Chapter 20
(Geonosis, Next Standard Day, Morning)
"A fine day to be alive I suppose." Major-General Salmo Mintcore, dryly said aloud as he entered into the command room of the proud Geonosian Imperial garrison headquarters here on Geonosis. Well not really an Imperial garrison anymore, but rather a Moff garrison, as Mintcore had been a lieutenant-colonel but a few days ago when his superior officer, the original general of the garrison defied the Moff demand that he side with the. A mercenary had been dispatched from the Moff council itself, and he had been given orders to kill the general. An order he followed to the letter before assigning Mintcore the new general via direct authorization of Moff command.
Mintcore was happy to take the opportunity to become a Major-general of the newly formed Moff army. After all one needed to be ambitious in these times of great galactic strife. His fellow officers and soldiers had quickly shrugged off the change in leadership as Coruscant seemed so far away to cause any real problems, and the Moff council had already assured the soldiers a better life and the means to achieve that, they didn't complain as many grew tired of the little to no recognition they dealt with from Imperial high Command. It was high time someone stood up and removed that old skeleton Palpatine from his throne, and Mintcore was content to cheer them all from afar.
"Good morning officer Suli!" mint core greeted his fellow officer, and head of the communications department here on Geonosis. An older man than he by a few years, and graying hair. Suli looked over his shoulder to Mintcore and inclined his head politely.
"Good morning indeed, Major-General sir."
"Is there a problem Suli?" Salmo asked as he clasped his hands behind his back and noticed Suli seemed annoyed more so than troubled.
"Yes sir. This morning our long range communications began having problems, and I think its that damnable communications relay dish we have set up on the far ridge to the southeast of us. I sent two of my top technicians out to give it a look over." Suli informed as he pressed several keys on his console and continued to work on the problem.
Salmo nodded, and patted Suli on the shoulder.
"I wouldn't worry too much if I were you, Suli. That thing has been bothersome for months now, and with the war I doubt we'll be getting a new one anytime soon, so try and keep that piece of scrap running eh?"
"Will do, Major-General sir." Suli replied without looking to his commanding officer but his voice remained polite and proper.
"Good. Carry on then Suli." Mintcore said and began walking away faintly registering Suli replying with an 'aye.'
With hands clasped behind his back, Salmo walked slowly about the command room and noted all the officers and technicians going about their days with the usual calm and laziness that came with being on an utterly boring world like Geonosis. The bugs were hardly a threat and rarely got too close to the men.
From time to time his men would notice the Geonosians watching them work and go about their day from a hilly region to the direct north of their headquarters, and the troopers would have some fun by firing shots off at them and watching them fly and scatter. No one died, at least Salmo didn't think anyone had, and so the bugs usually stayed away now because of altercations like that.
Continuing his rounds, general Mintcore of the newly formed Moff officer corps exited the building and ascended a connected set of metallic stairs that led to the railed off roof of the HQ building. On top were always three officers on the look out for anyone visually puncturing the perimeter, though their was a man in charge of watching the perimeter terminal in the building itself, the men were sometimes anxious about the bug world because of the pigment the planet had and the far off cries of Geonosians. Plus its Clone Wars history didn't help matters.
"Morning gents!" Salmo spoke up and all three grey clothed men turned to him with their electrobinoculars in hands and all of them inclined their heads respectfully. A series of good mornings and 'sirs,' reached Mintcore's ears but he waved them off, as he already grew tired of the constant propriety he was receiving due to his sudden promotion.
"How are the sights this morning lads? Boring as usual?"
"Afraid so sir." Replied an officer whose name Mintcore hadn't caught.
"Well, you know what they say. Sometimes no news is the best kind of news." Salmo replied and the same officer chuckled.
"Very good sir."
"Right. Well, carry on with your duties boys!" Salmo said as he quickly went down a set of metallic stairs, only this time on the opposite side from the ones he climbed up, and soon he was back in the command center as officers continued their work day with the same boring usualness of their job.
