--Chapter 1--
Udow Assault
Republic warship ‘Intrepid’ flew above the surface of planet Udow-2, a mining world recently taken back from Separatist forces that was taken over near the beginning of the war. On the surface, soldiers from 144th Attack Battalion rested after the recent battle over the main mining complex. Some of them were already being send back on the cruiser above them so they can be redeployed to another part of galaxy.
Planet Udow-2 was a dead rock with no atmosphere, there was nothing alive on the planet except for the clone army. All clones needed to wear suits prepared to deal with that kind of environment, their armors were covered by black paintings –trade mark for the battalion- and were also equipped with oxygen tanks. The armors were additionally shielded from long term exposure to vacuum and the dust that covered the planet.
The dust was a great problem for the army, as the small, sharp ended remains of rocks could easily cut through standard body suits clones wore and made it hard for the vehicles to move.
Planet’s gravitation was also much smaller than on most inhabited worlds and clones could effortlessly jump much higher than they normally would be able to. And if they ever needed to get into the air, most of them were also equipped with short range jetpacks on their backs.
One of clones sent back to war was Commander CR-4451, or as he preferred – Falcon. As he approached the LAAT gunship, Commander walked between tents in the camp, observing the troops in it. Some of them saluted him, while others were too busy with other things to notice him walk by. Just before he reached the landing pad, where the gunship he was supposed to fly in was standing, he stopped in front of the medical tent.
Inside he could observe medical droids and a Jedi healer taking care of wounded clones. Some of them lost their limbs in explosions, others were shot by droids and few suffered from their equipment malfunctioning.
He sighed underneath his helmet. No matter how many times he would see one of his brothers die or get hurt, he always felt that inner pain. As if a part of him died. He could put on a stoic face and just keep going, but more than often he found himself in situations like now.
Eventually he gathered himself up and moved on to the gunship. It didn’t take him long to reach his target. He was greeted with salutes by other clones who were getting sent along with him. “Pilot, you can take off.” He said.
Pilot didn’t respond, but followed the command. The gunship took off, making dry dust of the mining world fly around the landing zone. The pilot sealed the gunship’s door to prevent the dust from getting inside. Soon after oxygen was pumped into the gunship, Falcon took off his helmet, followed by other troopers. “Eh, finally. I was getting tired of that rock.” One of clones said.
“You’re not the only one, Shaw.” Falcon responded. “Hopefully wherever they’re sending us to this time will be more than just a dead rock.”
“Might be a dead rock on the outside, but did you see what it holds underneath? All the minerals underground could create a second droid army for Separatists. We can’t let them get away with that.” A voice that didn’t belong to a clone rang around the gunship. All clones turned in the direction of the voice and faced their Jedi General Heskri, a Zabrak with an unmatched skill in using the Force to stay hidden from eyes of those around him.
Immediately all soldiers in the ship saluted him.
“With all due respect sir, I hate it when you do that.” Falcon said.
“I know, but someone has to lighten up the mood.” General replied with his trademark smile. He was wearing an armor similar to those clones wore –including black paintings- but where they wore black body suits, he wore a brown robe. His lightsaber was hanging on his belt.
Like most Zabraks, General’s face was covered in tattoos. Tattoos were part of Zabrak culture and often held a meaning, such as a family or clan they come from. However in General’s case, they held no such meaning as he was taken to the Jedi Temple as a child, before he received his tattoos.
He was over 50 years old and had a relatively large and muscular build, not anything extraordinary, but he was still noticeably higher and more muscular than clones were. Though, despite having a look of a warrior, Heskri has built his reputation not with his blade, but his power in the Force.
It didn’t take the gunship long to reach the cruiser. Along with them, few other gunships flew into the hangar. They were the last group that was to be sent off world and shortly after they landed the hangar was sealed. Commander Falcon and General Heskri slowly made their way to the bridge, filling the time with a chatter.
Falcon as well as other troopers respected the general, but Commander’s bound with Jedi Master went a bit deeper than that, as they both considered each other friends. It may not be anything unusual –he knew other clones who were friends with their generals, like Capitan Rex- but still, it made some clones in the battalion jealous. During their many talks, Falcon got to know quite a lot about the Jedi Order and on occasions Heskri would began to lecture him about the Force.
Sometimes Falcon thought he treated him like his Padawan. Which might not be far from true, as general himself admitted how much he loves to teach others. A fact supported by how many students he has trained in his career –his currant Padawan was waiting for them on the bridge.
They reached the turbolift that took them to the bridge, where they were greeted by bridge officers and General Heskri’s Padawan – Sakri Fashov. She was a young woman, only 17 years old. Her hair were deep red and reached down to her shoulders. A long plait rested on her shoulder, showing her padawan status. Her body was slender and she was very low, only 1,56m. “Master.” She bowed with respect and turned to face Falcon. “Hello Commander.” She said with a smile.
Unlike her master, Sakri wore more traditional Jedi robes. Like her master she carried one lightsaber, but in contrast, she was more focused on using it than he was. Which didn’t necessarily mean she was better in fighting with it. Even though Heskri was not a focused dualist, he still held much more fighting experience than his young pupil.
