When Taran sprang out of the portal, it closed shut behind him. He got onto his feet to see that he had landed on the bridge with the others, Bane and Dooku nowhere to be seen.
"So how was your trip?" said Rex.
"Oh, you know....painful," said Taran, still trying to recover from being wiped out of existence and going back through the time portal.
"Did you see Dooku or Bane," said Anakin.
"No sir, they never showed up here," said Cody. An incoming message from Wullfe stopped everything.
"Sir, we need you to get back to the ship now, the droid forces are threatening to overpower us," said Wullfe in the midst of explosions on the bridge.
"We'll be there shortly," said Obi-Wan. Turns off comlink. "We need to blow up the time machine now. Ripcord, where's the explosvies?"
Ripcord checked his pack, but there was nothing there. "Sir, I think they must have went through the time machine."
"I guess we're going to have to blow the ship up using our fighters and cruisers," said Obi-Wan. "Let's get back to the Twilight now." Everyone raced towards the ship, cautiously trying to avoid any droids in the area. Thankfully, the droids were too preoccupied with the battle to even notice them. Getting to the cockpit of the ship, Anakin and Obi-Wan steered the ship away from the battleship.
Going through the battle was like going into the middle of a fight with a Firbender, someone's always trying to blast you out of existence. Anakin steered the Twilight around and around all of the action, laser fire from flak and droid fighters coming their way. At one time they had a tri-fighter on their tail. It let loose it's guns on them and fired it's missiles. Anakin did every manuever he knew to get away from it all. The missile nearly would have struck the ship if another tri-fighter hadn't shown up in front of them. Anakin steered the ship down and the missiles locked on to the approaching tri-fighter and blew it into an oblivion.
"That was too close," said Anakin. Flipping on the Twilight's main thrusters he veered the ships out of the heavy action zones and steered towards the Resolute. Going through the hangar, while dodging any more fighters going into the fight, the Twilight landed in the hangar. Everyone disembarked to the hangar floor, where Wullfe was waiting for them.
"Sir, the Separatist's droid fighters are causing heavy losses, and that battleship is taking it's toll on us and the other crusiers," said Wullfe.
"We'll beout there," was all Obi-Wan. Taking to his words, he and the other three Jedi ran towards their fighters. Taran ran past Anakin's fighter, and noticed that Anakin had painted his fighter. His fighter was painted yellow with the Republic emblem etched on a part of it. Taking time to just glance at it, he ran to his fighter. When he got there R3 woke up from his standby mode and whistled happily.
"I told you I'd be back," said Taran. Climbing into the cockpit Taran put the hood down, started the ship, and let it hover before he exited the hangar doors. He pulled into formation with the others.
"Okay, here's the plan. Anakin, help Squadrons 1-4, Ahsoka 5-7, Taran 8-11. I'll help the rest," said Obi-Wan. Everyone broke out of formation to help the others.
Getting into the fight Taran was immediately set upon by a group of three tri-fighters.
"It's a good thing I learned about you guys, now show me watcha got," he said. to himself. He pulled into a veer, hoping he could shake them, but saw that they were still hot on his trail.
"Pretty good, let's see if you can handle this," he said. He used part of his auxillary power that sent him spiraling around in a barrel roll, then he came out of it by jab hard on his controls to turn upwards and around. To his dismay the tri-fighters were prepared for it. They met his turn with spouts of cannon fire. Taran had to veer out of the way from it and he was beginning to get chased by them.
"These are some smart droids," he said.
"Taran, you javen't reached your group, what's wrong?" said Anakin.
"I got three on my six," said Taran. He dodged in serpentine-like patterns to keep the fire from hitting his ship. "These droids are good."
"Try to get around them, I'll be there soon," said Anakin.
"Easy for you to say," Taran muttered to himself. Going through the battle he tried as best as he could to shake the tri-fighters, but their strategy was a good one. They stayed far enough back from a fighter instead of right on them like a Vulture droid, that way they could plot the moves of a pilot. It was a very effective strategy and it could work against even the best pilot's in the galaxy. The only way one could dodge the tri-fighters was either being the one on it's tail, somehow outmaneuvering them, or have a buddy come behind them and shoot them down.
Taran, I'm coming driectly for you," said Anakin. Taran could see his yellow fighter up ahead he could also see that Anakin had his on group of tri-fighters chasing him. He knew exactly what to do; he and Anakin were going to play chicken.
"Taran, me and you are going to play chicken with these droids," said Anakin.
"Thought you'd never ask. Which way are we going?"
"Right." Gripping his controls Taran waited for the right moment when he and Anakin would veer so close to each other in a turn that the metal of the two ships was just about to touch. He used the Force to sense when the right moment was coming. He had to patiently let the Force flow through him. Closing his eyes, he listened for the voice.
