Hey, guys. Back with another chapter. This one will be shorter (for one particular reason you'll soon see), but hopefully still a good one.

Let's get to it.

w.m. simpson. jr: Palpatine doesn't yet know the results of the battle so far. But, yes he will come to greatly regret allowing the Republic to come to our aid.

Chapter 12- Battle of Nigeria

A volley of heavy laser bolts crash down around the Nigerian troops. Several are killed, while others continue in their retreat south.

The Battle of Nigeria had begun almost 24 hours prior. The initial droid force of about 100,000 battle droids and 1,200 heavy droid units had landed near the Nigerian city of Ilorin. A division of 10,000 Nigerian troops was in Ilorin at the time of the landing. Despite heavy resistance from the Nigerians, the droids had captured the city, and the surviving Nigerian troops retreated south.

Now, the Nigerian lines are getting closer and closer to the major city of Lagos. The Nigerians have lost a little over 20,000 men. However, reinforcements are beginning to arrive. 10,000 clones stationed in Lagos have come up to reinforce the Nigerian lines. At the same time, Terran reinforcements have arrived in the form of 6,000 troops from Benin, Togo, and Ghana from the west and 3,000 troops from Cameroon from the east. At the same time, Nigerian commanders have received from the their northern neighbor, Niger, that a full 6,500 troops of Niger's have crossed Nigeria's northern border and are coming down from the north to catch the droids in a pincer movement.

However, Nigerian commanders are worried. The droids are closing in on Lagos, and the lines of the Nigerians, clones, and other African allies are continuing to be pushed back towards Lagos. Worse still, there are no Jedi in Africa, and the nearest member of the ASAT team is too far away to help.

In the desert north of Lagos, a Nigerian regiment launches a fierce counterattack against the droid lines. The fierce attack by the Nigerians pushes droid lines back a full mile across a two mile stretch before the droids are able to strike back and stop them.

As the Nigerians realize their counter attack is failing, the surviving troops turn to retreat back out of range. As they do, a small strike force of 8 MiG-21s, 8 Jaguars, and 4 L-39 attack planes streaks in to launch an air strike against the droid armies. Vulture droids streak down towards them, but are intercepted by the MiG-21s. Despite the age of the MiGs, they score almost 20 kills against the Vulture droids, as the Vultures find the small, manuverable fighters very difficult targets to hit. Although four of the MiGs end up being shot down, the MiGs manage to keep the Vultures off the Jaguars and L-39s as they attack the droids. The Nigerian planes are able to destroy over a thousand droids and several dozen heavy droid units before they are forced to retreat.

The droids, unshaken by the combined Nigerian attack, press on. The Nigerian commanders order their units to prepare to retreat back towards Lagos to establish a more firm defense.

In the Nigerian capital of Abuja, Nigerian commanders are feeling very nervous. They know that if Lagos is lost, it will break Nigeria's army, and leave Abuja unable to resist against the Separatists. Already, some Separatist units are starting to divert towards Abuja.

"Send a message to the Americans again," Lt. Gen. Salihu Ibrahim, the commander of the Nigerian Army, orders his aides.

One of his aides gets on the radio, going onto a special channel the Nigerians have organized with the Pentagon in Washington D.C. "This is Nigerian military command. Our situation is dire. Please, Americans! Where are the reinforcements you promised?!"

Several minutes later, a voice comes back over the radio. "Nigerian military command, this United States National Command. Our carrier is still on the way, but we're a little tied up here at home, so no troops will be coming. However, we have another way we can help you. Please transmit exact coordinates where the droid armies are located."

"Standby," the Nigerian officer responds. Using the most recent report from the front lines, the Nigerian officer transmits the coordinates where the droid army is currently located.

A minute or so passes, and then the American officer on the other end says over the radio, "Nigerian military command. Order all troops to retreat as far south as possible, but make every effort to hold the droids in their current location. Ensure no friendly troops are within 10 miles of droid lines at minimum 30 minutes from now."

"Understood," the Nigerian officer responds. He then turns to General Ibrahim and says, "Did you hear that, General?"

"Yes. Order an all out bombardment of droid lines, and scramble all aircraft to attack. Order all friendly troops to retreat south. I want a gap of at least 15 miles between our friendly troops and the nearest droid," General Ibrahim responds.

The various officers in the command center hurry to issue the orders. Within minutes, what Republic and Terran tanks are intact launch an all out bombardment of the droid lines, while a strike force of 44 Nigerian aircraft scramble, all armed for ground attack, and streak towards the Separatist lines while the Terran troops and clones hurry south.

