Worth: A Star Wars Story

26. Sword of the Republic

We tracked the droid to Tobasa's governmental headquarters, a massive building at the heart of the city., and when we managed to override the security code and get inside, we found Trill and company doing what Clones did best: obliterating droids. Trill and Cobalt were back-to-back taking them out as they poured out from the rooms in a last desperate bid to defend Dray. "Vex!" Trill shouted as a volley of quick succession sniper rounds came from one of the high balconies, striking several incoming B-1s carrying heavy weaponry.

The sound of a rotary cannon got Grek's attention and we saw two Clones reinforcing one of the 82nd heavies, "Eat blasters, Clankers!" The heavy laughed manically as the droids dropped in front of him like flies.

"Kando!" Cobalt's voice caught my ear, "Go! The Tac Droid and the General got away inside! They're calling in the Dreadnought! Stop them or we're all dead!"

"On it!" I sprinted past them as they held the line and up the steps where Tor and Red got to work busting the door open for us. They had locked it down tight, and when it jammed as it tried to open, Grek and Hex shoved their arms in and began to pry it open, pushing the sides away just enough so that they could fit their bodies in and force it the rest of the way for us.

Almost before I could finish clearing the door, I felt something narrowly miss my head, and when I looked, I saw the Tac Droid. It's three red eye flashed as it seemed to compute something before it drew its blaster and tried to fire a shot at my stomach. I slapped the blaster aside and headbutted the droid, sending it staggering backwards as Ryder rolled in and went to shoot it before he had to dive aside to narrowly miss a shot from a pulse rifle held by another droid at the front of the room, standing guard over Dray, who was furiously working the nearby console.

"Protect the general!" The Tac droid called out, signaling the large, prototype B-2s nearby to spring into action, as it lunged forward with a vibrosword in its other hand and nearly hit me in the neck had I not staggered back, nearly falling over as I tried to regain my footing. I hated being caught so off-guard more than anything, and this droid was taking full advantage of it. 

I saw one of the few B-1s fall when Tor slid into the room and scored a shot clean through its face plate. He glanced back as he snapped to his feet, "Grek, Gundark Maneuver!" He shouted, and I heard Grek give a roar as he sprinted forward and swung his rotary cannon hard into one of the behemoth B-2s as Tor built up a charge shot and punched it straight through the droid's chest. 

There was a heavy thunk of armor hitting the ground as I saw Red go flying across the room and hit the ground with a grunt. One of the droids lunged over to him and was about to stab him with the sharpened grappling arm had Hex not dove into it, throwing it off-balance. "Not today, big boy!" Hex shouted as he slammed his knee into the droid's legs, sending it toppling down the ground with a heavy groan. 

I was occupied with the Tac Droid, and I snapped out my vibroknife and blocked the larger blade with mine as I heard my squad doing what they do behind me. Ryder was keeping any additional droids off my back as I worked on trying to disarm the Tac Droid so I could go for its head. I grunted as I dodged another well aimed sword blow and caught the droid by the arm, going to flip it over my shoulder as it caught itself on its feet and sued the momentum to fling me over its shoulder instead, but not before I lodged my knife into its neck actuator. Now, I had something to aim for. I hit the ground and immediately rolled over, jumping to my feet as I whistled to Ryder, who pulled out his blaster and started firing a volley at the droid. The Tac Droid started running to avoid the shot, and I started sprinting to take a leap at it, aiming to grab ahold of the knife to I could snap the head off, but as I went to, I caught the flash of a scope and dropped to the floor just in time to avoid a shot from Dray, who had turned her attention away from the console and threw down the fallen B-1s rifle to grab what I knew right off the bat was a Verpine shattergun from the desk.