Much thanks to Emile the Watcher for beta reading a helping me get at least something written! this still falls into the curse of my last few posts of being mostly finished chapters that i just had to top off... any way, hope yall enjoy!

"Del!"

The sound of a clone's voice slowly pierced Tallis's mind, causing her to stir. She groaned as she forced herself up, several spots on her body in sharp pain. She knew she was bleeding from a few spots at least, her head spinning, making focusing difficult. She was covered in rocks and debris, bits rolling off her as she sat up. Beside her were several destroyed droids, most of them visibly shot with blaster bolts.

"DEEEEL!" the clone shouted again, definitely still fairly far away from her. His shout though prompted her to look immediately beside her, seeing the commander lying buried in rubble next to her. she groggily rolled him onto his back, pulling his helmet off to check his pulse. It was indeed there, prompting her to stand up in the neck deep trench.

Of course, that turned out to be a difficult task, pain ripping across her thigh the moment she tried to get up. A mangled piece of metal was sticking from her thigh, half dried blood soaking the robes around it. it forced her to support herself with the side walls, all of her weight on her uninjured leg.

"Over here!" she called out, waving out of the trench as the memory of the battle flooded her mind. The area around her was nothing but craters and torn earth, mangled weapons and droids filling the area. A walker was visible to her, trudging past the craters. The entire front hull was painted to look like a Rancor, the cockpit its open, roaring mouth. The back end was by no means normal, bulkier and more square than a normal AT-TE. A few dozen clones were moving through the area, weapons up and firing blasts into any droid they came across, making sure the machines didn't get back up.

Many of the clones had some sort of design on their armor as well, aside from the matte brown and tan camo pattern roughly painted on their armor. She had been curious about the pattern before landing, but now that she was on the planet, and knew they were facing living targets as well as droids, it made sense. The browns and tans were similar in color to the terrain, making it harder to see the clones with her naked eyes.

One clone stood out to her though, the tallied helmet an instant tell. "Forty!" she shouted again, waving her arm once more to finally gain the clone's attention.

"Kid!? Where's the commander!?" he was immediately in a run as he shouted back, his rifle swinging back and forth as he ran.

"Right here! Alive, but out cold!"

"Quit with the yelling already… my head hurts enough as is…" she heard the unmuffled human voice below her, glancing down to see Del groggily climbing out of the rubble, slipping his helmet on before digging for several seconds. What for became apparent as he pulled a scuffed and worn clone pistol from the rubble, slipping it back into his empty hip holster.

"Forty, status!?" he keyed his comm as he spoke again, it drifting out of her comlink.

"Three KIA and nineteen WIA. Rancor is securing the area with Charlie and Bravo. Alpha is clearing Bulwark from the rubble and assessing the damage while Echo relocates here." The clone came trotting to a stop at the edge of the trench, immediately cradling his rifle to offer his hand to Del.

"Make that twenty wounded. Dum dum here needs Doc." He jerked his thumb at her as he accepted the clone's hand, the pair hauling together to get him up out of the trench again.

"No, just get me an aid kit, I'll be fine!" she cut across them, doing her best to hop up on one leg high enough to catch herself on the lip of the trench, scrambling out. As soon as she tried to stand though, her injured leg completely gave out on her, crying out as she slumped back into the dirt.

Del scoffed at her, shaking his head. "Hey idiot, you have six inches of durasteel in you. I wouldn't try and put on a tough act right now."

"Well, you can join her in being an idiot. What were you thinking running headlong into an artillery barrage sir!?" he angrily jabbed his hand into Del's chest, shaking his head. "And for a damned jedi no less!"

"Someone had to save her dumb ass. She was the one just sitting in the open with arty coming down."

"All due respect sir, you are our commander now! You can't keep putting yourself at risk! You could have sent me down to Bulwark! I'm expendable, you aren't sir!" as angry as the clone's voice was, his concern was even more apparent, his visor never turning away from Del.

