Third Platoon: Clone War

Lt. Stryke sits on a chair in the corner of Nova Troop's private room, in the Special Operation Brigade's section of Tipoca City. Stryke sits in his chair, messing around with his gun while wearing a stern look on his face. Others in the Troop talk about random things or do the same as Stryke. Just then, Corporal Hawk Eye walks into the room with Private Teck of Blue Squad. Hawk Eye leans his gun against the wall and sits down on the floor next to Stryke. Teck remains standing in front of the two.

"Still raining," Hawk Eye says casually, looking straight ahead at the wall.
"Yeah. Well when is it not raining here?" Teck says. "I swear, I'm almost looking forward to going into battle just so we can get outta here and go somewhere where it isn't raining all the time."

The three remain quiet for a second, until Stryke takes in a deep breath and then says calmly, "You say that now. But give it ten minutes into the first skirmish and you're gonna be wishing you were still in a test tube."
"Yeah well not me," Snap of White Squad says walking up to the trio. "I can't wait to send those piles of scrapmetal back to where they came from. You wanna know why they call me Snap?"
"Not really," Hawk Eye says. "But I suppose you're gonna tell us anyway, huh?"
"They call me Snap, because when I fire my Sniper, a snap is the last thing the person-or droid-hears before they are blown away," Snap says with a cocky tone. "The snap that they hear comes from their head going back so fast it snaps their neck."

Stryke, Hawk Eye, and Teck stare at Snap in silence, until Teck scoffs and answers, "Oh yeah? And what happens if you don't hit them in the head?"

Now it was Snap's turn to laugh at the other's comments. "I always hit my target's head," he says.
"Oh," Teck says in obvious sarcasm.
"White Squadders. . ." Stryke says. "You should-"

Suddenly, the door opens and a Kaminoan walks in. The sound of rain hitting the ground can be heard, mixed with a boom of lightning before the door closes behind the planet native. The Kaminoan motions for Stryke to come over. Stryke pats Hawk Eye on the shoulder as he gets out of his seat and walks over.

"Taun We," Stryke says, acknowledging the Kaminoan. "What's going on?"
"Tell your men to get their gear," Taun We says. "Jedi Master Yoda has arrived with several transports."
"I don't understand," Stryke says.
"It's time for you to go to battle," Taun We says.

Stryke is silent. He nods his head and turns back to the group. Taun We leaves the room as Stryke begins to talk loudly to get his men's attention.

"Listen up everyone!" Stryke shouts. All the men stop what they are doing and look to their Lieutenant. Stryke looks back at them, a very small curl at the side of his mouth. After a few seconds of them looking at eachother in silence, Stryke says, "It's time. Get your gear."

Lt. Stryke points out a few things on the ground to the trooper next to him, such as the arena and the squad of gunships moving toward it.

"White Squad and the Jedi are in that ship there," Stryke tells to Hawk Eye as he points to a ship. "White Squad is gonna meet up with us once they get the Jedi out."

As Stryke stopped talking, another ship is shot down, catching fire as it plummets to the ground and finally causes a large explosion on impact. Stryke turns to Leet and begins yelling over the carnage.

"Sergeant," Stryke says. "You take your squad and attack that command post there from the left side. My squad will attack from the front. We'll lay down cover fire and pin those bastards while you can move in and finish 'em." Leet nods. "Red and Blue squads will attack from the other side. We'll close in on the command post, and when White Squad is done, they'll bring a Jedi and come meet with us."

The plains seem rather empty at the moment. Only a few hundred droids, but they continue to pour out of the several round shaped transports and the Techno Union Ships. The ship quickly begins to fall, causing all the soldiers inside to lose their stomach for a moment. The LAAT finally lands at the bottom of the large hill on the far side of the plains. Stryke motions for Leet to take his squad and move over to the side and begin running up the hill. "Squad, on me!" Stryke tells to his squad. "Get ready, we don't know what's inside that bunker. Pilot, on your way out of here, you think you could soften up their defenses a bit?"
"Sure thing, Lieutenant," the pilot says.

The LAAT lifts up off the ground. Both squads watch as the ship bombards the bunker as it flies over. Green squad continues up the hill, moving to the side. "Everybody put some fire on that damn bunker while you move up the hill!" Stryke commands. "Vek, you set up here and use your machine gun. Hawk Eye, Slicer, use your rifles and we'll move and shoot."

Vek pulls out the machine gun that is slung over his shoulders and hanging on his back. He gets down on his stomach and begins firing on the bunker while the rest of Black Squad shoots as they run up the sandy, rocky hill.

OOC: This first part takes place before Black Squad is overrun



Stryke sits down on a small step in the room that goes up to the window, where Vek's heavy machine gun is mounted. Stryke checks his weapon, then reloads it and looks down at the ground while Slicer paces back and forth in the room. Stryke takes a deep breath, and then gets a puzzled look on his face. "What is that?" Stryke asks, pointing to a part of the ground where there is a thick outline around a tile. Stryke gets on his feet and aims his rifle at the part of the ground. With one quick shot, the small patch of the ground is blasted away and falls down into a dark hole it was covering.

"What the hell is that?" Slicer asks while walking over to it.
"Damnit, this bunker must be even bigger than we think," Stryke says.
"Red and Blue Squads must be coming over this way. Who knows what's down there?" Slicer says.

Stryke remains silent for a moment, thinking. He looks over at Vek, who continues to look over the battle with his machine gun. Stryke walks over to Vek and leans over to get close to his ear. "You think you can hold this bunker by yourself?" Stryke asks him, yelling over the noises around them.
"You kidding me? Of course I can hold it," Vek says.
"Good. We'll be back soon enough, and Red and Blue squad should be with us," Stryke says.

Stryke motions at Slicer to get into the hole. "But Lieutenant, we don't know how deep it is," Slicer says.
"Toss a grenade in there," Stryke says.

Slicer pulls a grenade out and tosses it into the hole.

"Fire in the hole!" Slicer shouts. They watch as the thermal detonator falls down deeper and deeper, until finally stopping and blowing up, giving them a brief look at what is down there.

"No big deal," Stryke says casually. "Here, go tie this rope over around that rock out there." Stryke begins to pull a rope out of one of the many compartments on his suit. He hands it to Slicer, who begins putting it into a slipknot as he walks outside. He puts it around one of the large rocks and begins lightly jogging back into the bunker, where Stryke has already begun descending down the rope and into the underground part of the bunker, where Slicer quickly follows. Stryke turns on the flashlight attached to his weapon, and Slicer does the same.

"You think Vek will be able to hold that thing this whole time?" Slicer says as he slowly looks around.
"No," Stryke says. "I don't care who you are, one man can't hold a bunker. That's why I'm wishing I hadn't of sent Green Squad out."
"Yeah, and what the hell is taking White Squad so long?" Slicer says.
"I don't know. They were just supposed to go in, get the Jedi, and come meet us. For all we know they might be dead," Stryke says.

Stryke quickly stops in his tracks when he finds a switch on the wall. He flicks it, and the lights begin turning on all over the room, revealing a tunnel where the lights begin turning on as well. Stryke looks down the tunnel, but quickly turns around when he hears Slicer say, "Well well, look what we have here."

Stryke turns around and sees the same as Slicer: dozens of Super Battle Droids all wrapped together in neat packages. Stryke begins walking down the long tunnel, and lets out a gasp at what he sees. Slicer walks up behind him and says in amazement, "Damn." Thousands of Super Battle Droids, all shut off, and lining the very long tunnel.

"Got any explosives?" Stryke asks non-chalantly.
"No sir, just some grenades. But they wouldn't put a dent in the number of these things," Slicer says.
"Well then let's keep moving. Hopefully someone from Red or Blue Squad will have some," Stryke says as they continue down the tunnel.

The two walk casually down the tunnel, not seeing a threat in battle droids that weren't even turned on. Dust falls off the ceiling with each explosion above them.

"Now that I think about it, we're probably right below millions of those scrap piles," Stryke says. They finally reach the end of the tunnel and can hear the voices of other clones. "That must be them," Stryke says. The two pick up the pace and spot a door at the end of the tunnel. They both get on different sides of it and prepare to assault. Stryke counts down from three on his fingers, and when he gets to one, Slicer kicks the door down. Both of them reach their arms out and toss a grenade through the door. The sound of another clone is heard yelling, "Hit the dirt!"

Stryke and Slicer both look at each other for a moment, then rush into the room where they see countless broken droids laying on the ground and eight clones getting up.

"What the hell was that for," Pyro asks. "Damn near killed us. We were doing fine kicking their asses until you came in and nearly blew us apart."
"Come on, let's get moving," Stryke says without a hint of remorse.

Stryke listens to his comlink and then looks at the Jedi Unduli. Stryke looks at her for a moment as if to ask what to do. She simply nods, able to read his thoughts. Stryke nods as well.

"Lieutenant look out!" Hawk Eye shouts. A droid runs up behind them, about to cut the clones down. But the droid is sliced in half by a purple lightsaber as Mace Windu seemingly falls out of the sky and saves them. White Squad runs up behind him, weapons drawn. Windu and White Squad run up to the others.
"Well you sure are a damn sight for sour eyes," Stryke says. "What took you so long?"
"Getting out of the arena is tougher than it looks," Sergeant Crunch says. "But we're here now and that's all that matters."
"Alright," Stryke says. He turns to Windu. "Master Windu, will you and White Squad go with Master Unduli to Command Post 3 and help our boys defend it until we can get one of our squads and return?"
"Sure, but hurry it up," Mace says. "Let's go."

The two Jedi masters and White Squad take off, over to help out Red Squad. Stryke turns back to Hawk Eye and Slicer.

"What about Vek?" Slicer asks. "Whatever happened to him?"
"Who knows," Stryke says. "But we just have to continue on and hope for the best for him. We don't have anymore time. We have to get to Blue Squad and then regroup with the others. Let's go."

The three of them abandon their cover behind the rocks and run out into the plains, dodging and shooting all over the place. All the fire is crazy. Off in the distance, hundreds of droids begin to charge, only to fall through the ground where all the explosives were detonated earlier. After running through all the chaos, Black Squad finally reaches Blue Squad, hiding under a rock formation that gives them shade. Bolt and Pyn are already there. Bolt turns to Stryke and says, "Lieutenant, Sergeant Pyro and Strat are out of it. Me and Pyn were gonna help them over to Command Post 3."
"Good work Bolt," Stryke says. "Two Jedi masters and White Squad are already there. Let's get over there and help them out. I'll get ahold of Sergeant Leet and tell him to bring his squad over as well."
"Where is Vek?" Bolt asks.
"We don't know," Stryke says. "But we haven't got time. Teck, Shooter, carry one of them and we'll cover you. Let's move out."

"Hey, I can see the AT-OT's from here," Snap says. "All the droids that are retreating are gonna be pushed over to here."

Stryke looks at the millions of droids all running away toward the transports. He can see as several of the ball shaped starships lift off the ground. All the fire is poured onto the nearest one, and after a few shots from the Republic mobile artillery units, it plummets to the ground and kicks up a giant sandstorm.

"Damn," Stryke says in amazement at the size of the cloud. "Look at all the fighting going on in there."

All they could really see was the countless blaster shots going back and forth. The commandos and the three Jedi watch as the Jedi Yoda begins to climb onto an LAAT.

"Lieutenant," Mace Windu says. Stryke turns to Mace. "I have to go. The Jedi need my help fighting Dooku, the droid leader."
"Very well. Good luck master Jedi," Stryke says.

Mace ignites his purple lightsaber and leaves the command post. Stryke turns to the platoon and asks, "Has anyone heard from Vek?" All of them shake their heads no. "Damn it," Stryke says under his breath. "Where the hell did he go. . ." Stryke raises his voice so the others can hear him again. "You two, Jedi. Do you think you can cover us while we move to our ride out of here?"
"No problem," Unduli says.
"Alright, everybody saddle up. Let's get the hell out of here," Stryke says. "As soon as you step foot out of this bunker, you make a mad dash over to those AT-OT's. Don't stop for anything."

All of them check their ammo and then stare at Stryke, who stares back as if to ask them if they know what they're about to do. This is a very risky move, charging out into an open field with millions of droids that could spot you, but they can't stay where they are or they'll be outnumbered, surrounded, and eventually killed. Stryke nods his head and steps out of the bunker and into the hot sun, sprinting as fast as he can with the others behind him. Stryke sees about four droids to his side that begin to aim at them and he instinctively shoots them down while running.

"Lieutenant stay with me," Healer continues to say to Stryke. Healer's voice echoes and slowly fades away more and more each second. "Lieutenant you can't fall asleep. Lieuten-" And the next thing Stryke knows, he snaps his eyes open and sees dozens of people around him. Stryke realizes he is in a bacta tank and floats to the top. As his head rises above the liquid, Bolt walks over to him and throws him a towel. Stryke pulls his arm out and catches it in one hand, then pulls himself out of the tank and hops down to the ground. The first thing to pop into his mind is how cold the room is. There are hundreds of other bacta tanks, most with a clone in them and the occasional empty one. The room is very barely lit, just some small blue lights around the top of the walls. The entire platoon is with him and give him an acknowledging nod.

"What happened?" Stryke asks, clearly confused.
"You passed out on Geonosis," Bolt explains. "The Seps ran with their tails between their legs. We had to get you into this tank quick."
"Who all made it?" Stryke asks.
"Everyone 'cept Snap from White Squad. Got his damn chest torn apart by a droid rocket," Bolt says. "We all have an appointment to meet Chancellor Palpatine himself later on. I think they're gonna give us an award or something for blowing that underground droid storage sky high."

Stryke remains silent. He just dries his hair and drops the towel on the ground. He turns to the rest of the platoon, who are all talking quietly amongst themselves. "You can go now, if you like," Stryke says to them. All of them leave the room, except Bolt, who Stryke stops by grabbing his arm. Bolt looks at Stryke strangely. "You did a fine job out there," Stryke says. "That's the kind of leadership I like to see. I'm putting you in for First Sergeant."

Stryke turns away from Bolt and walks over to a small cabinet attached to the wall, where there are clothes waiting. "Thank you Lieutenant," Bolt says.
"Don't thank me," Stryke says. "You deserve it. And I have a feeling they're gonna promote Sergeant Leet to Staff Sergeant as well for helping rescue that Jedi."
"Yeah..."

Stryke puts on his clothes, and then the two remain silent for a moment. Finally, Stryke sighs and says, "Well, day one is in the books."

Stryke and Bolt enter the briefing room in one of Coruscant's many underground military complexes. Apparently the Republic had been building military bases underground in case they were ever needed. Not only were they useful for housing all the soldiers, but keeping them underground meant they were a secret to the Seperatists, and therefore not likely to be attacked. The room is very basic, with just a large amount of chairs in three rows which form a circle surrounding a hologram projector in the center of the room.

Dozens of clones are sitting in their seats and stare at Bolt, who follows closely behind Stryke. The clone commando Captain steps up in front of Stryke and asks, "What is he doing in here?"

Stryke chuckles and responds, "It's okay, sir. He's my Platoon Sergeant and I just think he should be in on this as well in case I don't make it."

The Captain, known by his codename Blast, just sighs and says, "Fine." Stryke and Bolt both sling their rifles over their shoulders and sit down. All the clone Officers from the battalion of the 501st, along with the Officers from Nova Company and Jedi General Luminara Unduli, are present. Another commando Lieutenant sits down next to Stryke. Stryke turns to him and notices who it is. Apparently it is another of the four platoon leaders from Nova Company.

"How did it go with you guys on Geonosis?" Stryke asks him.
"Fine," the commando LT says. "Wish I could say the same about second platoon though."
"I didn't hear anything about the others. What happened?" Stryke asks.
"Second platoon took heavy casualties. Two of its squads didn't even make it to the ground. They were shot down by AA guns," he says.
"Damn. Two whole squads?" Stryke says in amazement.
"Yeah. Poor bastards didn't even get a chance to fire their weapon before they went up in smoke."
"What about your platoon. Anybody killed?"
"We lost two guys altogether, both from the same squad. They got mowed down by an MG trying to assault an outpost. How about you?"
"We lost one from White Squad. He got blown to pieces by a rocket. Caught me a little too. Gave me a concussion and messed up my hearing. They told me my hearing is seventy percent of what it used to be and it'll never recover."
"That hurts. Closest I got to being injured was a couple rocks falling on me."
"They gonna give us some replacements before we head back out or are we gonna go in short-handed?"
"Hell if I know."

Stryke looks down at the ground and sighs. Unduli, along with Captain Blast and the 501st Major stand in the middle of the room next to the holographic map of Kessel.

Unduli begins, "As you're all aware by now, you've been chosen for a special assignment. We are all to be sent to the planet Kessel to eliminate a rebellion against the Republic. You'll all be parachuting in. I'm gonna find my own way onto the planet and link up with you later." Unduli points to a specific part of the map where there is a large city, along with trenches all around it about half a mile out. "Now, the reason for parachuting in is simple. The Seperatists have got thousands of very powerful Anti-Aircraft guns all over the planet. Any attempt to land a transport would only result in a waste of soldiers. The Republic has found a way to disable their radars for a short time. This will allow you enough time for the ships to fly in and remain above the clouds where they will not see you. You will jump out and land on the outskirts of the capital city here. The men of the 501st will assault the city, likely meeting heavy resistance here." Unduli points to the trenches all around the city. "Now, while the 501st has the enemy engaged around the city, Nova Company will move underground and each platoon will come up at different positions in the city."

Unduli points to one corner of the city for each platoon and says, "First platoon will come up here. Second: here. Third: here. And fourth: here. Now, since the 501st boys will be drawing the enemies fire, you will likely encounter little resistance. While you're in the city, you are to destroy all the AA guns and then proceed to help out the 501st in the trenches. Once it's all said and done, we'll be able to bring in our gunships and prepare to retake the whole planet. There is one major difference in this battle, however. You will be fighting more than just droids. There are locals who have decided to fight as well. And, we have recieved word that Count Dooku himself is on the planet. Nova Company, it is your job to find him and eliminate him. Any questions?"

One Captain from the 501st raises his hand and immediately asks his question, not waiting to be called on, "What kind of armor should we be expecting?"
"We're not sure. Apparently the Seperatists are supplying the rebels, but we don't know what to expect," Unduli says.

Stryke raises his hand and asks, "Where will you be when all this is happening Master Jedi?"
"I will be smuggling myself onto the planet. I'll make my way to the city as fast as possible and hopefully get there in time to save you," she says, the last part meant as sarcasm. "Now we do have a slight disadvantage going into this battle with a lack or air or tank support. But you guys are the best of the best, and I'm very confident you can pull it off. And to all the 501st soldiers: remember that all the commandos outrank you. Even you Major. Even a commando private outranks any regular clone except for a Commander or higher. So in the possible case of a disastrous jump and everyone being separated, just remember that. Dismissed."

At that, the hologram disappears and all the clones get on their feet. The other Lieutenant looks at Stryke and says, "As if we need air or tank support. Let's go. We still got a few hours before we have to tell our men. I'll buy you a round at the bar."
"Well, if you really want to, I won't stop you," Stryke says in dry wit.
"Even you Sergeant," he says looking at Bolt. "I guess I'll buy you one too."

[color=#666666]This message was edited by Grievous on Aug 28 2006.

"Everybody get ready," the pilot yells to everyone in the back. "We're getting ready to enter the planet's atmosphere." The ship begins to rumble a bit, not really alarming anyone. At least not until the ship rocks heavily to the sides, causing everyone to grab on tight to their armrests.

"What's going on?" Reg asks.
"Nothing, it's just a tough planet to enter," Stryke reassures him. The ship continues to shake violently as it flies through the planet's atmosphere. Everything is hazy, impossible to see through at the moment. But the ship finally stops and the view becomes much clearer. All the troopers are greeted by a truly jaw dropping view of the top of the clouds.

"So what exactly is so important about this planet?" Boom asks.
"The glitterstim spice," Bolt says. "It's a drug that they use for medical procedures some times. This is the only planet that has it."

The LAAT floats above the clouds, moving at a very slow rate and letting the clones look at the clouds. The planet's strange red atmosphere shines on them, causing a great view. Stryke and the others who were enjoying the death sticks put their helmets back on and get out of their seats.

"You guys are gonna like what you see," the pilot tells them. "You're gonna be dropping down onto the rocky side of the planet. Remember Lieutenant, all the others are to open their chutes after you. So it's your job to watch that button attached to your suit. When it starts buzzing, open your parachute."

Stryke nods as the doors on both sides of the ship slowly begin to open. Stryke and Bolt both stand in front of them with the others lined up behind them. The pilot turns back to Stryke and continues to say, "And try not to let the pressure kill you. Your suits should protect you though, so don't worry too much about it."

Stryke peeks his head out the door and looks at the dozens of ships flying around them, all with troopers looking out the doors as well. "Alright jump on the count of three!" the pilot yells. "One! Two! Three!" Stryke leaps out the door, not hesitating at all and looks around at the other ships as troopers jump out as well. He spreads out his arms and legs and begins to free fall through the clouds. Stryke smiles and laughs under his helmet, enjoying the experience. He falls through the clouds for a few seconds until he sees a sight that completely removes his smile. The rebels and droids are shooting machine guns up into the air.

"Oh shit," Stryke yells out.
"What's going on?" Bolt yells through the comlink built into their helmets. Apparently he has not passed through the clouds yet. "What's going-Oh no."

Stryke looks all around desperately at the 501st soldiers as they fall around him, some getting hit and some not. But even the ones who do get hit shake it off.

"Those shots aren't gonna do much from this distance but once we're in range and with our chutes deployed we're gonna be sitting ducks!" Stryke yells.
"What do we do?" Hawk Eye says.
"There's nothing we can do except hope," Stryke says.

Stryke continues to fall and look around at the hundreds of 501st soldiers. Finally they are in range, and in danger, of getting hit. And Stryke sees a helpless clone trooper get shot in the head and begin to tumble down to the ground. Stryke feels the buzzing from the button attached to his uniform and deploys his parachute. The sudden stop causes him to drop his rifle. He tries to reach for it, but it's out of range and falls down to the ground. He looks up and notices the other commandos above him deploying their parachutes.

"Lieutenant Stryke!" Captain Blast says through the comlink. "Steer your parachute as far away from the heavy fire as you can."

Stryke maneuvers himself around and floats forward, luckily none of the shots are hitting him. Some just fly right past him to his side. He hits the ground and tries to run, but the impact and momentum is too great and he trips and falls. Stryke reaches down to the two gun holsters on each leg and pulls out both of his pistols, then detaches his parachute and tosses a blue smoke grenade to signal for where the others are to land.

"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it," Stryke says under his breath. "Can't believe I lost my damn blaster."

Some other commandos begin to float toward him and he waves his arm around, telling them to come over.

Stryke begins to dash toward Bolt, until Blast yells at him to return. Stryke hesitates to come back, looking at Blast and then back at Bolt, then back at Blast. Stryke returns to Blast's side. "Listen, you can not go after him," Blast tells Stryke. "It looks like everyone who made it to the ground is here, let's get a move on."

