Hello everyone, and welcome to chapter 11 of Star Wars: Twilight Blade! It's been a hot minute since I published the last chapter for this story, and it's the first chapter for this story of 2022, so perhaps I should give a little "situation update" for anyone who's been following this story with any sort of consistency.

Creativity: Well, big one, we got a job!

Author: Yup! A proper industry job! So, that naturally means that we have less free time to put towards writing, especially since there's still chores and life to deal with. That's why there's been a massive lull in uploads for all my stuff for the last four months. We're still writing, just a lot slower since we're still getting into the groove of things, so to speak, but things are gonna pick up as we adapt.

But enough of that for now! Let's answer the reviews for chapter 10:

NullSilver2005: Well, you'll find out now, won't you. Heheheheheheheh…

And that's it for reviews! Now then, I believe there's one last order of business to attend to, right Creativity?

Creativity: Indeed, sir! Here's our Discord password: xtydzBf

Author: Fantastic! And now, without further ado, allow us to proudly present chapter 11 of Star Wars: Twilight Blade!

Arvos had been taught many things in his life at the Jedi Temple. He'd learned the art of the lightsaber and other martial skills aside, he'd been taught negotiation and conflict resolution, and he'd learned of the Force and how to channel it through himself to perform extraordinary feats.

However, he'd never learned anything about the arts of stealth, which now felt like a grave oversight as his infiltration group snuck through the metal corridors of the Separatist base. His ears were pricked for the sounds of droid footsteps approaching as he did his best to recall the map of the base they'd all been shown before they'd departed for this mission, a task that was made all the harder when you were trying to move quickly, yet quietly through an enemy base and couldn't afford to be spotted. More than once, one of the clones or Master Marahl had been forced to grab him and pull him back to avoid being detected, moments that had his heart nearly jumping out of his mouth!

Despite having seen a holo of the base, Arvos was still surprised by how large it was. It obviously had to be pretty large to be the primary base on any planet, needing to possess a droid's equivalent of barracks, a communications hub, power supply, a landing strip and hanger for starfighters, a staging ground, quarters for any organic officers that may be visiting the base, and likely more large facilities that were needed for the base to run. Honestly, it was a miracle that they'd managed to design systems that allowed them to erect a fortress like this on almost any world in a few hours. The Republic army also had such a system, though it obviously followed a different layout and had different needs.

They'd been sneaking around for about ten minutes now, heading for the security center first. Arvos had been confused as to why they were going there when the mission was to disable the shield generators, which were located outdoors. At first, he'd thought they were taking a more roundabout route for some reason that was behind his limited experience, but when he inquired about why they were taking such a route, Jax chuckled a little bit before explaining.

"While the team in charge of taking out the guns can do their job without knocking the security systems offline, it still helps. And for our job, it's much harder if you don't know where all the eyes are looking. Take out the brain behind the eyes and sneaking around on their front lawn becomes a cakewalk." The ARC trooper had explained in a hush. It made sense in retrospect, though Arvos was surprised that the droids weren't employing intelligent and independent droid security cameras. Chances were, it was a cost and logistics thing. They were already making so many B1 battle droids, that it probably was less of a hassle to just use a conventional camera system and maybe scanners than it was to add another piece of unique hardware to the base. One of the biggest problems that the Republic had faced throughout this war was financial and it was likely a problem that the CIS shared, even if they advertised otherwise. Arvos didn't need a Jedi or military strategist to tell him that showing weakness or disunity to the enemy during a war was a terrible idea.

"We're just on top of the security center." Jax hissed as the troops all got into position while one of them worked on slicing the door controls. However, as he went to join the clones in preparation for taking the center, Master Marahl put a hand across Arvos' chest to stop him.

"I suggest you stay back and watch, young padawan." The Theelin suggested before turning to the clones as the slicer finished his work. The door opened and the clones immediately opened fire, cutting down every droid inside with brutal efficiency and flawless coordination! Arvos was in awe of the clones as they quickly rushed into the center and began hiding the droid chassis to avoid suspicion. From there, the slicer got to work on disabling all the security measures they could that would be undetectable to the droids. Arvos was amazed by how quickly the soldier was working, realizing that the clone had undoubtedly performed this same operation many times before, given the practiced nature of it all. What was more amazing was that he had to have been good enough to not have been discovered and had security protocols changed to cover the weaknesses he was exploiting.

