The Shadow Hammer

Cal Kestis found this whole experience maddeningly familiar, like he was in the throes of a remarkably detailed dream or nightmare. The alarms on the Resolute had set him on edge as they rushed towards the gunships that would be ferrying them to the station, Merrin at his side and the others close by.

But then, the dream was banished as Merrin’s gauntleted hand took his, squeezed it gently in the darkness of the rather packed gunship’s dim red lighting. He didn’t need the Force to tell him what she was trying to say without words as they began their flight.

It was taken in relative silence, their objective clear from the briefing that Commander Appo and Ahsoka had given in the hours before they began their attack. Land in one of the lower hangars. Clear out any resistance and secure their sector of the station. Then make their way up toward the core of the station. Whether they found the main reactor or a control room first, they would shut the station down, allow the Resolute to come into range, then suborn the station’s systems to accept their IFF patterns.

Simple enough. But as Cal knew all too well, simple only lasted until you met the enemy.

The sealed gunships began to pass through what was likely combat between their fighter escort and the remaining vulture droids, the silence within the gunship smothering as the pilots began to chatter amongst each other, calling out over comms to try and steer everyone through the fight or comment on particularly impressive flying.

Then, they were past, the comms falling mostly quiet again. After long minutes, an alarm sounded a single, long tone. “5 minutes to drop, boys,” their pilot called. “I’d recommend weapons at the ready.”

Cal responded by taking a lightsaber from his belt. His master’s, repaired as best he could make it. It was not the only saber he had, but it always felt… wrong to lay it aside after he’d finished making his. Who knew? Maybe now that they were here, back in time, it’d finally stick.

At last, there was a moment of sound, air allowing for those within the transport to hear the thrum of the repulsors that they felt, however slightly, within their boots. Then, the transport stilled, the staccato sound of blasterfire beginning to make itself known as the seal on the LAAT’s doors hissed.

Then, the doors opened, and he stepped off smoothly, the activation button found instinctively as the blue blade buzzed to life, blocking red blaster bolts and reflecting them back to the droids that fired them. He heard three more lightsabers blaze to life, glancing to the side to see the twin green blades of Ahsoka and the brilliant purple blade of Mara begin to do the same as other transports began to land, disgorging their troops into the fray.

He glanced over at Merrin as she disappeared in a flash of green fire and smoke, appearing behind the droid lines and causing chaos with her Dathomiri spear as it flowed from form to form, its wielder darting out of the way of any shots leveled at her, intentionally or otherwise. ‘I wonder why she still hesitates to use it,’ he mused, pressing forward as the clones formed a battle line behind him. ‘I’ll ask when we have a moment.’

The clones, having found cover, were nothing if not effective, hemming in the droids and pressing them towards the two main doors out of the hangar. Cal managed to find Captain Rex in the chaos, leading out as he picked off the droids that popped their heads out of cover. At this point, Mara and Ahsoka had pushed up towards separate doors, Ahsoka over to their right as Mara made for the one to its left that they were in front of.

Cal leaped into the fray with Merrin, landing by her side as she reappeared and slicing through the droids with the near-contemptuous ease that only a lightsaber blade could hold claim to. His appearance at her side, and Mara’s determined charge as she drew the clones with her toward the door, allowed the pair to press into the corridor beyond, seeing that the doors connected to the same long hallway, Ahsoka appearing as they cut off those between the doors.

It took only a moment’s glance across the hall between Cal and Ahsoka to come to the same strategy, the Jedi pressing in like a vice to squeeze the droids out of existence. Merrin and Mara watched his back as, guided by the Force, he watched for the pattern that Ahsoka took from droid to droid, felt the prescient ripples and eddies of where she would move next, easily read intent becoming action as, finally, coming back to back, they pivoted and sliced through the last two droids that stood against them.

At last, a moment of peace as the clones began to file into the hallway, setting up lines of fire as Rex made his way towards the gathering Jedi and companions. “Not bad,” he said. “We didn’t lose all that many people thanks to a few more Jedi.”

Merrin gave Rex a meaningful glare, and Cal didn’t need the Force to see the flash of discomfort. He could read body language well enough from the turn of Rex’s helmeted head. “And the… Dathomiri Nightsister,” he added.

