Hey folks, Grubkiller here.
Here's part 13 of my Episode 3/Clone Wars season 7 story, 'Rise of the Empire'.
Hope you enjoy.
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Utapau, Pau City sinkhole.
Obi-Wan gave his lizard a swift kick with the heel of his boot, and they took off down the vertical side of the sheer cliff. As General Grievous reaches the landing platform where his shuttle is waiting. Obi-Wan drops onto the top of the starship with his lizard.
Grievous growled in annoyance before he spun his scooter around and takes off up the vertical cliff face with Obi-Wan and his lizard in hot pursuit. All around them, the sinkhole is engulfed in a great battle between Clones and droids.
The people of Utapau, on the other hand, cowered in whatever shelter they can find.
Many others took up arms with the Clone Army to fight off their occupiers. They rode other lizards and large winged creatures into battle.
Kenobi and Grievous continued race through the city at breakneck speed, passing through battle zones, narrowly escaping explosions, laser bolts, and troopers from both sides.
Grievous lays the Scooter down as he goes around sharp turns. Obi-Wan's lizard breathes hard as she tries to keep up. They pass through the city streets, which separated the firefights between droids and clone troopers, as the Jedi and the General cut a swath of destruction through the city's cliffside dirt roads.
Above them, a Republic gunship was flying parallel to the chase seen. The passengers included Commander Cody and his men.
"There they are sir!" Boil exclaimed.
Cody looked out the side. "All right, light him up!" Cody ordered.
The Clones aimed at Grievous' bike and started firing their rifles out of the side hatch.
Obi-Wan noticed blue blaster bolts coming out of no where, tracking Grievous' bike.
"We've got your back General. And by the way, you really should keep a better grip on your sword next time," Cody said over the comm.
Obi-Wan gave a sigh of relief. "Just don't tell Anakin about this," Obi-Wan said. He knew Anakin would've loved the irony of the person always telling him never to lose his saber would end up losing his own saber.
"Copy that Sir. Stand by: We'll get you the saber," Cody said. As Cody's gunship tries to fly alongside Obi-Wan's lizard, Grievous works his way out onto the rim of the sinkhole, passing some massive wind blades.
The evil Droid General releases the brakes on the lethal blades, and they begin to spin, cutting off Obi-Wan's access to the General. When Obi-Wan reached out to grab his sword from Cody's hand, the gunship broke off to avoid the massive wind blades, with the saber still in Cody's hands. Obi-Wan's lizard pulls up short in front of the blades. Grievous laughs at the misfortune of his greatest rival and talks into a com-link.
"Prepare to move out of orbit. I will be up in a few moments," he said.
"Roger, Roger". Came the reply of a Battle Droid that was up in orbit.
Obi-Wan sizes up the situation, looking for a way to get to Grievous. The General accelerates off the edge, activating his claws, drops, and clings to another nearby grouping of windmills. Obi-Wan's lizard attempts to jump to follow and barely makes it, almost falling into the precipice below.
As Obi-Wan continues his pursuit, Cody's gunship reappeared.
"General, there's another tunnel coming up. It's now or never!" Cody said over the comm.
"Alright, let's try this again," The Jedi said into his comm-link. As the gunship flew parallel to Obi-Wan's lizard, Cody held out the lightsaber hilt again, and again Obi-Wan reached out for it.
But then Cody looked to his left, and Obi-Wan could've sworn he heard him say 'Screw It!' Then he saw Cody draw his arm back and throw the lightsaber, which spun like a propellor towards Obi-Wan, who reached out and summoned it with the force, just as the gunship banked hard to the left to avoid a tunnel, which Obi-Wan continued into after Grievous.
"Tell me that I didn't miss," Cody said over the comm link.
"You didn't. Thank you, Cody. I'll continue forward. You get back to your command post and start directing the fight." Obi-Wan said as he kicked his heels into Boga to get her to move faster.
"Copy that. Happy hunting," Cody said before the feed was cut.
Grievous' bike roared through the stone block tunnel system, riding up on the curved walls as he goes around corners or passes oncoming traffic. Obi-Wan races after the Droid leader, his lizard moving onto the ceiling as they pass traffic. Obi-Wan catches up with Grievous, and they charge through the tunnel, side by side. The Jedi master grabs the Droid's electronic staff.
