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My first day as a member of the 501st... it was hot, sandy and chaotic, nothing at all like the simulations on Kamino. Of course that's pretty much the way it was for all of us, wasn't it? All that breeding, all those years of training... it doesn't really prepare you for the all the screaming, all the blood, does it? Frankly I'm amazed we ever made it past the first hour, never mind the first day.

• * * As we approached the planet of Geonosis my mind cranked itself into overdrive. There was to be no doubt that there would be a lot of dying on the field and I wasn't exactly sure how to deal with it. Although we have been taught how to deal with team members dying I still couldn't shake the concept that they were still living beings, despite being cloned in a pod. We were fighting robots for god's sake, they had no souls nor did they scream in pain when they were hit by a barrage of plasma. I had witnessed deaths at the hands of the training simulators, while they weeded out those who were simply too impulsive to be any use in battle. They weren't treated for their wounds later with bacta like everyone else was; they were left to die to show us that the Republic would only accept the best to be a part of their army. The thought chilled me to the bone and would make some of my fur stand on end whenever I thought about it but we had to be this good or we would be crushed by the CIS. "Hey man you okay?" 69 asked me one day. I looked at him before looking back out of the window "Huh? Oh yeah it's just nervousness that's all. I don't want to be leaving this planet in a body bag," I answered. 69 took a seat next to me and looked out the window at the ringed planet that we would soon be fighting upon. "We all are man. Nobody wants to die but we all know that it will happen someday, it's just a matter of when," 69 told me before getting up and tugging on me gently, "Come on maybe a drink will take your mind of things," Upon reaching the galley it became obvious that nervousness was causing some problems amongst some of the clones. It seemed that they weren't as 'pure' as I originally thought they were. Taking a seat opposite 69 he waved over a droid which proceeded to ask what we wanted. "I'll take a Mandalorian wine, what about you?" "I'll take some Corellian Ale," I answered. As the droid scuttled off to prepare the requested beverages 69 cast a deep thoughtful look onto me, one that I had never seen him use before. "Come on what's really eating you up? There is no way that the concept of dying can cause you to be so distracted," I looked at him with an uncaring eye before returning my gaze to the table, the harsh lighting accentuating his lupine features. As the drinks were placed on the table I took a quick sip of mine before setting it back down. I clenched my right paw into a fist as I tried to keep my composure. In reality I had nothing to actually fear but death yet I knew that my duty was to the Republic and nobody else. If we had to kill some of our own we were supposed to do it. I guess since that I wasn't a clone meant that I had more conscious thought then they had, meaning that I could actually choose to disobey an order if I wanted to. Not that I would disobey an order on purpose, the punishments were a lot worse then the psychological trauma one experienced, at least the latter could be erased permanently. You couldn't erase an execution. Scratching my arm a bit I started to explain myself before the loudspeaker went off. "Would all snipers and everyone who wants to be paired up with one please report to the armoury immediately," the soft voice called over. "Well sorry but I can't stay. Duty calls," I told him before walking off, secretly relieved that I wouldn't have to explain the reason for my anxiety. "RS-1020 reporting as ordered sir," I said, saluting crisply as I fell into line behind the others. "All right all of you know why you are here. Let's get this over with," the senior officer gruffly answered, opening a clipboard, "RS-1548 you will be with SC-8506". Looking off to the side I saw two wolves greet each other briefly before leaving together, probably to go do some training. "RS-6937 will be paired with TI-3957," Another pair left the armoury. "RS-8274, go with CF-2198," The pairs kept getting read off one after another until there were only a few of us left, one of them being me. "RS-1020," My ears perked up at the sound of my number being called, with any luck I wouldn't be paired up with one of the douches that seemed to hate me. "Please go with FD-1469," Pulling 69 aside I asked him why he had decided to be my guardian in battle. They were usually the ones who got killed first and without a guardan a sniper was pretty defenceless. "Hey there is no way I'm letting my best friend go out by himself! And anyway everyone else treats you like an outsider who else would join you in battle?" 