A/N: Sorry for delay in getting this here. Couldn't access on Saturday and was away on Sunday.

Chapter 94

Through the Force, his will crushed down on the mind of his target.

The unfortunate Umbaran militiaman fell unconscious in his dugout cover, Anakin dropped right next to the umbaran from the tree above. His holoshell changed immediately from the featureless void black camouflage to an imitation of the Umbaran armor and a randomized face based on his victim.

The imitation wasn't perfect at first, but began to improve as Ahsoka directed the holodroid's scans.

'Figured that, it won't be as simple as a visual mimicry, master. Each militia has an IFF signal that's operating on a high frequency range outside the general ECM jamming. I didn't think they'd have the technology to operate in this part of the spectrum.'

He looked at the scan readings displayed in his HUD vision and had to agree, 'Not going to be able to mimic that signal. We're going to have to use our sleeping friend's IFF.'

Anakin pushed the umbaran over and found the source; a small compartment just below the helmet. Inside there was a modular piece of incredibly dense, sophisticated circuitry. The scans were amazing, his mind and fingers itching to just snatch it, take it apart and study it.

'Not going to be able to just yank that out, master. It'll alert every militia in his platoon that something went wrong. Wait… frakking shabla, this is practical Terahertz wave tech!'

'Terahertz, Snips?'

'Sorry, master. I mean, the best equivalent in Basic is Matafom.'

'Anything in that frequency range would get absorbed by mere meters of atmosphere, Snips.'

'Yet the Umbarans have clearly figured out a way around that problem judging by this.'

'One step at a time, Snips.' As much as the umbarans had a unique tech base, there were certain galactic standards of technology they had absorbed and so he had no problem finding a compatible logic port to slot the holodroid's interface spike into.

'Scanning, master. R2 is also interfaced now… breaking encryption… wow, he says this is going to take nearly six minutes.'

'So their computer technology is better as well?' he asked incredulously.

'No, just the programming language they use is sufficiently different from what he has on record, that he has to take the time to learn and adapt first. After this he should be his usual efficient self.'

He focused and pushed out his awareness, finding the rest of the umbaran platoon clustered in this area overlooking the main road into the capital, each in their own little camouflage dugout.

All were looking at the road in silence and waiting. Their attention levels were impressively high but he could tell that a general fatigue was setting in. The ground invasion was eleven hours old at this point and if they had been stuck in the same dugouts for that long, then body cramps were also certainly setting in.

'Master, are you seeing the stuff that's in their helmets?'

Anakin turned his attention there and the close range scans unfolded in his vision. 'Drugs, administered via the lungs.'

'I've cross referenced it, we're looking at a combination of stimulant and reflex enhancer. On a level playing field your typical umbaran militia will outdraw and react faster than a clone trooper.'

'They can also fight and remain alert for longer as well.'

'Yes, but they'll pay a price for that in the long run. If they keep breathing this stuff for more than two days, they'll start to experience side-effects that range from heart attacks, strokes and all sorts of crippling muscular strains and spasms.'

'They must have the medical technology to alleviate that if they're giving it to all their troops.'

'Maybe master, or they don't and they have a greater pool of reserves to draw upon than we thought.'

Anakin had to quickly divert the attention of the nearest militiaman who had looked back to his now sleeping comrade, buying enough time to construct a minor mental illusion that there was only one person in the dugout.

'Close one… encryption broken, master. R2 has an emulation program ready and subverted the IFF. You can pull it.'

He carefully pushed his fingers inside the small panel, got the best grip he could and steadily applied backwards pressure.

It stayed stuck in place.

'Is there any articulation holding it in place?'

'None that we can see, master. It's likely just wedged in due to the time it spent there and temperature fluctuations. Wiggle it carefully.'

He did so, also bringing to bear the slightest of pressure he could manage with the Force.

The chipboard popped out and he winced as he felt the phantom sensation of his stomach clenching.

'Okay, now there's an auxiliary slot in the holodroid's lower right torso, bring the chipboard there.'

Anakin did so and grimaced as he saw the panel open up through the holoshell. "It's not my body, relax, Skywalker,' he thought in his innermost shielded mind. 'You're not telling me you have a compatible port in this droid?'

'No master, but HK and I did plan for it to a degree. There is an adaptive interface there, it will grab the board, evaluate and find any points of contact it can.'

He was rather startled when the small board was ripped out his grasp by an internal claw that popped out, pulling it into the holodroid's chassis. The panel closed and he was somewhat unnerved by the fact that technically his 'body' was working under the remote control of someone else. Ahsoka sensed this and streamed a basic wireframe graphical analysis of the chipboard and all the dozens of tiny connectors and probes latching onto it. It almost looked like a technological version of some multi-limbed creature devouring it.

