Escander
Arriving at the bridge on one of the, Venators I saw Aayla speaking with a clone commander as the rest of the officers were booting up the ships systems.
Turning towards me she says "Here he is commander. Let me introduce you" walking over to me she claps my shoulder, "This is my padawan learner, Lycan".
"Alright Commander" I said while giving his shiny clean armour a one over."
"Lycan this is Commander Bly of the 317th Star Corps, he'll be working with us for the foreseeable future" giving time for Bly to say, "Pleasure to work with you Commander" through his visor.
Him calling me Commander gave me a fair bit of confusing prompting me to ask Aayla about how the command structure works, the holos we got never really explained squat so I hope Aayla knows what's going on.
"Master, who outranks who if we're both commander's?" I questioned.
Taking her hand of my shoulder she replies "Your official rank is jedi commander, which therefore gives you jurisdiction over all clones in the G.A.R. Although this is the case you should listen to what Bly has to say, he has more experience than the both of us with commanding others.".
Fair point she's got there, it's better off giving Bly the reigns, while me and her are on the frontlines. Jedi sitting back commanding never made much sense to me.
"Of course Master, can I know where we're heading then" I asked her.
Moving over a table with a holo projector, Aayla pulls up a planet for me too see.
"This here is Escander, which is where we're been sent. Master Vos has discovered intel on a new battle droid the Separatist have almost finished researching, all leads have brought us to here". Zooming in on a enemy base built around a mountain, "This is the Separatist base where we think the plans and prototype droids are being held. Our mission is to retrieve or destroy the designs and prototypes before the Separatists can finalize the droid."
Sounds like a lot of hard work, the facility's looking pretty bunkered down as well so I doubt it'll be a quick fight. Fuck me a don't think I brought enough drink to last me.
"Understood, What about the troops is this all that's coming?" I probed.
Switching off the projector Aayla tells me "Yes all personnel on this Venator will be joining the mission. The rest of the corps are being dispatched to sectors where the fighting has already broke out" I nod at her answer as she finishes.
Still it's a solid ground force, 9216 of clones along with all the vehicles on board. If we siege the facility we should be fine.
"General, all systems are online, we are ready to take off and enter hyperspace" said a clone officer.
"Take off at will" Aayla orders him, soon after the Venator's huge hull began to leave the ground, quickly leaving the atmosphere of Coruscant and jumping into hyperspace.
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Sitting the cockpit of my Delta-7 me, Aayla and the rest of the boys were waiting on the ship jumping out of hyper space. Current intel suggests that the Separatists have a Munificent-class star frigate guarding the base, so to get our ground forces stationed safely we need to take out that ship first.
Looking around the hanger bay I saw dozens of troopers rushing to get into their V-19 Torrent starfighters, while others that had already reached theirs were checking all their systems, making sure everything's operational for the battle.
Right now, I'm in a weird state between excitement and fear, excited because its the first time I'll have having some space combat, fearful for the exact same reason. If fights like these your either going to die in an explosion, which is far better than the alternative of letting the vacuum of space claim your life. Who wouldn't be slightly afraid of floating through empty space till your oxygen runs out.
Taking my mind off the madness that will unfold shortly, I put on some good old relaxing Gary McF. What a fucking tune man brings me back to the days of getting pissed in fields with a bottle of tonic.
Good times man good times.
After raving with my trust astromech for a while the hyperspace alarm started blaring, prompting me to activate my fighter's systems. The coms patched me into Aayla and several other pilots that were in our squadron for the coming fight, as she recapped the plan for taking down the Munificent.
"You all know the plan, our targets are the shield generators at the stern of the ship, if we destroy them the Venator will make quick work of the Separatists ship. Stay in formation unless I tell you otherwise." she told the us.
"Roger that" the rest of the squadron said.
After the pep talk the Venators blast doors started the rise, exposing the ray shield that was keeping the vacuum at bay.
Looking to my side I ask K5 "You ready mate?" getting some beeps in return which I understood as his agreement. "Good stuff, we'll get through this no hassle" I said reassuringly as the first fighters began to leave the ship.
Lifting my ship off the ground, it's engines start to roar as my fighter was propelled out into the void of space. Quickly getting my bearings I link up with the rest of the squadron, maneuvering into attack formation as we speed off towards the enemy ship.
Diverting all power to the engines, we raced at incredible speeds attempting to gain as much ground on the ship as possible before the release the vulture droids. I could see the ship clearly now, its janky look stood out compared the republics capital ships.
Shortly after though, hundreds of vulture droids that looked like tiny dots poured out the ships hull. Luckily the HUD within the ships picked them up giving an idea of how far away they were.
