Chapter 50: The Unknown World
The grapple battle droid GD-80 picked up a bolder twice his size with a single metal hand. He hefted the rock over his shoulder and steadied it his other hand, taking aim at his target—the Jedi Sia-Lan Wezz. The vibrant pink lightsaber was easy enough to spot on the battlefield. The grapple droid held his rock, waiting for his opening. The Jedi was currently too close to his commanding officer, EEK-176. The two had been fighting for quite some time, long enough for the command droid to have switched to a RW-B power war-hammer as his weapon of choice in attempt to literally crush the Jedi. Neither was able to land a blow that would end the other. Though GD-80 watched intently with his photoreceptors, he was waiting for the commander's signal via the network. GD-80 feared none of the small arms fire that might have come his way from the Republic's army troopers, his armor plating was more than durable enough to withstand it.
The human Jedi knocked the command droid back using the Force. That was her mistake.
"GD-80, NOW!" EEK-176 screeched wirelessly at the grapple droid via the network.
The grapple droid chucked the boulder. It arced through the air and crashed down exactly where GD-80 had intended it to. Dust and dirt kicked up but GD-80 could already tell from the path of the glowing pink blade that the Jedi had danced out of the way in time. His shot had been close, very close. But close didn't count when trying to splatter a Jedi with an impromptu projectile.
"Is this what your strategy has been reduced to, EEK, throwing rocks?" Sia-Lan asked as she caught her breath. She almost hadn't felt anything through the Force at all. It had all happened so fast and she was running entirely on reflex.
"So, you do remember my name, Wezz." EEK-176 approached where the boulder landed and smashed his war-hammer down, shattering it.
"Well, you always looked a little different from the others. Made me assume you were the one in charge. But it's stuff like this which always made you second chair to OOM-9 back on Naboo. Don't tell me. If you're still around, so is he. I'm sure he's controlling things from the safety of his tank, isn't he?"
"You needn't concern yourself. You can't even deal with me." EEK-176 used his hammer to smack the shards of the boulder towards Wezz, who expertly dodged the first two. The third shard EEK-176 sent her way Wezz caught with the Force and hurled it back at him. Rather than dodge EEK-176 smashed it to dust with a charged swing from his war-hammer.
EEK-176 started rotating his wrist and swinging the hammer like a helicopter blade. "I know you're trying to draw my attention while the grapple droid closes in, EEK," Wezz said. "Humans do have peripheral vision. You've got to do better than that."
Barriss Offee was lost. This didn't happen often, as eventually the Force would guide her, that, or a map. But in the dark tunnels and caverns of Korriban the Force was polluted by the dark side. Her connection was clouded and her path unclear, both figuratively and literally. Oily shadows of figures from thousands of years ago tried to etch themselves into her mind. Barriss swore she could hear screaming in the distance. She should not have been in a place like this, she had heard the old stories of Korriban. This was a living nightmare. Barriss had nightmares before. They had been coming to her in her sleep more frequently ever since her first deployment at the original Battle of Geonosis. How had an eighteen-year-old Padawan got assigned to the Geonosis strike team assigned to rescue Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala? Barriss wasn't entirely sure. Her master surely trusted in her abilities to have Barriss thrown into hell. Luminara's faith in her student was not unfounded, for of the two hundred and twelve Jedi sent as part of the initial strike team, Barriss was one of the thirty survivors. Despite the Jedi rescuers having the element of surprise, the Separatists had simply flooded the entire area with battle droids. Barriss and her comrades had been instantly cut off from each other, prevented from making use of their Force powers for fear of hitting their allies in the frenzied melee. It had seemed like a mindless charge at the time, but the droids knew exactly what they were doing. The Jedi could have held their position and stopped the droids at key choke points into the execution area, but they had destroyed that advantage immediately. More than anything that bloody, death-filled skirmish was a microcosm of the war up to this point. The rush of metallic beings against creatures of flesh and bone. Wisdom and good works and an understanding of the Force seemed to mean very little anymore in an age ruled by the blaster. Barriss dreamt of Geonosis many times. Not all times did she survive the ordeal.
Offee tried to get out of her own head. She couldn't let this planet win. She kept her eyes open for any sign of that terentatek. Where was she? Barriss was aware that she could get lost down her under the surface of Korriban for a very long time. She closed her eyes and relaxed her muscles as best she could, until the humming of her own lightsaber was drowned out by the peace of her meditation. Then… she sniffed. Barriss opened her eyes and turned to the entrance of a new tunnel. That was the way to go. The air wasn't as stale coming from that direction, and it was moving, implying wind and the outside.
As she progressed town the tunnel, Barriss could find herself feeling warmer. There was humidity in the air. Barren dirt and rocks had been replaced by luminescent mosses and mushrooms. It was long before the tunnel emptied her out in sun of cloudy, yellow sky. Odd plants and fungi were everywhere. This was not like what she had seen of Korriban earlier, but she supposed something had to have been supplying the planet with sustainable levels of oxygen. Suddenly she saw clone troopers, but they not affiliated with the 187th or 189th Legions she had arrived with.
"Commander! Over here!" a clone waved her on. "The droids are advancing! Commanders Zonder and Ekria need your help!"
Barriss couldn't immediately place the names but that didn't matter right now. Apparently both the Republic and the Confederacy were able to get reinforcements to Korriban. As she followed the clones, she could already hear sounds of blaster fire in the distance.
