Here is the 51st chapter, sorry for the delay but well here it is. The second to last chapter, number 52 will be the last one on this story. Hope you enjoy.

LD: I do not own Star wars.

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General Grievous stood on the bridge on one of the modernized Harrower-class dreadnoughts observing as the combined Force of Mandalorian and Republican space forces tried to push him out of the system. Besides him serving as his guard two men, clones to be more precise, wearing silver combat armors similar to the ones of the Sith Troopers back in Revan's time observed the battle silently. Around the bridge several human and droids coordinated the fleet and overviewed the different systems of the fleet. The human members of the crew were a mixture of clones and normal humans recruited secretly from several confederacy world. The Admiral of the fleet, a black aged man, who'd served some time on the Republic's judicial forces before his world joined the Confederacy approached him.

"Milord" The man spoke with respect. "Our forces are pushing their fleet back."

"Of course we are Admiral." The cyborg general replied with a laugh and a cough.

"However our escorts have taken quite a beating, several Munificent-class frigates have fallen to enemy fighters and support ship, also one of our interdictors has been destroyed." The Admiral reported. "Perhaps we should think of adapting our strategy like they did."

Grievous glared at the man, he knew what he was talking about, before the arrival of the Republic the fleet, the mandalorians had relied heavily on their fighters to engage the enemy support ships and even attacking some points of the cruisers, at least one harrower class was operating with a reserve shield generators thanks to the bothersome Mandalorian fighters, seemingly superior to the fleet's vulture droids and tri-fighters and worst of all the newest Tie fighters the confederacy was deploying during this battle, and two munificent-class fell to the fighters as well, using their medium sized cruisers as shields for their flagship forming an unconventional fleet.

Their tactic had been effective to a degree but not much. With the arrival of the Republican Forces their strategy had changed. They had used their smaller and medium ships as forwards, using their high maneuverability and made them charge into the Separatist fleet supporting the Fighters and making much more damage while the Venators supported from afar while also deploying their ground troops to reinforce their planetary defenses.

"We won't change strategies, keep pushing the enemy back. A change of strategy is a change of formation and they can hurt us badly if we do that" Grievous demanded. The Admiral nodded. "How is the Ground assault going?"

"We have several mandalorian cities under siege but the resistance is ferocious." The Admiral replied.

"Where is Sius?" He asked knowing the young human had returned to the fleet, without fully accomplishing his mission which if he had he knew it would had been much easier to take over the planet

"General Sius is on the infirmary having his arm looked at, since we knew about his leg but what we didn't know about his arm the operation is more complicated than it normally would with an exchange of a prosthetic limb all we can do now is take the remains of his artificial arm off and wait until the battle is over to get him to a medical station." The Admiral reported. Grievous growled, they were winning yet it didn't seem they were winning at all. One of the enemy Venators exploded, one of the Republican ships, however the other three enemies didn't seem fazed by this and continued firing everything they had at the new confederate fleet. Weighing his chances against this enemy and thinking of what could happen if they returned to Lady Alexa in defeat the General growled.

"Prepare my ship admiral" Grievous ordered. "You will be in charge of the space battle here, I'll go down to the planet to lead the troops." He added leaving the bridge followed by the two sith troopers.

"Yes sir" The admiral said motioning for one of the operators to comply with the orders.

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Back at the palace were the conference was being held, Satine, Qui Gon, Obi Wan, Caleb, Siri, Jango and Bo Katan surrounded the hologram of Clone commander Cody, who was leading the recently deployed Republic troops and defending the Capital City of Keldabe from the Separatist assault, and the hologram of Admiral Yularen who was leading the combined space forces against the Separatist fleet. The members of both delegations had left the throne room and gone to their quarters to prepare for a possible evacuation.

"Commander" Obi Wan greeted his second in command. "Report of the situation."

"The situation is not good sir. The Confederates are not only using clankers on this attack they are also using human troopers." Cody reported. "Aside from a wide variety of new weapons, my men, the Protectors and the Royal Guards are being able to keep them from taking the cities while the rest of the security forces take the civillians towaards the refuges but I do not for how long we will be able to keep them outside."

"I'm afraid the situation in space isn't much better" The Admiral reported. "The enemy has newer ships and fighters on their side, as well as a larger Force. We are doing all we can to prevent them from bombing the cities but it is not certain for how long will we be able to hold them."

"Did you send the distress signals?" Qui Gon asked.

"I did." Yularen nodded. "I've contacted the outer rim command and they told me they would prepare a fleet but there has not been further communications and I'm beginning to consider that a temporary retreat would be in order to regroup and come back to take the planet at a later date. Perhaps we could also evacuate the members of the delegations and the Duchess out of the planet while we are at it."

"It will be too dangerous" Qui Gon said. "And the enemy fleet will shoot the transports down as soon as they see them taking off."

