Star Wars: A Clone's Tale/Chapter Four

19 checked his suit to make sure it was clean as he exited the lift. It was 0600, and Gamma unit's day was just getting started. Right out of the chute, they had a training sim to get things warmed up. 19 just hoped it would start off well. He walked into the briefing room and found an available seat. He was later than he wanted to be because he took some extra time in the firing range to familiarize himself with the new sniper rifles. He wasn't trained as a marksman, but it helped to know how they worked just in case. All the rest of the unit was assembled in the briefing room already. Without a word, 19 took a seat near the front row. As the Kaminoan trainer came striding in, 76 stood to his feet, "Attenhut!" The whole unit rose and saluted.

The trainer barely acknowledged the salute, he was so used to it by now, "At ease." He took the podium, still looking at his datapad, "Gamma unit, there has been a change in your command structure. 176 is now unit sergeant and executive officer. Squad leaders remain the same unless otherwise specified. Your new lieutenant and platoon leader will be 319."

The room was stone silent. The whole unit of clones looked to 19 sitting on the bench. 19's heart skipped. Did he say "platoon leader"? He didn't know how to handle this. They hadn't even seen real combat yet, and he was already getting a promotion. A big promotion, too. 19 knew all the facts and stats about how to command a unit, but he didn't have any experience with one. He was a trooper, not a commander.

The Kaminoan continued, "As of 0600 this morning, or until otherwise specified, 319 is promoted to the rank of lieutenant and is now Gamma platoon leader. You will take your orders from him. Are there any questions?"

45's hand went up, "Sir, what was the purpose in this change of command?"

The trainer shifted, "Let's just call it a matter of unit cohesion. Anything else?" The clones were silent, "Good. Now on to your day's schedule. To start the day, you have a training simulation. Your mission for this simulation will be to attack a group of enemy battle droids. Your primary disadvantage will be numbers. You are only thirty six troopers, and these droids will have you out numbered at least three or four to one. Your objective is simply to destroy all enemy targets. I will leave how you will accomplish that to your lieutenant. The simulation begins in ten minutes." On that note, the trainer walked out of the room.

Every head turned to 19. All these soldiers were under his command now. They were looking to him for what to do. What did the trainer say? The sim! That's it. They needed to prep for the sim in ten minutes.

19 stood up, "You heard him. You have ten minutes to cycle through that equipment room. Let's get to it!"

The whole of the unit followed without question. They cycled through the equipment room and set up with training rifles and armor in the sim room. Once they were all set up, 76 leaned closer to 19.

"Give a thumbs-up to the trainer in the ops room behind us." 19 turned his head around to the window behind and above them and gave a thumbs-up like 76 said. The trainer nodded and the window glass darkened to near opaque.

19 turned forward and leaned to 76, "Thanks. I'm going to need pointers like that for a while."

76 didn't budge, "You're unit lead now. I can give you tips and advice, but you have to make the decisions. I'm not always going to be there to help. I'll help you along for now, but I'm going to leave command decisions to you."

19 looked at him, "You're 2iC now. It's your job to give me advice, and the only thing that'll keep me from making you do that is if you're dead."

76 smiled behind his helmet, "Command mentality like that, you'll make a fine LT. Better than me, I'd bet."

19 was still trying to fully figure out what 76 said when the room darkened to near pitch black. A second later, it brightened again, but it didn't look like the sim room. The projection was an interesting planet. Trees and vines were strewn everywhere. The clearing Gamma unit was in was surrounded by thick foliage. 19 made a quick pan scan of the surrounding area. Their objective wasn't in visual proximity.

19 turned to 58, the comms and scanner tech, "58, Sensors, I want a look at the surrounding area before we go anywhere."

58, a clone with a sensor pack on his back, knelt down and consulted a data console on his armor gauntlet for several moments. The clones all stood uneasy, awaiting the final announcement.

58 looked up at 19, "It's hard to get a reading through the foliage. Give me a few more minutes."

19 nodded and looked around. The troops were all looking a little edgy, sort of fidgeting nervously.

