Hey folks, Grubkiller here.
This is part three of my story, 'Clone Wars: The Last Siege.' story.
The Ahsoka/Mandalore part of this story will be up next chapter.
Until then, please enjoy this story.
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Invisible Hand, Command Deck, Coruscant Orbit.
Meanwhile, back outside of the ship, Republic and Separatist warships continue to hammer away at each other, fighting for control of the space around Coruscant.
When he was told not to interfere with Count Dooku's duel against the Jedi, Grievous was also ordered to defend the flagship from the surrounding Republic capital ships. And that is what he did.
As the Republic threw everything they had at Grievous's ship, his dreadnought absorbed the damage, and sent it straight back. But despite the great fight this mighty warship was putting up under Grievous' command, its critical systems were being pushed tho their absolute limits, and the turbo-lasers and gravity were both starting to overheat.
But suddenly, an unusual calm had formed around the Invisible Hand for some reason.
"General," the Neimoidian captain, Captain Dofine, called out, "We are receiving a transmission from one of the Republic warships."
"Put it through." Grievous ordered as he stalked over to the holo-screen that hung from the ceiling.
That's when the screen activated to show the face of a Republic naval officer. "Greetings, General Grievous. This is Lieutenant-Commander Lorth Needa, aboard the Republic cruiser, RSV Guarlara. I'm here to offer you a ceasefire, in exchange for your immediate surrender."
Grievous, not being one to surrender, flatly rejected.
"Never!" Grievous barked. "I still have your precious Chancellor onboard, and Count Dooku is dealing with the Jedi slime as we speak. So allow me to make a counter offer: put your offered ceasefire into effect, and keep your fleet away from my ship, and allow me to go into hyperspace!"
"That's preposterous!" Needa exclaimed.
"If you do not allow my ship to leave the system, then I will disembowel Palpatine live on the Holonet," Grievous warned.
To his credit, Grievous noted, the young Republic officer didn't even flinch.
"So, the Chancellor is aboard your flagship?" Needa asked, as if Grievous just confirmed something that wasn't common knowledge. "If that's the case, then would you allow me to speak to him, to confirm your claim?"
Grievous growled in frustration.
He turned around and reached for his communicator and spoke into it. "Count Dooku. What is our next move?" He asked. When he didn't get a response, he tried again. "My Lord, are you there?"
Still nothing.
When he didn't get a response, he rolled his eyes and groaned. Then he turned back to see that Needa was still looking at him. "I will not allow you to speak to the Chancellor," Grievous said, "But I will show you that he is indeed onboard."
He gestured to one of the Neimoidian crew members, who tapped his fingers against the computer screen, and brought up the image of the Observation deck, which had Grievous' quarters, and was where Palpatine was being held. When he saw the image, he froze, his face turning pale.
"Well?" Grievous asked impatiently, as Needa and his associates continued to wait for the information. "Aren't you going to pull up the image?"
"Uhm, si-sir," the crewman stuttered, "You... you might want to take a look at it first."
Grievous stepped over to the computer console where the security officer pulled up the image. He leaned in to get a getter look. He was surprised to see that the observation deck looked like a storm had passed through it. A duel had certainly taken place. But then, once he noticed that the chair that Palpatine was supposed to be restrained to was empty, he panicked. He quickly started looking around the image of the room, before his eyes came to rest on a motionless body, which was adorned with the same armor-weaved brown cape that his master wore.
Once reality had set in, he realized that his master, Count Dooku, was dead.
The head of the Separatist movement, was without a head.
The stunned General then looked at Needa and the other Republic officers and troopers in the image before he finally spoke. "The Chancellor is currently indisposed."
The Republic officers were unamused. "General Grievous... you have ten minutes to surrender your ship, and submit to Republic law, if we cannot confirm that Palpatine is indeed alive and on your ship. Otherwise, we will have no choice but to unleash the full might of the Republic Navy upon your vessel." Needa threatened, before he ended the transmission.
The members of the bridge crew looked at each other, nervous and confused.
Grievous himself was wearing a blank expression. He had just learned of Dooku's death, and he was humiliated in front of the Republic Navy, and undermined in front of his crew.
