On the eastern front, the Republic had pulled back most of its forces to the core systems, effectively leaving the eastern front defenseless, except for one small fleet and a few million soldiers.
Taking advantage of this situation, Princess Luna led an offensive to reclaim the systems they lost during the Republic's offensive.
Luna and Vaelora had split the Imperial Clone Army up into various task forces to reclaim the systems with each of them leading their own task force. In charge of the others was Liberius, Grand Marshal of clone army. He would focus on attacking the Republic controlled Hutt space.
On the world of Nar Haaska, Princess Luna's fleet had arrived above the planet and managed to establish orbital control due to no defending Republic naval forces. The Republic defense forces had already begun preparing for the impending Imperial invasion.
Though for one particular soldier, he was sweating bricks just thinking about fighting the Imperial soldiers again. His name was Sergeant Legeth King, who was only a Sergeant because of how lucky he was to survive the previous battles against the Imperial forces.
He wanted to get out, but instead his superiors rewarded him by promoting him and putting him in the Republic defense forces. Now he was given the most difficult jobs on the base because of his so called "experience". But he knew all of it was just a ploy by some god somewhere just to smite him. He could imagine them sitting in their nice safe home watching him like he was comedy show.
As he was lost in his thoughts yelling at a god who could care less about him, someone shouted his name. "Sergeant King!" Lieutenant Rexus approached him. "Get your squad ready. Imperial dropships are beginning their descent."
Legeth's stomach dropped. "Sir, my squad is down to half strength. We lost four men in the last skirmish and haven't received replacements."
"Then you'll make do with what you have," Rexus snapped. "Everyone's understaffed, Sergeant. The Imperium doesn't care about our personnel problems, and neither do I. Now move!"
Legeth saluted and lazily jogged toward where his remaining soldiers were assembled. Six men, all of them looking as terrified as him. They'd heard the stories from other fronts, seen the casualty reports. Fighting the Imperium wasn't like fighting pirates or forces. These were professional soldiers backed by technology that put the Republic's equipment to shame.
"Alright, listen up," Legeth said, trying to inject confidence into his squad, but how could he if he himself wasn't even confident. "We're assigned to defensive position seven-alpha. That's the eastern approach to the command bunker. Our job is to hold that position and buy time for command to coordinate the defense."
"Sarge, what if they send those war droids?" Private Kellick asked nervously.
"Then we focus fire and take them down one at a time," Legeth replied, though he knew from experience that was easier said than done. "Remember you're training. Aim for joints and optical sensors. Don't waste ammunition on center mass shots that won't penetrate their armor."
King adjusted the strap of his helmet and immediately regretted it as the chin clasp snapped loose and clattered to the ground at his boots. Every head in the squad turned to look at him.
"…That's not a sign," he muttered, picking it up. "That's just poor manufacturing standards." he jokingly said to ease the tension.
Above them, the planet's dust storms appeared over the horizon, dragging waves of sand with it. Through the clouds, black shapes pierced the atmosphere; these were the Imperial dropships. They descended fast, numbering in the hundreds. As they cleared the dust storms, several groups split off, all heading to their assigned targets.
Private Kellick gulped seeing all the ships. "There's a lot of dropships." he said. The others nodded in agreement. Was this the battle where they died or forced to be tortured.
King squinted his eyes. "Maybe they're just… sightseeing." One of the dropships activated it thrusters too early causing it to wobble in the air. "See? Poor sightseeing." Though after he said this, the ship corrected itself and continued its descent.
Lieutenant Rexus' voice came over the comms. "All units, brace for contact. Artillery teams, prepare counter-barrage."
King motioned his squad forward. They took up position in a half-collapsed barricade of sandbags and portable shield emitters that overlooked a narrow canyon pass that led straight toward the command bunker. It was a good choke point but also a good position to try and attack.
Taking their positions, Kellick manned the heavy repeater, two others covered the flanks, and King crouched behind a cracked shield projector that flickered.
He tapped it and watched as it sparked, which meant that it would be dangerous to touch it.
"Great," he whispered to himself. "All this equipment is held together by optimism and budget cuts."
As he said this, the first dropship flew overhead and released a bunch of black-armored clone troopers. They descended through grav-chutes allowing them to land in proximity to the canyon.
