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2

Location: Cruiser Fauna

Status: En route to Ord Ibanna

Shaak Ti frowned as she read the reports. It made no sense. Why would three of the main Separatist commanders bother taking such an insignificant planet, and then stay there?

Cueball came up to her.

"General Ti, we're ready. Latest reports indicate at least three Munificents in orbit around the planet."

She pursed her lips.

"We need to be ready to fight then. Get all pilots to their ships. Also, prepare the ground troopers for planetary assault. We're going in hard and fast. Master Koon will lead the space battle, while I go and lead the first wave. We will hopefully be reinforced my Master Luminara as well. Prepare for battle!" she ordered.

"Yes General." Cueball said, threw her a sharp salute, and went to carry out his orders.

Shaak Ti went to her quarters and opened her closet. She pulled on her metal greaves, made of ultrachrome which she had received from a grateful village several years ago. She put on her shin guards, also made of ultrachrome. These shields would stop a lightsaber strike. This was due to the unfortunate habit Jedi had of getting limbs lopped off.

She pulled on her armour plates, and then went to join Cueball in the hangar.

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Location: Cruiser Twilight

Status: En route to Ord Ibanna

Luminara frowned as she read Intel's survey of her new battleground. Thee cruisers in orbit could defeat her cruiser. And they had very few fighters to protect themselves either.

"It'll be tough General. We only have five squadrons left." Dice said quietly.

She sighed, and braced herself.

"Here we go." she said sadly.

Her cruiser shot out of lgithspeed, its arrow shape cutting through space as it slowed down dramatically. Torrent fighters and ARC 170s sped from the hangars as they opened up. Ahead, the three enemy cruisers were turning to face their opponent, vulture droids and tri-fighters wailing towards them.

"All hands to battle stations. Power to shields and engines. We need to get to the planet. We cant face these cruisers." Luminara said.

"Yes we can General." Dice said happily.

"How?"

He pointed as three more Venator class Destroyers shot out lightspeed, fighters spilling from their own hangars.

"Signal the Fauna. Ask Master Ti if she wants us to deploy our forces in the assault." she ordered.

Luminara smiled as a blue Delta-7 blazed past the window.

"Master Koon is leading the space attack. Let's go." Luminara ordered.

The four cruisers opened fire with their turbolaser cannons, blasting holes in the three cruisers.

"Get everyone to the gunships. We have a planet to retake." Luminara said.

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Location: Plo Koon's Starfighter

Status: Busy

Plo rolled his ship away from the laser blasts of a pursuing vulture. He fired with his cannons, shredding the droids wing mate, then reversed, firing as he went to take out the pursuer. He rolled his ship through a loop, coming out to observe the battle.

Hundreds of gunships and landing craft were streaking from the four cruisers, while the cruisers themselves pummelled away at the shields of the Separatist cruisers.

"General? Orders?" Jag, his wingman, asked.

"All V-wings and Arcs are to follow me. All other ships, keep the enemy off of us." he ordered.

The Ingenious was having some trouble with one of the cruisers.

"All craft, prepare missile fire. We take out the bridge and the shields will go down." he said.

The fighters sped towards the cruiser, and Plo was counting down in his head.

"Get ready!" he called.

Turbolaser fire filled the space around them, as hordes of droid fighters came hurtling at them.

"Now!" he ordered.

Hundreds of missiles shot from the fighters, crashing into the bridge of the lead Munificent. With a massive explosion, the bridge was ripped to shreds. The shields collapsed, and the Venator blasted away at the ship with impunity, the cruiser suddenly splitting apart in several locations.

"Excellent. All forces, deal with the fighters." Plo ordered.

He and his two ARC wingmen sped at the cluster of tri-fighters that was swarming around the Fauna. Laser fire blew through three of them that Plo aimed at.

"I have one on my tail!" Jag cried.