What he dreaded most had come true: Dooku was dead, and the Chancellor and his Jedi rescuers were at large.
But he quickly collected himself. He turned to his crew, before speaking to them in a murderous tone.
"Count Dooku is dead. And the Jedi that killed him are loose on this ship, with the Chancellor."
He then crashed his mechanical fist through the computer screen that showed the image of Dooku's corpse, sending sparks and shrapnel everywhere, as the neimoidian crewman fell back out of his chair in a panicked gasp.
"FIND THEM!"
As the crew scrambled to their stations, putting every droid and security guard on alert, a Republic task force started baring down on the Invisible Hand and its escorts. As the escort ships duked it out, one Republic Star-Destroyer, the RSV Guarlara, was heading straight for Grievous's dreadnought.
They were preparing to broadside one another. And since their allied ships were either too heavily damaged, or too heavily engaged in combat, the two opposing ships would be going in alone.
General Grievous stood with his hands clasped behind his back, before he turned to his crew.
"Prepare for attack!"
Suddenly, the Clone gunners on the Guarlara began to fire their cannons into the Invisible Hand. Explosions blossomed against the hull, and the ship began to vibrate as the explosions echoed throughout the ship. One explosion that was close to the Bridge caused several computer terminals to short-circuit and explode, throwing a couple battle droids to the deck.
Captain Dofine flinched before he spoke into his personal intercom. "All batteries, fire! Fire!"
Down in the Invisible Hand's gunnery deck, droid gunners began to lob heavy plasma bolts back at the Guarlara. Their firepower slammed into the Republic cruiser, causing several explosions to rip through several areas on the Guarlara's starboard side. While the Clones tried to get away from the explosions, many were thrown in several different directions as fire and debris began to fill their sections.
But despite the damage, the Guarlara was just getting started.
Back in the observation tower on the ship's aft section, Palpatine and Anakin, who was holding an unconscious Obi-Wan on his back, were waiting for the elevator. But they noticed that it wasn't coming.
"Elevator's not working," Anakin said, as the ship began to shake violently from the battle outside. He reached for his com-link. "R2, activate elevator 3224".
R2 beeped a reply as he went to do as Anakin asked.
Back outside, the Guarlara and the Invisible Hand were exchanging fire with one another. It was an all out brawl, as both ships traded fire with one another in a fashion that harkened back to capital ship engagements of old. Blue and red plasma blasts slammed into either side's hull, causing explosions to blossom along their hulls, blasting chunks and slivers of debris off of each other's hulls. Fires began to rage outside, as well as within.
When neither ship seemed like they were going to relent, one clone gunner was able to fire a shot straight into one of the ship's gunnery stations. The blue ball of plasma hit a cannon on the Invisible Hand. It was engulfed in a large explosion, which ignited dozens of ammo canisters that were nearby. The explosion blasted droid parts and debris everywhere, and blew holes out of the side of the ship, causing the vacuum of space to suck out everything nearby that wasn't bolted down. But that wasn't the end of the damage. The explosion also caused the engine section to be knocked out.
The Invisible Hand began to lose altitude and nose dive to the surface.
The Guarlara was triumphant.
Those still inside the dreadnought on the other hand ... not so much.
As the elevator doors began to open, Anakin and Palpatine nearly fell forward when they felt the ship suddenly lurch. But they were able to grab onto the door frame to keep themselves from falling towards the viewport. They climbed into the elevator shaft, which they began to run down since the ship was on a different angle.
Down in the main hanger, R2 had just unplugged himself from the interface and began to slide across the deck as the ship took a dive.
"DEEOOOOWWWW!" He screamed as he, several droid pieces, and the two Jedi interceptors began to slide with him.
Back on the bridge, as an alarm blared throughout the falling ship, the Droid crew was doing everything they could to stop the ship's descent.
"Reverse stabilizers," Captain Dofine ordered.
"Reversing stabilizers," one of the droid pilots replied as it began to press buttons on the terminal screen to get the ship's functions to respond.
R2 slid down the deck, which was now completely vertical.
