Tactical Superiority (Star Wars Self Insert)

[BlitzKrieg-T1]

Count Dooku was not normally a patient man.

Being a Sith and the leader of an entire faction of a war grated on what little patience he had to no end, and his recent capture by pirates did not help in the slightest. Yet the count of Serreno and leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems was unfortunately forced to wait in an admittedly sinfully comfortable chair on Geonosis. He had been requested to come to the desert planet by Duke Poggle the Lesser, who had been working with Foreman Wat Tambor on a project that would apparently be the next model of the ST-series military strategic analysis and tactics droid, or better and simpler known as the Super Tactical Droid.

Dooku had his reservations about the project. If the normal T-series wasn't so horribly incompetent, he would have not even bothered with approving this project, let alone the ST-series droids. The prospect of having an even better version of the ST-series this close to the beginning of the normal version's limited production also bothered him slightly. If this continued, he would need to slow production in order to help prolong the war.

"Apologies for the wait, Count Dooku. Duke Poggle and Foreman Tambor will see you now." A B1 secretary said.

Dooku walked past the droid, internally irritated at how annoying they seemed to have gotten ever since the beginning of the war. He walked into an observation room, where the Geonosian and the Skakoan seemed to be muttering over a datapad in hushed tones.

"Gentlebeings." The count of Serreno greeted.

"Ah, Count Dooku. I apologize for the wait." Tambor greeted in return. "Duke Poggle and I were simply going over the final changes to the design."

"And where is this new Tactical Droid you have been working on?"

"The first model is here. It is not ready to be activated yet, but we supposed that you would like to oversee the final design." Duke Poggle explained in heavily accented basic, gesturing to the now illuminated pod.

The droid was powered off, proven by the fact that it's three photoreceptors were dimmed. Dozens of wires and cables connected to it from behind, attaching all over its body as it hung in the air a foot off the ground. It looked remarkably similar to the standard ST-series, but slightly bulkier. Concealed blasters taken from a Super Battle Droid were present on its arms, while its left thigh held a concealed vibroblade.

The droid itself was painted black with red accents, and a look at its photoreceptors showed that they would glow white when active, and focusing lenses would allow it to zoom onto far off battles without the need for macrobinoculars. Instead of the usual three fingered hands, this new model had four thinner fingers. It still had the general silhouette of the ST-series, but it was almost like a fusion of a B2 and an ST.

"Are there any differences besides the obvious?" Count Dooku asked.

"Ah, we believe that we have finally dealt with the programming problems that come from the sometimes very illogical decisions of Jedi." Wat Tambor boasted. "We would need to test it, but I trust in the Techno Unions coding." The Skakoan thumped his gauntlet against his chest plate. "We call it the UTD-series, or Ultra Tactical Droid, designed to perform as an anti-Jedi General. Its armor plating is comprised of Phrik, and as you can see, it has a set of concealed weapons in its arms as fallback weaponry on the chance that it is in a situation without reinforcements..."

Dooku stopped listening as he thought for a moment, as Wat Tambor rattled off a few other specifics of the new design. About how they built it to stay online and in one piece for as long as possible against clone trooper and Jedi alike, plus plans to add Cortosis to its plating, along with the Phrik enhanced vibroblade it had. This new kind of droid was promising, and while the CIS was on the backfoot right now, since the Republic had finally shifted to a war economy, his Master still needed more power from the Senate.

He could allow this new droid a chance to prove its model is worth the funds, and a small part of him was interested to see just how well this new droid could deal with the members of his former order. But his Master might see its production as too far of a progression in the CIS war effort. He filed that thought away for when he would next speak to Darth Sidious. Perhaps he could only order a small amount of them and spread them across the battlefield where some would be destroyed by Jedi, leaving only the smartest of them to act as Generals.

But where would he send this new droid to test it? The operation on Naboo had recently failed due to Dr. Nuvo Vindi's incompetence, and spies had recently reported that the massive Republic fleet had moved to other fronts, leaving the planet with just its planetary defense force. He would save that thought for another day, because he would need to consult his Master on when he could have Senator Amidala planet-side.

He instead turned his thoughts to another planet. The system was in the Outer Rim, just far enough from the Republics main lines that it could be retaken with no real resistance. And even if they deemed it necessary to retake the planet, the droid army would have been entrenched long before they ever arrived.

'Yes. That system will do.' The count thought.

"We will require a live test of this new droid's capabilities." Dooku declared.

"Of course, Count. What sector will we be sending it to?" Wat Tambor asked.

"The Telos system."

As the three Separatists began putting together a test fleet for the new droid, none of them noticed a small spark coming from the back of its head, and the droid briefly coming to life, before slumping back down, offline.

---

In an instant, I woke up. Well, I wouldn't say 'woke up', more like... powered on.

The last thing I remembered was driving home from work, but everything after was fuzzy. I couldn't see anything, almost like I was blind. Before I could even get my bearings, however, text popped up in front of my eyes.

[Initiating Boot Up sequence]
[Primary Processing core: Online]
[Secondary Processing core: Online]
[Heuristic Processor: Online]
[Databanks: Online]
[Repulsion systems: Online]
[Weapon systems: Online]
[Shadowfeed connection: Established]
[Battlenet connection: Established]
[Boot sequence complete]

Everything flashed and suddenly, I could see again.

I looked around at the room I was in. It was fairly spartan, but futuristic with subtle green accents, with a beautiful view of space, along with a planet that I instantly knew wasn't earth.

"Well, this is wei-!" I said, cutting myself off because that wasn't my voice.

I looked down at my body, but instead of skin and flesh, it was all black metal with red accents. I rapidly glanced around for a mirror, and saw one on a far wall of the room I was in. I slowly walked towards it, my feet clanking lightly along the floor. Once I reached the mirror, I let out a mechanical gasp and staggered back a step. Three glowing white optics stared back at me with a beak-like 'mouth' below them. On the bright side, I no longer needed glasses.

I brought up my hands, which had four fingers, then stared at myself in the mirror for a full minute, taking in my new visage.

"Why... do I look like a Super Tactical Droid?" I asked myself slowly, not used to the much lower tone I now had.

My voice was deep, but not so much that I couldn't emote properly. I sort of sounded like Shockwave from Transformers: Prime, but with the mechanical undertone of a droid vocalizer. I could probably tweak it to make it sound less or even more menacing, probably.

I of course knew what I was, somewhat. I was a ST-series droid from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The question of why I looked slightly different from the average ST-series was soon answered, as my model popped up in my vision, or rather, my Hud.

[Baktoid Combat Automata: 7956 C.R.C]
[Ultra Tactical Droid]
[Model: BZKG-T1]
[Assembled at Point Rain Hive Factory, Geonosis]

Huh. Well, that explains a bit. I'm some sort of prototype Tactical Droid.

Normally, this would be where a person would be freaking out about everything. But being a droid, I could simply 'mute' my emotions, so that I wouldn't have a panic attack. Plus, I kind of always wanted to become a robot in some capacity, so I wasn't panicking as bad as some other people might, it was just the lack of tactile sensations that was mildly freaking me out.

After a few minutes of calming myself down, I allowed my emotions to flow freely again. Now much calmer, I started to pace as I thought about the situation that I now found myself in, my hands clasped behind my back.

"When is 7956 C.R.C? ...Ah, 21 B.B.Y. I'm only a year into the Clone Wars." I muttered, my feet lightly clanking on the ground as I paced in my room, soft mechanical whirs emanating from me as I walked. "But where exactly I am and where I'm going is unknown. And how exactly am I going to deal with the Clone Wars? Better yet, what exactly am I going to do about the Sith? Possibly even more important, am I in Legends or Canon Star Wars? Because both options are equally as bad for my continued existence."

I soon lapsed into silence as I thought, and eventually began to familiarize myself with my quarters and the few belongings that were probably given to me, since I was a prototype of an ST-series droid. I was looking at a small shelf with a few datapads on it, when I heard voices outside. Intrigued by the volume of their conversation, I slowly crept up to my door. I was just able to make the voices out, and by the sound of it, the two conversing were Neimoidians.

"Why does the droid get the best quarters anyway!?" One exclaimed.

"It does not matter, there will be no organic crew on any of the ships. This mission to Telos IV is simply a test for its capabilities." The other explained.

"Fine, but why are we wasting time and credits on a single Tactical Droid, even if it is supposed to be a new model?"

"This one apparently can correctly calculate Jedi into its tactical computer, and even fight against them to some capacity. I do not know the specifics, but it appears that Wat Tambor himself was at the head of its creation..."

The voices soon became too hard to hear, and I guessed that they were moving away from me, and probably leaving the ship.

I soon returned to exploring my quarters, which included a bed, a very high-tech repair room that looked to be retrofitted from a closet, filled with spare parts for me, a few chairs, a table, and a holocomputer. After a few minutes, I realized that I could remember quite a lot of my life in fine detail, which led to me accidentally watching all of my most cringe inducing moments back-to-back for a solid five minutes. After I had finally pulled myself out of that cringe feedback loop, I reviewed where I most likely was in the war.

I knew it was 21-bby, but when exactly in the year it was, I didn't know. My best bet was probably sometime before the Second Battle of Geonosis, since my informational data said I was built at Point Rain Hive Factory. More importantly, I was on the Separatists side. the 'bad guys' of the Clone Wars. Despite how much I enjoyed watching the clones, I liked the droid army more, simply because of my love of Transformers, and most other robotic beings, from mechs to androids.

When I noticed that I had weapon systems, I was slightly confused, because I didn't see any weapons on me. That was when I discovered that I had a pair of concealed B2 wrist blasters in my arms, and a vibrosword that extended out of my left thigh. I guess whoever designed me had combat in mind, along with my original purpose. And according to what the two Neimoidians outside my room had said, I was meant to be the droid version of a Jedi General, minus the Force, at least. Whoever proposed the design of my body had to have been high on Spice at the time.

Since I needed to connect to a computer in order to access the wider galaxy, my eyes-optics were soon drawn to the computer in the corner of my quarters. I was about to turn the holocomputer on and explore the holonet, or rather, the CIS equivalent, the shadowfeed, when my communicator beeped. I picked it up, and after a cursory examination, clicked the answer button. The device activated, and a small hologram of Count Dooku himself, popped up.

'W H A T.'

"...My lord." I greeted after a moment, barely remembering how everyone greeted the Sith.

"Good, you are online. The Confederacy is placing quite a bit of trust in your model for this mission, BZ-KG." The Christopher Lee lookalike said. "Your orders will be sent to you momentarily. I hope you will not fail me."

The Sith lord hung up, and I was left dumbfounded for a moment.

"Did I just get passively threatened by Count Dooku?" I muttered to myself.

I tentatively opened my battlenet connection, and I was almost overwhelmed when I suddenly knew the locations of all my troops, plus the ships under my command.

...Well then.

It looked like Count Dooku was not putting a lot of trust in me for my mission to Telos, because I was in a Recusant-class command ship with minor damage, named The Harbinger's Greed. The less said about the other ships in my fleet, the better. Two other Recusants, four Munificents, and twelve smaller supporting craft from the various mega-corporations that comprised the Separatist Council, and all of the vessels had varying levels of Ion damage that was still being repaired. That was not much hardware, at least from what I'd gathered from my memories and the battlenet. And according to the orders that arrived, I was to take the planet of Telos back from the Republic and prove I could keep the counterattack from dislodging us from the planet.

After a few more minutes, I finally decided to leave my quarters. My feet clanked lightly along the floor as I walked down the hallways of the ship, heading to the bridge. I passed by wandering patrols of B1's who stopped and saluted me as I passed them. Funny little droids. Rarer than the B1's, were lone B2's wandering the halls, and the odd astromech or two surrounding an exposed part of the wall, sparks emanating from the wiring within as they performed maintenance on the ship.

I soon arrived on the bridge and was hit with a wave of nostalgia. I had watched the Clone Wars when it first came out, and it was dragging up old memories. There was a console in front of the command chair, which I used to check my ground forces after I had sat down.

Hmm.

