This chapter was confusing to write. Parts of it practically wrote themselves. Other parts went through more edits, rewrites, and permutations than any other piece of the story so far. Ultimately, the Battle of Corellia is shaping up to be the most complicated action piece I've ever written, but I don't want it to read that way. There's a lot of moving parts, so economy and efficiency of storytelling was vital in the set-up phase. Economy and efficiency are right up there with brevity on the list of writing skills I don't come by easily.

In other, somewhat bittersweet news, I finally finished reading the Wheel of Time earlier this week. That series has consumed my reading life for the last 8 months, and it's both relieving and a little sad that it's over. Looking back, I can definitely say it influenced my writing style a lot, but then again, whatever I'm reading at a given time influences my writing style a lot. This series just had longer to do it. Now, while I search for the next big series to dive into, I'm listening to Project Hail Mary again. I had forgotten how good that book is in audiobook.

This story turns 3 just over a week from now. When I first started, I never thought I'd still be writing even six months later. Now, CJWO has over 1500 reviews, nearly 500k words (not counting ANs), and regular readers on every continent. Thank you to everyone who's read and especially everyone who's left a review. This wouldn't be the same story without you.

The FF email system is still broken for most people. If you left a question, please be sure to check your PMs to see if I answered it. You won't get an email about it until this mess gets sorted. I check my reviews and PMs at least once a day, so don't be afraid I won't see your messages.

Please show whatever support you can for the people of Ukraine. Thank you.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Chapter 56

Corellia. If Coruscant was the heart of the Republic and Alderaan its soul, then Corellia was its spine. Not as glamorous as the capitol and certainly not as beautiful as Alderaan; it was, nevertheless, the strong support that kept the rest of the vast, bloated body upright. And, like any good predator, General Grievous knew to go for the spine. He had his jaws on the Republic's neck. Now, as the gray and tan orb of Corellia rose in the Malevolence's viewport, it was time to bite down.

The planet was not without its defenders, of course. After the total lack of resistance at Denon, he'd anticipated a stiff opposition at Corellia, and he was not disappointed. There were easily two hundred ships arrayed before him. He recognized Windu's fleet with its swirling storm symbol, as well as Kenobi's Open Circle fleet, and a number of local ships. A worthy set of foes, or as worthy as the Republic could field against him. Of course, his own forces had swollen as well. On seeing Denon undefended, he'd stripped every available ship from Separatist holdings along the Corellian Run in case of this very scenario. His fleet now nearly equaled the forces before him. The Republic blockade still outweighed them, though. They had brought their best ships to bear, and they stretched out of sight in the distance.

'That light cruiser back at Rhommamool must have gotten off a transmission before we detected them,' he mused. 'Unfortunate, but not unexpected. We will have confirmation when the Firecrest reaches us, not that it will matter by then.'

With any other ship, he would have called for an immediate retreat until he could summon reinforcements. With the Malevolence, though, there was no need. Ten ships or one hundred or one thousand, it mattered not. Of course, this would be the last time he could rely on Dooku's superweapon. After this, his enemies would find weaknesses, invent new strategies, and the endless race of war would start again. For now, though? For now, he was invincible.

His eyes moved over the various displays, taking in everything. The cybernetics enhancements Dooku had given him let him calculate probabilities and extrapolate scenarios faster than any organic mind could hope to match. In seconds, he had a plan.

"Signal the landing craft to watch for openings," he said. "Tell the rest of the fleet to move forward. Formation Taa'ak 4. Concentrate fire on sectors six and seven, where the local ships are densest. Force the Jedi to defend their allies. And jam their long-range communications."

He watched as his fleet moved to assault the smaller Corellian Defense Force vessels. Great bolts of red plasma cut through the cold vacuum of space and slammed into their targets. Shields flared into blue and yellow coronas around every impact. The odd few shots which missed splattered harmlessly across the planetary shield behind the blockade.

Almost immediately, a frigate exploded when a turbolaser found some weakness in its defenses. The shot must have hit the fuel tanks, because the burst of fire briefly set another sun in the sky. It was a silent display of carnage, but no less satisfying for it. Grievous felt a predator's thrill at the death of his prey. First blood was his.

As expected, the powerful Jedi Cruisers shifted their formation to give cover to their more lightly armored allies. Bolts of blue, like lightning as thick as a tree, answered the red. The bridge shuddered as volley after volley pounded into the Malevolence, but Grievous paid it no mind. He knew the strength of his shields down to the second. They would hold more than long enough for his plan.

"Charge the plasma rotors," he growled. In their haste to defend the weak, the fool Jedi hadn't noticed they were lining themselves up for slaughter. With one shot from the ion cannon, he could wipe out half their Venators. If he still had a mouth, he might have grinned. This was almost too easy.

"Umm… general, sir? I'm picking up a ship coming out of hyperspace at the rear of our formation." The whining, nasal tones of a battle droid cut through his exultation. "Codes confirmed. It's the Firecrest."

