Kel Dor and the Kaleesh

Prologue: Minerals

In the outer rim of the galaxy, a large fleet from the Confederacy of Independent Systems was traveling through hyperspace on its way to the unknown. The flagship was larger than the others; some say it was notorious for being as powerful as the last warship the CIS had, known as the Invisible Hand.

Made of strong metal, long, thin with a large tower at the back, it was massive, and thousands of droids on board, the ship was only lacking an ion cannon like Malevolence once had. But the commander of this ship, happened to be General Grievous, a former Kaleesh warrior and now the cyborg leader of the Separatist droid army. He was hoping to get a new ion cannon for Invisible Hand, one day if his master Sith Lord Count Dooku permitted it.

Grievous paced impatiently back and forth on the bridge like he always did, his back hunched and his arms dragging behind. His appearance was easily memorable, and the only thing that remained from his organic form was his eyes.

"When are we coming out of hyperspace? This is where Dooku said he would meet us!" He growled in a deep mechanical voice,

The droid commander spoke in a more typical robotic tone,

"Patience General, approximately 5 minutes until we exit,"

Grievous sighed, "This better involve some invasion of a planet, I'm not going to do any more political errands!"

He sat down on his command chair, the last thing he wanted was to be given something diplomatic. To the Republic, he was considered to be Dooku's puppet, and did not care about the politics. He only cared about testing new weapons, killing Jedi, and whatever involved action. But his encounters with the Jedi had often been close to fatal, and sometimes unforgettable.

Ten years ago, one of the most memorable encounters he had, was with a Padawan of 12 years old. She was sent on a mission with her master, to destroy a droid factory that served as a backup for the one on Geonosis, located on Felucia, and underground. The Padawan was separated from her master and ran into Grievous while setting the charges to detonate the factory. They engaged one another in lightsaber combat, and for the first time in his time being known to be a Jedi Hunter, Grievous was nearly defeated by this young girl, but her relentless actions against him made him impressed.

She escaped, and ever since that day, Grievous vowed to kill her just like he did to any other Jedi. No capture, no torture, she will die. He thought to himself as he tapped his metal fingers on the arm of the chair.

He wondered what her current whereabouts were. He had encountered her many times after the Felucia incident, but it had been a period of silence where he had not seen her in a while. But nothing could make him forget what a powerful enemy she was.

One day I will kill her, I get closer and closer every time we have clashed, he thought once again until he looked up to see they were exiting hyperspace.

"About time! Where is Dooku's ship? Open the hangar and allow him to board, I'll be waiting for him on the bridge," Grievous demanded, and then he coughed. Normally Dooku would contact him via hologram, but this time he wanted to meet with him in person. Grievous assumed it was urgent then.

A small ship came into view through the window, it had a large shield in front of it like an umbrella; something that Dooku was known to travel in a lot. He had often used it to remain undetected and hide from the Republic if they pursued him. Grievous almost admired that, for he would flee frequently, but in some of the most obvious ways.

Dooku arrived on the bridge of Invisible Hand minutes later with his personal guards. Grievous turned around and knelt at his master's feet.

"What do you need from me Dooku?" He asked, in the most loyal way possible to hide the fact that he hoped he wasn't to be sent on a boring mission.

Count Dooku was an aged man who looked no older than sixty, his grey beard was short but never completely shaved, he wore a black robe and the lightsaber on his belt appeared to be bent a little.

"General, I have found something that acquires your attention," He said in a deep voice.

Grievous looked up, "What do you need?"

"There is a rare mineral I need you to retrieve, I have no doubt it will make our ships impenetrable once it is manufactured for that purpose. Also, I will grant it to be made with the crystals that used to serve as Malevolence's ion cannon. You may get it on this ship as well."

Grievous paused before answering. He wished that Malevolence wasn't destroyed by the Jedi responsible. But he still had the feeling this assignment was just another errand boy job.

"It is called Nitonma, and is rumored to be shiny indestructible material, if we find this, it will give us a large advantage against the Republic....."

"This sounds like another one of your errand jobs!" Grievous interrupted,

"Not exactly General, there is only one planet in this galaxy that mines this mineral. If they resist, you will use any means necessary to breach the planet's atmosphere with your forces. Even if there are only small parts of Nitonma, there are ways to duplicate it," Dooku continued, unimpressed with Grievous' attempt to avoid the task.

Grievous rose, there was no getting out of this. Should the Jedi come, maybe he would get to do some killing after all. "It will be done." He said.