A long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away. . .
The Second Battle of Kalee - 3 BBC (3 years before the battle of Coruscant)
After the first battle of Kalee, the Republic had almost immediately begun planning for a second invasion, not due to the strategic value of the planet, but instead to prove to the rest of the galaxy that the first battle was merely a fluke due to overconfidence. However, despite more time going into the planning and plenty of evidence to show what went wrong, the Republic changed very little of its strategy for occupying the planet. The main difference in this invasion would be numbers, more clones, more heavy armor, more aircraft, and more ships.
The first question to resolve would be who would once more drop onto the planet, and the answer was quite simple, the 77th and 78th legions would once again return, but now the 1st Siege Battalion and 85th Blitz Battalion would join the ground forces, with a further two Acclamator-class assault vessels added with numerous frigates and support ships to the flotilla led by Captain Asruddana, with the full force was led by Commander of the 77th and veteran of the previous invasion, CT-2001 'Bait.' The main difference of this landing force compared to the previous one, apart from the larger scale, would be the disproportionately large amount of heavy armor, mostly AT-TE walkers and a few HAVw A5 Juggernaut tanks.
In terms of strategy, the Republic decided to change almost nothing from the previous battle, except that the 1st Siege Battalion would be deployed to the frozen southern continent of Grendaju and occupy the capital of Umauna to be used as a fallback point for the other clone units, as Grendaju was considered the least hospitable of Kalee and would likely have the smallest population, while the 85th would act as a quick reaction force, remaining in their Acclamator and aiding any of the other three units when needed. Patrols would also change to be made up of a platoon of clones at least, with numerous AT-TE walkers and other support vehicles such as TX-130 Saber Tanks used as transport and fire support for the clones. With all of this planning finished, the only thing left was to send the soldiers into hell.
Meanwhile, on Kalee, the inhabitants had not been idle; they had spent the months since the first invasion learning to use captured clone equipment, mainly rocket launchers, expanding their already massive tunnel network, and planning for future invasions. They had also petitioned the Confederacy of Independent Systems for supplies, mostly food, and medical supplies, to aid their war effort, which was received and sent almost immediately. But the most impactful change to the Kaleesh plan was the use of explosive devices; mines, both improvised and conventional, as well as satchel charges, would be planted all over the planet and cities to make the clones' lives as difficult as possible. Now all that was left to do was continue to work and wait for the Girpadim, the Kaleesh name for clones meaning bone demons, to come once more.
The battle began during the night in Kaleela, where the people were to wake up to LAAT gunships firing and dropping soldiers onto the streets; meanwhile, the same was happening at Urukishnugal and Umauna. The yellow-highlighted 77th would once more take Kaleela, the dark gray accented 78th would take Urukishnugal, and the green and blue painted 1st would take Umauna. The battle was brief and bloody, and by the third day of the invasion, all three cities were secured, with the populations evacuating the same as before. During the battle, it would later be noted that many of the 77th and 78th units would commit numerous atrocities against the Kaleesh people, including an incident where clones of the 78th lined up numerous 'traitors to the Republic,' including women and children, who were gunned down by a clone with a Z-6 rotary cannon named CT-2889 'Shaker,' who would later be investigated by the Republic due to his conduct during the invasions. Regardless, the clones secured the cities and would begin their patrols outward merely a week after the invasion started.
One of the first successes of the clone patrols was that all clones considered MIA after the first invasion would be found over the first few days of the patrols beginning. None were found alive, some were dismembered, and some only had their severed heads and helmets could be found; one scene had nearly 20 clones impaled with stakes upon trees in a forest near Urukishnugal. However, despite the heavy armor of the new patrols the clones began bleeding manpower as Kaleesh ambushes and mines began to take their toll on the invaders, with Kaleesh tactics getting increasingly creative.
Next will be an account of a Kaleesh ambush by a trooper designated CT-3749 'Nyx' of the 85th Blitz Battalion who had survived the invasion.
"We had begun our patrol outside of Kaleela after we got word from the 77th boys that there had been some stubborn resistance around the city, so we deployed roughly 8 miles west of the town and began marching further west. My platoon, 2nd platoon nicknamed 'Atlas,' was given an AT-TE, four TX-130 Saber tanks, and eight AT-RTs of our ARF detachment 'Apollo.' After about half a mile of marching, we found what the 77th meant by 'stubborn resistance,' we found a field of heads of about 40 or 50, mostly from the 77th but some from the battalion as well. I knew some of the men in that field. . . but we kept marching until we found an abandoned village, with smoke still coming from fires that were seemingly just put out by the natives. I never understood why the 77th and 78th hated the Kaleesh so much at first, even after seeing the bodies and head, but less than 30 minutes after leaving the village, we were ambushed . . ."
