Chapter 28

It took six days to reach Kuat all the way from Geonosis.

A journey that was a much needed return to the normalcy of routine operations for the crew of Resolute. It kept me mostly busy with the routine of command, organizing for the ship's maintenance cycle it would go through at Kuat and the installation of a new toy that the Republic Navy wanted to test out. I'd never say no to the Resolute getting an upgrade in capability but it was experimental and as such things go, ironing out the kinks and dangers of the system was going to fall on our heads.

In this case, Yularen and I were a victim of our own success. As it seemed that now whenever some new boondoggle was invented by someone in Fleet R & D, that our names were the first to come to mind to find some way of utilizing or squeezing it into practical fleet doctrine. The result being that every morning, I had breakfast with the admiral with a datapad in hand to discuss and brainstorm it.

Added to my schedule on the journey was lightsaber and other Force related training with Anakin, which this time we were both guilty of letting somewhat slip because of other demands on our time.

He was in a somewhat similar boat though, with the added complication that he had now ready access to his wife for the entire journey.

Padme would only launch her Nubian star yacht when Resolute reached Kuat, as it was a further two day journey to reach the Republic capital. Bel Iblis had already disembarked when the Resolute made a stop in Denon and he caught a ride that would continue to take him onward to Corellia, whilst we had to take the Hydian Way hyper route.

Suffice it to say, with only Senator Kharrus on the large yacht, it was much easier for the couple to arrange clandestine meetings.

I made sure to 'mute' the bond preemptively each night, but despite that, I could always catch a hint of when 'passionate negotiations' began. The old Earth expression, 'at it like bunnies' came to mind. I was half worried Padme would get pregnant way too early to give birth to the famous twins - but she had the contraceptive implants, like most women in the galaxy that lived on a planet with half-decent healthcare. Pregnancy in the core worlds all the way to mid-rim was always a choice that couples had and accidents only happened when a woman forgot to renew the implant or the man forgot to renew theirs.

Finally, on the last day, I walked onto Resolute's bridge with a somewhat refreshed and eager spring in my step. There was no way I was missing this hyperspace emergence.

I didn't bother with the chair and stood as close as possible to the forward bridge transparisteel viewports.

The swirling hyperspace tunnel fractured and resolved into uncountable streaks of starlight, then settled into pinpricks of light against the dark void.

Dominating the forward view was Kuat.

It was a world of green almost everywhere, with lush forests, plains and minimal mountain ranges. The land was only broken up by the occasional sea or ocean that divided the world into just three major continents. Over this was beautifully streaking white clouds and at the north and south poles, were generous near symmetrical ice caps. It was one of the two clues you had from space that this was a world that had been almost perfectly terraformed by its first settlers. The consistently temperate climate with no extremes of desert anywhere was the other clue.

Take a shuttle down and you'd find not a single dangerous animal anywhere, with only mild herbivores and just enough predators (who had been genetically programmed to find two legged beings unappetizing) so that the balance was maintained.

The cities on the planet were also carefully managed to never grow beyond a certain size and all of them were along its equator, leaving the rest of the planet to remain an idyllic countryside where only small towns could pop up.

Contrasting this was the sheer industrial scale of what surrounded the planet's equator.

It was utterly breathtaking and I inwardly gave thanks for the opportunity to just see it in person.

Roughly 1200km from the surface of the world, was a glimmering artificial ring that orbited around the planet like it had decided to wear a belt around its waist.

At the current distance it looked no more thicker than a human hair to my eyes.

It was actually over three kilometers in width and nearly two kilometers in thickness, but the circumference is where most sentients began to have problems.

Kuat Drive Yards measured at a mind bogglingly big 37,700 kilometers.

That was 'peanuts' to space, but in terms of artificial space construction it was ridiculous.

As we got closer, Resolute had to carefully slot itself into a specific course and speed on approach to the KDY Ring.

The place was not known as the most efficient shipyard in the galaxy for nothing and while it didn't even come close to Coruscant levels of space traffic, there was enough that KDY devoted a significant percentage of its manpower and assets in managing ships coming and going. Dock space and yard space on the Ring was at a premium as well.

When the Ring was as thick as my thumb if I held it out in front of me, the Resolute was hailed by a space traffic controller.

"Republic Navy Ship, Resolute, stand by to cut engines and capture."

I walked over to my command chair and opened the frequency. "Kuat Control, acknowledged and standing by. Nav, you ready?"

"Roger commander, our forward velocity is all within parameters."

"Nicely done, Nav."

"Resolute, engines off."

I merely had to gesture at the helmsman in the crew pit and within less than a second the giant engines of the Venator had shut down.

Not a moment later I felt an odd sense of vertigo that vanished just as quickly. It was barely perceptible but the Resolute had just been captured by one of the titanic tractor beams of the KDY Ring. It was a general rule that no ship could operate under its own power within a 100km zone from the Ring itself, and there were further speed limits as you approached that zone.

At this distance, the traffic being shuffled back and forth from the Ring was now apparent. The sheer variety was just astounding, from the smallest shuttle you can imagine, in all shapes and sizes to multi-kilometer freighters. The dock where Resolute was being parked was in an empty spot among dozens of other docks that had Venators in various levels of construction, refurbishment or even battle damage repair.

"It's quite the sight, isn't it?"

"That it is, Skyguy," I grinned excitedly.

He was now leaning against the command chair's backrest and also taking in the sheer size of what we were approaching. I took in his easy confident smile and the way he was feeling in the Force. Good grief.

"When is Senator Amidala going to depart?" I asked pointedly.

"She wants to do some Senate business on Kuat in person while she's here, so another three days or so."

I was not going to be a cockblocker, but damn, sometimes my talent for Force bonds was a pain.

"How are we getting to the Azure Star anyway?"

