Category:Lore

= Origins = In 33bby, a group of elite clones under the Null program were handpicked by lead Kaminoan Scientists and placed together in a training squad. Due to the amount of destruction caused by the squad on their debut training scenario, they were nicknamed "Inferno" Squad

This group of clones later became high ranking commanding officers when the squad transitioned into a company. These officers were nicknamed Blaze, Spark, Nova, Pyro and Ember.

In 23bby, the squad massively grew into a company. During training modules, it had outperformed any other clone unit, besting the likes of Clone Commandos and ARC Troopers. Due to the high level of skill of the commanding officers, Inferno Company was one of the only companies in the Grand Army of the Republic to feature Commandos, ARCs, Jets and more fighting alongside one another. The Kaminoans soon realised that the levels of tactical prowess amongst the Commanding Officers was almost too dangerous, and so froze the squad in bacta tanks until the outbreak of the Clone Wars in 22bby.

= First Battle of Geonosis = Deployed as part of the Special Forces Division of the Omega Systems Army in the First Battle of Geonosis, Inferno Company was boosted in numbers by the inclusion of 3 extra companies of clone commandos to become the 42nd Assault Battalion. Stealthily deployed deep into the Geonosian droid factories, they hid, silently disrupting Geonosian defences and obliterating the factory's inner workings. When the battle was fully underway, they fought their way back through the droid army to rejoin the rest of their clone brethren.

Due to Inferno Company's actions, Republic LAAT Gunships were able to fire explosives at the factories, crippling the production of droids for months. Inferno Company fought hard against the droid armies on Geonosis, making key breakthroughs in the front line. However once they broke through the droid numbers, they faced a retreating Count Dooku. Many of the regular troopers were no match for the Sith lord, and the company faced heavy casualties in the ensuing skirmish. With Jedi Generals Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda in close pursuit of the Sith, Dooku retreated in his space-shuttle, leaving the rest of Inferno Company to tend to their wounded

For hours, as the battle raged on, the survivors of Inferno Squad helped recuperate their fellow clones, while holding back the droids from over-running their position. Their valour and bravery on the first battle of Geonosis then led to the promotions of many outstanding troopers. For outstanding levels of leadership, tactical awareness and combat prowess, Blaze became the Captain of the 51st Inferno Company. For incredible Strategic Planning, and administrative work with the wounded under pressure and under fire, Nova became a Lieutenant. For incredible tactical awareness and decision-making, Spark became a Lieutenant. For outstanding combat prowess and excellent use of military operations, Pyro was promoted to Lieutenant. For brilliant marksmanship and tactical awareness, Ember became the fourth and final Lieutenant. The remaining survivors of Dooku's vicious attack were similarly promoted, filling in the ranks of Corporals and Sergeants.

= Battle against Nishkar = Inferno Company were extracted from their position once every bit of metal was dead on the Geonosian sand, and the clones who had just faced their first battle relished in their victory, but mourned their losses. On board a Venator-class Star Destroyer, the men of Inferno Company eagerly awaited arriving back on Coruscant as heroes. The large ship was the last to leave, and moments before they made the jump to hyperspace, a huge ship, draped in blue and grey markings emerged before them, and began firing a torrent of laser-blasts on the unprepared Republic Venator. The venator returned fire on the Providence-class Dreadnought that blocked their way, but becuase they were facing towards it head-on, and the Dreadnought was positioned sideways, the amount of firepower the Venator could muster was intangible compared to that of the Separatist Capital Ship. Little did the alarmed clones know, the fearsome Admiral Nishkar commanded the Dreadnought in seek of Count Dooku's approval, and would stop at nothing to destroy the 51st Inferno Company, and all the other life forms on board...

The Venator rocked violently to one side as the engines exploded from behind, lurching all personnel onto the floor. The 51st's rooms were engulfed in bright lilac flames as the Dreadnought spewed out Vulture Droids that bombed the surface of the Republic Capital Ship. Although their numbers were low due to the assault on Geonosis, all able-bodied clones from Inferno Company wearily grabbed their weapons and armour, completely knackered. However their lives depended on their efforts on board the failing ship.

Captain Blaze stormed in through a half open door, donning his Clone Commando armour with black and red markings, a feature present in all Inferno Company Armour. Shortly after, ARC Lieutenants Spark and Pyro burst in, scanning the surroundings for droids. Only moments earlier they had felt a shuttle dock in the hangers, no doubt carrying scores of clankers. Meanwhile, ARC Lieutenant Ember and Jet Lieutenant Nova were scouting the upper levels of the clone's resting areas. Sergeants Flare and Pyre guarded the wounded alongside the rest of the 51st.

Soon, the Sergeants heard the ominous banging of approaching B1 battle droids, and readied their weapons, facing towards the corridor that they were undoubtedly coming from. Yet this noise distracted them from the cutting of metal overhead. Too late, Srgt. Pyre turned around to see a group of commando droids attacking the unsuspecting clones. Pyre opened fire, destroying one droid as it ran its vibrosword through a clone, but was caught unaware as the B1 droids finally made it to where the clones were. They were cornered and outnumbered, and soon many clones cried in agony and died to the onslaught of blaster fire.

Hearing the shrieks back from the clone rooms, Captain Blaze, Lieutenants Pyro, Nova, Spark and Ember ran back to the room, and were alarmed to see the backs of dozens of battle droids relentlessly gunning down injured clones. Lt. Nova readied his rocket-launcher and fired into the cluster of B1s, destroying all of them. However, the Commando Droids had decimated the clones, and Srgt Flare and a handful of 51st were fighting back, losing horribly.

The arrival of the senior commanding officers skyrocketed the morale of the clones, and as Pyro threw an Emp grenade and stunned two commando droids, the remaining men opened fire. Spark ran up to a shocked Commando droid and drove his fist through its head, a pistol in his hand blasting away. Once all the droids were scrap metal on the scorched ground, Blaze led the survivors towards the bridge to report that droids have infiltrated their ship to the admiral.

As they burst into the ship, Blaze cried out:

"Admiral! Clankers have infiltrated the ship! We need to man defences at the---"

"Indeed so," a booming voice called out calmly, and the clones watched in horror at the scene of decimation that lay before them. Numerous white armored bodies littered the bridge, with blasted marks everywhere. Many of the controls were destroyed too, and droids swarmed around a dark, huge figure with its back turned to the clones.

Admiral Nishkar was a name feared throughout the galaxy. He was colossal, towering over everyone else. He wore a grey admiral's uniform, which stretched around his huge figure. As he turned to sneer at the shocked clones, his four eyes stared daggers at the 51st.

The Commando Droids formed a circle around the batch of clones, and slowly advanced. They did not open fire, and so neither did the clones. The tension was almost tangible in the air, the silence eerie. The clones could feel their hearts thundering, their skin leaking sweat, and the booming laugh of the grotesque admiral roared in thier ears. As Blaze was about to order his men to fire, they were all thrown across the room as a glowing red light filled the space around them. The Dreadnought, unaware of what was going on in the wrecked Venator, had hit the Bridge with a blast.

Lieutenant Ember led the way out of the bridge, before the Admiral could recover, and the clones opened fire on the disorientated droids. Sergeant Pyre, who was already dizzy from being knocked out, stumbled into a droid, and held down his trigger, ripping the clanker apart. Captain Blaze ran to tackle the Admiral, and Lieutenant Spark and Pyro ran over to assist him in dragging the Admiral towards the rest of the clones as they prepared to board the escape pods. As the clones ran away from the fire of the commando droids, they saw a magnificent sight. Another Republic Venator had emerged from hyperspace, along with it dozens of ARC-170s and Y-Wings.

The clones ran towards the escape pods with the captured admiral, and hurled the huge figure in, before cramming all the clones in the only undamaged pod and launching away towards the safety of the Venator, their own capital ship in ruins and falling in a ball of flame towards the Geonosian surface…

As the Clone Wars raged on, Inferno squad was deployed to the outer rim world desert of faisal-kar, a region colonised during the old republic era and largely neglected until the Clone Wars, when it was invaded by a separatist force, taking advantage of the natives' discontent at the republic's apparent lack of concern for them. Morale amongst inferno company was also low - the planet was dusty, remote, and stiflingly hot, and casualties had been sustained amongst the overconfident lower ranks of inferno company, who had underestimated the power of the guerrilla tactics deployed by the natives, but after the initial shock, boredom replaced terror and some members of the 51st felt as if the republic was quietly trying to phase them out...

By the end of 22bby the battle looked to be ending, when a provenance class dreadnought jumped into orbit, blotting out Faisal's red giant sun. As the 51st moved out under a rain of fire, the desert behind them rippled with the force of a vast impact-the impact of their support destroyer as it smashed into the vast expanse of their desert, searing the sand around it into glass, dazzling the clones with an eerie reflected light as they looked on in horror. Captain Blaze was the first to break the almost surreal stillness that had fallen with a quick sequence of shouted orders, and the 51st moved out with practiced efficiency, leaving the debris of the explosion and incoming separatist fire to fall on the streets where they had stood moments ago. The blue sky was obscured by clouds of dust kicked out by landing droids, from which rained a rain of molten durasteel, scorching the clones' armour until some smoked and smouldered like coals in a furnace. Just as the 51st recovered from the onslaught and started to move into the squat houses and narrow streets of faisal, they were met with yet another shock - as sergeant flare ran out into the main street, he felt the ground vibrate to a familiar rythm...

Sweating into his helmet, flare noiselessly dropped to the floor and peeked around the corner of the building he was taking cover around. The sight that met him was more terrifying that anything he had imagined in those terrifying seconds-the street was lined with ranks of super battle droids, crushing any sign of life under their cold metal feet, blasting anything that moved into a hot slag, even the natives who had run out of their homes to greet their "liberators".Flare lay on the floor, flat on his belly like a frightened child, mesmerised by the cruelty unfolding before him. As the relentless wave of steel engulfed yet another row of abandoned market stalls, a terrified native dashed out from inside one, weaving between the mess of charred and twisted debris, before launching himself out into an open clearing. For several slow seconds he seemed to weave between the incoming separatist bullets, thrashing like a freshly caught fish gasping for its last breaths, and in the midst of this morbid dance, he caught a glimpse of flare's bright helmet, and he raised his hands in a gesture of appeal, screaming out to the hidden clone. His shouts were cut short as one bolt, then another, and finally an entire hail of bolts passed through his body, sending him to the ground. The droids, now alerted to the clone's presence, charged forwards and strafed the building with rockets. Flare leapt to his feet, ignited his jetpack, and took off, trying to ignore the screams of the dying natives carrying over the roar of his rocket.

30 seconds later he burst into the headquarters, shouting "Droids"! We'll be overrun by  the supers!".

"We've noticed." Blaze turned away from the small window, through which a horde B1s and supers was visible. Flare took a step back, suddenly feeling trapped in the tiny command room. "And that," Blaze said, striding across the dusty floor, "is the least of our problems". As he finished speaking he flicked on the holo display. Flare watched as the image took shape. A long cape. A hulking, metallic, body. 4 lightsabers.

"What??" Flare stumbled backwards away from the display, where the image had now gone dead. "Grevious?? What's he doing on this godforsaken rock?". Spark and Pyre appeared from behind him, wearing grave expressions."Truth be told," Spark said "we have no idea; this place is parsecs away from any other warzone. But we do know one thing: he means business". "We've had no word from any of the squads we sent out to investigate," Pyre added. "I think we know what that means."

Blaze's authoritative tone cut across the heavy silence which had fallen :"At any rate, there's no point in sitting up here waiting to die. Men, move out."

The first thing that struck lieutenant Nova when he stepped out onto the main road was the noise. The street filled one cacophonous metal scream, the grinding of a million gears, seeming to reverberate within his skull, punctuated by the staccato stutter of blaster fire. Shutting himself off to the noise, Nova took to the air, deftly weaving between rooftops, picking out droids with his rifle, firing off orders to his men, dodging buzzing blaster bolts. "Sir! I see something!" He heard the voice of one of his men, in his ear, and instinctively whipped around mid flight. The trooper was mid jump, almost suspended in mid air, framed against the dusty desert sky. And then, there was flash of movement from the rooftop, a ghost of flame from the man's blaster, and he was gone. "EVERYONE ON MY POSITION!" Nova bellowed into his headset as he dived down between the buildings, and landing unsteadily on his feet. "MOVE MEN, GET TO MY COORDS!" he glimpsed the corpse of the dead trooper and ran towards it, effortlessly blasting the 2 droids that had come to intercept him out of his way. "WHERE IS EVERYONE? I SAID-"

A hulking figure stepped out into his path, and knocked him flat on his back.

Resisting all instinct, Nova didn't attempt to struggle, but instead lay totally still, listening to his breathing, counting his heartbeat, watching grievous. He saw the towering general bend over him, and was suddenly dazzled as his helmet was ripped off with a grinding clatter. "You dont fool me, clone..." Grevious' reached down to his belt and suddenly Nova felt the heat of a lightsaber on his neck, and heard a singeing sound as the sparse hairs on his chin were incinerated. "Patheti-" Grevious was cut off by the sudden roar of Nova's pack as he ignited the rockets and skidded across the narrow, dusty path. He swung the saber out in a rage, but it buzzed uselessly through the air as Nova righted himself, threw his damaged pack to the ground, and sprinted off down the road.

He shouted into his comm, requesting arcs and a specialist around the central square, fighting to keep his breath and to stay ahead of the lumbering figure who always seemed to be just a few paces behind him. He could hear the rhythmic thud of the general's legs, and the sickening buzz of his dual sabers. Using the last of his strength,  Nova desperately sprinted into faisal's central square, throwing himself forwards. He turned around and stared down the charging cyborg, like a matador facing down a rampaging bull. With a look of amusement and surprise, grievous stopped before him, sabers extended. "You're dead meat, clone" "oh I dont think so"

Lieutenant Pyro and his platoon burst into the square, firing off quick rounds, catching the grievous off guard. For a moment, he looked as if he was going to fall, overcome by his weight and the wall of blaster bolts, but he extended a robotic leg, elegantly caught himself, and chuckled "You'll have to do better than that". His arms each split into 2, and soon he was effortlessly deflecting the incoming bolts, swatting them aside as if they were mere irritations, each arm outstretched, almost resembling a perfect geometric figure. A whistling shot split the air, and smashed into him with a crack. He remained still for several moments, arms still outstretched in an deathly embrace, legs frozen mid stride. Then another shot rang out, and this time grievous keeled over backwards, making surprisingly little noise as he collapsed into the dust. lieutenant ember stepped out of the shade of a tall building

"hello there"

"Kill him" Ember's voice rang out clearly in the empty square, cutting through the chaos of the battle being fought just a few streets away. "No" Nova's voice was equally assertive, a practised tone of command,"He's valuable intel". Pyro stood by Ember's side, still eyeing the fallen general, who lay on his back like some grotesque metallic crab. "Nova", he said"he would've impaled you given half a chance". "Good thing I didn't give it to him then" said Nova, turning on his heel "Our brothers need us. Lets move."

