ES-2473 held on tightly to the side of the ship, stumbling as it struggled to dodge an incoming blast.

"You hanging in there, vod?" His best friend Blaze teased as Jay nearly fell into him.

"Just another day in paradise."Jay replied as he scanned the ship's occupants. All of them were friends , wearing the same armor with the same colored markings.

The two of them were used to combat by now, already had enough tally marks on their shoulder plates to make a normal man dizzy. But it was a memorial of all they survived, and they were bound to survive many more.

"When we make it out of this one you owe me, okay?"Blaze's voice was lost over the commands to get ready to land.

"Watch your shoulder, I'm tired of fixing it over and over again."It was part of their routine banter by now, because Jay really was tired of patching him up over and over again. As a medic, it was his job, and in reality he never got tired of saving but he did get tired of Blaze's darn shoulder.

But the trouble was, he couldn't save all of them. Many a brother had died either as Jay got to them or before he was close, and he hated having to prioritize. Certain injuries were obvious: you would remove shrapnel from a trooper's body before you wrapped a sprained ankle. But sometimes it was harder, there were less and less medics, it seemed, and having to choose between a brother who was slowly bleeding to death and one who needed stabilization before their spinal cord was damaged was extremely difficult to the point were Jay felt himself responsible for the death he hadn't been able to by the time you stabilized one the other brother would have bled out, or if you went to them first then their brother was gone.

Even if it didn't always seem to be the biggest difference, Jay was ready to save as many lives as he could on and off the battlefields. He had been through it all, he'd set the most broken of bones and stopped the bloodiest of noses after some brothers got into a fight off the battlefield.

Who knew what the day had in store. Besides, Jay was looking forward to a nice rest afterward, and a nice shower and a few rounds of cards with his squad mates.

The doors opened, and the wind rushed in, carrying with it the sounds of the carnage that they were about to be a part of.

The view was now a sea of blue, orange, black and tan. Their colors, obviously were the blue, red,and orange, representing the third legion, the 100th, and the 212th respectively. It was soon after they'd landed, and Jay was far from the front lines, there were not many injuries as far as he could tell. Blaze was still at his side, they rarely strayed from each other unless it was a command. They had been raised together, they were of the same cohort, and they had made it this far together.

Up far ahead, but still visible, Jay could see the familiar sight of Elf lightsabers, 4 blue and 2 rainbow crystals. General Azza of the 212th, alongside General Elena of the Third Legion. Cole wasn't sure about the names of the general and commander of the 100th, he heard they were new.

He heard commands being shouted all around him as he was snapped back to reality.

"Watch your six!"

"Cover me!"

"Everyone get down!"Jay, Azza,and Elena instinctively ducked behind the wreckage of a downed gunship to shield himself from the blast from a droid's cannon.

He heard screams and a "man down!" Shouted from the other side of the gunship and ran into the fray. Blaze covered him, picking off a few shots from the spaces between the doors of the gunship.

Jay slid his arms under one of his secret girlfriend's soliders shoulders, half dragging and carrying him as gently as he could back to safety behind the gunship. He screamed in pain but Jay couldn't let that phase him if he was to have any shot at saving this man's life.

"Alright, Vod."Jay said under his breath, taking off his helmet. The man's eyes were shut in pain and Jay could tell he was slipping into unconsciousness.

"Stay awake.."Jay pleaded with him as he removed his own helmet, it often made it easier for brothers to cooperate when they could see their face on your own. It was reassuring.

Can you tell me your name, Vod?"Jay tried to keephim awake as he examined the wound. It was a shot to the shoulder, it wouldn't be problematic if it hadn't been bleeding so much.

"Don't have one yet…"As he muttered this, Jay could tell he was definitely a rookie, a shiny. His armor didn't have any sign of markings on it except corruption from the sand.

"I gotta call you something." Jay began to try to peel away the shoulder plates but this soldier began to scream and jerk as soon as his wound was opened.

Jay hated this part. He could numb the pain with a stim shot, but all he needed was to clean the wound. The limited supply of stim shots he had should be saved, because Cole could remember many times when he had ran out.

"I'm sorry about this." Jay was genuinely sorry, but knew that this could help save his brother's life. He took a clean rag from his pack, one of many that served as ways of cleaning out wounds, or also, a means of what Cole was about to do.