"I'm fine, and the kid aint dead. Quit worrying, mom." Del shook his head, clapping the Clone's shoulder as he stepped past, but he stopped a few steps after. "But thanks for keeping the men together through my antics Forty. Get her to a medic, I'll get the battalion organized for the defense and get in touch with headquarters." With that, he strutted off toward the walker, leaving the two of them there.

"Alright, let's get you to doc, kid." The clone set his rifle against his back, the magnets there holding it in place as he held a hand out to her.

"Yeah, can you help me find my saber first? I dropped it when the commander grabbed me…" she grimaced as she let the clone pull her to her feet, her arm immediately over the much taller soldier's shoulders.

"If it still exists. Area's pretty well pulverized." Forty seemed barely fazed by half carrying her, easily guiding her toward the area she had been at earlier. It was nothing but a shell crater now, a few pieces of twisted metal and charred earth and not much more. she let out a quiet sigh and reached out with the force, her hand raising almost instinctively as she searched for her saber. After a moment or so, she guided the clone to a section of the crater, slipping off his shoulder the moment she was closer. She definitely could feel her saber's kyber crystal, almost as though it was calling out to her. a few moments of digging in the dirt and she found the charred and fused hilt, sighing as she brushed as much as she could off it. the weapon was most definitely non-funtional now. Just a few inches deeper and she was able to find the remains of her master's saber, broken in half right were the crystal used to sit, nothing left of it. No amount of training and fortitude could have prevented her shoulders from drooping at the sight of the two ruined weapons, several tears slipping out of her eyes as she cradled the remains to her.

"Kid, it's not good to sit out in the open like this. You need doc right now anyway. Let's go." He grabbed her arm, applying just enough pressure to try and encourage her to move. Almost gently in fact.

She let out a shuddery sigh, shifting the ruined pieces into one hand so she could use him to get up again, a shaft of pain ripping through her leg. "Yeah, I know. Lead the way, please." She nodded to the trooper, letting him move her away from the crater.

"General Holland, this is Kilo Actual, you reading?" Del had his helmet off as he keyed a handset inside the walker, Rust Bucket, staring at the static filled comms screen in front of him.

"Barely Commander! Go ahead!" a gravelly voice crackled back, almost clear but not quite. But that was normal, as the headquarters for the entire corps had much more powerful comms equipment than a jury rigged AT-TE could carry.

"Phaseline Bakura passed. I say again, passed Phaseline Bakura."

"Good copy, Bakura passed. Be advised, only one other battalion made Bakura. The rest of the regiment is bogged down at their assault points still. Kilo holding up?"

"Holding steady at twenty-two percent still. Do have a walker down, unknown if it will be back up in short order. Minimal casualties sustained. The jedi you sent got scwhacked though. How copy?"

"Say again, Master Narr is KIA?!" the general's voice was audibly shocked, even over the electronics.

"A-Firm. His kid's still kicking though, part of the wounded."

"Good copy Kilo Actual. Be prepared to moveout post haste. The rest of the offense will need support, and you're the only unit not under heavy fire right now. Stand by for new orders."

Del let out a quiet sigh, shaking his head. The report was actually better than he expected but the result was still exactly as he expected. Phaseline Bakura was the first objective of the offensive. Which was breaking through the enemy defense lines at multiple points, intending to drive a strike deep into hostile territory and take out several key positions, from ammo dumps and maintenance depots for the enemy armor, to several command and control locations. Only one regiment of the corps' six was actually meant to breach the enemy lines, but the other regiments had tasks to tie up the enemy's forces to provide the space needed for the regiment to pull off the deep strike. Kilo Battalion, or the battalion Del found himself currently in charge of, was part of the four-ninety second regiment, which had been selected to perform the deep strike.

In any event, if only two battalions across the corps had managed to complete the objectives for Phaseline Bakura, it meant the operation was doomed. Any further combat would likely be to recover forces and assist in breaking off combat so units could reorganize. Not that the Eighty-Fourth Star Corps was even at any sort of effective fighting strength, down to an overall forty percent before this operation started. By Republic Doctrine, a unit was combat ineffective at anything under seventy percent.

"Twitch, request fresh tacticals, and tell me if the General comms us. And get Chip to get a full account of equipment and ammo remaining after this one." Del let out a soft sigh as he set the handset back into its slot.

