Chapter 7: The Jedi Weapon Master

The Republic gunships rushed toward their destination. Flying unfriendly skies as Vulture droids attacked in the air and AATs fired from below. A Vulture managed to get behind one of the transports. The tail gun spewed forth green lasers, trying to swat the annoyance down.

The tail gunner managed to land two solid hits on the fighter, only to have the droid lurch forward and smash into the gunship's rear. In turn, the LAAT crashed into one of its companions, bringing both transports careening towards the droid-invested ground.

Only a single LAAT/i remained. The solitary transport soon slowed its speed and hovered near the ground. Before it could deploy it troops, a homing spider droid cut into the aircraft with its anti-vehicle laser. A single Jedi and four clone commandos fell from the explosion. Using the Force, the Jedi manipulated the clones angle of descent and the four commandos landed on top of the large spider droid. The Jedi landed on top of an AAT.

The four clone commandos' armor was bathed in a black blue urban camouflage design, rather than the standard white most clones wore. Each clone commando set a time bomb on the top of the droid. Each one then leaped to a leg of the spider droid and slid down. The OG-9 exploded, sending shrapnel in all directions, but the clones' personal shields protected them from the deadly shards.

The Jedi, coated in a Jedi adventure robe, cut his way down through the top of the tank and slaughtered the pilot droid crew inside. Rather than utilize the tank, the Jedi cut a path out through the rear. Two B2s charged at the Jedi, one taken out by reflected fire, and the other cut in half by the Jedi's green lightsaber.

The four commandos had caught the attention of an advanced dwarf spider droid, who attacked them with its powerful cannon and missiles. Their weapons, the DC-17m interchangeable weapon system, were having a difficult time penetrating the droid's tough outer shell. "Hey Obi-wan! We could use some help over here!"

The Jedi activated his blue shoto lightsaber and charged straight at the armored spider droid. The spider fired its cannon, the Jedi back flipped, and the momentum provided by the cannon blasted propelled the Jedi right to the droid walker.

Obi-wan Jakoby landed on the spider and sliced its cannon off with a single, clean cut. Jakoby jumped down and proceeded to jab the droid in the eye with his shoto lightsaber.

The clone commandos were wiping out the nearby battle droids. Two droidekas rolled in but were blasted to smithereens before they could even deploy into attack position.

Ace, the squad leader, was happily barking out orders to the other three clones as they systematically murdered the battle droid infantry. Two STAPs flew in but the clone commando Jack shot the pilots clean off their vehicles.

Three E4 baron droids pinned down Tai, the team's obligatory sniper enthusiast; behind one of the homing spider droid's now detached legs. The E4 baron droids were an older model employed by the Trade Federation as an experimental unit that saw limited use during the Battle of Naboo. The beige droids were heavily armored with their head built into their torso. They were equipped with dual repeating cannons where their hands should have been.

While powerful, the three droids were oblivious to the clone commando Kicker, who circled around and disabled the three with an EMP grenade.

One of the airborne droid fighters flew in low and converted to walker mode. Obi-wan Jakoby deflected the droid's blaster fire while the commandos dashed in and blew the droid away with their DC-17m anti-armor attachments.

The last droid, a B2, was undaunted as he blindly fired at the clones. Jakoby lifted the droid up with the Force. Tai shot off the droid's blaster arm with his sniper function. Jakoby continued to hold the droid in the air. "Who wants some target practice?"

"We do!"

Jakoby used the Force to juggle the defenseless droid in the air, making it spin and do loops while the clones fired at it with their DC-15s side arm blasters. Obi-wan Jakoby was usually a serious Jedi but once in a while he took the time to have a little fun after an objective was completed.

Several of the shots managed to hit the durable droid, but nothing had destroyed it yet.

"Its mine!"

"I got it!" The clones were quite cheerful as they fired at the poor droid. After a few more seconds Ace landed the killing blow.

"No fair! I had it!" Tai protested.

With the area now relatively safe, a LAAT/v dropped off five 74-Z speeder bikes for the group to use. Ace transmitted to command, wondering why they weren't just airlifted out.

"Two turret droids are giving our gunships trouble. They're blocking the direct route to the city. We need you to go in on the ground and take them out."

"Can do sir," Ace transmitted to the commander.

"So what's the deal, Ace?" Obi-wan Jakoby asked as he mounted up on the speeder bike.

