There was no dawn, not really. Just a lightening from pitch black to extremely dark. It was still pouring rain, but the falling water was so cold it was very nearly ice. There wasn't a clone in the unit that wanted any part of it, but not one of them put forth any complaint.

They resumed their march as before, a seemingly endless trek toward nowhere in particular. They knew now why the droid forces hadn't followed them. It was too wet for the average droid, and the cold would freeze them up something awful. Aside from that, there was the wind factor to consider. Bits of grit and small rocks were hurled forcefully through the air, and could easily jam gears. The walker refused to start up, evidently as resentful of the weather as the clones were, but it was less secretive about its feelings. They left it, and went on.

"Keep your men close," Rtj-lyr ordered.

The Captain didn't have to ask if he sensed something, that was obvious. That wasn't good. The scouts had reported nothing. If they found something in the area searched, Rtj-lyr would not be pleased. Even if there was evidence to suggest that whatever it was had not been in the area at the time the scouts had searched it. Rtj-lyr had become most unreasonable in recent campaigns. He was becoming more so all the time. As though to confirm the Captain's worst fears, Rtj-lyr called for the scouts.

"You said you found nothing," Rtj-lyr said.

"That's correct, sir," the rookie clone answered promptly.

"Then what is this I sense?," Rtj-lyr demanded "what is the disturbance ahead?,"

"We found nothing, sir," the rookie said.

"You doubt the Force?,"

"Sir, no, sir!,"

"Then what is it you have failed to reveal!?,"

The young clone shrank before the fury of the Jedi, and did the only thing he could. He repeated that which he had already reported.

"We found nothing,"

Rtj-lyr growled inarticulately and turned to Jac.

"We found nothing," Jac confirmed, without hesitation "perhaps things have changed since last night. We could look again, if the General wants us to,"

"Do not insult me, clone," Rtj-lyr hissed "I will go myself. If you have failed me...," here he trailed off, turning abruptly to the Captain "tell your men to hold position here, and await my return,"

"Yes, sir," the Captain said, but Rtj-lyr had already gone "you heard the man,"

I suppose, Jac thought, this is another one of those times where a Jedi's orders only seem like nonsense.

After all, wouldn't it make more sense to find caves to wait in?. Or was that just soft thinking?. Jac didn't know, and decided it was best not to think about it too hard.

The clones prepared to settle in for a long wait. Sometimes Jedi returned in minutes, sometimes hours, or even days. Jedi were unpredictable at the best of times, and any sensible clone knew that it was best to be ready to move at any moment, just in case the Jedi returned.

Given nothing else to do, clones have two preferred activities: sleeping and equipment maintenance. Conditions were poor for both, but a little hardship was nothing the clones couldn't handle. About half of them lay down, using their helmets as pillows, while the rest alternately kept watch and checked, double-checked and cleaned their equipment. The repetitive nature of equipment maintenance didn't bother them much, they had been practically raised on repeat. Whatever they did once, they did a thousand times over, at least.

Some time later, they heard the sound of blasters. The sleeping clones snapped awake. Collectively, they assumed defensive positions as they realized the sound was getting closer. The Captain felt a numb dread spreading through him. Rtj-lyr had met with trouble. That was bad. Very bad.

For the clones.

It wasn't long before the Jedi arrived on the scene, closely followed by droids. The clones needed no encouragement to open fire on the enemy. But the odds were against them, even with a Jedi in their midst. The clones had been caught out in the open, with no cover to retreat to, and the droids poured into the ravine's entrance literally by the hundreds. They were outnumbered, and trapped.

The sound of blasters firing filled the air, competing with the storm for volume. Now and then, a grenade exploded, a sound not unlike that of thunder. The flash of blaster fire mimicked the lightning slashing through the roiling black clouds overhead. The storm, however, was unending and the battle was doomed to a swift and decisive conclusion before it began.

"Sir, what are we going to do!?," The Captain shouted over the noise "we can't win this fight!,"

"Then go ahead and run!," Rtj-lyr threw back.

"That's not what I meant, sir," The Captain persisted "I don't like retreating, you know that. But dying here won't serve any useful purpose,"

"Then what do you recommend?," Rtj-lyr scoffed "that we surrender?,"

"No, sir. But we could fall back into the caves, get our flanks protected. Then we'd stand some kind of chance," almost no chance was better than absolutely no chance.

"Very well. Tell your men we're retreating,"

The Captain did tell them, but chose the term "falling back" over retreating. Clones hated to retreat. They would claim even the word left a bad taste in their mouth. You'd have to be a clone to know if this were true or not. Obediently, the clones began to fall back, taking it in turns to provide covering fire. Their retreat was executed too quickly to be organized, but they were trying to keep up with the Jedi, who was backing up faster than they could.

