Chapter 22
Location: Vyvis-12, Wreck of the Republican Guard Star Destroyer Honorable
The interior of the downed warship was absolutely wrecked. The two Tanaab troopers, Wyatt and Eva, were working their way back, trying to get through to the bridge. As they walked they had to step over and past bodies of red-uniformed crewmen and women and officers. Most were killed by the impact, many others were dead from the fires and killed by explosions from within the ship and from hull breaches from enemy fire. Wires, lights, pieces of the ceiling and walls all clogged the way forward. To make it worse the ship had crashed and was tilting to their left at about twenty degrees.
"Look," Wyatt pointed at a blast door that was trying weakly to close, "That's gotta be the way to the bridge."
"I think so," Eva said, looking down at her wrist screen, nodding at the map she had on it.
"Oh jeez," Wyatt winced, looking down past the blast door.
The door was the big kind that closed with four sliding triangular sections. But only the bottom right section was fully deployed, the top two were partly open, and the last was jammed just barely visible, weakly going up and down. There was a full squad of white and red armored Marines, all dead, blaster fire eminent on their once pristine armor. Wyatt stepped over the body of a man who was laying with his body in the hall they'd come from and knees bent over the jammed blast door. There was an E-Web Heavy Repeating Blaster Cannon laying on its side on the wall. The corridor branched into a four-way junction, with one of the doors completely shut, and the other two were fully open.
"These guys got boarded," Eva said, pointing at the numerous droids laying in the hallway.
"Help…" a voice hoarsely called out from their left.
"Eva, an officer!" Wyatt said quickly and slid down next to the young man.
He had a brown uniform on, with the red stripes on the sleeves and pant legs symbolizing him being aa Guard officer. The patch on his right arm bore the symbol for the planet Commenor. His uniform was torn up, and he had a pair of blaster wounds on his hip and lower abdomen.
"What're you doing here?" the man asked. His eyes were groggy, uncoordinated, and the sight of two camouflaged army troops on his ship was throwing him off.
"Your ship crashed sir," Wyatt responded.
"We've been boarded…they're gonna get to the reactor…have to abandon ship," the man trailed off, looking around, "Chief!"
Wyatt looked around, and saw a trio of crewmen on the deck, blood trails going down from their bodies where they lay face down. One bore the rank of Chief Petty Officer, the other ones were simple crewmen. He rushed over, and slipped on the blood on the deck that was trailing from a dead female officer laying on the deck. Trying to take a pulse for signs of life Wyatt was disappointed to see that not one of the red Commenor crewmen was alive. All seemed to have been killed in the crash itself. But a couple crew beyond them were killed by blaster fire. The DH-17's on the ground were evidence of this. One had his arm in a makeshift sling, signaling he'd been wounded before. He'd been leading this section to escape pods.
"They're dead sir," Wyatt shook his head.
"Sir, we'll call for a medic," Eva said as she opened up her medical pack at her hip.
"Eva," Wyatt said as he looked at the officer, who hadn't made a noise since he and Eva had tried to find signs of life in the other crew.
She looked down at the officer, and saw his eyes were half-open, staring up at her, unmoving and his body still, "Shit!"
She held her fingers to his neck, but sighed unhappily as she found that he'd succumbed to his wounds.
"We need to keep moving. The droids are probably still on board, we need to demo those computers," Wyatt said grimly, remembering their mission to destroy the sensitive information in the computer cores of the bridge command centers.
"Right behind ya," Eva shook her head, saddened by losing this officer.
The two began to move, following the path that their helmets told them. This didn't last for very long until they got to the end of the line for them. The corridor was collapsed, and the smoke that rose from the ship was being funneled through here. The corridor was blocked by a jammed blast door, but there was a hole blasted in the top armor plate that they could climb up through.
"We can run to the towers from on the hull, and then climb from there," Wyatt said quickly.
"That's over a hundred meters Wyatt, almost straight up," Eva reminded him, looking up through the hole.
"It's all we've got," Wyatt shrugged, and then jumped up, grabbing onto the wires, and started pulling himself up through the ten foot wide hole, "Let's go, that's an order."
"You've got one rank on me!" Eva countered as she jumped up and Wyatt helped her up.
The two found themselves back in the open air, on top of the sloping hull. The top hull section sloped slightly already when sitting level but it wasn't level, and the two had to scramble up the mangled hull. They got to the hangar door, which was buckled and damaged, with numerous holes blasted into it. Smoke poured from here, numerous fires burning within the hangar, with explosions rocking the ship every so often.
"Munitions," Wyatt said, looking over at Eva.
"Yeah, let's get as far away from that as possible," she nodded, and the two began to run along the very edge of the opposite side where it was nearly level.
"We're almost there," Wyatt said as they continued moving. But then he saw something up on top of the command towers. Both were intact, but neither were out of danger, jet droids, B1's and B2's, were buzzing it.
"They're firing into the bridge!" Eva said, startled and distressed at what they were seeing.
They could see red laser fire going into the windows of both bridges. Blue laser fire was being returned, but there wasn't nearly as much of it. Wyatt aimed up, and fired into the numerous droids, firing at the droids from below as both went forward, firing and moving between pieces of wreckage scattered on the red scarred hull. Droids began dropping, but there wasn't enough of them being hit. However it did draw half of the droids away from the attack, and they dove for the two troopers.
"Got their attention!" Wyatt called out, and fired at the droids that were flying down towards them at a rapid pace.
