Theran hissed, halting in his tracks and forcing Caden to stop with him.
"Talk to me, Theran," Caden said quietly, but Theran just hissed again, jerking his head up, then side to side, tail swaying slightly behind him, clawed forelimbs grasping at nothing in particular.
"What's the matter?" Kavan asked, after closing the gap between them.
Theran growled, and shifted slightly, sufficient indication to Caden that he should let go of Theran. Reluctantly, unsure of his balance, Caden let go of him. Caden moved slowly towards the stilt roots of a nearby tree, not for support, but cover. Kavan, his question unanswered, followed his example.
Kavan looked back at B'Lyt, who had flattened himself into the mud until he almost disappeared. Shifting his limbs beneath him, the Anuri dug himself a hole to squelch in, until only his eyes were visible on the surface. This was his way of taking cover.
Kavan touched Caden's shoulder, silently repeating his question, but the PFC took absolutely no notice of him at all, instead keeping one eye on the Theran, the other scanning the trees branches overhead, seeking what it was that had the Onitheran so on edge.
Theran had not taken cover, but stood in the open, hissing and lashing his tail. He clacked his beak irritably, peering through the shadows of the Morassin swamp and half-spreading his wings aggressively. Slowly, he stretched his wings back, and began to issue a continuous rattling noise in his throat.
"You're trusting that creature's judgment?" Kavan asked, when nothing showed itself to be threatening.
"I trust his more than mine," Caden replied.
Suddenly, Theran snapped his jaws loudly, folded his wings and sprinted to where the two clones crouched. He leaned hard against Caden's back, pressing him against the roots of the tree, chirping very quietly in his ear.
"Clankers," Caden whispered to Kavan, "Stay still, and maybe they won't see us."
Kavan opened his mouth to say something, but Theran must have heard him, because the creature flapped one of his wings, smacking the back of Kavan's head hard enough to bounce him off the root curving right in front of him. Instinctively, he waved his arm to knock away the wing, but Theran had already withdrawn it and he hit only air.
"Shh!" Caden insisted, and Theran echoed that with another hiss.
Caden felt the seconds tick by in each beat of his heart. He knew Kavan was nervous, impatient, and lacked confidence in Theran. Kavan shifted uncomfortably, and looked across at where B'Lyt had virtually disappeared beneath the mud. One of B'Lyt's great goggling eyes blinked, coating its lid in mud as it did so, but he didn't move otherwise. Theran pressed against Caden so hard he felt like the air was being crushed out of him, he could hear the softly hissing breath of the creature near his ear.
Seconds crept into minutes, and the tension began to become painful. Kavan shifted more and more, until Theran smacked him again. He was still after that. Clones knew how to remain motionless for long periods of time, but Kavan didn't believe there was need for it; and Caden hadn't the authority to order him. But he wasn't about to doubt Theran, or let Kavan's doubt endanger them all.
Finally, distantly, they heard the sound which had given the droids their nickname. They were noisy in their movements, and their buzzing speech was irritating. Caden felt a surge of loathing for them, and everything that resembled them, but he sat on it firmly. All clones hated droids, but they had to temper that with the good sense not to get killed needlessly because of the way they felt.
The droids marched closer, and Caden felt Kavan tense beside him. He grabbed onto the medic's arm to stay him. He felt it too, but this was no time for them to lose their heads, literally or figuratively.
"Hey, what's that?" one of the droids had heard the faint rustle of movement when Caden grabbed Kavan, "Who goes there? Stop!"
Caden froze, and Kavan did the same. The droid hadn't identified them, or it would have opened fire at once. It didn't know what its motion sensors had picked up. It was, in effect, guessing. It stepped closer to them, scanning the area. Its visual scanner was tied in with its aiming mechanism, and the end of its blaster moved as its attention drifted from one section of the virtual grid its vision center constructed to the next. A second droid joined it in scanning, and Caden closed his eyes briefly.