Barriss could make them out in the distance, B1 and B2 battle droids. Nothing out of the ordinary there. She pulled ahead of the clone troopers but kept her wits about her, watching for any tricks or traps. And naturally, there was one. A simple trick, to be sure, but at the droids had come up with something. A powerful blaster bolt whizzed her way, and in the distance Barriss could make out large red eyes. A dwarf spider droid was operating as a sniper. She closed in on the B1s and B2s faster, the closer she was to them, the harder it would be for the sniper. Turn the droids' own tactics against them.
She started tearing into the first of the droids with her lightsaber and the spider droid in the distance seemed to have its attention to the AT-TEs that were lumbering forward. Good, one less immediate problem to deal with. She'd get to the dwarf spider droid eventually if the walkers didn't get it first. She could faintly hear the clones yelling behind her but couldn't make out the words. Had the battle taken a turn for the worse without her noticing? An answer screamed in her head. They had been flanked.
Barriss slid past the barrel of an E-5 and just barely allowed herself to look back to see what was going on. The AT-TE's turrets were pointed directly at her! Barriss threw herself back with all of her strength right as the walker fired. But it wasn't enough, she was caught in the blast and her body burned as she crashed into the soft, mossy ground. Her body was fire and pain, she didn't know where her lightsaber went. The surviving battle droids ignored her and focused on the approaching clones. She could barely think but Barriss knew that the walker had targeted her. Barriss mustered enough strength to look over and saw the walker, it fired again, and this time she was caught full on in the blast.
All of existence turned a white-hot blue heat that enveloped her very soul. Then the intensity was suddenly sucked away as if a cleaning droid had just crossed the floor and wiped away all the grim that was an explosive dead. The illusory azure flare receded from her and turned to orange. Barriss found herself not on the odd fungal landscape but instead inside the main hangar bay of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She couldn't be here; this couldn't be real. The explosion had strewn bits of and pieces of Jedi, clone troopers, hangar crewman and ships all over the place. Barriss felt an intense panic rise up in her heart as she couldn't shake the feeling that this attack on the Jedi Temple was her fault.
Her mind was frantic trying to discern why in the galaxy would she do such a thing, but the answer came crashing down on her like a rancor sitting on a bantha. The AT-TE had blown her up. The Republic had betrayed her, and she wanted revenge. Revenge was not the way of the Jedi. This was not who Barriss Offee was. No one who knew her could possibly think she would do such a thing. Or could she? Did she even know herself? The suffering she could feel swirling around the Temple hangar felt just, felt fair. Why wouldn't it be? Why should those hidden away on Coruscant be exempt from the anguish the rest of the galaxy was feeling? They were complicit in it, after all.
Barriss felt a presence behind her. She snapped her lightsabers to life and whirled around just in time to parry a bright blue blade that was coming for her head. It was Anakin Skywalker. Somehow, Skywalker knew, he had caught her in her dramatic act of vengeance and was prepared to throw it right back in her face. She wanted revenge for the walker attack and he wanted revenge for the Temple bombing, an endless cycle.
"Funny, those belong to Ventress," Skywalker sneered.
What was he talking about? But then, Barriss realized that she was not holding her own lightsaber, but both of Asajj's.
Barriss found herself knocking Skywalker's lightsaber back and following up with her own series of slashes. She wasn't going to just roll over and die. She had already done that once now.
"You should have gotten rid of them!"
"I think they suit me." What did Barriss just say?
Skywalker kicked Barriss squarely in the stomach and sent her sprawling backwards. It hurt, but not as much as a lightsaber would have.
She was seeing spots and her stomach hurt, but the stomach pains weren't from the kick. She had given herself over to the dark side. To kill in the heat of battle was one thing, to kill in self-defense for survival was a harsh reality for a Jedi to face. But bombing non-combatants. That was something else entirely. It was sick, twisted and corrupt. The path of anger, hate and suffering—the path of the dark side.
Scrambling to her feet Barriss found that she was no longer in the Temple hangar. She looked around, the blue sky was polluted with Confederate and Republic aircraft and capital ships. The open plain was an odd mixture of black and gray dirt that patterned in messy waves dotted by a few twisted, leafless trees. There was a massive city in the distance but the architecture was not familiar. She had no idea what world she was on, Skywalker had kicked her into a whole other dream. Not that it mattered. Hundreds of thousands of Confederate and Republican troops and vehicles marched towards each other. At least two dozen different sentient species were marching alongside the clone and the droids. The pandemic of revenge had swept across the entire galaxy, consuming all in a bitter hatred. Long range artillery opened fire. The sounds were deafening. For some reason, the marching felt louder than the canon fire.
"General Offee!"
Barriss turned to see Commander Bly jogging up to her. Or what looked to be Commander Bly. She could recognize the colors of the 327th Star Corps but the armor was slightly different. General? She has a full-fledged Jedi Knight now?
"Yes, Commander?"
"We need to push forward."
Barriss paused. She had been through this before on Korriban. No, not Korriban, but whatever that place with the fungal forest was. If she advanced again, Barriss was sure there'd be blaster fire coming from behind her. So, she chose to do nothing. The rhythm of the marching of the armies seemed to slow, as if it were the beating of the galaxy's dying heart; the anger and malice swirled in the air was the cancer that was killing it.
Commander Bly looked at her for a split second and continued on, only to be put down by a red blaster bolt a few seconds later. More Republic troops were marching up to take his place. This time it was the clones Barriss was with on Korriban, Commanders Black and Krane. Anakin Skywalker was with them, as well as a Jedi Temple Guard. Something was wrong though; the Guard's lightsaber was red. Barriss also noticed that Skywalker was glaring daggers at her. Did he somehow remember the Temple explosion or was he angry about her inaction during the battle here?
