Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
Let's get to it.
CMac54: We may very well see some characters meet different fates thanks to the Terrans, both characters from the series and Jedi during Order 66.
Chapter 38- Gungan Attack
It's been several hours now since the few remaining Republic and Mon Calamari forces were forced to retreat into the caves below the capitol city.
The leadership have gathered for a hologram call with Master Windu and Master Yoda. Kit opens the meeting by saying, "We have lost all contact with clones and Mon Cala soldiers, and we do not know if the Louisville is still intact. The Quarren ambushed us. They were ready to attack long before the peace talks came to an end."
"Desperate, the situation is," Yoda says. However, the transmission begins to break up as he says, "Reinforce your position with clones, we can—"
The transmission begins to break up even more. Urgently, Adams asks, "Master Yoda, please repeat. Are you sending us any reinforcements?"
"You're breaking up," Mace manages to get out before the transmission cuts off completely.
"Are they coming?" Lee-Char asks.
"I don't know," Kit says.
"But they know our situation. They must know to send help," Ackbar says.
"Yeah, but it may take them a while to get here. We're gonna have to get ourselves to the surface and get off this rock," Anakin says.
"Or continue to try and rendezvous with the Louisville," Adams adds.
"I will not leave my people to die," Lee-Char says firmly.
"With all due respect, Your Highness, if we stay, we all die," Anakin says. Lee-Char lowers his head a bit, knowing Anakin has a point.
"We must reach the surface and see if our ship is still there. At the moment, I think that is the more promising option that attempting to find the American submarine," Padme says.
"The Prince will decide our course of action," Ackbar says firmly.
Adams is ready to protest that. Luckily, Lee-Char says, "I think it is best for us to try and escape using your ship."
"As you wish, Your Highness. Follow me," Anakin says. He then begins leading them and the rest of their forces, which just comprise a few clones and SEALs, out of the caves.
(Jedi Temple, Coruscant)
"It'll take us days to outfit another clone regiment for underwater combat, and those American units equipped for underwater combat will not be able to reach the planet for a few days as well," Mace says.
"Days our friends do not have," Obi Wan says.
"Perhaps we should look to armies other than clones or Terrans to help our cause," Yoda says.
"What do you suggest?" Mace asks.
"A suitable ally we must find to help with this mission," Yoda says.
"Yes, an underwater race that has a standing army and is close enough to send help quickly," Saesee Tiin adds.
Obi Wan raises an eyebrow and smiles slightly. "Naboo?"
"Yes. To the Gungans we must look," Yoda says.
"We shall contact them immediately. I will also contact our Terran allies and order them to send those American units to Mon Cala as quickly as possible," Mace says.
(Mon Cala)
The entire team looks up at the droid and Quarren forces circling around the capitol city.
"That's a lot of enemy troops between us and the surface," Padme comments.
"It's no problem. I just hope you're a fast swimmer," Anakin remarks.
"Says the boy from the desert planet," Padme replies, smirking at Anakin.
"Are you certain your ship is still there?" Senator Tills asks.
"There's only one way to find out. And even if it's not, I still have confidence that the Louisville is out there," Adams says.
"I'll create a diversion so you can get past those patrols," Kit says.
"All right, try to get a mini sub or two. It'll help us speed to the surface," Anakin says.
"No problem," Kit says before speeding up through the water.
Kit quickly sneaks up behind a Quarren patrol that is escorting some captured clones, taking out the Quarren and sending their mini sub down to the team.
"Ahsoka, you're up first. Take the Prince, Adams, and Senator Tills," Anakin orders. Ahsoka grabs hold of the mini sub, and her three passengers grab on as well. Ahsoka then speeds up through the water, speeding past Kit, who has now freed the two clones and giving them the Quarren's two blaster rifles.
Another Quarren patrols speeds up, firing their blasters at Kit and the clones. Kit takes out the Quarren and sends the mini sub down to the team. Anakin, Padme, and Ackbar grab onto the mini sub and speed up towards the surface.
A few minutes later, they're nearing the surface, and they catch sight of the ship, still hovering over the waves. "There's the ship," Padme says in relief.
"Still in one piece," Anakin adds.
Everyone is starting to feel at ease, feeling they'll be able to get off Mon Cala until reinforcements arrive. Suddenly, without warning, the entire ship explodes, its debris crashing into the water.