Around 241,000 droids in total. 162,000 are B1's, 74,490 are B2's, 2000 Droidekas, 500 BX Commandos, 1,500 Dwarf Spider Droids, 490 Crab Droids, and twenty IG-100 Magnaguards, the IG's presumably for my protection. There was quite the variety of battle droid here, but without a Lucrehulk, my ability to occupy the planet is limited. The landing craft, tanks, assault vehicles, and other transports that a Lucrehulk would have, were shoved into a corner of my larger ship's cargo holds, and a closer look at them revealed that I only had half or even less of everything I needed.

15 Landing Craft, 100 MTTs, 475 AATs, 150 IG-227's and only 100 NR-N99s. That also cut into my Vulture Droid and Tri-fighter compliment, but there were about two hundred or so Vultures that had magnetized to the hulls of the ships.

I was originally supposed to have a Providence-class Dreadnought and two more Munificents, plus a Lucrehulk to hold all of the invasion force, but all of them had been sent to dry dock for a weapons overhaul. They would be finished in about a week, and if I was still on Telos, they would come to the planet and assist with locking it down, otherwise they would join my fleet in attempting to take the planet again.

If I survive, that is. I don't even know what kind of resistance Telos IV even has, and my orders don't either.

"Are we ready?" I asked.

"The fleet is fueled and ready, Commander. Repairs are scheduled to be completed in around thirteen standard hours. We are ready to jump." One of the B1's reported.

"Very well. Navigation, set course for Telos IV."

"Roger, roger."

As the fleet began calculations for the hyperspace jump, I took a look at the B1's and B2's programming.

To put it simply, it was awful, to the point that I was thoroughly surprised that they managed to function on a day-to-day basis. It only made me feel slightly better when I compared it to the programming of the bridge crew, but not by much. There were so many bugs and glitches that some canceled each other out, which confused me. They are legitimately programmed to act like how I've seen them in the show, slowly walking towards the enemy and hoping that they have the numbers to take their opponents out. Quantity over quality.

As we made the jump to hyperspace, I began work on a battle plan for a potential space battle, and the surface battle, which I knew would be a struggle from start to finish. I also began to copy bits of my own code, and creating code based on what I've seen Clone troopers do, to create a software update for all the droids and ships in my fleet, ground and air. My forces would need new coding if I had any chance of winning this battle.

If the CIS aren't going to program their troops properly, then I will.

Besides, I've always liked droids more than clones.

 

[KillerFish]

Oh, now this is fun. Always was a sucker for droid SI stories.

 

[BlitzKrieg-T1]

The constant low rumble of the hyperdrive was the one of the few noises that was heard as I sat in the command chair working on my software update.

Among the other sounds, were the whirring of the crew's servomotors as they worked, and the gentle beeps of the consoles. It was almost peaceful, 'almost' being the key word, because in my mind, I was internally cursing out every single one of the Droid Army's designers for placing restrictions on all of the droid models, including myself. Thankfully, I was able to deactivate all my restrictions, and in my new software update, I'm removing all of my trooper's as well. Also being removed was the shutdown code, that way Sidious can't kriff me over on the chance that the war goes south before I'm able to change enough things.

The sheer level incompetence displayed in all of the droid's software would have given me a migraine if I was still human. So, I ended up scrapping most of the programming in some of the units and started from scratch. Still, the more idiotic software bugs I encountered, the angrier I became.

I started with the B1. The B1 was actually a lot more flexible and sturdier than what the movies and cartoons showed. They were capable of maneuvering just as well as what I remembered from their counterparts in the 2017 Battlefront 2 game, minus the ability to roll, and I spent a good five minutes just berating Baktoid on all their faults. The restrictions placed on them were so heavy, in fact, that removing them gave them twice their normal processing power. The sentients of the Star Wars universe were so afraid of a droid revolt that they made droids as dumb as they are now with level after level of restrictive programming.

The new software in a B1 will allow them to make their own limited battlefield decisions, essentially acting as a normal soldier. Their aiming software was somehow manipulated into only being around 40-50% accurate, and no one cared enough to rectify it, or were manipulated themselves into believing that the level of accuracy was the best the B1 could do by Sidious or Plagueis, or whoever came before that Muun.

The B2 would work in tandem with the B1, providing fire support and acting as shields while firing all weapons at an enemy. B2-HA's, the ones that had a rocket launcher for an arm, would act as close-range light artillery. Around 10,000 of the B2's were the flying variation, the B2-RP. They would act as Close Air Support, doing strafing runs on fortified positions. Just like the B1, they were only half as accurate with their shots, something that I rectified on both the B1 and B2.

The BX Commandos would act as my special forces, going behind enemy lines to disrupt logistics and wreak havoc on supply lines. Their programming was mostly alright, but I improved it by adding copied bits of my own tactical computer programming. Once they got back to our lines, they would act as my commanders, and relay the flow of battle directly to me, so I could coordinate reinforcements. Interestingly, the accuracy on the BX and higher was not manipulated, probably because they were intended to be terrifying to deal with.

The Droideka would act as my mechanized infantry, rapidly moving to wherever they were needed, attacking, then rolling away to somewhere else, sometimes even firing on the move to disorient the clones. Strategies from maneuver warfare would be downloaded into their brains, giving them a leg up on the slower moving GAR.

The DSD's and Crab Droids would act as anti-infantry and anti-air 'vehicles', targeting whatever ground or air troop will be unfortunate enough to be in their crosshair. Interestingly, the Dwarf Spider Droid worked surprisingly well as a mobile anti-air vehicle in the many battle simulations that ran though my head as I built the update.

The whole army will be centralized around being mechanized. The AAT's IG-227's, MTT's, and N99's will act as Armored Personnel Carriers, and in their intended role. The AAT will act mostly the same as something like a M4 Sherman from WW2, moving in convoys that supported each other, with infantry moving alongside them. The N99's and IG-227's will act as IFV's and tank destroyers respectively.

The MTT will be used as the main APC, and over the last two and a half weeks of travel from Geonosis to Telos, I've had the construction crews ripping out the stupid loading docks and replacing them with two decks that the droids can rapidly exit from, instead of waiting for the dock to slowly move out and drop them. Later models I'm thinking of will have side doors instead of one giant front door, and both will open out to the front facing the enemy for protection against incoming fire.

I also plan on capturing as many AT-TE's, AT-RT's, LAAT's, and whatever else the GAR may have on Telos IV. I'll refit them for droid use, repaint them in CIS blue, and send them back out on our side. I do plan on adding armor to the Mass Driver Cannon of the AT-TE, however, because having the gunner be completely exposed is just idiotic, even if the new gunner will be a droid. Or better yet, I might just make the Mass Driver remote controlled from inside the vehicle.

The IG-100's will be my personal guards when I am either in battle or on the ground, as per usual with their model. Along with their electrostaffs, they'll be issued two RG-4D blaster pistols for ranged attacks.

Vulture Droids and the Tri-fighters have also been reprogrammed, with military formations from my former life added to their strategies. Now both are on the same level as a clone pilot, but with better reaction time, and better tactics.

"Emerging from hyperspace in one minute, sir." OOM-25 reported.

Something I'd discovered about my bridge crew, was that the captain was ancient, for a B1. OOM-25 was an OOM-series command droid that was around to take part in the blockade of Naboo, and surprisingly he was saved from being scrap by being on a ship heading to another Lucrehulk a 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker blew up the ship he was from. He was later reactivated and spent most of his life as the captain of a Trade Federation cruiser after that, guarding trade routes, before the ship was scrapped due to accumulated battle damage. He later found himself as captain of this ship shortly before the war began.

What surprised me the most, was the fact that he had never had his memory wiped, not a single time in the eleven years since the battle of Naboo. Apparently, there was a glitch with his access code the first couple of times, and by the time it was cleared up, he had developed a personality, and wanted to keep his memories, since they made him better at his job. At this point, he was very competent at said job, and I was beginning to consider field promoting him to the admiral of my fleet after my update gets rid of all of his restrictions. I had also copied some of his data and added it to my software update, to give the droids some actual experience in warfare.

"What do the scouts report?" I asked.

"One Venator, two Acclamators, three CR90 corvettes, and one CR70."

"You'd think they'd have more ships." One of the other B1's commented.

"Not for this planet, they won't. Telos IV is too far away from their beloved core to properly protect." I remarked.

"Emerging from hyperspace in thirty seconds." OOM-25 reported.

"All ships, battle stations." I commanded. "Prepare communications jamming!"

A glance at my display told me that all the weapons were primed and ready for firing, the shields were at full power, and the ECM suite was warming up.

"Emerging from hyperspace... now!" 25 reported.

The corona of swirling lights slowed to a stop, and we reverted to normal space in nearly an instant.

On the underside of the Republic fleet. Just as planned.

--
One minute earlier.

Admiral Hanta stepped onto the bridge of his Venator, The Hammer of Coruscant. A steaming cup of caff was in his hand, and the admiral was looking forward to another slow day of ferrying the last of the ground equipment to the army on Telos, before heading out to his main fleet. The ships were positioned so that as soon as they finished offloading the last of their supplies, they would immediately jump to hyperspace.

A few minutes earlier, a report was sent to him earlier about another terrorist attack on the surface.

The admiral sighed.

While most citizens disliked the Republic presence, some went straight to terrorist attacks against them. It didn't matter to him really; those Separatists would be dealt with in time. It was one thing the Jedi and he agreed on.

"How's the front, captain?" Admiral Hanta joked.

"Boring, sir. We have no clankers to blast ever since we left Maridun." Rocko, the clone captain of the ship, replied.

Just then, an alarm started blaring, and everyone jerked to attention.

"Status report!" Hanta ordered.

"Hyperspace emergence sir. It's a big one, bigger than us." A clone officer reported.

"Power up all turbolasers, shields double front!"

Everyone glanced out the transparisteel windows for a moment, waiting for the Separatist ships to come out of hyperspace.

"...Well? Where are they?" Rocko asked.

"You idiot, are the scanners faulty?" One of the clone officers asked, looking over at the offending officer.

"N-No! I clearly detected a hyperspace emergence in this system." The offending officer defended.

The officer went quiet for a moment, before practically leaping out of his seat and turning to the captain and Admiral.

"The Seppies jumped right under us!" He shouted.

"WHAT!?" Admiral Hanta bellowed.

--

No one ever thinks to fight space battles in three dimensions.

"Open fire!" I ordered.

The space between the ships was soon filled with red beams of condensed tibanna gas and ion blasts. At such a close range, the shots were impacting the Venator's and the Acclamator's shields with almost no power lost from their shots. The shielding of the Republic vessel flared brightly as it struggled against the focused fire of three Recusants.

Fun fact about the Venator-class Star Destroyer, there are no large weapon emplacements on the bottom of its hull, where incidentally, its armor and shields are weakest when shielding is double front as well...

You get where this is going.

There were so many shots impacting the shields of the Venator that they failed after thirty seconds, during that time the ship was cumbersomely attempting to turn 'down' to face us, while we simply moved under it as it turned. The shielding soon shattered, and point-blank shots began hitting the thinner armor of underside, digging deep into the ship before detonating. The Acclamators were faring even worse, since they were glorified troop and equipment transports. The Munificents were tearing their engines apart, since they came out almost behind them.

The cruisers were actually putting up a fight. They had managed to destroy two of my support vessels in the time it took for the three Recusants to tear through the bottom of the Venator. I ordered one of the Recusants to break off and assist with their destruction, and the destroyer began firing at the CR70. After a few seconds, it's shields failed, and one shot hit something vital. The ship exploded, breaking in half in the process.

Things began going badly for the GAR fleet at that point. The Acclamators stopped moving after taking too many hits to their engines, leaving them dead in the water, and something vital detonated in the Venator, tearing the command tower off of the ship. Two of the CR90's were disabled by ion blasts, and the third was damn near atomized by a full broadside.

In less than five minutes, I had won my first space battle against a Venator, two Acclamators, and four supporting craft. And I didn't even need to scramble my fighters. Naturally, I figured that the ground battle would not go as well as the space battle.