The floor of the main street had long since become invisible, buried beneath a carpet of rubble and tangled robotic limbs. Most of it was on fire. Blaze leaped nimbly through the burning debris, shredding droids with his blaster, sending off showers of glowing sparks and molten metal where they had stood. Spark and Pyre followed behind him, but wherever they went droids countered them, blocked off by a wall of moving durasteel. Blaze could see his men start to fall, backed into corners, all around him valiant last stands, and heroic deaths. He'd had enough. "Men, lets get out of here!" the clones began to pull back, skilfully retreating, making the droids pay dearly for every metre they covered, stepping over burnt out metal husks, and, increasingly frequently, the red and black armour of inferno troopers. "Get behind cover men!" Although the command was clear and strong, Spark could hear the edge of desperation - the droids kept coming, as if they were some unstoppable beast, inexorably creeping up on the clones, ready to consume them, and there was only so far that they could retreat.

= Upgrades = The intricacies of the interior of any Acclamator-Class Republic Cruiser could confuse virtually anyone who had not spent more than a month aboard the ship. Many clones found themselves confined to a small area of the Capital ship. Gunners rarely left the Ion Batteries, officers found themselves always working on the bridge, and visiting clones enjoyed the rest and relaxation offered by the living quarters. However this rule was non-existent when it came to technicians. And as the Acclamator that had descended over Faisal Kar began to leave the planet’s obit, the weary men of the 51st Inferno Company, injured and tired, were greeted by CE-2371, a Clone Engineer.

“Welcome aboard the Pulsar Sirs!” the enthusiastic engineer said to Captain Blaze, Lieutenant Spark, Pyro, Ember and Nova as they boarded the Venator.

“Thanks for picking us up,” Blaze wearily responded, removing his Commando Helmet to reveal a bruised and scratched face, with tightly cut black hair.

“Yeah, that planet was a real hell-hole,” Spark added, similarly removing his own black and red ARC trooper helmet, revealing an equally injured face and a tuft of blonde hair.

“What happened to grievous? Didn’t you boys get him?” The engineer inquired, but before Blaze could answer, Pyro, who was scratching his own closely cut blonde hair, replied.

“We were going to kill him, but Nova here decided not to for some reason.”

“We didn’t have time!” Nova defended himself, his brown hair laced with shards of his helmet that had been ripped off by Grievous. “If we wasted anymore time we would have been over run by the clankers.”

“I suppose so,” Pyro admitted.

Ember, who was lugging around a sniper on the back of his ARC trooper armour, went to a pile of crates and slouched down, exhausted. The rest of the commanding officers followed suit.

“You boys look pretty tired. I mean what happened down there?” The engineer asked eagerly.

“It was a battle. What more is there to say?” Pyro snapped, making the engineer lower his gaze sadly.

“I..I’ve never had a chance to go out on the frontline. I..My squad didn’t ever pass training. I’ve been stuck on this ship since the start of the war.” The melancholic engineer said.

“You’ve never fought a clanker?” Blaze asked.

“Nope. Only thing I do is fix broken things. I haven’t even touched a blaster since training.”

“Well trust me,” Spark chuckled, clutching his sides. “You don’t miss much.”

“I would love to fight for the republic, alongside my brothers. You don’t understand what a privilege it is.” The engineer fiercely said, tears brimming in his eyes.

The Commanding Officers were stunned by this. All they had ever known was combat. They were trained to be the best, and had already seen so much action. For a moment, they lost themselves in thought, completely taken aback by this clone engineer.

“You say you fix things, right?” Blaze asked the engineer, his clear voice ringing out against the silence that had fallen.

“Yeah, I fix things.”

“Have you ever tried making anything?”

“I suppose...” then the nature of the Captain’s proposition finally dawned on the engineer. “What do you need?”

Hours later, once the Pulsar was deep in hyperspace, Captain Blaze called all COs for a meeting in a boardroom in the clone quarters. All lieutenants were present, as well as Sergeants Flare and Pyre, and other Sergeants and Corporals.

Standing proudly beside them was CE-2371, admiring his handiwork. He had not only fully repaired all the armours of the COs, but also upgraded them. The HUD of all the COs was outfitted with thermal scanners, precision targeting and maps and radar displays. Their comms were improved to transmit over larger wavelengths, allowing a more stable radio over long distances. In addition to these improvements, Spark received a melee taser weapon attachment to his greaves. These were capable of frying droid electrical circuits or disabling electrical components of technology. Blaze received a wrist mounted laser attachment, a projector that fired a thin red beam that could cut through most metals, including droid armour if need be. Pyro received a bag of upgraded emp grenades, that upon impact would not only send out a shockwave of electricity but also explode in a fireball. Nova received an upgraded jet pack, capable of withstanding further damage and being active for longer. Ember received an upgraded sight on his ARC trooper helmet, capable of spotting targets from further away, and his sniper was modified so that it could be split up into smaller parts that could fit neatly and comfortably around his body. Sergeants Flare and Pyre also received upgraded armour, capable of withstanding heavier punishment, similar to the armour of the Lieutenants and the Captain.

When all COs were fully equipped and recuperated, they made their way to their respective positions, and Blaze found himself standing on the bridge, fully outfitted with his armour, and wondering the nature of a flickering red light in the corner.

= Mayday = Immediately following the battle of Faisal, the 51st Inferno Company was being transported back to the main fleet of the Omega Systems Army in an Acclamator Class Assault Carrier, the Pulsar. Captain Blaze stood upon the bridge, gazing out into the star-studded emptiness of the outer rim. A crimson light started to flash insistently in the corner of his eye, breaking him out of his reverie. “What’s that?” he inquired of a nearby crewman, who glanced over at where he was pointing and replied, “Just a local-area broadcast - the kind meant to warn people of solar flares and particularly dense asteroid belts. Its not coming from anywhere on our route - otherwise it’d be sent straight to the helm - so we don’t really need to worry abou-” suddenly the flashing sped up and a klaxon sound started to play. Blaze leapt over to the light and deftly flicked a switch beneath it. A panicked voice came from the bridge’s speakers, “Mayday! Mayday! This is the 72nd Regiment of the Grand Army of the Republic. We’re trapped on the planet Begaros 3 under heavy attack from overwhelming separatist forces. We need reinforcements!”

Blaze raised an eyebrow towards the crewman, before shouting to the Pulsar’s captain to begin an immediate hyperspace jump to Begaros. Turning to the comms, he began communications. “This is Captain Blaze of the 51st Inferno Company. What’s your situation?”

“Captain Blaze, you have no idea how relieved I am to hear your voice. We’ve been forced up against a canyon wall with no means of escape, and the droids are attacking so harshly we haven’t been able to fortify our position. We’re taking casualties left, right and center - and Commander Frost is dead, killed in action trying to rescue a squad that’d been surrounded after a particularly major push. To put it simply, we need help, and fast!”

At that moment, the Pulsar dropped out of hyperspace in front of Belagos.

“It’s on its way!” Blaze called over his shoulder as he sprinted from the bridge, running into Nova, who had come to ask about the unplanned hyperspace jump, on his way. Momentarily shocked, he then started sprinting after his Captain, who explained the situation. “Shall I bring up some surface maps and figure out a landing zone, sir?”

“I don’t understand what you’re waiting for, Nova” came the reply, as Blaze ran off to find  Ember, Spark and Pyro.

Barely a minute later, all 4 Lieutenants and the Captain stood in the Pulsar’s hanger, examining a holographic map of the terrain. “As you can see, the closest spot for the Pulsar to land is here.” Nova explained, pointing at a flat piece of land no more than a kilometre from where the battle was raging. “Only issue is-”

“That there’s a big, fat canyon wall in the way” interrupted Lieutenant Pyro.

“Exactly. In fact, it's the same wall that the 72nd are backed up against.”

“That gives me an excellent idea…” mused Blaze, looking thoughtfully at the four republic gunships docked inside the hanger. “By the way, what’s this bit here?” he asked, zooming in on what looked to be a series of caves inside a canyon wall.”

“Just a Republic Bunker - but hell, there must be a whole platoon trapped in there!” exclaimed Nova, having spotted a series of faint life signals coming from inside.

“That cinches it then.” Blaze said, before starting to explain his battle plan to his officers.

Down on the planet, the 72nd was continuing to take heavy losses. Platoons of droid tanks rolled over the dead bodies of Troopers, and even the whole company of ARC Troopers that formed the center of the Regiments hastily prepared defence was taking heavy casualties under a sustained droid assault. The men were starting to lose hope of survival and their commanding officers didn't know how long they could hold out.

Then, almost as one, the Trooper's heads swivelled to gaze up at the vast ship that had suddenly cast an inky shadow over the battlefield - the Pulsar was dropping down into the atmosphere.

As it fell, its main guns swivelled round and began a withering barrage - not, however, at the droid army, but rather at the wall of rock behind the clones, blasting off huge chunks of rock with each hit, until eventually the top was eroded away to reveal a large valley that ran perpendicular to the wall. It was nothing remarkable, just another boulder -studded, steep-walled beige canyon, but to the soldiers it was the most wonderful thing they had ever seen - an escape route, a way out! Cheers could be heard along the line as the soldiers pushed back the droids with newfound morale.

But the Separatists had other plans. Droidekas rolled in from either side in an attempt to cut off the Regiment before it could even begin to retreat, and there was little the clones could do to stop them - all their main firepower was concentrated in the center of their formation.

In the meantime, aboard the Pulsar, the four gunships were preparing to take off. In the first, Sergeant Firestorm, a jet trooper from Nova Platoon, was to head down to the bunker that Captain Blaze had spotted on the holo-map and attempt to evac the men trapped there.

The remaining three were loaded with Spark, Pyro and the rest of Nova Platoon and were headed down to where the 72nd was trapped. Ember Platoon remained with the ship to ensure its safety, a somewhat boring but necessary job as the Pulsar was their only ride off of the planet.

Following a brief journey down to the planet's surface, Spark and Pyro Platoons had landed and were establishing defensive lines on either flank in an attempt to prevent the droidekas from surrounding the clones. The Pulsar had continued firing on the canyon wall, however it would be a while still before enough was eroded away enough for the Regiment to effect a retreat. In the meantime, the droid offensive was just about being held, Heavies laying down suppressing fire while ARC Troopers gradually took down the droideka's shields one by one. Lieutenant Spark's taser attachment was proving particularly effective, as it turned out to be powerful enough to stun the droids through their shields. He led counterattacks through the droid ranks, a pistol in one hand and the taser in the other, zapping shields and then finishing off their defenceless owners with laser bolts as he jumped to the next.

On the other side of the battle, Lieutenant Pyro was having a far harder time: the breach in the canyon wall was far closer to his flank than Spark's, and so the droid offensive was focused there. Two full legions of B2 Super Battle Droids were marching in to support the floundering droideka offensive, more than even the most experience clones of Inferno Company had ever seen. Pyro and his Platoon fought valiantly, putting heavy fire into the droid army at every opportunity despite the shear volume of suppressing fire that the clankers were laying down, however as the first five or six ranks were killed the ranks behind them simply pushed them onwards so that they acted as shields, soaking up the fire. Realising that his position was about to be overrun by the inexorable Separatist advance, Pyro took three heavies and climbed the side of the canyon wall until he reached a vantage point far above the battlefield. Reaching into his new supply of EMP grenades, he selected one and bounced it in his hands before lobbing it down into the mass of droids below him, where it exploded, breaking a hole in the ranks of dead droids to the functioning ones behind. Following his lead, the three Heavies started throwing a barrage of grenades into the very front of the droid army, stripping away the front ranks and revealing new droids behind them for the main bulk of clones to kill.

Captain Blaze had also accompanied the Platoons down, however instead of defending the flanks he had taken charge of a company of Troopers and was charging back and forth through the Separatist lines, cutting down anything and everything in his way with his wrist laser. At one point, his company became separated, split in two by a column of hover tanks. In a flash of tactical brilliance, Blaze sprinted towards them, diving beneath them and slicing open their weak under armour with his laser, creating a pathway for the two parts of his company to regroup and smash through the tank column.

A little later, he received a comms from Lieutenant Nova. "The wall's almost down, Cap, and my Platoon's in position. I recommend you begin to fall back."

"Awww... I was just starting to enjoy this!" replied Blaze, ripping through yet another Super Battle Droid with his DC-17M, before messaging the Regiment's Commander to request an immediate retreat, and signalling his Company to rejoin the 72nd. "I'm on my way to join you, Nova - I'll lead that squad of ARC Troopers of yours."

"They'll be awaiting your arrival, Sir."

With that, Blaze ended the comms link and ran towards the almost-levelled canyon wall. A few minutes later, he was clambering over it and into the valley. To most people, droids included, it looked completely deserted and barren, not a clone in sight. But Blaze's new thermal scanner showed just how far this was from the truth: 2 Squads of Nova's Specialists lined the valley, placed inside the tiny caves and ledges that dotted its wall, givng each and every one an overview of the whole valley. They had been lifted there by a Squad of Jet Troopers that was now waiting patiently with Nova atop the valley wall. Another squad was hiding inside a cave obscured from view by bracken, and Blaze headed towards them: this was his Squad of ARC Troopers. Hunkering down among them, he was greeted with cheers from the men, who were tired of sitting idly in the cramped conditions of the cave and knew that his arrival signalled imminent action.

Together, they waited patiently in total silence, and it wasn't long before the wall finally broke down and the 72nd began its retreat, swarming through the valley towards the Pulsar. Still they waited, watching as the masses of clones passed by their position. Suddenly, Nova's voice crackled through the comms link. "Cap, somethings happening over by the valley's new mouth. Should I go check it out?"

"I don't want you giving away the rest of your Squad's position. Move a few 100 metres from them before you take off."

