Chapter 7

Location: Separatist Dreadnought Wainrider, Mechis

"What do you mean our reserves have been destroyed?!" General Lintt, the Sullustan commander of the Bestine offensive, roared in his native language, "That's impossible!"

"Negative, the reports are accurate, three-hundred and seven ships have been lost in action in the Yag'Dhul system," his tactical replied succinctly.

"We only have two-hundred ships left! We can't maintain our attacks with this loss," the commander said as he leaned against his flagship's captain's chair, rubbing his eyes as he searched for the answer, "And it was a fleet intelligence said would never take the offensive!"

"It was an eighty-two percent chance that the Republic Volunteer Corps would remain in Thyferra as a holding force to keep pressure off of their Bestine defenses."

"It seems we will need more reinforce-," the general started but his Providence-Class Dreadnought shook all-of a sudden and the officer was thrown to the ground.

"We're under attack!" the blue-painted OOM Battle Droid called out in its whiny panicking voice.

General Lintt looked up from the ground to see a massive shadow cast over his flagship as a solid mass of red-painted durasteel with blue turbolaser blasts pouring from the sides of the ship that was passing next to them. Explosions rocked the Separatist dreadnought, the two-thousand meter Providence-class being torn asunder by the fire of a its much larger opponent, which seemed to had taken personal issue with its mere existence.

"Order a retreat!" the Separatist commander yelled as he looked out of the bridge to see a squadron of frigates and destroyers being viciously attacked by a rapidly moving squadron of Venators as swarms of red starfighters zoomed by his window.

"The engines aren't responding ."

"Communications are jammed," another the pilot droid stated firmly.

"They've exploited their advantage," Lintt roared in disgust, as he slammed his fist down on his chair, and realized his twenty ships in orbit around Mechis were soon to be wiped out so he rushed to an escape pod, growling to himself as it launched, "Next time…"

Dreadnought Basilisk

"Enemy flagship has launched escape pods."

"Hostile fleet has been rendered combat ineffective," another officer called out in excitement, seeing the enemy ships exploding under the combined fire of the RVC's strike fleet.

"Starfighters have secured the local space, enemy orbital defenses are powering up."

"We caught them offguard, all ships hold distance, stay out of range of those Orbital Defense Cannons," Drexel calmly ordered, knowing the firepower of the twin-boomed floating guns.

"Aye sir."

His large flagship had easily swept aside the Separatist Dreadnought, a ship a quarter the size of his own. He'd deployed half the fleet to destroy the orbital defenses of Mechis, a factory planet of the Separatists and one that had been manufacturing parts and droids for their opponents on a massive scale. His dreadnought and three of their Task Forces, each made up of three Venator's, four Acclamator's, a QuasarFire, two Arquitens, and six CR90's, had launched a lightning strike immediately upon securing that the enemy fleet was obliterated over Yag'Dhul. This had caught the Seppies entirely off-guard, and now the squadrons of starfighters were systematically taking apart the enemy defense platforms and orbital guns that protected this planet.

As explosions sprinkled the multitudes of guns and platforms the red fleet awaited their opportunity. Their ground forces had yet to engage in a major battle against droid forces. Today would not be that day, today the RVC would execute the first Republic use of a protocol that was normally never dared to be used.

"We have eliminated the enemy's orbital defenses," an officer declared.

"Move us into orbit over the factories," he ordered loudly as he looked out at the volcano covered planet.

The fleet maneuvered through the debris of ships and satellites, smoke and small fire and electric pulses coming off of the wrecks. Soon, it was spread out over the droid factories, a massive complex many miles long and wide.

"Scans," Drexel ordered.

"Detecting nearly thirty TF super freighters and many more enemy dropships, must be picking up battle droids."

"Well let's make sure they don't get to use them," Drexel nodded and took a deep breath, "Are the cameras rolling?"

"Aye Admiral," an NCO stated, "The press has been recording nonstop since we attack Yag'Dhul."

"Very well, all ships, execute protocol! Base, Delta, Zero."

"Aye sir," his gunnery officer responded, "Base Delta Zero. Gunnery has the conn, rotate the ship to port four-five degrees. All batteries set your guns to maximum firepower."

A series of green lights switched on as the batteries and turrets answered ready. The commander in charge now turned to the Admiral. Around the planet the whole fleet of star destroyers rotated upon their axis and their turrets turned to target the large factories.

"All batteries, execute."

Press Room aboard the Basilisk

"By the Force, they're bombarding the planet," Erik Syno breathed in amazement along with his crew of cameramen and support staff.

"It's uninhabited isn't it?" his cameraman asked he tracked the brutal bombardment tearing apart that section of the planet's surface.

"The only people down there run the factory so they're fair game," Syno stated as he straightened his outfit.

"Well it looks like this group isn't messing around," his makeup assistant sighed.