"Now," it said. Taran opened his eyes, and turned the controls to make the ship do a hard right. He and Anakin zoomed past each other as their ships just barely touched each other. The tri-fighters tried to dodge as they came barreling in, but four of them smashed into each other and they exploded in a ball of flames. The other two were momentarily stunned and Anakin and Taran wheeled around and finished them off.
"And that's how you play chicken," said Anakin.
"Thanks Skyguy, I owe you one," said Taran. Peeling away from Anakin, Taran steered his ship towards the battle.
The battle was chaos. Y-wings veered through the droid fighters, the turret gunners sending a hail of lasr fire to any fighters they saw in their line-of sight. V-19's opened up with their wing-mounted cannons or let loose their homing missiles. V-wings unleashed their firepower on the droid forces, swiveling in and out of the flak and laser fire. The battle had now stretched so far that it was being done in the atmosphere of Elementia, reinforcements from the Home Guard coming from the planet to help the clones battle the droids for the safety of their planet. Even now the fighters were fighting around the Republic and Separatist cruisers.
Taran swung his fighter towards a squad of Vulture droids on a V-wings tail. Coming from behind so that they couldn't see him, he let loose his twin guns and the droids were shot down.
"Thanks sir," said a voice that was Grinder's.
"Anytime Grinder," said Taran.
"Anyone out there? I need help," said Ahsoka.
"Where's your location?" said Taran.
"I'm at point 3," said Ahsoka. Taran looked to see she was around one of the Separatist frigates. Turning his ship, he raced towards it. He blasted any droid fighter that came in his path and dodged any fire directed at him or just happened to be aimed in his location whether on purpose or accident.
"Master, how are you doing?" said Taran.
"Flying's for droids," said Obi-Wan. Taran saw his fighter streak past his, followed by one Vulture and two tri-fighters in hot pursuit.
"I take it it's going well," Taran said to himself. As he flew towards the Separatist frigate the fire shifted from starfighter laser fire to anti-aircraft flak and cannons, and heavy turbolaser. Taran dodged, swerved, and veered through the fire, firing on the ship to try and knock out some gun emplacements. As he dived to under the bottom of the ship he saw Ahsoka near the engines. She and about four V-19's were locked in a dogfight between four Vultures and eight tri-fighters.
"Why does she always attract the most danger?" Taran thought. Coming in to help them, he sprayed fire on the Vultures and tri-fighters until three of them were destroyed and the rest veered off. The clone pilots and Ahsoka rushed after them to finish them off. Taran came up to her wing and helped her to fire on the survivors until there was nothing left of them but debris.
"This battle's intense," said Taran.
"Yeah, those tri-fighters sure do know how to fight," said Ahsoka. They turned back towards the area of the main fight to help their forces.
"Commander Taran, the Separatist battleship's fire is taking too much damage on the cruisers. We need a bombing to knock out it's main batteries (slang for heavy guns emplacements)," said Wullfe.
"Got it," said Taran. "Ahsoka, we nedd some Y-wings or V-wings and escort them in a bombing run."
"Will do, squad 4, be ready for escort," said Ahsoka.
"Acknowledged," said the leader of Squad 4. Taran and Ahsoka linked up with the squadron of eight Y-wings and headed for the Separatist battleship. Taran and Ahsoka provided escort, which meant they protected the ships from any enemy fighters while enroute to their destination. As they got close the guns that were inactive on the battleship sprang to life and hurled laser cannon and flak at the incoming ships. The flak and fire was so heavy that the Taran and Ahsoka had to think about what they were getting into. The bombers were also taking damage from the fire too.
"Master, the flak's too heavy, we need to pull out," said Taran.
"Acknowkedged, get out of there," said Obi-Wan. Taran, Ahsoka, and the remaining Y-wings pulled out of their dive and headed to a safer zone. Out of the eight Y-wings that made the dive, three were left.
"Master, if we're going to do that again we're going to need some cover fire," said Taran.
"We have no more fire to give, the cruisers are too preoccupied with the frigates and all the other fighters and bombers are heavily engaged," said Obi-Wan.
"Obi-Wan, we need more men," said Anakin while in pursuit of a tri-fighter.
"I'm getting nothing, our communications have been jammed," said Obi-Wan. "Admiral, what's the situation?"
"Sir, half our turrets are aimed at the battleship and frigates and the other half against the enemy starfighters. Our reserves are all but gone," said Wullfe.
"This isn't looking good," said Anakin.
"General Kenobi and Skywalker, we're picking up more ships coming out of hyperspace," said Wullfe. As they looked out into space they saw three more Venators exit out of hyperspace and pour fire onto the Separatists ships.
"Master Kenobi, good thing I've got here in time," said a voice that sounded like Plo.
