Chapter Six

"Ma'am, we've almost broken the atmosphere," said the ARC trooper in charge. She nodded in acknowledgement. She was in her full body armor, and it looked almost exactly like any clonetrooper. The only difference was it was modified so that she could move freely, and she was wearing her Jedi cloak over it.

"Sir, we've spotted a large platoon of Confederate troops," came a report from the navigator of the landing craft.

"Well, then, we'd better not keep them waiting. Alter course to intercept the troops."

"Yes, ma'am."

It took a minute or two for them to get in position over the super battle droids. They were a five kilometers up, so the droids did not even notice the large landing craft overtop of them. The hatch in the back swung open. "All right everyone! This is it!" Siri yelled over the sound of the roaring wind. She gave a thumbs-up, and jumped out of the back of the craft.

As she was plummeting down, she looked up and saw that the clones had already jumped. They wouldn't start their small repulsorlifts in their packs until they were lower down. Siri, however, did not have a repulsorlift. But she wasn't worried.

Her sharpshooters were already firing their overly large rifles, which were capable of hitting a target over three kilometers away. She picked her macrobinoculars from her utility belt, and saw that her sharpshooters were felling the droids, and the droids were shooting back. Wasted shots. Those built-in blasters had barely any range.

The clones had started turning on their repulsorlifts. She could tell by the quiet whine that the machines made. Siri drew on the Force and closed her eyes. She felt it around her, and in everything. She would use it. She drew its sweet, golden warmth into her body. She felt the Force flowing through her. Her temperature dropped, and her heartbeat dropped. She pushed with the Force; pushed on the ground. Her descent slowed. Her eyes still closed, she smiled, satisfied. She heard all her clones firing now, the phwa! phwa! of the guns ringing in here ears. She saw the blue plasma pellets make their way through many droids. She heard some of her clones cry out in surprise, and their guns fell silent.

The ground loomed ahead of her. "Five…four…three…two…" she thought. One. Her feet hit the ground, her violet lightsaber ignited, and she jumped five meters into the air all in one move. She landed right in the middle of the small army. Her lightsaber was a blur as she deflected lasers and cut droids clean in half. Siri's troops had landed too, and were quickly dispatching the droids. Within five minutes, it was over.

Her lightsaber blade went down with snap! hiss! as she deactivated it. "Good men," she said. "Set up a camp here. I don't want any advances, except for scouting parties, is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good," Siri said as she activated her comlink. "Commander, send down supplies for a prefab base. Also, send down five disguise packs. The Spec Ops troops and I are going on a little trip."

"Aye ma'am," the clonetrooper commander said with the usual compliance.

It took two minutes for the shipments of supplies to get down to them. When it did, the clonetroopers unloaded with speed. All the supplies were out of the ships in five minutes. The clonetroopers set to work immediately, building prefabricated shelters and a command center, setting up gun turrets. There were even light durasteel walls!

Siri, however, went to work on the disguises. Siri was sure that she would go unnoticed, seeing how she wasn't the most famous general in the Republic. She decided to use a disguise anyways. The commandos, though, would definitely need disguises. They looked exactly alike, scars aside. The Spec Ops donned their own disguises, using wigs, hair dye, skin coloring, and face shaper so that they did not look the same. The holo-disguises would be better to accurately disguise oneself, but they might be noticed by scanners. Also, there was nothing to disguise their height. They were all 1.83 meters. Hopefully, no one would notice.

Siri used hair dye and colored contacts with built-in settings (ultra-violet, infrared, x-ray, etc.) to disguise herself. They all donned civilian clothing. Siri concealed her lightsaber in her gray civilian robe. The clones hid small blasters under their clothing.

With their disguises on, they headed for the nearest town, completely unsure of what they would find.

"The Republic has stolen from us for years!" yelled a Melida/Daan native, standing on a platform, surrounded by a large crowd. "I, for one, am glad of our separation from the Republic of Tyranny. Chancellor Palpatine is a monster of a dictator and should be treated as such! Melida/Daan forever!"