Taking up a commanding position with hands clasped behind his grey suit covered body, the major-general stood upon an elevated platform and watched over his command room and merely waited for something to happen if anything which was a highly improbable occurrence, but still he waited, and today his waiting would pay off.
Out of the corner of his eyes to his right, Mintcore caught his perimeter officer glare at his screen before pressing some keys hurriedly, and after that he straightened in his chair as if he didn't know what to do. Suddenly the officer was to his feat and commed the patrol speeder-bike units urgently, before he motioned for a guarding trooper to follow him.
Seeing this all take place Salmo quickly stepped towards the officer and blocked his path.
"What's all the commotion about officer?"
"It's probably nothing but our motion detection equipment is reading several unidentified objects heading our way."
"By heading our way do you mean-"
"As in, on a direct course for the base, general sir." the officer stopped him and said. Mintcore nodded and motioned for him and his escorting trooper to follow him over down to the military coordination room a level down.
When they got down there they could see several military oriented officers moving about the room, as one was in contact with the speeder units.
"Corporal, what's the situation?"
"Don't know sir. The speeders are moving to intercept whatever your bogey is in a few seconds." The corporal who had a communications channel opened with the lead speeder unit replied as Mintcore and the perimeter surveillance officer approached.
"Alright, sergeant report on what you see." The corporal ordered into a comm unit.
"We're rounding the hill now sir….." Silence loomed for a moment. "There, I see it. One figure. A human perhaps. Cant confirm gender, you read me command?"
"We read you loud and clear sergeant."
"Making another pass, SE-2, stay on my tail!" The sergeant called to his escort and only other fellow trooper out the checking out this person.
"In the name of the force is a human doing out there in the middle of the blasted Geonosian desert?" The general thought aloud but before anyone could answer him they heard a commotion on the other end of the transmission. A sharp cry from the sergeant and the distinct sound of the speed bike flying off and exploding, before the transmission went dead.
"I've lost the signal sir!" The corporal called, and Salmo snapped to his surveillance officer and the trooper escort and motioned for them to follow him as the three jogged back to the roof of the headquarters.
The minute they reached the roof an officer was leaning forward with his electrobinoculars as he noticed something. The officer lowered his binoculars in stunned silence and looked to his general in utter horror.
"Sir! I've got a visual on approximately eight Hailfire-class droid tanks moving on us!" The officer cried as in the distance the firing of the many rockets from those tanks of Clone Wars legend were heard
"Back down to command at once!" Mintcore yelled and his officers began running down save for one officer who wanted to stay and report what he saw visually for confirmation, and Salmo didn't bother arguing, as the first of those droid rockets slammed into the building and surrounding grounds at random.
"What are we looking at?!" The Major-general demanded the minute he walked in and the officers were in a frenzy to cover their positions and keep their commander apprised.
"Droid tanks moving up fast!" One officer dumbly cried as others were shouting at each other over the chaos of the room.
"Deploy the garrison at once! Activate all AT-ST units, and get those repulsor-tanks operable immediately! Load up all troops and get assets moving now!"
"As you command general sir!" Cried another officer as he contacted the lower levels that housed the trooper barracks, and armored units that were well on their way to attacking this random droid attack, no doubt committed by some upstart Geonosian stuck in the past.
"Sir! The troops are already moving into forward defensive positions, but are reporting that the Hailfire tanks are avoiding our buildings and attempting to turn and make another pass!"
"Get some anti-armor unite on those damnable machines at once officer!"
"Yes sir of course!" The officer dumbly replied as he seemed dazed and confused.
"General mint core sir! That topside spotter of yours is reporting a line of droid AAT's forming up along the entire hillside! There are more than twenty he reports!"
"What?! Um…right, what is the status of our local shield?" Salmo asked and another officer keyed in the query and soon breathed a mild sigh of relief.
"Engineering reports that the base shields are now operational but wont last long."
"Forward battalions are moving forward sir, and taking up positions, they are coming under heavy fire by the AAT's!"
