Guardian of the Republic (Star Wars CYOA)

[Oshha]

I wake with a start, not quite sure who I am. Impossible memories fill me, but I am not sure which set of memories are the ones that are impossible.

"General," calls a voice, a familiar voice, "Can you hear me General?"

"I can hear you," I reply as I look around, trying to take in my surroundings.

Familiar, spartan bulkheads, an infirmary with several injured individuals that have medical staff attending them and a concerned looking man, wearing armour, but no helmet as he looks down at me with great concern and relief.

"Glad to hear that General," says the helmetless man looking at me and I recognise him as Colonel Loren Belen.

That explains some things, like who I am.

"You collapsed on C-Foroon," continues Loren, "Neither Brigadier Telis nor the medics are sure why. The Brigadier didn't detect anything with the Force and the docs could find anything wrong with you physically. Oh, I got your lightsabers here General."

I hesitate for only a moment as Loren holds out a pair of lightsabers that I recognise as my own. At least that tells me which set of impossible memories are the not real ones or at least not my own.

I am Ben Shan, Knight of the Jedi Order and General of the privately funded paramilitary organisation known as the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion.

Of course that leaves plenty of questions about my other memories. Like how real are they? Is the entire universe dreamt up by some human called George Lucas? Were my most famous ancestors just video game characters? Why didn't I remember myself in these other memories? Is Darth Sidious really....oh, oh no.

"Who is the Supreme Chancellor?" I demand of Loren, startling my steadfast follower as I do my best to keep my growing panic and horror in check.

"I-uh-Sheev Palpatine, former Senator from Naboo, is the current Supreme Chancellor and has been for the last decade," answers Loren as the colonel swiftly recovers from his surprise.

Oh Force. Sithspit, sithspit, sithspit. Like literally Sith.

Like the rest of my fellow Jedi, I had known that the Sith were-are still around thanks to the events surrounding Darth Maul and the Invasion of Naboo. Force, it was that series of events that had played a key factor in my decision to put together the Legion. That and a desire to deal with the threats plaguing the Outer Rim that the Senate and the rest of the Jedi Order like to ignore.

But if Darth Sidious is actually the Supreme Chancellor and nobody figured it out...no Jedi, myself included, had realised just what was laying beneath our noses...

Order 66, the Separatists, the Clone troopers, and the Galactic Empire...I had no idea if those things are real. The last one certainly isn't, but the Clones should be on Kamino right now and the Separatists should be putting themselves together. Order 66 might be a thing, but it won't be active. Not until the Supreme-not until Darth Sidious has secured his power in the Senate.

The clone troopers turned on their Jedi out of some sort of mind control, but did they do so because of being brainwashed as part of their training or because of secret bio-chips in their heads that took away their free will?

My new, utterly impossible memories aren't clear on the matter. There are different versions of reality in them, built about the same holos, but with a lot of differing background stuff. I know that the Thranta-class Corvettes indicate that the galaxy is the 'Legends' one, but at the same time, I also know that Lothal from 'Canon' exists because my second in command comes from there.

On the other hand, those two things aren't mutually exclusive and could easily fit in the same universe, but it does tell me that I can't just neatly slot my galaxy into one of the other two in my new set of memories.

"General?" inquires Loren, jolting me back to reality.

"Have some send Vyssa to fetch me one of my spare, empty holocrons," I order, "And how long ago was that assassination attempt on Senator Amidala on Coruscant?"

"Four days, maybe five by now and I'll have someone contact Commander Randanys right away," says Loren, "Is everything alright so?"

"No, I don't think much is alright at the moment," I answer, noting Loren's concern and I decide to give him an explanation, "Force visions Colonel. I want the entire fleet and legion to form up. We need to get to Geonosis as soon as possible and be ready for the hardest fight of our careers."

"Harder than Oba Diah with the Pykes?" inquires Loren.

"Yeah, harder than that," I confirm, "Unless I am horribly mistaken, the Republic's era of peace is at an end."

"I will take that into consideration General," says Loren, "Shall I let boys and girls know?"

"Yes, you should do that," I agree, "I'll speak with the regiment and battalion commanders personally."

***​

The 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion has over nine thousand veterans soldiers with both light and heavy armoured elements and a mixture of light and heavy artillery. Throw in five hundred and sixty Z-95 Headhunters for aerial support and a few companies of jump infantry and I got myself an excellent force for quick, speedy strikes. On the warship department, I've got three Star Cruisers that I got the Mon Calamari to build for me after I publicly rescued a large number of their people from slavery back in the first year of the legion. The escorts are Corellian as saving the Diktat and her CEC business partners from being framed for a nasty scandal got me a discount from a grateful CEC. That leaves me with a dozen Corellian Gunships for supporting my capital ships in battle, eight Corellian Corvettes as infantry troop transports and a dozen Thranta-class Corvettes because I needed the hangar space for starfighters and they make for decent combatants despite their age.

Force, a lot of ancient warships make for decent fighters these days thanks to a thousand years of the Ruusan Reformation.

And then because I still needed more hangar space for my starfighters alongside transportation for the armoured and artillery elements of the legion, I got my hands on a dozen Quasar Fire-class Bulk Cruisers. With their bays split, each one only carries a couple of squadrons and despite the best efforts of my people, they still don't have much in the way of armaments. Not that they should be getting into shooting matches with other starships in the first place.

Of course, I need to pay for all of it so I've got a whole bunch of allies in the Senate, a mixture of Militarists who want to use me and my legion as proxies and senators from the Mid Rim and Outer Rim who want my protection for their worlds and people.

Over three years ago, back when it was first founded, the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion was a few hundred rookies, some light speeders with guns strapped on, alongside a couple of old Hammerhead-class Cruisers, a squadron of ancient Aurek-class starfighters for each Hammerhead and a passenger liner converted into a trooper transport.

It wasn't much and I pissed off the Council something fierce with my 'unbecoming militarism', but success begets success and I got more and more backers, which meant more and more funding. Using said funding, I got some more modern warships and starfighters, which was good because my old relics didn't make it to the end of the second year, and my surviving rookies became a veteran core as more and more sentients signed up.

Or should that be sapients instead of sentients? My other memories had something of a bugbear about that. Ah well.

And speaking of those memories, why aren't I or any of the legion in them? I am one of the more impressive Jedi around if I do say so myself and in these upcoming Clone Wars, the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion should have a major part to play.

Unless I somehow managed to keep out of everything major, to have no mention at all…that is something concerning. On the other hand, the person who I got these memories from hadn't watched or read all of the Star Wars stuff so maybe he just missed myself and the rest of the legion?

What a confusing mess I've gotten myself into.

Back to the matter at hand, the Jedi High Council doesn't approve of my militaristic adventures since as a Jedi Knight, I am supposed to be a peacekeeper, not a general of my own private army who goes around picking fights.

Fortunately, the backing of multiple senators and only going after deserving targets has resulted in just remaining on the Council's bad side rather than risking expulsion from the Order. Though it hasn't kept the Council from sending a watcher to keep an eye on me and speaking of her...

"Brigadier Telis," I greet Aria as she strides into my quarters as I close up the holocron that I have been working on as while it isn't finished yet, I doubt that my fellow Jedi Knight will be considerate enough to wait until I am done.

"What sort of game are you playing at Shan?" half-demands Aria and I feel her frustration and annoyance, "You've been so good, almost the opposite of what I worried you would be and now you are doing this? Explain yourself."

Jedi Knight Nelaria Telis is both my second in command and the Council's eyes and ears when it comes to my activities. A fellow human like much of the Order, Aria is a far more traditional Jedi than myself and is an expert diplomat, making her an excellent counterpart for myself with my martial-oriented pursuits.

The fact that she is one of the few Jedi capable of performing battle meditation to a meaningful degree just makes her borderline perfect. I would tolerate pretty much any spy from the Jedi Order in exchange for a Jedi to support the legion with their battle meditation.

Yet for all her valuable skills, Aria is a traditional Jedi and she has no hesitation when expressing her disapproval of my unconventional ways.

"I had a disturbing Force vision about events that should be happening," I answer, telling the truth from a certain point of view as I did get the information from Force Vision, one that was rather disturbing, "Master Kenobi and his padawan alongside Senator Amidala were being executed on Geonosis by Count Dooku, who has Fallen to the Dark Side, to appease Nute Gunray so the Trade Federation would join his plans to secede from the Galactic Republic.

"Master Windu and a couple hundred Jedi showed up to rescue them except most of them got killed by the droid army. Master Yoda shows up with a clone army to save the survivors and the Republic clone army and the Separatist droid army fight as the opening battle of a much larger war as vast swathes of the Republic attempt to secede and the Senate refuses to let them go without a fight."

"That sounds oddly specific but you believe it is true," says Aria as she stares at me, "Even if it proves to be untrue, I believe you did have that vision, especially since something had to leave unconscious like you were on C-Foroon."

"Thanks for believing me Aria," I tell her, glad that she isn't poking further into the matter.

Force knows that Vyssa won't be satisfied with such a basic explanation and my young padawan is sharp enough to figure out that I know more than I am letting on.

"I am not sure that this is a good idea however," states Aria, "Jedi are peacekeepers. It is one thing to run about the galaxy fighting slavers, pirates and other criminals. It is another thing to deliberately go into a major battle."

"The war is unavoidable at this point," I reply, "You've seen what things are like out on the Rim just as much as I have."

"Violence is something we should strive to avoid as Jedi," argues Aria, going all impassive on me like she does whenever the woman gets stressed.

"The megacorps want no taxes, tariffs or regulations while the Mid and Outer Rims both want either protection from criminals that plague them or decentralisation to let locals handle their own affairs," I argue back, "The Senate is corrupt, weak and ineffective with too many senators being interested in only their own power. They tax and control the Mid and Outer Rims, but they don't protect or look after the Rim. Force, the legion only exists because the Judicals are either unable or unwilling to protect the Mid and Outer Rims as they stick to the Core and Inner Rim."

"War and violence is not the Jedi way," states Aria stiffly.

"It is when it needs to be," I reply, "I don't agree with them as selling yourselves to the Sith and megacorporations is not the right solution. Yet it doesn't change the fact that is what they've chosen to do."

"I am a diplomat 'General' Shan," replies Aria, "I will try to seek a peaceful solution without violence or loss of life."

"Are you going to try and stop me?" I ask her as I stare at her.

"No, I am aware that I cannot physically stop you nor can I overwhelm the entirety of the legion," replies Aria as she meets my eyes, "Should the situation be as you believe it to be, I shall assist, but until then, I shall reserve judgement."

"Good, your battle meditation will be critical," I reply, thinking about just how many forces we will be facing at Geonosis, "The odds won't be good at all."

"We are Jedi," says Aria, "We must trust in the Force."

"Thanks Aria," I tell her.

"I will be contacting the Council regarding this," says Aria in a tight voice, as if daring me to contradict her.

"Of course."

***​

After doing a CYOA, I decided to do a bit of writing based off of it and after reading a few Star Wars SIs on SB and SV, I decided to make it semi-SI since it was already based on a CYOA.

So meet Ben Shan, my CYOA character, as he gets some very strange and terrifying set of memories a few hours before the battle of Geonosis begins. As per the CYOA, he has made plenty of enemies amongst the criminal underworld, has his own loyal legion/brigade of elite, well-equipped soldiers who are loyal to him personally alongside his beskar armour, talented padawan and his Jedi second-in-command who is one of the few people capable of pulling off battle meditation.

Dual-wielding lightsabers and having something of a militant bent as he acts on his disagreements with the High Council, Ben has some big responsibilities dropped on him as the Clone Wars break out thanks to his new impossible knowledge.

Link to CYOA I used is here: https://imgur.com/a/E9h2c3T

As a sort of Q&A, I will put some of the choices I took from the CYOA and why so people can know why things are the way they are in the story.

1.1) I picked Heavy Armour that was upgraded with Beskar Reinforcement in Equipment.
1.2) I chose this because I like the idea of Jedi wearing armour like a soldier and beskar is awesome so I'm not going to turn down the opportunity to have beskar heavy armour if I'm offered it. Despite it being made of beskar, I picture the armour as being like the armour used by Old Republic Troopers to fit in with how I picture the personal unit.
2.1) I chose to get a Personal Unit that has Abundant Supplies and is made up of Republic Soldiers. Unit size is Legion and Speciality is Sky. Unit Second-in-Command is a Jedi Knight associate while the Loyalty is to the PC. Unity Modifiers are Ariel Support, Armoured Support, Artillery Support, Blood Brothers, Engineers, Ground Pounders and Veteran Officers.
2.2) I like the idea of having a large, elite army of badass veterans who are loyal to the Jedi, especially since I was thinking of this being set at the end of the Clone Wars rather than the start of it. Order 66 comes about and then my Jedi and his Republic loyalists go and fight against the Empire in the name of the Jedi and the Galactic Republic. I kept it even though I decided to set the story at the start rather than the end of the Clone Wars even if that doesn't fit as smoothly. So rather than a non-clone unit formed for the Clone Wars, they are a privately-backed paramilitary force like the canonical Republic Outland Regions Security Force.

Soldiers look like the Old Republic Troopers because I like that theme, it fits the picture for them and it makes sense in-universe to take some inspiration from part of the old Republic Military. Plus I like the look of that armour. I also decided to give them enough warships to form a fleet that could carry all of them and their stuff because they had to have something like that to fit the backstory I came up with for them.

3.1) The default lightsaber is blue with a standard design and I took an Extra Lightsaber in equipment to get a green shoto lightsaber for dual-wielding. 4.1) I picked Form I, Form III and Jar'Kai.
3.2) I like to dual-wield in the KOTOR games so I took an Extra Lightsaber and Jar'Kai because of that. Since I picked Jedi Guardian and since blue is traditionally the colour of that path, I made the first and main lightsaber have a blue blade. Since I also like green and not wielding lightsabers of the same colour, the second lightsaber has a green blade. With the Forms, I just picked the two that I use the most in KOTOR II.

4.1) I'm going to flip this bit around by giving the explanation before stating my choices. In this case, I picked a mixture of Perks, Force Powers and Skills to make my Jedi into a martial-focused Jedi because I liked the idea of a Jedi who wants to go out and fight evil to protect the innocent. Because of this, the PC is both a personally dangerous combatant and a natural leader of soldiers both on and off the battlefield.
4.2) In Perks, I chose Adaptable, Charismatic, Natural Warrior, Quick Reflexes, Relentless, Strong, Tireless and Tough. In Force Powers, I chose Force Barrier, Force Sense, Force Control and Battle Precognition.

In Skills, I got Level 2 Athletics, Level 1 Space Piloting, Level 1 Tactics, Level 1 Strategy, Level 2 Leadership and Level 1 Training. Beskar heavy armour has already been mentioned and covered.
4.3) Charismatic, Tactics, Strategy, Leadership and Training to make the Jedi a good leader of his personal unit. Athletics, all of the other mentioned Perks and all of the Force Powers are to make the Jedi dangerous on an individual scale. While all of the skills are mentioned here, I also chose Force Healing and some other Perks.

5.1) On top of an Other Heterodoxy, I have also chosen the Complications, Attachment, Rebel and Deadly Secret. Deadly Secret is the SI knowledge while Attachment is being overly attached to the men and women of his personal unit. Rebel is from differing beliefs to the Jedi Council and actively acting on them.
5.2) Deadly Secret fits a semi-SI perfectly while Attachment and Rebel fit his more pro-active, pro-militarist beliefs so I felt that they made for good flaws since I didn't try to offset them with the Perks I chose.

6.1) In terms of opinion, I chose the Galactic Senate as an Ally while the Separatists, the Hutt Cartel, the Underworld and the Sith are enemies with everyone else being neutral. Zygerria and Oba Diah are enemies on a Local System scale while Corellia, Mon Cala and Bothawui are Allies.
6.2) Unlike the personal unit, I made the final version of these choices once I had decided to begin the story at the start of the Clone Wars rather than the end of it. I chose Galactic Senate because I like the idea of having supporters and allies in the Senate and trying to work within the system to reform it, especially since many of those allies and supporters will also be supporting the Supreme Chancellor.

Republic Command and Clone Army are left neutral because it doesn't make sense for my Jedi to be on their good side yet while in terms of enemy, my Jedi and his personal unit have been spending the last few years picking fights with the various scum of the galaxy so plenty of enemies there. Zygerria and Oba Diah were chosen specifically because they have relevance to the Clone Wars while Mon Cala, Corellia and Bothawui explain some of the supporters and backers of the personal unit.

The Sith I picked because I figured that Sidious and Dooku would see this martial-focused Jedi with a loyal, private army of non-clone soldiers to be a threat to their plans. As a result, they will put more effort into eliminating my Jedi and his personal unit because they can't rely upon Order 66 to do that at the end of the war.

7.1) I will be using a mixture of Canon and Legends both because I like elements from each and my knowledge of both is limited. It also allows me to preserve more dramatic tension because it makes the SI knowledge less reliable and potentially wrong in some cases.

8.1) I picked Ben Shan because I like the idea of him being a descendent of Revan and Bastila so picked Shan as a surname while Ben is a simple and non-fancy name that is also something of a homage to the original Star Wars film that started it all.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

"Alright folks, I'm sure that most of you if not all of you have heard it from Loren, but we are going to be facing the hardest battle of our careers so far," I inform the gathered senior officers of the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion.

I only got thirty-six people here besides myself. The colonels of each regiment, the majors of each battalion, the captains of each capital ship, the commanders of each escort squadron and finally my padawan Vyssa Randanys.

"What exactly are we looking at sir?" asks Captain Heree Tazir, captain of one of my three capital ships, the Justice.

"According to the Force Vision that was bad enough to send me to the infirmary, Count Dooku is going ahead with his secessionist agenda using force," I answer, "He already has enlisted the aid of the Trade Federation, the Banking Clan, the Techno Union, the Commerce Guild and the Corporate Alliance so expect to face a lot of droid forces. However, they are our enemy, not our primary objective.

