Lucky Strike (A Star Wars SI)

[MarkWarrior]

"At first, it seemed like the normal inspection of a derelict," Durald explained to the Jedi Council. "As I have spent a lot of time among the Mid and Outer Rim, this is far from the first time I'd dealt with the aftermath of a skirmish between pirates, bounty hunters, or just an accident of some kind."

She paused, centering herself in the force and allowing herself to recall the exact order of events without being overcome by the emotions that had existed in those moments.

"Both ships were identified by our ship's warbook, and because the majority of Interdictor-Class cruisers had defected to Revan according to our records, I boarded the transports headed for that ship."

"Did you not consult the Force before boarding?" Master Mundi asked. "Would it not have revealed to you which ship you should have gone to first?"

"There was no warning of danger until the Dark Jedi had awoken and begun attacking the crew whom we'd sent to the Thranta. That the Interdictor had remained with the Republic Navy instead of going over to Revan wasn't clear until after we'd boarded the Horizon and made our way to the bridge. That was when the Force alerted me to the presence that was aboard the other ship."

"Your report says that you acquired the personal effects of the Jedi who perished aboard the Horizon." Windu finally spoke.

"Yes, the dead Jedi had a holocron and a lightsaber on his person when he died. I collected both and then moved to the Thranta, bringing with me a squad of Clones for backup. Following the Force's guidance, I regrouped with those aboard the Thranta and moved to engage the enemy."

"Were you so certain of your victory?" Master Tiin asked.

"No, master," Kalyna shook her head. "I entered into this battle with the knowledge that I was likely going to perish. I am not as strong in the force as many of my peers, and I lack the talents that would lend themselves to individual combat. But as I am the only Jedi who is a member of Battlegroup Huntress, it is my responsibility to handle these matters."

"Weakened, this foe was," Yoda said. "Recently awoken, hmm?"

"Yes, Master," the Knight replied. "He was extremely skilled at lightsaber combat, and if he had been in a calmer state of mind instead of berserking, he likely would have been able to kill me along with the rest of the Clones. He did not utilize any force abilities, only his blade. As it is, we were only able to survive due to the quick thinking of one of the engineers. Due to his distraction, I was able to kill the Dark Jedi."

"I wish you had preserved the body and the ship," Adi Gallia commented. "Such an ancient soul must have had some knowledge we could have used against the Sith. We still do not know Dooku's master, and that could have helped us narrow the search."

"I searched the Thranta for anything that might be of value to the order," Kalyna replied. "Apart from his lightsaber and the trail of corpses, he left nothing behind. Anything he knew died with him. As for why I didn't preserve the body, after seeing what had happened to the Horizon, I was not willing to take chances of spreading some sort of plague through the fleet or the Republic."

"It is the opinion of the majority of this Council that you made the right decision," Master Windu stated. "You are to be commended for your actions and those of your Battlegroup. You've not only dealt with a threat that we were unaware of, but have also enabled the Republic to regroup and save many civilian lives."

"Thank you," Kalyna bowed. "What am I to do with Val Harik's lightsaber and holocron?"

"Keep it for now, you must," Yoda said. "Speak clearly on this, the Force does."

"Very well," the knight replied. "I'm afraid this is all the time we had free for the comms. I have to rejoin the battlegroup. We've been assigned to hunt Grievous, and they're gathering now to depart."

"May the force be with you," Windu nodded.

"And with you, Masters."

The transmission cut out, leaving Kalyna in the dark room.

Giving a long-suffering sigh, she turned and left. It didn't matter who you were; meetings with the Council always left every Jedi exhausted. She was no different and would need to meditate later to recenter herself.

Despite bleeding her emotions off into the force, the sheer terror, rage, and worry of that short battle would sometimes come back up as she dealt with the darkness that had radiated off of the enemy Jedi. Rest would be necessary before going up against Grievous.

---

The High Council Chambers were rarely this empty, even during the last few months of this war; they had attempted to meet in person as much as possible. Communications could be intercepted, and it was good to give them time to decompress.

But in this instance, after the communications winked out, all that was left was Yoda and Windu in the chamber. The rest of the masters were out on deployment, and Windu would be joining them soon.

