Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Star Wars. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with a commercial aim. It is not for sale or rent.

Phase 29: Tainted liberation

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Part 1

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Coronet City

Corellia

After two years of fighting and commanding armies, Obi-Wan thought that he knew war. He believed he had seen slaughter in ways he could have never previously imagined.

Now, he was ready to sell himself to the Dark Side to make it so.

Kenobi was on top of a heavy Duros tank. He held for dear life as the machine rumbled under his feet and drove through dense smoke over shattered streets. The sound of combat was deafening – a never-ending crescendo of explosions and rapid-fire. Missiles howled like damned souls, carried forward on wings of fire. Laser and particle beams cut like spears through the smoke, while red and angry, blaster bolts rained in all directions.

Below all that noise, came the constant agonized screams of dying soldiers thumping against Obi-Wan's mind. The dead and dying clawed at his sanity, while the cold embrace of the Dark Side closed around him. There was no escaping the poisonous knowledge that he approved of this plan. Obi-Wan ordered it, and now everyone was reaping the consequences.

The tank lurched sharply, its driver revving up the engine, and they plunged into the glowing wall of the enemy theater shield. As soon as the front of the tank crossed, small tubes attached to its chassis popped up, sending eight smoke canisters spinning through the air. They vanished almost immediately, adding to the concealing haze clinging to everything. More tanks, walkers, and support vehicles drove behind them, while a constant stream of infantry poured into the breach.

All Obi-Wan could see with his eyes were vague shapes, illuminated by fires. Tanks and IFVs lined the road, pushed away to make space. Through the Force, everything looked much different. Kenobi could perceive dead and dying, small clusters of wounded attended by medics and waiting for evacuation, fallen soldiers, and what might be pieces of others… Then there were the dead, unceremoniously pilled up besides burning vehicles for later identification and processing.

The first two echelons Kenobi sent into the meat-grinder were combat ineffective now, with the first broken and nearly destroyed. The last elements of the second held a perimeter allowing for safe deployment of reinforcements through the shield, even though they were under heavy assault. Infantry companies ran by the side of the boulevard, fanning to the left and right to reinforce the units holding the flanks. Meanwhile, the heavy elements of the third echelon raced through, and all too soon, reached the point of contact.

The smoke was less dense here. Compared to the thick silver wall dropped between the two theater shields, it was little more than thin mist. It was still good enough to degrade long-range targeting, especially when combined with the best ECM the GAR could place on ground vehicles.

Finally, Obi-Wan could properly see the battlefield, and he immediately wished that the smoke was denser.

Kenobi could see hundreds of bodies. Soldiers in charred, melted armor, laid everywhere. Others were little more than humanoid-shaped lumps melted into vehicles they couldn't escape from or used for cover when struck.

At the front, where the fighting was fiercest, three Duros tanks used a burning barricade for cover. The surviving tanks had pushed no less than thirty destroyed Republic vehicles to form a simple barrier. Behind the tanks, walkers stood over heaps of rubble - all that remained from demolished and melted facades of skyscrapers. A few smaller buildings were even less fortunate, turned into little more than smoking piles of rubble with soldiers and machines crawling all over them.

Here and there, damaged IFVs and APCs stood out, surrounded by clusters of infantry. More armored soldiers crawled all over the place, searching for any dubious cover they could find. If it wasn't for their new shielded armor, Obi-Wan doubted that any of them would be still alive.

Downstreet, hell awaited them all. Upgraded Separatist tanks advanced towards their positions, covered in dark, sloped armor and bristling with weapons. At least a dozen Tri-Droids towered above them, providing fire support with missiles and laser cannons. As if that wasn't bad enough, Obi-Wan could see a tremendous amount of firepower falling upon the remnants of the second echelon, coming down from practically every building past the barricade.

Heavy missiles howled overhead. A few of them took a sharp dive and dispensed hissing smoke canisters, quickly cutting down the line of sight. The others went forward, facing desperate defensive fire from the droids. Shortly before reaching the enemy lines, the missiles disintegrated, raining sub-munitions all over the street. Before the smoke cut down visibility, Obi-Wan could see bright explosions and the tell-tale purple glow of Ionic radiation.

More missiles roared overhead. This time, they were much smaller. While Obi-Wan's tank took position beside the three holding the barricade, the missiles struck. The explosions lit up the silver smoke, scattered some of it before it rushed back as if sucked in by a hard vacuum. For a brief moment, Obi-Wan saw blossoming explosions, and a few implosions crawl up and down the facades of multiple buildings before the smoke fell back in place.

