Warning: Chapter contains some profanity and descriptions of battle scenes and wounds, you've been warned...

Location: Zumwalt-class Destroyer USS Carter, Potomac River, 41 days ABG, Earth year 2035, May, 25th, 3:25 pm:

"You want me to do what?"

"You heard my orders Captain, now fire!"

"Sir, with all due respect you want me to fire on our own base? I'm sure..."

The Marine Commander turned to the Naval Captain questioning his order, the one that he initially struggled with. Knowing they could possibly be firing on their own men was always going to be a tough call, but one a Commander was trained to make.

"No Captain," his voice loud and calm, "we need to take out that AA battery and as many droids as possible before reinforcements arrive."

"But Sir!"

"You have your orders, Captain."

"Yes Commander," the Naval Captain looked out one of the Destroyer's bridge windows to Quantico.

Sighing he nodded his head, "Gunnery Lieutenant, at my command open fire on sector's 6 through 14 stern side, glide slope 2%. Avoid the Hangar, we still have men in there."

"Yes, sir."

Commander Atkinson watched with stoic features as the Zumwalt Destroyer's big Artillery and Railguns swiveled, lining their sights up with his base. Multiple hatches opened along the angular sides of the ship, revealing batteries of missiles along its length.

"On my mark, Lieutenant..."

"Sir."

"Mark."

The entire ship trembled as the Artillery shells, Railgun rounds and missiles left for the shore. Impacting moments later, Quantico once again lit up in vibrant colors. Droids scrambled to find cover as each round took out entire columns. Thousands of droids reduced to scrap metal in seconds.

"Commander, we've just got word that the droids have breached a Hangar door."

Atkinson frowned, "Keep firing! Let's just hope the Marines in there can hold out for a little longer."

Location: GARD Hangar, 3:23 pm:

Riot fidgeted nervously behind a Jersey barrier, his DC-15s sighted at the Hangar door. To his left Jumps was kneeling, looking as equally nervous. They acknowledged each other with a quick nod.

The Hanger ran north to south, the half circle barricade was situated at the northern side about 25 meters from the personal only side-door. They all systematically checked their weapons for the third time. Jumps, Riot, and Aaron covered the left side of the barricade. Right'eye and Tens covered the center while Trevor, Julia and Conner covered the right side; all faced the door, weapons at the ready.

Aaron had just returned from his impromptu side mission. Both Roy and Speed had been rushed into surgery at the medical facility, it wasn't know if either would make it. The data pad the two wounded Marines were carrying had also been delivered to level 30. The trip had been productive for Aaron too, his med pack was fully equipped once again.

Farther down the barricade, Right'eye nervously twitched his bucket to the right.

"I got you, ner vod," came Tens steady reply, he would always cover his brothers weaker right side.

"Okay, this is it, we can't let the droids get the ship. All we have to do is hold out until General Kenobi and 212th get here. Got it?" Tens questioned in helmet to his brothers.

"Yes, sir," Riot answered, followed by Right'eye and Jumps.

"You boys ready?" Trevor asked out loud.

"Yep, we're ready Trevor, but are you?"

Trevor laughed.

"Yeah, Tens, we're as ready as can be," with a click he undid the safety on his MARS carbine, followed by the rest of Delta, "aim for their joints and head, right?"

Tens nodding his head looking to the Marine on his right, "Yep, just don't miss..." his reply cut off as the sound of blaster fire against the hangar door stopped.

"Hey, maybe they finally decided to give up..."

"No Riot, I don't think they have... ready" Tens stated, the excitement tangible in his voice. Suddenly, bright sparks erupted along the edge of the door, slowly making their way around its frame.

Tens heart skipped a beat, he knew what kind of droids were equipped with welders.

"Fek! They're sending in commando droids. Delta, these guys are lethal, they're fast, and can jump, so don't underestimate them. Aim for their head and neck, their weak spots"

Trevor nodded his helmet, focused intently upon the soon to be opened door.

Suddenly the welding stopped, they all knew what followed.

Creak.... Boof!

The door fell forward into the Hangar, smoke billowing forth. As the haze began to settle, red blaster bolts hailed in.

Blue answered back with bullets from the Marines.

"Anyone have visual? I can't see past the smoke…"

"Incoming!"

Five commando droids charged in, their agility bellying their mechanical bodies.

