Star Wars: Reborn In The Star Wars Universe - Chapter 5

Inside the command bridge of an Arquitens-BTT stood Robert, his young padawan quietly observing him stood at his side, the Arquitens-BTT (Arquitens-Battalion Troop Transport) was a custom-built light cruiser, designed by Robert after he managed to acquire the rights to build it after purchasing a small shipyard that was struggling to make a profit.

Upon acquiring the designs of an Arquitens-class light cruiser which cost 4,000,000 credits to build (was planned to become the cannon fodder of his fleet), next he then started researching new designs for the starship.

The original design for the ship was 325 meters long, lightly armored and shielded, had four Turret-mounted twin light turbo laser batteries, four heavy port and starboard quad laser cannon batteries, four Missile/torpedo launchers, and Concussion missiles. It also wasn’t uncommon for it to be instead be seen with four Turret-mounted twin light Turbolaser batteries, 4 Missile/torpedo launchers, and one Ventral laser cannon.

The original designs were very well balanced and allowed the ship to be used in multiple roles, despite this he wanted a ship that was capable of delivering a more destructive punch, so he ended up designing the Arquitens-Class Light Attack cruiser (or A-CLAC).

It cost 40,000,000 credits, was larger, more heavily armored, and shielded compared to the original, to increase the ship’s damage he had all the old weapon designs removed and instead had them replaced with one oversized internal stationary Turbolaser, that ran from the stern of the ship to the bow of the ship, allowing it to fire on ships only in front of it.

The weapon was slow firing and wasn’t great at targeting fast-moving targets, but it delivered devastating damage to heavily shielded and armored ships. It was a one-trick poney that was very good at its one trick, its lack of other weapons and point defense systems left it vulnerable to starfighter attacks and quick-moving spacecraft that could outmaneuver it.

It was his attempt at shortening the gap between light cruisers and Venator class star destroyers which were currently illegal for him to build and easily cost over 60,000,000 credits. Although on paper he called it a light cruiser (A-CLAC) in fact it was more of a heavy cruiser, by bribing a few officials he was able to label the ship as an overpriced light cruiser.

It could carry up to 600 infantry, 8 heavy tanks, as well as a large number of weapons and supplies. It was the only type of its class that was capable of landing on the surface of a planet, the sides and underbelly of the ship had been redesigned to allow many retractable ramps to be built into them, which allowed the ship to be fully unloaded in less than three minutes once lowered.

It was equipped with an experimental cloaking device that allowed it to cloak up to thirty minutes leaving it invisible to the eye and enemy sensors. With a built-in jammer on board, it was able to disrupt enemy communication within a small area, not allowing them to communicate and coordinate their activities.

He wanted a starship that was capable of doing stealth missions or surprise attacks on vulnerable enemy fortifications or defensive positions.

“Sir! Ten Arquitens-class light cruisers, four fighter squadrons each with twenty fighters, two Arquitens-BTT and three A-CLAC are all reporting in and in position to engage the enemy”, said a mercenary officer to Robert in a respectful tone.

Even though he was officially on paper working on behalf of the queen of Naboo, serving as a private security force, he secretly knew that the Jedi Knight in front of him was, in fact, the actual owner of the fleet here, and is the one in charge of the security and merc company he was currently working for, this wasn’t the first time he had met the young Jedi Knight.

“Sir! most of the enemy fleet is spread out to blockade Naboo, the enemy Droid Control battleship is lightly guarded, but multiple enemy ships are inbound”, reported the officer.

“We have friendly fighters inbound from the surface of Naboo! (Royal Naboo fighters) it seems the Gungans are also heavily engaged with the enemy, the capital is also struggling to hold back the enemy! and are requesting reinforcements!”, reported one of the personal manning a computer station.

Seeing the fighters coming to reinforce them, Robert knew that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had managed to infiltrate the capital and had made it to the hanger, if everything went as planned they would have Viceroy Gunray in custody by now.

*Flashback* ( Amidala POV)

“Hello, your majesty! I am the Jedi Knight Robert Kalar”, said the robed Knight upon entering the room, giving a slight bow to the queen.

The queen, seeing the robed man enter her room quietly observed him, a small sliver of hope started to grow inside her.

“Are the Jedi finally going to act? the Jedi should be more than enough to lift the siege of Naboo!” stated the young queen.

