Admiral Mar Tuuk sat in the his command chair on board the Unbroken, his personal Providence-class destroyer. He had been promoted to admiral rather recently, and he suspected the recent losses of the C.I.S, such as the death of both Count Dooku and General Grievous, had more to do with his promotion than the senate's faith in his capabilities.
It was of no matter. He would be proving that they had made the right choice soon. For now he was stuck babysitting. "Well Admiral, the fleet seems to be capable but isn't it a little small?" Mar Tuuk surprised a groan, and turned to face the two senators who were accompanying him. The one who had spoken was Senator Clop Tull, a wealth Muun who was part of the Banking Clan.
He seemed competent enough for his position but knew nothing of war, ships, or anything else that he was seeing on the Unbroken. He had been making stupid remarks and asking obvious questions the entire trip. In contrast his companion Senator Bode Fesh, another Muun from the Banking Clan, was mostly silent. When he did speak it generally had to do with the efficiency and expanse of equipment. Mar Tuuk was aware that this was important. The Banking Clan needed reassurance that the funds they were supplying to the Separatist army was not being wasted.
Still he wished that someone else had been assigned to this task. He felt it was a waste of his talents. His superiors felt that his rank would help appease the senators, and aid the mission in going smoothly. "This is not a full fleet Senator. It would be wasteful to have so many ships out of combat during this time of war. Furthermore this fleet is an upgraded version of everything you see, from the B1-Battle droids to the Dreadnaught we are on. All of it is fifteen percent better than the version being currently used." Stated ST-B3. Mar Tuuk smiled slightly to himself. The Super Tactical Droid had been added to the fleet as a General for the Planetary forces. He had also proven himself invaluable to Mar Tuuk, by handling the senators. His programing, intelligence, and never ending patience let him answer all of the senators questions cooley.
ST-B3 was a valuable asset to Mar Tuuk's new fleet, and he fully intended to request that when he was deployed into action the droid stay with him. A Super Tactical Droid was perhaps more valuable than a warship, but Mar Tuuk found that he wanted the droid for more than just his usefulness with politics and combat. He actually liked the droid.
He laughed lightly to himself. 'There', he thought, 'that is how you know you have been around droids to much. I am starting to think of them as my friends.' Still he definitely prefered the company of the droids to the senators. He vaguely listened to the senators asking questions and ST-B3's response. He started to think about how effective this fleet would really be. As just one fleet, he doubted it would make a noticeable difference in the war. However if they put it into full scale construction and replaced the current ones with the new version he was sure that the C.I.S would be nearly unstoppable.
"Admiral sir," A B1 droid interrupted his thoughts, "We have multiple ships incoming." That was odd. He wasn't aware of any other transports or equipment scheduled to meet him here. He looked out the observatory window and saw a terrifying sight.
Three Munificent Star Frigates dropped out of hyperspace followed quickly by two Republic Star Cruisers. The com was suddenly filled, "Admiral! We need assistance! Our shields are failing!" Mar Tuuk quickly gave out orders, "All hands to battlestations. Move the fleet to engage the Republic forces." "Yes Admiral." The droids dutifully responded. "Admiral?" Senator Clop Tull asked nervously. "It appears senator, that a few of our ships are under attack." Despite how calm he sounded Mar Tuuk was very concerned this was separatist space but the republic forces were attacking without concern, which most likely meant that there was more of them.
The Admiral launched all vulture droids to combat the Republic starfighters. One of the Munificent Star Frigates had already gone down. Mar Tuuk had two in his own fleet which he had moving to flank the Republic warships. He ordered his bombers to focus on the enemy ships shields. The first Republic warships shielding went down and it quickly followed suit combusting into a spectacular display of colors and lights. The second began to panic and tried to turn around to escape.
In the process it destroyed another Munificent Star Frigate. However the full onslaught of the Admiral's fleet quickly brought the vessel down. As it began to blow apart Mar Tuuk ordered his fleet into sentry position. The remaining Munificent Star Frigate docked with the Unbroken. Mar Tuuk sent an escort of B1s to bring the leaders of the ship to him.
Mar Tuuk was very surprised to see two fellow Neimoidians. He recognized them they were part of the senate, Senator Soll Gil and Senator Ainem Doiem. "Admiral we are so very grateful for your assistance." Senator Soll said bowing slightly. "I was happy to help but I am at a lose as to how you came to be in that predicament, would you please enlighten me?" Mar Tuuk stated calmly. "Of course, Admiral my apologies I think I am still a little in shock. The planet was attacked by republic forces they crushed what little defenses we had and started killing everyone. I tried to evacuate the senate but… we didn't get very far." Mar Tuuk stared in disbelief. It wasn't possible. The Republic couldn't break through the entire separatist army and fly right into separatist space, with the strength to attack separatist worlds, let alone ones as fortified as senator planets. "How? How did they do this?" Mar Tuuk asked his calm beginning to break. "We don't know for sure but it has to do with the droid shut down." "A droid shut down? What shut down?" Senator Clop asked panic seeping into his words. "Hours before the attack all combat droids shut down. They just turned off. What little defenses we had left didn't stand a chance." As the others started to discuss how it could of happened and what had happened to the rest of the senate, Mar Tuuk started looking through files on a datapad. "Gentlemen. It seems I have at least one answer for us." Mar Tuuk stated gaining the senators' attention "The droids were shut down due to a kill switch sent by the high senates last known location."
"So the senate shut down the droids? Why would they do that?" asked senator Bode. ST-B3 answered, "It is illogical to believe that the senate would shut down the army in such a short time before the attack. It is far more likely that the senate was found and eliminated." A quiet fell upon the five men. Mar Tuuk was thinking furiously. Senator Ainem spoke "If the droids were all shut down how come yours remain active Admiral?" Mar Tuuk thought for a second, that was a good question. "We are an upgrade of all currently used droids, we were not programmed to respond to a kill code." ST-B3 answered the senator.
Suddenly what to do next became clear to Mar Tuuk. "We need to leave. There will be more Republic forces soon, and if there is no droid army we will not be able to withstand them. There was an emergency plan known only to a few Admirals. It gives is the coordinates of a very secluded star system. If something like this were ever to happen we were to regroup there."
Glad to have something to do and focus on, the Admiral gave the orders and had the fleet moving to their destination. "Admiral. What is this system we are going to?" asked Senator Clop.
"Hopefully a safe haven. It is called Raazh." Admiral Mar Tuuk responded before they jumped to lightspeed.