Another officer interjected.
"Suli! Get me in command with Moff command at once!"
"Can't sir! Communications are still down, my techies never reached the array station, whoever is attacking us probably killed them we are completely communications dead to all outside Geonosis! Local troop communications are working because their array is in the base!"
"Who designed this blasted facility?!" The general angrily cried as he ran towards a small observation opening inside the command room, and peered out. He was met with a sight to remember, as AAT tank units were firing their loud main laser cannon on advancing troopers, and those who had taken up a defensive line in a maintained trench surrounding the base on most sides.
"Where are those AT-ST's?"
"Moving up any moment now sir!" A nameless and faceless officer replied as Mintcore decided to stay planted where he could see this advancing army and decide what to do based on his own ability to see.
The general did not know what he was up against.
(Hills to the North of the Moff HQ, and army Positions)
"They're moving up forward units general." A B1 battle droid informed as it looked through binoculars at advancing white clad troops that Kellia could well enough see herself, but she didn't mind the droid reinforcing her. It already felt surreal enough having to work next to droids and command them that unnecessary rudeness to machines that probably didn't even begin to comprehend rudeness was overkill.
"Thank you, A6." Kellia politely replied to the droid commander designated fully as A6-5C.
Kellia was wearing her dark blue robes and had been just behind the hill line when those foolish Moff aligned speeder bikes came racing near to her, so naturally the hooded Kellia, who was still wearing her hood up, had taken it upon herself to lift the one man from his speeder and toss him lazily into the other man. Sending both speeders crashing in random directions and killing the Moff soldiers without even a miniscule sense of pity for either.
"I think it's high time we show our friends what they are really going up against. A true blast from the past some could say." Kellia intoned to herself as her droid general looked to her with the usual unmoving slanted eyes of the B1 units.
"Activate all droideka units and order a general push. Cover them with the AAT fire, and when those Hailfire units circle around concentrate firepower on those AT-ST's."
"Roger, roger!" A6 replied as he put the orders through to the other units via a comm device attached to what was his head.
From behind her Kellia turned to see a few hundred droideka units standing around waiting and just beyond the visual sight of the Moff units and base. As A6 made the command heard to the droids she watched with an odd sense of satisfaction as nearly all the droideka units balled up and rolled forward with a ferocious speed that was sure to scare the Moff forces at seeing these old but still just as dangerous enemies advancing upon them. The reward was near instantaneous the droideka's rolled forth and several troopers immediately began falling back in utter shock and horror that the old foes of the Republic had returned.
Among the trooper ranks men shouted out "Destroyers!" Or some shouted out "Rolling clankers!" It almost made Kellia smirk at hearing the old term for the droids being shouted, but what really made her smile was the sight of the droideka unites activating their shields and unleashing unrelenting repeating blaster shots into the 'man-made,' trenches, and troopers that were still advancing. The AAT tank units continued firing the main laser canon in succession in a lined formation and slamming the massive blasts into the now shielded facility and then into the, now Moff, trooper lines.
Kellia nodded her approval as the droideka units rampaged across the open battlefield and from her hilled vantage point she could see the majority of the battlefield and noted with great joy that the battle was obviously in her favor.
At the sound of Geonosian wings flapping behind herself, Kellia turned and nodded to a Geonosian that Vikkal had introduced as "general," Gilto Resso.
"Are your Geonosian warriors ready for deployment general?" the Geonosian clicked and whistled.
"We are fully prepared to begin our attack. We will ask the pulling back of droideka units to minimize friendly fire, and request the moving up of regular infantry." Kellia nodded her hood covered head.
"Very well general. You may begin your general push." Resso bowed his insect like head, and flew off to ready his warriors.
"A6."
"Yes ma'am!" The droid replied quickly bringing its binoculars down to its chest.
"Order the droideka units to pull back, and get these," Kellia pointed to MTT, or Multi-Troop-Transports that carried massive amounts of B1 battle droids, at least these ones did. "I want these to dispense their infantry units now, A6!"
