Lead sat up from behind the crate he was using as cover and looked down the hall. Nothing, except for the carbon scoring on the walls, fallen support beams, broken maintenance panels, and other debris strewn everywhere. It had been almost two weeks since the Prosecutor had been attacked originally. At least he thought it was two weeks. The remaining clones on the ship had been fighting for their very survival day after day for so long that the time just seemed to blur together after a while. Lead pulled the power pack from his rifle and checked the display. It read fifty three shots left, and it was the fullest one he had. Their ammo had been starting to run low over the past day or two, so all the clones were working off of partial blaster packs and leftovers. The precious few grenades they had left were being saved in case of a really big problem.

Lead had seen this whole battle play out over time, at least the last week and a half of it. During the initial attack when the Trandos first hit, he'd been knocked unconscious and was out for about a day. The headache he woke up with afterward would've made a gundark cry. It was Gamma unit's "none left behind" policy that saved his hide. Since then, he'd seen the Trandos attack in wave after wave with no care for self preservation. They'd recently been adopting berserker tactics, charging in large numbers with close-quarters weapons to attack the Republic troops, very effectively so. Gamma unit had been reduced by ten soldiers by now, and what was left was scattered throughout the ship. All that was left of the Republic forces on the Prosecutor were some handfuls of desperate clones fighting to save their skins, never mind the ship.

It almost reminded Lead of his first sim in command back on Kamino.

He looked around at the men he had available. This group had members of Tau, Beta, Kappa, and Epsilon platoons. Lead was the only Gamma here. He was also the ranking trooper here since the bridge crew and officers had been all been killed in the first strike. There were a couple of other lieutenants somewhere on the ship, but he was the only one present.

He pointed at his temporary 2iC, Tau 419, "You have command. If I'm not back in around an hour, you're the new lead." He stepped by him to go to the equipment locker.

The Tau's gaze followed him, "Where are you going?"

Lead knelt next to the locker, "To see if I can't find some more ammo. If we don't get some more soon, those bloody lizards will have us right where they want us." He opened the locker and removed a carry pack to stash whatever he found in. After closing the locker, he stood and checked the auto turret control panel nearby. The one saving grace this group had was the auto turrets on the ceiling above them. They had limitless ammo and fired on anything that wasn't Republic, greatly bolstering their defense. The problem was the Trandos had been making runs for the panel to recalibrate the turrets' IFF codes. If they did that, the turrets would fire on the clones. Lead had a guard stationed at the panel constantly, but an armed sentry never stopped a Trando from trying.

He looked back at the group, "Guard this console with your lives. If the lizards reprogram the codes, we're in a heap of it." With that comment, he turned down a hallway and disappeared from their sight. He kept his rifle at the ready. Those accursed scavenger droids were still patrolling the halls and vents of the ship and could pop out anywhere, and the last thing Lead wanted was to have his brain impaled by one of the malevolent little things.

Thinking about the whole situation was very depressing, because it looked well nigh hopeless. The ship had jumped into hyperspace during the first attack and had come out the Force knows where in the galaxy. Their enemies seemed to have a fairly steady supply of reinforcements, else they wouldn't keep throwing them away in berserker tactics. The clones, on the other hand, had no reinforcements available, and all the communications equipment they could get to had been destroyed in the fighting, so they couldn't contact the Republic. The Trandos controlled a large portion of the ship, whereas the Republic troops were reduced to little pockets of desperate resistance. All in all, it looked fairly bleak.

All in all, it sometimes made Lead wish he'd lost that first sim so he would know how to deal with a no-win situation.

He ducked into what was left of an armory. The door had been blown open and there were signs of previous battle around it. Lead half expected the armory to have been ransacked already in a previous gathering run, but was pleasantly surprised to find two cases of blaster ammo. That meant they only had ten more power packs to split between six troopers, but that was practically a lifetime supply. He also found a satchel of grenades, giving them some more firepower to use in hotter battles.

