"Enemy bombers at point 4!"

"Back up the Endeavor! It's shields are down!"

"Get this tri-fighter off me!"

Hearing the various pilots call out on the comms, Eila directed additional orders to support them. Hawkins would eventually call her attention, looking nervous.

"General."

"Yes?"

"Our situation is highly precarious. General Grievous' personal flagship, the Invisible Hand, has bolstered the enemy's morale, our ship is infested with droids, and is taking a beating. We can't maintain operations like this."

"I know. But Commander Salima has ordered us to contain them. Prevent their escape into hyperspace. Command has also called for reinforcements. The fleet shouldn't be alone for much longer. Our troopers are also doing their best to contain the intruders."

Before Hawkins could respond with a recommendation to exit the battle, one of the officers called out, "General! We're getting swarmed! The fighters can't take all the droid fighters down and our cannons can't target them all!"

"Intensify the forward batteries! Don't let them…"

"General!" Hawkins yelled out.

Before she could turn to see what Hawkins was trying to turn her attention to, Eila felt herself getting knocked down by Hawkins before everything went black. Recalling the last moment, she remembered Hawkins' call before seeing for a split second, just before being completely tackled, what she thought was a damaged Vulture droid heading for the bridge.

For some time, Eila remained unconscious until the ship jolted from another impact. Opening her eyes and coughing up some dust, she tried to get up from the floor before feeling something heavy on top of her. Looking down, she was saddened to see Hawkins with his eyes wide open and large pieces of metal sticking out of his back. He had tried to protect her. Gently moving his body aside, she was surprised to see that the front of the bridge was now exposed to space. Luckily for her and the surviving bridge crew, emergency force fields had stopped them all from getting spaced.

One of the clone officers came to her and moved some minor debris off of her. "Are you alright, General?" The officer questioned as he stretched out his hand to pick her up.

"Y—Yes, Lieutenant." She weakly said as the officer pulled her up. But she yelped in pain as soon as she got up and almost fell back down but the officer kept her steady. She noticed that she had a sizeable shard of metal embedded in her right thigh and she was covered in little metal fragments causing varying degrees of lacerations.

"General!" The officer said as he quickly tried to prop her up.

"I—It's okay." She told the officer as she let go of him to stand on her own, "Status?"

"Engineering has assumed control over the ships functions. Both bridges have suffered heavy damage."

Eila managed to limp her way to a window and looked over to the bridge next to them. It was in worse shape with most of it gone. She did feel some relief as she could see that some of the people on the starfighter command bridge had survived, seeing the few of them left evacuate.

The officer continued his report, "Shields are down to 30% and 80% of our weapons are now inoperable. The sublight engines have also been damaged. And main power is fluctuating making it difficult to sustain the ship's operations."

Eila looked on at the raging space battle as she saw another Separatist ship ram another Venator and explode nearby. Seeing that the ship was unlikely to survive the rest of the battle as most of the ship was on fire and the turbolaser turrets she could see had their barrels warped from damage, she reluctantly gave the order, "Abandon ship."

Complying with her order, the clone officer moved to the comm system and relayed the order, "Attention all personnel, abandon ship. Repeat: abandon ship. All personnel to the life pods."

The remaining bridge crew quickly shuffled out and an evacuation alarm began to sound. Feeling that the ship should at least fall defiantly and wanting to return the favor the Separatists had been doing with Republic ships since the battle began, Eila quickly limped over to the comm system and called engineering.

"Is there anyone left in engineering?"

"General?" It was the chief engineer, "It's good to hear you're safe. What is it?"

"Chief, do you still have sensors and helm control?"

"Partially. Why?"

"Are there any nearby enemy ships that our damaged engines can take us to at full speed?"

"Uhh, yes. There's a Lucrehulk-class battleship port side. Why do you ask?"

"I'm taking a page out of Skywalker's book. Concentrate all power to the forward shields and boost the engines."

The chief engineer then understood what Eila wanted, "Yes, ma'am…and done. I'll take my leave then." The engineer concluded as he adjusted some settings.

