Star Wars: Force of Nature

by General Rage

In a carefully laid trap, the King of Monsters is hit with a devastating super weapon. While the Nations of the World cheer they do not realize they have not destroyed him, only sent Godzilla to a new world. It is here the Atomic Titan shall come face to face with a new enemy, as he walks straight into a war long ago in a Galaxy Far, Far away...

6. Whether I'm Crazy or Not

Chapter 5: Whether I'm Crazy or Not

Ahsoka had a feeling Hera had bad news when she contacted them. It was written all over the twi'lek's face when the hologram came through. Their simple plan had gone a bit off the rails. It was no one's fault, but that was hardly comforting. They had taken the orbital gun, they no longer had to worry about it shooting them down. Any hope of using it themselves though was starting to seem remote. All because of one Imperial Officer who had somehow guessed what the goal of their attack had been.

"Is there anyway to fix the targeting system?" Ahsoka asked urgently.

"Not in time for the invasion," Hera sadly informed her. "They really did a number on it. Several laser bolts straight through the targetting processor, it's completely fried. We'd need a new one. As it stands, this gun is blind and on top of that the power outage has decreased its cycling rate. Even if we get a lucky shot, the next one will probably miss when they move out of range. Luckily the complex's own power source is holding, meaning we should still have the same damage output. Kinda useless though when we can't even hit the backside of a bantha."

Ahsoka scratched at her chin, trying to think of a way around this hurdle. They couldn't fix the system in time for the invasion, that was out. They could try to bulldoze through the blockade, but they'd lose a lot of ships in the attack. That wasn't much of an option. It was one she was aware of though and accepted if it turned out the gun ended up destroyed. However, the gun could still fire, so she was not ready to throw out the idea of using it. They could try to call in firing coordinates down to Hera and her team. But that would be incredibly time consuming and still leave them open to a lot of potential errors.

"If there was someway we could paint the targets for you," Ahsoka suggested aloud. "Someway we could guide your shots in with absolute accuracy. Like a designator or signal, a beacon perhaps."

"You got anything that can do that?" Hera asked hopefully.

"Maybe, I need to check," the togruta informed her. "Stay on the line, I'll contact you when I've confirmed something."

She placed Hera on hold and left the communications room. They needed some kind of beacon to guide the gun's shots to their targets. Something that the systems that were still operational could hone in on. She wasn't entirely sure if they had anything like that on hand, but she had a suspicion someone might. It wasn't much of a hunch, just something she remembered from one of her dossiers. Moira's Raiders did a good job keeping up with Imperial Convoys, more so than most marauders out in the Rim. There had to be something to that.

It took her awhile to get back down to the hangar where Moira was still prepping her fighter for the upcoming attack. Jetty was nearby, assisting her on the engine. When she spotted the Togruta approaching, she seemed surprised. Perhaps she didn't think they'd be seeing each other again so soon. The mission was still awhiles off.

"Something come up?" She asked as she looked up, Jetty doing the same.

"You could say that," Ahsoka admitted. "Tell me something, Moira, some of these convoys you've attacked, has there ever been a concern they could jump away before you can disable them?"

"Yeah tons of times," Moira admitted rather plainly. "I practically tore my hair out every time we lost a score in the early days. We always nabbed a big freighter, but there were usually two more we could've taken if we just had a few more minutes. That was before Jetty and Baraza cooked up something for us, tracking devices. They're very crude, nothing like those top of the line ones the Empire uses, but they work so long as we've managed to get through the shields. Then we just have to track them to their exit coordinates when they leave hyperspace and attack again. Doubled our haul during raids."

Ahsoka nodded as the Corellian explained, the gears in her head turning faster and faster as the pirate went on. She wondered if Moira was slowly coming to realize why Ahsoka was asking this. The ex-Jedi Commander didn't keep her in suspense for long.

"Do you have any of them on you now?" She asked suddenly.

"A few dozen," Moira admitted. "Why?"

"Because we're going to need them," Ahsoka explained. "Gather your team up and meet me in the communications room. I'll explain there."

---

"This was not the original plan," Ro'Das stated with a growl. "You said we'd just have to harass fighters and maybe bring the shields on the Destroyers down a bit. Now you want us to call shots for the ground gun?"

"The plan has changed," Ahsoka reiterated. "Without the targeting systems, Hera's team can't accurately fire the gun. With the reduced power cycling we'll have a longer firing rate. They'll be able to move the ships out of the way with relative ease. But if one of your tracking devices is on the Star Destroyer, then they'll have a better chance at hitting them."

"All we'd need to do is connect the signal to the Ghost's navigational systems and reroute that information to the gun itself," Hera's hologram informed them. "We can have a bypass set up in a few minutes, so long as we have the proper frequency."

The Raiders still seemed a bit sceptical, Moira especially. She turned from the little holographic twi'lek back to Ahsoka.

"Why can't she just use her ship's own systems to do that?" She asked her. "Seems like we're going to be risking extra fighters and ship defenses for nothing."

"The Ghost doesn't have that kind of scanning range," Ahsoka explained. "Not with Tsuburonda's radiation making a mess of long range detection systems. Your tracking devices could cut through the static though. If they can transmit past hyperspace, they can cut through the radiation easily. More importantly they can more accurately pinpoint a precise location than a scanner could."

"It's still crazy," Ro'Das informed her. "We'd need to take down the shields on those Star Destroyers way more than we originally planned. Not mention get close enough to plant the trackers on the ship."

"The gun will still be doing all the work," Ahsoka promised. "You just need to give it chance to land a kill shot."

The Raiders still looked wary. Ahsoka was a bit surprised they were so hesitant, but Ahsoka didn't really blame them. They had faced Star Destroyers before, but not in these numbers. If she wanted to alleviate their concerns, she had to try something else.

"Listen, I understand if you think this is too risky for you to take on personally by yourselves," She admitted. "We can hand out the devices to the rest of the fighters, if you can even make more that would be appreciated. But you know how they work better than them. You've used them before. I feel it would be best if you took point on this operation. If you need any additional support, I'll do my best to give it to you."

Moira looked to her men for a brief moment, contemplating Ahsoka's words and judging what the others thought. It reminded Ahsoka much of her own experiences, of when she used to command squads of Clones. The more you got to know the people under your command, the more you understood them. Until it got to the point that words weren't always needed. After a few moments of silently conferring with her partners, each of them giving each other looks only they understood, Moira turned back to Ahsoka.

"Are you sure that your people down there can hit those Destroyers?" She asked.

Hera confidently fielded the question for the Togruta.

"The gun can rip through those ships easy," Hera assured her. "We just need someone to tell us where to shoot."

The red haired human looked to Hera inquisitively, trying to read the hologram transmission best she could. They were both expert flyers and dogfighters in their own right. Within a few moment, Ahsoka could tell that Moira had accepted Hera's assurances, trusting her word as a fellow pilot. Moira finally nodded before adding a shrug.

"Alright, we don't get paid if the invasion fails," she relented.

"And it would be satisfying to directly paint one of those big ships for destruction personally," Ro'Das admitted.

Baraz just clapped his hands together and giggled menacingly, probably saying something about the joy of causing a big explosion rather than just watching it. Anglyh just seemed to sigh and nod, willing enough to go along with the idea. Gorossk just flicked out his tongue and grinned.

"Just one question," he suddenly asked. "We get partial credit for taking out these Star Destroyers and half the people on them, right?"

"Always thinking about your scorecard, aren't ya, Goro?" Moira joked.

"It's at the top of my list of priorities, what can I say?" the Trandoshan chuckled.

Ahsoka shared brief smile.

"You'll get a partial kill credit," Ahsoka assured him. "Hera won't mind sharing the glory."

"Zeb might, but he'll get over it," Hera added herself with a slight smile. "Just mark those targets and we'll clear a path to your landing zone."

Moira's reluctant demeanor had now faded completely. She now bore a broad, cocky grin.

"Well, I guess that settles it then," she announced, turning to her Jawa squadmate. "Baraz, you and Jetty get cracking on more trackers. We got us some Star Destroyers to blow up."

---

Sakal hadn't thought it could get worse after the destruction of Solar Flare Field. Now with the power grid disrupted in this latest attack, he was starting to ponder every other possible way it could get worse. He started to wonder who was more of a nervous wreck, him or Nulon. The Overseer just couldn't stop pacing around, frantically rubbing his hands together and hyper-ventilating like his windpipe was going to close up suddenly. It didn't help that Darth Vader was still looming over them all from afar, staring at them with his helmet's black vicious eyes. Even though you didn't see much of an expression on him, Sakal could tell he was not pleased. He was beginning to think that was just Vader's normal emotional state, unpleased.

"This can't keep going on, Sakal," Nulon stated at long last. "At this rate we're going to lose every installation on this planet."

"If you honestly don't think I realize that, Overseer, then you're severely misjudging me," Sakal snorted back. "We are clearly dealing with an abnormal animal. That much has become apparent. Fretting about how bad things are going will not solve it. We need to formulate a better strategy to-"

"You have been formulating strategies continuously," Darth Vader interrupted harshly, slowly approaching as he did. "So far, you have failed to deliver on any of them. In the process you have cost me a considerable portion of my own Stormtroopers. We have lost two vital facilities, compromising this project's security and hardly anything you've done has achieved any tangible results. Considering your war record, General, I find these developments... disturbing."

Sakal's eyes went to Vader's lightsaber, where the dark-armored Force User's hand rested uncomfortably close to it. He did his best to hide his fear of the weapon, although he doubted he was succeeding. Something about Vader, the way he looked at you, that emotionless metal face bearing down on you, it felt wrong. He knew you were afraid of him, of what he could do. And Sakal imagined he enjoyed that, probably one of the few things he did enjoy.

"My Lord, please, understand," he tried to argue. "This... thing isn't like anything we've ever faced. We have done the best we can given the circumstances."

"If that were true, the creature would already be dead," Vader countered, no hint of sympathy within his voice. "Your excuses do not interest me. I came here to insure the completion of the project, not to watch you repeatedly fail to dispose of this potential threat."

"Perhaps it is time we throw caution to the wind," Klusto suggested. "We can bring some of our Star Destroyers down to the planet. That would give us an advantage against the monster."

Darth Vader turned to the Commander menacingly, causing Klusto to gulp slightly as the dark-clad warrior glared in his direction.

"Your actions have already weakened our defenses sufficiently enough," Vader declared. "I will not allow you to pull ships from orbit and further endanger this project. With our power grid disrupted and the majority of the TIE Fighters on the planet destroyed, we can ill afford placing more defensive resources towards this hunt. So long as this creature's path is pointed away from this facility, we will hold the Star Destroyers in reserve."

"But maybe the Commander has a point, Lord Vader," Nulon interjected. "Who could possibly know of our work here? Of the Zillo-Beast and the cloning project. Not even our men outside this facility are aware of it."

"Do not presume that you know anything, Overseer," Vader shot back viciously. "You have already consistently proven that you do not. The safety of this project is my only concern. That includes all potential threats, on Tsuburonda and off."

Nulon backed away, finally shutting up. Sakal breathed a sigh of relief, maybe they could get through this briefing without another lightsaber activation. He wouldn't argue for the use of Star Destroyers, but perhaps they wouldn't need them. Not with his new plan.

"Lord Vader, if I may," he began. "I have a new strategy that has a high chance of success. However, to implement it, I need to force the creature's path to divert away from its present course."

"And how would you accomplish that, exactly?" Vader asked.

"Our last reports place Alpha Predator One heading towards our test site for the Zillo-Beast," Sakal informed him. "I believe a strategic defense there will force the creature down a different path. One that will lead it into a trap. I've already set the wheels in motion. All we need to do, is hurt the creature enough and then have it chase us. From what I've observed, it seems to have a sense of vengeance if you will."

"That's not all it has, gentlemen."

Everyone looked up to the top level of the Command Center and saw Sionver Boll rushing down the steps towards them. She looked rather frantic as she ran down the stairs, making her way towards the holotable. In her hand she held a data disk tightly.

"Forgive my intrusion," she requested. "But you all need to see this."

She pushed past the group and plugged the disk into the table. Within moments, a diagram of Alpha Predator One appeared with various graphs and streams of data surrounding it. There was also a representation of a power reactor next to the holographic image of the monster. Lines were flowing between the two, traveling into Alpha Predator One.