"There are a pair of turret droids up ahead command wants us to dispose of."

"Is that all? I was hoping this would get interesting." The group of five revved up their engines and made their way toward their assigned targets.

The two turret droids protected the outskirts of the city. The droids were basically a laser cannon atop three stilt legs. The droids could not move, as the legs were used only to brace the turret, but they were equipped with shield generators. The turret droids were also guarded by a large group of droid infantry, including a significant number of mortar super battle droids—the B2 equivalent of thermal detonator battle droids, which were able to keep the Republic's ground armor away from the turret droids.

Ace and Jack took the turret on the left and Kicker and Tai went for the right. Obi-wan Jakoby went dead center in-between the turret droids to deal with the large mass of infantry.

The CIS was not oblivious to their approach and the mortar super battle droids pepped the area with explosives. The Republic bikers were able to maneuver around the deadly blasts.

Jakoby reached his destination first, a B2 fired a wrist rocket and Jakoby leaped from his bike just before the missile hit. The Jedi Weapon Master hit the ground in a roll and came up slicing the B2 right up the middle.

Jakoby sighted down an octuptarra droid that started spewing lasers at him. Using the Force, the Jedi put on a burst of speed; continually dodging the droid's powerful laser blasts. He jumped into the air and landed on the droid's spherical dome. Jakoby then jumped off the droid, slicing off a leg in the process. The droid violently came crashing down to the ground. Losing a leg was a major weakness for homing spider droids, dwarf spider droids, or octuptarra droids. Although, to be fair, if B-series battle droids or clone troopers were deprived of a single leg they too, would collapse to the ground.

Obi-wan Jakoby then turned his attention to carving up the mortar super battle droids. The black B2s were no pushovers, they had the standard wrist blaster built into their right arms and used them at close range where their mortar launch tubes would be ineffective.

Ace and Jack were able to gun down four battle droids with their bikes before parking the repulsorcraft to fight what remained of the turret's defenders on foot.

Kicker and Tai were having more trouble as they were faced with a trio of destroyer droids. The droidekas weren't able to hit them while they were whizzing around on their 74-Z speeder bikes, but the bikes didn't have the firepower to strip the droids of their shields.

The bikers turned and left to Jakoby's location. The droidekas rolled up into ball mode and followed them. The Jedi saw them all coming. The two bikes past the Jedi and Jakoby threw his lightsaber at the three rolling droidekas, catching them all in the strike. Jakoby called his green saber back to him using the Force. "Must I do everything for you?" the Jedi joked.

Just then a huge group of droidekas and platoon attack craft came barreling down in their direction. Jakoby called Ace and Jack to his position and alerted command. "We haven't eliminated the targets yet and the enemy has sent in heavy reinforcements, at least a hundred droidekas and four PACs filled with battle droids. We're going to need some backup."

"All right, we're sending you AT-TEs and TX-130 fighter tanks. There's no guarantee the transports can drop them off safely if you haven't taken out those turrets."

"What about Aurek Squadron? If they're still in the area they could be used to keep the turret droids busy."

"Yes that can be arranged, they're in the vicinity and will be redirected to your location. Be advised, they've taken heavy casualties and won't be able to engage those turrets for very long."

"Copy that."

The four commandos formed up behind the Jedi. As the monstrous mass of droids approached the warriors heroically stood their ground undeterred. The turret droids were slow to react to the changing situation on the ground and didn't fire on the five Republic fighters. The clones started assassinating some of the rolling destroyer droids with their sniper attachments.

Four V-19 Torrent fighters appeared in the distance and caught the attention of the turrets. The starfighters fired on the turret droids but the blasts harmlessly impacted on the shields.

Each commando was able to snipe about three droidekas before the first of the destroyers deployed. Jakoby blocked the incoming laser fire to the best of his ability. There were just too many droids. Some of the blasts were getting past him and struck against the clones' personal shielding.

The commandos used up the rest of their EMP grenades and thermal detonators and switch to the anti-armor mode on their interchangeable weapon systems. The PACs were parking nearby and lowing their racks to deploy their battle droids.

LAAT/c transports finally arrived. With the turret droids distracted the modified gunships safely released their cargo and fled. With their mission of distraction completed, the Torrent fighters also retreated.

