‘As soon as several droids reached some type of cover, the real battle had begun.’

  ‘Blue and red ser beams were flyi and right. It was impossible to pletely uand the situation, even with the help of the force.’

  ‘The es, especially the andos, proved to be invaluable in this type of sario. They were traio remain calm and stoic, even in the middle of a battle.’

  ‘I aimed with my bster aroyed another b1 with a shot melting its face pte. Then hastily ducked behind the piled up crates as three red sers almost simultaneously flew through the empty space where my head was mere seds ago.’

  ‘These droids were good. I learned a little about their tactid abilities in the library after I got the assig of being a ander of the Republic army. Basically, each droid works as an individual, which means there is ral puter that trols their movements. It’s a clever design, sihat exaputer would be the greatest weakness of the system.’

  ‘Oher hand, the droids still share their camera footage with each other through military-coded wireless signals. Each droid has its own signal, with its own code. Therefore, there is no reason to try to hato the system, since we would o hack every single one of them.’

  ‘The individual signals only work effectively for a few hundred meters, though. This means any droid in that range see everything that the other droids see around them, and a possible hacker also o be in that range for the whole time to successfully break into one system.’

  ‘This is the reason the separatist’s droid army was so powerful and the most feared one in the gaxy. Not even speaking of the fact that battle droids have no sense of fear. They just fight on until every one of them is destroyed.’

  “INING!” — Shouted Watcher.

  ‘I looked up and saw a b1 with a rocket uncher aiming towards our position.’

  ‘I khat I couldn’t let that rocket hit our barricade, or we would be pinned down without cover and killed one by one. I looked at Dozer. Maybe he could kill the droid before it shot the rocket, I hoped.’

  ‘Then I saw that the guy was trying to reload his on with anrehat would be too te. I turned back towards the b1 unit, it seems that I will have to do it myself.’

  ‘The rocket was unched. It was flying towards us, gaining even more speed with every sed. I reached out to the force with my plete focus and tinuously pulled the air upwards in front of us, creating a strong air current.’

  ‘The moment the rocket hit it, it was unbanced and flew over our heads by a few meters. I didn’t look after it to see where it here was no time for such things. The droid was reloading another rocket.’

  “Focus fire on that b1 behind the crates! It has a rocket uncher!”

  “On it, ander!” — Shouted Dozer, who finally reloaded the grenade uncher.

  “Ahsoka! Create cover for Dozer to aim!” — ‘I shouted at the togruta.’

  “Okay!” — She jumped off the cover of crates and began to deflect the sers back at the droids, effectively annoying them and gaining their disdain. Most of them started to aim at her.

  Using this opening, Dozer shot, and his aim was true as the droid with the rocket uncher blew up in an enormous cloud of fiery smoke.

  ‘I nodded and also shouted at Ahsoka to jump back behind cover before she gets herself killed. She didn’t really want to at first, so I let her be, fog on the b1’s instead. After a few more seds of jumping around while a whirlwind of ser beams followed her around, she residered.’

  Eventually she nded behind the crates, breathing heavily, drenched i.

  ‘She looked at me and said this with obvious annoyance.’

  “You were supposed tue with me to get my ass behind cover immediately.”

  ‘I gave her a long look.’

  “I am not your master girl. If you want to risk your life stupidly, it’s your choice.” — ‘Of course, I didn’t really think that seriously, but I hoped saying that would deter her from such irresponsible acts, at least for the near future.’

  ‘I shot down another droid in the meantime.’

  “Crusher, what is the overall battle situation!?” — ‘I asked my sed in and.’

  “Not good ander, most of the other e squads began to retreat from the main hangar. They had received heavy casualties.”

  “We ’t let them capture the hangar while half of hter ships are still i!” — Shouted Ahsoka, actual fear finding its way into her voice for the first time.

  “I agree with Ahsoka. We have to push them baehow.” — ‘My eyes hovered to the LAAT’s form behind our barricade.’

  “Get that LAAT ready to fly as soon as possible. Stinger and Handy will use the ship’s guns to cleave through the droids. Brain, you drive it! We will distract them until you get the ship ready! Move!”

  “Uood!”

  ‘A sudden bst that shook the steel floor under our feet froze us in mid motion. If only for a sed, everyone looked towards the same dire. There was a giant ball of fme rising towards the ceiling a few hundred meters from us. Watcher checked out the situation with his scope and began his report.’

  “One of the e squads got decimated by suicide bomber droids.”

  Ahsoka blinked and asked, bewildered.

  “Is that even a thing?”

  “Of course it is!” — Said Targetman.

