Edited as of August 29, 2006
The Lure of the Dark Side: Chronicle 1-The Turning of an Era
Episode IV: The Clone Wars
Chapter 11: Year 3-The Outer Rim Sieges
During the Outer Rim Sieges, the Confederacy reinforced its Rim territories, including its vast holdings on either side of the Slice – a wedge-shaped section of the galaxy that began at the edge of the Core Worlds around Labor and extended through the Colonies, and Inner and Mid Rims. Emboldened, the Republic deployed nearly every fleet element and troop transport to the Rim in an attempt to crush the Separatist fortresses. Grueling engagements began on Ord Radama, Ossus, Ryloth and elsewhere in an attempt to force the Confederacy to surrender.
On Bomis Korri IV, Corporate Alliance Koorivar General Oro Dassyne commanded a Separatist fortress-city. Anticipating a massive Jedi force would storm his fortress, he had constructed a gigantic network of defensive guns that covered the side of the city facing the open plains and reinforced his position with a powerful theatre shield.
Dassyne was disappointed when he learned that instead of the large army he'd envisioned only three Jedi had infiltrated his fortress and deactivated the ray shields – Kenobi, Skywalker and the Republic's Grievous. The three attacked with an army small and fast enough to avoid fire from the massive defense batteries of Dassyne's fortress. With the shield down, the base was decimated by orbital strikes and star fighter bombardment. During the ensuring firefight, Dassyne was killed.
On Saleucami, the fallen Jedi Sora Bulq established a Separatist base. He hired deadly, elite Anzati assassins to train the Confederacy's own clone army, which was grown from the genetic material of Nikto Morgukai warriors. In response, Quinlan Vos and Oppo Rancisis led a huge Republic force that consisted of A'Sharad Hett, Jiesel, Aayla Secura and others, to lay siege to Saleucami, thus beginning the Battle of Saleucami.
Oppo Rancisis was later killed by Sora Bulq, but Quinlan Vos worked together with Jedi Master Tholme to kill the fallen Jedi and Tol Skorr. Vos, Hett, Secura, Tholme, and Jiesel all survived this mission.
Many of the Confederacy's top commanders were either killed or captured during the course of the Outer Rim Sieges, such as the bounty hunter Durge, who met his end at the hand of Anakin Skywaler during the Battle of Maramere. On a temporary leave from the battlefront, Kenobi took on a personal mission to find and neutralize the Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress, whom he believed was still alive and dangerous. With the help of Skywalker and Grievous, Obi-Wan followed the trail to Boz Pity, a major Confederacy base surrounded by a fleet of over hundred warships. By chance, the three Jedi were found by Bail Organa, who was investigating the situation in the Outer Rim. Kenobi then called a full Republic assault force to lay siege on Boz Pity.
On board the Star Destroyer Intervention, Kenobi, Skywalker, Grievous, Mace Windu, Hett and several other Jedi agreed to launch a pre-emptive assault on Boz Pity. The Intervention dropped out of hyperspace behind the Separatist fleet, but it was caught in the planet's gravity and was forced to crash-land on the surface. With the element of surprise on their side, the Jedi and their clone forces were able to quickly secure the surface installations. In space, the rest of the Republic fleet arrived shortly and engaged in a fierce battle with the Confederacy ships. Meanwhile, the Jedi attacked the Confederacy headquarters where Dooku, the evil Grievous and Ventress were waiting. Soon Bayts was killed by the teenage general and later A'Sharad Hett was also murdered by Grievous, held by the neck with her hand while she gutted his stomach with a green lightsaber. He was later avenged by Windu engaging in a fierce duel with the girl. Obi-Wan confronted Ventress, managing to redeem her at the last minute, but Dooku and General Grievous escaped. Ventress warned Obi-Wan of a coming attack, but faked her own death soon after, hijacking a shuttle and taking off into unknown parts.
In an attempt to precipitate the end of the war, the Jedi began actively hunting for the Separatist leadership, including Count Dooku, General Grievous and the Council of Separatists. On different occasions, Wat Tambar, Nute Gunray and Shu Mai were all nearly captured when they fled to their own respective personal strongholds on Xagobah, Cato Neimoidia and Felucia. Eventually, General Grievous decided to take the entire Council under her personal protection.
Towards the end of the conflict's fourth month, Skywalker, Kenobi and the good Grievous traveled to the outer rim planet of Simulen, staying an entire month to penetrate the shield that surrounded the old city of Matmata. The Separatists had planted a large droid factory in the heart of the city, and if destroyed the Confederacy would have less droids to fight with, giving the Republic a little more of an advantage in the war.
Upon first attempt, Anakin thought he could use a mixture of his lightsaber and the Force to penetrate the shield.
Antellica, without thinking to stop herself, laughed while Obi-Wan merely shrugged and said, "You can try, but I doubt it'll work."
