Several faint booms echoed through the cabin of the gunship as it rumbled and rattled through the atmosphere. The craft dipped and swayed as it traveled, felt by it's two living occupants with no sight as to what turns the pilot was making. It caused the cargo with them to groan and shift slightly, despite being netted down.
"Calm yourself Tallis. We are in no danger." The speaker was a pale skinned and white-haired humanoid, smiling to the younger woman beside him. The only attributes proving him not human being his four fingered hands and more pointed ears.
"I know Master. I know we aren't. Just still nervous." She returned his smile, trying to sound confident. She double checked her hair was still in its tight bun, only a single braided 'tail' free, marking her as a padawan. She hadn't been able to stop fidgeting since they left the cruiser now far above them.
"We've done this before. There's no need to be nervous."
"I know! I just can't help it a little. This operation could mean the liberation of this planet!"
"Yes, fair of a reason as any other. Did you study the battle plan?"
"Of course Master! Memorized it!"
"Good." Her Master smiled to her again, just as the whine of hydraulics announced the doors opening beside them. The light urban landscape and lush greenery to be found beyond the open side doors was tainted by hundreds of craters and smoke plumes, many of the homes and buildings below them nothing but rubble. Smokey puffs were visible, too distant to be a threat, but still marking separatist anti-air fire. As the doors reached the fully opened position, the gunship dropped toward the ground, Tallis' gut rising up into her ribcage from natural inertia. Meanwhile, the repulser wash from the craft blasted the loose ground, completely dusting out their view of the ground.
Before the craft could even fully settle to the ground, several battered and tattered clone troopers materialized out of the dust around the dropship, stripping the netting off and pulling the munition crates off. Tallis and her Master simply stepped off the gunship and out of the way. Several other gunships had landed with them, bringing several weeks' worth of supplies in as well as two fresh platoons of troops for the battalion they were joining.
"Forty! The wounded ready to load yet!?" a voice called out from one of the troopers, the voice not that of a clone. The soldier in question wasn't even wearing all of the normal armor, having stripped the thigh and upper arm armor off as well as wearing what looked to be simple cargo pants and a t-shirt under the armor. However, he had the shoulder pauldron and kama of an arc trooper, one of the long clone blasters in hand. He had one hand to his helmet, likely keying his comlink.
"Let's go boys! Get this ammo into the trenches! Forty, get em up here!" he completely ignored the two jedi, waving toward a series of earthen works and rubble as the troops around him scrambled clear.
"Commander Del?" Her master quietly and politely spoke.
Not that the soldier even acknowledged the jedi, walking to the front of the gunship as he pounded on the side hull. "Gundarks, you got two-minutes before lift!" this time, his voice spilled from their comlinks, as they had been listening in to the gunship's communications earlier. Meanwhile, a couple dozen clones were loading their wounded brothers onto the gunship, many missing limbs, and most stripped of their armor and equipment. One medic was with them, clearly preparing to ride back up with the gunships.
"Good copy commander."
A screech broke off any more thought of conversation, just before a boom echoed to them, synced with dirt and dust being blasted into the air a few hundred meters ahead of them.
"Scratch that, thirty seconds Gundarks!" the soldier tapped his wrist, likely changing comms channels. "For-"
"Almost done sir." One of the clones, with a series of tallies marked onto his grey stripped helmet cut the soldier off, nodding to him. Several clones down the line all held thumbs up, the gunship behind them reloaded already.
"Alright Gundarks, you're green, get your asses out of here before their arty brackets in! everyone else, get to cover and get ready!" The soldier gave the gunship pilot beside him a thumbs up before trotting with the clones back toward their earthen works.
"I suppose we should follow…" her master began to stride calmly after the clones, just as the craft behind them roared out, dust enveloping them a moment before the ships lifted away and clear of the area.
"If you don't want to become mynock food, get your feet moving!" the soldier ahead of them had stopped at the mouth of the trenches, beckoning toward the two jedi. All of the clones had already disappeared from view. A moment later, as if to reinforce his words, another screech ripped in, followed by a much louder boom, a shockwave rippling over Tallis from behind her. This plume of dust and rock looked far closer, but definitely shot over their position.
Tallis jogged after her master, the pair slipping into the trench as the soldier surveyed the area one last time before following. Moments later, booms started rocking the area, Tallis able to sense them slamming to the ground that had been used for the landing zone.
If we had stayed up there, I can't imagine there would be much left of us! Since when did the confederacy's artillery get this rapid?