He walked over to 76, "Everyone seems a little nervous."

76 looked around, "They need something to do while they wait. I suggest you have them deploy defensive."

19 looked around, and then back to 76, "I'll give the order, you see to the details."

76 shrugged, "That's my job, sir."

19 stood up straight, "Gamma unit, assume defensive formation!"

As everyone began to crouch into defensive positions, 76 stood up, "You heard Lead, soldiers! 26, 32, 80, cover eastern vector. 45, 89, 72, cover the…" 76 faded out as 19 looked around as the soldiers, his soldiers, moved to follow his order. In a moment's time they were all defensively positioned to cover the clearing. Lead noticed that the troops didn't seem nervous anymore, assuming that it was because they were doing something, staying occupied. 76 returned to 19 after seeing to the formation.

"What they taught us in command courses is always keep your soldiers busy. You need to keep them doing things to ensure maximum efficiency."

19 nodded, "I never really recall much idle time when you were in command."

"Just remember some of the things I had you guys doing, keep us doing those, and everything should be good."

Lead nodded again, then looked over to 58, "You got anything yet?"

The clone didn't look away from his console, "Some faint readings bearing two seven three. I can't make much out, but it looks metal. Hard to tell if it's droids." Suddenly the sensor palette started beeping rapidly, "Scratch that. I've got a fix on some enemy droids at six clicks bearing two zero five. Looks like a decent number of them, too."

"Good work, 58. Pack it up." 19 looked to the rest of the unit, "Gamma unit, mobilize!"

76 looked around, as well, "You heard him! Move it out!"

As the unit pulled together into formation, 19 keyed his comm again, "Recon, take point." With that order, the recon troops broke formation and bolted ahead of the unit. The scout/snipers had enhanced visuals and communications in their helmets to allow them extended operational range from the rest of the unit, and sniper rifles for distance spotting and sighting. Perfect for scouting. The eight recon troops pushed ahead of the unit in their paired teams until they were almost out of sight. Gamma unit pushed forward for a few minutes, keeping a close eye on their surroundings. For all they knew, there was some new type of droid burrow into the ground and spring an attack from behind.

Several minutes into the forest, Lead keyed his comm again, "Recon, report. Any activity?"

"Recon 1 here. Nothing so far."

"Recon 2. Except for 60 tripping over a gnasp carapace, nothing to report."

"Recon 3 reporting. No sign of the enemy so far."

As they reported in, 19 started getting an uneasy feeling. He fell back in the formation to 58.

"How far is that group of droids?"

The clone consulted his data pad, "From our present position, I'd say four kilometers still."

Lead frowned behind his helmet, "Right. Carry on."

He moved to catch up with 76, "Is it just me, or is something out of place here?"

76 scoffed, "You're getting nervous, Lead. It's normal with your first few sims in command. You'll get used to it."

19 shook his head, "76, listen, there's something not right here. You've heard the recon reports, haven't you?"

"Yes, and they all said the same thing. That there's no sign of droids."

"That's just it. There's no sign of the droids. If they knew we were here, why wouldn't they be on top of us by now?"

76 looked at 19, "They may not have any enhanced sensory equipment. You don't know. That's the whole reason behind recon. It's not just for the nifty visuals, you know."

19 sighed, "I suppose your right."

"That reminds me. Once we're done here, you're going to need to stop by SupCent and get your armor replaced."

Lead looked at him funny, "Replaced? With what?"

76 looked funny back, "Lieutenant armor, of course. The blue armor I used to wear is actually different from trooper armor, not just in the color. You know why we have the different types, right?"

"Sure. Yellow is officer or pilot, orange is platoon command, green is technician, blue is heavy, red is scout/sniper, and white is trooper."

76 shook his head, "Wrong on all counts. You may notice that we don't have anyone with red or yellow armor here. Those are captain, major, and commander respectively. Everyone else has the drab white you see here. Now that you're unit lead, you need to get your armor to reflect that. If I keep the blue stuff, the unit will get confused when they look at me. That's why we both need a change of armor, to reflect the recent change in command to the unit."

