Star Wars: The Spear Of Hope

Chapter 1: Prologue

Chapter Text

"Soon after they attacked Geonosis, the Republic realized that they'd bitten off more than they could chew." - Anonymous Historian, 50 Years After The War Of Republic Aggression.

Orbital Shipyards, Ringo Vinda Orbit, Ringo Vinda System, Eucer Sector

Sometimes I still wonder how I ended up here. One second I'm getting some gas, then the station exploded around me and I found myself jolting to consciousness in the Star Wars Galaxy of all places. Though over the past 26 years, it's been a mixed bag of a blessing and a curse. Most of my family got killed off 12 years ago by marauders and my younger brother vanished into thin air, though my Grandfathers brother made himself available by leaving the Jedi Order to help me. Things were pretty good until seven years ago, when I tried dating in this universe and the woman once again revealed herself to be a narcissistic psycopath, except worse. If it weren't for my best friend being paranoid enough to plant at least one tracker in each of my limbs, and hacking into my Communicator, I'd be dead by now.

After that, I joined the Serrano Naval Forces to get my mind off things and try to figure out a way to change the future. If I had to, I could always just hijack a ship and ram it into Palpatine, no way he had the time or resources to build those cloning facilities until after the Clone Wars. Though I usually just call that Plan F. Plans A-D all give me reasonable chances to live, and even with a Great Uncle as connected as mine I don't exactly have the resources to even get started on Plan E. Not that I'm going to be running it by him until I know whether or not to include him on the kill list.

Though I've kinda grown to care for this version, so maybe the discussions I've had with him over the years will help sway his mind. It'd be better to have the full resources of the Confederacy trying to help fix this blighted mess of a galaxy. Fortunately...

"Greetings, Captain. What do you think of your new ship?"

I turned and saluted Admiral Trench. The Harch returned the salute and walked up next to me. I looked out the window at my new ship and smiled. The Confederacy had always had some interesting designs, in my opinion, and when I was given the chance to modify one for war according to my own specifications I jumped at it. Though I think I ended up going a bit overboard. The new Heavy Dreadnought variant of the Recusant was 3200 meters long, 600 meters wide, and 800 meters tall, around the same size or bigger as a Lantean Aurora. It had a significantly increased armour belt and multiple layers of shielding. Not to mention the shields were a new design that could block both kinetic and energy weapons simultaneously, and you don't need to lower all of them just to fire some of your guns so I won't be able to get Skywalkered, at least not from that angle.
And that was without getting into the guns. Some of the engineers asked me if I was planning to kill Gods with this ship.

And, well... 2 Siege Turbolaser Cannons on the upper prow, 400 Heavy Turbolaser Cannons, 680 Heavy Turbolaser Turrets, 920 Turbolaser Cannons, 1400 Dual Laser Cannons, 1600 Dual Light Laser Cannons, 2000 Point-Defence Laser Cannons, 1200 Concussion Missile Tubes and 1 prow-mounted Anti-Proton Beam Cannon. It's certainly no Death Star beam, but I don't see why I'd need to go and destroy an entire planet anyway. Seems kinda childish. There's also two Hangers holding a total of 488 LACs, a mix of Vultures and Hyenas, along with 112 HMP Gunships. Fortunately, someone listened when I argued for funding for an actual Gunship design. Since it's smaller and faster than the C-9979 Landing Craft we've been using for years it can be used to clear an LZ prior to the arrival of the main forces. The pair of C-9979As aboard my ship were also modified with a total of 24 extra guns, 6 on each wing, and the same enhanced Deflector Shields as the Odyssey.

"I think she'll be a fine addition to the Navy, Admiral. Would you like a tour? We've got everything to be self-sufficient, including internal refineries and foundries to build new Droids, ships, and ammunition on the move."

He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "An interesting proposition, Captain. But I'm afraid I must decline, perhaps another time."

"Captain Boll." I turned to find a Commando Droid standing behind us. He looked up into my eyes and saluted. "Report, Forge." Out of the corner of my eye I saw Trench glance at me for addressing a Droid like that. "Captain, all of our troops, including the new pre-fab bases, have been loaded aboard the Odyssey. We are ready for departure."

I nodded. "Good. Return to the ship and recharge if you need too, if not begin running the troops through more simulations, then stop 6 hours prior to arrival so you can all recharge. I'll be right behind you."

He nodded and turned to go back to the ship. I turned my attention back to the Admiral. "Another time, then. Sir, may I ask how your meeting with Supreme Commander Taan went?"

He nodded. "It went well enough, all you currently need to know is that I agree with her plan, and so does Count Dooku. Your ship will be deploying as part of the 17th Strike Division, which will be serving as an element of the 9th Fleet. My command. We're headed to Christophsis."

Guess it's a good thing I got those new shields. The Republic attacked Geonosis a few days ago, and we're already deploying all 50 Fleets, 50,000 ships per fleet, across the galaxy. I mean, we've been preparing for the possibility of this for years, but I guess it was naive of me to expect the Republic to send a team of Jedi to negotiate for the release of Obi Wan, Anakin Skywalker, and Padme Amidala when they were caught spying on our operations. Instead, they sent an invasion fleet of 2000 Acclimators. The Confederate forces on Geonosis had been caught with their pants down and several high-ranking officials, including what I'm pretty sure was Count Dooku's entire Secret Council of CEOs, were found dead with Blaster or Lightsaber wounds. Parliament, which had been slowly acting more like an actual government body, was already scrambling to ensure we held on to what we could.

"Very good, Sir. It will be an honor to serve under your command." I saluted and turned to return to the Odyssey. Trench went the other way towards his flagship, the Providence Class Dreadnought Invincible.

After around four minutes of walking through corridors and going down a few levels via elevator, I found myself entering one of the docking tubes closest to the Odyssey's bridge. When the elevator doors opened I was met with a Human woman with white skin, green eyes and dark red hair. Despite being 6'2 she still had to look up. She quickly saluted. "Captain."

I returned the salute and walked forward. My First Officer quickly fell into step beside me. "Commander. Forge reported all green on his end before I came over. I assume it's the same on yours?" Allana nodded, the Corellian didn't even flinch at the mention of the Commando Droids name, it wasn't that unusual for a Battle Droid to develop to the point of taking a name at this point. At least not on my ship. Discouraging Memory Wipes and modifying their programming to allow them to actually grow with experience tended to do that. She handed me a datapad and I looked it over as we walked.

"Good. We're heading to Christophsis as part of the 9th Fleet. As soon as we're underway I want everyone to go through a few more drills up to around 8 hours prior to arrival. Forge is going to be running his troops through drills up until 6 hours prior to arrival." Keetru almost stopped in her tracks. "Sir, we've been running everyone through the drills for over six months."

"I want to make sure everyone is as ready as they can be. They'll have 8 hours to rest before arrival." As we entered the bridge I saw the others sitting at their stations. JO-115, John, my Tactical Officer, James Aveer, my Sensor/Communications Officer, and Ru Antrim, my Helm Officer. I sat down in my chair and Allana walked over to stand next to me.

"Lieutenant Antrim, Lieutenant Aveer, request permission from Ringo Vinda Station Control to disembark, then set course to meet up with the 9th Fleet." The Sullustan nodded, his brown eyes turning back to his station as he set a course, while the Human from Naboo got on the line to the Station. As the docking clamps released the blast shutters slid over the windows and holoscreens came on projecting what was on the other side. To the portside of the Odyssey was her sister ship which was painted gunmetal grey, the Daedalus, quite different from my own ships emerald green.

"Captain, I have Captain Talda on the line for you." I looked over at the white skinned, brown haired and golden eyed Lieutenant. "Put her on screen." The holoscreen lit up to show the red-skinned Togrutan Captain of the Daedalus. "Captain Talda, what can I do for you?" In the background I saw her own crew completing final preparations as their own ship was released from the docking clamps.

She smiled. "I was just checking in to say we'll be meeting up with the 5th Fleet to advance towards Mon Calamari. Next time we see each other, I was wondering if you and your First Officer would be willing to meet to compare how these new ships performed in live action?"

I nodded, smirking. "Sounds good, Nesseka. Whoever gets more kills picks up the tab." She laughed as she agreed and closed the channel. Over the next few minutes the two ships diverted away from the Station on course for the 9th and 5th Fleets. The Invincible was around 50 kilometers behind us, and the Odyssey soon slid into the center of the 17th Strike Division, which consisted of over 5000 warships. A mix of Recusants, Munificents, Providences, and even 250 Lucrehulks.

"Sir, we've got a transmission coming in Fleet-Wide from Raxus. Looks like Count Dooku is making his address to the Parliament."

A hologram appeared, and everyone went silent at the sight of the President of the Confederacy.

"It is an honor to stand here before you, for you represent the freedom and the future of our galaxy. The once-great Republic and Jedi Order have become victims of their own ambitions, blind to the Supreme Chancellor manipulating them all to build himself an Empire, for Sheev Palpatine is a Sith Lord. We all know what such beings would do to the galaxy, for we have felt the brunt of their attacks in ages past. And the Jedi are completely blind to him.

As a people you called out for change, you called out for leadership, and I humbly answered that call. Together we challenged the system, we asked for equality, and how were we met? With war! The Jedi have taken command of their army of Clones, and their treachery was far greater than we could have imagined! Countless living beings- these Clones the Jedi created on the order of someone named Lord Tyrannus- have been sent to their deaths while our Droids can upload their minds into any suitable computerbank and then be downloaded into new bodies.

Our soldiers of flesh and blood are willing participants. They are your fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, who fight not because they were grown and designed to do so, but because they know in their hearts that they are fighting for a just and noble cause!"

Cheering overtook the other end, and was suddenly cut off when the image of Count Dooku was replaced with that of Supreme Commander Sev'rence Ta'nn.

"I have given the Admirals their orders, follow their commands and keep to the Yavin Accords, and you'll make it home. Good luck."

The image vanished. "Lieutenant, take us into Hyperspace. We've got work to do."

Chapter 2: Planning

Chapter Text

"We never gave any thought to glory. We fought not because we hated what was in front of us, but because we loved what was behind us." - Supreme Commander Taan, 2 Years After The War Of Republic Aggression.

CISS Eternity, Unknown Location, 2 Days Later

Count Dooku, President of the CIS and former Jedi Master, watched the holotank that dominated the room. On it was a map showing not just the live positions of all 50 Confederate Fleets, but also the relative positions of the 20 Republic Sector Fleets in accordance with the latest intel. His mind momentarily returned to those final days as a Jedi Master before he left the Order, when Palpatine had reached out to him to try to convert him to the Dark Side. Being 12 years younger back then, he'd vehemently and loudly told him where to stuff it. He'd tried to report the Sith to the Council, but they were already too blind to believe him. Must've had something to do with the ancient Dark Side Nexus deep below the Temple, which most Masters rarely left, but Dooku couldn't think of anything except copious amounts of explosives and Force Null Field Generators based on the Ysalamiri that could destroy it.

It had been shortly after he learned about the death of his brother, his sister in law, all 12 of their children and in-laws, and most of their grandchildren. Only one had survived. He wasn't proud of what he'd done in the immediate aftermath, of hunting down the Khaleesh Warlord Qymaen jai Sheelal, the one who had actually done it, and cutting him to pieces. He didn't learn that it had been on the orders of Darth Sidious until later.

He'd used the shame of that act as an excuse for his resignation, and lured Palpatine into a trap. Despite the efforts of himself and one of his few friends, it'd failed. They barely escaped, but his friend died in the process. He'd buried him and then went to find his only surviving relative. The two had had a rough relationship at first, largely due to his own psyche and behaviors still being that of a Jedi Master, but they'd gotten better with time, and now could more easily hold a conversation. When his Grand Nephew suggested the formation of the Confederacy, Dooku had seen where he was coming from. Those conversations, a similar one with his friend before he died, and his own research, not to mention making inquiries with both people in power and several common men and women on the street, had made it clear that both the Republic and Jedi Order had failed.

It had most likely begun falling down the hill when it let corporations have representation in the Senate, then fell right off the cliff when they elected Palpatine in the wake of the Naboo Crisis. And the Jedi Order had been largely useless, especially since they still hadn't been making real efforts to investigate who Darth Maul served. He may have killed Dooku's old friend, Qui Gon Jinn, but he was still clearly the Apprentice, not the Master.

And as such, with no support from the Jedi or Republic, he might as well do it himself. Thus, the Confederacy. While he'd originally needed the support of a secret Council of CEOs to bring all of those people together, now that the Parliament, and the rest of the CIS, were more or less moving under their own inertia their usefulness had come to an end. So he'd either killed the Council himself or sent them into ambushes by Republic troops as they raided Geonosis.

It was unfortunate, and if there'd been any other way he would've gladly taken it, but in this galaxy there were no good options. Once the war was over he'd gladly resign and turn himself in, but that depended on him surviving long enough to do so. Evan might be only barely Force Sensitive, not enough to be a true Jedi, or even to end up in the Agricultural Corp, but he could still help forge the basis for that new Order to replace the Jedi, one that followed a new philosophy. The Jedi had become stagnant, mired in their own traditions and dogma, while the Sith could never truly be successful. The Dark Side was a fickle and unreliable ally, one that would always betray the user in the end.

On the other hand, his Grand Nephew would probably be more inclined to blow him up with that new ship of his. He'd seen the specs of the Eternity, the mobile headquarters of the CAF, and despite it's enormous size he doubted there was anything in the galaxy that could withstand a direct hit from the Odysseys Anti-Proton Cannon.

A Cannon that would soon be tested in battle. His eyes turned to the icon of the 9th Fleet.

"He'll be fine. Despite his young age, you have taught him well. His new ship is very powerful and he has the brains to use it properly."
Dooku looked over to the far side of the Holotank, meeting the eyes of Supreme Commander Tann. It was odd to see a Chiss in this day and age, but he didn't mind it much so long as she did her job. And from all indications the Force Sensitive did it very well. Now if only he could convince her to not delve so deeply into the Dark Side, and maybe consider just plain using the Force itself to hang on to her abilities.

"We have no choice, Mr President. We've tried to argue reason, and they attacked us after sending spies to Geonosis. Spies they sent after the Bounty Hunter we hired to try to uncover more conclusive evidence that Palpatine is Darth Sideous took an offer from Lord Tyrannus to assassinate Padme Amidala then lure the Jedi to both Kamino and Geonosis.

Intel dropped the ball on this one, and there is already an investigation into how we didn't see this coming. We had ships monitoring the Kuat Drive Yards black site where the Acclimators and Venators were being held, not to mention several assets at Kamino, but it still came as a surprise when ships and troops started moving out of the blue.

Now all we can do is deploy the Fleets to try to reinforce and connect Confederacy territories across the galaxy, as well as to launch strikes deeper into Republic space. If the 9th Fleet can hold Christophsis, then we'll deprive the Republic of a significant portion of their crystals, which are used in pretty much everything these days. The 5th will take Mon Cala and the Quarren can retrieve the rest of their ship and weapon designs, then put them to use for the Confederacy Navy, and once the 2nd Fleet under Admiral Murai reinforces Fondor we can put their shipyards to use. The 7th, 6th, and 12th are working to reconnect our territories, and the others are either reinforcing what we already have or conducting deep strikes into Republic Space. We currently outnumber the Republic 6 to 1, but I do not believe we should rely on that as the Core Worlds ramp up for wartime production."

Dooku furrowed his brow as the Supreme Commander pressed some more buttons, causing the map to zoom in on Kuat.

"Yes... as we've discussed previously. That's the point of Operations Bulwark and Cutworm 1: acquire as many new technologies as we can from the different shipyards in several quick lightning strikes while also depriving the Republic of valuable resources and then begin to upgrade our forces. After that we'll switch between holding our borders and advancing while whittling them down in conjunction with Operations Broadsword and Cutworm 2 and 3. But those are still months away. And as a last resort, Admiral Ningo still has the Bulwark Fleet. If needed, they can break out and reinforce us from behind the enemy."

She nodded. "Precisely. But I believe our best bet will be to knock out Kuat Drive Yards and Corellia. While the Corellians are officially neutral, my analysts believe that to be a smokescreen. If we can draw enough of the Republic Fleets to the frontlines, especially as more and more Recusant Class Heavy Dreadnoughts come online in the coming weeks, the Core will eventually be weakened enough for the Bulwark Fleet to break out, raze Kuat to ash, and retreat to Confederacy Space. Admiral Ningo is monitoring the situation from his end, and is ready to execute his side of Operation Cutwork 3 on our signal."

Dooku frowned in thought. "He can't possibly have even 12 of those ships online, can he?"

"Sir, we really only need one Bulwark Class Battlecruiser to make it back to friendly territory. At that point, the Factory Stations and Foundry Worlds can begin mass producing them in the hundreds as escorts. They can also serve as a dedicated Frigate since the current Munificents are still largely unsuited for direct combat. They're good as long range artillery cruisers, but as things are now most officers are liable to treat them as front-line brawlers."

He nodded. "Which is why, despite the heavier armour, the Mark 2s will be dedicated long range strike cruisers. Unfortunately, we have to work with what we have. The Republic still has too many Sector Fleets in the Core for Ningo to survive breaking out. Those Bulwarks are not the Odyssey. How about we send our forces here?"

The two stopped as they were hit by a vision.

Chancellors Office, Coruscant, Same Time

The war was barely a few days old, and yet Chancellor Palpatine, AKA Darth Sideous, still reveled in the chaos it was already causing. Even with Count Dooku's warning, the Jedi were still affected by the Dark Side Nexus beneath their vaunted Temple and as such even Yoda was blind to his presence. Everything was going according to his plan. Count Dooku might've avoided the web the Sith had spun throughout the Republic, and most of the known galaxy, with his little Confederacy, but they had no real chance. They would fall, and his Empire would rise.

Palpatine cackled slightly. He hadn't even needed to suggest the formation of the Confederacy to Count Dooku, he formed it on his own. It was the perfect scapegoat, an outsider for the rabble to fear. Within a matter of months Lord Tyrannus would be clear to proceed with the penultimate stage of the Grand Plan.

Jedi Temple, Coruscant, Same Time
Anakin Skywalker resisted the urge to sigh as he read the message from his mother. She was recovering well enough from her wounds, only surviving thanks to what Anakin had learned of Jedi Force Healing from his girlfriend, Barriss. It was the last message he'd be getting for a while since Republic ships still can't receive transmissions while in Hyperspace, and he'd be in Hyperspace for the next two days en route to Christophsis.
He looked up as a green hand rested on his shoulder, and his eyes met those of the woman who had been his best friend since shortly after arriving at the Temple. She was only a year younger than him, and the two had found they had a lot in common over the years. They'd been dating in secret for a couple months, and had agreed to take it slow.

Neither spoke for a moment, simply reaching out over their Force Bond and melding into each other's presences, allowing their emotions to speak for them. A few meters away, Obi Wan was doing the same with one of his secret wives, Luminara. Though the two missed their other wife, they knew she had her own duties. But they also knew that there was always the chance the war would reach her planet and they would get called in to help.

Anakin shook his head as he stood up, Barriss moving to meld herself into his side. Soon, it'd be time for him to return to the Resolute and for her to return to the Tranquility. He turned to say goodbye when he was hit by a vision.

The Vision

A man in emerald green armour wielding a blaster and a green Lightsaber battled a humanoid with giant horns, weaving and dodging around the being that seemed to shift and change in size like a river yet cracked the ground with every step. It radiated both power and pure evil in equal measure, and tentacles with blades on the end suddenly shot forth at the man.

Republic and Confederate ships burned in space as several Recusant Heavy Dreadnoughts dueled a gargantuan ship which seemed to have emerged from the mind of a madman.

The man appeared again, this time wearing a Confederate Captain's uniform. Ashy blonde hair cut short as always, his greyish-blue eyes shone with anger and rage as he approached the woman before him. Her Republic Captain's uniform was decorated in blood, and she lunged for her blaster.

General 3rd POV
All who had seen the vision paused for a moment. Dooku and Tann had each recognized the man as Captain Evan Boll and the ship as the Odyssey, but the rest had them worried.

Anakin told the others about his vision, and they reported it to the Council before departing for their ships.

Palpatine only really cared about the other figure in the first part. Such power... he knew he had to either subjugate that creature or gain the power for himself.

And on two separate worlds, two ancient and powerful beings, each the avatar of one side of the Force, prepared to once more move the pieces in another round of their eternal, galaxy-wide chess game. But both had forgotten that all games must come to an end.

CISS Odyssey, Hyperspace en route to Christophsis, several days later, 2 hours to arrival

As I read the report on the planned refits to our AAT and LAC complements, which I called the AAT-2 and Vulture Type 3, I gave a small smile. The AAT-2, which was codenamed the Grizzly, was a Droid in it's own right similar to the Vulture, equipped with Deflector Shields, and had four smaller turrets as well as one rear-facing gun. We'd also be fitting Deflector Shields to our Hailfire Artillery Droids and Spider Tanks.

The Vulture Type 3 was the extent of what I believed a Vulture could be when it came to upgrades: Deflector Shields, a couple rear guns, some upgraded fuel cells and power cells allowing it to fly and fight for months on end before returning to the ship, and a small short-range Hyperdrive. A similar refit was planned for the Hyena Type 3.

There was talk of designing a new Variable Fighter, but they hadn't even decided on a name yet, so it'll be a while before we can even begin actually building the thing. Though we had already begun the work of modifying our forces. Once we dropped out of Hyperspace we'd send the designs to the rest of the 17th Strike Division and then across the 9th Fleet.

Given a lot of the work was easily done thanks to the modular nature of most of our designs, we had already completed refits to over 40% of our units. Soon, they'd be going through their first field tests, and the Odyssey would be tested in the fires of war. Hopefully, my skills at shipbuilding were decent enough to survive.

Chapter 3: Battle Of Christophsis

Chapter Text

"I remember just how arrogant we were when the war began, by the time we realized the titan we were going up against, it was too late." - Anonymous Former Republic Captain, 5 Years After The War Of Republic Aggression.

CISS Odyssey, Orbit of Christophsis, Christoph System, Savareen Sector

When the Odyssey dropped out of Hyperspace, it had been to find no real Republic presence in the system. Guess we beat them here. The 9th Fleet spread out through the system to blockade the planet while allowing civilians to evacuate from the regions surrounding the mines. When they were done, we'd send down troops to occupy them. We also had several corridors for civilians to evacuate from any other potential battlezones.
The absence of Republic ships in-system so far had allowed us to be more careful in occupying the planet, though Senator Bail Organa had holed himself up in the main control center for the mines in one of the smaller cities. I don't know why he decided to not evacuate with the rest of the civilians, but that's not my problem. I'm just a Navy Captain. That's for General Whorm Loathsome to deal with, and he was one of the largest supporters for adhering to the Yavin Accords. Kinda surprising since those were written over 1500 years ago, and almost nobody in the modern day has actually read them cover to cover, nevermind heard of them. Then again, that was one of the first things my Great Uncle made sure was required reading when he was first putting the CAF together.

Sergeant Forge has already deployed to the planet with Odysseys ground troops, they were part of the first wave down, so now we just have to sit here in orbit waiting for the Republic forces to show up. Odyssey herself was holding at the center of the 17th Strike Division 2 Million kilometers off the Invincibles' starboard side.

A beeping on the sensor console indicated we had company.

Somewhere on Christophsis

His Master would be pleased. Nobody yet suspected who he really was, and now he had a front row seat to the first engagement between the Republic and Confederacy navies. He held in an evil chuckle and instead gave a look of concern at the monitors.

RSS Resolute, 8 Million kilometers from Christophsis

Anakin felt as much as saw the ship exit Hyperspace. Despite his reservations, the Jedi were supposed to be peacekeepers, not soldiers, he was confident in their victory. From their latest intel while the Separatists had increased their effective weapon range to 50,000 kilometers, his ships had a range of twice that. Once they got within 100,000 kilometers of the Separatist Fleet they could pick them off from outside of their own range, leaving their LACs helpless without cover from the Capitals.

"All ships, this is General Skywalker. Form up on the Resolute, prepare to advance to maximum weapons range. At that point, fire everything you've got."

CISS Odyssey, Same Time

"Sir! We've got 12,000 Acclimator Heavy Transports and 3000 Venator Attack Cruisers dropping out of Hyperspace. Confirming Flag IDs... Two ships, the Resolute under Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and the Skyfury under Jedi General Aayla Secura. Looks like a mix of elements of the Republic's 7th and 12th Fleets."

That's a lot more ships than we were facing in the show. Is Obi Wan going to be showing up with the rest in addition to that stealth ship? Either way, sorry Luke, you're one of my favorite Jedi, but I'm going to have to take the risk of taking you out by killing Anakin before he and Padme can get busy.

"John, bring weapons to full readiness and stand by to launch fighters. What's their position, Aveer?"

He looked again at his console. "Currently regrouping around 8 Million kilometers to our 9 o clock. Looks like some of them drifted out of formation as they were exiting Hyperspace."

The perils of fleet maneuvers in space. "Contact Admiral Trench and request permission to engage the moment they cross into weapons range. Also advise him of the advancements this ship possesses and what that could mean for this engagement."

Admiral Trench quickly appeared in holo. "Captain Boll. I'm looking at the projected analysis, and while I am curious as to how you tripled the range advantage the Confederacy already possessed, not to mention what you've done for kinetic range, you are clear to fire once they enter energy range. But for now, we must follow orders and blockade the planet while our forces assume control, if the situation changes you have my permission to take command of the 9th Fleet and then destroy the Republic. Hold your fire until they reach the standard weapons range for the rest of the Fleet."
"Yes Sir."

Our energy weapons fired at 500,000,000 KPH, so realistically they had a significantly greater range, but that was the most I was currently ready to admit to. Of course, while the rest of the fleet fired their energy weapons at 100,000 KPH they were also still vulnerable to losing cohesion at a certain point, which was around 1 Million kilometers out. Ours was significantly greater, but I'm keeping the true range close to my vest until we can get these upgrades fleet-wide, otherwise I might as well have a literal target painted on the hull since I doubt Odyssey can actually take on the entire combined Republic Navy all at once. That is a potential part of Plan C, but I'm waiting for this ship to be fully upgraded before even considering it.

And of course, our kinetic range was another thing. While most standard Concussion Missile and Torpedo designs were only good up to 500,000 Kilometers away due to the rather abysmal targeting systems so commonly used most modern shipbuilders didn't incorporate them too often. Mostly concerns about ammunition, which I suppose is fair, but that's not a concern thanks to our internal foundries.

Our kinetic range is also significantly greater thanks to our new targeting computers and more advanced sensors. We could reliably hit a moving vessel around 20 Light Minutes away. I'm sure my superior officers such as Trench and Taan have realized this, but like myself are keeping it secret for the sake of operational security.

Basically, once these upgrades are spread across the entire Fleet I don't see the Republic being able to do anything except surrender or run in a naval engagement. Or do something grocking insane like try to drop out of Hyperspace as close as possible by linking the Jedi directly into their Navigational Computers.

It was agonizing waiting, watching, as the enemy ships seemed to creep forward, despite going at max thrust, towards the 1 Million Kilometer line. Finally, the time came.

"Sir, Admiral Trench has signaled to open fire."

"Very well. All forward batteries, fire at will. Launch all wings and have our LACs intercept any hostile fighters headed for us. Odyssey's the biggest thing here so unless told otherwise they'll likely assume the Admiral is aboard."

A rumbling and numerous thumps echoed throughout the hull as the Gravimetric Launchers started flinging both LACs and Missiles into the Void at .5c, which would've given them no room to maneuver and turn in the direction of the enemy before crashing into a friendly if we'd been packed as tightly as the enemy ships were. Fortunately, Confederacy Navy Regulations forbid anything bigger than a Gunship or Dropship flying closer than 20 kilometers outside of an emergency or hard maneuvers. And in space, you had a whole lot more directions to choose.

Outside, the black void of space was suddenly filled with numerous red bolts of energy and the blue drive cones of concussive missiles. Once they reached the halfway point the front half of the missiles split open to release four smaller missiles, then closed again to continue forward with the other four racing to meet them. Suddenly, a wave of 1200 missiles became 6000, and the same was true of each successive wave launched in 5 second intervals.

If Anakin tries that follow-the-leader thing with his missiles, then while I apologize to Han and Mara for depriving them of their spouses, I will have to kill him before he kills me. If there were any other way, I'd take it. But I have no way to know if his Fall to Vader is some messed up destiny or if there's some way to stop it.

The Republic ships, seeing the sheer volume of fire coming at them from the 50,000 Confederate warships, turned as fast as they could. Not that it helped much. For the Anti-Proton Cannon had finished charging 10 seconds after launch, and like the breath of a Dragon a great beam of energy leapt forth from the bow of my ship, piercing into the heart of the Republic Fleet.

