Persistence of Loyalty

Under the curses of the clones, Ventress left the room. Dageer stared down at Berro's head. After it was disconnected from the body, the head fell on the ground and rolled over until it was leaning sideways. Dageer could see half of his face, looking angrily at the floor. At least his death had been painless.

Ten minutes later, a group of droids entered the prison cell and took away Brain, Tech, Dab, Metal, Narza, and Hilix. No matter how they struggled, they were still carried away.

However, nobody came to take away Berro's body. Dageer tried calling for the droids outside, but nobody answered. Either there were no guards, or they were programmed to stay put. So, Berro's body kept hanging on the anti-gravity locks.

After one hour, there was a puddle of blood below his corpse. The blood had stopped pouring out from his neck, but as soon as it dried, it only made everything worse. Stains of dry blood were all over his body, and no matter how much Dageer wanted to look away, he just couldn't.

He didn't feel more responsible for Berro's death than he felt for any other brother of his. But Berro had been one of his closest friends, and they had gone through a lot together. If he had died on a battlefield, Dageer would have been sad, but not as much as he was now.

The death of Berro seemed meaningless. It was obvious that Ventress didn't plan to let any of the captured clones walk out alive. She couldn't afford it, neither could the Separatist. If news about them using war prisoners to excavate a temple spread, their support throughout the galaxy would be gone in a matter of hours.

At some moment, Dageer fell asleep from pure exhaustion. He woke up when he heard the door open, and saw a five droids.

Two of them were standard B1 battle droids, complemented with red paint. Dageer remembered reading about them in a Republic report. They were guard units. The third droid he didn't recognize, but it served as a moving table, and was carrying all sorts of items, from knives and syringes to fabrics and medicines. The two remaining droids were the ones that worried Dageer the most.

One of them was a black medical droid. However, it also seemed heavily modified, and handed the syringes and the medicines skillfully.

The last droid was one that Dageer had only heard about, but never seen. If a droid could ever be called slim, then this one was. It also looked strong. It was black, just like the medical droid, except its joints, which were brown. It had a beeping red button on its chest, but its most striking feature were the bright white eyes.

If it really was the kind of droid Dageer thought it was, then he was screwed. There were some stories that the clones told. One of them was about a super expensive droid unit, called droid commando. Those units had such powerful armor that nothing short of a full magazine from a Z-6 Rotary or a point-blank shot to the head could kill it.

They were extremely deadly killers, and the most elite units that the CIS had. However, nobody knew how they were, because they never left anyone alive. All the Republic found were outposts full of dead soldiers, but no droid corpses. Even if some of them died during an attack, the others made sure to take the body away, so the Republic's scientists couldn't discover anything about it.

Seeing that, Dageer was even more sure that he wouldn't make it out of there alive. Since that was the case, he threw all his worries to the back of his mind, and looked at the droid commando determinedly.

"Hey, clancker. Tell your master that she will have to send someone better than you to deal with me."

The droid looked at him with its lifeless eyes. Somehow, he seemed much more articulated than a normal droid.

"Your... provocations won't work... with me... You will... tell me... what I need to... know..."

Tech would have been impressed by the droid commando. Dageer not so much, since the droid was about to do some horrible things to him.

He thought the droid was going to ask him questions, but it didn't. The first thing it did was grab a syringe that the medical droid handed to him, and stab it on Dageer's arm.

Dageer felt something cold merging with his blood, but it didn't seem to have any effect.

"This will make... you more susceptible to... answering... questions. And this..."

The droid commando picked up another syringe, with a yellow liquid.

"... will make your mind... feel free..."

After another injection, Dageer started feeling the effects of the drugs. His tongue felt bigger, and his body lighter. His mind, however, became increasingly clear.

After a few minutes, the droid commando started asking questions.

"What is... your serial number and... indication?"

It was a basic question, one that the droid commando certainly already knew the answer for, since it was printed on the clones' armor. Still, Dageer wouldn't give him what he wanted. He had to show he wasn't easy to crack.

"My name is... Dageer."

His tongue still felt weird, so he mumbled the words. The droid didn't seem happy with his answer.

"The prisoner... is not collaborating... Initiate protocol... A2JJ8..."

Protocol A2JJ8 wasn't complex. The medical droid picked a short metal baton from his many tools, and turned it on. Small, purple, lightning arcs appeared at one end of it, and the medical droid hit Dageer with it.

Instantly, he felt searing pain all over his body, as the purple lightning ran all over him. His body arched, but the anti-gravity locks. Thankfully, the medical droid didn't leave the shock baton on Dageer's body for much time. Still, his entire body was aching, and in pain.

"What is your... serial number and... indication?"

"CT-4063... infantry trooper of the 303rd Attack Legion."

He would have to be stupid to keep resisting just for this question. His intention was to trick the droid commando into thinking he had given up, and that he was a low-ranking soldier. That way, they wouldn't insist on the most important questions. He was confident in his ability to withstand interrogation, but not under drugs and torture. But he had been too naive to think that the clanckers would believe him.

"What is... your position on... the Republic... army?"

"I am a sergeant."

"He is lying."

The medical droid spoke, and Dageer couldn't come up with anything in time. His screams of pain could be heard for many hours, but unfortunately, the only ones to hear it were the emotionless droids.