Merrin smiled slightly as Ahsoka looked around. “Alright,” she began, “we’re going to need a slicer to get into whatever databases we find. Do we have enough clones versed in that?”

“We should…” Rex said, looking back at the hangar bay. And at the dead clones that lay there. “I can’t vouch for all of them. Cable was one of the ones who bit it back there. Otherwise, we have people who can do it, I’m sure. It’s just going to depend on how much time we have.”

“Not much, probably,” Cal replied. “This place is probably shouting for whatever kind of help it can get.”

“We’ll have to split up,” Ahsoka said. “That way, we stand more of a chance of finding a map, then finding our way to the command center or the reactor core. Rex, you take the others with you down to our… left. I’ll go right with some of our boys, see what I can find.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Rex replied, his voice still clearly holding a note of hesitation. “Are you sure you won’t need one of the Jedi with you? Cal or Mara? I’d hate to leave you without a Jedi able to watch your back. And I’m sure General Skywalker would too.”

“Come on,” Ahsoka said with a slight grin. “I’m able to take care of myself. Besides, I trust the clones I’ll be going with.”

Before anyone else could speak, they were interrupted by another ship coming in to land where many of the LAATs had vacated, a now somewhat scuffed Z-95 touching down. The cockpit opened, and Luke hopped down as the droid socket released a purple astromech that quickly followed behind.

“Luke,” Mara said as he joined them. “Glad to have you with us. Space get a little too boring?”

“Master Skywalker and I figured we could help,” Luke replied. “He’s leading the way up top of the station. How can I help?”

“You can go with Commander Tano,” Rex said before anyone else could. “She could use the backup, and…” he glanced over at the droid. “An astromech should be able to slice into any Sep databases here.”

Luke looked down at his companion, who beeped stringently. “Well, S8, it’s a lot different being in a combat zone on the ground than it is in the sky. Stay by the clones. They should be able to protect you.”

S8 hummed for a moment, then warbled in somewhat resigned acquiescence. “Good,” Luke said with a slight smile. “I’d hate to repay your trust with blasterfire.”

“Well, sounds like she trusts you,” Ahsoka said. “Come on. We should get going.”

. . .

Ahsoka Tano, as much as she focused on the battle that started and paused in fits and starts as they encountered enemy squads, couldn’t help but feel some slight annoyance at Rex. They’d fought side by side for over a year at this point. By all rights, she was his commanding officer. But, as he was fond of saying, ‘experience outranks everything’.

‘So let’s go and get some experience, shall we?’ she mused as she pressed forward, scouting ahead of the clones that she led. If there was anyone who could clear the way so that her boys would be safe, it was her and Master Starkiller.

“Ahsoka,” she heard Luke said warningly, “be mindful of your surroundings. We are in enemy territory, after all.”

“Got it,” she said, beginning to slow so that Luke and the clones could catch up. She still kept her head on a swivel as one of the clones found an access terminal. Luke’s droid, S8, trundled up to it and logged in with its scomp link. After a moment, it trilled and beeped at Luke.

“She should find us a map soon, she says,” Luke told the clones. “We’ll hold here for a moment.”

Ahsoka nodded. “Hopefully, the Seps haven’t got the station maps too heavily encrypted.”

“I’d be surprised if they were,” Luke assured her. “For now, we just have to be patient, then find a direct way to the station’s command center. Take a moment to center yourself in the Force so that it can guide you, and us.”

Ahsoka nodded, smiling slightly. “You sound like Master Kenobi. He’d certainly say something like that if he was here with us.”

Luke’s slight, sure smile became sad. “Master Kenobi was the first Jedi I met. And the one who first trained me. Even after I stopped being officially taught by him, there’s a lot his example managed to teach me.”

“Oh,” Ahsoka said as her brows rose. “I guess it must be a little weird to see him now, before he trained you.”

Luke nodded. “Yeah. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him. It’s weird, yes… but it’s good.”

Ahsoka couldn’t help but wonder on what that meant. Before she could ponder for long, however, a door opened up, another hallway with a few droids approaching. It was just a cluster of B1s. She could take care of it herself.

