"Get down!" "Tinnies on the left flank!" "Behind u-auuuhagh!" Battalion Commander CC-5485 otherwise known as "Jazz" watched as his men fell to the countless waves of droids. One of his troopers, CC-9000 was running towards him.
"Sir! I commed command, we'll have to hold out for a little bit more." Jazz grimaced at the news and turned to the wounded troops. "Maybe I could try aga-" Before CC-9000 could finish his sentence a wave of rockets blew the makeshift medbay into shambles.
Alpha-83 known as "Grapple" saw as the medbay went down due to the SBD's, his comlink blinked.
"Go." Grapple shouted over the thunder of blaster shots while shooting at the advancing droids.
"CC-5485 was in the medbay," replied CC-3928, "Get him out." Grapple, with the new order, sped off towards the ruined medbay. Arriving at the shambles he looked around for any signs of survivors, movement caught his eye. Rushing towards it he saw Jazz, Grapple tore the wreckage off of his body.
"Jazz, get up!" During the explosion Jazz's visor cracked and split, revealing the fearful look in his eyes. Helping him to his feet, Grapple looked around for any sign of their Jedi generals. He saw one, the destroyed lightsaber of General Hoff. "We have to get off this kriffing planet." Grapple grumbled. With a huff, Grapple dropped Jazz off with another squad of troopers and ran off towards the battle once again.
"After this, you owe me a drink." CC-9987 joked with CC-2323.
"If we survive this, I'll buy you as many as you want Lyle," responded Pail as he lept up to shoot some more droids. "So when do you think we'll get out of this?"
"I don't know Pail, but I do know that if you don't shut up we won't get out of this." poked Lyle. Pail laughed right before he lept up and shot more clankers. " WATCH IT!" warned Lyle as a rocket soared overhead, thrusting a squad of troopers into the air, screaming. Both clones grimaced under their helmets at the sound of the crunch as the troopers fell back to the ground, limp. As they both continued firing at the advancing droids Lyle's comm bleeped. "This is Lyle, go."
"Lyle, it's Grapple. Jazz is down, I am acting commander. Do you have any men to spare? I only need one."
"Yeah, I'll send someone over to you, where are you?"
"I'm at the new medbay."
"Roger that." Lyle turned to Pail, "You up for it?"
"Yes sir," with that Pail turned and ran off towards the new makeshift medbay. Lyle turned back to the droids and sighed.
"Ace! Red! Move up towards the trees!" Lyle ordered two troopers. They charged forward, to be met with a hail of blaster fire as more droids emerged from the surrounding forest. "Fall back!" Lyle ordered grimly.
"Do you know how to operate long-range comms?" Grapple asked Pail.
"Yeah, what do you need?" Pail responded
"I need you to contact Westward to get us out of this hellhole."
"Give me a minute." Pail replied as he set to work to contact Westward. "This is CC-2323 with the 435th Battalion, we need an extraction immediately!"
"This is Westward we are en-route, ETA is 15 minutes. Hold on 435th."
"Fierfek, I don't know if we can hold out that long sir."
"We have to, we are getting out of here," no later than 10 seconds after he said that two commando droids burst in, Grapple and Pail lept into action along with two other troopers. The commando droids shot one of them before it was shot, the other droid stabbed one of the wounded before it was put down.
"If they're here, then…"
"They were commando droids, stealth. But go back to fighting, we need troops up there," Grapple turned to the other trooper, "What's your name?"
"Brisk sir," the clone replied.
"You'll stay here with me Brisk, as a guard. Understood?"
"Sir, yes sir!"
"Blast, cover that door. Fallout, man that E-Web. Doc, get ready." RC-3885 known by his brothers as "Wes" ordered his squad. They all followed his orders, "3…2...1, go, go, go!" As he opened the door Blast chucked a thermal detonator in as Doc fired his DC-17m and Fallout fired the E-Web into the droids. Soon the droids were just melted metal.
"Oooh, they might wanna get that looked at sir, seems prone to infection." Fallout joked getting a chuckle from Fallout and Doc, along with a snort from Wes.
"Stay focused Dawn Squad. We have to get back to the 435th before extraction."
"Yes sir," every commando said in unison. They all made their way down the corridor, rounding a corner they saw a trapdoor. Fallout crept up to it, cracked it open, and peered out. Fallout saw hundreds of droids marching towards blaster fire. Ducking down he told the squad what he saw,
"What's the call Wes?" Fallout asked.
"Let's cause some mayhem boys," Wes responded cheerfully. Blast went up to the trapdoor and chucked a thermal detonator out and dived to the ground. They felt the blast from where they were laying, peering up they saw the trapdoor shredded and battle droids peering down.
"Are they dead?" One of the droids asked the other droid.
"I don't know, should we check?"
"Yeah," said Doc as he shot the two droids into shrapnel. "Are we all right?" asked Doc. He got a chorus of groans. "I'll take that as a yes, let's go."
"Did you see that explosion Gills?" yelled Lyle to one of the troopers under his command.
"Yeah, wonder what it was from!" Gills yelled back. The answer to his question was running towards them. As Dawn Squad slid behind cover with them Gills let out a laugh, "Now it's a party!"
"Have a nice stroll Wes?" Lyle asked him.
"Oh you know us, we love a nice walk during a battle. Some rude clankers interrupted us though, they're now a pile of melted slag. Hey, when's our ride gonna be here?"
"Any minute now," Lyle responded. His comm bleeped at him, "Lyle."
"Get everyone to the medbay, larties are inbound."
"Roger that," Lyle confirmed. He pressed a button on his comm to broadcast to every trooper. "Moving out, larties inbound, get to the medbay now! Let's go." Dawn Squad, Gills, some more troopers, and Lyle took off towards the medbay, leaving some thermal detonators behind them.
"Give 'em somethin' to remember us by!" Blast announced. When they got far enough away Blast detonated the bombs, blowing many, many droids up in the process.
"That'll do Blast, that'll do." Fallout amended. As they neared the medbay they saw the larties start destroying the droids with missiles and lasers. Yells of joy lept out of the ranks of clones as their saviors started descending.
"Let's get out of here!" Grapple yelled to the gathering clones. The wounded were loaded onto the first few larties while everyone else waited. "Hey, Lyle, that's everyone. Living anyway, let's get off this rock."
"Yeah, let's go. I need some food in me," Lyle said with a sigh knowing how much they lost that day.
The death toll of the 435th Battalion was numerous while the name makes you think they were a battalion they were actually a regiment of troops. Now they are known as a battalion.
THE TOTAL DEATH TOLL OF THE 435TH BATTALION WAS 1, 298 TROOPERS. THEY WILL BE MOURNED...