They were facing a platoon of droids if they were spotted. Two clones, an Anuri and an Onitheran stood no chance against such numbers, even at the best of times. That one of the clones was a miserably armed medic/deserter and the other couldn't even get to a standing position without aid didn't make the odds any better. With two droids scanning, surely one of them had to find something.
A thunderous chorus of buzzing wings reached Caden's ears and he looked up instinctively. The sky had turned black in one spot, and that spot appeared to be coming closer.
Caden dragged his eyes away from the spot, and the droids, without moving his head. Just past the two droids, he saw what he was looking for. When the morning's light sprinkling hit the ground there, a splash resulted. Not just any splash. The sort of splash that conveys a depth of water being disturbed, rather than just a surface inch. A puddle, pond, lake, Caden didn't care what. He just hoped that the bugs hated water as much as Tavis did.
He squeezed Kavan's arm, trying to indicate without moving more than a fraction of an inch exactly what was about to happen. He couldn't really move, or else the droids would have a fix on him. The algae and mud coating their armor was providing their only camouflage, breaking up their shapes with the aid of the roots they were kneeling behind, but any move on the part of either of them would draw the deadly attention of the droids. Caden couldn't tell if Kavan understood or not.
The sound of the swarm's approach did not at first distract the droids. The mosquito-like insects that flew thick in the air at all times had been accepted by their programming as normal. They hadn't realized the swarm was a different kind of insect, one that was attracted to both them, and the power supplies in their blasters. Caden had not seen the results of the swarm that had taken out the droids that attacked the tank before, but he knew well enough. Those droids had been drained, left without power.
He had seen the empty Anuri village, the result of an attack by the swarm.
He closed his eyes, breathed, and waited.
"Hey, what's that?" the thrumming had gotten too loud for the droids to ignore it.
The two looking almost directly at the clones turned towards the source of inquiry. The droids conferred with one another about the noise, determined its direction, and collectively swung towards it. The swarm descended at that moment, and Caden shoved Kavan hard, urging him to break cover.
Kavan resisted, confused by Caden's sudden urgency, and Caden shoved him again. B'Lyt was faster in his response. He knew the swarm for what it was, and understood the importance of finding a body of water. Kavan caught sight of B'Lyt plunging, apparently headlong towards the droids, and he at last moved. Theran lunged past them all and stood at the water's edge, honking loudly.
B'Lyt splashed into the water, submerging almost instantly. Kavan hesitated at the water line, but Theran clamped his jaws around the clone's wrist and yanked him off balance, letting him go and slapping him across the back with his head, efficiently pitching Kavan into the water. Kavan didn't go down until B'Lyt dragged him under.
But Caden, couldn't move quickly, and attempting to do so brought forth a spasm of pain which grounded him. The insects were deafening in his ears, as was the futile blasting sound of the droids shooting at the swarm as it came among them and slipped in between the cracks. Caden heard the swarm envelope him, but he was blinded by the pain in his chest and could do nothing as they crawled into his armor and began to bite him.
But Theran was not similarly paralyzed. Springing to where Caden had collapsed, Theran emitted a high shrieking snarl, as though challenging the swarm. Theran bit into Caden's shoulder. He didn't have an exact estimate on how much pressure was needed to hold onto Caden in order to drag him, and there wasn't time to be polite. The armor creaked under his jaws, and Theran braced his four feet to back towards the water.
He had the strength to drag Caden, but his size relative to the clone meant it was a tremendous effort. Caden was almost no use at all, helpless in his pain. Theran tugged at the clone, even as the insects turned on him as well, biting him, blinding him and choking him with their sheer number. He struggled against the choking mass of insects, fighting for each step towards the safety of the water, trying to drag Caden with him.
Theran was willing to do it, but would he be able? He didn't know. He also didn't think about that. The future didn't mean much to him, only now, right this instant. And, at this instant, he knew he was being bitten to death by a million angry bugs. And so was his family. He had to get Caden out.