"She's docked about two thousand kilometers that way," he jerked his thumb in the anti-spinward direction of the Ring. "So we're taking a KDY automated shuttle. You're ready and packed?"

"Ready, Skyguy."

Resolute's nose stopped just ten meters short of the Ring structure itself and already yard arms were released to surround the ship.

"Then let's go see what our new ride looks like."


The KDY shuttles ran on a dedicated track in the interior of the Ring that faced the planet. The thing was basically a box with a forward viewport and engines on the back that could carry sixty people in general seated comfort. They all had a max acceleration of just 50Gs but even at that relatively torpid pace, it could make the journey along the Ring to our destination in just 127 seconds.

I most definitely didn't want to look at the Ring blurring by on my right at 31 KPS, so I just focused my eyes on the planet and did not think about the potential for an accident at this speed. If it happened at least the death would be quick and over before I could even comprehend it.

The other passengers in the shuttle were an interesting mix of seventy percent human and other species. Our armor and Jedi robes did make us attract a bit of attention from the others, but everyone thankfully kept their peace. Staying buried in their datapads or just staring through the viewports at the planet. It was a fair bet that everyone in the shuttle was involved in some way in the factories or business of the shipbuilding industry of Kuat.

Seventy seconds later the shuttle began decelerating and shifting into a lower track on the z-axis to accommodate its lower relative speed. This shifting would continue until it reached its destination dock on the lowest level of the Ring.

Finally the shuttle reached relative zero KPS to the Ring and docked.

Anakin and I grabbed our duffel bags and luggage before emerging onto a large concourse that was packed with people going to and fro. To get to our destination required us to appropriate an MSE droid that helpfully led the way for us through the walkways, corridors and lifts we had to take.

It took a further thirteen minutes of walking just to get to our destination on the outer docks.

The massive docking tube for the Star of the Azure, looked like it could easily fit fifteen people walking abreast into it. It was a necessity given that the crew required to successfully work a star dreadnought numbered well into more than 27 000.

The sheer numbers of crew and dock workers going to and fro from the ship interior to the concourse was rather staggering to look at.

My feet carried me to the massive floor to ceiling windows that looked out and gave an expansive view of the dreadnought.

From my limited perspective, it just seemed I was looking at an extension of the KDY Ring, but turning my head allowed me to just glimpse the separation and see that this horizon of metal in space was actually a ship attached to the Ring.

"Come on, Snips." Anakin gave me a brief smile, clearly finding my reactions amusing.

We stopped at the most visibly senior clone trooper guarding the entrance tube to the dreadnought, there was a small company of them detailed solely to this duty. Anyone who was authorized to be on the Azure Star, coming back and forth, would have biometric code cylinders on them and anyone unauthorized would be immediately flagged by the ship's central computer and detained by the clones. Our own code cylinders were tucked out of view in our armor and had already been updated personally by Bel Iblis.

Theoretically, we could go right aboard with no problems but the Azure Star was not some generic, off the assembly line Venator.

"Captain," Anakin greeted the clone with a slight head bow.

The clone in red and white armor looked at us and my armor's systems registered the ping as my code was scanned. He immediately snapped to attention and saluted, which the rest of his men mirrored immediately. "General Skywalker, a pleasure to meet you, sir. I'm Captain Yerrt. Ship Security. We weren't expecting you for another hour."

"Our ship was early," he replied and returned the salute easily. "This is Commander Tano, my padawan."

"Pleasure, ma'am."

I bowed my head in response.

"Please send my greetings to Captain Mirach and that we are coming aboard."

"Yes, General. Please go ahead."

Anakin nodded and led the way into the ship.

It was immediately apparent that we were not on a normal vessel. The interior had a far less 'industrial' feel to the hallways, consisting of more rounded, organic corridors, with light beige walls and gray carpeted floors. It almost felt like I was walking onto a luxury liner of sorts. The other thing that proved this was not a normal ship, was the fact that I was seeing Republic Navy personnel, and they were not clones of Jango Fett.

The reason for this was quite simple. The Azure Star was in effect a unique ship, maintained and manned before the war, by the Axum Guard Navy of the Azure Sector. It had arrived just weeks before the outbreak of the war for a refit and modernization, then pulled into and commissioned by the Republic Navy with all the other star dreadnoughts of the various core world home navies.

Clone personnel were adaptable and well trained, but with each dreadnought maintained and staffed by a different core world navy, the systems and technology of each ship was non-standardized. As such, the naval personnel that manned the Azure Star, was in the majority, all from the Axum Navy, with only about ten percent of the ship's complement being clones and they were mostly embarked ground troops and ship security.

This also meant our presence on board was immediately noticed, with a few of the personnel being briefly startled at the presence of what had to be Jedi and so strangely 'armored'. Their professionalism took over though and they went on about their duties though. This was not the case for the youngest of the crew, such as the naval ratings and I swore I saw a young woman nearly stumble into another crewman as she was gaping at Anakin.

Our MSE droid was still with us and another twenty minutes of lifts, walking, a few more security checks, had us standing outside the ready room of the current captain of the Azure Star.

"Enter," called a voice through the door com.

The door swished open and inside was a room that could only be on a dreadnought. Roughly twenty square meters of space that was a blend between an office and a lounge, I felt like I was walking into the executive office of a rich high tech CEO on old Earth.

The floor was a rich red carpet of some sort and the walls were festooned with actual paintings of a variety of landscapes, military portraits and racks of slotted data pads. The desk was expansive and elegant, with various integrated terminals where the master of the ship could conduct his business from. The prime feature that drew the eye was a large wall display which was currently set to show a glorious view of Kuat from space.

Anakin walked up to the desk and bowed courteously to the master and commander of the ship, who with visible reluctance, stood from his desk and saluted.

