Summary/disclaimer: Time for another chapter of Shadows of the Force. Enjoy the 2400-word chapter. I don't own RWBY and Star Wars. Monty Oum, Lucas Films, and Rooster Teeth do.
(Vale Mountains, 10 kilometers from Vale, Remnant 12:20 PM)
Blake was quite familiar with AK-130s, she had seen what they could do and defeated many of them. She was quite familiar with their weaknesses firsthand.
She was beginning to believe what Lerek had said when she noticed the B1s. they looked skeletal, gangly even… But every one of them carried a gun. She also noticed what she guessed were tanks. Blake was beginning to understand why the republic was so militarized as it was.
She could see a small white tower poking out of the mountain along with bolts of blue flying from it. Several of these blasts nailed the droids in front, knocking them over. Lerek could see at least a dozen AATs and what looked like possibly 200 droids… Had they split up their forces? Lerek would check with his forces when this was done.
"Trapper, what happened to 'wait for reinforcements?'" Lerek questioned over the comlink as the gunship started to descend upon the battlefield.
"Sorry, general, guess the droids didn't get the memo." Lerek heard from Hunter before he drew his lightsaber. "Scrap those clankers! I'll fill you in when you reach us, sir." Trapper said before the line went dead.
"Great… There goes my first plan." Lerek said as he dropped from the gunship into the clearing, slashing apart a B1 as he went.
"FORWARD, TEAM RWBY!" Ruby yelled as she dropped from the gunship, unfurling her scythe as she landed.
"Time to send them out with a Yang!" Yang said as she leaped from the gunship, causing Blake to roll her eyes.
"So, they are androids…" Weiss said before turning to Blake. "I'd listen to the general, there's THOUSANDs of them from what we can see," Lerek said while Blake hummed and leaped out finally.
She landed in a crouch as Lerek cut one of the B2s in half and used the force to smash another into a tree. He turned only to be forced back by a hail of laser fire, deflecting laser fire as he retreated.
"YEAH!" Ruby shouted as she sped around, bouncing off a tree and into a B1.
Blake watched her scythe, ripping it apart as her blade sliced through the droid's body like it was tinfoil. Blake drew Gambol Shroud while Lerek flipped into a tree.
"Who are they!?" One of the droids questioned in its usual nasally voice as Blake rushed into combat. "Blast them!" The droid shouted as he shook before Lerek stabbed the droid through the droid a second later.
"Just like old times!" Lerek stated before turning to deflect more blaster fire. "Trapper? How are things on your end?" Lerek asked as he turned to look around.
He watched as hundreds of droids continued their march. If they reached Vale? They'd burn everything to ash in a single-minded attack…. He'd put a stop to this. Lerek rushed through the trees, taking out droids where he could.
He stopped to see Ruby smashing into them like a rotary cannon. The droids were busy trying to figure out WHERE Ruby had come from.
The issue? She couldn't simply turn as she ran meaning it took a while for her to reach them again after a pass. Weiss was busy being alphabetical with some sort of force-like ability and Yang was… Just trying to punch and shoot droids which was the OPPOSITE of what Lerek had said.
He turned to look around for Blake as blaster bolts flew from both sides. He turned in time to see a B1 level its blaster at him only for Blake to slice it in two, her sword moving like a lightsaber.
"So, these are 'battle droids?'" Blake questioned as the duo took cover behind trees.
"Yep, not very smart, but very trigger happy," Lerek stated while he closed his eyes once more. "Your friends are taking an interesting plan," Lerek added before a blast uprooted a tree next to him, causing him to turn and leap to the next.
"They're treating them like Grimm," Blake said as she followed behind him while Lerek watched one of his clones collapse to the ground.
He sighed at the sight and made a mental note to get the clones buried properly when this was over. Still? He had to make every clone death mean something. Their sacrifices had to mean something in the end.
"Trapper, I thought you ordered reinforcements!" Lerek yelled before 2 gunships flew overhead followed by a Y-Wing. "Never mind! Hold your positions, nothing through!" Lerek ordered as he continued advancing.
