The Force Wills - Chapter 82 (Patreon)

If there was one thing I could say about King Grakchawwaa at my first meeting with him, was that he had little patience for pomp, ceremony or speeches.

In the Force, he was a burning bonfire of frustration and anger that barely tolerated the walking pace of inspecting the parade company of clone troopers.

Grakchawwaa himself was a towering wookiee, easily clearing 2.4 meters. He wore similar armor to many of his warriors with the only extra ostentation of his station being a leather circlet set with a single clear jewel on his head. His fur was a deep chestnut brown and was braided around his shoulders to form a stylized ‘beard’.

My own attention was somewhat caught by his ‘shuttle’. It was a traditional wookiee ship made of wroshyr wood and the sheer artistry was breathtaking. It blurred the line between functional secure transport that could carry someone of Grakchawwaa’s position and a work of installation art that could stand in a museum. The shipwright had started with a saucer shape as the base and built it outward, using flaring organic shapes inspired by wroshyr leaves. Yet I could see they managed to integrate a lifting body design in the base, clearly giving redundancy in case the engines, shields and repulsors failed in the atmosphere. The exterior hull also had elaborate relief carvings that depicted ancient wookiees and various stories from their history.

“General Skywalker, as much as I know what protocol dictates should come next, I have little time,” Grakchawwaa said.

“Certainly highness, we’ll head to the fortress immediately then.”

The king had arrived with a guard of eighteen armored wookiees, who looked almost ready to fight an entire ship’s company of droids or clones, given how heavily they were armed. Four of them remained at the king’s side as we headed into the turbolift.

The lift hadn’t even gone a few seconds in its journey before Grakchawwaa said, “I understand you rescued one of my people from those butchers before they could hunt him.”

“That’s correct, highness. Though my padawan was primarily responsible.”

I heard Grakchawwaa’s nose subtly pulling in more air.

He turned and speared me with questing eyes, “I trust you will not abuse the honor, young Jedi.”

That he had deduced already spoke of a very shrewd and clever king, including a very sensitive nose. I had no doubt that Chewbacca’s scent was on me, especially my left hand.

“No, majesty. I know the significance of the debt and the responsibilities it bestows on me.”

“Good. The life debt tradition of my people has been abused in the past, on many occasions by aliens. Some had even caused the very events that put the wookiee’s life in danger, only to swoop in and ‘save’ them. Two thousand years ago, we instituted a law that the king at his own discretion may evaluate and void a life debt if necessary.”

“Prudent and wise, majesty. Do you want to speak to Chewbacca?”

“I trust the Jedi of Yoda, but in these turbulent times…” he trailed off. “I will set aside five minutes to speak to him.”

Our tour of the Ubrikkian fortress proceeded uneventfully for the most part, but I had to admire the self-control of Grakchawwaa. When he set eyes on the wookiee pelts and the stuffed wookiee statues on prominent display in a trophy room, it looked like he was about ready to pop his claws and go on a rampage of anger on everything. His bodyguards were less circumspect and they let out low audible growls. He also paused to examine the trophy remains of other species, seemingly paying his respects for each life lost.

“Skywalker…” Grakchawwaa mused, before his eyes lit in realization. “You were in the Battle of Alaris?”

“As a padawan, yes majesty.”

“And here you are, a knight with a padawan of your own. Where does all our time go? We wookiees have potentially so much of it compared to most other races in the galaxy. There’s so much we can do in a lifetime, yet in this room we see centuries of it squandered. Reduced to be nothing more than displays for the vanity and pride of short lived lizards. Becoming no more than ephemeral numbers to appease their goddess!”

“Then they would throw in their lot with the soulless Separatists, buy their weapons to hunt and kill more of my kind. What’s next? A full scale invasion of Kashyyyk?”

“They would have to break through the Republic lines at Boonta to mount such an invasion.”

“It’s just three major systems between Boonta and Kashyyyk, General Skywalker. Not to mention if the Separatists manage to infiltrate and steal the Claatuvac maps, then Republic defenses and trade routes in the east will be under dire threat. Now we have trandoshan ‘renegades’ armed with their weapons and hyperspace capable fighter bombers. If war comes to the Kashyyyk system, our vigilance on those maps may wane, it will drain the strength of my people.”

“No doubt this is by design.”

“The Royal Council and myself have kept our people as neutral as possible in this conflict, General Skywalker. War is in no one’s interest but our enemies.”

“So you will remain on the defensive.”

“Our fleet is built for that.”

“You lost two ships to just four squadrons of fighters. You’ll need more ships.”

“Please General, we know the odds. At a base level, the trandoshans reproduce faster than we do. Their population outnumbers ours by orders of magnitude. They can easily afford to throw bodies at a problem and if it should ever enter their heads to cooperate properly beyond their laughably token government, their industrial capacity would also outstrip ours.”

That was another aspect of how peace was kept between the two races. The trandoshans were by their nature fierce individualists and seekers of personal glory. They only held true loyalty to their own families and genetic lines at best. Even kin killing was known to happen if a bad enough rivalry between clutchmates existed. Their government was the very definition of minimal and had little real power. It was another reason why they didn’t have a senator on Coruscant.

