Chapter 12

Their worst fears had been realized. The Separatists were already there. And Grievous looked worse through binoculars, this was the first time Anakin had seen him. He's shorter than I expected. It only got worse. "Uh, general?" Penny's voice came from behind. Anakin turned and looked at her, she had her gaze fixed on the half mile tall antenna like structure that was in front of them. "What exactly is...that?"

A weapon. There was not a single doubt about it. A large antenna with trenches of battle droids at their computer stations, and Grievous himself overseeing the operation. He would normally be excited. However, this time, things were different. They were the ones who were outnumbered, they were at the location were Grievous hides behind his armies. A direct assault would be suicide. Once again, no doubt about it. Anakin rose from his crouched position and returned back down to the area where they had stopped. "A weapon kid," he said, returning the binoculars back to Jek and looking back up at it, still visible from their location. "A massive one might I add."

"Well, I can see that," she noted. "What does it do? It looks more like a frequency tower than a weapon."

Rex raised an eyebrow at this, "Sir, do you think this is the tracking station we've been looking for?" he said, eyes widening.

Anakin thought for a moment, Why else would Grievous be here? It might be a weapon, if so it has to be bad if it's this big. Then again, "Size matters not." Or it could be the tracking station that's been destroying our battle groups. Either way, it has to go. "Alright men," he said finally. "Let's get a closer look. Master Plo, you and Wolfpack stay here, Torrent company, Rex, Ahsoka, and I will investigate this."

The Jedi master nodded and returned to his bored squad of clones. "Can I...come?" Penny asked nervously.

"Well, uh, you see..." Anakin said, looking over at his padawan, who shrugged. What can it hurt? She has nothing better to do. It's still a wartime, she can wait. "Um, sure. Why...not?"

She smiled and called Bolt, who faithfully ran to her side. "Alright, keep quiet and follow me."

He ran off against the scrap metal wall which concealed them. Rex gestured to the other men as he followed crouched down. She followed in the same manner. It's like Calico all over again. She shook the thought from her head and focused on the current situation. I just need to get off this rock, and considering they're not leaving until this thing is gone... "Okay Bolt," she said, rubbing her eyes. "Let's just do this."

Then she hadn't realized were she was going and bumped right into Jek, who immediately covered he mouth before she could apologize. He hushed her as he looked back out an opening in the scrap. She peered through it also, noticing the entire squad had taken cover. She looked out to see three or four droids right in front of them, not having noticed them. Bolt growled deeply. Penny gasped sharply and placed her hand over his muzzle. She looked over to Anakin who had his lightsaber in his hand. He was making different hand signals to his men, who nodded in response and pulled out what appeared to be grenades. Penny became slightly nervous. Won't they destroy us too? Apparently not, as they already activated them and rolled them in front of the droids.

They had little time to react before an electro shockwave went through the air. Causing the droids to shake violently, then fall to the ground. That was it? Penny sighed in relief as the others stood and looked out across the droid infested area. "Artoo," Anakin said, without looking away. "Start up your scanners. See if you can make out what that thing is."

The astromech beeped once and a small antenna rose from the top of his dome. Penny also looked out at the large structure, stared at it for a moment, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a small monocle. "What is that?" Rex asked when he saw it.

"Just wait," she responded, activating the controls and placing a wire around her ear to hold it in place. It dropped down in front of her eye with small words across the screen.

Awaiting voice command.

"Analyze," she ordered looking up at the tower.

The screen started to scan the tower and a small box appeared within a few moments.

Large laser cannon. Ammunitions unknown. Enough to cause 5.0 magnitude earthquake. With blast radius of up to 100 square kilometers at maximum firepower.

"I think you should see this general," Penny called.

Anakin looked up from Grievous through his binoculars and saw the piece of glass in front of her eye. "What do you have there, kid?" he asked as he approached her.

"Look through this," she said, and held it out for him.

He obeyed and read the words on the screen, his eyes widening. "So it is a weapon, but..." he trailed off. "Would this work...in space?" The answer came onto the screen instantly.

Affirmative.

"Then it's clear then," he said handing it to Ahsoka. "They're building this weapon, so they can take out our fleets without even getting their ships dirty. The blast from the ray will destroy each individual cruiser."

"Do you think they built it here because they found those metals, and they knew we would come to get them, so..." she stopped for a moment. "so they could use your ships as a test?"

Anakin nodded sadly, "You catch on pretty quick kid. We have to destroy that thing before it can be used on our ships, or we'll never get off this rock."

"Understood sir," Rex said, turning to his men. "All right grunts. If the Seppies win this, they'll be closer to winning the war. So what are we going to do?" He didn't wait for a response. "We are going to destroy that thing, and the head clanker, and show them that Torrent company means business. Understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" they responded in unison.

Penny smiled at their loyalty. She was up to a challenge, regardless of Bolt's concern. "What's the plan? I bet I could help" Bolt glared up at her, not wanting her to get involved.

Anakin smiled her eagerness, "Well, I bet you could be of some help. Artoo give us a layout of the area." The droid chirped loudly and displayed a hologram of their position. Anakin started pointing in different locations. "Alright, we can have General Plo and Wolfpack stall the droids here. While we head over here, where, hopefully, the numbers aren't as thick." Hope he said. Ahsoka rolled her eyes. There was no other option. "We sabotage the weapon, and if we get lucky. We catch Grievous by surprise, capture or destroy him, and bring this war closer to an end."

"But master Kenobi says there's no such thing as luck," Ahsoka noted, smiling.

"Well, Obi-Wan isn't here, is he?" he snapped back.

Fine. Bark at a simple question. "Okay, okay. Let's just hope our men can hold out against whatever Grievous might have."

Rex smiled slyly. "Torrent company's ready for anything sir."

She smiled back, "Good. Just as long as, in advance, we aren't..." She froze up, her gaze locked on a certain direction. They all turned to the direction, just in time to see a single battle droid run back to his squad. "...spotted."