Ch3: The Apprentices

Christophsis, Savareen Sector, 22 BBY

"Commodore," Yularen called, "We shall require immediate reinforcement; we are outgunned and outnumbered!"
"Inbound on your position, Sir," he replied, beckoning Cody and Kenobi up to the tactical overview he had assembled on his holotable.
"General, Commander, based on intelligence passed on from Resolute, this is the state of the fight. Six Lucrehulk battleships, Twenty Three Frigates and their Admiral's flagship."
The pair took a moment to examine the battlespace, Kenobi shaking his head in dismay at the already-damaged Venator-Class Star Destroyers under the command of Skywalker and Yularen.

The Republic had already lost two supply vessels, the Pelta-Class freighters unable to hold in the face of the concentrated and accurate defensive bombardment of the Providence-Class Dreadnought, now identified as Invincible, under the command of Admiral Trench. The man was miraculously back hale and hearty, his style of unyielding defensive blockading warfare harking back to his presumed death at the loss of his ship at Malastare Narrows.
"Admiral, dropping out of hyperspace," he informed, "prepare to fall back behind the moon on your 7."
"Fall back?" The incredulous voice of General Skywalker demanded over the comms, the General himself appearing in frame, scarred face alight in shock that he would be advised to retreat.
"Anakin," Kenobi placated, "I brought a new toy that might give us an advantage in this battle. I'm sure you'd agree that in the interest of saving lives, now is not the worst time to fall back and reorganise, especially with the likes of Trench on the opposing side."
Yularen visibly paled.
"Trench?"
"The style is his, as is the symbol, chief," Cody explained, as Jackson brought up the emblem of the now-Confederate Admiral.
"A regroup seems wise, Sir," Yularen reasoned, "The last time I saw that symbol, I lost good men. I shall not make the same mistake of underestimating him."
"We'll cover your retreat, Sir," Jackson informed Yularen, changing course into attack position, appearing from beneath the Skywalker-Yularen force and presenting his broadside to the enemy force, Scipio and Tempest falling into line and doing much the same.

"General, if we're sending that cloaked vessel in, we'd damn well need either a decent pilot, or a decent plan," he all but demanded of the Jedi, "Skywalker may just do the trick, if he can bear to follow orders."
"Go on, Jackson," the Master encouraged, smiling encouragingly.
"Push past their blockade with the IPV-2C, loaded with supplies, and a platoon of clones who will be able to efficiently distribute them. As he returns, Skywalker engages Trench's ship. No other ship will enter the fight for fear of hitting their Dreadnought; we all know that the Separatists can't afford many ships of that class. The moment the kriffer disengages his shields to use tracking missiles, we pull away from our hidden position and stick a torpedo down the pipe."
"A decent plan, Commodore," Kenobi acknowledged, "But what if it fails?"
"Then we're exactly where we were before, Chief, but with less starving people on that planet."
Kenobi smiled.

"Negotiator Bridge, this is Republic Shuttle Four-Niner-Alpha, requesting permission to land."
"Granted, Four-Niner-Alpha, General Kenobi is coming across to brief you on your mission."
He watched through the massive windows of the Bridge as the hangar doors of the Venator opened up, admitting Skywalker's personal Lambda Shuttle to his vessel. Turning back to the Comms Room holotable, he finished his summary of the plan with his own Captains and prepared to update Admiral Yularen on the same, though it remained to be seen if the experienced Officer had also boarded the shuttle from Resolute to Negotiator.
He was pleasantly surprised to realise that his advice had, in fact, been heeded, the Admiral having seen reason in remaining with his own Task Force in favour of embarking on a mission for which neither his tactical knowledge nor his piloting expertise would be required.
Instead, the Admiral had heard his plan, and improved it still, negating tiny holes which the younger Commander had not foreseen.

