The Varactyl Squadron Commander (A Star Wars: The Clone Wars Fan-Fiction)

Chapter Seven

Sure enough, just as Commander Rino had expected, six more One-eyes turned the corner of the hallway and got their gazes locked on the Republic soldiers, each one sporting vicious talon-like claws.

"If you're gonna shoot, aim for the eye." The commander instructed as she knelt next to one of the fallen droids she'd fought and picked up its arm, examining the fingers and claws nonchalantly. Was she serious? Axel couldn't believe what he was seeing and immediately began dishing out blue blaster-shots at the quickly approaching enemy. 

The others followed his lead, but they weren't doing a very good job at taking down their targets. Each shot, every single fire, was dodged as if it were no effort at all and by the time the droids were half-way down the hall, they'd only managed to hit one of them in the right spot, leaving five left.

"Commander, there's too many of them! They're coming!" Breaks yelled over the sound of the blaster-fire. Axel glanced down from the barrel of his blaster to the floor where their commander was still kneeling. Only this time, he noticed the small pile of metal bladed fingers gathering on the ground at her side. What the hell was she doing? Taking souvenirs while they covered her? Axel didn't have time to think about that, he kept shooting.

"Take your time, don't just shoot all willy-nilly. Aim, predict where you think the droid's head'll end up next." Rino instructed in a calm tone and collected all ten of the droid's fingers, five in each hand. She wasn't concerned with this at all, and it infuriated Axel. He didn't know if the same went for his fellow troopers, but he was getting pretty ticked with this woman. 

Surprisingly, after Rino's words of instruction, Tyson and Breaks managed to take down two more, hitting the fiends in the direct center of their glowing red orbs and sending them stumbling backwards. Apparently, at least some her men had been paying attention and respected her advice.

"Nice shot!" She encouraged enthusiastically and got to her feet, folding her arms and standing slightly to the side, like one of their instructors would've done during training. But they weren't out of the fire yet. There were still three left and they were approaching at a break-neck pace. Their strides were longer, taking each step yards at a time, and their claws glimmered in the lights that hung from the ceiling. They were less than five yards away.

"Commander!" Risk exclaimed in desperation. Ten feet away, less than a mere second before they'd attack her men and dig their claws into their flesh. Nine. Eight. Seven. Bean slithered around inside of her middle, begging for attention once more, and time seemed to slow down to a crawl. This was her sign.

Her sign to act.

The first cyclops droid stretched its arm out in front of itself, hand open and prepared to grasp its next victim by the neck, which so happened to be Breaks. The clone was falling back in slow-motion, arms pin-wheeling and a startled cry barely audible over the sound of chaos, when a bladed metal finger flew through the air, spiking the One-eye straight in the side of its metal skull and pinning it to the wall. 

The second droid was leaping through the air like a pouncing cat straight for Tyson and using a similar reach-tactic, except it had both arms extended instead of just one. And this time, they actually found their target. Tyson's gloved hands were frantic as they tried to pry the cold metal fingers from around his throat and his back slammed against the floor. Before the rest of his back-side could make contact with the white tiles beneath him, the One-eye's red glow came to a sudden stop and the very tip of a knife-like finger protruded from its shattered center.

The last droid was aiming for Axel, but the clone knew what his commander was planning before she even did it. She was going to take out the droid for him, like she'd done for the rest of the clones, and show them all up. Make them look like inexperienced fighters when they were probably honestly better than her. No, he wasn't going to let that happen.

Instead of doing the most logical thing, which was keeping his blaster up and aimed at the oncoming attacker, Axel did the exact opposite. In that split second the One-eye lunged, he dropped his weapon and reached forward for the droid. Or the droid's head, to be a little more precise. He used the cyclops's momentum against it, like the commander had done before with her own attacker, and pulled the droid down towards the floor. The mechanical monster's claws clashed against Axel's chest-plate and sent sparks shooting in all directions. Adrenaline surging through his veins like a tsunami, the soldier slammed the One-eye's face into the ground. It deactivated immediately in a flash of red.

Axel couldn't help it, he was breathing heavily. His chest was rising up and down out of his control and the adrenaline rush was still running strong. He could feel all eyes on him, waiting for him to respond somehow to his most recent action, but he wasn't ready to stand up yet. Not just yet.

"You guys alright?" The commander asked her men and extended a hand to Tyson, who was rubbing his throat even though it hadn't been ripped open or stabbed in any way. He accepted her help without question and she hauled him back onto his feet. "You guys did better than I thought you would. Great shooting."

"What the hell was that?" Risk blurted out. "What. The hell. Was that? You can't just throw us to the dogs when you feel like it! We were completely unprepared for them! That wasn't training us or teaching us anything, that was suicide! We-"

"Watch you tone, trooper." Commander Rino snapped at him, shutting him up. The playful, happy tone in her voice she'd had before was gone. She extended her hand down to Axel and he was too scared of her to deny her help, so he let her haul him to his feet. "In case you failed to notice," she continued, her helmeted head still facing Risk. "I was here the entire time, I told you what to do, and when you needed back-up, I delivered." The One-eye pinned to the wall started moving again and she stabbed it once more with another bladed-finger. That left her with seven fingers left. "Catch." She tossed one to each clone and kept the last four.

"You want us to actually fight these things?" Risk questioned in disbelief. "With their own fingers?"

"No, I want you to stand there and look pretty while the enemy keeps tearing up the soldiers outside." Rino replied with so much sarcasm that it physically hurt the surrounding troopers. Axel couldn't help but smirk in amusement at this new side of her."Speaking of which, I think it would be best if we proceeded. So save your lack of faith in my abilities for a more reasonable time and stay focused on the task at hand, please?"

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