Everyone scatters, letting go of the mini subs, and trying to evade the debris as some aqua droids approach, firing their blasters.
As Anakin draws his lightsaber and deflects the blaster bolts from the aqua droids, he calls out, "Well, Prince, how do you feel about fighting again?"
"Master Jedi, we're too vulnerable here. We must reach the seafloor," Lee-Char says.
"Grab onto the debris. Let it carry you to the bottom," Anakin says. Everyone does as Anakin says, and grab onto any large piece of debris close to them, trying to stay hidden from view.
As they sink, Kit, who has been fighting off aqua droids and Quarren, sees the debris sinking towards him. He and a surviving clone swim up to one piece. The one that Anakin is holding onto.
"Back so soon?" Kit asks.
"Yeah. The ship had some problems," Anakin responds.
"I can see that…all around me," Kit says with a smile.
"This is our only chance. We need to split up and hide the Prince's whereabouts," Ackbar says.
"I'm not sure that's the best strategy," Anakin says.
"I'm sure. Captain Ackbar's words are my own. It will give us the best chance of surviving if we split up," Lee-Char interjects.
"As you wish. Ahsoka, you and the Prince take Adams, Kit, and the clones. I'll take the Senators, SEALs, and Captain Ackbar. Lay low. Our only hope is that Master Yoda can send help in time," Anakin orders.
"No, Prince Lee-Char is our only hope," Ackbar says before swimming off.
The two groups split up, each one heading for a different hiding place.
Ahsoka's group, while avoiding aqua droids, swims into a cave among the coral.
"I don't think we've been followed. Commander Monnk, post a lookout," Kit says. Monnk and the other two clones swim over to the entrance to the cave.
"We have no army, and we don't know if reinforcements are coming. What are our options?" Lee-Char says in slight discouragement.
Adams lifts his commlink, ready to try again. "Captain Adams to USS Louisville. Come in," he says.
There's a few moments, then finally a voice responds, "We hear you, Captain Adams."
"Thank goodness. Took you long enough to respond. Where are you?" Adams asks.
"Currently a few miles west of the capitol city. Several assault craft pursued us, and we were forced to run. The craft are still searching for us, so we'll skirt around them and double back to the city when we can. We'll be back in position to lend support soon," the voice of Commander Gore responds.
"Understood. Let me know when you get close to the city," Adams says before terminating the transmission. He looks up at the others and says, "Well, Louisville is out of the fight for now, but hopefully she'll be back soon. Until then, we'll just have to sit tight."
"Sir, you'd better come see this," Monnk calls to them. Kit swims over, and the rest follow him.
Peeking out through the seaweed that covers the entrance, they see a number of aqua droids and Quarren escorting hundreds of Mon Calamari, clones, and SEALs, all with their hands bound behind their backs, further down into the trench their cave is beside.
"So many prisoners. Where are they taking them?" Lee-Char asks.
"To become slaves," Kit says.
"I can't believe Nossor Ri and the Quarren agreed to this," Lee-Char says.
"Count Dooku rules here for now, not the Quarren," Ahsoka says.
"What you see, Prince, is the future of all the people on this world, Mon Cala and Quarren, all salves for Count Dooku," Kit says.
Meanwhile, Anakin, Padme, Senator Tills, Ackbar, and the two remaining SEALs are making their way up through the city, hiding from droid and Quarren patrols.
"If there are reinforcements coming, the best way for us to achieve surprise is to take out their ability to detect incoming forces. Captain Ackbar, where are your people's detection devices kept?" one of the SEALs asks Ackbar.
"It's over there, across the square. If we knock them out, they won't see our reinforcements until they're right over the city," Ackbar points out.
"Assuming someone is coming," Tills points out.
"I am sure Master Yoda will find a way to send help. Anakin, its your move," Padme says.
"Follow me," Anakin says as they start swimming over to the structure Ackbar indicated.
As they approach the building, Anakin says, "Okay, just cover me. I'm gonna have to concentrate."
"We've got your back, Skywalker," the two SEALs say, turning their backs to Anakin and keeping their assault blasters raised.
Anakin raises his hands, beginning to use the Force on the building. The supports begin to creak under the pressure that begins to mount on them.
