The best confidence builder is experience.
Recap: Clone forces rally. As the war escalates in the Outer Rim, the Jedi Knights are spread thinly across the galaxy. Many new clones are rushed into service to support their Jedi generals. Unfortunately, because of the relentless demands of battle, many young clones must join the struggle before their intensive training has been completed. These clones, manning a vital network of tracking stations, are all that stand between the Republic and invasion.
On the remote Rishi Moon, there was a small outpost that the Republic had stationed. It was nighttime as one of the clones was doing his round as he was checking out the deck. He put the binoculars down to get a closer look at anything that might be nearby.
"This is the deck officer checking in. Nothing going on, as usual."
Inside the post, it housed a clone sergeant as well as a few rookie clones. And a majority of these rookies clones so happen to be the Domino Squad who had been assigned to this part of the galaxy once they had graduated. One of the clones was at his station as he sat at the terminal.
"You're listening to the Grand Army of the Republic broadcast, the Voice of the Outer Rim. This next one goes out to the mudjumpers of the 224th, slugging it out on Mimban. Keep your heads down and seal your tights, boys," said the hologram of the radio host.
One of the clones entered the command center as he noticed his pals at the main station having an arm-wrestling contest. It didn't last long as soon a winner was declared.
"Ha! Who's next?" stated Hevy as he was boasting about his victory. "Fives?"
"Uh... shouldn't you be watching your scope, Hevy?" asked Echo.
"Yeah, let's take a look," mocked Hevy as he turned on the camera as there was nothing, "Hmm, what do you know? All clear, just like the last hundred times I looked at it."
"Personally, I like that it's so quiet here. I can catch up on the reg manuals," said Echo as he was holding the device in his hands.
"Echo, what is wrong with you? We should be out on the front lines blasting droids," said Hevy.
"Ah, leave him alone. They kept him in his growth jar too long," mocked Cutup.
"Yeah," said Hevy as he and Cutup laughed at Echo. "You may not have realized it yet, Fives, but you landed on the most boring post in the Outer Rim."
"And one of the most important," said a booming voice as the sergeant clone made his presence known.
Hevy then clicked a button on his panel as it got the attention of every clone.
"Attention! Sergeant on deck!"
"At ease," said the sergeant to all the clones who stood still. "Even though you're all new here, I shouldn't have to remind you that this quadrant is key to the Outer Rim. If the droids get past this station, they can surprise-attack the facilities where we were born on our homeworld of Kamino. There are some officers on the way, so I want everything squared away for inspection. Understood?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" said all the clones.
In a different part of space, several Republic cruisers were flying about. Onboard the main vessel was Obi-wan as he was looking out of the bridge and into space. He then turned around as he was walking towards the command center where Anakin was busy looking at the hologram map.
"Still here, Anakin?" said Kenobi to his student. "When was the last time you slept?"
"Try about 3 days," said Storm as he was nearby. "He's too determined to even rest his eyes."
"I'll sleep after we find General Grievous," said Anakin to his pals as he lightly rubbed his eyes from exhaustion. "Clone intelligence spotted him in the Balmorra system. But that was weeks ago. Since then, he's vanished."
"Well, unlike you, maybe he's getting some much-needed rest," joked Kenobi to his friend.
Even R2 gave a beep as he laughed with Obi-wan's remark.
"Excuse me, Generals. Incoming transmission from Commander Cody." said the Admiral.
"General Kenobi, General Skywalker, General Storm," said the clone trooper as his hologram image appeared.
"Cody. How goes the inspections?" asked Obi-wan.
"The tracking station in Pastil is fully operational. Captain Rex, Commander Sark, and I are proceeding to the outpost in the Rishi system."
"Good. Report back once you've arrived."
"Copy that. Cody out," said the clone as the transmission ended.
"Good man, that Cody," said Obi-wan as he offered praise to his right-hand man. "Don't worry, Anakin. If General Grievous comes anywhere near this quadrant, we'll know about it." assured the Jedi Master to his friend.
Back on the Rishi outpost, the clones were busy getting ready for the arrival of the three clone commanders. One of the clones was standing by when the terminal behind him made an alarm. He looked at the map as it showed their outpost but also several large objects heading their way.
"Sir, incoming meteor shower!"
"Raise the shield," said the sergeant.
The clone then began to do that as it seemed the other clones overheard this.
"You wanted excitement, Hevy," said Cutup.
"Right," said Hevy as he and Cutup turned their backs to each other to help secure themselves against the incoming shower. "Ooh, meteor shower," said the clone in a sarcastic tone.
From the outside, you could see the meteors falling from the sky. Some of them hit the area around the station, but with the shield up, the ones that hit that area or would have otherwise collided with the station head-on simply disintegrated as the shield reduced it to rubble. However, not all of the meteors were actual meteors as two of them were boarding ships that had droids in them. They had managed to use the meteor shower as cover so that they could sneak in undetected. The pods all opened up as they showed BX-series droid commandos.