What happened was catastrophic. Ships that were simply within 100 kilometers pealed apart and disintegrated, and the Venator in the rear of the fleet crumpled inward as it's entire aft half just exploded, then the rest detonated. A chain reaction occurred across the Republic Fleet tearing whole Squadrons of Fighters and Flotillas of Capitals to shreds. Even from where I was standing, I could still see the flashes in the distance.

The entire system seemed to pause in shock. I realized that I'd more or less just reinvented the Reflex Cannon, one of the most powerful mass-produced ship-mounted guns I can think of in sci-fi. Even as we were still recovering, the rest of the first salvo, along with the second, third, and fourth, continued to slam into the Republic ships.

"What have we done?"

I'm not sure who asked that, but I knew they'd just voiced what we were all thinking.

"Captain, we're getting a transmission from Admiral Trench. He's ordering us to hang back with half the Fleet while the Invincible and her half press them to retreat."

"Understood... charge the Anti-Proton Cannon again... assuming there's anything left to shoot."

"Aye, Sir."

The crew got to work. None of us wanted this war, but we'd damn well finish it.

RSS Resolute, Same Time

Whatever that weapon was, Anakin knew he didn't want to be around when it fired again. They hadn't expected their intel to be so wrong, and the reports he'd seen hadn't even mentioned that... monster. It was like some sort of apex predator from the ancient past. Could that be where the Separatists found the technology? Surely they couldn't have built it themselves. Even as he recovered from the sheer number of quick and violent deaths caused by the weapon Admiral Yularen was issuing orders.

"Hard to starboard! Get us behind the moon! We have to regroup, and..."

The Resolute, which was already damaged from several strikes to her hangers and weapons, not to mention a few hull breaches, shrieked again as fire from the Invincible slammed into it. Admiral Yularen walked toward the forward window. "The Separatist Dreadnought is bearing down on us!"

An Officer gained their attention. "Sir, General Kenobi and the rest of the Fleet have emerged from Hyperspace, and are requesting we rendezvous with them behind the moon."

Anakin coughed as smoke wafted through the air. "Alright, inform all ships to fall back!"

It was slow, too slow for Anakin's liking, but the Resolute managed to make its way out of the Separatist killzone. Behind it, thousands of ships were disabled or destroyed. In the end, only 3000 Venators and 6000 Acclimators, all damaged to some degree, made it to the "safety" of the moon. Not that anyone aboard those ships felt very safe. That monster had torn their fleet to shreds, what prevented it from doing the same to that moon?

A question Anakin raised when meeting with Obi Wan and Aayla Secura, who had an arm in a sling, in the Hangerbay of the Negotiator.

"It doesn't matter how many ships we have. They tore us apart with no losses, or even damage. That monster will kill anything it sees!"

Obi Wan smirked. "Exactly, Anakin. Anything it sees." He knocked twice on the seemingly empty air beside him, and a ship decloaked. "This is the Carrion Spike, a prototype Stealth Ship that should be perfect for this mission. According to our intel, there's only a single organic in command of each of the Separatist Fleets, and the one in command of this particular Fleet is aboard the Dreadnought, not that superweapon.

Our intel is also convinced that there is no way the Separatists have more than one. We use the stealth ship to take out the organic in command, and the Droids in command of the rest will be helpless to resist. Personally, I'm not entirely convinced. But unless you have a better plan..."
Despite the seriously bad feeling Anakin was getting about this, he didn't.

Obi Wan nodded. "Alright, you will lead the team to use this ship in a strike on the Dreadnought and then get those troops and supplies down to Senator Organa. They can setup a Forward Operations Base, and we'll start clearing the skies."

"Good." Eyes shifted to General Secura. "His transmissions were garbled, but from what we could make out the Senator has a couple hundred civilians in there with him, and the Droids are advancing on his position."

They quickly began moving, and Aayla returned to the Skyfury, which would be sitting this one out along with the Resolute, to look after her crew.

CISS Odyssey, Several Minutes Later

I looked over the reports as we waited for the Republic to react. The Anti-Proton Cannon had exceeded all expectations, and to be honest, I was very much afraid of what I'd built. I was expecting something less SDF-1 Reflex Cannon and more Hyperion Yamato Cannon. But it's what I've got so might as well use it. Our missiles and other systems had also performed very well, as did our new Vultures as the few remaining Republic LACs tried to intercept us.

To say it was a massacre would be an understatement. Vultures were already among the most lethal craft in space against Non-Force Sensitives, you add shields and aft cannons and they become outright overkill. But we needed to continue advancing and not become overconfident in our current technology. I've seen several sci-fi factions that suffered the consequences of it.

"Sir, a ship has decloaked and fired on the Invincible!"

My eyes shot up from the report. "Lock on to its magnetic signature and arm tracking torpedoes!"

"The vessel has reengaged its cloak, but we have a lock on the signature. The Invincible's shields are holding at 97%. Tracking torpedoes armed."

"Understood, fire Missiles, full spread."

The Invincible fired a spread at the same time, and we watched as they streaked across space towards a seemingly empty patch of black void.

As they closed in the Stealth Ship decloaked and accelerated towards the Invincible.

"All Laser Batteries, open fire!"

The Stealth Ship continued accelerating until it scrapped paint off the hull of the Providence, as it flew onward the missiles collided with the Invincible.

"Hail the Invincible."

The screen quickly activated, and though he was bloody from several cuts to his face, including a particularly nasty one over his left eye, the Admiral looked to be alive.

"We've got damage all over the ship. Fortunately, I had the blast doors closed when I realized the Jedi was going to lure those missiles into me. I don't know how much longer we'll have communications, so I am giving you command of the fleet. Do as you will, Captain."

I saluted. "Yes, Sir. Have the Belvarus tow the Independence to safety. Everyone else, you heard him. All ships, Tactical Pattern Beta-4 around Christophsis." Trench vanished as his comms lost power, but his life support looked to be fine. "I want the 21st, 16th, 17th, and 212th to follow Odyssey on an intercept course with the enemy, the rest of the Fleet are to assume Tactical Pattern Omega-1."

The crew scrambled to carry out my orders. The Lucrehulk Belvarus moved to aid the Independence as the Fleet began shifting into formation.
Beta-4 is a multi-layer formation shaped like a triangle, with hexagon-like layers expanding outward and forward, with overlapping firing lanes and a single ship in the center. A corner of the layer ahead would interlock between the corner and center of the one behind it, and the layers would expand out in a sort of cone shape.

In the case of the CISN, that means the Odyssey was at the rear of the fleet while the Lucrehulks were arranged behind it due to them being more for carrying large numbers of fighters though they're certainly nothing to sneeze at in a fight, the Munificents, as most of their firepower was meant for long range bombardment, formed the layers around and in front of it, and then came the Providences and Recusants.

Omega-1 is sort of the reverse, still a hexagon arranged around a triangle but in a protective formation. Though in truth, I can't truly use those formations to their full potential as we still don't have all of the ship classes needed to make them work.

Surface Of Christophsis, Republic LZ

"Anakin, do you copy?"

The General keyed his comm. "I'm here, Master. What is it?"

"The Dreadnought appears to have been disabled, and a Battleship is moving to assist. But the Heavy Dreadnought is advancing on our position and the rest of the Separatists have either taken up positions around it or are repositioning around the planet to cover the holes."

Anakin looked up to where Rex was coordinating unloading supplies while Admiral Yularen looked to be arguing with Senator Organa.

"I can have Rex finish unloading supplies, then come back up."

"No, Anakin. By the time you finish we'll be dead or in retreat, you got lucky with Trench and whoever replaced him is in command of a significantly more powerful ship. You'd have no chance against it with just one stealth ship a fraction of its size. Once the battle finishes up here either hold until we arrive or get everyone you can fit in there off of the planet."

Anakin shook his head. "I... alright, Master. Good luck."

Orbit of Christophis's Moon, RSS Negotiator

As he watched the Separatist Fleet approaching Obi Wan tried to find a weakness in their formation. There were some holes to give the Heavy Dreadnought a firing lane, but from the readings of those shields he didn't think even the entire fleet would've been able to breach them, and they were already at less than half strength.

Admiral Killian, his second in command of the Negotiator and its Fleet, spoke up. "General, I suggest we retreat. There's no way we can take that thing on. If we get the scans on it back to Command, someone will be able to find a way. And if we have to, we take every ship we can and drown it in sheer numbers."

Obi Wan nodded. "We should at least give our more damaged ships time to make repairs and escape. Tell the Resolute and the Skyfury to retreat to Republic Space. All other ships that aren't fully combat capable will follow their lead. Everyone else will launch fighters and begin trying to distract them. A ship that size must have a significant turn ratio, and if we can get around it we could turn its size against it. The problem is the number of ships escorting it, the Captain is clearly not an idiot."

They had no other options. Even with the Resolute and Skyfury the Republic needed as many ships as possible, and the more ships survived now the more they could send at it later. As the Negotiator surged forward the Republic ships were already carrying out his orders.

CISS Odyssey, Same Time

So far, so good. Our Vultures were 4 minutes from engaging the Republics Z-Wings, and our Capitals would be engaging theirs in 12 if they held position. Only...

"Sir, the Republic Fleet just split into four groups. One is heading on an outbound course, seems to be made up of their more damaged ships trying to escape to Hyperspace, and one is holding position, including the Negotiator. The other two have split off on two separate vectors."

I looked at the monitors. "The Daedalus exists so they'd get general information on the existence of this ship anyway, and I'm not killing wounded soldiers. That's against my own moral code, against CISN Regulations, and a violation of the Yavin Accords. As for these other two groups, General Kenobi, or whoever is currently in command, most likely thinks to turn our size against us by outflanking us and going for our engines, then picking us apart. The Negotiator is known to be his flagship, so he's using himself as bait."

At least one of the crew chuckled. I looked around, trying to maintain a professional pose. "Well, if this was an average vessel they'd probably be right. I want full broadsides ready to decimate them. Redeploy the Fleet into Tactical Formation Charlie-2. Signal the rest of the ships over this side of Christophsis to launch all missiles at the groups flanking us, and have them hand the control links for said missiles to our Munificents. Prepare our own launches to hit them at the same time."

"Aye, Sir."

Seriously, are the Republics Intelligence Services just nonexistent without Palpatine having a direct line to Dooku or what? Most Confederate Warships are extremely deadly from both the front and sides, not to mention above and below, though some more or less than others. You aren't even completely safe coming at us from behind, we have guns on pretty much every surface and angle we can reasonably fit them on. Seriously, I know it's been less than a week since the war started but come on.

Tactical Formation Charlie--2 was a sort of oval shape meant to protect something valuable such as a convoy of cargo ships or a fleet flagship from this sort of attack. The ship meant to be protected, in this case the Odyssey, was in the center while the Lucrehulks and Munificents surrounded it. Then came the Recusants and Providences on the outer edge. While it did deprive the Odyssey of our Anti-Proton Cannon, which was likely the intention, our broadsides are certainly nothing to sneeze at. The whole fleet seemed to writhe like a living creature as capital ships flipped and burned their engines to take a new position.

The ships on the outermost layer moved to form a bubble around the fleet, meanwhile the Munificents quickly turned to the sides to bring their main guns to bear, using thrusters and inertia to keep going forward. If need be other ships could pull them along with tractor beams, but I doubt this battle will last that long. With 3000 Acclimators and 1000 Venators on each flank, and another 1000 Venators in front of us, this was going to be bloody.
It was a race against time as the Republic ships found they couldn't turn as fast as us so both sides now had to get into position before the other. Even so, some of them drifted into range early and the first shots of this stage were fired by the Long-Range Heavy Bombardment Laser Cannons that made up the primary armament on a Munificents prow.

They were quickly joined by a full salvo of thousands of missiles from the various Recusants and Providences, not to mention Lucrehulks, Odysseys Launchers, and those on the Munificents themselves. The Republic tried to prepare anyway they could, but the Mark 1 Acclimators were primarily Troop Transports and the early war Venators are Carriers that have no business being this close to the battleline without proper support. At least Lucrehulks, not to mention Carrier Variant Providences and Recusants, have Point-Defence Systems for use against fighters. So does everything else, but the point is our Carriers have more anti-fighter weapons.

"Mark the Negotiator for capture, we can get intel from the General and his computers, then open fire with all batteries."

Our broadside batteries opened up, our Laser and Turbolaser fire joining that of the rest of the fleet. With a barrage of missiles coming in on them from both sides at the same time, the Republic ships found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place, especially since they still possessed the old version of deflector and ray shields which could only block one or the other. There were thermal shields, but they had to be lowered to fire and recharged for a significant length of time afterward, which as shown by the fate of the Invincible can be very dangerous in battle.

As I watched the screens I could see both groups scrambling to either shield themselves from one direction or another, or trying to close to their own combat range. The Negotiator was coming about and trying to retreat.

"Sir! It seems some of the Republic ships are aligning themselves for a kamikaze run."

Well, that's... actually not that surprising given how many Venators were lost in the show via ramming.

"Concentrate a couple salvos on those ships, knock them out of the fight. Fire forward missiles at the enemy forces in front of us, even if the Negotiator escapes we can still get the intel from their computer cores."

Thumps rumbled throughout the hull as the Grav-Launchers, which were small Tractor Beam Projectors that pushed an object away from them at high speeds, launched more Missiles.

RSS Negotiator, Same Time

"Sir, we need to retreat, now! That BattleFortress is bearing down on us!"

Admiral Killian walked forward and spoke significantly more calmly than the Officer had. "All remaining vessels from the first assault have jumped to Hyperspace, only our ships remain."

Obi Wan nodded. BattleFortress seemed like an apt name for it. He could feel in the Force that he had no chance, and his instincts were saying the same. "All ships, fall back if you can."

The Negotiator's engines thrummed as they did their best to steer the ship back the way it came. As it did, the Separatist fire came ever closer. The RSS Light Of The Republic threw itself in the way to intercept the fire with her own hull, tearing the ship apart. But her sacrifice gave the Negotiator time to jump into Hyperspace.

Republic Landing Zone, Same Time

Over the next several minutes, the Republic forces, which hadn't fought against a well-trained force for over 1000 years, either died in futile attempts to ram the Separatist BattleFortress, escaped into Hyperspace, or died where they were. And all the Republic forces on Christophsis could do was watch. They'd gotten the mining facility's shields up and begun bunkering down, but knew they couldn't hold out for long. They'd been sent to rescue both the civilians and the Senator, but the former had seemingly disappeared into thin air. It was like they'd never existed.

Something that gnawed at Anakin's mind as he escorted Senator Organa to the Carrion Spike. Rex quickly ran over.

"General, we've got over 120,000 clankers, and around 80,000 organic troops, coming at us!"

Anakin paused in shock. Their intel had said the Separatist armies were almost entirely comprised of Droids, with next to no organic beings in them. It was one of the few things that had made the prospect of fighting more palatable for most of the Jedi, though some such as Anakin, Obi Wan, Barriss, and Luminara still had their objections. Even so, they had a job to do.

"It gets worse." Anakin turned to find Yularen had walked out of the Spike. "The Separatist Heavy Dreadnought has changed course. It'll be ready to fire on us in 20 minutes."

"Rex, with the fleet gone we can't hold out here. Get everyone onto the Carrion Spike. We're leaving."

Confederacy FOB, Strike Group Alpha, 18 minutes later

The Odyssey only carried 30,000 Droids and 20,000 Organics for ground troops, she was primarily meant for naval engagements. The entirety of this force had been sent to Christophsis. Thanks to extensive automation, there were only 20,000 Organics and Droids making up the actual crew of the ship itself.

Lieutenant Colonel Forge had to admit that, despite being a Commando Droid, he was proud of how his forces were so far faring in their first live fire engagement. The Republic may have lacked the ability to break through their blockade and place artillery and other heavy weapons, but even so there were a pair of defence guns on either side of the mining complex that would've proved a challenge for them without their upgrades. As it was, the AATs just extended their shields to cover everything else, with the HPMs landing to do the same.

"All units, open fire, bring that shield down. If we can keep them bottled up until the Odyssey arrives, they will be forced to either surrender or die."

Those shields were designed to withstand the fire from a small pirate cruiser less than a few hundred meters long, not a Heavy Dreadnought over 3 kilometers long. They wouldn't last more than a couple shots from the Siege Cannons. Which, Forge noted as the AATs and Hailfires opened up, was probably what it would take.

"Cease fire. We can wait."

CISS Odyssey, Christophsis Orbit

As the Odyssey slid into orbit a zoomed-in image of the Republic LZ came up on the screen. Allana glanced over at the Captain, who's face had taken an emotionless mask. But she knew him well enough to know he was already tired. She'd watched him practice that look in their mirror for months back in the Academy.

"Sir, the Cannons are charged and ready to fire."

His eyes locked onto the image of the planet below, while Allana's stayed locked on him. "Fire."

Beneath her feet two massive thumps shook the deck. Her eyes shifted forward to see a pair of giant, orange bolts of energy shoot from the twin Siege Cannons on either side below the bridge. A second pair at a lower setting released two shots that would be guaranteed to destroy the Shield Generators while leaving their own forces intact if they accidentally blew up the entire complex.

While the first pair did their job perfectly, the second proved to be a little overkill. Despite being at the lowest setting, it looked like they'd hit with a yield equivalent to around 500 Kilotons. Good thing they'd kept their forces on the outermost edge of their range, another 80 meters and even their shields wouldn't have been able to help them. Before they could acquire them the defense cannons were reduced to slag by their ground forces.

"Sir, transmission from the surface. A vessel lifted off and cloaked right as the shields went down. Our forces are moving in to secure the area. Admiral Trench has made it off the Invincible and is temporarily taking command of the Belvarus."

Around 20 minutes later, despite their search pattern, they still detected it when the Stealth Ship decloaked and jumped into Hyperspace.

Allana returned her eyes to her superior officer, one of her three best friends, and the only man she'd ever felt more than friendship for. Not that she'd admitted it to him. Seeing the look on her face he nodded.

"All hands stand down. Have any ships not retrieving survivors return to secure Christophsis, and take Odyssey down so we can retrieve our troops. Also, send a report to the Admiral."

The Odyssey entered the atmosphere to begin cleanup, extending her landing struts and ventral entryway to allow her troops to board their ship.

CISS Odyssey, Officer Quarters, Several Hours Later

The Odyssey had returned to orbit and was waiting for an update from Admiral Trench.

As Allana and the Captain got off shift they returned to their respective quarters, which were next door to each other. After the day they'd had, well, if Allana was so inclined she might've invited him to her place for the night. But it would be against regulations, and she and her best friends also had a plan for the Captain after the war. They needed him alive and in the right state of mind, and if that meant she had to talk it out when he needed it instead of the alternative, then so be it.

Chapter 4: Aggressive Negotiations

Chapter Text

"I won't deny that we made mistakes during the War, but we needed to secure any advantage we could get. - Senator Mina Bonteri, 2 Years Post War Of Republic Aggression.

RSS Tranquility, Orbit Of Tatooine, 6 Hours After The Battle Of Christophsis

Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee sighed as the Venator herself and her Master commanded dropped out of Hyperspace. Beside it were two Arquitens and 4 CR-90s.

"Master, is it wise to be negotiating with the Hutts?"

Luminara snorted. "Probably not. But we have our orders. The Hutts control several large expanses of space and if we can secure passage through them we can bypass the Separatists and send ships to our territories on the far side of them."

"General, a Separatist Dreadnought just exited Hyperspace. It's taking up position just outside weapons range. 4 Frigates and a pair of Destroyers just joined up with it. They aren't launching fighters nor raised their shields."

"Hold fire, this is neutral territory. I suppose we knew going in the Hutts would probably be negotiating with both sides."

CISS Light Of Dawn, Same Time

Captain Asajj Ventress sighed and steeled herself as her Dreadnought Variant Providence finally exited Hyperspace. She didn't really want to negotiate with a pile of slaver scum like Jabba The Hutt, but she had her orders and the less routes of travel the Republic had the less angles they had to ambush the Confederacy. Almost nobody knew the Outer Rim Hyper-Routes better than they did.

"Captain, the rest of Battle Group Lonktar has exited Hyperspace. We are detecting a single Venator Class Carrier, 2 Arquitens Class Cruisers, and 4 CR-90 Class Corvettes in orbit. Terminov readings indicate they arrived mere moments before we did."

Ventress suppressed a snort as she sensed the mild panic aboard the Republic ships. Terminov radiation was always left behind in some capacity after a ship exited Hyperspace, and lingered for up to 48 standard hours before becoming undetectable to most sensors.

"Keep our shields lowered, do not fire unless they fire first. We are here to negotiate with the Hutts, and as such this is technically neutral territory. Ready my shuttle for transport to the surface, and a full squadron of Vultures as escort."

She wished she had some of those Mark 2s she'd seen Captain Boll and the Odyssey using, but that design was still days away from entering full production. So she'd make do with what she had.

A few minutes later a Sheathipede Class Transport exited the Dawn along with 12 Vultures, vectoring towards the ball of rock and sand below them. Within was Ventress along with 6 Magna Guards and a Twi'Lek Mercenary named Jiya Karik.

The Twi'Lek had an odd color pattern for her species, being emerald green with a bright red pattern in seemingly random places, mostly around her lekku. There were rumors about her and Captain Boll, but given there were just as many rumors about him and either his First Officer or Captain Talda, she didn't put much stock in them.

The Mercenary was wearing a full-body armored suit, including a helmet which even covered her lekku, with several grenades, knives, and Blasters strapped to it. Not to mention the Blaster Rifle she was carrying in both hands. It didn't look like any model she'd ever seen, being rather boxy yet elegant in design.

"Looks like the Republic have sent their own negotiating party."

On the monitor she could see a Republic LAAT escorted by a squadron of Z-Wings. The latter was a rather... decent design, she'd admit. But she'd seen the concepts Captain Boll and his crew had been putting before the Engineers over the years, and she was far more impressed with the design of the LAAT. It could easily be refined and upgraded, for instance you could fit the same amount of troops while still shrinking the actual compartment, allowing you to have an airlock at the back. Not to mention numerous other improvements.

If she somehow got her hands on one, she'd love to test her modified version against the stock variant the Republic used. A thought she put to the back of her mind as the Sheathipede landed and the occupants walked out.

Jabba's Palace, Tatooine

As they stood in front of the oversized slug Luminara surreptitiously glanced around the room. There were a lot of bounty hunters and mercenaries, though the dozen Clones they'd brought with them in addition to herself and Barriss could probably take them. Or at least stall long enough for reinforcements to arrive from orbit.

The wild card here was the Separatists. 6 Magna Guards would be a challenge for almost anyone, not to mention Ventress had been a Padawan before leaving the Order, and she wouldn't be surprised if Dooku had made sure she kept up with her training. But like her husband had observed of Dooku on Geonosis, Ventress didn't show any sign of using the Dark Side. If she didn't know better she'd think she was standing near any other Jedi.

And that just set off even more alarms in her head. It made her grateful she kept her suit of armour hidden under her robes at all times just like Obi Wan did his. Before her train of thought could continue the black and white protocol Droid next to Jabba began speaking.

"His Eminence is grateful neither of you have started shooting at each other, but in exchange for the right to move your ships through Hutt territory he wishes for you to find his son, who's been kidnapped by a Bounty Hunter named Caij Vanda."

"We'll find her."

3rd POV

As both parties left to return to their dropships, everyone was trying to think of who would be crazy enough to hire someone to kidnap Jabba The Hutt's son. The only answer anyone could come up with was another Hutt. The question was, which one?

A question which took Luminara and Barriss, with the Clones on the LAAT waiting in orbit if they needed backup, to a cantina in Mos Eisley. If anyone knew where to begin looking for a Bounty Hunter like Vanda, then that was a good place to start. Several of the crew were also making inquiries with Republic Intelligence about her.

Meanwhile, Ventress was making requests from Confederacy Intelligence, and Jiya was making inquiries to her own network of contacts. Several hours later, they had narrowed it down to a potential location on Teth, and Jiya took her YV-929 Armed Freighter, the Emerald Lance, to the planet directly to check it out while Ventress took the battlegroup to the outskirts of the Teth system to wait for confirmation.

Several minutes later, the Republic ships also left orbit, but directly for Teth. Both sides knew they had to reach the Huttlet before the other, or Jabba would give them the right to move through Hutt Space.

Emerald Lance, Hyperspace, En Route to the Teth System

As she settled in for the 6 hour trip Jiya wondered how Allana, Evan, and Nesseka were doing. Though she'd been a Mercenary for over 11 years, since she'd registered as one as soon as she could when she turned 18, she sometimes wondered if it had been the right thing to do. Her parents had been victims of the corporations and the Core cracking down on the colony they'd lived on for more resources, and now was the chance for revenge.

But she also had her friends, who might be something more if they had the chance, and if she wanted to make sure they survived, maybe she should just take the leap and join the CISN full time. While they were all more than capable of taking care of themselves, she still worried. There hadn't been a galaxy-wide war in over 1000 years, the people of the Outer Rim were used to conflict but who knows how the people of the Core would react. If they weren't careful their enemies could start lashing out at anything that moves in a blind frenzy like wild animals.

She'd think about it later. Right now, she had to get to Caij Vanda and find out who she was working for. While she'd heard about the Nautolan, she'd thought the woman had preferred to work for Sorc Tormo and the Haxion Brood. They preferred to stick to the gambling and drug smuggling parts of the galaxy's criminal underworld, kidnapping and slavery were more for the Hutts, whom even the Brood should be smart enough to avoid provoking without a good reason.

RSS Tranquility, Hyperspace, Around The Same Time, 2 Hours Behind Battle Group Lonktar

Barriss sighed as she settled into her quarters to meditate. As she did she wondered how Ahsoka and Tallisibeth were doing. As she and Anakin were growing up they'd ended up taking the two under their wing. Both of them were like younger sisters to Anakin and Barriss, and Obi Wan and Luminara had allowed it. It was technically against the Jedi Code, but you could make the same argument for simply having friends or a Padawan if you wanted to go that far.

She hadn't heard from Anakin since Coruscant, and with the extreme distance their Force Bond was only useful in figuring out a general vector. Still, she knew he could take care of himself. Master Luminara had requested reinforcements, but she didn't know if Master Plo Koon would be able to arrive in time. Republic Intelligence was scrambling for information, and what little bits and pieces they could get were confused and disjointed. Even with FTL Communications it would take weeks or months to get anything concrete.

But that was part of the realities of war, one they would have to find a way to live with.

Emerald Lance, Orbit Of Teth

As her ship emerged from Hyperspace Jiya immediately set her sensors to maximum. She was quickly able to determine that one of the old monasteries, which had been largely abandoned when the monks left the planet almost a century ago, had been taken over by someone and was being used as a base of operations. She detected multiple Anti-Orbital Laser Cannons, enough Mercenaries to conquer a planet, and what looked like a pair of Argelius-4C Shield Generators.

That was the weird part. Nobody had used that particular model of Generator in over 2300 years since the shield it projected had proven extraordinarily vulnerable to Plasma weapons. While they had made a comeback at the time once word of the vulnerability spread, after 250 years people went back to TurboLasers, which primarily relied on Tibanna Gas, after they stopped production. Even so, she didn't have any Plasma weapons on her ship, and it would take too long for her to break through by herself.

She prepared a report to send to the Dawn as soon as it entered the system, and was then hailed by someone on the planet. When the projection showed up on her monitor, she was surprised to see it was Caij Vanda herself.

"Well, this is interesting. We don't get many visitors out here. You a Mercenary, Bounty Hunter, or just a traveler?"

"Greetings. I am Jiya Karik, a Mercenary who decided to make a random jump looking for anything interesting or maybe even a way to make some fast credits."

The Nautolan smiled. "Well, then I guess this is your lucky day. I work for someone who's been offering some big money to protect something here, and while he's hired hundreds of other mercs he still wants more here. Come on down and I'm sure we can find you a spot."

Jiya grinned. "Heading down." She was really glad she had multiple IFFs for different jobs and regions of the galaxy.

As she approached she noticed that the compound seemed to be separated into two parts, with the shield generators projecting two separate layers, one over the entire compound and the other over the inner section. There was a small landing pad there, and most of the guns didn't look like they could actually target anything on it. If she got the timing right, she could blow it up remotely and have her ship on that pad before the inner shield could be raised.

Of course, that depended on the Huttling actually being in there. As her ship landed Jiya had already gone over at least a dozen separate exit plans, each, depending on if the Huttling was present or not. She turned to her Droid companion, a modified BD unit with emerald green primary and blood red secondary, E-9.

"While I'm heading in, you sneak around out here and prep some distractions for our way out. Concentrate on those shield generators, see if you can't plant some charges on at least one of them for remote detonation."