"Wait for them to enter the canyon," King ordered. The squad acknowledged and maintained close eyes on the canyon in front of them as the next few minutes would determine life or death.
The Imperial clone troopers advanced in a tight formation with their blaster rifles pointed in all directions. They were the advance party who would either breakthrough the canyon defenses or weaken it enough for the next Imperial force that attacks.
King's finger hovered over the trigger as he counted the distance between them and the Imperials.
But one of the clones turned slightly in their direction and King panicked. "Now!" he shouted. The canyon erupted in blaster fire, with Kellick holding down the repeaters trigger, laying down suppressing fire against the Imperials.
Two clones were killed instantly, while the rest scattered almost immediately. As they scattered, they also returned fire themselves, forcing the Republic soldiers to duck behind cover. From the left, separate blaster fire came out of nowhere causing one of the shield emitters to short circuit completely leaving the left flank uncovered.
King ducked as somebody else yelled. "Left flank!" A pair of Imperial war droids marched into view from behind a rock.
"Sarge! War droids!" Kellick's voice cracked.
"Yeah, I have eyes!" King snapped, though he was currently staring at the dirt as when he ducked, he had slipped and landed face first in the dirt.
Kellick rotated the repeater and started firing at the war droids. King after getting up had remained ducked behind cover with his eyes squeezed shut as he blindly fired over the barricade.
Then in the middle of shooting his rifle jammed.
"Of course," he said, slapping the side of it to fix it. But nothing happened and it was still jammed.
Then out of nowhere a rocket came from somewhere behind them and struck the canyon wall above where the war droids were walking. The rock fractured, and several tons of stone crashed directly onto the war droids, burying them in an avalanche of debris.
There was a brief silence before Kellick slowly turned towards him. "Sarge… did you call that in?"
King blinked. "Call what in?" he asked.
"The strike."
"I….yes," King said immediately, taking credit even though he didn't call it in. "Yes. Tactical environmental neutralization. It was my plan all along." Though in his head, he wondered where the hell did that rocket come from.
But he didn't have time to relax as another group of clones had charged forward, now more spread out and cautious.
King's rifle was still jammed, so he looked around for one. Though, there were none since they were already low on equipment. But in front of him, amidst the blaster fire he saw an Imperial weapon that he was sure would be better than the one he currently had.
"Cover me!" he shouted. His squad was confused about what he meant until they saw him vault over the barricade.
"SERGEANT?!" Kellick screamed.
King landed awkwardly on the slope, sliding down several meters, and colliding directly with an Imperial trooper who had been trying to flank their position.
They both tumbled down the slope, with King's helmet flying off, and the clone's rifle firing wildly into the air. King flailed, grabbing at anything he could find. And one of the things he grabbed was the clone's helmet. His other hand grabbed the clone's belt as they rolled again and somehow King ended up on top.
The clone wasn't moving causing King to celebrate, but then he slowly raised his head and saw that half of the advancing clones has stopped moving and were staring at him.
All they saw was a lone Republic sergeant, standing in the open, surrounded by blaster fire and dust, one of their own lying unconscious at his feet.
One of the clones immediately raised his rifle to eliminate the threat.
King reacted purely on instinct and pointed at them dramatically. "Fall back!" he shouted. It was an order meant for his squad but he was too focused on the fact that he was about to die to worry about who or where he was pointing.
But, before he could be shot, a Republic artillery shell landed between the Imperial formation and the canyon entrance, kicking up a wall of sand.
The explosion isolated King and the stunned clones from the rest of their forces and caused some of debris to fall down on top of the clones.
One of the clone squad leaders waved his hand and shouted, "Retreat!" He didn't know what was going on but attacking the canyon for some reason brought in some unnecessary problems that they didn't account for. It would be better to let the main force attack the canyon with tanks, gunships, and other support vehicles.
Kellick's jaw hung open as he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Sergeant…" Kellick called over the comm. "They're retreating."
King slowly nodded, as though this had been his plan all along. Though in his head he was thinking how extremely lucky he was. He started walking back to the barricade. He had somehow managed to win this battle despite the odds being against him.
Now with this victory maybe he could retire and live a life of solitude.
Though the victory was short lived as even though he defended his position, the other positions were soon overwhelmed. He managed to buy a few hours which was an accomplishment in itself, but they still lost the battle and he was taken prisoner.