Blood upon the Risers

"Person speaking"

'Person thinking'

A/N I'd like to point out that the Maulers in this chapter are based off of the tie maulers but the look like WW1 Male tanks.

Chapter 8 Jabiim

Three days after Ninjato joined the Republic

Naruto stood in the hanger of the sovereign. His face was a mask of neutrality, because the Jedi council pulled both Obi-wan Kenobi and Sylvar for a meeting and had replaced them with General Pong Krell who along with Anakin Skywalker were in command of the invasion of Jabiim. Only one day ago the Jabiimi nationalists stage a coup de tat on the planets government, killing many officials and bringing thousands of battle droids to the planet. Naruto instructed his troopers to not bring any Z6's in order to not have anyone sink into the muddy terrain. The blonde boarded the Gunship that would take him and the men that he led onto the stormy world. The gunships took off and headed planet side as Naruto and his company checked their weapons. The blonde himself checked his DC 17 blaster Rifle with a sniper and grenade launcher attachment, the weapon was supposed to be state of the art but the ARC trooper was skeptical. The red light flickered to life as General Krells voice was heard over the comms "Captain Brelor, when we land you are to take your company with a squad of Maulers and enter the mountain area to the north and uproot the artillery emplacements there." Naruto replied through his headset in his helmet. "Roger that sir." The General continued as the turbulence got rougher "General Skywalker, we'll develop further strategy at the command center on planet." Naruto didn't hear a reply but knew the general heard.

"Ten seconds" shouted Screwball which prompted Naruto to signal that the doors would be opening. They did and the troopers ran for the treaded Maulers. The light assault vehicles were used when repulser lift craft weren't viable, like on such worlds as Jabiim. Naruto stopped a ways from the vehicles and said to his men "Get on top of them, we'll use them for transport. They can hold a bantha, but keep alert we don't know how well armed the Rebels are." His men obeyed and climbed aboard the Maulers which took off soon after. Naruto climbed aboard a tank that held Stammer, Jinx, and Janga who shivered slightly from the cold rain and the wind that accompanied it. Naruto looked north and saw the mammoth mountain range that seemed to stretch into space. The sight nearly had him in awe then the radio crackled to life "Naruto Brelor is that you? This is Boss from Delta squad." Naruto answered "Roger, this is Naruto. What do you have for me Boss?" Boss's voice was one of dismay "Thought I'd give you a heads up on the situation. Delta has been racking and stacking targets all along these mountains, and so far we've been pretty successful but you have a large rebel group mixed in with battle droids moving in on your location. I advise either a retreat or a stand. ETA Twenty Minutes" The blonde smiled and retorted "Thank you Boss, we have them right where we want them. Right in our irons."

