Star Wars Rogue Knight - Chapter 29

Part 1

=RK=

Med bay, Assault Ship Courageous, Republic LZ, Ryloth

I was watching as doctors and med droids were working on Anakin. They were cutting charred pieces of cloth and armor off of him. In the room to the right, Ahsoka was being treated for her blaster wounds. Thanks to Skywalker, who had mostly shielded her with his body and Force powers, she was only mildly singed. If she had been wearing an armor, she might have gotten away only with mild injuries.

That was something we were going to talk about, once the docs were finished with her.

Next to me, Kenobi was staring with empty eyes at his former apprentice, who was covered with first and second degree burns.

When all was said and done, Anakin got lucky. Oh, he’ll have some impressive scarring across his ċhėst and would need to wear a resperator mask for the next few weeks, but he was expected to make full recovery.

So would Captain Rex, who would be out of commission for a month or so. However, with the exception of four grievously wounded troopers, Torrent Company was gone.

Kenobi’s men had fared a bit better; a small platoon could be ȧssembled from the survivors of Ghost Company. Once they all are back on duty, which wwould take months and artificial limbs for some of them.

All in all, the ȧssault on the artillery positions had turned out to be almost as big a clusterfuck as the space battle. I could scarcely believe it.

What in the name of the Force possessed the Jedi to go into battle with only blaster carbines and Ion grenades?!

“General Kenobi. Walk with me.” I said in a tone leaving no room for mistaking my words as anything but orders and headed to the nearest conference room, where we could speak without someone interrupting us.

His head turned slowly my way and he stared at me for a few seconds before shaking his head and following me.

When we were both inside, I manipulated the door panel with the Force, making sure that we wouldn’t be disturbed.

“General Kenobi, I’ll read your and Skywalkers AARs when you are able to finish the damn things. Right now I want to know what the hell were you two idiots thinking?! You went in carrying only light weapons!” I shouted at him, which tore him out of his funk.

Obi-Wan winced and lowered his head.

“Two Companies of the finest men the Republic had, all but destroyed! Tell me General Kenobi, what were you thinking when you ordered your men to carry only carbines and Ion grenades against a numerous well entrenched enemy?!” Now, that I had his undivided attention, I spoke quietly. No need to shout any more.

“We came here to liberate the people of Ryloth. Not to demolish their homes…” he mumbled.

“Let me get this straight. You were armed for a peacekeeping action, despite being aware that the CIS would be dug in deep to protect the proton cannons. All because you wanted to keep a few damn buildings safe?!” I was incredulous.

“It’s the Jedi way… causing wanton destruction, especially on a Republic world…”

I glared at him and pointed at his apparel.

“From the moment you put on that uniform, General, you have been a GAR general first and a Jedi second. Your duty is to the Republic and your men. The Jedi’s creed is a very distant third. ”

Obi-Wan opened his mouth to say something but I didn’t give him the chance to speak. I slammed a Force enhanced fist at the table, denting it.

“Tell me, how many Twi’lek died because you two were playing games? If Skywalker had not followed your example, he might have been able to deal with the Confed resistance on the ground! I wouldn’t have been forced to call in an orbital strike to clear the last kriffing cluster of proton cannons!” I hissed.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The turmoil that Kenobi was radiating, was obvious to anyone with the senses to pick it up.

“This is war! Not a police action or a run of the mill peacekeeping! When you mess around, more people die. The longer any single battle or the conflict as a whole lasts, the casualties became greater. For both sides, not to mention the civilians caught in between.

Obi-Wan, if you and the rest of the Jedi can’t move from the mindset of a peacekeepers to that of a generals, you will get more people killed. Either directly by kriffing up as you and Anakin did today, and causing the deaths of your men when you kriffed up by the numbers. Or indirectly. Like you did by forcing me to sacrifice the civilians at Site Beta, so we could safely land our main force and proceed with liberating Ryloth. As we speak more people are dying in the CIS camps.”

“Sometimes people either under your direct command or civilians must be sacrificed so more people can be saved.”

“That goes contrary to everything we are taught as Jedi! To everything we are!” exclaimed Obi-Wan.

“Then you have a decision to make, General Kenobi,” I stated in a carefully bland voice. ” You will either become the leader of men I know you can be, an officer that will be the pride of the Republics Armed forces. A General who does right by his oath and brings as many of his men home alive as possible. Or you will get out of the GAR. That is a choice all Jedi will have to make, sooner than later. We can’t afford any more such ‘victories’!” I pointed at the deck, and Ryloth’s soil below it.

My comm beeped, breaking the moment. I bit off a curse and activated it.

“I’m listening.”

“Sir, we have holocall from Coruscant. It’s the Chancellor and General Valentra.”

“Patch it to conference room 3A.” I ordered.

The holoprojector around which the round table dominating the room was built, came to life showing the blue tinted images of Palpatine, Valentra, Yularen, Yoda and that of Ryloth’s senator.

He was the same man I had ordered arrested for trying to release Grievous under Palpatine’s instructions during the Hostage crisis on Coruscant. He got away, but not without suffering a serious blow to his power.

That man wasn’t one of my greatest fans, but so far he’s been unable to stir up too much trouble.

“Ah! General Veil! What is your progress?” exclaimed Palpatine.

He appeared pleased to see me in one piece. Which, considering who and what he was, meant nothing.

“We hold Ryloth’s orbit and have annihilated the Separatist fleet blockading the planet. One Droid Command ship, two battleships and forty Munificents were destroyed by our forces as well as twelve thousand Vulture fighters. However we suffered heavy casualties in order to achieve such a feat.”

“Excellent work, General!” Palpatine smiled at me.

It wasn’t reassuring in the least.

“What is the situation on the ground?” asked Valentra.

“Our forces are disembarking and we’ll proceed with the liberation of Ryloth as soon as that is done.” I stated with a blank expression. “However there are some grim news you all should be aware of…” I proceeded to inform them about the slaves we saved in orbit and the Camps set up by the CIS.

Ryloth’s senator started screaming for immediate action and I could see that Palpy was going to order it.

“You have to save those people, General! Consider this an order!” snapped Palpatine, faking a look of horror.

“The fastest way to finish this campaign will be to capture the Capital where Wat Tambor has his command center.” I said, calling up a projection of the said city. It was build in on a solid rock spire, surrounded by a kilometers deep abyss.

“A siege could go on for months.” Palpatine stated the obvious.

It was probably what he was hoping for. That would mean that I’ll be stuck here for that long. Too bad, that I had other plans to deal with it…

“My people have suffered greatly! Such a siege will be too much!” grumbled the senator.

“Plan, have you, General Veil?” asked Yoda.

“While the Capital is our primary target, we need to dispatch strong forces to liberate the Camps. From a single battalion, up to an entire Regiment will be needed depending on how powerful the garrisons are. Once I have sufficient men near the major camps, we’ll attack them at the same time. Because of that, I won’t have enough free troops to ȧssault the city while liberating the CIS held population. I intend to ask for help. It appears that despite their vicious attempts to suppress the resistance of the locals, the CIS has been unsuccessful. Cham Syndulla, leads the largest contingent of resistance fighters. I’ll do my best to procure his ȧssistance.”

“He has the reputation of an extremist.” the Chancellor gave me a grandfatherly smile which would have made Dumbledore proud. “He can be unpredictable.”

“I don’t trust him!” shouted the senator. “He is a power hungry maniac!”

“I’ll leave Ryloth’s politics in your capable hands, Senator. As per your orders, Chancellor, I’ll do everything in my power to help the local population.”

“And why we are not sending additional reinforcements?” asked Palpatine.

“We are stretched to the limit, sir.” General Valentra joined the conversation. “There is no one else to send.”

It was extremely fortunate that a squadron of Venators with escorts were already on the way, which would do a lot to shore up our space defenses. I didn’t relish the possibility of the CIS sending in another fleet and blowing me out of orbit.

“It’s unlikely that we would be able to achieve a timely victory without Syndulla.” I stated with a grim expression on my face.

“Something to add, have you, Master Kenobi?” asked Yoda.

Obi-Wan shook his head. “No, Master Yoda.”

“Very well. Liberate Ryloth, General Veil.” ordered Palpatine before cutting the connection.

It was time to stretch my orders to their limits.

“Obi-Wan, if you decide to stay with us I have a job for you…”

=RK=

Part 2

Maximilian Veers watched the sensors display of his command tank like a hawk. The young officer was leading the vanguard of one of the armor columns braving the mountains. He was currently commanding a hover tank platoon, which was scouting ahead of the main force.

Above him, a pair of heavily armed gunships were lazily sweeping over the pass. Higher still, a couple of squadrons of fighters were flying CAP, on the lookout for any sign of CIS Vultures or bombers. Even in orbit, the ultimate high ground, a Venator, the Victory, was hanging vigilant, ready to provide ȧssistance if needed.

All that, didn’t make the Lieutenant any less apprehensive. He was in a light tank, with only a shield generator for defense. One that maybe could take two shots before being overloaded.

You had to add to that the unpleasant fact that his hovercraft were no good for scaling vertical surfaces, such as the cliffs to the left, or flying, with the over two kilometers deep chasm on the right.

In front of his vehicle were two tanks of his command squad, both of which had their turrets sweeping from left to right in search of hostiles.

“Contact! You have enemy tanks and infantry activating to north east!” The voice of theVictory’s sensor operator sounded from comms all along the armor column.

“Affirmative. We have them on our screens!” Confirmed the pilots of the gunships. “We are engaging.”

“Lieutenant Veers! Push the vanguard forward and try to flush out any other surprises the Seps have for us.” Ordered General Veil, who was riding with a group of a quick response LAATs, which had two companies of troopers ready to deploy.

“Wilco, sir!” Answered the younger man. “You heard, the General. We are moving out. I want five hundred meters separation between the platoon’s elements.”