"Should we have informed them about this?" Windu asked, gesturing to the datapad in his hands.

"Confirmed all the information, we have not," Yoda shook his head.

"But parts of it we know are true," Windu replied. "Such as Skywalker's marriage to Senator Amidala. That means that there has to be something of value there."

"Hard to judge, this information is. When more clouded, the Force becomes."

"Obviously, we can discard some elements of it," Windu agreed. "Palpatine may be a politician, but a Dark Lord of the Sith?" He shook his head. "We would have noticed. But there are other things we can evaluate."

"Have Jedi Sentinals working on it, I have. Find out if there is more truth, they will."

"I hope that none of the rest of this is true," Windu sighed. "But we cannot afford to ignore the information when it's offered to us. Unfortunately, I cannot follow up on any of this myself."

"Keep you informed, I will," Yoda leaned on his gaffer stick. "Follow the Will of the Force, we will."

After that, the two parted ways. Windu had to rejoin his fleet in orbit, and Yoda was to spend time with the Crechlings today.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 30

The worst thing about being a part of a battlegroup that was attempting to track down an enemy fleet, was that we were reactionary. From what I could remember, not even Dooku was able to keep track of many of Grievous's movements from the old TV show dad had recorded back on our Tivo. Which meant that Republic Intelligence, Fleet Intelligence, no one that was a part of any major intelligence agency knew or could predict where the rogue cyborg was going to go next.

So, a lot of our job for the next few weeks was jumping into a system that had recently been hit, then guess at what the next target was and try to get there first. It was kinda odd, if I were completely honest. Grievous seemed to avoid a bunch of major shipyards in favor of hitting targets that wouldn't hit the war effort for the Republic all that much. But once I looked deeper, it clicked.

Grievous was hitting small fleet sections with larger amounts of Jedi. Sure, he was also attacking certain systems as he was probably ordered to by Dooku and the Confederacy. But Grievous was more focused on taking out his anger on as many Jedi as possible over completing those orders. At least for now, and currently wherever Grievous went, Durge went also. Maybe we would avoid the speederbike jousting this time around.

Still, it had led to us going on wild chases and only meeting a handful of smaller ships that barely did anything to our battlegroup. Essentially those that were left behind by Grievous's fleet, or those who were trying to join him.

After almost a month and a half of this game of cat and mouse, Teskit decided he'd had enough and called a meeting for all of the senior officers to join.

"No one in the Republic Fleet has been able to pin down General Grievous at this time," Teskit opened up the floor. "I tire of chasing this villain. So, we don't be chasing him anymore. Instead, we will bring him to us."

The Commodore nodded at Jedi-Commander Durald and gestured for her to take over.

"After some rough analysis, we've finally identified two patterns that Grievous follows. One of them is that he goes after Jedi. The second is that he will abandon the fleet in orbit to go after Jedi on the ground," Kalyna tapped the holotable and it showed a system in the core that was nearly in the colonies or the Mid-Rim. "Tinnel is the core world we have chosen for this. While not the most prominent system, they do have shipyards capable of producing Venators, Acclamators, and Dreadnoughts for the Republic Navy. Though in the past they tended to work with CEC and various starfighter companies instead of ships larger than corvettes, of late, Kuat Drive Yards has licensed them to begin producing the aforementioned ships."

The holotable shifted to show the void as well as the handful of defense stations that kept the shipyards safe.

"I have made a request to the Council and they have agreed to assist with our plan," Kalyna said. "We have four Jedi Knights along with their cruisers coming to join us here. We'll then leak that we're assembling a battlegroup to launch an attack directly at Raxus. When Grievous takes the bait, we'll eliminate his fleet in orbit while the other Jedi handle him on the ground."

"Lieutenant Hull, the Horizon will be crucial in this battle," Teskit looked at me, his holographic representation as stoic as ever. "Your ship's interdiction field generators will be required to keep the enemy locked into Tinnel. We cannot allow them to escape."

"Understood, sir," I nodded. "What if he doesn't arrive, or it's another one of the decoy fleets the Confederacy likes to use?" I asked.