Through the radio Aayla warned the crew "Engage attack systems, those droids are closing in fast. Divert power to whatever you thinks necessary to your situation".
Contacting my droid "You heard the lady, divert power between the frontal shields and weapons" I said as K5 done his job in his cosy custom socket in front of the cockpit. No way was I letting a random droid head fly with me, so I had to build a new socket for K5 since he didn't fit in the original one.
With the droids homing in, Aayla gives us a final piece of advice "No matter what, make sure we hit those shield generators, if we don't this has all been for nothing". For several moments it was just the two groups of ships flying towards each other, till suddenly the first shot was fired.
The swarms upon swarms of vultures fired at allied ships bringing a few down, but not without ensuing casualties themselves. Firing ahead at the approaching droids I managed to take two out before the majority rushed past us.
A Pilot shouted through the coms "I've been hit!" already one of our squadron was shot down, crashing into an oncoming fighter before passing away in a fiery explosion.
Not having time to think about the pilot,"K5 send power to the rear deflectors" I told the astromech as I could see plenty of vultures turning to take our backs in the rear view camera, heir red visors menacingly staring at our fighters.
We were closing in on the munificence with the vultures hot on our tails, shortly after getting in the ships range in unleashed a volley of fire at the on coming republic fighters. Taking evasive maneuvers as weaved in between turbo laser bolts. Before we could start out attack run on the shields. the vulture droids caught up with us, their numbers lessened from friendly fire coming from the capital ship.
Another Pilot was quickly killed from a vulture on his tail, not long after most of the squadron gained a tail as well. Yelling through the receiver "Split up and meet back at the co-ordinates if you mange to loose your tail" Aayla said before breaking off from the ground taking some vultures with her.
Dipping the joystick, my ship made a rapid decent towards the planet, pulling my two tails with me. Constantly moving my ship erratically I manage to evade the enemy's fire but don't manage to loose them. Identifying some rubble I speed towards the shattered metal before slamming on the breaks and then boosting the thrusters. Successfully boost drifting round the rubble, I get a clear shot on one of the vultures, while also getting cover from the second. Sending a round of plasma at the droids it is quickly dispatched, leaving me with only one left.
Strafing between capital ship fire I come up with an idea, bolting towards the nearest turbo laser on the Munificent I spin my fighter between it's shots. With each dual shot there is always a gap between the two bolts, and with the Delta-7 being so thin it is able to slip between the space. Lining up my ship I sense the beams of plasma speeding towards me, at the last moment with the vulture still on my tail I spin the ship on it's side, squeezing between the bolts as they slammed into the droid behind me.
Happy with the successful plan I continues towards the turret and blow it up with some precision fire, turning my plane round and heading for the co-ordinates.
"K5 pull up the fighters in the squadron that still have a tail" skilfully doing his duty, several ship came up on my HUD moving crazily to avoid being shot down. Heading to the nearest one, I snuck underneath the vulture blasting it from beneath, letting the Pilot link back up with me.
"Thanks for that one Commander" the clone said gratefully.
"No problem A4" I told him honestly, before sending him some co-ordinates, "We'll help out A7 and A6 before rendezvousing at the original attack point".
Flying through the chaotic battle we managed to help out the two pilots, all getting into formation as we headed towards the rest of the squadron, taking out vultures along the way. Closing in to the co-ordinates I seen Aaylas ship along with 3 others approaching.
Through the coms Aayla states "Form up and commence the attack run on the shield generators A squadron".
"Roger that General" said the clones.
With the team finally back together we race across the top of the Munificent, weaving through fire along the way. Suddenly Aayla tell me "Lycan me and you need to take out those turrets to give the rest of the squadron better chance at letting off their missiles". Understanding my orders me and Aayla break off from the group, rushing towards the several turbo lasers guarding the shield generators.
Weaving between the shots we fired at he stationary targets, disabling them successfully. Turning around we seen A squadron launch their missiles at the generators, tens of them hurtled towards the target at high speeds before colliding. Detonating so close to each other caused the shield generator to collapse as it was engulfed in a fiery eruption.
"Target eliminated" said A4 as they ships swivelled round to meet up with us.
"Good job A squadron, lets clean up the rest of these droids while the crew on the Venator finishes off the Munificent" she said approvingly
"Roger that general" They all responded.
With the shield offline the Venator went to town on the Separatist ship, destroying it in no time at all, while the rest of the fighters finished off the remaining vultures. With the first battle complete we head back to the Venator and prepare for offloading the ground vehicles.