Chapter 84
In the annals of his people's history, of all the words said by the kings and queens of Dac, Prince Lee-Char knew that he would probably forever go down in history as the perfect example of foolish naivety. Not to mention the monarch with the worst timing in the galaxy.
How else would you explain the first shot of the Dac civil war happening the instant after he had said: "I do not believe the quarren will attack."
It was a bitter fruit to taste.
It was made even worse as he beheld so many mon cala knights taking cover behind the spires of the government complex and firing their blaster spears in defense of him. Every moment he blinked, he saw a knight jerk and begin floating downward in death.
Attacking the complex was a massive formation of quarren and aqua droids - he couldn't even count the number of people who had been subjects of his father just last week, now doing the unthinkable.
Here he was, floating in the cover behind the central spire's roof and he didn't even have a weapon in hand. What kind of king was he? He technically didn't even have the throne yet, but every mon cala already looked to him for leadership.
The only thing that was letting him keep his own composure, was the fact that he at least had Captain Ackbar, Jedi General Skywalker and Senator Amidala at his side.
A torpedo detonated nearby and Lee-Char cursed inwardly as everyone ducked behind their cover. The hammer blow of expanding water caught two knights on the edge of the building and he forced his eyes to remain open and take in the grisly sight of their remains settling and dropping off the side.
The sizzling singing of distant blaster shots was briefly muted as the shockwave of the water reclaiming the void washed over them. He had to briefly pull off his organic gill, to regain equilibrium in his ears, before reattaching it.
"What are your orders, highness?" Ackbar muttered in the aftermath, keeping his voice low. It was doubtful that the sound of his words would travel far in the chaotic battle, but he understood the necessity. All it would take would be a quarren with a sensitive acoustic sensor listening from range…
Lee-Char looked into the battle.
He was not trained for this. Even the knights had only ever fought in simulation!
The only thing he could immediately see was that the mon cala had a definite advantage using the complex buildings as cover, whilst the qua- no, whilst the enemy had to charge forward in the open water. They were much easier targets and the number of their dead floating downward was far greater. The problem was he could already see that the number of knights who had been on hand when the attack started meant they were effectively outnumbered.
Attack would give up the only advantage, retreating might be possible, but that would be exposing their backs to the enemy.
"We hold the line, captain."
"If I may make a suggestion," Skywalker looked to Ackbar. Lee-Char wasn't the best at reading alien expressions, but the Jedi was clearly unhappy. "It is one thing to have a commander, general or captain in the front line, but your monarch and head of state is an entirely different story. The prince needs to be in a safe position with a command holotank."
Senator Amidala, who had her own Naboo blaster in hand, coughed for some reason and gave Skywalker a complicated expression, which caused him to roll his eyes.
"I understand the practicality, general," Ackbar stated, with his own blaster spear raised above his head, floating next to Lee-Char. "That decision is up to the prince."
Lee-Char might not have any training in the knightly arts, but he was merely a young adult and not a child. He knew politics, leadership and how important the 'voice' of the Throne was. His decision and course was obvious.
"The morale of my people is shaken, general. If they see me retreat from battle, they will lose heart. I have to stay here with my people. Captain Ackbar, keep our troops in defense-"
General Skywalker moved so quickly through the water that he nearly left a void in his wake, his lightsaber ignited in his right hand, whilst his left hand made a clenched fist.
Five torpedoes that had been streaking towards their position in the central spire, which would've been enough to utterly destroy it and kill everyone, detonated in the distance.
The hammer blows of hydro compression shot outward in a large sphere, killing many surprised quarren attackers and wrecking numerous aqua droids. The ocean reclaimed the voids hungrily sending shockwaves outward that threw the attackers in disarray, but the mon cala knights among the spires were also buffeted and some pulled out of cover.
The knights rushed back, but most were quickly cut down by the storm of blaster bolts.
Lee-Char struggled to keep his composure at witnessing such a clear feat of the Force in action.
"If they're smart they'll stop using torpedoes after that at least," General Skywalker floated back down.
"Captain Ackbar, how long can we keep this defense going?"
"As things stand now, long enough for the Republic to arrive, then we go on the offensive. If they capture this complex we lose much of the infrastructure of government and defense." Ackbar turned to the line of knights shooting in front of them. "Watch your upper quadrants, they get close enough they can shoot down on us!"
A problem that quickly turned to reality.
General Skywalker hovered back upwards, staying above Senator Amidala and began deflecting bolts that were shooting into their cover from aqua droids and quarren.
