Chapter 26
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(POV Obiwan)

 

Thanks to Nomad we made it out of Geonosis. And met up with the republic strike group heading to Geonosis.

 

What I found funny is the expressions of Padawan Anakin and Senator Padme, when they saw the clone army for the first time.

 

We are now gathered on the bridge of the flagship of this little invasion fleet. The Masters where going over the Plan of attack. What I don’t hear is how we are going to past their defenses.

 

We soon drop out of hyperspace and move towards the planet. There is a large holographic image of the planet on the central projector.  It has all the strategic locations marked. Apparently Courtesy of Nomad.

 

There was also a confederacy fleet in orbit. 4 Lucrehulks, 15 Munificents, 30 commerce guild star ships and 10 Lupus class missile frigates waiting for us. While 8 other Lucrehulks transports are in low orbit finishing up filling their cargo holds with droids.

 

“Are we not going to take precaution against those planetary Guns?” I ask. Looking at the display as we draw closer and closer to the orbital guns firing range. Master Windu just looks at me and gives a knowing smile. As if to answer my question the blips showing the location of the guns and some other installations on the planet vanish. Looking out the view port I could make out explosions blooming on the planet surface.

 

“Nomad?” asks Padme. Who for some reason refused to go back to Naboo.

 

“Nomad” confirms Master Yoda with a nod.

 

Just then the communication terminal beeps. On accepting the transmission, the holograph of Nomad pops up.

 

“The first part of this operation is complete. We have marked all possible landing sights. Sending you the all the gathered data now, as well as suggested battle tactics. We are now falling back to our fleet” Nomad said, he soon sent us all relevant data and additional scans he took of the planet and the landing sites “Happy hunting”.

 

“Beyond exemplary, your mission has been. Prevent unnecessary casualties it will” said master Yoda, quite pleased with Nomad’s handiwork.

 

“We will take it from here. We have spread word to the GAR command, that your fleets will also be operating in the same area.” Said Master Windu. Nomad gave us a nod in acknowledgement and cut the call.

 

“Launch the invasion” ordered Mater Windu. 12 Acclamators break formation and begin to descend onto the planet. Which includes the one we are on. While the rest will move in to engage the Separatist fleet. 

 

Soon enough the 8 Lucrehulks in low orbit brake into three groups and 11 Munificents brake formation to escort these groups. The remaining ships form up to face us.

 

“Shouldn’t we stop them escaping?”  asks Anakin.

 

But, as if to answer his question, one of the clone officers sitting by a sensor console calls out “Allied fleet moving in to engage the largest group”.

 

We all turn our attention to the largest group of 4 Lucrehulks and 5 Munificents, attempting to escape. Right in their path a large fleet of 20 Lucrehulk battleships, 30 Munificent destroyers, 20 lancer frigates screening fighters and 10 DH-Omni class fleet support vessels appears. This fleet starts moving into a crescent formation, all the while spewing out fighters and racking the separatist ships with ion rounds. It was an awe-inspiring sight.

 

“How did he get such a large and well-armed fleet?” asks Padme exasperatedly.

 

“If we have to guess, I would say it has something to do with the attacks on trade federation shipping in the past few years” said Master Kit Fisto.

 

Padme ponders on something for a bit “He built a way to protect his people’s peace, like he always said. Only for them to vanish in a strange interstellar phenomenon” she says melancholically.

 

“Gone they are not. More to that mystery there is. Key to it, Nomad is.” Says master Yoda “More pressing matters we have. Talk about this later we can”. We all turn our attention to the fleet action taking place.

 

 

(POV Thrunn)

 

After we returned to the bridge of the Big Bertha, we turn our attention to the separatist fleet. Long range scanners detected them splitting into three groups and escaping the system. We can’t have that, now can we. I will have my loot.

 

I ordered the fleet to make a beeline to the largest group. As soon as we got close enough to the fleeing prey, my fleet got into formation. My ships were on higher vector than the Trade federation ships. So, I had my ships form up into a crescent formation, three ships high and angled down towards the enemy ships. This will bring maximum guns to bare on the enemy, and we will cover all routes they can take to escape. We also launched fighters to screen us from enemy fighters.

 

I didn’t want to destroy the ships, so I ordered every ion canon to fire on them. Hundreds of ion rounds impact the 4 Lucrehulks and 5 Munificents. The Lucrehulks present on the battlefield today are mostly the armed freighter variants, not he battleship variants from later in the war. Within minutes electrical discharges can be seen racking their hulls. The ships just float aimlessly with all their system offline.