Plo shunted his power to the brakes, and allowed Jag and his pursuit to overfly him. He then gunned the engines and fired, lasers pounding. The bug like fighter was ripped apart, and Jag rolled his ship calmly away from the trouble.

"Thanks General."

"Quite alright Captain." he said.

The battle was going well. Most of the gunships had escaped immediate danger, and the three prongs of the attack were descending through the atmosphere, bound for three of the cities on the planet.

One enemy cruiser was dead, and the Twilight and the Prevention were making short work of another. The last cruiser was trying to escape, but they had to deal with the Fauna first.

"Jag, take command up here. I'm going to the planet to lead the assault." he said.

"Yes General."

Plo gave a satisfied nod, then gunned down for the planet.

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Location: Ord Ibanna, city of Annaita

Status: Under attack by the 81st Legion

Shaak Ti braced herself as her gunship landed. The battle was already in full force, as several gunships had just landed. Clones were spilling out and they were already taking fire from a line of battle droids.

"Here we go. Follow my lead." she said to her troops.

She leapt out of the hold as the doors opened, her blue lightsaber blocking bolts and sending them back to their owners.

Around them, the city of Annaita burned. What was one a massive, four leaf clover shape with elegant spire like structure on it, was now a warzone. Holes had been blasted in the towers, smoke was rising from several buildings. Droids had taken up defensive positions in the streets, with tanks in plazas and squares, blasting at approaching forces. Clones were rushing headlong into battle, dying before they got far, due to two massive blaster cannons that had been set up flanking the bridge to the landing pads. As clones rushed across, it took one blast from the droids manning them to kill them.

"We need to take down those cannons." Shaak Ti said as she cleaved a Super Battle Droid in half.

"Agreed General But how do we get there?"

"Leave it to me." she said, narrowing her eyes.

Leaving Cueball and his green and yellow clad troopers behind her, she used the Force to augment her speed, dashing right through the clone ranks before her and rushing headlong into the droid ranks. Her lightsaber decapitated three battle droids as she cut through them, Force pushing several more out of the way and leaving the path to the cannon clear. Gathering the Force, she sprang across to the cannon, cleaving another SBD in half as she landed. Two more came rushing at her, and she jumped over one, allowing the other's blasters to bring it down. She then threw her saber through the top of the droid, crashing it to the floor. Battle droids arrived from around the corner, their rifles blazing. Shaak Ti deflected several of the shots back, and then flattened the rest with a Force push. She dashed around the corner to the foot of the cannon controls, where three SBDs were guarding an ordinary battle droid who was blasting her troops to bits. She rushed at them, her blade stabbing through the vulnerable midsection of one droid, and then using it as a shield as the other two droids opened fire. She blasted the dead droid, sending it crashing into the next one up. While that droid struggled to get up, Shaak Ti sprang at the third droid, she cleaved it in half, and then in half again.

She then backflipped to deal with the newly recovered droid. She cleaved it apart from shoulder to waist, and it collapsed to the floor.

The battle droid that was manning the gun was still shooting away at her clones. He then heard her saber behind him.

"Oh nuts. I knew I should have got my servos checked before I took this job." he moaned.

Her saber then cut through him, and she unceremoniously shoved him out of the seat.

"Damn droids. How can they sit like this?" she asked grumpily, her legs up to her montrals.

She quickly changed the target to the other cannon, and with a satisfied grin, pulled the trigger. The other cannon blew apart, and Shaak Ti turned her cannon to the droid defensive line, and stuck it on autofire. Getting out of the chair and stretching she grinned. With that happening, the droids would be hard pressed to deal with the clones and the cannon.

Exiting the cannon bunker, she leapt over to the front line, where Cueball was leading the 81st Legion in the offensive.

"I'm back Commander." she said.

"Welcome back General. I've ordered a couple of ATRTs to help break their line. But you're tick with the cannon seems to be doing the trick." he said as he fired at an approaching Dwarf Spider Droid.