He beeped several times in affirmation. When she walked out she was met by a Mercenary she recognized, and if it weren't for her mission she would've shot her on sight.

"Encarla Bincovi. Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Her one-time best friend smirked, not even attempting to draw one of her own Blasters. "Better luck next time." She then turned around halfway, and gestured in the direction of the inner part of the compound.

Jiya decided to start with the... pleasantries, since they were apparently leaving the business part for later. She was already reconsidering just shooting her way in instead of talking. But at the same time, that might endanger the Huttling and most likely make finding him even harder.

As they walked in she looked around. There were around 24 ships of various make and design scattered around the cliffs this monastery had been built into, and her sensors had detected at least 12 more on the far side, not to mention the rather large internal docking bay. Well, large for a place like this. The Lance would probably take up most of it, but you could certainly store several one-man craft in there. Of course, that was without mentioning all the mercenaries.

There were at least a couple hundred Mercenaries and Bounty Hunters wandering around out here alone. She didn't even want to think about how many more could be inside, not with her having to get a baby out of this place alive. Sure, a Hutt, but she couldn't judge him just because his father was one of the worst slavers alive.

Jiya refocused herself on walking into the metaphorical Rancor pit. And now that she's thought that, they might literally have a Rancor in there somewhere. Kriff. Despite the urge to physically slap herself upside the head, she instead followed her one-time friend.

CISS Daedalus, Orbit Of Mon Cala, Mon Calamari System, Several Minutes Later

As Captain Nesseka Talda looked over the report, her thoughts turned to the planet below. To say it was complicated would be a severe understatement. Despite it being named for the Mon Calamari, the Quarren had also evolved on the planet, which they knew as Dac. But instead of working with them, the Mon Calamari had become the face of the planet with their MC-Series Luxury Star Cruisers, while the Quarren had been all but exiled from their own homeworld.

Honestly, she was curious about what they could've done if they had worked together. Admiral Merai was quite willing to fight his own people here, but he was with the 11th Fleet reinforcing Fondor and as such it was another Mon Calamari, Admiral Rakku, who was leading this effort. They'd attempted to argue reason and bring a peaceful solution, but King Yos Kalina had been taken hostage by violent elements of his own court and now it was looking like a rescue operation.

As such, the Quarren had been forced to work with the loyalists. Not that she could really do much about it, her specialty was naval combat, not rescuing hostages. She just wished the Republic ships currently dropping out of Hyperspace would respect the delicate situation brewing below.

CISS Light Of Dawn, Outer Edges Of The Teth System, Same Time

As the Battle Group emerged from Hyperspace Ventress took a look at her sensors after reading the message from Jiya. "Set course for the second of Teths Moons, we'll use the gravity well to slingshot around and come at the Republic too fast for them to react."

"Captain, it'll take some time for us to intercept if we slingshot. Not to mention, how do you plan to slow down so we don't slam into the planet?"

Ventress gave the man an odd look. "Lieutenant, we're in space. Flip around and use the main engines to slow us down. Besides, they can soften up the defenders for us."

"Ma'am, I don't think they have anything that can penetrate that shield."

"They don't need to. That particular shield design is vulnerable to pure Plasma weapons. Coravis, aren't we testing some Plasma-based Rhinos?"

Her First Officer frowned. "Yes, Ma'am. We have 6 in storage, but I recommend we try to secure the area before deploying them."

She nodded. "Indeed, Commander. After we get that shield down the Lance will have a clear path to retreat. Once she jumps to Hyperspace, I want us to follow. Unless the situation changes then sitting around just to blow up or capture Republic survivors is not in the cards today."

Several minutes later they settled into position behind the moon, and now all they had to do was wait. Returning to her quarters, Ventress took out her DDC-MR6 and started cleaning it prior to meditating, simply because it helped calm her. She wished she could've brought a full division, but they were short on time and showing up to Tatooine with one would've sent the wrong message.

Monastery On Teth, Same Time

Chapter 5: Sidestory #1: Flashback To The Rejection Of Power

Chapter Text

Outside Ancient Temple, Jedha, 12 years ago

Senator Palpatine coughed as the doors of his personal shuttle opened to admit him out to the deserts of Jedha. He had no idea why Master Dooku had asked for him to meet here. There were many places just as far from prying eyes that would've been significantly more accessible, not to mention less dusty. He could sense Dooku within, but it was shrouded, like trying to look into a mirror that had been shattered into a million pieces. He also couldn't shake the feeling that there was something off.

No matter, he would either convince Dooku to take the name Darth Tyrannus or kill him. If he escaped, well, no one consequential on Coruscant would believe him thanks to the Dark Side Nexus under the Jedi Temple, and nobody beyond it mattered in the long run.

Nearby, a camera watched the Sith Lord enter the Temple, and a man within knew the trap was set. Now to spring it. "Are you sure about this, old friend?"

"Yes. Bring the Generators near my position to 100% and be ready to detonate the explosives."

Ixym Lonu, a Mercenary who had worked together with Dooku for many years, pressed several buttons on the interface in his cybernetic left arm.

As the Generators built up to full power Jedi Master Dooku thought about what had brought him to this place and time. Shortly after becoming a Knight he had tracked down his family on Serenno and reestablished ties with them. They had kept in contact for many years until last month when they were killed during an attack by a Kaleesh Warband, killing almost everyone.

He'd hunted down the Warband and destroyed them, then cut their leader to bloody pieces. A few days afterward, Darth Sidious contacted him to try to convince him to join the Dark Side. The timing of which he found to be very suspicious.

He was still waiting for an answer. Now, he'd get one. Dooku had contact Lonu, an old friend of his from Mandalore who wandered around as a Mercenary, and the two had set a trap for Palpatine. It was fortunate that the man had been running a side project for years in studying the creature known as the Ysalamiri, native to Myrkr. With Dookus help a prototype was constructed, and as Palpatine drew closer the Generator built up to full charge.

Palpatine eventually walked into the Main Hall of the Temple and looked around. The Temple was ancient and didn't look like it'd been inhabited in many millennia. And Count Dooku himself was standing on the far side of the room. "Greetings, Count. I assume you accept my offer?"

Dooku finally outright glared at the Sith. "No. I am a Jedi Master. My duty is to the people of this galaxy, to protect the innocent. I do not know by what means you have hidden yourself from the Council, but you are not invincible. You are an insane, demented, senile old man if you think I would ever join you. I should have you either blood eagled or straight up hung by your rotten entrails. You murdered my family, didn't you?" His blue Lightsaber lit up.

Palpatine raised his hands in a calming gesture, not that it worked. "Now why would you think that? Will you not reconsider? Together we can rule the galaxy, bending trillions to our will."

Dooku growled, letting his emotions out slightly. "Never."

The Sith Lord tried to Force Push the Jedi into a pillar, but found the Force had retreated to just out of his reach. Dooku charged and Palpatine dodged, his red blade deflecting Dooku's blue. On a ledge above them leading up the hole in the ceiling was Lonu, who was taking aim with his blaster when a dot on his motion tracker made him spin around, then dodge a second red lightsaber.

He quickly engaged the Sith Acolyte, holding his own for a time before using his flamethrower to set the Sith on fire. Her screams echoed as she died, and he turned his attention back to the fight below when two more Acolytes entered the Temple.

Dooku looked up and saw the Acolytes, knowing the odds were quickly turning against them. As he continued to fight Palpatine he knew that despite being the best duelist in the Jedi Order he had clearly underestimated the Sith Lord. "Ixym! We need to get out of here! Blow the charges!"

The Mandalorian used his jetpack to get down to the ground floor, and as the two retreated back to the entrance he detonated the charges attached to the columns keeping the Temple together. Without them, the structure quickly began collapsing inwards, killing both of the Acolytes.

Unfortunately, they found themselves trapped in an alcove just off the entrance as it collapsed.

"Ixym, blow the Generators. I can use the Force to try and make us a path. There's no way he got as lucky as we did."

The Mandalorian nodded and pressed a series of buttons. The Prototypes were highly unstable and the current design operated in a state of barely controlled overload. As the designer it was simple enough to place emergency protocols to detonate the devices in an emergency. Despite the collapse of the Temple, the Generators were still intact enough for those commands to go through.

Outside, things were relatively calm. Then the ruins of the Temple which had formerly stood for over 14,000 years exploded outward. Dooku had used much of his strength redirecting the rubble and debris around them, though both of them were still knocked unconscious, but most of it still landed harmlessly. Dooku awoke a few minutes later to see their ship coming in for landing, and when he tried to get up found a shard of metal had impaled him through the chest.

Even Lonu wasn't unscathed, for despite their efforts a piece of rubble had crushed one of his legs, and he also had several pieces of shrapnel throughout his body. Dooku took a Stim for the pain, gave Ixym one, and tried to remove the shrapnel in his chest, hoping his admittedly basic skills in Force Healing would be enough for both of them, but then the rubble shifted behind them. His eyes widened with horror as he could still feel the Sith Lord. He'd survived.

Ixym looked over at his friend. "It's been a good ride, brother."

Dooku helped him stand up on his other leg and started walking out. "Stow that talk, old buddy. We're both getting out of here alive. You got a wife and kids to worry about."

"Ami's a grown woman, Bolim has a wife of his own now, and Sha'na has always known this was a possibility. It's part of being Mandalorian. Even the Force can't heal me now, I can feel it, shrapnel's too deep."

Dooku paused. He didn't want to admit it but Ixym was right. He could feel the Sith Lord getting closer, and Ixym was now beyond even the skills of the greatest Jedi Healers. "Then save me a spot at the bar, old friend."

As the two reached their ship, a Kom'rk-class fighter/transport, Dooku led his friend inside and began the automated launch sequence, closing the bay door behind them. As the ship lifted off Palpatine made his way out of the Temple and laughed, deciding not to continue pursuit. If Dooku raised an army to fight him, all the better. They would be the perfect boogeyman to create fear and refashion the Republic into an Empire.

On the ship, the Blood Hunter, Dooku initiated the Jump into Hyperspace on course for Mandalore, then went back to check on Ixym. "We made it buddy. I'll get you back to your family."

Despite the helmet, Dooku still felt it when Ixym locked eyes with him. "He must be stopped. If we cannot do it alone, then you need an army. The Republic has already all but fallen if a Sith Lord managed to get into the Senate. We need a new organization, a new coalition of worlds willing to stand against it and fight for freedom."

Dooku closed his eyes, and nodded. "Your sacrifice will not be in vain, brother. Palpatine will die for this. It might take years, or decades, but you will be avenged."

Chapter 6: Chapter 4: Meetings

Chapter Text

"Some people are just monsters hiding under a thin veil of civility." - Anonymous Citizen In Regards To The Republic Senate.

Coruscant, Senate Chambers, 4 Days After The Battle Of Christophsis

The Jedi Padawan Kuvila Waree, a 17 year old Zeltron, watched from beside her Master as the Senate continued to be consumed by yelling and chaos. The fleets sent to push back the Separatists had returned broken, shattered into a million pieces. The 7th, 9th, and 12th Fleets were all but gone thanks to that Super Dreadnought at Christophsis, and while the 1st-5th Fleets, along with the 16th-20th were all mostly intact due to being held back in the Core, the rest were at least half operational. Generals Skywalker, Kenobi, Secura, and Unduli had been in constant meetings with the Council since returning, and their Admirals were currently attending this Senate meeting. Many agreed that a new plan was needed. Something Senator Riyo Chuchi was the first to point out.

"We simply cannot afford to keep taking losses like this! There are only 2 Million Clones in the entire galaxy, that's enough to crew 270.2 Venators or 2857.14 Acclimators. We had a fleet of 600,000 when this began! Most of those losses were from the general populace of this galaxy! I know most of you consider the Clones to be little more than property, which honestly seems a little insane and very stupid to me, but it will still take months for more Clones to be ready even with an accelerated growth rate. The Separatists can build millions of Droids in a matter of days!"

"While I agree with the gist of what my Pantoran counterpart is saying, I already have a solution." Eyes shifted toward Senator Amidala. The former Queen of Naboo pressed several buttons and the image of a blue sphere filled with gas filled the room. "My government has spent years reviving and perfecting the Blue Shadow Virus. It is now airborne, highly persistent, significantly more virulent, and causes extreme agony as the infected dies. If we deploy it on any of the more densely populated worlds under Separatist control, they will be too afraid to continue fighting as it spreads."

"And what of the Droids? The Foundry Worlds?" That was Senator Nee Alavar, Kuvila noted.

"They'll be dealt with by our new Electro-Proton Bombs. They'll disable the Droids while leaving the machinery and technology intact. As for the organic residents, we can always get more. We have thousands of planets with populations in the trillions, they only have half a dozen worlds with similar numbers. As such, if you object to this enhanced version of the Blue Shadow we have also recreated or developed several other new weapons, ready for immediate deployment." That was from Senator Organa. Kuvila remembered from Knight Skywalkers report that he'd claimed to be hiding with civilians but they'd vanished as if they'd never existed before the Republic arrived. Something which kept gnawing at her.

Amidala nodded. "Indeed. And if that's insufficient, we have several other options..."

As she spoke, Admiral Yularen eventually butted in. "That's all well and good, but useless if our ships can't even get in close enough to deploy them. Unless you suggest using Capital Ships as giant suicide bombers then we need stronger vessels. In the few cases our ships actually got close enough to shoot back we rarely did any real damage, nevermind destroyed them."

"That is due to the failures of our Intelligence branch and the failures of not just yourself but also the other Admirals in the field by listening to the Jedi!" Eyes shifted again towards Armenius Kuat, Senator for Kuat Drive Yards. "The Venator and Arquitens are both excellent designs, built on what our intelligence said the Separatists had. We are already working on refits which will increase the strength of both ship classes, and already have several new ship classes in the works which should be able to level the playing field at least a bit. In addition, we have also developed more advanced sensors which should allow us to send a smaller force in ahead of larger fleets, get a read on enemy positions, and then jump the rest of the fleet into point blank range."

He pressed a few buttons, and projections appeared showing schematics for three new warships. One partially reminded Kuvila of a much larger version of a Sith Harrower she'd seen in the Archives, another looked like a flying wedge, and the third was more of a giant delta with the twin bridges placed more amidships. "In conjunction with several other companies, our new Dominatus, Tector, and Secutor Class Star Destroyers should be able to turn the tide. Especially against those BattleFortresses the Separatists have deployed."

"And how long will it take to deploy them?" That was Armand Isard, head of Republic Intelligence. "We are now hearing rumours that the Separatists have dozens of these ships being constructed in some secret facility known as Bolthole. We are already having trouble with two of them, and have yet to find any real weaknesses. How do you expect a mere fleet of Venators, no matter how powerful, to survive a point blank engagement with dozens of these things?"

"Every ship is vulnerable to sufficiently overwhelming numbers. If we can hold out long enough, the entirety of the Core alone has the industry capacity to build ships in such numbers we will blot out the sky of every Separatist world. Most of these new ships will take up to four months to build in any real numbers, but in conjunction with Rendili, we have recently developed a new Star Destroyer known as the Victory."

He pressed a few more buttons and a third vessel appeared. It bore a resemblance to the Tector, but had a section on the port and starboard aft that appeared to lift up. "The Victory is equipped with a number of missile launchers. We can build 12,000 within three months, and if the design works out it should be able to level the playing field against the frankly obscene numbers of missiles the Separatists so love to send at us. Unfortunately, we still haven't figured out how they fit a full four more missiles into one, so even if all of our ships had Concussion Missile Launchers we would only be able to fire a quarter of the amount coming at us."

"Another matter we should be concerned with is that we had no indication of the existence of these BattleFortresses. How do you explain that, Director?"

Isard looked Senator Mothma in the eyes. "The Separatists are using a new, more advanced form of Subspace Communications which use poly-phasic entangled waveforms. Even with all of the resources and the combined computing power of the entire Core, cracking a single codeset would take half a century with our current technology. The task is even more difficult because they use multiple different sets for civilian, military, high-level military, intelligence, and political communiques. We're working on acquiring their decryption algorithms, but it will take time. Currently, the Separatists are securing beachheads deep in Republic Territory and reconnecting the various worlds which have broken away.

We have seen no indication that they plan for their main fleets to advance further. Though the disappearance of over 80% of our supply convoys and attacks on supply depots and military shipyards deep behind the lines indicates they have units operating within our territory. We are working to hunt down and destroy these units, Admiral Richard Filareta is coordinating those efforts."

Mon Mothma nodded, though something in her eyes made Kuvila feel like reaching for her Lightsaber. "There is another option. If growing new or conscripting and training soldiers will take too long, then we should fight them Droid to Droid."

She pressed a few buttons, and the schematics of warships were replaced by a Battle Droid which looked like nothing Kuvila had ever seen.

As she continued to listen to the words of the Senators, Kuvila couldn't shake the feeling that she was on the wrong side, while her Master, Velros Jast'Ur, seemed impassionate as most of the Senate appeared to agree with this... this... she had to get out of here. But maybe she still had other options. Someone had to warn the Council before it was too late. Surely they'd get the Senate to see reason.

Jedi Temple, Council Chambers, Same Time

"Master Luminara did everything she could. But she was outmatched just like we were!"

As Obi Wan continued to argue his case to the Council, Luminara thanked the Force her husband had left his Blaster in his quarters. While he was normally quite willing to live up to his nickname of The Negotiator, he was still technically a Mandalorian, and in the right conditions his heritage can win over his Jedi training. Though few would admit to the fact Stewjon was a Mandalorian Colony due to how long most of the inhabitants had been keeping themselves separate from the rest of their people, it still existed.

While some of the Masters were blaming her for their defeat, others such as Obi Wan and Plo Koon were defending her.

"Our forces are underequipped for this war. Another problem is that, so far, all of our battles have been with us on the offensive with the Separatists dictating many of the terms of engagement. Against an enemy which has us outgunned, outnumbered, and can strike from beyond the effective range of our weapons we have no option but to avoid engaging them."

"Can we not simply use the Force to plot Hyperspace Jumps into point-blank range?"

Eyes turned on Master Even Piell. Master Windu snorted in derision. "And how many Jedi possess the skill to perform such a tactic? Nevermind how many of our ships do you think would be able to survive point-blank engagements with the Separatists new vessels? They have weapons on every surface they can bolt one onto, whereas our ships have entire arcs that have next to no weapons of their own."

"Then perhaps we should consider trying to build more stealth vessels such as the Carrion Spike?"

Anakin shook his head at Master Gallia's question. "Were it so easy. The cloaking device is incredibly expensive to produce, especially if you're going to be fitting it on anything smaller or larger than the 300-700 meters long, and the corporations and the banks control all of the Molecular Furnaces in the galaxy. You expect us to bribe them into simply allowing us to use those machines to build a fleet of stealth ships? They worship money, and so long as it's more profitable for them to mine the resources and build new ships to replace what we've lost, they'll continue to squeeze us for every credit we have.

Not to mention the current cloaking devices rely on particularly rare crystals to function, many of which can only be found on places like Christophsis. In case you didn't notice, we no longer have access to most of those worlds. Anyone got any other ideas that aren't tantamount to mutual suicide pacts?"

Before anyone could speak, a live transmission of what was currently being discussed in the Senate was transmitted by Kuvila. Several Jedi, including Obi Wan, Luminara, Anakin, and Mace Windu, all stood up hoping they could convince the Senate to see reason.

Republic High Command, Coruscant

Captain Bricarria La'Frey walked into the briefing room, wishing regulations had let her wear a skimpier uniform. But, as her hand moved to the scar over one eye and the brace around one leg reminded her, this job was her best bet for revenge. She'd spent years planning out how to beat her ex on equal terms so she could finally harvest his organs and store them in her rather modest base on Hoth, but she still wasn't good enough.

Her ship, the Devastation, had been critically damaged by his new ship, and barely managed to escape into Hyperspace. They still haven't actually confirmed who was in command of that BattleFortress over Christophsis, but Bricarria just knew it was his. It had all the hallmarks: bristling with weapons, an obscene amount of missiles, and an energy beam weapon fit to make people think he was compensating for something. She knew he wasn't, but that particular organ wasn't one of the ones she'd be harvesting. She needed his heart, lungs, and liver.

So far, he was the only one who hadn't succumbed to her charms and had his organs harvested. She'd harvested the organs of her entire family and dozens of men and women of various species over the years, but not his.

All because of those damnable, extremely paranoid women of his. Especially the one named Jiya Karik. Bricarria hadn't thought to check for tracking devices implanted directly into Evans body, and so Jiya, with Nesseka tagging along, had tracked them down. Evan was dosed on so many sedatives he didn't see Jiya and Nesseka drop-kick Bricarria out a third story window. If she hadn't been wearing her armour and a jetpack she'd be dead, as it was she broke a few ribs and had to spend weeks healing in her base.

She needed a new ship. But what would it take to challenge it?

"Captain La'Frey?"

She looked up into the eyes of Admiral Del Rio, who was one of the people leading the debriefings for herself and everyone else involved in the disaster at Christophsis.

"I did everything I could, Admiral. I got as many of my people out alive as I could. While my ship was nearly destroyed, it was through no fault of my own. I request to be assigned to whatever force you put together to track down the Separatists new superweapon and destroy it."

Admiral Kinsey snorted. "You already faced that thing once. Yes, you survived, but considering only around 30 others lived out of a crew of 7400, I fail to see why you shouldn't be demoted to some far off outpost for this."

Due to the stress and her recent losses, Bricarria was starting to lose her temper. "Admirals, I lost because we were ordered to obey the Jedi, who I was told had access to more up to date intel I didn't have clearance for. If anyone's to blame, it's our counterparts in Republic Intelligence who somehow failed to catch the Separatists building a ship over 3 kilometers long."

"She does have a point, Admiral Del Rio,-" That was Admiral Yougeir. "-but she cannot be blamed for all of our losses when she herself was only in command of one vessel. Less than a dozen starships survived the encounter with the other BattleFortress over Mon Cala. We can argue about what we've lost to them later, right now we need to find a weakness in their design. If they were able to build two right under our noses, then who knows how many more they have."

"Then send me back out there. I'll track down the BattleFortress."

The eyes of the Admirals and other Captains turned to her, and Bricarria didn't so much as flinch.

Admiral Kiva Duramir snorted. "You? Why should we trust you to succeed this time?"

Bricarria looked the older woman in the eye. "Because I know who commands that ship. I know his tactics, I know his strategies. He's paranoid, studies his enemies, but I know how to get him angry and off-balanced."

The Admirals looked at each other, murmuring and shaking their heads, though some looked receptive to the idea. After a few moments, Admiral Gun'Barm nodded.

"Very well. Head to Kuat and lead the retrofit for one of the Mandators, if you truly know him so well then you should be able to make it capable of going toe to toe with that monster."

She nodded, and was dismissed. Internally smiling the whole way as her bluff had apparently worked. She didn't care how well she knew him, Evan could be summed up as a paragon of virtue, a true goody two-shoes. All she'd have to do was put him a situation where his precious morality would be able to control him. Admiral Duramir snorted as the door closed.

"That woman's like a wild animal, while I still have my doubts about giving her an entire Mandator, of which we have five, three are in Separatist hands, and the other four are neutral, I do agree with the fact that we need to take those ships out. If she dies, she dies. But at least with a Mandator at her command, then she'll most likely be able to take a lot of them with her while also tying up enemy forces to deal with her."

Admiral Kinsey brought up a map of the Separatist's positions according to their latest intel. "Agreed. We need to avoid the Separatists where they're strong, and hit them where they're not."

Coruscant, Senate Chambers, Several Minutes Later

Chancellor Palpatine internally smiled as the Jedi came running into the room while the Senators were still debating which densely populated world to virus bomb. His Sith Acolytes, in conjunction with some of the various corrupt Senators who'd do anything for a few more credits, had done their job well.

Now he would merely need to play the part of the compassionate and concerned, kindly old man who needed to be granted additional powers to keep the reigns on the increasingly bloodthirsty Senators.

"My friends, restrain yourselves. We must try to maintain a moral high ground, and using bio weapons could easily backfire on ourselves. I suggest we concentrate on building more ships, and growing more Clones to crew them. If need be, we will begin conscripting from the Inner Rim worlds, but for now the people of the Core must concentrate on building more ships. Kuat has proven itself in the past, and despite the apparent failures of their current designs I am confident that this is more of a result of the Jedi being in command.

While the loss of our worlds on the far side of both Separatist and Hutt Space is regrettable, the Separatists will be forced to send more ships to garrison those worlds, thinning them out enough for us to exploit holes in their formations.

If their new advantages are due to Old Republic technology, along with that of other extinct civilizations, then we must either develop new technology to counter them or find it in the ruins of said civilizations."

In one of the entranceways Palpatine could see several Jedi, including Windu, Kenobi, and Skywalker, who seemed to be observing in case they were actually needed.

Senator Kuat nodded, and pressed a few buttons. "250 years ago, Outer Rim Marauders, the Nihil, threatened much of the galaxy. They used a unique form of Hyperdrive, the Path Engine, to make tactical jumps across star systems and to emerge from Hyperspace just inside a planets gravity well. While they were eventually defeated, failsafes built into their systems meant we never recovered any of the Drives fully intact. Recently, our research facility in the Maw made a breakthrough from studying old sensor readings and we believe we can begin testing a prototype based on this Drive next week.

Unfortunately, our current design is incredibly bulky and would only fit on a Star Dreadnought. It will take around two weeks to fit it onto a Mandator, and another three weeks to complete the calibrations and properly test it so we don't risk losing the ship before it even sees combat. Combined with their new sensors, the ship should be able to drop out of Hyperspace just outside weapons range, then hold out long enough to plot coordinates and exit vectors for the rest of the Fleet."

Isard snorted. "One ship. You expect us to be able to turn the tide against ships that can strike from over a million kilometers away with one ship?! The Confederacy has around 2 Million warships gathering in strategic systems across the galaxy, blocking off routes into Hyperspace all over the place! For your plan to work, we'd need the navigational data from the Wookies, and right now they are completely unwilling to just hand it over. We have forces in the Kashyyk System, but they're already cut off by Separatist forces in the Zeltros System.

We need to build up and launch an all-out assault on multiple fronts. Geonosis is a major factory world, and our intel indicates they are building a new weapon there. The Separatists will be expecting us to attack along the major Hyperspace Routes, not the Secondaries normally used by Smugglers and Pirates.

Yes, it'll add weeks to the journey but I believe that if we can successfully cripple their operations there the Separatists will be forced to begin pulling resources from those forward positions allowing us to begin pushing them back. If we attack all seven targets simultaneously, even doing all we can to ensure they see our fleets gathering on the front, they'll be caught out of position when we strike Geonosis."

Murmuring and talking grew throughout the Senate as people started debating.

Raxus, CISS Eternity, Several Hours Later, 0900 Raxus Time

The Eternity was a marvel of engineering. Originally designed to be little more than a fancy showpiece like the other Mandators, the Confederacy had spent months retrofitting it into the mobile headquarters of the Confederate Armed Forces. Now both it and her sister ships were highly capable warships that could operate both independently and with an escort fleet. Molecular Furnaces in the ships lower decks allowed it to harvest more raw material from any of the countless asteroids, comets, and other stellar debris littering space, with no need to strip mine a planet for resources.

Though this was far from the minds of anyone currently aboard as in the war room of the gargantuan vessel were gathered over 300 Captains, Colonels, Generals, and Admirals, with thousands more attending virtually from across the galaxy. Supreme Commander Taan looked around at the faces of the numerous men, women, and droids in the room, Human, Twi'Lek, Togrutan, Neimodian, Quarren, Mon Calamari, and so many others.

The only ones not present were either currently engaged in battle or still in transit to their destinations. Though Admirals Trench and Rakku, as their forces had already secured their current battlezones, were present virtually.

"Alright, we've already had several engagements with the Republic as part of Operations Bulwark and Cutworm 1. So far, all of them have been won with minimal losses. But we cannot allow ourselves to fall to arrogance by solely relying on our numerical advantage or we risk giving them time to catch up. As soon as the first stage of Operation Bulwark is complete we will hold position in the Mechis, Zeltros, Chardaan, Allanteen, Corsin, Gizer, and Ord Mantell Systems, blocking the major Hyperlanes. When our ships reinforce the shipyards at Fondor they'll also establish the final chokepoint in that system, cutting off almost all of the Outer Rim from the Republic via the main Hyperlanes. When the ships assigned to Operation Cutworm 1 finish securing the regions of the Republic we've already cut off they'll proceed to those eight systems."

"Ma'am, what about Foerost? Without support, if the Republic decides to concentrate on his forces Admiral Ningo won't be able to hold out forever."