Lead eyed the burned out hulk of what used to be one of the scav droids. Someone must have discharged an ECD on this one. He pried off the outer casing and started rummaging through its innards. A side objective for this excursion was that Lead was keeping his eyes peeled for components they could cobble together into a communications system, something they could use to contact the Republic. He would call Sensors over to his group to put it together if he could find enough parts. Sensors had fortunately survived the slaughter of the bridge crew, barely at that. He dug through the parts searching for what looked like communication gear that the droid would use to receive orders and communicate with others of its kind. He found what looked like a transceiver array and gingerly removed it from its seating to look it over. It had been badly surged by the EMP, but none of the parts were fused and it looked like it was still operable. He put it in the pack and stood to check the hallway. There was nothing out there, so he continued on to where he remembered the nearest communications console was. It had been destroyed in battle, but maybe there were some parts still functional that they could use.

As he began to move down the hallway, a part of the "ceiling" spotted him and detached itself to follow him. The droid closed to about two meters with Lead completely none the wiser, when it struck with characteristic swiftness. The droid grabbed Lead's back with half a dozen arms and readied its drill. Lead knew when it grabbed him that the arms were no danger, but the drill was. He dropped his rifle and grabbed the drill, pushing it away from his face as best he could. It was running full speed and would only take a moment to get through his visor if he let up. He staggered back and rammed the droid into the wall. That didn't damage it, but it shifted it up where he could reach it better. Lead grabbed his pistol, jammed the muzzle into the droids innards, and started firing. He fired five times before the drill stopped and the clamps on his back released. The dead droid slid off Lead's back and fell to the deck, smoke poring from the hole his blaster made. He kicked the carcass down the hall and shot it twice more before holstering his pistol, picking up his rifle, and cautiously proceeding down the hall. He reached the communication console without further incident. Along the way, he found the body of another dead trooper. He was holding an empty blaster with several spent power packs around him.

Good man to go down fighting.

Lead removed the good power packs from his body, saluted his fallen brother, and went on. When he got to the console, the first thing he did was pry off the front panel to get a good look at the internals. There was a huge hole blasted in the center of the console, but there was a good chance some of the internal components were still operable. In conjunction with the hole in the outer panel, there was a carbon crusted hole in the center of the devices and components beneath. In spite of the damage done, however, Lead managed to acquire a working comms processor, a signal booster, an antennae array, and a frequency scanner. He took the mike and speaker set from the helmet of another fallen clone trooper to round out the package. He also found another half case of blaster packs and three more grenades. On his way back to the campsite he assessed what he'd collected. He had managed to acquire all the parts for a functional communication system. He didn't know how far it would reach, but it was something. For all they knew, there was a Republic ship right outside trying to get a hold of them. The only problem was getting a hold of Sensors to assemble it. Not only did they not have any access to long range communications, but even the short range comm units in their helmets hadn't been functioning since the first attack. There was nothing wrong with the units themselves, so the only other option was one Lead really didn't like. They were being jammed. Lead didn't like it because it meant they would have to mount a search for the jamming device and effect its removal before they communicate at all, a proposition that was suicidal at best. The Trandos had a strong hold on the rest of the ship, and they weren't going to just let the clones in to destroy the jammer if they just said "please".

Lead arrived back at the campsite long before his hour time limit was up, and the others were very glad to see that he'd found extra ammo and grenades.

He handed the carry pack to Tau 19, "Divide that ammo amongst yourselves. Leave the electronic components in the bag. Same as before, if I'm not back in an hour, you're in command. I have to go find someone." Without another word, he turned and left. The trip to find Sensors was a lot less eventful than Lead expected it to be. He nearly had another run in with another attack droid, but he spotted it while it was still lying in wait attached to the wall, so he pulled his blaster pistol and removed the nuisance. Lead was trying to use his pistol wherever he could because it wasn't as powerful as his rifle and he had more of its ammo. He wanted to save his rifle ammo for when he needed it. When he arrived at Sensors' campsite, he found everyone hunkered down in defensive positions, scanning the hallways with their weapons, but there was no threat in sight.

"Sensors, if you got some time on your hands -"

"Lead, behind you!" Sensors leveled his rifle on Lead's head as he spoke. Without hesitation, the clone dropped flat on the deck just in time to hear the weapon fire and strike something behind him. Lead pulled himself up and turned to see a droid fall to the deck smoking.