"Roger, roger." the droid replied once more, and went about ordering a general pull back to all droideka units.
Behind her Kellia could hear the MTT units begin opening and dropping the B1 units.
As the droideka's began rolling away from the desert battlefield and the troopers began taking the opportunity to fire on the retreating units Kellia heard and jerked her head upwards to see a literal swarm of Geonosian soldiers with light armor covering their bodies, flying overhead and firing their sonic blasters into the fray of enemy lines, and sending the troopers reeling, as their internal organs were utterly destroyed or ruptured by the sheer sonic power of these weapons. The AAT units provided covering fire from all three of their weapons now for the retreating droideka units and for the airborne Geonosian allies as the troopers continued to flood out of the underground entryway to the Moff facility.
The AT-ST units of their garrison began forming up from the sides of the facility out of what Kellia assume were on-base garages. Following behind them were the common 2-M saber-class repulsor-tanks. They immediately began firing on the AAT positions and one not too far down from where Kellia stood next to A6's AAT unit blew up sending a wave of energy across her position and causing her robes to flutter.
Kellia scrunched her face into a snarl of annoyance, and turned to see the first wave of B1 battle droids at once rise up and grab their attached E-5 blaster rifles.
"A6, I want you to order a general push of all B1 units excluding those in the AAT tank units. All droids are expendable."
A6 looked down to her once more and nodded in its stiff droid manner. "Roger, roger." And thus the diligent droid entered the orders and the unanimous march of mechanical legs resounded in Kellia's ears.
A6 suddenly looked across the marching troops and loudly enough for Kellia to hear, ordered into his comm unit, "Open fire!" And all B1 units began firing flurries of magnificent red blaster bolts into the trooper lines. While the front line droids received the brunt of the fire Kellia began to first handedly come to see the magnificence of these forces, not a one grew afraid and ran, back always pushing forward and never running back.
The front line of B1 units began falling fast and quick but the second, third, and fourth lines began making their run down the hill emplacement where the AAT units were stationed, even as another AAT exploded from a massive canon blast of an enemy AT-ST. The Geonosian warriors were still maintaining their altitude and easily moving out of the way of oncoming trooper blaster fire, all the while shooting massive rounds of sonic blasts into the trenches. Indeed the Geonosians were forcing the troopers to take their chances going over the top of the trenches and then being assaulted by endless streams of B1 blaster fire. Covering AAT fire dimmed away as they focused on destroying enemy armor like the AT-ST's and 2-M Saber-class repulsor-tanks.
"Madam general," A6 spoke up from his position standing inside his own AAT tank out of its unit port. "the Hailfire units are rounding around and have been rearmed. Firing will commence in a moment."
"Very good A6." Kellia replied as the rolling Hailfire tanks could be heard rounding from the other side of the Moff facility, and soon the sound of the rockets could be heard firing off, and before her eyes glorious explosions were witnessed slamming into the backs of the AT-ST's and into several Saber-class tanks.
Kellia beamed a wide grin at the devastation the Hailfire's inflicted and enjoyed watching the B1's continue their push as the first droid lines made it directly to the enemy trench position and began firing down into it, even as the Moff commander of the base sent out a near endless stream of troopers from the barracks opening that Kellia had to once more figure was underground because the size of this garrison was quickly exceeding well over two thousand, and the prospect of seizing the underground facilities personally, while not a fun idea, was a fact of the battle nonetheless. For now though, the aboveground positions needed to e secured while they had the numerical advantage.
"Madam, general. Secondary wave carriers have arrived." A6 reported and Kellia turned to see a new line of MTT's moving up her army's rear. Leading these reinforcements was none other than the Corellian bane of her existence, Dase Vorum.
"Hey there! It's my favorite Jedi woman!" Dase yelled as he climbed off one of the escorting AAT tanks of the second wave, and from behind him came a fast stream of several STAP's that raced past them and the AAT line to join the fray as fast moving cavalry support units.