Like with Heskri, Falcon and Sakri developed a friendship between each other. “How’s your score?” She asked with a competing vibe in her voice.
“After I blew up that tank? I’d say I’m a good few point ahead of you.”
“No, I get points for that one. If I haven’t redirected that grenade it would fly over the tank and into that group of droids behind.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault that gravity is so low on this planet. And still, it was my grenade. And that group of clankers was worth at least as much as that tank.” He argued.
“But you didn’t blew them up did you?” A smug appeared on her face. “Just admit I’ve beat you again.”
Falcon struggled to find an argument, but he had nothing. “Eh, alright, you won this time. But that was the last time, I’m gonna beat you next time.” He said full of confidence.
A smug remained imprinted on her face, if anything it got bigger. “That’s what I heard the last time, and that time before that too, and if I’m not mistaken you’ve never beaten me in that game, am I right master?” She turned to where her master stood before, but he was not there anymore. He was standing on the other side of the bridge, clearly not interested in listening to them argue again.
‘Intrepid’ had already left the planet and joined two other warships on orbit. They were supposed to guard the planet until Republic will resume mining operations and establish a base on the surface. “Sir, we are ready for the hyperspace jump.” One of bridge officers said.
“Proceed.” General responded. The officer did as he was told. In the matter of seconds, the cruiser left the system.
Or at least that was what it was supposed to do.
Instead, an explosion ranged through the entire warship. All lights turned red, indicating that backup generator was on. General was almost thrown off his feet, but managed to keep himself standing thanks to the Force. “What’s the status!?” He yelled to the closest officer.
“Explosion from the inside sir, all systems are out! Apos-1 and 2 report the same.” The officer answered after a moment.
From the other side of the bridge another officer called out. “Sir! We have 4 enemy ships coming out of hyperspace!” In the same moment, 3 Munificent-class frigates and Providence-class destroyer appeared in front of the Republic ships and begun to fire.
With barely any shields protecting the ships, the damage caused by Seperatist’s ships would completely destroy the cruiser if no one did anything. “Reset all systems and deploy starfighters, all power to the shields. Falcon, Sakri. I want you two to check this explosion.” General ordered.
“The explosion came from the maintenance level, block 7.”Another officer said. “We have no answer from engineers and cameras are not working.”
Sakri and Falcon nodded and run off from the bridge and to the turbolift. The clone commander checked his DC-15s rifle, turning the safety off and preparing it for a fight. His helmet was back on his head.
Meanwhile on the bridge, Master Heskri slowly rested on his knees, reaching out to the pilots and bridge officers on all 3 ships with the Force. He pushed everything else from his mind, they were his only interest now. He could feel their fears and courage, their focus on the battle and hate for the enemy. He gently pulled the strings of the Force, clearing their minds while simultaneously influencing the enemy.
He couldn’t do much about droids, their mechanic minds were beyond his influence, but he could feel a life amongst the army of machines.
A faint spark of life, filled with pure hate and anger.
Turbolift touched down in the maintenance level. Immediately, Falcon run out with his blaster ready. Sakri was not far behind, her lightsaber was held turned off in her hand. There was no one to be seen on the level and lights were off. Falcon turned on the flashlights on his helmet’s sides, providing them both with light. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” He commented.
The clone moved his hand to the communicator on his wrist. “Engineering team, this is Commander Falcon, do you copy?” He received no answer.
Sakri ignited her lightsaber. A blue flare of light shoot out of the emitter, forming a blade. “Let’s go, I sense something in the room ahead.”
They begun to slowly walk through the empty hallway. Commander held his rifle ready as he scanned the surrounding area. Sakri was ready to fight as well, her blade was held in a defensive manner, with the hilt held down on her left side and blade extended upwards towards her right shoulder, slightly forward.
The hallway was filled with dead silence, broken only by their steps. Sakri approached the door to main computer room. Before, she felt a faint disturbance, but now that she was closer she could clearly feel that something was moving there.
And that it was not alive. “Droids…” she muttered just loud enough for Falcon to hear.
She looked at the clone, giving him a look that spoke ‘get ready’. And so he did, he took an ion detonator from his belt and stayed on the left side of the door, ready to throw the detonator inside.
Sakri stood on the door’s right side, where the control panel was located, ready to open the door and burst inside. She held her left hand on the panel, waiting for Falcon to give her a signal. The clone held his finger on the detonator’s safety, he nodded to Sakri and in the instant she opened the door. Falcon threw the detonator inside, soon the explosion followed, frying every unshielded machine inside.
Sakri was the first to run inside and immediately was met with a blaster bolt aimed at her head coming from the inside. Before even identifying the shooter, she brought her lightsaber up, deflecting the bolt back where it came from.
In a blink of an eye she scanned the room and the opponents inside. The shooter was a single Droideka droid. It’s shields were turned on, successfully protecting it from both Falcon’s detonator’s discharge and the deflected blaster bolt. Few B1 Droids lied on the floor with their circuits fried. Deeper inside the room two BX Commando Droids were rebooting their systems after the discharge.
