Hey there everybody! Sorry it's been a bit since I last updated, the last month has been rather hectic due to my classes, so I might not be able to update as frequently, we'll see. But anyway, today's recommendation is a romance manga/anime called Kimi ni Todoke.
Walking a Tightrope Chapter 11 (V. 1.0)
The quality of decision is like the well-time swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.
Battle for Iridonia!
Thanks to a daring strategy devised by Jedi Padawan, Nitai Zeama, the Republic troops fighting to liberate the Zabrak homeworld of Iridonia have been able to force back the Separatist defensive lines. With momentum on their side, the Republic forces have been able to push the droid army back, forcing them to make their stand in the city of Danai, in the northern region of the valley which the Republic forces seek to reclaim.
If the Republic troops hope to take control of the planet, then they must capture the landing pads of Danai intact. But as the Republic troops push deeper into the urban portion of Danai, the Separatist forces have revealed a devastating surprise, that they have attached explosives to the landing pads. The Republic advance has slowed to a crawl as the Jedi generals Plo Koon and Mace Windu consider their next move.
The advance through the plains outside of the city of Danai went relatively smoothly, with the republic walkers and tanks now supporting the clone forces, the Separatist army had continually been pushed back. Without reinforcements to replenish their forces, and thus robbed of their typical advantage in numbers, the battle droids had been slowly whittled down by the superior training of the clone troopers.
At the moment Nitai, Ahsoka, Plo Koon, and Mace Windu were standing on the ground floor of a relatively intact skyscraper, with a holotable displaying a map of the city, and red dots highlighting the locations of the various landing pads and spaceports located around the city.
"So, what you're saying is that we're stuck here?" Nitai said with a frown as he glanced towards several holographic craters that hadn't been present only a few days before, the locations of several former landing pads and a minor spaceport.
"For the time being, yes. We must assume that the Separatist forces have sabotaged the remaining spaceports and landing structures. They'll likely continue to detonate them as we advance, and if we lose those ports, it will make deploying troops across the rest of the planet that much harder." Mace said with a similar look of frustration.
"And it seems that they've learned from your tactic in the forest, they've demolished all the buildings surrounding the major spaceports, so there would be no way to sneak through them buildings or attack them from above." Master Plo added, causing Nitai to bang a fist on the edge of the holotable.
"Master, with every moment we wait, countless people are put in danger, are you certain there's nothing else that we can do?" Ahsoka asked, but Plo Koon only sighed and shook his head slightly.
"I'm sorry, little Soka, but I'm afraid for now there's nothing else that we can do until we think up a strategy." The two Padawans seemed disheartened at Plo's words, and turned to leave.
"Damnit." Nitai growled as the stepped out onto the rubble-strewn streets. "I'd be fine if we were waiting to come up with a plan on our own terms. But this just makes me feel powerless."
"I know how you feel, Red." Ahsoka sighed as they began to walk down the street towards a barricade that had been set up, several walkers were lined up behind the barricade, their guns pointed down the street, barely visible in the distance was another barricade, this one set up by the Separatists. A no man's land stretched between the two, the street filled with rubble from collapsed buildings and the smoldering remains of a few droid tanks that had attempted to make a push the previous day. "Let's just hope that we can think something up quick."
Any further discussion was interrupted by one of the clones on the barricade shouting down to them. "Hey! Commander Zeama, good to see you!" The two young Padawans and looked up to see a clone waving at them, Nitai's eyes widened as he saw the distinctive scar running across the clone trooper's nose.
"Blast! Glad to see you made it through all right. Come on Ahsoka, let me introduce you to the clones who helped me take out that gun emplacement." He said before clambering up onto the barricade, taking up a position on the small walkway that had been made to allow the clones to patrol near the top of the barricade without exposing themselves to fire. Ahsoka quickly joined him and crouched down.
