This is the story of CT-4967 of the 372th Star Corp, during the invasion of Toaphus. The invasion took place on 22BBY, shortly after the Battle of Geonosis. Furthermore, CT-4967 was given the nickname "Bandage" by his fellow clones during their time on Kamino after a training accident...
Today was a big day for me. My brothers and I have just completed our training courses, which we have been doing our whole Iives, and now will finally be able go out in the front lines. I never partook in the Battle of Geonosis, but I hear stories that it was a heroic victory for the Republic and the first clones deployed on the front lines. When I hear these stories, it makes me feel envious of those who were able to be there. But today, I knew I will soon be able to bring back heroic stories of my own. I took helmet and stared at it, knowing that it will be what I will be wearing into battle.
Suddenly I hear through the intercom "All qualified clones, please report to the atrium."
I felt a rush flow through my body, I quickly grabbed my DC-15 Blaster Rifle, that I recently deep cleaned for this moment, and bolted right out my dorm. I began speed walking towards the atrium with excitement.
Suddenly, I hear "Bandage, wait up."
I turned around and saw my best friend, Blake. "
You excited?" I asked.
He replied "Yeah, this is our moment. Today we do what we were bred for and fight for the Republic!"
He seemed excited as I was, in fact all the clones around me looked pretty exited. We all had some sort of smile. After years of rigorous training and simulations, we all felt pretty pumped to finally leave Kamino. At the atrium, there was a lot of chatter. Every clone expressing their excitement to one another.
Suddenly a loud booming voice yelled "ATTENTION!"
We all ran into our line position that we were all trained to do.
"Here comes Instructor Bric." Blake said to me.
Suddenly Bric came in front of us and leaned closely to Blake.
"Is there are problem cadet?" he asked giving Blake a glare.
"No sir." Blake nervously replied.
Bric didn't say anything after that, he just walked down the row and stood firmly, in front of us all as we stood at attention.
He then announced: "Today, from this point on... You are no longer cadets, but soldiers for the Grande Army Of The Republic!"
Those words sent a chill down my spine, and there was some small cheering among the clones. Blake gave me a small nudge with his fist and we exchanged smiles.
"Aright, calm down and stand at attention." Bric ordered.
After we all pulled ourselves together and got back in our formation, Bric took out a holopad and began assigning each training division to a battalion. After I didn't pay attention to the other divisons, only eagerly waiting for mine to be called.
"Beta squad", Bric called out.
"Yes sir." we replied.
"You guys, are now part of the 372th Star Corp, under the command of Jedi master Aayla Secura. You will go to hanger 5 and board a shuttle that'll take you to her fleet."
"Yes sir."
After every division was given their assigned battalion, Bric gave us a final word.
"Today is the day, men. I know we've been through a lot of hard years, and I know I wasn't the nicest guy either. But everything I did was to harden all of you into men. Now, you will go out there and use what you've learned to bring security and order to the Republic! Now, go out there and make a difference".
Finally it was over, my time on Kamino was done. My division went to hanger 5 and the moment I stepped out the door, everything was different. The air around me felt cold, yet fresh. I looked at the dark clouds. This was the first time I've ever been outside the facility. I boarded the shuttle and watched the Kamino facility get smaller as the ship took off into space. On the way to our destination, no one said a word. Everything we were experiencing was new to us, and I guess none of us had the words to describe it. After a long while, I bent down on my seat to look through the cockpit and saw something that amazed me. It was a Venator-class Republic Star Destroyer. I kicked Blake's foot who sat across from me to wake him up.
"What is it? You scared of something?" He jokingly asked.
I just pointed towards the cockpit, and when he looked down his mouth dropped. Soon others in the shuttle looked curiously, and they too had the same reaction. Those Star Destroyers were big. Bigger than the facilities at Kamino, and there wasn't only one, but a whole fleet of them. As the shuttle boarded one of the Destroyers, I stared in amazement as it kept looking better the closer we got to it. When we exited the shuttle, I looked around the hangar. There were other shuttles, as well as Star Fighters and gunships.