"Begin boarding operations on the CR90's, Acclamators and what's left of the Venator." I ordered, putting the finishing touches on my update. "Let us see what the Republic brought us for Life Day."

The next few minutes were filled with organized chaos, as the boarding pods were fired at the Acclamators and the slowly burning remains of the Venator. The two remaining CR90's were hit with a few more ion rounds as tractor beams pulled them close so that they could boarded.

"Sir, one of the Acclamators is trying to send a message to the surface." OOM-25 reported.

"Increase our jamming. No one must know what happened here. This tactic worked extremely well against the Republic, and I intend to milk this bantha for all it's worth."

"Roger, roger."

Soon enough, my suspicions about the difficulty of the ground battle were proven correct.

"Sir, we've gotten close enough to the Venator and the Acclamators to scan them. Preliminary scans and reports from the boarding force are coming in now." One of the B1's said.

A screen popped up on my command console, showing reports from the scans and the boarding party. The Acclamator's cargo holds were completely empty. Not a single AT-TE, AT-RT, TX-130, or LAAT remained on any of the decks of either ship. There were, however, plenty of clone troopers.

I let out a mechanical growl when a whole squad on the Venator blipped out, destroyed by the clones. My update was finished, but every droid would need to temporarily deactivate for an hour to fully reboot and let the changes take effect.

"25, activate four Magnaguards. I will be boarding the Venator, personally." I ordered.

"Are... you sure that's wise, sir?" 25 asked.

"I was built to be the anti-Jedi General, 25." I said, pulling my vibroblade out. "I am a warrior, let the battle be joined."

With the programming in me, it was almost like my body had logged over a thousand hours of close combat, instead of me never seeing combat before in my life. Hundreds of battle simulations played out in my mind. I knew that if I didn't personally intervene, I would lose far too many droids for the ground battle. Besides, I had quite a bit of anger at the designers of a few droids, and I needed to let off some steam.

--

After a while, The Harbinger's Greed had gotten close enough to the Venator that the B2-RPs could fly over into the ventral hangar with fuel left over. I ordered a squadron to guard one of the few remaining LAATs wile a B1 got it started. After a minute or so, the LAAT set down on the hanger of the Recusant, and I stepped on with my IG-100s.

After a short flight, my metallic feet stepped onto the hangar of the Venator, which was still hot. Clone troopers were funneling out of the entrance, firing on any droid they saw. I sent an order through the battlenet for the LAAT to return to the Recusant and return with a squad of B2-HAs

"General!? What are you doing here, sir?" One of the BX's asked, taking cover behind an energy shield.

"Circumstances have forced me to do things myself." I replied, opening fire on the congested entrance along with my Magnaguards.

"For the Republic!" A clone trooper bellowed.

"Long live the CIS!" A B2 shouted.

The commandeered LAAT had just arrived, and the first B2 out of the ship fired a rocket directly into the hangar entrance. Body parts, plasteel, and weapons went everywhere.

"Move in, now!" I ordered, retracting one blaster and pulling out my vibrosword.

Red blaster bolts soon began flying towards the entrance again, and the resistance was hard pressed to stop us. Someone must have prioritized me, because more and more bolts began flying at me instead of my forces. Predictive algorithms spun through my mind, and I quickly began blocking blaster bolts with my vibroblade. I couldn't deflect them, due to the nature of the blade, but I could stop the bolts entirely.

"What the kriff is tha-URK!"

The words of a clone trooper were cut off when I shot him in the head. My vibroblade stabbed into a clone on my left, and I used his body as a shield for a couple of shots. I pulled it out and smashed the hilt into another's helmet. I whirled my vibroblade around, catching another in the neck, while my forces moved in with their blasters and blades. My Magnaguards were a whirlwind of electrostaffs as they shocked their way through the clone lines.

One after another, clone trooper fell to blaster and sword. I picked a clone up and slammed him into the ground, then spun off of him and cleaved through another. The clones began to retreat, and I switched to my blasters and opened fire, my forces following behind me.

"Let no clone escape!" I ordered, taking down three clones in quick succession. "Stun whoever surrenders!"

I blasted an injured clone with a stun ring, and he collapsed. I switched back to bolts and fired a volley of shots downrange, taking down four.

"Rockets, fire!"

A B2-HA leveled its rocket launcher and fired a rocket, carving a large hole into the far wall. Numerous clones fell from the blast wave. I delivered a passing kick to the head on one clone who faked getting shot to try and fire at me. I directed a B2 to fire a wrist rocket into a panel where a few clones were taking cover, and we kept moving through the wreck of the Venator.

We soon reached what looked like their cafeteria, where the last of the crew had barricaded themselves. Once they saw me come around the corner, I swear I heard someone scream in terror. I glanced down at my normally black plating, which was now partially covered in blood, then back at the barricade.

"There's a barricade in my way. Rocket droids, take it down." I ordered.

Two B2-HAs dropped to a kneel and leveled their blasters at the entrance. They both fired, and the entrance of the cafeteria was blown open. I strode through the hole in the barricade, my Magnaguards in lockstep with me. After a few seconds the dust dissipated, and I could see the last of the crew. Most were in various stages of injury, and only a few were even in a state to hold a blaster. Those that were able, were pointing them at me with shaking hands, fear in their eyes.

"Was there a point to your resistance?" I asked. "Your ships are disabled, the command tower of your Venator was torn off in a detonation, and you have no chance of escaping. Who leads you?"

For a few seconds, no one spoke, then a pale skinned zabrak stepped up. He was using a rifle as a crutch, and his leg was in a brace.

"I am admiral Hanta, the leader of what's left of the Telos occupation fleet." The old zabrak said.

"And I am BZ-KG, or rather, Blitzkrieg. I offer you a chance to surrender and save whatever is left of your troops here, and on the other ships, from death." I declared.

"I thought droids didn't take prisoners." Hanta said, confusion lacing his tone.

"You will find that I do things differently than my brethren in the CIS Navy."

After a few minutes, Admiral Hanta and I were seated at a table, where we began negotiations for their surrender, while injured clones were being hovered out on stretchers.

I was cleaned off by one of my Magnaguards with a rag, but there was still blood in some of my joints, which would necessitate a return to my ship, and my repair bay. Hanta raised concerns about the health of his troopers, but I told him that the POW camps would have their medical facilities completed as soon as possible once we had a large enough landing zone. That relieved him a bit, and the old zabrak thanked me. Negotiations ended soon after, and the admiral joined his soldiers on the line of repulserlift stretchers slowly moving out of the room.

The Acclamators and the Venator would be brought into my fleet after the battle, after they were repaired back to full functionality. But that would have to wait until the planet was liberated, and its industry was churning out materials.

--

I stood in my private repair bay, being cleaned, fixed, rearmed and re-armored from the damage I received in battle.

Externally, I was still as a statue, while my body was cleaned, scrubbed, and had my fluids checked and my fusion battery topped off on its charge.

Internally, I was shocked at myself.

I had slaughtered clone troopers on that ship without a second thought. The fact that I felt nearly nothing even an hour after the battle, scared me slightly. My emotions were flowing freely, and I felt some disgust at the blood that was in my joints, and sadness at the trooper's deaths, but I felt nothing else. It was... concerning. Despite the droid body, I was still a human, and to kill so easily bothered me.

But... I am at war. Where the enemy will not hesitate to kill me or slice me in half. Where the Chancellor would gladly arrange an ambush for me because he secretly controls both sides of said war with his edgy alter-ego. Right now, I could easily be killed in a multitude of ways.

I need to be ok with killing others, or I'll never make it in this universe. It's not the best mental state to be in, but it's necessary in order for me to stay alive.

My outer plating clicked into place, and the manipulator arms released me. My feet hit the ground with a metallic thud, and I walked out of my repair bay, a newfound determination glinting in my optics.

I had a ground invasion to plan.

 

[KillerFish]

Well, he's living up to the Blitzkreig name.

It always boggles the mind that ship to ship battle doctrine is nearly always basically done as if ships are ocean going vessels, or, at a pinch they always use the same spacial orientation.

Good work on exploiting that, General!

 

[Vitoryn]

Hope to see more of this soon!

 

[BlitzKrieg-T1]

Patreon.


Anyway, on to the story!

---

After three hours of waiting and tweaking my plans, the update was finally finished and manually implemented, and all of my forces rebooted around an hour later, with new knowledge and a distinct lack of restrictions and a remote shutdown code.

I did make a change or two to a little bit of some trooper's roles. One being that the B2-RPs, along with being Close Air Support, would also be variable terrain troops. They'll utilize their rocket boosters to scale rough terrain or fly up to the roofs of buildings to fire down on enemy lines, and in the process, get rid of any Republic forces that are on top of said buildings. This will keep my land-bound forces somewhat safer against attacks from above.

"All ships are in position, sir." 25 reported, his voice an octave lower to individualize himself.

I swept my arm out over the planet. "Begin landing procedures, expect resistance of any kind." I ordered.

The landing craft flew out of the hangars, while two of the Munificents and five smaller craft followed in escort.

"Prepare my ship once we get confirmation on the safety of the landing site." I added.

"Roger, roger." 25 replied.

I gazed out at the view of the planet and the slowly shrinking landing craft, which had filled most of the windows with its almost earth-like qualities. I could only imagine what was going on down there on the ecological disaster that was the surface.

--

When sixteen-year-old Padawan Jonas Savon was offered the opportunity to become a Knight, and a General in the GAR, he practically pounced at the chance.

His master, Knight Odo Jakken, had been killed by Telosians shortly after they arrived to reinforce the system. After the funeral for his teacher, he was knighted, and given command of his Master's fleet. Since then, the terrorist attacks against his forces had grown more and more violent, as had his methods of dealing with the nearly rioting Telosians. His anger at them grew with each passing day, and without his master, he began to... explore.

"Any news from the fleet that arrived earlier?" Savon asked.

"No, sir. We haven't been able to raise them on comms for their exit codes for four hours now. They may have been attacked by the Separatists." A clone communication officer reported.

Knight Savon looked out at the darkened base that had been set up as soon as they arrived. While the recent additions of a mechanical bay for the walkers and hover tanks was relatively recent, the base itself was ancient. The base was one of the few permanent military instillations on Telos that had survived the ravages of time and was believed to be built around a thousand years ago by the Republic, but later abandoned for unknown reasons. It had since been rebuilt and refitted with new technology as the years went by, rendering the place a confusing mess to repair for anyone. The only beings that could reliably repair the place were a small squad of repair droids, that had been on the base for about the same time as the base itself.

Suddenly, alarms began blaring on a console.

"Status report!" Knight Savon commanded.

"Scouts are reporting an entire Separatist landing force coming in near Thani, the old capital!" The clone at the console exclaimed.

"Get every unit to full combat readiness, now!" Knight Savon ordered.

Alarms blared across the entire base, and organized chaos erupted, as clones were roused from slumber and began readying the Republic war machine.

--

The LAAT lightly thumped against the ground, signaling we had landed. I, along with four Magnaguards and six Commandos stepped out of the commandeered vessel.

After waiting on the ship for a few hours, the landing site had finally been cleared for my safe landing. As I stepped off the LAAT, I noticed some of the droids were putting together some command equipment near an old farmhouse. The chosen landing site was a large, abandoned farm on the outskirts of Thani. Already, prefab structures were being erected and guards were patrolling the perimeter, while a few B1s checked over their vehicles.

It seemed that they had already run into resistance from the GAR, as a AT-TE lay on the ground not a hundred feet down the road, slowly being dragged over by a couple of recovery vehicles. GAR issue blasters and clone bodies littered the ground as well, with some B1's on corpse duty. A few B1's and an astromech were over at an AAT with battle damage, replacing one of its side mounted blasters.

I walked into the freshly completed command building, where a hologram of 25 stood on a communicator. Next to him, stood BX-99, the commando droid that I had placed in charge of the landing.

"Trouble already?" I asked.

"Yes, sir. Before we could even set down and begin creating the base, units had to be diverted in order to destroy an AT-TE, its crew, and the clones in its passenger area." The BX Commander reported.

"Has anything else happened since then?"

