Siege of Cif

19 BBY: Southeast Flatlands, Cif

THE REPUBLIC ARMY

was bottlenecked between rows of droids and the clone troopers tried to push on all sides to try and keep their forces strong and the civilians behind Republic lines. Xido sat atop a temporary fort and watched over as she commanded each side of the flatland, mostly being concerned with the advancing north.

"Goldie, keep that north side intact we have civilians arriving there!" she barked.

"Yes general!" Goldie checked his comms, "come on boys, push harder, trigger faster!" As he called out a freighter zoomed through the Separatist line full of civilians. Inside drove a clone Captain Sharpe with Zena sat at the cannon unleashing fury upon the droids who watched helplessly below.

The Separatist commanding droid barked at those who failed, "don't stand around you stupid droids...fire!" he growled as far as almost damaging his vocal codex.

"Jeez, someone's cranky today!" a droid uttered before a blast blew it off its feet.

"Where's the backup?" Goldie called in.

"They will be here!" Xido answered as she checked the screens analyzing patterns and tactic.

"They better hurry, a lot of people here didn't make it!" Goldie informed as the freighter pulled up to the fort and exchanged the rescuees to Republic Vessels going to Pantoine.

"Can you transfer record names?"

"I got the data, sending...now!" Zena briefly checked her transponder and tapped the data to Kema in the fort. The data stored names of all slaves registered in the Cif Multicorps Center. "I'll be heading back," she dropped the ship and released the civilian before she took a speeder back.

"Stay safe," Xido replied. "Do we have the droid commander on hold?"

"He doesn't wanna budge, we have to trick him somehow!" Goldie replied. The droid commander was nowhere to be seen but was most likely in the most defended fort opposite from the Republics. Destroying that droid would do wonders, but if that didn't go well the whole Invasion would collapse on them.

"C'mon guys! Try harder those droids somehow know our gameplay, we need to get these people out of here." Xido barked.

In the speck of low-orbit, appeared several starships. One by one they zoomed to a stop; one large battleship, several carriers, Venators, Acclamators and Hundreds of Gunships that would come with Bothka, Kema and the several Jedi. "The back up has arrived," he called in as the gunships released from the carriers and darted towards the battleground.

"Sweet! Masters x, x, x cover our southern portions and for you master x disable their control tower!" Xido replied as she prepared her staff. "Let's give these refugees hope!"

"Alright boys, don't be chickens...we're doing this for people to have homes and lives," Kema began. "This is my home, where I was born. Try not to tear it half, but if you have to. Do the best you can! For the republic!"

"For the republic," the clones chanted. For Bothka's division, the clones had a non-patriarchy brotherly system that went from the top to the very clones themselves. Everyone had a certain respect for each other and would lay down their life for a greater purpose. However, they still had to follow orders.

"Coming up on the west field," a clone-trooper informed as Kema's gunship touched down, so did Bothka's and the accompanying Jedi.

"Right on time guys, get some troopers running along the sides and make your way to five clicks north," she informed. "Kema, your job is to sneak in and take out the commander!"

"Copy," she replied checking her comms.

"Glad to see you!" Xido smiled.

"Yea," she shrugged it off and took a speeder towards the fort.

"Something wrong with her?"

"She's had a long day, I'll tell you when the mission is finished," Bothka spoke in comms. Turning it off he dashed to lead the west field while some of the other Jedi lead the southern fronts and the eastern fronts.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, stay tight! Air support is next," Xido took an elevator down and led a speeder unit towards the northern front.

-

Kema stopped at the edge of the northern line where republic forces kept their ground taking out wave after wave of incoming droids. She met Goldie in his little camp area where he wrote plans to infiltrate the fort.

"Ah Kema, right on time! We have a plan!" Goldie smiled, happy to see her. "Sign on to channel seven,"

"Channel seven secured," she checked in. "But guys, we can't do this! We have to run in there and get that stupid droid."

"That's dangerous!" he insisted.

"What? Are you scared?"

"Xido's not going to like this," he warned.

"These are civilians we're talking about, my people!" she explained. "I have a gift that I can use and I can't waste any of it!"

"That's a damn good speech commander," a clone trooper spoke.

"Alright boys, how about a counter-siege?" he riled up the nearby units into a siege of the fort. "Push forward!"