Blast signals for everyone to follow him as what's left of Green and Blue Squads walk up to Stryke. Stryke notices one man short from Green Squad and just sighs. "Let's move," Stryke says to them. Blast, along with the other seventy-something commandos jog over to a small hole in the ground that goes about ten feet under. Blast jumps in, followed by Stryke, and then all of them jump in one at a time until they are all in the sewer. Stryke pulls out both of his pistols while all the others turn on the flashlights attached to their rifles. All the troopers run through the tunnel with the occasional splashes being heard. They finally come to a point where there are four different paths.

"Alright, First Platoon: down that tunnel," Blast says as he points to the one farthest to the left. He points to the one next to it and says, "Second platoon, we're going this way. Third platoon, go down that one. And fourth: that one. Good luck everybody. Remember, after you clear all the AA guns in your section of the city, clear out the houses and kill or capture any rebels you find, then head toward the middle of the city where we'll all meet up and then move over to the trenches where the 501st boys are fighting."

All four platoons go down their tunnels. Stryke notices third platoon is extremely short. With all of Red and White Squads missing and both Sick and Teck dead, they only had ten guys. Ten guys to clear out a fourth of a city. Something told Stryke this mission hadn't started out as was expected. As he and the others walk slowly down the tunnel, watching out for sentries, Stryke turns to the others and says lightheartedly, "When we make it out of here they're gonna have to give you guys a Medal of Honor or something."

None of the others respond in any way. They reach the ladder going up to the surface level and Stryke tells Pyro to go first. Pyro climbs up the ladder and removes the lid. He looks around for a bit and then jumps up to the surface, waving at Stryke to come up. Stryke begins to climb the ladder, then the others follow behind him. All of them make it to the surface unseen and instantly they move to a back alley. Stryke, Pyro, and Leet all kneel down next to eachother and look at a map while the others keep a lookout. The sounds of E-web heavy machine guns can be heard all around, along with rebels and droids running down the street, luckily none of them spotting the small group of clones.

"Alright, which one of you wants to take your squad into that house over there?" Stryke asks as he points to a house across the street. Neither of them volunteer. "Alright, Leet, you take your men and clear out that house there, set up on the second floor and pick off any hostiles you find running down the road."
"Roger that," Leet says.

Leet stands up and quietly calls to his squad to follow. They peek their heads out around the corner and see that the coast is clear. Leet runs across the road, then the other two follow once he's across.

"Lieutenant, why are we sneaking around here?" Pyro asks.
"We're too outnumbered here. If we try an all out assault we'll be dead in a matter of minutes," Stryke says.

Stryke looks up and sees a fire escape on the side of a very tall building. He looks over at Hawk Eye, who is looking right back at him. Neither has to say a word. Hawk Eye just nods and takes off toward the building. Hopefully he'll have a good sniping position at the top.

"Alright, that leaves us with only six guys here," Stryke says to Pyro. "Six guys to assault an AA gun. No problem, we just surround it and open fire at the same time. It should wipe out the crew in a heartbeat. Then we plant some explosives and move on to the next."
"No problem," Pyro says casually.

Stryke, Slicer, Vek, Shooter, and Strat all begin to move up the stairs in the house. When they reach the second level, the sounds of a door breaking down and dozens of people rushing in can be heard. "Second squad, check the upstairs," a mechanical voice says. Apparently there are both rebels and droids in the house. Footsteps grow louder and louder as they rush up the stairs. All the clones rush into a large bedroom and Stryke slams the door, then locks it.

"Everybody line up and prepare to fire!" Stryke commands. All five of them form a line and face the door. The door cracks as people ram against it on the other side. After about a minute of trying to bust it down, the rebels finally succeed and in come four rebels fighting alongside six B-1 Battledroids. All five clones open fire. Stryke alternates his shots between his left pistol and his right. All the enemies are killed and Stryke turns around and shoots one of the windows. It shatters and sends hundreds of little glass pieces falling to the ground. "Everybody get out through the window," Stryke says.

Slicer turns around and not only leaves through the window, he dives through it and falls down to the ground, about a fifteen foot fall. Shooter does the same, followed by Stryke, then Strat. All of them wait on the ground for Vek to come out next. But they get quite a surprise when the room goes up in flames from a huge explosion that seemed to come from the bedroom. All four of them look at the ground, disappointed. But they are surprised again when they see Vek desperately crawling out the window, his suit on fire. He manages to get most of his body out the window and then falls to the ground like dead weight. All four men try to put out the flames, and when they finally do, Shooter removes Vek's helmet, only to see his dead, lifeless eyes staring right up into the sky.

Shooter closes Vek's eyes for him and then lets him go. "We've got to move," Stryke says. He is clearly trying not to show any pain. "Leet and his boys are gonna link up with us. Let's go."

Stryke stands in the dugout trench with his new weapon, which he had taken off a dead clone, sitting on the ground high enough for him to look through the scope. He carefully watches for any sign of life at the top of the hill while hundreds of other clones sit down and rest. It is Stryke's job to watch for activity coming from the north, and in a few minutes it would be someone else's turn. The clouds have gathered, not allowing any light from the moon or stars to shine onto the soldiers. A sound of thunder is heard, quiet at first and building with each strike. Lightning strikes, and more thunder follows. Blast walks over to Stryke, stepping over a commando on the ground who is asleep.

"What're you doing without your helmet on?" Blast asks.
"The HUD's broken," Stryke says. "All it would do now is ruin my sight." Blast only nods and looks at the top of the hill. "Where's the Jedi?" Stryke asks.
"She's off somewhere in the city. Not much a Jedi can do in a battle like this," Blast says.
"Did the 501st Major make it out alive?" Stryke asks.
"Yeah, he's gonna help hold the western trench," Blast says.
"Dooku?..."
"Still hasn't shown his face. I think he may have fled."

There is an awkward silence. Stryke stops looking through the scope and leans back against the opposite side of the trench. "Is it true about you and Dooku?" Stryke asks him.
"That I fought with him at Geonosis? Yeah, it's true," Blast says, very casually.
"Holding your own against a Sith. That's incredible," Stryke says.
"Well it's really-" Blast begins.
"Incoming!" A clone yells.

Just then, a rather large chunk of the ground is demolished by a heavy artillery strike, sending dirt and rocks flying everywhere. Luckily it was a couple dozen meters away. Stryke and Blast take cover, and every clone who was relaxed is now on their feet and ready to shoot. Blast gets up and, while crouched, moves down the trench over to his side where he is meant to help other clones defend the eastern trench. Stryke grabs his rifle and gets on his feet. The one mobile artillery vehicle they were able to get raises its cannon and shoots a deafening shot. On the other side of the hill, the artillery strike lands causing another large group of shakes in the ground. All the LAAT's fly over the clones with a trooper in every position on every ship. Stryke watches as they all dissappear behind the hill. The chaos can be heard from their position, and just then, a raindrop falls on Stryke's head. The single raindrop is followed by many more, and then more, and more, until it becomes a huge downpour accompanied by the crack and boom of thunder and lightning every once in a while. The LAAT's come back from behind the hill, but in much smaller numbers, and some smoking, burning, and some even plummeting to the ground before they can make it very far over the hill. The mobile artillery fires another shot. Seconds later, the sound of screaming is heard clear as day. And the rebel army finally comes over the hill. Almost the entire first line of them is mowed down by the rapid fire coming from the clones. Stryke and the rest of the platoon are together, surrounded with 501st soldiers on both sides.

All they do is aim and shoot at the rebels and droids, who are trying to set up some sort of attack. Some go prone at the top of the hill and attempt to shoot the clones, but they are picked off before they can do much of anything. And others mindlessly try to rush the trench. Stryke tries to move down the line, and right when he moves his head, a blaster shot zooms past where it was just half a second ago. Stryke looks a little startled for a moment, and then shakes it off. He moves down the, now muddy, trench. A 501st trooper is shot in the shoulder, forcing him back against the wall. Some rebels and droids have wisely begun taking cover behind the downed LAAT's. Ripping out the pilots and shooting them mercilessly.

"Get some heavy fire on those downed LAAT's!" Stryke shouts. Tide puts down his rifle and picks up his rocket launcher leaning against the wall. Wasting no time aiming, he shoots at one of the LAAT's, blowing it and the enemies to pieces. Pyn comes up behind him and reloads for Tide, and Tide blows another one to pieces. Before he can shoot another, a rebel-built aircraft flies over them. With extremely heavy armor, two heavy machine guns mounted on both sides and remote rockets, along with heavy blasters in the front, it begins to tear through the clone defenses. All of them can do nothing but take cover and hope they don't get hit. The rebel aircraft hovers above them. Tide shoots a rocket at it, which misses.

"Where are those AA guns from the city damnit!?" Stryke shouts. Just then, several of the missles coming from the AA guns whiz past the rebel ship, not able to lock onto it.
"What the hell?" one clone yells in frustration.
"Everybody fire everything you've got on that son of a bitch!" Stryke orders.

Thousands of blaster shots begin zooming at the ship, but to no avail. Most shots simply bounce off, doing little to no damage. "Shift fire!" Stryke yells and signals at the advancing rebels and droids, who have made significant progress toward the clones. "Damnit, pull back!" Stryke orders. Stryke hops out of the trench and rushes as fast as he can, followed by all the other clones. The rebel ship opens up on them, aiming all three of their heavy machine guns at the fleeing clones while the two built in rocket launchers begin to pound the clones' mobile artillery unit. Within seconds, the mobile artillery is blown to bits, sending shrapnel flying in every direction and killing even more clones. When all hope is lost, and Stryke begins to realize that this is the end, a green lightsaber is ignited a few meters in front of him. Before he can focus on it, it rushes past him and leaps up on top of the rebel aircraft, slicing through the armor and then dissappearing inside of it.

"It's the Jedi!" shouts a clone trooper.
"Back into the trench!" Stryke orders.

All the clones hurry back into the trench, jumping over the many dead clones and then firing everything they have on the rebels and droids. Twenty LAAT's then begin to fly toward them from the sky, all carrying a republic Juggernaut tank. Five are dropped behind the rebel-droid armies and begin to tear them apart while the Jedi, inside the hijacked rebel aircraft, begins to fire on them as well. All the LAAT's that survived their first attack earlier lift off the ground and begin to pour it on the enemy army. With all the fire aimed at them, mixed with the fact that they are surrounded, it does not take long for the rebels to drop to their knees holding their hands high in surrender. The Jedi, Luminara Unduli, flies off with the ship, probably to destroy it. The clones all get up out of the trench as the LAAT's fly off to the other battles to assist. The 501st soldiers make their way toward the rebels and droids while three of the five tanks move on to assist in the battle to the east. Everyone who was left from Third Platoon managed to make it out of this battle unscathed. And it did not take long until one of the LAAT pilots got out of his ship and walked over to Stryke.

"Looks like this must have been one hell of a battle," the pilot says as he looks at all the carnage.
"Not too bad," Stryke says as he lights another Death Stick.
"What happened?" the pilot asks.
"Well, if it weren't for the Jedi, chances are we'd all be dead right now," Stryke says. "That's about it."
"They sure are amazing sometimes," the pilot says. "Just when you start to lose faith in them, they do something incredible and redeem themselves."
"Yeah," Stryke sighs.
"Well, I'm supposed to take you guys back to Coruscant," the pilot says. "Well, all except for one squad. I'm supposed to leave the biggest squad you've got left. They will have a special assignment here."
"That'd be Red Squad, led by Platoon Sergeant Bolt here," Stryke says motioning to Bolt. Bolt walks up to them.
"I don't know the specifics about your mission Bolt. But I have to take everyone else from Third Platoon back to Coruscant."
"Fine by me," Stryke says.

Stryke turns to the others, who all sit on the ground. Stryke motions with his hand for all of them to follow, and Bolt stops his squad. Stryke, Slicer, Shooter, Strat, Crunch, Bam, Boom, Leet, and Nade all board the LAAT and sit down. Some resting their eyes and some looking over the other battles that continue around the other sides of the city. Back on the ground, Bolt, Tide, Pyn, and Reg watch as their friends get to leave this hell, while they are left behind simply because they are the largest group right now. They couldn't help but feel a little cheated. But hopefully they'll get an assignment that didn't involve straight fighting for now. The sounds of the battling can still be heard through the pouring rain and thunder.

This isn't an RP anymore. I changed it to a fan-fiction thread because there aren't enough RPers. However, if there is stuff you want to happen to your characters, tell me about it and I'll do it. You guys did create them, so you should have the most say in what ultimately happens to them.

Also, feedback would be appreciated by anyone who reads this.

It wouldn't kill him to read ONE post to get an idea of what the thread's about.

Bolt and Pyn walk into a dark alley, while Reg and Tide remain in the street, keeping watch. All of them are soaked from the heavy rain, and there is very little light in the city. Most coming from the half of a moon. Bolt and Pyn walk up to a figure which is cloaked in shadow. "What's the plan?" Bolt asks the shadow.
"They've got a military bunker about eighteen miles west of here," the shadow says. It's the Jedi, Luminara Unduli. "You're gonna go there, engage their security forces, and then when I arrive, you'll surrender. I'll tell them to let you live. That's all you need to know for now. Good luck."
"You too master Jedi," Bolt says.

Luminara leaves, and Bolt and Pyn exit the alley to rejoin the other two. "What's the plan?" Tide asks.
"Just go there, fight, surrender, and let her take care of the rest," Bolt says.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Reg says.
"We've gotta find a ride," Bolt says. "The bunker's eighteen miles from here."
"Eighteen miles?" Tide whines. "The hell with walking. I say we just steal the first speeder we see."

The others are quiet, until Bolt just says, "Okay." And so they wait until finally an Amaran with a speeder drives down the road. The four Clones stand in front of it and aim their blaster pistols at the Amaran. Tide and Reg move around on either side. Tide rips the defenseless driver out and then tosses his rifle into the backseat. Reg does the same and both get in, followed by Bolt and Pyn. As they begin to drive away, Bolt, in the backseat, tosses all the money he's got at the Amaran, which roughly adds up to thirty five credits. "It's nothing but open space from here all the way to the bunker," Bolt tells Tide. "May as well just put a rock on the pedal."
"This thing moves pretty quick," Tide says. "We'll probably be there in five minutes anyway."

Bolt leans back and looks around at the land. Not much to admire, it's nothing but open space, rocky ground and rain clouds as far as the eye can see. Not that one could see far in the first place, considering the rain and fog make it even harder to see than the night has. The cold air and rain whip at the faces of each clone trooper, who have abandoned their helmets. All four of them are probably regretting it now that their faces are freezing. Luckily they still have the rest of their armor, however. Bolt slaps Pyn on the chest and asks him, "So what do you think we should do on Coruscant once we get back?"
"Get drunk," Tide laughs in the front seat.
"I'm sure the others have probably already beat us to that," Pyn says. "They're probably all passed out somewhere."
"Even Stryke?" Bolt asks. "Cause I ain't ever seen him do anything fun before. He's always so uptight."
"He's always been like that," Reg says. "Don't you remember on Kamino? He'd never join us in any games we ever played. Not even that ball game we played against first platoon. When we were out having a good time for once, he was in the offices thinking up battle tactics with Blast."
"Now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever seen Stryke loosen up just once," Pyn says.
"Yeah, he always seems bunched up tight, like a spring," Bolt says. "And, just like a spring, when he snaps open, it's gonna be unpredictable which direction he'll go."
"That's a good way of putting it," Tide says. They remain silent for a brief moment, until Tide begins to talk again. "So, we didn't have the most successful jump ever."
"Yeah but it could have been a lot worse," Bolt says. "How do you think they knew we were coming anyway?"
"The tech guys managed to jam all the communications on the planet, so they probably knew we were coming sooner or later," Reg says.
"How do you think those 501st boys are doing right now?" Tide asks.
"They're probably sleeping in warm beds right now while the real men are still working," Pyn says.
"Don't be like that," Bolt says. "They were pretty tough, considering they're the cheap models."
"Yeah, whatever," Pyn says. "Fact is, they aren't made for stuff like this. All they do is fight, while we fight and do even tougher things."
"We're there," Tide says. Bolt's head shoots up and he sees a huge military bunker at the top of a hill. There are two guard towers on either side of the main entrance, with a droid in each. Tide stops the speeder just out of range of the droid rifles and the four hop out. Bolt grabs the nearest rock and tosses it to Tide, who puts it in the speeder. Instantly, the speeder takes off toward the bunker, gaining more and more speed as it goes. When it hits the front door, the explosion demolishes both guard towers and creates a huge, burning hole. The four clones walk toward the bunker and two shoot at the hole, killing all droids that attempt to go through it. When Tide and Pyn are out of ammo, they reload while Bolt and Reg begin to fire. When Bolt and Reg are out of ammo, they reload while Tide and Pyn begin to fire. They continue to do this until they are inches away from the front door. They split up and get on both sides of the door. All four of them instantly drop their rifles when they see Luminara leap out through the hole in one graceful jump. Dozens of droids follow and aim their weapons at the four clones, who now are down on their knees with their hands in the air.

"Take them inside," Luminara orders the droids. "You clones will pay for what you have done here. These next few weeks will be the worst of your pointless lives." The droids advance on the clones and tie them up. All of the clones' weapons are taken from them, along with their ammo. All of which is thrown into a pile while the clones are taken inside. Mission, so far, accomplished, Bolt thought while he was being forcefully tied up. The next thing Bolt knows his head is in extreme pain, and then, darkness.

Tide and Bolt both sit in their cell on opposite sides in silence, listening to the drip that continues to plague their room. The sun has risen by now, but the rain continues to pour outside. Only a little bit of sunshine enters the room through the small window placed at the top of the wall.

"They really stay with the times around here," Tide tells Bolt sarcastically. "My head is killing me."
"Same here," Bolt says. "I don't-"

Suddenly, the door opens and Luminara walks in. "What's new?" Bolt asks the Jedi, not seeming to care too terribly much.
"You're probably hungry by now," Luminara says. "But I can't get you any food yet."
"Hungry? I'm starving here," Tide says, raising his voice.
"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do," Luminara says.
"What do we do if we gotta take a piss?" Bolt asks. Luminara sadly points to the corner of the cell.
"I swear once we get out the rebels are gonna suffer," Tide says.
"It won't be much longer," Luminara assures Tide. "I'll keep talking with the rebel commander. The force is having its way with him. Soon enough, we'll have him right where we want him."
"Where do we want him?" Tide begins to yell. "We're stuck in here with no clue of what's going on out there. You're the only one here who has any idea about anything right now."
"Please, I know it's hard right now, but you'll just have to trust me," Luminara says. "The other two clones are fine as well. I have to go now."

Luminara leaves and closes the door. "Damn Jedi," Tide mumbles.
"If it weren't for her, we'd both be dead," Bolt says. "So shut up."
"We're as good as dead."
"She said she's taking care of it. She's our CO and I trust her."

Tide gets on his feet and walks over to the corner. He unzips his pants. "Hey," Bolt says.
"What?" Tide asks.
"No doing that, just hold it."

Tide zips his pants back up, and just as he does, the door opens again. This time there are several droids and a few humans walking through the door. One human unlocks the door and some droids hurry in to tie up the two captives. They put some handcuffs on the two clones, and one droid kicks Bolt in the back of each knee, instantly flooring him. Another droid does the same to Tide and the droids begin to drag both clones along the ground. When they drag them out of the room, Bolt can see some other droids dragging Reg and Pyn on the ground down the hall. The droids turn and begin dragging Bolt and Tide in the direction Reg and Pyn were dragged.

"Nice place," Tide says sarcastically, talking about the inside of the building. "I think I liked it better in my cell."
"Shut up!" shouts one of the human rebels as he stomps on Tide's stomach.
"Keep your mouth shut for once, Tide," Bolt says.
"Both of you stay quiet or I'll shoot you right now," the rebel warns them.

Bolt looks around at the broken down insides of the building. The bland grey colored paint is chipping off, most of the rooms are missing doors, and there are papers littered all over the ground. The droids drag the clones along the ground for about a minute when they open one door. Inside Bolt spots Reg and Pyn, and there are four tables with metal locks in each corner along with all sorts of wires connected to each table. All four clones look at each table wide-eyed. They all know that whatever is coming their way, it isn't going to be pleasant. Bolt looks up at the rebel leader, who looks back at Bolt with a sadistic smile. Bolt feels incredible pain on his head, and, once again, darkness.

"Big vents," Reg comments about the vent. The size of the vents are tall and wide enough for the clones to walk comfortably in. The clones stand right in front of the vent, ready to enter. The alarm is still blasting, giving the clones hope that the Jedi may still be alive. Bolt grabs his stolen droid E-5 Blaster and enters first. He takes two steps in and comes to a turn. He presses up against the wall and peeks his head around the corner. Much to his displeasure, there are three droids standing guard. Bolt kneels down while the other two clones sneak up to him and do the same.

"Three droids," Bolt whispers.
"Damnit, they must be waiting for us," Pyn says.
"And if they know we're in the vents they might decide to blow up that speeder the Jedi got ready for us," Reg says.
"We just have to keep moving and hope they don't," Bolt says. "Let me handle these three."

Bolt gets up and quickly pops out from around the corner. Before the droids react, Bolt blasts all of them into pieces. Bolt grabs onto Tide's hands while Pyn grabs Tide's feet and the clones continue down the vents. They can't see much, and all they can hear is a constant hum. They just continue moving and hope for the best. They come to another turn, but luckily there are no droids. They move down and feel the vent sink a little. Bolt looks at Pyn, who looks at Reg, who looks at Bolt. And before they know what has happened, they fall through the vent about ten feet into what looks like a bedroom with a window. Dirty clothes are thrown all around on the ground. Several vases with water and flowers sit along the windowsill. Bolt gets on his feet and shakes his head.

"Son of a bitch!" Bolt yells.
"Sarge, look," Reg says. "We're on the second floor."
"We can't take one step out of this room or we'll be shot down in seconds," Bolt says.

Pyn takes his pistol and fires a couple of shots at the window, shattering it easily. Bolt picks up all the clothes he can find and puts them into one pile. He then grabs all the flower vases he can, rips the flowers out, and pours the water onto the pile of clothes.

"Yeah, I see what you're thinking," Reg says. Both Reg and Pyn begin grabbing flower vases and pouring water onto the pile of clothes as well. When they run out of water, each clone kneels down and begins tying the clothes together. Bolt tosses a couple tied up shirts over to Reg, who attaches the string of shirts to another string of pants. Reg tosses that string over to Pyn, who adds on his own string of clothes.

"Think that's long enough?" Bolt asks Pyn.
"Yeah, should be," Pyn says.
"Find something to tie it to, I'll keep watch," Reg says.

Reg gets up and walks over to the door while Pyn looks around for anything to tie it to. It doesn't take long for Pyn to spot the bed and he begins tying the long string of wet clothes to it. Bolt picks up the rebel and slings him over his shoulder. "Who wants to go first?" Bolt asks.
"You go Sarge," Pyn says.

Bolt nods and carries the string of clothes over to the window. He grabs onto the end of it and turns back to Pyn. "You'll have to lower me," Bolt says. "I can't carry this guy and go down at the same time."
"Yeah," Pyn says. "I'll lower you down, then Reg can lower me and Tide down. And then Reg can just go down by himself. You got that Reg?"
"Yeah, I got it," Reg says.