"Plus I refuse to leave my planet to it's fate" Satine replied sternly. "By the way commander what about my nephew and his friends?"

"Hmmm... they refused to evacuate the city." Cody replied. "They and Boba Fett have refused the pleads of members of the Royal Guards and Mandalorian protectors and are engaging the enemy."

"Sir!" Shouted commander Wolffe rushing into the room.

"What is it commander?" Obi Wan asked surprised as the rest by the sudden interruption

"Several enemy units are coming towards the Palace." Wolffe reported

"Took them long enough." Jango Fett said and Obi Wan could feel the smirk on the Mandalorian warrior's tone.

"How far away are they?" Siri asked.

"Fifteen miles, maybe less." Wolffe replied.

"Is there anywhere on the palace where the members of the delegations can hide?" Obi Wan asked looking at Satine, Bo Katan and Jango.

"On the underground level of the palace, there's an old bunker from the Mandalorian Wars against the Republic. Ever since then my family has made a point of keeping stock with supplies. We can hide there." Satine informed him.

"Good" He replied. "We'll get the Senators there."

"Obi Wan, you and I will help organizing the defenses of the palace." Qui Gon said. "Siri and Caleb will need you on the bunker protecting the Senators."

"Bo I want you to go with them" Jango said. "I'll stay here and coordinate our defenses with the Jedi."

Bo Katan just nodded as she Siri and Caleb, who threw his master a worried look before leaving, accompanied Duchess Satine out of the room. Qui Gon looked at the holograms of Commander Cody and Admiral Yularen.

"With this new circumstances on play we can only continue what we are doing. Admiral perhaps you should indeed retreat for the moment." Qui Gon said. Yularen shook his head.

"No sir if you are remaining here we'll do our best to provide cover from space to the best of our abilities." Yularen said with a determined voice, it was clear he wasn't willing to repeat the mistake he commited with Tatooine."

"Well then." Qui Gon said "May the Force be with us all."

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General Grievous moved through the streets of Keldabe leading a combined force of Sith troopers and droids in the fight against the Republican and Mandalorian defenders. The dome over the city that had been fully repaired after the first attack on Mandalore was broken again and a lot of fighters and gunships flew over the city engaging against the Mandalorian starfighters and the Republican gunships. The minute he had taken command of the Forces on the capital Grievous had understood what the Admiral said with ferocious fighting. The Confederate troops advance was constantly stopped by guerrilla warfare attacks by the Clones and the Mandalorians and the defficent commands from the tactical droid hadn't been enough to break through.

That was why the first thing he'd done was relief the damn thing from duty, although he kept it alive, and assumed control of the Forces on the surface. The second thing he'd done was sent some forces towards the palace where the duchess was. He knew it would be difficult to capture her and negotiate Mandalore's surrender with her as a hostage so he'd changed the strategy. If he recalled correctly, the duchess had a nephew a nephew he'd left in Keldabe, if he captured the boy it would be easier to negotiate with the duchess. He'd just sent the troops towards the castle to make sure the Jedi didn't interfere with his plan.

"Milord" one of the sith troopers said pulling his out of his thoughts. "We are detecting heavy enemy resistance up ahead."

Grievous concentrated, indeed he could hear it, the sound of the blasters and the shouts of pain from both sides. Running he lead his group of men towards the source of all those noises. It was locate on one of the main streets, one of the streets leading towards the palace. A group of sith troopers, who were taking cover, were fighting a force of Mandalorian Protectors, Royal Guards and what seemed to be a group of academy students that lead the fight. Looking at the ground Grievous found remains of combat droids surely the first to fall to the ambush, he sighed just another proof of how their new army was superior to their old army.

Grievous also noticed Jango Fett's son Boba Fett among the defensive forces, he'd barely known the bounty hunter but he remembered the lad was always next to him during the times he'd seen him. He smiled as he realized that if the royal guards and Protectors were fighting so hard under the orders of some students it meant they were of importance. He dared say the nephew of Duchess Satine could be among the enemy.

Lighting two of his lightsabers he charged against the enemy. Noticing the royal guards and the mandalorian protectors centered their fire against the Confederate General for a while before having to focus on the sith troopers again. Grievous disposed of several enemies as he advanced prompting several royal guards and Mandalorian protectors to close their formation to prevent him from advancing any further.

However before he tried to break through, one of the royal guards intercepted his slash with his pike and even pushed the General back a little. While blocking the blaster shots of the sith troopers with his pike he moved with agility. It seemed the reputation of the Mandalorians as feared warriors even on their weakened state was well deserved. Grievous growled, this mandalorian irritated him, he should die before him like many others, he was only delaying the inevitable and wasting precious time. Grievous's time that was, and the General didn't take kindly to those kinds of things.