"Finally. Order them to join the attack. I will speak to the captain later."

He turned his attention back to the ongoing battle, where the Jedi were still obligingly moving their Venators into his killing field. He could almost see the ships as they would be when he was done with them; dark, drifting, torn to shreds. Just a few minutes more and they would be in position. In the meantime, volleys of fire, blue and red, poured forth across the void. The nearer shots were bright enough to sting his eyes, while the distant edges of the battle were visible only as faint flickers against the starry void.

"Sir, there's something weird happening."

Would he never be free of these droids and their incessant blather? "Grrr. What is it, you fool?"

"Errr… it's the Firecrest. It's breaking formation. I think- I think it's moving into our line of fire."

Before he could rip the irritating droid's head off, a flash of motion from the main viewport caught his attention. When he checked the monitor, he nearly crushed it in a rage. It was the Firecrest, just as the droid had said, and it had indeed just dropped out of formation. Right in the path of his firing solution.

"Graaaaggh," he roared. "Those fools. Tell them to move out of the way or I will blast them out of the sky myself."

There was a moment of hesitation and then the droid manning the comm station turned to him. It had no expression on its faceplate, but its posture could only be described as resigned.

"Sir, I have the commander of the Firecrest on the comm. He wants to talk to you. Umm… he says he's a Jedi."

"What?!" Grievous crossed the bridge in two strides and knocked the droid out of his way. Its torso crumpled under his fist, spewing sparks across the deck. Ignoring the heap of junk, he leaned over the comm panel and opened the transmission. A life-size hologram of a human male blinked on above the holoterminal. What was left of his face twisted into a snarl beneath his mask. Ruined flesh strained against cold metal, but the resultant pain only sharpened the fangs of hatred that sprung up in him at the sight of the young man in the hologram. Orange and black armor over a tan tunic. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. A mask covering the lower half of his face. And, most telling of all, a long Padawan braid dangling behind one ear. He recognized this accursed Jedi.

"Naruto Uzumaki." He bit out each syllable imagining it was the Padawan's throat. "What is Mace Windu's favorite pet doing on one of my ships?"

The Padawan gave a mocking salute. "Jedi Padawan Commander Uzumaki reporting for duty, your wheeziness. How can me and my ship full of clones be of service to you today? Maybe we could take a look at that sparkly gizmo you tried to shoot us with. It doesn't seem to work so well."

Grievous dug grooves into the metal console with his claws. Rage bubbled up from where he usually kept it leashed in his chest. It was a luxury he couldn't afford at the moment, but as the impudent whelp kept blathering on, he found he cared less and less.

"Ooh, maybe I could also take a peek at those cybernetics of yours. Because, no offense, they suck. They suck wang. Rancor wang. I mean, sure, you look impressive. But really, you're just a coughing, clanking, pile of walking scrap, aren't you? Sort of like your new toy. All flash, no substance. I know you're supposed to be super scary, or whatever, but I actually just pity-"

"Silence!" With a crack like a slug-thrower, Grievous tore the covering clean off the comm panel and threw it to one side. Uzumaki's laughing figure vanished in a burst of sparks, but the echo of that arrogant chuckle rang in the air even after the image died. With another snarl, he whirled on the weapons crew and leveled a clawed finger at them.

"Target the Firecrest. Fire the ion cannon! I will show him how useless it truly is."

"But sir, our own ships-"

"Do not question my orders!" His hand wrapped around the offending droid's head and crushed it like an egg. The rest recoiled in whatever horror their tiny metal minds could feel. He gestured at them, still clutching the mangled remnants of the droid head in his fist. "Fire at my command! Let that Jedi scum watch helplessly as we slaughter his friends."

The remaining droids moved to obey without another word, and better for them they did. Fools; questioning him. At this range, the Firecrest would absorb most of the energy from the ion pulse. A few of his ships might catch the remnants of the ray, maybe lose a few of their less shielded systems, but nothing critical. It would be worth it to watch the Jedi flail about in a dead ship, unable to do anything but watch as his comrades fell one by one.

"Ion cannon ready, sir."

"Fire." He clenched his fist, picturing Uzumaki's skull in his hand instead of a droid's head. The entire ship shuddered and the crackling purple ion ray launched towards the Firecrest. He watched it with bated breath as it bore down on the captured ship and its Jedi commander. This was to be the fate of all Jedi. Tiny, weak wretches, doomed to be swamped by forces beyond their comprehension. In a way, he was doing them a favor. Weaklings like the Jedi did not deserve to live.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Naruto had to take a calming breath to contain his laughter. Oh, but he wished Ahsoka was with him, so she could have seen that. She'd have howled with mirth. He could sense her below, along with Anakin. They were both safe, if tense. He'd had Ponds recording the entire exchange with his helmet holorecorder. Hopefully, the recording would brighten their day when he sent it to them. As he thought of her, Ahsoka's Force presence brightened. She wasn't yet able to send anything across such a distance, but she could feel him and knew he could feel her.