"The latest information we received from the power station attack made me realize something," she began to explain. "The creature went to that power station for a reason, it wasn't random at all. He needed something there, the reactor core. It's why he was chewing on it, why he dragged it away. It was the sole reason he came there."

"Why would he want a reactor?" Klusto asked. "To use as a giant chew toy?"

"No, as an energy source," Boll explained in a dire tone. "The creature feeds off radiation. It powers him in fact. That energy ray he fires, it's not flame. It's some kind of radioactive ionized beam!"

Boll further illustrated her point by flipping to another graph on the data disk. This one showed one of the monster's cells being damaged by electricity in a small enclosed box.

"Working with the facts I knew to be true, I formulated a hypothesis," she stated as she pointed to the hologram. "I shocked Alpha Predator One's cells with two thousand volts of directed electrical current. Sufficient enough to severely damaged it. Under normal circumstances it would heal in twenty minutes from this. I then subjected the cells to high concentrations of radiation."

The hologram showed the results of the test. The radiation hit the cells and within moments they began healing over, reconstructing themselves. Using a time-lapsed feed, Boll showed that in less than eight minutes, the cells were completely healed as if nothing had happened. Everyone, save for Vader, stared in disbelief.

"Incredible," Klusto observed. "Radiation is actually beneficial to this monster."

"Could the radiation increase the creature's other abilities as well?" Sakal asked, for once genuinely curious as to what Boll had to say.

"That's a reasonable assumption," Boll answered. "This thing soaks up radiation like a sponge and uses it to feed, heal and empower itself. The reason those dorsal fins cooked those Jumptroopers alive is because it was releasing radioactive heat emissions. Like a reactor when it is venting."

Boll flipped to another graph, this one depicting Alpha Predator One with a large hole in its torso. It showed a possible representation of the creature's insides. A very strange looking muscle was in the place of the heart, something far more complex looking than any animal. Appearing to be some kind of large interconnecting organ with veins reaching out to every part of the body.

"This is a crude rendition, the inside of the animal probably looks nothing like this," Boll explained. "But my theory is that inside this monster is the organic equivalent of a radioactive core. It regulates the radiation the creature absorbs and distributes it across its body. That powers the beam attack, the pulse attack, it's healing factor and who knows what else. If true, then this creature is no mere mutation. It is a highly evolved, advanced life-form."

"All very fascinating," Vader finally spoke up. "But would you care to explain how this assists us in destroying it?"

"Well, ideally we would have a better shot if we could cut him off from radiation entirely," Boll responded, not missing a beat. "But Tsuburonda is cascaded by radiation constantly. Cutting him off from that source would be incredibly difficult."

Sakal started scratching his head, suddenly realizing something that didn't make much sense.

"Wait, if this thing can absorb radiation, how come it hasn't started doing that with the radiation in the atmosphere?" He asked. "He could power himself instantly."

"Well the radiation is widely dispersed, maybe it's not as reliable a method," Boll considered. "There is also the possibility that he is also unaware of this. That he isn't consciously pinpoint the power source, again because it is widely dispersed. But if that were true, then that presents another problem."

"Why would a creature that evolved here not already know it could absorb radiation from the sky?" Klusto fielded, the reality of that thought hitting him hard. "Are you suggesting that this thing is quite possibly not native?"

"Unfortunately yes," Boll admitted regretfully. "We know for a fact it is aware of this absorption ability as it went for the reactor for that purpose. It can probably sense radiation in mass quantities but has a problem with more widely dispersed atmospheric emissions. Its body is probably passively absorbing the radiation though, it's working at a slower rate clearly, but it would explain its rapid recovery from some of our more successful hits. Of course, if it really isn't aware of the power source floating above it's head, if it isn't native, then we have to start asking the real big question. That being, where did it really come from?"

The thought hit Sakal hard. This thing was possibly alien? If that were true, who sent it here and why? How, even, without any of them knowing? Was it recent? Was it here for centuries, sent by some ancient civilization, and only just woke up? Did rebels find it somewhere and smuggle it in? No, those were all too ridiculous to be true. Something else was at work here, not that Darth Vader seemed to care.

"The origin of this creature is irrelevant," he announced. "The only concern you must preoccupy yourselves with is killing it. Cut it off from any source of radiation somehow. If this is the key we've been searching for, we must act upon it. Destroy this abomination so we may return to the far more important matter of completing the project. Continue with your plan. When next we all meet here, you best be prepared to spring your final trap and end this. I will tolerate no more disappointments."

Vader marched away, his cape flowing behind him as he left. Sakal instantly turned to Klusto with a stern look.

"Make sure everything is ready at the test site before that creature is even within two miles," he ordered him. "We need to get on top of this if we're going to lure him to the trap. I'll use Boll's information to revise the final plan. Make sure the troops on the ground are informed of all relevant information."

"Yes, sir," Klusto concurred, moving briskly to follow through with his orders.

As Sakal turned back to the holotable, Nulon suddenly grabbed his shoulder briskly.

"We need to do everything we can to make sure this works, Sakal," Nulon suddenly interjected. "We have to put this extended hunt to an end. The more time we waste on this, the less time we have to complete the project by the deadline."

"Leave the matter of this creature to me then and we shall end it," Sakal assured him.

"I've been leaving this matter to you for awhile and all you've managed to do is get me in even hotter water with Lord Vader," Nulon argued. "We've already had enough spanners thrown into the works already with him here and this monster business isn't helping."

Sakal pulled his arm away from Nulon and dusted it off.

"Just let me handle this," Sakal reiterated. "I'm in charge of security here after all. This is my department. I don't need you telling me how to do my job. Not with Vader here at least."

"You're the Security Chief, yes, but I'm the Lead Administrator," Nulon angrily reminded him. "Everything you do reflects on me. Vader has already made it clear he doesn't think highly of me, every one of your failures is just making it worse."

"I have not failed yet, Nulon," Sakal glared back indignantly. "So just keep out of this and get back to doing administrative work instead. Relax for once and stop trying to butt into every little thing I do."

Sakal walked away, not in the mood to hear more of Nulon's consistent badgering. As if he didn't know that every missed opportunity to kill this thing was making them look bad. It was making them all look bad. Nulon only really cared about that in relation to himself though. Sakal wished he'd just cool it already, before he said or did something really stupid. He was becoming more and more of a nervous wreck and it was not helping anyone.

Sakal just hoped they'd get through today, that the operation would go as planned. Then they'd be rid of this damn monster and be back to to working on their own before too long. So long as everyone played their part, and people like Nulon of course kept out of it.

---

"Gave it our best damn shot and it blew up in our faces," Devo growled through the pain in his shoulder. "Should've pulled out sooner than we did. I've been sucker-punched before, but never that hard or this bad. One hit and I'm out, like that. Unbelievable."

"If it's any consolation, you did get hit by a giant reptile, sir," Kamo reminded him.

Devo leaned his head back against the Imperial Dropship Transport, trying to support it against the metal. The gunmetal grey craft had taken a few hours to reach them, it wasn't until near daybreak before they arrived. Kamo was just happy they were back in the game again and on the move. These transports somewhat reminded him of the old gunships they flew into battle during the Clone Wars. It had the general same design, except more angular and pointed. The wings were higher up and the cockpit was split between two separate cabins. They also didn't pack the same firepower as the old gunships, just two nose lasers and two wing guns on the tips. They weren't much of an assault craft, but they got the job done more or less.

"Thanks for getting me out there, Kamo," Devo informed him. "I probably would've died in that tower if you hadn't been able to cart my butt down the turbolift shaft. For an old timer, you're still pretty spry."

"I was cloned from the Galaxy's most infamous Bounty Hunter," Kamo chuckled warmly. "I guess it's in the genes. Although a regimental workout routine never hurts."

"Good to hear," Devo replied. "Let's hope the next guy we have running things appreciates that as much as me. I'm not sure what they got cooked up next for that mega reptile, but we're going to need every Trooper on deck for it."

They hadn't been told exactly what the new plan was. The pilots didn't really have time to get all the details. All they knew was they had to get them to a specific set of coordinates where the next play against Alpha Predator One would go down. What was left of the power station's defense force, along with several other platoons in the division, were being ferried to some unknown destination by any transport that was still flying. He could see the other craft speeding along in the formation outside the large open doors of their transport. It was a pretty decent sized armada. Whatever this plan was, it was most certainly big.

Kamo didn't know how big though until they arrived at their destination. They had been flying over water for a few hours now, seeing nothing, until Arch pointed out something ahead of them.

"Hey, guys, since when did this planet have a city?" He asked them all.

Kamo walked away from Devo and looked out the open door past Arch. He saw in the distance what looked like a small city taking up residence on a tiny island of in the distance. As they neared closer to it, Kamo could see a number of large buildings, almost like a small Coruscant. But something felt off about them. When he gave it a better look, he realized what it was. The buildings weren't really your traditional skyscrapers, they were pre-constructed buildings. Their seams, their foundations, their structure, these things weren't built from the ground up.

"Look at those creases along the structural points," he pointed out to Arch. "They're like puzzle pieces, made to fit together in a number of configurations. These buildings weren't built, they were assembled from already made bits and pieces. Probably over the course of a few days."

"You mean, it's like one of those urban combat environments they had us do drills on back at the academy?" Arch asked, sounding really confused. "Why would you build that this big on an island in the middle of nowhere? What kind of exercises would they be running here?"

"No idea what it was for before," Kamo admitted, before he started pointing down to the water. "But I know what they're using it for now."

Below them was a rare sight, naval vessels, the kind that coasted through the water and not the stars. The Imperial Maritime Division was rarely used in many operations, but they were still formidable force. Kamo could only imagine they were here to deal with Alpha Predator One when he arrived.

From high above, he could see a number of Advanced Scout Frigates. These fast repulsorlift-powered craft sported two forward guns and were the smallest of the surface-based ships. They were good for support operations with bigger ships as they could get under enemy guns. These fish-shaped little craft made up the bulk of the battlegroup.

Among them were Heavy Destroyers, large clamshell-shaped ships with short-range pummels, laser-based weaponry that could bombard hard targets. The Heavy Destroyers sported dual pummels and were heavily armored. Used properly, they could do some serious damage.

There were also some Heavy Missile Destroyers in the battlegroup, large bulky craft armed with dual missile launchers. They were mostly used against aircraft, but Kamo supposed Alpha Predator One was big enough of a target that they he might as well be an aircraft while he was standing up. He just hoped whatever they were armed with was good enough to penetrate the creature's hide.

There were also a few smaller craft circling about the outside of the formation. These ships sported two frontal prongs, a large cockpit window and a smooth gliding chassis. These were Imperial Submarines, their primary function was also anti-air, but they did have some underwater weapons as well.

"Don't usually see these guys out of dock," Devo stated as he stared over the side of transport. "Looks like they're going to meet the creature on their turf, a first line of defense before he reaches the island."

"This isn't enough to stop him," Kamo observed. "I really hope they got a better plan than hitting him from the water. That's hardly the kind of change up I was hoping for."

Their transport reached the island's beach and landed just a few meters from the pounding surf. Devo limped off the aircraft, holding his shoulder as he did. Before he, Arch or Kamo got very far though, they were stopped by an Imperial Maritime Officer.

"Lieutenant Devo?" He said, looking to the injured Jumptrooper, gaining a nod and the best salute the Lieutenant could manage. "I am Captain Slaan, I am in charge of this Maritime Battlegroup."

The Captain returned his salute and let trio of Troopers stand at ease.

"How badly are you injured, Trooper?" He asked Devo.

"I'll be good as soon as I can get something to help with the pain, sir," the Lieutenant stated.

"Good to hear," Slaan replied. "Your Division redirected some Jumptrooper squads to the mock-up city. They could use your help. In fact, they'll need every Trooper's help to pull off the plan."

Kamo stepped up, offering a brief salute of his own.

"Sergeant Kamo, sir," he began. "I was one of the Troopers who survived Solar Flare Field. Sir, if I may ask, what exactly is the plan?"

"Ah, you must be the Clone Trooper I kept hearing whispers about then," Slaan stated, eyeing the sergeant. "You've done well to survive repeated engagements with this monster. We're going to need that. As to your question, it is complicated. Our task here isn't to kill the beast, it's to re-direct its path towards a trap we are assembling."