“I’ve got them,” she said, charging down the hallway toward the droids, easily blocking the blaster bolts that the half dozen or so droids fired at her.

“Something’s not right about this,” Luke said as he began to go after her. “Watch out for anything-”

He was cut off as, from ports in the ceiling, four more droids dropped in to surround her. These, however, weren’t the spindly B1s or bulky, top-heavy B2s. They were lean, almost muscular-seeming things, draped in tan cloaks and wielding staffs whose ends were capped with crackling purple lightning as they activated.

MagnaGuards. Either Grievous was here, or he was at least in the system. Either way, the realization that she had gotten herself in way over her head crashed down on her at about the same time as she blocked an overhead strike from one of the droids, shouting as another crackling staff end slammed into her torso.

In a moment, however, another green blade sliced through one of the MagnaGuards, the droid sliding apart at the diagonal cut Luke had made as its companion turned to face him, its staff swirling dangerously as the man fell back into a defensive stance, letting his enemy make it s attacks as he blocked them, somewhat uncertainly at first, then more confidently even as his blade bounced off the MagnaGuard’s electropike.

It left Ahsoka with two of the droids to deal with. Still dicey, but better than before. Her lightsabers became a swirl of motion and attack, each block only a brief obstacle before she attempted a different angle of attack.

Sensing an opening, she leaped past the shoulders of the two droids, ending up behind them as one of the MagnaGuards turned to face her, the other stopped by Luke’s charge, leaving her to deal with only a single droid. As challenging as they could be, Ahsoka could take one of them out reasonably quickly.

One upward slash to batter the staff out of the way, and her shorter shoto saber darted forward, plunging into the MagnaGuard’s chest before she sliced it apart, the two now lifeless halves falling to the floor at about the same time as Luke’s armless one, sliced up the middle, did the same.

At last, the hall was silent, and Ahsoka winced slightly as she gingerly felt at the burns she’d sustained from the electropikes.

She heard a quiet sigh from Luke as he stood in front of her. “Are you alright?”

Ahsoka nodded. “I’ll be fine. Just a little shocking, that’s all,”

Luke’s only response to the quip was a slight smile that vanished after a moment. “When it comes to both the Force and battle, it’s much easier to wait for a moment and examine what the situation might be than to rush in and spring a trap. Patience brings balance, and a balanced Jedi can overcome anything.”

Ahsoka nodded. “Thank you, master,” she said, somewhat begrudgingly.

Luke smiled slightly again. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s a lesson every Jedi has to learn. More than once. I know I did.”

“That sounds… exhausting,” Ahsoka said as they began to make their way back to the waiting clones. “It’s already challenging enough to learn something once.”

“That's the biggest part of both life and the Force,” Luke said. “There are many, many different lessons to learn, and many ways in which to learn them. Few mutually exclusive or easy in their application.”

As they emerged into the hallway, S8 made her way over to them warbling excitedly, showing them a hologram of the starbase along with a bright yellow line that traced its way from their position through the hallways up to what was likely the command center.

“Good job, S8,” Luke said. “Anyway that we can transmit the map to everyone else?”

S8 warbled in the affirmative.

“Alright,” Ahsoka said firmly. “Let's get moving!”

. . .

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Mara Jade Skywalker charged through the station’s interior and wondered for a moment if the old link that she had had with the Emperor could be exploited by the man who would become him in this time.

It was entirely possible, she thought between deflecting blaster bolts and cutting through metal, both moving and not. Something about that possibility ate at her very soul. She'd need Luke’s help, possibly. It would never have been a problem before now after Luke and his father had killed the Emperor. Now…

Now, she looked down to see a holomap, showing the way courtesy of Luke. She smiled slightly, looking up to see the way forward. “Captain!” she said as she cut down the last droid in this patrol, looking over at Rex. “You seeing this?”

“I certainly am,” Rex replied, looking critically at the map. “Down that hallway to the left, everyone! We'll hit the main elevator shaft!”

The troopers, their direction given, charged out with shouts of “Oye!” and “Come on!”, making a plasteel spearhead down the hallway, Rex, Mara, and Cal at their head.

