As RT3 neared Italica, Fick would be the first to voice concern over a large smoke cloud in the direction of that town.

"Can anyone see if there's a cause for all that smoke?" Eila asked as they stopped their speeders, wondering if it was the fire dragon mentioned to her before.

Fordo dropped his macrobinoculars and had a quick look at the direction at town before answering, "No, General. I can't see a cause." He then ordered, "All units, eyes on our perimeter. We might not be alone. Let's keep moving."

The speeders started to move again, but in Cabby's modified speeder, Rory pushed her head out the enclosure to see the smoke from the town.

"What's wrong, miss?" Cabby asked looking back.

"I smell blood." Rory said while licking her lips.

"Uhh, Captain?" Cabby voiced on the internal comms to Fordo.

"Yeah, Cabby. I know. I heard her too. Eyes open."

While the speeders moved on to the town, they did not know that there was presently a battle going on between the town's inhabitants and a large army of rogue soldiers that had assembled outside the town's walls. Attacking the south gate, both sides pepper each other with arrows while the sentries on top of the wall dumped scalding oil on the attackers below. Making no headway as the entrance into the town had been fortified with additional reinforcements in the middle of the attack, the leader of the rogue army called on his troops to retreat. As the army promptly left, Pina stood above on the wall disheartened at current events.

'What a disgrace the remnants of the Imperial Army that fought at Alnus have fallen to.' Pina thought as she observed that some of the corpses of the rogue army still wore pieces of their Imperial uniform. She was also equally depressed to see some colors from the Allied Army with the rogues as well. She noted that Lord Duran would find that most disappointing. She then turned her attention to her own knights as she called if Norma and Hamilton were fine.

"I'm alive, Princess! Somehow!" Hamilton called out while Norma could only muster a weak wave.

"How cruel, Princess." Said Grey as he watched Pina descend from the wall, "Are you not concerned about me?"

"I'm not, Grey. I know you've fought and survived in even worse battles than this."

Grey would smile and laugh at her comment as Pina and Hamilton began to make their way to the Formal mansion at the center of the town that housed the former Count's daughter who had recently become the leader of Italica. While they walked, Hamilton voiced a question of why they were fighting bandits.

In a minor fit of anger, Pina shouted to Hamilton, "How should I know?! We followed the rumor you heard! I thought the army from the other world was attacking this town but they're not! Instead, we're fighting bandits who were our former comrades in arms!"

Pina then noticed that some of the townspeople were there to see her little spat at Hamilton. Pina quickly ordered to them, "This is no time to rest! You must dispose the bodies and reinforce the barricades quickly! We don't know when the enemy will return. Do not lose hope, I had ordered the main unit of my knights to come here! They will be here in less than two days! We must hold out until then."

As the two of them continued on their way to the Formal mansion, Hamilton would whisper, "Are we even going to last two days?" Pina would answer her that she be silent.

Upon reaching the mansion, Pina plopped herself on a couch, tired from the day's events, while a butler came in and would ask for her attention.

"What? What is it? Do you want to surrender?"

"N—No, you highness. It's just is there anyway to avoid further conflict?"

"Sure, open the gates."

"Princess?!"

"You'll lose everything along with all the men being killed and the women to be taken as trophies to be raped, but yes that will certainly stop anymore fighting. I'm sure I can remain sane if one or two of them have their way with me but I know I'll lose it if it's all of them at once."

"S—Surely you jest, Princess."

"Then fight if you don't want that to happen. As cruel as fighting may be, if all you do is avoid it, then you'll lose everything."

The two would be interrupted by the head maid offering Pina a meal. As she ate into it, she noted the lack of taste but the head maid would mention that having a rich meal after such heavy fighting will lead to illness. Pina would be astonished at the head maid's knowledge of battles and ask where she learned.

"I used to live in a town called Rosa a long time ago. It's Imperial territory now."

Pina grew slightly embarrassed by that fact but chose to move on, "I'll take my rest now." Before she left the room, Pina turned to the head maid, "How will you wake me when there is important news?"

"Dump water on your face, of course."

Pina was impressed by her curt statement, "Excellent."

