The leaders of the Army of Unified Kingdoms sat around a circular table and listened to Lord Duran of the Elbe Kingdom as he questioned an Imperial scout, "Where is your commander? Why won't he join us at this strategy meeting?"
"I apologize, milord. The Imperial Army is currently facing the enemy at Alnus. My commander cannot leave the front."
"Strange. I had a quick look at Alnus earlier and there didn't seem to be too many enemies on the hill."
Lord Ligu of the League Principality answered Duran, "Lord Duran, the Imperial Army is obviously holding the enemy at bay at the moment."
The scout spoke up again, "We would like your armies to commence an attack on Alnus Hill at sunrise tomorrow. We await your arrival."
The leaders of the Mudwan and Alguna Kingdoms jumped at the chance of attacking the enemy with both leaders declaring that they would be the first to retake Alnus. Soon enough, the rest of the leaders except Duran, were expressing the prides of their kingdoms that they would be the ones to take all the glory for recapturing Alnus with that glory going to both the Allied Army and of the Empire as well.
The scout was pleased at the responses of the various Lords and said, "We shall wait for your armies then until tomorrow." The scout then left the tent with a slight smile on his face knowing that he had fulfilled the Emperor's order concerning the Allied Army.
The leaders of the Allied Army continued to express their pride for the coming battle tomorrow morning while Duran confided with Lord Ligu, "I have observed the hill and there seems to be around 10,000 enemies on it. Our army severely outnumbers them with 300,000 troops at our command and yet..."
"Yes, Lord Duran?"
"I have this unshakable feeling that we will be unable to claim a victory here, Lord Ligu."
"Unable?" Ligu began to laugh, "Oh, Lord Duran! I guess even you aren't immune to the passage of time!"
While Ligu continued to laugh, Duran simply pondered as to why he held such a feeling and why the Emperor had to call on the Army of Unified Kingdoms to deal with such a minuscule number of enemies.
By the time morning had come, the Army of Unified Kingdoms marched toward Alnus Hill with the armies of the Mudwan and Alguna Kingdoms taking the lead while the army of the League Principality and the other Kingdoms' armies came up from behind them. As the armies grew closer to the hill, the leaders of the Allied Army started to grow worried at the absence of the Imperial Army.
Meanwhile, Duran exited his tent and thought, 'Is it already time for battle?' Before he could ready his men to march with the rest of the Allied Army, one of his scouts approached him and mentioned how the Allied Army was already going into battle. Duran became alarmed however when his scout reported that the Imperial Army was not at the frontlines as he and the other Lords had been told yesterday.
"What? How could that be?" Duran spoke aloud and then began to think that there was a likely reason why such a large army was being sent to fight such a small but unknown force, 'Wait a minute! The enemy! Could this battle have been orchestrated by the Emperor!?'
Eila looked through her macrobinoculars at another approaching army. "Wrench, do you notice anything different about these guys?"
Wrench pulled down the integrated macrobinoculars on his helmet, "These guys seem to be wearing different kinds of armor from each other. They're not the same army from the other day."
"An allied army, you think?"
"It's likely, General."
Eila bit her lip at the sight of once again another approaching army ignoring their warning signs with the larger non-human soldiers simply trampling over them.
"Obviously, these guys are in the service of the Empire here or they wouldn't keep ignoring our signs." She tried to reason to Wrench and herself.
While Wrench nodded at her reason, she sighed at the prospect of what was likely to be another massacre but she tapped the comlink on her wrist and instructed, "Artillery, this is General Deova, large enemy formations have entered our combat area. Prep HE and standby for grid reference."
In just three days of one-sided fighting, the 300,000 strong Allied Army had been reduced to 100,000. The remaining leaders of the Army of Unified Kingdoms quickly fell into despair and began to question their situation.
"How could this happen?"
"Where is the Imperial Army in all of this?"
"Do you seriously think having the Imperial Army here will make a difference?"
"Should we not retreat?"
While the other leaders began debating responsibility for the mess they were in, Duran, while realizing that the Empire had ultimately left them here to die, he still wanted to preserve some of the self-respect of the Army of Unified Kingdoms.
"We should not retreat!" He declared.
"Lord Duran! Why?"
"We should not retreat! Not until I have repaid this enemy with an arrow!"