In retrospect, that someone had managed to organize forty-eight trandoshan pilots into squadrons and for them to perform as they had in the battle, was very odd. By all rights, it should’ve broken down into an easy turkey shoot as all the individual trandoshans tried to score kills with very little coordination. This was a fact that was clearly not lost on King Grakchawwaa.

“So the best we can do is keep any fighting in space and keep our crews as small as possible.”

“Majesty, you know that sooner or later, the Separatists will come to you and offer the choice they’ve given to many worlds,” I said pointedly.

“I will climb that tree when the day comes, young padawan. I will fight to postpone that day for as long as possible. Hopefully, long enough for the GAR to finally bring this war to some resolution, one way or the other.” He turned to one of his bodyguards, “Rhil, scan the remains and organize for their retrieval, we can finally bring some closure to the tribes and families. Now come, Padawan Tano, show me to Chewbacca.”

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Chewie’s talk with the king wasn’t something I could be anywhere near, but it was at least interesting to see briefly how social strata worked in wookiee society. There was no bowing or elaborate ceremony or special language. It was a simple bow of the head, crossed arms with hands exposed to show that his claws were properly sheathed and that was it.

I left the docked fortress for the Clarity’s bridge only to find Anakin standing at the tactical planning holotank, looking thoughtfully at a massive fleet arrangement and starmap that could only be one thing.

“Snips, take a look,” he invited.

It didn’t take me more than a few moments, “We’ve secured Mossak.”

“And Arcan, we’ve completely cut off the Salin Corridor from Separatist control and influence.”

“Good news.”

He nodded, “Unfortunately, as with everything in this war, bad news comes as well.” He swiped his hands through the holo and the full galactic map appeared. “Our momentum in the south has stalled.”

“Again?” I asked incredulously.

“Resistance was stiffer than expected and the Separatists have begun fielding tri-fighters in larger numbers. Our own reinforcements for the south were delayed due to many factors, but the main one is that KDY is struggling to meet the demand. They’re increasing the number of yards dedicated to the Venator and making changes as we need them in response to the lessons learned in the war, but that is slowing production down. Clones and crew are for once, not the problem. Kamino has released a new cadre and there is some talk of a new armor for them being designed as well.”

Was this the genesis of Phase 2 armor?

“The siege of the Techno Union’s Foerost Shipyards has also shown no further meaningful progress.” The holo changed to a core world sector.

If there was one thing that could help Venator and warship production in general, then it would be recapture of that shipyard. Unfortunately, the shipyard’s defenses were formidable and when the TU had turned to the CIS, they’d quickly turned the guns on anything Republic. That siege had begun at the beginning of the war and after more than a year, there was no sign of that changing any time soon. The TU were deep behind enemy lines but Foerost had been built up precisely because it had been captured so many times in the history of the Old Republic. It was specifically built to act as a bastion system behind which the Republic could rebuild an offensive force in a worst case scenario.

“That siege takes too long and I bet anything the Union is going to emerge from there with a warship fleet crewed by droids that we’re going to struggle to defeat.”

Anakin shrugged, “The ships required to punch through those defenses just aren’t there yet.”

Same story, there were just too many demands on the GAR. Yet, if we could flip those massive shipyards, then it would go a long way to easing up production shortages and be a significant tide turner in the war.

“Anything else?”

“No, every other front is static, we put most of our effort into Mossak and everything will be focused on holding-”

The holotank flashed with an alert, the galaxy map vanishing to be replaced with the Jedi symbol and ‘Incoming transmission’ boldly written underneath.

Next the hugely rendered torso and head of Master Plo Koon appeared.

“Master Koon?” Anakin frowned.

“Skywalker, Ahsoka, well done on your rescue of our missing padawans and the resolution of matters in Kashyyyk. I’m afraid that we have a new problem.” His holoform abruptly shrank and now he was sharing the connection with someone else.

A venerable Mon Calamari, bedecked in organic golden armor, with a thorny crown and shroud covering his conical head. His bright blue eyes with huge black pupils conveyed a sharp intelligence, whilst his mouth was thinned in a grave expression. His shiny orange skin had a slight distortion that I could just make out and I quickly realized that he was actually underwater as the holoscanner captured him.

“This is King Yos Kolina of the Mon Cala.”

“General Skywalker, Commander Tano, a pleasure to meet you both,” said King Kolina with a slight burble accenting each of his words.

We bowed our heads.

“The pleasure is ours, highness. What seems to be the problem?” Anakin asked.

“The situation in the Mon Cala system is grave. Long range scans have detected a Separatist fleet approaching via the Overic Griplink hyperlane.” That was a hyper route known for being the furthest major lane on the very outer reaches of the galaxy in the north-east. Another holo appeared above showing the scans in question. “It’s a fleet centered around a Providence carrier variant and twenty three Munificents in close escort. However, there is a vanguard that will arrive sooner.”

