Chapter 22: 22. Chapter

As soon as several of the droids reached some type of cover, the real battle had begun. Blue and red laser beams were flying left and right. It was impossible to completely understand the situation even with the help of the force. The clones, especially the commandos, proved to be invaluable in this type of scenario. They were trained to remain calm and stoic even in the middle of a battle. I aimed with my blaster and destroyed another b1 with a well-aimed shot to its face plate. Then hastily ducked behind the piled up crates as three red lasers almost simultaneously flew through the spot where my head was seconds ago. These droids were good; I learned a bit from their tactics and abilities in the library after I got the assignment to be a Commander of the Republic army. Basically, each droid works as an individual, which means there is no central computer that controls their movements. It's a clever design, since that exact computer would be the greatest weakness of the system. On the other hand, the droids can still share their camera footage with each other through military-coded wireless signals. Each droid has its own signal, with its own code; therefore no reason to try and hack into the system, since we would need to hack every single one of them. The signals only reach a few hundred meter effective range. This means any droid in that range can see everything that the other droids see around them, and a possible hacker also needs to be in that range for the whole time to successfully break into one system. This is the reason why the separatist droid army was so powerful and the most feared one in the galaxy. Not even speaking of the fact, that battle droids have no sense of fear. They just fight on until each and every one of them is destroyed. 

- INCOMING! - Shouted Watcher.

I looked up and saw a b1 with a rocket launcher aiming towards our position. I knew that I couldn't let that rocket hit our barricade, or we would be pinned down without cover and killed one by one. I looked at Dozer; maybe he could kill the droid before it shot the rocket. The guy was trying to reload his gun with another grenade at the moment, that would be too late. I turned back towards the b1 unit; it seems that I will have to do it myself.

The rocket was launched. It was flying towards us, gaining even more speed with every second. I reached out to the force with my complete focus and continuously pulled the air upwards in front of us, creating a strong air current. The moment the rocket hit it, it was unbalanced and flew over our heads by a few meters. I didn't look after it to see where it landed in the end. There was no time for such things. The droid was reloading another rocket. 

- Focus fire on that b1 behind the crates! It has a rocket launcher! 

- On it Commander! - Shouted Dozer, who finally reloaded the grenade launcher. 

- Ahsoka! Create cover for Dozer to aim! 

- Okay! - She jumped out from behind the crates and began to deflect the lasers back at the droids, effectively annoying them and gaining their disdain. Most of them started to aim at Ahsoka. 

Dozer shot and his aim was true as the droid with the rocket launcher blew up in a big cloud of fiery smoke. I nodded and also shouted at Ahsoka to jump back behind cover before she gets herself killed. She didn't really want to at first, but after a few more seconds of jumping around in a whirlwind of laser beams following her, she reconsidered. As she landed behind the crates breathing heavily drenched in sweat. She looked at me and said this with clear annoyance. 

- You were supposed to argue with me to get my ass behind cover immediately. 

I gave her a long look. 

- I am not your master girl, if you want to risk your life stupidly, it's your choice. - Of course, I didn't really think that seriously, but I hoped saying that would deter her from such irresponsible acts, at least for the near future. 

I shot down another droid, in the meantime.

- Crusher, what is the overall battle situation!? - I asked my second in command. 

- Not good, Commander, most of the other clone squads began to retreat from the main hangar; they had received heavy casualties. 

- We can't let them capture the hangar while half of our fighter ships are still inside it! - Shouted Ahsoka, actual fear finding its way into her voice for the first time. 

- I agree with Ahsoka. We have to push them back somehow. - My eyes stuck to the LAAT behind our barricade. 

- Get that LAAT ready to fly as soon as possible. Stinger and Handy will use the ships guns to cleave through the droids. Brain you drive it! We will distract them until you get the ship ready! Move!

- Understood! 

A sudden blast that shook the steel floor under our feet froze us in mid motion. If only for a second everyone looked towards the same direction. There was a giant ball of flame rising towards the roof a few hundred meters from us. Watcher checked out the situation with his scope and began his report.

