Chapter 2
Location: Kuat Drive Yards, Kuat
The shipyards were busier than ever with the outbreak of war. Dozens of Republic warships were rolling out of the slipways and docks in several classes that the Republic's growing naval fleet needed. Even Kuat's moons had been retooled for war production. Included in the list of recipients besides the Grand Army of the Republic was the Republic Volunteer Corps.
A length of slipways was dedicated to building a fleet for this volunteer force that was growing with each day. And the first batch of warships was ready for this force to take them over. Twenty-one Venator Class Star Destroyers, twenty-eight Acclamator Class Assault Ships, and fourteen Arquitens Class Light Cruisers were in high stationary orbit around the planet. The formations of KDY-made ships surrounded a much, much larger flagship, a Mandator Class Dreadnought.
The smooth edged warship had the similar look to the Venators and Acclamators but it was much smoother in its curves. A city-scape like congregation of structures along to its ventral spine was towered over by the command tower, with two powerful shield generators on the two perpendicular ends. But there was an oddity to these war machines.
Each of them was totally painted in red. Each ship had the same paint scheme as the Judicial Forces did before the war. The fleet of RVC ships had become quite a curiosity among the predominantly gray clone operated warships which outnumbered them by quite a large margin. And this fleet was not yet fully assembled.
As the fleet orbited, their young freshly indoctrinated and graduated crews were arriving for their more advanced and practical training. They'd been relentlessly training in large simulators built on Kuat for six weeks. Instructors from Kuat Sector Forces, one of the finest in the galaxy, had drilled them hard, imparting the lessons of the past centuries. They were competent enough to use their ships but in battle they were untested.
So as they trained and settled in aboard their new ships, a large fleet arrived in the Kuat system. There were forty-nine ships in this fleet, and like their larger counterparts, were all painted red. This was the RVC's final piece of its space fleet. A force of forty-two CR90 Corellian Corvettes and seven Quasar-Fire Carrier-Cruisers had been built, trained, and departed from Corellia. They melded in with the formation of warships from Kuat, and settled into unit-sized formations with the light cruisers falling out of formation with their larger cousins and moving into formation amongst the carriers and corvettes.
Watching the rendezvous of RVC warships from afar was Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi, who stood at the bridge of his own flagship with his newly knighted former Padawan, Anakin Skywalker also paying attention to the large fleet before them.
"Boy, those fellas sure want to be noticed," Anakin said with some bemusement.
"Indeed, their choice of coloration for their fleet is rather…ostentatious," Obi Wan responded.
"I've heard they're using old Cold War armor designs," Captain Rex said as he and Commander Cody also walked up to their Jedi Generals.
"I'm familiar with some of their commanders. It's a psychological play on the Republic Armed Forces' history before the Ruusan Reformation," Obi Wan noted.
"A recruitment tactic then," Cody surmised.
"I don't know how much good it'll do," Rex laughed, "I've seen some of the material they're training, not that impressive."
"That was not the experience we had Jabiim," Anakin grumbled, remembering that particular blood bath vividly.
"And so do they," a new voice said, signaling the approach of Admiral Yularen, "I'm quite familiar with Admiral Drexel, the Volunteer Corps' overall commander. He's been watching and learning from the current course of the war. I spoke with him a few days ago, shared a drink at my old stomping grounds. He told me that Jabiim validated his theory that volunteer forces would have a part to play in this war."
"To what extent however?" Obi Wan asked, "Their forces number less than a million."
"Seven hundred thousand to be precise," Yularen clarified, "With thousands more joining, or so Drexel says."
"So he says," Anakin smirked, scanning the red ships, the large dreadnought in particular, "Well, at least they have a dreadnought to help them in battle. I'd imagine that they've got Kuat's own defense forces manning it."
"Undoubtedly," Obi Wan said as a sudden red flash zipped through from their left.
"What in the world?!" Anakin snapped, looking out at the red starfighter that had just flown in between the two bridges of their flagship.
"What was that?" Cody questioned.
"That, is an RVC starfighter," Yularen sighed.
As soon as he said that a large formation of several hundred such starfighters passed by, and they were able to get a good look at them. They had a single thruster on a slightly forward swept flying wing with laser cannons mounted on the wingtips. The cockpit was in the middle of the quite small fighters, and the Jedi didn't really recognize its design. And like the continuing trend among RVC ships, were painted red.
