Chapter 13

Location: Dreadnought Basilisk

The fleet over the planet was holding firm. The Separatists hadn't bothered attacking them again ever since the RVC had wiped the floor with each CIS fleet they'd come across. The news was ringing with the success of the battle of Harrin with the images of the Basilisk carving up enemy ships circulating through the Holonet. Numerous diplomatic envoys had arrived in orbit to discuss the loyalty of their home worlds with the intention of preventing a massive invasion of their worlds and a possible bombardment. Fear of the firepower of the lone Mandator-Class Dreadnought was putting the formerly Separatist aligned worlds in their place.

Diplomats may have taken issue with this, but to military men like Drexel, he couldn't care less. If he could intimidate his enemy into surrender that meant that his forces wouldn't be expended and exhausted fighting and dying. Victory through intimidation was a classic Kuati tactic. In the past just the thought of one of their dreadnoughts being so much as prepared to deploy to a trouble zone would force the troubled area or planet to completely subdue itself. In the Stark Hyperspace War there was a fear in the Core of the Stark fleet moving into the inner rim and colonies. So the Basilisk was deployed further out to deter them, and it worked. The Starks never considered an incursion core-ward lest a Mandator decided it felt like destroying them. It was just the theoretical threat they posed that kept trouble at bay, but now, it was a very real promise if the Basilisk came at them.

So, the RVC knew exactly what it was going to be doing once Harrin was secured. It would move South, and quell the rebellious worlds that sat there. But there was an issue. While the enemy fleet in the region was absolutely obliterated and no longer a credible threat the RVC was actually starting to feel some logistical strain. Their ships and starfighter squadrons had been in a constant state of combat and launching raids for the better part of three weeks. The results were very much in their favor, but their squadrons were starting to fall in their overall strength. Munitions had been expended to half of what they had started with. All of their ships had taken noticeable damage in their desperate battle, and their ground troops weren't as numerous as they needed to be to pacify the entire sector.

Admiral Drexel stood before a map of Harrin and waited for the coming offensive that his Legions would be launching in the next hour. This battle would determine their strategy going forward. While their ships had proven to be extremely deadly opponents his ground troops had no such reputation thus far. So far they'd only really held their ground. On the ground he had his overall commander of ground troops, General Iber Lann. The hard-nosed Anaxes general was as good as they'd came. He was of a proud Anaxes Knight lineage and wore the armor proudly with the cape of a master flowing at all times. Lann was no-nonsense, aggressive, and pragmatic, and had come to see the action on Harrin as a personal test for himself. To him, this battle was a personal test of his ability to lead the RVC Army and he refused to let this devolve into a stalemate, stating that the Army had win in the same clear manner as the Navy did.

"How long?" Drexel asked.

"Fifty minutes sir, and the commandoes will be in position."

"Very well. Have we accurately estimated the strength of those shield generators?" Drexel asked.

"Yes sir," Commander Vay nodded, "The seismic charges General Lann asked for will certainly destroy their facilities and their landing craft that support their forces. The Caridans' plan is…unorthodox at best, but it seems like it might work."

"Hit the shield generators, wipe out their overhead protection, and then artillery and airstrikes level their bases and the rest of the army advances and mops up. It'll be a helluva show."

"Erik Syno and his cameras are down there, waiting for the artillery to open fire."

Location: Bridge over the River Axii, Planet Harrin

"Captain Titus you have the honor of first assault," General Lann said calmly, "As Champion you have to the men across the bridge. The Clones will be behind you with their heavy walkers and the rest of the legion will follow behind you."

"Yes sir," Titus nodded, looking out at the bridge, "We'll have to be quick, the droids have a lot of tanks."

"They'll be dealt with," a brown-marked Clone Commander named Ranch said calmly, pointing at the bridge, "Our walkers will cover you as your Knights cross."

"Very well," Titus nodded respectfully, "The bridge is pretty large, enough for two columns."

