Had fun updating this chapter and recreating it to my needs, hope you guys love it and just a reminder that if Reyne of fire 3 and a new project myself and helghy are working on will be updated and released reaaallly soon hope you guys enjoy
Jedi General Pong Krell is a proud man, a furious warrior and a ruthless General. A war hero, he was recognized as a man who could get a job done at any cost. However, his recent actions had led to the Jedi order, and the Grand Army of the Republic, to become wary of him.
His actions on Umbara had led to him being recalled back to the Jedi Temple for a revaluation. He was almost killed by the Clones of the 501st due to him leading them to their deaths and showing no sympathy or concern for the Clones who fell in battle. Under his leadership, the Republic suffered 65% casualties on Umbara, most of them due to his relentless and practically suicidal tactics on the battlefield.
He was saved by Obi Wan and Skywalker mere minutes before he was supposed to be executed for treason and crimes against the Republic. He was re-evaluated and deemed fit to serve once more, but was demoted to a Jedi Knight.
Now, here he was, leading the assault on Mandalore. This would be his chance to regain his former prestige, honour and position as a master of the order.
He had no love for the Clones; he saw them as nothing more than tools to be used in war and thrown away when deemed useless. He had no love for the Jedi either; they were fools in his eyes, overly sentimental and blind.
Outwardly, he maintained the appearance of his ties to the Jedi and Republic; in secret he had embraced the Dark Side of the Force. He would never admit it, for if he did, he would be branded as a traitor and would be immediately terminated. While he didn't like Clones, he knew they could be a very effective fighting force, and he did not want to have the Republic hunting him.
"General Krell, we are entering the upper Orbit." The Captain of the ship said as he saluted the Jedi Commander. Krell was known to be intolerable of insubordination and required a strict adherence to command from all of his soldiers, lest they be executed under the pretext of insubordination no matter how slight. None of the Clones liked Krell before, but after his actions of Umbara the Clones hated him.
"Good, have the gunships ready to send a vanguard to secure the Capitol, the transport ship will follow after." Krell ordered, much to the shock of everyone on the bridge, but kept working.
"B-but sir, wouldn't it be best if we establish a foothold on the planet and along with a supply line and reinforce our positions before we head to the Capital? The Capital is surely to be heavily defended. Not to mention any defences they might have prepared on their moons." The Captain protested as many of the Clones on the bridge went wide eyed.
The Captain must have had a death sentence, but he made fair points. Sending Clone gunships with a handful of Clones to take on the whole Capital city was sure to be a suicide mission. Krell turned around and looked at the Captain with anger in his eyes.
"Tell me Captain, who is the commander that was assigned to lead this invasion?" Krell questioned, spitting out the Captain. The said Captain was now sweating hard. His arms feeling heavy as Krell drew the force around himself increasing his already overbearing presence .
"W-well, s-sir that w-would be you." The Captain answered under the ruthless gaze of his Commander.
"Exactly, and as such you will follow my orders and keep your 'opinions' to yourself. Am I understood Captain?" Krell ordered with a growled the sheer venom held within his voice could have killed thirty Rancors. He would not tolerate these Clones from questioning his methods and orders.
"Y-yes sir." The Captain responded as he went on to give the order. He hated it. He was going to send his men to their deaths, and he couldn't do anything about it. It was either get killed by the enemy or get killed by his commander.
The Captain was a Clone Trooper once, a mighty fine one at that. His ability to lead companies into battle and win is what got him promoted to a Captain. A Clone as a Captain of a ship was unheard of before, but it was possible and as such he was about to send his brothers to their deaths. Just as he was about to exit the bridge, the entire ship shook. The Captain stumbled as he got back up on his feet and looked out to starboard and witnessed a Separatist fleet right behind them! Quite a large one that.
"We are under attack! Separatist warships have launched an attack behind us!" One of the many yelled out as Krell growled. What were the Separatists doing here? This wasn't their war. Now he had two choices, keep pushing to Mandalore or turn around and face the enemy, he chose turning around.
"Turn the fleet around, we will deal with these Separatists first and the Mandalorians second." Krell ordered as they all obeyed him. His ships began to turn, taking wide sweeping arcs to get themselves within position.
"Tell those ships to surround us and cover us from fire, we'll drive the spear point into the hearts of the enemy" Many of the clones frowned at this order, knowing full well that many of the ships shielding the Venator wouldn't survive. The Venators shields managed to hold. However, the frigates around them weren't holding up too well. Most had been disabled or slightly damaged.
