Capítulo 315: The Grand Offensive

"Wake up, brother."

Slowly, he opened his eyes, and was greeted by darkness. Amidst the dark, there were a few flashes of light, which showed him the faces of a few other clones.

"Ugh... Where am I?"

"I would tell you if I knew it, Jesse."

Sitting up, Jesse noticed General Skywalker's padawan, Ahsoka Tano, was also with the clones. Captain Rex, two members of the 212th, and four of Hell Squad were looking at him.

"What happened?"

"When the seppie blew himself up, he also opened some kind of cave system, and we fell in. You hit the sand on your way down. Burnout wasn't so lucky."

The one who spoke was Cell. He was limping, and being supported by Tech, who had a broken arm. Following the direction the scout's head pointed, he saw one of his brothers laying face-down on the ground. His visor was cracked, and his head... It wasn't a pretty scene.

"Come on, Jesse. We have to find the others. Can you walk?"

"Yeah. I think my shoulder is dislocated, though."

"We will see about that later."

Jesse only nodded, not complaining. Dageer had a broken leg, and yet, he wasn't even frowning, so how could he?

"How many fell?"

"We don't know. All our comlinks broke, so we can't enter in contact with them. But I think we all did."

"Mine is still operational, sir. I don't know for how long, however. It's pretty damaged."

When he said that, everyone turned to him. They had seen the cracked comlink, so they thought it wasn't working, like theirs.

"Give it to me. Master, can you hear me? Obi-Wan? Anyone there?"

"Cough... No need to yell, Snips. I'm here. Just... Cough... Cough... A little battered. Obi-Wan is here too, but I can't get him to wake up."

General Skywalker's shaky voice answered his padawan, and she let out a sigh of relief.

"Can you activate your tracker?"

"I will try."

"Hold on, master. I'm coming."

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

Following the increasingly strong signal that Jesse's comlink was receiving, the group found where the two Jedis were. Midway, one of the clones of the 501st sent by Brain found them, but, before joining the others, they decided to help General Skywalker and General Kenobi.

The Jedis had ended up buried beneath tons of boulders and stones. It was only by using the Force to create some kind of dome that General Skywalker was able to save himself and General Kenobi.

"Just wait a little longer, Master Skywalker. We will start removing the rocks. How are you and Master Obi-Wan?"

"I'm okay. Obi-Wan hit his head hard, but he will pull through. Kite and Drum are wounded too. Fluke didn't make it."

Delegating the job of removing the smaller stones to the clones, Ahsoka started using the Force to make the bigger ones levitate. Luckily, her broken arm didn't affect her abilities with this mysterious power.

Dageer was forced to stay out of this one, since he could barely stand up. Deciding not to waste time, he started to head to where Brain and the majority of his brothers were, bringing the other wounded with him.

When his right-hand man saw how Dageer looked, all he did was give a salute. The commander shrugged, unable to hide a grin. Only clones could look at each other in such a battered and wounded state, and think it was normal.

"How are you, sir?"

"Nothing too much, Three-four. A broken leg and a few fractured ribs. Take a look at Rex, Metal, and Aeon first. General Kenobi will also arrive soon, with a nasty head injury."

"Roger that, sir. I would tell you to stay still and wait, but you aren't going to do that, are you?"

The medic knew Dageer too well. However, this time he was wrong. For the last hours, Dageer had walked with a broken leg, and helped Ahsoka. Even if he wanted to, his body couldn't go any longer, now that it had somewhere to rest.

"Come here, Brain. I need a report."

"Got it, commander. We have thirty-three troopers here, most wounded to some degree. Forty-five, with the ones that came with you."

"How many dead?"

"Sixty-five."

"Make that sixty-nine. Fluke, Guts, Harv, and Trapper are dead too."

Brain nodded, a defeated look on his face. So many dead, all because the Separatist had decided to do a suicide attack. Putting his hand on Brain's shoulder, to calm him down, Dageer gestured for him to continue.

"Thirty-six are still missing, plus that Separatist scum."

"Don't worry about him. His body was the first thing I saw when I woke up."

"He deserved it. Luckily, wherever we are isn't very big. I've sent troopers to do some recon, and they said most paths are dead-ends."

"You did good, Brain. Now, we need to focus on finding a way out of here before we run out of batteries for the lights."

"Or supplies. We already didn't have much to start with, and most of it ended up buried. The filters on the helmets will give us the air we need, but without rations or water, we won't survive very long."

The commander nodded. Of course he had already thought of that. However, he hoped they would find an exit soon. The basis of his hope was that the cave system couldn't be too deep, otherwise no one would have survived the fall, even if it was cushioned by sand and tilted walls.

"Don't think about that for now. There is no danger down here, so tell anyone who isn't occupied to grab some rest."

"Will do, commander. I don't know if we will be able to, however..."

"I know, Brain. I also don't like the idea of having nightmares now. But I need the men to stay strong, and they won't be able to do so if they stay awake for days."

The grenadier sighed. Of course the soldiers knew that. But sleeping in this place... He didn't like it. All he could think was of how many of his brothers were buried beneath tons of rocks, never to be found. He knew he would see them on his dreams. But they were all experienced troopers, with hundreds of battles under their belts. They were clear on the importance of resting when you could.

...

Two days went by in the darkness of the underground. Anyone who was still alive had been found, while those who weren't... There was nothing they could do for them.

Their comlinks couldn't reach anyone on the surface, and, although search parties were sent after them, there was no result. Seeing that, the higher-ups declared them missing in action, and proceeded with the grand offensive. It couldn't stop because three Jedis and two hundred men were missing.

And it was about the grand offensive that Hell Squad was talking right now. It was weirdly funny for them that they wouldn't be able to take part in a plan created by Dageer.

"Do you think it already started, commander?"

"It was set for yesterday. It's a pity we won't be able to see it through."

"I wouldn't be so sure, Commander Dageer. Come with me. We might have found an exit."

Ahsoka interrupted the clones, and Dageer was on his feet in a split-second. Being helped by Barin, they followed the padawan through dark tunnels, until they joined General Kenobi, General Skywalker, Fives, and Jesse. They were all looking at a pile of rubble.

"There it is. Our hope of getting out of here."