"Never seen anything like them before," Anakin said in admiration.
"Incom T-42 F-Wings," Yularen identified them, "I've seen them in the hands of a few racers."
"It's obvious at least one of their pilots flies theirs like one," Obi Wan sourly noted.
As they spoke another flight starfighters, this time a dull triangle shape with wingtip thrusters much like a Y-Wing with the same paintjob as the others. This was the second part of the RVC's starfighter force, the STL-L M-Wing, a branch-off of the Y-Wing with a smaller and leaner hull but retaining the same bombload and a more useful tail mounted twin laser turret.
"They like to use things that we don't use," Cody noted.
"We'll have to see if it serves them well," Obi Wan grumbled as he rubbed his chin.
Location: Training Camp Bravo-6, Carida
The base was a hive of activity by now. For six weeks the recruits had been run ragged with constant physical training consisting of miles and miles of running over set paths, rough terrain, in their cloth uniforms and their new white and red RVC armor with full gear. They'd built up their muscles with pushups, pull-ups, and everything in-between. Weapons training was also going as scheduled, and this was the favorite part for the RVC personnel.
And Private Wyatt Lullian was no exception. His A280 Blaster Rifle was quickly his favorite possession, and he'd gotten very proficient with it. His skills as a soldier had improved drastically, from barely being able to do anything in the heavy clunky gear and armor to being able to maneuver proficiently in combat training against the droid mock-ups that they faced several times a day out in the field. The same could be said for everyone being trained here, although many had head starts.
Wyatt had been rather ticked to learn that they were sharing their training base with Caridan units that had been together in an organized and well-equipped military and were trained in their new weapons, armor, and equipment right alongside them. Things got testy a few times during force-on-force combat drills when units ranging from four-man fireteams to whole companies faced off against one another with stun settings locked in. Normally the Caridans came out on top, but the Taanab greenhorns were starting to get the hang of it.
But the current moment was being spent in the main headquarters building, a first time for Wyatt and the others of his company. The tall half-globe structure had several hangars within the main building behind an outer shell that covered the building on the outside. It was in one of these hangars that he found himself standing at parade rest alongside his own company with another Caridan company and a few support detachments on both sides, forming a lane for whoever was supposed to come today.
"What do you think Wyatt?" Eva, his friend from back home asked expectantly.
"I say General and/or Admiral," Wyatt replied, "Scuttlebut says a group of senators is stopping for a parade but I haven't seen anything like that."
"I told you don't believe scuttlebut," Eva responded confidently, "I say…a Jedi's coming. Gotta be a Jedi."
"The Jedi?" one of the other privates next to them laughed, "They're too busy blasting droids with their clone buddies. They don't care about us."
"He's not wrong, the Jedi are a bit…thinned out to be inspecting us. We're fine, still training," Wyatt stated plainly.
"Not what I've heard," Eva said, "A few Jedi don't like the Clones, there's a few militias with Jedi leaders fighting the Seppies behind enemy lines. From what the reports the holonet's been putting out they're doing a hell of a job for what they've got."
"As opposed to us? They're just paperweights to what we've got," someone else sneered, "Why aren't already with us then?"
The others had been listening, but they hadn't said anything. And so had Lieutenant Yuno, who spoke up now.
"Because we're not ready," the Lieutenant said calmly over the comm, and scared everyone into silence.
The lieutenant was a big powerful man, a native of Alderaan, he was viewed by his platoon as somewhat of a hardass. But he was tough and skilled as his men and women found out, leading them in combat exercises with confidence and precision. It was with him that the platoon figured out their method of waging this war was going to be an entirely different one than what they had anticipated. They, like all the units of their kind, would ride into battle in T1-APC Combat Speeders, which had been delivered rather quickly to the RVC's training bases.
But these craft were not present here, just the men and women of the force who stood at rigid attention in rows as all of a sudden a deep whooping alarm went off. This was the signal that they'd been waiting for.