It took another briefing, this time a convening of all fifteen commanders of the joint Task Force to iron out the details of the operation, but the Stealth Corvette had become ready to deploy, complete with relief supplies and Clone Platoon by the time that they were done, and Jackson joined Kenobi and Cody on the bridge when he saw the hangar doors open once more.
The IPV-2C Stealth Corvette was a beautiful vessel, he surmised as he watched the sleek craft slink out of his own ship, the Sienar Design Systems-made Prototype presenting a narrow attack profile and being small enough to avoid even sprayed fire provided the presence of a skilled pilot.
Skywalker at the helm left the Negotiator completely before cloaking his craft and all but disappearing from view. In his communicator, he heard Jason laugh with barely concealed glee as the Kuati Captain observed the same chain of events.
"It isn't on any scanners, Perce, just gives a little magnetic trace. Only Magnetic tracking torpedoes are going to work, and we know full well that Trench favours them against cloaked vessels."
"Good stuff, Jace," he replied, "but we need to get our side of this fight right too. All systems ready?"
"You know it Chief," the Kuati noble confirmed, cutting off the communications channel to prevent the line from being active long enough that Separatist jammers and interceptors couldn't listen in on them.
"Admiral Yularen, General Skywalker is away," Commander Cody informed the man, "Begin Phase 1 of assault."

At that, Task Force 49 pulled away from their cover, led by RSD Resolute.
Though the ships had been damaged, they had been given sufficient reprieve to repair essential functions, and as such were no longer under any significant risk.
Task Force 38, meanwhile, was still fresh, its only engagements in the months since Geonosis thus far having been command and control operations in systems that rested on the border between the two trampling elephants, ensuring that nothing untoward occurred that might undermine Republic control over their sectors.
It was Reyna's Scipio that led the way, however, the Anaxes-born Captain playing a decoy for the Commodore's vessel, with her more standardised style of warfare being utilised in order to convince Trench that he was faced by naive Republic forces.
Inexperienced they might be, but that was not grounds to assume that their skill had not been honed, the same as all the rest of their cadre.

It was Yularen who fired first, upon Skywalker's confirmation that he had in fact broken through the blockade. However, contrary to Separatist expectations, it was not on the Invincible. Instead, as the plan dictated, the 49th opened up their guns on the edge of the enemy formation, picking off two of Trench's Munificent-Class Frigates before the enemy Admiral pushed one of his Lucrehulk Battleships up to support that flank, pushing Yularen into a hasty withdrawal.
The Resolute, however, was not allowed to fall back without harassment, however, as a further three Banking Clan Warships made to pursue, the Venators' gunners unable to react as a result of the rear side of the warship being presented to the enemy.
Their ignorance of the Republicans' ability to repair their craft, however, proved to be their downfall as their fire was intercepted by fully charged deflected shields.
That, however, was not the full extent of their misfortune.

Yularen's Task Force was, by virtue of his more elevated rank, significantly better protected than Jackson's own was.
Five Aqruitens-Class Cruisers swooped in from below the withdrawing Venators, accompanied by what could only be described as a setting swarm of fighter craft, the assaulting craft being cut to pieces before their captains could so much as move to raise their shields.
Wullf Yularen's three Venator Star Destroyers turned, just as quickly as they had before, and the carefully crafted Republican plan bloomed into fruition.
The Admiral pressed his assault, drawing troops to his position, including Trench's own.
Percy smiled, and over their shared communications, he could've sworn that he heard whoops of elation from his fellow commanders, even a victorious laugh from the typically reserved Yularen.
The next phase of the plan was to be executed by the Captains of Task Force 38, Reyna leading the way as she had been.

With the terrifying firepower of the Invincible removed from its dominant position at the centre of the blockade, the right flank was left very much exposed, without the superior firepower of the Providence-Class Dreadnought to make up for their comparably poor firepower when pitted against the Venator, and even the Arquitens.
RSD Scipio headed the attack column, forcing the Separatist Cruisers which Reyna had targeted to split and break their tight formation, lest they be rammed by the bigger, more durable craft.
The break, however, exposed both to Tempest and Negotiator as they followed the lead ship into the breach, starfighters being deployed even as they made their move.
The two enemy vessels that had been split were forced into a retreat, one all-but destroyed, and the Captain of the other quite clearly unwilling to continue from the position in which he had been trapped.

Raider Squadron of RSD Scipio were the first to make a run on the Lucrehulk Battleships which had just now kicked into gear to engage the new threat, but their assault was an ill-fated one.
They had neither the screening fire, nor the numbers required to challenge the Hoersch-Kessel made Repurposed LH-3210 Cargo Freighter's Quad-Turbolaser batteries, let alone the point-defence weaponry or anti-aircraft armament of the mammoth craft.
Even if they had made a successful run, their light weaponry had no chance of piercing the Separatist craft's thick armour.
"All fighters, abort, abort, abort!" He called, eyes wide in alarm at the realisation, sighing in relief as he heard his other Captains echo the order over the communicator.
That, however, gave rise to another issue.