Eyes turned on Captain Calli Trilm. As she simply kept looking at the Supreme Commander, not even flinching a muscle, Taan nodded. Though she knew plans for them were already in motion, operational security meant all eyes, including those of their own forces, had to be on the mainline fleets.

"You raise a good point, Captain. Foerost is but a few Hyper-Jumps from Coruscant, but that is also why we deployed the Heavy Dreadnoughts to the frontlines immediately. Until they can build more ships the Republic will have to choose between either concentrating on them and their escorts, or going after worlds such as Foerost. As a Core World covered in shipyards Foerost has top of the line planetary shields and defence grids both planetside and in orbit. We received a transmission from Admiral Ningo, and he's been able to speed up his timetable.

He still needs a little over a month from now to get all 1000 Bulwark Class ships operational. While some of his ships will be missing a few guns or pieces of armour, by the time they show up we'll have the Factory Stations online and will be able to mass produce them in the thousands within days of their arrival. In truth, we need only one Bulwark to survive to do that, and if we can draw enough of the Republics Sector Fleets into our guns they will be forced to stretch themselves extremely thin, creating a hole that will allow the Bulwarks to break out.

At the same time, we will be upgrading our fleets and armies using the technologies we have gained from Dac, Utapau, and many other worlds from across the galaxy, but mostly from the Outer Rim. Remember that next time you engage them. The Confederacy, the ships we now fly and the droids we build are all the product of almost every world in the Outer Rim. They embody everything we've suffered for thousands of years. Use them with honor, and keep to the moral high ground. We do not need to burn their worlds to ash, we are above such pettiness.

We have options. We can win this war with our honor intact. They are fighting at the behest of their corporate overlords and a Sith Lord to hold onto whatever power they can. We are fighting for the freedom of our families back home, our friends and loved ones. The people around you are your brothers and sisters, individuals from all walks of life who have come to defend peace and freedom. Our homes are depending on us to hold the line for another couple of months, more than enough time to finish preparations for Operations Cutworm 2 and 3, and when we are ready we will push the Republic all the way to Coruscant itself, no matter how long it takes."

"Understood, Ma'am!" Taan raised an eyebrow at the near simultaneous words from everyone else in the room.

"Good. Now, as everyone knows the current Hyperspace Drives everyone uses depend on Hyperlanes to get around. Operation Bulwark depends on us blocking off the major routes and luring the Republics Sector Fleets into our guns. Several Fleets are already holding the Ord Mantell, Corsin, Gizer, Allanteen, and Chardaan Systems, cutting off much of the galaxy from the Republic. Umbara has joined the Confederacy, and the Wookies on Kashyyk are being left alone I'm sure they also won't be riding to the rescue of the Republic either. While they are in possession of Hyperroutes that almost nobody else knows about, that advantage will be nullified assuming all of our new technologies pan out.

With systems such as Christophsis under our control, and the Storm Fleets already exceeding expectations, the Republic will be starved for resources. As such, they will eventually be desperate enough to throw themselves into our guns in a mad frenzy.

Now, while they will still be dangerous like any other cornered animal, I'm confident that they won't actually reach that point before we're ready to go in and start dismantling them. For now, systems like Foerost, Skako, Neimodia, Cato Neimodia, and Ka Colla 4 will have to fend for themselves. But they are all either major shipyards with top of the line defences or largely insignificant in the eyes of the Core. Either way, they should all have enough resources to hold out for at least a few years. The calvary will have shown up long before then.

Now, for the time being we only have 6 Star Dreadnoughts, 3 of which have already been deployed to the front lines. The other three are standing by near their respective AOs when the Republic makes a push for those systems. Unfortunately, even though we have 2.5 Million warships in service this is still a long shot, especially if the Republic pulls out something like a Sith Empire Sun Razer."

She pressed a few buttons, and schematics for a Factory Station, which resembled a large mushroom with five arms coming off of the mid-section, each with a hammerhead on the end, and three long prongs coming off the bottom appeared.

"Like I said, all we need to do is hold on until all three Factory Stations are operational. At that point, at a rate of 6 Million new ships per month we will have the final advantage we need over the Republic. As new ships come off the lines our current vessels will be pulled away from the front for retrofits. Two months, at most, after that we will be ready to begin Cutworms 2 and 3. Until then, are there any suggestions?"

Several people raised their hands or sent messages asking for permission to speak.

Raxus, Parliament Chambers, A Few Moments Earlier

As Count Dooku walked into the Parliament Chambers he looked around. Those who had been representatives of the corporations in the early days were mostly gone, either replaced by those who represented a world and its people directly or had their duties adjusted todo so themselves. He then kept moving and stood at a podium on one side of the room.

"My friends, there is no turning back. Our Fleets have engaged the Republic on multiple fronts, and our newest warships have more than proven their worth. So far, they are reacting exactly as we thought they would. Operations Bulwark and Cutworm 1 are already exceeding expectations, and the Republic is now preparing to build up their fleets to advance on all seven chokepoints. Soon, Fondor will be reinforced by our fleets heading up from Yag'Dhul and they'll be forced to spread themselves even further.

The Storm Fleets are doing a fine job in destroying the Republics military shipping, and while we only have 3200 Battlecruisers disguised as Class-A Merchantmen in 20 groups of 200, they have already managed to destroy or delay over 60% of the enemy's supplies. The 3rd Fleet is still two days away from Kamino, but once there they'll be able to cripple the Republics ability to make more Clones. If they have to start taking people off the street and forcibly pressing them into service, that will cause them to loose support and possibly even start seeing major desertions."

"Mr. President, do you mind telling us where the 2nd Fleet is?" Eyes turned to Senator Mina Bonteri. "When I tried looking into the locations of our Fleets, the 2nd was nowhere to be found, though Admiral Lasky apparently did send in a requisition for some of the latest Hyperspace Probes and Star Charts. And what is the status of Operation Buttercup?"

"I apologize, Senator Bonteri, but for the time being I must keep that information classified in the interests of operational security." He didn't say more, and the Senator accepted the explanation. Dooku knew he had to keep the current actions of the 2nd Fleet between himself, Admiral Lasky, and Supreme Commander Taan for the time being. "As for Operation Buttercup, preparations are still underway but due to the current conflict with the Republic it will take longer to send any meaningful forces to take Zygerria and free their slaves. We only have so many ships, and while our mainline fleets do number 2.5 Million active vessels, our reserve fleets are filled with old, outdated vessels which simply can't be updated as easily as our newer designs. The entire point of those ships is to guard rear-line positions, and deal with pirates or hostile Q-Ships, allowing our mainline fleets to do the heavy lifting.

Many of them range from the slightly newer, still mostly centuries old Dreadnought Class Heavy Cruisers to almost 12,000 year old Jenkarii Battleships, which haven't been built since before the Great Hyperspace War. Without the Factory Stations, we can only do much to modernize and refit these old designs. The 120 Centurion Class Battlecruisers we've salvaged, bought, and cobbled together over the millennia, for example, are only really useful in numbers, and all 12 of our Inexpungable Class Tactical Command Ships may be the size of the current Lucrehulks, but they're more useful coordinating the reserve fleets.

Unless something changes, then until the Factory Stations are online I am afraid we will have to make do with what we can. I feel for the people suffering under the Zygerrians, but we can't help them if we get destroyed by the Republic first."

She nodded, seeing his reasoning. Several other Senators started chiming in, some noting that despite their deal several Hutt factions were building up on their respective parts of the border with both the Confederacy and the Republic, and the Hapan had gone strangely quiet. Around an hour later, as the Parliament was finishing up, a quiet transmission from Taan drew Dookus attention. "Count Dooku, I'm afraid we have a situation."

Chapter 7: Chapter 5: Finding The Lost And Ancient

Chapter Text

"I thought we'd seen all of the horrors there were to see in the galaxy. Then the damn Republic started drudging through the past just to throw things best left forgotten at us." - CIS Sergeant, Recounting His Experience In The War Of Republic Aggression.

CISS Odyssey, Orbit of Christophsis, A Little Over 4 Days After The Battle

Things had gotten quiet after the battle. Well, on the Odyssey. Not much to do except run through more drills and see what you might need to improve when your orders amount to "sit here and keep the enemy away." which also made us a bit... restless. Our brothers and sisters in arms were dying out there, and Command wanted one of the most powerful warships in the galaxy to hold position?

This had eventually resulted in some of my crew turning bored, restless. Especially the engineers, though I will admit to a small amount of blame in this given there was only so much paperwork I could do in a day before going nuts. Crazy sons of bitches went and designed, fabricated, and built a whole new FTL Drive within the past four days.

It was supposed to fold space around the ship but remained in real space, allowing us to Jump across the battlefield, and while it was slower than a standard Type 1 Hyperdrive there wasn't anything preventing us from using more than one type of FTL Drive on a Starship. It was, after all, still capable of an estimated 5000 Light Years per standard 24-hour day.

Despite the name, Warp Drive, it was more akin to a hybrid of the Warp Drive from Star Trek and the Fold Drive from Robotech, especially since the field formed in a sphere around the ship and could theoretically pull other ships with us as we Jumped to Warp, meaning we'd have to be careful using it in battle. It was also theoretically useful for long-range travel across the galaxy, but that was still under serious debate.

Some of the engineers were arguing that the Hyperdrive was more effective, while others argued that since you had to occasionally drop out to reorient and go around various stars and other phenomena anyway than the Warp Drive was better since you could track things in real space while moving.

I'd told them to hold off on trying to run live tests until I'd run the Drive by the Admiral. Just going ahead and testing a whole new FTL Drive over a technically still hostile planet seemed like a recipe for disaster.

Of course, that hadn't been the only product my crew had come up with, though like the new Warp Drive I'd helped them with a few ideas of my own. My medical staff, Droids and Organics alike, had developed a rudimentary form of Medical Nanobot, which was a Droid the size of a blood cell. The design was still in the testing stages, but given the Confederacy is well on track to no longer needing money or an economy with the proliferation of Molecular Forges, effectively eliminating stuff like poverty since everyone would have access to whatever they might need to live in luxury at the push of a button, then I can see this new tech leading to us no longer needing to rely on Bacta and other medical technologies that could only be acquired from a half dozen or so planets.

In addition to the network of Medical Nanobots designed to be injected into the body at a young age, then powered off of our natural electrical fields, they'd also developed the Nano-Gel, which was similar in use to Bacta except it was not only significantly more efficient but could be more easily fabricated and stored.

If we can perfect these Nanobots, we'll effectively eliminate disease or aging, though we're still working on making them impossible to hack to prevent them from being turned against us.

We had also developed a variant used for construction and repair of not just various Droids, vehicles, and aircraft, but also maintenance of the Odyssey herself. It had radically reduced our crew requirements and allowed more of our Droids to be reallocated to ships security. In addition to our Anstaeris Repair Droids, while we could have the other Droids and various Organic Crewmen and Soldiers repair the ship themselves it was largely unnecessary outside of extraordinary circ*mstances.

Our new Type 2 Anstaeris Repair Droids not only controlled the Nanobots, they could also use Nanofabricators to build them too. These Nanobots, like the internal medical version, also had their own Nanofabricators to build more so they could replace damaged or destroyed Nanobots.

Suffice to say, Admiral Trench had been quite interested in the new technologies, and we had quickly begun coordinating with the rest of the 9th Fleet to perfect them. After all, we're not the Republic. If sharing the tech with our brothers and sisters saves more lives in the long run, so be it. Besides, it was a simple enough evolution of what we already had; anyone could've come up with it if they thought about it enough.

"Captain, emergency transmission from Command. I also have Admiral Trench on the line for you."

I looked up from the updated intelligence report I'd been reading.

"Run decryption and patch them through."

The holoscreen split into three, on the left side was Admiral Trench who bore few scars from the earlier battle except for some metal on his forehead above one eye, on the right side was Supreme Commander Taan, and in the middle was Count Dooku.

"Mr. President, Supreme Commander, Admiral. What do you need?"

Trench decided to speak first. "You're being reassigned, Captain. Though I'm afraid we won't be able to send the rest of the 17th with you."

"General Horn Ambigene was on his way to retake Yag'Dhul after destroying the industrial facilities on Eriadu along with the military orbital stations, and decided to split his Fleet between divisions to cover more ground. Almost all of his ships have completed their objectives and rendezvoused with Admiral Merai at Yag'Dhul, but the General himself never did. He and his flagship are now 12 hours overdue. The rest of those ships are heading to Fondor to reinforce the shipyards there. Those yards are critical to our operations in the Galactic South.

Admiral Long would send forces to assist you if he could, but the Frontier and her fleet are needed to secure the Galactic West, which will take up to four weeks by our estimates. The largest Republic force we knew about in that region was the 19th Sector Fleet at Eriadu, and it was no match for the Frontier."

Once Taan was finished Dooku continued. "The Odyssey is one of the two fastest ships in the galaxy. Daedalus will be 6 hours behind you. Head along the Hyperroute between Vandalhelm and Wroona, his last known position. If the Republic does have some sort of new weapon, then we need to send our biggest guns available to take it down fast. Whatever it is, it took out a Lucrehulk before it could even send out a distress signal."

I nodded. "Understood. We'll find it."

The screen shut off, and a moment later the comm station beeped again.

"Sir, we've not only received the Generals last known and some modifications to the Comm Arrays for us to communicate while in Hyperspace, but also updated intel from Command. In addition to the Z-Wings we encountered, which they apparently call Z95 Headhunters, the Republic is also deploying V-19 Torrent Starfighters, but we've only encountered them in limited numbers thus far."

The main holoscreen turned on again to show a general schematic of the fighter. "How is that thing supposed to land? I don't see anything like a multi-vector variable transformation system like the Vultures and Hyenas use."

I turned to Allana. "I doubt it's designed to do that, it most likely attaches to docking cradles in the upper levels of their hangers. They probably rushed it into production to try to counter our own Vultures once they saw how the Z95s performed against Vultures over Geonosis."

She nodded, and I turned back to the helm. "Lieutenant Antrim, set course for the Vandalhelm System, we'll proceed from there to Wroona, executing shorter Jumps along the route until we find the Macross."

"Course already laid in, Sir." Good, he's starting to anticipate my orders. He'll make a fine Captain himself one day.

"Engage." The stars outside seemed to stretch into infinity before dissolving into a swirling blue tunnel of energy.

CISS Odyssey, 48 hours later

"Sir, we're coming up on the Vandalhelm System."

I looked up from where my eyes had wandered over to Alla. Honestly, sometimes I'm surprised her outfit doesn't tear regularly trying to contain that rack alone, nevermind everything else. "Prepare to drop out of Hyperspace. Lower blast shutters, and stand by Alpha Wing for launch. We'll look around and see if the Macross ever actually made it into Hyperspace."

A few seconds later, as the shutters closed and the holoscreens came on the view outside changed into a vast expanse of stars in the void of space. One in particular interested me, and was highlighted on the screen as our brand new Subspace Sensors did their work. Along with those on the Daedalus, they were among the most advanced sensors ever designed and could reliably track a ship in real time from 50 Light Years away. Well, in real space. Kinda going too fast to track much beyond grav-wells in Hyperspace. When I last spoke to Admiral Lasky when a number of Officers were meeting at The Wheel Starbase hours before we heard about the attack on Geonosis, he said something about how his Fleet's engineers had come together to try to put together some sort of new FTL Drive, but he didn't want to go into too much detail.

Which made me wonder about what our ships would look like in the future. If we kept advancing, every Admiral, General, Captain, and Colonel having their own little project that could potentially act as a game changer in their own would certainly make it interesting for the Republic to try to deal with us. Each Fleet and Army forever adapting and evolving new mechs, weapons, ships, and vehicles separately and yet also together. Like a technological version of the Zerg Swarm. Minus the Hive Mind.

The image was both extremely terrifying and extraordinarily beautiful. Almost as much as Allana, Nesseka, and Jiya.

"Sir, the new sensors can still detect Terminov radiation from an outgoing Hyper-Jump. Size, speed, and direction appear to match that of the Macross. They did make the Jump, Sir, but I can't see anything that would suggest why they never made it to their destination."

Almost three days after the fact? Most civilian sensors can barely detect Terminov radiation a day after a Jump, even most military grade scanners would struggle to detect it after two days.

"Send a message to the Daedalus, let them know we've scanned the system and will begin searching along the Generals route. Then recall Alpha Wing for refueling and prepare Beta Wing for launch when we come out of Warp."

"Aye, Sir."

A few moments later Antrim spoke up again. "Ready Sir."

"Make it so."

Outside, energy crackled through space as a sphere formed around the Odyssey. Completely translucent at first, the energy quickly changed color to a brilliant bluish-green as it enveloped the Odyssey, shrank down to the size of a baseball, and shot off into the void of space. On the bridge the black void of space seemed to sit, unmoving, as small streaks of light formed a tunnel around the ship, much like a Star Trek TNG-era Warp Drive.

Around a minute later, the view outside changed again as the sphere reformed and we dropped out of Warp. Outside, the emptiness of space was disrupted by the appearance of a sphere of light the size of a baseball which rapidly expanded in half a second to over 6 kilometers across and faded to reveal the Odyssey.

"We've safely reverted from Warp, Sir. However, I detected some rather strange fluctuations in the Warp Field so I suggest we use the Hyperdrive while analyzing the readings."

I pressed some buttons on my chair and a holoscreen popped up right in front of me showing the readings from our short time in Warp. There were indeed some strange fluctuations in the Field we hadn't anticipated. "Agreed. Any sign of the Macross at these coordinates?"

"Negative Sir. We are ready to execute a Hyperspace Jump to the next set of coordinates on your order."

"Engage. Keep Beta Squadron in the tubes in case we run into trouble, and have the others on hot standby."

As the ship once again entered Hyperspace, everything was quiet. Then a loud beeping emanated from several different consoles on the bridge.

"Sir! Sensors have detected a massive gravity well right in our path! Safeties are kicking in and dropping us out automatically!"

I suddenly got a bad feeling from both my gut and the Force. "Shields to maximum, hard starboard! Launch all wings!"

Next thing I knew, the ship groaned in agony, people screaming, pain coursed through my body, and something smelled like it was on fire. As I recovered, I grimaced in agony, opened one eye, and looked around. Several people were on the ground, groaning. I keyed the comm. "Medical team to the bridge!"

Despite our injuries, somehow almost everyone on the bridge hauled themselves up into their stations. Even John, despite the scorching to his chassis. James stayed unmoving, and when I went over to him I couldn't find a pulse. I rolled him over to find the front half of his skull had been shredded when his console exploded in his face. I gestured Allison Williams, a Lieutenant who manned one of the auxiliary stations near the back, to take over sensors and comms. No time to mourn in the middle of a battle.

"Status report!"

Alla grimaced from the pain of the cut on her head. "We've got hull breaches and casualties on all decks. Several compartments are completely exposed to vacuum, but the seals seem to be working so it shouldn't spread beyond those areas. Alpha Squadron and half of Delta are gone along with most of the portside hanger, but Beta and Zeta are launching from the starboard hanger. Hyperdrive is down, Engine 2 is gone, and Engine 3 has sustained damage. Looks like whatever hit us, our shields managed to take most of it so most of the energy just clipped us instead of outright vaporizing us."

"Hell of a clip." Several medics ran in, applying both Bacta patches and some of the Nano-Gel, one of which was quickly applied to entire left side of my face.

"Sir! I'm detecting a large vessel 300kilometers off our portside bow. We also appear to be flying through some sortof debris field." I looked over at Aveer... Allison's station despite the fact I'm pretty sure I just lost an eye.

"Identify. Stand by all remaining weapons, and bring the ship to bear. If we can, charge the Anti-Proton Cannon."

She pressed several buttons and looked at the readouts. "Warbook identifies it as a Dominatus Class, but it appears to possess several previously unknown modifications. Intel suggests the Republic can't have more than three of those ships in service. I don't think they'll be able to fire the weapon again for some time, they're launching fighters and closing to engage with their secondaries."

"Well, they'll have one less. Is the main cannon charged?"

John looked over and nodded. "Aye Sir!"

I looked out the flickering holoscreen as it finally solidified to show a vessel that was certainly similar to the Gauntlet used by the Sith Empire, except painted Republic colors and significantly larger. From the readings that were displayed next to it, it was almost as big as an ISD.

"Fire. Send a message to the Daedalus informing them of our current status."

Like flame from a wounded Dragon, a stream of Anti-Protons at .25c erased the enemy ship. Our Vultures were quick to begin mopping up surviving fighters. Allana sighed. "Message away. Captain Talda is trying to hail us."

Naturally, we probably just gave her a minor heart attack. "Put her through."

The holoscreen switched to show the bridge of our sister ship. "-increase speed to maximum. And keep trying to hail-" Nesseka looked at her own screen, seeing us on it. "Captain Boll! What's your status?"

I tore myself away from trying to get lost in those eyes. "There's damage all over the ship, some sort of Republic vessel fired on us with some sort of energy beam as we emerged from Hyperspace. I ordered a hard turn to starboard, and most of the beam was confined to our port after it broke through our shields. Given what just happened, the debris field around us is most likely what's left of the Macross."

"I can confirm that, Sir. Their IFF is coming from somewhere in the field. Sir, I'm also detecting something else out there. It appears to be a planet."

Everyone on the bridge turned to Allison incredulously. "On screen. Daedalus, until we get our Hyperdrive or shields back up we're vulnerable, so be ready to come in guns blazing if need be."

Nesseka nodded, looking like she wanted to say what we were both thinking. "Good luck. ETA 3 hours."

I got up, everything went dizzy, and I finally collapsed from the pain.

Odyssey, Infirmary 1, 45 Minutes Later

Allana looked over at the body of her friend. The ships Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Henry Hunter, had just finished working on the Captain after he collapsed on the bridge. The Human male from Naboo, with white skin, blonde hair, and green eyes, walked over and handed his report to her.

"Honestly, I'm surprised the man was able to ignore it for as long as he did. If I didn't have his records on file I'd be wondering if he was 100% Human with that sort of pain tolerance. Still, we got the shrapnel out of his skull along with a couple pieces that'd pierced his chest. He's already recovering thanks to the Nanobots, he won't even have any real scars."

Allana suppressed a sigh of relief, trying to maintain a professional pose. "Good. I've got the report on the planet which seemingly just appeared in the middle of this Hyperroute, as well as our current status on ship repairs. How long until he wakes up?" She wanted to say it differently, but couldn't in the interest of professionalism.

Yet the Doctor still had a small smirk on his face. "He should be waking up in a few minutes. You're free to go in and wait."

She nodded thankfully and walked into the room. As she did, her eyes landed on her Captain, and her mind wandered into the past as she examined his body. All four of them, herself, Evan, Jiya, and Nesseka, had once opted for genetic augmentation procedures which had made them taller, faster, and stronger than most life forms as a survival measure. Now she stood 6'2, Jiya stood 6'4, Nesseka stood 6'2, and Evan stood 6'7. Despite the many years since those procedures, she was still somewhat shaken by the differences between the 5'7 teenager he once was and the man he was now.

But now those augmentations may have just saved his life, and it made her all the more grateful that if she ever ended up in the same position that she had chosen to get the same augmentations. As her eyes went over the inflamed and bandaged half of his head, she wished that none of them had to take these sort of risks, but they knew what they were getting into. She thought about the future, when herself, Jiya, and Nesseka could just lock themselves into a house with Evan, the galaxy a safe place for their children to grow up in at long last. But who could say how long that would take.

As she thought about it, she realized she didn't care how long it took. So long as she had him, she'd be happy. All she needed was him alive, and her staying as his First Officer was the best way for her to ensure that would happen. She placed the datapad on the table next to his bed and sat down in a chair. A few minutes later Evan groaned as he woke up, and Allana smiled.

"You almost gave me a heart attack, but you pulled through just like you always do."

MCs POV, Same Time

I looked over and smiled. "I've got a compelling reason to come back."

My First Officer suddenly developed an odd sort of smirk. "Or three."

I shook my head, we could talk about that later. I loved her, even if I hadn't admitted it to her yet, but she could be so cryptic sometimes. I broke out of my thoughts. "Status report."

She handed me the datapad I now realized had been sitting on the table. "The ship was heavily damaged during the battle, but the enemy vessel has been destroyed. I also took the liberty of having Beta Squadron sort through the wreckage of the enemy vessel. They retrieved several data cores that are at least partially intact, and some of our people are going over the data to find out what they hit us with. Several of the destroyed shield emitters that were hit by the beam have been giving off some very strange readings. Mostly exotic particles that don't actually seem to do anything.

Unfortunately, replacing Engine 2 will require a dedicated dock, and until then we're stuck to around 2/3rds of our maximum speed. Our Hyperdrive is completely inoperable, and cannot be repaired with what we have out here even with the Repair Drones and Nanobots. A number of micro-fractures showed up on the interior of the Hyperdrive Reactors, and whenever a Nanobot or Repair Droid tries to fix them they just disappear.

All we know is that it has to do with whatever that ship fired at us. At this point, my recommendation is to dismantle the Hyperdrive and switch to Warp until we reach a friendly Starbase. The Daedalus will be here in a little over 2 hours, but we can't raise them for an update as 20 minutes ago the planet started emitting a massive jamming field 30 Million kilometers across which is interfering with our long-range communications.

Fortunately, we recovered 4 survivors from the Macross, three fighter pilots and a bridge officer, Lieutenant Lisa Hanson, who lost her right arm and would've bled out from a hole in her left leg if Flight Lieutenant Hunter hadn't patched her up. The other two pilots, who were found adrift in their craft, are still unconscious from oxygen deprivation, but Hunter should be well enough for debriefing in a few minutes."

I frowned as I read the report. There were a few things I could think of that could cause this sort of damage, but none of them existed in Star Wars. On the bright side, at least we found any survivors. I got up and we started walking to Infirmary 3, which was closer to the portside hanger.

Infirmary 3, Several Minutes Later

When I walked into the Infirmary it was to see two men wearing Pilots uniforms in two of the beds, one woman in a Navy Officers uniform in a third, and a third man in a Pilots uniform sitting in a chair. He had several bandages on his body, including some burns on his hands and face. When he saw me he made to get up and I waved him back down.

"No need for formalities, Flight Lieutenant, you've been through a lot."

The man physically looked like he was in his early 20s, but the look in his dark blue eyes was that of a war vet in his 50s. Not that that was uncommon out here in the Outer Rim. Almost everyone had killed a pirate or slaver by the time they were teenagers in self defence, and the Republic had never done a damn thing to stop it. He slumped back in his chair as everything finally hit him.

"We were travelling through Hyperspace, I was with my Squadron planning some practice drills in the event any fighting at Yag'Dhul was over when we arrived. Lieutenant Hanson had walked down to make sure everything was good, it was part of the usual inspections the General had her do every time we were in Hyperspace. Next thing I know, there's this horrendous screeching as fire and explosions are tearing through the bay, and we all went flying as the ship suddenly decelerated way too quickly.

The emergency force fields went up to contain the blasts, and my Flight Major, Tom Davis, ordered us to get as many people out as we could. The Lieutenant had been knocked unconscious and had a piece of shrapnel through her leg. While Pilot Ben Dixon and Flight Lieutenant Max Sterling launched their craft I carried Lieutenant Hanson over to one of the Sheathipedes. Pilot Sydney Borac was going to take control of the shuttle, but then some debris crushed my fighter and she got incinerated by an exploding plasma conduit so I was forced to take over.

Several other shuttles attempted to launch but they were shot down by Republic fighters flying in. Max and Ben did what they could, but only half a dozen fighters had made it out, only three of them were Vultures. I saw Flight Major Davis get crushed, immolated, and vertically cut in half all at the same time. It was..."

He finally broke down, mourning the loss of his friends. I simply placed a hand on his shoulder in understanding, and after a few moments he'd recovered enough to keep speaking.

"I launched the shuttle. We'd been cut off by falling debris, and would've been crushed if I hadn't moved the thing when I did. As we escaped the burning remains of the Macross, the shuttle took several hits and our hyperdrive was knocked out. With Ben and Max's help we took out the fighters that had pursued us and took cover in some of the more stable wreckage, cutting power to minimum to save resources. We would've gone for the planet but that ship would've shot us down long before that.

I patched up the Lieutenant and she woke up long enough for me to help her into a spare spacesuit that'd been stored in the shuttle. After that, we knew we didn't have the firepower to break out ourselves or the resources to repair our Hyperdrive, not with the Republic just sitting out there. So we bunkered down to wait for rescue."

I looked over at Alla, and she nodded, indicating that the Lieutenants account matched what was in the logs of the shuttle and both of the Tempest Zero fighters.

"Get some rest, Lieutenant. Once our repairs are completed we'll be checking out the planet. Until all four of you have been cleared for duty, I want you to stay here."

He nodded, and saluted. "Understood Sir."