A clone then walked in front of us and said "Welcome fresh bloods, to your new home. Your living quarters will be down the hall to the left. You guys can take any unoccupied rooms and there will 4 in room. What room you take and who your roommates will be is up to you. Also, as long as you're here, you will call me Commander Blye. Am I clear?"
"Yes sir". We all replied.
We all walked to the quarter area, where rows of rooms stood next to each other. Some of them had there door open, others closed. We all assumed that those with open doors were the ones that were unoccupied. Blake ran into an empty room and I followed. The rooms were quite small, consisting of 2 bunk beds a on each side of the room, a bathroom and not much else.
"Well, I guess this is home sweet home" Blake said as he laid down on one of the beds.
I decided to take the bed on top of his and set my backpack and weapon down. The beds weren't too different from the ones on Kamino, consisting of a hard mattress and a pillow. Then two more clones came, they were from a different division, and took the bunk bed next to ours.
"I guess this means we're roomates" one of them said.
"Who the hell are you?" I asked.
One of them got up and said "I'm Dagger, and this is Score."
Blake got up and blurted out, "Well this is Bandage, and I'm Blake."
"Bandage huh? Aren't you the one that got busted pretty badly during that one drilling session?" Score asked.
"Well aren't you the guy who consistently had low scores on your written droid and medical tests?" Blake remarked.
I smirked a bit and saw Dagger struggling to hold in a laughter.
After a few minutes, Blake asked "So... what do we do now?"
Dagger replied "Not sure, all Blye ever told us was to go into our rooms."
"Well let's go take a look around the ship, better than staying here and being bored all day." Blake suggested.
"You, sure we're allowed to just roam the ship?" I asked.
"Well no one never told us we couldn't." Score pointed out and began to walk out the room.
The rest of us followed him. Suddenly a group of clones walked around the corner and noticed us.
"Hey, looks like we got ourselves a group of newbies" one of them jokingly said.
"Are you our tour guide?" Blake replied in a tough manner.
The clones gave a chuckle and decided to show us around. We walked around the ship and got to see the cafeteria, the Jedi headroom, the armory, training room,the bathrooms located all over the ship and other places I can't remember. After the tour, our tour guides went into the cafeteria and we decided to also get some grub to eat. The food here was a lot different here than the ones on Kamino, because the food here was actual food, not tasteless nutrient bars.
"Well at least we finally get some real food." Blake noted.
The food wasn't bad, this was the first time I've actually tasted anything, so everything was good. After our meal we all went back to our room and just rested for the day, since there wasn't much else to do. However, the next day, I would do things that'll change my life forever.
"Rise and shine!" Blake yelled kicking my bunk from under.
I got up pretty tired, due to not being able to sleep most of the night.
"Get your gear, command wants us at the deck in 30 min." Dagger said.
I quickly went to a bathroom to brush my teeth and freshen up. I put on my Phase 1 armor, but decided to leave everything else back in my room. At the deck we all stood at attention. Jedi master Aayla Secura come out and greeted us. This was the first time I've ever seen a Twi'lek. Only species I've ever known were the human Jango Fett clones, the Kaminions, and whatever species our bounty hunter trainers were.
"Today is a big day for us. In 2 hours, the 327th be landing on the planet Taophus to take it back from Seperatis occupation." General Secura said.
"What's so special about the planet?" Someone from the group of clones asked.
Commander Blye came in and replied "Taophus is a key Republic resource planet, home to an abundant amounts of metal used to make warships and armor. If we lose the planet, to the Seperatist, they'll enslave the native population and take the metals for themselves".
I didn't really care what the reason was, I just wanted to finally fight some Seperatis "clankers" and prove myself through combat. My blood boiled with excitement and I felt my face turn hot.
"I want all of you to prepare yourselves for the invasion, in less than 2 hours, we will board some LAAT Gunships and insert into the planet, from there we need to secure a landing zone for the rest of the invasion force. Am I clear?" Commander Blye said.
