John POV

I was uneasy. Now that Master Pretorius had arrived the 501st was on technical leave, meaning we were still on the clock and could be recalled to action at a moments notice but we could use this free time like leave, until our new orders came in. This was over two days ago. Now that I had our new orders a small part of me wished we were still on leave.

That first day after Master Pretorius had arrived, not General, Master, the old man was far too insightful and knowledgeable to be anything but a Master Jedi, the 501st was given a full day of leave for all our hard work, with most going on the lash. That is, they went and got themselves so drunk they had destroyed bars, smashed up windows, painted walls and performed other such alcohol related havoc. The whole day, from start to finish, had been filled with drinking and disorderly conduct by all troopers given leave to head planetside, which was nearly all of them.

I had actually spent that day with Cortana and Whip, reading in our room. Well, Cortana was reading I was just sitting with her in my lap sometimes reading a page or two over her shoulder but just generally removing everything from my mind and relaxing. Rex also had a day to himself as did Yularen, who spent time with Tohm, leaving Hevy in charge of the 501st and what little it actually had to do to keep running. Apparently this was not a good idea as he was found passed out on a bar stool next to Fives, Echo, Hardcase, Jesse and Kix.

After I woke up on the second day and read the reports I recalled all trooper in the 501st and made them go to every bar and down every street and clean it all up up. I didn't care if the troopers did it or not, all rubbish and graffiti was to be cleaned or disposed of. I refuse to lead a disorganised mess of a legion that has no respect for anyone, not these people and not even themselves, if the fact they didn't care what the people thought of them was any indication. A full 16 hour shift, cleaning rubbish and moving the debris left from the fighting, with no rest till we were done should, hopefully, mean they will behave themselves next time.

Anyway. Our next mission was to be apart of the combined assault forces that will be retaking Geonosis and crushing Poggle's rebellion. The thought alone was enough to evoke apprehension inside me and the source of my unease. I understand the necessity of it but out of all the legions assigned to the assault we were the only legion going back again. Sure, the Jedi had been there too, but their legions hadn't. I was not looking forward to telling the men we were going back to that hell, especially the men who had been before.

The plan was at least leagues ahead of the one used last time, which consisted of rushing forward till we stomped the bugs underfoot, and this plan involved using the size of our forces to our advantage. There were 3 main targets, the droid super foundry, a regular foundry and a vehicle factory. Kyrat had been assigned to take the super foundry via landing zone Point Rain. The 212th and 516th, under Generals Kenobi and Mundi, were taking the vehicle factory from Point Wind. This left Point Stone for the 501st to land at before making our assault on the remaining foundry. These targets were all chosen to correspond to the different troop battalions each legion had.

The Point Stone foundry, for example, was located in the centre of a canyon, in a sort of cul de sac that had two canyon passes leading to it. Our landing zone was the only one cut off from the other landing zones and our reinforcements, leaving us completely surrounded, but this was done with the types of troops we had in mind and to make our job easier. The second pass leading to the foundry actually lead to an open area near to the Point Rain landing zone, the problem was something we called The Wall. It had been built by the Geonosian to cut off above ground access between the different foundries as a way of stopping clone troopers to easily move between the targets. Our pass, near Stone, didn't have this Wall which allowed us to move freely down the canyon to assault the foundry.

Another benefit was a set of Geonosian tunnels that lead from our pass to the second pass, exited between the foundry and The Wall, allowing for a flanking maneuver. Our plan of attack was to move Torrent and Carnivore down the pass while Bull moved along the canyon tops, using the elevated position to rain down any droids and to have an elevated position against the foundry. Storm would move through the tunnels and clear out any Geonosians within before flank the factory, hopefully breaking through heir lines and getting inside. Simple yet effective, and it allowed for room to move if something went wrong, a massive improvement to what I had seen before.

Krayt was landing at Point Rain, an open field landing zone with no cover, and were to simply charge at the super foundry. It was in keeping with Skywalkers track record so I couldn't say I was surprised even though I was disappointed. Luckily, his new legions had been designed with such tactics in mind.

