The retaliation, as the clones expected, was swift, and vicious.
A hundred fell from the tank detonating itself on their Defensive line. 904 had ordered a retreat as best he could but even then he lost a lot of the turrets, a lot of the equipment and lot of his men just from the tank. The remaining turrets were focusing their fire on the heavier battle Droids, managing to melt through the legs at the joints but they were rapidly being swarmed, or consumed by the white hellfire destroying the swamp.
Actions echo across the Galaxy. And an old,
old echo sounded across Dagobah.
An echo of the Clone Wars.
Engineered to be fearless, they remained orderly, those who could get away from the approaching hell doing so, though even in the seconds before they ran for their lives they
still managed to snipe one or two. Others gave their lives conducting solo last stands dual wielding the rifles of their fallen comrades against hoardes of droids, killing more than a few, others killing scores of them before dissolving in white hot flames from the retaliation
Commodore Helix
had ordered. The forest swamp was burning away, steam super cooking Clones alive in swamp water that evaporated from the fires raging across the swamps, killers gas and radiation
unfathomably high in some pockets.
All the Clones,
all the Clones were now sick from radiation poisoning. Some couldn't even stand but still spent their last moments shooting and destroying the occasional, lone and over confident H4X or a B1H squad.
One Clone, 808 staggered up with an Echani vibroblade, far enough from the white flames to be survivable. For a short time. Everything was sweltering heat and his insides were flame. He reckoned he had fifteen minutes to live before the heat or the radiation or the gas or the superheated steam killed him. Something would.
He had to buy himself a little extra time, if that was even possible. He staggered away from the encroaching wall of death and Droids and tanks.
A soft thud alerted him and he slowly turned behind him.
The
H4X stared at him, a red line painted across a broken photoreceptor. It's armor was crumpled on one side. It's one remaining arm clutched it's vibrosword.
Droid and Clone stared at each other amidst encroaching heat, flames, and gas, the sounds of fighting
still fierce in spite of Helix's devastating counter assault. The clones just
would not give up. Even here, even now, whole platoons of droids were being given pause, even if it was only momentary, by stragglers in their immediate way. The Droids were
still taking heavy losses in spite of all but routing the enemy.
"You will be dead soon from the radiation...not with the processing power to kill..." it assessed out loud, turning to walk away.
A pebble was tossed at it's head by 808. It stopped, still not looking at him.
"I didn't hear a bell, Commando." 808 growled.
The Droid turned to stare at the rapidly weakening Clone, who had removed his helmet, revealing the signs of Radiation burns.
"As you wish..." it said after a moment, pointing his sword at him.
"
Soldier."
The pair circled each other. The heat rising steadily around them.
Droid and Clone stared at each other, both created for these very situations. Millions spent on the research and development of both.
Both damaged.
The pair approached slowly, blades held out to the other.
808 struggled to hold himself up. Struggled to breath. Every gasp was flame in his throat.
The H4X wobbled a bit. Audio Sensors and tracking data blinking on and off. Servos damaged by a grenade.
The Droid made 808 raise a scorched eyebrow by lightly running the edge of its sword in a diagonal manner across it's own chassis, inflicting a small, light gouge.
"Never thought I'd have to kill your kind again..." it said. (For ASHINA: 7000 XP)
"Happy to disappoint you." 808 replied.
They rushed each other, their swords sparking against each other as they dueled. 808 was on the defensive instantly, as he wasn't a trained duelist, forced back by the still powerful and precise blows of the Droid, which threatened to rip the Vibroblade out of 808's hands with each direct impact.
808, getting a burst of Adenaline, rushed the Droid, tackling it against a fallen tree trunk, and it struggled with him as they tried to keep their footing in the muddy bog around them before it forced him off and their blades clashed with violent sparks escaping the impacts of their weapons against each other. The poisonous blue fog grew closer but he forced himself to stay standing.
The Droid then retreated as a gust of quickly cooling steam wafted over them both. He vanished into the steam and 808 began hunting for him. He only came across the bodies of his dead brothers, burnt or dead from radiation.
No sign of the Droid. 808 moved cautiously.
The sword of the Droid swung out from the poisoned steam fog which 808 barely pulled back from to avoid decapitation, sent his adrenaline spiking as the Droid viciously attacked him in a flurry of strikes, driving him back, each effort to deflect hastening him to his demise a little faster.