Captain Bail Mirach was a man visibly in his middle ages, though he wore it differently. His silver, perfectly groomed hair, framed a round, warm face. His brown eyes seemed naturally shuttered, as if he was giving you a permanent, evaluating and suspicious glance. He also had a bit of a belly that was straining his Navy uniform.

"General Skywalker, so you're the one they're giving my ship to."

"It is only for this mission, Captain."

"This mission might as well be gifting this ship to the CIS on a food platter, General."

Anakin's face turned a bit frosty at this point. "Those are our orders, Captain. The wisdom of the plan itself, I'll admit to you now, is one I personally disagree with. It risks too much, which is the entire point of the overall strategy."

Mirach didn't reply for a moment but I could sense a bit of surprise from him. "Interesting, so if you disagree, what would you have done otherwise?"

"I'd have created the largest task force of the war, put General Kenobi on its flagship and drive it straight at the enemy."

"So straightforward, General?" Mirach queried in wonder.

He snorted in amusement, "Hardly Captain, when the Separatists pounce on him and the Illusive General pokes his head up, then I'll come out of hyper with the actual largest task force of the war."

"Simple, if effective strategy, I don't think the Navy has the ships or clones to pull that off… which is why I suppose they've come to this idea." Mirach walked out from behind his desk to stare at his wallscreen with folded hands behind his back. "I'll be candid, General, the very thought of ceding command of my own ship, which I've poured twenty years of my naval career into, is abhorrent, especially to someone as young as you. The only reason I'm not resigning and leaving you to deal with my crew, is because I want to see them and this ship come through this madness intact and as unharmed as possible."

"I know how I'd feel if someone took Resolute from me in a similar fashion," Anakin said with equal candor.

The captain gave him a side-long look, "Yes, I can see that you do. I've studied your short meteoric career, General. I confess myself rather envious. Do you know when was the last time this ship fired its guns in anger?"

"I can't even begin to guess, Captain."

"Two years ago, a pirate cruiser that thought to try its luck in Axum, tried to hijack a mining freighter near one of the outer gas giants. We just happened to be in the system's outer asteroid belt, testing the main guns. Before that, I can count on one hand the amount of times those guns have fired since I became captain of her. I tried to keep my crew in top shape, but for many of them it's just a gateway to better things, a way for the Navy to pay for their education in exchange for service aboard her. Now they're going to be in an actual shooting war."

"How many have tried to resign?"

"Not as many as I'd feared, but once the guns start actually firing…" he sighed heavily. "That's why in my professional capacity I am also glad you are here. For many of them, procedure and simulation is all they know. They are being thrown into the fire of combat and I'd like you to prepare them for that."

Anakin looked at me briefly, "Captain, with me and my padawan, we'll get your people up to speed. They'll be ready to kill clankers in no time."

"Good, I've had my XO prepare your both quarters on the flag admiral's deck. We've had to dust off the place as an 'admiral' has never planted his flag on the Star of Azure. It was always just a theoretical requirement when they built the dreadnought."

I inwardly marveled that they could afford to be so profligate with space aboard the ship, that they could just leave an entire deck unused like that.

"That is appreciated, captain. The niceties can wait though, I need a meeting with all your department heads as soon as possible. I'm also bringing a detachment from the 501st Clone Legion on board."

"Very well, does 1700 ship-time sound acceptable, General?"

"Yes, captain."

Mirach walked over to his desk and pushed a button on it. The ready room door opened and a tall woman in a Republic Naval uniform entered. Her golden layered hair was rather awkwardly squeezed into the regulation hat and her face was quite wonderfully sculpted but it was pinched in a tense expression at the moment.

"XO, see the general and commander to the flag deck."

"At once, sir."


The quarters that Anakin was given didn't really deserve that name. It wasn't exactly what I'd consider five star luxury, but it was definitely four star and was easily over 90 square meters. The place had its own butler droid that took care of every mundane need an 'admiral' would have.

This was easily enough space for both of us to live out of and not get in each other's way, but the XO, Commander Tinia Kaarz, politely insisted that I live out of the 'admiral's staff quarters'.

It was a fancy, formal way of saying I would now be living out of nearly sixty square meters of three-star luxury.

The instant my bags were settled and Kaarz had left, I was out of there and heading into Anakin's little mansion in space.

"Why do I get the feeling we've been rather exiled here, Skyguy?"

"Of course we have," Anakin snorted in amusement, seated on one of the expansive sofas and studying a data pad. "It's what I'd do in their position in a heartbeat, but we have a job to do and we're going to be in their faces all the way. I've got a few ideas drawn up for battle drills already, I want you to add a few of your own. It's time we remind this crew that they're not on a luxury liner in the Axum Guard but a warship of the Republic Navy."

I smiled with an inner glee. It must be wrong to feel so evil. "Oh, that I can definitely do, master."

"Good, now you've looked over the specs for this thing. What's your opinion?"

"Besides that I could take it down with a dozen squadrons of good Y-Wing bombers, the Xanadu and escorts… I'm amazed they could get its hyperdrive to Class 5."

"It is something of a relief, otherwise the mission would be totally impractical," he nodded.

The Mandator class was a ship that moved in strategic terms, not tactical. It had taken 80 days to make its original journey from Axum in the core to Kuat for its refit. That gave it a Class 50 rating in its old form.

"Even with its new hyperdrive it's still going to take 23 days to get to our target system," I pointed out. It was a relative snail's pace compared to an Acclamator's rabbit pace.

"Time we will use to get this crew into fighting shape, Ahsoka."

"The attitude I'm sensing from them… they're not going to make it easy, master."

"Good, we're not going to make it easy on them. We'll drag them to victory kicking and screaming if we have to."