For his armour Skywalker had a squadron of AT-RT's and a host of Juggernaut Turbo Tanks so that he could move around obstacles or move through them. As for infantry, he had a single legion of Regs and a single legion of Shock, the real centre piece of his command was the 2 legions of Galactic Marines. The Marines were Lama Su's answer to Clone Commando's, just without any Mandalorian influence. They were grown and trained in his secondary facility and were removed from all Mandalorian influence. Sadly, while they were the toughest Regs out there, they were still Regs. We had strict requirements to be accepted into any Spec Ops branch and standard Galactic Marine training does not meet those requirements, falling just short, meaning it couldn't be classified as a Spec Ops branch. This meant they were not under ONI's jurisdiction but High Commands instead. Another thing with the Marines were they were very limited in numbers. Due to the age of Su's second facility there were only 3 battalions of Marines at this time, and they were all here on Geonosis.

The joint operation on the vehicle factory, by the 212th Attack Legion and the 516th Support Legion, had to be done against a fortified hill position. While the doors to the vehicle bay had been carved out of the hill, to allow the vehicles to just roll out, and were ground level, the personnel entrances were located on a man made ridge at the crest of the hill. Thanks to having a dedicated Commando battalion Kenobi could assault the vehicle bays while Mundi's 516th could move through the facility via the personnel entrances. Mundi's Flame Troopers and Marines would be perfect for clearing out the bugs in the facility and in the tunnels underneath.

With our orders received I now needed to inform the men and prepare them as best I could before we arrived. Due to my knowledge of the planet, how the Geonosians design their facilities and the ways they fight I could teach those who weren't Vet's from the first battle on how to better fight them. To do this I had enlisted help from Rex to design a set of obstacle courses to help train the men with. Once done we sent the plans to the rest of the fleet along with a training plan. The courses were to be constructed in the largest open spaces on the ships so we could train during hyperspace. We would only get a few hours of training but at least they would have something to work with.

There was a whimper down at my side so I turned my head to the greedy beast at my side, who didn't like the fact that I wasn't giving him the attention he deserved. He had been a big help down on Ciutric IV when we were clearing the cities. It was a bit of a tight squeeze in the ODP's but we made it work. The only problem with the tight squeeze was the fact that I couldn't turn of the comm when Cortana decided to make a comment about how cute we were, a boy and his dog. I could imagine her smirk in my head every time we jumped. I hadn't taken Whip onto the moons with me as I didn't want to risk him near any IED's or other explosives now that the commander had shown their preference for them.

The reason Whip was whimpering is because I had limited where I took him as I had been trying to keep him and Tohm from meeting. Whip first greeted people by yanking their leg out from under them with enough force he can floor an unarmoured Spartan. Tohm had been through enough already.

Speaking of Tohm, I had to go say goodbye. He was a good kid with an amazing head on his shoulders and I was sure he would go down as one of the best Naval officers in history, without a doubt. It would be sad to see him go but we should still be able to keep in touch and, hopefully, see each other again someday.

John POV

All forces were gathering in the Ryloth system to prepare for our assault. Originally the Siskeen system had been chosen, the same system used for the space battle over Ryloth, as it was closer but it was decided a Republic sympathetic system would be best. Tatooine had also been considered but that was deemed too close, and we didn't want to use Jabba the Hutt more than we had too. Geonosis was out as High Command had decided it would be best to arrive as a single force rather than dribs and drabs.

Upon arriving in the system I had noted we were the last to arrive, not really surprising as we were coming from the other side of the galaxy. Because of this we would be allowed to refuel, resupply and reinforce our fleet via the newly established Ryloth Republic military station. Our new men and supplies had been transferred to the station and had been awaiting our arrival. It took nearly 6 hours to get everything on board, checked in and squared away, we had nearly exhausted our supplies by stretching them to cover a job we were ill prepared to handle.

With that done Kenobi, the only High Jedi General, a member of the Military High Command, ordered us to wait until 1600 hours to give my men some rest. That gave us 4 hours to get some rest before we jump into it.

Soon it was all hands on deck and we were into hyperspace. Half an hour later, 40 minutes at most, we were greeted by the Republic blockade around the planet who wished us luck and jumped out of the system, they were leaving to resupply as they needed to get entirely new legions to replace the ones wiped out by the Geonosians. Now it begins.

