Star Wars: Dar'Aliit

Chapter Seven: Something to Fight For

20 BBY Indol

I grip the webbing, carefully this time. The LAAT/i settles and with a whir of engines Mer'en shouts at us.

"Go, go, go!"

We offload. My boots hit the ground and I'm running. There's trees and foliage on every side. I fall in with Bevik and Shave. My HUD is telling me there's thirty klicks to the city. More data pours in. Thank goodness for helmets, I'd be blind without this thing. More than blind, I'd be completely helpless.

Mer'en takes the lead and the LAAT/i's vanish up into the air behind us.

Mer'en directs us behind a row of thick trunked purple trees which provide cover among the low lying blue foliage. It's like nothing I've ever seen outside a holo vid. The sky is clear. It seems too clear for a battle. Something feels off in my gut again.

Mer'en peeks around. He's on my right. "There will be clankers around the city. Target and shoot anything that moves. The other two units should be converging soon." He looks down. "Come in Ronto squad."

"Reading you clearer than an HNE report."

"89 squad?"

"In position."

Mer'en nods. He points silently with two fingers. Sure, we can all hear each other on comms, thank goodness for the privacy of a sealed helmet, but the good old fashion military motions are a good fall back. I press up against the tree trunk and prepare myself.

Mer'en waves twice and we all make clear on the target. Hundreds of sand colored tinnies milling about. They're dumber than rocks. They'll never see us coming.

The order comes. "Go, go, go!"

We move. It's a short slope from our position to the gate. I hit it and let my feet slip down and slide, my momentum sending me skidding to the bottom. Other troopers follow. Clouds of dust kick up around us, but I can see the red targets up ahead. I raise my blaster before I've even hit solid ground.

"Commander!" shouts one of the rusty B1's. I take its head off with two shots before it can finish the sentence. The rest turn.

The general was right, no tanks here, just droids, but there's some big ones. SBD's with their thick casing and inset heads glare us down from behind the lines of sand colored B1's. All I see is scrap metal.

"Hey tinnies, I got a fun surprise for you!!" someone shouts over comms. I'm pretty sure it was Bevik. His quad cannon spits blue laser and mows down a row of them as he laughs. I echo his enthusiasm and charge in.

The first ranks go down like sitting womp rats. B1's aren't much against a couple of blaster bolts. They fire back. That's all they know how to do, but kriff if they aren't good at it. There's screaming. I charge a droid and slam my blaster into its face. Metal shatters. The droid goes down twitching.

Aftermath was right. It feels way better to take out my frustrations on something. I grin.

"SBD's!" It's one of Ronto squad shouting.

I look back. A blaster bolt glances off my shoulder and I hiss, but the plastoid takes the real hit. Bevik mows down the big droid before I can, though, the quad cannon he opted for sitting heavy in his hands. I can feel his grin as he looks back at me.

"Gotta watch your back," he says. "They think they're sneaky."

I run after him. Around me we're slogging it out. I eject the vibroblade in my wrist and stab it through the spindly neck of a nearby droid. Mer'en jumps on one and decapitates it. Shave dismantles one with well placed shots. It's almost surgical the way he takes them down. Droids can't think like we can. The SBD's alone put up a fight, exchanging fire with Bevik and the heavy gunner from Ronto squad.