Bolt grabs onto the end of the clothes-rope and slowly takes one step out the window. From what Bolt can see, it's nothing but open space from the ground to the speeder. He just holds onto the clothes with one hand and onto the rebel with the other. When he hits the ground, he takes off running toward the speeder slowly but surely. When he gets to it, he carelessly tosses the unconscious rebel leader into the backseat and hops into the driver's seat. He turns around and watches as Pyn slowly moves down the wall with Tide over his shoulder. When they hit the ground, Pyn begins dragging Tide's motionless body on the ground while Reg begins climbing out of the window. As Pyn gets to the speeder, Reg hits the ground and begins casually walking over toward the others. Pyn puts Tide in the backseat with the rebel and hops in next to Bolt. Both watch as Reg shows off his cockiness, walking toward them.

"Reg, move your ass," Bolt says.
"Arrogant bastard's gonna get himself killed," Pyn says.

Reg finally begins picking up the pace, and as he does, blaster shots begin tearing up the ground around him. Some rebels stand in the window that the clones just escaped out of and begin raining fire down on Reg. Reg scrambles, hurrying over to the speeder while Bolt and Pyn begin to shoot back at the rebels. "Move it Reg! Come on!" Pyn shouts. Pyn shoots one rebel in the head, but another one comes up to the window to replace him. Reg scurries over to the speeder and leaps in. Immediately Bolt tosses his droid blaster to Reg and turns on the speeder. Pyn and Reg fire at the rebels until Bolt manages to get the speeder out of range. Reg sighs a sigh of relief and lays back. Pyn looks at him as if disgusted at his cockiness, then sits back down in his passenger seat.

"You okay Reg?" Bolt asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Reg replies.
"They're gonna be lost without their leader," Bolt says. "Now that we've got this guy, they'll probably call in an aerial bombardment on the base."
"What about the Jedi?" Pyn asks. Bolt just shrugs his shoulders.
"How's Tide?" Bolt asks.
"He's not dead yet," Reg says. "We gotta get him into a bacta tank as soon as we get back on Coruscant."
"What about the rebel?" Bolt asks.
"He'll make it too. Just got a little bump on the head."
"Where to, Sarge?" Pyn asks Bolt.
"We gotta get back to the city and have the 501st set us up with a ride off this rock," Bolt answers.
"Nice day," Reg says. "But damn it's crowded back here."
"Shut up Reg, you deserve to be crowded, after what you did," Pyn says. "You think once we get back they're gonna finally give us longer than four hours to relax?"
"Hopefully," Bolt says.

The clones had been travelling for roughly an hour in complete silence until they made it to Fest. All of Red Squad were too exhausted to say much, and the pilot just didn't talk. As they came out of hyperspace, the clones got a good view of just what the planet was like: nothing but a blank white ball floating in space, with some enormous canyons which could be seen from space. Bolt sat up in his seat and marveled at the thick sheet of snow which covered the entire planet. He turned around and said to the sleeping Pyn, "Wake up! We're here." Pyn opened his eyes and got out of his seat while the ship entered the planet's atmosphere, coming in directly above what appeared to be the clone command post in the middle of a forest. It was daytime. The ship landed next to a large tent, which had clones walking in, out, and around it. The pilot just waited silently for Bolt and Pyn to leave, and so they did.

As Bolt's feet landed in the snow, he turned back around to Reg, who was sitting next to Tide's, still, unconscious body. "Be sure to get lots of rest on Coruscant," Bolt said. "As soon as Tide's better, they're gonna bring both of you here."
"How long you figure that might be?" Reg asked.
"Probably about a week," Bolt responded.
"A week? How long are they gonna keep us here?" Reg asked, clearly upset.
"Until the droids leave. Just be sure to get lots of rest."
"Alright."

Reg nodded, and the ship began to lift off the ground again. Bolt turned to Pyn, who was holding himself and shivering. Unlike the other clones, Bolt and Pyn were not in their armor, but instead were in dirty, thin, damp, prisoner clothes. The two clones hurried into the main tent, where they were greeted by a group of five clones huddled around a table wearing full armor and no helmets, along with some other clones resting in chairs. Bolt cleared his throat, trying to get the other clones' attention. They all stopped talking and turned to see Bolt and Pyn, both freezing. Among the five clones were Lieutenant Stryke, Captain Blast, Major Tag, Colonel Fit, and the Nova Company First Sergeant, whom Bolt didn't know the name of. Stryke smiled at the sight of his good friend and Platoon Sergeant. Colonel Fit asked Bolt, "Who are you, trooper?"
Bolt tried to speak through his chattering teeth, but couldn't, so Stryke spoke for him. "That's Bolt, my Platoon Sergeant, and Pyn. They just got back from Kessel."
"Oh right," Fit said. "Your squad and the Jedi had to capture the rebel leader. Well, I think we got some spare armor suits lying around here somewhere. First Sergeant Tack."
"Yessir," the First Sergeant, apparently named Tack, said.
"Find them some armor, quick." Tack nodded and left the tent. Bolt and Pyn sat down on a bench on the side of the tent, folding their arms and shivering.
"So, what happened to the Jedi?" Fit asked Bolt.
"Don't know," Bolt said. "Last we saw she was running into a crowd of droids, telling us to sneak out the backdoor."
"You haven't heard from her at all?" Blast got into the conversation.
"We were brought straight from the planet to here," Bolt said.
"Yeah, those 501st boys sure got hit hard," Pyn said.
"What do you mean?" Fit asked.
"When we went back to the city they were a mess. Their CO was killed, most of the buildings were destroyed, they even had Corporals leading Platoons."

All the others could do nothing but exchange grim looks. "Well there's nothing we can do about it," Fit said. "For now, just keep your focus on the task at hand: defending this planet against the droids. Lieutenant Stryke can fill you in on everything." Stryke looked at Bolt, then at Fit, and nodded. Just then, Tack walked back into the tent, carrying two suits of armor. Both had seen better days, but they'd be warmer than Bolt and Pyn's current clothes. Tack tossed one to each clone and re-joined the others around the table while Stryke walked on over to Bolt and Pyn. Bolt and Pyn both gladly put on their suits, helmets and all, and stood up.

"Let's go," Stryke said to Bolt. Bolt nodded and the three began to walk out of the tent. The first thing they noticed as they stepped out was the snow that had begun to fall while they were inside. The three began walking through the forest with the snow crunching under their feet with every step.
"Still pretty cold," Bolt said.
"Really?" Stryke said, partly amazed. "Compared to yesterday this is like being in Mos Eisley."
"You serious?" Pyn asked.
"Oh yeah. This is as warm as it's expected to get here for the next few weeks," Stryke said.
"It's gotta be at least twenty below out here!" Bolt said.
"Twenty-four below actually," Stryke said. "At least now you've got some armor."
"Yeah. Great." The sarcasm was clear in Bolt's voice. "Where are we going anyway?"
"Gotta rejoin the others."
"So, what're our orders?"
"Basically, just hold off any droid advances."
"Sounds simple enough."
"The higher-ups in the Republic decided to send both first and second battalions, so I have a feeling they're gonna want us for something else before we leave."
"Damn, two battalions? That's half the commandos the Republic's got."
"No shit. It's Nova's Company's job to hold the line on the northwestern front. Behind this forest is the planet's Capitol City, Truda. They've spread us out around Truda to hold off the droids from taking it."
"That's it? I mean, just defense?"
"Who knows. All they've told us for now is to just dig in and defend the city. Hey, I see the others ahead."

Stryke, Bolt, and Tide walked over to the others in silence for the rest of the way. Most of the clones were either digging pits, sitting in pits, or sleeping. "So far, we haven't seen any droids," Stryke told Bolt. "But we know they're here somewhere. And chances are they're getting ready for their first offensive."
"So what have you been doing?" Pyn asked.
"Basically just digging our defense pits and waiting," Stryke said. As the three approached the rest of the Company, some of the clones from third platoon looked up at Bolt and Pyn with a smile. Happy to see their friends back, they all hopped out of their pits to greet the two. "Hey guys, look what I found," Stryke said to them, talking about Bolt and Pyn.
"Well it's about damn time you got your lazy asses here," Crunch said to Bolt. "Things were starting to get boring around here without Tide's big mouth."
"Yeah where is Tide anyway?" Stryke asked. "Crazy bastard get wounded again?"
"Yeah, him and Reg are back on Coruscant," Pyn informed the others. "Both of em got pretty messed up."

Another clone walked up to the group, unfamiliar to both Bold and Pyn. "What happened to him?" the clone asked. Bolt and Pyn both just looked at him, until Bolt turned to Slicer and asked:
"Who's this?"
"New guy," Slicer responded.
"Oh yeah? New guys already?" Bolt asked.
"Name's Zak," the clone said. "I'm not a replacement, I just got reassigned to this unit."
"Where you from?" Pyn asked.
"Third battalion," Zak said.

Some of the other clones began walking back over to their pits, leaving just Bolt, Pyn, and Zak. The three walked over to an empty pit and hopped in.

"Come on Sarge, wake up!" Boom! Boom! Boom! "Goddamnit Leet! Get up!" Boom! Boom! Leet awakened to the sound of blaster shots and explosions everywhere, partially muffled and mixed with a loud ringing. All he could see was white from the snow piling onto his helmet. As soon as he sat up, it slid off, allowing him to see just what was going on. He was sitting in the green squad foxhole, with the other three all on their feet and firing their weapons.

"Come on Sarge, on your feet," said Nade, lending Leet a hand. Leet grabbed onto Nade's hand and was pulled up onto his two wobbly legs. He looked around for a second until finally spotting his blaster on the ground outside of the hole. He reached over and grabbed it. He noticed the squad was surrounded by smoke-lots of it all around them. The only thing Leet could see was the many red and blue colored blaster shots flying everywhere with an explosion every couple of seconds. Leet looked over to Nade and yelled out in confusion:
"Where are they?"
"I think they're over in that direction," Nade responded.
"You think?"

Nade just nodded and continued firing. Leet aimed his rifle in the same general direction and fired. Not even aiming, he simply held down the trigger and slowly moved his weapon from side to side. Leet continued to do this until he saw a clone run through the smoke on their side. Leet had almost shot the clone, but stopped himself. The clone hopped into Green Squad's foxhole.

"Major Tag," Leet noticed it was the commander of their battalion. "What's going on?"
"They're attacking the entire western line," Tag informed him while reloading his weapon. "Just stay put and push em back."
"We're getting nailed out here sir," Nade said.
"Suck it up," Tag ordered him while climbing out of the hole. "You think you've got it bad? A through D Companies are surrounded about two klicks south of here." And with that, Major Tag began to run off. However, as soon as he disappeared behind the wall of smoke, another explosion shook the ground. Leet looked over and noticed the explosion had come from where Tag had run.

"I think Tag got hit by the artillery," Leet shouted to the others. None of the others responded. There wasn't anything any of them could do but keep shooting and hope for the best. After a few more minutes of nothing but blind shooting, Leet grew tired of what they were doing. "I'm gonna head out to see if I can get a better view. Anyone wanna come with me?" Leet asked.
"I'll go Sarge," Zak said.

The two of them hopped out of the hole, regardless of the explosions occurring around them. The two walked through the thick smoke with Leet leading the way. Both of them held their weapons ready to fire. Occasionally one of them would bump into a tree, but soon enough they came out of the smoke and could only look on in awe as hundreds of droids began to retreat behind a wall of mobile artillery vehicles, all of which had their cannons pointed almost directly up. Some of the droids began to fire at the two, but luckily all of their shots missed long enough for the clones to head back into the smoke. As they ran back toward their hole, Leet said to Zak, "Find Slicer and tell him to call in an aerial strike on that artillery."
"You got it sarge," said Zak. Zak turned to the right and headed off in that direction while Leet continued toward his hole. As he got back, he noticed Ram and Nade had put their weapons down and were starting to relax. Nade even sat back down.

"They're retreating," Nade told Leet as he returned.
"Yeah, I saw," Leet said. "Hopefully we can get some ships to take out the artillery." Leet hopped down into the foxhole and sat down. Him and Nade just remained silent and sitting while Ram remained standing, looking up at the sky for any ships.
"I'm noticing a lack of Jedi around here," Nade said. "I thought they were supposed to be all powerful."

Leet just remained silent. He didn't wanna agree with Nade, but deep down he did. Many of the clones were weary of the Jedi, but for now at least the clones were able to push the droids back without any Jedi. Three LAAT's fly over the clones while the smoke begins to leave. Several incredible explosions are heard and seen from Green Squad's foxhole. Without the artillery the droids have a strong disadvantage. Of course, within hours they'll just mass-produce a hole bunch more of them. Leet wondered what the point was. They're fighting droids. Droids which were being created every second of every day. How could they beat an army that would never diminish? It seemed pointless. But they are soldiers, and like good little pawns they'll continue to fight.

Leet stood up and got back out of the foxhole, followed by the other two. Zak came walking back up to them. "Managed to get ahold of the flyboys," he said.
"We noticed," said Nade. Nade took a moment to look around at the clearing smoke. "How'd we dig our hole so far away from the others? For a minute I forgot there was even anyone else fighting with us."

The nearest foxhole was about ten meters away, where Black Squad were regrouping. Zak taps Leet on the shoulder. When Leet looks over at Zak, Zak tilted his head at something. Leet turned over to see what it was, only to see the top half of Major Tag's body. Everything from his stomach down is completely gone. As he lay there on the ground, motionless, Leet just turned away and sighed. Newbie was walking over to every squad's holes and checking on them. He came across Green Squad and quickly asked how everyone was. "We're fine," Leet told him. "Tag got hit though." Leet pointed over at Tag.

Newbie just stared blankly at Tag, then walked over to another hole. Tag was dead. Nothing could save him from that. Leet yawned, shivered, and then fell down to a knee. Newbie hurried back over to his side and helped him up. "You sure you're okay Sergeant?" Newbie asked. "You took a pretty bad hit."
"I'm okay, I just got a little smack on the head," Leet insisted.
"You should head over to the CP. I don't think you realize how bad of shape you're in. Just head back there and take it easy for a few days."
"Fine." Leet picked up his blaster and walked away. Through the snow, Leet walked all the way back to the CP. The same group of small tents and two or three large ones that Bolt and Pyn had come from. Leet walked into the biggest one he saw, which turned out to be the battalion HQ. Colonel Fit was sitting down with a small group of other officers, talking about possible moves they could make.

"What do you want Sergeant?" Fit asked.
"A medic sent me here sir," said Leet as he sat down on the bench nearest the exit. "While I'm here, sir, I may as well tell you. Major Tag's been killed, sir." The officers at the table remained silent for a few moments. They all stared at Leet as if he were a ghost.
"Son of a bitch," Fit said as he turned back to the table. "Well I guess I'll have to bump up Blast to battalion CO. Who would that make the leader of Nova?"

Although Fit had been talking to the other officers, Leet felt the need to tell him, "Lieutenant Stryke from Third Platoon, sir." The officers stared at Leet again, until a Captain said to him:
"Go to the medical tent Sergeant."
"Yes sir," Leet got up and left the tent. Over to the medical tent he walked, and inside were dozens of other clones. Some commandos, some regular troopers. But all of them were seriously wounded. Some of the troopers had a limb or two missing. Leet just took off his helmet, put it down on a bench, and sat down next to it while medics scrambled to help wounded clones or find medical supplies.

Green Squad, along with the three members from Blue Squad, stood inside the main tent with Bolt, Stryke, and Blast. All of them stood around a table, helmets off, looking at a map to a large droid outpost with several different buildings, big and small. "Our air recon units managed to get a look at this droid CP," Blast told the others. "We think this is probably where they are keeping Black Squad. Pretty simple stuff here Sergeant Leet. Feel free to do whatever is neccessary to get our guys outta there. You three from Blue Squad," Blast pointed to Shooter, Lucky, and Strat. "You'll be Sergeant Leet's fire team. Nade, Ram, and Zak, you'll be the assault team. Now, Leet and Shooter, I understand you're both snipers. But this mission won't call for anything fancy like that. Just leave your snipers here and take a KX-60. And while you're at it, all of you should take a second rifle as well. You'll probably need the extra firepower. Here, take this too Leet." Bolt handed Leet four explosive charges with timers. "Blow the shit out of it that outpost while you're there."

Bolt left the table and walked over to the corner, where there was a small pile of all sorts of different blasters. He did a little rummaging and found a very nice looking EE-3 blaster, along with a few other E-11's As Bolt walked back over to the table, he tossed the EE-3 into Leet's hands and started handing out the others. "Take as much ammo as you can carry," Bolt instructed. Bolt pointed to a specific spot on the map, an apparent exit that leads back out into the forest. "Once you've got Black Squad, leave the outpost through exit three, where we'll have a transport waiting for you. Any questions?"
Lucky asked, "Yeah, should we try to destroy all the droids dug in there? Or just enough to get Black Squad?"
"Just enough to get Black Squad out," Bolt said. "I don't want any of you getting killed just because you were trying to kill an extra droid on the other side of the main building. Good luck guys."

---------- ----------

The squad of seven clones, under the command of Staff Sergeant Leet, held up on the top of a hill overlooking the droid fortress, which was roughly the size of two city blocks. Leet stood in front, then asked them, "Everybody's HUDS working?" All the others nodded their heads. "Look at those MGs. We're gonna have to take care of those first." Leet points out a group of four machine guns, three of which are mounted inside buildings' windows. The last one is placed on top of one of the rooftops. "That one on the rooftop will be a little harder to take care of, but we should be able to handle it. Fire team, you guys see that building right there? It'll cover you from all four of the guns. Take cover there and draw their fire. Nade and Zak, you two will sneak around and flank those two guns on the left. Ram, you're with me. We'll sneak around those two on the right. Alright, everyone know what they're doing? Good, let's get this over with."

The three men from Blue Squad-Shooter, Strat, and Lucky, ran down the hill toward the front of the droid outpost, while Ram and Leet moved to the right. Nade and Zak moved to the left. Once Shooter, Lucky and Strat were in position, immediately they began to draw fire from every machine gun. They simply waited, only sticking the ends of their rifles out from behind their cover to shoot at the guns. Meanwhile, Leet and Ram surrounded one building with a machine gun sticking out the window. With both men directly under the gun, the droid was unable to see them. Both Leet and Ram pulled a single thermal detonator off of their armor and lobbed it up through the window. Both landed in safely, and after a three second pause the entire top half of the building was demolished. All the debris fell upon the two clone troopers, but thanks to their armor, they went unscathed.

On the other side of the field, Zak and Nade opted instead to go into the building. After entering, they ran up the stairs and burst into the room. Nade shot down the droid, throwing it out the window. By the time Zak mounted the machine gun and turned it on their second building, Ram and Leet were already finished neutralizing their second. Zak just laughed quietly to himself and began to unload on the last remaining gun, which was set up in the top window to a three story building. Leet noticed the droid taking cover and called out to his fire team, "On me! On me!" He then looked over at Zak and shouted out, "Zak, stay in that house and give us cover while we move in! Nade, get over here!"

Nade patted Zak on the shoulder and then left the building. Zak looked out and saw Leet saying something to Shooter and Strat. He couldn't here what Leet was saying, but it had something to do with the last machine gun, as Leet was pointing to it. Leet handed Shooter some explosives, then motioned to Zak to pour on some cover fire. And so Zak did. Zak continued to shoot at the enemy machine gun until Shooter got right up to the house and began to set up an explosive under the gun. Nade ran around the house and met back up with Leet and the others, while Shooter gave Zak a thumbs up. Zak began shooting at the machine gun again while Shooter ran as fast as possible over to the cover where the others were. Zak stopped firing in time to watch the bottom-right side of the building get blown to hell. The blast separated the building into two and the damaged half collapsed in seconds. The droid and the machine gun nest fell to the ground and were instantly covered by debris.

On the ground, everyone reloaded their weapons and stood up from behind their cover. "Everyone follow me," Leet ordered. All of them followed Leet, while Zak remained in the building to give cover with the captured machine gun. The six clones ran, crouched down, between two broken down buildings. All of them had their weapons ready to shoot at any droid that would pop out. Leet led the way and pressed up against one side of a building. He peeked around the corner and could see at least an entire platoon of droids standing guard in various positions. There was one machine gun mounted at the end of the street, and on the opposite side of the street where the clones were was a small indent in the ground, likely caused from some sort of artillery. No matter where it had come from, it would make for good cover. Leet turned back to the others, who awaited his orders. He got down on one knee, as did the others.

"Alright, we've gotta clear this sector of the outpost and then do a house to house," Leet said. "I want the fire team to take cover in that hole over there. I'll toss a smoke grenade and move with you, then move on the droids' right flank as a distraction. Fire team I'm gonna need some covering fire when I'm moving. Assault team, you two will move around the left of the machine gun behind these buildings and come out down at the end of the street to flank those bastards. Take the machine gun and tear the droids up with it. Okay? Get it done and get it done quick. Pretty soon all of the droids are gonna come here so we need to get that machine gun as soon as possible and use it against them. Move."

Ram and Nade got up and headed back to move around the droids secretly. Leet pulled out his only smoke grenade and tossed it into the middle of the street. After a moment or two, it activated, pouring out smoke which covered the entire street. Leet moved first, followed by the fire team that consisted of Shooter, Strat, and Lucky. The fire team dove into their hole and got their weapons ready, while Leet took cover behind a wall that stretched down half of the street. At the very end of the wall, Leet would have a pretty decent flank on some, but not all, of the droids. Leet remained in place until the smoke cleared. As soon as he heard the fire team beginning to shoot, he ran behind the short wall, staying concealed. After a few moments of running, he stood up straight and ran, shooting while he went. Not really aiming, he just meant to draw some of the droids' fire away from the fire team. And it worked. But it worked a little more than Leet wanted it to. In fact it seemed as if the droids began to aim all of their shots toward Leet, ignoring the three others down the street.

Once the shots got a little too close for comfort, Leet crouched down again, taking cover. As he sat on the ground, leaning against the wall, he ripped a thermal detonator off his suit and tossed it back over the wall. "Take cover!" a droid shouted in its robotic, pre-recorded tone. The thermal detonator went off, and after the dirt, snow, and rocks stopped falling onto him, Leet jumped back up and began shooting. Having a good flank on some of the droids, it was just a matter of picking them off while the fire team distracted them. Leet looked over at the machine gun, and what he saw caused him to smile. Ram and Nade blasted the helpless droid apart from behind. Ram mounted the machine gun, opened up with it, and began to unload on the droids while Nade just dove behind the cover and watched. The three man fire team got down on their stomachs and laid down in their hole so as not to get caught by friendly fire.

Only one droid managed to make it out of Ram's machine gun rampage, and when Leet began to think it would make it out, the droids head shattered into millions of pieces. Apparently Zak had managed to get in at least one shot from his position. Leet hopped over the wall and shouted to the fire team, "Get up here! Now!" Shooter, Strat, and Lucky all got up and ran toward Leet, Ram, and Nade. Leet got down beside Ram and Nade and said simply, "Nice work."
"Yeah well it wasn't easy," said Nade. "We ran into about ten of those sons of bitches on the other side of those buildings. If it weren't for Zak both of us would probably be dead."
"Well you made it out alive. That's all that matters," Leet said. "Do you even realize that seven of us managed to destroy an entire platoon of the droids? That's pretty incredible if you ask me."
"Not really," Ram said. "We're the best. Plain and simple."

The three chuckled a little, while the fire team finally made it to them. "What now?" Shooter asked as he dove behind the cover.
"I changed my mind," Leet said. "We'll wait for the counter attack and then do a house to house."

