Battle of New York
New York City - New York - 8:23am EST - July 7 1989
"We've evacuated much of Manhattan and the Bronx." A lieutenant said to Obi-Wan. "Good, good, are the defenses ready?" "Yes sir." A force of 100,000 droids had succeeded in capturing Long Island, and was now moving towards the city. 50,000 regular US troops, 30,000 New York National Guardsmen, 12,000 New York Defense Force troopers, 2,000 New Swedish Guardsmen, 400 Connecticut guardsmen, and 13,000 212th Attack Battalion clones were now in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. Obi-Wan was in command along with an American Major General named Benjamin Lassiter. Also with Obi-Wan was Jason, nervously checking his lightsaber as more citizens were evacuated from Brooklyn and Manhattan.
"Jason." Obi-Wan said "I know war can be frightening-" "It's not that." Jason said. "It's just... this city... What if we fail?" "We won't." Obi-Wan said assuringly, though, in the safety of his own thoughts, he wasn't sure. So much had changed so quickly, and Obi-Wan recalled a little over a year ago when the Jedi were just peacekeepers, not military commanders, not generals, not tacticians.
Meanwhile, down in Brooklyn, Commander Cody of the 212th and Major Phillip MacMurphy of the US Army watched through binoculars as the first Separatist troops approached. "Well, here they are." MacMurphy said. Cody nodded. "We're gonna send these clankers cryin' back to their welder arms." Cody said. As the Separatists approached, many were killed by mines, and the USAF bombed about 103 MTTs and tanks. "Let's blast these shitheads." Phillip said.
Suddenly, a civilian boat transporting citizens out was struck by a Separatist rocket, killing at least a hundred innocents. Phillip watched with tears in his eyes, before his expression hardened. "We need to blast these sonsa bitchas." He said, racking his rifle. Cody nodded, and raised his rifle. The Battle of Long Island began. Early skirmishes began, with the Americans and Clones continuing to fall back towards the main defense in Brooklyn.
Separatist and US/Republic forces clashed in Brooklyn, with bombs and tanks on both sides destroying many empty homes, as abandoned cars were blown away, and troops fought in extremely brutal house-to-house fighting. Cody and Phillip moved back to the edge of Brooklyn, as their troops began to retreat into Manhattan, with much of Brooklyn destroyed the CIS had succeeded in taking all of Long Island, but attempted landings in Newark, New Sweden, and Stanford, Connecticut had failed, leaving Long Island as the only major CIS holding on the East Coast.
The two commanding officers retreated into Manhattan, as the Separatists attempted to figure out how best to invade the island, with the bridges being well defended. The tactical droid commanding the operation watched the island. Sure, his forces held this "Long Island", but only that. This city seemed to be important to these Americans, meaning capturing it would be a major blow to their national psyche, and would hopefully help force them to surrender. Hopefully.
"Open fire." The droid said in his emotionless metal voice. The Separatists launched a barrage of Manhattan, destroying multiple buildings, killing civilians and soldiers. "Halt." the droid said. The barrage stopped, having claimed the lives of 670 soldiers and 3,204 civilians. Cody stared at the wreckage, at the horror the Separatists were bringing to this world. Then, he watched as the droids began to march onto the Brooklyn Bridge. "OPEN FIRE!" a clone yelled, and both American and clone soldiers opened fire on the marching droids, cutting down row after row, but they just kept coming. Many clones and Americans were struck down by blaster bolts, but they held firm. Two M1 Abrams tanks rolled across the bridge, firing at the droids to aid their comrades.
The bridge defense held for an hour, but ultimately the Seps broke through at the cost of 22,000 droids. The CIS made it into Manhattan, soon finding itself in tough urban warfare against the enemy, as many of the American forces here were New York City natives, not willing to see their city fall. The clones fought viciously as well, making the droids pay for every inch of land they gained. Not only that, but the lines across the bridge were narrow, allowing the USAF to pick off thousands of them at a time with a single burst of machine gun fire.