'R2 has it, interfacing… next step complete. Wow, the matafom transmitter is actually embedded in the chipset. That simplifies things considerably and… we've taken over and we even have access to the Umbaran battle network now, at least at the level of classification our sleeping friend has.'

'Good, find out everything you can. How's our own signal faring under all this jamming?'

'It's compensation is holding and its phasing through the jamming frequencies nicely. No change there, master.'

Anakin pulled the militiaman down and tucked him deeper into the dugout, arranging him into a fetal position. He eyed the Umbaran blaster rifle and directed scans that way. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any active security features on it, none that he could detect. 'Snips, I'm okay to pick this thing up?'

'One moment… yes. It seems its security is linked to the IFF module.'

He picked it up by the pistol grip of the rear handle. It was ostensibly a carbine, with no stock but was definitely more advanced if it was also using the synthetic plasma technology. It was also definitely heavier than an equivalent DC carbine.

'We're getting a datastream from the weapon through the IFF, running a translation program and piping it to your HUD.'

'Oh, so that's how they're solving the aiming issue.'

There was an active circular reticle in his HUD now that was indicating where the barrel of the Umbaran carbine was pointing. It was a little too long to really fall into a carbine definition neatly though.

He felt a familiar presence enter the outer edges of his awareness. Just under four hundred meters away down the main road, emerging from the neighboring forest.

'Ahsoka, I'm sensing Rex and four other platoons approaching. What are they doing?! This is a full frontal assault along the main road. That was not in the plan!'

'Clearly, Krell didn't get the memo on that, master.'

He pushed his farsight forward and saw troopers dividing themselves into two columns on either side of the road, sappers in the front and carefully advancing.

In just another 200 odd meters they would round the nearby bend and come in full view of the waiting militia ambush.

He interrogated the network data they had received so far. One full company, with four hover tanks, their sights trained on the road. The road itself was also mined with pressure sensitive explosive charges, which had network uplinks as well - meaning the umbarans could activate and deactivate them at will. Unfortunately, the umbaran he was impersonating wasn't of sufficient rank to do anything about those.

There was also the problem that he couldn't help the 501st too overtly or otherwise blow his cover. He had to not only hide from the umbarans, but he also needed to remain unnoticed by Krell. The greater goal would be for naught if the besalisk Jedi sensed that Anakin was still present on the battlefield.

Therefore he had to make do with minimal usage of the Force.

'Ahsoka, I need you and R2 to hack into a single mine and detonate it on my mark.'

'Understood, any preference for where, Skyguy?'

'As close as possible to the umbaran position, get Rex's attention in the right direction.'

'Right… give it a few seconds… hack in place, master. Ready to detonate.'

The battalion came closer and closer. He also felt the attention of the umbarans begin to spike.

'Master, there are passive proximity sensors that the 501st just tripped. Tuning you into their radio frequency.''

Anakin heard the rapid staccato of the umbaran native tongue in his 'ear' and could only make sense of every other word. Every militia in their dugout went from seated to taking a single knee, readying themselves for battle.

He imitated them and brought the blaster properly to hand, readying to snap up and fire.

Tension rocketed among the umbarans.

The 501st was under 100 meters away.

50 meters…

25….

10…

'Ahsoka, now!'

The hack went through.

The mine detonated with a thunderous clap sending a thin geyser of duracrete and earth shooting into the sky.

He popped up and fired, intentionally missing a trooper's head by an inch.

The umbarans, already so tense, waiting for the battle to start, simply reacted and started firing.

The troopers went prone and crawled on either side of the road, trying to find any cover they could - trees, depressions and so on, but it was naturally sparse because of the road.

Then they began to return fire.

Anakin had to hurriedly duck the blue sniper bolt that had threatened to take the holodroid's head off.

The firefight began in earnest as blue and green plasma bolts criss crossed in the air.

The next few minutes that followed Anakin was treated to the daunting experience of fighting his own men and shooting at them. He really began to appreciate how well they were trained by both him and Ahsoka. He barely had moments to pop up and shoot before a blue plasma bolt sought to remove his head.

In the umbaran tactical network, it was chaos as dozens registered as injured or dead within the first minute of the fight.

'Incoming grenades, master!' shouted Ahsoka.

Twenty gun propelled grenades shot into the dark night, aimed with the accuracy he had come to expect of the 501st.