Barriss turned to her left to see the approaching Confederates. Battle droids, naturally. But for some reason Barriss could pick out the soldiers she had fought against on the planet Ockramoma. She remembered that axe-wielding guy in armor for sure. But there were others amongst the Separatist ranks. Jedi, there were Jedi in the ranks of the droid army. Aubrie Wyn, Zule Xiss, Naat Reath and a fourth that Barriss couldn't immediately recognize. This was impossible. Aubrie Wyn and Zule Xiss had died on Jabiim. Naat Reath was still alive so far as Barriss knew. The fourth was a young, short human woman with dark hair and blue eyes. She looked so familiar, she had to have been from the Temple, but Barriss couldn't place a name to the face. The larger question was why they were marching alongside the droid army.
The air was thick with anger and death. It was choking Barriss to the point where she had to gag. It was as if someone was using a knife to slice huge, oozing wounds into the very fabric of the universe itself, leaving the soldiers on the battlefield to wade through the muck of the dark side as they continued to go after each other with a singular determination. Death, despair and the rotting suffering of the living seemed to be swirling around, funneled into some unknown primordial abyss that was feeding off of it yet never satisfied. All of this death, what was she to do in the face of such evil?
The two opposing sides advanced closer and closer but did not fire their weapons. Instead, they took to yelling at each other, but their speech was so warbled under military comms that Barriss couldn't make out any specific words. She saw Skywalker whisper something to the Temple Guard with the red lightsaber, who nodded. He then turned to Black and Krane and whispered something to them. The two clone commanders drew up their weapons at Barriss and started to approach. There was no question that Skywalker told them about the Temple.
Barriss turned towards the Confederates. The one Jedi she didn't recognize was looking at her. But not out of anger; was it… empathy? Did she understand? The growing scope of the war and it's crushing weight on all lifeforms in the galaxy. The feeling of helplessness? What could one person possibly do in a galaxy of trillions?
The vitriolic chatter of the others cut down to static as the human girl approached, her blue eyes piercing through the unctuous smog of the battle. Barriss turned back to Black and Krane, who looked ready to gun her down at any minute.
The other Jedi had reached Barriss and held out her hand.
"Come with me if you want to live."
Barriss considered for a second. Fighting for the Republic hadn't worked. Neither had fighting against it. They refused to let her do nothing. Was there another path she wasn't seeing?
Barriss made her choice. She reached out to grab the other girl's hand—and found herself pushed down to the ground by the open palm of the terentatek. Her vision had been crushed by the weight of reality.
The terentatek growled and squeezed her hard. The pressure on Barriss' ribs exploded under the force of the creature's grip. She couldn't focus, everything was clouded by pain. Just as death-induced panic was able to set in, there was an intense flash of light and the terentatek's grip slackened. Barriss' eyes were able to focus enough to see that Alec that stabbed the creature through the mouth right to its brain, delivering a swift killing blow devoid of any showmanship.
"Are you alright?" Alec asked as he moved the large corpse away with the Force.
"Yeah." Barriss struggled to get up.
"Come." Alec grabbed Barriss' lightsaber off the ground and handed it to her. "Let us take our leave. There are worse things than terentateks in the deep places of Korriban. Let's see if we can catch up to our new droid friends."
Barriss blinked away the fog her vision had left her under. She wasn't sure what it meant. But it was something to think upon another time. Alec was right, it was time to leave.
The deck of the shuttle was a slick mess of ebony gore. Armed with a fusion cutter and his Force affinity, Dr. Destroyer was finally able to stabilize Veronica Vex. Dr. Quartz had opted to try his hand at repairing HK-47.
The Sheathipede shuttle exited hyperspace and the Force-sensitive Ithorian jerked out of his faux respite. He knew they had arrived; he could feel it. The aura emanating from this world was several times more potent and horrible than anything Destroyer had felt on Korriban.
"Do you have an idea of where to go?" SSA-719 asked Dr. Destroyer. "I'd rather we not have to scan the entire planet."
"I have a feeling that wouldn't work anyway," the Ithorian said as the brown shuttle passed by a large debris field before descending down into the planet's atmosphere.
"We don't even know what we're looking for," Sledge added solemnly.
The unknown world proved to be a tropical one. The surface was covered by beautiful blue oceans dotted with tropical islands and archipelagos. Scanners picked up the wreckages of millennia-old starship wrecks.
"What in the galaxy happened here?" Sledge asked. "There's so many different ship designs. Look to be old ones, too. I don't really recognize any of them. Some of them look Corellian, I guess."
"There," OOM-9 pointed. "Let's go down to that island with the wrecked Hammerhead-class cruiser."
"Same class of ship on Mustafar that HK-47 came from," SSA-719 noted.
"There's several lying around on Raxus Prime as well. Odd that we keep encountering this specific model," OOM-9 said.
The Sheathipede shuttle touched down on a grassy plane just out of reach of the beach's sand. E-5 at the ready, SSA-719 was the first off the shuttle. His scanned his surroundings and found nothing, just a gentle ocean breeze battering the old starship ruins. The wrecked Hammerhead-class cruiser looked like it had been baking under the rays of the sun and battered by storms for thousands of years. Scattered chips of orange paint could barely be seen on the hull while algae grew on the parts of the ship that kissed the water. It took out as a marker of a long-lost conflict to which they were retracing the steps to whatever conclusion awaited them.
"Clear." SSA-719 signaled to the others.
