Chapter 22

Ahsoka was already scouting ahead, so it was her who set the bombs that would burst the lab hatches open. She would enter the lab from her position on the ground and both her team and mine would make an airborne entrance. When we had boarded the gunships on Theed, Rex had joked about seeing me more often than he did his brothers on the 212th or the 104th, which was pretty accurate. "We might have to add some blue to that armour of yours if you keep this up, Commander." Later I found out he hadn't been entirely joking.

The pilot opened the blast doors and a few seconds later, the ground in the swamp beneath us shook with the force of three explosions. It was dark and the woods around the area lit up for a few seconds before the smoke covered it all up.

I jumped off the LAAT/i and into the open hatch, landing on a seamless squat with the aid of the force so as not to injure my legs. I turned my lightsaber on and started to intercept enemy fire as the rest of Ahsoka and I's squad rappelled down the opening. We were in the middle of a corridor, so both of us padawans took position on opposite sides in order to shield the troops. The lab was more heavily defended than we had originally expected. It was counterintuitive to have so many battle droids in a Republic aligned planet such as Naboo. Especially in Naboo.

The system was one of the most notorious defenders of peace within the Galactic Senate, to target such a political presence in the eyes of the galaxy was bold. But there was no time to consider the political implications of the lab's placement. The CIS had gone too far when they decided to resort to biological warfare. They were trying to leave the Republic, fine, but there was no reason to kill hundreds of thousands of life forms because of it. We were not going to let that happen.

The plan was going smoothly. Ahsoka, our troops and I had managed to gather the attention of almost all the lab's security personnel. We were taking the brunt of the defense, true, but that meant Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi could carry out their own missions without having to worry about battle droids.

The thing about close quarters fighting is that it's rather restrictive by nature. There is no place for maneuvering or taking cover, or getting a little creative with one's attack. And in such circumstances, numbers often have the upper hand, especially if those numbers don't have the disadvantage of being irreplaceable life forms. Normal battle droids in big numbers were annoying enough, SBD's were a nuisance no one wanted to deal with, but Droidekas? yeah those were a problem. Their deflector shields were bad enough in open combat where you could sneak past them if you were stealthy enough, but in close quarters? Bad news.

The rolling balls of death rounded the corner like a clunking stampede of metal boulders. I cursed underneath my breath and resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Of course they had Droidekas in this Force Forsaken lab.

"'Soka! I won't fit," I yelled, "You jump, I'll throw you!"

"On three!" she answered, "Rex, take care of these for a second."

"Boil, lay cover fire!" I instructed. "THREE"

"Two!" returned Ahsoka as she turned her saber off and got ready to jump.

"Go!"

Ahsoka ran the couple of meters that separated her from me and jumped. I force pushed her in order to get above and across the destroyers. The gap between the droids and the ceilings had been too narrow for me to do it, so we had to make do. Ahsoka was agile, flexible, small and light, she was the perfect person for the job, and she was skilled. With all the training and natural ability of a Torguta she landed on one of the droids and turned her saber on, right on top of its head. The first one went down. I ran forward to draw the second droid's attention while Ahsoka repeated the process. Behind us, our squad finished turning the other battle droids into scrap metal. We were done, for now.

"Report." I said as I turned to my team and reached out into the Force to sense for any signs of pain or distress on any of the men. There were.

"Ginger is dead, T.H. was shot but is still able bodied," Said Waxer "Captain Rex is also down two men, Commander"

I sighed defeatedly before turning to my wounded trooper. He would never let anyone know, but he was in quite a lot of pain. His shoulder had been hit by a blast that ricocheted on one of the corridor surfaces. I wanted him to retreat, to get him out of there and to safety before his injuries started to work against him. But I couldn't. I needed him, we all did. We had lost more men than we could afford and we still needed to reinforce the other two squads. I also knew he would have never let me do it. He was a clone trooper of the 212th and he would rather die fighting than let his team die in his stead. He was no coward. None of them were.

"How are you doing T.H.?"

"It's just a scratch, Commander. I'll be good to go once I bandage it."

"Good man, take a breather and rest a few minutes, we'll be moving out soon." I said before crouching down in front of him. "I'm sorry I can't get you clear. I need you, I need all of you."

T.H. looked up at me, I couldn't see his face behind the helmet, but I could feel his surprise, the way his chest felt lighter, the way he felt like he could take on the entire CIS army by himself. His CO needed him. His CO cared for his safety but she needed him. He would not abandon his CO.

