The Walkers lumbered forward, the top of their mass driver cannons barely clearing the tunnel's ceiling. "You! Put those bags there! No, not there! There!" Captain Fixx was shouting at a group of Troopers hauling sandbags. The Troopers grumbled as they picked up the bags they'd placed and moved them to where Fixx was pointing.
Keltor and Master Rhan lifted a burnt-out droid transport; the transport itself was barely recognizable, long racks full of deactivated droids, the engineer assured them that the droids would never function again, but that didn't stop Keltor from keeping a wary eye on the bulky gray super droids. With a monumental effort, he and Master Rhan were able to move the transport out of the tunnel and off to the side of the highway.
Several fighter tanks with Troopers riding on top hovered past; Captain Fisk hopped off one and saluted, "Sirs, the rest of the battalion is arriving now, and Captain Terror reported that they managed to capture the other end of the tunnel with only minor casualties."
"Excellent work Captain Fisk; make sure this end is fortified within the hour; I wouldn't be surprised if the droids managed to get a warning single out," Captain Fisk nodded. Master Rhan waved down a passing fighter tank and beckoned for Keltor to follow her.
They waited for a pair of Troopers to hop off; they clambered onto the tank, and once they had a good handhold, the gunner slapped the top of the roof, and the tank sped off.
The tunnel was about two kilometers long, if they had walked there, it would have taken nearly twenty minutes, but on the tank, they arrived in less than five. When they arrived, they found troopers dragging droids off to the sides of the tunnels and two tanks struggling to pull an AAT away from the entrance. He was impressed that the two lighter tanks were able to pull something that must have easily been three or four times their combined weight. He watched as the two tanks drug it out of the tunnel, down the road a few meters, then off to the side. Captain Terror noticed their approach and saluted, "General, we managed to take this position with minor casualties; my medics say they'll be ready to fight again in a couple hours.
Master Rhan put her hands on her hips and explained, "Excellent work, Captain; Commander Keltor will remain here to assist your men; if your position is attacked, signal Captain Grande; he'll be your reinforcements."
"Very good, sir," Captain Terror looked to him and said, "You're orders, sir?"
"Right, Captain, explain what your defensive setup is." Keltor was nervous, sure, technically, this wasn't his first command, but he didn't feel ready to take on the task again. But war doesn't care if you're ready, so he better buck up and get to it.
Terror turned and pointed to some Troopers hauling sandbags to a point roughly a hundred meters from the entrance of the tunnel, "That's my primary line of defense; most of the heavy weapons will be there, beyond the tunnel in the surrounding forest I have a few squads as a perimeter guard, they'll engage the droids in a fighting retreat back into the tunnel."
Keltor nodded, then asked, "What about a second or third line?"
Terror answered, "Once the primary line is established, we'll build a second line, but if the droids break through the first and second line, we won't be able to stop them. The plan then is to hope Grande gets here soon with armor; then, we'll be able to push the droids back and reclaim the position."
Keltor was no tactician and wouldn't even pretend to understand Captain Terror's line of thinking. Hell, he didn't even know if this strategy would be useful or not. "Very good, Captain."
Captain Terror saluted again, "Thank you, sir." He then turned on his heel and marched away, barking orders to the Troopers.
Master Rhan spoke, "I feel how nervous you are, Keltor. But you hid it from your men well."
Keltor made a fist with one hand, "I…I don't…I don't have what it takes to be a commander. I have no idea what I'm doing."
"Keltor, I trust your ability both with the blade and with the force. You're more capable than you realize." Master Rhan reached up and grasped his shoulder.
"I can't even perform simple force-assisted maneuvers, I'm only a passable swordsman, and as for my leadership skills, I have none." Keltor looked down at his feet.
Master Rhan replied, "But you have the force, and that's all you really need. Trust in your abilities, my Padawan; you are more capable than you give yourself credit for." She let go of his shoulder and walked back over to the tank they'd hitched a ride on, and as the tank was turning to head down the tunnel, she called out, "May the force be with you!"
Keltor raised a hand and replied, "And also with you!"
"How long are we gonna wait here?" asked a Trooper.
"Until the 501'st gets here, I think." replied another.
"But when's that?" asked the first.