The hover tanks’ engines roared and the light machines darted forward, following the contour of the pass.

=RK=

The gunships flew over the mountain’s peaks and followed the siren song of the droids energy emissions. Those two LAATs were heavily armed with both missile and rocket pods as well as rapid-fire lasers mounted under their short wings.

The pair appeared over the CIS forces. The Separatists machines were getting out of shallow trenches, where they had waited deactivated for Republic forces to come in range.

The lead LAAT released a couple of missiles aimed at two tanks which had gotten out of their hiding holes and were heading into firing positions over the GAR column. The heavy weapons struck the CIS machines from above, drilling effortlessly through their lighter top armor and detonating. The top third of the two stricken tanks disappeared into a flash of detonating explosives, and the resulting shock-wave obliterated a few B2 droids which were too close.

That first successful strike was followed by the gunships unleashing the rest of their weaponry before they finished their attack pass. Missiles blew up three more tanks, while rockets and lances of energy smashed into groups of droids.

The initial success of the LAATs was short-lived. The next CIS machine to awake was an AA emplacement, which opened up on the gunships. They were already finishing their strafing run and were able to avoid its initial flak fire. The two missiles it sent after them were a different matter.

The Republic craft spread out, increasing their speed and turning so they could target the weapon which which went after their comrade. One of the LAAT’s managed to shoot down the missile going after its wing mate, before it could connect with it. The fire of the second one missed by centimeters, twin stilettos of green energy passing below and above the CIS weapon.

The missile struck the gunship from the side destroying one engine and heavily damaging the other. The LAAT spun out of control and plowed in the rocky ground.

The second one flew straight down in an attempt to go below the engagement envelope of the AA emplacement. That maneuver, as it turned out was not needed. A missile sent from one of the CAP fighters erased the AA site out of existence. Moments later, six V-19’s strafed the CIS position.

=RK=

Lieutenant Veers glared at a mountain hill which was on the other side of the pass they were crossing. It was a good news/bad news thing.

The kriffing CIS had a position defended by proton cannons and heavy AA emplacements, from where their tanks and infantry could take potshots at the advancing Republic column without being too concerned by air or orbital attacks. The second option was out anyway, if the General wanted to use this pass. But the heavy cannons ensured that a Corvette or a Light Cruiser couldn’t pass over the place where the Seps had entrenched themselves and plaster them with its secondaries. Not without getting shot down in retaliation.

Which was a problem. The fleet couldn’t afford to loose any more ships, even one of the lighter ones. Such a thing would compromise even further the tentative hold the Navy had over Ryloth. Not a single GAR member on the ground wanted to think what would happen if the CIS sent a heavy fleet to retake the orbitals.

That left the ground forces with a problem. Now they had to brave a gauntlet under enemy fire. It wasn’t a fun place to be.

Two of the CIS tanks which had taken positions on the ridge overlooking the pass concentrated their fire on the leading part of Veers’ platoon.

They missed.

Maximillian had never been more grateful to the Seps own bean-counters, who were too cheap to pay for a decent targeting sensors and programing for the droid ground forces.

“Press forward! We need to get out of the pass ASAP and flank them!” Ordered the Lieutenant.

“Yes, sir!” He heard his driver shouting back a second before the tank darted forward, at a reckless speed.

That was all Veers could do. The position where his platoon was didn’t give him many options.

They couldn’t maneuver, or go back. Staying put would be a death sentence for his light tanks, and worse, would achieve nothing.

The eleven hover tanks flew towards the end of the pass, while exchanging fire with the CIS forces. The only high point was that while the Seps were busy shooting at his shielded machines, they were not bombarding the ponderous walkers which were striding forth with unmatched determination.

=RK=

Eagle Flight, Lorek Pass, Torangua Mountains, Ryloth

A droid operated tank took careful aim and fired. A fist made of crimson energy splashed over the shield of Maximilian’s leading tank. The defensive field flashed brightly as it struggled to absorb and reflect the energies unleashed upon it, before the light show ended.

The hover tank, which was still intact, rotated its turret and roared its defiance. Its lighter, but faster firing cannon spoke. Three green bolts flew back at the CIS lines.

One missed.

The rest found their mark.

A deep, smoking rend appeared in the front armor of the enemy tank and the secondary weapons on the right side of its cupola were slagged by a hit.

In retaliation, four more of the Confed machines zeroed on the leading hover tank and fired in unison.

The shield stopped the first hit.

The next pierced the depleted defensive barrier as if it was not even there. It sliced through the thin armor protecting the turret and unleashed what remained of its fury on the people manning the hover thank.

The machine’s commander, who acted a gunner too, was turned into ash from the waist up. The driver lived a bit longer thanks to the compartmentalization of the tank doing its job.

That proved useless when the front of the armored vehicle was struck by another cannon shot, which blew a hole in the glacis and obliterated the man.

I turned my senses towards the higher ground where the CIS forces had taken position. Their AA emplacements were already sending streams of laser fire and flocks of missiles at my CAP, forcing the Torrents back.

The fighters answered with their own weapons, which were met by wall of blaster fire. Only a handful of missiles got through, with only one reaching its target.

The end result was an AA site blown up in exchange for a pair of V-19’s. It wasn’t a trade I could afford.

Then another hover tank went in flames under the relentless enemy barrage. And I was grateful for it. I would gladly accept them blowing up my entire vanguard, despite Veers leading it, because it meant that the kriffing clankers weren’t shooting at the pass itself.

Granted, the whole exercise was a damn diversion, but I needed everyone seeing what they believed my forces were doing. It was probably my best chance to end the mess on Ryloth fast.

So I was leading three regiments into a meat grinder while Kenobi prepared to do his part.

That still left me do deal with the CIS forces on the damn hills overlooking the pass.

Oh, I got a plan how to do it. It was just that a bunch of gunships from Earth would have been ideal for dealing with this situation. Flying through the pass, under the enemy AA umbrella, then popping a sensor pod over the edge of the canyon, locking on the targets and sending missiles to deal with them.

It was too bad that thanks to the enemy ECM my own gunships were unable to do so. They needed a line of sight to fire and that was suicide against the massed AA emplacements.

No orbital strike, an air attack being too costly on my remaining ȧssets… And no kriffing indirect fire artillery! That was soon going to be climbing near the top of the list I needed the R&D to see. Few self propelled arty pieces would have done wonders against the entrenched CIS forces. Hell, few mortars would do nicely too.

Just another thing to add to the list.

That left us dealing with the enemy the old fashioned way. With grunts on the ground.

The quick reaction force flew through the canyon until the LAATs were in position, just two meters under the edge of the cliffs where the droids deployed. Below us and to the left, the leading elements of my walker force were coming into range

Their heavy mass drivers opened fire, carefully aiming so they won’t smash one of my transports by accident. That at least kept the droids nicely distracted from our approach.

My men launched grappling hooks, and once the devices found purchase on the rocks above us, they started climbing up. Once they were just below the edge, the clones drew thermal detonators and Ion grenades with one hand, and threw them at the droids above us.

It was what I was waiting for. I had mental picture of the enemy forces seared into my head thanks to the Force, which I had used to search for their exact positions.

Streams of Ionic energy clashed with blast-waves and machines started dying. Squads of B2’s as well as tanks and couple of AA emplacement went out in a flash of searing fire or few twitching on the ground with their circuits fused.

This brief surprise was all it took for the leading elements of my two companies to scale up the cliffs, discard the grappling hooks and scatter in search for cover. Aria and I joined them, jumping meters in the air from the LAATs carrying us. Our lightsabers were already active when we landed on the rough ground. We wasted no time and charged the enemy lines.

Behind us my armored column had ceased fire and was advancing up the pass.

I used my free hand to levitate grenades from my harness and sent them flying at various juicy targets, while blocking the ineffective fire from the droids.

I dreaded the day when those things would get their programing straight and start acting as the advanced war machines I remembered from my past. Against them the ȧssault I was leading would be magnitudes bloodier if successful at all.

To my right, my apprentice was following my example. Her excitement and joy was like a beacon for my senses.

I chuckled at her antics and threw a thermal detonator straight under the gun of a Sep tank, which was trying to acquire me as a target. The resulting explosion melted off most of the machine’s armor around its turret and warped the cannon, making it useless.

I frowned, but didn’t allow myself to stop in surprise. The damn weapon was faulty! It should have destroyed the tank, not simply crippling it. The damn thing still had its secondary weapons which were moving my way.

A missile slammed into the tank’s weakened armor and blew it up.

The second wave were up here and engaging. They were exclusively carrying heavy weapons.

The third should be following us withing moments.

It was just in time, too. The CIS forces were finally straightening out their programming and were counterattacking. The droids which were acting as individuals when we surprised them were engaging us as a units, with B2s and tanks engaging us in well coordinated manner.

The local CIS commander had reestablished control. Joy.

I ducked under a cannon shot. The bolt of concentrated energy passed over my head, and I rolled over the rocky ground. A repeating blaster stitched a line of smoking craters where I was a second ago.

Aria drew the weapon’s operator a B1 towards herself and sliced it in two without slowing down. Then she vaulted over a boulder and landed amidst a squad of Super Battle droids. Her blade danced around her armored body, leaving pieces of glowing metal in its wake.

My roll ended near an AA position. I threw my last thermal detonator into it, before making myself scarce.

A geyser of dirt and flames erupted behind me.

=RK=

Aria was grinning as she charged through the CIS lines. The Force sang in her ears, and the apprentice grabbed it and forced it to follow her directions.

She felt more powerful than ever, and more importantly, Aria felt in control. She was no longer just an ill taught pawn whose lot in life was to be used and discarded.

The Sith apprentice twisted the Force flowing through her veins and sent a bolt of lightning at a quartet of Super Battle droids. Their well polished armor shone under the onslaught, but did nothing to slow down the stream of energy that fried their internal components.