These kinds of droids were not only expensive, but they could move about the field more fluidly than regular droids, they were the bane of clones and could even put Jedi on their feet. The deck officer was scanning the area doing one last round of surveillance. It seemed to be nothing as usual until he looked a bit to the left as he saw the pod the droids came in just meters away from the station.
"What the..."
Soon the face of the droid commandos came into his vizor's view. The clone took it off to see the droid properly, but by then he was surrounded. One of the other commandos managed to stun him with electricity as he fell. They then began to drag the clone out of sight. Once the first batch of droid commandos did their job, the remaining ones in the pod all jumped out as they now began to storm the entrance to the outpost.
"Get these doors open," said one of the commandos.
"Roger, roger," said another.
"CT-327, report in," said the sergeant through his comlink but no response, "Sentry, do you copy?"
"Inference from the meteors?" asked one of the droids.
"I don't see him down there, Sarge," said Fives as he looked at the camera.
"You two, go find him," ordered the sergeant as he pointed at Droidbait and another clone rookie.
They both put their helmets on as they were now running out of the command center to see what happened to their comrade. By then the droid commandos had managed to open the door as they entered. Droidbait and the rookie saw this as they came down the ramp.
"Droids!" said Droidbait.
At that moment, the commandos now began to open fire as they took out the two clones. The sounds of blasters being fired caught the Sergeant's attention as he put on his helmet and raced down the ramp. He saw the droids as he now took cover behind a corner and began to fire back as he blasted one in the head. The droids also did a similar strat as they fired from cover.
"Sound the alarm!" said the sergeant to Echo.
"They've disabled the beacon," said Echo as he tried to do it but to no avail. The remaining clones all gathered around to see what was going.
"Get a message to the fleet! We have to warn-- Ah!" said the sergeant as he was addressing the remaining Domino Squad members from his cover.
He didn't see that one of the droids got a lucky shot as a blast hit him in the leg. He fell and then turned around as his weapon was knocked out of his hand. Standing over him were three commandos with their weapons aimed at the clone as they opened fire on the sergeant.
"Sarge!" shouted Echo as they watched their commanding officer be defeated.
The droids now pointed upwards to shoot at the four remaining clones as they all ran back into the command center and closed the doors as the droids were just moments away from entering.
"That should slow those buckets down," said Cutup as he opened up a wire panel that was connected to the door and yanked some out.
"This way! Hurry!" shouted Hevy as he managed to get a grate open as he gestured his brothers to escape into the vent.
"No, we can--" said Cutup as he saw the droids were now cutting through the sealed doors.
"There's too many," said Hevy as he entered the vent.
The droids had finished cutting through as Cutup was the last to enter the vent and put the grate back on. The door then fell as in came the droids with their weapons aimed hoping to kill the remaining clones. But to their surprise, they were nowhere to be found.
"Four clones escaped, Captain," said one of the droid commandos.
"They don't matter. Hard-wire the all-clear signal and contact General Grievous," instructed the Captain as the others began to tinker with the command terminal.
They soon got it to work as in their private sector of space was General Grievous and his ships.
"The outpost is secure, General. We shut down the alarm and turned on the all-clear signal," said the Captain droid commando.
"Excellent. Keep that signal alive. I don't want the Republic to find out we're coming," ordered the cyborg. At that moment, he was getting another transmission.
"General, our spy on Kamino is making contact," said one of the B1 droids at his station.
"All the preparations for your invasion are in order," said the spy as it was none other than Ventress.
"Good. Our fleet is approaching the system. We are almost at the rendezvous point."
"Very good, my lord. I will await your arrival," said Ventress.
"The destruction of Kamino will stop their production of clones for good," said Grievous.
"But I'm sure you'll find some way to fuck it up!" said Sunset as her hologram appeared. "Just don't come crying to me when it blows in your face, General."
"This is none of your concern, Sunset. Need I remind you of your place."
"Need I remind you, the both of you! Where you both have failed with your missions, I, on the other hand, get results. If you combine the total of successful missions that you and Ventress have, it is still vastly outnumbered by the missions that I've completed single-handily, I might add. I get results when I'm in charge; you two get nothing but failures. Dooku trusts me more than he trusts the both of you. And to be honest, he's making a good choice." said Sunset.
"You are but a child trying to pretend to have grown-up responsibilities, I know what I am doing. So stay out this, girl!" growled Grievous.
"Fine, I'll let you have your little moment. No wonder I'm ranked higher than you." snickered Sunset as her transmission cut off and the cyborg slammed his fist.
"We shall see who gets the last laugh, Sunset," said the General as he shouted at his crew to get back to work.
A ship was in space as it was approaching the Rishi moon. On that ship, were Sark, Rex, and Cody as they were about to check the inspection on the outpost station.