In all of two minutes, the clones had cleaned up the droids and the security measures were down, which meant it was time to move on to the shield generators.

"Is there a reason why the droids are using a portable shield array in their staging area, rather than a more easily defended shield core within their base?" Arvos inquired as they continued to steal their way to the staging grounds.

"Portability and cost; Much easier to buy a large inventory of shield arrays, which are easier to deploy and remove, as well as replace if one unit is damaged or defective. Shield cores may be easier to defend and more powerful than a shield array, but they're more difficult to set up and maintain." Master Marahl explained. Arvos considered this, and it did make sense. The Separatists' approach to the war so far in terms of units was undoubtedly quantity over quality. Who cared if two or three B1 battle droids were defective when you could just replace them with twenty more. It was strange thing to think about, the economics of warfare.

It was several more minutes of stealing their way through the base, dodging droid patrols and making sure they were on the right path before the squad finally got outdoors and could finally see their objective. However, what Arvos noticed immediately was the change of air. Inside the facility, the air had been cold and dry, chemically treated and sterile. Outside however, was a completely different story. The air was hot and humid, filled with the scents of vegetation and decay. The transition was almost overwhelming at first.

"Man, I can't wait for this patrol to be over."

"I know. The humidity is rusting all of my servos."

The squad quickly ducked for cover as a patrol of two droids marched by, talking idly to themselves.

"Like I said, personality defects." Master Marahl whispered with self-satisfaction as she slowly emerged from hiding and began moving over to a cluster of crates, motioning for Arvos to join her. As he obeyed however, he couldn't help but notice the clones moving to a different position.

"Where are they going?" Arvos whispered, only for his master to smile a little more and motion for him to watch.

"They're following orders." She replied cryptically as the clones quickly dispersed, sneaking to different points in the staging ground. Occasionally they'd pause in front of something like a support strut or a munitions crate, but they'd always keep going afterwards.

Then, Arvos noticed something out of the corner of his eye, up on the walls of the Separatist fortress. He could see clones led by Quickdraw sneaking along the walls and attaching something to the anti-personnel guns that dotted the perimeter of the base. As he retraced the path they were following, he eventually saw Alvya and Master Se in hiding. No doubt the droids would never spot them. Arvos only knew to look because he knew they were on the base, and he'd seen the clones they were paired with on the wall.

"Padawan, be prepared to move on the shield array on my signal." Master Marahl suddenly told him in a far more commanding tone that Arvos was used to out of the theelin. Still, he removed his lightsabers from his belt and prepared to run, though he wasn't sure what signal Master Marahl was waiting for.

And then, chaos erupted.

Several explosions all went off at once, taking out critical and very explosive portions of the base, including the anti-personnel cannons and several other locations that Arvos had seen the clone troopers visit when they'd separated from Arvos and Master Marahl. In retrospect, Arvos was annoyed he hadn't realized what was happening sooner.

"Go!" Master Marahl shouted as she sprang forth from their refuge, lightsaber igniting as she rushed towards one of the shield arrays! Arvos was quick to follow, sprinting towards his own target as his inky black blades burst forth to cut down any droids in his way. As it turned out however, there weren't actually that many droids to stop him. As soon as the explosions went off, they went into complete disarray, panicking and tripping over themselves and each other as they tried to figure out what was going on! If Arvos hadn't had a job to do, he'd probably have stopped to laugh at the absurdity. This was the droid army that the Separatists boasted about?!

Unfortunately, the disarray didn't last long, though it was long enough for Arvos to take out his unit of the shield array. However, the droids quickly saw the lightsabers in play and immediately opened fire on the padawan, who began to frenziedly deflect the blaster bolts as he began looking for where he was supposed to go next. Unfortunately, he couldn't go anywhere in a hurry with all the blaster fire he was dealing with, and he didn't want to accidentally draw the clones into the line of fire with him. He had no choice but to face this head on.

