It is the battle of Utapu, amidst another grueling year of the Clone Wars conflict. Millions have fallen to the great fight, both for, against, and neutral.
A surprise attack has been launched against the great General Grievous by Republic forces.
Caught by surprise, but not without confidence, Grievous fights with his greatest foe and rival, Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Their duel is at its climax, and the fate of the entire galaxy is hinged on their resolve to defeat the other….
Chapter 1.
"Grievous! Your time ends now! Your reign of terror is over." Kenobi cried, raising a blaster toward the general. Having lost his sabers, the great biomechanical menace stepped back, fury in his golden eyes, crimson and burgundy colored flesh surrounding them.
"You may try me Jedi but be ready to finally die!" he said, preparing to leap, his arms raring, rage and fury consuming him. But as his claws cracked into the concrete below him, a blaster shot of pure glowing plasma struck him in the chest, fired from his rival's blaster.
However, he had just barely angled his body, and the blaster shot threw him back instead, knocking him off the cliff, into the great depths of the pits of Utapu. He screamed and cried with great fury as he fell; now, the great Jedi killer, hunter of the knights of the republic, now-
Presumably Dead.
Master Obi-wan dispassionately threw down the blaster.
"Such an uncivilized weapon." He commented, taking only one glance back at the pit in which he had thrown his longtime foe. He sighed, as he now truly believed, the enemy he had fought so many times, was now dead.
It was never the will of Jedi to kill their enemies under hatred, and for one like Obi-wan, this was no truer that anyone else. But regardless, there was a feeling of relief, slight as it were, that the biomechanical menace was dead. Even he could not deny it.
All the lives of his comrades, their treasured existence in this universe, that this menace had taken. He walked off, hoping, to never, ever, see him again. As he walked off, the republic forces swarmed into the pits, the cascading sound of blaster fire far off in the distance, the remaining echoes of war.
In the end though, the force had other plans.
Deep, down in those sinkhole pits. The sunlight was barely able to reach to this far, and only in the exact positioning of Utapu's sun could what in these deep caverns could be seen from the surface. Its rock-solid walls got wetter and filled with moss the deeper you went. At some points, the heat from the planets core could make it impossible to survive, and the only things down here were maintenance tunnels for the natives to mine from. The Confederacy had repurposed those tunnels for their military operations against the republic, and with the surprise invasion of Utapu by the republic now finishing, they were empty, along with the pits themselves, now clone troopers attacking them.
That didn't apply to all though.
CRACK! A collision with the ground sent dust, bones, and rocks everywhere. The yellow lizard like eyes flickered open, scanning the environment. He raised a metal claw to his face, the bare sunlight illuminating the scratches and gashes on it. His bottom two arms were dysfunctional now, and they simply fell off in the collision. He picked himself up, albeit slowly. He flexed his remaining two arms and cracked his neck.
Where am I? that's right. I was fighting Kenobi. It seems our rivalry had to come to an end. Grievous stood up, his legs surprisingly undamaged. He had gripped the rock walls of Utapu the whole way down, wrecking the edges of his claws. But it had saved his life, even as he slammed through all the inter-pit bridges, and held onto rock walls. He gazed around the pit, then looking toward what would have been the sky. The pit was filled with those bridges, and it would be like a child climbing a great tree to go back up. But he was no child.
And yet. Something felt, different. Grievous held his head for a few seconds, feeling something in the back of his head. He pulled on it, and it came out easily, but he felt no different. He looked at what was in his hand. It seemed to be a small circuit of sorts, attached right to his spinal cord. He put it into of his small storage pockets. Suddenly and slowly, he felt, strange things in his head.
"Who am I? I am grievous, that is who I am. And yet, I feel like I have been, completed just now." He asked himself, and to whoever was there with him.
He looked down at his chest, two of the protective plates pried open from Kenobi's force grip. With a careful yet powerful pull, he forced them back closed as he could, the second one still damaged from the blaster fire. He looked at his hands, realizing as to how, mechanical they were.
