Chapter 10: Invasion of Mako Woundo

Five Acclamator assault ships exited out of hyperspace in front of the Separatist-aligned planet Mako Woundo. A world known for its almost never-ending hailstorms. The lead ship was adorned with the red markings of the Republic and the other four had the basic dull gray hulls. A paltry invasion force but their target was no prize either.

And the leader of this small assault group was the highly skilled but obscure Jedi Weapon Master, Obi-wan Jakoby. Despite his successes early in the war, Jakoby was a relative unknown amongst the galaxy's thousands of Jedi.

Young for one to earn the title of Jedi Weapon Master, Jakoby was still dwarfed by the much more famous Obi-Wan Kenobi, with whom he shared the same first name. In a galaxy of countless beings, people were bound to share the same name, but unfortunately Jakoby had to share his first name with someone who was highly recognized in much of the galaxy.

Kenobi was one of the Jedi that had started the whole party on Geonosis and already had a long laundry list of renowned accomplishments. Something Jakoby didn't have, and would never have, given the rate at which he was assigned such meager planets to conquer. Jakoby knew a Jedi shouldn't pine for adventure, but the excitement of the war proved to be a rather enjoyable change of pace. His mind was more at ease knowing mostly battle droids were the ones that he slashed to pieces. Plus the war gave him an excellent excuse not to take a Padawan. Jakoby never did have much interest or the patience required in training a pupil.

Undisturbed in the confines of his meditation room, Obi-wan Jakoby stretched out with his feelings, trying to sense his way around the Force. The mythical reach-around of the cosmos provided Jakoby with some insight. Obi-wan Jakoby turned on the wall-mounted viewscreen and called the ship's captain. "The Separatists' are alerted to our presence, you took the fleet out of hyperspace too close to the system."

"My apologies sir, but I don't think this planet will put up much of a fight even if they know we're here."

"Unless you care to join me on the front lines I will be the judge of their resistance. We have lost a valuable advantage against the Separatists and clones will die as a result. Don't let it happen again," Jakoby warned.

"Yes sir," the captain tried not to look agitated. Obi-wan Jakoby shut the viewscreen off. The Weapon Master was not happy with the way some non-clone Navy personnel treated the clones as somehow less than human. As far as he was concerned, the clones were full humans that should enjoy the same rights and respect that non-clone soldiers enjoyed. Jakoby got up, used the Force to open the doors, and walked out of the meditation room.

As Jakoby made his way to the bridge, he nearly tripped on a MSE mouse droid. "Annoying droid vermin," Jakoby scoffed as he regained his balance. He was lucky no one else was in the hallway at the time. Jakoby would have dreaded looking incompetent in front of his clones.

Once at the bridge, Obi-wan was given a list of possible targets they could strike. Jakoby was sent to the planet on short notice, and so had no ready-made plans for taking that particular CIS world. An orbital bombardment of Mako Woundo was out of the question as all the planet's cities were far enough underground to be protected by any aerial attack.

Jakoby had chosen to target the underground city of Lovo Undomo. It was a large metropolitan center and the Jedi general planned to hold the city's population hostage in order to force the rest of the planet to surrender. An aggressive plan for a Jedi but the clone commanders had no problem with it.

One clone commander suggested destroying the planet's communications and sensor spire in order to cut the Separatist planet off from the rest of the galaxy. "Good strategy, but no, I don't believe anyone is coming to help these fools," Jakoby decided against it, just in case the Republic needed to commandeer it later on.

Mako Woundo was currently awash in one of its frequent hailstorms. The violent weather forced the Republic to land their Acclamators directly on the planet, as their smaller air transports might not survive the storm.

The space cruisers landed on the planet and released their armored walkers. Hailstones ranging in size from pebbles to womp rats battered the reinforced vehicles. Not one to shy away from operating a vehicle, as some Jedi were, Jakoby personally drove the lead AT-TE.

The hail was so bad a few of the clone scout walkers broke down and were left behind. Their operators were abandoned and stranded, but there was no way they could be rescued without the uttermost certainty that more clones would die in the rescue process.

The surviving GAR walkers reached the unguarded entrance to the underground city and made their way inside. They had to walk through a paved sub-terrain tunnel before they reached the actual city.