"You certainly did not exaggerate when you claimed you could infuriate our enemy," Thrawn said from behind him. "Now for the hard part. Captain Hack is in position. It falls to us."

He grinned under the mask even as he took his place in the pilot's chair for the next part of Thrawn's insane, brilliant plan. "I told you. I can be the most annoying person in the entire galaxy."

A flash of evil amusement rippled through several of the clones, including Ponds. Without turning to look, he sighed. "You were still recording, weren't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, sir."

Naruto shook his head but said nothing. Ponds would either set the video into circulation to get a good chuckle out of the men, or he'd use it as blackmail material. Either way, it only mattered if they survived the next few minutes. Thrawn was right. Antagonizing Grievous had been child's play. This next bit, though, would probably be the craziest thing he'd ever done. With a deep breath, he sank deeply into the Force and waited.

"Any second now," he said. As if summoned by his words, the massive ion cannon facing them began to glow with energy. The moment it did, his hands flew across the controls. Most of the prep work was already done, but there were still last second adjustments he had to make. In truth, even he barely understood everything he was doing. The Force almost seemed to act through him, whispering hints and nudging his fingers as he focused on his goal. What might have taken hours of observation and days of careful math, he now did in a handful of seconds.

The ion pulse built upon the dish until it glowed like a star. Seconds stretched like pulled rubber as his perception of time slowed. Each crackle of ionic energy seemed to take hours to whip across the ray, though in truth, they moved in fractions of a second. At last, just as he completed the last of his calculations, the cannon fired. The ray burst from the dish and immediately began to balloon outward. Behind him, he felt everyone on the bridge hold their breath. This was it.

"Brace for jump."

There were two sorts of hyperspace jumps. Virtually everyone in the galaxy was familiar with the more common long distance jump. Those could take you anywhere from a handful of light years to clear across the galaxy. Useful in traveling long distances and vital for intergalactic civilization though they were, long distance jumps didn't have many applications in battle. You could jump from a nearby system to ambush your enemies, and that was about it. The other, much rarer sort of jump was an entirely different matter, though.

Short range jumps, often called micro-jumps or hops, were any sort of jump that started and ended in the same planetary system. Despite being invented for interstellar travel, hyperdrives could technically make jumps as short as a few millimeters. Mostly, they were used to move goods rapidly inside of a solar system, and not very often at that. They were vanishingly rare, to the point most people didn't even know they were possible. Calculating one safely was usually a lengthy, tedious process, and making a micro-jump manually was often regarded as merely an elaborate suicide attempt. The shorter the jump you tried, the more you risked smearing your fried molecules across the fabric of spacetime. That made what Naruto was about to try several orders of magnitude more insane than even one of his usual plans. As the glowing ion ray threatened to swallow them whole, he activated the hyperdrive and kept his hand hovering over the lever. The deadly energy crept closer and closer, until it blotted out the Malevolence, blotted out the stars, blotted out the entire universe. Just as it threatened to kiss the ship's bow, he pulled the lever.

The universe twitched, hiccuped, and landed several centimeters to the left. The stars outside the viewport flickered and Naruto winced as he felt himself momentarily split between two points in space. Sparks burst from a dozen panels along the wall. The Firecrest groaned in protest and gravity swam laps around his head. Then reality settled back to normal and a few things became immediately apparent.

One, they weren't dead. That was good, if perhaps a rather low bar to clear. Still, he always liked to acknowledge the positives.

Two, they'd moved. According to his readouts, they'd jumped forward just over six kilometers. He wondered if that was a record for a ship this size.

Three, and most important of all, the ion ray hadn't hit them. All his screens were still working, the lights were still on, and the artificial gravity was still running. Aside from a few dozen blown circuits, and a doubtless ruined hyperdrive, the ship was undamaged. Well, functional was probably a better word. The air smelled strongly of burned plastoid, and the blue smoke of expensive repair (Anakin's name for it) rose from a distressing number of consoles. The computer told him he still had control of the engines and, more importantly, engines to control. That was all he'd need.

"Report," he said.

There was a lot of groaning and coughing from behind him, but eventually, a clone found his voice. "I have the ray on scanners… It's still at full power and headed right for the enemy formation. I think- I think it worked."

As fast as he dared, Naruto crossed the bridge to look at the sensor screens. Sure enough, the ion ray was still bright and strong and ballooning outward. The Republic ships had begun moving out of the way as soon as the Firecrest had appeared, just as they'd arranged, but Grievous' fleet hadn't been so prescient. Without the Firecrest to take the brunt of the ray's energy, a huge swath of them were caught in the crippling blast at once. A cheer rose from a dozen throats, including his, as a full third of Grievous' forces were taken out of the battle in a single blow. He even heard a few enthusiastic cries of "Sooran, shab!" A few frigates and Corellian patrol boats also went dark, listing as sparks danced across their hulls, but it was nothing compared to the devastating blow Grievous had just dealt his own fleet. Naruto glanced over at Thrawn. Despite his calm expression, he could feel the burst of satisfaction the man felt at seeing his plan work so flawlessly.