"Will do."

Another minute or so passed, and then they heard the roaring sound of a jetpack as Nova flew over the retreating clones. Once more, his voice crackled over the comms, but this time it was louder and more panicked. "Commando droids! Lots of them, abseiling down from atop the valley walls!" he cried, "Squad! On m-"

"Belay that order!" interrupted Captain Blaze, "We can't let the droids know your position!"

"But Sir, they're going to cut off the path back to the Pulsar!"

"We might be able to help with that." said a new voice.

"Sergeant Firestorm! Was your mission successful?" inquired Nova.

"Indeed it was - we ran into a bit of a delay when making our escape, but we were able to 'right' the problem easy enough."

"You said you had a solution to our problem, Sergeant?" prompted Blaze, getting back to the issue at hand.

"Oh! Yes, of course Captain. Here it comes now!" he exclaimed, as a gunship rose over the valley wall and turned side on to the Commandos, opening its main doors to reveal a full company of clones crammed into the tight space, who swiftly proceeded to open fire upon the droids.

Lieutenant Nova joined in, jetpacking into the fray, cutting wires and murdering droids, until eventually he dispatched the last of them with a rocket-powered spin-kick to the head. "Nicely done, Nova!" congratulated Blaze, "Now get back to your position. Firestorm, you stay there and defend the mouth of the valley until the last of the clones gets through."

It wasn't long before that happened, and the ordered retreat was replaced with the sounds of fighting as the Regiment's rearguard fought to prevent themselves being overrun. Firestorm started to pilot the gunship into attack position, but Captain Blaze ordered him to return to the Pulsar. "We'll take it from here, Firestorm. Thanks for your help."

"Any day, Captain."

Now began a well-practised manoeuvre. As the droids advanced down the valley, the ARC Troopers erupted from their cover and attacked the droid vanguard's flank, ripping through them and giving the clone rearguard a brief rest. The Squad then formed up along the very back edge of the rearguard and began retreating themselves. In the meantime, the snipers began to fire into the front of the droid army, killing hundreds. Anytime the droids advanced beyond a sniper's position, jet troopers would fly over and lift them to a new position further down the valley, allowing all of the snipers to focus on the droid frontline at all times. The clones continued in their retreat this way, gradually increasing the gap between them and the droids, and thinning their numbers. Eventually, they reached the Pulsar, whose main guns started firing, keeping the droids at bay as the final few clones got in and it started off for Coruscant, where the 72nd and the 51st could both get some well-deserved, but brief, rest.

= Homecoming = As the Pulsar emerged from hyperspace over the republic capital, Coruscant, following a five day trip back from Begaros 3, Captain Blaze was sitting on a sofa in his quarters, studying a hologram of advancing droid armies, trying to assimilate a pattern, when Lieutenant Spark entered, his helmet cupped between his arm and his waist.

"Mind if I sit down?" Spark gestured to an opposite empty armchair.

"Help yourself," Blaze turned off the holomap, turning to face his clone brother.

"What are we going to do with the admiral?" Spark inquired.

"Follow protocol. Hand him over to Fox."

"Fox?"

"Commander of the On-World Coruscant Guard." Blaze explained, scratching his closely cut black hair.

"Aren't we going to question him or something first?"

"It's not what we're meant to do." Blaze replied, although he frowned deep in thought.

The Pulsar dropped down in the Coruscant airspace, landing on a landing pad outside the Senate building. Rushing to greet the 51st were two clones of the Coruscant Guard, their distincitive white and red armour gleaming in the natural light.

"Welcome to Coruscant!" One of the Clones, replied, although his voice seemed muffled under his helmet.

"We are here to escort Admiral Nishkar." The other added, nodding at Blaze.

"Right, well, PYRO!" He shouted back to the Pulsar.

Immediately, Lieutenant Pyro strode out, pushing the Admiral in front of him roughly.

Pyro eventually reached their position, and a flustered Commander Fox came running up from the Senate Building, accompanied by two other clones.

"Sorry Captain." Fox said, eying the 51st with caution. "I wasn't informed of your arrival."

"Strange," Ember said, squaring up to Fox. "That's quite sloppy Commander.

"Ok Ember, stand down." Blaze laughed, although a hint of an authoritative tone remained.

Commander Fox turned away, approaching the Pulsar.

"You said there was a captured Seppie in here?"

"Admiral Nishkar," Pyro said, gesturing to the huge figure.

"Wait a minute." Fox almost whispered, and turned his pistol towards Blaze.

"Fox...." Blaze began, backing away, before the Pulsar exploded in a ball of flame, sending shrapnel and bodies in all directions.

The two Coruscant Guards that had turned up to escort the Admiral suddenly began shooting on the 51st. Inferno Company was in shock, but quickly bounced back and took refuge behind debris.

"Captain!" Nova yelled, his armour singeing. "Who's the enemy!?"

All the others were wondering the same thing.

Blaze then remembered the muffled voices of the clones, and called out:

"The Two Coruscant Guards! Not with Fox!"

With practiced efficiency, Inferno Company opened fire on the clones, with a strange feeling of guilt. However Fox and his men were still in confusion, and began firing on the 51st.

"For Sarlaac's Sake!" Pyro cried as one of Fox's shots tore through his shoulder pads. "Tell that idiot to stand down!"

Blaze was at a loss. Soon, half the Coruscant Guard had arrived to the firefight, spraying blaster fire towards the bewildered 51st.

He ordered his men to retreat towards the burning wreck of the Pulsar, scattered with clone bodies. The bodies of the 51st. They were soon cut off by the edge of the landing pad. The fall looked infinite, with numerous vehicles whizzing past beneath. Blaze and his men were trapped and cornered, and Admiral Nishkar was nowhere to be seen.

"Alright men!" Blaze called out over comms. "Execute manoeuvre Drop-B3." The remainders of the 51st whipped out grappling hooks, and with one final look of despair at the worsening situation, the increasing gunfire, they lunged over the edge.

They swung the hooks onto anything they could attach onto, and following Blaze's route, pirouetted into a sewage pipe that stuck out of the side of the wall beneath the landing pad.

Once all the survivors were accounted for, Blaze began leading his men up through the pipe, his Commando armour dirtying with every step.

"Captain." Nova said, catching up to Blaze. "This armour is too recognisable. We're going to have to ditch it."

"What, and walk around naked?" Pyro snapped, his shoulder still throbbing in pain, despite the pain killers that he had administered

"You know what would be really risky?" Spark began, as the other Lieutenants turned to face him. "If we wore the armour of the Coruscant Guard and tried to hide until we could escape."

Blaze began to consider the possibility, but Ember cut off his ideas.

"We'll never get away with it. Where are we just going to find spare armour?"

"Right, we'll have to split up." Blaze decided. "Nova and Ember, you take the men to this position." He held out a small holomap, showing a small warehouse. "It's an old warehouse, if the clankers ever show up on Coruscant, its full of weapons."

"Spark, Pyro and I will infiltrate the Senate building, and try to get hold of some armour. If we get rid of these armours, we can disguise as maintenance clones and get in." He continued.

"Not in the sewers though," Pyro moaned, covering his helmet's air holes, his filtration system damaged in battle.

The 51st laughed at his misfortune and continued on until they found an access hatch leading into one of the levels of Coruscant's buildings. Nova and Ember bid farewell to their brothers and led the clones towards the warehouse to arm themselves.

Spark, Pyro and Blaze meanwhile removed their armour, leaving only their black under layer, and ran towards the circular Senate building, all odds stacked against them.

As the clones approached the large, guarded glass doors of the Senate building, they turned their run into a brisk walk, and approached the two Coruscant Guards that were standing on duty.

Blaze walked up to them, but Pyro grabbed his hand and held him back, whispering:

"You look too in-charge. You're a maintenance clone remember." He reminded the captain, who shook his head at the ground.

"You go, they'll notice me immediately." Blaze conceded, and Pyro and Spark made their way towards the door, leaving Blaze concealed behind a nearby fountain.

"Halt!" One of the Clones commanded. "Identification please." The clone's voice was nasal, as if he had a cold.

"Err...We're here to inspect the...the clone f--facilities here," Pyro lied, scratching the back of his head, feeling uneasy.

"Roger Roger." The clone said with the same nasal sound. But before Pyro and Spark could enter the building, Blaze had whipped out his DC-17m Pistol and shot both guard clones in the back.

"What the hell Blaze!" Spark yelled, as the clones slumped forward onto the paved ground.

"Relax. What clone says roger roger, eh?" Blaze replied confidently

"What do you mean, Blaze?" Spark asked, looking down at the dead clones. "No droid has the brains to disguise as one of us."

"No droid has a brain, to be honest." Pyro added, but Blaze still showed no sign of concern. He bent over the body of one of the clones, and removed their helmet. Where a clone head should have been, a dark brown head, similar to a clone one, but thinner with white markings and faded red eyes.

"BX," Pyro read, peering over to look at the registration number of the droid. "What does that mean?"

"Well the regular clankers are RO, right?" Spark said, confused like the rest.

"Yeah, I bet BX is some kind of advanced model." Blaze looked over to the other clone, removed his helmet to reveal another BX droid's head.

"What like ARC troopers or Commandos?" Pyro added, studying the registration number.

"Where was it produced?" Spark asked, and Pyro was eager to reply.

"Geonosis."

"I thought we blew up all the factories on that sandy hellhole?" Spark inquired, but Blaze had already thought of a reason.

"These must have been made before the assault on Geonosis. The Coruscant Guard have been infiltrated."

The three clones made their way into the Senate building, with Blaze and Spark adopting the armour of the impersonating droids. Pyro was slightly upset about not having his own new disguise, but followed his Captain’s commands obediently, nonetheless. With the knowledge that all of the Coruscant Guard could indeed by infiltrated by droids, Pyro was ever more nervous as they walked towards the spiralling glass staircase that lead to the top of the building.

Suddenly all the Coruscant Guards turned in unison towards the three clones, blasters raised. Pyro had the sudden realisation that all these clones were in fact BX droids. He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, but as the droids began slowly approaching, Spark drew his DC-15A blaster, and Blaze whipped out his DC-17M and began firing on the droids. Pyro lunged at a nearby droid, knocking the blaster out of its hands, and grabbed the dropped weapon, using it to spray lasers into the torso of the enemy.

The three clones of Inferno Company formed a defensive semi-circular formation, backing away towards the stairs, firing on the hordes of droids disguised as Coruscant Guards. One of the BX droids lunged at Spark with its vibroblade, cutting a gash in the clone’s chest, but Blaze spun round to rail it with lasers. Spark clutched his chest in pain, and vented his emotion into blaster fire towards the remaining droids. Pyro, having noticed Spark’s injury, quickly grabbed a painkiller and dug it into Spark’s neck. The feeling of relief was immediate.

“Thanks, brother.” Spark said to Pyro, while Blaze held back the droids with his blaster.

“Pyro!” Blaze shouted at the Lieutenant. “Get upstairs. Double time, Go Go GO!!!”

The three clones retreated towards back up the stairs, firing down on the droids. Spark reached into a small compartment in his utility belt, and withdrew a single, small explosive.

"GRENADE!" The Lieutenant shouted, hurling the thermal detonator at a cluster of droids down below. Within seconds, the ground floor and exploded into pieces of debris and rubble, and Blaze, Spark and Pyro sprinted up the collapsing stairs, lunging onto the top floor as they disintegrated behind them.

"Alright," Blaze began, commanding his men. "Pyro get over by the door and look down the corridor for any intruders, Spark crouch near the edge, look down on the ground floor. I'll look through the window. Alert us if anything happens." Spark and Pyro went to thier positions, blasters at the ready. Blaze looked out the window at the infinite Coruscant skyline. The sun was setting, and a deep auburn fell upon the city-world.

"Captain," Spark said, gesturing for Blaze to come over. "Commander Fox is down there..." Blaze looked off the edge and saw Fox inspecting the fallen BX droids.

"Shouldn't we go explain things to him?" Pyro asked.

But a grim possibility suddenly hit Blaze. On the landing pad, all the Coruscant Guard that had fired on them were in fact droids. When Inferno Company escaped, the BX droids must have killed and impersonated Fox too. But there was no way to be sure…

Pyro reported to Blaze and Spark that the corridor did indeed lead to a small armoury, so Blaze shot the lock with his pistol, frying the circuits and the door opened to admit the three clones. They briskly walked down the corridor towards the armoury, and upon opening it, were pleased to see that the room extended out far, with racks upon racks of armour and weaponry.

Blaze outfitted himself with an officer's attire, complete with a rangefinder and shoulder pauldrons to signify the rank of Captain. Pyro chose the armour of a heavy gunner, and a matching rotary cannon to go with his new look. Spark chose a simple Coruscant Guard's armour, but quickly sprayed on a lighting design with a spare canister of black paint.

The three clones, fully ready for battle, strode into the lift of the Senate building, was was miraculously still intact.

"This is a bad idea," Spark sighed, but Pyro held out his minigun in glee.

"At least let's make an entrance."

As the elevator reached the ground floor, the doors opened to a room full of BX droids. But before they could fire upon the small choke point, Pyro was melting through their ranks with his rotary cannon, and Spark and Blaze picked off stragglers with their much more precise DC-17s and DC-15s.

Pyro cried in a mix of rage and Adrenalin, the minigun sending vibrations through his body as he stood rooted to the spot, barraging torrents of lasers into a chaotic droid platoon.

Blaze ran too the right side, and leapt onto the wall, but bounced off it and pirouetted to blast a droid in the head, before turning on the spot to rail another droid with countless shots. As Blaze fired into one of the BXs, another lunged behind him, its vibrosword bearing down on Blaze.

But Blaze was too fast, and spun round and stuck out his hand around the droid's neck mid-jump. The droid tried to slash at Blaze, but the captain, in a fit of pure anger, crushed the metal neck under his hand, and the droid fell limp to the ground. Blaze picked up its vibrosword and hurled it at another BX that was sneaking up on Pyro from behind, sending the blade through its head, destroying its processing unit.

Meanwhile, Spark had cornered Commander Fox. He brought his blaster up to shoot the Commander, but Fox simply raised his hands, and begun to remove his helmet. Spark lowered his blaster, but before he could react, Fox had kicked it out of his hands.

