Chapter 103: 103. Chapter

-From the perspective of Anakin-

Anakin was watching the flow of the battle with a worried gaze, while his dreadnought’s various cannons were constantly sending barrage upon barrage of support fire to suppress the attacking enemies. The goliath of a ship served as a crucial bastion for the defending army. There were two more similar dreadnoughts positioned over other key locations on the planet. Those ships were also used as a focal point to center around by smaller sized vessels and battleships belonging to the republic.

It was a battle playing out on multiple levels, and even though they were outnumbered by the enemy army, they still had ground support, which was not something to disregard. Just then, another elongated blue ion beam flew through space coming from the planet’s surface, eventually hitting a nearby separatist battleship, effectively incapacitating it and leaving it defenceless.

-Turn the cannons from the rear left side towards the incapacitated separatist battleship at the given coordinates.

-Yes, General. 

With that Anakin nodded to himself as he watched the ion beams slowly barrel into the sides of the mentioned ship, ripping it to pieces.

Soon a large flare of plasma explosions occurred, signaling the ship’s complete destruction. 

Damn, only if we get to command similar ships on regular missions. The enemy wouldn’t stand a chance. Alas, the Senate seems to spare all the big guns for system defending purposes. 

He patted the controls with an affectionate smile while thinking.

No matter, at least I got to play with it now.

At that particular moment, Anakin’s senses were momentarily overwhelmed by a powerful force wave washing over him. His awareness skyrocketed as he was looking around with an alarmed expression.

His eyes were wide with surprise, sensing the powerful disturbance which was continuously spreading, effectively engulfing the entire battlefield and the planet in its grasp. He felt his jaw become loose as he witnessed the inhuman feat with his own senses.

The next thing he did was to search for the source of the powerful disturbance. The action came to him more from a habit than conscious decision making. He did not have to search for long anyway, as he quickly realized that the origin’s centrum was exactly where he was... or a bit more precisely, it came from under his ship.

I pushed a few buttons on the controls, picking out an outer hull camera and enlarged it, placing it across the main monitor. On the camera screen right in the middle of it I saw the calm image of that ship, the Dark Seeker, if I remember it correctly. 

Anakin looked at the docile form of the suspicious ship that was so intent on hiding in his dreadnought‘s shadow all this time.

He furrowed his eyebrows sharply.

I don’t know why, but I got this increasingly bad premonition about everything that has even the slightest connection to that annoying little pipsqueak.

-Heh… Grandmaster my ass… that girl is nothing but trouble.

A soldier standing close to me spoke up suddenly.

-Excuse me, sir?

I blinked with surprise as I turned towards the soldier. I didn’t notice him coming over to me… I felt annoyed with this. I actually lost awareness of my direct surroundings in the middle of a battle… What am I even doing?

I shook my head and turned back to the soldier.

-What is it, lieutenant?

-We have received news from the right flank, sir.

Damn, it… of course… I hoped that the reinforcement was enough to buy us some time, I guess it was not… I swallowed my sigh as I asked.

-Were they pushed back?

-Yes, General.

Hearing this, I was already trying to plan a series of countermeasures to slow down their advance. We cannot let our main fleet get surrounded completely. That would be the equivalent of complete destruction.

-What are our losses?

I asked drily.

-We have minimal losses, sir. Thanks to a successful surprise assault on the enemy flagship by a few groups of starfighters, the enemy forces have lost their momentum and become disorganized. Our lines have successfully reformed, and with the freshly arriving reinforcements, have started to push back enemy forces, taking maximum advantage over their momentary lack of attention.

I nodded to myself, just as I expect-… wait?

-… Lieutenant? Did you say the enemy flagship, no… more importantly, they are the ones who are retreating? The separatists?

-Affirmative sir. That is what the report states.

-…

What the fuck?! How? What was that about the starfighters?

-Soldier, you mentioned that a group of starfighters assaulted the enemy flagship, is that true?

The lieutenant became slightly fidgety, clearly not expecting me to question every single one of his reports. I couldn’t care less, though. In the end, he still answered my question if a bit drily.

-Yes, sir. That is exactly what the reports state.

But that is completely impossible!

-Could our communication channels be hacked by the enemy?

