Author's note! Yes, I've been gone forever. Again. That's what, the third time? Well, a bunch of stupid things happened, like my immune system failing at life, and school, and procrastination… But here's another chapter. Let's hope I can stick to my promise to update more. I have a whole plan, but sitting down and writing it all out is another matter… Once again, I own nothing except what I make up that is obviously not from Star Wars!
-Main bridge, Cataclysm, Subjugator-class Heavy Cruiser, Hyperspace-
"Corellia… One of the largest suppliers of the Republic's ships, am I correct?" Lord Jerithox asked via hologram. Grievous nodded.
"Indeed, you are right. This is our next target. Expect the defenses to have increased exponentially, they know we're here, and it's a good bet they know we're coming. Let us not disappoint them." The cyborg stated. "Our plan of attack will be simple. Each ship will approach from a different angle, appearing at different times, to confuse the defenders. Therefore, we should split up immediately."
"Yes sir." Answered Esera Corin and Lord Jerithox.
"I remember a time when such an order would confuse those under my command. You will not fail where others have. Corin, take your ship and attack the dark side of the planet. I will attack from our current trajectory. Lord Jerithox, attack the remaining third that is open. Does this make sense?" Asked Grievous.
"Yes sir." They answered again. With a simple command to the holoprojector, Grievous brought up the planet.
"Show me where you will be attacking." The two subordinates pointed to their designated attack areas. "Excellent. You are dismissed." Grievous sat down again. "How close are we to Corellia?" He asked.
"Two hours away, sir." Replied OOM-451.
"That is too long." Stated the general.
"I agree sir, but if we go any faster, we may damage the reactor." The droid answered.
"Then we wait."
-Sluis Van, Syrn township, 77 kilometers from Alkeir Prison-
DFS-3ER observed the small cluster of buildings. If it was a town, it wasn't much. "Here we are…" Said Nomar Thorae, gesturing at the scene before him. "Small, isn't it?" 3ER nodded slightly. His power level was going down rapidly, he needed to conserve energy. "Legally, a township is thirty-six square miles, here, and since Syrn occupies that, it's a township. But really, only the Syrn family lives, well, lived here." Miles was a Sluissi unit, 3ER wasn't totally familiar with it. "But now, only Ezan Syrn lives here now. Rest of the family died during the Siege from starvation. Luckily, I know Ezan. Maybe he can fix you up with some old vocabulator." The two moved on in silence towards the so-called township ahead. The Vulture droid wondered if his journey was to begin at such a humble place. But many great journeys had started in worse places than this. General Grievous's, for example. Then again, 3ER's quest had begun in battle, not here. It was really all up for debate. The droid was disappointed he had only traveled a short distance while thinking. Such was the curse of a mind that processed so fast. To pass time, 3ER stopped thinking, and put himself into a power saving mode. It was as if time sped up, things seemed almost faster. The droid knew it was just an illusion though, only his processing speed had slowed down. In what seemed no time at all, they reached the first building of the township.
"Welcome to Syrn." Said Thorae, looking triumphant.
"Indeed, welcome." Answered a new voice. 3ER and Thorae turned, and there he was: Ezan Syrn, a distinctly green Sluissi. "Welcome to Syrn."
"Ah, Ezan. I haven't seen you in a long time." Greeted Thorae, stating the facts.
"Same goes for me." The two Sluissi went on exchanging pointless words, while 3ER looked on. Finally, the Vulture droid saw fit to interrupt, by moving forward and looking at the two Sluissi. "What have we here?" Asked Syrn. "It's not often fighters stray from their base ships."
"Yes, this fellow rescued me from jail. I'm not sure what I was doing there, as I can't remember what I did, but thanks to this droid, I'm free." Thorae explained. Syrn looked surprised.
"Jail? I hope it was nothing too serious…" He said, looking around in case of any hidden law enforcement agents. The police on Sluis Van may not have been the best, but they were adept at sneaking.
"No, I don't think it was. It's me, what would I do? Make a complaint to the Confederacy's representative here?" Thorae shrugged. DFS-3ER nudged the Sluissi with one of his limbs, and gave him what he hoped was a stern look. "Ah, right! Syrn, my friend here needs power, and a vocabulator. Unless you know how to speak Vulture droid, that is."
"I have those things. Come, right this way. I'm sure you both, especially you, droid, have quite the story to tell." Syrn gestured to a small warehouse. "Come with me, the Syrn Family's storage awaits us."
