Commander Tel Daggoth watched from the Bridge of the Perseverance as the last of the refugees he could fit boarded his ship. His crew had gone above and beyond what was expected of them. They had managed to cram not fifty thousand, not sixty thousand, not even seventy thousand Caamasi on board, but had managed to pack in eighty-two thousand three hundred. Granted, drawing so much as a deep breath was difficult at this point for the refugees, but such was the cost of saving lives. Just as he, reluctantly, gave the order to raise the ramps and prepare the ship for launch, Commodore Sykes came over the comm to inform him that the Chu'unthor and the three frigates were also full and were preparing to break orbit once he joined them.

As the Perseverance slowly lifted off the surface, there was not a dry eye left on the Bridge, or anywhere on the ship for that matter. There were millions still on the planet that would not live to see the next day. It broke their hearts that they were having to leave so many behind. As the landing gear was retracted, the main engines began to move the ship away from the surface and toward the rest of the fleet. At his command station, Commander Daggoth forced himself to watch the external holocams that were focused on the remaining Caamasi. He watched as many took their own lives, choosing to end it quickly with a blaster than to wait for the approaching firestorm. Daggoth liked to think of himself as a hardened soldier. But seeing that broke something inside him. He felt a deep inner sadness at this horrible, senseless act. But more than that, he began to feel an all consuming rage and hatred for the Empire and the Sith. Privately, he swore vengeance upon the Empire. He would do whatever it took, whatever the cost, to destroy them and make them pay for this. He was not alone in those sentiments.

Seryanna had just gotten her latest load of refugees onto the shuttle when her comlink went off. It was Master Yoda. Looking very sad, he informed her, and the rest of the Jedi, that the ships were full. That once the shuttles delivered their passengers to the fleet, they would return to the planet only once more to evacuate the Jedi, Troopers and the final few Caamasi that they could fit. The choice Master Skywalker had warned her that she would have to make was here. To escape with her Troopers, or to stay behind, evacuate just one more person, and accept that she was going to die.

Stifling a sob, she turned to Captain Rex and told him, "Rex, prepare your men to evacuate. The ships are full. The shuttles are on their way back now. Then they leave for good."

"What about you, Commander?" Rex immediately asked.

Giving Rex a halfhearted sad smile and with her eyes brimming with tears, Seryanna gave a small shake of her head and told him quietly, "No."

Turning quickly away before Rex could say anything Seryanna made her way back into the crowd, pulling children and their mothers up front quickly. Above her she heard the scream of the approaching shuttle while in front of her, she could hear the roar of the approaching firestorm. She could feel its heat on her face. And as it got closer, she could feel the force of the wind increasing as the air all around was sucked into it, feeding the fires. When the flames finally died, Caamas would be a dead husk of a planet floating through space. Unable to support even the lowest form of life. "And she would be there too," Seryanna thought. "Her ashes would mingle and mix with those who had lived here. And maybe one day, when the planet finally cooled, someone would return and find the charred remains of her lightsaber and know that a Jedi had died for these people."

As the men of the 501st loaded the last of the refugees that they could fit onto the shuttle, Seryanna did her best to maintain calm and order with those before her, those that were going to be left behind. She knew, despite her tears, despite her dismay at the fact that she would be dead in minutes, that the minute Captain Rex and his men boarded that shuttle, pure pandemonium would break out. She was going to do her best to stop it.

Calling Rex on his comlink, Seryanna asked, "Rex, what's the hold up? You've only got minutes left to get everyone onboard and get the kriff out of here."

"Going now, Commander," he responded. "And Commander, I'm sorry."

As Rex finished speaking, he squeezed the trigger on his blaster and shot Seryanna in the back with a stun bolt. Picking her up and ignoring the shocked look on the faces of the Caamasi that were still there he said to her unconscious form, "Sorry kid. But the General would never forgive me if I left you behind. And besides, you're too good a person to die today." Amazingly, Rex's shot to stun Seryanna was the only shot fired on the ground during the entire evacuation.

As Rex stood at the top of the ramp, he watched the faces of the Caamasi they were leaving behind. Rex was a hard man, a Professional Soldier all his life. He had seen and fought across half the Galaxy. He'd had his brothers die in his arms. But looking out over the masses of Caamasi that were left, the sheer look of despair on their faces, the way many were openly weeping, clutching their loved ones tight in a final embrace, it moved him deeply. In his living memory, Rex could not ever remember crying. Yet now he felt the tears running down his face under his helmet. Listening to the sounds his squad was making on their comlinks, he wasn't the only one who was.

With a solid thud, Darth Aella's escape pod landed on the deck of the Hanger Bay of the Dominator after having been brought in via tractor beam. The ship's Captain was waiting for her as soon as she climbed out of the pod. "Lord Aella," he greeted her.

"Save the pleasantries, Captain," she replied. "Open fire on the Enforcer immediately. It has been seized by the Jedi. I want it destroyed."

"But My Lord..." the Captain started. The look that Darth Aella gave him nearly froze him in his tracks. "It will be as you command, My Lord." Quickly comming the Bridge with his orders, the Dominator opened fire on the Enforcer within minutes.

In Secondary Control on the Enforcer, Anakin surveyed the command screens to familiarize himself with the status of his new ship and what it could do. He wasn't entirely unfamiliar with it, the Republic Navy had been designing the ship with input from the Jedi for over a year. What was disconcerting to him was the amount of red showing on his screen denoting battle damage. Fortunately, the weapons, shields and, more importantly, the engines still worked.