OOM-9 was next, followed by Sledge and then the two scientists.
"You have anything for us, super doc?" Sledge asked as she shielded her eyes from the sun's rays.
"Something happened on this island. Something important," Destroyer answered.
"Probably meaning that it's connected to the Star Forge," Sledge said. "As long as this thing isn't in the ocean like that star map on Manaan was, I'll be fine. Or if there's nothing here, we could always just claim this place as our own and turn this into a vacation planet."
Dr. Quartz looked over at the human.
"What? Better than nothing if all this goes south."
"I dread to think we've wasted this much effort," the Skakoan grumbled.
"We'll fan out to cover more ground," OOM-9 said. "SSA-719 with me. Sledge, you go with Dr. Destroyer. Dr. Quartz, you stay with HK-47 and Vex. Get a message to our forces at Dantooine."
"Fine by me," Quartz nodded.
"Move out," OOM-9 ordered.
OOM-9 and SSA-719 took off in a separate direction from Sledge and Destroyer.
"You want to be back on Manaan," SSA-719 said matter-of-factly when they were out of earshot of the others.
"Yes. Large scale ground battles are more my preference. They're so much fun. And the troops need us."
"True. But they will perform acceptably," the security droid replied.
"The Hollow Shell hosts more organics than any of our other ships. They will not be as easy to repair after the battle, if at all."
"Such losses are a reality of battle. We're simply accustomed to an organic officer class. What troops we lose can be replaced."
"It's not so simple with organics, Captain."
"It is of no concern of ours. They are not conscripts. They chose to fight. And they chose to apply for the 8th Fleet. They must be integrated as part of the strength that we wield."
"That is one issue that weighs on my mind. They come from different places. I can trust them if they came from a reliable source such as the Zalost Confederation or the Gothic Pentarchy but we don't have a standardized measurement of military proficiency."
"You're attached to them. More than before. Organics are mortal. Zako, Katen, Sledge, Vex. Our ties to them will sever when they finally pass. They cannot live forever. What will the organics mean to us when those precious few that matter have gone?"
"We will have to do the best we can. Perhaps others will be able to prove themselves," OOM-9 said.
A gizka hopped out from the tall grass and croaked at them.
"How curious it is not afraid of us," SSA-719 tiled his head.
"Perhaps it has no reason to." OOM-9 bent down and rubbed the small reptile behind its frill. It cooed in response.
SSA-719's rifle suddenly snapped up. "Hey, you! Freeze!"
A bipedal alien had come out from a cluster of large rock outcroppings. The amphibian-like humanoid had a tall cranium with eyes that protruded on short stalks on each side. Its three-digit hands gripped a spear. It spoke in a language the battle droids could not understand.
"Basic, savage, do you speak it?!" SSA-719 yelled at the alien.
The alien let loose what was clearly a war cry. Seconds later several more of the planet's primitive natives emerged from the collection of boulders and began their charge.
The two battle droids opened fire, missing every shot. The aliens drew nearer. Their poor performance had been wirelessly agreed upon, in order to draw the primitives out and not only expose themselves but reveal their true numbers. It had worked, there were at least ten of them that they could see at the moment. Just as the first alien was a few steps from them, OOM-9 and SSA-719 effortlessly shot him, toppling him backwards into the white sand. They then let loose an accurate flurry of red bolts that cut down the next seven targets in mere seconds. The final two primitive warriors stopped and turned around to flee. SSA-719 managed to blast the closer one in the back but the final alien made to back to the rocks. The two battle droids broke into a run after him, well aware that if he got away, he would bring reinforcements.
Major Ashley Katen looked like an absolute mess by the time she reached the bridge of the Hollow Shell. Captain Cecily Krull was unsure why the major was holding a small kitten.
"Good to see you've made it, Major. I have a task for you."
"Sorry, Captain. I'm exhausted and no good to anyone right now."
"Yes, understandable. If you could manage bridge security here, I'd appreciate it." Krull turned to her OOM command battle droid. "The ship is yours, Commander. I'm going down to negotiate with the Selkath. Tell the network to get me two guards, a protocol droid and as much footage of the battle as it can. Focus footage on the Republic's plot to blow up the city and any other incidental civilian damage they caused."
"Roger roger. It will be ready by the time you reach the shuttle."
Cecily ended up with two K4 security droids and a TC protocol droid accompanying her. The TC was no surprise, it was the only model of protocol droid the Hollow Shell had aboard that she was aware of. The two K4 security droids were a bit rarer. They were produced by Rim Securities, a manufacturer based in the Portmoak sector. The K4 variant sold to the Hyper-Communications Cartel was coated in glossy black armor with red photoreceptors, and was the Cartel's lackluster contribution to the Confederacy's droid armies. That the 8th Fleet had any of the droids at all was due to the fact that Rim Securities did have a factory in the Zalost Confederation. And that Cecily was using two of them as guards now only showed that all the more common battle droids had been used in the battle for Ahto City.
Once Cecily touched down in the city, it wasn't long before she was ushered to the city's leadership, quickly joined by the planetary leadership. The protocol droid was having quite a challenging time translating for so many angry Selkath. Even without the droid, the Scorpanid could understand the angry intonation in the gurgling foreign language.
The Selkath leadership was furious. Cecily almost didn't need the footage from the network, because the Selkath had pulled more than enough of their own from the city's security cameras. The Republic had a lot to answer for and trying to reconcile with the Selkath was going far smoother than Cecily had expected. Even just as a military captain she was having an easy time. If they could get a real diplomat over here, they might even be able to convince Manaan to join the Confederacy.
