The others had it handled, at least that large group of B1s. Snipe and Plank had gone away to clear up the last droids. Plank ducked through some promising looking caves, grinning.

He trusted his instincts and chose to exit through the third tunnel. His grin widened as he found himself in the middle of a cluster of droids. Plank decided to be cheeky and called, "Clones!"

The B1s around him turned to look in the direction where he pointed, blasters raised. When it never came, they turned back to the origin of the call. Then the commanding droid pointed a finger at him. "Wait! You're a clone!" it accused.

Plank pretended to consider, then dropped the impact grenade that he had fingered from his belt. As it fell, he bolted off, calling behind him, "I guess I am!"

Plank covered his eyes as the bright explosion dispatched the droids. Once it had cleared, he looked back, chuckling as debris rained from the sky.

Plank only then noticed that he had wandered rather far from their previous coordinates. He turned on his comlink. "I just took out the last of them. Where are all of you?"

Wolffe's voice came back steadily. "Sorry to break the news to you, Plank, but that wasn't the last of them."

Plank blinked. All around him there was only silence. But then again, he had wandered away.

"What do you mean?"

He started walking to where Wolffe's com signal was coming from. He had a built-in tracker, luckily.

"You'd better come see this."

That didn't sound good.

"Ok." Plank rounded the last corner then froze in surprise. "Kriff."

In front of him, there was a large separatist tower – more of a citadel, really. The tower, built into the side of the rock cliff, was crawling with droids.

What made it look most impressive, though, was the firefall that fell from both sides, covering half the building in lava.

They all stared at it in horrified surprise until Camo spoke. "I know I should be hating all these droids...But the LAVA is a WATERFALL!"

Sly knocked him slightly on the back of his helmet. "We were being serious, vod, staring ominously at the citadel!"

Wolffe gave them both looks and they turned away innocently. Plank had to smile at that. Wolffe knew that they were shinies, but they were VERY shiny.

"I'm going to call General Koon," Wolffe said, turning away from them. "To ask if we should wait for back up."

Plank nodded and turned to Camo and Sly, hands on his hips.

"Whaaaaaaaaat?" Sly asked, taking off his helmet and looking the picture of innocence.

Plank took off his own helmet and rolled his eyes playfully. He really didn't mind their messing around, as long as they got the job done. Then Camo gave a small, excited squeak as he realized lava was slithering down his arm from a higher leak.

Sly turned to Plank seriously. "He found out."

Plank gave him a look as Camo began excitedly prodding the lava enthusiastically. Sly was saved, from an AWESOME retort that was totally going to happen, by Wolffe turning around, not at all affected by the lava covered trooper.

"General Koon wishes us to start storming the citadel ourselves. Backup will be arriving soon."

Though Wolffe kept his voice remarkably normal, Plank could tell that he was extremely skeptical of his commanding officer's decision. Plank smiled. This was going to be fun.

"We can do it," Plank said confidently.

"Do what?" The one they called Snipe came from above and behind them. Everyone besides Plank jumped, Wolffe narrowed his eyes slightly at the commander. Something was really strange about him. Rex had told Plank about his file on Kamino...

Snipe was perched on a rock with his trusty sniper rifle slung casually over his shoulders. Wolffe growled, Snipe should have announced himself like protocol dictated.

"Storm that fortress," Sly offered, gesturing.

Snipe nodded and Wolffe took off his helmet, studying them.

They were obviously confident in their abilities and, from the fight earlier, Wolffe could assume that they were able to fulfill that. It was painfully obvious that they were shinies though you had to squint if you wanted to see it in Plank. He had fulfilled his role as commander with what appeared to be ease, though it could just be a facade. Camo seemed the youngest, as he was still delightedly playing with the lava. Crusher seemed to be calmer, though was often used as a distraction. Snipe seemed casual, yet had the possibility of being insubordinate by accident. Sly... Sly looked dangerous, and seemed to be the closest to Plank. Plank was a mystery in general.

Wolffe replaced his helmet. "We need a plan."

He brought up a holo of the area from an atmospheric view. He had already thought of one. Sure, Plank was the same rank as he, but as Rex was so fond of saying, experience outranks everything.

