The 501st: A Clone's War
Chapter 1
The clone wars… a dark time, that was. Although it's been nearly thirty years since it started, I remember it all like it was yesterday. I remember the smell of blasters firing all around you, the feel of death around, the pain you feel as you see dozens of your men dieing around, blasters rifles blowing holes the size of a fist straight through their flesh…
Although I was on the winning side until the end of the war, that doesn't mean we didn't suffer millions of casualties. No, no, no, even for the empire, even for a clone, that war was hell. Worse, even.
Yes, I was a clone, one of the billions cloned from bounty hunter Jango Fett who, unfortunately, was killed in the war. Pity, if hired to do it, he could have helped us greatly. I was a member of the 501st, an elite squad of clones. The best of the best, although we often went into battle with ordinary grunts. Still, it was good to be a member of the best soldiers in the galaxy. That was, until Geonosis…
I looked out the edge of the Republic Gunship as I stood. In the arena below us, about two dozen Jedi stood, surrounded by Separatist battle droids, super battled droids, and droidekas. I looked over my shoulder and saw a fellow clone. Even though he was wearing his shining white helmet, he looked like he was going to be sick. I couldn't blame him, this was, after all our first mission. He looked at me.
"Its going to be okay," I told him. He nodded. Then I look down at Master Yoda, who stood beside me.
"Around the survivors, a
perimeter create," he told us. I nodded. I turned looked back out
the doorway of the gunship beside us. I looked at the pilot and made
a signal to tell him to make a perimeter around the Jedi. He nodded.
I turned back to the sickly soldier.
"Hey, get onto that
turret. Kill the droids closest to the Jedi, then move your way to
all of them," I told him. He nodded, and jumped into the turret
which jutted out the side of the gunship. I quickly jumped into the
turret beside him. I quickly grabbed the handle of the turret and
squeezed the trigger. My heart began to thump hard in my chest as
huge green blaster bolts fired from the turret, tearing through
dozens of droids like they were watered down paper. I couldn't help
but smile underneath my helmet. After years of training in
simulations, this seemed like nothing. He looked back at the sick
soldier in the turret next to him.
"Pretty easy, isn't it!" I yelled over to him. Amazingly, through the noise, he heard me. He nodded and gave me a thumbs up. For some reason, I liked the guy. I'd have to talk to him after this, maybe we'd be friends. You don't get many of those in the war.
Suddenly, an explosion hit close to me, and my head smashed back into the headrest. It took me a second to see again, smoke was around me and I was dizzy from my head hitting the headrest. When I could see again, I saw what hit us. A Separatist spider-walker vehicle was out about two-hundred feet away from the arena, and had blown a hole through the wall and hit their gunship.
"TAKE OUT THAT SPIDER-WALKER!" I yelled at the sick soldier, but as I looked over to him I realized he was there. The shot from the spider-walker's blaster fire had struck the turret, and destroyed most of it. The soldier's charred corpse was still sitting in the chair, his hands cooked into what was left of the handle. Suddenly, I began to feel like I was going to vomit, or urinate on myself. Just seconds ago he had felt invincible, like I couldn't be hurt. Now I knew that wasn't true.
Although I was scared, I knew what I had to do, or I could be next to be killed. I aimed the turret at the spider-walker, and began to fire. The problem was, though, that although these turrets were great at close range, at long range the accuracy was pretty bad. Luckily, I hit the spider-walker tank almost immediately, and the blaster bolt went straight through it. The spider-walker stopped, then slowly fell over, crushing several droid troops that were around it. I should have felt happy, but I wasn't. Not at all.
Not long after all that, the gunship landed a mile or so away from the arena, where the battle was now. Several dozen troops and I were standing still, our rifles aimed at the platoon of battle droids heading towards us. Our leader, named Cody, had his hand high, all fingers up, meaning he didn't want us to fire yet. I wasn't sure if he knew what he was doing, the droids weren't that far away. But, I waited. And waited.
God, the droids wee only a few yards away. Cody put his hand into a fist, and we opened fire. I felt sweat beading on my skin as my rifle shook in my hands, the blaster fire taking down several droids. As I was firing, I began to see soldiers falling around me, blaster holes smoking in their bodies. Something was wrong, too many of our troops were dying, both grunts and 501st members. I saw Cody begin to walk backwards, still firing.
"FALL BACK!" he yelled, and none of us hesitated. Some stayed, but were shot down. The rest of took off running. Unfortunately, I didn't see the grenade that had been thrown a little bit ahead of me, and the last thing I remember was being thrown back several feet by the explosion, and san falling all around me…
Before that battle, I had been a cocky, young warrior. After, I was a battle-hardened soldier, more cautious. I'm still not sure today how I survived, I just remember waking up in a hospital back on Coruscant, recovering from a minor concussion. I'm still not sure who saved me, but I always had a hunch it was Cody. I respected much after that, and became good friends with him throughout the war…