"General Krell, is that you? I see that you weren't executed for what you did on Umbara." Krell turned to find the origin of the voice, only to find the holotable turned on and a hologram of the Mandalore in all his glory. Naruto, standing there. The others in the bridge acknowledged the hologram with thinly veiled curiosity wondering why the arch traitor had decided to contact them.
"So, I see that you have joined the Separatist, traitor." Krell stated. Naruto just shook his head.
"Wrong, I didn't join the Separatists; I had some caches hidden, but enough of that. It seems like the order deemed you fit to serve once more, how foolishly naive of them." Naruto said, shaking his head in disappointment, it was felt easily in his tone, almost as if he were talking to a child.
Krell narrowed his eyes. His temper flaring slightly.
"What do you mean?" He questioned, as Naruto looked at him with a knowing look on his face.
"The fact that you have embraced the Dark Side of the Force." Naruto answered, much to Krell's shock. He was sure that he had masked that aspect of him. The others looked at Krell with questioning looks. They all knew what the Dark Side of the Force was, and what happened once someone had embraced it and yet the council still allowed him to serve? That couldn't have been right, yet with Krells reaction it seemed to be true.
Naruto's eyes washed over everyone on the bridge and observed their reactions. This was what he wanted. He was broadcasting the transmission to the entire Republic fleet and all over their ships.
"Captain Cunningham was it? You were a trooper once and if I am correct, you served under me once as well before your promotion. Tell me, do you really wish to serve this man? A man who'd sooner let you all die than actually try any sensible thought " Naruto questioned.
The now named Captain Cunningham thought about the question he was asked. He held no love for Krell, no one in the Republic did, and to be honest he had no love for the Republic either, just as they showed no love for his kind.
They were seen as tools, not even living beings. Their own creators, the Kaminoans, saw them as nothing more than lab rats, simple creations they could destroy and manipulate anytime they wished.
However, he felt it was his duty to defend those who could not defend themselves, and fight to keep the galaxy at peace. He decided to grow a backbone for once and stand up for what he really believed in.
"No. I don't like serving under him, I hate wasting the lives of my men under his orders" He answered. He knew Naruto and he had served under him once and he remembered his kindness.
Many of his brothers had served under him and he was a true leader. He fought with everything in mind. He put the safety of his men and civilians first and then his own, and he truly believed that Naruto was innocent, regarding the loss of his legion; there was no way such a caring and understanding commander could have done such a thing.
Naruto smirked in triumph.
"Good. Now I will ask you another question, would you and your brothers be willing to defect, defect to your true heritage?" Naruto questioned much to everyone's shock. He had just attacked them and now asked them to join him.
Krell was not about to have any of that.
"You are a traitor and an enemy, even these Clones know that" Krell spat disdain heavily evident in his voice.
He shouldn't have said that, as the Clones now grew angry. Naruto's smirk only grew larger. Oh, this was turning out better than he hoped, he had recalled back the fighters and ordered a ceasefire. This was a perfect chance to get a Republic Fleet to defect and join his growing imperium.
"Really? Am I really a traitor? I fought for the I bled for the Republic. I fought for my men and I would have gladly thrown my life away if it meant saving a single soldier and what was my reward? Betrayal. Betrayed by the Republic and betrayed by my Jedi comrades they did not care about me nor do they care about you" he paused for a moment, the clones on the warships all watched in anticipation, their minds whirring with what he could possibly be asking.
"I extend my offer to all Clones; the Republic is corrupt and evil; it is not what it seems. They will use you and discard you like trash. I know the life of a Clone soldier. Your lives are nothing but fighting, rarely ever a rest. never allowed to have a life outside of a soldier's life. Is this what you all want? To live as nothing more than soldiers? What will happen when the war ends? The Republic navy will be dismantled and decommissioned as it was long ago after the old Republic. What will you do then? What will you do when the Republic turns its back on you?" Naruto questioned. He could feel the Clones thinking, their faith in the Republic was crumbling.
This was going better than he could have ever hoped.
"You will all grow old and die faster than any normal man. You will all wither away a decade after the war is over. You won't be remembered as the heroes you are, but only as the Clone army that had once fought. Is that what you want? To have the sacrifices of you and your brothers be forgotten?" Naruto questioned them once more. He could see their answers written on their faces.
"Then I ask you to join me. You all are Mandalorians, the donor of your genes was a Mandalorian himself, and as such you are all Mandalorians. Not only that, but all of us share the same blood with myself, as the donor of your genes was my uncle." the clones gasped, their progenitor's direct relative was amongst them he was truly family.
"Join me and I shall grant you a real life." Naruto said as he could feel their indecision and their shock, yet he could also feel the determination and happiness.
