บท 146: Inside The Temple
"... Seventy-three."
Dageer closed his eyes. That was more than he had expected, and certainly more than he wanted.
"Let's move. Brain, Cell, Dab, and Captain Narza, find our way out of this valley, and to the last known position of our troops. A bunch of our troops was brought here yesterday. Ask them."
"Yes, sir."
"Tech, Timer, Bliar, Metal, and Captain Hilix, come with me."
"Yes, sir."
The clones Dageer called followed him to the entrance of the temple. Even when using their flashlights, it was still unusually dark. In fact, it was more than dark. It was... cold. A different cold than the usual one of Mygeeto. It was a cold that made Dageer shiver, and feel like he was looking to a building, but to the mouth of a massive monster, ready to eat him.
"Sir, this..."
"Yeah, I know. It is the same feeling of the nightmares."
Even without Bliar reminder, Dageer had already linked the unnatural cold feeling to the nightmares every clone had wherever they closed their eyes. He looked in the eyes of the soldiers around him. They were shivering just like him. He was certain that those soldiers, who had fought hundreds of battles, were now almost stepping back from pure fear. The only thing that kept them from doing that was that their sub-commander was still there.
Clones never remembered what the nightmares were like. Maybe because of that, it was an unofficial and unspoken rule that they could never tell any outsider about it. Not even their jedi generals. Especially the jedis.
Dageer knew that if he took a step back, he wouldn't have the courage to enter the temple, again. For a moment he thought about bringing more soldiers, but decided not to. The majority of them were too tired to even walk properly. He had already chosen the ones in the best shape. Besides that, months of battle had taught him that having a big amount of troops on an enclosed space wasn't always the best.
"Timer, have those detpacks ready. Metal, help him. Whatever is in there, General Di has to know. Ventress isn't a normal seppie..."
"She is a rogue jedi, a traitor, that's what she is."
"... and this is most probably jedi business. We have two plans of attack here. First one: enter, find out what the hell is in there, and take it back to the general. Second one: enter, find what the hell is in there, and if it resists, kill it, then bring it to the general. I don't if there is anything inside, and if there is, whether it is alive or not, but I won't take any chances. The general can scold us as much as he wants later, but we are in no conditions to bring prisoners with us."
"Yes, sir. What about the detpacks? Should we plant them on the way?"
"Yes. The seppies wanted us to dig out this temple for them, so nothing fairer than we bury it."
The prospect of having this small, petty, revenge excited the clones. They were still afraid, but at least they had a clear purpose.
Dageer touched his broken arm uncomfortably, then stepped inside the temple holding a DC-17 on his hand. It was as if he had stepped into another world. He was less than a meter away from the entrance, but when he looked back, the darkness almost covered the weak light that the moons and stars gave.
"Flashlights on. Be careful."
Six pairs of lights appeared in the darkness, barely enough to let them see each other face. They started walking slowly, following the corridor. Even after half an hour, they were still walking, in the same hall.
Dageer started thinking something was wrong. The temple was big, but not enough for them to walk that much and not arrive at the end of it. Also, if there was a temple, there had to be something inside it. But the clones found d nothing along the way, just the same rocky walls.
"Sir! Look at this!"
Captain Hilix called Dageer. The captain was just a few meters behind Dageer, however, because of the darkness, he had to turn around and walk back so he could see whatever Captain Hilix wanted to show him.
On the ground, half-laying, half-sitting, was one battle droid. Dageer had walked right past it, but didn't see it.
"There is another over here."
"And over there."
Now paying attention, they soon found about a dozen battle droids, all dead, each one just a few meters ahead of the other. By the looks of it, they had been walking, and then died, one at a time.
"Eleven clanckers. That is a whole patrol."
"Probably pathfinders. Check them out. See if they were killed by something or if it was just their battery that died."
Captain Hilix turned over the droid corpse, and saw that it was just as Dageer said. They had no wounds, no signs of battle. Instead, their battery had ended after staying too long without recharging.
"Did they enter without checking their energy levels?"
"A whole patrol? Not even the clanckers are that stupid. No. They got lost in here, and for a long time on top of that."
"How? There are no other paths, no chambers. All they had to do was turn back and walk back to the entrance."
The moment Metal said that, realization dawned upon Dageer. For some time, all he could do was listen as his men continued talking. When he spoke, his voice was cracking.
"W-What if they couldn't?"
"Sorry, sir?"
"Go back, now!"
Without waiting for his men's response, Dageer started running towards the entrance of the temple. Fifteen minutes later, he stopped, panting. Running like he was, he should have gotten out of the temple a long while ago. But all that he had in front of him was darkness. By now, the clones had realized what was going on.
"We got lost, somehow, haven't we?"
"Look to the walls, Timer. Do you see any of the detpacks you planted?"
"No, sir."
"Well, I have been looking while running, and I haven't seen any of them. Not a single one."
"That..."
Timer had been putting explosives on the walls every once in a while. Not seeing any of them was a clear sign that they were on a totally different corridor, even though they hadn't turned or taken another path.
Five clones looked at Dageer silently, waiting for him to talk. They didn't know what was happening, so they instinctively expected their sub-commander to have an answer. Only that, he hadn't.
"Something, or someone, is messing with us. Check the walls, see if any of them move. Since we didn't change course, then the only option is that they did. Or..."
"Or what, sir?"
"Nothing."
Confusedly, the clones started checking the walls while Dageer was lost in thought. He knew they wouldn't find anything, because what they were dealing with wasn't something made by droids, but by someone just like Ventress. The tricks she played on his mind while he was her captive were a fresh reminder that Force-sensitive beings like her could do a lot more than just make things levitate.
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