Another action chapter to who ever reads. I Really enjoyed this one so please leave some feedback.

They had limited resources having mostly only what they deployed with. They had some heavy weapons like repeating blasters and rocket launchers but again the only ammo was what each of the troopers had carried. They also had two combat surgeons that arrived after they took a beach head . The only saving grace was the handful of tanks that had landed. Their heavy guns would be their best chance against any Sep tanks.

First they had dug a 3 foot ditch ahead of their position it might not stop tanks or supers but those regular droids had trouble with sharp change in terrain. Next, they used the dirt to make a wall in front of the tanks leaving only the main gun exposed they couldn't risk losing any of them to the seemingly endless ranks of droids. Besides that the two thousand troopers at her disposal had been assigned buildings around the new CC farther in the sector.

Ahsoka looked at her men at work some of them were still at work reinforcing their buildings while others, like the snipers for example were looking at the horizon looking for any activity. The dozen or so medics were trying to save as many lives as possible. When the fighting started their priorities would shift.

It never ceased to amaze her what these men could do. They had done in 5 hours what it would take normal men 2 days to do. She looked at her chrono it read 0500. God she had been awake for 30 hours and she wasn't genetically modified to need less sleep like her men. She felt bad 5 hours ago. Now she was dead, but she kept going, knowing that as acting commander she had to remain strong for the sake of her men. There was nothing that she could do here so she decided to go to the med unit to see if she could help.

She entered the building and was assaulted by the things she felt in the force. Pain, anguish, death but she also felt... happiness and contentedness. They had done what they were born for they had fought as soldiers. They all had a purpose in life, maybe a small one but a purpose none the less a rare gift not many quickly shook of the feeling of dread and tried to help walking up to the head medic she said, "Hey, Kix, what can I do to help?"

Kix turned away from a recovering clone, "Ah no, Commander, we actually have everything squared away. The last injured just got out of surgery, but thanks for the offer."

Ahsoka sighed and walked out walking back to the CC to pass out for a few hours, when Rex walked along her looking annoyingly awake. "Ahsoka we need to talk I think I figured out what's going on."

Ahsoka grunted eyes half closed she said, "Oh did you Rex? Tell me what are they doing."

Rex's face lite up obviously feeling good about himself. "The Seps have figured out that the Republic doesn't have an endless amount of... well us, so they know that we are far better than they are at fighting. On average each one of us takes out 50 of them so they decided to win all they had to do was kill us through attrition i asked Cody and he'd noticed the same thing."

Ahsoka sighed "This is distressing, but we can't do anything now all we can do is try to get out alive."

Rex nodded, "I've got reports from the other forces. They're doing about the same as us. General Secura got the least casualties and Kenobi took the most because they reinforced the capital the most. This is going to be a tough fight Ahsoka."

Ahsoka nodded again, "We've done the most we can do with what we have and is the rotation almost over?"

Rex took off his helmet, "I guess so and yes Ahsoka its almost over. Go get some sleep. Everyone can tell you're dead on your feet."

She tried to give a sultry smile, "Maybe you can come with me."

Rex would like nothing more than to be with Ahsoka but he knew she was basically walking dead, trying to appear strong for her men. "Not now, Ahsoka, I think it'd be better for you to sleep."


The droids had roared overhead in their giant transports landing at some rally point far in the distance. The only direct action they had taken was to send sporadic strafing runs which had yielded very few results against their cover. Ahsoka's men remained alert and vigilant.


The droid column stood about a mile away from their forward position when a plump looking neimoidian stood out in front of the droids. "Attention Army of the Republic. As you can see, we outnumber you ten to one and you must know that your pathetic friends will fall just like you. It would be in your best interest to surrender save everyone some trouble . You are obviously out matched there would be no shame in it." The slug probably thought if he could make them surrender he would receive a promotion or somthing, such was the way of Neimoidians.

Ahsoka's response was brief and to the point. "Attention, droid commander. You are dealing with the Grand Army of the Republic and we do not surrender, no matter the odds. So either attack or leave." The answer seemed to have been the right one in her troopers minds causing a general laugh and a few comments of bravado.

The comment had the opposite causing the droid commander to sputter, "Fine, have it your way first droid group advance!."

The droids slowly started to go forward their small skeletal bodies moving with mechanical precision. Ahsoka looked over her men, the lieutenants barking orders, sergeants running amongst the men giving words of encouragement and making sure the newer troopers were doing thing correctly. Then the droids came into range of the tanks. "Tanks open fire!" A resounding booms came with her words taking huge chunks of the droid lines they fired again and again but it wasn't enough. The droids kept advancing like a wave they were soon within blaster range and her men opened up letting loose fully automatic furry.