“No doubt to soften and test your defenses,” I mused. My mind was not preoccupied with logistics and what assets we could throw at the CIS, however. The Force was flicking my montrals, to butcher the expression.

“Undoubtedly. My people remain loyal to the Republic, Generals. We do not have the strength to resist this force in space. Our only hope is to force a conventional confrontation underwater.”

The days of the giant Mon Calamari Star Cruisers being the backbone of the Rebel Alliance were not here yet. In fact, I was witnessing the first impetus that would give rise for the Mon Calamari to retool their famous underwater shipyards, which they used currently to construct the best passenger liners in the galaxy.

“Clones are trained for underwater operations and have the equipment, the specialized legion for that is generally held in reserve on Kamino, do we have the time?” Anakin asked.

“Even if you could mobilize them immediately, they wouldn’t arrive in time to make a difference. Kamino is nearly ten days away using the Trellius Route and some of the hyperlanes on the southern interface near Mon Cala cannot accommodate large ships like the Venator. The only approach still open to you is via Junkfort station at the northern reaches of Hutt space.”

Anakin closed his eyes briefly, the Force shifted and I vaguely felt him reach out to Padme.

“What of the gungans?” he proposed. “Naboo is relatively closer given the better hyperlanes we’d be working with. The gungan army has modernized to some extent and is the only other readily available aquatic force in the Republic.”

“Any reinforcement would be welcome at this point, General,” King Kolina said emphatically. “The Mon Calamari Guard has expanded greatly since the war began, but the Separatists know that.”

“Yet they are coming anyway,” Master Koon folded his arms. “That means they must have some kind of combat droid unit capable of underwater operations now.”

“Think Republic Intel can be persuaded to reveal any information they have?” I asked wryly.

“They better or else I think a personal visit from Master Yoda will be in order,” Master Koon grumbled.

I stared at the galaxy map around Mon Cala, “Have we asked the question of why?”

“Their objective, you mean, commander?” Kolina asked.

“Yes, highness. Is it simply conquest to secure their flank against a future scenario where Mon Cala is being used by the Republic as a stepping stone into the heart of the Separatist north or is it for some other purpose? You’re only two days away from Raxus Prime. Your shipyards perhaps?”

Kolina fiddled with the fleshy small ‘tentacles’ under his mouth. “Perhaps. The Mon Cala Shipyards yoked to the Separatist war machine would be a nightmare this galaxy doesn’t want to see.”

“If they want to capture the industry and shipyards of Mon Cala intact, that does give us some room to maneuver,” Anakin pointed out.

“It would depend on how many aqua droids they have to use, we can also bet they’ll use cloaked Trident class assault ships again.”

Master Koon nodded in agreement, “We must all make best speed to Junkfort. We’ll gather our forces from the local garrison, including reinforcements from our bases in northern Hutt space, creating a task group. Skywalker, contact Senator Amidala and relay our request for reinforcements from the gungans using the fastest ships they have access to.”

“Yes, master.”

“Thank you, Generals. You give this old king hope.”

“We’ll be there as soon as we can, highness.”

“May the Force be with us.”

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As much as I wished the Clarity would stay in Kashyyyk, it threatened the wookiee’s non-alignment too much. It was no surprise then that King Grakchawwaa formally thanked us for stopping the ‘rogue elements’, rescuing the victims, repatriating the remains of the killed wookiees, rescuing Chewbacca and in the most diplomatic manner possible, told us to get the star destroyer out of his system immediately.

Anakin and I commandeered a Nu-class military shuttle from the Clarity, loaded all the surviving ARC troopers and Blades aboard, including my new royally approved life debtee.

Chewie boarded the shuttle now properly looking like he was ready for war. He had visited Kashyyyk for a few hours, sorted out affairs with his own family, donned wroshyr armor, his own personal bowcaster, a Heartlance - a spear-like vibro weapon for keeping enemies at a distance, and a Spiritblade at his hip - a wookiee vibrosword essentially.

He sat down heavily next to me and gave me a pointed look. “You have a standing invitation into my tribe’s home for a visit, to be done at your earliest convenience. My wife and son especially want to meet you.”

I looked up at him and shook my head, “Sorry, wife and son? What’s their names?” Of course, I knew Chewbacca had an immediate family, but to already have offspring? He therefore was clearly older than I had imagined and I just sucked at telling a wookiee’s true age from appearance alone. I probably should’ve used the Force, but I had been so focused on sheer survival that such a trivial detail had escaped me. I focused on that now and immediately sensed that I was a spring chicken in comparison. He was definitely over a century old, maybe even 150. His relative skinniness was because he had not reached his ‘prime’, which was somewhere around two centuries for wookiees or maybe that was just his nature. It also helped that he was now properly groomed and cleaned, his fur gave a lot of volume and created the impression he was bigger, the armor also helped a lot with that.

“My wife’s name is Mallotobuck and my son’s is Lumpawaroo.”

“I’ll remember that. I hope she wasn’t too hard on you.”

“Our lifetimes are long, Ahsoka. Separation is painful but it’s accepted in times of war and strife. She understands well and is grateful to you beyond measure for saving my life. Though I warn you that Lumpawaroo will be a pest with every question under the canopy for you.”

