章 144: Rebellion

The weapon Dageer pulled from inside the crate was a rarely seen one. A light double-barrel repeating blaster was an extremely dangerous weapon. Dageer thought that he could give it to Metal after it was all over.

Back to the present, Dageer quickly analyzed the weapon he had in his hands. Double-barrel repeating blaster could be split into two categories: light and heavy. Heavy had to be mounted on a tripod, and could fire an astonishing fifteen hundred lasers per minute. Light double-barrel repeating blasters had a slower fire rate, of eight hundred flares per minute, but could be carried around, although they were heavy.

But there could never be just good things. The double-barreled blaster had some obvious downsides. The first was that even the light version weighed quite a lot. The second obstacle was that it needed too much ammo to work efficiently, and that usually meant having only magazines on your backpack, and nothing else. Last but not least, it needed extensive training to operate it correctly.

However, none of those were a problem for Dageer or Hell Squad. No matter if it was a Z-6 Rotary or a double-barrel repeating blaster, Metal could make do with it. And so could Dageer. Differently from his men, Dageer had no specific expertise except on command. As the leader of one of the most elite units of the Republic Army, he was proficient on pistols, snipers, heavy weapons, close combat and even in cold weapons. Using a heavy machine gun was a piece of cake for him.

Reaching inside the crate once more, he looked for ammunition. A big, round, magazine came in contact with his hand, and he grabbed it. It was heavier than he expected. To load it onto the blaster, he had to put the gun on the floor, upside down, since it was too heavy for him to hold it on one hand.

After loading the blaster, he held it with one hand on either side. When the first droid dared to approach Dageer, it was blasted into pieces. Literally.

He wasn't ready for how powerful the double-barrel repeating blaster was. Dageer was forced a few steps back, and had to put all his weight against the blaster to stabilize it. The clanckers on the way of the red lasers were destroyed instantly, and their cover became a weave.

After dealing with the battle droids, he was left alone on the armory. The battle had been short, but intense. Everywhere he looked he saw pieces of droids, and the walls, the ground, and the crates were plastered with laser marks.

He fired a few more rounds on the pile of droids on the floor, to make sure none of them survived, and then threw the double-barrel blaster on the floor. It was too heavy for him to carry around all the time, and anyway, it wasn't his choice of weapon.

He grabbed three E-5s, strapped two to his back, and picked up all the ammunition he could carry. He also grabbed a few communicators. They would come in handy. Giving a last look to the armory to ensure no clancker was left, he got out of the building, and started searching for Cell. He needed to find his brother, and free the others.

It wasn't that difficult to find the scout. All he had to do was follow the sounds of battle, and the flash of lasers. On his way, he saw many dead droids. At some moment when he was inside the armory, it had started snowing, so the bodies were being covered by the white powder.

He saw someone crouched near him, firing a blaster. In the dark night, it was difficult to identify who it was, but when the person fired his blaster, its face was lightened up by a red glow.

"Cell! It's me!"

He had been careful not to spook the clone and get shot by mistake, but Cell nevertheless dropped to the ground and aimed his E-5 at Dageer. He only lowered it after confirming it really was his superior.

"Sorry, sir. With the seppies, you never know..."

"I secured the armory. How are you doing over here?"

"I shoot and run. Although I had a few close calls, they can't figure where I am fast enough. But with both of us, moving in silence will be more difficult. And they have been getting reinforcements over time. Soon they will have enough troops to set up a perimeter and start searching. We have to move fast."

Dageer understood what Cell was hinting at. It was already difficult for one clone, trained to move silently, whatsoever for Dageer, who hadn't received that kind of training. Analyzing his options, he quickly came up with a plan.

"You will have to hold for a little more. They can't be getting those reinforcements from thin air. They are either sending troops from the barracks, the temple or both of it."

"I understand."

Before leaving, Dageer threw some magazines to Cell. Stopping briefly to locate the barracks, he then started moving south.

As he had expected, he saw droids leaving the barracks, and moving to where Cell's old position was. He pressed his body against the side of a building, and waited for the droids to pass by him.

When they left his line of sight, he entered the armory. Immediately after the door, were tow droids guarding it. They seemed very surprised to see a clone there, and then they couldn't see anything anymore.

Stepping over the clanckers, Dageer soon arrived at a corridor. Lining up on the sides were many prison cells, just like the one he was before Ventress moved him.

There were a pair of battle droids guarding each cell. They were all looking towards him, and had most probably heard the shots. Another fight broke out, and he had to hide behind a doorway.

"Urgh... stop!"

"Ahhhhh!!!"

He was peeking and firing when he heard a droid scream, followed by a clone yelling. Some clones had seen the droids distracted by Dageer, and had grabbed them through the cell's bars, immobilizing them. However, some droids had escaped, and were firing wildly inside the cells.

Seeing so many brothers being massacred without any way of resisting, Dageer threw all caution to the air and stepped out of his cover. He emptied his magazine on the closest droids, and instead of reloading, just dropped his blaster and grabbed another one.

In a matter of seconds, and droids were dead, but Dageer's arm had been hit, and was bleeding. It was also the same arm Ventress had broken, and the pain was almost too much for him.

Two clones stretched their arms from inside a cell and supported Dageer before he fell.

"How are you doing, sir?"

"Cough... If Three-four was here, he would scold me for fighting with a broken arm. Don't worry about me. Let's get you out of here."

Dageer shot the control panel, and opened the nearest cell, then gave his blaster to a clone, ordering him to free the others.

"Come on, we gotta move! Pick whatever weapon you find, and all the ammo you can get! There are still a lot of seppies out there! Brain, where are you?"