He fired at them and dropped to a knee behind a crashed Y-Wing engine, and fired as best he could. The automatic lead that his HUD gave him helped to put the crosshairs on the enemy droids and he was able to squeeze off round after round in automatic bursts that tore them from the sky. The two managed to shoot down the rocket droids and sent them spiraling down to smash against the hull. However they still had another twenty moving up towards them on the ground that they'd missed. Wyatt tossed a droid popper that landed amongst five droids, and the droids flashed with overloading circuits and dropped. But Wyatt had to duck as red blaster bolts forced him to move into different cover, firing into the pair of B1's that had flanked him.
Eva was bobbing back and forth behind a peeled up piece of hull. She had caught a dozen droids in the open that were much more capable than the normal droids that they usually faced. The jet droids jumped up into their, firing into their positions. She had to be just as nimble, and had to be much more accurate. Thankfully, she had a full auto setting and a grenade launcher slung under her rifle. She fired into groupings of droids, damaging or dropping them entirely. And soon enough Wyatt managed to get forward and flanked them as the droids got into cover and pummeled them with a fully automatic burst from his A280.
"They just keep coming!" Wyatt said as he continued fighting the droids back as the two moved in sprints back and forth.
"There's not many left!" Eva said as she fired into a gaggle of them that were trying to set up on a mangled piece of hull, and then for good measure lobbed a grenade right into them, and the hull beneath the droid's buckled and dropped with the droids on it.
"Not anymore!" Wyatt shook his head as he got to a position for her to move up and join him, right at the base of the tower so they could begin the climb via ascension cables, "Get your ascension cable ready."
"Right," Eva said as she leaned against the bridge tower, and could see that the tower was pretty beat up, with fires raging from holes in the sides that they'd have to chance ascending through.
"Try to avoid the fires, cables don't like heat," Wyatt reminded her as he clamped his cable deployer on tight, "And…fire."
He and Eva both hit the button on their ascension cable deployer and the liquid spool began to be rapidly drained at the rocket powered dart shot upwards and both impacted on the bottom of the ship's port bridge. They both gave the cables a hard tug, and then both hit the return button and they began to get lifted off of the ground, bouncing against the sloping tower as they started but then were hanging only by their rifles and their buckles latched onto it from their armor and their own handholds on it. Once there they grabbed onto anything that they could, and fought the urge to look down.
"Don't look down!" Eva said to Wyatt, but chanced a look around them, and in the air they saw the numerous warships of the Guard battling it out with swarms of starfighters swirling around, dotting the sky with smoke and fire of downed fighters, and pieces of wreckage and whole ships plummeting to the ground.
"Fek you!" Wyatt said, deathly afraid of such heights. He hesitantly grabbed on pieces of hull plate that provided a decent handhold and pulled himself to the vertical portion hand by hand until he was standing on the ledge, "A little help?" he asked, holding a hand out that was grabbed by Eva and they both got up on top of the bridge.
Here, on the fighter control section of the bridge they could see a hole that they could use to get inside. There was the flash of droids firing within and Eva sprinted over with a droid popper in hand. The girl dropped it within the gaggle of droids firing into the blasted open door and it went off and the whole force of twenty battle droids dropped in the densely packed hallway. The floor was covered with the bodies of crewmen and marines and dotted with an officer every so often. But the droids were also filling in the gaps.
"Hey, friendlies coming in!" Wyatt yelled, holding a hand down to be easily seen.
He then dropped down into the hall, and saw a handful of bloodied crew, officers, and a pair of Marines fortified in the hall. Eva dropped down next to him, and they moved over as a senior officer, a commander, walked over to them.
"Commander sir," Wyatt snapped off a salute, "Corporal Wyatt, 3rd Guard Legion. We're here to make sure the computers are destroyed."
"3rd Legion? How'd you get here? And are you it?" the senior Commenor officer asked, stunned by what he saw.
"Yes sir," Eva nodded.
"You two fought your way here? The droids that were buzzing us?" a sergeant amongst the marines questioned.
"We took 'em out from below, managed to force them to split up and caught most in the air," Wyatt shrugged.
"Damn I'm gonna put you two in for a commendation," the commander shook his head in wonder.
"We're not done yet sir. The other bridge's computers?"
"We don't know, the Captain said she was going to, but we never got confirmation before we hit the ground," the commander replied, "You two," he pointed to the two remaining marines, "Go with 'em. The intel in those banks has to be wiped."
"Aye sir," the two disciplined Marines saluted.
"The best way is across the gap sir," Eva suggested, pointing at the glass window.
"Oh you're kidding me," Wyatt groaned under his breath as he followed Eva over to the blown out windows and she stepped out after firing her ascension cable into the top of the other side and then above their own window. They couldn't see any signs of life in the other bridge, and so Eva went first, holding onto the cable with both hands, hanging over the gap.
Wyatt had no choice but to follow, and they both went out as the two Marines did the same thing, and they tentatively moved. His arms burned, his hands felt like they wanted to just fall off due to their cables cutting into them. Eva managed to get over with no problems and stepped in. She walked in, and then a blue blaster bolt was fired from out of sight and Wyatt saw Eva drop. His fears were confirmed when he saw her bio readings go yellow and a red dot appeared over right abdomen.
"Eva!" he yelled desperately, knowing that something very wrong had just occurred as he got to the ledge and scrambled inside. Standing there was an officer, a young ensign, holding an SSK-7 Blaster Pistol. Wyatt lost control when saw the end smoking from having just been fired. He looked up just as Wyatt scrambled in with his A280 in both hands.
