Chapter Thirty-Eight: Siege on Umbara
Episodes:"Darkness on Umbara" and "The General"
"You okay General? You're looking a little pale - well paler than usual."
Obi-Wan cracked open his eyes, offering a weak smile to his clone commander. He was aware of his men looking at him in concern, watching in the red light of the transport. "Fine fine - just the usual sickness that comes with traveling in space."
The transport jolted, making everybody brace themselves against the walls.
"We descended into the atmosphere, General," came the pilot over the comlink. "There's a lot of incoming fire."
"Oh lovely - land us as close as you can to the rendezvous site." Obi-Wan swallowed down the bile in his throat, listening to the ever increasing sounds of blaster bolts and screaming. He pressed a different button on the wrist-comm, opening command frequencies. "Anakin, Saesse, Krell - report in. What's the status?"
Silence.
The transport jolted - the smell of flames reached all their nostrils.
"Just like Geonosis," Trapper muttered from somewhere to his right.
"Landing site twenty meters away!" the pilot shouted over the sounds of gunfire and screaming and metal shrieking. "Be prepared to jump!"
"You heard him men!" Cody barked. "We're heading into enemy fire hot - General, I'll take care of Anakin and General Tiin- you get Krell."
Obi-Wan winced when the transport screeched into the ground. He managed to nod at Cody, punching in Krell's frequency while four men - Boil, Waxer, Trapper, and a shiny he didn't know - worked to open the jammed door.
"Krell!" Obi-Wan shouted when the holoimage sizzled upwards, revealing a man he was so thankful was not under his command. "Status update, now!"
Krell - his snood flapping while he maneuvered his aircraft - didn't look at the hologram. "All good, Kenobi! We'll keep the aerial attack going - just make sure you take the capital like you're supposed too!"
The door to the transport burst open. Red blaster fire whizzed past. Obi-Wan didn't bother to finish the transmission formally - he just shut it down and ran out of the transport behind his men. It burst into flames at their back, and he had just enough time to ignite his lightsaber and slice an incoming chunk of shrapnel.
He glanced down at his feet, where Boil had fallen to the ground to avoid getting impaled. "Do try to careful," he murmured, disengaging the lightsaber and helping the clone up. "We cannot afford to lose you."
Boil gave a sharp nod, turning around to look at the battle raging around them. The transports were taking off, leaving them on their own. "This'll be a hell of a fight, sir."
"Find your platoon - Cody!" Obi-Wan shouted, ducking a blast while he ran to his commander's side, who was trying to direct platoons from relative shelter. "Have any status report?"
Cody pushed the sergeant he had been speaking to away, pulling Obi-Wan into the small alcove. "All platoons have reported in - we're set to move forward towards the siege."
"Good." Obi-Wan turned around, trying to find a place to shout the orders and gave up within seconds - it was too loud and too dangerous to announce something like that. He glanced at Cody, who tapped his gun against his hip and nodded. Engaging his lightsaber, they moved forward into the heat of battle, slowly overtaking the sergeants and captains until they were in front - directly in the line of fire.
There was always an unspoken rule among the clones - if Obi-Wan and Cody moved to the front to lead the assault, they all had to follow. Even with the blaster fire around them, they knew that, and followed behind them, shooting and barking out orders.
"Only fifteen more clicks to the north sir," Cody muttered when he sidestepped a blast. He growled, raising his gun and blasting an enemy vechile in the fuel tank. A cheer went up when it exploded, taking out three tanks beside it.
"Fifteen clicks?" Obi-Wan swung his lightsaber, deflecting a few blasts while they advanced. He neatly jumped over a bit of rubble and dared to glance behind him. Platoon after platoon followed them. It wasn't much progress, but it was something. "That's about sixteen hours, at this rate."
"Depending if Skywalker pulls through and aerial keeps up the assault."
"I'm sure Tiin will be fine."
Cody yanked him behind a tree to avoid a machine of sorts, his grip tight. Even through the helmet his stare could be felt. "I wasn't talking about Tiin, General."
"We have to have faith, Cody - we both know that far too well."
Obi-Wan woke with a jolt, feeling sweat on his neck. He grimaced, trying to push the dream - nightmare, really - out of his mind. From within the medical unit, he could still hear the battle waging around them. After eighteen hours of marching and sieging, the medical had begun pulling men into the transports trailing at the end of the ranks and forcing physicals, food, liquids and - if possible - at least a few hours of sleep.
He hadn't exactly wanted to leave his men to Cody, but the clone was more capable of leading until it was his turn to rest.
So Obi-Wan had filtered to the back of the ranks, climbing into one of the vehicles and collapsed in an exhausted heap for -
He rubbed his neck, glancing over the moaning wounded until to the chrono. Four hours he had been sleeping, and most of those hours had been infiltrated by the screaming around them and the terrifying images of Naboo and -
Standing, he made his way cautiously to the entrance, where a medic was standing conversing with a sergeant.
"Jon - status update on the wounded?"
Jon clapped the sergeant on the back, and turned to Obi-Wan, offering a grim smile. "Well we're faring okay - better than Geonosis. Heard the 501st is taking some bad hits."