"No, no they're not."

As they watched entire factories had massive gaping hole blown open in them as entire sections of factories and storage warehouses filled with droids were wiped away by the turbolaser fire from orbit. Hovertrain lines were shattered and their cargo-laden trains smashed into the molten lava or rocky crags below. Transports were destroyed by the intense fire that wiped the merchant fleet out entirely as the landing platforms were targeted immediately. Fires were everywhere, choking the area as the intense orbital bombardment wiped the Separatist factories from existence, blasting to the rocks and magma below.

Mechis, once a jewel and key hub war industry, now lay in ruins at the hands of the first Base Delta Zero the Republic had ever used. It would not be the last the galaxy would see.

Planet Harrin

The Separatists had been wiped out once their command and control had been destroyed as three GAR Praetor-Class Battlecruisers and their own fleets smashed through the remaining hundred enemy warships, finishing off the entire enemy presence from Yag'Dhul to Bestine. As a total campaign the Republic was declaring the victory as one of grand proportions, and the RVC was taking the greatest portion of the glory. Images of their "Reds" smashing a Confederate armada were streamed across the Holonet.

But now the RVC needed one last cherry on top, a ground engagement, one that could show that they were the total package. For that, the planet Harrin was reserved for the taking. The 1st Volunteer Task Force had been given the honor to attack the planet and take it.

Private Wyatt Lullian was sitting in the barracks in his full armor, waiting like the rest of his unit. They'd been told of their mission, liberate the planet Harrin from the yoke of the Separatists. His unit had been handed camouflaging spay-on paint, and they'd painted their armor into a mess of dark green, black, brown, and lighter greens. His black backpack was on, filled with pretty standard equipment: ammunition, grenades of several types, a poncho, rations, a digging tool, a med-kit, and the ever-useful extra water canteen.

Wyatt sat there in the barrack on his bunk, A280 barrel in his hand and the stock on the deck as his foot tapped nervously as he kept his eyes glued to the ground as he waited. The briefing had been given, their unit had a simple objective, take a large town and the network of spaceports inside. It would be a tough fight, with a heavily urbanized environment built on hilly terrain. It was garrisoned by several thousand battle droids and their armored vehicles. Yet the Third Volunteer Legion was ready, its fifteen thousand troopers awaiting their own day of combat.

"You good Wyatt?" asked his friend Eva Quartin as she sat down next to him.

"No, I'm fine," Wyatt responded, "We're going into battle aren't we?"

"Yeah, we are," she shrugged, "Kinda scared myself."

"You? Scared?" Wyatt playfully responded, giving her a slight push.

"Aren't you?"

Wyatt frowned as he looked down at the ground, knowing she was right, they were all scared.

"Yeah…we've been trained of course, but we've never actually fought for real."

"You'll do fine kid," their platoon leader, Lieutenant Yuno, said as he passed next to them, wearing the same armor as them to mask the fact he was an officer, "Remember your training, that's what you'll fall back on in the midst of the fight."

"Yes sir," they both responded as they stood to their feet.

The lieutenant nodded and then called out, "On your feet first platoon!"

"Second platoon!"

"Third platoon!"

The calls went rapidly as the company rose quickly to their feet, grabbing their weapons and slipping on their helmets. Wyatt checked his string of spare grenade rockets in chest pockets. All of them were there and ready, his A280 and Viper grenade-launcher were ready, and he knew his utility belt was ready, with three grenades, all droid poppers, two smoke screens, a canteen, a knife, and a pair of power packs for his rifle, giving him fifteen hundred rounds, more than enough for a battle.

The troopers assembled, and then into their columns and followed their officers. They made their way out at a jog to get their blood pumping, joining many other units also moving out to the hangar. All were in different camouflage, but all to the same color scheme. It was an awesome sight to see the organized masses of troopers moving towards their dropships.

The dropships had been previously prepared, their rocket pods and missiles fully loaded. The vehicle carriers had already been mated with the various tanks and artillery that they were meant to carry while the smaller T1-APC's were able to be carried by the F7 "Flying Brick" Infantry Carriers. The whole first wave's force of armored personnel carriers were loaded, including Wyatt's own APC. He was ordered into the large standing landing bay of the drop ship while the crew of the APC jumped into their vehicle. Wyatt was crammed in next to Eva, and both held onto the handrail next to each other. They'd been together since the beginning, and now were together before battle and soon during the heat of battle.

"Alright, here we go!"

They felt the conveyor belt moving, launching the troopships before them in rapid succession. They waited, well aware of the rough rid they would soon have. When they dropship dropped they held on and bent their knees in reflex to take the rough ride. The group knew that they were on their way, and the first evidence of their impending danger was the red lights taking over within the landing bay.

"One minute to drop."

"Here we go Eva," Wyatt responded with a nod to his friend.

"Try to stay alive?" she responded.