Of course they were. he remembered the whole process. The agonizing process. He had been hit by an explosive, oh so long ago. Or was it that long ago? And the pain, that pain of reconstruction. He remembered it all now. For so long it had been an ebbing of memory, covered by anesthetics. But somehow he remembered it all. The view in the green fluid filled Batca holding, seeing a dark lord, robed in darker clothing, observing him. Yes, that was Sidious, his teachers master. The feeling of wires, metal, mechanical components being fused into his body, never to be removed again. The realization, his body-
was nearly all gone.
The droids, what happened to them? Not that he cared. But what would he do now? Dooku was dead, and it was clear something was about to happen with the clone forces on Utapu. The surprise attack was too convenient, even for the best of the republic generals to coordinate. He was the greatest strategist in the galaxy, and for damn sure without him the Separatists would not have made it as far as they did after he was given command.
Then, there was something else. He recalled something. A familial feeling. It soon disappeared, as he blinked a few times. He looked at his waist, no sabers to be found.
"I was, am a Jedi hunter. That is who, I was created to be. And yet that's not right. Its, wrong." He said to himself once again, and for the first time, there was, something else there.
Hesitation? No. he was never like that.
And yet….
He looked up toward the surface, the light having darkened slightly, coughing from the moisture. He looked at the rest of his body and deactivated the connections to his bottom two arms. They were useless. Had been useful, and yet so unnatural. He looked toward the nearest maintenance bridge, and with full force leapt onto the wall, smashing his claws onto it. They skidded slightly but were still strong enough to hold him. Although they had been dulled from falling down the sides of the sinkhole, they were still plenty enough to get him back up. One of his chest cavity armor components had been heavily damaged, and it would be his weak spot for the time being. No matter.
He began quickly climbing up the wall, with the speed and ease of a slow speeder on a flat plane, the mild moisture of the walls, with its layers of moss at the deeper parts the only thing deterring him. Upon reaching the first bridge, he swung his body over it, looking both ways through the tunnels. He leapt up to the next one, barely grabbing it, but holding on, then promptly pulling himself over. He did so again and again, until he reached the second to last one that was closer. He instead went into the tunnels, and soon hearing voices from deep inside, the natural light fading, and swapping over to artificial light from ceiling lamp. Male, soldier voices. He sunk his claws and feet into the walls, crawling up onto the ceiling, hanging perfectly upside down. He crept quietly as his body moved forward, his back completely flat. He craned his head a slight angle down, listening to the conversations of the Clone soldiers, some without their helms.
"I want Kenobi taken down now! By order 66 he must be destroyed, along with any other remaining force sensitive children on this planet." The head clone said, and the clones put their helms back on and spread out.
Order 66? I was never informed of this. I need more information. He leapt down, in front of the group. Their blasters immediately trained on his position, as he stood up, his imposingly tall figure pushing them back a few steps.
"Grievous. How are you still alive? Kenobi killed you." The captain Clone asked, pointing a blaster.
"My death was greatly exaggerated it seems. What is this order 66?" Grievous said, a hand naturally deviating toward his waist. But there were no sabers to be found.
"Eliminate him!" the captain cried, firing his blaster, and so did the others. Grievous leapt onto him, tearing his helmet off, grabbing him by the neck and flinging him with amazing force at another soldier, who was knocked back. The other clone fired, but grievous speedily evaded the panicked shots, and upon grabbing his head, snapped his neck instantly.
He began walking over to the clone captain, as more blaster fire erupted around him. As more troopers fired on him, the captain rolled behind an AT tank for cover. Spotting where the blaster was coming from, a row of troops descending the hallway. A quick look that way, then back at his target, he leapt full force into the crowd, throwing clones aside like small children's toys. He took a blaster from one, throwing him over the edge. He fired it at a few troops, then pelted it at another. He swiped open the chests of the troops, obliterating their chest plate, shattering it completely. He grabbed another close soldier, sending him onto one of the soldiers still close, throwing him over the edge as well, both screaming as they plummeted. He had no use for a lightsaber in moments like these, his hunters instinct paired with physical ability was all he required. As he finished off another troop, he went back to the captain, and lifted him by the neck, who had just appeared from cover to fire.
"Answers. Now. I'm sure you clones are more competent then those idiotic droids I had the displeasure of leading." He said, tightening his grip, the captain grasping at his claws, his blaster having fallen to the ground.