The blade sliced into his side and he staggered back, clutching it as he retreated back, holding the blade towards the H4X.
"You have mere
minutes to live, Clone. Even if you some how defeat me, you will fall soon after." the H4X said.
"I didn't come to this swamp to talk." 808 replied.
The Droid charged, and 808 flung the Vibroblade into the Droid's damaged photo receptor, piercing the Brain.
The Droid fell to the Clone's feet, inert.
808 staggered away from the fallen H4X walking back to the site of his slain brothers, breathing in agony.
He stared at them, and saluted.
A few moments later, he fell to the ground dead.
Meanwhile...
904 was down to two hundred clones. It was quickly turning into a final stand. Almost all of them were fatally irradiated, only the ones that had been the furthest of the defensive lines might survive if they fled into the temple or deeper into the swamp
right now. But none would. They were not made for that.
Most of the Droidekas had fallen, some twenty five left still among the stragglers. Only two turrets still desperately held out close to the last of the defense lines, being pushed back relentlessly towards the base of the temple. Here the mines were thickest, and even with strafing attacks from above blowing a ton of them up, there were others, now concealed in trees, and in deeper, harder to reach dirt just from a strafing attack. Whole bundles of them along with small warheads to missiles from both their LAAT/i's and HAV tanks creating still massive explosions. The flames from the eruption of the tank had destroyed many of the trees.
Which backfired on the Droid forces.
The two stealth fighters that were still in the air decided to divide their attention, even though it might mean the death of the one still engaging the starfighters above.
One of the Jedi Pilots began strafing the ground repeatedly with their nose mounted disruptor cannons, eviscerating even the heaviest armor as whole platoons were destroyed, the Jedi Pilot within shredding into a line of one of the remaining tanks, evading anti air attacks with a quiet skill and retaliating as it began to whittle away the advantage of Helix's remaining artillery, shooting down more of his gunships in the process
"Oh-Four! We don't have a choice now. We have to deploy our final countermeasure!" 424 yelled over the Blasterfire, the clones
still scoring headshots in the dozens before being cut down by return fire. One hundred fifty clones left.
An explosion in the air signalled the death of the Jedi Pilot still engaging the Droid Starfighters, leaving only the stealth equipped pilot still relentlessly attacking the Droid ground forces thanks to the clearing of the trees.
"Was our surveyor certain of the sensor readings?" 904 asked.
"Absolutely. Triple checked." 424 answered. "The remaining explosives have been buried at most of the vital points, deep in the swamp..."
"Strap the high explosive warheads on the Remaining Droidekas." 904 ordered. "And deploy
every 11-3K Viper Probe Droid we brought. Launch all remaining artillery."
(THIS plays)
"Where's the damn evac ship?!" 424 yelled as he opened fire and downed a squad of Droids in the distance.
"Its taking a slow approach. It had to in order to reduce the chances of detection..." 904 answered. "Our only goal was to delay. Distract."
"You think the Boss ever intended for any of us to walk out of here alive?" 424 asked bitterly.
"We didn't have to take the Job Offer." 904 reminded him as he sniped an H4X in the distance.
"True..." 424 admitted as the remaining clones frantically worked on the remaining, now heavily damaged Droidekas, programming them for their target.
The Clones continued to fall, just as the Viper Droids rose in
swarms around the swamp. One part of their last ditch attack. They had been strapped with as many small warheads, 40 mm grenade rounds, or droid busters as their repulsor lifts could carry. 70 in all. And they rocketed unsteadily at high speed at the largest remaining units, such as tanks.
At that instant the Clones unleashed the second part of their final countermeasure, triggering the single largest ground trap they had left, kept in the tightest defense line as the Clones retreated further back.
The trap raised a giant, buried fan of crudely fixed E-Web Turrets to a pre set, low point that would hit around the waist or slightly higher when the act of raising them and locking them in place also set off their firing mechanism. A massive swath of Blasterfire sang out red bolts repeatedly cutting down droids large and small just as the Viper Droids laden with explosives reached the largest remaining tanks.
The explosion of the droids created devastating shockwaves that destroyed everything in a seventy meter radius around them , smashing down platoons, gunships, the last of Droidekas rocketing through the sudden rip in lines, also laden with explosives, but their target was not any of the mechs.
