Chapter 111

"Fall back," Captain Fordo ordered as Biter opened fire on the enemy cyborg with everything his gunship had.

Missiles and heavy blaster bolts chased the cyborg as Spoon tossed his broken blaster rifle aside to grab both Egg and Omen by the backs of their armours and begin dragging them back to the waiting gunship.

Egg was clutching one arm close to his chest and groaning in pain, a blackened line cut deep into his left shoulder, but Omen was limp as Spoon dragged him.

He didn't make it far before Ice was at his side hoisting Omen onto his shoulders and allowing Spoon to pick up Egg and carry him on his own shoulders and soon both ARC troopers were running back towards the LAAT/s.

They passed the two wounded up into the LAAT/s's troop bay to before turning and crouching to provide cover for the other retreating ARCs.

Stec and Badger were firing towards the cyborg from either side of the open troop bay to keep its head down and half of the ARCs were already on board the gunship as Spoon drew his sidearms to wait for the captain who was bringing up the rear with two other ARCs.

They were almost back to the gunship when suddenly several things went when suddenly several things happened in a sickening sequence.

The captain signalled for the two lieutenants with him to fall back to the gunship and they both spun and began running back expecting their Captain to follow immediately after them but the jedi had other plans.

"No! we must pursue!" General Mundi screamed as he attempted to charge forwards, completely unarmed.

Fordo had to spin and grab the man to stop him running forwards causing them both to fall behind the others and leaving them dangerously exposed.

Myx, one of the two ARCs who had been running back, noticed that his captain hadn't been following him and stopped. Turning back just as the cyborg launched one final attack.

The cyborg, maybe annoyed about being bested so easily by clones when he had torn a number of jedi apart, dug a clawed foot into a piece of serrated deck plating as he ran away before turning slightly and using his powerful bionic legs like a catapult to launch it towards the retreating republic forces.

Had Myx kept running the jagged metal plate would have passed harmlessly behind his head, and had he been facing the cyborg head on he would have had time to dodge.

But the projectile slammed into him just as he turned, hitting him in his lightly armoured neck and tearing a bloody chunk out of his throat.

Spoon watched in horror as Myx raised a hand to his bleeding throat before collapsing lifelessly to the floor and before he realised it, he was running forward to drag his brother back to the gunship.

Ice went with him and took a knee to Spoon's side to cover him as Spoon dragged Myx up and onto his shoulders before beginning the run back to the gunship.

He barely noticed the captain shouting something at the general before bundling the jedi into the back of the troop bay ahead of him or Badger and Stec firing furiously at something behind him.

He barely even noticed dragging himself into the back of the troop bay with the rest of the ARCs, seconds before it lifted off the ground and began accelerating away from the battlefield.

Spoon's entire focus was on his wounded brother as he clamped his hands over the wound in his neck to try and stem the flow of blood.

Ice was there too removing Myx's helmet and stripping away armour plates from around the wounded area.

He'd just finished cutting away Myx's under suit when Stec crashed down onto his knee's next to them with an open med kit, already digging through it to start setting up to give Myx a combination of Bacta and other medical fluids intravenously in an effort to save the man's life.

Spoon grabbed a bandage from the med kit and pressed it down under his hands and into the wound, his stomach sinking as he watched Myx's face start to go a deathly pale colour as blood continued to pump out of his neck wound instantly dyeing the bandage a crimson red.

The troop bay around them was filled with chaos, with ARC troopers rushing to treat their wounded brothers.

Egg was leaning against the far bulkhead with his wounded arm clamped to his armour's chest plate and Badger hovering over him trying to treat him.

His helmet was still on, and Spoon noticed that he'd turned off all his armour's comms systems, and despite the fact he was sitting perfectly still his brother was probably screaming in pain from the privacy of his sealed armour.

Nearby Omen was lying on the deck with a cluster of ARC troopers carefully removing their brother's armour.

Omen's chest was covered in livid black bruising and had several jagged holes in it from where the cyborgs serrated talons had pierced through his armour.

The ARC troopers around Omen were trying there best to treat him, but with most of his injuries being internal there wasn't a lot they could do until they reached a properly equipped med bay.

Spoon watched with concern as one of the ARCs cursed before rolling Omen onto one side, meaning the man had a punctured lung that his brother was trying to keep from bursting.

Captain Fordo was stood at the front of the troop bay and was stood at the doorway to the secondary section where the wounded jedi where and seemed to be using his body to act as a physical barrier between the two sections.

"Where almost back at the Reliant, I've already alerted the medical team that we have critical casualties." Biter's voice came over the comm as the LAAT/s approached the republic capital ship that had dropped them off earlier.

Minutes later the gunship touched down in on of the Reliant's hangar bays, and its troop bay doors swung open.

Spoon saw the medics waiting for them to arrive and felt a flood of hope fill him. Neither Myx or Omen were looking to good now that they had reached the ship, and both were in urgent need of treatment, but they had nearly reached help.

