Chapter One: Muunilinst
Muunilinst was among the first of the more major Clone Wars campaigns, and it was one of the campaigns in which the Doctor had a personal hand. Four months after the Battle of Geonosis, he, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Obi-Wan's Padawan, Anakin Skywalker, were discussing the reasons to invade Muunilinst with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the leader of the Republic, in his office.
"The Banking Clan holds Muunilinst within its grip," explained Obi-Wan. "They are using factories building huge droid armies and massive warships there. In order to greatly weaken the droid army, we must stop them."
"I agree, Master Kenobi," said the Chancellor. "But who might we send to lead such a campaign? Master Fisto is bogged down on Mon Calamari, Master Unduli is travelling with her Padawan, and Master Windu still battles on Dantooine."
"My good friend Obi-Wan here can lead the assault," said the Doctor cheerfully.
"My army is ready, Chancellor," said Obi-Wan, empowered by the Doctor's confidence in him. "The 7th Sky Corps can leave immediately."
"Yes," said Palpatine, a bit too silkily for the Doctor's taste. "Might I suggest that you take young Skywalker as well and give him special command of your space forces." Anakin seemed to glow at his friend, Palpatine's insistence that he actually lead part of a campaign. "His remarkable skills as a pilot will no doubt be most useful to the Muunilinst campaign." Anakin practically radiated happiness. Unfortunately, that was to be cut off by Obi-Wan.
"Forgive me, Chancellor, but I do not feel that Anakin is ready for such a responsibility," he said. The Doctor could visibly see Anakin's face fall from a jubilant smile to a malevolent glare. The Doctor knew what he was feeling. Anakin thought that Obi-Wan was holding him back.
"Anakin, Obi-Wan's right," said the Doctor gently. "A Padawan should remain with their Master. But, Obi-Wan, you can't deny that your Padawan is exceptionally strong with the Force." Both Anakin and the Chancellor smiled at that, but Obi-Wan merely nodded. The Doctor couldn't understand why he was so unwilling to acknowledge the fact that Anakin was indeed powerful.
"Perhaps-" the Doctor began.
"It is settled, then," interrupted the Chancellor. "Anakin will lead the space forces while Master Kenobi takes command of the ground forces." The Doctor sighed in frustration at Palpatine's rather rude interruption. Of course, the Doctor went along with the Chancellor's directive, but only just. He and Obi-Wan shared a look that told the Doctor the younger Jedi Knight was equally frustrated by Palpatine.
The Doctor and Obi-Wan rose and exited the Chancellor's office, followed closely by Anakin. They took a speeder down to the Republic Fleet's staging area on Coruscant, where the Jedi and the 7th Sky Corps prepared for their mission to Muunilinst. The Doctor spoke to Obi-Wan briefly before the Acclamator-class warships started their engines.
"If there's anything I can do to help you on Muunilinst, I will, Obi-Wan," he said.
"Thank you, Doctor," said Obi-Wan. "I believe there is something you can do. There is a large artillery cannon that will be preventing our forces from entering the capital and capturing the Separatist leadership there."
"Basically, nothing my ARCs and I can't handle," deduced the Doctor.
"Basically," confirmed Obi-Wan, smiling at the Doctor's blunt informality on the whole situation.
"I'll prep them immediately," said the Doctor. He then ran off to find his ARC troopers, and he spotted them at the barracks, cleaning their weapons.
There were ten of them in all. One captain, his armor accented red, two lieutenants, their armor accented blue, and seven privates, with regular white armor. The captain stood up immediately as soon as the Doctor entered their general vicinity, but did not salute, a personal instruction of the Doctor's.
"Doctor, sir!" said the captain, whose number was Alpha-77, but the Doctor preferred to call him by his name, which was Fordo.
"Captain Fordo," he said jovially. "Good to see you again."
"Likewise, sir," said Captain Fordo. "Do we have a mission?"
"We certainly do," said the Doctor. "Pack your bags, boys! We're off to Muunilinst!"
"Yes, sir!" said the ARCs. The ten clones followed the Doctor to one of the Acclamators, and they quickly boarded with the rest of the troops. The Doctor noticed that some of the clones looked at him and his team in awe.
"ARC troopers!" a few of them said in hushed voices. "And the Doctor! We can't lose now!"