It seemed no matter how much blue or lead was sent their way, the droids had a bound or leap to avoid it.

"Fek!" Tens dodged a red pulse just in time, "I really hate these guys, Jumps a droid popper would be useful about now!"

Jumps, without looking down from firing, reached for the EMP grenades, which were next to him.

'Osik!'

His hand finding nothing, Jumps quickly glimpsed down, but to his dismay they were gone.

He glanced to Riot on his right.

"Looking for these?" the other trooper waved two poppers in his hand.

"Throw them, you di'kut!" there was a reason Tens had trusted the grenades to Jumps and not Riot.

Riot chuckled before arming one of the devices and throwing it perfectly. It clink-clanked to a stop right at the feet of the BX's.

"Lucky throw," Jumps stated over comms, watching as the four Commando's looked down at the device before it went off, sending out a blue electrical pulse incapacitating them.

The clones knew they only had a few minutes to act as the droids would only be immobilized for a short time. Tens and Right'eye jumped over the barricade and rushed forward. Tens used his DC-15s carbine to finish two off while Right'eye used his DC-17 hand blaster; preferring accurate shots to the head over his brother's rapid fire approach.

"Take that you tin cans!" Tens yelled firing several more shots into an already destroyed BX.

"Don't waste ammo, di'kut, there's more coming."

"Right..." Tens acknowledged looking to the opening.

No sooner had Right'eye spoken than regular B1's started advancing in, one by one.

"I don't think so! Riot, throw over the droid poppers!"

As Right'eye covered his brother, Tens ran back to Riot who handed him the last four immobilizing grenades. Quickly placing them in his utility belt, he re-joined Right'eye, shooting each droid that came through the door.

Between each wave of droids, Tens lobbed a droid popper through the doorway, taking out unknown amounts of enemies waiting patiently outside for the chance to get through. Unfortunately, this deviated from Tens originally plan to save the poppers for later in the battle, he would regret that decision soon enough.

Riot and Jumps along with the Marines watched as the two troopers moved back and forth in front of the opening, laying down constant blue fire, singlehandedly stopping the flow of droids.

"Show offs! Just because they're veterans of Geo doesn't give them the right to hog all the fun!"

Jumps chuckled, "Yeah, it would be a lot more impressive if those were B2's not B1's. I bet we could even hold off a thousand of those tin cans if they all had to go through a door single file!"

"Got that right, ner vod," Riot stated agreeing wholeheartedly with his brother, then a sudden thought occurred to him, "Hey Jumps, weren't there five commandos? I only count four on the ground, where's the fifth?"

Jumps, looking at the downed droids, considered what his brother said, it was true, a BX was missing...

Glancing left, Riot saw with horror the missing droid; it had doubled back and was about to attack his brother.

"Fek! Jumps, behind you!"

Jumps turned in time to see two glowing eyes staring at him through his visor. He tried to reach for his carbine but was too late. The droid effortlessly grabbed him pushing it's vibroblade under the startled troopers neck. It moved the clone in front of it, facing the others using the trooper's body as a shield.

Jumps struggled to release himself from the droids grasp but to no avail. Slowly the droid came closer and closer, Riot had his carbine pointed at them both, unsure of what the droid might do next.

"Jumps! I'll get you bud, hang in there!"

The BX however had other ideas, slashing the trooper's neck in a quick movement before throwing the limp body at Riot.

"Nooooooo!"

Riot immediately fired as the droid bounded at him. Luckily for the shinie, the blue plasma hit its mark as the metal soldier collapsed to the ground in front of him.

Shocked...

Riot felt numb, he just watched his closest brother die, there was no time for logical thinking, only action; maybe deep down he knew it wouldn't help, but he knew it felt right, and that's all that mattered now. Standing over the droid's body, he let loose multiple rounds into it.

"You killed him, you fekking piece of osik!" he managed as tears of rage streaked down his face, his sole purpose now to destroy the droid that killed his brother once and for all, "Arrghhh!"

Both Tens and Right'eye at hearing the scream, looked back to the barricade and the events unfolding behind them. Taking advantage of the distracted troopers the droids quickly sent in more B1's. Both Tens and Right'eye turned just in time to doge the first shots of red, before returning fire.

