บท 222: Massacre

"This idea is plain stupidity! How do you expect us to do that? We have less than two hundred men alive, and not even half of them can fight!"

A very angry Ragout was yelling at Cham Syndulla, while the freedom fighter seemed unfazed. Dageer was also looking at him, his helmet covering his expression of surprise. He couldn't believe the Twi'lek would be such an idiot. Even Gobi, who always supported Syndulla, couldn't help but try to convince him otherwise. However, his efforts were for naught.

"Let me see if I understood, Syndulla. You want to, three days after the 303rd was annihilated, attack a Separatist convoy guarded by almost a thousand droids? Is that right?"

Dageer said nothing, but he, and even Gobi, agreed it was madness. Syndulla proposed they destroyed the convoy when it was going through the wreckage of several Republic and Separatist ships, which had crashed on Ryloth during the battle. The plan wasn't actually bad, if not for the fact that Syndulla had less than four hundred ill-prepared freedom fighters. Anyone with a brain could see that the operation was fated to fail, but Syndulla insisted.

"When we attack, the droids will have no space to form up because of the terrain. We can ambush them if we put soldiers hidden in the debris. Because of all the metal, there is too much interference for their sensors to detect us."

Ragout frowned. Syndulla kept repeating the same thing, trying to convince him to take part in the attack. Although the Twi'lek didn't think Ragout was half as good as his deceased master, he was a Jedi, and only he could command Dageer and the clones to get into battle. With the support of seasoned soldiers like the clones, his ambush had bigger chances of working. Unfortunately for him, Ragout refused promptly.

"You re crazy, Syndulla. I know you are angry. I know you lost a lot. I know you are disappointed in the Republic. But what you want to do is suicide."

"Pah! I knew I should never have trusted the Republic! All your promises were nothing but lies! Gobi, assemble the men. We are going, with or without those traitors!"

"Cham... Maybe Mister Ragout is right. We should probably stay quiet for a while..."

"You heard me, Gobi. Or did my right-hand become a traitor and a coward?"

"Cham..."

However, Syndulla wouldn't hear any more of it. He left, and started mobilizing the freedom fighters himself. The poor bastards, without knowing what they were up against, and showing blind faith on Syndulla, excitedly grabbed their weapons and rode their Blurrgs.

"Gobi. He is sending his people to die. You have to stop him."

Ragout put his hand on the shoulder of the Twi'lek. Gobi had always been more reasonable than Syndulla. However, just like the other freedom fighters, he would follow the man, even if it meant his death.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go. Who knows? Maybe it will work."

Gobi flashed them a smile, then went to talk to Yva and Shouta. However, it was clear he didn't believe what he was saying. Dageer, watching the family say their goodbyes, couldn't help but turn to Ragout.

"General, are we letting Syndulla go? He is going to die. They all are."

"There is nothing we can do, Dageer. Syndulla lost his trust in the Republic. I could tell him anything, and he wouldn't believe it. But I'm not sending my troops to their deaths. The 303rd has barely sixty troopers who can still fight. We already lost too much protecting Ryloth. If the freedom fighters don't believe in us, then there is nothing I can do. But, just in case, get the men ready. We will be the only ones left to protect the hideout, the wounded, and the civilians.

"Understood, general."

"And may the Force be with you, Syndulla."

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

Destiny proved that Ragout was right in not leading the clones to attack together with the freedom fighters. The Twi'leks were massacred.

Four hundred of them left the hideout, and less than a hundred returned. Clones and Twi'leks lined at the sides of the hideout, leaving a wide path in the middle for the survivors. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, wives, and husbands cried when they couldn't find their loved ones amidst the defeated faces. Blurrgs without riders stood out.

The moans of the pitifully small number of wounded forced Ragout to order the clone medics to walk forward and pick them up, because the freedom fighters couldn't muster a reaction.

Dageer looked at the group. Syndulla and Gobi were still alive, their heads lowered in shame, regret, and pain. Especially Syndulla. No one needed to remind him that it was his fault.

Pain tugged at Dageer's heart when he saw several familiar faces missing. Over the course of the month or so that the 303rd and the Twi'leks had been together, he and the others had made friends. Maybe they weren't as close as the clones were to each other, but still...

He recognized fairly soon Miwy's Blurrg, without it's rider. The woman had been very hostile to Hell Squad and the troopers at first, but after a few battles, she was always by their side, not hesitating to risk her life for a clone's.

Yate also wasn't amongst the survivors. Before leaving, the hot-headed Twi'lek had scoffed at the 303rd and Ragout, and called them cowards. Still, he was loyal, at least to his people, and his death would be a huge impact on morale.

By his side, Dageer saw Ragout take a small step forward, as if he wanted to walk up to Syndulla and say something. However, before he could do that, Gobi came to them.

"You should stay away for a while, Mister Ragout. Cham... He is..."

"He thinks it is our fault."

Gobi suppressed a sigh. Syndulla had been complaining all the way about how the Republic was responsible for all the deaths, and that if they helped, the plan would have worked. At a certain time, Gobi lost his patience, and told him that the Republic wouldn't have made a difference. Syndulla, however, didn't get angry at him, but was even more sure that it was the Republic's - and Ragout's - fault.

"Yeah. He said that if you hadn't abandoned us..."

"Abandoned? Ha! Tell him to look at us, Gobi. The 303rd had thirty thousand troopers before. Now, we have less than two hundred. Is that abandoning?"

"I... I don't know what to..."

"But I know. Tell Syndulla that the 303rd can't do anything for him now, but that soon the Republic will be back. We won't abandon Ryloth and it's people. Never. Dageer, give it to him, then organize the men. We are leaving."

Gobi was stunned. He never imagined that Ragout would be angry enough to simply leave the freedom fighters.

"Mister Ragout! I am sorry for Cham's behavior, but you can't leave! That will only make him more certain that the Republic betrayed us!"

"Maybe. But the 303rd have new orders, and we are following them. Goodbye, Gobi, and may the Force be with you."

Shocked, Gobi watched the 303rd gather their soldiers and wounded, and leave the hideout. It all happened so fast that he wasn't able to react. Before he knew, they were gone.

Near, Syndulla watched the same scene, with hatred on his eyes. The Republic traitorous scum had finally revealed who they really were. When Gobi delivered to him a hologram projector, saying it was given to him by Ragout, Syndulla simply crushed it. He didn't want to deal with the Republic anymore.