Hey everyone. I am glad you all are enjoying the story so far. I wanted to put this out there, if there is something you would like to see happen (or not happen), I'd love to hear it. In the mean time I give you part 1 of the opening battle. Enjoy and please review. I'd love to know what you liked and didn't like. However, most importantly sit back and enjoy.

So without further ado, I give you chapter 4.

To say things were moving fast was an understatement. Many country and state leaders found themselves cursing as it set in that this was a total planetary war. Evacuating a war zone ahead of time wasn't completely feasible. The closest they could do was an optional evacuation of major cities and strong encouragement that if you didn't have a job in one, you should stay out. Officers and guardsmen flooded major cities in the U.S. and some other countries to keep public unrest to a minimum. Rounding a corner and seeing a soldier or SWAT officer with an assault rifle slung around his neck was not unusual. Despite all of the preparation, nothing could prepare the people for judgement day.

(Central California: I-5 southbound)

Lieutenant Pierce shifted his weight on the seat as the helicopter followed close to the road. In the distance explosions could be heard as they flew into Sacramento. The night sky glowed orange. Looking out, he could see why. The entire city seemed to be coming apart as fires and explosions ripped through the city-scape. These were being accented by the streaks of light as tracer rounds and missiles from the Patriot missile batteries tried shooting down the offenders. To add the chaos was a roar as F-18s and Republic fighters joined the mix. Admiral Yularen had fought hard to defend the planet, but he was getting overwhelmed fast and the Separatists were capitalizing by turning their bombers on strategic areas. That was one of the reasons that the chopper pilot didn't dare go over a couple hundred feet in the air. A minute later the whole platoon landed in a large store parking lot. As the men flooded out of the black hawks, the Captain quickly called the Company's attention.

"Here's the deal. We get to hoof it to the South side of town. There we take position with the Republic's Torrent Company and settle in for the fight. Their still evacuating, so we need to give them all the time we can. Not to mention, as I'm sure you are all aware, this is one hell of a major cross roads. If they get this, things get a lot more interesting," the Captain yelled, "Any questions?"

"Alright, let's move out," he ordered, seeing no questions.

With that, the Company spread out and began running for the front. As they sprinted down the road, it all seemed surreal. It was like Pierce was watching a movie, not living it out. He seemed to catch every detail as buildings fell, or people yelled. In his time doing two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, and Syria respectively he had seen a city blown up like this once and that was it. More than once they were forced to climb through a building that had fallen across the road. The noise soon became deafening. However, Pierce simply managed to block it out. What he couldn't block out were the bodies. They were everywhere. The injuries varied but they were all just as gruesome. The one of the worst to him was a kid no more than fifteen that had been partially crushed by a concrete slab from a parking garage. Pierce could see where pieces of rebar had stabbed into his head granting a quick death. To add to all of this was the chaos of people still trying to desperately leave the city as death rained from the droids above.

Stopping a few blocks back the captain gave out orders.

"First platoon, you're with me up the middle. Mathews take second Platoon up the next street over. Pierce link up with Captain Rex at the plaza," he ordered, "Until further notice, you belong to him."

With a series of 'yes sir's they split off. Despite the fires, Pierce was forced to use his light to keep the shadows from messing with him. After what felt like forever, they came up on a surprisingly untouched four story building with a plaza facing a four way intersection behind it. Waiting for them was a clone in blue and white armor with a black pauldron.

"Name and division," he ordered.

"Lieutenant John Pierce, second platoon, Shadow Company. Army Rangers," he answered crisply.

"Captain Rex with Torrent Company. Republic Army," Rex introduced.

John had become familiar with the man and his reputation during his time in California. So listening to him was no problem.

"Alright, we're holed up at the moment until the bombing subsides. However, that doesn't mean we're wasting time," he explained as he lead them into the building, "Here's the deal. I need machine gunners across the street in those buildings. Sniper's take positions that will give you the widest field of fire as possible, beyond that just tell me where you land. The rest of you, form up on the line. Lieutenant Pierce, I trust you know how to deploy men?"

"Yes sir," John answered quickly.

"Good. Get ready. This hell is just beginning," Rex concluded.

The rain that had started earlier became a cold downpour as midnight arrived. Sitting in a half destroyed hotel across the street, John watched as an two Abrams and an AT TE showed up. Despite being unwieldy and full of obvious vulnerabilities, John had to admit the walkers were one hell of a sight. All throughout the night the ground was rocked as bombs came crashing down on the city.

(Coruscant: Senate district)

Chancellor Palpatine listened as the Jedi explained the operation to him.

"Thank you for informing me. I'm sure that we can complete this operation baring that it does not consume too many resources," he replied, concern painting his face.

"Our thanks," answered Yoda, "Fail we will not."

"I understand. Is there anything else for us to discuss?" asked the Chancellor.

He hoped not. Their mercy mission had already delayed his plans enough.

"No. We just wished to inform you of the situation," Master Windu stated.

"Then I'm afraid that politics calls," he answered.

"Very well. Thank you for your time," Master Windu concluded.

With that, Chancellor Palpatine ushered them to the door. After seeing that they were gone a ways down the hall, he shut and locked his office. He was starting to get quite upset at the Jedi reassigning his army all the time.

Donning his black robe, Chancellor Palpatine went to pull out his secret holocommunicator when it hit him. Next thing he knew, he was in the middle of a bombed out street. His lightsaber drawn as he took on two shadowy opponents. With a swift stab, he plunged his lightsaber into the first person. He could've sworn he heard a gasp come from the blank figure.

Ripping his blade out, he brought the other figure up in a force choke.

No sooner had he lifted the figure than the fight ended. There was a sharp "bang!". The same second, the entire front left quarter of his head exploded into a bloody mess as the world went black.