"Boys, this is commander Tano, she's General Skywalker's Padawan. Soka, this is Blast, Hawk, Fidget, and Corporal Hound." He said gesturing to each of the clones in turn. Most of the clones were just sitting against the wall, except for Hawk, who was poking his rifle out through a small sniper's post. "Sorry I didn't check in on you guys after I got better, things were a bit hectic."
"No problem, sir, besides I hear it's you we've got to thank for the plan that finally got us out of that forest." Fidget said with a small smile. "Who knows how long we'd have been stuck in there, otherwise?"
"It's the least I could do." Nitai said with a smile before glancing over at Hawk. "Hey Hawk, what're you doing?" He asked.
"Making life a lot shorter for any droid who wants to try and poke their head above their barricade." He responded his eye still pressed up to his scope. He exhaled briefly and squeezed the trigger, after a second passed he grinned and settled down behind the wall with the other clones. "You want to try it out, commander?" He asked.
"Sure thing!" Nitai chirped, drawing somewhat surprised looks from Ahsoka and the rest of the clones, even Hawk looked briefly taken aback, as if he hadn't been expecting for Nitai to actually take him up on his offer. "It's been a while since I've last been able to handle a rifle."
"I didn't know Jedi used rifles." Blast said as Hawk handed his sniper rifle over to Nitai, who quickly took his place.
"Well I wasn't raised by the Jedi." Nitai said, and Ahsoka perked up a bit at this, she'd been told that Nitai hadn't been raised at the Temple, but she'd never gotten the opportunity to ask him about how he'd grown up. "I was raised by my parents for most of my life, and my dad liked to take me hunting when he could. He said that it makes food tastes better if you grow or kill it yourself." He said before grumbling a bit as he adjusted the rifle, it was a bit awkward to hold it since he was left handed, and it had clearly been designed with right handed people in mind.
"I've been wondering about that, why didn't you get sent to the Temple as soon as you were discovered?" Ahsoka asked as Nitai finally seemed to figure out a somewhat comfortable way to hold the rifle and settled into position.
"We've been cut off from the galaxy for a long time. I imagine that for a lot of people getting to join the Jedi would be an honor, but not so much for us, especially considering how tightly knit my family is." Nitai responded, a droid's head soon popped up from behind the barricade and he quickly lined up his shot, emptied his lungs, and then squeezed the trigger. A fraction of a second later, he saw the droid's head explode in a shower of sparks, and he grinned. "I think the only reason that they let me leave in the first place is that they knew I'd be leaving Uostas one way or another, so they might as well let me do so with their blessing."
"So, you mentioned hunting, what type of animal did you hunt?" Hawk asked before Ahsoka could press on with any further questions.
"Zeratsak, they're these furry creatures that live in the trees in some of the forests, they have these really long arms that resemble the vines that grow from the trees, and whenever something walks underneath them, they'll strangle them. Really nasty pieces of work." Nitai explained as he lined up another shot as he saw a second droid pop its head out from above the barricade, another exhale, another pause, and that droid's head also disappeared in a cascade of electrical discharge and broken metal. Nitai then crouched down behind the barricade and handed the rifle back to Hawk. "But they're not too bad if you can spot one before it grabs you. It's an interesting experience, most of the time you have to ambush something from above or behind, it's rare to get the opportunity to ambush something from below."
Ahsoka nodded slightly before a thought sprung to mind, and judging by the gradual widening of Nitai's eyes he was probably thinking the same thing. "Red, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She asked with a grin.
"That I do, Soka." He said before nodding to the clones. "See you guys later, we've got a plan to think up." He and Ahsoka then immediately leapt off of the barricade and hit the ground running, heading back to the command tent.
"You got any idea what that was about?" Blast asked, and the other clones only shrugged in response.
"Who knows? There's no figuring Jedi." Hound responded. "Now get back to your watch, we've still got an hour before we're rotated off."
Nearly everyone in the command tent jumped when Nitai and Ahsoka rushed in, both of them skidding to a halt just in front of the holotable and breathing heavily.