Back on the bridge, Eila thanked the engineer, moved to the exit, and looked back at what was left of the bridge. She looked over at Hawkins and some of the dead crew. She regretted not being able to at least gather the bodies and bring them home but unfortunately, regardless of her order to ram a Lucrehulk, the ship didn't have much time left anyway. There were still other Separatist ships taking their shots at the ship as well. Taking one final glace, the clone officer had waited to help her make it to an escape pod just as the Lucrehulk began firing on the ship knowing what was coming.

On deck 4, after explaining the situation further to Crom, Wrench began to walk off to get to the bridge.

"Commander? Commander!" Fick called.

"What is it!?" Wrench snapped.

Though somewhat shocked at his response, Fick continued, "Sir, what are your orders?"

Wrench stopped where he was and had a look around. Most of the injured troopers had been stabilized by Ramius and some of the more serious ones were being tended to by Lelei and Tuka, judging from the blue auras surrounding the injured troopers they were dealing with. He was impressed that some of the clones Lelei and Tuka had treated with magic were already able to walk around by themselves and were eager to get back into the fight. Pina and Bozes were also taking the initiative in helping carry a wounded clone out. Rory was also looking better than she did earlier but was still unconscious. Even though there were still bigger concerns, Wrench was determined to know what had happened on the bridge.

"Sit tight." He ordered, "I need to check the situation on the bridge."

Before he could walk off again though, sparks began to fly from the blast doors that were shut earlier. The men and Lelei, Tuka, Bozes, and Pina scrambled to evacuate the wounded as Wrench returned with RT3 and a few other clones taking up defensive positions in the corridor. The men readied their blasters as the droids completed cutting into the door. Once the sparks stopped and the section of blast door fell to the ground, the clones began firing into the opening. A few droids fell through having been shot but soon enough, thermal detonators came rolling out of the opening.

"Detonators!" Noah yelled as he and the others quickly ran away. The resulting explosions gave enough time for more battle droids to come pouring out of the opening. A few of the clones and even the Senate Commandos who had also decided to join the fight were started to get gunned down as more droids continued coming out of the opening.

"Pull back! Pull back!" Wrench ordered.

The men slowly retreated as the droids continued their onslaught. Pina, who was helping Bozes carry a clone out on a stretcher, was getting tired of being shot at while they were fleeing. Stopping for a moment and grabbing the injured clone's DC-15S, Pina began firing with her free hand as she fled down the corridor with Bozes. Despite being new to the concept of blasters, some of her shots were able to hit some of the droids dead on.

"Hey, hey!" Hoot happily called, "The lady knows how to shoot!"

"Shut up and keep blasting!" Ray cried as he riddled another droid.

While the fighting continued, a voice came over the intercom, "Attention all personnel, abandon ship. Repeat: abandon ship. All personnel to the life pods." An alarm soon accompanied the order.

"Are they serious?" Zipper said, "We're not about to give up the ship are we?"

Wrench began to think that the order to abandon ship would have come from someone with high authority. 'Maybe she's alive.' He thought. He then gave an order, "You heard it. We're abandoning ship. Let's go!"

The clones disengaged and began running for the escape pods under a hail of blaster fire. A few would unfortunately be shot in the back as they ran. There wasn't enough time to check if they were just injured. But, after turning a few corridors, they had finally ditched the droids but no one was really slowing down as the ship was increasingly shaking more violently than before and the interior lights flickered wildly. To the clones, it was an indicator that the ship was about to be destroyed. Reaching the pods, Wrench waited as groups of clones entered and launched their pods. Once the trickle of clones stopped, Wrench entered the last pod with their guests, RT3, and Crom with the remaining Senate Commandos. Rory had already been loaded and launched in another pod since she wouldn't fit in theirs. Launching the pod and managing to gain distance from the ship, Wrench had one last look at the Eternal slam into a Lucrehulk with both ships giving a spectacular explosion.

