It is a time of Civil War. A time of destruction, corruption, and utter chaos. Through the entire galaxy, the Republic has fought to save the lives of every being that inhabits it. The Separatists have only thought about destruction and galactic domination. I am one of the few people who stand in their way. My name is Straetic Meelae, and this is my story.
I serve as a high clone general for the Republic. Most of my work consists of orders in the outer rim. The only occasion I'm actually sent into battle, is when I'm in a building under attack. It hasn't happened often, but I feel as if it happens all the time. My fellow generals and I are working on plans to set the Separatists light years away from our planets. We are in charge of the defense of the sector known as the "Unknown Regions". Specifically, I am assigned to the Sarvchi system, and I am the preliminary defense, currently on board a shipyard named "The Green Dragon". I was assigned a mission here to see how production was running on Republic starships.
"General Kesyar. I have a bad feeling about this place." I said to my counterpart as we approached the gates of the shipyard.
"What are you talking about? You always sense something wrong with our shipyards and military bases. If you're going to sense so much, why don't you go become a Jedi?" He said in a joking tone. He laughed a little afterward.
General Kesyar was another general in charge of the defenses of the Unknown Regions sector. Chancellor Palpatine himself assigned us the mission of checking these shipyards out. But Kesyar seems to always be laid back with high security missions. I don't know how he does it, but his background reports claim he's never been in a real battle. He's always given me confidence, that's for sure.
"Seriously….why would the chancellor himself ask us to go on such a small mission as checking production. Much less why he would send professionals like US?"
"Meelae, that's always been your problem. You automatically assume the worst scenario. What if it's just minor coincidence?"
"Coincidence, or a trap, keep on your toes general." I told him ominously.
We finally got inside of The Green Dragon. Just as I thought, all production had completely stopped. I stood there with a blaster in my back pocket, knowing it was definitely a trap. But was the chancellor behind it all? Or was Kesyar right about a coincidence?
"Where are all of the troops on the lines!?" Kesyar gasped in total disbelief.
"Keep on your toes general. We must make our way to the central building of the facility and find out who's in charge."
Kesyar followed me easier than usual, because he had no idea what to do in an actual crisis situation. Generals were never supposed to use combat, much less, Kesyar had never dreamed of being in a situation where anything went wrong.
My pocket was beeping. It was my transmitter. I was getting a call. I reached in my pocket and turned on the projection. The call was coming from no other than the chancellor himself.
"Chancellor Palpatine, sir." I said.
"I'm afraid I have bad news for you general. We were just notified that all communications in the shipyard you're going to has totally shut down. Please don't go to the shipyard and we'll handle the situation."
"We've already entered the facility, sir. The gates automatically lock when shut. We need to open the lock from the central building to get back out." I told him.
"Oh, that's not good. Well please be careful with your mission you two. I wouldn't want you to get killed." He said in his frail voice.
"You have nothing to worry about sir. We will proceed with extreme caution." I assured him.
He ended the transmition there. I put the device back my pocket.
"As if my visions weren't making me worried enough." I said.
We walked all the way to the central building of the facility. Our access cards easily let us in, like no ordinary trip. We just so easily walked through the vacant hallways. There was not a sign of life at all through the building.
"I'm starting to have second thoughts as well, General." said Kesyar, in a scared tone.
"Don't worry. Clone Troopers are being sent here to investigate as we speak." I told him as we approached the command center room. "We may not even see a soul in this entire building."
I opened the door only to hear guns aimed and ready to fire. Separatist Battle Droids filled the room, and to be led by none other than my personal worst rival, Ryluh Garsta.
Garsta was a bounty hunter who works for a high Separatist leader in charge of Republic assault in this sector. Garsta has destroyed shipyards and military bases, always willing to take the lives of the Republic. He killed one of us generals, General Tysuu, in an accident a year ago. That's why we needed a new defense general, via General Kesyar.
I pulled my pistol I had in my back pocket out and aimed it at Garsta. He quickly shot at my hand and knocked the gun away.
"You tyrant! The Republic's going to take you down so you can't kill any of us again!" I screamed as I held my right hand in pain.
"Republic scum. You don't have a choice. We've come in and cleared you shipyard completely out. Now that you've come to us, we can just so easily kill you. But I want to get as much fun out of this as you, so I'm holding you hostage to see how much the Republic will pay to have your skins alive." He said with his gun still smoking from the first shot.
That was that. Droids had taken us to a corner in the room to sit quietly until he contacted the Republic. But right as he was ready to make the call, clone troopers burst in from the roof and doors to save us.