"Count Dooku has promised Nute Gunray the head of Senator Amidala in exchange for the support of the Trade Federation, hence the recent attempts on her life. Unfortunately, he has captured her and two Jedi and plans to have all three executed in arena combat to appease Gunray. We are okay to spoil the party by rescuing all three captives."

I pause for a moment, both so everybody can process what I just said and so my next words will have more of an impact.

"We are not conquering Geonosis," I state clearly so everyone understands that, "We simply do not have the forces to pull that off. Instead, we will be doing a smash and grab. We go in and blow up what we can whilst exacting Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker and Senator Padme Amidala. Everyone clear?"

As expected, I receive a chorus of affirmatives from the assembled officers. Everyone here is a competent veteran.

"General, what sort of resistance can we expect?" asks Colonel Loren and I feel some relief that everyone trusts and respects me enough to not question the validity of my information.

"Once again, this information is from a Force Vision so I cannot verify how accurate it is until we arrive at Geonosis and take a look at things in person," I answer, deciding to emphasise the unconfirmed nature of my information, "The local Geonosians are naturally hardy but they are not tough enough to withstand blaster fire. They can fly thanks to their wings and use powerful sonic weaponry on top of being good melee combatants.

"We will also be facing battle droids similar to the ones seen at the Invasion of Naboo thanks to the megacorps backing Dooku. Expect some new surprises in their ranks as well since it has been a decade. The enemy will have plenty of fighters and starships, but they should be unprepared as they won't be expecting anyone hostile to show up. The element of surprise-"

I pause as Aria strides into the room and takes a seat.

"I spoke with Master Yoda," says Aria as I give her an expectant look, "It turns out your vision was accurate, at least to a degree. He didn't know about Padawan Skywalker or Senator Amidala but Count Dooku has Master Kenobi captive on Geonosis with a droid army. Master Yoda is currently at Kamino to get the clone army you saw and Master Windu is leading a Jedi strike force to rescue Master Kenobi."

"Good to confirm that at least some of what I saw is true," I say, "Will you be joining us for the rest of the briefing?"

"I did agree to help if your vision proved to be true," replies Aria stiffly, "I shall do my best to support the legion with my battle meditation."

"Good," I say before focusing back on the gathered officers, "As I was saying, the enemy is unprepared for an enemy force arriving and their starships are all planet side to receive shipments of battle droids from the local droid factories on Geonosis. The enemy will also have local interceptors that will be agile and plentiful, but fragile and lightly armed. The plan is to hit hard and fast, to do as much damage as possible before pulling out.

"Shuttles and squadrons need to be ready to launch as soon as we come out of hyperspace. Our warships will provide orbital support. I will be leading a strike team to rescue the prisoners while the rest of the ground team will be securing an area for us to hold. We will be heavily outnumbered so we will take defensive terrain and make the enemy come to us until we can pull out. Star cruisers will target the enemy warships long with the Thrantas and DP20s. The CR90s and Headhunters will engage the enemy starfighters once they appear and they will engage targets of opportunity before then. Commander Randanys will be joining me and Brigadier Telis be remaining aboard the Freedom to use her battle mediation. Any questions?"

I do end up getting a few. Nothing too inquisitive, just some queries about some specific details or a particular tasking. My people have been doing this for the better part of three years. They both trust me without hesitation and know how to do their jobs without my input.

Maybe I will be wrong. Perhaps there will be defences I'm not expecting or the enemy will be ready and waiting for an attack like my own.

In the end, I will just have to trust in the Force and the Force says that this is the right move.

***​

Climbing into the assault shuttle, I can't help but wonder about a couple of discrepancies between what I know and the other world's memories. Especially the star cruisers that the Mon Calamari have produced for me. Technically the Ruusan Reformation forbids warships of their calibre, but everything has loopholes and I saw no reason to not take advantage of them for a good cause when plenty of others were taking advantage of them for less noble purposes.

In this case, the star cruisers are experimental prototypes that Mon Calamari Shipyards are loaning to me for long term testing. Or at least they are as far as the law is concerned. In practice, they are capital ships that I convinced a grateful Dac to provide me with.

Yet in the other timelines, they didn't become a thing until a good twenty years from now. And somehow, I have them here and now, when the Mon Calamari are supposed to be only producing civilian vessels.

I guess it ties into the second thing of why I and the legion exist when we didn't in either of the timelines in my memories. A baffling question, but one I can't dwell upon. There is the biggest and most important battle of my life so far coming up and I don't have the spare time to question the nature of reality itself.

I will definitely have to do so later when things aren't so urgent.

"Are you okay Master?" asks Vyssa as my padawan joins me on the assault shuttle as jump soldiers from Sky Company climb aboard.

"I haven't had time to fully process my Force Vision," I answer her, "Given the upcoming circumstances, I am waiting until a more appropriate time to figure out what my Force Vision means."

For a moment, the sixteen-year-old looks like she wants to question me further, but Vyssa instead asks me a different question.

"What should I do on the surface, Master?" asks Vyssa, looking determined, but I can tell that she is worried.

Unsurprising given her youth and inexperience. She might be a capable padawan and spent almost a year with the legion since I took her on as a learner, but the young Zeltron is still a child who hasn't experienced as much of life as myself or anyone else in the legion.

"Focus on getting Senator Amidala out of there and avoid Count Dooku," I tell her, "Master Kenobi and his padawan can look after themselves so the senator is the highest priority prisoner though try to free all of them if you can. Count Dooku is a former Jedi Master who was a padawan of Master Yoda. You will be no match for him."

"I understand Master," replies Vyssa in a determined voice, "Protect the senator, avoid the count."

Looking around at the soldiers surrounding Vyssa and I, I decide that now is the time for the usual pre-battle speech since the fleet will be coming out of hyperspace any moment now. Pulling my communicator out of my pocket, I switch to all of the legion's frequencies and begin to talk into it.

"As you have all heard by now, we are going on a rescue mission against a whole load of tinnies and bugs whose masters think they can get away with executing Jedi and senators for sport," I say as the shuttle doors close, "We are going to show them that they are not and bring them to justice for their crimes. We are not fighting noble revolutionaries like they would claim to be. No, we are fighting scum who are preying upon the hopeful and desperate by promising them salvation when they are just replacing one form of corruption with a worse one. We are the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion and we are going to show these lying, corrupt and enslaving secessionists just why slavers and pirates across the Rim fear us."

Not my best speech, but a short and simple one that gets the point across while providing some motivations that my troops will accept. Force, it is less about the specifics of what I am saying and more that I, General Ben Shan, am giving a speech with the right sort of words that will inspire the legion and bolster their morale.

The bit of inspiration and boost to morale may prove critical in the upcoming battle. We have the element of surprise and better troopers, but the enemy has sheer weight of numbers. While my memories didn't tell me the exact numbers, I can expect to face over a million battle droids, tens of thousands of vehicular battle droids and thousands of starfighters on top of the native Geonosians.

And there might be other nasty surprises that the person who I got the memories from didn't know about.

"Coming out of hyperspace in three…two…one…mark!" reports a voice over the Freedom's internal comms.

And on mark, the shuttle begins to lift off as the fleet comes out of hyperspace and I take a deep breath. We got a big battle coming up and I intend to win it with minimal losses. I cannot afford for the legion to take too many losses these days.

The shuttle launches and I can only wait as we make planetfall, unable to directly act until I exit the shuttle. Not quite helpless, but uncomfortable close for my tastes.

Tapping my helmet, I pull up an overview of the tactical situation. The entire fleet came out of hyperspace fine and every available shuttle and starfighter has launched while the majority of the warship move into position for orbital bombardment. There are no enemy warships or starfighters waiting for us as the tactical operation teams aboard the warships look for any sign of the prisoners, pick out good landing sites and locations to secure for the ground team and enemy targets for both warships to bombard from orbit and for ground forces to assault the planet side.

My legion is an experienced, competent military unit who knows what they are doing and that means I am free to focus on the interesting bits. Such as the parked Jedi starfighters and the surface arena with a lot of activity in it and around it.

"General Shan here, what is the story with that very active arena?" I ask into my comlink on the command channel.

"As you saw in your vision sir, the prisoners are currently being executed in the arena by the natives," replies Commodore Wol Thak, the Corellian man who both captains my flagship and holds overall authority over the fleet of the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion after myself and Aria, "I have already ordered yourself and Sky Company to engage and secure it with support from Cloud Company and Flare Company. If you haven't already noticed yourself, I would like to direct your attention to the abnormally large number of Jedi starfighters parked on the planet that we have detected."

"That would be Master Windu's team," I answer as the warships begin to open fire on the grounded separatist starships, "We can hopefully expect assistance from them once the fighting begins."

"Understood General," says the commodore and as the call ends, I observe the ongoing engagement.

The defenders are unprepared for this surprise assault by an actual military force. No warships in orbit, no starfighters in the air or ready to launch. The first warning that the enemy got is when the fleet opened fire on the landed starships, loading up on droids from the local Geonosian factories if my other memories are correct.

The Star Cruisers each tear into one of the parked Trade Federation Coreships while Headhunters fire their concussion missiles into the Techno Union starships. The Corellian Gunships and Thrantas open fire into both the Techno Union starships and the Commerce Guild starships as the Corellian Corvettes join the assault shuttles as they head down to unload the troops aboard them.

And now the enemy is beginning to react as sleek, needle-nosed starfighters take to the skies and droids of various builds begin to flood out into the surface. They do so without organisation and in shambles, but the response is there as the first of the shuttles hit the ground.

"All fighter squadrons, switch focus to the enemy fighters," I order, "We need aerial supremacy. Frigates to engage the Techno Union ships and the Commerce Guild ships while the Star Cruisers are to continue hitting those Coreships."

It is going well, almost too well. Geonosis is supposed to be a harder fight than this according to the impossible memories, but the legion is smashing the defenders. Maybe the element of surprise is just that powerful or Aria's battle meditation is pulling through, but the enemy is struggling to organise a proper defence.

On the other hand, I don't think warships were actually involved in the other Battle of Geonosis. The Separatist starships all fled without fighting back while the Republic starships just dropped off the troops, which led to the ground forces fighting it out.

Maybe the presence of warships and orbital support is making a big difference. Or perhaps things are going to get a lot harder because there is at least one Darksider planet side and over a million battle droids to worry about. The true fighting has yet to begin and perhaps then the battle will become truly hard.

Speaking of that confirmed Darksider, can I take Count Dooku in a fight? The man is a former padawan of Master Yoda and a Jedi Master in his own right before he fell to the Dark Side. He is famous for his skill as a lightsaber duellist and he is a powerful Force user.

On the other hand, I am just a Jedi Knight with a rather martial focus, a natural aptitude for fighting and finely honed body alongside Matukai techniques and beskar armour. I should be able to hold my own at the least even if beating the man is likely beyond me.

"Fire on the main viewing box in the arena," I order, "The enemy leadership and their best combatants are there. Try to avoid engaging Dooku if at all possible. I am the only one capable of engaging him and surviving."

If the Force is with me, we can blow Dooku to bits before he can do anything. But I doubt that I shall be so fortunate. The shuttle door opens as we swoop into the arena and I jump down.

A Nexu, an Acklay and some creature I recognise, but don't know the name of are all in the arena, but they are still making their way to prisoners, who are all still chained up even if Senator Amidala seems to be picking the lock to her restraints. I decide to go after the Nexu first as I land with a thud, my body and the Force more than capable of handling any harm from the impact.

Igniting both lightsabers, I charge at the Nexu and it pounces at me. Through the Force, I know what the creature will do before it even moves and I throw up a Force Barrier to block the swipe of its claws as it tries to land on me. Anticipating its moves, I throw my lightsabers up to pierces its chest as it soars over me, leaving cauterized gorges in its body.

I can hear blaster fire across the arena and I know that the big creature with the leathery skin and the horns is charging at me. I roll to the side of its charge and with a swipe of my lightsaber, I cut off the left foreleg and cause the creature to go tumbling. A bunch of blaster fire goes into its belly as a few jump soldiers of Sky Company back me up.

"We have battle droids, General!" shouts a sergeant to me and while I don't need the warning to know about the battle droids swarming into the arena, it is appreciated.

Fortunately for me and unfortunately for the droids, I am something of an expert in Form III as dealing with blaster fire is a common occurrence in my work. Instinctively, I begin to deflect the blaster fire back at the battle droids and I take a moment to look around. Aklay dead from blaster fire. Vyssa freeing the prisoners. Captain Vora directing her troops. Very angry Jango Fett shooting me.

Oh.

***​

Derailing the First Battle of Geonosis because it makes no sense for Ben Shan not to do that with the sort of knowledge that he has received. He knows what is going to happen, he has both a loyal army and the moral code of a Jedi so into battle he goes.

Secondly, going for Mon Cal Star Cruisers because one, it is plausible for them to exist in this era, two, I struggled to find pre-Clone Wars capital ships and three, I find them cool and they fit the sort of faction that Ben Shan and his legion are part of.

Third, from what I can tell from looking on Wookieepedia and watching Episode II on Disney+, the First Battle of Geonosis didn't have any warships fighting in it. The Republic starships just landed troops while the Separatist starships tried to flee with troops. So for this universe, having warships for the Republic there is going to result in a different outcome because of orbital fire support.

For this story, I'm treating orbital bombardment like how it is treated in Empire at War or KOTOR or Rebels, an imprecise bombardment of an area. Good for blowing up everything there, not so good for ensuring you hit the right things or didn't hit the wrong things. You also need sustained fire to get everything in the area so a short bombardment can miss a target or a target can escape it by getting out of the area before they get here.

Finally, the big podium box gets shot to pieces because Ben Shan knows who is in there. It is a big target and I can forgive Yoda and the Clone missing it because they had the pressing matter of rescuing the surviving Jedi and didn't know that the big players were up there, but Ben does know. As a result, he isn't going to pass up a chance to blast Poggle the Lesser, Count Dooku, Jango Fett, Boba Fett and Nute Gunray and Gunray's assistant in an attempt to take them all out.

Obviously he didn't get all of them, but he had to try.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

"Deal with the droids, I'll handle the Mando!" I shout to the soldiers with me as I quickly deflect his blaster bolts away from me.

Not that it matters too much if he does hit me. I've got beskar armour and that can take a blaster bolt or a dozen any day.

Jango apparently realises that as well as he aims his wrist at me and fires off his flamethrower at me. I throw up a Force Barrier to block the flames as I charge the man, moving faster than any human has the right to. That catches Jango by surprise, but the Mandalorian warrior recovers quickly and tries to fire his whipcord at me. It doesn't work as my battle precognition means that I know what the bounty hunter is going to do and a flicker of my shoto cuts the whipcord in two before I use the Force to bring him down closer to the ground so I can actually hit him.

A swing of my main lightsaber and the blue blade cuts off Jango's right arm at the elbow, taking his blaster with it. I try to stab the bounty hunter with my shoto, but the green blade hits his chest plate and the beskar completely stops my lightsaber. Jango tries to fly away with his jetpack, aiming his remaining wrist launcher at me to fire the rocket in it, but my soldiers don't let him.

The hovering assault shuttle opens fire on the Mandalorian and he goes flying out of control as his jetpack is damaged. I'm not sure if Jango survived the hit or his landing, but I don't have time to focus on that.

"Knight Shan," says Count Dooku as the Sith Lord walks towards me, cutting down a member of Sky Company as he does so, "Or do you perhaps prefer General Shan. A shame that you have to interfere like this. I had such high hopes for you before you had to go and ruin my plans like this."

"I will never betray the Jedi or the Republic unlike you," I retort as I do not look forward to this fight.

The initial shock has worn off and Sky Company is holding for now, but they are taking casualties and those will begin to add up. My troops are good and the shuttles are providing fire support, but we need the Jedi to make their move any time now or to withdraw.

Yet I cannot worry about that even as I have to worry about that as Dooku makes his move. He raises a hand to fire off his Force Lightning and I raise my lightsaber to block it, trusting in my beskar armour to deal with any stray blaster bolts.

"That isn't going to work against me," I inform him.

"Perhaps not," agrees the Sith Lord and I barely dodge to the side in time to avoid the Force Push that he tries to hit me with.

As it is, Dooku just sends several of his droids and one of Sky Company flying. He doesn't stop there as the master duellist comes at me with his lightsaber, drawing and igniting it whilst he strikes forward.

I block with my own lightsaber with my blue blade clashing with his red blade. He swings and I block and I swipe only to be parried. It is at this point I grasp the shape of the battle. I have more physical power and the Force to sense his attacks but Count Dooku has far greater skill in the lightsaber form most suited to this type of fighting. I might be able to overpower the man, but it will be an uphill battle with brute force against finesse.

Ideally, I would be able to withdraw, but circumstances don't allow for that. I have to protect my people and I am the only one capable of holding my own against Dooku. If I don't stop him, Dooku will slaughter his way through Sky Company and I cannot let that happen.

And then Dooku outplays me. I move to intercept another precise swing of the Sith Lord, he changes his mind mid-motion and instead stabs at my leg. I see the move as he makes it, but this is one of those unfortunate times where knowing something is going to happen doesn't mean having enough time to stop it.

Thankfully for me, my armour is made from one of the few lightsaber resistant materials in the galaxy. So when Dooku's blade strikes my leg, instead of slicing through both armour and the flesh below, the red blade stops as the beskar refuses to yield to the plasma.

"So the rumours are true," says Count Dooku as he darts back before I can take advantage of his failed attack, "You do have armour made from Mandalorian iron."

I don't reply with words, just gritting my teeth as I focus on dealing with the Sith Lord as I swing at him again. He almost casually parries my blade again and breaking off his offensive as he runs for one of the gateways that the battle droids are marching out of.

I don't bother pursuing him as I focus on keeping my surviving people alive and dealing with these battle droids. It only takes me a moment to figure out why he fled as I spot the lightsabers and robes belonging to the dozen of Jedi fighting amongst the survivors of Sky Company. Ah good, Master Windu's team has finally made their presence known.

And speaking of Master Windu...