By the time the clones had finished searching every building in the sector, Leet had fallen asleep on top of the droid tank, with his hands folded on his chest and his legs crossed. The snow had finally let up and had been falling very softly for the last twenty minutes, but the sun was still hidden behind all the clouds. And on top of that, night would soon approach them. With the clouds blanketing the entire sky, they could only hope for the cover of darkness, although it would also work against them at the same time. The wind was still blowing hard, and the clones felt it. They just ignored it. The heat of combat all around them could stop any snowstorm that was tossed their way.

As the five clones walked up to the sleeping Leet, some removed their helmets and gave others a grave look. Leet snapped his head up and quickly slided off the smoking tank. Putting his helmet back on, he asked them, "Anything?"
"Nothing," all the others responded. Leet could only sigh.
"Well then lets keep moving," he said as he rested his KX-60 on his shoulder and began walking deeper into the droid mini-fortress.

All the others followed behind him. None of them said a word, instead they preferred to tread softly, quietly. As they came out from behind the building, they were shocked at what they found. It was the sight of three other squads of clone troopers. Small squads of 5-7, all on different sides of roughly two droid platoons which sat behind a giant circle of brick wall, pinned down from the intense fire. From where Leet's squad were, they had a perfect shot at the droids. The circle wall came to an end at two points, leaving a gigantic gap where anybody coming from the south could attack with ease. Leet and the others quickly took cover, concealing themselves before they were spotted. All of them looked at each other, confused.

"Who the hell are they?" Ram asked.
"Beats the hell outta me," Leet said. "But they're here to help I guess."
"Well that's good news," Shooter said. "We could use all the help we can get."
"Listen, those droids don't know we're here yet," Leet told them. "On my mark, everyone toss a grenade right at them. Then blow away any poor bastard that tries to move."

The others all nodded and ripped a single grenade off of their chest while Leet, who had run out of grenades, placed his EE-3 on top of the wall and looked down the scope. Through his scope, he could see five thermal detonators land perfectly in the middle of the circular cover the droids were using. A whole lot of the droids stood up and attempted to leave their cover, but any that weren't shot to pieces by the other three clone squads, were all shot down by Leet and his squad. And any other droid was caught in the explosion resulting from the grenades. After a few seconds of quiet, Leet and the others could hear more clones yelling to each other. Although hard to make out, Leet could distinctly hear one clone shout, "Oh shit! Get a medic up here!"

Leet, Shooter, Strat, Lucky, Ram, and Nade all came out from behind their cover and watched as the other three squads met up in the middle of the field, huddled around a single clone who was on the ground, bleeding profusely from the neck. One clone rushed over to him with a medical kit and dropped to his knees. Removing the wounded clone's helmet, the extent of the injury was quite clear. Blood spurted up onto the medic's helmet, while he scrambled to do everything in his power to stop it. After pouring a whole container of liquid bacta onto the wound and applying a bandage, the clones sighed a sigh of relief. But not long after, the clone began seizing violently, grasping at his neck with a look in his eye. A look that would surely haunt the others for the rest of their lives. A look that gave them the impression that he knew he would die soon; there was nothing anyone could do; and that soon it would inevitably be their time as well. Someday every other clone standing around the dying trooper would suffer the same, brutal fate: a painful, slow, agonizing death while others around could only watch on helplessly. With one last sickening gargle to accompany a rather large amount of darkened blood being expelled through his mouth, the clone stopped moving. His eyes still open in fear, he lay dead in a pool of his own blood while the others looked on as if numbed by such a thing.

Finally, the group of clones backed off. Some lighted up death sticks and sat down quietly, while others wandered off a couple hundred feet. Some searched the buildings. Leet ordered the five from his squad to do the same, while he talked with a clone Lieutenant who was apparently leading the bunch. "What's going on here sir?" Leet asked. "I thought me and my squad were the only ones to be sent in."
"Apparently not Sergeant," the clone Lieutenant responded before taking a long drag on his death stick. "You're here to find Black Squad, right?"
"Yessir," Leet said. "Are you Nova Company?"
"No, Bravo. At least, my men are."
"You mean you're not leading them all?"
"No. Me and my squad attacked from the north just about ten minutes ago. Apparently the other two squads attacked from east and west. And it looks like you must have attacked from the south."
"Yessir." The Lieutenant pointed to a clone Sergeant who was sitting quietly with two others around the mess of broken droids.
"I think he said he's from Mando Company," the Lieutenant said. He pointed to the other squad leader, a Sergeant First Class. "And they're from Hero Company." The Lieutenant offered Leet a death stick, but Leet refused. He couldn't even stand the smell of those things, which had somehow found a way through his helmet.

Leet and the Lieutenant remained silent for a moment, but it didn't take long for the Lieutenant to take a deep breath and ask, "How many men have you lost so far, Sergeant?"
"Just one," Leet said. "He was caught in a building that got hit by a couple tanks."
"I've lost three so far," the Lieutenant looked down at the ground while speaking. "Together, the other two squads lost five. Nine clones, dead. All just to rescue four. And we don't even know if they're still alive."

Leet couldn't believe an officer would say something like that out loud. Although somewhat unprofessional, Leet could see where he was coming from. It didn't make much sense to them why they should lose so many to rescue so few. Leet just shook it off and watched while the others continued searching the houses. After ten minutes of Leet and the Lieutenant sitting in silence, Shooter and Strat finally came out of one house, both of them dragging two clones each. "We got em!" Shooter said. Leet hopped up and moved over to check it out. The four clones from Black Squad still had their armor on, but were unconscious. Every other clone came out of the building they were searching. Leet attempted briefly to wake one of them up, but to no avail. Instead, every clone just packed up their gear and began moving toward the exit. Shooter, Strat, Nade, and Leet each carried one of the Black Squadders.

Altogether, there were seventeen clones, plus the four unconscious ones, each squad from an entirely different company. But as the seventeen of them made it to the exit, whatever unit each clone was in didn't matter. All that mattered then, was that there was a transport waiting for them, as promised. It was a banged up AT-OT which had clearly seen more than its fair share of action, but it would carry them back to where they needed to go. Leet stood at the side of the ramp going up and waved everyone in, waiting to get in last. As the Lieutenant walked past him last, he stopped and asked Leet, "You remember the explosives?" Leet just nodded and began to walk up the ramp behind the Lieutenant. But then he stopped, hearing something. He turned his head and could see Zak stumbling toward them, using his rifle to stay balanced. Leet hurried over to him and, just as Zak collapsed under his own weight, Leet managed to catch him.

"Holy shit you're alive?" Leet said in amazement.
"Please," Zak scoffed. "I'm not gonna let some tank kill me. Let go of me Sarge, I can walk."

Zak pried Leet's hands off and got back up. The two walked over to the AT-OT and went up the ramp. The other members from Green and Blue Squads were happy to see him, while the others couldn't really care less. Leet fell down into his seat and looked back at the droid outpost, just as it went up in flames.

But regardless of what had been planned, Nova Company didn't move out for a whole nother two weeks. Lots of little skirmishes and small-scale droid assaults kept the clones wary of moving out. But after three days of no action whatsoever, Fit gave Stryke and Bolt the green light to go ahead with the objective. Reg had returned as scheduled, completely rejuvenated and eager to take the fight to the separatists again. But with him was brought evil news, Tide was still recovering and there was a fifty percent chance he may never recover fully. Tide, the wiseguy of third platoon who always managed to turn even the darkest of situations into a good laugh, may never be able to rejoin his family when they need him the most. Every man in third platoon prayed the 501st would continue to defeat the rebels on Kessel who had done it to him.

When Nova Company abandoned their position in the forest to the northwest, they weren't sure what to expect. The snowstorms had calmed, and in fact had completely halted for two days. But the intense cold still hit every clone trooper on that planet nonetheless. Nova Company, under command of Captain Stryke, met little to no resistance when moving through the forest. The only sign of droids were some dead ones buried in snow with icicles attached to various parts. First Platoon lead the way for most of the walk. No one spoke, too afraid they may draw fire from some droids off in the distance. The only real sound that could be heard was the crunching and compacting of the snow beneath the feet of the troopers. Even the wildlife on the planet, which was supposed to be able to live in harsh conditions, couldn't take the intense cold. Dead birds and other animals were thrown around on the ground alongside the droids.

But of course, the clones paid no attention. They'd seen much worse. Things that still haunted them and frightened them, even if they wouldn't allow it to show. Seeing someone you've known your entire life get his head blown off right in front of you, close enough to have the blood and brain tissue spray up in your face, or seeing your best friend laying on the ground trying to place his organs back inside his stomach in shock had that effect on them. Most took comfort in death sticks or alcohol. Some took comfort in knowing soon they'd be given a release in death. And others, such as Blast, didn't do anything to deal with it. But instead they just allowed it to numb them to the point that nothing could bother them anymore.

Nova Company remained on edge the entire day. They were deep inside enemy territory. If the droids were to stumble across them, the clones would be wiped out. They were much too far away from Truda, and as such no relief would be quick enough to help them out. Yet they were still at least two days more of a walking distance away from their objective, the droid outpost that they had to capture and turn into a battalion command post. The group had left at ten in the morning, and it was now almost seven with the sun beginning to set behind the clouds. Every man in the company needed a break, so they decided to stay where they were for the night. The last thing on their minds was the thought of heading back and just saying forget the objective. The sooner they took that command post, the sooner they could retake the planet for the Republic. And as soon as that would happen, they could finally get the hell outta here. So they all just dug their foxholes, and slept with a four man lookout at all times.

Of course, as soon as they woke up, it was right back to walking. Walking, walking, and more walking. It had become just a little tedious to the clones. Still no snow either, not that the troopers wanted any. Just like before, the clones moved in complete silence. This time Second Platoon lead the way with Bolt. The clones in Third Platoon noticed their replacement officer Ray made no attempts to bond with his men, or even speak with them. He always seemed to be somewhere else, as if his heart wasn't really in it. So far since he had replaced Stryke, he had only shown any sort of leadership once. And when that happened he managed to get him and his men captured so Staff Sergeant Leet, a clone who had trained since the formation of the army, and six others could rescue him.

Black Squad, once the dominant squad of Third Platoon, now had three out of its four spots filled by replacements. Slicer was the only Black Squad member who had been trained since the first days of the clone trooper army. The men had even come up with a nickname for clones who were part of the first batch of clone troopers, TC Men. The TC stood for Tipoca City, the capital of Kamino where the clones were created and trained. Whereas TC Men received full training day in and day out, replacements were only shown the basics of combat, just so they could be rushed out onto the field faster. A shame really, that they were given less of a chance at survival than others.

Shooter and Strat moved together of course. Although usually bitter toward everyone else in the platoon, Shooter got along great with Strat. Strat was the only one Shooter would talk to about stuff that didn't relate to fighting in any way. For some reason, unknown to anyone including Shooter himself, Strat was the only one Shooter had truly befriended. Everyone else was just another soldier fighting with him.

Lucky stayed alongside Stryke at the front of the group. Lucky had his name chosen for him when he was a kid on Kamino for obvious reasons. In battle, he seemed invincible no matter what crazy things he did. Whether it was running through machine gun fire or being hit by mortars eighteen times so far in his life and not being seriously wounded, his luck never seemed to wear off. Others were a little worried however, that one day his luck would run out resulting in his death. But all he could think about was that it was working for now, and that was all that mattered.

After another long day of walking, the group dug in yet again. It was almost amazing how they had encountered no droids throughout the entire two days of walking so far. But they certainly didn't mind. Last thing they needed was to lose more men, possibly the entire company before they even made it to their objective.

Leet and Shooter both dragged Ram and Zak behind a house in the middle of the large crowd of clones. A whole lot of clones didn't even manage to make it through the hole, but were instead cut down upon entering. The clones that did make it through, though, immediately hid behind the nearest houses they could find. The majority of M Company moved to the right, while N was on the left except for Lucky. Lucky noticed the droid fire stop briefly and ran out from his cover to rejoin the others. In a true demonstration of the reason for his name, no blaster shots hit him. Stryke and the Mando Company commander communicated via hand signals, until Stryke yelled out, "Nova, lay down suppressing fire! Tank!"

Tank came running up to Stryke with a rocket launcher rested on his shoulder. The two peeked their heads out from behind the cover while Stryke pointed to a machine gun mounted in a tower about a hundred feet away. "Nail him," Stryke told Tank. Tank nodded and, once the droid fire was suppressed as much as possible, he popped out from behind the house. Before the machine gunner could fire at him, Tank fired his rocket. It traveled through the air for a brief moment, but hit its target dead on. Once that gun was out of commission, about half of M Company moved down the main road while the other half moved around the side behind a fence. The M Company commander, named Joe, moved with his men while Nova Company was preparing to storm the house they were currently hiding behind.

"Crunch!" Stryke called out. "Take your men and clear out this house. Once you've cleared it, I want every sniper here to set up. First Platoon lay down some cover fire for Mando. Everyone else come with me!"

With one blow, Crunch kicked the door right off. He, Boom, Reg and Pyn entered the house. Every sniper stayed behind along with First Platoon. Second, Third, and Fourth Platoons each leapfrogged down the main road. Back behind the house were ten clones along with First Platoon; Ram, Zak, Leet, Pyn, Reg, Shooter, Strat and three other snipers. Shooter was examining the unconscious Strat when Leet stuck his head out of the top window and signalled the snipers in. Shooter put Strat on his shoulder and carried him inside. Each sniper set up in a window while Shooter gently placed Strat in a corner. Ram and Zak limped inside and each sat down on the steps.

Meanwhile, Stryke noticed the Fourth Platoon Lieutenant get shot in the head by a sniper. "Sniper!" a bunch of clones shouted over the gunfire.
"Everybody take cover!" Stryke yelled as he dove behind a fallen tree. Bolt dove behind the same tree with him while others scrambled behind random houses or inside small holes in the ground caused by grenades. Three more clones were picked off by the sniper until everyone found cover. Bolt and Stryke each poked their heads out above the tree to catch a glimpse of the sniper's position. At that very moment, a single sniper round hit the top of the tree just between the two clones' heads. Luckily it just barely missed.

Stryke and Bolt both put their heads back behind cover. "You're in charge of Fourth Platoon," Stryke told Bolt. "You wanna take this shot or should I?"
"I'll take it," Bolt said. "We both know you can't cut it at this range."
"Alright, but don't miss." Stryke took a few deep breaths, then hurried out from his cover. Running as fast as he could through the snow-covered ground, Stryke made his way toward a building where seven other clones hid. One shot from the sniper kicked up snow at his feet. Bolt carefully took aim. Another shot skimmed Stryke's shoulder, but didn't pierce the armor. Bolt took a deep breath and in one shot, he killed the sniper. Stryke leaped behind the building. Bolt remained behind the tree and yelled to all the others:
"Oh shit! There's a whole bunch of em heading this way."
"How many?" Stryke asked. Some of the others took a look at the droid forces.
"I'd say a couple hundred," Bam told Stryke.
"Ray!" Stryke called out to the Third Platoon leader. "You take what's left of Third and protect our left flank. Mick!" The leader of Second Platoon, apparently named Mick, looked over at Stryke. "You take your men and hold them off on the right. Fourth Platoon stay here. Lucky, head back over to First Platoon and tell em to move up!"
"Yessir," Lucky said.

Ray and the rest of Third Platoon, altogether a force of five clones, fearlessly crossed the street with lasers zipping past them. The others from Second Platoon moved over to the right and began moving behind houses. Stryke watched them until they are out of his view, then did the same with Third Platoon. Stryke noticed one clone with a heavy machine gun not being put to use. "You, set up that fucking machine gun in that window!" Stryke ordered. The clone moved around the house and then entered. "Everybody else pour some fire on those scrap piles!"

Every clone there began to fire back at the droids. Stryke dove behind the tree with Bolt again. Resting his rifle on the log, Stryke shot down a droid. The clones and droids exchanged fire, neither side letting up, but each being slowly whittled down in numbers. The clones were decreasing noticeably faster than the droids, even when the machine gun was finally mounted in the second story window of the house right beside them. Just as Stryke was about to call to the others to move, the ground in front of him and Bolt was hit by a mortar, knocking both of them on their backs. Stryke sat up and shook the dirt off of his helmet. As he looked over at Bolt, he could hear screams of agony.

Through his blurred and desaturated vision, Stryke could see Bolt waving his left hand in front of his face. The index, middle, and ring fingers were each completely removed, with the thumb dangling in his palm by a thin strand of skin. Bolt's bone chilling shouts could be heard a mile away. Stryke got up on his wobbly legs and helped up Bolt. The two mindlessly walked through the street over to the house. Clearly they were both not thinking straight due to the blast. Once they got behind the house on the left, every other clone was wondering just what to do. There were about fifteen clones altogether with Stryke as the only officer, and he clearly was in no condition to lead them. Bolt, the one who would take over in such a case, was in the same condition.

About fifty feet away on the left flank, Ray, Slicer, Tank, Bam, and Nade took cover behind a three foot high stone wall and exchanged fire with about ten droids, who took cover behind an identical wall that stood about twenty feet away from the clones' wall. Ray kneeled down behind the cover, pretending to reload his weapon. In reality, he was hiding from the droids' blaster shots. They were out-gunned and would soon be overrun, allowing the droids to flank Fourth Platoon and eventually destroy all of M and N Companies. But that didn't matter to Ray. Rather than standing and shooting, doing everything in his power to prevent the destruction of his men, he cowered behind the wall and contemplated running away. The others looked at him in disgust, but continued to fight.

It was clear by now that Ray wasn't going to lift a finger to help out, so Bam decided to unofficially take control. He looked around, the only thing he saw that they could use to their advantage was a house that stood to the right of the field. In that house was a window on the top floor that would likely have a good height advantage on any droids that came into the area. It was a relatively short distance away, but with droids raining hell down upon you, even a five foot walk could seem like ten miles. Without even thinking about telling someone else to risk it, Bam decided to abandon his cover and make a mad dash for the house. Shooting on the move, Bam dove headfirst into the door, breaking it off entirely.

Next to the door was a smaller window. Bam ripped a grenade off of his chest and threw it out the window at the droids, then ran up the stairs two at a time. The sound of the grenade exploding could be heard from inside the house. Bam entered the bedroom and rushed over to the window. Just as he expected, he could see the droids very clearly from this position. And the cover of the window frame made it very difficult for the droids to hit him. Bam unloaded an entire clip on the droids, annihilating them. When they were all destroyed, the others on the ground cheered. All except Ray, that is, who stood up instantly and got into a shooting position.

Pretending to be disappointed, he said to Bam, "My gun jammed." If only Bam weren't wearing a helmet, then Ray could see the hateful look he was giving him. There was an awkward silence between every clone, until Ray cleared his throat and said, "Good work Sergeant."

Back at the house next to where the clones had entered the city, Shooter continued to check on Strat, who was just starting to come to. Crunch and his squad were coming down the stairs when Shooter noticed all of First Platoon abandoning the house. "Where the hell are they going?" Crunch yelled over the constant fire.

Three snipers were unable to find a window to position themselves at. Crunch yelled at them, "Get upstairs. Second, Third, and Fourth Platoons are probably gonna squeeze a bunch of droids this way. Everybody just get ready."
"Where are you going?" Shooter asked.
"We gotta go meet back up with the rest of Third." Crunch looked around the room. It was a mess, just like this entire battle. Everybody was spread out and clones were unaccounted for. With such bad organization it was a wonder they hadn't been killed already. Ram and Zak got up on their feet, but were clearly hurt. Ram was even using his rifle as a crutch. But no matter how hard Crunch insisted on their staying, they both declined. Nade hurried over to their side, while Leet was staring through his scope out a window next to them. Just after firing a shot, he turned to Crunch and said:
"I gotta stay here. Crunch, take them and rejoin with everyone else." Crunch agreed and looked over at Shooter.
"No," Shooter said before Crunch could even ask. "I'm not leaving Strat here. He needs someone to give him medical attention."
"I'll tell Blast to send Newbie and Rip down here Shooter," Crunch said. "You have to come with us." Crunch turned away from Shooter and called out, "Anybody with a working radio system, tell Blast to get the medics down here immediately!" He grabbed Shooter by the arms and forced him up onto his feet, then shoved him out the door.

Crunch moved out behind him, followed by everyone else: Boom, Reg, Nade, Ram, and Zak. Pyn had been forced to stay behind with Leet, the building needing their abilities as snipers. The seven clones moved across the main street, completely free of enemy fire, and then around the house on the other side. Behind a fence they moved, stepping over the occasional dead trooper, likely from M Company. They continued to move behind the houses without spotting a single droid. "The others must be doing a good job holding the droids off," Crunch said.

As they turned a corner, the gunfire got louder. They had stumbled upon a firefight between Second Platoon and a sizable force of droids. They moved up behind the same wall as a few other clones and Mick. "Where's everyone else?" Crunch asked.
"Over there!" Mick shouted while pointing to the left. "We're just defending their right flank."
"What about Third?"
"They're on the left."

The clones left Second Platoon just as one more was shot down. They moved between two houses and came upon a disturbing sight: Stryke and Bolt both behind a house, completely dazed while three clones in a ditch shot at an advancing number of droids. One more clone remained behind the house with Stryke and Bolt and shot at the incoming droids as well, but they would soon be overrun. Crunch, Shooter, Boom, Reg, Nade, Ram, and Zak all took cover in various positions and helped out the others. The combined efforts of the clones managed to repel the droids long enough for First Platoon to arrive. Lucky patted Crunch on the shoulder. As Crunch looked over, Lucky motioned for him to follow. Crunch crawled along the ground behind the same house as Stryke and Bolt, where Lucky stood as well. The others came up behind him.

"You beautiful bastard," Crunch said to Lucky happily. "You showed up at just the right time."
"What can I say? I have a habit of doing everything right." Lucky gloated.

Just then, Newbie ran up behind them. "What's going on?" he asked.
"You tell me," Crunch responded. "What're you doing here?"
"Blast told me to rejoin you guys." Newbie looked down at Bolt, who had gone into shock from losing four of his fingers. "Holy shit! It's a good thing I got here when I did." Newbie got down on one knee and began examining Bolt's wounds. While pulling a small container of bacta out of a compartment attached to his waist, he asked Stryke, "What about you, sir?"
"I'm fine," Stryke said as he got onto his feet. He picked up his rifle and said casually, "I just got knocked down is all. Newbie, stay with us. Crunch, take the others and rejoin the rest of Third on the left flank. Once you're there, tell em to start advancing and make a move on the main ambush. Second Platoon'll swing around the other side. We can surround them and finish this."
"You got it Cap!" Crunch said. "Let's move Third Platoon!"

Crunch and the others from Third Platoon, excluding Newbie, moved behind a house to the left. Stryke ran across the street, stopping only once to take cover in a ditch. He emerged on the right side, then turned back to the others and shouted, "Everybody just hang tight! No pulling back!" He then proceeded behind the nearest house. Much to his disappointment, the house next to him with a machine gun was blown to smithereens by a droid rocket. The debris fell onto his helmet, then the dust spread across the street. Stryke continued behind the houses until he stumbled upon the sixteen clones exchanging fire with some droids. He yelled out to Mick, "Make a move!"