A heavy six-wheeled ground truck came to a screeching halt behind the tanks on point, nearly colliding with the cheerfully burning melted remains of identical vehicles. Its back split open, revealing a powered-up shield emitter. Multi-colored energy streamed up from it. It twisted like a vortex, before splitting up to form a ten meters tall dome. The shield soon spread to surround the forward GAR position. Blaster bolts, laser strikes, and missiles impacted the shield, unleashing their fury on its surface, yet it held for now.

Obi-Wan still waited, while his third echelon kept pouring into the breach. Tanks, followed by wheeled IFVs split in two, driving around the barricade. Walkers followed up in sedate pace, while more missiles howled overhead. A squadron of Vultures screamed from above, descending over the boulevard. Missiles and rapid-fire laser cannons from air defense vehicles rose to meet them.

The tactical shield managed to survive the Droid fighters' onslaught, if barely. However, they didn't break off and despite suffering punishing casualties, they kept going, doing their best to strafe the clustered GAR units. The deflectors of the heavy tanks in the column helped absorb the brunt of the attack, however, they couldn't stop it. Here and there, the odd laser bolt struck, vaporizing infantry, or carving through a vehicle, and turning it into a burning coffin. The following machines simply pushed the destroyed ones aside, to join the long procession of blazing metal coffins lining up the boulevard.

"Dagger Actual to all Dagger elements," Kenobi spoke for the first time since the assault began. "Advance."

From this point on, it wasn't going to be a race, but a slow, ponderous siege. Heavy shielded tanks led the way, methodically demolishing the buildings surrounding their way to the heart of Coronet. IFVs provided support with rapid-fire heavy repeater blasters and turret-mounted E-Webs, while clusters of infantry advanced behind them to keep Droids from interfering. More and more missiles streaked above the GAR forces, unleashing their fury down the length of the boulevard.

Meanwhile, Obi-Wan gathered the Force around his body, until the air shimmered with power. He waited, observing the enemy through it, and thrust his hands forward when the time was right. A column of Hellfire tanks advanced towards the breach. From what little Kenobi could observe through the Force, there was little noticeable modification to the design. They were fast, fragile, and able to unleash a deadly hail of missiles, before retreating to rearm. The ten odd-looking machines unleashed a barrage of three hundred missiles at the GAR positions, explaining how they overwhelmed the tactical shields of the first and second echelon. The missiles streaked above the boulevard like a cloud of arrows, that wouldn't be out of place on an ancient battlefield. They briefly rose, before plunging at a steep angle towards the Republic armor.

Instead of raining death upon the Republic soldiers, the missile salvo halted in its tracks, stopped cold by Obi-Wan's telekinesis. Their rocket motors howled, straining to push through the impossible resistance.

It was futile. Obi-Wan ground his teeth, drawing more and more power, then pushed forward, throwing the missiles away. They tumbled through the air, flying in all directions. Another push ensured that the few that still streaked toward the GAR positions would fly away. Moments later, three hundred explosions rippled all over the enemy positions.

The third echelon kept a slow and steady advance, prompted more by the need to spread out and the push of incoming reinforcements, than the desire to charge into the teeth of the enemy defenses. Instead, the GAR units were keen on maintaining a long-range duel, until they could shatter the heavy defense positions facing them. The need to neutralize any potential minefields through bombardment and Ionic warheads certainly played a part in that calculation.

In truth, the assault already achieved its primary objective. It broke through the enemy's forward defenses, pinned down a large number of their forces, and allowed multiple special forces units to slip in and go hunting the Separatist shield generators. With those down, the waiting Acclamators could prove decisive.

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Part 2

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Coronet City

Corellia

A Sergeant.

Ahsoka blinked at the young woman, who was just a few years older than her. That was who her people managed to scrounge as a ranking Corellian officer in the whole area. Oh, there were many more Corellians in the region – their shattered units had dug in around the ever-shrinking pocket of territory holding the civilians. However, most of those were now little more than isolated strongholds, controlling the approaches to the dubious safe sector behind them with what little firepower they had left. There was nothing like a proper continuous defense line. If the Separatists wanted the Corellian positions overran, they could have done it weeks ago.

There was no need to kill your bait. Doing so was counter-productive when there was a bigger quarry you wanted to catch. A quarry like Ahsoka's Regiment and all the brave fools who made the drop with her.

"Colonel, sir…" The shell-shocked local mumbled through bleeding lips. Most of her face was a huge bruise in the shape of a metal hand.