"Maulers halt, Company dismount. We have the enemy coming to us, if they breech us they will attack Shelter base. We won't allow that to happen with us still breathing. So Maulers spread out." Naruto said and paused for a moment as he looked at the craters that littered the muddy ground before he resumed speaking "Use the craters for cover, we'll wait and let the enemy come to us." The men and vehicles got into place with Naruto and two other troopers who carried a mortar tube and munitions for said mortar tube in a crater that was just forward of the main forces position. Naruto watched the two set up the mortar as he spoke to the main force. "Listen up, our esteemed mortar men will launch a flare before the enemy really knows we're here as it'll be dark in a few minutes. Check your fire I don't like being shot in the back." The weapon clicks were all the conformation that he needed as he then addressed the Maulers "Maulers use your heavy repeating blasters instead of cannons as they will create unneeded dusk." Naruto got a few "Yes sirs" in reply and got into his range finder then watched for movement. Night came in three minutes and the troopers heard movement ahead of them. Naruto nodded at the mortar men and they dropped a flare, which illuminated the area. "Fire!" Naruto called and the air was riddled with azure. The Rebels charged and were cut down but some hid and fired rockets at the clone's positions. A rocket hit a mauler, and it was engulfed in a ball of flame as Naruto leveled his DC17 and fired at the enemy. The droids that were in front of him were torn to scrap and the human rebels screamed as the blaster fire struck them down. They continued to assault the position with more rockets. The blonde threw a grenade at the approaching humans, the shrapnel cut them down and sent a rocket skyward. Naruto heard a scream and saw a trooper had been fatally hit, Naruto switched to his grenade launcher attachment and fired at the remaining rebels who were caught in the insuring blast. Naruto scanned the scene, just in case any droid or rebel remained. Then the remaining mortar crew stood up. A shot rang out from an unknown position and the now headless trooper flopped to the ground. Naruto switched to the sniper attachment and pressed his back into the side of the crater as he said over the comms "Does anyone have a position on the sniper?" It was Janga that spoke "ten degrees to your left and fifteen degrees up sir." Naruto grabbed a rock that was beside him and chucked it into the air. The sniper shot it, Naruto saw the flash and he aimed then squeezed the trigger. The bolt flew from his rifle and entered the snipers head.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief and stood up then ordered "We continue on foot, Mandalore knows what's out there. But whatever it is we'll be ready." He switched back to his rifle attachment and marched his troops and remaining two maulers up the mountain. They continued for two minutes before the Rebels ambushed them. A trooper got hit with a blaster bolt in the head and Naruto fired back and a real ambush was started. The rebels climbed down from ledges and fired at his troops who fired back. Naruto rolled behind a rock and fired at the rebels that were charging downhill. He fired in bursts which brought down one than the man behind him. They fell in a heap and more and more came out of caves. Naruto's men adapted to the ambush and used the now destroyed maulers for cover and fired back at the charging enemies. The Jabiim rebels were gunned downed and after a few minutes they stopped charging. Naruto changed the magazine on his weapon and armed his grenade launcher. He fired into the cave twice and once he heard the sound of explosions the blonde motioned for his men to advance. They did at a slow pace with Naruto leading them. The cave was slick with rain and the trooper's slipped once or twice. Naruto fired burst after burst of blaster bolts into those unfortunate enough to run into his path. They soon reached an artillery instillation Naruto whispered over the internal comms "Surround them, then open fire. This position is ours." The troopers nodded and encircled the droids who were now shelling Shelter base. They were caught off guard when Naruto fired his weapon into the men that manned the guns. The droids however turned to reveal that they were commando droids. Said Droids fired back and killed two of the remaining clones before Naruto and company ended the both of them. Naruto breathed heavily and got into the radio. "General Krell the artillery position has been knocked out." The Generals voice filled his headphones as he commented "I'm surprised that you made it with your men intact, congratulations. Now your next objective will be to secure a staging area which will be used as a base. Commander Shanker was sent in with a platoon this morning but hasn't been heard from since." Naruto wanted to ask for reinforcements but complied "Yes Sir."

Jinx asked "What's the news skipper?" Naruto shot the clone an annoyed look at the nickname but answered "We're going to set up a staging area where it'll be used as a base but the platoon sent in this morning hasn't been heard from. Now we're going to take that position." A new trooper who went by "catch' asked in alarm "With only a hand full of soldiers?" Naruto nodded and replied "Yeah, or die trying." Catch gulped and saw the looks of excitement on his brothers and sisters faces and said "But we'll be surrounded." It was Janga who spoke to the new guy. "We're the airborne, we're always surrounded." Naruto looked them over and said "Gather grenades and any ammo that you can find. We leave in two minutes. After doing so the group set off north. They stayed low and moved with a purpose. This continued until around midnight then they linked up with the ARF commander Shanker who was waiting at a cave entrance. Naruto saluted the officer and proceeded to speak with him "Commander, we thought we'd lost contact with you." the ARF trooper sat on a rock and explained "The Droids were monitoring our communications, they ambushed us in rout to our objective. I've got only a squad left." Naruto nodded and asked "How much ammo do you have? As in rockets and such?" Shanker shook his head and said "Ditched that when the commando droids started tearing up our lines. Couldn't maneuver properly." Naruto raised an eyebrow and asked "How many commando droids are we looking at?" the commander shook his head and answered with a shrug "About fifty maybe more. These all you have left?" Shanker finished by indicating to the four other men that were left from his company. Naruto nodded and said "We were caught in an ambush. What are the defenses for the staging area?"