Ahsoka was overlooking the battle knowing that her lightsaber would be useless and she wasn't Master Kenobi making her men charge out of a defensible area just so he could get some action in. The droids came within range and let loose their own barrage of fire, forcing the front row of her troops down. Even though the front row was forced down the droidswe'ree still getting cut to pieces by the heavy blasters and tanks were doing their jobs of making sure that the droids couldn't overwhelm them. Her men were doing a good job, each one of their shots hitting home. Droid after droid fell, and although they seemed endless, they were getting close to the last of them. Just like that, fire halted with the last droid falling down blasted through the head.

The droid commander sent two more waves of droids each getting larger, only to have all of them destroyed by her men. The commander must have seen the folly of this so, instead of sending his expensive droids at them, he started shelling their position with heavy artillery .


The droids had shelled them non stop for a week, stopping only to reload and resupply. During the first day they had lost half of their tanks before they figured out the earth walls didn't help one bit . And although they were housed in reinforced plascreat, the non stop bombardment had blasted most of it into chunks, forcing the men to make their own cover out of broken chunks of plascreat when the shelling stopped for a hour or so. They were taking hits. Torrent Company was down to 60 percent strength and the rest of her companies weren't doing much better. She had gotten a quick out of system com. Skyguy said they should reenter the system soon and all they had to do was hold on. Easier said than done.

Ashoka ran through the ruins trying to get a feel of the men every trooper she ran across. She said, "How you doing trooper?" or "Hows your ammo?" As alway morale wasn't really a problem. Clones were incredibly hard to discourage but the ammo situation was bad. All the men were down to a canister or two. If the droids came in force They'd be hard pressed.

As Ahsoka ran through the ruins she heard, "INCOMING TAKE COVER!" And just like that a shell hit the building to her left pelting her with concrete knocking her over and knocking the wind out of her. Ahsoka felt that shells were falling closer and closer to her, Ahsoka gasping for breath tried to crawl into cover but she wasn't moving fast enough and another blast went off around her the blast force knocking her out.


Rex had seen Ahsoka go down from the first shell causing him to rush off to save her. Idiot Rex thought to himself. Only a fool moved around in an artillery barrage and once again caution was thrown to the wind in the face of Ahsoka in danger. As he rushed through the streets trying to dodge artillery, he felt pieces of stone bounce off his armor. He jumped over a junk pile to get to Ahsoka and quickly pulled her into a building. Rex tried to cover her from the artillery shrapnel.

"Ahsoka are you ok?" Rew looked her up and down noting several minor cuts and a nasty gash on her head but nothing she wouldn't recover from . He took inventory of her she looked alright her lightsabers were still on her but her clothes were torn to shreds.

She chose that moment to wake up, "Rex what's going on? Where am I?" She jerked as an artillery round feel near them.

"You got knocked down by the first shell. I had to get you." Rex said the words like running through an artillery barrage was normal for him.

She gave him a smile, "You didn't have to do that Rex. Thank you." She reached up and took of his helmet. "Take that thing off. I want to see your eyes."

Rex chuckled, "Of course I did? You think I could let you die? Not a chance ,plus what would I dowithout that pretty face of yours?" They both felt the rush of surviving, adrenaline coursing through their blood.

Ahsoka laughed and was about kiss him when they heard a few troopers outside ."I saw the commander go down over here." The sound of moving debris came next.

"Let's get out of here. The men probably need us." They both nodded and tried to get out of the building. "Troopers! Coming out."

The trooper let out a sigh, "Thank god. We thought we lost you. The General has returned and is breaking through and the droids have launched an all out last attack."

The words were said and Ahsoka was in commander mode. Ahsoka nodded, "Rex gather your men and up to the front." Ahsoka ran off running through the wreckage yelling to her sergeant and lieutenant, "Incoming droids! To your positions! Running to the sniper and rocket perches, she said, "Choose your targets, snipers. Take out the supers, rockets take out the tanks.

Running back down to the line satisfied everyone knew what to do she ran amongst her men till she found Rex, "What are we facing, Rex?"

Rex looked away from his binoculars, "They're throwing everything they got at us: tanks, supers, rollers, you name its there. The only good news, General Skywalker is about to break through. All we have to do is hold out till the general sends extraction.