"Rishi outpost, this is Commander Cody. Do you copy?"
"Rishis outpost, please respond," said Sark.
The droids saw the ship the clone commanders were on through the scope. One of the droids then began to mess around with its voice modulation.
"Open... Open... Open comlink channel." said the droid as he was now sounding like a clone and put the helmet of one of the clones they shot.
"Rishi outpost, come in! Rishi outpost, come in!" said Cody as soon the image of the droid wearing the helmet came on their screens.
"Sorry, Commander."
"What the hell took you guys so long to answer?!" asked Sark.
"We're, um, experiencing technical difficulties."
"This is the inspection team," said Cody.
"Inspection? Negative, negative," said the droid as they weren't expecting this, "We, uh, do not require an inspection. Everything is fine here. Thank you."
"We'll be the judge of that. Prepare for our arrival," said Cody as both Rex and Sark had a suspicious look on their faces.
"Roger, roger." said the droid as the transmission ended.
"Did he just say, 'Roger, roger'?" asked Sark to his friends as that phrase sounded familiar.
"Something's not right here," said Rex as he too picked up on that line.
"Well, good luck. Cause I'm putting you and Sark, in charge of this one," said Cody with a snicker to his fellow brothers.
Their ship now entered the planet's orbit. At that same time, the last remaining members of Domino Squad had managed to escape from the exhaust vent as they came into a maintenance tunnel that was positioned deep below the post. They kicked the hatch and began to file in a single line.
"What do we do without the Sarge?" asked Fives.
"The reg manual says the next--"
"Wait, wait!" said Hevy as he put his hand up to cut Echo off.
There was a sound heard as it was air whooshing-like.
"Did you hear that?" asked Hevy as all four now looked down in the crater below.
"Yeah, what is that?" asked Fives.
"It doesn't sound like droids," said Cutup.
There was a rumbling sound as the clones looked up to see the body of a long creature slithering into one of the many tunnels behind them.
"Don't forget about those giant eels," said Hevy.
"Yeah, I've never seen--"
A loud growl cut off Fives as one of the eels saw the group. It had snuck up on the group as one of them leaped forward and snatched Cutup in its jaws as he shouted.
"Cutup!" shouted the rest of the group as Hevy pulled out a pistol and began to fire at the Rishi eel but had no effect. It then disappeared back into one of the holes with Cutup in its jaws.
"What the hell was that?" asked Hevy.
"Uh, that was an eel," said Echo nonchalantly. "Now, that's why we have the regulation to not go outside."
"Let's move before it comes back," said Hevy as the remaining three clones kept on walking.
"Poor Cutup," said Echo, as he let out a sigh as another member of their squad, was gone.
The three clones didn't get far when they heard the sound of a ship passing overhead.
"Look! It's Commander Cody," said Fives as he pointed.
"It's the inspection team," stated Echo.
The ship had docked onto the landing pad as all three clone commanders exited with their helmets on. They all had their blasters in hand as they were heading towards the station.
"This is not good. I don't see the deck officer anywhere," said Cody.
"That's minus five points," said Sark as he kept looking around, weapon ready.
"These boys are sloppy. There should always be an officer on duty," said Rex as he too found it weird.
The trio passed by some crates as hiding behind them were some droid commandos as they watched the clones.
"We have to warn them," said Hevy, "Get on the comlink."
The trio now was approaching the doors as they opened up, and out came a clone in full armor.
"I have a bad feeling about this," said Cody as they saw the trooper approach them.
"Welcome to Rishi, Commander. As you can see, the outpost is operating at peak efficiency," said the droid in disguise as he stood a few meters away from the trio and closed in.
"Then where's your deck officer?" asked Sark.
"Uh, taking a lunch break," said the droid. "Thank you for visiting and have a safe trip back," said the droid doing some hand movements.
All three looked at each other. Despite wearing their helmets, they could see the face the others were making.
"We need to inspect the base just the same," said Cody.
"Uh, there is no need," said the droid put his hands out while taking some steps back as the trio walked forward. "Everything is fine and fully operational," said the droid as he did some more hand movements as the clones stopped.
Down below, Echo was hard at work trying to get a comlink open so that he could warn the three clone commanders.
"It's no good. Their comlinks are on a different scramble set," said Echo as he couldn't make contact.
"I'll signal them with this flare," said Hevy.
"Take us to the sergeant in command," demanded Rex.
"Roger, roger," said the droid.
All three looked at each other as they heard that phrase again. Before Sark could point his gun at the clone, they all heard and saw the flare that Hevy had shot into the sky as they turned around.
"A droid attack flare?" said Cody as he and the others looked at it.
Rex immediately turned around and pointed his gun at the clone's head as he shot him.
"Whoa, Rex! What the hell are you doing?" said Cody as he couldn't believe that his friend would shoot one of their own.