As Pina laid on her bed, she thought about the state of the defenders. There were very few trained soldiers in Italica to begin with so they had been relying on civilian conscripts but since they lacked any formal training, they tended to die in easily avoidable incidents. Pina lamented that her first proper battle was going so poorly and eventually drifted to sleep, dreaming of better days when she formed the Rose-Order of Knights at least until they were regulated to nothing but honor guard duties.

After some time Pina got some sleep, something cold and wet woke her from her slumber and she cried out if it was an enemy attack. Greeted by Grey and the head maid holding an empty bucket, Grey would answer that he was unsure if it was a friend or foe. Immediately dressing herself, she quickly headed for the front gate of the town to see strange vehicles with strange looking men on them some distance away.

'Floating carriages?' Pina wondered as the story the bar maiden gave started to come back to her.

From the top of the wall, Norma shouted that the travelers identify themselves. From a distance, Pina observed from a viewport in her gate, three people hop out of the enclosure one of the floating carriages had. She was surprised to see a mage and an elf walk out. She thought about how dangerous magic from both combined together could be. But what would really catch her attention is when Rory Mercury also walked out with the mage and elf and was casually brandishing her halberd.

"Rory Mercury!" Pina cried as she pulled away from the view port.

"The famous Rory the Reaper?" Grey said behind her.

"Yes, I saw her once at a national religious service."

"But would an Apostle of Emloy really join an army of rogues?"

"I'm unsure, the actions of the gods are unpredictable anyway."

Pina closed the viewport and began to think of what decision to make as the trio started their approach. If they were here to fight, then Italica was already lost. But since Rory only showed up now, Pina understood it to be that they weren't enemies. She quickly reasoned that if the mage, elf, and Rory Mercury weren't enemies, then she must persuade them to become their allies. Pina blindly threw the door open with such force that she hardly noticed a short moment of resistance to her action.

She cried out, "Welcome!"

Only to be stopped short by the shocked looks of Rory, the elf, and mage. Pina looked down to see a white armored man with green markings on the ground. It was then Pina heard a strange noise approaching her and when she looked up, she saw the other floating carriages race towards her. All nine floating carriages immediately stopped near the entrance and all the white armored riders with the same markings got off and pointed what looked to be iron rods at her. The rider that would catch her attention would be the woman dressed like a monk who made a gesture with her hand and the other riders lowered their rods.

Pina stood motionless and in shock at the strange visitors as the elf and mage helped the man she had knocked down back up onto his feet. She observed the man dust himself off and converse with the woman dressed like a monk in a different language and saw the man tap his helmet. One of the white armored men seemed to say something that got the rest of them groaning. Eventually, he and the rest of his group turned their gaze on her.

The elf proceeded to berate her brash action, "What were you thinking? You should have realized that someone would be near the gate! Even dwarfs and commoners are more careful!"

The man she had knocked over moved to calm the elf and began to speak in her language, "So who would like to explain the situation here?"

Pina still stood motionless until Hamilton jumped in for her, "Impudent fools! That overly casual tone is an affront to the Third Imperial Princess, Pina Co Lada!"

The man then said, "Oh, the Imperial Princess, well, we have a lot to talk about."

Once Pina was finally snapped out of her appalled state, she promptly guided the new visitors into the Formal mansion and explained the importance of Italica as a commercial hub due to its position at the intersection of the Tessaria and Appia Highways. She had decided to openly invite them in as they hadn't reacted too negatively to her brash action before. She would introduce the visitors to the current ruler of Italica, Myui Formal.

"She's only a child." The man would say.

"Not like we're much older!" One of the other men called out which was met with groans from the others.

"I believe she will turn 11 this year." The mage explained to the man.

Pina would continue, "Since she is still too young to lead an army, I am leading it in her stead."

Once they were finally able to sit down to talk, Pina would finally learn all of her visitors names and in her view, they were quite eccentric names through Lelei's translations. She would also be surprised to see identical faces among the white armored men once they removed their helmets. Pina would learn that the monk dressed woman is named Eila and is also a General of an army called the Grand Army of the Republic. Eila would explain to her that the men looked the same because of a technology they possessed called cloning. Eila simplified it as like a mother having twins or triplets but with more complexities.