"Right then, our walkers will advance on the right side," Ranch said calmly, adjusting his dark kama and pauldron, "Your tanks will advance alongside us, you're faster and your forces need speed to pull this attack off."

"The artillery is in range as of now, it's at maximum but we are ready," Lann informed them and looked down at his countdown timer, "We have to get ready. Get to your positions."

Location: Behind Separatist Lines

Commando Team Dagger was ready for action, its strength was split between four separate enemy bases. The unit had its assault platoons maneuvering into position with each of them having one of their men holding their secret weapons, seismic charges that each team were supposed to launch at the enemy bases from within the shield domes. They knew what to do, their plan was simple and efficient.

All of them were creeping forward through the farms and forest of the backcountry towards the enemy bases. Leading 2nd Platoon Colonel Myec was looking forward to this operation, mostly because it had been of his own design. He moved forward, with operators to his left and right with his A280 tucked to his shoulder. He and the rest were moving one foot at a time, careful not to make noise. They'd started off moving through the irrigation canals and streams, sticking to the water and staying beneath it for the most part.

Now, with the teams moving into their launch positions Myec stopped and with pointer and middle finger pointed up he circled his hand around and saw everyone else silently copying him as the team spread out and secured a perimeter. He then pointed to the team carrying the rocket propelled seismic charge and the launch ramp assembly. It was an ad hoc and pieced together piece of kit, with a concussion missile guidance package and rocket booster to steer the warhead manually towards its target. To get the missiles in the air the Commandos had constructed a simple ramp to lift them up into the air and the guidance package would send the powerful weapons at their targets. The Commandos holding these things began setting everything up, and were ready to fire within a few moments.

"All stations this net, Dagger-6, report fire status," Colonel Myec whispered into his commlink.

"Dagger-1, green."

"Dagger-2, green."

"Dagger-3, green."

Myec nodded appreciatively, knowing his team was ready to fire.

"Command, Dagger-6, Dagger is green to fire. Awaiting orders."

With his check in complete Myec checked his next objective, a thin valley where his team was to maneuver and prevent a retreat by droid forces so the main body could finish them. It was a quick jetpack ride over and they'd hold the village that the only road in the area passed through. Other Caridan Commando Teams had their own objectives for steering the enemy away from retreating. But their enemy units were numerous and quite heavily armed, it was going to be tough if the regulars didn't destroy them immediately. However Myec's team was more than willing to get their hands dirty.

"All Teams, prepare to fire."

The commando units were primed and ready to let loose, and the countdown timers on their warheads were triggered. As the countdown timer was about to fire they ducked away from the stands holding the rockets and waited for their engines to ignite. With a blast of heat and flame the four foot long missiles fired, and arched into the air. They flew up in an arching smoke column and then angled down at groups of walled C-9979-built outposts. The shield generators in each outpost with the intact C-9979's were the primary targets, with each blast aimed at a specific point so the blast radius hit them all. When the rockets were about to strike home the comms had one word called out from the operational commander of the Caridans' submission.

"Splash."

Blue explosions and compressions preceded the seismic charge exploding, sending out a razor thin blue energy wave that cut through walls, droids, vehicles, and assault craft with little care for what was where. Explosions ripped and tore at the droid outposts as they were obliterated by the rockets that struck all across the droid rear. The shield generators went offline in small explosions as fire lit up the night sky and the pinkish shield domes disappeared and the way was cleared for the RVC concentrated artillery to let loose. The commandos saw the dots of artillery and proton torpedoes light up the night sky right before they turned and moved towards their next objectives.

Location: RVC Frontline, 17th Legion Artillery

"We're here where Republic Volunteer Corps forces have launched a massive frontal assault upon Separatist forces on the planet Harrin," Erik Syno said quickly. His camera was pointing lights at him so the viewers could see him and the artillery behind him fire its opening volley, "You can see behind me a massive artillery barrage is about to begin as special forces have just brought down the shield umbrella protecting droid forces from the RVC's artillery and air power."