He is about to be overtaken by Obi-Wan's Jedi interceptor, which was sliding down right behind him. He falls into a heap of broken battle droid parts and the fighter falls over him, before bouncing off the deck with a loud clang.
"Magnetize! Magnetize!" Captain Dofine ordered.
A droid pilot tapped the screen in front of him to engage the ship's magnetic field.
While holding an unconscious Obi-Wan over his shoulder, Anakin continued to run down the horizontal elevator shaft with the Chancellor right behind him.
General Grievous is latched onto the hull with his clawed feet, to keep himself from falling. His guards use magnetic feet to do the same. Grievous starts barking out orders in an effort to save his doomed flagship.
"Fire the emergency booster engines!"
The engines fire, but they are firing in a reverse thrust, trying to slow the ship's descent with all their might. It's successful, and because of Dofine's quick thinking earlier, the droids regain control of the ship and they pull up, allowing the ship to right itself.
"We're levelling out, sir," one of the droids said.
Anakin and Palpatine stop when they reach one of the elevator doors. Anakin cuts a control box on one of the doors and tries to hot-wire the door to open. But before he can get to work on opening the doors, the ship moves to an angle, causing Anakin and Palpatine to start sliding down the shaft.
"AHH!" Anakin exclaims.
"Ohh!" Palpatine exclaims.
Right when they began to slide down the shaft, Anakin grabs some wires in the control box with one hand. Palpatine grabs onto the Jedi's leg. As the ship rights itself, they are left hanging in the bottomless elevator shaft.
The Invisible Hand was now flying safely below the bulk of the space battle. But with the damage they sustained and with Coruscant's gravity, the ship probably didn't have much longer to live. It would soon be a prudent coarse of action to transfer the flag over to a nearby Separatist warship.
Obi-Wan began to regain consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes and realized that all of the blood had been flowing to his head. He looked around and noticed that he and his companions were handing precariously over a bottomless elevator shaft.
"Wha-ahh!" Obi-Wan exclaimed as he leaned up and threw his arms around Anakin before he even thought of looking down again.
"Easy. We're in a bit of a situation here," Anakin said as they continued to dangle over the shaft.
"Did I miss something?" Obi-Wan asked as he looked down and saw the Chancellor hanging from Anakin's leg.
That's when they heard a loud screeching sound above them.
"Hold on," Anakin said as he looked up and saw something heading towards them.
"What is that?" Obi-Wan asked.
That's when they saw that it was a box-like object that was sparking as it slid towards them. They then realized that it was the elevator.
"Oops," Anakin said before he reached for his com-link. "R2. R2, shut down the elevator".
"Too late. Jump!" Obi-Wan exclaimed.
Anakin let go and began to slide down the shaft. Obi-Wan let go of Anakin to slide on his own, while Palpatine still held onto Anakin's leg as they all slid down the shaft, with the elevator close on their heels.
As they continued to slide and barely outrun the elevator, Anakin and Obi-Wan reach for their utility belts and take out their grappling hooks. They throw them up, where they latch onto a steel beam and they continue to fall. All the doors in the elevator shaft open up, and the group swings through the open door into a hallway. The elevator roars by as they land in the ship's corridor.
They all grunt as they catch their breath. but at least they're not dead.
Obi-Wan got up and dusted himself off.
"Let's see if we can find something in the hangar bay that's still flyable,' he suggested as Anakin and Palpatine got up.
"R2, get down here," Anakin said into his com-link. "R2, do you copy?"
R2 beeped a reply from the other side of the com-link and went to go find the others.
A droid pilot walked up to Grievous, who was coughing.
"General, we found the Jedi. They're in hallway 328," the droid informed.
Grievous turned to face the droid.
"Activate ray shields".
The two Jedi and the Chancellor ran through the halls to get to the hanger. Suddenly, an energy field surrounded them, forcing them to stop.
"Ray shields," Anakin said.
"Wait a minute," Obi-Wan said. 'How did this happen? We're smarter than this".
"Apparently not," Anakin said as he looked around, before he looked back at Obi-Wan. "I say patience".
Obi-Wan crossed his armed and looked at Anakin with a confused, and somewhat irritated look. "Patience?"