Right in front of numerous officers Wyatt belted the young ensign across the face with the butt of his rifle and sent him sprawling into the pit next to the central walkway. Eva was clutching at the blaster wound, gasping in pain as he leaned down next to her.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he screamed at the ensign who was slowly trying to get to his feet, "You shot her! You stupid son of a bitch!"
"I'm okay," Eva hissed out as the two Marines from the other scrambled in.
"Captain sir," the sergeant said, upon seeing the female captain rush over, her head bandaged and arm in a sling.
"What the hell is this?!" she demanded, trying to figure out what was going on. Behind her a squad of Marines and several other officers rushed in, and saw the two camouflaged troopers on her bridge that had seemingly come out of nowhere.
"One your stupid fekkers shot one of our own!" Wyatt screamed, ripping off his helmet and stood in her face. The other Marines behind her stepped forward.
"Watch yourself Corporal, it was an accident."
"Accident?! Are you kidding me?! You dumb bitch we came here to save you!" Eva snapped as well, but caused herself too much pain and groaned as she dropped her head back.
"Marines, get these troopers off my bridge and prepare the demo charges," the captain replied, and stepped back, and two of the Marines grabbed a hold of Wyatt who resisted harshly, throwing one into the pit in a still-uncontrollable fury and belted a second across the face with his rifle. But the staff sergeant in charge of them smacked him across the face with his stun baton, dropping him like a bag of potatoes. Four of the others grabbed a stretcher and put Eva on it and the others put Wyatt's arms over their shoulders and dropped him in the corridor outside the bridge. It is here a makeshift hospital was set up already with numerous crewmen and marines being patched up or waiting to be patched up or worse, shot up with painkillers to await death's embrace.
"Do we cuff him cap'n?" the Marine senior NCO asked as both Tanaab troopers were dropped next to each other.
"No, pressing any charges will only turn this whole incident into a shit show. I've lost my ship, no sense in dragging a simple soldier down with me," she shook her head, "But take their weapons. He'll still be pissed one of our people shooting one of his."
"He openly disrespected you captain!" an officer snapped, enraged, "This farmboy needs to be taught their place!"
"Normally yes, but you'll only piss off the legion that's keeping the droids away, look," the staff sergeant pointed at the patch on Wyatt's shoulder, "3rd Guards Legion. We crashed on their position and they're securing the wreck and saving what's left of our crew. I think we can overlook an emotional reaction to fratricide."
"And we will, is that understood Lance Corporal?" the captain looked down at Eva who had a Marine tending to her wound, and was really loopy from the pain killers.
"He shot me!"
"She's gone sir, meds," the Marine replied, "She's not going to remember any of this."
Location: Dreadnought Basilisk, Low Atmosphere of Vivyis-12
"Separatist battleships are falling back, trying to align for the jump to hyperspace," Commander Kuat called out.
"Very well, and the Jedi?" Drexel asked.
"They've landed and are sweeping through the flagship," replied the comms officer that was directly responsible for monitoring the boarding party.
"Have they met Grievous yet?" Ahsoka asked.
"You want out of here don't you?" Drexel asked.
"Yeah, my master likes to make every battle a competition. Probably to distract me from the death," Ahsoka responded.
"We have more starfighters than pilots right now. A pilot in our reserve squadron just had a spill down the stairs and has a broken leg. We could use the help," the Commander-Air-Group of the Basilisk immediately piped up. He knew of the Jedi's prowess in the air behind the controls of starfighters and he wanted some of that magic.
"Do you know how to fly a Y-Wing?" Kuat asked.
"I flew one at Ryloth," she proudly declared.
"I'll okay it," Drexel nodded, "Just make sure you get back here."
"Yes sir," Ahsoka proudly responded and turned to leave and left through the large doors that then shut behind her with a double layer of blast doors shutting the hatch between them. Then a squad of Anaxes Knights stepped back in front of the doors with another pair of Marine squads in their normal place outside the bridge and command deck, "I think you guys got this."
The Knights simply looked over at her, and the white-caped master just wordlessly nodded. With that Ahsoka just ran into the turbolift and was jetted down towards the place she remembered the way to the hangar. It was a simple run into the hangar, and waiting there were numerous starfighters of the Basilisk's reserve squadrons. Lined up in the back of the hangar was a full complement of twelve Y-Wings, right where she knew there would be some.
"I was told to report to the 56th Fighter-Bomber Squadron," she said quickly to the squadron commander who was in the cockpit of his Y-Wing, like the others in his squadron.
"You're the Jedi?" the man asked, not quite believing his eyes.
"That's right," Ahsoka nodded.
"If you're crazy enough get in number nine."
He pointed over his shoulder, and Ahsoka did a quick force-assisted jump and landed next to the Y-Wing. It was slimmer and smaller than the GAR variant she was used to. But it was still rugged, well-armored. Painted on the side of the cockpit were six frigate silhouettes and a battleship silhouette, signifying the ship kills that the pilot had taken part in. The nose of the Y-Wing had the same symbol as the others aboard the ship, a picture of Kuat with the name of the planet below the circle and the name of ship above it. There was no gunner in a turret behind her, but instead there was the small auto-turret that was built on top of the cockpit. The astromech was loaded in, and beeped at her as she climbed into the cockpit.
"I know little guy, I'm not your pilot, but he's a little hurt right now. I'm Ahsoka," she greeted the red painted droid, "I'm taking you out today."