The senator swam up to grab hold of the general's waist, literally using the Jedi for cover as she fired her Naboo blaster at the enemy from under his arms. It made such an odd, disturbing noise in the water, sounding almost like a mon cala infant briefly screaming.
He wished he had a blaster spear. He had at least trained in their use for self-defense. Yet that would complicate things for his defenders, who would have to divide their focus. He watched as Ackbar used his own body as a shield for his prince, shouting orders to the knights nearby and over the radio. He would also fire his weapon occasionally into the distance.
The thumping boom of exploding torpedoes rippled through the water.
Lee-Char watched in horror as an entire building spire on the left flank collapsed, along with many dead knights, reduced to charnel and blood in the water, falling into the deeps.
The enemy tried again to fire torpedoes from their water speeders at the central building.
General Skywalker had to teach them the error of doing that again to them.
The water began to visibly stain with blood.
The general dove back down, bringing the senator back into cover.
Lee-Char was about to ask why when three aqua droids and five quarren popped into view, right in front of the defending knights.
How they had gotten there he couldn't understand at that moment. Ackbar pushed him down against the roof.
He saw only snippets of the fight as he struggled instinctually against his captain.
The Jedi general twirling in the water impossibly, his lightsaber cutting two aqua droids in half, then deflecting the shot of a quarren straight back.
The quarren's head flash fried and exploded.
Ackbar stabbed another quarren through the chest, firing the other end to hit an aqua droid, which Amidala finished off with multiple shots from her blaster.
A mon cala knight beheaded a quarren, only for an aqua droid's left claw to grab the knight's head and squeeze.
The general was there and his blade sizzled through the droid's arm, then torso.
The beleaguered knight pulled off the dead droid arm, his eyes wide with fright and thanks, before grimly shooting another quarren sticking their head over the edge of the building.
The general made a pulling gesture with a closed fist, causing three quarren to uncontrollably find themselves surging through the water towards him, before his blade gave one long slash that relieved all of their heads from their bodies.
Lee-Char could only stare in horror as one of the quarren heads landed within arms reach - the gaping expression of surprise and fear forever captured on its face.
Everything became strangely distant and his ears seemed to just not work properly.
It was as if that quarren head had some spell and Lee-Char couldn't find any will to move or even look away from it.
Those milky gray eyes screamed in judgment at him.
If only he had found the right words at the Grand Conclave, maybe this wouldn't have happened.
Why didn't he find them? If they were so crucial to his people mon cala and quarren alike, why had those words not come to him?
Now they were dying in a war that had seemed so distant just yesterday. It was a land walker's war, they had said. It would never reach the pristine waters of Dac.
Yet here they were, dying in a civil war that Lee-Char had considered utterly ridiculous and impossible just yesterday.
If there was this much discontent among the quarren, why had his father hidden it from him?
"Majesty!"
Where was Ackbar? Hadn't he been right above me? Lee-Char thought dazedly.
He looked around, finally managing to tear his eyes away from the dead quarren. Instead, it was General Skywalker above him, his form moving through the water in a way that seemed impossible for any land walker. His lightsaber left trails of blue in the prince's eyes as it defended and cut down in equal measure with a breathtaking economy of motion.
Then he saw Captain Ackbar, who was lying down against the roof, both his big eyes wracked with pain from a spear wound, whilst Senator Amidala was grimly performing emergency first aid with one hand, whilst her other was still occasionally shooting.
No.
He'd be damned to the deeps if he just laid here and stayed stupefied at his own failure for the entire battle.
He found the will to move from somewhere, a place he couldn't even define. He rolled over and his hand closed around the hilt of Ackbar's fallen spear blaster.
He aimed and fired without even thinking, the blast catching a quarren climbing onto the roof.
Lee-Char pushed off the roof, giving a double kick against the water and surging his spear into the back of a quarren that had just been about to deliver the killing blow against a surprised knight.
He kept the now dead body impaled on his spear and twisted through the water.
The dead quarren took the blast from an aqua droid, before Lee-Char's momentum carried him around and he fired the blaster end of his spear. The droid took the shot just below its rectangular optical sensor. It created enough delay for Amidala to shoot it as well, then Skywalker was there, cutting the entire droid lengthwise in two.
Lee-Char pulled his weapon free and just began shooting.
The world narrowed as the decision was made.
There was only the enemy, his weapon, moving, aiming and shooting.
He was only broken from the battle haze when he felt the hand of General Skywalker suddenly on his shoulder.
He belatedly realized he was pulling in oxygen through both his organic gills and mouth - the latter of which was quite uncomfortable to do for most mon cala.