"Always."

They all felt the sudden drop of the speeder below the dropship, and then felt their craft settled and all of them readied themselves. The door opened, unleashing a spear of light and noise and all of them rushed out, jumping out and to the ground where they had hip high green grass masking it. The wind and turbulence from their numerous dropships landing caused the grass to wave about in all chaotic directions.

Wyatt's boots hit the ground and instinct ordered him to duck to the right as he followed his comrades who rushed to the sides and ducked down with rifles and repeating blasters aimed out. He could hear the rapid yet organized comms going off in his ear amongst his squad, but his own panting breaths were what was ringing the loudest in his ears. The young Tanaab trooper looked about and saw dozens of dropships and armored RVC vehicles on the ground and lifting off as they established themselves. After a quick run he dropped to his belly in the grasses and finally got a look around after sweeping the area.

They'd landed in the middle of an open field with trees planted along a road off to his right and a modern farming homestead off to the left, easily distinguishable with its tall windmills and a tan boxy barn and domed house, mostly underground. Bushes and trees were all around this homestead and he was immediately reminded of home. But was snapped back to reality as a flight of four red T-42 F-Wings zoomed overhead. The area was indeed secure, as the lack of battle informed them. Soon the other dropships had deposited their loads and were gone as many others flew overhead in long parallel lines.

"First squad, we're moving out, stay alert," his squad leader ordered them all, presumably after orders had come down.

He hesitated to get to his feet but once to his knees he saw the massive wave of troopers trudging forward and joined his squad on the left flank of the platoon formation, in the lead of their company. Their T1-APC's maneuvered quickly into formation amongst them, and they had been ordered into their vehicles, and quickly began piling in, clearly much safer and faster in their shielded speeder tank. In front of them the T4-A tanks were moving into their own arrowhead formations. The mass of RVC vehicles, in similar camouflage to Wyatt and his comrades, was moving quickly now, as the linked HUD's showed.

"Alright, here's the lowdown," their platoon leader called out on the comm, "Looks like the Seppies hadn't been expecting a large invasion force this quickly and only a few droid units are in position. Trouble for us is that the populace is not keen on the Republic planting its flag out here. Local militia are garrisoning a town along with droids in their bases underground. Our job is to take a village on the road there, we're up against what intelligence is calling a mechanized militia company."

"Mechanized?"

"WLO-5's from all outward appearances, light tanks," the man replied, "We've determined roughly a hundred hostiles in all-black padded armor with helmets and face-masks," the lieutenant explained.

"Militia?" Eva wondered aloud, "I thought the people here were pacifists?"

"Guess not," Wyatt responded with a shrug to her.

"We're one minute out, artillery is standing by to hit the enemy once we've driven them into the open. This it, first combat," Lieutenant Yuno replied.

A moment later the vehicle halted, and the hatch quickly opened. The squad piled out as usual and ran out and moved to the front of the T1-APC. A wooded rise covered them and they all ducked down behind it and into cover. They saw the town below them, made up of all-white buildings, most with rounded edges, chalky facades, cobblestone streets, and market stands aplenty. There was a minor spaceport present, but it wasn't even worth being called that, located on the edge of the village with a large platform and a handful of crates. It was a lot like any other village in farming land, in fact Wyatt couldn't help but draw comparisons to the village that was near his ranch.

"I've got eyes on a position," Eva called out, looking at the village through her scope, "Repeater on the town hall, middle window."

"Movement, got movement, tank got a tank!" someone else called out.

"Got it," Wyatt responded, looking at the dark gray tanks with the large engines moving by deeper into the town along with several all-black soldiers with black visors that covered their whole faces connected to a helmet that splayed out back to cover the neck. They also seemed to be armed with a different version of the E-5, a longer barrel was placed on the end of the housing, and a telescoping stock on the back.

"You sure those're militia? Don't look like militia," Eva noted.

"They're not," Lieutenant Yuno agreed, "It's Sabaoth Squadron, their land forces, I'd recognize that group anywhere," he then passed word up the chain of command as to the Sabaoth presence here, and apparently received orders to begin the attack as he came back deadpan serious, "First platoon we're pushing into town. Stay with your vehicles. Pop smoke!"

Several troops tossed their gas canisters out into the field and when that happened red blaster fire poured from the town buildings. Wyatt ducked down immediately. He was being shot at for the first time. A single bolt could potentially kill him or any of his comrades. So far none of the red bolts coming at him were from cannons. But thus far, none of them were hit, just the immediate instinct to duck into cover taking over. Then the first sound of their own A280's opening fire greeted their ears let them know it was time to fight.