Mick nodded and gave Stryke a thumbs-up. Stryke turned around and moved back toward the street. When he arrived, the fighting had already stopped. All the clones were just watching while Second and Third Platoons surrounded the droids and eventually finished them off. When the shooting had ceased, Ray, who had remained behind cover the entire time, waved over the others. Stryke pointed at a random trooper and said, "Help Newbie carry Bolt."
"I can walk," Bolt said as Newbie helped him onto his feet. Stryke looked over, surprised Bolt had come out of his shock. "Just can't shoot a rifle," Bolt finished.

The twenty one clones, including Stryke, Bolt, and Newbie, began to walk down the street with their rifles either down at their side or resting on their shoulder. "Can you fire a pistol?" Stryke asked Bolt while reloading his rifle. "I'm sorry. I wouldn't ask if the area wasn't crawling with those bastards."
"Yeah. I can use a pistol," Bolt said while using his one full hand to reach for the pistol in a holster attached to his thigh.

When the group was finally reunited with the others, the sounds of blaster fire in the distance had died down considerably with just a few shots heard every couple of seconds. Blast came running up the street to meet them. As he arrived, he told them, "May as well just take a seat and relax. The mortars have been taken care of by K Company. A detachment of the 18th Armored is on it's way here. They're gonna just hammer the droids' main building until it drops."
"It's over?" Stryke asked.
"For now. The 509th is spreading out from Truda. They'll clean up any droids in the area, so don't expect any major counter attacks for a while."

It had been two weeks since Nova Company had left Fest behind for the beauty known as Corellia. Since they had arrived, it had been everything they had hoped for: hot showers, warm meals, relaxation with alcohol, and women. After simple training drills and mildly tiring exercises in the early hours of the morning, the clones were let loose to do whatever they pleased. Most of the time, that meant sitting out on the beach, drinking, and sleeping with the sun shining onto them. It was definitely a welcome change from the frozen forests they had spent much of their time in recently. While Tide and Reg talked it up with a few native girls down by the ocean water, Ray looked on. They all hate me, he thought to himself. Part of me doesn't blame them. I'm not a good leader. And I don't want to be. I don't want to be a leader, period. Hell, sometimes I don't even want to be a clone. But I am, and there's no changing that. I just wish they hadn't of chosen me to be an officer. It really is ridiculous; they don't even examine clones' individual skills when deciding who becomes what rank to start out. They just pick out random clones and decide to send them to officer candidate classes. I was perfectly happy being a grunt. Taking orders, rather than giving them. I've already failed once, and I was only saved because we have such excellent noncoms. What if I fail again and there's no one there to save me? I'm not afraid of getting killed in battle. But I am terrified of another clone getting killed because I fuck up.

Ray didn't realize it, but he had begun to stare off at the endless oceans. Snapping out of it, he stood up and brushed the sand off of his casual shorts. All the clones were happy that they didn't have to wear their armor when out. Instead, they were given tan colored, loose shorts and saggy, white, sleeveless shirts. Ray stuck his hands in his pockets and walked off the beach onto a street. All sorts of different species were walking alongside him, doing their own thing. Ray began to think, this place clearly hasn't been touched. This seems like the one place the droids haven't attacked yet. And it was true. There were no signs of war anywhere. In fact, if it weren't for a few kids playing with clone trooper action figures, one may not even know there was a war going on. It was a perfectly sunny, warm day with no clouds in the sky at all. An occasional breeze would cause the trees and grass to sway in the wind. Plenty of clones opted to take naps under the shade of trees, rather than hang out on beaches. Ray noticed two clones from another platoon talking with a child Twi'lek. The kids asked the clones how they could tell the clones apart.

The two clones were speechless. And, try as he might, Ray couldn't think of an answer either. "We just do," one clone told the kid. It was a good enough answer, Ray figured. No one knew how, but clones were able to tell each other apart. Although he saw clones all over the place, Ray couldn't stop to talk to any. Well, he could, but he knew none. Ray had tried to get along with other clones before, but it never worked out well for one reason or another. A bit ironic, that he was the exact same as every other clone, yet he couldn't find any way to bond with the others. On many occasions he had wanted to ask one of the others what they wanted to do once the war was over. It was a very interesting thing to think about. What opportunities could there possibly be for millions of clones who had known nothing but war their entire lives? Ray had constantly thought about what he wanted to do should he survive. He wanted to explore unknown regions and even map them. There were plenty of planets that had been discovered but were currently unable to be colonized. Ray wanted to be the one to map them. But of course, he first had to survive the war.

After a half hour of negotiators yelling from a few hundred feet away, nothing had happened. Stryke got on his com-link again and began talking with the chief of the planet's security forces, urging him to let Stryke send a man in. But the chief said no, and to wait for the negotiators to finish. Ram and Zak finally showed up at this time, landing their cruiser next to Tide. Tide had an E-15A assault rifle in hand, which he put a clip of ammunition into and cocked. "Just got word about the situation and hurried over," Ram said while walking up to Tide. "You going in?"
"Looks that way, doesn't it junior?" Tide sneered. Ram took a hint and backed off. Tide didn't care. He didn't care about anything at the moment. He was the only clone who thought they had no business there in the first place. But of course, he was the one to be possibly sent in.

He set down the rifle and leaned it against a cruiser, then reached into a box of supplies that was sitting next to him. Out of it, he pulled a grenade launcher attachment, which he quickly latched onto his rifle. He then proceeded to grab three frag grenades, one of which he inserted into the launcher. The other two, he placed in the pockets of his shorts, which he was still wearing with his sleeveless white shirt. Again he reached into the box, and this time pulled out four holsters. Two on each leg: one on the calf, and the other on the thigh. Two DC-15s blaster pistols were attached to his thighs, with two more combat knives on his calves.

He looked like he was ready to fight the entire droid army all by himself. But for all he knew, he wouldn't even be sent in. The negotiators seemed to be making progress with the child. The child was a human, a teenager with blond hair similar in style to a Jedi Padawan but without the braid behind the right ear. The clones could only look on as the kid slowly began to lower his guard, allowing the negotiators to talk more. They were doing everything by the book, telling the child he had more to live for than he thought. Trying to reason with him and convince him that killing a bunch of innocent kids was not going to solve anything. The dozens of bystanders began to sigh a sigh of relief when the teenager seemed to start to see it their way. But they were taken aback when the sound of a blaster rang out once more from inside the school, followed by the sight of another student's lifeless body being tossed out of the window.

Everyone besides the clones watched on in horror. Tide, who had been sitting on the ground looking up at the sky, stood up and grabbed his rifle. With it slung over his shoulder, he walked over to Stryke. "What's the plan?" Tide asked.
"Plan is: You cut your way into the building from the roof," Stryke began. "Have someone take you in a cruiser to the roof. Get in, and try to take the kid alive. If you can't, oh well."
"How should I cut my way in sir?"
"Slicer should have a lightdagger." Stryke pointed to Slicer, who was talking with Zak and Crunch. Stryke then handed Tide a special grenade. "Once you've got the kid, toss this blue smoke grenade out the front window. We'll start the evac then."
"Consider it done."

Tide casually walked over to Slicer while stuffing the smoke grenade into his pocket. Tide's calmness was a sharp contrast to nearly everybody else, who looked tense and nervous. Some were crying, but most of the clones were talking amongst each other. "Cap says you got a dagger for me," Tide told Slicer. Slicer seemed just as calm as Tide. But, unlike Tide, it was a cover. Slicer faked his calmness for the sake of the bystanders, who watched the clones almost as much as the burning school. Slicer reached into his back pocket and pulled out the small handle to the dagger. Tide snatched it from Slicer and quickly tested it by igniting it and then putting it out. He pulled the regular combat knife out of the holder on his right ankle and replaced it with the lightdagger. After patting Slicer on the shoulder, Tide walked over to a cruiser in which Leet was already sitting with his head back.

"Take me to the roof," Tide said, throwing the rifle in the back seat. He plopped down into the front passenger seat just as the cruiser lifted off the ground. While they were moving through the air, all that was said between the two was from Tide: "Of all the places for you to pick. You had to choose Corellia." Leet didn't bother to say anything in response. He simply drove the car through the air and stopped above the roof of the three story school. As soon as it landed, Tide hopped out and grabbed the rifle out of the back. He threw it down and then got on one knee. While Tide was reaching for his lightdagger, Leet lifted the car off of the roof and said to Tide:
"Be safe." He then sped off. Tide ignited his short blade and began to cut a hole in front of him.

When the circle was complete, the chunk of the ceiling fell through, and Tide hopped in. Unfortunately, he had landed in the wrong room. He would now have to move through the school over to the correct room.

All of Third Platoon sat quietly on their LAAT, headed to their former home, Kamino. Even Strat, who was previously in the hospital from an injury on Fest, was there. Altogether a group of sixteen clones, but if you were listening to the inside of the ship instead of looking at it, you would have guessed it was empty. Every man in the ship was as quiet as the night-time plains on Naboo. Even Tide, who was known as the prominent joker of the bunch, kept to himself. Instead of talking, he sat in the far back of the ship in the corner, balled up and staring straight down at the floor with a dead gaze. He almost looked as if he had fallen asleep with his eyes open, but those suspicions were cast aside whenever he would blink, the only time he showed he was still breathing. He had told the others he was just tired, however. But fact is, he was not the same Tide that the others all used to know and love. He was changed dramatically. He had suffered two serious traumas that most of the others wouldn't have even been able to understand. His long trip to the hospital had been bad, though not anywhere near as bad as what he had done to the kid on Corellia. The second he had stepped foot outside of the school, he was a changed man. No matter how hard he would try, he could never get that last image of the child out of his mind. The way it lay on the linoleum floor, limp and a bloodied mess, the head partially caved in from Tide's numerous strikes. And, hard as he fought to keep that terrible picture out, it entered his mind again and did not leave, as if it were etched on a stone in his head.

Even now, as the clone ship was travelling through hyperspace, Tide still had some of the kid's dried blood left on his knuckles that he had apparently forgotten to clean off. Through all this torment, Tide had managed to keep his composure on the outside, for the most part. He shuffled around on the floor, trying to get comfortable. His wound was still in considerable pain. And no matter how many times Newbie and Stryke had suggested he go back to the hospital and sit this assignment out, Tide denied the pain, saying it was nothing, "just a scratch." Truth was it was the most excruciating pain Tide had ever endured. Physical pain, that is. But as long as he got to stay out of that hospital, he could rough it. Besides, it wasn't like they were going to see any action for a while. All they had to do was train some replacements, how hard could it be? Tide soon figured he wouldn't be able to get comfortable sitting down with a wound the size of a lemon in his ass. So he rose to his feet and reached into the front right pocket of his tan shorts, and out of it, he pulled a death stick. It was the only thing keeping him as sane as he was now. As he popped the stick into his mouth and gave it a light, he leaned gently against the back wall. As soon as the smoke began to spread, some of the others began sniffing. Some of them turned to Tide.

"Now you're smoking those things too?" Boom screeched.
"No, he was eating it when it caught on fire," Reg poked fun at Boom. Reg and Boom had been close friends ever since a peacekeeping mission two years ago. One of the many top-secret rebellion squashing missions that the clone commandos had been sent to before they officially first saw action at Geonosis, roughly two months ago. Reg and Boom had both been separated from the rest of their squads in the action and were forced to stick together for a few days, surrounded by enemies. The experience had given the two a strong bond that could have rivaled that of Shooter and Strat. Though all of the clones were like brothers to each other, some had a few extra special friendships with others. Reg would jump in front of a laser shot coming at Boom without any hesitation whatsoever, just as Boom would do the same for Reg. "You wanna give me one?" Reg asked Tide.

Tide didn't even look up at Reg, or make any kind of movement that would suggest he even heard him. After this brief pause, he flicked one of the short, disgusting sticks at Reg, causing it to tumble around on the floor before resting at Reg's feet. Reg used his own lighter to light it, and soon enough more and more of the clones began to smoke their own. Ray certainly wasn't smoking though. Hell, he wasn't even sitting with his men. But rather, he was standing up at the front behind the two seats in which the pilots sat. The fumes were practically burning his nostril hairs and causing his eyes to water. It was the closest thing to tear gas that he had ever experienced. He turned around to get a look at the clones, but he practically couldn't. It was so foggy inside the ship from the smoke, Ray could barely see six inches in front of his nose. The others took notice of Ray watching them suspiciously, but continued on with their bad habit. "You guys do know those are illegal?" Ray asked, not really asking, but more like telling.

Almost all of them hesitantly put out their sticks, except for Shooter, who remained in his seat staring at the wall with the same intense face he carried around all day everyday, his death stick hanging half in and half out of his mouth, burning at the tip. He didn't even bother holding it in place with his hand. "Smells like shit in here," Ray whined. The others all rolled their eyes. They couldn't take much more of this guy. "And I can't see in here anymore."
"Sorry sir," Leet said, though he didn't seem sincere. "You can open a window if you like." Some of the others tried and failed to contain their light laughter. But when Ray looked at them, their laughs were gone quicker than a pod in a podrace.

After that, the room was dead silent again, just as it was before. Ray didn't enjoy being the one to kill the men's good spirits, but it was something unpleasant he had to do, like having to punish your child for the first time. Ray had a theory, that the platoon leader should show his power first to the men, and then afterwards he should start bonding with them. He had already flexed his muscle enough, as far as the others were concerned, but Ray remained a distant and uncaring leader. Which was a sharp contrast to Stryke, who had been friends with each of them from day one and had managed to earn their respect without ever having to be like Ray. Many of the men mocked Ray in their thoughts, but knew that saying what they were thinking out loud would not lead to good things. And so they kept their mouths shut while the ship began to hum and shake.

They were coming out of hyperspace right above Kamino. "We're home," Leet frowned while standing up.
"Unfortunately," Reg commented. The others smiled.

"Mir'osik!" Crunch yelled in the language Mando'a. Crunch and Boom were both training about a hundred other commandos in a private platform specifically for training the commandos. In about an hour, Tide and Reg would enter the room with their own group of replacements, and Crunch and Boom would be finished for the day. The training was surprisingly easy, Crunch and Boom acted more as drill sergeants than anything else, just yelling at the clones to keep going. And they were basically just imitating what the drill sergeants had done to them all those years ago. Crunch looked over and saw a clone taking a breather, he was holding his stomach and had a very painful look on his face. Crunch called out to him in the Mando language, "Gar! Nardralshy'a! K'atini, di'kut!" which translated to "You! Try harder! Suck it up, dumbass!"

The longer the excersises went on, the more and more Crunch thought of their training. Nova Company had been trained by the legendary Mandalorian Rav Bralor, who was one of the Cuy'val Dar("those who no longer exist"). Crunch began to daydream about everything his generation of clones used to do, back before Third Platoon was still a group of teenagers who had yet to even have facial hair. Back before Snap had gotten his body blown in half by a rocket at Geonosis. Before Stryke had to shoot Pyro in the head to put him out of his misery on Kessel. Those were Crunch's favorite days.

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Third Platoon stood at attention in the middle of a typical Tipoca City platform room, a shiny, white floor to match the shiny, white walls and the shiny, white ceiling. The clones stood in five rows of four. The squad leader at the front of each line, behind them was their corporal, who stood in front of the final two. Green Squad stood neatly at the far right, and to their left was white squad, followed by blue, then red, and finally black squad. A three foot tall window spanned the entire circular wall, giving them a great view of something they didn't want to see anymore: ocean and rain. Stryke, a calm thirteen year old Second Lieutenant(who was really just six and a half years of age) stood at the front of the line farthest to the left, with Corporal Hawk Eye behind him and Sergeant Bolt to his side. Unlike Stryke and Bolt, who both looked very calm and collected, Hawk Eye had an intense look on his face that would make a rancor shake in fear. He always had this expression, and he would continue to have it until the day he died in a burning building on Kessel.

Behind Hawk Eye, stood a young man by the name of Vek, who stood in front of a young clone named Slicer. Just moments ago, most of the twenty teenage clones had been laughing hysterically at a joke made by Tide, and even now, with their merciless drill sergeant staring each of them down with a look that should have had them all weak in the knees, they were still chuckling. But soon enough, the drill sergeant wiped the smiles off of their peachfuzz sprouting faces. As a show of disrespect and immaturity, everytime, that day, when a clone would begin to laugh, they would be forced to do fifty pushups on the spot. But they weren't just told to drop and begin counting, oh no, instead, they were grabbed by the collar of their red tunics and thrown to the ground. By the end of the day, both Slicer and Reg had a missing tooth in the back of their mouths. Did their instructor, Rav Bralor, care? Nope.

One day, Rav released them at midnight to go to sleep(much later than usual) after a dayful of target practice and situational drills in small-unit tactics. The kids slept like rocks...for three hours. At three o' clock in the morning, Rav came storming into the Nova Company room firing up at the ceiling with a blaster pistol. Needless to say, every single clone in the room fell out of their bed with their heart just about to jump out of their chest. Once the group of a hundred clones was organized, they were forced to jog in one gigantic single file line around the entire city. Through the rain and cold they went, never stopping, no matter how tired or out of breath they got. Tide, who was at the back of the long line, gave Rav a sneer as he jogged by, but was quickly grabbed by the arm and turned around. As soon as he was forced to face Rav, he felt his hand grasp his throat. Showing off his incredible strength, Rav lifted Tide up, with one hand, by the throat, and held him over a ledge of one of the platforms. No matter how much Tide kicked and squirmed, Rav was able to hold on. With lightning striking behind him about a mile away, Tide stopped resisting while Rav instructed him to show him respect. The teenage Tide could only nod and look down at the fall he would experience, should the rain cause Rav's grip to slip. But luckily, Rav pulled him back over and tossed him to the ground. Tide landed on his face, blood instantly began to fall from his mouth. He could only push himself up, get on his feet, spit another tooth out, wipe the blood off of his chin, and sprint to catch up with the others.

But, for every Rav Bralor, there was a Kal Skirata. Kal Skirata was the one who every clone wanted as their instructor. Much the opposite of Rav, Kal was a very kind mandalorian(as nice as a mandalorian can get, at least). When the Kaminoans were about to execute the Null ARC Troopers, Kal was the only one to stand up for them. And he is the reason the ARCs were alive today. But he was nice to the commandos as well, showing a more sympathetic approach to the training of the clones. Where the other instructors were mean and brutal to toughen them up, Kal was nice and easygoing and was just a real treat to have around. Whenever Rav was unable to teach the commandos for whatever reason, Kal acted as a "substitute" although the commandos would much sooner run through a volley of blaster fire to rescue him than any of the other instructors. And just because he wasn't as cold to the commandos as the other Mandalorian drill sergeants didn't mean he wasn't every bit as tough as them. In one training exercise, Red Squad had to capture a clone from another unit, while sneaking past dozens of security guards. Kal led them, teaching them by following his example. The five of them had captured the clone without being spotted by a single security guard. When they had gotten back to the assembly area, one of the clones who had been acting as a security guard came to ask when they were going to begin, not knowing they had already finished.

When the clones were sixteen years old(eight years, really) they were all given secret training. Throughout the course of a few weeks, every clone was taken to a special platform and given special training. They were told that one day, this training would come in handy and would possibly save their lives more than once. One day they would have to use this training in battle. And then they were told the codename that would signal when the time had come to finally use these skills. The codename, known to them all, as Order 66. They spent hours upon hours inside the simulator, learning how to fight lightsaber wielding beings. They were given extensive training on how to overcome such tough enemies. Maneuvers such as surrounding the Jedi and using explosives were just a couple of the things taught to them. When their training was over, the clones were sent back to the barracks and given the rest of the day off. Almost all of them put their new skills in the back of their minds, figuring they'd never even need it.

----------

"Crunch! Crunch!" Crunch looked over in the direction of the voice. It was Bam, walking through the doorway alongside Shooter and another clone who Crunch didn't know.

"It's our shift," Bam said.
"Who's this?" Crunch asked while motioning to the unknown trooper who stood in complete armor except for the helmet. This trooper had a shaved head. Just enough hair that he wasn't bald, but his scalp was clear as day.
"This is one of the new commandos," Bam told Crunch.
"That their new hairstyle?" Crunch asked.
"Yeah. He was just filling me in on how the fighting's been going."
"How has it been going?" Crunch asked. Boom moved up behind him, anxious to hear the news.
"The 501st got their assed handed to them on Kessel once you guys left," the commando said. "They managed to take out the AA guns before they were routed so that Republic aircraft can make some bombing runs. But for a while, they've been hiding out in sewers and making guerilla attacks."
"What about Fest?" Boom asked.
"The clones on Fest have been trying to advance further into the planet, but they haven't been able to make any significant gain lately. In fact, the First Battalion outpost got surrounded. Unless they can get some reinforcements, they're expected to be overrun within the week."

Crunch and Boom both looked at the floor and sighed. As the clones they had been training began to empty out of the room, the ones that were to be trained by Bam and Shooter poured in. Boom then moved to the door, followed by Crunch, who patted Bam on the shoulder as he went.

"Move it! Come on! Come on!" Bam shouted to the others behind him. The rain continued to pour down onto them, plinking and planking on their armor. Smoke arose from the downed LAAT while droids began to empty from their transport.

"We gotta get outta here, Sarge!" Lucky yelled to Bam. Bam acted as though he didn't even hear him. He just stood tall with his single pistol and fired carefully aimed shots at each droid that appeared from the transport. Lucky crouched beside him and did the same. The paratroopers behind them fired in three-to-five shot bursts. Two clones from the LAAT tried to crawl out of the flames, but they were cut down by the droids.

Lucky ripped a thermal detonator off of his chest and tossed it at the droids. After a brief wait, it blew up, sending pieces of scrapmetal flying in every direction. One piece of metal flew directly at Lucky, but caused only a large slash in the right arm of his armor. Lucky checked himself with eyes as big as silver dollars. "You're one lucky bastard," Bam said and then continued, "Let's get out of here!"

The nine of them sprinted as fast as they could back across the bridge. The droids continued to empty out of the transport. While the clones ran across the bridge with lasers zinging past them, six of the seven paratroopers were cut down. Lucky was dodging fire like a madman, truly demonstrating the reasoning behind his name. Bam wasn't even being fired at. When they made it across, the last surviving paratrooper mounted a laser turret and began firing at the droids. "I'll cover you," he said. "Go protect the Central Armory!"

Bam and Lucky headed inside through the nearest door, down the corridor about fifty feet. Just before they entered the inside, a rocket blasted the turret that the paratrooper was in. Bam and Lucky did not have time to care, however. They moved through the interior of the city, which was still crawling with clones that were heading out to the battle. Making their way to the Central Armory, they found a few familiar faces. Leet, Slicer, and Strat were rallying the clones out to battle. The regular troopers were eager to head out to battle in their shiny, unused suits of armor. The commandos certainly didn't have to twist their arms to get them out on the field. Leet, Slicer, and Strat were all wearing very different armor, however. Special armor, known as Katarn-class armor. Holding their rifles down in front of their waist casually, they looked unstoppable. Bam and Lucky admired the new armor with their mouths hung open.

"Nice suits," Bam said as the last few regular troopers left the room. "Got any more?"
"There were a few in the Central Armory," Leet said.
"That's good. We were just on our way there," Lucky said. Leet and Slicer looked down at the floor. Strat knelt down and checked his ammo, not paying attention to the others. Bam and Lucky couldn't see what kinds of faces they were making due to the helmets. Though they appeared saddened.