Another bolt was sent at her. She brought her sword to block it much like the first one, but this time aiming at the droids behind. She missed, but another shoot made to the droid’s chest. Luckily for the droid, it’s armor was tough enough to take the shoot.
Shortly after Sakri run inside the room, Falcon followed her. Hiding behind the protection of her lightsaber, the clone aimed at one of commando droids. With one good shot in the head, he removed the droid from the fight. There was however no time to celebrate, as two other commando droids attacked them from the left.
Sakri was barely fast enough to deflect the blaster bolt before it hit Falcon and the clone was quick to hide behind computer console before returning fire. He fired a quick series of shots into the closest droid, two shots hit the target, stopping the droid for a moment before it targeted him again, forcing him to take cover.
Young padawan was barely able to deflect all blaster bolts that were coming her way. She had no time to focus on deflecting them back to the shooters, and neither could she leave her current position. Falcon was quick to change that, he picked another grenade and with a gentle move rolled it in direction of droideka.
The biggest flaw of droideka’s shields was their inability to block slow moving targets. A flaw that Falcon just took advantage of.
In a matter of seconds, the grenade detonated with a blast of energy, successfully frying the droid’s circuits and stunning a nearby commando droid. Now free of two shooters, Sakri was able to focus on taking more aggressive approach. She redirected one of blaster bolts back where it came from, destroying the droid’s rifle.
In the same moment Falcon fired another series of shots at the two droids, destroying one and leaving the other with a burn mark on it’s head. Sakri wasted no time and with a quick move cut the droid in half.
The last functioning droid in the room threw away it’s blaster and charged at commander with the vibrosword. Falcon quickly followed the example, throwing his blaster aside and reaching for the forcepike on his belt. Forcepikes weren’t the type of weapons associated with Republic’s clones, at least not the ones fighting on the battlefield, but Falcon grew to like the weapon after his brief time in Coruscant police.
The pike was designed for dealing with local thugs in a non-lethat way, but as Falcon found out, at maximum power settings it was also doing pretty well with frying droids. It was of course no match for a lightsaber, but thanks to the energy coming through the weapon it could withstand an attack with such a weapon.
Something that Sakri found very useful, as it allowed her to practice her swordplay when her master was not around (The fact the she beats him every single time has absolutely nothing to do with it). This allowed Falcon to pick up some skills other than mindless swinging the weapon around.
The droid approached him with the blade held high, ready to bring it down at the clone. Falcon blocked the attack and immediately kicked the droid in the chest. The commando quickly got prepared for another attack…
…but his head was removed by a lightsaber before he got a chance to perform it.
Falcon turned his pike off and picked up his rifle as Sakri attached her lightsaber to her belt. “I guess that explains the explosion.” She opened the computer console. “They infected the computer and overloaded the engines, hyperspace still works but it will just jump to the random location.”
“We can fix that later, now I’d rather find out how did we let those droids onboard.” Falcon reached to the comlink on his wrist. “General, this is Commander Falcon, do you copy?” In answer he received nothing. “Blast it, those droids must have placed a jammer somewhere around.”
“Than let’s go to the bridge on foot and inform him.” Sakri said. “No, forget that. Droids sealed all ways out of this level and turned off turbolifts, we’re on our own.”
“It just keeps getting better and better... There’s no way to tell how many droids are on this ship and with no inner communications we can’t inform anyone, not to mention that there might be more traps droids have set, we must find that jammer and get some help here.” Falcon replied.
“Alright, let’s go, there’s no time to lose. I think I have an idea where to find this jammer, movement sensors show a lot of activity around the main reactor.”
Not saying anything more, Sakri left the room, followed by Falcon who stopped for a moment to finish the last commando droid who was crawling towards the blaster.
Even despite the warship being over a kilometer long, they both knew it’s entire schematic. After a short time of running through the dark hallways and a occasional droid or two they almost reached the reactor, but stopped behind the sealed entrance. Falcon moved to the door console, in attempt to slice it but Sakri stopped him before he touched the panel. “What is it?” He said
She pointed at the ventilation vent above their heads. “I’ll go there and open the door from the other side. Those droids we met before might have alarmed their friends that we’re coming.” Falcon nodded in agreement.
Using the Force, Sakri opened the vent and jumped into the venting system. Her small size allowed her to move in tight space without any problems. Not waiting any second, she begun moving towards the generator. She was using the Force to silence her moves the way her master thought her. Even though she was nowhere near the skill level of elder Zabrak, thanks to his training she was rather comfortable with the ability.
Once she reached the end of the shaft she quietly opened the vent and looked around. There were less droids in the room than she anticipated.
Which doesn’t mean the situation was good.
5 B1 droids, 4 commandos, droideka and a MagnaGuard. All droids were positioned around what looked like a jammer, each prepared for a fight with weapons aimed at the door and ready to fire. Neither have noticed her but if she leaves the vent it will just be a matter of time before their sensors pick up her presence.
It was clear they had no chance in this fight. Her master thought her a lot about blaster deflection but her skills were not enough to protect herself and Falcon from 10 droids shooting at them while fighting against the MagnaGuard.