"But we hardly have the strength to carry out another attack and survive the enemy's 'magic'!"
Duran began to think of his enemies capabilities as he stared at the melted helmet of Lord Ligu. All of the Allied Army's attacks have been full frontal assaults in the daylight in which the enemies long ranged magic that even went beyond the range of a trebuchet easily decimated the men. He needed a way to close the distance by making the enemies long ranged magic useless.
"Perhaps a night raid." He proposed to the remaining leaders. "There is no moon tonight so our men should be hidden in the dark. We can approach their left flank that has enough rocky formations created from a previous battle to hide our approach. The center and right flank are too open."
"But Lord Duran, what if they have a way to see us in the night?" One of the leaders questioned.
Duran pondered this as well. So far, the enemy has shown him abilities that go far beyond any army in Falmart. The blue lightning that he believed came from their smaller weapons melted any type of armor and left a nasty cauterized wound on exposed flesh. The lightning even had the added advantage of essentially 'cooking' a person when it went through the armor with its intense heat. Meanwhile, their larger weapons spewed powerful explosive magic that would claim the lives of more than thirty men who stood out in the open. Some flying arrow shot from a large tube would likewise obliterate their dragon riders. Anyone who did get close to the hill then had to deal with a metal thorn bush that slowed the approach, giving time for the enemy to then kill those who managed to get that far with their smaller weapons. At this point as well, it was unknown to him and his men if the enemy was even human, just terrified reports from men who managed to escape the frontlines of white armored beings occupying the hill.
"This enemy has shown us fantastic abilities. Them being able to see us in the darkness may not be outside their abilities." Duran said.
"Then what is the point of attacking them, Lord Duran!"
Duran declared to the remaining leaders, "At this point, claiming victory against this enemy is useless, but the dignity and honor of the Allied Army must be upheld! As I said, I will not retreat until I have at least sent them an arrow! I will lead the night raid myself. I lead this attack for the Army of Unified Kingdoms, not for the Empire that has abandoned us! If any of you wish to return to your homes, no one here will think less of you."
Despite his reassurance that no one would be thought of as cowardly for leaving, the remaining leaders decided to march with Duran.
In the night, three clone troopers sat in a trench on the left flank of the Gate. Two of the clones were taking the time to sleep while one remained awake. The one trooper who was awake scanned the rocky outcrops in front of him and then noticed that there seemed to be movement going on between the rocks. Not taking any chances, the trooper decided to wake his teammates.
"Guys. Guys! Ticks! Holt! Wake up! There's something out in the field."
The two clones were still dazed at waking up earlier than expected but Holt answered, "Dee? What's going on?"
"There's something out in the field!"
The two troopers immediately grabbed their DC-15A and S-variant blasters and began looking for anything suspicious in their sector.
"Movement, Dee? Could just be an animal."
"I don't think so Ticks. I thought I saw what looked like a person at our 11 o'clock position."
All three troopers squinted at the direction until Holt mentioned, "It's nighttime guys, switch to night optics."
Night optics had become a seriously modified and desired tool since the Umbara campaign as Ticks and Dee groaned at their lack of awareness on that part. Once they switched to night vision, all three noticed that there was large enemy army moving between the rocky formations in an attempt to mask their approach on the hill.
Dee immediately tapped his comlink, "General Deova! Commander Wrench! We have large number of enemy units within 300 meters of the base perimeter! It's an enemy attack!"
Eila and Wrench, who had both maintained a semi-unconscious state of sleep, jumped from their trenches in the center position. Eila ordered the artillery to fire illumination rounds; the enemy was too close for artillery to make a strike safely. At the same time, Wrench ordered the four tanks on the left flank to begin firing on the interlopers.
The night sky burst with bright lights as the entire left flank of the Gate likewise erupted with blue blaster bolts aimed at the enemy army. The tanks also began blasting away the rock formations to deny the trespassers cover. For then on, it seemed that the clones never stopped firing as once again, the intruders started to drop dead. To the amazement of some clones though, it seemed that the enemy commander ordered his men to charge, as the trespassers seemed to lose all sense of self-preservation and simply charged the defensive line without using what little cover they had left. Despite an intense barrage of blaster fire, the intruders came within meters of the trenches. Still, none of the intruders got close enough to swing a sword.