Going to business, Eila explained to Pina that they originally came here to sell dragon scales on behalf of Rory, Tuka, and Lelei but since there are bandits nearby and Pina's men are in dire straits, Eila extended her willingness to assist Pina in her defense of Italica.

"Y—You'll help? You'll really help us!?" Pina said ecstatically that seemed to surprise everyone in the room.

"We are willing to render assistance to you to get this town back to normal so we can sell you the scales. Of course, only if you permit it." Eila said calmly while everyone else seemed to cringe at Pina's enthusiasm.

Pina tried to regain her composure as she would order, "Yes! Yes! V—Very well! We'll have you guard the south gate!"

After their conversation, the clones quickly returned to their speeders, moved them inside the walls, and readied themselves for a fight. Pina and Hamilton would observe them.

"So these are the people the rumors are all about? The ones who drove off a fire dragon?" Hamilton questioned.

"So it would seem." Pina said.

"Is it wise to really trust them?"

"We have no choice. We need anyone we can get to defend Italica."

Back in the Formal mansion, Eila pulled out her holoprojector and it came to life having acquired a signal, to the amazement of Myui Formal and her staff. She contacted Wrench who had been left in command of the base in her absence.

"Commander."

"General."

"Looks like the comms tower is providing a stable connection."

"Yes, General. Is something wrong?"

"We've been caught up in a battle here in Italica."

"A battle? Are you and the men alright?"

"We're fine but it looks like we won't be able to return tonight."

Before Wrench could say another word, Myui had approached Eila and began passing her hand through the hologram, trying to grab anything. Despite her amazement at what she was seeing, Wrench felt it was rather rude to have some stranger interrupt them.

"Do you mind?" He said with some irritation to Myui who then sheepishly sat next to Eila and continued to watch, "As I was about to say, I understand but General, I was asked personally by General Yoda to relay to you that you and all persons involved in the fire dragon incident are to report to the Galactic Senate."

"What? Why?"

"I'm uncertain. General Yoda likewise got it from the Supreme Chancellor's Office without further explanation."

Eila sighed and continued, "Fine. We'll go when we return."

"Is there anything we can do on our end, ma'am?"

"Actually, Wrench there is."

With the setting sun, the clones looked over their field of operations with macrobinoculars and saw three men on horseback.

"Scouts." Said Alloy.

"Yeah. And the riders behind them I suspect is the main force and it looks like they're seven to nine hundred strong." Cabby estimated.

"Think their gonna come here, to the south gate?"

"Maybe, they don't have enough guys to surround the whole town. We hold an advantage with the north wall standing near a sharp cliff so they'll have to concentrate their force on one of the other three walls."

Fordo then jumped in on their conversation, "We're actually the decoys in this."

"What? How do you know, sir?" Cabby asked.

"See any of the local forces around on this wall? Also, there are nine of us plus our General and guests defending the south. The gate on this wall has been breached before. The Princess intentionally wants to make this one look weak as bait and then when the bandits fall for it, she'll finish them off at the second line of defense behind us."

"You think they'll fall for it, sir."

"Nothing is ever certain in battle. Still, let's maximize the chances of the rogues falling for it by putting out the fires. Make them think we're going to sleep. We won't need the fires with our night vision."

As the clones put out the fires and readied their night vision, Rory would question Fordo why they were choosing to help the Princess of the Empire that is also their enemy.

"Well, we're ultimately here to protect the townspeople."

"Oh?"

Feeling that she seemed unsatisfied with his answer, he continued, "We really are. I'm sure the General is thinking the same way and she's probably thinking that this will help develop a relationship with the Princess to help in negotiations. Besides, I'm sure her Jedi nature puts innocent people first and we like to subscribe to that all the same."

"Jedi? I think this is the first time I've ever heard anyone call Eila that."

"Well, it's who she is. We rarely say it because they're our superiors so we refer to their military rank instead of rather than where they're from in the Army."

"Hmm, tell me though. What's a Jedi?"

