A/N: Star Wars is owned by Disney. Campaign for them to revoke the Gaming IP rights from EA!

Chapter 4

If there was one misconception the layman had about life in the military was that it was one exciting adventure after another. They had no idea of the sheer amount of work, planning and logistics that went into getting that single ARC fighter into space in working condition, or how long that clone pilot had drilled and trained for. They had no idea of the amount of effort that went into building a single Venator class Star Destroyer, nor how much work it was to keep it running in combat readiness, keep its seven thousand four hundred crew fed and everything that went along with that. The protocols and checklists that had to ticked and done, or else risk disaster when that one system wasn't working properly, which could lead to something critical breaking down, which could cost lives. That didn't even cover what could happen during combat.

It was some miracle that the Grand Army of the Republic had inherited the institutional knowledge of starship combat and shipbuilding that dated all the way back to the Great Sith War - which was kept alive in the training and archives of the old Judicial Forces and Jedi Archives.

In my previous life, I had been a citizen soldier and reservist, never going higher than the local equivalent of a basic Clone trooper first class, so when I was literally thrust into the officer slot of a Commander, there was nothing to fall back on except by what I could dig out of Jedi Archives. Everything that a Commander had to know, I had to know as well, and the amount of studying that required was daunting to say the least. It was at least the equivalent of studying a military degree of 4 years, and be expected to do the job on the fly. Thank goodness that there were Jedi techniques of enhancing memory recall and cognition. At the rate I was studying I could probably consider myself qualified for the role - knowledge wise - within a year or so.

But as I was now 'General' Skywalker's second in command, that meant I was also required to attend all these wonderful strategic planning meetings, and guess who was given the task of officially logging these into the Republic database.

I was seated next to Anakin in the main briefing hall of the Resolute, where Admiral Yularen was conducting the session. The air above us was filled with a giant hologram of the galaxy, which at a gesture from the Admiral, was coloured to show the current strategic picture.

Separatist space was coloured in purple, and the Outer Rim galactic north was basically covered in it, along with a few slices of the southern galactic Outer Rim. Republic space was red, and covered the core, mid rim and expansion regions in the centre to the south. The galactic east was of course, dominated in the green of Hutt space. Everything else was left gray to indicate neutral space.

"With Hutt space now open to our fleets we are launching a flanking offensive campaign using the Boz Pity System as our main staging area. This will open a second front and in theory should drain the main Separatist Perlemian defence line of units and perhaps allow for a break through. The main problem as always is logistics, before our fleets can push forward with confidence, we need to establish supply bases along our axis of advance. The Resolute and Task Group Twelve are on convoy escort duty."

I inwardly groaned at the thought. That meant escorting bulk freighters - giant behemoth ships that could carry entire factories, bulk supplies, ammunition, spare parts, power supplies, fighters and even small destroyers and cruisers within their cavernous megaton holds, everything a military campaign needed. They had powerful shields, but they were as slow as molasses in normal space and hyperspace - relative to a dedicated combat fleet.

"It is more than likely that the enemy will know we are coming, and will not care that they are blundering into Hutt space to engage us. So we can't expect escorting these convoys will be easy."

Hutt space was an odd duck in the history of the Galaxy, their influence waxed and waned throughout thousands of years, their space growing then shrinking, but they had always managed to stay out of the grand galactic wars against the Sith empires of old. After the last Great Sith War a thousand years ago, and the Ruusan Reformation of the Republic, Hutt space had practically ballooned in the galactic east. Yet, you could never point at the Hutts and claim they held their space because of fleets or any sort of true force projection. It was seemingly their economic and 'underworld' muscle that let them hold onto their space, and by the fact that the worlds they chose to develop in their space were not attractive at all to general human or humanoid alien life.

That was the reason why the Republic wanted a Treaty with Jabba. Sure we could've just charged right through, but we'd have to watch our back constantly to secure any Republic assets from the sponsored privateers that the Hutts would throw at our ships, bases or garrisons. Not to mention the army of criminal 'scum' they could sponsor to make the lives of everyone in the Core worlds utterly miserable.