While the Munificent-Class Frigates were all but scattered to the wind, they were now faced with a complement of battleships, and the now gradually closing Invincible was removing the prospect of a lossless escape.
One option presented, unless Skywalker could return to the fight quickly enough, was that of pushing through, landing their invasion force on the surface and attempting to break back out of the atmosphere.
While this seemed logical, however, it condemned Yularen to a severely disadvantageous position, faced with all six of Trench's Battleships, and of course the Dreadnought which was so prominent in the battlespace.
No, this would not do at all.

The other was to engage the Battleships until Skywalker was able to launch his run on the Invincible, destroying the entirety of the blockade as was planned.
He punched his console as a Clone's scream resounded over the comms, the muffled BOOM of an exploding ship audible even over the distance as the shockwaves struck the Negotiator's hull. A glance at the holotable told him that they had lost Commander Hazel Levesque's Consular-Class Cruiser, Aspirant. A hasty message, however, told him that the young Officer and much of her crew had survived, and was being recovered by Lieutenant-Commander Zhang's Aspirant.

Behind him, Kenobi sighed, shaking his head in sorrow at the huge loss of life.
"Percy, regrettable as their loss is, there is a mission to complete," he advised, tone dark. "We shall mourn them when the battle is won."
Nodding grimly, the Mandalorian turned back around, striding to the Comms room and calling Yularen, Skywalker, Reyna and Jason.
"Skywalker, where the hell are you?" he demanded, glaring at the Jedi, uncaring of the man's rank and power. "We're losing ships, and those people down there are losing kriffing time."
"Good time to call, Commodore," the Jedi responded, "Moving into attack position."
"About damn time."
Uncloaking behind the Invincible, Skywalker fired off a salvo of torpedoes upon Trench's rear.
To hope that this would sink him, however, was optimistic to say the very least. One by one they struck the Providence-Class Dreadnought's Thermal Deflectors, and Trench opened fire in response.

The man was clever, Jackson accepted, though he would be defeated. Yularen's contingencies had contingencies, and Trench had just walked into one.
As quickly as he had appeared, Skywalker vanished, the Corvette's narrow profile allowing for the masterful Jedi Knight to evade the gargantuan vessel's overlapping arcs of fire.
"Tracking Missiles detected, Yularen," Skywalker declared over comms, a hint of pride in his tone as he deployed flares, the clones manning the bridge of the Negotiator sighing in relief all at once.
They had no time to bask in that relief, however.
"Silos one through four, fire Proton Torpedoes!"
They did.

One could only imagine what was going through Trench's mind as the command crew of the 38th Task Force followed through with the order, no less than three ships attempting to intercept the lethal shots as they moved through the battlespace, four MG1-A missiles soaring towards the Separatist flagship.
Five battleships remained, the Frigates in a state of complete disarray as a result of the relentless joint assault, and as of now, the flagship was sunk, those capable of escaping already leaving their battle stations and leaving their vessel.
Separatist Navy Dreadnought Invincible went up in flames, a chain of violent explosions rocking the massive vessel from aft to stern as the torpedoes impacted, one after the other.
The first struck the bridge from the port side, ripping through glass and metal as it exploded. The second gutted the craft, and the final two stuck the tail, pieces of debris littering the upper atmosphere of the besieged world of Christophsis.
"General Kenobi, General Skywalker, you are clear to make your run for the surface," Yularen declared. "We must be vigilant, however; the Separatists will not take kindly to the destruction of their fleet. Jackson, I would like for you to return to orbit immediately upon release of your LAAT Gunships. My ships are damaged, and we cannot have the planet unguarded with the potential of a reprisal."
"Understood, Admiral, we'll insert troops onto the surface and evacuate the Senator and any significantly wounded in that time on our support craft."
"Good, Jackson, I'll return soon; we have the 41st Legion under Master Yoda held in reserve to relieve us should we need it."
"Let's hope we do not need them, Admiral, may the Force be with you."
"And with you too, Perseus."

