"Any recommendations on what to do now, TR-77?" asked Admiral Terakk.

"The best I can suggest for someone such as yourself, sir," said TR-77, "is to keep fighting. We still have a distinct advantage over the Republic dogs, and even Jedi like Skywalker and Kenobi could not possibly turn the tide that easily that swiftly. Unless, of course, Invisible Hand is destroyed and the Chancellor is rescued."

"That isn't going to happen," said Terakk, "Not on my chrono. Patriot Fist has been in a hundred battles and won and she's not about to lose now."

"But sir, even if we survive the battle, we will suffer in disgrace if we have to retreat, and we may never get a second chance to take out Coruscant," said TR-77.

"I won't be disgraced, at any rate," replied Terakk. "I love Corey, but I'd rather die fighting for the Confederate cause than become a prisoner and a plaything for the Chancellor and the Senate. I owe Corey, and my family and my other friends that much."

"Then we are all willing to go down with you, sir, if necessary," said UH-3.

"I concur," said OM-54.

"So do I, sir," intoned TR-77.

"And so do the rest of us, sir," the other pilot battle droids said in unison, and they all stood up proudly for their Admiral.

Now this is what Admiral Aravis Terakk liked, a crew that was as loyal to her and the Separatist cause as she was to her ship. She smiled yet again and said, "Acknowledged, gentlemen."


Patriot Fist appreciated this, too. She had to be the most fortunate of all Separatist vessels to have people like these onboard. They would show the Republic that they would not back down, no matter what the Jedi or the clones, or the Republic captains and admirals threw at them.

Admiral Terakk continued to order her droid crew to fire their laser cannons and turbolasers with all they had. Star destroyers and Republic fighters were torn up like mown grass as they proceeded to attempt their own attack. However, by now, Patriot Fist had unleashed most of her payload of fighters, and it appeared that many of them had been destroyed by clone fighters; she couldn't tell for sure, because although she could recognize her fighters, if any remained, they were lost in a sea of tri-fighters and vultures from the countless Separatist ship surrounding her.

Suddenly, a powerful blast, probably from a nearby Venator-class Jedi cruiser's turbolaser, blasted the side of her, significantly weakening her shields. One of the few things she and Admiral Terakk didn't like about the Recusant-class light destroyer was that, if its shields failed, the ship was very vulnerable to enemy fire, and could be destroyed easily, especially if it had a droid brain, rather than a crew like Patriot Fist had. This kind of damage had happened to her before, in battles taking place back in the Ando, Minntooine, and Sy Mirth star systems, but each of those times, she came out of it while still being space-worthy, and her damages had always been repairable. Of course, those battles were on a much smaller scale than this one, and if Patriot Fist became vulnerable enough, she could easily perish out here, near the accursed Republic's capital.

As if to add insult to injury, it seemed that the Admiral had caught sight of something, something small, and approaching at speed. Patriot Fist followed her gaze and her own sensors.

"Those are the Jedi interceptors of Skywalker and Kenobi!" she said in alarm and anger. "TR-77, can the shields be repaired in time for them to get here?"

"They cannot," said tactical droid TR-77, "The shields need more time to recover before they can be at full charge again."

Aravis Terakk was not like many other captains and admirals, who insisted or complained against the homespun truths their crew gave them in a crisis situation. She was willing to accept, and understand, that a situation was risky, because she had been in several of them before. She took a deep breath and said, "All right. Let's not panic. We still have a handful of our best tri-fighters onboard the ship, and Invisible Hand, which, by the way, seems to be their target, has many vultures protecting it. We can still salvage this victory we all looked forward to. TR-77, contact General Grievous and Captain Lushros Dofine on the Invisible Hand and warn them that the two Jedi legends, the so-called Negotiator and the so-called Hero With No Fear, have arrived and are homing in on his ship."

"Yes, sir," said TR-77, and he relayed the message immediately.

Patriot Fist and Admiral Terakk both observed the two tiny Jedi starfighters weave with the speed and elegance of an eagle through the blasting warships, occasionally shooting down a vulture or tri- that got in the way. They were already getting close to their ship, but Terakk was ready for them.

"Launch all remaining tri-fighters," she ordered.

Two dozen elite droid tri-fighters flew out of the hangar bay to cut off the Jedi. Unfortunately, Clone Flight Squad Seven, in their stupid looking ARC-170's and Nimbus-class V-Wings, were giving them protection from the Separatist fighters, and while many clone ships went down, the tri-fighters just couldn't land a shot on either ship. Even with the assistance of vulture droids launched from the Invisible Hand, it wasn't doing much good.

Suddenly, there was another shot from a Venator-class cruiser nearby. It must have been one tough and powerful customer, because it hit Patriot Fist right at the aft, and the shields were wiped out. Evidently, Skywalker and Kenobi were taking advantage of the moment, and fired their own laser cannons into the ship's weak armor. The giant engines were exploding rapidly, and the fuel cells were ignited. Patriot Fist began to lose consciousness as she continued to break up.

It appeared that this time, Patriot Fist was not going to make it out of this one alive, and neither was her crew. She knew this as Skywalker, the Jedi pilot who enjoyed flying more than the other, dove towards the bridge with his laser cannons blazing.

Admiral Terakk was still there with her whole bridge crew. Even in the face of certain death, she would not turn tail and attempt an escape, and not only because a successful escape was unlikely. She wouldn't abandon her friendship with the ship she had bonded with ever since the start of the Clone Wars, and it would be a coward's act to flee, anyway, unless they had a very good reason to flee. As her superstructure continued to break up, Patriot Fist could hear, just barely, Aravis Terakk's last words. There were tears in her eyes as she said them.

"The irony of war. I'm so sorry, Corey," she said sadly, but bravely, "I hope you'll understand. I love you, even to the end of time itself."

The droid crew was silent. Even the chatty battle droids stayed silent and stood still.

Skywalker's lasers burst through the bridge.

No one even flinched in the last second before they were vaporized.

Patriot Fist began to spin out of control as Skywalker rejoined Kenobi in charging the Invisible Hand. It looked like a losing battle now, but she hoped that the Separatist cause would still show a thing or two to the galaxy sometime. She also briefly wondered from Admiral Aravis Terakk's last words, if there was such a thing as life after death for a valiant and patriotic Separatist ship and her crew, both organic and inorganic.

She supposed that she would just have to wait and see if there was one.

As discord missiles containing buzz droids were launched from a vulture droid at Skywalker and Kenobi, Patriot Fist crashed into a Munificent-class star frigate, and both ships self-destructed in the crash.

The last thing Patriot Fist realized before fading was that the frigate was her friend, Deep Thought.


Unfortunately, a few days later, the Separatist cause was lost, as well as the Jedi Order, to the Chancellor-turned-Emperor and his newly-minted clone stormtroopers, as well as a certain black-armored man/machine who was once General Skywalker, who together formed the monstrous Galactic Empire.


I made up the bit about how Anakin Skywalker diverged from course to take out Patriot Fist; I know that wasn't shown in "Revenge of the Sith," although the movie did briefly show a Commerce Guild support destroyer crashing and exploding into a Banking Clan frigate in the Battle of Coruscant.

I hope you enjoyed this! Please R&R!