" Anything that can go wrong will."
-"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" Season 3: Episode: 9
0300 hours, 21 BBY
Lookout Tower, Christophsis Capitol city, Planet Christophsis
It was early in the morning. The pitch black of the night sky was beginning to fade away to the reddish-orange hue of the sunrise as it crept up over the horizon. Captain Krest stood alone, silently gazing out upon the skyscrapers built into the massive blue crystal formations that lined the skyline of Christophsis. During the day the sun would gleam through the crystalline towers creating a colourful display of blue and green-tinged light. The nighttime however concealed most of their beauty turning the glistening blue structures into looming, dark, sentinels watching over the battlefield that Krest and his men have been fighting bitterly over for months. Months of nonstop blaster and artillery fire leaving hundreds--to thousands dead. Krest's eyes slowly drew over to a row of artillery, then to the multitude of heavy cannon emplacements, tanks concealed by rubble, and entire infantry platoons dug in just outside of the capital city of Christophsis. The planet had been a major battlefield between the Republic and the Separatists ever since the Battle of Geonosis. Despite the territories and cities shifting hands several times the Republic had been on the backfoot and stumbling back for a while. Now the capitol was the last stronghold of Republic forces on Christophsis. Defensive formations and sieges were Krest's specialty and he had confidence in the identical defense schemes he had drawn up for the nearby installations, after all he set them up himself. Suddenly his holo-projector beeped, signalling an incoming call. Krest retrieved it from his belt, a blue holographic image of General Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared.
"General Kenobi, is there a problem on the front?" Krest greeted the projection with a salute.
"Indeed there is Captain, we've uncovered a troubling truth. It seems a turncoat in our midst has been feeding intelligence to the Separatists. Fortunately for us, we captured him but he managed to destroy our weapons depot along with most of our heavy weaponry and armor. We were forced to retreat. We've loaded up our men and what's left of the weapons depot and are headed to your position!" Kenobi shouted over the roar of gunship engines.
"A turncoat?" Krest asked. He was shocked by the news. Certainly no clone would betray the Republic, let alone a Jedi. "So who was the turncoat?"
"It seems that one of our troopers has sold us out to the enemy." Kenobi continued. "We need to hold the line there at the Capitol or we lose the planet, Captain!"
"No need to worry, my defenses are airtight, General! we'll be ready for them." Krest said proudly.
"Good to hear it, Captain, we'll meet you when we arrive," Kenobi replied before the communication cut out. Krest then promptly grabbed his helmet and ran over into the next room where several other troopers were lounging around.
"Good soldiers follow orders, Shaman," said Ct-2222 better known by his clone brothers as "Deuce". He shared the same face as his brothers save for the goatee that he kept well-groomed. He was originally a sharpshooter for the scout corps. He was eventually folded into the 76th Defense and Siege Corps, the battalion under Krest after flunking out of the corps. Despite his training as a sharpshooter, he's the first to charge into a fight and always loves teasing Shaman due to the amount of times Shaman has had to patch him up.
"Is that what you think? Or is that what you were engineered to think?" grinned Shaman, as he tapped a gloved finger against his temple. Ct-1245 or "Shaman" was one of the medics assigned to the 76th. To distinguish himself Shaman shaved his head save for a short mohawk and tattooed the words "Take care of your medic and he'll take care of you."
"I think that all that time you spent with that old geezer stirred your brains the wrong way." scoffed Deuce. "It's what I think alright!"
As they bickered, Krest entered the room and cleared his throat. "Ahem..."
"Attention! Captain on deck!" Shaman exclaimed as every trooper in the room dropped what they were doing and stood at attention.
"Listen up, Generals Kenobi and Skywalker are headed this way. They've been overrun and are falling back to our position and behind them is the entire Separatist army." Krest said sternly. "We don't have long before they get here so I want everyone suited up and locked in! We need to show them that the 76th lives up to its name!"
"If I may Captain," Ct-1735 interjected. Ct-1735 or "Fodder" as he was called by his brothers was one of the new 'shinies' that was transferred into the 76th. 'Shinies' was what older clones used to refer to younger, newer, clones. He got the name "Fodder" because the others often joked about him only being good as cannon fodder. "If our boys in blue couldn't hold back the Seppies then who's to say we won't be pushed back too?"
"Ah, shut up Fodder!" whined Deuce. "We'll be fine, the Seppies won't know what hit them! Ain't no clanker getting' through our lines!"
"That's right! We're the 76th! Sieges and Impenetrable defenses are our specialty." said Ct-6693 or "Shellshock" as his brothers called him. Shellshock had the large numbers "76" tattooed on the right side of his face. The name Shellshock comes from his affinity for artillery, and heavy cannons over infantry. Because of this affinity, Fodder was assigned to be the 76th's liaison with the artillery detachments. "Once those beautiful cannons start poundin' they'll be nothing but scrap metal."
"So what's the play Skipper?" said Shaman, slinging his medic's backpack over his shoulder.
"Shellshock take Shiny over here and start getting those cannons ready," Krest ordered.
"Yes, sir! C'mon rookie!" Shellshock put on his helmet and shoved the Fodder towards the door.
Krest then turned to Shaman and Deuce. "Shaman I need you in the backline, providing medical and making sure the wounded get to safety."
"Sir!" Shaman nodded, grabbing his gear and sprinting out of the room
Suddenly the building shook as an explosion roared in the distance, then another, and another. Troopers stumbled as the whole building rocked with each explosion.
"What's my job sir?" Deuce said, steadying himself.
"Get the rest of the boys up and ready for battle," Krest said. "We need everyone ready to fight!"
Deuce nodded and sprinted off towards the barracks. Once everyone was gone, Krest switched his helmet communicator on and ran to the nearest elevator, taking it to the ground level.