Shanker looked towards a flat piece of ground that was as big as a bolo ball field. "The entire area is filled with auto lasers on the outside, it leads to cave systems that must be the rebel barracks. Ain't no way to take the position without rockets. How does the imagery miss this I wonder?" Naruto thought for a moment before he looked to the gun emplacements and noted that there was a path to go around and behind it. "We'll flank them. The sensor only can go for about one meter before it can't sense anything." Shanker nodded and said to his men "You two. Go with them I'll monitor the situation and provide cover fire." The seven troopers including Naruto took the path around the clearing. They moved through rocks and over a small crevice and eventually they were over the auto turrets. Naruto looked down at them and spoke to Stammer "We'll fire at the same time at the fuel cell at the back then once the alarm sounds we'll take out any rebels and droids." Stammer nodded and the two leaned over the edge. Naruto spoke again "Three, two, one, execute." Once the word execute was spoken two blaster bolts hit the fuel cells on the backs of the turrets. They exploded and then the troopers waited for a moment, but no one came out of the cave. Naruto grew concerned about this and said "Something's wrong." They waited for a minute more and still nothing.

Naruto decided that there was to be no more waiting and he took out a flash bang grenade from a bandolier and threw it into the cave. Once it went off Naruto jumped down from his position much to the shock of his men and entered the cave with them following a few seconds behind. The blonde reached the bunks to discover to his horror that they were empty. He quickly got on his radio and said "Shanker, there's nothing here… Shanker?" he asked when he heard nothing but static. The Mandalorian turned and headed to the cave entrance where he discovered through his rangefinder that Shanker was being held off the ground by his neck by a pair of Commando Droids. These droids were accompanied by super battle droids mixed in with Rebels who were led by Alto Stratus himself. Alto Stratus was the leader of the rebels and fanatically loyal to count Dooku. "Oh Fierfek." Naruto said as Alto Stratus shouted "You Republic dogs think that you can come here and murder my people? You'll pay with your lives." The blonde saw that the rebel leader had a rocket launcher and was aiming it at them, Naruto shouted "Take cover." The rocket slammed into the rocks above and buried the remaining two troopers that Shanker had with him. The blonde and his remaining men got behind cover as the droids fired on them. Naruto opened up with a long burst from his rifle that staggered the droid commandos. They got back up and fired at the troopers again as the clones and the mandalorian destroyed the battle droids. The Rebels now advanced on them with Alto Stratus and the commando droids leading the group of fifty. Naruto dropped his now empty rifle and fired his pistols into the commando droids that were bearing down on them. After a barrage of hits one of the commando's went down, the blonde armed a grenade and threw it in the middle of the group.

The explosive went off and the group was decimated, now only one remained Alto stratus himself who wielded a combat knife in his bloody hands. Naruto got up out of cover and strode towards the enemy commander. He holstered his pistols and stopped a ways from him, the man looked ragged and dirty. Somewhere deep down Naruto felt pity for him, he put all his hatred into this war and couldn't win with it. Alto looked up at the mandalorian who spoke to him "Was it all worth it? Your anger and hatred of those who think differently than you do. Was it worth your men's lives?" Alto shook in rage as he yelled "You Republic dogs didn't support Jabiim during the plagues, you left us to die." Naruto kneeled down and looked the man in the eye as he responded "The republic was wrong to do that, but you are also wrong for killing those who thought differently than you." Naruto started to stand as Alto thrust the knife to the blonde's neck but Naruto caught the arm and made the knife go into its owner's neck. Naruto let the body drop to the muddy ground as a Gunship pulled up. The blonde heard on his radio "Sir, General Krell is ordering a withdrawal." Naruto nodded and had his men board the LAAT, he was about to board himself but Boss's voice filled the Radio. "Delta Squad sergeant Boss here my men and I are pinned down, we're unable to make it to the evacuation point. We're in between the North West and north east mountain any assistance would be appreciated." Naruto looked to the gunship then to the valley between the mountains. He looked back to the gunship again and backed away much to his troopers shock. The blonde then spoke to the pilot "Pilot, when you get up to the cruiser get in touch with Screwball, tell him he gets to earn that drink and to pick me up at my coordinates." The Pilot responded by taking off as the remnants of the airborne company protested at leaving their commander there.

