Well here we are once again, dear readers, with yet another new chapter. I hope to conclude this little arc with the next chapter, and only hope that you've been enjoying it (and the story as a whole).
Feel free to leave a review if you'd like to give feedback, just remember the rule, keep things civil and polite. After all, what does rude, angry criticism really accomplish? No writer has ever received a poorly spelled, profanity laden review and then said 'hmm, that person made some good points'.
Today's recommendation is a book series called Discworld, by the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett. It is probably one of the finest book series I've ever read, and Sir Terry is, without a doubt, my favorite author of all time. The first two books in the series are a bit rough, but I fully recommend reading the entire series (although with 41 books in the series, it can be a rather sizable commitment, although the individual books aren't really mammoth in size). But anyway, on with the show!
Walking a Tightrope Chapter 10 (V. 1)
He will win who knows when to fight, and when not to fight.
Iridonia, under siege!
With supply lines between the Inner and Outer Rims becoming more and more important as the war rages on, the Zabrak homeworld of Iridonia in the Mid Rim has come under Separatist occupation. A Republic taskforce consisting of the 212thattack battalion and 501stlegion has been sent to liberate the planet.
With the Separatist heavy cannon emplacements destroyed thanks to a daring raid led by Jedi Generals Plo Koon and Mace Windu, the Republic has been able to land troops in one of the largest valleys on the planet, in the hopes of retaking its landing facilities, and starving the Separatist forces on the planet of their much-needed reinforcements.
Nitai groaned as his eyes slowly cracked open. His muscles felt even more sore than they had on the days that he had managed to annoy Master Chiida and had been rewarded with what the former Jedi had called, 'special training'. This training typically consisted of having to run through the forest with stones on his back, or some other grueling physical task.
As his eyes opened, he winced as he found himself staring into the bright, white lights of a hastily set up medical tent. As he tried to sit up, he felt a cold, mechanical set of fingers rest against his shoulder, gently keeping him down on what he now realized was a portable medical cot. He turned and found himself staring into the eyes, or perhaps lights would be the better term, of a medical droid.
"What happened?" He croaked, his throat feeling incredibly dry.
"You were brought in by General Windu, you had a few minor bruises but were suffering from severe fatigue. You have been unconscious for approximately twelve standard hours." The droid explained in its monotonous, but soothing tone.
"You should consider yourself lucky, and be very thankful to Master Windu, Red." A familiar voice said, as Ahsoka walked in, soon followed by Plo Koon and Master Windu. She had a relieved smile on her face as the trio of Jedi walked over to stand by the side of his cot.
"Indeed, you were quite fortunate that he was so quick in acting." Master Plo agreed. "Although your bravery in staying behind to protect your comrades was commendable, if reckless." However, before Nitai could respond, S1 came barreling into the tent, passed the rows of empty cots, and pushing aside Ahsoka and Master Plo. He immediately let out a series of enraged beeps while waving his mechanical arms around wildly.
"Hey, no need for the language, S1. I had a plan, kind of." Nitai tried to argue, only to receive yet another flurry of whistles from the concerned droid. "But how did the plan go? I'm guessing that it succeeded?" He said as his gaze flickered between the three Jedi.
"It did, Master Plo's team managed to take their emplacement out shortly after ours, and we managed to land a majority of our force. The droids have been making attempts to attack our staging ground, but the forest is particularly thick in this region, and so they can't get their tanks through, so we've been able to repulse them fairly easily. Although that same forest means that our tanks can't advance either, so we've been making plans for an offensive, we hope that if we can push the droids back from the other edge of the forest, we'll be able to land more of our tanks and walkers, and begin the major offensive." Master Windu spoke up before turning to the medical droid. "How long do you think it will take for him to recover?"
"He will likely experience soreness for the next few hours, although he should be capable of walking. But I would recommend that he not take part in any combat until tomorrow, to allow his body more time to recover." The droid said, and while Nitai was initially inclined to argue, the dizziness he felt when he finally managed to sit up managed to persuade him otherwise.
"Careful there, Red. Wouldn't want you to go hurting yourself so soon after you finally managed to wake up." Ahsoka said, walking over to stand by him as he swung his legs over the side of the cot. He kept his hands firmly on the cot as he pushed himself to his feet, making sure that his feet were firmly planted before turning and taking a few tentative steps.
"Don't worry, Soka. I can't really feel my legs, but that's probably for the better." He said with a slight grin.
