Time's up! (A Clone Wars Fanfic)

Part 30- Incoming!

"Lets go Commander" Fives nudged her a little and they returned to the troops.

Since they could only move in single squads, the plan was to have two smaller ones. Rex and Melian would lead one, and Fives and Hardcase the other. Rex went with Fives and Hardcase to brief them on the plan, Melian stayed with the rest of the men.
"So Melian, do you think we're getting out of this one?" Tup turned to Melian
"Honestly? Barely"
"Not to worry, Hardcase'll be there to provide moral support" Jesse added. All of them shared a laugh.

When Rex returned with the two, they divided into the two squads. They were moving close to each other, yet, in case of an emergency, so far away. The ground started to slightly shake. Everyone looked at the ground. Two giant caterpillar-like machine-vehicles, Impending Assault Tanks, jumped from the ground
"Oh scrag" a few of them exclaimed in fear. While Fives' and Hardcase's squad was desperately trying to destroy the Tanks, Rex and Melian were farther away. They saw the battle from higher ground and it didn't look good.
"Get those rocket launchers down there!" Rex ordered.
"Not just Umbarans use special weapons, eh?" Melian joked with Rex
"Well, if a rocket launcher is a special weapon to you, then the Umbarans better be wary!" The two shared a small chuckle.
"Hey ya love birds! Not really the right time, wouldn't you say?" Another clone joked with them.

Luckily rocket launchers worked on the tanks, and all five of them were destroyed. Three more showed up after the first two, it was crazy. Well, after they solved the tanks, the 501st got moving again, heading towards the airbase. There wasn't much noise, except a few shots towards the banshees, everything was quiet, even the men. Perhaps they were all, still shaken a bit from the tanks. Who knows what goes on in a soldiers brain. 

As Melian enjoyed the silence of the planet, the Force was louder than ever. Though the 501st wasn't fighting, Melian could feel the pain and deaths of the 212th. The screams of soldiers getting shot, blown up... The Force itself was in pain, all the deaths being too much for it to handle. Melian couldn't even begin to count how many men she had to watch die, how many of them begged her in their last moments to help them. But she did nothing. Just, watch them die, let them go. If it is the will of the Force, then it shall be like that she kept repeating to herself so she would feel better. It didn't help much, she still hated herself because of it.

The soothing silence was interrupted by a sound of machines in the distance. Some of the men thought that they ran into the tanks again, but the last time the tanks came from the ground. This was something different. Rex looked thru his macrobinoculars. At first he couldn't see anything, but when he looked a little to the right, he stopped breathing. He saw... something he couldn't even begin to describe. Two giant machine monsters, which he would discover later were Mobile Heavy Cannons.
"Rex, what is it?" Melian asked, still looking in the direction of the noise, her voice shaking a little. He didn't answer.
"Rex?"
"Incoming..." he said, quietly, when he saw the cannon fire in their direction.
"Incoming!!"

The men got ready for the shot. Again, it was one of the special Umbaran weapons so none of them knew what to expect from it. They started shooting at it, not doing any damage.
"Rocket launchers!" Melian yelled for the men who had them to shoot at once. One rocket hit the Heavy Cannon directly in the cannon. They expected for it to fall, crash, they defeated it... right? No. The Heavy Cannon was too ray shielded, the rockets didn't work on it.
"What?!"
"How do we destroy this thing if nothing works on it, not even rockets??"
"Maybe... maybe after we hit it with rockets more times they'll work?" Melian suggested
"I mean, we have no choice but to keep firing so might as well try it" Fives commented. The rockets hit the Heavy Cannon multiple times, on same places, different places but nothing worked.
"The rockets just don't work"
"Well what do we do now??" As soon as Tup asked that, Krell contacted Rex. He just looked at Melian.

"Captain, continue your attack!" He yelled over the wrist comm
"Sir, we're overpowered. We need reinforcements!"
"The rest of the battalion is holding the entrance to the gorge, Captain. They're guarding it so your troops can break thru to the airbase!"
Something exploded right next to them while hiding behind a tree. One of the rocket launchers flew right in front of Melian
"We can't possibly-" Melian said, out of breath but she was interrupted.
"You must stand your ground! Do you read me? Are you listening? Do not fall back, that is an order!" He hung up

The 501st was still taking cover behind the tree.
"Keep the wounded as quiet as possible" Rex told Kix after placing them in one corner.
"You heard the General, lets go" he said
"You can't be serious" Jesse looked at Rex.
"I thought General Krell was reckless, but now I'm beginning to think he just hates clones"
"The Captain is right. Now lets move out"
"Dogma can't you understand? He doesn't care about us, he puts our lives in danger, needlessly and it just isn't right" Melian said. Rex started going but Fives stopped him
"We can't take them head on, we need to find another way"
"You got any ideas?"
Fives was silent, just like everybody else.
"Then this is it"
"Ok, lets do it" Hardcase said, holding a rocket launcher
Melian hit Jesse with her elbow a little
"Hm, you were right, Hardcase is providing moral support"
Jesse just laughed a little.

They were fighting against the Heavy Cannons but nothing worked, something they tried to explain to Krell.
"Help me with the wounded!" Kix yelled, dragging a soldier. There were too many of them for Kix alone. Kix turned around again, trying to help more of them, but Rex stopped him
"Forget it, we have to leave them"
"We can't just leave them sir!"
"You don't have a choice, that's an order!" The words that came out of Rex's mouth greatly surprised Melian.
"You sound like General Krell" Kix answered.
"Look Kix, it's more important that you save yourself right now, if we survive, you can patch up the wounded later"
He looked towards the airbase thru the macrobinoculars.
"We're... we're finished"
"We've still got some fight left in us Tup, and I've got an idea" Rex said
"What were you thinking?" Fives asked.
"Remember what you were saying, about finding another way to destroy those tanks?"
"Yeah?"
"Well I have a mission for you"
You didn't need to see his face to know Fives was happy.

Krell was contacting Rex again
"CT-7567 where are you?"
"General Krell, we've come up with a plan to infiltrate the airbase." Rex started, and Melian continued
"We've dispatched two men on a stealth incursion into the airbase. They've been ordered to co-opt starfighters and use them against the tanks" she said with a slight smile, which dissapeared as soon as Krell started talking
"You what?! You've put this entire assault on your hope that two clones can do what your entire group could not?!"
"Sir, the rocket launchers don't work on these tanks and it'll be easier to slip by, undetected while the rest of us keep the tanks occupied" Rex answered
"Captain, you will launch a full-forward assault immediately or you will be relieved of duty!"
Rex just ended the call, full of his crap already.
"We need to hold out as long as we can, I'm trusting Fives and Hardcase to pull this thing off"
"Even if they don't, knowing them, they'll have fun" Melian told him with a smile.
"Yeah, they sure will"