  ‘His armor had at least seven bed spots on it, showing off the pces where he got hit.'

  ‘Luckily, the e ando is equipped with heavy pstoid armor. It withstand three to five normal ser hits at the same pce if it has enough time to cool dowween each hit. It doesn’t take long to cool off, just about ten seds, but that is a lot of time in the middle of a firefight.’

  “Watch out for any droid who wants to get close to the barricade!” — Shouted Crusher, who in the meantime gained a long bck burn mark on the right side of his helmet.

  ‘It’s my turn, I guess. I Ahsoka and tossed her my sidearm. She grabbed it, surprised by my ued as.’

  ‘Before she could react, I jumped out from behind the barricade, holding out my left arm, creating a one-way force shield in front of my troops.’

  ‘I also ignited my silver bde in my right hand, just in case. The others, realizing my pn, immediately stopped hiding behind the crates and instead started to shoot down the fused droids.’

  ‘They didn’t seem to uand why their sers never reached their target. Their fusion sted about ten seds. In that time, the others mao shoot down a great number of them. Seeing our heroic stand against the separatist droid army, the slowly retreating es decided to join us for a st-ditch attempt to turide of the battle.’

  ‘After the initial fusion, the droids decided that whatever was the reason for their shots to disappear; it was caused by me. That was the moment things started to bee quite edgy...’

  ‘All the nearby droids focused their firepower at me.’

  ‘I was already feeling the strain from tinuously disiing the sers. But from that trated fire, my mind simply overloaded.’

  ‘I smirked under my helmet as the step in my pn began. I gathered all the recycled energy into a gigantic force push and unleashed it on the enemy.’

  ‘The force push was s that it picked up the already destroyed droids, other steel scraps ying about along with quite a few still funing ones and simply blew them away. Some crashed into each other in mid flight or into their own transporter ships behind them, only to fall on the ground at st with the clear sound of breakiallic parts.’

  ‘I looked around the pletely redesigned battlefield. There were still quite a few droids who mao hide behind covers from my all-out force push.’

  ‘In those few seds of retive silence following the unleashed force teique, reinf e troopers began to reach our position, creating a new line of defense tered around the e ando.’

  ‘A powerful wave of ing feeling appeared in my stomach as I saw that three new separatist transport ships flew through the destroyed gate’s still funal atmospheric shields, nding, this time, much farther from our location than before.’

  ‘I felt a burst of ay settling itom of my stomach. I am starting to really hate these droids. It must be, because of my fresh, extremely ive experieh a certain one. Anyway, sihey nded far from our effective firing rahe droids will have enough time to create their formations. If that happens, we won’t hold out much longer... They were outnumbering us by at least three to one...’

  Crusher was shouting ands at the nearby es.

  “Repair the barricades. We have to hold out for as long as possible!”

  ‘I saw the remaining droids trying to escape and join their reinforts. The others were shooting after them, thinning their numbers. Watcher was especially good at it, with his stat activated throughout the whole fight. He basically downed a droid with every shot.’

  ‘Thanks to the momentarily stagnating situation, I noticed as a big squadron of ARC-170 left the hangar joining into the raging battle outside. That should be good enough!’

  “Soldiers, most of hters have already left the hangar. If we ’t stand their attack, we will proceed with systematic retreat and defend the corridors that lead to the maiors!” — ‘Crusher shouted, before I could give the and myself.’

  ‘He was really good at split-sed deaking. Well, to be ho, in my whole memory arsenal, the only person who had military experience was Revan. I sighed. Then again, half of his life was a military assig. I guess he mao traumatize every following master with his brutal war experiences... At least in this battle, our enemies are mostly droids. That wasn’t the case back then. A few fshbacks ter, that tained mostly dismantled, burned alive, and many other likely ways deformed bodies. I stumbled a bit, a stable hand grabbed my arm and began to pull me aside, allowihe time to sober from my daydreaming.’

  “What are you doing, Nizzal? Don’t just stand there like a tree. e behind the barricade already. The droids are about to start their charge!” — ‘Ahsoka was shouting straight into my ear protrusions with a force that caused slight trembles to travel through my lekks…’

  “... I hear you, you don’t have to shout so damn hard!” — ‘I pined, leaning away from her.’

  ‘She looked at me with a worried expression, then said.’

  “I was shouting at you because you wouldn’t react otherwise.” — ‘I blinked.’

  “... Sorry about that. I guess I got caught up in some old memories...”

  ”That’s cool. You will have enough time for daydreaming when we beat back the kers.”

  “You are right about that.”