Anakin did indeed try, only to have his pride wounded by being knocked back several feet via the vibration of the shield. Falling to the ground in a heap, he quickly picked himself back up, though his face was scarlet in embarrassment. He attempted, without much success, to shrug it off, but before anything could be said about it Commander Cody decided that he and his forces would think of a way of getting the shield down themselves.
The month that was spent on the rainy planet featured the three Jedi doing practically nothing. Occasionally, they would train together, meditate, or reminisce on old missions. Antellica had also asked both older Jedi to tell her about their childhood and teen years; she in return told them about her life before being a handmaiden when she lived with her loving parents in their simple home in the country district of Theed before the dreadful fire. After a while though, all this talking got old and quite boring and the constant rain did nothing to help matters.
On the morning of the day that marked a month since they'd arrived, Antellica and Obi-Wan were attempting to sleep in a makeshift cavern they'd been using for the duration of their stay, but to no avail. The ground was hard and a little damp because of all the rain that was pouring outside. Plus, the cavern sprang a leak, causing them to be slightly rained upon.
Sighing, Antellica gave up the hope to sleep and sat up. Obi-Wan did the same across from her. Looking around, she noticed that Anakin was gone, but this didn't surprise her. He usually always took morning strolls, so whenever she and Obi-Wan woke he was already gone. Why someone would want to take a stroll in the rain was beyond Antellica but…
When she asked him this, he simply said that he refused to stay couped up in a cave all day and night and even offered invitations to both Antellica and Obi-Wan to go with him on some. Antellica had blankly refused and Obi-Wan said he had no desire to walk in the rain unless he absolutely needed to. Anakin had merely shrugged and said, "Suit yourself."
Shaking herself out of these thoughts, Antellica returned to the present. A few minutes later, Commander Cody flew up to the entrance of their cavern to report on his force's progress. He did this every so often.
"General Kenobi, Knight Grievous," he greeted.
Antellica tiredly raised her hand in greeting. "Commander Cody," Obi-Wan greeted in a bored tone.
"The siege goes well," the clone reported, obviously oblivious to their tiredness, for his voice was quite cheerful. "With our continued barrage the shield should be down in three months."
"Three months!" Antellica uttered shrilly.
"Yes Miss," he replied.
Obi-Wan sighed. "But we've been here a month already."
"Yes sir, we're right on schedule," Commander Cody said before taking off.
"Three months!" Antellica moaned. "Three months! I simply refuse to stay here another three months."
Obi-Wan merely sighed, causing Antellica to pout since he didn't reply to her moaning.
Not long after this, Anakin arrived back carrying, to Obi-Wan and Antellica's mild surprise, what appeared to be a bag over his shoulder. He sat down next to Antellica with a smile and put the bag on the ground in front of himself, rubbing his hands over it.
"What is that?" Obi-Wan asked in mild interest.
"Lunch," Anakin said simply.
"Oh good." Antellica moved closer to Anakin. "I'm starving."
Anakin gave her a slight smirk before opening what was a piece of paper, not a bag, and revealing dozens of live insects and worms.
"Ew!" Antellica shrieked, jumping back as Anakin popped one in his mouth. He offered her one with a smirk, but she hastily moved to sit next to an equally disgusted Obi-Wan.
"But Antellica," Anakin jeered, "I thought you were hungry?"
"Well yeah, the only thing we've eaten in the course of time we've been here were those little stale bread biscuits but still…"
"How can you eat that?" Obi-Wan asked with a sniff as Anakin offered him a beetle. After shrugging and popping it into his mouth, Anakin adopted a mock innocent look. "But master, you're the one who always taught me to feed off the living Force."
"That's not what I-" Obi-Wan started to argue but than stopped himself and sighed.
"Where did you get that stuff anyway?" he asked.
"From the enemy camp," Anakin replied nonchalantly.
"What!" both Obi-Wan and Antellica exclaimed at the same time.
"You were there!" Obi-Wan asked. "What were you doing!"
"All kind of stuff," Anakin replied.
"How did you penetrate the shield?" Obi-Wan interrogated.
Anakin was now slurping an extremely long worm and Antellica turned her head away in disgust. A moment later he responded, pointing to the paper laying before him which, after taking a closer look, turned out to be a map.
"I found this ancient sewer, that leads right into the old city."
Antellica and Obi-Wan simply looked at him, expressionless.
Surely he didn't mean…
"So I assume the plan is to crawl through the sewer, work our way to the shield generator, fight our way through the defenses, blow up the generator, knocking out the shield and all our tropes swarm in and overwhelm the enemy," Obi-Wan said in what seemed like one breath.
"Yup, let's go!" Anakin cheerfully got up and left. Antellica groaned and shared a look with Obi-Wan before they followed him out.
The cavern they'd been staying in was on a small hill, causing them to climb down it to get to the outskirts of the old city where in the distance they could see the clones shooting fire at the shield and running about. Obi-Wan suggested it a good idea to inform Commander Cody of what they intended on doing so if they succeeded-
"I think you mean, 'when we succeed' Master," Anakin arrogantly cut in.
