"Get the LAATs to form a semi-circle around us, shielding us from anything coming north. We need some cover." Shouted Captain Hazard.
They were alone now, his unit depended on him to survive, and more important to win the freedom of Thear. He had to devise a tactic that would defeat at least the first squads of droids.
It was dark, you couldn't see a thing without night vision out there, fortunately all troopers had night vision incorporated on their helmets.
"Lieutenant Lar, Raz and Killam, scout the area, take your squads and find something big enough to shelter all of us!" Hazar commanded.
Three squads left the area scouting south, east and west, because their objective laid north along with battalions of droids.
"Come on those droids will be here in minutes." Said the Captain.
"Sir, the droids will be here in at least five minutes. Four squads left the city in speederbikes. There must be at least fifty of them sir. There was no big armament only regular clankers sir."
A clone in his shiny white armor informed the Captain.
"Nice job rookie. Get yourself in that tree watching them and you may only come down when they are at shooting range. Let's hope Killam and his men have find shelter by then."
The clones continued to work hard, until the LAATs were positioned correctly and there were crates feeling the breeches. They still had one minute. Every clone had its weapon a DC-15 blaster or rifle ready. They eagerly waited for the enemy to come.
The noise of the clankers sounded closer by the second, adrenaline filled now the Captain and his body as well as his brothers'.
The clone came down from the tree and Captain Hazar knew it was time for the first contact.
"Hold…" He whispered waiting to every squad of droids to be in range.
And finally he shouted:
"FIRE!"
Blue blaster bolts echoed through the forest catching the droids by surprise. Twelve of them fell before they could take cover. Setting the speederbikes as the LAATs were but in opposite directions the droids were able to take cover, but it was hardly as good as the cover given by the gunships.
The Captain looked over a crate and fired three more times heating two B1 battle droids. The captain almost panicked in sight of a B2 super battle droid commander who was aiming his proton cannon at the LAAT cockpit, but another clone of his squad quickly took him down. The droids fired constantly but they only hit the LAATs or the craters since they were not able to shoot directly at the clones. But they were gaining terrain pushing their cover forward, and this the Republic troopers could not afford, if they got close enough they would slaughter the clones.
The captain took down four more B1 battle droids and with them there had been twenty-eight clankers destroyed.
"Captain we found shelter, you won't believe this. Coordinates are 13748960, sector 15."Hazar heard Killam saying happily through his helmet comm.
"We are on our way, Lieutenant." He responded.
Captain Hazar hurried transmitting the coordinates to the unit infra network. He signaled his brothers to retreat south and they immediately understood they had to go to those coordinates.
Clones were running shooting back at the droids when they could, and they quickly disappeared into the forest. Captain Hazar was the last and he started running too, firing when he could, but out of nowhere he sees a droid commando coming at him at full speed. Before he could do anything the droid took him down causing Hazar to lose grip of his blaster. The droid tried to swing a punch at the captain but Hazar was able to move away from the punch that crushed a large rock in the droid's way. Hazar got up and kicked the droid but he barely moved. The droid took another hit at the clone captain directly to his stomach; the droid strength was so great it almost knocked the captain out.
The BX commando was going to perform a killing blow on Hazar, but something shot him twice on the back causing him to fall on top of him. He saw Kalo's face and then all went black.