"Easy highness," Skywalker said and his words seemed to ripple through Lee's being somehow. Which was good, because the impulse had been there to stab the spear behind him in reflex. "You did good, we managed to repel the immediate assault on this spire, look." He pointed upward.
Out of the sun shining through the shallow waters, diving directly on top of the battle was what looked like hundreds of figures.
They moved in a perfect formation, among them, some were being pulled by armed subs.
They opened fire.
Blue blaster bolts streaked down like rain on land, onto the backs of the enemy.
The Republic was here.
The clone troopers fired with amazing accuracy from such a long range. It was a rather astonishing feat for land walkers in such an alien environment.
Many torpedoes launched from the Republic formation. They moved so fast, the vacuum left in their wake boiled the ocean and they detonated among the clustered formations of aqua droids still approaching the government complex.
Lee-Char couldn't count how much wreckage fell into the depths from just that attack.
"Argh," Ackbar coughed water in pain. He fumbled for the radio link, "All knights, break from cover and attack! For the Prince!"
"FOR THE PRINCE!"
The shout echoed through the entire area and would definitely be heard for many kilometers.
Lee-Char watched as his people burst into the open waters all over the complex, their spear blasters firing as they swam with speed into the enemy formations. The clone troopers closed range into the enemy from above and there he could see another three Jedi lightsabers in the distance, two green and one black?
What an odd color, he thought. He'd never known those legendary weapons could be like that.
The battle raged and raged.
Clone, mon cala and quarren bodies began being claimed by the deep.
The ranges had now shrunk to melee range between the combatants and it was taking a terrible toll.
Spear blade met spear blade.
The clones had vibroblade attachments to the underside of their rifles and Lee-Char could hear the distinctive rapid ripples of those weapons in water.
They sunk into quarren flesh and cut through droid steel.
Out of the melee a Republic sub charged straight through, firing its laser cannons. It headed straight for the central spire. It was the Jedi.
Lee-Char could see that he had been mistaken. The three blades belonged to a single Jedi.
The green blades supernaturally swinging and twirling through the water above their back, whilst only the black blade was in their hand.
Any blast was deflected and any droid or quarren who came close didn't even have time to realize the Jedi was there, before they were cut down.
The sub came to stop above them.
The Jedi gave a few pulling strokes, diving down straight towards Ackbar.
"You're late," Skywalker chastised the Jedi, but there was humor in his tone.
"Sorry master," she said lightly, turning off her blades.
She hovered to a stop next to the injured knight captain and placed her armored hands directly on his wound.
Ackbar immediately breathed easier, no longer pulling in oxygen so harshly. "A pleasure to meet you, Captain Ackbar. Jedi Commander Ahsoka Tano at your service and I'll be healing you today."
"The pleasure is mine, commander… thank you." Ackbar wheezed slightly.
Tano nodded at the Senator. "Thank you for keeping him stable long enough for me to arrive."
Amidala nodded, placing a companionable hand on the Jedi's shoulder.
Lee-Char gave one last check of his surroundings, a small squad of knights had remained behind to keep their Prince and Captain safe, despite Ackbar's order. Skywalker was also staying vigilant with the knights, and talking over the radio with the clones.
He swam closer to Tano and Ackbar.
"Will he be alright?"
"Yes," Tano said with a distracted air. "He had some internal bleeding, that's closed up now." She pulled out a bacta patch from her belt pouch and another device that almost looked like a tiny blaster. It was poked directly into Ackbar's wound before an odd substance squirted out, which blossomed into greater volume and sealed it. The patch was slapped down and it glowed blue as it made a permanent seal on the captain's abdomen. "Now Captain Ackbar, you'll soon be feeling as if you're still fighting fit, but that's a combination of painkillers in the sealant and the Force. You are only destined for a medical bay in the next few minutes."
"Nonsense, my place is with the prince," Ackbar objected immediately.
"This prince will order you to sickbay if you persist, captain," Lee-Char threatened with his best attempt at a stern voice, which didn't really land well. "If you die…"
He didn't really want to contemplate what would happen in that case.
Tano swam upwards slightly to gain a look at the battle. "Master, we're pushing the enemy back."
"Yes, but at a heavy cost. This underwater fighting is as brutal as we feared," Skywalker commented grimly.
"THE ENEMY IS RETREATING!"
A loud cheer echoed through the water.
"Captain Ackbar, should we pursue?" came the audible question over the radio.
The captain leaned his head wearily against the edge of the roof. He looked at Skywalker, then Lee-Char, "No, hold at the complex perimeter. We've won this round. We need to see to our wounded and regroup, buy time for more knight companies to arrive from other cities."