"Wayii," Ponds said. "That has to be the craziest thing anyone's ever done."

"We're not done yet," Naruto said, raising his voice so everyone could hear. "Alright, men. Get in position for phase 3."

The few clones still on the bridge saluted and rushed off to their assigned posts. Only Ponds and Thrawn stayed by his side. The normally solemn clone commander was abuzz with excitement and a sort of eager battle lust. Finally, they had the chance to avenge the fallen and get payback for their lost ship. He was like a nexu that had a scent and was just waiting for the prey to move into striking range. The Chiss was better at maintaining his reserve, but Naruto could sense his anticipation too.

"Brace yourselves," he warned them. "This next part will get bumpy."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Grievous stared silently, feeling the first genuine amazement he'd felt since taking on his new form. He hadn't thought himself capable of the emotion anymore. However, this Jedi, a mere Padawan, had proved him wrong. He knew what micro-jumps were, of course. But using one in battle? To dodge? Madness. Genius. Both.

"Umm, what just happened?" One of the B1s watching the sensors snapped him back to the present. "Did we miss?"

Before he could destroy the nattering droid, turbolaser fire streamed from the Firecrest and slammed into their shields. At the same time, he saw the flare of engines as the commandeered ship began to accelerate. A single glance at a monitor told him their vector.

"Return fire!" He shouted. "Destroy that ship, now! Launch all Vulture wings and tell the fleet to do the same. I want them blasted to dust."

Even as he spoke, he knew it was too late. Uzumaki had positioned himself perfectly. Even as vast swathes of the Firecrest's hull boiled away under their onslaught, even as concussion missiles gouged wounds into its metal flesh, it made no difference. Some small part of him, the part that wasn't filled with seething hate, gave a mental salute to the Jedi. There was an art to desperate ploys, and this one had been exquisite.

"Brace for impact," he spat, as he dug his claws into the deck plating. A second later, the Firecrest slammed into the Malevolence.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Obi-Wan watched the two ships collide from his place on the Negotiator's bridge and tried to keep his mouth from gaping. After a decade teaching and working alongside Anakin, he'd have sworn he knew what madness was. Apparently, his former Padawan's little brother brought new meaning to the word. First that insane micro-jump, now ramming an enemy ship. He made a mental note to extract an apology from Mace for every time the man had even so much as hinted that Anakin could do with a firmer hand. If this was the product of Mace's teaching, he had no room to offer criticism.

"Still as noisy as ever," Jiraiya sighed from his place beside him. "That kid never did learn to be subtle."

"Yes," he remarked dryly. "The lack of subtlety is clearly his plan's greatest flaw."

"Ha! Lighten up, Kenobi. He just took out the biggest threat to our forces. Trust me, the plan's going perfectly so far." A sudden tremor that shook the bridge undercut his words somewhat. One of the Munificent-class frigates had chosen his ship as its latest target.

"Intensify forward shields!" Admiral Block ordered behind them. "Deploy our fighter wings for strafing runs and give them cover with our cannons."

Obi-Wan closed his eyes for a moment and listened to the whispers of the Force. The Veil still occluded all sight beyond a few days into the future, but his interest now lay only in the next handful of minutes. That, blessedly, remained untainted. The universe unfolded before him. Possible futures rose and fell like a mountain range spreading out across spacetime.

'There.'

"Helm, adjust our pitch, plus 15, and roll starboard, 25," he called out. The clone, whose name he didn't yet know, acknowledged, and the stars slid across his viewport. He saw without seeing the three frigates that had been moving to support them slot neatly into the formation he'd just established. Where just moments earlier the Munificent had been coming at a single ship from an angle of advantage, now it faced four head on. He watched the combined fire of his formation and the fighter wings punch holes through the powerful cruiser. The victory felt hollow somehow, as so many had since the war began.

"Forgive me if I remain cautious," he said to Jiraiya. "Anakin was always the one who favored high risk, high reward. This battle could still go against us. Even if it doesn't, we can't possibly keep every landing craft off the surface."

"Anakin and Ahsoka have the surface well in hand," Jiraiya said. "And you and Mace have things handled here. If this Captain Thrawn is as good as Naruto says he is, you'll have no issue with Grievous' fleet. Have faith, Kenobi. The Force is with us, today."

There was something about the way he said that. Something deeper than just the typical expression. He'd heard that tone before, first from Master Yoda, and now from his latest apprentice. "You have a plan, don't you? More than just fending off this attack, I mean. You wanted this to happen."

Jiraiya pursed his lips. "Not exactly this, but yes. Yoda and I have a plan. We thought we'd have a few more weeks, but it doesn't matter. We're ready enough. Trust me, by the end of the day, Grievous will have more than a wrecked fleet to worry about. Speaking of which, I'd say his forces are fully committed now, wouldn't you?"