"Well, there's the Jedi Order who our General belongs to and people in the Republic say the Jedi are a group of teachers, philosophers, scientists, engineers, physicians, diplomats, and warriors."

"My! That's quite a group."

"Yeah, that they are. And they do share some things with you, Rory."

"Really?"

"Jedi can be quite agile and strong like you, and there have been some people who treat them almost like a god and they have the Force."

While flattered at the comparison, Rory questioned, "The Force?"

"You'll have to ask the General for a definitive answer on that one but from what I understand of it, it's the energy all around us and Jedi can apparently manipulate it at will."

"My, oh my!"

"Still, why were you interested in us protecting the townspeople?"

"Emloy is the god of war. He doesn't consider killing a sin. But that makes your reason for fighting important. Lies and deceit corrupt the soul."

Fordo smiled to Rory, "We're here to protect the people, that isn't a lie. But also by doing this and I'm sure the General knows it too, we want to show to the Princess that it's better to be our friend than to be our enemy."

Rory would start to laugh, "Oh, I like this! I love this! You want to terrorize the Princess to her very core into becoming your friend! If that's how it is, I will certainly help! A chance to go crazy! I can't wait!"

"Terrorize is too strong a word." Fordo would mumble under his breath.

As the sun fell below the horizon, the fields around Italica remained eerily quiet under a pale moonlight. For several hours, the men on the east and west walls were starting to wonder if an enemy attack was even coming tonight.

"Stay alert!" Norma ordered once he noticed some of his men on the east wall were beginning to yawn, "We do not know when the enemy will return so keep watching the perimeter!"

Minutes passing by soon turned into a few more hours passing of the men on the walls watching nothing. The men slowly grew more lax as the clouds had now fully obscured the moon.

Timing it carefully, the army of rogues had moved in several squads with ladders to slowly move in on the east wall. In the pitch black, Norma didn't notice the enemy until the distinct clack of a ladder hitting the wall caught his attention.

"The enemy! Enemy attack!" Norma shouted but as soon as he did, a faint glow grew closer from the distance as it turned into a hail of fire arrows that fell on the defenders, setting both defenders or flammable objects ablaze. One of the soldiers on the wall began to bang away at a bell that served as an alarm, only to be cut down moments later as the bandits had climbed on other ladders and began to swarm the top of the wall.

Upon hearing the bell, Pina who had remained at the relative center of the town to keep an eye on all three walls, was surprised that the enemy had chosen to attack the east wall and not the south that she had left weak. Reacting swiftly, she ordered a courier to call some of the west wall defenders to immediately relocate to the east but her order would take some time to take effect as the soldiers had to receive the message from the courier and then cross the whole length of the town to reach the other side.

On the south wall, Rory voiced her frustration on why the bandits were not attacking at her location. She probably didn't realize that the three scouts from earlier had caught a glimpse of her and intentionally avoided the south gate despite the opportunity they were being presented with.

"Perfect timing. These guys didn't miss a beat." Fick said noting the bandits' accuracy to attack that coincided with the weather and time and waiting for the defenders to relax.

"Remember, these guys used to be professional soldiers." Noah said and continued, "But Captain. What do we do now?"

"Hmm. Unfortunately, we can't do anything right now." Fordo said.

"You can't be serious, Captain!"

"This is the Princess' op. Unless we get orders from her, we can't do anything, isn't that right, General?"

Eila sighed as she began to explain, "As much as I hate it too, Noah. Fordo is right. If we act by ourselves without getting asked, it will look like we're trying to subvert the Princess' authority."

"But isn't that what we want, General? To show the Empire who's boss?" Hoot called out.

"Our orders were quite clear. We're here to negotiate with the Empire through strength of arms. We're not here to overthrow the Empire."

Hoot let out a sigh of disappointment but Eila would wonder, 'Still, what will you do now, Princess?'

Back at the base on Alnus, Wrench briefed his men on the situation,

"The General along with Recon Team Three have become involved in a situation in the town of Italica. We are to provide support to the team on the ground. Although, this mission is at the discretion of the General of whether or not it will be approved to prevent a usurpation of political power. Regardless, the situation is as follows,"

Wrench directed the attention of the men to an overview map of Italica.