He pulled himself up, tucking his rifle to his shoulder and opened up on the source of the rapid fire blaster bolts. Before he could tell if he'd done any damage he heard the loud warbling noise of a T1-APC driving up next to him and looked up to see this vehicle hovering through the tree line and push over the hedges as it moved into the open. He knew it was time to advance and pushed himself back up and rolled over to be behind the large vehicle with Eva pulling him up once he got there. They were all moving in their lines behind the shielded vehicle as it and others of their platoon moved forward under fairly intense return fire that splashed across the shields.

"Return fire!" their squad leader ordered them, noting that they were just trudging along behind, unwilling to shoot back and poke their heads out.

Wyatt saw a DLT-18 gunner immediately obey, firing a rapid burst into the nearest building and soon the others were doing likewise, and Wyatt primed his grenade launcher. He saw a trio of Sabaoths poking their heads up on a building roof and firing down into them and pulled up his rifle and hovered his finger over the grenade launcher's trigger and hit the button, sending the RPG straight at the corner of the building where it exploded and blew a gaping hole in the roof wall.

"Clear these buildings! Go!" his fireteam was ordered once they got to a cantina and they all broke from cover and rushed to the wall and made their way to the open door.

Wyatt was the first there, and when he peaked in a red blaster bolt smacked into the entryway and he instinctively ducked back. Eva acted quickly, tossing a flashbang grenade into the open cantina and it went off. Training kicked in, and without thinking once he felt the tap on the back of his helmet he rushed in. He planted his foot against the opposite door frame and leveled his A280 at the left side of the room as Eva was almost next to him moving to the right side of the door. It happened all-too fast. When he ducked around he saw the first enemy soldier trying to turn a table over against the wall, his first area of responsibility. Instinct took over as he moved towards him and he fired a center-mass trio of killshots and saw his target drop. He'd just killed a man.

But Wyatt couldn't dwell, he saw the black armor of a Sabaoth trooper pop his head from a cubbyhole in the corner where a table was overturned for protection and fired at the enemy trooper. The blue bolts pounded the man's cover and he made a break for it, but Wyatt now his fireteam leader tracked him cleanly and shot him with a bolt to the side and as the target collapsed and both fired again as he hit the ground, hitting him several times in the chest.

He only vaguely saw the third Sabaoth but he didn't need worry, Eva took care of him. The man tried to pull his blaster rifle up and fired a single bolt but Eva shot him cleanly through the black blast-shield. She rushed to be sure that others weren't there and signaled clear.

"Clear!" their fireteam leader yelled.

"Room clear!" Eva answered.

"Move to the back, quick," the corporal quickly ordered and ran to the back door, where it was possible that the enemy was there.

All of them were ready and they hit the door controls and it opened. A staircase down to a basement was darkened and was only lit when a pair of enemy soldiers opened fire from below and they all decided to toss a more lethal grenade down there. Wyatt saw their gunner roll a thermal detonator down the stairs and it exploded below and a glut of fire and smoke spewed from the basement and they all rushed down the steep stairs. Their opponents were down there, smoldering on the ground. It was a clearly cleared building now.

"All clear!"

"1-1, 1-1-Bravo, cantina secure," Corporal Mahan said into the comm.

"Bravo rejoin the squad at the three-story building, marking on HUD. We're clearing it."

"Let's get back to the platoon," their corporal ordered and Wyatt was last out as the sounds of battle continued unabated outside and they reached the ground-floor and saw that the unit was moving into the heart of the town.

They rushed along the wall to rejoin their squad at the lead of the advance as red bolts now came quickly to hit the RVC troopers moving into the town, methodically clearing each building with the street having a dozen T1-APC's spaced through the central street. Smoke was rising from the outskirts where the tanks were positioned to target hardpoints and enemy counter-attacks. Wyatt saw their squad highlighted in blue on his HUD clearing a three-story apartment building with trees along its front façade and followed closely to rejoin them. There were three members of that squad highlighted in yellow in one place, the sign that they'd been wounded, and he saw them lying on the ground inside the moment the four of them entered the building.

"Friendlies coming in," Wyatt informed them and walked in, seeing two of them with shoulder wounds against the wall and a third with a leg wound lying on the ground with a medic attending to them.

"So far so good," Eva stated as they jogged in and moved to the stairs to rejoin their squad who they could hear firing at enemy troops up above.

"You guys okay?" Mahan asked the wounded troopers.

"Glancing blows Mahan, not bad," the medic responded, "Fekking wusses."

The other troopers laughed in response as the four-man fireteam rushed up the stairs towards the sounds of blaster fire. On the first flight of stairs a black-uniformed Sabaoth soldier was lying against the wall partway up the stairs with blaster wounds in his leg and back with his E-6 left on the landing below him. They reached the second flight were the squad was moving cautiously, all weapons pointed up at where they knew fire was coming from. The green camouflaged troops all opened fire when they saw a black figure pop around the corner and fire towards them and the enemy combatant was riddled with fire and collapsed into the hallway directly in front of the stairs. Two more Sabaoths popped out of doorways and fired as well, and a third man ducked out with a grenade in his hand.

