AN: I don't own Star Wars or any franchise. I'll be ignoring the current official timeline and KT's clone figures and assuming that the series takes place 1.5 years into the Clone Wars with millions of troops in each major conflict. After all, Venators six months into the war and three million meatbags for a galactic conflict? That's just absurd.
Ambush
Rugrosa. The Outer Rim Territories. 21 BBY.
The coral moon of Rugrosa hung against the star-speckled backdrop of deep space, reflected starlight making it glimmer like an emerald next to the azure gas giant it orbited. A small patch of space flickered and distorted, bending as an angular, crimson-painted vessel emerged from hyperspace. The ship quickly sped towards the moon, seemingly unnoticed.
But only seemingly.
Dozens of probes came to life as the light frigate appeared, dispassionately recording data on the Charger c70 frigate. Holocams and sensors recorded every detail of the vessel's appearance, its IFF transponder signal, and life form readings before transmitting the compressed data. Strangely, the signal interceptors sent it to twolocations. A seemingly empty patch of deep space and a certain continent on the Rugrosa moon itself. Their job done, the concealed sensors returned to their dormant state.
Below the swirling green-yellow clouds that made up Rugrosa's upper atmosphere, seemingly endless fields of what appeared to be giant plants of some sort. A casual observer would almost certainly reach such a conclusion: the structures were certainly organic and even seemed to have fronds. Once one reached the world's surface, however, such impressions would quickly be lost. The fronds were stone, secreted by the world-wide coral reefs that had supported entire ecosystems for millions of years. Over the millenia, however, Rugrosa had shifted, its oceans drying up and the countless organisms that had once inhabited them dying out. Now, the moon was dry, perhaps even barren, with only the most hardy of the once-countless corals clinging to existence.
Such was the nature of existence. The weak and unprepared were destroyed, and the strong survived and prospered. These were the thoughts of the figure which lurked in the shadows of one of the larger fronds, her thoughts dark as she waited for her target to arrive. Soon, she would be able to prove herself worthy to her Lord and Master. Soon, she would have single-handedly brought down the Jedi Order and shown that she was a true Sith, worthy of the title and the tutelage of Lord Tyrannus. Soon, she would have stamped out the single greatest threat to the Confederacy and the Sith. Jedi Master Yoda, self-proclaimed Grand Master of the decedent Jedi Order. A master of the Force and a lightsaber, the diminutive Master was in many ways the guiding force, pun intended, of the Jedi. Remove him from the equation, and the Order might collapse in months. Perhaps weeks.
As she waited, the figure's thoughts turned inward, towards the conversation she had conducted with her Lord less than a day ago.
The Count's voice was clear as he looked down at the image kneeling figure before him. The cavernous chamber on board the Star Frigate, large enough for over a dozen individuals to conduct conversations at the same time, was near-deserted, with only the humming of the holoprojector disturbing the silence.
"Master Yoda will be arriving shortly at the coral moon of Rugrosa in order to meet with King Katuunko of the Toydarians. You are to prevent this from occuring by any means necessary."
"I understand, my Lord."
"Good. Are all the preparations in order?"
"Yes, my Lord. The Star Frigates are in position, and the sensors have been placed at the frigate's hyperspace exit point. The Jedi will be destroyed instantly."
"Don't be so self-confident, young one. As I recall, you said much the same thing about young Jedi Skywalker on Rattatak."
Dooku had to repress a smile at Ventress's hiss and the accompanying flicker of rage in the Force. She had potential. Events on Togora would determine whether she had potential. The potential to be a Sith Apprentice, his Sith Apprentice. Potential enough to silence his former Master once and for all, and ensure victory for the Confederacy.
"I will not fail you, my Lord."
Ventress looked up as a quiet buzzing started to grate on the edge of her eardrums. A sleek, insectoid shuttle descended from the sky, banking towards a particular coral formation. The same formation, in fact, that she herself was on. Gesturing to the two battle droids that were her links to the frigates lurking just out-system, Asajj Ventress, former Supreme Commander of the Confederacy and Dark Acolyte, stepped out of the gloom and towards the shuttle.
She would not fail her Master.
Miles above, the Consolar-class frigate Glorious VII slowly drifted towards the coral moon, repulsors keeping it in position a respectful distance away. Its complement of clone troopers and crew had been well trained, and they did their jobs in near-silence. There was none of the joking or chatter that there would have been with a normal crew. They were almost as silent as a droid crew would have been, speaking no more than necessary. The vessel's captain, one of the early-stage batches from Geonosis, stared at the world now viewing the bridge's central viewport before activating the comlink attached to his headset.