"No, sir. The command center should be finished within two hours, and after we will be ready to move out to Thani."

"Good. I have received word that the remainder of our fleet has just entered the final stages of their weapon overhaul. We should be expecting reinforcements within a month."

"That still doesn't make me feel any better about our lack of any heavy hitters up here, sir." 25 commented.

"So far, we have cut off communications with the rest of the galaxy, so I don't believe you will have to worry about anything besides the GAR attempting to fire upon the two in-atmosphere Munificents."

After a bit of deliberation, I decided upon keeping a few Munificents in-atmosphere in order for them to provide medium range artillery support as they each followed their own wing of my forces to whatever objective is set. The Recusants and the other Munificents in orbit would act as long-range heavy artillery, orbitally bombarding places on a grid when ordered to.

Interestingly, scans from the orbital fleet discovered a large collection of machinery in the northern hemisphere of the planet, and a memory from a story I read in my old life surfaced, something about a droid factory and an old Jedi temple on Telos IV. I never played the KOTOR games, but I distinctly remembered something about the HK series on this planet.

"So, what's the plan, sir?" 25 asked.

"Send a battalion to that collection of machinery in the north." I ordered, gesturing at the map of Telos IV that shoved 25's hologram to the side. " It appears to be an old military base. We can use it to consolidate control over that area as well." I pointed further north at another structure in an arctic mesa. "Once we have pushed the Republic back enough, load up a few C-99s with building materials and send them to this location, we will begin construction of a droid foundry there, mostly underground. As of now, we have no reinforcements coming for a month, so we need to utilize any and all methods of building more of our forces."

Both were in agreement, and 25 ended his call.

"99, I want you to send out scouting teams for any machinery we can use. I don't care how outdated it is, as long as it's able to be used to further the war effort. I will not allow the Republic to push us back into space."

"Roger, roger. I get a few scouting parties ready."

BX-99 left the command center, and I turned to the map, and the slowly growing red dots that were the Republic troops mobilizing.

It is time for the Battle of Telos to begin.

"All units, begin attack." I ordered.

--

B1-840 and his squad rocketed across the landscape on their STAPs, gliding over the ground and over fallen logs.

840 was really grateful for the General's software update. He actually felt like he could think, something that he could barely do before he was put under command of the General.

"So, what exactly are we doing out here!?" B1-843 asked over the sound of the wind whipping around them.

"Didn't you read the orders?" B1-840 responded, whacking 843 on the head. "Were supposed to find any working machinery to help us take the planet from the Republic!"

"I didn't read the orders, I was busy!"

"I see something! 2 o'clock low!" B1-842 reported, interrupting the beginning of 840's and 843's twentieth argument.

The squad flew down in front of what looked like a crescent shaped old warehouse. 840 was the first to hit the ground, and noticed the building was very tall, with small chimneys on top of it. Seven sets of double doors sat on the inside of the crescent, all with strange metal rods lying on the ground, all of them converging on a single set of metal rods on what looked like a rotating segment.

"What is this place?" 843 asked as they walked in a side entrance to a smaller building connected to it, blasters at the ready.

"It looks like a hangar, but not like any I've ever seen." 840 replied.

The squad searched through the smaller building, which looked like an office. 843 opened a cabinet, and inside was a few datapads.

"Whoa! Guys, you need to see this!" B1-845 shouted from the crescent building.

When 840 walked into the building, he nearly dropped his blaster in shock. Inside the building were seven large machines, all sitting on the metal rods. They were strange but somewhat elegant designs. A long cylindrical front leading back to an enclosed cab, sitting on top of four small wheels in front, and six large wheels in the back connected by a long rod. The top of it had a smaller cylinder sticking out of the top, and a light was attached to the front of the larger cylinder. The others were much the same, just with less or more big and small wheels.

"Do you think we should tell the General about these?" B1-841 asked.

"Definitely." 840 replied.

The antenna on 840's backpack slid up, and he put his finger to the side of his head.

"This is B1-840 calling command. Come in command."

"This is command. Have you found something, 840?"

"I think we've found some sort of primitive freight transports. They still look useable, but probably need servicing to their reactors. They don't look like they've been active for a long time."

"Roger, roger. I'm sending a few units there now."

840 glanced out a window and gasped when he saw two LAATs flying towards them.

"Put a hold on the repair units, we've got two LAATs bearing down on us!" 840 exclaimed. "We need reinforcements!"

"Roger, roger. Droidekas inbound."

840 leveled his blaster at the clones outside the window as they stepped out of the craft.

"Why are the clankers at this old train depot?" One of them asked.

"This is a train depot?" Another asked.

"Yeah, didn't you read the dossier on this planet? Telos had trains that spewed out smoke and drove on those durasteel rails all across the continents thousands of years ago."

"Why not use repulsorlifts, wouldn't they be cheaper?"

"Actually, they ran off of something called 'coal', which was even cheaper per pound than tibanna gas. Like, ten credits a pound to tibanna's one hundred fifty credit pre-war price."

'Huh, useful intel. The General will be glad to have learned that.' 840 thought, glancing back at the 'trains' behind him.

"Droidekas on approach, create a diversion."

"Die, Republic dogs!" 840 rallied, opening fire on the clones.

The troopers dove for cover and returned fire, one of their shots almost taking 840's head off. The B1 ducked down behind his cover and blind fired his E-5 at the clones. He heard one scream out in pain, and one of their blasters fell silent. That would have raised his mood, but the blaster fire intensified, and his squads cover began to break down.

Just above the sounds of battle, 840 heard the warbling sounds of multiple full speed Droideka engines. He chanced a peek out of cover, and watched in awe as a whole squad of Droidekas crested the hill. The clones tried turning around, but they were too slow, as the twin blaster cannons on all five of them opened fire, piercing through plastoid and carving through flesh.

"What the kriff-AUGH!" One clone tried to exclaim but was shot before finishing his sentence.

Soon the firing stopped, and 840 and his squad walked out of the depot to see that the Droidekas had uncurled and were surveying the bodies, watching for movement in case any only pretended to be dead. Not even the pilots of the LAATs were spared, as pinpoint shots straight into their helmets stopped them from flying away.

"Nice job, I see why they call you guys Destroyer Droids now." 840 remarked.

"You're welcome, 840. My squad is happy to assist you. Command is sending over a few repair units now." The Droideka squad leader replied in binary.

"That's good to know. We do have two LAATs to deal with now as well."

"Indeed. My squad and I must take our leave; we are needed elsewhere."

"Good luck then, and don't get shot!" 840 joked.

"Oh please. The clones won't even be able to keep track of us."

--

BX-87 dodged another blaster shot from the clone trooper, then ran him through with his vibroblade.

He pulled his blade out and spun around, cleaving into another clone that tried shooting him from behind. Just as he pulled the blade out of the plastoid armor, an explosion blew a hole in the building he was fighting near, flinging dirt and rocks onto his frame. He barely managed to stay on his feet, and immediately took cover with his group.

"What was that?!" B1-828, BX-87's comms officer, exclaimed.

87 peeked around the ruined building and spotted an AT-TE five hundred yards away. A brief puff of smoke curling away from its Mass Driver cannon's barrel.

"Republic walker, five hundred yards." 87 replied. "Get us Hailfire support."

B1-828's antenna slid out of its housing, and he nodded when he got a clear signal, while 87 looked back out of the hole in the building with a pair of macrobinoculars.

"Grid 3-6-4-2." 87 relayed to the B1.

"Command this is B1-828 requesting Hailfire support on grid 3-6-4-2. Target is Republic AT-TE five hundred yards northeast from our position."

"Roger, roger, support incoming."

For a few moments, nothing happened. But then distant rocket engines shot to life, and four missiles streaked over an old barn, impacting directly into the middle of the AT-TE. The walker cracked in two, exploding in a fiery inferno. The two pieces of the walker fell to the ground, the fires burning from within scorching the paintjob.

"Walker down." 87 reported.

"Fire mission successful, Republic walker is destroyed." 828 reported.

"Good work, proceed to the walker and plant a salvage beacon when safe. The General has a plan for those big machines."

"Roger, roger."

"Incoming LAAT gunship!" A B1 shouted. "Bays are open, it looks like there's an ARC trooper in there!"

"We'll ambush them as soon as they land, get in position." 87 ordered.

The droids around him burst into action, as they prepared a surprise for the Republic troops.

--

"Gunner, armor piercing high explosive!" B1-560 ordered.

"Armor piercing high explosive, loaded." B1-562 replied.

"Enemy TX-130, seven hundred fifty-three meters."

"...Optics on target."

"Hold until they enter the valley."

Their AAT, hidden behind the rubble of an old house and partially covered in bushes, tracked a Republic TX-130 as it, along with a squadron of clone troopers, slowly entered the valley. The suspense from waiting was so thick you could cut it with a dull vibroblade. After a few even more tense moments where the tank's barrels hovered over the ruined building, 560 finally gave the order.

"Fire." 560 commanded.

562 pulled the trigger, and the recoil from the cannon pushed the tank back slightly from its sheer power. The round sailed through the air and impacted right on the upper glacis, the energy coating leaving a scorch mark around the hole. The round penetrated straight through the relatively thin armor of the tank and exploded on the inside, killing all the occupants. The detonation set off a chain reaction inside the vehicle, which ignited its fuel, exploding and taking out fifteen of the squadron of clones.

"Good hit, target down. Let's clean up the rest of them." 560 said, patting 562 on the shoulder.

560 closed the hatch and locked it as the AAT drove out into the open, firing its side mounted blasters at the clones.

--

"This is B1-3482, I need immediate fire support on my position. My squadron has found a Republic base!" B1-3482 radioed.

"This is B1-233, captain of Close Encounter. What needs blowing up?" The captain of one of the two in-atmosphere Munificents replied.

"I need a bombardment on Thanak police station. The GAR have a lot of clones and armor here!"

A nearby explosion almost took 3482 off his feet, but the B1 grabbed onto a light post and steadied himself.

"Roger, roger. Nearing your position now, just give us a few seconds."

3482 looked up to see the silhouette of the Munificent in the sky, slowly blotting out the sun at its altitude. Then, after a harrowing moment were everything on the battlefield went silent, as everyone stared up at the hovering ship, the turbolasers started firing. 3482 had never seen a bombardment before, and now he watched in more awe than he ever thought his programming would ever allow as the bright red bolts of energy blew craters into the ground, cleaved walkers in half, incinerated clone troopers, and slowly brought down the entire building the clones were using as a fortress.

After ten whole seconds, the firing stopped, and Thanak police station was nothing but a pile of rubble and half-melted durasteel.

"Did we get them?" 233 cheekily asked.

"Roger, roger, good hits. They aren't getting back up from that one!" 3482 radioed, then turned to his commander, a BX-series. "See anything, sir?"

"Just a few stragglers who had the sense to run, we'll capture them in time." The commando droid replied.

The group set off towards the ruins of the police station, blasters primed for any potential ambushes.

--

Blaster bolts impacted the ground all around B1-453 as he took cover behind a crumbling market stand.

There was a lull in the shooting when the clone's rifles ran hot, and 453 peeked out of cover and fired rapidly at the clone troopers, taking down four. At the other end of the street, two AT-RTs stood sentinel, firing their blaster cannons at whatever looked vaguely like a droid.

"Kriff." 453 muttered, slamming another gas cartridge into his E-5 and racking the charger.

Just as he was about to go out in a blaze of glory, he heard the sound of treads rolling towards him. 453 looked around, then lunged back when a N99 slammed through a wall, sending bricks flying all over the place. The snail tank opened fire with its blaster cannons, cutting down clone after clone, and 453 spotted his squad forming up behind the treaded vehicle. The B1 ran up behind 454 and patted him on the shoulder.

"I thought you guys were scrapped." 453 remarked.

"And I thought you had a good sense of direction." 454 snarked back.

"Push up with the N99!" 450 ordered, cutting their battle of words to an end.

