The Outer Rim Sieges
Year: 19 BBY
Location: Mygeeto
{You and your Jedi whelp die today, Billaba.}
Grievous holds his lightsabers ignited and ready to fight.
"We shall see, Grievous, we shall see," Billaba answers.
Grievous attacks. He strikes at Billaba using all of his force, forcing the Jedi to block the attack. She is a powerful duellist, having learned under Mace Windu and being a master of Vaapad. Her legs nearly buckle under the weight of Grievous's attack.
{I defeated you once before. My mistake was not confirming your death. It is not an error I intend to refeat.}
Billaba's eyes widen under the pressure. She sees her defeat in front of her eyes as if it happened yesterday. But she pulls herself together, thinking about her Jedi teachings and Caleb. She redistributes the force of the warlord's attack and deflects his lightsaber.
"You believe you know how to defeat me, but the Jedi you fought then did indeed die..." Billaba says.
She deflects another attack and uses a powerful Force push, sending the Kaleesh back through the dust cloud.
"... and the Jedi you face now is one you've never encountered before."
Billaba stands ready, holding her lightsaber in the stance of Form III. Grievous suddenly flashes through the smoke, holding four lightsabers in each of his mechanical arms. He was using two previously, not seeing Billaba as a serious threat. He attacks Billaba, slashing his lightsabers through the air and executing four horizontal slashes simultaneously.
{We shall see, Jedi, we shall see.}
Billaba manages to duck underneath one pair of lightsabers and block the other two. She defends masterfully, demonstrating her skill in Form III, the defensive form. Suddenly, she sees an opening inside the flurry of attacks coming from Grievous. She takes the chance and slashes through the air, cutting off two of Grievous' four hands.
{ARGGGGHHHHHH!}
But this turns out to be a mere fraction of a victory. Grievous' attacks using a powerful vertical slash, forcing Billaba to move backwards. But this is a mistake, as the General's other lightsaber hits her back.
"AAAAHHHHHHHH!"
This time, Billaba shouts in pain.
On the other side of the battlefield, the clones are still trying to hold off the large number of battle droids who are swarming them. Commander Grey calls for backup.
"This is C.C. Dash Ten Slash Nine-Nine-Four. Requesting immediate reinforcements to Mesa Camp Six," he says.
"Grey, that scream was General Billaba! She's hurt! We have to save her!" Captain Styles says.
"Keep firing, Styles, and we will! We failed her once. We will never fail her again."
The two see Caleb deal with the Kage Warrior and knock him out.
"It seems the kid doesn't need our help, at least!"
They stop firing and walk over to him.
"Is everything alright, kid?" Styles asks.
"No time for talk, let's help Master Billaba," Caleb says and runs off.
The clones follow him. They find Billaba engaged in a duel against Grievous. The general's stature is almost double hers, but she is desperately keeping her stance and footing. One of her knees is on the ground, and she pushes against the assault with all her might.
"Take him out!" Grey commands.
"Roger that!"
The two clones begin firing at Grievous. Caleb, meanwhile, charges forward and slashes his lightsaber through the air. Grievous twirls his lightsabers around so fast that he is creating a shield with them.
{I do regret allowing your survival, Billaba. A regret you will come to know.}
Grievous backs off, into the smoke. The others follow. Caleb understands that the general is about to flee and uses the Force to pull him forward. Feeling the pull, Grievous looks at the young Jedi and snarls. He swings his two lightsabers through the air, attempting to cut him, but he fails to do so. Caleb dodges the attacks and moves forward, slashing at Grievous' side. But the cyborg can handle Jedi Masters, and Caleb is not yet a Master. But that only includes ranks. In terms of lightsaber combat, there are few who could hope to match him.
He sees the path to take and does so. He blocks a flurry of attacks and uses the Force to pull one of Grievous' legs forward. Caleb slashes forward, attempting to cut off another arm, but is blocked. The Padawan was aware of that and only wanted to make Grievous focus on this. With another powerful use of the Force, he locks Grievous in place and uses Force speed to shoot through the air.
Their lightsabers clash, and while the clones offered support initially, they have now stopped in fear of hitting Caleb. Master Billaba observes the fight in awe. She is hurt and can't help Caleb much, but she can offer some assistance. She waits for the perfect moment to help. Caleb uses both Vaapad and Ataru simultaneously—something considered to be impossible. However, Caleb has managed to do so. Not only that, his use of both seems to mix perfectly, creating something new entirely, on the basis of Niman. He has not yet combined more than two lightsaber forms together, because he is focusing on creating and perfecting the basics before moving on.
Caleb's use of Vaapad and Ataru appears flawless and becomes increasingly fluid as he progresses. The speed and aggression go well together. Caleb has felt the anger coming from Grievous and uses Vaapad to power himself and his lightsaber form, as well as increase his speed through Ataru, flashing from one place to the other.
Billaba sees it, her moment to help. Caleb twirls around and pushes Grievous back using the Force. Billaba takes advantage of this moment and pulls Grievous towards her, causing him to stumble. That's what Caleb has been waiting for. He uses more speed and power than ever before and puts all of his strength into a single attack. His lightsaber flashes through the air and cuts apart Grievous's left arm.