Kamo was bit confused by that. They were building a trap for this thing? He hoped it was some trap. More importantly he wondered how exactly they were going to force the monster to head towards it.

"How are we going to redirect it, sir?" Kamo asked. "We've barely managed to scratch him half the time."

"True, but General Sakal believes we can force it to change direction given the proper stimulus," Slaan explained. "It is believed the creature has a very aggressive threat response, setting its sights onto the nearest and most damaging aggressor and following them. If we can hit the creature in the right spots, we can force it to chase us and with a little luck set it on a course for the trap."

"Sounds incredibly risky," Devo noted aloud. "What's our plan of attack on this exactly?"

Slaan pointed to his battlegroup off shore, a small semblance of pride in his voice as he spoke.

"We will engage the monster first," he stated broadly. "Enough direct hits followed by a strategic withdraw should force it to move in the direction we want. When he hits landfall, the Stormtroopers that have taken up positions in the fake buildings will ambush him. We've also set up rigged explosives to go off when the monster gets near. It's our hope we will antagonize the monster enough to direct it to the Northwest where our trap lies in wait."

"That monster is going to crash into you with everything it has," Kamo informed the Captain. "Your battlegroup is going to get hit hard."

Slaan nodded sullenly, acknowledging the truth in Kamo's words. He was clearly troubled by it, but he didn't loose his sense of authority.

"I'll admit, Sergeant, the risk is extremely high," Slaan conceded sorrowfully. "I don't expect many of us will make it through this alive, not even your own people. However, if my men do our jobs right, then you won't have to take the brunt of the losses today. All we have to do is get him to start heading Northwest and we're in the clear."

"It's going to take a lot of firepower to convince that lizard to head that way and stay on that path," Devo observed. "I hope we're relying on something more than just sheer luck."

"The General wired that he has some insurance en route to assist in that," Slaan insisted. "But it may not be enough to lead the creature the way we want him to go alone. For now, we need to play to this monster's aggression, use it against him. It may be our only real advantage."

Kamo couldn't help but agree. The monster's anger was what drove it, he knew that himself. If they could use that against it, maybe they could herd him the way they wanted to. However, it all relied on how effective they were at setting him up along the path.

"Alright then, let's make this monster's rage work for us for once," he declared. "Where are our positions?"

"The assembly area is handing out datapads that will show you," Slaan informed him. "I'm told they have all the relevant information we need to know. Every inch of the plan it outlined for us. We're not taking any chances on screw ups today. You'll find the assembly area at the edge of the mock-up's main street. Just head down the path, you'll find it. I'll maintain radio contact with the ground forces at all times. Now, I better get back to my Command Ship and prepare for the assault. Good luck to you all."

Kamo watched the Captain leave them and they began their walk to the assembly area themselves. Kamo was still a bit worried about the Maritime Division starting the attack out. Slaan had confidence in his men, but he was clearly worried himself. He had just accepted that this would probably go bad. At least he wasn't like Agiri, they didn't need another one of him right now. Whatever potential pitfalls there were in this plan, it was certainly better than a blind assault like they had done before.

All they had to do was force a giant rampaging lizard to go the way they wanted. As Kamo thought back to all the missions he had been on in the Clone Wars, he remembered all the near impossible tasks he and his clone brothers had managed to pull off. None of them were anywhere near this complicated though. Either this would be an operation for the history books or they'd be all incinerated when the monster got on the beach. They'd find out what fate had in store for them in a few short hours.

---

They'd be coming out of hyperspace soon. When that happened, Moira wanted to be one of the first fighters off the deck. It was why she was sitting in her cockpit waiting for the go. Ahsoka wanted them on point for this mission and she intended to follow that request through. It was true that she had been initially concerned about the idea of painting Star Destroyers for the orbital gun, but that unease had evaporated quickly. Her Raiders were going to be the main thrust of the attack. They'd be leading the charge, breaking the blockade apart. She always loved sticking it to the Empire's precious sense of superiority. Blowing up a good chunk of their Star Destroyer Fleet would be the biggest ego bruise against the Imps yet, especially since it would be with their own damn gun.

"We're about to exit hyperspace, boys," Moira informed her Raiders. "The second we do, we're flying right down the Empire's throat. So let's get the final systems check out of the way and our engines warmed up now, because the second we can seen real stars again we're off this deck."

"Ro here," Ro'Das answered. "All weapons good to go. Trackers are loaded and ready for launch. Let's hope that gun carries the punch they say it does."

"Gorossk here," the Trandoshan replied next. "All systems online, ready for another day of hunting Imperial pilots."

Anglyph answered next, informing Moira that Baraz was in the gunner pod. He was overly excited as ever and giggling like a maniac. Anglyph wanted to know if it was too late to get someone else to be his gunner today.

"Sorry, Anglyph," Moira reminded him. "Better you have to deal with his semi-psycho tendencies than someone else. You can handle him just fine on your own. Just keep focused on leading the bombing wing. Only way we're getting the trackers on the Destroyers is if their shields are weakened enough. No way we'll get them attached otherwise."

As Anglyph sighed over the radio, Ahsoka contacted them all over the radio.

"Fighters, we are exiting hyperspace now," she said. "Remember, your primary targets are the Star Destroyers. Attach the trackers to them so our team controlling the Orbital Gun can blast a hole through their lines. We will hold the line beyond the range of their guns for as long as possible. Good luck and may the Force be with you all."

Moira just snorted, luck, she didn't need luck. It was all skill out there, one good pilot against another. Luck rarely had anything to do with it. As hyperspace gave way to regular space, she started up the engines, lifted from the deck and rocketed out of the hangar. Her Raiders were close behind, yipping and hollering over the radio as they raced into the black void beyond.

Before long, Tsuburonda came into view, as well as the line of Star Destroyers currently in orbit around their intended landing zone. They had no doubt spotted their intrusion by now, it wouldn't be long before they started sending out TIEs. Moira could count at least three Star Destroyers blocking them and their little attack force's route to the landing zone. Three ships to blow out of the sky, three ships standing in the way of them getting to the ground. Bad odds in normal circumstances, but they had a small fleet of their own and ton of other flyers backing them up. She still needed to know what they were up against.

"Jetty," she said, contacting the droid through her comm. "We're getting into range of the Star Destroyers now. What do you see on the scope?"

"Several fighter wings heading towards you in standard attack formation, ma'am," the old battledroid reported. "Mostly regular variants, but we're detecting a few advanced fighters among them. They're probably the flight leads. I don't think they're happy to see you."

"What else is new?" Moira huffed aloud. "Gorossk, take a wing below their flight pattern. Attack on my order. Ro, get ready to open fire on my mark, I'll have Jetty mark the nearest advanced fighters for us. Anglyph, you and Baraz stay close to me and the other escorts. We're going to break through their fighters and hit their shield generators. Don't worry about the anti-air guns when we're close, we'll handle them."

"Heading down now," Gorossk replied. "The Imps won't know what hit them."

As Gorossk led a wing down beneath the opposing TIE flight pattern, Jetty contacted Moira again.

"Ma'am, we got an incoming transmission from the lead Star Destroyer," he reported.

"Patch it through to comms, Jetty," Moira said, smirking as she did. "And latch onto the transmission for me will ya?"

"Roger, roger," Jetty answered.

Within moments the transmission filled her cockpit and those of her fellow raiders, the pompous air of Imperial Superiority instantly recognizable.

"This is Captain Malness of the Imperial Star Destroyer Otachi," the Imperial declared arrogantly. "You have violated restricted Imperial Space. You will surrender or be destroyed."

"I'm not very fond of those options, Captain," Moira replied, opening up the comm to contact the Imperial directly. "Let me explain how this is really going to go down. We're gonna head down to that planet you're blockading and we're gonna go through you to do it. One way or another."

"Such insolence," the Captain replied indignantly. "Your toothless threats don't scare me in the slightest. I hope enjoy being target practice, rebel scum."

"Same to you, Imp," Moira snorted back. "Ro! Open fire!"

Ro'Das started raking shots along the TIE Flight path, aiming for the advanced fighters who were leading the wings. Moira joined him in sniping the TIEs as they began to close in. They needed to take down as many of the squadron leaders as possible in the first hit, removing the most experienced among their number. The advanced fighters tried to break formation when they were targeted, but Moira and Ro kept their focus as they attempted to disperse. Moira herself managed to land three shots into one lead pilot's cockpit, exploding the inside of the craft in a fiery ball. Ro's shots clipped the wing of another leader, causing him to spin violently into one of his wingmen.

As the gap between the two forces became smaller, Moira unleashed her next attack and called Gorossk back into the fray. The Trandoshan and several other ARC-170s, raced up from the black void below and screeched into the middle of the attack TIEs. Their lasers blasted apart many of the Imperial fighters, Gorossk himself blowing part several as he twisted and turned through the air, lighting up the sky with laser fire. He moved from one TIE to another, rocketing through their debris field as he raced up to the next one. Moira imagined he never once let up on the trigger, gleefully cutting into the bellies of the TIEs before their pilots knew what was happening.

The tactic worked to Moira's expected result. While the TIEs weren't all destroyed, the attack from below caused enough confusion among them to force their formations to break up early. As the wing formations of Rebels and Imperials met, it was the latter who found themselves in disarray. Knowing the Imperials though, Moira knew this would last long. The remaining squadron leaders would rally and start hitting back hard. They needed to use what time they had to make a break for the Star Destroyers.

"Gorossk, Ro, run screening pattern," she ordered. "We need to keep the majority of the fighters away from the bombers. Anglyph, follow me in towards the left Star Destroyer. I'm going to hit the deck guns and give you a clear approach to the Shield Generators up top. Baraz, keep watch on your six with the turret. Ro and Gorossk can't keep every TIE off our backs."

"That sounds like a challenge," the Trandoshan chuckled.

Moira rolled her eyes a bit at Gorossk's hunt talk, he always got all competitive during attacks.

"Just be ready to bring it in when I call you," Moira warned. "The second the Imps figure out our game, they're going to shift tactics. So let's make this first run count."

Kicking in the boosters, Moira took off towards their first target. Anglyph kept up with her from behind, his Y-Wing bomber leading the attack formation. Moira knew there would be a few TIEs in reserve around the Destroyers themselves to protect them from attacks, so getting past that screen of fighters would be their first major obstacle. The next would be the guns, but she'd take care of enough of those to give Anglyph the shot he needed.

It didn't take long before Moira spotted a squadron of fighters blocking her path. As they opened up on her, she turned hard up on the stick, forcing herself into a loop. The g-forces strained against her body as she pulled up, flipped around and began diving back towards her targets. Her ARC-170 was facing the tops of the TIEs now, perfect targets. She strafed fire across their path, cutting into them from above. She destroyed two on her way down, winged a third and sped past the rest. Jamming the stick back hard, she turned her fighter back around to face the back sides of the TIEs from below this time. They were still on an interception course for Anglyph's bombers.

"Great, Imps with a concept of focus," she grumbled. "Just what I need."

She boosted back up towards the TIEs, screaming in form behind. She laid down a torrent of laser fire, ripping into the rear of one TIE and causing it to explode. She then switched targets and shot off the wing of a second TIE. As she was lining up her third shot though, green laser bolts streamed from above. An Advanced Fighter, probably the Squadron Leader.

"Damn, forgot to look for him," she growled as she turned the ARC-170 to the left.

The TIE sped past her as she avoided his dive. She then boosted away, trying to catch up to the remaining TIEs. As she closed in on her targets, she watched as Anglyph's bomber opened up. He fired two blasts that punctured the cockpit of one TIE, causing it to explode. He then lurched the bomber to the side to avoid another series of shots as he fired back his own and caught the offending TIE in the fuel cell. The little fighter exploded moments later. Moira heard Baraz screaming over the radio moments later, complaining about Anglyph messing up his shot. The Ithorian just grumbled back at the Jawa and leveled out the bomber.

Baraz went back to shooting, firing on screeching TIEs coming in from above. With amazing precision, the little hooded desert rat managed to blast three of the Imperial Fighters from the sky with ease. Their little wings got systematically clipped, their fuel cells ruptured and one TIE even got a direct hit to his laser cannon. A second shot had them backfire and destroy the TIE with its own weapon.