It was indeed a BX Captain under the guise of Commander Fox, and Spark instinctively punched the droid square in the gut. This of course did nothing, and Spark was thrown across the room. The BX Captain leapt onto Spark, but Spark had rolled to the side, and swept the droid's legs from underneath it. Spark then kicked the droid's face through Fox's damaged helmet, burying his foot in the remains of the droid's eye.

Pyro continued to shoot at the retreating droids until all the BX's were dead, and cried in triumph.

"I love this thing!" Pyro roared, gazing at the rotary cannon with newfound respect.

"A big gun doesn't make a big man," Spark said wisely, clutching his side in pain from being thrown across the room.

"Oh big man, blah blah" Pyro muttered, but followed as Captain Blaze led the way back to the warehouse where Nova and Ember were waiting

Nova and Ember were ready and waiting at the warehouse, having rearmed themselves with explosives, weapons and other specialist equipment. Nova had organised the remainders of the 51st into three new sections, and expertly allocated new ranks to the survivors. Unfortunately, in the explosion and battle on the landing pad, Sergeant Flare, and Firestorm had been critically injured, and  left to the mercy of the droids. Sergeant Pyre was also gravely injured, but had survived to the warehouse nonetheless.

"What's the situation with Pyre?" Blaze had immediately asked, noticing that the Sergeant was lying on a stretcher, his head in bandages.

"He was shot in his visor, Sir." A medic reported. "The blast was absorbed but the laser crippled his retina. We're working on a solution, but for now he can only see in a blurry red."

"Hey, Pyre," Pyro said, kneeling over his friend. "Can you hear me? Can you see me?"

The sergeant grunted in acknowledgement, but nothing more.

"We'll have to get him back to the medical station near Kamino." The medic said.

Inferno Squad nodded in approval, then formed a circle to discuss battle plans.

"Captain, we've formulated the makings of an escape." Nova reported, gesturing to a holomap he held out for the Senior Commanding officers to see.

"Yeah, we'll have to run down this passageway here." Ember added, "And I'll take a section off this position to lay covering fire as you all make a run for this. A CR90 Corvette."

"A Tantive..." Spark said in awe.

Once Inferno Company had readied for the final push, Blaze led his men towards the first position. The Coruscant police had been told that the CG had been infiltrated, so the 51st were ordered, regrettably to fire on the police in order to escape and clear their name.

Initially, there was little resistance as the clones moved through the passageway. But suddenly, Inferno Company were hit with a barrage of flash grenades, and in the blinding light, laser fire was exchanged.

Spark took a section had took cover behind a corner, occasionally firing back at the police. But they wanted to kill as few as possible, so Pyro ran forward and begun firing with his rotary cannon, causing the police to take cover and stop firing, giving the 51st time to escape.

However, as Pyro held the police at bay, an incessant beeping noise was barely audible over the roar of the mini gun, and a thermal detonator exploded meters from the Lieutenant, sending him flying back, and into the arms of Ember.

Ember slung Pyro's arm around him and they both made thier way back towards the safety of the hangars

Blaze kept firing, giving the Lieutenants time to hobble in, and Nova quickly shut the blast doors as grenades came hurling towards them, exploding harmlessly against the 8 feet thick durasteel wall.

The clones began boarding the Tantive, but as a section had boarded, and Nova was about to start climbing the stairs, the ship exploded in a lilac ball of flame

"FOR SARLAAC'S SAKE!!!" Pyro wailed, "DOES EVERYTHING BLOW UP HERE!?"

"You really thought it would be that easy?"

A jedi knight walked out from a door in the side of the hangar. He wasn't a master, and he held his blue lightsaber with a hint of unfamiliarity. This was all Ember needed, and before the fake jedi could react, Ember had sent a laser through their heart. The jedi's face shrivelled and disfigured into that of a changeling.

Nova suddenly noticed that the police had re-opened the blast doors, and once again the clones had found themselves hiding behind a burning ship.

"Time for my---wait," Pyro began, but looked around in vain. "My mini-gun..."

"Here, take one of these," Blaze picked up a pistol from the wreckage of the Tantive, and threw it to Pyro.

"Talk about a downgrade..." Pyro muttered and began firing on the police, alongside his brothers.

Ember ducked down under cover just in time, shaking his head in frustration.

"I can't get a clear shot..."

"Hold my Deathstick," Nova chuckled, and threw a flash grenade at the police, blinding them. Before anyone could react, the Lieutenant jetpacked up into the air above the ragin battle, and threw half a dozen thermal detonators

The numerous explosions scattered the terrified police, and in the confusion, the season 51st picked them off like wumprats.

Ember pointed out a nearby cruiser, and Spark led the way towards it.

"I swear if this blows up, i'm throwing Nova into a..." Pyro began, making Nova laugh.

Before Pyro could say what Nova would be thrown into, who clearly didnt understand, Blaze was ushering his men onboard.

"LIEUTENANTS GET THE THRUSTERS READY. NOVA PREPARE THE TAKE-OFF SEQUENCE."

The cruiser was being fired on, and many clones fell as the police gunned them down.

"HURRY UP OR IM GOING TO THROW YOU INTO A---!" Blaze yelled, but Nova had engaged the sequence, and the cruiser soared off into Coruscant airspace.

But the pains of the 51st were not over, for two ARC-170s began tailing the cruiser, firing at its hull.

"EMBER, PYRO, MAN THOSE GUNS NOW!!!" Blaze yelled, dragging the cruiser's controls as to head straight for space.

Ember and Pyro ran to the turrets, and both began firing back on the ARC-170s with a strong sense of guilt. However, they could be droids, and that thought sustained them as they tore through the sheilds of the fighters.

Blaze and Nova piloted the cruiser towards space, and Spark manned the radio controls, rapidly intercepting attempts to jam the crusier's weaponry and controls.

Soon, the cruiser was on the verge of space, when one of the thrusters exploded, sending the clones hurling across the floor, toppling the cruiser to one side.

"I called it. Everything in the bloody galaxy is exploding today." Pyro muttered as he tore down a fighter.

Blaze and Nova struggled to get the cruiser back in the right direction for the hyperspace jump, but as they were about to correct themselves, Ember destroyed the second fighter.

The way was clear, and the survivors of Inferno Company jumped to hyperspace…

Leaving the other commanding officers behind to greet the wounded members of Inferno Company as they came out of their bacta tanks, Lieutenant Pyro decided to explore a little. Like all of his brothers, he felt a special connection to what was, essentially, his home.

Deciding to try and find his way towards Inferno Company's original quarters and training grounds, he began searching for landmarks, something familiar inside the maze of twisting, brilliant white corridors the made up Topeka city, but every room and hallway seemed virtually identical.

Eventually, however, he stumbled onto something definitely out of place, albeit not exactly familiar - an intersection blanketed in thick, midnight shadows, devoid of the bright lights that usually lit up every corner of the city.

Instantly on guard, Pyro pulled out his rifle and started creeping his way down the corridor, his eyes flickering in every direction, searching for any sign of movement. When it came, however, it wasn't by sight, but by sound - a sudden rustling ahead, the gentle creak of a door somewhere to Pyro's left - and then the sound of blaster fire as he let loose into the darkness.

Quickly it became obvious that it was just that - darkness. In the few seconds of illumination that the blaster bolts provided, Pyro saw that the corridor was empty, with no places for anyone to hide behind.

There was, on the other hand, a door, presumably the one that had creaked earlier. Pyro approached it carefully, and then kicked it in, rifle leveled to fire at anything hiding behind it.

Unfortunately for him, it was by this point far too late for a rifle to do anything: as soon as his foot touched the door, a thermal detonator on the other side detected his body heat and triggered a few kilograms of explosives to explode. Before Pyro could even cry "For Sarlaak's sake!" he was being thrown backwards with enough force to lift him off his feet and throw him into the ceiling before he flopped onto the hard metal floor below.

Hundreds of meters away, the rest of Inferno Company heard the explosion as it echoed through Topeka city and rushed towards the source, Captain Blaze issuing instructions as they went. "Nova, take your jet troopers and scout ahead. Look for an armoury on the way there: most of the Troopers don't have weaponry since they just got out of tanks. When you find one, signal Pyro to head there and pick up any non-training weapons he can find. You got that Pyro?"

As Nova called his jet troopers to him and ignited his jetpack, Blaze glanced behind him, searching for a glimpse of Pyro's custom armour, but didn't see anything.

"Where's Pyro? I thought he was behind us."

"Didn't he wander off while we were greeting the men?" theorised Spark.

"In that case, Ember you go get the guns. Everyone else, hurry up. It'd be just Pyro's luck to get blown up on bloody Kamino."

"Looks like it, sir; he's lying in a pool of blood a couple of meters away from the remains of a supply closet, and there are bits of door lying all over the place. I've got my men administering first aid now, but its not looking good." Nova's voice came over the comms, calm and collected on the surface but clearly somewhat distressed underneath.

"Where are you No- scratch that, I'm here." responded Blaze as he rounded a corner to see a sight worse than anything he could have ever imagined from Nova's brief description: a band of umber scorch marks stretched across the floor from a gaping hole in the right wall were a door had once been, continued up the left wall, and then looped back round across the ceiling. The white silhouette of a prone clone soldier was clearly visible, and the plating of Pyro's Phase 1 armour was covered in the same scorch marks as his surroundings. Pyro himself was slumped against the far wall, sitting in a rapidly expanding crimson puddle. His skin, pale from blood loss and covered in gas, was visible through gaps in his armour where it had been cracked open by the jagged, charred remains of the door.

Two jetpacks were propped against the wall, their owners having discarded them to tend to Pyro, who was barely alive, his pulse so low that he had already been declared dead several times. Nova still had his on, and was sifting through the rubble of the small room. "Thoughts?" inquired Spark as he approached. "Looks like it could've just been an accident. See that?" he asked rhetorically, gesturing to the broken end of a pipe. "Carries some kind of gas, presumably for use in the manufacture of clones: potentially, it could be flammable."

Spark disagreed, "In that case, what triggered it to explode? There's something more going on here."

That said, Spark lifted a less damaged section of the door and dug through the rubble underneath, standing up triumphantly a few moments later.

"Gotcha!" he exclaimed. In his hands, he held a thin piece of circuitry stamped with the letters THER and DETON on two lines.

"Is that a..."

"Piece from a thermal detonator? Yes."

The two Lieutenants stared at each other for a moment, quietly drawing their weapons, before hurrying out of the cupboard towards Blaze.

They found the Captain speaking with Ember. "I found an armoury like you said Sir, except for the bit about Nova looking for one for us - obviously he got a bit sidetracked by this mess. We found enough rifles for most of the men and pistols for anyone."

"Excellent work Ember, although it doesn't look like we'll be needing it. Nova thinks it might have just been a ga-."

"Actually sir, you may want to see this." interjected Nova, as Spark showed him the circuitry. Blaze took a moment to inspect it, turning the situation over in his head, before wryly commenting, "Looks like we'll be needing those guns after all Ember. Start handing them out to the men as fast as you can!", and calling out to his brothers. "Listen in! Lieutenants Spark and Nova have made a startling and unsettling discovery - this explosion was no accident! Someone rigged a thermal detonator in order to try and kill hi-" Suddenly, a siren sounded, and an emergency announcement came over some loudspeakers. "Fire in block 6! Emergency units converge on intersection 6.32-78 now! All other personnel, remain where you are. Blocks  7, 12 and 13 are now being closed off to prevent the fire from spreading further."

"...that's not good."

"What's wrong sir? Sounds like it's under control."

"But we're in block 7 - meaning we're getting sealed off while there's a killer on the loose!"

They found the Captain speaking with Ember. "I found an armoury like you said Sir, except for the bit about Nova looking for one for us - obviously he got a bit sidetracked by this mess. Most of the weaponry was missing for some reason, but we found enough rifles for most of the men and pistols for everyone else."

"Excellent work Ember, although it doesn't look like well be needing it. Nova thinks it might have just been a ga-."

"Actually sir, you may want to see this." interjected Nova, as Spark showed him the circuitry. Blaze took a moment to inspect it, turning the situation over in his head, before wryly commenting, "Looks like we'll be needing those guns after all Ember. Start handing them out to the men as fast as you can!", and calling out to his brothers. "Listen in! Lieutenants Spark and Nova have made a startling and unsettling discovery - this explosion was no accident! Someone rigged a thermal detonator in order to try and kill hi-" Suddenly, a siren sounded, and an emergency announcement came over some loudspeakers. "Fire in block 6! Emergency units, converge on intersection 6.32-78 now! All other personnel, remain where you are. Blocks  7, 12 and 13 are now being closed off to prevent the fire from spreading further."

Suddenly the sound of thick metal blast doors clanging shut filed the air around them. "What's going on, sir?" one of the Troopers asked Ember as he handed him his gun. "We're in block 7, Furnace. Meani-"

"Meaning we're now stuck in a constricted area with no help coming, a wounded Lieutenant and a potential killer on the loose. Oh, and it sounds like they've stolen a load of his from the armoury." interrupted Blaze, taking the opportunity to get back into his speech. "In other words, this is gonna be a fun day."

Barely a minute had gone by since Blaze had said those words and started issuing orders, but already Inferno Company had gone from a disorganised mess to a tightly knit unit. The clones had formed a rectangle inside the constraints of the corridor, the flanks single ranks, 18 files long, and the front and back 2 ranks of 9 files, with the outermost ranks walling low to the ground so the men behind them had clear lines of sight. This left half the company to walk in the middle in order to reinforce their brothers if necessary. Each senior officer was  designated a side, although not necessarily with their own men, since they had moved too fast to form up into platoons: Blaze took the front, Nova the back, Spark the left and finally Ember took the right flank. Pyro was carried on a stretcher in the middle of the formation.

In this way, the company began a slow, cautious march forward. At every bend or intersection, the flanks would advance first, every single clone leading with his gun and checking around the corner before moving beyond it. Once the rank had advanced enough to cover the whole width of the intersecting corridor, they halted to allow the main bulk of men to catch up before moving onwards again.

