The Clone's Hero (Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

Near the breaking point (Intro pt5)

Every soldier, no matter how tough or experienced, has a breaking point.

"Commander look out!" A clone trooper ran up behind Steele—who was busy fighting off two super battle droids—and pushed him to the ground.

A wave of blaster bolts from recently appeared destroyer droids rushed over their heads. Those destroyers were quickly taken care of by a couple of droid poppers. Steele got to his feet with the help of the trooper who saved his life.

"T—thank you, Ignis," Steele said in a weak voice.

The trooper—Ignis, could feel his commander shaking under his armour. "Are you ok, commander? You seem a bit...out of it."

"Just a little tired, but n...nothing too serious," Steele assured before returning to the fight.

They were on a mission to take over a Separatist base on Utapau. The base was a large fortress built on steep mountainous terrain. It was rumoured to be impregnable.

"We'll see about that," was what Krell said to the Council when they assigned him this mission.

But after three days of nonstop battle, the 304th could see why the rumour existed in the first place.

The area surrounding the base was high and rocky. There weren't many places to scout or navigate around. In fact, the only way to storm the fortress was through the main path.

And of course, that meant lots and lots of enemy fire.

Perhaps that's why Krell and his men were sent. They were experts of the 'storming in from the front' tactic. But this time, the clones had a harder time spotting the droids and had fewer places to run for cover.

Nonetheless, Steele was adamant about completing this mission.

"Keep to the edge!" He shouted.

The clones all obeyed and rushed to the rocky walls surrounding the road passage. Ignis helped a slightly disoriented Steele to the edge while shooting at the endless wave of droids.

"Ignis! Is the commander alright?" Compass shouted between blaster shots. "Should we call a medic?"

"No!" Steele strained to stand up. He pointed at a large rocky arch behind the droid wave. "Push the clankers underneath that arch, then use the cannon to hit it! We'll crush them in the rubble! Cough! Cough!"

Compass looked at Steele. "Are you really alright, sir?"

More clone troopers were taking note of Steele's lower performance today. They all expressed concern for him.

"Sir, you should head to the back!"

"Someone get a medic here!"

"Just do what I tell y—you!" Steele shouted but then lowered his voice. "Please. Don't make things harder for me than it already is..."

Everyone listening looked at each other. They wanted to ask their commander for details on what he means by 'harder than it already is' but decided to just follow his orders instead.

"Sergeant, Egad, with me!" Compass shouted as he ran out in the open.

He tumbled behind a large boulder and started shooting at the droids at the front. Kal and Egad followed him and alternated between each boulder while shooting at the droids.

More and more clones followed their example. It was effective, they were pushing the droids back to the rocky arch.

"Now!" Steele shouted shakily from the sides.