"Then it will still be another enemy fleet that we have removed from the board," the commodore replied, the other officers nodding their heads in agreement. "Now, I'm sending you each your orders. All sections will be working under a subcommander for the duration of this operation. Should communications between the Hyperion and the rest of the fleet cease, you'll follow your section commanders orders as if they were my own."

The commodore waited until we'd all responded before leaning forward with a savage grin.

"Now, let's make sure that General Grievous regrets the day he decided to strike against the Republic."

---

Five days later…

Tinnel looked like most worlds in the galaxy. A wide varied climate, an abundance of flora and fauna, and a mixed human and near-human population. It had been settled a many millennia ago and had pretty much remained the same throughout the years it had been a part of the Republic for. Sure, it had sided with Revan during the Jedi Civil War, but many systems had done that, it wasn't like they were alone in that. The only other thing of note that could be said about it was that the massive crater where a city was once said to be. It had been destroyed so long ago, the only tales left were legends and myths.

Outside of those few facts, Tinnel had been a productive, if usually forgotten world among the thousands that made up the Galactic Republic. That is, until we arrived.

The entirety of Battlegroup Huntress had dropped out of hyperspace with enough space and time for the local PDF to detect us. They'd been informed of the plan in advance, but it was still better to not offend the people you were going to be relying on in a few short days.

"Horizon, you and your escorts are to move to the designated nav point," Commander Task ordered. I'll remain here with the rest of the section and act as a QRF for whatever the commodore needs."

"Aff," I replied and turned to see the helmsman already inputting the instructions for the engine crew.

I glanced down at my tactical display. We were being escorted by two ships we'd worked with on the last battle. The Eclipse and Starfury were on our port and starboard flanks, along with a pair of Acclamators that had been modified to carry starfighters instead of ground troops, and a couple of corvettes armed with anti-fighter weaponry.

It took a few hours for us to reach the place where we were supposed to be hidden, but eventually, we were safely secreted away in the mass shadow of one of Tinnel IVs two gas giants.

We'd be sitting the initial portion of the battle out. Only revealing ourselves once the main enemy fleet had ventured too far into the system for it to be practical for them to attempt escape. Sure, we'd be cornering the Separatists, but I wasn't sure how much harder droids would fight over people when push came to shove.

Protective instincts could be programmed into droids, loyalty could be programmed into droids. But that instinct to lash out and make others pay as much as possible for bringing you down wasn't something most droids possessed. After all, not every droids was HK-47, IG-88, or R2-D2. Those droids were special for particular reasons, they weren't the cannon fodder that made up the majority of the Confederacy.

Which is why I thought that the Commodore's plan had a decent chance of success. I was just hoping that the Force didn't decide to have other plans…

For now though, I had to make sure everything was ready. So, I had Aliya and the engineers going over everything to make sure that nothing would break too badly when we went back into combat. We knew that something would break, we just weren't sure what it was yet. Our hope was that it wasn't the grav well generators. Because our entire plan relied on them to work.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 31

The Separatist fleet that came out of hyperspace outnumbered Battlegroup Huntress by nearly half again our number. But come they did. From what little we could pick up from the few unencrypted channels that they were broadcasting on, it seemed that instead of one of the Providence-class carriers or dreadnoughts, Grievous was using a Munificent to manage the entirety of the fleet.

Which made sense to me, given the advanced sensor suites and communications gear that were standard onboard the star frigates. But all it really meant was that we had a priority target for our interdiction.

In our testing over the last two days, we discovered that we could use the gravity well generators to stop an entire fleet. In exchange, we had to sacrifice either offensive firepower if we wanted shields and point defenses. Or sacrifice having our shields dropped down to twenty-five percent efficiency. Unless we were willing to rip out the entire hypermatter reaction core and replace the thing, we were limited in just how much energy we generated.

Our most useful asset to the fleet made us a target. Thankfully, I did have the two Acclamators along with the Eclipse and Starfury as escorts. But anything other than a wolf pack of Munificents or light cruisers was going to require reinforcements. Lest we get overwhelmed and lose the ability to lock Grievous in the system with us.

One of the awful things about space combat was the sheer amount of time it took to get anywhere. Even with hyperdrives and modern engines, it still took the Separatist fleet several hours to reach weapons range for the main section of the battlegroup.