As Moira admired the little Jawa's skills though, she took a hit to her rear shields. The Advanced Fighter was back on her tail and pursuing once more. Moira had an idea on how to shake him, but she needed Baraz to pull it off.

"Baraz, I'm coming alongside you guys," she said as she kicked the boosters into gear. "I got their flight lead on me, take him down."

Baraz offered a snickering little giggle in response, his way of saying, "With pleasure" as far as she was aware. Moira raced past the Y-Wing, the advanced fighter in pursuit. A series of shots came from Baraz's turret, ripping into the wing facing him. Fire and smoke billowed out from the damaged energy arrays, causing the fighter to lurch from side to side. Moira took the chance to pull a one-eighty turn and barrel back down the injured fighter's throat. She fired a constant stream of lasers into the enemy pilot's face and in the next second she was flying through his smoking debris field. She eased out her speed in front of Anglyph and Baraz's bomber.

"We got a straight shot now boys," she stated. "I'm going for the turrets on the deck, follow me in!"

They dove towards the Star Destroyer now. She raked laser fire across its deck. She knew her guns wouldn't do much against its armor or its shields, but she could still target the turrets. They had to fire through the shields after all. Moira managed to destroy three anti-air guns on the deck as she swooped in low. She pulled up and targeted one of the shield generators on the top of the Destroyer. She armed two missiles and fired them at the big white dome. As she broke off, she caught the tail end of an explosion ripping the dome of the destroyer apart.

"I got one for ya," Moira told Anglyph. "Focus on two! Hit it hard and then rake the deck!"

The Y-Wings closed within range and then launched their payload, sending torpedoes rocketing towards the shield generator. A huge explosion ripped the dome apart within moments. Now the Destroyer's shields were low enough for a tracker to get through. Following the plan, Anglyph's bomber wing turned and dropped a payload of proton bombs across the deck of the ship. This wasn't to destroy it though, it was to distract the remaining anti-air guns. While they were trying to shoot the Y-Wings down, Moira turned back and aimed her crosshairs along the hull of the ship.

"Firing one!" She shouted.

Her ARC-170 shot a tracker device out of its nose. The little beacon sped through the void, passed through the weakened shield and latched itself onto the Star Destroyer's hull. Within moments it began transmitting back to Moira's computer.

"Beacon lit, everyone clear out of here!" She ordered the nearby bombers, she then switched her comm channel. "Fulcrum, we got a signal! Jetty should be transmitting it now to your team groundside. Let them have it!"

"Will do, Moira," Ahsoka assured. "Orbital Cannon has confirmed they have the shot. Stand by."

Moira looked out behind her ship's cockpit as they flew away from the Star Destroyer. Moments later, a huge red beam cut through the void, speeding up from the planet before slicing into the side of the Imperial Ship. The blast ripped the hull apart as explosion rippled throughout the port side of the ship. The Star destroyer began to list to the side, smoking heavily as fires raged. It wasn't dead, but it was crippled.

"Direct hit!" Shouted with glee through the radio. "Target one badly damaged! Someone get another Tracker on her so the next shot can finish her off!"

"Moving into range now, Moira," Ro's voice came over the comm. "I'm gonna aim for the Conning Tower. That should finish it."

The Star Destroyer was still reeling from the attack, so Ro'Das had no trouble flying in and latching another tracker onto the ship. As he flew out though, TIEs screeched after him, firing at him from behind. Lucky for Ro, Gorossk flew down from above, cutting through the pair of TIEs flying in parallel formation to his friend's backside. Twin blasts from his lasers took care of the fighters easily and both of the Raiders joined Moira shortly after.

"What do we do while we wait for the next shot, boss?" Gorossk asked Moira.

"Help the other fighters," she replied. "Pick out some TIEs and hit them hard. Empire is going to reposition their pilots to defend the Star Destroyers rather than attack. We need to thin their numbers if we're going to stand a shot at getting close to the next guy. They know our bombers aren't the real threat, but it won't take them long to figure out how their friends got blasted by their own gun."

"Good," Gorossk declared. "I need to add a few more Imps to my scorecard. I'm beating Ro by the way."

"Only by two so far, lizard," Ro huffed at him.

"Knock off the chatter you two," Moira ordered. "More TIEs ahead. Rip'em apart!"

They joined the nearby fray between the various Rebel and Imperial fighters. They were going to need to save as many of Fulcrum's people as they could if they were going to hit the next Star Destroyer as easily as the first. So far everything was going as planned, but Moira knew that the plan was only a third complete. A lot could go wrong before those other two Destroyers went down after all. At least the gun could do its job, that they knew. Moira smirked just thinking about how the Imps were handling this. Their own weapon had been turned against them. If that didn't put a dent in Captain Malness' ego, nothing would. Except maybe getting incinerated by the Orbital Gun himself, of course.

---

Godzilla could see the little human ships in the distance, armed to the teeth with heavy weapons. They looked nothing like the ships from home, in fact he wasn't sure most of them were even touching the water. It didn't matter, they had to be taken care of if he was to press on. There was still much to do on this new world and he could not be hindered.

As he watched the ships move about the waters, he thought back to Earth, back to the humans who had sent him here. They had gathered a fleet unlike any seen before, mustering all their weaponry together out of spite. Then they sent that crude mechanical visage of himself out to attack him. He had encountered that robotic mockery several times, mostly during his attacks on the mainland. That thing had prevented him a number of times from enacting his vengeance and had done so against others of his kind. That day was different though, they had it come after him.

Before he had amused his double, holding back as he refused to treat him as a foe worthy of his full power. Sometimes he retreated, tiring of the fight. Other times he managed to beat the machine with a fraction of his power, he took pleasure in that. But openly attacking him, on his territory? That was the final straw. He was done playing with the oversized toy. When Godzilla was done, his double wasn't just defeated, it was broken, torn apart, scrap.

The humans always sought to use their technology in such a manner, to prove their superiority and flaunt their arrogance. They made his double in attempt to do just that, to show that they were stronger than him, that their machines and weapons could triumph over him and the rest of his kind. They thought themselves so clever for being able to create such things, their tanks, their planes, their ships. All tools of war they used against him and each other whenever the mood struck them. They never thought about the consequences, only in their own selfish need for power, not understanding what it really meant.

The weapon that had sent him here was built with that in mind, another attempt to kill him. He had felt its power as they activated it, more than even the weapon they had used so many years ago. Just as that one, they had made this weapon without thinking, playing at God like they always did. All because they needed to get rid of him, because they couldn't accept his existence, they never had. It reminded them perhaps, of their own sins maybe. So they put faith in a giant gun to end it for them, to make their sin go away, as if it would wipe their hands clean.

It had failed of course, merely transplanting his vengeance to another world. Although this planet did have advantages. The power he absorbed from the reactor, had rejuvenated him, made him even stronger. He could feel it even now, coursing through his body. He wondered if that had changed anything, he had never soaked up so much radiation before. Not since that day long ago at least, and even that paled in comparison. In fact, he could sense even greater power, resonating over him and around him. He could feel it there, but it was strangely faint and he didn't know why. With no way to know where the power was, he could not siphon it. Perhaps in time, he would learn the source.

Still, the new planet was crawling with another set of humans, as depraved and guilty as any he had fought before. These white-clad soldiers, they placed their faith in their technology, used it to cement power for themselves. He knew they were just as destructive, selfish and arrogant as those who had sent him here. It was just their nature, as it was his nature to reveal their folly unto them. The humans from home hadn't be able to confine him like the others and neither would these humans. He would not yield in his mission, they would.

That was not an excuse to act blindly though. His rage against the double and the ships waiting for him had kept him from thinking clearly. He should've been able to destroy their weapon before it activated, probably taken it out first if he hadn't been so focused on the ships. This time he would not be so distracted. Within his lookout among the rocks, he decided upon a course of action, one that would show the white-clad army how small they truly were yet again. He'd obliterate their fleet of hovering ships and move onto the city they were guarding on the island.

Different planet, different day, same old story. It was the nature of things, as it should be.

---

Kamo watched the battlegroup from high above in their fake building, waiting for word of Alpha Predator One's approach. The probes had last seen him in this area on track for the island and the mockup city. He had to be close.

"Maybe he's afraid of water," Arch suggested.

"I doubt that thing is afraid of anything," Kamo responded with a huff.

"Yeah, we aren't that lucky," Arch admitted.

Outside of the monster, Kamo's mind couldn't help but think of the mockup building they were inside. It made no sense, why build a training ground this big? What were they setting up here? He imagined it had something to do with that big science facility on the other side of the planet. It wasn't his place to question, but he couldn't help wondering. Maybe it was just more of the disparate thoughts swimming around in his head, the ones he had since the other night about that shadow on the airfield. He kept trying to push them down, but that creature kept dragging them up every time he looked in his direction. Kamo just couldn't shake fact that what he saw wasn't a coincidence, not with that thing stomping around.

Maybe once this thing was dead, once this lizard was no longer giving accusatory glares, he could figure things out. That is if they could kill this thing. He had to trust that this trap they were setting up for it would be good enough to pull that off. Kamo however was wondering if they really understood what they were up against here. He didn't want to sound insubordinate, but sometimes he wondered if he could really trust all of command's decisions. Agiri was just one example of a long list of people who had treated him poorly.

All those comments he had made, those vicious put downs, calling him a lab experiment, he had heard them all before. It was why he had never gotten very angry with Agiri, he was nothing new. As soon as the advanced aging kicked in, the Empire he fought to bring about forgot about him. They didn't care, he wasn't needed, end of story. Everything he had done didn't matter, he was just some test tube human grown in a vat now, not a soldier. The war he'd been built for was over and so was he. He wondered if anyone in the higher ups even cared.

After all he had done, what he had seen, what he sacrificed for them and they just forgot about him. That wasn't what they promised when the Empire was still the Republic. He took it on the chin though, just let it slide. Mostly because he was still allowed to be the military despite being declared a relic. Now though, the anger was cropping back up. That shadow kept nagging on his mind and it kept making him think more about what he had done, the greatest sacrifice he had ever made for the Empire. For a long time he just wanted to forget it, but now things had changed. He kept thinking about how he had felt nothing and said nothing in the temple, how it hadn't hit him until later. And it was bringing up a few questions he had no answers to, much like this mockup town.

Like he said, he didn't believe it was a coincidence that Alpha Predator One had appeared at the same time as that shadow. At the same time these questions cropped up. And those eyes just kept looking at him with the same accusatory glare, that angry, vicious, soul-burning stare. He knew there was something behind those eyes, something more than a bloodthirsty animal. He wanted something, but Kamo didn't know what and the not knowing frightened him even more.

"Hey," Devo spoke up suddenly, breaking Kamo out of his thoughts. "Something is out on the water."

Devo passed his macrobinoculars to Kamo and the clone trooper looked out past the battle fleet. He saw something barreling through the water beneath the waves. It was heading straight for the ships.

"He's here," Kamo glowered, his eyes narrowing.

---

The wake in the water grew larger with each passing second. As it neared the fleet, gunners lined up their weapons with the wake, knowing the enemy they had been waiting for was closing in. None of them had faced the monster before, but they had heard plenty of stories about its rampage. For this reason, none of them broke eye contact with the wake for even an instant.

The waves soon crested to their peak and a series of dorsal spines poked out of the water. The jagged fins cut through the sea, heading straight for the ships. One of the Advanced Scout Captains shouted to his gunners as the spines approached.

"Brace yourselves! He's closing in!"

No one dared fire though, not until they were sure they had a clear shot. Their briefing warned them that going for the body was useless, they needed to hit the head or nothing at this point. They all got ready for impact instead, expecting the monster to ram them with his spines. Ships moved further back or attempted to get out of the way. Then, the spines just stopped, mere meters away from the ships at the edge of the battlegroup. The Imperials aboard were stunned, confused as to why the monster had stopped so short. By the time they looked to their sonar screens for an answer, the monster gave it to them.

The spines lifted up out of the water, revealing that they weren't on the creature's back but his tail. Alpha Predator One was under them at this very moment and he was starting to surface. As the water lurched upwards from the monster's approach, ships were pushed aside in the surf. The lucky ones just smashed into each other as they were tossed around in the waves. The unlucky ones were those closer to the epicenter.