Naruto set off and it wasn't five minutes later that he came into contact with several droids. The blonde took aim with his pistol as he near mindlessly made his way to his objective. He blasted a droids head off as he spun and used a shadow clone to Rasengan a droidika. He then made five shadow clones that fired the pistols that they had on them into a group of droids as Naruto himself got on top of a ridge and double Rasenganed two super battle droids. The blonde cut a swath into the droids that blocked his path to Delta squad. The Jabiimi loyalists that witnessed this would say later that the entire engagement looked natural and nearly choreographed. Naruto unholstered his left pistol and unsheathed his sword then fired at a droid and sliced another in half. He brought his pistol up again and shot a rebel in the back as he went over the top of a hill. The blonde sheathed his weapons and said into the Radio "Boss this is Naruto. You still there?" Sev answered "Naruto? Come to join the fun eh? Looks like they've stopped coming… your handy work? Naruto nodded and said "Yeah, I'm coming over the hill now. Don't shoot." Naruto held up his hands as he reached their position. A clone commando with orange markings on his armor greeted the blonde with a handshake "Ner'vod good to see you. We were in a bad way for a while. Never seen such complacency in an invasion. The top brass didn't think this one through." Naruto nodded and agreed, without General Kenobi this was a waist of good men. He just hoped that Rex got out alive.

"So, where's our ride?" asked Scorch. A smiling Naruto responded "He should be here in a few minutes." Then the rain broke and the valley was flooded with rays of sunlight. The five soldiers stood in awe at the majestic sight before them, the sunlight created a rainbow. This made all of them smile at the colors. Then a shot rang out, and with a gasp Naruto fell to the ground and clutched the wound on his side. Boss pulled the blonde behind a large rock and inspected the wound. The blaster bolt tore through his abdomen and the blonde's skin was singed around the wound. "Sev, you got eyes on?" boss asked urgently. Sev was silent for a moment before he fired a shot then he replied "Target neutralized sir." Fixer went to Naruto's side and tried to heal the wound but found that Naruto was going into shock. The clone sedated him and whispered to Boss "Sir, if the transport doesn't arrive soon…" Boss nodded and said "I know." Sev just stared at his prone friend, and remembered that on Kamino Naruto stood up to Walon Vau in defense of him when one of the commandos stole a knife and threatened to kill all of the other trainees. They had suspected him and Naruto stood up for the clone. The blonde was beaten severely by Vau who was beaten by Naruto's mother. Now Sev could only watch and hope that his brother would make it. If he didn't he would make the separatists pay dearly, even if they killed every molecule of him. The Gunship arrived and the five were loaded on board. The trip back was in silence, not a word was spoken. The squad disembarked and rushed the blonde to the infirmary, as they did all of the troopers who saw who was on the stretcher stopped and became slack jawed. The medics picked up the Arc trooper and went to work as then cleared the room of any non-medical personal.

The commando's then left save for Sev, Boss and the clones from Naruto's company. The ship then lurched as it went into light speed and General Krell came into the corridor. The Besalisk stared at the clones for a moment in near contempt before saying "Inform me when he wakes clones." Stammer turned to the general and said "Yes sir." General Krell snorted and said "I would like you all to know the fate that awaits him. He is to be court-martialed." Sev tore past Boss and asked "For what reason sir?" Boss restrained him and pulled him back as the general smiled "he disobeyed a direct order to pull out. Instead he got you out, such breeches of command cannot be tolerated." The clones stood there slack jawed as the general entered an elevator and left. Sev began to pace and curse as Boss sat in thought, suddenly he perked up and said "Sev, go to the barracks and get some rest, I'll deal with this." Sev's furious gaze turned to his sergeant and after a moment he nodded. Boss then turned to the troopers who looked at him in a puzzled expression. "I'm going to make contact with General Kenobi, the rest of you act like everything is normal. If he wakes tell him to stay asleep." Stammer nodded and replied "I'll guard him."

Boss went to a private holo booth to contact Obi-wan Kenobi. The bearded Jedi answered and Boss explained the situation to him. Obi-wan's face turned from surprise to a grimace at the news that General Krell wanted to court martial Naruto. The Bearded Jedi adopted a thinking pose then smiled and said "I have an idea, I'll meet you at the ramp when you disembark on Coruscant." Boss nodded and ended the communication.

Naruto, who was still in a coma was being looked after by Stammer. The door opened and Rex strode into the room, the Captain sighed and asked 'is he going to be ok?" Stammer nodded and said "the doc's said the bolt missed his vital organs, kriffing miracle if you ask me sir." Rex nodded and sat in a chair then he hissed in pain. Stammer offered to get a medic but the Captain refused but started talking "Seps hit us hard, as soon as the Jedi and I landed our gunship was shot down. It was a rout then it turned into a fist fight as we ran out of ammo. Commando droid body checked me." Stammer nodded and continued to watch his captain.