Odyssey's Bridge Almost 2 hours Later

It was truly amazing what the Nanobots had done in under three hours. Though I guess it helps that this is the bridge, and while we do have an auxiliary bridge deeper in the ship it's mainly used to coordinate interior communications. Considering the extensive damage to our hull we'll most likely be ordered to put in for a refit, so I can use that to move the main bridge deeper into the ship. Had to make some compromises just to get the ship to where we had it before, but now I can finally get the rest of the ship closer in line to the original specs.

I was broken out of my thoughts as a beeping at the sensor console heralded the Daedalus dropping out of Hyperspace. Our sister ship quickly moved to within 20 meters of the hull and then extended her shields around us, quickly launching what I'm pretty sure was every Vulture she had to fly CAP. Neither of us were carrying Tempest Zeros, those were still rather rare. Most of our organic pilots still flew Rogue Class Porax-38s, and again, neither of us had any.

"Captain, the Daedalus is requesting permission to send Captain Talda over in a shuttle."

I looked over at Allison. "Granted. And send them a report on our repairs. Number One, you're with me."

Allana got up and followed me to the portside hanger bay. The starboard was still being repaired given 3/4ths of it, along with a good chunk of the surrounding compartments, had been destroyed. We were lucky even a third of it was already fixed. Somehow, despite the fact that the ship is over 3 kilometers long, we still reached the portside hanger before the shuttle. As she walked down the ramp Nesseka looked around, several engineers and Repair Droids scuttling out to help our own. When her eyes landed on us she very quickly walked over.

"Captain Boll, you've certainly had a very interesting day today, haven't you?" She had a rather odd look in her rather beautiful green eyes. We started walking back to my quarters.

"I guess you could say that. Thanks for the help, we'll get your people moving to where they're needed. Our new Nanobots have been a big help in getting most of our critical systems back online, we've also patched up all the hull breaches though our Hyperdrive is about as useful as a hunk of scrap and, as you no doubt saw on your way in, we're missing Engine 2."

She went silent for the several minute journey to my quarters, and when the door closed behind the three of us simply pulled the both of us into a hug. We quickly returned it, and then sat down in some of the chairs around the room.

"Yeah. I saw. Are you okay? I don't mean your crew or ship, I mean you and Alla."

I grimaced. "I'm still feeling the loss of James, he was a good friend, but this is no time to grieve, not while the rest of the crew is still in potential danger with what's just outside. But if it weren't for our new Nanobots I'd either need a prosthetic eye or be dead right now. These things are incredibly useful. Unfortunately, there's only so much they can do right now, and they can't bring the dead back to life. Now, under normal circ*mstances I'd suggest we power up the Warp Drive and get both of our ships back to the nearest friendly base, but with that planet out there that's not an option."

I walked over to my computer and brought up the data our sensors had been recording of the planet. "It somehow just appeared in what had been a very clear, major Hyperlane for almost 20,000 years. That alone proves it needs to be investigated, not to mention the Republic ship in orbit makes me think they had something to do with it. According to these readings, it's completely hollow, only around 2000 kilometers thick at the most. Even so, there are some sort of techno-organic lifeforms all over the surface, and the interior is some weird mix of metal, dirt, and circuits."

She nodded. "Captain... Evan, while I agree, my ground forces aren't equipped for heavy fighting on a terrestrial world, I'm loaded almost entirely with Aqua Droids and half a dozen AATs that've been retrofitted for underwater combat."

"Odyssey has what we need, and your forces can be added to ours."

I nodded towards where Allana was sitting, though I swear both of them had moved their chairs closer to me while we were talking. "Allana's right. Nesseka, Odyssey may be damaged but we can still fight. And something on that planet is jamming both our communications and your Hyperdrive. If we take it out, we can get a call to the rest of the 13th Fleet and let them know what happened to their General while also getting some ships out here."

She nodded, thinking about it. "Alright, let's shut down that jamming field."

Odyssey Bridge, 20 Minutes Later

"So, those coordinates led to... this?" I gestured out at the seemingly barren expanse of rock the two ships were hovering over. Once the engineers, who knew the guys maintaining our tech would also make excellent hackers, had cracked the data cores it had been easy enough for our Tactical Droid in the auxiliary bridge, OR-08, Orion, to go through and find the most relevant data quickly. But this was giving me flashbacks to Halo Wars, and I did not want to potentially add crew getting infested by a Star Wars version of the Flood to my new list of PTSD-riddled nightmares from today, thank you very much. Or ever, if I could help it.

Orion sounded a bit annoyed as he answered over the comm. "Yes. The data from the Republic ship indicates that it is the product of Republic experiments on ancient technology found inside the planet. The Rear Admiral in command was keeping the project to himself, hoping to gather more power for himself with his new weapon."

Allana snorted. "Well, that certainly backfired on him. Did those logs mention precisely how they got in?"

"There was a mention of a control room on the surface which they somehow accessed. Unfortunately, the coordinates have been corrupted. All we got was that it's within a kilometer of the doors."

Allison looked over. "I'm picking up something like a power source down there, but I'm having trouble getting a fix on its coordinates. It's somewhere within the area indicated by those logs."

Nesseka raised an eyebrow, looking through the viewscreen from her bridge. "Alright, guess we'll deploy our forces and start searching. Sergeant Anderson, you'll coordinate with the Odysseys contingent. Let them take the lead at first since most of your forces aren't equipped for terrestrial combat. Once they get a Firebase set up you'll take your troops in and begin refitting them."

I keyed my comm. "Sergeant Forge, get down there and deploy a Firebase. As soon as Alpha Wing has been rebuilt and placed in their new bodies they'll join Delta Wing in providing air support. Beta and Zeta are to launch and provide overwatch if those lifeforms are hostile."

"Sir, from the best we can tell the closest pack is over 8 kilometers away from us."

I turned to Lieutenant Williams and raised an eyebrow. "We're dealing with unknowns here, Lieutenant, I've seen enough in my travels across the galaxy to be cautious. Especially since these readings indicate them to be some sort of technorganic lifeform, with the tech subsuming the organic parts of them."

She nodded. I turned back to analyzing the data as the troops began to deploy.

Alpha Base, Planetside, A Few Minutes Later
As the various Droids and Organic Soldiers started unloading from the Dropships and Gunships, Forge used his Flitknot to scout ahead with a small force. "Captain, are we sure about that intel? It looks like nothing but barren rock and circuits down here."

"We're picking up something down there. We'll send you reinforcements as they become available, but I suggest you set up some facilities with the Firebase and start building more troops on-site."

"Understood, Sir." He turned around to begin coordinating as they built up their defences.

Around 20 minutes later four 4-man squads on Flitknots were sent to scout out ahead, and a convoy of Type 1 AATs and some MTTs, with several Mark 2 Hailfires and a pair of DSD-1 Spider Tanks as escort, left to secure a secondary base sight on the far side of the coordinates. It didn't take long for things to get messy.

"This is Recon 1, we've got unknowns in our sector, they're... aaaaaaaaagh!"

Forge cursed and his men started moving to save or avenge them. The members of Recon 1 continued to scream for several more moments before falling silent.

"Colonel Forge to Recon 1, come in! Hang on, we're coming to get you!"

"This is Recon 3, we're approaching Recon 1s position... what in the nine hells is that?!"

Forge gunned his engine as the lighter units raced ahead of the others. "Recon 3, what are you seeing? Recon 3, come in!"

Odyssey Bridge, Same Time

"Sir, we've now lost the lifesigns of both Recon 1 and Recon 3."

"Bring up a visual on Recon 1."

The holoscreen activated to show a feed from one of the cameras on the outside of the hull. Zooming in, we could see the members of Recon 1, or rather, what was left of them. They were surrounded by a number of humanoids which had clearly all once been members of various species, but had now been infested by some sort of technology, bits of metal randomly applied or just straight up sticking out of random parts of their body.

It was like some madman looked at Zerg Infestation and decided to do more or less the same thing, but with metal and partially organic plasma cannons instead of organic carapaces and claws. They were abominations. And the remains of our own crew... They'd been merged with their Flitknots, creating giant, demented hulks of metal and flesh with six legs. If a Zerg Aberration was merged with a Speeder, this was more or less what you'd get.

"Odyssey to Forge. From what we can tell, there's no helping Recon 1 or 3. They've been infested by the alien lifeforms. Fall back to the heavies, then search out and destroy their remains."

"Roger that."

12th Platoon, Attack Group 1

Forge keyed to comm to broadcast to all ground troops. "Everyone, group up. Our best chance to survive is if we stick together. Recon 2, Recon 4, fall back to the base. Attack Group 1, follow me to Recon 1 and 3s last known location."

"This is Recon 2, we're falling back."

"Colonel, this is Recon 4, we've found a structure about a kilometer east of the base. Looks like it might be the control center we're looking for."

"This is the Daedalus. Our AATs are prepped and being deployed to protect Alpha Base."

As his forces went over a ridge Forge had to dodge around a few rocks. "Understood, Recon 4. Hold position until reinforcements show up. Recon 2, head for Recon 4. Base, get a force of Aqua Droids, load them into MTTs, and send them with some AATs to their location. Attack Group 2, what's the status of the secondary base?"

It took a moment before the crackling monotone of a newly built B1 came through. "Sir. We have not yet encountered hostiles, and are approaching coordinates. We will be ready for base drop in approximately 2 minutes."

"Understood, Forge out." As his forces came within sight of what was left of Recon Groups 1 and 3 they saw that several other "Heavy" Infested and what looked like several dozen smaller Infested, some of which seemed to be made more for melee than ranged combat, had joined up with them.

"Hostiles spotted, open fire!" The eight Grizzlies fired their Heavy Laser Cannons at two of the Heavy Infested, quickly blowing them to pieces. As the rest of their troops opened fire the Infested surged forward. Despite the overwhelming amount of fire coming at them one melee type got close enough to use its internal mini-repulsorlifts to send itself flying at a Sergeant and grab onto him, wrapping him in its five of its six tentacles and then bite into his neck.

In seconds, even as the creature died the Sergeant screamed as his flesh turned into a sickly black and yellow, ballooning and expanding far beyond what should be possible for most beings. Metal spikes quickly tore through the skin of his arms, his left eye exploded only to be replaced with a metal optic, and a number of tentacles which mixed flesh and metal grew from his right hand as it merged into his rifle. The weapon, now almost completely integrated into his arm, was quickly turned on his former comrades as they mercifully gunned him down.

Nearby, the last of the Infested leaped at a B1, and the Droid screamed as the same thing happened to him, but in reverse. His left optic became an organic eye, and the metal of his chassis became distorted and bloated as organic muscle, skin, and sinew simply appeared. Moments later, he too was mercifully destroyed.

After a moment of shocked silence, Forge looked around at his men. "All units, fall back to Alpha Base. Odyssey, Daedalus, what the kriff were these things?!" Before the Confederacy, most Droids weren't usually inclined to cursing, but things were different now. And the Commando Droid certainly thought whatever that was warranted a bit of emotionality.

Odyssey Bridge

Okay... that was just wrong on so many levels. "I don't know, Colonel. Get to that structure and find us a way inside the planet. Orion, run a search through the database, see if we can't find someone who's encountered these things at some point."

Deeper In The Celestial Shieldworld

The man in a Republic Captains Uniform saluted the hologram. "Senator, the first batch of the experiments have engaged the Separatists. Our Techno Virus works wonders. Unfortunately, we still haven't received any word from Rear Admiral Jack Harper, and he is currently assumed KIA along with his ship."

Senator Organa nodded, smiling as he read over the data. "Unfortunate, but thus far quite typical of our encounters with this particular ship. Set the charges and bring the remaining samples of the virus that are in your possession to our base on Naboo. If we can take out both of the BattleFortresses, that'll be one less obstacle in our way. They'll find their way in eventually. Once they do, release the remaining test subjects, the energy from our attack will lure the creatures straight to them. Send your other ships to delay them if they survive, that will give your vessel time to escape."

He nodded, and closed the transmission.

Odyssey Bridge, Several Minutes Later

"Captain, we've got incoming! Looks like some kind of Infested flying unit."

Damn it. Forge still needed at least another five minutes to secure the Control Center. I brought up a screen and the creatures coming at us looked like some sort of infested Z95. "All batteries, open fire! Forge, we've got hostiles attacking the ship, I suggest you guys speed things up down there!"

Attack Group 1

"Working as fast as we can, Sir!" Forge fired his E6 into a Combat Form as an Infested AT-TE walked up and roared. The walker had grown four more legs, all mostly flesh and carapace, something resembling a scorpion mouth had appeared around the co*ckpit, and the mass driver had become the end of a very long tail. Fortunately, this particular one didn't have the pincers, for some reason only two of the eight facing the CISA had those on them.

His Flitknot had gotten crushed when some sort of beetle-like infested the size of an AAT busted out of the ground. Fortunately, he'd survived in one piece. Forge ran over to a Grizzly as it fired its main gun, blasting away at the Tank Form as it reared back its tail to fire the mass accelerator only for the Grizzly to hit it right in the maw as it screeched, blasting it to pieces.

Looking around, he could see that they were finally beginning to gain the upper hand. He climbed up and into the Grizzly, assuming command of it directly. "Alright, let's push forward and get to that Control Center."

"Roger roger." He looked down to see the B1 in command was one of the relatively newer models. Well, that guy would either learn or die at this rate. Few of the Droids Infested by these creatures were successfully Downloaded into new bodies, every attempt so far had caused them to go insane, completely berserk, so they'd stopped trying until they could figure out what was going on. Though he'd bet it was some sort of digital residue of the virus the Infested were carrying.

And that just made him all the more determined to get everyone out of this alive, Organic and Droid alike. As they pushed forward Recon 2, Recon 4, and Attack Group 2 were starting to become overwhelmed, but fortunately Attack Group 1 showed up in time to save them. As Forge walked towards the structure a young Major, Avery Johnson from his nameplate, looked to be around 25, ran up and saluted.

"Colonel! We've found what looks like an entrance into the facility. It took us a while because we've been hampered by constant attacks from these... things."

Forge looked up as some unholy mix of a screech and Ion Drives was heard overhead, seeing some sort of larger, heavily armored creatures fly by on course for the Odyssey. "We've gotta get in there, our ride's already damaged and the Daedalus can't Jump to Hyperspace so long as that field's up."

The two ran towards the doors and found a button hidden behind some fallen debris. Pressing it, they quickly but carefully moved in along with several Squads behind them. After around a minute they found what had to be the Control Room, though the scattered blood splatters and torn remains of armour plating painted a rather grim and, considering what they were fighting outside, obvious picture as to what happened to the Republic Troopers stationed here.

They got to work. After several minutes, everything shook as they heard a loud roar in the distance. Forge ran outside to see a Republic Self-Propelled Heavy Artillery Turbolaser that had been Infested. It'd grown a head and maw protruding from the co*ckpit, six fleshy crab-like legs each the size of a LAAT, and a metallic-flesh carapace. The Behemoth Form roared again before firing its main cannon at the Daedalus.

In response, both of the Recusant Class Heavy Dreadnoughts swung around to bring the Siege Cannons on their upper prows to bear. Eight massive spheres of energy were flung at the Behemoth, which quickly exploded under the immense fire.

"This is Captain Talda of the Daedalus, our shields are down to 40% after that blast! How's that door coming?"

"Don't worry, Ma'am, we've got it. Door's unlocked." Johnson sounded rather gleeful that they could finally return to their ships. Not that Forge could blame him one bit.

Unfortunately, now they had a new problem. Which became obvious as the ground opened up, only for both ships to have to fire their reverse engines at full power to hold position. "Odyssey to all ground troops, self destruct the bases and get back to the ships now!"
"You heard the man, move!" As the various Droids, Organics, and vehicles scrambled to get to the Dropships and Gunships coming in to pick them up, Alpha Base self-destructed after its personnel finished their evacuation, taking out a significant number of Infected swarming it.

Odyssey, Bridge

As the ship shook from the smaller Infected Flyers firing their Laser Cannons at us, another wing of those Bombers came at us. They'd try to ram themselves into us and, if our scanners were accurate, would release enough of the virus to infect half of the ship if they pierced the hull. Fortunately, this virus seemed to be less Flood and more Zerg when it comes to infection vectors, so we could limit their spread by sealing off most of the outer compartments except the Hangers, allowing more fighters to launch or for troops to enter after going through a proper decontamination cycle. We need some sort of full-body power armour or something, our current gear just isn't sufficient to fully protect us from this sort of attack.

The ship shook again as the last of the Gunships returned, though four had been Infested and shot destroyed while on their way to pick up some squads, who'd had to be picked up by the remaining vessels. Is there anything this virus can't infect?

Another blast caused Allana to grab onto my chair. She definitely needed one of her own. "Signal the Daedalus and take us in, full power."

As both ships surged forward the last of our fighters that weren't already in the bays for rearming were either Infested and shot down or managed to follow us. As the doors closed behind us, we started flying through what seemed to be a long tunnel, Odyssey in the lead. After several minutes the sensors beeped again.

"Sir, we've got more Infected coming at us, including several Infected Gunships which seem to be carrying more troops to drop on us."

Okay, what? Just how intelligent are these things? "Open fire, all batteries. Keep them as far away from us as possible."

Rumbling thumps sounded throughout the hull as the Grav-Launchers sent yet more Missiles into the air. As the ships kept moving forward yet more Infected Flyers and Gunships came at us, making me wonder just what sort of operation the Republic had been working on down here. After around 25 minutes we emerged on the other side only to see a pair of Venators right in front of us. There was no room to maneuver or stop as we flew right into them, the two ships scrapping along the edges of our shields as they opened fire.

Our own guns quickly returned the favor. Despite the damage from the journey here our shields were able to hold as both the Odyssey and Daedalus brought their Siege Cannons to bear. We couldn't risk firing our Anti-Proton Cannons in here, who knows what we would hit in addition to our targets.

Fortunately, our broadsides would still be more than enough to take care of two Venators. As the two ships fired their port or starboard thrusters trying to increase the distance between us, our guns started acquiring lock-ons and firing. As the Grav-Launchers were reloaded yet more Missiles were being built in our internal foundries, and our remaining Vultures soon once again took to the skies, though we had less than half of them left. Daedalus' air wing was in slightly better shape, but I was still glad I'd argued for far more point-defence cannons than the "experts" had believed to be necessary.

There was no room to really maneuver as both sides simply pounded away at each other. Though given our size, even damaged as Odyssey was, with our shields we had the advantage. Our Siege Cannons started firing slightly off-bore using Gravimetric Lensing to direct the energy, and before the Odyssey had gotten halfway through the starboard Venator took a hit to its portside hanger, causing a chain reaction which quickly spread throughout the vessel as it began to descend to the planets surface.

"Sir, am I the only one freaked out by the fact we're inside the planet?" Someone snorted at Allison's rather incredulous and slightly sarcastic tone as I kept my attention on the battle. She was still only 23, she'd get used to this stuff in 2-4 years. We all did.

Our portside guns, along with our aft guns as they came to bear, continued firing at the remaining Venator. As did the guns of the Daedalus as they followed 200 meters directly behind us. Technically against regulations, but it's not like we'd had a choice. That door up top had been closing rather fast. As the remaining Z95s died we recalled our fighters and started scanning for more hostiles.

After a few moments Lieutenant Williams got my attention. "Sir! We're detecting a Republic ship leaving a facility around 1500 kilometers away. Looks like an Inexpungable Class, surprised that thing's still flying. They're vectoring for another tunnel entrance on the far side."

"Nesseka, can you intercept?"

"Confirmed, Odyssey. Pushing engines to maximum and plotting a course now. You go check out what they left behind. See you on the other side."

Our sister ship gunned her Ion Drives and moved away on all three of her engines, while we used the two we had left to get closer to that facility. Forge was already in an HMP Gunship awaiting my word. Both of our C-9979As would launch as soon as he'd cleared a suitable LZ. "Colonel, you have a go."

RSS Spear Of Divinity

"Sir! One of the Separatist BattleFortresses is closing on us!"

Captain Mao Quonsing turned from his monitor. "I guess it was a long shot hoping the Hoodarski and Musashi would be able to hold out long enough for us to escape. How long until we reach the tunnel?" They had to get out of here, over 60% of their remaining supply of the Technovirus was stored on his ship. If it was lost, they'd have to revise their attack plans.

"Ten minutes, Sir, but they'll be on us in four."

"Send the Ventura and Fortis along with all of our fighters to intercept them."

The Officer seemed hesitant, then nodded. "Yes Sir."

Both of their CR-90s launched along with all 400 of their Z95s escorting all 200 of their V-19 Torrents. Half a salvo of Defensive Missiles soon raced to meet them. A half salvo of Offensive Missiles was also launched at the Will.

3rd POV

As they raced through the void of space, the Republic fighters tried to dodge the 800 Defensive Missiles coming their way to no avail. 5 seconds after they'd launched, the 600 Missiles ejected four more from their housings, increasing their number to 2400. That was four warheads per fighter, 2400 Missiles that the Z95s and V-19s first tried to dodge only to find that their predictive programming was far too effective, aiming to impact where they would be instead of for where they were like most designs.

As they fell, some tried to shoot the missiles down only to find, to their growing horror, that the warheads were equipped with defense shields which gave them a couple extra seconds to reach their targets, doing so to deadly effect. Even so, most of them only required 2 or 3 warheads, leaving over 350 to switch targets to the CR-90s. Despite their larger size and more powerful shields, they didn't last long enough to fire on the Daedalus before being obliterated, their wreckage pulled into the miniature star at the center of the planet.

As their escorts and starfighters died, the crew of the Will could only look on in horror as the 3100 meter long Inexpungable Class vessel tried to evade or destroy the 2400 warheads coming at it to no avail. As the impacts began there were those who feared they were dead, which was true for a great many of them. Even so, the almost 4000 year old vessel was critically damaged and knocked off course, crashing into the Shieldworld.

Settling over the wreckage, the Daedalus sent down boarding parties consisting of their modified Aqua Droids, which had also received some upgrades during the fight on the surface, alongside some B1s, B2s, and Commandos they'd received from the Odyssey. The Clone Troopers tried to defend their vessel, but they would soon find that easier said than done.

Clone Commander Z-102, also known as Zelkor, cursed as he was forced to try to mount a desperate defence. Dodging their shots seemed to be impossible, it was like they knew where you'd be before you did. "Hold them here! We can't let them reach the bridge before the Captain can erase the data cores!"

He fired three shots from his rifle at an Aqua Droid only for them to shimmer off of the Deflector Shields it had been equipped with. Recognizing him as an officer by his armour, the Droid stunned him and had him sent back to the Daedalus as a prisoner. Several Droidekas rolled forward and took up positions, advancing ahead of their brethren and absorbing most of the fire with their own bubble shields. But what none of the Clones realized was that the Captain had instead set the self destruct, deactivated the automated alarms, and fled to the last of the CR-90s. The two ships quickly lifted off and fled the auxiliary hanger, blasting down through the planet into the network of smaller tunnels.

The second vessel was damaged by the Confederate boarding parties and crashed in the depths of the artificial world, but the first escaped with both the Captain and their research data. With the remains of the Will blocking the way there was no way for any of the Vultures to pursue it. The vessel raced through the tunnels, blasting their way out, until they emerged on the other side and escaped the gravity well, Jumping to Hyperspace along the secondary routes.

Meanwhile, the Droids had made their way to the bridge of the Will far sooner than expected and hacked the computers, downloading what they needed before retreating, taking several bridge officers as prisoners. With everyone aboard dead or captured, they retreated to the Daedalus. The Heavy Dreadnought then pulled away to escape the blast.

Confederacy FOB, 45 Minutes Earlier

"Alright people, we don't have all day. Let's get in there and find out what the Republic was doing." As he spoke, Forge looked at the rather odd-looking structure jutting out of the landscape like a sore thumb. The architecture was remarkably different from everything else, like someone had started setting up a base of their own and stopped. Whatever it was, it looked like a giant, 20-kilometer across sphere with three prongs on top extending up into the sky.

When they reached what appeared to be the control room, Forge immediately moved to one of the terminals and began downloading what they could. "Captain, I've got something. Sending you the data now."

"Colonel, it's Major Ford, we've found something else."

Odyssey Bridge, Same Time

Allison rapidly pressed a series of buttons. After around five minutes she spoke up. "I've got it here, Sir. The virus is a Technovirus based on the Technobeasts created by the Sith Lady Belia Darzu over 1200 years ago. The Republic found some of the creatures on Tython over 60 years ago and decided to weaponize them. They didn't have any real luck until 15 years ago when Bail Organa took control of the project and, combined with the data they found here in this Shieldworld his people found 18 years ago, created the things we've been fighting ever since we got here. The virus uses Sith Alchemy and the Force to modify the host at the molecular level, even altering the spiritual part of them, that which connects all life Organic and Droid alike."

Bile rose in my throat. I'd expected to see some grocked up stuff, I'm in the middle of a war after all, but that was just plain evil.

"Any... anything about a cure or vaccine?" I don't blame Allana for thinking of that first.

Allison shook her head. "We've got some the data, and from the report we just got Daedalus managed to recover most of the rest, but it's all around creating and directing the Infected. And... oh crap."

Her eyes widened in horror and she started rapidly typing at her console. "What's wrong, Lieutenant?"

She turned back around. "Sir, you remember those particles from the energy beam the Republic fired at us earlier? The ones that don't seem to do anything? According to this, the only use the Republic found was in directing and attracting the Infected." Her console beeped with a hostile proximity warning, making the poor woman slightly flinch as her point was proven.

Unknown Structure, Same Time

Forge walked through the facility, coming upon a section which looked like it'd been locked down for quite some time. He looked around the room, from the layers of dust and the equipment left laying around the Republic had gotten in only recently, and left in a hurry. "Major. What have you got?"

Major Aiden Ford turned around and saluted the Lieutenant Colonel. "Sir. We were securing this section, and my tech-geek, Sergeant Felger, says this structure is a Space Station, a prototype for the Star Forge the Republic destroyed almost 4000 years ago. Most of this place is defunct, just a useless hunk of scrap, but it's this over here that he says is interesting. The Republic never removed it because they couldn't crack the codes, not until around five minutes before we got down here. At that point, it seems they left before examining anything."

He nodded to the rather odd-looking spherical device on the wall. "Alright, what's so special about this thing?"

Sergeant Felger got up and saluted, then started rapidly talking in an excited tone. "Colonel. This is it. Our key to winning the war. As we all know, while we have most of the resources due to comprising most of the Outer Rim the Core and much of the Inner Rim still possess the majority of the industry in the galaxy. The factories, shipyards, and whatnot. Well, this is a Factory Seed. It's meant to be placed in an asteroid and used to grow a whole new station much like the Star Forge. It's basically what we've been looking for this whole time."

If they'd been organic, his optics would've widened and his face would have a grin on it. "Now we can complete the Factory Stations and the fly boys can simply swarm and exterminate anything the Republic tries to send at us."

"Colonel Forge, get out of there now!"

He keyed his comm. "I was about to do that, Sir. We found something and... contact!"

An Infected came flying out of one of the vents, biting Major Ford, who primed a grenade and threw himself into a crowd of Infected coming down the corridor. Felger had time to disconnect and free the Factory Seed before being gunned down by ranged Infected wielding Plasma Rifles. Forge grabbed the Seed and began retreating with the other survivors.

Running down the halls, they eventually reached the hanger to find the door had collapsed. "Captain, this is Forge, we're cut off from the others. Get everyone outside to the ship, we'll find another way out."

He shot another Infected which had been armed with chainswords for arms. "Forge to Squad 12, Hocus, tell me you're still alive out there!"

"I read you Colonel. We borrowed those LAATs and they're certainly decent, I suppose, for a bunch of heaps of Core Worlder junk."

Forge gestured to the others. "Stay alive, we're heading to you. We'll be needing those Gunships to blast our way out of here."

"Roger that." She didn't sound very happy about it, but he knew she'd follow orders in this case.

As they ran, something exploded in the distance and the ground shook.

"Forge to Odyssey, what the hell was that?!" He shot another Infected and they ran into the Hanger, entering a LAAT after it landed to pick them up.

"Odyssey to all ground troops, we're leaving, now! Get back here on the double!"

Everyone scrambled to obey as the LAATs blasted open a hole in the Hanger doors.

Daedalus Bridge, A Minute Earlier

Nessekas eyes widened at the report. "Get me a channel to the Odyssey, now!"

Her ship rocked as, behind them, the Republic Inexpungable exploded. But as it did, it also detonated the power lines directly beneath the crash site causing a catastrophic chain reaction. Which she quickly relayed to the Odyssey.