"Sergeant, status report!" Krest shouted into his comm as the elevator made its way down.
"The Separatists are launching a full-frontal assault against the city alright!" shouted Sergeant Jamun. "The defenses our holding but there's gotta be a billion clankers marching towards us!"
"Sergeant! Have Generals Kenobi or Skywalker arrived?" Krest asked as another explosion shook the building. As the elevator doors opened, Krest could see the chaos as troopers were scrambling in all directions trying to get to their stations. Krest drew his twin blaster pistols and ran towards the ensuing battle outside.
Jamun's voice came over his helmet comms. He could barely be heard over the familiar roar of cannons and blaster fire. "Neither General Kenobi or Skywalker have been spotted sir, the droids are steadily approaching!"
"Scrag!" Krest cursed to himself as he sprinted toward the defensive lines. He glanced back to see large portions of the building he was just in scorched black with carbon scoring. If the buildings here were starting to take shots then that meant that the Separatists were closer than he anticipated. Who would've thought that the droids would mix things up. Krest kept sprinting until he found Shellshock crouched behind a piece of debris, changing out the gas cartridge on his Z-6 rotary cannon.
"Hey, Captain!" Shellshock greeted as he clicked the cartridge into place. "Fine situation we got here 'eh?"
Krest knelt down next to him and smacked his shoulder. "Where's the Shiny?!"
Shellshock turned his helmet away taking a moment to think before turning it back to Krest and shrugged. "I left him with the artillery crews! He should still be there!"
"He's your responsibility!" Krest scolded him, "Go get him and keep him safe!"
"Fine!" Shellshock groaned, getting up he took stance and unleashed a volley from his Z-6 before nodding to Krest and running off for the artillery guns.
Krest made his way to the front and past the tanks where a line of entrenched troopers were dug in desperately trying to hold back the Separatist assault. Krest returned fire with his blaster pistols until he was knocked off of his feet by a nearby blast. Krest stood back up shakily, but quickly recovered as blaster bolts whizzed by his head. Suddenly Jormun's voice came over his helmet comms. "Captain! Droids have broken through the east flank! I repeat! Droids have broken through the -ACK!"
"Sergeant! Sergeant!" Krest called over the comms but received no answer. Krest cursed silently to himself and took cover behind one of the tank's large feet. The droid's numbers seemed endless. Rows and rows of them marching towards them as far as the eye can see. Every droid they blasted had dozens more behind them to fill in the gaps. Following them were columns of tanks that were in range of the city and were already raining fire. But, despite the odds Krest and his men had to hold the line. If they failed Christophsis fell to the Separatists.
"I want all cannons to focus on those tank columns!" Krest shouted into his wrist comm.
Every artillery gun and tank focused their sights on the large columns of tanks in formation marching on the capital and began opening fire. Sending blast after blast down upon them. Krest could already see the columns of smoke rising from the wrecks. As Krest began thinking up a plan to regroup and reorganize the men he realized that most of the troopers around him had been shot down and he was standing in the front by himself with only a lone tank for support. Krest switched his comm so that his men could hear him, "Everyone fall back to secondary positions! I repeat, everyone falls back to secondary positions!"
Krest contacted his sergeants and began coordinating his resources. Krest had often spent his time in his barracks drawing up and updating defense plans and layouts so he could best utilize his resources. He also prided himself in the art of the siege, whenever the Republic needed a large Separatist base softened up he was usually on the job. Feeling himself slipping into his element he began ordering his men into position. "I want any available gunships placed into defensive positions along the second line get heavy cannons in each one and use them as mobile gun nests. I want all remaining tanks to back up to safe distances from their long-range rockets. We need to bottleneck them into the main road leading into the city. I want heavy cannons up in the towers so we can keep them in a crossfire. Keep the artillery on those tanks. I want every trooper dug in just beyond the tanks. If we keep our fire focused on the main road they won't get past."
"Aye-aye Captain!" came one of the Lieutenants
"Copy that, tanks are moving into position," chimed another.
"Consider it done Captain!" came another voice
"It seems you're doing rather well on this front." came Kenobi's voice.
"General, glad to see you've made it," Krest said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Though we almost lost you."
"Not yet Captain, not yet. We appreciate the fire support but we're receiving a lot of flak coming from the tank columns!"
"I'm on it General!" Krest then switched his comm over to the tanker crew's channel, "AT-TEs six-one-nine, four-three-three, and five-eight-nine focus fire on mark three-seven!" Then switching to the artillery comms, "All artillery batteries follow suit!"
Ahead of him three tanks shifted their main guns upward and began firing. From a distance the artillery batteries roared "General Kenobi, the tanks are down, you are cleared for landing!"
"Affirmative Captain, We're touching down."
Krest broke into a full sprint, running past his men towards the landing zone. He arrived just in time to meet General's Kenobi and Skywalker exiting their gunships, accompanied by what was left of their forces-many of them were too injured to fight and had to be put on stretchers. Shaman and two other medics came running up to them and began tending their wounds. General Kenobi was helped over to a crate by General Skywalker. They both looked like they had taken a beating as they both looked up at him with weary eyes as he approached.
"Captain what's the situation here?" asked General Skywalker.
"The droids hit us with a full-frontal assault, we've had to fall back to secondary positions but we're holding. Our artillery has managed to wipe out the first wave of tanks and if Loathsom keeps up his usual tactics he should be pulling back once his main tank columns are wiped out."
"LOOK OUT!" cried one of the troopers nearby and they all looked up to see a droid rocket headed straight for them. Without hesitation Krest pushed Skywalker and Kenobi into a gunship and closed the doors just before the rocket touched down and detonated.