19 nodded understandingly. He looked over to 58, "Sensors, what've you got?"

58 held up one finger as he consulted his arm console, "Droid group still bearing two zero five, range…eight hundred meters."

19 keyed his comm, "Recon, report. Have you made contact with the target yet?"

"Recon 1 here. We've spotted droid activity. A good number of them. Laying low until the unit arrives."

"Team 2 here. We've made contact and, Lead, there's a bundle of them. Recommend we call in some heavy guns."

"Noted." The rest of the recon reports all confirmed contact with the enemy droids. The unit closed distance, maintaining radio silence, and all took up positions around the group of droids. 19 took out some macrobinoculars to get a better look. There were a lot of them, all right. They were definitely out numbered, at least three to one. Those were some slim odds, but they were workable. He scanned the group, looking for anything that might be able to tip the odds in their favor. He panned across the clearing until he spotted something. There was a palette of fuel cells near the edge of the clearing. If the unit could blow those, that might take some of the droids with it, and if nothing else would disorient them for a surprise attack. He stowed the binoculars and slow crouched over to 76.

"Can we set grenades on a remote detonate setting?"

"Yeah," The clone nodded, "why would you want to?"

Lead pointed at the fuel cells, "To square the odds." 19 let him in on the plan. 76 nodded and moved into position. 19 looked to the droids while he waited. They were all your standard B1 model battle droid, a skinny and gangly humanoid body sporting a blaster rifle. It was unusual for this many droids to just be left out here without some kind of heavier support not too far away, but Sensors hadn't seen anything else. 19 looked over to 76. He was in position and waiting for the right moment. A patrolling droid passed by him and he made his move. 76 tossed a grenade into the middle of the fuel cells. The grenade rested in the midst of them, silently waiting for the order to go off.

76 returned to Lead, "Viola. Instant IED."

19 knelt and opened his squad channels one at a time, "First squad, you're with me. You shoot what I shoot. Second squad, move in on the west guard. Third squad, move in on the north guard. Fourth squad, reinforce third squad. All squad leaders acknowledge." One by one the squad leaders acknowledged their orders. Third squad's leader was a moment in coming. 45 seemed to have an axe to grind with the new unit ranking.

Lead took a moment to open the support channel, "This is Gamma 19 to gunship wing Epsilon. Have encountered multiple hostiles. Requesting fire support at our position."

The comm crackled in return, "We'll be there in less than a minute, Gamma."

They were ready to strike. All teams were in position. It couldn't get any better.

"Gamma unit, open fire! Repeat: open fire!" The whole of the unit jumped out of where they were hiding and opened fire on the droids. The mechanicals were taken completely off guard and many went down fast. 19 was blasted a mech and started thinking they wouldn't need his trap. As he was thinking that thought, nearly a dozen crates in the center of the clearing broke open to reveal a very scary sight. No fewer than twelve destroyer droids unfolded from the crates and came online. They opened fire on the clones and started causing serious havoc. Several troopers were taken down with the first barrage and they were steadily eating away at them. Gamma unit fired on the droidekas to no avail. Destroyers were legendary for their durability due to their shield generators. Lead could see they weren't going to be able to take them out with what they had.

He opened the support channel, "Gunship Epsilon, where's our bloody fire support?"

The comm came back scrambled, "Gamma…have been intercepted…multiple bogies…cannot assist, repeat: cannot assist…"

19 closed the comm and cursed under his breath. The gunships were out and the destroyers were slaughtering his troops. Things had just gone to the incinerator in a hurry. He had to think fast.

He opened his unit comm, "Gamma unit, fall back! Repeat: fall back at once!" He followed his own orders and retreated away from the hail of gunfire the droidekas were spewing. He fell back away from the fray, 76 closely in his wake, and rejoined the rest of the unit. A quick count revealed they'd lost almost one third of their ranks to those accursed destroyers.

He looked to 76, "Your grenade still live?" 76 nodded.