The Monster's head was rising snout first, jaws wide open. It's maw ejected out of the deep and crunched down on a Heavy Missile Destroyer in the middle of the battlegroup. As it snapped apart in his teeth, the monster crashed his head into another of the Missile Destroyers beside him. He headed back under, but only briefly, before violently exploding once more from the deep and bitting the tip of the bow and holding it in his mouth.

Then, with the ship still entrapped in his jaws, he rose up out of the water. His dorsal spines impaled or caught many of the small ships nearby. They fired their weapons at him, the Heavy Destroyers blasting away like mad, but it did little to hurt Alpha Predator One. He shook the captured ships off his back and let them crash back down into the water from high above.

Now standing on the sea floor, the water surrounding the monster looked more like a shallow pool than a deep body of water. He dropped the Missile Destroyer in his jaws down onto a pair of Heavy Destroyers below, crushing all three ships in a mess of mangled metal. He then roared at the small ships below and they responded by firing everything they had left at him.

Heavy Destroyers circled around, firing their pummels into the monster's lower arms. It did little to force the beast back down into the surf. The Advanced Scout ships were practically useless, their weapons unable to even phase the lizard. The creature swished his tail across the water once, sending a minature tidal wave hurtling through the battlegroup. If the giant waves didn't capsize the ships, the tail smashed them apart.

The Missile Destroyers were more effective, managing to get their projectiles to strike the monster in the face. The initial attack had destroyed most of them, but there were still enough to force the creature to take notice. The reptile reached down and grabbed the launcher off of one of the Destroyers, ripping it from the ship itself. He then tossed it down, missiles and all, towards the ships below. The explosion ripped apart a Missile Destroyer, sending debris flying every where as the rest of its forward magazine erupted.

The Lizard continued to devastate the small fleet, smashing his great fist down onto ships or splitting them in two with a thwack of his tail. The monster's spines then began to glow bright blue before it fired a blazing beam of energy that ripped through several of the ships still in front of him.

Out of direct line of sight from, Captain Slaan kept watch on the battle through the images a probe droid was feeding him. He hadn't expected the monster to surface inside the battlegroup, an error on his part he admitted. He'd have to push up his time table or risk losing the entire battlegroup.

"Submarine crews, move into position along the perimeter of the battlegroup," he ordered through the comm. "Fire at the creatures legs from below the surface, try to get him to drop back down into the surf. We need to buy some time to get into firing range."

Submarines sped through the deep from around one side of the island towards Alpha Predator One. As they got into range, their sonar picked the monster. They readied torpedo tubes as they approached, taking aim near the creature's joints.

"Fire all tubes at once and reload," the lead sub pilot told the others. "When he sticks his head down, we're gonna fire another volley down his gullet."

When they closed within range, the subs fired torpedos. They ejected out of the launch bays and rushed through the water towards the monster's leg. When they collided with the beast's scales, the blasts sent up plumes of water into the sky. Alpha Predator One roared aloud in anger and just as quickly ducked his head below the waves. The sub pilots looked on in horror as the beast's yellow eyes narrowed on them.

"Fire! Quick, everyone, fire!"

Fresh torpedos rushed out at the monster, intending to strike him in the face. Instead, the monster slammed his claws into the sea bed and churned up a screen of stone and rocks. Most of the torpedos crashed harmlessly into the torn up sea floor, what did hit the giant lizard was inconsequential. The sub pilots kept trying to see behind the dust and boulders, but couldn't.

"Where's the target?" One asked. "Anyone got a visual?"

They got said visual moments later, when the beast swam through the torn up sea floor right at them. The lead sub pilot's eyes went wide behind his visor.

"Surface! Surface! All subs surface!"

The subs tried to flee from the monster's underwater charge, racing towards the surface or moving out of the creature's were lucky, others were not. The subs that weren't fast enough found themselves run down by the lizard's furious swimming, crushed against his girth or sliced open by his dorsal fins.

The subs rushed to the surface and high-tailed it towards the battlegroup. As they did so, the monster breached the surface himself and began chasing after the subs. At least he wasn't in the middle of the battlegroup anymore, so they could more effectively unleash their fire power on the reptile as he waded through the water. The subs could do the same, as the monster chased them, they switched their weapons to the anti-air missile launchers.

"Fire everything, boys, keep him back!"

Missiles swarmed out of the subs' launchers, cascading down onto the monster in rapid succession. Hitting him mostly in the eyes, it forced the monster to slow. However, it didn't need to catch up with them to hurt them. Keeping its mouth closed, the beast charged his energy beam up before opening his mouth and delivering a powerful blast. The beam cut through the water in front of the Subs, cutting them off from the safety of the battlegroup. The monster kept firing, boiling the water with his breath, aiming it further back towards the subs.

"Dive! Dive!" The lead pilot ordered.

The subs did so, although too late for at least five of them. The beam destroyed them before they could get too deep. The angry lizard refused to let up though, burning the sea red with fiery breath. When suddenly, something slammed into his face and exploded, halting his beam attack. The monster shut his mouth instantly, not wanting to leave himself exposed. The remaining ships' crews looked back to see a large vessel moving through the waves.

"It's the Captain," shouted one of the Missile Destroyer crewmen. "Thank the Emperor."

Captain Slaan's vessel was no ordinary ship. It was a retrofitted old battleship, armed with three missile launchers and six mass driver guns, each attached in pairs to three turrets. The battleship coasted along repulsorlifts with three hydrofoil skiffs helping it to coast through the waters. It had a pointed bow and a large Conning Tower near the stern. Standing near the controls of the battleship was Slaan himself, giving the monster his own menacing glare.

"I knew this captured Trade Federation Advanced Battleship would see its day eventually," he stated. "Never thought it would be like this, but beggars can't be choosers. We've spent over sixteen years upgrading this old girl, time to show this lizard what it can do! Send the Vultures out first, distract him, then open up with every gun on deck!"

A compartment in the middle of the battleship opened wide, racing out of it were several old Trade Federation Vulture Droid Fighters. These little two pronged fighters had once been the servants of the Separatists, but now they only answered to Slaan and the battleship's control node. The flying robots fired on the monster's face, going for the eyes and throat. The beast tried to swat them out of the air as they approached, but it was like trying to swat flies.

As the monster tried to fend off the annoying pests, he was hit with more rockets and mass driver shots. They hit the monster hard, striking him all along the upper torso and face. Slaan looked on relatively pleased, but he remembered the mission. He wasn't about to risk his men trying to kill this beast, only antagonize it.

"Alright battlegroup, pull back to the Northwest and let this bastard chase us," he ordered. "Keep firing and keep him preoccupied. Do not let him disengage."

The battlegroup's remaining ships turned hard back around, trying to join Slaan's battleship as they retreated. They fired on the monster as they did so, refusing to let up their barrage. The monster roared after them, absorbing their shots. When suddenly, it started to drop towards the water. It was diving again. The subs spotted him swimming for them soon after, following Slaan's orders, they fired some torpedoes and turned to flee. The beast fired an energy blast from his mouth in return, obliterating the projectiles, tearing through the subs and then exploding out of the water to decimate another Heavy Missile Destroyer.

The monster's dorsal fins breached the surface again, cutting through the waves as it closed on the battlegroup. The ships fired on the spines, to little avail. Those that could not get out of the way were cut in two by the spines. A large hand shot out of the water suddenly and grabbed onto a Heavy Destroyer, pulling it under. The monster's fins then cut through the rest of the battlegroup in his way and the titanic reptile pulled himself out of the deep once more. He stared down at the battleship below.

"Open fire! All Mass Drivers! All Missiles!" Slaan ordered his crew. "Get him away from what's left of our ships!"

Even as attacks hit the reptile hard, the monster just roared at the vessel and slung his arm towards it. He released the Heavy Destroyer he had grabbed before and like a large flying disk, sent it hurtling towards the batteship. It crashed into the deck, destroying two of the mass driver turrets before it careened off the port side.

The droid fighters raced after the creature. They began firing at the back of the monster's head, raking him with laser bolts, trying to get him to disengage from the battleship. The monster just turned towards them. He then reached down and pulled a Missile Destroyer from the waves. He tossed the giant ship towards the fighters, charging up his beam as he did. When the destroyer was in the middle of the fighters he fired, letting the explosion of the ship's armaments destroy the droids in a massive fireball.

The creature then raised its tail and let its tip crash down onto the battleship itself. The swipe destroyed one of the hydrofoils, snapping it off like a twig. The ship began to list, but it didn't stop shooting. Blasts cascaded along the lizard's back, forcing him to turn back all the way around. He waded through the water towards the now crippled ship, his snarl clearly visible to Slaan. His men kept firing, but the beast didn't stop approaching. Damaged as they were, they couldn't turn the ship around and start running. They were taking on water fast and their weapons were down to near half strength.

Slaan picked up the comm.

"Land team, sorry to say we blew it," he stated as he watched a missile cruise into the beast's face, the monster barely even flinching. "It's up to you now. Remember, get him to head Northwest, get him on the path to the trap."

The massive reptilian raised both his fists above him as he approached the battleship, still firing defiantly.

"At least my boys finally got their day," Slaan declared. "Good luck, Troopers. For the Emp-"

The monster's fists crashed down on the ship, breaking it in two.

---

Kamo had watched the whole fight unfold in disbelief. The Maritime Division had given it all they had, but it wasn't enough to hold Alpha Predator One back long enough for the plan to be completed. The monster roared proudly as it raised the tattered remains of Slaan's Battleship over his head and tossed it away like garbage nose first into the water.

The monster then submerged back into the water and continued swimming, more than likely towards the island. Kamo looked to Devo and Arch, who appeared just as concerned as he was.

"Alright, down to us then," the Clone said grimly. "No pressure."

"Just get ready to blow the explosives when he gets near," Devo informed him. "Let's not be heroes here, people. We just need to get him to divert to the Northwest, not stop him."

"No argument here," Arch agreed.

Suddenly they heard something approaching the island fast, they looked out and saw a rising tide moving towards them. A tsunami, headed right for their fake little town. The buildings could probably hold out against it, but the Troopers on the streets below wouldn't.

"Everyone," Devo shouted through the radio. "Get inside! Now!"

The wave hit the shore and kept traveling towards the fake city, engulfing the beach, the trees and then hitting the streets hard. Kamo watched as Troopers ran for cover inside the buildings, trying to outrun the incoming tidal shift. Some made it inside, but there were a few squads who hadn't. The wall of water crushed any who weren't fast enough to get inside, taking them along for the ride. The mock city streets were suddenly a small series of rivers, with dead or drowning Stormtroopers floating in it.

That was when the monster made landfall, announcing his presence to all as he stomped onto the wet sandy beach. He footsteps shook the earth even more than the tsunami, stomping towards their position. Kamo readied his missile launcher.

"Alright," he said. "Come and get us then."

---

Rebels fighters and TIEs engaged each other in a furious dance of laser fire. TIEs soon started pulling back, attempting to get back to the Star Destroyers to protect them. However, they took a bit of a toll on the Rebel Fighters, blasting a number of them out of the sky before they pulled back. Moira watched as many of their fellow pilots were blown out of the starry skies, the Imps racing through their debris fields. Imperial Pilots didn't always have the best fighters, but they did have professional training or at least good enough to be a threat.

Moira chased after the fleeing TIEs with her crew, refusing to give them a moment's rest. One of them was particularly hard to pin down, as he kept swerving away from her shots. Frustrated, she called in for some help from her team.

"Ro, slice pattern on my target," she ordered. "We need to cut off his escape routes."

"I see him, Moira," Ro assured her. "Coming in on your left."

Ro's ARC-170 raced down from the clouds, firing a blaze of lasers along the TIE's path. The Imp quickly turned to avoid the incoming shots, heading into Moira's crosshairs. As she managed to wing the Imperial, he turned again, but Ro had already settled into a firing position and opened up once more. For the next few seconds, Moira and Ro crisscrossed one another's path, keeping fire on the fleeing TIE. The Imp was quickly boxed in, with nowhere to go. If he tried to go down, Ro followed. If he went up, Moira followed. With two enemies on his tail, firing every which way he turned the Imp couldn't get away. It wasn't long before Moira managed to deliver a furious barrage of laser bolts straight to the TIE's backside.