She silently closed the vent and retreated back to Falcon’s position. He was resting on his knee with his blaster ready to open fire. “Falcon.” She quietly called out from the vent, getting his attention. “We’ve got a problem, there’s too many of them to fight without help and they know we’re coming.”
“Great, what are we doing then?”
They both stayed silent, thinking about the solution. “You have any grenades left?”
“Only one termo detonator. But we risk damaging the generator if we use this.” He said as he pulled the grenade out.
“It’s not like we have much choice. Give me that.” Falcon threw the grenade into the vent. Sakri caught it and went back to the generator. She looked at the droids again. They were still motionlessly standing in the same positions. She placed the detonator on the edge of the vent and using the force levitated it up.
The detonator slowly moved across the room, closing in to the droids. Once it was close enough, Sakri begun a countdown to the explosion. First droid to notice the grenade was one of commandos, but before it could react properly, one of B1s picked the detonator up and despite it’s comrade’s protests, foolishly held the device in metallic hand when it went off.
Immediately all droids around the jammer and the jammer itself were struck with intense wave of heat. Their armors were melted and the parts that survived the explosion were spread all around. Luckily the generator didn’t got hit badly and it’s shielding was able to absorb the damage.
Satisfied with the job well done, Sakri left her hiding spot and walked over to the door panel. Within moments the door were opened and a clone commander walked in. “So, I guess that any doubt about my victory have disappeared?” She said with a grin.
Falcon didn’t answer, instead he pulled out his blaster pistol and shot behind her. Immediately, Sakri turned around to see what was he shooting at. And it was legless MagnaGuard with a electro-staff in hand and smoking hole in head. “Could you remind me how many points were MagnaGuards worth?” He said with a smug hidden underneath his helmet.
Sakri was about to say something but before she did, Falcon’s communicator spoke up. “This is general Heskri to all troops, the ship is being boarded! I repeat, the ship is being boarded! Prepare to engage the enemy!”
Princess Luna, the mistress of night, ruler of darkness, sat on top of a small hill on her lunar kingdom. Her ethereal mane melted into the space’s emptiness, leaving only a faint blue aura visible. Her eyes were closed and breathing slow as she listened to the absolute silence that surrounded her.
But it was during such silence when she could hear the most. Every dream, every fear, every nightmare could be heard from here. And she listened closely, focusing on her ponies, her loyal subjects. She knew she couldn’t hope they would ever see her as they see her sister. Not after Nightmare Moon. But she knew she had to show them than now she is not the monster she once was. A monster she herself created.
And that was one of the ways she did this. By keeping their dreams safe.
But this night was different, there was something else that she sensed. Not a pony, not a griffon and not a minotaur, but alive and thinking like all of them.
She opened her eyes and looked upon the stars. She didn’t know what, but something was coming.
Blaster bolts flew through the corridor. Group of battle droids continued to push forward, without any hesitation exterminating clones who were trying to push them back. They didn’t stop to think about any of killed soldiers, they didn’t care. Their only concern was their only order: Kill. And they intended to fulfill it to the letter.
Another two droids fell to blue bolts of clone’s blasters, immediately two more replaced their position. Clone who shot down the droids tried to hide behind the cover, but a blaster bolt to the chest ended his attempt prematurely and threw him on the ground. Droid’s mindless charge continued, as clones were being pushed back. Soon they passed the clone lying on the ground, seemingly dead.
But he wasn’t. With a weak pull, he grabbed the thermal detonator from his belt and moved the grenade to his face. He moved his thumb to the safety button and pressed it.
But before the explosion was triggered, he saw a flash of yellow light severing his hand from the rest of his body. He could barely muster as much as a groan when he watched a metal hand picking up the detonator with blinding speed.
He then helplessly watched as the detonator flies towards his brothers. Some tried to run, but they were too slow to avoid death in flames.
“I must say, I was always slightly jealous that Jedi have such a group of warriors at their disposal,” The clone heard a mechanical voice from behind. “while I have to deal with this bunch of incompetent droids.” He was too weak to fight back as he was grabbed by the neck and brought up the yellow eyes of no one else, than the infamous General Grievous.
“They are however good for mindless storms like that one as you can see.” The grip around clone’s neck tightened. A sole B1 Command droid approached the General as the wounded soldier struggled to breath.
“General, squads 3 , 11, 14 and 16 is pushing Jedi and his group to the bridge.”
“Continue pushing forward, kill everything on your way, but leave Jedi to me.” Grievous said as clone’s neck snapped.
*THUD* ”Done!” Sakri informed Falcon who was busy shooting to droideka on the other end of the hallway. Two B1s soon joined the droid and opened fire at the clone hiding behind the cover of a supply crate.
“About a blasted time!” He screamed. Sakri run in front of him, taking droid’s fire on herself while he retreated to the turbolift, now reopened by a lightsaber. He attached a grappling hook to the bottom of his rifle. Seeing him point the rifle above, Sakri begun to move back. When Falcon shoot the hook, she grabbed his hand and they both were pulled up.