"Don't bother," Slicer said. "It was overrun. We managed to grab the suits and weapons and then left."
"Was anyone else with you?" Bam asked.
"A couple engineers," said Leet. "They were killed."

Bam and Lucky sighed. "Just as well, we gotta meet with some of the others over by Platform Seven in a few minutes anyway," Bam said. "We should head there now."

Everyone nodded and agreed. "Either of you seen Lieutenant Ray?" Leet asked.
"No one's seen him," Bam said.

The five of them stepped outside to a disturbing sight. More and more droid transports were making their landings on platforms. Hard as the Jedi and clone pilots fought in the dark skies above them, more transports were making it through. To the right of the group of commandos was a bridge going up to a platform, codenamed Platform Five. Platform Five connected the entire string of platforms that made up the city, to the Central Platform, which they were on right now. There were two turrets to the left and the right of the beginning of the bridge on Platform Five. Should the droids land on Platform Five, they would have easy access to the Central Platform. The five commandos knew this, and didn't even have to say anything. They knew they had to defend it. They rushed across the uphill bridge. When they made it to Platform Five, they could see just how large the battle truly was.

Dozens of different platforms were being fought over, with blasts of lasers flying in every direction. The five commandos each took cover in different positions. Leet went prone next to the edge of the platform, where there was a rise in the ground that encircled the entire edge of the circular platform and gave great cover for a sniper. Lucky for Leet, he had grabbed a sniper rifle before abandoning the armory. Lucky and Bam each manned one of the turrets. Slicer took cover behind a large ammo crate and would occasionally peek around the corner. And Strat stood right beside him. "Here they come!" Bam shouted to the others, just as a droid starship slowly lowered itself onto the platform next to theirs.

"Slicer!" Leet called out. "You still got that demo?" Slicer nodded. "Blow the bridge! Quick! Before they start to empty their ship!"

Slicer looked at Leet with wide, unsure eyes, though they were hidden by his helmet. But after his brief pause, he left his cover and ran onto the bridge, reaching for a compartment on his waist as he moved. He ran across the bridge until there was only ten feet separating him from the droid ship. He knelt down and placed a demolition charge on the side of the bridge, out of sight for the droids. He then rose to his feet and scrambled, as fast as he could, back to Platform Five. Sliding on the slick platform floor, he moved back behind the ammo crate with Strat. The five of them sat quietly, ready for anything. The droid ship door cracked open, then plopped down onto the ground in a puddle of water. Droids emptied out of the ship and collected themselves, then several of them began creeping across the bridge. Apparently the droids were unable to see their opponents on the other side, tough break for them. When the bridge was almost full of droids moving across it, Leet stuck his head up and out from his cover. Quickly taking aim with his sniper rifle, he fired a single shot at the demo charge.

BOOM! In a big ball of fire, the bridge was blown to pieces by the expertly placed explosive. The bridge, along with any droid that had survived the blast, fell down to the cold ocean beneath them. The droids on the other platform(which was codenamed Platform Three) opened fire on the clones, which was promptly returned. The five commandos, however outnumbered, had a clear advantage over the hapless B-1 battle droids. Bam and Lucky fired wildly with their laser turrets. Leet skillfully picked off any unfortunate droid to get in his way by blasting their heads clean off. And Slicer and Strat both stuck their rifles out from their cover and blind-fired at the battledroids. Any droids that, somehow, were not blasted quickly ran behind their ship for cover. It wasn't until three droidekas came rolling out of their ship did the clones get a bad feeling about this. Leet managed to clip one droideka in the leg, but all three of them survived long enough to activate their shields. The three of them systematically fired at the clones, pinning them down. When one had to cool down its blasters, another one began to fire. Not only were all the clones unable to fire back, but the three droidekas formed a wall around the exit to their ship, allowing more droidekas to come out and activate their own shields. These droidekas then proceeded to form a line that stretched across the whole of Platform Three.

Leet stuck his head up just as a laser raced at him and skimmed the ground a few inches from his head. He could see what they were doing. At least, he thought he knew what they were doing. Droids were very unpredictable, afterall. But as far as Leet could tell, the droidekas were trying to make a wall of protection that would allow the B-1 battledroids to move down to the platform on their right(Platform Two), which also happened to connect to Platform Five. The droids were going to flank the clones in a matter of about ten minutes, give or take, Leet figured. The five of them would not be able to handle all of that, and would surely be killed. After that, the Central Platform would be easy pickings for the droids. Thinking fast, Leet looked around at the others. Bam and Lucky both hid behind their turrets, looking at Leet and gritting their teeth.

Bam spoke up, "Leet! They're gonna flank us!"
"No shit!" Leet shouted as he rolled over on his back to make it easier to talk to Bam.
"We gotta get help!" Bam shouted.

Leet looked over at Slicer and Strat and asked, "Either of your guys' radios working?" Strat shook his head from side to side, but Slicer nodded up and down.

"Mine's working Sarge," Slicer said.
"Then call in a fuckin' air strike!" Leet commanded. "Tell them to fire on my mark!"

Slicer tapped the side of his helmet near his ear a couple of times, then began talking. "This is Black-1987 requesting air support on Platform Three, over!" he shouted. "Anybody! This is Black-1987 requesting an aerial strike on Platform Three!"

There was more silence. Slicer looked over at Leet and shrugged his shoulders. Leet slammed his fist onto the ground. This was it. They couldn't move. The droidekas had them pinned down and soon the countless B-1 battledroids would outflank and destroy them. They would either have to get up and run for their lives, or sit still and wait to die.

"I got ya trooper," a voice said from the other end of Slicer's comlink. "Just sit tight."
"Thank you," Slicer said. "Who is this?"
"Anakin Skywalker," the voice said. Slicer looked over at the others, expecting them to be as surprised as he was. They couldn't even hear the Jedi. "Just hang on, I'll be there shortly."

"Leet!" Slicer called out over the continuing droid fire. "Skywalker's on his way here!"
"What?" Leet responded in confusion.
"Skywalker! He's on his way!"
"Tell him not to fire until I say to, got it?"

Slicer nodded just as a custom built, blue and white painted Jedi Starfighter came sweeping over their heads. It circled around, being shot at by the droids. But none of the droids' blasters could do any considerable damage to the Jedi fighter. With the droids' attention elsewhere, Leet rose up onto his knees and ripped a thermal detonator off of his chest. With a powerful throw, he threw it across the entire gap between the two platforms. Landing right next to the line of droidekas, it detonated. "Their shields are weak! Tell the Jedi to fire!" Leet shouted to Slicer.

"Commander Skywalker," Slicer said into his comlink. "You may fire when ready, over!"

The starfighter swooped around again and came speeding at the droidekas. Unleashing a volley of heavy blaster fire from his ship, the Jedi Commander blasted each and every droid into pieces. The clones all took cover, watching out for shrapnel from the droids' metallic bodies. When the droids were gone, the Jedi whipped around in his ship once again. This time, he fired four proton torpedoes at the droid transport. The droid ship tried to lift off at the last second to escape the missiles, but was caught by all of them. When the smoke had cleared, the five commandos got on their feet and let out a cheer that could have been heard all the way from Coruscant. Leet walked over to Slicer and told him, "Get some more troopers over here soon as possible." He then raised his voice so the others could hear him more clearly. "We'll stay until they arrive. Then we'll try to find some others from Third. Bam, didn't you say there were some others by Platform Seven?"

"Yeah. Ram, Zak, and Tank are probably waiting there right now," Bam said.
"If they're not dead yet, that is," Strat said, always the cynic.

Taking the top platform was a cakewalk for Leet and Slicer. There weren't even any droids on it anymore, just the broken down remains of the droids that had been wiped out before they arrived. And on the end of the platform was an extension, about twenty feet long and four feet wide. At the end of it was an enlargement in the ground and a broken laser turret next to the corpse of a clone whose upper body was dangling off the edge. Leet got down on his knees and snatched his sniper rifle, which had been slung around his back. Slicer lay his rifle down on the ground next to the turret. Not having any second thoughts, he pushed the dead clone's body completely off of the platform and down to a watery grave. He then proceeded to draw his fusion cutters and go to work on the turret. Meanwhile, Leet steadied his aim with his sniper. Resting his bent elbow on his knee, he wiped the water off of the scope with his thumb and then gazed through it with his right eye, down at the nine other clones who were advancing upon Platform Twelve.

The nine of them were crossing a bridge, which was bad news for any attacker. Being so close and confined on the narrow bridge would have made the clones easy pickings had Tide not set up a light machine gun on the platform across from Platform Twelve. He never stopped firing at the small droid force that numbered seventeen B-1 Battledroids. That left eight clones to move across the bridge. The group moved quickly in a single-file line with Tank at the front of the group in his Katarn-class armor, throwing two thermal detonators on the move. Behind him were Strat and Ram, followed by Zak and Lucky in the middle. In the rear of the line were Bam, then Boom and finally Ray at the end, which was no surprise. Tank advanced onto the platform just as the two thermals detonated, eliminating twelve of the seventeen droids. The remaining five droids began to fire while retreating across the bridge to the nearest platform to the right. One of them was destroyed by Tide's machine gun. Another three were shot from behind by the clones. When it looked like the last one was going to make it to his droid allies on the next platform, a single shot rang out. A beam pegged the droid in the neck, detaching it from the rest of its metal body.

A grin spread across Leet's face as the clones looked up at him. Beside him, Slicer was finishing repairing the turret. Leet trained his sniper on the droids at the next platform, Platform Thirteen. He spotted one that was about to shoot at Tide, who had been moving his machine gun up to Platform Twelve with the others. Before the droid could fire on the defenseless Tide, Leet demonstrated his amazing accuracy. He pulled the trigger, and the droid fell. Lucky for the clones, there were already two turrets set up on their platform. Tide set down his machine gun and opened fire while Bam and Strat each manned a turret. Slicer finished fixing his own turret by Leet, who was busy firing away with his rifle. Firing a shot every second, it seemed, Leet managed to guide every single one of his shots into the heads of a droid. None of the scrap-piles could do anything to fight back against the long range weapon, not to mention the number of heavy weapons up close to them.

The platform that the nine commandos were on, Platform Twelve, had only two connecting platforms. And one of them was to Platform Thirteen, which only had two connections as well. Platform Thirteen was also connected to Platform Fifteen by an ascending bridge. They were currently in a small network of platforms that circumvented one main platform. They had already pushed the droids off of two of the platforms, and would only have to do it with four more. They would then have the middle platform completely surrounded. And once that fell, they could move on to the next network of platforms. But for now, they still had to focus on the task at hand, and that was taking Platform Thirteen from the twenty-eight droids that defended it. Each clone took cover behind something, whether it was an ammo crate or the accretion around the edge of the platform, and exchanged fire with the droids. Neither side let up.

"What's the plan?" Bam asked Ray as he fired another shot with his pistol. Ray didn't respond. Bam repeated, "Lieutenant, what's the plan?"

Before Ray could respond(he wasn't going to anyway), the clones noticed four more commandos at the top of Platform Fifteen, all sporting Katarn-class armor with some fancy DC-17m interchangeable blaster rifles. One, who had an anti-armor attachment to his rifle, fired a thunderous shot onto the droids' platform while the other three rained hell down upon them. Having such advantages, the four commandos easily dismantled the droid force and then moved down the catwalk. The nine commandos on Platform Twelve arose from their positions and hurried to meet their saviours. Although they couldn't recognize the four commandos, the others sure seemed to know them.

"Sergeant Bam," one said while saluting.
"Good work private," Ray said, drawing out his last word and waiting for him to say his name.
"Tick, sir."

Bam remembered who they were now. "Right," he said. "Our new replacements."
"Yessir."
"Well, you showed up at just the right time," Bam said. "Good work."
"Thank you sarge."

Tide and Strat both stood away from the rest of the group, looking distant. The four new clones to join their group discussed with Bam and Ray about what had been going on. The four clones, along with some others from another regiment, had already cleared the rest of the platforms in the area. Ram, Zak, and Tank each stood on the edge of the platform looking down at the ocean. Faint blue and red lights could be seen under the water from where the three commandos were. "Looks like the scuba-troopers are gettin' some target practice too," Zak mentioned.

Boom stood behind Ray, staring at him with intent and fury in his eyes. "We found Crunch," Watz told Bam. "He was rallying some pilots into their ships to help the Jedi rout the droids. Looks like the droids are starting to ease off."

"That's good news," Bam said, relieved. "Any of you guys got a working com-link in that fancy armor of yours?"
"None of us," Tick said. "I don't think the Kaminoans had finished planting them in all the suits yet. We grabbed ours from the Central Armory."
"The Central Armory's been overrun for a while now," Bam said.
"We managed to break into it and steal the suits and weapons with a few guys from the 85th."
"Well, you guys did good," Bam patted Tick on the shoulder and then walked over to an ammo crate and leaned against it.

"There's a Jedi protecting the fetal clones over on the Central Platform," Tick said. "Think we should go give her a hand?"

Tick looked at Bam as if it was his call. Bam looked over at Ray, who was also looking to Bam for an answer. Bam rolled his eyes and said firmly, "No. We should just protect this circle of platforms for now. I'm sure the Jedi's got plenty of help already. Besides, we've gotta wait for Leet's signal with that turret. Those droids are still holed up in the middle platform, if we can call in an air strike it'll be a lot easier than an assault."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Bam pointed at one of the four replacement commandos, "Tick, is it?" he asked.
"Yessir."
"Get up on the top of the bridge to Platform Fifteen as a lookout," Bam said. Calling out orders in his battle-scarred armor with no helmet and nothing but a pistol, Bam was truly a respectable leader. Being in the midst of this battle with no real medium or long range weapons was a true test of skill. A test that Bam passed with flying colors. So it was settled, the clones would sit tight for a moment while Leet, about a quarter of a mile away, called for an air strike.

"I'm telling you guys, he's gonna get all of us killed," Boom had been talking to a small group of others from the platoon. There were four clones altogether all huddled around a table in one of Coruscant's many apartment complexes. All of them were smoking deathsticks and drinking alcohol, wearing grim expressions on their faces. They had escaped from Kamino when the fighting was over. That had been three weeks ago by now. For now, Third Platoon was forgotten about by the top minds in the Republic army. They had been dumped off on Coruscant and hadn't been given any orders since. The entire Republic army was a mess. The droids may not have finished the job on Kamino, but they did manage to send the ranks of the army into chaos. Replacements had been killed, there were not enough clone troopers to go around and fill in the gaps. Needless to say Republic activity slowed down on many battlefronts. Stryke and Bolt were still on Fest, maybe. For all the others knew they could have been dead. The four clones in the apartment were Boom, Strat, Nade, and Slicer. Boom continued to speak, "One by one. Everybody in this platoon is gonna get picked off just because he sucks as a leader."

The others all secretly agreed, though they didn't show any response. They didn't nod their heads or anything. They were partially hypnotized by the beauty of the planet they were on. After the ordeal on Kamino, it was nice for them to be back on a normal planet. Their room in the apartment was high off the ground, giving them a great view of the city through their open window. Sunlight was pouring into the room accompanied by an occasional breeze, which felt nice to the clones in their casual clothing. "If we don't do something now, everybody in this platoon is in deep shit," Boom said with a mixture of certainty and urgency. This time, someone spoke up.

"He's right," Nade nodded while exhaling some smoke. Though he didn't exactly look happy about the situation.
"Yeah," Slicer reluctantly agreed. Strat didn't have to say anything. His eyes told the whole story.
"What are you suggesting? What, we kill him?" Nade chuckled at the thought. The others did not join in with him in the laugh. Boom gave him a cold and emotionless look. It was not a joke, that was certain.
"We don't kill him now, who's to say who dies next?" Boom asked. "We have to."

Nade leaped out of his seat and onto his feet. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "That's insane, Boom," he yelled. "There's gotta be something else we can do to get rid of him."
"Like what? You got any ideas, I'd love to hear them."

Nade didn't respond. He and Boom stared each other down, until Nade finally came to realization. "Alright," he sighed. "But even if we were to do this, how? There's no way we could get away with killing him in his sleep. There's no way we could get past the security in the barracks."
"It'd have to be quick and easy," Boom said. "With no possible way of anyone knowing it was us."
"Like in the middle of a fight or something," Strat suggested. "Just pop him one in the back of the head while everyone else is busy."
"Where is Ray anyway?" Slicer asked.
"Out somewhere in the city," said Strat. "I don't think he feels very safe around us right now."
"He shouldn't," Boom said.

----------

Meanwhile, on the war-ravaged planet of Fest, Stryke and Bolt lead the defense of their small outpost. What was left of Nova Company, now a force of forty-four clone commandos, had been sent away from the battalion HQ to capture a small, droid occupied farm and turn it into a makeshift clone aid station for when the rest of the planet's clone garrison began to expand further. They had taken the farm six days ago, and hadn't been able to make contact with their superiors ever since. All they could do was wait and hold on. Luckily for them, the planet's snowy weather had finally calmed. Lots of the snow had begun to melt, and instead of constant snow they would only get sleet. And sleet, although still bad, was much more welcome than snow.

"The droids are retreating!" a clone yelled out. Stryke and Bolt, who had been helping defend the eastern side of the farm with a machine gun and a few other clones, sighed a sigh of relief. Stryke called out and asked if anyone was hurt. Everybody said they were fine. Stryke leaned his rifle up against a wall and then sat down with his back against the stone wall. Bolt remained on his feet with one hand on his rifle, which rested on his shoulder casually.

"The planet's supposed to warm up even more tomorrow," Bolt said while looking out at the forest. He could still see droids leaving. "Think they might put those Airborne guys to some use since the weather will be okay?"

Stryke took a moment to respond, and when he did it was just a silent, almost dead sounding, "Maybe."

Bolt wiggled his fingers around a little. The three fingers in the middle made robotic noises as they squirmed. He said with a grin: "I don't think I'm ever gonna get used to these." Stryke just nodded. He didn't seem to care. He was distant. May as well have been a million miles away. Just then, the platoon leader of Second Platoon, Mick, walked by.

"Sir," Bolt acknowledged him and gave him a half-hearted salute. "Gotten any word on what to do now?"
"Nope. Comlinks are still down," Mick said. The strange thing about the way he said such a discouraging thing was how up-beat he said it. Mick never seemed to be down, no matter what was going on. But that doesn't mean he was always skipping around in joy either.

"We can't hold out much longer," Bolt said. "The droids are gonna start bringing in more and more eventually."
"What d'ya say, Cap?" Mick asked to Stryke, who was deep in thought.
"Maybe we should just send a few guys back to battalion to check up on things," Stryke suggested.
"Umm," Mick began to mumble. "We're completely surrounded, sir."
"We don't have to send an entire army through the woods. Just one or two guys to sneak past the droid line," Stryke said. "Pick up some supplies and a working comlink."
"Who do you think we should send?" Mick asked. "It's a pretty long walk, through hostile territory."
"Someone with experience, not some replacement."
"I'll go," Bolt blurted out.

Mick and Stryke both looked at him, unsure. Stryke said, "You sure you're up to it? You look pretty tired and your aim's been pretty shitty since you got those new fingers."
"I can do it," Bolt said confidently. He didn't bother to add on the "sir" at the end of the sentence. He and Stryke had known each other far too long for that anymore.
"Alright," Stryke said. "But at least one other person's going with you." He then turned to Mick and asked, "Any ideas?"
"He can take Kad from my Grey Squad," Mick said.

Stryke nodded, approving of the idea. "Bolt," Stryke said. "Go tell him. Get some rest and then head out at nightfall."
"You got it, Cap," Bolt said. He removed his rifle from on his shoulder and headed off, carrying it at his side.
"You think they can make it?" Mick warily asked Stryke.

Stryke rose onto his feet and wiped some mud off of his leg. Mick awaited an answer while Stryke was wiping at his leg. Stryke looked up at Mick with his dead eyes. Not saying a single word, he walked away.

Here's where I got the pictures. And thank you for your comments. I don't think it's possible to get it published, but thank you for the compliment.

Boom had been walking through the streets of Coruscant on a cold, cloudy night in a pair of casual army olive-drab pants and short sleeve shirt, with a pistol holstered around his ankle, just in case, when Leet and Crunch both came walking out of a raucous bar. Leet had a string of blood falling from his mouth and down his chin, while Crunch had a cut on his cheek from where a bar-goer had punched him while wearing a ring. "Nice place," Leet commented on the bar before spitting some blood onto the ground. His words were a little slurred, but he was still somewhat sober. He turned over and saw Boom staring at them. "How's it going Boom?"

"Fine," Boom said. "Sounds like a good fight."
"Wanna come in and join us?" Crunch asked.
"No. Just taking a walk. Getting some fresh air."
"Suit yourself," Crunch said and then turned his attention to Leet. "You coming back in?"

Leet took a moment to think it over and wiped some more blood off of his chin, then shook his head from side to side. Crunch shrugged and then marched back through the door. From outside, Leet and Boom could hear someone in the bar shout in terror: "Oh no! The clone is back!" And the sounds of the fight picked up even more. Boom just walked past Leet, who then walked to catch up to him.

"So how you doing Boom?" Leet asked.
"I told you, I'm fine," Boom snapped, annoyed at answering the same question twice. But he was clearly lying. "I know what this is about. I'm okay with Reg being gone. I'm not gonna go crazy or anything."
"I saw how you were looking at Ray."
"And?"

Leet sighed and thought about what to say next. He was walking on eggshells with Boom, trying not to anger him more. "He's trying Boom," Leet finally said. "You can't ask for anything more than that."
"I could ask for him not to get anyone killed, but that's a longshot," Boom said.
"Being in charge of nineteen other guys is not an easy job Boom," Leet said. "He's gotta make split-second decisions with all those other guys hoping that whatever decision he makes will help save their lives. He gets upset whenever someone dies too."
"Yeah, because it hurts his chances of getting promoted."

The two continued walking down the street, looking ahead at all of the massive, colorful buildings. Every once in a while, one of them would have to move around to avoid walking into someone else on the sidewalk. Both of them were exchanging words in very level headed tones. "Do you know what I saw him doing a little while ago?" Leet asked. Boom didn't respond in any way. Leet answered his own question, "I saw him sitting in his room, praying and asking Reg for forgiveness -- begging Reg for forgiveness. He started holding back tears. I thought he was gonna snap and shoot himself or something."
"Where is he now?" Boom asked.
"I think he went to train a little bit. He wants to get some pointers from some other officers so that he won't get anyone else in the platoon killed."

Boom didn't respond, he didn't even look at Leet. He just stared down at the ground while walking with his arms behind his back. Leet saw a building that interested him to his right and patted Boom on the shoulder. "Take it easy," he said and then walked off into the building. Boom stood on the sidewalk for a while in deep thought. Many thoughts passed through his mind, but the most prominent was the sight of Ray's dead body laying on the ground with Boom standing over it holding a smoking rifle.

The following is First Sergeant Bolt's journal entry from day 29 during month 8 in the year 21 BBY:

Up until now, I haven't had the energy to write. After my last entry, when Kad woke up, we headed out looking for...anything except droids. But of course, the thing we were trying to avoid was the only thing we could find. And we found plenty of it, believe me. We managed to get rid of them and head back here. The day after(yesterday) we just stayed put in here, taking turns sleeping and keeping guard. We were just hoping that maybe some clones would head over in this direction before we starved. I have gotten more energy. I don't want to go into details right now. I can only say that right now, I have a full stomach, and Kad is dead.


