When the Cavalry Comes.

XI

Cav watched as the centipede tanks tore through her vode, fighting down an encroaching nausea as Kix and a few others worked to drag the wounded back. Some were only stunned with minor cuts. They were lucky. Others, all she could do was try to keep them comfortable as they bled out.

She'd heard her instructors say that some soldiers would cry for their mothers as they died. Clones didn't have mothers, but they sometimes called for others none the less.

"Where's Tips?" A clone Cav had dragged back cried. "I want Tips!" She cradled his head in her lap. His legs were gone from a mortar that hit home, and there was nothing she could do. "Tips, why did you leave me?" He whispered, coughing and sobbing weakly.

He died minutes later. She closed his eyes and slipped his helmet on him, sliding out from under the body. A clone who later limped over for a bacta patch, which she was running increasingly low on, sighed and shook his head when he saw the body.

"Sorry, Verren." He murmured, hissing as she cleaned a nasty cut on his leg. "I heard him yelling. Tips died in a training accident two years ago."

"At least they're together now." Cav sighed, finishing up and jamming on her helmet. "Once the fighting dies down again, take that to Kix. I don't know how to give sutures." The clone nodded and limped away. She jammed her helmet on with a sigh. Her armor was more red-ish black than white now.

She stood up, hobbling on her broken ankle. It wasn't even a very bad break as far as she could tell, but enough to keep her from doing her best this campaign.

Cavalry blinked a couple times to flick through the comm channels. Explosions and yells that they needed rocket launchers assaulted her ears. She turned her comms off and hobbled over to where Kix was.

"They're leading them here to the tree line. Some runners came ahead to scrounge up all the droid poppers they could, they're going to bottle neck those centipede tanks and try to obliterate them. The spider droids will be a problem, though." Kix sighed, scrubbing at his face tiredly. His hands left dark trails across his cheek and nose.

"Spider droids?" Cavalry asked. "I haven't heard anything about that."

Kix gave her a side long look. "You haven't been listening to comms." He accused, smiling a little.

Cavalry hung her head. "I have not been listening to comms." She agreed. "There's enough death happening in front of me. Don't want to be listening to it too."

"I know the feeling. It's a different kind of hurt, hearing our vode in pain and not being able to help them." He said.

"I... didn't think about it like that. I just couldn't concentrate on my work if somebody is constantly screaming in my ear." She said.

Kix chuckled. "You'll just have to get used to that. Trust me, even on the Resolute there's always somebody looking to yell at a medic. You're not to bad, y'know." He leaned his head back tiredly, closing his eyes for a second. Cav flinched as she heard a whistle coming towards them and hit the deck. A mortar hit about a hundred meters away, exploding in green and blue light. Heat washed over them.

Kix didn't so much as flinch.

"For kriff's sake, can I have one moment of rest!?" He yelled without opening his eyes.

"We need to move, sir." Cavalry said, standing and offering him her hand. He took it and let her haul him to his feet.

"It's Kix. The rank of Sargent means nothing to me." He grabbed his helmet. "Get everyone who can move ready. We need to regroup with the others." Cavalry saluted him and went about her work. She turned her comms back on and breathed a sigh of relief as she heard shouts of triumph. So the centipede tanks were taken care of.

"How's it behind lines, Cav?" Five's voice crackled over the line.

"You guys need to stop getting hurt. Coming up to your location now." She saw the twisted and smoking forms of the tanks up ahead.

"Right- Skrag!" Fives swore and cut the connection. Cav picked up her pace, drawing a single knife. Two spider droids were after the men. Umbarans swarmed out of the darkness, cutting the victory short.

There was a jerk at her knife hand and the hilt slipped from her grasp, she turned to see a Umbaran with a glint of silver durasteel. There was a faint grin at her, all tooth and triumph. He was trying to take a trophy.

Oh, she'd give him a trophy. The other knife buried itself in his chest rather nicely. She collected both. Another Umbaran seemed to melt out of the darkness, staring at her crouched over the body.

He chittered at her in his odd language and vanished. Cavalry pulled the knife out of the dead Umbaran's chest, wincing at the slick slide of bloody flesh on her blade. Always so messy to clean. She wiped as much blood off as she could. Didn't want that to set for long.

The helmet of the Umbaran was partially off, and green mist was seeping out. Cavalry removed the rest of the helmet on impulse, looking at the face.

She was surprised by how human he looked. Of course, there were a few glaring differences like his grey-white skin and hairless head. But he had two eyes, a mouth, a nose... just like her. He was young too. Not quite as young as her, but he was maybe as big as an eight year old clone... so sixteen standard years? She studied his face impassively, then brushed his white eyes closes.

He was an idiot for trying to take her knife, but he was also so young that he at least deserved some rights.

"I'll remember you." She whispered, her words soft and crackling over her annunciator.

She stood. One more Umbaran down, the rest of the planet to go.