Behind him a line T4-H Self-Propelled Artillery Pieces was about to loose its powerful A7V Cannons mounted upon their T4 tank chassis. Their crewmen who were making sure they had the right firing coordinates with a man on the outside of the right side of each vehicle with an old school pull string. They all faced to the right, away from the cannons with the pull string looped around their hands. The drivers and gunners were in the vehicles, and a pair of troopers behind each with the large proton charges stacked in lightly armored boxy speeders behind them ready to reload as needed. There sixteen of these sets of vehicles behind Syno, with another sixteen off to the side and another sixteen T4-R Multiple Launch Rocket Systems with proton torpedoes ready to fire.

Out in front of him he knew the mass of multiple legions were already across the river. The all-Coruscanti legion he was with had another Coruscant legion to their right and a Corellian one to their left. All of them, with their forty-eight artillery pieces ready to rain down hell. In all, one thousand three hundred and forty-four artillery pieces and rocket launchers were prepared to open fire. The moment the pink shields came down, Syno made certain his cameras were in perfect position to see the barrage.

"Fire!" the artillery commander yelled as loud as possible, as Syno had asked him to do for the camera.

"Away!" he heard the gun commander nearest to him yell in response as the man turned his body and yanked the cord and the bright blue flash of the gun fired off and dust rose around the guns as more and more of them fired.

The concussions made Syno glad he had his ear protection on, as his green plant-like form couldn't handle this kind of noise up close, despite the humanoid appearance his species gave off. But he couldn't help but watch in amazement at the massive barrage that began so quickly and with such force. The camera then picked up on massive arches of blue flamed proton torpedoes firing into the air with the glow of their motors illuminating their smoke trails as they flew overhead and then impacted with heavy thuds in the distance. Orange and red lit up the horizon for as far as Erik could see and he was all-too ready to get this report done.

"As you can see," he started but had to stop as the heavy volleys of the Coruscanti battery behind him drowned him out, "The Republic Volunteer Corps has begun their assault. A massive artillery barrage is preceding it and I'll tell you one thing, I've never seen anything quite like it. Those droids are also reported to have RVC Navy Y-Wings dropping proton bombs on their rearmost positions as well, paving the way for armor and infantry to strike the final blow. If you look out in front of us here you can just make out the tanks of the 17th Volunteer Legion advancing towards that low row of hills with infantry and lighter speeder tanks behind them."

He narrated everything he saw, knowing that this was going to find its way onto the news on most planets that broadcast for the Republic. This was simply golden, and he was eating up this opportunity eagerly, making sure he put the raging artillery battery right behind him. The RVC artillerymen rushed about, reloading proton charges. Then all of them saw the squadrons of Y-Wings flew overhead, their red sublight engines glowing in the dark as their bombs dropped over the rear of the Separatist lines with a wave of orange explosions lighting up the horizon. It looked as though their forces were taking every way possible short or orbital bombardment to wreck the droid army and they had just begun.

Location: 3rd Volunteer Legion

The company was leading the advance through the field at a fast run towards the enemy's positions. Wyatt and Eva were moving through the twisted remnants of muddy fields and destroyed droids and vehicles. They moved up under an umbrella of protective fire which lit up the sky and coated them in a ghostly blue light the artillery was so thick. The RVC troopers had coated themselves in webbing that they'd placed leafy branches and grasses around their packs and on their helmets and across their chests.

"Up the hill!" Lieutenant Yuno yelled loudly as the group got to the grassy knoll and the troops broke into a sprint with the tanks alongside them.

The artillery let up at this point, not willing to risk friendly fire casualties. Wyatt and Eva got to the crest of the hill to see a field of destruction in front of them with droids crawling about if they hadn't been obliterated outright. The outpost walls were devastated, and the C-9979's were splintered and on fire. All sort of droid vehicles lay in ruins, on their sides, or in pieces. Like everyone else the two troopers dropped to a knee and fired their blasters down into the droids that were scrambling to form a defense as the tanks blew apart strongpoints that formed amongst the rubble. Wyatt focused his own fire on a nearby MTT that was on fire but trying to get away. However that ended when a tank next to him, fired a twin cannon blast that blew the vehicle onto its side.