Jakoby was now reinforced with six AT-TEs and three fighter tanks. The TX-130s started blasting at the droidekas while the six walkers broke into teams of three and ruined the troublesome turret droids.

The IFT-Xs were sweeping through the destroyer droids with ease. The droidekas' blasters couldn't penetrate the armor on the tanks. With the PACs' task completed, the unarmed transports turned around and fled back to the Separatist city. The B1 battle droids uncurled from their folded up position and began to attack the fighter tanks. The battle droids were even less effective than the droidekas. Some threw V-1 thermal detonators at the tanks, but their efforts didn't even slow the TX-130s down.

The AT-TEs were now converging on the droideka horde. Jakoby and his commandos quickly found their job becoming easier as the clones inside the walkers came out to assist them in the battle.

Soon the droid forces were overrun and convoy of RTTs escorted by AT-RTs began to traverse the area toward the city. The Republic army halted in front of the city, just out of range of the city's defenses.

"Why are we stopping? If we give them too much time the top officers are going to evacuate!"

"Sir, two ARF troopers successfully managed to infiltrate the city and will soon return with valuable information of the city layout. I doubt that any Separatist will be going anywhere, we've successfully routed the CIS fleet in orbit and set up a blockade," a clone commander informed Obi-wan Jakoby. A LAAT/c dropped in a portable command center.

The two ARF troopers returned to their army via a 74-Z speeder bike. The bikes were able to accommodate two riders, a useful feature if multiple bikes weren't necessary. The ARFs provided Jakoby with a layout of the city they managed to steal from the city's courthouse archives. The clones inputted the data into the command center's computer and a holographic display of the city appeared.

"The city is heavily defended General. Turrets line the city perimeter while droid tanks patrol the streets," an ARF said.

"Do they have a shield generator?"

"No sir."

"What if we threaten them with the use of an orbital bombardment?"

"There are a significant number of civilians in the city sir."

"I said threaten, I have no intention of carrying through with such an act. I merely thought we might end this without any fighting at all."

"I think the Separatists would call your bluff General. I think they're well aware of the shielding their civilians bring."

"Bombarding the city with artillery would have the same negative impact," Ace said.

"We couldn't starve them out, not the droids anyway," Jack casually commented.

"What other options are there? A direct assault will mean massive casualties."

"My team and I could sneak in and sabotage their energy supply, then the rest can come in and take the city," Jakoby recommended.

At the Separatist command center, safely located inside the city, the top officers were worrying about what their next course of action should be.

"What are we going to do? What are we going to do?" the Neimoidian officer worried.

"What about the Hardcell or the XT Beetle transport? We could get out of here," the Koorivar officer suggested.

"We'll never get past their blockade," the Gossam officer sighed.

"What if we use the fighters to distract them while we get away?"

"There are too few, they won't last long enough," the Gossam rebutted.

"Our communications are being jammed," an Aqualish technician informed the leaders.

"We can't even call for help," the Neimoidian sulked.

The Jedi General went over the plan with his four clone commandos. "Our first target will be the five external power cores. We will split up and each take one. It is imperative we use stealth and not alert the city of our intrusion. Once they have been destroyed, we will meet at the city center and destroy their main power complex. This will severely cripple the city, allowing our forces to invade and take over."

"What if we alert them to our presence?" Tai asked.

"Then we will just have to continue on with the mission. There will be no escape for us once we're inside. Is everyone clear on the plan?"

"Yes sir," the four commandos said in unison.

"Right, lets be off then."

The Jedi and four clones snuck into the city on foot via the sewer system. "Echh, I can smell this vile stank through my helmet," Kicker complained.

"Be thankful you have a helmet," Jakoby said.

"This place smells worse than a bantha's butt," Jack said.

"How do you know what a bantha's butt smells like?" Ace asked.

"Cause I imagine it smells the same as your breath," Jack shot back.

"Shut up," Jakoby said. They hid as a pair of battle droids walked nearby. The droid patrol didn't notice the intruders and left on their pre-assigned patrol route.

"No fair, they don't have noses," Tai observed.

"I guess they're not complete idiots. They thought enough to guard the sewers," Jakoby said. The covert ops team soon split up to take their individual targets.

Kicker went down one tunnel. Kicker preferred to use explosions to solve his problems but it would be unwise to cause a ruckus while he was underground. The sooner he got topside the better, he just hoped he wouldn't run into any opposition until then.