The blaster fire was too heavy for any real precision reflection, but he managed to take out more than a few of the droids firing on him. Then his fortune turned as three of the clones came to his aid, including Jax. The clones' blaster fire soon had the droids on the back foot, and it soon grew worse for the metal soldiers as Master Se and Alvya leapt from the walls to cut down the droids from behind! Soon enough, Arvos was able to safely advance to the final unit in the shield array (Master Marahl had destroyed the other units already) and put both of his lightsabers through it!

And with that, the shield fully collapsed and a roar went up in the distance as Master Secura's forces immediately began their charge to take the base. The massive gates were blown to smithereens by a hailstorm of cannon-fire, courtesy of the Republic AT-TE walkers, which began to gun down the small contingent of Vulture droids that were just beginning to take to the sky. They didn't make it that far.

It was almost astonishing how quickly the base was taken once the defenses were down. The chaos caused by all the thermal detonators going off certainly helped, but this was incredible. The clones swarmed through the breach in the base's defenses and reduced every droid in site to scrap at an alarming rate. Arvos and the other Jedi quickly joined in, cutting down droids left and right as they swarmed back into the base and began to dismantle the droid forces within. Eventually, they reached the communications hub and mercilessly relieved the droids of their posts before moving on to the remainder of the facility.

In under a half hour, the battle was decisively won in favor of the Republic, with nary a droid left alive. Not even the maintenance droids were spared, though Arvos did avoid taking them out. Despite them working for the Separatist forces, he didn't like cutting down Astromech droids.

As the post-battle cleanup began, Arvos couldn't help but feel rather accomplished, despite how little he felt he'd contributed. Considering this was his first mission ever, the results were pretty fantastic. Plus, he'd learned more than a few things due to his experiences in the approach, infiltration, and finally the invasion of the Separatist base.

"Padawan, over here!"

Arvos was snapped out of his thoughts by his master's summons and hurried to her side. The theelin Jedi was striding back towards the communications center, if Arvos was remembering the layout of the facility correctly.

Sure enough, the master and padawan arrived at the communications hub, where several clones were making adjustments, corrections and other modifications needed for the Republic to make use of the base. Also waiting for them were Master Se and Alvya, both standing on the far side of a holoprojector alongside Master Secura. The blue Twi'lek female nodded in acknowledgement of the pair. Arvos bowed in respect as he joined Master Marahl at the holoprojector. On the projector was the fleet commander Arvos had met prior to arriving on Felucia, several other Republic Navy officers Arvos hadn't met before, and Jedi Council members Mace Windu, Ki-Adi-Mundi and Grandmaster Yoda.

"Well done on taking the base. That was the last real foothold that the Separatists had on Felucia." Master Mace Windu stated as they approached the holoprojector, before taking notice of the new arrivals.

"Master Corvis, Padawan Moro." Master Windu greeted as the two Jedi bowed to him and the other council members before returning to the holoprojection.

"As I was saying…" He began as the people shrunk and moved to the side, being replaced with a projection of Felucia. "There are still a few scattered remnants of Separatist activity on Felucia, but now their only point of return is their fleet. They'll be easy to rout, especially if we can drive off what little of the Separatist fleet hangs in orbit." Master Windu explained as images of both fleets appeared in orbit over Felucia.

"I'll be going on patrols around Felucia to keep an eye out for droid activity, and to help defend the Felucians in the event of a retaliatory strike." Master Secura informed them before turning to the two masters and their apprentices.

"I'm assuming that you won't be staying." She questioned, getting a nod from Master Se.

"Me and Padawan Geran will be departing as soon as securing the base is concluded, though I can't speak for Master Corvis and Padawan Moro." He replied. Master Marahl crossed her arms as she responded.

"We will be returning to the fleet, though we will not be departing from Felucia just yet, unless otherwise assigned to." She replied easily, turning to the council as if waiting for an assignment.