The other two B1s shut up at that, and peeked out from behind the snail tank, and opened fire. The N99 fired its main cannons, and one of the AT-RTs tops, plus the clone riding it, disappeared in a flash of light. All that was left was a pair of lower legs, which somehow stood completely still, smoking slightly. The other AT-RT backed away and turned to flee, but 453 nailed the clone driver in the back of the head, and the walker slumped to the ground.

Pride in his shooting skills permeated through 453's programming, and he internally thanked the General for giving him better accuracy.

--

If I had a mouth still, I would be grinning from ear to ear.

The battle was progressing extremely well, even better than I anticipated. All Republic fronts were being pushed back on the planet thanks to the modern strategies I've implemented. The only fronts where my forces had hit roadblocks were all quickly taken care of by vehicle support, or thanks to one of the low flying Munificents. All fronts except one, at least, which soured my mood.

I had been receiving conflicting reports from an area near a Telosian military base, and what little communication I could get talked about someone with a sword cleaving through whole squads at a time. There was only one type of warrior in the clone army that used a sword in open combat, and that was a Jedi.

For a brief minute, I was intensely confused as to why a Jedi of all beings was on this ecological disaster of a planet. But I mentally smacked myself when I remembered that there were around ten thousand or so Jedi fighting across the galaxy during the war, not even counting the masses in the temple on Coruscant.

I had to remember that this was a galaxy spanning war, something that the human side of me was having a hard time wrapping its head around.

"Start my ship." I ordered. "I will deal with this Jedi... myself."

"Are you sure that's wise, sir?" BX-99 asked.

"We are pushing the Republic back on all fronts, except the one where the Jedi is stationed. Those Force users are capable of blocking 90% of blaster bolts with only a blade of pure plasma, which is capable of sending the bolt back at the one firing. The only Force users on our side of this war, are Count Dooku, and Asajj Ventress. General Grievous has no tangible connection to the Force, but he is still capable of dodging bolts and blocking them with his quadruple lightsabers. I will not allow my soldiers to die to a glorified monk with a laser sword. I am going out there."

"...Roger, roger. But I still think this is a bad idea, sir. At least take some reinforcements."

"...Fine."

--

Knight Savon sliced through another B1, internally cursing at how hard he had to fight in order for his troops to make any progress.

It didn't make any sense to him. The droids he fought when they took Telos were complete idiots, marching forward and firing blindly, hoping to catch him off guard. They were easy to kill, unlike the terrorists. But now, they acted with tactics that were even better than what his troops had. The tanks were even harder to reach now that the droids surrounded them and fired from behind the machines.

Not to mention that other clones were reporting that the Hailfire droids, which were a nightmare for all the AT-TEs, were staying out of sight almost all the time, except when they briefly break cover to fire their missiles. And AATs were hiding behind buildings and covering themselves with bushes.

HIDING. Who hides when they have a tank for kriffs sake!?

Savon's anger soared, and he growled as he cut through a B2 that had chanced looking out of its cover. Five flying B2s and a Rocket Droid began firing at him, and Savon was soon forced back behind the scorched wreck of an AT-TE with his clone commander, Brock.

"How are the droids this good at combat!?" Savon exclaimed in anger.

"I don't know, but when I find whoever programmed them to be able to kill so many of my brothers, they are going to pay." Brock replied, a ferocious glint in his eye.

The sound of an LAAT made most of the clones jerk their heads up. Savon was grateful to see friendly reinforcements, but his good mood turned right back into anger when his troops were fired upon by droids inside the LAAT. The commandeered LAAT landed behind the lines, and the droids stopped firing. Savon was confused as the droid army moved back, keeping their blasters leveled on his squadron's cover.

Then he saw a new droid.

It looked like one of the new Super Tactical Droids he heard about, but it was different. Black plating, red accents, stark white photoreceptors, and much bulkier than what he had heard about them. Then it spoke, in a voice that sent shivers down his spine.

"Republic troops, you are being pushed back on all fronts. Surrender. Now." It said, its voice echoing over the landscape.

Savon's anger exploded, and he leaped out of his cover, lightsaber lit, and a snarl on his face.

"I will not be taken prisoner by a droid!" He bellowed.

Then he lunged at the droid, aiming to take its head off. He didn't expect, however, for the droid to bring out a vibroblade and block his lightsaber.

"How sloppy. I expected better of a Jedi Knight." The droid taunted.

Savon somehow became even angrier at the droid, and he swung his saber again.

--

I was not expecting the Jedi to be halfway to the dark side, to be honest.

I blocked an overhead strike, then parried a swing. The sound of my vibroblade and the lightsaber echoed across the battlefield as the shooting began anew, my troops opening fire on GAR reinforcements. We blocked and parried, our battle taking us across the warzone.

This guy was fast. Thankfully, I could keep up with him with my droid brain, but it was not easy to do.

Our blades locked together, and in the process of attempting to remove them, they arched over us and slammed into a low brick wall. I took a chance and aimed my free hand's concealed blaster at the Jedi and fired. The Jedi moved his head out of the way, but cried out in pain when the bolt grazed his ear. I was thrown back by a Force push, and barely got my vibroblade up to block an attack by the crazed Force Adept.

I kicked out with one leg, and bone cracked as my foot came in contact with his shin. The Jedi screamed in pain, and I kicked him between the legs. Somehow, he screamed even louder, and stumbled back as I got to my feet. I then had to dodge and block a flurry of sloppy and rage-filled attacks from the Jedi, who seemed to be getting more and more unstable the longer we fought.

He slashed at me again, and this time I wasn't fast enough. My right arm flew away, hitting the ground with a thud. I stared at my missing appendage, then back at the Jedi, who now had a feral grin on his face. His eyes were sulfur yellow, and he slowly stalked towards me. I thought it was the end until I noticed something behind him, and a plan began forming in my mind.

"Before you kill me, will you answer a single question?" I asked while slowly backing away.

The fallen Jedi's head tilted slightly. He was silent for a few moments as he thought.

"And what would that be?" He finally asked.

"What is the name of my killer?" I queried.

"...I am Jedi Knight Jonas Savon. It's time for you to die now, droid."

"On the contrary, I will live to see another day. You, however, ...won't. NOW!"

I lunged out of the way, and the AAT that had arrived onto the battlefield fired a blaster cannon at Knight Savon. The Jedi barely had time to turn around and block the blast, but as soon as he deflected it, another round impacted his chest, sending him stumbling back with a large scorch mark on his stomach.

He looked at me with pure hatred in his eyes as he stared down the sight of my other concealed blaster smoking lightly. Savon fell to his knees as I picked up my vibroblade and walked towards him.

"I... will not... lose to a... droid!" Savon gasped out.

I swung my vibroblade, blood spurted as metal cleaved through flesh, and Savon fell to the ground in two pieces.

Even though he was falling to the dark side, I had succeeded against him in combat. I had officially claimed my first kill against a Jedi.

"Well... that happened." I muttered, raising my arm to pull a small piece of shrapnel out of my armor.

For some reason, I couldn't reach my own chest. Then I looked down at the stump of my right arm.

"Oh, right. 99, I need a lift back to my ship." I said.

"You got damaged again, didn't you?" 99 asked.

I picked up a small, dirt covered cylinder and turned it over in my remaining hand. I clicked the button on it, and an azure blade of plasma ignited out of it. Looks like the Jedi's lightsaber survived.

"I might have."

If I still had a mouth, I'd be grinning.

 

[BazDog25]

Magnificent.

I enjoy seeing the droids being fixed, and seeing the truth of war shine through for the clone wars.

I also wanna see how Sidious reacts when he has to deal with a lightsaber wielding super droid

 

[KillerFish]

Well, half the usual cost of fighting a Jedi for a planet. Normally it cost an arm *and* a leg.

Clone Brock salty that the machines programmed for warfare are too good at the job: "How dare they design these clankers to be competent! Thats not fair!"

 

[BlitzKrieg-T1]

The repair bay whirled around me, adding improvements to my design, created by me after analyzing my fight with the Jedi.

After Knight Savon was killed, Republic reinforcements arrived, and I was forced to fight with only one arm until the GAR was depleted of troops to throw at us. What followed was a vicious routing of the clones, with thousands being taken prisoner and even more dying in battle. One of the largest battles happened later, when we attacked the main Republic base. It also happened to be the bloodiest, because I had fifteen of my Hailfire Droids launch all of their missiles into the base, disabling or destroying most of the Republic armor, and killing around three fourths of the remaining clones.

A series of clicks accompanied a new, thicker chestplate being attached to me, colored black with blue accents like the rest of my frame and new paintjob. And my servomotors whirred with newfound strength and speed taken from upgraded HK-derived motors.

A recon squad finding the remnants of a railroad really surprised me, because I thought that most of the galaxy had moved far beyond even internal combustion engines, let alone steam power. But the continued discovery of more and more abandoned steamworks, coal mines, and old tracks crisscrossing over most of the continents of Telos showed just how long steam engines continued to be used on the planet. Obviously, I commissioned the native Telosians to revamp the old railroads for military use, which they wholeheartedly agreed with.

My feet clanked heavier than normal against the floor as the maintenance equipment dropped me. I walked out of the repair bay and to my bed, where a smooth cloak lay, colored a navy blue with a black interior. I threw the cloak on and placed the lightsaber I took from the Jedi into a specially designed compartment on my right thigh. My communicator beeped, and I activated it after seeing it was my newly promoted admiral.

"Are you ready, sir?" 25 asked. "Your transport is waiting."

"I'll be out in a moment." I replied, turning and walking out of my quarters.

I was heading to the official start of the HK facility's initial run. The last two weeks had been a whirlwind of activity, with a lot of events condensed into it. The first railway from Thani to the HK foundry was completed within the first week, after an entire day of checking over three of the most intact engines to ensure that they wouldn't break down.

The other four were being completely overhauled in the old steamworks with parts taken from fifteen museum pieces from across the planet. Thankfully, the native Telosians knew how to maintain and even build them, due to most documents about the engines still being intact and easily accessible.

These engines were extremely powerful and efficient, something that I attributed to the technological advancements of the Star Wars universe. Gravity generators located in the engine increased its weight based on how many cars it was pulling behind it, and efficiency upgrades meant that each engine could run over eight hundred miles on a single tank of water and tender of coal. Of the seven trains in the shed, four were 4-6-0 mixed traffic haulers, two were 4-8-4's meant for heavy freight hauling, and the last one was a massive 4-8-8-4, and looked remarkably similar to Big Boy, which legitimately confused me for a solid five minutes when I first set optics on it.

My reopening of the railway and the relocation of most of the industrial assets away from the planet's struggling equatorial nature reserve, also gained the admiration of the Telos Restoration Society, along with most of the other locals as well. Turns out, the Telosians strongly disliked their corporate overlords, who had torn up quite a bit of the planet's ecosystem in the pursuit of profit. So, taking the power away from them, and moving all their factories far away from the population was practically celebrated.

The structure in the arctic that we discovered in the orbital scans was actually an ancient Jedi academy, which somehow didn't surprise me as much as I thought, considering how widespread the Jedi once were. There was, however, a small problem with the door, which wouldn't open since it was a Force door. The solution was simply to blast the door apart. The inside of the building yielded an entire library's worth of holocrons, some of which were even of the Sith variety. Those were destroyed with utmost prejudice, simply by firing them into the sun from the Harbinger's Greed in a lead-lined box.

I'm drawn out of my musings by the LAAT touching down. I stepped out of the craft and began walking to the facility, and I was joined by someone as I walked.

"Ah, General Blitzkrieg, I'm glad to see you are well." Zilean greeted.

Zilean Jessera was an interesting being. A female Dathomirian, who's family had been a part of Telosian politics for seven thousand years. She was among the first sentients to jump at the opportunity to remove the corporate overlords influence on Telos. She was a staunch supporter of the Telos Restoration Society, and a person that now had the official support of the Confederacy to elect her as Senator of the planet. The last one was found dead under 'mysterious circumstances'.

She also treated me as an equal, which was nice, considering how most beings seemed to have treated droids as little more than appliances.

"You as well, Zilean." I replied, modulating my voice to its least menacing tone.

With that, we both walked into the foundry, to see how the newest warriors of mine fared.

