Rex pov:
"The 327th and the 501st are being sent to reclaim Quell, this will be hard as we don't know how many core ships there are on this world." Admiral Yularen explained via the holo-table.
"Granted, the Liberty is a powerful ship, but we will need to make some adjustments to it and the other four ships we are taking with us." Aayla said
"What sort of adjustments?" Admiral Yularen looked sternly at the blue twi'lek standing before him, a smirk on his lips.
"Anyway, I also wanted to add that you will officially have Anakin back, but, not under any circumstances is he to be put in strenuous activities. Remember, he was nearly cut in half by that B2 battle droid just a few months ago." Yularen looked pointedly at me and Ahsoka.
"WHAAt? You think he was nearly cut in half? Yeah, well, he already had a replacement arm. So what if he was nearly cut in half?" Ahsoka crossed her arms at the Admiral.
A clone ran into the room and proceeded to give Commander Bly a holo-pad. I heard Bly's gasp and intake of breath hissing through his teeth, "What is it?" I asked him,
"No time to explain, we only have another day and a half at most to make any modifications." Bly called over his shoulder as he ran out of the room.
Bly pov:
Why! Just why? One of the only other Generals in this army that was actually kind to me, and she's in a critical condition. "Bly?" I slowed to a halt and looked around, but nobody was there. Suddenly Aayla appeared around the corner.
"What's wrong." She asked jogging to catch up to me. I broke out into a run,
"Galle!" I yelled into my communicator.
"What is it sir?"
"Get my LAAT ready immediately and prepare to hyper-jump to Quell. NOW!"
"Right away Sir." Galle ended the transmission, and began to shout orders, bringing in the patrolling aircraft into the Venators.
"Prepare to jump to hyperspace. Prepare to jump to hyperspace." The onboard navigation and warning sounded and the patrolling ARC-170's came into the docking bays as the fleet prepared to jump. There was a whoosh and the three venators jumped into hyperspace. "Commander?" "Yes Galle?" I asked running flat out towards the hangers. "Your LAAT is ready, do you want a squad to go with you?" "No." I replied running to the far end of the hanger,
I jumped into the cargo hold with the General before making preparations when we came out of hyperspace.
"You weren't thinking of leaving without us were you?" said a voice behind me.
I spun around to see Lieutenant Galle, Lucky, Sleuther and Hevy standing there, blasters at the ready, full armor and equipment. As they boarded the battle-scarred LAAT, Knockout, Reno and our medic, Sid, also slid into the LAAT from behind an ARC-170 they had been skulking behind, and from the amount of credits Reno was stuffing into his battle pack I think I knew what they had been doing. "Reno!" I walked across the short walk space to the back of the LAAT, dirt and dust giving it a rusty, almost red brown look. "Yes, Bly?" I shook my head, "What did you bet on this time?" I asked giving him a stern look. Reno looked sheepishly away until he eventually shrugged and turned back to me, a look of seemed to be guilt on his face. "We, uh, we were betting on where we were going to go next." "And you won... how? I ordered to hyper-jump to Quell only half an hour ago." "News travels fastest to those who want it." Reno said cryptically turning away to check his blaster.
"Sir! We are about to jump out of hyperspace and into the system of Quell." There was a jolt and then all hell broke loose, the cannons on the Venators began to fire and V-19 Torrents were screaming out of their hangars to intercept Vulture droids, with the Arc-170s close behind.
The cannons fired again and the LAAT began to lift off, leaving the Venators to duke it out with the separatist fleet, we zigzagged through the carnage, the gunner's hard at work destroying as much of the separatist Vulture and Hyena droids as possible.
We broke through the planetary atmosphere and careened wildly toward the ground, only pulling up at the last second.
I scanned the ground for the coordinates we had been given and I spotted a makeshift rock wall with two or three speeder bikes behind. There was an entire platoon of droids marching to that position.