Jakoby gave control of his walker to a clone and exited the legged transport with his clone troopers. As the other walkers reached the safety the underground provided, they too released their clone infantry. The clones did not need their helmet floodlights as the tunnel was lit by glowing green stones, though the Republic had no idea what the gems were.

"I wonder if those green things are explosive," Kicker said.

"Don't you dare shoot them," Ace warned the clone commando.

"Remember, local police forces are secondary targets to battle droids!" Jakoby reminded his troops as they entered the outskirts of Lovo Undomo. While Separatist battle droids, especially the B1s, were somewhat of a joke to military personnel, they were certainly more dangerous than any police force. Jakoby allowed himself to be disdainful of the droids' performance as long as it didn't endanger the lives of his soldiers. To underestimate one's opponent was a dangerous thing, even when one's opponent was weaker. The Republic army marched further and further into the city, encountering no resistance whatsoever.

Jakoby then came to a sudden realization. He hadn't felt the presence of any living beings in the city. He was embarrassed that he didn't grasp it sooner. "Other than us, there is no life in this city, the dark side clouds everything," Jakoby tried to cover his own incompetence.

"What's the General talking about?" a clone asked his commander. The clone commander turned to Obi-wan Jakoby. "Sir?"

"The city's empty, its been abandoned!"

"Don't worry sir, we'll just go to the next city to collect our hostages," the commander wasn't as stressed by the situation.

"No, they knew we were coming," Jakoby's face was hidden by his hood. "Droids!" the Jedi yelled.

The clone commander still wasn't worried. "But sir, we haven't found any-" the commander was shot in the head by an unseen sniper. That one shot was the signal for every battle droid hidden in the city to sprout forth and start attacking.

The Jedi Weapon Master activated both his lightsaber and started deflecting blaster bolts. Clones dove for cover wherever they could find it; others opted to return to the safety of the interior of the AT-TEs.

Jakoby's four clone commandos, Ace, Jack, Kicker, and Tai, caught up with their Jedi General. "Sir, we have a bit of a problem," Ace said casually.

"Obviously," Jakoby replied.

At first, a hundred B1 battle droids had swarmed around Obi-wan Jakoby and his clone commandos. Soon the droids' numbers were reduced to eighty. A few fast paced moments later there were fifty. Then thirty. Suddenly less then ten battle droids remained. The last stragglers that weren't busted up retreated and allowed the B2s to descend on the group.

Despite the chaos of battle, Jakoby was aware that the sniper that killed the clone commander hadn't attacked again. As if to answer his question, a sniper bolt collided into Jack. His shields absorbed most of the blow, but he wouldn't survive another hit.

Jakoby noticed that the blast had come from a different direction. The sniper was changing his position to avoid being spotted. But Jakoby was fast, he looked where the shot came from and ran up the side of a building. He couldn't make it all the way to the top, but managed to grab hold of a ledge and then Force jump the rest of the way up.

Sure enough there was a B1 on the roof. The B1 was adorned in a beige-brown camouflage pattern. The battle droid abandoned his E-5s sniper rifle and pulled out an SE-14 blaster pistol. Jakoby deflected four shots and then decapitated the droid.

Jakoby then leaped off the building, and landed on top of a super battle droid. He immediately cut off the droid's right arm, the appendage that housed the built-in wrist blaster. The droid grabbed Jakoby with his left arm and threw the Jedi off. Jakoby rolled as he hit the ground and came up in a defensive stance. The B2 lunged at him but was sliced up the middle by the speedy Jedi.

Jakoby felt a rumble in the floor. He knew it wasn't the usual trembling that accompanied the AT-TEs as they thundered along. It was different. Jakoby turned to Ace. "Homing spider droids. How did they manage to hide those from us?"

"I guess we're not that observant," Ace theorized.

"Yeah, yeah, we'll pay better attention next time. You two mind helping us out here?" Tai asked as he shot at a group of super battle droids.

A trio of droidekas came thundering in. "Rollies inbound!" Tai alerted the others. Jack tossed an EMP grenade and Kicker followed up with a thermal detonator. The effective combination took out the droids before they could completely deploy into attack mode.