Up ahead, extending from the wall of a small sinkhole on the other side of several structures, there was a secret landing platform with a small Federation Fighter sitting in the middle of it.
Obi-Wan and Grievous race out of the tunnel system and onto the landing platform. Kenobi yanks on the General's electro staff, then jumps off his lizard, which halts in the middle of the road, onto the General's scooter, knocking both warriors to the ground.
The bike's momentum carried it through a control room, before it crashed through the wall in a fiery explosion, and out the side of the building, where it exploded at the bottom, into hundreds of pieces.
Obi-Wan struggled to get back up. Then he heard the familiar snap-hiss of lightsaber, and looked up to see Grievous standing on the other side of the room with a blue and green saber in each hand.
"Here is where you meet your end, Kenobi!" Grievous declared.
Obi-Wan coughed and got back up, activating his lightsaber and assuming a fighting stance.
"We'll see about that".
Grievous opened up the fight by swinging his lightsaber repeatedly from left to right.
"Not bad... for a droid," Obi-Wan quipped.
"I'm no droid!" The angered cyborg growled as he began another series of deadly attack.
Obi-Wan was forced to parry each of the successive strikes, but he was being backed into a corner. If he didn't strike back soon, then the General could just continue to barrage the Jedi Master with his seemingly unlimited strength.
When Grievous crossed his blades over Obi-Wan's in a saber lock, he tried to push down as hard as he could, trying to get the blades down on the Jedi's face. But when he pushed to hard, he left his legs and lower torso open to an attack. Noticing this, Obi-Wan kicked his heel out and made contact with the General's armored gut.
This move made Grievous stumble back several feet to the edge of the room at an open window. He nearly fell over the side before he was able to use one of his mechanical feet to latch onto the ledge, while his other three limbs swayed lightly to keep balance. But he managed to put his other foot on the ledge and balance himself just in time to see Obi-Wan charging him.
Thinking quickly, Grievous jumped up and flipped upside down, crossing his blades with Obi-Wan in an effort to push himself onto the top of the window sill, which his feet latched onto.
Obi-Wan jumped to the rooftop of the building below, crouching down as his feet hit the ground to soften his landing.
He then looked back up. Grievous was swinging back and forth while upside, building up momentum, which he used to swing onto the landing pad when his feet released the window sill. He landed onto the roof as well, and the two warriors faced each other.
Grievous pulls out a sidearm and fires at Obi-Wan. The Jedi then raised his blade, blocking the laser bolts. He then used the force to throw several antennas at the cyborg General. But Grievous spun his blades in response, cutting up the flying debris.
He laughed.
"At last, I shall destroy you! You'll thank me for ending your pathetic life!"
He then moved towards Obi-Wan, spinning his two lightsabers like propellors, forcing Obi-Wan to inch backwards.
"You're programmed to fight dirty".
As the two warriors stared at each other, the battle of Utapau continued to rage hard above them. A Vulture droid star-fighter was shot down by a Republic fighter. The burning droid fighter spun out of control and began to descend into the sinkhole. It's trajectory was taking them onto the rooftop that Grievous and Obi-Wan were fighting on. Obi-Wan looked up and saw it. Grievous looked back and saw it as well.
The General jumped clear from the rooftop and landed on a cliffside rock path, while Obi-Wan jumped in the opposite direction onto the other side of the circular roof. The droid crashed into the building, causing a fiery explosion that separated both warriors.
Obi-Wan coughed, but then he got back up, and when the smoke cleared, he could see Grievous staring at him. But then the General turned around and followed the rock path, which led into a cave that went into the side of the sinkhole.
Obi-Wan then saw a landing pad further away, and deduced that the caves led to the landing pad, which had the Separatist fighter from earlier.
He went on his way, and pursued the General.
When he got inside the cave, could see that it had natural lighting from above, and stalagmites grew out of the ground. But there was no sign of Grievous. Then he looked up, and snapped into a fighting stance when he saw Grievous falling from above, sabers ignited.
Not wanting to be crushed, Obi-Wan jumped from his position and over the stalagmites.
When Grievous landed, he smashed a crater into the ground beneath him with his powerful mechanical legs.
"Those rocks won't save you!" Obi-Wan declared.
