Chapter 15: The Republic Strikes Back(3)

Rex grit his teeth, keeping his head down as he crouched behind the stack of thick, durasteel crates, pistols out and in each hand. He and Ahsoka had split up with the intention of dividing the enemy's attention. And it seemed to have worked, though he now found himself held up from their rendezvous point.

It was these new forms of imperials! Rex had faced a space marine, and he had been briefed by his brothers in the 501st about the Imperial Guard. But these things were neither. Robbed in red, wielding bizarre and powerful weapons, and more machine than man, these combatants were of a whole different breed. Rex had begun to divide them up between two general varieties.

The dumb, lumbering kind, which, though being far more heavily armed than most things the Confederacy ever bothered deploying, were just as slow and easy to outmaneuver as any B1s. And the smart, faster kind, which wore the red robes, and behaved more like commando droids, though their precision and teamwork were on a whole different level.

Even now, one of the big lumbering ones was positioned at the end of this hallway, using an enormous heavy weapon to keep the heads of him and his men down, and popping any who dared rise. Meanwhile, the robed warriors crouched on mechanical limbs, eyes glowing as they sighted down their bizarre weapons. As if to remind him of their presence, they fired again.

"Get down!" Rex yelled. While the slumbering ones sprayed weapons fire everywhere without care for accuracy, the robed ones never took shots that didn't at least come deathly close to striking home. He watched two troopers near him who had been, so far as he could tell, safely behind cover, as the shots ricocheted off the nearby walls, striking one clone in the stomach and the other in the shin. The effect was the same. They screamed as electricity coursed through them, silencing as they went rigid still, Rex turning away as their struck body parts exploded in an electrical shower of gore.

This could not go on; the 501st were bleeding troopers like crazy in these hard points, and they couldn't rely on Ahsoka or Anakin, or any Jedi for that matter, to bail them out. Anakin wasn't even on the ship, he and the Bad Batch having taken the fight to the enemy destroyer with an eye for seizing the bridge. Ahsoka, on the other hand, was on board, but not nearby. They had split up to cover more ground, hoping to confuse the enemy with the tactic. It evidently had not worked very well, at least not for him and his half of the men. Ahsoka had taken Echo to seize the com vaults, whereas he himself was tasked with taking the bridge, a mission which seemed more and more impossible by the second!

He peeked out, but try as he might, he simply could not see another way. They could retreat, but doing that would only cede this passageway to them, a passage that they had already bled hard to take, and which was not easily circumvented, and certainly not quickly avoided. Backing out would be the same as admitting defeat; they needed to push through, and they needed to do it within the next few minutes, or the enemy would bunker down beyond their ability to breach!

"We are gonna rush 'em!" Rex said, feeling cold spikes trace along his spine.

"Are you crazy?" asked one trooper nearby.

"Captain, that heavy weapons fire will turn us into mulch, the back of the hallway is moments from blowing out into space!" another argued.

"And that's why we have to keep moving! The longer we stay pinned here, the worse our position will become!" The Captain said, waving more of the men behind them up, who crawled forward at the gesture, using the cover or advancing up alcoves until the exploding rain of bullets became too dense.

"Pass the shields up! Now, troopers!" Rex ordered.

They did, passing the large rectangular shields up and over themselves in a train until all the frontmost clones had access to one.

"Blast it, Rex, these shields won't take even a single shot from what that heavy weapon is spitting! We are going to get cut to pieces!" said Boomer, who was on his stomach under a blast shield not far away.

"You're going to have to trust me! Get your flash bangs and EMP grenades ready! No more arguing, I'll take points! Toss, count, charge, and shoot!" he ordered.

Rex swallowed hard, pushing down all thoughts of death, of the wounds he knew would kill him if any of those weapons struck him. The clones had never been as effective at fighting flesh and bone defense forces, the Captain had always known that, but these...these droid men were quickly proving more lethal in every way than the most dedicated rebel or dastardly insurgent.

"Now! For the Republic!" Rex bellowed.

The clones tossed their flashbangs, made specifically to interfere with optic sensors by using EM wave bursts, among other more conventional methods. They flashed and screeched loudly, but Rex waited a moment, his instincts holding him back.

A stream of bolt rounds hammered into his cover and then off and away in the direction he had planned to jump towards. The droidmen had anticipated that, but this time, experience trumped equations, and he leapt out, rolling and dodging as bright blue shots fired from the bizarre, antique-looking rifles that the robed men were using. He narrowly avoided the shots, keeping his motion constant as he came up to his feet smoothly and jumped again, this time extending both of his pistols and firing.

His first shot hit dead center, blowing away the face of the lumbering cyborg. It continued emptying its heavy weapon, even as it staggered, headless, before falling over, blowing itself to pieces as it fell forward onto its own barrel.

The robed man who was Rex's second target ducked the shot, firing his own weapon, but shooting wide, evidently still blinded, at least to a degree. The droidmen opened fire, and Rex rolled as he hit the ground again, this time unable to preserve his momentum and falling heavily. He braced for the shot he knew was coming but was shielded at the last second by Jessie, who blocked the shot with his blast shield. The bullet tinked loudly against the insulated metal, but otherwise seemed entirely negated.

