*BATTLING DESPAIR AT DAWN [invite]

[GENERAL GRIEVOUS]

As the cyborg General joined up with the part of his army that was now breaking up to go down and flank their enemies, he climbed onto one of the AAT's near the center of the task force in order not to make his presence known to the Jedi. He had no intentions of revealing him self at this moment, unless the opportunity to fight several Jedi came or if Dooku required him to do so. He had deeply contemplated on the matter of whether he should make his existence known to the Jedi or not, he wanted to face them right away but eventually came to the conclusion that the playing the role of the "mysterious General X" would serve him and the Confederacy best for now.

Grabbing a hold of the Command Droid in charge of this portion of the army, he yanked it towards him self so it could hear his orders clearly as he issued them. "Move the infantry into the field, stop them from escaping by flooding and overrunning the landing zone. Scatter the tanks around the landing zone and it's perimeter. Concentrate all fire on their transports. Do NOT let them get away!"

"Roger, roger" came the reply from the droid and he violently pushed it out of his way as he strolled off, away from the command droid and the rest of the battledroids. He wasn't going to personally directly be a part of this battle unless absolutely necessary. No, he was going to enjoy watching as the retreating Clone army would be forced to engage his forces in order to escape. Though stuck with a permanently motionless face due to his cybernetic nature, one would easily be able to tell that he was very pleased, by looking into his eyes. Soon enough, his army would overrun their LZ and his AAT's shoot down their LAAT's. The Clones were doomed.

((Apologies for a rather short/empty post. Absolutely no motivation/muse.))

[ouen]

O’en was shocked that he had just been told off by the young padawan, it was actually quite impressive. He did not disagree with her entirely either, but he could see an undertone that she had yet to experience. Battle was about losing men, it was about watching friends die for something bigger than them. Reno was trying to save lives, O’en knew that there was only one life that needed to be saved, and unfortunately she had just run off to confront one of the most dangerous Jedi of all time.

O’en watched from his spot on the ground for a second as he contemplated what the girl had said. If he pulled back as Alice had asked they would lose the battle, the droids would chase, kill a few, but they would not destroy them all. It would ensure that the battalion lived to fight another day, it would be a tactical win of sorts. But he would lose Alice, the army would lose Alice, while she was just one person, one Jedi, she was so much more than that. With her ability she could change the entire outcome of a battle, she could inspire even the most feint hearted to great feats. If they ran now she would be killed, or worse, turned to the dark side.

O’en quickly clicked his com’s on, he had been in situations like this with his master on a number of occasions, sometimes it was the leaders job to make the tough choices, even if they didn’t make sense at the time. “As the highest ranking Officer currently in contact with command I am in charge of the army, we will not be retreating. Again, create the barricade, their numbers wont mean anything in the small pass, and droids lack the ability or the ingenuity to do anything but attack head on.” Pulling rank was never something a commander wanted to do, but Alice had abandoned the army to it’s fate with her bold and highly ill advised maneuver and that did leave him in command.

O’en switched his com’s over so that his orders would be issued to all of the officers, they did not have much time so he had to keep it simple. “Create cover between the two cliffs, we will use it as a choke point to take their numbers advantage away, once they commit we will hold the line. Make sure to feign a full retreat as we set the choke point up, I want them to believe it is safe to charge head first, then we blast them. Once we engage get troopers onto the walls of the cliffs, if we lose ground we need to catch the droids in a crossfire from each side while we pull back and form a new line. Air support needs to be ready for strategic sweeps, we will need to thin their numbers occasionally. Get it done now, if you have any complaints let me know after we’ve turned their own trap on them.”

O’en knew what he was doing, the droids outnumbered them, but they were on foot. Dooku had sprung a brilliant trap, drawing the army into an enclosed space with only one exit would, in most cases, mean utter destruction. The problem is they failed, the army had never fully committed and now O’en was going to turn that trap on Dooku. The opening was too small for him to get more than three or four hundred droids through at a time, as a result the numbers advantage meant very little.

O’en knew the clones would not be able to hold forever, eventually ammo would run low or the CIS artillery would wear them down, but this move would buy some time, and it gave them their best shot of turning this humiliating loss into a partial victory.

O’en was not done though, he switched his channel to Reno and Daniel’s. He needed them for his next task, even if the young padawan had her qualms with getting involved in the actual fighting. “Reno, bring fuel cells from the ship, at least two, three or four if possible. Daniel, I need you on the front lines, I hear your not too bad with a blaster.” O’en was not going to join the troops as they attempted to hold off an army more than ten times their size, and with any luck neither would Reno, it was going to be up to Daniel and Daniel alone to hold the line until they had Alice clear.