AN: A quick change about the crew information is that there are now two hundred Y-wing fighters and two backups for the Rogue Shadow.
AN2: Also the Tactician's backstory may not be exactly the canon one but I heard it this way and thought it was awesome.
Shadow of the Force
Chapter 6
-Harry-
"Can this small ship get us all the way to Alderan?" the old man with Luke asked skeptically as the ascended out of the planet's atmosphere.
"No but it's just to get us up to my main ship." He said as he stood back, his second in command Galen Marek piloted the Rogue Shadow away from the planet.
"Main ship?" Luke asked eagerly as he had to subdue a small chuckle. Every time he came back to Tatooine to visit Luke, Owen, and Beru he had refused to tell them what sort of ship he was the captain of to keep them curious as Luke pleading to know had been highly amusing.
"Yes Luke, you can finally know what type of ship it is." He teased.
"How did you get to Tatooine so quickly if I may ask…Harry was it?" the old man questioned, the elderly figure's eyes showing wariness and distrust.
"I was already heading over." He said as he walked over to Oola and wrapped an arm around her waist as she rested her head on his shoulder "I…well I had wanted to invite you, Owen, and Beru to my wedding."
Luke was wide eyed at that piece of news, "Wedding?!" the once farm boy said shocked as he nodded and Oola gave a small giggle before kissing his cheek lovingly.
"Oola and I decided to get married." He admitted as Luke grinned, his friend clearly thrilled at some sort of positive news in the darkness that had suddenly hit Luke's life.
"Congratulations," Luke said sincerely "both of you."
Before he could thank his friend Galen spoke up "Approaching the Citadel Captain." As all eyes turned look out the front of the Rogue Shadow.
"Luke, old man." He said as he stared at the ship he had restored to its full glory "Welcome, to the Citadel. A marauder class corvette that I've personally given enhancements to over the past few years."
"Wow." Luke said wide eyed as the young Skywalker and the older man stared wide eyed at the massive ship.
"Greetings," a new voice spoke up through their communication system "Rogue Shadow One, please give clearance codes to gain access to main hanger."
"Ah, I was wondering when you'd speak up Jarvis." He said cheerfully before looking at the newcomers "Jarvis here is an AI I developed to help with the ship. He's the head of Droid control and keeps an eye on the systems for my ships. If it weren't for him the ship wouldn't be able to run half as well as it does."
"You flatter me sir. Clearance codes please." Jarvis said through the system.
"Entry code 2-2-6-5-8-9-Foxtrot." Galen spoke up as Jarvis processed the code.
"Thank you Sir, welcome back." Jarvis' cheerful voice said after it finished processing the code.
"Good to be back Jarvis." He said with a grin before turning to the still stunned Luke and old man, "Jarvis here is a life saver…and much better than his predecessor Ultron."
"Yes Ultron was rather rude." Oola said, her tone showing she was still upset at the now destroyed AI.
"That he was…and what is your name any way old timer?" he asked the white haired man who shook himself before turning to face them.
"I am Obi-Wan Kenobi." The man said simply and he could see that the old timer still didn't trust him, something Luke clearly noticed as well judging by his friend's irritated expression.
"Harry," the groaning voice of Galen spoke up "I think Jarvis hates us."
"What makes you say that?" Luke asked "He seemed friendly enough to me."
"He sent the Claptraps…didn't he?" Oola asked with a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.
"The what?" Obi-Wan and Luke asked confused.
"CL4P-TP, also known as Claptrap. It's a robot model that one of my crew members, Dobby, created a few years ago and the damn things are the most annoying robots ever created." He explained, having been less than pleased with the creation Dobby made, the little elf having gained a gift with machines due to being bonded to his magic.
As they disembarked the ship Obi-Wan still didn't look convinced "How bad could it-" the old man began before being cut off.
"Minion!" the little robot said cheerfully as it zoomed up the ramp and began spinning around their legs energetically "You're back. Oh, Oola!" the robot zoomed towards his soon to be wife and started trying to hump her leg. The key word was tried as he grabbed the tiny robot and threw it, the robot shattering when Galen hit it with a blaster a moment later causing the rest of the Claptraps to scream and scatter.
"See what I mean?" he asked, sending a look at a horrified Obi-Wan.
"It had the intelligence level of Jar Jar." The old man said horrified as they exited the ship.