Caden managed to get control of himself, and abruptly began to thrash about, trying to find his footing. Theran hung on, acting as his guide. And then they hit the water. Theran didn't wait for Caden to find his center here, but held onto the clone's shoulder and dragged him under.
Almost immediately, Caden began to sense himself suffocating.
Instinct bade him struggle for the surface, but Theran wouldn't let him go. It was a choice between the swarm and drowning, and Theran seemed to be making it for him. The powerful jaws remained firmly clamped onto his shoulder, and he couldn't twist free.
Through the veil of murky water, Caden saw a bright flash and then his world faded out.
Volk twitched slightly at sight of the swarm. It so far hadn't shown interest in their cave, but that didn't appear to make him feel any more at peace with their existence. The only thing standing between the clones and those bugs was shadows, and that didn't seem anything like enough.
Volk knew from firsthand experience that their blasters were no defense against this threat. If the idea that they didn't like the dark proved to be incorrect... Volk growled quietly to himself. The soft noise only made Doc feel more tense, though it was nice to hear Volk sounding like himself again.
In the dark, watching the swarm, Volk was becoming himself again. Here was a reality he could understand. Here around him was the fireteam he had been assigned to, trained to protect and guide. Here was an enemy whose motivations made sense to him.
Other than his initial growl, Volk made no sound, yet the sleeping team members awoke as though summoned from dreams to serve at his side. Volk said nothing to them, did not acknowledge them, but his tension touched each of them. It didn't make them afraid, because this was Volk as they knew him, Volk as he had not been since Rafe had been assigned as their sergeant.
They had no chance against the swarm if it found them. And they also had nowhere to go. But it was not in Volk's nature to give in. It was in his nature to fight. He cared not what form death took to come for him, he was prepared to face it and fight. He faced the swarm with open hostility, but not fear. That black cloud outside was not something he feared. His confidence rallied the others to him.
The swarm tightened in its spiral. And then it began to drift towards them.
While Damyu was physically unable to move, Garm was capable of it. He got up and went to where Volk knelt, watching the swarm outside. Without a word, he touched his leader's shoulder with one hand, and held an object towards him with the other. Volk looked at it as though it were strange to him for a long moment. Then he took it, and nudged Garm with his shoulder.
Volk looked to Doc, holding up the flash-bang Garm had given him, and they exchanged a nod. The two of them moved closer to the entrance, towards the mass, which moved more like a single entity than a million separate creatures. At a point Volk determined with a gesture, Doc stopped. Farther back, Garm had moved silently to where Damyu lay, the last line of defense against the indefensible.
They didn't have to say anything to realize that this closed in area was no place for a flash-bang. It was entirely possible that the cave could amplify the effects of the sound. They weren't worried about collapse, the cave was sturdy enough. But it was too easy to be permanently deafened by the sound.
Flash-bangs weren't in common use because they could so easily render clones permanently blind or deaf if they weren't careful. They had to be that powerful in order to overload the auditory and visual systems of droids. To use one in a confined space was a huge risk. They'd each been taught as cadets to never, ever do what they were about to do. But, like so many times before, they had no real choice.
It was either take this risk, or die.
Volk had already met his maker, and therefore felt he had nothing to look forward to in death. As the swarm moved into the cave, he pulled the pin and threw the grenade, scrambling back and counting off in his head. He dropped to the ground facing away from the grenade and covered his ears the instant before detonation.
The cavern burst into eye searing brilliance, the blackness flooding instantly with color, which then washed out into blue-white light. All four clones felt their ears pop, and were more aware of the absence of sound than the noise which had caused it. They lay where they'd dropped, blinded and deafened, as the swarm spun wildly into the cave.
Tavis was holding onto Rafe now, as though clinging onto a fragment of reality. His breath came short and rapid, and he trembled. But his voice was steady when he spoke.
"Rafe, we have to stop here."
"What? Why?" Rafe asked.
"Because... because this is a killing field. Rafe..." he gazed at Rafe in desperation, his voice tortured, "Please."