Of course, those same grenades now threatened to turn the holodroid to scrap.

Can't use the Force actively, he thought.

He felt for the moment, pushing into his own prescience.

His weapon aimed and without even looking he sent a green bolt into the sky.

The grenade was hit in mid-air, destabilizing the volatiles inside and it airburst into loud thunderclap, the overpressure washed over the holodroid to little effect.

His 'fellow' umbarans were not as lucky. More died and were flung out of their dugouts in pieces or were simply crushed from above as the lethal overpressures slammed down like giant hammers.

"Hover tanks attack, infantry retreat!" he heard over the umbaran tacnet.

The tanks in question began firing on the 501st position, but Anakin had to play his role. He vaulted out of his dugout and ran as fast as he could. He couldn't use Force Speed augmentation, but the holodroid was superhumanly fast anyway, which he had to consciously tone down.

He leaned into prescience to dodge the devilish fire from the 501st - side stepping left at just the right moment for a bolt to miss his back, a duck there and a dodge roll to bring his body behind a tree at the exact moment, causing the sniper bolt to miss and other fire to eat into the thick alien tree.

The electric high pitch of umbaran plasma cannons streaked overhead and Anakin joined three other umbaran militia who were running in retreat.

In tactical terms, the hover tanks had briefly put the 501st on the backfoot, buying enough time for the umbaran infantry retreat.

That didn't last long though as the Sappers brought out the secondary weapon they carried on their backs - the RPS-6 rocket launchers.

Shoulder launched missiles streaked out into the night, going high into the air before plunging down onto their targets.

Anakin couldn't help but appreciate another of Ahsoka's insistent changes. She hammered the armorers of the Resolute and had sent dozens of messages to Merr-Sonn Munitions demanding the change in flight profile and target selection of their warheads.

The RPS-6 rocket slammed right onto the roofs of the hover tanks, easily penetrating the naturally thinner armor before detonating inside the cabins.

The tanks erupted into massive conflagrations that lit the eternal night as their power plants and internal munitions stores exploded.

"Keep running!" Anakin barked in umbaran at his 'comrade' running next to him, who looked to be flagging somewhat.

Three more Umbaran hover tanks exploded in short order.

The remnants of the Umbaran company, numbering just nineteen soldiers fled into the forest and headed for the next defense line.

"CT-7567," said Master Krell forbiddingly, stopping at the new defense line the troops had settled into, taking either side of the main road and the umbaran positions. "Do you have a malfunction in your design? You stopped your forces from advancing further to the capital city. The enemy now knows where we are and is further fortifying along this line of advance. This entire operation has been compromised, because of your failure!"

Rex endured the beratement stoically, mentally preparing to undercut this… No, he really shouldn't be thinking uncharitable thoughts about a Jedi whilst speaking directly to said Jedi. He had enough experience from Commander Tano to know that she could easily pick up the deepest emotions someone was feeling in her presence.

"General Krell," Fives spoke up from behind the Jedi Master. Damn Fives, don't, Rex thought frantically. "In case you didn't notice. We defeated a well prepared ambush that was waiting for us. Scans show the entire road is mined. Captain Rex made the right call to halt our advance. Goodness knows what else the umbarans have waiting for us."

"ARC-5555," Krell turned around slowly. "Stand down. I don't recall asking for your opinion and I'm sure CT-7567 can defend himself if he is truly worthy of his rank."

"Sir," Rex said as calmly as he could, though it was difficult to quell the embers of anger that were beginning. "I followed your orders, even in the face of a plan that was, in my opinion, severely flawed. We only saw that ambush coming because the umbarans suffered an equipment malfunction." He ripped off his helmet and allowed the anger to simmer into his eyes. "We fought them off at the cost of a platoon of men, not clones! Men!"

Krell met his eyes and Rex refused to back down or cower, even in the face of the huge Jedi Master. "As much as it is my duty to remain loyal to your command. I also have a duty to protect those men and not spend their lives frivolously."

Rex fought the judging heavy gaze of the besalisk Jedi for seconds that seemed to stretch out for much longer. He ignored his own racing heart and kept his face as resolute and unflinching as he could. He would not back down on this.

Krell's wide mouth smirked lopsidedly and he looked away to the city in the distance. "You have a spark of tenacity, captain. I'll give you that. I know that I don't command like the Jedi you're used to serving, certainly not like General Skywalker or his deputy, but I have my way and it has worked so far. It will be difficult, but these are difficult times. I suppose your loyalty to your men is to be commended. They seem to admire this. That's important to an effective commander."

