Chapter 2: Battle over Iridonia

Lightsabers clashed in the combat training room of the Leviathan. Master Nase was practicing Form XII with his padawan, Jura Eiden. Master Nase took a heavy swing at his student, making her lower her guard. He kicked her in the chest which sent her tumbling backwards. She got back up, ignited her second lightsaber and made a crazed charge towards her master. Taking advantage of his student's anger, he waited until she tired herself out, then used the force to knock her against the wall. She dropped her lightsabers and dropped to the floor. "You need to stop drawing on your anger my padawan. Those emotions will only lead to the dark side" said Ciam. "I'm sorry master, I will try to remember that next time… However, I would like to know how your so damn fast master" said Jora. "Remember, the Marku technique is my own creation after all. In time, you will be just as efficient or even better then I am" answered Master Nase. "By the way, I think it's time that I give you something. I want you to have this" said Ciam as he handed a bundled object to his student. Jora unwrapped the gift, shocked by its contents. "But..but…, this is your master's lightsaber. This is your most valued possession!" stated Jora in shock. "That maybe so, but that lightsaber has been passed down from jedi to jedi for over three hundred years. My master gave it to me, and his master gave it to him, and so on and so fourth, and it would give me no greater honor if you accepted this gift." Said Ciam. "Thank you master. I will cherish it" stated Jora as she jumped forward and gave him a hug.

The two jedi walked in the corridors of the Liberator. "What now master?" inquired Jora. "We should head to the bridge and see when we will be making the leap into hyperspace" answered Master Nace as they entered onto the bridge. "Admiral, what's our status?" asked Ciam. "Well, we're about to jump to hyperspace now. We will be over Iridonia in about ten minutes." Answered the Admiral. "Excellent. I want you to prep the fighters and the bombers. Get the troops ready as well, this thing will probably continue on the ground. The last thing we need is another Taris on our plate. We need to win this one, mostly for morale's sake. That why we jedi are here, to raise morale and to win the war."
A soldier came up to the two men and announced that the fleet was about to make the jump to hyperspace.
"Well hold on tight jedi. These big ship hyperspace jumps will knock you on your back If you aren't careful" stated the Admiral. At that, the fleet made the jump, and Ciam felt himself take a small blow to the chest. "Well I haven't felt that in a while. I'm usually on Coruscant training the padawans lightsaber combat and keeping the knights' lightsaber skills in check. At least I'll be able to use my lightsaber skills in this war…" About five minutes later, they exited hyperspace, only to have exited it right between two lines of mandalorian ships. "By the force…"

The Leviathan and Ravagers are new ships, and haven't been field tested so no one had any idea what they are capable of. And if that wasn't enough, they were behind the Mandalorian Fleet, but sandwiched in by an asteroid field. "Son of a bitch!" yelled Admiral Nadano. "Scramble the fighters admiral. Have the ships enter formation Epsilon. Code-6, I repeat Code-6. Lieutenant Bao-Dur, prepare my fighter" barked Ciam. "Yes sir!" answered the two officers in unison. "Let's show these warriors what the Republic Navy can do" said Ciam. A holographic projection appeared in front of me. It was Master Tao Soan, who had been sent with me in my fleet. He was on board the Goliath, a ravager class. "Master Nase, any ideas? We are in somewhat of a tight spot here" asked Master Soan. "Scramble your fighters, and have your other ships do the same. We must outgun them! We are boxed in so for now there is no chance to escape. I will let you know if anything changes." answered Ciam. The holo-projected image of Master Soan disappeared. Before making his way to the hangar to man his fighter, he looked out into the battle to see what was happening. The Republic ships weren't doing bad at all, considering the circumstances, and the guns from the Goliath and the Liberator were making their mark on the enemy ships.

Just as he thought everything was going well, he noticed that thousands of pods were being released from the ships, as well as mandalorian dropships. They were going to start the ground assault while the Republic fleet was occupied in space. . He recognized the pods as mandalorian basilisks. Those pods would drop from a space and land like a meteor in the ground, leaving craters and destruction in the small area they landed in. One of these craft would just leave a crater and end of story, but it was literally raining these things on the surface. Master Nase knew that they needed to finish the battle in space and get to the surface to help the populace below. He activated his comm-link and said to the person on the other side of it "Is my fight ready Bao-Dur?" "Yes general" answered Bao-Dur.

Ciam Nase personally customized his fighter to push it to the limit of it's abilities. He ship was insanely fast, and though the blasters' power was tuned down a notch, he managed to eliminate the threat of overheating them. He installed a hyperdrive into it, as well as a shielding and cooling system so he could enter a planet's atmosphere. He made his way to the hangar where Bao-Dur and his padawan were waiting for him. "Thank you lieutenant. I trust you know what to do from here" said Ciam. "Yes General. Good luck out there" replied the iridonian. "Ready Jora?" asked Ciam. "Way ahead of you" said Jora as she closed her cockpit. Ciam laughed. "Just try and keep up with me" teased Ciam. "Is that a challenge master?" said Jora as she primed her engines. "What do you think my padawan?" answered Master Nase with a mocking tone as he blasted out of the hangar. Jora's fighter was right on her master's tail, and the engine blast sent the droid behind her fighter flying.

As they flew around the battle area they noticed a fighter squadron coming out of one of the mandalorian ship's hangar. "Jora, form up on me. Target that fighter squadron that just came out of that ship" stated Ciam over the comm-link. They swiftly eliminated the unsuspecting fighters, only to receive a transmission that would make him rather upset. "Sir! We've just lost two of our frigates and one of our cruisers! We've just picked up several ships hidden in the asteroid field. They seem to be missile frigates. What are your orders?" announced the soldier on the other line. "I will take care of it" answered Ciam. At that moment, he had three bomber squadrons as well as a fighter quadroon available. "I need blue, red and yellow bomber squadrons on me as well as gold fighter squadron to form up on me. Let's go say hello to those mandalorian ships in the asteroid field" stated Ciam over the comm-link. A minute later, the fighters and bombers were making their way to the hidden ships. They eventually found the ships and made a pass at them. The bombers made quick work of the undefended missile frigates, downing them all in a matter of minutes.

After a couple of hours of intense space combat, the Republic fleet managed to route the opposing ships, even though they still had the bulk of their ships intact. Ciam would have considered that odd, but he told himself they must have been confident their ground assault would succeed. To think that was only a small portion of the mandalorian fleet. However, the fight was far from over. There were still thousands of troops on the surface who by now had set up a base of operations and would begin their war planet side. The fighters came in for a landing into the hangar bay. Ciam and Jora popped open their cockpits and ran to the intercom. "Begin launching the drop ships admiral. I refuse to let Iridonia fall!" ordered Ciam to Admiral Nadano over the intercom. A few minutes later, hundreds of drop ships were making their way planet side. "I guess it's time for me to join them down there. Jora, gear up. Admiral, I need a handful of drop ships to accompany me to Iridor, the capital, to reinforce it's defense. Our scouts on the planet have reported that a large number of troops were making their way towards the city. We must defend the capital" stated Ciam. "Well, i'm coming with you. Someone needs to keep those troops in line down there" said Admiral Nadano. "No objections here, but we need to get moving. Ciam,Jora and the admiral made their way to the hangar, and found a dozen drop ships in the hangar, waiting for the two jedi so they could descend onto the surface. Ciam boarded one of the transports and gave the pilot the go-ahead. With that, they left the ship, and began their descent into the atmosphere