After about 30 minutes of marching aimlessly through the corridors, Pyro recieving constant medical care from the nearest clones, he began to stir. Slowly he blinked his bloodied and cracked eyelids, even such a simple movement as that bringing immense pain to his battered body, and stretched out his aching muscles as much as he could before his torn skin started to try to stretch with them. Finally, he blinked enough to clear his eyes so that he could see clearly again. He stretched out as far as he could one final time. And then he stopped. Still as a picture, he lay there, gazing up with unbridled fear at the thick, inky, shadows that coated the ceiling like a thin layer of oil. And which were staring back at him, grinning sadistically from ear to shadowy ear. Slowly, almost conspiratorially, the shadows put their finger to their lips, and with that Pyro snapped out of his motionless trance and called out to the clones around him - or tried to, for his mouth felt so dry and his lips were so tattered and covered in blood that he found himself entirely unable to make a sound. Suddenly more afraid than he'd ever been in his life, Pyro looked to the ceiling, seeking to find comfort in the fact that at least he knew where the shadow was, but his new friend had disappeared from sight. Somehow, he doubted it had disappeared from his vicinity as well.

A few minutes later and Inferno Company reached another intersection, between their corridor and a fast shorter one, only around 20m in either direction, cut off by doors on either end. The lead clones immediately began the now routine process of leaning around the corner, gun first, before advancing. This time, however, only around half the men had made it through the intersection before the routine was interrupted, in probably the worst way possible: the lights went out.

Bathed suddenly in darkness, the clones scrambled frantically to turn on lights and activate night vision sights, desperate to regain their vision. As soon as they did so, they found themselves wishing they were still blind.

The doors to either side of the company had silently slid open to reveal rows upon rows of rifles and the occasional heavy machine gun, clearly the weapons that had been stolen from the armoury. Someone had rigged up a makeshift firing system, and all at once the blasters opened fire, raining hell into the Company's flanks. Disciplined as ever, the clones began returning fire, but as they quickly found out it is far harder to kill a gun than the clanker firing it.

Quickly, the guns ripped through the center ranks, massacring clones with brutal efficiency and leaving behind rows of bodies arranged in rough lines as though they were blades of wheat that had been cut down by a scythe. Seeing this, the resolve of the clones still trapped within the firing line failed them and they began to retreat, climbing over and around each other as they instinctively tried to get away from the incessant, deadly barrage of blaster fire. Unfortunately, the formation the clones had been moving in was so tight there wasn't any space for them to cram in, and in due course, every single Trooper that had been caught in the line of fire was dead with the sole exception of a Corporal crawling along the ground underneath the blaster fire, but even then he was so severely injured it'd take more extreme measures than just a bacta tank to stop him from screaming in agony. Brilliantly for him, extreme measures arrived swiftly, as with a sickening thud a door at the entrance to the intersection slid shut right as he stuck his head through the doorframe. Not so brilliantly for his brothers, this meant that they were now split into two groups - one at the former front of the formation, composed of Blaze, Spark, most of the remaining Sergeants, including Firestorm and Wraith, and around two Platoon's worth of men, and one at the back, composed of Nova, Ember, Pyre, a heavily injured Pyro and a squad or two of Troopers.

= Kashyykk Special = The dense, green undergrowth of the forest planet Kashyykk showed little signs for Republic interest. The planet was full of thick forestry and occasional swamps, and the native Wookies were unintelligible at best.

However the reason the Republic had come to Kashyykk was much greater than the indeginous creatures or unusual landscape. Kashyykk was home to a Seperatist force that threatened to undermine Republic interests and control of the planet.

Commander Gree and the 41st Recon Corps were dispatched to Kashyykk but were overwhelmed by the droid forces.

As a result, Inferno Company was called in to lay waste to the clankers on the tree-covered world.

- - -

"Captain, our LAATs aren't able to land through this canopy of leaves. What do we do?" Pyre called over from the back of the LAAT that Blaze, Pyro, Nova and Spark were in, surveying the surroundings for an adequate landing site.

Blaze looked around, but the only absence of trees were a dozen clicks south of Commander Gree's outpost, on the beaches of Kashyykk.

"Head for the beaches, Blaze ordered, and the LAATs moved back to the sand shores that lead to the forest.

Blaze's LAAT landed softly on the sand, as the lull of the waves washed over the men's ankles as they departed the gunship, readying large packs of rations, equipment and other essentials that they would need to survive on the inhospitable planet for the month that they were stationed there.

As everyone had, in some cases unwillingly, exited the gunships, Blaze commanded his men into three platoons, laid out in an orderly fashion on the sand.

"Alright, listen up men!" Blaze called out, his authoritative tone instantly silencing the small conversations that the clones were secretly having.

"I know we've been through a lot these past few months. I don't know how many of you have been here from the start, or joined us yesterday. But it doesn't matter. Out on the frontline, we are above all, united. As one body, as one force, as one fire. A fire that  will sweep through the clanker's armies, a fire that ignites fear into the seppies, a fire that will win this war!"

"We're going to be here for a while," Blaze continued. "This isnt like any time before. We're not here to charge in guns blazing, and cause mayhem and destruction to everything in our path. We're here to gather intel, to assist the 41st and ensure slowly, but silently, disrupt the enemy on this world."

With that, he nodded at Lieutenant Nova, who began to explain the rigourously worked out order for this operation, an order the senior officers had spent many sleepless nights devising.

"This isn't going to be like Begaros, or Faisal like the Captain said. For this operation, HQ will consist of all four Lieutenants and the Captain. The three companies, codenames Rogue, Diamond and Shield will be commanded on an individual basis by the sergeants. Rogue Platoon's IC is Wildfire, Diamond's is Pyre and Shield's is Magma."

Nova paused to catch his breath, as the Sergeants moved to their corresponding platoons.

"As the Captain said, this is going to be a bit different. We will have three stationed outposts, a frontal, a secondary and a rear outpost. Captain Blaze will commandeer the Frontal Outpost, Lieutenant Pyro is in charge of the secondary outpost, and I the rear."

"I don't like being separated like this," Ember whispered to Spark, but the Lieutenant only shrugged.

"We're only a few clicks from one another, it's fine."

Nova continued explaining the order, and told the men how to set up their outpost. Soon, Captain Blaze hauled the large pack of equipment onto his shoulders and began walking into the thick forest.

Behind Blaze, Pyro, Nova, Spark and Ember the three platoons cut through the flora, stepping over thorny vines and muddy ditches. Within a few meters of walking, the clone’s boots were already camouflaged with the amount of squelching mud that splattered their armour. They had not yet camouflaged their red and white markings with the green and brown camo packs they had been issued, and the company stuck out like a very sore red thumb as they trekked through the vegetation. Pyro had found a replacement for his sentry, a similar rotary-cannon, and was had it strapped to his back, as well as a satchel containing rations for his outpost.

Soon, the familiar sounds of life buzzing in the tree-covered forest were interrupted by a bustling of leaves, and stamping over vines. The clones readied their weapons, prepared to engage the droid forces. However, they were greeted by the 41st Recon Corps out on a patrol, who were clad in green, black, brown and grey markings.

“Corporal Vine, at your service, sir!” An overeager clone saluted to Blaze and his men, who looked at the corporal slightly quizzically.

“Can you take us to the outpost, Corporal?” Spark said, his arms aching from carrying a heavy pack of ammunition and mortars.

“Right away, through here. Just follow me.” The Corporal replied, leading the 51st into the forest, but sometimes some of the men just lost sight of the bumbling clone among the sheer foliage of Kashyykk.

After several clicks of travelling, the clones finally made it to Commander Gree’s outpost. It was well hidden, a small cave-like structure above the ground, surrounded by vines and moss, expertly covering the turret emplacements, and the control panels and computers were all hidden inside the cave body. Outside, clones could be seen lying on the damp, leafy floor, talking next to their tents and the occasional sentry on guard duty could be made out as they hid, lying flat on the ground, weapons facing outwards.

Inferno Company rested at the outpost, gulfing down torrents of water under the strict command of their sergeants and corporals. Soon, after about half an hour of resting, Pyre came up to the gathered Lieutenants and Captain to inform them that the men were ready to set out to their respective positions. Pyro acknowledged Pyre’s information, and dismissed the Sergeant to get some rest himself.

“Ok, everyone,” Pyro began, “The three outposts will be within 5 clicks of one another. They will form a defensive triangle of our company, with the 41st’s Outpost located in the middle. The Frontal outpost will face towards where we suspect enemy activity. Nova, your outpost will be the closest to the beaches, and that means the landing zone. Any injured shines, and we’ll send ‘em your way.” Nova nodded in acknowledgement. “My own outpost,” Pyro continued, “Will act as our ammunitions and armaments depot. I’m going to send Pyre and a few clones to scout out a suitable position for our outposts.”

“Good Plan,” Spark complemented, and Blaze nodded in agreement, but asked:

“Are you sending them on AT-RTs?”

“You mean the walkers? No, they’ll make too much noise, and I don’t think Gree is likely to give them to us.”

“Copy.”

Spark slid down the side of a tree trunk, lying on it, removing his helmet and taking a gulp of fresh air.

“How you feeling, Spark?” Blaze asked, sitting down next to his friend, also removing his helmet.

“Tired, and not really looking forward to the next month.” The Lieutenant replied.

“I don’t think anyone is, but we’re soldiers, and it’s our duty to ensure we win this war.”

Ember came over to them, his sight raised over his visor, camo markings covering the left side of this helmet.

“Aren’t you guys gonna camo up?” The specialist asked, handing out his pad of green and brown paint to the two clones.

“Later, Ember.” Spark replied, with a great sigh of exhaustion.

Ember walked away back to the cover of the outpost shelter as rain began to drop down through the canopy of leaves onto the disgruntled clones below. They all quickly packed away their tents and belongings as the rain began falling even heavier, hammering down on the moist soil like bombs from a craft high above the tree line. Blaze and Spark walked over to the crowded inner recesses of the outpost, where clones were noisily complaining about the frequently terrible weather.

Pyre soon returned with a squad of clones, their armour dripping with rainfall, their black under armour soaked.

"We've located an enemy patrol in the south west quadrant," Pyre began, raising his finger to indicate where on the holomap that all the officers were standing around.

"Did you engage?" Pyro asked, but Pyre shook his head. "We didn't want to alert any nearby droids of our  location.

"Good idea." Spark complemented, surveying the holomap.

"I think we should send out another patrol deeper south," Nova explained. "We should get a clearer understanding of the enemy's outposts in the region."

"Yeah, I second that." Ember agreed.

"I think we should go check it out." Spark reasoned. "If we get contacted we should be able to fight our way out."

"Agreed," the captain finalised, and he and the lieutenants began preparations for the excursion.

Blaze holstered his dual DC-17S pistols, pocketing an ion grenade and placed ammo cartridges down the right side of his torso on a black belt.

Pyro heaved his rotary cannon onto his back, with his satchel of EMPs and his DC-15 rifle in his hands, his visor cover down.

Nova equipped his jet pack, and a single DC-17S pistol, and strapped over the jet pack: a rocket launcher.

Spark held his combat shield firm in one hand, and in the other, his DC-15 rifle. Additionally, the seasoned lieutenant carried a pack of thermal detonators around his shoulder pad.

Ember slid his sight down over his visor, reading thermal and infrared signatures, capable of easily determining a clanker amidst the vegetation. In his hands he wielded his formidable sniper rifle, a lightweight portable mortar strapped to his back.

The squad of experienced officers left the outpost, their boots squelching in the mud, their kamas dirtied with brown stains.

"Time to say hi to our new neighbours, eh boys?" Blaze confidently said to his men, who cheered in response as they began their deep and dangerous patrol.

The five officers cut through the undergrowth, Spark leading the way, using his combat shield to cut through the vegetation. Behind him, Captain Blaze stealthy followed, his dual pistols swinging around as he searched for droid activity. Behind him, Ember held his heavy sniper in his hands, his sight down over his visor as he scanned his surroundings, reading heat signatures and looking hesitantly at the rustling bushes, ready to fire.

Following the specialist, Lieutenant Pyro cautiously cut through any vines impeding his path using his large rotary cannon to bat at the plant life, which seemed in every way intent on injuring the clones as they progressed further south, occasionally glimpsing the metallic shine of droids as enemy patrols passed through, oblivious to the republic clones. Lastly, the experienced and dedicated Lieutenant Nova crept at the end of the line of clones, his pistol tucked away in a holster, his hands wrapped around a rocket launcher.

The clones continued on, darting behind tree, bush and flower cover to avoid being spotted. Soon, however, their progress was halted by the ominous drone of Armoured Assault Tank, as it tore down the vegetation, its huge turret sweeping away at the trees, toppling them, using its side-mounted blasters to savage the forestry in its path.

The AAT continued past the clones, but as they began to creep forward, believing they were undetected, the droid commander atop the tank darted round, and stared at the exposed foot of Lieutenant Pyro.

"Wait a minute..." the droid commander began to say in a nasal autonomous voice.

Pyro opened fire on the AAT, his mini gun tearing through its armour, but before the tank was fully destroyed, the droid commander had swivelled the turret facing towards Pyro, and fired a single blast, rupturing the ground at the Lieutenant's feet, sending him hurling backwards into the trunk of a nearby tree.

Spark immediately leapt forward to provide covering fire as Nova and Ember rushed to the unconscious Lieutenant, his leg armour dirtied with a mix of brown mud and crimson blood. Spark was joined by Blaze, who fought off the incoming wave of nearby droid patrols that had been attracted by the explosion of the AAT.

Nova whipped out his painkiller syringe, and jabbed it into Pyro's neck through the black underarmour. His boot was shredded open, the black layer underneath torn and the foot itself a mangled mix of blood and flesh. Pyro's head lulled backwards, his helmet falling off and rolling on the ground, the black ash imprinted on the armour as a result of the explosion.

Nova quickly began to remove the destroyed boot, carefully extracting any shards of armour that had become wedges in Pyro's foot. Nova's hands stained with the blood of his brother, the black fingertips turning scarlet. Nova then made an incision around the ankle of the unconscious clones, cutting away at the black and red under armour, slowly pulling it off to reveal the injured foot.

Meanwhile, Ember was trying to resuscitate his fallen brother as blaster fire whizzed around him, electrifying the air around the helpless clones. Blaze and Spark were fighting side by side, back to back and fending off the droid forces, blasting through waves of the clankers. Occasionally, the ground around them was thrown up as a thermal detonator exploded near them, but the clones were nimble, rolling and dodging all enemy fire, and when the droids came too close, Spark reached up into the underside of their face-plate, and electrocuted their processing circuits, throwing the disorientated droids to the ground before unleashing round after round of blaster fire into the helpless bodies.

Blaze was using his pistols to gun down the droids, and occasionally would throw a flash grenade to blind the droids and illuminate the surroundings as night began to fall on the harsh kashyykk forest.