"Commander," the crew chief climbed up next to her, for the first time addressing her by the military rank she held, "Here," he handed her a helmet, but it was a bit too large for her, and didn't have the necessary modifications for her race, "Oh…right, sorry we don't have a helmet your size or make."
"That's okay, I just need a comm," she responded, understanding the position he was in, and just peeled out the ear piece so she could communicate with the rest of this squadron.
"This is number nine, checking in," Ahsoka said as she returned a salute from the crew chief who lowered her cockpit for her.
"Commander, welcome to Gremlin Squadron," the squadron commander greeted her, "Your wingman is Gremlin-10, stay on his wing at all times and don't go chasing fighter kills. We're bombers, we leave the droid fighters to the F-Wings and the flak guns. Our job is to focus fire and bring down those cruisers."
"The droids like to fly in front of us and try baiting us to engage and break from our escorts. Y-Wings are a favorite target," the XO added as well, "They know our torpedoes can wreck their motherships."
"You have two warheads Commander, two ion torpedoes, and six armor piercing, we'll make passes and go down the list of who's hitting them with the ion warheads. It only takes four to disable the frigates and destroyers. The rest of the flight will hit with their armor piercing. You need to make sure you don't squeeze off an ion torpedo by mistake, it can disable anything too close to the impact. We also have eight proton bombs each in case we're called on for an air strike on a ground target. But so far the F7's are hogging tank kills. We'll probably end up using them on the dorsal tensor field generators to enemy ships."
"Roger that, let's trash some clankers."
After a few moments the word came, and the reserve squadrons began lifting off and dove down through the belly hangar of the large dreadnought and Ahsoka followed the line right through the opening and into the open air.
"All fighters, form up for a sweep, Y-Wings, prepare for your attack runs. F-Wings, take point," the air controller called out as the red-painted fighters zoomed out from below the Basilisk and into the open air.
"Gremlin Squadron, on me, attack formation," the commander said calmly as the fighters formed up with a whole formation of other squadrons launched from other ships, reserves deployed into the fight.
Ahsoka could see several hundred fighters formed around her and tried to her best to keep formation with her wingman in the four-ship formation on the right edge of the squadron, below the squadron commander. The clouds directly in front of her hid the battle for the most part as the reserve squadrons leveled out and flew over the Basilisk by a thousand feet. Ahsoka could see the HUD markings of friendly and enemy signals through the clouds with red and blue flashing from the other side of the clouds with the occasional flash of orange. Below her she saw for miles and miles the dotting of fires burning from the crashed ships on the ground and the flashes of artillery explosions and the minute traces of blaster fire below the trees as smoke climbed skyward. She'd seen battles before, but none on this scale.
"Gremlins, accelerate to attack speed, here we go."
Ahsoka trained her focus forward, reaching out with her senses, trying to get a sense for what lay ahead. But the mass of life and death was nearly overwhelming, and she stopped actively reaching after a moment. Then they broke through. She could see a mammoth Imperator-Class Star Destroyer even with them facing broadside to them, firing with all its might above and into the side of a descending Providence-Class Carrier/Destroyer. Both ships showed signs of the battle's attrition, but the lighter smaller Providence was the one belching fire and smoke and descending rapidly. Ahsoka banked around, following her squadron as they now entered the battle space. There were fighters everywhere, chasing and firing at one another. Missiles flew all over the place and the smaller more maneuverable escort ships of the Guard poured all the fire they could into the enemy warships from point blank range.
Then a bang to her right caught her attention and she saw a flak burst explode under Gremlin-12's engine. The Y-Wing's right nacelle lost all power and nosed slightly down and then started spinning uncontrollably downwards trailing thick black smoke. The squadron continued on, targeting information passing down quickly as they zeroed in on a lightly damaged Providence-Class ship and followed in behind a squadron of F-Wings. A swarm of Tri-Fighters blaze in past them, firing their weapons at the Y-Wings as they passed and the F-Wings engaged them in turn. The first two Y-Wings then loosed their torpedoes and banked right and began to climb. Ahsoka tapped the control for her normal torpedoes and triggered a volley of two right after she saw the others doing the same and followed the others.
The torpedoes impacted right where their targeting computers said they would, into the open gaping hangar where explosions tore into the vessel's munitions and vehicle packed decks. A trio of Hammerhead Corvettes exploited this opportunity and dove in behind them and fired into the open wound of the ship and other heavier Republic ships did likewise as Ahsoka followed the squadron in on another attack run on the same ship. It was like the dangerous forests of Felucia, the moment blood was spilled the predators pounced and tore apart the wounded animal.
"Break off the big boys have got it," Gremlin-1 called out as they lined up and pulled out of their power dive. They passed above, and Ahsoka rolled slightly to get a look at the point-blank volleys a pair of Split-Bow Heavy Cruisers were putting into the enemy capital ship.
"Evasive action!" someone called out and Ahsoka looked up and saw four Vulture Droids diving on them from straight ahead and she aggressively turned into them and fired.
Other Y-Wings avoided the attack altogether, but two others took to the attack behind her, and their fire struck one of the droids and it tumbled past them as they closed and the fighters got finished off by a roving pair of F-Wings who were chasing them.
"Reform! Make your target the Recusant at 310," the commander called out, and a light destroyer was highlighted on the Y-Wing's HUD.
"This is Gremlin-9, I'm nearby, making an ion torpedo run," she said quickly, "Cover me Gremlin-10."
"Copy that," the wingman responded.