"You will suffer by the emperor!" he said, and grievous had enough. He had possibly recovered memories, survived a duel with one of his greatest foes in the Jedi order, and barely survived falling into the pits of Utapu. His day was annoying enough. He snapped his neck, the clone falling lifelessly to the ground, the body crumpling. The hall went into silence, as it would be some time before reinforcements came to help the fallen squad. As he looked up toward the hallway, he felt a sharp pain in his chest, and collapsed to the ground on one knee, coughing violently.
"Augh. That fall did me no good. These clones are just as useless as I expected. No matter. However,…" he thought out loud, looking toward one of the inside bays within the tunnel, with a medical symbol above. His walked over to it, and went in. Inside it was quiet, except for one alone clone. He saw grievous, and fell back toward the wall, seeing the general battered, scarred, and sullen body.
"your gonna kill me aren't you! I have done nothing but heal!" grievous looked down at him, surprised to see a semi reasonable clone.
"you do not fight?"
"No! I am a medically staffed clone. I have basic combat training-why am I even telling you this! I'd rather take my own life-"on that note Grievous fell on the nearby medical table, coughing much harder than he had before.
"Dammit. I cant believe it has come to this. Clone. Do you know anything about cyborg repair?" Grievous asked, a hint of disparagement in his synthesized voice. The clone hesitantly nodded, beads of sweat under the helm.
"yes. Considering you have been wiped from the record, no one will know. Not like I care. I am done with this order 66 crap."
Grievous tilted his head at that statement. "You, tell me. What is order 66? And what do you mean by wiped from the record?" the clone sighed and began taking a collection of surgical equipment from a cabinet, a nearby terminal lighting up with paragraphs of information.
"The order from the emperor to eliminate all Jedi and force sensitives. He did not mention you in the order, although I heard the racket down the hallway. I searched out of curiosity, and the second it seems he sent the order out, you were wiped from all, now imperial, record. You are considered dead by the galaxy." The clone replied, pulling up a few empty holo folders on a nearby screen.
"So then my personal headquarters may also be destroyed. They probably want all traces of me gone." He responded, leaning onto the table.
"I don't know about that. However, I had found a small chip-" he beckoned to one on the table next to him-"in my skull, during an accidental x-ray examination. I removed it immediately, and conveniently before the order was put out. I was only solo duty here, so no one knows. And you now, I guess."
The surgeon gathered his tools onto a slight table and extended the medical bay bed as far as he could to accommodate Grievous. He took a few bacta tank IV's and tried to find somewhere to hook them up. He found a few small ports on his ribcage sides, and plugged them in. he looked over grievous' body, trying to find a way to access his ribcage.
"I'm surprised you trust me." The clone said. Grievous looked over at him.
"Be glad of it. I also found a chip in my spinal cord, after I had fallen." He gave it to the clone, who examined it.
"Indeed. A memory repressor chip. Similar in design to mine, but more powerful, and focused on restraining." He looked at grievous as he said that, noting how seemingly naturally relaxed the monsters eyes were. "I'm surprised your conscious with it out. I barely got mine out without automated assistance. However, mine was deeper, so you were certainly lucky. Now, Ill need to you, quite literally, open your chest cavity. Can you do that?" he asked, ready with some anesthetic medicine. Grievous nodded.
"Yes." With a loud cracking of metal and pivots squealing, he opened his chest cavity, revealing the green, pumping sack of all his organs. He looked down, seeing all that was remaining of his flesh body.
"no way. That's all that's left of your flesh body, including your brain and spinal cord. What happened to you?"
"many things." The clone nodded.
"Right. one more thing. My code is 5832, everyone calls me Doc. Is Grievous your only name?"
Grievous thought for a moment, and like a thin cloud on a sandy planet, a word that did come up disappeared. "yes."
"alright. I'll do my best." Grievous looked to the side, then back to Doc.
The cyborg was silent. For a second he thought about saying something, but decided against it.
Grievous kept his eyes on the clone, who as Grievous drifted into unconsciousness, collected a few tools from a bench, and began immediately working.
"Er, thank you." Grievous barely murmured. As his words barely escaped his vocal cords, his eyes gently closed…
Then darkness.