Two days later I was standing next to Anakin's new command chair on the bridge of the Azure Star. The bridge, like the rest of the ship, was almost mired in relative luxury. Every crew station had its own comfortable seat, with terminals, interfaces, screens and holos positioned in ergonomic comfort. This meant that the place was nearly triple the size of a Venator's bridge, with the added complication that the same space had to coordinate starfighter launches.

Azure Star was by no means a carrier and couldn't come close to the Venator's mass launch ability or the quick turnaround of refueling and rearming, but it could at least look after itself in matching a potential opponent's fighter launches.

The captain's station was neatly positioned in the middle of the giant bridge, facing a holotank that was unnecessarily large for what any commander of the vessel needed.

"Comms, get me Kuat Traffic Control, request departure clearance."

"Yes Ca- I mean, yes, General."

The bridge was a stinking mess of both fear and resentment at the moment.

Anakin hadn't quite put what one could call the 'fear of God' into the various ship department heads, but it was quite close. Force Choke was actually quite crude in comparison, when the stick in your hand was reassignment to the first Acclamator or Venator that was leaving Kuat for the frontline battlespaces. A fate worse than death for the various commanders and lieutenants on this boat who had been seemingly born with silver spoons in their mouth.

It had been quite disturbing standing in that meeting and sensing the disdain these rich core world bastards had towards the clones that were dying on hundreds of battlefronts across the galaxy for them.

"Star of Azure, this is Kuat Control, you are clear to detach from the Ring. Exit course and vectors transmitting."

Anakin thumbed his station's com circuit, "Thank you Control, Azure out. Helm, detach and engage forward thrusters and repulsors. Proceed with course towards our exit vector."

"Yes, General. Engaging."

The Azure Star shuddered as the giant ship let go of the Kuat Ring and became its own inertial object once again. It felt like it was taking forever for the ship to put distance between itself and the Ring but I knew it was just because I was too used to a Venator.

The starboard repulsors began their firing and the Azure began its slow yaw to port. It took nearly two minutes for the ship to turn through 180 degrees. If this was the performance after the refit, then the bloody thing had to have been just a few steps above a Golan space platform before it.

The ship then used its aft repulsors to gain acceleration to put at least two hundred kilometers of distance between it and the KDY Ring before it would engage the main engines. This took nine seconds and when the main sublight engines engaged it was like someone had started a very deep, continuous bass drum background performance that pulsed throughout the ship. The vibrations of the titanic engines through the hull was a fact I was very aware of thanks to my montrals. It would take a bit to get used to and in the meantime I held a light TK shield around my head to soften the sound. To humans it would just be ignorable background noise. Naturally, the original engineers designing the Azure had given no thought to other species possibly being on the ship.

Soon, the it was at its max acceleration of 2000Gs and burning for the hyperspace exit point from Kuat.

A look at the holotank confirmed that our departure was drawing quite a bit of attention. It wasn't every day that you saw a star dreadnought moving anywhere. Quite a few civilian craft outside of the KDY traffic control zones began positioning themselves for an eyeball look at the passing dreadnought.

They ended up making a sloppy and impromptu honor guard.

Well, the cat was out of the bag a long time ago, but now the general public would get the first hint of it. Seppie spies on the Ring would also be scrambling to push the news up the chain.

The timer in the holotank ticked over three minutes thirty six seconds as the dreadnought reached the indicated safe transition point to hyperspace.

"Helm, take us to hyper, best speed for Fedalle system."

"Yes, General. Hyperdrive spooling up."

The colossal hyper motivators in the bowels of the ship began pulling on the hypermatter reactors and their whine reached me despite all the dampening systems, forcing me to strengthen my TK shield.

After twenty seconds of this the Azure Star plunged and stretched itself into hyperspace and the noise died down to a more manageable level.

'You doing all right, Snips?' Anakin thought to me.

'It's fine, master.'

'Good, ready to spring your surprises?'

'Say the word, Skyguy, and I'll make these prissies piss in their pants.'

'Consider it given.'


This must be what duarna* felt like, thought Junior Lieutenant Ric Kallea.

He had never been a very religious person, but there was no other word that came to mind for how they were being trained at the moment.

There had been no warning on the first day of the voyage to their super secret destination somewhere in the north of the galaxy.

All that Ric knew was he had been having pleasant dreams ensconced in his quarters when the battle station alarm sounded throughout the ship. His first irrational thought was that it must have been a malfunction in the alarm. You couldn't fight in hyperspace!

Then his doors burst open and two armored clone troopers burst in screaming their lungs out for him to wake up and stand to attention. One of the troopers lifted his blaster carbine and shot into the ceiling.

If he had been more awake he would've realized it was just a training blaster, but even those replicated the real thing very well.

The end result was Ric's heart feeling like it would burst out of his chest with fright and long dormant instincts and vaguely remembered training came to the fore, way too slowly. He was on his feet and being screamed at to dress into uniform and he hurried to obey.

"To your battlestation!" screamed the clone sergeant and practically shoved him forward into the corridor.

The ship's lighting was flashing and strobing in red, Ric struggled to even remember the way and it was only when he was down the corridor, competing with other crew members to run there that he realized he was going the wrong direction.

There were yet more clone troopers shouting and barking orders along the way to hurry.

Ric did his best to comply.

He burst into the control room for Anti-Aerospace Array 23 and was gratified to note that at least three of his crewmen were here already, but they were in even worse shape. It looked like the clones of the 501st had been even less merciful to the NCOs, and one of them was sitting in his gunnery control station in just his underwear, looking very embarrassed about the situation.

Soon the remaining 3 crew members also burst in, only two of which had managed to get properly into uniform.

"At your stations," Ric barked as he settled in the chair and booted up his own station.

They complied with disgruntled grumbles.

His Array sensors got to work and provided a picture. Unsurprisingly all that was visible was the endless streaming tunnel of hyperspace.