"You caught us right in the middle of a droid raid. We think there's about three more of them still hiding around here." There was a flash of fire and a loud blast of static from the other end of the hall, "Correction, two more."

"That's the second time today one of those buggers has nearly gotten me from behind." Lead knelt down next to his trooper and readied his weapon, "Can these guys hold their own without you, Sensors? I've got a project I want you to work on."

He shrugged, "Yeah, these Epsilons can manage themselves for now. What sort of project?"

"I've managed to get a hold of the basic components for a comms array. I want you to put it together since you're the resident expert on gizmos of this sort."

"As long as it's all Republic tech, I could cobble something together fairly quickly. It may take longer if it's the garbage these Trandos use." As he finished speaking, he wheeled around and put a rifle blast into a piece of wall that was slowly crawling towards them. The droid released the wall and fell dead on the floor.

Lead nodded, "Only one piece isn't, that's the transceiver unit. Will that be a problem?"

58 shook his head, "Those are pretty universal. It should mesh with the rest, no problem." He scanned the hallway again, "Now where's that last–" Before he could finish, the last droid dropped from the ceiling and clamped onto Sensors shoulders. The clone immediately dropped his rifle and stood to his feet. Lead turned to try to draw a bead on the droid, but it was too late. Sensors had already slammed the droid against the wall to loosen the clamps, pulled it off his shoulders, and pinned it against the wall with one hand, holding the active drill in the other.

"How's this, you frelling fierfek?" Sensors jammed the drill into an opening in the droid's belly. Sparks shot from every joint the droid had and it convulsed for several moments before all its limbs went limp. Sensors dropped the droid's carcass to the floor and brushed himself off.

"I hate those bloody droids."

Lead nodded, "Can you hate them later? You're on my chip right now, Sensors. We gotta move." The clone picked up his rifle and the two headed off. The lead Epsilon would take charge without pause in Sensors' absence. As they went, the two caught up on old times from the past two weeks by telling stories from their individual camps. Some of them were stories of how those stinking attack droids squeezed into a maintenance panel and got the drop on an unlucky trooper, while others were pretty far fetched fish tales.

Lead laughed and shook his head, "You're kidding."

"I swear, 14 landed the grenade right between the Trando's legs. You can ask him yourself."

Lead hung his head back, "I don't believe you guys." Silence hung for a long moment before Sensors spoke up again.

"You ever wonder sometimes how it ever came to this?"

That question brought Lead's head around, "What do you mean?"

Sensors one-arm cradled his rifle and gestured with his other hand, "Well…It's more the question of 'Have you ever considered that we may not survive this?'. I mean, we were on routine patrol in the Corellia system when, boom, these Trandos pull our britches over our heads and tie 'em in a knot. This doesn't just happen everyday, Lead, getting stranded like this. Kinda gets you thinking that we may be up against something bigger than us. That can be a scary thought." Sensors adjusted his belt. Over the course of the past year, Sensors had taken to wearing a gray kama like the ones some commanders wore. The cloth fully covered his backside, starting from the sides of his belt and came down to behind his knees. Normally it was worn as a symbol of rank, but he wore it to add some cushioning to the bridge's sensor station chair, "I don't know, I just…I just kinda hoped I might die in a more heroic way. Not like this."

Lead set his rifle up on his shoulder, "Sensors, we're clones. We were all designed to be expendable. The Kaminoans didn't create a bunch of heroes; they created soldiers to fight and to die for the Republic. All we can hope for is that we do our job the best we can before we do get killed, how and whenever that may be." He looked over at Sensors, "Not everybody likes the roles they're put in, 58. Ours just tends to be the more thankless of them."

Sensors looked at him, "Can't stop me from dreaming, can it?"

Lead's head dropped back and he looked forward again, "You and your bloody optimism. I'm trying to get you ready to die here, and you're not playing along." Both of them chuckled at the exchange, but their levity was cut short by the sound of gunfire ahead.