"Sir yes sir!" we replied.
General Secura then dismissed us. We went back to our quarters to prepare our equipment. I began to clean my rifle to make sure it will function on the battlefield.
Suddenly Blake said "General Secura is pretty hot ain't she?"
I didn't really know how to reply since the question came outta nowhere.
"Oh, shut up" I replied.
Everyone else in the room gave a chuckle. To be honest, General Secura did seem a bit attractive, but I was more interested into shooting some clankers. Then Score suggested we all go to the cafeteria to eat.
"Can't fight on an empty stomach." He said.
As we ate, my hands were shaking, I could barely hold the fork. The moment I've been waiting for was only moments away. I ate a little, but my stomach soon felt sick. While Blake, being him, had a full course meal. As the minutes went by, my excitement began to turn into fear. The closer we got, the more I began to realize that this could be my last life, and that I and everyone around may not return from the battlefield. Soon the minutes that went by turned into dread. Finally, the moment came.
Through the intercom a voice came said "All units, please begin to proceed to the hanger for boarding."
"This is it lads." Blake said.
But I could see the fear behind his smile. I grabbed by rifle and my backpack and made my way towards the hangar. The walk was silent, I guess we all just felt the fear and anticipation. At the hanger, LAAT gunships stood in rows, waiting to be boarded. Clones that worked in the maintenance crew directed us towards a ship. The ships had no seats except for the pilot and co pilot seat, so we held onto handles connected to metal bars that ran across the ship's ceiling.
"Well, this is it." I said under my breathe.
I then felt someone grab my shoulders, it was Blake.
He must've heard me cause he said "Don't worry, we trained our whole lives for this. Let's see who can kill the most clankers."
This gave me a small sense of relief but it was minimal.
"Yeah." I managed to say.
The Star Destroy first flew into the planet to get the LAATs onto the planet's atmosphere. Then the LAATs' side doors closed, and began to take off and leave the Star Destroyer.
For a few minutes, the flight was smooth, then booming sounds began to play outside and the ship shook violently.
"We're being hit by heavy AA fire!" the pilot yelled.
At this point I panicked. I held on as tight as I could as the ships maneuver through the skies. Then the side doors opened and I could see the small explosion of the AA guns all around us. Suddenly the LAAT that was flying next to us, bursted into flames as it got hit.
"Come on, come out, come on!" I said under my breath hoping to at least be able to land on the surface.
Suddenly, the an explosion hit the top left corner of the plane, bursting a small hole on top.
"We're hit!" the pilot yelled.
I held on as tight as I could. The wind from the hole tried to vacuum us off the ship and I could feel my backpack trying to pull me back. Suddenly the ship began to spin circles as it fell forward.
"This is it, this is the end" I thought to myself.
Then as we were closing into the surface, the pilot ordered "GO, GO, GO! JUMP OFF THE SHIP!"
Without thinking, I instantly ran to the door and gave a leap off the ship. I hit the surface hard and tumbled on the ground. I lost sense of what was right side up and then everything turned black.
"GET UP! WE HAVE TO HOLD THEM BACK!" Blake yelled, grabbing my backpack to pull me up.
My vision was blurry, my hearing muffled and I was confused of what was going on. After a short while, I regain my vision and heard blaster and mortar fire booming everywhere, after a few seconds I was able to get a grip on what was going on.
"Come let's go!" Blake yelled.
I quickly grabbed my rifle and ran in the wreckage of the ship to get some cover. All around me I heard blaster fire, as red blaster bolts zoomed past my head. I quickly moved out of some cover to return fire to the droids. As I fired, I saw rows upon rows of B1 Battle Droids and B2 Super Battle Droids marching in closer to us while shooting. I kept firing, trying to down as many droids as possible. But eveytime a droid fell, another took its place in a never ending line. Blaster bolts zipped past my head, making whizzing sounds as they went by. I kept shooting at the incoming droids, one after another fell but they just kept coming. Then a blaster bolt zipped into the face of the clone to my left.