"Boys, get ready! You know what arty means!" the soldier shoved past the two of them, paying nearly no attention to them once more. Once past them, he took off at a light run, deeper into the trench network.
"Trooper! I need to know where we might find Commander Del of the eighty-fourth Star Corps?" her master shouted after the soldier, finally earning a reaction from him.
"You're talking to him, now just shut up and keep your heads down!" he only slowed for a moment, still walking backwards as he was talking before rushing back off into the trench. It forced Tallis and her master to chase after him, passing several small groups, no bigger than two or three clones a piece, all scrambling to check weapons and move to small firing steps.
Finally, the Commander had come to a stop, two other clones beside him. One she recognized from the dropship's as 'Forty', with his tallied helmet. The other had a clear burn from a near miss along the left of his helmet. "Trip, got that Z-six up yet!?" the commander, took a knee near the front edge of the trench, clearly looking at the new soldier. Oddly, none of them seemed to be peaking out, but given the booms and debris still raining around them, Tallis could guess why.
"I keep telling you sir, it's Triplet, not Trip!"
"Triiiiip!"
"Of course I got the gun up sir, who do you take me for?" he jostled the gun a little, the barrels rotating on the rotary gun.
"Forty, got the shiny's dug down?"
"You know it Del."
"Good. We probably have tw-"
"Commander!" Her master cut off the commander, sounding mildly annoyed. He was supposed to be in charge of this battalion now after all. "We need to speak with you about this operation! I am in cha-"
"Shut up. You want to be useful? Ditch the damned laser swords. If the enemy is ever close enough for you to use those things, we aren't doing our jobs." While her master had sounded annoyed, the Commander was directly angry toward them, grabbing a small carbine off the wall and shoving it into Tallis' arms, doing the same to her master.
"Jedi do not use Blast-"
"Then you best learn today." As the commander snapped back, several snapping zips ripped by, red bolts visible above the trench. "All positions, hold for my shot!" he keyed his comm that time, hefting his weapon and preparing to peak out of his little firing port, half covered by rubble and sandbags.
Tallis and her master shared a small glance, both with raised eyebrows. Her master shook his head with a small sigh, respectfully setting the blaster back against the embankment, Tallis following his lead there. "Commander, I feel you might want to take note that I am, in fact, in charge here, by order of your leadership.
"Noted. But these are my men and I will not let anyone bring harm to them without going through me." His voice was as angry as before, not even looking at them. But under that anger, and only through the force did she even notice it, was a deep rooted pain, the anger acting in fierce defiance of it. It piqued her curiosity about him. However, she bit back that curiosity as she slipped up beside the heavy weapon gunner. This earned her a small glance from the clone before she started to peak up over the lip of the trench. Not that she actually got to before the clone was forcing her shoulder down.
"Whoa there kid. That's asking for a laser to the dome. Just trust the Commander." The clone shook his head at her, making sure she was fully back down before releasing her.
"I need to see what's going on, don-"
"No. You don't kid. Just learn and trust the commander."
"Trip, Forty, now!" the commander cut them off, sharing a synced nod between the three armored troops, just before they all popped up as one, bracing their weapons on the rubble before them. Tallis popped up as well, just to see this commander's grand plan. There were nearly a hundred battle droids advancing on them over the rubble of the buildings ahead of them, too thick of debris to march in formation. As soon as she was up, all three weapons ripped out with automatic fire, the rotary weapon a literal stream of blue blasts. They simply traced back and forth across the droids, cutting them down rapidly and efficiently. Several dozen other groups of blasts ripped out a moment after, equally accurate and devastating to the battle droids, cutting down every droid in sight in mere moments, leaving the area silent.
"Acky, how's it look from up there?" the commander spoke once more as he surveyed the area, each of the trooper's weapons steaming as they all did the same. He got some sort of confirmation though, as he relaxed, plopping down on the firing step.
"Alright, good shooting boys! Start breaking those crates down and spread the shiny's out to the platoons! Extra's in the walkers." he spoke calmly, just before slipping his helmet off, revealing him to be exactly as Tallis initially suspected, not a clone trooper. He was far lighter skinned than the clones, with short cut brown hair and dark brown eyes, as well as surprisingly young by her eye. No more than five years older than herself.
"Forty, make sure it's done right." He nodded to the clone, who returned in kind before jogging off into the trenches.
"Commander. I do not mean to be rude, but you fall under my comm-"
"All due respect, jedi, these men do not follow you. They follow me. If you want to give them orders, you tell me. And I'll take it under advisement." He glared coldly at her master, Tallis able to sense his anger without his expression.