"Come on, Cody. Don't tell me you haven't put the pieces together? And you're supposed to be Obi-wan's right-hand man?" taunted Sark at his friend's slowness to know what was happening.
"Relax," assured Rex to his buddy. He then took the helmet off as it showed the face of the droid with the wound where Rex shot his gun. "Just as me and Sark thought. Looks like one of those new commando droids."
"Not those things," said Sark as the three of them knew how infuriating it was to deal with these kinds of droids. Especially in a hand-to-hand combat scenario.
"That flare must have come from the survivors," said Cody as he also kneeled by the dead body of the droid.
Just then, blaster sounds were heard. The trio got up immediately to avoid being shot.
"Ambush!" said Rex as he and his buddies all fell back as they shot back.
The commando droids were firing from the crates near the entrance. One of them was on top of the crates as he tried to get a shot in on the clone commanders. Cody moved his head out of the way just at the last second to avoid getting shot in the face. He then turned his attention to shoot the droid on top of the crate as he went down with a few blaster shots. Then not a second later, the droid he shot got back up and began to continue to fire as if it didn't feel it.
"Aah! Those clankers have tough armor!" shouted Cody to his pals as they continued to fall back.
All three were now moving their heads out of the way of shots that would normally take out regular clones. Rex managed to shoot one down, but now they were being fired from behind. Sark then switched his aim as he shot another one that was closing in on them as soon all three now hid behind some crates that provided them some cover, but there were still surrounded and wouldn't last much longer. The trio peaked out from their cover to fire back as well as avoid any blasts.
"We're cut off!" shouted Rex.
"Frag out!" yelled Sark as he saw a commando droid throw bombs into the air.
"Off the platform!" instructed Rex to his pals.
"Copy that," said Cody as they saw the grenades roll towards their ship.
The bombs went off as it created an explosion that took out the ship they came in. Smoke appeared as it caused all the droids to fall back momentarily. Once it cleared out a bit, they began to search the area for the three commanders, but they weren't present.
"No sign of them. They must have been pulverized," said the Captain. "Resume defensive posts."
The droids and their leader now began to head back inside of the station. What they didn't know was that all three commanders were, in fact, alive. The moment the trio jumped off the platform, they fired their cables as they attached to the bottom of the landing pad, and they hung there quietly. Once the coast was clear, Rex, Sark, and Cody then descended to the crater below.
"Well, that sure complicates things, Commander," said Rex to Cody.
"No worst than that time on Tibrin," said Sark.
"We had Jedi with us on Tibrin. They helped," assured Cody to his pals.
Rex then put his hands in front of his buddies as all three saw shadows through the smoke. The three commanders now lifted their guns at the shadows as it was the remaining members of the Domino Squad.
"Hands up above your head!" shouted Sark.
"Take your sun bonnets off!" ordered Rex.
The rookies did what was asked as they put their hands up.
"Uh, sir?" answered Echo.
"Take 'em off! Now!" yelled Rex as he didn't want to take any chances.
The rookies then removed their helmets as it got the three commanders to see they were the survivors. Just then a Rishi eel came out of the tunnels and looked at the group as it opened its jaws. Both Rex and Sark shot their weapons, and the blast hit the eel dead-on in its right eye as down it went with ease.
"Nice shot," said Hevy as he and his buddies were impressed by what the two commanders did in taking down a giant beast.
"The name's Rex," said the man as he kneeled and put his hand on the eel's eyes, "But you'll call me "Captain" or "sir"."
"Sir, yes, sir!" shouted the Domino Squad as they stood at attention.
"Commander Sark."
"I'm Commander Cody. Your new boss."
All three commanders now took their helmets off to allow the rookies to see their faces.
"My designation is trooper 27-5555, sir."
"We call him Fives. I'm Hevy. This is Echo."
"Where's your sergeant?" asked Cody.
"Dead, sir. We're all that's left," answered Echo.
"Looks like we got ourselves a bunch of shinies, Commanders," said Rex as he approached the lot.
"Shinies, sir?" asked Echo.
"That's right. Your armor, it's shiny and new, just like you," said Rex as he put his hand on the clone's chest plate. It left a mark of his handprint as it was covered in eel blood from when he touched the eel's eye.
"Sir, me and my batchers are trained and ready. We'll take back our post, shiny or not," stated Hevy.
"There's hope for you yet, rookie," smiled Rex.
"Follow us!" said Sark as the rookies began to follow the clone commanders as they led the way up to the outpost.
Back with the Jedi, they were now beginning to worry as neither had heard from each of their commanders.
"Commander Cody, do you copy?" said the Admiral as he was trying to make contact. "Captain Rex, please respond. Commander Sark, are you there?" All three were static.
"They should have checked in from the Rishi station hours ago," said Obi-wan as he stroked his beard. "It appears your captain follows orders as well as you do."
"Hmm. Perhaps Cody is boring Rex with standard procedures and protocol," said Anakin as he glared back as his master.