As the TIE's remaining tumbled through the black void, a large blazing beam shot up from the planet below. The Orbital Gun had recharged and it's second shot of the battle sliced clean through the crippled Star Destroyer's Engines and came out beneath the Conning Tower. The Imperial Spaceship erupted in a massive explosion and began to break up. Finally, the first Imperial Ship was out of the game. Now they could turn attention to the second Star Destroyer on the opposite side of the combat zone.

"Alright, they're gonna be ready for us," Moira warned. "What's our casualties so far?"

"So far, sixteen fighters among our own Raiders," Gorossk cautioned. "Fulcrum's people have lost a whole squadron already."

"Damn, at this rate we'll be down a quarter of our strength by the time we get the next Destroyer," Moira grunted. "And you just know Malness has already called for reinforcements. We need to speed this up or we'll be overrun. I'm calling Fulcrum."

Moira switched comm channels, contacting the main assault command ship where Ahsoka was no doubt watching the battle unfold.

"Fulcrum, I think we need to switch up the plan a bit here," Moira told her. "You got some ideas?"

"I do," the Togruta assured. "We need to keep the Empire guessing, split their fighters up. I'm sending half our forces towards the Otachi and the other half to the Destroyer beside it. We can't let them figure out which one we're going to target first."

"You think the Imps have figured out how exactly they're being targeted?" Moira asked.

That was when Jetty got on the line.

"We've picked up a communication sent from the first Star Destroyer to the Otachi just before they got blasted into oblivion ma'am," the droid informed her. "They said they had detected an unauthorized transmission coming from outside on their hull. They got cut off before they could say more, but they probably know what we're doing by now."

"Then we gotta work fast and make sure the next shot from the Orbital Gun is a kill," Moira declared, before she opened the comm to the rest of her fighters. "All Raiders, reform up on me. We're going to hit that second Star Destroyer. Keep Anglyph's bombers covered on our approach, we'll need them to bust through the shield."

Gorossk and Ro soon joined Moira as she positioned herself over Anglyph's bomber wing. The other Raiders got into attack formation as well and followed Moira towards their new target. The Star Destroyer opened up with its turbolasers as they approached. At their current distance it was still sporadic and not terribly accurate, but that would change the closer they got. The anti-air fire was there for one purpose at this point, so that the Raiders wouldn't have their full range of maneuverability and the TIEs would have a better shot at bringing them down.

The Imperial Fighters swooped in on the approaching Raiders, taking three down on their approach. Moira cursed aloud as she watched some of her boy get blown out of the sky. She got on the comm and quickly issued new orders.

"Don't bunch up people, spread out, be evasive, but stay on target," she commanded. "We're almost in range."

Moira fired back on some of the approaching TIEs heading towards her. Laser fire streamed between her ship and the Imps, criss-crossing through the void. She made sure to roll her craft, doing her best not to present a stable target while remaining on course. She managed to blow away two of her attackers, only taking minor damage to her shields.

As they got closer to the Destroyer though, Moira realized that splitting their forces wouldn't be enough. They had the top deck too well covered with fighter escort and their anti-air was blanketing key sections of their approach. It was time to switch tactics again.

"Raiders, break up in twos, half and half," she ordered. "Some wings go to port, others starboard side. We'll converge on the Conning Tower near the back. Avoid the flight deck, we need to split their gunners up. I got Starboard. Gorossk, you're with me. Anglyph, have your bombers follow us in. Ro, lead the Port side attack. Go!"

The formation split in two, each new flight of several squadrons heading towards separate sides of the Star Destroyer. Moira's plan was simple, hit both Shield generators at the same time from two different angles. The fighters and gunners would have to split their focus to interrupt both incoming angles. That would give them a better shot at taking the generators down.

As they eased into their attack run, circling around the Star Destroyer, a number of Advanced TIEs barreled in from the right. Moira could spot them on her sensors and locked eyes with them.

"Stick with the bombers people," she ordered. "Do not let them draw us away. We have to stay on target, no matter what."

That didn't mean they wouldn't engage, Moira was already angling towards an intercept pattern for the TIEs, as was Gorossk. She made sure it wouldn't deviate from her flight pattern though, it was key that they all remain on target. She fired along their approach vector when they got into range, Gorossk did the same. The TIEs took evasive action, breaking off their attack. Gorossk kept after his TIE, however, managing to hit it several times in the wing. The shots caused the TIE to catch fire sending it hurtling out of control for a moment or two before it exploded. Gorossk hissed a laugh, and quickly returned to formation.

"Sorry yours got away, boss," he apologized to Moira.

"Plenty to choose from, Gorossk," she assured him. "Now focus, we need to get to the generator. Anglyph, form your wings up for an attack run on the target. All wings, cover their vector!"

Anglyph's Y-Wing moved into position, aiming for the shield generator. The rest of his wing followed, switching to torpedoes as they approached. Moira and Gorossk put up a screen of fire, doing their best to keep TIEs off them.

However, even with a wall of lasers covering them, some of the Imps managed to get fighters sped through the screen as it claimed one of their wingmen, racing towards the bombers. Green lasers caught Anglyph's ship and he looked up in anger before turning to Baraz to complain. The Jawa growled back and turned his turret to the sky. Red filled the void as Baraz fired off as many shots as he could at the approaching TIEs. He managed to score two shots that slammed into the cockpit of the Imp fighter. The resulting explosion tore it apart.

The second TIE moved to the side, but Baraz followed him, chattering away as he did. Anglyph didn't appreciate it, but he just kept his focus on the generator. Baraz managed to clip the TIE once, but it wasn't enough to put it down. The TIE came back again at full throttle. Baraz steeled his gaze and let loose a blaze of red laser bolts intended to go right down the Imp's throat. The shots hit the TIE in the wing, interrupting his approach vector and rolled off to the left. Baraz tracked him, heading the TIE off as it turned. His bolts managed to strike the Imp in the top of his cockpit, ripping it clean open. The resulting explosion made the Jawa laugh uproariously, which in turn made Anglyph grab at the sides of his head.

The Itohrian did his best to ignore Baraz's self-congratulatory victory screech and activate the targeting computer. He was now in spitting distance of the generator and intended to make his shots count. Once the lock was established he called out to the other bombers to launch their tubes. The generator took three hits and erupted in a fireball.

"Bank right, bank right!" Moira ordered. "Get behind the Destroyer!"

The whole flight moved right, moving to the stern of the starship. Ro's flight joined soon after, Moira looked back towards the Destroyer and saw that both of its generators were gone. They had gotten the shields down, but that didn't make their job any easier.

"Status on the flight deck, Ro?" She asked.

"Imps are prepping for us to target the bridge, same as last time," Ro'Das warned. "We move in that way, we're dead."

Not an option, but it didn't matter. Moira had already ruled out the frontal attack. She considered attacking the stern, but hitting the engines wasn't a guarantee of a kill. With the longer wait time between gun shots, they needed to make the first blast count.

"Then we switch up the game plan," Moira informed her squadron. "Our friends below need a kill shot anyway. Only way we're getting that is if we give them a critical point to target. We need to head below, get a tracker stuck on the middle of the ship."

"Get under the prey and strike the soft underbelly," Gorossk hissed happily. "I like it, boss. Lets do it!"

"Anglyph, take the bombers back towards the combat zone, I'll send most of the squadrons with you as cover," Moira ordered. "Pretend you're getting ready for an attack run. Ro, Gorossk and me will go under the Destroyer while they're worried about you. Then we stick'em!"

The formation broke up as they headed back to the Star Destroyer. The bombers headed off in one direction and Moira's squadron headed below. While not as well protected as topside, the bottom hull wasn't unguarded. Turrets below opened fire, raking bolts across their approach. The ARC-170s pulled evasive, dodging the incoming shots. Moira, being the lead, got the worst of it, her shields barely holding up against the barrage.

"Gorossk, Ro, get these gunners off of me!" She shouted through the comm.

Ro and Gorrosk moved into position, firing on the turbolaser turrets above them. As the guns vanished in fiery explosions, Moira kept racing towards the middle of the Star Destroyer. She was almost there when she started taking fire from behind. She turned her head to see an Advanced TIE chasing her.

"Oh, I almost forgot about you," she grumbled, thinking this was the same one she had lost before.

She kept moving her fighter about, refusing to give the Imp a decent target. Problem was with all the running around she couldn't concentrate on her real mission. She saw she was coming up on the hangar and that a number of TIEs were currently flying out of it, heading straight for her.

"And now we have late comers to the part, yay!" She growled sardonically, suddenly though her mind's gears started working overtime and she hit upon an idea "Alright, their funeral then. Along with everyone else on that Star Destroyer."

She pulled up, heading towards the hangar which was more than likely unshielded while the TIEs were heading out. She opened up on the TIEs coming for her, firing into one and ripping his wings off. She dodged the other one and hoped it would crash into her pursuer. No such luck, as the Advanced TIE moved out of his comrade's way and kept after Moira.

"I think I've already mentioned today that I really hate Imps with a concept of focus," she grumbled.

She blasted up into the hangar, the Advanced TIE still chasing her. Moira circled her ARC-170 around the hangar bay, coming back around towards the Imp fighter. It started laying down laser bolts as it spun, firing blasts as it targeted the Raider leader, but Moira got her crosshairs on him first.

"Stuff this up your exhaust port, Imp!" Moira taunted as she flicked up a switch on her joystick and fired a heat seeker missile.

The projectile shot across the hangar bay and collided with the TIE as it tried to run away. Moira grinned and then set about her real task. She pointed her nose up to the ceiling and fired a tracker at it. One problem solved, now she just needed to get out of here.

"Hey, Fulcrum, I got them tagged," she said. "Can you give me like three minutes to get out of here?"

"Get out?" Ahsoka asked in return, confused by the request. "Where are you?"

Moira looked down as she turned her ship around and saw several Stormtroopers running onto the deck. They were all pointing their blasters right p at her.

"Middle of a Fire Wasp nest," she replied. "I'll get back to ya."

The laser bolts started firing, as the Stormtroopers started shooting up at her. Moira boosted away, avoiding the incoming fire and then turned back around. She let loose with a volley of laser bolts, blowing away the troopers with relative ease. She didn't stop shooting, she needed to cut the power to the hangar's security shield. She found it just a few feet up the wall. She zeroed in on it and fired on it with another missile. The blast took out the power to the security shield, giving her a way out. Moira pulled the fighter into a dive and ducked out the ship. As she met open space, she kicked in the afterburners and boosted away from the Star Destroyer.

"Everyone, get clear! Now!"

The fighters pulled away and not two seconds before they got to a safe distance did a huge red beam crash into the underside of the Star Destroyer. A fireball exploded out through the center of the ship, tearing the ship in two. The Conning Tower crumbled apart, pieces of the hull broke free and the bow of the ship dipped down towards the planet below. As the starship burned, Moira's squadron formed back up.

"Two down," Gorossk stated aloud.

"No time for pats on the back, boys," Moira informed him. "We've still got to deal with the the Otachi and Captain Malness. Who is probably screaming up a storm right now. Form up on my wing, let's finish this!"

---

Alpha Predator One smashed into the mock city, crushing one of the buildings with a swipe of his arm. He seemed confused at first at how easy the building crumbled, but he kept on marching through the streets undeterred. Kamo wasn't frightened off either, he took aim with his missile launcher and fired. The blast struck the beast in the eye, along with several other projectiles. The creature was visibly shaken, but unsure of which way to direct his wrath. Devo's strategy was working, don't give the monster one place to focus his rage on.

"Good, now we lead him towards the first explosive charge," Devo ordered. "I'll have teams one through four lead him over. We trigger the bombs, collapse the fake building on him and reposition for the next charge. Rinse and repeat until we got him headed Northwest."

"Yeah, easy enough," Arch chuckled nervously. "So long as we don't get pancaked in the process."

Alpha Predator One approached the first checkpoint, taking sporadic fire from the general direction of the rigged building. Per Devo's orders, the Stormtroopers began to pull back from the structure. The shooting didn't stop though, it just wasn't as extensive. That was because the shots were coming from automated turbolasers installed on the buildings. Kamo imagined they were for whatever training exercise was supposed to be run here, now their mission was to lead the monster where they wanted him to go.