"General! Get down!" one of the troops yelled.
Me and Kesyar both dove for the ground. The clone troopers started blasting away, mowing through the droids like electricity through water. Palpatine sent in for A LOT of reinforcements if you ask me, but they only seemed like a lot. They work on frontline assignments in the Coruscant sector, so these guys were well trained.
Garsta was the only one left. The clone troopers totally surrounded him. He looked around with his hands in the air, and he pushed a button on his wrist. His jet pack activated and shot him up through the roof. He was flying away in retreat. My anger for his ruthlessness was at its worst.
"DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!" I screamed at them. I felt completely angered. I'm never angry, if at all mad. The only reason I would be mad, was at myself because I couldn't do my job to its full extent, whatever the reason maybe.
"You heard him men! Get back to the gunship and track him down! You two! Help the Generals get back out! MOVE!" the clone commander yelled as they all ran out of the room to go hunt down Garsta.
"Are you alright general?" one clone asked.
"Yes…we're fine." Kesyar said as he stood up and brushed himself off. "We need to open the locks on the doors of the main gate to get back to our ship."
"Yes sir." One clone said as he left the room. He told us to go ahead and meet back at the ship. He would activate the locks and meet up with us before takeoff.
Before we left, I saw something. It was a small metal device. I got a closer look, and found out what it was. It was definitely a Jedi lightsaber. I didn't know what to do. Considering my blaster was shot, I did need a new weapon. And if the generals want to call me a Jedi again I could always take it and apply. Like that would happen. I took the thing anyway and stuck it in my back pocket without anyone to see.
We all headed back to the ship in a rushed hurry. We heard the sounds of explosions as they shook the building. When we got down to the first floor, and finally out of the building, we came out just in time to see the republic gunship of troops to go after Garsta crash into the central building. I knew Garsta had got away at that point. We looked back at the gate and the lock was turned off. The clone troop inside definitely died in there. At least the lock was down and we didn't have to call for yet another ship. We opened the gate and got inside the ship. We took off and headed back to New Defense HQ; our state of the art defense base headquarters.
Chancellor Palpatine called us again and we informed him on the entire situation. He re-assigned the only clone trooper survivor to New Defense HQ. He said he was honored to be re-assigned, and that was the end of the transmition. But I could sense his thoughts. He was in a bad mood. I decided to talk to him.
"What's wrong troop?" I asked him.
"Nothing, sir. There's nothing wrong at all." He replied.
"I sense your anger, your sadness, and your confusion. Explain to me why." I replied in a confident but mysterious voice.
"Wow….that's a very impressive trick sir. To tell the truth, I…..I don't know why I would be re-assigned. I'm a top-notch clone trooper in charge of frontline assignments in the center of all the Republic action, and I'm being placed for defense in the outer rim…" he said in a frustrated voice.
"There's a place for everyone. Don't worry. You'll find we do get as much action as you do in the Coruscant sector." I said.
"Yes, sir." He simply replied. He still sounded discouraged. But what else was I to do. The Republic wouldn't waste all the time and fuel for one clone trooper. He was most likely going to stay and be one of us….
Our ship finally reached New Defense HQ. The clone trooper couldn't stop staring at it. I sensed his feelings. He felt shocked and interested. Not like before when he was totally depressed and felt useless.
"More than you expected trooper?" I said in a joking tone.
"Yes sir. It's colossal for an outer rim defense….very impressive General." He said. He was in a good mood at this point.
The ship docked and we showed the troop where to go. He left us with best regards and a positive attitude. I'm going to hate to see someone like Garsta kill him.
"You sure do the job right plus more, master Jedi." Kesyar finally said after the clone left.
That's when I remembered the lightsaber I picked up. It was still in my back pocket. I was going to see what the other generals were doing, then go to my private quarters and look at it a bit more.
We arrived in the general's discussion room. General Raech was there, looking at the map of the sector and reading an article on the Green Dragon.
"Ah, there you two are. I heard Garsta gave you some trouble." Raech said.
"Nothing I couldn't handle." Kesyar said, sitting back in his chair like he was the hero who saved us all.
"Well there's a first Kesyar." Raech said. General Raech was in charge of the militia of troopers we had inside New Defense HQ. He has been in ten times the battles I've been, and used to be a frontline commander in the Corellian sector. His left eye had been shot, causing it to go blind, and the corpse from it so bad, he wore an eye patch. He takes all his work like it was still Corellian assault of Separatists, but to tell the truth, our job was much less important.
