With the beast gone, I ran over to Clock and Kicker. Kicker had already removed Clock's helmet and had begun to revive him. There was so much blood. I removed my helmet and put my fingers on Clocks neck to look for vital signs. Unfortunately, there were none. It really wasn't surprising with the amount of blood he lost.
"Everything is going to be alright brother. You'll get through this I promise. I'll even tell you what you said in your sleep. All you have to do is wake up. Clock please. Just wake up. Don't die please." Kicker began to rock Clock back and forth in his arms, repeating his plea to him over and over.
I placed a hand on his shoulder. "He's gone Kicker... We need to go."
He sighed and laid Clock down on the ground, closing Clock's eyes and returning the cracked helmet to his brothers head. "He.. he would've wanted us to keep going." He said shakily. Kicker put his helmet back on, tilted a glance towards me and handed me my own.
I put it back on and as I did I noticed that displayed on my heads up display(HUD) Kicker had shut off all communications, and was on a private channel. I looked at him. He was shaking with his head down facing the ground; he was grieving. How much I wanted to have had things be different. What was I thinking disobeying an order to come down here. Orders are meant to keep us alive and here I was giving an example of what happens when orders are disobeyed.
I looked down at the dirt and we both stood there in silence. The wind blew the dust in small twisters that circled our feet. The sounds of battle continued to bounce of the canyon walls in dialed down vibrations, that even at this distance I could feel hit my chest. A light flashed in my HUD, the general's beacon was gone, and my sensors started shouting at me.
I picked up Kicker's DC and placed it in his hands and started to jog. Kicker stared at it for a few moments then reluctantly caught up to me. "What's wrong Sir?"
"The generals beacon just shut off. Either someone is jamming it or he's engaged the 'danger' and it was destroyed." We hurtled over the jagged rocks and sand traps going as fast as we could. We needed to reach the general now. He was in trouble and I will not fail him. Not like I failed Clock and Kicker.
We were getting closer to where the general's beacon was before it disappeared. I could make out the faint hums of light-sabers and the clanking of droid feet. But there was something more. A monstrous roar let loose that shook the ground. Kicker and I both tripped and fell and banged our heads pretty hard on one of the upright rocks. We slid down to the ground and listened. There was another roar and the ground shook again.
"What is that? Another one of those monsters?" Kicker asked.
"I doubt it. It sounds bigger. Come on." We started to slink over to the open area where the noise was coming from. As we got closer we took to the ground and crawled the rest of the way. "We can't let whatever it is see us." I said quietly.
The opening was a large circular dip in the canyon floor, almost like a pit or nest. There was a 6 foot drop from where we were laying and the flat ground. In the middle of this "nest" was a huge beast. A creature that I had only seen in the flash training on Kamino when we were being taught about different large beasts we might encounter. This particular beast was one we were told to avoid at all costs. A Rancor, even Jedi had a hard time killing this thing; and riding on it back was Asajj Ventress. The hair on the back of my neck and arms stood on end, and a new surge of adrenaline shot through my body. I was so focused on the Rancor and Sith that I almost didn't notice all the Commando droids and Super Battle droids around its feet and the general and Ahsoka pinned against the wall. I gasped as I realized that there was almost nothing we could do.
Kicker was looking back and forth from me to the hopeless situation in front of us. "Sir what are we going to do?!"
I had no clue what we could do. We were just two clone soldiers against a small army and a monster. Had this been a complete waste of time? No... we came to help the general, we can't fail him. He must live, we will die in his place if it's necessary to end the war, and end our brother's suffering.
I looked at Kicker and said. "We'll do what we must to save the general and the commander. This is what we were made to do. I'm sorry that things couldn't have been different." I sighed. "We don't have much time. By the looks of it, Ventress is just about ready to attack. Throw all the droid poppers and grenades you have left to take out the droids. This will probably startle the Rancor, and if it does, it'll be coming after us. Get ready to run. If this doesn't work fire every round you've got. We have to get that thing and Ventress away from the general."