Rex POV

Our initial landing had been rough. The Chief was leading Bull so he had dropped with them, which started as the Gunships were just leaving the hangar, how such a big guy and such a big dog could fit into such a small pod was beyond me. They landed on the top of the canyon and set to work securing our LZ.

It was rough, hard, hot and we lost more than we normally do as we couldn't get drop ODST's on the AA guns and take them out, not with them being a part of the foundry. Once all the gunships had off loaded our troops Chief told me to take Storm into the cave system to prepare for our flanking run while he took command of the main force and marched on to the objective. As soon as I entered the caves the thing that hit me was the smell.

I've been to a lot of different planets and a lot of different environments, but nothing smelt quite like Geonosis. Caves usually had an earthy smell but these just smelt rotten. The scent brought back a flood of memories of the last time I was here. The claustrophobia, the echoing screams of those dragged into the darkness and the carceses of dead troopers used as incubaters for Geonosian eggs, as well as the first meal for when they hatch. Geonosians were disgusting creatures. They lay their eggs inside of other beings to warm them and let them hatch, along with being a food source for the baby grubs. The speed in which Geonosians grow allows them to repopulate rapidly and would have resulted in either overpopulation or the bugs colonising other planets if the Queen's didn't stop reproducing when their hives reached a certain number.

Watching as the babies of the monsters that haunt your nightmares eat their way out of your brothers was bad enough. The fact that the eggs need heat to hatch is worse. This is because the body needs to be alive to produce heat. These bug bastards force feed the troopers after filling their bodies with eggs so that the troopers don't die, which results in the most bone chilling screams as the grubby larva start eating their way out in the tens or hundreds. We had made sure to inform all men they were to shoot any trooper they came across that was webbed to the wall, it would be a better death and would kill the bugs inside.

I remembered Kicker, one of the ODST's I trained beside. He had been taken during the first raid on the droid foundries that the ODST's took part in, after securing the arena. On the way out we found him webbed to a wall so we shot off the webs and dragged him outside. A field medic said he was woozy and dehydrated but otherwise fine which is why an hour later he insisted on getting back on his feet and fighting. For the next two days we fought side by side, returning to the 501st the day after he had been taken and rescued. During the 501st final assault he started grabbing at his chest. 2 minutes later he had dropped to his knees and started spitting up blood. I rushed to his side and was with him as he was screaming and coughing, blood spilling out of his mouth. Until finally, he stopped screaming. This proved to be a bad sign when he coughed up a bloody grub. I think the shock was what made him stop because he was definitely still alive when he started convulsing and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. Well, that was before his eyes exploded and grubs started falling out. He fell to the ground dead at that.

We were all so shocked we didn't know what to do and just stood there staring. Then the grubs started bursting out the rest of his skin and we all panicked. By the time we had stopped firing you couldn't tell that what was left was once a corpse, let alone a human one. I hear it was even worse back at medical. When the grubs started hatching I heard the Captain in charge of defending the medical bay panicked so badly he ordered Flame Troopers to burn down the medical tents and for AT-TE's to fire on them for good measure. By the time they were done you couldn't tell ash from sand it was so burnt. Lucky we had confined the rescued individuals to one sector otherwise all our wounded would have died back then.

I was so lost it my nightmares I hadn't felt when a trooper was shaking me to get my attention for directions.

'Ye-Ye-Yes. Yes, yes. Um, we need to, huh, go this way. Gulp. Remem-um-Remember to stab all alcoves. We don't want to, to, to. We don't want to let them know we're here.' I had to get myself back under control. I few hard breaths later and I was shoving the memories back into a box, locked in the back of my mind, finally ready. I may have been running on autopilot for the rest of our march down the tunnels but my thrust into any passing alcove was far harder than any of Storms, it helped to hear the bugs squeal. The Geonosians sleep in these little alcoves so we were stabbing them so we didn't wake them, though the screams did eventually wake the rest.

Tunnel after tunnel we stabbed those we could and shot those we couldn't. The sounds of those Geonosian blasters reverberated down the corridors, but they were just the backing track in this horror song, because the screams of those dragged away were the vocals. They say that if you learn something without music you can recall it better when you aren't listening to music and that when you learn something to a piece of music, if you listen to the same piece of music you can remember what you learned easier. Well I knew this song and dance better than anyone.