“How old is he?”

“Twelve standard years,” Chewie said with a forlorn tone and I sensed a sorrow in him. “He will be ready to take the Krrsihr in a month and I know I will not be there for it. Sorry, it’s the coming-of-age ritual all wookiees take at that age. They have to enter into the wilds alone and return with silk fibers from a syren plant.”

Given that more than half of every plant on Kashyyyk was some flavor of carnivorous with all manner of methods of luring prey and even moving in a limited fashion, this was clearly not as simple as picking a flower in a field.

I would not dishonor the life debt and apologize for this, as the blame rightfully belonged with the original trandoshan who had abducted Chewie and who had already died by my hand.

The shuttle rumbled and whined as its repulsors pushed it off the bay deck and barely a few seconds later was clear of the exterior hangar doors of the Clarity.

“Chewie, question, how comfortable are you swimming?”

“Very comfortable. We train as pups, though it is something avoided as we grow older. Freshwater is agreeable, but saltwater is awful on our fur.”

“What about under the water?”

I felt Chewbacca’s immediate dread at the very thought. He looked at me with wide, intent eyes. “Why do you ask?”

I patted him on the shoulder, “Don’t worry, we’ll be able to train on our way to Mon Cala, after we fit you up with some SCUBA gear.”

He just shook his head rapidly, “No, please… anything but this.”

“Can a bowcaster fire underwater by the way?”

His mouth opened and what looked like an aghast expression on his wookiee features, “Ahsoka!”

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It was a three and half day journey to Junkfort.

It got its name from the only thing of real interest in the system, a very ugly space station that orbited the local star where a second planet usually was. Only in Junkfort’s case, there hadn’t been enough stellar material left over from the star’s formation and the system only featured a single barely habitable rock that was only used by locals for mining.

Its other notable reason for existing was simply its position and status as a prime smuggling route from Hutt space directly into what had been Republic space in the Outer Rim. Spice from the Kessel mines flowed through here.

Junkfort station itself was an agglomeration of large starships and modules cobbled together to form a far greater structure. It was large enough even to act as a shipyard in its own right, but usually just served to upgrade and modify the starships of smugglers with all sorts of systems and parts that were illegal in Republic space.

Then the advent of the Clone War and the Treaty with the Hutts had hit the system and its denizens like a meteor.

Junkfort was now the primary staging system of the Thirteenth Sector Army of the GAR, which had added a Golan Defense Platform into a low orbit of the only planet and a Haven class medical station. Navy ships of every description and role arrived and departed to support the current battlefront in the Boonta system, which was just 9 hours away in a coreward direction.

The smugglers of Junkfort kept their heads low for the most part and got on with their business. Those who were stupid didn’t last long in the smuggling business, so they knew not to mess with the clones who could wipe out their little space station with a few volleys from a star destroyer. In the same vein, the Republic couldn’t really mess with the smuggling because that would jeopardize the treaty with the Hutts. So a live and let live paradigm had quietly developed between the men of the 13th Army and the smugglers who made Junkfort their home and waystation.

Waiting for us near the Golan station was Master Koon’s own brand new flagship Venator, the Judgment and two others, Hammer and Vigil.

It was nice walking onto the bridge, because it almost felt like the Resolute. The Judgment had all the same incremental improvements but these had been built in from day one. My correspondence with Lira Blissex at KDY was bearing very interesting fruit indeed.

Behind me I felt Chewie looking around with naked interest at everything around him. For all his diverse skills developed over many years, being an excellent shot, a pilot, the big wookiee was at heart a techie and he was clearly taking mental notes.

He wouldn’t ordinarily have been allowed here, but I had neatly solved that problem by effectively deputizing him in the Jedi Order. A fact visibly demonstrated by the Jedi symbol pinned onto his armored bandoleer and giving him a brevet rank of a Lieutenant in the GAR. He’d have much to learn on the job, as I had.

“Welcome to the Judgment,” Master Koon greeted, standing next to the command chair.

“Nice ship,” Anakin conceded.

“That it is, Skywalker. I’m afraid further pleasantries must be postponed. I need you to remain in Junkfort to take command and finish assembling the task group for the eventual battle on Mon Cala. Ahoska and myself must make the best speed towards the target system in the meantime with what we’ve already assembled. The vanguard of the CIS fleet has increased speed and we need to stop them. The Mon Cala has other infrastructure and colonies in their system and this vanguard will be able to wreak havoc before our task group arrives.”

Anakin clearly didn’t like the idea, but saw the necessity of it.

“I’ll plant my flag on the Golan until the Resolute arrives then. Senator Amidala and a gungan army division is on its way as well.”

“Interesting,” Koon mused. “Is she in command of them?”

“Yes, Boss Lyonie insisted it as a condition for them coming.”

“I hope they are not delayed on the way. I’ve already begun training the troops we have here on the Judgment as best as we can to simulate underwater battles and we will be at a disadvantage. A single normally non-lethal hit on a trooper is usually enough for an instant kill, as their suit integrity is compromised and the ocean does the rest.”