"Attack!"

An almighty roar rose from their ranks as they charged, and the combined legion barreled into the Separatist ruins, blasting everything that they could see. Wyatt was followed by Eva, and they quickly saw that the droids themselves had constructed some fortifications. Machine-dug trenches crisscrossed the area in front of them as droids began popping up to fight off the assault, but they were far too few. Wyatt and the others laid into the droids in the trenches with blaster fire as they ran up on them and their devastated earthworks. The RVC troops, in a mad rage jumped into the trenches and began to smash at the droids that didn't get killed by blaster fire or obliterated by artillery with hand to hand fighting.

Wyatt kicked a B1 back against the caved in wall of the trench behind as he was about to jump in and without pausing brought his rifle butt down against the hooked head of the droid and hit over and over again as Eva jumped in as well, smashing it as well until they snapped the head off. The two turned and then scrambled up and over the trenches and stayed with their comrades. All of them saw droid carrying MTT's starting to retreat, pulling out with some of them heavily damaged. It was a taste of victory, and it was exactly what they liked to see. The Delta Company troopers rushed into the ruined C-9979 where an entire force of droids was normally garrisoned, but they only saw that the enemy was gone, destroyed in the bombardment.

"To the ship!" they were ordered by their squad leader, pointing to the open and wrecked C-9979 that had several battle droids guarding some maintenance droids rushing inside.

"Let's get 'em!"

The group charged down the rubble and fired into the open door. Wyatt was the first to get in and blasted a pair of battle droids that guarded the stairs as the maintenance droids ran in panic. He ran into stairs alongside with Eva, but a Super Battle Droid was waiting there and fired down at them and Eva got in the way and was hit in the shoulder pad by one of the blaster bolts and lurched backwards.

"No!" Wyatt yelled and lifted his blaster and fired a grenade from his launcher and shattered the droid up the stairs and charged up the lopsided stairs past the wreckage in pursuit of the rest of the droids.

He got to the main wing level where he saw several battle droids turning to face him, many of them damaged or being repaired. But they still rose to face him. At least two dozen B1's and a few B2's activated and moved at him with blasters raised. He pointed his Viper at the larger of the groups and fired, blasting a massive wall of debris from the group of enemy droids. He then fired fully automatic blaster bolts into the droids on the left and mowed them down as he ducked away. There were a few that tried to raise up from repair tables and hanging from the racks. Without hesitation he began firing into them rapidly, moving quickly in a bloodlust for destruction as the bunny droids and some Separatist astromechs retreated away from him. Without hesitation or pity he destroyed all of the battle droids and then turned to the maintenance droids huddled in the corner, beeping in worry and fear.

Leveled his grenade launcher once more and fired, eliminating all of them at once. He then looked back at the destruction he'd left in his wake, and saw his squad walking in with Eva leading the way, the shoulder pad that had been struck seared and glowing a little bit. They knew what to do

"Wow," Eva smirked as she came next to Wyatt, "Looks like we have a few things to talk about Wyatt."

"I guess so," Wyatt sighed, "Sorry about that."

"You kidding trooper?" Lieutenant Yuno laughed, "I'm putting you in for a commendation for that."

"You don't have to do that sir."

"No you've done a helluva job here trooper. You deserve it," Yuno said patting him on the shoulder.

Location: Commando Team Dagger

The convoy of damaged MTT's with several AAT's and Snail Tanks in escort moved towards the valley leading into the farming village that Commando Team Dagger stationed themselves to block. Each man was hiding in thick tree cover with blasters in a series of overlapping fields of fire. Their commando variant DLT-18's were propped up and ready for action with the Viper grenade launchers under each A280 were prepped with armor piercing rounds and they were prepared for an ambush. Colonel Myec looked at the convoy and counted off the vehicles, counting off two AAT's in the lead and five Snail Tanks on the sides. Twenty-two MTT's were in column, many of them smoking or trickling flame and some of them were missing armor plates. But there were no infantry outside of a eight manned Platoon Attack Craft and a handful of STAP's on the flanks.