"I guess it's true what they, clone commanders take after their generals. So knowing that I faith that Sark is keeping the two of them under wraps," smiled Storm as he looked at his pals.
"We need to work on our own boring procedures, and figure out a strategy to find Grievous," said Obi-wan.
"Right. Admiral, let us know if you hear from Rex," asked Anakin.
All three Jedi now began to head towards the bridge. Meanwhile back on Rishi, the small group of clones was now climbing back to reach the post.
"If I may, Commander. Just who are your Generals?" asked Echo to Sark.
"Captain Rex reports to General Skywalker. Commander Cody follows General Kenobi. As for myself, I'm under the orders of General Luna and her student, General Storm." said Sark. "Some of the best Jedi in the entire galaxy."
"Best Jedi, huh?" said Fives.
"Alright, enough chatter! Look sharp, rookies!" said Rex as they got to the top of the crater then climbed. "As long as those tweezers occupy this post, our home planet of Kamino is at risk."
"Time to earn your stripes, kids," said Sark as he, along with Rex and Cody, handed their weapons to the rooks.
"But there's so many of them," said Echo.
"Doesn't matter, kid. We have to retake this base, so we will retake his base," stated Rex. All three now stood at attention as they prepped their weapons.
"How do you propose we get through those blast doors, Rex, old boy?" asked Cody.
"I have a few ideas," said Rex as he pulled out his side pistol as Cody and Sark did the same.
Inside the stations, there were guards positioned in front of the entrance. One of the commando droids noticed something on the door's camera.
"What is that?" said the droid.
He saw the camera. It showed Rex coming into frame, but he was walking trying to mimic a droid's movement. The rest of the group were all standing by the side of the doors as they waited to see if the plan he came up with would work. They all hushed up as Rex was now standing in front of the door's camera.
"Unit 2-6. is that you?" asked one of the commando droids.
"Roger, roger," said Rex.
"You sound strange," said the commando droid. "Is something wrong with your vocabulator?"
"Roger, roger," said Rex as he put his hand to his neck as if trying to speak.
"Take off your helmet. Let me see your faceplate," ordered the droid.
"Roger, roger."
Rex then bent down as if he was taking off his helmet. A second later, a droid's head came into frame. Rex had managed to grab the head of the droid they shot earlier and put it at the door's camera as he hoped it would allow them to open the door.
"This is never gonna work," said Cody as he facepalmed his helmet.
"Fifty credits says you're wrong," stated Sark as he had faith that his buddy's plan would work.
To Cody's surprise, the droids fell for it. They pressed the button as the doors opened. Standing there with his pistol pointed at them was Rex.
"Clones!" said the commando droid.
"Roger. Roger," smiled Rex through his helmet. He then fired one of the droids in the head, as Cody and Sark appeared from each side and blasted the other two remaining droids.
"You owe me, Cody," said Sark.
"Let's move!" said Rex as he began to lead the group inside the base.
Echo, Fives, and Hevy all looked at each other as they were amazed by how highly skilled the commanders were as they were now more determined to take back the post. Especially, since they had clone commanders who belonged to some of the best Jedi in the entire galaxy. They all stood near the bottom of the ramp.
"Permission to take point, sir?" asked Hevy.
"I'm always first, kid," said Rex as he was showing Anakin's influence on him as he moved up.
"First lesson, rooks. A clone commander takes after their Generals, both behaviors and habits," said Sark as they followed behind.
Rex ran up the ramp and fired the first shot as he took a droid out. He then entered the command center as he managed to take out two more commando droids by himself. He moved his head out of the way of a blast as he kept on firing. The others now appeared as they began to provide cover fire to help their comrade. One of the droids began to shoot back as he managed to land a blast on Fives.
"Ahh!" screamed Fives as his elbow managed to save him from going down as he clutched it.
"Fives!" said Hevy as he checked on his friend.
"He's okay. Focus on the battle!" said Cody as he saw Fives get behind cover as the blast only barely scraped his arm.
Rex was in front of the desk as he dove to take cover. He moved to the right to avoid a blast. He then fired back as he took out the commando droid's blaster that shot at him. The droid then pulled his blade on its back and leaped into the air. Rex tried to hit the droid as he rolled out at the last second as the droid did a downward slash. The commando droid then began to slash away at Rex who dodge the attacks of the blade as he ducked. He managed to get behind the droid as he grabbed his head and snapped it.
Cody and Sark both fired their blasters as they managed to take down another droid as a team. The final one was taken down by both Echo and Hevy shot at the droid's body.
"I got one!"
"Sorry, Echo. I junked that one," said Hevy with a smug smile through his helmet.
"Like hell you did!" said Echo as he felt like Hevy was taking the credit for him killing a droid.
The clones then removed their helmets as they saw the bodies of the fallen commando droids.
"Not so tough now, are you, Sparky?" insulted Hevy.