“I’ve been thinking about that and I think the gungans have something that will definitely help there,” Anakin smirked.

“Good, Ahsoka, Chewbacca, get yourself some quarters on board, we leave within the hour.”

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The push to the Mon Calamari system took a further two days of navigation through the weaving hyperlanes of the sector. As much as it slowed down our approach it’s also what kept the door open to enter the system from the south.

There were eight significant celestial bodies in the system, four planets and four ‘ice worlds’. Essentially minor planetoids that were primarily used as resource extraction colonies, with their primary export being the freshwater ice and other minerals that were then shipped to Mon Cala which sat in the second orbit around the star.

Mon Cala, or Dac, as it was known in the local tongue, was a world of 95% ocean, with the only landmass being minor islands and thin archipelagos. It was currently home to 27 billion sentients and two species, the Mon Cala and the Quarren. The former having evolved in the shallows of the planet’s oceans, whilst the latter in the deeper depths. This naturally led to conflict, but those wars were so ancient, it had been over long before even the Old Republic had made first contact. The Mon Cala and Quarren had already been united under a single monarchical government and spacefaring with primitive hyperdrives, when Old Republic explorers had found them.

“Any updates from Mon Cala?” I asked Master Koon as we both stood over the primary bridge holotank, displaying the full extent of the system to us.

“Not since their last contact a day ago,” Koon shook his head. “I think that we’re going to find the Separatist vanguard has beaten us here.”

He walked off to his command seat, sat down and opened a comlink. “All ships, battlestations. Set condition one. Prepare for a combat emergence from hyper.”

The effect was immediate as combat alarms wailed and the bridge lighting changed to a dim blue. Bridge crewmen strapped themselves into harnesses and donned helmets and sealed the bodysuits under their uniforms to potential vacuum rated conditions.

I threaded my lekku and montrals into my helmet, sealed it up and strapped myself into a nearby seat.

My mind reached out and I double checked that Chewie was managing to get into his own vac suit. He had decided to make himself useful in the Judgment’s engineering spaces, neatly fitting in under the command of the chief engineer down there.

Soon enough…

“Emergence in 3… 2… 1…”

The three star destroyers burst into existence in normal space at the extreme edge of the Mon Cala system, a million kilometers beyond the outermost orbit of Iceworld Four.

I glared into the holotank as passive sensors pulled in data and rendered it as fast as it could.

The good news, no enemy ships were within any weapons range out here. The bad, a wolfpack of four Munificent frigates and one Recusant was around Iceworld Three and already laying siege to it.

Iceworld Three was currently in a south-easterly position around the star, giving it a distance from the Republic vanguard of about 97 million kilometers.

“What do you think, Ahsoka?”

I pulled up the database stats for Iceworld Three.

“Four thousand people work and call that place home, Master. Their automated defenses are unmanned ground turrets and satellite based. They won’t hold for much longer. We have no choice. We use a micro jump, launching everything at them as we come out.”

My hands reached into the holotank and designated an emergence that would put us ten thousand kilometers z-positive over the enemy.

It sucked to use the new tactic now and not against the main enemy fleet, but it was either this or watch as everyone down there died.

Master Koon fully understood the dilemma. “Very well. Nav, plot a jump.”

“Plotting a jump, General.”

Using the full power of three networked navcomputers between the Judgment, Hammer and Vigil, with dozens of astromechs, the jump was plotted in just under eight minutes.

“Engaging hyperjump.”

For all that it had been tested with as much secrecy as possible, deep in the core worlds, it was still a butt clenching moment. It was only possible because of the next generation of hyper initiators fitted to the newest drives built in KDY. They still had the label of experimental attached to them and the chance of something going catastrophically wrong was there. The needs of war had pushed them through the decades of testing that would’ve been done in peacetime.

The view of space outside streaked and tore, the typical tunnel of hyperspace barely finished forming before it already tore apart and resolved into normal space again.

Iceworld Three’s very small mass shadow really helped here and all three Venators found themselves a mere nine thousand kilometers above the enemy.

In any other situation, the jump would’ve been a nasty failure due to the inaccuracy.

“Open fire,” Master Koon ordered evenly.

The Venators’ ripple fired sixteen torpedoes each, even as they oriented to bring their noses down towards the enemy.

The clone gunners and computers had broad dorsal aiming profiles on the surprised enemy fleet.

Barely seconds later as the droid Tri-fighters and Vultures began peeling off the Munificents, the turbolasers of the Republic vanguard spoke.

The dorsal shields of a Munificent held for only a moment, before popping under combined onslaught, where a follow up salvo slammed into the upper hull armor, gouging out huge craters and sending flash fried atmosphere into space to be snuffed out.

The third salvo smashed into the rear engineering spaces and secondary explosions began ripping throughout the ship.

The torpedo assault arrived, also targeting only a single Munificent to saturate the point defenses.

Even so, 33 torpedoes were intercepted, leaving fifteen to slam into the shields of the unfortunate Munificent.