The Doctor smiled at a few of them as he and Captain Fordo joined Obi-Wan Kenobi and his clone commander, CC-2224, nicknamed Cody, on the bridge of the Acclamator. The ship lifted off from the surface of the city-planet Coruscant, and Obi-Wan Kenobi's Republic Fleet was soon surrounded by space.
"Jump to lightspeed," ordered Obi-Wan. The deck officers acknowledged, and the Acclamator was soon surrounded by the blue swirly-wirly vortex of hyperspace, as opposed to the black depth of normal space. The Doctor stepped forward, almost pressing his face against the glass of the bridge, looking deep into the vortex. He could stare at that thing all day. His hearts raced when he was reminded of a certain Tholothian who had caught his attention years ago.
There is no passion, there is serenity. The Doctor recited the third precept of the Jedi Code, the one he seemed to have the most trouble with nowadays, over and over again in his head to remind himself that he and Stass Allie were Jedi, and they couldn't ever have anything beyond professionalism towards each other. Nothing more-
"Doctor?" came the voice of Obi-Wan dragging him out of his thoughts and back into reality. "Doctor? Are you alright?"
The Doctor blinked for a moment before saying, "Yes. I'm fine, thanks. Just thinking." Obi-Wan nodded in understanding. The Doctor had done a lot of thinking lately. Mostly about the war. Sometimes about Stass. Other times he focused on immortality. He had gotten a few more lessons from Mr. Voice, but he still had no idea who Mr. Voice really was, if anybody. His way of speaking just sounded too familiar to be someone he didn't know. But that seemed impossible. Nobody could cheat death, or so the Doctor thought. The Whills, whoever they were, had done it. The Jedi could, too.
Obi-Wan continued with the plan for striking at Muunilinst as the Doctor joined him.
"That large anti-aircraft gun is a two-fold defense," he said, the General in him speaking volumes. "It protects both the Separatist leaders hiding there and it prevents our gunships from landing inside the capital itself. The main group can't land inside the capital, so that's where the Doctor and his ARC squadron will come in.
"Your gunship will take you as close as it can to the gun without being shot down," he continued. "From there, you will sneak across the cityscape and take out the gun."
"What resistance can we expect?" asked Captain Fordo curiously.
"I'd imagine moderate to heavy," answered Obi-Wan. "You're going to be infiltrating the capital of a Separatist planet in the middle of a battle. I think the droids will be on at least some level of alertness."
"Agreed," said the Doctor, turning to Captain Fordo. "We'll have to be careful, then."
"Yes, sir," said the ARC Captain.
"Anything to add, Commander Cody?" asked Obi-Wan.
"I do, sir," said Cody, a regimented and strict voice, unlike Captain Fordo's, whose tone with the Doctor was a bit more relaxed. "Intelligence reports that the Gen'Dai bounty hunter Durge is leading the Separatist forces on Muunilinst." The Doctor had heard about Durge. The Gen'Dai warrior who despised Mandalorians with a passion. He had a particular grievance with Jango Fett, and he joined the Separatists at the beginning of the war when he found out that the Republic Army was comprised almost entirely of clones of Jango Fett. The Doctor feared for all the clones if Durge was commanding a Separatist army.
"We'll make sure to avoid him, then, as well," said the Doctor.
"Good," said Obi-Wan. "I'm sure we could all use some rest. We've got a long day ahead of us."
"Couldn't agree more, Master Obi-Wan," said the Doctor cheerfully. "Come on, then."
"Sir," said Fordo as he followed the Doctor out of the bridge and into the ARCs' personal quarters that they shared with the Doctor on occasion
At the sound of the door opening and the Doctor and Fordo walking in, the nine other ARCs stood at attention, but as per the Doctor's instructions, did not salute.
"At ease," said the Doctor. He could see that they were idly passing the time by playing dejarik or cleaning their helmets. He stared at the nine identical faces and wondered if they knew he was the one who killed their progenitor. They probably did, but they still held the Doctor in the highest respect, for he treated his clones like people, not toys. He valued each and every one of their lives, even though he knew that they could die at any second due to the nature of their missions.
"Do we have a mission, boss?" said one of the privates, Able.
"We do, Able," said the Doctor. "We're taking down an anti-aircraft gun."
The ARCs all "oohed" and "aahed" in sarcastic wonder. The Doctor smiled at them.