"Padawan Tano, why don't you escort Padawan Zeama to the command tent? Master Plo and I need to go make a report to the council. We'll join you shortly and discuss our plans for the rest of the offensive." Master Windu suggested, and Ahsoka nodded, sticking close by Nitai's side just in case he looked like his legs might give out.
"We'll see you there, Masters." Ahsoka said as the two senior Jedi walked out of the tent, before then turning and lightly punching Nitai's arm, not enough to really hurt, but enough that he could definitely feel it.
"What exactly were you thinking, Red? That stunt could have gotten you killed. S1 and I were really worried when we saw you being carried here." She scolded, placing her hands on her hips as she looked up at him.
"I knew I could handle it, Soka. Admittedly, falling unconscious and being blasted off of the side of a cliff wasn't really part of the plan, but everything worked out." He said, trying to play off the fact that, for a few moments as he was falling, he had been absolutely convinced that he had been about to die.
Ahsoka only rolled her eyes in response as the two of them headed towards the entrance to the tent. "I get enough crazy plans when I'm with Master Skywalker. So, try to keep those to a minimum." She said as they both stepped out of the tent.
Unlike the arid, sandy surface of the planet, the valley that they were in was densely forested, to the point that he couldn't even see far past the tree line, they were so tightly packed that he wasn't surprised that the droids hadn't been able to get their tanks through. Their staging area was placed in a large, roughly circular clearing that roughly a kilometer in diameter. Most of the clearing was taken up by a massive, Acclamator class assault ship, that even now was unloading a contingent of clones and supplies, with the rest of the available space taken up by defensive emplacements, and various tents that had been set up, with each tent having a symbol on its roof and sides denoting its purpose.
As they began to make their way through the rows of tents, followed closely by S1, he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "Sooo…Master Plo finished his mission after we did, did he?" He asked teasingly.
"Ugh, is now really the time for that, Red?" She asked, but when she saw the unwavering grin on his face she just rolled her eyes and reached into a pouch on her hip, pulling out a few credits before handing them to him.
"That's only thirty." He said as he counted them and slipped them into a bag on his belt. "I docked you twenty, can't really say it's a complete success if you alert the whole base and have to be carried away from it." She retorted.
"I guess you've got me on that front." He said with a shrug as they stepped into the command tent, several holographic screens had been set up, as well as a holotable that dominated the center of the tent, displaying a layout of the valley. "So, can you give me a quick rundown of the situation?"
"Sure. Most of the Separatist defenses are clustered in the Northern portion of the valley. They have a defensive line just outside of the forest. The cannons at that line can't target us so they've targeted the plains just outside of the tree line, if we send anybody in beyond that point, they'll be blown to pieces." She explained, pointing to a series of trenches with large, red dots on them, presumably the locations of the artillery.
"Indeed, and we can't rely on the Separatists coming to us, the longer we wait, the greater chance the Separatists fleet has of returning with reinforcements. While I trust our fleet to take them out the first time, we can't guarantee that their response fleet won't be capable of forcing our ships out of orbit." Master Windu said as he and Master Plo entered the tent, apparently having heard Ahsoka's assessment.
"Unfortunately, the Separatist defenses have been bolstered hundreds of extra battle droids. Their numbers, combined with their artillery support, would make any direct attack on their lines incredibly costly." Master Plo added.
"What if we could draw out the droids from their line and into the forest? We'd have a much greater advantage amongst the trees." Nitai suggested as he raised his left hand to his right cheek and began to stroke it contemplatively.
"We've thought about that, but by the time we would have to fight our way through the droids in the forest just to get back beyond the tree line. By the time we finished breaking through the droid assault, they would have had time to reinforce their defenses from their bases in the Northern portion of the valley." Master Windu said, however, just as he said it, the gears began to turn in Nitai's mind, and a devious smile spread across his face.
"But…what if we didn't have to fight them? Ooh yes, I think I've got an idea." He said as he leaned over the table and began to explain his plan.
"I thought I told you to cool it with the crazy plans." Ahsoka said to Nitai as they crept through the forest alongside Master Windu, Master Plo, and several squads of clone troopers.
"It's not that crazy, just risky." He said with a grin. After explaining his plan, the Masters had agreed, and he had then been shown to his tent so that he could get some more rest. After all, there was no way that he was going to be left out of this.
"No, risky involves doing something that might involve getting shot at. This plan hinges on the fact that we'll be shot at." She retorted as they neared the tree line, before they all paused.