Unfortunately the hook hadn’t hit as high as they would like it to. When they reached the end of the line they were forced to grab onto something and try again. But before Falcon managed to shoot the hook again, he felt the overwhelming pain coming from his leg. He screamed as he lost grasp on his blaster. He would have fell down along with his weapon if Sakri hadn’t managed to catch him in time.
Sakri look down to see two B1 with blasters pointed at them. Falcon’s weapon hit one of droids in the head, making it loose balance and fall over, accidently shooting at its companion and destroying it. She focused on one of metal plates covering the turbolift’s shaft, tearing it away from the wall and letting it fall on the remaining droid.
She looked at the clone. “Are you alright?”
He looked back at her. “I’ll live.” He grabbed the pipe inside of the shaft. Then he reached to his first aid kit and pulled a small medpac out of it. “Let’s go.” He said after applying bacta to his leg. It wasn’t enough to heal his leg but it would null the pain for more than enough time.
They slowly moved up the shaft, Sakri clearly having easier time doing so than Falcon. She begun to use the Force to aid the clone in the task and thanks to her help he was at least able to keep up with her, but they were still moving slowly. He could technically use his jetpack to fly up, but using it in such a tight passage was dangerous, so he limited it’s use to occasionally support himself in making a jump up that he couldn’t normally perform; Sakri of course had no such problems. Falcon looked up. “This is going to take a while.”
General Heskri brought his green bladed lightsaber up to deflect another red blaster bolt, sending it into the arm of B1 droid who was slowly walking towards him from the left as another group marched from ahead. The droid was immediately smashed aside by Super Battle Droid who shot a quick series of shots aimed at the clone few meters behind the general. General deflected all shots but only 2 were brought back to the shooter, hitting the droid in the chest and arm where it’s main weapon was located.
After having its main weapon fried, the droid aimed the rocket launcher installed on its other arm at him. The droid fired the rocket at the Jedi, but before it made it as much as a half way through, Haskri raised his hand and concentrated on the object. With one quick move of his hand he redirected the flight path of the rocket, making it fly towards the other group of droids.
The rocket blew up two first lines of droids, but quickly more came in their place. There was seemingly no end to the droid’s wave. Boarding of the ship came unexpectedly, shortly after reports came about droids coming from supply crates in the main hangar communications were cut off and when they were restored, the bridge was informed about boarding parties attacking the ship, cutting them off from most of the clones that were defending the hangar.
He was currently trying to get back to the bridge to order the crew to fall back to the escape pods. The slicer was currently trying to slice the bridge’s door, while he and few clone soldiers desperately tried to push back the droids.
Suddenly he heard the door behind him opening. “General, we’re in!” The slicer yelled.
“Everyone, to the bridge!” Heskri begun to slowly walk backwards towards the now opened bridge, still deflecting as much blaster bolts as he could. However, one managed to slip past his defense and hit the clone trooper behind him in the shoulder.
The soldier fell on the ground with a scream, holding his wounded shoulder. Haskri used the Force to push him to the bridge where the rest of his brothers waited. With all clones inside, Haskri summoned a massive wave of the Force and pushed it towards the droids, making them all fall over. Then with a quick burst of speed, he run into the bridge, the entrance was immediately closed and sealed behind him.
The bridge was full of dead clones and bridge officers, as well as few destroyed droids. One of walls was pierced by a boarding capsule, explaining lack of communication with the bridge. There was no time to take care of the dead, he had to focus on those who lived. With that in mind he moved over to the main console. “Attention! Abandon the ship! I repeat, abandon the ship. Everyone move to the escape pods!” The console got overloaded the moment his message got through.
One of soldiers approached him. “Sir, all escape pods on the bridge were locked from the maintenance level, we can’t open them.”
General sighed, and then looked at the sealed door. He felt a presence behind them, the very same he felt before. Now that it was that close to him, he could without a doubt say who that was. “Then we fight, and show them what we’re made of.”
“Yes sir!”
All clones in the room took defensive positions and pointed their weapons at the sealed entrance, waiting for what was to come. Haskri ignited his lightsaber, holding it down in his right hand, slightly bending the blade towards left.
Shortly after that, 4 lightsaber blades pierced the sealed door and slowly forced the way for their owner. No, -Haskri thought- those weapons don’t belong to him, they never will. And in this moment the blades cut a round hole in the metal. Before they could be kicked out from the other side, Haskri released a powerful push that sent the piece of metal flying back.
Instantly droids on the other side opened fire, clones quickly following the suit. First droid entered the bridge, immediately being greeted by two blaster bolts to the chest. The second droid attempting to enter met the same fate, but the third one’s armor proved to be enough to shield two more droids’ entrance.
Using the short moment they had, each picked a clone as a target. The first one missed the clone and was quickly shot by the very clone it tried to kill. The second one had more luck, the blaster bolt from droid’s weapon hit the clone in the base of the neck. Following the clone’s death another droid run inside, BX Commando droid avoided a blaster bolt and fired one on its own. More droids quickly followed inside.