“I’m… afraid not your majesty, the Jedi are not soldiers, the situation is more complicated than you think, there are far too many senators supporting the trade federation at the moment, not openly of course… but they are clearly slowing things down… it’s unlikely that anything will be done anytime soon”, said the robed Jedi Knight.

He slowly walked around her room, letting the weight of his words sink into the young queen.

The queen upon hearing this slumped against her seat and stared vacantly off into space, all hope for her people it seems had been lost, by the time the republic had managed to end their debating and rallied their forces, her people and planet would have long been ravaged of anything of value, her people enslaved or worse.

“It seems there has been a mistake, your majesty, I am not here today acting on behalf of the Jedi Council”, said the Jedi Knight to Queen Amidala.

“Then why are you here?”, responded Amadala

” I want you!”, answered back the Kight.

The queen upon hearing this couldn’t help slightly blushing but was also taken aback and slightly unnerved shortly after, the queen couldn’t help realizing that she was unarmed and alone with the young man, a slight bit of fear had started to grow within the young queen, if the young man wanted her, there was very little she would be able to do to stop him.

“I’m sorry your majesty! but I’m currently taken”, said the Jedi Knight after sensing the unease his statement caused the young queen.

“What I want is your support your majesty!”, said the Knight to clear up the misunderstanding.

This took the young queen by surprise, her planet was under attack, she was completely helpless, how could she be of any help to the young man in front of her.

“What exactly is it that you want?” asked Amidala.

“What I need are warships your majesty! and lots of them, I have plans to build a large shipyard to mass-produce Arquitens-class light cruisers, the problem is that this needs to be done in secret, somewhere where I can create a large spaceport without others finding out about it, perhaps a planet in the Mid Rim one located near the Outer Rim, it would need to be a peace-loving planet where others wouldn’t expect to find a large military force”, said the Jedi with his back turned to the young queen.

“you wouldn’t happen to know of such a location would you?” asked the Jedi Knight to the young Queen.

The Queen not believing her ears couldn’t help standing up! was the young man in front of her a traitor to the Republic! he clearly had plans to build more than just light cruisers!

The Republic had long been at peace and currently had very few military starships, they both could be charged with treason for building such a place without approval from the republic first. Amidala with her strong sense of loyalty to the Republic couldn’t allow this! she made her way to the door to leave.

Robert with his back turned to the young queen could sense her moving towards the door.

“I can save your planet!”, said Robert out loud.

The queen upon hearing this couldn’t help stopping in her tracks.

“I’m sure you don’t trust me! and I don’t blame you! I’m sure you want to know more about my character? you’re familiar with the Jedi called Obi-Wan? he is a friend of mine, go to him and he’ll be able to tell you about what kind of person I am and if I can be trusted or not”, said Robert to the Queen.

Robert turned and made his way to the door to leave. Upon reaching it he stopped.

“time is of the essence, your majesty! I’ll be awaiting your response”, upon saying this he raised his hood over his head and left.

* Flashback End*

Roberts (POV)

“I want all Arquitens-class light cruiser and A-CLAC to engage the enemy fleet!”, He commanded.

“Target the enemies Droid controlled Battleship! I want Alpha squadron to engage enemy fighters around the target!”

“Bravo Squadron will protect Charlie squadron as they make their bombing runs!”

“Delta Squadron! I want you to form a defensive perimeter around the fleet!”

“I want one Arquitens-BTT to support the capital of Theed! my command ship will personally go and support the Gungans!”, Ordered Robert to his fleet.

Robert personally wanted to come in contact with the Gungan people, the planet of Naboo was honeycombed with many underwater passages, if he was able to come to an agreement with the Gungan people they would make the perfect place to hide the construction of his shipyards from prying eyes.

On the surface, he indeed planned on building light cruisers but underneath the surface of the planet he one day hoped to build his larger more powerful ships.

(Battle in the Great Grass Plains)

Gungans (POV)

“Retreat!”

Captain Tarpals had just ordered the retreat of the army, the enemy had made their way inside and taken out their shield generators, which were positioned on the backs of Fambaas.

Their shield generators were so powerful that they could even hold against large starships bombardments from orbit, the enemy artillery wasn’t able to penetrate it, so they were forced to engage the Gungans in close quarters combat.