As the slaughter continued, one of the tank drivers noticed one of the intruders grab a bow and arrow and fired it at his tank. The arrow harmlessly bounced off the armor of the AT-TE but the driver took it as a great insult.
"Hey, Kess!" The driver called to the gunner of the mass driver cannon on top of the tank.
"Yes, sir!"
"See that fancy looking armored guy at 1 o'clock low?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Blast him for me, will ya!"
The gunner turned the turret to the direction the driver gave, targeted the man, and fired. The gunner witnessed the man disappear in a quick flash of an explosion and flying rocks.
"Target destroyed, sir."
"Ha ha! That'll teach'em!" The driver howled.
By morning, the results of three days of battles and the night attack was made clear to Eila and her troopers. Some of the clones bragged about the numbers as they searched the battlefield for any survivors.
"Phew! Man, three days and it looks like we wiped out what? About 200,000 of their guys?"
"Seems close to me, brother. That night attack looked like another 60,000 to me."
"Easy kill scores like this, boys? Just like the simulations!"
The trio of clones laughed in the distance while Eila and Wrench were making similar rounds on the cratered battlefield. Eila kicked an enemy helmet down a gentle slope that had become a grave for a bunch of dead soldiers. She shook her head at the sight and scanned the horizon that was littered with the dead bodies of men, non-humans, and small dragons. The black birds happily feasting on the corpses didn't improve her state of mind.
"Why didn't they just surrender or retreat sooner?" Eila soberly questioned .
Wrench answered, "From their view, were the evil invaders. They'll fight to the last man to stop us from getting any further into their land."
"But we're not evil, Wrench!" She snapped, "We're not trying to take any of their land! We're supposed to convince them to negotiate! And I'm just trying to find my…" She paused and redirected her words. "Those warning signs we posted out there pretty much said that they shouldn't approach the hill armed. If they wanted to talk, the signs had on them written that they could throw up a white flag so we'd know what their intentions were. But they did none of that and now this...it seems like a gigantic waste of life on their part. It seemed so much easier fighting droids."
Wrench noticed that his General was becoming upset over the immense loss of life. It made sense; they usually fought droids, not living people. Although in his earlier days, Wrench would have just ignored whatever his General felt. His previous Jedi General was in every sense, 'an asshole' in his opinion so Wrench hardly cared; loyalty to the Republic was all that mattered. But after so many battles, watching so many of his brothers die and having a Jedi General who actually cares about them, feeling bad about so many lives being lost wasn't something that could just be ignored. Still, having learned from past battles, they needed to move past it.
"Eila," Wrench began, "They made their choice. And while their choice might make us—make you; feel bad, hopefully this convinces the Empire to give it up. The sooner we finish here, the sooner we can deal with the war in our galaxy."
Eila gave a half-smile back to Wrench. She knew he only ever used her first name to try, even if it were to fall flat, to comfort her. "Thanks, Wrench. But looking at what happened here, we both know this isn't finished yet."
In the Imperial Palace, Emperor Molt's Internal Minister entered the room while Molt maintained his usual slouch on his throne and was enjoying the silence from a day of squabbling Senators earlier. The Internal Minister approached the Emperor with a bit of a nervous twitch.
"What is it, Marcus?" Molt said.
"Your Majesty, it seems what you ordered has come to pass. The Army of Unified Kingdoms has been defeated by the invaders from the Gate. The survivors are returning to their homelands without leadership. Although, there have also been some reports by our scouts that some of the survivors have begun roaming the countryside as bandits."
"That matters not. What were the Allied Army's casualties?"
"From 300,000 strong, the Allied Army has been reduced to around 40,000 survivors."
"Good. Such high losses mean that our neighbors are no longer a threat to the Empire."
"But your Majesty, the enemy at the Gate!"
"Do not worry, Marcus, I haven't forgotten them. Burn all the villages and towns between Alnus and the Imperial Capital. Poison the wells and take all the grain and livestock. That should slow down the invaders and make them vulnerable to our inevitable counterattack."
"Scorched earth tactics? But your Majesty, are you not worried about the loss in tax revenue and possibly even the loyalty of your citizens? There are rumors spreading that Senator Tiberius is trying to convince the Senate to force you to abdicate your power due to the defeat of the Army of Unified Kingdoms."
