C4P1

Venator-Class Star Destroyer Resolute

"All ships have formed up, sir," said Joren at the comms station. Admiral Yularen glanced at him and nodded in acknowledgment.

"Have the fleet prepare to move out, we need to retake the initiative immediately, or the enemy will have taken the sector fleet for themselves." Said the Admiral authoritatively. "All ahead full!"

The ship shuddered slightly as the engines came to life. It was a testament to Kuat engineering that the star destroyer was still functional and battle-ready, Personally, Joren was of the belief that it was thanks to the Resolute's very capable crew of engineers who managed the tall orders of the day.

"The fleet acknowledges," he called out. "Moving all ahead at full."

It was quite a sight, thought the young comms officer, as he listened to the traffic between the sixty-odd warships that remained combat-capable.

He survived by being the furthest from the explosions when a stray Vulture fighter struck the bridge, which killed both the communications and the sensors officer, resulting in his immediate promotion to both, simply because they had no one else experienced enough to man the stations.

Joren didn't relish that very much, but Yularen assured him that he was more than ready for it.

Crew morale was already low, and the Admiral needed every man and woman on hand to help defeat the Separatists over Kamino. But in the face of losing the Pride of the Core and an entire Sector Fleet?

How could anyone recover from that? He wondered, glancing over to the admiral as he stood stoically at the head of the bridge, staring out at the distant enemy fleet and the long dagger of the Pride adrift in space.

"Sir, enemy fleet is moving," Joren said, peering into the data fed into his console from the sensors. "They appear to be moving to cover the Pride of the Core...wait..."

"What is it, Joren?" Asked Yularen as he joined him at the sensor console.

"The Pride is moving."

"What. They can't have restored her systems already, not this quickly," murmured the Admiral in confusion. "That ion cannon blast took out everything, from weapons and shields to engines and life support. It's a wonder there weren't any catastrophic reactor breaches!"

"You're right sir," agreed the younger man, nodding. "Sensors don't detect any power signatures in the Pride."

"...Tractor beams."

Both men turned towards a clone officer, dawning comprehension growing on their faces. "They're using tractor beams to move the Pride. But why?"

"Are they using them as a shield?" Wondered Joren.

"No, the ships are moving the entire bulk of the Pride of the Core as efficiently and quickly as possible, look at how their ships are positioned all over the Pride. They can't use it as cover like that," pointed out the clone.

"What are their projected destinations?" Demanded Yularen.

"Lagrange point delta five." Said Joren immediately, frowning. "But why there?"

"Tipoca City," breathed the clone officer, horror dawning on his face. "No!"

"Yes. Our enemy intends to literally drop the Pride of the Core directly into Tipoca City. It would wipe out the entire cloning facility, nevermind destroy the Kaminoan people in their entirety." Breathed Yularen heavily with a sigh. "He is forcing us to choose between fighting and defeating him...or letting him destroy Tipoca City."

"That bastard," bit out the officer.

"Cold and brilliant," admitted the Admiral with grudging respect. He sighed, "Unfortunately for us, he is fighting for the Separatists."

Yularen turned to his command console and spoke into it, his voice reverberating with authority and a trace of desperation.

"Attention to all ships. Go to flank speed. We need to intercept the enemy fleet before they can get into position to destroy Tipoca City!"

-

Tipoca City, Inner Ward

North Western Platform

"You cannot escape Ventress!" Shuted Obiwan, flinging the blast doors shut with a wave of his hand. To his consternation, Ventress simply cut her way through it as though it were nothing but paper, but at least it slowed her down a little.

"On the contrary my dear Obiwan," the Sith acolyte called back with a cackle. "I can! And there is nothing you and your girlfriend can do to stop me-aaah!"

An unseen force threw Ventress from the side and sent her flying into the wall, where she crumpled into an undignified heap.

"As much as I appreciate working with you Obiwan, I would rather not," said Shaak'ti flatly, a slight trace of annoyance in her apparent good humor.

"None taken," quipped the other Jedi with a smile. He turned towards Ventress as she slowly picked herself up and pointed his saber towards her. "Give up, Ventress. We have you cornered and there is no way out-"

Then the sudden Force Push sent him and Shaak'ti sprawling as Ventress took the time to cut into the floor and jump through the hole she made.

"I'm thinking you ought to stop offering her the chance to surrender," muttered the togruta next to him as she jumped to her feet. "It would make things so much easier."

-

Outer Wards

Trooper CT-71793 ducked behind a fallen support beam, breathing heavily. He had been one of the many clone trainees on Tipoca City when the Separatists hit Kamino. The trainees had been evacuated into bunkers as they weren't fully trained to fight.

But when the clankers hit the city with drop pods, several dropped directly on top of the bunker he was in. It was only a matter of time before the fighting reached the place and the trainees were forced to take up arms.

In a span of over six hours, he had seen more than half his classmates die in the battle to push the enemy off their home.

Now, he led his class of battle-hardened clone troopers on the frontlines, on the offensive and savoring each moment as the droids were forced on the defensive time and time again. They were pushing the droids back with ferocity and sheer bullheadedness, all the way to the edges of the outer wards. All that lay between his platoon and victory was a small army of clankers behind barricades and sentry turrets.

"Suppressive fire!" He roared as he threw himself over the support beam, his slightly too large body armor clattering as he fired his blaster rifle with one hand. Behind him, dozens of young clones roared in tandem with him, as clones behind cover began to rain bright blue bolts down on the droids.

The clankers squawked a warning and they began to take cover; a new behavioral trait that was never accounted for in the training scenarios; but CT-71793 adapted to this new variable easily.

He grabbed a thermal detonator and thumbed it, before chucking it into the air. It sailed high through the open space of the bridge connecting their platforms together, before clattering between a pair of barricades.