The following is First Sergeant Bolt's journal entry from day 2 during month 9 in the year 21 BBY:

I've come back to my senses now. I have to get the hell out of this cave, now. This is my last entry before I head out, maybe my last ever. The sun is setting behind the clouds that are just itching to finally release some snow. The moon won't be showing itself tonight, so I should have the cover of darkness for a while. I took as much ammo from Kad as I can carry. Hopefully I'll be able to make it out of here and tell them face to face, but if I don't get that chance, then I'll just say in here that it's been an honor to fight alongside the others these past years. Stryke, Crunch, Leet, all of them. I couldn't have asked for a better group of guys to know. I wish I could say I had complete confidence that I'll be able to get back to safe ground alive, but I can't. To be honest, I don't expect I will. I wish it didn't have to end like this, holed up in a cave just counting down the minutes until I set out on a suicide run. I just looked up outside of the cave to find that snow has began to fall just as the night has come. If any of the others find and read this before the war is over, I have a request. Don't die. Keep fighting and then do what you want when you're free. Survive the war and then make a good life for yourselves that doesn't involve death and destruction. Live as normal a life as possible and live in peace and happiness. Here I go.

The following is First Sergeant Bolt's journal entry from day 4 during month 9 in the year 21 BBY:

As you can tell, I managed to survive. Right now, at this very moment, I'm sitting in a hospital bed on Coruscant. I feel fine, but they want me to take it easy until tomorrow. At least Shooter is here with me, even though we haven't said a word to each other this whole time. But it's not like that's a surprise, Shooter hasn't ever been a talking person. Damn, I thought I had it bad with my three mechanical fingers. Shooter has an entire right arm made of metal and wires now, and a nifty scar across his stomach where a piece of the wall on Kamino apparently hit him. Ever since I saw how bad he's got it, I haven't complained once about my fingers.

As it turns out, Nova wasn't wiped out, well, not entirely. Stryke made it out. So did Mick and about ten others. Mick was made XO of Nova Company and we're supposed to be getting some others from another company folded into ours to make up for the losses. I met one of them, his name was Zone, a sniper. He's crazy from what I hear. Stryke told me that one time he actually re-wired Kamino's electric system and made it even better, so they didn't punish him for it. Or, not as badly, at least. I can't see a guy like that surviving for two seconds on the field. He'd probably run into the middle of the fight with guns blazing if given the opportunity. A mindset like that is gonna get somebody killed.

But God I can't wait to get out of here. After over two months on that frozen piece of shit they call a planet, it's such a waste to spend my time on Coruscant laying in a bed. It'll probably be a week before they send us back out, but at least I know where we're headed next. And it's just as good, if not better, than Coruscant anyway. Chandrilla. One of the few perfect planets around here, it's gonna be a shame when the seps start tearing it up. Stryke told me that in about a week, when Nova is at full strength, they'll be sending us, along with the entire 405th and 409th Airborne Legions to Chandrilla, and some others. It's set to be one of the largest-scale attacks made by the Republic in thousands of years. I only know some key details. Stryke just had to explain it to me when I was hopped up on some kind of special bacta.

"Everybody, into your ships!" called the Jedi commander, known as Brax. The Republic Venator starship was starting to come out of hyperspace, and every single clone aboard began rushing to the hangar, where countless LAAT's awaited. Stryke, the top ranking commando in Attack Group A, walked down a long corridor, loading his rifle, with Ray beside him.

"We're gonna make it through this," Stryke told Ray, who appeared to be nervous.

Ray took a long, deep breath and then exhaled, then said, "Yeah." But he didn't seem so sure.
"Just remember the rendezvous point, and we'll see each other again soon," Stryke told him. "Now, what's Nova's job?" Stryke began quizzing him.
"Meet up at the farmhouse at coordinates 244.31 and await orders," Ray said.
Stryke nodded. "It should be a smooth jump. Recon ships did several fly-bys and didn't see a single AA gun. Once us and the 409th have landed, the 72nd will attack the beaches and start closing in on any droids between us, then we'll all start storming the continent."

And Attack Group B would be storming the second continent. Both of Chandrilla's two continents would be attacked at the same time. Nova Company would be attacking continent 1 with the rest of Attack Group A, which consisted of the 409th Airborne Legion, two ARC Troopers, Jedi General Brax, and Nova Company, along with the 72nd Infantry Legion, which would attack the beach the next morning. Nova Company was going to be split up before the attack even started. All 100 of the commandos in Nova Company would be split up and put into different LAAT's, to reduce the chance of losing any. Several of the clones from Third Platoon were walking with each other into the hangar. As Stryke and Ray entered the hangar, they got a good view at exactly how large the attack was going to be. They could see every clone there. The commandos definitely stood out in their shiny, katarn-class armor. Stryke could see Leet and Nade shaking hands before parting ways.

Wishing each other luck, Ram and Zak split up. Ray had no one in the platoon who cared enough about him to wish him luck, and he knew it. So instead he saluted Stryke and started to walk away. "Ray," Stryke called. Ray turned around. "Good luck. Remember what I taught you." Ray nodded and continued on.

Stryke put on his helmet just as Bolt approached him. "How ya doing Lieutenant?" Bolt asked with a grin, he couldn't be any calmer, even while facing the largest assault that Nova Company had ever taken part in.
"Don't you think it's about time you start calling me Captain?" Stryke asked sarcastically, though he already knew the answer.
"Nah, not yet," Bolt answered, the answer Stryke had anticipated. "I'll see ya on the ground."

Stryke and Bolt shook hands, and then both climbed aboard separate LAAT's. Stryke climbed into his LAAT and looked around the back of the ship, looking at all of the standard clone troopers in their standard armor, holding their standard weapons. Stryke took a seat in one of the chairs after strapping a parachute to his back. He then heard some slight static through his built in helmet com-link. The static remained for a few moments, then quieted down and was replaced by the voice of a clone. It was the ARC Trooper Parjir, who was one of the two ARCs leading Attack Group A. Only Nova Company and the other ARC Trooper could hear him, the standard clones weren't blessed with the katarn-class armor. "Alright everyone, shut off your com-links when I'm done talking. We want radio silence here. I just wanna say that we're all going to make it through this. And when we do and Chandrilla is liberated, we'll all meet up at the closest tavern and I'll buy you guys all you can drink. Good luck everyone. Now, com-links off."

And with that, Stryke placed his hand on the side of his helmet, switching the communication device off while the LAAT doors closed on both sides of the aircraft. The ship rumbled a bit, and then the clones felt the familiar feeling of being lifted off the ground. Stryke and the twenty clones in his ship sat in silence as they left the hangar and ventured into space. Everything will be fine, Stryke had to keep telling himself in his head. We have just about every advantage possible here, nothing can go wrong. But no matter what, Stryke still had a heavy feeling in his stomach. Something didn't feel right about this one.

"Entering Chandrilla atmosphere, Captain," the clone pilot shouted back to Stryke. Stryke replied with a casual thumbs up, and then got out of his chair. Turning to face the others in his ship, he motioned for them all to stand as well. And they did. Making last second checks to their weapons and parachutes, the clones prepared to jump.

Bam and Leet approached the old farmhouse, nearly cloaked completely in shadow from the trees around it. The sounds of explosions and blasters could be heard from far distances. Moving slowly carefully through the bushes, Bam and Leet listened to all the noises. The wildlife could still be heard in the forest, it hadn't been completely drowned out by the chaos that had surrounded it. Bam, carrying Crunch by his feet, spotted the farmhouse first and stopped walking. Leet did the same, and they gently placed Crunch on a bed of bushes. They then crouched down behind the bushes for cover, removed their helmets, and began whispering.

"How do you wanna do this?" Bam asked.
"I got an idea," Leet responded. "Remember the codenames for all of our tricks?"
"Like the back of my hand," Bam arrogantly replied.
"Alright. O-A, 2-3," Leet instructed, then examining Bam with his eyes to make sure he understood.
"Got it. I'll be the decoy."

Bam lightly punched Leet in the shoulder and rose to his feet, then began creeping through the bushes. Taking one long, slow step, Bam listened to the fighting going on far away. When he got into a suitable position, he crouched down and grabbed as many small twigs as he could reach and pulled them into a pile next to him, then waited. Leet saw that Bam was in position, and began moving toward him. Taking position behind a tall, wide tree about ten feet in front of Bam, he crouched down behind it, out of sight from the barn. Bam picked up a single twig, and tossed it in the direction of the barn. The twig bounced off the front door and landed in the dirt. A few seconds passed, and then the door creaked open. Two droids, armed with blaster rifles held down at their mechanical hips, began to look around. Bam and Leet looked at each other, and nodded. Bam went prone, laying down on his stomach under a blanket of leaves and dirt. He grabbed another twig from his pile, held it close, and snapped it in two as loud and as fast as he could. The droids looked over quickly.

"What was that?" one asked the other in its robotic voice.
"Let's check it out. I'll cover you," said the other.
"Roger roger."

The two droids carefully crept closer and closer in the direction of the noise. Swinging their blasters around, looking for anything, they advanced. The two droids walked right past Leet, behind his tree. Leet, who had been crouched, got up, and activated his knuckle plated vibro blade. Taking full advantage of the built-in weapon in their new katarn armor, Leet stabbed both droids in their abdomens in two swift motions. Running his fist through one droid's stomach, quickly pulling it out, and doing the same to the other before it could react. The two droids instantly hit the dirt, out of commission. Bam got onto his feet, wiping the dirt off of his shiny armor, and gave Leet a thumbs up. Leet just pointed at the barn, and the two pulled out their blaster rifles and began slowly walking toward it. Bam looked up at the single window on the second floor, making sure no droid would pop out of it and gun them down. The two made it to the front door of the barn and stood on separate sides of it.

"Go see if there's a back door," Leet ordered. Bam nodded and, while crouched, ran around the barn. Leet could hear Bam's footsteps get a little quieter, he just hoped the droids inside couldn't hear them at all. Bam came back around and shook his head up and down.

"O-BA, 2-2," Leet whispered, speaking in the code that was only taught to the commandos for certain circumstances.

The first letter in the code determines what the environment is, whether it is outdoors or not. O, means outdoors. The second letter in the code stands for what type of maneuver the clones could be planning. BA meant Building Assault. The first number was meant to tell how many clones would be involved in the maneuver. It helps set up what options are available for the final part of the code, as there are certain "plays" for how many clones would be involved.

Leet ripped a thermal detonator off of his chest and nodded to Bam, who quickly but quietly moved back around the barn. Leet waited for a moment, resting against the chipping red painted barn, collecting his senses all the while keeping an eye on Crunch, who still lay unconscious in the bushes. He then took a deep breath and kicked open the barn door. Still keeping all but his arm behind cover, he tossed his thermal detonator inside and waited. The grenade went off, kicking up dirt and throwing burning pieces of droid metal everywhere. Leet then stuck his DC-17m through the open door and began to fire. Not aiming his shots, he held down the trigger and slowly swayed his weapon from side to side. There was too much smoke from the grenade and the debris it caused to see anything. He just saw the back door open, and three silhouettes scurrying out of the room only to be gunned down from the side.

Leet continued to fire his weapon until the clip finally ran out. He looked through the door and removed his helmet. The damn thing was only making it harder to see in the dark. Bam walked in from the back door, holding a smoking DC-17m vertically at his side. The two inspected the carnage in the barn. There were no whole droids inside it. There were only broken pieces of droids, the tips of their broken edges still redhot. "Go get Crunch," said Leet. "Watch over him in here. I'll get on the roof and watch out for anything."

Bam just nodded and headed out the door. A few moments later he returned, dragging Crunch on the ground and then placing him on top of a pile of hay. Bam took a moment to think, then looked around for Leet. After finding that Leet was nowhere in sight anymore, with a guilty smirk, he reached into one of Crunch's waist compartments and pulled out Crunch's deathsticks. He put one in his mouth, lit it, and stuck the rest into his own waist compartment with his others. He sat down in the dirt and leaned his upper half against the wooden wall of the barn while exhaling a large amount of smoke.

At 1215, fifteen minutes after the clones had set out, they had entered a long and stretched, grassy field. The cameraman from HoloNet walked behind the cluster of clone commandos, not filming them, but just watching. They had all been moving in silence ever since they had left their farmhouse. Every one of them had their blaster rifles held casually in both hands at their hips. Ray was in the middle of the group when he began to slow down. Through his helmet, he looked down at the ground with two fingers pushed against the side of his helmet, as if he were receiving a message. The others took notice and stopped.

A few moments passed, and Ray said, "Yes sir," then removed his fingers from his helmet and looked up at the others. "Looks like we'll be getting some relief afterall," Ray told them. "A company from the 409th that has already secured an airstrip to the west of Shamon will be helping us out. We're to enter the town from the southeast, they'll be attacking from the northwest. We should be there in about a half hour and we're to attack at 1300, so if we hurry we'll have fifteen minutes to strategize. Let's go."

Spirits were lifted. Now such a supposedly "vital" mission wouldn't be so hard. The clones had doubts before, though they hadn't said anything. But now an entire regular-sized company would be helping out. The clones continued on through the tall green grass. The sun was shining brightly on that beautiful day. Some clones opted to remove their helmets and enjoy its warmth on their faces. And it seemed as if whenever the clones were starting to get just a little too warm from the sun, a nice cool breeze would swoop in and dry the sweat on their faces. Not a single cloud in the sky, and the sweet smell of the grass at their feet. This planet was twice as good as Corellia, the clones all thought.

Especially Sergeant Tide. But to Tide, anything was better than Corellia. Ever since the incident on that planet, Tide had never been the same. He hadn't even said a word to anyone else ever since then. Ever since he escaped from that burning school with the blood stains on his hands, he had become a different clone, more like Shooter. In other words, the complete opposite of what he had always been before. I didn't have to kill him, Tide thought to himself while stepping through the grass. I didn't have to, but I did it anyway. My *bleep*ing anger got me, and I brutalized him. In my years fighting wars, I've never seen anybody get as mangled as I left that child. I could have just set my weapon to stun and taken him, but no. I just had to...

He couldn't even bring himself to say it in his mind. He shook his head clear, but the image remained, and haunted him. The sight of the teenage boy laying on the ground of the school classroom. His head completely caved in with the blood forming a puddle under him. Tide felt a hand grab him by the shoulder. All the hair on his arms and neck instantly stood up. He quickly spun around, throwing the enemy hand off of his shoulder and raised his rifle to shoot. His heart just about to rip out of his chest, he saw that it was Tick, who was staring at Tide in wide-eyed shock. His special blue eyes stared deeply at Tide until he backed up with his arms raised. "I was just checking on you sarge," Tick said.

Tide took a deep breath of the fresh air and sighed while lowering his weapon. Tide looked around at the others, who all had the same expression as Tick(those who had their helmets off at least, but the ones with their helmets on had it as well). Even the cameraman had no clue what was going on. Tide turned away from Tick and continued on in the direction they had been travelling. The others were slow to follow, but one by one they all turned and continued on.

----------

1245, the group of commandos had arrived at their objective: the small town of Shamon. The town, which sat at the bottom of a grassy hill, was filled with about three-hundred B-1 battledroids who had no idea an attack was coming. Most of the droids were scattered, but almost every building had at least a squad of droids. At each corner of the town sat a guard tower with one droid machine gun mounted. On the other side of the hill, Ray and Bolt kept the others out of view while they surveyed the town. Both of them were on their stomachs with their heads just poking out over the hill. Bolt looked down at it with his binoculars while all the others behind them began to ready themselves by either putting on their helmets or loading their weapons.

"From what I see, there's about a company of droids in there sir," said Bolt. "But there's a lot of buildings that they could be in too."
"What do you think we should do?" Ray asked.

Bolt stopped looking through his binoculars and looked at his supposed superior and asked, dubious, "Sir?"
"Do you have any ideas?" Ray asked.
"Sir, you're in charge here," Bolt said. "It's supposed to be your call."

Ray didn't respond. He looked down at the town again and waited for a few moments, then called for Tank. Tank crouched over to them. Ray pointed to the left at a patch of grass about fifteen yards away and said, "Go set up your machine gun there. Cover our left flank when we make the main assault."
"Yes sir," Tank nodded and walked away, still crouched.

Ray then called for the three snipers in the platoon to come forward, which they all did. Leet, Zone, and Shooter all came forward and were given their assignment. All three of them were to move to the right, in front of a small forest, where they would have a good view of the entire town. The three of them crawled over to their destination.

"Don't you think you should spread them out a little more sir?" Bolt asked. Ray didn't even glance at him, acting like he couldn't even hear Bolt's advice.

When all three snipers were in place and were all laying down, Ray slowly lifted his hand in the air and then brought it down swiftly. All three snipers pulled the trigger to their rifles at the same time, and just like that, two droid machine gunners were shot down in their towers, along with one droid who was inspecting the tic-tac-toe-shaped streets. Instantly, all the droids that were in the streets got down and held their blasters ready to fire. The three clone snipers all cocked their rifles and sat silently while looking at Ray. Ray lifted his hand in the air and once again brought it down. The three clones fired again, and three more droids in the streets were blown to pieces. Ray lifted his hand in the air with a closed fist and then turned over on his back. He pointed at Tide and motioned for him to move up.

Tide walked up to Ray, who told him what to do. Tide prepared his machine gun and headed to the right, past the snipers, and then finally on the northeast part of town. He got down on his stomach and set up his machine gun, then waited. Bolt watched on in horror, wanting desperately to yell at Ray. But he managed to whisper it to Ray, "Sir you shouldn't have had our snipers fire, now they're looking for us. And the longer we wait here, the longer they have to scan the area for us."

Ray didn't respond, but instead called for everyone to fix their sniper attachments to their rifles and move up to where he was. Bolt continued talking to Ray, "Sir, we have to move in now."
"My orders are not to assault that town until 1300," Ray snapped back.

By then, all the others had arrived with their sniper extensions attached and went prone in the grass.

"Sir, for all we know they could have spotted us by now and could be fixing their artillery on our position," Bolt said. "We have to keep moving."

The sounds sure did not fit the atmosphere around them. Everything around them sounded quiet and peaceful, but the mood of everyone there was tense and uneasy. Everybody except Bolt looked through their scopes and found a target. Ray called out, "Fire." And every clone but Bolt fired their rifle. At least fifteen droids were shot down. But Bolt, looking through his binoculars, saw a droid point in their direction and began talking to other droids. No longer willing to wait, Bolt stood up and yelled out, "Machine guns, covering fire!"

Both Tide and Tank began firing their machine guns, Tide at the droids on one side of the town, and Tank on the other. "Everybody, get your blasters ready!" Bolt shouted. "Charge!" Bolt began running down the hill with the others behind him. They were all attaching their blaster extensions while on the move, except for Ray, who stayed put. He looked down at Bolt with disbelieving eyes. Finally, Leet snapped him out of it by calling his name right before firing his rifle. The three snipers remained where they were, firing at will. Ray snapped out of it and ran to catch up with his platoon.

Care to expand that post a little?

Some of the clones were stacking the broken pieces of scrap metal left behind by the broken droids. Others were inspecting houses. Strat had moved the wounded men up to ground level, where real medics could finish what Strat had started. Bolt watched on, sitting contently on top of a short wall that encircled a house's front garden. Leet approached him and placed his sniper rifle down on the ground. "Something on my face is killing me," Bolt complained and tried to remove his helmet. He was given a great shock at how much the pain increased when the helmet was nudged. The pain was too much, and the helmet wasn't moving, so he left it on. "What the *bleep* is it?" he snapped, his frustration growing.
"Prolly that big piece of wood," Leet said as he pointed a finger at Bolt's face. "I'll get it."

A piece of wood had splintered off of the window that Bolt had been behind when the machine gun was firing at him. Leet stepped up to Bolt and grabbed ahold of the stub of wood sticking out of the front of Bolt's helmet. He struggled a little, but then pulled it free. The piece of wood, which was about six inches long, was colored darker at the last half-inch, soaked in Bolt's blood. Bolt lifted off his helmet and touched his hand to the open wound on his cheek. Blood began to pour down his face and drip off his chin in a single red stream. He pulled out the small tube of blue bacta on his waist that every clone carried, popped the top of it off with his thumb, and splashed it all onto his cheek. Leet removed his own helmet and placed it on the ground next to his rifle while one of the Saber tanks hovered down the street behind him. The sun shone down on his helmet, throwing a shine back into Leet's face that forced him to step aside to escape it.

"None dead," Leet said. "I don't think."
"Lots wounded though," said Bolt.

Just then, another clone was seen scrambling on the ground out of an alley. His right leg was shot and bleeding profusely. Bolt and Leet could see it was Boom. When Boom got out into the middle of the street next to a crater that a mortar had caused, he flipped himself onto his back and rested. Bam and Nade, who were coming out of a house both eating their rations, hurried over and picked him up. They each flung one of Boom's arms around their shoulders and walked him over to the medical house. Boom's head hung low, he was struggling to maintain consciousness.

"I gotcha pal," Bam was saying while carrying him.
Nade, on the other side of Boom, looked suspicious. "Where's Ray?" he asked. Boom didn't respond. "Boom," Nade said loudly. Boom's head rose, and Nade repeated his question.

"Dead," Boom managed to get out. "Some droids... ambushed us while we were moving around the town."

Nade stopped moving with them, causing Boom's arms to slide off of him. Boom began to fall back down onto the ground face-first, but Bam managed to catch him. "What the hell?" Bam said, directed at Nade.

Nade put Boom's arm back around his shoulder and continued to walk him over to the medical house.


----------


News of Ray's death spread quickly to the rest of the clones in the platoon, and needless to say it sent shock waves with it. All of the wounded had been evacuated, and so had Strat. Strat didn't want to leave, but after several "requests" by higher-ranking military officials, Strat was being transported to Kamino to be trained more efficiently in his medical skills. He would be back in a matter of weeks. By nightfall, Bolt noticed someone was missing: the cameraman. But he didn't think much of it, he didn't care enough to give it a second thought. The night was just as beautiful as the day on Chandrilla. The bright, full moon that hung overhead shone down with the same vibrant light as the sun. The wildlife of the planet could be heard chirping in the distance. The grass would sway in the wind every time a nice breeze passed by. Almost none of the clones had their helmets on, they all wanted to feel the fresh night air on their faces.

Stryke had travelled over to Shamon in an LAAT to check up on things. From the sky, he could see the large piles of broken droids, along with the craters in the ground and the broken houses. When his ship landed in the street, Bolt was the first to greet him. They shook hands. Stryke looked around the street that was, for the most part, empty right now. Some of the clones were relaxing in houses.

"Status report," Stryke said firmly.
"One dead, 'nother six wounded," Bolt said.
"Who bought it?"
"Ray."

Stryke didn't look all too surprised, but he still sighed at the news. "Who's wounded?" he asked.
"Slicer and Newbie, all of White squad," Bolt explained and began walking off of the street.

Stryke followed him, and another Saber tank hovered down the street carrying some clones on its back. Bolt turned the knob to a house's front door and entered it with Stryke in tow. Inside was everybody that was left from the platoon. Seven less than had entered the town a mere eight hours ago. Some were eating, some were smoking, some were drinking, and some were sleeping. The few who were awake and sober greeted their old friend and former platoon leader.