"Here they come."

"Count twenty-two transports and seven tanks," Myec informed everyone, "They've got eight PAC's and seventeen STAP's."

"STAP's targeted, PAC's targeted with repeaters."

"They're almost into the killzone," one of the platoon leaders called out.

"Wait for that last MTT to get into range."

The unit waited calmly as they aimed their blasters and repeaters at their targets. They each, in the dark of the night could see the green tinted vehicles in great detail.

"Dagger, take 'em," Colonel Myec ordered.

"Goin' hot."

All across the woods Caridan Commandos rose up and fired into the retreating droid columns and with rocket launchers brought to bear. The rearmost MTT exploded and then another a couple AAT's in the lead of the column exploded as they went over anti-vehicle mines planted by the Caridans. The team moved up against the enemy droids that tried to fire back and with a practiced precision of decades of experience ripped up the droids that tried to deploy.

Colonel Myec himself rose from behind the tree he'd been taking cover. He targeted a STAP and fired quickly into the droid from a few dozen meters away. The droid's vehicle was struck several times before he hit the B1 and the vehicle tumbled to the ground and exploded against the side of a tree. Other STAP's were hit immediately as blaster fire tore into the PAC's. Droids were struck repeatedly as Viper rockets smashed into the vehicles around them. The droids started to deploy as quickly as they could while the commandos moved forward.

Myec moved to the lead of his forces and into the midst of the droids' ranks. With his blaster rifle almost glued to his shoulder he moved his legs robotically into the fray. He fired into the droids he came across and with his operators and methodically destroyed dozens of droids. They all moved to the rear, destroying droids all along the way. It was an easy fight for them, until they saw a line of AAT's retreating right at them.

"Oh crap," Myec groaned.

As the Commandos fell back blue mass driver bolts smashed into the enemy tanks and they all stopped to turn against the Republic vehicles that had fired on them. All of their forces however saw that the large AT-TE's were opening fire on them as they walked over the hill from the south and fired their lasers and destroyed the tanks quickly as Clones marched alongside their walkers and fired volleys into the enemy vehicles from the rear.

It didn't take long for this last enemy tank to go down, and finally the enemy forces were gone, and the area went quiet. The RVC forces walked out, really taken by surprise by the complete surprise that was their victory. Orange and red lit up the area as smoke choked the sky while medivac craft flew back and forth. Cheers from the distance of RVC units called out in joy as they celebrated their victory.

"All units, operation success, well done."

"Roger that," Myec sighed, "Dagger-6 out."

The Clone walkers stopped their advance as their infantry spread out, began picking through the rubble, and awaited new orders. A Clone commander walked out from the Clone formations that were walking forward through the wreckage. Colonel Myec walked up through the commando unit and saluted the Clone Commander at the same time the Clone gave him a salute.

"Commander," Myec nodded.

"Colonel, I have to say, your units sure know how to deal with clankers," Commander Ranch smirked as he put his blaster pistols in their holsters.

"We've been fighting before there was a droid army," Colonel Myec said calmly, "But this…haven't seen a battle this big since the Stark Hyperspace War."

"Just another fight for us Colonel," Commander Ranch responded with a shrug as they walked towards the walkers.

"I'd bet you haven't had a battle like this," Myec countered.

"I'd agree, your troops have a unique way of dealing with droids," Ranch said, "Been a real treat to learn your fighting style."

"Right, glad you could be here, make sure you spread the word of how we fight," Myec reminded the Clone.

"If only the Jedi fought like you do, no disrespect intended of course."

"Speaking of Knights. How'd the Anaxes Knights do?" Myec asked sarcastically.

"Still hunting down droids."

"Figures, they're a bit bloodthirsty."

"Nothing wrong with that. And Colonel I'll tell you one thing, there won't be any more making fun of you lads," Ranch assured him.