The first eight did the job of battering them down, whilst the last seven finished their attack runs, detonating directly against the hull.

A bright flash of light and an expanding shell of energetic debris heralded its complete destruction.

Hyena bombers now pushed themselves off the remaining Munificents, as the Vultures and Tri-fighters quickly closed the distance.

“Launch counter missiles,” ordered Master Koon.

The space around Judgment, Hammer and Vigil was quickly turned into the most beautiful sight to my eyes, a near Macross style missile massacre.

All of which was aimed at the incoming enemy fighters.

Who in turn began firing their own forward cannons to saturate space in front of them.

Counter missiles died in scores but their development was the Republic’s response to the game of numbers that the CIS constantly used.

In moments, over 140 enemy fighters were reduced to flaming debris and wreckage still coasting with their initial momentum.

The three star destroyer’s point defense armament erupted as the ranges closed even further, targeting the survivors of the first enemy fighter wave.

The two remaining Munificents began orienting to bring their own spinal turbolaser armament to bear, whilst the Recusant began peppering the Hammer with its own turbolasers.

Hammer began retasking its defense, using its interceptors to slap away more and more turbolaser blasts, at the cost of letting more fighters go.

“Enemy target locks!” reported Sensors.

Twenty six enemy torpedoes launched into space and immediately started burning right for the Judgment.

“Retask next counter missile salvo. Time on Target barrage on Munificent Theta,” Master Koon snapped.

“Theta, acknowledged,” reported Guns.

The three Venators spewed counter missiles, torpedoes and turbolaser in a stupendous barrage of concentrated firepower.

The targeted Munificent shields barely mattered in the equation. They went down as it was still turning to bring its spinal armament to bear and took the salvos right on the chin.

Four torpedoes made it through the active point defenses and utterly obliterated the spinal turbolasers.

Secondary explosions visibly crawled along the length of the Munificent, its power system and reactor scramming just in time to prevent a catastrophic overload.

It immediately began listing in an uncontrolled manner as it simply obeyed the laws of motion and all turbolaser and cannon fire shut down.

Whether the droid crew could save the ship at this point was made moot, when the Republic vanguard released another barrage.

The third bright flash of light lit up the void as Munificent Theta became a huge spherical eruption of energy, fire and debris.

“I want a maximum barrage of counter missiles, point defense to prioritize Hyenas.”

It took a nerve-wracking half a minute for that to happen.

Master Koon had also clearly foreseen what was going to happen when the CIS vanguard was on its last legs.

The last Munificent was shattered when suddenly every remaining enemy fighter began going on suicide runs, becoming missiles themselves instead of programmed droid fighters.

Space around the Republic vanguard turned into a chaotic maelstrom as the Venators emptied their counter missile launchers in a huge wave, every erg of energy pushed to the interceptors and point defense cannons.

Even the Recusant turned and redlined its engines, aiming itself to ram the Vigil.

Vultures, tri-fighters and Hyenas died en-masse.

So dense was the counter fire that enemy fighters simply ceased to exist, their debris being hammered by laser, plasma and immolating proton hammers from counter missiles.

I felt a shudder through the bridge deck as a Tri-fighter managed to weather the storm and slammed itself into the ventral shields of the Judgment.

A Hyena and Vulture ended their existence on the ventral shields of the Hammer.

“Time on target barrage, get that Recusant out of my battlespace,” Master Koon grumbled, as Vigil also took hits.

My concentration peaked as the Battle Meditation fell on every soul in the vanguard.

I didn’t want to pull this technique on every battle I was involved in but this was insane!

The Recusant’s shields died, turbolaser blasts hit and hit, gouts of fire erupting from the forward hull, yet the thing kept spiraling in. It’s shifting narrow front profile absorbing all the incoming fire.

“Full torpedo launch, attack its engines!” shouted Master Koon.

48 torpedoes were ejected into the maelstrom of fire that the Venators were projecting outward.

Such was the chaotic nature of space around the ships at the moment, that only 28 of them survived getting through the inner defensive perimeter.

Yet the Recusant’s active defenses were still up around the rear quarters of the ship.

Five torpedoes survived to enter their terminal attack runs.

Space flashed as the rear engine modules of the ship vanished in a blue liberation of energy.

What was left of the Recusant was physically propelled forward as if it was a nuclear pulse detonation ship.

“Evasive action!”

The Vigil’s captain had already taken the initiative to do so.

The moment the wreckage of the Recusant became uncontrolled and predictable, every bit of propulsion the ship had was engaged to evade.

Turbolaser blasts slammed into the wreckage and debris.

Vigil’s tractor beams joined in the effort in repulsion mode.

The Venator’s shields blossomed into visibility as the wreckage just scraped off its port side.

The entire Republic vanguard let out a breath in relief.

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With the orbitals secure, just under an hour later I found myself inside a LAAT gunship alongside Chewie and Commander Wolffe of 104th Clone Battalion.

Fifteen companies of troops were huddled inside the gunships, which were in close formation with carrier ships hauling a full squadron of TX-130 Saber tanks. Z-95 Headhunters ranged around us in escort formation, whilst more squadrons went ahead to secure the airspace over the small industrial colony of Iceworld Three.