The sheer number of droids was overwhelming, forcing the two Troopers back towards the barricade, firing pot shots off at the enemy as they did. With ten meters to go before reaching safety, that's when they heard it, the unmistakable sound of Droideka's rolling in. Quickly glancing to each other they booked it back to the barricade, flinging themselves over just as the first shots from the Destroyer's fired over their heads.

Tens and Right'eye; backs against the wall, chests heaving from excursion, looked at each other before laughing and hitting their fists together.

"That was close!" Right'eye replied while checking his deece for damage and charge.

Tens looked from his brother to the left side of the barricade, he could see Riot crouched over an object firing his DC-15s repeatedly into it.

"The bug cave on Geo was worse, far worse..." Tens mumbled distractedly as Aaron, crouched down, quickly made his way over to them from Riot's location.

"Uhh, guy's, Riot's all shook up, er... you better just help him. I'll take the middle."

Right'eye looked again to Tens, nodding his bucket, "Go help him out, I need to talk with Trevor."

As Tens approached he could see Riot crouched down over something firing repeatedly into it. Tens, crouched down himself, couldn't see past the visibly shaken trooper, "Fek, Riot, what happened here, where's Jumps?"

Tens voice brought Riot out of his furry, looking down, he noticed there wasn't much left of the BX but pieces of melted scrap metal. But it still didn't feel like it was enough so he absently fired another bolt into the smoldering heap at his feet.

"He's dead, Tens... dead," Riot managed, ducking as another Droideka made it into the Hangar sending more bolts at the barricade.

The simple statement hit Tens like a rancor. Bracing himself, he looked around Riot.

'Feirfek! Jumps... why...'

Before Tens lay two bodies, one the smoldering remains of a commando droid and the other Riot's closest brother and squad mate, laying face down on the ground. Riot moved to crouch over the body, tears flowing freely behind his helmet.

Tens crouched next to Riot; both were speechless and in shock, looking at their brother's body. It was then that Tens noticed it, the inconspicuous lack of blood.

"Riot," caution clear in his voice, "did you check his vitals?"

Riot looked over at Tens, "The fekking droid s-slit his throat Tens, he's..."

Ignoring the shinie, Tens placed his thumb on Jumps neck looking for a pulse. To his surprise he found one; strong, steady and regular.

"Riot, he's not dead," Tens stated simply. Rolling Jumps onto his back, Tens removed the trooper's bucket revealing a still-intact throat. Holding the helmet up, he observed deep gashes in either side of the bottom of the helmet.

"What?" Riot asked, checking his brother's pulse as well.

Relief flooded through Riot, but so did a tremendous amount of regret, he'd forgotten one of the most basic rules in battle, always check the fallen for vitals, enemy or friend.

"I'm so sorry, ner vod, I... I thought..."

"Riot, he's unconscious, probably from the fall, he can't hear you. Give him a few moments, he'll wake up. He's lucky, Commandos aren't know for leaving survivors. Just make sure no more droids get to your brother, okay?"

"Yes, sir!"

With that assurance, Tens made his way back to Right'eye.

Passing Aaron again, Tens stopped, "Aaron, you're Delta's acting medic, right?"

"Yes."

"Good, could you check out Jumps for me, I think he's unconscious, has a strong pulse, but make sure he's alright, okay?"

The Marine nodded before Tens continued on to Right'eye who was busy conversing with Trevor and Julia.

A fifth Droideka made its way inside the Hangar joining the others in pelting the weakening barricade. The incoming enemy fire was so intense that it was hard for any of the eight soldier's to fire back let alone peek their heads above the barrier to get a good look.

"They can't be invincible! And I don't care if you have more experience with them. There has to be a way to destroy..."

"Look Trevor, the only way to disable them is by rolling a droid popper under their shielding gently, but if you haven't noticed we're fresh out, so I suggest we let the droids have the ship and get our shebs below ground!"

Julia shook her helmet in protest, "But your orders from the General, didn't he say to..."

"Yes, Julia, but..."

"But what, ner vod?" Tens interrupted, crouching in-between Right'eye and the two Marines.

"Tens, there's too many droids..."

"Right'eye our orders are plain and simple, protect the ship at all costs, so that's what we're going to do..."

"Fek that Tens! You kn..."

"But," Tens interrupted his brother again, "I don't plan on committing suicide either, so, Trevor, where are your grenades?"