The Jedi sighed and folded his two sets of arms and nodded at him. "All right, Captain Rex. Your opinion has been noted, as has the skill of your men. I wish my own legion would've been as effective in dealing with that ambush as you did. I see the training and hand of Commander Tano at work here."

Rex was surprised the Jedi master could see that or would even admit it.

"Very well, Captain. Keep your men in place. We'll see if we can't find a weakness in the enemy defenses ahead to exploit."

Krell turned around and walked away towards the rear elements of the battalion as the AT-RTs steadily advanced to the new front line.

"Wow, he almost complimented you and even called you by your name," Fives said sarcastically, when the Jedi was well out of view.

"Incoming fighters!"

Rex barely had time to turn around when five Zenuas fighters appeared out of the darkened sky and began raining fire down, both from their chin turrets and electro plasma bombs from their wings.

The earth erupted from the explosions as the bombs landed right on a section of the front line, sending troopers and parts of troopers flying through the air.

He jammed his helmet on as he and Fives ran for cover, "Sappers! I want those fighters out of my sky!"

Ten RPS missiles streaked into the air, immediately beginning to home in on their targets.

Rex fell into the closest dugout and grinned as the enemy fighters maneuvered frantically to evade.

Those fighters were extremely nimble, he had to give the shadies credit. Seemingly able to turn and shift their momentum at the will of the pilots in their ray shielded bubble cockpits. Some managed to shrug off the missiles, but four of them weren't quick enough and took a missile in the hottest portions of the fighter.

He winced as the overhead explosions lit up the sky and pieces of fighter craft began raining down.

"Counter attack!"

The green blaster bolts of umbaran militia began peppering the defense line.

Rex shouldered his rifle, sighted and with two double trigger pulls nailed two charging militiamen in the chest and head.

The remaining fighter came for another strafing run, but two blue and green spinning blades of light shot into the night and cut straight through the lower struts.

The spinning blades maneuvered with a similar defiance of gravity or momentum, spinning to other parts of the fighter and slashing into it.

General Krell stepped into view, remaining behind the cover of a tree and made pulling gestures with all four arms.

Krell's lightsabers rushed back to their owner, shutting down their lethal blades before the hilts slapped into the besalisk's giant hands.

The fighter sputtered in mid-air struggling to stay aloft, before it seemingly lost all power. The bubble canopy of the pilot shut down as it plummeted out of the air and crashed into an entire platoon of advancing militiamen, crushing and injuring many.

The wreckage of the fighter seemingly chose that moment to explode, finishing off any nearby survivors.

Krell stepped casually forward, his dual bladed saber staffs active and moving with blurred movement, sending any blaster fire straight back to the enemy.

Rex was only peripherally aware of the spectacle, but soon the Jedi was right next to his dugout.

The characteristic low engine hum of more Umbaran fighters flew by overhead.

"These fighters are becoming an annoyance," Krell growled. "We were supposed to have air superiority!"

The general stopped fighting and abruptly jumped into the same dugout Rex was using, thankfully turning off his sabers before doing so. There was just barely enough space and the Jedi's huge right leg was pushing quite uncomfortably against his side.

Krell's reason for this close encounter became apparent when he tapped the blinking comlink on his upper left arm.

Rex just kept firing, adding two, then three more kill marks he could scratch onto his armor.

"The capital city is extremely fortified," said the voice of General Kenobi. "Many buildings that we thought were civilian on the outskirts were disguised weapon emplacements, firing long range missiles that home in on both ground and air. We've for the moment lost our air dominance."

"Resistance along our own axis of advance has also been greater than anticipated," reported Krell. "We're holding for now."

"If we're to make any headway, we need to take out what we think is an airbase in the west that is the primary launching point for these fighters."

More RPS missiles streaked into the air, but only two fighters were destroyed.

The rest managed to evade and continued trying to strafe the 501st, at least until those troopers with DC-15X snipers and the AT-RTs cannons combined their firepower.

A fighter spun wildly out of control and crashed out of view behind a nearby hill, sending up a bright fireball that quickly faded into the night.

"Send me the coordinates, I'll see to it that it's under our control!"

"We need control of the skies back, General, quickly or this entire invasion is in jeopardy."

Grenades thumped into the air and lit up the enemy advance with explosions.

Krell lowered his arm, "Captain Rex, you heard him. We need to deal with this attack and move out immediately!"

"Yes sir!"

Anakin slunk from tree to tree, the holodroid currently nothing more than a black void that blended into the night.

Prowling behind enemy lines and infiltrating was certainly a welcome change of pace given the battles they'd been involved in lately.