"No idea, now will you shut up, vod? I'm trying to read," replied the second. He was scrolling through a data tablet.
"What'cha reading?" asked the first.
Keltor could almost hear the second Trooper's eyes roll. "The regs."
"Didn't you read those yesterday?" asked another Trooper.
"And what if I did?" asked the second.
The third Trooper raised his hands defensively, "No reason."
The second Trooper went back to reading, but a few seconds later, the first Trooper asked, "So, umm, anything new with you guys?"
"Will you shut up, Babble?" growled the second Trooper.
"Ah, don't blame him; it's just who he is." snickered the third, "Besides, what crawled into your bedroll Cranky?"
"I'm not cranky; I'm just annoyed!" said Cranky, crankily.
"Isn't that the same thing?" asked Babble.
"No, it's kriffing not!" replied Cranky, "And don't you kriffing start on personalities Slackjaw!"
"That was one time!" retorted Slackjaw.
"That's not what the 327th says," said a fourth Trooper.
"Okay, that was, like, the second time, maybe," said Slackjaw.
"There's no shame, Slack, you do you, vod," giggled Babble.
"Shut it, Babble; you know I don't talk about that stuff," snapped Slackjaw.
Cranky laughed, "No, no, no, you said it yourself; it's just who he is."
The Troopers, save for Slackjaw, erupt in laughter. And even though he was trying to meditate, Keltor allowed himself to chuckle slightly at their antics.
They'd been here for three hours, waiting for any attack, but it's been quiet so far. Even the other side of the tunnel reported they'd done nothing but wait. He was thankful, though; with each passing hour, their chances of surviving this crazy plan increased.
Then he felt it; one of the troopers outside the tunnel started to panic, then he calmed down; a false alarm, maybe?
But that thought disappeared when he heard blaster fire. It was only a few shots, then silence. A Trooper from outside the tunnel jogged up to Captain Terror, spoke for a moment, then returned to his post outside. "Captain?" asked Keltor.
Captain Terror replied, "A transport, sir; they didn't have time to send a distress signal."
Keltor nodded, "Very good."
"Should we report it to General Rhan?" asked Terror.
Keltor considered it for a moment, then shook his head, "If you don't think the droids were alerted, then we're in no danger. Any transmissions could give our position away."
"Yes sir," replied Terror.
Keltor closed his eyes again and continued meditating; the quiet Babble from the Troopers around him was oddly soothing yet also offputting. The same voice said different things at the same time, which made it difficult to keep track of who was saying what. He didn't know how they managed to carry on conversations, let alone able to distinguish who was who.
Another hour passed, still nothing. Some of the men were getting anxious. He understood why. He felt like, at any second, all hell would break loose. He felt uneasy, as if someone was about to punch him, but he didn't know from where, how hard, or when. The only thing keeping him from outright panicking was meditating; the warmth of the force soothed him, if only a little.
Then several blaster shots rent the air. A few men flinched and grabbed their rifles, the conversations ending abruptly. Captain Terror spoke calmly, "Steady boys." Then as quickly as the blaster fire started, they stopped, again a Trooper came, reported to Captain Terror, then left. "A patrol came and inspected the transport. My men aren't sure, but they think the droids managed to send out a distress signal. We should expect an attack within the hour."
Keltor nodded, "At the first sign of a large droid force, send a message to General Rhan."
Captain Terror nodded, "Yes, sir."
Less than an hour later, like Captain Terror had predicted, the droids had sent a small force. "According to the perimeter guard, it was only a company with two tanks as support. They were able to force them back, but we should expect a much larger force, a battalion, or even a division-sized force."
Keltor gripped his lightsaber hilt, "Casualties?"
"Four dead, six critically wounded, eleven lightly wounded," Captain Terror replied, his tone even and calm.
The battle hadn't happened yet, and they had ten fewer troopers that could fight; they were only a company-sized force, holding off a droid battalion would be difficult; even when they had a fortified position, fighting off a division, they didn't stand a chance.
A hundred and twenty men versus tens of thousands of battle droids, it would take a miracle to hold out against that many droids. He knew the Clones were leagues better than any droid and could easily hold out against a force twice or even four times their number.