"Currently, the town of Italica is being attacked by remnants of the Imperial Army and its allies that have forsaken their governments and have resorted to banditry."

Some of the men grumbled muttering the word 'traitors'. A word that the clones prided themselves in not becoming one to the Republic. Wrench continued,

"Enemy strength is unknown and the General herself hasn't been given any concrete numbers by the local representatives as well. The General has ultimately left the decision to me on who and how many we will send. Since it will take a few hours by ground for our forces to reach Italica, I am sending our LAATs. Captain Koll!"

"Sir!"

"How many LAATs on base?"

"12 c-variants ready! 15 i-variants ready, sir!"

"Good! Then this is how it's going to go. 8 LAAT/i's and 4 LAAT/c's will take off and head for Italica. En route, contact the General for mission approval. If given, the General should also give the enemy's location and the LAATs will perform close air support to assist our troopers on the ground. Tankers! Upon learning the enemy's location, you will be dropped within 500m of the enemy by your pilots. Provide covering fire for your passengers who will disembark and create a perimeter to contain the situation.

"What happens if the General disapproves?" One of the pilots questioned.

"The General was very exact with her words. Disapproval will only come if the General is unable to secure a plea for help from the locals. Dismissed!"

At the east gate, the battle was quickly turning against the defenders. Enemies had already swarmed the top of the walls and some of them had dropped down and proceeded to open the gate for the rest of the bandit army to come in. Any archers who had survived and tried to shoot back would notice that their arrows never hit their marks as the arrows would be deflected by sudden gusts of wind conjured by a mage on the side of the bandits. Some of the men even fell off the wall when a strong wind was directed at them. On the wall, Norma battled a number of enemies at once and would cut down most of them but he was beginning to notice the twisted smile on the men he killed and wondered if they were all here to commit suicide. Personally arriving to the east gate, Pina would stare in shock at how quickly her battle plans had fallen apart and at the bandits who were now mocking the defenders by toying with and mutilating the bodies of their friends.

Losing their wits, some of the defenders began blindly charging the rogues in their rage only to be killed effortlessly for their foolish action. Norma continued to fight on top of the wall ordering the few men he had left to defend the position with their lives but even he was eventually overwhelmed by three attackers and his body callously thrown off the wall. Norma's death killed what little morale the defenders had already.

"Haha! The enemy commander is slain!" Gloated the leader of the bandits who took part in killing Norma, "Now this is a proper war. That farce at Alnus will be avenged today! We will be the ones to deal death to our enemies and die satisfied! That is our hymn, to Emloy!"

The bandit army cheered and beat their armor to their leader's call. In a final cry, the rogue army charged the flimsy barricades the defenders had made around the gate and began overwhelming the few defenders the east wall had left.

While Hamilton continued to mourn Norma's passing, Pina could only grit her teeth in frustration and fear as the reinforcements she had sent for at the west gate had still not arrived and the civilian conscripts were being killed so easily that the townspeople who were foolish enough to watch the battle unfold were now getting caught up in the fighting.

"Reinforcements! We need reinforcements! Where are—" Cried a defender before he was struck with an ax to the back.

'We have no one to send!' Pina thought, 'Even them! Why would they come when I intentionally put them on the gate I thought they would have died on!'

On the south gate, Eila, with some embarrassment, would ask Lelei why Rory was moaning and clutching herself in such a suggestive manner. Some of the clones gave Rory a wide berth as she moaned loudly while also swinging her weapon around unable to control herself.

"She can't help it." Lelei said.

"No! N—No! At this rate, I'll—I'll—" Rory continued moaning.

"The souls of fallen soldiers are being sent to Emloy through her body," Lelei explained, "The effect on her is like an aphrodisiac."

"Can you help her?" Eila asked.

"No. She needs to satiate her lust for battle to ease the effect."

Precious minutes passed as Eila bit her lip that no one had approached them for help. Before Eila was about to reluctantly call the air support off and unilaterally go to the east gate with her men and herself to deal with the problem personally, the courier Pina had wanted to go to the west gate came running and pleaded before them. Realizing the precious time it would take for the soldiers on the west gate to get to the east gate, the courier decided to disobey Pina's order and went to them having witnessed their machines.