'Okay, master, you should be near it now.'

He fell prone and easily crawled forward, sticking his head carefully over the edge of the terrain which became a reasonably large valley.

At the far end, was a reasonably sized air base that, even as he watched, launched another squadron of Umbaran fighters into the sky.

He zoomed in the droid's vision and saw why this place had been easily dismissed. There were only a small number of surface buildings, including a large central tower, but the pads the fighters had launched from were actually elevators, which were now retreating into the ground and covered with a large holo to mimic a duracrete surface.

'So, given this is right next to the capital, we could be looking at the biggest air base on the planet, only most of it is underground,' he thought.

'This base is perfectly situated, only one practical approach for any large ground force. The 501st will be squeezed in there, only a single platoon can advance while maintaining ideal spacing. If that's not enough, look here.'

His HUD shifted and a zoomed view showed six huge 50 meter long segmented tanks, clearly imitating some form of sinuous insect. Eleven segments, each had its own turreted cannon, whilst the front had four forward facing cannons and a glowing cockpit area.

'These things are capable of underground movement and emerging right in the middle of any troop formation. Armor is thick enough to give RPS missiles trouble, unless they target the vulnerable spots. Next to them is the Umbaran version of artillery, except mounted to a heavily shielded multi-limbed walker platform.'

"We'd need AT-TEs to make a dent in those, nothing the 501st has at the moment will let them take those out.'

'True. Only bright side is that the terrain also precludes the enemy fielding these things in large numbers.'

Anakin considered the options available to them. There was really only one way forward.

The valley approach was the only one practical for a conventional force, but not for a lone infiltrator.

He crawled backward slightly, stood and began running, tapping into the Force to boost the holodroid's movement.

They would take the long way around, skirt the edges of the valley, loop around and enter the base from the north-western side. A combination of both the Force and the holodroid's sensors let them avoid passive enemy sensor detection nets and militia patrols.

It took most of an hour to cover that distance and Anakin paused at the edge of a tree, just beyond the perimeter fence of the base.

The fence itself was mostly just a line of tall pillars that were emitting solid walls of blue force fields, which also crackled with electrified potential. He immediately spotted a very obvious potential weakness in this defense.

'They're lazy. The trees are so tall and the thick branches haven't been pruned at all. Clone troopers would need just an ascension gun and rope to get over this.'

'Master, detecting a handshake protocol trying to sync with the Umbaran IFF, I think we can just walk through if we allow it.'

'We'll certainly have an easier time moving through the base that way. Do it.'

He engaged the holodroid's full umbaran militia disguise, brought the blaster rifle to hand and walked without hesitation to the perimeter force field.

The moment he was within arm's reach of the blue electric wall, it flickered and an entire segment powered down, allowing him to walk right through.

'Interfacing with the network, we should be able to pull a map diagram, get our bearings,' announced Ahsoka.

Anakin kept walking with a proper gait and intent, as if he was just another militiaman, doing his duty, on his way back from a patrol of the exterior of the base.

There were very few soldiers actually above ground, most of them he sensed were down below, working on getting the fighters ready.

'Got it, projecting onto your HUD. This facility is as huge as we guessed. There's enough space down here to house twenty squadrons of their Zenuas fighters. The pilots, support staff, ordnance and a local guard force, all have underground barracks. There are also connection tunnels that lead right to the capital city.'

'That is very convenient,' he thought, eyeing the six massive artillery walker tanks to his right that were now towering over him as he walked past them. They weren't crewed yet, but that was going to change as the 501st came closer. 'Snips, what is the clearance level I have at the moment?'

'Your IFF currently designates you as Kaelus Zan, current rank is their equivalent of a sergeant or mid level non-commissioned officer. You can walk everywhere except the base's power plant.'

He turned, heading into the direction of the central tower of the base. It was lit up with large blue panels all down its length, serving as the major light source for the whole area.

A decorative circular holo, the symbol of the Umbaran royal caste, marked one of the side entrances to the tower. It vanished as he approached and the door behind it parted for him with an impressive mechanical fluidity. So perfect was the engineering, that one could hardly tell there was a door at all in the outer skin of the building.

Beyond was a long hallway with a bank of turbolifts on his left.

'What are you thinking master? Find a control room to wreak havoc the moment the 501st attacks?"

He strode into the lift and tapped the holographic panel to bring it to the uppermost level of the tower.

'That's the general idea, but we must first get an idea of the Umbaran systems before I can say for sure.'