"Take the young ones to safety." The royal guard ordered the others. "I'll keep this one busy."

"Lieutenant Darlong no!" The Duchess's nephew spoke as the guards dragged him away. "We will stay and fight with you!"

"You've done well up until now but in your safety lies the future of the planet." The lieutenant replied without looking at them. "It's a necessity sometimes in battle to give up some terrain to the enemy to regroup and put up a much better fight."

Grievous laughed. "What can only one of you do against us? Against only me even. I'm General Grievous the jedislayer!"

"Against all of you I'm nothing" Darlong recognized "But if I can stall you enough time for the young prince to get to safety then I will be satisfied."

"Nonsense!" Grievous growled. "Kill him!" He ordered the sith troopers who leveled their blasters at the guard. However with very swift moves the guard began defeating one sith trooper after another. Not because the troopers were unskilled, but because they were more unskilled than him and far less experienced in combat. Seeing the determination on the man's eyes grievous stopped his men.

"I'll deal with him." He said preparing two of his lightsabers for combat. "Stand back." He ordered before charging against the guard who parried his strike with the pike, which Grievous now recognized as an electropole. It was a peculiar weapon to say the least, not at all lethal in unexperience hands, but that changed if the rival was like this lieutenant. The general struck in succession, putting all his weight in all the strikes trying to break the Royal Guard's defense but it was futile the man knew what he was doing. Grievous growled and and deployed his second pair of robotic arms taking out his other pair of lightsabers.

Darlong however didn't even flinch at the sight, taking another electropole from one of his fallen comrades he prepared to fight Grievous again. The general restarted his attacks but the man blocked them seemingly as easily as he had before. However as the fight went on Grievous realized his enemy was growing more tired and weaker. Finally after several minutes of fight he unarmed his opponent and pointed his lightsabers at him.

"This is the end of the line for you." Grievous spoke as he thrusted just one of his lightsabers into the man's chest and kicked him into the ground where he laid dying. "Let's continue" he ordered his men but just as they began advancing his comm system beeped and the hologram of the Admiral.

"Milord! We've got troubles! Several Republican ships have arrived at Mandalore they outnumber us!" The Admiral replied.

"Can't you hold your space?" Grievous asked.

"Not if we want to preserve the fleet." The Admiral said. Grievous paused at this, it was true that this had been a test for their new forces and ships in the war and while both could easily be replaced, he could use saving the fleet as a excuse to cover their failure.

"I'll have the men retreat" Grievous said. "Begin preparing the hyperdrive and make sure they do not get you."

"Yes sir" The Admiral said cutting the transmission. Introducing the code so that his orders would be heard by the whole army Grievous spoke.

"More republican dogs have arrived at Mandalore. We will begin our retreat now." He ordered. "The droids will remain and cover our escape, the sith troopers will get on the gunships and go back to the fleet."

After he delivered his orders he looked at the sith troopers surrounding him. "Let's go."

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Obi Wan and Qui Gon observed in surprise as the human enemy troopers began to pull back from the fight retreating towards their gunships while the droids continued fighting. Slashing at a pair of B2 superdroids Obi Wan looked at his master.

"Why are they retreating?" Obi Wan asked narrowing his eyes at the sight. Qui Gon shook his head as he slashed at a combat droid decapitating it.

"I do not know:" He said. "But it seems victory is at hand. "Keep pushing commander!" He told commander Wolffe who was nearby. The clone commander nodded.

"Push forward men!" Wolffe ordered. "Push them out!" and so the clones did together with the Mandalorian protectors. Half an hour later the battle was done and the only remains of battle were the corpses of droids, and troopers, from both sides. Jango approached Qui Gon and Obi Wan.

"We did it! We defeated the enemy." The mandalorian said clearly relieved. Both Jedis nodded.

"However how did we do it?" Obi Wan questioned. "They were on the winning side."

But just then the response came from the heavens in the form of several LAAT republic gunships, as well as two Acclamator-class assault ships and a Triangular shaped ship, surely a new model from the Republican navy.

"They are what happened" Qui Gon said with a light smile. Just then Qui Gon's comm link went off and the image of a Republican officer appeared.

"This is Admiral Dodonna from the Republic Navy's experimental Victory-class Star Destroyer." The man spoke. "General Jinn, General Kenobi do you read me?"

"Loud and clear admiral." Qui Gon replied "Thanks for the assistance. Are admiral Yularen and our fleet alright?"

"Well they are, although both the "Resolute" and the Mandalorian Venator-class are heavily damaged and they've lost the other two cruisers and most of the fighters and support ships. By the way no thanks needed for our assistance. Your wife threatened to come even on her own." Qui Gon chuckled. That sounded like Sarah alright. The Admiral continued. "Also the Jedi Council wants you to contact them. They want to hear your report and they seem to have some urgent news."