Chapter 114 - Old Fashioned Battle

The clone army had dropped behind a big hill for two reasons. The first was that it was where the droid defenses started. If they tried to advance more than that, their gunsh.i.p.s would have been torn apart.

Secondly, if they took the hill, they would be able to establish a base protected from the droids, and from where they would be able to organize a bigger offensive. If they could bring in the big vehicles, like AT-TEs, the battle would be easier.

Dageer looked around and calculated they already had enough men on the ground to start pushing up the hill. It was about five hundred meters tall, and filled with droids.

"Lieutenant Fondor! Start the attack. Take down the first line of bunkers, then move up using the tunnels. Captain Narza, we will go up the hill. Squash them between two fronts."

"Yes, sir."

"Hell Squad, on me. Dab, while we are going up the hill, see if you can find any enemy commanders. Cell, help him. Kuvu, stay behind us, if anyone is hurt, apply the immediate procedures. Leave the rest to the others, you move on with us."

"Yes, sir."

Kuvu was the clone medic replacing Three-four. He was chosen amongst the elites of the 303rd, but still was quite a distance away from Hell Squad standards. So, Dageer ordered him to stay back, and give support to the wounded.

Of course, Hell Squad would be on the vanguard, so Dageer didn't want Kuvu to be somewhere he was not prepared to be. Deep inside his mind, Dageer probably thought Kuvu would slow them down.

Through the four and half months of war, Hell Squad ran far forward than the rest of the clones. Their missions, dangerous situations, and especially their determination, transformed them on a special unit that was the best the 303rd had to offer. It was also amongst the rest of the clone army. Dageer was sure that he and his squad were behind only the clone commandos like Delta Squad.

That wasn't arrogance, but the confidence that came from the trust their brothers put on them. Each and every member of Hell Squad knew that if they failed, the cost wouldn't be just their lives, but also the lives of their brothers.

Under the command of Dageer, the clones grouped up behind two Laats. The moment Dageer ordered, the Laats would fly out of the way and the clones would charge.

Having already analyzed the droid defenses using his macrobinoculars, Dageer knew there were seven lines of trenches, each of them filled with big and small bunkers.

After they took over the first trench line, Fondor would clear the underground and Narza the surface. Hell Squad would be with them. They had to systematically clear each trench before moving to the next.

"Pilots, ready?"

"Yes, sir."

"3... 2... 1... now! Captain, lieutenant, move!"

"Let's go, men!"

"Move out!"

The two Laats took off, one for each side, flying low so they wouldn't be hit by the anti-aircraft turrets. The clones split into two groups, going in the same direction but in different angles. The first line of clones was immediately shredded to pieces by the droids in the trench, but the second and third lines had fewer casualties, and the fourth was intact.

Only the upper body of the droids was shown over the top of the trench, making them harder to hit, but also guaranteeing each hit was lethal. Each time a laser missed, chunks of grass and earth flee in the air, filling the air with dust. But some lasers never missed.

Holding his DC-15A at waist level, Dageer fired two shots in succession, hitting the droids squarely in the chest. Tech and Brain aimed more, always hitting the clanckers' head. Metal was, well, vaporizing the droids with his Z-6 Rotary.

At fixed intervals, seppies on the bunkers would fall, all of them with a hole where their right eye was supposed to be. Dab was suppressing the four bunkers near them, making sure to keep the droids away from the turrets and cannons. With Cell marking the targets for them, the other snipers were also doing pretty well.

"Man down! Medic!"

"Hold on, brother!"

"Ahhhh!"

"To the lef... Arghhhh!"

Kuvu had a lot of work to do, and was too occupied to see that Hell Squad had left him behind. Of course, they didn't do it because of some weird reason such as not liking Kuvu. It was just that their rhythm was way faster.

More feeling than seeing, Dageer evaded two lasers, and slid in the ground, directly in the first trench. His feet hit the chest of a B1 battle droid, kicking it to the ground. The E-5 on the hand of his opponent was knocked away from him, and Dageer finished him with a quick point-blank shot.

The trench was about two meters deep in the central part, and one and a half in the laterals. The trench was littered with droid bodies, and even some clone ones.

Brain and Tech arrived by his side, and cleaned the remaining droids they could see. Each section that passed, more and more clones entered the trench, and took over it. Dageer turned on his comlink.

"Lieutenant Fondor. How are you going with those bunkers?"

"Sir. We almost finished clearing them up. We also found the tunnels, but taking them will be tricky. They had E-Webs on each corridor."

"Do what you gotta do. Captain Narza, what is the overall situation on the first trench?"

"Our troops faced difficulties on the middle. I am sending more men to support."

"Hell Squad will take care of it. Coordinate with Fondor, and start pushing up to the second trench. We have to take this hill before nightfall."

"Yes, sir."

"Dab, do you have visual on the middle section of the trench?"

"No, sir. Do you want me to reposition?"

"Yeah. Cell, with him. Metal, Brain, Tech, start moving. Three-four, support... Kuvu, come over here, I have troopers wounded."

"Yes, sir."

"... yes, sir."

Kuvu applied for the necessary painkillers and medicines, and Dageer patted him on the shoulder, to show he noticed how much the clone was striving.

After Kuvu had patched up the wounded, he and Dageer started following the trench towards the middle. The clone army had already taken over the trench, and was in a heated battle with the second trench line.

Walking down the middle of the trench, every now and then Dageer saw a clone being shot and falling to the ground. It was becoming more difficult to walk, since now the deepest part of the trench was being filled with bodies. But Dageer just kept going. Scenes like that were now too common for him.