Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Emergence [The Red Sith, Part One]

Chapter 2- The Trap has Sprung

The streaks of hyperspace faded into the blackness of space. Ahead of the Dauntless lay the small glowing speck that was the planet Bothawui. Close by loomed Golm, its asteroid ring forming a giant disk in space. Anakin turned to Ahsoka and said “Any signs of Separatist activity?”

“Scanning.” She replied. The results were puzzling. “I’m not detecting any Separatist ships between us and the planet.”

“What?” Anakin said as he came over to look at the readings. “That doesn’t make any sense.” He muttered. Ships should be forming a blockade formation around the planet to protect it from invasion. “Expand your scans to the cover the entire system.”

Ahsoka responded and widened the scans. “There does seem to be a large buildup of Confederate ships around sector 12.” She paused. “Wait. Isn’t that where the shipyard is?”

 “Yes it is.” Said Anakin, his voice growing quiet. Both Ahsoka and Anakin’s eyes widened as they both realized what had happened. The enemy knew they were going to attack the shipyards and waited in ambush for the main Republic fleet.

Anakin turned and said to the navigations officer “Set a course to the shipyards, as fast as we can! I’m not going to let them fall into a trap, he thought, at least not without me. Try to get in touch with Master Kenobi. Maybe we can warn him before it’s too late.”

Ahsoka punched in the comm, but all she got was a loud crackle of static. “Our communications are being jammed!”

“How? There aren’t any ships near enough to block our signal.” Anakin exclaimed. He turned to look out the viewport to find the source of the jamming. The three cruisers were passing over the asteroid belt when Anakin noticed something. One of the asteroids started glowing with lights. Then it started moving. “Over to the port! A Banking Clan Frigate!” As he said that, the prow turbolaser of the frigate fired and impacted on the shields of the Firebird causing minimal damage, but shook the ship. Then all hell broke loose.

On board the CIS frigate, droids were manning their stations with rapt attention. The tactics of their captain were beyond their processor’s ability to fully grasp, but they executed the orders quickly and without question. The captain had a violent dislike for slow battle droids. If any of those were found in his ranks, they tended to disappear and be replaced. And those were quickly replaced and similarly discarded if they in turn failed. A Super tactical droid, designated RW-47, with red trimmings stood watch over these droids, supervising them and checking their work. “There are three Republic ships. The right number that we need for your plan to work, my lord.” It said in a heavy mechanical voice.  

“Yes it is RW.” A voice coming from the commander’s chair hissed. “Now, execute phase two. Destroy one ship, damage another, and capture the final one. Just like how I planed out. ”

“Yes sir.” RW turned to the communications droid and told it, “Tell the boarding craft and the fighters to take off and follow their flight plans."

“Rodger Rodger.” The droid said. RW looked out the viewport at the three Republic ships. Droid fighters and boarding craft took off from their positions in the asteroids and headed for the ships, following their instructions.

“Sir!” called the clone navigation officer as his screen started glowing with red, “Multiple contacts closing fast!” As the officer spoke a wing of Vulture droids flew past escorting a trio of boarding craft headed to the Adamant. Just then, an impact shook the Dauntless and forced the bridge crew to grab hold of something for balance. Vulture droids, now swarming en-masse were firing on the Dauntless, inflicting damage and lowering shield strength. Just then, the CIS frigate fired another salvo at the Firebird, this time blowing a chunk out of the bow armor of the ship.

Anakin hit the communications to all ships, “All Republic crews, launch all fighters, repeat, launch all fighters!” He watched as the ships responded and the Venator Class Star Destroyers started to open their trademark dorsal flight deck doors. ARC-170’s and V-wings departed from the fight deck. Over half of the first waves were picked off by Vulture droids and Tri-fighters, but the survivors managed to take off and engage the droids, creating a window for the next waves of fighters to get into position. A fierce dogfight soon raged out in space with both sides exchanging fire.

However, as the Firebird was about to launch its third wave of fighters, an impact from a squad of crashing Tri-fighters momentarily weakened the shields surrounding the flight deck. Before the ship could re-route power, the CIS frigate fired directly into the ship, blowing a hole clean through the Firebird's flight deck and several other decks. As power flickered throughout the ship, an entire wing of Vulture droids changed course and flew directly into the bridge of the Firebird, destroying everyone in that section. The ship gave one last spasm and all power died. The CIS frigate then fired on the Firebird for a fourth time and destroyed it, cutting the Republic’s fleet power down by a third. Anakin and Ahsoka watched with horror as the ship turned into a fireball, killing everyone on board.

“Turbolaser crews, target the frigate!” Anakin ordered and a volley of blasts hit the frigate. “Where did all those fighters come from?”

“I don’t know sir.” Replied one of the clone commanders. “We were passing over the asteroid field when they suddenly were on us.”

“They must have used the asteroids as cover and attacked when we were close enough.” Anakin said. He had made a tactical blunder, rushing into a fight that was not planed. And now the crew of the Firebird was dead. Anakin mentally kicked himself for being so blind, but then he remembered Obi-Wan’s lesson: “Keep your mind in the here and now.” Anakin, following his mentor’s advice activated his communicator and said, “Odd Ball, do you copy? What’s the situation out there?”

“General Skywalker.” The voice of the clone commander replied over the comm. “We have a bit of a problem, sir. A group of landing craft are attempting to board the Adamant. We shot two ships down, but more slipped in and we’re getting hammered out here. Give us a few minuets then we can gain the upper hand.”

“Very well. Skywalker out.” Anakin put down his communicator. The bridge shook again as a squad of Tri-fighter missiles impacted on their rapidly deteriorating shields. Bright flashes of light lit up space when fighters were destroyed as the two sides fought. Fighters were blown into molecular atoms by stray laser blasts, and pilots scrambled to gain a better position behind the enemy.