"Ha ha! And what can only one Senator do? Oh, Marcus, you worry too much. Let the Senate do as they please. They only end up bickering in the end anyway and there are still a good number of loyal Senators who are supporting my decision to continue our war against the invaders." Molt boasted but he began to think that he should be ready to liquidate the Senate if they were going to attempt to pry his powers from him.
Suddenly, Molt's daughter, Princess Pina Co Lada, interrupted his meeting with Marcus by barging into the room. "Your Majesty!"
"What is it, my daughter?"
"It's about Alnus Hill, father. I have just learned about the Allied Army's defeat. What do you plan to do now against the invaders from the Gate?!"
Marcus interjected, "We are rebuilding the military and are planning to retake..."
"That is pointless!" Pina interrupted. "Rebuilding the military will take too long! The invaders will continue to march through our lands while we trouble ourselves with recruitment and training! Have you even told father about the soldiers the invaders have in captivity on the other side of the Gate?"
"W—Well..."
Molt watched as Marcus struggled to answer her. His daughter's hotblooded attitude matched her hair. But, he needed her to disappear for the moment while he organized his plans. The last thing he wanted was another person constantly pestering him for the details of his decisions.
"Enough, my daughter. While you are correct that rebuilding the military will take time, I was the one who ordered Marcus to act in such a way. Time is what we need as we are still ignorant of who the invaders are." It was then Molt realized an idea where he could get rid of his daughter for some time at least.
"This is actually perfect, daughter. Why don't you take your Rose Order and scout the invaders from the Gate?"
"M—My Order?"
"Yes, your Order. Or is it that your Order and your childish act at playing soldier just a farce?"
Pina tightened her fist at her father's jab but proceeded to bow to him, "It will be done, your Majesty."
After sending out probe droids to observe that the enemy had indeed retreated completely and only finding four badly wounded survivors from the battle, Alnus Hill was quickly converted to a typical Republic base that could be found on any planet with turbolaser batteries covering a hexagonal perimeter. The Gate itself would be placed in a dome with large blast doors covering it. Although, the base walls were somewhat shorter and facilities somewhat smaller than with regular bases since everything had the fit through the Gate. The turbolaser batteries themselves weren't rated to destroy a capital ship, but they were just powerful enough to kill anything that could be heavily armored like an AT-TE or a Juggernaut.
Eila finally had a well-lit and furnished office rather than a muddy ditch with a flashlight but she hated being confined to it with the resulting paper work that came with the office. Standard operating procedures, rules of engagement, requisitions, and surveys were blurring together as she had to read, suggest changes, and sign off on all of them. Even the requisition for what the trooper's armor should look like out in the field had taken some time. She really just wanted the regular armor with green decals to match the mostly forested landscape. Fortunately, the armor and some of the things on her list had already been resolved by the time they completed building the base.
The astronomy survey that was completed the next night after the last battle they had, showed that the planet did not exist on any of the Republic or even Jedi star maps since none of the stars in the night sky could be identified or matched to the maps. It was assumed that the planet could be in the Unknown Regions or in Wild Space but there was nothing to confirm those assumptions either. Still, it meant that there was very little to no chance of getting help from the Republic Navy.
Next, the geographical and navigational surveys gave them an accurate map of the continent they were on in which their main target, what they believed was the Empire's capital due to its large number of sophisticated buildings, was slightly to their northeast and several hundred kilometers away. A difficult journey to make without gunships. The nearest settlements though were directly to their north. Ultimately, the standard operating procedure dictated to Eila and her troopers by the Republic and Jedi Order was to first make friends of the surrounding settlements to better understand the Empire, which would help in the eventual negotiations.
To make friends of the surrounding settlements, sending out squads of troopers to act as reconnaissance units looked to be the most efficient way. Six squads were formed consisting of nine troopers each would make use of speeders to branch out the influence of the Republic in the area. Unfortunately, the BARC speeders they were being provided with didn't have much in the way of carrying capacity. Since they didn't have gunships yet and the tanks had to stay in the base just in case the enemy decided to return, the speeders had to be able to carry a sizable amount of gear or at least be able to carry four injured troopers at once in an emergency.