Haskri threw his still ignited lightsaber in direction of the Commando droid, defending himself from the blaster bolt coming his way with an extended hand protected with nothing more than the Force. Once his weapon removed the head of the droid he telekinetically changed the sword’s trajectory, destroying two more droids before summoning it back to his hand, immediately deflecting a blaster bolt aimed at his head towards the BX droid.
Before the droid could get back to killing, he crushed it into Super Battle Droid, taking both out of the fight, but not fast enough to save the clone targeted by the Super Battle Droid from the deadly beam of energy. What saved the clone though, was one of his brothers who pushed him away from the line of shot.
Haskri was always amazed by the bond of brotherhood between the clones. He always felt like Kaminoans weren’t giving then the credit they deserved, treating them as items rather than individuals.
Individuals who could work together and support each other to achieve far more than any other army in galactic history ever could. They might be clones, and for an outsider they were identical, but as someone who walked among them on daily bases, Haskri could tell each of the clones serving under him apart.
For him it was truly amazing how thousands of people who look the same could be so different from each other. Every single clone was different person, with different way of thinking that made them stand out from the rest.
What truly pained him though, was how often he was forced to watch them die.
But even amongst the clones there was one that stood out the most- Falcon. Since he first met the clone commander on Geonosis he knew something was different about him, something that none other clone possessed. He knew that Sakri could sense it too, they even talked about it with each other, but no matter how they tried they just couldn’t understand what made Falcon such a special clone.
His further thoughts on the matter were stopped as he heard the sound of two electrostaffs being turn on. Soon after that, two MagnaGuards stormed into the bridge, the tips of their staffs were sparking with electricity as the two quickly closed the distance between them and the Jedi, killing a clone along the way.
Before they reached him, Haskri ripped off the metal plate from the ceiling and threw it onto one of them. Quickly one droid was stopped in it’s tracks, deprived of it’s head. The other one charged at him and with a full force, and attacked with its staff. Haskri blocked the attack without much problem, quickly moving the blade to block an attack with the other tip of the staff. With a swift jump he threw an attack onto the droid, aiming for the head, but his attack was stopped by the droid’s electrostaff.
He begun to focus on creating a push that would shatter the droid’s components, but his concentration was broken when he was attacked from behind by a headless droid. He ducked under the attack, sending a one on his own. The droid spun it’s weapon around it’s hand and the lightsaber met the energy filled tip of the staff instead on the droid’s torso.
With a strong, force-supported move of an arm, he pushed the droid back as he turned back to the one with its head in its place. The droid held its staff over-head and brought it down on Haskri, who blocked the attack. With a move of his wrist he pushed the staff aside, making it block the attack coming from the second droid.
It was that moment that he became aware of clones screaming in agony as they were being cut down by 2 beams of lightning fast swords.
With another jump, Haskri stroke again, cutting of one of tips from the headless droid’s weapon. When he landed back on the ground, he attacked again, this time being blocked by the droid. The droid’s counter attack was quickly followed and Haskri ducked. With one more attack he removed legs from the head-intact droid, quickly moving his attention to the headless droid with his one tipped weapon. The droid tried to stab Haskri with its damaged staff but the Zabrak sidestepped. Now with an opening to explore, Haskri cut the droid in half and finished off the legless droid on the ground.
“I am disappointed.” He heard a mechanical voice saying. Immediately he turned around, only to see General Grievous with one hand held inside a still alive clone’s stomach. “The last Jedi defeated my droids in half the time you did. From your reputation I expected that you will be more of a challenge.” He lifted the clone above his head and not showing any sign of remorse or hesitation shoved his other hand into the clone. His robotic strength made it easy to rip through the armor and dig into clone’s flesh. Streams of blood run down from his mechanic arms and fell on his mask as the clone screamed in agony.
Then, with a fast move he ripped the clone in two, throwing the dead soldier’s body to Haskri. “I guess you won’t last as long as she did.” He said as he held the lightsaber in front of his blood-covered mask. Haskri immediately recognized the weapon’s design. It belonged to his first padawan -now Master- Yessa Kensu. She was supposed to be in Rishi Maze, tracking activities of Hutt crime boss who according to rumors was making deals with CIS.
The weapon’s hilt was a bit longer than a standard lightsaber as it held an additional feature. On the side opposite to the blade, it held a 6 meters long, metal whip, which could be charged with electricity to the point when it was able to resist lightsabers.
In a blink on an eye, Grievous extended the whip and attacked Haskri with it. Knowing how tricky blocking that type of weapon is, he ducked below the strike. But the moment he avoided the attack, Grievous quickly closed the distance and ignited the yellow lightsaber blade, smashing it onto the Zabrak.
Haskri managed to block it with his own weapon and immediately summoned the Force to push the cruel General back. Quickly recovering from the attack, Grievous pressed on the offence with the whip, but again Haskri dodged the attack . Then the Jedi ripped out the chair from the floor and threw it on Grievous who cut it in half with the lightsaber.