The 49th Task Force made the move to the surface first, damaged craft taking their time as Admiral Yularen took care not to exaggerate the existing damage done to his ships over the course of Skywalker's initial drive to be aggressive and the battle that had followed the mercurial Jedi Knight's successful delivery of supplies to the surface.
Yularen would leave less than an hour later, and the 212th Legion would begin their own phase of the Republican occupation of Christophsis.

Christophsis, Savareen Sector, 22 BBY

The fighting had gone on a few days by now, Bail Organa and his companions had been successfully extracted from the planet's surface, removed further into Republic-held systems to be treated and given refuge.
The Captains and Commanders of each of the vessels of Task Force 38, however, had taken a moment to gather; a rarity in the state of near-constant war in which they had found themselves caught up.
They had all been on various Republican Naval academies at similar times, Percy Jason and Reyna having already been familiar with one another as a result of their time together on Anaxes. Commanders Clarisse la Rue of Warmonger, Annabeth Chase of Overseer and Malcolm Pace of Paladin, a Corellian and two Alderaanians respectively, had also attended the prestigious College of Naval Warfare on Anaxes, though the trio had been in the next year's graduates, having studied the former cohort's final training exercise many times, phase by phase in a shining example of how to handle a deteriorating situation as they had.

The crew of the support vessels, however, had seen very different sights in their Naval education. Lieutenant-Commanders Piper McLean of the Consular Cruiser Agile, and Hazel Levesque, now at the helm of Arion, had both come from the similarly well-known, yet significantly less prestigious academy on Corellia, the Coruscanti and Kuati girls having only taken up their posts a few weeks before they had been sent off to Geonosis, and they had both been lucky to avoid the spate of snap-promotions that had been issued upon the declaration of war.
William Solace, Frank Zhang and Leo Valdez were each young officers, all three having graduated from the academy on Kuat together; all three could easily have gone on to lead perfectly respectable careers without the outbreak of war, but instead, they had been handed the command of their own vessels, small as they might have been, less than a year from their passing out of school, and barely of age by any standards.
Solace's Medical Frigate Asclepius was currently playing host to a host of injured clones who would soon be taken to the Republic Medical Station, close to Naboo. The Thyferran was already close friends with Naboo-Born Zhang of the Blockade Runner Victor, and Naboo Officer Leo Valdez of Maintenance Frigate Festus. The three Lieutenants brought the numbers of the Task Force to eleven vessels, designed for the highly versatile nature of General Kenobi and the 212th's range of deployments, with the larger 49th Task Force which accompanied the 501st under Admiral Wullf Yularen as a sister force, providing support for larger scale assaults such as this one upon Christophsis.
Together with the clones under their command, they had formed a close-knit team, the senior officers providing a shoulder on which the youngest of their force could lean, and the team as a whole providing a strong spine around which the Clone complement of the force had seamlessly moulded.
Their conversation, however, was broken by the entrance of the Negotiator's Communications Officer, CT-4662, 'Fuzz', who saluted the officers present and greeted some of the younger Commanders as the Negotiator's crew had become accustomed to doing in the presence of many of the lower ranking officers.

The clone's sedate pace was a relief, to say the least, the lack of urgency being an indicator of a lack of enemy presence, instead suggesting new orders from Coruscant. Considering the battle raging on the planet's surface, Percy could only assume that they finally had information on when Admiral Yularen and his 49th Task Force would be returning with fresh troops of Master Yoda's 41st Legion and supplies from the depot at Outer Rim Command.
Adjusting his grey tunic to smooth out the creases, Percy rose, clapping Jason on the shoulder and prompting him to rise and join him in what was fairly certainly a briefing of some description.
As it turned out, he was very much correct in his assumptions, Master Yoda and Admiral Yularen each occupying their own side of the holotable, quite clearly aboard the same vessel.

"Admiral, General," he greeted, saluting the pair before offering the wizened old Jedi Master a bow of respect, "I take it the pair of you are on the way back here? The battle has not been kind on the 212th and 501st; the assistance of the 41st Legion would be much appreciated, especially in its opening of the chance for me to remove casualties to better-supplied medical stations."
"Spoken well you have, Commodore," Yoda acknowledged with a thoughtful nod, "but relieve you completely, we cannot."
The pair of Anaxes graduates paused momentarily, giving each other a wary look, though they did not interject across the Jedi Master's explanations in a show of respect for the General.
Yularen noticed this, and nodded with pride.
"Land troops, we will, though a new mission, Kenobi and Skywalker will have. Messengers I have sent, with comprehensive details on this."
"Understood, General, and when can we expect this team?" Jason asked.
It was Yularen who answered him.