"Get to the window," said Cody as he approached the terminal and saw the view outside. "It looks like we have more visitors."
All six clones now got the edge as they ran to the windows to see what was happening. Echo put his helmet on as he looked through the vizor that was on it.
"It looks like a Separatist fleet," said Echo as he saw up into space and saw the fleet.
"That's why they commandeered the outpost. They're mounting a full-scale invasion," said Cody.
"We have to warn command," stated Rex.
Up above the planet's orbit, Grievous' fleet was shown.
"The Republic base is still transmitting the all-clear signal, but for some reason, our commando droids aren't responding," said a B1 commander droid.
"We can leave nothing to chance. That base cannot be allowed to alert the Jedi that we're coming," said Grievous. "Send down reinforcements to investigate. I won't allow that girl to have her satisfaction."
"Those clankers sabotaged our transmitter, and they hard-wired the all-clear signal. It'll take time to repair," said Hevy.
"We don't have time," said Echo as he and the other continued to look out of the window.
"Look!" said Cody as they saw a battleship heading towards them as onboard was a droid battalion.
"Well, buddy, you always said you wanted to be on the front lines," said Fives to Hevy.
The ship landed on the dock. Its doors opened up as there was the first wave of B1 droids marching towards the entrance.
"We can't protect the outpost long against that army of clankers," said Cody as they saw through the window the droids marching.
"Then we'll destroy the outpost instead," stated Rex.
"What?" said Sark as he and the other clones thought the same thing.
"But, sir, our mission is to defend this facility at all cost," said Echo.
"We have to warn the Republic about the invasion. They'll take notice when the all-clear signal stops," said Rex as he turned back to look at the window as they saw the droids just standing there at the front doors.
"That's right. When they stop receiving our beacon, they'll get the message something is wrong," said Hevy.
"We'll need every thermal detonator in the inventory," chimed in Sark.
"It'll take more than a few detonators to destroy this outpost," stated Fives to the commanders.
"We can use the LT," said Echo as he got the attention of everyone. "This moon freezes for over half the year. We use liquid tibanna as fuel to heat the base."
"Liquid tibanna: highly explosive," smiled Cody to his pals.
"Good. Bring the tanks here and prime the detonators," ordered Rex.
The clones then began to get to work on destroying the base. While they were doing that, the last bit of droids from inside the ship they arrived in filed out. They all stood in a row, ready to break in and take care of what was happening inside. With just a few moments before they had to engage, the three clone commanders had the three rookies all gather around as they stood at attention.
"All right, listen up. There's only one target of interest in this sector: Kamino. It's the closest thing we clones have to a home. Today we fight for more than the Republic. Today we fight for all our brothers back home." stated Rex.
"We fight for those we've lost. We carry on where they left off. Understood?" shouted Sark.
"Sir, yes, sir!" stated the rookies.
They grabbed their helmets and put them on. Rex, Sark, and Cody all looked at each other with a nod and put their helmets on as well. They then began to follow the three clones into the armory.
"I think we can even the odds a bit, Commanders, especially since they don't know we're here," said Hevy. "This one here is mine. Ha!"
"Big gun doesn't make a big man," said Sark as Hevy was showing off his minigun.
Cody then picked out a weapon from the shelves and he gave it to Fives. Meanwhile, in the hallway, Rex and Echo were pushing the tanks with the help of a droid. One of the B1 droids now approached the door as he touched the button.
"Reinforcements reporting. Open up," said the droid.
As if on cue, the doors began to open slowly. Standing there was Hevy as he had the minigun in his hands and pointed it at the droids in the doorway.
"Didn't say please," said Hevy as he began to mow down all the droids that gathered at the front door.
"Clones! Get 'em!" said another droid from the second section. They now began to march forward as Hevy was still firing trying to take out the incoming wave.
He was soon backed up by the others as Fives threw a small bomb at the group coming at them. It went off as an explosion occurred. The clones were taking out the droids that missed the explosion as in the background, the Superbattle droids were walking through the flames.
"We could use a Jedi about now," said Cody as more droids were coming. He and then pushed the button on the panel as it started to seal the doors as the clones managed to get some last-minute shots before they shut.
"Captain Rex, come in. Commander Cody, are you there? Commander Sark, respond," said the Admiral as he was still trying to contact each of the general's clones as it was nothing but radio static. "General, there's still no response."
"How about the all-clear signal? Is the base still transmitting?" asked Obi-wan.
"Yes, sir."
"If something were wrong, Cody would contact us," said Obi-wan.
"What's the status of the base?" asked General Grievous at the same time Obi-wan said his statement.
"Uh, we've run into some difficulties," said one of the droids at the computer. "There seem to be a few clones, sir."
"Clones? Ha, ha, ha. You're having trouble with some measly clones?" taunted Sunset through her transmitter. "I knew you were a dumbass and a piece of shit."