"Blow it. At least it'll slow them down." A second later, Lead was rewarded with hearing a massive explosion in the direction they just came from. 19 looked around and found 58 still among the living. He was knelt down in the brush, checking his equipment.

19 knelt down next to him, "Where's that big hunk of metal you found earlier?"

58 moved his arm away from his side to check his console, revealing a large blast mark on his armor, and no doubt some serious damage underneath.

Sensors sounded in his comm like he was speaking through gritted teeth, "Right where it was before, bearing three five one, three kilometers out, sir."

Lead nodded, "Gamma unit, we're heading north, bearing three five one. Whatever we find up there, hopefully we can use it for cover or something. Those droids are going to be hot on our tails, so we're going to have to move." The whole unit quick-timed it across the three clicks to whatever this mass of metal on the sensors was. Several of their number were wounded and slowed the others down. 19 looked around at what was left of his first command. All of these clones are just like me, they're meant to be disposable. That doesn't mean they have to be dispensable as well. A wounded trooper tripped over a root and fell. The others just looked at him and kept going.

Lead stopped by the wounded trooper and addressed the unit, "Someone help that soldier up! Is that how you'd want to be treated if you were in his position?" The remainder of the unit stopped and looked at him. 19 knelt down and helped the trooper to his feet, "Just because we're all designed as expendables doesn't mean we don't need every gun we can get. Your individual survival depends upon your team's survival." He put the trooper's arm around his shoulders and helped him keep going.

One of the troopers raised protest, "If we take time to help them, we may lose unit efficiency."

"I don't bloody care." 19 almost cut him off, "I don't know what the rule is for other platoons, but Gamma unit is my responsibility now, and as long as it is, I say no one gets left behind. We're all in this together, Gamma unit. If we all help each other and act as a team and a unit, we'll all get our job done and get out of it alive."

The platoon resumed its pace, but with more determination. Some more of the wounded among them stumbled. Those around them looked at them for a moment pensively, then helped them to their feet and assisted them. 19 looked around and smiled. At least something got through. They finally came through the foliage to find the metal reading. 19 expected it to be a large rock or an ancient crash site or something. Finding the recent remains of an AT-TE took him a little by surprise.

Lead laid the wounded trooper against a tree and looked around for 76. He found him assisting Sensors getting his back pack off and walked over to him.

19 motioned his rifle to the AT-TE, "I want you and a couple of guys to get in that thing and see if it's operational. I don't care if it can be repaired; I just want to know if the guns are working." 76 nodded silently, pointed to two troopers to follow him, and hurried into the wreckage.

19 went over to 58 and knelt down to leaned on his rifle, "How you doing?"

The clone shrugged, "I'm managing. The armor shockers are just making it hard to concentrate."

Lead nodded, "Just remember, if this was real, that'd be actual damage to your body." He shifted over to the other knee, "How far behind us are the mechs?" 58 pushed a few buttons on the back pack and consulted his console. The display blinked twice then fizzled out. Sensors let out an angry grunt and banged his fist on the backpack once, causing the display came to life again.

19's eyebrows went up, "Not exactly the most orthodox repairs."

58 just looked at the console, "Gets the job done well enough for me." His arm display started blinking rapidly, "You're not going to like this, Lead. It looks like they stayed close with us. They're within a kilometer of our position and closing fast. They'll be on us in about ten minutes."

Lead's shoulders sunk, "Great. And we can't call in any gunship support either. All we have is the troops here, and hopefully the big guns."

58 nodded, "That about sums it up."

19 stood and keyed his comm, "76, report on the wreckage."

"Hard to tell, sir. I'm no engineer, but I think this thing still has power. Not sure about the guns yet."

"You have four minutes to find out. If you can't in that time, I'll fire you out the main cannon." 19 closed his comm. So much for his first command. He'd already lost almost a third of his troops, and about a dozen destroyer droids were on their way up to finish the job. The only thing that could sway these odds was the walker's guns. They were powerful enough to bring down starfighters, but if they couldn't get them online in time, it wouldn't do them much good.