"How many troops did you bring Vorum?" She asked irritably.
"Well with the new modifications to the transports done by our good buggy friends, they can carry up to two-hundred units of B2's and two-hundred-fifty B1's you are sadly using the older units."
"That was planned Vorum, but I appreciate the concern."
Dase smirked his arrogant lopsided smirk. "That's what I do for you milady."
"Don't call me that. Now tell me you brought B2's."
"I brought B2's!" he quickly replied and Kellia inclined her head in satisfaction.
"Good. A6, form up the new B2 battle droid units and secure the perimeter around the enemy base. I will personally lead the attack into the underground portion of their little base."
"Roger, roger." A6 once more responded and went to work, as Kellia personally signaled for the AAT escort Dase brought to break rank and enter into the fray which by the looks of it was still a massive blitz of blaster fire, and canon explosions.
"Oh, did I forget to mention our air support?"
"What air support?"
"That air support." Dase replied pointing upwards and Kellia followed suit and saw at least three HMP droid gunship's zooming overhead and landing well placed and deadly hits on troop positions across the Moff perimeter of control.
"That is most welcome!" Kellia replied with a small smile. "Why didn't Vikkal say he had these in the first place?"
"He expressly told me to apologize for not informing you earlier but he wanted to see if you truly were on his side before divulging the existence of any aerial units he had. The old bug himself told me to tell you that you now have his full and unadulterated trust." Vorum replied and Kellia shrugged her shoulders, figuring Vikkal had the right to not trust her fully yet. Though the statement of trust was well appreciated even if it was Vorum relaying the message…'wait, Vorum doesn't know Geonosian.'
"Care to explain how you speak Geonosian Vorum?"
"Oh yeah, that." Dase said as he scratched his head. "You see I had an unfortunate run in with one of Vikkal's aides and I think he unfortunately for me, understood basic. He ran into ME you see and I kinda, maybe, sorta, called him a dumb bug that should watch where he walks, and you see he got kina grouchy after that."
Kellia closed her eyes and let out a breath of pure annoyance.
"What happened next you idiot?"
"Hey, it wasn't my fault! Honest it wasn't!"
"Vorum!"
"Okay, okay! I was lucky Vikkal was passing by our little argument, he apparently asked what happened, and I told him I don't understand Geonosian, and he hooked me up with these." Dase pointed to Geonosian built translators that fit inside the ear much like Kellia's.
The Jedi woman was about to tear the Corellian a new one when a massive explosion resounded as another AAT blew apart from an advancing line of newly deployed AT-ST's.
She spun to look at Dase with a glower. "We'll have a fine long talk about propriety and social etiquette when this kriffing battle is over with, and so help me Dase Vorum you drunken Corellian buffoon if you screw up any political relations in this fledgling alliance I'll kill you! You get me?!"
"Yeah, yeah, okay I understand you!" He replied with raised hands raised in surrender.
"I thought you Jedi were supposed to be all calm and collected and stuff….you! You're just plain mean sometimes lady!" Dase declared with his normal Corellian whining voice that Kellia long realized was just how Corellians acted during arguments with people they liked, so she supposed she should feel grateful for having someone at her side who didn't apparently get really angry with her, but then again…it was Dase Vorum.
"Yeah, well I am a failed Jedi remember? So either get used to it or bug off."
"You do realize the irony of saying bug off on Geonosis right?" he asked grinning at her with a twinkle in his brown eyes, and Kellia shook her head in exasperation.
"Just shut up Vorum, and follow me. We're moving up the line."
"As you command boss lady!" With that Kellia climbed and hung onto A6's stationary AAT, and Vorum found a place to sit and keep balance on it as well, as Kellia noted the B2's were marshaling along the hill range now, as her little talk with Vorum had wasted enough of her attention.
"A6, order the general push! All ground forces advance, but do not enter into the facility until my explicit command, all AAT's move up and cover the ground units and Geonosians. Droideka's will remain behind the lines and patrol this hill and MTT's."