After a long flight, the enemy was able to use their superior numbers and managed to take out the shield generators.

The Gungan army was routed! with all hope for a victory here lost, they were forced to retreat north across the plains, towards a group of hills, they hoped that once they got behind them they would obstruct the enemies view and provide some protection against enemy fire as they retreated.

As the Gungan soldiers crested the hill and started making their way down in front of them, out of nowhere a large ship decloaked!

The walls of the ship suddenly opened and lowered down, becoming ramps! and outran a battalion of six hundred infantry! underneath the ship, eight ramps opened up and eight heavy tanks rode down them with infantry right behind them unloading various supplies and weapons.

In a matter of moments, a small army ready for combat was standing in front of them. Tarpals seeing this was unsure of what to do, his men’s morale was already gone and all will to fight had left them, would they all die here today? he thought.

Droid Army (POV)

One-third of the droid armies attacking force was currently chasing down the enemy forces, as their army crested a hill and started making their way over it, into their view came the sight of a large army ready and waiting for them, with the Gungan army fleeing towards this unknown force.

Soon, the enemy opened fire upon them! the droid army chasing after the Gungan was now outnumbered, if they could halt the attack and regroup with the rest of the army, they would have more than enough numbers to deal with this force.

A droid in command of this leading attack force attempted to contact the command center and update them on this situation and request a halt to the attack but unfortunately, they were unable to establish a connection.

The highest-ranking droid leading this ȧssault, now helplessly watched as one-third of the droid army deployed here, start their attack upon this new larger force, without new orders from the command center their army could only follow the previous orders to attack fleeing Gungans.

Returning fire as they advance the droid army marched towards the enemy suffering many casualties.

Soon the second wave of the droid army caught up and started making their way down the hill further escalating the battle. The droids finally started making some headway when suddenly their tanks started suffering heavy casualties.

It seems a couple of Jedi were among the enemy ranks and were cutting into their tanks and taking out the crews from the inside, to make matters worse! the enemy now also had tanks! alongside a landed starship that could easily knock out any vehicle that made the mistake of getting too close to it.

Gungan (POV)

The Gungan’s as they fled couldn’t help looking back and watching this new force stand their ground and engage the droid army!

Tarpals, seeing that this new force was not hostile to them, actually managed to rally many of his surviving men and moved to support this new force.

Together, the two forces were spearheaded by a couple of Jedi and actually managed to start pushing the enemy back! cutting deep into the enemy lines as they advanced.

Theed (POV)

The Royal security force of Naboo had managed to reclaim part of the city and even managed to secure the hangar and capture the viceroy.

Taking various parts of the capital was easy! holding it was going to be another matter entirely, soon droid reinforcement landed and started pushing their lines back.

Their battle lines were starting to break! small pockets of droids were breaching their lines in multiple locations. They were about to lose the capital once again.

The Royal security forces were about to retreat when all of a sudden they got reinforcements! large groups of civilian vehicles filled with local militia came to reinforce them!

Backed by Naboo militia the Royal security force was able to somehow keep their lines from being breached. Eventually, they had to start falling back street by street as the enemy forces started to overwhelm them.

In the temporary command center for the Naboo royal security force, a general overseeing the battle of theed received an urgent report from the front lines.

“SIR! OUR LEFT FLANK IS BEING OVERRUN! WE CANT HOLD ON!” shouted an unknown soldier reporting their status to the command center.

“SOMEONE PLEASE HELP US! THE MILITIA IN THE CENTER HAS BEEN CUT OFF! WE NEED REINFORCEMENTS NOW!” came a communication over the coms, explosions could be heard in the background.

“PLEASE NOO! WE SURRENDER! WE SURRENDER! (BANG! BANG!)”, they could no longer hear anything shortly after, besides the occasional sound of gunfire in the distance and the subtle sound of many marching droids.

“Sir! this is the right flank! we are under heavy attack and are fallen back! most of the militia has been wiped out, we are no longer combat effective!”

“Requesting coordinates to where we can rally with the rest of the army!” said a soldier updating command about the situation over on the right flank.

The general after receiving all this information was just about to order the total evacuation of the capital when suddenly he received an incoming communications report from the troops stationed in their rear holding the south side of the city.

“Sir! we have received reinforcements!”

