Star Wars The Clone Wars: Cuy'Val Dar#Wattys2016

Twenty-Five

Hours passed and Mirage Squadron stayed holed up in the storage room with no escape. The door could easily be wired open, they knew that, but it would be suicide to walk out there knowing that the droids would be waiting, and there were no other exits. Sarge sat on one of the overturned storage crates, flipping through his comm channels to try and see if he could break the Separatist interference field and get a short message through to the Vengeance that they needed backup. He'd been going through the channels for an hour, though, but all his attempts ended in vain. He finally sighed and out of frustration chunked the comm across the room. Skid's head snapped around at the noise and he saw it was Sarge who had thrown the comm.

"No luck, sir?" he asked.

Sarge shook his head and pulled his helmet off for a moment. "No luck," he said.

Skid nodded, and fell quiet again, returning to looking at the various battle wounds of the troopers. Most were simply burns and scrapes, but it was giving everyone something to do while they waited. Sarge eventually got up and retrieved his comm, thankful it was military grade and hadn't broken on impact with the wall. He turned it back on then instantly received a burst of white noise. There seemed to be a faint voice in the background talking, but Sarge could hardly make it out. He linked his comm to his helmet as he walked back over to his crate and sat down. Amplifying the voice and cutting the white noise he heard someone calling his name.

"Sarge, do you read?"

Sarge paused, then answered, "I read you, who is this?"

"It's...Null, sir. My apologies, but we need to talk."

Sarge paused for a moment. Null could get them the reinforcements they needed and get them out of here.

"I'd say we do," Sarge said, a little sharper than intended.

"Right, um, I'm really sorry about the whole barracks episode, but there's a more pressing matter we needed to discuss at the moment," Null said.

Sarge's mind quickly flashed back to their small fight. He had forgotten about it in the mess of things. "Never mind that soldier, it's a thing of the past, now what do you need to tell me?" he asked, putting the fight out of his mind. Now wasn't the time for arousing old disputes, and personally, he'd rather just forgive and forget the whole incident.

"Thank you, sir. What I need to tell you is that I came across some information concerning Bacsa. He's back, and he's got Galen with him. Galen intends to take out you and your men," Null explained.

Sarge paused at the name Galen. "How? Galen's supposed to be in prison."

"My best guess, sir, is that Bacsa broke him out."

"Why?" Sarge asked.

"Again, sir, this is only my best guess, but I would say it's to distract you and your men so that Bacsa can fight me."

Sarge frowned. "Who is this Bacsa guy and why is he after you? Does this have something to do with your 'Cuy'Val Dar squadron' you keep mentioning?"

"Yessir, this has everything to do with it, I'll explain more later, but we need to meet up."

Sarge looked around the room now at all of his men. "Before we meet up I have a request," Sarge said.

"What's that, sir?"

"Could you get aboard the Vengeance and find General Fas. Me and my men have run into a small problem with the droids down here and we're stuck."

"How so, sir?" Null asked.

"We got cornered and the droids have us completely outnumbered."

"Copy that, sir, I'll try and get down there as quickly as possible," Null said, the transmission already beginning to break up. Sarge started to thank him but then the static overtook Null's voice and Sarge had to turn it off before it blasted his eardrums to oblivion. He got up and glanced at the sealed door. It was time to face the droids.