A Kappa-class shuttle bathed in the purple markings of the 187th Legion cut through the upper stratosphere of the unknown tropical world. The long-forgotten, primitive world made scanning for active technology an easy affair, and the Republic shuttle was zeroing in on its prey. The shuttle was carrying its full complement: two crew, two gunners, forty soldiers and two AT-PTs. The infantry was split between clone troopers and L8-L9 battle droids. The shuttle belonged to the 187th Legion, but its contents were split equally between the two. They all wanted revenge for the Battle of Manaan.
"Keep it low," Commander Krane told the pilot.
"I go any lower and we'll be in the water."
"Won't that Ithorian sense us anyway?" Mr. Purple asked.
"Not if he's preoccupied with whatever they're searching for," Commander Black said. "If I've learned anything about the Jedi, it is that they are not invincible. The Ithorian is no different. We will have to be quick though."
"Right," Krane agreed. "We'll come in quiet if we can."
"And if we can't?" a trooper in the back, Roger, asked.
"Then move fast. Don't hunker down in cover. Get in their faces. Keep their attention on you and away from the AT-PTs and the droids. Our mechanized units might be our only hope against the Ithorian."
The troopers of the 187th and the 189th trumpeted off their acknowledgments.
"Commanders, we have a call coming in," the pilot alerted his superiors. "Generals Jakoby and Alec has arrived."
Dr. Gatling Quartz had set up a flimsy deployable table on the beach to use as a makeshift workbench as he tinkered with HK-47 as he could no longer stomach the gory interior of the ship. Despite the droid's protests, Quartz was not going to work on him while the droid was standing. The half-dead Vex had been dragged to the shuttle's ramp to give her some fresh air, and so Quartz could keep an easier eye on her in case her precipitously stable suddenly took a turn for the worse.
There was an audible click as Dr. Quartz worked. The true intention for Quartz insisting that HK-47 lie down had been revealed.
"Query: Do you not trust me, Dr. Quartz?"
"Of course I don't. The other one turned on us when his true programming was restored. I'm not going to take that risk with you."
There was much back and forth between the two as Quartz was not entirely compliant with HK-47's repair instructions. Quartz became lost in the repair work, gone were the worries of the Star Forge and this unknown world they had landed on, of the hunger and exhaustion he felt. He didn't even check in with the scouting teams. The Skakoan's labors were soon to be rewarded where others had failed.
"…and now re-wire the last three relays… yes, good. Well done, Doctor. I believe your operation was a success. Accessing new memory files."
"Finally, some results. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."
"Access complete: I have recovered relevant information regarding this planet and the Star Forge, Doctor."
"What is it?!" Quartz beamed.
"Explanation: This planet is Lehon of the Lehon system, home of the Rakata, located in the Tempered Wastes of the Unknown Regions."
"We know we're in the Unknown Regions! I don't care about the local savages! What about the Star Forge?" Quartz snapped.
"Continued Explanation: The Star Forge is a giant automated factory constructed by the Rakatan Infinite Empire at least five thousand years before the rise of the Galactic Republic. This factory draws energy from this system's star and when combined with the Force, is able to create ships, droids and other materials on a massive scale."
"A factory powered by the Force? So, the merger of technology and that mystical energy field is possible… Where is it?"
"Answer: The wreckage of the Star Forge is in orbit around Lehon. The Star Forge was destroyed approximately 3,934 years ago at the conclusion of the Jedi Civil War."
"What?! We've been chasing something that's been destroyed for thousands of years?!"
"How unfortunate." The visage of G0-T0 suddenly appeared before Dr. Quartz as the droid deactivated his cloaking system and deployed his retractable blaster cannons.
"Hands up!" Mr. Purple shouted as he and Commander Krane emerged from some tall fern-like plants.
The Skakoan slowly raised his hands in surrender.
"Did you know about this?" Krane demanded of G0-T0.
"I have been honest with you upon the discovery of my core function, Commander. Parts of my memory banks have suffered irreparable repair. I did not know what the Star Forge was or its current status."
"Perfect," Mr. Purple grumbled. "What a waste of time."
"You're telling m-m-me." Quartz's suit suffered from a mechanical hiccup that he had to address, spooking the clones.
"Watch it, tin can," Mr. Purple warned as he watched the Skakoan fiddle with his suit.
"Shoot me and I may explosively decompress. But you won't do that. I'm too valuable alive."
"Brave of you to assume so much," Purple said with contempt in his voice.
"I'm sure that traitor has already told you everything he knows." Dr. Quartz looked over at G0-T0. "And that you've already looked up any files the Republic has on me. You know who I am and you know what I can do. It's a waste of a valuable resource to kill me or send me to rot again in a prison for the rest of my life."
"Smart man," Krane said. "But don't get ahead of yourself, Doctor. You may be allowed to design weapons for the Republic, if you don't cause us any trouble."
"Statement: If only my servomotors hadn't been disabled, I would have been able to kill those meatbags for you, Doctor."
"Shut up, HK," Quartz hissed in his mask. "Hindsight is 20/20."
"What about the redhead? She's not smart. We don't need her," Mr. Purple turned his attention to the barely breathing form of Veronica Vex.
"Oh, you are mistaken, clone. You want her alive," Quartz said in a condescending tone as if he were addressing a child.
"You're sticking your neck out for that thing?" Krane asked.
"She's worth more to you alive than dead," Dr. Quartz said.
"Doesn't look like much of it is still alive," Purple murmured.