Jessie extended a hand, which Rex took, wasting no time and getting back up. The 501st advanced up the hallway, blast shields forming a triple-layered wall, one trooper holding up the shield while two others took shots from around it.

The three robed droidmen began to retreat, moving swiftly on double-jointed, bionic legs, but taking fire as they did. Rex smiled, more than a little happy to see that, as effective as their weapons were against him and his men, the Republic was still not entirely without kick. Their blaster bolts, as slow as they were, and as ineffective against the Astartes as they had been, proved extremely lethal to all of these droid men.

The ionized blasts seemed to wreak havoc with their extensive augmentations, a thing Rex was all too eager to exploit as two of the three retreating warriors dropped, twitching and convulsing like roaches, the clones surrounding them and pumping them full of blue death.

Still, while it was an advantage, it was a cold comfort when compared to the losses they were taking. And then they turned the corner, the one leading towards the Bridge Turbo lift. Facing the clones were three lines of droid men. The first layer was composed of a shambling, bulky frontline of cyborgs. Their arms had been replaced with massive pincers and sparking hammers, and their eyes seemed mindless and determined as death itself. Behind them, one row of robed, lithe droidmen kneeled, weapons out in ordered rows.

Rex saw some of the same rifles as the ones they had struggled with up till now, but mixed in with those were a plethora of other, varied, and often glowing weapons. They were kneeling still as a second line of identical soldiers rested the barrels of their own weapons against the stiff shoulders of the first line.

"Keep going, keep going, close the distance!" Rex yelled, charging behind Jess's shield to the far left as the 501st charged and opened fire on the formation.

The frontline of droidmen lurched into a mindless counter charge and were nearly all wiped out by the volleys of bolter fire which came out for them. One managed, by sheer dumb luck, to stumble around the bolts sent after it and reached the line of blast shields. With a single swing of its massive claw, it crushed the nearest shield and the trooper behind it before the cyborg was force-fed the barrel of a DC15-A, which put the flesh and metal amalgamation out of its misery.

More shields moved up to cover the breach instantly, but it did little good. Rex had been shooting past the frontline all along, into the second and third line of the enemy, knowing it was with them that the real threat could be found. But they were fearless, even as he killed them, and when the final frontline cyborg had fallen, they opened fire. It was chaos and death in seconds, as the variety of different, obscene weapons dispensed hell into the first and second lines of the advancing troopers.

Arch rifles struck the insulated shields like lightning bolts, deafening and burning the clones nearby, and through each gap that was created, more servitor bullets slung in, coated in blue as they struck more clones, stealing their potential energy before causing an electrical explosion at the impact site. But these were the lightest of the armaments. Bright, hellish phosphorus rounds, burning white hot, began to black and clank against the shields, burning their way through to the troopers behind them after a few volleys.

The screaming, there was suddenly so much screaming! The room became swelteringly hot, Rex feeling the heat press into him despite his armor as thick bolts of plasma fired from several of the glowing weapons. The globular volleys were easily enough to melt an ATTE down to its legs, and as it splashed into the rightmost ranks of their shield formation, its lethal potential was put on stark display as it liquefied the shields, troopers, and hallway present there. Had they been close to the skin of the ship, they would have surely been vented into space.

Rex found himself floundering as he felt the shield he was shooting around start to heat up as bright yellow projectiles began to rain down on it. What was the right answer? Retreat? Charge? Hold position? Rex was not confident they would survive ANY of those outcomes.

"This is turning into Geonosis all over again!" Jessie bellowed through the din of screams and weapons fire.

~No.~ Rex thought to himself as he and Jessie were suddenly tossed aside by the force of an explosion five meters away. ~This is much worse than Geonosis.~ He thought numbly, pinned under the shield with Jessie as other bodies fell on top of and over them. After a second he tried to shove himself out from under the pile, hearing Jessie groan next to him, and thankful he was still alive. But he was hopelessly pinned, and all he could manage was to extract his arms and keep shooting with both pistols from his position on the ground.

Luckily, his fellow clones did not pause to look to him for further orders; he had already given them orders. Howling in pain as they stepped through molten metal and the slimy remains of their brothers, the clones kept up the charge. They tossed flashbangs and EMP grenades to try to disrupt the consistent, accurate fire which was devastating their advance. But the droidmen shot those down mid-flight, now all too aware of their efficacy, eye lenses shuttering closed and then open in the moments when the flashbangs went off. The 501st weren't making any headway!

"Rex! Rex, are you alright!" Rex suddenly felt someone grasp his arm and begin hauling him up. It was Coric, and Rex barely managed to pull the trooper down beside him in time to avoid a crackling spear of electrical death.

"I'm fine, Coric, keep your head down!" Rex ordered, shooting two droidmen in the face, stopping them from coating him and Coric in explosive bullets.

"Blast it! I'd strangle a Jedi for a few Blaze Troopers right about now!" Coric complained, shielding himself behind a half-melted blast shield that lay nearby, jamming his rifle through the damaged gap and firing as he spoke. He, Rex, and many other dying and fighting clones shot volleys, both precise and scattered, back at the droidmen. Those struck would either weather the blow, suffering from twitches, spasms, but no obvious pain, or they would drop, falling into violent, rending contortions.