Without waiting for a reply, he moved to the long range holoterminal and typed in a transmission code Obi-Wan didn't recognize. In seconds, a clone in green marked armor appeared over the terminal. Obi-Wan had never seen him before, but he knew who it was. Everyone in the GAR knew about the only clone to yet attain the rank of general.

"Hammer, we've got Grievous tied up here," Jiraiya said. "How are things on your end?"

"We're ready, general. I have General Di staged to assault Ryloth, General, Krell prepped for Druckenwell, General Koon for Denon, and my forces are ready to retake Christophsis. Long range scans report Grievous has stripped a significant number of ships from system defense to bolster his fleet."

Obi-Wan felt his eyes widen as he heard the list of systems. Hammer was talking about a massive, multi-pronged assault across the axis of Separatist controlled territory along the Corellian Run. The scale of it was difficult to grasp. It would be the largest Republic offensive yet, and in an area where they'd been losing. Or, it seemed, where they'd looked like they were losing.

"Well, that was the plan," Jiraiya said. "You're cleared to begin your assault. Let's ruin Dooku's day."

Hammer chuckled and saluted. "Yes sir!"

The call ended and Jiraiya turned back to the viewport. "That takes care of that. Now, it's time I gave my godson some backup."

Before Obi-Wan could ask what he meant, or what the overall plan was, or, indeed, what in the Sith hells was going on, his fellow Master vanished in a burst of smoke.

"Well, that was predictable," he muttered.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

The shields collapsed instantly. The Firecrest had hammered a weak point with its concentrated fire, and they had never been designed for this sort of situation. Small asteroids or fighters, sure. Entire 400 meter long corvettes moving at high sublight? Not a chance. The deflectors buckled, flared red, and then vanished as the incoming ship punched a hole. An instant after the shields failed, the smoking ruin of the Firecrest plowed into the center of the ion weapon dish. The Malevolence was over 12 times the length of the Firecrest and many dozens of times its mass, but it still shook from the force of the impact. Then the Firecrest exploded, and that trembling became a mighty quake that threatened to split his ship down the middle.

Alarms blared against a background of tortured metal and surprised shouts. Half the droids fell to the deck, and the other half only remained upright by a hair. Grievous had to use all the unnatural strength his mechanical limbs gifted him to remain on his feet. The sound was tremendous. His auditory sensors actually shut down for a moment to protect what was left of his organic hearing. He could still feel it in his lungs, though, like a bantha head butting him in the chest. When his hearing returned, even more alarms had joined the dissonant clamor.

"Damage report." There was silence. "Damage report!"

It took another moment before any of the droids responded. "The starboard ion dish is destroyed, general."

"Fools. Of course it is. What about the rest of the systems? The other dish? Is it intact?"

"Engines and weapons are still functional. Our shields are back up and recharging. The port dish appears to be operational."

Finally, some good news amidst this catastrophe. "Roll the ship. Get that dish pointed at the blockade. And find the intruders."

"Intruders, sir? What intruders?" The droid looked at its companion. "Did I miss something?"

"Useless piles of scrap!" Grievous seethed with frustration. "Do you think the Jedi just blew himself up along with all his clones? They are on the ship somewhere. Find them before they do any more damage. Count Dooku will not tolerate further mistakes."

The droids hurried to carry out his orders while he set about reorganizing the fleet. Seventy ships disabled in an instant. He cursed himself for his blindness. The Jedi must have coordinated with his allies, somehow. The Venators, which had been gathering together like nerfs for slaughter, had dispersed the moment he'd let Uzumaki distract him. Not a single one had taken damage. In contrast, a third of his fleet was dead in space and half his superweapon was a burning ruin.

'At least things will no longer be boring,' he told himself. He could still achieve victory here. The Malevolence was more than just its ion cannon, after all, and he still had over 150 ships. Even those currently adrift still had functioning fighter wings. Already, swarms of Vulture droids poured forth from the lifeless hulks. Victory was no longer a foregone conclusion, but the battle was far from over. Once the port ion cannon was in position, the odds would shift in his favor once again.

Click.

Every light on the bridge suddenly turned orange. Even the instrument panels. Even the displays were suddenly a bright, eye-searing shade of orange. The bridge looked like a child's funhouse.

'Not just the bridge,' he thought as he glanced out the viewport. 'The whole ship.'

Every running light on the hull, every hangar, every window, every status display he could see, all glowed the same orange. The entire ship lit up like some gaudy toy.

"Hey, there's something wrong with the lights. They won't change back."

"I'm getting reports from all over the ship. It's all the lights. Every deck."

"Is this some sort of drill?"

For what felt like the fiftieth time that day, Grievous turned to destroy the insufferable minions Dooku had yoked him with. He only made it a single step, though, before a voice crackled over the speakers. A voice he recognized. A voice that absolutely should not have been coming over his ship's intercom.