- One of the clone squads got decimated by suicide bomber droids. 

Ahsoka blinked and asked, bewildered. 

- Is that even a thing? 

- Of course it is! - Said Targetman. His armor had at least seven blackened spots on it, showing off the places where he got hit. The clone commando is equipped with heavy plastoid armor. It can withstand three to five normal laser hits at the same place if it has enough time to cool down between each hit. It doesn't take long to cool off, just about ten seconds, but that is a lot of time in the middle of a firefight. 

- Watch out for any droid who wants to get close to the barricade! - Shouted Crusher, who in the meantime gained a long black burn mark on the right side of his helmet. 

It's my turn, I guess. I nodded at Ahsoka, and tossed her my sidearm; she grabbed it, surprised. Before she could react I jumped out from behind the barricade, holding out my left arm, creating a one-way force shield in front of my troops. I also ignited my silver blade in my right hand, just in case. The others realizing my plan, immediately stopped hiding behind the crates and instead started to shoot down the confused droids. They didn't seem to realize why their lasers never reached their target. Their confusion lasted about ten seconds. In that time the others managed to shoot down a great number of them. Seeing our heroic stand against the separatist droid army, the retreating clones decided to join us for a last ditch attempt to turn the tide of the battle.

After the initial confusion, the droids decided that whatever was the reason for their shots to disappear, it was caused by me. That was the moment things started to become quite edgy... All of the droids nearby focused their fire towards me. I was already feeling the strain from continuously disintegrating the lasers. But from that concentrated fire my mind simply overloaded. I smirked under my helmet as the next step in my plan began. I gathered all of the recycled energy into a gigantic force push and released it on the enemy. The force push was so strong that it picked up the already destroyed droids and other steel scraps with quite a few still functioning ones and simply blew them away. Some crashed into each other in mid flight or into their own transporter ships behind them, only to fall on the ground at last with the clear sound of breaking droid parts.

I looked around the completely redesigned battlefield. There were still quite a few droids who managed to hide behind covers from my all-out force push.

In those few seconds of relative silence following the unleashed force technique, reinforcing clone troopers began to reach our position creating a new line of defense centered around the clone commando. 

A powerful wave of nauseating feeling appeared in my stomach as I saw that three new separatist transport ships flew through the destroyed gate's still functional atmospheric shields, landing, this time, much farther from our location than before. I felt a strange sickness in my stomach. I guess I am really hating these droids. It must be, because of my fresh extremely negative experience with a certain one. Anyway, since they landed far from our effective firing range, the droids will have enough time to create their formations. If that happens we won't hold out much longer... They were outnumbering us by at least three to one...

Crusher was shouting at all of the nearby clones.

- Repair the barricades. We have to hold out for as long as possible! 

I saw the remaining droids trying to escape and join their reinforcements. The others were shooting after them thinning their numbers; Watcher was especially good at it, with his sniper attachment activated throughout the whole fight. He basically downed a droid with every shot. 

Since the battle was stagnating right now, I saw it as a big squadron of ARC-170 left the hangar joining into the raging battle outside. That should be good enough! 

- Soldiers, most of our planes have already left the hangar, if we can't stand their attack, we will proceed with systematic retreat and defend the corridors, that lead to the main reactors! - Crusher shouted. He was really good at split-second decision making. Well, to be honest, in my whole memory arsenal, the only person who had military experience was Revan. I sighed, then again, half of his life was a military assignment. I guess he managed to traumatize every following master with his brutal war experiences... At least in this battle, our enemies are mostly droids. That wasn't the case back then. A few flashbacks later, that contained mostly dismantled, burned alive, and many other likely ways deformed bodies. I stumbled a bit; as a stable hand grabbed my arm and began to pull me aside. I finally awoke from my daydreaming. 

- What are you doing, Nizzy, don't just stand there like a tree, come behind the barricade already, the droids are about to start their charge! - Ahsoka was shouting straight into my ear protrusions with a force that even my lekks trembled into... 

