Chapter 86 - Crab Cannon

Vernila was a battlefield. At the moment only the outer layers of the city had been hit, but even then the scenery was of utter destruction. The two opposing forces were crashing against each other over and over again, each time resulting in more and more casualties.

What Dageer had beforehand considered being huge pipes, he now saw it were deadly weapons. Small but strong metal legs sprung from its side, and it was using those to move, albeit slowly. At the end of the 'pipe', huge laser fire was shot. Each time one of those lasers hit a building, a hole with a diameter of fifteen meters appeared, and the building collapsed right away. There is no need to say what happened to any unlucky clone in its path.

But the Republic was fighting back. Under the leadership of Monnk, small squads were flanking the cannons, and bombing it. Unfortunately, not all of those squads made it back.

Hell Squad had an easy way to the city, mainly because the droids and quarrens were focused on the attack. General Fisto was still too tired to use the Force, but his skills with a lightsaber weren't affected.

Together with Hell Squad, he blasted their way through the droids. They were only eight, but their skilled use of their blasters and the jedi deflecting enemy lasers totally made up for their lack of numbers.

"Brain! Get that thing!"

"On it!"

Dageer pointed to one of the giant cannons, and marked it as their target. Brain took out his thermal detonators and laughed. Dageer and Metal, with a little help from Dab, soon took out the droids around the cannon. Brain swiftly planted the detonators, and Kit Fisto helped by cutting the legs of the cannon.

The weird cannon fell on one side when all of its legs were cut off, and crushed a few droids.

"Everyone, get some distance! Brain... clear!"

The thermal detonators blew one by one, starting a chain reaction. In the end, the cannon cracked into two halves, totally out of use.

After that, Hell Squad had a clear pathway to Vernila. They left dead quarrens and droids on their trail, and opened a path for the other clones to attack.

...

"General, it is good to see you! The situation is quite a mess at the moment."

"Monnk. I thought you brought all your troops to their base, preparing for an attack. How come we are the ones being attacked?"

"Well sir, I am quite confused about it. We were waiting for you, and Hell Squad, when the whole thing blew up. We thought you were all dead, but I was prepared to send a search team when the seppies came out of nowhere. We were out in the middle of the ocean, no cover, and they had those huge Crab Cannons. I had to order retreat. We fought our way back here, so we at least have cover."

"I understand. Well, continue fighting. Where is king Yos Kolina? I need to speak to him."

"He and the mon calamarians are on the left flank. Dageer, I've sent the 303rd there to support them, they were getting destroyed."

"Dageer, Hell Squad, go take control of your men. I will explain what happened to the king."

"Yes sir."

...

Turned out that the 303rd was doing quite well. They had taken pretty good defensive positions, and were trading fire with the Separatist.

Dageer found his second in command, Gefree, coordinating the retreat of a batch of wounded clones.

"Gefree, status!"

"Yes, sir! Quarrens and Separatist pushed us back to the thirteenth block, but now our lines are holding them back. If we keep those cannons away, I believe we have a good chance of holding our position."

"How many casualties?"

"Numbers are uncertain, but we have two hundred and five dead, and at least another two hundred out of combat. Medium and light wounds should be about six or seven hundred. And there are seventy-five clones missing or uncounted for. I am not sure about the mon calamarians, but they are in a way worse situation than us. They have retreated to the seventeenth block and organized some bunkers."

"Okay. Gefree, prepare the men to push forward."

"Sir... if we go out now, their Crab Cannons will decimate us. I think it is better to hold."

"That is why I'm going to take care of the cannons. Why else do you think Hell Squad was formed to? Our job is to turn the tides of the battle."

Gefree was stunned, but remembered Dageer was right. Dageer was only given the rank of sub-commander so Hell Squad wouldn't face problems when in their operations. He might be the commander in name of this battle, but his real role was to do what he just said.

His orders given, Dageer and Hell Squad swam in the direction of the battle. Since the battle was now happening inside of the city, things were a little bit easier. The weird cannons, or Crab Cannons, had to either maneuver or destroy the buildings before they could go on, so their already slow-moving pace almost came to a stop.

So, Hell Squad made use of the corners and alleys to get to the cannons. The problem was that the cannons were way behind the enemy lines.

They reached the first line of defense of the clones pretty soon, and without any accidents. Since they were the closest to the quarrens and droids, many clones there were dead or wounded, and dead bodies and blood floated in the water. Dageer pulled the sergeant in charge of the line aside.

"Sergeant, retreat! Gefree built some strong positions in the thirteenth block. Get your wounded there and prepare for the counterattack!"

"Yes sir!"

Hell Squad stayed back with some clones to cover the retreating ones, and when they were gone, they quietly slipped into one of the buildings.

"All right, boys. We will let them pass, and when the Crab Cannons are close, we strike. If they send a patrol to secure the building, we have to take care of them quietly."

Tech scanners blipped, and he turned to one of the doors in the building, and put his head close to it.

"Sir, I am hearing something there."

"Probably just natives. Anyway, Brain, Metal, check it out."