Several aqua droids spot the group of six. The SEALs spot them too, and open fire at the same moment the droids do. Their blaster bolts quickly destroy the three aqua droids.
"Anakin, hurry!" Padme says urgently, scanning around for any other sign of enemies.
Only a few seconds later, the supports buckle and snap. Within moments, the building holding the scanners begins to collapse and fall towards the seabed. The team quickly swims out of the way of the falling debris.
More aqua droids soon find them. Anakin ignites his lightsaber, deflecting blaster bolts sent their way, while the SEALs, Padme, Tills, and Ackbar return fire.
As the aqua droids begin to fall, almost 15 Hydroid Medusas slowly float up around them.
"At least we're drawing attention away from the Prince," Padme says.
Just seconds after this, down in the caves in the coral, Lee-Char, holding a conch shell indicative of the royal line, floats in the middle of the entrance to his cave, holding the conch to his lips, and blowing several very loud blasts that echo around the city.
The procession of prisoners and their guards stop, looking around for the source of the sound. At the same time, Ahsoka, Kit, and Adams hear it and see the prince. "Oh, no. The Prince. Hurry!" Ahsoka says, and they swim up the cave to bring the prince back into cover.
As this is happening, one of the Mon Calamari sees Lee-Char. "The Prince. He's alive!" the Mon Calamari says.
"People of Mon Cala, all people of Mon Cala who would not be slaves, have hope!" Lee-Char cries.
"We will fight for you, Prince!" one of the Mon Calamari shouts as he's being held back by Quarren guards.
"You will not be prisoners much longer!" Lee-Char declares.
Coming up behind Lee-Char, Adams says, "Prince, that's enough! I appreciate what you're doing for your people but you just announced our location. We need to move!" Lee-Char ducks back into the cave just in time to avoid blaster fire.
(In orbit)
A Republic Venator drops out of hyperspace, making its way down into Mon Cala's atmosphere.
As the ship descends to just above the waves, its ventral bay opens up. Inside the ship, Jar Jar Binks says, "Wesa ready!" He then motions to the troops of the Gungan Grand Army, who begun uttering their war cries as they charge forward and leap out of the ship into the water. The army of Gungans immediately dives down into the water, ready to take the fight to the Separatists.
As Kit and Ahsoka deflect blaster bolts from aqua droids, and Adams fires his blaster pistols, they hear something. Looking up, they see Gungans diving all around them, heading right for the aqua droids.
"Gungans. The tide has turned in our favor," Kit says.
"Let's free my people. Attack!" Lee-Char says, swimming right towards the prisoners and their guards. Ahsoka and Kit follow, followed by the three clones.
Meanwhile, only a mile from the city, the hull of the Louisville slides smoothly through the water at 21 knots. In the conn, Captain Hall shouts, "Lock up any target and fire at will!"
The weapons officers on the submarine quickly lock up the Hydroid Medusas surrounding Anakin's group. The first volley of four Mk48 torpedoes is fired, and the torpedo men hurry to reload the torpedo tubes.
The first four torpedoes close in on their targets, and impact at 50 knots before exploding. The 650 pound warheads devastate the beasts, and the four targeted Hydroid Medusas sink towards the seafloor.
Anakin and the others smile. Then, their smiles grow bigger as Gungans dive down towards them, throwing boomas at the Hydroid Medusas, forcing the creatures away.
As Anakin watches the Gungans attack, Jar Jar swims up to him and says, "Ani! Mesa so happy to see you."
"Perfect timing, Jar Jar!" Anakin says.
"Whassa? Mesa can't hear so good since we submergify!" Jar Jar says loudly.
Meanwhile, further down, Lee-Char's group has been successful in freeing some of the clones. However, some Quarren reinforcements have arrived, and are pushing back against the attack. Lee-Char himself has grabbed a weapon and is firing at aqua droids.
Suddenly, a series of Trident class assault craft, including some very big ones, dive down into the city. Several of them head straight for the Louisville.
"Captain! Multiple inbound sonar contacts heading right for us! One is much bigger than the previous assault craft!"
"All ahead flank, right full rudder! Get us out of here!' Gore orders.
Louisville immediately turns around and starts powering away from the city. However, the assault craft keep up their pursuit.
At the same time, back in the city, more assault craft are making their way into the city.
The larger craft stop, then begin spinning quickly in the water. The spinning motion creates a vortex in the water, which slowly grows swifter as the craft keep spinning.
