บท 248: Didn't Make It
"Brain..."
Dageer stared at the remains of the Recusant-class Destroyer, looking for any signs that Brain might have survived. He couldn't find any.
A part of his mind noticed that many Vulture droids were just floating in space, their lights turned off. That meant they were right all along, and that the destroyer was the one controlling the clanckers on Falleen. The price was too great for Dageer to feel any joy.
Unfortunately, the Republic had already retreated, and there were still Providence-class Dreadnoughts and Munificent-class Frigates, as well as the Vultures belonging to those ships.
"Commander? Are you there?"
"Uff... I-I am here."
Cheers erupted from the other members of Hell Squad. They were on other escape pods, so they didn't know what had happened. Metal was the first to notice something was wrong. They had just taken down a destroyer, but Dageer didn't say a word.
"Are you hurt, sir? Or Brain?"
Silence. Dageer kept quiet, staring at the debris. A month ago, he lost his legion, and now he lost his best friend. He had known Brain ever since both were cadets. They had trained in the same squad, and grown up together. And now he was gone.
"Sir, what happened to Brain?"
Cell's trembling voice brought him back from his memories. Dageer opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He simply couldn't say it. It was as if saying it out loud would confirm it was true.
"Commander? Sir?"
"Brain... Brain is... He didn't make it."
Dageer's words were like a hammer striking their hearts. For an instant, their minds were blank, before they all thought the same: that is impossible.
They wanted to say something, or that Dageer told them he was just joking, but they knew the commander would never joke about the death of a brother.
"Ugh... Sir, we... We have to decide where we are going. The Vultures will notice us soon."
Dageer shook his head. Tech was right. They had disobeyed their order to retreat, and, although they completed their mission in the end, they didn't have any support. They would have to escape by themselves.
He felt sad and defeated about losing a brother he knew for so long, but he still had responsibilities as the leader of Hell Squad. He couldn't let them die because he was sorrowful, especially after he put them in this situation.
"Tech, where is the nearest battlefield?"
"Uhmm... Quell. General Secura's fleet was just attacked there."
"What? General Secura was here on Falleen. What happened?"
"As soon as our forces retreated, General Secura went to meet her fleet, but soon after, they suffered a surprise attack. It started just a few minutes ago."
"Can the pods make it there?"
Tech stayed silent for a few seconds, and Dageer heard him tipping over his comlink.
"I know they are our enemies, but the seppies build good ships. The pods can go even to Fondor with this amount of fuel, whatsoever Quell."
"Less talking. Send the coordinates. We got to go before the clanckers notice us."
In ten minutes, the planet of Falleen was nothing but a dot against the darkness of space. It was the second loss in a row for the Republic, and, according to the information Dageer had on the other battlefields, this was just the start.
Looking outside the window of the escape pod, Dageer was glad he was alone, although he wished Brain was there. It was always painful to lose a brother, but, unfortunately, war waited for no one.
Turning off his comlink, he closed his eyes. The past few hours had been hectic, and he needed some sleep before jumping right into another battle.
He didn't sleep. The nightmares made sure of that.
----------------------------
It took three hours for the escape pods to arrive in Quell. Tech was right when he said the Separatist built good ships. The pods could almost reach lightspeed, and had a good reserve of fuel.
"Tech, contact General Secura, and transfer it to me. The rest of you, get ready. This is purely a battle for sky supremacy, and I'm not sure yet on how we are going to land, so be prepared."
"Yes, commander."
"Can't we just land in one of our ships, commander?"
"We can't risk opening the hangars, least the clanckers get inside our cruisers."
Dageer looked out of the pod's window, and saw the yellowish atmosphere of Quell. Only when they entered said atmosphere did he notice how fierce the battle was.
Starfighters and Vulture droids flew at top speed, chasing and destroying one another. Separatist frigates and dreadnoughts hovered above Republic cruisers, raining lasers upon them.
There were also thousands of a new type of clancker that he had never seen before. They looked like a B2 super battle droid, but had thrusters on their backs, allowing them to fly around. Using that ability, they were landing on the cruisers, and tearing them apart until they found an entrance.
Dageer needed just one glance to see the situation was pretty bad.
"Connecting General Secura now, sir."
"Commander Dageer! You are alive!"
Although they couldn't get a hologram transmission, Dageer could still hear General Secura loud and clear, and, in the background, the sound of lasers being fired and screams of pain.
"Yes, general. I will take full responsibility for my indiscipline..."
"No time for that, commander! We are in a pretty bad situation here."
"Just say what we need to do."
"Okay. Commander, our ship had been breached, but General Skywalker and his padawan are already on it, with an escape plan. However, those B2-RPs keep coming. I take it you destroyed the destroyer on Falleen?"
"Yes, general."
"I need you to do something similar here. As long as you can kill the tactical droid on their capital ship, it will cause chaos amongst their command chain, and my fleet will have a chance to escape."
"You can count on us, general."
"Good. And, Dageer?"
"Yes, general?"
"Follow your orders properly this time."
After that, the Jedi disconnected. Dageer nodded to himself, and changed the course of the escape pod to the coordinates that General Secura sent to him.
"Err... Sir, how are going to land inside a seppie dreadnought?"
Dageer grinned. How could Three-four and the others not know what he was thinking? They knew the Separatist would never open a hangar for them, even though they were in Separatist pods, for the same reason the Republic also wouldn't.
"We aren't. Tech, how slow can we make those pods fly?"
"If you don't care about them falling from the sky, pretty slow."
"We are jumping, aren't we?"
"Yes, we are. You always complained about Delta Squad when they told us about their mission on Kessel, didn't you, Metal?"
"They were a lot more prepared them us. They had jetpacks too, while we have nothing. And, they weren't jumping on a moving ship."
Although they were in different pods, Dageer could see, in his mind, Metal sighing. The other clones laughed.
"Why don't we just crash land the pods on top of the ship?"
"Jumping is more fun. Haha!"
"Hahaha..."
Dageer didn't even have time to answer the question before Cell did it for him, making Hell Squad laugh even more.
"Come on, boys. We are in the middle of a battle, about to do something dangerous, and you are all laughing? What would General Di say if he saw us?"
"Well, it's pretty normal for us. The general probably would have jumped with us."
Dageer grinned, because he knew Tech was right.
"Quiet now. Get ready. We will have a small window of time to jump. Follow my lead."
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