With our orders being what they were, we were on standby until both sides were fully engaged. If we launched the trap too early, then it was entirely possible that the enemy would pick up on what was happening and that Grievous or any of the other leaders would escape the trap we'd laid.

So for now, we watched what was happening across the solar system through a small relay, waiting for the signal to move out of the gas giant's mass shadow and do our part in this battle.

Two hours later, we got just that opportunity. The enemy was entangled in our own battlegroup, and reinforcements were going to be arriving soon.

General Kenobi had been tapped for assistance and was bringing another fleet to help us accomplish this. But given his position in the Outer Rim, it would take two days before he arrived. All we had to do was survive.

"Helm, get us a course out of the mass shadow," I ordered, standing with my hands clasped behind my back. "Everyone else, start planning on rerouting power to the grav well generators and shields. We're going to be relying on the rest of our section and fighters to ensure that we're kept in this fight."

I was answered by a chorus of yes sirs, and the Horizon emerged from the mass shadow along with the other four ships of our section. Hundreds of starfighters streamed from the pair of Acclamators, and our own complement joined them in formations around us. Then, thirty minutes later, the lights dimmed for a few seconds as we switched power to our generators, trapping both our fleet and that of the enemies in the system with us. There was only one way they were leaving, and that was by fighting their way out.

---

"Commodore, the Horizon has begun interdiction procedures," the communications officer relayed to Teskit, prompting him to lean over the tactical console.

The enemy had yet to even come close to breaking the shields of his new flagship, the Defender. A handful of enemy ships had broken off for the ground, but Teskit had to leave that to the ground forces to handle. It was his job to ensure that Battlegroup Huntress destroyed all of the enemy opposition in the system. With that in mind, he instructed one of the Arquitens wolfpacks to move onto the Defender's flanks as escorts along with a trio of Acclamator carriers.

He left a pair of Venators and the Acclamator destroyer Shards of Elysium behind to act as a QRF while he himself began shifting the Defender and the other fleet

"Captain, ground forces are reporting that there are Magnaguards on the surface. Force Recon believes that Grievous is likely on the surface somewhere."

"Good," Teskit kept his grin to himself. "Then all we have to do is eliminate this fleet, and he will have nowhere left to flee."

In any other situation, the tactical console would have been a horrible sight to see. After all, the blue shapes that were the ships and starfighters of the Separatists outnumbered his fleet, and the display showed that very well. But the Republic's ships were better on average than the most numerous CIS ships. With a Venator being capable of handling at least four Recusant-class destroyers without needing serious repairs, Teskit wasn't too concerned with them or the Munificent Star frigates that were the lynchpin of the enemy task force. No, his concern was with the Providence-class carriers and destroyers that were along the enemy's backline. Them along with what looked to be a hastily refit Lucrehulk were spewing out droid fighters and bombers at an alarming rate. So, it was up to his flagship and its escorts to remove them from the tactical playbook.

As they got closer, the Defender finally began taking hits that rocked her shields, dragging them down bit by bit before the massive battleship finally began to return fire. Her Turbolasers focused on the closest target, a Providence that was outfitted more as a carrier than a dreadnought. The Defender's heavy turbolasers first struck the CIS ships's shields, making them glow a brilliant blue, then a few moments later, had completely overwhelmed them.

"Have our escorts focus on taking out the enemy ships once we've stripped their shields down," Teskit ordered. "Our bombers can clean up. We're going to have to move on that Lucrehulk."

Teskit's reasoning for targeting the Lucrehulk and its escorts was twofold. For one thing, that ship carried enough starfighters to fight his entire fleet. For another, said battlecarrier and a wolfpack of mixed destroyers and frigates had shifted and were heading for where the Horizon was stationed. They could not be allowed to open the way out of the trap.

But as the Defender began to eliminate the enemy that stood in her way, it became clear that she wasn't going to be able to catch up to the enemy fleet section. Not before they'd engaged with the Horizon and her escorts. In any normal situation, they would have microjumped to assist. But with the Gravity Well generators locking everything down. Well, that wasn't an option anymore. The Horizon would simply have to hold out until the Defender caught up to the Lucrehulk. There wasn't any other way.

---

"Do you think we can take some of these home with us?" A Clone Commando nudged one of the still intact electrostaffs from a dead magnaguard with his DC-15 blaster rifle.