But this was a mistake, blaster fire was already ripping down the hallway and when he did that his kneecap was shattered by a bolt from a DLT-18 gunner. The other two were equally pinned down and ducked back into the rooms they'd been in. The RVC troops knew that they were there and rushed to the hall. But when the fireteam leader of the lead four troopers reached the door where they saw hands raised from the enemy soldiers that were there. Two fully mobile Sabaoths came out with hands raised and a third hobbling on one good leg was dragged out as the squads progressed to the third floor.

"Tank! There's a tank out that window!" Wyatt heard shouting behind him and looked to see Chane pointing at a WLO-5 sitting in an alleyway behind the building with a group of Sabaoths firing in the opposite direction to the left, which hadn't advanced this far quite yet. It was just below them, sitting there, moving back and forth, firing its big cannon when it got a shot.

"Down, stay down!" Yuno immediately ordered, the officer rushing to a plan, "Take position, I want repeaters in the windows! Rockets, here, blast that tank on my order."

Corporal Mahan immediately rushed forward with the fireteam's rocket launcher, and shouldered it and drew a perfect bead on the light tank. The others got to the windows in the apartments the lieutenant gave the order.

"Take 'em!"

"Back-blast clear!"

"Clear!"

"Rocket!"

Mahan stood to his feet and fired the rocket directly at the cockpit and gunner station of the WLO-5, blowing it open from above in a sharp blast of orange and a cloud of smoke as the vehicle dropped to the ground and a secondary explosion blew one of its large engines off. The black-armored enemy infantry were thrown to the side of the alley by the explosion. RVC blue bolts from the windows above poured into them and the group scattered, but there was little that could be done. The original seven that had been down there were whittled quickly to two that made a duck for the destroyed vehicle and were killed when a grenade was tossed in on top of them.

"Cease fire!" the lieutenant yelled, but the bloodlust was real as several continued firing into the smoke, "Cease fire!"

The firing died off as the burning tank's smoke rose up and revealed the bloody work of the impromptu ambush orchestrated quite well by the RVC troopers. Bodies were strewn about, blaster markings were across the ground and wall along with debris from the burning tank. It was a sign of just how deadly this conflict was. Wyatt himself knew this by now.

"Building clear!" the comms lit up, letting them know that they'd done their job.

The sounds of fighting were now dying off as the RVC battalion moved through with near impunity. Their lightning strike had taken the Separatist mercenaries entirely off-guard. When Wyatt walked out he saw that two more columns of thick black smoke were rising from the outskirts of town and while he followed his platoon he saw several more black-armored bodies and a few prisoners being herded to the rear. He came across a burning WLO-5 at the exit to the village that had its right side blow open by a T4-A when it and its three dead passengers had fled the battle.

"That's it? We won?" Eva asked as they walked.

"Like hell we won," Wyatt said as he shook his head.

"Echo Company mount up! We're moving out," the company commander yelled out to the company of troopers as the village fell silent of battle, "Droid columns are moving against us, whole legion's moving to face them."

"Alright, now that's a battle," Wyatt heard someone to his right chuckle.

But Wyatt remained quiet, just like most everyone else as the unit began to pile into their vehicles. The columns of RVC vehicles quickly began moving out along the dirt roads out of the town and towards a crossroads where the droids had to march through to get to them. They had speed on their side, and all knew what they were going to be involved in. Up until now the droid army of the CIS and the volunteer army of the Republic had never faced each other in a major battle. But today they would, on the farmlands of the planet Harrin.

"Okay, additional intel boys and girls, we're ambushing the whole droid column, they're converging on the crossroads we're going to, we're closer and faster, we'll be digging in on a wooded ridge there alongside the battalion and an armored company. We'll hit the droids with everything's we've got," Lieutenant Yuno said to his platoon.

"Shovels…great," Eva sighed.

"What's the matter? Don't like digging?" Wyatt joked with her.

"You're the farmhand Wyatt, no big deal to you," Eva responded.

"I'm not digging the foxhole alone!"

"You're all digging," Sergeant Kael snapped at the two, "You'll need to."

A few long minutes later the squad shook at the T1-APC coming to a halt. The hatch opened and the squad piled out and saw that they had arrived. All of them walked out and they saw that they were in a patch of woods, heavily covered with ferns and soft green leafy trees over their heads. It was pretty good cover.

"Move up, find a patch of good ground and dig in. Fields of fire and camouflage, get it done."

Wyatt and Eva paired up as usual and moved up to a log leaning from its original stump. Breaking out their shovels, each a well-developed, razor sharp broad headed instrument with a weakly vibrating head to aid in them cutting through roots, and began digging in behind it. The three foot trunk provided excellent cover, and the efficient shovels made cutting through the roots relatively easy. Piling the soil to the sides the two began getting to waist level.