The soldier seemed surprised by my question, as he realized I wasn’t doubting his reports to begin with…

-That is possible, but unlikely. Everything matches all the encrypted codes and even the names of the pilots who executed the mission.

Now that caught my ear.

-In that case, who was the leader of the fighter squad who took part in the mission?

-It is a squad led by Jack Doe, sir. An experienced pilot who voluntarily took part in many missions, fighting alongside clone troopers. He got a major promotion after we lost most of the clone army’s loyalty and we needed experienced fighter pilots more than any time, sir.

I stood there with an amused smile on my face.

I remember that guy, Jack Doe. It was rare to see soldiers fighting alongside clones from regular army backgrounds. Aside from the logistical department. They needed to do a special training regime before they could be considered for even doing so. Most didn’t like to go back to the military academy for just that. It’s not like they will receive more money for their service either… so that is how it was. Except that they took a ten times higher risk by doing so.

Of course, you could still run into a few lunies doing just that. There are always exceptions, after all. When I asked him what he was doing here, since I was taken aback by a regular soldier appearing to be enlisted in a clone squad. The only thing the bastard said was that he envied the clone’s uniform, so decided to get one for himself.

I could only shake my head at hearing that answer. It is good to know that he is still alive… I guess he will receive another promotion after all of this goes down the drain. However, I had more important things to focus on right now.

-Lieutenant, reposition two more star destroyer class venator battleships to the right flank. Also, advise them to not overstretch their battle line. I wouldn’t want to hear a few minutes later that they have been caught in the crossfire of some obvious trap!

-Understood sir, right away!

With that, Anakin looked out of the window, witnessing the sheer scale of the battle playing out above the capital planet of the republic. As his eyes grazed over it, he couldn’t help but recognize a strange type of pattern discerning itself. He looked closer, this time reaching out with his force sight as well.

It took only a few seconds for him to notice the pattern. Now that he was enforcing his abilities with the force, he also realized how strong and vivid the changes were. The republic fighters and battleships have started to act together, with a shocking… no impossibly perfect rhythm.

Whenever an enemy ship becomes incapacitated or its shield has been weakened, the allied ships in the vicinity have started to swarm it as if they sensed its weakness on an instinctive level. No… there wasn’t any type of communication device that could allow such a level of synchronization. The actions were simply too well organized and concentrated, happening just the right time, and place to unleash a maximal level of destruction.

Witnessing all of this unfolding shocked me to the core. Especially taking into consideration that most of the soldiers taking part in this battle never took part in anything that could even resemble to the scale of what was happening here. For a moment, I was thinking that I hit my head on something and I was still commanding clones… but looking around the bridge, that doesn’t seem to be the case…

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I gulped as a cold sensation ran up my back.

Seeing how many small, but important events played out with such natural ease was shocking.

In the half minute I spent on looking at the situation through my force sight, I witnessed as republic battleships started to move in a strange pattern, which allowed them to cover each-other with their shield, while the others cooled down their own shield generators then swapped places. Doing this, to take as much damage as it was possible and stay longer in the battle.

I saw as small fighters pulled off luring maneuvers around the entire battleground. Luring enemy fighters towards lone targets, only for them to be shot down by an unexpectedly appearing ambushing squad. Witnessed bombers, pulling off miraculous feats by shooting proton torpedoes and hitting weak spots with such ease or randomness that would normally be impossible to even think about.

I was left standing on the bridge with a completely flabbergasted expression. What was happening here?

Then, as if to answer my shock from the edge of my eyes, I saw the still image of the Grey Lord’s ship hovering calmly.

-Could it be?

My eyes widened as the memory of a now unpracticed technique blinked into my mind. Battle meditation… Then I gasped… even this answer it seemed to come to me on its own. I didn’t even have to think about it. I was clearly under its effect, and that meant… the earlier disturbance, and now this…

My eyes grow even larger with evident shock. I finally understood what was going on, and I started to feel perspiration appearing on my skin.

If this was happening with every single soldier taking part in this battle… who the hell is capable of doing such a feat to begin with? It was a technique that was supposedly hard to pull off, but on such scale and precision… its borderline impossible. Except that it was happening right in front of me.

-This is uncalled for…

And it is, without a doubt, terrifying.