The turbolasers irritated the giant lizard, enough to make him stomp over to the building they were located in. He tore his massive hand into the side of the structure, ripping out one of the turret and crushing it. Devo turned to Kamo and gave a nod. Without hesitation, the old clone pressed the detonation trigger on his wrist.

A fireball erupted from the bottom of the building and began to creep up the structure. Blasts exploded out the top floors, striking the monster in the face. The lizard stumbled backwards from the force of the shock and flames, piercing at his eyes. Before he could turn back, the building began to tumble on top of the beast. It wasn't going to hurt him much, it being just a mockup of a real building, but there was still a lot of smoke and debris from the collapse. When it was over, the monstrous reptile was still standing, covered in dust and not looking at all pleased. Roaring in anger, the lizard titan began crashing through the fake city in the direction the building had toppled onto him from.

"All Stormtroopers, converge on the second building," Devo ordered. "Open fire on Alpha Predator One when you're in position and be ready to move on my go."

Kamo could only watch as the monster pulverized his way through the fake city, crashing through the hastily put together towers with surprising speed. Only the missile strikes of the Stormtroopers' launchers managed to bring his attention on to the next rigged building. That was the good news, the bad news was that Alpha Predator One was in more of a hurry this. The monster quickly moved to engage, charging head long at the structure much faster than Devo would've liked.

"Everyone out of there! Move!" He ordered over the comm. "Get away from the target building!"

The Stormtroopers fled the structure as fast as they could, running into transports parked nearby. The drivers floored the vehicles' accelerators, tearing away from the blast zone as fast as they could. However, not all the Troopers were fast enough. The monster was soon upon them and in a rage crashed his foot through the wall of the building. The stomp crashed down on the explosives, detonating them and killing any Stormtroopers still inside. The resulting fireball shot out of the structure and up the beast's leg, flames licking at his grey scales.

The shockwave did more damage though, as the force of it knocked the giant lizard right into an adjacent building. He crashed down onto his knee among the broken bits of metal and stone that made up the mock tower. The massive reptile stood up soon after though, bellowing at the sky. He turned back towards the shattered remains of the exploded building and used his tail to crush the south wall. He then began clawing at the remains, roaring as he did.

"I know this is stating the obvious at this point," Arch spoke up. "But that thing has a major anger management problem."

"At least we're putting it to use for us for a change," Kamo reminded him. "One more building to go and he'll be in range for the final phase."

Kamo fired his launcher at the beast, aiming for the eye. They needed him to get back on course, not taking out his aggression on a devastated building. The Kamo's missile was followed by several others from the surrounding structures in the mock city, other Stormtroopers who like the Clone Sergeant could see the end of the plan in sight. The grey lizard was soon roused back onto the warpath and he began making head way towards the final rigged building. At this point, he began firing off his energy breath at the buildings beneath him, setting them ablaze. Kamo imagined a few Troopers were caught in the blue beam of death, but there was nothing him or anyone else could do for them now. At least he hadn't fired at the target building, not yet anyway.

Then, almost as suddenly as he started attacking, Alpha Predator One stopped. The missiles and lasers kept hitting him, more exclusively from the final rigged structure. This time though, he paused, glaring at the building.

"What's going on?" Devo asked. "Why isn't he attacking?"

Kamo saw the beast's hesitation and came to a realization on his own. The lizard had discerned a pattern somehow, their pattern, and it was giving him reason to doubt his course of action. Something they could not afford.

"Crap, he knows what we're up to," the clone reasoned.

"Impossible," Devo retorted. "There's no way he's figured it out this quick. He can't be that smart, he just can't."

"All I know is we need to force him to keep moving," Kamo stated. "It's the only way he's going to get in range."

Devo nodded in agreement and quickly came up with a plan.

"Lieutenant Devo to ground units," he began to talk into his comm. "Concentrate your fire. Jumptrooper squads one and two, prepare to engage on-"

There was a sudden screech that sounded through the air, cutting off Devo's orders. It started out low but grew louder with every second. Then, without warning, several green laser blasts struck Alpha Predator One in the side of his face. He turned west, towards the direction of the attack, as did Kamo. Screaming through the skies came several flights of TIE fighters, racing to dive bomb and strafe the monster below. Kamo, Arch and Devo just stared on in disbelief.

"They're not part of the plan," Arch noted aloud. "Where did they come from?"

"Must be from one of the Star Destroyers in orbit," Kamo reasoned. "No way they're planetside. We don't have nearly that many left. What are they doing here?"

The TIEs screamed through the sky, buzzing about Alpha Predator One's head. He began stomping after the fighters, heading East, away from the target building. Devo balled his fists in anger and shouted at the skies.

"Those idiot fly boys are screwing up the whole plan!" He screamed. "They're leading him away!"

"Worse," Arch told him, watching as the creature's total size began to fill his field of vision. "They're leading him our way!"

The giant reptile roared as it chased after the fighters, firing its deadly energy breath after them. The monster's massive girth scraped against the side of their building, forcing them to pull back. Bits of the floor gave way beneath them as the monster's elbow carved out a small section of the tower. The creature continued to chase after the TIEs, seemingly forgetting about the building that had been shooting at him before. Everything was going wrong again, but Kamo wasn't about to let it all crash and burn just yet.

"We need to get him back on track," Kamo informed Devo. "Do we have any Jumptroopers nearby?"

"Right, they can circle him back around the building," Devo answered, seemingly reading the clone's mind. "Let me get them on the comm. You and Arch get higher up, I'll meet you there."

Kamo and Arch started making their way up the stairs to the higher floors above, listening to the chaos happening just outside all the while. The monster was still firing his energy breath into the clouds. Kamo just hoped he wouldn't start using his tail as a bug swatter and accidentally hit their building in the process. Stupid TIEs, where had they come from? Slaan didn't mention anything about them and they weren't the briefing datapad. Someone must've sent them here, probably someone who didn't really know the plan.

If they reacted fast enough, maybe they could mitigate the damage. However, when they got to the upper floors, Kamo wondered if they still had a chance. The giant lizard was already moving away from their building. The TIEs had settled into a pattern of circling the monster now in wide berths, so he wasn't getting any further away. They still weren't helping to get back on track though.

Finally, Kamo saw Devo's Jumptroopers rocketing from below towards the grey beast. They were armed with Arc Casters, the only weapon that bothered the monster more than the missiles. They closed to within range, firing beams of electricity at the lizard's throat. The creature pulled away from the assaulting TIEs and turned to the Jumptroopers, moving back towards their tower.

"Should I be happy about the fact he's coming back, or..." Arch wondered.

"Just hope he doesn't swish that tail our way," Kamo told him.

As the Jumptroopers led the giant reptile back around, Devo joined them up on the top floor. He hadn't gone with the squads, still recovering from his last encounter with the creature. He had learned from it though and told his men not to stick around too long. They were already headed around the tower towards the back of the structure. He bit, chomped and slashed at the retreating jumptroopers, but they were far smaller targets. Their attacks continued to annoy him however, to the point he charged up his breath attack. He was only a few feet away from the building. A blinding blue light filled their visors as the beam burst forth from the beast's mouth. When it subsided, Devo got on his comm.

"Team, report," he demanded. "What's your status?"

"We're okay, most of us anyway," a voice explained. "We dispersed when we saw him charging up. Barely got away."

"Get to the target building, we need to lure the lizard back there," Devo ordered.

By now the monster had gotten between their building and the target one. Jumptroopers from the target building were already in position, firing on the beast with their own Arc Casters. The streams of electrical current shot into the reptilian titan, causing it to twitch wildly. It's tail lashed out violently as it turned, striking the lower portion of the building they were still in. The floor beneath them violently shook.

"I think you just jinxed us, sir," Arch told Kamo nervously.

"Sorry about that, Arch," Kamo replied, trying to keep his balance.

The entire mockup tower began to tip diagonally towards the ground, away from Alpha Predator One. There was little time to act. The three of them ran up the slowly tipping building, trying to discern their best course of action.

"I don't think my pack can carry us all," Devo told them over the crumbling building.

"Take Arch!" Kamo told him, taking his rifle off his back. "I got my own way off."

He didn't tell them it was probably a really stupid exit strategy. Devo grabbed Arch and activated his pack, rocketing clean out of the tumbling tower. Kamo in the meantime made a running jump out the window, suicide in most cases, but in this case he had a very large, grey lizard to help him. Not willingly of course. His rifle had a grapple line loaded into the launch tube beneath it, like they had used back in the Clone Wars. With careful aim, Kamo fired the line at Alpha Predator One.

The line stuck into the monster's arm, digging deep beneath a scale. Holding on for dear life, Kamo tightened his grip on his rifle more than ever before. The monster swung his arm forward as he walked, dragging Kamo along for the ride.

"I really didn't think this through," Kamo shouted aloud as he was pulled along.

The cable held, but Kamo was swung higher than he anticipated. He got a real good look at the underside of the monster's jaw. Thankfully, he didn't have to worry about getting shot in the process, as Devo's orders kept shouting through the comm-link in his helmet.

"Don't fire! Sergeant Kamo is swinging on that thing! Do not fire!"

As Kamo swung back down he started heading towards the roof of another building. He waited until he was over it and let go of his rifle, letting the momentum of his swing carry him the rest of the way. He hit the roof hard, rolling several feet before finally coming to a stop just a few inches from the edge. He pulled himself up, panting as he did. Of all the crazy things he had done, that was in the top five somewhere.

"Never doing that again," he stated flatly to himself.

He lay there as the creature walked by the building, still on course for the target building. Kamo just used the moment, considering the enormity of the beast for once, not just its power. He wondered, how old was it exactly? How long had it been around? Probably longer than anyone alive today, that was for sure. It had been around that long and nothing had managed to kill it yet, despite all logic. Maybe that was one thing he had in common with this thing. They were both surviving somehow. At least, for the moment anyway. Although he doubted this lizard would ever have to worried about being forgotten. Kamo knew he never would.

Devo eventually found him, carrying Arch with him down to the roof. He waved them over, inviting them to take in the view a bit. Arch rushed over and helped the old clone to his feet.

"That was insane, sir," he said astonished. "I guess those old bounty hunter genes really are nothing to balk at."

"Kept me alive this long," Kamo joked. "Despite my best efforts."

The monster's roar halted the conversation as it lurched towards the final target building. Jumptroopers were already leaving the structure, rocketing away from the doomed mockup. As the monster reached the tower, but refrained from attacking it. Devo held up the detonator.

"One more firework to set off people," he said plainly. "No sense in wasting more time."

Pressing the button, the structure began to explode. Debris and fire jutted out, hitting the monster, but not nearly as badly as the other two times. If it had any suspicions, they had been proven correct. Not that it mattered though, for as the lizard began to move around the crumbling inferno, a different kind of fire started hitting him hard. Outside the fake city, on small strip of beach to the Northwest, several Self-Propelled Medium Artillery batteries opened fire. They hit the giant reptile with a massive amount of force, forcing his attention towards the Northwest. As he stomped towards his next target, Kamo turned to Devo.

"Final phase, sir," he said. "We almost have him."

"Now let's hope the real air support we actually obtained for this operation will do its job and not mess things up," Devo heatedly replied. "Which reminds me, as soon as this is done I'm contacting headquarters. Someone almost seriously screwed us here with those TIEs. I wanna know who."

Kamo agreed and he hoped the jerk got what was coming to him for it. Right now though, he just wanted just wanted to rest. Swinging from a giant lizard, old bounty hunter genes or not, tended to do that to ya. For the moment, he'd just sit back and watch the big grey reptile start walking towards their trap.

---

Moira found it odd that the TIE reinforcements were taking so damn long. The Imps should've had fresh pilots on top of them. Instead, they seemed to be steadily gaining the advantage, eating up the TIEs slowly but surely. She didn't know why they weren't getting more TIEs, but Moira wasn't complaining. She was Corellian after all, grabbing at unexpected opportunity no matter the risk was just in her blood. A slight sense of caution wouldn't change that.

"All wings, press the attack," she ordered. "Swarm the Conning Tower and take out those shield generators!"

The Raider ARC-170s began to buzz about the Star Destroyer's Conning Tower, firing on it and the shield generators. The remaining TIE escorts tried to counter, but their rapidly decreasing numbers weren't doing them any favors. Moira could spot Gorossk chasing after three of the Imps herself, his lasers slicing through the void and then through the TIEs one after the other. The Empire's pilots were still putting up a fight though, keeping what little screen they could muster around the Shield Generators.

