Broke: A Clone Wars Tale - Volume 1 Chapter 282 Hunting In The Forest

Crrity ran as fast as he could, jumping over fallen trees and rocks, but came to a sudden stop when an opening appeared.

Looking around him, the human grabbed the piece of wood he had in his hands tightly. Ever since his ship had crashed in Felucia, and the group of escaped prisoners split up, that was the only weapon he had.

He had been lucky enough not to meet any Republic troops for the past days, and he had grabbed enough supplies from the ship for him to survive many days. It appeared everything was going well to him, and the only downside was that the frightening mon calamari had taken all the weapons.

However, when he thought he just might really get away, a group of clones, as well as one of the dammed Jedis had appeared, and started chasing him. All he could do was run, but now he had no idea of what to do.

Hearing the sound of leaves moving, he looked around, and saw two clones appear. Turning to the opposite direction, he prepared to run, but two other troopers appeared. Spinning in place, unsure of what his next course of action should be, he saw three other clones.

All of them, seven in total, had different designs on their armors, designs he had never seen before. Especially the one right in front of him, who had lines on his right arm. Experience taught him that no normal clone would have this kind of liberty with their armor, and his instincts told him that if he wasn’t careful, they wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him. The entire squad exhaled a dangerous feeling, as if they were a pack of Nexus, waiting to pounce onto him.

“Put down that… weapon, and surrender, Crrity. You have no way out.”

Glaring full of hatred at the young Jedi, the ex-prisoner hesitated for a few seconds, before dropping the piece of wood. He didn’t want to go back to prison, but he wasn’t stupid enough to try and fight. He escaped once, he could do it again, but only if he was alive.

The leading clone gestured with his head, and one of the troopers walked to Crrity while the others kept their aim on him. Without putting up any resistance, he let the clone handcuff him.

…

“With him, only Hiigi is left, general.”

“The most dangerous of them…”

Dageer and Ragout talked while Crrity – tied up – was pushed into a Laat. Hell Squad couldn’t possibly bring all the captured fugitives with them, so each time they got one, a gunship from the 41st came to pick them up. They had already gotten two others – one of which preferred to die than surrender, and go back to prison – before Crrity, and now, only Hiigi, Hell Squad’s old enemy, remained on the run.

“We have to catch him as soon as possible, sir. He already killed twenty-eight soldiers.”

Ragout patted Dageer’s shoulder, calming down the clone using a wave of the Force. He knew that Dageer blamed himself for those deaths, because he had a chance to kill Hiigi before, but didn’t take it.

“Don’t worry, Dageer. It won’t take long. Master Unduli has every trooper that isn’t on the battlefield searching for him, and we already blocked his way to the Separatist’s side of the planet. The circle is shrinking, and we will get him soon.”

Dageer nodded, and gestured for Hell Squad to gather around him. They had their helmets off, and sweat trickling down their faces. Felucia was hot and humid, with constant rains. The armors made it worse, but they would rather have it on than not have it at all. Only when they were sure there weren’t any enemies around that they took off the helmets.

“We will move out soon, lads. We will have to go through the territory of a Rancor, so be careful.”

“Understood, commander.”

“Rancors, hum?”

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A few dozen kilometers away, Hiigi was dragging a dead creature, which looked like a lizard, but with four giant wings. The animal had twice his size, but the mon calamari didn’t seem to face trouble with lifting it.

When he got in front of a cave, Hiigi stopped, and let the dead creature on the ground before retreating a few dozen meters, and hiding.

Over two hours went by, and night started to fall, but Hiigi was still waiting patiently. He was a hunter, and was used to stay still for hours, waiting for the prey to move.

He had always liked the feeling of control over his target, but now, the Republic had twisted the roles, and he was the one being hunted. He didn’t like that, even more after he discovered, when he was spying on a patrol, that Hell Squad was amongst the people searching for him. But he had an idea to make the prey become the hunter once again.

Suddenly, he felt the earth under his feet tremble when a gigantic creature left the cave, and grabbed the corpse he had left outside, and started munching on it.

The being was over fifteen meters tall, and had small, black eyes. It’s arms had several sharp claws, and fangs appeared on his open mouth, each one the size of a person. Drool dripped out of it’s mouth when it finished eating, and it looked around for more food.

Suddenly, a blue flash left the trees, hitting it right under the left eye. The Rancor, one of the deadliest predators in the entirety of Felucia, growled in pain, and looked at where the laser had come from.

All it saw was someone running away, and that triggered it’s anger. Rancors were territorial, violent, and very proud. It couldn’t accept the fact that it had been challenged, and that it was now being ignored.

Smashing the ground in fury, the creature smashed tress aside as it started pursuing Hiigi. The direction they were going was none other than where one of the Republic camps was.

—————————-

Dageer was talking with Commander Gree when he heard alarms going off. Both clones got out of the command post they were in, and found the reason for the turmoil without much trouble.

A Rancor was attacking the Republic base. The enraged beast slapped a clone with his giant hand, sending the poor soldier flying with a broken body. Another trooper was captured by the Rancor, and thrown on it’s mouth. His screams rang out, making the clones burst in anger, and empty their magazines on the creature.

However, the skin of the Rancor was too thick, so the lasers did little to hurt him, only making it angrier. Dageer and Hell Squad also joined on the fray, even as the Rancor destroyed the buildings, and slaughtered more clones.

“Dageer! Look past it! On the trees!”

Ragout and General Unduli appeared, looking surprised at the rampaging creature. What surprised them even more, though, was the figure looking at the base from the outskirts. Hiigi.

The mon calamari was glaring straight at Dageer, hatred burning in his eyes. The commander looked back, but he had bigger problems.

“Generals, you go after him! We will take care of the Rancor!”

The two Jedis only hesitated for a slight moment before nodding, and skipping past the Rancor. Both Hell Squad and the 41st had experience in dealing with Rancors.

When he saw them, Hiigi turned around and ran. He knew he wasn’t match for a Jedi, even more two.