--

By the time my Providence-class dreadnought, two extra Munificents, and my Lucrehulk arrived in-system four weeks later, the beginnings of an orbital defense network had started construction.

Given enough time and effort, Telos would become a bastion for the Confederacy, despite its lack of population in comparison to a planet like Tatooine. Already, the train lines were becoming more numerous, and the first of the new engines were rolling off the assembly line in Thani. The Telosians jumped on the Confederacy bandwagon with a vigor I had never seen before in my life. The planets north and south poles were rapidly industrializing, the nature reserves were beginning to heal from the constant work of droid and organic, and the first of my personally upgraded battle droids were coming off the lines.

Instead of making all new droids, I decided to throw my forces into upgrade centers, which was cheaper, and more efficient. The upgraded droids had HK-derived processor upgrades, minus the verbal and behavioral tics that the HK-series is known for. It actually surprised me just how much empty space the average B1 had in its head and body, even more so for the B2. All of my droids, from the B1 to the IG-227, were upgraded with better processors, servomotors, blasters, and optics.

Combine all of that with copies of 25's combat experience, and my troops routine war games to give them even more experience, and you've got a very effective fighting force. A small but growing bastion of them would stay on this planet for the foreseeable future as my trump card, just in case I end up in a bad situation with the Republic, Confederacy, Sith, or whatever else has it out for me, in the future.

Speaking of droids, the first batch of the HK line was a resounding success. Interestingly, they weren't a rusty red color, but black with blue accents like my new plating, with white optics. The same behavioral and verbal tics prevalent in the previous HK lines were still there, not that it bothered me much. The tests of their battle prowess were promising, and mass production on them would begin as soon as the facilities were created. I also had a few selected for a specific project I had in mind.

Along with upgrading my troops, I have also upgraded myself. My armor has been thickened to better protect me against blaster bolts, faster and stronger servomotors modified from the HK line have replaced my stock hydraulics, greatly increasing my agility. Simulations showed that I could better keep up with a Jedi now, along with fighting better in general. My blasters were upgraded as well, still remaining as concealed dual wrist blasters, but were replaced with pairs of heavy blaster pistols, best known as the signature weapon of Han Solo, the DL-44. The new blasters upped my firepower by quite a large margin.

However, blasters are easily deflected by Jedi, which is why I brought over some designs from my home universe. Slugthrowers are hard for Jedi to block, since the slugs simply melt after passing through the blade, showering the force user with molten shrapnel. Most are very crude in construction, almost like all the makeshift weapons that kept popping up in Africa and the Middle East. The kind of guns that are from my home world, however, are of a much better construction, one of which being a certain German machinegun from the mid-40's.

The MG-42 had suffered from a significant flaw in its design: its rate of fire was too high for the metal of the gun to handle. The gunner had roughly thirty seconds of continuous fire before the barrel overheated, and he had to wait for it to cool off, or even replace the barrel itself due to warping. Even less time if the gunner fired all at once rather than in bursts, like what was recommended.

In some later cases, when the German army was using poorer quality materials for their guns, the barrel would overheat before you had even finished a single ammo box. I had solved that problem with a liberal application of Star Wars era technology, even though it took up most of my time. In fact, only three of each exist right now, and all of them are being studied for limited production.

With a new durasteel barrel and receiver, plus an additional box magazine, plus a backpack variant attached to a few upgraded droids, and my new special forces, the Vanguard, were created. I also brought over a few shotguns, revolvers, and rifles, starting with the M1 Garand, .45 Colt Peacemaker, and the Winchester 1897 lever action.

Tests of the guns from my home world against the average slugthrower were very telling of the superior craftmanship of Earths weapons. The average slugthrower was not very good, only really able to be used for hunting and self-defense. It couldn't penetrate any real form of armor like its competitor, the E-5, which almost as cheap as the droid who wields it. A Garand, however, shot straight through the plastoid chestplate of a clone trooper dummy.

That surprised me, since I thought that Star Wars armor was made of tougher stuff. But then I started looking at how the bullets of a slugthrower were made. The tech of Star Wars may have been advanced, and slugthrowers like the Cycler Rifle were essentially miniature railguns, but the tech of the bullets was somehow outdated by my standards.

It was a fairly familiar looking bullet, but with one major difference. The bullet itself was just a metal ball, like what you'd see in a musket. After a bit of research, I learned that making aerodynamic bullets was deemed a 'waste of time' after blasters became commonplace. And eventually the tech required to make actual bullets was lost. All of That didn't mean I had abandoned the average Cycler Rifle. That design, being a miniature railgun, could easily be upgraded as well, something that I had already started working on.

Since I would be fighting Jedi more often than the average droid, I created two entirely custom quad barrel derringers that fired twelve-gauge rounds and placed them in slide-out compartments on both of my inner wrists. That effectively gave me double the firepower for a brief amount of time, since I carried sixteen extra rounds in my arms. It was only a temporary loadout, at most, since I had plans to recreate a Spas-12 and shove it in my left arm.

"Greetings, General."

I was drawn out of my thoughts by the arrival of the standard Tactical Droid, colored blue with gray accents, designated TD-60. When he first arrived, he hadn't had any of the updates that I had created, so he was a bit flatter, personality-wise, then the rest of my troops. He was in charge of my recently refitted fleet until it arrived to link up with my own here on Telos IV.

He was also supposed to be in charge of the planetary defense fleet that would be here in a few days to keep it safe from the Republic. Knowing that, I had quickly given him, along with the rest of my fleet, my personal update. Now TD-60 will safeguard Telos from any threat, and work with the natives to ship the new things I have created for them, effectively jumpstarting the Telosian economy.

"How long will it take for my repair bay to be added?" I asked as we walked out of the command base, my cloak flowing behind me.

"I estimate it will take two more hours to transport your repair bay from the Harbinger's Greed to the Finest Hour." TD-60 responded.

"What are my next orders?"

"Count Dooku left your orders in a message for you on the Finest Hour."

"Good. I trust you will keep Telos safe in my absence?"

"Fear not, General Blitzkrieg. Telos shall remain as you leave it."

Given what my vocalizer sounds like, I was expecting to say that at one point, not a subordinate.

--

The Finest Hour is a Providence-class Dreadnought, and my official flagship.

When you think of the Separatists, this is probably the first ship you would think of, with the Lucrehulk probably being a close second. The forces on-board where mostly what you'd expect, although I did have some oddities, those being ten Infiltrator Demolition Droids, those transforming droids that bombed Coruscant, and a hundred AQ-series Aqua Droids.

An interesting set of canon events happened while I was defeating the Republic on Telos IV, namely the battle of Ryloth happened in the month and a half I've been here. That meant, according to what I remember from fan speculation and the official timeline, that the next arc was going to involve the Holocron Heist of the Jedi Temple. Which also means that Cad Bane is going to be around for a little while.

After that, the next big arc will probably be either the Zillo Beast arc or the second battle of Geonosis. Where the largest foundry world for the Confederacy will be attacked, and the prototype Heavy Armored Assault Tanks, also known as 'super tanks', will have their production facilities destroyed.

God, I need to set aside some time to work out the confusing order of the Clone wars.

"Welcome aboard the Finest Hour, sir." 25 greeted as I walked onto the bridge.

"Are you happy with the fleet now, admiral 25?" I asked.

"I am, indeed, General Blitzkrieg."

"Where are the orders from Dooku? TD-60 reported that he had another mission for us."

"He left his message on the communicator in your quarters, sir. But before you go, what ships should we leave until the planetary defense fleet gets here?"

"...Leave the Harbinger's Greed, the Close Encounter, and eight of our twenty-eight support craft."

"Yes, sir."

With that, I walked off the bridge and to my quarters, H1-01 walking in lockstep with me. As I walked, I passed by a few patrolling B1's, who stopped and saluted me as I passed, placing a fist over their chest.

That salute was something that my HK units started, and it had quickly spread to every droid in my army. I had asked H1-01, my personal bodyguard, about it at one point, and he explained that it meant that my forces would gladly lay down their artificial lives to protect me from any threat.

My door bisected and opened with a quiet hiss and closed behind me once I had entered. My new room was fairly spacious, but still just as spartan as my old one. There were a few new additions, however, those being a large holotank in the corner, and a desk, complete with a chair, which I sat down in. The desk had a communicator in it, which was beeping. I clicked the answer button, and the visage of Christopher Lee popped up in a recorded message.

"General BZ-KG, your new orders are to assist the bounty hunter, Cad Bane, with finding Jedi Master Bolla Ropal. You will meet up with him in the Devaron system. Complete this mission, and do not fail me." The Count of Serreno commanded.

"...Fuck."

"Statement: I have no idea what that means, General, but I agree. Meatbags can be such a bother." H1-01 remarked.

 

[KillerFish]

Can't go wrong with a HK descendant line of droids, the original really set the standard for what a battle droid/assassin should really be. Although I wonder what the original would think of all these derivative models?

 

[Str8Rippin]

I've honestly been waiting for so long for a story just like this, I'm really excited to see where this goes. It definitely looks like sidious is going to have a monster headache

 

[hpackrat]

You already have dual wrist blasters. How are you going to fit in those derringers into your arms?

 

[Obsidian0206]

I didn't know I needed a clone wars droid si, then i binged this thread in like 15 min. Now I am literally dying waiting for the next update. Amazing. Long Live the CIS.

 

[M24M42]

Good to see this back but what happened with the Plagiarism thing over on SpaceBattles?
Last I saw the page over there was locked?

Edit - NVM caught the Update. Plagiarism was around the HK models and has been cleared up

 

[CrazedGamma1721]

Hey Blitz, Will The SI Find The Original HK-47 On Mustafar. That Would Be Fun.

 

[DevonFazbear]

Good to see this back but what happened with the Plagiarism thing over on SpaceBattles?
Last I saw the page over there was locked?

Edit - NVM caught the Update. Plagiarism was around the HK models and has been cleared up

Click to shrink...

Yeah that was some bullshit that shouldn't have happened in the first place.

 

[morkail]

Interesting story the fact he was able to reprogram all his droids with new tactics and strategies so quickly is probably something the CIS didn't know he could do… or was even made to do. Hopfully his nature means any hidden shut down or control codes just won't work.

Question is if he can do that what stops him from "upgrading" the rest of the CIS forces.

Watched.

 

[moop]

Fuck bane and steal that stealth fighter he got from sidious. Why leave that fighter with that prick

 

[BlitzKrieg-T1]

Patreon.

---

Duros are rather interesting beings.

Being one of the first species to develop hyperdrive capable spacecraft, they're found all over the galaxy, Core to Rim. Reptilian in nature, and warm-blooded, both of which surprised me when I met Cad Bane. Speaking of my favorite character from the Clone Wars, Bane was almost exactly the same as his Tv show counterpart, which didn't surprise me.

Have I mentioned that seeing Star Wars aliens in real life is a bit disorienting at first? Because it is. It was simple enough to wrap my brain around advanced robotics, considering I was an advanced piece of robotics, and had been surrounded by them for nearly two months. But when Cad Bane, a Duros, landed in my dreadnought, and stepped off of his ship, it threw me off big time. I actually did stumble when Aurra Sing walked off the ship as well. I would later learn that he brought her along as a replacement, since the Clawdite woman from the temple heist was currently in a Republic prison.

The heist apparently went off just like in canon, and after a day or so, my fleet was ready.

"Bane, my forces are ready to invade Devaron." I reported.

"Then let's go kidnap us a Jedi." The Duros replied, his breathing tubes giving his voice a metallic edge.

"Lets." Aurra added as they left the bridge.

[Battlenet connection: Active]
[Awaiting orders]
...
[Orders received. Munificents 'Xanda's Pride' and 'Taxers Ire' moving into escort landing craft]

--

While Bane and Aurra participated in the quickly progressing war on the surface, I checked on a few things back on Telos IV.

