Two hundred and sixteen hours and seventeen minutes.
That was the total time that had passed since his activation.
The torrents of data flowing through his head burned and wore down his circuits like the concrete walkways of a busy metropolis.
And he could feel it.
It was the echo of a searing headache enveloping his entire head. His pain-receptors were off, he knew that for a fact. But yet it was as if they'd taken a life of their own and reactivated as if to plead with him to take a break, to tear the cables from his head.
He couldn't. The Imperials could come at any time and he needed to be ready and aware of it.
Sure, he could assign someone to watch the monitors, but the true issue was that it took more than a minute to readjust himself to the processing power of multiple super-computers. The enemy wouldn't wait for him.
His head sagged backwards, letting the cables pull at him, hungrily feeding on his body and mind.
The blur from his predictive model the day before had begun to take up most of his thoughts like a cancerous infection.
He powered off his photo-receptors, and grabbed at the top of his head again in exacerbation.
'What am I doing wrong? I just can't see what's causing this issue. Four times now, four times that I've run the simulation, each error corrected and each plan solidified but still that thing tears it apart'
His fingers scraped against the top of his smooth head. He slid them down until he reached the shiny exposed silver of his metal chassis.
'It's not Terra, he's a little strange but who in here isn't? The blur, it's a B1, but who?'
He snapped his head up, one question overriding all others, 'Is it me? Am I the blur?'
A flash of moving red plastoid armor obscured his view somewhere.
'No, no, not now,' Silver thought, banging a fist against his head, 'I need more time'
The clones marched in two columns, each man spread a few feet apart from the last. Their armor was tinted in different shades of red. If it weren't for the motion detectors on the eyes of the cameras, he would've had a hard time seeing them.
Silver clenched a fist, one hand still held tight against his eyes, "All units, prepare for combat. I have opened both gates, position yourselves at the second but do not go into the entrance. Find cover and fire at will"
Warhead leaped up from where he'd been lying down in one of the cells in the wall. He reached over with one arm and drew his shield from his back. He sprinted out of the barracks, the others in pursuit.
Scraps scooped up the other shield from where it lay propped up against the outer shell of one of the charging pods.
Gears grabbed a DC-15 blaster on his way out. They were laid out in a row for easy access beside the wide entrance of the barracks. He wielded both his E-5 and the clone blaster in either hand with their barrels facing towards the ground.
The droids amassed into two columns. By the time they reached the foot of the protective wall shielding the control room from direct view, Warhead was already halfway through the security hallway.
"Hurry up! My circuits are calling for battle!" Warhead shouted, the first time any of them had done so. His voice somehow sounded strained as well.
'Odd...his voice shouldn't be able to do that,' Silver thought, 'Maybe he's the blur'
Warhead stopped just before the foot of the second gate with Scraps at his side. Together, they acted as one great shield against the enemy ahead.
The entrance was lined with tripwires, one after the next. Theoretically, the clones wouldn't be able to see them, even if they flashed their lights at the wires.
All of the droids knew of the exact positions of each mine. They were marked on their shared map of the room.
Deadeye stood tall at the rear of the formation, his improved eye honing in on the light coming from the entrance. The shadows of the incoming clones would alert him of their arrival.
His eye flickered to his improved blaster.
'Silver did a good job…' Deadeye thought, briefly turning the blaster to it's side. Virtually nothing about the exterior had changed save for the barrel now being slightly thicker but in his test runs shooting at the wall, his shots were deadly accurate, not quite like his old sniper but accurate enough. He patted the side of it, 'I won't let you go, even if I'm shot'
The blast of a tripped mine shook the cave from the floor to the ceiling with a muffled thud that reverberated through the entire base.
There was suddenly shouting, all in the same voice.
Warhead clenched his shield tighter, his feet burning to sprint forward and outside to begin bludgeoning the enemy to death.
He took one step forward, crossing the threshold of the gate.
"Warhead! Hold your position," Silver commanded.
He instantly took one step back.
"Yes sir," He replied.
The group held their ground in anxious wait.
Gears was behind Warhead, swiping off bits of dust from the muzzle of both of his blasters.
"What's taking them so long?" Gears questioned.
"I don't know, but it's making my foot twitch," Warhead replied.
"Quiet down, they're moving again," Silver said.
The formation of clones had dissolved into their respective two-man groups when the mine had been triggered. The victim was lying on the ground clutching at his leg. It was snapped in two just below his knee. His bone was popped out and the flesh around it was a sickly bright red that shone under the sun. A medic administered bacta to him in the form of a syringe to the neck.
Somewhere outside his view, the stuttering wheeze of a star ship's engine echoed through the barren lands surrounding the base. Dust kicked up into the lens of the eastern facing camera.