Moira screeched into attack position, placing her crosshairs over the wing of fighters in her path. They opened fire immediately, forcing her to pivot and roll as she flew. They weren't going to let her get past them to take a shot on the generator. Moira had another trick up her sleeve though.

"I don't need to aim that much to take you Imps out," she sneered as she armed a new set of missiles.

Taking aim in the general direction of the TIEs and the generator behind them, Moira fired something she had been keeping in reserve. The swarm missiles shot out of its hardpoint. Shortly after, its warhead opened up and shot several dozen smaller missiles that started zigging and zagging through the air. The TIEs tried to break up their formation at the last second, two of their number being blown apart by the swarming miniature missiles. The rest of the projectiles screamed towards the generator. The majority of the swarmers smashed into it, causing the white orb to explode.

"One down," Moira snickered. "Baraz's swarmer worked like a charm. I bet Captain Malness is feeling the heat now."

"He'll be feeling a lot of it when the gun cuts through his precious ship," Gorossk added with a laughing hiss.

Suddenly the comm-line was interrupted with a terrible blast of static. When it cleared, the voice of Captain Malness filled every channel. He did not sound as afraid as Moira hoped he was though.

"The Otachi will not be another casualty of the gun you turned, Terrorists." he declared. "More importantly, your fleet will not reach the surface, I will make sure of that. No matter the cost."

At that moment, the Otachi's engines switched to full burn. The Star Destroyer rocketed out of position around Tsuburonda and towards the Rebel Fleet. Moira understood what he was doing. Since he was the only ship left, the only option he had left was to attack Ahsoka's ships directly. It was suicide, but he'd take a good chunk of the invasion fleet with him. On his present course, Malness was headed for an intercept with the Rebel Command Ship. He was going to cut off the head of the attack force. More importantly to Moira, he was going to decapitate their paycheck.

"Fulcrum, you got a problem," she warned through the comm. "The Otachi is headed straight for you!"

"I see him," Ahsoka assured her. "His shields may be damaged, but he's got enough firepower to rip half our transports to bits. None of our ships have the punch we need to stop him. We either take him out now or this invasion is over before it even starts. Can you slow him down?"

"We can hit the engines, sure," Moira admitted, steadying her nerves as she eyed the Star Destroyer. "But we need to take down the second generator to have a shot. Anglyph, have your bombers ready to hit the engine thrusters, I'm going after the generator. Everyone else, cover me."

Moira hit her afterburners and sped after the Otachi. TIE fighters were quick to rush into her path in an attempt to stop her. Turning into a hard roll, she pressed down hard on the trigger. Despite the g-forces pushing against her body, her ARC-170 was able to avoid the majority of the enemy fire and score a number of hits of its own. Lasers burned through TIEs as Moira rolled through the void and past the Imps. As she pulled out of the roll though, lasers lashed out from behind. She turned and saw another group of TIEs trailing after her.

"Ugh, sometimes I wish I had eyes in the back of my head," she grumbled as she turned her craft away from the incoming fire.

"Don't worry boss, I got'em," Gorossk's voiced chirped in her ear.

The Trandoshan pilot raced out of the black from above and fired on the flight of TIEs, ripping through four of them. The fifth however, managed to speed away from the attack and keep after Moira. He fired on her tail, hitting her a few times.

"Alright, Imp," Moira growled. "You want me so bad? Be careful what you wish for!"

When the TIE fired next, Moira dipped her ARC into a spinning dive. The TIE kept on flying, probably thinking he had just scored a kill. That was when Moira, fighting against the intense Gs of the dive, pulled herself out of the spin, turned the craft's nose back up and boosted high into the sky right for the TIE's underbelly. Lasers streaked through the black, ripping into the Imp's ship with ease. As he exploded, she rocketed through what was left of him and headed for the Star Destroyer. She came up on the Otachi's remaining generator and locked onto it with a missile.

"Say goodbye to your shields, Malness," Moira declared as she pressed down on the button.

The missile launched out of the ARC-170 and flew directly into the generator, blowing it to bits. As soon as it was down, Anglyph's bombers rocketed towards the engine thrusters. The Y-Wings used up the last of their proton torpedoes, firing them into every thruster on the Otachi's backside. Explosions tore through the thrusters, decreasing the Otachi's speed. Regardless of their success though, the Destroyer was already in range of the Rebel Fleet. It had begun firing on them, Ahsoka's command ship specifically. Heavy Cannon blasts ripped into the side of the Command Ship, devastating the shields.

"We're taking heavy fire," Ahsoka informed Moira. "I'm taking evasive action, but we need to end this now!"

"Anglyph, bombing run across the Destroyer's hull!" She ordered the Ithorian. "Take out the guns! I'm going for the bridge!"

The Y-Wings flew towards the starboard side of the Otachi and across her deck. They dropped their proton bombs as they did, destroying many of the deck guns and taking the pressure off of Ahsoka's ship. Fire started springing up across the deck, guns exploded and holes were torn into the hull. For all the devastation though, it was not fatal and the Otachi kept firing with what little it had left.

While the bombers burned the top of the Destroyer, Moira flew towards the bridge on an attack vector. As she targeted the bridge, she could see Captain Malness staring out of the window at the carnage through the magnified scope. She smiled slightly and readied a tracker for firing.

"I hope your people are ready to fire, Fulcrum," she said through the comm. "Because I'm about to give them a target vector for Malness himself."

She fired the tracker at the bridge, sticking it onto the window. Instantly she pulled away, along with most of the Rebel Fleet. They weren't about to stick around for the Orbital Gun's final shot. Just seconds after they were clear, the large red beam of the gun shot up from planetside. It sliced through the Engineering Deck and collided with Conning Tower. The bridge exploded in a fireball, taking Malness with it. The Otachi itself broke apart as its engines exploded next. When the destruction finally settled, Moira flew through the debris, waving her wings as she did.

"And that makes three!" She cheered. "Fulcrum, your people are free and clear for landing!"

"I read you," Ahsoka responded. "All transports, full speed ahead for Tsuburonda. We don't have much time before the Imperials close the hole we just made."

Every ship in the fleet made a beeline for the planet's surface, with every remaining fighter following after them. Moira's Raiders returned to their standard formation with each other. Gorossk and Ro took up positions on either side of Moira, with Anglyph's bombers flying below them.

"We really stuck it to the Empire today, huh Boss?" Gorossk asked.

"Job ain't over yet, Gorossk," she reminded him. "We still got a science facility to take out. And we won't have a big planetary gun on our side in that fight."

"Chances are once the Imps figure out what happened they'll set up a pretty big defense force at that facility," Ro warned. "I got a feeling this half of the mission was just the easy part."

Moira couldn't help but agree. They were only half done, no sense in celebrating yet. But they had just helped kill three Star Destroyers. For her, that was a victory in and of itself. So for the moment, she held a silent celebration for herself, waggling her wings just a bit more.

"Let's get groundside team," she stated. "I wanna meet this Hera person and her friends. We do owe them a lot for today."

"Yeah, they did get me quite a few assist kills, didn't they?" Gorossk agreed. "Might as well tally up the numbers with them. Only fair."

Moira sighed wistfully at the comment.

"Can put the Trandoshan into the pilot's seat, but can't take the Trandoshan out of the pilot" she laughed. "You never change, Gorossk."

"Never will, Boss," Gorossk added. "Never will."

---

Godzilla approached the beach as the artillery kept pounding him with fire. Their blasts struck all across his body, never letting up. He wondered what they hoped to accomplish for a brief moment. Then he just incinerated them. With one blast from his radioactive breath, the king of monsters set the artillery position ablaze with atomic fire. The guns melted under the heat, exploding one after the other as their power cores for their lasers ignited.

Godzilla roared aloud at the prospect of another victory. His cry was cut short when something from the sky hit him in the head. Laser blasts and bombers collided into the side of face. Growling in anger, he turned to the source of the attack. Several TIE Bombers and one ship that looked like a modified Imperial Attack shuttle. They kept firing at his head, one bomb striking him hard in the eye. In a rage, Godzilla fired off his breath again. This time though, it didn't connect. The flying machines broke away, heading Northwest, seemingly fleeing before his might.

As Godzilla watched them flee, however, he sensed something from the larger ship. Energy, power, strength, it resided within the craft. He didn't know exactly what was inside, but Godzilla knew he wanted it. After the reactor on this planet had reinvigorated him, it was clear this planet's energy was far greater than any source he had come across before. Even the smallest amount could give him the edge he needed in the coming battles. He knew there would be more now. These humans were remarkably tenacious and arrogant. They would not be defeated quickly, something he had come to expect at this point with all of their kind.

So he would follow this new craft, liberate the power it held within for himself and use it against the white-clad soldiers. They had insulted him by not offering a proper fight, fleeing like the cowards they were. That and they were already moving in the direction he was headed. Soon they would learn the folly of their abuse of the power they had achieved. As well as the consequences of insulting him with such a brazenly cowardly attack.

---

Alpha Predator One was now on the path for the Northwestern trap, stomping through the surf after the shuttle that had attacked him. The plan had worked. Kamo wanted to say he knew it would, but to be honest he was surprised that they had pulled it off. For once, something Command had thought up had worked in their favor.

"Guess he couldn't resist the radioactive waste the shuttle was loaded up with after all," Devo noted aloud. "The datapads said he had a taste for radiation. Guess it makes sense given what happened at the power station."

"Yeah, but now comes the hard part," Kamo reminded him. "He may be headed right for their trap, question is though if its enough to stop him for good."

"We're just going to have to catch a ride and find out for ourselves," Devo informed him. "I'll gather up my men and whatever survivors are left. See if you can wave down a transport for us that can get us to wherever we're leading the lizard to first."

Kamo nodded his head and set to work. The end felt like it was in sight for once. That this little war of theirs was almost over. With any luck, what happened next would be the final play.

---

Ahsoka's Command Ship now hovered above the orbital gun site. A shuttle took her down the rest of the way. Already, transports were landing in the fields beyond, unloading troops, vehicles, equipment and supplies for the coming raid. There was an impressive array of manpower and material pouring out onto the open terrain. The question now was if it would be enough.

When Ahsoka's shuttle landed, she was greeted by Hera and Kanan. She smiled as she approached them and for a moment thought she saw Kanan do the same. Maybe this victory had got his confidence in the plan back up again.

"Well, it was touch and go, but we've done it," Ahsoka told them. "We broke the blockade and landed on the planet with only minor casualties."

"Still a long way to go," Kanan reminded her. "Not to mention the Empire is going to know we're here sooner or later. That science facility is going to be locked down tight, especially with our big grey complication still running around."

"I'm sending a few of our fighter wings to recon the area," Ahsoka informed him. "We'll at least know what we're facing. Then we can adjust our plan accordingly."

As she spoke, a few of those very fighters flew over their heads. They rocketed through the air, heading straight for their intended target. They'd know pretty soon what the Empire had in store for them. Ahsoka knew Kanan still had a point though. The facility would be well guarded, especially with that monster on the loose.

However, said monster, gave her an idea of sorts.

"I need a place to meditate for a bit," Ahsoka said stoically. "There is much to think about before our raid can truly begin. Especially with all that has happened."

"You can use the Ghost," Hera offered. "Zeb, Chopper and Ezra are busy inside the complex, gathering up extra weapons or watching over the Imperials we captured when we took the gun. It's relatively quiet now."

"Sounds good to me," Ahsoka agreed. "Lead the way."

She followed Hera, a plan forming in her head as she did. It was probably a crazy one and it relied on gathering more information first. But considering everything they had already done at this point, it probably wasn't that crazy by comparison. At least she hoped it wasn't. In the back of her mind, she thought of Master Obi-Wan lecturing her about how she was taking too many cues from Anakin. Even further in the back of her mind, she hoped she wasn't taking too many herself. Not if they had anything to do with what she suspected about her former Master.

---

AN: This should've been up way sooner, but apparently laptops just don't want to work for me like they should. At this rate I may just give up and get a new one. Whatever, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Things are coming to a head now, as we'll see next time. For now, check out the profile for links for the behind the scenes stuff and do leave your feedback. It is most appreciated. So long for now.