Four metal ssculptures fell to the ground, while Aria’s attention was redirected to her next prey.

She ran at a speed which should have been impossible for a member of her species, avoiding the desperate fire from the secondaries of a CIS tank. Aria vaulted over the last ditch defensive fire of her target and landed on its side. Her glowing blade sliced through the weapons barrels, then she jumped down and rolled under the tank, which was suspended over the ground by its repulsors. She slammed her blade into the flat armor of the machine and started cutting a way through it.

That gave her few calm seconds to think.

The last couple of days were the best in her short life.

It was a radical shift from what she knew from her brief time with the people who had made her. For them, she was just a one use weapon, to be unleashed and forgotten about.

Her master was different.

Once he had finally found the time to give her, (and what was with all that boring waiting, anyway?!), he made her feel important. Unique. As if she actually mattered, and that was something she had trouble believing.

She was weapon with a single purpose. Or so she had been led to believe. For the ones who created her, she was just as disposable as the droids she was fighting now, or the clones were for the Republic. That had been something she had been able to sense even then, hours after being released from the cloning cylinder.

She had been alright with that. She had no reason for existing then. No purpose.

They gave her one and she had been grateful for that.

Now, Aria knew it for the lie it was. All of it.

Now, she was being trained to use the Force right. As a real Sith should, not like the Confed fools who “trained” her for her one way mission.

She smiled wickedly as her lightsaber finished cutting through the tank’s armor. Aria threw away the slab of metal barring her way as well as the droid crew of the tank, after taking them apart. She took a long look inside, and then she used the Force to manipulate the machine’s controls.

As Aria took aim and opened fire on an AA emplacement, a content smile appeared on her face.

Her master’s teaching were helping become her own person, not just a disposable copy.

Slowly but surely, the Force was setting her free!

=RK=

Part 3

200 km north-east of Lessu, Ryloth

Bo-Katan was flying over a rocky desert, riding a speeder bike, which she had “borrowed” from the GAR forces. She had been contracted by the Republic general to find out the location of the local resistance leader, Cham Syndulla, who had his hideout somewhere in the desert surrounding the capital city.

The bleak brown landscape around the Mandalorian woman was littered with the burned out hulks of CIS landing ships, shattered droids and the burned out frames of vehicles used by the Ryloth’s security forces, which had made a futile effort to stop the Confed army.

This was the region where the man she was seeking operated.

Thanks to her short time as a mercenary for the CIS, Bo knew where to start the search for her quarry.

She hid her ride into the twisted ruin of a crashed transport and patiently waited.

That in turn gave her some time to think about her situation.

Bo-Katan was in a bind. She simply couldn’t refute that man’s arguments. Because of her leader’s orders, the Death Watch was liable to be painted in the same light as the CIS – as a bunch of slavers and common murderers. And many within the organization’s ranks would revel in receiving such reputation.

Was that what the Mandalorians were seen as by everyone outside their culture?

What she believed in was that her people were honorable warriors, the best the galaxy has ever seen. That was what they should strive for once their thin veneer of pacifism was lifted.

Kryze sat on the warm sand partly burying the wreck she was using as cover and frowned. Bo had the nagging feeling that what she wanted for her people and the aims of the Death Watch might not be the same…

Then there was her loyalty to Vizsla…

It was one of the rare times she didn’t know what to do…

=RK=

Republic Cruiser Requiem, Task Force “Retribution” flagship, High Orbit over Ryloth

In one of the cavernous hangars of the Venator, Kenobi was attending a meeting, in which Veil’s plan to resolve the situation on Ryloth was fleshed out.

“Who put that lunatic in charge?!” exclaimed Captain Trent Wombas, of the Escort Carrier Reprisal. He hated his ship’s role in the madness that was being planned.

Solo, who, along with his Wookie first officer attended the meeting, shrugged at his colleague’s antics.

“It may work.” said the Corellian.

“Rwaar!” the Wookie’s below of approval echoed around the hangar.

“It’s certainly an interesting idea,” mused Yularen. “Under normal circumstances, I would say that even if it works as planned, it would be too expensive to attempt…” the Admiral trailed off and looked at the deck plating, and the planet far below them.

“The ship should hold,” Lieutenant Commander VCT-091 added his two credits.

“Should or will?” Yularen looked sharply at the Requiem’s chief engineer.

“Those container ships are extraordinary tough for merchant vessels. However, they were not built in with determined attack by military weaponry in mind. It can survive a strike or two from proton cannon, especially when you consider that those craft are going on a one way mission,” answered Vector. “If those shells don’t strike something vital…” the engineer shrugged.

“What about passing through the theater shield over the Capital?” asked Kenobi.

The clone smirked.

“Usually it would be a no go. However if the shield configuration has not been changed, which is unlikely given the terrain at the site, it will work.”

“It better.” grumbled Obi-Wan.

The Jedi didn’t fancy getting splattered over the city’s shields, not to mention what would happen to the regiment of clones he would lead.

“It’s done!” a too young voice shouted behind Kenobi.

He turned around and saw a young, grease covered boy no older than fourteen, exit from under a damaged bomber. Around the kid a pair of clones, wearing colors announcing them as engineers were busy removing a shredded engine.

“Good work, kid! Now give me that number six spanner.” said one of the men wearing Jango Fett’s face.

“Right away, Fixer!” exclaimed the kid, who had a cheerful grin on his grime covered face.

“Since when do we have children fixing our ships?” asked the Jedi.

“Since the General found himself an apprentice who happens to be a genius with everything mechanical.” deadpanned Vector.

“Say, what?!” exclaimed Kenobi.

The Jedi shook his head in exasperation. The Chiss woman wasn’t enough, was she? Veil appeared to be doing his best to push the Council buŧŧons.

Obi-Wan knew that the Jedi Masters wouldn’t be thrilled to learn that Delkatar had taken second apprentice. The fact that the woman who led the attack on the Temple was not only under Veil’s protection, but his student was bad enough, but this?!

They would believe that Delkatar was corrupting the kid, despite the fact that Kenobi was sensing no darkness from the boy… What kriffing mess…

=RK=

200 km from Lessu, Ryloth

Bo-Katan’s musings were interrupted when a platoon consisting of B1 and Super Battle droids marched past her hiding place. From the machines chatter it became clear that they were searching for a missing patrol. Undoubtedly one that had ran afoul of the resistance fighters.

She smirked. Splendid. Those tin-cans would lead her straight to her quarry.

Kryze let them pass and stalked after the droids.

=RK=

Lorek Pass, Torangua Mountains, Ryloth

The thin mountain route, which was sneaking through the canyon behind me, ended amongst desert dunes strewing from here to the Capital and beyond. Veers’ surviving tanks were moving out to screen the advance of the walker column, which was still a kilometer behind us.

After we dealt with the second CIS ambush, I had the transports of Eagle flight deposit a company of troopers and me, at the exit of the pass. There we took defensive positions until my main forces were clear of the bottleneck.

To my pleasant surprise, there were no more attacks while my men were braving the mountain passes. Within hours I would have three mechanized regiments loose in the desert. I hoped that they would be enough to sweep clean the way to the Capital.

It was at that time, when my comm came to life with signal relayed from one of the ship in orbit.

“Veil, I’ve got his location.” I heard Bo-Katan’s pleasant voice. She continued speaking, giving me the coordinates of the resistance hideout as well as the best way to approach it in order to minimize the chance of detection.

“Splendid work. You earned yourself a bonus.” I told her cheerfully.

I cut orders to my soldiers to head towards the capital city at moderate speed, while dispatching scouts for ambushes in the desert, before I went to retrieve Aria, who was resting at a temporally Command post near the pass end. It was time to visit the locals.

=RK=

Resistance HQ, Location Classified, Ryloth

A flight of LAAT/i transported a platoon of my 11th Legion and me five kilometers from the crashed CIS landing ship, which the resistance was using as a headquarters.

It was a small enough force not to alarm the locals too much, while strong enough to give us a good fighting chance if they turned out to be hostile. Or so I hoped.

Few minutes after we landed and the transports flew back to the safety of my advancing regiments, Bo-Katan melted out of the brown sands surrounding us.

“Took you long enough!” she grumbled. “What were you doing? Took the scenic route or something?”

I looked around us. Unless you consider endless sand dunes with a lot of burned out military equipment lying around a tourist attraction, we didn’t do such a thing. In my opinion the fact that we were in a desert was more than enough to disqualify this region from my vacation list.

“That we did.” I deadpanned. “Sand and scorching heat everywhere! We just couldn’t miss seeing it all!”

She shook her head at me, but I could feel a tingle of amusement fighting with her irritation. Can’t blame her. I would be in even a worse mood if I had to sulk around the desert for a day or so in a search for the bloody resistance.

“This way!” Bo-Katan waved us to follow her. “Try not to move like a bunch of toy soldiers on a parade!” she added.

It was my men turn to grumble. They didn’t appreciate being bad mouthed by what they believed to be an ordinary merc.

“Children, play nice. We have a job to do.” I said aloud.

Kryze glanced my way and muttered something too quiet for me to hear. Nothing flattering I bet.

It took us nearly two hours to sneak to the resistance hideout. It was slow but easy task, when I could sense their sentries from a long way off.

We were few about a hundred and fifty meters from the entrance to the hideout, which was through the busted landing bay doors of a CIS landing ship. I made a sign to my men to hold their position and waved to Bo-Katan to follow me.

I would have preferred to execute this exercise with at least couple of companies at hand and preferably few SF teams ready for action, but my transport units were tasked to capacity. All in the name of a deception I hoped would win me Ryloth with minimum casualties from my men.