"Master Koon, it's good to see you've gotten here just in time," said Obi-Wan. He saw starfighters exiting the hangar of the three cruisers and heading fast towards the action, Plo's Delta-7B Aethersprite starfighter at the head.
"Good to see you Master Plo," said Taran.
"Good to see you too Taran," said Plo. The starfighters from his group engaged the Separatist droid forces and one of the biggest space battles in the war took place. The battle was like on massive dogfight, starfighters turned their craft in hair pinning turns to get the edge over their opponent and get the kills they needed. The battle leveled out as the three cruisers from Plo's fleet turned all their turbolaser on the Separatist fleet from it's right flank, turning most of the fire from Obi-Wan's fleet to them. As the cruisers slugged it out, Koon and two groups of Y-wings, one from him and the other from Obi-Wan, met up with Obi-Wan, Taran, Anakin, and Ahsoka.
"We need to take out the battleship," said Plo.
"We tried, the flak was too strong," said Taran.
"Admiral, give us cover fire at point 7," said Plo.
"Acknowledged sir," said Admiral Wolffe. The cruisers shifted their turbolaser on the battleship, knocking out turrets and hammering into the armor to buy them some time. The Jedi escorted the bombers up until they were directly above the battleship, out of reach of some of the guns.
"Remember, aim for the hard points," said Anakin. The hard points were the parts of the ship that the ship needed to keep fighting. The bombers and fighters pulled into a dive for their bombing run. Streaking towards the battleship as fast as their engines could get them, the group moved in for the kill. Anti-aircraft fire came up to meet them, but they were too fast to pinpoint and the fire flew by them. As they neared closer and closer the bomber pilots readied their bombs.
"Now!" yelled Obi-Wan. The bombers either dropped their payload of proton bombs or torpedoes and pulled out of their dive. The battleship was helpless as the bombs ripped through the armor, causing devastating damge and knocking out gun emplacements or sending chunks of metal into space. The battleship itself shuddered from the impact of it, yet with all the heavy damage it sustained, the ship was still standing. The bombers peeled off individually to drop more of their deadly cargo onto the ship, but they saw that the rest of their explosives were having the same effect, but not crippling the ship enough. The Jedi peeled off to fire their laser cannons at the bridge or turrets on the ship, knocking them out, but the ship was still standing.
"This ship has tough armor," said Anakin. "We need to bring the cruisers in to finish it off with the heavy guns."
"The cruisers are too busy fighting the combined fleet of the Separatists, and the Separatist's have only lost one frigate. We have nothing else," said Obi-Wan.
"I think I have something," said Taran.
"What would that be?" said Obi-Wan.
"I have a seismic charge in my fighter," said Taran.
"What?! Where did you get that weapon?" said Obi-Wan.
"Made it myself," said Taran.
"Taran, you have one gifted, destructive mind," said Anakin.
"Look, I only made it when we needed it the most, and that would be now," said Taran. "I need all our fighters away from the battleship, this is going to get messy."
All squadrons, steer clear of the battleship," said Obi-Wan and Anakin. All the Republic fighters began to move away from the battleship, but continued their fights with the droid starfighters. Taran moved closer to the engines of the battleship, veering past any enemy fire from the ship or fighters. He had first hand experience of what happens when the engines of a ship are blown. The battleship had sustained enough damge to cripple it when he set the charge off, then it would all be a matter of science when the chain reaction reached the reactor and the ship would blow up.
Getting near the engines he pulled into a dive towards them, his hand on the release lever for the seismic charge. He pulled as close as he possibly could near the engines until he hit the lever and the seismic charge jetted out into space, the momentum of Taran's fighter sending it hurtling towards the engines. Taran knew he had a few seconds to clear away before the bomb went off. He headed to the nearest Separatist frigate.
BBBBANNNNGGG!!!! The bomb went off with an explosion so loud anyone near would have felt their ears bleed from the popped eardrums. Seismic wave after seismic wave hit the battleship, causing chunks of the stern to be blown away. The ship heaved after internal explosions had reached the main reactors. The explosion that was probably the loudest and brightest thing anyone had ever seen.
A massive fireball appeared in space, so bright that the people on Elementia saw it as if a sun had imploded. The blast was so big that any droid fighters near the battleship were instantly vaporized on the spot. The explosion was so big that the two frigates near the battleship were heavily damaged. Thankfully, Taran pulled his starfighter up to get away from the waves of the destruction. When everything had calmed down the Separatist was heavily damaged and could fight now more.
The remaining frigates began to turn around, the fire from the Venators still scoring hit after hit on them. One of the frigates couldn't take any more damage and it blew up too. The remaining three, heavily damged frigates were able to turn completely around and entered hyperspace, retreating from the victorious Republic forces. The battle was over.