"Negative," one of the B-2 Super Battle droids that had been repainted and attached to the four-man squads replied.

"You're no fun," the Commando chuckled. "Hey Bruiser, we killed a lot of droids today, but I haven't seen any sign of the big guy yet."

"He's probably on his way to take on the Jedi, Crack," the leader of the Commando unit shrugged. "We're just here to help clean up. It's their job and that of the Arc Troopers to take him out. Besides, Trick hasn't picked up any communications signaling for help. So the trap is still good."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that, Bruiser," the tech of the squad replied. "All I'm getting is static. Which means either we're being jammed."

"Or the comms relay is offline," Hulk offered. "Could be either or."

"What do you think, B?" Crack asked the droid.

"There is no sign of signal jamming," The deep voice of the vocoder responded. "There is a 70% chance that the relay station has been shut down and is in use by the enemy to observe our communications."

"Well, Kriff it all," Trick sighed. "Bruiser, we should to go clean that up. Otherwise, the whole op's blown."

"Copy that," the leader nodded. "Hulk, go commandeer a speeder of some sort that's capable of carrying our friend here. Crack, police these bodies and grab whatever ordnance you think we're going to need, and Trick, make sure that none of this stays on the grid. If they're listening in. Then we need to be sure that we have the advantage of surprise. Oh, and B," The B-2 seemed to look at the commando leader quizically. "Look menacing."

"Roger Roger," the droid's photoreceptors shifted from olive green to red, and its vambrance opened up to reveal the wrist rockets mounted there.

Whatever was going on, it was clear that this battle wasn't just going to be decided in the void. There was going to need to be something done on the ground as well. Otherwise, Grievous would slip through the Republic's fingers. Again…

Author's Note: Sorry for the delayed updates across all of my fics for the last week and a half. Had some big stuff that I had to deal with IRL. Should be back to regular updates soon.

 

[MarkWarrior]

"Sir, we've got enemy fleet sections moving toward our position. What are your orders?"

"Keep the grav well generators up and running," I ordered. "And divert as much power to rear deflectors and engines. The others will have to run cover for us."


We weren't going to be able to outrun the modern ships. At least not while keeping the interdiction field operational. So, we had to compromise. Even if I didn't think it was worth it to sacrifice four ships for the one in this battle. That line of thought didn't fall into the grim calculus of the long strategy of the war. The Horizon was valuable. Not only as something of a prototype for testing new gravity well generators. But also as the only ship in existence that could lock down a system and allow no hyperspace travel out of it.
So, we turned tail and ran. Our engines pushed out thrust as the Starfury, Eclipse, and pair of Acclamators turned and charged the Separatist section, pushing towards us. Even though pushing a Lucrehulk that had been converted into a battlecarrier was near suicide, the Acclamators stood the best chance of survival. Given we'd converted most of the extra internal space that was reserved for ground troops into extra starfighters, spare parts, and shield generators, we had at least some hope that they could hold out while the Defender caught up.

It still didn't sit right with me as I glanced over at the tactical display, watching the red icons of the other four ships charging the five blues that made up the Confederacy's attempt at erasing the Horizon from the system entirely.
"Tell half of our starfighers to peel off and join the rest of the section," I ordered. "Lieutenant Treal will have to make do without. If they break through our screen, it won't matter much that we have fighters to assist."

Half of the small dots that represented starfighters surrounding my ship moved away and joined the clusters that surrounded the other ships. Hopefully, they'd be able to make a difference.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the 'good' news for the day. Because a pair of Consular-Class ships dropped out of hyperspace around us.

"Are you with Battlegroup Huntress?" the breathless voice of one of the ship captains asked as the communications tech handed me a headset.

"Verify their ship IDs," I muted the headset to order the sensors officer before receiving a nod of confirmation,

"IFFs confirmed," the woman replied. "The Kamino Defense Fleet's their last reported location, though."

"We are a part of Battlegroup Huntress," I replied. "What do you need, Exposition?"

"We need reinforcements." I could hear the captain's relief. "General Grievous and Ventress are attacking Kamino, and we've got orders to bring as many fleet assets to reinforce as possible. We ran into General Kenobi's fleet earlier, but he was wrapped in a battle worse than this one. We nearly burned out our primary hyperdrives to get here fast enough to see if you could assist."