"Toydarian royal delegation, this is the Republic diplomatic transport Glorious VII. We have the Jedi diplomatic envoy on board. Please respond. Toydarian royal delegat-"
The captain stopped mid-word as he heard the scratching of a gimer stick on the durasteel floor. Quickly turning to face the Jedi Master as he shuffled onto the bridge, the clone officer snapped a salute.
"General," the clone began, the honorific springing to his lips from years of flash-training. "The Toydarian delegation's beacon is active on the moon, but our transmissions are being jammed."
The diminutive figure frowned, cocking its head to one side as it considered the captain's words.
"Bring us closer, you must. Perhaps a mere malf-"
The Jedi Master was cut off as something impacted the ship's shields. The artificial gravity faded for a moment, and the ship's occupants not strapped into accelerator seats were thrown about the bridge. Alarms blared and half a dozen holopanels began flashing wildly. One of the Glorious's two pilots turned, face twisted in worry under his plastoid helmet.
"Sep frigate, Munificent clas. They're right on top of us!"
"Evasive action!" the clone captain barked.
"Yes, sir!"
The consular ship shuddered as it took another, lighter hit, spinning in an attempt to confuse the pulsar tracking of the Munificent's turbolaser cannons. Another set of alarms started shrieking as a second medium frigate emerged, this time directly behind the cruiser. The second cruiser's droid gunners wasted no time in joining their comrades in firing on the Glorious. A jawed trap, and it was rapidly closing on the cruiser and its occupants. Spraying gouts of blue energyas it vainly returned fire, the Republic transport banked sharply to the left, all but hugging the hull of their first attacker. The second vessel's gunners continued to fire...hitting and disabling the turrets on their counterpart that had started to target the Republic vessel. As explosions mushroomed along their attacker's hull, the Glorious sped away from the showers of flak and turbolaser fire, desperately attempted to escape.
On the moon below, King Katuunko frowned. His bodyguards fluttered nearby, the rapid rate of their wing flapping betraying their agitation. He himself was not any more pleased by the situation than they were. Somehow, the Confederacy had managed to learn of his meeting with the Republic and had sent this assassin to stop it. The message was clear: join us, or we will have you removed. Keeping his voice calm, the King stared at the hologram of Count Dooku and the woman standing behind it.
"I suppose you and your droid armies can do better?" Katuuno inquired, carefully keeping his expression neutral.
"Without a doubt," Dooku replied, his voice smooth. "I sense you are one who respects strength, your Highness."
That much was true, Katuunko thought wryly. Even if it was only when that strength must be appeased in order to protect himself and his people.
"Our droid armies outnumber the droid armies a hundred to one." Dooku continued, gesturing as he did so.
The actual number, Katuunko knew, was roughly a dozen to one.
"Perhaps," he replied, voice thoughtful. "But I have heard that a single Jedi equals a hundred battle droids."
And this particular Jedi, Katuunko mentally added, is more than a match for your legions of droids and your honourless pawn over there.
He only hoped the Grand Master would arrive in time to prevent things from deteriorating any further.
On board the bridge of the Glorious, the atmosphere was near-panicked.
"Shields are gone!" the right pilot yelled, pulling the control yoke back before sending the ship into a barely controlled spiral.
The Glorious's captain glanced at his passenger, who remained as calm as he had been before the attack. Shoving down a slight sensation of frustration, the captain turned towards the Jedi Master.
"I must get you to safety, General."
The Jedi shook his head, but took the clone by surprise with his next words.
"Retreat you must."
"Yes, sir. Get us-"
"But on the moon below, my mission is. There, I must go"
The clone clenched his jaw, repressing his frustration.
"Sir..."
"Quickly, now. Reach the planet's surface we must."
With that, the Master turned around and began to hobble from the bridge, three troopers flanking him as he left.
The captain almost choked as he noticed where the Jedi Master was headed. Commander or not, surely the General couldn't be seriously considering...
"With all due respect, General, there's no way you'll be able to reach the surface in an escape pod! The Seps will fire on anything we launch!" And this ship he thought.
The Jedi chuckled.
"Then launch all of them, you will, hmm?"
The captain blinked, taken aback. Brilliant. With half a dozen pods to aim at and the clankers' less than stellar aim...
"Yes, sir!"
As the CIS frigates continued their pursuit of the cruiser, there were a series of flashes from their target's underside. Four pods jetted from the cruiser's central hull, spinning as they fell towards the planet below. Taken by surprise, the battle droids failed to react and change targets in time to destroy the first three pods. The frigates disengaged from the Glorious and filled the space above Rugosa with plasma. Two, then three then flashed and vanished, instantly vaporized. The last pod vanished from sight as it entered Rugosa's atmosphere, its occupants out of the capital ships' sights but far from safe. For Grand Master Yoda and the three clones accompanying him, the battle was only beginning.