Finally, after an interminable three minutes the battle station alarm shut off and the small holotank in the center of the control room came to life.

In it was the Jedi, the younger one… the Togruta… Commander Tano.

She stood regally, looking resplendent and intimidating all at once in that amazing armor. Her expression was severe and her exotic alien features and tattoos added to the effect. She held up a small handheld chrono and visibly stopped it counting the time further.

"Four minutes, ten seconds," she said blandly. "Congratulations, the Star of the Azure is dead."

It was at this point that Ric truly realized what they had just been subjected to. He couldn't remember a drill to battlestations ever being like that. A drill in the middle of a sleeping cycle sure, but not with armed troopers shouting, harassing and even shooting into the air for you to move faster.

"All AA sections, you will soon be joined by a Clone Sergeant, his orders will be obeyed as if they are coming from Captain Mirach, General Skywalker or myself. If you do not obey, you are subject to wartime Navy regulations. That will be all. Good luck."

The door opened again and the clone that entered was not just a sergeant, but the black stripe on his armor showed he was a gunnery sergeant.

"On your feet! Attention!"

Ric and his crew were complying an instant later. Even Senior Crew Malan in his underwear managed it without blushing too much.

"You seven will now fall in behind me, we will be going for a little run."

The trooper's helmet speaker hardly did anything to contain his glee at the thought of what was coming.

The little run turned out to be a full run at jogging pace towards the fore of the ship and all the way aft, then back to AAA 23.

Fitness standards in the crew were pretty high, but not to the level of ground pounders. Ric was barely able to stay on his feet by the time they dragged themselves back into the control chairs of the array.

"Stay hydrated men," the sergeant chucked water bottles at them, which they greedily drank from.

The holotank lit up and Commander Tano was back.

"If you are seeing this then you have just finished your run. Good. Now you will run an attack simulation."

"Oh, she has to be kidding," groused Crewwoman Kelsa, trying to wipe the sweat from her brow, with her uniform undershirt.

"What was that, crewman?" the sergeant growled threateningly.

"Nothing sir!"

Their screens abruptly changed from the ethereal blue of hyper, to now showing a simulation of normal space.

It was nowhere Ric recognized off hand, no nebula, no nearby star or planet, just endless stars in the middle of nowhere.

Then thirty Munificent class star frigates emerged from hyper.

"All right," Ric sighed, getting his head into the game. "Guys, this might be a simulation but you can bet we're on record. Get your guns powered and go through your checklists. Now."

Ric checked his orders were being followed before doing the same. Only to find it was not so easy as before. His hands were shaking from exertion and post-adrenaline symptoms. He could feel his hands twitching as they grasped the yokes controlling his guns.

The frigates, even so numerous, would be no match for the Azure. She would chew them up as a starter for breakfast.

Then each frigate somehow launched 100 fighter droids… at once… and Ric belatedly realized that the blasted things had been latched onto the frigate's hulls! Since when could they do that through a hyper jump?

Just like that 3000 fighters bore down on the dreadnought and it was Ric and hundreds of other AA controller's job to destroy them.

He realized that his crew had frozen in astonishment at the sheer number of targets.

"Crew!" he snapped. "Focus, pick your targets."

It seemed to work as they looked at each other grimly and put their hands to the controls.

The simulated Azure began its own burn to bring the enemy frigates into range of the main guns, but they were a nice flat 10 000 km away, and the Vulture droid fighters would take 36 seconds to cross into range of their AA guns.

"All capacitors are green, shoot and move on, don't worry about confirming kills," Ric ordered.

"Understood, sir."

Ric found his first target and just at the bleeding edge of range, he confirmed a computer assisted lock and fired his first AA laser. He allowed himself a moment of satisfaction as the fighter broke apart into useless debris and twisting on the yoke, fired another AA turret.

The control room was utterly silent save for the hum of air conditioning, the click of buttons and the occasional hiss of triumph from a gunner crew as kills were scored.

Ric just moved his focus to the next target, only giving his gunnery crew an occasional evaluating eye to make sure things were happening as they should. Even as he marveled and despaired at the tactics being displayed by the enemy and the Azure.

The sheer number of them was daunting. Nothing in the Intel he had seen on CIS forces hinted at this… but was that any surprise that a 19 year old junior lieutenant posted on the cushiest job in the Republic Fleet, didn't get the true picture of the front lines?

Then the main guns of the Azure began firing.

Their targets weren't the enemy frigates, but rather the fighters!

So numerous and concentrated were the Vulture formations that the main guns could put shots into them and utterly incinerate swathes of them from space. He always imagined what it would look like to see the Azure utterly cut loose with everything it had, and now, even though it was simulated… it was breathtaking.

Even the 28 Ion cannon batteries were firing.

In barely a few minutes, he realized that the kill tally was already at a stupendous 1800 destroyed enemy fighters. The Azure was steadily surrounded by an ever expanding cloud of debris.

Yet it still meant there were now 1200 enemy fighters that reached them.

Proton torpedoes began to be launched in anger.

"Kelsa, Malan, Tinian, you take any torpedoes that are incoming to our sector, the rest of us will keep focusing on fighters."

"Yes sir!"

The room grew more tense as now the Azure was fighting for its very survival. Torpedoes died, but for every one that was successfully intercepted it seemed two more were launched.

Then the first hits came.

The Azure's shields were powerful, but each torpedo chipped away at that ethereal armor. The damage accumulated faster than the shield emitters could recharge.

"Try and focus on the Hyena bombers, leave the others," Ric ordered, trying his best to keep his own voice calm. He knew this was just a simulation, a glorified hologame backed by extensive military hardware, but somehow… this time, he felt completely immersed. A brief glance at his team showed they were experiencing the same thing, judging by how their eyes were utterly hooked on their screens and the sweat shining on their faces.