"I was thinking that Snipe could cover everyone from the perch on the north side of the west-facing cliffs. While Camo and Sly sneak in directly from the front, heading to the control room, Crusher will make sure none of the droids leave to attack. Plank and I will remove the guards and head in."

Plank nodded as he studied the hologram, carefully analyzing the plan with cool calculation. Snipe gave a sloppy salute and left, clambering over the tall rocks to get to the vantage point.

Camo and Sly gave a proper salute and walked away. Wolffe grunted in slight amusement as Camo left, clearly a tad regretful that he didn't get to continue playing in the lava. Crusher nodded and bolted away, surprisingly quiet for his size. Only Wolffe and Plank were left.

Plank gave him a smile and put on his helmet. Wolffe grunted in acknowledgement and started leading the way.

There were metal steps that the guards used. Plank and Wolffe quietly headed up, easily dispatching the guards that they passed. Wolffe made several hand signals to Plank when they reached the top: You go left, I'll go right. Plank nodded and slipped away silently.

Wolffe looked around analytically. There were about ten B1 droids and four B2s on the right, where he was headed. The left side was obscured by the boulders, but Wolffe figured that the commander of XYZ had it covered. Wolffe moved behind them, using the cover of the black rock, and took aim. The B2s were his first priority.

There was a specific flaw in the B2s design, a single spot where you could take it out in one shot. Once he'd discovered this, Wolffe had made sure to become an expert at it. He slunk around until he had the perfect cover, then fired a rapid succession of shots.

Three of them hit the intended targets and the B2s carcasses fell. The other droids were alerted to his presence, though, and volleys of fire chased after him.

Wolffe daringly rolled towards them, coming up on one knee and shooting the last B2 before turning to the B1s. He darted forward, out of the way of the coming fire, then spun back around, ducking in a crevice for cover.

After a few seconds, Wolffe leaned out of his safe haven and took out the remaining droids. He let out a sigh of relief but it was short-lived as he heard a panicked cry from around the bend. He bolted as quick as he could around the corner to see Plank trapped under three droid carcasses.

To give him credit, about 25 droid bodies were already littered on the floor. But for now, two B2s were looming over him, about to pull their triggers. Wolffe quickly charged straight at then making them lookup. He let out rapid shots, keeping his cool completely as the droid fell. Once they did, Wolffe went and knelt next to Plank. "You ok, brother?"

One of the droids carcasses was lying across his mouthpiece so the reply was muffled.

"I'm good," he wheezed under the weight of the droids. No one ever really considered how heavy the cortosis composing the droids was.

Wolffe chuckled lightly and began removing the dead frames. Soon he had taken all of the droids away except one. Plank struggled to his feet and Wolffe actually BURST out laughing.

One of the upper torsos of the droid had somehow wrapped its arms around Plank's shoulders from behind, and its head was peaking around Plank's neck. Plank took one look and burst out laughing. Once Plank shook it off, and they stopped laughing at the absurd sight, they started creeping around the rest of the way to the entrance. Wolffe stopped for a second and considered him, baffled. "How did you even manage that?"

Plank stopped as well and shifted slightly, then shrugged and carried on. Wolffe grinned, taking it as: I-would-rather-not-say. Maybe the commander was still a shiny at heart after all. They went in through the guards entrance and move carefully through the halls. It was oddly quiet.

Wolffe glanced over at the commander and wasn't surprised to see him looking nervous.

"D-do you think this is a good sign?"

That made Wolffe's heartache a bit. He was still a shiny, but they both knew that this could either be really good, or really bad. "I don't know."

Plank nodded, not seeming surprised by his answer. It seemed like he had snapped back into commander mode.

As they moved on, suddenly alarms started blaring and droid screams echoed around the halls. They both exchanged a worried look, then changed their pace to a run, heading towards the source of the commotion. Once they got there, they froze.

"Oh, kriff," Plank whispered, horrified.

The very ground of the main entrance had broken. Lava was spooling through the cracks in the crust. The droids were screaming as they were pulled under, slowly dissolving in the red magma. Camo and Sly were waist-deep in it, trying desperately to wade over to their squad members. Crusher and Snipe were hurriedly scrambling away from their slowly approaching doom. But the lava was overtaking the remaining floor quickly.

The droids that weren't melted raised their blasters to aim at them. Then there was fire.