"Is something wrong?" Plo asked as he looked with concern, at the two Padawans.
"We have…an idea." Nitai said as he paused to catch his breath. "Soka, will you do the honors?"
"Of course. Master, the Separatists may have all of the approaches from around spaceports guarded, but a city this big probably has a pretty sizable undercity. If we can't attack from above or on the same plane, then maybe we can sneak up on them from below." Ahsoka explained.
"And if we can sneak a few teams over to the major spaceports, they can deactivate the bombs and push forward without fear of damaging them." Nitai continued. The two Jedi Masters looked intrigued by the idea, and Master Windu turned to one of the clone technicians that was working in the tent.
"See if you can bring up a map of the undercity, and highlight any areas that could allow us to sneak troops to the spaceports." He ordered, and the technician nodded before rapidly tapping on a datapad. The display of the city raised itself up, and a second hologram appeared beneath it, depicting numerous underground corridors, basements, and tunnels.
"Hmm, it appears that there's an access point to this old subway system near our current position, assuming the routes haven't been blocked then we might be able to get several teams to areas just beneath most of the key spaceports." Plo Koon said as he pointed to a particular series of tunnels that ran beneath a large portion of the city.
"But if we're going to disable those explosives, we'll need a distraction, something to keep the droid army occupied, and they'll get suspicious if they hear no reports of Jedi fighting on the front lines." Mace said before his gaze flickered to the two Padawans. "Padawan Tano, Padawan Zeama, I hope I can trust you with this mission. The two of you will be leading several fire teams to the point beneath the largest, and most vital spaceport, it will be your job to deactivate the explosives while Master Plo and I distract the droid army, several other squads will also be assigned to make their way to the other spaceports to secure them as well."
"Yes, Master." Ahsoka said as she and Nitai bowed to the two senior Jedi.
"And if I may be bold enough, Masters, I would like to suggest one particular team to come along with us for this mission." Nitai said with a slight grin.
The preparations for the mission didn't take a great deal of time, it had been decided that they would make their way through the tunnels at dusk, so that they would be able to emerge from the underground under the cover of darkness, hopefully maximizing the element of surprise.
Nitai was currently waiting alongside Ahsoka next to the entrance they had identified, a large hole covered by a metallic grate, which led directly down into the access tunnels that had once been used to maintain the subway system. Two dozen clone troopers were standing nearby, their force was one of the largest that would be undertaking the operation, since their target was the largest spaceport. Their armor had been dirtied in order to make it less noticeable, and at the moment they were waiting for their signal. Corporal Hound and the rest of his fireteam were waiting alongside Nitai, who had specifically requested their services, knowing how well that they had performed during their previous mission together.
It didn't take long for their communicators to beep, and Nitai nodded to Blast, who took out a cutting beam, quickly slicing lines along the outside of the grate, several clone troopers grabbed onto the bars once they came loose, pulling them up so that the severed portion of the grate wouldn't fall down into the tunnel below.
"Alright, let's move out." Nitai said as he gradually lowered himself down onto the metallic rungs that were embedded into the wall of the access hatch to serve as a ladder. The old, rusty metal was cold and rough against his skin, and he was suddenly quite aware of just how long it must have been since one of these tunnels was last used. "Watch yourself on the way down, some of these rungs might not be all that sturdy." He called up, his voice echoing off of the metal walls.
Eventually he felt his foot hit something much sturdier than the rusted metal rungs, and after sliding it around to make sure that he wasn't mistaken he stepped away from the ladder and activated his lightsaber in order to give himself some light. The tunnel that he found himself in was very wide, and he was apparently standing on a walkway next to the area where the subway trains had once run, the walkway was about large enough for three people to walk side by side, although there were parts of it near the edges that had apparently crumbled away long ago. He was soon joined by Ahsoka, and then by Corporal Hound and his team, and then by the rest of the clones, the tunnel was suddenly much brighter as the clones activated the flashlight attachments that had been strapped to their rifles and helmets, and he deactivated his lightsaber. Nitai pulled out a small imagecaster and held it up, bringing up a projection of the subway tunnel network, with their location marked by a white dot, and their objective marked by a red dot.