Our attack had caught the deployment of the Separatists to the colony completely flatfooted.

A number of C9979 landing craft were unloading war droid companies and the beginnings of a battle had already started.

The colony was primarily situated underneath the massive ranging glaciers, with huge domes sticking out of them that allowed the weak sunlight into the colony and air to circulate. The domes had primarily automated defenses on their perimeter, with large laser and plasma turrets that would pop out of the ice.

It was all meant to deter piracy and large scale raids, as the Mon Cala knew that help was hours away at best speed from the homeworld.

I looked grimly into the small gunship holotank across from Commander Wolffe.

The clone commander was distinguished by a large scar across his right eye that slashed vertically down. The souvenir of a direct hand to hand fight with a BX droid that the commander had won. That eye had been replaced with a milky white cybernetic, that gave the man a rather fearsome countenance. In this case, it was not without merit and the outside was now merely reflecting the temperament of the clone.

“It’s like the Seppies threw their entire catalog of equipment at these Mon Cala; B1s, 2s, BX, STAPs, DSD1s, Persuader tanks and AATs. Hyenas for air to ground bombardment. What for? It’s overkill,” he said with a sneer. Then we saw one of the defensive emplacements open fire and it utterly obliterated an AAT with a single shot. “Oh, nice.”

“Little known fact commander,” I said with a small smirk. “The Mon Cala has a high level of technology. In some areas of high energy physics they’re more advanced than the general galactic standard and they’ve been very good at obscuring it. My personal wish is to one day refit the Resolute with Mon Cala built turbolasers and chuck the Taim & Bak guns into the bin.”

“That’d be a sight to see, commander.” An eager light entered his eyes. Yes, this clone really liked his guns and explosions.

“So, the enemy position has definitely forced our hand somewhat here. Our hovering Saber tanks make the glacial terrain not as much of an obstacle, but traction for troops is going to be problematic, even with their cold gear. We’re going to have to land directly in the action as close as possible.” I tapped the positions I had in mind on the holo.

Wolffe looked at the holo and nodded in agreement. “If we didn’t have air cover, I’d say it’d be suicide, but the Z95s doing some strafing runs and landing ground ordinance will be just what we need. The gunships will definitely have to help as well.”

I nodded, “Let’s get it done, commander. We need to evac this entire colony before the main force of Seppies arrive.”

“Are we going to be repeating this dance at the other Iceworlds?”

“Unlikely, at that point the word of the invasion will have spread and the Mon Cala will be able to do it themselves with those big ships of theirs. Chewie,” I turned to the big wookiee. “No matter what, you stick like glue to me. Understand?”

He nodded his shaggy head.

“Good, let’s be about it.”

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In over a century of life, Chewbacca had fought many beings for his life and survival in the forest of Kashyyyk. He could even say he’d fought the Trade Federation before, fighting alongside his father and leading an entire tribe of wookiees to claim the rediscovered moon of Alaris Prime for his people. A time when the soulless corporation still only had the B1 droid and the AAT in its arsenal.

The doors to the gunship opened onto the icescape below and he knew immediately that the ‘battle’ for Alaris was barely a skirmish in comparison to what he was about to experience.

The local sun barely illuminated the terrain, giving a stark contrast to blasts and beams of plasma and laser that scythed across the battlefield from both sides.

He felt his heart race in fear and his eyes widened as he took in the scene. Yet somehow, that fear had no restraint on his actions at all. There was no doubt, there was only surety.

The gunship thumped as it landed and he fell in awkward steps behind Ahsoka as they all spilled out onto the ice.

He felt the hard spikes of his hastily built ‘shoes’ bite and gain traction.

Wookiees made it a point of pride to never cover their big feet with anything. The soles of their feet hardened naturally through rigorous exploration of the forests, but there was some terrain that the wookiee foot couldn’t conquer.

Ahsoka’s lightsabers burst into life angrily and began an eye-catching, beautiful spectacle around her.

His mind barely took it in though as he roared a challenge into the dim day of this world, shouldered his bowcaster and got to work rendering these droids into scrap.

His first shot of the day didn’t miss as it speared through two B1s standing behind each other, hurling both backward and knocking over three others.

The cacophony of battle washed over him.

He saw Z-95s screaming overhead, their cannons sending streams of bolts scything through droid formations.

Saber tanks side strafing to avoid missiles from B2 rocket droids, before their dual heavy laser cannons retaliated, sending ice and droid wreckage flying upward.

Ahsoka deflecting blaster shots straight back at the enemy, before suddenly kneeling, hands against the ice.

Then things began happening that seemed straight from wookiee myth.

All along the Republic line of advance, the ice itself seemed to heave upward, forming barriers of cover behind which the troops could take shelter from the fire of the enemy.

Chewie barely kept his astonishment from overtaking his reason, firing the final shot from his bowcaster; destroying a B2.

As the tallest person on the battlefield, he kept himself low in a running crouch behind the lightsabers of Ahsoka as she rose again and resumed her advance.