"Y-yes sssir." The clone seemed to be constantly jerking about as he responded, after effects of being caught in a ray shield several months back. Along with his stutter.

"Sir, Doc's looking at the Jedi right now. Says she should be able to move on the leg soon, but recommends we evac her and the other wounded as soon as possible." Forty's calm voice popped up beside Del, Likely having slipped in while Del was on the comm.

"Prolly won't be able to. Rest of the Corps got its ass handed to it."

"As bad as we thought?" Forty cocked his head slighty, likely raising an eyebrow under his helmet.

"Not quite. But still bad. Tell the boys to not get comfortable. We'll likely get retasked to hit some rear ranks and buy the rest of the boys time to get out." Del slipped his helmet back on as he responded, his new rifle leaning on the wall of the walker so he could grab it on his way out.

"Will do. Blade said Bulwark shouldn't take long to get moving again. Most of the damage was superficial, just stuck in the rock slide."

"A-Firm. Good work. I'm gonna go give the lines a once over. Twitch is trying to get new tacticals. Come grab me if they come in."

"Yes sir." Forty calmly nodded to him, as shortly as his response had been.

Del stepped past after returning the nod, quickly slipping out of the walker and heading for the hastily set up defense outside of the former enemy positions.

Tallis winced as she forced herself back to her feet, a bacta patch now covering the wound to her leg. It hurt, but she was at least able to stand on her own already. Of course, it only hurt because she refused pain medication. She knew the other wounded needed the meds more than her, and her training allowed her to think clearly in spite of the pain.

"Doc, how's the wounded?" Commander Del's voice drew her attention, the man only a few feet away, a new rifle loosely balanced in his hand.

"Two more fatalities. Nothing I could do sir."

"Who?"

"CT-Eight-Eight-Four-Five-Three and CT-Seven-Five-Two-One-One."

Del let out a small sigh shaking his head. "Blazer and Thump? Damn it… and Doc, you can use their names."

"We don't have names Sir." Doc, as she had noticed, was following the book to the letter, even in his speech. Something most clones she had met before did, though few in this unit seemed to.

"Stubborn as always. And the others?"

"Typical blaster injuries for most, mostly minor. Seven critical, CT-Four-Nine-S-"

"Seib. Just call him Seib, please."

"Seib." his head drooped just enough to be visible, breaking his speech for a moment. "I have his stump tourniqueted but there's not much else I can do for him. Had to amputate. We need to evacuate the crits."

"I know Doc. I'll see if we can get a Gundark down here for a medevac… but i can't promise. Thanks for the hard work. Keep me appraised." He gently tapped the clone's shoulder with his fist before turning to move back toward one of the walkers.

"Commander Del!" she limped after him, seeing his shoulders slump a little.

"What?"

"Well, what's going on? How's the offensive going and when are we moving to the next objective?"

"We're not. Offensive failed. We're one of the only successful battalions." He was curt, but not the usual anger he had been showing her, even stopping to let her catch up.

"Oh… how badly?"

"Not sure yet. Just stay in your lane, jedi." He started moving again, the anger returning, if only a little.

"Excuse me, you have been nothing but rude to me since I arrived, and my master just died to give you victory! The least you can do is show a little bit of respect!" as much as Tallis knew anger was not an emotion to embrace, she couldn't stop herself from being angry now. She was hoping that their sacrifice would have meant something to this soldier, as the clones seemed to only want to listen to him for some reason.

"A victory I didn't want! I care about one thing and one thing only! Getting my men out of this alive!" he stopped as he rounded on her. "Besides, you did it in the dumbest way possible!"

"Weren't you the one who came running into an artillery barrage you knew was coming to save me! And if you hated it so much then why did you agree to it?"

"Because it was a better chance of saving Inky and Burns then anything I could think of!" he shouted right back at her.

"What's with all of this anger toward jedi anyway! We're here to help you! We're on the same side here!"