{ARGGGGHHHHHH!}
The general shouts again. He notices that he has lost any form of advantage and chooses to flee right away. He runs towards the edge of the platform and jumps down. Caleb lets him leave, as he can't stop him using the Force yet and jumping after him would be a bad idea, as he would move into enemy territory.
"I don't have a shot!" Styles says.
"No matter," Billaba says, being supported by Caleb. "I long ago learned to live with regret."
With that, the Third Battle of Mygeeto is finished. Caleb has lost his first friend, experienced the feel of loss and almost tasted the Dark Side for the first time. He fought against General Grievous, who, although he was weakened, was forced to flee. The feeling of loss, which Caleb has experienced, doesn't keep him down, though. He understands that this is what Master Billaba was telling him about. Loss is inevitable and painful. But one shouldn't ever surrender to that feeling. Rise above it. That's something Caleb understands now. It is something he did automatically, but he only truly understands it now.
Master Billaba was placed in a bacta tank for her wounds to heal. She did well and managed to keep up with Grievous until support arrived. She would not have made it on her own; that much was certain.
"We have our new mission!" Commander Grey says. "As soon as the general is battle-ready."
"Where are we going?" Caleb asks.
"Our orders are to head for Kaller."
At that moment, Caleb experiences a similar Force vision. He sees Billaba swinging around her lightsaber and shouting at him. There is a shatterpoint... several, for that matter, connected to Kaller. Caleb feels uneasy about this. He turns to look at his Master. He will ask her about it later on. Usually, this means that whatever will happen on Kaller holds great significance.
.
Though victory seems inevitable for the Republic in the current year of the war, it has been much longer than anticipated. After he retreated from Mygeeto, General Grievous chose the planet of Utapau as a hiding place for the Executive Separatist Council. So, the Separatist high command decided to seek refuge on Utapau. The peaceful world was invaded, and the leaders were forced to cooperate. Before long, a massively modified core ship had taken over much of the city's level 10, serving as the command headquarters for the Separatist droid forces.
The Separatists have lost the majority of their droid factories and territory, pushing the CIS back to a few remaining redoubts in the Outer Rim. The Republic campaign is known as the Outer Rim Sieges, although the campaign also sees fronts open in the Mid Rim and the Colonies. Despite the Republic's offensive, General Grievous attempted to take control of the shipyards on Anaxes, resulting in a long, bloody battle led by Admiral Trench, who moved his droid forces into the Coreward edge and launched a massive siege against the Republic shipyards. The battle ended in a victory for the Republic, with Trench killed.
During the campaign, the homeworld of Count Dooku, Serenno, became a focus for the Republic. Still, multiple attacks against both the D'Astan sector and the Serenno system itself failed to take the world. The Republic also besieged the Separatist-controlled world of Saleucami, and for a time, the sieges were in a stalemate.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Anaxes, a new phase of the sieges began when Grievous launched a counterattack. Grievous's counteroffensive drove the Republic's forces, already stretched across the Outer Rim during their offensive, beyond the Core to a breaking point. Indeed, while the Outer Rim had been a front of the Clone Wars since their start, the Akivan Norra Wexley, while walking through the aftermath of the Battle of Akiva, later recalled the CIS as "bringing" the war to the Outer Rim in its final years.
{So to counter this, the Republic and the Jedi Council have decided to deploy all of their generals throughout the Outer Rim to halt the Separatist advance.]
Mace Windu's hologram says.
[Masters, urgent news! General Grievous has launched an assault on Coruscant with thousands of warships from the Separatist Navy!]
[Then we must act quickly. Master Billaba, you and your forces will go to Kaller. It seems that the general has realised we are vulnerable, but how did he slip past our defences?]
[Master Billaba, more troops the Chancellor has sent to you. Meet you on Kaller, they will.] Master Yoda informs them.
"Thank you, Master Yoda, we can use them. But I am starting to suspect we are being favoured here. Now that Coruscant is being attacked, shouldn't you have as many troops as possible?"
[Already sent them, the Chancellor did. Arrive here, they would too late. Use what you have, you will. May the Force be with you.]
"Well, then, we'd better make sure to get to Kaller. Now that General Grievous has attacked Coruscant, the war may hang in the balance," Billaba tells Caleb.
"I find this to be highly suspicious, Master. How could General Grievous attack Coruscant and arrive unnoticed?" Caleb asks.
"I do not know that either. Does my little strategist have an idea?" she asks.
"There is only one solution to this. Someone must have told him about some secret hyperspace path leading to Coruscant. Maybe through the deep core?"
"I highly doubt that, Caleb. Why would someone do that? And why does it have to be this way? What if General Grievous knew about the hyperspace lane beforehand?"
"And wait until this very moment to attack? This makes no sense. He could have attacked sooner and overwhelmed the Republic's capital. Instead, he waited until he was losing."
"Then there is your answer. He waited until our forces were spread thin. It makes sense."
"But then why go through all of this? By attacking Coruscant now, the CIS has made itself into bitter enemies of those who live on Coruscant. There is no going back now. I know that there are several Senators who wanted peace, but that won't happen now. Now, even those will feel threatened by the CIS and never allow peace to come to pass. I feel like something is fishy. I can't place it, though."
"Come, let's get to Kaller. I'm sure everything will solve itself."