"A shuttle was dispatched a short while ago, Captain Grace; you can expect them in a few moments."
"Understood, Admiral; thank you, the both of you, and I hope to receive you soon," Percy replied with a bow and a salute, saluting and leaving the room as the Commanding Officers signed off the transmission with a salute and bow of their own.
They would receive their mysterious messengers soon enough.

It was the Fighter Command Centre's Second in Charge, CT-6708, Clone Naval Commander Axe who strode into the Tactical Bridge this time, reporting the arrival of a new shuttle into the system.
"Ah, that should be the General's messengers, then," he concluded with a nod, joining Axe and the Fighter Commander, Twister, on the other of the twin command centres that made the Venator so easily distinguishable. The shuttle's designation certainly went to confirm his suspicions, a Cygnus Spaceworks made Nu-Class Attack Shuttle, carrying only two life forms; a pilot and their copilot.
Thanking the pair of his command staff, Jackson crossed back over to Tactical Command, taking up his communicator and hailing the vessel.
"Jedi Shuttle Four-Fiver-Charlie, confirm your intentions," he demanded, ensuring that one of the Negotiator's medium-range Dual Turbolaser Cannons followed the craft as it approached the Republican Blockade. His reply was swift, delivered by what sounded like a young child.

"Commodore Jackson of RSD Negotiator, this is Jedi Padawans Nico di Angelo and Ahsoka Tano, requesting access to the surface of Christophsis to deliver a message from Master Yoda."
The kid was rambling, Percy recognised, and it was with more than a hint of humour that he sent his response.
"Thank you Four-Fiver-Charlie, you are cleared to continue. May the force be with you, Commanders di Angelo and Tano."
"Tha-thank you Commodore."
Chuckling, he set down the communicator, and turned towards his assembled Commanders and Staff, shaking his head in amusement and placating their curious looks with the answer they looked for.
"Jedi Padawans," he announced by way of explanation, "I believe we have a new Commander attached to the 212th."

It was a few hours later that they received new intelligence from the surface, four people; two familiar, two less so present upon the holotable of the Negotiator's comms room, though Jackson wagered that he could take a guess at who was who.
"Jackson, we have secured the planet's surface," Kenobi informed the anxious Naval Officer, prompting him to sigh in relief.
"Congratulations, General, I'll have Solace and Zhang down there in a few moments. I am more than happy to come myself and take over command of the Legion if Cody needs a break. It was a damn long battle, from what little we were able to see, and our fighters were near enough ineffective in Chaleydonia - their shield generator was too strong to breach, and the Sithspitting General had positioned his troops' headquarters in a civilian area. I couldn't sanction Y-Wing strikes."
"All good here, Jackson, it was taken care of, though casualties were heavy. Do we have more news on the 41st and Master Yoda?"
"Last we heard from Outer Rim Command was your new Padawans, General. Speaking of, I take it congratulations are in order for General, excuse me, Master Skywalker?"
This prompted a little smile and a chuckle for the Jedi who commanded the Legion attached to his force, and a scowl from Skywalker himself.

"Anakin was rather surprised, to say the least, Perseus - I'd lay off him for a moment," Kenobi explained, amusement dancing across his features
"A shame, General, I'd always taken him for the type to be a rather decent teacher."
Kenobi smiled.
"More than congratulations, Perseus, I suppose I've been remiss in introducing you. My new Padawan is Nico di Angelo, the young Umbaran on my right," he explained, gesturing at the clearly nervous child, "and Anakin is accompanied by Padawan Ahsoka Tano." The girl was rather more confident than her counterpart, and he supposed that it was for the better, Skywalker's aggressive and even at times abrasive demeanour generally a step too far for even young Hazel and Solace.
"I'll join you folks down on the surface, General, Jason can take charge of the Task Force. It seems that I have a new member of my Star Destroyer's Staff to meet," he mused, receiving a nod from the Jedi. He saluted and bowed, leaving the Comms Room once more.
"Right, folks, back to your ships. Solace, Zhang, we're off to the surface; ensure that your craft are prepped and ready. Moving in ten."

