Chapter 31
Well, now is the time for the final battle of this story to start, you'll learn more about it as this story continues.
About two months has past since the last chapter, the Traditionalists are mysteriously inactive, as Adenan Kornen and Caleb Dume grow closer, creating a sibling/sibling-like relation.
Note to guest reviewer: I did see the review you posted, and the plot you gave was pretty good, though I'm not going to do it. Sorry, but I had the ending of this story and this battle planned during the time I did about… Chapter 14, and everyone who read this knows how long ago that was. Maybe I'll include your suggestion in the sequel, yes, there is going to be one.
The engines of the Republic Cruiser Crimson Hawk resonated across said ship, as it's Commander, Adenan Kornen, stood at the main command room.
Like it's name, the Crimson Hawk had actually been painted red, it had been a gift from Chancellor Padmé Amidala few weeks after Coruscant had been taken by the Balancers, something that hadn't happened since four hundred years before.
Adenan, currently, had a squadron of three cruisers, Crimson Hawk being the first of these three. There were two cruisers behind the ship Adenan was on, named Justice and Negotiator.
"Commander Kornen" A voice called out, a Clone's voice. Adenan recognised it to be Captain Rex, who had been assigned back to Anakin during the time Kornen claimed the ship.
"Rex. What is it?" Adenan asked, turning to face the Clone Captain.
"Everything seems to be okay, though we managed to salvage a distress call from the planet Shili" Was the reply
"Hmm… Shili, that's the main Tongrutan home planet." Adenan thoughtfully hummed, as he then ordered, "Replay the call."
Rex inserted a chip onto the holotable just behind the two, but no image came up. It was an audio call, the Jedi Padawan walked towards the holotable in order to hear the message correctly.
"This is Clone Trooper CT-7803, we are under heavy attack by Tradi-GAH!" The call was muted that immediate moment, as those who heard the message widened their eyes. Fear gripped Adenan, as he realised what the Clone was trying to say.
"Traditionalists." Was the only word he could mutter
"That's what we are thinking too. Orders, sir?" Rex requested, as all Clones stood straight, waiting for their Commander's decision
Adenan Kornen knew he needed to think heavily about this. If this was really Traditionalists, then no sense in going recklessly, but then… that group did become very elusive after the final Battle on Coruscant. So, quick acting was needed to ensure peace.
"Contact General Skywalker. He will know what to do." Adenan finally sighed, as Rex's fingers immediately flew to the keys on the holotable, frantically typing Anakin's name.
Soon, Anakin Skywalker's image came up on the holotable, as the entire ship seemed to sigh in relief, especially Adenan, who literally ran over to the image.
"Rex, Adenan, what's up?" Asked Anakin, very casually
"We received a distress call from Shili, a Clone Trooper claiming his forces heavily attacked by Traditionalists… we need advice." Adenan told his Master, as Anakin processed this information.
It had been a few seconds, until Anakin came to a decision, "Go on hyperspace to Shili, I'll bring as much reinforcements as possible in about a few hours."
"Yes Master." The former-Masterless Padawan bowed, as the holotable was shut down by Rex
All the Clones went quickly to respond to Anakin's orders, as the hyperdrive was being prepped. Adenan used the Force to open a door to his right, as he bolted through it.
There were about a dozen doors before Adenan came to what he was looking for, Caleb Dume's quarters in the ship.
The doors flew open using Adenan's force prodding, as he saw a drowsy Dume walking around.
"Caleb, over here." Adenan called out softly, as the Padawan turned tiredly towards Adenan
"What is it?" Dume asked, drowsiness obvious in his voice
"What happened last night?" Adenan decided to ask
"Clones. Kept me up with party." Caleb answered, as Adenan mentally berated himself, as he was the one who had the power to stop that party.
"Anyway, sorry to say this, but you need to be active again, we're arriving in hyperspace to Shili, it is believed that Traditionalists are there." Adenan replied, as Caleb suddenly became more energetic, and ran towards the refresher.
Adenan snorted at that, as he didn't want to laugh too loudly. He left the room, knowing that Caleb knew the ship ever since they achieved it. One thing that Padawan enjoyed was ships and flying, though not to a point as Adenan, let alone Anakin Skywalker.
Adenan smiled, as he walked out of the room, going through the same corridors he went in, and on to the bridge, where stars were streaked outside and troopers preparing for battle.
"What's the ETA to Shili?" Adenan asked Captain Rex, who turned to see Adenan
"One hour. All troopers are on standby and waiting for orders." Rex answered, standing straight
Adenan looked around, as he then picked up his comm. link, and contacted his Master, Anakin Skywalker.
Static was heard from the small, cylindrical machine, as Anakin's voice spoke out, "Adenan. What's going on?"
"Nothing, I just want to know how's it going on your side." Adenan requested
"My side? Oh! Well, I have ordered all Balancers to prepare their troops. All cruisers are launching now, hopefully that information was correct, else everyone will be disappointed." Anakin replied, as Adenan laughed at the last statement.
"Ok then, we're gonna be in Shili at approximately an hour." Anakin was told by his Padawan once he finished laughing.
"Good. And we'll be there in two. Good luck during that one hour." Skywalker cut off the call, as Adenan put away the comm.