"Send some men to take control of the cannon. And let us see about breaking the enemy lines." she said, raising her saber.

She then leapt forward, blade humming, and proceeded to wreck the droids.

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Location: Ord Ibanna, city of Gasori

Status: Under attack by the 41st Legion

Luminara frowned as she led her forces off of the main bridge separating the west side of the city to the east side. They had encountered very little resistance so far, and she was getting worried. The place was meant to be swarming with droids. So far they'd only encountered a couple of patrols.

"Um, General, we've found the droids." Dice said grumpily.

Luminara frowned as a massive droid army materialised through the Tibanna gas in front of them. Behind the lines of droids was a team of three AATs, and behind them, two Hailfires.

"They'll rip us apart!" Dice cried as the droids opened fire.

"Leave them to me." Luminara said.

Her green blade igniting, she bolted at them, slipping through the interloping fields of fire. It was at times like this that she most missed her Padawan, who had become a Jedi Knight was now had a Padawan of her own.

"Barriss, its times like this that I need you to cover my back." she complained bitterly.

Landing in the front lines of the droid army, she cut down three battle droids with a wide swing of her lightsaber. As the droids turned to face this new threat and opened fire, Luminara leapt upwards, allowing the blaster fire to take out several of the droid soldiers.

She landed on top of an AAT, which was firing cannon shells at her troops. With a swing, the cannon came bouncing down. Force pushing herself off of the tank, she smiled with satisfaction as it tried to fire again and was blown up. As droids scattered before it, Luminara descended, her skirt billowing around her. She landed on top of the next tank, and cut open a hole in the top.

"What? Where did she come from?" the droid asked in shock.

Luminara grasped it in a Force grip and threw it out of the way. She entered the tank, disabled the two remaining droids servometers and then took control of the tanks weapon, firing it at the droids in front of her.

Legs, arms and other shrapnel scattered everywhere, and Luminara gunned the tank's engines, crushing several droids in the line that had came to investigate. Luminara sprang out of the tank, and landed on the last one.

The droids were onto her now however, and were firing everything they had at her. Luminara deflected several of the blasts, immersing herself in her Soresu sword play, sending bolts ricocheting in all directions, as she defended herself on top of the tank.

Her clones were gaining ground, but so were the Hailfires. If they got into position, they would fire and it would be a massacre. So, she had to stop this game and deal with them before anything else happened.

She flipped over the back of the tank, and with a swift uppercut, disabled the tanks repulsors. The tank crashed to the ground, but continued to move, cutting deep grooves in the pathway as it trampled any droid foolish enough to get in it's way. It then reached the barricade preventing anyone from jumping to their deaths, and travelled over it. Luminara heard one of the pilots scream in terror as the tank plummeted to its doom in the centre of the planet.

The Hailfires were nearly in position. Luminara had several moments, before the droids were on her, and the new tanks fired. So, she used the Force to pull herself to the droid as fast as she dared. As she hurtled through the air, blaster bolts flashing around her, she remembered something Barriss had once said when she had explained gravity to her as a Padawan.

"Gravity stinks' she had said irritably.

Luminara thus allowed herself to fall to the ground a bit before the tank, or she'd be splattered on the things massive wheels. Luminara then span at the droid, hacking into the droids wheel with her saber.

While not going fast enough for it to cause any major damage, the damaged wheel did cause more harm than it was worth. The droid went careening off to the right, barely missing the other tank. Luminara threw her lightsaber at the droid, and it cut through the command nodule in the centre, and the droid fell still.

Smiling, she looked at the other droid, and in a second, knew she was too late. The droid fired.

Thirty missiles were now streaking towards her troops.

"Oh no." she whispered.

Reaching out with the Force, Luminara took command of all the missiles that were travelling through the air, bound for her troops. She then pulled them backward, and they crashed into the droid ranks, decimating the defending forces. And the last two crashed into their originator.

Luminara slumped as the Hailfire blew up.