Hack, slash, shoot. Hack, slash, shoot. My blood, my temper, was rising with the music, becoming a crescendo all of it's own. Building and building and building. My heart thrumming in the pitch black, beating louder and louder, until...

Silence.

I threw my helmet off as the world slowed and blurred. Sounds muted, my vision darkened and I couldn't even feel the ground when I dropped to my knees. All I could see, feel, hear was the sound of the sun as it beat a rhythm on my skin. But slowly, the world returned.

I could feel my lungs work in my chest, hear the breath leave my mouth. Next was a low hum, like a flat lining heart monitor. Now colours were coming back, browns and oranges and a spec of blue. Muffled words entered my ears as I felt myself sway back and forth.

All at once I realised that the trooper in front of me was shaking me back and forth, shouting at me, what do we do, what do we do. I was put on the back foot. I swung my head around and saw troopers running everywhere, not knowing what to do, I saw battle droids marching and I saw Geonosians flying.

'WE'RE TRAPPED SIR. WE HAVE GEONOSIANS COMING FROM THE TUNNELS AND ARE TRAPPED BETWEEN BATTLE DROIDS AND THE WALL.' Okay. Okay. I got this. The wall was about 0.75 klicks away, giving us about 500 meters of room before we were in range of its guns. I ordered the men to move towards the wall and take cover about 300 meters from our current position. The trooper hoisted me to my feet, putting his shoulder under mine, so he could help drag me to cover. When we got to a decent sized rock he swung me behind it and started laying down fire next to me, asking again, what do we do. I immediately jumped on the radio.

'THIS IS CAPTAIN REX. WE ARE TRAPPED BETWEEN THE WALL AND A DROID BATTALION, WITH GEONOSIAN SUPPORT. I REPEAT. TRAPPED BETWEEN WALL AND DROIDS, WITH GEONOSIAN SUPPORT. REQUEST IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE.' Nothing. I tried again, still nothing.

This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening. Not even a month in and I had been betrayed by two commanding officers. I need you Master Chief. Please.

My comm crackled to life. Oh, thank the Gods. The Chief was coming personally with ODST support. My heart was racing as the relief flooded my body. With a quick shake of my head I got it back on straight, or at least pointing in the right direction. I grabbed my SMG, having left my Magnum and knife with my helmet back near the tunnels, and stood up out of cover. But, as I was firing, the SMG stopped working. I was trying to fix it but I was just getting more and more frustrated with the damn thing.

'Fuck… Fuck, fuck, FUUUCK.' With that final roar I swung my right arm across my body, from right to left, and threw the gun at them. As I did this about 3 rows of Geonosians and droids were swept off their feet and slammed into the left side canyon wall, crumpling at the bottom. The battle field stood still for a second.

'Give me your pistol.'

'W-w-what?!' I growled at the trooper.

'Your pistol.' He gave it to me and I walked out of cover, left arm raised with pistol in hand. I fired a shot, not caring were it hit, which seemed to shock both sides into action.

'WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR? LET'S GO.' I rallied the men into a charge and rushed these kriffing bastards, firing with my pistol and crushing anything that got close with my augmented arm. A quick jerk of my head left a blaster bolt flying by my head. My anger and frustration was building again and I needed to let it out. I threw my right hand out, pushing all that anger and frustration and hatred into a desire to just… push them. I watched a strip of the enemy column fly backwards and felt as all those emotions I pushed into what was, undeniably, a Force techniques leave my body. Now I just felt tired, drained. I didn't know much about the Force, there were two sides and one relied on emotion while the other didn't, but this didn't feel like anything Ahsoka or General Skywalker told me about it.

Blue blaster bolt just whizzed past my head, leaving me to watch as the ODST's mowed down what was left of the droids. A large explosion happened in the background as the foundry went up in smoke. I turned to look at the battlefield, at all our dead. I didn't feel anything when I looked at the droids but a little bit of satisfaction entered me when I looked at the Geonosians dead and splattered across the floor. As I was looking around I noticed a flutter from a pair of wings. I grabbed the pistol from my holster and stalked over to disgusting insect and slammed my foot into it's back. As I aimed the pistol an armoured hand grabbed the gun.