"I need a situation report, Sergeant. We need to hold this position until further reinforcements can fight their way to us. To do that, I need to know, what I'm working with," Ahsoka spoke slowly and soothingly, drawing on her Jedi training. Something told her that trying a Drill Sergeant routine would be a spectacularly bad idea.

"There were two Companies of us holding the plaza when your attack began…" The Sergeant spoke in a thick Corellian accent, making her words a bit hard to understand. "The tinmen hit us with everything they could as soon as you began landing. If they persisted with the assault, I'm sure none of us would be here. One moment they were about to overrun us, then, there were no more tinmen trying to kill us all." The Sergeant looked around with unfocused eyes. "Not that there are many of us left to kill now. As for command, a Commando unit struck the Major's CP. There were no survivors. I honestly can't tell you who else is left alive, or who is supposed to be in overall command of this disaster of a siege. Our last general bought it about two weeks ago, and it has been downhill from there."

"Medic, see to the Sergeant." Ahsoka nodded in thanks to the exhausted soldier and shouted. "Someone, get me a count of the combat-capable defenders left in this sector. Any engineers still alive, reinforce remaining defensive positions and get us what mines we've got on the obvious approaches…" Ahsoka rattled a string of orders.

They all could hear and feel it – the rest of the GAR was coming, and the sound of combat was ever-present thunder drowning everything else in the distance. Countless flashes lit up what passed for a horizon in this desolate hell of a city.

If the Droids had a say in the matter, they would be regrouping and preparing for a final assault against the cut-off units, before reinforcements could reach them. That done, they could concentrate on inflicting as many casualties on Kenobi's soldiers as they could.

"Colonel, we've got movement beyond the perimeter. It reads as small Droid clusters, scouting elements I reckon." That was one of the Duros tankers, who was on over-watch thanks to his machine's sensors. Even with the jamming, they were still good at short range.

So much for getting a breather and properly reforming her rag-tag command. Ahsoka silently cursed the clankers and went back to doing her job.

"Time's running out. Get all the wounded at a secure position and hunker down. We'll hold here!" Ahsoka declared. "I want sharpshooter up those buildings, on the double…"

The tanker was right! What hit them a couple of minutes later were probes – squad-sized Droid groups, often led by a Commando, that had its chassis repaired with whatever spare parts it could find. These things were smart – there was nothing in the way of the usual wave assault tactics preferred by the Separatists. They weren't trying to drown the defenders in numbers, instead, they probed forward carefully, used suppressive fire to cover each other, and the various units supported those around them. It was more like looking at groups of Clones doing the same than a Separatist operation.

That, Ahsoka decided, didn't bode well for the war at large. Quality had been the Republic's greatest advantage to date, yet with all the green formations hitting the front, it was going to take a sharp hit. If at the same time, the quality of the enemy raised sharply, then that was a recipe for a bloodbath.

The reconnaissance in force was painful enough for Ahsoka's survivors, even though they prevailed with only suffering light casualties thanks to an advantage in firepower. The tanks were particularly helpful in that regard. They were going to be the enemy's primary targets, and as soon as the Droid scouts were no more, Ahsoka hollered to the engineers to get them dug in. They did it quickly and loudly, using some of their precious remaining explosives. A work party quickly gathered to add twisted durasteel and other odds and ends as makeshift ablative armor.

"Colonel," a soldier in armor missing most of its ablative layer reported. "Our scouts made contact with more locals on the left flank." He pressed a few buttons on the computer built into his armor's vambrace and it displayed a small holographic map. "There's what's left of a platoon anchoring our flank here." Two buildings blinked from neutral gray to friendly green. "That's the good news. The bad one is that as far as they know, they're in that sector. There's no one else between them and the civies. What reserves they had, they lost them trying to reinforce what's now our position. They never made it."

It took Ahsoka long moments to digest the information, and even longer to recognize the man delivering it.

"I thought no one else of the senior staff made it!" For the first time since this disaster of an operation began, a genuinely friendly smile blossomed on Ahsoka's face.

"They certainly tried to make it so, Colonel." Major Grayson gruffly replied. He was brand new to the rank, like almost everyone in the Regiment after they got cannibalized for experienced officers. He was even newer to the duties of Intelligence officer for the whole unit. Grayson got the job thanks to his experience in leading Anaxian Ranger reckons elements in his misspent youth. That by itself said volumes for how starved for cadre the GAR was. "I managed to link up with some of our scouts, and then we followed the noise of the fiercest fighting."

"I'm assuming that those scouts found our new friends?" Ahsoka nodded at the map between them.

"They sure did, sir. We linked up just as you arrived. I hope it wasn't too presumptuous of me to ensure we wouldn't be surprised again, before properly reporting my arrival?"