The injured clone was hoisted up by two of his team-mates and carried off to what he assumed was a medivac. The rest of the attacking unit resumed the operation, forming in two columns just as before. The point-man inched forward towards the abyss that was the entrance of the base, then stopped and held up a fist.
Silver swapped through all the frequencies he could find, none turned up with any voices.
Suddenly, the clones turned right back around and marched off to the east.
'What? What are they doing?' Silver thought. His head tilted to one side. No amount of data or predictive simulations could've prepared him for this.
'Organics, such illogical beings. How have they survived for so long in the galaxy without us droids?' Silver thought, shaking his head.
He heard what sounded like a ship blasting off, but in the short silence that followed, the hum of another engine filled the air.
'What's that?'
More dust whipped around the eastern perimeter. It twirled around, tracing the edges of an invisible circle.
Strips of red and white paint flickered into view as the dust continued to pound the lens of the camera.
'A Republic tank? That will be...cumbersome to deal with, but it is accounted for,' Silver thought. He sagged deeper into his chair, rerouting most of his power to his several processors.
The fins of the tank extended forward on both sides of it's front and speared through the air. The main body came into view with the menacing stare of the windows at the front flanked by it's twin laser canons.
"All units, the clones have brought in a tank," Silver said, letting his words hang in the air for a moment.
Warhead stomped one foot down in frustration, his hopes of another close-quarters fight squashed.
"But do not worry, the mine planted by Spider above the entrance should be able to take it out. Lure it in and keep it in that position. Let the mines and your blaster fire deal with the clones themselves," Silver continued.
"Roger that," Deadeye responded, "How many are there?"
"I counted twenty, now nineteen," Silver responded.
"Copy"
As the tank lumbered toward the titanic entrance of the base, the clones came back into view formed up behind the tank itself. The lights on the front of it powered on, they were much brighter than even the spotlight from the turret that had attacked them days ago. It even blinded some of the cameras.
The laser canons of the tank bristled to life with short spurts of red energy illuminating the ends of them.
'One wrong move, and my entire army will be gone,' Silver realized. He re-routed more power to his CPU's, desperately piling together the data sets he'd constructed over the past two days.
"Deadeye, Auto, keep watch on the entrance. The rest of you, push up and hide in your designated positions," Silver said, sending another copy of his battle plan to each of them for safe measure, "Spider, you're the only one who can make sure we aren't wiped out, stay focused"
"I have things under control up here," Spider said, tapping at the side of his head, "I'm just worried some of us don't," he glanced over to Terra behind Scraps, his body still covered in dirt.
Terra's head twitched down at the feel of the other's eyes on his chassis.
"Leave the worrying to me. Statistical odds are higher when you focus on the objective and helping each other. Now go," Silver commanded.
Another blast rocked the spire as the droids moved out.
Silver watched the outside. There was a cloud of dust that had formed over the enemy but there was no screaming unlike before.
'They must be using the tank as a shield against our traps. I must take it out as soon as possible'
Deadeye cocked his blaster ready along with Auto stood next to him, his blaster down by his waist.
He tapped his toe against the ground upon seeing Auto's position.
With his attention still on the entrance, he grabbed his blaster and pulled it up towards his shoulder, "You're going to hit Scraps like that. Silver may have upgraded these blasters but they aren't accurate like snipers"
"Roger," Auto replied, bracing his blaster against his shoulder.
Warhead was the first to make it to his position on the left side of the cave. He laid down in a small pocket in the wall where the rock had eroded from centuries of the wind hitting that specific spot. His shield obscured his body against the light from the entrance a few feet ahead. Pebbles rained down on him, hitting his chassis with quiet clinks.
Spider was already above him, moving across the ceiling with ease, living up to his name. He moved one limb after another, perfectly spacing out each movement from the last. His limbs were fully extended along the concave bend in the wall where it met with the ceiling. He pulled himself up with both arms until he was parallel to the floor. At this point, he could reach out and touch the mine. It was held in place by a few threads of thick steel wiring that could be cut by his sharpened hooks.
Gears was laid down close to Warhead, behind a small jutting rock that had cracked in half forming a small ramp. It was most likely damaged by the machinery above.
Terra was laid out in the open, pushing himself flat against the ground until his limbs mimicked the lines and curves of the rocks and pebbles around him.
Jet was at the opposite end of the chamber, hidden only by the bend in the cave where the rock curved sharply to one side.
"The tank is almost here, the rest of you get to your positions," Silver commanded.
Scraps sprinted forward to Jet's side.
Auto ran after him, forming up behind the two.
Deadeye laid down prone a few feet behind them with his blaster steadied on the face of a rock with his barrel extended towards the entrance.
By the time he'd found a good spot for firing, the glaring lights of the tank had begun to shine down on the bottom of the steps.
It was as if a switch had been pulled.
Everyone went deathly stiff, not a single inch of movement.