 

After sensor made sure they were offline, I ordered full scale boarding action. Hundreds of boarding pods and shuttles make their way towards the ships. I sit there monitoring their progress. It was good to see my soldiers and droid troops working together.

 

It takes nearly half an hour, but all the ships were finally under my control. I ordered the Servitors to move and repair the now captured ships, and to bring them online. I left 4 Lucrehulk-Bs and 10 Munificents to provide protection for the Servitors and to look after the wounded from the boarding action. All the remaining boarding parties return to their ships, after making sure the enemy ships have been completely pacified. The security detail was handed over to the troops from the ships I left as protection.

 

Then I turn my attention to the republic battle. 8 Acclamators were facing the Separatist fleet, while the others were offloading their troops and cargo. Some of them could be seen returning to join the space battle after all the troops had been offloaded, looks like they did take my suggestions into consideration. It would seem the Mere resistance and the Lok Revenants have joined the fray as well. They had been tasked to clear out the asteroid field nearby alongside a squadron of Jedi fighters.

 

“Admiral bring the remaining battleships into a battle line, four ships high. The remaining destroyers and Escorts are to form up among the battle line. I want all point defense arrays active and tracking. Target the four Lucrehulks at the rear of the enemy formation with ion canon fire. Destroy any ship that interfere.” I ordered. The admiral considers it for a minute and then goes to carry out my orders. I am sure he will make small changes to it and fine tune the formation. That’s why I have an Admiral with me in the first place. I might have bright ideas, but I am no Thrawn. The admiral will refine my already competent battle strategies into formidable ones.

 

A coms officer Suddenly said “Sir, request for help coming in from Zeta Squadron. Apparently Saboth squadron are on approach with a biological weapon. Lok revenant and the Mere Resistance fighters are engaged in the asteroid fields. It will take time for them to reach the incoming enemies.”

 

I turn to the admiral “Send a few squadrons from the Lucrehulk-Bs protecting the servitors. Also sent five Munificents from our formation and three from the fleet protecting the servitors with their fighter compliments. Destroy them quickly”. He nods and starts issuing orders.

 

(POV Adi Gallia)

 

When we arrived at Geonosis, what awaited us was a large Separatist fleet. At most we would have been able to defend ourselves. Me and some of my fellow Jedi including Zeta squadron took to our star fighters.

 

We went to help our Lok revenant and Mere Resistance allies, fight in the asteroid fields. It was a grueling battle.

 

Soon we spotted groups of Separatist cargo ships start leaving. Our fleet was in no position to engage. Their priority was the ground invasion. I could only sigh as I watched those ships, escape. 

 

What happened next was something that sent a shiver sown my spine. A large fleet of heavily armed Lucrehulks and many other ships form a blockade, right in the path of the largest escaping group. I prayed that this wasn’t the Separatists reinforcements. But soon as the fleet got into formation, it stared launching hordes of fighters and firing ion rounds at the escaping formation. Then came the transmission “This GAR mission command to all republic squadron, allied fleet has entered AO. I repeat, the Mandalorian Ghost fleets have entered the AO. Transmitting IFFs now”. I could hear the cheers from some of the republic and allied squadrons over coms.

 

“I had heard about ramped up attacks on trade federation shipping and that their ships were going missing. Didn’t think it was the Ghosts behind it. Your Republic must have coughed up a pretty penny to get them to take part. But this will guarantee a space superiority” said Nym, the leader of the Lok Revenants. Soon enough the they were boarding the disabled trade federation ships. Well atleast they are on our side.

 

The battle resumed without any respite in sight. We lost 25% of zeta squadron so far. It was then Num passed on some dire intel. “The Saboth squadron are on their way with some kind of biological weapon to use on the planet. You Jedi intercept them, we will hold position here. We have requested more of our ships to come. But it will take time” he said sending me the details.

 

Soon enough we were in a serious fight with the Saboth squadron. We were able to take down most of the bombers carrying the weapons, but at a great cost to our squadron. The presence of their flagship and accompanying destroyers was making it tougher to intercept them and that too at a great cost of lives. There was only one solution in sight, all other forces were completely engaged.

 

“This is Jedi Adi Gallia requesting immediate assistance. The enemy is bringing in a biological payload for deployment. I repeat. We need immediate assistance. The biological weapons need to be destroyed” I say over coms. Hopefully they will hear.

 

As the desperate fight continues, we are being pushed back slowly. I was being chased by two Saboth fighters. I couldn’t shake them. I won’t be able to dodge the incoming fire for long.