I removed my helmet and walked towards the entrance. I could hear shouts of surprise and distress. The locals found out that their perimeter was breached without them noticing. The sentries we bypassed would have some pointed questions to answer, the unfortunate sods.

“Hi, there folks!” I waved at a pair of Twi’lek males who ran out of the wreck with blaster rifles pointed my way. “I’m here to see General Syndulla. Be nice chaps and go fetch him.”

I said it all with nonchalant smile on my face. Bo-Katan, who was to my right, was starring at me. No doubt, she was wondering what the hell was I doing.

The men looked at me, then at each other and ran back in. I beamed at Kryze who was scowling at me under her helmet.

“I can’t believe that worked!” she muttered. “Lucky bastard…”

Dominating the minds of weak willed people had always been handy for the Force Adepts who knew how to do it.

Few minutes, and couple of squad of sentries, who had come near my men taken into custody, later, a tired looking, orange skinned Twi’lek came out. He was accompanied by twenty odd men and women, who were carrying a diverse ȧssortment of blasters.

They all looked worse for the wear. The group had a sense of exhaustation around them.

Syndulla looked at me with a stare I’ve seen before. On men and women who had seen too many horrors on the battlefield and were close to breaking.

I was well aware that all the resistance had managed to to is merely inconvenience the Seps, in their race to ship as many locals as possible to the slave markets controlled by the Hutts. The failure to do more than saving a few of his people, was taking its toll on the resistance fighters.

“You found us.” stated Syndulla. “So the Republic finally deigns to notice our pleas?” he looked at the dunes around us, which were nested within deep shadows.

“General Syndulla.” I said aloud. “I came here to make you an offer.”

“Is that so? The mighty army of the Republic ridding to the rescue. Or are you another bunch of overlords who come to place us under the yoke?!” he glared at me. “Look around us! Thousands of my men lie buried on these plains! Do you know why, Republic?!”

I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t the diplomatic thing to do, however I’ve never been particularly good when dealing with local resistance fighters. Especially those that were supposed to be on my side. I probably was biased, but in my experience, they usually were more trouble that they were worth. At least those on non-imperial worlds during the last war.

“I’m sure you’ll enlighten us, General.” I managed to say it with neutral tone.

Huh. I think that the use of the Dark Side was effecting me a bit. Was I getting arrogant, or perhaps I was just biased against most people of this day and age…

“When the Droids came, we were alone. Unarmed. We were going to surrender, but they came with tanks and tried to ground us down or place a slave collars on our necks. Where was the Republic when we needed it?”he glared at me. “Millions of my people were taken, and now you come?”

Yeah. He was right. During this war the Republic had failed the very reason it existed – providing security to its member worlds. When all was said and done, the economic benefits were always secondary. Or they were during my time. Then it at least the Republic worked, however badly.

Ironically, if it was not for the so called Sith Sidious, who arranged the creation of the GAR, it would be ripe for the taking. Hell, it was anyway. The army was already stretched to the breaking point. It will be months until Kamino could have enough clones ready so the line could be held with any certainty. Perhaps even longer until a the new recruits, which were enlisting by the freighter-load could be ready for battle.

Two things could stop the GAR’s from collapsing in the next few months. Palpy’s meddling with the CIS strategic planing, because of which the Confed armies had almost ran out of steam and will need to stop their major offensives for at least couple of months, and if everything went without further problems, Corellia’s entrance in the war on our side.

All that would give me time to consolidate my power base and put few plans in motion. If I was able to wrap the mess on Ryloth soon, that is.

“You have a decision to make, General. You can let your grievances get the better of you and continue irritating the CIS while they enslave your people. At best. Or you can help me liberate them. The only reason more of your people are not shipped to the Hutts as we speak, is my fleet in orbit. The same fleet which paid a terrible price in blood and ships to kick the Separatists navy out of this star system!” I looked him in the eyes. “I have a two hundred thousand strong army on the ground. Those men are the best chance your people have. What will it be, General Syndulla?”

=RK=

Lessu, Ryloth

Wat Tambor glared at the holo-image of Count Dooku. He had requested reinforcements, which were to break through the Republic Navy in orbit and allow him to save his skin.

“Denied!” snapped the Sith Lord.

“We are trapped on the ground! The Republic have parked a pair of cruisers overhead! I can’t leave Ryloth!” protested Tambor.

“You lost a full fleet! In what should have been an ambush for the Republic forces!” fumed Dooku. “Your stunt at Ryloth already cost us dearly! Minutes ago Corellia announced that they are joining the war! On the Republic side! After your strategic blunder, we no longer have the forces at hand to easily crush our enemies! Now instead of short victorious war, we are looking at one of attrition!” the Count’s glare made Tambor shake in fear. “You will start bombing all settlements in range of our forces on Ryloth! The Republic’s victory there must be a hollow one!”Dooku took a deep breath.

“At the moment there are no forces to spare for your misguided adventure, Tambor. I will not weaken another front to save your worthless hide.”

The Sith Lord turned his head to the right, where a Tactical droid was holding a holoemitter in front of Tambor.

“Follow my orders.” growled the one handed man, before cutting the connection.

Far away from Ryloth, Dooku pondered his situation.

He had his “hands” full. After his not brief enough visit to the Jedi Temple, he had to reestablish his power base within the Confederation.

The madness that Tambor had somehow hatched, would hound them for years to come. It was almost as bad as the fiasco on Coruscant.

He growled and strands of darkness whipped around him as Dark side fueled fury festered within his heart. Once he got his hand on the fools who had botched the Coruscant raid he would keep them screaming for a long time.

The only bright light in the end of the hyperspace tunnel was that thanks to the reinforcements the Republic was rushing to Ryloth, the CIS would be able to take control over few contested planets.

Back on Ryloth, Tambor stared at the Tactical Droid who refused to follow his orders. He looked at the heavens, where the Republic cruisers were waiting. The Emir thought about using the Lessu’s population as bargaining chips to buy his freedom, but then remembered who was leading the enemy forces.

The cyborg felt like a trapped animal.

Part 4

5 km from Lessu, Ryloth

I was riding in a command walker with General Syndulla and a group of clone officers, who were helping me “plan” the ȧssault of the Capital. We were even patched to Coruscant, so Senator Taff and by extension the Chancellor could be aware of our intentions.

That had resulted in an amusing verbal sparing match between the resistance leader and the politician who was supposed to represent Ryloth. Of course, it was all a giant deception, just in case Palpy was feeding the local Separatist forces real time intel on my plans.

Only my men in orbit and I were aware of the scope of the trick I was trying to pull off.

For everyone with actual combat experience or a bit of military sense, attacking the Capitalwith three mechanized regiments and few hundred locals as auxiliary would look like anexpensive suicide attempt. By my most conservative estimates, there were at least a hundred thousand droids defending the city.

More than enough to destroy my few regiments if I attacked them head on.

According to the intelligence I had, there were supposed to be only a quarter of that number in Lessu, but I didn’t trust those numbers. That city was the most important place on the planet as far as the CIS was concerned. At least while Tambor, who had the droid army deactivation codes was there and in one piece.

My plan should work even if that bastard bought the farm, but in such a case, the casualties my men were going to suffer would be astronomical.

“We need to seize the plasma bridge. It’s the only way to pass through the city shields without a prolonged siege.” said Syndulla.

He was looking at a tactical map representing the Capital. On it could be seen many angry red designation, each of which was showing known enemy positions. That didn’t even include the anti-personnel turrets that lined the city walls. There were few hundred of those things.

Another problem was the proton cannons hidden in the city. They would cripple any ship overflying the city from anything lower than high orbit. Those weapons and the theater shield covering the capital made the CIS commanders within Lessu confident that they could hold for a long time. I planned to dissuade them from that notion.

“Let’s hope that the Separatists believe that too.” I muttered.

The resistance leader gave me a sidelong glance.

The display in which the data from the sensor monitoring the surrounding airspace started beeping. Everyone’s heads turned that way.

“So it begins.” I muttered.

=RK=

Escort Carrier Retaliation, 500 km from Lessu, Ryloth

On the bridge of the modified container ship, Jole Solo grinned like a maniac.

He was given command of the ship, after her previous skipper, a volunteer civilian had refused to execute what he saw as a suicide mission. The Corellian scoundrel jumped at the chance to take command of the carrier.

It was just too bad that he was about to wreck this one too.

In front of his craft, the last Escort Carrier in the Republic fleet over Ryloth was plunging through the atmosphere at a dangerous velocity. Its shields were glowing white in an attempt to disperse the heat generated by the reentry.

Soon enough that would be the least problem for that ship. Reprisal, was flying with only a pair of clones on her helm. They had volunteered for the task.

If those men were lucky, they might even make it to the special escape pod mounted next to the bridge.

Reprisal was flying as a shield for Retaliation, which carried two clone regiments led by General Kenobi.

The former container ships forced their way through the atmosphere fast enough to shred their shields into tatters. The twin craft’s bows started glowing red from the molecules of air hitting their hull.

The Escort Craft roared through the heavens, on a course leading straight towards the capital. The droids monitoring for space borne threats noted the two descending ships, paused for few seconds when their databanks registered them as merchant vessels, before deciding that those things were a threat anyway.

Proton cannons raised from their hiding places, tracked their quickly approaching targets and opened fire.

Reprisal shook from near misses, while the enemy artillery zeroed in on the carrier. The craft, which was on its final flight disregarded the enemy fire and continued its doomed approach.

The following shots struck the bow of the ship, rending huge holes in its civilian grade hull.

The pilots put the engines in overdrive and sent the Escort Carrier straight at the city itself. They locked in the course on autopilotand ran toward the escape pod.

The clones reached the life boat and were just entering it when a proton shell struck the Reprisal in the exactly wrong place. The pod disappeared into a short lived storm of fire, which turned the two men into so much mincemeat.