-Main bridge, Cataclysm, Subjugator-class Heavy Cruiser, Hyperspace-
"Disengage the Hyperdrive!" Ordered General Grievous. Corellia shot into view as the blue vortex dissipated. In a few seconds, Jerithox and Corin would be attacking from their positions as well. "Charge the plasma rotors, and begin targeting the Republic ships."
"Yes sir." Answered OOM-451. "General, the Republic ships have spread out, but there are still more of them here than at Kuat." The yellow-marked command droid reported.
"As is to be expected. How many of them are there?" Queried Grievous.
"At least thirty, sir."
"I was right again." Observed the cyborg, standing up. His cloak flowed around him as he moved quickly to the front of the bridge. At that moment, Esera Corin's Subjugator came out of Hyperspace, just above the visible edge of Corellia. Grievous's eyes could barely make it out, a Human's would never be able to pick it up.
"Our Jedi friend is here." Remarked OOM-451. "And Lord Jerithox has just arrived. Looks like they can follow instructions, sir."
"Indeed. How is the IPC?" Asked Grievous.
"All charged and ready to fire, sir!" Announced a pilot droid.
"Then fire, fool!" Grievous ordered, pointing at the planet before him. Cataclysm maneuvered into position and released the circle of glowing energy. It soared through space, passing through a few Republic ships, and onto the planet below. "We better have gotten those shipyards. The Star Destroyers beyond opened fire on Grievous's ship.
"Negative, general, we missed half of them." Answered OOM-451. "Shall we fire again?"
"Yes!" Commanded the cyborg.
"Charging plasma rotors." Said a pilot droid from fire control.
"And someone, fire back at the Star Destroyers!" Grievous ordered, pointing at them.
"Yes sir." With that, Cataclysm released it's hail of red laser fire. The battlecruiser's shields absorbed the Republic salvoes, but would not last forever against such numbers.
"Why haven't they split up?" Asked Grievous to himself. He contacted his two subordinates on the other ships. "Jerithox, Corin, what is going on?" He questioned.
"Sir, we're facing heavy fire from Republic defenses over here." Answered the Human.
"Same here, General." Replied Lord Jerithox. "I think they did split their forces, and this is it."
"They are quite prepared then." Stated Grievous. "Have you succeeded in your goals?" Asked he.
"I have, sir." Lord Jerithox replied.
"No sir, there is no signs of energy, save for defense networks, on this side of the planet. I think they prepared a blackout for us." Esera Corin reported, frowning. "It's proving hard to target, let alone find, the shipyards here." The female looked slightly worried.
"That is acceptable, considering we can at least see our targets." Grievous answered. A month ago, the cyborg would have been screaming at her in fury for such failure. A month ago, he would have tried to kill her, as she was a Jedi.
"Thank you sir, I will keep firing. Hopefully I can hit something." Grievous nodded.
"Sir, I have completed my objective, what are my orders?" Lord Jerithox questioned.
"Return back to base. We'll catch up." Commanded the general. Jerithox nodded and vanished from the hologram. "Corin, keep firing. I will move in to assist you." Suddenly, Grievous's flagship rocked. "What was that?" Yelled Grievous furiously, looking around the bridge.
"Sir, we've lost shields to the starboard side of the ship!" Announced a pilot droid.
"Impossible!" Protested the cyborg.
"Sir, there are another thirty Star Destroyers approaching from starboard!" OOM-451 said.
"Smarter than I anticipated. Get us out of here." Esera Corin still had the hologram line open. "That goes for you too, Jedi! Back to base!" Grievous ordered.
"Yes sir." She said, before cutting communications. The Cataclysm began turning away from Corellia to flee the battle.
"Well, we got most of the shipyards. This should throw a wrench in their gearbox." Grievous said, using an old saying from his home planet. Kalee was never a very advanced world. Internal combustion engine vehicles were quite advanced by it's standards. As it took fire from both sides, the Cataclysm shot into Hyperspace. Grievous had escaped once more. If all went well for him, he'd be escaping many more times in the days to come. "Hopefully so…" Grievous said to himself. In the meantime, there was planning to do and plots to make. Not to mention, he had to make sense of the disastrous organizational mess that was the Confederacy's armed forces. And all the competent officers that needed to be rooted out from the masses and the ones who were captured by the Jedi. The general had quite a task ahead of himself. He half-wished that the Jedi would attack his station again.