Project Ares Gold Edition

Chapter 40 - Requisition

Ancient Temple - Yavin 4

Over the last 2 weeks, the Jedi had begun rebuilding the Order inside one of Yavin 4's abandoned temples. Ironically, these were ancient Sith Temples built eons before their rise to power. But as the millennia passed, the Dark side has subsided and the Force found inside the Temple was actually neutral, favouring neither Light nor Dark.

Luckily, the younglings were not strong enough in the Force to feel this yet, instead often just seen staring up at the orbiting fleet or going about like younglings typically do. This made it considerably easier for the other Jedi to watch over them and teach them. Currently the roster looked something like this; Yoda would teach them the ways of the Force while Plo Koon and Shaak Ti would show them how to wield a lightsaber. Jocasta Nu and the Temple Guards mostly wandered around the ancient temple, collecting as much knowledge as possible and archiving what they could salvage from the Jedi Temple.

Obi-wan and Ahsoka mostly went out on some small missions alongside Rex, Cody and Wolffe, scavenging supplies and collecting intel on Imperial movements. But for the most part, they remained invisible to Palpatine's search. As for Anakin, he remained mostly with his family in the far side of the temple, spending some much needed time being a father and husband. But the guilt and feeling of responsibility weighed heavily on him, and Padme would see it whenever he couldn't sleep at night or was just staring off into the distance. Eventually she had enough and told Anakin to go out and help the resistance, and despite being hesitant to leave his family, Anakin needed this. Radioing the fleet and requesting a unique roster of clones, Skywalker jumped in his starfighter alongside R2 and blasted off into space towards the fleet.

Spirit of Fire - Vanqor

After completing 15 successful hit-and-run missions against the Empire's intelligence network of communications arrays, data hubs and classified sleeper bases established by the RSA during the war, Blue Team was beginning to run thin on supplies and resources. Not only that, but the rest of the fleet was beginning to tap into their emergency fuel reserves and ration food. Receiving a transmission from Grandmaster Yoda, Blue Team was instructed to meet with Anakin and a team of clones on Garel where the Jedi apparently had a mission for them.

"If Skywalker is running point on this mission, that means it is definitely important." Static spoke from his seat in the back of the bridge, receiving nods of agreement from the rest of the men in the room. Curios, Chief asked if the Grandmaster knew what the assignment was. "Know fully what it is, I do not. Skywalker's idea, this was."

"Translation, it's one of Anakin's more risky plans." Obi-wan spoke, entering the conversation in holographic form. He had just come back from a deep cover mission on Nal Hutta alongside Commander Cody and Canny when he heard of Anakin's departure. Informing the two Jedi that Blue Team is enroute to the rendezvous point, Chief ended the transmission before telling Blitz and Streak to set course for Garel.

Upon dropping out of hyperspace, Blue Team immediately picked up the Forward Unto Dawn's signature as they neared Garel's surface. Raising the shuttle on the comm, Chief asked Skywalker what the mission was. Explaining that it would be better if they just met on the surface of the planet before, Anakin lead the way, piloting the Dawn down to Garel's surface before landing on a massive piece of coral.

Touching down next to Skywalker's craft, the crew of the Spirit of Fire disembarked from their cruiser and walked over to the new arrivals. The roster included Anakin, Oddball, Hawk, Warthog, Jag, Swoop and Wings, all regarded as some of the best pilots in the entire clone army. "As you guys can probably guess with the team, this mission will require a lot of flying. Chief, who here can fly a V-wing?"

"Sir, Fives and Jesse are competent with the V-wing, whilst Blitz, Streak, and myself are highly proficient. If I may ask, what is the mission sir?" 117 responded, igniting nods of agreement from his team, to which Anakin began the brief. Recently the Empire has started to scrap some of the Republic's Venators and Acclamators, in favour of creating a massive fleet of mid-sized cruisers and frigates. This was obviously in preparation for Project Longsword and the massive Star Destroyer that would fill in as the new capital ship. But the changes did not stop there, turns out that the TIE fighter was to be the next big thing when it came to starfighters, meaning all the Republics V-19s, Y-wings, ARC-170s, V-wings and Jedi interceptors would all be slotted for decommissioning within a few months.