His comm crackled on 76's freq, "Lead, good news. The guns are working, but they don't have any power. It's going to take a few minutes to reroute so they can be fired."

"We don't have much time, 76. You've got to hurry. I'm sending in all the engineers to help you." He moved to the rest of the healthy clones who had taken up defensive positions around the walker and ordered his engineers into the AT-TE to assist with the repairs. He looked around at the trees and foliage. Bushes wouldn't make very good cover. A blaster bolt could burn right through. All they had were some collapsed logs, trees, and a few rocks for cover, and those weren't much. Lead deployed the wounded troops to hide behind the logs and provide what fire they could. The remaining troops would bracket the wounded and use the trees and logs for their cover. He had the last ones deployed when the sound of droideka rolling came through the trees. There was only one, but that was enough to do some serious damage. The droid came into the open, unfolded, raised its shields, and started firing. Most of the clones stayed behind their cover, waiting for the AT-TE to kill it. Lead looked to two of his heavy troopers, held up two fingers, and pointed them at the destroyer. The two troopers readied their missile launchers and both fired on the droid. The first missile hit the shields hard. The second one collapsed them and jostled the droid. Lead and a few others came up and pulverized the vulnerable droid with blaster fire. The droideka went down only to be replaced by three more. The hail of gunfire was way too thick. Some troopers braved the fray to come up and fire, but to no avail against the shields. Only when they worked in tandem with the heavy troopers did they accomplish anything.

Lead keyed his comm to his 2iC, "76, how about those guns?"

"Just another minute, sir."

The three destroyers were joined by two more, "We don't have another minute, soldier." Someone threw an ECD over their cover. The grenade discharged right in front of the droidekas and instantly dropped their shields. Focused fire brought down two of them before their shields came back up. Those two were replaced by four more. The odds had gone from bad to insane very fast.

Lead screamed into his comm, "Trooper, we need those guns online now!"

"Guns online! Stand clear!"

19 turned to the rest of the unit, "Duck and cover!" The rest of the clones hit the deck just in time for the AT-TE to unleash a spread barrage of cannon fire on the droidekas. The barrage knocked down three of the droids easily. Each barrage was steadily followed by another and the destroyers fell as fast as they were replaced until they finally stopped coming. Lead came up around his cover to find no more destroyers, only a wide patch of black smoldering dirt.

Lead stood up slowly and addressed the unit, "Well done, everyone. Now we need to go back and get the rest." Before he could give any more orders, the forest faded away into the cubical sim room, and all incap soldiers started getting up.

He looked over at 76, "The grenade must've gotten the rest, considering it did blow up a palette of fifteen fuel cells." 19 removed his helmet and wiped the sweat from his brow. Now he had something more dreadful to worry about: the debriefing. He'd botched the mission completely. He'd lost eleven soldiers out of thirty six, not to mention the wounded. He knew he was in for it. So much for platoon command.

They cycled through the equipment room and all arranged in the briefing room. The sim operator was a minute late coming up to the lectern.

He stood there for a long moment before looking up from his datapad, "Gamma unit, I want to be the first to congratulate you on actually surviving that simulation. That has proven to be one of the more difficult ones. Quite frankly, we use it to train new unit commanders in no-win situations and delaying actions. But you have some how managed to pull a successful mission out of this, most likely that strategic retreat after the destroyers appeared. The unit sustained eleven trooper casualties, lowering efficiency to eighty four percent. Unit assistance, with some encouragement from your new commander, raised efficiency up to ninety one percent. Mission completion raised efficiency to ninety nine percent, the only thing keeping you from one hundred being casualties. All in all, Gamma unit has officially out performed all the rest. I will submit my report to Prime Minister Lama Su at once. You've all done fine work, and your lieutenant is to be congratulated. Your next activity is in one hour. You are dismissed." With that remark, he left the platform. Everyone stayed in their seats as though waiting for something. They all looked to 19, whose mouth was agape and his tongue doing impressions of a red carpet.

