章節 318: Burning Hatred
"No!!!"
Dageer struggled to free himself from his handcuffs, and from the two commando droids escorting him, but all he got was a punch to the back of the head.
Behind him, he heard the noise of his brothers being dragged towards an area of open ground, the wounded yelling in pain as the clanckers showed no empathy. For a few seconds, he heard the sound of bones breaking as flesh hit cold metal, but the attempts of his brothers to resist were useless.
When the sound of lasers cut the air, calmness resumed. Dageer wasn't even able to look at his brothers as they were merciless executed.
After a month buried alive, they had finally found hope, only to have it crushed again by the Separatist. If they had at least been able to fight back, and take a few droids down with them... But General Kenobi's order to surrender had been their downfall.
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"Arghhhhhhh!!!"
A clone screamed in agony while a medical droid used all kinds of drugs on him. Even in different cells, the captured troopers could hear him.
Eventually, the clone fainted, without saying anything useful to their captors. The droid wasn't fazed by it, and moved on to the next victim. He had been torturing them for days now, to no avail. Each one of the Republic soldiers that Passel Argente captured were battle-hardened veterans, who had been through and experienced everything the Separatist could throw at them. Simple torture wasn't enough to make them open their mouths.
When it was his turn again, Dageer simply snorted, which prompted Argente to punch him. The Separatist leader had always prided himself in being able to recover useful intel from war prisoners, but none of his methods worked against these clones. Especially the seven who used brownish-red armor. No matter how he tortured them, they wouldn't make a single sound.
What Argente didn't know was that Hell Squad could resist even Asajj Ventress and her master, and even force Sith Lords to retreat. Of course, Count Dooku wouldn't let his underlings learn of such shameful facts. As such, the Koorivar kept needlessly interrogating the clones, instead of putting an end to their misery.
...
After using every method at his disposal to obtain intel from Dageer, but failing, Argente left the room with the medical droid. He would try again the next day. He didn't believe that a simple clone could withstand weeks and months of interrogation. One day, Dageer would crack, and he would be there to listen to it.
"Cough... Are you awake, Dageer?"
"Uhmm... I'm here."
It took a few seconds for the commander to regain enough consciousness to groan and answer Commander Cody.
"How long did you say it would take for them to find us? Cough... Cough!"
"How many days has it been? Nine? Or ten?"
"Twelve, sir."
"Ugh... Less than a week, then. Hunter is good with tracks, he won't lose us. All we gotta do is wait."
There was a collective sigh when his brothers heard him. The fact that they could withstand torture didn't mean they were indifferent to it. Another week of this hell would pass slowly.
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In a well-lit, albeit poorly furnished, room, General Skywalker, General Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano sat on the ground, eyes closed. They were prisoners, but, compared to the clones, their conditions were much better.
When the door opened, and Passel Argente entered, the three Jedis opened their eyes to glare at him menacingly. They had the ability to kill him, but didn't dare to do so, not when the lives of Dageer and the other clones were at stake. The ones who had been executed days ago were already too heavy of a weight on their conscience.
"Comfortable?"
"Humph!"
None of the Jedis answered him with anything other than a snort. Seeing they remain so arrogant even when they were his prisoners made Argente angry. If it wasn't because of Count Dooku's orders to leave the Jedis unharmed, he would have already started torturing them. He was sure they wouldn't last nearly as long as the soldiers under their command. It would only take a few rounds of torture for them to fall from their high pedestal.
Without saying anything more, the Separatist turned around and left. As soon as the door closed, the three people in the room looked at each other worriedly.
"Still no interrogation. Why?"
"Someone must have ordered that we weren't touched. But for what reason?"
The padawan's question couldn't be answered by either of the Jedis. All they could do was wait, powerless.
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"Master, I don't understand why we must keep Kenobi and the other two alive. They are a risk to us."
"You don't have to understand, my old apprentice, only obey. They mustn't be harmed. I have great plans for them. Especially young Skywalker. Kakakaka!"
With a 'click' noise, the transmission was interrupted, and the hooded figure disappeared. Count Dooku closed his eyes, his face stone-cold. His mind, however, was working hard, trying to decipher his master's plan.
It was useless. No matter how much thought he put into it, he couldn't arrive at a logical conclusion. Unless...
His eyebrows furrowed in shock as he thought of something. It couldn't be. But Darth Sidious' interest in Anakin Skywalker only left that possibility.
"Impossible. It must be something else..."
"My lord?"
A droid beside him inched closer, thinking that Count Dooku was talking to him.
"Quiet!"
An explosion of Force sent the unfortunate droid flying towards the wall, and it didn't get up. Count Dooku, indifferent to what he just did, paced around his room nervously. He pushed his dangerous thoughts to the back of his mind, telling himself it couldn't be true.
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Unaware of the dark currents moving underneath the apparently simple Clone Wars, a group of four clones was analyzing the location where Dageer and the others were captured by the Separatist.
"What do you think, sir?"
Hunter didn't answer immediately. Instead, he got down to a knee, and used one of his vibroknifes - a weapon Dageer taught him how to use - to cut open the torso of a commando droid. Then, he picked up a small device, flashing blue. A tracker.
"That was Dageer's doing. A long time passed already, but I can still feel an interference in the magnetic field around here. There is a cave below us."
As he said that, he pointed towards a pile of rocks - the tunnel the Jedis made, and that collapsed after they quit maintaining it. Wrecker smiled, and got to work.
In a few minutes, he had thrown aside boulders bigger than himself, revealing the cave system. After Crosshair and Hunter explored it, and found several bodies, as well as signs that the Republic group that disappeared almost two months ago had been there the entire time, they contacted the higher-ups.
"How do you know they are still alive?"
"The tracks show that the Separatist convoy that passed by here left with more people than it arrived. Also, we found many of our brothers, all regs... They were executed. No officers, which means they were taken. And Dageer told us that they were captured."
"Uhmm? How?"
Hunter picked the tracker that Bad Batch's Tech threw to him, and showed it to General Windu's hologram.
"We couldn't pick up the signal before, because it was underground. When they got back to the surface, we started receiving it again, which is why we came to investigate. Dageer knew we would do that, but left the tracker here, stuffed inside a clancker's body, so the seppies wouldn't find it. He wouldn't have bothered doing so if he knew he was going to die. That can only mean he knew he was going to be searched, which leads to them having surrendered. Knowing Dageer, he probably was ordered to do so by one of the generals he had with him."
Hunter explained everything he deduced in a single breathe. Most of it actually came from Tech's brain.
"Can you discover where they went?"
"Yes, general. They didn't hide their tracks."
"Then find them, and rescue our people. I will send Commander Appo with two battalions to help you."
"Got it, General Windu. Bad Batch is going hunting."
創作者的想法 
Reis123
Reis123 A longer chapter than usual, but I couldn't find a good moment to break it, so that's how it is (not that you guys are going to complain about it, I know that you want me to upload five chapters daily). Jokes aside, I hope you enjoyed the chapters. Think about leaving a comment and a review, if you can.
Also, I swear Dageer is not a masochistic who likes to be captured and interrogated, it's important to the story.
And may the Force be with you.
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