The lift began to decelerate way too early and Anakin hurriedly wrapped the Force around him as it stopped halfway up the tower, just in time for the doors to open.

He was confronted by a bored Umbaran woman, wearing a white military uniform with a blue stripe down the side. Her silver hair was impractically long and her pale blue disinterested eyes just slid over Anakin as if he was part of the background. She had a single sidearm blaster in a holster along with rank pips on her collar, but he couldn't tell if she was low rank or she might as well be the base commander for all he knew.

She walked in and regarded the control panel, frowning at it briefly before tapping another button to force the doors to close.

Anakin suppressed the feelings of elevator awkwardness as the woman turned her back to him and the lift resumed its journey.

'Doubt the umbarans put their women on the front lines, she's support staff or intelligence service,' Ahsoka commented. 'Referencing her face in their personnel database.'

'Is that necessary?'

'Never know what might become handy in the future, Skyguy. Well, what do you know, she's the base's second in command. Lisara Caln, the best translation for her rank is a lieutenant commander or sub commander.'

Anakin's thoughts raced and he eyed how far it was to the top of the tower and how much time they had. 'Snips, any visual sensors in this thing? I don't see any.'

'There is one, top corner, behind and to your right. It's small.'

He sensed for it carefully, not letting haste cloud his thoughts.

There! He reached out with the Force, inducing the most minor of electric fields he could to short circuit the sensor.

'It's out. Go, master.'

His will reached forward and pushed down onto the mind of Lisara Caln.

Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed bonelessly to the elevator floor. Every detail of her form was already being scanned and generated into a holoshell disguise by Ahsoka, and was ready for him to use by the time he had the woman propped up against the elevator wall.

'Where's her IFF, Snips?'

'Integrated into her belt, disguised as the buckle.'

There were too many potential problems with just ripping it off her. 'Can the one I have emulate hers?'

'The encryption is not just in the software, it's also in the chipset itself. Sorry, master.'

'Fine.'

He fiddled around the belt, unlatched it and pulled it off with one quick yank. 'Eject the other IFF.'

The holodroid's panel popped open and the sergeant's chipboard clattered to the floor as he ripped the buckle from the belt and fed it into the adaptive interface.

'This is going to be a close thing, master. All right, her IFF is online.'

Anakin switched the holoshell and now there were two Lisara Caln's in the lift. He next turned his attention to a quick review of the floor plan he was going to encounter, even as he stored the militiaman's deactivated IFF in another leg compartment.

'R2 managed to intercept the IFF's alert when it went offline. You're still clear on the network, no alarms raised. The lift camera malfunction was noticed. We're going to have to be invisible via camera footage loops from here on.'

He easily picked up the umbaran woman and straightened himself just in time for the lift to reach the top floor of the tower.

Thankfully he sensed no one in the immediate corridor or in the adjoining ones.

'Cam sensors are looped, go master.'

He rushed out of the elevator and turned left immediately, running with max speed the holodroid was capable of. He had to support Caln's neck rather awkwardly with the Force to prevent her head from being flung about.

Thankfully, the umbarans were just like the rest of the humanoid galaxy when it came to some architectural choices and the closest refresher room was just a dozen meters from the turbolift bank.

He paused before entering though, 'Sensors in here?'

'They're umbarans, master. Of course there is. One moment… looped.'

The doors swished open and he quickly hurried into one of the refresher stalls that had the umbaran Basic signage for 'woman'. Then made her somewhat comfortable by sitting her down on the seat.

He renewed the Force Sleep on her mind, dropped the blaster rifle, appropriated her blaster pistol and closed the refresher stall behind him.

His eyes caught the massive mirror on the opposite wall reflecting his current disguise and a wave of oddness washed over his perceptions. The proprioception of this holodroid body was really doing a number on his internal equilibrium at times.

'Skyguy, I see a problem. You're not moving properly… I mean, you're walking with the gait of a man.'

The holoshell was doing an excellent job, but it only contributed to the sense of wrongness at seeing the bumps of a bosom where there should've been a male chest and the flared hips was just making everything worse.

He walked, trying to shift the holodroid hips into the best approximation he could of a woman's walk.

'Master, you're the XO of this base, not a fashion model.' He could feel Ahsoka clearly holding back laughter.

'Would you like to take over?' he asked sarcastically.

'That wouldn't be a good idea now.'

An annoying urgent alarm echoed throughout the room, whilst the lights dimmed slightly.

'That is the combat alert. The 501st are in the valley, approaching the base.'

All thoughts of impersonation fled and he rushed out of the refresher, and sprinted down the hall, took the first right, and straight towards a large blast door set in a thick bulkhead.