"Yes. R2 will be along in a few moments, and then ... he'll release the ray shields," Anakin deduced.
Suddenly, they heard a door hiss open. R2 came out of the door screaming loudly. He barreled into the corridor and hit the opposite wall.
"See?" Anakin asked. "No problem".
Suddenly, a pair of destroyer droids rolled out of the door R2 just came out of before the unfolded and aimed their weapons at the imprisioned trio. Then, more and more droids began to march out of the side hatches and down the hall, completely surrounding everyone.
"Don't move," one SBD ordered R2 as he aimed his wrist blaster at him. Then R2 shocked him in the hand. "OW!" The droid exclaimed before he shook his hand and kicked R2 to the ground.
As more droids marched down the hall to surround, and eventually subdue them, Obi-Wan leaned in towards Anakin.
"Do you have a plan B?"
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Invisible Hand, Command Deck.
The battle above Coruscant is still raging hard all around the Invisible Hand. But it keeps passing through, trying to avoid another confrontation like the last one.
Grievous turns towards the door just in time to see his security droids bring in his knew prisoners.
"Ah, yes. The negotiator, General Kenobi. We've been waiting for you," Grievous said as his long-time rival was escorted onto his command bridge in binders, along with another Jedi, the Chancellor, and a little pipsqueak astro-mech droid.
"Excuse me," a battle droid commander said as he pushed through the prisoners to get to Grievous, where he then presented the General with a pair of lightsabers that were confiscated from the Jedi prisoners.
"That wasn't much of a rescue," Grievous mocked as he swiped the lightsabers way from the droid commander.
"You're welcome," the droid said in a snarky manner.
"And ... *cough cough* ... Anakin Skywalker," Grievous said as he walked up to the "Hero with no fear" as he was called by Republic propaganda. "I was expecting someone with your reputation to be a little... older," Grievous mocked before he wheezed.
Anakin looked at the cyborg warlord in the face and maintained his cool. "General Grievous. You're shorter than I expected," he quipped.
Grievous gave the young Jedi a death stare before he coughed.
"Jedi Scum!" Grievous snarled as he turned away.
"We have a job to do, Anakin," Obi-Wan said a she leaned closer to Anakin. "Try not to upset him".
R2 beeped a couple times and retracted his third leg to stand up straighter. He beeped a little nervously. But Anakin looked down at him reassuringly.
Grievous coughed again before he spoke. "Your lightsabres will make a fine addition to my collection,' Grievous said as he reached into his cape and placed his blades in a pouch, right in front of the three that he captured from three other Jedi. Shaak Ti, Foul Moudama, and Roron Corobb.
"Not this time," Obi-Wan announced. "And this time, you won't escape".
"R2," Anakin said.
The little droid creates a distraction by extending all his arms, shooting out electrical pulses that started bouncing everywhere.
Obi-Wan, with his hands restrained with electrobonds, spins around, reaches out and, using the Force, yanks his lightsaber out of the General's cape, ignites it, and cuts his bonds. He continues to spin around and cuts Anakin free.
"Crush them!" Grievous ordered his guards as he moved behind them. They activated their electro-staffs and moved towards the two Jedi. Anakin reaches out with the force and pulls his own sword out of Grievous' cape. "Make them suffer!" The two guards engage Obi-Wan and Anakin. They eventually split up, and the two duels become separate.
"Come. Now!" A battle droid ordered as he and his companion pull on Palpatine's shackled wrists and began to pull him off of the bridge.
"Stay at your stations!" Grievous ordered as he shoved one of his droids towards the Jedi.
Anakin is pushed back by his opponent. A crackling staff clashed with a laser sword. "Get him! Get him!" One droid called out as the two walked and dueled behind him as they walked passed his station.
Obi-Wan managed to catch his opponent in a saber lock. He uses his blade to circle the staff all the way around and pin it to a droid computer nearby. "OW!" the droid exclaimed as electricity passed through his hands. When Obi-Wan had the guard's staff pinned down, he quickly slashed his blade through the droid's head. He began to walk away, but then he heard the staff crackling behind him. He turned back to see the headless guard still trying to fight him. The surprised Jedi went back to fighting the droid.