"Didn't we agree that was too dangerous to do in here? That your droid poppers would do just fine?"

"Yeah, well..." Tens scratched behind his helmet inconspicuously, "We kinda used those up, and flash bangs are ineffective against droids, plus I hate them, but your grenades, you said they were made for destroying the enemy in one go, right?"

Trevor nodded his head, before ducking as a red bolt pulverized the concrete barrier nearby. He looked back to Connor at the far right end of the barricade, he was the one who had the grenades.

"How many droids now?" Trevor asked over comms.

"Well, behind the five Droideka's we have at least eight B2's plus a few B1's. They're just kinda watching the rollies make dust of our barricade. The concretes not holding up too well, better do something quick," Connor continued letting rounds off at the seemingly invincible B2 armor, he'd all but given up hope of penetrating the shielding around the Droideka's.

"Throw a grenade behind the Droideka's near the B2's. And get behind cover when you do..."

Connor nodded before lobbing one up and over the shielding of the Destroyers. Several of the B2's looked down at the object, before raising their arms to destroy it.

"Everyone hit the dirt!" Connor yelled.

They all hit the deck as a large explosion shook the ground sending debris flying everywhere. As the dust settled, Trevor peeked above the barricade before quickly dropping down as a red bolt narrowly missed his head.

"Fuck! Well, that sort of worked. Four of the Droideka's are still alive, but their shielding is flickering which is an improvement, I think... the B2's are gone, I saw parts here and there but yeah. Everyone alright?"

Aaron and Julia reported in as did the clones, but Connor wasn't responding. Trevor crawled over to his corner of the barricade to find the Marine under the body of a B2.

"Man down! Aaron, Connor's injured. I need you over here, now!"

Trevor slowly and carefully pushed the dead droid off the Marine eliciting a sudden gasp from Connor.

"AAHHHH!"

Trevor's blood went cold when he saw what was underneath the droid. Connor had multiple pieces of sharp metal shrapnel sticking out of his chest with blood oozing out of his armor.

"Aaron!"

#

Jumps was having one of the best dreams of his life. Surrounding him were a dozen Twi'lek's and each one wanted to get to know him, intimately. On top of that, there was food, lots and lots of food, in fact every type of food the young trooper had ever heard of and then some. Therein lay his dilemma, food or the more pleasurable company? It was hard, the food looked so tempting, he could even smell it, but the giggling women captured his attention equally.

"You know Jumps," started one of the Twi'lek's, seductively walking up to him, "You don't have to choose," she whispered holding up a Muja Fruit to his lips.

He didn't hesitate, taking a deep and juicy bite of one of the most delicious fruits in the galaxy. As he did so she slowly moved her hands across his chest. Swallowing, he completely forgot about what was in his mouth and instead focused on something far more enjoyable.

Jumps barely noticed that the other women and food had disappeared, it was only him and the one Twi'lek. He found himself on a bed as she slowly pushed him down crawling on top of him, seductively playing with his body-suit, slowly peeling it off, section by section.

"Nhhhnn... I love you..." he whispered.

She smiled before embracing him, kissing passionately. He'd been hearing his heart beat getting faster and faster but suddenly he heard a very loud beat.

Something went wrong, at least, Jumps thought something was wrong, though he'd never actually done the act before. Her body was pushing incredibly hard against his chest, constricting him, he suddenly couldn't breathe. He tried pushing her off but to no avail; if anything she was pushing even harder suffocating him.

That's when he heard it, the sound of gunfire in the distance, both blaster and projectile fire, along with screaming and shouting. Confused and with the pressure still increasing, he couldn't breathe, he started feeling dizzy, when all of a sudden the face of the Twi'lek disappeared replaced by a white helmet, and someone yelling at him to wake up.

3:26 pm:

Riot had thrown himself protectively over his brother when the grenade had gone off, sheltering him from a multitude of metal and concrete shrapnel. Looking through his visor, he was incredibly relieved and happy to see Jumps waking up.

Jumps realized he had someone spread eagle over top of him; annoyed and with his head hurting, he quickly pushed the other trooper off him before standing up.

Still dazed and semi-conscious Jumps noticed a Droideka in front of him, its shield flickering, with guns pointed right at him. With his body frozen in fear, Jumps gulped as it fired two bolts right at him. However, before he was hit, the other trooper tackled him to the ground.