It was much more difficult to hit targets now, as they were swooping and passing by the gun arrays at incredible transversals. The enemy was also now starting to target the AA gun mounts as well. Shooting concussion missiles and in some cases even ramming themselves in suicide charges.

Malan swore and shoved himself back into his seat, releasing his controls in disgust, "All my guns are gone, Lt."

It didn't take long for that story to repeat itself and by the time the last enemy fighter was blown out of space, all of AA 23's guns were either destroyed or damaged enough to be completely useless.

Ric could only watch at this point as the battle continued and at last the Azure opened up with her main guns on the enemy frigates. A single broadside was usually enough to utterly wreck a Munificent, and the simulation didn't disappoint on that score.

The Azure split its guns and fired a single salvo from the eighteen dual heavies on the port side of the ship, and another salvo from the starboard broadside.

Just like that two frigates seemed to rupture from within and explode into a brief artificial sun that streamed a brief fire, that was snuffed out quickly by the vacuum of space and sent debris flying out in a messy sphere.

What followed was an utter massacre.

Nevertheless, the frigates continued utterly undaunted by it.

Redlining their engines they dove into the jaws of destruction.

Nineteen frigates died, but by this point the remaining eleven had crossed into the proximity warning zone around Azure and a moment later crashed themselves against the shields of the dreadnought.

The starboard shield failed under the onslaught and the last enemy managed to ram directly against the hull and exploded.

An alarm sounded across the ship at this point and the simulation ended.

Commander Tano appeared in the holo again. "The Azure is dead."

"What nerfshit!" Malan protested.

"You are fighting droids. An enemy that needs no sleep, doesn't eat and has no morale. They will not waver at the death of their fellows. They are merely a computer, executing a command without hesitation or consideration. If that command is to suicidally ram their ship into the Azure, they will do it.

"Your job is to prevent them from doing that. From ever reaching that point. Now I will admit that what you just experienced is a 'No-win scenario'. If even all the frigates had been killed, a squadron of Subjugator-class battleships would've come out of hyper next. The point is that you must learn to face this scenario, because it might be asked of you. To make that ultimate sacrifice because it might one day be necessary for victory."

"Return to your quarters and try to get some sleep. From tomorrow, we will be working on a rotational duty basis. Six hour shifts, because that is what is required if a warship is to survive against droid controlled enemy ships. You can also expect more drills like this one. That is all. Tano out."

Ric returned to his quarters after they secured AA 23s systems and the clone sergeant dismissed them.

The first day of the voyage ended with a lot of grumpy and sleepy crew all over the Azure. The second day was somehow even worse as everyone had to adjust to the new crew rotations. It was especially bad for those who had been saddled with what was traditionally the old night shift. Their bodies telling them they should be sleeping but not being able to.

Ric and his crew were thankfully not on that shift, but a close look at the timetables published over the shipnet showed that there was another five day rotation cycle, where shifts were further swapped around. The whole thing was seemingly designed to spread misery around as much as possible.

On day three, the Azure Star transitioned out of hyperspace in Fedalle and powered forward in normal space for three hours before plunging into the Hydian Way hyperspace corridor into a northward bearing.

Here the next drill fell upon the crew when they were subjected to a surprise boarding action. Where numerous companies of the 501st acted as the aggressors and tried to take over key systems of the ship.

It had happened while Ric was on shift in AA23 and he barely could get out of his gunner chair with surprise before he felt the nasty stings of training blaster fire hit him on his chest. The rest of his crew did barely any better, with only Malan managing to get his blaster pistol raised, but completely missing his shot.

"You're all dead," the clone captain declared before his team left and continued their sweep.

In rather humiliating fashion, the 501st succeeded in capturing bridge, life support and main engineering.

At the end of the drill, Commander Tano was once again on the holo.

"You've just experienced a typical boarding action of commando droids delivered by Droch drop pods. They will typically shut down life support and begin venting the ship of all atmosphere. From this point, all crew will change into survival pressure suits when Condition One is declared as the very first thing they do. Your sidearms will also be within quick and easy reach at all times. That is all, Tano out."

Day four was spent with most of the crew being cycled through more rehearsed boarding actions and repelling them. The clone troopers also began pulling people away from these and sending them to makeshift gun ranges when it became clear that they needed remedial small arms training.

Ric counted his lucky stars that he wasn't one of them. He was a decent shot and his uncle had often taken him out on hunts on Axum's game ranges. Naturally, shooting straight in a fight was completely different from hunting animals.

The voyage continued and the Azure Star passed through Aldraig and Skako Minor. Ric felt at this point like he was jumping at every noise and sound that he would've ordinarily dismissed.

The drills had seemingly no pattern to them.

The crew had at first thought to look to when Commander Tano was off-duty, expecting at least a reprieve during those times, but General Skywalker smoothly filled in to continue the torture sessions.

The worst was the false alarm drills. The ship would go to Condition One - as the Republic Navy called it, and everyone would scramble to get to their stations - only for nothing to happen. Time would pass and the tension would build and build as the crew waited for the simulated attack and for a full hour… nothing. Then the ship would be ordered to stand down!

"The enemy does not operate on our timetable," General Skywalker's holo declared implacably. "They will take advantage of our organic weaknesses and even our psychology. They will feign attack or just pinprick an attack that forces the whole ship to wake up. We will be simulating this for the next three days, you will be issued medical stims that you will take as prescribed. No one on this ship will be sleeping. Yes, including me or any of the senior staff. We will also continue operations and attack drills during this time. You must know what it feels like and deal with the consequences afterward."

The consequences were just awful, even after Ric went to get his stim from the medical deck after 30 sleepless hours, it felt like the universe around him had become somehow… unreal. He was still aware, making decisions, going about his duties, but nothing was right somehow. His balance was also somewhat off and he would begin to find the most mundane things absurdly funny!