69 replied. He had me there; nobody else treated me like he did. "Well I guess..." I started. "General Quarters! General Quarters! This is not a drill! All hands man your battle stations we are entering combat! All sniper teams report to the hanger and be ready for deployment!" Not wanting to waste any more time with idle banter I dashed back to my quarters and donned my armour. There was barely enough room for two to actually fit inside of the room and since that we had to share it was a little awkward to fit the bulky armour in such a confined space. Locking my helmet into place I grabbed my sniper rifle and sidearm before leaving. "Hey don't take too long or I'll have to leave without you!" I joked, leaving 69 to finish getting ready. "Damn this place is bloody noisy!" I thought to myself bitterly as I entered the main hanger. Several landing craft were being loaded with battalions of soldiers all wearing their armour, weapons at the ready. "Okay sniper squads 34, 13 and 28 you will not be going straight to the battlefield but will go help out the jedi trapped in the arena. Master Yoda will be commanding and you will leave in smaller craft. Good luck!" one of the commanders ordered. Nodding I saw my guardian run up behind me. "You're late 69 but it doesn't matter. We're going to save some jedi first. Get onto the transport I'll explain on the way!" I bellowed as I climbed onto the transport. The trip down to the surface was a quiet one. No doubt some of us would never return but there were worse things to worry about, like arriving in time to witness the last jedi fall in battle. Loading my rifle I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down. Looking around at the other squads we nodded at each other, knowing that we would only have one shot at this. As the side of the LAAT/I gunship opened up the inside of the transport lit up brightly. Below us the battle between the jedi and what looked like a miniature droid army were fighting furiously, the ground was literally littered with dead bodies and droid parts. "Right GO! GO! GO! Take as many droids out as possible!" the pilot yelled as we slid down the rappel lines. Landing on the top of some type of arena I took up a position with 69 covering my back. Sighting the first battle droid I quickly aimed and let loose a plasma bolt, blowing the head of the droid off. This caught the attention of some of the other droids and I was a little more than shocked when a coarse voice called out. "KILL THE SNIPERS!" "74 wrist rocket!" I warned, seeing the explosive approach the sniper. Had I not warned him he would have surely been blown apart and be nothing but a smoking crater right about now. "Die you metal piece of shit!" 74 grumbled as he blasted a hole through the battle droid that fired the projectile. Reloading my rifle with a new clip I managed to blow the heads off another two droids before everyone realised that there was nobody left to fight. Taking the weapon away from my helmet I waved down. The response I received was a little more hostile then I had expected but I guess anyone would be peeved if they saw a large number of their brethren fall in battle. "Everyone to battle! We destroy the CIS today!" I looked down at the arena and saw that the surviving jedi were yelling out battle cries before they boarded the new transports that had just arrived. "Come on we don't want to miss the battle," I told 69 as we climbed back aboard the gunship that had brought us here. Flying over the planet was an indescribable process in itself. The planet was tearing itself apart with all the fighting. Clones in pure white armour charged across the terrain, fighting and destroying all of the droids that stood in their path. That wasn't to say that we were making significant progress. In the distance I could see the remains of what used to be several AT-TE walkers and hundreds upon thousands of white armour clad soldiers littered the rocky planet's surface. I was starting to think that joining the Grand Republic Army was a bad idea. "Heads up we're entering a combat zone. Line 'em up and knock 'em down!" the pilot called as the craft landed on the rough terrain. Jumping out of the vehicle I saw that a de facto command post had been set up nearby. Gesturing 69 to follow I trotted over to find out what the hell was going on here. Had I known that the droids were swarming all over the place I would have been slightly more cautious. The commander on duty at the moment seemed a little bit annoyed at not receiving a new batch of reinforcements and from the way he was bellowing a response into a comlink didn't ease my mind the slightest. "We need some more reinforcements! My men are getting slaughtered out here! What? No I haven't seen a new batch of soldiers arrive!" Reaching out I tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to fly into a rage I never thought was possible for a wolf. "WHAT? WHAT IS IT?" he screeched. A little scared by the sudden display of anger I fell unceremoniously onto my backside with shock. "Uh... I uh think we're the reinforcements," I stuttered. The commander gave me a look of disbelief. "Three sniper teams and maybe one hundred clones... some