"Earth" whispered a voice.

Jolting up in his desk, the Chancellor's eyes went wide with horror. He had seen many visions of the future but this was the first of his death and it sent tremors through the force. Tremors that he had no doubt any nearby Jedi had felt.

This left him with a lot of questions. However, one thing was clear. His end game would have to wait. Earth was all that mattered at the moment.

(CIS: Invisible Hand: Earth)

Grievous watched with pleasure as the Republic cruiser exploded. This left the flaming and all but crippled Resolute on her own behind a debris field. Admiral Yularen had cost him a lot of his fleet and now would pay for each and every one with his life. Given the man's tactical skills, Grievous almost considered him worth the effort to board the ship himself. However, he thought better of it at the last second.

"Sir, the Republic ship has transferred all power to her hyperdrive and shields," reported a battle droid.

"The ship is accelerating toward us," reported his tactical droid.

"Argh! Tighten formation, and focus fire on him," Grievous ordered before turning to the viewport, "Now you die."

However, the Resolute refused to die. Grievous's eyes widened as he realized that the Admiral had set his ship on a collision course with the Invisible Hand.

Realizing that he had no other survivable option Grievous turned to the tactical droid, "Evasive maneuvers. Get us out of the way."

The response was rapid as the ship dipped down and to the left. Grievous watched as the flaming form of the Resolute over top of the ship. Finally, there was a soft thump as the ship fled into hyperspace.

Grievous was outraged at the escape of the Resolute. That anger was compounded on as he looked at the graveyard of ships. There were five destroyed Republic cruisers, but that was opposed to fifteen of his forty-five ship fleet. He had other places to be and he needed every ship he could. However, he kept finding the Republic occupied ones, no matter how hard he tried, not that it mattered to much. The Republic fleet was gone, which meant that he was ready to move on. This was suppose to be a blow through op. He was just making sure there would be no nasty surprises as he made his escape. Instead his primary goal was Coruscant.

"My lord," stated his tactical droid coming up next to him, "a message from Dooku."

With that he gave the General a data pad. Now Grievous knew something was up. Dooku almost always liked to communicate face to face. For him not to was quite significant. Grievous quickly read the message, glee lighting up his eyes.

"Begin landing the droids and redeploy the bombers. I have a new set of targets for them," he said with a disturbing calmness.

"Yes sir," responded the droid.

(I-5 Southbound lane: 15 miles north of Sacramento)

One of the beauties of the U.S. interstate system was that it was build during and for the Cold War. This meant that while it was meant to handle large volumes of cars, it was also designed to handle jet fighters should the need arise. Ironically this feature had never been used. At least that was until now. The ground began to shake as the A-10 Thunderbolts warmed up their engines and pilots finished preflight checks. Sporting a 30mm Gatling gun and enough air to surface missiles per jet to level four city blocks, the A-10s were a monster to anyone in their path. This was something their pilots intended to show the Separatists. Having had their original landing force ripped to shreds by Heavy Cannon and Howitzer fire, the Separatists were going for a take two, only this time out of range of the main guns. Now it was the Air Force's job to have some fun.

"This is Overwatch to Raptor 1, your clear for lift off," crackled a voice in the pilot's ear.

"Affirmative."

With that the engines changed pitch as one jet after another raced down the road. Soon all four were up in the air.

"Alright boys. Let's go light them up," Raptor 1 called he lead the squad.

Racing through the air he leveled off for a while. Upon nearing the city he dropped the nose of his jet toward the city and into the smoke, before leveling out at two hundred feet.

"I've got targets dead ahead," he called.

Down below was what looked like a tidal wave of droids and armor marching toward the city.

Are they really going parade style?" he thought in disbelief as lasers came flying at them.

Dropping as low as he could he watched in his peripheral as a series of lasers shredded the cockpit of his wingman, killing him without so much as a sound through the radio. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to focus on the battle. While his Gatling gun took the half second to spin up, he let loose a set of missiles. Streaking through the sky, the cluster bombs broke apart as they crashed into the formation. The ensuing fireballs were only added to as armor piercing rounds flew from the Gatling gun. The results were devastating. The tanks shrugged off all except the bombs which disabled them, and several columns of B1s and B2s were instantly blown apart.

"This is Raptor 2, I've been hit. My targeting system's off line," called out one of the pilots as they rose out of the smoke.

Looking back he could see the smoke pouring out of the fighter's side.

Damn it.

"Alright, we're making another pass. Follow us through and then head back. I have a feeling that targeting system isn't your only problem," he ordered.

"Raptor 1, this is Overwatch. You have Vulture's inbound. I advise you get out of there. We've got no fighters able to help you over there," interjected a voice over his radio.

"Shit," he mumbled before addressing the squad, "Looks like we've overstayed our welcome. Form up, we're headed back to friendly air."

There weren't any arguments as the fighter's formed up. Opening up the throttle, they raced back home. Looking at his radar, he watched as three blips showed up and slowly gained. Usually he wouldn't have worried with all of the armor these jet's had, but the lasers that the Vulture droids used were in a totally different league.

"This is Rancor squadron, we have your back. Moving to intercept," stated a clone pilot over the radio.

He went to respond but was cut off as angry red lasers began slicing through the air. Ducking and weaving, the fighter's separated. As he dove to the right, he watched as a flood of lasers ripped through the damaged fighter, ripping it in half. Coming out of his turn, he let loose with his 30mm cannon, tearing apart one of the pursuers. After what felt like forever, but was really about a minute, a squadron of V-Wings intervened. This gave the A-10's the room they needed to escape.

"Thanks. We owe you one," he said after the last fighter was destroyed.

"Don't mention it. Bedsides I have a feeling that once this is over, we'll all owe each other," replied the clone.