Dageer grunted in pain as a laser hit his left shoulder, but he ignored the wound, and continued firing his blaster. Two commando droids fell when he hit them, but one got up shortly after. Even with Dageer's precision, it was difficult to kill the commando droids in a single hit, even more in the middle of a battle of the proportions of the one they were in.

"They are getting closer, sir!"

"I can see that, Cell! Shut up and keep firing!"

Usually, Dageer wouldn't be so harsh on his words, but they were in a life-threatening situation. And, to make matters worse, they were running low on ammunition. After all, they didn't expect to be ambushed, so they didn't carry a lot of it with them.

Taking cover behind the BARC Speeders - which they had created a circle with - Hell Squad kept firing at the droids. By now, almost fifty clanckers had already fallen, but the others just kept advancing, emotionless.

"I'm almost out, sir!"

"Me too!"

Cursing, Dageer dropped to the ground, getting half-buried in the snow, and threw his last two magazines to Cell and Three-four. At the same time, the speeder he was hiding behind was hit in the energy cell, and started smoking.

Knowing that the vehicle wouldn't take long to blow up, Dageer kicked it, and the speeder floated away. The explosion didn't hurt any of the clones thanks to Dageer's quick reactions, but it opened a hole on their already precarious defenses. Red lasers flew in their direction, hitting Metal on his left forearm, and Senator Amidala on her right thigh.

The clones were able to mostly ignore the pain, but the senator wasn't a battle-hardened combatant like them. She screamed in pain, and fell down.

Curiously enough, looking at Senator Amidala clutching her wound and groaning, gave Dageer an idea.

"Boys, listen up! Starting by you, Brain, next time a laser comes close, fall down, and stay quiet!"

The troopers paused for a second, confused, before realization dawned upon them, and they understood what Dageer meant.

"Just like Dantooine?"

"Just like Dantooine. Play dead, and when the seppies get closer, we surprise them. Let's take a few more of the tin cans with us before we go down."

Hell Squad nodded. After a few seconds, Brain yelled, and laid on the ground, his hand still clutching his blaster. If Dageer didn't know any better, he would have thought his brother really died.

"Senator, you will have to do the same. However... Seppies check for dead. When they approach us to confirm, you will have a small opening to escape. The downside of ambushing us is that they don't have any vehicles. As long as you get on one of the speeders, and flee, they won't be able to catch up."

Dageer spilled his entire plan in one breath. No matter what, Hell Squad had to protect Senator Amidala, even if that meant gambling everything, including their lives, in one last move. That was their mission, and they would complete it, or die trying.

"Commander, that is unaccep..."

"That is Hell Squad's duty, senator. If you die here, the peace treaty will be torn apart, and all your efforts will be for naught. Do as I say. And don't worry about Hell Squad. We have been in worse situations, and yet, we are still alive."

It was a terrible lie, and both Dageer and Senator Amidala knew that. However, it was all it was needed to convince the senator. She might be brave and kind, but she wasn't ready to give up on her life so easily.

Also faking death, Dageer was the last one to fall to the ground. Laying on the snow, with his back to the sky, he made sure his pistol and vibroblade were easily accessible.

Silence fell on the snowy plains, and the droid army stopped firing. Merciless machines, they didn't show any pity for their fallen companions, and stepped over them to arrive at the small defense circle Hell Squad had created. It was standard protocol to check if the enemy was really dead, and, if there were any survivors, kill them.

---------------------------

TA-077 kicked one of the BARC Speeders aside, and looked at the seven dead clones, and the human woman besides them. He respected them, in some weird way.

As his serial number showed, he was one of the oldest commando droids, and one of the few which survived many battles. He had killed countless clones and Republic sc.u.m, and knew when to recognize a true soldier. He might not be a living being, but he had a lot of battle experience, all processed in his circuits, and he knew few clones were as fierce and deadly as that small squad had been.

TA-077 was in command of one thousand and four hundred B1 battle droids, and came to Orto Plutonia with the simple objective of killing the Republic delegation, and sowing chaos. He sent six hundred units to attack some of the Talz villages and Pantorans settlements on the planet, and used the remaining eight hundred droids to attack Senator Amidala and Hell Squad.

It should have been an overwhelming force, able to crush the eight targets in a matter of seconds. It wasn't. Seventy B1 units, and twelve commando droids had been destroyed. So, TA-077, who had seen more action than most of his fellow droids, respected the clones. They had fought bravely.

Using his feet to turn over the clone next to him, TA-077 crouched to confirm he was dead. The moment he did that, he knew something was wrong. Apart from a scorched spot on his shoulder, the front of the clone's armor was intact. No fatal wounds.

His hand quickly tried to grab the vibroblade in his back, but before he reached it, the dead clone came back to life, wielding a vibroblade of his own. It pierced TA-077's neck from the side, immediately cutting off his sensors and energy cords.

"Nice try, scrap metal."

Before he fell down, all TA-077 could feel was surprise. That wasn't in his programming. He had learned every Republic tactic the Separatist knew about, and even some tricks the clones used on the battlefield, but that wasn't one of them. Once again, the lack of consciousness and thoughts of the droids proved to be a major - and fatal - flaw in their design.

--------------------------

Dageer let himself be turned over by the clancker, and, when the chance came, he killed the white commando droid. Around him, the other six members of Hell Squad also bumped into motion, using their blasters to tear off the heads of six B1 units, and holding then as shields.

"Senator!!!"

The clone didn't need to say anything else. Senator Amidala, who was still on the ground, jumped on top of one of the few remaining speeders, and zoomed away.

The seppies wanted to fire at her, but, because they had all gathered together, thinking they had already won the battle, not only did they block each other's line of sight, but Hell Squad also made a wall between her, and them.

Dageer grinned when he saw that in all but a few seconds, Senator Amidala was already out of range from the clanckers blasters. Besides him, he heard his brothers chuckle. They were about to die, but they had foiled the Separatist's plans. Knowing that put a smile on their faces.

"Grraaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwww!!!"

Suddenly, a loud growling sound shook the battlefield. Blue lasers hit the droids, and spears pierced their bodies as if they were made of paper.

While the enemy was thrown in disarray, Dageer saw Talz and Pantorans coming to Hell Squad's rescue, fighting side by side.

// AUTHOR'S NOTE //

Hello, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

I got asked again yesterday about how I came up with the name Dageer, and I thought this would be as good of a time as any to explain it. It's a pretty normal story, but you might find it interesting.

Do you know those games where the name of your character is randomly generated? Well, when I was a kid, maybe ten years old, I was playing one of those, and I honestly don't remember which. The name it came up with was "Touro Dageero". Touro means bull in portuguese, while Dageero is a totally invented word. Why the game decided to use those two as a name? I have no idea.

But I really liked the Dageer part of Dageero, and so I started using it as my nickname for almost every game I played. When I started writing the novel, I struggled for quite some time to decide on a name for the main character, and then I remembered the name Dageer. Considering how I have been using it for almost 10 years, it seemed only normal that it became the name of the protagonist.

Like I said, it's a pretty normal story, nothing really impressive. Still, I hope you find it somewhat interesting.

As always, if you feel like it, leave your ideas, suggestions, critics, or anything. I love reading them, and if I think they are feasible I will try to implement them, as well as correct any mistakes I made. If you can, leave a review, and think about joining our discord!

And, of course, stay safe, and may the Force be with you!

Discord link: discord.gg/Gdv2arS