Ahsoka ducked away from some random blaster bolts, "Damnit I hate to loose any ETA on the arrival."

Rex shook his head, "He said within the hour. It could be 10 minutes or an hour."

"Damn, Rex! Can you take care of things here? I've got to bring up the tanks." With that she rushed back to where the tanks had been kept to avoid the shelling.


Rex watched Ahsoka rush off and got to work. He ran up to his individual sergeants "Corric i want you and your men on the rooftops with heavy weapons, Fox get your men into cover so you can fire at the clankers from an angle, Janner get to the tall buildings i want as much suppressive fire as you can give and Chopper, I want you at the front building." Chopper was a new sergeant but he had proven himself in this invasion. He had the unique ability to inspire men through action. In chopper's case, it was his viciousness .

He had one last thing to say, "I want a medic at each position. If there's any wounded, they are coming with us when we're evicted from our nice summer home." Assured that his men were ready, he took his position where he could get to each position. It was a strongly held belief that leaders should lead from the front instead of the back and Rex would have it no other way.

Rex looked over at Chopper and his men. Some of them were propped against the side of the window some of them under them. One thing was for sure they all looked ready. Looking back out his window he focus on the slowly approaching droids. Standard column b1's in front supers behind them and tanks behind them. The sight always made him clench his hefty rifle tight and with it came the familiar feeling of fear. Rex quickly went to his training to shape it into something useful, making him faster,stronger and more alert. Popping his head out again, he saw the droids were coming into the 900 meter mark. Time to open with the rockets.

"Rockets, open fire aim for the tank!"

The thump of the rockets came before the bright flashes raced across the sky. Some of them found their mark hitting tanks, but most of them didn't. The droids anti-missile drones were intercepting them before they could impact on their targets. There was one more volly with similar results, prompting Rex to say, "Rockets, hold your fire, you're having no effect. Wait till they are closer."

The droids were getting closer and closer, 900 meter, 800 meters, 700 they were getting closer.

"All troops prepare to open fire." Once they got within 500, they could open fire with maximum accuracy. 500 meters, "OPEN FIRE!" A storm of lasers erupted from the buildings. They had followed the SOP, so the rest of the companies opened up too.

Rex fired his rifle left, right,straight. Feeling the recoil of his rifle, he just continued to fire. The combined fire was having an effect, but not nearly enough. They still continued their steady approach. If they had what they had at the beginning they might have stood a chance, but the heavy blasters had been destroyed in the first days of the shelling and the tanks were taking their sweet time getting here.

Rex sprang back behind cover on instinct as multiple bolts came through the window missing him, but killing one of Chopper's men. Rex waited for a lull before swinging out again and opening fire again they were approaching 100 meters another one of Chopper's men fell. 50 meters they were breathing down their throats and then the droids were on them.

Rex used the butt of his rifle to knock one of the supers down before blasting it in the chest turning left he shot from the hip blowing a droid's head off. Another super came at him from the right knocking him down. Rex rolled out of the way in time to miss the blaster cannon's deadly rounds. Rex coiled his muscles to do a last stand punch when the droids chest exploded, causing Rex to pause. What had happened? Rex looked around and saw Chopper a few feet away smoking barrel pointed at where the droid had been. Rex nodded a thanks at him before returning to the fight. It was getting to intense on this area he needed to get some fire on this position "JANNER SHIFT YOUR FIRE TO CHOPPERS POSITION" all he got was static from his com link

Rex ran from the relative safety of the building trying to get to Janners position as he sprinted past a pair of troopers pinned down by a block of b1s behind a slag pile of steel. In a perfect position out of sight Rex primed a thermal detonator and chucked it at the middle of the the block and started sprinting toward the block unleashing tight shots each finding its mark.

As he reached the pinned men he shouted "GET YOUR SHEBS UP, ATTACK! " these troopers didn't seem to understand they'd die if they didn't move but being his men they quickly sprang up and added their blasters to his. Under their sustained fire the last droid fell turning to the men he shouted over the sounds of battle "Get back to your units i don't want to save you again. Nodding they set out.

Rex finally arrived at Janners position bounding up the stairs he came upon a medic in the stairwell where he decided to set up his own aid station trying to be careful he stepped over the handful of men on the ground. Running up to Janner who was missing his helmet which he found on the ground to the side with a burning hole on the side. "JANNER CHOPPERS ABOUT TO BE OVERRUN SHIFT YOUR FIRE TO HIS POSTION" shouting was necessary without his helmet. Janner gave a thumb and yelled at his men to shift fire. Rex set out for the front again.