"Ten-hut!" Lieutenant Yuno ordered them all and stepped out in front of his unit in the middle of the platoon with the company commander standing in front of him with only his two peers spaced to his left and right. Company HQ was also to his left at the end of the line of Taanab troopers, and stood at rigid attention. Nearly a hundred and fifty men and women in total stood at attention opposite of another identical unit with support staff spaced to their left, further from the landing zone.
Then, something unexpected occurred, two rows ten of men and a few women strode forth from the double doors that led into the hangar. They each had similar armor to the ones that the troopers wore, but theirs was slimmer, shinier, and most striking of all had a flowing red cape with black fur up around the neck and shoulders. Their weapons was also a striking difference. Each was armed with a broadsword vibrosword made of Songsteel in black scabbards at their left side and a holster carrying an SE-14R Repeating Blaster Pistol on the trailing armor plate at their right hip.
"Anaxes Knights," Eva whispered on a private comm to Wyatt.
"Best soldiers in the Core," he said back to her, checking to be sure he held his weapon at the port position just right. Word around base was that the Anaxes Knights were sticklers for discipline and demanded nothing less than perfection.
The Knights halted to form a pair of columns parallel to one another spaced widely so that the guests would arrive and walk through their alley of swords and armor. As they stood there the hangar alarm stopped, and the lights of a Republic Eta Class Shuttle emerged and the ship slowly entered, and every single one of the RVC personnel fought the urge to turn their heads. As that happened a duo of officers walked in from the main entrance.
One wore a red uniform tunic with yellow stitching along the edge of the double breasted portion of the tunic. He had black leather gloves on his hands and a set of rank badges on his left chest and command capsules on both sides of his chest, signifying his seniority. He had black pants as well, with black leather boots. His hat was the same as the normal design, but was red. This was their overall commander, Admiral Cynan Drexel.
The other man was different, he wore the same armor as that of the others, with the same overall look. He had his helmet under his left arm, with a wide shoulder pauldron on his right shoulder and a kepi around his waist. They recognized him as their legion's commanding officer, a Caridan with a hard-nosed attitude that had seen quite a few crackdowns among their units after poor performances or failures of discipline.
They walked up and stood side-by-side, and the ramp opened. The metal softly touched down on the floor and the whole area saw an odd shape hobbling down the ramp. It was a Jedi Master, but not just any Jedi Master, it was the Jedi Master, Yoda, the oldest and wisest Jedi Master in the Jedi Order. This was just the Jedi that they had wanted to visit them, and the moment he stepped foot on the black hangar deck the entire hangar went to attention.
"Master Yoda," Admiral Drexel greeted him, stepping forward to salute him, "Welcome to Carida."
"Thank you Admiral, a pleasure it is."
"We are pleased that you could come here Master Yoda," the Admiral continued, "We have been looking forward to an inspection of our forces from a Jedi. The soldiers of the Republic are ready to fight for the Republic once more."
"Hope so I do," Yoda replied, "Needed every soldier is."
This was received well by those in ear shot of the declaration. Master Yoda had just endorsed them, or at least from the basic appearance of his statement it seemed to indicate that. But it was what was said next that gave a new impression to what Yoda was here for.
"But unsure the Council is, of if the Army you have created is ready for battle."
"Master Yoda," General Charon declared, "My legion is ready for anything that threatens the people of the Republic. If there are doubts about us, let us cast them aside."
"Come, see if you are ready, we will," Yoda giggled at his statement and proceeded forward.
"Master Yoda what would you have us do?" Admiral Drexel inquired, unsure of what the old Jedi was up to.
"Tests we have," Yoda declared without pause, "On their way the Clones are."
Drexel didn't quite know what to say to that, he'd expected his forces to cross train with the GAR at some point. But this soon? Six weeks into their training was hardly the point at which he'd hoped his men would have been ready to handle up on this. However, he could say for certain that his men were proceeding well, that might be able to hold their own against the clones, especially since their average rate of fire was quite over that of the clones and their armor was pretty much the same aside from aesthetic changes.
"Well Master Yoda," Admiral Drexel said proudly, "We accept your challenge."
Not a bad second chapter. I was originally going to be having a fight scene in this between training droids and the troopers, but I decided to have it against clones because…why not? As for which Clones…I think a case of Red vs Blue is in order, can you guess who the Clones in blue would be?
Next Chapter Preview: Let the tests begin!