One of the Y-Wings roared overhead. Lerek felt its ion engines shaking the trees as it fired a proton torpedo, taking a squad of droids and an AAT with it soared away.
"Thank you!" Lerek yelled as he chopped a B1 in 2 with a wave of his saber. "Where is their boss?" Lerek questioned, looking around as one of the gunships hovered behind them.
Blake watched as 30 clones dropped from the craft, firing as they charged into the trees alongside Lerek. The Arkanian took charge of the platoon, leaping towards one of the AATs.
"You good?" Lerek asked as he swung his saber, slicing the barrel of the tank's cannon off.
"Peachy." Blake snarked a moment later as she leaped forward, kicking one of the B1s hard enough to crush its head.
Lerek was forced to leap from the tank as another in the column fired, blowing the tank into scrap. He landed next to Blake who twirled her sword, knowing these blasts couldn't be blocked as gunfire could.
"Sir, we've got more reinforcements arriving soon." One of the clones reported as Blake paused to flip onto another tank.
Another of the droid pilots fired, too stupid to care about the friendly fire at the expense of an easy kill. Lerek almost questioned how stupid the droid army was as he watched Blake vanish only to appear next to him.
"You idiots, stop firing!" Lerek heard as Blake hummed, dusting off her shirt.
"Nice move…." Lerek said before he turned to see more of the droids spreading out, trying to overwhelm the clones while they also desperately tried to take down Ruby and the others.
"There…" Lerek stated as he pointed to a far-off tank.
He could see the one droid he was looking forward to. The one droid that had what he needed. The tactical droid screeched at its underlings, arrogant in its tactics. Ventress wasn't here, he couldn't sense her presence on the battlefield… That told him this droid was leading the separatist forces. That meant this droid was the one thing that he needed and dispatching it wouldn't just decapitate the droid leadership but give him the intel on the separatists.
"Blake? You see that droid back on that AAT in the back?" Lerek questioned while he continued to deflect blaster fire.
He watched at least 2 of his clones join the fallen as another gunship arrived, dropping an AT-TE onto the battlefield. The massive walker slowly surged forward, it is canon firing as it trampled rocks and trees. The AATS were busy trying to decide between the republic walker and RWBY who were starting to cut through their ranks while still keeping their distance.
"The blocky one? Yes." Blake stated as the walker continued forward. "Why? Are you going to take it out?" Blake questioned to which Lerek hummed and nodded.
"Yes, now let me show you how a Jedi does things," Lerek said as 2 more clones were blasted, collapsing to the ground, injured, but not dead. "Damn it, take cover! Cover the walker and let me through!" Lerek ordered the clones and charged forward.
He leaped onto an AAT, beginning to lunge from tank to tank towards the tactical droid who screeched orders. It pointed a digitated finger at him while he continued to spin his lightsaber.
"Never a second without something interesting happening," Lerek said as he leaped onto another tank. "All forces? I'm targeting their commander, cover me. I'll take down their leader." Lerek ordered as he leaped onto another tank.
The droids swiveled around, blasting at everything as the AA-TE opened fire, blowing another AAT into scrap. The republic forces slowly began to push back as another AT-TE and another squad of clones was deployed. Blake looked up to see one of the light cruisers arriving as Ruby severed a B2 in half.
"BLAST THEM ALL!" The tactical droid screeched as it tried to marshal its disarrayed forces into something manageable. He knew for a fact it was freaking out over the republic defenses holding.
"Hmm…" Lerek hummed to himself as he leaped again into the air towards the droid, landing on the AAT. "Hi there," Lerek said as the droid looked up at him just in time to see Lerek bring his lightsaber down.
The droid's head was severed from its neck, clanking off the hull of the tank. The droid commander looked at his forces and did the most sensible thing his forces began to get pressed hard. Lerek cut into the AAT, destroying it once and for all.
"Retreat!" The droid yelled before another explosion took 4 more clones with it.
Lerek gripped the droid's head as the remaining droid forces began to pull back to regroup with their other half.
"We beat them!" Ruby yelled as she twirled her oil-soaked scythe.