He would go into the mess hall of officer country and sit down at his usual spot, to be joined by his small little social cadre of junior officers and find them all absolutely hilarious. The mere shape of his friend Merl's face, with his rounded cheeks and bright eyes made him bellow with laughter. Then there was Halla, with her high cheekbones and flowing locks of red hair - her eyes were mesmerizing. They were like reflections on pools of the Junda Nebula on a beautiful evening.

He barely even felt her punch and it was only later on the medical deck that somehow his brain caught up with his actions.

Ric wanted to find the nearest airlock and put himself out of his misery.

The only upside to the whole sorry debacle was that he was not the only person on the ship to find themselves in medical, due to what was officially called 'stim imbalance'. His forceful unconsciousness delivered by his best female friend, had resulted in him sleeping through the remainder of the enforced wakeful period.

Ric only trusted himself again to make an appearance after a full day of recovery, where even their Jedi tormentors decided to take a break from training and drills. The Azure had dropped out of hyperspace in Brentaal and it was a common bet amongst the crew which direction the ship would go at the crossroads system.

"Sit down, Ric, I'm not going to punch you again," Halla groused as he hesitated in taking a seat with his breakfast.

"Yeah, sorry, um, I mean… thanks," he stammered and just sat down and began eating to not blurt out more stupidity.

She was half-heartedly eating her own food and fiddling with the fork, "Sorry Ric, for the punch. I wasn't really in my right mind either."

Being properly raised he didn't speak with a mouthful of food and just nodded at her in acceptance and swallowed. "So what do you think they're going to torture us with next?"

She snorted in amusement, "No idea, who knows what goes through the head of those Jedi. I always heard they were these mysterious serene religious folks, who run around with the most impractical weapon in the galaxy and can move shit with their minds."

"My grandpa had dealings with a Jedi, like ages ago," Ric explained. "When he was working in the Axum judicial ministry. They were struggling to break some sort of criminal case with off-world ties and one day a Jedi just showed up and it wasn't a week later and they nabbed the bad guy."

"Really? Did he or she do anything special?"

"Grandpa was always very hush about that, but eventually he said that the Jedi used some sort of mind ability to help them. Helped a key witness remember something crucial or something."

"Yeah, well it seems you get all types, even for Jedi." Halla pulled out a datapad, consulted something on it and tapped it with satisfaction. "Thought so."

"What is it?"

"We've stayed in normal space too long, that means we're staying on the Hydian Way."

"Damn, I should've taken a bet on that. I was thinking along those lines yesterday."

"You realize what this means then?"

He shook his head, "We won't really know until we reach Uviuy Exen. We could still be heading for the Yout battlefront."

"Maybe."

When the Azure reached Uviuy Exen two days later another boarding drill exercise was held, this time with a distinct difference that Ric was sure he would remember until the end of his days.

As he wasn't on shift, he was required to report to a defense team that would assemble on Deck 35. There they were issued with only the chestpiece and helmet of a clone armor and because he could shoot so well, a blaster carbine set to shoot training bolts. The main defense of the ship was the so-called 'Blue team' of the 501st. The problem was that there was just too much ship to defend and to fill in those gaps the crew had to answer the call.

Their 12 man mixed defense team was led by a no-nonsense clone corporal who was officially designated CT-278, but answered to the nickname of Tronkk. Any attempts to ask why he had that nickname was met with a stoic, "None of your business, sir."

"Okay listen up, the enemy is advancing down this central corridor on our deck," he gestured to a sealed bulkhead door. "Take up defensive positions just as we practiced. Understood?" Everyone nodded. "Good, let's get to it, squad."

Ric put himself in the makeshift cover that was very much still a work in progress by the engineering teams, who were working almost round the clock to make defensive improvements to the interior of the Azure.

He was halfway down from the lead elements of the squad and gave a brief look to his fellows to check them for jitters. It was usually those ones who would bolt first. Thankfully, there was none on this occasion.

"Get ready," Tronkk hissed and brought up his rifle.

The squad followed suit and aimed their blaster carbines downrange at the door. Ric could vaguely now hear blaster fire through the door and something else that didn't make sense, a weird distorted continuous buzzing sound.

The bulkhead door slammed abruptly open and Ric only saw darkness beyond. There was also a vague movement in that shadow.

"Fire!" Tronkk barked and yellow stun blasts started to pepper that darkness. Ric was so startled he hesitated for one second before pressing his trigger and shooting as fast as his finger would twitch.

Then the yellow bolts began to spark off something that moved impossibly fast.

And from the darkness a red lightsaber seemed to just shriek into being and moved.

The stun bolts from the defense team suddenly came right back, impossibly reflected by that lightsaber to slam right into the helmet of one of the defense team, knocking them out of cover. Now yellow bolts from the darkness lanced out and began seeking to hit them.

Ric barely kept his gun up and shooting. His hindbrain was gibbering in terror that he should be running his butt off and away from that red lightsaber!

Into the light walked a figure with a dark black robe, holding the lightsaber casually, twirling it effortlessly to fend off any yellow bolts.

Ric stopped shooting and some instinct had him adjust his aim…

The dark figure did a small hop the instant before it would've been hit in the foot and it made a sweeping gesture.

In that instant, Ric found his carbine seemingly getting its own idea of where it should be. It was ripped out of his hands with such force that he had to let go or risk losing fingers.

He blinked and in the next moment that red lightsaber was ominously humming less than a centimeter from his neck.

"Dead," the dark figure whispered and stood back.

Ric fell flat on his butt in disbelief and fright. He looked around and saw the rest of his squad was also on the ground, either stunned totally or with blasters raised to indicate they were 'killed'. Even Tronkk had his rifle in surrender posture.