reinforcements," he scoffed before turning back, "Make yourself useful and go take the high ground over there. Enemy snipers are tearing us apart from up there," I looked up to where the commander was pointing and true to his word there was a small droid battalion up there. It was a good thing that we hadn't been spotted yet... or so I thought. Suddenly a red beam came from atop the elevated position and struck one of the clones in the head. "Oh fuck!" I snarled as I dashed behind a large boulder. There was nowhere to run from here. We either pushed forward or stayed here until some heavy support could arrive. "Come on! Follow me!" I yelled as I waited for a lull in the blaster fire before running out. I could tell that 69 was following behind me, only he would follow me on such a suicidal charge. I wasn't even sure whether or not it would work but at least to die trying to fight was better then simply standing around waiting to be shot. "We hit them hard and fast. Use grenades to root them out but be careful, these droids have nothing to lose," I warned, seeing that a few of the clones had decided to follow. "Will it work?" 69 asked me as he started to sneak forward. "Well only one way to find out," I muttered as I followed behind him. Poking my head over the top of the ridge I found that most of the droids were looking down over at where we used to be. Signalling for the others to quietly follow we took up a position behind some rocky outcroppings. We were so close that you could hear the robotic voices of the battle droids. "Where did the Republic meatbags go?" "Not sure, find them," "Roger, roger," "Man I wonder who provides the voice for these guys," I heard one of the clones mutter. "On my signal throw your grenades and hope to take out a large number of the droids, and then mop up and survivors," I ordered, noticing that some of the droids had left to investigate the sudden absence of Republic soldiers. Aiming down the sight of my weapon I locked my crosshair onto a droid head. "NOW! HIT THEM NOW!" I yelled as I blew the head off the sniper droid. A barrage of well thrown grenades suddenly rained down on the battle droids, scattering metal body all over the place. Dashing out from my hiding spot I took cover behind a rock and threw a grenade over my shoulder. Peering over the rock I was soon met with a barrage of blaster rounds from an undestroyed droideka. "I need some heavy weapons up here!" I bellowed as the droideka cut down two of the clones that had followed me up here. The piercing screams of the clones as the repeating blasters tore into their bodies was something that chilled me to the bone. Here we were fighting droids which had no souls. The concept of real lives being taken, even if they were clones, made me pause. Was it really worth it to be fighting here? My thoughts were interrupted by two missiles flying over my head. Getting up I saw two Jet Troopers, their EMP blasters still aimed in my general direction. "Oh thank god for that!" I sighed as the two soldiers took up defensive positions around the cliff head. Opening up a comlink I notified the commander that we had managed to wrestle the high ground from CIS forces. "You did what?" the commander asked me, obviously surprised, "Well good. We've received the reinforcements as requested. It's about time we got an AT-TE walker. Defend that area with all you've got until some clones get to your position. I'll alert you when we receive new orders," One thing that I despised above all military actions is guard duty. Many months had been spent on Kamino just doing guard drills and some of the enemies we faced bordered on ridiculous. I now realised that we didn't do them for no good reason. The CIS were more than determined to take back the high ground that they started to throw everything at us, first and second generation battle droids along with droidekas charged us repeatedly and if it wasn't for the EMP weapons some of us were carrying we wouldn't have stood a chance. Minutes seemed like hours as we dug into the surrounding area. Some of the clones were engineers and managed to construct some makeshift defences which helped us survive the onslaught. It didn't help much as rockets and grenades were usually killing us before the droids would even show themselves. Having taken up a sniping position I was completely open to a rear attack and it was a good thing that 69 had my back... or so I thought. "Hey I'm almost out of ammo. Can you get me some from the ammo droid nearby?" I asked. As I received no response I asked him once more and once again there was no answer. A cold sweat enveloped me. What if my protector was already dead? There was no way to tell given the fact that we all wore the same colours on our armour. As I used the last bullet in my rifle I pulled out my pistol and decided to make a run for it. If I didn't die on my way to the ammo droid then I would almost certainly die on my way back. As I poised myself ready for the dash I felt a gauntleted paw come to rest on my shoulder. "Oh thank the bloody God