"Not by me, Major. I need you to…"

"Colonel, we've got heavy movement across the perimeter. I think this is it," The Duros tanker reported.

"And we're out of time. Major Grayson, you have tactical command. I'll need to focus on my space magic as the boys put it. This is going to be an all-hands-on-deck exercise!"

"The bastards sure don't waste any time, do they? I'll do my best, sir. May the Force be with you!"

"Don't die on me, Grayson. Too many good people did already!" Ahsoka ordered and turned around, to walk towards the center of the plaza.

Her survivors ran for cover, while a few brave engineers fussed around the tanks' dugouts. There were about two hundred and a change here, and Ahsoka would be pleasantly surprised to learn that she didn't command the largest concentration of survivors from her Regiment.

They were all her people, her responsibility. She felt their eagerness to serve, to prove themselves, and protect a Republic that didn't deserve them. And she got most of them killed. That thought infuriated the young Togruta, and she used that emotion as fuel to kindle a raging inferno.

The Force flowed freely, trembling in excitement. Somewhere close, a familiar presence burned within it. That was Obi-Wan, Ahsoka immediately recognized him. Whatever he was doing, it was major for her to feel it this clear for kilometers away. The sound of combat rumbling above Coronet's ravaged remains rose to a crescendo. The GAR was throwing everything it could against the enemy, yet they weren't breaking through fast enough. Or at all.

There was just Ahsoka, standing between a wall of deadly metal and her precious few survivors, her pack. She snarled wordlessly. Rage flowed into ancient instincts feeding them, only to be fed in turn. All the while, thanks to Zash's damned teachings, Ahsoka managed to keep her reasoning. She could feel the anger, pain, despair, and hopes of a whole world, and they were more fuel for the furnace. All the suffering since the Separatist's invasion in the whole system fed the Dark Side, and now it was eager to come out and play. Ahsoka went for that power willingly, knowing the price, and the Dark Side joyfully responded in kind.

The Colonel walked behind the forward-most tank dug into the plaza acting as bait for the enemy. Sharpshooters opened fire, and the droids responded in kind, while most of them tried their best to keep to cover during their advance. A Separatist tank element slowly made its way into view, and immediately opened fire, engaging the Duros' machines.

Ahsoka paid it no heel. She raised her hands in the air, as Zash taught her like the infernal woman showed her through the Force. Just like so many Sith Sorcerers of old. Unnatural lighting cracked over her fingers, ignoring the armored gloves she wore, or what was left of them anyway.
Tendrils of lightning exploded from her palms, striking the ground and grounding Ahsoka. The pressure of the power she unleashed, even as the Dark Side happily gave her all she asked for, and more, was enough to raise her off her

feet, suspending her in mid-air. The sky darkened, and the temperature around Ahsoka rapidly fell.

There was energy in the air, a tremendous amount of it. It came both from the endless fighting all over the city, and the powerful shields trapping them within Coronet. That was even more fuel for Ahsoka to work with. That was more fuel than her body could handle, more than she would ever need that day. It was still there, hers for the taking.

The Droids' assault began in earnest, and Ahsoka dropped as much raw power as she could on them. Lighting bolts that had more in common with particle beams than anything natural struck down, illuminating whole districts with their hellish light. Thunderclaps shook people and machines off their feet alike.

The strikes kept raining down, becoming more vicious and powerful. More and more lighting bolts forked where they struck. Chain-lighting exploding from the impact points and impacting multiple Droids to leave only smoking hulks full with slagged components.

The enemy tanks were no exception. Lighting fell from the black sky to strike them again and again until it was a sold torrent of power that drove them into the ground while burning through deflectors and armored alloy. A tank blew up, its power stores and munitions cooking off, followed by a second and a third.

Stirred up by the unleashed power, the wind howled around and through the ravaged building, like the cries of countless damned souls.

Ahsoka collapsed to her knees, hitting the ground hard, panting for breath. The power, there was so much power flowing through her, surrounding and beckoning her to continue. It was right here, ready for the taking! The things she could do with it! The vengeance she could wreak to the enemy!

"If that is what you wish, I will welcome you as my Apprentice. We can do great things together. My last Apprentice is the living proof of that…"

Zash's words echoed within Ahsoka's head, and she felt a chill slice through whatever little warmth was left in her exhausted body. At that moment, the young Togruta didn't know if she would refuse, Zash if given the opportunity, or embrace it. All she knew for sure was that this was true power, and with it, Ahsoka might just be able to preserve what was left of her people.

=RK=

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