'Sir. He…' The Chief cut me off.

'Dead bugs don't talk.'

'What if I don't want them talking?' He let go and took a step back. With a quick look at the squirming Geonosian I fired.

'Later.' I gave him a nod. The Chief wanted to leave a few bugs alive so they could spread the word of their massacre, spread the fear. I didn't want them talking because then they would start talking about my use of the Force and I wanted that information contained, Later, meant I would have to explain this to him at a more convenient time.

As everything caught up to me I felt even more drained so I just took myself over to the canyon wall and slumped myself at the base of it. Soon, the AT-TE's started stomping past, heading for the wall, and so I turned my head to watch. A constant barrage of fire tore through the wall, shot after shot flaking chunks off. By the time they were finished the Wall was reduced to little more than rumble and it was time to move out to meet at the rendezvous point with the rest of the army. I picked myself off the ground and started heading out with the rest of them, making sure to catch up with the head of the column. I check my Chrono and found we had been at this for more than 7 hours, no wonder I was so tired, it was 11 o'clock at night. Not that Geonosis knew that. It's sun was beating down even hotter than when we started. Sometimes, I really hate Galactic Standard Time.

John POV

Just looking around the rendezvous point I knew I wasn't looking forward to this meeting. The men were broken. I had seen the same thing last time but it hadn't gotten any better now either, despite the fact the were nearly all experienced soldiers. Geonosis was a special kind of hell that tortured your mind and body in such a way that it will forever be scarred, just look at Rex. From the reports of both Storm and the Captain himself there were at least two instances where the Captain broke down due to sever PTSD flashbacks. Rex, the Captain of the 501st since the start of the war, who had been on every battlefield from Reecee to Ryloth, getting through them all relatively unscathed, had been beaten down by this place, this special brand of hell. I would have to look into what to do with him later. But looking at the men, I knew this meeting wouldn't be a good one.

Upon entering the command tent I had immediately been greeted by General Kenobi and Commander Tano, a greeting I returned. Everyone was very subdued, even Skywalker. Kenobi started off the meeting with Point Wind. It seems the problems started from the outset, in that most of the 212th didn't make it to the landing zone, ending up being spread out over a large strip of land that ended at Point Wind. Then we find out that the hill that was supposed to act as the natural defensive cover for the landing, before they assaulted the factory, was in fact a Hive Mound.

Hive Mounds were like the spired Geonosian buildings, in that they connected to an underground hive, but lacked those towering structures. Hive Mounds were actually the base of all the Spires, where the Geonosian workers come out of the Hive to start building their buildings. Kenobi had been unfortunate enough to have landed with less than a third of his overall force and then have to face a full Geonosian Hive. Apparently, this lead to a fighting retreat by the 212th, picking up their stragglers along the way. After finding and losing men Kenobi managed to set up a basic defensive line behind a large cluster of downed Gunships about 1.2 klicks out of his original landing zone. Kenobi estimates that, at this time, his total forces numbered just over half a full legion, being closer to 55% than 60%.

As they were being pinned down by the droids Commander Tano had volunteered to lead several teams of Commandos to flank round the Geonosians and attack their Hive directly. After being given the green light by Kenobi, Tano lead a force of 100 men in a wide sweeping arc to avoid the Geonosians that were firing on the 501st. Of these 100 men, 25 teams of Commando's, only 42 men came back. This was unprecedented. During the first battle, teams numbering 40 Commandos had assaulted similar Hives and had experienced casualty rates of one or two men per Hive. When asked what happened Tano reported that they entered the Hive and encountered the Geonosians, as expected, but had also found clone troopers. The weird thing was they weren't webbed but free to move. Tano absorbed them into her forces and moved through the Hive until they found the Queen. It was at this point the troopers Tano had picked up turned to fire on their brothers. After suppressing the turn coats and killing the Queen, Tano had found out that a Geonosian parasite could enter a person's body and take over its host. Just when we thought we knew the worst of this hellhole it throws something new at us. On her way out she had rescued at least 65 clone troopers that had been webbed to the walls and, with them and the remaining Commandos, attacked the Geonosians from the rear, finally meeting back up with the 212th.

