PART I

"BALAMUNA"

"I always had dreamed about the feeling of combat, the thrill of serving the Republic and its people… Shortly after the first battle of Geonosis, I was deployed to the planet of Balamuna, a tiny planet out on the tip of the outer rim, we were there to defend the inhabitants and the planetary resources, the Republic had already dug trenches in the beach by the time I reported in, it was a strong defense but it took a lot of manpower."

[First day]

The LAAT landed, letting off a new batch of clones that would help bolster the Republic forces against the Separatists.

Among them was Shiny with the designation: CT-9792, the trooper ran in line with his other comrades, explosions ahead could be seen and the glow of red and blue blaster bolts could be seen streaking across the expanse, about two hundred yards away.

The rookie followed his platoon down into the trenches, they were cramped and bloodied with scraps of droid parts and appendages that had been strewn throughout the large system of trenches all approximately five feet, five inches deep, perfect for the clones that stood at six foot even, to have abundant cover without sacrificing accuracy on their shots.

Trudging behind clones with clones behind him, CT-9792 moved through the trenches, squishing his boot print into the wet sand, after a few minutes, the company stopped the hub of the trench system where a weathered tarp stretched between four poles created a makeshift command post where the higher-ranked troopers studied maps and statistics as well as battle reports and grades for the new troop shipments.

The group of shinies stood at attention in a line as the commander walked past each of them, inspecting their appearance, showing no emotion.

The commander went through each individual clone trooper asking them questions before he assigned them to different sectors of the beach defense.

Standing at attention, the sound of distant explosions and clamoring soldiers of both factions could be heard over the rain and machines.

"And you soldier, tell me who you are," The commander said looking at the identical clone of himself.

CT-9792 raised his hand to salute his index finger touching the helmet he currently wore. "CT-9792, highest honor graduate as both a demolition expert and battlefront operative, sir!" The shiny said loud and clear so he would be heard.

The commander blinked slowly at the enthusiasm this shiny showed. "What do they call you, shiny?" The trooper asked verifying the statistics of this trooper.

"Jam, sir," The soldier answered with a small amount of uncertainty in his voice.

The commander read Jam's reports for a long moment. "Says you got your teammates out of 'jams'," the commander stated finally, looking up at Jam with a discerning glint in his eye.

"Yes sir, I did what I could to help," Jam answered, still holding his hand aloft in a salute, given he hadn't been dismissed, rain pattered on his helmet as he awaited the commander's reply.

Looking over the holographic statistics, Jam had kept during his training on Kamino, the commander then switched to a different projection.

After a few seconds of pondering, the commander nodded shortly before turning to the shiny. "You'll be in sector four, the middle-most section of the frontline," the commander said unceremoniously, sticking out a hand to shake Jam's hand as he did with every new soldier.

"Yes sir, right away sir," Jam said dropping his hand and shaking the commander's hand vigorously.

"They've taken heavy losses in that sector and the droids don't tire, they stop in intervals, keeping steady pressure on different parts of the beach, survive as best you can, and take down as many supplies as you can," The commander briefed the new trooper, before dismissing him out into the battle.

After leaving the command center, Jam and a handful of other clones jogged down the beach towards the designated sector, Jam had been given a physical map of the area he would be operating in, just in case EMPs were deployed by the enemy, Jam could still consult a map.

The group of troopers arrived at the sector they would fight to hold at all costs, several bodies of fallen soldiers laid slumped in the sand, pushed aside by their clone brethren.

A clone that had already been there fighting looked back from his blasting and eventually stopped blasting and ducked down so that he wouldn't be hit, the sector was a rectangular hole where small packed-sand stools and a packed-sand table with a small cloth laid over it, all of the makeshift furniture was at most, knee-high.

"We're in the middle of a wave! Jump in and blast those Seppies to scrap metal!" The veteran trooper ordered the entire group, everyone immediately getting in position and firing down the beach at the droids.

Jam fired at the numerous droids running towards his position, hitting many of them as they fired back at him and his company, the sounds of death bombarded the rookie clone trooper as he fired his DC-15A.

The soldier flinched as red blaster bolts hit near his position, blowing sand up around him, Jam could spy his fellow clones falling off their feet and slumping down dead on the ground, the shiny continued firing, and for everyone he killed it seemed as if two more took its place, on the left, on his right, coming down the middle.

An explosion erupted a sector or two over, whether it was his team or theirs, Jam couldn't tell, and couldn't find out, the droids came running up to his position firing their weapons as they approached.

Jam backed up a pace as the droids dropped into the sector with him and his team.

The trooper rushed forward, swinging the back of his rifle like a club, dispatching the closest droid, two of his allies were gunned down before Jam could kill the last droid, the wave seemed to be letting up, for now.

"I was one of three shinies that survived that wave of clankers, some of the guys said we would all die that day… when the smoke cleared and the droids were lying dead on the sand, us rookies, well, we weren't shinies anymore."

To be continued...