"Hello, hello, rubbish robots and your brooding babysitt- I mean, distinguished general. This is Commander Naruto Uzumaki speaking again, and guess what? I'm aboard your ship!"

"Find where this is coming from," Grievous hissed. "Lock down all essential areas. Set up security checkpoints in every section."

"I've gotta admit, this is a lot nicer than the last ship I stole from you guys. That one was so ugly it frankly deserved to die. This one's not bad, though. Especially with the new lighting. It's cheery this way. You know, you Separatists are always so dour. So grumpy. Maybe it's because you're all working for the Sith. Maybe no one loved you enough when you were children. I don't know, but I feel it's my job to cheer you up. So, we're gonna play a little game. The rules are simple. Whoever wins gets this nice ship. Oh, and also they get to not die. I'll make the first move."

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the ship jerked violently again. Deafening booms echoed from the hull. The lights flickered for a moment before steadying. Sadly, they remained orange. The alarms, which had only just gone quiet, woke again to shriek their displeasure for all to hear. Grievous hadn't had a chance to brace himself this time and went sprawling.

"What was that?" He growled as he hauled himself back to his feet.

"It's the port ion dish, sir," a B1 said. "It's been destroyed. Something blew it up from the inside."

"Graaagh!" He smashed a hand into the deck so had it cratered the plating. "Find that Jedi and kill him! Do it!"

"Are you afraid yet, Grievous?" Uzumaki's voice came back over the comm, but this time it lacked the false, mocking cheer. He sounded calm. Dangerous. "Are you ready to surrender, or to run like the coward you are? You've tried to kill me twice, and you've missed both times. Now I'm on your ship. I've disabled a third of your fleet and destroyed your most powerful weapon all in less than twenty minutes. And I've gotta say, I'm just getting warmed up."

Grievous clenched his fists so tight the servos whined in protest. Fury hotter than the fires that had ravaged his flesh kindled in what remained of his heart. He took one last look around the bridge and then turned for the door.

"Umm, general?" The droid was smart enough not to question him directly, but its confusion was obvious.

"Our guests have invited us to play a game," he said. His anger was beyond shouting now, and his voice was nearly as robotic as the droid's. "It would be rude to decline."

With that, he stalked out. The tactical droid would take command the moment he left the bridge, but he found himself suddenly ambivalent to the outcome of the battle. There was a Jedi on his ship. Prey in his territory. The hunt was on.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"I'm just getting warmed up."

With that final taunt, Naruto pulled the dataspike out of the comm cable. Behind him, the last of the clones that had accompanied him finished climbing out of Haru's mouth. The Toad gave him a tired salute and vanished back to his realm. The sealed crate he'd ferried the Toad in on his brief spacewalk lay open behind him, next to the spacesuit he'd discarded. He winced a little at the sight. The quartermaster back on the Thunderhead wouldn't be happy to hear he'd lost another spacesuit, but he wasn't about to stumble around in forty kilos of stiff duraweave and life support gear.

"A most useful creature," Thrawn observed. Naruto smirked.

"You don't know the half of it. Did I buy you enough time?"

"You did. Corporal Luc was able to download the ship's deck plan while they were busy trying to trace your broadcast. Your shadow clone managed to create the comms patch I requested. We can now speak to our people without fear of detection." There was a predatory gleam in Thrawn's red eyes, one Naruto shared. They were in the heart of their enemy's power and eager to wreak havoc. It was as golden an opportunity as anyone could ask for.

"Perfect." He grabbed his comm and talked into it. "Hack, it's Naruto. You and the boys got your ears on?"

"I read you loud and clear, sir. Those tags worked just like you said they would."

Naruto grinned under his mask. "How about Oni and my fighter?"

"That crazy droid hid himself under a shield emitter. No one will find him unless he moves. Mizu just vanished, too."

"Good. Now, it's time for the next phase of the plan. Thrawn's gonna send you the ship's deck plan. Work your way to the bridge. Be as loud as you can. I'll be doing the same on my end on my way to the reactor. We'll keep their forces divided, keep them guessing." He couldn't keep the grin off his face. "Time to spread some chaos."

"That's our specialty, sir. Hack, out."

He turned to Thrawn. "Are you ready for your part?"

The Chiss arched an eyebrow and said nothing. Naruto raised his hands and took a step back.

"I know, I know. This was all your plan to begin with. I'm just making sure."

"I anticipate no significant issues with my part in the plan," Thrawn said. "It is you who has the hardest part to play."

Ponds apparently took that as his cue. "I still think we should take more men. I'm good, but I can't watch your back and your front all at once."

"I've told you, Ponds, we'll have all the backup we need." He checked his chrono and nodded. "He should be here any second now."

Right on cue, he felt a rapid build-up of chakra, followed by a sharp pop. The cramped hallway flooded with smoke, but he cleared it with a simple burst of wind chakra. To his relief, Jiraiya was standing atop the scroll, hale and hearty.

"Nice work with the seal, Naruto," he said. "I see you've set up quite the party. Everything ready?"