"We'll let you know as soon as we have something for you. May the Force be with you." Master Mundi bade farewell as the holoprojector shut down and Master Secura departed to speak to her second-in-command. As the Jedi departed the communications center, the padawans both turned to their masters.

"What should we do now, master?" Alvya asked Master Se, who began stroking his chin in thought.

"For now, stick with us. We'll be greeting reinforcements from the fleet outside. After that, you'll be off duty. Perhaps there will be time for a collaborative lesson." Master Se decided, getting a nod of agreement from Master Marahl.

When they arrived outside the base, the clones were in the process of cleaning up all of the destroyed battle droids. Already they'd cleared an area for the reinforcements to land in and were currently clearing out space for starfighters, though Arvos wasn't sure if they'd be able to land more than two or three ARC 170 starfighters at this base.

Soon enough, the telltale hum of an approaching LAAT gunship reached the ears of the Jedi and they looked up to see their approaching reinforcements. As the gunships began touching down, all the clones on the field rushed to form neat rows and stood at attention as the Jedi stood in front. Arvos and Alvya stood slightly back from their masters and cross their arms behind their backs, waiting as the gunships began their descent, kicking up a small plume of dust as they touched down. The doors opened and neat rows of clones in white armor disembarked from the transports and formed their own neat rows in front of the Jedi. Stood in front of the new arrivals was another ARC trooper, sporting a yellow paint job on his armor that marked him as another member of the 327th.

"Captain Leo reporting, sir!" The ARC trooper saluted before the Jedi motioned for him to be at ease.

"We welcome you and your troops eagerly, Captain. Even if this is the last real Separatist stronghold on Felucia, we can't assume that the war here has been won until the fleet has been put to flight or destroyed." Master Se greeted. The clones quickly joined the effort in making sure the base properly under Republic control, mostly cleaning up any lingering Separatist protocols that might have been hanging around in the system and ensuring there weren't any more potentially active droids on standby. Arvos wasn't sure what the plan for the base was, but he imagined that it would be decommissioned and torn down in short order, especially once the war was finally concluded. Arvos wondered if he should have been assisting the clones, but Master Marahl apparently had other plans.

"Padawan, with me." She called. Arvos hurried after the Jedi as she strode up the LAAT cruiser.

"Master, we aren't leaving yet, are we? Even if the battle is won, I don't see why we would just depart immediately. Isn't there still work to be done?" The padawan asked in confusion.

"Master Secura already has everything under control." The Theelin Jedi replied. "That said, we won't be leaving the system quite yet. We will rejoin with the fleet and remain there for two standard weeks; in case the Separatists launch a counteroffensive to try and gain a foothold on Felucia once again."

That made sense to Arvos. Besides, they probably didn't need three Jedi on the same operation when they'd finished clearing out the Separatists already. Covering a wider range with the resources available to them was probably the better call in this case.

Still, it felt strange to Arvos as the doors to the gunship slowly shut and the stable sense of solid ground beneath his feet fell away. There was a sense of anxiety as the spacecraft took them further and further away from the surface of the jungle world and up to the warship floating above them. Arvos couldn't place it, but it felt like something was going to happen soon, and it wouldn't end well for him. The worst part was that he couldn't place where that feeling was coming from. It was like it was hanging in the air, like a thick fog closing in and slowly pushing the breath from his lungs.

Arvos took a deep breath and put those feelings aside. Better to put energy into figuring out why he was feeling such a way, rather than let those emotions keep him blinded to their source. Still, he couldn't completely shake the ill feeling of dread.

What darkness lay in wait for them?

And that's chapter 11 wrapped up! Yeah, perhaps a bit heavy-handed in foreshadowing, but I like being melodramatic sometimes.

Creativity: Plus, you're a lunatic.

Author: You can't prove that.

Creativity: 60. Caliber. Christmas. Cannon. 400.

Author: And you will speak nothing of that ever again. It's not patented yet.

Anyway, we're all pretty tired (long week at work) so I'll be calling it a day for now. Thanks for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you next time!