The Clone Wars: Fires of War/Chapter 1

Viera Cacete looked out the window of the bridge of the Valiant, the 56th Legion's flagship. Outside, she watched as hyperspace flew by as they quickly approached Sullust, alongside two other clone trooper battalions - the 833rd Swarm Battalion and the 724th Battalion. The Jedi Knight shut her eyes as a slight pain suddenly washed over her mind, she could could suddenly feel the Force making the pain flow away, and she thought once more of the original source of these pains that she constantly felt - it was on Kamino, over a year ago, when she locked into combat with the Sith apprentice, Kawn...

The blast doors at the end of the bridge behind her opened, and she turned to see Boomdodger stepping into the room, followed by Droidpopper and Blastcharger, who had his arms crossed, a Z-6 rotary blaster cannon strapped to his back as he prepared to shoot droids down. Viera lifted her eyebrows, and said, "Are you ready for the battle, boys?"

"Yeah," Boomdodger said as he walked up beside her, holding his helmet at his side. "This will be quite something. But it's a good thing our scouts checked Sullust for Separatist activity - or else we would've never found out about this apparent summit." He clenched his fists, "We'll all make sure that those clankers get a piece of each of us."

"Good to know," Viera said. Suddenly, the Valiant - followed by the Hive and the Monarch - dropped out of hyperspace, and was immediately met by mass firepower coming from the Separatists that blockaded the planet. She called out to the engineers in the bridge, "Get those fighters out there! Have them clear a path for the gunships to get through to the surface!" A moment later, many Z-95 headhunters flew from the hangars of the Valiant and engaged in combat with the many vulture droids and Hyena bombers, that began to attempt to bomb the Republic cruisers. Viera turned back to the three members of Eagle Squad, "Let's get to the hangar, and quick."

By the time they had arrived in the hangar, all of their gunships were prepared to leave, and some of the gunships from the Hive and Monarch were already making their way to the planet's surface. The group joined the rest of Eagle Squad aboard the Flashing Falcon, Eagle Squad's personal gunship, just as it was beginning to take off. Just before they left its hangar, the blast doors shut completely, and red lights appeared around them as the gunship shook. They had entered the destruction above Sullust, and were now heading for the planet's surface. Outside, Eagle Squad could hear the explosions of starfighters and gunships as they were destroyed by the opposing faction.

Soon, the blast doors opened once they were inside Sullust's atmosphere, and below they saw the Republic forces already engaging the droid army, which were defending a massive citadel, where the Separatist summit was surely taking place. Boomdodger shook his head as he watched many clone troopers get shot down by battle droids, and he clenched his fists and prepared to join the fray. Soon, the Flashing Falcon had landed, and Eagle Squad leaped off as several AT-RTs manned by clones rushed to the droid army, in an attempt to destroy their AATs. Spider droids, homing and dwarf, were among the many Separatist droids, and B1 battle droids piloted STAPs, assaulting the Republic from the air. And in the distance, Boomdodger could see a Sullustan inside a droid tank, leading the Separatists.

Eagle Squad made for cover immediately, Boomdodger firing his DC-17 hand blasters, Viera deflecting lasers back at the droids. Once they were behind a group of rocks, they prepared grenades as Blastcharger shot down many droids with his Z-6 rotary blaster cannon - and he clearly enjoyed it, it was one of his favorite things to do, during the war itself and back on Kamino, before the war. It was his specialty, after all. "What's the plan, Viera?" Boomdodger called out among the loud sounds of blaster fire, lasers flying back and forth.

Viera looked out from her cover, scanning the droid's lines. Then she ducked back behind cover and said, "The best I can think of is just a frontal assault, but their defenses are proving quite strong..." Then something hit her, and she realized, "How did they know we were coming? It's almost as if... they wanted our scouts to find them, so that they could strike a crippling blow to the Republic. They were expecting us!"

"Well that makes sense," Droidpopper said as he fired a DC-15A blaster rifle at many droids. He ducked behind their cover again and looked at Viera, "But I don't think that helps us with getting past those defenses. Our objective is to break into that citadel and disrupt the meeting taking place, but that won't work if we can't get past these defenses."

Boomdodger thought for a moment, and replied, "What about below ground? I researched Sullust before we arrived, I know that there are many bunkers and underground systems that could lead up to the citadel. We could use the rest of our forces as a diversion while we and a small strike team sneak in from underneath the droid forces and get into that fortress."

Viera shook her head, "That won't work. I doubt it, at least. I think our best bet is to outsmart them..."

Suddenly, a clone trooper called for everyone to take cover as a cannon fired from the top of the citadel fired a laser that landed in the middle of the Republic forces - a major blow. Snapshot, Eagle Squad's medic, and the 56th's primary medic, rushed to the clones' aids, however Viera called for the 56th to retreat. She turned to Boomdodger, "That cannon is already causing trouble. We need to rendezvous at point two." Another cannon shot killed many clones on the other side of the battlefield from where they were. "Fall back to point two!"

They began to move as Snapshot and many other clones, medics and soldiers alike, helped injured clone troopers. But the cannons from the Separatist's still continued to fire, injuring many other clone troopers as they made it to point two, which was just out of range of it. Once they made it, Boomdodger called out, "I want the men to spread out and prepare for a surprise attack on the Separatist forces once they arrive!"

Snapshot protested however, pleading to help the wounded, "But we can't just leave the wounded behind, sir!" He turned around to lead a group of medics to help the others, but Boomdodger ordered him to halt, and the commander replied.

"Snapshot, at least half of them are already dead. Besides, there's not much we can do now."

"To me, there is always an option," Snapshot said.

Boomdodger cursed as Snapshot began to help the wounded back to the rendezvous. Then the clone commander called out, "Cover them! Quickly!" Viera moved to the front of the line of wounded troopers, deflecting incoming blaster shots that flew at them. Once the wounded were rounded up and put in a safe area, Viera moved back as the droid army was nearly upon them. "Fire!" Grenades, rockets, and other blasters were thrown and fired at the droids, and they managed to take out their front lines. "Quickly, get reloaded. There isn't much time before--"

The lead AAT suddenly fired at the ground behind Boomdodger, causing him to get thrown forward from the blast, right into the droid forces. Battle droids lifted him up and pointed a blaster at his head, just as a voice from the AAT said, "Surrender now or watch your commander die!"