you're still alive," I muttered as I turned around, "I thought that you had been killed already," "Nobody can kill me mate!" he laughed, "Who will watch your back otherwise? New orders have come through. You see that sniping position in the centre of the area?" Looking through the scope of my rifle I spotted the structure he was talking about. From the looks of things it would be perfect for sniping. "Well we're to take that area then push on to the hanger in the back. If we can hold the hanger we can launch aerial attacks from there,"69 continued handing me an ammo pack, "Thought you might need this," Grumbling to myself about his horrendous timing I quickly reloaded my rifle before following him down the cliff head into the intense fighting that was happening between Republic and CIS forces. I had always trusted 69 with my life and for once I thought he was completely mad charging into battle without thinking it through properly first. There was blaster fire and missiles flying all over the place, making it almost suicidal to go out into the open. Then I saw them... commandos. I had heard about the famed clone commando squads that had been trained even more then the regular clones had been. They were supposedly able to win the war all by themselves. I felt a pang of jealousy course through my veins as I saw the four commandos clear out a large group of battle droids and super battle droids by themselves. I guess I should have expected that given the large chain guns that they happened to be carrying. "What are you waiting for? Move!" one of them yelled at me before moving on, presumably to destroy more of the droids that now threatened our command post on the high ground. Not wanting to stand out in the open much longer I followed a small group of other clones behind some rocky outcroppings. Apparently there were whole squads who had been given completely different orders and it was absolute chaos. Luckily enough 69 had managed to find me and informed of the plan of action, no matter how stupid it appeared to be. "You do know that it is a suicide plan right?" I asked him after he had finished explaining the rough idea of what was going to happen. "Yeah I know. Not my plan though. We're privates we've got no say in the planning," 69 answered as he reloaded his rifle, "Come on we go on 34's signal" As much as I hate to say it the sergeant's idea wasn't as stupid as it had sounded. I wouldn't have believed sneaking in through an underground entrance would actually work. A couple of grenades and a short gunfight later that centre area was ours. Not that it was going to be of much use to us anymore. We had destroyed half of the fortifications in attacking it with the loss of at least five soldiers, what a waste of good genes. Not that the break would have lasted for long. Apparently two of the jedi had encountered one of the sith in a hanger nearby. We had all been warned about the jedi before. Their lightsabres were more deadly then anything we could imagine. One strike with them and you were dead, simple as that. Of course even if you did survive the Republic wouldn't hesitate to kill you instead of supply you with prosthetics. They said that they couldn't afford it but I believe the reality is that they relished seeing their creations die. The jedi were dangerous but rare to encounter meaning that my death would more likely come from either a robot or another fur like myself. I had expected that we would be forced to help these jedi even if it meant that lots of us would die. Sure enough the order came through to our squad to go and secure the hanger and the surrounding area where the jedi were supposed to be fighting. I wasn't all that enthusiastic about it but orders were orders. I could only hope for a promotion after this was all over. As I was dragged along on the stupid yet important mission it was so tempting to simply shoot the commanding officer in the head and call it quits. Alas my traitorous thoughts were soon put to rest as a random bullet, seemingly out of nowhere nailed the sergeant in the head. Without someone to guide the squad the clones soon fell into disarray. I had been briefed on leading a proper squad before simply because I was 'different' to the others but I was a sniper. I was meant to work either alone or in a pair with another soldier. I could sense that 69 was looking at me intently through his helmet. He knew of my extra squad training and he was, dare I admit it, slightly jealous of me. "Come on aren't you going to lead these guys to victory?" he asked, standing close to me partly for reassurance and partly for cover. I thought about this a little as I destroyed the sniper droid which had taken out the sergeant who was leading us forward. Orders were orders and there seemed to be no other way. I gave the order for the remaining clones that hadn't gone off in search of a fight to rally at my position. "We only have one shot at this. Keep moving so you don't draw any fire and take out any droids if you can. Use grenades if you have to," I told the other clones as