C3P7

Weaving between the streams of red and blue fire, I was a Vulture-Class droid starfighter. A quick nudge sent a burst of laser fire into an unfortunate V-19 Torrent, blasting apart a wing and sending it twirling into another of it's fellows. Seconds later, retaliation found the droid whose I eyes was watching through.

I blinked and shifted to a new set of eyes.

I was another Vulture droid fighter and I could feel something akin to fear as it dodged and weaved frantically. A second later I knew why, when a concussion missile impacted and blew it up.

Annoyed at the repeated destruction of my eyes, I blinked once more and selected something a little more robust.

The droid brain of the Type II Recuscant Destroyer chirped a greeting at me as it began to fire another salvo of turbolaser fire at the star destroyer directly in front of it. I watched impassively as explosions covered the bow of the Venator. For a brief moment, I wondered whether or not to name this ship's droid brain 'Type II Recuscant-Chan'.

I discarded that mildly horrifyingly hilarious thought in an instant and shifted.

With another mental blink, I was back in my body.

It was an interesting ability; I'll admit that much. The ability to look through another droid's eyes and even control them was something I could easily exploit ruthlessly. I would have continued jumping to other droid bodies, adjusting orders and micromanaging when a mental nudge caught my attention.

Multiple sensor contacts near the front of the fleet where the fighting was most intense. A fighter wing led by an Eta-2 Interceptor with a distinct yellow color scheme.

Skywalker.

Immediately, I began to redirect fighter squadrons at the fighter wing.

One Jedi Interceptor, twenty-three ARC-170s, twenty-four Y-Wings, and thirty-two N1 Interceptor-Bombers. Only one was a real threat.

'Focus fire on the Jedi!' With that, I designated the leader as a high priority target.

Acknowledgments filled my mind as I selected a pair of Munificents modified with extensive flak batteries and laser cannons. A deadly crossfire was created, engulfing the fightercraft.

'That was unnecessary,' said a monotonous voice with an air of disdain, belonging to Grievous' Tactical-Series Advisor Droid. "I predict that standard anti-fighter protocols would have been sufficient."

I ignored it.

Several brighter explosions signified that my forces had scored several kills right off the bat and I rather hoped that would the end of that. But I knew better.

The speedy little interceptor plowed right through, evading flak explosions with unnatural ease. Behind him, his comrades imitated him, though for some, it had limited success. I ignored the tactical droid's squawk of 'Impossible!' and focused on micromanaging the fleet.

Over a thousand droid fighters were now converging on them, well over eight hundred Vultures and two hundred Tri-Droids. The sheer amount of laser fire being thrown at Skywalker was nothing short of incredible, the fact that he keeps evading and killing so many was just amazing. I made note to salvage the fighters he destroyed, perhaps those with intact droid brains could be accessed and their final moments relived to give an edge?

Skywalker blew past the droid swarm, N1s punching a hole through the droids with their rapid fire laser cannons. Idly, I made another mental note. I should see about purchasing weapons technology from Naboo; they seemed to have excellent weapons despite their claim of being pacifists.

They came up against a frigate, one devoted to anti-starfighter work. It quickly claimed over a dozen kills in less than three seconds; only for the Jedi to blow out it's bridge and some of his fighters to drop torpedoes all over the unfortunate warship.

As the frigate burned and died, the realization of the very real possibility that Skywalker could end me with enough torpedoes was beginning to dawn upon me.

But the chances of that happening were significantly less, I reminded myself, as I had well over a three hundred meters of pure armor layers around my command center and it was lot located in a very vulnerable part on the exterior of the vessel.

Much unlike that unfortunate frigate, whose droid brains were lamenting at the impossibility of being downed by a few torpedoes.

By now Skywalker was on his way, making a direct beeline for my flagship. According to TV-94, his trajectory was predicted to skim along the hull of my ship before splitting his forces to fire proton torpedoes into the support pylons. Destroying them meant I could not use the Ion Array without effectively crippling my ship.

'Sir, the Ion Cannon Array should be protected,' the tactical droid said, as though speaking to a very slow and particularly dimwitted child. 'Causing undue damage to the flagship will raise Republic morale.'