"Knight Shan," says the bald man in question as he joins me in cutting down battle droids and deflecting blaster fire.

"Master Windu," I reply, "I had a Force Vision regarding these events so I came with my legion. When Brigadier Telis last spoke with Master Yoda to check certain events of my Force Vision, he was on Kamino so we should be expecting some reinforcements soon."

"And where is Knight Telis?" asks Master Windu, "I hope you are making use of her battle meditation."

"She is using it to support the legion from aboard the Freedom," I tell him, "Do you have a plan?"

"I have been forced to improvise since someone decided to start shooting up the place," replies the Jedi Master, "Since the senator seems to be rescued, I believe I shall try my hand at arresting Count Dooku in the name of the Galactic Republic."

"I will provide what assistance I can, but my priority is going to be ensuring that the legion is going to remain intact enough for the upcoming war," I reply, "Give me a moment to contact my commanders for an update on the situation."

"Don't take too long," says Master Windu and I nod, pleased that we can put our usual dislike aside in the heat of battle.

"Status report," I ask into my comlink, contacting the Freedom.

"We lost the Wilful to enemy artillery fire and both the Hope and Valiant have been forced to withdraw due to heavy damage," promptly reports Commodore Thak, "We haven't lost any squadrons yet, but the Headhunters have been taking some casualties even if they are hurting their opponents worse. The enemy starships are all launching, but we have taken out almost half of the Coreships along with all of the Diamond-class cruisers in this region and over a hundred Hardcell-class transports.

On the ground, Sky, Cloud and Flare Companies have taken the worst losses while the rest of the legion was able to secure several defensive positions before a proper response could be organised by the enemy. That arena seems to be directly connected to a major enemy position. Now that Commander Randanys has safely extracted Senator Amidala, I would strongly advise abandoning the arena and withdrawing to the main force with the Jedi."

"Understood Commodore, send the shuttles to extract us," I tell the man before ending the call and turning back to Master Windu, "This position is taking the heaviest losses and seems to be right on top of a major enemy position. We need to withdraw to one of the sites that my legion has secured."

"I hope that the reason the senator isn't here is because you got her to safety," states Master Windu, "I doubt it is because she didn't come here with Skywalker."

"Commander Randanys has brought her up to the fleet," I inform him.

"Then Padawan Randanys has made my life easier," replies Master Windu as the shuttles begin to come down, "Get aboard these shuttles?"

"Get aboard the shuttles," I confirm and we both begin to organise the withdrawal of our respective forces as the shuttles get low enough for people to get aboard.

Between the jump troopers of Sky Company and the various Jedi that Master Windu brought with him, the majority of the shuttles don't have to actually land, but a couple do in order to collect the wounded or soldiers with broken jump packs. While in one way it is good to have enough space for all of the Jedi in the arena, it hurts to know that it comes at the cost of Sky Company losing enough people that the space exists.

To my lack of surprise, Master Windu decides to take the same shuttle as I.

"Knight Shan," says Master Windu as our shuttle pulls up, "What is your battle plan?"

"Primary objective is to extract the captives with Senator Amidala being the highest priority," I answer as I turn to one of my injured soldiers on the shuttle, "Secondary objective is to do as much damage as possible to the droid and Geonosian forces before withdrawing. If Master Yoda does show up with reinforcements, that will change the objective to assisting the secret Jedi army in securing the planet."

Placing my hand on the jump trooper's injured leg, I channel the Force and let it flow from me into her. It knits the flesh back together and while it does nothing for the armour, my fellow member of the 1st​ is back to mostly full strength.

"General Shan?" says Commodore Thak over my comlink.

"Here Commodore," I reply.

"We have a dozen 'Acclamator-class cruisers' under the command of one Jedi Master Yoda," says the Corellian, "I am coordinating their descent to reinforce our ground forces. We also have the rest of the Lucrehulk battleships in orbit and now that reinforcements have arrived, I am going to send the Justice and some escorts along with our reserves and Commander Randanys to secure one. I feel that securing one as a mobile base could prove useful in the future if your predictions of war are true."

"Good work Commodore," I tell him, "I approve of that idea. What about the rest?"

"Our warships are insufficient for the task of destroying them and we lack the forces to capture more than one of them right now," answers Commodore Thak, "I shall speak with Jedi Master Yoda to see if the forces he has brought with him can help us. I would also like to inform you that the enemy starships are all trying to flee the planet and many of them are beyond the reach of our ships. I can try to destroy what I can, but we have done what damage we can. I shall switch to providing fire support. We have no shortage of targets up here."

"Understood Commodore," I say and I turn to Master Windu once again, "Master Yoda has arrived and is coordinating with my forces to reinforce our position."

"Good," states the man before focusing on me, "Do not mistake the current circumstances as a validation of your beliefs and disobedience to the High Council."

"I can assure you that I was under no impression that was going to be the case," I reply with a hidden roll of my eyes even as my troops in the shuttle above get a bit more tense.

Judging from the slight glower he throws my way, my eyeroll wasn't as hidden as I thought it was. Oh well, being on the bad side of the High Council is nothing new. My more unorthodox and militarist ways ensure that I will never be popular with them, especially since I am outspoken with them and act upon them.

"Captain Vora," I call into my comlink, "Are you still alive?"

"I am over here General!" shouts the Twi'lek woman in question from further down the shuttle.

"Excuse me," I say to Master Windu before shuffling my way over to the captain of Sky Company.

"How bad?" I ask Captain Vora in a quiet voice as I reach her.

"Less than half of us made it out," answers Captain Vora with a sadness that we both share, "We kicked droid and bug butt, but there were just so many of them and they just kept coming. Even with the Brigadier's battle meditation, there were too many for us. Even with Cloud Company and Flare Company securing the outsides...they were coming from underground General."

"Yeah, I noticed," I agree as I think about the general structure of the arena and what we saw and how the whole Separatist council was still there when Dooku fled after Yoda extracted the Jedi...

"Commodore Thak," I call into my comlink as I contact the Freedom, "Once everyone is clear, I want you to level that arena and the surrounding structure as best you can."

"Understand General," replies the commodore, "May I ask why?"

"Dooku is still down there and it is important enough to the enemy to have had many droids defending it," I answer, "I want to deny the place to the enemy and kill anyone important down there since we got everyone we cared about out."

"Understood General," replies Commodore Thak, "I'll have the Freedom begin bombarding the place. Our remaining warships will continue to provide fire support for our ground forces. I would also like to report that the enemy starships are beginning to jump to hyperspace and I'm afraid we lack the forces to stop them, especially with all of the pressure that our ground forces are under planet side."

"Hopefully the army that Master Yoda is bringing can help with that," I comment, hoping that I didn't get too many of my people killed today.

"Commodore, what is the status of our fighters?" I inquire.

"Under heavy pressure with mounting losses," promptly answers Commodore Thak, "I had to withdraw from providing air support and focus on maintaining aerial superiority. Our pilots and birds are better, but the locals seem to have at least a dozen for every one of ours. I'm afraid that they won't be available for whatever you want. Things will be troublesome enough to escort our new reinforcements down."

"Understood Commodore," I say before letting the man get back to his job.

It is frustrating that I won't be able to stick a squadron or two of Headhunters on any fleeing Separatists leaders, but it is more important that we get the clones down to reinforce the legion. Without that support, we won't be able to take Geonosis and after everyone we lost and with such a massive Republic army in orbit, I find myself wanting to drive the Separatists from Geonosis.

And so when the shuttle begins to set down in friendly-held territory, I look towards the next part of the Battle of Geonosis.

***​

The arena fight is over with less dead Jedi, but more dead Republic soldiers. With the element of surprise wearing off, the enemy is beginning to bring their numbers to be bear on the legion and they are beginning to feel it. The Republic forces are struggling to maintain aerial superiority as the clones come down as they don't have the element of surprise in this Battle of Geonosis.

In any case, Ben is going to the front lines to help his soldiers deal with the seemingly endless hordes of clankers.

In other news, I remembered why I dislike writing fanfiction. It is a pain to write established characters, I tried to write Count Dooku and Mace Windu in-character, but I wouldn't be surprised if they sound off. I also tried to portray a somewhat antagonistic relationship between Ben Shan and Mace Windu that doesn't go beyond mutual disapproval as they are on the same side at the end of the day.

With the fight with Dooku, Ben Shan is more naturally strong and tough and uses the Force to boost those further while Dooku is far more skilled in the lightsaber form ideal to lightsaber duels. I wasn't planning it at the time, but I think it is a good match up narratively speaking as any duel between the two comes down to whether Ben can overpower Dooku or Dooku can outskill Ben.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

"Where am I needed?" I ask Loren as I approach the colonel in the impromptu command centre.

"Aurek could use some support since you took half of it with the arena with you," replies Loren, "They holed up in the rocks, but the droids are trying to push in from the planes. Aurek won't break, but your presence could lessen their losses if you want to head down there with what's left of Sky."

The reminder of how badly the arena chewed up Sky Company hurts, but this is war and soldiers die in war. Given that the fighting goes on for decades in both the other impossible timelines, I need to start preparing myself for the fact that we'll be taking losses even if I do my best to prevent them.

And speaking of preventing them...

"I'll go and reinforce Aurek then," I say before looking around for Captain Vora, "Hey Vora, we are taking Sky to back up Aurek. Meet me over there."

"Of course sir," answers Captain Vora as the Twi'lek gives me a snap salute before she begins to bark orders at her surviving soldiers.

Checking their location on the HUD of my helmet, I begin to run towards the ridges and outcrop that Aurek Battalion is defending. I bound over the land and as I approach the area, I can hear blaster fire being exchanged.

While I should report in with Major Druss as she is the commanding officer of Aurek Battalion, the number of battle droids attempting to cross the dust-covered desert plains has me deciding to go straight to the front lines.

As I run past my soldiers, I note that Major Druss has a decent set up. Artillery at the rear to pound the enemy hailfire droids and spider droids while armoured elements are located behind the ridges to blast any droids that get through whilst remaining hidden from the enemy hailfire droids. A couple of squads are supporting the armour, but the majority of the infantry is in the ridges and outcrop as they hold off the droids trying to push through the ridges and into the landing zone that the legion has secured.

With the clones arriving shortly, we should have enough forces to secure the planet. At least in both of the timelines in my impossible memories, the droids were relatively quickly forced into a retreat by the clones.

Yet that is something to worry about in the future. Right now, I need to keep Aurek Battalion alive until Master Yoda arrives with the clone reinforcements.

Whilst broken up by losses, battle droids and super battle droids run towards the ridges in what remains of their formations. The sheer amount of droid wreckage is a testament to the skill of my soldiers, but there are still hundreds of them coming with some of the miniature spider droids mixed amongst them.

With both of my lightsabers in hand, I run out to the nearest formation of droids and begin cutting them up. I deflect two blaster bolts back at them, taking down a battle droid before cutting down another battle droid with my blue blade. I slice through the blaster of another with my shoto before stabbing a super battle droid with my main lightsaber. I behead a battle droid with my blue lightsaber whilst cutting off the arm of a super battle droid with my green one. I deflect a blaster bolt back into a battle droid before finishing off the super battle droid.

Cutting down another battle droid, I spot one of the mini spider droids and run towards it as it fires upon the ridge line. I cut down a couple of battle droids between us and before cutting one of its front legs with my shoto as I slash it across the spider droid across its face with my main lightsaber. I'm not sure if I have quite killed it, but I don't have time to check because my battle precognition promptly informs me that one of the remaining hailfire droids has decided to blow its payload on me.

Putting some Force behind my movements, I run out of the way of the smoky missiles that are flying towards my position. None of them hit me, but they do leave a trail of explosions and broken droids in my wake. Trusting my soldiers to deal with the hailfire droid, I continue to focus on the infantry.

The formation of droids that I have found myself in are unprepared for my sudden presence as they are still focusing on shooting at the positions of Aurek Battalion. I begin cutting down the closest battle droids, carving them up with my lightsabers before they can properly react to me.

Eventually, the battle droids do turn upon me and not just the ones immediately around me as all of the nearby droids switch from focusing on Aurek Battalion to targeting me. Which is a good thing as far as my objective of supporting Aurek Battalion goes, but the increase in blaster fire means that I now have my hands full deflecting all of the blaster bolts. I try to send a few back into the droids, but the sheer rate of fire means I have to focus on just keeping the blaster bolts from hitting me.

Given how I wanted to draw their attention, this falls within the realm of good outcomes, but it does mean that I'll have my hands full the next time the droids send some heavy firepower my way.

Then explosions and blaster fire rip through the droids, sending up dust clouds as the artillery pounds the front lines of the droid assault while Aurek Battalion fires into them with their blaster rifles. As I rush forward to start cutting up more battle droids, I begin to hear a vaguely familiar sound from above as green beams join the firepower slamming into the droids and missiles of some kind smash into the droid formations.

Looking up, I spot the recognisable shapes of the clone gunships, called LAATI or something, as they begin to come down. Most of them are ones full of infantry, but a couple of them are dropping the AT-TE or at least some kind of AT-something. As the droids are driven back, the clone troopers disembark from their transports in their shiny white armour.

"General," calls one of them, wearing the yellow of a clone commander.

Yellow is commander right? Blue is captain or is that red? Green might be pilot or that might be yellow too. Then again, the clone's armour is distinctly different to the others beyond the extra colour to it. The helmet is different and he is wearing both some kind of shoulder thing and what is maybe a short skirt over his armour.

"Clone Commander CC-5246," reports the clone commander as he runs up to me, "Awaiting your orders general."

"Forward push," I reply as the clone forces begin to push back the halted droid offensive, "I'll take the lead and draw the enemy fire. You worry about keeping your troopers alive and blasting the droids from afar."

"Understood sir," says the clone commander, "We have some of the other Republic forces arriving."

Turning slightly to follow his gaze, I spot Captain Vora running towards me with maybe a platoon's worth of Sky Company jump troopers.

"Hey General," says Vora, "If you are going to kick some tincan butt, Sky Company has your back."

I almost ask Vora if her people are up for it after everything else, but I know my people and Vora wouldn't be bringing what's left of Sky Company if she wasn't sure her people could handle more fighting.

So instead I place a hand on her shoulder and tell her, "I would be honoured to have Sky guarding my rear."

"We won't let you down," promises Vora as she gives a snap salute, "Hey yellow stripes, are you in command of the white guys?"

"Technically the General here is in command," answers the clone commander-no, CC-5246, I need to think of the clones as people, "Are we pushing the offensive?"

"Hold this position for now while I get an update," I tell him before speaking into my comlink, "Commodore Thak, Colonel Belen, what is the overall situation?"

"The droids are retreating and the new guys are taking the pressure off us and the Jedi," answers Loren, "I'm going to send some of the legion to help the clones secure the area and continue to drive back the droids."

"The situation in space is secure," answers Wol once Loren is finished speaking, "A third of the enemy starships have escaped out of the system, including the majority of the Lucrehulk rings. Commander Vyssa successfully secured one and the clone commando units were able to disable the hyperdrives of a few more before they could jump out, but those ones are far from secure, just unable to escape.

The rest of the fleet is providing orbital bombardment support to the ground forces, hitting the largest concentrations of enemy forces on the surface or providing fire support as requested. The droids and Geonosians seem to have expended the bulk of their forces and now that we have weathered the storm, the clone forces should be enough to deal with the survivors."

"What about our starfighter squadrons?" I inquire.

"Once I was able to divert several of our escorts to aid them, aerial superiority has been firmly established," answers the commodore, "The majority of the hostile starfighters have been shot down while we have lost barely a hundred of our own even if at least half of our starfighters will require repairs before they can be restored to full functionality."

Over a hundred starfighters gone and most of their pilots with them since while it isn't unheard of to survive being shot down or eject in time, more often than not, a pilot is lost along with whatever starfighter they are flying. Yet that is a problem for me to deal with once the battle has been won.

"Alright, we will be making a push to crush the droids," I say as I turn to CC-5246 and Vora, "Get your forces and follow me. We'll be moving out to get any droid forces missed by our orbit fire support. For the most part, I will be drawing their fire as the most durable combatant and the only one of us using melee while everyone else hits them from afar with blaster fire. Understood?"

***​

"How are you taking it?" I ask CC-5246 as the clone dropship we are on takes off.

"Taking what sir?" replies the clone commander, seeming surprised by my question.

"Battle for the first time," I clarify, "Facing people trying to kill you for the first time. Having those around you dying. Dealing those under your command dying."

"I am a clone sir," replies CC-5246, "We are bred for war. Fighting and dying is just a part of that."

"You are sentient individuals," I disagree, "And specifically, you are human. Unless you have had some serious modifications to your psyche, you will be impacted by death like any other human."

"I'll admit that the real thing is different to the simulations, but I am a clone commander General," replies CC-5246, "I can deal with knowing that I won't be seeing some of my brothers again. We're clones sir, we're expendable."

"There is expendable and there is expendable," I say, "A soldier is willing to die in battle and war and their commander must be willing to spend them when necessary so you are expendable in that sense. Yet you are people, unique individuals, who are not to be treated as disposable and you are not expendable in that manner."

"Plenty of the longnecks would disagree with you sir," replies the clone commander with a shrug as I notice that my words are drawing the attention of the other clones aboard the gunship.

"I am a Jedi, not a Kaminoan," I tell him, "By the way CC-5246, I am Ben Shan, Jedi Knight and General of the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion."

"You're the one in charge of all the other Republic soldiers here then?" asks CC-5246 and I can tell that I have definitely drawn the attention of all the clones.

"Technically the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion is a private paramilitary force," I answer, "But yes, I am in charge of the other Republic-aligned forces on the ground and in orbit. Minus my fellow Jedi, at least those on the ground. Commander Randanys, my padawan, and Brigadier Telis, my second in command."

"Brigadier?" asks one of the other clones, "I thought all of the Jedi were Generals or Commander?"

CC-5246 looks like he is going to say something to the trooper, but I beat him to the punch.