“I REPEAT! WE HAVE RECEIVED REINFORCEMENTS! THE QUEEN HAS DONE IT!”

“We have friendly troops moving towards the center of the city from the south! do not fire upon them! I repeat! do not fire upon them!”

Finally, a bit of good news thought the general upon hearing this, a couple of friendly Bombers could be heard overhead making their bombardment runs upon the enemy droid forces. Fighters could be seen dogfighting in the skies above.

It wasn’t long before friendly forces reached his position and he was able to send them out to the front, to provide relief to his tattered lines and pockets of resistance.

The Naboo forces holding the front were in trouble, most groups could only hold small pockets of fortified positions, the droids were advancing on them from all sides, droid tanks spread out all over the battlefield were inflicting heavy casualties on them.

The droid tanks were causing chaos all over when they suddenly started getting destroyed all across the battlefield. The Naboo military started to cheer as allied fighters and tanks entered the battle. All over the city, heavily armored troops could be seen pushing the enemy lines back, these new soldiers fought their way towards isolated allies cut off behind enemy lines.

Space battle over Naboo (POV)

“This is alpha squadron! we are heavily engaged with droid fighters! we have more enemy contacts inbound! we’ll hold them off for as long as possible!”, came an update from Alpha squadron.

“Reporting in! this Bravo Squadron of the Naboo Royal Security Force, our bombing run has proved ineffective! our proton torpedoes cannot get past the enemy shields!”, came an update from the Naboo fighter squadron leader.

“Copy that! we have that covered!”, came back a reply.

The squadron leader of the Royal Naboo security force had just received the reply when shortly after three shots fired from the A-CLAC’s hit the enemy ship, the first two shots didn’t manage to get past the shield and inflict any damage but the third shot managed to get through, immediately after the three shots landed, Charlie squadron timed their bombing run perfectly and moved in! scoring many proton torpedo hits upon the enemy ship.

“This is Charlie Squadron! our attack run has been successful! from the looks of it four more bombing runs like that and we should be able to take out the enemy’s reactor!”, reported Charlie Squadrons’ leader.

The enemy fighters upon realizing the threat of the A-CLAC’s and bombers started focusing on them. They attempted to engage the bombers but were intercepted by a squadron of fighters guarding them.

The same thing happened to the fighters engaging the A-CLAC’s except the fighter that did manage to get through, next had to deal with the Arquitens-class light cruisers that were acting as escorts for the A-CLAC’s.

The A-CLAC’s seemed to lack any point defense but that wasn’t the case for the Arquiten light cruisers, escorting other ships was clearly their main purpose as they were able to effectively keep the fighters at bay making them work hard to land any hits upon the A-CLAC’s.

Just as the fighters were starting to break through and engage the A-CLAC’s a new force of fighters entered the battlefield.

“Sorry, we’re late boys! my bombers! don’t worry about the A-CLAC’s instead join the ȧssault upon the droid command ship!, my fighters have the A-CLAC’s covered”, said Miranda

A couple of squadrons of fighters joined the battle under her command. The bombers ignored the fight and instead headed towards the enemy to join in on the ȧssault.

Quickly after joining the battle, Miranda started shooting down any fighter that made the mistake of coming too close to her. There sure are a lot of them she thought after shooting down her tenth fighter, shortly after she thought that an A-CLAC was destroyed!

A squadron of bombers had managed to land a successful attack run upon it. A large number of fighters and new starships entered the battle, they were the starships ȧssigned to blockade Naboo.

“Come on girls! let’s show them how to properly protect these ships!”, said Miranda.

A warcry coming from her female-led squadrons answered her in reply.

“yea…”, came a half-hearted reply over coms from her male padawan, who jokingly wasn’t as motivated as the rest.

Roberts (POV)

Robert was currently leading a charge upon the droid army, along with his padawan Aria Endeel, they had managed to cut their way through the enemy army all the way to their command center, after eliminating the enemy leadership the remaining droids fled the battlefield.

“Master! why did we waste our time helping the useless Gungon’s? the enemies control droid ship is a far more important target!”, questioned Aria to her master.

“In the short term, yes! ignoring the Gungons would have been the wisest decision, but one day in the future you will understand how important this battle really was”, responded Robert to his padawan’s question.