Grievous merely started to laugh. "I will tear the flesh from your bones!" He shouted before he marched toward Obi-Wan, swiping away the rocks like they weren't even there.
Obi-Wan raised his blade and began to parry the General's blades as best as he could.
Grievous caught Obi-Wan in a saber lock, and pushed him back. When Obi-Wan stumbled, he quickly recovered just in time to duck underneath one of Grievous' blades. He then scooted to the side and turned to face Grievous. When Grievous moved in for the kill, Obi-Wan slashed his blade across, trying to decapitate the Cyborg commander. But he missed, and Grievous lifted his leg and pinned Obi-Wan to a stalagmite with his foot. With his pray thoroughly pinned, Grievous spun around and swung his other leg, kicking Obi-Wan in the head.
When Grievous landed, he turned back to see that Obi-Wan was unconscious.
"HAHAHAHAHA! At Last!" he said as he bent down to grab Obi-Wan's saber. "Your Lightsaber is mine! And when I leave, I will use it to bring down the rest of the Jedi Order!"
When Grievous was done monologuing, he jumped into another cave, which led to his secret landing platform. After turning to take one last look at Obi-Wan, he reached for a thermal detonator and threw it up, where it stuck to the ceiling and started ticking.
"Goodbye, Kenobi!" He said before he began to walk out of the cave.
When he was just exiting it, he heard a muffled explosion, which caused the cave to rumble and quake, before smoke and dust shot out of the cave, shrouding Grievous in a thick cloud of dust. When he exited the dust cloud, he could see his fighter, the Soulless One, parked exactly where he wanted it.
But just before he could board, he felt one of his lightsabers moving. He looked down just in time to see Obi-Wan's lightsaber flying off of his hip and into the cloud of smoke. he looked at the dust cloud.
He couldn't believe what he saw next. A lightsaber came to life with a snap-hiss, and the brown dust glowed blue, and a bearded man wearing a tan tunic walked out without a scratch on him.
"WHHAAAAAT!?" Grievous shouted, perplexed.
"You'll have to do better than that". Obi-Wan said.
Grievous just stared at Kenobi, as his arms split into two and reached for all four of his lightsaber and reactivated them.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAAAHH! Let's finish this!" Grievous said as his four arms each start to spin around, using the sabers as propellers, slicing up the floor in front of him as he moved forward towards Kenobi.
As Grievous continued this deadly onslaught, Obi-Wan slowly moved back towards the cave entrance, trying to find the right moment to raise his blade to defend himself. But then, at the right moment, he raised his blade, and crossed it with Grievous' two spinning blades. Grievous then struck with the other two blades, which Obi-Wan parried. He held his ground, but when the cyborg general struck again, Obi-Wan jumped up and over Grievous, getting behind his back.
Grievous turned around and swung his blades at Obi-Wan, who had to anticipate each of the four swinging blades that came his way. He parried each blow that came his way. When Grievous swung all four of his blades at Obi-Wan, he ducked underneath the General's deadly swing and got behind Grievous again, who growled in frustration as he tried to land a solid hit on Obi-Wan. He attacked again, Obi-Wan managed to slice through one of Grievous' mechanical hands.
"OW!" Grievous growled as he dropped a blade. He was down to three. He stumbled back and looked at his wrist, and saw that there wasn't a hand there. He growled and launched another attack on Kenobi, swinging all three office remaining blades viciously, forcing Obi-Wan back, and keeping him on the defensive. But during this vicious attack, Obi-Wan managed to catch one of Grievous's attacks in a saber lock. He drove the blade down and sliced through another one of Grievous' hands, and forcing him to drop a second blade.
Grievous growled again, but managed to catch Obi-Wan in another saber lock. But he didn't plan on losing this one. As he kept one blade crossed with Kenobi's, he pushed him back with the other one.
With Obi-Wan forced back, Grievous began to advance again, hoping to strike down the exhausted Jedi.
But Obi-Wan had different plans.
He lunged at Grievous, swinging the saber at the General's defenses. He then kicked the General, hitting him in the stomach. Obi-Wan uses the force to pull an electro-staff from a nearby weapon's rack into his grasp. He used it to bolster his lightsaber attacks on Grievous. Grievous, put one sword away and grabbed his blaster. But then Obi-Wan swings his staff, knocking the gun, and the saber, away.