 

Soon a barrage of laser hit the fighters on my tail, they burst into balls of fire. I look up to see squadrons up on squadrons of fighters, piloted by Mandalorians accompanied by droid fighters. They are soon followed by eight heavily armed destroyers. The Ghosts have heard our call for assistance and it appears they are taking the biological weapon threat very seriously. The enemy fighters and bombers are shredded through in mere moments. Then they focus fire on the enemy destroyers. The fighters and bombers concentrate fire on enemy’s engines. It appears they don’t want anyone to escape. Soon all the Saboth squadron destroyers were dead in space, all their engines had been destroyed. The eight Ghost’s destroyers use this opportunity to flank the immobile enemy. Then they focus then down in heavily concentrated fire, one ship at a time. Soon nothing but smoldering recks were left.

 

Now that was over, we can return to providing air support for our ground troops. We will leave the space battle to the Ghosts.

 

(POV Thrunn)

 

I left the rest of the space battle to my officers. I am not the kind of guy to breath down their necks, they know what they are doing. I had other things to do. Like watching Obiwan and Anakin get their asses handed to them. I believed me stunning him would have taught him a lesson. But it seems he is a slow learner.

 

While we were infiltrating and sabotaging systems, I made sure that I had access to the holo cameras in the secret hangar of Count Dooku. This gave me a good view of the battle and allowed my systems to analyze their skills. I will have this data handed over to the military academies. They can use it to further our cadet’s studies.

 

The fight is so far moving like the movies, except for the excess dialogue due to Qui-Gon’s presence. Even with him present it was proving too hard to control Anakin. Sigh sometimes I wonder if saving him on Naboo even mattered. Sure, it helped me promote my cause, but stopping Darth cyborgs ascension was unlikely to happen. Do I want to stop it though? Anakin is currently lying on top of a crippled Obiwan, who had to turn his attention away from the duel to save his life. And all he got for his over confidence was now he had one arm missing. The duel between Qui-Gon and Dooku was heating up. Qui-Gon’s old age was starting to show. Dooku though older, had the dark side to amplify his strength.

 

Dooku soon pulled the roof down on top Qui-Gon’s two students. Qui-Gon had to use all his concentration to hold it up.

 

Dooku used this as an opportunity to escape. Although he fell to the dark side, he couldn’t bring himself to strike down his beloved student.

 

But things started to vary from here. As Dooku’s ship left a Couple of B1s popped out of nowhere. As Qui-Gon was slowly moving the debris, he wasn’t able to protect himself. He was shot a few times. This caused him to lose control of his telekinesis, only for some of the rubble to fall on him.

 

But soon enough few more Jedi and clones arrive, quickly killing the B1s and treating then now wounded trio.

 

“Well that was interesting” said Bo, who was standing next to me.

 

“The old man whooped those three Jedi’s asses” said Vanzii.

 

“That’s why you never underestimate force users, and there is such thing aa overkill when it comes to hunting them. You drop a planet on them if you have to. The one who survives is the victor” I preached.

 

“Yeah, ya don’t have to preach about it every opportunity, ya know” deadpanned Doth.

 

“That’s the only way to get it through your thick skulls” I said, slapping the back of his head.

 

“He has you there” said Janak, only for Doth to roll his eyes “Plus, he has to act cool in front of his girl” Janak teased. Taking full advantage of the fact that this is the first ever operation I had brought Bo-Katan on.

 

“Kriff off” I retorted. Walking off toward my command chair. I could hear the fools snickering behind me.

 

“Report Admiral” I asked.

 

“The defending Lucrehulks have been captured. The remaining Separatist fleets have chosen to engage the Republic fleet or are fleeing when they saw we aren’t engaging them” he explained.

 

“Good” I said “what of the ships laden with cargo escaping the surface”.

 

“I had three fourths of our fleet break into smaller formations and had ordered them to try and capture as many as possible. We are in the process of capturing five more Lucrehulks on that front. The rest have escaped, we didn’t interfere too much as instructed” he explained.

 

“Excellent Admiral, we mustn’t bite off more than we can chew. Plus, the Separatists will need those droids and ships to press their advantage against the Republic. Let’s consolidate our gains and take our fleet with the loot back to Eldith. Make sure no one tracks us. This was just the beginning” I conveyed my orders.

 

“Very well” he says, going back to the tasks at hand.

 

With the battles winding down, our contract can be considered fulfilled.