Ahsoka aligned her Y-Wing and saw something just above her, an Arquitens-Class Light Cruiser crossed their path and fired up into a flight of Hyena Bombers that loosed their bombs right into the side of the ship. The handful of warheads explode against the forward hull, eviscerating it and the smoke and fire consumed the whole port side as the corvette began to list to port and the weapons on the ship fell silent. But a CR90 above it fired into the bombers and destroyed the whole group. One however only took a glancing blow and spun down towards the Y-Wings. Ahsoka jerked her craft down and to the left, but Gremlin-10 wasn't fast enough. She watched the Hyena smash into the nose of the Y-Wing and the left engine sheared off causing fire to envelop both as both bombers. The Y-Wing was thrown into an irreversible tailspin, leaving a corkcrew of smoke trailing behind it. Both landed with fiery crashes against the forward hull of a Munificent-Class frigate and slid off in pieces.
"Gremlin-10's down!" Ahsoka cried out.
"Continue on target, Gremlin-11, your shot."
Ahsoka loosed her torpedoes after a second and saw them impact just behind the bridge, disabling several major systems. But she got too close and the second salvo of ion torpedoes struck the ship and the effects caught her Y-Wing right in the area of effect. The systems in the cockpit flickered and struggled to stay alive as the fighter started nosing over. With its rather unflightworthy characteristics without its repulsors and engines the Y-Wing began to tumble, throwing her around inside.
"This Gremlin-9, I'm losing control!" Ahsoka called out quickly.
"You're not gonna get power back in time, bail out Gremlin-9, bail out!" someone's voice ordered her.
"Bail out?!" she said, more to herself, than anything. But then she saw the looming figure of a Venator right below her and she knew she had to follow that advice.
Yanking on the handle at the top of her seat the canopy was blown back and she was launched out of the cockpit. Air greeted her cheeks as she was propelled upwards and then began freefalling. She had a manual control for the parachute set, and freefell down past the swirling battle and down into the clouds. When Ahsoka broke through she could see the wreckage strewn and fire-covered battlefield below. There was a vague line of battle, with blue and red blaster fire criss-crossing the lines. The explosions of artillery and the tracks of missiles fired from gunships and rocket artillery streaked across the lines, hitting what Ahsoka could see were lines of reinforcements, adding more fuel to the fires of the battle. Smoke hung in the air, climbing from the ground in thousands of origin points where fires both large and small burned brightly.
Free falling further and further down she could see that she was at least aiming towards Republic lines near a low series of cliffs that they were battling on. Once to a thousand feet Ahsoka pulled the cord on the parachute and began drifting downwards rapidly. A flight of F7 Dropships flew right beneath her, pummeling a droid formation of tanks advancing up the steep hillside where she saw Republic infantry were holding on by their fingernails. She angled down towards them, knowing she might be able to make a difference there. As she approached she was fired upon by droids, and lit her lightsaber and began deflecting whatever came at her.
The rocky ground met her quite quickly, and Ahsoka used her force-aided agility to bound against the rocks and rolled into cover next to some very surprised Republican Guard troopers. There were three of them: a grenadier, a fireteam leader, and a DLT-18 gunner that were still fighting. She saw their wounded rifleman next to them, helmet off with a bandage wrapped around his eyes. Blood was streaming down his young face and he seemed alarmed, just like the other troopers were.
"The hell? Who are you?!" the corporal in charge demanded.
"I'm Ahsoka Tano," she said quickly as she pulled off her harness and let it drop back against the rocks the troopers were behind.
"You a Jedi?" one of the others asked.
"That's right," she nodded, "Well a Padawan."
"The lieutenant needs to hear this," the corporal responded and then spoke into his comm, which she couldn't hear.
While he was talking Ahsoka could see that the bodies of several dozen troopers were scattered just within sight of this one position. Their green-painted armor made them easily identified amongst the burnt up rocks and trees. And all had the marking of the planet Bestine on their shoulders and the numbered symbol for the 56th Guard Legion. However she was caught by surprise when another soldier, this one an officer, slid into the roughly dug foxhole.
"You the Jedi?" the man said, his tone stressed.
"That's right," Ahsoka nodded, and had to duck as an AAT fired into their position and exploded a tree trunk above them, causing the burnt out tree to keel over downslope, "What's the situation?!"
"We're pinned down here, no armor can make it up the cliff. Not only that I have no way to get my wounded down where they can be medevac'd to a field hospital. We're running low on medical supplies and ammunition and the droids just keep coming."
"I think I can help."
Location: Grievous' Flagship, In Decaying Orbit of Vivyis-12
The ship had gone dark, only a handful of emergency lights lit the halls in a dull red that Obi Wan led the combined force of Anaxes Knights and 212th Attack Battalion Clone Troopers. The Knights and Clones had remained silent apart from the barest tactical communication, sweeping room after room, hall after hall. The group had adopted a formation that made sense.
The Knights, with their shields across their bodies stayed in the lead, and the Clones were behind them with another of the two squads of Knights in the rear, using their shields in the same manner as those in front with the Clones ahead of them. The battleship's main landing bay was the fastest way forward, especially since the Clones had a few life-signs detectors keeping tabs on the slightest signs of life as they progressed further and further.
Among the Knights was the best of their ranks, the Champion of Anaxes, Captain Kayle Titus, his cape's silver crossing swords making him stand out from the others, even the gold-decorated masters' red capes. The twenty Knights were his, and all were hardened warriors, experienced and skilled. All were looking forward to having Grievous' head on the end of their swords.