The droid garrison, split as it surely was with the four-pronged attack, offered little in the way of an obstacle to their push. In only a few moments, they made it to a cluster of three elevator doors.

“Any chance they just left them open for us?” Cal asked somewhat flippantly as one of the troopers slowly approached the control panel and pressed one of the buttons. After long moments, there was a whole lot of… nothing.

“Well, at least they didn’t trap the kriffing things,” the trooper said, “but they still shut them down.”

“Well, it’s a good thing we have alternative methods of opening doors, then,” Rex said as he looked at Mara and Cal, likely quite meaningfully.

Mara and Cal looked at each other, then at the doors. “Shouldn't be too hard,” Mara said, taking a deep breath as she deactivated her lightsaber, Cal following her lead.

She reached out with the Force, almost feeling the edges of the doors on her palms as she mimicked the motion of forcing them open. Motion reinforced will and turned it into reality as two of the three doors shuddered and groaned open, revealing the dark elevator shaft concealed within, a rather simple ladder stretching up and down.

As the doors finished opening, those closest to them gathered around, aiming rifles up and down its length. Dan and Elle looked back at Rex. “There’s as good a chance as any they’re waiting at the command center for someone to try and break in,” Dan said warningly.

“And even if they aren’t,” Elle said, glancing back up, “it’s a long way up. Several stories, if the map’s anything to go by.”

“Well, we aren’t afraid of a little climb, are we?” one of the other clones said. “Even if the ladder weren’t there at the far end, our ascenders should hold us just fine.”

“Let’s get to climbing, then,” Rex said, preparing a small grapple launcher as the others began to follow suit. “If you Jedi would like to lead the way, we’ll make sure to follow. It’s easier for you to cut through the doors, after all.”

Mara grinned. “It’s one of the most useful parts of a lightsaber, after all.”

She looked over at Cal. “Hope you aren’t afraid of heights.”

Cal chuckled. “Not a bit.”

He demonstrated as such by jumping over to the ladder, beginning to climb as Merrin watched on with a quiet sigh. “Always on the move,” she said, most missing the slight smile she gave as she followed after. Mara took the adjacent one, the clones next to it following her lead.

With that, the gathered squads began their long, largely silent ascent, lights flickering on from the helmets of the clones that sliced through the darkness with all-too-thin blades. The command center was located on a floor well on 200 meters up.

The silence of the climb set most on a prepared edge, every door that the ladder went around watched with the intensity of a Kasshyyyk stalk-hawk. But no doors opened, no droids pointed their blasters at the largely helpless troops as they secured and climbed, secured and climbed.

“Why doesn’t anyone on these sorts of stations use stairs?” one of the clones mused aloud. “I don’t have to fix stairs or climb them like this.”

“The joys of modern convenience, I suppose,” Mara replied dryly as she anchored herself at the limit of her grapple cable, hit the release, and waited for the end to automatically spool up to her launcher. After it did, she aimed it up and pulled the trigger, the line disappearing into the darkness with a puff as others did the same, the click of it securing echoing through the shaft. She attached the launcher to its secured position on her belt and began to climb again.

“Besides,” she continued with a sly smile, “isn’t this just another fitness exercise for you strong, able men, defenders of the Republic, mister…?”

“Stembolt, ma’am. And we could get just as much of a workout going up the stairs,” the clone replied meaningfully. “In fact, I think you could cheat that, being a Jedi and all. Here at least, you get the same experience we do. Makes for good teambuilding.”

“You know how to make the best of a situation, don’t you?” Mara chuckled.

“It’s either that or go insane out here, ma’am,” Stembolt replied. “Besides, always interesting to work with another Jedi. Especially ones… like you.”

“Like me?” she asked idly.

“Word gets around the barracks quickly,” Stembolt replied. “Especially with soldiers like Kep.”

“Hey!” Kep, who was apparently a little further down the line, said somewhat indignantly.

A quiet chuckle rose through the elevator shaft, Mara pausing for a moment as she glanced over at what was likely a floor number, anchoring herself with one arm as she checked the schematics. After a few moments, she smiled and looked down at Rex behind her, trying not to pay attention to the long, long drop below them. “Here’s our floor, boys!”