Ninety nine percent. On his first mission in command! It took 76 nudging his arm to get Lead to come back to reality and dismiss the group. He walked down the hallway slowly, pondering what had just happened. He had just beaten an unbeatable simulation, on his first command no less. He came out of his reverie when he got to his room. He put his old armor into a carry bag and headed toward SupCent. The fastest way to get there was skirting the edge of the commando sector. He looked down the hall and saw four commandoes, each in full armor shy only the helmets they carried, coming toward him. The way they moved together was a sight to behold. The sounds of their footsteps were almost in unison. Most of the commandoes had bland white armor, but the four that approached him were colored orange, green, yellow, and red. From the speech 19 could hear, he recognized their distinct voices.

Lead stopped in the hall, "Delta squad. You guys just get off a sim?"

38 stopped near him, "Yeah, a nasty bugger of one, too. We had to bring down a pair of dwarf spider droids."

19's jaw nearly hit the floor, "Dwarf spiders? It took thirty six troopers to bring down one homing spider and only four commandoes can bring down two dwarves?"

62 shrugged, "That goes to show how different our training is from yours."

The commando in red piped up, "Training? You slapped three det packs on one of them. Training had nothing to do with it." This commando had a deep raspy voice.

38 looked back at the red commando, "I don't think you've met Sev yet. 19, this is 07, squad sniper."

07 shook Lead's hand, "Ain't nothing out there my rifle can't kill."

Scorch looked back at him, "Ah, stow the hokum, psycho."

"I could stow you in a small crate, wise guy."

"That's enough, you two." 38 looked back to 19, "If you'll kindly forgive their prenatal behavior." 38 shifted his weight, "By the way, congratulations on your promotion. Lieutenant is a big step up."

19's eyebrows rose, "How'd you know about that? I just found out this morning."

The commando smiled, "You'd be surprised how fast news travels among the commandoes. We gotta get going. We'll see you around." With that remark, the squad moved on down the corridor. 19 looked after them in awe. He had a feeling they'd be seeing a lot of each other. Lead continued on to the Supply Center, or SupCent, to get a set of lieutenant armor. He brought the pack containing his old armor to a desk with a Kaminoan behind it.

The tall being looked up from her console, "Can I help you, soldier?"

19 nodded, "Yes. I need my armor replaced." He put the pack on the counter.

The Kaminoan took out a couple pieces of armor, looked them over, and placed them on the counter, "It appears to be in good condition. May I ask why you need it replaced?"

"Promotion. Private to lieutenant."

"What is your designation?" she said, looking at her monitor.

"Gamma CT-01/319."

She ran her slender finger down the screen, "Gamma 319… Here. Yes, you had an order placed at 0530 today to have standard private armor replaced with lieutenant." She took the pack and old armor, "I'll take these. Please move to the conveyers to collect your new armor." 19 nodded and did as he was bidden. He grabbed a new carry pack for his new armor and collected each piece that was deposited from the conveyers. As the new armor came, Lead was noticing it was a hair thicker than his old armor. When the torso plate showed up, Lead saw it was noticeably thicker, and boasted four blue dots on the left pectoral.

A thought crossed Lead's mind. I think I've officially become important.

Next was fore arm gauntlets, which bore a blue stripe down the top, as did the bicep cuffs and shoulder bells. Last was the helmet. Lead took his new helmet from the conveyer and looked it over. The "T" shaped visor had an outline of blue around it that continued around back the helmet. He looked inside and noticed an expanded comm unit and an extra visuals module. He placed the helmet in the pack and left SupCent to head to his room again. He put the full armor on and cinched it up so it fit. Once he'd tightened it properly, he looked himself over in a mirror. He had to get used to seeing himself in blue armor. It was a good break from the orange jumpsuits they had, but that was just personal preference against the color orange. Somehow, the idea of being Gamma unit's new lieutenant just didn't quite want to sink in all the way. It was almost too good to be true, almost like a dream. 19 hoped he'd either wake up or fully realize it sooner or later. He removed his armor, stashed it in his locker, and donned his jumpsuit. After cleaning up the room some, he walked out the door and on the next activity.