In the end, a US bomber dropped a bomb onto the center of the bridge, destroying 12,000 droids at once and sending hundreds more into the Hudson. The other major bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, was soon also destroyed by a bomb, a sort of Scorched Terra tactic. The tactical droid was furious, now he would have to resort to MTTs hovering across the river, a risky move.
As he tried this, several MTTs were sunk by the Air Force, while around 20 managed to enter the city, damaging buildings with their wide frames. About 70,000 droids were unleashed into Manhattan, and they began to worm through the city, with packs of 20 being destroyed by American/clone units. Obi-Wan stood on top of the Empire State Building, when a familiar female voice spoke behind him. "Kenobi." The Jedi spun around to see... Asajj Ventress. "Ventress." Obi-Wan said. "What luck, I was almost missing you." "Charming as ever." Ventress purred.
Obi-Wan ignited his blade as Ventress ignited her duel blades. Obi-Wan raised his saber, slashing at Ventress as she blocked and parried, the two dueling intensely. Meanwhile, on the ground, Jason ignited his saber, blocking droid blaster bolts and slashing at them, while clones and Americans shot down droids around the base of the Empire State Building. The droids had taken the east coast of Manhattan, as reinforcements for the Americans poured in, while another 4,000 212th Clones were landing on the southern tip of the island.
The 70,000 droids had been reduced to around 63,000, while the 107,400 Americans/clones originally in the city had been reduced to 81,000, however the reinforcements continuing to arrive began to hit the remaining droids hard as two US Navy battleships sailed by Long Island. The droids made a move towards Central Park, quickly taking it over, while reinforcements of about 40,000 droids landed in Brooklyn.
The Air Force did another flyover, bombing 14 MTTs, while also damaging much of Brooklyn. Two US jets were shot out of the sky by a Separatist AAT tank, with both crashing into Central Park. Several MTTs made it into the park, mowing down trees as they went. The droids began rushing to set up a shield for the park as two American squads and four clone squads began to approach, backed up by Abrams tanks and clone TX-130 tanks.
Back on top of the Empire State Building, Obi-Wan blocked an attack by Ventress, kicking her in the torso, knocking the sith assassin back towards the edge of the roof. Obi-Wan twirled his blade in his hand, before approaching Ventress. "You will not win this war." He said. Ventress grinned. "That's what you think, Kenobi." She sprung back up, lunging at the Jedi Knight, who blocked her attack with ease. "My darling it's almost as if you arn't trying." Obi-Wan said, a slight grin across his face.
Ventress blocked a slash from Obi-Wan, jumping up onto an upper level of the roof. Across from them, a Separatist drop ship exploded, its debris crashing into an office building, as two Separatist Hyena bombers exploded in between the Twin Towers, crashing into the building's plaza. Wait, Hyenas? Phillip and Cody, on the ground, looked up to see a large amount of Separatist bombers and fighters approaching from above.
The Air Force alerted all fighters in the area to focus on incoming enemies. In space, a large number of CIS fighters slipped past the still-ongoing battle to enter Terra. However, many of the Separatist fighters were destroyed from afar by the USAF, while ARC-170s and Y-wings from the Republic fought them in dogfights far above multiple cities, such as New York, Berlin, Chicago, and Petrograd.
Above NYC, the fight was intense, as USAF jets took out Separatist fighters in some of the first dogfights on Terra in 40 years. Destroyed fighters on both sides crashed down into the Hudson or Manhattan, several exploding and killing more soldiers and civilians. Civilians who had either not fled or been unable to now raced westward, carrying as much as they could as they ran behind the American/clone lines into upper New York and New Sweden. Speaking of New Sweden, it deployed another force of its National Guard to aid its neighbor while members of the New Holland, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts National Guards arrived, totaling 50,000 troops, to aid in defending Manhattan. Staten Island was well defended by an entrenched New York/New Sweden force, while the 212th and New York National Guard launched a major attack towards Central Park, which was quickly becoming the Separatist's key base in Manhattan as they activated a shield covering a portion of the park.
