I'm BAAAAAACK! I know, it took a while for that last chapter, and I apologize. Anyway, new chappie, and praise the divine pow'rs that be, some ACTION! Almost 100% action! WOOOOO! Special thanks to StarWarsGirl10, she was the major thing that made me finish this chapter.
B'dard Tone had been one of those, Pacifistic Jedi. He had been fairly reluctant to join the GAR, but he eventually took up the mantle (largely due to a stern look from Master Rancisis. The old fart had been waiting to use the war strategies that he'd been cooking up since before the Coway had been born, and the aged Thissippian would let nothing stand between him and finally feeling useful).
He had been pleasantly surprised at how well he could handle a lightsaber in combat, and had begun keeping track of how many droids he had smote. He had lost count sometime before the Battle of Hypori at 90,083, but that was neither here nor there.
He had at least doubled his count in the last hour.
In the early dawn, a tremor in the Force (and the ground) had alerted him to a column of droids inbound. Faster than he dreamed possible, he donned his robes and called his lightsaber and comm-link to his hands.
Pulsar, Appo, and Skywalker were already at the edge of base camp, staring down the horde.
"The time has come," Anakin had quietly said. "Let it begin."
And now, in the heat of midday, the fur-covered Jedi master called upon the Force to blast an Advanced Spider-Droid off of its legs. He leapt over the fallen behemoth and hewed an unsuspecting B-1 clean down the middle. He rolled from his fall and decapitated three more droids with a flourish that brought him to his feet.
Spinning the lightsaber, he blocked the shots from a droideka while using his free hand to summon a Super-battle droid from nearby. He Forced it onto the droideka's shield, causing the war-machine to step back into a small hole. With a protesting wail, the droid tipped over and explosively overloaded its shield.
B'dard would have smiled had he not been otherwise occupied by yet more droids.
Back-flipping over the fallen dwarf-spider droid, he pulled out his comm-link. "Skywalker," he roared, "This has gone on long enough! When are you going to collapse the center?"
"I'm doing my best Master," he heard on the other end. "The droids are making communication a nightmare. I just gave Captain Omen the order to fall back. This shouldn't take l-, what's that?"
B'dard heard it too. He looked over the fallen droid to see a squadron of Vultures and STAPs inbound.
Seeing the fallen body of a clone, B'dard snatched up the rocket launcher, aimed, and fired. He knew that the STAP would see it immediately, but that the Vulture behind it would not. The rocket just clipped the wing of the flying droid, and sent it caroming into one of its fellows.
But that was only two Vultures out of at least fifty more in the sky.
Out of the corner of his eye, B'dard saw a platoon of jet-troopers soar into the sky, letting out a rain of EMPs into the droid fighters. The droids spun and dove, a few were hit, but most dodged, and released a relentless barrage onto the floating troopers. Scores careened off in different directions as their jet-packs were damaged, and yet more were completely incinerated, and fell like sparks from a bonfire.
The sight filled B'dard with rage. And he tapped into that rage, only for a moment, and reached out with the Force, seizing a vulture droid in his telekinetic grip, and crushing it like an aluminum can.
But he corrected himself back into balance, remembering his vows and returning to himself. Seeing the ruins of an AT-TE, he flung himself towards it, dodging blaster-fire the whole way. With a flip, he sliced open the derelict vehicle, and slipped inside. It was dark and smelled of smoke and ozone. He walked to the back of the vehicle, finding the rear turrets, and a dead clone still in the seat. His markings looked familiar…
"Swipe…" he whispered.
He removed the clone's helmet, and was met with the glazed look of dead eyes. But it was Swipe.
B'dard uttered a quick prayer, touched his fingers to hip lips, and used the same fingers to close the clone's eyes.
Then, with a grunt of effort, B'dard heaved the clone from his seat and onto the floor. Igniting his lightsaber, he went to work
XXXXX
Anakin Skywalker hacked a dwarf crab droid to pieces with a savage war cry before moving on to the next one. He stabbed it in the head with his lightsaber. It shuddered and whirred with the sudden blast through its circuitry, and then died.
Deactivating the blade, he stood and raised Appo on the comm-link. "Appo, status."
"The central flank is collapsing, just as you have requested general," said the tinny voice. "We are already back to the half-way point."
Anakin smiled. "I love it when a plan comes together."
A tremor in the Force induced Anakin to throw himself to the side, tackling Sergeant Giggs out of the way as a vulture droid executed a strafing run.