The crowd cheered. Siri watched in horror at the ferocity of the man. You'd think that the Republic had hurt him personally. He was still talking.

"The Republic has attacked us, this very day, destroying ships, and the progress of shipyards!"

The crowd booed.

"Are we to be dictated and controlled by these…these war mongers?"

The crowd "no'd."

"Then down with the Pro-Republic parties. This faction is against the Melida/Daan cause, and should be treated like any other criminal!" the man shouted with intensity, and stepped off the platform. Siri shook her head. The ARC troopers had gone off in separate ways to find out what they could about the city.

"Mawat always did like the sound of his own voice," said a voice behind her. Siri turned. A man about Obi-Wan's age stood behind her. He had cropped brown hair and dark brown eyes, and wore a brown cloak, as well as other earth tones. He was about the size of a clonetrooper.

"Hi, I'm Siri," said Siri softly.

"Nield. I take it you didn't like his speech?" he asked. Siri nodded. That man was definitely off his speeder. "So, are you a supporter of the Republic then?" Nield asked again. Siri hesitated. If she said "yes" she could be arrested on this planet. Nield could be trying to trick her. She mentally kicked herself. She was a Jedi. What could happen?

"Yes, I'm a supporter of the Republic," she whispered, and Nield nodded. He gestured for her to follow him. He led her down an alleyway, through street markets where one rather pushy gentleman tried to get her to buy some fish. She shoved him away. Nield led her to a grate, and with some effort, pulled it open. He looked around. No one was there but them. Satisfied, he dropped himself into the grate, and gestured for her to follow. Her Force senses tingling, she jumped down. As she hit the mucky water, she found herself in a dark pipe.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Pipes. The Daan expanded these during the civil war. They drove up through these, right under the noses of the Melida. The Daan attacked, and won that battle." He sighed. "The fighting didn't stop for many more years. Not until the Young intervened. We lived down here, worked and scrapped down here. It was a very sad living, but still, it was better than on the surface."

"We?"

"I helped lead the Young. Cerasi, a Melida child, came down here. She was the first," he said, and bit his lip. "She helped me lead them. We never did anything; we just lived down here. Then someone came to help us. The third great leader of the Young. The Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He and his master were here to rescue another Jedi. Well, Obi-Wan got caught up in our cause to stop the fighting, and he joined us, against his master's wishes. He helped us destroy the storehouses, and he even used the starfighter that they had come here in to disable the defenses of the Melida and Daan cities."

"Wow," said Siri, stifling a yawn.

"The Elders, the Melida and Daan, found out that their own children were destroying war resources. They started a war against us. Can you believe that? Anyways, Obi-Wan left the Jedi to help us. We won the war, with Obi-Wan's help, again, and we started a new government. I thought are main goal was to destroy the huge Houses of the Dead, or burial grounds that plagued our planet. Cerasi disagreed. She thought we should feed and house people first. Well, the government broke apart, and what's more, the Elders rose up again, with stolen weapons. There was going to be another battle, but Cerasi jumped between the two sides and got shot." He sniffed, almost crying, and continued. "I blamed Wehutti, and he blamed me. I shut out Obi-Wan, saying that he was supposed to be watching her. Our friendship disintegrated. He became an outsider to us. Apparently, he called for help from his old master, and they unraveled what happened. It had been Mawat who had shot Cerasi. Obi-Wan went to look for me to tell me, and he found me at Cerasi's grave. I attacked him, but he explained to me that Mawat was trying to overthrow me."

Another "wow" from Siri trying to sound interested. She already knew what happened.

"So, we fought Mawat in one last battle. We both stopped fighting when we heard a recording of Cerasi. That stopped us both. You're not from around here, are you?"

"Um, no. You sounded like a historian. No offense."

"None taken. It is kind of boring to sum it up, but we don't have a lot of time. This way please," he said, and kept walking. Soon, they neared a green iridescence. She realized that it was some sort of lamp. "Ah…a secret meeting," she thought, and almost laughed aloud. How cliché.

"Guys, I have another supporter," he said. She saw some shapes appearing from the shadows. She realized almost too late that these shapes were battle droids.