"Fek! Who the kriff are you?" Jumps growled struggling to get free of the trooper who'd pinned him to the ground.

Riot managed to grab his brother's head, holding it tight, "Stay down! Do you want to die?"

Jumps finally stopped struggling and instead gave Riot a confused look. Concerned Riot continued, "You know who I am, right?"

Jumps shook his head slightly, at the moment he couldn't think, his head really hurt and being tackled to the ground didn't help in the least.

Riot, letting go of Jumps head, moved his hands up to remove his bucket so his brother could see his face.

"Jumps... you remember me, right buddy? Riot, your brother by choice?"

'Feirfek, how hard did he hit the ground?'

As soon as Jumps saw the familiar face, it was as if someone had flipped a switch, returning all his memory. He remembered not only being attacked by the commando droid but also the slash of the droids knife and sudden fall before darkness overtook him.

Jumps couldn't help but smile looking up to his brother, "How the fek am I still alive?"

Riot laughed, relief at his brother's return clear. Grabbing Jumps' hand he pulled his brother up into a crouching position before answering, "I didn't know you spoke Twi'leki ner vod?"

"What?" Jumps question, confusion written across his face.

Riot chuckled some more, reaching over he grabbed Jumps' helmet lying on the ground before handing it to him, making sure to point out the gashes under the mouth piece. Jumps examined the helmet, it was simple really, he could clearly see how his bucket had saved his life, besides really bad placement of the vibroblade by the BX.

"Hey, look," Riot continued, "I'm not the one speaking an alien language while unconscious... I had to use my HUD's translator to figure out what in haran you were mumbling!"

Jumps placed his bucket on, grabbed his gun and together with his brother, started pelting the weakened Droideka's shielding with plasma.

"What exactly was I saying?" Jumps managed between shots, concern evident in his voice.

"Well, you were mumbling, but, if the translation came out right, something about marrying a Hutt and going on a honeymoon to Naboo."

"WHAT!" Jumps voice filled with disbelief.

"Udesii, ner vod... okay... okay, so you didn't say that, though it would have made you a lot more interesting as a brother."

Jumps nudged his brother hard with his elbow before one of the Droideka's shielding finally failed, allowing the droid to be quickly mowed down.

"Oww, di'kut," Riot spat out, thoroughly enjoying annoying his brother.

"So what did I say?" Jumps insisted.

Riot rolled his eyes behind his helmet, but Jumps, seeing the telltale dip of his brother's helmet, elbowed him again, but harder.

"Ouch! Okay that hurt shabuir..." Riot rubbed his side slightly between shots, "I'll tell you later."

Meanwhile, Tens and Right'eye covered the Marines as they hauled Connor's body into cover. Connor was barely alive, his wounds were extensive and Aaron only being a temporary medic for the squad, was struggling to keep the Marine alive. Julia was at her brother's side helping Aaron the best she could but it didn't look good.

Tens looked up grimly from the Marines across to Jumps and Riot as they finished off the last Droideka. No new droids had entered the Hangar, which Tens thought was extremely odd, maybe the reinforcements had arrived?

Then suddenly the sound of an Armored Assault Tank firing echoed from outside. Moments later, the main aircraft Hangar door, which was sealed shut, shuddered, and bulged slightly in the center.

Then another plasma round hit, followed by another, it was obvious what was going to happen, Tens ordered Riot and Jumps away from that side of the Hangar just as the large door buckled in, large pieces falling to the ground from above. Several metal girders came loose from the ceiling falling on the Consular Cruiser, causing Tens to involuntarily wince.

Then, without warning a final blast and resulting explosion sent the large door falling down in large pieces, sending shrapnel across the Hangar while pieces of flaming metal bounced off the ship.

"Incoming!" Tens yelled as he, the Marines and his three brothers all hit the deck for a second time.

Location: Somewhere along Pennsylvania Ave. Washington D.C. 3:25 pm:

"Fire! Fire!"

"AHHHH!"

"Attack, I said attack! Doesn't anyone listen to me?"

"Wait... wait, don't shoot, don't shoot! ... Shoot him!"

"Retreat! I said retreat! Ahhh, what's the use? Run!"

Rex smiled inwardly hearing the cries from the less than intelligent B1's. He and his men, along with Commander Fulton and his US Army company had made excellent progress, repelling the droids back westward towards the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue. The other groups of soldiers and troopers were making similar progress throughout the city.