The Admiral further outlined our rendezvous with a convoy in the Manaan system, where we would begin the escort duty, through a zigzag course going galactic east, entering Hutt space near Chalacta, then turning north and Boz Pity as the final destination. Whereupon we would open the new front. Similar convoys would be taking different hyperspace routes and vary their emergence into normal space as much as possible.

Our Task Group's course and escort would take nearly two weeks to finally reach Boz Pity - well, at least I could keep up with my training, studies and a pet project or two.


Anakin Skywalker paced back and forth on the upper command Bridge of the Resolute, hands clenched behind his back, within which was a datapad. He had to suppress the near reflex urge he felt like sending to his cybernetic right arm to crush the damn thing. The report it contained seemed like a verbatim copy of the twelve that had come previously over the past nine days.

The campaigns into the Separatist north had seemed to be going well. Then ships had started to miss scheduled check ins with the central command. Scouts sent to trace the missing ships along their last known route would also go missing. Thus far, seven Venators, two Acclamators and eight scouts in various classes of ship - ranging from hyper capable fighters to small frigates had just seemingly vanished.

Yet the Jedi Council saw fit to keep going without any change in fleet posture at all.

He decided to turn his frustration into something positive and headed off the bridge to find his Padawan - it was about time for their daily lightsaber practice anyway. He had to admit that it was nothing like he imagined it would be. She took in everything he taught, as Obi-Wan had taught him, but was not afraid to challenge those teachings when she disagreed with them.

She enjoyed lightsaber instruction but found the pure physical exercises he set her to complete with Rex a challenge to push through. It was about the only thing she grumbled about doing but persevered nevertheless. In other respects she was utterly self-sufficient, way more than he remembered being at fourteen years old and giving Obi-Wan headaches with his teenage antics.

Outside the Bridge he summoned an MSE-4 mouse droid and directed it to home in on Ashoka's com link. He could have just called and summoned her to the hangar, but he wanted to do a bit of discreet observation of her day-to-day activities. He generally knew where her duties took her during a standard day aboard the Resolute but it was off-duty hours that he was curious about.

So he was rather surprised to see the droid eventually leading him to the very noisy indoor shooting ranges that the 501st utilized for target practice. There were two rather cramped ranges that the Resolute offered its embarked soldiers. One was a standard fifty meter stationary course with shooting lanes and stationary targets, the second was an open plan range that sent hovering remote drones to simulate moving targets that shot back at you.

Ahsoka was seated in the middle of the latter shooting range, wearing her conformal armor, legs folded underneath her in classic meditation position, above her head a small cloud of drones were hovering and moving in random patterns. Surrounding her further in a fifteen meter circle were a squad of clone troopers who were attempting to shoot the drones. The drones would zip to and fro and evade, eventually sending stun bolt back to the trooper, who failed to dodge in time and yelped at the pain it produced, causing him to briefly collapse to the floor.

Feeling utterly baffled he extended his senses through the Force towards his padawan. Oh she's controlling the remote's flight completely and triggering them to shoot via Technometry, he thought. As an exercise in telekinesis it was complex and utterly overkill for what was even required to pass muster as a Jedi Knight, perhaps even Mastery, yet here she was doing it. She was also oddly radiating and holding the Force in a large sphere around herself in a way that seemed to be doing nothing at all.

She raised her hands and all the remotes fell to the floor, and opened her eyes, "Sorry boys, but that's where we have to end for today it seems."

The clones gave good natured grumbles and laughs before they noticed him and stiffened to attention.

"At ease, at ease," he assured the men, who from their markings seemed to be from Alpha company. "So what has my padawan been up to with all of you?"

"Just keeping us on our toes, General," said a clone. "She started these exercises with the various companies about a week ago, sir. She controls the drones way better and more unpredictably than the computer, and shoots back when we miss. The only thing we use the range computer for is to keep score."

"I also noticed the power setting on those drones were somewhat high, snips," he commented when she approached.

"It's good motivation to improve, Master. If the troops exercise as if they were in a bloodless battle, then when they are in actual battle it will make them more effective."

"Interesting," Anakin folded his arms and could somewhat see her point. More accurate troopers meant more dead droids not shooting at their fellows and less shots he would have to deflect. "Well, off you go Alpha company, don't let me keep you."