Wrench, befitting his namesake, had already informed Eila that he and a group of engineers were modifying the speeders that would include an enclosure on the back of the speeder for troopers to be able to sit down in it if needed. Adding the enclosure made the speeder rear heavy so two more light blaster cannons were added to the front along with some counterweights to compensate. The additional weight limited the top speed though but there would only be three of the modified speeders to a squad while the remaining troopers ran in unmodified BARC speeders.
Personally, Eila wanted to lead one of the recon teams but the paper work grounded her to the base in which she would have to pick troopers from the division. Wrench, likewise, couldn't lead the recon teams as well since he was also being bogged down by paper work. Luckily for the two of them, a trooper who had plenty of combat experience and leadership skills had recently transferred from Coruscant. Because of the attack on Coruscant, the Coruscant Guard wanted a little bit of revenge for some of their troopers who were killed but since they still had the job of protecting Coruscant, they could only send one of their best.
As Eila and Wrench were finalizing possible destinations for the recon teams, the door chimed.
"Come in." She called and a trooper with the typical red markings of the Coruscant Guard entered.
"ARC-77, reporting for duty, General."
"Captain Fordo, please come in. We're quite happy that you'll be joining us in this campaign. Your exploits during the battles of Muunilinst and Hypori are well known among troopers and Jedi alike."
"Thank you, General. And while I am here on behalf of the Guard, your orders stand."
"That's alright, Captain. Given that you are an ARC, you are allowed some leeway to orders."
Fordo simply nodded and continued having noticed the paper work, "Do you already have a mission ready, General?"
"Actually, me and Commander Wrench were just finalizing the recon teams' destinations. We have a briefing scheduled for all recon teams in a few moments. Join us, Captain."
"Gladly, but General, what's my post here?"
"Given your skills and experience, it's only fitting that you lead one of the recon teams. We need the best out there so you'll lead Recon Team Three. The Lieutenant who's supposed to lead RT3 was injured in an accident this morning. Apparently, getting your armor on is a dangerous business."
After the morning briefing and an adjustment in armor from the red markings of the Guard to green, Fordo went to meet his team who had assembled themselves near a group of BARC speeders. Fordo recounted what the General addressed in the briefing that the teams would be alone in the wilderness since proper communications had not been set up, though she did mention that it would be a priority so they shouldn't be in the dark for long.
The regular troopers of RT3 were rather excited that an ARC in particular, a famous ARC, was leading them but one of the troopers remained professional. As Fordo approached, the professional trooper called out, "Recon Team Three, reporting in, sir!"
"At ease. Since, I'm meeting you all for the first time, why not tell me your names?"
The professional trooper started first, "My designation is CT-231977!"
"Just tell me your names, alright."
The professional trooper became slightly embarrassed but continued, "Yes sir, uh, my name's Fick, sir."
The rest of the troopers then sounded off on their own names, "Noah", "Alloy", "Ray", "Hoot", "Cabby", "Ramius", and "Zipper".
"Good. Well, it's only polite that I say, I'm Captain Fordo, I'll be your commander from now on due to your previous Lieutenant's accident."
Some of the troopers gave a slight snicker at the mention of their previous leader.
Fordo ignored the snickering but before he could give an order, one of the troopers spoke up, "Sir!"
"Yes, you're Hoot, correct?"
"Yes, sir. I just wanted to ask. You've met plenty of droids, right sir?"
Fordo was getting suspicious but answered, "Met? Sure."
"Who's 'Roger'?" Hoot said with a snicker.
The other troopers groaned at Hoot's abysmal attempt at humor but Fordo simply wrote off the trooper's comment and ordered, "Mount up!"
Author's Note: I decided to add Fordo from Star Wars: Clone Wars by Genndy Tartakovsky just because he's simply a badass. No further reasoning needed. Now with the clones Fordo will be with and some of the clones mentioned earlier, I just sort of plucked a bunch of random names with the exception of Fick, Ramius, and Hoot. Fick, because when I was first writing this, I was watching Generation Kill. Ramius, because of the Captains from both The Hunt for Red October and Gundam SEED. And finally, Hoot, because while thinking of more names, I was reminded of Vanossgaming's mascot and I just thought there should be a somewhat "light-hearted" clone with them. Even if that clone makes jokes that won't make you laugh.