They had carefully rolled both wounded clones onto repulsor-stretchers and Ice was already dropped down out of the gunship to begin moving the stretcher out of the troop bay, while Spoon maintained pressure on the throat wound.

But the lead medic, a pantoran man with the insignia of a republic naval lieutenant, shoved a hand into Ice's armoured chest in an attempt to move him back.

"Step back clone," The officer growled the scorn in his voice when he said the word clone clear.

The other medics moved past them, heading straight towards the front of the gunship were the two wounded jedi were being unloaded under the supervision of general Mundi.

"What the hell's going on we've got to get these men to the med bay, NOW!" Spoon shouted, still inside the gunships troop bay along with the rest of the ARCs trying to help their wounded brothers.

"The jedi are the priority wounded," The lieutenant said dismissively before moving over to help load one of the unconscious jedi, Spoon recognised as general Secura, onto a transport with general Shaak Ti beside her.

General Mundi didn't even glance back at the clones before he jumped up on the transport with them, a medic beside him checking him for injuries, before the man ordered the transport away.

Spoon didn't even have time to scream that they had forgotten the injured clones before the republic medics were already leaving, apart from four clone medics who were now rushing up towards them.

The ARC troopers had unloaded the two repulsor-stretchers by the time that the clone medics had arrived and Egg was stood nearby, waiting for the stretchers to go first but clearly intending to walk to the med bay on his own despite Badger standing worriedly next to him.

The medics checked Omen before rushing him towards the med bay, and in the absence of a transport to get them there quickly captain Fordo sent two of the waiting ARC troopers with them to ensure that there weren't any other delays.

Even if the republic medics had been able to stand up to the ARCs with a jedi nearby, Spoon doubted that any republic naval personnel would get in the way of two heavily armed and annoyed ARC lieutenants if they were running towards them, so he wasn't too concerned about Omen making it to the med bay on time.

He was concerned about the fact that the medics who had come over to Myx were checking med scanners with grim faces before slowly shaking their heads.

Myx had gone still beneath Spoon and as he looked down, he saw that his brother's wound had stopped pulsing blood and his eyes had gone glassy and lifeless.

"I'm sorry sir… he's gone" one of the medics said gently as he placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

Spoon felt like his world was imploding as he let his hands slowly slide off of Myx's neck, still stained with his brother's blood.

He knew that people died in war, and they'd already lost so many of their brothers in this war, but no alpha ARC had died. Until today that was.

Spoon just stared in shock at the blood on his hands, not fully believing what was happening, until that shock turned to anger.

Anger at the republic, who treated his brothers as disposable tools, and anger at the jedi who had let his brother die.

One of Spoon's hands dropped almost unconsciously to his sidearm as he stared malevolently towards the corridor the jedi had left down.

But before he could take a step a firm hand grasped his armoured bicep in a vice like grip and Spoon was forced to stare into the mirrored visor of Captain Fordo's helmet.

"Don't…" Fordo said quietly over a private helmet to helmet comm channel, "That won't bring him back… and what do you think it'll make them do?"

Spoon looked around after what Fordo said to see the rest of the clones in the hangar, his Arc brothers including badger and the injured Egg, the two republic special forces pilots Biter and Red, the medics, and even a few clones assigned deck crew duties, staring towards him watching to see what he was about to do.

And Spoon could feel in that moment that if he did walk over to the med bay and kill general Mundi, who he was convinced had ordered the naval officers to focus on the jedi wounded, the clones in the hangar would join him.

They had all seen what had just happened, all probably felt the same way he did. He knew the captain did. The small, almost imperceptible to someone who didn't know the man as well as Spoon did, tremors giving away his rage.

But it was clear that the captain wasn't going to allow them to give in to that rage, and after taking a breath Spoon realised why.

They could kill Mundi and any other jedi fairly easily. They could probably take control of the ship. Probably then take the ship into New Aruum Commonwealth space, where Spoon knew his friend Renn would welcome and shelter them.

But what would happen after that. What would happen to his brothers who he'd be forced to leave behind. What would happen to Renn's secret empire that would suddenly be thrust into the spotlight and crosshairs of the republic.

"You two get that man to the med bay, NOW!" Fordo shouted at Badger and another ARC trooper close by Egg who was now swaying slightly from side to side, as he let Spoon think for a second.

"The rest of you start packing up your gear and get it stowed back in the barracks," Fordo ordered and taking control of what was happening before reaching down to pick up the ident chip from Myx's armour.

"Here," he said passing it to Spoon, "Take some time then rejoin the others," he said, and Spoon nodded before watching the captain stride away after the wounded.

Spoon just stood there for a moment, staring at the chip before tucking it away and moving over to help his brothers in unloading their gear and wondering what fresh horrors the war would bring them.