When the Separatist ship appeared on the dash in the command center, it was Depa who took the initiative and sounded the alarm. The troopers started scrambling to engage the defenses, but there was only so much to do. A lot of the defenses were activated the moment the alarm sounded.
The leader of the base, Commander Wall (named for his proficiency in defense, particularly), had been speaking with Master Billaba when the cruiser dropped out of hyperspace. Once he realized what was happening, he immediately started ordering the troopers to their defensive stations. The only trouble with this was that half of the troops he now had, due to the reinforcements, didn't have defensive stations yet.
"General Billaba," he said, putting on his helmet, "can you man the control center?"
"Certainly, Commander," she replied, and started directing traffic. "Go organize your clones."
He dashed off to assign the new troopers to their spots. Depa turned her full attention to the command center.
"I want to know about any and all ships coming from that cruiser. We need to know what we're going up against." She looked over the shoulder of a clone and watched the screen that showed the cruiser at its orbiting altitude. Many ships were exiting the hangar, but the identifications were foreign to her.
"Sir!" A clone called out. "They're bringing out tanks. A lot of them, by the looks of things."
"Send out our own to meet them," she ordered. "We can play their game." She activated her comlink and connected to Commander Wall. "Commander, we have tanks incoming."
"Understood, General," He replied, and he turned to the shines he had just ran across. "You men know how to man the tanks?"
"Yes, sir!" They all declared, a little excited for some action.
"Get to the garages and escort them out, then. Don't let those clankers touch the base!"
"Sir, yes, sir!" Was the eager reply, and they all ran off in the opposite direction of the garage.
Wall just chuckled. Eventually, the troopers came back and apologized. "Sorry, sir. Wrong way."
Wall laughed. It was always good to bring on a batch of shinies every once in a while. They brought new energy for everyone, as well as a few laughs.
He sent other groups to various posts around the shield to guard it while the offensives met the Separatists. Off in the distance, he heard the faint roar of motors and knew that tanks were on their way out.
"General, the tanks are on the move."
Depa forwarded the message to the clone managing the shield from the command center. An opening in the ray shield appeared in front of the tanks, and they began filing out. Depa watched them for a minute, before turning to look at the incoming tanks from the Separatist cruiser. Carriers were dropping them off about half a kilometer from the edge of the Republic base, and there were a lot of them. Depa had never seen so many tanks all at once. What is their move here? she thought.
The Separatist equivalent of gunships were landing next to the cruisers, but they held droids instead of clones. They started unloading by the tens, and before long, hundreds of droids were on the ground, walking next to the tanks. One of the airlocks opened, and a particularly large droid exited the ship. General Grievous. Of course.
Depa was slightly confused. Grievous wasn't known for using so many tanks at once, but it didn't matter. If she didn't hold off the Jedi killer he would rip apart the clones. She gave last-minute orders to the command center before dashing out the nearest exit. She ran and jumped off of the platform, leaping through the to join the clones making their way out of the safety of the ray shield.
She pulled her lightsaber out and started deflecting blaster bolts, as many as she could. She rode atop the front-most tank, advancing towards the incoming tanks, and Grievous.
As you can see, she was quite preoccupied, which must be taken into account when you realize that she hadn't thought about where her Padawan might be.
In truth, Caleb had hardly moved an inch when the alarm started to blare. He shifted so he could see the cruisers better from the roof, but he didn't go inside. He didn't think he would need to, with the ray shield protecting the base from above. None of the cannons from the Separatist cruiser could hurt him from orbit.
He watched the Republic tanks roll out from the garage, surrounded by troopers. He was kind of glad that he didn't know most of the troopers here. It was easier to move on after the battle. He tried not to think about it because Master Billaba told him not to, but it was difficult. The clones were people too.
The Separatist tanks landed some distance off, two at a time. There were a lot of them, and Caleb counted somewhere around thirty. Add the bucket-load of battle droids and this was going to turn bad quickly. Caleb ducked behind an exhaust port, out of the possible line of fire, and began to activate his comlink.
He didn't, though. All of a sudden, he felt the Force telling him not to. He paused and focused on the feeling. It was telling him to wait. For what, Caleb couldn't tell, but if his master didn't need him yet he could afford to wait for a while longer.
He peeked around the side of the port, which was really loud when he was right next to it, and watch the two sides approach each other. He saw his master on the front lines, protecting the troopers as they advanced. He stared at the Separatist tanks, trying to make anything out between all of the droid heads when he saw General Grievous. Caleb had never met him before, but he had heard stories that told him that it was better that way. For the moment, Caleb was willing to believe it.