On the other side of the bridge, Anakin managed to cut his opponent in half at the waist. He then turned to the two droids who were trying to pull the Chancellor off of the bridge. He walked up, and before they could fire on him, he swung his blade up and down on either side of the chancellor, cutting through both droids. He then got behind the Chancellor and managed to cut through his restraints. Obi-Wan managed to slice through the headless guards body and cut off his staff wielding arm. He walked away. Two droids were watching the entire duel. One of them shoved the other one away. "Run!" The panicking droid exclaimed. Obi-Wan looked back to see his opponent finally fall apart and stop whining.
Just as Obi-Wan linked up with Anakin, Artoo, and the Chancellor, a massive explosion blossomed near the Invisible Hand, much to everyone's surprise. The explosion was caused when a Republic Star-Destroyer crashed into a Lucrehulk-class battleship. When the core-ship reactor went critical, it created a shockwave that shook the hanger arms to pieces, and blasted the chunks into several directions, one of them heading for the flagship.
One of the droid pilots hit a button, and the collision alarm sounded throughout the ship.
"All hands, brace for impact!"
The Jedi, the Chancellor, Grievous, his bodyguards, and the remaining droid pilots held on tightly, as the hanger-arm chunk slammed into the Invisible Hand amidship. The force of the impact caused a massive booming sound, followed by a loud screeching sound of metal against metal.
Several sections of the ship began to explode, causing the ship to shake apart violently.
"Sir, we are falling out of orbit. All aft control cells are dead," one droid said.
"Stay on coarse," Grievous ordered. Then he noticed that some droid pilots were staring at the Jedi. He called out to them. "Don't bother with them," he barked, getting their attention. "Keep the ship in orbit".
"Yes, sir," one droid.
The Jedi, sensing the need to clear out the bridge, began to chop apart every droid in their sight, keeping them from stabilizing the ship's position.
That's when a fresh squad of security droids and more bodyguards rushed onto the bridge.
"Foolish Jedi!" Grievous barked out before he turned to the droid reinforcements. "Finish them off! Bring me their lightsabers and their heads!"
The two Jedi knights were suddenly overwhelmed with a torrent of battle droids, grapple droids, and magna guards. They used blasters, electro-staffs, and wrist-mounted energy blades, all of which the Jedi blocked with their expert lightsaber skills.
All the droids were doing was rush to their deaths, and soon, the command deck was littered with droid parts. Anyone else that was left either ran out of the bridge, or stayed behind in a desperate attempt to keep the ship in orbit.
But Grievous shook his head, realizing that the ship was lost
"We've run out of time," the general said to himself. He ran off to the starboard side of the bridge. He jumped over a console, only to have Obi-Wan and Anakin corner him. They try to rush at him.
But the general pushes his cloak aside and pulls out two lightsabers, which he activated just in time to block the saber blows from the two Jedi.
They are all caught in a saber lock. But Obi-Wan decides to settle the situation while he can.
"Your droids are shut down, Grievous. Surrender while you still can."
Grievous merely laughed, and his arms split apart to grab two more lightsabers, all while still caught in the saber lock.
"You lose, General Kenobi," Grievous said before he slashed the two extra blades at the viewport.
It began to crack open. Anakin and Obi-Wan quickly grab ahold of something as it shatters open, causing chaos as everything that is not nailed down is sucked into space. The cyborg General is the first one sucked out into space, along with several crew members, both droid and non-droid. He fires a cable from his arm that attaches to the ship. He swings in and lands firmly on the side of the ship.
Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Palpatine hold on for dear life. A blast shield closes around where the window used to be, allowing the Jedi to breath in as they plant their feet back onto the deck.
Grievous opens up a hatch from the outside, and jumps in. He jumps into an escape pod.
"Hahahahah!" He laughed as he sat down. "Time to abandon ship".
He punched in several buttons and jettisoned his pod, fleeing his doomed flagship. Several others with his surviving crew followed. He chuckled as he flew through the battle towards a nearby Lucrehulk-class Trade Federation battleship.