It and dozens of grenades rained down on the enemy before exploding spectacularly.

Droid parts rained down on them even as he led the charge.

It was going well, CT-71793 realized. They were really pushing the enemy back this time. There were no more setbacks.

Even as the thought ended, his tired eyes caught sight of several figures duking it out on one of the smaller platforms nearby, several stories below. Two wielded lightsabers of green and blue. Another wielded two red ones.

"Squad three and seven with me! Everyone else pushes forward and secure the objective!" He yelled out.

"Thats Jedi Master Shaak'ti!" Exclaimed a trooper.

He nodded. "Yeah, and we're going to help them take out that one with the red lightsabers! Light her up!"

-

Subjugator-Class Heavy Cruiser Nox Amuleus

Bridge

Reports were streaming through all the communications channels both aboard and from the ground. All the data pointed to the inevitable fact that the Republic's ground forces were slowly but surely pushing my own forces back at a steady pace.

The Clones had all but retaken all the primary and inner wards and were in the process of weeding out my remaining forces within the outer wards.

Where Grievous was, I did not know.

But I did find my dear mistress Ventress.

She was having the time of her life running from two vengeful Jedi who wants the ampule of Jango Fett's marrow sample.

Mentally, I sought a gunship squadron and found several Mechanized Assault Flyers strafing the clones assaulting the southern section of the outer wards. I directed them to deliver fire support to aid her in her escape.

Droid forces surged forwards unexpectedly with B2s on rocket packs and kamikaze droids, catching the clones off guard for a few moments, long enough for B2s to rush forwards with both wristblasters firing at full auto. The miniature suicide drones detonated their internal bombs, setting fire to dozens of clone troopers with their incendiary blasts.

High above, the MAF gunships I had redirected were flying down towards Ventress, streams of laser bolts flying down to stop the Jedi in their tracks, forcing them to deflect what they could.

Ventress looked up and smiled widely at the sight as she ran as far as she could from the Jedi as possible.

A warm feeling in my chest grew as I watched her reach for safety.

That feeling was replaced with mild outrage as rockets shot from the ground to impact against the flyers one after another.

One of the few Flyers still in the sky fired their beam weapons down at the Jedi. One, Obiwan I vaguely recognized, deflected the beam and bisected another Flyer as another wave of rockets shot up towards the gunships.

Again, I began redirecting more gunships and troops to support Ventress, only to find them under attack by clone troopers rushing to take advantage of the sudden lack of fire being directed towards them.

Alerts began to swim across my consciousness and I was forced to turn my eyes back to space.

What I found did not please me.

-

Tipoca City, inner Wards

North Western Command Platform

Grievous was not pleased with his predicament, having been shot in the face multiple times and shot out of the air with a rocket. All his pains and humiliations were being made up for this very moment as he carved his way up through the layers of armor plating.

The battle was turning against them, if the chatter from the secured comm-lines were of any indication. He couldn't call for reinforcements, if not for lack of trying, as his commlink transmitter was destroyed.

Instead, he tracked the good Senator Amidala down to the secured bunker where she was being held for her protection and opted to take at least some of his frustrations out on her.

That resulted in his lightsabers cutting the legs off at least a dozen clone officers and troopers as he erupted from the floor. His mechanical arms whirled and clones fell in pieces.

All around him, officers and troopers were exclaiming in alarm, even as he pulled himself out of the hole and began cutting down clones left and right.

Senator Amidala was in front of him, right behind an unfortunate clone trooper who found his top half falling to the ground. She dropped a commlink as she backed away, hands fumbling for her pistol.

"Haha! Surprise, Senator!" Chuckled the kaleesh cyborg as he snapped his arms back together. A clone trooper struggled to raise his pistol at him, but Grievous paid him no heed as clawed foot crushed the man's head into a paste.

"You have caused me a great deal of pain and frustration Senator…" He rasped, hand shooting out to grab the woman by the neck. Amidala struggled wildly, the bones in her frail neck creaking dangerously as she gasped for air. Grievous threw her close so he could peer into her wide fearful eyes. "And you will suffer greatly for it!"

In one hand, a lightsaber came to life and began to close in on the Senator's face. Her struggles intensified, only to go stock-still as she began to scream with the sizzling.

"Do not worry, I will not kill you, Senator, " murmured Grievous viciously. "But rest assured, your defiance will not go un-ARGH!"

Grievous let go of the human in surprise as an unseen force threw him into and into an armored bulkhead. Blinking in pain and disorientation, the cyborg general stood unsteadily back up and stared warily at the figure approaching him.

"Skywalker…" He rasped as he thumbed a pair of lightsabers. "I did not expect you to be here so soon!"

Skywalker stared at Amidala writhing on the ground with an expression of horror. He seemed to have lost his voice from shock. The Jedi trembled violently as he turned to face Grievous.

"What is the matter, Skywalker?" Mocked Grievous maliciously as the sabers came to life in his hands. "Shocked? It is the price of war. And all those who help the Jedi!"

His lightsabers shot forwards at the Jedi, only to halt against an unseen force emanating from an open palm.

"You hurt her," whispered Skywalker. "You hurt my Padme."

Grievous instinctively took a step back, his mind screaming for him to retreat.

The Jedi looked at him, eyes glowing with rage. His face a rictus of anger and hatred. Grievous felt a familiar flare of fear in his chest. Something in the back of his mind wondered where he had seen that kind of face before.

The kaleesh cyborg began to say something, but found his vocorecorder suddenly emitting a tinny squawk as Skywalker clenched his open palm into a fist. Eyes widening in alarm, Grievous felt his armor plating whine in protest as he was lifted into the air.

And promptly found out what it was like to be thrown straight through six layers of armored plating.