77 The Lost Fleet [2/3]

Part 5

Republica 500

Coruscant

Anakin nodded stiffly to the squad leader of the Riot Police unit stationed at his wife's floor to keep reporters and other crazies away and got a cold acknowledgment in reply. Skywalker wondered if he'll ever see the day when most people he met wouldn't hold his action on Geonosis against him. Personally, he deemed the odds quite low.

Skywalker got into the apartment he now openly shared with Padme and dragged himself to the fresher before discarding his clothes and getting under a fan of hot water. The training regiment instituted by Obi-Wan to get him into shape was running Anakin ragged. At least he had leave to go home in the evening, which was heaven after his imprisonment.

Skywalker smiled when he heard the front door open. A moment later he was able to sense Padme's presence. The anger and resignation radiating from her wiped the smile off his face. Anakin finished his bath ASAP, got a robe from a nearby cupboard and went to see his wife.

"Tough day, love?" Skywalker asked when he entered the living room.

Padme had collapsed on the couch and just groaned something unintelligible. Anakin went to sit next to his wife and pulled her into a hug. Her very presence made the stress and frustration which were his constant companions for months subdue.

"I'm not fine." Padme grumbled. "We finally got news from home a frigate made it to a holonet transmitter in Hutt space. The fleet was forced to go under the planetary shield. Multiple landing sites were confirmed before the connection was cut."

"I'm sorry. I should be there." Anakin grumbled.

"I need you here." Padme mumbled.

"General Typho should have things handled. Everything I've been cleared to see indicates that the army is well trained considering how new it is and its very well equipped. There are a lot of Clones on Naboo too." Anakin tried to reassure his wife.

He pulled her closer and began running a hand through her hair in an attempt to calm her down.

"Everything feels wrong!" Padme grumbled. "We're peaceful people! We shouldn't be training armies and building war machines!" Padme shook with the outrage she felt.

"I know. Believe me, I know how wrong this whole madness feels." Anakin muttered.

Padme gripped his left arm and shifted so she could look her husband in the eyes. Her gaze was heavy with emotions.

"That's what my mind says." Padme whispered. A tear formed in the corners of her eyes. "It's no longer what I feel." Her words were a harsh whisper.

Anakin nodded numbly. The anger rising in Padme's chest was like a beacon that called to him.

"Peace!" A hollow laughter escaped her lips. "What did it get us?! Two invasions and a poisoned world!"

Skywalker could practically taste his wife's indignation. Every word she uttered, every admission made her anger burn hotter.

"Padme, what happened on Naboo isn't your fault." Anakin said.

"Isn't it? I was the Queen and did nothing but utter hollow protests before running away to beg the Senate for help. We all know how that turned out! Now I'm Senator and it took another invasion and the Separatists using a bio-weapon on Naboo to open my eyes! How isn't it my fault!?" Padme snapped.

"All you did was to stand up for your principles, love. That's something I admire in you, not something to be blamed for." Anakin did his best to calm down his wife.

"Tell that to all the people who died from the Blue Shadow! Tell it to everyone who will die fighting off another invasion!" Padme raged.

"I will." Anakin simply nodded.

Padme looked him in the eyes for a long moment and relaxed a bit. A small fond smile appeared on her face. The anger and self-recrimination she was feeling subdued a bit.

"I can't go on like this, Anakin." Padme muttered quietly. "I can't go on and keep telling people that there must be peace. That this war has to end in anything but the destruction of the Separatists." Her face hardened. "I want them to pay for all they did to my people. To us. To me..." Padme admitted.

Skywalker held her tighter and felt her anger mingle with mortification at that confession. There was something in her expression, in the emotions she radiated that made him shiver and swell with desire.

"I understand." Anakin whispered back. "I know how you feel, my love. I feel the same way. There is a part of me that needs to make the Separatists pay for all the pain they caused you. I need to make sure they won't be able to hurt you nor anyone else ever again… Those emotions go against everything I've been taught as a Jedi." Skywalker smiled sadly. "I don't really care. You're what matters, my love. I'll do everything in my power to make the Separatist pay for everything."

Padme gazed in his eyes and smiled. There was no need to say anything else. They had an understanding, a pact. All the mortification and shame Padme felt melted away. They were replaced by determination and vindication. Her anger cooled down a bit and slowly turned into another kind of heat.

Anakin smiled and leaned forward to capture Padme's lips in a searing kiss, which she returned eagerly.