"Dammit!" Phillip shouted as he watched the shield go up. "How the hell are we gonna get that down?" "We can send in a strike team to shut it off." Cody said. "Those shields only stop blasters and vehicles, not people." Phillip nodded. "I'll do it." Said a voice behind the two men. They both turned to see Jason and a squad of Americans and clones. "I'll bring those sumbitches down." Cody nodded. Thus, Jason -together with five Americans and five clones- would go into Central Park and shut off the shield so the built up force there could be bombed by the Air Force, or destroyed from the ground.
The small improvised team began to make its way down the war-torn streets, past bodies of droids, Americans, and clones, past wrecked cars and shattered storefronts, passed abandoned tanks and ruined speeder bikes. They gunned down several droids left alive, before reaching the edge of Central Park. "On me." Jason said, leading his team up to the edge of the shield, where they quietly slipped in.
Meanwhile, while this was going on, Obi-Wan continued to duel Ventress, before finally getting an edge, kicking one of her sabers over the edge and down to the street far below. "Give up, my dear." Obi-Wan said, putting extra emphasis into the last part. Ventress glared and twirled her blade. "Not today, my precious." She said, before leaping over the side of the building, down onto a Separatist dropship.
As this was happening, Jason and the team pushed farther into Central Park, killing a couple droids as quietly as possible as they approached the shield generator in the center of the park. Jason ignited his saber, when suddenly he heard "THERE THEY ARE!" Crap. Droids from across the park began to converge towards the center. "RUN!" Jason yelled, as he and his team sprinted towards the generator as blaster bolts began to cross the park. Two American men dropped, as three clones also dropped. Shit. Jason was shoved to the ground by a clone who took a blaster shot for him. "NO!" Jason yelled. Now he only had three American men and one clone left. The remaining team made it to the generator as another American dropped. Jason slashed the generator as the last clone went down. The hazy blue field of energy protecting the Separatists went away as he took a blaster shot to the leg. He felt himself go numb as his fellow Americans dragged him into a tree field. "We're gonna make it out of here." One said. He comrade nodded. "You okay boss?" the second asked. Jason winced. "Kind of? My team... my team..." "They gave their lives for victory." the first said. Jason nodded, sitting up, clutching his saber as he felt some kind of energy go through his body.
Not energy like one gets after good sleep, no, this was different. Was this... the force? Jason stood, the pain in his leg vanishing. "Sir?" "Boss?" He ignored the calls of his men as he turned to face the approaching droids. "Go. Get back to safety." He said. "You crazy, I don't care what shitty magic space powers you got!" He felt himself be tugged back as the trio began to run towards the edge of the park. Jason, understanding he had to live, followed his men out. "So sorry we interrupted your heroic last stand." One of the soldiers said. "Just go." Jason said, as the trio burst from the streets out onto the rough sidewalk.
They laid there, panting. "The fuck were you thinking?" One soldier asked Jason. "I... I don't know... I just felt... something..." "Yeah yeah." the other said "Your magic space powers."
Suddenly, the roar of USAF bombers could be heard. "Shit, we gotta go!" The three soldiers got up and ran as two Rockwell B-1 Lancers flew overhead, bombing Central Park and destroying the entire Separatist base there. Soldiers across the city cheered, however the battle was not won yet.
Another Separatist force had landed in the Bronx, deploying 30,000 droids. However, Manhattan was almost entirely secured, thus, the American/clone forces turned to face the new CIS force. Obi-Wan, having gotten down from the Empire State Building, joined Jason, Cody and Phillip in the wreckage of Central Park. "We're ready, General." Cody said. Obi-Wan nodded. "Let's go." He said. The American and Clone forces consolidated in Manhattan, making a total force of 120,000, as another 60,000 droids landed in the Bronx, making a total droid force of 90,000.
