Hey guys it's able, the following chapter is based off of WWI. I admit the movie 1917 inspired me as well as the historical knowledge I possess, and Solo shows an environment that Han fought in that I wanted to make somewhat realistic. Especially since lore wise people fought for Mimban from the Clone Wars to the age of the Empire.
Lest we forget the men and women of the First World War.
The Valkyrie.
Orbit over Mimban.
"What a sad rock this is eh?" Jace spat as he stared out the bridge window.
"We always go to such nice places." Asher said, a habit he'd gained from the past two planets he'd fought on.
"Humidity high, chance of rain high…" Jace sighed as he glanced at a datapad, "And get this brothers, it's kriffing winter!"
A collective groan rang through the bridge, but Asher shrugged. The cold would be a nice change of pace to the unbearable heat they usually dealt with. But environmental casualties never ceased, hot or cold.
"Why are we fighting for this scab anyway?" Cutter grunted.
"The Mimbanese tribals are getting their shebs handed to them. Planet is rich in gas." Jace shrugged.
"If it's something the Seppies want, that means we're going to take it." Asher spat as he glanced down at the topographical map.
"Roger that sir." Cutter grinned.
"We get that new inventory squared away?" Asher asked.
"The boys love the new toys." Dice chuckled, "Never had so many volunteer for a detail before."
"Our medics like the new harnesses too, all of them are glad to supplement their aid bags." Nero explained.
The Chancellor had done good on his promise of manpower and gear. The newest batch of shiny medics and infantry added to their ranks.
Asher had spent their buildup for the coming battle training them, the veterans of Arantara had done well with bringing them up to snuff, now all they had to do was scuff up their armor. He had his own reservations of course, when they were a company sized element he'd had ample time to train his boys.
These new guys didn't have the luxury of time, the battle would test their mettle better than any crash course ever could.
"How are the new weapons?" Asher asked.
"DC-15W heavy repeaters are bridging the gap very well, every squad has at least one, as for the others? Well… Hammer Company is chomping at the bit to try it all out." Dice grinned roguishly.
"The two-twenty fourth haven't gained ground in weeks, you see these reports?" Jace groaned.
Both armies bogged down by mud, the cold season was here and the filth of the battlefield had jammed up the servos in droid limbs and in Clone walkers. The so called "Mud Jumpers." Had faced some heavy resistance for every inch of ground they took.
"Landfall is tomorrow at dawn, I want to see every man have his gear rain proofed. Weapons sealed when not in use." Asher droned.
"Roger that." Every trooper said in unison.
Captain Atomus strode up, datapad in hand.
"We've blockaded the planet, we have starfighter wings in place to escort you all to the ground." She explained.
"Good, just in case the droids want to play in orbit." Asher mused.
"I've read over the list of certifications your men have it's very… comprehensive." The Pantoran stated, swiping another well manicured finger across her datapad.
Asher felt pride well up in his chest, the Jedi wanted the best so he gave the best.
"Airborne, air assault, High Altitude, EVA, you and your command team are all ARC qualified and you have Pathfinder units." She prattled off.
"Impressed ma'am?" Jace asked with a smile.
"Very much so, I read you troopers were deadly, I'm just surprised a medical unit has this much expertise."
"When we were on Geonosis we were regular infantry. Outmanned and outgunned, when I was given command I wanted to make sure that never happened again." Asher explained.
"That explains the shipment of new weapons and the already massive roster of the previous inventory." Captain Atomus smirked, placing the datapad down, "And you troopers are a medical unit?"
"Sometimes the best medicine is lethal force. The enemy can't inflict casualties if they've all been wasted." Jace grinned.
Captain Seya Atomus crossed her arms, her eyes seemed to sparkle as she sent the smile back.
"I like it." She said simply, "Lieutenant Jace right?"
"Yes' ma'am."
She nodded, taking note of his name, committing his face to memory. She had struggled with telling them apart at first until she cued onto the different haircuts, tattoos and scars.
If their armor wasn't all a different style she never would be able to tell them apart with the helmets on.
The new unit insignia for their new battalion level status was emblazoned proudly on their left shoulders. A circle with crossed swords and a hammer down the center, an arch that read "AIRBORNE" in yellow above it.
Catching her staring, Asher chimed in.