Odyssey Bridge, 10 Minutes Later

Lieutenant Williams sighed in relief. "Hanger Bay reports all crews checked in. Daedalus is taking up position 80 meters to port, and Colonel Forge is on his way to the bridge with something he found in that structure."

I walked towards the forward viewport. "Then let's not outstay our welcome, best speed away."

"Captain, the gravity field from the sun is expanding. We're not going anywhere."

Well, it's not like pulling a slingshot at STL will send us back in time or something. "Let's see if we can't turn that to our advantage. Antrim, plot a course that takes us into the sun. We're going to slingshot around it. Soon as we're out, set course for Yag'Dhul. Signal the Daedalus to follow us and tell them where we're going."

Even as he obeyed, Antrim sounded ever so slightly sarcastic. "Threading a needle around an exploding star inside of a planet that's falling apart? Sure, why not?"

"Antrim, can you do it?"

"It's done. You might want to hold onto something."

I could already hear Nesseka's objections to this plan as her ship followed our lead. But I also didn't hear her hailing us to suggest a better idea.

Both ships shot forward, our holoscreens off and blast shutters closed to save everyone from getting blinded as our helmsmen kept their eyes on their instruments. As we did, the star began to lose integrity and a solar flare would've cooked us alive if our shields hadn't been up. We flew around the star and then out through one of the larger holes that'd appeared as the rest of the planet began cracking apart and getting pulled into it.

"This is the Daedalus, our Hyperdrive is still inoperable."

"Understood, stick close to Odyssey and we'll bring you along in our Warp Fold."

Drawing close together, we activated our Warp Drive and the two ships were quickly enveloped in the Bubble, shooting off towards Yag'Dhul together as the planet exploded behind us.

Republic Science Facility, Unknown Location, 2 Days Later

As Captain Quonsing walked into the room, he looked around for Senator Organa. "He's busy right now, but you can deal with me." He turned around and suddenly felt like he was being crushed under a boulder.

"Sen-Senator Amidala, I'm sorry. We did what we could, but..." The suddenly yellow eyes of the Nabooian Senator shut him up as his throat tightened.

"You know the price of failure, Captain."

"Senator, please... don't..." His words soon became screams of agony which echoed throughout the station.

Chapter 8: Sidestory #2: Loss Of Arrogance

Chapter Text

Jedi Temple, A Little Over A Year Prior To The Battle Of Geonosis

Anakin Skywalker and Barriss Offee walked through the Temple with a slightly hurried gait, their Masters had called them to the Hanger mid-way through sparring together. As the two entered they saw Obi Wan and Luminara standing near a Consular Class Cruiser.

Walking over, the two quickly turned from their own conversation to their Padawans. "Anakin, Barriss, good of you to come. The Council has a mission for us. Apparently, some pirates attacked a science station near Alderaan and have taken hostages, and Senator Organa asked for the two of us to mediate. Master Luminara volunteered to tag along, and I'm sure Barriss won't mind sticking close to you."

Barriss and Anakin blinked at the last part, trying to figure out what he could possibly mean by that as their Masters gave small smiles and the four entered the Cruiser. Soon, they'd packed some supplies and were in Hyperspace, with Barriss and Anakin taking one room while Obi Wan and Luminara took another.

"So..." Barriss looked over at where Anakin was checking over his Lightsaber. "What do you think the chances are of us getting shot at this time? I mean, things have been getting crazier in the galaxy ever since Naboo."

She shook her head. "You've really got to let go of the whole arrogant Chosen One attitude one of these days, it's going to get you injured or worse. And I'm not always going to be there to patch you up, Anakin."

He grinned. "Well, I guess I did help you work on everything from your Lightsaber technique to your hand to hand and several others, so maybe you could repay me with some of those Force Healing techniques you were talking about last week? Please?"

She sighed, knowing he couldn't exactly help the slight arrogance. Herself, Obi Wan, and Luminara were among the few who just treated him as a normal person instead of solely as the Chosen One. Of course he exhibited a bit more arrogance under those circ*mstances.

"Alright, guess I can't let my best friend risk bleeding out from a papercut."

The two of them laughed as she started explaining some of the basics during the 2 Day journey to Alderaan.

Science Station In Orbit Of Alderaan, 2 Days Later

The Cruiser dropped out of Hyperspace to see a number of local PDF vessels and the wreckage of two pirate cruisers, both CR-50s. As they approached one of the PDF vessels hailed them and then let them through once their identity was confirmed. Vect Bornur, the local PDF Captain in command, met them at the airlock.

"Thank you for coming so quickly. The materials in this station are sensitive and if we were forced to go in, even with stun grenades we'd risk setting something off."

Obi Wan nodded. "What kind of research do you do here?"

"This is a Science Facility, we do a little bit of everything from time to time. Unfortunately, I cannot offer more details other than that what's in there are highly volatile materials of a biological nature."

Anakin shook his head. "That's it? You can't tell us anything else?" He'd prefer not to have to use a Mind Trick, it might make them look bad.

The Captain got an odd look on his face. "Sorry, but no. You'll have to take it up with Senator Organa. When the pirates attacked we destroyed their Cruisers, turned out most of them had used shuttles to sneak aboard before we noticed. With their transports gone they barricaded themselves in one of the labs along with most of the scientists, the rest either died or managed to evacuate via escape pods or shuttles."

Luminara looked at him with a critical eye. "Why would they attack a Science Facility this far into the Core?"

Now the Captain was starting to look a bit frustrated. "Look, Master Jedi, I'm sorry, but I can't say any more about what goes on in this facility. Now please, this way to the labs. We've setup a perimeter, and a console connected to one of the terminals inside allows us to communicate with them. So far, they've only demanded that we get them a new ship."

Moving over to the console, the four stood before it to see the pirates wearing the armour of the Scarlet Brood, a group of criminals who usually operated in the Outer Rim. Each was branded with a curved red claw on their armour, most of which was fused with their skin, a sign of their membership in the group. Barriss and Anakin soon moved over to look at a nearby map, looking for potential alternate means of entering the lab.

"I am Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi. We can settle this peacefully."

Anakin and Barriss traced their hands over the map and communicated through the Force as their Masters continued to negotiate. "(Here. If we go left down this corridor, take a right here, and go down three intersections before taking another right we'll reach another entrance into the labs. Doesn't look like it's as heavily secured as this end. If need be we can go through there and catch them by surprise.)"

Seeing what she was looking at, he nodded. "(Good plan. Personally, I'd prefer to go for a frontal assault, but we can't risk the hostages. I'll tell Masters Luminara and Obi Wan.)" He turned to do so to see Luminara walking over to them as aggressive yelling could be heard from the console. Guess the pirates weren't all that responsive to Kenobi's attempts at negotiation. Strange.

"(Master Luminara. We've found another way in.)"

Seeing Barriss repeat her earlier gestures, the older Mirialan nodded. She then looked over at Obi Wan and shared a silent conversation with him before nodding at the two of them. "(Good. We'll keep working on this end. You two go around and be ready for our signal if things turn south.)"

The Padawans nodded and began making their way around to the far side of the labs. As they moved, the two grew curious about what was in the various containers on pallets throughout the station, though given they were all marked with biohazard signs both pushed it down and concentrated on the mission. Eventually, they reached the doors and sent a message to their Masters through the Force.

After several minutes of waiting, Anakin decided to just go in anyway, and Barriss followed in the hope of keeping him alive. As they burst through the doors, Anakin felt of flash of warning through the Force and Force Pushed Barriss away as the bombs exploded, sending shrapnel throughout his body. The force of the explosion sent them both flying, and the last he knew before going unconscious was that somebody was screaming.

Obi Wan and Luminara felt the flash of surprise and pain from their Padawans, and burst through the doors. They'd secure the hostages as fast as possible and then go straight through the labs to check on them. It'd be faster than going all the way around.

After recovering from the Push, Barriss attempted to shield herself with the Force as the explosion reached her, but not before a large piece of shrapnel got her in the leg. Yanking it out and Healing the wound with the Force, she got up and ran over to Anakin. The 17 year old woman paused in shock as she saw her friend. Her best friend. He was bleeding profusely from his chest, forehead, both legs, and both arms. She quickly got to work trying to Heal the wounds, but she was just one woman, and there was a lot of blood. She finally decided on a Senior Healer Level Technique she'd read about one time. She'd never done that one before, and it might kill her, but if it saved her best friend she'd do it.

Meanwhile, the 18 year old Human found himself in a combination of having his entire life flash before his eyes and a Force Vision of what seemed to be an alternate timeline. Him and Barriss hadn't become as close, the galaxy erupted into a bloody war and both of them were slowly twisted into dark mockeries of themselves.

He saw himself growing closer to Senator Amidala in that timeline, even though he hadn't spoken to or thought about her for almost ten years. His thoughts had been on his mother and, recently, a certain green... okay, where did that come from? He mentally shook himself as the vision changed again.

It was him, but leading an army of shadowy figures into the Jedi Temple at the behest of the Sith Lord, a nameless figure in black robes. They butchered anyone they could find. His eyes glowed a dim yellow as he put his blade through his best friends chest, her eyes going dim as she died.

And then he saw flashes of the timeline he remembered. Despite his arrogance and somewhat co*cky attitude, she'd stuck by him. They'd helped each other at every step of the way over the past nine years. Lightsaber training, hand to hand, using the Force, while the Jedi Code forbid attachments he couldn't deny that there was something between them.

And it wasn't just her, Obi Wan had taken him from the Temple to find his mother around a month after arriving. Once they tracked her down to the Lars Farm, due to him being older than most Younglings and Padawans Obi Wan decided to secretly give Anakin and his mother a communicator to keep in contact. That had been a big part of why the two had forged the bond they had. He knew he could trust Obi Wan, and that that trust was returned.

Laying in the void that had replaced the vision, Anakin found himself becoming a bit introspective. While there were some things that his Master kept from him, Anakin could ultimately understand as everyone had their secrets, and in truth he respected Obi Wan enough not to pry.

And how had he repaid their efforts? He was reckless, arrogant, and as had almost happened just now, it would eventually get him, or worse, them, killed.

A voice sounded from the distance, faint and barely audible. Barriss. He blinked and found himself on the floor of the science facility, Barriss half laying on his chest, blood spattered and pooled around them. As he tried to think about what happened, he realized that a part of him felt... different, like the two of them had traded a piece of themselves or something. Trying to find something to say, he finally settled on just leaning forward and hugging her.

"Thank you." Those two words were enough to say everything he meant to, and as she looked up, evidently exhausted from the task of healing not just herself but him as well, she smiled. But then she coughed up blood and fell back onto the floor beside him. Anakin leaned over her, quashing down his panic as he tried to remember the Force Healing she'd been explaining to him prior to their arrival.

After a second or two it came to him and he drew on his reserves, linking into her mind to find where the worst pain, and thus injuries, were, then concentrated everything in Healing those areas. After a few seconds, her breathing evened out, and then Barriss violently hacked as she returned to consciousness.

The two then looked up as Obi Wan and Luminara ran through the doors and began tending to their injured Padawans.

Later, they learned that the hostages had been successfully rescued and most of the pirates were either dead or arrested. When Anakin recounted his vision to the Council, he was told that the future was forever in motion and there was a high likelihood that that timeline had already been avoided. Years later, they'd learn that they were right, but not for the reasons they thought.

Science Facility, Alderaan, Two Days After The Incident

Captain Vect Bornur saluted Senator Organa. "Sir, we can confirm that all samples of the Techno-Virus have been successfully retrieved despite the explosion. Seems the only casualties were the test subjects held in that section and the Ysalamiri we were using to conceal them."

The Senator nodded. "Good. Have all remaining materials moved to our secondary facility. It's much less conspicuous than a facility in orbit over a Core World. As for you, the Jedi already know your face."

The Captain barely had time for more than a look of horror as the Senator pulled a pistol and disintegrated him where he stood. Placing the weapon back in its concealed holster, the Senator walked out, reminding himself to screen the rest of the staff at this facility to ensure none of them took bribes in hopes of sharing the profit again. His operations were too important to be compromised by a lowly underling.

Chapter 9: Chapter 6: Retrofits

Chapter Text

"The Republic was always so confident in their power and technology. So assured that they had all of the best designers. My team took that as a challenge." - Admiral Sonja Hemphill, 3 Years After The War Of Republic Aggression.

CISS Odyssey, Orbit Of Yag'Dhul, Almost 7 Days Since The Battle Of Christophsis, And Almost 11 Days Since Geonosis

As I relayed my report to President Dooku, Supreme Commander Taan, and Admiral Merai, since he was the local Admiral in command here, I went back over the events of the past 12 hours. Despite the heavy fighting, over 4/6ths of my crew and 2/3rds of my ground contingent had survived. Not that that made me feel better given we'd still lost way too many people for my taste. And we'd be losing a lot more over the coming months. But every one of the men and women under my command had known what they were signing up for.

That's what I have to remember. "And when we dropped out on the edges of the Yag'Dhul System I contacted Admiral Merai asking for an update on the situation."

They nodded, absorbing everything. After a moment the President started speaking. "Well done on getting out of there alive, Captain. We'll be sending your ship along with the Daedalus to the Bolthole Shipyards for repairs and a retrofit. We've had some technological breakthroughs recently, and it'll take around three weeks to complete the retrofit, so at least a month. Set course for the Koboh System, from there you'll be guided to Bolthole by the ships stationed in the system. We have also completed three prototype stealth vessels, while your ships are being retrofitted yourself and Captain Talda will be taking temporary command of two of them. After getting used to them for 48 hours, you'll receive further orders. We've been hearing rumours of more Republic bio-weapons, and right now you two have the most experience in dealing with at least one of them."

"Yes Sir." I saluted, and the four, including Nesseka who'd stayed silent after giving her own account, disappeared as the screen deactivated.

"Helm, signal the Daedalus we're all ready on our end."

The Daedalus moved close enough to Odyssey to be enveloped in our Warp Field. We activated our Warp Drive and were quickly on our way.

Kuat Drive Yards, Kuat System, Same Time

As Captain Bricarria La'Frey walked into the observation deck to see a holotable projecting an image of her new ship, she saw the Chief Engineer, Chief Markos, standing nearby. She'd have to make a note to harvest his skin later.

"Captain, I've been looking over your proposed weapon designs, and while they should be easy enough to build here, this is Kuat, so that goes without saying, I was curious about where you got them?"

She smirked. "The man we're going after, the man who built the BattleFortresses, I used to date him. We... didn't work out, but I got a look at his computer a few times. His designs, while still early in development, gave me a few ideas. How soon will the Atomic Splicer Cannons be ready?"

That had been one of them. Evan wouldn't know what hit him. Hopefully. She held in a wince as she suddenly remembered some of those shield upgrades he'd been working on, but some of the terminology was beyond her ability to understand and so she'd been forced to rely solely on their sensor data to try to even the field.

Hopefully, along with their new ARC-170s and V-19A Torrents, not to mention a few other surprises, it'd provide her enough of an advantage to take him out. She'd already pushed through several modifications, but she was shipping out again in five days. Fortunately, she'd been given a blank check and was confident she could have almost everything done in four days. The rest they could do on the move.

Koboh, Koboh System, 3 Days Later

As the two ships emerged from Hyperspace, I ordered full power to sensors. Having played Star Wars Jedi: Survivor I was pretty sure I knew where Bolthole was, but it remained to be seen. Our little diversion to that alternate reality had been fun, but now we needed to help our own. Hopefully our modifications to our Warp Drive, what Admiral Hunter had called a Hyperspace Fold Generator, would allow for us to create a properly working version that didn't malfunction if you looked at it wrong.(1)

"Captain, there are 12 ships holding orbit over Koboh as well as a Type 3 starbase orbiting the moon. We are receiving a transmission from the Braxton informing us to proceed to a set of coordinates just outside the Koboh Abyss. Sir, I think they're planning to have us fly in there."

Allana walked over and double checked Allison's console. She shook her head and turned back to me. "Sir, that's insane. The Koboh Abyss is composed of Koboh Matter, which tears starships apart at the molecular level even through shields. Nothing can survive that."

"Well, I doubt they'd have us fly all the way out here if they hadn't found a way through. It's certainly a good place for a secret base, especially since most Core World Captains wouldn't be quite as used to the rather insane stuff we run into regularly. Set a course and engage sublight engines, full power."

Allison nodded. "Yes Sir."

As the Odyssey started moving, the Daedalus was soon racing to catch up a few kilometers behind us.

20 minutes later, as we settled into position, Allison's console beeped again. "Captain, we're getting energy readings from three separate facilities, two on the planet and one on the moon. They appear to be targeting the Abyss."

As the energy readings grew to astronomical levels, three beams of energy suddenly appeared in the skies above Koboh, piercing into the Abyss. A large, triangular tunnel soon appeared.

"Sir, we're getting confirmation that the Arrays are stable and will keep the tunnel open for as long as we need."

I nodded. "Very well, signal the Daedalus that we're going in."

Power flowed into our Ion Drives, which soon lit up and started pushing us forward. If our comrades had repaired the Arrays and prevented them from burning out, then I guess we don't need to rely on Hyperspace to get us in there. At least not anytime soon.

As we travelled through the Abyss, I couldn't help but marvel at one of the strangest things I'd ever seen. I mean, I've seen a lot travelling across the galaxy, but it's one thing to have seen it in a video game cutscene close to 30 years ago and another to see it in real life.

As we approached the end of the tunnel, Allison was still going over the data from her console when we came in sight of a planet. Tanalorr. Around it was a myriad of spacedocks, starbases, and three gargantuan stations shaped like a large mushroom with five arms coming off of the mid-section, each with a hammerhead on the end, and three long prongs coming off the bottom. The main section of each was 5000 kilometers tall and, including the arms, 4000 across. Despite around 20% of their structure still being little more than the framework, they were larger than the average moon. Molecular Furnaces are truly amazing creations, of course some of those engineers have been developing what would become the Factory Stations for almost 60 years.

We were routed to a pair of spacedocks in high orbit, and in many of the berths we could see dozens of Recusant Heavy Dreadnoughts under construction, though the engines looked to be of a different design, instead possessing four in a configuration closer to that of a Providence. But not all of the docks held HDNs, many held other vessels of every Class such as the Providence Light Of Dawn. After we docked myself and Allana were called towards the meeting room on one of the Stations.

Several minutes later I looked out the window of said room and noticed a pair of rather strange vessels which were definitely of Confederate design emerge from the Abyss. A voice had me turning around. "Those are Kalivar Class Corvettes, developed at Fondor before the war broke out. They're one of several designs we hired various planets to put together."

Myself and Allana saluted Admiral Sonja Hemphill as she walked in, and she returned it, then gestured for us to sit down on one side of the table. She sat on the other. "We'll start once the others get here."

I nodded, and gestured outside. "Kinda small for frontline Navy ships, aren't they?"

She smirked. "That they are. Though 50 of them held Fondor against a fleet of 800 Acclimators for over seven days straight. I'll send you the data. We've also developed some new armour mixes which are significantly stronger than standard Durasteel plating. While any one of them would be good enough on its own, we've refined them into a new design which consists of several types of armour layered over each other."

Before I could ask what she meant by new mixes, the door opened to admit Jiya, Nesseka, and Commander Telemachus Rhade, her First Officer. Behind them came a man I didn't recognize, a Human male with white skin, grey hair, and the uniform of the Confederacy Intelligence Bureau. "Alright, everyone's here. This is Agent Franklin Drake, he's the one who led the team on the ground during our recent raid of Kamino. Your ships will all be in for retrofits for several weeks, and Captain Karik here needs a proper military vessel. Until the Prometheus is completed, the three of you will be taking command of three of the five prototypes for the Shadowblade Class Stealth Frigates."

She pressed a few buttons and a holographic ship appeared. It was long and narrowed near the front, like an Imperial Raider minus the solar panels, though the engines were much smaller. Several panels pulled back to reveal hidden Turbolasers and Concussive Missile Tubes. "These ships are equipped with Phased Cloaking Devices which not only make them invisible to the naked eye and most scanners, but also allows them to phase through solid matter until the device is deactivated. Unfortunately, we still can't fire while cloaked but it does give us significant alpha strike capabilities, not to mention with their speed you can easily recloak and move to another position. These ships can operate alone, but they're primarily designed to operate in groups of at least three.

We've been hearing rumours about the Republic developing some new bio-weapons at a facility on Naboo. We want you to head to our Advanced Scientific Research facility on Iego and talk to Dr Nuvo Vindi. He'll be analyzing any data or samples you acquire in the hopes of developing a cure or vaccine, especially for the Technovirus Captains Boll and Talda encountered."

I raised an eyebrow. "I read the report on the raid, Agent Drake. Good job. Hopefully, we can find what we're looking for. These new ships will be an excellent addition to our arsenal."

Nesseka nodded. "Have we had any luck in upsizing those cloaking devices?"

The Admiral smirked. "No, nothing like that. Though I'm sure one of you will figure it out given the looks in your eyes. The three of you will have 2 days to finalize the retrofits for your ships, which will take up to a month, and then you'll be assigned to the Unity, Silent Hunter, and Ravanna. Captain Boll will also be promoted to Commodore giving him more authority to coordinate multiple vessels. As noted in the general memo sent out by Command two days ago, Commodores will coordinate entire Divisions, Rear Admirals will command singular Fleets, and Admirals will command five Fleets. Any questions?"

I'd been a bit surprised when I'd read the memo, but I guess Parliament and Command both had to do something to ensure we had as clear a chain of command as possible.

Jiya raised her hand. "Admiral, may I ask how the construction of our Factory Stations is going?"

Hemphill pressed a few more buttons, and handed us all datapads as an image of one of the Stations appeared over the table. "We were originally on track to completing all three of them within three months, but with the assistance of the Factory Seed retrieved by Captains Boll and Talda, we believe we can finish them within two weeks. At that point, we will simply need to hold out for around two months until the Stations can nearly triple our current armed forces."

As we all digested her words, I looked at the datapad. The Shadowblade was 350 meters long, only 50 meters longer than the Kalivar, despite being classed a Frigate while the other was classed as a Corvette. Equipped with a total of 120 Concussion Missile Tubes, 80 on the sides, 20 aft and 20 in the nose, it also had a total of 80 Proton Particle Beam Cannons. A note stated that they had been found to have a significantly greater range than standard Laser or Tibanna weaponry, which I found interesting.

The Odyssey could already strike down foes from at least 3 Million kilometers away, if our upgrades were combined with these new Proton Beams, we'd be basically untouchable. She dismissed us, and as we were walking out I had an idea. "Hey, Allana, Nesseka, Jiya, want to go for a date when we've got some free time?"

All three of them turned to me, eyes wide. Allana spoke first. "Sure. I mean, we had something planned to see how amenable you'd be to the idea since all three of us... care deeply for you and want to make you happy, but this works too."

Jiya snorted. "Well, how about we head to the Odyssey and coordinate the retrofits? I'll head over to the Prometheus first to set things up and then I'll meet you there."

"Right, guess it would be best for you to confirm to them that it's actually you coordinating the retrofits remotely instead of someone else." Nesseka held in a slight grimace at the thought, remembering the time she'd had to fight off an attempted infiltration of the Daedalus by a Republic Cell. Fortunately, they'd all either been captured or died before they could send any of their information to their superiors.

As we entered the Hanger Jiya split off to enter the Emerald Lance, Commander Rhade went to the other Sheathipede to return to the Daedalus directly, and myself and Allana went into ours to return to the Odyssey, Nesseka right behind us.

I sat down and the two women sat down on either side of me. Nesseka breathed as she let herself relax a bit. "We've come so close to dying so many times over the past few days. And yet I know I'd still follow you back in because I can't lose you."

Allana smiled slightly. "Yeah, well, we knew what we were getting into when we signed up."

I put my arms around them, and they leaned into me. "I'm glad I have you two. And Jiya. We'll survive, come what may, I know it." We took out the Datapads the Admiral had given us and started looking through our options.

Something I found interesting was the new EX-250 Ion Cannon, which was designed to cause physical destruction as well as disabling electronics. Selecting a total of 160, I sent the data to Allana and then kept looking. Another interesting weapon were the Grav-Cannons, also known as the Gravitic Mass Accelerator Cannons, GMACs, or MACs. Firing a variety of multi-ton rounds at .50c, one round every five seconds, they would theoretically be able to shred most vessels, even Mandators. Selecting a total of 240, with both of the new weapons replacing some of our Laser Cannons or Turbolasers, I also had the rest of our remaining Energy Weapons selected for replacement with Neutron and Proton Beam Cannons.

The Anti-Proton Cannon would receive some upgrades allowing us to adjust the width of the beam to encompass a wider or narrower area in front of us. Our Grav Launchers for the Missiles would also be upgraded, sending out their payloads at .50c.

Not to mention the modifications to the interior, such as moving the main bridge further into the hull and replacing the current space with an observation deck/mess hall. Orion would remain in the auxiliary bridge, which could continue to serve as it was.

I sent these preliminary changes to Allana and Nesseka to see what they thought. When Jiya came over I'd send her the same data. While nothing was set in stone, these seemed like they'd be enough to give us an edge. Selecting the Particle Emitter Rapid-Switch Systems, I ordered them placed in every one of our secondary and tertiary energy weapons allowing us to switch on demand.

Around 30 minutes later, as we were taking a break to cook and eat lunch, the door beeped and Jiya entered the room. "Hey guys, how's it going so far?"

I looked over from where I was cooking up the Kladon, which was sorta like an analogue to bacon. "Hey, Jiya. We were just taking a short lunch break."

Nesseka pressed a few buttons projecting a holo of the refit for Odyssey, which would be mirrored on the Daedalus, over the table. "We've settled on what we believe to be a well-rounded design for the Type 2s."

Allana looked over at her, taking her eyes off the toasted cheese bagels for a second. "There are a few minor areas we're still debating, but so far it's mostly been nailed down."

Jiya sat down at the table and placed her Datapad next to ours. The rest of us went back to preparing lunch. "Hey, out of curiosity, are you guys doing anything with those LAATs in the Hanger? I worked with Captain Ventress during our last mission, and I got the sense she wanted to get her hands on one."

I dished up the plates and started handing them out. "Well, I was going to hand a couple over to Admiral Hemphill and let my crew see what they could do to one of the remaining while the fourth was kept intact for if we ever needed to infiltrate a base or ship undetected, though I suppose I can hand one over to the Admiral and one to the Captain."

We sat down to eat as we started debating.

Kuat Drive Yards, Around The Same Time

It was chaos throughout the system as engineers and contractors scurried to put together the myriad of warships ordered for the Republic Navy. But even as the Malevolence, which had completed its refit a day early, went into Hyperspace, things were already in motion to ensure those ships never reached the front lines.

To most, they appeared no different than standard A-Class Bulk Freighters. But as the 3200 Q-Ships of the 20 active Storm Fleets silently slid into position, the rest of this part of Operation Cutworm 1 was already in place thanks to a number of CIB Agents planting explosives in key areas of the Kuat Ring, the structure which surrounded the planet and also contained most of the military construction docks, which is what the CIS were aiming for. The docks meant for civilian vessels would take months to be retrofitted for military use.

Over the past 25,000+ years the military industrial capacity of the Kuat System had grown immensely to the point it was larger than most Star Systems could dream of, close to rivalling a Factory Station in total capacity at any one time. Over 900,000 warships were being built right now, the maximum it could currently reach. Something it wouldn't be capable of for much longer. While the original plans had called for the Bulwark Fleet to be the force to annihilate KDY, the Parliament and others in Confederacy Command agreed that they needed to do everything they could to buy time for the Factory Stations to come online.

Thus, now in position around the shipyards, all 3200 of the battlecruisers disguised as merchant vessels retracted the shielded hull plating that concealed their turbolasers and missile tubes. The various Republic Officers watching their scanners didn't have time to react when they opened fire. While shielded hull plating was nothing new in this day and age, most Captains used it for smuggling drugs, weapons, and slaves, which while "officially" illegal in the Republic nobody really cared to enforce the laws in those cases. Not when they could be paid to turn the other way.

Something which was now far from everyone's minds as missiles and TurboLaser salvoes were flung headlong into ship after ship, many of which were only half finished and with large parts of their skeleton frames exposed. Aiming for the most vital systems where possible, in moments over 60,000 warships were obliterated, another 140,000 heavily damaged and delayed for weeks or months.

And yet, as people scrambled to respond in one way or another, the second part of this operation went off. Seeing the Storm Fleets doing their job, many of the local CIB cells detonated the explosives they'd planted and either made their way to go to Hyperspace or went to ground on Kuat itself. While there were only two Mandators left, in the long run even damaging just one would cripple the Republics ability to challenge the CISNs own Star Dreadnoughts.