Lead heard the blast and stopped in his tracks, "That's a Trando weapon. Let's move!" Most of the Transoshans were using an antiquated spread gun that looked and sounded for all the world like an old slug thrower shotgun. Whatever sound it made, it was a bad sound. The two double-timed it for the remaining distance and arrived to find the camp under Trandoshan attack. Lead knelt into a firing position and put a shot right in one Trando's face, stopping him cold. Sensors planted a couple of bursts into another to bring the odds down closer to theirs. The auto turrets were firing at any Trandos that came in sight. It looked like they were in the clear when three more came into view – right next to the auto turret console. Lead's stomach turned to stone and he fired at the Trando nearest him. He had to get a clear shot at the one headed for the console.

Suddenly, a hail of blaster fire erupted from the other end of the hall. A commando in orange highlight armor appeared out of nowhere, punched a Trandoshan with his gauntlet vibroblade, and then put a burst of blaster fire into the head of the one behind the console.

He pointed at the one remaining Trando, "Better not let him take over the turrets." The last Trando fired his gun at the commando only to be rewarded with a flash of blue around his armor as the shields absorbed the damage. The commando grabbed the Trando's wrist, twisted his arm around so the spread gun was pointed into the lizard's belly, and pulled the trigger. Without skipping a beat, he walked to the console and began looking it over. After he was satisfied that it was intact, he looked at the rest of the clones to see if they needed further aid. Lead could almost swear he'd seen that particular set of orange commando armor before.

One of the troopers, Beta 142, walked up to the commando, "Oh, one of the deluxe models. Come to save us with your 'superior training'?" Lead thought the mocking quality of his voice thoroughly inappropriate to the soldier who'd just saved their lives.

The commando responded quickly enough, "This 'deluxe model' is the only thing standing between you and a bloody death," He touched his rifle muzzle to the clone's chest and his tone dropped to a growl, "so you'd best be showing some respect, trooper."

The Beta straightened up right quick with that response, "Yes, sir! What are your orders, sir?"

The commando motioned to the campsite and surrounding area, "Hold the line. Kill any lizards you see. I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

The clone saluted as the commando walked away, "Will do, sir." Lead definitely recognized the voice, because the accent was identical to his own. He'd seen a few commandoes in his time, but the only one he'd seen with the combination of that accent with that color armor was one. That could only be Delta 38, and that meant Delta Squad was here. And if Delta Squad was here, that meant the Republic had found them. Lead went to get a hold of Delta 38 to ask if he'd brought reinforcements, but he'd already moved on to clean house in another part of the ship.

He looked at Beta 42 and grabbed him by his chest plate, "You want to show a little respect to someone who just saved our skins next time? He was right. That commando is the only thing standing between us and a one-way trip to joining the others in the garbage holds. Try using the brain you supposedly have in that skull."

The Beta wrenched Lead's hand free, "I'm sorry, all right?"

Lead looked to Sensors, "The equipment's over here." The two spent the next several hours trying to rig the components together into something that might actually work if you smack it in the right spots. It was no easy task like Sensors thought it would be. Some of the equipment was degaussed from power surges throughout the ship, some of it was faulty from EMP, and the rest was just plain mucked up for one reason or another. There was one instance where Sensors accidentally cross-wired the power source with the receiver and nearly shorted everything out. Another instance with a degaussed plug connected into the transceiver assembly and the antennae array had some weird things happening. The comms system still didn't work, but they could hear Sensors' heartbeat really well. While waiting through the communications escapade, there was a loud thud that came from the upper decks. No one had any idea what it could have been, but Lead had an idea that Delta Squad was up to something. Finally, Sensors activated the unit and received some signals that weren't from inside his body.

He motioned to Lead, "Sir, I've got something."

"'Bout bloody time. Can you get anything through the jamming?"

Sensors shrugged, "There isn't any. I've got a clear line to the other camps and to a Republic presence somewhere outside the ship, as well."

Lead's head perked back, "No jamming? What could have happened to it?"

Sensors glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, "I think Delta Squad happened to it."

"Good point. Get a hold of the other camps and get a sit rep."