"Showtime made it, took him a sec to make the stencils. Crazy fool almost sliced an artery with the scalpel he used." The Captain chuckled, "He's a better artist than he is a pilot."
The other emblem, only worn by the "Battered Nine." As she'd come to know them wore a snarling Rancor on the right shoulder, Walker and Trace were from different companies on Geonosis but the carnage had been the same for them.
A tribute of fallen brothers and past service painted proudly on their armor, she hadn't expected the clones to be so... creative.
"Make the preparations gentlemen, have the boys double and triple check their gear. Aid bags stocked, power packs fully charged. I want us dirtside as quick as possible, dismissed." Asher barked, "Jace and Cutter standby for the main brief."
The dismissed men stood to attention and saluted, which Asher returned. They began comming their junior NCO's to get the rabble in order. They left Asher's XO and First sergeant.
"You alright brother?" Asher asked Jace.
"I'm antsy ner vod, always am before a drop." The sunny clone shrugged.
"Oh well can I help you relax? Perhaps bring you a holo of your favorite sitcoms? Maybe a fluffy pillow?" Asher joked with a smirk.
"You spoil me." Jace chuckled crossing his arms.
Cutter rolled his eyes, but his lopsided smile showed his irritation wasn't real.
Captain Atomus cleared her throat and the Command team glanced at her somewhat embarrassed.
"Apologies ma'am, the banter is unprofessional." The medic Captain rubbed his neck sheepishly.
"Fret not Captain, where are the Jedi? They should be here for this briefing." She reminded.
Asher slid his helmet on to check his time, his men know the music and how to dance to it, but the higher brass meeting would ensure that everyone with significant rank would too.
"They were prepping their gear how they wanted it, they should be here soon." He said, sliding off his helmet and setting it onto the holo table.
With that the duo entered, both Jedi looking serene and calm, Commander Sul's leg had healed well, she no longer limpedz
"Atten-tion!" Asher called.
The entire bridge snapped to, and General Nema held a placating hand.
"Please relax, good morning Captain." General Nema greeted.
"Ma'am's." The Medic Captain intoned.
"Boys." Commander Sul greeted as she fist bumped Jace and Cutter.
"Now then," The Pantoran Captain pulled up aerial images, "Shall we begin?"
The Valkyrie.
Mimban's stratosphere.
The order of battle was simple.
Make contact with the Commanders of the 224th, a Commander Hoyt and General Actus Set and work to break the stalemate.
Much to Asher's relief, the 501st would be along for this sojourn. It would be a boon to work with Rex and Skywalker again.
He'd made a few calls to them, to ensure their efforts were in sync. Luckily it wouldn't be a hot drop.
He never would tire of this, but that horrid feeling of anxiety that sprang through him as he watched the men, his men, load the gunships dampened his spirits.
Not all of them would come back alive, he'd gotten lucky on Arantara with only wounded.
"Ten minutes till drop you bunch of lazy womp rats! Get these gunships squared away!" Cutter roared, hefting a crate.
They loaded the gunships, and Asher leaned against a bulkhead with his arms crossed, the Jedi and Jace on either side of him.
When they finished Asher called them.
"Eyes on me!"
Each trooper stood at rigid attention, Mimban loomed through the hangar's shield.
"I'm going to keep this simple, you all see that sad looking rock?"
He pointed out the hanger and every trooper glanced at it.
"The Seppies want it, that means we're going to take it. The Mud Jumpers have been fighting for this planet for months now with no progress, we will guide them back to the true path!"
The troopers whooped and shouted, their morale was higher than their orbit over the planet.
"Watch your sectors, and keep your heads down, an army of one man!" Captain Asher began.
"But the right man for the job!" The troopers finished.
"Board your transports! Let's get this job done!"
A mad shuffle of boots came as they jogged to their gunships, Asher walked to his with his command team in tow. His DC-15A slung over his shoulder and his aid bag on his back.
He boarded the "Boogie Bus" as Showtime called it, the trooper's cheerful movements in the cockpit a contrast to his co-pilot. Will forlornly did his checks, likely anticipating his demise as he always did in the cockpit with his batch brother.
The Medic Captain grabbed one of the overhead straps as the gunship doors slid into place, casting the troop bay in red.
"Good morning Mimban!" Showtime called on an open channel.
Asher smirked as Cutter hung his head down low, his hand against his helmet in irritation.