"Don't worry about me, Commander," he said with conviction. "We'll take this damn lab and complete the mission. You'll see."

I patted his healthy shoulder twice and smiled at him before standing up.

Ahsoka was talking to Rex behind us, the Force moved slowly around them and in Rex's case it felt almost viscous, stagnant, like he wasn't affected by the pain and turmoil. I knew better, and so did Ahsoka. We ordered the fallen troopers extracted by the team above ground, they would be given a proper funeral after this was all over.

"Rex, 'Soka, whatchu guys have for me?" I said approaching them.

"General Kenobi has made it safely to the storage room and is helping disable the bombs. They are almost done," said Rex as he pulled up the lab's geoscan that we had been provided with. "General Skywalker has found the hostages and is engaged with Doctor Vindi as we speak."

"We should reinforce him." Said Ahsoka.

I touched my hand to my chin as I thought about our dilemma. Help Skywalker with the hostage situation or help Master Kenobi defuse the bombs?

"Hostage situations are tricky," I started. "stepping in during negotiations could be very detrimental to the whole effort. If Vindi has something to threaten Skywalker with, odds are, he can do the same to us. I think we should let Skywalker deal with it."

"Our men are trained to defuse bombs, but none are as good as the ones with General Kenobi. I think we would be getting in the way if we decided to go help them." Commented Ahsoka.

"Commander, if I may…" said Rex and waited until I nodded to proceed. " We should secure all known exits to the lab so that no one can get out. That way we prevent the virus from leaving the facility and scrap any droids that want to escape."

I smirked at him before raising an eyebrow at Ahsoka. Rex was a good soldier, yes, but he was also more than just that, and he continued to show me so every time I saw him.

"Rex, old boy, you are the best." smiled my friend, "We would need to split up in order to cover all exits, and there aren't many of us left."

"Then we make the best of it. Rex, you take Waxer and Boil, stay here and man the southern hatch; Ahsoka, take Nax to the eastern one; T.H will come with me to the northern hatch. Nothing gets out." I said while pointing at the holo map Rex had been holding. "May the Force be with us, Pals."

Ahsoka nodded to me before setting off and Rex nodded, turning to the men he would be working with and starting to give out orders. I returned to where T.H. was seated and offered him my arm. He took it and stood up with little effort. He had taken a bacta shot, he said.

"I would have left you here with Rex but this is where I expect the most fire," I explained. "So you'll be coming with me, trooper. I'll have your back."

He tried moving his injured shoulder a little as if to stretch the muscle. He was in pain, there was no denying that, it didn't matter how good he was at hiding it.

"You don't have to coddle me, Commander." He returned. "Injured or not, I can keep up and have your back just as well. You can count on me."

I smiled honestly at his visor.

"I know I can."

…

T.H. was on the lookout as I tampered with the hatch controls. If anyone or anything managed to get past us, I wanted to make sure they didn't escape. Thus, hardwiring the hatch controls to remain closed and booby trap the thing so that if anyone tried to override it, they'd get a nasty surprise, and their faces blown to pieces. The lab's corridors weren't exactly soundproof, so every once in a while, the distant echoes of a blaster fight made its way to us. The situation was not ideal. If battlegrounds were stressful because of the chaos, then this was stressful due to the uncertainty of it all. We had no idea how close to letting a virus lose we were. We had no Idea if everybody else was okay, even with signals not jammed. We had no Idea how many more droids -battle droids or otherwise- were left in the facility. If you asked any of us about the status of the situation, the answer would most likely be "fuck if I know". But what was important was that we had given ourselves something to do, and all we had to do was accomplish it. When in distress, give yourself something to do.

"How are things going down there, T.H.?" I asked, rolling my shoulders from the strain. I'd had my arms up towards the hatch for over twenty minutes and they were starting to hurt.

"Clear, Commander." Answered the clone. "We have comm chatter though. Hostages are secure but the doctor is attempting to escape and Skywalker is in pursuit... -" he stilled for a second as if to listen to the radio more carefully. "General Kenobi is moving to intercept, his team is done defusing the bombs."

A relieved sigh escaped me without consent. We weren't about to die of an incurable disease. I finished the job regardless. Even when we caught Vindi, there would be droids and possibly other personel trying to escape, we needed to make sure none were left free to roam Naboo once everything was over.

"Good, I want to get out of here as soon as possible," I said placing the control panel over the wires once again and clicking it in place. "I don't think the humidity on the planet agrees with me."