Kellia ordered in succession, and A6 gave a stiff incline of his head before mumbling the orders into his comm in the usual droid voice of B1 units.
"All force move out!" The droid ordered suddenly louder than before and all the units had received their orders and began moving, all the B2's extended their arms and their wrist blasters exploded in an endless firing a barrage on the troopers who fell in waves, as the AAT's began firing at enemy pockets to limit unnecessary destruction of droid units or Geonosians. The battle very much remained in the URM's favor as Kellia had already begun associating her armies as part of the URM military wing.
Her AAT the carried both A6 and Vorum as well advanced along the center as several of the STAP units provided escort and fired on enemy troopers who got too close. Kellia pushed her blue hood back, and activated her cerulean blue lightsaber, and began deflecting blaster bolts back at those who fired them, as she began attaining her first kills of the battle. Desperately the Moff troopers began falling back further and further into a desperate defensive perimeter just outside the entryway into the underground barracks. Husks of blown AT-ST's Saber-class tanks, AAT's, and at lest one Hailfire were strewn about as the command AAT finally reached the frontline where troopers had begun closing the blast-doors to their facility hoping to cut the advancing droid armies off for a while longer.
Kellia dismounted the tank, and cam to a stop before the massive and thick metal door. The bases shield was stable for now, but Kellia noticed that the doors did not have the shield surrounding them making these doors the only quick way in.
The general of the Geonosian force, Resso landed next to her, and Dase joined them followed by A6 positioning his AAT closer to the group for further instructions.
"Well this stinks." Vorum commented placing his hands on his sides in thought as he looked the large doors over.
"We'll get it open Vorum. General Resso," Kellia pointed to the Geonosian who straightened at her voice.
"Do you have any explosives that can break through this type of thick metal quickly?"
"None that I'm aware." The Geonosian clicked away.
"Our only hope is to concentrate all firepower from armored units on the door and blow it open that way to allow troop entry."
"That could take hours even with what we have on us, general." Kellia angrily intoned as she ran a hand through her long black hair.
"Well…..what do we do then?" Dase asked as he threw his arms out.
"I have an idea." She finally said after a moment of staring at the door.
"A6!"
"Yes general!"
"Pull your units back, the same for you Resso," Kellia pointed to the Geonosian.
"I will get this door open myself. It wont be easy, but war usually isn't." She commented dryly and Dase looked confused, but stepped aside as the URM army began backing away from the door.
Taking in a deep breath and releasing it and all her emotions into the force with it, Kellia outstretched both her hands, her robes waving with the wind as she did. With her jaw set and eyes hard she used the force to grab the door from the center where it would slide open from usually. Then with a heave at a force unseen by all others there she began forcing the doors opened and Dase thought she looked crazy until the doors noisily began to creak and moan as the metal was put under unseen pressure. The gear mechanisms began to cry out under pressure and on the other side the trooper and frontline officers began panicking and ordering their computer terminals into emergency lockdown procedures to keep it from committing an override opening and allowing the droid army in.
Kellia felt as if she herself were trying to physically pry the massive doors open, and by the force did it put a nasty strain on her back, but she persevered onwards and slowly, and against its will, the doors began cracking open. The metal began to bend and twist against the power and brute strength the force was exerting on the doors. Indeed if one looked hard enough it almost looked as if massive imprints of fingers were on the areas of the doors that were being forced open. As if Kellia's visualization of the doors caused the force to literally force the door open in the manner of hands doing the work.
Then with a flare of anger running through her, but not a dark side resonating anger, Kellia shouted in anger and strain as she finally before everyone's eyes, or receptors for droids, forced the massive doors to fly apart and burst a massive hole in the blast doors, and without her needing to say so the AAT's at the front behind her opened fire as troopers inside began firing as soon as their protective door was gone.
Dase ran over to Kellia who had fallen to her knees, and dropped to one knee himself and placed a hand on her shoulder in worry.
"You alright there Nelrain?" She breathed in some tired panting breaths but shook her head yes.