It was two hours until the cruiser parked on Coruscant. General Krell stood beside an awake and hand cuffed Naruto who stood up straight an unafraid, he did his job he followed orders. But the lives of his men and those of his comrades were worth more to him than orders. He heard of how General Skywalker force choked some Jabiimi soldiers and left them to fend for themselves. The blonde thought that was disgusting, but he didn't say a word. The Ramp dropped and to his surprise Obi-wan Kenobi stood outside of the loading area. The general confidently strode up to him and turned to the Besalisk Jedi. "Master Krell, tell me why you have a war hero in chains like a common criminal?" Krell smiled and said "He disobeyed an order." Obi-wan's tone turned slightly cold as he motioned to two troopers who unshackled the stunned blonde. "General Krell, from what I hear Captain Brelor saved a squad of Republic commandos from a droid ambush, nearly costing him his life. For that he will be awarded." Naruto stood at attention as General Sylvar put a hand on his shoulder and said "Captain Brelor, you are to be promoted to the rank of Commander, and given the cross of glory for your efforts in this war." Naruto replied with a salute as his men cheered for him.

Padme Amidala watched this with a smile, she thought that the blonde mandalorian deserved to be promoted. She had wanted to speak with him when they got back from his home planet about what that red aura was. But Jedi business had to come first, as she had spilled the beans to master's Yoda and Kenobi about her secret marriage to Anakin. She learned that it was a mistake, and a stupid thing to do as she realized that Anakin wanted something to hold onto not love. His initial infatuation turned into an obsession which spiraled out of control. When she revealed the truth to the Jedi Yoda was quick to lecture her, but was happy that she had told them the truth. As for obi-wan he was shocked, but forgave them both for the deception. In the end this had caused an in house uproar for the Jedi and the counsel held a meeting on attachments. Sylvar had told her in confidence that the Jedi had voted on whether or not to allow attachments, as they looked to her for answers since she was in an era that allowed marriage. The Cathar had elaborated that while love wasn't a detriment to a mature Jedi, an immature Jedi would let the attachment consume him. Thus from this point on the Jedi council decreed that only Jedi Masters were allowed to pursue relationships and get married. Padme was happy for them, and had even managed to forgive Anakin after he explained that he was tempted by Mibuki Haruno into having sex with her. This didn't absolve him of the act however thus she divorced him. Now she looked to new horizons with a clear conscience and hoped that the future had the right partner in mind for her. Naruto walked past her while giving a nod and a smile, and the woman smiled after him in hopes that he would return the affection that she had growing in her heart.

On Taris

Exar Kun was in the under city of Taris. He had been down there for a day and had found traces of Muur's creation the Rakghoul. The creature smiled at the sample of the disease that he found, now he could transfer it through the venom in his fangs, those that were turned would be loyal only to him and would throw away their own lives in droves to infect a single target. The sith lord smiled and thought 'Now only to find a suitable test group.' The undead creature chuckled to himself as night fell on Taris.

On Secunda

General Tarant sat on a chair of his office when count Dooku contacted him, the human gazed at the old Harch and said "General you are to make a stand on Aargonar, this will be a critical defense point for our cause." Tarant growled lowly and asked "And just what is our cause count, those ingrates of senators attacked a potential ally. You let this happen." The count wasn't fazed and spoke again "You may argue with my methods but we'll defeat the republic on Aargonar, or you will not get off world." The Harch nodded and said "I'll need twenty thousand battle droids and officers of my own choosing. We'll do this my way or not at all Count." Dooku nodded and asked "Anything else General?" Tarrant hummed and capitalized on his position "I'll need a shield generator one strong enough to deflect orbital bombardment." The count nodded and replied "Whatever you wish." Tarant then switched off the projector and paced about his office before going to say goodbye to his wife and children all three thousand of them. This war he realized was just heating up and unfortunately more had to die before peace could be achieved.

A/N Sorry for the chapter length as it's shorter than normal. Please leave a review and tell me what you think. I'd like more than three reviews for a chapter. Thank you to all those who've favorite and followed you've all made me happy to call myself a writer. God bless you all and have a Merry Christmas/ Happy Hanukkah.