"Hold position." Master Windu said as he tapped the communicator on his wrist. "This is General Windu, our group is in position, sound off." "Commander Cody, in position." "Captain Rex, in position." Two voices chimed in, one after the other, shortly afterwards several other clone commanders had reached their positions. "Alright, remember the plan, only engage for a brief period of time, as soon as they open up with their cannons, I want you to fall back. You all know your duties, General Windu out." He said before nodding to one of the clones. He raised a flare gun into the air before firing, sending a bright red, hissing bolt streaking into the sky.
With the signal for the attack sent, Nitai joined the three other Jedi as they charged out from the trees, quickly followed by the squads of clones.
It was like a veritable line of white-clad troopers emerged from the forest on cue, charging towards the Separatist defenses, which mainly consisted of a series of trenches and foxholes to allow the droids to take cover, since many of them lacked the mobility to crouch. A hail of blaster fire immediately shot towards them, and Nitai ignited his lightsaber and began to deflect the shots as the clone charge inevitably slowed. As the clones began to take cover, several of the Separatist heavy cannons took aim and fired, the sound ringing across the battlefield. Thankfully most of the clones were already scattering at the sound, although a few were unfortunately killed as the heavy plasma bolts impacted against the ground or the rocks that they had been using for cover, leaving large, smoking craters in the otherwise rather idyllic looking grassland.
"Fall back, fall back!" Several of the clone commanders' voices came through over the communicators, sticking to the plan as they began to head back to the safety of the tree line.
"Let's hope this works." Nitai said as he began to retreat to the tree line along with Ahsoka and the Masters. They continued to run through the trees alongside the clones, before stopping once they were certain that they were out of sight of any droid observers.
"Men, prepare your ascension cables." Master Plo ordered as he, Master Windu, Nitai, and Ahsoka leapt up into the thick canopy. The trees on Iridonia seemed to grow particularly thick, and some of their branches were sturdy enough to support at least two people. Nitai crouched on one of the branches alongside Ahsoka, while the two Jedi Masters perched on a branch slightly ahead of them. They were soon joined by approximately half of their squadron of clones, who used their ascension cables to climb up the tree, while the remaining half continued to fall back towards the staging ground.
"What if they don't take the bait?" Ahsoka said softly as they watched the ground, straining to hear any sound of approaching droid footsteps.
"Trust me, they will. That force consisted of pretty much all of our troops, far too tempting a target for any commander to pass up. They'll send in as many troops as they can in the hopes of catching the clones before they get back to our defenses, since they'll think that a much larger force is trying to escape, by the time those droids hit our defenses, the clones will have gotten back and had plenty of time to prepare for them." He said with a grin.
Any further conversation was soon silenced by a distant clanking sound, the sound of hundreds of droids marching in unison. Nitai did his best to try and make as little noise as possible, remaining completely motionless alongside Ahsoka, although his attempts to remain quiet only made him all the more aware of even the slightest noises, the rustling of the branch they were crouched on as an errant breeze blew by, the beating of his own heart in his chest, and the sound of his breathing. Soon, however, all of those sounds were blotted out by the metallic clanking that was growing ever closer.
Just as Master Windu had said, the droids hadn't even bothered to try and bring their tanks through the thick forest. Instead, rows upon rows of battle droids filtered in, doing their best to maintain formation as they flowed around the bases of the trees. They mostly consisted of B1 battle droids, but he could see a sizable amount of B2s as well. They flowed beneath the hidden Republic forces like a metallic tide, completely silent aside from the sound of their metal feet, which by this point resembled the rumbling of an avalanche.
Then, just as quickly as they had arrived, they vanished into the distance once again, their metallic footsteps soon being muffled by the forest. The four Jedi glanced between one another, letting the silence hang as the army of droids grew further and further, once it had completely faded, they nodded, and leapt down to the forest floor, soon joined by their clone troopers.
"This is General Windu, report in." Master Windu whispered into his communicator, soon receiving a bevy of responses from the various clone commanders. "It seems your plan worked, Padawan, but we still have to take those defenses." He said before tapping one of the buttons on his communicator, sending the signal for the second attack.
Just like before, they charged out of the trees, although this time without the pre-emptive flare, and moving as silently as possible. They managed to make it almost halfway to the defensive line before being spotted, the droids probably having slacked off on their scanning of the trees for enemies after sending in their assault force. Once again, they were met with volleys of blaster fire, although significantly diminished now, due to the decreased number of droids manning the line.