Grievous shut off his communicator as he didn't want to hear Sunset mocking him. "Then wipe them out! We can't let a few puny clones stop us," ordered the cyborg.
Back on the base, it was an all-out fight. The droids had managed to break the seal on the lock as they entered the station. Sark and Cody were with Hevy and Fives as they were trying to buy Rex and Echo time to get everything ready. Even with having two top commanders by their side, the number of droids still played a role as it was forcing the clones to be pushed back.
"Fall back to the op center!" said Sark.
"Move!" ordered Cody to Hevy and Fives.
The rookies did as they were told as both Sark and Cody provided the boys with some cover fire while moving their heads out of the way to avoid getting hit. They took out a few as they reached the bottom of the ramp, they turned and ran up.
"Hurry up!" shouted Sark.
"Rex, time's wasting," said Cody through his comlink.
"Almost ready," responded Rex to his pals.
In the command center, Rex was tinkering with the denotator, while Echo was at the terminal prepping the other part of the explosion.
"The handset isn't linking up with the denotator," said Rex as he pushed the button to connect the remote with the bomb, but it flashed red. "Hevy."
"Yes, sir."
"This denotator isn't working."
"I'll take care of it. It'll be fixed in no time," said Hevy as he took the remote from Rex. "You guys get out of here."
"Just make it fast. The droids are closing in," said Rex as he and the others now approached the same vent they used to escape the first time.
The exhaust vent was opened as everybody started to climb in with the clone commanders going in first. Meanwhile, Hevy was busy trying to connect the remote to the denotator.
"There. That should fix it," said the clone as he pushed the button on the denotator.
He then heard the sound of metal footsteps getting closer as he looked at the entrance. He then turned his attention back to the remote as he pressed the button and then on the denotator hoping to sync the two, but it failed again.
"This isn't good," said Hevy. "There's got to be another way," he said in a frantic tone.
He then grabbed his minigun as he was now approaching the vent. However, instead of going in to join the others in escaping. Hevy grabbed the cover and sealed up the vent. He then began to run down the small hallway as he hid behind the corner as he waited. At that moment, a B1 commander droid was flanked by his troops as they saw the command center was empty.
"The base is ours again, sir. The clones are fleeing," said one of the droids in a happy tone.
"Cowards!" said the commander. "Secure the area!"
The rest of the squad had already made it to the same tunnel that the rookies escaped from. They were now below the post as they all stayed behind some rock prepared to watch the fireworks.
"Alright, Hevy hit the... Where's Hevy?" asked Rex as he and the others didn't see their comrade.
"You don't think..." said Sark as Rex knew what his friend was about to say.
"Hevy, get out of there," stated Rex through his comlink.
"The remote isn't working. I have to detonate it manually," said Hevy.
"Soldier, this is not the time to play the hero. Get out of there, that's an order!" shouted Sark.
"Sorry, sir. But that's an order, I'm gonna have to disobey," said Hevy.
"Hey, hold on there," said a droid as they were at the end of the hallway to Hevy's right as they saw the clone. "Blast him!"
The droids fired as their gunshots could be heard through the com channel.
"Hevy!" shouted Rex.
"We've got to get back up there," said Fives.
"Back to the maintenance pipe. Let's move!" instructed Cody.
"It's no use," said Hevy as he got them to stop, "I know what I have to do."
Hevy then got out from his cover and began to fire back at the droids shooting him.
"I don't like your tone, rookie," said Rex as he and the others began to head back to the pipe to hopefully save their comrade.
Hevy had sat down on the floor as he fired his minigun at the droids as he managed to take them down. At that moment, he was shot in his elbow from the back. He got up and looked behind to see more droids firing at him.
"Soldier, come in! Are you there?" stated Rex through Hevy's comlink.
Hevy now lifted his injured arm as he pulled the trigger on the minigun as he managed to mow down a few more droids as he slowly backed up. He now was heading back to the corridor he came from as he was limping with his injured arm.
"Soldier, come in!!" shouted Sark through the clone's comlink.
"Talk to us!" yelled Cody.
They were about to approach the maintenance pipe. At that same time, Hevy managed to limp his way to the command center as he lifted his gun once more to take the droids at the terminal. The others in the room along with some Superbattle droids now began to fire. Hevy's gun then ran out as he looked at it and saw behind him the droids were closing in. He then tossed his weapon towards the group hoping to slow them down, but with his injury, he took down one droid as the others kept on marching. He was but a few meters away from pressing the button when he was shot in the back by several shots as he fell to the floor and didn't move.
"Hevy, come in," said Echo hoping to see if his friend was alright. "Come in, Hevy! Hevy, come in!"
The droids heard the clone's comlink as if by some miracle, that allowed the clone to get back up. He was now slowly crawling the last bit of meters towards the denotator as the massive number of droids stood over him.
"Do we take prisoners?" asked one of the B1 droids to everyone.