A defenseless Grievous is hit by the staff again, and then Obi-Wan slashed his blade across Grievous' chest, burning a chink into his armored plating, and just barely exposed his vital organs. Obi-Wan then tried to thrust his electro-staff forward, aiming for Grievous' chest, and hoping to electrocute his vital organs. But the General dodges, and he knocks the Jedi's weapons away from him before he pulled him close. Then they engage in a furious fight.
With their weapons knocked away, the two engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Obi-Wan tries to rip open Grievous' chest, revealing the protective sac that held the cyborg's organs. Grievous looked down surprised and growled before he bashed Obi-Wan away with his mechanical arm. He then walked over and stomped his massive clawed foot into the ground, trying to crush the fragile human beneath him, his powerful stomps echoing through the ground.
The Jedi struggles to avoid the deadly blows of the brutal, unstoppable Droid.
He kicks Grievous, who's leg buckles a little from the blow, but Kenobi held his leg and cried out in pain.
Grievous laughs and hoisted Kenobi by his throat and tossed him across the platform. Obi-Wan slid across the platform and nearly fell over the edge before he barely grabbed it with his hands. He dangled off of the edge of the platform. He clutches the rim, trying to hold on. The Cyborg General then uses his two remaining hands to grab two of the sabers, stolen from the many Jedi he's slain. A green one and a blue one.
But on closer inspection, Obi-Wan realized that the blue saber was his own.
Oh the irony of being struck down by your own sword.
As Grievous marched towards the dangling Jedi, his wrists began to rotate, the blades spinning like propellors, which chopped up the ground in front of him. The destructive force moved closer and closer to Obi-Wan. This seemed like the end.
Obi-Wan closed his eyes in order to shield himself from what was coming.
That's when he heard a loud buzzing and humming sound. He looked over his shoulder to see what it was. A Republic gunship slowly rose from the bottom of the sinkhole. Grievous noticed it too.
"What?!" He exclaimed.
The gunship's side hatch opened up to reveal Lieutenant Waxer and his men. "LIGHT THAT CLANKER THE HELL UP!" Waxer shouted, and they fired their weapons at the General, who started to deflect them.
Grievous couldn't escape unless he took that gunship out and kill Obi-wan. It was do or die. And sense he could kill Kenobi, jump really far, and hack away at the gunship, the choice was clear.
As Waxer's team fired at Grievous, distracting him, Obi-Wan reached out with the force and summoned one of the lightsabers that Grievous had used earlier, which slid across the ground towards him.
Grievous was right above him now.
"You can never defeat Grievous!" He shouted as he prepared for the killing blow. "Never!"
Obi-Wan ignited the green blade.
"Hhhhkkk," Grievous exclaimed as the blade was thrust into his vital organs.
He looked down.
The clones had ceased firing, opting to watch their Jedi leader kill Grievous. Grievous then stumbled back when Obi-Wan jumped back up and plunged the blade deeper into the General's body. He dropped both of his blades and began to groan loudly as the oils in the sac that held his vital organs began to ignite. Obi-Wan deactivated the green blade and stepped back just in time to see fire shoot out of Grievous' eye sockets as his brain caught fire. Grievous shouted, and his eyes exploded in a ball of fire before he fell back.
The Cyborg General, the great Kaleesh warlord, the mechanical nightmare of the Republic, laid back on the platform, his body completely scorched and his mechanical parts sparking.
Obi-Wan stood over him as Waxer's gunship landed. His men emptied out of the gunship and secured the platform. Some of them walked over to Grievous' body and nudged it with their boots, making sure he didn't jump up to start killing again.
"General. Commander Cody sent us back here to assist you. Are you okay?" Waxer asked.
Obi-Wan didn't look at Waxer. "Thank you Waxer. Contact Cody and tell him to send a message back to Coruscant. Grievous is dead". He said as he just kept looking at the smoldering mechanical corpse on the ground.
Waxer nodded and turned to his men to start rallying them. They all moved back into the gunship, which took off and headed back into the battle.
With Grievous dead, the Separatist armies would surely follow. By all accounts, the worst days of the Republic were behind them with the death of the Separatist leaders.
If only that were true.
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Well folks, that was part 13.
Part 14'll be right around the corner.
Stick around until then.