"Bite this" he commanded, and shoved it into the shiny's mouth without further protest.

The pressure Jay was already applying was stopping some of the bleeding, but not all of it. Some still seeped through. Jay knew he had to clean it, but the moment some of the hydrogen peroxide were to touch his wound-

More screams, this time muffled by the makeshift gag.

"Almost done."Jay muttered as he finished cleaning and applied a bacta patch to the wound, taking the gag out. His brother's head was rolling back and forth, a result of the pain and the damage to muscle and nerves. It would take time to build up strength in that arm again.

This entire process had taken less than three minutes. Next thing Jay had loaded the shiny onto a stretcher and sent him back for evac. He wouldn't be able to fight anymore, especially after slipping unconscious from the pain.

That trooper was young, no matter how much training he had had back in the Elf palace's soldier training west side , it still wasn't enough to prepare for the real battle.

Donning his helmet once again, he joined Blaze in his position.

"I heard there's more Elf Emppies than we expected, do you think they'll order a retreat?"

"I don't know, but I trust the generals."

"Me too but I haven't heard too much about the general of the 100th."

"Always a good time to learn."

"INCOMING!"A voice yelled and they looked over thetop of their cover to see a blast from the enemy hit the ground, but as it did it produced dozens more shots from it, popping up like firecrackers.

Several men went down. Jay could tell with a grim accuracy that they were all dead before they hit the ground.

"What was that?!"someone yelled.

"The Elf Emppies have a new toy."Blaze stated grimly, as a new sound raised their attention overhead when a squadron of bombers flew overtop them.

"I'm glad those are ours!"

"No kidding" Jay was going to respond but the order to advance from his secret girlfriend canceled out his words. Abandoning their cover, he and Blaze joined the army of troopers running toward the enemy, and an order came through their comlinks.

"All troops this is Alikia. All members of the 501st are to follow me. 212th is to follow general De-Florese. Their flanks are weak, and the 100th should be able to break their lines with our bombers and tanks."

Without question, Jay and Blaze banked left to follow general Alikia . Up ahead, they could see the dark robed figure leaping across the battlefield, stopping to swing his weapon every once and awhile.

It was an impressive sight, to watch a elf jedi in action. Especially the likes of Azza and Elena . Both of them exhibited their skills with their sabers in series of elegant strikes mixed with acrobatic flips and impressive footwork. And their antics also made them quite easy to follow.

As a clone trooper, you learned to see part of your life through your own eyes and part of it through a helmet or scope of a blaster. This proved true as Jay aimed and fired shot after shot, hitting target after target.

Another shot of warning came and Jay saw a glimpse of the strange new projectile going towards their front lines.

He watched, amazed, as the two Elf Jedi simply raised their arms and sent the Elf Emppies weapon back to their ranks.

But they were too slow to stop the other blasts of the tanks. The tanks had not aimed for them, or maybe they had but had missed miserably. The shot went rogue, careening into the side of a nearby cliff.

Echoes of the command cover rang out excessively throughout the select ranks of the 501st as a rockslide came careening their way.

So the Elf Emppies didn't miss, Cole thought grimly, as he realized they were trapped between two canyons.

Soldiers on both sides of the impending rockslide scrambled to get to the sides, and a few were caught up in the carnage, being buried under tons of dirt and rocks. Jay and Blaze dug into the sides of the canyon, desperate for a handhold. Their grappling hooks were the only thing holding them up. Cole was pretty sure his knuckles and hands were bleeding from the efforts keeping his grip on the cliff and his blaster,but that was hardly important as he shut his eyes, not wanting to see the rockslide take the lives of so many of his brothers.

Then suddenly he heard Blaze scream his name, and turned just in time to see his brother lose his foothold, sending a few tiny pebbles to join their giant cousins below. A few seconds later and Blaze would have been fine, but when his foot slipped, he lost his handholds. Jay reached out as soon as he realized what was happening. Struggling to no avail to get another good grip,Blaze grabbed onto his hand, and Jay was sure if he could've seen through his friend's helmet that he would see fear in the eyes identical to his.

Then Blaze's grip began to slip. He couldn't find new holds for any of his limbs, and his sweaty hands,even with the gloves, couldn't hold on.

Jay watched in horror and nearly screamed himself as he watched his brother fall into the rushing river of rocks below.