"Man down!" I yelled as I bent down to see the trooper's injuries.
The trooper has shot dead in his helmet. I looked through the shattered visor of the helmet and saw something I wish I never did. A black hole burned through his head, splatters of blood and bits of his flesh laid everywhere inside. It was revolting and I wanted to puke. Blake then kicked my back and told me to get back into the fight. I poked out of my cover to return fire on the advancing droids but the image was still fresh in my mind, which filled me with more fear. More and more gunships began landing behind us and more clone troopers came out to reinforce us. General Secura then came out in front of us and ignited her lightsaber.
"We have to secure the landing zone for armored support to arrive!" She ordered.
She deflected incoming laser fire with her lightsaber, as we shot down any droid we could. This was the first time I've ever seen a Jedi in combat, and this showed me how powerful they were. Some LAAT gunships came down and did a strafing run on the droid battalion, dropping bombs and heavy cannon fire.
After the gunships were done, General Secura yelled "Follow me!" and ran towards the droids with her lightsaber drawn.
"Get to it men!" Commander Blye ordered.
We all ran towards the smoke and dust and charged at the remaining droids. The droids that did survive the airstrike however, continued to fire. As we ran, many clones were shot dead in their tracks, but we kept running. Adrenaline rushed towards my leg, I ran faster than I've ever been and I didn't feel any pain from all the running. Finally, we were close to the droids. General Secura began slicing every droid in her way, they were like butter to her lightsaber. I pointed the barrel of my rifle point blank into the face of a droid and blew it's whole head off. I began to shoot at any nearby droids as we advanced. We kept advancing through the droid line, following behind General Secura.
"Come get some you damn clankers!" Blake yelled.
Suddenly the droid lines in the back began to turn around and retreat.
"We have them on full retreat!" Commander Blye pointed out.
We began fired at the backs of the retreating droids and continue to pursue them.
"We've secured the landing zone, let them retreat", General Secura ordered.
We stopped running, but continued to shoot any droids we had a clear sight on. Finally, it was over, I took a huge breathe in relief that I had just survive my first battle.
"We did it buddy. Holy crap, I can't believe we did it." Blake said with a breathe of relief.
But the happiness of victory didn't last. I turned around and saw those who didn't survive. Piles of droid parts and dead clone troopers laid on top of one another. Not only that, but some wounded clones laid on the ground groaning in pain and misery. I saw a lying clone holding his side as blood poured out, his gut blasted from gunfire. Another had his left arm blown clean off from a mortar shell. I however was lucky to go mostly unscathed, except for a few cuts on my arms and legs from shrapnel. In fact through the heat of battle, I didn't feel or notice them until I was checked by a medic trooper.
"General Kenobi, we've secured the landing ground." General Secura said through her holo transmitter.
"Very good, we'll now send the rest of your invasion force and armored support." General Kenobi replied.
Soon more gunships came down carrying AT-TE walker tanks, supply crates, and more clone troopers. As the ships began to unload, I sat down on the dirt ground and removed my helmet. I was sweating and shaking, flashbacks of the battle came back and hit me.
"Are you alright trooper?" General Secura asked.
I looked up and replied "Yes sir".
"You must be the one they call Bandage. Interesting name.
My eyes widen as this statement caught be by surprise. All of us clones share the same face since we were all cloned from a single person named Jango Fett.
"Yes sir. But, how can you tell?"
She smiled and said "You may all look the same, but through the Force, you all are different".
She then walked away to manage the unloading of supplies.
I didn't know what this "force" was, but I did find a new sense of respect for the Jedi.
"That was some hell we just been through." Blake said as he sat next to me.
"Yeah, no simulation could prepare us for this as we thought." I replied.
"Funny thing is, this is what we were made for." Blake jokingly said.
We both gave a small laugh, only to try to get a sense of humor to drown our fear. All I knew was that I would have to do this again and again until we liberate the whole planet or until death takes me.