The cannons once again opened fire, although their response was much less rapid than before. The clones were not as bunched up as they had been during the initial attack, and their advance was much faster, making it difficult for the droid gunners to accurately get a bead on any particular target.
"Nitai, you're with me, we're going to go silence those guns. Master Plo, you and Ahsoka go and take out their command structure." Master Windu ordered, he and Nitai quickly splitting off to head towards a small hill, where a trio of cannons was firing away at the clones. A few B1 droids were joining in, however what was more concerning were the two hovertanks on either side of the emplacement.
"Those might pose a problem." Master Windu said as one of the tanks fired its smaller guns towards them, forcing them to deflect the shots and slow down their advance up the hill, although thankfully that meant that the tank wasn't focusing all of its fire on the clones who were advancing behind them.
"A problem, but also an opportunity." Nitai said as they began to circle around the side of the hill, so that they were now approaching the emplacement from the side, so that they would only have to concern themselves with fire from one tank and the handful of B1 droids that were supporting it. "This hill has a rather good view of most of the other cannon emplacements, do you know how to fire one of those tank guns?"
"I do. Could you take out the other tank while I deal with the emplacements?" Master Windu asked as they both dived away from one another to avoid a shot from the tank's main cannon.
"Got it." Nitai nodded, the two Jedi began to sprint up the hill, each one slicing through a defending B1 droid. Master Windu leapt up to the top of the tank and quickly used his lightsaber to cut a hole in the main hatch, before using the Force to pull the tank's occupants out and leaping down into the cockpit.
"One of the Jedi has taken control of a tank!" One of the droids screamed, before being bisected by Nitai. He then leapt over the trio of cannons and onto the top of the other tank. With a quick slice, he cut through the tank's cannon, sending it rolling down the hill. He could see a few squads of clones take advantage of the situation and break from their cover, charging up the hill while most of the droids were busy focusing on Nitai.
"Hey boys, any one of you got a grenade you could lend me?" He shouted to the approaching clones, although his eyes remained fixed on the droids firing at him as he continued to deflect their shots, managing to take out three of them by reflecting their blaster bolts right into their torsos.
"On its way, commander! Catch!" One of the clones shouted as he lobbed a thermal detonator towards Nitai, who caught it in his free hand before slicing open the top hatch of the tank.
"What's going on here?" Came the voice of the droid tank commander who looked up in surprise, or at least what Nitai thought was surprise, a bit hard to tell with droids.
"I've got a present for you." Nitai said as he primed the detonator and dropped it right into the droids lap before hopping off of the tank. Most of the clones had arrived at the crest of the hill and were now returning fire, forcing the droids to try and take cover as best they could. Nitai deactivated his lightsaber and pushed both his arms out, using the Force to send the tank skidding down the hill. Once it was about halfway down, the detonator went off, sending a plume of smoke and fire into the air and launching debris all around.
He could hear the sounds of blaster fire start to die down, as the last of the droids defending the hilltop were destroyed. With no more droids to be concerned with the tank that Master Windu had captured turned, and began to fire down at some of the exposed cannon positions, igniting their shells and destroying them one by one. Gradually, the sound of cannon fire faded away, until eventually Master Windu pulled himself out of the tank, and used the Force to push it up against the three remaining cannons. With a few shots from one of the clone trooper's rifles, the shells that were being stored next to the cannons were set off, obliterating the tank and cannons.
As Nitai walked over to Master Windu the two of them received calls on their communicators.
"This is Ahsoka, Master Plo and I have taken out the Separatist command post." This report was quickly followed by yet another, this time coming from the staging ground. "Generals, this is the staging ground defense force, we've just cleared up the droid attackers, relatively minimal casualties."
"This is General Windu, we've taken the defensive line, you may begin deploying your tanks to the grassland beyond the forest. Windu out." He said before turning to Nitai. Neither of them spoke for several moments before one corner of Master Windu's mouth tilted up slightly, it wasn't much, but coming from the normally stoic Jedi, it spoke volumes. "Well, Padawan Zeama, it seems your plan worked. Master Kenobi is quite lucky to have you as his Padawan." He said, and Nitai's chest swelled with pride at the praise, as he turned towards the forest and watched as several vehicle transports approached, tanks and walkers carried in their magnetic clamps. For the first time since they'd met, Nitai didn't feel uncomfortable in the senior Jedi's presence.