How fortunate for me that it was nothing more than a very large piece of expensive hull decoration. One that I needed to be discarded.

As predicted, the Jedi's forces split up; well over half his forces launching multiple torpedoes into the support pylons of the array and creating a spectacular display of dozens of explosions going off as the array's light flickered and failed. The other half raced up the command tower, led by Skywalker.

The tower's laser cannons came to life, throwing streams of red laser fire at the fighter squadrons. Three struck home, the fighters bursting open like overripe fruits.

I watched as streaks of proton torpedoes struck the bulbous 'command center', dozens of bright explosions shattered it as I mentally ordered all fire coming from the command ship to cease.

'Sir, would it not be wise to continue the attack on the enemy fighters?' Inquired TV-94 in mild confusion.

'Let them think the command ship is disabled. I don't want to use up our surprise too quickly,' I replied, mildly irritated by it's questioning of my orders. "Prepare for Phase One."

The tactical droid paused for a moment before nodding. 'As you wish,' it said mutinously.

���By my command," I corrected harshly, wrapping a mental hand around it's core programming and squeezing.

Sparks erupted out of the droid's photoreceptors as it gave a loud squawk of surprise in Grievous' Command Ship. None of the B1s around it paid it any attention as it crumpled to the ground.

A B1 with yellow markings took it's place.

-

"Bank left! Bank left!" Anakin grit his teeth and pulled the trigger, sending a pair of green laser bolts into a droid interceptor. The machine swerved away, it's wings on fire, before exploding.

The ARC-170 on his right to him eliminated another tri-droid with it's own laser cannons. Another squeeze of the trigger cracked a droid interceptor burst open like an egg against a hammer.

"They're all over me!" Screamed another clone. His voice was cut off as dozens of laser bolts perforated his cockpit and turned his fighter into a short-lived inferno.

"Red, Blue, Green Squadron, form up on me!" Ordered the Jedi Ace with a grimace as his fighter's laser burst tore apart a pair of Tri-Droids. "Red, Blue, you're overseer. Kill anything that gets close to the bombers. Shadow and Green squadron, you're with me, we're taking the lead. Those frigates are going down!"

"Copy that General!" Chorused the clones and nubians.

Over half his starfighters were gone in that attack; but it was one well worth it in his opinion, despite the lives lost.

Even so, though Anakin, those banking clan frigates were annoying. Who the heck decided it was a good idea to slap so many laser cannons on those things?

He suppressed a wince as a stray flak burst downed one of the 170s next to him, the clone pilots spinning out of his sight as he accelerated his fighter. "Concentrate your fire on that frigate!"

Naboo fighters swooped forwards as blue pearls shot down towards the underbelly of the frigates. Bright white-blue explosions heralded the destruction of the vessel as its spine broke under the firepower being brought to bear on it. It cracked in half, its rear continuing forwards, while it's forward prow bent and fell.

Bright secondary explosions erupted all over the rear portion as the Republic Fleet pressed their attack.

Out of the corner of his eye, Anakin spotted another frigate going up in flames as it's starboard wing broke off. Two Venator-Class Star Destroyers caught the ship in their sights and began pummeling it.

As Anakin and his squadron returned to the safety of the Resolute to rearm and make repairs, the Jedi could not help but feel uneasy.

Despite the lives lost, he couldn't help but feel that somehow, that his victory was too easy.

"General Skywalker!" It was Admiral Yularen, and he sounded stressed.

"What is it, Admiral?" Asked Anakin as he swerved to avoid an unlucky vulture droid's corpse.

"Multiple separatist transports have managed to push past our lines, they're on a direct course for Tipoca City! I need you to intercept them with the upper orbit defense network providing cover," said the Admiral's voice over the comlink. "The Separatists are pressing their attack, so I cannot offer any capital ship support. Naboo Militia, however, will be on site to provide support."

"Acknowledged, Admiral," replied the Jedi, nodding to himself. He keyed the comlinks to his squadron, "Shadow Squadron, form up on me! Enemy transports have gotten past the blockade and there are too many for the defense network to handle."

Acknowledgments chorused the comms as Y-Wings and ARC-170s formed up around him; blasting away any droid that dared come near.

With a press of a button, Anakin fired his afterburners, Shadow Squadron following after him.