More skittering, spindly B1s came in to fortify the declining number of B2s. "More of the same," Ace said as he proceeded to blast one battle droid after another.

Like a fluid wave of energy, Jakoby swept through a large portion of the B1 battle droids. They were so numerous he could slice more than one droid per strike. He cut swaths through their ranks. As their numbers decreased, the B1s became more effective. Jakoby had to travel more as the droids were spaced out greater distances.

One B1 battle droid got in a kneeling position and started firing at Jakoby. It was a mind numbingly simple maneuver, but surprisingly effective. In a kneeling firing position, the droid made itself a smaller target, and the blaster fire Jakoby deflected at the droid simply went over his elongated head. The droid's blaster bolts also came at Jakoby at a lower angle, making them harder to deflect or redirect with his lightsaber. Jakoby finally decided to just Force run over and slice the droid up the hard way.

There was a brief enough pause in the fighting where Jakoby turned around to see how well the rest of his clone army was doing. The rank-and-file clones had fallen back to the walkers, but they were doing well against the droids. Not as well as Jakoby and his commandos, but as good as the Jedi could hope for in such a bad situation. If this kept up however, they wouldn't last, and the droids' numbers showed no signs of thinning.

"All units, target the city's support pillars, we'll crush their droid invested city!" Jakoby transmitted his order. An AT-TE destroyed a homing spider droid. The resulting loud explosion of the spiders' death prevented Jakoby from hearing any confirmations from his commanders. The Jedi assumed his command got out to all relevant high-ranking clones.

Jakoby and his clone commandos left the main fighting to head toward one of the city's main support pillars. A few E4 baron droids and B2 super battle droids barred their way but they were nothing the group couldn't handle and soon the team reached their target.

Jack and Kicker placed detonation packs at the base of the pillar. Incoming blaster bolts nearly took out Ace and Tai, who were supposed to be on guard duty while the others planted the charges.

"Pay attention, they're over there." Jakoby pointed at a trio of dwarf spider droids on the side of a natural cave wall.

"If you knew they were there why didn't you warn us before they nearly took our heads off?" Ace asked Obi-wan Jakoby. The commando knew the spiders had taken the Jedi by surprise as well. Jakoby was never quite sure how one could be so haughty after nearly being killed a second ago.

"It never ceases to amaze me how the Kaminoans were never able to breed the smugness out of you, the original must have been really full of himself," Jakoby shot back.

The three dwarf spider droids shot at Jakoby's squad with their charged shot attack. The clones switched to their anti-armor attachment and fired on the droids. Each projectile hit its mark, but none of the droids went down.

The spiders retaliated with their own volley. Tai was hit; his shields stripped in a single blow, the force of the blast knocked him off his feet. Jack and Kicker fired again, this time aiming for the droids' legs. It worked and two spider droids fell off the wall and crashed to the floor.

The last spider droid walked in reverse, going higher up the wall out of the anti-armor's range. The dwarf spider droid fired at Kicker, who dove to avoid the blast. The shot barely hit, knocking out Kicker's shields. The droid swiveled his head and likewise nailed Jack.

Jakoby got a running start and ran up the rock wall. The Jedi sliced off the droids cannon with his lightsaber and fell back down to the ground.

Now weaponless, the spider droid turned around and started crawling back up the wall, far out of their reach. Jakoby saw no need to waste his efforts finished off the now-useless droid and allowed it to escape.

A faraway explosion caught the attention of the commandos. A pillar deep in the city had detonated and came tumbling down. "They beat us!" Jack cried.

"I can't believe the normies got a pillar before we did!" Kicker complained.

"So my regular troops can accomplish an assignment faster than my elite commandos? Perhaps some promotions and demotions are in order," Obi-wan said.

"Sir!" Tai exclaimed.

"Why are we still talking?" Jakoby asked his commandos. "The charges are set, let er rip." Kicker pulled out the remote and set off the charges. At precisely that moment, a group of seven droidekas were rolling in to stop them. The falling debris from the pillar crushed the destroyer droids. "Yeah but did the normies do that when they blew their pillar?" Kicker noted after seeing the droids get squashed.

"They probably did," Jakoby said with a smile. They looked up at the ceiling of the underground city to see that it was infested with dwarf spider droids, and they were firing down on the clone troopers below.