"You sure? Don't you think you overdid it?" Concern was obvious in his voice, and Kellia had to hand it to him, Dase truly was concerned and not just being his usual cocky Corellian self.
"Thanks for the concern Vorum, but I'm fine. Now lets win this thing huh?" She said rising to stand once more, taking Dase'es supporting hand without question or issue for once.
"A6!" The droid commander snapped its pointed head to his Jedi general.
"I want three squads of droideka's in there at once! Follow it up with four B1 squads and three additional B2 squads!"
"Roger, roger!" the droid replied for the umpteenth time that day.
Kellia finally shrugged Vorum off, but he remained close by just in case as she watched the AAT's fire at random into the now breached bunker as troop returning fire waned by the minute.
Kellia held up a hand to order a general ceasefire from her tanks as the druidical in formation rolled towards the opening and zipped on by her and the rest of the tank formation, as they entered their standing positions, where they lost about two overall before they activated their shields and began dominating the battle for the barracks entryway.
The squads of fresh B1's and B2's arrived in their own small group formations and Kellia motioned for them to follow her as she activated her saber once more and pushed on through into the underground facility, as Dase grabbed a blaster rifle and followed not too far behind.
Deflecting a flurry of bots aimed at her Kellia leapt off the ground, diving forward and cutting the hands off several Stormtroopers before decapitating them. Landing a kick into another before stabbing him while he lay on his back, she twirled around and slashed another down his whole body.
The droideka units slowly walked their still shielded forms closer to the nearest doorways where they took up a turret like position and began firing randomly and nonstop into the connecting hallways.
Kellia finished deflecting a bolt back at a trooper, and killing him, when Dase ran over with two Geonosians, five B1's and seven B2's.
"We'll take the hall on the left, you go right eh?"
"Agreed." She said and they parted as the Corellian, garbed in his simple flight jacket and jeans ran into battle with no fear about him, and once more Kellia mentally commended him before focusing on her hall to the right where a droideka was receiving returning fire, and heavy fire at that.
Her squads moved up to support her, and she lead them to the hall where she sent a massive wave of the force down and undoubtedly knocked all the enemies back into the walls of the hall.
"All of you with me!"
"Roger, roger." A B1 replied and she led the charge into the hall where she immediately cut the head off an officer. The B2's launching a heavy rapid fire barrage at downed enemy soldiers from her force wave. Kellia turned down another hall on her right where a squad of troops were forming up and she smiled as she rushed them and crazily spun her saber from side to side cutting and removing all that she connected with. As enemy bodies stacked before her she numbly registered the droid units were still advancing forward in the other hall, and so Kellia decided to end the troops in this hall by throwing her saber spinning into the oncoming white-armored men, and took many head off their bodies in the process, before calling the saber back to her.
The blue of her saber illuminated her in a way that if one were to see her they would think her a crazed and evil women, but Kellia considered herself, odd.
Nonetheless she rejoined her droids who were down about three B1's and two B2's as some druidical came rolling through from the entryway. After some more halls of skirmishes she came across a stairway and ordered her droids to secure the current floor and move up, a quick call in to A6 to send in more troops at his leisure, Kellia maddeningly swept into the next floor where a whole platoon of officers were gathered and apparently coordinating to their remaining troops on different levels.
"Sorry to interrupt, but this base, and this planet no longer belongs to you gents." Kellia announced with a smirk.
"Kill her! Kill the Jedi!" called one officer and they all grabbed their blaster pistols, but Kellia was already upon them. Sing the force she yanked the blasters from some before running them through with her blue saber, decapitating some, maiming others, and de-limbing fewer still. For to this dark haired, slightly browned skin Jedi woman, all these officers deserved their ultimate fate, and the Force would judge them and one day judge her as well. That is what she told herself anyways as in reality darkness within her began to seep into her very use of the force and as time went on the more she killed the further into the dark sides hands did she play into.
