Author's note: Thanks for the review! Much appreciated. Grievous will make his appearance very soon. Which reminds me, there's not a lot of back-story to this because I can't be bothered to go over the whole "Jedi and clones invade Confederacy planet" thing in too much detail. It just gets pretentious and repetitive.
Anyway, on with the show:
Commander Bly, decked out in his heavy clone armour and with his additional ARC pauldrons and markings, stood on the bridge of the Assault Ship known as the Precision. The ship was cloaked and was descending rapidly towards the planet Cosko. An unusual planet for one near the Outer Rim: it was not a mono-habitat world. While home to massive barren wastelands, certain areas of the planet were densely inhabited and rich in resources.
General Secura approached him. He saluted and turned to face her.
"General, we are ready to deploy our army at a moment's notice".
She nodded, "Good. Do we have any idea where the droid armies might be stationed?"
"Yes General. Our scans suggest that there is a high concentration of droids in Sector 12".
Aayla sighed to herself. The clones, while certainly very reliable and well trained, failed to see matters in anything but militaristic terms. One frustrating practice they employed was to scan a planet for enemy forces, and then divide the planet into twenty sectors and base their plans around this. What they failed to realize was that one twentieth of even some of the smaller planets was no small distance.
"Do you have any more specific information, Commander?"
Bly nodded and directed her attention to a control console, "This area of the planet is wasteland, with severe impact craters from meteor showers. We believe the droid army to be stationed in the largest one, due to the readings we have from it. If we were to land a small scouting force forty miles from the source of the readings, we could get a closer look before attacking".
Aayla smiled in relief that they were not required to search one twentieth of a planet, "Well, we should deploy the scouting force immediately. I'll go".
Bly looked at her sidelong, his expression invisible beneath his mask, "You'll lead the BARC troopers?"
She shook her head, "No. I'll go alone, to avoid detection. Do you have a BARC speeder standing by?"
"Yes, General".
OoOoOoOoOo
A mere half an hour later, Aayla was racing across the barren, grey rocky plains of Cosko. The speeder controls were pleasantly familiar to her, and her Force heightened senses allowed her to dodge and weave through the treacherous terrain with ease. The background constantly shifted in a never-ending haze of dust.
In front of her in the gloom, she could begin to make out dim lights. Skilfully, she bought her speeder to a halt behind a ragged outcropping and leapt from the seat. Pulling her Jedi robes over her for concealment, she advanced on foot, moving with her head down, fairly leaping from behind rock to behind another rock, closer to the source of the lights.
A vague shaped loomed in the dust. A facility of some sort. She moved quicker and with yet more subtlety to avoid detection. The fiercely angled, blackened building towered into life above her. She crept closer until she was swallowed up by the shadow of the facility, pressed up against the cold steel wall. The harsh stench of oil, gears and fire hit her, almost causing her to gag. The familiar sulphurous stench of a droid factory.
The smell was leaking out from the cracks surrounding a door in the gloom. Glazing light was eking out too. Aayla allowed herself to relax, for her mind to be at peace, as she used the Force to probe the area for immediate danger. There was none. She approached the door and tried to open it. It was locked.
She ignited her lightsaber and in one swift movement plunged it into the locking system. The door swung open as she switched off her blade and crept inside.
She was on a black durasteel walkway, rickety and rusted. The walkway extended all around the room, leading off to many other doors. Below her and the platform was a massive, cavernous storing room.
It was packed to the brim with battle droids.
She looked at them. Hunched over, deactivated and ready for transport, straight to the front line. Probably recently constructed, judging by the stench of fuel in the air. There were standard trooper battle droids and half as many of the imposing super battle droids. From a quick look, Aayla estimated there to be 5,000 droids in this room alone, and she knew there were likely to be many more in this facility.
But this alone warranted the clones' landing. She produced her commlink from her Jedi utility belt and switched it on. She waited for a moment before the gruff, deep voice of Commander Bly replied.
"General?"
"I've found what I believe to be a droid factory and storage depot. Land immediately, this will require a full scale assault", the Jedi replied.
"Yes, General".
"My co-ordinates have transmitted successfully?" she asked.
"Yes, General".
"Good. Will you be ready to attack as soon as you land?"
"Yes, General".
Aayla smiled good-humouredly at the monotonous reply of the clone, "Take care, Commander. I'll investigate some more. Call me when you land. May the Force be with you".
She switched the commlink off and returned it to her belt. Glancing around carefully again, she lifted her robes over her and lowered her hood to cover her face until she just appeared to be a shadowy figure amongst the gloom. With light but sure-footed steps, she moved quickly along the walkway.
There was no sign of any movement as she headed for the nearest door, nor could she sense anything through the Force. The door slid open and she stepped inside, looking warily from side to side.
A lone battle droid with red markings, identifying it as a security droid, stood in her way. It was as surprised to see her as she was to see it. It raised its blaster rifle, although it flew through the air, hurled by the Force, to crash against a wall in a broken, sparking heap.
Aayla frowned. Why couldn't she sense the droid? She had probed the room before entering; even a lone droid should have alerted her. This was unfortunate. Whoever it was commanding this facility would notice a guard was gone from the control consoles and send more droids to investigate. She had intended to remain undetected, but now that was going to be more difficult…
Then she sensed it. A disturbance in the Force. Not a surge like the presence of a Force-sensitive…simply an alteration. Something that blotted out all else as a threat, rendering any nearby battle droids as irrelevant. A strange hybrid of fire and ice, of angry wrath and calm, calculated evil. Something she had sensed only once before.
General Grievous.