"You're off to the surface then, Perce?" Jason asked, and Percy nodded.
"You'll have command of the Blockade, Reyna elevates to Second, and Splash takes the Negotiator. Standard Operating Protocols apply, shoot anything that doesn't comply."
"Understood, boss," Jason acknowledged, though a cheeky grin spread across his face, "And if Master Yoda doesn't stop to say hello?"
"And what…" Jackson questioned blankly.
"Do we follow SOPs?"
"Rules don't bend for anyone, Jace, if they don't acknowledge, you fire your warning shot. They still don't comply, sink the fucker."

Chaleydonia, Christophsis, 22 BBY

Republic Medical Frigate Asclepius and Supply Ship Victor landed on a hastily assembled landing strip, the two support vessels of Task Force 38 beginning to unload their cargo immediately upon landing.
It was from within this chaos that Commodore Perseus Jackson emerged, a rare sight with a helmet and his own personal combat kit in the standard Republic-Marked pack on his back. At his hip was a holstered DC-17 hand blaster, and affixed to his pack was the standard DC-15A Blaster of a Clone Trooper.
The Rank insignia of his station and Mandalorian crest of Clan Tritonis stood proudly on his uniform tunic, and his presence drew stares and salutes in equal measure.
His destination, however, was the portable command centre at the centre of the Republic stronghold, where he paused for the Jedi present to finish their issuing of orders.
"General, Commander," he greeted, saluting Kenobi as the man turned.
"Nico, why don't you take a walk with the Commodore here?" Kenobi offered, "I'm sure he would be more than happy to speak to you about what he does; he really is a fount of knowledge."
Percy didn't like that tone.

Even in half a cycle of operating alongside the man, he had learned that the Jedi Master was wily in ways that he had no right to be. The twinkle in his eye, too, didn't do much to assuage the feeling of foreboding.
"So you're a pilot?" the Padawan asked, young eyes sparkling in admiration.
"Err, I wouldn't say that I am a Pilot, little one," he answered, "I captain a Star Destroyer."
"Can you do a barrel roll in one?"
"Perhaps, Commander, though it would take a while to do so."
"Well, that's boring," the child countered, "Does that make my Jedi Starfighter better?"
"Well, Commander, it would depend on your ability, would it not?" he asked, taking a seat on a nearby overturned ammunition crate, "only yesterday Master Skywalker all but incapacitated a Separatist Dreadnought."
"Hmm…" the youngling mused, "Well, I suppose I'll have to help you, then?" he asked, eyes shining with earnest desire to do good.
"Indeed you will, little one, and by the time this war is over, you'll be a damn good pilot if nothing else."
It was like that that the Jedi Masters Yoda, Kenobi and Skywalker would find them, Ahsoka having joined the duo's discussion by the time it had moved from fighter-bomber tactics to a particularly interesting exercise in an asteroid field off Anaxes in his time at the academy.
"An interesting one, that Pilot is," Yoda observed, eliciting nods from the Masters who accompanied him, "Much will he do for our Republic, Obi Wan; appreciate that, you must."
It was only a few hours later that the 38th Task Force, 5th Fleet, Galactic Republic Navy would leave the Christophsis system, bound for a new objective, and its commanders spoiling for another fight.

A/N
Another very much scheduled chapter release, a week before my exams begin. I haven't written much at all this week, some 2,000 weeks sitting ready of chapter 6, which is about halfway through the ground campaign of Ryloth. My plan, however, will mean that that chapter won't come out until mid-June, and so it'll be very much done by then.
Those of you awaiting a Waning Moon update will be happy, I think - I wrote for that story for the first time in more than a month tonight, and the end of BoTL should come out at some point in the not too distant future, hopefully sooner than later.
Notice Percy and Nico early on, they'll be like that for a long, long time. It's not romantic, think more Ahsoka and Rex. I'm not weird enough to write a 20 year old officer and an 10-year-old padawan, and I can't ever see myself writing slash. That's nothing against slash or people who write it, that's just me, so don't go getting ideas like that into your heads.
Next chapter should come out at the end of the month.

Thanks to Dudududhehe for his help in betaing and fact-checking me as always, a great writer in his own right. Check out his stuff if you somehow haven't already.

Until next time then,

Sol

(I don't own Star Wars, Percy Jackson or any related media.)