"Alright, we'll make our way through these tunnels, we're fairly certain that the droids haven't posted sentries around here, since these tunnels are old and not on many recent maps of the city, but we should still be cautious." Nitai said as he deactivated the imagecaster. "Hound, you'll be taking point with me and Commander Tano." The four clones nodded in response and formed up between the two Padawans, the cones of light that they were projecting in front of them sweeping along the walls and ground as they set off.
"I don't like it down here, tunnels like this always give me the creeps, too many places to set up ambushes." Fidget said nervously as they rounded a corner.
"Don't worry, the clankers would never think that we'd come through this way, and anything that's living down here wouldn't bother a group this large." Blast said before being shushed by Hound.
"Quiet down you two, I don't care if we're the only living things down here, we make as little noise as possible." He said, and the two clones nodded silently in response.
After nearly an hour of trekking through the tunnels, and luckily not managing to meet any droid patrols, they came to their destination, an old subway station that, if their maps were correct, had an exit emerging just near one of the starports.
"Alright, this is it, once we get up there, we've got to get underneath the support structures of the landing pads so that we can disable the explosives. Reports indicate that there should be four of them, one at each corner of the major landing pad, once we take those out, we clear out the port and signal for reinforcements." Corporal Hound explained, the rest of the clones gathered around him and the two Padawans, it had been decided that he would be unofficially in charge of this mission, since he had much more experience with stealth operations.
"It's likely that the explosives will be guarded, so make sure to be careful on your approach, and signal once you've gotten into position, we'll try to take the explosives simultaneously to minimize the risk of discovery." Ahsoka added, after the clones had formed up into their respective squads, Hound, Ahsoka, and Nitai took point and made their way up the ruined stairs.
They emerged in from a blocked off door in the lower level of the main terminal of the starport, thankfully there seemed to be no droid presence, since the building didn't really have any use for the occupying droid forces. One of the walls of the terminal seemed to be a massive window, looking out on the large, main landing pad, where several droid transport ships had landed, and a few handfuls of droids were milling about. In the distance, they could hear the faint sounds of artillery fire, and see the lights of anti-aircraft lasers streaking through the dark, night sky.
"Looks like the diversion is working, they only left a small force to guard the starport." Nitai said to Ahsoka and Hound as they moved from cover to cover, trying to stay out of the line of sight of the droids that sometimes passed by the window. Eventually they came to a doorway which seemed like it had primarily been used for maintenance workers to go out directly onto the landing pad. Once the most recent droid patrol had passed, they made a break for the door, and Ahsoka quickly cut through the lock, causing it to swing open.
"Alright, look around for an access hatch, there should be one nearby." Hound ordered, and the clones immediately scoured the area, quickly discovering a hatch that led down onto the ground below.
The landing pad was actually elevated about ten feet off the ground, and the support structure beneath was a maze of interlocking metal beams and concrete columns, meant to help support the weight of any landing starships. After Ahsoka, Nitai, and the clones had lowered themselves down, making sure to close the hatch behind them to avoid suspicion, they split into their respective groups and began creeping through the tangled metal supports towards their respective targets. Ahsoka, Nitai, and Hound's team were moving together towards the most distant bomb, on the opposite side of the landing pad, whereas the rest of the clones divided themselves up and made their way to their targets. They were about halfway towards the bomb when they received the first signal, from the group that was heading towards the bomb that had been closest to the access hatch, and shortly afterwards they received almost simultaneous signals from the other two teams.