She was shaking since she first mentioned the infected clones but it got worse when she mentioned the clones she had saved. Kenobi then explain he had the 65 rescued clone euthanized to prevent the spread of the grub infection, he apparently hadn't informed her of the Geonosians proclivities to kidnapped clones. It was a shit show all around. Final estimates for the troop strength of the 212th was close to 42%, including armour. Every battalion consisted of 30,000 men, even the armour. This meant, as it needed a crew of 6, an AT-TE battalion would have 5,000 AT-TE's. At 42% Kenobi didn't even have a full third of a second battalion, nearly 38,000 men left out of an original 90,000.

Mundi seemed to have fared better, in that he hadn't even reached the landing zone and so didn't deal with a full Hive, but he did have his own problems. His armour seemed to have been given special priority by the AA guns and so had ordered an emergency landing to save as many as he could. This landing put them in the open plains, directly within sight of the factory. As soon as the 516th had landed they were under fire. Mundi called in for a bombing run on the factory and was left to hold out for as long as possible. 16 minutes later his bombers had arrived and hammered the facility, allowing Mundi to start his charge. Once the dust from the bombers had settled Mundi and his men were exposed again and were, this time, without the cover from the Gunships. After a hard slog up to, and then through, the factory Mundi had destroyed his target and came to meet Kenobi and the 212th at the designated rendezvous.

I went next and talked about our part of the mission. Due to the foundry being inside of a canyon, relying on natural defences more than artificial ones, we had experienced reduced AA fire than other Points, allowing for all the 501st to land at Point Stone. It had been a textbook landing with a textbook assault. We marched through the canyon and, with Bull's overwatch position, managed to locate and eliminate any and all enemy forces and ambushes on the way to the foundry. Once there, I lead the ODST's of Bull in an assault on the gun emplacements that were surrounding the actual foundry under the cover of AT-TE fire. All was going well, nothing out of the ordinary, which in itself was out of the ordinary for the 501st, especially when you consider the fact that we are on Geonosis. We entered the facility and took it in record time due to a low droid presence. Then there was the Geonosians.

After just a few minutes of fighting them they seemed to grow more and more agitated. Once a set of Droidekas had been released on us I charged them and punted one all the way to the other side of the factory line before picking up another, swinging myself round and throwing the droid at the Geonosians, using it like a discus. With that the Geonosians fled as fast as they were able, leaving us to finish up and blow the foundry. The only real problem came from the missing droids and the fact that they had been sent to trap Rex and Storm Legion.

It was Skywalkers turn next and things didn't look good. For a start, he hadn't said anything since I arrived, not exactly usual given our previous interactions but note worthy all the same, and he seemed very solemn and subdued. It turns out that he and his men had been halted. Skywalkers command had been based around his leadership skills and tactics, basic. He was a phenomenal soldier but if I was in full control of the army I would never have him as more than a field officer, probably making him a commanding officer of a Spec Ops team. His minor flares in creativity and his surprising ability to follow orders means he would make a good leader for a team but not for a group as large as a full legion, let alone two.

With his basic leadership skills and standout fighting abilities Skywalker needed a legion to match. His AT-TE's, his Juggernauts, the Shock Troopers and the Galactic Marines, all were designed to create the single greatest brute force division in the entire army, a clone army equivalent of a charging Bull Rancor or enraged Krayt Dragon. For the droids to be able to stop something that should have been able to roll right over them was worrying.

First, Skywalker explains that he and his men landed under heavy fire, leading them to land a least a full mile away from Point Rain. However, once the Juggernauts were down on the ground there was a significant reduction in AA fire as the cannons turned to face the bigger threat. With the reduced fire a lot of Skywalkers men landed with little difficulty which allowed the Jedi to start his assault. The Juggernauts went first and rushed through the droid lines, not stopping to fight them, and crushing everything under wheel. After breaking the line the Juggernauts unleashed everything on the AA and artillery, decimating it. With the droids turning to combat the immediate threat, Skywalker and his men rushed the droids and cut a swath through them. The droids turned their focus back to Skywalker but his momentum allowed him and his men to just carry on pushing through, perfectly showcasing the well constructed nature of his division. As he was moving up to regroup with the Juggernauts Skywalker noted several go up in smoke, a difficult, but not impossible, feat. The only problem was they were simultaneous.