Tai soon found himself trying to sneak across the city streets. He was fortunate there were no crowds, as an armored clone commando would stick out like a rancor in a herd of nerfs. Tai guessed the civilians were hiding in their homes. Tai waited behind some crates and let two B1 battle droids walk past him. He could have easily taken them out, but then he would have had to waste precious time hiding their bodies.

Kicker's route led him close to where the CIS had parked a Hardcell-class interstellar transport. Kicker decided to make a short stop before he reached his power core.

Obi-wan Jakoby leaped from rooftop to rooftop, heading directly for his target. He called on the Force to increase his speed and jumping ability, but reminded himself that if he went too fast he would end up having to wait on his clones. The Separatists didn't think to post sentries on building rooftops and the droids patrolling the city streets below never thought to look up. "Ha, they look like antz from all the way up here!" Jakoby said aloud to himself, knowing no one down below could hear him talk from this height.

Jack had infiltrated the vehicle depot and commandeered a GAT and simply drove to his power core. None of the Separatists had any reason to believe the ground armored tank moving through the city streets was belligerent.

Jack easily reached his target. He knew the next part would be difficult. If he used the tank to blow up the power core, he would ruin his teammates element of surprise. He would have to exit the tank and place his detpack without anyone noticing him. Of course a clone commando would be easy to spot, so he had to do it when no one else was around.

There were a few battle droids milling about, so Jack drove slowly, hoping they would leave. "Stupid droids sure are taking their sweet time. No wonder they always lose, so inefficient." If Jack drove too slowly he would look suspicious. Jack drove past the power core and kept going; he would have to go a little farther and wait to turn around.

Ace saw a battle droid on its own. The commando snuck up behind the oblivious droid and decapitated him with his wrist blade. Ace dragged the body over to a parked civilian landspeeder and forced open the vehicles engine hood. Ace stuffed the spindly droid onto the engine. He planted a mine on the droid's body in case anyone found it.

When he tried to close the hood the droid took up too much space and it wouldn't close shut. "Agrhh!" Ace groaned as he comically tried to force the hood down five more times before giving up and kicking the vehicle—causing the mine to detonate. The blast knocked Ace flat on his back. As the fire started to expand to the nearby building Ace got up and ran. Nobody had seen him yet; maybe he would get lucky and actually get away without being caught.

Jakoby notice smoke rising from another part of the city and assumed one of the clones blew his cover. The event had prompted two hunter-seeker droids to investigate but they noticed Obi-wan before they got to the fire.

The droids fired at the 1.85 meter tall Jedi with their tail lasers. Jakoby slid under some pipes as the red bolts splashed across the roof.

For the third time Jack passed the power core. Except now the city was on alert and two super battle droids were now permanently protecting the power core. Jack gave up and fired a volley of missiles, destroying the core and its two protectors.

A B1 in the street saw the event take place. "Hey what are you doing?"

Jack turned the stolen tank towards the lone battle droid.

"That wasn't friendly fire. Hey…you're an enemy. Get out of our tank!" the battle droid fired on the GAT with its E-5 blaster.

"Took him long enough to figure it out," Jack sighed as he blasted the battle droid. He predicted the droid would have figured it out sooner, but he had given him too much credit. The droids were less intellectual than Jack previously thought.

Three battle droids chased Tai through the street after he blew up his assigned power core.

"Wait, why am I running?" Tai turned around and blasted the three droids. Then the commando noticed a ground armored tank blasting super battle droids. "Why do I get the feeling Jack is in that thing?"

Ace blew the power core. The squad of supers guarding it didn't put up much of a fight since Ace immediately resorted to using EMP grenades. The team leader knew he was running behind and had no time to stick around and play with the droids.

Jakoby neared the primary power complex and saw a GAT on the streets below. He jumped from the building and landed on the tank and proceeded to cut off the cannons. Jakoby then cut a hole in the top of the tank but was surprised to find Jack and Tai inside. "Tanks a lot General, now we can't shoot stuff."

"Sorry I didn't know it was you."

"I thought Jedi were supposed to know about stuff like this."

"Apparently I'm not a very good Jedi." The trio used the GAT to ram through the doors of the power complex. They exited the ruined vehicle and began their work of setting charges and killing guards.