Quartz ignored the annoying clone's comment and continued. "She's several decades worth of technology ahead of anything the Republic has. I didn't design her, but I can help your scientists to understand her." Dr. Quartz was lying through his metal mask, he had no intention of every assisting the Republic, even under duress. But it was a believable lie nonetheless.
"The Skakoan, Dr. Quartz is trying to prolong her life and stall us until the other Separatists can rescue them," G0-T0 stated. His cannons were locked onto the Skakoan scientist.
"You implying we should kill them both and be done with it?" Mr. Purple asked. "I can work with that."
"No. He is stalling, but what the doctor says is true. I haven't had the time or the access to review the Republic's current capabilities in this subject, but my estimate based on my observations so far lead me to believe this is indeed the case. The Republic could make great strides in cybernetics by studying Veronica Vex alive," G0-T0 said.
"Maybe." Purple shrugged, then leveled his blaster at Quartz. "But these Seppies have a habit of escaping. And they're good at what they do. They're too dangerous to be left alive."
"No." Krane forcibly lowered Purple's blaster by the barrel. "The droid is right. We outnumber them and we have their shuttle. There's no escape for them this time. Purple, Go get reinforcements."
"Yes, sir." Purple left to get some of the others.
"Prudent of you," Quartz commented.
"There are reasons why I'm commander of the 187th Legion and Mr. Purple keeps getting demoted back to private."
"Fascinating that clones of the same man operate so differently," Quartz said offhandedly.
"Quiet, tin man. You're one to talk. I've yet to see a Skakoan that doesn't work for the Techno Union."
Dr. Quartz did as he was told. There was a long, pregnant silence as both parties stood around. Quartz waited patiently for an opening. There was no chance the barrels of his wrist gatling gauntlet could extend fast enough to allow him to get off a shot on the clone and G0-T0, but he might be able to hit them with his wrist rockets. That was, if Krane and G0-T0 would ever take their eyes off him.
"What is taking them so long?" Krane asked rhetorically.
"The L8-L9s report that they have engaged the enemy," Not picking up on the subtleties of the clone's intonation, G0-T0 had gone ahead and checked Republic droids' wireless network.
"Can you fly that shuttle?" Krane asked G0-T0.
"Negative."
"I don't trust you to fly us," Krane waved his blaster at Dr. Quartz. "C'mon, we'll go on foot. We're going to use you as a hostage, my dear Doctor."
"And the others?"
"They're not going anywhere and neither is that shuttle. Now, get moving unless you want a blaster bolt in that pressurized skull of yours."
Quartz thought the clone mad if he assumed that hostages would work on battle droids but did as he was told.
Sledge took cover behind a waist-high bolder as blue blaster bolts whizzed her way. A small horde of clones and Republic droids was advancing on her from across the grassy plain, too many to count. They had her pinned down to the point where she counted even return fire, not that it was even possible for her to gun down so many squads of enemies with just her pistol.
"OOM-9, SSA-719, HK-47, Quartz, where are you guys?! Come in! I'm pinned down and we have multiple Jedi here."
"Hey, Krane wants reinforcements. He has the Skakoan and their shuttle. The red assassin droid and the redheaded cyborg are out of commission," Mr. Purple informed the others.
That explains a few things, Sledge sighed internally. Things were looking grim. Surrender seemed the only possible option, if the trigger-happy clones would even allow her to surrender.
"Get those droids over here to help with the Ithorian!" Ace, the leader of the clone commandos, barked.
"No! No," Commander Black countered the instructions to the automations. "Let the Jedi handle the Force-user. Focus on the others. We only have eyes on one officer. We don't know where their droids are!"
It wasn't just the clones that were arguing with each other on how to conduct the battle. Alec and Jakoby had a spirited and open debate on whether Barriss Offee should be helping them or helping the clones. Alec felt it best for Offee assist against Dr. Destroyer while Jakoby was adamant that she stay out of the way.
"So, the two Jedi don't see eye-to-eye, what good news," Destroyer said. Despite both Alec and Jakoby both being incredibly dangerous combatants, they were out of balance with each other and with the Force, and Destroyer found himself being able to fend off both at once while Barriss hung back.
It was this sad display that Krane and G0-T0 had brought Dr. Quartz to. The 187th commander chuckled to himself. "Well, we brought a hostage to end this pointless battle."
"Taking them all alive will yield the greatest information extraction. Just be sure to completely isolate them once they're captured. Their strength comes from their ability to operate as an effective fireteam," G0-T0 said.
"Alight, move it!" Krane shoved the Skakoan scientist forward.
Both the clone and the Skakoan swore they felt the ground tremble as they started to walk.
"Lay down your weapons and surrender, or I blast the Skakoan," Krane hollered.
Captain Sledge merely laughed from behind her stone. "A hostage only works if your enemy care if he lives or dies." The fighting Force-sensitives ignored the newcomers altogether.
"Screw you, Captain!" Dr. Quartz yelled back.
"I've got something for that traitor though!" With as much focus, speed and grace as Sledge had ever mustered in her life, she popped up over the rock and took a shot at G0-T0. The blaster bolt hit right below the droid's red photoreceptor and knocked him off his balance for a second. Quartz instantly shoved his elbow into Krane. As the clone staggered, Quartz backhanded him with his gauntlet, hit G0-T0 with a wrist rocket, and broke into a sprint towards Sledge. He cursed that miserable human woman for putting him in this situation.
"Masters, we have incoming!" Barriss Offee yelled at the top of her lungs. The Jedi Padawan had sensed what the distracted Masters had not.
