Chapter 201 - Cornered Traitor

For now, Dageer ignored the droids attacking the gate, and got up. Aiming his DC-15A, he fired six shots in quick succession. Each of them hit the forehead of a freedom fighter traitor. The others also started to react, quickly taking down the traitors, and turned back to defend against the Separatist.

The Twi'leks, however, stared blankly at the corpses of the ones who moments before were their's brothers-in-arms. Dageer pushed one of them, and yelled in his ear to wake him up.

"Get on your feet and use that blaster, soldier!"

"I-I... He... H-He... I'm not a soldier..."

"Now you are! Move if you don't want to die!"

He dragged the Twi'lek down, just in time to dodge a volley of lasers. Seeing that the freedom fighters were coming back to their senses, Dageer turned on his comlink to contact General Di and Commander Keeli.

"Bzzz... Bzzz... Bzzz..."

However, only a buzzing sound answered him. Communications were jammed again. Of course they were.

"We are falling back to the City Council building! Comms are out, pass it around!"

"Yes, sir!"

Dageer grabbed a trooper by his side, and ordered him to call the retreat. Just when the clone was about to move away, Dageer pulled him back again.

"And if you see anyone from Hell Squad, tell them to go to the bridge controls!"

"Yes, sir."

Looking at the walls one last time, Dageer went towards the bridge controls. Since he had ordered the retreat, he had to go against the flow, and bumped into several Twi'leks. The freedom fighters weren't as organized as the clones, so their retreat was quite chaotic.

On his way to the bridge controls, he reunited with Three-four, Dab, and Brain. When they arrived there, he saw Tech, Cell, and Metal. Tech wasn't wearing his helmet, and was bleeding from a cut above his eyebrows. Three-four quickly bandaged it, and the clone put his helmet on again.

"Sub-commander, sir. I have a message from General Di!"

"Say it."

Ferit, who had recently become a sergeant, ran towards Dageer, with a message from the Jedi.

"He and Commander Keeli are in the City Council building. He said that you should know it is Tram, and that you would understand. And that you have to capture him."

"Understood. Go back. Hell Squad will take care of it."

"We will go too."

Both clones turned around, and saw Cham Syndulla, together with his son, Tae Boon. Syndulla had a bandage around his chest, while Tae looked battered but all right.

"Tram was one of my officers. I've known him for years. I want to no why..."

"Let's go."

Dageer ignored Syndulla, and turned around. The freedom fighter leader was stunned, but seemed to understand, and smiled sadly. After all, not only did he fail to find out there was a traitor amongst his troops, there were in fact several.

Seeing Dageer and Hell Squad entering the bridge controls building, Syndulla and his son followed. Just at the entrance, they were greeted with a sorrowful sight.

Four corpses were laying on the ground. Three of them were clones, and all, with the exception of one, had been shot at point-blank on the back of the head.

Dageer knelt beside the corpse of Timer. The trooper had been in charge of following Tram Cholq, and had been the one to warn Dageer about his betrayal. Timer was holding his comlink in one hand, and had four wounds in the chest. If he had defended himself instead of contacting Dageer, he probably would have lasted longer. But Timer saw the big picture, and knew that this was more important than his life.

Getting up, Dageer looked at the stairs that would take them to the bridge control room. It was a circular set of stairs, meaning they would have to be careful, because any defender could just put his blaster out and fire, without exposing their body, while those who were going up wouldn't have anywhere to hide.

Dageer looked around, and saw Syndulla closing the eyes of the dead Twi'lek. Surprised, he recognized her as Apele, the woman who lead them to ambush the droids when they landed on Ryloth. Unfortunately, there was no time to mourn.

"We need to move. Either we retake the controls and deactivate the bridge, or we get surrounded and killed. Let's go."

Hell Squad followed him without hesitation, while Syndulla looked at Tae and nodded. They let the clones go first, because they were more experienced, but also because Syndulla didn't want his son to be hurt.

Their decision was proved correct, because the circular stairs that posed so much threat for others were nothing before Hell Squad. Before the Twi'lek traitors could even aim, they were blasted by the clones, who knew exactly where they were. How they knew that, it could only be attributed to how many times they had been in similar circ.u.mstances.

In total, they killed five Twi'leks to get to the bridge control room. Each time they stepped over a dead body, Syndulla, and Tae Boon would mutter a name.

When Dageer and Three-four were about to breach inside the bridge control room, a piece of the doorway was blasted by lasers. The shards hit Dageer's helmet harmlessly, and he stepped back, taking cover behind the wall.

"Dab, how many?"

"I counted six blasters firing, sir."

"Damn it. No way we are getting in there quickly. Plan B then. Tech, if we destroy the controls, will that take the bridge down?"

"Probably."

"Let's do it, then. Brain."

"On it, sir."

Under the shocked gaze of Syndulla, Brain pulled out about ten thermal detonators from his backpack. Dageer gestured for the clone to wait for a moment.

"Tram Cholq! We know you are there!"

"Of course you do! I just tried to shoot you! What do you want?"

Dageer was about to answer, but Syndulla rushed forward, and yelled at the room.

"Tram! I know you never liked me, but... Why? Why betray your people?"

"Hahaha... Betray my people? I didn't betray anyone. The only traitor here is you. You knew the Republic couldn't protect us, and yet you engaged in a lost war. You think I don't know you were promised the power to rule Ryloth if you win this war? Ha!"

Syndulla looked stunned, as if for the first time it occurred to him that he made the wrong decision. Dageer didn't care. He ordered Brain to throw the thermal detonators, and a bunch of explosions shook the whole building.

Immediately, Brain and Dageer entered the room, one looking to the left and the other to the right. Seven Twi'leks laid on the floor, two of them clearly dead, and the other four very stunned by the explosion. Tram wasn't amongst them.

Without pity, Dageer and Brain killed the traitors, and looked around. They had heard Tram Cholq, but couldn't see him. It was at this moment that somebody jumped on Dageer, and tried to grab his neck. The person had been hiding behind the doors, so both Brain and Dageer had their backs to him.

The attacker obviously wanted to capture Dageer, so the clone let him do it. Without facing resistance, Tram Cholq put a blaster pistol against Dageer's head.

"You take one more step and I will kill him!"