldn’t react otherwise.” — ‘I blinked.’
“... Sorry about that. I guess I got caught up in some old memories...”
”That’s cool. You will have enough time for daydreaming when we beat back the clankers.”
“You are right about that.”
‘Ahsoka pushed me down behind a crate in relative safety and said in a strict voice.’
“And now, you will rest after that ridiculous force push you just pulled off. You look tired and I can hardly detect your force presence. Catch this.” — ‘She dropped my blaster gun in my lap and smiled at me.’
“You are better with that, anyway.” — She added with a smirk.
“What are you implying by that?” — I asked.
She looked to the side and said.
“I just need to practice a bit more. Preferably not on a battlefield.” — She pouted.
“Well, ask me anytime if you need advice on it.” — ‘She nodded, then crouched beside me, peeking over the scorched and partially melted metal crates. Then a powerful vibration occurred as the LAAT finally started up and it began to hover over us in a low altitude.’
“Nice timing, I said to myself.” — With a quickly widening smile.
“Oh, I have already forgotten about them!” — Said Ahsoka with a happy and clearly relieved expression settling on her face.
‘I got an incoming call on my com-link. I immediately picked it up, pushing the usual button on my wrist computer.’
“Commander, the LAAT is ready. What are you orders?”
‘I gave an honest toothy smile, then said.’
“Blast them!”
“Roger!”
‘Everyone nearby watched as the high caliber turbo lasers activated and began to fire into the lines of droids with deadly precision. The shots were so powerful that they began to even melt the floor under the droid’s legs.’
‘The droids’ much weaker energy weapons were not effective against an armored vehicle like the LAAT from this distance. In half a minute, their numbers had dwindled drastically. Seeing this happening, the clones began to cheer in their happiness.’
‘I looked around the barricade, then shouted towards Crusher.’
“Gamma Squad, status report!”
“Yes, ma’am!” — Began Crusher.
“Crusher reporting, my helmet is compromised. I am blind for the right side of my helmet as the lenses burned black from the sniper shot that grazed me. I have about 30% ammunition left.”
“Brain reporting, no injuries. 60% ammunition.”
“Handy, lost a pair of fingers on my left hand. 70% ammunition.” — ‘I cut in as I heard that.’ — “Give him first aid immediately, next!”
“Stinger, no injuries. 50% ammunition.”
“Targetman reporting.” — ‘His voice was filled with static anomalies that made his speech hard to understand.’ — “My suit is trashed, … the movement sup…, engin… stopp… function…, this shit… is heavy as fuck. I have—… at least… one… round of ammo. Can’t… check!”
“Roger that, get yourself out of the thick of it Target… I don’t want you zeroed on me, next!”
‘There was only static noise coming through the communicator.’
“Where is Ice?” — I asked.
“He is out cold, got hit by multiple consecutive shots at about the same spot on his chest. We can use his ammo. His stash is almost full.”
‘I gulped.’
“Is he dead?” — I asked eventually.
“No, not yet.” — Stated Crusher. — “He seems somewhat stable for now, but I can’t say if that will be the case for an hour later. If he lives, he will have a new burn scar to show off to the clone girls.”
‘My eyebrows have slightly raised up at that, but didn’t comment on it.’ — “Next!”
“Watcher, nothing serious, 30% ammunition.”
“Dozer, out of grenades, but overall, 25% ammunition.”
“Give him a few more grenades, guys...” — ‘I said while shaking my head, quite amused with the fool.’
‘Now, where did Ahsoka go? She left while I was focusing on the reports... Well, she can handle herself.’
‘I looked over at my team. Everybody is still kicking, more or less, after that crazy shoot-out. I have a good feeling about them.’
‘I looked back towards the droids. Something moved in the air. My head snapped up. Wait, is that a droid flying towards the LAAT? Was it blasted away that far? What is it carrying?’
‘Then I saw it. It was a jet trooper droid. I gulped as fear gripped my very soul, followed by the dreadful realization and a screaming force warning... I shouted, but it was too late.’
“SUICIDE BOM-” — ‘Than a powerful detonation happened a few meters above us in the air. My small body was simply pushed aside as my hastily created force shields crumbled with little resistance...’
‘I flew into a pile of heavy crates that crumbled under my weight. Felt my ribs cracking, my ears filled with the screams of soldiers, or was it mine? I wasn’t sure… A heavy pressure fell against my left shoulder, then a sharp, blinding pain followed. The pain was somewhat familiar, and I realized that my left shoulder got dislocated.’
‘I wanted to cry out again, but the pain in my chest took away my breath, which was somewhat lucky, since the surrounding air was burning from the explosion. My ears were buzzing and ringing. I think I blanked out.’
‘An unknown amount of time later, I came to myself trying to reorient and heal the most crucial injuries.’