It opened for him immediately and he slowed to a normal authoritative walk as befitted someone of command.

This was the base command center; a large oval room with terminal holo stations all along the perimeter and a central holotank.

A dozen umbarans wearing the same white uniform were diligently working at their posts and rapidly talking to each other, whilst standing at the central holotank was an umbaran male with militia armor, but not wearing the helmet.

Currently the holotank was displaying a full real time tactical map of the valley approach, with small icons representing the 501st troopers steadily moving down it. Small scale holo versions of the umbaran tanks were already being manned and one insectoid tank was already underway.

"...Caln?"

The familiar word snapped Anakin out of his racing thoughts on how to somehow salvage the situation. He looked up and met the gray eyes of the base commander; the white haired man was frowning at him, his confusion clear and Anakin sensed the clear concern, even affection the commander had for the woman whose form he had adopted.

In that brief moment, Anakin understood - Caln and the base commander were lovers, even married or as close as Umbarans came to the concept.

But there was no more time to agonize or debate, there was only action as he saw more insectoid tanks begin moving.

In a blurred movement, Anakin drew the Umbaran pistol and fired it into the chest of the commander.

The man's look of surprised shock briefly etched itself into his memory before he collapsed to the floor with a hole in his chest.

The Force cried out in warning and he ducked behind the holotank to avoid blaster shots from the various technicians around him.

He rolled forward, grabbed a male technician by the neck to use his body as a shield, before firing four rapid shots in a blurring movement.

Each shot found its mark, blasting into chests or exploding heads.

Anakin's human shield took three blasts before he dove away, again using the holotank's base as cover, before blind firing his pistol overhead.

He felt three deaths before he rolled again, moving in a blur of Force Speed grabbing one of the remaining technicians by the chest and throwing them easily to collide with two others.

Those three went down in a tangle of limbs, before he spun and fired rapidly again, in the process grabbing another fallen blaster pistol from the floor.

He threw that blaster, aiming for the one technician that was rushing towards the exit. It brained him hard on the back of the head and sent him sprawling into unconsciousness.

He stood slowly and surveyed the room.

Everyone was either dead or unconscious.

He looked down at the blaster in his hand and after a bit of exploration, found the selector switch… there were only two settings, safe or lethal.

'Funny, you'd think they'd want a stun setting to take prisoners at least,' Ahsoka commented.

He rushed over to the blast door and stabbed the holodroid's interface probe into the control panel there. It was the work of a few seconds to secure the door and lock it down from anyone attempting to come in from the outside.

A brief look at the holotank showed all six insectoid tanks manned and moving, sinuously moving forward before using their forward looking lasers to drill straight down into the earth outside the perimeter fence.

Anakin rushed to the control terminals and frantically scanned for one that would help.

The first thing he found was the launch controls for starfighters. He stabbed the holodroid interface into the slot and the entire umbaran network unfolded before his eyes.

'Wow, those credentials just made things so much easier. R2 has the entire base completely open to him. No more hacking needed.'

He threw a command into the network, locking down all the starfighter elevator platforms. 'No more air support from this base at least.'

'R2, help me lock down the rest of the base, we need to secure the reactors first. Simulate a leakage that will get everyone out of there and then lock it down,' said Ahsoka urgently.

'Good thinking, Snips. But there's still the matter of saving the 501st from being annihilated," he pointed out, looking back at the tactical holo.

The insectoid tanks burst out of the ground as they watched and used their bulk to crush numerous clones under their bellies and legs.

The clones scattered, sprinting to get out of the way, firing on the tanks as they scrambled for any cover behind trees and rocks.

"Come on, use the rocket launchers, that's what they're there for," Anakin mumbled under his breath as for six very long seconds the insectoid tanks cut a bloody swath as their numerous turrets sprayed plasma blasts in practically every direction.

Finally, a surviving Sapper got himself in position and popped out from behind a tree to send a missile directly into the front segment of the tank.

It blew up impressively, turning the front of the thing to scrap and immediately the Umbaran holotank flashed a series of warnings, giving the small holographic representation of the tank a red hue and the label 'non-functional' and 'pilot dead'.

That still left five more tanks, all of whom breached out of the earth at once in a curved formation.

The sheer volume of fire that filled the small valley was astonishing.

The clone troopers managed to rally despite this new major threat and not even a few seconds later, two more tanks died.

The three surviving tanks applied some tactics of their own at this point, coming together into a formation for mutual support.

Missiles were fired again but the numerous turrets and rate of fire meant that they were intercepted.