"So, you've fought Grievous before?" Titus asked as they moved forward. He was next to Obi Wan, who had his lightsaber securely in his hand, ready for immediate use.
"Yes, on a few occasions, we have a history, the good general and I," Obi Wan responded thoughtfully.
"We haven't yet met a worthy opponent," Titus smirked, "Perhaps Grievous won't disappoint us."
"He has defeated Jedi," Cody warned the Anaxes Knight, "It might be more than even all of you can handle."
"We're not Jedi," Titus responded, his intentional poke at the Jedi evident.
"It makes little difference to the General," Obi Wan said and then held a hand up and sensed coming danger. That usually meant droids.
Indeed he was right, the clanking of battle droids sounded out through the hall as he saw a column of B2's marching forward with B1's immediately behind them. There was at least a platoon of them, about fifty in total. Obi Wan raised his lightsaber and ignited it, and the Anaxes Knights drew their repeating pistols and rested them on their shield's little indents to steady their aim. The shield bearing troops lined up into a shield wall and dropped to a knee and the Clones saw their new cover and lined up behind them, and prepared to fire. The droids immediately opened up on the gathering of enemy troops and Kenobi led the charge. Blue and red blaster bolts filled the hall and the B2's leading the pack were cut to pieces within seconds as red bolts smashed into the shields of the Knights facing them. Kenobi reflected the fire back, striking multiple droids with complete ease. Then purple static charges lit up the hall beyond the droid scrap piles. Sixteen Magnaguards came marching into view, and behind them. stalking figure of General Grievous. Holding Bail Organa were two of the droid guards, and Kenobi could immediately tell that Padme was not present.
"Hello there General Kenobi. Come all this way to visit me?" Grievous greeted him.
"Oh I wouldn't call this a social call," Obi Wan responded, "Senator, are you alright?"
"I'm fine Master Jedi," Bail said in response, "Nute Gunray has Padme, you must stop him."
"We have situation well in-hand," Kenobi reassured the Senator, "Now General, shall you surrender, or shall we cut you to pieces?" he said to Grievous, assuming his overhanded fighting stance.
"You couldn't do this before, what makes you think you could do it now?" Grievous laughed, drawing a pair of lightsabers which glowed green and blue in the dim light.
To answer his challenge Captain Titus stood up, and drew his sword which glowed blue along the edges from its rapid vibrating Songsteel blade. He then assumed a fighting position behind his shield, blade in his right hand over the top of his shield and stance crouched. The other twelve Knights came right up next to Kenobi and Titus, drawing their swords and assumed a challenging stance against the cyborg.
"Your reign of terror ends here Grievous," Titus snarled through his helmet speakers.
"You fools, your blades shall adorn my wall," Grievous confidently predicted and started stepping forward.
The Magnaguards charged forward right alongside their leader, and the Knights engaged as well, following right along behind Obi Wan. The Clones, led by Cody, charged forward themselves, with Commander Cody himself making a beeline towards the two Magnaguards pulling at Organa to keep him back. The Magnaguards clashed with the Knights in a swirling series of duels as Grievous launched himself at Obi Wan and smashed his lightsabers into the Jedi's and their personal duel began in classic fashion. The Magnaguards outnumbered the Knights, and two of them began to take to attacking Titus. He spun into the attack, swiping at the one on the right with his shield, and cut low at the second one with a backhand slash with his sword. The droid on the right blocked the strike and as did the second and struck at him with an overhead club and he responded by smacking it with his shield and immediately backhanded the droid's right eyes with his shield. He attacked again with a stab that the droid avoided and then tried clotheslining him by swiping over his sword at his head. But Titus dropped to his knees and slid under the strike.
He had to immediately raise his shield to block a strike from the rear. But he had a surprise for the Magnaguard and sliced up, and sliced off the droid's arm as he propelled himself back into a standing position. With its right side vulnerable Titus slashed clean through its chest and head and blocked a jumping attack from the other droid and stabbed up into the droid's body and ripped his sword out, gutting it from waist to chest.
Cody and several other 212th Troopers avoided the fight, taking potshots as they could, but the movements were so erratic and the Knights and Magnaguards were fighting in such close quarters it was difficult. But the numbers game began turning around. Cody himself blasted a breakaway droid, and blasted its central power node and came face to face with the droids holding Senator Organa.
"Senator, left droid turn away," Cody yelled, and Bail ducked his head, knowing that the shrapnel was going to be rather hot and fast, "Take 'em!"
The Clones fired immediately upon the order, and the droid on the left was eviscerated by the accurate blaster fire and a second volley decimated the second one and Bail was freed from captivity and the Clones rushed to surround him.
"Thank you Commander," Bail responded, "I'm indebted to you."
"Don't thank us yet, there's a lot of ship to get through."
"Look out droids!" one of the troopers called out as a block of battle droids came around the corner, rushing to the aid of their general.
The Clones engaged, and the droids ducked into the wall supports for cover, a rare tendency among droids that only those near a super tactical droid tend to do. But Cody knew not to go slugging it out with a high priority individual to protect. He had to get everyone out of here before the droids began to pick his men off and then the Knights and then his Jedi General.
Obi Wan held his own against Grievous, and soon was joined by several Anaxes Knights, fresh from victory against their Magnaguard opponents. Grievous didn't appreciate this, because the Knights had an advantage with their shields and fighting against such a unique style was something that Grievous wasn't accustomed to. The Knights tended to crowd in, using their shields to blunt his strikes and prevent him from using his superior size and reach to keep them on the defensive. And there were more coming. His guards had incapacitated two of the Knights and five clones, but he was quickly being surrounded by Republic soldiers.
