I Never Wanted To...

"Come on, Dageer! What are you waiting for?! We are giving them a beati... No!!!"

The moment the padawan turned around, the smile on his face changed into a scream of sadness. It was as if his yell had supernatural powers, and all the droids in a ten meters radius were pushed away by the Force wave he unleashed.

Taking advantage of the seconds they won, Brain and Tech pulled Kuvu's body from above Dageer, and laid it carefully on the ground.

Dageer sighed, but got up and fired at the droids all the same. The death of Kuvu was sad, but so was the death of all the clones in this galactic war. The battle wouldn't stop because of it, and Hell Squad couldn't mourn now.

"I-I-I didn't mean it... I only wanted to save Keeli a-as fast as possible."

"We still have three trenches to cross, general. We need to go."

"But... Kuvu..."

Dageer looked at the medic's body. The clone had stayed with Hell Squad for only a few hours, but it still hurts to lose a brother.

"There is nothing we can do for him, general. We need to go, now. The clanckers are closing in."

Dab approached Dageer, and showed him the hologram map.

"Sir! We are still two hundred and thirty meters away from the objective."

"I know. Dab, urge the general, very carefully. Cell, Tech, Brain, we will scout ahead, see if there is anywhere we can advance without attracting more attention."

"Yes, sir."

While Dageer led the others, Dab approached Ragout. He understood that Kuvu had died because the padawan had been reckless, but in his clone soldier mentality, he didn't know why they stopped because of that.

"General, we really need to go. Commander Keeli is still out there, and we need to rescue him."

"Dab... Kuvu is dead... because of me."

"Not because of you, general. It was a droid blaster that killed him, not you. Besides, this is a war. Kuvu died fighting for what he believed. For the Republic."

Maybe it was because Ragout believed him, or maybe it was because he just needed a reason to keep going, but the padawan got up. He gave Kuvu's dead body one last glance, then followed the direction that Dageer went.

...

"Tech, get down!"

The mechanic of Hell Squad immediately dropped to the ground after his squad leader yelled at him, just in time to dodge a wrist rocket that would have hit him right in the chest. Whipping out his blaster, Tech fired a stream of blue lasers in the B2 super battle droid torso.

"Reloading!"

Tech pulled the trigger once again, but a 'click' showed the blaster was empty. The moment he started to reload, Cell and Brain stepped forward, and covered him.

Dageer ran forward, and used the walls of the trench as a shield. Red lasers blew dirt and mud in the air, and big holes appeared in his already precarious protection. But since he didn't plan on staying there for long, it didn't matter.

The leader of Hell Squad, the only clone aside from the commanders with painting on his armor, came out of hiding wielding his DC-15A in one hand and his DC-17 on the other.

His shots hit the droids either in the head or in the upper part of the chest. He was aiming at their core components, respectively the central core and the principal movement control center. Destroying either of those would put the droid out of combat immediately.

One of the reasons why the droid army was so worst than the clone army was because just one laser in the right target would make them useless, even if they were still alive. Of course, if a clone took a shot to the head or the heart, he would surely die, but droids usually didn't have such a good aim. The only reason why the Separatist could fight back was because of the staggering amount of droids their army had.

Back to the combat. Dageer killed six droids before he had to reload. Thankfully, he wasn't alone.

Brain did his thing, which was thrown thermal detonators. A blazing path was blasted amidst the droids, and there was silence for some time. Dageer called Dab through his comlink.

"Dab, get over here. We cleared this area."

"Yes, sir. We are already underway."

Seconds later, Ragout walked over. His face was expressionless, but he still walked stiffly.

"General. I just checked with General Di, and they just took the third trench, and are in the process of attacking this one."

"Uffff... It is as you said, Dageer. We need to keep going. What do you think is the best way to get to Keeli?"

"We don't know if the commander is in that Laat, General. But I think I know how we can get there. Using that."

Ragout looked to what Dageer was pointing, and his eyes became wide open.

"That is a Separatist AAT. And it is destroyed. What are you thinking?"

It was true. Halfway between the fourth and the fifth trench, an AAT was laying with its front half-buried. The hatch was opened, and a dead droid was hanging on it.

"Tech said he can get it back in motion. If we get it moving, we can probably blast through the fifth trench, maybe even the sixth. The closer we get, the better our chances of rescuing anyone on that gunship."

"Sir. We got the first gunship. Two wounded, the rest dead. No sign of Commander Keeli."

"Okay, lieutenant. Get the wounded to a medical base, and keep going."

"Yes, sir."

"Captain Narza, what is your status?"

"We already started the attack on the fourth trench. In a few minutes, we should be able to get to the two Laats."

"Do that. Captain, soon, there will be a Separatist tank moving up. Do not shoot it. Hell Squad and General Ragout are the ones with it."

"Yes, sir."

Captain Narza didn't even think it was weird that Hell Squad would hijack a Separatist AAT. The clones of the 303rd had long been used Hell Squad crazy doings. Only Ragout was surprised.

"Dageer. You were already thinking about it even before we got here, right?"

"One thing I learned with Commander Keeli was to always have a plan."

Dageer looked over the trench side, and calculated the distance to the AAT.

"Well, we better get going. And, Dageer..."

"Yes, general?"

"I am sorry. I never wanted... what happened... to happen."

Dageer kept quiet, and the young padawan turned on his lightsaber.

"Hell Squad, we are advancing. Let's go!"