Chapter 348 - A Terrible Dawn

In Coruscant, a human female furrowed her eyebrows tightly. She knew the Force had been turbulent these past few years, but now there were ginormous waves appearing randomly. That made General Billaba worry.

After a long time of hesitation, she turned on her hologram projector, and called her padawan. Soon, Caleb Dume appeared.

"Master."

"Caleb, I want you to return to Coruscant. Something is wrong, and I want you by my side."

"What about Ryloth?"

"Master Ragout will take over your troops. He is a veteran, you can leave it to him."

The padawan only nodded. He too, like all Jedis, had felt the disturbances in the Force, so he wasn't surprised by his master's orders. After informing Ragout, he took a ship to Coruscant.

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Back at the Separatist command center outside Nabat, Hell Squad had just finished cleaning up all the droids. Dageer kicked one of them aside, and started to set up thermal detonators.

"What is our next step, sir?"

Now that they were isolated inside the command center, they could talk without worrying about being uncovered. Dageer threw his detonators to Tech, and, while he and Brain planted the bombs, turned on his comlink.

"General, we are inside the command center. Do you have special orders? Or can we proceed as we see fit?"

"You are free to do whatever you want, Dageer. The more chaos, the better. Oh, and another thing. Caleb was called back by Master Depa, but Grey and the others are still here."

"Got it."

The clone only nodded, before turning off his comlink. The less they talked, smaller the chances the transmission would be intercepted.

"Charges in place, commander."

"All right. General's orders are to cause as much damage as we can. We will blow this place up when we are some distance away. The clanckers will all come here, so we explode something else on the other side of the camp. After that, we leave."

They all acknowledged his words quietly, and went out. After making sure no droid was looking at them, they slipped back into the shadows. They had yet to walk ten meters when a group of seppies appeared out of nowhere.

The Droideka and five B1 units that accompanied it were more surprised than Hell Squad. Without wasting a second, Dageer went straight for the most dangerous target, the rolling ball of death.

He jumped on top of it, and tried to cut it's head off with his vibroblade. The droid, however, stumbled backwards, making Dageer lose balance, and fall. Still, a nasty cut was left on the Droideka, sending sparks flying.

At the same time his brothers had attacked the other five tin cans, killing them almost immediately. Both Three-four and Cell threw their vibroknifes at the Droideka, managing to blind it, and buying time for Dageer to get up.

However, even with it's sensors destroyed, the clancker fired it's twin laser cannons, breaking the night silence.

"Damn it! Kill that thing!"

There was no need for caution anymore, so Hell Squad pulled out their blasters, and obliterated the Droideka.

"Let's go, before they come after us! Go, go!"

Even as Dageer said that, droids were already appearing from their recharge stations. He pressed the trigger twice, killing two B1 units right in front of them, and stepped over their bodies. Behind him, Hell Squad was also spitting lasers out of their blasters, taking down the seppies before they had the chance to react.

"Dageer, I see a lot of lasers flying over there. Are you in trouble?"

"We met a Destroyer, general! I wasn't expecting it! Now the whole nest woke up. Brain, droid poppers!"

Talking to Ragout and giving orders at the same time, the commander cut off a B2's right leg, and used his blaster pistol to finish it. He heard the sound of electricity bursting out, and knew Brain had thrown his toys.

"Tech, blow the command center! Now!"

"That was a big explosion. All right, go to the entry point, Dageer! I will meet you there!"

"Roger that, sir. Come on, move!"

A laser scratched Dageer's torso, and he returned fire, killing the clancker. Swirling his weapon, he stabbed a B1 unit, and lifted it, using it as a shield. Each laser he fired found it's target, and the same held true for the rest of Hell Squad.

Soon, they reached the same point of the wall where they had entered through earlier. The cables were still there, but they ignored them - they would be easy targets - and used the stairs. It might seem like they were lucky to get there unharmed after all the noise they had made, but the truth was that they faced little to no resistance. Everything, from the moment they left the freedom fighters until now had been carefully planned. Any eventuality, such as being discovered, had been covered.

"Jump! I will slow you down!"

A voice called from under them, and, without any hesitation, the members of Hell Squad jumped over the wall, to the ground twenty meters below.

Dageer threw his last few thermal detonators, and emptied his magazine on the incoming droids, before following his brothers and jumping.

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"Jump! I will slow you down!"

Ragout had barely finished speaking when he saw Metal, Dab, and Three-four plummet down. Using the Force, he created some sort of invisible, but soft, wall, to cushion their fall. No sooner than they touched the ground, Brain, Cell, and Tech also jumped, soon followed by Dageer.

Using one hand to slow down the commander, Ragout stretched the other towards a group of droids running through the railings, and firing at them. With a pull, they were sent flying. Needless to say, there was no supernatural force to save them.

Hell Squad fired upwards, making the clanckers duck to avoid their lasers, and ran back. Ragout followed suit, smiling. The operation was a success.

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"How is it, Dab?"

The sniper was laying low, looking at the droid camp through the scope of his DC-15x. Even without his macrobinoculars, Dageer could see a lot of movement in the distant army, and dozens of vehicles were leaving and entering Nabat every hour.

"We really pissed them off, commander. Hahaha! It's been fifteen hours, and only now they called back their search parties."

Dab laughed, but suddenly stopped breathing. Two seconds passed, and then his blaster let out a loud noise as a blue laser left the barrel. Dageer lowered his macrobinoculars, and saw, six kilometers away, a droid captain lose it's head.

"Good hit. Let's go."

They couldn't stay too long in the same position, since STAPs were already zooming towards them. But long before they arrived, the two clones were gone, hiding in tunnels the Separatist didn't even know existed.

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In the Jedi Council, two dozen Jedis - some present physically, others as holograms - watched as General Skywalker sat down. Under the pressure of Chancellor Palpatine, they had just granted the young Jedi a seat at the Jedi Council.

It was highly irregular, but they had more pressing matters at hand, such as finding General Grievous.

"Hiding in the Outer Rim, Grievous is. The outlying systems, you must sweep."

"We do not have many sh.i.p.s to spare."

General Yoda had a deep frown on his face as he listened to General Kenobi. After a while, the hologram of General Ki-Adi-Mundi was the one to talk, bringing more bad news.

"What about the droid attack on the Wookies?"

"It is critical we send an attack group there immediately."

"He is right. It's a system we can not afford to lose."

General Yoda nodded slowly, and waved his hand.

"Go, I will. Good relations with the Wookies, I have."