"It is a gloomy day on this fine Mimban winter! With a high chance of droid contact and rainfall! Keep your spirits high and your armor dry brothers!" Showtime cackled.
Music blared through the intercom just like Arantara, a Leap-jump genre song blasting through the intercom and on their frequencies. The lyrics were raunchy, sung by a Twi'lek singer that the boys were fond of, her posters tacked onto quite a few barracks walls and locker doors.
General Nema shook her head with a smile while Reha bobbed her head happily, the music feeding through her helmet.
"Why in all the nine galaxies did I get stuck with that idiot?" Cutter hissed.
The gunship lifted up slowly and taxied out.
Planet-side.
Mimban.
The mud squished under his boots as he advanced, his poncho fluttering in another rancid gust, the stench creeping through his filters just barely.
"Always such nice places…" He muttered like so many times before.
Asher had served on two desert worlds, the rains reminded him of Kamino with their persistence, but the mud? That was another thing entirely.
Landfall was easy enough, no flack to speak of and no aerial interception from the droids luckily. His men had begun to set up as he moved for the command tent.
The 224th had dug trenches and bunkers with every advance they made, but the droids saw fit to do the same and to be blunt, theirs were better.
Sand bags and wire were the name of the game, high strands of razor wire and tanglefoot. It wouldn't cut the droids like it would the organics but it would at least get them stuck.
Why anybody would fight for Mimban was beyond him, the world looked brown from orbit but was grey on the ground. It looked like death, a fog overcast along the line, thicker than ration soup. He could barely make out the white armored forms left to rot in what the Mud Jumpers had called "No Man's land."
The slog to the command tent was hampered by mud, the 224th's troopers eyed him wearily as he entered the CP.
"I want artillery down on that line, the droids can't move in this mess and I want to capitalize on it." Came the bark of the Commander.
White armor stained in sickly browns and green was his clone brothers, the men that had earned the name "Mud Jumpers" for their efforts on this planet.
"Captain Asher of the First Medical Support Battalion reporting." He drones.
The Commander glanced up, his palms flat against the table. Regardless of the accelerated aging, the man looked like he'd aged even faster.
"Good to see you ner vod, welcome to Mimban." He snarked, "Name's Hoyt, commander of the Mud jumpers."
Asher extended his hand which the Commander shook. The Clone medic removing his helmet.
"What's the situation looking like sir?" Asher asked, joining him at the table.
"Clankers are dug in deeper than a Ryloth tick, our AT-TE's are bogged down from the mud freezing in their servos, but luckily that means the same for the droids."
"Casualties?"
"High," Hoyt sighed, "And that's not just from the droids no, my men have every environmental issue you can think of."
"I read the reports." Asher affirmed.
"Oh yes, trench foot, and they're getting sick despite my own medical's best efforts. We're in the red for everything right now."
"My men are setting up their CCP, as well as getting out on the line, how goes the battle itself?"
"Stalemate, we've been playing mercy with the droids since winter began. They dig in and they stay there, no assault seems to work in our favor."
The Medic Captain did a glance of the tent.
"Where's your Jedi? I was told General Actus Set was attached to you."
The Mud jumper Commander shook his head.
"He's hanging on the barbed wire out there in no man's land, I've already lost two troopers just trying to retrieve his body and that was days ago."
Asher's fist clenched.
"I won't lie to you Captain, I read the reports from your past actions, that HALO jump into enemy territory is just the right amount of crazy I need."
"What did you have in mind?"
"I need the craziest di'kuts you've got to cause as much collateral damage as possible."
Asher smirked and chuckled darkly, his First Sergeant coming to mind instantly.
"I know just the man."
"Very good, I already sent word for Captain Rex and General Skywalker for this evening's meeting. As a matter of fact, where are your Jedi?"
"Setting up our aid station, I believe they've already begun seeing patients."
Hoyt nodded, and gratefully took a cup of caff one of his staff made him.
"Very good, I'll comm if anything changes, dismissed Captain."
Asher donned his helmet and saluted before leaving the tent.
The boom of outgoing artillery greeted him to the outside air, daylight blocked by the rain clouds faded away like the smoke of Jace's cigarras.
He shivered as rain billowed his poncho, the rain grew in intensity.
As Asher neared the aid station, he grimaced.