Then he coughed.
Back on the now deserted bridge, Obi-Wan and Anakin go over to the navigator's chair.
"All the escape pods have been launched," Anakin noticed.
"Grievous," Obi-Wan deduced before he turned to Anakin. "Can you fly a cruiser like this? "
"You mean, do I know how to land what's left of this thing?" Anakin asked as sits in the pilot's chair.
"Well?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Under the circumstances, I'd say the ability to pilot this thing is irrelevant. Strap yourselves in," he said.
Obi-Wan and Palpatine strap themselves into chairs. Anakin struggles with the controls of the ship. The ship starts to glow, and pieces break off. R2 moves in on Palpatine's controls and plugs in to assist in flying the cruiser.
"Steady . . . Attitude . . . eighteen degrees," Obi-Wan read.
R2 beeps.
"Pressure rising. We've got to slow this wreck down. Open all hatches, extend all flaps, and drag fins," Anakin called out.
"Temp steady. Hatches open, flaps extended, drag fins," Obi-Wan called out, as he hit the controls, causing several fans to extend from the hull of the ship.
The ship glowed orange as it began to fly into atmosphere. Suddenly, a large jolt shakes up the ship as the aft section of the ship breaks away.
R2 whistles out an 'Uh-Oh!'
Anakin casually turned to Obi-Wan with a blank stare. "We lost something," he said very calmly.
"Not to worry, we're still flying half the ship," Obi-Wan said calmly.
"Now we're really picking up speed," Anakin said as the bow section began to slice through the atmosphere and plunge towards the planet below. 'I'm going to shift a few degrees and see if I can slow us down".
"Careful, we're heating up-twelve thousand, thirteen thousand..." Obi-Wan called out before Anakin interrupted him.
"What's our speed?" Anakin asked.
"Eight plus sixty-forty. Eight plus sixty-twenty. Eight plus sixty. Temp is ten thousand, nine thousand . . . we're in the atmosphere," Obi-Wan called out.
Anakin points to one of the controls.
"Grab that," he told Obi-Wan, who grabbed onto a lever that Anakin pointed out. "Keep us level".
They stopped burning from re-entry and began to knife through the clouds, shedding burning debris as they continued to plunge towards the metropolis surface below.
"Steady. Steady," Obi-Wan said calmly.
R2 begins to beep madly.
"Easy, Artoo. Hang on, this may get a little rough. We lost our heat shields," Anakin informed.
"Five thousand. Three thousand . . . two thousand," Obi-Wan said. Then he saw aircraft from the fire-department coming their way. "Fireships on the left and the right."
"We'll take you in," one of the fire-pilots called in over the comm.
"Copy that," Obi-Wan replied as the fireships began to spray water onto the hull, trying to cool down the ship before it landed. "Landing strip's straight ahead," Obi-Wan pointed out.
"We're coming in too hot," Anakin said as an alarm began to blare out as the ship cam up on the surface.
The ship leaves a contrail as it streaks across the Coruscant skyline. Palpatine and Obi-Wan hold on for dear life as Anakin tries to pilot the shaking and rattling ship toward an industrial landing platform. A large landing platform in the industrial part of the city is surrounded by Emergency Fire Speeders. The smoking ship approaches as five Fireships spray it with foam. The ship finally makes a rather hard landing.
R2 screams and everyone is nearly thrown out of their seats as the ship smashed against the landing strip and scraped across it. The ship slices through an abandoned control tower as they continued to scrape against the deck. But eventually, the ship finally comes to a screeching halt. They stop, and everyone nearly falls out of their seats before being thrown back into them with a sudden jolt.
R2 beeps excitedly, yet nervously. Palpatine held onto his armrests with a death grip as he panted. Anakin sighed and looked around to make sure that everyone was okay.
Obi-Wan sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He smiled and looked at everyone else.
"Another happy landing".
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Well folks, that was part 3 of this story.
Hope you enjoyed. Part 4 will be right around the corner, and will focus entirely on the Siege of Mandalore.
Please feel free to leave your thoughts down in the review section.
Until next time as always, this is Grubkiller, over and out.