"And the operation-"
"Was planned by a retard."
"It's quite rude to constantly cut someone off you know?"
"And when was the last time being polite won a battle, Jedi. Besides, I don't like people telling my men to march into death traps." He was scowling again, that same sense of pain well hidden behind his disgust.
"You have your order's commander, just as I have mine. How long until this battalion is moving?"
Huh… why is my master not perturbed by this man leading clones? Or the tones he's using with him? why is a regular person even in the republic military outside of the higher echelons? Tallis desperately wanted to voice her thoughts, but bit her tongue, knowing none of the answers were actually pertinent to the discussion at hand.
The commander scoffed, shaking his head. "Not until tomorrow. We need time to finish loading the AT-TE's and dig them out, and we can't do that until nightfall or the seps will light us up."
"Good. We should remain on schedule then."
"So… Commander? What do you mean this operation was planned by a… retard was it?" Tallis couldn't contain her curiosity any longer, finally speaking up herself
His glare quietly shifted to her for several moments as he visibly studied her. "They want us to march right up to entrenched positions with little fire support and across open ground. We aren't following the operation plan."
"Then what is your plan, commander, since you seem so keen on disobeying your superiors?" her master was smiling calmly, clearly more amused than tallis thought he should be. He had right to be annoyed with this commander and his near constant disrespect.
The commander plopped a small holographic map display onto the ground, showing the same map that had been used to brief her and her master this morning. It showed a series of pre-fabricated bunkers and buildings at the mouth of a valley. It was the enemy's extreme flank, and the main objective of the battalion she had joined to seize it.
"We're going to move around to the ridgeline here, masking the movement of the battalion's AV-Sevens. Then, we are going to shell the enemy artillery first. Once we have suppressed the arty teams, we will push across the ridgeline with the walkers until we reach here. That will keep the enemies AAT's from pushing up to us and allow us to use our AT teams to take them out from the ridgeline. Infantry mortars will disperse smoke along the valley and the enemy positions, then A co will secure a breach, B co will assault in and knock out any AT near the breach. C co will move in with the armor to secure the position. And that's if it goes to plan. It won't, so we will be digging in on the ridgeline and turning the whole valley into a killzone instead. We have preplanned and calculated firing points and targets, ready to liquify anything that enters the valley from the mouth." He gestured to the ridgeline to the south of the enemy position at the mouth of the valley. By the map, it was very rocky and rough terrain, bad enough that she doubted even infantry could move effectively, much less walkers.
"Command nixed that route as too harsh f-"
"My troops can do it. And it's better than marching straight into the jaws of this place, as they would have us do. The seppies have four anti-tank cannons here, here, here, and here." He was gesturing at red triangles that hadn't been on the map she saw that morning. "In addition to at least seven AATs. They outnumber us and out gun us. That's why we need the ridge. While the AT-TE's will be slow moving up there, the AATs can't move at all. Then the walkers can fire, from defilade and concealment. And hopefully, we don't lose a single walker. The two of you can sit pretty here with the shiny's and E co. Hold this position while the men do the real work."
"No. I don't think we will. Can you still make the timetable with this plan?"
"You don't get a say in the matter, jedi. You idiots make big targets, and just get in our lines of fire. If we planned on making their timetable, we wouldn't be going onto the ridgeline. But the rest of the legion won't be either. Whoever they put in charge of this operation doesn't know the guys we're facing. The attack just now was just to force us to expend munitions. I guarantee, as soon as the other battalions start getting a little bruised up, the enemy will hammer them out of existence with their fresh main forces. Add to it, every other objective looks a lot like this one for us. Expecting them to march right up to entrenched positions with no cover while outnumbered."
"I think we do have a say. Aren't I considered a commander, just like he Master?"
"Yes. And I hold the rank of General."
"And both you idiots will be dead inside of five minutes. You so much as light up your swords and every artillery battery in range of you will turn the area you are in to glass. That's why I told command to shove it when I was told they wanted the jedi spear heading this." He glared between the two of them.
Why is he so bitter toward Jedi? Every other unit we've seen has been ecstatic to be working with us?
"I will accept remaining within the command vehicle."
"We don't have a command vehicle sir." The clone, Forty, calmly walking back to them with a bandolier of power packs in hand, as well as a hard-shell pack. "Del." He nodded to his commander as he handed the bandolier and pack to him, who silently accepted them and used the power packs from the bandolier to refill his belt line, and replace the one in his rifle.
"Anything good?"