The power grid blew just as Jakoby and his clones made a daring escape out of the building. The city went dark and the Republic forces knew it was time to attack. The swift AT-RTs bursted ahead with the AT-TEs slowly plodded forward.

"We've pushed them to the edge, they may try to escape in their transports despite our blockade."

"Hi General!" Kicker seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and with an overabundance of enthusiasm. Jakoby had not sensed Kicker's presence as the clone approached. Perhaps I'm getting sloppy, the Jedi admitted to himself.

"You're late."

"Where have you been?" Tai asked.

"Around," Kicker smiled, though none could see it through his helmet.

"Okay, we need to disable their means of escape. I say we target the Techno Union ship fir—" Jakoby was cut off as he saw the Hardcell in the distance blow up.

"What did you do?" Tai asked.

"Can't you tell?" Kicker replied.

"That wasn't part of the plan," Jakoby lectured Kicker.

"I wasn't the one who blew our cover."

"Yeah, who did that anyway? Ace?"

"That still doesn't change the fact that you disobeyed orders Kicker."

"Technically I don't recall you say I couldn't blow up extra stuff on the way."

"This is not the time to argue semantics," Jakoby sighed.

"We can discuss my actions as a committee later," Kicker said as charging battle droids fired on the group.

The attacking battle droids fell exceptionally fast. The group soon realized that the droids were being destroyed from behind. Within a few short seconds the droids were nothing but spare parts.

"Nice of you to finally show up Ace. It's not like you to be tardy," Jakoby reprimanded his second-in-command. The sound of the city's XT Beetle transport caught the group's attention.

Momentarily out of harm's way they looked up at the transport at the sky. "The blockade will get them," Jakoby said with confidence. A squadron of Torrent fighters showed up and shot the transport down, causing a huge mess in the city streets. "I guess not. Well then, I don't think the Seppers could have made this any easier for us even if they tried," Obi-wan Jakoby declared. As the Jedi finished his statement a blaster bolt whizzed by his face. The Republic soldiers turned to face another approaching group of battle droids.

"Time to clean up this mess!" Kicker exclaimed.

The CIS leadership and their B2 bodyguards exited out of the wreckage that used to be the XT Beetle transport. "This is unacceptable!" the Neimoidian protested.

"Well, what do we do now?"

"Surrender?" the Gossam answered with a question.

"We go back to the capital building and take one of the shuttles," the Neimoidian answered.

"We'll never make it through! Just how many crash-landings do you think we can survive in a single day?"

"We have no choice!"

"We could always surrender…"

"Unacceptable. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life rotting in a Republic prison." Four AT-RTs appeared and were delayed by the squads of super battle droids. The first two supers were instantly torn apart while the rest began their counter attack. As the infantry and anti-infantry walkers battled a droid transport carrier arrived to take the officers back to the capital building.

Jakoby and his commando squad borrowed a few speeder bikes and were on their way to the wrecked Beetle transport when they were intercepted by a group of STAPs. Outnumbered three to one, the clone elites were still able to shoot down their agile opponents.

A troop of thirty super battle droids swarmed the street, appearing from the surrounding buildings. The Jedi and his four commandos abandoned their bikes to fight the droids on foot.

As usual, Jakoby rushed in and sliced the droids apart with his dual lightsabers while his commandos backed him up with their ranged weapons. The super battle droids were not quick thinking enough to figure out a counter to this common attack pattern.

Unfortunately for the Republic warriors, a bio cannon appeared at the far end of the street, deployed into attack mode, and began to bombard the entire area. The droid cannon's first targets were the parked 74-Z speeder bikes. Once they were destroyed, the clones were deprived of a swift means of escape.

The Republic troops could take cover in the buildings of course, but that would not stop the bio cannon's attack, and the large droid was told by its superiors that the Republic would not risk civilian lives. Armed with this knowledge, the bio cannon was confident that they would not leave its field of fire.

The Jedi and four commandos ran in separate directions to try and confuse the bio cannon, but it continued to fire relentlessly. Jakoby caught a break when three AT-RTs rushed forth and started to shoot at the CIS artillery unit.

The bio cannon curled back into a ball and rolled toward Obi-wan Jakoby, knocking over the three AT-RTs in the process. The Jedi leapt straight into the air and landed on the large droid. Jakoby ran on the ball as it careened down the street. Building momentum, the bio cannon rammed into a Republic troop transport, propelling Obi-wan off it. Clone troopers stared in awe as the Jedi was catapulted to the far side of the city.