"The 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion uses a different command structure to what you use," I explain, "Due to our small size, we only have a single general, who is in overall command, with a brigadier as their second in command. At the moment, I am the general of the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion with Jedi Knight Nelaria Telis as my second in command."

"I understand sir," says the clone trooper, "Thank you for explaining sir."

"If I am understanding things right General, then you won't be taking command of a clone legion?" asks CC-5246.

"I'm not going to say for certain that it won't be happening, but it seems unlike when I already have my own legion to command," I answer, "Now if you don't mind me asking a question of my own, how big is the clone army?"

"While we have lost a few thousand during the fighting here on Geonosis, the Grand Army of the Republic currently has two hundred thousand legions with another million on the way General," answers CC-5246, "Each legion consists of nine thousand, two hundred and sixteen clone troopers."

"I see," I mutter as I process this unexpected information.

Two hundred thousand now and another million on the way sounds about right according to my impossible memories. But I also remember those numbers being in regard to individual clone troopers and not entire legions. On the other hand, those numbers make more sense than what the other person remembered since mere millions of clone troopers would be far too little to protect the Republic. But those units-ah, that is right. It wasn't two hundred thousand clone troopers, it was two hundred thousand units with those units being military units rather than Kaminoan fancy talk for individuals.

So doing the maths...Force, that is almost two billion clone troopers currently active with over nine billion more on the way that roughly brings the numbers involved up to ten billion. Okay, ten billion soldiers sounds more like an army capable of waging a galaxy-wide war. It also makes the bankrupting bill I can remember being the focus on an episode or two make more sense. I'm not sure if it was five million or three million clone troopers, but a measly few million more soldiers won't come close to bankrupting the Galactic Republic.

But if that was referring to legions for tens of billions of individual clone troopers....yeah, I don't know too much about the galactic economy, but that many more clone troopers could be risking the Republic going bankrupt.

"That is a lot of clone troopers," I say, "There can't be enough Jedi to supply generals for all of them."

"That's for you and the other generals to figure out sir," says CC-5246, "I just follow my orders. Because good soldiers follow orders."

"That is true," I agree even as that last sentence and the phrase in it has alarm bells ringing in my head, "Just remember that while obedience is a virtue in a soldier, blind obedience is a vice. If the Jedi and the Republic wanted soldiers who mindlessly did what they were told and couldn't think for themselves, we would have gotten droids like the Separatists."

"I'll keep that in mind sir," says CC-5246 as the gunship begins to descend and I begin to sense some presence in the Force waiting for me.

"I hope you will," I tell the clone commander before glancing at the group of Jedi waiting for me below, including the small green figure that is Master Yoda.

***​

As you might have figured out, I've decided to finish covering the fighting parts of the Battle of Geonosis since there is only so much I can do with Jedi, clones and other Republic soldiers gunning down outmatched droid forces.

Speaking of which, it is a bit weird to see forces on each side listed on Wookieepedia and then listen to Dooku telling Gunray that there are too many clones for the Separatists to win. And since we are on the topic of weird numbers, I decided to have the 'units' referred to in Episode II as being entire legions rather than an individual trooper.

This is because this way you got an army big enough to wage a galaxy wide war and absorb all of the losses that we see on-screen because frankly, three million clone troopers is far too few for the Grand Army of the Republic to survive all of the clones that get killed. Several billion clone troopers makes more sense than a few million clone troopers and works better for this story so that is what I'm going with.

Expect some more changes like that in this story. The Galatic Republic just spent the last thousand years as a hyperpower and even with the rise of the CIS, it is still the biggest and strongest superpower in the galaxy at worst. It can afford an army with more than three million soldiers and it won't be incapable of paying for another five million without risking bankruptcy. If America could do that and more in the Second World War, the Republic can handle itself.

I haven't got too much else to say except Ben Shan will be explaining his 'vision' to some of the High Council before tallying up what the Battle of Geonosis has cost him and his people.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

Time to face the music as I step off of the gunship to meet the four Jedi waiting for me, all of them members of the Jedi High Council. Not only is Master Yoda there, but I also recognise Master Ti, Master Koon and Master Gallia. I'm not sure what they want with me, but I highly doubt it is to thank me for having the foresight to have an army of my own.

"Master Yoda, Master Ti, Master Koon and Master Gallia," I greet them, "Or should I call you generals now?"

Okay, that probably wasn't the best way to start things off.

"Unbecoming of a Jedi, pettiness is," rebukes Master Yoda, "Yet to your comment, truth there is."

"And not for the better," I say, "I'll admit that I wanted the Jedi and the Republic to take a more proactive stance in helping people, but this is not what I wanted. Is there a reason why the Jedi Order has become the commanding officers of this clone army? Because I am concerned this is another case of the Senate expecting the Jedi to deal with a problem rather than ensuring the proper elements of the Galactic Republic are capable of handling it."

"The Jedi are the most fit to command this new army of the Republic," says Master Gallia as we walk towards the command centre, "As you of all people are fully aware, all Jedi are trained in leading soldiers into battle as an ancient legacy of the Order's past."

"How does that work with there not being enough Jedi to lead every clone legion?" I ask, "I just found out that there are currently twenty legions of clones for every Jedi Knight or Jedi Master with five times that number on the way."

"That will be the Chancellor's concern, not the Jedi's," says Master Koon.

"Speaking of which, is it true that the Supreme Chancellor was given emergency powers to form a new military for the Republic?" I inquire.

I am certain that this is true thanks to the impossible memories but getting some actual confirmation would be good. There is no telling how accurate my memories will be, especially once things change further as I act upon what I know.

"Been granted emergency powers by the Senate, the Supreme Chancellor has," confirms Master Yoda, "How you know this Knight Shan, we must discuss."

Yeah, I figured this was coming. Aria already mentioned my 'Force Vision' to Master Yoda and given how my predictions have proven true and how I acted upon them in the first place, it was only a matter of time before I had to explain it to the High Council.

"It was a strong enough Force Vision to knock me out to the point that I spent some time unconscious in the medical bay," I say "Colonel Belen can confirm as can the medical records of the legion and Knight Telis. The vision itself was odd, like I was watching a holonet flick or something like that. I saw Master Kenobi's mission to Kamino, his capture here on Geonosis, the failed rescue attempt by Padawan Skywalker and Senator Amidala, that Gungan convincing the Senate to give the Chancellor emergency powers to create a military and then after that, it was the battle here on Geonosis."

"And what you saw inspired you to come to Geonosis with your army?" asks Master Gallia, "Did things go that badly?"

"Master Windu's rescue attempt failed as badly as Padawan Skywalker's in my vision," I say, "All, but a handful of Jedi were killed by Jango Fett and the battle droids and it would have been all of them alongside those being rescued had Master Yoda not shown up with the clones. I'm not sure how, the vision didn't show me much, but it went from dozens of Jedi fighting to there being maybe twenty trapped and surrounded by battle droids in the middle of the arena. I decided that trying to avert that was worth the risk of whatever was waiting for us on Geonosis."

"Concerning, this vision is," says Master Yoda, "Been averted, fortunately the events of it have."

"There were some other bits, but I am not sure what to make of them or what is still accurate after I intervened here on Geonosis," I say, speaking the truth from a certain point of view, "I can say that Dooku is the Sith Apprentice not the Sith Master according to my vision. The Sith Master is a man called Darth Sidious who apparently operates at least partially on Coruscant."

"How certain of this are you?" demands Master Koon as my words fully focus the attention of all four Jedi Masters on me.

"I am certain that is what the vision showed me, but I cannot be certain that the vision is accurate," I answer truthfully, "At least in that regard. I believe that it did reveal the truth since the rest of the vision was accurate apart from the things changed with my actions and this wasn't something that I could have altered."

"What see regarding this in the vision did you, hmm?" inquires Master Yoda.

"After he escaped Geonosis, Dooku went to Coruscant to meet with his master, Darth Sidious," I answer, "Sidious was an elderly human man who disguised his identity with a hooded cloak. Dooku delivered some Geonosian plans for a superweapon of some kind to Sidious so the Sith Master could keep them safe. Dooku's Sith name is Darth Tyranus according to my vision by the way."

"Do we know what happened to these plans?" asks Master Ti.

"I think they should be in the spire that the area was attached to," I answer, "Part of the reason I ordered it to be bombarded from orbit. If we are lucky, the plans got destroyed, but I will have my forces check nonetheless."

"Can your soldiers be trusted if they do find it?" asks Master Gallia, "I mean no offense, but if there are plans for a Sith superweapon, they cannot be allowed to fall into the wrong hands."

"For good or ill, my people are loyal to me," I state firmly and a little proudly, "The question isn't if you can trust my people, but if you can trust me."

"Trust you, we can," says Master Yoda before anyone else can reply to me, "With your methods and goals the council disagrees, but your intentions never."

Now that makes me feel proud and I can't help, but feel pleased to get a compliment like that from Master Yoda. Especially since a Jedi with my inclinations and beliefs rarely gets such things from the man who is a kindly grandfather to pretty much every Jedi.

"Thank you for your faith in me," I tell him as we reach the joint command centre that my legion and the clones have set up, "Now unless there is anything else, I need to attend to matters as the General of the 1st​ Republic Patriotic Legion."

***​

"This is far worse than Oba Diah," I tell the others glumly as I look over the butcher's bill for the Battle of Geonosis.

There are four of us here in this meeting. Myself, Brigadier Telis, Commodore Thak and Colonel Belen. The most senior of the legion's officers and the very top of the command structure.

"You warned us that it would be going in," says Loren in an attempt to cheer me up or at least reassure me, "We followed you in any way without hesitation."

"And look where it got you," I say, "We lost the Wilful while the Hope and the Valiant are both going to need some dock time before they can be considered operational again. Plus, another half of our warships have taken some degree of damage and that is before you consider our starfighter losses. Force, we lost over a hundred Headhunters, a good twenty percent of our fighter force. We didn't quite lose one in five of our pilots but losing one in six isn't much better."

"We knew the risks, back when we first signed up with the legion," says Wol, "We are soldiers, General, and part of that is being willing to die. Did you send our people to their deaths for a good reason and did you do your best to ensure their survival without compromising the mission?"

"Yes and yes," I answer, taking a deep breath as I centre myself, "You're right, both of you. I don't like how bad things got, but I did my best to minimise them and things did go better as a result of our intervention."

Before today, the worst battle that the 1st​ Republic Patriotic Legion got into was on Oba Diah about a year ago when the Pyke Syndicate assumed that we wouldn't liberate some of their victims because they got transferred to the Pyke homeworld.

Wait, Oba Diah is where Master Sifo-Dyas, the Jedi who officially commissioned the clone army, died. On one of the moons, I think and the Pykes had a prisoner from that event as insurance against Dooku because Dooku was the one who had them kill Sifo-Dyas so he and Sidious could hijack the clone project.

But back to the matter at hand. We lost almost six hundred of our ground forces at Oba Diah along with a couple starfighter squadrons while two of the Corellian Corvettes got damaged in the process of landing our troops.

The Battle of Geonosis has turned out to be far worse. Hailfire droids took out the Wilful, one of the CR90 Corvettes that the legion uses as troop transports while it was landed and two of the Thrantas got dealt heavy damage by enemy starfighters. Outnumbered about fifteen to one by the agile, but fragile Geonosian interceptors, pretty much every starfighter squadron took losses fighting the enemy with the total adding up to over a hundred of our five hundred and sixty or so starfighters.

Ground losses were just as heavy. While the artillery was untouched for the most part, our armoured elements suffered losses with many vehicles being outright destroyed while others received varying degrees of damage. The infantry took a pounding as well with over thousand men and women dead and at least three thousand suffering injuries of varying seriousness.

As they directly followed me into the arena, Sky Company was hit the worst as more than half of them died in that arena and several more fell fighting alongside me and the clones. Barely a third of Sky Company survived Geonosis, but thankfully no other company is worse off than Sky.

On the upside, the battle was a success. Only three thousand clone troopers died while hundreds of thousands of battle droids were destroyed alongside thousands of droid vehicles. The heavy droid losses are mostly thanks to artillery and orbital bombardment either destroying the starships transporting them or blasting them whilst they were exposed in the Geonosis flats.

Speaking of destroyed Separatist starships, the legion did a number on them. Not as much as I would have liked since more than half of them got away, but we got over a hundred Techno Union Hardcell transports of maybe two hundred and fifty, twenty six of forty one Commerce Guild Diamond cruisers and twenty eight of the sixty Trade Federation core ships.

And then there were the Geonosians who took countless losses on the ground and lost seven thousand of the eight thousand starfighters sent into the skies. Of the remaining thousand, the vast majority were captured by the Republic when their pilots surrendered.

Even if the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion was hit hard, we hit the Separatists far harder thanks to the element of surprise and being the only ones to have actual warships. Future battles against such long odds would be unlikely to go as well since I doubt I will be able to engage the enemy in exposed, unimportant land using mostly uncontested orbital bombardment.

Republic forces also captured seven of the Lucrehulk-class battleships though we only got the outer hulls as none of the core ships which made it into orbit went for them, instead choosing different outer hulls to escape with.

Of course, what happens with these Lucrehulks now is undecided and something that we will want to get our say on as soon as possible if we want to get involved.

"Alright, let's talk about the Lucrehulks captured," I say, "We got seven of them before they could jump out, one of them was captured by our forces whilst the others were secured by clone forces with some assistance from our forces. I want to keep them to use as mobile supply depots and starfighter bases. How viable is that?"

"We would need to get some more funding, but given the outbreak of war and our successes both here on Geonosis and in the past, I doubt we will struggle to get the funding," says Wol, "Whether or not we will get to keep the ships is the question. Judging by the normal laws for captured starships, we can certainly make an uncontested claim to one we took and we can make a claim to the other six through the Republic or the Jedi can make a claim of their own depending on which one of them is responsible for the clones."

"We should be able to take them," adds Aria, "The Jedi won't want them and by the time the Senate can weigh in, we can easily already have taken them for ourselves. Given that we took them while they are actively rebelling against the Republic, we can easily claim them as spoils of war. The only issue is if the Trade Federation tries to claim them on the grounds of them being stolen property, but that is iffy for them given the circumstances of how we acquired them. It would come down to politics in all honesty and with our political backers, we can drag things out long enough that we can get them by the virtue of having them and using them as part of the Republic war effort."

"I'm not sure about the legal status of seizing them, but I do have some questions about how many people it will take to crew them and how they will operate without those spheroid ships that we shot down on Geonosis," says Loren, "I'm no expert, but aren't those big sphere ships what controls the rest of it."

"We can run them on a skeleton crew until we can get enough recruits, especially if we just want them for mobile storage over using them as warships as the General intends," says Wol, "Without the core ships, the outer ring is a starship in its own right, perhaps more so given the hangar space and having hyperdrives onboard. The core ships are primarily for additional storage, controlling the droids and corporate activities. For what General Shan intends, we don't need the core ships and looking at the damage reports, I think we could probably salvage some."

"I thought we damaged them beyond continued usage," I say, "At the very least, we ensured that none of them will be capable of getting into orbit to reach the rest of the Lucrehulk?"

"We did, but not all of them have been damaged to the point that we can't patch up some degree of functionality to them," answers Wol, "None of them will be fully functional without some extensive repairs, but a few of the more intact ones could be patched up with spares from the more destroyed ones. In any case, we can operate the Lucrehulks to a degree if we can ensure that we get to keep them."

"The Jedi won't want them so take control of them for now," I tell Wol and Loren, "If any of the Jedi have concerns or objections, direct them to me or Brigadier Telis so we can handle them. Are you up for handling that Aria?"

"I am willing to convince the Jedi that it serves the interests of the Republic for you to make the use of the captured Lucrehulks," answers Aria primly, "At least I will contact you if there is a compelling argument why someone other than you should get them."

"Have we confirmed that Dooku got away?" I ask.

"Unfortunately, Count Dooku was able to successfully get away," says Loren, "We spotted him fleeing the arena-spire on a speeder bike and he sacrificed enough of the Geonosian interceptors that our own starfighters weren't able to take him down."

"We noticed him escaping off-world, but by the time we spotted his starship, he was too far out for us to catch before he jumped to hyperspace," says Wol, "While Dooku escaped, we confirmed the deaths of the other members of the Separatist Council that General Kenobi identified prior to his capture."

"Nute Gunray, Rune Haako and the leader of the Geonosians were killed by our forces on your order in the arena during the initial rescue attempt," adds Loren, picking up where Wol has left off, "We found the bodies of the others in the rubble left by the orbital bombardment while our forces were looking for the plans for the Geonosian superweapon that Dooku and his master want."

"What about the weapon?" asks Aria, "Did you find the plans for it?"

"No, we did not," answers Loren, "There wasn't much electronic equipment still working and we found nothing of the sort on what remained intact. I can see two possibilities for what happened to them. It was destroyed in the bombardment or Dooku was able to escape with it."

Well, that is a lot to take in. The Death Star plans won't be relevant for decades or at least they weren't until both of the…other timelines so I can worry about that later. The death of the Separatist Council is a bigger concern since nothing like that happened until the end of the Clone Wars when Darth Sidious decided that they had outlived their usefulness.

No more Nute Gunray means he won't try to coerce Rodia into leaving the Republic in an attempt to kill Senator Amidala, which means Umbara won't defect after their Senator gets murdered. And I'm not sure what the death of Wat Tambor means for Ryloth either as I have no idea if the invasion I can remember will go ahead without him behind it.

"There is another thing I should mention, General," says Wol, "The Justice was able to track the hyperspace route of one of the escaping Lucrehulks. While we cannot determine where it will go next, we have identified the star system that it has escaped to. I am planning to send one of our gunships to check out the system and see what the Lucrehulk is up to. If possible, we might be able to destroy it before it can link up with more Separatist forces."

"Is the legion up for that?" I inquire, "We took quite the beating here on Geonosis."

"We would have to send a reduced force of course," admits Wol, "But the chance to eliminate an isolated enemy battleship along with the legions of droids aboard it is a chance we cannot afford to pass it up."

"I can't help, but agree," I reply, "Alright Commodore, send one of the Corellian Gunships to investigate."