"Yes, sir."

The clones exited the range and he gestured for Ashoka to follow him as they headed down to the hangar bays.

"Something troubling you, Skyguy?" her question broke their companionable silence as they walked.

He held up the datapad, "Another missing ship."

She sighed, "And I take it the scout sent after it vanished as well?"

"Yes. The Separatists are being uncommonly subtle with whatever it is that's causing our ships to vanish. We can't even confirm they've been destroyed."

"Let's look at it this way, Master. What could cause one of our ships to be destroyed so thoroughly that there isn't even a chance to launch distress or destruction beacons?"

"Some new kind of weapon… one that can disintegrate on a ship scale… the energy requirements would be horrendous though… I don't think the galaxy's ever built a hypermatter reactor large enough to do that job. Republic Intelligence would've picked up on the resource shipments for something that big."

Ahsoka shook her head grimly, "That is a frightening thought, Master. But it can't be discounted, space is mind bogglingly vast, and if the Seppies have scouted new hyperspace lanes into unexplored space then...anything is possible. But whatever new weapon they have it's clearly mobile, a new ship class perhaps, mounting a weapon that can hit large ships and small ships in some manner to completely disable them, even the beacon systems that are designed to survive should the ship's reactor explode."

He couldn't find any fault with her reasoning but until they had hard evidence or an eyewitness to this new super ship in action, then it was all just speculation and educated guesses.

"Well, the Council at least has decided to form a small task group under Master Plo Koon whose job it is to solve the mystery." It was rather annoying that they hadn't given the job to Resolute and her group, it'd make a nice change of pace from the boring escort missions.

Ahsoka frowned with worry, "I hope he makes it."


If there was one trait I shared with the Ahsoka I knew from my past life, then it was my bond and friendship with Plo Koon - the Jedi Master who had discovered me to be Force sensitive. He was like a favored Uncle and I had over the many years of training as a youngling in the Jedi Academy gone to him for advice, help in my studies and Force techniques. It was unfortunately that bond and 'attachment', that had caused the Council to prevent him from taking me as a Padawan. It had made me really wish at the time that I could just storm into the Council chambers and Gibbs slap the hell out of those crusty old fossils and scream at them to 'wake up' and smell the coffee.

The Resolute had finally completed its initial convoy escort mission to Boz Pity and it had been assigned as one of the various ships that was 'sitting pretty' in a star system guarding the flanks of the offensive, waiting for the Separatists to show their hand. It was utterly stupid waiting for the enemy to come to us, and handing over the initiative.

"General Skywalker, Commander Tano," the Clone Lieutenant in the crew port crew pit of the Resolute's bridge spoke up, "we're receiving a transmission from Master Plo Koon."

"Put it up," Anakin ordered.

The holoform of the Kel Dor Jedi Master in his customary armored brown robes appeared. Master Plo to the uninformed looked visually frightening, with dark brown, rippling leathery skin, with a near stylish rebreather mask and stippled goggles protecting his eyes from the high oxygen content in the air - which were toxic to Kel Dor. Despite this fearsome visage, Plo Koon was what you would call a 'big softy', and had a heart to match. I sometimes wondered though how he could continue to be sitting on the Jedi Council given its decisions of late - perhaps why he was one of the few Council members actually working on the front lines.

"Master Plo," I bowed to the holo, "glad to see you haven't fallen into the black holes the Seppies are throwing at us."

"Greetings, little Soka," the Kel Dor greeted warmly. "Yes, indeed, and I think I've found the new Separatist ship. We tracked it into the Abregado system and given its size, we will need reinforcements to destroy it."

"The Council has us guarding all the approaches to our staging area Master Plo, I'd need to check in with them first," Anakin shook his head regretfully.

"Destroying this new ship should be top priority, Master, " I pointed out. "Acting like target mynocks for this thing is pointless now that we know where it is."

"I agree," Anakin nodded, "but my orders were specific…"

Plo Koon's holo flickered and vanished after a burst of static. I whirled to the com officer, "What happened there?"

"Transmission cut off at the source, Commander."