"We've got to slow down," Jac yelled "we're dropping like flies!,"

He was either unheeded or unheard, in either case, the clones kept right on backing and falling. At the entrance of the chosen cave, they made their stand, holding the semi-secure position until they were instructed otherwise, or until they ran out of droids. Or clones.

"Quickly, away from the entrance!," Rtj-lyr ordered.

The clones evidently didn't move swiftly enough for his liking, because he gave a couple of them shoves in the right direction. No sooner had the clones gotten clear than Rtj-lyr brought the roof down at the cave entrance by throwing his light-saber and breaking loose the boulders which composed the ceiling. Not only did the ceiling near the entrance cave in, the rest of it seemed hell bent on coming down too. All the clones could do was duck-and-cover and ride it out.

Minutes passed before the debris finished falling. A thick cloud of dust choked the air as the clones arose one by one to take stock of the damages. Were they hurt?. Were their brothers hurt?. Was their equipment damaged?. The Jedi, they knew, was perfectly alright. Jedi could take care of themselves.

Having made note of who was alive and who wasn't, they moved on to the important business of survival. Some began to check the area to see if the ceiling was really done falling, while others endeavored to relocate their General.

"You!," Rtj-lyr came from nowhere, lifting the rookie clone scout using the Force "you lied!,"

"No, sir. No, I didn't!," the clone protested.

"Then you're incompetent!," Rtj-lyr flung the clone down and the hapless trooper bounced off the nearby wall, and fell to his hands and knees.

"There were no droids when I was out there, sir," the clone insisted, albeit somewhat breathlessly.

"You call me a liar with those words. I will not tolerate this," Rtj-lyr snarled dangerously.

He then did what no good Jedi ever would. He lifted the clone, this time in a choke hold. The other clones shrank back in horror, both at their brother's plight and the realization that they could easily share his fate. They looked at one another, wide eyed, unsure what to do. It was a situation they were not equipped to handle. With no other alternative, they stood in pained silence as their brother gasped, choked, suffocating in the grip of one whom he was sworn to serve, and meant to trust.

"Please...," the clone wheezed, but his plea went ignored.

"Sir!. There are tunnels here!," Jac, newly returned from his inspection of the cave, was either oblivious of the situation or chose to pretend he didn't see it "and I can feel a draft. We may have a way out,"

Rtj-lyr dropped the rookie clone, forgetting him for the moment in favor of the opportunity to get out of this death trap. He could call for aid at any time, of course, but that was something he had never done, and had no intention of ever doing. His own pride and arrogance forbade him from taking that course.

"Lead me to them," Rtj-lyr commanded The Clone.

"We're movin' out," The Captain told the other clones, who reluctantly fell in behind him and the Jedi.

The half-choked rookie staggered to his feet slowly, using fallen rocks for support. His brothers didn't help him, they didn't dare. After what they had just witnessed, they knew that they couldn't risk being associated with this clone. To them, there was stark horror in being killed by a Jedi. It was something they were not prepared for, perhaps one of the only things which could well and truly frighten them.

Jac had not missed the entire scene, and could guess well what had happened and why. He made mental note: forgiveness would never be forthcoming, mistakes were not an option. A matter of survival. By so little had his own life been spared. Not that it was really his life he was worried about. But if he was gonna go, he wanted to go out proper, killed by Separatists, not Jedi.

They reached the back of the cave, where there were, sure enough, tunnels. The tunnels were twice as wide as a clone was tall, three times that in height. They were round, and the passages had tight turns. Rtj-lyr looked at them for a long, long time, before finally selecting one to go down.

He sent Jac and the still coughing rookie on ahead. If there was trouble, those two would be the first to find it by a long shot. Their earlier failure would not soon be forgotten, and probably never forgiven.

"Are you alright?," Jac asked.

"Fine," the younger clone turned away shamefully.

"Hey, we were thorough as we could be. I was there, remember?. We did our jobs. What just happened was uncalled for," Jac said.

"You would question a Jedi?,"

"General Rtj-lyr is not behaving as a Jedi,"

"How can you be so sure?,"

"I've been around Jedi, I've seen what they do. I may not have much in the way of understanding how they act, but I know it when I see it. What just happened to you was not Jedi behavior,"

"What can we do?,"

"There's nothing we can do," Jac replied "tyrant or not, he is still a General. We've got to follow orders, no matter how we feel about it. It's that simple,"

"I guess clones don't have that many options,"

"We have two choices: obedience or desertion. And you know how brothers feel about deserters,"

"I know how I feel about deserters," the younger clone said.

"And yet, now you have a better understanding of why some clones choose that,"

"Because they're cowards, unable to play the hand they've been dealt," was the venomous reply.

Rookies, Jac thought, think they know how the whole galaxy's wired.