The Kuat Ring had existed for millennia, and in a matter of moments it was rendered to dust in a myriad of brilliant fireballs. Nuclear, Anti-Matter, Proton, Quark, they used everything. Most of the combat-capable vessels were either fighting on the frontlines or amassing nearby, so the crews of the Divine Will and the Hammer Of The Republic didn't have nearly as many allied vessels to assist them as they would've liked, their Ion Drives ever so slowly warming up.

But even as close to 600,000 warships were torn apart by explosions and debris flung towards them by the destruction of their brethren, over 40,000 ARC-170s were being launched. Though they were only a danger if they not only survived flying through all the debris, but also got close enough to the real Q-Ships to fire back before being destroyed. Each of the Storm Class Q-Ships was equipped with an ECM-Suite allowing it to jam enemy sensors, making it almost impossible for the Republic to tell where they were. They weren't invincible, however, and the sheer volume of fire was enough to destroy some of them.

By now, most of the Q-Ships had already expended their kinetic ordnance and were down to their energy weapons. Either responding to live orders from a trio of Munificents hidden nearby or to the decisions of the individual Captains, they began fleeing into Hyperspace, making small Jumps to the small flotilla of support ships in a nearby system to rearm. While some wished they could return to continue the fight their orders were to do what they could and fall back.

10 minutes later, as the number of remaining Q-Ships dwindled to 700, the Hammer finally got her engines and some of her guns repaired, allowing her to remove herself from the remains of the dock and numerous Republic vessels, including what was left of the Will. Seeing the approaching threat and knowing that their real frontline navy vessels would be more than capable of dealing with it later, the Q-Ships considered their job complete and began to flee.

Despite the Republics efforts, the Confederacy managed to get all but fifty of their Q-Ships out. All in all, only 80 of their original 3200 vessels were lost, 12 Organic Captains, everyone else were Droids who were downloaded into the databanks of the nearby Munificents before they too retreated into Hyperspace.

Their job complete, the Storm Fleets separated into their 21 divisions, the 20 Fleets and 1 Flotilla of support vessels, and began executing a series of Hyper-Jumps to prevent pursuit. Over the next six days, they would spread out again throughout the galaxy to continue hitting Republic supply lines. Admiral Francis Wildhammer, a Human from an Outer Rim world, sent a report to his superiors on the success of the operation.

Bolthole Shipyards, Tanalorr, 2 Days Later

As I looked out the window of the LAAT as it made its way to the Unity, my mind was on the events of the last two days. We'd agreed to hand over two of the captured Republic Gunships to Nesseka and Jiya, kept the third, and the fourth would go to Captain Ventress who would work with Admiral Hemphill to develop a next-generation Dropship to replace our current Sheathipedes. When we'd given her the Gunship Ventress had barely restrained herself from reacting like a kid on Christmas. I swear I caught her quietly fist pumping as she walked out of the briefing. Seriously, what happened to her in this timeline? Ah well, I can't be privy to all the details while I'm living through it.

I'd also gone on a couple nice meals with Jiya, Allana, and Nesseka. It was different now that I was dating all three of them, but there were times when it was like I was with only one woman despite there being three in the room, it was a little bizarre.

"She's quite a ship, isn't she?" I turned to Allana, who continued speaking. "Personally, I'm a little anxious about leaving our ship for a retrofit while the two of us lead a crew to investigate those bioweapons. But orders are orders, and I see no reason why our current ones would violate any regs or morals so we've got no reason to ignore them."

I nodded. "I share your sentiments, Allana, but we have to respect the chain of command. If the Supreme Commander believes we'll be of more use ferrying our intel boys around hunting down these weapons, then that's what we'll do."

She nodded, and we started walking down two decks to actually enter the Unity. Once we did I noticed more and more people wearing the new HEP-1, Heavy Environmental Protection, Power Armor, which would hopefully become standard issue for everyone, Navy and Army, over time. While a bit bulkier than the armour used by people like the Mandalorians and Republic Clone Troopers, it was actually more agile and much faster thanks to internal servos and a small AG-Field Generator. I'd also pushed for the visorless design of the helmet, instead it had a retractable faceplate, eliminating a potential weak point. As the three ships left for Iego, I also looked over the data for the rest of our new ships developed at Bolthole.

Lets just say that the Republic had better pray they don't actually deploy those bio-weapons.

Authors Note: (1) This can be found in the SpaceBattles thread Another Left Turn At Albuquerque by AJW.

Chapter 10: Sidestory #3: Battle Of Kamino

Chapter Text

CISS Liberator, Hyperspace, Just Under 5 Days After The Battle Of Christophsis

As the 3rd Fleet sped through Hyperspace on course for Kamino, Admiral Vet Cithir went over his attack plans again. The Neimodian wished he could just go ahead and destroy every last one of the Cloning Facilities, but his orders were to leave at least one mostly intact enough for someone to survive and report back, maybe even talk the Senate into pushing for peace. It might've been a bit naive, but there was a small faction in the Parliament that hoped that not everyone who wasn't corrupt had come over to the Confederacy or declared neutrality.

Still, he himself was a soldier, not a politician. He had his orders, and he'd carry them out to the best he could while keeping as many of his people alive as he could. Fortunately, he commanded a Mandator, one that had been retrofitted with more advanced systems than the standard version Kuat had originally built. Even without the 49,999 ships around it, the Liberator alone would probably be enough to complete the mission. At 8000 meters with thousands of Laser Cannons, Ion Cannons, Missile Tubes, and Turbolaser Cannons, it was a Fleet all by itself.

And it was about to go right into the heart of the Rancor Den. Kamino was protected by the Republics 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th Fleets, over 80,000 warships. Over 1.6 times his own numbers. Though the Liberator would probably have been enough, he'd chosen to even the odds by coordinating with the 7th, 15th, 19th, and 33rd Fleets to lure as many of the Republics ships away from Kamino as possible by staging "attacks" in various systems across the Sector, though really just flying into orbit and parking there without firing on anything that wasn't an active Republic warship or base. As was standard CIS procedure, they left everything that wasn't Republic completely alone.

A plan that seemed to have worked, given the latest intel he'd received from Agent Franklin Drake, a man who'd been one of the Confederacy Intelligence Agency's best for many years. According to his intel, there was now less than 25,000 warships left in orbit of Kamino. The Admiral doubted this particular tactic would work again, but they really only needed to hold out until the Factory Stations were online. And from what he'd heard, if they needed to take out Kamino once and for all later, then Project Shadowblade would most likely work.

"Admiral, we're approaching the system. ETA is 1 minute."

Cithir looked towards his First Officer, Commander Johnathan Keyes, and nodded. "Alright, signal the Fleet to Action Stations and stand by to fire as soon as we've locked on to the enemy. Agent Drake will shut down their defences from the inside, and extract to a CR-90 his team commandeered. Watch for their signal, we don't want to shoot down our own guys."

His crew quickly got to work, and around a minute later the Liberator dropped out of Hyperspace on the outermost edge of Kamino's atmosphere. As their dorsal and ventral guns moved into position, he could see the Republic fleet had been caught by surprise with their shields down. At least 12,000 ships were either debris or out of control and caught in the gravity well. "Focus as much of our fire on the surface as we can, the more damage the longer we have to get the Factory Stations online. Let our escorts deal with the fleet."

As the ship moved forward, firing at anything that looked industrial or important to the Republic, the ships in orbit tried to defend the planet but found they didn't have the firepower to break through its shields. Despite the heavy jamming from the 20,000 Munificents in orbit, after 45 minutes one Republic ship performed a Micro-Jump to the outskirts of the system and sent out a distress signal, recalling the ships that'd been sent away.

By this point, the Infiltration Team had successfully used their stolen CR-90 to escape and as more Republic ships had been destroyed or disabled more Confederacy vessels shifted their fire towards the planet.

"Sir, we've destroyed all of our primary objectives and around 70% of our secondaries. We've also received a transmission from the Cortez: all of the Republic ships which were drawn away have Jumped to Hyperspace and are on their way back."

The Admiral nodded, know that they'd now have to execute the hard part of the mission: get out alive. "Alright, we've done more than enough damage. Inform the Fleet to fall back to Rally Point Omega. Take us out of the gravity well and power up the Hyperdrive."

As the gargantuan vessel began its escape out of the gravity well, massive spikes in Terminov Radiation signaled the arrival of almost 60,000 warships, outnumbering the 3rd Fleet which had already exhausted much of their ammunition glassing the cloning facilities. Not greatly, but an extra 10,000 ships was nothing to scoff at. Even so, the Liberator fired everything she had in an attempt to draw their fire while the rest of the 3rd Fleet went into Hyperspace.

Her shields forming a brilliant, almost solid blue sphere around her, the Confederate Mandator soon followed them. Aboard, many wondered if they should've just glassed the place now. But then again, none of them were as naive as the politicians who'd pushed for their orders. Behind them, over 80% of the planets Cloning Facilities burned.

Chapter 11: Chapter 7: Decisions

Chapter Text

"You are correct in that we went through the, as you put it, fire and fury, of the Republic. But we had seen what happened when nobody objected. The War was simply people standing together to tell the Republic that enough was enough." - Captain Dan'el Bonteri, 6 Years After The War Of Republic Aggression.

Raxus, CIS Parliament, Almost 12 Days Since The Battle Of Christophsis, And Almost 16 Days Since The Battle Of Geonosis

As Senator Mina Bonteri walked into the chambers of the Confederacy Parliament her thoughts were on her nephew, Dan'el Bonteri, and his father, her older brother, Frav'kir. Her brother was safe as an Admiral in the Onderon Navy, but she had no idea where her nephew was currently stationed. When she inquired, she couldn't learn anything more than that the Defiant was last seen escorting the Infinity. She was worried, since Star Dreadnoughts tend to be rather big targets in more ways than one, but given neither side had an idea where the Infinity was, nevermind her escorts, she chose to hope Dan'el turned up alive.

Her husband, Gavir, had joined the CISA and was assigned to a garrison on Ivano, a small planetoid near Kashyyk. Even Lux, her son, was planning to get into the Navy like his cousin. Thankfully, he was still only 14. Which meant Mina had around four years before she'd have to send her only son to the Military Academy on Serenno.

It would appear that Mina and her sister in law, Kubalia, were doomed to prematurely go grey from the stress. Which, she noted with some amusem*nt, would at least make her sister match Dan'el's girlfriend's hair color. Calli Trilm, despite only being 26 and a month younger than Dan'el, had had white hair her whole life due to her mother taking some experimental drugs early on in pregnancy. Which reminded her to call her potential future niece-in-law and see how she was doing with her new ship.

Mina gave herself a slight mental shake as the President entered the room.

"My friends, the tide is turning in our favor. Our raids on Kamino and Kuat were successful, we have confirmed the destruction of over 80% of the Republics cloning facilities and the Kuat Ring. During our assault on Kamino, our operatives downloaded the data from their computer cores, and we have people going through it as we speak.

I have also received a report from Admiral Hemphill at Bolthole, she reports that the Factory Stations will be coming online within three weeks at the most, and two months from now not only will our current Navy have been retrofitted with our newest technologies but it will have doubled if not tripled in size, depending on how quickly we can retrofit ships vs building new ones.

The Chokepoints have been set up, and according to our intel the Republic has been sent into chaos. We have people investigating the rumours of them planning to use bio-weapons, which appear to be true so far. This is the footage we received a few days ago from the crews of the Odyssey and Daedalus."

The eyes of the Senators widened in horror as holoprojections appeared, playing several different scenes from the Battle Of The Celestial Shieldworld. As the recordings ended Mina was unable to speak out of horror. To distract herself, she looked into some of the data they've retrieved from Kamino and the Shieldworld. The room was mostly silent except for some random whispers as the Senators digested what they'd just seen.

After several moments Dooku spoke again after an aide ran into the room and handed him a Datapad. "I know what you're all still digesting what you've just heard and seen, but I just received a priority note about some of the data we got from Kamino. It seems that the Clones are being controlled by chips implanted in their brains, and there's a series of orders in them including an Order 66 which will make them turn on the Jedi. According to our engineers, due to minute differences in their construction from the others some of these Chips might be vulnerable to Lepton Radiation.

Unfortunately, that will still leave a lot of the Clones under Sideous' command. Now, our psychologists believe that while most of them will remain with the Republic, at least some of them will defect. Even a single ship or two means just that many Clones the Republic will have to spend resources tracking down.

And before anyone brings up their Bio-Weapons, we have already sent the Captains of the Odyssey, Daedalus, and Prometheus to track them down in our newest stealth vessels along with some of the CIBs best Agents."

Before anyone could answer, his communicator beeped and when he activated it his secretary, Valeria Burkino, appeared. "My apologies for the intrusion, Mr. President, but you have a transmission from a Jedi, Master Sifo Dyas."

"Impossible. He's been dead for years. I have nothing to hide from the Parliament, so put this individual through."

Everyone could see the look on the Count's face when the holoprojection of a Human appeared.

"Sifo. How are you still alive? I thought you were dead."

The man chuckled. "Reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated. You were right, Palpatine is a Sith Lord. I had gotten my hands on evidence proving it when his agents sabotaged my ship. I was captured and held for years, they tried to make me Fall to the Dark Side, but I was able to resist. I was able to get free a few days ago, and stole a ship. We need to talk, but we need to be discrete. Meet me on Wayland in four days."

"I'll see what I can do. But would it not be simpler for you to make your way to Confederacy Space?"

Dyas shook his head. "No. I don't want to take any chances of being intercepted by the Republic."

Dooku nodded. "Alright. I'll try to meet you there." He deactivated the communicator and sighed. "Mrs. Burkino, please ready my shuttle. Now, I know you are all going to suggest that it's a trap, and I agree, but we must know where he's been since his apparent death five months after the Naboo Incident ten years ago. Nothing's stopping the CISN from tracking my transponder. Besides, most of the Republics ships are in disarray and trying to regroup."

Seeing the sense in his words, the Parliament moved on to the topic of the Hutts continuing to build up along their borders with both the Confederacy and the Republic. All the while, the reporters and other people from the various news outlets recorded everything, carefully noting it all down and occasionally rechecking the encryption of their communications. While some segments would be encrypted en-route and edited with the reporters talking instead in the interests of OPSEC, most would be transmitted as is.

Coruscant, Chancellors Office, A Few Hours Earlier

In complete contrast to the bright and sunny day on Raxus, storm clouds overwhelmed the skies of the largest and most famous, or infamous depending on who you asked, city-planet in the galaxy. Even for those with the Force not a single spec of Light could be seen through the shroud of the Dark Side. Within the office of the Chancellor, Palpatine shook with mounting rage as the reports on the desk in front of him, and the desk itself, shattered into a million pieces.

Kuat was gone, and Kamino was all but useless with the extensive damage to the Cloning Facilities. Yes, the remaining DNA samples survived, and seeking out alternate donors to clone was always an option, but that would take time. The repairs alone would take years of work. And he knew that time was a dwindling resource.

They needed new options. He pressed a button, contacting both Darth Tyrannus and Darth Forbidon, relaying their new orders. Soon, he was left alone in a silent office, an evil grin on his face. Putting his mask of the "kindly old man" back on, he left the room to go "talk sense into the bloodthirsty Senate" as they reacted to this news.

Coruscant, Senate Chambers, A Few Minutes Later

As she listened to her Master, Padme Amidala, also known as Darth Forbidon, scowled. When she'd tried to rewrite Anakin Skywalkers mind so she could seduce him on Naboo, she'd failed because of his devotion to his precious non-Human girlfriend. While she supposed she could seduce Palpatine instead, she'd prefer any other option she could get.

Deactivating the communicator, she left the small alcove and walked towards the Pods to listen in on the rest of the Senate. She could see Darth Destructis and Darth Carnager, two of her fellow Acolytes in the Senate, silently staring at Senator Riyo Chuchi as she started speaking.

"How many lives on both sides have to end before we see the futility? Surely there's a way for both factions to coexist. They haven't moved since securing those chokepoints aside from hitting Kamino and Kuat. I move we immediately open peace negotiations with the Separatists. If nothing else, it'll give us time to regroup and build up our forces."

Murmuring grew throughout the chamber as Senators debated her words, with the representatives of the Corporations and Kamino looking close to furious at the mere notion of cutting off any potential source of revenue. As the shouting continued Padme turned her thoughts to how she would go about carrying out her new orders.

Eventually, the shouting stopped as Chancellor Palpatine entered the room and Mas Amedda called for order several times. "My friends..." She could feel the Darkside laced through his words as he reached into the minds of the Senators and manipulated them. "We must remain calm if our people are to remain confident in our ability to see them through this war. While the losses of Kamino and Kuat are regrettable, there are still a great many smaller shipyards throughout Republic territory. As for Kamino, it will take months to repair the damage, but even with the facilities, it takes 10 years for the Clones to be ready for combat. I'm afraid that either way, we will be forced to rely on conscription and drafting new forces."

Murmuring grew throughout the Senate. Many both for and against so long as their own weren't the ones being drafted, which might cut into their personal profits. As the yelling grew again Padme braced herself for another splitting headache she'd have to devour some child's soul to cure, only for someone else to head it off.

"There is another option." Eyes turned to Mon Mothma as she pressed several buttons, transmitting data to everyone's Pods. "While our new Enforcer Droids are still months away from production, my people have come up with something else to stem the tide of the Separatists. The Flesh-Vat..."

As she elaborated, many of the Senators began murmuring and nodding in agreement, willing to do anything that wouldn't cut into their profits. Finally, they reached a consensus.

"Seeing as we are all more or less in agreement, then we will send the Separatists a message asking for peace negotiations in the Commenor System in six weeks. While the planet is ostensibly under Republic control, it is still a major trading outpost. And with them distracted, we can continue to rebuild our fleets and launch an all-out attack on all eight of their chokepoints, while sending another force through the secondary Hyperroutes to attack Geonosis."

Seeing she was outnumbered, Senator Chuchi was soon left wondering if she should attempt to convince her planet to join the Separatists. Fortunately, she always secretly recorded these sessions despite cameras in the Senate being outlawed months ago.

Coruscant, Jedi Temple, Same Time

As Barriss meditated in her quarters, she thought about the events of the past few days. After hours of arguing, the Jedi Council had managed to get an agreement from the Senate not to use their bio-weapons. But even so, she was worried about the implications that they could even consider them at all. Was the Republic worth fighting for at this point?

Across the hall in his own quarters, her boyfriend of six months was also meditating, though not quite as successfully. Barriss reached out to Anakin with the Force and tried to help her still occasionally restless other half submerge himself into the Force with her. A feeling of gratefulness echoed across their bond as they each basked in the presence of the other.

Suddenly, pain lanced through her head as the Force thrusted her into a vision.

(The Vision.)

Republic Senators and Jedi argued as darkness grew throughout the Senate Chambers. Throughout the Republic, the former bastion of civilization was mutating into something horrible, a place of evil none in living memory had ever witnessed.

Barriss and Anakin chose to remain with the Order, but after a time found themselves, along with numerous other Jedi, running from Clones firing at them. Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress fought against unending waves of Republic Troopers to save them, but at the cost of their own lives even as their legions of Droids arrived to rescue or avenge them.

Anakin, Obi Wan, Barriss, and Luminara fought a figure in black armour, red lightsaber like a blur of death. Countless Clones and Droids lay dead all around them.

Barriss and Anakin were tangled together, their bodies riddled with blaster burns as Clones advanced. Many they knew lay dead around them, including Anakin's mother and half-brother, as well as most of the Jedi Council. As the Clones and Sith advanced, hundreds of Separatist Droids and Organics appeared, drawing their attention too late for any of the Jedi. Figures in strange armour wielding blades that resembled some form of Lightsaber advanced alongside them.

General 3rd POV

Barriss gasped as she jolted back to reality. Not really bothering to collect herself, she ran to the door to find Anakin opening his own at the same time. He led her into his quarters as she realized that they'd both seen it.

"We need to leave."

Anakin looked at her, and Barriss kept speaking. "The Republic isn't what we thought it was. That the Senate would even consider wide-spread deployment of bio-weapons alone is proof enough of that, not to mention just how many planets have either broken away to join the Separatists or just gone neutral. If the Clones can just turn on us so easily, then the only hope we have is the Separatists. We could use one of the Praxeum Ships, quietly evacuate as many people to it as possible, and then head to one of the older Jedi Temples. From there we'll try to make a break for the nearest Separatist world."

Anakin was silent for several seconds. "Before this war, if I hadn't heard some of the things those Senators have been arguing for, before that vision, I would've said you just need to sleep on it. But now... I know you, Barriss, and I trust you. More then that, I love you, and if it came down to it I'd gladly choose you over the Order. We'll take our vision to the Council and try to convince them to at least get some of our people onto one of the Praxeums."

She nodded, and the two composed themselves then got up. Both were still mulling over what they'd seen, and while she was only 18 and he was 19, they both knew each other better than anyone else, even their Masters. And if they had to leave the Order to be together, they'd do it. If they could, they'd retire to some out of the way world and start a family of their own. But for the time being, that goal was far from their reach. Not to mention they had to try to save as many as they could first.

Jedi Temple Archives, Same Time

Jocasta Nu looked around with a slightly sad look on her face. "Grandmother." She turned around to see her Grandson and Great Grandson. "It's time to go."

The Jedi Archivist made her way out along with her family, knowing that when their deception, and the replacement of every Holocron and dataslate in the Archives with convincing forgeries, was discovered that she'd be hunted across the galaxy. Not that that mattered, her husband would be more than willing to deter anyone from going after her. And it was long past time she joined him.

Jedi Council Chambers, Several Minutes Later

Yoda frowned as Knight Skywalker and Padawan Offee relayed their vision. The same vision he himself, along with most of the Council and several dozen Knights, Masters, and Padawans had just seen. "Troubling, this is. Follow your advice, we should."

Mace Windu shook his head. "Personally, I believe our focus should be on trying to get the Senate to see reason and fighting the Separatists. But I suppose you have a point, Skywalker. Alright. But first, we've lost a lot of Masters and Knights, and the Council has decided to assign you a Padawan. Master Obi Wan will also be getting a new Padawan of his own. We already have a list of several individuals who have completed their Trials.

Anakin's eyes widened. "With respect, Master Windu, but I'm nowhere near ready to teach a Padawan."

Obi Wan sighed. "Anakin, under normal circ*mstances you'd be right. But these aren't normal circ*mstances, and we need every Jedi on the front lines that we can get. Personally, I think you're ready, and so do most of the Council."

Anakin thought about it for a few minutes, and then nodded in agreement. "Alright. If it'll help, I'll take on a Padawan."

Master Plo Koon handed him a Datapad and he looked through the information. His eyes soon fell on Ahsoka Tano and Tallisibeth Enwandung Esterhazy, Scout, he mentally corrected. The two had been training with himself and Barriss when they could, so he knew where both of them were at, more or less. Ahsoka would no doubt be selected by Obi Wan. But Tallisibeth... She wasn't as powerful in the Force as most Jedi, but she was excellent with a lightsaber and hand to hand combat. Not to mention talented and determined. Besides, he wouldn't feel right letting anyone else train her.

"I'll choose Tallisibeth Esterhazy as my Padawan."

Several of the Council members murmured to those beside them, but Obi Wan, Barriss, and Luminara all had small smiles on their faces. "And I'll take Ahsoka Tano as my new Padawan."

Though some still mumbled, there weren't quite as many this time. The two, with Luminara and Barriss trailing behind, left to find their new Padawans.

Jedi Temple, Gardens, Several Minutes Later

As Younglings Ahsoka Tano and Scout meditated in the gardens, their thoughts turned to the war and the Council meeting their friends, two of whom were the closest they had to older siblings and parental figures, had been called to.

"Hey, Scout! Ahsoka!"

The two girls turned to see Anakin and Barriss, with Obi Wan and Luminara a few meters behind, coming towards them. Walking over to meet them, the group gathered to sit on some benches.

"So, how'd the meeting go?" Scout held in a snort, momentarily wondering how she got the nickname but Ahsoka didn't. The Togruta seemed like she was more outwardly curious than Scout herself sometimes.

"Well, we know you both passed your Trials, and apparently the Council thinks I'm mature enough to take on a Padawan."

Scout nodded. "That makes sense. You're really too hard on yourself sometimes."

He snorted. "Well, Padawan, if you accept, we'll see if you still have that attitude in a few weeks."

Scout froze as she'd turned to look at a flower, then slowly turned to look him in the eye. Adopting an upright, professional pose, she nodded. "I'd be honored, Master Skywalker."

Though both knew there was a lot unsaid in those words, for now it was enough as they walked down to the Sparring Chambers to continue working on her skills with a Lightsaber. Ahsoka and Obi Wan took the ring next to them, while Barriss and Luminara refereed.

RSS Supremacy, Orbit Of Coruscant

As she walked into the tactical command center to the back of the Supremacys bridge, Kuvila couldn't keep the feeling of revulsion down as the Chancellor relayed his orders directly to her Master. Something about the man never failed to keep her from reflexively reaching for her Lightsaber.

"You are smarter than most of the Jedi, Master Velros. That is why we have selected you for this mission. Proceed to Naboo through the secondary Hyperroutes, pick up some of our new bio-weapons, and then deploy them on a number of agricultural worlds. With the loss of a significant amount of their food supply, the Separatists will be forced to pull back to regroup, giving us more room to breathe. They will also have to deal with their civilians becoming too terrified to continue the fighting lest we deploy these weapons again. Senator Amidala will meet you on Naboo and give you the list of targets directly."

Master Velros simply nodded. "As you command, Chancellor. Helm, set a course to Naboo."

The Secutor Class Battleship soon went into Hyperspace, while within a Padawan was making her own preparations, trying to think of anything she could do to save billions or trillions of innocent people.

Bolthole Shipyards, Orbit Of Tanalorr

As Commodore Calli Trilm gazed out the holographic window into the vastness of space, her thoughts turned to the CISS Defiant and it's Captain, Dan'el Bonteri. Her fiancé, not that they'd told anyone, she kept the ring on her finger, but she was careful to keep her hands out of view when on a holocall to their families. It was something to be told in person. She wondered where her other half was right now.

She'd know if he was dead. Though neither were Force Sensitive, they were still linked in a way. With their luck, one would have to save the other. Given she commanded a Lucrehulk Battlecarrier, the Enterprise, and his Defiant was a Munificent, it could go either way. Though she had the feeling that things were certainly going to get interesting as her eyes went to a nearby dock where a ship under construction by the Quarren and Mon Calamari was taking shape.

A beeping at the communications console broke her out of her thoughts, and most of the various bridge officers turned to look as Lieutenant Eric Durant jumped from where he'd been resting his eyes, looking over his console. "Ma'am, it's Admiral Hemphill."

"Put her through."

The holoscreen changed to show the command center of one of the Factory Stations, which was a little over 70% complete. In it stood a number of Officers, including Admiral Hemphill and her aide, Lieutenant Thomar Goldpeak.

"Commodore, we're sending you along with the Saratoga and the Lexington to patrol the Arcanis Sector for the next few weeks. Link up with your escorts and proceed as soon as you've confirmed your new engines won't get you disintegrated the second you start powering them up. This should be a normal patrol, a good final test before sending your ships to the frontlines."

The Admiral cut the comm, and Calli steeled herself.

"Alright, lets be about it people." At her command the Enterprise powered up her engines and moved towards where her escorts flew through the void. Two more Lucrehulks soon joined her, the Saratoga and the Lexington. Together, the three vessels, registered as the CV-6, CV-3, and CV-2, surrounded by just under 5,000 vessels of various class, jumped into Hyperspace.

Chapter 12: Chapter 8: Science, Madness, And The Force

Chapter Text

"Madam Senator, I believe we can win without the use of bio-weapons. They are extremely unpredictable, and even if you stock up on treatments and vaccines there is a non-zero probability of the virus mutating into an entirely new form. One that can be much harder to defend against." - Dr Nuvo Vindi To Senator Voe Atell, Virtually Joining A Parliament Meeting 5 Days After The Battle Of The Celestial Shieldworld.

CISS Unity, Hyperspace Near Iego, Almost 16 Days Since The Battle Of Christophsis, And Almost 20 Days Since Geonosis.

As the Shadowblade raced through Hyperspace my eyes momentarily turned to Agent Drake, who'd been mostly silent for the past few days. Not that I can blame him, from what I read in his file the guy's been an intelligence agent for almost 30 years, so he's probably not all that interested in small talk at this point.

I then turned my attention to the file on the man we were meeting. There were so many things that were straight up different about this timeline, and Dr Nuvo Vindi being an altruistic scientist instead of a zealous psychopath was a bit... odd, but I can work with that.

As we dropped out of Hyperspace the Silent Hunter and Ravanna soon appeared to our port and starboard sides. Looking around with the sensors, I couldn't help but wonder if we'd still built those laser emitters to defend the system. Lieutenant Hanson at Comms signaled that she'd received permission from the base for us to proceed. "Helm, take us down to the facility. Signal the Hunter and Ravanna to follow us."