Reports from the troopers indicate a new type of super tank, numbering around a hundred strong. Considering the Juggernaut requires a crew of 12 a battalion can consist of 2,500, if fully stocked, but to due to how expensive they are most usually only have 1,000 per battalion. This means that each Juggernaut is also transporting 180 clone troopers within for rapid deployment. For a hundred tanks to be able to overwhelm 1,000 of our greatest war machines was dangerous, I could see why Skywalker was worried. To try and combat the tanks Skywalker ordered all rapid deployment troopers to get out and help, which then brought out our second problem. The Defoliators.

18,000 men gone in the blink of an eye. Over half a battalion wiped clean. With his Juggernauts being overwhelmed, and having only successfully destroying 16 of these new tanks, Skywalker pull the Juggernauts out. Thankfully they weren't stuck doing wide turning arcs to get out due to the rear driver and the fact that they go just as fast backwards as they do forwards. With his Tanks in retreat, and the momentum of his men lost, Skywalker decided to set up some trenches and dig his men in, using his AT-TE's as artillery.

With 3 sets of trenches dug, and his men piling in, things looked to have reached a stalemate. Poggle the lesser didn't seem to be willing to send in his super tanks and instead had them set up a defensive perimeter around the factory and used the Defoliators to bombard Skywalker and his men. The AT-TE's shot as many shells out of the sky as they could but some still landed near the troopers. Thankfully, the way the trenches were designed the waves hit the raised trench walls and stopped, protecting the men. The only way for the shells to work is if they landed directly inside the trenches but that just wasn't feasible, and with the jagged design it was also ineffective. The MAP's were being picked off by the At-TE's so Poggle retreated the MAP's to get them out of the AT-TE fire.

After an hour Skywalker believed that the stalemate had been set but the Defoliators returned and fired something Skywalker described as burning snow.

'White Phosphorus.' The table turned to me.

'It was a shell variant found by Fireteam Cobalt on Maridun when they found the recovered information on the Defoliators. It was designed to work in urban environments as the normal Defoliator shell is stopped by walls. The Phosphorus was a prototype shell that had yet to be tested but was believed to be highly effective in urban environments due to it not being restricted by walls. The only problem, the Separatists noted, was that it was unpredictable, as it spread according to the wind, meaning it could come back.' For once Skywalkers retort didn't sound like a personal jab at me, it seemed more aimed at the Geonosians.

'They tested it alright. They just tested it on my men. They tested it until they ran out of shells, and now they know it works, they will be making more.' With this. Skywalkers report was finished.

We had our work cut out for us. The 501st and the 516th were the only legions that suffered casualties with the estimate range, the 212th and Krayt having significantly higher injury and mortality rates, though the 501st Storm battalion suffered heavy loses, as did the 516th armoured battalion. With our total losses we were scratching 255,000, 53% of our original 480,000. We came with nearly 2.5 times more men than the first assault, to have been reduced to this in less than a day was something else, and we weren't even trying to take the whole planet.

Kenobi had requested reinforcements and so High Command had sent one of the Elite Corps to come and assist us. The Elite Corps were a set of highly trained legions that operated along a similar vain as the Star Corps, in that they were sent to the worst of the worst in the war. The difference between the two was that the Star Corps were assault legions and the Elite Corps were support legions. This meant that Star Corps were sent to start fights and take planets, like the 501st were, while the Elite Corps were sent to reinforce where necessary, like Mundi's specialised 516th legion. General Luminara Unduli and the 41st Elite were selected to help our forces on the ground and would arrive within 6 hours, leaving us to hold out till then. Once she arrives we will need to capture the factory and take Poggle the Lesser. If he is allowed to escape he will then incite rebellion across the planet and we may have to abandon it, we couldn't allow that to happen.

To help bare the weight of those 6 hours we set up a rotation schedule for trench divisions. Three 2 hour shifts, with the 212th and 516th taking the first one. The 501st would be up next and take the second, with Krayt bringing up the rear and taking the final shift. With that all done we headed out to get ourselves ready and I went to find Rex. We needed to talk.