"It's over General. You did well." he said.

She gave a great sigh.

"I'll get my breath back Dice, then join you again."

Dice nodded, and led his troops onward. Luminara closed her eyes and dozed. She was exhausted.

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Location: Ord Ibanna, city of Methana

Status: Under attack by 123rd Legion

"General Koon!"

Plo looked up as he got out of his starfighter. Commander Gaven was hurrying towards him, and he felt anxious in the Force.

"What is it Commander?" Plo asked.

"Sir, we're able to take the city with minimal effort. There are very few droids here. They probably didn't think we'd bother with such a small place. Problem is, we cant get into the city proper. We're in the presence of clever droids sadly. They've mined the bridges. We take anything across, they'll blow them, and this entire landing structure will go down."

Plo tapped his mask thoughtfully.

"So, we cant go over. Perhaps we can go under. Have two fighters buzz underneath the bridge and look for any mines there." he ordered.

While he waited, Plo received positive reports from all locations. The enemy fleet had been neutralised, and the four Venators were taking up blockade positions around the gas giant. The fighters were now free to do as they pleased, and many were coming down and shooting remaining droids, or bringing down escaping droids gunships. Shaak Ti's forces had nearly taken Annaita, and Luminara's had the enemy at Gasori on the run. It was all too easy in Plo's opinion. Something wasn't right, and with Dooku around, it was likely to be very deadly.

"Sir, there are no mines on the underneath of the city."

Plo radiation glee.

"Excellent. We're going under Commander."

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Location: Ord Ibanna, Dooku's headquarters

Status: Directing

"They are taking all three cities." Bulq reported.

"A minor detail. They can have them." Dooku said.

Ventress narrowed her eyes.

"Shaak Ti and Unduli have taken they're cities effectively. We can make things more difficult for Koon though." she said, and seized the comm.

Dooku raised his eyebrow.

"You'll see." she promised.

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Location: Underside of Methana

Status: Being crawled along

Plo, along with two squads of brave clones, was scaling the underside of the city. They were using suction pad technology that had been invented to scale Separatist warships and take them over by surprise.

"Can we take the droids from behind?" Gaven asked.

"Hopefully. But all we need to do is drop our ion charges and deactivate the mines, and we can bring our troops over." Plo said.

The platform suddenly shook, and the tow ropes attached to the crawlers jarred around.

"What in the name?" Plo asked.

Gaven was listening to someone on his helmet comm. The 123rd were in purple shaded armour. Plo thought it went well with the colour Gaven went in every battle they were in.

"They've landed an ATTE!"

Plo snarled in frustration. The ATTE was the biggest and heaviest walker they had, and it could dislodge them if it started to move. and besides, there wasn't enough room up there for the thing.

"Who authorised that!?" he demanded furiously.

"Seemingly it's new orders from on high. A command vehicle must be deployed as soon as possible."

"On who's orders!?" he demanded.

"The Chancellor's seemingly."

Plo grunted.

"We have a command gunship, and two command posts! Oh, never mind. Let's go."

They steadily advanced, and then Gaven came to a stop.

"General!"

Plo looked up. Three Octuptarra droids, along with four DSDs were approaching.

"Ahh." Plo said sadly.

His blue lightsaber appeared in his hand, and he detached his arm suction pads. He hoped that his leg pads would hold. The clones did the same.

"If you feel dizzy, stick yourself back up!" he ordered, and the droids fired.

Three scarlet beams emitted from the tri-droids. As the clones fired their blasters, Plo caught the first blast on his lightsaber, and deflected it into one of the droids. As the large droid blew apart, the other two tri-droids and the four spiders advanced steadily towards them. Blaster fire was now more accurate as the droids advanced, and two spiders went down, their flaming bodies falling out of sight as they fell from the platform.

