"....Sir? "
" Oh, sorry. What's the situation looking like?"
" We've gotten reports of a droid factory here....and " The trooper said pointing to the holo map on display.
" ....here, we've contacted command for air support as you've ordered but they require concrete evidence of the droids " The trooper reported, earning a sigh from his commander.
" That's...move out then. " His commander ordered, figures pointed forward as his ordered was repeated through the comms.
" I mean, I know there's some friction within the corps and navy but certainly that orange pauldron of yours should mean something sir " Someone spoke up as they marched through the jungle like terrain.
" Keep it professional trooper " his commander simply said, offering only those words as his say on the matter.
" Yes Sir "
They were currently deployed on the world of Forgn, an outer rims planet that was now under the administration of the empire.
Even as years had gone by since the formation of the First Galactic Empire, absorbing the planets of the outer rims has proven...slow and difficult.
Worse yet is the problem that many still resist imperial control leading to more battles and further slowing down progress.
But few within the high echelons of the Empire cared for that. Especially those stuck up admirals who saw this as a chance to gain honor and glory, which would further solidify their position as commanders of Star Destroyers...or their respective positions.
This planet was supposed to be an easy take over, bring the Star Destroyer in, dominate the air space, deploy imperial troopers to assert control and then leave a few behind before taking off to another planet.
But the planetary governor, if there were any, was missing. The local populace spoke of remnant droid factories still in operation and some even claim that an army was hiding within their forests.
They claim that it was -
" Gross.." a trooper commented as he stepped on a soft mushy substance, his boot gliding atop it for a few seconds before he regained his control.
" You'll be scrubbing those of for the next week, hahaha " someone joked as they looked down on where the unfortunate trooper stepped.
" Damn jungle, I would have preferred to deploy in the desert rather than this vine infested land "
" Desert? Seriously? Those planets are so hot that you'd be burning within your armour"
"Don't let second platoon hear you, last I heard - some of them still have sands within their armour from last deployment"
" I'd take sand over - "
" Shut it! " The company commander said suddenly, causing all the talking trooper to turn silent.
They all stopped moving as they slightly lowered themselves to scan the area.
"Sir, sensors picking up something up ahead" a trooper reported in.
"....something large....and alive "
" You two " The commander pointed towards two flanking troopers behind him, specifically the two main talkers of not even 3 minutes ago.
His helmet displayed their identification designations as he turned to face them.
TK-3450 and TK-66
" Push upwards and scout out what's ahead. Do not engage, report in from there and do not attract any attention" He ordered as he pointed forward.
" Yes Sir " They both of them replied sternly before taking a quick glance at themselves, no doubt regretting their previous actions.
Then they jugged forward.
"34, take a squad and establish a perimeter around this platoon."
He ordered soon after the two troopers began moving away, another trooper whom he nick named 34 nodded in acknowledgement before moving out.
[
If he was suspecting anything right then this might actually be an old factory still up or a forward deployment base for the droids.
He would prefer it to be the latter rather than the former as it meant fighting droids with little maintenance and probably just a quarter of their strength.
In fact, he hoped with all his luck of the coming month that it will be so.
" Now....we wait " he muttered to himself as he awaited news from the forward scouts he had sent.
In the meantime, there was a check up going through the company. Of the 2 battalions deployed on this planet, his company was tasked with clearing out the 'groundless' worries of the locals.
So much so that he was tasked with only locating and marking the positions, which would then allow the Star Destroyer to bombard it from orbit to dust.
To him, it was merely an excuse for the Admiral to not only flex his power but also show the might of the Empire and in turn his vessel.
Honestly, they would probably had been satisfied with any random location he picked as they cared little. To them, once the locals saw the might of the Star Destroyer, they will weigh whom to fear more.
The droids of a past war on the ground? Or the large warship above their head that eradicated a piece of land with little to no effort?.
It was the Tarkins Doctrine and it has been vastly effective.
[
The check in's came squad leaders had their ample time to ensure the presence of all their troopers.
Once they were done, the comms turned relatively silent for some minutes.
Dead Silent.