His young padawan clearly wasn’t happy with his response but she decided to not question him further.

Robert knew that the Gungons were one of the few races that would be able to provide him with portable shield generators with no question asked, and wouldn’t report the trade to the Republic. Saving their army here would also leave a favorable impression upon the Gungan leadership, making it easier to negotiate with them later.

The Gungan people were seriously underestimated, they had managed to develop a shield generator capable of withstanding tremendous orbital bombardments, portable handheld shields that could withstand blaster fire, small spherical balls called boomers that when thrown with just the arm! were powerful enough to take out a droid soldier, with larger versions capable of disabling tanks.

The boomers were made of some type of substance that caused havoc on electronics. He hoped they would also be effective against large starships as well.

Overall the battle of Naboo was very profitable for him, he was able to test out his ship designs, seven of his Arquiten class light cruisers survived the battle, two Arquiten BTT survived, and two A-CLAC’s, unfortunately over three-fourths of his fighters were shot down.

He had lost many good pilots in this battle, he would need to develop proper emergency ejection devices for his fighters, of course, the pilot’s suits would need to be upgraded as well, they need to be able to survive an extended period in the vacuum of space while they waited to be recovered after the battle. He invested far too much time and money into training his forces to just allow them to die pointless deaths when they didn’t need to die.

Right now he could only bȧrėly support his fleet thanks to the many companies he has, training new soldiers and keeping them equipped with good gear was costly. At the moment he couldn’t afford to lose them, and training replacements would take a long time.

He was presently surprised by the effectiveness of the Arquitens class light cruisers as escorts, they had managed to keep two of his A-CLAC’s from being destroyed by enemy fighters and the enemy starships.

Of course, Miranda and her fighters also played a large role in keeping the A-CLAC’s alive as well, her squadron actually managed to shoot down the most enemy fighters despite joining the battle late. Although they did have a Jedi Master, the other squadrons didn’t have anything to be ashamed of.

His ground forces had suffered many casualties! many of his mercs and private security forces were killed during the battle, the fact that they were heavily outnumbered in every battle proved how good their training was.

He felt a lot of pain thinking about the cost of replacing and training new soldiers were going to be, hopefully, the queen would keep her part of the deal.

After the battle ended he was saddened to learn that Obi-Wan Masters Qui-Gon Jinn had fallen in battle, he was defeated by a sith! Obi-Wan had managed to survive the fight and ended up killing the sith! avenging his master.

A Jedi Master and his padawan would often become close like family, he would never admit it but Robert was sure that his friend was grieving right now. He regretted not arriving sooner, perhaps he could have prevented the death, he knew Obi-Won wouldn’t blame him but he still felt a bit of guilt for not arriving sooner.

He knew Qui-Gon had already fought the sith before, he had often trained with Obi-Wan and knew he was skilled in Form Four Ataru just like his Master.

Form Four was aggressive and was good at fighting a single opponent. He thought that with Obi-Wan alongside Qui-Gon that they could handle the Sith easily. Qui-Gon was one of the most skilled fighters of his generation and Obi-Wan skills were also strong due to his master teachings and him constantly sparring with his friends.

Qui-Gon’s death shocked him! he knew Obi-Wan already had the skills to become a Jedi Kight and yet even with his Master at his side they had almost lost to the Sith fighter. If the Sith were this strong he strongly hoped that there were not a lot of them still left alive.

Robert had managed to keep his end of the bargain with Queen Amidala, he had managed to hold back the enemy ȧssaulting her capital, destroyed most of the enemy upon the plains outside the city, and managed to destroy the enemy fleet in orbit, now he just hoped that she would keep her end of the deal.

He had managed to establish communications with the leadership of the Gungan people and negotiations seemed to be going well, the Gungans were not as stupid as everybody thought, upon learning about his plans to create a shipyard they immediately started negotiation for favorable prices and exchange of technologies.

The Gungans being amphibious had great potential at becoming amphibious ȧssault troops if equipped properly, he hoped to establish a military academy on Naboo to help train troops and individuals for leadership roles.

Now all he had to do was report back to the temple, officially he was here to guard and support the queen alongside Master Qui-Gon, now that Jinn was dead he would be expected to provide a report about the situation on Naboo, he was sure the Jedi would want to know how the Queen managed to recruit such a large force on her own.