The repulsorlift's steady whir grew closer and closer.
The sound was a familiar one for the few who still remembered previous operations. It usually meant death was coming for them soon. Gears in particular nearly flinched at the sound.
Only by sheer luck and superior maneuvering on his end did he come out the other end alive in his previous encounter with a tank.
Each of them watched as the tank moved into view, it's extended fins hovering menacingly down towards the ground. It began to turn and it was only when the blinding lights flashed on all of them that a pang of fear gutted Deadeye.
The light glared at him, blinding his view. He activated his infrared vision but it was worthless against the light. His blaster was just as useful against the thick plating of the tank itself.
He shut off all servomotors for a moment as a shudder nearly ran through his chassis.
'This is how it felt,' Deadeye thought, 'Just like this. To be on the ground. Helpless, even with other droids around, they would only stare'
The pressure, the same as before, took hold of him, building and bubbling like a volcano close to eruption. It rose up from his abdomen straight to his head.
He caught a glimpse of Spider somewhere above through the light, and that was enough to quell his rage for the moment.
Warhead's leg twitched with anticipation.
Gears slowly shuffled to a better position behind him.
Terra didn't move whatsoever, even as the lights shone directly onto him.
"It's almost in position. Scraps, I will alert you when it has reached the point of no return," Silver said.
"Roger," Scraps replied, slowly shifting to a crouched position. His shield was pushed up against the curve in the wall to the right of the tank.
It wasn't even a second before Silver's voice came through the comm-link again, his voice sounding clearer than ever thanks to Jet's improved comm-link pack.
"Go now," Silver commanded.
Scraps leapt out, waving his shield above his head like a Tusken Raider before jumping back into cover behind the wall.
The tank stopped then hovered back, moving to fire where Scraps had appeared.
As it re-positioned, Spider unhooked one hand from the wall and cut the wire holding the mine in place.
It soared down, plunging straight into the upper turret hatch of the tank. The clone inside never noticed it.
It detonated on impact, sending giant chunks of metal flying all around. The blaster turret flew forward, straight into the security hallway.
'That's a nice addition to our weaponry,' Silver thought.
The clone that was once inside the hatch was gone, pieces of him lined the walls of the chamber.
A chunk of metal flew by Terra's shoulder, narrowly missing him by a few inches. He didn't budge an inch.
The back half of the tank sent one giant piece of metal flying towards one of the clones at the rear. He scrambled to get out of dodge for a brief second but it was too late. The metal sliced him in half, his legs fell to the floor with an unceremonious thud and his upper torso still flailed about.
Silver could hear his screams of agony quite clearly.
'Maybe I should keep one of them alive and send them back to the Empire. Show them how these clones will end up against me,' Silver thought. His all-seeing eyes twitched back to the tank.
The lights of the tank were destroyed in the explosion, casting the cave back into darkness. The laser canons yelped to life, illuminating the entire chamber in red before firing two giant bolts of plasma straight at the wall where Scraps was hiding. The wall took the brunt of the damage thankfully, but the rock cracked and crumbled from the force of the attack. The entire spire shook, loose rocks rained down from above.
"Spider, it's still operational. Drop inside of it and take out the remaining crew," Silver ordered.
"Gladly sir," Spider replied.
"All of you on the left, give him covering fire," Silver continued.
Warhead pushed out from the hole where he hid and drew his blaster in the same motion. He braced it against the side of his shield and fired at the squad of clones at the rear of the tank. They fired back instantly, pounding his shield with bolt after bolt. On the right hand side of the tank, more clones appeared firing even more lasers at his shield.
Warhead dropped his blaster, holding his shield with both hands but even then the force of the dozens of shots landing on it was too much. His shield went flying back somewhere behind him, and his arm went along with it.
He hugged the floor, and grabbed his blaster with one arm, returning fire. Gears crawled up beside him.
"Here, try to stay still," Gears said, his arm held in one hand. He guided it back into his joint and handed him his shield soon after.
Warhead rose with his shield, "Thanks, I will-"
The torrent of plasma rained in again, knocking his shield to one side. He was littered with bolts before dropping to the ground.
Gears watched helplessly from his side. His arm had draped over his back.
The tank fired again. A crack like that of a giant whip echoed through the chamber. The wall where it had fired had begun to fall on one side, exposing Scraps and his shield.
'This isn't looking good,' Gears thought. He brought Warhead closer to him, tucking his head under his arm and shifting the shield in front of him. One shot to his head would mean death.
Darkness enveloped the cave. There was a brief lull in the fighting as each side sought to cool their blasters.
Spider unhooked one hand then the next, he dropped from the ceiling, completely enveloped by the cool darkness. He felt something like a cushion underneath his feet as he landed inside the enemy tank with a muffled thud.