"Where's General Obisma?" Kesyar asked. "We need to inform him on the situation."
"I already informed him, Kesyar," replied Raech. "He was a bit worried about you two from the start."
General Obisma was another story. Obisma was in charge of all the transportation and mechanics onboard the New Defense HQ. He was always fixing ships or developing new designs to send to the Senate for actual development. The closest he ever got was a ship that looked like our ARC-170s, accept without the extra wings, cockpits, and it didn't have any blasters at all. He still always worked at his mechanics and loved his job. Although once or twice, here or there, he would forget a major part in the ships; usually ending up in 1-5 casualties each. One time he forgot the engine heat stabilizers on a republic gunship, and within a minute of testing, the ship exploded and caused 4 test pilots to die. He was still hard working, and a very intelligent general.
"If everything is alright on deck, I'm going back to my quarters." I said. Nobody wondered why I left, so I was on my way to my quarters. I still had the lightsaber in my back pocket, un-noticed by anybody else aboard. I opened my door and locked it so nobody but my class, generals, could get in. I was simply hoping none of them would try and follow me here.
I pulled the saber out of my back pocket. It was a little heavy, and had a strange pattern on it. It had a brown cloth that extended from the emitter half way to the floor. My guess was about two and a half feet. I finally examined the whole thing and got the courage to turn it on. I pressed down the button and a long blade of green light shot out the top. It was making a humming noise, as all lightsabers do, and it felt the same weight as before, considering light doesn't weigh anything. I was simply waving it around in the air, when Kesyar barged in the room. He saw me with the lightsaber and stood in disbelief.
"So you ARE a Jedi! You even have a Jedi's lightsa-!" I grabbed him and threw him in my room so no one would hear him. I turned off the lightsaber and shushed Kesyar.
"SH! I'm NOT a Jedi for the last time! I found this lightsaber when we were leaving the Green Dragon. I found it in the central building." I explained.
"Ah. I wondered what that was that you picked up." He said with a smile. "So why'd you take it. Do you ACTUALLY want to be a Jedi?"
I sat there in silence for a moment. I did want to be a Jedi, but I would never pass exams. All I can do is sense feelings.
"No." I finally told him. "The Chancellor would never let me become a Jedi. I'm not going to be anything more than a Sarvchi defense general with you guys."
Now Kesyar was being silent. Usually when I told one of the generals that they'd say: 'That's right Meelae.' Or 'NOW you're getting it.' But this time Kesyar sat there for a while.
"I'm sorry if me and the other generals offend you when we say you'll be a Jedi…we're just joking around. You know that right?" he finally said.
I didn't bother sensing his thoughts. It was when we talked about the Jedi was when I used my force the least. Before I could answer, someone knocked on my door. I opened it, and there was a simple clone solider was standing there.
"Sorry to interrupt sir, but general Raech sent me here to inform you that general Obisma is back from his test flight." He reported.
"Good." I said. "We're going to go to the front deck. You can go back to business trooper."
"Yes sir." He said and walked away.
I didn't care if Kesyar followed me or not, I was leaving for the front deck. He did follow me though, considering he had to get there at some point. We both didn't say a word arriving to the front deck. Obisma was there, with some oil smudges he was wiping from his face.
"General Obisma. I see your test flight was a success. You made it back alive." I said.
"General Meelae. No, it wasn't. My final prototype ship of the SSF-420 design, crashed into an asteroid. I forgot a detail or two in the course settings of the test flight." He said.
"How many did we loose in that one?" I asked.
"Only three." He said. "I don't want to break my 'wonderful record' of five anytime soon."
"Now then," said Raech. "If we're all ready, I have an announcement specifically for the generals of the Sarvchi system defense from Chancellor Palpatine."
The room froze. Clone troopers working at computers turned around to hear what the Chancellor wanted to specifically tell New Defense HQ. Only us generals had straight faces on, as if Palpatine himself were in the room.
"The Chancellor has asked us a favor," Raech began. "He says he is surprised at our efforts, and he wants us to become…" he looked closer at the order while the room sat on the edge of its seat. "He wants the generals of New Defense HQ to become the general defense of the Coruscant system and protect the Jedi Temple in specific."
The room totally lost control. Everyone was talking in gasps and disbelief. I could hear some of what some said. 'OUR generals!?' And 'Chancellor Palpatine choosing THEM to defend him!?' Even we lost our straight faces. We were being re-assigned to the most important defense general position there was in the galaxy.