"Uh-huh," he said. "Let's get to work."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Ahsoka looked up at the late afternoon sky from her perch atop one of the endless warehouses that littered Corellia's industrial district. There was still too much sun for her to see the battle she knew was taking place in orbit. Not that she could have seen much, even at night with her naked eyes. Just small flickers of light and the occasional brighter flare of a ship going up in flames. Such tiny glimmers, yet each would mean the lives of hundreds. Thousands. She could feel them up there, in a dim, distant way, like the echoes of screams too distant to make out words.

Naruto was up there, too. She'd felt it the moment he arrived in the system. It was as if someone had hung a second sun in the sky. One that swirled and billowed and roared with a song too complex even for a dozen orchestras. He'd sent the closest thing to a greeting he could to her across the distance, and she knew he'd sensed her waving back. She didn't know exactly where he was or what he was doing, but the broad strokes weren't hard to guess. In trouble and making a mess, respectively. She grinned and adjusted the armor he'd made for her. Something told her she'd be getting use out of it soon enough. The Force wasn't giving any explicit warnings, but there was a pervasive sense of imminent danger she couldn't shake.

"Everything alright, commander?" Rex asked. The pistol wielding CO of Torrent company called up to her from where he stood down on the ground. The patrol she'd been leading had already taken up defensive positions along the narrow street.

"It's nothing, Rex," she said. "Just a bad feeling."

"A bad feeling we can act on or general danger?" He asked as she hopped back down to the street. There was a gentle rebuke hidden in his tone, which she accepted as her due. He'd talked to her before about not racing off without warning, and about making sure she communicated her bad feelings to the troops around her.

"The second," she admitted. "Something's going to happen, but I don't know what, or when, or where."

"Well, we've known that for a while, I guess," he said. "Still, we'd better make sure the perimeter is secure. I don't fancy having clankers drop by unannounced."

She opened her mouth to agree, but stopped when a faint rumbling reached her montrals. Rex couldn't hear it, of course. It was well below the range of human hearing. Her montrals were far more sensitive than humans' pitiful ears, though. Something was moving through the atmosphere, and it was getting closer. Something big. Several of them, she thought as she picked up minute variations in pitch, all overlapping one another.

"What is it?" Rex asked. He may not have been able to hear the sound, but he could read her face as well as most Jedi.

"Trouble," she said. "Let's get to a vantage point."

With a little help from the Force, Rex joined her on a higher rooftop. By the time he got up, the sound had grown to where even he could hear it.

"There's five of them," she said. "Coming from the northeast."

Rex raised a pair of macrobinoculars to his visor and scanned the sky. "There. 11 o'clock, 70 degrees above the horizon."

She squinted through her own macrobinoculars and could just barely make out five small dots falling at an angle towards their position. They were moving fast, too. Smoke and sparks trailed behind each of them from their journey through the planetary shield and the atmosphere.

"Droid drop ships," Rex muttered. "They must have snuck through in the battle and got past the blockade. They're armored enough to make it through the planetary shield if they go slow and don't mind frying half their systems. Just perfect."

"Well, you said you didn't want them to drop by unannounced," she said, aiming for humor and probably missing by a good margin. It was still better than letting the sudden flutter of nerves she felt show on her face. "I'd say they just announced themselves."

Rex shook his head, but she could feel his amusement. "Heh. I suppose they did. We should get back to the general, though. He'll probably have new orders for us."

She nodded, and they climbed back down to the street. At least she climbed down. Rex, after a token protest, just hurled himself off the roof and let her catch him with the Force. She told herself his high-pitched yelp and pounding heartbeat were from exhilaration rather than terror.

With a direct route, they made it back to Anakin's command post in just a few minutes. He was already standing around a holotable with Appo, Jesse, and a hologram of the Corellian Senator Garm Bel Iblis, who'd insisted upon personally organizing his people's defense. The table showed a holomap of the local area, with parts highlighted red and green. He looked up as they entered the room and motioned her over to stand at his side. She did so, immediately taking in the map and seeing what the situation was.

"We've confirmed five drop ships made it through the blockade," Anakin said. "Probably around 1000 droids total. No heavy weapons or air support. They're approaching from the northeast. I think it's safe to assume their target is the power plant. If that goes down, it will leave the planetary shield vulnerable to an orbital bombardment and the factories on the surface crippled."

He highlighted a section of the perimeter along the main road leading to the droid ships. "We'll stop them here. I don't want to push the fighting into the residential district, even if it is evacuated. Appo, and I will take care of that. Ahsoka, I want you stationed here."

He highlighted an area on the complete opposite side of the power plant, almost as far from the approaching droids as she could get.

"What?" She cried out, glaring. Her hands clenched into fists. "That's nowhere near the battle!"