"Please!" He called out between labored pants, "Please help us! Please help the Princess! The east gate is about to fall!"

Rory took the man's words as an invitation and immediately dashed away from them hopping onto the rooftops and headed towards the east gate. Before Eila could even deal with Rory, a familiar tone sounded off. Taking out her holoprojector, it was a clone pilot that she recognized as Captain Koll.

"General, we're 10 minutes to the combat zone. Is this mission a go?"

Feeling relief that the plea for help by a local had come, she happily answered, "Yes, Captain. The enemy is at the east gate. Please hurry, the gate is about to be overrun."

Putting the holoprojector away, she turned to Fordo, "We're going after her. Lelei, Tuka, please stay here with Cabby and Alloy. Let's go!"

Like Rory, Eila would jump onto the rooftops and follow her. Fordo turned to his men, "You heard, the General! To the speeders!"

On the LAATs, Koll advised his fellow pilots, "Mission is a go! All units to attack formation! Have the rising sun to our backs! Carriers! Drop the tanks at the designated points on the eastern side of the town!" Koll then referred to the passengers on the LAAT/i's, "Gentlemen, prepare yourselves!"

The clones on board checked their weapons and comms before flipping the safeties off their blasters and a few brandishing Z-6 rotary blaster cannons wound up their barrels in anticipation. Some of the men hummed a tune to ease their mood while others were feeling quite happy to bring down the hammer of civilization on the barbarians they were about to face even if they weren't droids.

As the sun began to rise on the east gate, some of the larger brutish men were inflicting terrible casualties on the remaining defenders with their heavy weapons. The large brutes raised the morale for the bandits as they began to break down the barricades. If the barricades fell and the rogues were to overrun the remaining defenders, nothing would stop the bandit army from pillaging the town even if reinforcements were to come.

Fortunately for the townspeople and a horrible omen for the bandits of events to come, Rory made her presence known by casually jumping off a rooftop laughing, landing on one of the large brute's head and in doing so, snapping the brute's neck. Landing gracefully on the ground, Rory let the brute she used as a cushion fall behind her.

Both sides immediately stopped fighting at the sight of Rory but just as she prepared herself to fight, everyone heard a strange noise coming from the sky. The minor pause to the fighting would be interrupted at the sound of missiles impacting the bandit army outside the wall.

In a cavalcade of missile strikes and heavy blaster fire from both the men on the LAATs and the LAATs themselves, the rogue army was torn to shreds. The mage that had rendered arrows worthless using her wind magic would also try it on the LAATs. But while she managed to stagger the LAATs for a moment with her wind magic, the pilots compensated for her abilities and she would be promptly knocked out by a nearby explosion.

"That's the stuff, boys! Keep fire to the outside of the wall! Location of friendlies inside the wall is still to be determined." Koll advised his pilots.

Reacting to the new enemy, the bandits tried to arm ballistas that had survived the fighting on the wall but the clone pilots reacted faster by destroying the ballistas with rockets. Realizing who this enemy was, the bandits outside the wall began to flee, not wanting to repeat the nightmare of Alnus. The bandits wouldn't get very far as the AT-TEs and the infantry squads the tanks carried surprised the retreating bandits in the fields in which the retreating bandits were instantly mowed down by copious amounts of blaster fire.

From the south gate, Tuka would look at amazement at the spectacle happening on the east gate.

"Ohh, look at all of those explosions. Is that magic, too?" Tuka wondered.

Lelei would answer 'no' to Tuka as she began to walk off the wall. Cabby instantly questioned where she was headed.

"To the battle. To get a closer look."

Cabby, feeling an itch to fight, called to Lelei, "You know what? Why don't we just take you there?"

On the outside of the east wall, the rogue army cursed at the flying devils as the LAATs continued to rain death upon them. While that continued outside, on the inside of the wall, Rory swung into action and began dispensing 'justice' on the bandits. By this point, Eila also reached the battle and jumped off the rooftop to assist Rory. Igniting her lightsaber, she too began instantly cutting bandits to pieces. The men of RT3 soon followed with Fordo ordering his men to assist Rory and Eila by prioritizing the larger brutes and any who tried to flank the two.