"Assuming that those companies aren't bogged down with fighting as well," Tano pointed out.
"Indeed, Commander. Indeed."
"This is not going to be easy," Anakin said as we stared at a holo of Dac with every major and minor population center across the planet.
"We'll be able to fight for the capital, but it will be up to the mon cala to secure the other contested cities." Nine cities had an angry red halo around their icon, denoting some form of active fighting occurring. I tapped one such city called Ukemgab, the holo promptly brought up live scans and visual feeds of the fighting.
It really made me appreciate how nice we landlubbers actually had it on a ground based battlefield.
Cover on Dac was only given by buildings and in the shallows where there might be underwater mountains and slopes, but those were few and far between, given where both species had preferred to create their cities. Battles in the water inevitably turned into a decision of when you would commit to closing range and engaging in close quarters combat with blaster spears.
It generally began with sub scooter launched torpedo duels taking the place of artillery.
Both sides would then mass fire their blasters to take out these torpedoes before they could detonate. That there was no dedicated anti-torpedo point defense sub was simply because the people of Dac had never had to fight on this scale underwater for thousands of years.
They were getting a very bloody lesson and relearning it before my eyes.
Torpedoes also generally forced the battle into close range, since you didn't want your enemy to take long range pot shots at you constantly. They had to intermingle their lines to make those weapons impractical to use in many cases.
The other tactical decider of many battles was the use of the transport tubes in cities.
Both sides had initially kept to an unspoken rule that they were never to be targeted and fighting would only occur on the exits or entrances to the system.
That had barely lasted for the first day of the battle.
It wasn't long until reports began to circulate of quarrens placing proximity mines in the tubes.
This slowed everything down further as neither side could now risk using them. The mines weren't smart enough to distinguish between species as that would make them too expensive to deploy en masse or there would be too few of them.
Now the only way to get anywhere was to swim and there were just too few subs and scooters to go around. It further locked down the civilian population, including the flow of food and supplies.
"It won't be long until we get civvies pouring out of the cities to hunt for food," I said.
"The tube network is the only thing that connects them to their aquaculture centers," Anakin swiped the holo to bring up a 2D representation of Coral City. "They do have large intercity passenger subs, perhaps those can be retasked for food delivery."
"Could work, but we'd be making them prime targets for attack."
Currently the government complex and every building within a nine hundred meter sphere was designated as 'friendly secured territory', with the mon cala knights and clones manning the perimeter. That was all our current numbers allowed us to secure without diluting our strength to unacceptable levels. In comparison to the rest of the city it was a frighteningly small volume.
Beyond that was a 'neutral zone' of three kilometers, which meant that sensors and sonars of various types, that were carried by mon cala, could reliably detect any active noise or movement source. That was deceptive though, the local thermocline sat at a depth of forty meters in the city, meaning anything deeper than that was essentially invisible to a sonar sensor above it.
The rest of the city was assumed enemy territory, but the government complex had hardline sensor feeds from there which would at least give plenty of prior warning of an imminent attack.
I tapped the controls of the holotank, initiating a connection to Master Koon.
"General Skywalker, Commander Tano, good to see you survived that battle. The reports are rather harrowing."
"It was, thankfully the mon cala are able to treat our wounded down here as well. What's the situation in space?" Anakin asked.
"They're still holding in Ruisto, but their Trident assault ships are very busy going back and forth, both in number and frequency of trips."
"More aqua droids, the number they had at the first battle was rather pathetic to be honest," Anakin manipulated the city holo to a 3D format and twisted it around, looking at it from different perspectives.
"Master, how many more SCUBA troopers are ready?"
"One battalion can be dropped to reinforce at any time, the question that remains is where?"
The doors to the large briefing room we had been assigned by the mon cala opened and Lee-Char swam inside, followed by four knights and Chewie, who was looking more comfortable in the deep water with every passing hour.
The big wookiee had achieved many kills with his bowcaster, but his size had made him an attractive target for the quarren. His Aegis armor had thankfully saved his life from the blaster shot that had tagged him in the chest.
"Master Jedi," Lee-Char greeted. "On behalf of my people, thank you for your assistance in the battle."
"You're welcome, highness," Anakin smiled. "There's going to be plenty more battles before this is over though."
"No doubt," Lee-Char sighed sadly. "Whilst Captain Ackbar is in recovery, it falls to me to command the knights. I would please request that a liaison be assigned to me so that our forces can better coordinate."