Despite the loss of its pilots, the Escort Carrier continued on its path, tanking shot after shot. She rained behind, pieces of her fuselage, which were torn away by enemy fire, yet she continued doing her duty.

The ships course had been painstakingly calculated, so even if she was destroyed, her pieces would rain all over the shielded city, providing cover for her sister ship.

Two hundred kilometers over Lessu, Reprisal was hit one too many times and she blew up. Yet, most of her mass had too much momentum, and continued tumbling on the same vector.

Flaming pieces of the destroyed ship rained all over the shield protecting the capital. It was like a barrage of shooting stars, which intercepted the majority of the artillery fire aimed at the Retaliation.

The second carrier flew through the air in a shroud of flaming atmosphere. She appeared to veer off its headlong plunge at Lessu, before straightening her course under the deft hands of Jole.

“Hold on, girl!” chanted Solo.

Next to him, his friend shook his massive, furry head.

“Wraarw!” protested the Wookie, when Jole suddenly guided the refitted transport straight at the ground.

“No worries, buddy! I know what I’m doing!” answered the Corellian.

“Rawar!” grunted Traaw.

“What do you mean, that’s what you’re afraid of?!”

Retaliation struck the ground seven kilometers away from the city and skidded across the dunes. She left in her wake a deep gorge in both rock and sand. Her repulsors whɨnėd in protest, when Solo overloaded them in attempt to slow down the crash-landing ship.

“I know they aren’t meant for this stuff! Trust me! They’ll handle it!” shouted Jole.

The Wookie glared at him, but followed his instructions.

One after another those devices suffered critical overloads and either exploded or melted, but they did the job the Corellian forced them to do. The Escort Carrier, which was skidding across the ground slowed down enough to pass through the theater shield instead of smashing into it.

The forward section of the ship went over the deep chasm surrounding the capital, creating an artificial bridge over it. Retaliation’s nose struck Lessu’s wall hard enough to shatter a part of it, obliterating the nearby anti-personnel turrets.

=RK=

4 km from Lessu, Ryloth

I stared at the camera feed in awe. That crazy Corellian pulled it off!

“All units, this is General Veil. Execute Trinity! Now! I repeat…” I ordered, using one of the comm’s which was tuned on so it can transmit to all of my forces on and above Ryloth. “Get us to the Retaliation ASAP!” I told our driver, before smiling crookedly to Syndulla.

“You are all insane!” he declared.

“You know the alternative, General Syndulla. Months long siege in which the Force only knows how many people will die. Now we have a bridgehead into the city and if we move fast enough, we’ll be able to keep it open!” I nodded towards the holo-map showing my forces all over the planet.

There could be seen the signs of regiments attacking the ten biggest camps holding the local population captives.

That was a necessary sideshow. While the actions of that part of my forces was important, it was little more than diversion. A swarm of green dots rising from our primary LZ could be seen on the plot. All of them were heading towards the capital. Those were LAAT/t carrying another mechanized regiment, with the rest being transport variants chock full with heavy infantry.

We needed to not only keep our bridgehead open, but if possible strike deeply in the city. My orbital ȧssets had noted the location of the enemy proton cannons. Once those were taken out, I had two Acclamators full with fresh troops, ready to deploy. If we could neutralize the theater shield, then those men could land directly in the city.

=RK=

Retaliation’s landing site, Lessu, Ryloth

“By the Force! It worked!” exclaimed Kenobi.

The carrier had been shaking in such a way that all of them thought that she was about to fly apart thanks to Solo’s insane piloting. But the Corellian came through for them. The capital’s defensive shell was cracked. It was time for Obi-Wan to make up for his terrible decision during the initial phase of the landings.

“Blow up the charges! We are going in!” shouted Kenobi.

The clone sergeant sitting next to him just nodded and pressed a buŧŧon on his left armguard. That was a scene repeating itself in each surviving cargo container on the Retaliation.

Shaped charges detonated, cutting through the thin sheets of metal which had protected the clones during the descent.

With their path blown open, two regiments of infantry surged out of the Escort Carrier, leaving behind nearly a battalion wounded or dead suffered from the few proton shells which hit their ride during its reentry.

Whole companies armed with heavy weaponry converged to the sides of the ship and opened fire on all threats in sight. The anti-personnel emplacements covering the wall answered with crimson beams of concentrated death and managed to scythe down nineteen clones before being silenced forever under a storm of heavy blaster fire a repeated missile strikes.

Kenobi was the first to run up to the nose of the ship and jump into the city. He landed on a rubble covered street with a smile on his face. Veil’s regiments were few minutes behind and there was no way the droids could execute a strong enough attack to dislodge them from the foothold they had within Lessu.

Besides, the machines would have other things to worry about too.

Overhead, Bo-Katan, a mercenary Veil had somehow persuaded to switch sides, flew on her rocket-pack. She, and teams consisting of the best soldiers in the liberation force would head into the capital ahead of the main force. They would hunt down the proton cannons and try to neutralize the shield protecting the city.

A door opened to the left of the Jedi, disgorging a squad of B1s. The group of cannon fodder lasted for a couple of seconds, before the general shattered them against a nearby wall with a telekinetic push.

“Follow me!” he ordered to the first group of clones who rappelled into the city.

The battle for Lessu had just began.

=RK=

Bo-Katan flew over the city with a smile on her face. Ever since the proton cannons in Lessu opened fire, she and the Hunter teams received up to date information from one of the cruisers in orbit.

They knew where every one of the weapons that fired was.

She flew hundred meters above the ground, heading to her first target. She passed around the side of a tall skyscraper and saw her prey.

A pair of cannons were covering the sky over both directions of a long boulevard. Kryze headed to the ground and sent a heavy missile at one of the mobile weapon which was pointing her way.

The ponderous cannon tried to acquire her, but it wasn’t designed to deal with such an agile target. An organic or better programmed droid might have fired anyway, in hope that it would take her out. But the robot controlling the artillery piece hesitated while waiting for targeting solution.

It would wait forever, because moments later the missile smashed through the light armor protecting the proton cannon just under its barrel. The warhead detonated within the self-propelled weapon and blew it up rather spectacularly.

Bo flew over few squads of B1s, which were carrying out sentry duty for the arty pieces and strafed them, shooting with her blaster pistols. Before the fragile robots could manage something better than a couple of stray shots, which never came close to endangering the Mandalorian woman, she was upon them.

Thanks to years of training and her armor’s built in targeting system, her fire was deadly accurate.

Only a single lucky machine remained in her wake.

A pair of Super Battle droids, leading two squads of their light brethren were guarding the second proton cannon. There Kryze didn’t bother using her blasters. Instead she sent four rockets from her wrist mounted launcher. Those dumb munitions flew straight where she aimed them and obliterated the droids in flashes of light and fire.

Before heading to her next target, Bo-Katan threw a thermal detonator at the remaining cannon. Her parting gift turned the weapon into another piece of scrap blocking the boulevard.

=RK=

Holding Camp Codename “Helos”, Southern Hemisphere, Ryloth

Cody was examining through a binocular a large clearing in the jungle. It was a circle, five kilometers in diameter. Two hundred meters from the surrounding trees, there was a fence made of barbed wire. Towers on which were stuck search lights, various cheap sensors and repeating blasters were erected on the perimeter of the camp, on a three hundred meter intervals. Half their weapons were pointing in.

In one corner, the commander could see a makeshift space port on which a squadron of Vultures were standing in their walker configuration. The reason for that was the pair of transports which were stranded on the landing pads. Those craft were undoubtedly there to lift loads of enslaved locals. They were obviously unwilling to brave the gauntlet of the Republic Navy in orbit.

Cody, who was accompanied by the few combat ready survivors of Ghost Company, was in charge of liberating that particular camp. There were supposed to be at least fifty thousand Twi’lek cramped in it.

He prayed to whoever, or whatever was listening, that this operation would turn out better than his last. Not that it could get much worse.

The Commander cringed at that thought. He was leading a whole regiment of his Sky Corps, and there were tens of thousands of locals that could die if he kriffed up. It actually could go much worse.

He glanced left and right at his few surviving friends from Ghost. Cody had full command authority on this mission, as well as generous ROEs. Do anything you have to achieve the objective.

He could work with that.

The usually stoic clone grimaced. Until the landing of Ryloth he had believed that General Kenobi knew what he was doing. That was the reason he hadn’t protested when the Jedi had ordered them in without heavy weapons.

That particular delusion lasted until they struck the clanker’s outer lines. It was the first time, Cody truly felt that the Jedi were amateurs in the art of warfare. Very talented ones, where Kenobi and Skywalker were concerned, but amateurs nonetheless. An experienced officer would have known that attacking an entrenched position with light weaponry only was a suicide.

It was a miracle that Kenobi managed to lead them to “victory”. Ghost had at least succeeded in achieving their objective. Skywalker’s men were not so fortunate. General Veil had to call in an orbital strike on their position to salvage something of that debacle.

To make matters worse, Krayt Company, who went after their objective loaded for rancor, managed to fulfill their part of the overall mission with only light casualties.

It was a painful example, showing the difference between the Jedi Generals and Veil.

Cody only hoped that General Kenobi had learned his lesson and won’t waste his brothers lives again.

“All units, this is General Veil. Execute Trinity! Now! I repeat…” General Veil’s orders sounded over the Commander’s comm.

Cody ended his musing and turned his head towards his XO.

“You heard the man, Gral. Fire for effect on all marked targets.”

“Right away, sir!”

A barrage of missiles descended upon the camp. Guard towers were shattered, the few patrolling tanks were each blown to pieces scattered over few hundred meters, and special munitions blew lanes through confirmed and suspected minefields.

On the other side of the clearing, the spaceport was turned into firestorm after thirty missiles struck the Vultures, transports and fuel tanks.

Yet more explosions sounded when the CIS motor park, containing the rest of their armor was hit too.