"This is the key to the Muunilinst effort," said the Doctor. "Without us, Obi-Wan's forces can't infiltrate the capital and capture the Separatists holed up there. And we're always eager to help out old Ben, aren't we, boys?"
"Yes, sir!" said the ARCs with enthusiasm, more for killing droids and helping out their Jedi commanders than for Muunilinst itself.
"Excellent!" exclaimed the Doctor. "Well, you boys better get some rest. We've got plenty to do once we arrive at Muunilinst."
The ARCs packed up their dejarik board and stored their weapons as they prepared to rest for a little.
"We've got a cot saved for you, Doctor," said one of the ARC lieutenants, Bond. "We can get it out for you if you'd like, sir."
"No thanks, Bond," said the Doctor. "I'll just sleep in the general's quarters today."
"Of course, sir," said Bond. The Doctor was, of course, lying to them. He didn't plan on sleeping anytime soon. He hadn't heard from Mr. Voice in a month, so he saw no reason to rest his eyes for even a moment, especially when there were more pressing matters at hand, like the impending invasion of Muunilinst. He would resume lessons with the disembodied voice when said voice felt it necessary to call on him. For now, the Doctor would not sleep.
A chirping sound erupted from his pocket, and the Doctor pulled out his holoprojector. He was getting a call. From whom, he had no idea. He answered it, and the holoimage of one Stass Allie appeared before him. His hearts skipped a beat as she smiled brightly at him.
"Thought you could leave without saying goodbye, did you?" she asked sarcastically.
"I do that on occasion," joked the Doctor, even though it was partially true.
"I heard you and your team were helping Obi-Wan out on Muunilinst, and I wanted to wish you a safe mission and even safer journey home," said Stass, smiling shyly now.
"You speak as if you know I'm coming home," said the Doctor.
"You're the Doctor," said Stass. "You always make it home."
"Not all the time," muttered the Doctor, remembering all too well the golden light and the pain that came with it.
"What was that?" asked Stass.
"Nothing," lied the Doctor. "I'll be sure to see you again, Stass. I promise."
"You'd better," joked Stass before letting out a giggle that made the Doctor's hearts soar. The Doctor couldn't help but grin as he cut off the connection and wandered back to the bridge, meeting Obi-Wan and Commander Cody there.
"General on deck," said Cody, snapping to attention and saluting. The Doctor smirked, finding it odd that clones still saluted him, even after four months of being around him.
"Do you want to tell him?" asked the Doctor to Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan smirked as well and put a hand on Cody's rigid shoulder.
"He doesn't actually like being saluted," said Obi-Wan. Cody looked confused for a moment before relaxing himself and apologizing to the Doctor for not obeying his indirect order from the beginning.
"Not to worry, Commander," said the Doctor. "How far are we from Muunilinst?"
"Still a good distance," said Obi-Wan. "Why don't you rest for a moment, Doctor?"
The Doctor was about to put up an argument, but then he saw Obi-Wan's concerned expression. It was the concern of those who thought the Doctor had too much on his mind. He had seen it with Mace Windu and Plo Koon, now Obi-Wan. They felt that he was too stressed with the war, and that he should rest. The Doctor, instead of arguing, usually rested as they said. It was no different with Obi-Wan. Despite his lie to Lieutenant Bond, he could not quite bring himself to lie to Obi-Wan.
"Very well, Master Obi-Wan," he said. "I'll do that."
The Doctor quietly left the bridge and headed back to the general's quarters. He could catch a few winks there. As he rounded the corner closest to the quarters, he felt the sudden weight of all the days he had spent awake. He needed this, he told himself as he climbed into the military-style bunk and drifted off. Just before sleep took hold of him, he heard only one thing.
He is the Chosen One. The Doctor thought it sounded like something Qui-Gon Jinn would say.
The Doctor awoke, refreshed from his excursion into the realm of sleep. When the ship dropped out of hyperspace in the Muunilinst system, he met Captain Fordo and the ARCs, in full armor, at the hangar bay, and they stood with their personal gunship, waiting for Obi-Wan's troops to start loading up for battle. The Doctor saw Anakin tinkering away at his more advanced Delta-7 Aethersprite starfighter. He smiled at the Padawan, noting to himself that he was always on the move.
Obi-Wan's troops started to filter into the hangar, and the Doctor's team boarded their gunship. Their pilot prepped the systems as troops filed past into other gunships. The Doctor went over the plan with the ARCs one more time, and they committed the plan to memory.