"We have Grievous locked down in this system," I shook my head. "You must be mistaken."

A few seconds later, we were sent a hologram of Grievous cutting through clones on Kamino, the timestamp matching up with a few hours ago.

"Sorry, Horizon, but I'm afraid whatever HIGHCOM told you, we were all wrong."

"Understood," I replied. "Cut the gravity well generators and bring full power to our weapons," I turned to the viewport. "Helm, turn us around. Comms, patch the Consulars into our encrypted comms to the Commodore. We've got new that needs to be brought to his attention."

"Thank you," The captain of the Exposition said. "Now, what can we do to assist?"

"Get in formation and help keep starfighters off our flanks," I ordered. "We can't reinforce Kamino if we're all dead. So, we've got an enemy fleet to deal with before we head out."

The Horizon seemed to thrum with power as we dropped the gravity well generators and diverted the extra power back to our engines and weapons.

Our escort of Acclamators and Arquitens was currently engaged with the wolfpack of Munificents and Recusants that the Lucrehulk had been using as escorts. However, the Lucrehulk was focused on us, and more fighters streamed from her hangars to move through the void towards us. Sure, the massive converted freighter might be attempting to run, but now that they knew that the Horizon existed, we were going to have to be killed.

As we started to get into extreme weapons range, though, the Defender and her escorts micro-jumped directly behind the Lucrehulk. It was a risk, one that saw an Arquitens and a CR-90 ripped apart, but it paid off when the Acclamator battleship's guns began to sing.

Deflector shields had to be focused and cycled in the direction of the most enemy fire that was incoming to be utilized in the most efficient way. With the Lucrehulk now facing fire from us in her forward sections and in the rear from the Defender and others, she was vulnerable. Even with the extra generators that had been crammed into her hull.

Unfortunately, we couldn't prevent her retaliatory fire, and the Separatist vessel was ignoring the Defender in favor of hitting us. The Horizon shuddered as we took fire from the quad turbolasers that had been bolted onto the Lucrehulk's hull.

At first, things seemed fine. We were weathering the storm, even if our shields were beginning to wither under the assault. But then, the enemy fighter and bomber wings got involved. Our shields nearlty vanished, and it was only through a brief surge of emergency power through those reacotrs being activated that brought them back.

"Prepare an emergency jump to hyperspace!" I gripped the console in front of me as a bomb hit the ship, and I was nearly thrown to the ground. "Anywhere but here. Send a message to the Commodore, we'll rejoin him-" Another hit wrested my grip away from me, and the last thing I saw before my head hit the wall behind me was the streak of stars indicating hyperspace.

---

Teskit frowned as they watched the damaged Horizon leave the system. That last hit from a bomber directly on the bridge had been painful to watch, but if she were still able to effect an emergency jump, then he didn't need to worry about the ship until after the battle.

Refocusing his mind on what was in front of him, the Commodore began to issue commands to the rest of the ships in the battlegroup. The escorts with him diverted to either attack the sides of the Lucrehulk or to render assistance to the section that had been escorting the Horizon.

While the battle cruiser was a formidable opponent, the heavy turbolasers and missiles of the Defender were able to decimate her engines and leave her floundering and vulnerable in the void.

"Begin targeting her turbolasers," Teskit heard the Clone Commander who was in charge of the Defender order. "She's crippled; we may be able to board her and gather intelligence."

"Good call," Teskit nodded at the clone. "Begin recalling our ground forces. Our Arc Troopers and Commandos will be suitable for this task. We need to find out why our trap failed and where Grievous is located. If the Consulars are right and he is physically present on Kamino, then the means of deception must be revealed."

"Shards of Elysium, begin hunting down the wolf-packs. Destroyed or fled, it makes no difference to me."

"Yes, Commodore," Commander Ronard replied, the frown on his face evident. "We'll start cleaning house."

The Acclamator destroyer was among the fastest and most heavily armed ships in the fleet outside of his own battleship, and Teskit knew that when combined with the other fast elements of the fleet that they'd soon have that job done. It was his responsibility to keep the last Lucrehulk pinned in place as well as deter the last pair of Providence-class carriers from deciding to eliminate their chance for intelligence gathering.