More than a few sighs of relief were the reply. “We’ll let our master slicer get to work, then,” one of the clones in the line called out.

That managed to get a laugh out of Mara. “First time I’ve been called that!” she said as she anchored herself by the left door and grabbed her lightsaber. “The history books never said you boys could be this funny.”

She punctuated the statement by activating her lightsaber, a purple glow casting away the shadows before she plunged it into the door, beginning her cut. They hadn’t reinforced the door against lightsabers. Not even an alloying of phrik metal, like she'd seen on anything that the Emperor had made on anything that surrounded him. All too easy.

Long moments and a little reaching later, Mara drew her lightsaber back, reaching out to the now free-floating surface with the Force and pushing.

The door flew forward, and Mara swung in with graceful ease, her saber raised in a guard as she looked around the slightly curving corridor. No droids. Yet.

She saw another lightsaber blade, a brilliant orange, stab through the elevator door next to them as the clones that were with her began to secure the area. Its cut was less refined than Mara’s but it still did the job as it flew out, Cal stepping out of it carefully to avoid the rather burned edges.

“So you decided to use yours this time?” Mara asked as the clones began to push towards one of the doors.

Cal looked down at his saber as he deactivated it, a hilt of deceptively simple, yet intricate metal paneling with a round emitter surrounded by four short, hexagonal panels, the parts closest to the edge of the emitter stretched to go slightly past it.

“I figured now’s as good a time as any,” Cal replied as they began to make their way toward the control center doors. “As much as I admire Master Tapal and all he did for me… I need to fully trust in my own work now. Prove I'm truly my own Jedi.”

“That takes some doing sometimes,” Mara said quietly.

“Don't I know it,” Cal replied.

They arrived at the doors of the control center unopposed. Suspiciously so. “They're probably trying to make this doorway a kill corridor,” Mara said. “Bet on us losing our strength as attackers to having to get through the doors first.”

“That's as good an idea as these clankers can have,” Rex replied. “Any chance we can surround them?”

Mara closed her eyes, letting her perception expand through the Force to seek out the others in the strike force. She found Luke and Ahsoka and the men that followed him. After a moment more, she felt Anakin and his men. If they weren't on the level yet, they'd be here soon. “The others aren't far behind. If we attack now, or at least in a few minutes, we'll have their help.”

“It'd be a good way to disorient them,” Rex said as a clone moved to the door panel, taking out a tool hanging from his belt and beginning to slice the door — digitally this time — to open them without warning and perhaps take the droids by surprise. “Everyone ready. Jedi lead in, then we spread out and find cover. Just like the simulations.”

Mara wondered for a moment what kind of simulations these clone troopers had been run through. Then she remembered that they skated on the very edge of being flash-grown. It was a very sobering thought, indeed.

Before she could ruminate on how young these soldiers were, the clone slicing the door looked back and gave a thumbs up. “Ready on your marks, master Jedi,” Rex said, stepping back to let Mara and Cal fill the gap, Merrin, Dan, and Elle right behind them.

Mara once again reached out in the Force, finding Luke and giving him a general idea of what was about to happen and how he could help. She felt his reply, wordless yet determined as he began to come into position. Good.

Mara took a deep breath, and activated her lightsaber. “Now!”

The doors opened, and she charged in, cutting down the first droid in front of her before it could even finish turning. The rest, a few B1s and B2s scattered across the bridge, a strange looking droid at the centers that her studies had told her was a command droid…

And 12 MagnaGuard droids making their way towards her and Cal, electropikes crackling. They reminded her of the Purge troopers the rest of the Inquisition used that wielded such weapons, no less deadly with skin instead of circuitry under their specialized armor.

A MagnaGuard clashed with Mara once before she cut through it, Cal igniting his blue-bladed saber to catch an attack from his side as he held off another, Merrin taking her chance and charging the one Cal had blocked, stabbing through its chest with her spear.

If they weren’t careful, they’d be surrounded, and even as one of the MagnaGuards fell to focused fire, they wouldn’t last long enough to not appreciate it.

Then, she felt a brief soothing in the Force that was followed by three green blades slicing through two of the droids they faced, the mechanical corpses falling apart to reveal Luke and Ahsoka, who joined their sides quickly.