They already had a line.
The first clone they would treat sat in the aid station one of their litter stands, he coughed his lungs up and spat scarlet into a basin.
Every breath he took was a shuddering whine, and even his brother's hands on him did little to ease his woes. He had downgraded his armor around his chest to the black bodysuit they all wore.
Rig Nema listened intently to his lung sounds through her stethoscope and shook her head, grabbing the basin he'd coughed into.
She passed the stethoscope to Reha who donned it and pressed to his lung fields.
"Breath in… breath out…" She commanded.
Her eyes widened as General Nema donned gloves and smeared some of the blood onto a microscope slide.
She sat and glanced into the scope as Asher removed his bucket and poncho.
The Jedi Doctor muttered something to herself.
"This has been going on for how long?" She asked.
"About… a week ma'am." The Clone rasped.
General Nema set her chair down in front of the Clone, gently folding her hands.
"Trooper, the cells in your blood are positive for exposure to fungus, Ascomycetous pneumoconiosis. It is also known as Fester Lung."
His eyes blanked and he gripped the litter he sat upon just a little firmer.
"Inform your chain of command that I am putting in an order for chest x-rays, this battle is done for you." She announced.
"Ma'am respectfully… no." The Clone protested, rising to his feet.
"I'm not asking you trooper." She said gently.
"I'm fine, I'm not leaving my brothers."
"Trooper." Asher interjected.
"Sir?"
"What use are you to your brothers if you can barely stand. Let alone fight?"
The trooper's mouth opened in protest but no words came, his shoulders sagged and he shook his head.
"I don't want to leave them." He rasped.
"Trooper if you don't get treated for this, the results are fatal." Commander Sul explained.
"If you want to keep in the fight trooper you need to step away from this." Asher explained.
The Clone took a wheezing breath his face a flood of emotions. His eyes darted left and right, looking for allies but every medic held their ground. Seeing no way out he nodded.
"Yes sir."
"Good man."
Asher commed Hoyt.
"Commander I need all of your personnel that have been sick to report to the aid station immediately."
The 224th had gained and lost ground on Mimban since winter began.
And now their numbers were halved not by the droids, not by artillery, but by sickness.
Gunships loaded with the sick taxied out to the Valkyrie. The Civilian contracted medical personnel would see to it that they'd be treated.
"Half of my men, half." Hoyt grit as he saw another gunship fly off.
"The spores on this rock are getting them sick, if they don't get treated they'll die." Asher affirmed.
"We've fought for every inch of this karking place, and this is the result? My boys hacking up their lungs? Their bodies boiling them to death?"
"It isn't your fault brother."
"We can't break the stalemate with these numbers." Hoyt threw his arms up, "I had a kriffing plan!"
"Which was?" Asher asked crossing his arms.
"I can't send men in force, but if I could get a team to break into their lines and at least take the forward trenches we might have a shot."
Asher smirked.
"Cutter!" He barked over his shoulder.
The First Sergeant jogged up, he did not salute to not make sniper bait out of the officers before him.
"Gentlemen?" Cutter greeted.
"Do you see that front line?" Asher asked, gesturing to the droid trenches much like he did in the hangar.
"Yes sir?"
"I want it."
Cutter's eyes narrowed, his lips twitched into a smile under his helmet as he chuckled darkly.
"What's the plan?" Cutter said, a dangerous edge to his voice.
Stars and galaxies the man was excited, like a rancor chomping at the bit.
"Right this way." Hoyt said, gesturing to the CP.
They moved for the tent, the 501st's high command joining them at the entrance.
Asher clasped forearms with Rex and shook General Skywalker's hand.
"Good to see you again Captain." The Jedi said.
"Likewise General." Asher affirmed as he held open the tent flap for everyone.
General Nema and Commander Sul sat gracefully poised. Cups of steaming caff in their hands.
"General, Commander." Asher greeted.
"Captain." General Nema smiled.
"Ash." Reha smiled.
Asher raised a brow as he removed his helmet but accepted the nickname.
"Alright, here's the sitrep." Hoyt began as he typed on a console.
The holo projector showed the droid line, miles long. In red, key points had been highlighted along the trenches.
"As you can see, the tinnies are dug in deep. They've had time to set up bunkers, heavy gun emplacements, arty, mortars and their kill zones…"
In yellow, the bunkers showed cones of fire that showed their effectiveness.