Plo frowned as the two tri-droids opened fire with their deadly lasers, and the spiders followed suit. Plo deflected one of the laser bolts from the spiders back at one of their owners. However, he was unable to strop one of the blasts, and three clones fell, never to be seen again. The droids were advancing, and Plo knew that the time had come for desperate measures. If the tri-droids fired now, the rest of his soldiers would die. So, Plo did the unthinkable.

He detached.

Air whistled past him as he flew forward at the droids. One shot and he would never be found. However, today wasn't the day to die. He barely suctioned onto one of the tri-droids legs before he plummeted out of sight forever, and sliced the droid next to him in half. Two left. The clones fired at the spider, and toppled out of sight. Plo trusted the Force, cut the droid he was on apart, and sprang.

The droid toppled, clipping his wire as he went, nearly taking him with it. But his arm suctioned onto the platform, and he pulled himself up, and watched as the droid fell.

"That went well." he said, pleased with himself.

"Yes sir."

"Right, let's go."

Plo then led them to the end of the bridge.

When they arrived, he sent one squad one way and the remains of the other went with him. They leapt up the side, and the clones opened fire from both sides of the city entrance platform, and Plo leapt into the fray amongst the droids, slicing them apart.

"EMP weapons!" he cried.

The clones threw their weapons, and with a large blue electric burst, the mines went inactive.

"Bring in the troops gentlemen." Plo ordered.

The forces that were stationed on the landing arm came stampeding across, and the city was taken within the hour.

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Location: Dooku's HQ

Status: Calm

"A minor setback. We don't actually need this world for much longer, by my estimation." Dooku said.

"A valiant effort at trying to kill Plo Koon Ventress." Bulq said.

"Thank you."

Dooku turned to the holo, which materialised into Grievous.

"Ah, General. How goes the battle?"

Grievous laughed.

"The planet is mostly under control. I only have one more city to take, and the battle will be over. What is more, the factories can be immediately turned to our use. They were chock full of resources." he reported.

"Excellent. Keep it up General." Dooku said.

Grievous bowed and disappeared.

"See? No matter what happens here, we have already won." Dooku said with satisfaction.

"Yes my lord. But we shouldn't lie down and make it easy for them." Ventress said maliciously.

"I concur with Ventress. If we do it properly, we can kill two Council members and a famous Jedi Master." Bulq urged.

"Agreed. Prepare for a major offensive in the morning my friends. We will show them that trespassers will not be tolerated."

The two Acolytes bowed, and went about their business.

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Location: Methana

Status: Liberated

"Well, the battle is over. But the populace could be a problem later my friends. They have a look on their faces that I translate as 'what now?'." Plo said.

Shaak Ti frowned through the holo.

"I'm getting much the same impression. We need to liberate the world as quickly as possible." she said.

"For now, let us deal with the wounded and the populace. We can attack in the morning." Luminara said.

"Agreed. Did you hear about the new regulations? We have to have an ATTE on the field at all times now seemingly." Plo muttered angrily.

"Yes, I heard what happened. We can deal with it when we get back to Coruscant. It's madness. It could jeopardise an entire operation." Luminara said angrily.

"Indeed. It nearly sent me hurtling to my death." Plo grumbled.

Shaak Ti sighed.

"Yet another injustice of this war. We shall deal with it later. I'm sorry Plo, but I have wounded who may need my care. Your city is the smallest, and thus easiest for us to defend. That will be our main command post. We shall join you there when we're done." she said, and vanished.

Luminara smiled at him as she too left.

Plo turned to Gaven.

"Well, if we're to be the main command post, we better clean up. They'll moan incessantly if they break a fingernail on a piece of shrapnel." Plo said, and they went to tidy up the city.

The battle has begun!

Sorry it took so long, but I couldnt figure out what came next.

The battle is joined now. What insidious plot has Count Dooku got in the works? What world has General Grievous taken? Will the Separatist offensive succeed?

I hope you find out soon!

Until I update, please read, review and vote in the poll, as that will decide what story I go onto next after this one is finished!

Bye for now!