But he wasn't sure they could hold off an entire division, and it was borderline impossible if the droids had armor support. "Orders, sir?" He was shaken from his thoughts by Captain Terror, waiting expectantly for his orders.
"Stick to the plan, Captain," then, as if the force itself had intervened on his behalf, an idea popped into his mind, "Captain, do we have any explosives?"
The Captain looked to his left to a Trooper, "Do we?"
The Trooper thought for a moment, "No, but we could make some makeshift explosives out of some of the rockets from those wrecked AATs."
"You needed explosives, sir?" even though Captain Terror was wearing a helmet, Keltor could swear that the man was grinning like a schoolboy.
A red bolt whizzed past his head, but he ignored it; he raised his saber to block another shot that would have hit his leg. The droids continued to press forwards; the larger B2's shrugged off several shots before falling, and the smaller B1's were dropping like flies.
*BOOOM* the AT-TE's mass driver cannon shook the tunnel; the shot zipped past them and impacted the ground near the tunnel's entrance sending droids flying in every direction.
"COME ON, YOU SOULLESS BASTARDS!" Captain Terror hefted his rotary cannon laying down a barrage of fire, cutting a path through the advancing droids, "GIVE ME A CHALLENGE!" The AT-TE fired again, blowing another hole in the droid's unrelenting advance; a beam from a saber tank cut down dozens of droids. A trooper fired a rocket into the horde, and the combined fire from the Company cut through the droid ranks like a hot knife through butter.
It still wasn't enough; the droids continued to advance, hundreds at a time marched as one into the tunnel, each droid managing to fire several times before being cut down. The barrage from the droids was so heavy that even though the Clones had all taken cover behind tall sandbag walls, metal crates full of whatever they could find, and even the duracrete pillars holding the tunnel up, they'd taken heavy casualties. At least fifty were dead, and almost as many were wounded.
Keltor was managing to only deflect blaster bolts, but if this kept up for much longer, he was afraid that they'd be overrun. Suddenly more Troopers led by Captain Grade arrived. Grade managed to crawl to where Keltor was and asked, "What's the plan, Commander?"
"Hold them off; we can't give any more ground!" yelled Keltor ducking under a barrage of fire.
"COVER!" yelled a trooper to his right. Just as he said it, a B2 with a barrel for an arm aimed right at him. As the droid fired its missile, time seemed to slow to a crawl. On instinct, Keltor stepped to the side and sliced down with his saber, cutting the rocket in half. The warhead tumbled to a stop a few meters away while the rocket end spiraled out of control and down the tunnel.
"Nice save, Commander," said a nearby Trooper.
Grade pointed to a Trooper and yelled, "You! Secure that warhead!"
Before the Trooper could carry out the task, Terror dropped his rotary cannon and said, "I'll handle it." He quickly moved to the warhead, picked it up, and shouted, "HERE, CATCH!" then threw the warhead back towards the droids.
A B1 dropped its blaster, caught the warhead, and asked, "What's this?"
Terror drew his pistol, took aim, then shot the warhead. The resulting explosion decimated the already collapsing droid assault. Captain Terror spun his pistol, and as he holstered it, he gleefully said, "Just like the simulations." Then as if nothing had happened, he picked up his rotary cannon and resumed mowing down droids.
A few minutes later, the droid assault was over; the clones were leaving their positions and walking among the sea of damaged or destroyed droids; every once and a while, a Trooper would shoot a droid, just in case. Keltor deactivated his lightsaber, but his hand wouldn't let go of the hilt. He took a deep breath, then another, and a third, but his heart was beating faster than ever. Every muscle he had was tense. The battle was over, but he couldn't make himself relax.
"Glad I got here before it was too late," commented Grade. "That assault was worse than I think any of us imagined." Keltor tried to say something but couldn't. "Are you alright, sir?" asked Grade.
Keltor turned to look at him and tried to say something; he was scared, grateful, terrified, and relieved to be alive. The maelstrom of emotions was becoming too much to handle. He was surprised he managed to fight at all because he was too scared to move.
If this was only the first assault, what would the next one be like? Or the one after that? He just hoped they'd be able to hold out long enough for the 501'st to arrive.
"Sir?" Grade shook his shoulder, and all the tension went away just like that.
"What? S-sorry," stammered Keltor.
