Who Is The Traitor?

Lessu was the capital of one of the most important planets of the galaxy. Millions lived there, and ships were landing on it all the time. It was a noisy and busy city, bustling with life.

But now, said city was eerily quiet. Even though it was day, no ships were landing and taking off because of the battle in the space. The residents stopped working, and were looking nervously out of their windows. From time to time, a loud bang resounded, sometimes followed by a scream. Snipers from both sides were trading shots, trying to take out enemy commanders. That was the only noise that could be heard, and it made the civilians tremble. Somehow, it was worse than a full-on battle.

...

Dageer was looking at the enemy army outside Lessu when he heard a loud sound. Instinctively, he dropped down, and felt a heatwave pass by him. Fortunately, he wasn't the target of the enemy sniper, or he would be dead. However, by his side, a clone lieutenant fell down, a hole on his right chest. The laser missed his heart, so he would probably survive, but was out of combat.

"Man down!"

Almost at the same time that the lieutenant was hit, a sniper blaster fired from somewhere else on the wall surrounding Lessu. A cloud of dust rose in the plain behind the droid army. Using his macrobinoculars, Dageer saw a dead droid with a hole in the head.

"Good shot, Dab."

Dageer didn't need to ask who the sniper was. In all of the 303rd, only Dab could react so fast. He located the droid sharpshooter, aimed and fired in less than two seconds. Probably few in the entire Republic army could match him.

"Thank you, sir."

Hell Squad had reunited in the capital after their failed attack on the droid army. On their path they had to take a detour around their second base, which was in ruins and crawling with droids. Since they were a small group, they moved much faster, and got to Lessu hours before the Separatist. General Di, Ragout and Commander Keeli were already there, together with the surviving clones of the 303rd.

Around Ryloth, on the other three main cities - Nabat, Rhovari, and Kala'uun - the 303rd was also forced to retreat, so now they were concentrated on those four places. Any kind of aerial support that they asked for was quickly taken down by a crushing amount of Vulture droids. And, to make things worse, they were starting to run low on supplies.

"Sub-commander, sir. General Di is calling you to the meeting room."

A clone came to him, and Dageer followed it. It wasn't like he could do anything on the wall. For the past few hours, all he had been doing was patrolling and firing at the droids.

...

The atmosphere of the meeting room was very somber. Only six people were inside it, and all the other staff members were sent away. It was a secret meeting, and a very important one. The two Jedis, General Di, and Ragout, sat on one side of a hologram table, with Dageer and Commander Keeli behind them. On the opposite side were Cham Syndulla and Gobi.

As soon as Dageer arrived, Commander Keeli had told him to look for 'bugs'. The so-called 'bugs' weren't insects, but hidden transmission devices, created to listen to the conversation of others. Not surprisingly, they found one.

The 'bug' looked like a comlink, but it was one-third of it's size, no bigger than a nail. It had been hidden behind a command panel, and probably wouldn't be ever found if one wasn't looking for it. Now, it was laying on the table, and the six people were looking at it. Nobody said a word, since it was still active.

Only after a few seconds did someone move. With an angry expression, Syndulla picked up the device, and crushed it with his fingers. He let it fall on the table, and turned to General Di.

"What does that mean, Jedi?"

General Di was very calm, and waited for Gobi to pull back Syndulla. The freedom fighter's leader was red with anger, because he knew exactly what General Di was implying.

"We have a spy in our midst."

"And you think it is one of my men."

"I do."

Syndulla closed his eyes and took a deep breath. General Di wasn't beating around the bush, and the Twi'lek had to control himself not to fight the Jedi. He knew what the result would be, and Ryloth could not afford to offend the Republic, at least not now, when the 303rd Attack Legion was all that was between them and the Separatist.

"Why? We are fighting for our planet, Jedi. We would never betray ourselves. If there is a spy, then it should be on your end."

As soon as Syndulla uttered those words, Dageer and Commander Keeli tensed up. It took an enormous amount of discipline for them not to retort. Seeing the clones grabbing their blasters and taking a small step towards him before retreating, even someone like Syndulla felt a little scared. He saw more than once how deadly the two clones were.

"You shouldn't question the loyalty of the clones, Syndulla. Keeli, explain to him. Maybe he will believe better if it comes out of the mouth of a clone."

"Yes, general. We were created to fight for the Republic, Syndulla. Even if we wanted to betray it, our genes wouldn't permit it. Besides, we have a reason stronger than any orders or discipline. Do you really believe that a clone would defect to the one who killed hundreds of thousands of his brothers?"

"That is enough, Keeli."

Seeing the commander get so worked up, General Di frowned and stopped him. He didn't expect that having their loyalty questioned would impact him so much. And looking at how Dageer also seemed to be angry, the Jedi suspected that every clone would have the same reaction, which was quite confusing.

What General Di didn't know, however, was that each night, in their dreams, a dark shadow would ask them to betray the Jedis, their generals. As such, loyalty was much more important to the clones than anyone could ever guess.

When Commander Keeli stepped back, General Di turned back to the Twi'leks, and gestured towards the 'bug'.

"Someone, one of your own, tipped us off to the Separatist. Our strike teams were ambushed, and many barely made it off. Our bases were attacked where we were the weakest. Although it wasn't a very well guarded secret, those pieces of information weren't known by most."

"So whoever betrayed us, is in a high position. One of my officers."

"Exactly. Now, Syndulla, we have to be very careful. Think hard, and tell me: Who is the traitor?"