"Thanks general," he said.
"Be vigilant trooper," Anakin said to the T-visor. "I won't be there next time."
The clone nodded a few times before running out and firing a few more rounds into the sea of droids.
A few droids on STAPs gave Anakin an idea. Stepping onto the debris of the dwarf spider droid, the Jedi Knight leapt into the air, decapitated the first droid, used its STAP as a platform, jumping to the next one. Performing a mid-air somersault, he sliced the droid in half, and let his inertia carry him to the final STAP on his list. Planting both boots firmly onto the droid's chest, he removed the unfortunate mass of circuitry from the platform and commandeering the vehicle. Grabbing onto the handle-bars, he noticed the droid had left its arms behind. With a chuckle, he brushed off the digits and brought the STAP around to face the incoming horde.
He prepared to squeeze the triggers when suddenly the STAPs were blown clean out of the sky by someone on the ground. Looking down, he saw B'dard, holding with both hands the rear-facing artillery gun from an AT-TE, and relentlessly squeezing the trigger.
It surprised him to see a Jedi using such an unorthodox technique.
Unorthodox? Yes. Ineffective? No.
He liked it.
Even in the blazing light of the sun, the shots flying from the barrels flashed the Coway like lightening at night. He bared his teeth in a feral roar that was lost to the din of his weapon. Unfortunately, a thermal detonator landed at B'dard's feet, and he was forced to back-flip out of the way.
Gunning the throttle, Anakin dove and intercepted the alien in mid-flight, B'dard snatching a hold Anakin's boot.
He winced and felt as if his leg had suddenly extended another four feet. He considered taking a few evasive maneuvers to shake the Jedi off unless the hand clutching his ankle did not relocate.
Fortunately for B'dard, he shifted his grasp to the stirrup, and ignited his lightsaber to deflect the innumerable bolts being sent their way.
"Perfect timing Skywalker," he called up at him.
"As always," Anakin grinned.
"Have you given the collapse order?"
"Yes," Anakin replied as he shot a vulture out of the sky. "I just contacted Omen, and he is leading the collapse."
"Where are Appo and Pulsar? Should not they be leading the charge…er, retreat?"
"Appo and Pulsar have been given command of the left and right flanks," Anakin responded. "They will be leading the closing in movement."
"Clever Skywalker," B'dard called as he swatted away a blaster bolt. "They had better hurry because we can't keep this up much longer."
Anakin would have agreed, but something was off. Ordinarily, Vulture droids would be used to scatter the ranks, and their shots would be largely random, meant to cause chaos and discord. These attacks were focused, centralized. They all seemed to making a highway straight down the middle…
With a howl of dismay as the situation dawned on him, Anakin wheeled the STAP about so sharply, that the craft itself might have fallen apart, much less the Coway, whose cybernetic-grip was in a proverbial white-knuckle on the stirrups.
"SKYWALKER!" B'dard howled.
"Master, they're going to split us right down the middle! If they do, then the clones will be trapped in two halves and-"
B'dard didn't need completion of the sentence to grasp the meaning. Thus, he unceremoniously let go of the STAP, and felt himself unify with the Force.
Waves of gray washed over him as he fell. Red of anger and orange of fear pulsed from the clones, compression lines of death contorted the Force and warped it to bend the senses of perception. But B'dard let an even greater command take over his body: a completely selfless one: save these clones, no, these men!
The remainder of the fall was a blur, and he only returned to himself when his boots hit the ground in the midst of the smoldering wreckage that once was at least five Vulture droids.
But he knew it was already too late.
Taking advantage of the hole that the Vultures had created, a whole platoon of droidekas had rolled in, deployed, and were mercilessly firing on the clones.
Then B'dard felt the hate.
Calling to mind images of General Grievous, he took to his lightsaber and lunged to save as many clones as he could before he knew that he would succumb.
His blade was a wall of blue. No shots passed it. But still the clones fell, dying like plants in a drought.
He felt his body tire as he frantically deflected more bolts over a larger area, trying to save the clones.
The first shot singed his arm, the second his leg, but he still fought through the pain.
A third shot went clean through his cybernetic arm, and it dangled uselessly, sending him off balance, and sending him tumbling to his knees. He looked up, only to see down the barrel of a droideka's cannon, and knew his time had come.
Oddly enough, he felt no fear. Perhaps it would just be a long nap…
The shot did not come.