TK-66 was...annoyed, a feeling he had been getting consistently for the past few weeks. Perhaps his training was wearing off or things just aren't how they used to be.
During the war, he had dreamed of fighting besides the clone troopers. His homeworld was defended by them during a seperatist incursion, he remembered their white armour dirtied by the sands of his home.
He...trained with them briefly. Years ago though, it's been a while since he saw them. Perhaps they had all been phased out by now.
His recent reassignment to this task force has proven difficult, beyond his commanders difficult personality, he was not...right in the head.
He couldn't put his hands on it but something felt off from him, he didn't seem like the usual commanders.
But he really didn't have anything to prove it, right now...he had to focus on surviving.
"Watch were you step, don't want to make too much noise " he warned as they moved ever closer.
The mechanical sounds become louder and much clearer the further in the moved, yet they couldn't visibly see anything as of yet.
"Difficult to do that, these trees make seeing anything clearly impossible!"
TK - 3450 complained as he stepped on a fallen tree branch, snapping it in half as he struggled to move his other foot that had become tangled in some vines.
No replied came from TK-66 as he turned to help untangle the vines when suddenly, they heard movement.
"Down!" TK-66 said in a whispered agitated tone. Quickly, TK-3450 crouched in his position, ignoring the vines and looking ahead for anything.
"What in the Empires good Grace? " TK-3450 muttered in astonishment as the view of droids came to bear.
They marched in a lose formation, wielding weapons that could only originate from the clone wars. Their bodies and faces were dirtied, stained and some were even damaged in some ways.
Stiff enough for people to notice, for them to notice.
The droids walked past the two troopers, seemingly unaware of their presence which was relieving to the two white armoured bodies who were sure that they stuck out in this jungle.
They glanced at each other as they heard the receding steps and TK-66 could almost see a sigh past the helmet of TK-3450 but then, the droids stopped and what sounded like their commander began to speak.
" We will return to the main base to report our findings, the unidentified forces on this planet have yet to approach our perimeter.
The commander will be pleased"
" Roger Roger "
" Roger Roger"
" Roger Roger"
" Roger Roger"
The droids conversed before turning around to return to their based.
" In my time, we would have marched out to defend the interests of our great Seperatist alliance " One of the droids spoke up, sounding displeased with their current situation.
"Same, I would gunned then at least a dozen republic dogs in glory " Another replied as it looked up as if imagining such a scenario
" Cut it out number 55-55-69, we all know you'd be the first one to fall. You can't hit anything with your blaster " A droid replied as it turned to 55-55-69 and pointed a finger to his weapon
" I on the other hand, have killed several republic slaves, been to 3 campaigns and been re-assembled 4 times " the droid continued, bragging to its fellow droids.
" Oh, like those guys over there? "
Suddenly the droids looked towards where was pointed, almost like magic, they could see the two bodies that had now frozen still as they hid fruitless in the vegetation of the jungle.
" Yeah, like those! Good spotting 55-55-60 "
A droid replied as he turned to his 'brother', staring it him as he gave a nod.
" Hmm, didn't know we fought clones on this planet though "
"Those don't look like clones to me "
"That one's moving"
"Maybe those are the unidentified forces on our planet "
"Good thinking 55-55-60 "
"Roger Roger"
"Roger Roger"
"Roger Roger"
"Roger Roger"
"Wait a minute....doesn't that mean that they breached our perimeter?" The commanding droid suddenly thought aloud as all the other droids looked at each other.
Perhaps in surprised or confusion? Their still mechanical faces made that difficult to know
________________________________________
Notes
-----------------------------------------------------------
The droids outnumbered their opponents usually 100 - 1
Their effectiveness came not from their skill but their ease of production. Costing very little and being able to be built within hours - minutes in specialized factories.
They are also structured to fall apart easily and thus be easily salvageable, leading to many fallen droids being reused as parts or straight up reassembled.
It is estimated that there were upwards of a few hundred billion droids produced and used during the three year war with some high estimates placing them at near trillion.
Dodging one ionized beam is easy, dodging a hundred while trying to fire back is suicide. That was the reality of the war from the clones perspective.