It took a few minutes, but Sensors reported in on each camp, "Camp two is reporting all clear. No Trandos anywhere. Camp three has a similar report. Camp four is the same. Camp five…" he trailed off, "camp five is reporting they're under attack by–" his head came up, "battle droids?"

That brought Lead's head up, as well, "Battle droids? How can that be? We haven't seen any of them for months. How and why are they showing up now?"

"I don't know, but I just lost contact. Sounds like they were overrun."

Lead cursed under his breath. He had a couple of Gammas down there. He hoped they both made it out all right.

"Where the devil did the droids show up from?"

Sensors shifted his weight on his knees, "Just before they cut off, they said something about a Trando leading them."

Lead pulled his helmet off and scratched his head, "All right, new question: how did the Trandos get a hold of Sep battle droids?"

One of the other clones spoke up, "They could have some alliance with the Seps that we never knew about."

Lead nodded, "Or maybe they formed it just recently." He sat down on a nearby crate and rubbed his scar, a habit he'd formed while it was healing that had extended to something he did while he was thinking, "The Trandoshans have always been a neutral party. Why would they start taking sides in the war?"

Sensors shut down the comm unit, "Trandoshans are a self-centered bunch, sir. They wouldn't have made this decision unless there was something in it for them."

Lead's head came up, "Maybe there is." He looked to the others as he spoke, "They're normally just interested in acquiring Wookie pelts. But guess who one of the Republic's big allies is."

Beta 42 answered bluntly, "The Wookies."

Lead nodded, "The Seps give the Trandos some extra firepower and they can take Kashyyyk and get their slaves and skins. That liberates the Seps to divert more forces to other Republic targets and takes away one of the Republic's biggest allies. It's a mutual benefit situation." Lead hung his head and sighed, "If we could get this intel to the Republic, we could avert a major disaster on Kashyyyk."

Sensors was listening very intently to the comms array again. Lead was about to go on when Sensors raised his hand to shush everyone.

"Lead, I think you want to hear this. I've got several frequencies online. This one's Delta Squad and their advisor." He turned on the unit's speakers.

Lead didn't like what he heard with the first words, "Delta lead, be advised: I have a Separatist battle cruiser on long range sensors."

"I sense violence in our near future."

The line faded out to static and ended with a loud thud.

Lead looked to Sensors, "That's not good."

Sensors nodded, "It sounds like the Trandos agreed to meet the Seps here." He fiddled with a knob, "This one is a Sep frequency."

The voice that came over the line was monotone and mechanical, like the droids, "Roger, roger. All B1 units moving to neutralize Republic presence. Await reinforcements in hanger bay A."

The next voice was much lower, "Roger, roger. SBD-457 through 469 moving to intercept and neutralize Republic commando squad. All units assist when able. Awaiting reinforcements."

Lead head came up fast, "SBD? That nomenclature is 'super battle droid'."

Sensors nodded again, "And they're after the Deltas."

Some more came over the line from the Delta advisor, "Calling all Republic ships near the Corbantis system, this is an emergency." There was a long pause, "All Republic ships in the Corbantis system, respond immediately!" There was another long pause before another voice came on, "This is Capt. Talbot, of the R.A.S. cruiser Arrestor. Who am I speaking to?"

"This is Delta squadron advisor 01/425. Separatist forces are attempting to capture our ship."

"Roger that. Help is on the way."

All the clones listening let out a whoop of joy. Finally, there was a Republic cruiser on its way to get them out of this mess. There was finally some hope that they might survive. All the clones who could hear cheered.

All except Lead. His blood ran cold as he thought about what was going on.

Sensors stopped celebrating and looked at his CO, "What's wrong, Lead?"

Lead looked up at Sensors, "There's only one reason the Delta Squad advisor would declare an emergency," He stood up from the crate he was seated on, "and that's if that Sep battle cruiser has already shown up."

The thought hit Sensors like an ion blast to his brain, "That means…" He trailed off, "That means they could send an endless stream of battle droids into this ship."

Lead pulled his helmet back on, "Call the Gammas to form up at this location. We've got work to do." It took the better part of twenty minutes to get the Gammas back together again, but they all finally reconnoitered at camp one. 76 came up leading the last of the Gammas to the gather point.