Obi-Wan boarded a gunship with Commander Cody and a trooper squadron. As Anakin and his battalions of V-19 Torrent starfighters lifted off from the fleet of Acclamators to take on the enemy space stations orbiting the planet, he gave the order.
"All gunships descend!"
The gunships poured out of the ships. A swarm of them invaded the planet with speed and ferocity. The Doctor and his ARCs were right in the middle of it, silent as they waited for their objective to surface itself. All they needed was General Kenobi's order.
"Doctor, whenever you're ready, you and your ARCs may deploy," came the voice of Obi-Wan through their gunship's communication system.
"Copy that, Obi-Wan," said the Doctor. "Pilot! You heard him!"
"Yes, sir," said the pilot. The ARC gunship soon broke off from the main group, and headed towards the capital city from a more secretive route.
As explosions boomed over the northern end of the capital city, the Doctor's gunship secretly entered the southern end of the city.
"Ready, Captain Fordo?" asked the Doctor.
"Born ready, sir," said Fordo.
The gunship wove its way through cityscape while the Doctor reached out with his heightened senses to look out for any enemies who may try to shoot them down. He soon saw legs running up stairs. Battle droid legs. In its hand was a rocket launcher that could easily take down their little gunship.
"Boys, we're about to be shot down," warned the Doctor. "Might want to strap yourselves in."
The ARCs magnetically locked their boots to the gunship interior while the Doctor wrapped himself in a Force Aura that protected him from attacks for a short time. The gunship then experienced a lurching sensation as a rocket impacted with its posterior. The Doctor, Captain Fordo, the ARCs, and even the pilot remained calm as the gunship crashed into the city. With a crash, a boom, and a bang, the burning gunship came screeching to a halt, its wings completely gone.
"Everyone alright?" asked the Doctor.
"Pilot's dead, sir," said Lieutenant Bond after he checked on him. The Doctor felt a pang of sadness for their dead comrade, but he wouldn't have wanted anything more. He knew what he was getting into, the Doctor told himself.
"Okay. Everyone out," said the Doctor. "No sense sticking around here."
The ten ARCs and the Doctor quickly jumped out of the gunship, ready for anything. The Doctor took out his lightsabers, switching his main saber into its combat position. Captain Fordo crept up to the edge of the gunship and, seeing no droids around, ushered the others over, saying that it was all clear. The Doctor and the ARCs established a perimeter around the gunship, and they prepared to move out.
Just before they could, shots rang out from above. The Doctor quickly activated his lightsabers and deflected any bolts that came his way. It soon became clear that they were surrounded by battle droid snipers. One of the ARC privates, Mammoth, was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of blasterfire. He was hit twice in the chest before he went down. The Doctor, realizing that Lieutenant Bond was now exposed, ran over to give him some cover. He soon figured out that if they stayed where they were, they couldn't get a clear view of just how many droids there were.
"Get back behind the gunship!" ordered the Doctor. The nine remaining ARCs and the Doctor dashed behind the wrecked ship. While the ARC privates and ARC lieutenants continued firing, the Doctor spoke with Captain Fordo.
"We need to find out how many there are!" he said.
"Yes, sir!" said Fordo. The Doctor then watched the mastery of Captain Fordo's grip on efficient command. "Kaz! Ray! Provide some cover fire!"
The two ARC privates rushed forward and began firing at the droids, keeping them at bay while Captain Fordo issued more orders.
"Decker! Scan the area! Find out how many droids are partying with us!" he commanded.
Private Decker brought out a large scanning instrument and tuned it to find droids. Within seconds, he was reporting back to Captain Fordo.
"Sir, we've got droids in these two buildings right here," he said, pointing them out to Fordo as he said it.
"Bond! Use your rocket launcher!" ordered the captain. The Doctor watched as Lieutenant Bond fired several rockets into the buildings that Decker had pointed out, utterly obliterating the droids inside. The firing ceased, and the Doctor patted Captain Fordo on the back.
"Good work," said the Doctor.
"Thank you, sir!" said Captain Fordo, a bit of pride in his voice.
The ten remaining men journeyed onward towards the anti-aircraft gun, staying alert for any droids. The Doctor and Captain Fordo led the way through the capital city. They came across no distractions after the droid assault that killed poor Mammoth until the Doctor heard something.
"Stop," he ordered, holding his hand up for emphasis. "Can you hear it?"