A company from the 501st Red Team, were steadily walking by and continuing to advance through the deck.

The dark figure's lightsaber vanished with a hiss and the hood was pulled back to reveal Commander Tano.

She looked at Ric with an expression that was difficult to make sense of before stepping forward and offering him a hand.

He took a moment to calm himself down, and when his heart didn't feel like it wanted to jump out of his chest anymore, he grabbed onto her hand. She easily helped him up despite their clear weight difference.

"Defense team, assemble front and center, a small debriefing for you," she ordered. It took a few minutes as some had to be roused from unconsciousness. This close Ric studied the commander and he was utterly struck by how… young she was. He didn't know much about the wide variety of sentient 'aliens' that was out there in the galaxy and part of the Republic just as much as Axum was, but generally the length of those lekku should indicate her age?

Her looks and facial pattern was wildly exotic, and if he for just one moment tried to picture her without that and human…

"Defense team, you performed as well as can be expected. I'm glad you listened to Tronkk. He's not the most relatable guy in the 501st," she smiled teasingly at the clone in question, who shuffled uncomfortably under her attention.

Ric was rather struck by how pretty that smile was coming from those alien features.

"But I didn't join in this assault for my own benefit." Her expression turned just as quickly into a grim frown. "If you ever, in your life, encounter someone with a red lightsaber, you don't shoot them or try to fight them. You run. If you're ever backed into a corner by them, use anything you have to make a hole in that corner and run. If you truly wish to know why, do not think that Jedi are the only ones who can do this…"

The hilt of the lightsaber she used left her hand and began floating around her head, then rapidly spun and lazily moved in an orbit around her.

Ric instantly saw the implication, if that blade had been lit then sent to shoot forward…

"There are other groups of Force sensitives in the galaxy and the point is, that the CIS also have people who can use the Force. General Skywalker and I will be there to fight them, should they show up but we can't be everywhere and Jedi despite appearances are not all-knowing. As much as the CIS would seek to destroy the Azure Star, capturing it would also be an appealing option."

By the tri-moons, Ric could imagine what a coup that would be for the Separatists. The political bloodbath back in the Senate and on Axum itself would be legendary!

"All right, get yourselves sorted and back to stations until the drill is over, dismissed."


He stared at the small wall screen projecting a nice view from the port side of the Azure as the giant dreadnought passed the local sun of the Champala system as it swung by on a course that would take it towards the onward hyperspace point. Three of the twelve Acclamator assault ships that had joined the Azure's escort formation were visible at the moment and Ric couldn't help but feel a lot better at their comforting presence.

He had always felt so safe and secure inside the Azure. It was also only in retrospect that he realized that he hadn't believed in his heart that anything could destroy the giant ship. It had been a constant source of pride for the people of Axum. It represented their industry, their technology, their wealth, their prestige in the Republic. He had grown up with the stories of the indomitable bastion that always stood vigilant over the people.

If there was one thing General Skywalker and Commander Tano had achieved over the last week, then it was thoroughly puncturing that image in the minds of her crew.

The Clone War had seemingly changed a lot of the old paradigms.

He felt movement on the bed behind him and in the next moment a pair of arms draped themselves over his shoulders and he felt a delightful sensation on his shoulder blades.

"Can't sleep?" Halla asked as she lazily pecked his neck with kisses before resting her head on his shoulder.

"Not really," he answered and briefly reciprocated her attention, kissing her hands and forearms before his mind was pulled again into worry.

The Azure Star's course and final destination was now obvious and evident to all the crew and General Skywalker had made a formal announcement to that effect.

Bandomeer.

It was the bloodiest battlefront of the entire Clone War. A system where the CIS and Republic traded massive blows back and forth in a seemingly eternal stalemate. Both sides had tried to force a decisive conflict on possession of the system to no avail.

The reason?

Travel just 2000 lightyears further beyond on the Hydian and you reach Serenno. The homeworld of the CIS leader, Count Dooku and the acknowledged executive capital world of the CIS. The Seperatist Parliament might be on Raxus Prime, but its capture would not be decisive to the war. Everyone knew the true power rested with the Seperatist Council, who was always on the move.

Now the Republic was putting forth a new attempt to get that blow in that would punch through the shield.

Ric, Halla, all his friends and acquaintances on the Azure were now burning straight into that fiery crucible.

"Stop worrying, your brooding is practically leaking out your ears," she chided.

"We could be dead within the next two weeks."

"Sure, you could also get a stroke tomorrow, the end. No more, Ric."

"You're terrible at cheering me up."

"Now you're lying and you know it."

She proved his falsehood thoroughly for the next hour until their alarms brought them out of their blissful unions.

"Duty calls," she sighed and began dressing. He leaned on his elbow and enjoyed the sight of her getting ready. She smiled in amusement at his antics and began chucking his discarded uniform on the floor at him. "Don't be lazy. Move it."

He gave her a mock salute and obeyed.

"Halla…" he began, then suddenly couldn't find the words.

She crossed the distance and they joined in a searing kiss that seemed to further drive away the words he wanted to say.

"Don't say it. Saying it now, would mean you felt you had to, because you fear you won't be able to say it later."

"But if one of us…"

"We can't predict the future, Ric. We'll either both make it through this alive or not. Even after this battle, the Azure could be sent into other battlefronts - she has the legs now to do it. I think… when the entire war is over, then we can say it. For now, let us just accept that we both already know and if the Force decrees we be together, then we'll be happy. If not, then we'll be at least happy for the time we had together."

Ric stared for the longest time into her eyes and their lips met again.

The kiss was long, heartfelt, yearning and saying so much more than words.

"Now let's go, Lieutenant. Fill that void you call a stomach."

"Yes, ma'am."

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