"Are you alright, sir?" asked Grade.
Keltor nodded, "Yes, Captain, I'm fine. Just amazed we survived, is all."
Grade nodded, then asked, "What now, sir?"
"We look after the wounded and ready for the next assault," said Keltor after a moment.
Grade saluted, "Right away, sir."
Keltor leaned forward, his hand against the wall, and tried not to wretch; if they weren't going to die before, this time, they were certainly dead. In a fit of rage, Captain Terror had kicked a droid's head across the tunnel. "They expect us to sit tight for another week? Does General Kenobi not understand what kind of situation we're in?"
Apparently, the 501'st, along with Skywalker, had been redeployed elsewhere. Obviously, some urgent matter came up that required an entire Brigade to take care of. Whatever it was, Master Kenobi refused to discuss it; he only said that the 212th Battalion was now the only other unit in the same area. And that while they were trying to reach them, it would take up to a week to fight their way through the separatist lines.
Rage boiled inside him, Master Skywalker knew that time was essential for their survival, but he left them high and dry when they needed him most. He made a silent vow that if he ever met Skywalker, he would punch him in the face. Master Rhan could feel his anger and said, "I understand your anger, but you can't let it control you."
She was right; he took a deep breath, then stood and turned, "Sorry, Master, It won't happen again."
"Good, we can't afford to lose our heads, especially now that we're on our own," Master Rhan's tone was calm, but Keltor could feel through the force that she was terrified and furious. "Now, Captain Terror, Captain Grade, what are the chances we can hold off the droids for another week?"
Terror and Grade glanced at each other, and Grade said, "General, I would be amazed if we survived another one or two assaults."
"I second that," added Terror, "We barely held out against this assault."
"Sir, I would advise that we abandon our positions and take our chances trying to fight our way back to friendly lines," said Grade. "But that would mean leaving most, if not all, of the wounded behind."
Master Rhan glared down at the ground; it was obvious that she wasn't willing to leave any of the clones to die. "Captain Terror?"
Terror thought for a moment, then said, "I agree with Captain Grade; we'd have to leave the wounded behind if we're going to get out of here and back to friendly lines."
Keltor looked down the tunnel to the makeshift infirmary; troopers were lying on the ground in front of the tent, some leaning against the wall, one was looking towards them with a vacant look in his only remaining eye. They couldn't abandon them. "Couldn't we call for an evac by air?"
Terror shook his head, "Not with the clanker's air defenses in play, any gunship that so much as gets near here would get ripped apart. We'd have to travel by land. But that-" Captain Terror couldn't finish.
He clenched his teeth, "We can't do that; we won't leave any man behind."
Master Rhan nodded in agreement, "The code forbids that we abandon anyone in need, friend or foe."
Both Terror's and Grade's shoulders slumped, and they both let out a breath they seemed to be holding, Keltor sensed they were both grateful that they wouldn't just abandon the wounded because they could escape certain death if they did.
"Well, I guess our only option is dig in and hope we can make it," said Grade.
"See to it, Captain; we need to hold out for as long as we can," said Master Rhan.
The droids advanced fearlessly, but the sea of battle droids broke against the line of Troopers. The droids were so many that most clones just ducked behind cover, raised their blaster over the sandbag wall, then pulled the trigger and prayed they would hit anything. Occasionally a trooper would peak over the wall only to duck back almost immediately as the droids focused all fire on them.
The few times a droid managed to reach the wall and stepped over, but Keltor was there in a moment to cut it down. "SIR, WE NEED TO FALL BACK TO THE SECOND LINE! THIS WALL WON'T HOLD MUCH LONGER!" As if to prove his point, a sandbag near Captain Grade shattered, bits of glass bouncing off several troopers' armor.
Keltor nodded, "ALRIGHT, GET THE MEN MOVING!"
Captain Terror spoke into his helmet comm but still had to yell so everyone could hear him, "FOURTH COMPANY, PULL BACK TO THE SECOND LINE! SECOND COMPANY, SUPPRESSIVE FIRE NOW!"
Captain Grade and fourth Company got down on their stomachs. They crawled as quickly as possible toward the trenches they'd recently dug. They'd managed to break up a section of the road and dig down into the soil beneath, piling duracrete up over the edge to create a solid wall.