***​

As Aria and Wol file out of the meeting room, Loren stays behind for a private word. Not something he often does, but it isn't out of character either.

"How bad is it?" I ask him.

"I'm not sure," answers Loren, "Honestly sir, it would be easier to show you then explain."

"Lead the way then," I tell him and then as I follow him out of the meeting room, I ask, "You brought whatever it was aboard the ship?"

"Yes sir," answers Loren, "Into Sky Company's quarters. They got the most spare space and can be trusted to keep their mouths shut. Not that I distrust the Jedi or the clones, but the Jedi don't trust all of us and the clones are too much of an unknown."

"You mean that Jedi don't agree with me," I correct him.

"Yeah, the Jedi don't agree with us," says Loren and as we walk towards the quarters of Sky Company, we discuss how many of our vehicles we will need to replace and with what.

After the rest of today, it is a nice change. Talking logistics with Loren, one of the men who have been with the legion since the start, is a relaxing change from the droids, bugs and death of Geonosis that have dominated the rest of the day. Eventually, the conversation comes to an end as we reach our destination and Loren raps his knuckles against the door.

"I've brought the General," says the colonel and the door promptly opens with a pair of Sky Company soldiers waiting on the other side.

"Captain Vora is keeping an eye on the prisoner with Corporal Vakui," says one of the soldiers and that certainly gets my interest.

What sort of prisoner did the legion find on Geonosis that Loren feels the need to keep secret?

"Good work troopers," says Loren as we enter the room, "Continue to keep an eye out for now."

"Prisoner?" I inquire in a quiet voice as Loren and I make our way through the far too empty quarters of Sky Company.

"Jango Fett survived," answers Loren, "Sort of. He wasn't dead when we found him, but he was definitely dying. Unconscious too so our people on the ground stabilised him and sent him up to the Freedom along with his armour."

The man has more to say, but he pauses as we enter one of the dorm rooms with four bunk beds, enough to fit eight people. In this case, there are three people waiting for us inside. Captain Vora and Corporal Vakui are in the sleepwear that doubles as off-duty casual wear for some, but despite their current lack of uniform, they both have a look of being on guard duty with alert eyes and a readiness to their stance.

The third individual is in a stasis pod and judging by how his armour is gathered off to the side, I suspect that Jango is naked inside of his pod.

"We could still kill him if you wanted to or we could hand him over to some kind of authorities," says Loren as I stare at the unconscious man, "As a Mandalorian warrior and bounty hunter, the man has racked up plenty of charges and bounties of his own.

"I wasn't aware that we had any stasis pods aboard," I say as I think about what this means.

Maybe things could have been different in the past, but right now Jango Fett hates Jedi and is aligned with the Sith so he is definitely an enemy. At the same time, he is the man responsible for the clones and his genetic data is important to continued production of the clone troopers. I'm also pretty sure that I killed his son along with Gunray and Poggle so he will hate me in particular.

But the Jedi also don't kill their prisoners so I can't do that and yet I can't afford to just let him go, even if I am letting him go by sending him to a prison. His genetic data is too important to the Grand Army of the Republic and according to the impossible memories, at least one attempt was made to destroy the current sample that the Kaminoans have and I think there might be long term issues with the sample that is currently on Kamino.

Nothing could be done about it in those timelines as Jango was long dead by then, but if he survived the battle of Geonosis, then his genetic material could be replaced by a fresh sample.

"The Freedom didn't, but the Colossus still had some stasis tech that got picked up a couple of missions ago so I transferred it over," answers Loren, oblivious to my internal debate.

"I want to get some genetic samples from the man," I tell Loren, "Given how dependent on Jango Fett clones that the Republic has decided to make their new military, it might be good to have some backup samples of the original's genetic data. And keep him secret and in stasis for now. I'm not sure how people will react if they find out about him or even who would be reacting to that."

"Will do, General," says Loren, "Any plans for the armour?"

"Do you think it would fit Vyssa?" I mutter as I think about just how many other changes that I am causing to the other timelines that I can somehow remember.

***​

Some talking with some of the Jedi Council and then dealing with the aftermath of Geonosis. With the High Council members, Ben tried to keep things as close to the truth as he could without giving away that the 'Force Vision' wasn't really one of those.

Beyond that, we got butterflies everywhere. While Dooku escaped and possibly did so with the Death Star schematics, bombarding the place did take out the Separatist Council which will have some major changes down the line. That and Jango Fett survived if as a prisoner while Boba Fett died. The pragmatic thing to do would be to take some genetic samples and then deal with Jango permanently so he can't become a problem in the future, but the Jedi don't kill their prisoner and Ben is definitely a Jedi despite his unorthodox views.

With the casualties, I tried to do three things. First, make the Battle of Geonosis painful for the legion without being crippling. Second, make things hurt more for the Separatists without making it so one-sided that it makes characters in canon look stupid for not doing as much damage as in this fic. Third, have lighter losses for the clones and Jedi.

The end result is still a bloodbath, but the droids got heavier losses with plenty still getting away while the clones and Jedi had lesser casualties to canon, especially for the Jedi where two dozen died instead of two hundred.

Meanwhile the legion loses one warship, has another two crippled and many more damaged. Starfighters took over twenty percent losses while the ground forces got it worse with one in three becoming a casualty with a quarter of those being fatalities. So enough to leave the legion hurting and needing to regroup, but not so badly that it is crippled and unable to partake in the war for the time being.

Anyway, the next arc is going to be on an OC world where I got things sort of planned out, but I'm not going to say too much right now to avoid the risk of spoiling things.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

I rarely sleep these days. I'm not sure why, but as I got older, I just got less tired. While it is technically insomnia, my hardship in falling asleep was accompanied by not getting tired as I stayed awake. Or at least not as quickly. I do still have to sleep, but when I do, it is for a few hours once every few days and I can generally stay up for maybe a couple of days before the effects of sleep deprivation begin to show.

I personally put it down to how I used the Force to strengthen my physical body. My ability to stay up for so long is just another superhuman feat that I have honed my body to be capable of doing.

In this case, I spent my time up and about as I waited for the Renown to get back from scouting out that escaped Lucrehulk. Loren, Wol and Aria had all gone to bed, leaving me to oversee the seizing of the captured Lucrehulks.

It turned out to be pretty simple. Neither the clones nor my own people questioned what I was doing and with the Jedi, Master Yoda and Master Windu accepted my explanation that I wanted some mobile supply depots and starfighter bases and I got no further questions from them. I could legally claim them, nobody else wanted them and nobody had decided to bother the Senate about this or inform the Trade Federation.

I had to transfer some crew from the Star Cruisers and the Corellian Gunships to get some basic skeleton crews running on the Lucrehulks, but by the time that morning had rolled, all seven of the captured Lucrehulks were part of the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion even if we are still working on getting some core ships fixed up on the surface.

By the time that the rest of my senior command was awake, the Renown had returned from her scouting run. Her captain quickly called the Commodore and me into a meeting to give a verbal report even as my inbox received the written one.

***​

"Indren?" I repeat, "I've never heard of the place."

And the world doesn't ring about in my impossible memories either. Either it never came up in both of the timelines or the other person never read about it or watched it. And wasn't that a disturbing odd thought to think about.

"It is another Outer Rim world sir," says Commander Oraden, "Agricultural for the most part with some industrialisation and a few off-world sites in the rest of the system. A refinery at the local gas giant, some asteroid mines and what appeared to be a small colony on Indren's largest moon."

"No native sentients," comments Wol as he looks at a datapad, "Colonised twice. The first colony got destroyed in the New Sith Wars over a thousand years ago and the world was recolonised by a mixture of humans and Arkanians some point after the Ruusan Reformation. Initially an agricultural world, Indren has become more urbanised and industrialised over time to the point that the local economy is split between its farms and its factories. Mixture of democracy and aristocracy, the former mostly in the urban areas while the latter dominates the rural parts of the planet. Planetary government is an assembly made up of representatives from the elected officials and hereditary nobility."

"The Lucrehulk was still heading for the planet when we jumped out," adds Commander Oraden, "Fighting on the planet was breaking out when we left between Separatist sympathisers and Republic loyalists though we weren't able to figure out who had the upper hand before we left. Indren has a decent planetary defence fleet for an Outer Rim world. Five old Hammerhead cruisers, five Corellian Corvettes and a single Corellian Gunship. Nothing that would stand up to the Lucrehulk even if none of them defect to the Seppies."

"Thank you for the report Commander," I tell him, "You and your crew have done some good work."

"I will pass on your compliments to them," says Commander Oraden before his holograpthic figure disappears, leaving me to deal with the physically present Commodore Thak.

"Alright Wol, what can we shake loose to deal with this?"

"We could spare one of our Star Cruisers," answers Wol with a thoughtful look, "I'm thinking the Justice. I want the other two Star Cruisers to remain here until we can finish our business at Geonosis. We can spare a squadron of DP20s along with a squadron of Thrantas. If we send a Corellian Corvette, perhaps the Inspire, we will have enough space to send a regiment. We'll reassign some people around to bring 1st​ Regiment up to full strength and send them along with the task force. Two or three of the bulk cruisers as well to carry vehicular and starfighter support."

"I will go and speak with Loren about getting 1st​ Regiment sorted out," I tell Wol, "You handle the fleet side of things."

Hopefully this upcoming fight will go better than Geonosis did.

***​

Once we enter hyperspace, I finally have some time to myself that I can use to think about those other memories I acquired. They belong to a person, but that person isn't me and they aren't my memories. I am Ben Shan, Jedi Knight and Republic General, not whoever this guy was. Or perhaps is. I don't know what to make of the source except the implications are both rather disturbing and terrifying.

Unfortunately, I cannot discard what I have learnt as being untrue since Geonosis has proven that there is at least some significant degree of truth to them. Even if my actions change how future events play out, things of the past should remain unchanged.

Such as the kriffing Supreme Chancellor secretly being a Force-forsaken Sith Lord who is masterminding both sides of this war and plotting to destroy the Jedi and the Republic. I both cannot ignore that and I cannot directly act upon it without some solid proof.

That doesn't mean I can't do anything to try and stop Sidious or whatever Palpatine should be called. Getting those Lucrehulks is the first step as they can act as mobile bases. I bet I could even set them up to grow food with the right modifications and then give them the ability to collect water from comets or asteroids or uninhabited worlds to make them set for secret, sustainable mobile bases.

Of course, that is more planning to fight the Empire as the Rebellion over saving the Republic and the Jedi. Nice to have a plan B, but ideally, I will be foiling Sidious' plans, not just surviving them.

I will need political backers and a power base of my own within the Senate, one to oppose Palpatine as he gains more power. I will need military forces that are loyal to me as well. I have the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion, but I will need to expand the legion. I always planned to do that though, hence why it is the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion and not just the Republic Patriot Legion. With the outbreak of war, I have a decent chance of getting a 2nd​ Republic Patriot Legion and maybe even a 3rd​ Republic Patriot Legion.

I could try and grow support amongst the Jedi, but that isn't going to be too successful. The High Council and I have too many differences and trying to recruit followers from the ranks of the younger Jedi will get the hammer brought down upon me. And if the impossible memories are anything to go by, the Jedi Order or at least the High Council might be too corrupt to save.

And doesn't that idea just hurt? I always figured that the Jedi Order was less corrupt than the Senate, but it is just a different type of corruption. Blindness and pride rather than greed and selfishness, but corruption nonetheless.

At least I can try and cultivate a friendship with Anakin Skywalker. Keeping him from becoming Darth Vader would be a victory on its own even if it didn't mess up Sidious' plans. I can be sympathetic ear, someone else who doesn't get along with the High Council and the other orthodox Jedi. A fellow Jedi who he can talk to about his secret relationship with Senator Amidala.

Speaking of Senator Amidala, I can use knowing about their relationship and keeping it secret as an in with her. I can get her support as an influential member of the Senate and to get an in with the Pacifist faction in the Senate. The fact that I saved her and Skywalker yesterday can't hurt either.

I also need to figure out Order 66 is supposed to work. Do the clones have mind control chips in their heads or are they just so thoroughly brainwashed that they'll obey any order? And which of those possibilities is the preferable one?

At least I made a holocron containing the information I could remember while it was still fresh, complete with a gatekeeper in case I died and someone like Vyssa or Aria ends up needing to use it.

I hate this, having the fate of the galaxy on my shoulders. But I will ensure that Sidious' plans don't go uncontested in this timeline.

***​

"What is the situation Captain?" I ask Captain Heree Tazir as I walk into the bridge of the Justice shortly after the fleet came out of hyperspace in the Indren system.

"A civil war that might be going three ways," answers Heree as the blue-skinned woman indicates towards the holo-map in the middle of the bridge, "The fighting is around the planet. The Republic-aligned democrats hold the fuel refinery at the gas giant while the Nobles hold the mining outposts in the asteroid belts. The moon colony-"

"Hold up a moment Captain," I interrupt her, trying to be polite about it, "Could you tell me who the factions involved in this civil war are first?"

"I suppose I ought to start with that," agrees Heree as Aria walks into the bridge, "We got minimal information, but the various propaganda and news reports cover the basics. Some of the local urban democrats want to join the Seps in exchange for getting help to destroy the rural nobility, but the majority of the democrats were wary of getting involved with the Seps. Things came to ahead with the Lucrehulk with a couple of Hardcells showed up so we got Separatist-aligned democrats, Republic-aligned democrats and the Separatist-opposed aristocrats."

"I'm sure that there is going to be more complexity to it, but it seems pretty simple at a glance," I comment before turning to Aria, "Could you handle the diplomatic side of things? That is your speciality not mine."

"I will do my best for the Republic and the Jedi," replies Aria primly, "Try to keep from upsetting negotiations with all of the fighting."

"Thanks Aria and will do," I tell her before focusing my attention back on Heree, "Alright Captain, what's the military situation seems to be like?"

"The mining outposts in the asteroid belt are controlled by forces loyal to their feudal owners while the refinery at the gas giant is operated by the Republic supporting locals," answers Heree, "Both sides have decent anti-pirate defences. I haven't got much from the asteroids, but the people at the refinery have been helpful. They got a few hundred people onboard with fifty or so security and another hundred workers have formed up into a militia. They also got a squadrons of Aurek starfighters and while they had them for literal centuries, the locals insist that they work as well as any modern starfighter thanks to good maintenance."

"What about the settlement on the moon?" I inquire, "It has a different colour to everyone else in the system."

"Their representative has been very insistent that they are neutral in this conflict General," explains Heree, "No deflector shields and barely a handful of turrets. They don't want to fight and don't appear to be in any position to fight. With Indren itself...Separatist forces have secured a couple of cities and the Seps have the capital under siege for now. No major offensives have been made other than the siege of Irafen and everyone seems to be mustering up their soldiers and supporters. The Lucrehulk is taken up orbit around the planet while the Hardcells are landing by one of the Seppie-controlled cities."

"Looks like the space assets favour the Separatists," I comment as I inspect the display of the Indren system on the holo-projector.

"While the Lucrehulk will do that, but the feudalists have the advantage out of the purely local forces," says Heree as the blue-skinned woman focuses the holo-projector on the three fleets in orbit around the planet, "The noble have four of the Hammerhead-class cruisers, apparently owned by some of the richer families for generations. The Seps have the last Hammerhead along with the Corellian Gunship and a couple of Corellian Corvettes. Our democrats have that trio of Corellian Corvettes."

"A DP20 is about equal to a Hammerhead in terms of combat capabilities," I say as I think the possibilities over, "More firepower, but less durable with no hangar space for starfighters. Getting the local nobility on our size would give us an advantage in the space fight. Given the stated goals of the Separatists, we wouldn't even have to ally with them, just agree to work together to take out the space assets of our mutual foe. Let their Hammerheads hit the locals while our fleet deals with the Lucrehulk. Speaking of which..."

"We could pull it off," mutters Heree, half to you and half to herself as the captain of the Justice looks to be in thought, "Go to extreme range with the Justice and the Thrantas and pound it from afar. It is a big enough target that we don't have to worry much about missing even at that distance. General, we could do it though it would take a lot of time."

***​

"I am not currently aligned with city dwellers and I am going to be actively fighting some of them, specially the ones who want to destroy you and your fellow nobility," I tell Duke Zyrgae Narth, doing my best to keep the frustration out of my voice and under control.

The pompous nerfherder is the man that is in charge of the four nobility-aligned Hammerheads and rather than discuss matters with Aria like I planned, the self-important man is insisting on speaking with the leader of the Republic fleet. Unfortunately for me, that means I have to handle the talks with Duke Zygrae.

"And yet we all know where the sympathies of the Republic lies in the conflict between the peasantry and the peerage," sneers the man and not for the first time, I want if the man realises that situation he is in.

Yes, his forces are enough to handle the rest of the local Indren warships, but they got nothing on that Lucrehulk with its dozens of turbolaser turrets and literally hundreds of laser cannons. Not to mention that even if the Lucrehulk didn't have a full complement of Vulture droids, anyone can see that it has at least a few hundred of them since its captain decided to park them on the exterior hull of the battleship.

Yet the 'noble' Duke Zygrae is oddly opposed to working with me as he has apparently got into his head that the 1st​ Republic Patriot Legion is here to help the rest of the democrats destroy the local nobility. I can vaguely see the logic in the sense that if the Separatists are helping one group of democrats, we are here to help the other group, but he has no reason or evidence to think that. Nonetheless, the dear duke seems to have convinced himself that is the case.

"My interests here are in defeating the Separatists and keeping them from using Indren in their war against the Republic," I tell the Arkanian for the fourth time now.

"Yet you expect me to believe the word of a boorish bumpkin," retorts Duke Zygrae, "You call yourself a knight yet I doubt you are anything, but a mere lowborn."

"My heritage does not matter-" I start.

"And you sound just like one of those city dwellers despite your claims otherwise," interrupts Duke Zygrae and as he continues on, I decide that this is pointlessly unproductive.