Lead shook his XO's hand, "Good to see you again, Deuce. It's been over a week and a half, hasn't it?"

The clone shrugged, "I stopped counting after two days. They all just tend to run together when you're fighting for your life."

"You're right there." Lead opened his unit-wide channel and addressed his remaining soldiers, "Listen up, Gammas. Delta Squad is on this ship and their saving our bacon, but they can't pull it off alone. So we're going to move through this ship and see if we can't rendezvous with them. We're going to blast any Sep droids and Trandos in our way. If we're going to die here, let's not die with our faces to the ground. That is our mission." Lead's last comment raised a psyched-up grunt from his troops.

"Let's move it out." The reunited Gammas began to move through the ship, heading toward the hanger bays where the Seps were going to start sending in their droids. On the way, Lead heard a noise from up ahead and halted their movement. He wished he could have Sensors check and see what it was, but his sensor pack was destroyed in the first attack. Lead held up two fingers and began to advance slowly, with the two men closest to him in his wake. He stopped at the corner of the hallway and leaned around as carefully as possible. He spied with one eye two SBDs trying to figure out a way through a blocked door. Lead gave a "follow" motion with his first two fingers, signaling the rest of the platoon to come up quietly. He looked to his contact man, 89, and held up two fingers, then one finger in a crooked form, then pointed around the corner at the droids. His motions were a silent order to throw two ECDs at the droids on the mark. Lead looked to everyone else, tapped his rifle, and pointed around the corner, signaling them to fire on the mark. Lead readied himself and held up three fingers. He counted down to one, then sprung out from the corner with the Gammas following him. 89 tossed two ECDs at the SBDs, which went off moments later, engulfing the droids in static lightning. The combination of the EMP and the Gammas' gunfire killed the droids without them ever knowing they were there. The two super battle droids fell to the deck quite dead, covered in carbon score marks and lightning still playing over their frames. 89 saved using their remaining detonation packs by using a combination of a thermal detonator and the droids' power cells to clear the rubble from the door. The Gammas pressed on, eliminating droids as they went. They came to an intersection and Lead stopped to get his bearings. He looked left but didn't find a way out like he was looking for. He looked right just in time to see an SBD launch a wrist rocket at the unit.

Lead's eyes bugged and he dove away, "Scatter!" The Gammas dove in every direction as the rocket streaked through where they just were and exploded on a wall near them. There were three SBDs in the hallway, and Lead figured that the path of most resistance was probably the way they wanted to go. The problem was the droid roadblock in their way.

Lead called to contact, "ECDs, now!" 89 tossed two more grenades down the hall and landed them right in front of the droids. The grenades went off and blue ionized lightning played over the droids' skins, and they convulsed violently.

"Move in!" Lead called as he shouldered his rifle and fired as he closed distance with the droids, his troopers following. The droids took tremendous fire before going limp and standing dead in the hallway. Lead signaled his men to keep moving forward.

The third droid, though, had escaped the EMP. It smashed the carcasses of its fallen brethren out of it way and unleashed a hailstorm of suppressing fire that the Gammas were not prepared for. Everyone got to cover in time with only minor wounds, but their path was blocked again, and it was hard to get out with the gunfire. Lead pulled an ECD from his belt and armed it. He waited for a split second for the fire to let up slightly, then he cranked around his cover and tossed the grenade. He started out from behind his cover toward the droid and prepared to fire when the detonator went off. The grenade landed, but what happened next took Lead completely by surprise. The super battle droid raised its foot and stomped on part of the grenade, crushing the circuitry pack that told the detonator when to go off, but leaving the rest intact. Lead's eyes went wide. The ECD was now useless in every sense of the word, and that left him out in the open with an SBD aiming at him. He saw a rocket load into its launcher and knew what was to follow. Lead broke his forward momentum and lost his balance, falling to the deck, the droid keeping its bead on him. Lead closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, preparing for the worst.