"My padawan would be more than happy to fulfill such a role."
I was very tempted to needle Anakin in the ribs, but maintained my professionalism.
"It'll be my honor, highness. Just to inform you, Lieutenant Chewbacca here is part and parcel to me."
Lee-Char smiled, "I've already talked to Chewbacca on the way here from sickbay. It's the first time I've ever seen a wookiee and could never imagine one visiting us down here. He fought for my people and risked his life, therefore he is always welcome on Dac."
Chewie thumped his chest in thanks.
"Is there anything else, highness?" Anakin asked.
"Yes, we've received some disturbing intelligence. We believe we've located where the Isolation League and Separatists are staging from." He swam forward and inserted a data chit into the holotank. The blue marble sphere of Dac appeared and it zoomed into a region roughly under eighty kilometers south-east from Coral City and a depth of 170 meters. "These are the Nuxz kelp forests. The density of the foliage and animal life make it an ideal place for keeping your acoustic signature low and hidden at long range. It's also below two thermoclines. Scouts sent back these images."
At that depth, sunlight was quite diminished, giving everything a dark green hue. On the ocean floor was a large ugly structure that was far removed from the graceful organic lines of mon cala architecture. These were two saucer shaped structures, a larger one acting as the base for a smaller, interlinked with struts and supports that gave me the impression that someone had taken an edgy Goth aesthetic and applied it to an underwater construction.
Three battalions of aqua droids were assembled here, hovering in perfect formations in front of this base.
"How old is this intelligence?" Master Koon asked.
"Five hours," Lee-Char answered. "Captain Ackbar believes this force has one goal - the capture of the Star Coral Shipyards."
The holo changed to show an overhead tactical view of the famous underwater shipyards. Its scale was truly gargantuan, it might as well have been a city in its own right, measuring upwards of thirty kilometers by twenty four in surface area, but given that this was underwater, it also had the third dimension to play with. Most of the industrial facilities were clustered on the ocean floor at a depth of two hundred meters, with the living and administrative spaces staying above the more comfortable thirty meter mark, all of it contained within a natural valley.
These shipyards were forty three kilometers northeast of the capital city and a lot of the shipyard workers made their home here.
"Do we have any word from the shipyard itself?" I asked curiously.
"Yes, it seems the Isolation League had recruited a fair number of key quarren workers beforehand. When the war began, they used their privileged access to lock the shipyards down into a security mode and scramble code access. What few automated defenses there were immediately turned on the mon cala. The fact that we're able to communicate with the shipyard administrator alone is a miracle. She was between meetings and the League tried to capture her for her primary access codes. They failed because she simply took a trip to the Refresher and wasn't where they'd thought she'd be."
Lee-Char gestured to the holo and a number of perimeter positions lit up. "These are defense towers that project a shield around the shipyard. They also have laser cannons and mass torpedo launchers. They're old but well maintained, built for anti-piracy measures only. They're currently online and remain under the control of the administrator."
"So as long as she remains out of hostile hands it'll stay that way. What's her current position?"
"The mon cala have fortified a manufacturing building in this south western sector of the shipyards. She's being protected there and apparently they're working on an idea they think will help with the crisis. They didn't elaborate."
"Not even to their prince?"
Lee-Char fiddled with the barbels on his chin in a mon cala gesture of annoyance. "They respect the throne, but I'm technically not on it yet. They're also concerned about communication security."
"This clearly presents a problem for the deployment of our forces," Master Koon said. "The capital city is just as strategically important. If we secure the shipyard but lose the capital in the process our foothold in the waters of Dac will be very precarious. I'm sorry your highness, but we must first secure the capital, the shipyard will still be there even if it falls to the Separatists."
The prince nodded, "I understand, Master Jedi."
"We'll be launching reinforcements within the hour-"
I felt the currents of probability shift and even Anakin raised a hand to his head as his own senses picked up on it.
"Master Koon, launch now. Whatever is ready, we need it," he said grimly.
Plo Koon frowned but eventually nodded, "I sense it as well. Force be with all of you."
His holo winked out.
Anakin tapped his comlink, "All units, go to combat alert."
I swam forward to the holotank controls and pushed my senses far and wide, using the sensors to further augment it.
There!
The holo changed, focusing downward to the ocean floor of Coral city, more than eight hundred meters down. The only reason we could get readings was the hardlined sensors present down at those depths. The sea floor was churning and kicking up the sand to visually obscure what was happening, other sensors compensated.
Something big and hot was boring through the earth down there.
The computer profiled it quickly.
