CHAPTER VIII
A COST LONG REMEMBERED
(PART 2: DEATH OUTSIDE THE DOOR)
THIRD PERSON-VILLERIA AND BRAISA
While Villeria and her remaining 414 men barricaded themselves within the facilities, Villeria herself made endless attempts to call for reinforcements before the Imperials broke through and slaughtered them all. knew that, despite the fact that what was left of her men were willing to fight to the end, she didn't need to be a Jedi to feel the fear and anxiety that was rank amongst her troops. Already they'd attempted to turn the tide with the knowledge that large armies would for certain be hopelessly trapped and vulnerable in narrow spaces, only for the Imperials to claim an advantage of their own. That advantage was that unlike the clones, who had spent every ranged weapon they had down to the last grenade, they still had thousands of men on the field that were still well supplied and well arrayed. Already, out of 2,000 defenders, over 3 out of 4, 1,586 total, lay dead; 904 clones lay dead along the walkways and platforms outside while 682 troops were dead in the facility. Due to numerical superiority, the Imperials didn't need to worry about the 5,216 troops (3,749 on the platforms and walkways and 1,467 in the facility) they had lost since they still had 4,784 in the fight. 943 of the Imperial troops were already in the facility turning the place upside down in an attempt to find and annihilate the remaining defenders.
As Villeria paced across the cloning chamber where she and her remaining troops had taken refuge, a Clone Captain approached her and said, "Commander, we've received a transmission from captain Nilun. She learned of our current problem and has assembled 3,700 men and is on her way right now."
"Very good. With her help we shall win this battle."
Secretly though, Villeria thought, "Let us hope we're still alive when commander Nilun arrives lest instead of being a reinforcing unit, she stopped the Imperials from taking this planet just as the invaders had wiped out the soldiers who'd original defended it."
As the defenders waited for the enemy that was now crawling over the facility to find and destroy every defender that remained, Villeria hoped that Braisa and her men would get to Kamino as quickly as possible before they were all dead to the last soldier.
Just as and her men heard the thump! thump! thump! of Imperial troops. The daunting sound prompted her and her men to ready themselves for a last stand, though they eventually heard faint sounds of fresh fighting outside the facilities. Villeria then grinned and looked at her men with a look of relief that said, "Help has arrived!"
In three hours, Villeria heard the foot sounds of the Imperials in the facilities receding; an obvious sign that they were now more focused on the reinforcements that had arrived to assist their beleaguered brethren. The moment Villeria was certain that the stormtroopers were all gone, the troops behind her crept through the facility hoping to join the fight and re-engage the enemy without being noticed.
The moment Villeria and her men exited the facility, they saw that Braisa's forces had engaged the Imperials in close combat and had rebalanced the odds. Knowing that none of them had any means of fighting at a distance and that, with their severely weakened numbers, engaging the Imperial forces face-to-face would be nothing short of suicide and foolish, Villeria's troops grabbed blasters from dead stormtroopers. When Villeria and her men grabbed the blasters they needed, they headed out to the platform and began to take potshots at the enemy.
This didn't last long, however. Just twenty minutes after Villeria's troops began to fire on whichever target they could hit without having to worry about hitting one of their own unintentionally, a column of Imperial troops charged up the walkway and began to firing at her troops, forcing them back once again.
Unfortunately for the Imperials, the rebel defenders were ready this time. As soon as the Imperials came through the door, Villeria's men, with the first line on their stomachs, the second line in a kneeling position, and the third line standing, began to fire upon them and gun them down en masse. In ⅚ths of an hour, all 100 men in the Imperial column were dead. After the last Imperial in the column went down, Villeria cued her men to finally draw their swords and engage the Imperials. It was in that moment that would behold a sight that would haunt her forever.
What she saw was all but 49 of her men dead. As Villeria walked the battlefield, she found clone major Est, whom she had seen fall in the early stages of the battle amongst hundreds of other clones.
Eventually, her sadness gave way to panic, seeing as how, if so many died, there was a good chance Braisa could be amongst them.
In a panic, Villeria began flipping bodies over because of the high possibility her body could be amongst them.
After an hour of searching, Villeria said, "Colonel Braisa Nilun, where are you?!"
Villeria soon heard a voice say, " I'm here!"
"At least you're alive, though the same can't be said for most of the men."
Braisa smiled sadly and said, "Those men knew their duty. They fought and died willingly."
As Villeria left to assemble what was left of the clones, she thought, "I've seen men die around me, but I hope this is the first and only time I sustain losses of this scale."