The 501st Captain ran full pelt forward, weaving through oncoming blaster fire before rolling behind an abandoned and partially destroyed vehicle. Denal and Coric came in on either side of him, both cringing as the front of their cover was turned to slag metal by the droids.

Looking back towards the rest of the troops, Rex watched as they slowly advanced down either side of the Avenue, hugging the buildings that lined the road, making use of stairways, benches, tables and trees while firing on the droids.

Recognizing one of the leading troopers on the southern side, Rex Comm'd him.

"Mixer, report. We're pinned."

"Same here, sir," the clone said, quickly peeking around a brick staircase. He watched as the droids suddenly re-grouped into columns and started advancing again. Immediately, the Republic and US soldiers on both sides of the road flattened themselves out against the buildings as a constant stream of red came at them.

"Fek, reinforcements sir, looks like a lot of B2's, some rollies, kriff, looks like there's even a Spider Droid farther down the street. Sir, you need to get out of the center of the road, you're too..."

A red bolt shot passed Mixer, ricocheting off the red brick staircase in front of him and hitting into a trooper taking cover next to him.

"Redeye! Sir, there's not enough cover here! We need to retreat!"

Rex looked over to the north side, all those men were equally pinned against the buildings too.

The Captain scowled, they needed more cover. Then an idea struck him.

He opened up long-range comms, "Sergeant Hez, how's your group doing? I have a favor to ask of you..."

"Sir, the droids just became difficult for us. Reinforcements? Anyways, we won't be able to assist you anytime soon."

'Figures' Rex scowled before looking thoughtfully at two brick buildings farther down the road near the droids, he sighed, out with one plan, in with another, "Commander Fulton, what kind of long-range weapons do you have?"

#

Mixer immediately crouched next to his brother, assessing his wound.

"I suppose there's worse ways to die," Redeye managed, gritting his teeth as his brother took off his charred chest plate.

Mixer scowled, the Tibanna had cauterized the wound, but it was deep, he couldn't tell if the white in the wound was bone or melted plastoid, either way it was a death sentence if he didn't see a medic soon.

"Coric, man down, I need your help."

"If you haven't noticed, I'm stuck with the Cap in the middle of the road. Try Taz, he's on your side."

Mixer frowned, looking over, he was surprised to see a cubby in the staircase where it met with the front of the building. He quickly dragged his brother in while also taking shelter. After applying a bacta patch the best he could and carefully placing his brother's chest plate back on, Mixer comm'd in for help.

"Taz, come in, Redeye's down, he needs help!"

"Taz is dead, sorry Mixer this is Gar. I'll see if one of the US guys is a baar'ur, hold on."

Mixer cursed under his breath, the droids were getting closer and no one had any decent cover.

"Hey, Mix, why are there children here? Kinda a weird place for kids, don't you think, a battle field and all that..."

Mixer turned to look at his brother in the corner. He was gasping for breath through the pain but worse, he was starting to hallucinate. Not good, Mix thought.

"Udesiir... udesiir," Mixer stated calmly, holding his brother's hand, hoping a medic or someone would get here soon.

"Gar, have you found anyone yet!"

"Asking around, kinda hard ner vod when we're all pinned against buildings and are being picked off one by one."

"Copy that."

Suddenly, Mixer felt something grab his hand, the same hand with which held his brother.

Looking down, he was shocked to see a young girl holding both their hands. She looked to be around nine years old, she was obviously frightened with tears in her eyes. Holding on to her other hand from behind was a younger boy with an arm wrapped around ball, probably no older than five.

Redeye was looking at the children, with some effort he slowly took off his helmet.

"Hey there, are you guys alright?"

The girl nodded her head, looking down at her feet all the while keeping her sibling behind her in the cubby.

Redeye smiled, happy for a distraction from dying, "That's good. Do you have parents?"

Mixer slowly knelt down by his brother and took off his helmet.

The girl pointed at a brick building across to the north side of the street.

Redeye nodded, "They live over there, huh? Well, that's interesting," he finished the sentence by looking at his brother.

Mixer frowned, he knew what that 'look' meant; Mixer sighed and rolled his eyes, he couldn't tell who looked more pathetic , the little children or his brother, 'Great, just kriffing great, kids, of all the problems, a wounded brother and now two kids, my luck...'