"NO!" The scream came from behind him. Sensors jumped over Lead and tackled the droid, throwing off its aim just as the rocket fired. It soared down the hall and exploded when it hit the end. Sensors hung onto the droid as it moved to try to grab him. Lead used this opportunity to get to his feet and ready his rifle, but his jaw went limp at what he saw next. The droid yanked Sensors off itself and, holding him at arm's length, fired three blasts into his chest, Sensors screaming with each one. The droid reared back and threw Sensors toward Lead and halted to assess its own damage. Lead dropped his rifle and scrambled over to where Sensors was. He pulled Sensors' helmet off and lifted him up. There was a fist-sized, carbon-crusted hole in the center of his armor, with a lot worse inside. There wasn't anything they could do for him in time.

Lead looked down at his soldier, "Well, you got your heroic death, Sensors. How's it feel?"

Sensors coughed and spoke through shallow breaths. He smiled, "Not all it's cracked up to be."

Lead smiled too. Leave it to Sensors to be the optimist.

His smile faded and he looked Lead in the eye, "Lead, the mission…Remember…the mission…" With that last breath, Sensors' head fell back in Lead's arms. Lead gritted his teeth. Sensors had died saving his life, and that sacrifice would not be in vain.

He closed Sensors' eyes and laid him back on the deck, "Your mission's done, soldier."

Lead then looked at the SBD still standing there, the SBD that had killed his trooper. A burst of rage permeated his guts as he glared at the droid. Without warning, Lead snapped and sprang. He tackled the SBD and took it off its feet. He straddled the droid, grabbed its chest casing, and pulled furiously until it came loose. He braced his foot against its gun arm to pry the plate open, reached into the droid's innards, grabbed as much as his hand could hold, and jerked it all out. He came out with a fist full of wires and circuits. Sparks shot from the droid's joints and it convulsed for a moment, but it was still alive. Its legs had gone dead, but it was still flailing with its arms. Lead reached back in, higher up this time, and yanked another handful of droid guts. The arms sparked and went dead. He yanked out one last handful just to be sure before standing and looking at his men. They were all staring at him in utter disbelief, and rightly so, considering their lieutenant had just killed a super battle droid with his bare hands.

"What are you looking at? We've got a job to do." His men all snapped out of it and started to form up when the ship rocked hard.

Lead looked to Deuce, "That felt like a turbolaser blast."

Deuce nodded, "More than one, at that."

The ship rocked again, shortly followed by another. A cold realization entered Lead's mind.

He looked to Deuce, "It's the Sep cruiser. They can't take the ship, so they're going to destroy it."

Snipes looked at Lead, "Now what're we going to do?"

Lead shrugged, "We're going to find Delta Squad. Hopefully they'll know what to do." The Gammas continued on as best the ship's shuddering and rocking would allow. They left Sensors' body where it was and memorized the location. The Gammas would give him a proper service before he got shipped back to Kamino after this all blew over. The unit continued on through the ship as best they could. With every blast from the Sep ship the clones were thrown to the floor and tossed against bulkheads, significantly slowing their progress. They came into the service corridors and started moving a little faster.

Lead rounded a corner only to be staring down the blaster barrels of an SBD and about half a dozen battle droids. Lead and a couple others dove to the other side of the corridor out of the way of their gunfire and hunkered down. Lead rolled on his shoulders and came up against the wall. There was a hailstorm of gunfire coming down the hall that was nearly impenetrable.

Lead hollered to contact, "ECD, now!" Con promptly obeyed and tossed an ECD down the hall. Lead did the same and was pleased to hear the static crackle of the grenades going off. He wheeled around the corner to fire and was displeased to see that there were more droids coming to the line and the SBD was still live and firing. Lead cursed. They were quickly running out of ECDs. Lead figured a bold move was in order. He pulled two thermals from his belt, armed one and tossed it, then waited. Like clockwork, when the grenade landed, the SBD shielded itself, a limited-use high energy shield used specifically for explosive blasts equipped on the recent SBD models. The grenade detonated and deflected against the shield, leaving the droid unscathed.