The Doctor's heightened sense of hearing told him that a Separatist Armored Assault Tank was approaching them. The ARCs instinctively spread out to cover more ground and to separate themselves should the tank's main cannon decide to use them for target practice. The Doctor's lightsabers flew to his hands and activated. Captain Fordo's blaster pistols were at the ready. The ARCs trained their blasters on where the Doctor's eyes invariably stared.
Sure enough, an AAT slowly made its way across the street. The pilot noticed the Doctor and the ARCs and fired a laser blast right above their heads. The explosion behind them nearly knocked Private Varn off his feet.
"Keep it occupied!" ordered the Doctor. "I'll take it out from behind!"
"Yes, sir!" acknowledged Captain Fordo.
The Doctor jumped high into the air, so high that he could see Obi-Wan's forces pushing at the Separatists on the northern edge of the city, and landed right on top of the tank, using the Force to cushion his impact. He stabbed into the tank's hatch, forcing his way inside. Once there, the Doctor pushed random buttons, anything that looked either, big, red, important, or a combination of any of those three. Once he was done fooling around, the Doctor leaped out of the tank, just in time for it to explode behind him. He landed, brushed himself off, and hooked his lightsabers to his belt as if nothing had happened.
"Well, come on, keep up, keep up," the Doctor joked as he walked along the street.
"Woah," he heard one of the ARCs say. The Doctor smirked as they continued their path to the gun. Captain Fordo sent up a probe to determine the gun's exact location, as the team could tell that the booms sounding off like gunfire became louder and louder as they moved through the city.
The probe rotated, its view represented on a holoprojector in Captain Fordo's hand. The hologram stopped moving, and the team could see a hologram of the gun.
"This way!" said Captain Fordo. The Doctor and the ARCs moved further in the direction pointed out by Captain Fordo, and they were soon within visual range of the gun that had been plaguing Obi-Wan's forces for far too long. The Doctor could just sense the protection the gun had in terms of droids. There was a huge tower near to which the gun was perched, and that had a few droids supervising it. The gun itself had about a dozen droids patrolling the perimeter. Both the gun and the tower were elevated by a platform that extended a good hundred meters above ground.
Shouldn't be too difficult, thought the Doctor as he made to contact General Kenobi.
A hologram of Obi-Wan appeared on his holoprojector, and the Doctor reported in.
"This is the Doctor," he said. "We've made contact with the target."
"Very good," said Obi-Wan. "Proceed when ready." With that, the hologram deactivated.
"Move in to attack," ordered the Doctor to the ARCs. They acknowledged, and Captain Fordo attached a tow cable to the top of the platform. The rest of the ARCs did so, and the Doctor jumped up to the platform. With his shoto, he sliced a droid that had seen the cable in half while the ARCs joined him, firing their guns at the unsuspecting droids. While the Doctor, Fordo, and the ARC privates were blasting the droids guarding the gun, Lieutenant Bond and Lieutenant Jimee fired rockets at the droids in the tower. In a mere thirty seconds, the firefight was over. the Republic team had won.
"Set your charges," ordered Fordo. The ARCs acknowledged, and the eight ARCs grappled up to the gun, placing their charges as they navigated it. Once all the charges were set, the Doctor and the ARCs bounded their way up to the top of the tower. The charges were detonated as they made their way up, and the gun was destroyed in an orange and yellow ball of flame that engulfed it completely.
The Doctor and his ARCs stood at the top of the tower, watching as the Republic's remaining gunships flew right into the city.
Hello, all! Welcome to the third volume of Star Wars (Starring the Doctor): The Clone Wars! If you didn't read on my profile, this volume will cover both the 2003 cartoon and the more recent animated show that ran from 2008-2014. I really hope you enjoy this volume! There are a lot of things in here that I'm really quite proud of, including, but certainly not limited to, the Doctor's inevitable encounter with the War Doctor, which is not a tease and is definitely happening! I wasn't trying to mess with you guys when I put the War Doctor in the list of characters. He's actually in this volume, and the Doctor does encounter him.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Clone Wars. That'll be all you get for the next ten days! :P As of writing this author's note, I'm about four-ish hours away from leaving for Paris for a week-and-a-half, but fret not, my friends! You'll get a new chapter the minute I return! This I promise!
Well, that about does it for this author's note. Until the next chapter, my friends!