"Artillery fire incoming from the north-northeast," one of the L8-L9 droids said.
The rumbling of the soft ground had not been in their heads. At least five adult rancors could be seen in the distance.
"You've got to be kidding me…" Sergeant Shock said.
"Whoo!" Private Coal cheered. "Yeah, baby! This is where the fun begins!"
OOM-9 and SSA-719 burst forth from the maze of rocks in the direction of the approaching natives.
"Approaching native army. Five adult rancors and eight juveniles. Massive amount of infantry wielding spears, swords, bows and crossbows. They also have an unknown number of catapults. You may want to adjust to changing battlefield conditions, Commander!" OOM-9 shouted at Black.
Three large boulders came careening down at them like meteors. Jakoby and Alec each gripped one with the Force, while Destroyer and Offee worked together to control the third. The Force-sensitives then hurled the large rocks right back where they came from.
"They have catapults," Sergeant Shock repeated.
Alien war cries resounded as spearmen charged and bowmen attacked from a distance.
"Acquire new targets!" Commander Black ordered. "Fire at will!"
The first lines of the aliens fell to pieces under pressure from superior technology. OOM-9 and SSA-719 fought themselves fighting alongside the clone troopers and Republic battle droids.
"Walkers, hit the rancor riders!" Black yelled into the comm. The AT-PTs opened up on a flurry of rapid fire that did little to the rancors themselves, but the alien riders atop them were easy enough to kill. Unfortunately, even without their sentient masters to direct their behavior, the huge animals still knew who their enemies were and knew what to do.
"C'mon," Alec waved Barriss on as Jakoby and Destroyer were already charging down on a group of the juvenile rancors.
Private Coal let loose a rocket and nailed the lead rancor in its right eye, causing it to thrash around and collide with the rancor on its right.
"Venators, this is Ground Team. We have a hostile native army with rancor mounts. Request immediate air support now," Black said into the comms.
"We read you, Ground Team. Y-wings en route to your location."
Commander Krane looked up, groggy from the blows he had received. Had the Skakoan given him brain damage? He saw the two battle droids, the Skakoan, the Ithorian and the CIS officer all fighting alongside the clones, L8-L9 combat droids, and AT-PTs. No truce had been called between the two factions but there was a temporary unspoken bond of comradery in fending off a mutual, numerically superior enemy. Krane saw that even G0-T0 had joined in on the fight against the natives.
"This is not how I thought this day was gonna go." Krane grabbed his blaster out of the sand and jogged up to join his troops.
The Republican soldiers started to back up and spread apart as the enemy gained around, but made sure to stay in front of the AT-PTs to give them as much supporting fire as they could.
"Get the shuttles over here!" Krane barked. "The Star Forge is long gone. We've been chasing a ghost."
"You sure?" Black asked.
"There's nothing here! We gotta go!"
"I wouldn't say that, Krane," Purple yelled over the endless stream of AT-PT cannon fire. "There's a ton of rancors. How about we have ourselves a rancor roundup and train a few new war beasts to use against the Seppies?"
"By all means, Mr. Purple, you are free to try," Krane shot back. "But I was thinking that I want to live past today!"
The enemy bows hadn't been much of a threat but a couple of the crossbowmen managed to injure a few clones.
"Get the wounded, we'll cover you!" Sergeant Shock told half of his squad.
OOM-9 and SSA-719 had been wirelessly conversing the whole time, waiting for the most opportune moment. Now was the time, when the clones were most distracted. The two battle droids turned and ran. Sledge and Quartz had been keeping their eyes on them, waiting for such a signal, and followed with much haste. Dr. Destroyer was much slower to disengage from the fight but his Force-induced speed caught him up to the others quickly.
G0-T0 was the only Republican to take notice.
"The Separatists are trying to flee." The large spherical droid opened fire. SSA-719 half-turned and put a single blaster bolt into G0-T0's black armor plating. It didn't put G0-T0 down, but the hit threw his aim off enough.
The Confederates ran for their shuttle while overhead the Kappa-class shuttle, Jakoby's Nu-class attack shuttle and Alec's and Offee's Jedi starfighters soared overhead to rescue the Republicans.
All the while, three Venator star destroyers hung in orbit over the unknown world, the Droid Collector, Violet Kinrath and Onyx Rancor.
"This 'Star Forge' device the Separatists are looking for, it's gone! It doesn't exist anymore. Do you read me? We're fighting over nothing!" Obi-wan Jakoby's voice sounded exhausted and full of frustration, even over the comm.
"Are you sure, General?" Captain Klo Toon asked.
"That's what Commander Krane claims the red assassin droid said when the Skakoan fixed it up. The Star Forge was destroyed in a war thousands of years ago."
Toon shook his head. This sounded like a Separatist lie to him. But if the Jedi believed it, perhaps it was true. Their intuition was otherworldly.
"Captain," a crewman interrupted the conversation.
Klo Toon looked over at the viewports. Several Lucrehulk battleships, Munificent star frigates and Recusant light destroyers had dropped out of hyperspace.
Half of the 8th Fleet reinforcements had departed from Dantooine and finally arrived at the mysterious tropical planet.
The blue shields of the Venators quaked at the barrage of crimson laser fire.
"That fleet is too large. We need to fall back," Toon said as he looked at the holograms of the other captains. "We need to put on a show to try and buy the two Jedi starfighters time to dock with their hyperspace rings. The shuttles and Y-wings can make it on their own. We don't have time to pick them up."
