Hello everybody! This is OrangeGalen with an important notice. This story has gone under moderately severe changes and has been updated to my current standards. This was originally in just the "Star Wars" category, but that has been fixed. Chapter number has gone down, but length gone up due to me combining scenes. And just general editing all around. If you read this story before, the basic plot stays the same, but there have been enough changes to give it a second look.

I'm thinking about updating this every day or other day.

This story is not cannon with the Star Wars franchise, but tries to stay close to the existing cannon (Wookipedia is still a mess). I am a fan of the Clone Wars CGI show and this story has been in the works since season 2. I have recently dug this story up and updated it according to the end of season 5 & 6. This part takes place in-between the episodes "Tipping Points" and "The Gathering" of season 5. Around 20BBY.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars in any shape or form. That now resides with our soon to be media overlord Disney.

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A crushing string of defeats! After several conflicts in the mid rim, the Separatists have dealt a grievous blow to the Republic by capturing several key systems including the Bothan sector. Now in control of the newly built Bothan shipyards, the Separatists will soon be able to build new warships to turn against the Republic, something that the Republic cannot afford. Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are sent to combat the fleet surrounding the planet Bothawui, so Master Luminara Unduli can land on the surface and recapture the system to prevent a devastating fleet from being constructed….

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RNS Dauntless, Bothan Space

Anakin Skywalker always preferred to be in the cockpit of a star fighter rather than on a bridge of a Star Destroyer. Dodging laser blasts and enemy fighters in the thick of things in his Delta-7B Aethersprite Interceptor was one of the more exciting things about combat. It was where he felt he could change the course of the battle. However, the Jedi Order had been losing far too many Jedi over the course of this war and the clone pilots were some of the best trained in the galaxy, so Anakin was stuck on the bridge of the Dauntless with his padawan Ahsoka Tano, commanding his portion of the fleet.

The Dauntless, along with the Firebird and the Adamant, were three of the cruisers in the Bothan operation. Their mission was to destroy or at least occupy the attention of the Separatist fleet so the rest of the Republic fleet, led by general Obi-Wan Kenobi, could flank and destroy them. After they combined, they would then retake the shipyards, paving way for the dirtside operation. General Luminara Unduli would land after the skies were clear with the ground forces to combat the Separatist's own down on the planet.

Anakin, gazing out the bridge viewport watching the hyperspace streaks roll by, recalled that the Bothans eventually decided to ally with the Republic after the attempted Separatist invasion led by General Grievous. That particular invasion was foiled by an ingenious plan led by himself involving AT-TE walkers deployed on the asteroids surrounding the gas giant Golm to ambush the Confederate ships as they entered range. Since they didn't have the ships available for a defensive parameter, he had to improvise. And it worked excellently.

After that battle, the Bothans saw that neutrality was not a sustainable option for them if they were just going to get invaded anyway and voted to end their neutrality. However, the people had voted over the personal preference of their senator, Polo Se'lab, which was an oddity these days where the politicians generally voted for themselves. In the darkest pits of Anakin's mind, he wondered why they were fighting to protect those corrupt people. Those thoughts never saw the light of day though.

After ending their neutrality, the Bothans had also constructed their own shipyards to aid the Republic, although they requested that the shipyards only have Bothan personal. But now that time had passed and they were under Separatist control since they didn't have their own fleet to protect their sector... or enough ships anyway. So now Anakin had returned to protect the Bothans once again.

He was broken out of his thoughts by the sound of his padawan's voice, "We're coming up on the Bothan system."

"Then let's get ready." He turned from the wide viewport and looked at Ahsoka. "Tell the fighters to prep for launch, and also tell Odd Ball he'll have to manage without me this time."

"I'm sure he'll do just fine without you," Ahsoka responded. "I'll patch you in to Master Kenobi so you can update him on our status."

Anakin nodded and Ahsoka tapped some controls. Soon, a near life size hologram of Obi-Wan was in front of Anakin. With his trademark no-nonsense bluntness Obi-wan said, "Report."

"We're inbound to Bothawui and should be arriving momentarily Master." Anakin always added "Master" not just because Obi-Wan was a member of the Jedi council, but also of the age-old habit of when he was an apprentice. As evidenced by all the Jedi, it was a hard habit that no one really wanted to break.

"Good, my fleet is also inbound and should arrive shortly after yours to give the Separatists a chance to intercept your force. Hopefully they'll take the bait."

"I think they'll like the bait. We are pretty tasty," Anakin said jokingly.

"Hmmm," Obi-wan hummed dryly, amused but trying to hide it. "The CIS should be rather keen on keeping these shipyards. Even smaller ones like this one can tip the war in either side's favor."

"Well, lets do some tipping in our favor, Master." Ahsoka chimed in, walking to face the holo.

Obi-Wan's projection smirked, "Quite right Ahsoka. Anakin, keep comm channels open in case any situations arise."

"Of course Master." Anakin replied.

"Oh, and do try to keep your ships in one piece this time will you?"

"What do you mean 'this time'?" Anakin said with a hint of feigned ignorance. Obi-Wan, the clones, and Ahsoka all rolled their eyes at his question.

"You do have a bit of a track record Sir," Captain Rex commented from off to the side.