"Captain on deck!" a strong voice called out as he turned to see two hundred members of his crew in black and silver clone trooper armor, saluting him while their leader, Commander Rex, stood at attention in front of the formation.
"At ease men." He ordered as his men took a slightly more relaxed stance.
"Is…is that…" Obi-Wan asked wide eyed and fearful.
"Luke, Obi-Wan, meet the forgotten Squadron…or at least part of it." He said proudly as Captain Rex walked over "While most of the Clone Troopers obeyed the order to begin killing Jedi many refused and turned awol. I've found around a thousand of the clones and they're a part of my crew, still in their prime due to Clones aging much slower than regular humans."
"We stand ready to serve you Captain." Rex said with military poise.
"Very good Commander," he said with a nod "now follow me to the bridge and send an order for all of the Officers to head there as well."
"Yes Captain." Rex nodded before the clone began giving orders on an intercom system.
"Come on," he said to the others as they walked over to a shuttle like area that would take them to the bridge, the Commander joining them after a moment "most of them will probably beat us there."
It took five minutes for the advance shuttle to get us to the bridge but when the doors opened he looked around and saw six of the seven remaining officers and frowned slightly before noticing him in the rafters. "Come on in and I'll introduce you to everyone." He told Luke and Obi-Wan as they walked over to the large table in the middle of the room. "You've already met Galen Marek, my second in Command, Oola, my soon to be wife and head medical officer, and Commander Rex who is in charge of the Clones."
As he spoke the three officers he mentioned walked to their places around the table, nodding to Obi-Wan and Luke as they did so. "Next we have Juno Marek, Galen's wife." He introduced the beautiful woman who stood next to Galen "She's our chief pilot."
"Here we have Dobby," he introduced the ever eager little elf "who invented those damned Claptrap robots. His duty is to oversee overall ship maintenance and cleaning."
"Dobby likes his Claptraps." Dobby protested with a pout as everyone else sent the elf an irritated look.
"Here we have Marris Brood," he gestured to the beautiful Zabrak woman and noticed Luke flush red "who leads the ground troops whenever we visit a planet with hostile natives or wildlife."
"This is Greybok." He moved over to a massive white Wookie who let out a roar with a nod "He keeps up with our engines and make sure they're repaired."
"And these," he got to two human sized robots "are HK-47 and Proxy who serve as guards for the officers. I'd introduce you to our Tactician but he seems to be hiding. Anyway everyone, these are Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi-" he failed to get any farther than they when his tactician in the rafters leapt down with an angry yell, igniting four lightsabers in his mechanical limbs. One lightsaber burned bight blue, one emerald green, and two pitch black and smoking.
"Grievous!" Obi-Wan yelled, the old man leaping back and activating his own lightsaber.
"Stand down!" he yelled, flexing his power with the force to draw the attention of the two apparent enemies. "What the hell is going on here?"
"He is the one who killed me!" his tactician, General Grievous, snarled angrily from within the mechanical shell.
"He fought for the empire!" Obi-Wan yelled, thrusting the lightsaber in the half droid's direction.
"Enough!" he yelled furiously as everyone became silent. Taking a moment to calm himself he used the force to take the lightsabers away from the two "You two can have them back later when I know you won't attack each other." He scolded.
"Um…what's the story here?" Luke asked confused.
"This, Luke, is General Grievous." He explained, "He was loyal to Count Dooku during the Clone Wars but his story is more complicated than that. General Grievous was originally a Kaleesh warlord named Qymaen jai Sheelal. Grievous was born during the Huk War where the insectoid Huk's were trying to conquer the reptilian Kaleesh for slave labor. Grievous' father decided to focus his sons rage by teaching him to use a slug throwing rifle. Grievous at eight years old had forty kills under his belt and by twenty-two he had so many kills he was considered a demigod by his people."
"Once he had matured Grievous had a prophetic dream where he hunted and killed a dangerous beast using a sword. This dream had such an effect that Grievous went into the forest to enact the dream. Once he found the creature, he encountered a Kaleesh woman who had already slain the beast. This woman, Ronderu lij Kummar, would become Grievous partner and his treasured love."
"The pair became known as living incarnations of a Kaleesh story. Both would form a strong bound and teach each other their fighting techniques. This was the first time Grievous learned to use a sword. Their battles an accumulated kills during the Huk war would have both recognized has demigods and saviors of their people."
