Jeniqua could now see what was different about these droids: They were durable, taking about four shots each before falling to the ground. Not only that, but they were using tactics. She was ahead of her troops by this point due to the fact it still took one slice of a lightsaber to destroy one.
Riding in one of the Republic's brand new AT-ATs was Commander Bob. The other two commanders, however, got to remain in their AT-TEs. In front of Bob, Commander Uno of the 208th was communicating with him via hologram.
"You gotta admit this is cool; it's high up so I can see everything, it's powerful so I can destroy everything, and it's heavily armored so I can survive everything. Really, why didn't you want one?" He bragged.
"Because, I don't want to be riding in a vehicle that has a high center of gravity and can simply be pushed over." He said, suddenly there was a beeping sound.
"It's the Chancellor, It says it's urgent." He read on a small screen. He pressed a button and Uno shrunk and moved to the side. In his place the Chancellor appeared, next to him was Orii, the Commander of the 32nd.
"Hey Chancellor, what's with the hood?" He asked.
"Commander, I have no desire for jokes." He said seriously.
"Really, I thought you liked jokes." He asked, then paused "…You lied to me?" He said to Uno, he shrugged.
"Anyway, the time has come. Execute Order 66." The other two commanders straightened up.
"It will be done my lord." The two said in unison. The hologram disappeared, leaving the other two commanders.
"What was all that about?" He asked. They glared at him.
"What? They told us there were some things they skipped in training." He explained, "What did I miss?" They phased out.
"I've got a bad feeling about this…" One of the pilots said. Suddenly the main cannon atop Orii's AT-TE swiveled away from the droids and towards the Twi'lek Jedi, Rissuy.
"What is he doing-" He began when suddenly it fired, scattering Rissuy and her troops.
"This isn't an order, it's a trap." He said. "Open fire!" He yelled at the pilots. Before Orii could take another shot at the injured Rissuy. The AT-AT fired its main cannon and destroyed the AT-TE.
"Oh my god what did I just do?" The pilot said to himself.
Jeniqua and her troops ran through the group of droids, taking them all down with her blade. Suddenly there was an explosion as one of the command walkers blew up. What was terrifying is it was shot from behind. She looked up at Bob's walker, which began firing blasts at several clones running over to an injured Rissuy. She looked over at her troops and froze, they were aiming their weapons right at her.
"Captain?" She asked desperately. There was the thunder of laserfire and she fell to the ground.
Cao suddenly fell over clutching his heart.
"What's wrong?" Yune asked. Towards the entrance the clones were arguing about something.
"Look, I don't have time to argue with you, so just follow my lead." Reech said and began to walk to the group.
"I don't know, there's a massive disturbance in the force." He got up and propped himself on the console. Reech continued walking towards him and pulled out a small slugthrower pistol.
"Dude, what are you doing?" One of the clones asked.
"You gonna be ok?" She asked.
"Yeah, it's not that bad-" Cao replied when a shot and a laser blast rang out.
The burning in Cao's heart was gone, but that wasn't what bothered him. He seemed to be splitting in two. Part of him fell in slow motion and in silence while he was still standing and was producing a faint white glow. He looked around, everything was in slow motion. His body falling, Reech falling and dropping his pistol, and Yune and Richo getting up and diving for him. Behind Reech was one of the white clad clone troopers, holding his DC-15s while smoke emitted from the end. At the other end of the room, the droid on duty suddenly shot up from its chair.
"Odd isn't it." Said a voice. The ghostly Cao spun around and saw Jeniqua, who was also transparent and emitting a glow.
"What happened?" He asked. She sighed.
"We are dead." She simply said. He looked at himself in terror, Yune was holding her hand to his head, then she turned around and started yelling at the droid. The clones drug Reech into the corner and pointed their blasters at him, he was holding his knee in pain.
"Well, I am at least." She said sadly, "You might still have a chance."
"But-" He said looking at Reech,
"He, along with the rest of the 208th, the 32nd and all the other clone troopers were given an order to kill their Jedi commanders. They did so without any emotion whatsoever. The Jedi Order is in peril." She said. The droid was rummaging through a cabinet, eventually pulling out a defibrillator.
"But the 489th, they didn't attempt anything." He said. Suddenly they were on the battlefield, the scene was completely different. The battle was completely turned, the 489th troops were fighting off hoards of the 32nd and 208th. The battle droids seemed to have ceased fire and were watching their enemies turn on each other. Towards the front, Qin and an injured Rissuy were running towards the AT-AT, with the 489th guarding them.
"I don't get it." He said. Suddenly they were back to the control room, the droid was sending electric defibrillrating pulses through his limp body. Suddenly Yune ignited her lightsaber and went over to Reech. She started yelling at him.
"Look I don't want to keep you any longer, but something is terribly wrong."
"Wait, you're going?" He asked.
"No, I will always live through the force. I cannot stop this, you can." She said.
"So what do you want me to do about it?" He asked. She laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Continue the mission, see if this is a Sep joke and not betrayal." Yune had her lightsaber to Reech's throat. "You'd better go before she turns to the dark side." Suddenly she sliced off Reech's left leg.