Soon, Ember had awoken Pyro, who immediately gasped in surprise at the mess of blood that lay at the end of his outstretched leg.

"I'm afraid I'm not carrying a spare boot, brother," Nova said to the shocked Pyro, who managed a painful laugh, then swept his arm out to grab his charred helmet, and place it firmly over his sooty blonde hair.

Pyro gingerly stepped on the dirt ground as the other clones protected him, and Pyro stepped forward to pick up his rotary cannon, and began firing at the droids as they came forward into his laser fire.

Blaze, noticing Pyro was back in action, smiled under his helmet, and ordered the men to retreat back into the cover and darkness of the forest around them.

The clones crept silently through the forest, their surrounding dark and ominous, spindly trees and wayward bushes outlined by an eerie glow from one of Kashyykk’s three moons. Pyro had bandaged his foot, and attached a few leaves to the underside to act as a sole. The night on Kashyykk was accentuated by odd chirping, rumbling and growling. The bushes engulfed the clones from all sides, surrounding them and towering menacingly over them. Their feet stomped on soft sand and rock, a sea breeze chilling them through the spindly leaves of the bushes through which they advanced, on the cusp of the droid fortification. And sure enough, through a long, clear window, the clones saw the unmistakeable cloaked, grey-bearded figure of the deadly Count Dooku.

The Count was observing some technological equipment in front of him. He was surrounded by BX Commando Droids, their brown armour painted with stripes of green, their red eyes glowing evilly across the Kashyykk landscape. The clones rested at the edge of the bushes, undetected, yet tired, cold and unprepared for such a terrible foe. Nova quickly pulled out a black, circular ball, ridden with yellow spots, and promptly threw it from within the bushes towards the fortification, the ball landing softly in the sand between the separatists and the clones.

The ball hummed quietly, its sounds masked by the buzz of life on the planet, and spun around in the sand, mistakable for a rodent or small creature. The droids paid it no attention, their scanners searching for other signs of movement. The ball had scanned the surroundings, and uploaded a holomap to Nova’s database, and the Lieutenant used the new information to locate that the clones had digressed south-east from their original firefight, and plotted the new location on his holomap of the wider area.

“I’ve noted the area Captain,” Nova whispered to Blaze who nodded in a gesture of understanding, then raised two fingers and pointed back to the way they came. The other clones understood immediately, and silently they quickly withdrew from the edge of the bush, holding their breaths as they crept back into the dangerous familiarity of the forest.

They kept moving silently throughout the late hours of the night, weapons drawn and ready to fire. Blaze had his rangefinder down over his visor, allowing for a night-vision mode. Ember’s sights allowed this option anyway, but Pyro, Nova and Spark coped with the small amount of light the forestry provided, not daring to illuminate their surroundings in fear of being caught, and subsequently killed.

The clones witnessed groups of droids lumbering past on multiple occasions, their heavy stomping disrupting the fragility of the night. On two instances, Spark and Pyro had been forced to engage, and had grabbed the droid's necks and sharply twisted them to avoid the giveaway of gunfire. The clones's eyes felt heavy, their breaths chilled and their movements jerky. They were tired, yet successful in their mission.

Nearing 3 o'clock in the morning, a nearby star had began to shine on the planet, casting deep blue glow over the forest, additionally introducing a persistent mist that fogged up the clones's visors and as a result the men removed their phase I helmets and clipped them to their utility belts. A prevalent breeze swung the helmets slightly, and rustled the hair of the clones. Spark's blonde tuft swayed around as the wind pushed back against him, but for Blaze, Nova and Pyro, whose hair was much shorter and finely cut, there was little issue. Soon, as a green tinge fell upon the clones as they neared the frontal outpost, a light drizzle began to fall, dampening the leaves so raindrops dripped off onto the moistening ground. Pyro's foot had all but healed, his ingenious solution proven effective. It could well be a useful medical move to use in battle. The Captain and Lieutenants of the 51st reattached their helmets, the red and black markings already covered in with the mud and greenery of the planet. Soon the brothers, fatigued and exhausted arrived back to the outpost, receiving a small cheer from the clones there, who were relieved that their commanders had not been prematurely killed. A fate that they knew, many of them awaited.

Pyre had already began to set up the outposts, with small defensive cover laid down, and a communications centre established. The rest was just equipment and tents strewn about, intermingled with the vegetation to camouflage in the clones as they slept. Floodlights had been established, although they were tinted green, allowing for enough light to be given to help the clones, but not enough to give their position away.

Blaze congratulated the men on their success, a feeling they were used to by now, and waved goodbye as Pyro and Ember made their way back to their outpost, and Nova and Spark made their way back to theirs.

The patrol had provided Inferno company with invaluable intel as to not only enemy positions as well as the terrain their forces would have to navigate in the event of an assault. The knowledge that the Separatist leader, Count Dooku was on-world was worrying, and pressed Blaze to wonder what the clankers were really doing on Kashyykk.

A week passed with little activity. The outposts were swiftly made fully-operational, with Blaze's forward outpost serving containing a well-tested communications rig to the Pulsar and a direct hololink to the admiral onboard the acclamator-class vessel, the esteemed Admiral Steele. Pyro's outpost contained a horde of weapons, explosives and other valuable equipment, ranging from armour and rangefinders to spare boots. Nova's medical outpost was treating a handful of foolish clones to had succumbed to the forest's dangers, and treated a number of odd minor injuries. Nothing too fancy.

Captain Blaze and Lieutenant Spark were discussing a possible plan of attack for the fortification they had scouted earlier, but a young clone interrupted them.

"SIR! Corporal Glaze at your service SIR!"

"At ease, Corporal," Spark calmly replied, unfazed by the clone's abrupt interruption. "What is it?"

"Admiral Steele requests all SCOS presence, SIR!" Glaze quickly replied.

"Alright thank you Corporal. Dismissed." Spark concluded.

"What's Steele want now?" Blaze mused, calling into his comms for all Lieutenants to come to his outpost.

Soon, Ember, Nova and Pyro had joined Spark and Blaze at the holotable. Awaiting them was a projection of the  admiral onboard the Pulsar.

"What the blazes took you so long!?" Steele angrily said to the other Lieutenants as they arrived, who quickly smirked at the captain, who returned a brief grin.

"Sorry Admiral. Its a long way from my outpost to her---" Pyro began, but Steele angrily cut him off.

"SHUT UP CL-9499! I don't remember asking you to speak. I was talking to CC-9966 here before you rudely interrupted.

"Err...Sorry Sir." Pyro hesitantly replied, bowing his head and moving backwards. The admiral sniffed in disappointment, then turned back to Blaze, who looked slightly bemused.

"As i was saying CC-9966, your patrol earlier this week was a reckless and foolish decision. You could have got the entire HQ killed within the first day! What were you thinking?!"

"Sir, we needed to send some competent men to get that intel. Most of these men are new to the frontline so---"

"So why didn't you send your Sergeants or Corporals?" Steele interuppted.

"They lack the experience required for such a dangerous mission sir."

"I don't trust your command CC-9966. Although it is true that you have had some outstanding success in the past, it seems not due to your company's brilliance, but rather the enemy's foolishness. With Count Dooku on-world, i'm sending the 49th Forestry Division to help clean up."

In a fleet of LAATs, the 49th Forestry Division, led by the ruthless commander Haastal descended on the outposts on Kashyykk, their pre-painted camouflage blending in perfectly with the vegetation and plant life.

"And here they are now." Admiral Steele proudly noted. Commander Haastal jumped out of his LAAT, and ran over to the holotable.

"Commander Haastal reporting for duty sir!" The clone said confidently to Steele, who smiled in response.

"Ah yes, Haastal. I'll have you know that these men completed every simulation on kamino that regarded outdoor warfare in record time." Steele said happily, glaring at Blaze as if he was a bit of Kashyykk dirt.

"Hey, Admiral!" Nova angrily interjected, shoving Haastal away with a shoulder barge that knocked the commander to the ground, where he fell onto some mud. "We have seen more action than any other unit, completed more missions than any other force and you're saying that these shinies are better than us!?"

"HOW DARE YOU CL-8016! HOW DARE YOU TALK TO YOUR SUPERIORS LIKE THAT YOU LABRATORY-BRED DEFORMITY! I shall report you INSOLENCE to the kaminoans immediately. With any luck, they will eliminate your worthless presence."

With that, the admiral turned off the holo-connection abruptly and the clones turned to Commander Haastal, who was staring daggers at Captain Blaze.

"Hear the admiral, Blaze? Get in line, 'cos we're the best. You and your deformities can let us handle this, alright?"

At this point, Ember had rugby-tackled the commander, hurling the clone at the trunk of a tree, and had to be restrained by the other SCOS.

Commander Haastal was escorted away by his own squad, casting dirty looks back at the inferno company scos. Pyro aimed a rock at the commander as he walked away, but Nova stopped him.

"He is a clone remember? No more BXs here..."

"Feels like one anyway," Pyro replied.

Blaze and his men returned to their respective outposts, awaiting the 49th's incredible plan of attack. In the back of his mind, Blaze knew that the 49th lacked experience, and that the attack was doomed to fail...

Later that night, as darkness began to fall once again on the forest, the 49th prepared their frontal assault of the fortification. Assisting them as an afterparty would be the mix of th 51st and 41st. The forestry clones began to move forward at about ten o'clock, Haastal not leading his men, but safely at the back of his forces as they tumbled through the vegetation towards the known location of the outpost.

Soon, completely lacking any subtlety, the first wave of 49th clones rushed the fortification, screaming war cries.

The result was a complete disaster, just as Blaze had predicted.

The men ran into the open sights of several long range concealed turrrets, that blasted red lasers into the open ranks of clones.

The ground became littered with holes and dead bodies, pools of blood soaking the ground.

Haastal's second wave rushed again in the same fashion, only to meet the exact same fate. Their bodies were strewn across the empty wasteland that the forest surrounding the fortification had become. The clones that made it to the fortification walls were then shocked as remote electrical fences activated and burned the clone's bodies to ash.

The third and fourth wave rushed together, but now were flanked from either side by a dozen commando droids, who were concealed so well that the clones only sprayed with no avail, their bodies joining the hundreds now laid out like dolls, limbs torn apart and severed heads lolling around the destroyed landscape. The walls became stained crimson, as did the leaves and once green and brown trees.

From behind tree cover, as the gruesome scene unfolded before them, Nova couldn't help but cackle in a sick laughter as he watches the inexperience of his brothers. However, Pyro quickly slapped him across the helmet, and the Lieutenant cam out of his weird trance.

"Sorry, dunno what came over me," he managed weakly.

Haastal continued his pointless tactics, until only a few hundred clones remained. The commander didn't understand. On the simulations, hurling met at the droids was usually a quick and easy method to finish the battle.

"Not like the simulations, eh?" Spark taunted.

Soon, Count Dooku himself had joined the battlefront, and as Haastal's head showed over the cover he was attempting to hide behind, he felt a terrible squeeze around his neck, and he flung towards the Count, the force binding him as he hurled through the air. The helpless shiny felt his body convulse as Dooku electrocuted him as well as a dozen of his useless men, and felt his body pirouette to a ditch, heavily injured but alive. However Dooku soon changed that as he lazily tossed his lightsaber at the clone, and as it pierced his helmet through the visor and spun back around from behind the remaining half of the clone's head, Dooku didn't even turn an eye as he continued to lazily destroy the inexperienced 49th.

The remaining survivors of the terrible attack watched on in horror, frozen in their places by an overwhelming fear. They were rooted in their spot, sweating uncontrollably from the heat of the laser barrage around them and their own individual fright.

Blaze knew that another head-on attack would mean the end for all clones on Kashyykk, so as the droids finally stopped annihilating the surroundings, and an eerie silence befell the fortification, Inferno Company retreated back to their outposts, time stacked against them as they knew Dooku's forces would be on their heels, ready to incinerate all republic presence.

The men's eyes were etched with the scenes of horror as they replayed the devastation in their mind time and time again. They had seen death before, they knew the nature of war, but this was on a scale unprecedented to the clones. So much of their brother's blood had been spilled, so many men slaughtered and for what? A boiling rage, an anger from the core of their hearts rose against not only the clankers, but also at Steele. Pyro was so moved he smashed his fist into a nearby tree, breaking the bark. As it splintered off, the other clones looked back at their brother, and knew exactly how he felt. Jaws clenched, they moved back to the relative comfort of their outpost, a tangible nervousness filling the air.

Blaze regrouped with Commander Gree, and as they stationed clones to act as lookouts, the SCOS of the 51st and 41st gathered around a holomap, trying to solve the disastrous situation.

"Commander," Blaze said solemnly, a tone of respect prevalent in his speech. "Our forces are depleted, and the enemy outnumber us. There's no way we will survive a firefight."

"I agree, Blaze." Gree nodded in approval, his phase I helmet scarred with blood.

"I--I think i've got something." Nova added, his teeth chattering.

"Yeah?" Spark inquired, looking at his fellow lieutenant, who held out a holomap from his gauntlet.

"The clankers are moving slowly to our position. No doubt they are reinforced with AATs and Droidekas, hence the slow movement. I agree that we ain't gonna survive just blasting them. We gotta outsmart them."

"Go on?" Ember said, scorch marks obscuring his markings.

"There is a ridge about 7 clicks east. Sergeant Pyre found it when he went patrolling earlier. I suggest we use it as a staging grounds for a final onslaught, luring the seppies to that position, and rigging it to blow when they get there. In the aftermath, we can pick 'em off."

"Dooku isn't going to be fooled that easily. We're going to need to first establish a firefight here, and then retreat to that position." Blaze explained, however knew at once that nobody would volunteer to die in an attempt at an elaborate trap. "Commander Gree, do you agree?"

"Yeah, although I'd hate to be the clone thats gonna have to hold off the seppies while we set up shop."

"I'll volunteer," a high pitched voice said from the shadows. The clones turned to see Burnout looking eagerly at them.

"You're alive?" Pyro immediately blurted out, and Burnout looked affronted.

"Of course I'm alive, sir."

"Yeah he can go," Ember said bluntly, and there was a murmur of assent throughout the group.

Meanwhile, Count Dooku had secured what he was after. In his palm, a sith  holocron, capable of wielding the user immense power through the destruction and release of the force. Killing the clones had done exactly that, and now Dooku's powers had nearly tripled, and was eager to deliver this to his master, the mysterious Darth Sidious.

