When the Cavalry Comes.

XLVII

Cav was beginning to understand Five's hatred of paperwork. Then again, she was technically doing his work too, tapping away on both their datapads while he poured over maps and diagrams for the upcoming campaign. Anticipation pulsed under her skin at the thought of it. It will be her first long term campaign after Umbara.

One thing was for sure, the campaign on Duros was going yo be a kriffstorm. This was the other shoe of politics from Umbara blotting out the sky and ready to wipe out their entire existence. Clones were stubborn though, and refused to die when they should.

According to the reports the separatist leader on Duros was one of the most feared, most brutal warmongers in current history, even compared to General Mundi and Krell during his republic days. At least there wouldn't be a betrayal against them this time.

Hopefully.

Fives cleared his throat to get her attention. At her glance he nodded at the maps spread in front of him.

"Tell me what you make of this, Vod'ika." Cav set her paperwork down with a sigh and stood up, stretching and peering over the desk. She really needed to stop sitting on the floor like this.

"Do you have a third dimension model? Or- ah. Elevation notes I see it." She muttered, looking over the maps he had scattered. "I see several things right off the bat, but what do you want me looking for exactly?"

"Just tell me what you see."

Cav was silent for a few more seconds, intently staring at the notes and legends on the maps and piecing things together bit by bit.

"The terrain is going to be hell on the scout walkers, if they can even get through there. It's full of sharp highs and lows, too much to be called a canyon system. It's like Kamino's waves in a storm." She noted. "By the way it looks and the notes, the ground won't be the most stable either. No walkers then."

Fives nodded. "Good. What else do you notice."

"Keeping in mind the possible instabilities in the ground, it looks almost too perfect a battleground for clone tactics, plenty of cover but also enough room to move in heavy artillery. The lack of scouting can be filled in with droids easily enough from the air." Cav trailed off, pointing at a photo of the wave like terrain. Too wavelike, as if the rock had actually been liquit at one point and reformed

"That's the problem with here."

Fives whistled. "Pretty good, but all your forethought is now useless now that you know that the rock the ground is made of has an extremely low melting point. A couple well placed shots will melt a good chunk of rock."

Cav groaned. Fives snickered at her dramatic reaction.

"Hey you noticed it fairly quickly, better than some I was talking with earlier."

"...You know, this could be used to our advantage." She said absentmindedly, staring hard at the map. "It looks so much like a perfect fighting ground for us, maybe we could use that." Fives blinked. 

"Talk me through your thought process." He instructed, looking at her critically. Cav was silent for a moment. 

"Well, look at it like this. We send a small force in scout formations, like we're advancing without walkers because of the terrain. This would prompt the clankers to move onto the wave-field to line up a clear shot so they can melt the ground where our squads are." She pointed at a few locations. "The 'scouting' squads could be given basic thermal detonators and place them like so." She indicated a three quarter circle around the edge of the wave-field. "The clankers would have to go in the middle of the pincer if they want to try to catch us by surprise and launch their own stuff. They'd need to move some heavy stuff in too, so it'd take out a sizeable portion of them when we set off the thermals."

"What's to stop them from going back the way they came? Surely they'd notice if our forces suddenly turned around and left." 

"Give them a reason to believe we're going to defend some place else. If they think we're being called back as reinforcements they'll most likely give chase to try and pin us on two sides. This would draw them forward, and due to the thermal conductivity of the rock and low melting point, we should have ourselves a nice bowl of clanker stew."

Fives tapped the maps with his stylus for a moment before sketching out her plan, making some notes and calculations in the margins. Cavalry was right. 

"How are we gonna present this to the generals though?" He mumbled. Cav jerked. 

"Wait, really?" 

"Hell yeah, really. The only problem is that sergeants technically aren't allowed to see these maps..." 

Cav snorted. "Just present it as your own. You are the next highest ranking clone with Captain Rex being gone with his wife on some mission." 

Fives gave her a sad look. "If you're alright with it then." Cav nodded. 

"If you think it's good enough to go through to Skywalker himself, definitely. I'd rather it went through at all than under my name. Do I have any orders yet for Duros?" Cavalry picked up her datapad again and began flicking through reports she had actual access too rather than peeking at Fives's stuff. 

"I can't tell you much right now other than you won't be under me, unfortunately. Not at the beginning, at least." Cav groaned. That made her life a hundred times harder. Fives patted her on the head absentmindedly. "You have my private comm codes. If something goes south shout and I'll look into it. You'll be serving under Dogma for this campaign."

"Dogma?"

"After Jesse's death he received a field promotion from Sargent Major to 2nd Lieutenant. Without Rex to lead us Torrent has been split in half between the two of us. Urban for him, Rural for me." Fives sighted, rubbing at his temples so hard Cav thought he might smudge his tattoo. 

"Civvies?" 

"Unsure. Technically the areas you'll be in should be evacuated but those types of things almost never go according to plan. Have your squad brushing up on USR tactics, Double dimension combat, and urban tactics in general, mkay?" He grimaced. "For my peace of mind at least?"

"Yessir."

"Thank you." He sighed, thumping his head on the table. "How are those supply and inventory reports coming?" 

"Finishing up the last of them now. Just need you to sign off on them and you're good to go."

"Have I ever told you you're a force-sent lifesaver?" He glanced up at her blearily. 

"A couple times, but hearing it again is nice." Cav snarked back cheekily. Fives hummed. 

"Dismissed, Sargent." 

Cav slid off his desk and put her datapad away. She paused in the doorway.

"Make sure you get some sleep sometime, Fives." She got a grunt in return, but it was better than nothing. Besides, he knew she could sic Kix on him if he didn't.