"Will I see you again?" He asked.
"Yes, now go!" Then there was darkness.
He heard yelling, then suddenly a robotic voice
"I am getting life readings."
"What? You said he was dead!" He heard Yune say. He had a searing pain in his abdomen.
"I sensed he was dead." She continued. He slowly opened his eyes. The droid leaned him into Yune's arms.
"There's chaos on the battlefield, Jeniqua's dead." He moaned. Her eyes lit up.
"Oh, took a little trip to the afterlife huh." She joked. In the background, Reech moaned.
"I think I may have some bacta capsules in here somewhere." The droid said and started looking in the cabinet.
"What's with him?" He asked, propping himself up on his lower two arms.
"A simple bribe, he helps us, we don't destroy him. Luckily this one thinks and has medical programming." She said. It brought over a canister of red liquid and a wrap and applied the gel to the entry and exit wound and wrapped the cloth around his abdomen.
"That should take care of it in a couple of hours, now if you excuse me." It said and sat down in the chair, "I didn't see you." It completed and its grey photoreceptors shut off.
The group walked down the hall with a few adjustments. First was that Cao was using Reech's blaster rifle as a makeshift cane. Second, Reech was being pulled behind one of the troopers with a gag in his mouth. No attempt was made to tend to his missing leg.
"So what went over him?" Cao asked one of the troopers.
"He said he got an order to kill the Jedi, I have not heard of such a thing." He replied. They eventually came to a door which led to a large concrete hallway. Across this was a large garage door. Richo moved it up about a foot and the three slid under.
"Why don't you head around and meet up with us, ok?" He told the troops, they nodded. They crawled to a railing and looked down. They were in another control room, this one was bigger.
Towards the center was a black and diamond plated tactical droid that was looking at a holograph showing the battle.
"What the-." The tactical droid said in a typical robot voice, "I thought I was supposed to be the bad guy."
"How do you want to play this?" Cao whispered.
"None of them seem to be armed, but I doubt we can go all slice and dice on them." Yune said. Suddenly a giant robot walked into the control room. Now when I say giant, I mean it was big enough to tango with a Gundark. It looked like a beefed up version of the B1-A, sort of resembling a cross between a B1 battle droid and a super battle droid. Richo gasped.
"That's it. That's what destroyed the 489th." He said quietly.
"Well it's bugging me." The tactical droid turned away from the screen and to the robot.
"Go out and settle matters out there, I think it might be a ruse." It continued.
"Yes… Sir…" The robot said. Speech clearly was not its strong point. It turned and walked out the giant door it came in from.
"This is not good, I've seen what that thing can do." Richo said.
"Well, let's see." Yune said and began to survey the control room. "There are a couple of guards by the door, but that seems to be the only problem."
"So what, we just go down there and start slicing heads." Cao asked.
"No, we will slice heads. You will stay here." She said, "It is best for you to rest, besides-" The door behind them suddenly flew open and they were picked up.
"Oh, there you are. We were expecting you ten minutes ago." The tactical droid said looking up at them. Yune and Richo were being held in the giant robot's hands while Cao hung suspended from a shoulder-mounted retractable tractor beam the droid had.
"Now, the question is: what should I do with you?" The tactical droid said pondering for a moment.
"Kill us?" Richo said in horror.
"No, I was thinking something more creative." It said and kept thinking.
"Please tell me you have a third pair of arms with a pair of rocket launchers." Yune asked Cao. He shook his head, "I'm not a Harch." Suddenly the droid lit up.
"I know. The portal!" It said. This did not sound fun. Suddenly three of the clones burst through the door and aimed their guns at the tactical droid.
"Drop them or I kill your commander!" The lead one yelled. The droids did nothing. Suddenly about five black and purple droids dropped some sort of cloaking devices and pointed their guns at the clones.
"Good, bring them too." The tactical droid said and they were all led into a room. In the center was a small swimming pool.
"Nice huh?" It said.
"What does it do?" Richo asked.
"I have no idea." The droid said. "It is a portal to some random time and place." For a while they were silent.
"Well, have fun!" It said and they were dropped in.
It was water. The six swam to the surface, Richo started panicking.
"I can't swim!" He yelled. He looked around, everyone was standing in two feet of water.
"It was… And hooves…" He got up, shook his fur, and looked around. They were in a desert. He looked down again and saw that the water was gone.
"That was weird." Yune said. Suddenly an LAAT/I flew over and into the distance.
"You know, judging by the sky. I think we're still on Laikar!" He said as they ran after it, Cao limping after them.
"Wait, what happened to Reech and the other six troops?" He yelled from behind. Everyone stopped.
"The troops were attacked by a horde of droids, us and Reech were the only survivors. We left Reech outside the door when we busted in." The leader said. He looked down.
"Guys!" Richo yelled from the edge of the cliff. "It might not be too late!" They ran to the edge and saw the CIS base. Where an AT-AT, several vehicles resembling AT-XTs, and fighter tanks were shooting at the base.
"I think we went back in time." Yune said, "We can change this!" She started running towards the battle, the rest of them following.