Almost all of No Man's land was covered by something.
"Are incredibly effective." Hoyt sighed, "We've tried to send armor forward to cover an infantry advance but no dice, AA takes down any air attack we attempt. Our Jedi tried a charge after an artillery bombardment and died out there, their fire is accurate enough that I can't even retrieve my dead." Hoyt sipped a cuff of caff, his tone to the grim circumstances was identical to describing his breakfast.
Asher's eyes scanned the line, red lines where barbed wire sat zigzagged across the map.
"This accurate?" He asked.
"One hundred percent, survey teams got me the scans this morning."
"So what's the plan?" Asher asked.
"If you look here at sector seven." Hoyt zoomed onto the image, "You can see a grey area, a blind spot just between two bunkers."
It was small, only large enough for maybe a few troopers. Cutter eyed it keenly, like a predator who smelled fresh blood.
"If we can get a small team, no more than three or so in that trench line to take out those guns we can punch a hole in their line." Hoyt explained, "Downside is, once those bunkers get taken out the strike team will be on their own."
Asher shook his head, hesitant to send in any of his men on such a slim chance with that information coming to light.
Cutter seemed to sense his Captain's dread, and clapped him fondly on the shoulder.
"Eh overwhelming odds with little to no chance of success? I know just the men to do it." Cutter grinned, "I'll need Mickey and Bedlam."
"Vod you sure about this?" Asher asked.
He'd lost so many brothers, he didn't want to lose Cutter.
"Sir, ground assaults are my specialty. Mickey and Bedlam would love the opportunity to scrap some clankers."
Hoyt cleared his throat.
"I'm aware of your capabilities First Sergeant, it's why you've come so highly recommended. If you and your men can get us the hole we need we can turn this battle around."
Cutter cracked his knuckles.
"The line will be ours by dawn." He boasted.
"Captain Rex, General Skywalker, my men are at half strength due to illness. The 501st will be the tip of the spear once we get our breach."
"We'll hit them hard sir." Rex said plainly.
Hoyt nodded gratefully and killed his cup of caff, one of his staff taking it to refill.
"As for me and my men?" Asher asked.
"Reinforce the line, once that breach is made Hammer and Sword will bring the pain alongside the five-oh-first."
"Roger that." The Medic Captain mused.
"I won't lie to you, it'll be a bloody day tomorrow. Prep for close combat in those trenches, it's going to rain tonight, so be ready." Hoyt advised, grabbing his new cup with an appreciative nod.
The Clone Commander took a sip, sighed content, and shut off the holo.
"Dismissed."
Asher turned to his officers and senior NCO's.
"Nero, Kincaid, I want your men prepped for casualties. Expect hard terrain, dodge the shell craters where you can. If you can't litter bound them, drag them. Brief your men to stay low. I want Shaman Company to be ready for mass cals, set up a second aid station."
"Yes sir." Both troopers intoned.
"Walker, Dice, prep your ordnance. I want grenadiers in front backed up by rockets. Get those flamethrowers up and ready to torch the trenches. I want gunners on standby to lay some hate where necessary."
"Roger sir." Dice and Walker intoned.
"Ma'am's, be ready for casualties, General Nema will man one aid station, and Commander Sul will run the other. I want a massive CCP behind us for quick evac."
General Nema nodded, and Commander Sul held raw determination in her eyes.
"Ready to step up little sister?" Cutter asked with a smirk.
"Always." She smiled.
"Let's get prepped." Asher announced, fist bumping Jace.
Cutter prepped his gear alongside Bedlam and Mickey. They'd painted their armor a digital pattern of dark grey and black for the night.
Bedlam shouldered his rocket launcher, a small one shot and disposable tube. While Mickey slipped a bandolier of droid poppers and spare magazines for his Grenade launcher.
Cutter for ease of travel had abstained from carrying the Pig. And opted for the new DC-15W heavy repeater. Unlike its blaster rifle cousin it had a shorter albeit heavier barrel and an absolute ripsaw rate of fire.
Combat knives, droid poppers, flash grenades, thermal detonators, and a set of charges that Bedlam had prepped and stowed into his backpack.
Their callsigns for this sojourn was the appropriate, Chaos. Cutter was Chaos-one, while Mickey and Bedlam were two and three.