 

 

 

(Time Skip- 1 months)

 

The ice plains of Vallt. A man and his pregnant wife were on the run. The husband was doing research into clean unlimited energy and crystallography with Zerpen Industries. This company mainly did research. It had recently become a subsidiary of Corellian based Straxon Corporation, who bought its majority shares. 

 

The Separatists had armed and funded the Marshal Phara to overthrow the Republic aligned Monarch. Now the scientist and his wife were on the run, as he was sure the Separatists would force him to create weapons.

 

“Galen, they are tracking us. Phara sent Valltii riders after us.” Says Lyra, from the side seat of the speeder.

 

“We keep going for a little longer. There is a cave system a few kilometers ahead, where we can hide for some time.” Replied Galen Erso.

 

As if the universe was trying it’s best to spite them, their speeder starts losing power. “No, NO… work you piece of junk” Galan shouted slamming his hand on the steering wheel.

 

Their vehicle comes to a complete stop at the base of a hill. They look at each other.

 

Even after trying to fix the vehicle for half an hour gave no results. He had fried the wirings when he pushed the vehicle to its limit for all those hours trying to get away.

 

“I won’t be able to walk for long Galen” says Lyra.

 

As he ponders on what to do, the ground starts rumbling, in the distance they could see almost a regiment of Valltii riders heading their way.

 

“Looks like there is no escape for us” says Galen remorsefully “I am sorry”.

 

“It’s not your fault” comforts his wife.

 

They watch in sorrow, worried about what the future held for them.

 

Just as the riders reach a kilometer away, a torrent of laser canon fire rain down on them. Out of the clouds came six Gunships. Four of them unleashed hell upon the riders, who had no defense against this onslaught.

 

Two land near us and out of them come heavily armored soldiers leading strange battle droids. They set up a perimeter around us. And their leader approached us.

 

“Galen Erso?” asks the soldier.

 

“Yes. Who are you?” Galen asks.

 

“Callsign omega-1, Captain of Omega squad Mandalorian Ghost Regiments. We are here to get you out. Follow us” said Captain Ordo leading them to the open rear ramp of the nearby gunship.

 

“I thought Mandalore disappeared” Galen asked.

 

“All will be explained in due time Dr. Galen. Now if you would hurry, we would like to get you out of harm’s way” explained the captain as we get into the gunship.

 

As soon as they entered all the troops boarded as well. Soon enough they were on their way out of the atmosphere. The Gunships then met up with a small flotilla of warships. The ships jumped to hyperspace as soon as all the gunships were onboard.

 

(Time skip)

 

It’s been more than a week, since they escaped with the help of these Mandalorians. The gunships had taken them to a waiting battleship. After that we were told we will reach our destination in five days. The couple were shown to their living quarters and where the mess hall was located.

 

“Where do you think they are taking us honey?” asked Lyra.

 

“I asked a few crew members in the mess. They said we were returning to the capital world.” Galen explained.

 

“So coruscant?” enquired Lyra.

 

“From what I have seen so far, no” he said with a contemplative face.

 

There was a Knock on the door. It was an officer “I thought you would like to see the view when we arrived. We will be dropping out of hyperspace in a few minutes” After a minute of deliberation, both Galen and Lyra follow the officer to the bridge.

 

“We are dropping to realspace in ten seconds” said a navigational officer.

 

They looked out of the viewport, only to be met with a mesmerizing sight. A large ardent green planet with three moons, comes into sight. There was a large defense fleet of thousands of ships and huge battle stations of unknown design surrounding it.

 

“Welcome to new Keldabe” said the officer.

 

“We are no longer in known space are we.” Asked Galen.

 

“No, don’t worry everything will become clear when you meet the Mand’alor” explains the officer with a chuckle.

 

In the nearby drydocks you could see large Lucrehulks undergoing major retrofits. Soon Both Galen and Lyra are taken by the officer by a gunship to the planet.

 

As they approach, they see a planet covered in forests, plains with rolling hills and cities that don’t tarnish the surrounding nature. It was like Alderaan and Naboo had a big fat baby. They were speechless.

 

As they arrive at the center of the city, they are greeted by a central governmental structure that would put the senate building to shame.

 

They couldn’t help but wonder, what will the Mand’alor have in store for them.

 

(Mandalorian clan soldier - https://in.pinterest.com/pin/573997914993631050/)

(Mandalorian General Infantry - https://in.pinterest.com/pin/183310647312562765/)

(Keldabe series - https://mandoade.fandom.com/wiki/Wrath-Class_Dreadnought )

(Gunship/Dropship - http://fractalsponge.net/?p=2261 )

(New Keldabe - https://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=115838)

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