"I'd hope so, we put a lot of effort into winning this battle. And we have many more after this."

Location: Chancellor's Office, Planet Coruscant

"The Republic War Party has arrived Chancellor," his secretary called out as he waited for the next meeting.

"Send them in," Palpatine said pleasantly, and stood up to welcome what were quickly becoming his most needed political allies.

Senators from Kamino, Carida, Kuat, Bestine, Eriadu, Anaxes, and a few others walked into the office, all of them were powerful representatives of militarily important worlds. They'd all benefited from the war in military industry. But Kuat's senator was not there, seeing as Senator Danu was a pacifist and not the kind of person to have in this meeting.

"Welcome Senators, it's good to see you here for this meeting."

"I understand we are here to speak on the subject of the Republic Volunteer Corps?" the Senator from Anaxes asked.

"Well, that is simply a cause for an extension of the subject of bringing in all planetary defense forces under the umbrella of the whole Republic Military. I believe the time has come," Palpatine suggested as everyone took a seat.

"Is this because of the RVC's recent success?" the Caridan Senator inquired, almost like a 'I told you so' moment.

"Very much so, with the Volunteer Corps being as effective as it has been the Republic needs to understand that the Clones and Jedi cannot fight this war alone. The recent setbacks of Republic forces under Jedi command and the success of the RVC have proven what the real value of our planetary defense forces and volunteer militias truly is."

"With respect Chancellor," the Kaminoan Senator Burtoni interrupted, "Our Clone Troopers are far more effective than any mere militia."

"Tell that to four million droids and the thousand ships Drexel's forces have destroyed over the past couple weeks," the Caridan snapped back.

"True, the RVC's forces have done the Republic a great service, but they are simply too few, and the Jedi are spread thin as is."

"Chancellor," the Anaxes Senator interrupted, "With all due respect the Jedi are not officer material. Overall their grasp on military tactics and strategy has left a lot to be desired. The RVC's officers on the other have clearly shown they are better at commanding field armies and fleets. Hell the only thing keeping the Republic from collapsing has been the skill of the Clones and the superiority of our ships. Granted the Jedi can turn the tide of a battle, but a campaign needs real command experience."

"Yet if your vaunted volunteer army cannot perform it matters not," Senator Burtoni chided.

"Insult the soldiers of Anaxes again and it will be your last word Kaminoan," the Anaxes Senator growled in a very plausible threat, he was a Master of the Anaxes Knights and stood up to accentuate his threat.

"Enough please," Palpatine said calmly, trying to bring the tension down, "I think we can agree on the fact we need both. So I propose a Senate Bill to create a new branch of the Republic Military, this would bring all planetary defense forces and militias under the umbrella of the military. At its core an all-volunteer force, perhaps with the current RVC as its model."

"How would this work exactly Chancellor? The Jedi aren't very capable of taking on the command of such forces and then adding the logistical difficulties of combined units."

"Well, they don't have to be combined, and from what I'm seeing such a thing is not recommended," Palpatine noted, smiling internally as he saw an opportunity to keep the Jedi chained to their fate.

"I would need to contact the RVC forces in the field," the Caridan suggested, "Admiral Drexel would need to be part of the process."

"Of course, he seems to be by far the most knowledgeable military commander we have right now," Palpatine stated, knowing that the War Party had it out for the Jedi so this would be just what they'd like to hear.

"He'd be very pleased to hear this," the Anaxes man responded.

"Well, it seems we have a lot to do."

"Indeed, the war effort waits on no one."

Now, that's done. Time for the fallout from this political reach and the creation of what I am sure is going to be a big move for the RVC. And I am considering a Separatist answer to the RVC, a Confederate militia force. What do you guys think? Any suggestions for another sector of the galaxy for the RVC to take on? What planets seem interesting? I'm thinking the planets Zeltros Bespin or Ruusan.

Next Chapter Preview: The RVC pulls back to rest relax and reform. Best of all it is time to grow.