"Could it have been jamming?"

"No way to tell, unfortunately."

"Very well," Anakin nodded, "Lieutenant, send a holo conference request, top priority, to the Jedi Council on my authority."

"Yes, sir."

It took another fifteen long minutes to gather what could be called the 'small council', into the conference call. I was somewhat thankful for the time though; I took a deep breath and reeled in my presence in the Force, making myself as unsuspiciously small as possible, then pushed my intentions into a very specific direction, and finally started counting Sabacc hands in my head.

The holograms of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master Mace Windu (Sam Jackson, frak yeah), Grandmaster Yoda appeared, and then with a slight delay, the genteel form of Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine in his typical fancy robes with wide brimmed padded shoulders.

"Ah, Master Skywalker," Palpatine smiled genially, "I trust you have an important reason for calling us together?"

"Yes, Chancellor, we've received a report from Master Plo that he's tracked the new Separatist weapon to the Abragado system."

"Hmmm, not much of note about that system at all," Obi-Wan mused while staring off into a computer display, "no inhabitable planets, just a red giant star and asteroid fields."

"Which would make it an ideal hiding place for the weapon between attacks," Mace Windu pointed out.

"Have we heard anything further from General Plo?" Palpatine folded his hands together.

"Nothing since his initial communication, Chancellor. It's highly likely that he's engaged the weapon and that jamming is preventing further contact, or… his fleet is already destroyed, like the others. I'm intending to launch a search and rescue mission."

"Hasn't Intelligence indicated that this weapon leaves no survivors," Palpatine argued.

Obi-Wan's face twisted into a grim line, "the Separatists are being unusually tidy, they don't want any witnesses."

"Tragic are these losses, but prevent more, we must."

"With that in mind all our battle groups must pull back to guard our supply convoys to Boz Pity," Master Windu declared. I wish I still had hair so I could tear it out… idiots! "I'm afraid we can't risk any more ships with a rescue mission."

"Understood, we will deploy as instructed," Anakin confirmed.

"May the Force be with you," Yoda declared, before the holo conference winked out.

Anakin headed for the rear CIC of the Bridge where Admiral Yularen was.

"Master Plo is still alive," I declared with certainty.

"How do you know?"

"I have had a Force bond with him since I was found by him as a youngling, Master Skywalker."

Anakin stopped in his tracks. "Really? How strong is it?"

"More than strong enough for this, Master."

He nodded and we continued towards the CIC, "Admiral Yularen, redeploy the fleet, I'll scout ahead for enemy activity."

"Isn't that risky? With that mystery weapon out there?"

"It might be, but we can't afford to let the threat of that thing keep hanging over us. The negative effect on morale this can have cannot be overstated."

"Understood, General." Yularen nodded, "Resolute will be here when you return."

"Come along, snips."


The G9 light freighter Twilight emerged from the port hangar bay of the Resolute. Anakin had taken a liking to the old bucket and had repaired and customized the thing in his off-duty time during the long boring escort duty voyages. It now sported military grade sensors, shields and the black market weapons worked properly. It also had Anakin Skywalker ™ customized vector repulsors that made the thing almost as agile as a fighter.

"Co-ordinates set R2?" Anakin asked.

The droid bleeped a 'yes'. The throttles were pulled and the Twilight shot into hyperspace.

It took barely twenty minutes to reach the edge of the Abragado star's hyper limit with the speed of the Twilight's new hyperdrive. The ship's cockpit was filled with red light from the star and the massive red orb provided a perfect backdrop to a scene of devastation. Three massive hulks that were barely recognizable as Venator class ships and an extensive debris field that was slowly spreading out as their initial velocities carried them off into the gravitational influence of the local star.

"Anything on scanners, Ahsoka?"

I stared into the screens of the co-pilot's station. It was amazing the difference in resolution and clarity the scanners now had, the only problem was…

"That star's radiation field is making a mess, not to mention the recent explosions of the cruiser's reactors isn't helping."

"So we're reduced to visual scanning, which would take too long and the Force…"

"Right, give me the controls."

Anakin flicked a switch and transferred helm control to my station. I grabbed the yokes and closed my eyes… emerging myself into the river of the Force… I am one with the Force, the Force is with me, I am one with the Force...