"Yes Sir." He started to rummage through his munitions and pulled out 3 droid poppers and a grenade. I did the same and pulled out two grenades. It wasn't very much to take out all those droids and a Rancor. But maybe just maybe we can get enough of them to make the situation easier on our Jedi.
We first threw the droid poppers; then as quickly as we could we threw the grenades. The poppers did just enough to stun the droids and then the grenades finished the job. The explosion shook the ground and the Rancor screamed and the ground shook again. It turned to face us. Ventress was livid and tried to reign in the beast to ensure that it kept focus on the jedi. Unfortunately for her it didn't and it ran towards us, bellowing its terrible roar. She had no choice but to engage the General and Ahsoka without the help of her beast.
We could barely stand from the barrage of deafening roars and the thunderous shaking of the ground from its stampede. Although, we did manage to scramble a few yards before it was on us.
Its long three fingered hand ripped through the opening and grabbed at us. Its claws made huge gashes in the walls, sending rocks down on our heads. We took shelter behind an outcrop of rocks and started to fire on it, our screams joining the cacophony. The Rancor screamed and brought down its mighty hand on us. Its claws dug into the ground beneath our feet, I aimed at its palm but before I could get off any shots, it lifted us up. I fired on its hand, if I could inflict enough pain it would drop us; and it did.
It screamed and practically threw us out of its grip. Kicker landed a few yards in front of me, landing on one of the upright rocks. I heard the wind get knocked out of him, and watched him go limp. I landed with one foot trapped and my gun out of reach. I could only watch in horror at what happened next. The Rancor grabbed Kicker and pulled him back into the clearing where it lifted him above its head getting ready to eat him.
It would have been best if Kicker remained unconscious, unfortunately as the beast began to put him in his mouth, Kicker woke up. He began to scream and struggle. I pulled my foot free and raced for my guns. I kept pulling the trigger but nothing came out. My weapons had jammed. I screamed and ran towards them. "Kicker!" I yelled. I wasn't going to let him be eaten. I threw my useless guns at the beast, but they only bounced off of its tough hide.
And then when all hope was lost, the general and Ahsoka came to the rescue. Ahsoka hacked through the Rancor's arm and General Skywalker grabbed Kicker, then they both jumped to me and placed him on the ground. Kicker scrambled backwards and bumped into my legs. He was shaking and whimpering.
"We'll take care of things from here Rex. Help him out. Come on Snips."
"RIght away master!"
They both dashed towards the Rancor that had regained composure and was getting ready to attack again. A ship lifted of the ground behind the Rancor; I could only guess that it was Ventress running away from another loss. The ship shot away and left the planet, leaving her precious Rancor behind.
Ahsoka distracted the beast as Anakin jumped high into the air and drove his blue bladed light saber deep within the Rancor's head. The beast screamed and then went silent; its huge body wobbled, then fell forward crashing to the ground, causing a dust cloud to raise up into the air.
Both Jedi came up to us. They were both covered with dirt and a little bit of blood. But despite their appearance, they both smiled at us.
"I'm a bad influence on you Rex." Anakin smiled. "Since when did you stop following orders?" He laughed and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Thanks for coming. We couldn't have won without you."
Ahsoka laughed. "Yeah, we would've been dinner if you hadn't showed up. Thanks Rexy. We owe you guys one."
I looked down. This non-mission hadn't been completely successful. Clock was still dead; but at least now his death wasn't meaningless. 'We succeeded Clock. We saved them.'
"How about you take the Captain and I here for a drink and we call it even?" Kicker said. I chuckled and they laughed too.
"Sure thing trooper. Sure thing."
The End
---------A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope I didn't butcher Star Wars. I tried my best, and every time I write i get better and better. I hope you enjoyed it.
I find it funny that I added a Rancor in this story. I wrote this before i knew that the star wars team was going to give Ventress a Rancor in the clone wars movie.
Anyway, please give me your feedback! I'm new to writing and I would love what to know what to improve upon for my next stories. ;P