Kema's units advanced in an extra push with the help of a defensive frontline, an advancing backline, a couple of snipers, aerial strikes and her wit. After a few minutes, they destroyed a plethora of droids and gained ground on the fort.

"Where are our droids?" the droid commander growled.

"Destroyed...sir," the fort droids gulped.

"Agh, send in the Magnas!" the droid barked as four Magna droids lept out of the fort and landed on the destroyed ground. They ignited their electro staffs to defend the fort as other droids surrounded them.

"Boys?" she called out as four clone troopers backing her also had their electro staffs. The rest stepped up and defended their line while other troopers far back maintain the lines to keep droids away. The air support made sure of it.

"Go do your job!" Goldie smiled as she slipped between one droid and lept up the fort. Taking apart her sabre she used the two parts, igniting them and stabbing the fort to crawl upwards.

Meanwhile, the troopers below engaged on the Magna droids. It was the first time they would use the staffs; Xido's training helped them use their staffs if they ever encountered any droids. It wasn't surprising since Goldie always wanted to learn Jedi melee combat. Xido was almost the perfect teacher!

As Kema stroke the veil of the glass, she entered the fort and appeared inside the droid command center with ease. Her gaze was a focused gazed, one could think she was clearly using the dark side but no.

"Hey boys," she uttered as the droids near her engaged as rose their blasters. But in quick recession she swatted them with her two sabers, Jysell on one hand and her own in the other. She ran through them like paper and all of a sudden the command droid barked

"Take another step and she dies," the droid growled as it held up an injured Zena wiggling around to set her free. She felt a sudden pain in her throat as anger surged within her and her tight fists grip tighter.

"Be smart about this," Kema adviced, "I can call for a ceasefire and end it here so we can leave!"

"No this planet is mine, and the slaves are mine" the droid spoke!

"Its a-" Zena tried to talk. "Shut up!"

In anger she ignited her saber and ran to charge the droid, slashing it's arm and driving Jysell's sabre through it pinning it to the wall then after a few grunts and growls she slashed the droid to pieces, metal by metal, wire by wire.

But then a voice box remained, "Wrong choice Jedi...guess she's coming with me!" the droid uttered through the box as the Zena before her began to disappear as if she was a hologram. Out of the distance, a small ship lifted off and screamed for the orbit.

"Noooo!" she cried out loud, falling to her knees and began tearing up the place.

-

One by one each sector gained ground with it's respective generals. Bothka and Haka had a successive victory and so did Sorchan and Hela.

"We have the southern line taken care of, Master Haka?" he called.

"Almost there," Master Hela moved through several droids to get to the center and as he did he set up charges around it as the clones covered him. "Charges set!"

"Kema awaiting your word," Bothka chimed in.

"Blow it to pieces!"

BOOM! As the Jedi and the clones ran out in time, the control centre blew like a beauty in the sky. The Jedi below watched in a burst of laughter, "wait!" He exclaimed as a moment passed by all the droids around the battlefield began to disable as they fell to the ground.

Victory surrounded the clones as they chanted growls into the air, it must have risen the temperature by a click. All the clones would hug and even do celebrations. Xido and Goldie ran to meet each other and embraced each other tightly, but after a gaze into each other's eyes they paused before an awkward moment took over. They would then laugh!

"Good job everyone," she exclaimed in comms as everyone listened in. "We have done great today, a lot of people have been liberated from oppression. It what we do and what we will continue to do,"

"Let's taken 'em home," she finished as a loud chant overtook the crowd one last time as the remaining civilians packed more gunships to be taken to Pantoine.

-

Kema stood alone in the room, on her knees with almost nothing left. Suddenly she felt a warm feeling, her ghostly parents embraced her tightly. "Are you here?" she asked puddled in tears.

"I'm afraid not my love," the father uttered.

"Please know that we love you," the mother continued as all three embraced as their projections disappeared.

"Kema!" Xido called as she burst into the room. "We won, haha! You alright?" she circled around her and found her in disarray. "Hey, hey, hey what's going on?"

"I lost everyone!" she burst out in tears and let out her inner fire in a loud painful wail out to the universe. Xido held her tightly as Goldie walked in witnessing the painful moment and leaving the two.