...Master Plo…

...Master Plo… as he is in the Force, in my heart, so am I in his...

there… I pushed the throttle forward angled the ship towards the far edge of the debris field...

Large pieces of wreckage now blocked our path, angling and crashing into each other. The Force showed me the path.

The Twilight dove on its z-axis, then shot laterally along the y-axis, deftly avoiding the debris.

...Master Plo

In the maelstrom of debris... a small life pod. Attached to it was a droid ship that looked like a can-opener with an engine attached. B1 Droids were shooting at the clone troopers, who were tucking themselves to the hull of the pod as much as possible, and returning fire… there… standing in the full vacuum was Master Plo with lit lightsaber, deflecting fire back at the droids. Then using the Force to fling a clone trooper over the lip of the droid ship, allowing perfect shots. He then pulled the trooper back and sliced off the blades of the droid ship that had been threatening to crush the life pod.

Finally another Force push sent the droid ship careening into debris where it was smashed to pieces.

I opened my eyes, "Got them. Over there." I pointed directly ahead and there the pod itself was, with the clones and Master Plo clinging to its surface.

"Well done, snips!" Anakin praised and retook helm control, "Ready the tow cables."

"On it."

I rushed into the rear cargo bay and picked up the tow cable firing gun. The magcon field engaged and the rear doors folded open to the tableau of space and debris before the ship yawed to present its rear towards the life pod. I took careful aim for a nice stable spot on the pod and fired.

The cable landed true and held.

The motor whined as it pulled on the pod's mass but it was successful in giving it enough impetus for a new velocity and heading. I grabbed a hold of a railing as the artificial gravity was temporarily switched off in the cargo bay. The pod emerged into the bay before it was halted with a localised tractor beam. The moment I was sure nobody would be crushed under the thing, I pushed a button on the bay controls and gravity resumed.

The pod slammed to the deck and I winced at the volume of metal meeting metal. The armored clone troopers slid down the edges and collapsed, immediately taking off their helmets and giving relieved smiles. "Damn I hate vac fighting."

I rushed over to where Master Plo was lying, looking rather worse for wear. Kel Dor were one of the few species in the galaxy who could survive the lack of pressure in space, and their rebreathers carried a supply of their natural 'air' with them too. I placed a hand on his brow and winced, it was the temperature spikes that caused spaced Kel Dor to eventually die and the fact that they could not radiate heat, but it seemed Master Plo was already using the Force internally to help with correcting his 'overheating', so to speak.

Anakin gave a gesture behind me to the pod, ripping the front glass panel off and allowing the naval clone officer still inside to gulp in fresh air greedily.

The Twilight's medical droid bustled in at this point and got to work.

Master Plo finally raised his head, giving me a comforting pat on the shoulder, "Tell me, were there any other survivors?"

"I scanned but… couldn't find anybody else," Anakin reported sadly.

Plo's deep resonating voice was disturbed, "The hunters must have destroyed the rest of the pods."

There really wasn't any words you could say at this point so I just gave the big alien a hug.


We emerged into the Twilight's cockpit a few minutes later to hear Master Plo's report on what had happened.

"It took quite a bit of work and calculation to track the Separatist ship down, but finally I was able to narrow it to this system given the times and positions of our ships that had gone missing." Anakin and I took our respective seats at the controls. "That is when we finally laid eyes on it. A massive new class of ship easily five times the size of a Venator, armed with two massive Ion Cannons set into its port and starboard broadsides, along with banks of turbolasers that number over five hundred. It neutralized all power to our ships and shields had no effect in protecting us."

"So it scrambled out the ship's power systems completely, that's why no beacons were going off either," Anakin nodded in understanding. "But how was a ship that large also targeting small ships?"

"This Ion cannon is also unique in that it doesn't just shoot a distinct bolt of energy, but rather it's a wave like area of effect weapon. So long as you are within the ship's broadside arcs you are vulnerable."

A proximity alarm drew our attention and I blinked at the size of the incoming ship, "There's a five kilometer long ship that just emerged out of hyperspace."