Grievous drew his second pair of sabers, and decided to go more on the offensive, a pair of Knights struck out at him from behind, and he spun onto one clawed hand and grabbed both shields with both clawed feet and wrenched the two Knights into the air as he continued his powerful spin. The two men screamed as their shoulder sockets and bones were effectively torn from their ligaments and were slammed into the wall harshly, sandwiching a pair of clones with them. He slashed with one of his right arms as he returned from his strike and batted a Knight's shield away and then with the other right blade cut cleanly across his chest as he used his other hand to buzzsaw in the face of Titus and blocked a jab from Kenobi directly in front of him. The remaining six Knights began circling, moving back and forth as Grievous prepared for their next move and it came and all of them attacked. Grievous went straight for Kenobi in response, directing one of his blades to attack the Jedi, and the other forward one slashing at Titus and the other two buzzsawed behind him to keep the others back. He struck to the side as the others to the left came at him and he swiped with two arms that swatted the shield of the Knight aside and he cut through the man at arm's length across the neck. But Titus managed get in close and slashed across Grievous' spinning rear arm. Grievous looked back and tried to slash at Titus but another Knight from the other side took his shield and clubbed Grievous across the face as he jumped at the cyborg. Kenobi now sliced through another one of Grievous' arms at the elbow and Grievous kicked the other two Knights aside and Obi Wan raised a hand and shoved him back as he was about to kill Titus.
Grievous was sent flying backwards and skidded along until he was by the droids that had arrived on the scene and were pinning down the clones. He growled indignantly, but Cody had a last parting gift, he aimed and fired a single blaster shot that caught Grievous right in his hardened face plate getting a pained cry from the cyborg just as the blast door closed and sealed itself, preventing the Republic troops from giving chase.
"Did you get him?!" Titus called out, having seen the shot.
"His face plate is blaster proof, but he is undoubtedly crippled," Obi Wan responded quickly, and looked to the dead Knights around them, "I'm sorry about your men captain."
"And I for yours," Titus nodded, kneeling down next to one of his fallen comrades and the other Knights went over, holding the tips of their swords down, just touching the deck, and took off their helmets, "Your families shall take your blood to the Hall of Heroes brothers, to join those who have fallen before us."
The swords of the fallen four dead Knights were gathered along with their shields, and the others hoisted the fallen onto their shoulders. Their bodies would be ejected into space as with any other soldier or crewmen who died in space combat. But their swords and shields would be returned home, for their sons or younger brothers to inherit.
"Sir," Cody softly asked as they began to walk back, "What did he mean by return their blood?"
"When a soldier of Anaxes leaves the planet they hold a ceremony, at that ceremony on the parade grounds of Pols Anaxes the soldiers extract a bit of blood into a vial and release it. That vial floats back to a receiver held by their family members in the stands. If they fail to return their family takes that vial and places it in a mausoleum in the capital, where the blood of every fallen soldier of Anaxes has been placed since before the formation of the Republic," Obi Wan educate his Clone troops, "Their culture is one of tradition and honor going back thousands of years. Many of the swords there probably can be traced back to battles where they clashed with Sith lightsabers."
"Some of their weapons are thousands of years old?" Bail asked.
"Only mine," Titus replied, tapping his silver-hilted sword, "The Sword of the Champion. Now Senator, let's get you home."
Location: Opposite Hangar of Grievous' Stricken Flagship
"Quickly Viceroy, we must leave," one of the large Neimodian guards commanded loudly, his ceremonial blaster rifle aimed from the hip as the entourage continued moving towards the shuttle bay in the pitch black.
They had their flashlights shining around them. Their progress had been held up by the incredibly forceful and persistent Padme, who had absolutely no intention of being taken by Gunray. She'd avoided his clutches thus far in this war and was intent on keeping it that way. The battle was proving to be a decisive victory for the Republic and she wanted to keep it that way by making sure she was here to be rescued. The young Senator just had a feeling that rescue was near.
"The shuttle, we're almost…" the lead guards said as the group rushed into the secondary hangar facing into the ring interior of the battleship.
"What? What is it?" Gunray demanded as he pushed his way past his armored guards. But he had wished he hadn't.
Standing there was a Jedi, Anakin Skywalker. The shuttle was completely destroyed, lightsaber strokes had eviscerated it and the two pilots and droid guards were equally neutralized, scattered on the ground in pieces, smoke wisps rising from the blaster holes and lightsaber cuts. The guards raised their blasters towards Anakin, but the Jedi didn't move, and then from the dark came the blue glowing red laser pointers of the Caridan Commandoes that had accompanied the strike force. The numerous lines ended upon each and every Neimodian guard, and the Neimodians took note of this and turned to leave in a panic but a figure blocked their path as Captain Rex stood in the doorway behind them, holding both blaster pistols aimed squarely at Nute Gunray. Other 506th troopers rushed from the shadows, aiming their own lasers at their foes.
The Neimodians had their backs turned on Anakin and when they turned back he was less than ten feet away, and lit his lightsaber, revealing a very unhappy expression. The man stalked forward, and the Neimodians one by one threw down their weapons and held their hands up and backed away, clearing the way for Anakin who was walking towards Gunray. The guard holding her let go and threw away his weapon, and Gunray was left stammering and whimpering as his guards' will broke completely at the threat of the Jedi.