"Now why were you all the way over here?" he asked shoving his thoughts aside for the moment.

The girl shrugged her shoulders innocently, the boy however held out his ball to them.

Mixer connected the dots, "Ahh, you were playing, huh?"

The boy nodded his head followed by the girl. She looked with questioning eyes to both Troopers before speaking shyly.

"Are you Storm Troopers?"

Both troopers were taken back by her voice, if there was ever a sound in the universe that Mixer could label as pure, it would be this young child's voice.

Mixer, realizing what the girl had actually said, looked to his brother and mouthed 'storm troopers' with a confused expression. Redeye shrugged back equally confused. Mixer decided she had probably just mixed up Clone and Storm, which wasn't too far-fetched, they were just children after all.

He smiled back at the girl, "Uhh, no little ones, we're Clone Troopers, Clone Troopers, got it?"

The little girl looked relieved, "Can you take us back to mommy and daddy?"

Redeye gave his brother the 'look' again, albeit through a grimace of pain. Before Mixer could respond to the girls question or his brother's non-verbal cue something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. Swiveling around, he found himself looking at an odd scene. All the soldiers near him and farther down his side of the road had flattened themselves out on the ground. But, before he could put two and two together it happened.

A screeching roar boomed over the entire battlefield as two GPS Guided Cruise Missiles raced towards their targets. One impacted near the Spider Droid, taking out it and the majority of B2's while the other slammed behind the two brick buildings Rex had noticed earlier.

The two large explosions shook the ground substantially, sending out thermal heat blasts and shooting shrapnel everywhere. The second explosion behind the buildings sent them crashing down across the road, crushing countless droids while also giving Rex and his men much-needed cover.

Mixer had thrown himself over the children and his brother the best he could. Luckily the brick staircase sheltered them from the blasts.

"Stay down," he ordered, quickly placing his helmet back on. A barrage of orders and calls greeted him over comms.

"Coric, we've got multiple men down from the blast, north side, need your assistance, ASAP!"

"Secure that rubble! Use it as a barricade, charge, move it! Move it Troopers!"

"Watch it, Destroyers moving in, get to that cover, now!"

"Rex, AAT moving in farther down the road!"

"Fek, everyone move it!"

Mixer turned off his comms, and watched as all the soldiers, Republic and US, charged down the road at the decimated droid forces.

Mixer glimpsed the familiar blue of Coric across the road helping wounded brothers. He knew what he had to do.

Placing his brother's helmet back on and clipping both their DC-15s's to their utility belts, Mixer hoisted Redeye up in a wounded man carry. Bending down, he gestured to the two small children.

"All aboard."

Redeye held out his one free hand, even while being carried by his brother, he could still carry the little boy. The girl helped her brother into Redeye's free arm before being hoisted up by Mixer so that she rested in a nook between his left arm and Redeye's body.

Turing and finding Coric once again through the advancing men, Mixer sprinted forward into the fray.

"Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur!" *

Story Notes: This chapter has been beta'd by the wonderful Unknown Beta. I am very thankful for this, and on this Christmas, I couldn't be happier because of this. Unknown Beta, you are a great writer and a great friend, hoping you have a very Merry Christmas!

From the beginning of the chapter, if the description of the barricade in the hangar is confusing, try this. Look at the following diagram... : ) Okay, so imagine that in-between the two eyes of the smiley face is the doorway the droids breached. Now the barricade is the smile. Simple, right? Tens/Right'eye in the center facing the door, Jumps/Riot/Aaron are below them and Trevor/Julia/Connor are above.

Always remember in battle a lot can happen in a short amount of time, so be aware of that if you're looking at the times in the headings at the beginning of each scene.

* Mando'a phrase, cause their not daft - Today is a good day for someone else to die...

Other Mando'a that appears in this chapter:

Haran - Hell

Udesiir - Relax, take it easy, calm down, find respite (similar to Udesii only the difference here is how and under what circumstances you use it, like consoling a hurt vod)

baar'ur - Medic

A/N: Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's everyone! I won't be updating again till sometime in the beginning of the new year, out with 2013 in with 2014! Eh, I've always liked even-numbered years better than odd-numbered. Anyways, please review; your thoughts, opinions and suggestions are highly valued. Thanks for reading,

-Sly