"Ahsoka-"

"No!" She snapped, pushing as much of her irritation at being pushed to the back through the bond as she could. "You've been keeping me away from the fighting ever since we deployed. I'm not an Initiate anymore. You can't just shove me to-"

"Ahsoka!" Anakin's voice was a whip cracking across her montrals and it stopped her tirade in its tracks. Her eyes widened, and she felt her lekku stripes darken. She'd never heard him snap at her like that before, and suddenly the full realization of what she'd been doing washed over her.

'Oh, stars. I just acted like an absolute brat in front of everyone.' She wanted to shrivel up and blow away in the wind, but Anakin's stern glare kept her rooted in place.

"Remember where we are, my young Padawan," he said. His voice was as stern as his gaze, and she grabbed hold of the last of her anger and pushed it to the back of her mind. Through their bond, she could feel sharp disapproval humming over a background chorus of disappointment. The latter hurt worse than any lecture could have.

"Yes, master." The formality tasted strange, but she wasn't about to push the envelope further than she already had. He held his glare for another second before shifting back to the map.

"As I was saying, Ahsoka, I want you and Rex stationed here. Take a platoon and watch our backs."

"You're thinking the main attack is a diversion," Rex said. It wasn't a question.

Anakin nodded. "It's what I would do. Besides, I smell something off. The Dark side is at work here. It would be just like Dooku to try a trick like that."

Ahsoka felt her stripes darken even further as she saw Anakin's logic. There was no way the droids from the northeast could get through their lines. Either the Separatists were even dumber than she'd thought, or they were trying for a trap.

"Can you handle that, Snips?" She relaxed a hair at hearing the nickname. He didn't use it when he was mad at her.

"You can count on me, master," she said. "None of those tinnies will get to the power plant on my watch."

"Good. Now get going. And make sure you let Rex have a shot at some of them, too. You know how sulky he can get."

She giggled as the clone captain spluttered with outrage. Eventually, he just jammed his helmet back on and stared resolutely ahead, refusing to acknowledge their barbs.

"General, what about the power plant?" He asked. "It's the primary target in this area, and there's too many avenues of approach for us to secure it from that direction. If the Seppies send in multiple forces, we could miss one."

Anakin smiled. "Oh, don't worry about the power plant. I've got an idea."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Are you in position?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And the clones?"

"They've taken the bait. We have eyes on the Jedi."

"Excellent. Begin your assault, commander."

"Roger roger."

Asajj Ventress smiled and shut off the small hologram. Jedi were so very predictable, rather like children. Predictable and easy to trick. Give them a big shiny target, like a few thousand battle droids rampaging through a civilian neighborhood, and they'd oh so obligingly hurry off, bleating their platitudes and leaving their backs wide open for her knife. A knife which, in this instance, bore a striking resemblance to a platoon of commando droids Dooku had given her for this very purpose. Grievous could stroke his own ego all he wanted, but in the end, it would be her who accomplished their mission in spite of his bungling. Her master would reward her for what she accomplished here today.

'Still, perhaps a little caution is prudent,' she thought. Memories of her failure on Nar Shaddaa, and Dooku's subsequent lessons, still woke her up sometimes, panting and drenched in cold sweat. Unconsciously, her hand traced one of the marks he'd given her to ensure she never forgot the price of failure.

"You know your mission. Make your way to the power plant," she ordered the lead droid. "Kill anything that moves. I will take my own path."

"Yes, mistress." The elite droids bounded off into the shadows of the fading afternoon. Asajj herself waited a moment, letting the Dark side whisper in her mind. After a minute, she opened her eyes and reached out to the frigid burn of the Force. It answered her call, and she wrapped it around her body, cloaking herself in shadows and silence. To any watching, she would seem to fade into a vague blur, not invisible but also not worth noting. Any Force user would see through it in an instant, but the Jedi leading the defenses was kilometers away. Any clones he'd left to guard his back would never glance twice at her. As her droids disappeared in the maze of buildings, she picked a direction of her own and dashed off, quiet as an oiled blade.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

If you're confused about Jiraiya's grand plan, don't feel bad. It's not easy to grasp without a map or a long description of a map. Essentially, he planned a rolling retreat from Separatist forces from the Outer Rim towards the Core, along the Corellian Run. He wanted to give the Republic time to build up its navy, and this was the best way to funnel Grievous into a "controlled" setting. Now, with the navy ready, he just ordered attacks on several of the systems Grievous took on his way up the Corellian run. Systems Grievous, in his haste, never properly fortified. That leaves an enormous Separatist fleet far from their power base, with no supply lines, and a fractured, chaotic mess of Separatist occupied territory. Easy pickings, at least in theory.

Meanwhile, Grievous has an Uzumaki infestation, and those are known to play havoc with any plans in their immediate vicinity. His superweapon isn't so super anymore, and Thrawn has free access to comms and the best seat in the house to examine the battle. Some people might call this a pickle. On the other hand, Naruto and friends are in his stronghold, which he has had plenty of time to prepare for incursion. That too, is a potential pickle.

Please leave a review if you like the chapter. Or if you didn't like it. Or if you have opinions on pickles. I can't control what you write there.