"During one encounter Ronderu and Grievous were separated and she fell to the Huk's barbed spears. She would meet her end in a watery grave. Grievous was sent into a long spiraling depression. He pleaded with his gods to just see her one more time, though his prayers were never answered. Grievous would take his anger out on the invaders. He went on to expel every Huk from his planet as well as taking several wives and having thirty children though nothing would snap him out of his depression. This was when Grievous left behind his birth name Qymaen jai Sheelal and became General Grievous."
"Once Grievous started to eliminate the Huk worlds in revenge for his partners death the Huk's turned to the Galactic Republic for aid. Once the Republic was on the Huk's side the Kaleesh would face economic hardship from embargo's, Republic sanctions, and hefty fines. Hundreds of thousands of Kaleesh died during this time of poverty. San Hill of the Intergalactic Banking Clan saw an amazing opportunity. He proposed that he could alleviate some of Kaleeshes debts and Grievous would work for him as an enforcer of the Banking Clan. Grievous did not want to work as a thug for the Banking Clan though he longed for battle and wanted to help his people so he agreed. Grievous was not allowed to bring his Kaleesh elite and was given command of the Banking Clan's Battle Droids."
"Grievous was appalled with their performance and demanded smarter droids. Count Dooku commissioned the IG-100 Battle droids and had them programmed them with the skills of 100 swordsman. Grievous again was appalled at their skills and had them programmed according to his own movements and skills. The Banking Clan kept their promise and took over the debt of the Kaleesh and Grievous became an efficient enforcer."
"Through his actions The Banking Clan seized overdue payments on Ord Mantell and received Phult Designing Systems as a subsidiary. Soon Grievous heard of the Huk desecrating a Kaleesh ceremonial ground and the Republic's inaction against this atrocity. Grievous returned to his Kaleesh warriors and abandoned his contract with the Banking Clan to take up arms against the Huk. San Hill was disappointed in this and even considered assassinating the Kaleesh warlord though he feared his reprisal if he survived the attempt. San Hill conspired with Poggle the Lesser of Geonosis, and Darth Sidious to force Grievous into a permanent servant. Grievous and his elites boarded a ship named Martyr and headed for the Huk home world."
"Unknown to the group the Separatists had placed an ion bomb on board. The bomb went off destroying the ship and killing the Kaleesh elites though Grievous' pod was rigged to allow him to escape. The hit into the water did a great deal of damage to Grievous' body but even with all of his limbs destroyed and most of his body damaged Grievous still lived."
"Dooku found him and took him to a private facility, determined to get the fearsome warrior to swear complete loyalty to him but Grievous didn't want to. His cellmate was a Jedi that Dooku had captured and Grievous hated that man more than anything as that Jedi had surrendered and offered his own men in exchange for not being killed. Wanting to kill that Jedi Grievous told Dooku that if they rebuilt his body and let him kill the Jedi then he would swear undying loyalty to Dooku."
"The count agreed to it and had Grievous' machine like body built, with the brain, organs, and eyes from the Kaleeshan's original body placed into it. The count even gave the General his first lightsaber to use to kill the Jedi and, after slaying the coward, Grievous took the man's lightsaber from his corpse. When the General went to give both lightsabers the count told him to keep them both, an important gesture as the lightsaber was an extension of one's self. Over time the General came to see Dooku almost like a father and the reverse was also true."
"But after Obi-Wan here killed his first body Grievous' mind lived on as it had been downloaded into a server and was to be the main system for some battle station the Empire is trying to build. I copied it to my servers and deleted the Empire's copy, building him a new body so that he can get revenge on the empire as it was the Emperor who urged Darth Vader to kill Dooku."
Pausing to take in a breath he looked around to gauge everyone's reactions he noticed Obi-Wan seemed to be wary but looked to be studying the force for what to feel about it and Luke was looking sympathetic, a situation he'd have to ask about later. "So what is the situation Captain?" the General asked him, the man's rasping cough still persisting even with the cloned pieces of what was still organic in Grievous' old body.
"The empire killed Luke's family, they were good friends of mine." He said darkly "We're taking them to Alderan and then…we join the Rebellion. It's time to take the fight directly to the Empire like we've been planning." At his words, Grievous and Greybok let out eager roars while the rest of his crew saluted him. "Juno prepare to enter warp speed," he ordered his pilot "we have a mission to complete."