They saw Hevy now raise his finger as it got them to point their weapons at the clone.
"I don't," said Hevy as he pushed the button.
Within seconds, the denotator went off, and everything in the command center was caught in the explosion. The entire station was now ablaze as the explosion got bigger, causing the whole place to break apart and fall into the crater below. The ship the droids came in was also falling as it took out the last bit of forces. The clones below saw the explosion as they all took cover under some rocks as they moved out of the way.
"Hevy always did hate that place," said Echo in a soft tone.
All of them were now looking at the ruins of the outpost below them as they acknowledged the sacrifice that was made by their comrade.
"The all-clear signal has been disabled?" said the Admiral. "The Rishi base has stopped transmitting."
"Grievous," said Anakin as he along with Storm and Obi-wan heard that statement.
"Sound the invasion alarm," said Obi-wan to a clone, "Let's get the fleet underway."
On Grievous' ship, he saw that the station had been destroyed.
"I didn't tell them to blow it up!" growled the General.
"But isn't it good that the base is destroyed?" asked a droid.
"Idiot!" shouted the cyborg at how stupid the droid was.
"He's not the idiot. I knew this was gonna happen," said Sunset as she made her presence known once more. "You just can't get shit done." mocked the girl with a smile.
Grievous felt angry at how Sunset was making him look like a fool. Before he could say anything to the Sith girl. In front of him, Republic cruisers appeared out of hyperspace as they had the Separatist ship in their sights.
"The Republic fleet. We're outgunned. Get us out of here," commanded the cyborg.
The cruisers now began to target Grievous' fleet of ships as they were taking them out while Grievous himself had his ship turn around. Back on the moon, Echo put his visor down as he looked up. He saw that the remaining Separatist ships were now fleeing as they entered hyperspace.
"We've got those tinnies on the run," said the clone.
"Thanks to Hevy," said Fives.
"Gunships. We're getting off this crater, boys," said Rex as he overheard that familiar sound.
Some gunships were descending as the group of clones managed to wave down the ships as they saw them. They all soon boarded as they were now heading back to the cruisers. Once they made it back to space, both Echo and Fives were now standing before Anakin and Obi-wan. Alongside them were Rex and Cody with a trail of clones as they were honoring the rookies.
"On behalf of the Republic, we thank you for your valiant service, and we honor your comrade's sacrifice," said Obi-wan.
"Your new unit is lucky to have you," said Anakin as both clones were given a medal as it hung from their armor. "I'd be proud to fight beside you anytime, anywhere," said the Jedi Knight as he welcomed both Echo and Fives into his unit of clones that he commanded.
Both Jedi gave a bow as Echo and Fives gave a salute to show their respect to their new generals. Both Jedi left as both Rex and Cody approached them.
"Congratulations. You're not shinies anymore," said Rex.
"With all due respect, sir, we failed our mission. We don't deserve this honor," said Echo.
"No, if it weren't for you, the Republic wouldn't have learned of the Separatist's invasion until it was too late," said Cody.
"You showed me something today. You're exactly the kind of men I need in the 501st," said Rex as he was looking forward to working with both of them.
"Sir, yes, sir!" said Echo and Fives as they saluted their new commanding officer.
Both clones then began to turn and walk back. They kept on walking as they soon bumped into Sark.
"Commander Sark," said Fives.
"At ease, gents. Congrats, but... there's someone who wants to meet you," Sark then stepped aside as Storm was now standing there. He'd seen Obi-wan and Anakin give the boys their medals as he wanted to let them enjoy their moment before confronting them.
"So, you're the rookies that saved Sark's ass down there, huh?" said Storm with his arms crossed.
"Sir, yes, sir!" said both Echo and Fives with a salute.
"Not many clones can say that did that. You got potentially, boys. I looked forward to seeing how far you two will go." said the Jedi Knight.
"Thank you, General," said Echo.
"Just call me, Storm. I'm not much for formalities," said the boy. "Also, I've got someone else who you two might know. You're on, Sparky."
Storm then turned on his transmitter as the hologram image of Twilight appeared before the two clones. It took a while, but eventually, the pair remembered the girl from when they asked Shaak Ti to transfer and it was there that Twilight told them that they need to stick with their squad instead of trying to look out only for themselves. They told Twilight what happened and how they were the last members of their squad. With a heavy heart, Twilight was sad, especially about the promise Hevy made to 99. The girl did her best to say to the clones to not let their friends' deaths be in vain and to keep on fighting.
Twilight then said goodbye as Storm put his transmitter away. He then gave one final goodbye as he and Sark left. The pair now made it back to where the other members of their squad were waiting.
"So, you trained some rookies, huh, Sark?" asked Claude.
"And they saved you, Cody and Rex, huh. How is that possible?" asked Ricochet.
"Why don't I tell you?" said Sark as he took a seat as Storm, Ricochet, and Claude began to listen to their friend's tale of what occurred.