"I'll keep this up, why don't you get some branches to cover the foxhole," Wyatt suggested as he took off his helmet, "We'll lay them over the sides, put soil on it, and then ferns and we oughta be good to go."

"Got it," Eva nodded, out of breath as she too ha her helmet off and grasped her shovel to go cut down some thick branches from nearby trees as many others were starting to do.

Tanks began moving up, and their crews began to cut smaller leafy trees' branches and folded them into the netting on their vehicles. The infantry was all over the place, and their APC's were down behind the ridge that overlooked the crossroads three hundred meters away. Wyatt quickly got their foxhole to hip level, digging up the black dirt and depositing it not in the form of a 'L' around them, leaving an entrance for them. Eva returned with an armful of branches and dropped them at the entrance.

"Here we go Wyatt, plenty of them."

"Nice, let's get these on," he suggested and grabbed the biggest one.

Their technique was precise, biggest branches first in the middle. Then smaller ones on the other places as they placed smaller leafy branches on the top. This entirely covered their foxhole to the point they could stand hunched over inside with the broken tree they'd positioned themselves behind acting like the top of a pillbox. The other half of their fireteam also did likewise on the same tree. All of them were now starting to really conceal their positions after an hour of work, and Wyatt kept digging down in their four by eight foot foxhole and piled the dirt on top of the branches, creating a thick layer on top of them that they now began to put ferns on top of to conceal their position. It was a strong fortification, and they all knew it.

Other foxholes were dug to their left and right, with more of them behind for their mortar crews and commanders. The medics had their own holes, and others were quite well camouflaged in the extremely thick underbrush. The low trees also helped their cause, making them appear like they weren't even present. Such was the methodology and tactical mindset of the RVC's forces. Attack strategically, defend tactically, their weapons were best utilized from cover against the droids, which never took cover much anyway, and their forces could blow them away and then exploit their victory with a counter-attack. This was their way of war, and today it would be tested. Now however they were waiting in their holes, eating some rations as the sun began to go down.

"How do you think we'll do?" Eva asked as they waited in cover, sitting with only their heads visible through the slit.

"Think we'll be fine, we're in cover, we've got the tanks, we've got air support, we'll win," Wyatt nodded.

"Think so? I mean, the Clones get overrun all the time," she responded.

"We're not clones, we're RVC remember? We can beat them, we can beat the droids."

"I know, we can, and we'd best or we're in trouble."

"To your holes! To your holes!" the call went out all of a sudden and the two grabbed their helmets.

"Shit," Eva said as she slipped it on and heard the calls going out and saw the red marks on her HUD of the coming enemy columns, "Those are division markings."

"Over forty thousand droids are coming right at us," Wyatt breathed out after he did the math.

"Mark your distances, wait for the order to fire," the orders went out as everyone called out visual ID's on their targets.

A massive convoy of AAT's leading Platoon Attack Craft and MTT's was marching right at them. Amongst the formation were blocks of battle droids, marching in formation right along the roads. Three separate columns, all of them a mass of Separatist firepower also had Heavy Artillery Guns trailing behind. Vulture Droids flew slowly overhead, dozens of them, escorting Hyena Droid Bombers, making this a fully integrated fighting force coming right at them.

"Oh man…" Wyatt groaned as he saw the massive force coming for them.

"Hold firm, we're undetected," Lieutenant Yuno ordered his men and women.

"Wait'll they get a dose of our artillery," Eva smiled as they reached a mile out.

All of a sudden thuds came from behind them, and rockets from their artillery came flying overhead, trailing bluish white smoke as they arched overhead and then angled down at the droid columns.

"Oh here comes the boom."

Explosions ripped into the columns of vehicles, lifting AAT's onto their sides and shattering loaded Platoon Attack Craft. Streams of them impacted the middle elements as they worked their way back and hammered individual vehicles alongside numerous droid blocks, lighting fires and sending smoke and dust into the air as more rockets impacted. The droids were getting devastated, but it was no great hammer blow, just a sudden shock. Then came the RVC artillery, A7V cannons mounted on T4 chassis fired rapidly, and then were followed by the tanks firing as well. Blue energy burst shells flew overhead at a lower angle and began pounding into the armored columns. They could all see that the whole legion's artillery section of twenty-four guns and eighteen missile launchers were present for this battle. Explosions never ceased, blasting away chunks of droids blowing away the entire fronts of vehicles.

But the AAT's were now fighting back, opening fire at them from long range, but the RVC tanks were for the most part hidden in hull-down positions and their slim turrets made it hard to them. But the impacts were very much lethal to the infantry that were near them. Doctrine saved them for the most part, digging in kept them away from the impacts, and their distance kept from the tanks made certain they were safe from anything but direct hits.

"They're deploying droids open fire!" the orders came down and the two young Tanaab natives pulled the triggers of their rifles.