"I didn't know the General could fly," Kicker joked. The clone's tone indicated that he was clearly confident that Jakoby had survived the ordeal.

Jakoby's head felt as if an entire moon had dropped on it. The Jedi opened his eyes, only to see darkness. At first he thought he had gone blind, losing his sight to some sort of injury. But he quickly realized that it was nighttime. "How long was I out?" Jakoby said to himself as he looked around and saw that he had landed in an open dumpster, the soft garbage the reason he survived to crash. Jakoby discovered the repugnant smell only after he realized that he was surrounded by moldy food packets. "Great! Now I smell like a steaming pile of Dooku." Jakoby rooted around the trash for his lightsabers. He eventually found them both, then climbed out of the dumpster and went to look for some clone allies.

Jakoby came across three individuals in the dark, he didn't need the Force to tell him they were clones, it was obvious from the floodlights affixed to their helmets.

"Who goes there?" A clone barked as Jakoby came into their view. "Oh, excuse me General, I didn't know it was you."

"Quite alright. What's going on?"

"We've been searching the city for you sir. You've been missing in action for hours."

"How goes the good fight? Still good I assume."

"Not really sir. Things have been going badly," the captain said.

"Don't just stand there, give me a report."

"We've been chasing a bio cannon throughout the city on into the night, still haven't stopped it yet. The civilians are being uncooperative; some are housing battle droids while others are actually attacking us directly. You're plan to cut the city's power backfired. Now that's its night, the locals move about easily, picking off our troops in the street. We're easy targets because we have to use the floodlights to see anything. And some of the Seppers managed to use old auxiliary power generators to revive some of the city's defense turrets."

"I see."

A blaster shot rang out and smashed into one of the clone troopers. As if they were nothing but practice targets, the next clone was hit. The clone captain drew his DC-15x sniper rifle and let loose a shot. The hostile shooter retaliated by plastering the captain in the face. Jakoby looked to find their assassin.

In the middle of the street there was a dwarf spider droid. It was hard to see in the dark but Jakoby could make out the droid's big red eyes. He activated his two lightsabers and started after the four-legged droid. The spider droid began to fire on Obi-wan Jakoby, but the Jedi was easily able to deflect or dodge the incoming fire.

As Jakoby drew closer to the droid, he started taking fire from above. A sniper shot from the right missed Jakoby. A moment later he was receiving small-arms blasts from his left. The sniper was inaccurate; Jakoby figured it was a B1 battle droid armed with an E-5s sniper rifle. The shots from the left were also inaccurate, but wild. Jakoby figured it was from civilians.

Then Jakoby quickly had to dodge out of the way. A toxic green grenade landed where he was a second ago. Jakoby figured it was a droid with a radiation launcher. Not the most common separatist weapon, but whoever was using it had better aim than the others.

Two super battle droids came up from behind the spider droid and started shooting at the Jedi. Jakoby was running out of options. He dashed to the building on his left and cut his way through the front door. Obi-wan decided that he needed to get to the civilians before they ditched their weapons; he could go and search for the droids anytime. If the organics got away they would be much harder to find amongst a city of unfriendly civilians.

Jakoby took the stairs, having faith that his own speed would be quicker than taking the turbolift. He reached the floor where he sensed the belligerents and burst through the door into the hall. Two humans opened fired upon the Jedi.

Jakoby rushed forth, his great speed powered by the Force. In an instance he cut down the two humans, killing them instantly. Without clones to back him up, the Jedi was in no mood to put up with prisoners, so he killed them in battle. Looking down at their chopped up corpses, Jakoby saw the humans had wielded SE-14 blaster pistols; the droids were arming the civilians. Obi-wan Jakoby felt a disturbance in the Force, and knew where he needed to be.

Kicker's DC-17m blaster was running low on ammo. His anti-armor attachment was already depleted and the commando was already out of grenades. Soon he would be down to his sniper attachment and DC-15s. Jack was already down to his side arm blaster while Ace had manned an EWHB-12 heavy repeating blaster.