Ahsoka glanced at her screen and interrupted the soon-to-be banter, "One minute till we drop out of hyperspace."

"Very well. I'll leave you two at it. Kenobi out." And with that, the hologram disappeared back into the table as the projectors died down.

Anakin walked around the table and, crossing his arms, stared out of the viewport into hyperspace again. The final moments ticked away before reentry into normal space. The clone crew was making last minute adjustments to their stations and giving orders to other clones. Anakin was in the center of it, giving off a firm aura of calm and determination.

"The Hero with No Fear" as the holonet was fond of calling Skywalker. He had risked his life countless times to save the people under his command and defied the odds so often many considered it to be second nature. Now he was out to crush another Separatist force and bring this ever-growing war another victory closer to ending. And I hope this war ends sooner rather than later, for all our sakes, he thought to himself, images of Padmé floating through his head.

Ahsoka, from her position in the comm area had a clear view of Anakin. She never grew tired of how he could appear to be so calm yet always be ready to burst into action at a second's notice. Over the years that she has been his apprentice, she had realized that Skywalker was a Jedi of action, as was she. And those actions usually resulted in a sizeable pile of scrap metal that had once been battle droids. However, she always had the feeling that Anakin was holding something back, and on the rare occasion it did slip. But those instances were very few and far apart. She understood and had figured it was just the individual Jedi's personality. Some Jedi, like Kit Fisto and Aayla Secura sometimes displayed their emotions more visibly than others while others like the stoic Mace Windu kept them on a tight leash. Obi-wan Kenobi, Ahsoka had figured, was in the middle of the two ranges, neither completely detached nor emotionally involved and ever so mild. The right balance, she thought. However, being around Anakin for so long has had an influence on her and now she leans more to the emotional side, complementing her Togrutan heritage. She didn't mind however, she liked it that way but was careful to keep them in line.

She glanced at the chronometer on the screen, showing ten seconds left before reentry. "Ten seconds left," she announced. Time to get to work.

The streaks of hyperspace faded into the blackness of space, pierced by the distant stars of other systems. Ahead of the Dauntless lay the small glowing speck that was the planet Bothawui. Close by loomed Golm, its asteroid ring forming a giant disk in space that they needed to navigate around to get to the objective.

Anakin turned to Ahsoka and asked, "Any signs of Separatist activity?"

"Scanning," she answered, already on it. The results were puzzling. "I'm not detecting any Separatist ships between us and the planet."

"What? That can't be right," Anakin muttered as he came over to look at the readings. After checking with his own eyes, he said, "This doesn't make any sense." In this situation, ships should be forming a blockade formation around the planet to protect it from invasion. "Expand your scans to the cover the entire system."

Ahsoka responded and widened the scans. "There does seem to be a large buildup of Confederate ships around sector 12." She paused. "Wait. Isn't that where the shipyard is?"

"Yes it is." Said Anakin, his voice growing quiet. Both Ahsoka and Anakin's eyes widened as they both realized what had happened. The enemy knew they were going to attack the shipyards and waited in ambush for the Republic fleet.

Anakin turned and said to the navigations officer "Set a course to the shipyards, as fast as we can! I'm not going to let them fall into a trap, he thought, at least not without me. "Try to get in touch with Master Kenobi. Maybe we can warn him before it's too late."

Ahsoka punched in the comm, but all she got was a loud crackle of static. "Our communications are being jammed!"

"How? There aren't any ships near enough to block our signal." Anakin exclaimed. He turned to look out the viewport to visually find the source of the jamming. The three cruisers were passing over the asteroid belt when Anakin noticed something. One of the asteroids started glowing with lights, and then it started moving. "On our port side! A Banking Clan Frigate!" As he said that, the prow turbolaser of the Banking Clan Frigate fired and impacted on the shields of the Firebird causing minimal damage, but shook the ship. Then all hell broke loose.

CIS Frigate OY-134, Bothan Space

On board the CIS frigate, droids were manning their stations with rapt attention. The tactics of their captain were beyond their processor's ability to fully grasp, but they didn't have to, just be competent enough to execute the orders quickly without question. The captain had a violent dislike for slow battle droids. If any of those were found in his ranks, they tended to disappear and be replaced. And those were quickly replaced and similarly discarded if they in turn failed. A Super tactical droid, designated RW-47, with red trimmings stood watch over these droids, supervising them and checking their work. It was the highest processing droid onboard and was the only droid capable of comprehending its captain's tactics.

"There are three Republic ships. The right number that you calculated for your plan to work, My Lord," it said in a heavy mechanical voice.

"Yes it is RW," a voice coming from the commander's chair hissed, the tone laced with confidence and anticipation. "Now, execute phase two. Destroy one ship, damage another, and capture the final one. Just like how I planed out. "

"Yes My Lord." RW turned to the communications droid and told it, "Tell the boarding craft and the fighters to take off and follow their flight plans."

"Rodger Rodger." The droid said. RW looked out the viewport at the three Republic ships. Droid fighters and boarding craft took off from their positions in the asteroids and headed for the ships, following their instructions.

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Whelp, here's the first re-edited chapter. More soon to come.

Read, Review, Favorite, Follow. (R.R.F.F.)

-OrangeGalen