=RK=

Industrial district

Sundari

Mandalore

Three days of heavy fighting, four waves of enemy reinforcements and almost total air superiority in the area was all it took for the Separatists to break through the defenses surrounding the capital and land forces through one of the still gaping holes in the dome supposed to protect Sundari from the desert.

The droid armies paid in fields of war-machines turned into scrap and rivers of oil for their achievement, however they did it. The defenses were breached and the enemy began shuttling troops into the city. There were rumors about an armored force being assembled up seal the breach, however Aria didn't put much trust in that idea. While the new and inexperienced Mandalorian armored formations did well when on the defense, they were mauled badly by air strikes and Separatist armored thrusts. Astra was well aware of that fact – Omega squad was sent more than once to take care of enemy infantry dropped behind the front lines, so she saw firsthand how the armored formations performed.

On the other hand, most of the Basilisks were kept in reserve until a good opportunity to use them decisively appeared. At least that's what the rumor mill said according to Dev. For all Astra knew, the war-droids might have attacked and been crushed already.

"Omega, we're up!" Niner shouted. "The AA in the industrial district is being suppressed and the clankers are landing all over the place. We're moving ahead of Fifth Sundari regiment to slow down the enemy. Heavy reinforcements are twenty minutes behind us."

"So much for getting a bit of shuteye." Atin grumbled.

"We got four hours off yesterday… I think." Aria frowned. The last few days were already blurring together.

"Get on the LAAT!" Niner snapped and followed his own order.

Aria and Omega squad piled into the transport and it shot in the air before diving to street level. It was joined by five more LAATs loaded to the brim with heavy armed and even more pissed off Mandalorians.

No one bothered sealing the side doors, which let Aria have a great view of the part of Sundari they were flying over. The streets below were blocked by makeshift barricades with the odd strong point properly built by combat engineers. The buildings on the both sides were being turned into fortresses by platoons of Mandalorian warriors.

Soon enough the QRF Omega was attached to reached the contested zone. Harsh sunlight poured through the breach in the dome giving the industrial area a haunting beauty which was broken by the flashes of firefights and explosions. Separatist assault transports and gunships were busy shooting up the defense perimeter surrounding the area around the breach, while others dashed in different directions to drop Commando droids behind the defenders.

"Hold on, we're almost at the LZ!" The pilot shouted. The LAAT accelerated even faster for a few seconds before getting to a jarring stop next to a wall surrounding a row of warehouse.

"GO!" Niner shouted and jumped off the transport.

Nearby Mandalorians in heavy armor with jet-packs were simply hurling themselves off the LAATs before flying at the nearest enemies. In moments heavy fighting erupted at the both flanks of the LZ.

Aria shouldered the carbine she carried for mid-range work and to preserve her strength and scanned the area. Omega had was covered by the wall for the time being and there were no clankers in sight.

"Aria, you're getting over first. Draw the enemy's attention. We're five seconds behind you." Niner ordered.

The Sith in training nodded, put her gun on the magnetic clamp on her back and got her lightsaber before simply using the Force to jump over the wall. A droid tried go shoot her while she was descending, however she was able to deflect its fire. The clanker was still attempting to gun her down when the Clone used grappling hooks to scale the wall and shot the droid before getting on the other side.

"Right flank!" Niner ordered.

Atin and Aria moved to secure the corner of the closest warehouse and the rest of Omega followed. A Mandalorian flew above them and sent two missiles somewhere behind the next warehouse before diving away from a gunship that attempted to nail him. The Separatist machine froze in midair when a quartet of red beams speared through it, then in promptly blew up. Aria glanced up and grinned when a Basilisk flew overhead searching for other targets.

A minute later Omega was sneaking up to the closest firefight. Two squads of Mandalorians in painted Clone armor had dug in into the front of a warehouse and were ducking it with a platoon of SB and Commando droids. The most of the machines were taking cover behind a ragged line of destroyed armor – both CIS hover-tanks and GAR provided walkers.

"Throw smoke and we're flanking them before some of their friends turn up. Aria, you're on point. Fi, get on a higher ground and provide support. The rest form up on me." Niner ordered.

Thirty seconds later the sniper had found a perch on top of a nearby warehouse. Omega threw five smoke grenades and charged the enemy after they detonated. The droids rallied faster than expected and threw grenades at the advancing Commandos. Aria stopped them mid-air and returned them to the sender. Ten ragged explosion later, Omega fell upon the enemy flank and began dismantling what was left of the enemy platoon.

