章節 231: Carving A Path

General Kenobi analyzed their options. Dageer was right when he said they couldn't totally believe the Twi'leks. He could feel a lot of fear in Lessu, and fear was a path to many darker emotions.

"Dageer is right, general. Civilians are too easily swayed. Before we take the city, they won't believe us, and will prefer to trust the seppies, even if that means living in fear. That happened more than once since the war started."

The Jedi caressed his beard, frowning. Neither plan was perfect, but he trusted Commander Cody. If the clone was telling him that it was better to use brute strength to get past, then he believed him.

"Let's not waste any time then. Commander Dageer, you will lead the way. Cody, Waxer, and Kickback, you are the rearguard. Pay attention to any droids that might come behind us. Still, the big threat should be the droids in front of us."

"Understood, general."

"Yes, sir."

Dageer grabbed his blaster, and crouched. He started running, staying as low as possible. Behind him, Hell Squad and General Kenobi followed. A few seconds later, he saw a section of the wall - already damaged from the battle when the Republic was on the defending side - crumble and fall, taking down several dozen droids with it.

It was almost at this moment too that the first droids came to their sight. There were seven of them, B1 units. Apparently, fearing an all-out attack by the Republic, the droids had concentrated near the gates of the city. Just a few scattered patrols remained on the way. On one hand, it was good, because it meant that they would face less opposition until they got near the bridge controls. On the other hand, they would have to face all those droids before they could get to the control room.

Well, there was nothing they could do other than go along with the flow. Dageer gestured for them to slow down, and the members of Hell Squad instinctively walked forward, leaving General Kenobi behind. The Jedi looked at them quite surprised, since he would usually be the one on the front, after all, he had a lightsaber.

Hell Squad, however, didn't need his help. Seven droids, seven clones. Dageer pulled out his vibroblade, and, when he was twenty meters away from the unsuspecting droids, started running. The clanckers heard him, and turned around, but Hell Squad was already on them.

Slashing down, Dageer sent the head of one of the droids flying in the air. The other clones used their normal strategy of putting their blasters around the droids necks, and twisting, breaking their joints.

In a few seconds, the seven droids were dead, and it was all done without a noise. The clones from the 212th watched in awe, finally understanding why Commander Cody said they shouldn't underestimate Hell Squad just because they were hurt.

Six more groups of droids were killed using the same tactic before something went wrong. One of the droids was able to let a shot out of his blaster before being killed, and that alerted the other clanckers. Usually, a laser fired in the midst of a battle of this proportion wouldn't attract much attention, after all, there were laser cannon shots being fired, and explosions happening everywhere. Bu not even the clanckers were stupid enough not to notice when a laser was randomly fired in a portion of the wall where the battle hadn't even arrived yet.

Seeing the red lasers coming in their direction in droves, General Kenobi took the lead, his blue lightsaber spinning. There was little to no cover on the wall, and in a situation like that, the best option was to advance, and don't look back.

"Keep going!"

The Jedi ran forward, his weapon slashing down, cutting three droids in half. Behind him, the clones pressed their triggers, taking down one droid after another.

...

Dageer saw a laser getting past General Kenobi's lightsaber, and pushed Waxer down. The laser, which would have hit the clone in the head, scratched his shoulder.

"Ugh... Thank you, commander."

"On your feet, trooper. Keep moving!"

"Arghh!"

"Cody! Are you all right?!"

Dageer looked back to see that Commander Cody had been hit in the leg. With how many droids were in front of them now, Dageer doubted they could even arrive at the bridge controls building.

"I'm okay, general. But we are never going to make it past this many clanckers."

"Hold on. Cover me."

General Kenobi suddenly turned off his lightsaber, and closed his eyes. Dageer had seen this happen enough times to know he was using the Force, but the Jedi couldn't have chosen a worst time.

Dageer knelt, his DC-15A aiming at the droids barely a hundred meters away. There were dozens, maybe a hundred of them, firing without stop.

"Dab, charged shot! Brain, cold detonators!"

The clones followed his orders immediately, and a small explosion took out almost ten droids. Unfortunately, Dab's DC-15x would be unusable for some time, until it cooled down. The sniper, however, wouldn't stand idle, and was about to pull out his pistol when Dageer gave him his DC-15A.

"When the detonators land, shoot it!"

Brain had found his previous order, to just throw the detonators, without activating them, weird. Now, however, he understood. If he had activated the detonators, they would blow up before it reached the droids. By throwing it inactivated, it would be useless, unless someone hit it with a laser, and who was better for that than a sniper?

"Ahhhh!"

Three thermal detonators were sent out, and three explosions followed, killing a dozen droids each, and sending more falling over the edge of the wall. At the same time, the clones suffered their second casualty. Stock was hit two times in the chest, dying immediately.

Before the clones suffered another death, though, they saw a huge shadow passing by them, and suddenly a broken piece of the wall crashed into the ground in front of them. Several red lasers hit it uselessly, and now the troopers had enough cover.

Dageer knew it was impossible for a piece of the wall be conveniently blown up and land right in front of them, providing perfect cover. So, he looked at General Kenobi, the only one with enough power to do that. Sure enough, the Jedi was sweating profusely. It seemed that moving a giant piece of rock using the Force took a lot, even for a Jedi.

However, it was the cover that the clones needed. Now, they could fire at the droids without being totally in the open, and that meant that the fifty or so droids that were left after Brain and Dab's joint attack, lasted about thirty seconds. The aim of the droids never was great, and they relied on numbers to win, but this time, they were going against eleven of the most elite clones the Republic Army had, and a Jedi.

Still, more and more droids were arriving, in an endless stream. Dageer had already anticipated that there would be a few hundred droids between them and the bridge controls, and they had only killed a little more than a hundred of them.

"That won't do. Cody, Dageer, any ideas?"

"No, general."

"I don't think so, sir. Maybe we should retreat. As long as we get down to the city, we can escape the clanckers pretty easily."

"And do what? We can't keep running for days, until the others break through."

"I might have an idea, sir."

While Dageer, General Kenobi, and Commander Cody were discussing, Dageer was surprised to hear Dab speak up. It was rare for the sniper to interfere in a conversation.

"Say it."

"If we let the seppies approach, do you think you would be able to push the rock again? That will open a path, and you could get through it and go to the bridge controls building."