In one of these whirlpools, Lee-Char is knocked around by the turbulence and debris. Ahsoka and Adams, who are in the center, turn to Lee-Char and Adams says, "Stay in the center of the whirlpool! There's less turbulence!"
Suddenly, the bottom of the craft overhead opens up, and Tamson swims out, heading straight for the prince.
Adams sees this and reacts instantly. He swims up as fast as he can and slams into Tamson, punching the Karkarodon in the stomach. "Not on my watch!" he shouts as he presses his attack on Tamson.
Tamson roars angrily and tries to attack Adams. Adams manages to get his hands around Tamson's throat, and to Tamson's surprise, actually starts choking him. Tamson had not imagined that a human could have such strength.
Tamson manages to punch Adams in the stomach, then use the brief advantage the move gives him to pry Adams' hands from his throat. Adams, however, immediately activates his lightsaber, swinging it right at Tamson.
Tamson dodges several blows, then lands a blow on Adams that sends him reeling back through the water. However, Kit swims in to take his place and keep Tamson busy.
They exchange blows for a minute before Tamson briefly gets away from Kit and swims right for Lee-Char. Kit manages to intercept him and knock him back.
"Ahsoka! Adams! Escape with the Prince! I'll hold him off!" Kit says.
Ahsoka and Adams both fire extension cables down to the seabed, and Ahsoka grabs the prince's hand. The three haul themselves down to the seafloor, then manage to make it out of the vortex.
As this is happening, the first group of assault craft is still pursuing the Louisville. After almost 15 minutes of this, an assault craft above the surface that is tracking the Louisville by tracking the other assault craft pursuing her drops several charges into the water.
As the charges sink, one of the sonar operators detects them on a pulse of active sonar. "Captain! Depth charges falling around us!"
Weighing his options, Commander Gore makes his decision in a split second. "Emergency deep!" he orders.
The sub's XO gets on the intercom and shouts, "All hands, emergency deep! Emergency deep!"
"Point us at the bottom! Hold on!" Gore shouts.
The submarine dives as fast as it can. But they noticed the charges too late, and the charges explode.
Instantly, the submarine rocks. Some leaks open in the outer hull, and water begins to spill in.
Chaos reigns on the submarine. Damage control hurry to seal off the leaks, while the bridge crew tries to regain control of the ship. However, the systems are damaged from the blast, and the Louisville impacts hard on the ocean floor. Thankfully, her pressure hull holds up, and no further leaks are opened. But, it's clear she's not going to be moving anytime soon.
Not long after, Lee-Char, Ahsoka, and Adams are hiding in a cave below the city. Adams, hoping that the Louisville is still out there, gets on his commlink and says, "Captain Adams to Louisville. Come in."
"This is Louisville. I'm sorry, Captain Adams, but we got hit by some depth charges and made a bit of a crash landing on the ocean floor. It's gonna take us a while before we can make the repairs we need and get back under way. I'm sorry, but we can't help you. I'll let you know once we're back underway," Gore says before cutting off the transmission.
Adams curses under his breath. Lee-Char sighs and says, "Now the three of us are the only ones left."
"I'm sorry, Lee-Char," Ahsoka says.
"I know what I must do. I know my people need me. I just don't know how to win this war," Lee-Char says.
"I know how you must be feeling, Prince. I've felt that way myself plenty of times on missions. But, as they say in the SEALs, "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome.' We need to be able to keep our fear in check and overcome the obstacles in our path. We need to believe that somehow we can still win," Adams says.
"I will unify Mon Cala again. I promise," Lee-Char says firmly.
There is a distant groaning sound. "Come on. Let's find some place to hunker down and figure out our next move," Adams says. The three swim deeper into the cave, hoping that a miracle will happen.
And, I'll end there. Hope you liked this chapter.
So, things are looking pretty bleak. But, as we know, it won't stay that way.
So, I have decided what I'm going to do regarding Season 7. Once I finish the Season 6 episodes I'll be doing, then I'll stop work on this story until Season 7 is over. However, that may not be much of a gap, as I'll be spending a little more time on my Star Wars- Lord of the Rings crossover story, as well as some other stories I've been kind of neglecting for a while.
Next chapter will be up soon. Until then, leave a review, and stay tuned.