"A tunneling machine," Anakin frowned. "How were its seismic disturbances not detected before now?"
"They probably were, but the quarren had free reign until just a few days ago, sensors were probably hacked and reprogrammed to ignore it."
"What is that?" Lee-Char pointed at large saucer shaped heat signatures that were now emerging from the new tunnel.
"Incoming enemy droids! Northern sector!" was announced over the radio.
The prince whirled through the water to grab his spear blaster.
"All units hold the line!" Anakin shouted into the comlink, powering towards the door.
"Let's go Chewie."
We emerged from the central spire directly into combat.
There were no quarren this time, only aqua droids and they had already punched a hole straight through the perimeter and were splitting into two columns that intended to flank and wrap up the defenders.
I didn't even have time to use my comlink, instead pushing my thoughts directly to Padme.
'Padme, grab the mon cala senator, Ackbar and flee in the direction of the shipyards, now!'
Her shock was palpable across the bond, 'On our way!'
My lightsabers burst into life in the water, in time to deflect bolts that would've cut Lee-Char in half.
The origin of the attack was from below and it was then that I first laid eyes on what the Separatists had thrown at us through the tunnel.
Rising out of the depths was an entire formation of ninety three, green tinted bioluminescent saucers, propelling themselves with dozens of twenty meter long tentacles that powerfully undulated through the water. I sensed they were a clear merging of the mechanical and biological.
"M8, full scan, are those shielded?"
"Confirmed, mistress. No weapon currently being wielded by either Republic or Mon Cala troops will drain or disrupt them. Torpedoes will, but only in great number."
Mounted on the perimeter of the saucers were rapid fire cannons that were sending large bursts of beam lasers cutting through the water.
Even as we watched many dozens of mon cala and clones were lost.
Fire from the DC-12Us just splashed off the shields of these monstrosities.
"No Skyguy, we can't take this. All our remaining Devilfish's torpedoes are not enough to make a dent in this!" I said with a grunt as my blades defended against more blaster fire.
Anakin visibly gritted his teeth as he swam in evasive circles cutting through a number of aqua droids that had reached us.
Chewie roared in defiance, his accurate bowcaster shots taking out droid after droid. He even tried shooting at the jellyfish like war machines to no avail.
"All troops, fighting retreat for the shipyards!" Anakin ordered. "Master Koon, I'm giving you new coordinates for the drop."
We began swimming for our lives.
A long column of six hundred mon cala knights and clones swam out of the Coral city outskirts as if the hounds of hell were on their heels.
In the midst of this desperately fleeing formation Padme, Chewie, Ackbar and Senator Meena Tills of the Mon Cala were clutched on the railings of a Devilfish sub, whilst I was piloting it. The remainder of the subs we had were sprinkled throughout the formation, giving the tired clones a chance to rest.
Anakin and Lee-Char along with most of the mon cala knights were acting as a rear guard, firing behind them at the tirelessly pursuing aqua droids.
We were lucky that the CIS combat jellyfish craft were quite slow and none had even set off in pursuit.
I desperately wanted to join the rear guard as losing Lee-Char at this point would be disastrous, but I had to trust that Anakin was doing his job and sticking to the monarch like glue and defending him.
After two kilometers of desperate travel, swimming and fighting, more and more clones had to grab hold of the subs. It got to the point that there weren't enough hand holds and troopers had to grab onto each other's legs, forming human chains that were dragged through the water. Never let it be said that they were content with that, as they continued to aim their weapons behind them and fire into the pursuing enemy formation.
Even Chewie was hooking his leg onto the sub's railing, aiming and occasionally firing with his bowcaster using the pop-up scope, when he was sure of a shot.
My own energies were spent protecting Padme and Tills, keeping the spirits of everyone buoyed with Battle Meditation and steering the retreat.
"How… much- longer?" Padme gasped with closed eyes. She was trying to spend as little time clutched on the sub's railing.
M8 displayed the answer immediately on my HUD. "Four hundred meters, three minutes at this speed," I eventually answered whilst my lower body undulated against the water in a 'dolphin stroke', the Force constantly aiding my stamina.
Even Senator Tills was making use of the sub to rest as the mon cala wasn't exactly in the prime of her life anymore.
"Curse these droids!" Chewie roared as he missed a shot, rapidly reloading his weapon.
The three minutes that followed would be remembered by many of the survivors as the longest moments of their lives.
Even as we were retreating, we were leaving the dead in our wake as the aqua droids kept up their attempt to rout us completely.