Eventually they caught sight of their objective, a large, rectangular bomb that was surrounded by several B1 and B2 series battle droids. They quickly took cover behind a few steel beams and columns, before sending out the signal to the other teams that they were in position. "We have our target in sight, is everybody prepared?" Nitai whispered into his communicator, receiving a chorus of hushed responses in return. "Alright, we go on my command, and make sure to check your fire, we don't want to take risk with these bombs. On three. One, two, three." He said, and just like on his count, the clones leaned out from their cover, took aim, and began to fire at the droids. Nitai and Ahsoka also dashed out, igniting their lightsabers, and cutting through a pair of B2 droids.
"We're under attack!" One of the droids exclaimed before being nailed in the head by a round from Hawk. The droid numbers quickly began to dwindle, not only were they taken completely by surprise, but the web of metal girder made it difficult for them to determine where the fire was coming from, although even if they had been able to discern the location of the clones, they had much more pressing issues, such as the two young Jedi that were cleaving through their ranks.
"Detonate the whooaaah!" One of the droids had been heading for the bomb in the hopes of activating it, but Nitai extended his hand and pulled it towards him with the Force, slicing it diagonally from hip to shoulder once it came within reach.
Then, just as quickly as it started, the skirmish was over, the quiet seeming almost equally deafening as the sound of blaster fire had been. Nitai suppressed a shiver, the moments during combat had seemed to stretch out for a long time, but looking back, it had only lasted about a minute. "Blast, Fidget, get this bomb deactivated." He said before activating his communicator. "This is Commander Zeama, we're in the process of deactivating the Western bomb, report in."
"Sir, we've finished disarming the Eastern bomb." One clone chimed in over his communicator.
"We're about halfway through disarming the North bomb." Another voice quickly added.
"The South bomb is almost deactivated, sir." The final clone team leader reported in.
"Ok, the droids probably didn't move these bombs through this maze, so look around for any access hatches. They'll probably be near one of the concrete columns, look for any columns that have metal rungs embedded in them to serve as ladders, and the hatch should probably be at the top of those ladders. I'll call in once we've finished disarming our bomb and have found an access hatch, we'll come up simultaneously and begin the process of clearing the starport" Nitai ordered, receiving a trio of affirmative replies in response.
"Alright sir, bomb's defused." Blast called as he and Fidget began to join Hawk and Hound in searching for a nearby access hatch. It didn't take long to find one, since they only really needed to look for metal rungs jutting out of any of the nearby columns.
"I'll take point, Ahsoka, you can take up the rear." Nitai said before feeling a hand placed on his shoulders.
"Hold up, Red, why am I coming up last?" Ahsoka said as she placed her hands on her hips.
"Oh…well…I just figured it might be…better for you." Nitai stammered out, and Ahsoka looked at him quizzically before following his line of sight, towards her skirt. Her face darkened slightly as she realized the implication of what he said.
"I…think I will actually take up the rear this time." She said as Nitai began to climb up the rungs, followed by Hound and the rest of his squad, and then Ahsoka.
"Commander Zeama, reporting in, we're ready to go topside, report in." He whispered into his communicator, receiving a trio of affirmative replies, all of the other squads had found access hatches and were positioned to go up. "Alright, go up and start clearing out any droids you see, we're taking this starport for the Republic."
With that, he opened up the hatch, and poked his head out, finding himself looking directly at a cluster of metallic feet, with four B1 droids pointing blasters down at him.
"Surrender, Jedi." One of the droids ordered, but Nitai grinned.
"You didn't say the magic word." He said before using the force to leap far up above the droids, they raised their blasters, but before they could fire at them, he stretched out his hands and sent a kinetic wave down towards them, knocking them flat on the ground. He ignited his lightsaber just before he landed and quickly bisected two prone droids. As the other droids tried to scramble back to their feet, Hound emerged from the hatch and pulled out his pistol, sending the remaining two droids to the ground, a pair of scorching blaster marks on their heads.
