Worth: A Star Wars Story

2. The Battle of Geonosis

Geonosis was hell all on its own.

The deployment came hot on the heels of the Jedi, a snap announcement that we were to pack it up and move it out for Geonosis ASAP. Our brief was quick: we were to move in and assist the Jedi with an assault on a planet with heavy amounts of Separatist resistance. Myself and other special operations task force squads were to assist our Commandos that were getting dropped in to attempt to cripple the Separatist leadership if possible. We were to clear out LZ's, secure drop zones, and otherwise make ourselves a nuisance for all of the creepy crawlies that were going to try to get in our way.

My squad had hopped on a ship while I made some last minute checks with the lead logistics officers working the staging area. When I turned around, I saw the shop already full and my squad giving me confused shrugs.

"Uh, LT?" I turned to the officer, who looked to me as I thumbed back over my shoudler at the full ship.

"Oh... Oh, okay. That squad's ship got blown up by mortars," he looked back down at a datapad as he spoke. "They're getting moved up to your flight."

"Where does that leave me?"

"No worries, Captain," the logistics officer slapped my back, "we'll slap you on the next gunship heading their way. Hop aboard!"

I shrugged it off. If a squad had to get in, then me taking an extra second on another ship departing just after wasn't going to hurt all that much. I hopped up into the dropship as other squad piled in after me. There was a certain energy, a certain excitement that thrummed through the ship as the supervising officer banged his fists against the side as a signal for us to liftoff.

I kept an eye on my squadmates' ship was we took off over the barren landscapes of Geonosis. Antiaircraft artillery was going off all around us and rockets would whizz past and slam into canyons on either side. I watched more than one gunship take a hit and careen towards the earth in a plume of dark black smoke and flames. Much to my relief, my squad looked like they were doing okay... that was until we got close to the LZ.

I don't know exactly what happened or where all of that spontaneous fire came from, but when it did, all I could do was watch. I watched when the rockets hit my squad's ship, and I watched it explode. It was the most sobering moment of my entire life watching an entire dropship full of troopers just burst into a ball of flames and debris. I didn't know what to feel or how to feel it. All I knew is that the men I trained with for years, since I was a kid, had been killed right in front of me, and the only reason I wasn't dead was because I got lucky.

Our dropship made it. Peppered with blaster holes, but intact. I hopped off and got flagged down by a nearby Commander. I crouched down and slid up to him as the thrumming whirl of Geonosian sonic rifles blasted all around us and the thin thunks of droid blasters slammed into the rocks and makeshift barricades where the other troopers were crouched. "CT-7209?" The commander asked as he narrowly dodged a blaster shot.

"That's me, unfortunately," I called out as I raised my blaster over the barrier and took a shot at one of the droids, smiling to myself when I heard the telltale buzz of a blaster bolt piercing metal.

"Your Squad is pinned down, Captain," the commander shouted to me as I stayed hunkered behind some rock to avoid the Geonosian sonic rifle blasts that thrummed overhead.

"My squad got blown up!" I called back as I popped up long enough to hit some of the bugs back where they belonged.

"Your new squad!" The commander called back as he did the same. "Just heard that there's a batch that just lost their commander and they need a new one. Special task group, they were helping clear the way for Delta Squad to go after the bug commander!"