Grievous was in the rear of the Separatist forces, unlike Depa, who was in front. He watched for a moment, not really doing anything. Caleb stared at him. Was he seriously just going to stay in the back the whole time? Coward.
He caught himself being too overconfident. You haven't seen him fight yet, he heard a voice say in his head. It sounded like Ahsoka, the way it usually did. There's got to be a reason he is waiting. What is it?
He studied the tanks rolling in. If that was what Grevious was watching, then that's where he would find his answers. They advanced for a few minutes, not firing, but carrying the droids closer to the base and to the Republic tanks. Caleb saw his master give the order to activate the cannons, and Grevious must have done the same thing. Caleb couldn't hear him from so far away but he saw his make some wild gesture, and soon, the cannons were raised and armed.
Depa gave the order to fire at will, and Grevious said something, probably along the same lines soon after. The Republic tanks started firing, but the Separatist tanks didn't. What were they waiting for?
Caleb turned back to Grevious, but not even he seemed to understand. He started talking to a battle droid that was operating the machine. Seconds later, he knocked the droid out of the tank. Caleb laughed. Even cyborgs hated battle droids.
None of the Separatist tanks seemed to be working, which didn't make sense because Caleb was sure that neither he nor anyone else had had the chance to sabotage them. Maybe they were flukes off of the assembly line?
Grievous couldn't believe it.
"That is impossible! How can all thirty tanks be broken?"
"We don't know, sir!" A battle droid yelled over the sound of blaster fire. "Nothing is wrong on the computer, but none of them will fire! What should we-AH!"
Grievous swiped at the useless piece of junk and growled. His entire force of tanks was useless, meanwhile, the Jedi had a perfectly operational parade of tanks on the way. Already, his army was being depleted by the Republic cannons.
He had to keep going, though. He needed to give the Sister a window to get inside. He looked up and saw her ship fly overhead. It was high enough that no one would notice it unless they were looking for it or had a scanner on them. Soon, a small, dark figure fell from the rear and dove towards the base. It passed through the energy shield and disappeared behind the building. She was in. Grievous just had to buy time now. As much as he could before the Jedi realized what had happened.
"Send in some walkers," Grevious ordered his cruiser and turned to face the Jedi.
Time to add another lightsaber to his collection.
One by one, the Separatist tanks were being destroyed, and the droids along with them. With their cannons malfunctioning, thought Caleb, this battle would actually be over pretty quickly. Go figure.
He was still waiting for something, though. The Force was still telling him to wait. He looked up, trying to follow what he felt, and a Dark presence began to form in his mind's eye. He didn't know who or what it was, but he knew it was up.
He focused on the space above him, and a ship flew over him almost a kilometer and a half up. There. That's where the Darkness was coming from.
The ship flew away, and back into orbit, but the presence did not. It had left the ship and was getting closer. Caleb looked around and saw the roof access door. That person was trying to get inside the base without getting involved in the tank skirmish. The back door technique.
Caleb tried to think as he ducked into the base and out of sight. What was in here that was valuable to the Separatists? Resources, weapons, troopers (at least, the ones not fighting), but nothing the Separatists didn't already have. The real value of the base was the occupation of the system. There was nothing extraordinary hidden here, as far as he knew, and nothing worth stealing. If the Dark presence was with the Separatists, then they were probably just trying to steal the base instead.
To get the base, thought Caleb, they'd have to get to the command center first. That's their target, whoever they were. Caleb ran to the room, racing against the presence, but then he stopped in his tracks.
This person was smart enough to get into the base by skydiving through the shield. Caleb knew that for sure. Maybe they were smarter than just trying to take the command center directly.
Think, Caleb, he heard Ahsoka say. If you wanted to get the upper hand when fighting for a command center, what would you do first? What do they need in order to function?
Power, he thought in return. He had formed the habit of having these conversations with his imaginary Ahsoka during fights. The command center needs power and coms. Coms are on the roof-
He nearly socked himself in the head. Coms were on the roof. He had left the roof just a few minutes ago. No one was there to stop her from destroying the antenna.
That left the power. That was her next stop. Caleb knew that all Republic bases put their generators below ground so they would be more protected against explosions. Caleb eyed the elevator ahead of him, on the right.
He dashed to it, hoping that the Dark presence hadn't beaten him to it. He pressed the button down, and a few seconds later, the doors dinged and opened. Caleb stepped into it, grateful for a bit of luck. Technically, he didn't believe in luck, but this was definitely lucky.
Looks like he was going down. Only literally, hopefully.