Rex continued to blast down every droid that came before him shooting some in the mag ports others in the chest. He'd even punched a droid's head off in desperation. Rex steeled himself against another b1 charge he shot everyone that he could before they were on him before he ran out of ammo. Cursing he threw his rifle at a droid takin its head wiping out his pistols he shot two at a time. The droids must have been upgraded because he spotted a handfull droids flanking him putting his left blaster under his right so that he could fire at both battle had been raging for close to 45 minutes it was getting too intense he had to order a retreat. "Rockets i want your to put your rocket right in front of us in a countdown of 20." This was a trick he'd learned that made sure you weren't mowed down when retreating. "All forces fall back to secondary position."

The rockets landed with a thunder covering their fallback. Rex and his men ran back to the barricades they had set up earlier when he was there. Rex quickly assessed the situation they had broken the two front ranks of droids and the seps decided to use their tanks . Alarm raced through him. "Rockets can you take those tanks out?"

The reply came quick, "Negative, Captain. We used the last of our rockets on your retreat."

Rex swore. They had no way to take out the tanks. He was just about to give another retreat when he saw two of the most beautiful thing he had ever seen Ahsoka and the tanks.

"Rex, this is Ahsoka. Let us take care of the tanks. You guys keep the infantry off us."

The heavy cannons opened fire taking out the first row of enemy tanks and Rex and his men went to work on the infantry. The combination seemed to work long enough for the extraction to arrive.

The LAAT's roared overhead..

"Rex extractions here. We got to go." Ahsoka helped the driver and gunner off her tank, yelling at them to move faster.

Rex reached the LAAT's before Ahsoka. He stopped outside of the doors helping some of the men who were having trouble and over all making sure the rest of his men got into the ship. As he worked, he was also keeping an eye out for Ahsoka. He spotted her at the back of the retreat obviously slowed because of the injured tanker who she was basically dragging. A trooper had mercy and took him from her. For a moment they locked eyes. A smile crossed her face that quickly turned to shock as three blaster bolts pierced her body bringing her to her knees.

NO! Rex thought, no, no, no! His body was moving without conscious effort, sprinting past his brothers pushing some out of the way and knocking a poor trooper down. Rex reached her quickly and picked her up she stayed conscious long enough to say, "Rex whaaa happe...?"

She faded into unconsciousness. Rex was sprinting faster than he ever had before finding himself the last man onto the ship the door closed just as he got in. Quickly he dragged her back to the med station on the ship, "MEDIC!"


Rex rushed down the hall, running with the stretcher, the medics yelling at troopers to move out of the way. Rex had faced countless life and death situation but he had never been more afraid than he was now all because he saw this beautiful small woman injured and dying. They came into the med area filled with injured troopers they rushed back to the surgery ward Rex fully planned on being in there but was stopped by the surgeon.

"Captain, I suggest you wait out there." Rex knew first hand that was the nicest form of 'get lost' he was going to get from a surgeon. The grizzled doctors had seen more death than anyone should. So reluctantly Rex nodded and walked back.

Rex walked through the hall, everyone of them clogged with men fresh from battle, some of them silent, some of them saying things like, "Did you see the commander out there?." Others were saying, "why did the commander help that trooper? She'd be fine if she hadn't." Shinies no doubt well... no one could be considered a shiny after that, but they still had a long way to go.

Rex walked up to his officers and Nco's. They seemed to be discussing the aftermath of the battle.

Janner said, "Hopefully they let us recover from this, because if they don't we won't have any men left."

Everyone nodded and one his lieutenants said, "They have too we're down to 40 percent strength we would be no more than a burden at this state, oh hey, Captain."

Rex nodded at the men, "I assume from that conversation we're not doing so good now."

Janner spoke first, "You can fucking say that again. I'm down to 10 men."

They all took a serious look, Chopper spoke "hows the commander doing i saw her go down on our exfil."

Rex rubbed his face, letting out a loud sigh "She got hit three times as far as i could tell, it was bad enough that they couldn't put her straight in bacta." When a person had multiple wounds that severed arteries meant that no matter how many layers of bandages they put on that person would bleed out before the bacta could take any effect.

Lieutenant swore "She proved herself did you see her during the siege. I mean i knew she could fight but now i know she can lead. Especially at the landing that could have gotten a lot bloodier if she comes out of this she had my respect."

All the men agreed and in that moment he felt a sense of intense pride in his mate.

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