After falling they would be replaced, those in the second row kneeling to take the positions of the first, while a third row of obscured forces stepped in from behind to replace those of the second row. This was a meat grinder for both sides, given how effective their weapons were on the strange biology of the droid men, but it was far far worse for the 501st.

"I'd strangle a few Blaze troopers for a Jedi right about now!" was Rex's answer to Coric. And like a prayer, his answer was...answered.

From above and behind the two lines of droidmen, two familiar bars of blue light penetrated from the floor above them. They spun, creating a perfect circle of wrent metal, and then withdrew. The "cork" of durasteel was pushed down into the center of the two lines of robed droidmen, crushing several beneath it before tens of EMP grenades rained down from the hole in the ceiling.

The Droidmen reacted with little confusion and near instantaneous motion, starting to retreat, but they were still not quick enough, their forward lines screeching out in mechanical pain as they were enveloped in the expanding globes of electromagnetic waves. Most of them had been proofed against conventional EMP and similar radiation, but the exotic technologies of the clones handedly overcame those standard defenses.

The clones cheered and charged, and this time, when Colic went to help Rex up, he let him. Rex took a moment to make sure a medic got the still unconscious Jessie before checking himself for wounds and joining the rush of the counter assault. Ahsoka dropped from the ceiling as soon as the grenades had detonated, scything her way into the retreating droidmen with both sabers. Her half of the 501st began to rappel and drop down from the hole after her, opening fire all the while.

With cries of "For the Commander!" and "For the Republic!" The 501st managed to push the enemy forces all the way back to the turbo lift that led up to the final approach into the bridge. The lift had been shut down, but they had Echo working on it, and expected to have it back online in minutes.

Rex sighed and leaned against the wall, taking off his helmet and wiping at the heavy sweat which coated his brow. The ship's air was now cool against his scalp, whereas before it had been like an oven. He sighed, taking his rest while he had the chance.

"Well, you don't seem too broken up about the stall," Rex opened his eyes and saw Ahsoka approaching, a cautious smile lighting her face. He smiled back, not denying it.

"Truth be told, Commander, I think we need the rest. I have never been part of a boarding action as frantic as this. I keep thinking we should have come more prepared...but prepared with what? I couldn't very well let the men bring PLXs into a boarding action...right?"

Ahsoka crossed her arms and nodded. "I know what you mean. I've had to use every trick in my book to get us out this far, and we are still losing more men than is acceptable. They fight almost like droids, but...but-"

"But competently," he finished for her, and she nodded again.

"How were the com vaults? Were you and Echo able to patch into the ship from there?" he asked.

She shook her head. "The com vaults are completely stripped clean. Most of the physical machinery is gone, and what's left has been wiped and nearly completely disconnected from the ship. They didn't even bother to defend them, at least, not any more fiercely than any other part of the ship. It looks like you ended up getting the worst of it in that regard," the former padawan said, rubbing her arm and looking away, ashamed to have left her friend in such a desperate situation.

Rex laughed, causing Ahsoka to look up. "If that's the case, then I'm glad," he said, straightening up off the wall.

She looked at the captain quizzically. "Why's that?" she asked.

A sudden, loud beep caught all of their attention, both Rex and Ahsoka, and the many clones around them. Echo stood up and away from the input slot he had been using, looking up at the lift as its active light flicked on.

"OK, that should do it!" he called.

Rex grinned and put on his helmet, looking at Ahsoka. "I was honestly afraid that they would have their own version of a Jedi, that you would be the one dealing with that without me. If this is all they have, then we can still take them down," he said, hefting his two blaster pistols.

Ahsoka nodded, but then frowned, her eyes widening in a look Rex had seen too many times before. Jedi were clairvoyant; they got these...feelings.

"Got a bad feeling?" he asked.

She activated her lightsabers in response as the lift doors opened. Rex and his troopers took up positions, but his heart still sank when he saw what had come for them. The lift was packed with more of the robed droid men, the confines bristling with the nozzles, dishes, and barrels of their assorted weapons. But there, in the center of it all, holding some bizarre, cog-themed staff which seemed to spark with power, stood a robed, blue-skinned figure. He stepped forward, stave in hand, his eyes wrapped and hidden behind black bandages.

Tattoos of silver, which seemed to be in the likeness of circuitry, covered every inch of his skin they could see, which increased drastically as he tossed aside his robe, leaving himself bare-chested before them, and revealing the encompassing extent of his markings.

"Do not fear and do not despair!" he called out to them. "I am a holy priest of the Motive Force! And I have come to tell you that, even though you must now fall before our sacred arms, I shall gather and preserve your potential energy; nothing shall be wasted!" the odd priest bellowed, sparks raining from his skin.

"And know that to die before the servants of the Omnissiah is a blessing within itself!" And with that, the man smacked his staff against the floor, and all the lights within the corridor died in an instant.

And as the lights died, the screaming began again.