I quickly grabbed the nearest clone gunner and told him to lay down fire while we evacuated Stass Allie, Adi Gallia and the remainder of the 91st Recon Corps. Blitz opened the LAAT's door and began using his heavy Z-6 against the super battle droids that were advancing on the Republic position. The blaster fire became intense, explosions and droid bazookas running amok in the skies. An ARC-170 starfighter appeared out of nowhere and strafed the droid columns, cutting down swathes of metal and hydraulics, while a Y-Wing bombed and strafed an advancing Hailfire droid and a column of Corporate Alliance Tank droids. We landed and I gripped my DC-15 blaster, squeezing off rounds upon rounds of blaster ammunition into the swirling masses of droids. The LAAT rose up once again and continued across the makeshift blockade with an extra four passengers, the 91st Recon commander Neyo who was badly wounded, and three extra recon troopers whose speeder bikes had time bombs attached to them and were sent on autopilot towards the lines of metal. We flew in formation with the ARC-170 and the Y-Wing from earlier, before peeling off to land where the green lightsabers could be seen deflecting the droids blaster fire. Stass Allie and Adi Gallia defended the LAAT while the last remainder of the 91st recon corps was evacuated. Only the two Jedi generals and 7 troopers had survived, sadly Commander Neyo had not survived his injuries. (A/N: I made Neyo die so that Stass Allie and Adi Gallia survive the upcoming failed order 66 chapter)
As we flew out of the final resting place for many clone troopers, I looked ahead to see most of the separatist fleet falling, with one very badly damaged cruiser smashing into a separatist battleship, sending both down to the cursed ground of Quell. Rocket battle droids and Super rocket battle droids were flying around us trying to get as many 'kills' as possible before their rockets ran out of fuel.
Suddenly a Vulture droid singled out the LAAT and the clone Pilot, Bandit, screamed at his gunners to take care of it. Taking evasive action, weaving and dodging through the maze of falling debris and ships. A Y-Wing exploded to the right of us, the shockwave rocking the transport we were in. As soon as our LAAT landed in the hangar, all the remaining Torrents and ARC-170's were recalled and the hatches sealed.
"Get us back to Coruscant." I said looking tat the two exhausted Jedi and the few remaining clones from the 91st Mobile Reconnaissance Corps. "And as quickly as possible." "Copy that Commander, stand by." The three Venators launched into hyperspace with a jolt and I took a small step out of my LAAT. "Where's Bandit?" I asked one of the ground crew who was scrambling to refuel and rearm my LAAT. He pointed over toward a stack of crates where Bandit had his head in his hands. It looked like he was... crying? I walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder, saying nothing until he was finished and looked up. "Sorry, Sir, its just..." Bandit started crying again once he thought of whatever had triggered it in the first place. He finally looked up at me.
"Did you see the Y-Wing that exploded to our right just as we reentered?" I thought for a moment and then nodded. "That was Acer, he... he was our best pilot and my only other friend in this mad war. He was an outcast, just like me, so we stuck together. For a while, we flew an ARC-170 with another ace before he was transferred to another division especially for training. He taught me all I know."
I thought about what Bandit had said for a while and then dared to ask my question. "How did you get your name?" I asked, curiosity seeping into my voice. "Well, Acer used to call me that because I always ambush the seppies instead of staying with the squadron. Just like a bandit always ambushes everything... unusually." Bandit seemed a little better after talking about himself and Acer and their experiences.
"Hey! How do you know that Acer was in that Y-Wing?" I asked him. Bandit looked up at me with confusion. "It was his Y-Wing that blew up, who else could it have been?" I suddenly bent over in realisation, laughing. "Acer was escorting us and blowing up hailfire droids, along with that ARC-170, I remember it because I wanted him to try out a new targeting system for bombing armoured tanks and droids."
"BANDIT! WHAT THE KRIFFING HECK DID YOU DO WITH MY Y-WING! WheERE is it?" Acer strode up, helmet under his arm. "ACER! YOU'RE ALIVE!" Acer looked down at himself, patting his flight suit. "Well, yes, last time I checked I was alive, but I want to know where my Y-Wing is." Bandit scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Well, it all started..." I walked away glad to know that at least one person was happy. "BLY!" Aayla's voice said sharply and I stopped dead in my tracks before slowly turning around. "Yes, General?" "My room. NOW!" I tilted my head to the side, "Don't you mean, OUR room? Or unless you demoted one of my trusted officers and took their room?" Aayla looked at me deadpan and I shut up immediately and saluted turning to walk back to my quarters that I shared with Aayla. I really needed to make those modifications, if the boys ever found out about this, they would never let me live it down. "Galle!" My helmet comm sparked to life. "Sir?" "How are we going on finding the general her living quarters?" "Once we get to Coruscant I can finish it. Hope you're not going to miss her warmth..." "GALLE! I AM SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR, SHE is the one that gets the bed, if there's any difference between it and the floor." I muttered through the comm. "Is that all Sir?" I thought about it for a second, and then replied. "Come to my quarters at once, I have a feeling I'm about to be interrogated by the General."
A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out, but I had to finish some other books of mine that I hadn't finished for months. 😒
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