In the same time, smoke grenades detonated, obscuring the clearing between the jungle and the fence. Moments later, Cody’s leading platoons charged the enemy lines which were thrown into disarray.

Nearly seventy kilometers from the camp, LAATs of all types lit up their engines and rose from their camouflaged positions. They were bringing in CAS, the regiments armor elements as well as additional medics that would be sorely needed.

=RK=

Part 5

Lessu, Ryloth

I jumped out of the command walker before it ground to a halt behind the crash landed Escort Carrier. That gave me a splendid view of the wall surrounding the city.

A section of it, just to the right of the Retaliation, exploded outwards, showering the chasm separating us from Lessu with fist sized chunks of metal. I cracked a small smile. The combat engineers were doing splendid work.

Soon enough, there would be a nice hole in the wall, more than big enough for my tanks.

However, first my armor needed a bridge in order to reach the city, and I wasn’t crazy enough to try capturing the plasma one leading to the main gates.

Unless whoever was in charge of the CIS forces was a babbling fool, that approach would be a deathtrap. So I had something else planned.

I turned my attention to the converted container ship. It was carrying half of the improvised bridging equipment which my fleet had loaded on Coruscant.

It was quite simple, really.

The basic component were sheets of warship grade armor, on which my engineers had worked while we were in transit to Ryloth.

What those things were remade into was a modular bridge which could be deployed fast. Provided that you had the necessary heavy equipment to move the segments and a few engineers to anchor the ends of the bridge on the two sides of whatever you wanted to cross.

Or a powerful Force adept who could do the heavy lifting and possibly speed up the process…

“Give me covering fire if necessary and make sure that the engineers get their ȧsses here ASAP.” I ordered before closing my eyes and concentrating.

I lifted the top most container containing the necessary equipment and floated it to the edge of the chasm. I used the Force to rip open its doors and willed the bridge sections to move. They flew out, one after another and headed to the edge of the cliffs.

A squad of walkers carrying a platoon of Combat engineers and their toys strode past me and started disgorging their cargo.

The clones hurried towards the point where I wanted the bridge build and prepared to anchor it to the ground.

=RK=

Obi-Wan ducked under a shot from a CIS tank, which struck the side of a building twenty meters behind him. He deflected a burst from the secondary weaponry of the armored vehicle with saber. He sagged with relief when two AP missiles ended the threat before its main cannon could speak again.

“Send the next two platoons over the wall at our left flank!” Kenobi shouted to his aide who had taken cover behind the nearby wreck of a burning aircar.

“Right away, sir!”

The Jedi gave the clone a satisfied nod before glancing at his surroundings.

They had taken the defenders by surprise. That was the only explanation to the confused and uncoordinated resistance the Republic forces were facing.

Which was a very good thing. The CIS had about sixty thousand droids within the capital. At least, that was the reasonable estimate. Kenobi wouldn’t be surprised if they had twice those numbers.

Nevertheless, at the moment that didn’t particularly matter. The main droid forces were concentrated to cover the main doors leading into the city. Those troops were redeploying to shore up their right flank but were not even trying any spoiling counterattacks.

Apparently their commander was thinking that his other forces were more than enough to handle the GAR bridgehead or believed it to be a diversion.

Kenobi’s biggest problem was a CIS armor battalion, whose lead elements were hitting his left flank. The Jedi had only AT infantry to throw against them but that should be sufficient at the moment. Even if the droids managed to overrun that flank, it wouldn’t be before the walkers were inside the city.

He had received reports that the Combat engineers had started blowing up the wall and that Veil was aiding another group in constructing the bridge.

It remained to be seen whether Tambor could be captured alive, or if they would have to clean up the city the hard way.

=RK=

Kryze flew over a deserted street after dealing with another proton cannon, when she noticed movement on a nearby roof. She banked in that direction, activating the zoom function on her helmet.

A pair of commando droids were setting up shop on a building to her right. One of them was carrying a big ȧss rifle, almost as tall as it was.

A sniper and his spotter. How cute.

She raced their way and sent her last light missile at them.

The spotter noticed the incoming ordinance in time and jumped back, getting out of the kill radius of the weapon. The sniper had time to look her way before the missile struck the body of the weapon in the robot’s hands.

The resulting explosion obscured the Mandalorian woman from the view of the spotter. She appeared from the cloud of smoke and dust like a swooping bird of prey and opened fire.

The second commando droid managed to send a single shot her way before she blasted it with her pistols. The droid managed to hit her, however the blaster bolt merely melted a part of the armor protecting her left shoulder, leaving Kryze unharmed.

She flew away, searching for a secure location.

Minute later, Bo-Katan landed on a deserted terrace and smashed through the glass door separating it and the nearby room. She darted inside the apartment building and swept the flat for enemies.

Once Kryze was sure that she was safe for few moments, she started reloading her weapons.

She had made it about two kilometers into the city, passing the outer ring of CIS forces. On her way, Bo had taken out three artillery positions and about a company of droids.

When she finished reloading everything, she checked her remaining ordinance. It was a good thing that she had started this insane operation with triple her usual munition load. The only downside was that her rocket-pack fuel was at sixty percent thanks to the heavy load she started with.

No matter. What she had left would do.

Bo-Katan had to scout the CIS command posts for Tambor and report his location to the GAR forces, and to capture him if practical.

She pressed a buŧŧon on her left armguard and a map of Lessu appeared over her hand.

“Where are you…” she muttered while her eyes were scanning the locations of the command posts she knew about.

=RK=

Republic Cruiser Requiem, High Orbit over Ryloth

“Multiple launches detected!” reported one of the clones manning the CIC of the Venator. “We have CIS fighters rising all over the planet!”

“All units, this is Requiem. Initiate fire plan Red.” another clone spoke calmly in the comm unit built in his station.

All over Ryloth, CR90s and Carracks slashed through the upper layers of the atmosphere to sent a barrage of laser or ion fire. After a few shots, the Republic light ships retreated back into space, where they were beyond the reach of the CIS proton cannons.

Whole squadrons of droid fighters and bombers disappeared in firestorms caused by the near orbital strikes. Even shots that missed their targets and would be harmless in space, hit the ground creating explosions and shock-waves that obliterated all nearby small craft.

After the first pass, two thirds of the nearly thousand droid fighters had been turned in so much rubble. That would be followed by precision Ion cannon strikes and two squadrons of Torrents led by Ahsoka, which would hunt down the remaining enemy bombers.

Before the brief air raid was stopped cold, the CIS forces managed to bomb only a single village, which was uncomfortably close to a camouflaged CIS installation and one of the industrial sites in the southern hemisphere.

Minutes later, there would be a cruiser over all previously unknown Confederate bases. Blue and green lances would pierce the heavens, obliterate those facilities.

=RK=

Holding Camp “Helos”, Southern Hemisphere, Ryloth

Cody led his command section to the outskirts of the camp once the perimeter was secure.

Before him, the leading elements of three battalions were storming the enemy positions.

The droids defending the camp never stood a chance. It appeared that all their plans were centered upon preventing the locals from escaping and dealing with the occasional harassing attack by the lightly armed resistance forces.

When hit by the missile launchers of a single battalion, they simply disintegrated as a coherent fighting force.

Instead of the coordinated resistance Cody had expected, his men were confronted by a squad here, half a platoon there, and single tanks often without any infantry support. Those enemy forces were quickly overwhelmed by the concentrated fire of the clones.

Within ten minutes of the first shot, there was not a single intact droid left within the camp.

It was the first time in his career that a plan went off without too big of a hitch. There would be precious few times when that would happen again.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t an entirely one sided affair. He lost thirty men when one of his leading companies was hit in both flanks by a platoon strength Super Battle droid detachment and the only CIS tank with sufficient infantry support.

There were also a forty odd wounded when all was said and done.

However none of that reflected the situation of the locals. Many of the Twi’lek were sick and starving. Too many for his limited number of medics to help them all before it was too late.

When the dust settled days later, in would be revealed that more than fifteen thousand people had perished in that single camp. Only a hundred had been wounded or died as a consequence of the clones attack.

=RK=

Lessu, Ryloth

It took us fifteen minutes to have a seventy meters wide bridge over the chasm surrounding the capital. In that time the combat engineers withing the city had managed to demolish twenty meter wide area of the tough wall.

For the moment that should be good enough.

Already, ten tanks were through the breach and the rest of my leading armor battalion were moving in.

Meanwhile, the droids defending the main approach to the city had decided to move their metal buŧŧs and my right flank was under attack by a regiment of enemy infantry.

Their forward elements had ran headfirst into a hastily prepared killzone, which ran along an avenue leading to the center of the city.

While I was finishing moving the bridge segment I could hear how that attack was handled.

“Here they come!” declared a nameless clone.

“Wait for them.” ordered the captain in charge.

“We are under fire.” stated another of my men.

“Loki is hit. We need a medic over here.”

“The clankers are coming like they are on a kriffing parade!” someone exclaimed.

“Can the chatter. Ten more seconds and blow the charges!” ordered the captain.

“Wilco, sir!”

Even from my position I could hear when the mines were detonated. It sounded like one long explosion which thanks to the echo, went on and on.

“Watch them burn!” one of my men shouted gleefully.

“Ready Ion grenades. I want their next charge broken before they can cross the street!”

Soon afterwards, the last pieces of the bridge were secured. To my left, the walkers were already crossing and heading in.

When the construction work was over, I headed to my command tank, which was parked nearby. I needed few minutes of rest in order to replenish some of the Force energies I expended doing the heavy lifting.

It wasn’t glamorous, but without dedicated bridging equipment that could be used in this case I had to improvise.

Inside I found five of the clones who were a new addition to my command. Those folks were my staff, and their presence had made a lot of my work as a general somewhat manageable.