Not giving up on his attack, Haskri threw more objects at him, while keeping Grievous in place with constant wave of Force. Grievous wasn’t about to give up however as he dug claws on the bottom of his legs into the ground, keeping himself from being pushed back. Then he performed another attack using the whip. Haskri didn’t managed to dodge in time and the whip wrapped itself around his right arm and sending a high level of electricity through his body, forcing him to drop his lightsaber and stop his assault on Grievous.
Using the advantage, Grievous rushed towards the Jedi, still holding him with the whip. The droid general quickly aimed an attack on Jedi’s left hand, but he didn’t expect him to block the attack with his bare hand. Then -despite still being electrocuted- Haskri jumped behind Grievous and pulled the whip with his right hand.
His force augmented strength proved to be enough to rip the weapon out of Grievous’ grasp and send it to his own hand. He tried to attack his opponent from behind, but Greivous proved to be faster than he thought and he send a powerful kick towards Haskri, knocking him on the ground.
Haskri landed on his back and immediately was forced to block Grievous’ attack, as he lashed at him with two lightsabers, one blue and one green. He managed to block it, but the force of the strike was almost enough to break his arm. Grievous wasn’t about to stop however as he grasped Zabrak’s leg with his own, and threw him into the wall with enough force to break few of his ribs.
Before Greivous was able to get to him, Haskri ripped the pipe from the floor, directing it towards the droid general. A steam of hot gas was able to stop him for a short moment, but it gave Haskri enough time to regain his composure. Seeing that the Jedi had lost his lightsaber, Grievous turned his weapons off and attacked Haskri with his metal fist. He hoped this Jedi would at least proved to be of some challenge.
Haskri ducked, and the general’s fist hit the wall, making the metal bend backwards. Zabrak threw a punch on his own, aiming for Grievous’ head. He sent a wave of the Force along with the punch in attempt to push the General back, but he was already dug deep in the floor. The push only made his torso bend backwards, but he immediately bended back and headbutted Haskri in response.
The Jedi’s head hit the wall again, but was immediately grabbed by Grievous’ leg and smashed into the floor. Haskri had no strength left in him to fight back as he was being lifted by a neck. “I will admit, You were better than I gave you credit for, but it will not save you Jedi scum.” Grievous said as he loosened the grip around his neck and thrust his fingers into his throat.
“MASTER!!!” He heard Sakri scream before everything went black.
Sakri jumped on the other side of the shaft, grabbing the bottom of the turbolift. She ignited her lightsaber and cut the hole in the lift's floor. When the entrance was ready, she jumped inside and immediately turned around, extending her hand towards Falcon. The clone commander jumped from the wall and with the support of his jetpack reached Sakri’s hand.
When she felt Falcon’s grasp on her hand, Sakri pulled him up. The clone sighed heavily as he looked at the turbolift’s shaft below him. “Blast… that was one hell of a climb.” He said panting.
“Yeah…” Sakri replied also panting. “Let’s go, we have to get to the bridge.” She begun cutting another hole in the turbolift. After few seconds her blue blade burned a perfect circle in the blast door. With a small push of the Force, she removed a cut-out piece of metal from the rest of the door. She immediately turned back to Falcon. “Alright let’s-“ *PEW*PEW* She didn’t finish as Falcon pulled out his blaster pistol and fired two shots behind her with speed that would make most bounty hunters jealous.
In the instant, she turned around, only to see two B1s with burning marks on their heads. With a surprise on her face she turned back to Falcon. “Since when are you so quick on a draw?” She asked.
“I…I don’t know… Let’s just go, we can think about it later.” He replied and walked out of the turbolift, still holding the pistol in his hand. The entire corridor was full of destroyed droids lying around with many clones lying among them. Sakri quickly followed Falcon into the corridor, also holding her weapon ready for a fight.
And a fight quickly found them.
The instant they turned right to reach the bridge they were forced to take cover as a dozen droids were already waiting for them. Moment after noticing them, the droids opened fire. Sakri was able to deflect one bolt back towards Super Battle Droid, but it wasn’t enough to stop it from marching forward. Falcon fired two bolts at the droid, finally stopping it in its tracks.
After hiding behind a cover, Sakri levitated a grenade from a dead clone’s belt to her hand and threw it towards the group of droids. At the same time, another Super Battle Droid picked her as a target and fired a rocket towards her. She didn’t managed to react in time, but before the missile hit her, she felt something pulling her back to cover. Shortly after that two explosions shook the corridor. Sakri looked behind to see her savior.
Obviously, it was Falcon saving her life again. “Damn it, keep this up and I might kiss you.” She said playfully.
“I’ll take your word for it.” Falcon replied and leaned out to see the damage done by grenade. Most droids were blown to pieces but few remained and were ready to open fire when they saw him. Commander fired few shots onto the nearest B1 and disabled it. Sakri run out from the cover and rushed towards 3 remaining droids. They tried to shoot her, but Sakri was able to either dodge or deflect the incoming bolts.
Once she closed a distance, her lightsaber cut the first two droids in a single swing, the third droid she threw into the wall with the Force, completely shattering it’s components. Falcon quickly run out of cover and followed her as she entered the bridge.
And when she got there, her heart stopped.
