Author's Notes:
"Hey ": Dialogue
'Hey' : Thoughts
Chapter 2 Spark of hope
As soon as they came out of hyperspace, Coquer face three republic cruisers.
'We got them outnumber 5 to 3 but those are definitely heavy class cruisers. We won't survive long in direct combat. I need to think fast.' Coquer got himself comfortable in his chair for the challenging battle that is to come.
"Send out the first wave of fighters, tell them to focus on the left cruiser's engines. I want all ships to focus fire on the middle ship."
"Roger roger." The droids on the command deck started getting to work.
He saw the droid fighters flying to accomplish their mission from the window over looking the battlefield.
"Commander, they release three squadrons of fighter pilots."
"Hmm, send out two waves of fighters to fend them off. Also send out a squadron to destroy the right cruiser's landing bay."
"Yes sir." All of a sudden, a missile made its way to his ship, Coquer brace when it impacted.
"Damage report!" He yell while gripping his chair.
"Our shields are down by 10%. Major damage to our hyper drive, we can't jump into hyperspace. No further damages to report."
It was only 10 minutes in the battle but he could already foreseen what would happen if he doesn't act now. Closing his eyes, he quickly play different scenarios in his head. All of them ended badly expect for one in which there was small chance of him winning this. Coquer open his eyes ready to make his plan come into fruition
"Okay, I want all other ships to retreat into hyperspace to these coordinates one by one while firing at the middle cruiser. I want that cruiser destroy before the first ship retreat."
"Uh sir if we do that, we will b-"
The droid tried to show the flaws in his plan, hell even he knew the chances of him surviving his plan is slim to none but he knew once he saw the three heavy cruiser's he was outmatch. Coquer interrupted the droid before he can finish his sentence.
"I don't care, do it NOW. Send the rest of our fighters to destroy their hyper drive and engines. I want them dead in space."
"Roger roger." Coquer could have sworn that the droid sounded sad for moment. He shook his head for thinking an droid could have feelings.
"Sir the right republic cruiser's engine is destroyed as well as the left one's landing bay."
"Good. I want all ships to lower their shields by 50% and put the power into their forward cannons. Take down the middle cruiser."
Upon saying that Coquer can feel his ship taking a lot damage but it was worth it seeing the republic cruiser go down in flames.
"Great. All other ships retreat. I want all of our power to our shields. I want half of the droid fighters to continue to destroying their hyper drives and engines while the other half defend this ship."
"Yes sir."
The next half an hour was one of the most grueling moments that Coquer had to sit through. To make his plan work he had to be here, taking devastating damages left and right. The enemy send out an transmission to him to surrender, he refuse the offer. Coquer can tell his ship was on its last leg but he stood strong. This was strange to him. He was taught if he was ever under this much pressure from an enemy he should just surrender or at least abandon ship but he didn't. With all the trashing coming from being shot at or noises his ship makes telling him to give up, he was still calm, he still have hope that his plan will succeed. He reassure all of his droids in his ship that they will be okay and to hold out for as long as possible. All the droids on the ship never heard of an separatist military leader trying to reassure their safety before.
"All of us will come out of this alive!" Coquer screamed into the intercom on the chair's arm while holding on to it like his life depended on it.
He screamed not with fear in his voice but with confidence. Confidence that they will win. After hearing that all the droids felt some strange sensation in their circuit boards. None of the droids can describe what they are feeling. They imagine the feeling in their chest is not a sudden malfunction but hope. This is the closest thing to hope they ever felt for all of their functioning lives. They have hope that their Commander's plan will work and win the battle.
After couple minutes, the ships he told to retreat, return from behind the enemy lines.
"Sir our ships came back!"
"Yes! All ships fire everything you got at them."
All of his ships started firing on the enemy. Because he made his fighters destroy their engines and hyper drives, they're ripe for the picking. They seem to be caught off guard by the sudden attack. Of course no one in the right mind would think a first time Commander would make his whole fleet retreat so they could take a long route to attack them from behind. Even he couldn't believe he thought up such plan.
"Sir another one of their cruiser is down. "
"Target the remaining cruiser communications before you finish it off. We don't want them calling in help."
"Yes sir."
Coquer relax himself in the chair again, wiping the sweat that was dripping from his forehead with the back of his hand. From the sound of the of last enemy cruiser being destroyed, he release the air in lungs in relief that it is over. He still couldn't believe his crazy plan actually worked. He won his first real battle as a Commander for the separatist. He started to laugh.
"Uh sir, are you okay?"
Coquer got up from his chair and made his way to the droid who ask him that. He wrap his arm around the droid shoulder and shake him playfully. The droid flinch thinking that he was about to be hit or worse, destroyed.
"I am better than okay, I am alive!" he said with a singing tone to it.
"Uuuh okay."
While shaking the droid, Coquer notice a creaking noise coming from its shoulders.
"What's with your shoulder?"
He let go of its shoulder.
"Oh I guess it's because I'm rusty. I didn't get a check up before the mission sir."
Coquer couldn't hold in the laughter from hearing that. He doesn't know if it is because he was physically and mentally exhausted or because his adrenaline is still pumping from surviving his first mission but he couldn't help but laugh and smile at the droid. The droid with the rusty shoulder joint look at the droid next to it making an body gesture saying 'what's with him' the droid shrug in response. Getting over his laughing fit, Coquer stand up straight and smile at the rusty arm droid.
"In that case Rusty lets get you check out." He stop for moment and ponder about what he just said.
"You know what, I like that nickname. For now on, your name will be Rusty."
"Um sir, my s-"
Coquer put his hand up to stop him from saying more.
"Your name will be Rusty from now on and that is an order. Am I understood?"
"Uh roger roger." the droid said with uncertainty.
"Good. Now come on, let's get you check out Rusty."
Coquer now face everyone else in the room.
"Send word to Count Dooku that we won and to begin sending in reinforcements. I want all ships to set up a defensive perimeter around the planet and start repairs. I also want full ship damage report in the next hour."
Coquer and the newly acclaimed Rusty left after that. All the droids started doing their respective jobs.
"Commander Coquer is weird." one of the droid said while sending the information that they won to Count Dooku.
"You can say that again."
One of the droids that is making repairs on one of the console hang its head sadly
"I want a nickname."
All the droids agree that they wanted a nickname also. Coquer was the first person ever that actually showed care over one of their owns well being. All the other military officials usually use them as shields, destroy them when they get frustrated, or send them to their early scrapyard heaven. To other military leaders they were expendable but to Coquer, after getting that weird feeling in battle and especially after what happen with the droid now named Rusty, they feel like they might, no, they know they will be in good hands under the command of Commander Coquer.
Author's Notes: As you read I'm not really good at writing battle scenes. Because of this I won't be writing battle or fight scenes unless I feel it is important to the development of the story. If you guys would like me to do so I will write an Omake about some of the battles I skip in the future.