So began one of the largest if not the largest battle in American history, with two titanic forces slamming into each other, as the bridges from Manhattan to the Bronx were destroyed, leading to violent shooting across the river, as both sides dug in. Eventually, the battle went quiet, as both sides had no way of quickly mobilizing on the other. "What do we do?" Obi-Wan asked. "We pull back." Phillip said. "Look!" Coming up the Hudson were two US navy ships. The ships then unleashed a full broadside upon the entrenched Separatists as Phillip cackled loudly. "YEAH BABY! COMMAND BROUGHT THEM OUT, NOTHING BEATS RAW FIREPOWER!"
The troops across the city celebrated, whooping and hollering. The Battle of New York was won.
President's Bunker - Washington - 10:34am EST
President Bush sighed in relief at the news of the victory in New York, but that relief soon turned into horror and anger at the long list of dead soldiers and civilians. Over 70,000 total had died in the Battle of New York. Quayle spoke. "All those dead..." Bush pounded his fist on the table. "NEVER AGAIN! We will make these Separatists pay for every American life they take." Quayle nodded. "You're damn right we will."
Battle of Chicago
Chicago - Illinois - 9:34am CST
Anakin Skywalker slashed and hacked at the oncoming droids as American troops of the Indiana, Illinois, Hamilton, New Bavaria and Ohio National Guards and SDFs -numbering 100,000 troops- and 120,000 troops of the 501st Legion defended the city of Chicago from 230,000 droids marching north from their landing spot a few miles south of the city. The battle had been going on for about an hour, with the Separatists only making minor advances into the city, but they were getting closer. The USAF and Republic Y-wings were doing a good job at bombing the incoming enemies, but they just kept coming, and were beginning to get into the city, and the USAF refused to risk destroying the city, thus having to resort to limited, controlled bombings.
Using urban warfare to their advantage, the American/Republic defenders managed to inflict terrible damage on the incoming Separatists. However, the southeast defense collapsed, its troopers being massacred, allowing the droids to begin to pour into the city, with this, Anakin ordered a full scale assault on the invaders to prevent a surrounding of the defending forces. This daring attack managed to succeed, taking out around 23,000 droids and forcing them to dig in around the southeast.
With this loss, the CIS forces launched a straight massive assault on the city, killing thousands of soldiers and civilians with bombing of Chicago's southern suburbs. This assault allowed them to break through and make it into the city, with MTTs and AATs entering the inner city. Due to this, Anakin ordered a counterattack using a central piercer attack with two east and west prongs hitting the sides of the enemy force. The attack was launched, with Anakin leading the central prong, and Rex and Sergeant Appo leading the other two.
From there, a total force of 60,000 assaulted the CIS lines from the east and west, making a massive three pronged attack of 150,000 soldiers. The CIS lines began to crumble, however, the droid commander ordered an emboldened assault forward, not understanding the resolve of the enemy he was facing. The Separatists doubled down on their attack, pushing in against the piercer attack, while managing to barely hold off the two prongs assaulting from the city, in the meantime running low on power while gunning for the city center.
The commander hoped to reach the coast of Lake Michigan and cut the defending force in two, and while he was getting closer, he was also loosing troops rapidly, being led deeper and deeper into inner Chicago, as two Apache Attack Helicopters flew overhead to dumb barrels of water on around 2,700 droids total, causing them to electrocute, and the water also cast the droid lines into chaos, with around 10,000 droids charging forward faster into a direct assault led by Anakin and Rex.
With that, 10,000 droids were erased, leaving the commander with a large portion of troops lost. With this, he ordered his force to split into two blobs of around 30,000 droids each, and he then ordered them to head east and west. This attack did catch the defenders off guard, allowing them to gain a slight advantage against the defenders, giving the droids control of central Chicago, while also running low on power and cut off from any supply lines, as most AATs and MTTs were destroyed by USAF and Army tanks.
Rex and Sergeant Appo both split off to lead two divisions of Americans and clones to attack both remaining Separatist groups. Both attack divisions comprised around 20,000 men. Appo attacked by splitting his force into four groups of 5,000 men and attacking from all sides, while Rex split his into two groups of 10,000 and attacked from the north and south.
