Star Wars: Lurking Darkness

Chapter 11

So much had been lost upon his arrival leaving him with a scattered attack force that was still slowly gathering itself. He had activated his distress beacon calling all surviving droids to his location. Droids were slow at such a task and he was furious at the hardship he was enduring. None of this had been in his vision of the grand invasion he had dreamt about. It had all become a nightmare with very little to hope for.

Although he had found a functioning droid commander while he waited for more droids he knew it wouldn't be enough. Especially if he planned to attack sometime soon. He needed more fire power and unless he could make contact with his father, that wasn't going to happen.

"Commander we need to attack now. If we wait I fear the enemy will attack us first!" He said to the droid standing in front of him.

"Our forces are still gathering sir." The droid replied.

"This will do for now. You have those five AATs for support commander they will be sufficient for a small attack." The yellow plated droid spun around to confirm his units were all there. "Listen I know the terrain will be rough so blast everything in the way to oblivion and show those rebellious fiends the might of the CIS!"

"Roger, Roger!" Said the droid commander marching towards his units. "Move out!" Following the droid commander was a slight remnant of the powerful force Po had at his disposal.

The young Neimoidian had envisioned the first attack differently. He knew this mixed unit of droids would only confuse the enemy due to its small size rather than worry them.

Maybe they'll be thrown off so much they will lose their will to fight. Po said to himself as he watched the mixed unit march towards the facility.

Victory was far from his mind, but he knew causing his enemies some damage was better than doing nothing at all. His only hope was that the rebels were low on supplies and would be caught by surprise this time around.

Noticing the small force disappearing into the landscape he made his way to higher ground. From his new position he could see it all including the damage that his forces had sustained. A large plume of smoke had blocked the sunlight around him.

Reaching into his pack he pulled out his electrobinoculars to get a better view of things. Zooming in and out he noticed more droids marching towards his beacon from all directions.

Trails of dead grass were left behind the rolling droidekas he was now putting all his hopes on. Their shields would be deadly if they could get close enough to the enemy. Their capabilities would be a great asset to the mixed group of droids.

Soon he would have a large enough force to take the facility out, but for now he hoped the small unit would deal a severe blow, but nothing would have prepared him for what he saw next.

As if they were a part of the ground themselves hundreds of small rodent like creatures appeared around his forces. Blaster fire erupted as the droids desperately tried to fight back. He had to admit the sneak attack had been brilliant, but would struggle against five AAT's.

Looking on he could see several droids had already been taken down, but his droidekas quickly changed the course of the small attack. Shooting down dozens of the creatures the shielded droids formed a defensive line in front of the battle droids, which continued to volley suppressive fire onto the charging embryonic beings.

Concerned about his troops he put away the electrobinoculars and ran as fast as he could towards the rising smoke. Leaving his beacon on top of the hill he hoped he would return to find a large number of droids waiting for their chance to fight.