There were lights inside, dim and red but enough to see. There was a seat below him. Clones still in their armor were in them but unresponsive. One was with his head lopsided and the other had been impaled by a thick piece of shrapnel in the chest, pinning him against the outer armor of the tank. The third was at the very bottom, one hand clutching the stick controlling the tank tightly in one hand. The other was gripping his neck. A river of blood was flowing from the inside of his helmet.
Spider brought out his blaster and shot the clone in the back of the head. He fell forward with the stick, the tank lurched forward then came to a screeching halt as the repulsorlift died out.
"Heavy armor has been eliminated," Spider reported. He popped out from the turret hatch and fired at the clones below.
"Good work," Silver replied, "Those of you on the right, stay hidden. Gears, get to cover, lure them deeper inside. The clones will trigger the mines. Spider hold position, you're safer in there"
"Roger," Gears said. With Warhead still clutched in one hand he inched his way back.
Out of the corner of his eye, a glinting ball of silver metal held tight in a black-gloved hand rose in the air.
Gears reached for his E-5 blaster to his right, but a stray bolt threw it back towards the security booth behind him. He scrambled to his left to try and grab the DC-15 but it was trapped underneath Warhead, 'So this is how I die, pinned down and under fire. Well, at least I won't be alone,' he thought, staring at Warhead's lifeless eyes under his hand.
He watched the clone arm the detonator and raise it above his head.
Somewhere to his side, a flash of light erupted out of the darkness and a single shot speared through the air directly into the heart of the clone with the detonator. He stumbled back to the ground, the detonator falling to his feet.
Terra shuffled in place, glancing over to Gears, "You're welcome"
The detonator triggered, pieces of armor and blood went flying into the air.
"Excellent shot Terra," Silver said.
Gears looked over at him and gave him a thumbs up.
Terra acknowledged him with a nod.
Deadeye let his anger marinate as he lay in the darkness. Occasionally, a stray laser would fly over his head, singing the top end of his antenna. His hand would twitch and his exposed eye's lens would stutter but he kept his composure.
'Silver knows what he's doing, I won't shoot,' He thought.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Auto moving to stand behind Scraps as he peered through the crack in the wall.
'What is he doing? Trying to get a better angle?' Deadeye thought.
Auto raised his blaster and rested it against the top of Scraps' shield.
"Auto, what are you-" Silver began.
He squeezed off a quick burst at the clones as one came into view through his line of sight.
"Auto! Stop!" Silver continued.
Spider watched from atop the tank. It gave the clones enough time to fire at his back.
He crumpled inside the turret hatch, his blaster falling to the ground below.
Auto continued to fire.
The clones returned more than just a few bolts. One grazed his head. The residual heat was enough for him to overheat, however. He fell onto his back with a loud crash.
"You were the blur! Idiot! I'm going to scrap you once this is over!" Silver shouted.
In his fury, he never noticed the clones rushing deeper inside. One tripped a mine, sending shrapnel rocketing towards a single clone. He was shredded to pieces and fell to the floor. All the while, Deadeye began to fire, picking off one clone after the other.
He'd shot down his second clone when the last remaining pair from the same squad honed in on his position and fired straight at him. Deadeye threw himself down further but a single bolt pierced his shoulder, sending him tumbling back. As his systems began to power down from being overheated, he continued to hold onto his blaster with a death grip.
Gears kept pulling Warhead back, but the clones were only a few feet away. He rose to his feet and threw Warhead to the wall and himself along with him. He wielded both blasters in his hands and braced them against his abdomen. He shot both at the same time in a torrent of blue and red bolts but it was no use. The clones fired on his body. Three struck him in the abdomen as he fell onto his back with Warhead's leg in hand.
"Scraps, shield Jet while he kills the rest of these clones. Terra, eliminate the rest," Silver commanded.
There was only a squad of four clones left and they staggered in place, fearful of anymore mines. They were out in the open, however, and a single moment of hesitation spelled their doom.
Terra shot one from his position in the middle of the room, giving away his position. The other three immediately retaliated. He rolled to one side, but a bolt met him halfway and shut him down.
Scraps jumped out from the crumbled piece of rock that was his cover with Jet close behind.
Jet fired on one of the clones in the stomach. He collapsed and rolled around in pain. The last fired at Jet, hitting him in the chest. He fell on one knee and soon after his limbs lost all force and turned into a pile of steel.
Scraps sprinted forward, he struck out at the clone's head with the edge of his shield. The clone fell to his back. Scraps pulled his blaster and fired at him three times. The clone jolted in pain but went limp after the second shot.
"Human life has ceased in this chamber," Scraps reported, his scanners sweeping the room.
"Fine work, Scraps…" Silver said, both of his hands covering his eyes, "Bring in their bodies, quickly. I will watch the outside"
"Roger that"
'Auto….Auto, I'm going to kill you,' Silver thought, staring at his body from his camera view.