Less than a minute later it was all over. The defenders gave out ragged cheers, however the Clones were already sprinting towards the next engagement.

It was going to be another long day for Omega squad.

=RK=

Part 6

Bridge

Heavy cruiser Warrior

High orbit above Eriadu

"Our situation is deteriorating." Rear admiral Nils Tenant said over the comm. The man's expression was a textbook example of grim determination mixed with weariness.

Brigadier Gideon Tarkin, the man in charge of Eriadu's own fleet and the forces he had built from the System Defense Navies of most notable worlds in the Seswenna sector nodded in acceptance.

"I have another regiment embarking. They'll be on the moon in four hours." Tarkin said. For all the good it was going to do.

"Thank you, brigadier. If we lose the remaining cannons and the shield generator on the moon, we'll be done for." Tenant let out a relieved sigh.

"Another regiment won't be enough stop the Separatists. However I don't dare pull out many more units. As of two hours ago there are three droid army groups down on Eridau and they're pressing hard towards the shield generators and the capital." Tarkin grimaced. "We lack Acclamators able to land and lift off afterward to easily shift forces anyway."

Only two of the Assault Ships in the system were still operational and both were too heavily damaged to successfully land on the planet and then reach orbit. That left Tarkin relying on various shuttles in order to bring reinforcements and supplies to the moon.

The brigadier fixed his attention on the holotank showing the remaining Republic forces in the system. With the exception of the combined fleets pinned in place between Eriadu and her moon, there was a small task force playing tag with a much larger Separatist battle group in the asteroid rings of the system's single gas giant. Technically speaking, Tenant and Tarkin had a powerful force at their disposal, one that was further augmented by the remnants of four theater fleets. However most of those ships were damaged to one degree or another during the two weeks long siege that led to their unenviable position. If it wasn't for the anti-orbital cannons still operational on the moon and the multiple Golan platforms dragged around the shipyards in Geo-stationary orbit between Eriadu and its single natural satellite, the loyalist would have been overwhelmed days ago. Even with those defensive advantages, only the presence of two gravity well generators completely locking up any attempt for hyperspace insertion in the middle of the pocket where the Republic forces were gathered prevented the enemy from successfully implementing its favorite ramming attacks.

In the end everything the Tarkin brothers and their extended family did, all the preparations they made in the buildup to this inevitable war only meant that he was losing the battle for his homeworld slower. Ever since the enemy offensive began, Eridau had acquired a ring of destroyed ships, dead men and broken droids, which was a testament for the ferocity with which both sides fought.

Despite heavy losses, the Confederacy continued to feed more material in the assault. The enemy simply had to remove Eriadu as a threat – the system was strategically placed to threaten multiple sectors and was at a crossroad of multiple hyperspace lanes. Taking Tarkin's world was going to tear out the heart of the whole Seswenna sector, which would then fall relatively easy. That was a foregone conclusion when most of the System Defense Navies were here as a part of the theater fleets created by Gideon.

The idea for drawing the bulk of the enemy forces hitting the sector to Eriadu by making the system a staging ground for raids in Separatist space has been his. Takin knew his world would be assaulted anyway and this way he not only had a better chance to hold it, but he was going to spare the other worlds he was responsible for.

That was the plan. Unfortunately it overlooked the sheer magnitude of the forces the Confederacy could bring to bear against the Republic in this grand offensive of theirs. It was a small miracle that instead of throwing more ships at Eriadu, the Separatist had decided to spent most of a sector fleet to lock down the whole Western Quadrant. Otherwise the fact that two thirds of the Republic Sector fleet meant to protect that same territory wasn't here at Eriadu would have proven fatal.

On the other hand, even their presence wasn't a magic solution. If Tenant's whole command was present, the same would be true for the enemy too, and the overall correlation of the forces would be roughly the same anyway.

"The Separatists are forming up for another attack." Tenant spoke quietly.

Tarkin frowned. If he was in their shoes, Gideon would have waited for the droid army on the moon to crack the defenses there and take out either the cannons or the shield. Attacking while that firepower was still available was going to be expensive and likely futile.

The Separatist had tried it multiple times anyway and there was no indication it was going to work.

"That's weird." Tarkin's frown deepened.

The symbols representing the enemy fleets boxing in the loyalists were shifting all right, however only a third of them were assuming an offensive formations aimed at his forces. The rest were assuming defensive formations and maneuvering to face away from Eriadu.