He waited for what seemed like ample time to blow his brains out, but nothing happened.
He vaguely wondered if he had died and was merely a specter.
Glancing down, he checked to see if his own body was lying there, but seeing his own two feet in the moist dirt and feeling the pain that induced him to favor one leg, assured him of his corporeal stature.
Looking through the droideka's shield, he saw and enormous hologram of Sora Bulq standing serenely in the midst of the battle field.
"Brother Jedi, clones of Jango Fett, Manda'lore, I see no need to continue this slaughter. You have lost. You had lost before this battle began, for I knew your strategy long before you were able to implement it. Master Skywalker needs to remember that he is not the only one to study ancient battles, such as Jedi Master Hrundass Nennir's Charge. Not only did I know the strategy, but I knew that you would implement it. Only a fraction of you remain, and you that do remain are not in sufficient numbers to do anything. I urge you, return to your base of operations. You will not be pursued, and a transport shall be arranged to take you into neutral space, but only if you return to your base. For now, I withdraw all my forces. You have wounded to attend to. May the Force be with you all."
On the words: "withdraw all my forces," the droidekas had curled up and rolled away, followed closely by the droids. B'dard and his clones were left standing on an empty battlefield, filled with the stench of ozone and death.
Deactivating his lightsaber, B'dard assumed a standin position. "Troopers, attend to the wounded first and get a head count! I want full roll delivered to me or Master Skywalker yesterday."
B'dard limped his way across the space between the split forces, moving around the craters and over the bodies.
The other clones were, if anything, in worse shape. Pulling one trooper aside, he inquired to the location of Skywalker.
"Over there sir!"
Indeed, there he was, leaning heavily on Appo's shoulders. "Good to see you Master," he said, wincing as he moved.
"Took a spill off the STAP," Appo explained to B'dard's confused countenance.
"To put it lightly," Anakin grunted. "In any case we were devastated. Appo gives a rough estimate of 50% loss."
"By the Force," B'dard gasped. "Most of my men survived, but most are too wounded to continue."
Wiping a bit of blood from his chin, Anakin's face grew dark. "He will pay for this. I guarantee it."
A clone scurried up to Anakin's side. "Sir, you sent for this," he said, holding out a holocron.
"Where's Cogs?" Anakin asked. "I thought that he was in charge of the battle holocron."
"Cogs…won't be keeping the holocron anymore."
The meaning dawned on them all.
B'dard watched, only partially caring from the shock, as Anakin's eyes moistened, then a grim rage gripped his face. Extending his hand, he took the holocron, nearly crushing it in his fury. Then, with the Force, he opened it. The blue-scale world of Koru Neimoidia resolved above them.
"Since Bulq knew our plan this time, we have to assume that our comms have been compromised. No long-range communications anymore. So now, we need a new plan."
Appo stirred. "We don't have the sufficient forces to reach Naantray and make a full-frontal, not with that shield."
B'dard nodded in agreement. "Perhaps reinforcements from Master Choi in the south?"
"No good," Anakin replied. "They're held down by a weather system, and will be so for an unknowable amount of time, and if our comms have been hacked, then our communication to him will be known and dealt with."
"Perhaps we could send a message in the old fashioned way," B'dard said. "Send a speeder to Master Choi and send the message with it under the cover of darkness."
Anakin nodded. "Any volunteers?"
Almost in an answer, Fox, who had been listening the whole time, mounted a speeder and was gone.
"So much for the cover of darkness…" Appo muttered.
"No, its fine," Anakin said. "He'll look like a deserter, perfectly normal. Now, even if Master Choi gets here in time, we need those shields down."
"A covert op," suggested Appo. "A small force could slip in unnoticed-"
"But I'm willing to gamble that Bulq is watching us," B'dard whispered, casting a nervous glance to the sides, as if expecting to see a probe droid waiting in the wings. "He'll know if we send a group from the main force."
"What if…" Anakin said, his eyes brightening, "the task force was already separated?"
Questioning looks bloomed like the flowers in spring.
"I'll explain later. Right now, we need to attend to the wounded. Find Jesse and make sure he's coordinating, not doing the actual work. Also, make note of Master Tone for the record books."
"Why?" The aforementioned probed.
"Because….wait, don't you remember the Vultures?"
"Vaguely, why?"
Anakin smiled broadly, perhaps a bit jealously. "You're the only Jedi I know who can destroy seventeen Vulture droids while in free-fall."
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