He slapped home a new magazine for his bowcaster and immediately marked in the distance an AAT with a boxy droid sticking its head out.

He counted his blessings and fired, a moment later the droid had no head.

‘Nice shot, Chewie, one tac droid down.’

He understood how valuable being able to speak on a battlefield was. Through the Force, it wouldn’t be affected by distance, jamming or conventional technology, but Ahsoka’s thoughts coming directly into his head was rather creepy on a visceral level.

Their advance had reached another point where she had to use the Force to generate more cover for her troops.

She did so but this time didn’t stop there.

A multitude of ice chunks almost two meters large also rose into the air and shot themselves forward at great speed.

They bowled into the droid formations wrecking and burying scores of droids.

As much as she was doing to help, the tanks destroying scores of droids, the Headhunters scything the ground, Chewie could see they were also leaving behind many bodies as troopers were inevitably hit by droid fire.

Ahsoka ducked into cover behind her own ice redoubt, her breathing was harsh and deep, her eyes closed.

He knelt next to her in concern, but she immediately patted his shoulder in reassurance.

“I’m fine, just a bit winded.”

A line of Saber tanks advanced, launchers popped out of their hulls and sent missiles streaking into the sky to shoot down a squadron of Hyena bombers that had been attempting to make a run on the advancing Republic troops.

She took a deep breath in and out before her sabers seemed to move with their usual speed again and stepped out from behind the redoubt and into the fire again.

Chewbacca followed and unleashed his bowcaster.

His perception of the battle narrowed, there were only targets, taking the shot and keeping himself low behind Ahsoka.

More carrier ships made combat drops behind them, letting go of the AT-TE tanks, who immediately began sending mass driver rounds into the opposing enemy AATs.

The onboard Repeaters scythed across the enemy lines.

Missiles arced straight towards Ahsoka from the Persuader tanks in the rear of the enemy lines.

Chewbacca had no time to feel fear at all as she made sweeping gestures of her hands, causing the missiles to either veer wildly off course to detonate among the enemy or even send it straight back to the tank who had fired.

DSD1 spider droids rapidly crawled forward on their legs, sending blaster cannon shots that destroyed a number of advancing Saber tanks.

Z-95s swooped in on a fresh run, sending scores of concussion missiles that hammered them from above.

Then Chewbacca heard an annoying whine cut across the air as a swarm of STAPs with B1 droids piloting them descended on the battlefield.

Their Repeaters forced the advancing troops to either seek cover or be cut down from above.

The AT-TE’s turned their own Repeaters skyward on their ball turrets and started to retaliate against the STAPs, sending numerous of the flying vehicles to spin out of control and crash.

Ahsoka blurred and sent a bolt that had been going for her head back into the distance, one of her green blades now permanently orbited him.

‘Commando droids are sniping into the battlefield,’ she commented.

Chewie felt a mental itch and traced it to his left, he raised his bowcaster, flicking the button that raised the integral scope out of its housing.

He sighted on the two BX droids on a glacial hill just over three hundred meters away.

He felt invisible hands gently guide the bowcaster, adjusting the aim slightly.

‘Now,’ Ashoka thought.

Chewie pulled the trigger.

The hybrid plasma bolt took less than a second to cross the distance, then cored straight through the prone BX’s head, continued through the majority of its body before exiting out between its legs.

He fired again, sending its partner into digital oblivion.

Ahsoka raised an ice redoubt in front of her, ducked behind and gestured for him to join her.

He did so and was surprised when he regained some situational awareness.

They had gone as far as they could, the majority of the enemy B1s and B2s were destroyed and left as wreckage behind them. The colony domes were looming ahead.

All that was left was the tank battle between the remaining Separatist forces.

The Republic spearhead had succeeded in driving a wedge straight through them, dividing the enemy into two camps.

Ahsoka projected a holo from her palm showing the battlefield in detail, then began tapping into it and issuing orders over the radio.

Saber and AT-TEs split their advance, turning left and right.

Whilst new carriers arrived and dropped more Republic tanks on each flank of the divided enemy, completing an envelopment that Chewie couldn’t help but feel in awe of at how smoothly and professionally it was done.

“Nicely done, Chewie, nineteen kills,” she said over the radio, even as she adjusted and worked with the holo in her palm.

“Really?” he asked in surprise. He checked his ammo pouches and had to concede her observation as having merit. “It’s certainly only because you shielded me that it was so easy.”

“I helped there, yes, but many clones can say the same thing. It’s why I’m here. Your performance under fire was excellent nevertheless for someone who’s never experienced a battle of this scale.”

Z-95s streaked overhead, launching another volley into the trapped enemy.

“What now?”

“Now we begin the hard part, convincing people to leave behind their homes.”

“Ahsoka, come in,” said the voice of Master Koon.

“Ahsoka here, what is it, master?”

“We’ve determined the cause of the silence from the Mon Cala. King Kolina has been assassinated.”

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A/N: Water world arc begins.  A few interludes will also come bundled in next chapter. Enjoy the weekend and stay awesome folks.