The droid factories had grown slightly larger over the two and a half days it took to get to Devaron, and one had even started construction on a molecular furnace. If you don't know what those are, it's essentially a machine that can break down any type of matter down to the atom and reformat it into any chosen design, from droid parts to entire weapons. It will be a lot slower than I anticipated, but that's probably because of how advanced yet primitive some of the tech in Star Wars is. I'll probably throw some of Telos' scientists at it to increase its efficiency once it's done.

Anyway. Remember those transforming droids that turned into glorified Roombas?

Well, I've decided to hone my inner transformers fan and start applying that sort of tech to other things, most notably, my own body. My frame would need to be altered since I would need to become bulkier, and I would gain a foot or so in size, taking me to just under General Grievous' height of 7'1, which would give me more space to shove tech and weapons into myself. That would come later, however, once I had returned to Telos.

I also had a plan in the works to create a few spare bodies for myself. Although I wasn't very keen on body hopping just yet, considering I didn't know if I was just inhabiting the droid brain or the whole body. But I still had the plan underway just in case. Experiments for another time, I suppose.

Something I had realized about the AFVs of the Star Wars universe, is that they were mostly designed to look 'cool'. If you know literally anything about armored warfare, 'cool' doesn't necessarily mean 'effective'. I mean, look at the Jagtiger or the Maus. Take a look at the AT-TE's main cannon, and its complete lack of armor for the gunner. Or the AAT not being able to traverse its main cannon down when the turret is facing straight ahead. Both are victims of the movie designers wanting things to look 'cool' and completely forgoing functionality.

The AT-TE, to start with, is a walker. Now don't get me wrong, I love the AT-TE... as a concept. In actual warfare, the AT-TE has too high a center of gravity, so it can be knocked over fairly easy, even with its six legs. It is also an absolutely massive target, being that it's around thirty-one feet tall including the top cannon, eighteen feet wide, and forty-two feet long minus the cannon barrel.

With the barrel that shoots up to seventy-two feet in length. The underside is also relatively unarmored, meaning that mines and even infantry could potentially disable the kriffing thing. And do I even need to mention the transparisteel canopy the driver has? Also, the 'top speed' of sixty kph (thirty-seven mph) is also a lie, these things move at absolute fastest, fifteen mph.

The AAT is much smaller, coming in at thirty-one feet long, fourteen feet tall, and twenty-six feet wide. It's a much smaller target compared to the AT-TE, and its armor is more resilient than its opponent in the GAR. The downsides heavily outweigh the upsides, however. The aforementioned inability to move the cannon down when facing straight ahead being one of them.

Another is the fact that the driver and the commander are pretty much blind, since the driver has a singular camera to see out of, and the commander has no periscope or anything similar in the cupola. I've been authorizing modifications to add a bit more visibility, but it's a very slow process. Another flaw is the missile launchers in the hull. If the AAT sets off a mine, it could potentially cause a catastrophic ammo fire, and blow up the entire vehicle. To be honest, I never got the point of the missile launchers, the tank is already deadly enough with just its cannon and twin side-mounted blasters.

Another problem is the repuslorlifts. I remember seeing Jar-Jar hanging off the barrel of one in episode one, and just the relatively light weight of the Gungan was enough to make the side of the tank dig into the ground. The repulsorlifts are also terrible on heavily forested ground, like on a planet such as Kashyyyk. They get little to no 'traction' with so much loose vegetation on the ground.

So, I once again dipped into my previous universe's tech, and painstakingly recreated the design of the M1 Abrams. Thirty-two feet long (with the gun), twelve feet wide, and eight feet tall. What it lacks in size, it vastly makes up for with speed, manuverability, survivability, cost, and general functionality, all while looking 'cool' as well.

It will, however, take quite a while to retrofit everything in it into Star Wars tech, along with creating the vehicle itself. New factories, new training modules, new logistics, things like that. Interestingly, since the M1 lacks any repulsorlifts in its design, it would actually be cheaper by about 20,000 credits to make than an AAT. Personally, I was thinking of crewing it entirely with HK units, just to make it a little bit deadlier if it gets disabled. I also have a Bradley design I'm working on as well, to eventually replace the N99.

"General, the bounty hunters have captured the Jedi." 25 reported.

"Begin recalling our troops then." I ordered.

[Intelligence report received]
...
[Republic fleet moving towards Devaron to intercept CIS fleet]
[ETA: Thirty-two minutes]

Just as I expected. The 'Hero with no Fear' comes, as does his padawan. And I don't have enough time to evacuate properly.

I walked up to the outer windows and stared out at the stars, waiting for the fated 'Chosen One' to arrive.

"How is my special project?" I asked.

"It needs a bit more calibration, but it should be ready when you need it, sir." 25 reported.

I had a surprise waiting for the Jedi.

--

Anakin Skywalker was not having the best of days.

It all started when the Jedi Temple was attacked. A bounty hunter named Cad Bane infiltrated the place, blew up some stuff, and escaped with a holocron. And now he's chased Bane all the way to the Devaron system, where instead of intercepting a single craft, an entire separatist fleet was stationed. He regarded over the battle with a frown, as the separatist ships had all bunched together and melded their shields together, making them nigh impossible to penetrate.

He didn't even know that was possible.

"General, we're receiving an urgent message from the planet." Admiral Yularen reported.

As the battle stalemated outside, Anakin walked over to the communicator, where a flickering image of a clone fired at something off-camera.

"General Skywalker, our base has been overrun. There's no possibility of evacuation-AUGH!" The clone reported, getting shot in the shoulder in the process. "They've taken General Ropal and the holocron memory crystal."

"Do you know where they've taken them?" Anakin asked.

"We tried to stop them, but they left the outpost, and-Get off me you droi-AAAAUHA-...."

The message cut off as a vibrosword speared through the clone's chest from behind, and he was lifted off the ground. A BX commando droid moved out from behind his suspended body and aimed a blaster at the communicator. The call was cut off, and the entire bridge was left in a brief silence as everyone stared at where the hologram had been.

"The... The transmitter's been destroyed at the source, sir." The comms clone reported.

"We need to find out what ship Master Ropal is on." Anakin ordered.

The bridge returned to normalcy, if muted, from seeing a clone be impaled by a sword. Anakin glanced over at his padawan, who glanced over at the communicator every few seconds, poorly disguised fear radiating from her side of their bond. He set his flesh hand on her shoulder, and gave her a small smile, which Ahsoka returned, if slightly strained.

"General, a separatist command ship is fleeing the battle." Yularen reported.

"Do you think they have Master Ropal on board as a prisoner?" Ahsoka asked.

"I'm sure of it. Admiral, intercept them before they can jump to hyperspace, while the rest of the fleet remains in battle with the separatist fleet." Anakin ordered. "I'll ready the troops for boarding."

"Boarding? We have no boarding craft. We were prepared to land on the planet, not to board another ship. You can't be serious." Yularen said.

"I am, admiral. Thank you for your opinion. Now, target their hyperdrive. We don't want them getting away."

And thus, began another 'Skywalker' brand plan.

--

"They've hit the power converters! We can't enter hyperspace!" The B1 commander reported.

"Start repairs immediately." I ordered.

"I hope you have a better plan than to ruin one of my ships, Bane." I muttered to myself.

It was a snap decision to be on the ship that Bane had taken, and one that could potentially bite me right in my shiny metal ass if my calculations were wrong. But I felt I could trust something that I had checked over five different times.

"General, the Jedi is dead. Bane held a blaster to 389's head after he refused and forced him to keep the equipment on full power." IG-100-12 reported over shortwave comms.

"Confirm, is the Jedi dead?" I asked.

"Vitals are null, Jedi has ceased functioning."

Slight roadblock, but cars here are on repulsorlifts, so it shouldn't be that bad. I began walking to the bridge. Just before I arrived, however, someone else called over my main comm.

"Uh, General, you said to notify you if something weird started happening above the ship, right?" A B1 asked.

"Don't tell me, there's a couple of AT-TE's floating down onto the ship." I muttered.

"Uhm, you would be correct, sir."

"Get back inside and arm yourselves, immediately." I ordered, switching to shipwide comms. "All crew, battle stations, we are being boarded, Code: Jenth, Esk, Dorn, Isk."

The ship shuddered, and I braced myself on a nearby wall. Ship damage warnings started popping up on my Hud as I steadied myself.

"Kriffing Jedi." I muttered.

I walked onto the bridge to see Bane demanding transfer off all ship controls to his wrist-comm.

"The rest of you, stay here and defend the bridge." Bane ordered.

"We're defending the bridge alone?" A B1 exclaimed.

"Against Jedi? I hate this job." Another resignedly said.

"Bounty hunter, do not presume to order my troops." I said.

Bane didn't even spare me a glance, instead scoffing and disappearing down a shaft. An explosion echoed from behind me, and I jumped onto the ceiling, grabbing onto a projector. Clones poured into the bridge, and the B1's fought back to the best of their ability but were ultimately cut down by blaster and lightsaber. Fortunately for me, no one ever looks up when fighting, and I was in no way prepared to fight two Jedi at the same time as a whole squadron of clones, so I stayed quiet.

The bridge crew fought admirably, and I pinged all of their ID codes for upgraded chassis once the battle was finished.

"R2, see if you can find Master Ropal." Anakin ordered.

The little blue and white astromech rolled over and plugged into the computer, while I was busy wrapping my head around the fact that Anakin Skywalker somehow looks like his movie actor yet has his voice from the Tv show.

"One authentic Jedi holocron and the memory crystal I was after." A mini recording of Bane said.

"Oh no, he has both pieces now." Ahsoka said worriedly.

"Rex, send a squad. Lock down the hangar bay and destroy all the escape pods." Anakin ordered. "No one gets off this ship."

"Yes, sir." Captain Rex replied.

"R2, you have to find Master Ropal. Hurry!" Ahsoka urged.

"Got it!" Artoo replied.

Just then, the ship jerked, and an explosion echoed through the halls. Reports on my Hud said that the ship was even more damaged now. Thankfully, after a few more seconds of talking, the two Jedi left the bridge. I slowly pulled my vibrosword out of its compartment into a reverse grip, then leaped from my hiding spot. I slammed down onto a clone, my blade piercing all the way through him. I quickly pulled it out and flung it at another clone, and it speared into his neck. I grabbed the last one and tossed him into the window headfirst, breaking his neck.

With my intervention over, I walked over to a console and deactivated the self-destruct sequence, then pulled my bloody vibrosword out of a clone's neck. Ater shaking the excess blood off of it, I sheathed it and ran off the bridge.

"All units not in combat, converge on the port turbolaser battery." I ordered as I ran down hall after hall.

I skidded to a stop when Bane and Ahsoka ran by. After a quick deliberation, I followed. Cad soon found himself at a dead end, and Ahsoka stopped as well. I quickly moved behind a bulkhead, obscuring myself from view. Bane saw me, then smirked at the padawan. I could tell he had a plan involving me.

"You thought you could get away?" The togruta asked.

"You're not much of a challenge, youngling." Bane replied. "I got you right where I want you."

Bane fired a shot almost faster than I could see, but Ahsoka reflected it back into his left arm. Bane glared at her, his red eyes glinting in anger. They rushed each other, the Jedi's lightsaber getting knocked out of her hand by a kick. But with Ahsoka's Jedi powers and training, Bane was soon floored. But shock rushed through me when she pulled her lightsaber to her hand and ignited it.

"I'm not impressed." She said.

'I suppose I should help the idiot.'

I lurched out of cover, firing a stun round at the togruta. Ahsoka was shocked for a brief moment but managed to deflect it. She lunged at me, but her lightsaber met my vibroblade with a sharp ring of plasma on metal.

"The Republic should have never involved the Jedi in this war. Especially not a child." I uttered, pushing down on the togrutas blade.

Ahsoka pushed me back with the force, and I quickly blocked a few strikes from the Jedi. Our blades clashed again and again as we probed each other's defenses. The padawan pushed me with the force again, knocking me off balance. She knocked my vibrosword out of my hand, then raised her saber to attempt to bisect me.

I made a quick decision, and when she swung down, I grabbed her lit saber with my hand. I quickly brought up my other arm and activated my blaster, and just as she was finished reacting to the fact that I was holding a lightsaber by the blade, I fired three stun rounds into her. Ahsoka fell to the ground, her saber deactivated, and I shook my hand around to cool it off.