Plo Koon didn't hesitate and rushed to the ship controls, "Shut down everything before they detect us."

Between all three of us flicking switches and controls the Twilight was soon drifting in space like a piece of debris. I pushed off my chair in the sudden zero gee and glided over to where R2 was. "Sorry little guy, but we need you to go to bed for a little while." I used the Force, reaching into R2s internals and flicked the hidden switch. The blue lights on the astromech faded. I keyed the door and floated down the corridor back to the cargo bay, and with another Force application of Technometry, shut down the medical droid as well.

"Good thinking, Ahsoka," Master Plo said when I had returned and gestured out the viewport, "have a look."

When I could finally see the giant heavy cruiser it was an awesome sight to behold. It was like a giant dagger set against the dark red backdrop of the sun. "That is one big ass ship."

"Yes, which will not be easy to destroy, even if those Ion Cannons weren't in the equation. From the brief sensor readings we could take before the battle, it has shields and armor of comparable strength to an orbital defense weapons platform."

"We'd need nearly four task groups to make even a dent in that," Anakin shook his head incredulously.

The great ship reduced speed and started to slowly cruise above the plane of the debris field.

"They lost contact with the hunter team, so they're scanning for them," I reasoned.

"We just have to sit still long enough until they conclude that the hunters must have had an accident in the debris field. Their sensors will be as degraded as ours were out here."

"I'll go back and check on the troopers in the meantime."


Jedi Master Plo Koon sat patiently in the co-pilot seat, and using the crash webbing to keep himself anchored onto its surface. Ahsoka vanished beyond the cockpit door and he eyed her new Master. While he would never admit it aloud, he knew himself and there was a slight feeling of envy in his heart that he couldn't help. He knew the reasons that he couldn't have taken Ahsoka as a padawan, and they were good ones, very logical but the heart and the mind on matters such as this rarely agreed. He loved that girl like a daughter, and it was precisely that fact which stood in the way.

"How are you faring with Ahsoka as your padawan, Skywalker?"

The young Jedi Knight's eyes narrowed briefly in thought, "It's been an eye opening experience, Master Plo. She's definitely nothing like I was as that age and her mind goes in very unexpected directions."

Plo nodded, "Yes, on Dorin we call a person like her 'ira fe', old soul, is the best rough translation."

"I admit… there are times when I feel hardly like a Master at all to her, except when it comes to the lightsaber arts."

"Don't feel too bad about it Skywalker. Ahsoka's focus since she was a youngling was into the mysteries and knowledge of the Force - there's a good reason why her lightsaber blades are green. I imagine her one day becoming one of the foremost and powerful Jedi Consulars of her generation."

"But why assign a Padawan like her to me?"

Plo smiled widely enough so it would be visible beyond his rebreather, "One should never stop learning Skywalker. Mastery in any art is just formal recognition from peers that you have achieved a certain level of knowledge, can you really say you have learned everything? Have you ever heard Master Yoda say that he knows everything?"

"Of course not."

"In teaching, you learn as well. Can you see now why?"

Skywalker was quiet for a few moments, staring out the viewport, "We're meant to complement each other, her knowledge of the Force, my martial skill with a blade?"

"That is one reason," Plo admitted, "there are others, but that you must discover for yourself."


We had to wait nearly half an hour for the Separatist heavy cruiser to leave the system, but we didn't immediately return to the Resolute. I had convinced Anakin to try a little trick I remembered from Star Trek. Any ship that could go faster than light speed, was in effect, a time machine. All that you had to do, was outrun the light and you'd see what had happened in the past. In this case, we travelled with a micro hyperspace jump thirty three light minutes outside the Abragado system and using the various scanners of the Twilight, could record the emissions of the enemy ship - and given that it was so big, with a truly monstrous energy profile, and after the red giant's light was filtered out, it allowed for excellent electronic intelligence to be gathered.

Anakin even took the idea further and had R2 program a further microjump that allowed us to see and record the emissions of the Ion Cannon being fired at Master Plo's fleet and the one sided battle that followed, the resolution at that range was pretty crap, but it was way more than we had beforehand. With that done we headed into hyperspace again for rendezvous with the fleet.