The small army of B1 and B2 battle droids slowly advanced on the clones' position. The rank-and-file clones that had accompanied the commandos were either dead or in various stages of dying. The droids had ambushed the clone group as they were patrolling a street. Ace believed the locals had tipped off the droids, as the commando didn't believe the droids could have come up with such an attack on their own.

Tai tossed an EMP grenade. The weapon only damaged a small portion of the droid attack group. "That was my last grenade," Tai informed the others. "We're not going to last much longer, we need to fall back," the clone yelled over the roar of the blaster fire.

"And where do you propose we fall back to?"

"We could try and regroup with the squads in the southern half of the city," Jack suggested as he shot down a B1 with his pistol.

"That's where the emergency signals were coming from, they're likely dead by now," Kicker said.

"So we're just going to abandon them?"

"There's nothing we can do, we can't even take care of ourselves right now," Ace said.

From a rooftop, Obi-wan Jakoby saw his commandos engaged with a large force of battle droids. He leaped from the building and landed on top of a super battle droid. He cut off the droid's blaster arm and shoved it into a nearby B1 battle droid. Jakoby then Force pushed two other battle droids that leveled their weapons at him.

Jakoby cut across the droid line, killing five super battle droids in a row. He then focused on the rear droids. The droids in the front were deprived of their support and were quickly gunned down by the clone commandos.

Twenty-five seconds into Jakoby's counterattack and all the battle droids lay in mangled piles.

"Good to have you back General," Ace said as Jakoby approached them.

"It seems you've been having fun without me."

A human civilian appeared from a doorway and shot Jack. The blast was merely absorbed by his shields but the cheap shot angered his Jedi general. Jakoby used the saber throw ability and cut the poor fool in half.

The group heard the heavy footfalls of a nearby AT-TE. "Come on there's a friendly walker nearby," Tai said.

"Gee, what gave it away?" Kicker snidely said.

The group made their way to the walker and went inside. The AT-TE's resident IM-6 medical droid checked Obi-wan Jakoby's condition while one the vehicle's gunners informed the group where the walker was going.

"We're headed for the capital building."

"Do you really think the Sep leaders would be stupid enough to still be there?" Ace asked.

"Yes sir. They're shuttles were destroyed by our aircraft, so they shouldn't have any other means of escaping."

"Unless their officers are brave enough to ride STAPs," Tai said.

"You're only sending one walker to attack?" Ace asked.

"Its all we could spare sir."

The walker's occupants could hear the sounds of blaster fire as battle droids shot at the armored vehicle in vain. The battle droid infantry swarmed around the AT-TE like antz attacking a beetul.

Some of the super battle droids fired their wrist rockets, but were unable to cause any meaningful damage to the large walker.

The GAR walker held out and reached its target destination within fifteen minutes. The walker blasted the squad of super battle droids guarding the entrance. Jakoby, his four commandos, and a handful of standard clones departed from the walker and infiltrated the capital building.

Jakoby and his buddies encountered the standard security battle droids and a few PK worker droids, nothing they couldn't handle. Which made Jakoby wonder why the capital building hadn't been taken sooner.

Suffering no casualties, even among the nameless cannon fodder, the Republic group stormed inside the command center. They were greeted by the tri-shots of super battle droids. With a few swift strokes of his lightsabers, Jakoby killed most of the droid defenders himself.

Ace used his knuckle plate vibro blade and decapitated an unarmed pilot battle droid. One of the standard clone troopers shot a Gossam officer while Jack killed a Koorivar officer that reached for a SE-14 pistol. A Neimoidian officer ran out of the room but no one gave chase.

Kicker noticed movement under a table and saw an Aqualish technician come out from hiding.

"Gun!" Kicker shot the engineer.

"He was holding a fusioncutter," Jack corrected.

"Oops. Not my fault," Kicker said.

"Of course its your fault. You're the one who screamed 'Gun,' and you're the one who shot him!" Ace exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter now. Come on, we better go capture that Neimoidian who ran off, we need to take someone alive for questioning," Jakoby said. The Jedi and his clone commandos were disturbingly casual about having shot an unarmed person, but the brutality of the war had begun to change the Jedi and the clones of Jango Fett were created to be ruthless killing machines.

Author's Note: Jakoby's Jedi adventure robe is an outfit found in the videogame Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

The turret droid first appeared in the videogame Star Wars: Starfighter. This automated turret is not to be confused with the T4 turret droid.