We started moving, and Nesseka and Jiya were soon behind. Entering the atmosphere, I saw an expanse of forests and deserts below us. Seems the facility was built out in the middle of nowhere. Good way to hide it from anyone who got curious. Especially if nobody expected you to be this far out on the frontier. As we got closer I saw the facility was made up of a central dome connected to a large omega-shaped section. It almost looked like a, no, I must be seeing things. Shaking my head as we made for the hanger on one end of the Omega, Agent Drake, myself, and Allana soon turned to head down to the ventral hanger to exit the Unity.

A Sergeant met us at the ramp and led us through the Hanger of the base. Jiya and Nesseka soon joined us, and we followed the Sergeant further into the base. As we moved I glanced around a bit, if I didn't know better I'd think we were inside a Lucrehulk converted into a science facility or something equally crazy. Surely it'd be easier to just deploy some pre-fabs and camouflage them than to land a Lucrehulk and bury it.

After several minutes of walking we entered the main laboratory and saw the Dr standing near an operating chair. Several displays showed a number of what appeared to be some kind of implants, most of which looked like they'd need to be planted in and around the brain. Complicated, but modern Confederacy medical technology was second to none.

"Doctor Vindi."

He looked up. "Commodore Boll, it's nice to meet you. Agent Drake, welcome back to Alpha Base."

Agent Drake gestured between us. "Commodore Boll, Captains Karik and Talda, Commander Keetru, this is Doctor Nuvo Vindi, he leads this part of the Advanced Sciences Division. There are several other bases like this one scattered throughout the galaxy."

"Indeed. We've developed several new technologies, both military and civilian, including three different varieties of Implant. These are largely due to us finally having the resources to make some proper studies into the nature of the Force without the Jedi, Sith, or some other Force User interfering. It's really quite fascinating, actually. Much of this is from data we retrieved from a number of ancient Rakatan and Celestial ships and facilities we found throughout the galaxy, especially the Unknown Regions. The rest is conjecture and speculation based on what we've found."

He manipulated a few of the terminals, and some new information was displayed. "Almost a billion years ago, several life forms across the galaxy developed a genetic mutation which allowed them to manipulate the energy fields of themselves and those around them, as well as the energy fields around pretty much everything in the universe. Over time this gene became dominant on at least one planet that would become home to sentient life, the homeworld of the Celestials.

They evolved further, and around 100-200 Million years ago spread across the galaxy. Over time, through a combination of natural evolution, genetic manipulation, and interbreeding this gene became present in almost every organic lifeform in the galaxy, but it wasn't always dominant. Most of the time, it's recessive. When dominant, it causes some slight modifications to the brains of organic lifeforms allowing them to manipulate those fields. But even then, there were still next to no sentient species capable of space travel which is why the Celestials built constructs like the Shieldworld you encountered and Centerpoint Station in the Corellia System.

They went so far as to manipulate and build entire solar systems in the interests of increasing the chances of more intelligent lifeforms evolving. Over time, as Celestials, and others in pre-space flight civilizations who were connected to the Force, died, it gained a sort of psychic component in reaction to all the ideas and concepts entering it. While all life enters it, only those who were able to manipulate it in life could retain any form of consciousness in death without interacting with a deceased Force Sensitive. This slowly caused the Force to exhibit two distinct energy patterns existing in tandem, one is more or less what we call the Light Side, the other is the Dark Side.

At some point within the past 100,000 years, the Celestials made contact with the Rakata, a cannibalistic species who eventually allied with them. After several centuries to gain their trust and study their technology, the Rakata betrayed them and killed any that didn't leave the galaxy entirely. Afterwards, they expanded across both this galaxy and several satellites until around 80,000 years ago when they came into conflict with a much older but more peaceful multi-galactic species that called themselves the Zar'ki. By this point, the Rakata were using the Force, primarily the Dark Side, to power pretty much all of their technology."

As he talked, the images changed to show battles between a number of vessels which gave off a sense of wrong even through a screen, and just as many that were of a truly strange design. The only similarity with modern CIS warships was that there were guns on every surface that wasn't an airlock, engine, or hanger. The frame was shaped like a octagon, and there were only four engines on the interior of it at the back, two hangers on the port and starboard side of them, four very large turreted weapons, and two sensor arrays on the remaining sides of the rearward end.

"Due to being a mostly peaceful race, the first encounters with the Zar'ki allowed the Rakata to ambush minimally defended civilian vessels and outposts on the outer fringes of their territory, capturing thousands of people. When the Zar'ki realized the threat, they brought their old military vessels out of mothballs and scrambled to respond. Over the next 30,000 years the two battled back and forth until the Rakata launched one final, desperate attack on the home world of the Zar'ki, Nar'il. The battle devastated both sides, and the Rakata were forced to retreat to their home galaxy.

This was because the Zar'ki, though it was weak, still had a connection to the Force. Their DNA was also highly adaptable and very, very malleable. They worked for millennia experimenting on the Zar'ki, rapidly evolving, devolving, and mutating them into a number of slave races for use in everything from experiments, war, and menial work to mining and other, more... immoral uses. Eventually, their practice of culling their population turned to a need to keep them alive as their fertility rate fell to near zero. Meanwhile, their slaves, almost all of whom descended from the Zar'ki, were spread across the galaxy.

As the Rakata weakened, their slaves grew stronger until around 30,000 years ago when a number of worlds across their Empire successfully rebelled. Slowly, automated pyramid ships call the Tho Yor collected Force Sensitives from a great many worlds across the galaxy and brought them to Typhon, where they evolved into what would eventually become the Jedi Order. A little over 25,000 years ago, the Rakata were practically extinct and the First Republic was formed. When you returned with those coordinates from that alternate universe, we traced them to Nar'il. In some of the older dialects we've found, Nar'il translates to Ter'ra."

Taking several moments to digest that, I eventually found my voice. "Wait a minute, are you saying that Humanity has been in space for over 100,000 years?"

He nodded. "Yes, Commodore. Almost all of the modern present day species present in the galaxy are descended from the original Zar'ki kidnapped by the Rakata. From what we've found, there are only eleven species, notably the Hutts, Geonosians, Gungans, and the Kiliks, who are not related to Humanity, which shows just how extensive their experiments were."

After that bombshell, the four of us took some seats around the lab, grabbing some datapads to look over some of the data.

"Doctor, you said it was the First Republic." We looked towards where Nesseka was going over her datapad, a frown on her face.

He nodded. "Yes, Captain. The Republic as we know it is really just the latest in a series of governments, some separated by millennia, all claiming to be the true Republic."

"And what would you say the current one is?"

"I'd say maybe 6th or 7th, though there is some room for debate given how much the Jedi and Sith have done to erase the past whenever one or the other gained dominance. For all we know, it might be the 9th or 12th."

Allana snorted. "If it didn't work the third time, then maybe it's long past time for something new. Like the Confederacy."

After a few seconds, he continued. "Now, in light of that, one of the Implants we've developed is a Psionic Regulator which uses hybrid standard and kyber crystal processors to prevent strong emotions such as anger and hate from interfering with your connection to the Force. It should also greatly increase your control and precision of your abilities."

I nodded. "Alright, though I'm sure I'll find more use in the whole no falling to the Dark Side bit. Even so, my connection to the Force isn't even strong enough to be a Jedi Padawan, or my Great Uncle and Captain Ventress would've been training me in more than swinging a Lightsaber."

He nodded. "Yes, and that leads back into our earlier discussion. We've developed a retrovirus which will modify your DNA, and thus parts of your brain, to increase your connection to at least that of a Padawan or Knight. Basically just switching your mostly recessive gene to completely dominant and taking the slightly modified parts of your brain the rest of the way. It's still experimental, and we have less than half a dozen injections ready for use, but it should be a lot easier in your case since you already have a connection."

I nodded. Allana, Jiya, and Nesseka glanced at each other as I walked up to the screens. "What were the other implants you mentioned?"

Several screens changed to show two more implants, one of them was then highlighted and enlarged. "The Cordial Stacks are designed to be implanted at the base of the skull where your brain stem meets your spinal cord. With a mix of normal wires and Kyber Crystal filaments inspired by a Jedi Holocron we recovered from the Kantyra System in the Unknown Regions, the Stack captures both the electrical impulses and force spirit that makes up a sapient mind when they die and stores it in a kind of mental stasis.

From there, these implants can be used to revive a person by healing their dead body and then placing them back in it, putting them in a droid body with a special central processor based on Cordial Stacks, or in a braindead clone body created using their DNA. Though given the rarity of dedicated Cloning Facilities in Confederacy Space, I imagine that would be quite rare. Of course, if the Implant is on the verge of destruction your mind is instead downloaded into the nearest friendly databank so your body can be retrieved later. Though in that case cloning a new body for you is also an option."

He then highlighted and enlarged the second Implant. "The Neural Implant, though some believe it would be more accurate to call it a Brain Computer Interface, allows an individual to have information downloaded directly into their brain as well as upload it to others. This can theoretically be used for everything from learning things in school or training to transmitting battle tactics while in the middle of a war zone across several kilometers.

Though with communications arrays such as those on a starship the range can be increased exponentially. The ability to coordinate on a massive scale with these devices should give the Organic members of the Confederacy's Armed Forces an ability to plan on the fly without speaking aloud. Like the Cordial Stack and Psionic Regulator, the Neural Implants are designed to be practically impossible to hack, and are powered by the natural electrical field of the individual. It's background functions are also regulated by the individual, at first through a conscious effort though over time it becomes as subconscious as breathing."

I nodded. "Well, they certainly sound useful. How soon can we begin deploying them?"

He looked over and smiled. "We actually just received permission from the Parliament to start putting them into full production yesterday. If you have any questions about it, you can ask the man who volunteered for the live tests, former Jedi Master Dagan Gera. We found him on Koboh where he'd been in stasis for centuries and Count Dooku was able to get the man the treatment he needed."

I was glad I was still wearing my helmet. Guess my Great Uncle or someone else must've talked some sense into the guy. "Well, we might as well. Think I might get these things myself."

A few moments later, a door opened and Dagan Gera, looking very much like he did in Survivor but with a robotic arm, walked in. "Commodore."

Wayland, Wayland System, Ojoster Sector, Same Time

As Count Dooku brought the Blood Hunter out of Hyperspace, he set course for a standard orbit of the planet. Soon, he got a transmission from Dyas. "Thank you for coming old friend. I've taken shelter in an abandoned temple at these coordinates."

"Very well." Adjusting the craft to the required course, he glanced at the others in the ship. "Stay out of sight , and we'll need someone to stay on the Hunter to keep watch for anyone coming at us from behind."

Receiving several nods, the President piloted the craft in for a landing. With the Null Field Generator activated Dyas wouldn't be able to sense anyone within until he stepped beyond its edge, and the others all had their own Generators on them so they could remain undetected as they watched his back.

He walked out and looked around to see that there was nothing but endless mountains and forests around them for as far as the eye could see, and that much of the temple had been overgrown over the millennia. Walking around to find an entrance, he walked in with his guards a few meters behind. Though they had tried to find other routes, the temple was deemed too unstable since several chambers appeared to have collapsed over the millennia.

It took several minutes of walking, but all he had to do was track the presence near the center of the temple. Keeping his Null Field Generator off since he didn't know just how truly mentally stable Sifo Dyas was after around a decade in the hands of the Sith, he moved carefully and precisely, making sure to also keep in contact with the Blood Hunter in case this was indeed a trap. So far, they hadn't reported anything unusual.

Entering a massive chamber near the center of the temple, almost 300 meters beneath the surface, he looked around, a part of his mind curious about the people who built it. He could immediately see from the granite hieroglyphs along the walls and the statues of six-armed beings holding bows and spears that they were most likely either pre-space flight or honoring their ancestors when the temple was built.

A movement caught his eye, and Dooku looked over to see Sifo Dyas walking around a pillar. His presence was almost the same as it had been before they met. Almost, but not quite. There was something about him that set Dooku on edge. Despite being 81, his senses and memory were as strong as ever. And he knew that something about his old friend had changed.

"Greetings, Count Dooku. We have much to discuss."

Dooku silently watched the man lean against the pillar as he could see his guards creep through the shadows. "Yes we do. But first, I don't suppose you could please start by explaining how you escaped?"

Dyas started moving, and the two circled the room as Dooku sensed a spike of danger. "I didn't." A door slammed down, blocking the entrance through which he had come. The only other way in that he could see. When his eyes returned to his friend, the other man's eyes were a dark yellow.

"You see, old friend, I've come to realize a few things. Palpatine is right about a great many things, and the power of the Dark Side is far beyond that of the Jedi. There are Sith Acolytes and Agents throughout every level of the Republic, and they don't have an inkling of suspicion. Our only chance is if we join him."

As he continued, Dooku subtly reached for his Lightsaber as he connected the dots. "You're Darth Tyrannus. You faked your own death so you could continue managing the Clones from the shadows."

Sifo, Tyrannus, nodded. "Well done. Your intelligence would be an asset to the Sith. Join us, between your Droids and our Clones, we can rule the galaxy unopposed. All will kneel before us or be destroyed."

Knowing his former friend was as good as dead, Dooku shook his head. "No. I serve the people of the Confederacy Of Independent Systems. After your Master is destroyed and the war is over I will step down and retire. Someone else will be elected as the next President, and the Confederacy will endure. You are beyond mad if you think I would ever betray them. We've both stared into the abyss, but when it looked back, you blinked."

Lighting his blue saber, Dooku assumed a combat stance. The look on Dyas's face twisted into one of rage and fury. "Then Wayland will be your grave."

A red saber was lit, and Dooku dove out of the way as a pillar was suddenly Force Pushed in his direction. With him distracted, Dyas pressed a button on a device on his forearm, sending a signal to his backup.

CISS Eternity, Orbit, Same Time

Many thousands of kilometers above sat the Eternity. Though it didn't have a more conventional Cloaking Device, the engineers aboard the Mandator had recently developed the Shadow Field, a modification to the shield emitters which created a similar effect making the vessel completely invisible to standard sensors.

As such, when the sensors beeped in warning Taan was reasonably certain they'd gone undetected. Lieutenant Sora Valerie quickly brought up the data. "Ma'am, we've got multiple vessels dropping out of Hyperspace. Look to be a fleet of 200 Dreadnought Class Heavy Cruisers equipped with exorbitant amounts of Slave Rigging connecting them to a device on the surface."

"Can we get any IDs?" Something about those ships seemed familiar, but she just couldn't place it.

"Getting them now, Supreme Commander. It looks like the Argos, Kornaius, Jarnelius, Ghuv'frait, Valos Cor... Ma'am, these are all ships from the Katana Fleet. It went missing over 20 years ago."

Silence overtook the bridge. Everyone knew about the Katana Fleet, a Republic Project of vanity and arrogance where they redesigned the crew-heavy Dreadnought Class ships to use a significant amount of automation, then Slave-Rigged them together. It was a decent idea in theory, but it was too easy to slip into disaster. As the Katana Fleet did. Somehow, one or more members of the Fleet got infected with a Hive Virus while on leave, it spread across the Fleet while in its dormant state, and when it activated drove everyone insane.

The command crews then rigged the ships together and Jumped into Hyperspace. Since then, many had tried to find them but none had succeeded. Until now. "Ma'am, they're targeting the temple."

"Lock on to those ships and destroy them." While most factions would probably try to salvage them intact, the Confederacy could just design and build new ships in a matter of weeks with far better safety protocols. It'd be simple enough to prevent the crew from being able to access the systems after being infected by a Hive Virus, instead being directed towards the med-bay.

"Aye Ma'am."

The guns of the Eternity quickly locked on and fired, obliterating all 200 ships in a single salvo.

Temple, A Few Seconds Later

The beeping on his device drew his attention, and Darth Tyrannus's eyes widened in horror as the Katana Fleet simply vanished from existence. They'd been completely wiped out by weapons that had simply emerged from nowhere.

While he was distracted, the former Bounty Hunter, and current bodyguard to Count Dooku, Durge, charged from the shadows and grabbed the Sith by the neck, then threw him into a wall. Rayvis and Durge both walked forward along with Dooku, but Tyrannus sent a Force Push in their direction and then ran from the room.

As they recovered, the three moved to pursue him. Using the Force to augment his speed, Dooku caught up to the living corpse of his friend and swung his blade, removing half of his left shoulder and causing the Sith to drop, clutching the wound. Dooku held Tyrannus against the wall with the force, and his guards quickly caught up to them.

"I assume we're bringing him in alive?"

Dooku was about to confirm Durge's words, but then blasterfire came down the corridor forcing him to try to deflect the bolts. In a flash of black robes and red light came another Sith, one that he recognized from the records of the Blockade Of Naboo.

Darth Maul, accompanied by a dozen Acolytes, swung at Dooku who dropped Tyrannus to concentrate on the new threat. Tyrannus concentrated on retreating, and when Durge and Rayvis tried to stop him they were intercepted by six Acolytes, with three more firing on them with their blasters. Dooku, meanwhile, was engaged with Maul and the remaining three Acolytes, and holding his own.

"So, you survived, even reduced to half of the monster you already were. Nothing more than a slave to Sidious, a loyal attack beast to be used and discarded."

The calmness in his tone in addition to his words served to only further enrage Maul. With his enemy too angry to think, Dooku was able to maneuver two of the Acolytes into range of the Sith's blade, causing them to get cut down in the rather confined space they were in. Seeing the fate of his comrades, the third moved back and looked up, trying to see anything he could Pull down onto their heads. If he got Maul killed too, then so be it.

Before he could move, his head was grabbed and crushed by Durge, the body dropping to the ground as the hulking being turned his guns on the remaining enemies. Seeing his allies start to fall and Tyrannus already gone, Maul decided to try to put some distance between himself and his enemies.

Seeing cracks appearing in the walls, both groups concentrated on simply getting out alive as the temple started collapsing around them. A large section of the upper levels collapsed inward as they escaped and then continued fighting.

Durge and Rayvis tried to get clear shots as Dooku and Maul swung their lightsabers in an endless dance of blue and red slashes. The two then called the Blood Hunter, and Flight Lieutenant Nophea Kieras, who had been on standby in the co*ckpit, was quick to lift off. But before he could take position to provide air support, the Hunter shook as her shields flared under fire from a trio of Toscan 8-Q Starfighters.

Kicking the engines to maximum and trying to bring the ship around, Kieras chased after them. When he tried to send a message to the Eternity, he got nothing but static. Taking a look at his scanners, he paled, and knew they were on their own for now.

Groundside, Dooku and his Gen'Dai bodyguards dodged as a fourth Toscan 8-Q descended and opened fire. It then dropped close enough to pick up Tyrannus and Maul. Dooku grabbed it with the Force, and slammed it into the ground. Shrapnel and fire engulfed the Sith, and when it cleared Tyrannus found a large shard had pierced through his left arm, the same one he'd broken earlier.

He momentarily considered just consuming Maul's soul to heal the wound, and then, with a growl, the Sith lit his blade and cut his own arm off at the elbow, cauterizing the wound. Maul was more useful to him as another enemy for Dooku to deal with, he could just get a cybernetic arm later.

Spinning around, he swung to block a strike from Rayvis' Hammer/E-6 Hybrid, then Force Pushed the Gen'Dai away. Dooku swung low only to get blocked as Rayvis regained his balance. Maul attempted to deflect a strike from Durge's Cortosis Blade, but only succeeded in getting pierced through the lung instead of his heart, then leapt away as the former mercenary removed his sword and pointed his Blaster at the Sith. Seeing they were outmatched, the two turned and jumped off the temple where they were caught by a Toscan.

Dooku made to grab it with the Force. "Get down, Mr. President!" Rayvis grabbed Dooku and leapt away as a Toscan crashed mere meters from their position.

Dooku nodded at his friend. "Thank you, Rayvis."

Above, the Blood Hunter swung around to target one of the remaining Toscans. Firing the pair of Proton Cannons, the Sith-piloted craft dodged, so the Lieutenant locked on with his missile launchers and fired a pair. The warheads raced through the air and collided with the heavily outdated vessel, blasting it to smithereens.

Meanwhile, the third fighter came back around, firing at the group on the ground. Durge and Rayvis shot back, scoring several lucky hits which caused the pilot to lose control. The Hunter landed and the three ran aboard. As the craft ascended, Dooku made his way to the co*ckpit.

"Get the Supreme Commander on the line. I want that last ship destroyed."

"Sir, we might have a problem with that."

Orbit, 20 Minutes Earlier

"Contacts, including a Mandator! Looks like... Ma'am, it's the Supreme Verdict!"

Taan's eyes widened. She didn't know what the Corellians were doing here, but they could figure it out later. "Deactivate the Shadow Field and return our shields to normal combat status, draw their eyes away from the planet. Hail them."

They received their answer when the Eternity shook as beams of plasma slammed into her shields. "Very well. Open fire, and try to get a transmission through to the Hunter."

A fist pounded against the console. "They're disrupting all communications to the surface!"

Red eyes returned to the holoscreen. "Then launch all wings and try to send a message to the others. Tell them to come in guns blazing."

As the two titans moved to engage each other, the 2500 craft escorting the Verdict formed a protective barrier around the Hutt Mandator. Several seconds later, the 5000 ships of the 1st Defense Division dropped out of Hyperspace and formed up around the Eternity. While some had momentarily thought about bringing the entire 1st Fleet, it was agreed to leave the rest at Raxus.

The two fleets were soon engaged in a bloody brawl, trading salvos of missiles at just under 100,000 kilometers, so basically knife-fight range in astronomical terms. But the 1st Fleet had spent most of their time guarding Raxus, so they hadn't been retrofitted with the majority of the new technologies developed by Bolthole. As such, several vessels were destroyed during the ensuing battle.

And while the Eternity had stronger shields, the Verdict had also been upgraded beyond her original specifications. "Ma'am, shields are at 80%. We're tracking a ship coming from the planet, it's on course for the Verdict. They're moving to cover it."

"Task Starburst Squadron to intercept, send Bluaris and Nievmar Squadrons to cover them."

Despite their efforts, the Toscan successfully landed in one of the ventral hangers of the Verdict. The second its hanger doors closed, the Verdict pushed her engines to maximum to escape into Hyperspace. Several squadrons switched their fire to join that of the Eternity, but in vain as the Corellian Mandator jumped to Hyperspace right as its shields went down.

Two minutes later, the rest of the enemy ships had either retreated into Hyperspace or been destroyed. Salvage teams moved in to find usable datacores, and the Blood Hunter soon exited the atmosphere.

CSS Supreme Verdict, Several Minutes Later

Entering the bridge of the Verdict, Darth Tyrannus was quick to approach Admiral Fandrik Thir. Maul trailed a few meters behind, having consumed the life force of an Acolyte on the way up to heal his wounds. The Acolyte's seemingly desiccated corpse was already being broken down into base molecules to be repurposed.

"You have good timing, Admiral. I expect you to keep your end of our little bargain."

The Admiral turned away from an aide, who saluted and walked off. The man with pale, nearly translucent skin and purple eyes turned to the Sith. "Only so long as you keep to yours, Master Dyas. My people will get Fondor, Kuat, and everywhere in between all the way down to Yag'Dhul to rule as we see fit, the Republic will get the rest."

Internally grinning at how easily manipulated this man was, Dyas raised his hands placatingly. "Of course, Admiral. The Republic pays its debts."

While it had taken some time to convince the Corellians that he was part of a top secret faction within the Republic that answered directly to the Chancellor, which was true from a certain point of view, combined with certain discoveries this man had made in the Unknown Regions, and blackmail, they had gained some extra cannon fodder.

"You don't need to worry one bit."

Eternity, Several Minutes Later

"Mr. President, from what we can tell they were heading deeper into Republic space."

"Then we will have to deal with them another time. We will retrieve any intact datacores from the remains of the enemy ships, then fall back to Raxus."

As he returned to his office and sat down, Dooku took out a picture of himself, Qui-Gon, Sifo Dyas, and several others, wondering how they had ended up like this. It made him wonder what would've happened if he'd never been Force Sensitive. Would his brother have lived? Died of old age anyway? The man would've been 102 by now, over 20 years older than Dooku himself, who was born when their parents were in their 40s. Consumed by his thoughts, the man soon fell asleep in his chair from exhaustion after the day he'd had.

Iego Facility, Same Time

As I sat down in the chair to begin the operation, my eyes went to where Allana, Nesseka, and Jiya were doing the same throughout the room. The three women had agreed to the same injection and Implants as myself. Which, as they applied the sedatives, I found I didn't mind as much as I probably should've.

Even unconscious, I could feel my connection to the Force, and to Jiya, Allana, and Nesseka, increase exponentially. Suddenly, I found myself in a cave somewhere, one that seemed to resonate with the Force itself. There were no decorations and it was remarkably clean. On the far side was an old man who I recognized as the Father Entity of the Ones.

"I have summoned you here for a purpose." The voice rumbled throughout the cave, guess this version of the Father was going for more Unicron and less Galen in his speech.

"Sir, I will ask you to please state things bluntly and clearly. I have no time for riddles and mind games."

He smiled. "Good to see your memory is still intact. We are short on time anyway, my children are bringing this galaxy closer and closer to utter destruction. Even now, they are preparing events which will bring chaos to the entire universe, including Earth."

My eyes widened, then narrowed as I stepped forward, grip tensing on the E-6 Rifle which had suddenly appeared in my hands. "Talk."

His smile became a smirk. "Good. You know what this galaxy is like from what George Lucas saw in his visions. But there are many details that were either wrong or... altered, from the truth due to his lack of training. My children are mad with power, neither of them truly care for the peoples of this galaxy, the Republic is already dead. All you can do is try to save as many as you can, you know that. It's why the Confederacy was founded."

I looked around as the walls changed, showing images from the past. Anakin and Barriss on what seemed to be a date in a Coruscant restaurant, Padme Amidala and several others kneeling before Palpatine, and several scenes of battles across history. Battles between the Rakata and Zar'ki, battles between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire, even the current battles between the Republic and the Confederacy. The Father continued speaking. "You had a taste of what my children have pushed the Republic to become on the Shieldworld. My people built a total of nine, six have been destroyed over the long millennia, and the seventh by your own actions. I will not force you to continue down this path, but you know your options are limited."

He walked over to a crystal embedded in a wall and brought it out. "This place has long served as their prison, but my children will have soon grown powerful enough to break free. The rituals and chaos their servants, especially the Jedi and the Sith, have brought to this galaxy have weakened their bonds. You have a choice, allow them to destroy all life, or fight. The Confederacy is filled with the vast majority of the most brilliant minds in the galaxy, my people were unable to find a way to destroy them when we found the trail of dead and lifeless worlds they'd left in their wake. We could only imprison them. Perhaps you can do what we could not."

I reached for the crystal, and he pulled his hand away. "When I brought you to this galaxy and placed your soul into the body of an unborn child, I couldn't prevent the formation of a soul in it beforehand. I had to remove it and put you in its place. Fortunately, I was able to store it in a form of stasis in this crystal. When my children break their bonds enough to bring their potential hosts here directly, I will bring you and as many of the Confederacys best as I can here. The Jedi and Sith no longer possess the Marks they could've used to protect themselves, my children ensured that they were lost to time millennia ago. But the Psionic Regulators your scientists have developed will protect you. I chose you because of your nature, you are noble, near-suicidally selfless, and unable to watch people suffer when you have the power to stop it."

Seriously? This isn't exactly a choice, a choice would've been if he'd asked me before dragging my ass across the universe. I turned and walked out, thinking about what I'd learned. The second I exited the room, I awoke in the facility on Iego. On the edges of my mind, I could feel a Force Bond connecting me to Jiya, Nesseka, and Allana, and our memories melded together before we all pulled back.

This mission was already proving to be interesting, and we hadn't even left for Naboo yet. Still, if I can get my hands on that crystal, maybe I can use the soul I replaced for my firstborn or something as an apology to the poor guy.

Star Wars: The Spear Of Hope - Looperst (2024)

Chapter 1: Prologue

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Chapter 2: Planning

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Chapter 3: Battle Of Christophsis

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Chapter 4: Aggressive Negotiations

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Chapter 5: Sidestory #1: Flashback To The Rejection Of Power

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Chapter 6: Chapter 4: Meetings

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Chapter 7: Chapter 5: Finding The Lost And Ancient

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Chapter 8: Sidestory #2: Loss Of Arrogance

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Chapter 9: Chapter 6: Retrofits

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Chapter 10: Sidestory #3: Battle Of Kamino

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Chapter 11: Chapter 7: Decisions

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Chapter 12: Chapter 8: Science, Madness, And The Force

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References