He was related to them and for once he wasn't a Clone...
Family, that word was so foreign to them. All they had was their own Clone brothers as family, nothing else, yet at some point all of them had wondered what it was like to have a real family. He was offering them everything they had once wanted but had pushed aside for the sake of serving the Republic.
"Join me, and together we can save the galaxy from this war that has waged on for long enough. We can put an end to the slaughter of your brothers and the innocent!" Naruto proclaimed and it was at this moment, one of the greatest betrayals in the history of the Republic and would forever be known as the betrayal at Mandalore.
Krell looked around as the Clones armed their weapons and began to approach him. Rifles and pistols aimed in his direction.
He growled in disgust, the force leaping to his will.
"Insubordinate bastards! I'll kill you all!" Krell yelled as he pulled out his lightsabers and was ready to kill them all, but found himself without breath, as if a heavy force clamped down around his windpipe and forced the air from his lungs.
He looked back at Naruto as he was slowly lifted.
"Do not threaten those who I care for. rest in hell where you belong. Kill him." He ordered as the Clones did not respond, their blasters going hot and letting loose a torrent of blue coloured lights, Naruto let the hole riddled body of the now deceased Jedi Commander fall to the ground as the Clones cheered. They would no longer have to sacrifice themselves where he deemed fit.
They were free.
"I welcome you all to Mandalore, your home. You're welcome to use the access stations on Concordia to dock your ships." Naruto said through the transmission before ending it. Home… yes; Mandalore was their home, not Kamino. They might have been born on Kamino, but they were Mandalorian in every way. Being a Mandalorian did not mean they were so by race or by species, being Mandalorian meant they lived the culture. Mandalore was its culture.
And Naruto would rather die than see that culture be wiped out.
Coruscant, a few hours later:
Everyone was confident when they had heard that a sizable fleet was sent to free Mandalore, and even more so when they had heard that the apparently vaunted General Krell would be leading the charge.
Granted, he was not all that popular amongst the Jedi or the Clone army, but he was well liked by the civilians and the bureaucrats as many of them had similar views regarding the Clones seeing them as nothing more than simple fodder.
In the Senate Chambers there was a session going on regarding a new bill, but the session ended abruptly when the latest news on the Mandalore liberation force arrived.
They all had cheered and were already congratulating themselves on a quick and rapid victory. Believing that the clone army had once again triumphed over their enemies. However, the news they received was completely opposite.
"The MLF sent to free Mandalore has defected?!" Were the words of one Anakin Skywalker This was absurd! Sure, he had faced would-be defectors before in the Clone ranks and even some traitors to the cause itself.
but he had never seen a defection of this size and scale! A whole fleet just up and switched sides! Not only that, but the General in command was also executed by the Clones themselves! This was disastrous and a massive blow to the morale of the Republic navy.
Not to mention the anti-Clone riots increasing rapidly, and a rift beginning to form between the Clones and the Republic.
"We didn't expect something like this to happen, it is troubling. Now he has a small fleet and battle-hardened soldiers at his command." Padme said as she looked around the small room and at her friend Satine. She was depressed again and was losing what little faith she had in the Republic quite rapidly.
"Troubling indeed, I will have to talk about this to Master Yoda and the other Masters. We might need a larger force to free Mandalore now. Or we may have to leave them for the time being to call a ceasefire" Kenobi said as he stroked his beard. Satine sighed, this was all her fault and now thousands would die because of her. She had trusted the Republic to free her people, but it was so corrupt that even the Clones sent to free Mandalore had defected.
Who could she turn to now to help her free her people?
Jedi Temple:
"I believe that we should join his side, Master." Aalya stated as she talked to Shaak Ti.
During what free time they had, they had done their own investigation and everything Naruto had said was true, they began to rethink the Jedi order itself.
How can they help others and the galaxy if they isolate themselves? How can they understand people when they are told to suppress their emotions? It seemed like everything the Jedi were meant to do contradicted the Jedi Code. How could there be peace without emotions? How could they be knowledgeable, yet be arrogant at the same time? How can one achieve Serenity when they have no passion to achieve anything? How can they claim that there is no Chaos when a brutal war rages on, yet they call it Harmony? How can they claim that there is no death and only the Force, when in fact, death is very real? Everything she had learned about the order was not being put to the test.
"Patience, we must not make a decision in such a hasty manner. All will be revealed in due time." Shaak Ti answered as Aalya nodded, but deep down she wanted to join his side, that was what her heart wanted.
And that is what she would do even if she had to fight the entire Galaxy by herself.