Looking at Captain Medina, Anakin asked him, "Captain, how quickly can we get out of here?"

"Ten minutes, General," came his reply. "It will take us that long to plot a jump course and move free of Caamas' gravity well."

"Try and shave a little bit off of that, will ya? I don't think we've got long."

"Captain! The Dominator's targeting arrays just locked onto us!" Yelled a young ensign.

"Lieutenant, did you get the shields up?" Asked Captain Medina.

"Aye, Sir! All shields at full power."

"Excellent work," said Anakin. "What's your name, Lieutenant?"

"Gilad Pallaeon, General."

Just then, the entire ship rocked as the Dominator's turbolaser batteries opened fire on them. Quickly checking the status displays, Lieutenant Pallaeon shouted, "All shields still holding! Midship dorsal shield at eighty percent!"

"Weapons free, Captain. Defend your ship," Anakin said quietly.

"Weapons! Target the Dominator. Weapons emplacements and propulsion have priority. Fire when ready," ordered Captain Medina

"Aye, Sir," came the reply from the weapons officer. Seconds later, the Enforcer's turbolasers lanced out from the ship, slamming squarely into the Dominator's shields. The two behemoths trading blows, shot after shot screaming between the two ships, all while the Enforcer's engines roared, trying to move the ship away from the planet to make the jump to hyperspace.

Walking over to the communications console, Anakin contacted Obi-wan on his comm and was relieved to hear that Master Plo, Zett and Ahsoka were all in the ship's Medical Bay being attended to by the Med Droids. Obi-wan then asked the question that Anakin knew was coming: "What's going on up there?"

Anakin's response was, typically, nonchalant, "Oh nothing much. We're trying to leave but it seems as if the Empire just doesn't want to let us go. I think they're attached to us or something."

"You're fighting off the entire fleet, aren't you?"

"Well, maybe not the entire fleet. They are rather busy at the moment. But yes, we are trying to fight our way out."

"Just tell me you're not flying the ship yourself this time."

"Of course not, Master. There's a quartermaster at the helm. I'm just supervising."

"Good! Do you need anymore help up there?"

"No, Master. Stay with your Padawan. He needs you more than I do right now. Besides, I've got to contact Master Yoda. I don't want the rest of the fleet to panic when an Imperial Star Destroyer shows up at Tython. Some of us are considerate like that. Unlike others."

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you Anakin?"

"No, I'm not. May the Force be with you Master."

"And with you Anakin."

Disconnecting from Obi-wan, Anakin quickly reached out to Master Yoda using an open channel. He hated doing it, but until they could comb through the destroyer's computer and communication systems looking for bugs and tracking software, they couldn't risk encoding it. It took all of three minutes to explain the situation to Master Yoda. Yoda simply nodded and said he would ensure their safe passage back home. Signing off, Anakin looked at Captain Medina and asked, "Are we ready for the jump to lightspeed, Captain?"

Before he could answer, alarms began to blare and the entire destroyer shook. From his console, Lieutenant Pallaeon shouted, "Sir! Hull breach in Engineering! That last volley from the Dominator punched through our shields. Main Propulsion off line. All atmosphere vented to space. Attempting to isolate and restore atmosphere."

From the communications console, the ensign manning it said, "Sir, no response from Engineering!"

Cursing up a storm, Captain Medina ordered damage control parties to head immediately to the Engineering section to try and repair the damage. At his console, Gilad Pallaeon worked furiously to isolate the damage and restore atmosphere to Engineering so they could repair the damage.

Anakin, meanwhile, stood quietly at the rear of the compartment, his arms folded across his chest, deep in thought. While the situation was bad, it was far from the worst he'd ever been in. Looking up he said, "Captain, how many shuttles do you have onboard?"

"Sir?" Replied Captain Medina.

"How many shuttles and landing craft do you have onboard?"

"Ten shuttles and thirty landing craft, Sir. Why?"

"I want you to launch all of them. Minimum flight crew required. No more than three personnel per ship. Send them all to the surface. Save as many people as you can. We'll provide cover fire for them. How many have a hyperdrive?"

"All of them, General. The landing craft were refitted with them six months ago."

"Perfect. Give them these rendezvous coordinates. We'll meet them there." Turning to Lieutenant Pallaeon who was still working diligently to get his ship back under control and said, "Lieutenant, status of the Hyperdrive?"

"Damaged, Sir. Seventy-five percent capacity. I won't vouch for it for more than three or four jumps."

"Understood. Captain, I assume the Navy equipped your ship with a transponder and tracking software?"

"Already disabled General. One of Admiral Coburn's last orders, Sir."

"Very good. As soon as the shuttles are away, take us to lightspeed. If we stay here we're going to get pounded to scrap."

"Aye, Aye Sir."

From the sensor array station, he heard the report called out that the other Jedi ships had all made the jump to lightspeed and were safely away. Their shuttles too were about to leave. Looking out over the battlefield through the holocam, Anakin could see the masses of wreckage strewn across space. Mostly Imperial, but here and there he could see the remains of a Jedi Starfighter. He would have to wait for a full accounting, but at a guess, almost half of the Jedi that had flown into battle with him only hours ago were dead. "They had won, but at what cost?" Anakin wondered. As he watched, the stars began to lengthen and the Enforcer shot into hyperspace. The Battle of Caamas was over.