The sounds of blaster fire quickly began to fill the air, as the rest of the clones emerged from their respective hatches and took cover behind assorted crates and loading equipment that were scattered around the landing pad. Ahsoka and Nitai were standing alongside the crates that Hound's squad was using for cover, deflecting droid blaster bolts back at their opponents. "It seems like things are going well." Nitai hollered, and as if on cue, the enter landing pad seemed to shake. They turned in the direction that the tremor had come from, towards a large hangar, whose door was slowly opening. As it opened, it revealed a massive pair of metallic feet, and it kept rising up and up and up, revealing what looked like a massive, thirteen-foot-tall replica of a B2 droid, although it seemed to have a smaller pair of limbs ending in blasters sticking out midway down its torso, and located on its left shoulder was what looked like a missile launcher.
"That is one big droid." Ahsoka said, mirroring Nitai's wide eyed expression as the droid took a step forward, the impact of its foot making the landing pad tremor once again. The droid turned towards the two young Jedi, the closest, and most dangerous, targets. It raised one of its primary limbs, and a gout of flame spurted out.
"Scatter!" Nitai shouted as he and Ahsoka dived in opposite directions, away from the flickering tongue of flame. "Everyone, keep focusing on the normal battle droids, Ahsoka and I will keep this one busy." He shouted, he and Ahsoka nodded to each other before running towards the droid, although they were quickly driven back by a volley of rapid blaster bolts that was sent out from its secondary limbs. It then raised its second main arm, and several large bolts of sparking plasma shot from its wrist launcher.
"I hope that you've got a plan for this, Red!" Ahsoka shouted as she dove out of the way of a spray of plasma.
"Well I've got the outline of a plan. We've got to take out the legs, but other than that I figure we could just improvise!" He said, despite the situation he was smiling widely.
"Let's circle around him, it'll be easier to close in if it doesn't know how to follow!" Ahsoka said as she and Nitai began to circle around the massive droid, slowly working their way in towards it. As they got closer the droid had to resort to using its secondary blaster arms, since it was difficult to aim with its bulkier primary arms now that the two Jedi were so close.
"Now!" Nitai shouted and the two of them dashed forward, each one of them cleaving through one of the droid's legs, causing it to suddenly fall backwards. It tried to raise its arms to fire at them, but now that it was collapsed on its back its shots were much more inaccurate. The two young Padawans grinned at each other before leaping up onto its chest and driving their lightsabers down onto the droid's head in unison, its sensors going dark as it permanently shut down.
Just as they had finished off the massive droid, they also heard the sound of blaster fire from around the landing pad slowly die down as the rest of the droids were brought down by the clones.
"Commanders, it appears that all droid forces have been eliminated." Corporal Hound said as he ran up and saluted the two Padawans who were panting and smiling at each other, proud that they had managed to defeat such an imposing droid.
"How many casualties?" Nitai said as he and Ahsoka leapt down off the droid's chest.
"A few shots to the extremities sir, but nothing crippling or fatal." Hound said, glancing towards a few clones who were leaned up against crates, most of them nursing blaster wounds on their legs, arms, or shoulders.
"We'll call in the reinforcements and signal for a medical transport. You see to the men." Ahsoka ordered. Hound saluted and headed off towards the wounded clones, who were being patched up by some of their comrades. "Headquarters, this is Commander Tano, Commander Zeama and I have secured our objective, requesting reinforcements and a medical transport, we have some wounded clones." Ahsoka spoke into her communicator.
"Roger that sir, sending reinforcements." The clone communications operator responded after a short pause.
"Well, that went about as well as we could hope." Nitai said as he leaned against a few stacked crates.
"Yeah, now let's talk about that 'plan' of yours." Ahsoka said with a wry smirk.
"Oh, don't go dissing my plan, it ended up working." Nitai said preemptively.
"'Go for the legs' is not a plan, are you sure you aren't distantly related to Anakin?" Ahsoka retorted. When the reinforcements finally landed, they found the two Jedi commanders bickering amongst each other, although strangely enough, both of them seemed to be smiling.