Obi-Wan sighed. "Right," he said warily, "'when we succeed' they'll be ready for us."
Once this was done, Anakin led them to an underground sewer just south of the city. Without hesitation, he jumped down into it, a splash being heard upon his landing. Exchanging yet another glance, Antellica and Obi-Wan jumped down after him, splashing into the sewage water that came up to their waists.
"Yuck! It stinks down here!" Antellica complained.
Anakin rolled his eyes. "It's a sewer, what did you expect it to smell like, roses perhaps?" Giving a mean laugh, he proceeded forward.
The only thing Antellica liked about the sewer, she mused as she and Obi-Wan followed Anakin, was that it was slightly lighted so they could easily see where they were going.
As they continued on Obi-Wan commented dryly, "What an incredible smell you have discovered."
Anakin smirked and Antellica continued to cough and gag while holding her nose. They walked on for about an hour before they got to a large wall of trash that blocked them from going on.
Antellica laughed in delight. "Oh well, we tried." She made to go back the way they came, but Anakin grabbed her arm.
"What now?" Obi-Wan asked.
"We swim," Anakin replied and dived into the water.
"I knew you were going to say that," Obi-Wan chuckled and was about to dive in himself when Antellica suddenly stopped him by grabbing his arm. "Obi-Wan wait."
"What's wrong Antellica?" he asked, turning back to look at her, his face full of concern.
"It's just that-well-I don't know how to swim."
"You don't? But when you jumped into the river on, well-"
"I was holding onto Anakin while in the water," she said answering his unfinished question.
"Oh."
"Maybe I should go back," she said turning around again, but Obi-Wan stopped her.
"You're not getting out of this that easy.
Antellica noticed he was wearing a slight smirk. "But I don't know how to swim," she protested.
"There's no time like the present to learn."
"Learn?" she repeated. "You mean you'd teach me?"
Obi-Wan smiled. "Of course I would, how else will you learn?"
Suddenly, Anakin popped up next to Obi-Wan. "What are you two doing? Chattering about nonsense? (Antellica hissed) We should be on our way to the control room."
"Well maybe you should've remembered that I don't know how to swim," she retorted.
Anakin blinked. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know that." He laughed. "No wonder you were hanging onto me for dear life on Cato Neimoidia."
He gave another laugh and smirked at Obi-Wan, who cleared his throat. Cato Neimoidia was still a touchy subject with him, especially since neither Anakin nor Antellica refused to let it die.
Anakin clapped his hands together and grinned. "Well than, let's teach you."
It only took about fifteen minutes since Antellica was a fast learner. She personally would've preferred learning in a nice, clean swimming pool, but alas that was not possible. Afterwards, they swam to the end of the sewer and climbed out. Anakin led his companions to a ladder straight ahead of them and began to climb; Antellica and Obi-Wan followed. The ladder went up at least thirty or forty feet.
Upon reaching the top, the Jedi had to duck because the ceiling was only about five feet high. Anakin went over to the bottom of what looked to be a lid-like trap door and pushed up. Obi-Wan and Antellica quickly went to stand next to him.
Above the lid was the floor of the central control room and the three could easily see where the shield surrounding the city was being controlled: the ceiling high tower straight ahead.
"Let's go!" Anakin cried, igniting his lightsaber and attempting to climb out, however Obi-Wan held him back. "No, no, no, wait."
The older Jedi pulled the lid down ever so slightly as they heard a few droids talking.
"Did you see something?" one asked.
"Negative," another replied.
"There are alternatives to fighting," Obi-Wan said and when Antellica looked down she saw him taking a few small silver-red spherical bombs out one of his pockets. He pushed the lid up a bit, placed them on the floor in front of him and used the Force to push them gently towards the tower.
"Well that's no fun," Anakin complained. Antellica laughed softly.
When the bombs reached the tower they exploded, taking the tower down with them. The trio than left the way they came; down the ladder and back into the sewer. When they got to the bottom of the sewer's entrance, Anakin and Obi-Wan Force jumped out while Antellica used a pull rope Anakin had thrown down to her.
On dry land again, they saw the clones engaging the Separatists droids in battle in and outside the city. The three Jedi ignited their lightsabers and went to join them. Inside the city, they led some troops to the droid factory and had them shoot it down with their Republic Land Gunfighters. At first, Commander Cody had suggested dropping a bomb into the factory, but Anakin said no and suggested the latter. The factory was down in minutes.
"Excellent!" Antellica exclaimed. "Our work here is done at last!"
She hugged Anakin, Obi-Wan, and even Commander Cody.
Obi-Wan turned and beamed at Anakin. "Nice job my friend, nice job." He patted Anakin on the back a few times.
"Ah, it was nothing," Anakin said with a dismissive wave of his hand, but it was obvious he was quite pleased with himself.