"It was at a field of tall reeds that the ambush happened; not a tree in sight, so nobody was expecting an attack; just then the man next to me exploded, and we all got down to cover ourselves against the mine. Less than a second later, I heard a scream behind me and a clone riding on one of the saber tanks getting stabbed in the throat. I was in front of the column near the AT-TE and began to fire towards the back as gunfire began to engulf the field, blasters, and slugs flying all over. I rushed to help the troopers in the back, and that's when I fell into what I thought was a ditch, but when I saw one of the faces of the bone heads" (a derogatory name the clones gave for Kaleesh) "right in front of me and realized it wasn't a ditch, it was a foxhole. We began wrestling in the hole until I was being strangled by the bone head, that's when our platoon commander, 'Animal,' shot the thing, killing it and saving my life, he told me we needed to leave and LAATs were on the way. Then a shot rang out, and before I knew it, 'Animal' was on the ground convulsing with a massive dent in the forehead of his helmet. The fight continued for about 20 minutes until the LAATs came laying down hell on the bone heads, but they responded by firing rockets and grenades at the LAATs, they already long took out the AT-RTs and Saber Tanks, and the AT-TE was immobilized but kept firing anyway. Only one of the LAATs went down, and the platoon, or what was left of it, managed to evacuate, leaving all of our vehicles behind. I found out later more than half our platoon was KIA or MIA, which we all knew was just another way to say KIA, including 'Animal' who died from his wound. After that, we were shuffled back onto our Acclamator, and I would never step foot on the planet again, nor do I ever want to go to that hellhole again."
The patrols carried out by the Republic across the planet would be utter failures, and less than a month after the invasion began, Umauna was evacuated due to Grendaju being far to hospital for the clones and the Grendaju Kaleesh being just, if not more, aggressive than the other Kaleesh. Soon commander 'Bait' had to concede the countryside once more to the natives and began digging heavily into both Kaleela and Urukishnugal to hold out for reinforcements, but unlike the previous invasion, there was no lull in the fighting, instead immediately began raiding and sneaking into the cities killing as many clones as possible before escaping. The raids became so bad for the clones that many troopers lacked sleep for days due to sheer paranoia of waking in the middle of the night and being stabbed.
Kaleela and Urukishnugal were attacked at the same time, during the 49th day of the invasion, with the Kaleesh detonating numerous explosives set days before throughout the cities on strategic positions, large lookout towers, bridges, defensible road intersections, and any area that could hold any number of defenders. Afterward, hundreds of thousands of Kaleesh rushed into the cities on land and under the cities through hidden tunnels, and both cities were plunged into utter chaos. The streets became covered in blood from both sides, bodies littered the alleys and roads, and few buildings were left unscathed despite the 78th and remnants of the 85th and 1st to hold Urukishnugal; the city fell on the seventh day of the battles, and all able bodied clones were sent to Kaleela. The city held for a further five days before the Kaleesh halted their assault, and commander 'Bait,' realizing this was likely his only chance, began evacuating the planet, but unknown to the clones, this was all according to the Kaleesh's plan. As LAATs began lifting off of the planet, hundreds of rockets were launched toward the shuttles, miraculously however most of the pilots were able to dodge the rockets and make it above the atmosphere, but many still fell, and hundreds of clones died just during the evacuation.
In the aftermath of the battle, roughly 20% of the clone force sent to Kalee was still combat effective, with 50% being KIA or MIA, but the biggest losses were in armor, with nearly 90% of all AT-TEs deployed to the planet destroyed and the remainder all taking some damage, and Juggernaut tanks while all returning all had heavy damage dealt to the shear volume of fire dealt to them during their engagements. Both commander 'Bait' and Captain Asruddana would come under heavy scrutiny, but in the end, only Asruddana was court-martialed due to his 'gross inaction during the operation,' it should be noted the 'Bait' and Asruddana very publicly disagreed on many aspects of the invasion and had very 'tense' relationship.
Republic high command initially tried to hide the failure of the operation, but soon the Senate found out and heads in high command began to roll as many in the Senate began questioning the purpose of fighting on Kalee, but the vast majority could only view the defeat as another strike against their pride and power. While the Republic propaganda machine was hard at work demonizing the Kaleesh and censoring any attempt to expose the clone atrocities committed against the Kaleesh people, one piece even mentioned "heroes like Clone Trooper 2889 'Shaker' who defend the freedom of people all over the galaxy."
In the aftermath of the invasion, the Republic would release a galaxy-wide address stating, "The Republic has existed for millennia to defend democracy and freedom and has always returned from any defeat it has been dealt. We will return to Kalee to free its people from the decadence and oppression of its rulers and civilize the people from their backwards and savage ways so they can join the galactic community in peace and prosperity."
The Kaleesh would send out a response to the address via one of their diplomats who was sent to the Republic Senate, which, when translated, read, "Here we will remain most excellently for your return."
Authors note:
The 85th Blitz Battalion and the 1st Siege Battalion are starsim community units from the game Arma 3, I highly recommend you check out their content if you enjoyed this story.
You can watch, find, and join the 85th: On their official website or their YouTube channel (just search Arma 3 85th Blitz Battalion and it should be the first results)
& the 1st: There is a reddit post on r/FindAUnit that explains who they are and how to join, and the YouTube channel ProphettheLegend is run by a member of the unit and how I started watching their exploits.
Fun fact though the trooper 'Nyx' was a random name I came up with, but I later found out that their is an actual member of the 85th called 'Nyx' so I changed their number to reflect to their actual designated number, so if any of the 85th guys see this, I swear 'Nyx' being a character here was just a coincidence.
P.S. Please don't sue me :)