Behind the deranged Count, three AATs purged the surroundings of all vegetation, accompanied by a dozen Commando Droids, five droidekas and an army of B1s and B2s.

Flare and a handful of unlucky clones had been positioned at the outpost walls, hiding fearfully behind cover as the drone of the oncoming threat worsened.

However, the full defensive capabilities of the outpost were also in-use. As soon as the AATs emerged in sight, an ion cannon perched above the clones fired on the droid tanks, immobilising one immediately. With this sudden and decisive blow, the clones were boosted with much needed morale, and began firing on the disarrayed droids. Burnout's men peeked out of cover, sometimes landing a hit on one of the droids, other times ricocheting back as a laser hit them in the head.

Dooku sent a shock of force lightning at the ion cannon, destroying it, and the explosion crippled the outpost's cover and collapsed on Burnout and his men. The AATs then swiftly began firing a barrage of rockets into the rubble. Burnout rolled out of harms way, his blaster spraying into the droid ranks. He spun away as Dooku threw his lightsaber at the clone, but missed. Burnout continued firing in the wreckage of the outpost, gunning down scores of droids, at the same time yelling at the top of his voice:

"FOR THE REPUB--." The clone never finished, as a commando droid leapt down from a tree and shot Burnout in the chest. The hole singed and burned, but Burnout's voice failed him. The commando drew his vibro-sword and held it to the clone's neck.

"Where are the others?" Dooku asked menacingly, his lightsaber drawn and ready to strike.

Burnout wasn't listening. His fingers brushed his blaster as it laid on the floor, and in one swift movement he kicked back at Dooku and snatched up his blaster, ready to kill. He was granted no such opportunity, as the commando ran it's vibrosword across the clone's neck, severing his jugular vein and decapitating him. Burnout's head, helmet still on, lolled around on the floor as his body fell in a pool of blood.

Through his scope Ember witnessed the tragic act, and reported it to Blaze. The Captain felt a pang of guilt as he realised he had lost another men to this terrible war. The explosives were in place, and the men were in position on the top of the ridge, ready to await the droids as they attempted to climb up it.

Sure enough, Dooku's forces soon began firing on the clones, to no avail. The countless B1s rushed the ridge, only to explode as Pyro detonated the explosives, a sadistic grin etched under his helmet as he watched the droid's bodies hurl through the sky, ablaze.

The commandos rushed next, assisted by tank fire from the two remaining AATs. They began climbing the ridge, but once all the droids were on it, Pyro detonated the second wave of explosives, tearing through the stone face of the ridge and destroying the droids. The rubble proceeded to fall onto Dooku's ranks, and although the Sith was able to prevent any from falling on him, boulders crippled the AATs, and ploughed through the remaining droids. Any clanker survivors were picked off by Ember and his sniper.

Finally, only Dooku remained. In a bout of rage he hurled the force at the clones above the ridge, throwing them back onto the muddy ground. Dooku then, in a single jump, scaled the ridge and landed at it's edge, his lightsaber drawn, pure evil marked in his eyes.

The clones began firing, but Dooku easily deflected the blasts. Several rebounded and killed the clones that had fired, and he darted across the mud to strike down on the nearest clones. Pyro had one last trick up his sleeve, as the clones rushed back, some pulled into the swing of Dooku's lightsaber by the force.

Too late the Count realised what was planned, and instinctively raised his lightsaber as the ground underneath him ruptured in a fresh wave of explosions. The ridge edge crumbled away, taking the count down with it. Dooku's body was covered by the rubble, but Blaze looked victoriously at Nova and nodded, and the Lieutenant jetpacked over to the edge, and fired a final rocket down at the rubble. The clones cheered, having won the battle. As if on cue, several LAATs landed behind the clones, and medics rushed to the battlefront to assess the wounded. Blaze and his SCOS boarded a gunship together, too tired to stand, all laying on their backs, revelling in their success.

= Dreadnought Special = Following the successful assault on Kashyykk, Inferno Company retreated to the Pulsar. The survivors were granted some relaxation time, while the SCOS were ordered to report to Admiral Steele on board the bridge.

"Sir, you requested us?" Blaze asked the admiral as the Pulsar began to enter hyperspace.

"Ah yes, CC-9966. Mission report, now."

"Sir, we were able to destroy the droid forces on the planet, and took out the seperatist leader Count Dooku. We suffered minimal casualties, although the 49th Forestry Division were all but wiped out." Blaze reported, the admiral still facing away and towards the glass window.

"Our search teams were unable to locate Count Dooku's body. Luckily you failed."

"I'm sorry Sir?"

"Oh--what? Er, nevermind CC-9966."

"Copy that, sir."

"I must concede, despite your unorthodox  methods, you were yet again able to succeed. Your victory shall be noted to the jedi council. Most impressive. The separatists will cower at our might."

"With all due respect sir," Ember interjected from behind, "Our might? You only ordered the 49th to death. You did nothing to help us win! You left us for dead."

"CL-0558, stand down now." Steele ordered, a menacing tone in his voice. "Dismissed."

"Sir, yes SIR!" The clones stamped, and retreated to their quarters.

"Can you believe his nerve?" Ember complained as the clones removed their battle-damaged armour and laid down cosily on their bunkbeds.

"Permission to speak freely, Captain?"

"Granted, Nova."

"I agree with Ember on this one. It does seem that Admiral Steele sent us to our doom."

"That sounds pretty treacherous, Nova." Spark pointed out, but Nova only shrugged in defence.

"Treacherous? Look at the bodies back at that fortification. It ain't treacherous, it's the truth!"

"Anyway, just be glad we didn't come back onboard in a bodybag men." Blaze lay down on his bed, resting his black hair on a pillow marked with the Republic Insignia.

"Eh, what's on the holonet Spark?" Pyro asked as his fellow Lieutenant started searching for channels on the holotable that rested in the centre of the room.

"Gimme a sec, here we go." Spark commentated, switching the holonet onto a female twi'lek reading from a stash of papers in her hand out towards the clones.

"And now, for a special tune in memory of the 212th Attack Battalion serving on Christophsis. This one is for you, boys. As always, i'm Herrera Gelee from the Grand Music of the Republic. Enjoy!" Then, a soothing calm melody began to play, and images of clones heroically fighting began to appear on the screen.

"Hey, are we on it this time?" Pyro asked, very interested, but Blaze, who didn't even bother to look quickly replied:

"We're never on it. You think Steele's going to go to the media?"

"Fair enough." And with that Pyro slumped back on his bed, listening to the music.

The Pulsar continued in deep space for three days more, navigating a path to Coruscant, Steele reassured the clones. Oddly, the clones never caught sight of another Republic vessel, but the lack of Venators hardly troubled the clones, who were enjoying their break from combat.

On the outset of the fourth day aboard the acclamator-class vessel, the clones were sleeping peacefully, a melodic tune being played on the GMOTR, and nothing seemed amiss.

The Pulsar was now speeding past debris, the navigators on board working tirelessly, taking shifts to ensure that the ship would return with its crew safely. As ever, Admiral Steele looked gloomily over the bridge, pacing silently up and down.

Soon, the Pulsar passed a planet, although it was not Coruscant.

it was Eadu, a rugged, mountainous planet located in the Eadu system of the Outer Rim Territories' Bheriz sector. Eadu was a remote, blue-hued world shrouded in gloomy rainstorms, wind, and lightning strikes. The planet's cloud cover was so thick that it appeared to be a night world even in daytime, and clouds mired visibility while gales battered any starships attempting to reach the surface.

"The hell!" Blaze shouted abruptly, quickly awakening the others.

"What?" Spark said groggily.

"Wait. What's wrong?" Pyro added sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

"Everyone get up now! Get dressed, quickly!" A note of panic in Blaze's voice. Despite being tired, Inferno Squad moved with efficiency, not questioning their captain's orders. Quickly, they were all changed into new Phase I armour, armed with their DC blasters.

"Captain," Nova began. "What's the situation?"

"Alright listen up everyone! Something's gone wrong. That's Eadu there," he pointed out of a nearby window to the blueish planet. "We are in the depths of the outer rim. We travelled completely the opposite way. Be prepared for Separatist activity. Keep your blasters free and ready to fire. Get into order now!" Blaze ordered, a panic now filling the room. Spark crept to the side of the door, and as it slid up, he pointed his blaster out and looked for anything amiss.

"Clear Captain."

The clones stealthily exited their room, checking their arcs and searching for anything wrong. Many clones were asleep, the corridors were dimly lit and a silence befell the ship.

"For Sarlaac's sake, this early?" Pyro muttered, shaking with nervousness, tiredness and coldness.

Spark made his way to the lift. He looked at Blaze for confirmation, who nodded in reply. Spark then opened the lift doors and the clones entered one by one, their armour reflected in the mirror that ran around the walls of the elevator.

"Alright Men," Blaze said, teeth chattering. "When we get to the bridge assume offensive positions. Spark and Pyro, keep a steady backline about 20 meters behind the blast doors. Ember stay behind them in prone, ready to fire directly on center of bridge. Nova and I will get behind either side of the doors. On my signal, we will enter and see what's going on. Do not use explosives, if we damage the computers we will be stuck here, so watch your fire. Does everyone copy?"

"Copy." the clones replied, and as the lift reached the top floor, the men ran to their positions.

When ready, Blaze nodded again at his men, and he and Nova quickly turned the corner, DC-17 pistols raised and ready to fire. What awaited them was something they could never had believed happening while they were obliviously on board.

The bridge was a mess. A tangled mess of bodies. Blood sprayed over most of the equipment and walls. The glass window stained crimson. Everywhere, bodies with what appeared to be blaster-holes. Although the occasional slash mark indicated something else. The computers were fried, something having run through them, destroying all data and control. The grey uniform of the officers lay in crumpled heaps with corpses inhabiting them. The two clone guards that would have been in position were lying on the other side of the blast doors, slumped in a pool of blood, a four slash marks cut through their torsos. Nowhere in sight was the spotless white robes of Admiral Steele.

Captain Blaze and Lieutenant Nova beckoned for the others to enter, and upon observing the scene that lay before them, they collectively gasped in horror.

"Not again..." Pyro muttered, shaking his head.

"Do you think it, it was--?" Nova stuttered, but Blaze quickly confirmed his fears.

"Grievous."

"There's no way we're going to survive against Grievous, and if he's still on the ship--" Nova began, but Spark raised a hand to silence him.

"Its our duty to the Republic. If we have to engage Grievous, then we have no other choice. Even if it means the end of us."

"No..No..No.." Pyro moaned under his breath as he turned over a body to see claw marks impaled on the chest.

"Alright men. Head back to the quarters, alert any onboard personnel. We need to find this stowaway."

The clones regrouped having awoken all the others in the clone quarters, and Blaze began to explain what had happened:

"We've just been up to the deck. It's not pretty, and we suspect that Grievous is somewhere onboard." At this proclamation, a murmur of fear rippled through the crowd of clones, but Blaze continued. "I want everyone to fan out and search the ship. Stay together, and if you find anything, tell us immediately. Do you all copy?"

"Sir, yes, Sir!"

The clones then exited, blasters raised to search for General Grievous.

Ten minutes later, Grievous was nowhere to be found. However, Sergeant Pyre radioed in to the officers, and reported a strange finding.

"All the escape pods are gone, Captain." Pyre noted. "Grievous must have --"

He was cut off as Blaze angrily bashed his head against a wall, cursing in Mandalorian.

"There's only so many places Grievous must be. The nearest planet is Eadu." Nova said, and went to the bridge to begin a landing route down to the planet's surface.

"What's this Eadu place then? Is it nice?" Spark asked, but Blaze shook his head.

"It's gloomy, rainy and dark. We've got no idea of what the situation is down there. Could be swarming with Battle Droids."

"Shouldn't we send a patrol first, then see if it's safe?" Ember suggested, but Blaze again rejected the idea.

"Grievous ejected all the escape pods. And anyway, there isn't enough time. We must rescue the admiral."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Pyro asked, and the Captain nodded.

"Of course."

"Why are we risking our lives and the men's lives just for Steele? He led us into a deathtrap back on Kashyykk, and now we're supposed to go to some unknown dangerous planet and prise him off General Grievous? It's a suicide mission."

"Pyro, we are a suicide mission." Spark said, and the clones began preparation for the rough landing on the stormy rocky terrain of Eadu.

The Pulsar descended through thick, navy-blue clouds and landed with a hiss onto a rocky flat area, outstretched above the swirling sea. The clones quickly exited and formed a defensive circle around the Pulsar, blasters ready to fire.

A dark figure appeared from the mist in front of the Pulsar. It was cloaked, and from the recesses of it's overalls it drew a small tube-like piece, and with a with a sharp beam, ignited it to form a glowing blue blade that illuminated the air around the figure.

The clones began firing on the cloaked figure, who effortlessly deflected the blaster bolts, sending them whizzing off into the sea. The clones slowly retreated at the advance of the lightsaber wielding figure, until they were backed up on the edge of the water.

"WAIT!" Ember cried at the figure, his hand outstretched in a feeble attempt to stop the advancing man. "You're a Jedi!? We're on the same side, don't hurt us!"

The Jedi stopped, and for a second a forked bolt of lightning briefly illuminated him. He was wearing tattered brown robes, with cuts and blaster-scorches abundant. Underneath, the remnants of some durasteel armour could be glimpsed. But perhaps most unnerving of all, beneath the hood of the Jedi, a grey metal mask covered his face, with a yellow line running across it's length, a visor of some sort perhaps.

"I," The jedi said slowly as the rain battered the petrified clones. "I am no Jedi." and began slowly walking towards the clones.

"Hey, Hey--Stay back!" Pyro grunted, raising his rotary cannon, but the masked figure easily disarmed the Lieutenant.

"I do not intend to hurt you. The weather will only worsen. Come, we can find shelter nearby."

The skies above were suddenly basked in a herald of light, and blaster fire torrented down towards the Pulsar. The clones watched on in horror as the rocky surface began to shatter, and they ran for the mainland as Separatist Gunships zoomed overhead, blasting the Pulsar. The onboard crew manned the defensive turrets and began to fire back, but it was no use. The slippery rock platform had given way, and the Pulsar creaked almost sadly as it fell and disappeared into the depths of the Eadu Ocean.

"No..." Captain Blaze muttered under his breath, but the Jedi called back to him.

