I slap the last charge on the pylon and call it in to the Sarge. His glowing visor nods off in the darkness.

"Let's pack it up, squad."

We leave what's left of the crate in the basement. This isn't a covert op. In fact, there's a pretty long trail of droid parts behind and above us. I double-check and make sure the hundreds of charges are all glowing green. Then we bug out as fast as we can, up the stairs and out the way we came in, then dive into a little cave that Oath found and made bigger.

Zero ducks in last and hits the switch, and all there is is rumbling. Two minutes later, the spire is still falling in on itself, but we can move now. Deuce calls in the gunship as Zero peeks around the edge to see his handiwork.

The gunship glides in, and we're off. Delta Squad took care of the job we were supposed to do with Theta, so we're off the hook, but C&C calls in and says all available personnel with explosives training are needed to help take down a forward observation post. That means us. Apparently the engineers couldn't make it.

We're up and moving now. I've never seen so many droids in my life. I've killed quite a few, but never seen them just running around like that. I can see a huge wall of stone in front of us, and the fortified entrance to the post. There's about a company of clones all lying on the ground there. Poor fierfeks.

The gunship starts taking AA fire and descends immediately to let us off. There's no time to deploy the hooks, so it's a touch-and-go drop. The gunship was literally fifteen centimeters on the ground when we rolled off.

We watch the gunship explode as it takes off again. No time to mourn. Zero orders us to check ammo and weapons. We're all green.

"Let's move, Cryo."

We advance on the post, hugging the canyon walls. We must have tripped some kind of alarm, because suddenly there are droids boiling out of the door. Including a spider droid. Everyone finds a rock to hide behind and starts throwing grenades and anti-armor rounds. I go through my last anti-armor round and switch to sniper and pick off a droid with every shot I have left. Finally it's just the spider droids, and everyone is down to snipers and rifles. Zero nails the spider with a lucky shot to the eye and the thing just shuts down. To be safe, Oath slaps a few charges on it while the rest of us wait.

Then an SBD appears out of nowhere and shoots Oath in the back.

"CRYO DOWN! CRYO DOWN!"

The SBD goes down with a full clip of plasma bolts to the faceplate.

I can't lose another squad member. I hurry to Oath and find he's still breathing, but it sounds jagged, and his armor is scalding hot even through the gloves. Deuce and I drag him inside while Zero clears the area. Deuce joins Zero as I pop Oath's back plate and throw it aside. I'm careful about opening the suit underneath. Sometimes it's the only thing holding a man together…like I found out with Cappie.

I do a medical scan with some gear from my pack. Looks sound. I open the suit and see his back is covered with blisters and the biggest bruise a man has a right to suffer.

I hear explosions a floor up. I hope Deuce and Zero caused them. I stab Oath with a painkiller sharp and close up his suit and armor while the fearless leaders come back down. Deuce calls in to C&C.

"Post Aurek-Nine-Nine neutralized. Cryo requesting extraction, one down. Repeat, one wounded."

The gunship arrives, and we slide Oath on first. His breathing still sounds unnatural. I hear the blasterfire that filled the canyon is starting to die down. Maybe we'll be out of here soon.