He looked away from her, not responding for several moments. Again, like before, she sensed some sort of deep rooted pain in him. "Because for all of your bluster and skill, all you ever do is get good men killed! You run forward into the fight with your showy saber skills and yeah, you kill a lot of droids, and maybe you save a clone or two here and there, but ultimately, more men die following you into a needless point blank fight! I've seen it happen over and over again! And I'd bet that's exactly why the offensive just failed!"

"At least we would have been trying to win the fight!"

"What's the point of winning a fight if everyone's dead in the end?" his voice was much colder, darker, and for once, the pain she sensed was audible in it. Several of the troops around them had gone silent, their focus on the two of them.

"I don't want to see any of your men dead either! But aren't casualties a part of war!?"

"Uh… Sir?" Forty's voice cut between them, the clone standing calmly abreast with them.

Del let out a small sigh, using it to take a deep, long breath.

"Yes Forty?"

"New tacticals came in, as well as orders. Command wants us to assist a regiment from the two-twenty-third fall back."

"Alright, we'll review them in Rust Bucket. Summon up the other CO's and XO's and meet me there."

"On it sir."

"I'm coming too. I want to help."

Instead of responding to her, he simply turned off for the walker, forcing her to limp her way after him.

Del sat in one of the chairs for the comms station in the walker, watching the now slowly spinning tactical overview of the sector. Several units had been marked as wiped out, the remaining units mostly cut off or too heavily engaged to manage a retreat. If something didn't change and fast, the Republic was likely going to lose the planet, not just the battle. It was a resounding defeat on their part. The orders that came along with the fresh data had them striking a rearward element pinning down one of the larger remaining friendly units. But, even the predictions for enemy reactions had their unit surrounded with in minutes of any direct engagement.

I hate to say it, but looks like the corps wants to use us as a sacrifice to save a much larger element. Brutal, but tactically sound. He let out an annoyed scoff at the thought, understanding the tactic but still hating it non the less. His eyes though, were sweeping the entire map for any ideas as to a way to save his own battalion from the planned demise.

"I'm… not sure I'm okay with the orders they've given us…" Tallis spoke almost more to herself than the group, her focus on the map from one of the other seats.

"It's a valid tactic though." Forty shrugged, almost undisturbed by it.

"I'm not okay with them. So we're not following them." Del spoke as a plan began to form in his mind, opening his mouth to continue.

"Um… I don't think you can just say no to orders…" Tallis spoke up before he could, earning herself a faint glare from Del. "But I agree. There has to be a better way. Maybe a distraction of some sort? Lure their forces somewhere else?"

Del let out a small grunt, not really shocked by her response. "A typical diversion won't work. They've got seven quick reaction battalions scattered across their rear ranks. Any one of them has enough firepower to flatten us in minutes, nor are they currently engaged." He gestured at the locations of the QRF units in question arrayed across the map.

"I assume you had some idea then? Since you seem to hate mine."

"Don't put words in my mouth. A diversion is what we need. Just not a typical one. Forty, bring up Objective Predator." He gave the clone a moment to pull the location up on the viewer, a typical square walled separatist fort appearing, very little in the way of terrain around it, side from a series of earthen works established ahead of the entrance, a single marked road through the defenses.

"Um, Predator isn't even one of our objectives? It's two-nine-fours, right?" Crusher spoke up, his helmet resting on his lap as he sat cross-legged on the floor. He was the one in charge of the support company, Echo company.

"Correct. But we are going to make it ours. And here's why." Del stood, pointing at the seven semi-sentient cannons arrayed in the front of the fortress. They were well defended by the earthenworks, and only left outside the fort so they could provide fire support to the forward units. Likely the very guns that had been fired at the jedi earlier.

"For the uninformed…" he paused for just a moment to glare at the padawan. "Objective Predator is a separatist ammo dump for their artillery platforms. There's only four of them in the region, all of which are in range of the battery stationed here. The closest ammo reserves are two weeks away by ground."

"So you want to blow up the ammo reserves?" Tallis interrupted him, but not in a rude way, clearly curious.

"No. I want to capture it. And it's cannons. We then use their guns, and ours, to obliterate their other ammo dumps, and if we are lucky, we can target artillery of theirs in range of the base as well."