MTT's had pulled off the road and opened up their hatches to deploy their droids within, adding thousands of battle droids to the fight. Now the RVC was giving it everything they had, anti-air speeder tanks were firing into the air, shielding their comrades from the angry droid aircraft above them as more and more enemy droids streamed down the road.

Wyatt laid into his enemies alongside everyone else as battle droids, mostly B1's and B2's with some droidekas now closed the distance. But they were in a massive crossfire from their left flank and their front. Blue and red lasers streamed at their opponents as the battle devolved into an assault on the dug in RVC legion. Wyatt saw red lasers striking his cover alongside Eva and rockets hammering into the trees. But that did no damage to them, but they had one issue, enemy HAG's now began hammering at them, and red blasts began striking their positions around RVC lines.

As they fired quickly, seeing droid after droid dropping and yet still the vast droid army advanced steadily. An explosion detonated the ground in front of Wyatt's position and hammered them with a concussion that dropped their roof down on top of the two troopers, coating them with dirt from above.

"Eva you okay?!" Wyatt responded, pushing the sticks off of him and pushed away the dirt.

"I'm fine, keep shooting!"

"Wyatt, Eva! You two okay?"

"Fine!"

"Keep shooting we gotta-," the fireteam leader started but stopped.

Another explosion is what cut him off and the tree that Eva and Wyatt were shooting under lifted up and then dropped to the right. Both looked at each other and knew something was wrong. Wyatt was first out, and moved to see that the whole tree section in front of their comrades' foxhole was burnt and shattered and the two camouflaged troopers were motionless beneath their caved-in roof. Wyatt was first to get there crawling as the battle continued around them. He reached in and grasped onto Corporal Mahan's armor and pulled the man free. He was hesitant when he saw the blackened front of the man's helmet and the cracks along his armored chest and the absent shoulder pad.

"Medic! Medic!" Wyatt yelled, and saw that one of their company's medics was rushing over, and slid down next to him.

"He's gone!" Eva yelled as she pulled PFC Chane from the wrecked fighting hole.

"Chane?!" Wyatt yelled in surprise.

"Hey, hey!" the medic yelled once he had triaged the wounded corporal and marked him with a red spray canister on his armor to visually mark his state, "I need your help, get him to the rear!"

"Medic!" another call went out.

The medic looked out, and turned to Wyatt, "You two! Get him to medivac!"

At that moment Lieutenant Yuno slid in next to them.

"Who's hit?!"

"Corporal Mahan is red sir, Chane's…Chane's gone," Wyatt responded.

"Why were they together in the same hole?! Dammit we told you, gunner and leader are never in the same hole!" the man yelled, seeing that neither Eva or Wyatt had a repeating blaster. It was something that had been overlooked in the past, but now in the heat of battle they both understood why, but too late, "Get him to medical!"

"Yes sir!" Wyatt replied in a dejected manner but he and Eva quickly grabbed an armpit and started to drag Corporal Chane out of the front and through the brush.

The two stayed as low as possible, skirting along the ground with knees just above the ground. Red bolts zipped over their heads as they moved quickly and other troopers opened fire from their own fighting holes and they passed two bodies of comrades within their own holes, casualties of direct strikes from artillery. Leaves fell around them and they knew that this forest was sure not going to be a very easy battle like the last one was. A pair of medics met them as they passed a tank and got into the rear.

"We got him go!"

Wyatt tapped Eva who was still on her knees looking down at Mahan, and Wyatt grabbed her by the arm and two rushed back to their position as another explosion went off a few dozen meters away. They sprinted forward, but an AAT's main gun blasted a tree next to Wyatt and the concussion blew him off his feet like he'd been yanked by the back his armor.

"Wyatt you okay?!" Eva yelled as she slid down next to him.

"I'm good, I'm good!"

The two got back and up and passed a mortar pit firing off shells rapidly, sending their explosives right at the droids who had closed to within six hundred meters but were still coming on strong, but with far fewer vehicles in support. A tank far to the left was struck by a shell and caught fire and its crew pulled it back with the right barrel and housing entirely gone.

"I'm gonna grab Chane's DTL!" Eva suggested as she rushed forward. And dove down next to the wrecked hole.

She saw the twisted mangled barrel and knew it was useless now. So she returned to Wyatt and looked back up to see the droids still coming strong. Wyatt was firing his grenades into the formations as mortars also added to the numerous explosions tearing the loose lines apart. But the AAT's were closing, and were getting ripped apart, catching fire and their lower wings went up in devastating explosions as the torpedoes housed in there went off. MTT's were now useless hunks of junk along with the Platoon Attack Crafts in the rear as another missile barrage devastated the artillery tanks in the far rear of the Separatist lines.

"Chane's gun's gone too," she sighed in defeat as Wyatt noticed her still firing with her A280.