"Get this slime out of my sight," Anakin ordered, and several Clones rushed forward wrenched Gunray's hands behind his back.
Other guards were cuffed roughly by the Caridans and the Clones, and lined up casually as Anakin turned off his saber. The Clones turned on their flashlights, and Caridans continued to keep security as the mission seemed to have ended.
"Mission accomplished General," Rex said to Anakin.
"Well done Rex, nice call with the intimidation," Anakin nodded to his captain.
"Know your enemy sir, put the same circumstance most anyone with a head on their shoulders would do the same thing," Rex shrugged.
"Hallway clear, bring 'em," the captain of the Caridans called out.
"You okay?" Anakin asked Padme as a trooper undid her cuffs.
"What took you so long?" Padme smiled.
"Hey, we had a whole fleet to get away from you," Anakin scoffed.
"And so you brought in another?" Padme smirked, pointing at the three Revenge-Class Heavy Carriers that were visible through the hangar ray shields.
"That I didn't expect," Anakin replied, looking at the intimidating warships, each of which was as long as the battleship that they now stood in, "But I'm glad they came. Master, how are things on your end?"
"We have Senator Organa, and Grievous has been badly damaged. We've taken some losses but we're alright," Obi Wan responded.
Anakin saw a silver starfighter, the same type he'd chased at Bothawui, zip away from the battleship over them. He growled in frustration at Grievous' escape.
"Grievous just made his getaway," Anakin sighed, "And the battle below?"
"The Admiral just informed me that the remainder of the Separatist fleet is in full retreat. But they have a massive droid army on the ground that their ground troops are heavily engaged with," Obi Wan responded, "Ahsoka was also allowed to take a spare starfighter to help in the battle but reports are saying she had to bail out over the battlefield."
"Rex, get the Senator to the nearest Republic ship, the rest of you with me, we're going after Ahsoka," Anakin quickly ordered, "Sorry Senator, I have to go get my Padawan."
"It was good seeing you Master Jedi, as always," Padme smiled, knowing Anakin wasn't coming back until Ahsoka was safe.
Location: 56th Guards Legion Frontline, Vivyis-12
Ahsoka had been taken straight to the casualty collection point. Here, the battalion's wounded were laid below the cover of the rocks, but mortars and artillery still threw a few pieces of debris back at them and there were always more and more coming. The groans and cries and screams of the wounded were intense. Cody and Rex had been telling the truth. Thankfully many had kept their helmets on, and so she wasn't looking directly at their faces, but she could sense the pain, the fear, and the death surrounding her. It was like the battles she'd fought before, but more intense, more panicked. After all, these weren't Clones.
"Jedi, if you can get our wounded down this cliff we might save our men, we won't fall back off the hill with them still here," the lieutenant explained as he got her to the cliff-side were there were numerous Guard infantry scrambling up ladders to get to the clifftop and join the battle.
"I'll take care of it," Ahsoka nodded, and could see the wreckage of a piece of hull plate a bit away and that gave her an idea.
The lieutenant took off with her assurance that she would help. She rushed over to the plate, and saw it was large enough to hold four men and was thin, meaning it wasn't too heavy. She flipped over, and called over to the medics, "Get your wounded on, I'll lower them to the bottom," she yelled over, waving them to start bringing in the wounded.
The medics were quick to respond and started carrying wounded troopers over to her and packed them in. With her first batch Ahsoka stood tall, and lifted the plate up and lowered over the side, much to worry of one of the more aware wounded on it. But it was only a thirty foot drop at most, and she was able to get them down to a waiting pair of medics who pulled the men off and Ahsoka retrieved her new makeshift platform. Another four were placed on the platform as a shell landed perilously close. But she sensed something growing from the wounded behind her. She turned around and all of them were staring at her through amazed eyes or emotionless visors. It was a feeling of hope, that here, in the midst of battle was someone here to save them.
Ahsoka was intent on seeing this belief through, and lowered the next four wounded, and repeated the process once, twice, four, and then ten more times. Throughout it all the firefight beyond continued in its intensity as more troops summited the cliff, and she just kept on going, lowering more wounded with every passing minute. Her levels of exhaustion were being reached, but she couldn't stop, there were still dozens of men and women counting on her. The young Jedi wasn't going to stop, she dug deep, and kept lowering the wounded. That's when a series of massive explosions behind her and down the hill shook the very ground and threw her down. Blue light seemed to come from the heavens and the troops around her cheered wildly. A shadow descended over the battlefield, the Basilisk herself had come to hover over the lines, firing its main turbolaser batteries at point-blank-range into the droid lines, stymying the attack. A flight of F7 assault dropships came soaring down, and the hatches opened and she saw a familiar face inside the troop bay.
"I see you couldn't stay away," Anakin called out as medivac F7's now arrived on the scene.
She smiled and gave a half-hearted salute as his dropship came down to pick her up. Behind her, she saw that the troops all around the hill stood by the dozens and into the hundreds. They were looking to her, she'd saved dozens of their comrades, and for that they all began to raise their right arms in a salute as she watched. Many of the wounded below along with other troops down there also saluted that she saw as she turned and returned the salute and stepped aboard. Ahsoka had made an impact, one that was felt within the very heart of the Guard.
Well, it's been a while since I have updated, but that's what school does for you. I'm glad I got this one done, one of my favorites thus far. And I hope I can continue doing what I enjoy for you guys. So, until next time.
Next Chapter Preview: The Separatists strike back.