"No, we stalled them," Lerek said, holding the tactical droid's head as he turned off his lightsaber. "Trapper? Bury the dead… I'll make sure their sacrifices weren't for nothing." Lerek ordered as he hopped off the remains of the tank.
Lerek knew more droids would come. Ventress wasn't stupid, they had far more soldiers and firepower than this. He knew for a fact they had gotten cocky. The tactical droid had probably believed devoting more droids to a rearguard was smarter.
"That thing has their plans on it?" Blake asked as Lerek returned his saber to his belt.
"Whatever little it's seen or heard, yes," Lerek said before turning to one of his clones. "Bring this to the Trailblazer, get a technical team on decoding it. We're going to need it." Lerek ordered as the clone nodded and took it from the general.
"So, these are the separatists? An army of androids?" Blake asked, pausing to look over one of the B1s she had broken.
"No, these are the soldiers for their army," Lerek said and hummed. "They're a bunch of different species, just like the republic and the Jedi… As I told you, they're not very smart, but they don't care about living as much as you and me. The separatists mass produces them… Just like how the republic creates more clones." Lerek stated while he rubbed at his temples.
"So, they're manufacturing disposable droids and you keep destroying them?" Blake asked as she ran a hand over the metal.
"Yep, it's just their leader wasn't here like I was," Lerek said before he opened his comlink. "Drifter? We've repelled the droids but there's still some in the area. I'm going to reinforce this area and decode the droid's data…. Do you think you can bury the dead? We lost some good men holding them off for now." Lerek said with notable sadness in his tone.
Blake was silent for a minute as Lerek paused to look upon the scorched battlefield. He remembered the battle of Geonosis, a wasteland turned into an even more barren planet.
"This is what happened to a lot of planets, Blake," Lerek said as he looked over the destruction. "And THIS is what I told you I'm fighting to stop. Now then? I have some soldiers to bury, they earned that much for what they did." Lerek said before he sighed and started to walk away.
Blake looked after the Arkanian. Some of her doubts settled and were replaced with fresh ones. She could tell that he did feel a lot of remorse at the moment. Still? She had yet to ascertain what he believed in at the moment… And she could NOT wait to know how things turned out.
"We might hold it on the Trailblazer, general." Lerek heard as the Arkanian hummed. "They're going to need you and Sergeant Belladonna back. General of Atlas just showed up, said he's part of that kingdom's council for now." Drifter stated before Lerek chuckled and turned to look at Blake as he smiled.
"Sergeant Belladonna?" Lerek asked with amusement as the Faunus slowly walked over. "Drift, if I didn't know any better? I'd say that sounds like a compliment." Lerek said as Drifter chuckled.
"If Ms. Belladonna can keep up with you and the boys of the 307th? And she scraps clankers as well as us?" Drifter asked before continuing his talk. "Then she's one of us in my book, sir. We need you to come back. I'll take care of reinforcing that area… Tell Trapper you want to give our lost brothers a final sendoff on the Trailblazer." Drifter said, his voice more solemn towards the end as he clicked off.
Lerek's smile dropped slightly. He was well aware this wouldn't be the end of fallen soldiers. It wouldn't even be close to the end of losing clones. Lerek might have respected the code, but that didn't mean he didn't care for his men.
"Trapper?" Lerek asked as he turned towards the mud-covered clone who wore an ARC variant with a Sarlacc upon the helmet. "Get the fallen and find a spot they won't be disturbed. I'll be back tonight to speak for them if they have me." Lerek said which got Trapper to nod and salute.
"Everyone thinks being a general is a fun job till you have to make the hard choices," Lerek said while rubbing at his temples. "Drifter? I and Blake need a pickup, I'm going to be in my quarters tonight." Lerek ordered as he leaned on a tree.
Author Notes
Phew. Another chapter is done! I want to point out that most chapters will be 900-3500 words usually. The next chapter will be in 2-10 months and will show both Blake and Lerek talking and Lerek meeting with General Ironwood and such. Until then? Lighting Wolf out!
P.S: Next chapter is 900-6500 words.