"Come! There's no time!"

The Jedi outcast led the bewildered clones through a small passage in a nearby cave, emerging after a good while into a large hollow centre, cosily outfitted with accommodation equipment and a selection of raw foods. The living space was illuminated by small, flickering torches mounted on the cave walls, and outside, the clones could hear the rumbling of machinery as the Separatists landed on-world.

“So,” the Jedi began nonchalantly. “What brings you and your war out here to Eadu?”

“We didn’t mean to bring the droids here, General.” Nova said, but stopped as the Jedi looked up at him, somewhat frustrated.

“I’m not a General. I’m not going to fight for you either.”

“But we’ll get slaughtered against those droids!” Ember protested, eying the Jedi’s lightsabre hopefully.

“I, like you, was abandoned by the so-called Republic. I shall not now fight its enemies for them!”

“We haven’t been abandoned…” Sergeant Pyre muttered.

“And you’ll be able to live with yourself having gotten all of us killed?” Spark countered defiantly.

The Jedi considered this for a second, then laughed.

“Wh—What’s so funny?” Spark said, confused.

"You still believe me to be a golden knight here to rescue you from your perils. Nothing," he spat, "could be further from the truth."

"Okay, so who are you then?" Sergeant Firestorm asked, clutching his side.

"My name is Quan'li Shan. Descendant of Bastilla and Revan, Ancestors of Satele and Theron!" The clones looked at him blankly, and Quan'li shook his head dejectedly. "Never mind. What I mean to say, is that my family has long been entwined with the Republic, and that my ancestry should wow you. Evidently you are not taught of the Republic's origins. Ironic, considering you fight so selflessly for them."

Suddenly, the cave walls burst open, exploding in a mix of plasma and blue tinged stone. Quan'li almost instantly ignited his lightsaber, and quickly deflected a few incoming blaster bolts back into the crowd of advancing droids. The clones were not nearly as lucky. As the B1s opened fire, their shots pierced through the unprepared clones' armour, and many Inferno Company men fell to the bloody, rocky ground.

Quan'li pushed a wave of droids backwards using the force, his lightsaber spinning as he deflected bolt after bolt. Although Blaze and his officers couldn't match the speed of a Jedi, they quickly ducked down behind whatever cover they could find, sometimes even a pile of their own brother's bodies, and returned fire on the droids, crippling the B1 ranks.

= Boarding = The bleary eyed lieutenants stumbled into the bridge of the pulsar, still blinking against the harsh lighting of the waking world. Captain Blaze stood next to the control panel with his back turned to the lieutenants.

“Good morning, sir!” Lieutenant Nova exclaimed enthusiastically, seemingly the only one unaffected by the early morning meeting.

“Morning lieutenants, I hope you all slept well, you’ll need to be alert for the coming mission.” Blaze addressed the congregation.

“I expect I would be more attentive if it wasn’t so damn early!” Ember grumpily stated. A murmur of assent could be heard throughout the group. They had barely gone to sleep before an impromptu alarm had woken them from their well-earned slumber.

“I’m not thrilled either, but the wake up call was highly necessary, a clanker ship, specifically a dreadnought-class heavy cruiser has been spotted approaching the planet Cristophsis, and we have orders to engage them and prevent the capture of the planet. This will not be easy, we can expect sixteen thousand droids to be defending it which we must contend with, all of which must be neutralised.”

“And here I thought we had a moment of peace,” Spark muttered dejectedly. The constant battles had taken their toll on the prestigious inferno company, leaving their numbers severely reduced and their morale greatly lowered as a result.

“I know this is not the news you wanted to hear...” Their Captain started.

“But it’s the news we expected, so we might as well get on with it, what’s the plan?” Pyro spoke up. Blaze looked with pride at the tired yet determined lieutenants,

“Alright, we are going into this heavily outnumbered, but when are we not. Our safest option is to try to blow up their ship, thus eliminating all of the attacking separatists, however, we cannot be on-board at the time of the explosion. To accomplish this, I am sending Ember and his platoon to fight through to the ion engines, of which there are six.”

“Copy that cap.” Ember responded.

“You know I don’t like that title, anyway, the rest of us will be taking the main brunt of the force in the hanger. No doubt the clankers will notice our docking, so they will rush to defend. We must hold out for long enough for Ember platoon to plant the explosives. Pyro, we are relying heavily on your squad of heavies for this, they will be integral in taking out the large mass of droids rushing through the doors. Nova, your jet troopers will fly up to the raised walkways for an aerial view of the areas.”

“And myself, sir?” Spark enquired.

“Ah yes, Spark, while the droids are distracted by Pyro's platoon, you will flank round them and cut them off, mitigating the number of droids assaulting the ship itself.”

“If I may sir?” Nova interjected, “ how are we planning on entering the hanger, it’s bound to be securely guarded.”

“Yes...that would be a problem...wouldn’t it.” Spark muttered.

“Hmmm, Ember, when we are approaching the vessel, I want your specialist squad to take out their AA guns, allowing us to dock. You will then proceed with your mission to blow up the engines.”

The lieutenants nodded the affirmative to their captain, before leaving to rouse their platoons and lay out the finer details of the operation. Blaze sighed, inferno company had barely recovered from their heavy losses on their other operations, and sending them out once again on yet another near suicide mission was not going to make their situation any better. As it was, their ranks were filled with shinies to replace the men lost on Coruscant, making it all the more likely that mistakes could be made.

It was immediately obvious to the men that their task would be no easy feat, the dreadnought was, although thinner, nearly as long as the acclamator class ship housing the clones. The tension was palpable as the nervous clones boarded their starships, readying to dock. As per the instructions of Captain Blaze, Ember's specialist squads would be the first to deploy, enabling them to quickly take out the AA guns that were even now attempting to fire upon the pulsar, however the low profile of the ship allowed it to avoid the most major of the damage.

The clones jumped into action, readying their valken-38x's to fire upon the menacing AA guns. Red blaster fire mixed with the barrage from the ion cannons, picking them off one by one with their smaller vessel and more accurate shots. The resultant explosions rocked the clone transports, frightening the shinies who had never been in this situation before. Even Lieutenant Pyro started shaking from the memory of past battles, in many of which he had been injured by such explosions.

“Why does everything in this galaxy explode...” he muttered shakily, trying to ignore the loud environment.

After the final ion cannon had met it’s match, the shuttle containing ember platoon broke off from the rest of the fleet, heading to the lower security outer hull, where hopefully they would not face much resistance due to the distraction offered by the rest of the attack. The main body of the clones were transported in LAATs towards the hanger's force field.

“We need to take down that shield before we can enter the hanger!” Nova shouted to the Captain.

“Don’t worry Nova, when we cause a diversion, one of Ember’s squads will break off make their way to the shield generator room and throw an EMP grenade, which should disable the magnetic shield.” Blaze nonchalantly replied, seeming very relaxed, “there’s nothing much we can do until then, so there is no use worrying.”

= Operation: Blitz = Dusk dawned on Endor. The pleasant crackle of burning LAAT and the odd medium-rare piece of human flesh comforted the remnants of the 51st, reminding them of the fun they didn't have by campfires during their childhoods.

A clatter, familiar to Blaze as Spark's gun being thrown to the ground in frustration, resounded through the forest. "No luck?"

"Everything's down, cap. Comms with the rest of the company are completely lost. We'd be better off building a staircase back to the Pulsar than trying to re-establish them." Despite this, he continued tinkering in the fading light of the now one star remaining above the tree-strewn horizon.

Meanwhile, Pyro sat in the darkness, examining his blackened armour, wondering how this simple recon mission had turned into a nightmare. He cast his mind back. The image of the flaming LAAT hurtling to the ground occupied his brain. No, no.... that was too late. What had caused that? Every empty corner of the gunship being filled with Nova's "spare armour"? He chuckled to himself. However ridiculous that idea was, the weight wouldn't have been enough. The clone shut his aching eyes. Of course! It could only have been the pre-flight checks. A combination of Blaze's enthusiastic impatience, Nova's stubborn reassurance and the lack of well-rested, experienced men led to this.

"So here we are," he said to himself, "on Endor, at night, on fire, isolated. Fantastic."

Annoyed, he got up to have a look around, immediately noticing Blaze and Spark examining their helmets, and headed towards them. What he did not see was a pair of Ewok eyes squinting through the weak glow of the fires.

Back on the Pulsar, the second LAAT was preparing for departure. "Any news from the first squad?" Ember inquired. Phlog shook his head. "We seem to have lost comms with them. Hopefully they'll be back up any second."

"Well, it's been a while since they left, they've got to be on that ice moon by now." The sergeant muttered something about doing the Republic's dirty work and turned away.

The flight containing Ember and Nova went smoothly, and they soon landed near the Ewok settlement. Nova was able to admire the vast coat of trees from the gunship, but was puzzled at the sight of a faint glow not too far away. Before he could make his mind up as to what this was, he felt the LAAT slow down, indicating their arrival. Leaving the ship, the lieutenant forgot about this seemingly minor occurrence.

As expected, the protocol droid assigned to them for this mission was essential to communicating with the locals. "They said that they recently spotted some weird activity slightly further north from here." Nova's thoughts flickered back to the strange light. "They did not recognise who or what it was, but since you are here now, they thought it should be safest for you to investigate."

And that is exactly what the men did next. Marching at first, but more stealthily and less orderly as they approached the anomaly. "Those are imperial shuttles!" Nova's stubborn confidence bellowed through the ranks. "Shut your sarlaac!" an unnamed sergeant responded.

The lieutenant's voice was reduced to an aggressive whisper. "We must attack them while they aren't expecting us! We have the element of surprise on our side!"

Ember sighed.

"We haven't confirmed anything yet. As far as I'm concerned, those could be our men. Almost looks like an LAAT there. I think you and a couple of your troopers should scout ahead first."

"Ember, I am absolutely confident that those are enemy vessels which we must attack immediately in order to secure potentially valuable clanker intel." Once again Ember sighed, but decided that they should all rest before attacking. As some of the men kept guard, the others experienced something they had been defamiliarised from: peace and quiet.

This was not to last long. Blaze noticed movement towards the south, so sent Spark to investigate. Ember, keeping guard noticed a blur to his left duck behind a tree. Spark knew he had been noticed by the unknown, potential enemy. He crouched, motionless, holding his breath. Ember's scope had already snapped to his visor and was taking aim at the peculiar, crotch-height protrusion. A silent burst of rifle fire later, Spark lay unconscious on his charred backside, and all Ember had seen was a blur and a butt. He went back to his previous business, but more alert than before.

Alarmed by Spark's absence and lack of response, the captain decided to act. He sent Pyro to prepare and gather the men, ready for a potential battle.

With the first shots of the battle fired, casualties became inevitable.

Pyro crouched behind a crate, still deep in thought. Who was this enemy? How could they be so deadly? They were an equal match for their men. Surely not an entire company of commando droids?

He heard a clatter to his left. He readied his rifle, certain it was a clanker unsuccesfully trying to sneak around him. He was shocked to find it was not a clanker, but indeed an EMP of his own design. Stunned, he dropped unconscious to the ground.

The last thing he sensed before seeing Nova's silhouette sprinting stealthily past him was the gas filling his nostrils.

He was confused to see a battle unfolding in all directions. Weirdly familiar bolts cut across the dark forest in both directions. Taking advamtage of his recently rediscovered consciousness, the clone rolled into a position behind a tree without rising, flinching every time he rolled onto his back. Ignoring the death unfolding behind him, he took a closer look at his wounds. Although the shot barely penetrated his now peeling armour and skin, he felt the impact as if he was fused with the fires of Mustafar. At that very moment, a shot seared his left shoulder. He collapsed back to the floor. Before blacking out once again, he heard Blaze's frantic apologies in the distance.

Nova ran. He could not stop running. He would not stop running. He did not want to stop running. He ran through trees, he ran through bushes, he ran over a body or two. His rifle had proved too heavy, so he had dropped it. As a replacement, he picked up a pistol he found by one of the casualties. And he kept on running. Focusing on his own, regular breaths, and the path ahead of him. He ran. He stumbled, spotted an enemy and stopped. He looked unarmed, but better safe than sorry, the clone thought. Crouching, he took aim at the silhouette and pulled the trigger. Seconds pass. Silence. He pulls again. Nothing. For the first time he pauses to examine his weapon and is amused and frustrated to find a hole blasted through the centre. He chucked it to the ground ahead of him, flinching at the noise. The subject of his stalking seemed to perk up. At that moment he remembered the EMP Pyro had given him back on the Pulsar, "just in case". Steadying his frantic but silent gasps, he lobbed the grenade at his target, got up and ran, not looking back at what he had done.

Blaze sat, stunned into silence, horrified by the sounds of his men and brothers dying. Who was this enemy? To his left, Corporal Glaze fell, wounded. Blaze dragged him back to cover and examined his wounds. The hole in his armour was suspiciously familiar, resembling that caused by his own company's weaponry. Confused, he stopped to think. Could this "enemy" possibly be his own men? Surely not, he thought. They were meant to be much further away from here. And yet, this feeling persisted, and guilt flowed through him as he fired his DC-17 at what could be his own brothers. In the flurry of fire, he saw movement to his right, immediately snapping towards it and firing at Spark's soldier. Following a shout and a grunt, Blaze realised what he had done and apologised as he ran over to treat the lieutenant.

Ember took a deep breath and held it. He stared into the distance, away from the enemy, at the spectacular double sunrise. Aware that the slightest move could kill him, he appreciated the moment of peace. He let the breath go, shifted hisbweight onto his left foot, and stuck his upper body out from behind his cover to greet the enemy. He fired. He continued firing. He fired until at least a few enemies lay dead or wounded in the distance, when a shot grazed his shoulder. He flinched back in pain. Knowing he would not be able to aim, he sprinted stealthily around the side. When shots started flying past him, he combat  rolled towards cover, hitting his back on a tree in the process. Crouching perfecrly still, he spotted an enemy on the floor, shooting at his men. He took aim and pulled the trigger. At least he would have had it not become detached in the recent events. Immediately thinking up a plan, he used his stealth to sneak up on this mysterious enemy. "SURRENDER!" he screamed. When the enemy did not, he repeated. "Ok, ok, I'm surrendering!" In the red and orange glow of the morning, he saw movement and heard the clatter of a rifle. Familiarity struck him in his opponent's voice. Where had he heard it before?