"Cutter your best man for this?" Rex asked Asher as they both watched the trio prepare.
"Cutter is a walking apocalypse, a living traumatic event on his own. With Mickey and Bedlam? They're the Reaper made manifest."
Rex raised a brow from behind his helmet and whistled.
"Your point of contact is Sergeant Raz, just follow the signs that say Shrapnel lane." Hoyt explained, "He'll show you your path."
"Roger sir." Cutter droned as he did a function test on his rifle before checking his pistol.
"Good luck, both all of you, when both bunkers are destroyed send up a flare."
"I'll light it up like a holiday sir." Bedlam grinned behind his helmet.
Asher strode up as Cutter slipped his bucket on, checking his night vision before sliding it back up.
"All set brother?" Asher asked.
"And then some vod." Cutter nodded.
"You be careful out there."
"C'mon Asher, it's just another trash heap of a planet. Nothing I'm not used to." The First sergeant shrugged before he entered the trench line.
The Medic Captain sighed as his brothers retreated deeper into a muddy hell.
"You boys know where I can find Sergeant Raz?" Cutter asked a throng of troopers gathered around a barrel fire.
They looked up, stupefied at the armament him and his men hefted.
"He's down the line, second dugout…" The lead clone trailed on rank.
"First Sergeant." Cutter finished for him before he moved.
A pair of feet stuck out from the dugout, a rain poncho staked over as a makeshift door.
"You Sergeant Raz?"
The flap lifted up slowly, and the glum, almost bored face of a clone peeked out.
Dark circles ran under his eyes, and he measured the trio with distaste as he took a drag of his cigarra.
In his off hand was a blaster pistol.
Cutter said nothing as the Sergeant holstered it.
"You lot the men from the First?" He asked nonchalant.
"We are."
"Hm."
The sergeant stood, retrieving his bucket from his shelter.
Cutter furrowed his brow, ordinarily he'd scuff up any trooper that dare disrespect him, but the look in this brother's eyes? That said enough.
"Wire is up and down, shells didn't vaporize it, just expanded it. Watch for the shell craters, once you're in there's no getting out."
The dead tone in his voice made Cutter glance at the coming twilight. He could spot white armor everywhere, the stench reaching his nose despite the oxygen scrubbers. It smelled like death, plain and simple.
Rats skittered about, squeaking, one fat one was stomped under a trooper's boot as the passed.
They reached the trench's exit, a set of ladders for going over the top. Their escort flicked the stub of his cigarra into a puddle, the tobacco fizzing as it was extinguished.
"Our Jedi is hanging out there on the wire. You can't miss him if you use your night vision, I sent two boys to try to retrieve him, they're out there with him now along with most of my batch brothers." Sergeant Raz droned as he lit another cigarra, "The General tried to cut a path for us the last time we tried attacking, droids poured rounds into him."
The Sergeant took a generous drag and exhaled the smoke smoothly. His earlier statement caused a collective grimace amongst the trio.
Cutter knew what it was like to lose so many brothers and he rubbed the Bravo tattoo on his neck.
"May the Force be a part of you or whatever it is they say." The Sergeant said as he spat onto the ground.
Sergeant Raz turned on his heel and left them with the most sarcastic wave Cutter had ever seen.
"Ready boys?" Cutter asked, voice like stone.
"Ready to go top." Mickey said, Bedlam gave a nod.
Cutter lowered his night vision, and ascended the ladder.
Mud squished under his boots and his breath almost caught in his throat.
The Kaminoans had trained them to withstand an environment like this. Low crawling under barbed wire as animal entrails hung from the metal dripping blood onto them.
He remembered the stench, the rancid miasma of excrement from ruptured bowels in training and on Geonosis the smell of oil, burnt flesh and blood staining the sand.
This was worse.
Glittering like distant stars, dozens of IR patches glowed amongst the dark. His heart thundered in his chest with grief, every marker tacked onto the armor of a fallen brother.
"Stars and galaxies…" Mickey muttered.
They crept low, passing tangles of barbed wire and a trooper splayed over it. His intestines hung from where his armor had been breached, and the First Sergeant almost gagged at the sound of insects buzzing about the corpse.
Thunder roared distantly, the wind shifting. Cutter felt the pressure drop in the air as the rain came down lightly.