"Rations, ammo, couple of det charges. Just the way you like it."
"Thanks Forty."
"What do you mean, you don't have a command vehicle?"
"I lead from the front. And we use the walkers for fire support and supplies. Not command platforms. Too big of targets to use as CP's. You two can ride with the gear if you want though. Light up a sword though and I will execute you myself." He quickly tossed the empty bandolier aside as he secured the pack onto his back, magnetically held in place. As angry as his statement sounded, again, she sensed far more to it. if she had to guess, his anger was for his men, likely fueled by a desire to protect them. And by his words, the enemy was quite generous with artillery fire on jedi, and though they might survive, many of the clones would likely die.
"We'll leave tomorrow night. Get yourselves supplies. You want to eat it, you have to carry it." he stood as he slapped his helmet on, scooping his rifle up before marching away.
"Don't let him get under your skin Sir. He know's what he's doing. Just have faith in him Sir." Forty nodded to the two jedi before he scooped up the holo-emitter, quickly trotting after the Commander.
"Well… he's already a handful, isn't he?" her Master gave Tallis a smile, before letting out a small sigh. "But I think he may have at least one point. We don't know these men, nor do we know the tactics used by the separatists here."
"Uh, master, I think that's two points." Tallis smirked, her little quip earning her a smile.
"Indeed it was really." He turned his attention to the trooper still here, scanning from his firing post. "Trooper, where can we find supplies and the command post?"
"Command post is wherever Del is, and supplies, look around, you'll find Chip eventually. Prolly working out of B company's walker." The clone shrugged, not looking at them as he continued to scan the barren ground ahead of their position.
"Thank you, trooper." Her Master calmly walked off into the trenches.
Tallis was too curious to follow though. "Uh, Trip, was it?"
"Triplet damn it! ever since Del showed up, everyone keeps getting it wrong!" the trooper shook his head as he grumbled to himself.
"My apologies, Triplet. Commander Del… what's his reason for his dislike of jedi? He was almost trying to act like we weren't here?"
The clone sighed, his shoulders visibly slackening, despite his head still traversing back and forth to scan the terrain. "Isn't my place to say. He has his reasons though. You want to know em? Ask him. I just shoot clankers."
"Tallis! We really aught to be going."
"Oh, yes Master!" she shrugged, more to herself than anything else. If this commander didn't like jedi for some reason, it just meant it was up to her and her master to change his mind. They were there to help after all.
"Here Kid!" one of the clones she had been traveling with held his hand out to her, his scuffed dull armor hard to pick out in the dark of the night. They had been moving for nearly two days, only moving at night and hunkering down during the day. It made for slow and exhausting progress.
"Thanks Forty." She smiled to the clone as she accepted the hand, letting herself be pulled up onto the boulder. The terrain over the past hour or so had gotten considerably worse, the troops splitting into files and picking their way up the slopes. They were still a few kilometers from enemy defenses, somehow having avoided any conflict despite having three massive walkers with them.
Forty, despite her response, pretty well ignored her, waving the next soldier along the column to him. Meanwhile, nearly a hundred meters to her right, one of the walkers could be seen, its hydraulics screaming as it deliberately stepped higher up the ridge. There was a loud thud as one of its feet slipped a little, just before a short grating sound as the belly of the walker was dragged across a rock. despite the noise the vehicle was making, she was impressed by the pilot being able to navigate in this rugged environment, able to straddle the walker over precarious gaps time and time again to move higher up into the rocky ridgeline.
"Forty… how much longer do you think until this battle begins?" she was well aware of the two mobile artillery guns with this battalion had already broken away to set into their position.
"By the morning. Should probably start thinking of falling back to 'Bucket and A Co with your Master." Forty didn't look her way as he helped one of the other troopers up the gap, who immediately slipped by her to follow the lead team. 'Rust Bucket' was the name given to one of their walkers, carrying all of their supplies. From what she had been told, it was their only Walker to not have been rebuilt from scavenged parts by their engineering company.
"No. I promise, no saber. I just want to watch how you all fight. Per Master's request."
"Hmph, if you have a death wish, fine by us. We have spare blasters if you don't." Forty shrugged, gesturing to her to stay ahead of him, the last of company C being up the ledge.
"So… what's the story with Commander Del? He's not a Clone but he's your commander?"
"Long story." Forty kept scanning the rocks around them, unfazed by her quiet question.
"We have some time I'd think."
"No, we don't. You need to be watching for clankers. Not jack-jawing." He wasn't harsh with his words, just calm and firm.