"Alright keep firing!" Wyatt replied without looking.

As many of them continued fighting they noticed the droids were starting to halt, and then explosions began wrecking through the back of the enemy formation. Then they turned around, and started running. Wyatt stopped firing for a second before he noticed what was happening and then in joy reached up and laid into his fully automatic setting and opened up but his rifle stopped as its power pack went dry. He went to replace it but as he did so the call to cease fire went out, right after that something amazing happened. White and red dots sliced through the droids and they all realized what they were.

Speeder bike-mounted Anaxes Knights zipped through the formations with long energy lances in hand and cut apart hundreds of droids and cut open vehicles left and right. Their LB-55 Speeder Bikes were superbly designed for this work, with a solid build of powerful propulsion engines supporting their backs in their upright seats. It ended with a point with a thin triangular wedge of hardened durasteel. The Knights held their shields and Lances in hand, their shields protecting them by being strapped to their arms to free their hands to control their bikes.

They'd trained all their lives in this art of combat, some of them training select units of clone troopers to mimic this style. But no one could lance like Anaxes Knights could. The Knights of the 1st Volunteer Legion rode into battle, led by Captain Kayle Titus. His first opponent to meet his lance was an AAT backing away, turning its turret to face him, but he cut its rear, slicing through its power generators and rear hatch causing the tank to drop to the ground and keel over onto the back of its turret. He followed it with a line of B1's turning to fire at him and cut all of them in half with complete impunity. Changing target as he flew through the battlefield his lance cut through the forward end of another tank, destroying its forward repulsor and the nose of the tank to drop down as another Knight behind him through its torpedoes which detonated behind them.

"Hit the artillery!" he ordered as he aimed for the lines of enemy HAG's trying to escape to the countryside.

"We're behind you sir!" another Knight responded as a few others followed behind.

He aimed his lance at the nearest one, and as he closed with the vehicle at an enormous velocity his white hot lance cut through other droids that were straggling along at the rear, trying to protect the artillery now fleeing the battle. Titus now cut a lethal gash across the whole right side of the HAG he passed in the blink of an eye and the vehicle blew apart and dropped to the ground, its gun still pointed up. All of them were soon getting gashed and knocked out by the Anaxes Knights, who systematically took the remaining Separatist vehicles apart. It was an incredibly one-sided slaughter, the droids being unable to track the speeders on which the Knights rode.

But Titus wasn't done, he saw a hill in the rear of the Separatist lines, and a command center on it with droids all around it along with a pair of AAT's. He lifted his lance and pointed it at the command center and zipped forward, followed by several others. He himself halted his speeder and the others flew by, and cut open and disabled the AAT's and the handful of droids rushed at him. Dismounting the young Knight drew his sword and charged. The droids opened fire and he lifted his shield, the songsteel absorbing the shots with ease.

He approached them and sliced the head off a droid to his left and brought his sword back and cut another B1 in half at the hip. A B2 closed with him as he continued sprinting and ducked under it, and smacked its more vulnerable center with his shield and rocked it back. With another movement he jumped off a rock and stabbed it through and continued to sprint forward. Three B1's attacked him with a B2 behind. He cut the arms off another one, as the others surrounded him and ducked and cut the first one's chest open and tossed the disable junk at the second one with his shield and then split open the head of the third one from below as he spun around. Without much else being done he rushed at another line of droids.

This time there were four B1's rushing him and two B2's. Approaching the command center he sliced the first apart with little difficulty as he brought his shield up again and smacked the next three B1's without issue and approached the two guarding super battle droids who towered over him. They knew what to do, and fired quickly. Flanking to the right he held his shield in his left hand and blocked the fire as he now lined them up and jumped onto the side of the circular command center and stabbed through the head of the droid's head. As he came he ducked under the attacking swing from the second droid and cut the droid in half with another swing. He saw now that the tactical droid above him was scrambling down to grab a blaster rifle, but Titus cut him off, and sliced the legs off of the droid and it dropped down, followed swiftly by its head being sliced clean off.

With this final droid gone he walked up to the top of the command center and looked out over the battlefield. It was a scene of victory, smoke, fire, wreckage, and destroyed droids littered the fields and smoke rose from the woods where RVC vehicles had succumbed. He saw the grunts of the 3rd Legion marching out and finishing off the half-disable droids along with vehicles from his own legion driving through, moving through the embattled 3rd to press on towards the capital. It was worth the victory, glory was theirs, and nothing could stop them now. They'd taken the best this droid garrison could throw at them and blew it away. The design of their forces had proven its worth and as did their own men and women, they did well, they'd survived.

Wow, eight thousand words. Guess I gave you your money's worth huh? Quite the battle scene, I'm pretty proud of all three of them here. There's more to come for sure.

Next Chapter Preview: The push continues, but it won't be as easy as this.