While his men formed a standard firing line to assist Rory and Eila, Fordo moved ahead of his men and went to work by taking out any bandits who broke off from their lines and chose to continue to attack the defenseless citizens or beaten down soldiers. Fordo would use his DC-17s both offensively and defensively. In moments where enemies got too close, he would use the length of one of his blasters to block sword strikes and retaliate with his other blaster, usually using the other blaster to fire into the gut of his enemies. One of the larger men eventually came after him but he handled the man quickly by firing a grappling hook from his wrist and sent an electrical charge through it incapacitating the man.

The bandits began trying combat formations and flanking to overwhelm Rory or Eila but Rory's strength easily bit through their shield formations and larger men with her halberd and Eila's agility and potent weapon continued to show the futility of using simple metal weapons against a lightsaber. Any who tried to flank them would be sidelined by the rest of RT3. As the two continued to fight, Eila would catch a glimpse of Rory smiling at her. Eila wasn't quite sure how to react to it as while she was defending the people, she didn't like the sensations she was feeling from Rory in her lust for battle. She would only return a blank stare.

"Fall back! Fall back and regroup!" The leader of the bandits ordered.

As they tried to do so, Eila held out her hand and used the Force to bring the bandits closer to her and stripped them of their shields and weapons that came to float in front of her. Eila cut the metal shields and weapons in half and tossed them aside while Rory took advantage of the opening by gutting the defenseless men with her halberd.

"Witchcraft!" The leader shouted, "Why has a Priestess of Emloy sided with a witch!?"

It would be the leader's last few words as an explosion would throw him off the wall and he would land hard on the ground. As Rory butchered another bandit, the leader sputtered to her as he reached his hand out,

"This! T—This! This can't be called a war! A—Answer me, Priestess of Em—"

"Silence, vermin." Rory muttered after bringing the full force and weight of her halberd on the leader's head before he could finish, leaving a gooey mess.

Seeing the demise of their leader rattled the bandits but some of those who held authority with the rabble tried to regroup the men. As they tried, Fordo had advised Koll of the location of friendlies inside the wall in which Koll would declare that he was about to wipe out all the targets inside the gate on the count of ten. Fordo immediately called to Eila, "General! Get yourself and Rory out of there!"

Hearing Fordo and seeing a LAAT come around, targeting the gate, Eila dashed to Rory and quickly carried her out of the fighting. Rory would wonder with some frustration to why she was being pulled away from the fight. Once Koll finished his countdown, he unleashed the rapid fire fury of the chin mounted laser cannon turrets of the LAAT. He even threw in a couple of rockets. The townspeople and remaining defenders could only gawk at the carnage a single LAAT could bring down on its enemies. In a few short moments, all the bandits who were inside the gate lay dead, most of them being just a bunch of unidentifiable chunks.

"A m—m—monster..." Hamilton stuttered as she watched the LAAT begin to move off having finished it's job.

"N—No. An iron Pegasus?! What is that thing?!" Pina said as she also saw the clones on the LAAT waving to her, "And iron elephants outside the walls?! What the hell are the gods playing at?!"

Soon enough, the clone troopers who had arrived with the tanks began entering the east gate and securing the area. They were likewise securing any bandits outside the town who had wisely decided to surrender while the medics fanned out to tend to the wounded.

"Sector is clear." Declared a trooper seeing that there were no bandits inside the town to detain.

Some of the townspeople, realizing the battle was over and the town was saved, approached Fordo, "You saved our town. We are grateful. But, where does your army come from?" One man said.

Fordo answered, "We're from the Grand Army of the Republic."

A short distance away, Lelei and Tuka arrived with Cabby and Alloy. Lelei expressed minor disappointment as she said, "It's over."

Author's Note: To answer where are Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka are, I mentioned in an earlier chapter that Anakin and Obi-Wan are still in the Outer Rim. In another chapter I mention Ahsoka's trial so it would mean that the story is set after she left the Jedi Order.