- ...I hear you, you don't have to shout so damn hard! 

She looked at me with a worried expression, then said. 

- I was shouting at you because you wouldn't react otherwise. - I blinked. 

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- ...Sorry about that. I guess I got caught up in some old memories... 

- That's cool. You will have enough time for daydreaming when we beat back the clankers. 

- You are right about that. 

She basically dragged me behind the crates and forced me to sit down.

- And now, you will rest after that force push you just pulled off. I can hardly detect your force presence. Catch this. - She dropped my blaster gun in my lap and smiled at me. 

- You are better with that anyway. 

-What are you implying by that? 

She looked to the side, and said.

- I just need to practice a bit more. Preferably not on a battlefield. - She pouted. 

- Well, ask me anytime if you need advice on it. - She nodded, then crouched beside me, peeking over the scorched and partially melted metal crates. Then a powerful vibration occurred as the LAAT finally started up and it began to hover over as in a low altitude. 

- Nice timing, I said to myself. 

- Oh, I have already forgotten about them! - Said Ahsoka with a happy and clearly relieved expression settling on her face. 

I got an incoming call on my com-link. I immediately picked it up, pushing the usual button on my wrist computer.

- Commander, the LAAT is ready, what are you orders. 

I gave an honest toothy smile, then said. 

- Blast them! 

- Roger! 

Everyone nearby watched as the high caliber turbolasers activated and began to fire into the lines of droids with deadly precision. The shots were so powerful, that they began to even melt the floor under the droids legs. 

The droids much weaker energy weapons were not effective against an armored vehicle like the LAAT from this distance. In half a minute their numbers had dwindled drastically. Seeing this happening, the clones began to cheer in their obviously relieved happiness. 

I looked around the barricade, then shouted towards Crusher. 

- Gamma Squad, status report!

- Yes, ma'am! - Answered Crusher. 

- Crusher, my helmet is compromised. I am blind for the right side as the lenses burned black from the sniper shot that grazed me. I have about 30% ammunition. 

- Brain, no injuries. 60% ammunition.

- Handy, lost a pair of fingers on my left hand. 70% ammunition. 

- Stinger, no injuries. 50% ammunition. 

- Targetman, my suit is trashed, the movement supporting, engines stopped functioning, this shit is heavy as fuck. I have at least one more round of ammo. 

- Where is Ice? - I asked. 

- He is out cold, got hit by multiple consecutive shots in about the same spot on his chest. We can use his ammo; his stash is almost full. 

- Is he dead? - I asked. 

- No, not yet, he seems somewhat stable for now, but I can't say if that will be the case for an hour later. If he lives, he will have a new burn scar to show off.

- Watcher, nothing  serious, 30% ammunition. 

- Dozer, out of grenades, but overall, 25% ammunition. 

- Give him a few more grenades, guys... - I said while shaking my head, quite amused. 

Now where did Ahsoka go? She left while I was focusing on the reports... Well, she is able to handle herself. 

I looked over my team. Everybody is still kicking more or less, after that crazy shoot-out. I have a good feeling about them. I looked back towards the droids; something moved in the air. I looked up. Wait, is that a droid flying towards the LAAT? Was it blasted away that far? What is it carrying? 

Than I saw, it was a jet trooper droid. I gulped as fear gripped my very soul followed by the dreadful realization and a screaming force warning... I shouted, but it was too late. 

- SUICIDE BOM - Than a powerful detonation happened a few meters above us in the air, my small body was simply pushed aside as my hastily created force shields crumbled with little resistance... I flew into a pile of heavy crates I felt my ribs cracking and my left shoulder got dislocated, I wanted to cry-out but the pain in my chest took away my breath, which was kind of lucky, since the air around me was burning from the explosion. My ears were buzzing with a high pitched noise. A few minutes were spent in this manner, as I was trying to reorient myself, and heal the most crucial injuries. I have no energy nor time to do any more. 

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