There were no complaints with the Kel Dor's plan. The trio of Venators was just slow enough that Alec and Barriss were able to reacquire their hyperspace rings and flee under their own power at the cost of the Venators nearly losing their shields entirely.
The battle on Dantooine had been won in the name of the Confederacy. Unfortunately for EEK-176, the Jedi Sia-Lan Wezz and a couple of Dreadnaught-class heavy cruisers had managed to escape. The other unfortunate thing was that Wezz had cut EEK-176 in half at his waist, leaving him as a torso that needed to be carried around until he was put back together.
The grapple droid GD-80 held EEK-176 out in front of him as a pair of B1 battle droids brought a Republic survive to the commander. EEK-176 looked the scared human up and down.
"Answer my questions truthfully and I will remand you to the care of the Dantooine militia forces. What is your name and rank, soldier?" The human winced at EEK-176's heavy droid accent.
"P-private Ander Holdo, sir," the human stuttered out his words while avoiding looking at EEK-176's face. Seeing an enemy officer cut in half and held up by a subordinate could have been considered comical, from what EEK-176 understood, but the human was simply terrified instead. This was no Jedi or clone. This was someone who had a life beyond combat.
"Where are you from, Private Holdo?"
"Gatalenta, s-sir. In the Core Worlds."
"Gatalenta? You're a long way from home, Private. What brought you all the way out here?"
"We were just supposed to be a defense army. We weren't supposed to be here, but we got called in to help with the battle here. T-that's all I k-know."
"I understood as much. But what brings you out here, Private?"
"M-me, sir?"
"Yes, you, Holdo."
"It was boring at home. I wanted to g-go out and see the galaxy."
"Boring? Do you have a family?"
"I have my parents and sisters."
"No mate or offspring?"
"N-no, sir. I thought I might f-find someone offworld."
"By joining the military during a war?" EEK-176 asked. The thought processes of humans could indeed be odd. Even being around them for so many years, humans could still manage to surprise EEK-176.
"T-this is nothing like w-what the recruiters said it would be like!" the human blurted. "They said we'd just tour the galaxy and see new things as defense army soldiers for planets that didn't have their o-own military. They told us the clones did all the fighting!"
"Where were you trained?"
"The Academy a-at Carida. There's no academy on my homeworld."
EEK-176 had heard of this world and the network provided him with more information. Carida was a member of the Republic Defense Academy and was a staunch supporter of the Republic's Military Creation Act, no doubt hoping to regain its lost prestige and wealth. This soldier was proof they were training non-clone soldiers to supplement the Kaminoan clone troopers and had been doing so for some time already.
"How long was your training?" EEK-176 asked, interested in finding out just how quickly the Republic was churning out these non-clone recruits.
"S-seven weeks. P-please, let me go home. I didn't know the rest of the galaxy was like this. I won't ever bother the Confederacy, I promise! They have every right to leave the Republic if they want."
The network informed EEK-176 that seven weeks was indeed an acceptable amount of time to train a human for military service. From this EEK-176 assumed that the Republic Defense Academy was trying to create soldiers as quickly as possible without sacrificing competence. To some degree the Republican Senate must have been self-aware of the issue of numbers when it came to the clone troopers and battle droids.
"I believe you have been honest with your answers, Private. As promised, I will remand you to the Dantooine militia. They will take care of you."
"Thank you, thank you." Relief was painted all over Holdo's face at the prospect of being put in the care of other humans. Little did he know that should have terrified him. After losing so many of their own people in the fighting, the militia of Dantooine was in a vengeful mood and weren't following the rules of war. The militia fed Private Ander Holdo to their sickle-back mantis mounts. EEK-176 could hear the pained screams of the Gatalentan as he was torn apart and eaten but felt no remorse. The battle droid had honored his part of the agreement.
What was troubling was that the Republic was churning out alternatives to clone troopers within a relatively short time span. The population of the Republic far outnumbered that of the Confederacy. EEK-176 knew they might lose their numerical advantage in battles if the issue of non-clone troops wasn't addressed. The databanks within the network informed EEK-176 that Carida had been defeated by the all-droid D-1600 fleet under the command of Admiral OOM-88 and General OOM-99, two OOM command droids that had been promoted earlier in the war following OOM-9's success, in order to be observed how they would perform compared to the newer T-series tactical droids. The D-1600 fleet had a long string of successes on par with the 8th Fleet, yet had to strategically withdraw as they did not have the numbers to hold the planet for an extended period of time. The retreat had come on the heels of the Republic planets Axum and Anaxes sending military forces to Carida. And now Carida was spitting out recruits found at battle sites. The Jedi Order and the clone army were bad enough, if this trio of planets were starting to mobilize there was going to be trouble in the future.
Author's Note: If you want to find out who the unnamed mystery Jedi is in Barriss' vision is, read the fanfiction A Single Decision (Take Two) by Timewatch. I've asked permission for this cameo ahead of time so it's all good.
I'm sure you're all aware that Lehon and the Rakata are from the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic video game.
The K4 security droid has made numerous appearances over the years, yet is one of the more obscure droids out there. They aren't specifically affiliated with the Hyper-Communications Cartel; this is just something I chose as a world building element. Since they are manufactured by Outer Rim company and the Hyper-Communications Cartel is all but ignored and forgotten about in Star Wars. It just made sense to me that one of the CIS mega corporations that doesn't have such a large, visible military, doesn't make as noticeable contributions to the droid army.
The D-1600 fleet is the Confederate fleet from Galactic Conquest mode of Pandemic's Star Wars: Battlefront II.