Reaching over to the holo-projective in my office, I switch it off and cut the dear duke off mid-sentence as his holograph flickers out of existence. While it would have been ideal to get those Hammerheads working with us, we can make do without them. Unfortunately, it looks like we might have to deal with them ourselves since after speaking with their commander, I am quite leery of what will happen if I just leave Duke Zygrae with space superiority once I am gone.

Far from ideal, but I am a Jedi Knight and a Republic General. I will do what I have to do and if that means risking my life and those of my people to keep the local aristocrats from oppressing Indren after I take out their main rivals, I will do that.

***​

Okay, so Indren is a world I keep up with via a random generator made for a Star Wars RPG. Pretty average world apart from the ruins and junk littering the world. I decided to give the place a political divide between the rural nobility of the agricultural countryside and the urban democrats of the industrialised cities.

By arriving with a large army, the Separatists have been able to turn that divide into a civil war and between defeating the clankers, Ben will need to navigate the local politics. Especially since he is heavily outnumbered even with the Lucrehulk not being fully loaded when it fled Geonosis.

The next part will be properly showing Ben's padawan for the first time, the opening engagements of this campaign and probably some more politics.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

I'm glad I have Aria to handle the diplomatic side of things because the military side is proving to be troublesome enough on its own. The Lucrehulk is the biggest problem right now, but even once the freighter-turned-battleship is dealt with, there is still the ground battle to worry about.

From what the operations department have spotted and what Aria has gotten from the locals, the local Separatist forces have some substantial forces on Indren. While both Hardcells are not warships and not a threat on their own, they are transports and that means there are potentially over a thousand Hailfire droids waiting for us on Indren. Five or six hundred Vulture droids have spotted though there is a chance of there being more hidden away on the Lucrehulk while images and reports regarding the planet have spotted at least a couple thousand AATs and what has to be at least a hundred thousand battle droids.

And there are the local Indrenese that are helping the Seppies. While there are a only a few thousand professionals on the enemy's side with the majority of the enemy organic infantry being fifty thousand or so civilians turned militia, the Seps have been able to seize the majority of the local armoured elements with about a hundred light vehicles, but over two hundred are actual tanks or at least heavily armoured and armed enough to count as one. Throw in a couple hundred starfighters and the Seps have a decent air force as well.

I am not too worried about the Dagger-class Starfighters that make up a minority of the local Separatist starfighters as despite having plenty of firepower and agility for its size, it lacks much in the way of shielding or armour. The Toscan 8-Qs are a bigger concern as they are comparable to Z-95 Headhunters used by my pilots. The stock version of the Headhunter is about as tough as the Toscan with the advantages of speed, stronger shielding and a decent targeting computer while the Toscan has slightly better firepower.

On the other hand, Commodore Thak made sure to use our funds and experienced engineers to upgrade our Headhunters to have heavy laser cannons instead of light laser cannons while the missile launchers were replaced by proton torpedo launchers. Those upgrades left enough spare space and reactor power to replace the deflector shield with one that is twice as strong as the stock model.

Those upgrades don't come cheap as they have increased the cost of the starfighter by about twenty five percent, but Wol has sold me on the benefits of having a better starfighter that keeps our pilots alive and so far the history of the legion has proved him right. In more than one mission, having the upgraded starfighters and veteran pilots had ended up as the decisive factor in an engagement.

All in all, it is the droid forces that pose the biggest problems. If it was not for the Lucrehulk and its Vulture droids, I would be confident in taking on the local Separatist space forces, even without the Justice. Likewise on the ground, my people could handle the aerial and armoured elements of the enemy and while the enemy have a lot of numbers on us, I am confident in 1st​ Regiment's ability to break their morale and will to fight.

But the inclusion of the droids means that the enemy have significant armoured elements on the ground along with enough infantry that they might be able to overwhelm my people with sheer numbers.

On the other hand, we do have some local support from the locals. While Aria is still talking to the nobility, the non-Separatist democrats are smart enough to realise that they can't afford to turn away Republic aid. My aid.

While a good half of their forces are besieged in Irafen, they've got a couple thousand more professionals than the local Seppies and they got eighty thousand militia across the planet rather than a mere fifty thousand. They got about eighty combat speeders, a roughly even mix of lights and heavies plus a few squadrons of starfighters, four squadrons of CloakShape Fighters and six squadrons of Z-95 Headhunters, all of them stock versions.

If I can get my forces down on the planet, we can hopefully work together to drive the Seppies from Indren. Yet as I sense a familiar presence in the Force, I will have to put my plans on hold as my padawan approaches my office.

"Come in, Vyssa," I say as I feel Vyssa arriving outside of the door.

The young Zeltron lady walks into the room, wearing the sleeveless black and silver tunic along with the black leggings that Vyssa favours as her preferred outfit. With dark pink skin, sleek blue hair that is pulled back into a ponytail and a figure with both muscles and curves, Vyssa is nothing special when compared to the rest of her species. But that means little when the average member of her species is considered to be beautiful by the standards of most others.

"Master," says Vyssa as she gives me a playful salute, "Could we talk?"

"You're my padawan, Vyssa," I tell her, "While General Shan doesn't always have time for Commander Randanys on the battlefield or command centre, Knight Shan will always make time for his padawan outside of an ongoing mission."

"Great because I want to talk about a few things," says Vyssa happily as she takes a seat opposite me, "First of all, your Force vision. I'm not stupid Master, I can tell it is bigger than you've let on."

Ah, I forgot that this is going to be a problem. Beyond being a flexible and talented fighter, Vyssa is a smart cookie who is unyielding in her search for the truth in all things, unwilling to accept lies and deceit if she can help it. Useful most of the time, but in this case, it means it will be practically impossible to get her to drop the matter. Even if I convince her to stop pestering me, it just means that she will attempt to investigate on her own without me knowing.

I doubt she will figure things out given the impossible nature of the 'Force vision', but her investigation could be successful enough to draw undue attention to her, me and the legion.

In some ways, it would be easiest to just bring her in. Her skills would be useful in my quest to save the Republic and it would be good to have some help. The only question is if I think she will believe me and if I trust her enough to tell her truth.

Ugh, Vyssa is my padawan and we served alongside each other for a couple of years now. I know her and I trust her and the same is true for her in regards to me. She might not believe me if I tell her the whole truth, but if I continue to phrase my knowledge as something from a Force vision rather than a set of memories from another world...yeah, I could convince her.

"First of all, I don't know how much of this is real or will be real as Force visions aren't reliable sources of information," I tell her and she perks up as she quickly takes a seat opposite me, "The future is always in motion and I've already changed how the First Battle of Geonosis went so I don't know how much of what I saw will remain accurate."

"First Battle of Geonosis?" inquires Vyssa, "There is going to be more than one?"

"The droid factories couldn't be repurposed for Republic use and Republic forces were stretched thin so Geonosis got a minimal garrison," I answer, "The Republic suffered a series of defeats that saw uprisings on several previously secured Separatist worlds. Geonosis was one of them and when Poggle and Gunray secured a loan from the Banking Clan to build a new major droid factory on Geonosis, the Republic invaded again."

"Archduke Poggle the Lesser and Viceroy Nute Gunray were killed on your orders at Geonosis," says Vyssa, "Okay, you changed things so what you saw isn't reliable. But wouldn't things of the past you saw still be reliable?"

"Like Darth Sidious' secret identity being Sheev Palpatine, Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic?" I suggest so I can see how she reacts and I feel a bit of smugness at her dumbfounded expression.

I wait for a couple of moments to see how she reacts and just when I decided to continue, Vyssa recovers enough to make her response.

"How certain are you?" she half-asks and half-demands, sounding a little shocked and a little frightened.

"I don't know for certain that particular part of my vision is true, but given the stakes and how accurate the rest of what I know has been, I am assuming it is true until I find out otherwise," I inform her gravely and I wonder when this conversation got so serious.

Probably when I brought up the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic being a Forceforsaken Sith Lord.

"Kriff," curses Vyssa and I start, surprised by the unexpected expletive and Vyssa gives me a guilty look, "Sorry, but how? Why?"

"I don't know the details behind him becoming a Sith Lord, but he was trained by his master, Darth Plagueis who was actually Hego Damask and Plagueis used his wealth to fund much of the current Sith endeavours," I answer, "Such as the clone army. While Sifo-Dyas did order their creation, he was killed by Dooku so he and Sidious could assume actual control of the program. My Force vision gave a few possibilities, but it is likely that the senior leadership of Kamino is secretly and knowingly working for the Sith. The clones may or may not be. My Force Vision gave two possibilities, the first is secret mind control chips and the other is extensive brainwashing. Part of my plan is to figure out which is which."

"But why does he need the clone army?" asks Vyssa.

"He wants the Jedi to suffer losses and ruin their reputation by fighting the war against the Separatists," I explain, "Sidious will use the war to gather more and more power to the Supreme Chancellor's office and then he intends to bait the Jedi into trying to remove him from power. He will frame their efforts as all of the Jedi being traitors and then force the clones that are with every Jedi to execute Contingency Order 66, which is to kill all of the Jedi on sight as traitors to the Republic. Using his power, popular support and lack of enemies, Sidious plans to transform the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire with him as Emperor."

"I-uh-how are we going to stop him?" asks-no, begs Vyssa and in that moment, I remember that for all her skill as one of the Order's more talented padawans, Vyssa is still a fifteen year old kid.

"It has only been a couple of days so I'm still working on things, but I'm trying to build a power base that can be used to oppose Sidious and his willing and unwitting supporters," I tell her, "That is why I wanted those captured Lucrehulks. While I do intend to use them as mobile bases against the Separatists, I am also planning for the possibility of using them as mobile bases against the Galactic Empire. I also plan to get some bases in the Outer Rim and get support for myself and the Jedi in the Senate. Propaganda efforts for the Order to make up for Sidious intentionally leaving the Jedi out of official Republic propaganda."

"And I could try to build up a spy network?" suggests Vyssa, seeming a little calmer now, "I also wanted one like how you wanted your army, but now it is more important than just being useful to my goals. I could frame it as wanting to use it against the Seppies to avoid suspicion and get support."

"That is a good idea," I agree, "I'll look into trying to get you some starting funds and next time we are on Coruscant, I can introduce you to some of my Senate contacts. And if something happens to me, that holocron that I created after I received my vision contains all that I could remember at the time. It has a gatekeeper and will open to any light-sider when it is unable to detect my presence in the Force."

"That would be helpful," says Vyssa before shaking her head, "Okay, that is a big deal and everything, but I had some other stuff to talk about. Like Geonosis and the battle there. Will things always be that intense and bloody?"

"It will vary, but more or less," I answer, "I haven't gone to war myself before, but according to my vision and having spoken with some of the troops, the Clone Wars will be intense to the point that the Republic is brought to the breaking point. Some battles will be more intense than others and some will be less intense than others, but war is going to be war. You know what they say about war being hell. If not, chat with some of the older vets in the legion. They know more about what war is like than I do."

"I will keep that in mind," says Vyssa, "Last thing, why did you give me the armour? Not that I mind getting some beskar armour, but why?"

"It was available and as a Jedi, you will be getting into some dangerous battles and situations that some proper beskar armour will prove its weight in aurodium," I tell her, "By the way, it is fitting you okay?"

"Well enough," answers Vyssa with a shrug, "It isn't perfect and if it was as covering as your armour, I would have some problems, but it is just a few pieces that can be adjusted somewhat. A few places it is a bit loose and in others it doesn't give as much coverage as it did for Jango."

"Any problems with the chest plate?" I inquire.

"Because of my large bust?" teases Vyssa and I refuse to give her the satisfaction of reacting to the awkward topic, "Spoilsport, but it is fine. It might be an issue if it was one solid piece, but because it has multiple parts, the techs just adjusted it a little to fit my different figure. It isn't as close together as what the Mando had, but it still works as a chest piece."

"I'm glad to hear that," I say, "We aren't going to have time for you to visit a Mandalorian armourer any time soon unfortunately. And speaking of what we are or aren't going to be doing soon, do you want to be on the ground team on the first ride down?"

"You have a plan?" inquires Vyssa.

"I have a plan," I confirm.

"Then you can count me in, Master."

***​

"Chairman Irre Velh," I greet the Arkanian man on the screen in front of me, "A pleasure to finally speak with you."

"And it is a pleasure to speak with you as well General Shan," replies the chairman, "Brigadier Telis has assured me that you can help with the ongoing issue that Indren is suffering. I fear that without Republic assistance, our world shall fall."

"I am hoping to stop that," I say, "However, I will need the help of you and your allies to win on the ground."

"So you do think you can take the giant starship?" inquires Chairman Velh.

"Not quickly, but my forces can pick apart the Lucrehulk at range," I inform him, "I am also confident in my people's ability to handle the Separatist-aligned Indrenese space forces and the droid starfighters. The primary issue will be getting forces planet side in time to keep Irafen from falling."

"Irafen not falling would be good," agrees Chairman Velh, "I take you are aware we won't be able to hold out for long?"

"Yes, hence my desire to get some of my troops down as fast as possible," I confirm, "I am going to go over the plan and then explain where I would like your aid."

"That sounds like an excellent way to go about this," says Chairman Velh with a nod of his head.

"While I don't have enough forces to match that Lucrehulk in a fair fight, the heavy turbolasers of my Star Cruisers and my Thrantas allow for long range bombardment of the Lucrehulk," I start, "Weaken the overall strength of the shots grants them longer range and the large target means we don't need to worry about missing. However that will take time that Irafen doesn't have so I need to get my Corellian Corvette and my shuttles down in the meantime. For this, I plan to assign my starfighters and Corellian Gunships to escort my troops down to find off the enemy escorts and starfighters. Which is where I would like your help. Your corvettes and starfighters would be very useful in helping ensure my ground forces make it down safely."

"That sounds like a reasonable plan and making sure our reinforcements are able to reach us in time is something I can sell to the rest of the Assembly," says Chairman Velh, looking a little more pleased and a little more hopeful than when we first started talking, "Yes, I will contact the Assembly now. I assume that time is of the essence General Shan?"

"I intend to begin my plan within an hour's time," I answer, "My troopers are loading into their transports now and my pilots are getting ready to launch. I will be heading out in my own starfighter and I will be assisting the escort mission. I may be unavailable for portions of the mission if you try to contact me."

"I will keep that in mind General Shan and let the Assembly know."

***​

I wasn't originally going to have Ben tell Vyssa about all that, but the two of them have an established relationship and I decided that Ben would (rightfully) doubt his ability to keep Vyssa finding out and he trusts her enough to tell her about Palpy and she trusts him enough to believe him (plus Vyssa is good at telling when her master is lying or trying to trick her).

I figured that Ben would want someone else in the know because in case something happens to him and so he has someone else he can turn to. And who better than his own padawan? So now Vyssa knows and instead of just one Jedi plotting to stop Sidious and the Sith, it is two.

Beyond that, Geonosis was Vyssa's first proper taste of war so she turned to her Jedi master for advice. She is also going to be getting Jango's old armour since he is being held captive in a stasis field while Boba ended up as collateral when Poggle and Gunray died. It isn't a perfect fit, but after looking at the images of armour and rereading some articles about how women wear armour, I figured it would still be useful by Vyssa.

Otherwise, we get some cooperative locals and Ben has his plan to secure space superiority and get his forces down on the planet in a timely manner.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

"Ready for your first real space battle?" I ask Vyssa on a private channel as I do the final preflight checks on my Z-95 Headhunter.

"Wasn't Bryx my first?" replies the Zeltron.

"Not compared to this," I answer, "They had a couple of corvettes, a hundred or so starfighters and a handful of gunboats. We are going up against hundreds of hostile starfighters along with a pair of frigates and a pair of corvettes. Okay, that might have been a proper space battle, but it still wasn't on the scale of the ones we'll be facing in this war."

"Oh good," says Vyssa, "I'll follow your lead in this battle?"

"Just focus on not getting shot down," I inform her, "You got some experience, but you are still a rookie while I will need to take a leading role."

"I'll do my best Master," promises Vyssa and I leave my padawan to her own thing as I focus on the upcoming battle as I take off and fly out of the Justice's hangar.

Joining Vyssa and myself is another hundred and fifty or so starfighters launching from the fleet. The majority will be coming with us, but I have left a couple of squadrons behind to safeguard the warships bombarding the Lucrehulk. Just in case the Separatists try something unexpected.

Spotting the Inspire with its escort of three Corellian Gunships, I slow down to match my speed to theirs to avoid getting too far ahead. Noting that Vyssa is following me as my wingwoman, I glance at the rest of my starfighters to see if there are any other problems. Upon seeing none, I finally focus my attention on the enemy to see what they are doing.

The Lucrehulk is there of course, but it is too far away and unable to move fast enough to intercept us. Its Vulture droids are a different matter and I begin to see them taking off as whoever is in command of the Lucrehulk has decided to send them to stop us. The Indrenese Separatist warships are off to the side as they have been since our arrival, clearly far more concerned by the Hammerheads of the feudalists than they are with my forces. Given that they are on the other side of the Lucrehulk they shouldn't be a problem unless they are rushing over now and they aren't.

At least Duke Zyrgae is doing some good by keeping some of the enemy force distracted. The arrogant fool might not be willing to help, but I will take unwitting help over no help.

Four hundred, five hundred, five hundred and fifty and then finally six hundred. That is how many droid starfighters have left the Lucrehulk to attack us. Hopefully a trio of Corellian Gunships and a good hundred and twenty Headhunters will be enough to handle them.

I'm confident in my chances. The droid starfighters might be more agile and able to pull off manoeuvres that would kill an organic pilot, but it is still lightly armoured with no deflector shield and kriffastic programming. The upgraded Headhunters that the 1st Republic Patriot Legion uses are capable of taking down a Vulture droid with a single volley of its heavy laser cannons and my pilots are more than capable of outflying some droid starfighters with cheap programming.

And that is before we get into how good a DP20 Frigate is at handling starfighters. The energy torpedoes or concussion missiles might be a problem if they can line up some good shots on the warships, but keeping them from making those shots will be the job of myself and the other Headhunter pilots.