As the fourth Company pulled back, second Company blasted away over the sandbag wall, bits of glass and sand slowly being blown away by the droid's massive volume of fire. Terror spoke over the comms again, "BIG BLUE TARGET THE ENTRANCE OF THE TUNNEL AND FIRE!" Their sole AT-TE swung its mass driver cannon towards the tunnel's entrance and fired three shots. "SECOND COMPANY PULL BACK, PULL BACK!"
Second Company wasted no time, and as the droids were regaining their footing, the clones stood up and sprinted for the trenches, Keltor hot on their heels. The nearest trench was only fifty meters away, and they covered the distance in half a minute. But those thirty seconds were the longest thirty seconds of his life.
Just before he reached the trench, he felt a scorching pain in his left shoulder; he was flung forward, fortunately, into the trench. "OPEN FIRE!" yelled Captain Grade.
One of the troopers nearest to him glanced down as Keltor struggled to his feet, then he quickly yelled, "MEDIC! THE COMMANDERS' BEEN HIT!"
He got to his feet as a medic arrived, "Where are you hit sir?"
"Just my shoulder; I'll be fine," Keltor tried to wave the medic away, but the man didn't budge.
"All due respect, sir, you're our most valuable asset; at the very least, let me give you a bacta patch." The medics' insistence was almost able to make him give in. But looking back and just in front of the trench was a Trooper that was trying to crawl forward. He'd been shot in the back.
Keltor said, "I have another patient for you." He reached out with the force and slowly dragged the Trooper forward. The Trooper panicked for a moment, then calmed down when he realized it was Keltor.
Once the Trooper got close enough to the trench, two Clones helped the man up and over the top. The medic went to him as soon as he was in the trench. Keltor peeked over the lip of the trench and saw the droids stepping over the sandbags they were at only moments before.
Their ruthless advance sent a cold shiver down his spine. "Captain, I think it's time to blow those makeshift charges!"
Captain Terror nodded in agreement, "Yes, sir!"
Moments later, makeshift charges made from anything they could scrounge together detonated and blew the tunnel entrance, "COVER!" The Troopers and Keltor ducked into the trench as bits of duracrete hurtled overhead. Once the cacophony of noise stopped, they stood up, looking over the edge of the trench. The tunnel's entrance had collapsed, stopping the droid's advance. A few had escaped the blast and the debris but were quickly shot by the Clones.
"I half expected that not to work," said Grade.
"Be thankful it did," commented Terror. "Right, boys, you know the drill. Execute the ones still active."
A chorus of yes sir came from the Troopers as they clambered out of the trench and weaved their way through the large chunks of rock and duracrete, occasionally shooting a droid that was moving.
The medic from before came up to him, "Commander, let's get that wound checked out."
And that's a wrap. I'm posting this story on both and Wattpad (simply because I know they'll get some traffic there and actually be read). Now one thing I can do on fanfic is look at how many people have read my stories, and over the course of the month, surprise, surprise, my other story (The American Hero) has done the best.
Something like 80 people have read it in the last 8 days. Can't express how cool that is.
But what really wowed me was on Wattpad I can view how many times my story gets picked based on its tags. Ranking wise, not to brag or anything (totally definitely not bragging here in the slightest), out of 1.6 thousand stories that have the tag "clones", my story ranks 211th.
Out of the 4.4 thousand stories that have the tag "anakinskywalker" this story ranks *drumroll* 891st.
That doesn't sound like it's super high up, cause, like, it's not, but it's still in the top 25%, which is something.
Means I'm doing something right, and people at least wanna read my stories, which is a nice feeling.
If anyones interested, my other story is only 338th out of 2.3 thousand stories with the tag "endeavor." I don't really rank on any of the tags for that story. Which is a bit of a bummer, but meh, it's a start.
I do not own Star Wars, any events or people in this story that mirror real life or other stories are completely coincidental. Although a few events will be inspired by things that actually happened. I'll mention the ones that I consciously chose.
Now, fun fact (sorta)
There's no record in canon or legends of what happened to the 104th Battalion, otherwise known as the Wolfpack. The only known surviving member is Commander Wolffe. So it's free real estate for me, and I already have something lined up for them.