Wrench wasn't quite sure where to go next as the space battle they entered was even more chaotic than on the ship. ARC-170s, V-Wings, Vulture and droid tri-fighters swarmed the surrounding space vying for dominance. The group even saw a couple of pods get taken out by droid fighters that were just passing by to be driven off too late by the 170s or V-Wings. Some pods even received some 'wonderful' treatment from Buzz Droids. The desperate pleas from the occupants of those pods to not be fired upon only to explode in a bloom of debris or begging for help as the Buzz Droids cut into the pod, rattled their guests. Dying in the vacuum of space was a new mode of possible death to them. Eventually, a voice came over the comm asking all the surviving pods from the Eternal to rendezvous with the Intrepid which had been damaged but was exiting the battle.

Escaping the various dangers of the battle and landing in the Intrepid's hangar deck, Wrench, RT3, Crom, and the Senate Commandos came out without showing any body language that indicated they were gloomy over the battle. Although, they had grim faces behind their helmets at the loss of their ship and brothers with Crom dwelling on how could Coruscant be under attack. In contrast, Lelei, Tuka, Bozes, and Pina walked out of pod shaking. It was the first time any of them had experienced a modern war, let alone a space battle, with cramped quarters and loud explosions. Trying to shake off their shock, the four of them made their way to the other pod that took in Rory. At least Lelei and Tuka were relieved to see that her pod had escaped the enemy fighters and Buzz Droids and that Rory was awake but still lying on the stretcher.

Despite her wounds being completely healed, Rory only managed a weak hello to them as she still felt some residual pain from the blaster shots. Ramius eventually came behind them and asked that Rory and their guests go to the medical bay. While Crom and his Commandos would also join their guests to the medical bay, Wrench began asking around if anyone had seen Eila. To his relief, one of the hangar crew would direct him to one of the other pods where he would see Eila being tended to by a medic who was wrapping a bandage around her leg. She was also pulling the metal fragments out of her using the Force and placing a bandage over the cuts.

"Ei—General!" He called as he approached, "Are you alright?"

"Wrench!" She said, "I'm glad you made it off the ship. I'm alright but I think I'm not going to be walking for now." The medic wrapping the bandage would nod at her statement.

"How did—I heard that the bridge was hit."

Eila voice grew solemnly as she would tell him, "Yeah. I was lucky, I guess. Hawkins didn't make it. He died protecting me."

Wrench bowed his head as he lamented on the loss of a fine officer. Hawkins had been assigned to them ever since Krell was in charge and he was always reliable. For Wrench, Hawkins remained reliable right up to the end. Before he could speak again though, the ship wide comms passed on some information.

"The Open Circle Fleet has arrived. Generals Kenobi and Skywalker have joined the battle."

Once the comms cut out, Wrench questioned what were they going to do now. Eila answered, "We're done. Generals Kenobi and Skywalker have taken command of the Home Fleet. They'll be the ones to rescue the Chancellor."

"What? Chancellor Palpatine was kidnapped?"

"Yeah. General Windu apprised all naval and Jedi officers of the situation when I was in the pod. General Grievous apparently captured the Chancellor in his private bunker."

Wrench slowly began to realize why the droids had only chosen to delay them back on the Eternal. It was to draw attention away from their abduction of the Chancellor.

"Shouldn't we do something?" He asked wanting to help in the rescue.

"Like what? This ship is damaged and all of its fighters have been launched."

Wrench tried to think of an alternative but Eila repeated, "We're done."

The Battle of Coruscant would last for the rest of the day but it would be a resounding victory for the Republic as Chancellor Palpatine would be rescued by Generals Kenobi and Skywalker and most of the invading Separatist fleet was now floating wreckage being cleaned up by salvage crews in orbit. In the opinion of some of the naval commanders though, Kenobi and Skywalker took all the credit for the battle while their contribution was quietly pushed aside. Despite that bit of jealousy, there was also the added bonus of Count Dooku being killed by Anakin Skywalker. This detail raised the spirits for plenty of people who took it as a sign that the war was coming to a close. Although, among the clones and Jedi, they knew the war wouldn't end until General Grievous was also taken out as well.