Rex's attack worked well, splitting his enemy into two and slowly eliminating them, while Appo's attack failed, and he was forced to retreat with his men further north while the droids chased him. With Appo's attack having failed, a US Army Major named Greg Quill ordered his forces to respond and attack the droids from the side, succeeding in breaking into their lines. At high cost, the second major droid force in Chicago was destroyed, with around 1,000 droids fleeing east towards Indiana, where they were destroyed by an Apache.
However, there still remained around 30,000 droids in the Chicago suburbs, which were now firmly CIS territory. Anakin stood with Rex and Major Quill. "What do we do now, General?" Rex asked. "I don't know!" Anakin replied. The CIS, however, was suffering severely in the air, as the USAF destroyed most Separatist fighters and bombers from miles away. Eventually, Anakin decided on a three pronged assault to gain control of the suburbs and squeeze the Separatists out.
Anakin would lead the central prong, Rex would lead the eastern prong, and Quill would lead the western prong. The attack began at high noon, as the three prongs attacked. Anakin led the charge down a suburban street which by this point was mostly flattened, as his men hid behind cars and in ruined houses to fire at the droids, who were totally exposed, forcing about 700 to scatter, being easily pickings for the troops.
In the east, Rex's prong attacked swiftly, making heavy use of cover, soon Rex ordered the force to slow down and take its time, moving from street to street after the fleeing droids. In the west, Quill attacked quickly and without mercy, which, while costing him many man, proved effective, his force stabbing deep into the droid lines and forcing many back towards Anakin and Rex, while the rest fled south back towards their temporary base where many damaged droids were repairing and recharging.
A single Y-wing took out most of this, giving the droids nowhere to go and forcing them to flee further south out of Cook County where a USAF flyby eliminated the rest. The soldiers began to whoop and cheer, however, in Lake Michigan, the CIS landed fifteen MTTs, prepared for another major invasion of Chicago, with most American/clone forces in the south.
With this, the men had to quickly move through the rubble and droid bodies north, because of this, the CIS had an easier time taking the Chicago beachhead and quickly captured much of downtown Chicago, slaughtering civilians as they went. The droids began to fortify as the first American and clone forces crashed into them, with tanks firing at the droids, however, the droids were now forced to go on the defensive, something they didn't do well, especially in this strange foreign environment. Despite this, they were able to kill large numbers of their enemies, before the Americans managed to get the advantage by making use of house-to-house warfare, with the aid of their clone allies. The New Bavaria National Guard, under the command of Quill, broke through a droid defense on a tight side street, allowing troops to pour in as the Illinois National Guard began to assault droid defenses on wider streets from behind.
The Ohio National Guard pushed north, then west, joined by 1,500 clones, crashing into more defenses from behind, shocking the droids and causing all out mayhem in the streets. Anakin brought down two tactical droids, before spying another droid commander in an AAT. Anakin charged it, slicing two droids down, leaping up and slashing the AAT's barrel off, before grabbing the commander by his head as his pathetic tin voice begged for mercy, and smashing the thing's head down on the pavement.
The droids began to retreat westward up towards New Bavaria, with the USAF and Republic fighters blasting them all the way, however about 500 droids escaped into the woods of eastern New Bavaria. Quill, a bullet wound in his torso, was taking off for medical treatment, while Anakin assembled the American and clone commanding officers in a ruined intersection. "Gentlemen, we have won." Anakin said.
President's Bunker - Washington - 1:23pm EST
Bush watched the screen of his datapad update with the casualties from Chicago. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians. So many names and faces, all of them gone. Of course, the Third Great War had cost hundreds of thousands of men, but, this was different. Quayle sighed, also watching the casualty numbers. "They gave their lives for our nation." Bush nodded.
Longest chapter yet! Hope it's okay that I included two major battles in one chapter, I couldn't find a way to drag either battle out without it becoming boring. This will probably be my plan for the next few major battles, including two or three each chapter. Please do leave a comment including any suggestions and questions you may have for the story and for the future chapters. I will be including responses to these commends in future chapters assuming I get enough and the ones I get are good. Stay tuned!