“MASTER!!!” Grevious chuckled as he heard a voice –without a doubt this Jedi’s padawan- calling. He threw a dead Zabrak aside and turned around to see a young human female crying in front of the hole in the entrance that he had made. There was also a clone standing behind her with a blaster pistol held tightly in his hand as he looked at the bodies all over the room.
Without any warning, the clone fired from his pistol. Grievous laughed as he blocked the attacks with his lightsaber, though still acknowledging how fast he was pulling the trigger. A red-haired padawan than ignited her lightsaber and with a scream rushed towards him. The only droid in the room –MagnaGuard- stepped between them but the padawan jumped over it as she continued to run. Using a communicator in his head, general ordered the droid to kill the clone and live the girl for him to kill.
Once in range, the girl tried to kill him with an overhead slash. He had no problems with defending against that attack, and neither with any strike she made. He knew that she would be of no challenge for him and decided to just end this. With another blocked attack General pressed an offense with a serried of quick strikes.
The padawan barely blocked them but she had no way to defend herself when he kicked her in the stomach. The power of the kick sent her flying towards the wall and broke her ribs. She fell on the ground but was immediately pulled up by the hair and thrown again. This time she was smashed into a computer panel on the other side of the room.
Grevious looked at her unmoving body from the distance and slowly made his way to the lightsaber next to her body. However, he stopped when he realized something. The clone was still alive.
He looked at the soldier fighting against the droid using a force pike. He was surprised to say the least. IG-100 droids were designed by himself to engage Jedi, and yet here he was watching a clone keeping up with one despite being visibly injured and tired. Forgetting about collecting another trophy, he focused his attention on the fight before him.
The clone blocked a side strike of the droid and quickly countered it with his own attack. The droid blocked it but by doing so allowed the clone to make a shot with his blaster. The blue bolt of energy hit the droid’s shoulder, making it take a step back. Clone didn’t stop his offence and with a few strong strikes managed to break through the droid’s defense and his weapon made a contact with its head.
Powerful waves of electricity made its way through the pike to droid’s systems and continued to damage them as the clone kept his weapon on the droid. Soon a fried droid landed on the metal floor with a thud.
Before Grievous could do anything, he heard a padawan he thought was dead running towards him again. He turned to face her and ignited his lightsaber. Her face was bleeding from few places and she had a shard of glass in her forehead. She started the same way she did before, with an overhead slash. General could feel that most of her strength left her and with ease worked his way through her defenses.
He locked his blade with hers and with one precise move of his wrist, removed hand from her arm.
The girl screamed in pain but was quickly silenced when Grievous wrapped his hand around her throat and lifted her up. “You just couldn’t wait to die couldn’t you? I’ll make sure to make this as-“ His words were cut off when a force pike made a contact with his mask. He took a step back, dodging another strike, but this time kicking the attacker in the chest.
He looked at the clone as he gathered himself up and laughed, dropping the padawan next to her master’s body. “Most Jedi can’t even touch me before I kill them, and here I was hit by a clone, how interesting.” Grievous held his lightsaber in Makashi opening stance as he walked around the clone. “Well, what are you waiting for, show me what you can do!”
The clone didn’t hesitated to strike. Grievous knew that the soldier was aware that he couldn’t win this fight, and he was impressed by his courage, though it’s hard to expect lack of it from someone cloned from famous mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett. Still, Grievous was curious as to what the clone really was capable of.
General purposely held back, letting the clone press an offence. He recognized few moves from Jedi fighting techniques, but it was clear that he was weaker than the red-haired padawan. Grievous slowly moved back as the clone kept his assault. General finally had enough of this game and smashed his free hand info clone’s helmet. Following the punch he grabbed the back of his helmet and brought it down to his knee, smashing the thing in half.
Then he grabbed the clone’s throat and pressed him against the console, his lightsaber slowly moved closer to his cheek, burning a mark on it. “Any last words, clone.”
The soldier looked at him and replied. “You’re going down…” Grievous didn’t noticed his hand activating hyperspace drive before it was too late. He growled in anger before throwing the clone at the wall. Grievous activated second lightsaber and rushed to the window of the bridge as fast as his mechanic legs could carry him. Only seconds before hyperdrive was activated he cut an ‘x’ in the window and jumped through it.
Shortly after that, the warship disappeared from the sight, leaving a very angry General flying in space.
Luna opened her eyes again, this time much faster than before. She felt it again, the mysterious being she had sensed. It was closer now, much closer. She stood up and looked at the stars again, the being was getting closer with each second.
Then without any warning a massive object painted in white and red appeared out of nowhere. It was burning from many places and she could see numerous holes on its surface. It was also falling on her moon.
Fast.
Knowing that trying to stop it from falling was pointless, she teleported herself further away. She watched as the object crushed into the surface of her sanctuary. Upon hitting the surface it send the dust flying in every direction. She didn’t shielded herself from the dust, she just lifted her hoof and smashed it back on the ground. The moon in response listened to her command and the dust was pulled back to the ground before it could reach her.
She looked at the behemoth in front of her. She still could feel the presence. And she felt it inside of it. Hesitantly, Luna made the first step.