Once they were planet-side, Eila looked over the after action report on the battle and she shifted uncomfortably in her hospital bed. The new bandages the doctor put on to replace the old ones were chaffing the hell out of her skin. Despite a massive invasion, the Separatists actually hadn't gone to the Uscru district so the Gate was unaffected from the battle. Even the Jedi Temple had escaped unscathed. The Separatists had instead focused all their efforts on the Senate, Financial, and Residential districts in their effort to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine. Putting the report aside and hoping to get some sleep without scratching at her leg, Wrench knocked on the door.

"Come in." Eila responded.

"General." Wrench said as the door shut behind him, "How are you feeling?"

"Better actually." She said while scratching at her leg, "Dammit." She immediately stopped.

Wrench gave a small laugh as he removed his helmet, "Heh. Itchy bandages? I've been there before."

"Yeah. It wasn't too long ago when it wasn't like this." Eila said, referring to a time when it was Wrench on a hospital bed and her visiting. "How's our guests?"

"They're alright. Doctors gave the others the once over and Rory was already up and about once we got planet-side. She was complaining about some pain but the doctor was more interested in how quickly she healed. We managed to stop Rory from assaulting him when he insisted on examining her." Wrench gave another small laugh before his face softened.

"Eila," He began, "What happened today—When the bridge got hit, I…"

Sensing his emotions, Eila stopped him and took hold of his hand. "Wrench. It's okay. I'm fine. We'll make it to the end."

He smiled back at her and began thinking of what the end of the war might look like for him and his brothers because of the news on Count Dooku's death. He thought optimistically that maybe, he'll be discharged from the Army and be allowed a to pursue a regular job. Have all the liberties a Republic citizen enjoys. He was also optimistic that even if he wasn't allowed out of the military, he could at least be some desk jockey or be a maintenance engineer. He didn't want to be on the frontlines forever. Unfortunately for Wrench, he was conveniently ignoring the fact that the clone army is considered property in the eyes of the Republic and that for both of them, things weren't going to turn out the way they had hoped.

In the Supreme Chancellor's Office, Crom was finalizing his report to the both the Vice Chancellor and the Supreme Chancellor as he finished saying, "We entered an escape pod and made for the Intrepid. From then on, we simply watched the battle unfold while the Jedi rescued you, Chancellor."

"Thank you, Agent Crom, but it seems the Intelligence's suspicions about General Deova were unfounded." Palpatine said.

"Y—Yes, Chancellor. General Deova is not a Separatist agent. She did not conspire with her Master or carry out any dying wishes to betray the Republic."

"Good. Is there anything else, Agent Crom?"

"No, Chancellor." It was then Crom remembered, "Well, actually Chancellor. This attack on Coruscant has been bothering me."

"Oh, how so?" Palpatine said with a growing suspicion of where Crom was about to go.

"It seems ridiculous for Coruscant to be openly attacked by the Separatists without the Intelligence's knowledge."

"You should know, Agent Crom. We are at war. Sometimes our agents can't always grab significant clues to the Separatists' movements. Valuable intelligence can be lost or be flawed."

"Yes Chancellor, but I looked over the sensor logs on the Intrepid and checked the hyperspace route the Separatists would have used to attack Coruscant without our notice. One of the few choices they could have only taken is the Nexus Route. Even with the other possibilities, that Route is the only hyperspace lane where the Separatists can attack Coruscant without leaving a trace for Intelligence to catch. But what makes no sense is that only we and your Office knows about the Nexus Route that was recovered by the Jedi in that mission to the Citadel. The Separatists never got this information. And then theirs the way they were able to kidnap you, Chancellor. With both of these things, they knew all of our moves. I suspect Chancellor that there could be a traitor within our ranks."

Palpatine gave a sly smile as he nodded, "Have you shared these suspicions with anyone else?"

"No, Chancellor. I initially thought of bringing this immediately to Intelligence but I wanted you to know first."

Smiling widely, he said, "Good."

Suddenly, Crom felt his neck tighten and he began to choke. He futilely grasped at his neck trying to stop what was pressing on him and realized just before blacking out that it was Palpatine who was responsible for the attack on Coruscant. Unfortunately for him, it didn't take very long before his neck snapped and he fell to the floor lifeless.

Satisfied that the man had been silenced, Palpatine turned to Amedda, "Agent Gidezain Crom was involved in a most unfortunate speeder accident. The cause of his death is a broken neck. Speeder safety should be one of our top domestic priorities."