One by one, the Lucrehulk's guns went silent, its hangars all bombed closed, barring one. That would be their entry point.

"Have the rest of our escorts move to assist the fleet," Teskit ordered. "Once the system is clear, we'll leave behind a section to ensure that there's no enemy elements remaining while we continue on to Kamino."

"Sir, what about the Horizon?" the Clone Commander asked.

"She'll have to find her own way home," Teskit replied, masking his thoughts behind a mask of calm. "Unfortunately, one ship and her crew is not worth sacrificing a world for."

"Yes, Sir," The clone nodded.

Hopefully, the emergency jump had only taken them to the next system. But there was always the chance that it tossed them out in the deep core or elsewhere. Time would tell. For now, though, he had a battle to win and a planet to reinforce.

---

"You guys, Theta squad?" A local militia man asked, his speeder stopping in front of the group of commandos and their B2.

"Who's asking?" Bruiser asked.

"Colonel Waters is recalling all of Battlegroup Huntress's ground elements," The militaman hopped off the speeder. "But Arc and Commandos have priority."

"Do you have a line of comms to the colonel?" Crack asked. "We've been jammed for hours."

"Speeder has an antenna that breaks through jamming," the man replied, pointing out the small strip that was the antenna. "There should be a channel you can reach him on."

"Thanks," Crack hopped into the speeder and patched the antenna into their communication lines.

"Colonel Waters, Theta Squad, here," Bruiser said once Crack gave a thumbs-up.

"Theta, good," Waters' voice was the usual calm and collected Coruscanti accent. "You're the last squad to make contact. We're pulling back to the void, there's a Lucrehulk currently disabled, and we're to do some intel extraction and then scuttle the ship."

"Sir, we're currently on our way to eliminate the local jamming. Mind if we take it off the map, first?" Bruiser asked.

"Go ahead," Waters replied. "Once you take that out, we can route transports to you."

"Thank you, sir."

"You're killing more clankers," Waters' bloodthirsty grin could be heard through the line. "Don't thank me, just execute."

The channel then closed, leaving the squad in silence.

"You hear that, B?" Hulk asked. "We get to finish the job. Today ain't turning out to be so bad after all!"

"Affirmative," The droid's eyes shifted from red to blue to indicate satisfaction.

Trick remained silent, the sniper always having prefered to only talk when necessary.

"We're keeping the speeder," Crack said to the militia trooper.

"Sorry, sir," the trooper shook his head. "I can't do that or the Captain'll have my head. I can go with you, though."

"Sounds good to me," Bruiser shrugged. "We just need to get there ASAP."

"I've got a route that circumvents most of the fighting. But there are some Droidekas we'll have to dodge."

"Weaklings," B stated.

"What B said," Hulk grinned. "We'll take them out along the way."

"Alright, Theta, first the jammer, then back into the void. We get to board another ship!"

"Is it too late to go back to Kamino?" Crack asked. "I had a nice bunk, great weather, and gravity there."

"No blankets, rain, and heavy G training," Bruiser reminded the tech.

"Still better than low-g missions," Crack shrugged. "But I guess it is a good mission. Can't let the Arc Troopers get bigger heads than they've already got."

"Exactly," Hulk slapped his brother on the back. "That's the way to think about it."

"Stow the chatter," the militia trooper said. "Moving up on Droideka alley."

"Hulk, man that gun," Bruiser ordered. "Let's finish this up."

"Yessir," Hulk moved into position behind the heavy repeating blaster. "Looks like you've got an infestation, good thing you called the exterminators!"

The speeder drifted into the alleyway, and Hulk began firing on the droidekas before they put up their shields, shredding a good portion of them before they turned and began firing.

"B, you're up!" Crack said, tossing a grenade over the side of the speeder.

"Inferior machine," B killed two droidekas with a well-placed wrist rocket and some rubble. "I will bathe in your oil."

"Get some!" Hulk continued firing as they finally left the alleyway and moved further to the comms station. "We should go back and get the rest of them."

"Negative," Bruiser shook his head. "We've got our missions. Let's see them through."