Chapter 332 - From Bad To Worse

Metal kicked the Acklay's body angrily, making it flop around. They had underestimated the two creatures, thinking they were just stupid animals, and that had cost them two more soldiers, as well as a few wounded.

"Do you think we got them all, sir?"

"Yeah. There weren't any other attacks reported. It can't be easy to train those things, so unleashing two of them on us is probably all the seppies could do. They killed thirteen of ours, of which three were captains, including Arbol, and two were lieutenants. All from the 212th."

"Ugh... They must have learned to recognize their armor. Ouch! Can you be more careful, Three-four?!"

"Quit complaining."

Dageer had already sent back the troopers that had accompanied them, and only Hell Squad waited in the deposit's entrance. Heater needed immediate treatment, while Three-four could easily take care of Tech. Sharp as they were, the Acklay's teeth were still small, and only dangerous if he managed to bite the throat. An area with a huge amount of muscle such as the thigh would only receive a nasty scar, nothing more. And, for soldiers, scars were a trophy, not a reason for shame.

"This is gonna match nicely with the one you got from those Blixus spawns in Ando. Now you have one in each leg, Tech. Hahaha!"

"Hahaha!"

Even Three-four, who was usually very serious when medicating someone, couldn't help but laugh out loud. During one of their many battles, Tech had been bitten in his right leg, and now it had happened to him again, only this time it was on the left one. It was as if he had allowed it to happen on purpose.

Grinning, Dageer tapped Tech's shoulder as his brother glared angrily at the rest of Hell Squad. They knew each other too well to believe that he actually was angry.

"Come on, let's sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow."

...

For the next two weeks, the Republic was pushed back kilometer by kilometer, meter by meter. Without reinforcements, their losses were growing exponentially, while the Separatist seemed to have an unending inventory of droids - which wasn't far from the truth.

Dageer was forced to call back Dab and Cell, their mission of killing the enemy leader ending up in a failure. Even Ragout's arrival wasn't enough to turn the tides.

In just a few days, the almost a million troopers had been reduced to just three hundred thousand. Not all of them died, obviously, but many were wounded and had to be evacuated. In other parts of Christophsis, the situation was even worse. Slowly but surely, the Clone Army on the planet was being decimated.

--------------------------

Over a hundred kilometers away from Hell Squad's base, a small clone garrison guarded a town already conquered by the Republic. Since the frontlines were almost eighty kilometers from there, there was no need for a large group. Only one sergeant and twentysomething soldiers were responsible for it.

At the moment, one of the troopers was looking at one of the many panels, keeping an eye on the radar. Meanwhile, three others were playing a game in a hologram table, four or five were sleeping, and another two were cleaning their weapons. The remaining, including the sergeant, were patrolling.

The monotony of their day was broken when the radar and scanners stopped working, and even the hologram table started to fail. As laid back as they might appear to be, the garrison was all made up by veterans. In a few seconds, they all had their armor on, had grabbed their weapons, and sounded the alarm.

"Sarge, we got a problem."

"Bzzz..."

"Hey, sarge?! Do you copy? Sarge?"

After two tries, the trooper gave up. Only static was coming through the comlink, which only reinforced their conviction that this wasn't just a mechanical failure, but an attack.

"Deck, try to contact our people on the frontlines. Tell them we are being attacked, and that they have to be prepared."

"Already tried, brother. Comms are jammed."

"Damn it! All right, we have to warn them somehow. Zap, take a speeder and go. We will hold them back."

"What about Sarge and the others?"

"The only way the seppies could have jammed our comms without us noticing anything weird is if they did it from the inside, and using one of our devices. That means sarge and the others are gone."

His brothers looked at him and cursed. Still, they didn't hesitate, and followed his orders. Before they could even leave the room, however, the door was blown open. Several clanckers, including commando droids, marched in, already firing.

Two clones fell dead instantly, while the others managed to hide and return fire. They managed to hold on for a while, but, as more droids entered the room, the clone that had taken their sergeant's place knew they couldn't stay there or they would be overwhelmed.

"We gotta leave! Zap, remember what I told you. You have to reach General Ragout and Commander Dageer. They must know about this, or they will all be killed."

Shooting and retreating, they managed to reach the room where the speeders were stored. Unfortunately, they lost three more soldiers in the process.

"Zap, now! Go!"

"But what about..."

"We will be fine, just go!"

It was an obvious lie, accentuated by another of his brothers getting hit and dropping to the ground dead. Still, clones were decisive and determined. Zap knew that if he hesitated too long, thousands more would lose their lives, and the death of the garrison would be in vain.

Clenching his fists, he jumped on a BARC Speeder, barely dodging a few lasers. Turning the vehicle around, he fired a few shots of the twin laser cannons, killing three or four droids in the front row, and slowing them down for a few seconds.

After that, he gave his brothers one last look, and sped up. As he zoomed through the streets, he saw dozens of thousands of seppies entering what would be the range of their scanners. He also heard his squad members scream as they fell one after another, victim to the red lasers spewed by the E-5s.

Several lasers flew past him, losing their accuracy the furthest he got. Still, three or four managed to hit him in the back, and he almost fell from the vehicle.

Gritting his teeth, Zap laid down on the speeder, and held on. He knew that if he passed out, he would be as good as dead. Now, he only had one thing in mind: reaching Dageer, and telling him about the danger that approached.

--------------------------

"One of the... Bzzz... Republic dogs managed to get away, sir."

"Useless! Now they know we are coming! I should trash you!"

"We hit him thrice, sir. Bzzz... He probably died and his vehicle crashed. Bzz..."

Breathing heavily, the person talking to the droid let a smile touch his lips. Pulling out a blaster pistol, he blew off the B1's head.

"You are the new commander now, captain. Hurry up, accelerate the pace. I want to be there tomorrow morning."

The poor captain, recognizable by the yellow paint on his head and shoulders, looked at his predecessor, and showed what should be a nervous look on his face.

"Err... Understood."