Lightning struck, and for a brief nanosecond the entire field was illuminated.
Like out of a nightmare, bodies littered the ground both trooper and droid alike. Unlike the droids the elements ravaged the troopers and they festered where they lay.
Cutter lead the way, carefully stepping over another fallen trooper, rats fleeing from their feast inside the man's open rib cage.
Shell craters lined the expanse, and he could see an arm sticking out of one here, a trooper buried into the wall of one there.
Death had written it's name on every inch of this field.
The barbed wire got heavier and heavier, and eventually he found the Jedi.
General Actus Set was keeled over the strands, he could see where the Jedi had cut away at the wire with his weapon. The two troopers that Sergeant Raz mentioned lay near him, tangled in the wire and dead.
He spied the lightsaber on the ground, reaching for it gingerly and clipping it to his belt.
Cutter would've shut the Jedi's eyes but they'd been pecked out by the birds. Maggots wriggled in his open mouth and empty sockets, lips peeled back over his teeth in a permanent snarl.
Flies circled his body, rats climbed up his tunic to nibble at the blaster wounds.
It had been a long time since Cutter had seen something so horrific.
He shook it off, bringing his mind back into the fight and got onto his belly to crawl beneath a gap in the wire.
As the Clone First Sergeant crawled he kept his weapon on his forearms, he couldn't afford a malfunction, not now.
A severed arm lay in his path, the hand still clutching a blaster.
He gently picked up the severed limb and moved it out of his path.
Standing was a chore, the wire getting caught on the corners of his armor but he cleared it well enough.
Mickey and Bedlam soon joined him, Mickey's distress was palpable but Bedlam's presence seemed to calm him.
"Almost there boys." Cutter whispered.
To his relief, scrapped droids started to pop up more, it finally looked more like a battlefield and not a meat grinder.
The rain picked up, his visor engaging to clear the droplets from his helmet.
"Watch it!" Bedlam hissed as Mickey's foot slipped, he almost fell into a crater, Bedlam's hand snagging him by the forearm.
Mickey cursed, glancing down into the rancid water. To his horror he could see hands sticking out of the muddy hole, reaching futilely for salvation that never came.
"It ain't nothing brother." Bedlam began.
"Not a thing…" Mickey completed turning away from the drowned corpse.
The artillery from earlier this morning had softened their defenses just enough. A lucky shot must've hit their generator, the lights were out.
Cutter held his off hand to his side and gently raised it up and down as if slapping a drum.
The trio dropped to their bellies and crawled. The rain beat down on them, soaking their bodysuits through, Cutter shivered as a cold breeze ran over them.
At the apex of the slope a droid stood sentry.
"Any sign of the Clones?" It's brother unit asked.
"No…" The droid responded, it almost sounded bored.
"Maybe they've retreated?" The other droid suggested.
Cutter held up a fist and they froze, engaging a scanning pulse. The pulse fed to both his subordinates HUD, the droid's silhouettes being highlighted in green.
Just the two hostiles.
Cutter held up two fingers, pointed center and left before dragging his thumb across his throat.
Bedlam gave a thumbs up.
The new knives Captain Asher had requisitioned had an experimental superheated blade. The Chancellor had been quite generous with their new armament.
Cutter sprung up, his hand curling around the skinny neck of the battle droid who screeched in terror.
The knife severed the head quickly, Bedlam tackling his quarry into a heap of metal and plasteel, the knife doing the same.
Mickey hopped into the trench and pulled security, glancing to his left and right as both his brothers sheathed their weapons.
Cutter raised his new weapon, it was begging for a name he just didn't have one yet.
"Toss the tinnies out of the trench."
The duo did, and stacked up behind Cutter.
The First Sergeant engaged another scanning pulse, the trench line lighting up with hostiles.
"Archangel-Five this is Chaos-one how me? Over."
"Chaos-one, Archangel-five I read you Lima Charlie." Asher's voice droned into their helmets.
"Roger that Archangel, I read you same. Line reached, engaging radio silence over."
"Roger Chaos-one, give them hell brother, Archangel-five out."
The line went dead and Cutter switched to a channel reserved for his team.
"Let's take this karking place." He growled.
They advanced to their first target.
Whew it was fun figuring out how much detail to put into this, didn't want to overdo it so here it is. Please comment or review :)