"Things are getting bad," Jakoby said. "I'm going up ahead, don't try to keep pace," Jakoby took off at the speed of the Force. The commandos still chased after their leader, but he soon left them behind. The Jedi knew his regular troops would need his help more than his commandos did.

A group of AT-TEs managed to concentrate their fire and bring another pillar down before Jakoby met up with a group of regular troopers on their way to plant explosive charges on another pillar.

The clones stopped when they saw their general. "Sir?"

"Don't stop, keep moving," Jakoby ordered as he ran past the clones, activated his lightsabers and started attacking nearby super battle droids.

The clone troopers resumed their march, impeded only by a few pockets of battle droids. Jakoby sliced off the right arm of a B2, gripped the droid with the Force, and threw the super battle droid into another pair of B2s. Another blast rang out; another pillar in the city was destroyed. Jakoby noted it was farther away; the clones he was assisting hadn't reached their pillar yet. Jakoby noted that it seemed that wherever he was not, his clones did better. "The droids must be gravitating towards me," Jakoby said to himself.

A B1 battle droid shot the explosive charge the clone was carrying, detonating it. The premature blast incinerated most of the nearby clone troopers. Jakoby now had little clone support and no charges to blow up the column with. So the Jedi did the logical thing, he activated his lightsaber to cut it himself. The column was thick so Jakoby had to cut slowly. Luckily his commandos finally caught up to him and were able to protect the Jedi from droid attacks as he worked.

The whole ordeal lasted about a minute, but to Jakoby it seemed like a lifetime. He cut all the way through it but the pillar still held in place. So Jakoby gave it a Force push and that sent it tumbling down. With their work finished, the Jedi and his commandos left to go towards the bulk of the main Republic army.

A clone lieutenant greeted Jakoby when he reached the AT-TEs.

"Sir, should I have the lead walkers begin their retreat?"

"No."

"But sir, they will need time to evacuate. I don't know how much weight the remaining columns can hold. It may all come crashing down on us now," the lieutenant was worried, and rightly so.

"I know, and if they leave now the Separatists will figure out what we're up to. The walkers are too slow; they will have to be abandoned. Walkers can be replaced, their pilots cannot. Tell the rear guard to turn around. Lets hope we can all squeeze into half the AT-TEs we came in with."

Jakoby and his commandos aggressively attacked the droid army while the regular infantry clone troopers escorted the pilots that abandoned their walkers. Soon the entire GAR army was quickly backing out of the city.

There was a great rumbling in Lovo Undomo. The remaining support pillars, though strong, were now too few in number. The dwarf spider droids on the ceiling were trying to skitter away to safety, but the droid army in the city streets had yet to figure out what was going on.

A B1 battle droid approached a super battle droid commander.

"Sir, the clone army is in full retreat."

"Acknowledged. Begin to…." the B2 commander paused. The droid finally realized what was going on. "The structural integrity of the city's support system is compromised."

"Uh oh," the B1 said as he looked up.

The clone army had broken into a full run as the vast cavern began to cave in. Various large stones and chunks of dirt fell from the gravelly ceiling. Jakoby brought up the rear, using the Force to guide him in-between the falling rocks of doom. The lead walkers and clone infantry managed to make it to the tunnel right before the city was caved in completely. Dust filled the damp air.

"That was close," Jakoby heard a nearby clone say.

Jakoby and his massive infantry army did manage to all squeeze into the remaining AT-TEs. Jakoby's walker was considerably more cramped than the others, as his commandos' armor was so bulky.

The Republic walkers were able to peacefully make their way to the surface, where they were once again battered by the ferocious hailstorm.

The few clone scout walkers that survived the first odyssey into the hailstorm did not make it back through the return march to the awaiting Acclamators. Even a few AT-TEs broke down this time. Obi-wan Jakoby could have sworn that he lost more clones to the hail than to the droid army.

Author's Note: Mako Woundo is a planet of my own imagination. I tried to think of a single geographic feature planet that Star Wars hasn't done yet. I came up with a planet of near-constant hailstorms. Although I could be wrong and it has already been done before, though no such planet exists to my knowledge.