"Come on, Rex. They're together now, you've got them," Anakin encouraged, then he noticed Ahsoka was coding something into the Umbaran network with R2's support. It didn't take him long to deduce what they were doing. "Seriously, Snips?"

'It's a capability in all Umbaran war vehicles. Makes sense since they have such a low population and standing military. I'd imagine it's only used as a last resort.'

The holotank flashed a warning and now all three insectoid tanks registered as destroyed at once, thanks to a cunning trap with thermal detonators that Rex had placed in their way.

"There you go, Rex. So, how about I control one walker and you take another one?"

'There is the matter of how Krell will perceive our intervention, master.'

"I don't care at this point, I'm not letting my men die over this. Umbarans are infamous for their cunning and manipulation, he might just assume that it was infighting."

'Or we can just contact the Blades and tell them to take credit for this infiltration.'

"That can work as well. Now get us control of those artillery walkers."

'Done. I have the one at the back, you have the one in front of it.'

In his HUD a new window blossomed open, nearly completely filling his vision. He realized he was looking through another HUD of the Umbaran mobile heavy artillery walker. Just a glance at the various weapons and readouts told him that it was a very good thing that they were in control. The armor of the walkers were ludicrously thick, which combined with their shielding and anti-personnel weaponry made them a nightmare for anyone to fight on foot. Nothing the 501st had would take these things out unless they got very lucky.

He took a mental hand on the virtual controls R2 had so thoughtfully programmed for them and pushed forward.

The umbaran pilot immediately noticed something was wrong and began frantically pushing and pulling on his holo controls to regain control.

'They're completely locked out, master. No controls, no radio, nothing. They're just along for the ride at this point.'

Anakin pushed for more speed and took a left, coming up behind an Umbaran walker.

The six artillery walkers were now out of the base proper and those in the front already had the 501st in range, but they weren't firing for some reason.

He shook that notion off and enabled every weapon system on the walker. "You ready, Snips?"

'Ready.'

"Go!"

He slewed the walker's largest gun, the articulated EM plasma cannon down and hardly even needed the crosshair, before triggering it.

The umbaran pilot screamed in denial and despair as his own walker fired on his fellow.

The massive plasma bolt sheared through the thinner rear armor with little trouble before vaporizing internal components and other critical pieces.

The walker exploded with a tremendous green tinged fireball as the internal reactor released all its energy. Bits of armor, walker legs and fire soared into the sky.

Ahsoka's remote controlled walker joined the party, firing her cannon with a more upward trajectory.

The giant plasma bolt arced over the enemy walkers to land right in the rear armor of the foremost walker, the one closest to opening up on the 501st with its anti-personnel laser cannons.

It also blew up in a rather satisfying manner.

The two remaining enemy vehicles were suitably caught flat footed by this turn of events.

He switched to the smaller lasers, whilst they waited for the main guns to recharge.

Two solid red beams scythed through the air and connected immediately with the enemy walker. The shielding shrugged it off easily but it did the job of keeping the pilots startled that few extra precious seconds.

Anakin and Ahsoka's walkers fired again.

The entire valley was briefly lit with orange and green light as the last two walkers under enemy control exploded. The heavy debris felled trees instantly and the plasmatic fires caused their leaves to quickly burn.

He pulled back on the virtual controls to bring the walker to a stop. "You know Snips, we can't stay in control of these things and if we let go, the pilots will resume their defense of the base. There's also thousands of support personnel downstairs."

'Turn our respective walkers to face each other. We shoot at the count of three.'

Anakin sent a feeling of agreement and twisted the virtual controls to the right, causing the walker to turn on the spot. He lined up the cannon firing reticle right on the cockpit of Ahsoka's walker.

'Three… two… one… fire!'

Rex had seen a lot in this war so far.

He prided himself on being able to roll with any punch the enemy could throw against him, whether they be clanker or otherwise. No matter how outlandish or fantastic or outnumbered, he knew that as long as he had his fellow brothers with him on the battlefield, they could be victorious.

Yet the sheer impossibility of the umbarans suddenly deciding to settle a score with each other like that… at the exact moment when they seemingly had the 501st dead to rights…

"What by the bloody void was that?" Fives asked, his helmet off and taking it in with his own eyes, as if he wasn't sure somebody had hacked his visor.

Rex shook his head, "I don't know, Fives and at the moment I don't care. We've just been given a lifeline and an opportunity. Commander Tano would want us to pick up our jaws from the floor and take advantage of it immediately. So get that helmet on! We've got a base to capture!"

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Fom = Hertz