"Understood." She shrugged, not wanting to press the issue with any of the soldiers. They would find out with time, and she would rather earn their trust first. The next few minutes quickly dragged into hours as they moved closer and closer to their planned positions, a call for a halt coming down the line before they really reached them.
At the halt, each of the troops spread out to positions of cover and watched for movement, Forty beginning to pick his way down the formation to the front of the column. Tallis followed along behind him, trying to mimic his cautious movements and keeping a good spacing from him. They slipped up beside Commander Del, who had been leading the formation.
"Ready sir?" Forty spoke as he took a knee beside the commander, resting his carbine on his lap.
"Was waiting on you. What's she doing here?" he grunted at her, his own rifle loosely in his lap.
"Observing." She smirked to their faceplates, curious how they would respond.
"Keep that saber in check and your head down. Forty." He quickly stood as he began picking his way through the rocks. Forty waited several moments before he stood and followed.
Tallis herself gave them the same space before she followed. It didn't take them long to reach the edge of the ridgeline, the two soldiers crawling up to the upper edge with binoculars. She herself crawled up to join them. As the map had shown, the ridge they were on overlooked the whole valley. And though the valley looked to have a fair bit of forestry, much of it looked burned and destroyed, particularly along the far side and near the upper valley mouth. Even without binoculars, she could see the multitude of enemy emplacements clearly from here.
"Sithspit." The commander shook his head as he lowered his bino's, letting out a small sigh.
"Bad as we thought sir?"
"Worse. Looks like nearly two battalions. Couple companies of the real troops, the rest clankers. Not too worried about the clankers but those real troops got us outnumbered."
Outnumbered? And what does he mean by real troops? "Don't we have a battalion ourselves?"
The commander sighed at her quiet question, shaking his head. "No. We got a battalion in name alone. Each company is maybe a platoon in strength. Those shinies boosted our numbers a little but numbers don't win fights."
"Plenty of spots for dismounts. But I don't see more than one for the walkers. Can probably slide the walkers down over there." Forty spoke up, pointing at a section of the ridge that was shallower than the rest of the ridge, though it was still rocky.
"Alright, let's get the camo scrim up for the night. Forty, work out the route for the walkers, I'll do a last brief for the other companies. Put Bulwark up for fire support, and see if you can't find a spot for Rancor's remote scope."
"You sure you want to use those rounds already sir?"
"Could turn this fight for us, so yeah. Just in case. We'll set B and C up on the ridge, put A with the rear tanks and spread ammo out for the support by fire's. Hopefully we can do more damage with the AV-seven's than we planned on. Finger's crossed?"
"Yeah. See you back at the company." Forty scooted back down the rocks before he trotted back the way they came.
The commander remained still though, dropping the bino's from his eyes as his fingers idly tapped the rock they were lying up against. Through the force, she could feel his discomfort, his anxiety. Though none of it actually showed. With the helmet on, he simply looked lost in thought.
"Is something bothering you commander?" she spoke up quietly, not wanting to startle him.
"Hmph. Nothing a jedi can fix."
"Why not? I may only be a padawan, albeit an older one, but I'm still quite capable. And my master even more so."
"You carrying some sort of heavy cannon under that robe I don't know about?"
"Um, obviously not…"
"As I said. Jedi aint gonna help. Now get your ass back to the walker before the fighting starts." The commander scooted down the rock before stuffing the bino's away and trotting back.
"Cannonry is not the solution to every problem commander." She slipped down the rock face after him as she responded. She was hoping he would be a little more willing to include herself and her master with a little convincing. Get him to give the pair a chance to prove their worth to him.
"Says a peacekeeper in a war they couldn't keep from breaking out. This isn't up to debate. Get your ass back to the walkers and stay out of the way." He didn't look at her nor stop, keeping his voice low as he unslung his rifle again.
"Let us fight with you. We are no-"
"Civilians don't belong on a battlefield."
"I'm not a civ-"
He finally stopped, if only to cut her off. "Really? You wear street clothes, and wield a sword like its the end all be all of combat when technology has made it far beyond obsolete. What will your sword do when a thousand battle droids are firing on you alone? Or when your entire grid square is turned to slag by heavy artillery? Same thing it did to the last three jedi they sent. Leave you in a pool of your own blood. Jedi do not belong on the battlefield. Your too soft and too unwilling to embrace that times have changed. All of your hokey religious garbage won't protect you or anyone else when the bolts start flying." When he finished his bitter words, he turned back to the trail, speeding up to leave her behind.