we took cover behind a large rock formation. I could sense some sort of approval from 69 as he lobbed a grenade over the rock. "Are we ready to move?" he asked as he reloaded his rifle. Now that I was put in charge of the squad this one action could make or break my chances of promotion. If I failed and got most of the clones killed I risked having my own life being taken away from me. If I succeeded... then I could expect to be commended on the action. Pulling out my blaster pistol I peeked out from behind the rock and found the entire area clear for once, save for one Geonosian sonic turret but that would be disposed of easily, there was at least one of us with a rocket launcher. "Alright let's move," I ordered as I crept forward. Using a sniper rifle in such circumstances was simply plain stupid and unfortunately I didn't happen to have a blaster rifle at that point in time. As our group of ten ran across the rocky terrain towards the hanger which seemed relatively nearby, we soon caught the attention of the bug that manned the sonic tower. I had never understood how these towers worked but I knew how deadly they were. The first blast outright killed one of the clones and a second blast took out another two before I knew it. A rocket soon seemed to quell the immediate threat and I was surprised that the clone even had the heavy weapon out in the first place. The victory was short lived as a droid soon ripped the clone to shreds with a well placed shotgun blast. I watched in horror as the shrapnel ripped through the armour of the clone. I had never seen so much blood in my life. The clones may be numerous but they were incredibly fragile. A few short blasts later from my pistol and the droid was nothing but a piece of scrap metal. "Remind me never to lead a squad again when this is all over," I offhandedly muttered to 69 as I gestured for the remnants of the squad to move forward. By the time we had arrived on the scene the constant flashes of lightsabres striking each other sought to elate me a bit, at least none of them had died yet. Out of the corner of my eye though I soon saw the combatant with a red lightsabre start to withdraw from the combat and jump into a Geonosian fighter. "Stop Dooku!" I heard a voice yell out from the back of the hanger. Assuming that the name was that of the human that had jumped into the fighter I ordered the clones to open fire on the fighter. Taking out my own sniper rifle I started firing at the aircraft but it soon accelerated out of the hanger and disappeared out of sight. "Well fuck!" I heard 69 grumble under his breath as he threw away an expended clip. Running into the hanger followed by two other clones I approached the three jedi. "Master Yoda, Master Kenobi are you both all right?" I asked. "I'll be fine," Master Kenobi answered, "You know your timing could have been a little better," "Fine I am," Master Yoda replied, "But return to the battle you must," "Yes Master Yoda we shall return at once," I answered gesturing for the rest of the squad to leave. Just at that moment a radio transmission was received and as I listened to it I smiled to myself as I let my weapon clatter loudly on the floor. "Oh yeah! Looks like we got the CIS are on the run! We're being rotated so from the looks of things we're done fighting for the day," I told everyone else. A loud cheer came from the rest of the clones, 69 included and although I knew that this was a good thing I couldn't help but think about all of the clones who would be leaving in body bags. This was only one battle, there were countless other fights being done all over the planet and in every single one there would be massive casualties. "Well we better get moving," I said as I gestured for the clones to follow me, we had a long trek in front of us. Shortly after we were rotated out of Geonosis, we were to be split up and sent to different parts of the galaxy. As I sat in the room which 69 and I shared in the Prosecutor I looked down at the planet from where we were in orbit. This one planet had cost thousands of clone lives but at the expense of most of the Separatist droid forces. Whether or not it could be counted as a successful operation was debateable. I heard the door behind me open and 69 casually strolled in with two cups in his paws. "Here I got this for you," the wolf said as he handed me one of the drinks. Graciously accepting it I sipped it slowly as I continued to stare down at the planet. "Still thinking about the fighting?" he asked me. I nodded my head in response to the question as I downed the rest of the liquid and placed the cup to one side. "I never did get to pay my respects to those who had fallen in battle," I muttered. I felt the lupine's paw come to rest on my shoulder. "Don't worry those who have fallen in battle are never forgotten," I still carry those words in my mind everywhere I go for they will always ring true on the battlefield. * * *

Incredibly, the 501st survived the crucible of Geonosis, emerging battle-hardened, and ready for whatever the war would throw at us.