I looked at the various displays showing the progress of my troops.

My men had captured nearly five square kilometers. There was heavy fighting on the flanks, but strangely enough the path forward wasn’t heavily contested.

It was tempting to sent an armor column thundering straight into the center of the city, but that would leave them vulnerable if one of the flanks collapsed.

“I want an armor company to reinforce the right flank. Send the rest of the seventh walker battalion to encircle the enemy battalion hitting our left flank.”

Seventh battalion was the vanguard of my columns entering Lessu.

=RK=

Bo-Katan grinned like a cat who had just eaten the canary.

She was near the main CIS Command and Control center within Lessu, when she saw a group of droids exiting the building. They were followed by the unmistakable figure of Wat Tambor, who headed towards the APC in the center of a column of separatists vehicles.

There were four tanks in both ends with ten personnel carriers in between.

Kryze would bet a lot on two things. First that each of those machines was chock full with droids. And second: they weren’t heading towards the fighting.

“Overlord Actual. This is Huntress. I have a visual on Black King. He is preparing to leave point Eagle. Requesting instructions. Over.”

“Affirmative, Huntress. Wait one.”

“This is Rogue Knight. Tail him. I’m heading your way with reinforcements.”

Bo-Katan’s smile became a hungry one. She loved stalking her prey.

=RK=

Part 6

Lessu, Ryloth

I stared at the map of the city. The best route we could take to intercept the convoy passed through that glaring hole in the enemy lines, which appeared to lead straight into the center of Lessu.

The whole thing smelled of an obvious trap, however given the average tactical “competence” I’ve seen so far from both the CIS and the GAR, I wouldn’t put it past the Seps to be just that incompetent. It wasn’t like such a kriff up was particularly worse than their usual penchant for marching towards our lines in a nice square formations that doubled as artillery bait.

Something I was going to prove the moment I got my hands on some indirect fire arty. Or the standard beam type when I could use it against the droids on open ground.

Despite that, I couldn’t just ȧssume that whoever was in charge of the CIS here was an idiot. That would be a good way to get a lot of my men killed.

“This is Overlord Actual. Send in the hover tanks once seventh armor battalion enters the city. They are to split in company strength and commence reconnaissance in force,” I ordered and turned my head towards one of my staff officers. “Pak, you have tactical command. I’m heading in with the recon elements. If we can get Tambor, we can end this mess now.”

“Yes, sir!” he answers and started snapping orders to the tank crews.

Five minutes later I was entering Lessu. I was on top of one of the hover tanks, holding a handle wielded to its hull.

Before we reached Ryloth, I had all of those machines modified so they could transport a squad of infantry each. Thanks to the tank’s shields, the troopers had a reasonable degree of protection while riding on top.

It was a useful stop gap measure that allowed me to quickly transport a strike force of infantry and armor while I waited for the R&D boffins to get a dedicated IFV designed. Using the walkers, which were not only relatively slow with their 60 km per hour top speed, but were also my dedicated armor force, wasn’t practical for transporting infantry in a lot of cases. Like right now, when those things were not only needed elsewhere, but were too slow for what I needed to get done.

Six companies of hover tanks spread out from the breach in the enemy defenses and headed deeper into the city.

I had given orders for my recon units to avoid the area around the main entrance where the majority of CIS forces were located. So most of the tanks headed either towards the “free” passage at the center of the enemy lines, or looped around the bulk of seventh battalion, which was moving to flank the enemy armor ȧssaulting our left flank.

=RK=

Bo-Katan had been tracking the CIS column for nearly fifteen minutes. They had bypassed the majority of hangars she knew of and were steadily moving to the part of the city furthest from the GAR attack. Incidentally, that was the area of Lessu where the main space port was located. Complete with the largest concentration of CIS air ȧssets in the region.

Kryze had thought it strange that the Seps hadn’t used their air power against the breach in the city defenses until now. Then, suddenly, everything became obvious. Tambor was hoarding his remaining Vultures, believing that they would be able to screen his escape from the planet.

That was unlikely considering that majority of the Republic fleet in-system was parked over the capital. Though, considering what he was responsible for, Tambor would grasp at any chance to get away. She could imagine what would happen to him if Veil turned him over to the locals, and that was something she could see the general doing in order to make an example of the CIS leader.

From her position on the top of a tall building, she glanced at her map, then at the city strewn below her. Unless the CIS convoy took a right at the next intersection, they would have to pass through a chokepoint in order to reach the space port.

Bo checked the ordinance she carried. She still had the four blocks of explosives she had taken on a whim from one of the Republic armories.

She smirked at the CIS column which moved passed the next intersection without even slowing down.

Bo-Katan activated her rocketpack and flew towards the spaceport.

=RK=

Obi-Wan allowed himself a tiny smile. The flanking attack on the CIS armor ȧssaulting the GAR left flank worked like a charm. That Separatists battalion was annihilated in full when Seventh Armor struck them from the left and rolled up their own flank.

As a direct consequence, the Republic forces were now able to spread in that direction, giving them options other than ȧssaulting the teeth of the CIS defenses around the main gate or going straight into what was now confirmed to be a trap.

The recon units scouting the main, supposedly enemy free, approaches to the center of the city, had nearly ran into a particularly nasty ambush. Those tanks were puling back in an attempt to break contact with what appeared to be a regiment of enemy infantry supporting another CIS armor battalion.

Right now, those Confed forces were moving straight at the Republic positions.

Kenobi looked around. A second battalion of walkers was already in the city, but that might not be enough tho stop the advancing enemy battalion cold. Not with the regiments of droids concentrated at the GAR right flank.

Obi-Wan’s eyes fell on the combat engineers who had demolished a section of the walls and now were busy preparing defensive positions at the center of the Republic positions.

He looked at the tall buildings flanking the main avenue through which the droids would need to pass if they decided to attack head on, as usual, and smiled.

That smile was out of place on a Jedi’s face.

=RK=

Wat Tambor was staring glumly at the brown interior of one of the rare APC carriers the CIS possessed. Those machines were exclusively reserved for moving the Confederation leadership when air transport was not available for one reason or another.

He had considered taking an aircar to the spaceport, but quickly disregarded that idea. It would have been a foolish thing to do with that kriffing traitor Kryze wreaking havoc throughout the city.

No matter. The convoy should be more than enough to protect him from a single Mandalorian cutthroat. His bigger problem was getting off world.

Tambor had no illusions about what would happen to him if he was taken alive.

When he planned this enterprise it all looked so simple!

The Republic was loosing the war and it was only a matter of time before its military collapsed under the onslaught of countless droids!

However all that was before that new Republic general captured or killed two of the highest ranking Confederation leaders, placing the quick resolution of the war into question.

So he decided to hedge his bets and give the CIS military a boost. Until his brilliant diplomatic coup, the Hutts were either “neutral” or somewhat supportive to the Republic cause.

But he had ended all that nonsense! Now the overgrown worms were on their side and all it took was capturing a bunch of Twi’lek no one really cared about! It wasn’t like those people were important!

Tambor’s indignant musings were rudely interrupted. Twin explosion shook the CIS column, making the column ground to a halt. The pair of tanks leading the Confed forces were obliterated a split second before the trailing two met the same fiery fate.

To put the situation into perspective, the droids escorting Tambor had taken the shortest route to the spaceport, disregarding everything else. That led them straight through a narrow street, which was now blocked by the burning remains of the armored vehicles.

To add insult to injury, Bo-Katan flew over the street on which the convoy was now stranded, sending half of her remaining missiles at the APCs near the one carrying Tambor. Those weapons hit the thinner upper armor of the vehicles, wrecking the top mounted weaponry and in one case breaching the troop compartment.

Inside, the B2 droids were bathed by the condensed overpressure which scalded the inside of the armored vehicle. Moment later only two of the ten Super Battle droids were still combat effective.

=RK=

“This is insane!” Waxer screamed.

I had to agree, despite this being my damned to hell plan. Which in fact seemed to work. At least partially.

The remaining recon forces were not only pinpointing CIS positions, but were also drawing the attention of the enemy forces. That allowed us to slip through the positions which the droids were fortifying in an attempt to stave off the inevitable GAR ȧssault into this sector of the city.

It looked like that after the destruction of that CIS armor battalion, there weren’t any Separatists forces on our left flank that were big enough to try anything larger than a spoiling counter-attack. The main enemy forces appeared to be concentrated at the main gate and near the center, which left us a large corridor where we could spread out and fortify. As long as my men were able to hold the breach in the city wall that is.

That at least looked good. By now, there was more than an armor battalion reinforcing the regiment holding my forces right flank. Even better, moments ago Obi-Wan gave me a gleeful report. He used the Combat engineers to rig six buildings, which he blew up in such a way that they buried a battalion of enemy infantry as well as at least two tank companies. That had left the leading elements of a regimental strength counter-attack by the Separatists facing my hastily dug in forces unsupported.

Those droids were slaughtered in short order.

All that was well and good, but didn’t particularly help my situation.

I was gripping a handhold for a dear life, while the tank carrying me was racing through the largely deserted streets at more than hundred kilometers per hour.

The operative word here was “largely”.

There were various group of droids which were converging towards the breach. They loved sending potshots our way as we practically flew through their ranks.

Thanks to the shields, that was usually not a real threat.

Yet, there were exceptions.

On two occasions we met B1s carrying missile launchers. While the single hits they managed, were harmlessly absorbed by the shields of my tanks, the sheer force of the impacts and resulting explosions shook the hit tanks. Some of my men were unable to hold on and were thrown off the hovercraft.

Needless to say, at this speeds none of them survived hitting the ground.

That wasn’t the worst.

We passed through an intersection towards which a column of enemy armor was advancing. Half of my tanks roared past the enemy unscratched, before the droids in charge got their shit together and opened fire. Accurate fire.

