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

Chapter 4- Counter Plan

“So what’s the plan master?” Ahsoka said as the two Jedi raced through the corridors of the Dauntless to the docking port. Clone troopers were barely able to contain the droids as they poured in, and would not be able to hold the line for long. Already isolated squads of droids had been detected on other decks and were being countered.

“Our plan is to fight our way through the droids and find the commander of that ship. Then we decide from there.” Anakin responded. Ahsoka nodded, knowing that they had two choices at that juncture: either capture the commander or kill him. As a Jedi it is wrong to kill unarmed opponents, but some situations in battle don’t allow for that option. This is were the Jedi walk the thin line between heroes and war criminals, those split second decisions on the battlefield.

 As the two went on the sounds of blaster fire got louder until they rounded a corner and ran right into a fire fight between clones and droids. The droids were taking casualties but they were still advancing through sheer numbers. However this all changed when Anakin and Ahsoka showed up. Without missing a beat, both of them activated their lightsabers: Anakin with his single blue lightsaber and Ahsoka with her normal green lightsaber and a smaller yellow-green shoto, both held in the Shien reverse grip. Charging right into the center of the droids, deflecting blasts with their lightsabers back into the droids that fired them, the two Jedi made short work of those droids.

After vertically slicing the last droid from the top-down, Anakin went over to the leader of these clones, Captain Rex. “How bad is it Rex?”

“It’s pretty bad, sir.” The clone answered as he holstered his pistols. “From what I’ve heard, the droids are starting to push past our defenses and are spreading out all over the ship. They’ve practically taken over the docking port. There are still a few men down there including ARC trooper Fives, but their position is vulnerable to a full on attack.”

Anakin hurriedly turned from Rex. “I’m going down there to help our men. After that, I’m going to board that frigate and see just whom we are dealing with. Round up as many men as you can. Our rally point will be in the docking port. Understand?”

Rex snapped to attention. “Yes sir!”

“Very good. Come on Ahsoka, we still got plenty of work left to do.”

“Happy to oblige.” She said with a smile. Anakin gave a small smile of his own and they both started for the docking bay along with Rex and his company.

The droids had forced the clones in the docking bay to retreat, and more droids were coming onboard when RW’s internal transmitter was signaled. “What is it?” RW asked.

A battle droid commander’s vocalizer responded, “Sir, two Jedi are making their way to your position. We can’t stop them.” The transmission was cut of with the sound of the droid screaming and the hum of a lightsaber.

Before RW could respond the captain’s voice came over all droid frequencies, “This is the captain. All droids are to avoid direct contact with the Jedi. Instead, let them board the ship and lead them to me. Eliminate any stragglers they bring.” His voice cut off.

“You heard the captain,” RW-47 said to the droids around him, “vacate the area. The Jedi are logically going to try to board from this point.” The droids heeded its orders and either moved deeper into the Republic ship or back onto their own ship, whichever was closer. RW remained on the Republic ship to continue the captain’s previous orders. As the droid moved, there was a change of pitch in the battle as a humming sound entered his audio receptors. Recognizing that sound as that of a lightsaber, RW quickly made his exit deeper into the Republic ship.

Several corridors and piles of wrecked droids later, Anakin and Ahsoka rushed into the docking bay. Behind them was a group of about thirty clones that they had rounded up from various fights, about two battle groups worth. The decks of the Dauntless were swarming with battle droids and it was taking everything the crew had to offer to hold them back. It was estimated that there were over several thousand droids onboard and all personal were assigned to combat duty. Anakin and Ahsoka managed to cut down the number of droids and had rescued several fire teams that were close to being overrun. Now the Dauntless was putting up more of a resistance against the droids, but there was still a long ways to go before an outcome could be determined.

But as they entered the docking bay, only the bodies of dead clones and destroyed droids greeted them instead of the blaster fire they expected. After a quick scan Ahsoka spotted a group of droids exiting through a door on their far left. “Look! Over there, a Super tactical droid!” If we could capture it, she thought, we could learn about the Separatists’ plans and turn them against them.

Anakin had he same thought. “Rex, take these men and capture that tactical droid. It may hold the key to stopping the Separatists.”

“On it sir.” He replied. “Come on!” he motioned to the troopers and they set off in pursuit of the droids. They quickly got to the door and entered leaving the two Jedi alone.

“Now it’s our turn.” Anakin said to Ahsoka. As they walked to the boarding ramp, a side door opened. Both of them shifted their lightsabers in preparation for an attack, but instead of droids, it was a group of clones.

“General Skywalker, Commander Tano.” The clone called Fives said. “We didn’t hear any noise coming from here, so we thought we try to re-establish our position before more droids showed up.” He pointed to a once elaborate barricade that was now pretty beat up.

“Looks like you were down here since the fight started.” Ahsoka said.

“Yes sir. We had one hell of a fight.”

“Good job Fives.” Anakin said to the ARC trooper. “Now I want you to take these troopers and go through that door over there.” He said pointing to the door Rex just went through. “You’ll meet up with Captain Rex who is pursuing a Super tactical droid. I think he may need your help.”

Fives nodded. “Always happy to blast some droids sir.” He said, and then started off towards the door with the rest of the clones behind him.

“Let’s go master. We have a commander to catch.” Ahsoka said.

Anakin nodded his head and they resumed boarding the CIS frigate. 

On board the CIS frigate Anakin and Ahsoka were confronted with…nothing. There was not a singe droid in sight. Expecting to be ambushed at any moment, both of them kept their lightsabers activated and raised.

“Where is everyone?” Ahsoka asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe all the droids already passed through.” Anakin responded.

Ahsoka looked around warily. “I don’t like this this master.”

“Neither do I Ahsoka.” At that, they both continued their trek through the ship, moving slowly to avoid rushing into an ambush. Using schematics they had memorized, they attempted to make their way to the bridge. They were about 3 decks away when they encountered their first squad of droids. It happened by chance, several maintenance droids had walked right out of a door on their right. In a flash, all of them were in pieces on the deck plates.

“How many droids run this place again?” Ahsoka asked. “Because it seems there is a lack of any sort of crew here.”

“Normally there is a running crew of 200.” Anakin answered. “But ships like these can carry up to 150,000 deactivated droids.” Both of them paused.

“Let’s hope there aren’t that many, otherwise the Dauntless is not going to make it out of here.” Ahsoka said. 

“Let’s keep moving.” Both of them resumed their search at a more urgent speed.