"Bring him down!" Lead called out to his troops. They all obediently fired, but Lead knew they'd only crack its armor plating with its shield up. The shield dropped and somebody's blast cracked a chest plate off. Lead held his fist in the air and halted everyone's gunfire. Lead left his rifle behind his cover and charged the droid with the other grenade. The next moment whizzed by in a flash. Lead armed the grenade, ducked under the droid's left hook, jammed the grenade into the droid's guts, and snapped out his hardest linear kick to the droid's middle. Lead twisted and strained something in his leg when his foot hit, but it worked. The droid flew backward and exploded brilliantly, taking another half dozen other droids with it. The blast knocked Lead on his back and he felt a burning pain driving up his leg. He tried to stand and got no response from his leg. Blaster bolts were pocking the floor as the droids tried to get him while he was down. Lead pulled himself along as best he could until he felt two sets of hands grab his arms and start dragging him. Three of his troopers had taken up cover fire positions over him while two more drug him back to cover.

The first thing Lead did once he was safe was look over his cover to assess the situation. There were droids pouring out of the door at the end of the corridor and they were quickly outnumbering the Gammas. They were in a bad way.

Deuce knelt down next to Lead, "We can't hold much longer."

Lead set his rifle up on his cover as a tripod, "Then we'll hold as long as we can." Lead pulled himself up and sighted a droid to take out, but before he could shoot, he felt something run through the deck.

He looked back at Deuce, "Did you feel that? That wasn't a turbolaser blast."

Deuce nodded, "Maybe it was, just not hitting us."

"Then that means we're shooting back." Lead shook his head, "But how? There's no one available to man the gunnery stations." Each blast vibration was steadily followed by another. After one blast, all the droids in the corridor halted their actions and stood still. The Gammas all stopped firing and look around puzzled. Snipes helped Lead hobble over to one of the droids. He gently pushed the mech and it harmlessly fell to the floor.

"They're all offline," Lead muttered to himself, "We must've gotten the Sep ship's droid control systems." The turbolaser vibrations had ended and a low shockwave reverberated through the corridor.

Snipes looked around, "What was that?"

Lead smiled behind his helmet, "That must've been the Sep ship going up." Lead raised his voice, "That means we've won!" The platoon let out a cheer of joy.

"We're getting out of here!"

"The Republic's found us!"

All of Lead's troops rejoiced at winning. Lead let out a burdened sigh of relief. After two weeks of day-to-day fighting for their lives, it was finally over. The unit cautiously continued through the ship, stepping over hundreds of inert droid carcasses, until they found Delta Squad at gunnery station 3B.

Snipes helped Lead up to Delta 38, who shook his hand, "319 and the infamous Gammas. How did I know that you guys would be right in the middle of the resistance here?"

Lead shrugged, "Bad credit chips always turn up. Thanks for saving our hides. We wouldn't be on our way out of here if it weren't for you guys."

Scorch spoke up, "You're just lucky this bucket turned up when it did. From the looks of things here, you guys wouldn't have lasted much longer."

Lead nodded, "Especially not with a Sep cruiser breathing down our necks. Every clone on this ship owes you our lives, Delta Squad. If you ever need help for anything, Gamma unit will come running."

Delta 38 tapped his finger on Lead's torso plate, "It doesn't look like you're going to be running anywhere, 19. What'd you do to your leg that you need help gimping around?"

He shrugged, "Messed it up knocking down an SBD. Well worth it, I think."

"Well, you'll be the first casualty we see to. Then you guys are headed to the nearest planetside barracks for some R&R." The commando leaned around Lead, "How 'bout it, Gammas? You up for some R&R after two weeks of this?" The whole unit cheered in obvious agreement. Lead found it amusing that when this whole fiasco started two weeks ago, they were all itching for action so much that they were starting fights with each other in the barracks. Now that they've had two solid weeks of action, they were dying for a chance to relax. Funny how the tables can turn like that.

The three weeks of down time the Gammas were rewarded with couldn't have been more needed. Lead had worked himself over solidly. From kicking one SBD, he'd strained four muscles in his thigh, slipped the cartilage out of his knee, and tore his Achilles tendon. It was nothing the med droids and a little bacta soak couldn't fix, but he still needed time to fully heal. The platoon needed time to adjust to the ten new troopers who joined their ranks as replacements. On top of all that, they just wanted a little peace and quiet.