Of course, we also got Aria using her Battle Meditation to push the odds in our favour even if her talent is less effective against droid opponents than it is against organic foes.

"This is Knight-Leader," I say into the main legion comlink channel, "Remember that priority is ensuring that our forces successfully make it to the ground. Prioritise their protection even if it means letting some of the enemy fighters get away."

With a brief and hopefully unnecessary reminder given, I focus my attention back on the enemy at the speeds we are moving at, the Vulture droids should reach the Inspire and the shuttles in a couple of minutes and it will be before then that they enter weapon range. Speaking of which, the turbolasers on the Corellian Gunship trio and the Inspire have already opened fire at extreme range. Due to sheer distance and lack of accuracy when it comes to using a turbolaser on small, noble targets, the warships are unlikely to score many hits, but the raw number of Vulture droids coming our way means that some hits are all, but guaranteed.

And then the Justice and the Thrantas begin to open fire at extreme range on the Lucrehulk and I wonder if the Separatist commander will split off some of the droid starfighters to engage the warships directly attacking their flagship. It turns out that they don't as all of the Vulture droids stay on their current course. The Lucrehulk does lumber forward, but I'm not worried about that. The Thrantas can pull back easily enough and by the time the Lucrehulk gets close enough to engage the Justice properly, I am confident that the Star Cruiser will be capable of finishing off the battleship.

Everything is going to plan so I'm left wondering what is going to go wrong.

Taking a deep breath, I keep my cool and focus on the incoming enemy starfighters. Until something does go wrong, I need to keep my focus on the Vulture droids and keep the Separatists from intercepting the ground forces as they land.

I spare a glance towards the planet. The three CR90s of my local allies are making their way towards us, getting into position to help with the escort duty in a couple of minutes. If everything else is going to plan, our allies will be prepping their starfighters on the ground to intercept the enemy ground-based starfighters if the Separatists try to send them out to stop the Republic reinforcements. Maybe that is where things will go wrong?

"This is Knight-Leader to all Escort squadrons," I say into my comms, "Move to engage those Vultures."

And so we all turn, moving almost as one as over a hundred starfighters swing around to meet the ongoing swarm of droid starfighters. With no shortage of targets, I pick the right one and open fire with my laser cannons, aiming at where the vulture droid will be in a moment's time rather than where it is right now.

I roll to the side to avoid enemy return fire that my battle precognition informs me will be coming before letting out another volley of laser fire at a second vulture. The droid starfighter goes careening out of control as I blow half of its wings off and I switch to the next foe that I can see. I adjust my course to get a clear shot, ignoring the stray shots that strike my deflector shield.

It takes a few more shots this time, but the third vulture goes down almost as easily as the first two. A pair of vultures begin to focus on me, but I swing around to throw one off, losing it in the giant furball that the starfighter engagement has devolved to. I don't see what happens to the other vulture, but as it disappears from my sensors, I suspect it got shot down by one of my pilots.

I spot a few vultures breaking away from the dogfight to engage the shuttles so I switch power to my engines to catch up with them. The first dies to one of the Corellian Gunships while the second is taken out by another Headhunter. The third falls to a Corellian Gunship and I shred the fourth with my laser cannons. The final two are taken out by the Gunships as I find myself trying to throw off another vulture droid that has decided it wants to kill me.

I go into a spin to get the droid off my tail and as I do so, I notice that the Lucrehulk appears to be unprotected. It has no escort warships and the only Separatists starfighters in local space are already engaged in battle.

"Knight-Leader to Justice," I say as I contact the star cruiser, "Have you spotted any sign that the Lucrehulk has held any starfighters in reserve?"

"I don't believe so, General," someone replies as I try to throw off this annoying vulture droid, "They appear to have committed everything to the interception attempt."

"Then I am going to take advantage of them overcommitting to pull a Skywalker Special on them," I say, thinking back to what Anakin did in the Battle of Naboo, something I heard and read about in this life and I watched in the impossible memories.

"Knight-Two," I switch comm channels to contact my padawan as I change my course so I am heading straight for the Lucrehulk, "Stay on escort duty. Do not follow me."

"Got it Master!" replies the girl, "I just got to shake this droid."

"You and me both," I mutter as the vulture following me gets a hit on my rear deflector shield.

I have a few moments before the Lucrehulk opens fire with its laser cannons as I enter firing range, but I am not too worried. Between my deflector shields and armour, I can afford to take two or three hits and while the Lucrehulk has a lot of guns, it also has a lot of space to cover. If I get my attack angle right, I can avoid the majority of its firepower. Combined with my battle precognition, my skill as a pilot and my Force-boosted reflexes, I should be able to make into the relatively undefended hanger, blow the reactor to pieces with a proton torpedo and then get back out.

Putting all power to the engines, I fly forward as fast as I can, rolling and swerving to avoid the incoming lasers from both in front of me and behind me. While I am no Anakin Skywalker or Plo Koon, I am one of the better starfighter pilots in the Order so I should be able to make it through the enemy fire. My vulture droid pursuer is not my skill level and I watch with a grim satisfaction as the defensive fire from the Lucrehulk hits its own defender as a stray laser bolt blows the droid starfighter away.

As I approach the battleship, I cut all thrust as I pull a sharp turn, spinning my Headhunter around to face the hangar bay as the starfighter comes to a halt. Even as my starfighter stops, I am already upping the thrust again so I can get into motion and not be a sitting duck for the Lucrehulk's defences.

Flying in, I ignore the various droids and vehicles below as I make my way to the far end of the enormous hangar bay. I spot the secondary reactors that they keep exposed in the hangar bay and open fire with my proton torpedoes, not even bothering to wait for a lock on as I blind-fire at the nearby stationary target.

Really, who thought it was a good idea to stick an exposed, unshielded reactor in the hangar bay? I am going to make sure that this design flaw is fixed in the captured Lucrehulks that I have claimed. I don't want some hotshot pilot taking out an entire supply base with a bit of luck and a well-placed shot.

As the secondary reactors begin to explode, I swing my Headhunter around, wincing a little at how sluggish it feels as the ship begins to explode around me. I switch all spare power to the engine as one of the explosions rocks my starfighter, almost collapsing the deflector shield. With no time to waste, I zoom out of the dying Lucrehulk, barely getting ahead of the fiery explosions chasing after me.

"This is Knight-Leader," I say as I make it back into the comforting void of space, "I've taken out the Lucrehulk."

"Excellent work General," says Captain Tazir, "None of the droids seem to be disabling so it wasn't a control ship, but I am bringing the rest of the fleet up to support the escort forces. I've already committed our defensive squadrons to aid the rest of our starfighters."

"Status?"

"A few shuttles got damaged, one seriously so, but none have been shot down," answers the Pantoran, "The remaining vulture droids are disengaging and are retreating to the surface. As per orders, we are prioritising maintaining an escort for our transports over pursuing them. We linked up with our locals and the rest of the locals have decided to fight it out."

At that last sentence, I look towards where the warships of the Indrenese separatists and the Indrenese nobility were having their standoff, which progressed into an actual fight at some point during the battle. At a glance, the feudalists seem to be winning as the Separatist Corellian Gunship has been disabled along with one of the Corellian Corvettes while none of the Hammerhead cruisers on the side of the nobility have been taken out. A couple of them have taken some major damage, but all four along with their remaining starfighters are pounding the last two Seppie warships while I can spot a couple of CloakShapes flying towards Indren.

"Should we move to aid the nobility warships?" inquires Heree.

"I should probably ask," I say, "Get me a link to Duke Zyrgae if you can."

I doubt the dear duke will be willing to accept my help, but the man might have seen some reason since we last spoke and it wouldn't be very Jedi of me if I didn't try to make one last attempt at diplomatic outreach.

"Got him, General," says a crewmember from the Justice and a moment later I can hear the sneering voice of Duke Zygrae Nath.

"Stay out of my way you upjumped peasant," barks the local blueblood, forsaking any pleasantries or politeness, "You might have blown up that oversized freighter, but my loyal retainers shall win the day against the actual warships of the enemy."

Oversized freighter? Has this idea actually convinced himself that the Lucrehulk was the cargo haul variant and not the battleship variant? Oh for Force's sake...I need to focus now. I can bemoan and deal with his stupidity later.

"Regardless of what happened, my forces are willing and able to help your warships finish off the enemy fleet," I say, "I can send-"

"We do not need your worthless aid," snaps Duke Zygrae, interrupting me mid-sentence, "We will win this battle on our own merits. I will consider any approach by your forces to be a hostile act and correspondingly my warships shall open fire upon you for your perfidy."

And with that, he ends the call before I can respond. It seems like negotiations will continue to be a bust, but I can't say I was expecting anything different from the dear duke.

"Captain Tazir, did you catch that?" I ask Heree.

"Yes General, I'll let the rest of the fleet know," replies Heree, "If I may sir, I would recommend that you join the battle on the ground. The loss of the Lucrehulk seems to have inspired the Separatist commanders on the ground to launch an assault on the capital."

***​

This is my first attempt at writing a spacebattle in this fic and my first attempt at writing a Star Wars space battle without game mechanics determining the outcome and what happens in it. My main inspiration is taken from a mixture of Star Wars: Empire at War, the old Star Wars RPG and Star Wars: Squadrons. It doesn't exactly fit any of those, but I've taken elements from each of those to fit how I envision things working in this

In this case, the Indrenese Separatists and the Indrenese nobles were mostly concerned with each due to local tensions while the Lucrehulk had an inexperienced captain who got the position due to his corporate skills over his military ones. So throwing all of his starfighters at the enemy without any reserves and combined with the lack of escorts, the Lucrehulk was left open for a daring Jedi pilot to blow it open from the inside.

While I'm sure that is some meta reason for why it is that way, in-universe the Lucrehulk is a converted civilian ship and it shows. Insufficient weapon coverage, exposed reactor cores and easily boarded hangar bays are all the result of that and Ben has exploited that to win the day. Of course, now he has to worry about those same weaknesses since he has a few Lucrehulks of his own.

With Duke Zygrae, I picked him as an arrogant man who got his position through a mixture of birth and his political connections not because of his competency, as something of a compromise candidate or as payment for a favour for something else. He is unfit for his task as he was never expected to command the fleet into battle. He also is somewhat semi-paranoid as he sort of knows he is unfit, resulting in him seeing enemies seeking to displace him where there are none.

With the Separatist space forces having been dealt with, the ground battle remains so we will be seeing that and some more local politics in the next couple of chapters.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

As the Separatist forces push into the city of Irafen, Indren's capital, I swoop over it in my Headhunter to provide some close air support for the defenders. Aiming for an AAT moving down a street, I fire a burst of laser fire at it before pulling up to avoid the enemy return fire.

The enemy doesn't have much in the way of dedicated anti-air weaponry, but the infantry forces do have some rocket launchers with them and the enemy armoured elements have enough heavy firepower that they could bring down a starfighter through sheer weight of firepower. In any case, I am not going to be sticking around for the enemy to bring their weaponry to bear on me.

Another AAT down is a good enough result for me or at least it is for that particular run. With orbital, aerial and artillery supremacy, the only remaining advantages that the Separatists hold over us is in their significantly larger number of armoured elements and superior numbers in general. Because of that, taking out their tanks is a priority, especially after a third of Irafen has already fallen to the Separatist invaders.

"Colonel Belen, what is the situation on the ground?" I ask as a few enemy tanks take some shots at me and a couple of shoulder-mounted missiles come flying up.

"We're barely holding the Halfast District," states Loren as I begin the journey back to friendly territory, "We've got the chokeholds locked down with tanks, but the droids are rushing us. Our troopers are holding, but the locals are folding and ammo is constantly running low. I've sent Commander Randanys to reinforce that front, but we are going to lose that sector unless something major changes. That means either you or artillery support that'll flatten a lot of the district and upset our allies."

"I'll land and make my way over," I tell him, "Have any of the nobles committed to the fighting?"

"The brigadier's talks with Duchess Rolanas look promising, but apart from a few skirmishes between local forces, they aren't fighting the Seps," replies Loren, "If you ask me, they've decided to let their rivals weaken themselves by fighting each other while they conserve their strength for when us off-worlders are gone."

"I want to say you are wrong, but I suspect you may be right," I say as I head towards the spaceport near the centre of the city.

Landing doesn't take long, mainly because I don't bother to do it properly. I'm needed on the front lines so as soon as I get my Headhunter firmly on the ground, I switch the machine off and hop out. Someone else can handle getting it ready for another flight while I make my way to the Halfast District.

With plenty of soldiers, non-combatants and civilians going about their jobs or milling around, I make sure to be careful of getting in anyone's way even as I rush. I see a few of my people amongst the crowd, mainly pilots, but for the most part, it is only locals at the spaceport.

"Hey Jedi!" calls a voice from nearby and I snap my attention to the source of the voice.

A young man in a civilian speeder is waving at me, his red shirt and white armband signifying his membership in the recently formed Indrense militia as the hastily put together uniform of the locals. While I have never seen this man before in my life, I ought to go and see what he wants from me.

"Yes?" I ask in an inquiring tone as I stride up to the man and his speeder.

"The Republic Colonel asked me to take you to the Halfast District," says the man, his youthful energy faltering a bit at my approach before he recovers, "Said you would help keep the traitors from taking it."

"I do intend to keep the Halfast District in Republic hands," I agree before running up to the speeder and hopping into it to slide into the passenger seat, "Drive on kid."

"R-right," replies the young man, clearly surprised by my rapid entry into his vehicle, "I'll get you there in a jiffy Master Jedi."

True to his word, the kid does get me to my destination in a hurry, clearly breaking the traffic laws of peace time that have fallen wayside now that war has been brought to the city. As I can hear the screams and blaster fire up ahead, I don't wait for the speeder to stop as I jump out of it. Landing with a thud, I draw both of my lightsabers and begin to run towards the sounds of battle.

Rather than finding my own soldiers, I have ended up running towards some of the local Republic-aligned militia. Wearing a mixture of civilian clothing and impromptu armour, the soldiers are attempting to hold a residential street against a battle droid assault. With a few crashed speeders on the road, the locals are a mixture of soldiers either hiding in houses and behind makeshift barricades or lying in the street where they got gunned down by the battle droids as dead or injured. Said battle droids are marching down the street, focusing on shooting at the defenders over taking cover. Foolish of them, but battle droids are supposed to be expendable and they are doing a decent enough job of keeping the militia pinned down. Plus the number difference means they accord to be expendable unlike the defenders.

I can find Vyssa and my troops later. Right now, I need to bail out these poor soldiers from getting overrun and killed by these droids. Igniting the blades of my lightsabers, I do a Force jump to leap across the failing defensive positions and land up halfway down the street. A bit dramatic, but half of the point is to distract the battle droids from their current victims and it works as the droids all look at me. Swinging their blasters around, they open fire on me, but I am already in motion before the first shot gets off.

I slash the closest two battle droids down before sending a Force push into the droids. It isn't one of my specialties, but it is still strong enough to knock the closest of the droids off their feet and unsteady the rest in its path. With one flank handled, I begin to cut into the other side of the droid formation. As the battle droids open fire, I don't try to deflect every blaster bolt, just the easy ones or the ones that my battle precognition tells me that they will hit me somewhere other than my beskar armour.

The droids go down easy to my blades, but there are a lot of them and while the militia had taken down a good few before I showed up, the Separatist assault easily started with at least a hundred battle droids. Yet those numbers mean little to me as I cut down a battle droid with every blow, moving and reacting faster than the droids with Force-boosted reflexes and movements.

Then suddenly tank.

The first sign of the Separarist tank is when my battle precognition tells me about the AAT about to open fire on me. In response, I roll backwards to avoid the explosive shot, resulting in it blowing away a pair of unlucky battle droids.

"Of course there is a Forceforsaken tank," I mutter as I get back up to my feet, looking around for the vehicle in question.

It doesn't take long as the vehicle in question opens fire with its heavy blaster, still trying to gun me down from its position at the far end of the street from where it has just turned a corner. I leap into motion, ignoring the enemy fire as I charge at the vehicle, moving quick enough that the droid gunners can't get a bead on me. In fact, the AAT is easily more of a threat to its own infantry as a few of the remaining battle droids are mowed down by its attempts to kill me.

Carving up a hapless battle droid on my way, I leap onto the top of the tank as it fires another shot of its main cannon. Landing on top, I slash the barrel of the main cannon in half with my blue blade before stabbing down through the hatch with my green blade to get one of the droids inside. I'm about to drop down to the front of the tank to get the rest of the tank crew when the second AAT makes its presence known.

As it is, I make a hasty backflip off of the cripplied tank when I barely get a warning in time from the Force of the other tank opening fire. The laser shot blows a massive hole in the side of the first AAT, sending it careening to the side with severe damage and no remaining crew to control it.

As the second AAT opens fire with its heavy blasters, I run it. With a clear path and no battle droids in the way, I run at it, deflecting the blaster bolts with my lightsabers. I try to aim the blaster fire into the battle droids that have turned around to pursue me instead of overrunning the militia, but the angle isn't that great so pretty much all of it goes wide. It doesn't matter. Taking out this tank and protecting the militia is more important than destroying mere battle droids.

Reaching the tank, I jump on the front of it. A slash of my shoto takes out the main turret and then I stab my main lightsaber into one side of the tank's front before dragging the blue blade across to destroy the controls and pilot inside. I deflect a blaster bolt back into a battle droid before jumping on top. I slash open the top hatch, toss the pieces away with the Force before cutting down the droid inside.

I jump off of the tank and-oh Force that is a lot of droids. Thanks to my battle precognition, I am able to avoid the vast majority of the enemy fire, but even a fighter like myself can be brought down by wait of numbers and another hundred or so battle droids marching the street will do that. With what obviously is the next wave of Separatist forces, I position myself so the remains of the second AAT is between myself and the incoming company of battle droids. While I still have to deal with the remaining battle droids of the previous wave, that is far more manageable with there barely being a dozen remaining.

