Chapter 8: Plan A

"Silent Recon. And maybe blow something up." – Jolly

Nicko could tell that Zar was fiercely proud that he had saved those torpedoes from their damaged ship. Between himself and Edge and a bit of Jedi mind tricks from General Isa, they managed to have four rather powerful IED's. Each clone carried one of those as well as their deeces and part of the long-range cannon which would be useful if they got pinned in a corner. Each Jedi carried their lightsaber and General Beto had his blaster, too. But against whatever the hell that thing was and the hundreds of droids...Nicko gulped quietly in his helmet as the small group crept ever closer to the structure. Even with Jedi, those weren't great odds.

General Beto put up his hand and the group halted. About fifteen droids went by carrying mining equipment. As soon as they passed, General Beto waved the group on. Nicko still didn't understand how the Jedi could sense droids but he wasn't complaining. He wondered if the clone masters ever thought about giving the clones Jedi powers. It would be useful in a situation like this. But then there was that whole nasty business with the Dark Side. No, better to just be highly trained men.

General Beto put up his hand again and they stopped. This time, it was a group of armed battle droids. And this time they had no cover. Everyone froze. Nicko was praying so hard for none of them to turn around that he bit his lip. Two, five, ten droids went by without incident.

But the last droid, the eleventh, turned around.

Before the droid could so much as run an algorithm to confirm that they were trespassers, even before Nicko had finished raising his weapon, General Beto raised his hand to eye level with the palm up. He brought his fingers together as if he were pinching a particularly large grape, and then yanked down, opening his fingers wide. The droids all wobbled a bit, and then collapsed without a word. All the commandos just stood there, weapons pointing at what were once fully functional battle droids.
General Isa grinned at Beto. "Still got it, I see."
"Well," said Beto reasonably. "It's much simpler to do large groups when they aren't under specific orders to kill you on sight."
"Are they...?" Even talkative Jolly couldn't finish his sentence.
"Disconnected from the droid control center," said Master Beto. "This way they haven't raised any alarms. With an operation this large, I say we have a good thirty minutes before anyone notices that they're missing."
"Let's not waste the time, then," said Isa. She stepped over the useless droids and kept walking. The Commandos followed, still shocked.
"Can all Jedi...?" Zar finally ventured.
"As far as I know," Isa said over her shoulder with a grin. "Only one living Jedi can do it. I can sense the droids but not much else."
General Beto looked embarrassed.
Nicko was beyond impressed.

It was good that they had thirty minutes because after about five more droid groups (one more got the special Jedi surprise) and nearly twenty minutes, the group was finally at the base of the first support for the structure. And that's when they realized that it was much bigger than they had first realized.

Much, much bigger.

"Ah..." Jolly breathed out.
"I don't care what this is," said General Isa grimly. "I don't want the Separatists to have it."
"It's a weapon," said General Beto with finality. "And I don't want them to have it either."
"Very astute, my dear Jedi," said an oily voice. "But I'm afraid that you don't get much of a choice in the matter."
Both lightsabers were out, and four deeces fully charged, before they had even turned around.
Count Dooku, black cape and all.

Okay, thought Nicko. His mind went into battle mode. Plan B.