"Yes, Chancellor." Amedda responded. Before Amedda left though, Palpatine would instruct him to alter sensor records everywhere of the battle to hide which route the Separatists took and fabricate some 'overlooked' intelligence regarding the attack. Amedda then directed two of the Chancellor's Red Guard to dispose the body.

Back in the special lodgings for foreign dignitaries, Bozes slept quietly as Pina is handwriting a letter to her father on her changed opinion on the war. She wanted the letter to be ready before they were to go back home tomorrow.

'Father, I write to you in a spirit of good faith that you will heed my advice. I have met the enemy and everything about them is overwhelming. I have been fortunate to venture to the other side of the Gate and this Republic we have chosen to go to war against was a mistake.

The Galactic Republic is a coalition of numerous worlds amongst a galaxy full of alien civilizations that exceeds everything that exists on our world. Their magic is in fact science and technology that is centuries, possibly even a couple of millenia ahead of our own. They are able to ascend into the heavens in massive flying dagger-shaped ships and they have sorcerer warriors who are called Jedi who lead duplicated soldiers that are literally born for war. With this kind of military strength, they employ tactics that are beyond our current abilities to counter. They even have weapons that could give an Apostle pause.

We have no recourse to strike back if the Republic chooses war over peace. If we choose to continue this war, the Empire is certain to not only lose but be destroyed in the process. We are fortunate that the Republic has chosen to extend an olive branch of peace. There are other political entities in their galaxy who are unlikely to pass such an offer to us. Ultimately, they wish for their citizens who were taken during the Empire's expedition to be returned to them. They also ask for compensation that is negotiable to fit our economics.

We are fortunate they ask for such small demands. Any other conqueror would demand for our heads to be served on a platter. I implore you, father, to reconsider pursing war with the Republic. It is in our best self-interest to comply as they are also willing to impart their knowledge freely to us. I hope you arrive to an amicable conclusion.

Additionally, I have included a list of nobles and soldiers who are to be released freely by the Republic and a secondary list of the survivors from the Empire's expedition who are to be released when we have arrived to the negotiated compensation.'

Pina signed off on the letter and slumped into her chair. She was pinning her hopes that the letter would convince her father but deep down, she felt that her father might ignore her warning. She sighed at the possibility that her father might slap away the olive branch. She then remembered her brother, Zorzal El Caesar. Pina gave a pained groan at the likeliest possibility that it would be Zorzal who would convince their father to continue the war. She knew he was a naive fool who always thumped his chest at the superiority of the Empire. It was him after all who led the campaign against the warrior bunnies in which despite the warnings of some of the Imperial Generals and nobles of high casualties, he declared war on them anyway. The warrior bunnies campaign would result in the Empire's highest number of casualties until they met the Republic.

She wondered what continued conflict with the Republic would look like. At first, she imagined that it would continue exactly as she had witnessed. For her, this was the best case scenario even if the Empire were to fall. But she cringed, imagining a Venator razing the Imperial Capital from orbit. They wouldn't be able to do anything about it, even if they had the gods on their side. She also feared a more aggressive General replacing Eila. After landing back on the planet, she was witness to the Chancellor parading General Skywalker around back in the Galactic Senate for his role in the rescue. She had noticed that General Kenobi had not joined in the celebration even though he also took part. Despite not having personally seen Skywalker in battle, she could tell from how the Chancellor touted his achievements that he would approach their conflict with pragmatic efficiency to quickly topple the Empire.

Dwelling on that possible future, Pina took the letter and thought of disposing it at the low chance her father might change his mind. Ultimately, she stopped herself as she would remember her conversation with Yoda. Feeling her confidence being reignited, she folded the letter up with the lists to be ready for delivery when they returned.

'Faith,' She thought, 'Just a little faith.'

Author's Note: I foreshadowed the attack on Coruscant by the Separatists in the first chapter. I played around with some of Palpatine's dialogue in Clone Wars (2003), specifically the scene of the training duel between Dooku and Grievous and Palpatine coming up and commending Dooku's "wise counsel".