"So you want to starve their artillery? But why keep this dump intact?" Forty spoke up this time, his still helmeted head turning to Del.

"Because they would then need that ammo as much as we would, right?" Tallis.

"Point to the padawan, might make a soldier out of you after all." Del glared at both of them for interrupting him again, but he couldn't help but smirk a little. "With possession of their only viable ammo dump, they won't risk bringing heavy weapons to bear on us. They'll want to protect the ammo after all. They'll have to divert several QRF's to dig us out the hard way. Those seven cannons are also the only major anti-air in the area, so we should be able to call for air support and cut those battalions down. All the while, we keep pounding on their forces with their own guns."

"Can't say I don't like it…. But those defenses still outnumber us. One platoon of regs and three companies of droids? And those cannons would tear our tanks apart. Plus, besides this river running on the north side, there's no cover for them to advance either. But that would leave them with four clicks of open grassland to cover." Inky spoke up this time, easily distinguished as his armor was covered in art and images, to the point his armor wasn't even truly camouflaged anymore.

"Sort of. Look at the defenses inside the fort. A squad of regs, and a platoon of droids, all B-Ones. If we can get a company in there over the night, ascension cables and night vis only, they could overwhelm the interior defenses, then suppress the guns from the ramparts to allow the walkers to move up. We should contact Gundarks and see if they can get those troops in place in time."

"It's a solid idea, but how the hell do we keep the main defenses from getting inside once things get loud?" Midnight, A-co's executive officer and a clone sporting matte black armor.

"I…. haven't figured that out yet. If we could guarantee control of the control room above the gate, we could lock the fort down. Good thing about prefabs is we know the layout and can easily override controls…"

"I don't see a good way to advance to the control room. Not quietly at least." Forty, letting out a quiet sigh.

"I…. have an idea?" the padawan spoke up again, her eyes meeting Del's.

He let out a small sigh, looking back at the map instead of her. "Shoot."

"Why don't we sneak people into the fort before the combat starts? Wear enemy uniforms, get into positions to secure the control when the fighting starts and lock it down."

"All due respect commander, but us clones stick out. Wouldn't work even if we wanted it to." Forty shrugged, clearly trying to brush her suggestion off.

"Well, we have two non-clones here…"

Del himself was running the idea through his, imagining how that could work out, what it would look like, and what would be needed to pull it off, rubbing his chin as he let it process for a moment. "It's crazy, and reckless, and could go wrong in more ways than I can count… but it could work." Part of him hated agreeing with her ideas again, but he had to respect a good idea when he heard one.

"Sir, we can't put you at risk like that! You're the only reason any of us have made it this far, if this went sideways, we would be without a commander!" though his face was covered by his helmet, Del knew he was being glared at by the clone.

"No Forty, the boys have you, Inky, Crusher and Blade. All of you are good leaders without me. And there's no one better for attempting this, and you know it's a better shot of getting the battalion out of here alive than what command wants. If you have another idea in mind to secure that control room, this is what we are left with. And there's no way Holland will approve any operational deviation without a rock solid plan. We can make this work."

"It's too risky sir. If you two were found out and caught…"

"Whole op goes up in flames. I know. Does anyone have a better idea?" Del spoke calmly and kept his tone as even as he could, not wanting to sound harsh. He let his eyes slide across each of the clone leaders, each one shaking their head no, including Forty himself. "It's settled then. Crusher, source us two usable enemy uniforms and weapons, everyone else, start working on getting the battalion ready and plan out the main offensive. Forty, pick out the boys for the raid element and start refining that. I'll work on getting in touch with Gundarks and seeing if they can even get us a bird before running it past Holland. Questions?" again, just a series of shaken heads from the clones.

"What do you want me doing, commander?" Tallis spoke up, her focus still on Del.

"Get a weapon and familiarize yourself with it. Won't be much good barehanded. Let's get cracking people." The group all started shuffling out of the walker, Tallis limping after them. This left Del by himself with Twitch, who he needed to work the comms gear anyway. Better than what we had at least.