-From the perspective of Alu Marlos-

The enemy droids were getting closer to my position, I could feel the pressure growing on me, with each metallic step and energy blast colliding with the metal piece, some spare parts of a starfighter that I used as the only barricade separating me from the incoming super battle droids.

I started to feel the heat radiating from the impromptu barricade beyond me. It was clearly overheating under the endless assault of laser beams.

Then the continuous assault from the droids side stopped as suddenly as it began.

Their weapons must have overheated… this was the opportunity I was waiting for!

I sprang up behind the cover, looking at the droids staying about ten meters from my current position. That was just right! I threw the grenade in their direction. My aim seemed to be right, hitting one of the bastards right in the face, to my complete delight.

The grenade immediately blew up, as I changed it to activate on impact. Alas, I couldn’t witness the explosion, as I had to lie down behind the cover once again. Seeing that three newly arriving B1 appeared to my flank.

I heard the explosion happening, but was too concerned seeing that more and more droids appeared right on my flank. This was getting out of hand and quickly.

I looked around, trying to search for any other nearby cover that could work out. Unfortunately, the explosion seemed to also gain the B1-s attention, and they immediately started to send barrels of laser beams in my general direction.

In my panic, I started to run in the opposite direction, while shooting backwards with my handgun, and doing that blindly.

I was halfway to reach a different barricade when an earsplitting explosion happened not too far behind me. The waves of the explosion even managed to throw me forward a few meters, dropping me onto the cold floor with a heavy grunt.

I somehow ended up laying on my back, disorganized, my ears ringing with the sounds of the explosion. I pushed myself to stand up, only to witness that a large part of the hangar was burning, also… the droids were nowhere to see anymore…

The head of a B1 unit dropped down in front of me, rolling a few times across the floor before stopping. I looked at it, confused. Then I saw that it was covered in obvious burn marks.

I added one to one… and realized with a relieved sigh.

-…Damn… I must have hit a fuel tank by accident…

My words were only followed by silence, and the noises of slowly burning materials. A slight worry sneaked into my mind, as I watched the flames quickly spread across the hangar… I didn’t even finish the thought, and a bunch of fire control droids flew over my head starting to put out the fire immediately.

-…

I looked at the situation with an abrupt suspicion. I thought over what had just happened and realized that something was off.

-Wait a minute… I am just not this lucky… have I used up the entire fortune of my life in just a few minutes? Is that it?

Suddenly, I heard a series of steps coming from behind me. I turned around immediatly on high alert as I feared that lady fortune would whip me seriously after what I pulled off just now.

Then I saw a bunch of republic troopers appear through a side corridor. And I heard one of them calling out to me.

-Is that yo Marlos!? Thank god, we were looking for you, man!

Seeing the bunch of soldiers appear and secure the positions… I felt completely and utterly speechless…

-What the fuck?…

-Hah, now is that the first thing you say to your old friend!

-…

No, seriously… what the fuck? Something is seriously wrong here. Was I shot? Maybe it's just a daydream before I get to the otherworld? That seems more likely than this whole thing… and that man I knew him! He doesn’t even serve on this damn ship! What is he doing here?

-Criss… how, what are you doing here, man?

He hit me on the shoulder with a friendly act and said.

-Well, now that you mentioned it… I don’t really know? For some reason, I got this feeling that you could use some help here, and quickly… so we took a few assault rifles and now we are here.

I was speechless…

-How did you know that I needed help?!

My question clearly frustrated Criss, and it was clear to me that he himself didn’t know the answer. Eventually, he shook off the discomfort and barked.

-Eh, man don’t get stuck on the small details… I am here, you are here, now where is the captain of the ship?

I thought about it…

-Before me and a few more guys got separated in the hangar. We received an immediate order to defend the bridge. The captain must be there too. She is a Jedi Master called Adi Gallia. We should go and reinforce their position…

Criss nodded frequently.

-Yes, I have a feeling that there is trouble brewing over there.

I nodded and then froze… For some reason; I felt as if Criss was right about this, but why?

Criss shouted at the other man standing around.

-Okay guys, we are done here. Head towards the bridge… but with caution, there might be droids over there.

I couldn’t shake off the strange sensation… something just wasn’t right with all this happening around. Even if it worked to our advantage, at least until now.

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