Swamps produce organic gases naturally. Some quite volatile if pressurized or heated appropriately. The Clones had discovered a large enough pocket, but buried deep. There were reasons for where they had planted explosives that created that ravine that had stopped Helix Earlier. The volatile gasses trapped in one massive pocket in the swamp, connecting to multiple other veins and smaller pockets of condensed organic gasses were on the verge of mixing with the toxic gasses of the weapons Helix had unleashed, the ravine they had created having blasted just deep enough that a secondary explosion would surely unleash hellfire.
With so many of the droids committed to smashing the final pockets of Clone resistance they are uniquely concentrated on overwhelming the final defenders, whose carefully thought out strategy had delayed the Droids, made their commander focus on an aggressive response dedicated to smashing old ghosts.
The Droidekas rolled through smashed open droid lines of explosions at top speeds, laden with explosives crudely welded to their internal in a way that would not interfere with their rolling movement. If one or two were caught it made little difference, as the explosion created from destroying them was just as devastating if any Droids large or small were nearby. One hundred clones left. The last Stealth fighter crashed.
A shadow appeared above the whole of the battlefield at last as the Droidekas sped to their target and the final part of their last countermeasure went into play, Missile launchers scavenged from their transport tanks buried farther away launching dozens of payload missiles. Fifty clones left. Desperate acts of hand to hand combat were now being fully resorted to even as dozens of Plasma Missile Impacts lanced across scores and scores of droids and tanks, even managing to hit and down gunships in the air in a final, devastating all out salvo at the edge of the temple base, the Droidekas closer to the ravine as the
Bacta-Works Cruiser Yoda's Lament finished decloaking, fully ready to transport Jedi Survivors out of the temple.
904 was dual wielding DC-15S carbines at the endless, seemingly on fire hoard, a pack of live warheads strapped to his back. Twenty clones left. He had ordered the ten who had a shot of surviving the poisoning to flee. They had been busy setting up more explosives in the temple at the base, avoiding any Sith who were already there. No enemy would be in the clear even after the Clones fell . 424 had gone down destroying so many droids the H4X units present literally had to dogpile him to finally kill him, and even
then he had managed to kill
four of them even as he was being by stabbed to death from all sides. Ten clones left, completely surrounded in flames and gas and radiation and droids firing outward.
Blaster shots lancing out. Five clones left. The mine field was completely detonated, sending multiple platoons into the big Droid Spa in the sky all around them.
"YOU WANT SOME?! HUH!?
HUH?! I GOT SOME FOR YOU! AND YOU! AND YOU!" 904 screamed as he downed Droid after Droid after Droid around him, standing on a mound of destroyed B1H's, H4X's Some of Helix's Droidekas, and his own dead brothers, firing at everything around him. All other clones besides himself and the ones he had ordered to flee into the temple were dead.
"OH YOU WANT SOME TOO?! GET SOME! GET SOME!
GET SOME!" 904 screamed, having gone absolutely berserk as
scores of Droids continued to fall in a final rampage of Dual Wielding.
"NONE SHALL PASS!" he shouted as he concentrated his fire even as blaster bolts began to chew through his plastoid.
"NONE SHALL PASS!"
The warheads he was carrying detonated, send a powerful mushroom cloud type explosion that obliterated every Droid in a fifty meter radius just as the Droidekas reached the ravine, not having to climb the remains of the Kill box that had been sprang earlier due to the trunks having nice big holes. Only ten had made it.
Ten would be enough as they all willingly went tumbling into the ravine.
The detonation from within as the explosives were remotely set off by the last fleeing clones, escaping through the temple itself, made the
entire swamp around the temple shudder.
Jet's of powerful gas mixing with the poison in the air created a volatile underground detonation that sent a shockwave through the swamp, followed by Pillar's of flame erupting everywhere, blasting apart B2H units, catching Droid Gunships directly under the blast, wiping away columns of Droids both near and far, half the swamp around the temple now a huge inferno that spared nothing organic or inorganic as raging fires and earth quakes and even larger pits were created...
The Clone Defense Troopers had fallen almost to a man. But what remained of Helix's army?
Astrid pentoghast
Pyeth Raffinki Darth Carnifex Zachariah Conway