"Sounds like you guys got the hell beat outta you," Stryke said and then plopped himself down onto the couch next to Bam. "But the others'll be fine."
"Not Ray," Bam said grimly.
"He already knows," Bolt said while taking a bottle of wine out of the hand of Tank.

Tide, who had been dozing off in a recliner, got up out of his seat and walked up the stairs where he went to sleep for the night. The open recliner seemed to shine with a bright light around it to those who had nowhere to sit. But after a short footrace with Zone, Bolt claimed it.

"What's up Cap?" Bam asked Stryke.
"Came to save you guys, but the boys from the 409th beat me to it," Stryke poked fun at the others.

Nade had been suspiciously quiet in his corner of the room. He was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall. His knees bent, his arms rested on top of them, and he looked like he was deep in thought. He couldn't shake his feelings about Boom. He remembered that day on Coruscant, though it was hazy. He remembered him and Boom sitting around a table in one of Coruscant's skyscrapers alongside Slicer and Strat. He heard himself scolding Boom for even thinking of killing their platoon leader. He could still remember the wall of smoke caused by the deathstick Boom was smoking. He could remember Strat and Slicer agreeing with Boom about killing Ray. And last, he remembered agreeing to the plot, dismissing it as nothing more than a stupid idea being put in Boom's head from the deathstick. He figured it would all blow over soon enough.

Apparently he was wrong. And now he was the only one left on the planet of the four who came up with the idea. Strat, Slicer, Boom, all of them were now injured and on their way to a hospital on Coruscant. And Nade wouldn't have been able to live with himself if he didn't say something about it.

"Captain," he called Stryke. "Can I talk with you outside for a moment?"

----------

If it was too long, I'm sorry. I was trying to put the entire battle into one long post. I was planning on doing that with all small small-scale battles from now on, but if it's just going to make the posts too long, I won't do it.

That's an excellent reason.

I'm not, the forumwide rules are. Your posts, and mine, are nothing but spam and don't belong here. We should leave it at that.

"I have to get to Coruscant," Stryke said. Stryke got out of the wooden chair and picked up the hologram projector. He began talking while walking to the door. "Just stay here with everyone else. Chances are you guys won't be called on for any fighting in a while, so I should have enough time to leave and come back."
"What are you gonna do?" Nade asked, worried.

Stryke stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the floor in deep thought. He didn't want to say it. He sighed, "I have to turn in Boom."

Stryke opened the door to the front room, where the others were, still, though many had left to go to sleep. It was just Leet, Tick, and Zak. They were in the middle of a conversation. "So seriously, what the hell was up with that jump last night?" Tick asked. "Whatever happened to 'they don't even know we're coming?'" Tick changed his tone to sound like a buffoon at the end of his sentence.

"C'mon, don't say it like that," Leet said. "They probably had some kind of cloaking device covering their AA guns."
"Take it easy guys," Stryke told them as he walked out the front door. A cold breeze blew through the open door and into the house before the door closed, sending a small shiver down all the other clones' spines. Nade fell back onto the couch next to Leet. He felt like he had a lead weight in his stomach.

----------

Stryke had caught a ride to Coruscant on an LAAT that had brought down a tank to Chandrilla. It was cloudy and rainy on Coruscant that day. The weather certainly fit Stryke's mood at the time. He walked out of the rain from the airpad and under cover while Mace Windu and some other clones from another unit were preparing for their next assignment, which would ultimately be the legendary Battle of Dantooine. Stryke checked the compartment on his waist, just to feel the projector and assure himself it was still there. Focusing too much on that, he accidentally bumped shoulder-to-shoulder with Windu.

"Sorry master Windu," Stryke apologized instantly.
"It's fine," Windu scowled.

And that was that, the two parted ways without saying a word. When he got under cover, Stryke ran his fingers through his hair, which he hadn't cut ever since before the battle at Geonosis. It was starting to get rather shaggy, and the stubble on his face was turning into a full-fledged beard. A few Airborne troopers walked past him with their mohawk haircuts. They stared at Stryke, they didn't seem too impressed. One of them rolled their eyes at Stryke as he walked past, but Stryke paid it no mind. He had too much other business to take care of to worry about what some regular troopers thought of him. Wasting little time, Stryke walked through the streets directly to the house that disguised the underground 141st CIR HQ.

After opening the door to the broken down house and taking the elevator down, Stryke began searching for Fit, the commander of the entire regiment. He was in his office of course, but Yoda and Luminara were with him. The three were discussing current events. "My N-Company is making good progress on Chandrilla. Some of the guys from the 409th recently took an airpad, they've been bringing in armor since," Fit was filling the two Jedi in. Stryke cleared his throat to get their attention. The three all turned their attention his way. The two Jedi showed no emotion, but Fit looked confused. "Stryke, what the hell are you doing here?"

Stryke pulled the projector out of his pocket and dropped it onto the desktop. "I have something you might be interested in sir," he said.

Fit looked even more confused at Stryke's words. Yoda, who was sitting on a small floating platform, exchanged glances with Luminara. "Third platoon took Shamon today," Stryke said as Fit picked up the projector. "They lost their Lieutenant, 'nother six wounded. Plus command took another one to Kamino to train him as a medic. So they should probably be rested for a while sir."

"What's this?" Fit motioned to the projector.
"Play it sir," Stryke said.

Fit played the video inside of the hologram projector. The clone colonel and the two Jedi watched intently, but Stryke turned away. He couldn't watch it a second time. When the sounds of the video were cut off, Stryke turned back around to face them. Fit looked as if he had seen a ghost, and was just about as pale as one too. He drew in a deep breath and said, "I'll take care of it."

----------

Stryke entered the hospital with a look of intent in his eyes. He went immediately to the front desk and spoke to the female Zabrak who sat there, "I'm looking for a clone trooper."
"Number?" the worker asked blandly, almost slightly annoyed.
"White-0024."

The Zabrak took her eyes off of the computer and looked at Stryke. "Commando, huh?" she asked impressed.
"What room?" Stryke asked.
"Eighth floor, room 1138."

Stryke immediately walked past the desk and toward the elevator, bumping into people as he hurried along. He rode the elevator to the eighth floor and stormed through the halls checking each door's number. When he came to room 1138, he stopped dead in his tracks. Suck it up, Stryke thought. Just walk in there and tell one of your closest friends that because of you, he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison. No, it's not my fault. It's his, it's all his. He's the one who felt the need to shoot Ray in the face. He's going to have to live with the consequences.

With that, Stryke turned the doorknob and walked through. The first thing to catch his eye was Boom's leg, which was encased in a glass tube and filled with bacta. It was sealed around his leg so as not to let a single drop of the miracle liquid drip out. Luckily Boom was alone, so Stryke wouldn't have to whisper. Boom was asleep, so Stryke had to shake him awake. Boom looked up at Stryke with his baggy, awakening eyes. "Wake up," Stryke said.

"Stryke?" Boom asked as he sat up in his bed. "What are you doing here?"

Stryke just looked at him blankly for a moment. Boom stared back with the same look. Stryke couldn't bare to look at him, so he chose instead to look down at the ground while he wheeled a chair over. He sat down in it and brought himself to look at Boom again. "You killed Ray," he said bluntly. Now it was Boom's turn to avoid eye contact. He looked down at his leg and the bacta tank that surrounded it. His self-induced leg wound was recovering nicely.

"How did you find out?" Boom asked.
"You didn't destroy the tape," Stryke said.

Boom laughed at his own stupidity for a few moments while Stryke watched on uncomfortably. When Boom was done, he asked Stryke, "Are you gonna turn me in?"
"I already have," said Stryke. Boom didn't react how Stryke had anticipated. Stryke was expecting Boom to go into a frenzy, he was always quite reckless. But instead, Boom just sat quietly and stared a hole through Stryke. He didn't look mad, not even a tiny bit. He looked pretty serene.

"Once you're fully recovered, you'll be taken to prison where you'll wait for your trial," Stryke informed him. "But they have clear footage of you doing it, so it's not very likely you'll be released."
"Why would you do this to a vod?" Boom asked. "For the past ten years, it's just been the twenty of us and no one else. We're all supposed to be brothers. And now there's only eleven of us left, and you're willing to send me to rot in prison until I die?"
"It's nothing personal Boom," Stryke said, although in his heart he could definitely see where Boom was coming from. In fact, the majority of Stryke agreed with Boom. "I don't care who it is, I'm not going to allow something as traitorous as this to go unpunished."
"You're the traitor," Boom shot back. "All this time I thought we were supposed to have each other's backs. While I thought you were watching my back you were too busy stabbing it."

Stryke would have felt better if Boom had chosen to punch him in the gut. "Why did you do it?" he managed to get out. "To save the others from getting killed under him?"
"Of course."
"Bullshit. You wanna know what I think it is? I think you just wanted to get Ray back for getting Reg killed. You and Reg were definitely close, and when Reg was killed you just snapped. Am I right?"
"That only fueled it."
"Do you wanna know how Reg was killed? Tide told me, one of the few times Tide has spoken since the school, Tide told me that when they were defending one of the platforms on Kamino Ray wasn't even there. It was just Tide and Reg there, Ray was busy fighting somewhere else. Tide told Reg to move across the platform and protect their flank. When Reg was moving, one shot pierced his neck. About a minute later was when Ray arrived, then after that the rest of you showed up. Ray had nothing to do with Reg being killed."

Stryke got up out of his chair and began moving toward the door. When he got to the doorway, he stopped and looked back. "We're all gonna miss you," he said and closed the door.

Throughout the entire ride back to Chandrilla in an LAAT, Stryke sat in his seat quietly, deep in thought. He didn't worry himself with Boom. As far as he was concerned, Boom was gone and out of Stryke's life for good, so why encumber himself any further? No, instead he thought about random bullshit. Which planet would win the Galactic Cup in the sport of Limmie that year, for example. Stryke was an avid fan of the galaxy's various sports, he even contemplated joining the Professional Greenputt Tour if he made it through the war, an objective that seemed to be growing more and more difficult with each passing day. But of course, that was every clone's main objective in the war. Sure, along the way they were given what were supposedly "bigger" objectives to the top minds in the military. Secure a city, destroy some AA guns, whatever. Though the clones certainly didn't agree with that, and that was one of the few things that both standard clone troopers and clone commandos saw eye-to-eye on. It was so much easier for the top brass to send clones on suicidal missions against outnumbering forces, never having to look into the eyes of the living, breathing, human being that they are, basically, murdering. But whenever the clones were faced with thoughts such as these, they simply shook it off and trudged on. What could they do?

Stryke's transport landed in Shamon, where it was now mid-day and perfect as ever. The door of the ship opening let in a blast of the sweet, fresh air. Stryke hopped out of the ship into a patch of foot-long grass. The ship immediately took off again, and Stryke was greeted by a grim-looking Nade with Leet and Bolt in tow. Stryke shook hands with all three of them. Nade spoke up quiet and nervously, "These two beat it out of me. What happened?"
"Gather everyone up," Stryke said and shoved past him. The three followed him while he spoke, "Get everybody into that house there." Stryke pointed to the house he was walking in the direction of.

Stryke opened the door of the house and walked inside. All of the windows in the house were open, allowing Stryke to still feel the cool breeze and breathe in the smell of the grass. Ten minutes passed until everybody in the platoon arrived, all twelve of them and Bolt. Stryke stood at the front of the room, taking a drink of water out of his canteen while the others made themselves comfortable. "Got a bit of news here," Stryke tried to sound official. Most of the others looked confused. "Boom is gone, and he won't be returning. He was arrested for killing Ray, as some of you might already know."

Stryke stopped speaking for a moment, allowing it to sink into the heads of his men. Some looked shocked, some looked heartbroken, and a select few couldn't seem to care less. "On a slightly happier note," Stryke began while digging through the compartment on his waist. He pulled out the pin that contained the Lieutenant insignia on it and held it up. The sun through the window caused a small gleam on the metal object. "You guys are no longer in need of a platoon leader. I personally requested that this platoon not be taken by a replacement officer and Fit agreed. So, First Sergeant Bolt, please step forward and accept your official battlefield commission as a Second Lieutenant."

A few claps were heard from the men, but for the most part it was quiet. They were probably still in shock from the news of Boom. Bolt stepped up to Stryke, who gladly stuck the insignia onto Bolt's chest and gave him a handshake. Bolt stood by Stryke's side while he gave out his final message, "And finally. I hate to, again, break the mood here, especially after raising it like that, but it looks like you'll be moving out again. A battalion from the 409th over in Byuno are taking a beating, and they could use some help from the finest unit in the entire Republic army."
"Thirteen guys, sir?" Taz asked. "We're good, but thirteen guys going to help an entire battalion?"
"Yeah," said Stryke. "But you won't be going alone. Turns out Fit wants Parjir himself to go with you guys. You're gonna get to see an ARC Trooper in action. Do the commandos proud and get more kills than him or Bolt's gonna court-martial all of you." Stryke smiled. "Also, apparently there's a sith involved in the fight."

That definitely got the attention of the others, if the ARC Trooper announcement hadn't already. Stryke continued, "Everybody just stay cool when that bastard is waving his pink stick around, and you'll all make it out of there without a scratch. You'll be heading out tomorrow at 1200 hours, so you should all be able to get as much sleep as you want tonight. Good luck."

Stryke gave one salute, aimed at them all, and headed for the door. Most of the others sat in silence, they were all thinking the same thought. Bolt followed Stryke as he exited the house and stepped into the warm sunlight. Stryke popped a deathstick into his mouth and lit it. The taste of the smoke was like an orgasm in the mouth for Stryke, who hadn't tasted it in what seemed like ages, although in reality it had only been a little over four months. "Thought you quit," Bolt commented.
"I did," Stryke said as he exhaled some smoke. "But everyone goes back eventually. You still haven't taken it up?"

Bolt shook his head from side to side. Both of them sat down on the ground and rested in the grass with their backs to the side of the house with the sun shining down and warming them in their armored suits. "Never seen the point. But if you were holding a bottle of Jawa Juice we might be having a completely different conversation."
"Jawa Juice," Stryke muttered. "So tell me, what exactly is in it? Cause judging by the name, I got a few ideas, but I don't see why someone would wanna drink that." The two shared a laugh.
"It comes only from freshly-squeezed Jawas." The laughter between the two was doubled.

It was a nice change of pace, that was for sure. Stryke hadn't really laughed in months. Bolt was easily Stryke's best friend in the platoon, maybe even his only. Sure, he had close bonds with the others, and always felt that they could look up to or at least respect him. But as an officer, they train you to avoid attachment to your men much more than noncoms. And getting a promotion to Captain only separated him even more from the others. It was really eating away at Stryke that he didn't get to go with them to Byuno. A sith was nothing to sneeze at, afterall. The town was peaceful. Clones were sitting out in the sun or taking walks through the streets. Some were raiding the shops for their food. But Stryke noticed no civilians anywhere. "Where're all the townsfolk?" he asked while putting out his deathstick in the dirt.
"No one knows," Bolt replied. "No one's seen any ever since we got here."
"Strange."
"I think the seps probly just killed 'em all and burned their bodies. No one cares though, the men have had a great time looting the houses. Personally I think it's wrong, but whatever. Would you believe that selfish bastard Zone found a whole shitload of Cigarras and ain't sharing any with anybody. He keeps up that attitude and no one's gonna be charging machine guns to save his ass."
"What time is it?" Stryke asked, changing the topic.
"You don't have your watch?"
"Nah it broke."

Bolt checked his wrist and looked at the built-in watch. "1500," he said.

Stryke stood up slowly and then helped Bolt onto his feet. "Where you going?" Bolt asked.
"Gonna go steal some of Zone's cigarras," Stryke said. "I'm sure he won't have any trouble handing them over to a Captain."

It was roughly 2300 hours when the droids first attacked the town in two groups; one attacking from the north and one from the side. The fight didn't take long, and only about fourteen regular clones were killed to the droids' fifty-six. No sign of a sith though, at least none that any member of the platoon could see. It looked as if it would be Kessel all over again: warnings of a powerful sith lord that were ultimately proven false. But the clones didn't mind, that was for sure. As far as they were concerned, the fewer sith they saw during their time in the army, the better.

All of third platoon was happy to see that Stryke would be willing to risk serious punishment to help them out. During the skirmish, Stryke allowed Bolt to take full control over the platoon as a test of his leadership abilities. And, just as Stryke had predicted, Bolt passed with flying colors. Not a single commando was even scratched during the fighting. And combined the thirteen of them collected forty of the fifty-six droid kills. That night all of them gathered in one house, though they were not allowed to get drunk due to the increased possibility of an attack at any moment. They still drank though, but not too much. They all drank enough just to get a little buzzed and relax. And, much to the delight of almost every trooper, Leet had won the bet he made with Zone, and was therefore given half of the cigarras stolen from the house in Shamon. Leet took one and started passing the rest out to the others. Stryke passed, and chose instead to pull out one of his own. Sticking the end in his mouth, it sat between his teeth as he flashed a grin. That night, they were all okay.

The next day, the droids attacked again first thing in the morning. The commandos were woken by the sound of a droid tank's main cannon blasting the house next to theirs into splinters. After a heated engagement, the tank, along with the majority of the droid attack force, were obliterated. But it came at a cost. As Tank fired his rocket launcher at the droid tank, it also shot off its machine gun and managed to hit Tank several times in the abdomen and face. When Bolt removed what was left of his helmet, his face was hardly recognizable. Tank's body was shipped out of the town along with the other clones who had given their lives that day. That night, the clones weren't as cheerful as the previous night.

And the next day, Parjir was giving a group of clones, which included the twelve commandos, a current events update at the corner of the main road in the town. The sun was bright, like always. The wind was calm and cool, like always. And some of the beautiful houses were in pieces, not like always. It was mostly war news, but two announcements caught their attention. "This just in, command has finally figured out the identity of the sith that is supposedly leading the droid attack on this town," he read off of a sheet. "It appears her name is Asajj Ventress."

Many of the clones responded with smart-mouthed comments about her absence. Parjir paid it no mind as his eyes scrolled the paper for something that he thought the clones would actually care about. "Oh hey!" he pointed out. "Looks like Team Fwillsving beat Kubindi for the Cup this year. Bolt, you owe me twenty dataries."

Most of the clones began playfully booing at the news. "And finally, looks like another sep General has decided to show his ugly face. Goes by the name Grievous. Doesn't have a picture of him here, but from what I gather he's a tough son of a bitch. Looks like a group of Jedi found him on Hypori."

Tide and Bolt both shot each other surprised glances. They remembered their mission on Kessel, how the rebel general revealed a droid general by that same name. Back then they blew it off, figuring it was nothing. Apparently they were wrong.

"He'd be dead by now if he were here," Leet shouted. Some of the others clapped and agreed, Parjir just smiled and nodded.

After the current events assembly, the clones were let loose to do as they pleased. But it didn't take long for the droids to attack again, this time in the hot mid-day sun. This time the droids were much more numerous, and even managed to push past the clone defense on the western side of the town and into the town about fifteen meters until being forced back. No commando deaths though. Well, not physical. But by nightfall, Tide was wishing he would have died in the fighting. And after the incident, as the others called it, Tide's guilt was ten times worse than before. He rested upstairs in a bed while the others spoke about it downstairs as quietly as possible.

"Where's Tide?" Stryke asked.
"Upstairs," Bolt said. "He's still upset. Can't blame him. That's a hard thing to live with."
"Yeah," Stryke said after taking a swig from a wine bottle.
"He's gonna go off the deep end in a few days," Leet sounded genuinely concerned. "Hell, you remember how he was before it happened the first time? He was a joker, and after the school, he hasn't said a word since. Now, I wouldn't be surprised at all if he's used his own vibro-blade to slit his wrist."

Stryke considered that thought for a moment and then told Nade to go check on him. Nade did so, and when he returned, he reported that Tide was fine, "Just asleep."

"Killing one kid must have been hard on him enough," Bolt said. "I can't even imagine how accidentally killing two must make him feel. It's not even his fault, Parjir told him that house was filled with droids."
"There's no need to put blame on anybody," Stryke corrected his friend. "Parjir just thought he saw what he thought he saw."
"Tide didn't even wanna just blind throw the grenade through the window," Leet pointed out. "I heard him asking Parjir if he could just sweep the house."
"You think someone should try to speak to Tide?" Bam asked while sitting down on the couch next to Bolt.
"No," Stryke was quick to respond. "Just leave him alone. Nothing you say will make him feel better right now."

Upstairs, in the bedroom, Tide lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling. The blood of the child he had accidentally killed just mere hours ago had stained the glove of his suit, where had had been holding the lifeless young boy while weeping over his body, all in the middle of a firefight. Oh yes, Tide wanted death. And the next day, he was granted his wish.

That day, when the droids were making another push in another vein attempt to take the town, they partially succeeded once again. This time they pushed twice as far into the town as the day before. And they were clearing houses along the way, slaughtering any who stood against them. Tide hid at the corner of a house and used his cover to fire burst after burst of blaster fire at the advancing droids. But when, across the street from Tide and his squad, a house's top half was destroyed by a droid rocket, another child, a young, human boy who was probably nine years old from what Tide could tell came stumbling out through the debris. The boy was obviously concussed and had no clue where he was or what he was doing.

Tide scanned the street and decided to risk it. He fired one more burst, and then sprinted across the street. The other three from his squad shouted for him to come back, but he didn't care. He couldn't have cared less about the town at that point. In his own head, his only objective was to save this kid. The droids could have the town if they wanted, he was no longer willing to fight for it. But he was not going to let them kill this child. When he reached the boy, he threw down his weapon. He no longer needed it. Tide grabbed the kid by the arms and lifted him off the ground. While carrying him back behind another house, Tide was dealt two blaster wounds in the same leg, but only stumbled. He continued limping on. Not even a shot right in the center of his chest stopped him. It slowed him down though. He even dropped to his knees, but only for a moment. He got back up and continued stumbling to the nearest house for cover. All the while, many of the commandos were watching on in shock. Tide received yet another shot, this time to the stomach, and that floored him. Before he fell though, he managed to shove the kid the rest of the way to the house.

The child made it without any further injuries, and Bolt ran out to meet Tide, who was trying to pull himself to safety on the ground. Bolt pulled him by the arms behind the house as two LAAT's came rushing onto the scene. They both began opening fire on the droids until finally forcing them to another retreat. Bolt sighed and removed his helmet, then turned to check on Tide. The child was unconscious, but fine. Tide, however, lay on the ground a bloody mess. His squad rushed across the street to check on him, as did Stryke and the others a few minutes later. Tide went peacefully. He seemed as though he had finally found peace when the spark of life faded in his eyes. All the remaining commandos circled around him and stared down with great grief.

In a matter of four hours, Tide's body was back on Coruscant, being cremated. The next day, the commandos were split in half. One half was sent to destroy a bridge and disrupt the flow of droid supplies and men. The other was sent to capture a droid-held airpad. Both missions were successful and neither group lost a man. Two days later, they were reunited only to be sent alongside two battalions from the 72nd Infantry Division to Chandrilla's capital city, Hanna. Stryke had been caught the day before and would not be taking place in the operation. So the eleven commandos were split into three groups as evenly as possible and each given their own objectives. The city was taken after six days of fierce combat. Not a single commando was killed, but eight out of the eleven were seriously wounded. The whole of Nova Company was shipped back to Coruscant the following day.