In time Kellia rounded more stairs in a blur as bodies and dieing faces, expressions faded and jumbled together the Jedi woman finally rounded into the command room where some of her B2's were already engaging the final guards of the officer corps, and she left her oh so effective and capable droids to do their task as she exited the command room and rounded the last set of stairs that were on the outside of the building. Scorch marks and destruction was all over as her Hailfire tanks units had managed some shots in before the shields were raised.
As she climbed atop the roof a single Stormtrooper shot at her but using the force she lifted him and flung him far off into the battlefield where he no doubt died from broken bones, or a droideka patrol whom had orders to kill all non-friendly combat units no matter what their health state.
Before Kellia, crumpled on the floor with his hands covering his head in fear was a prone officer. Who after not immediately dieing chanced a look up at the woman.
"I assume that trooper defended you to the last because you are this bases commanding officer, and thus the effective head of Moff operations here on Geonosis."
The man shakingly dared a look into the woman's hard deep dark brown eyes.
"Ye…yes I am Major-General Mintcore, of the Moff ground garrison force here on Ge…Geonosis, ma…ma'am." The officer declared as he whimpered and stuttered like an idiot.
"That makes you responsible for all the actions of your now very much dead troops does it not?"
"I…I…well...I don't think-"
"Save it you little weak, pathetic little man." Kellia spat.
"You are but a small germ of the greater disease. Insignificant in all ways, but one."
"And…th…that is ma'am?"
"You tried to kill me, and my allies, greater Geonosians have died here today then you could ever amount to trust me." Kellia declared darkly as her eyes seemingly impossibly hardened as she looked upon the man more.
"As a Jedi, I am sworn not to kill unarmed enemies, I am to take them into custody."
"Oh thank you ma'am I am so glad to be in the presence of a Jedi it is-"
Kellia swung her blue saber fluidly through the mans neck and decapitated him.
"Sadly, I am not the Jedi I once was, and some would argue I am a Jedi now, my good general Mintcore." Numbly looking down at the body and its free rolling head, Kellia sneered and turned away from the corpse. Looking out over the battlefield, seeing the dead trooper bodies, the broken droids, twisted metal husks and burning, blown out armored vehicles littered the nearby Geonosian desert.
Kellia numbly acknowledged that Vorum had joined her and had asked about the corpse but when she didn't reply, she found that he thankfully didn't ask again and merely joined her and looked out over the carnage. Hanging his borrowed E-5 blaster loosely at his side Dase chuckled.
"Well today was hopefully the first of many victories. Albeit a small one in the grand scheme. I nonetheless fell pretty good about it all." he said nodding his head in self approval.
"How 'bout you?"
Kellia cast him a weary glance as the high of the dark side wore off.
"I think a long hard fight awaits us Vorum, but at least I know the droids will play their part swimmingly." Dase nodded in agreement to that, and Kellia cast him a rare smile.
"At least I got a crazy Corellian on my team too."
Dase sent her a lopsided grin. "I'm good for something then eh?"
"Perhaps." She replied and the two shared a good-natured laugh as the star of Geonosis reached the late-morning, or some could say early-noon state in the sky above. For this was but the first of many battles the URM would take place in. Some were to be as easy, if not easier, and some would epitomize the horrors of war, and all that was yet to come.
Authors Note: man this one was fun to write! Despite what you guys think of the rebels in the Star Wars universe, please tell me what you thought of the battle itself? Tell me how my use of the droids worked, well, not well? What did you all think? For the usual, please excuse or point out any and all grammatical errors, and enjoy. Also i wanted to know because a reader brought it up what if any pairings you guys would like to see. Now mind you they may not be possible in the context of my story but maybe they are and I would try my hand at them, but a warning, I am not a romance oriented writer and fear my skills would be kinda rusty and new, and obvious to everyone so maybe a little embarrassing, but I am willing to give em a go. So tell me what you all want or think, or whatever! :)
P.S: Don't worry people Bail Organa WILL be confronted by Vader in due time okay? :D Don't fret his time will come, and soon ;)