Capítulo 192: Decoy
When he saw Ragout being forced to change directions, Dageer quickly ordered the small group to retreat even faster, since the droids would focus on them. With the communications being jammed, he had no way of knowing how General Di and Commander Keeli were, so he had to follow his instincts. And his instincts were telling him to get out of the Separatist outpost.
Watching hundreds and then thousands of droids and vehicles move towards them, Dageer ordered the others to escape while he, Metal, Tech, and Dab stayed behind to cover their retreat. They were never meant to fight the droids, since even for Hell Squad this was a suicide mission. All they were was a decoy for the others.
As they retreated, another Twi'lek fell, shot in the back. That was the third Twi'lek to die, accompanied by five clones. Dageer looked at his comlink, futilely trying to contact Commander Keeli again. As he was doing that, two lasers flew past him, millimeters away from his face. Dageer returned fire, but he and the other three clones were slowly being overrun, even with Lieutenant Fondor and the others providing covering fire.
Two hours had passed since Ragout had sneaked in the outpost, and now they couldn't hold back the droids anymore. Thankfully, the Separatist didn't know the terrain, so their choice of camp was poor. Rock walls and formations created a labyrinth that allowed the Republic to escape easily.
And with four members of Hell Squad covering them, the clones and freedom fighters ran away quickly. They left nine people on the ground as another clone was hit in the back.
"Aghh! Damn it!"
Dageer heard Dab scream, and looked at his brother with the corner of his eyes. A laser had scratched his arm, but Dageer could tell it was nothing serious, and the sniper was already back into the fight. Seeing his men disappear behind the rocks, Dageer gestured to Tech and Dab, and the two stopped firing and ran back.
Dageer and Metal got up, revealing themselves completely, and pressed the trigger if their blasters. Lasers flew all around them, but the clones ignored them. Dageer felt and impact on his leg as a laser hit the outer portion of his armor, but he wasn't injured. About four seconds later, blue lasers flew over their heads as Tech and Dab found somewhere to hide and were covering them.
"Let's go, Metal!"
The two clones walked backward, emptying a magazine after another in the droids. This time, the huge number of droids proved to be a disadvantage, as they stopped their own vehicles from getting to the front. As such, only B1 and B2 units fired at Hell Squad, and they could deal with that.
The thirty meters run towards the rocks and the cover they offered looked like thirty kilometers, but the clones got there surprisingly uninjured. As soon as they disappeared from the droid's sight, and met the others, everything seemed to be calmer. The only sound was of the lasers hitting the rocks, and the ragged breath of the tired Republic soldiers.
"Lieutenant, we need to move. Retreat to the first outpost. You know what to do."
"What about General Ragout?"
Dageer looked at his comlink nervously, but it was still not working. He sighed, and hurried the group to move.
"He will be all right. He is more capable than any of us."
Lieutenant Fondor acknowledged his words, and was following the others when he noticed Hell Squad staying behind.
"Sir?"
Dageer shook his head, and showed the lieutenant his blaster before using a finger to show the way they just came from. The sound of approaching droids could be heard.
Lieutenant Fondor looked at him seriously, then nodded before leading the mixed group of clones and Twi'leks. Only when they were almost a kilometer away did they hear the sound of fighting going on behind them, and the Twi'leks noticed Hell Squad was missing. Apele looked around surprised, and soon found the lieutenant.
"Where is the other seven?! They aren't here!"
The lieutenant nodded, showing that he knew. At the same time, he hurried her to keep walking.
"They stayed behind to cover us. Otherwise, the seppies would catch up to us."
Apele opened her mouth to say something, but in the end, decided not to. The seven clones were sacrificing themselves so they could escape. They couldn't waste the time they were giving them.
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While Apele thought that Hell Squad was sacrificing themselves, the clones were engaged in a heated fight with incoming droids, but the thought of dying never crossed their minds.
They really were covering their retreat, but that wasn't their only objective. Dageer had chosen a choke point where only three droids could ho through at the same time. So, when facing Hell Squad, all they could do was fire one laser and die. Not even grenades could hurt Hell Squad, since they had enough space to dodge the blast. Metal bodies soon started piling up, difficulting even more the entrance of the other droids.
Dageer was prepared to spend hours there before finally calling a retreat. He was confident that if it was only Hell Squad, they could escape from the Separatist pursuit pretty easily.
Suddenly, however, something weird happened. The droids stopped firing. Dageer looked at his brothers, and gestured for them to retreat. He didn't know why the droids stopped attacking, but it couldn't be good.
Soon, they heard the sound of metal being crushed. The hovering sound the new enemy made was too familiar for Hell Squad not to recognize it.
"AAT! Take cover!"
Just as Three-four yelled that, the barrel of the tank appeared over the pile of dead droids. It fired, blowing up a bunch of rocks just over Brain. The clone ducked out of the way, and avoided being buried, but the AAT turned towards him.
Without thinking, Dageer ran towards the tank. Three-four, who was close, did the same. Both of them jumped up, and grabbed the barrel of the AAT. The droids which were behind it started shooting them, and Dageer felt a sharp pain in his chest as his blast padding blocked a shot from killing him.
At this moment, however, they were lucky. The weight of him and Three-four made the AAT tilt forward - exactly what they wanted - and blocked the view of the droids. The shot charged on the barrel was fired, and hit the ground. The impact made both Dageer and Three-four release the barrel, and the AAT was thrown off balance by his own shot. It hit the walls of the gorge they were in now, and stopped.
The tank almost fully blocked the path, barely leaving space for a droid to pass through. At this moment, the hatch of the AAT opened, and a droid using the yellow markings of a captain appeared, only to be torn apart by Hell Squad.
Dageer looked at the smoking droid body, and signaled Hell Squad to follow him. They quickly ran, leaving the AAT behind. Dageer planned to stall the droids for a few hours, but since the chance presented itself, he would take it.
"We need to meet the commander at the rendezvous point! Let's move!"
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