Caleb arrived at the bridge when the cruiser just went out of hyperspace, the entire ship shook, as it was seen that numerous Traditionalist and Balancer forces were locked in heavy battle, with the Traditionalist forces winning.
The Traditionalist ships did follow Republic ship design, while the Balancer ships followed a New Republic design-rule, which included use of more red and green, with a new symbol.
"Fire at all Traditionalist ships, do not hesitate." Adenan ordered, his voice was transmitted all across the three ships he had, as all started firing at the Traditionalist ship.
"Adenan. What about us?" Caleb asked, running towards Adenan, who glanced at Caleb before looking at the unfolding battle
"We go down to ground, the five cruisers have prevented all the Traditionalists from escaping, luckily, now, we try to apprehend as many Traditionalists as we can, kill if needed." Was the answer from Adenan, Caleb frowned slightly, knowing that the first option couldn't be done.
The two walked towards a ship that was placed on the hangar. It was the Twilight, which Anakin gave to Adenan for a temporary time, the Padawan pressed a button on a black remote, placed on his hand. That opened the ramp to the ship. Caleb walked towards the ship and into it. Adenan followed soon after.
Once the two were in the ship, Adenan closed the ramp, as Caleb looked around the old ship, that used to belong to many different people before getting into the hands of Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano just at the start of the Clone War.
The ship lifted from the hangar, the shields were temporarily lowered as the Twilight escaped from the ship. Adenan thanked the Force, since they had one of Anakin's ships right at that moment.
So it had lots of firepower and speed, Anakin always made well-rounded ships that outperformed others.
Adenan was sitting on the pilots seat, trying to manoeuvre across the battle, Caleb tried to shoot down any ships he sensed was the enemy. The pair could literally sense the fear and anger of the Tongrutans down on the planet.
"Caleb. Be ready for battle. I sense this is going to be a hard one." Adenan warned, as Caleb glanced at him briefly, before going back to shooting down Traditionalist forces.
"Wait. We are just brushing past most of the forces, this is pretty easy." Caleb realised, as Adenan frowned
"Yes. Too easy." Anakin's Padawan knew that when something was too easy, bad stuff was lurking around.
The pair shrugged this off, as they started landing procedures, with Adenan zooming ahead of all the space battle. Caleb looked on as the ship entered atmosphere, and the lush greenery and wile landscape of the planet below was shown.
The grey ship landed, on the land that was now partially charred, and dead bodies of both Traditionalist and Tongruta lay. The ramp opened, as both Balancers sorrowfully walked onto the now-battlefield.
There were fires everywhere, From the war, Adenan sadly thought, as he could literally see glows of blue, green, and most prominently, purple, slashing across, damaging the landscape, even beheading some Tongrutans. That was the type of things Balancers did not condone.
Both Padawans realised something right then, the Traditionalists all at one place, Shili, did not make any strategic sense. Adenan frowned at the realisation, as he looked around, trying to think of, why would the Traditionalists invade this place?
The answer hit Adenan like a bat, as he said, "Wait a minute, this is not a strategic invasion. This is a move of pure revenge!"
"Then why didn't they do this earlier?" Caleb asked, interested to know what the other man obviously did.
"The past acts the Traditionalists committed after being ousted from Coruscant were mainly on planets with more resources. Service Corps planets." Adenan started, as Caleb closed his eyes, remembering seeing the dead bodies of his former friends who didn't get a Master. Adenan continued, "They didn't have enough resources to commit an invasion of this magnitude, now, they do."
"If so, then why Shili?" Caleb asked, as Adenan shrugged
"I dunno." Was the only answer
Caleb and Adenan glanced at each other, as they heard the hissing of lightsabers from behind them. The elder Padawan immediately knew the presence behind him, being familiar with it.
"Solace. I thought I told you to make sure not to see me ever again." Adenan stated
"We would not have, had it not been for my new Master, Kenobi, wanting you." Solace growled, Adenan felt shock, but then, he shouldn't have felt that surprised, Kenobi and Solace had become awfully close since the last time he met the two.
Adenan turned around 180 degrees, to face his former friend, Caleb followed suit, Solace looked at Caleb for a while, and then frowned.
"Who is this? Your Padawan?" Solace sarcastically asked, as Adenan suddenly felt a wave of protectiveness come at him. The need to protect Caleb.
"I'm still a Padawan. Too young to be a Knight." Adenan answered, as Caleb stepped forward
Adenan activated a lightsaber, but not just any lightsaber, it was a very unique cross-guard lightsaber, with two smaller plasma beams vertical right beside the main blade. It used the Dathomirian Citrine crystal that Adenan had, his orange crystal was used in the Padawan's main lightsaber.
He had finished on that lightsaber shortly before he and Talimer entered the Jedi Temple to assist Anakin. Now, Adenan was revealing that the lightsaber was his.
"Interesting design." Caleb complimented, before activating his blue lightsaber
"Thanks. I took the weapon design of Pre-Sith War lightsabers as inspiration, I just made my own spin on it." Adenan explained, as Solace activated her own blue lightsaber, which did not mix with her now-yellow eyes and pale skin.
Solace made the first move on Adenan, by using Force-Speed to charge at him. Adenan successfully defended himself from that attack using the left blade, both blades squealing on impact.
The final battle between Adenan and Solace had started.