NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20: Loss
I stood beside Commander Monnk in the back as we were at the original defensive position, with way less troops than hoped. Less than 10%
"My Prince, you must prepare to dictate terms for a Quarren surrender." The Senator said, as all eyes turned towards her.
Was she completely oblivious to the number of Quarren retreat and the current forces we had now? Because they far surpassed ours.
"Not so fast, Senator." Captain Akbar said.
"I know the Quarren, they won't surrender." Prince Lee said. Which would have made sense. The Separatist developed a lot of Aqua Droids due to their attack on Kamino and generally. But us clones were so few in number, that we couldn't train many SCUBA Troopers, at least not enough to even somewhat match the Aqua Droids, even worse odds than normal troopers vs normal droids.
"We many have won the first battle, Your Highness. But it won´t be the last." Anakin said.
"It's only a matter of time before they launch another attack." Captain Ackbar said.
I swum up to Ahsoka, standing behind her with my gun.
"Commander, we've lost the Battle." I said silently, and only she heard it. But I also saw Anakin flinch slightly, he likely heard it.
Ahsoka turned around to face me.
"What? How? We won the Battle." Ahsoka asked.
"No, the retreat makes no sense. They had split our forces, and we are essentially split into small platoons, not an army. They likely have another weapon, and the Prince is too inexperienced to mount a successful counter-attack." I told her, and she looked doubtful but began thinking.
Suddenly Anakin swam up to me.
"How certain are you of this?" Anakin asked.
"90% General, they've got an ace up their sleeve. We should prepare a retreat route." I told him, and now he too began thinking.
He was about to say something, but suddenly a low rumble and a green glow appeared from underneath us.
And slowly they rose, the new weapon. The Hydra Medusas.
The strategy used by the Separatist is quite inefficient, they're too clumped together and they don't have the space to be fully used to their potential.
Had I been the Separatist Commander, then I´d split the Medusas out, as they are not precisely weapons of mass destruction, but they are perfect for drawing attention, as one would have to focus to evade the tentacles.
Which could allow the normal troops to sneak onto the hostile forces, or gain an advantage in combat. But still, we had long lost the Battle.
I crouched down and aimed as Captain Ackbar held his arm up, and waiting for the Prince to give the Command.
Now, it made sense to attack them from underneath, but these are new weapons and we don't know how to counter it, retreat would be the best option.
As the Medusas showed their underbelly to us, we opened fire on the Princes command. But It barely even bothered the monster.
And as I heard blaster shots behind us, I turned around and opened fire on the Aqua Droids behind us, taking all 3 of them out.
I turned around to see Ahsoka, Prince Lee and Captain Ackbar talking, and a few seconds later Ackbar shouted.
"Follow me!"
And with that, we followed him through the Medusas and towards the caves. I remained beside the clone trooper carrying the Senator as I guarded the pair.
...
I stood on guard alongside Monnk and another clone trooper as the others talked about our next course of action.
"I´ll owe you a drink after this, Monnk." I said, which earned me a chuckle.
"You're the reason you're alive. I just simply helped speed your skills along. I´ve trained many others, most of whom died. So this is on you, perhaps I owe you a drink." Monnk said and even the other clone chuckled.
"Thanks, but we'll see what happen. We still might not make it out of the water." I told him, just in time for Ahsoka to wave us over as we all headed out.
We followed them to the end of the caves where we were briefed by Ahsoka.
We were trying to get off this water-filled planet. By escaping to the ship and using it to regroup off-planet.
But first we had to get there, which was the major issue. As there were multiple patrols on the way, and we had to swim straight through the open to get to our ship, which almost definitely meant we were fighting again.
"I´ll create a diversion." General Fisto said as I stepped forward.
"I´ll join you, General." I said and he nodded.
"Try to get us some sub-speeders, will help speed things up a lot." Anakin said and we both nodded, before heading off.
However, surprisingly, he stretched out both his hands towards me.
Not the forc-
But I couldn't finish that sentence as I was thrown upwards, forcing myself to remain silent. And only a second after, Fisto appeared as well.
We then sneaked through the seaweed and rocks, where we came upon a patrol.
A few hand signs and the plan was decided, I´d remain and shoot of the 2 guards, while Kit dealt with the sub-speeder.
He left, sneaking behind the sub-speeder, grabbing the driver and twisting his neck, killing him. Before knocking out the two passengers with the force.
I used that chance to aim my weapon and open fire, killing the 2 guards around the clones with 3 shots.
Then, surprisingly. Commander Monnk joined us while the 2 other Clones we just rescued grabbed the Quarren Rifles, and opened fire on the incoming squads.
I did the same, aiming my rifle at a Patrol coming from the west, 3 Aqua Droids and 4 Quarren.
I focused on the sub-speeder they were using, and luckily. After 5 shots, one hit was lucky and got their core, exploding the entire speeder and taking all 7 of them down.
I then turned around, just in time to see Monnk get charged by a Quarren. A quick shot and the spear which was 30 centimetres away from Monnk halted.
Said person turned around and nodded, before returning to firing upon enemies.
I then opened fire upon a singular sub-speeder heading towards me.
I managed to somehow get out of the way of it's fire, and shot the driver with a single precise shot, though it was at medium range.
I turned around to see Kit Fisto kill the patrol which just speared through the last of the troopers with us, leaving Kit, Monnk and me.
However, he then pointed at the debris, which were currently falling down after the ship exploded. The Senators and the Prince holding onto the debris to sail it to the seafloor.
I joined Kit as we grabbed onto an area close to Prince Lee, Ackbar and Anakin.
And as we reached the Seafloor, we let go right before and headed off, following Kit Fisto and Prince Lee-Char, whom headed into a cave.
I and Monnk secured the flank as we headed in, checking to see if there were any droids nearby.
After clearing it, we nodded at each other before heading in alongside the Jedi and the Prince.
"Commander Monnk, Captain Vaughn, secure the entrance and be on lookout." General Fisto said and we both saluted.
"Yes, sir." We said simultaneously before heading to the entrance.
We reached the seaweed hiding the entrance just in time to see 2 Aqua Droids appear and search the area around the cave.
We quickly hid and aimed at the droids.
A few seconds later, even more droids appeared. Followed by what seems like over a hundred Mon Calamari Prisoners.
"Sir, you better come see this." Monnk said as he turned around to face the Jedi and the Prince.
"So many prisoners, where are they taking them?" Lee-Char asked, but the answer was obvious. There was no other reason why they'd take such a large amount of prisoners one way, especially for the separatist.
"To become slaves." Kit Fisto said.
"I can't believe Nossor Ri and the Quarren agreed to it." Lee-Char said.
"Count Dooku rules here now, not the Quarren." Ahsoka said.
"What you see now, Prince. Is the future of all inhabitants of Mon Cala, both Quarren and Calamari.... All slaves for Dooku." Fisto said.
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