  ‘Ahsoka pushed me down behind a crate iive safety and said in a strict voice.’

  “And now, you will rest after that ridiculous force push you just pulled off. You look tired and I hardly detect your force presence. Catch this.” — ‘She dropped my bster gun in my p and smiled at me.’

  “You are better with that, anyway.” — She added with a smirk.

  “What are you implying by that?” — I asked.

  She looked to the side and said.

  “I just o practice a bit more. Preferably not on a battlefield.” — She pouted.

  “Well, ask me anytime if you need advi it.” — ‘She hen crouched beside me, peeking over the scorched and partially melted metal crates. Then a powerful vibration occurred as the LAAT finally started up and it began to hover over us in a low altitude.’

  “iming, I said to myself.” — With a quickly widening smile.

  “Oh, I have already fotten about them!” — Said Ahsoka with a happy and clearly relieved expressioling on her fabsp;

  ‘I got an ining call on my -link. I immediately picked it up, pushing the usual button on my wrist puter.’

  “ahe LAAT is ready. What are you orders?”

  ‘I gave an hooothy smile, then said.’

  “Bst them!”

  “Roger!”

  ‘Everyone nearby watched as the high caliber turbo sers activated and began to fire into the lines of droids with deadly precision. The shots were so powerful that they began to evehe floor uhe droid’s legs.’

  ‘The droids’ much weaker energy ons were not effective against an armored vehicle like the LAAT from this distance. In half a miheir numbers had dwindled drastically. Seeing this happening, the es began to cheer in their happiness.’

  ‘I looked around the barricade, then shouted towards Crusher.’

  “Gamma Squad, status report!”

  “Yes, ma’am!” — Began Crusher.

  “Crusher rep, my helmet is promised. I am blind for the right side of my helmet as the lenses burned bck from the sniper shot that grazed me. I have about 30% ammunitio.”

  “Braiing, no injuries. 60% ammunition.”

  “Handy, lost a pair of fingers on my left hand. 70% ammunition.” — ‘I cut in as I heard that.’ — “Give him first aid immediately, !”

  “Stinger, no injuries. 50% ammunition.”

  “Targetmaing.” — ‘His voice was filled with statialies that made his speech hard to uand.’ — “My suit is trashed, … the movement sup…, engin… stopp… fun…, this shit… is heavy as fuck. I have—… at least… one… round of ammo. ’t… check!”

  “Roger that, get yourself out of the thick of it Target… I don’t want you zeroed on me, !”

  ‘There was only statioise ing through the unicator.’

  “Where is Ice?” — I asked.

  “He is out cold, got hit by multiple secutive shots at about the same spot on his chest. We use his ammo. His stash is almost full.”

  ‘I gulped.’

  “Is he dead?” — I asked eventually.

  “No, not yet.” — Stated Crusher. — “He seems somewhat stable for now, but I ’t say if that will be the case for an hour ter. If he lives, he will have a new burn scar to show off to the e girls.”

  ‘My eyebrows have slightly raised up at that, but didn’t ent on it.’ — “!”

  “Watcher, nothing serious, 30% ammunition.”

  “Dozer, out of grenades, but overall, 25% ammunition.”

  “Give him a few mrenades, guys...” — ‘I said while shaking my head, quite amused with the fool.’

  ‘Now, where did Ahsoka go? She left while I was fog on the reports... Well, she handle herself.’

  ‘I looked over at my team. Everybody is still kig, more or less, after that crazy shoot-out. I have a good feeling about them.’

  ‘I looked back towards the droids. Something moved in the air. My head snapped up. Wait, is that a droid flying towards the LAAT? Was it bsted away that far? What is it carrying?’

  ‘Then I saw it. It was a jet trooper droid. I gulped as fear gripped my very soul, followed by the dreadful realization and a screaming force warning... I shouted, but it was too te.’

  “SUICIDE BOM-” — ‘Than a powerful detonation happened a few meters above us in the air. My small body was simply pushed aside as my hastily created force shields crumbled with little resistance...’

  ‘I flew into a pile of heavy crates that crumbled under my weight. Felt my ribs crag, my ears filled with the screams of soldiers, or was it mine? I wasn’t sure… A heavy pressure fell against my left shoulder, then a sharp, blinding pain followed. The pain was somewhat familiar, and I realized that my left shoulder got dislocated.’

  ‘I wao cry out again, but the pain in my chest took away my breath, which was somewhat lucky, sihe surrounding air was burning from the explosion. My ears were buzzing and ringing. I think I bnked out.’

  ‘An unknown amount of time ter, I came to myself trying to reorient ahe most crucial injuries.’