Two and a half months after the Battle of Geonosis, Gyndine, 2740 hours

A pair of STAPs flew by a cliff edge in the mountains of the Markina Ridge at night. As the droids passed, Hamar emerged from a concealed position behind a rock, a DC-15x held firmly in his hands. He nodded to Karel behind him, who tightened his grasp on his own rifle of the same model as he followed his father along the cliff edge.

"Recon Team Phoenix reporting: One and Two in position. It's starting to get crowded up here, General," Hamar said as he looked down at the river that ran at the bottom of the cliff.

"Then you must be getting close. Report any Separatist activity you find. You may have to take direct action if you get caught," the General ordered.

From the safety of his cruiser in orbit above the planet, Jedi General Nival Odefi coordinated the Republic effort to retake Gyndine and its orbital shipyards. The young Kel Dor had been promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight only a few weeks prior and he had eagerly volunteered to be sent to the front lines like so many of his peers who believed it to be a Jedi's duty to protect and defend the Republic they served.

Back on the surface Karel stopped next to his father, who turned right and reached a ledge, part of the cliff edge that overlooked a small dirt road. Their position was flanked by the cliff on the left and a large boulder on the right.

"Copy that," Hamar replied. He chuckled as he finished the transmission, then turned to his son and said, "You always have to take direct action when a Jetii runs an op."

Karel didn't reply; the situation was one he no longer deemed fit for light-hearted humor. Hamar mentally scolded himself once again, reminding himself that his son wasn't a young kid anymore. Ever since their mission on Akiva he had become more serious, grim. Karel was once the one who never missed the opportunity to crack a joke, especially at a Jedi's expense, while Hamar was the calm and stoic one. Now the roles had reversed and while Karel's attitude when off duty was largely the same as before, during missions he was cool as a dead star and he barely showed any emotions.

"We'll be in touch," the lieutenant colonel said as he nodded to his son, then began climbing the boulder.

Karel nodded back and then, without thinking it twice, slid down the ledge to the dirt road below. The dense clouds in the sky blocked most light reaching the surface so Karel lowered his rangefinder and activated his night vision as he advanced quietly, his sniper rifle pointed down to the ground as the road ahead of him bent to the right and away from the canyon.

"Contact. Enemy patrol 30 meters ahead of you. Two clankers," Hamar warned through the comms.

Karel scrambled for cover behind a large boulder on the right side of the road. He then peeked his head over the rock and sure enough two droids were seen in the distance, both standing sideways to him. He took aim, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

"How do we do this?" Karel asked.

"I got the one on the right. On three."

Karel pressed the stock of his rifle to his shoulder and held his breath as he aimed at the other droid and his father counted down. The recoil came instantly after he squeezed the trigger, the loud but brief shriek of his blaster breaking the silence of the night, and the clankers dropped to the ground with a hole burnt in each of their heads. He rushed to their position and knelt in the middle of the road, then looked around himself to make sure he was alone. After a moment he stood up and began walking in the direction the droids came from, all the while he watched his surroundings and remained alert for any other battle droids that might appear.

"Command, this is Phoenix One. We just engaged two battle droids in Sector G-5. No signs of any enemy structures yet. Requesting further orders," said Hamar.

"Copy your last, Phoenix One. Continue with your mission and head towards observation post Cresh. Our scanners seem to indicate an extraordinarily large electromagnetic signature in that area and we need visual verification," a clone officer replied.

"Copy, Phoenix out," Hamar replied, then said to Karel, "There's a ridge 200 meters southeast of your position, I'll meet you there."

"On my way."

Despite the weight of his armor and extra climbing gear, Karel followed a forested path and reached the rendezvous point in no time. There his father waited for him, aiming his blaster at Karel's direction in case he had been followed.

"Did you run into any trouble?" Hamar asked, standing up as Karel approached him.

"No, it looks like that patrol was the only one in this sector. Something's not right," Karel replied, concern just barely noticeable in his voice.

"Yeah, I was beginning to think that too. We're deep into enemy territory and there are practically no droids."

"You think they know we're here?"

"It's hard to tell," Hamar admitted, then nodded to the ridge behind him. "Let's get to the observation post first. We should be able to see what they're up to from there."

Mildly excited at the chance to brush up on his climbing skills, Karel and his father aimed their rifles over the ridge and fired the ascension cables. After checking the cables were secure, the two Mandalorians started climbing. They rushed to the top of the ridge, the short climb up being just a breeze compared to climbing the highest peaks on Belsak. There their clan had thrived among the ice and snow since the days of the Old Republic, each generation more resilient than the last.

Now silently the two Mandalorians kept advancing towards their objective through another small and forested path. The canopy was thick, protecting them from being spotted from the air. As the two approached another ledge they began leaning forward, then began crawling as they saw a large source of light coming from below the ledge. They deactivated their night vision as they reached the ledge and laid their eyes on the source of the light.

Like a sprawling city in the middle of the darkness, a massive Separatist landing force could be seen ahead of them in the distance. A Lucrehulk-class battleship hovered above the army it had brought to Gyndine while dozens of landing crafts shuttled droids and vehicles between the battleship and the planet surface. Droid fighters patrolled the perimeter from high up in the air to guard against enemy attacks while they set up artillery positions for air defense. Practically every type of Separatist droid and vehicle the Republic had faced before was gathered in front of them preparing to crush the Republic forces once and for all in one fell swoop.

"That's not good," Karel said to himself in disbelief.

He spied on a droid crew as they assembled some sort of gigantic artillery piece, the likes of which Karel had never seen. Almost fully assembled it dwarfed the droids around it and by Karel's rough estimates it must have been twice as long as an AT-TE and slightly taller. "That thing must be powerful enough to blow through an Arquitens."

"More like an Acclamator," Hamar said, then talked in the comms. "Are you seeing this, General?"

General Odefi could hardly believe what he and the rest of his bridge crew were looking at; briefly thinking it was the result of a mind trick. This was an image straight out of a nightmare and for the first time since war broke out he realized what he had signed up for. War, he realized, was not about grandeur and glory to be won on the battlefield, but about death and destruction.

"What in the blazes..." Admiral Zvit, General Odefi's naval commander, whispered as he laid eyes on the hologram in front of him.

With that Odefi was brought back to his senses, not wanting to look afraid in front of the soldiers under his command. A Jedi knew no fear, or at least that's what he was repeating to himself in his mind over and over.

After taking a moment to gather his thoughts, Odefi spoke calmly in the comms. "Confirmed. Receiving Phoenix One and Two's live visual of a Separatist strike force."

"That's no strike force, that's an invasion army," Karel corrected him, always one to speak his mind regardless of the outcome and especially in a situation as dire as this one.

"He's right, General," Hamar agreed. Defeating the army in front of them took priority over reminding Karel to mind his manners. "There are more than enough droids here to crush us in a pitched battle. If we are going to win this battle we have to strike soon while we have surprise on our side."

Odefi weighed his options quietly. The chances of success were small, the chances of survival even smaller, but they had no real alternative. Attacking was the last thing the logic-driven droids would expect. With the right strategy and the three Venators and two Arquitens under his command the Republic might just come out on top, at least long enough for their reinforcements to arrive and change the odds in their favour.

"All recon teams disengage and fall back... May the Force be with all of us."