"Brigadier, the enemy forces on the moon are starting another assault." Tarkin's liaison with the infantry informed him.

"Tell them to hold at all cost. Reinforcements will be arriving in a few hours." Gideon spoke absent-mindedly.

Despite all the ECM thrown away by the Separatists, the Republic forces had no trouble detecting a decent sized fleet exiting hyperspace a light hour from Eriadu. There were a lot of powerful scanners still operation on the moon and in the orbital segment under loyalist control.

The newcomers were obviously more Separatist – probably called back from securing the rest of the quadrant. However that didn't explain the enemy's actions. The Confederate forces appeared to be preparing to fend off attack and not one coming from Tarkin's or Tenant's fleets.

"Sir, we're getting a lot of encrypted traffic between the newcomers and the enemy flagship. There's too much interference to get much of it. We're dumping the raw data to Intel for decryption and analysis." A member of Takrin's staff reported.

"They're either putting an elaborate show for us or Veil put a spanner in their plans. He should be getting to the staging areas at this time. Perhaps a few days earlier if he was lucky in the Unknown Regions." Tenant chuckled.

"That would certainly explain it." Tarkin nodded. "It won't matter if the good general's coming to relieve us if we aren't here when he arrives." Gideon added.

"I concur." Nils agreed. "We'll just have to hold the line no matter what."

=RK=

2nd Platoon

Black Company

41st Battalion "The Grim Reapers"

Eriadu's moon

"Dex, get on the comm! We need air-resupply!" Sergeant Hound growled.

The senior NCO was once again in charge of the whole platoon after the newest lieutenant managed to get himself killed last week. Fighting on the mostly airless ball of rock reminded Hound of Geonosis – with more droids, less bugs and no air to breathe.

After just a week of R&R, the whole division had been hurried to Eriadu and ordered go hold the world at all costs. That in turn meant that they got thrown in the hottest fires thanks to the simple fact that they were one of the few units in the system fully equipped with the new weapons and armor. The former proved invaluable in holding the moon so far, because in that environment even an otherwise non-lethal glance could prove fatal.

Things like the running out air supply of the platoon might very well kill them all before the clankers could.

"I'm on it, Sarge!" Dex shouted back.

Hound nodded in satisfaction and returned his attention to commanding. He was actually beginning to miss that competent Jedi who took command back on Geonosis. They sure could use a few of the blighters.

"We've got droidekas!" A KNG – kriffing new guy – from the local company helping hold the valley leading to the Ion Cannon shouted.

"Heavy Three, you're cleared to engage. Blue and Red fire-teams, provide support." Hound ordered after examining the situation.

Twenty or so of the destroyer droids had come uncomfortably close after being screened by a battalion of B1s sent out to soak up the incoming fire. The blighters actually managed to deploy and activate their shields before coming under effective fire and only one was disabled before it could be surrounded by its defense field. The droidekas laid down suppressive fire, which in turn allowed two SB companies to advance without too much trouble.

In the evening twilight the firefight looked like something from a demented dream. The thin atmosphere was just the right composition and thick enough to make each shot appear as a much larger glowing bolt of fiery plasma moments after leaving the barrel of a gun. It was almost beautiful in a macabre sort of way.

"Black One to Black Actual, I need a fire mission at the following coordinates…" Hound called command.

"Black Actual, Black One, that's negative. All supports is engaged to capacity. Hold your ground, over."

"Copy that, Black Actual." The Sergeant added a few quiet curses. "Rock, bring in the reserve on the right flank!" Hound ordered, before cursing again.

The Sergeant activated the zoom function built in his helmet and grit his teeth. An armor column was heading straight at the valley's entrance. It was screened by ten speeder mounted B1s and followed by what looked suspiciously like a battalion worth of mechanized infantry mounted in APCs.

"Black One, to Black Actual, be advised I have visual on heavy enemy forces moving our way. ETA eight minutes. We need all the support you can get to us."

"Black Actual, Black One, stand by. Dispatching reserves to your position. Over."

"Black One, Black Actual, roger. Over." Hound grunted. Those reinforcements better hurry or they would be running right into a clanker armored spearhead.

The Sergeant glanced around. The only thing he had left was his command squad.

"Dex, make sure we get our kriffing air and call in all the artillery support that becomes available. The rest of you boys, come with me. We have some uninvited guest to kick out." Hound ordered and began advancing to the right flank where his heavy weapon specialists were laying down the pain upon those droidekas.