At last, I felt them entering my awareness and fifteen meters above us, a huge number of splashes were seen as 550 clone troopers and forty-eight Devilfish subs plunged into the oceans of Dac.
All of them dove for the rear of our retreating formation with all the speed they could muster.
A storm of blaster fire rained onto the pursuing droids from the reinforcements. Torpedoes soon followed, wrecking a multitude of droids with every detonation among their formation.
Wrecked aqua droids began steadily floating into the depths below.
With the tide somewhat turning, the reinforcements merged into the retreating formation.
It did wonders for morale and I was left with much less metaphysical weight to carry in the Battle Meditation.
Another volley of torpedoes ranged outward, their detonation and implosion effects finally broke the back of the enemy, as the droid numbers were now too few. Yet it seemed Riff Tamson wasn't content with that and kept the surviving droids doggedly on our tails.
We covered another three kilometers of distance before the last droid was cut apart by Anakin's lightsaber.
I let out a relieved sigh into my helmet as I surveyed our numbers.
933 mon cala and clones.
Anakin used his armor's propulsion and the Force to streak through the middle of the formation, carrying a rather disgruntled Lee-Char and grabbed a hold of the Devilfish sub.
"I hate this," the prince declared.
"Better to live and fight another day, your highness," Ackbar said with a wince. He had to be strapped to the sub and was in no condition to actually swim. "You did everything you could. Your father would be proud of you."
Lee-Char closed his eyes in heartfelt pain, "I'd rather he be alive and with us. He wouldn't have lost Coral City."
"Not even he would've foreseen the enemy bringing those karkarodon monstrosities to our waters, your highness. We would need starfighter cannons to practically destroy those."
"I suppose," he admitted. "I feel like I… barely did anything."
"Valor is not counted in how many droids or quarren you defeat, highness," I pointed out. "You are the crown now, the hope and sovereign of your people. As long as you live, they will endure and live to see the new day."
"We'd need a whole new army group to take back the capital, even if we could counter these new weapons."
"That army will come, highness. We at least now know what the CIS have brought to the table and we can work with the scientists and engineers at the shipyards to find a countermeasure. Take heart Prince Lee-Char, we are far from defeated. Think of this as merely a tactical repositioning of our forces."
"Tactical repositioning?" Ackbar chuckled despite himself. "I'll have to remember that one, Commander Tano."
It would take almost two and half hours to reach the shipyards.
We probably could've used the travel tube that linked it to Coral City, especially when scouts reported that not a single soul was using it, nor that any CIS droids were traveling through it towards the shipyard. The problem was what would happen when we reached our destination through it. The tube could squirt us out directly into a prepared quarren ambush, literally a 'fish in a barrel' moment.
So we had to be content with traveling the hard and slow way, sending scouts ranging outward on Devilfish subs. We also had to be worried about our depth as the seafloor terrain changed. If we poked our heads above the shifting thermocline, the chance that we could get droids dropped on top of us increased greatly.
The CIS definitely knew where we were headed and the fact that they hadn't sent more aqua droids to destroy us was very worrying. Either they were too busy consolidating their hold on the capital or they just didn't care about pursuing us. They knew we would have to retake the capital eventually. It would all depend on just how many aqua droids had been produced for this campaign. Fighting on aquatic worlds was somewhat of a niche endeavor, I could use my hands to count the amount of worlds it would be useful on.
That was a strategic problem though and I had a nasty feeling we could not count on the CIS running out of droids for this specific campaign.
As we neared the shipyard we began hugging the sea terrain as much as possible. It was far more hilly and even mountainous in this direction, but the shipyard was situated in a huge valley called Jumdu.
The clones switched their SCUBA gear to rebreathing mode a kilometer out. This allowed for a more stealthy approach so we didn't spew out bubbles into the ocean above us and throw out the underwater equivalent of smoke signals.
We paused at the crest that looked down on the valley and looked down on the stupendously large shipyards.
Sure it was speck to the KDY Ring shipyards, but it was the largest singular shipyard in the galaxy that was down a gravity well. Some Corellian yards came close, but those were smaller and distributed across most of that planet.
In immediate view was a yard that held the skeleton of a Mon Cala passenger ship that was easily 1.5 kilometers long, 120 meters high and 300 in width at its widest point. I could definitely see the future MC80 Star Cruiser being developed from the bones of the massive starship in front of me.
The perimeter towers were angled, elegant and curved, seemingly growing out of the ocean floor. The dim overhead sunlight flickered yellow on the nearly invisible shield that was stretched over the perimeter like a giant energetic fence. There were no yard workers of either mon cala or quarren in immediate view, the place was eerily deserted.