The trailing two tanks were struck multiple time. They, as well as the men they carried, were turned into so much confetti.

At least that was the last true obstacle we met before breaking into the enemy rear. After the close encounter with the enemy armor, we faced only one more enemy unit: a platoon of B1 and B2 droids marching straight in the middle of the street my tanks passed through.

Veers, who was in charge of the hover tank company, merely slowed down a bit so we wouldn’t be thrown off and rammed them through. It wasn’t as effective as it would have been if we had threaded vehicles, but it was good enough.

=RK=

I laid eyes on Bo-Katan’s handiwork and smiled coldly. She had stopped the convoy carrying Tambor cold. I could clearly see the pair of burning CIS tanks which were part of its rearguard. She was still tracking Tambor and attacking his escort. He was trying to reach the spaceport, which was two kilometers from here, but was moving slower than a crippled bantha thanks to her constant harassment.

I had my men dismount and sent the light tanks towards the spaceport. I intended to run down my target long before he could reach his destination, but I wanted my light armor to cut him off just in case.

We made a short work of the enemy armored column, which stood no chance, stranded as it was. All it took was some thermal detonators, which were thrown by my men and I guided towards the enemy armored vehicles.

The powerful explosive devices wrecked the enemy column and we headed towards our target.

The reason I wasted a bit of time to destroy those Confed vehicles was simple. I didn’t want that force at my back despite them being prevented from moving for the time being.

I found Tambor hidden behind the column in front of an ancient looking building. He was surrounded by seventy odd droids, who were shooting in the air in an attempt to take down Bo-Katan.

She was strafing them using her blaster pistols. It was obvious that she couldn’t get close enough to use her guns effectively without getting shot down, but it was apparent that the CIS leader didn’t know that, so he was hunched down behind his cover.

Splendid. It was time to end this battle.

=RK=

Tambor cringed when he saw the distinctive forms of Republic soldiers appearing from a side alley to his left. The enemy troopers wasted no time. Approximately half of them opened fire while the rest ran for cover.

All but the man who was obviously leading them did that.

“Oh, kriff it all…” whispered the leader of the Techno Union.

That man simply strode in the blaster fire of his droids. He had a red lightsaber in his right hand and used it to swat aside the shots aimed at him.

Then that man, who could only be General Veil, the accursed leader of the Republic forces which had destroyed Tambor’s plans, raised his free hand.

Tambor’s eyes would have fallen out of their sockets if they hadn’t been replaced by cybernetic implants. A stream of purple lightning erupted from the man’s palm and struck down nearly half of the droids.

More of the machines were cut down by blaster fire, a few of them by their own shots reflected back at them.

Another lightning attack all but destroyed the remaining droids, with the survivors lasting a handful of seconds longer.

Tambor shook with fear. He could feel unnatural dread gripping his heart with icy fingers.

The politician tried to steel himself. He still had few valuable bargain chips…

“Wat Tambor…” whispered the general’s voice, which was distorted by the helmet he wore into an unnerving hiss.

“General Veil, perhaps we can reach a compromise?” he asked trying to remove the tell tale trembling from his voice.

“I have a better idea,” said the general. “You will deactivate all the droids on Ryloth, and I won’t give you to the locals. They seem to be a bit peeved with you. I wonder why…”

Despite the way his voice was distorted by the helmet, Tambor could hear the sarcasm dripping from Veil’s words.

“That isn’t enough! I want passage out of this system or you won’t get the codes!” he said with a determination he didn’t feel.

Veil simply shook his head and muttered, “They always choose the hard way. Well, it’s better that way…”

The man strode towards him and Tambor moved backwards on instinct. Something deep inside him screamed that he should have accepted the general’s terms.

Suddenly, Tambor found himself paralyzed. He felt something touching his… mind? Then the world exploded in a wave of crimson agony which engulfed his consciousness.

=RK=

Kenobi was on the right flank, helping the clones stave off the main CIS counter-attack when the droids froze in mid motion before shutting down. His shoulders sagged in relief. Veil had done it! The CIS on Ryloth was finished.

Nevertheless, the Jedi decided not to take any chances.

“I want the city swept for any enemy stragglers! And make sure that those clankers stay down for good! I don’t want someone reactivating them and catching us off guard!” he ordered.

The latter was a very real possibility. After all, the droids were simply shut down, not destroyed. Something which will be taken care of soon.

=RK=

General Syndulla, who had been leading his fighters and two companies of clones through the city sewers towards the complex containing the shield generators protecting the city, allowed himself a small smile.

What was left of his people were now free… if the Republic kept its word. Yet it was too late for millions, perhaps more.

He looked up to the ceiling and the stars beyond it, ignoring the cheering of his fighters. Despite this victory, he had a sense of foreboding. After the atrocities that the damned Separatists committed here on Ryloth, as well as on Naboo and Coruscant, the war was far from over.

He could almost feel it.

=RK=

Bo-Katan landed near Veil and looked at him. He had Tambor pressed against the wall and had his right hand pressed to the CIS leader’s forehead. They stayed that way for about five minutes despite her few attempt to get answers from the infuriating man,

The clones on the other hand had acted as that had been business as usual and simply took up defensive positions around them.

When Veil was finally finished, he released Tambor. The leader of the Techno Union activated his comm and started typing a long code before speaking with an empty voice.

“It is done. The droids are deactivated. This is the data you require.”

He continued to type for a minute before retrieving a data chip and handling it to the general.

“Splendid!” answered Veil. He turned towards his men and ordered: “Take him into custody. I want him on a shuttle to the Requiem ASAP and move him straight to the med bay where he should be treated for possible brain damage.”

Then Delkatar activated his wrist mounted computer, plugged in the chip and started working ignoring everyone else.

“Is that it?” she snapped at him.

That man had the gall to ignore her!

“Yeah. The majority of enemy forces are inactive. There are probably a few Commando droids which will be pain in the ȧss until my men and the locals hunt them down, but there isn’t much I can do about that anyway. Now, if you excuse me, I am a bit busy.”

Bo-Katan gave him a dirty look.

“With what? You just said that the enemy has been dealt with!”

“Denying the enemy some liquid ȧssets.”

That usually meant money. Despite not being a mercenary, Bo was very interested in what Delkatar was doing.

=RK=

Chancellor’s Office, Undisclosed Location, Coruscant

Palpatine’s right eye twitched.

Days. Three kriffing days, and Veil had Ryloth more or less secured. Enough at least, that he could move most of his forces away from that world soon, and the general himself would be returning to Coruscant in a week or so.

It was a good thing that he had a lot of plans going on at the same time. At least the whole debacle on Ryloth wasn’t a total loss. Now he had a reasonable idea of how dangerous Veil was as both a ground and a space commander. Now that he knew, Sidious could plan better for the future.

Besides, there were other bright spots. With the crushing defeat at space, the Confederation would have to stop its offensives within two to three weeks and start consolidating before another major push could be launched. So with a bit of tweaking, Palpatine could insure that he would get the long war he needed.

Ironically, he could use Veil until both sides were truly stalemated. Until such a time, which was still months away, Sidious should have decided if he would want that man as his new apprentice or if the good General would meet an unfortunate accident somewhere.

The Sith Lord grinned. Two weeks. Then he would have some free entertainment to look up to. The trial of Windu was fast approaching. He just hoped that the Jedi would mess it up and do his job in destroying most of their reputation themselves.

Meanwhile, he would be busy. After those idiots killed most of the Senate, and not even the right part, kriff them all, he had to deal with a mountain of paperwork.

On a more cheerful note, now it would be much easier to concentrate more power in his hand as he planed from the beginning.

=RK=

Council Chambers, Jedi Temple, Coruscant

Yoda was sitting in his chair and to anyone who would look at him, it appeared that he was meditating.

However that was not the case. He was pondering the future. Both of the Republic and the Jedi Order.

The present was changing in ways he could have never foreseen.

Now he had to deal with the fallout of his own mistakes. With Veil coming from the past, Yoda was now almost certain that he had shaped the Order in a wrong way. He had prepared his people to fight the wrong kind of war.

Against the influence of a Sith as Veil, they were in a bad position. The only ray of hope, where that man was concerned, was the fact that he apparently didn’t hate the Jedi or dėsɨrė their destruction as an ordinary Sith would.

“Enough, it is not.” muttered the ancient being.

Veil’s very existence was a threat to the Order’s stability like no other. Arguably, Delkatar was as dangerous to the Jedi as the Sith who started the war. Just in a different way.

Yoda could almost appreciate the irony of this situation. Faced with a Sith who didn’t want their destruction, the Jedi were about to shatter the Order themselves.

There were many of his people who were blinded by the Jedi Creed. They were seeing in absolutes… almost as a Sith would.

Granted, he had been trying to slowly push for reforms, targeted at making the Jedi more open minded. Yet, the truth was that he was far from successful. Or at least not as successful as he should be.

Changing the Order was a very slow process, which was met with a lot of opposition.

Despite what many outsiders might think, he was no dictator. As the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order, Yoda was first amongst equals.

It had taken him decades to build a somewhat progressive council so that on a good day he could push for some small changes.

Now that looked scarcely enough. There was a rift forming amongst the Jedi. And soon it would all come to a head.

Windu’s trial was approaching, and Yoda had no idea how that would go.

He had spoken with all the Jedi Masters and knew that they were evenly split right now. When Windu and Veil speak in front of the Council, everything will be decided.

Yoda knew that for a lot of Jedi it won’t be about the evidence, or whether Windu had broken the Republic’s laws. In fact, in the eyes of many of his people, Veil and the Jedi supporting him will be the ones being judged.

From the cradle, the Jedi had been taught that the Sith were the one true enemy. And now one of them was left to do whatever he wanted, or at least so it seemed.

Yoda shrunk in his chair. He felt trapped in a net of his own making.