A long time ago, in a galaxy far

far away

STAR

WARS

BROTHERS IN ARMS

Peaceful world under siege! In a bold and daring move, separatist forces have attacked the peaceful world of alderaan during a visit by senator bail organa. Because of the planets peaceful ideals, republic forces can do nothing but flee. With their forces dwindling, the commander of the senator's personal clone force, commander Bulk, sends out a last desperate distress signal.

The signal is received by the nearest republic vessel, the resolute, flagship of Jedi general Anakin Skywalker. Acting fast, the fleet hurries to help the dwindling republic force. However, the republic underestimates the separatist force, which is much stronger than any fleet the republic had previously encountered.

Met with heavy resistance from the separatist force, the fleet is severely delayed, leaving commander Bulk and his two best men, Reg and Scope, to hold the landing platform for the rescue shuttle, if it ever arrives...

The space above alderaan lit up with laser fire. Explosions dotted the hull of the republic's venator-class star destroyer, a bombardment that could not be taken much longer. From the hanger, three shapes were suddenly dwarfed by the massive battle cruiser that they were leaving. The rescue shuttle, escorted by two republic gunships, swiftly dodged laser fire and vulture droids

Inside the shuttle, Commander Lod Hermell took a deep breath and accelerated, quickly followed by the gunships either side of him. Despite having the rank of commander, this was the first time Lod had seen combat during the clone war. He had only just been promoted off of a backwater, obscure medical station near the Ryndellia system to serve with one of the greatest, even if the most reckless, generals in the republic fleet. Lod could have been honoured, but really he was just glad to be off that station, doing the same patrol every day, once round the station, twice round the nearby moon, beeline for the hanger... Lod shuddered at the thought and quickly brought himself back to reality.

The shuttle swerved effortlessly between lasers and fighters, staying particularly clear of exploding projectiles, due to the droid's nasty habit of filling them with..."BUZZ BROIDS" yelled Lod's co-pilot, getting out of the way faster than a stray womp rat on the track of boonta eve classic .Lod looked at CT-24501. He had always felt weird, being one of the only humans in a clone army, being the only man on deck with his own face, everyone else with same body, same voice, same everything. Lod reminded himself that there was a good reason for this: they were disposable. One man dies, the same one takes his place. That was how this war worked, but it didn't stop it from being a little creepy.

Just then, he was brought back to reality once again, as the shuttle rocked violently. "Looks like the clankers have noticed us!" shouted CT-24501, indicating to several red arrows on the radar, representing vulture droids. As the shuttle rocked again Lod glanced at the screen again. There was an entire squadron of droids on their tail. They had obviously been identified as a high priority target "karabast" Lod muttered under his breath, and shouted to his co-pilot "hold on, CT-24501! I'm taking evasive manoeuvres!" as he strapped himself in. "for the last time commander, call me..." the clone's reply was cut short as a laser tore open the hull of their craft, sucking CT-24501 into the vacuum of space.

Lod should have mourned. He probably would have too, if the same hull breach that claimed the life of his co-pilot wasn't threatening to kill him too. Lod struggled against the force pulling towards the wound in the shuttle's side. He extended his hand, a feat easier said than done when everything in the ship was being pulled out by the laws of physics. Slowly, his hand hovered over a button, and descended with an almighty slam. Lod suddenly fell to the ground, along with everything else that hadn't been pulled into space. He turned his head and let out a sigh of relief. The hole was now covered by a red ray shield, its constant humming filling Lod's ears.

Lod struggled back to the pilot's seat and peered out the window. The blue ball that was alderaan was growing closer faster than Lod would have liked. An alarm started sounding as the shuttle began to enter the atmosphere. Lod checked the radar. The droids had left, probably presuming him dead. Lod grabbed the both joysticks and pulled up as hard as he could. Flames licked the edges of the windows of the craft as the mountains of alderaan came slowly into view. Lod summoned all of his strength and pulled up on the joystick and slowly brought the windows landing to show the landing platform of alderaan's capital. "There..." thought Lod, aiming the ship for the platform "if I can just make it to the landing platform..." the windows began to crack. "Almost there..." they shattered. "just a little more..." Lod blacked out.