"Yes sir." One of his few female officers said eagerly, sliding into the pilot seat as punched in the coordinates, "Warp speed ready captain."
"Punch it."
-Omake-
-Tonks-
Sighing the young Metamorphomagus sat in what used to be her room with her parents, the only thing left being a chair as she stared at a photo album she had found while going through her things. She was moving into a small apartment with a few other rookie Aurors now that she had been accepted into the program and her full training was to start in a few days.
Each page of the album showed pictures of her and her friends laughing, smiling, being happy. It served as a positive boost which was something she had sorely needed. A few weeks before, at the end of the Boy-Who-Lived's first year at Hogwarts, Dumbledore had said that Voldemort might be around as a shade and would attempt to get a body to come back. The entire country had taken a darker outlook since then and even her gaining admission into the Auror corps had failed to bring her the joy she had originally felt.
As she thought about her dream job she took a moment to really think about why she had wanted to be an Auror originally but it didn't hit her until she looked at one of the pictures from her first year, showing her and a little black hair Gryffindor, waving cheerfully at the camera. It took her a moment to remember the name of the boy, "H-Harry," it hit her in a flash "Harry Potter." The lost son of the Potter family…the one who had run away to find somewhere he was cared for.
Her fingers flew as she turned through the pages of the Album, looking for more and more pictures of the boy she had somehow forgotten, pausing at each one she found to take them in, the memories of the time she spent with him slowly returning. As she went through the years the pictures of them showed them always being happy together but then, partway through the fourth year…they just stopped. Frowning she looked harder but he never showed up next to her in any more pictures but how could the boy who encouraged her to be an auror in the first place just vanish.
Any time he showed up in a picture after that it was always with him just being in the background, never in the main focus itself. Setting aside the album she rushed over to one of her boxes in the hallway and pulled out her stack of journals, finding the ones from fourth year as she tried to find any one that might explain why they had stopped being friends as he just couldn't remember it. Finally she found some entries that she thought were around the right time and read:
September 27th
Dear Diary,
Harry asked me out earlier today, he was so cute when he got flustered! I've never really thought about him like that, he's always just been one of my closest friends but I decided to give it a shot. We're going to go have dinner at a restaurant in Hogsmede since it was a Hogsmede weekend and we're allowed to go to the village at any point during the day even if the teachers only tell you about their 'pre approved time slots'.
October 12th
Dear Diary,
I just bought a dress for my date with Harry on the twentieth and I can't wait to see his jaw drop when he sees me in it. I also heard that his parents are planning to throw a party for his little brother and my family might end up getting invited.
October 21st
Dear Diary,
I just got back from the party the Potter family threw for Marcus and it was amazing! The food was to die for and the music was awesome! I even got to meet Madame Bones, the head of the DMLE and when she heard about me wanting to be an Auror she said she couldn't wait to look over my application after I take my NEWTs! Nothing could have made yesterday better!
She froze at that passage as she realized that she had blown off someone who was clearly a good friend for a party that she didn't think he had even been invited to. Flipping through she could only find two other passages that mentioned Harry in them.
December 3rd
Dear Diary,
Harry hasn't talked to me in over a month and I don't know why. He hardly talks at all anymore, only answering questions in class and giving blunt answers if anyone talks to him directly. I went to approach him and he…the look he gave me was so cold, his eyes looked as if I'd stabbed him in the back but I don't know why, what did I do?
June 4th
Dear Diary,
I've officially had it with Harry Potter. He hasn't spoken to me once since October and hasn't even bothered to apologize for ignoring me all this time. If he wants to toss away a friend like me fine, then that's his loss. I don't need him, I'm going to be the most amazing Auror England's ever seen!
Dropping the journal back into the box she shakily sealed it all up and apparated to her small one bedroom apartment, her fellow rookies in the other apartments on her hall. Dropping the boxes she collapsed onto her bed and sobbed herself to sleep as she finally remembered one of her closest friends…and realized the mistakes she had made to drive him away.
Throughout her dreams that night she saw flashes of Harry with beautiful women, she saw him fighting in epic battles, commanding armies, being a Hero. When she finally woke up she had new determination within her. The Goblin's had reported that Harry Peverell's soul orb, which all bank members had, hadn't gone dark so he was still alive. She would find Harry, she would bring him home, and she would fix what she broke and hope that maybe he would still want her like he did before.