"Really? That's concerning." Obi-Wan didn't have time to ponder it - a backpack was shoved into his arms. "Food?"
"Water rations and protein bars - most of front command hasn't eaten in nearly a day."
Obi-Wan nodded, giving a salute before jumping out of the slow moving transport. He glanced upwards while he walked towards the front, studying the slow aerial battle.
Something... wasn't right.
"Sir!" Cody yelled when he made it to the front.
"What's wrong?" Obi-Wan asked, glancing at the capital city only a few kilometers away. He knelt, listening while he dug around and tossed the rations to the commander.
"I just got a report - Skywalker's troops were ambushed about five hours after landing."
"That's not good," he murmured, watching the sky and wincing when Republic ships were shot down from the airspace around the capital.
"He got called back to Coruscant - Krell's leading the 501st."
Obi-Wan nearly choked on his water. Coughing, he barely managed to give a nod to Boil, who had darted over to grab the backpack to begin doling out rations. "Krell - the 501st? The most individual and reckless legion under my command? Are you fucking kidding me?"
"They've taken a massive casualty hit - Krell must have blocked the communications - I can't into contact with him or Rex or even Fives."
"My god - what are we -"
His questions was drowned out by an explosion. Obi-Wan pushed Cody to the ground, hearing shrapnel sing past them, impaling the foliage and some of their men. Heat was on their backs, and when he turned his head, he felt sick at the bodies littering the ground and the Umbarans cheering.
"Those damn aircrafts - we can't take the capital until the airbase is captured, not at this rate. Our scouts say it keeps re-supplying defense."
"Agreed." Obi-Wan pulled Cody to his feet, giving a sigh. "Tell medical to collect the wounded. We have no choice but to hold out ground and refuse advance until that airbase is taken."
"Don't you need General Tiin's permission to order Krell -"
Obi-Wan snorted, punching in the master's frequency code. "Even you outrank him Cody - I hardly doubt I need Tiin's permission."
It took two tries before he made contact. Cody had run off to give orders, and he found himself shouting at the master when he made contact.
"The capital city's too fortified. We need your battalion to help us take it."
Krell's voice crackled over the comlink. "Resistance from the Umbarans has been greater than anticipated. We're holding our ground at the moment."
"We've gathered intel on an airbase to the west. It is re-supplying the capital's defenses."
"Incoming! Incoming!"
Obi-Wan grimaced while he listened to machinery fall around the 501st.
"Get down, get down!"
Krell turned his head, looking bored while he watched the disaster.
Rex came into view, and Obi-Wan risked a glance at the captain.
If Rex is alive, we have a fighting chance of getting out of here alive.
"If you could capture that airbase, it will sever the capital's supply lines allowing the rest of our forces to move in."
"I'll see to it that the airbase is placed under our control," Krell said, looking lazily back at the comlink.
"Remember, General Krell, the entire invasion depends on your battalion."
Obi-Wan grunted when he kicked down an Umbaran, shoving his lightsaber into the creatures chest before moving onto the next one.
"Sir we have to fall back!" someone shouted to his left.
"We can't!"
"Sir -"
"Airsupport, coming in!" Cody shouted over the comlinks.
"Obi-Wan!" came the grizzled voice of Saesse Tiin over the wrist-comm. "Keeping busy?"
Obi-Wan shook his head, listening to his men cheer while the ships bombed the Umbarans. "Saesse - I need a medical brigade on the west side. We need to get the wounded out of here and into aircruiser."
"I'll do my best, Obi-Wan -"
The feed crackled a moment, and Obi-Wan dodged a blast while he waited.
"Any word on the 501st?"
"Nothing - they're -"
"General!" Cody was scrambling towards him, peeling his helmet off and grinning. "Rex and his men hold the airbase - we can move forward with the assault!"
Obi-Wan grinned, clapping his commander on the back while his spoke into his wrist comm. "You hear that Master Tiin? Battle may be one within the next day!"
"Don't get your hopes up, Kenobi - may the Force be with you."
The feed cut.
"The Umbarans will probably continue to bomb us for the next few hours until they're defense runs out - but then -"
"We can stand out ground until then." Obi-Wan surveyed the battle, feeling the tension ease in his shoulders ever so slightly and the grip on his lightsaber loosen. "Well then - ready for a fight, Commander?"
"Born ready, sir."
Author's note: geez, this arc gives me feels - the things I do for you guys xD I spent so long writing this chapter, thinking about how battles are waged and argh
On an unrelated note, if you want to know my rough outline for stories I will write in 2019 for the "Secrets of the Negotiator" universe, head over to my profile page and check them out. More information will be coming soon on various stories.
Oh, and updates will slow down come the 14th, as I will be back in college and tackling some pet projects of mine outside of fandom. So probably expect an update at the most once every two weeks. I want to have "Pictures" done very soon, and "The General's Lady" done by February so I can focus on the "Secrets" uni and a short little fanfic I'm super stoked about.
Enjoy!
ii Digestive Reader ii