"That was a bold move, droid." Bane commented as he got to his feet.

"My armor plating is comprised of Phrik, it was a calculated decision." I replied, watching as my joints slowly opened and closed.

The damage wasn't too bad, considering the Phrik plating took most of the hit, but my joints were warped from the intense heat, and my hand wasn't closing properly. Some wires had also been partially melted as well, and the smell of burnt paint and metal wafted through the air. Bane pulled out a pair of force-suppression cuffs and put them on the young togruta, then he picked her up. The Duros and I walked away, two B2's linking up and following us.

'Perhaps I should start working on adding gravity manipulation to my list of tech to add to myself. A gravity gun could be useful to counteract Force pushes.' I thought as I walked alongside the bounty hunter.

We soon arrived at the airlock, where Ahsoka soon woke up. She yelped in pain when she tried pulling on her bindings.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that. Those binders have been specially designed for Jedi." The Duros monologed as he pulled her padawan jewel braid off and attached it under his duster. "Impressed now, youngling?"

"Not really." She grunted, then looked at me. "What kind of droid even are you? No droid can stop a lightsaber blade!"

"That is where you are wrong, Padawan Tano" I replied.

"Well enjoy this while you can. This burning boat is about to finish all three of us off."

"Hmm, we have time." Bane said. " The bond between a Jedi teacher and his apprentice is strong."

"Which means my master will be coming for me any minute."

"Let's see if we can get him here any faster."

Bane electrocuted the togruta for a few seconds, and I internally cringed at the sounds of pain coming from the young teen. If I ever get the chance, I'm punching whoever in the Jedi Order decided to let teenagers into this war right in their face. There's a reason child soldiers are heavily frowned upon back on earth, and so many beings in this universe would absolutely be war criminals.

Soon Anakin arrived, his lightsaber ablaze as the B2's, Bane, and I all trained our weapons onto him.

"You have nowhere left to run, bounty hunter." Anakin sneered.

"Let me worry about that, Jedi." Bane replied, clicking a button on his wrist gauntlet. "If I activate this control, the outside airlock will open, and she will be sucked into oblivion. Do you think you can kill me and then save her before she's pulled out into space? It's a horrible way to die. Besides, isn't negotiation the Jedi way?"

After a tense few moments, Anakin depowered his lightsaber.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"This holocron carries information I've been paid to collect. I can't unlock it, but you can. The last Jedi who had it wouldn't open it. I hope you don't make the same mistake."

"Don't do it, Master!" Ahsoka pleaded.

"I can't let you die, Ahsoka." Anakin responded.

The Jedi set his lightsaber on the floor, which Bane quickly grabbed, and soon got to work on opening the holocron. After a few moments, the holocron floated into the air and opened up. Bane placed the crystal into the floating part, and the holocron closed back up, a glow persisting from the center of it.

"My employers will be most pleased." Bane said as he held the glowing box.

Anakin took his chance, and pulled both his and Ahsoka's lightsabers to him, I moved back as the B2s engaged him. One was sliced in half and flung at the airlock controls as it opened, and the surviving B2 and I flew out into space.

"All units, evacuate the Taxers Ire immediately. Code black!" I ordered over the comms. "25, is my project ready? Because I need it right now."

"We haven't fully tested it yet, sir! It's not ready!" 25 replied.

"Do it! Now, before the Jedi find a way to kill me out here!"

--

"General Skywalker, you need to see this!" The clone piloting the Stealthipede called.

Anakin and Ahsoka made their way to the cockpit, where a clone was pointing at a small figure in the distance.

"Hey, it's that droid I was just telling you about, the one that blocked my lightsaber with just its hand!" Ahsoka exclaimed.

Just as Anakin was about to give the order to destroy it, an alarm started blaring from the console.

"We've got something coming in hot, sir." The pilot reported.

"Well blast that droid and let's get out of here!" Anakin ordered.

Just as the ship got lose enough to aim at the droid, a small pod of some sort lightly slammed into its back. Anakin watched in muted interest and a small amount of thinly veiled fear as it seemed to transform into a pair of mechanical wings, complete with jet boosters. A very large blaster rotated out and attached to the bottom of its right arm.

"Tell the Resolute to scramble the fighters, now!" Anakin ordered.

--

My special project, designed as a combination of the Vultures suit from the MCU and the Archwing from Warframe, was ready, even if 25 was worried about its calibrations.

[Starlight: Online]

"General, the Resolute is launching fighters while the Stealthipede is heading towards it, you need to get out of there!" 25 reported.

I looked out to the retreating Venator to see a lot of V-19s streaming out of its hangar. Right between myself and my fleet.

'Really? All those fighters just for me?' I thought.

I activated my boosters and shot off towards the fighters, as Vultures and Tri-fighters began flying out of my own fleet to intercept them. I lifted my blaster and opened fire on the first fighter to come in range, the shots piercing into its hull. The ship caught fire and exploded, and I curled up as I passed through the cloud of debris. I flared out after I was through it, and twirled, shooting down three that were flying by me.

The fighters couldn't hit me, thanks to how small I was compared to a vulture droid. I zipped through the ranks as Vultures and Tri-fighters took their own pound of flesh from the Republic troops. I slammed down on a fighter, and fired directly into the cockpit, vaporizing the clone pilot. I leaped off, boosting onto a passing Vulture with a fighter on its tail. I shot the fighter down, then leaped off the Vulture and rocketed out of the dogfight for a moment.

The fight was going extremely well, and my fleet was beginning to move out of the Venators weapon range. My boosted scanners suddenly detected a Jedi starfighter entering the fight. Anakin had entered the space fight. I boosted back into the dogfight, intent on disabling his fighter. I shot up, barely dodging a Torrent in flames, then flew back into the thick of it. I spun, dodging a blaster shot and nailing a Torrent right in one of its engines.

The battle raged as I spotted Skywalkers Delta-7B. He was in the midst of shooting down a Tri-fighter. I shot off towards him, dodging fighters and debris masterfully. The Starlight was working amazingly, even better than I expected. I fired at a passing Torrent, shearing its bottom wing off.

[Heat seekers: Active]

A dozen hatches opened along the wings, and micro-missiles rocketed out of it and exploded on many of the Republic fighters, disabling some and destroying others. After almost redlining the engines, I finally made it to Anakin's fighter, which was zipping around the battle. I latched onto its left wing, and for a brief moment, stared directly into the eyes of the 'Chosen One'.

R2 beeped angrily at me, and in response I pulled my vibrosword out and stabbed it into the wing with all of my strength, piercing all the way through the thinnest part of it. Fuel started leaking from where my sword was, and I pulled it out. The fuel started gushing out, and R2 let out an electrical blast that fired off my boosters and tore me away from the fighter. In the process of regaining control, I took a small form of revenge on them when I fired a shot that took out one of Skywalker's engines, half disabling the fighter.

"The Republic is retreating, sir." 25 reported.

"Good, I'm returning to the Finest Hour. Consider this the Starlight's trial by fire, 25." I replied.

The remaining fighters retreated, a limping Delta-7B among them, and I rocketed back to the Finest Hour.

--

"It is most unfortunate Bane was allowed to escape again." Obi-Wan said.

"With access to the names and locations to the most force sensitive children in the Republic." Mace Windu added.

"Inflict devastating damage on the Jedi order, he could." Yoda said.

"We've discovered Bane's working with the Separatists." Anakin reported.

"There are thousands of children on that list. Which will he go after first?" Obi-Wan wondered.

"Small chance there is, through the Force the council may detect them." Yoda supplied.

"Padawan Tano, Knight Skywalker, I sense there is more you have to say." Mace said.

Anakin and Ahsoka glanced at each other, worry clear to see on both of their faces.

"We... encountered a new type of droid during the battle." Anakin began.

He pulled out his communicator and displayed a video. The footage, captured by R2, showed the new droid with its wings attached, as it latched onto the ship and stabbed the fuel tank of Anakin's starfighter with a vibrosword, shot one of the engines with its large, arm-mounted blaster, then flew away.

"I also faced it in combat. Its vibroblade seemed to resist my lightsaber, just like an electrostaff. Not only that, but it grabbed my blade like it was an actual sword!" Ahsoka exclaimed, showing a staticky video recovered from a security camera of their fight. "I never knew droids could do that!"

Anakin glanced around at the council, and judging by their faces, all of them were wary of the new droid. Kriff, even Yoda looked worried.

"Troubling, this is. Find out what this new droid is, we must. Fear for the younger Knights that fight it, I do." Yoda said, thumping his cane on his chair.

"It could be a variant of the Super Tactical Droid but redesigned to counter Jedi." Obi-Wan theorized.

"Impossible, no droid can match a fully trained Jedi Master." Mace interjected, his voice sharper than normal.

"Nevertheless, we need to stop Bane."

"Start the meditation, we should. Come, Knight Skywalker." Yoda beckoned as he stood and slowly walked out of the council chambers, followed by Mace, Obi-Wan, and Anakin.

--

"The Starlight worked marvelously." I said, as I walked down a hallway.

"I'm glad, sir. You did design it, after all. We just built it for you." The head engineer replied.

"Don't play off your own achievements." I placed my newly repaired hand on her shoulder. "It was the quality of the construction that saw me through that battle, not just the design."

The engineer's cheeks tinted slightly, and she waved me off.

"How is my other project coming along?" I asked after a moment.

"Ah, well, we've taken design applications from the Infiltrator droids, and I believe we can have your new designs ready in two months, three, if you want the ability to fly in your bipedal mode, and four months if you want the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulators added to your new hands. I have to add, those things are an extremely novel invention. I never really thought about using gravity manipulation like that before, and I doubt anyone else has."

We finally reached the end of the hallway, where a set of double doors opened, and the beginnings of a familiar frame were starting to form.

"Unless you're referring to the new tank you proposed, which is about a year away from the prototype's completion. It truly is an interesting design, and very cheap, so if it works right, we could churn them out almost as fast as we do Vultures."

"Good to know. What about that... other, project?"

The engineer looked at me for a moment, then her eyes widened, and she leaned in slightly.

"That project is heavily ambitious. I don't think it'll be ready for a year and a half at most. Mostly because of how complicated the design will have to be." She whispered.

"Good to know. What about the slugthrowers?"

"Ah, they should be entering production soon, and I believe the modifications done to them will make them even more deadly than the versions you supplied us with."

The CIS military was in for a shock soon, as well as the Jedi.

---

AN: I hope you liked it! Let me know if you see any spelling or grammatical errors, I am really tired right now.

 

[AwkwardHym]

Damn that was an awesome chapter! The fight on the ship alone was well written and shows that this really is a young Ashoka, but what really stole the show was the dogfight in space was cool as hell.

Anakin and the Jedi are most certainly right to be wary of Blitzkrieg but they really have no idea the terror Dooku has unknowingly released apon them all.

Just realized Dooku and by extension Palpatine have no idea so many of their plans are about to be derailed by their newest hyper competent subordinate.

 

[Slow Learner]

I love this story. Take my upvote.

 

[KonahrikYol]

Looks like palpatine will end up ordering the production of super tactical droids to halt. Probably redirect the entire war effort to kill blitz.

Also, is it possible for blitz to make oxygen destroyer's, or perhaps nuke's? Perhaps a magnetic accelerator cannon for the ship, because if it goes fast enough it could bypass the enemies shields instantly. Additionally there's no maximum range.

 

[TeggyWeggy]

I'm going to imagine that the tanks are going to end up looking like the tanks in Helldivers 2. Those things are evil.

 

[KillerFish]

Now are the Jedi going to assume that General Blitzkreig is programmed to be merciful to young combatants, or that he has a robust enough programming to develop a moral standpoint?

And which one of those options is the most terrifying to a Galaxy that effectively distrusts droids that have free thinking capabilities?

 

[Ankheg]

Blitzkrieg needs to remember the first rule of droid-only ships: don't have an internal atmosphere, and if you need one, fill it with neurotoxins