Meanwhile, over the Atlantic ocean, an American E-4 aircraft is airborne, with President Bush on board. He's been updated on the situation in Nigeria. Now, he turns to his officers on the E-4 and says, "Issue the order. Clear to launch." At the same time, his Secretary of Defense gives his approval at the same time.

The officers on the E-4 transmit the message, along with the respective confirmation codes.

Within seconds, the transmission is received by the ballistic missile submarine USS Alaska, currently at sea about 400 miles west of the coast of Sierra Leone, about 1,300 miles from Lagos. In the submarine's conn, the captain picks up his microphone. "Weapons, conn, we have an authenticated fire order. Spin up missile one."

"Weapons, this is the XO. I concur with the captain," the sub's XO says over his microphone.

As the coordinates sent from the E-4 are fed into the submarine's computers, the number one missile tube opens up, revealing the Trident missile inside it.

"Steering, come to missile firing depth," the captain says. The helmsman pulls up on his control yoke, bringing the Alaska up to a depth of 100 feet.

"Sir. Missile is spun up. Coordinates. Ready to launch," the weapons officer calls up to the conn.

The captain turns to the XO and nods as he removes his missile firing key from his neck. He inserts his key into the firing station, and the XO does the same with his key a moment later.

"On my mark. Three, two, one. Mark," the captain says. And both he and the XO turn their keys at the same moment.

Just behind the sub's sail, the number one Trident surges up out of its launch tube. As the missile breaks the surface, it's rocket motor ignites, and the missile streaks up into the air, turning to assume course for Nigeria.

In the conn, the captain orders, "Send a message to Command. Missile is underway."

In Nigeria, the attack is working. The fierce air attack, though it came at the cost of 24 of the attackers, caused some heavy damage to the droid front lines. The droids paused to regroup, allowing the Nigerians to retreat back towards Lagos. They have no managed to put 16.5 miles between them and the droid lines.

Among the droids, a Muun that is in command of the droids is feeling very confident. He still has about 70,000 droids, and about 800 heavy droid units. He is feeling very confident, and now that has forces have gotten back together and regrouped into a more organized formation, he feels that they can finally make the push they need to crush the Nigerians.

Suddenly, a B1 droid calls out, "Commander!" The Muun looks at the droid and says, "Yes?"

"We have an incoming contact coming from the west. Moving far faster than anything recorded," the droid responds.

The Muun commander looks up at the sky. After a few moments, he spots a spot of light heading towards them from the west. It's travelling so fast, he just has time to register it and wonder what it is he is disintegrated.

The Trident detonates in an airburst about 100 feet off the ground. The 475 kiloton nuclear warhead unleashes its power on the Separatist army. Within just a few seconds, about 38,000 droids and 500 heavy droid units are destroyed by the blast. The shock wave goes out for miles, destroying more droids and damaging even more. Within a few minutes of the detonation, only 25,000 droids and about 100 heavy droid units remain.

In orbit, General Grievous has been monitoring the situation. When he sees the massive blast, and sensors show just how much damage was caused, he is, for once, stunned. He has never seen, either from the Separatists or Republic, a weapon that can cause this much damage in a single blast.

"Pull our forces out!" Grievous orders.

Within minutes, the few C-9979s that survived the blast begin moving to evacuate the remaining droids. More are sent from orbit. There intervention comes none too soon, as the aircraft from the Moroccan and Algerian Air Forces, and some from the Egyptian Air Force, arrive after landing briefly in Niger and Chad to refuel. The fighters attack the remaining droid units. Vulture droids are able to hold them off to some degree, but by the time the remaining C-9979 transports take off and head back up to orbit, the Separatist army has been reduced to about 20,000 battle droids and only a few dozen heavy droid units.

The Battle of Nigeria is over. It was costly for the defenders, as it saw the loss of almost 30,000 Nigerian soldiers, 4,000 clones, almost 2,000 troops from Nigeria's neighbors, and the destruction of most of the Nigerian Air Force. However, it had seen the destruction of most of the attacking Separatist forces, and the first use of a nuclear weapon in combat since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945.

Once again, despite some heavy losses, the Terrans have driven back the Separatists.

I'll end there.

So, nukes have finally been used in combat against the Separatists. It won't be the last time in the Terran campaign nukes are used. I decided to start with first use in Nigeria because there would be plenty of empty land where the nuke could be fired at where it wouldn't necessarily have an adverse effect on Nigerian people.

The next battle will take us to the United States. I'll guarantee it'll be far less close than the other battles we've seen so far. It should be up within two weeks or so.

Until then, leave a review, and stay tuned!