I down a couple with deflected blaster bolts before charging into the rest, cutting them down with inhuman speed. That deals with them, but I still got that incoming wave of battle droids that I can hear marching down the road and I still need to find my padawan.

Looks like it is time to use the Force and not my lightsabers. Taking a deep breath, I steady myself and reach out with the Force. I lift the remains of the first AAT with my mind and push it down the street. I hear the battle droids exclaiming and opening fire, but there is nothing that their blasters will do against the husk of their own tank. While it won't get all of the battle droids or even most, I can still hear a good few getting smashed by the AAT remains before I decide to drop the tank as it starts to become a strain to keep lifting it.

"Vyssa," I call into my comlink as I put a marker for her location on my helmet HUD, "How are you doing?"

"Holding my own Master," answers Vyssa and I can hear blaster fire being exchanged in the background, "I'm in the Halfast District with Steel Company. We got battle droids, tanks and some of the enemy professionals here. We're going our best, but we are going to need to either pull back or all in arty support. Unless you can get your butt over here Master?"

"I'll see what I can do," I reply as I jump over the wrecked AAT to engage my current foes, "I've got a majority of a company of battle droids to finish off or at least thin out."

"Got it Master," says Vyssa before she ends the call as I begin to deflect blaster bolts back at the battle droids.

Judging by how many are still on their feet and how many are wrecked on the ground, I got somewhere between a quarter and a third of this group of droids. As for the rest, I can handle the incoming blaster fire between my battle precognition, my beskar and my quick reflexes if I just focus on it. It gets easier as I take more droids down as the weight of enemy fire lessens, but it is taking too slow. I take out a battle droid with every other deflected shot, but Vyssa and my soldiers need me now and who knows when the Seps will send more reinforcements to bog me down.

Sithspit, I have to have taken down at least fifty of this wave. That has to be half of them right? The militia will have to handle this as I can see that Vyssa has been driven back a few meters since we talked.

Deflecting a few more blaster bolts as I go, I jump onto the rooftops, hoping that travel across them will be uncontested enough to reach Vyssa's position in a timely manner. I have to ignore the ongoing fights on a couple of streets as I bound over them, but it takes me a couple of minutes to reach Vyssa's position.

Or at least her old position as the enemy has overrun it.

***​

This chapter didn't go as I expected or as I hoped. The fights ended up taking more of it than I expected and it turns out that a powerful character going up against a lot of weak foes isn't as impressive when done in a written format rather than in a computer game or a film or a TV series. Something I didn't really consider when doing the CYOA, but I've got my character now and it is too late to just change that aspect without rewriting more of the story than not.

So I have to look for how to make it work which means the next fight will be against some dangerous foes and then I'm going to gloss over the fighting until the climax of the Siege of Irafen. Dealing with the local politics and handling morale, logistics and such can pick up the slack.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.

 

[Oshha]

There are several soldiers with some proper armour and weapons that are moving down the street, escorting a pair of heavily armoured speeders that have some serious firepower to them. Blaster fire is being exchanged on both sides as the Separatist forces shoot at my soldiers and my people return fire. And then I glimpse the yellow blade of Vyssa's lightsaber in the distance, further down the street in the area that my soldiers are firing from.

Making a judgement call that these soldiers will be more dangerous than the battle droids, I decide to engage the infantry first this time as I drop down amongst them. I swing my lightsabers and cut down the leading two of the soldiers, ignoring their screams and cries of pain. While I've primarily fought droids for the last few days, I have spent most of my career fighting organics and even with the Separatists relying upon their battle droids, I will certainly face organic foes on more than one occasion in this war.

To their credit, the soldiers react quickly to my sudden presence, but I react faster. I cut down the next closest soldier before Force pushing his body into the rest. It won't do any harm to the others, but it should keep them off-balance and distract them from firing upon me. I dart around the next couple of soldiers as they tangle with the corpse of their fellow to slash the one behind them across the chest. As he goes down, I spin around to slash the other soldier across their back with both of my lightsabers.

It is at this point that the last four soldiers in the squad open fire on me and they are good enough shots that I actually have to worry about deflecting their shots instead of just doing so on reflex. I nick one in the soldier with a deflected blaster bolt, but it seems their armour is not just for show as he takes the hit with barely a flinch.

Then a sniper shot to the head causes one of the soldiers to topple over backwards and I take the opportunity to press my attack. I dart forward, stabbing one of the soldiers in the gut with my blue blade as I slash the blaster rifle of another with my shoto, the green blade cutting the weapon in two. I swing my main lightsaber back around to decapitate the now weaponless soldier. The last soldier goes down as I slash him across the chest.

Which leaves the tanks, of which the second one is halfway turning around to shoot me. No-it is going to shoot me. Warned by my battle precognition, I attempt to jump out of the way and while I am mostly successful, there is too little time for me to escape all of the blast from the twin laser cannons of the tank. The explosion knocks me off-course, sending me flying into the side of a house. Gripping my lightsabers tightly, I fall to the ground with a thud and an aching side.

I start getting to my feet, but the tank doesn't wait to get another shot off as it rams into me. The sheer weight of the tank causes me to gasp as the breath is knocked out of me when it slams into me. The tank doesn't stop as it continues into the house, the wall collapsing as it gives way to the raw force of the tank. I grimace in pain as the tank continues to push my body through the housing unit and then I remember it is a hover tank.

I drop down and let the tank roll over me before I stab both of my lightsabers into its lightly armoured underside. The repulsors push into me as the tank moves over my body, but it is nothing I can't handle and it barely makes my already aching body hurt just a little bit more. As the tank continues to move forward, my lightsabers cut two lines down the middle and by the time it is halfway over me, the forward repulsors are beginning to fail. I roll out of the way to avoid a faceful of tank as its repulsors begin to stop working completely, leaving it trapped in the middle of the half-destroyed house, unable to move any further.

Feeling a stab of pity for whoever used to live here, I don't bring the rest of the house down on the tank, deciding that it is already out of the fight thanks to its current position and inability to move. Or at least it will cease to be a threat once I remove its primary weapon as the turret might be able to turn around to shoot back out into the street. Wincing slightly at the pain, I push the unpleasant sensation to one side as I jump atop of the turret and slash the twin barrels of the laser cannon.

Using a touch of Force Healing to take off the worst of my injuries, I run back out into the street. The other heavy tank is down with its carcass left in the middle of the street, my soldiers having taken it out with explosives. At least twenty of the enemy professional soldiers are gathering outside, no longer advancing as they seem to be more concerned with holding their current position than pushing the offensive.

At a guess, I think they were planning a trap for me when I dealt with the tank, one that fell apart when blaster fire from my soldiers kept them from getting into position. Several of them open fire upon me as they spot me and I switch to the defensive, deflecting blaster bolts and doing my best to send them back into the enemy. I slowly advanced forward and-grenade!

I throw myself to the side as a trio of enemy soldiers toss grenades at me. A couple of blaster bolts hit me, but both shots strike beskar and I barely get out of the way of the explosions from the grenades.

One of them finally goes down to a deflected blaster bolt, but Force blast it. I need to get closer to these soldiers, but they are too good and too numerous for me to get close enough to use my lightsabers. Deflecting blaster bolts is taking too long and gives them enough time to call up reinforcements. And then there is a sniper though thankfully my battle precognition and fast reflexes let me handle that shot, deflecting into an enemy soldier, killing them as it pierces their chestpiece.

"For the Republic!" yell several people from behind me as a series of missiles fly over my hand and into the enemy position.

As the Separatist soldiers go flying, blaster fire tears into the distracted enemy and I seize my chance. I run up to the closest pair of soldiers still on their feet and cut them down before they can react. A third soldier is getting to his feet, but I stab him in the back and he slumps back down to the ground. I spot a fourth soldier, but she goes down to blaster fire before I can reach her and just like that the enemy is in full retreat. While my soldiers continue to fire upon them, I don't go chasing after the fleeing hostiles.

"Master!" calls Vyssa as my padawan runs up to me, "Glad to see you arrived. Are you okay?"

"A few bumps and bruises, but nothing serious," I assure her as I look her up and down, "Are you hurt? Your thigh looks like you took a blaster shot."

"Corporal Shoa already gave it a bacta patch," starts Vyssa defensively, but I am already leaning down.

Calling upon the Force, I use it to heal Vyssa's leg wound and any other injuries she might have sustained.

"I took another hit to the torso, but my armour protected me," continues Vyssa as the soldiers of Steel Company take up defensive positions around us, "These guys were good."

"I noticed," I agree as Captain Trathur approaches me and I turn to the Bothan, "Captain, I didn't finish off that other tank so someone will want to go and deal with it. It's stuck in the house."

"On it, General," replies Trathur and he shouts a couple of orders before turning back to me, "Anything else sir?"

"Take me to the wounded so I can give them some healing," I tell him, "Otherwise, how bad is it?"

"This way, General," says the man and I follow him as he walks off with Vyssa following me in turn, "The enemy had good soldiers and heavy armour, but we were better and had both defensive positions and Commander Randanys. We lost almost a dozen men and got twice that injured and we lost a speeder, but we got at least fifty of them and half a dozen of their tanks before you showed up. You just saw the latest engagement with them for yourself."

"Can you still hold without Jedi support?" I ask, "Because I will need to take Commander Randanys and reinforce other parts of the defence."

"We should be able to General," answers Thrathur, "We handily drove back the enemy with very favourable casualty rates. I don't know how many troops the Seps have, but they can't have that many more elite forces and my company can handle battle droids or local militia."

"Good," I reply, "I-"

"We got incoming!" shouts someone and the three of us spin around as blaster fire begins to come from the Separatist-controlled end of the street, "More battle droids!"

"Captain, look after your people," I tell Trathur, "Vyssa, you're with me."

***​

Letting the Force flow me, I reach down and let the Force heal the injured woman. The soldier from Wind Company would have made it with regular medical care, but by using your own abilities, it means another veteran professional back into the Republic's fight for Indren. That and you feel obligated to take care of your people as their general.

"Thank you General," says the woman happily as she stretches and flexes her newly healed arm, "It feels like nothing happened at all."

"I am happy to help," I assure her, "Just keep up the good work trooper."

Glancing over to my side, I spot Vyssa attempting to heal another of the legion's wounded. Unlike myself, an experienced Force Healer, my padawan is still learning and as a result, her attempt at Force healing is taking longer and requires greater effort from her. At least, it is working since that was not the case a few months ago, but it seems that Vyssa has the technique down and just needs practice to get better.

While I wait for her to finish, I heal a legion soldier who almost took one too many blaster bolts to the chest. As it is, he survived and would have recovered in time without my intervention. Yet thanks to my intervention, he will be ready for duty tomorrow.

"Vyssa," I call to my padawan, "How is your healing going?"

"Tiring," answers the young Zeltron as she flashes me a smile, "At least I can do it now. And it feels good too, to be helping others and curing people of their ailments. It makes me tired, but it is the good kind of tiredness, where you are weary because you spent your time doing something good and meaningful."

"I know that feeling," I say, "Personally I think all combat-oriented Jedi should learn Force healing. Not only is it good in a fight, but it is a nice way to keep in touch with helping others and losing yourself to war and battle. Come one, let's go find some of the locals to heal."

"Does Master Telis know Force healing?" inquires Vyssa as the two of us exit the temporary hospital that 1st Regiment has set up for the legion.

"Yes, but only the basics," I answer, "She doesn't specialise in it like-"

"Master Jedi!" calls an unfamiliar voice and Vyssa and I both turn to see a young woman running up to us, slightly out of breath as she comes to a halt in front of us, "The Chairman and the other Jedi wish to speak with you. They sent me to bring you to them."

Vyssa glances at me and I resist the urge to sigh.

"Go and do some more healing," I tell her, "I will go and see what Chairmen Velh and Brigadier Telis want."

***​

The Assembly Hall of Irafen is an impressive building and almost untouched by the ongoing fighting that rages throughout most of the city. Tall ceilings, spires along the sides of wide halls and large, imposing statues of important local historical figures. With a mixture of clerks and figures in rich attire going about their business, the hastily put together fortifications and the out of place militia guards are only indications of the war currently befalling the planet.

"I am here," I declare as I walk into a large circle room with rows of raised seats surrounding the sides of the room.

I recognise Aria with her wavy black hair and Jedi robes and I also remember the face of Chairman Irre Velh, the elected head of Irafen and the unofficial leader of the Republic-aligned Democrats. I don't recognise anyone else, but judging by their attire and the way they hold themselves, I suspect that they are other members of the planetary assembly or otherwise influential figures.

"Ah General Shan, I am glad you could join us," says Chairman Velh as he and the other people in the room react to my presence.

"I came as soon as I could," I reply, "What do you need me for?"

"We want to know how soon the fighting will be over," says one of the other individuals, earning both some sharp looks and some approving looks with Aria and Velh being in the former group.

"I don't know," I state bluntly, "The Separatists are losing, but whether or not we are winning depends on what the local nobility decides to do. Is there something that requires my presence?"

A bit blunt and perhaps I could have worded that more politely, but diplomacy has always been Aria's area of expertise and not mine. My way with words comes with spirited persuasion and inspiring others, not playing nice with the upper class.

"As the leading military expert on the planet, we wanted your assessment of the current situation and then your opinion on the offer that Duchess Rolanas has extended us," says Chairmen Velh as I get a few glares from those that gave the first speaker looks of approval.

"In that case, we are doing better than the Separatists," I answer with a shrug, hoping that I'll be able to stay out of local politics, "We are winning at the moment, but it is still early in the war and the Separatists retain their advantages of greater numbers and greater number of tanks. And yes, having a greater number of tanks is enough of an advantage that I count as a separate thing to a general numerical advantage.

"That said, we do have orbital and aerial superiority and those are nothing to scoff at. We have taken out all of their warships and maybe half of their starfighters. What they got left can cause trouble, but my people can handle them.

"The problem is the ground forces. The local forces are less of an issue aside from the majority of the tanks, but the droids from the Lucrehulk are a concern, especially since they brought a lot of tanks with them. A battle droid isn't a match for a professional soldier, but there are a lot of them and they can match the local militia."

"So what are you going to do about it?" demands someone, "We can't lose Irafen or let the city be destroyed!"

"Holding defensive positions gives us an advantage and the current rate of attrition favours us," I answer, "I am leveraging our aerial advantage as best I can, but putting enough firepower can bring down a starfighter even with regular weaponry. And unless you want me to start leveling parts of the city, I am limited in how much use I can make of our starships and artillery."

"We cannot do more damage to our property than is needed," says one of the crowd, "We cannot destroy Irafen in the name of saving it."

"But if the alternative is letting the traitors win…" says someone else.

"My businesses are already losing money thanks to this war and I've already lost two factories!" shouts someone who must be a local business magnate, "I will not let the rest get destroyed if we can help it."

"Saving Indren is more important than your profits!" someone shouts back and for a moment, it looks like a general argument is about to break about.

Part of me is frustrated at all this. Politics is not my speciality and if I do have to play it, it should be on Coruscant or some other important world rather than an insignificant backwater like Indren. Yet an unimportant backwater is probably a good place to work on improving my political skills without any high stakes at play.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please calm down and act like rational adults," says Chairman Velh as he steps into the brewing argument with a calm, but firm voice, "We called General Shan here for a reason and that was to receive his professional opinion, not to have him listen to us squabble like children."

"Thank you," I say quickly before anyone else can respond to the chairman's words, "My primary concern is what comes after victory. We are currently winning, but as things currently stand, I am doubtful if either side will retain enough strength to resist the demands of the local nobility once the off-world forces leave. And make no mistake, my troops will be leaving Indren and it will be sooner rather than later. This battle is ultimately just a minor front of a far bigger war and technically speaking, I've already achieved my objectives by taking out the Lucrehulk-class battleship while it was isolated from other Separatists warships."

"So you are just going to abandon us?" someone demands as my words stir up some unhappy mutterings.

"No," I answer firmly to cut off that line of discussion before it can get started, "But make no mistake, the presence of my soldiers is only temporary and I don't want to save this world from the corporates to abandon it to the nobility."

"I assume you have a solution in mind?" asks Chairman Velh before anyone else can reply to my words.

"Get the Separatists and the nobility fighting," I say, "It shouldn't be too hard since they both seem to hate each other more than they hate you. Rather than having your forces and the Separatists bled each other dry before the nobility swoops in with their mostly untouched forces, you get them to bleed each other dry instead."

"That isn't a bad idea," mutters someone from the crowd as I look between Velh and Aira.

"I suppose this is a good a time as any to bring up the proposal that Duchess Rolanas has reached out to us with," says Chairman Velh and as several others in the room begin to talk, he speaks louder to be heard over them, "General Shan, Duchess Rolanna is one of the more influential members of the Indren nobility and has assembled a substantial coalition and claims to hold authority over the a third of the feudalist-aligned infantry, most of their tanks and all, but one squadron of their ground-based starfighters."

"I assume she has offered a deal of some kind based around using those forces to help us in exchange for something," I comment and judging from the reactions, I have hit the nail on the head.

"That would be correct," confirms Chairman Velh as he swiftly continues talking before anyone can respond to my words, "In exchange for some favourable laws being passed, she is willing to commit her forces against the traitors. The duchess isn't asking for anything too unreasonable and won't badly swing the balance of power in their favour too much, but the Assembly is loath to give them more privileges and less oversight they already got."

"I can see why that would be an issue," I reply as I think about which option would leave less of a mess behind at Indren, "Alright, let's talk."

***​

This chapter is a mix of things, but I wanted to show both the fighting against one of the local elite units and how Ben makes use of Force Healing. It is his way of retaining his connection to the Light and he likes to steady himself after fighting by taking some time to tend to the wounded.

Otherwise, some Master-Padawan moments and starting to get involved in the local political scene even though Ben would rather stay out of that just win the war. Of course there is the dilemma that while the Republic forces have artillery and orbital bombardment, they can't use those to hit the enemy without flattening parts of the capital. Which of course the locals would rather avoid so it is a balance of keeping the city without destroying it in the process.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.