"Senator Tills, if you'd be so kind," Anakin prompted graciously.
The Mon Cala senator nodded and held up a comlink which flickered with the small holo of a female mon cala who had definitely looked like she'd seen better days. Numerous scratches on her curved head were plastered up and one of her bulbous eyes was covered up with a black medical patch.
"Administrator Pombe, we've arrived," Tills said sternly.
"Finally… relay me your coordinates and I'll open a gap in the shield."
Tills tapped her comlink's pad.
"Received, signal me when I should close it. Now hurry and deal with these League blutfish. Pombe out."
"She's friendly," Anakin said dryly.
"Pombe is a devilsquid, but she's good at her job and has no patience for fools, which is what lets her ride herd so well on the largest collection of scientists and engineers on the planet," Tills huffed with amusement.
Below us the closest section of the curved shield wall began flickering before disappearing entirely.
"Go, go, go!"
I pushed on the throttle of the Devilfish sub and crested it over the edge and down into the valley at top speed.
"Head on a swivel everyone, fire only when fired upon. Not all quarren here are the enemy," Anakin warned.
The Republic and Mon Cala forces streamed into the shipyard.
We passed the skeleton of the first cruiser, beyond which was an empty yard and beyond that a much more complete ship, still missing large portions of its outer hull.
It did also show that there was a lot of modularity to mon cala shipbuilding as well, even to the extent that those modules could act as ships in their own right.
On our left the first buildings began to appear, the function of which I could only guess at from exterior appearance alone, though I could sense enough people taking shelter inside that it could've been a dormitory for workers.
It would take another seven kilometers of winding through the yards and buildings before we'd arrive at the administrator's position.
It was a building under siege.
It spanned nearly four hundred meters in length, and twenty in height, a curved cylinder laid on its side.
The League quarren had massive squared containers dumped all around it for cover and was trading blaster fire with the defenders inside, who were firing out of every available window that looked outward.
We outnumbered them two to one at least and so Anakin gave the simple order.
"Attack."
I left the controls of the Devilfish sub to Padme and surged ahead with Chewie at my side.
The clones and mon cala opened fire, catching the enemy flat footed because every defender in the building had gathered their attention and no one had been watching their backs. It was a rather rookie mistake.
In those critical moments, it was a turkey shoot and it cut down the League by almost half their number before they even turned around to return fire.
My blades began dancing in defense as Chewie roared, firing his bowcaster to blow a hole through the chest of a quarren, slamming him back into his own own cover.
I boosted through the water along the enemy line, the Darksaber swinging in my hand - cutting through three quarren on the trot.
A quarren tried to surge forward to stab me in the back.
I didn't bother turning around and willed my right blade to relieve the enemy of his arms, before twirling it to send his head tumbling off his body.
My left blade was spinning rapidly, defending from the fire of four quarren, sending blaster bolts randomly back in their direction.
Chewie shot one, whilst I closed the distance with rapid dolphin strokes, where the Darksaber did its grim work.
A quarren on their version of a scooter began shooting at me with its mounted cannons.
A brief jet from my boot propulsion had me dodging left, whilst my hovering blades managed to send the bolts straight back into the scooter.
It blew up rather satisfyingly, killing its rider with the concussive hammer of compressed water and shrapnel.
With that a gap was created in the League siege line and Republic forces split up and began enveloping the building, wrapping up the enemy in the process.
At some point the commander of the enemy must have been killed, as the cohesion of the enemy broke.
Dozens of League quarren began trying to flee, dropping their weapons in the process.
"Let them go!" Lee-Char ordered.
Ackbar, who was only able to move around thanks to a handheld scooter, looked at his sovereign with severe eyes, "Are you sure, your highness?"
"This madness will one day end and how I conduct this war will be judged. They've relinquished their arms and fled. Killing them now will just be butchery. I do not want unwilling subjects, Captain."
Anakin nodded in understanding, "All units, hold, do not pursue," he ordered into his comlink.
The prince looked around at the works of his people and then addressed the mon cala knights that were nearby. "We must leave the door open for our people to be reunited! The wounds of this conflict must heal when this is over. Everything here was built by the people of Dac! Mon cala and quarren working united in purpose for thousands of years. I will not be known as the sovereign king who undoes that legacy in a few days."
"The prince has spoken!" said Ackbar. "What say you knights of mon cal?!"
The shout of affirmation carried for kilometers in the water. "FOR THE PRINCE! LEE-CHAR!"
"LEE-CHAR! LEE-CHAR! LEE-CHAR!"
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