At that point, it was only a matter of patience and persistence, one droid falling after another to the humming, buzzing blades. At last, it was silent.

“Good of you to join us so dramatically,” she said to Luke with a slight smile as lightsabers began to deactivate.

“I aim to please,” Luke replied as the clones made their way towards what consoles hadn’t been damaged from the brief, furious firefight.

Ahsoka wasted no time activating a wrist comm. “Master,” she said with no small amount of satisfaction, “the control room is ours.”

“Excellent work, Ahsoka,” Anakin replied. “See if you can automate the station’s weaponry through there. Even if you can’t, at least lock the Seps out.”

“Got it,” Ahsoka replied, looking up at Rex.

The trooper nodded. “Cypri, Byte, Kaler, get your hooks into the station and get those IFF profiles changed. Quickly! General Kenobi’s fight is depending on us!”

. . .

General Obi-Wan Kenobi stood on the bridge of his preferred flagship, all too aptly named the Negotiator, a rock amidst the swirling chaos that was taking place on the combat bridge.

For the past 30 minutes, Admiral Block had been cycling the capital ships to and from the fiery edge of battle, shoring up those places with ships that still had the least damaged armor and shields on one side or another. If there were any biological commanders aboard the Separatist fleet, he was sure that it would have made for a striking display.

But they were reaching their limit. Already, 8 of the up-gunned Acclamator-II’s had been lost in blazes of fire, nearly double that number of anti-fighter picket corvettes having gone with them. The Sunrise and the River Lithe had sustained enough damage that they’d been ordered to the center of the fleet, where they would find the most protection while still serving as carrier pads and fire control networks.

‘Come on, Anakin,’ Obi-Wan thought. ‘We don’t have much time left.’

“Sir!” one of the officers in the crew pit to his left shouted. “Transmission from General Skywalker! He confirms that the station has been secured! All guns are under our control!”

Obi-Wan allowed himself a slight smile. ‘As expected, he again pulls off the heroic.’

“Excellent,” Admiral Block replied. “Inform all ships to turn about and make for the station! All ships on the starboard flank, prepare for an arrowhead formation and punch through their lines.”

The crew relaid his orders, and soon the Prism, the Forlorn Hope, and the Star Dragon had turned about, becoming the new head of the fleet as they made their charge, guns blazing as they fired on the cruisers before them.

The toll of battle had been heavy on the right flank for the Separatists, their ships already heavily damaged there. Now, as their line became the focus of a concerted push, it finally gave way, hulls and superstructures buckling under the thunder of the guns as the Republic fleet began to make its way toward the station.

“Now we just hope that there isn’t another fleet on its way to the station,” Block said somewhat grimly as they made their run.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they took the shutting down of the alarm as a good thing, either,” Kenobi replied. “Either way, we have a formidable station under our control now. We should be rather more secure than we were before.”

Block nodded, looking out the window and cupping a closely cut goatee that almost disappeared into a milk chocolate face, hard, lined, and with equally hard black eyes. “It looks like the Confederacy seems to believe their station is still under their control. This is easy. Almost too easy.”

“Let’s hope they don’t know something we don’t,” Obi-Wan said as he picked out the station coming into view. The Resolute was peeking out from behind it. Perhaps trying to hide from any pursuers that the fleet might be dragging along?

“How long until we’re within range of the guns, Admiral?” Obi-Wan asked.

Block motioned the flag captain, a woman named Rhosikk, over to him, who handed him a datapad that he tapped on intently. “Our best guess says we should be within range within 3 minutes,” he said.

3 minutes. 3 minutes to see whether or not this station would help them, be of no threat at all… or still might fire on them, regardless of Anakin’s promise.

‘Anakin will come through,’ he reminded himself. ‘He always seems to find a way to.’

2 minutes had passed. Then 2:30…

Then they were under the umbrella of the guns. Long seconds stretched out as they braced for a renewed hail of turbolaser fire. Then, the first exhale, like a stone tossed into water, caused a ripple of relief.

“Well,” Obi-Wan said, “at least we won't have to worry about the station.”

“Thank the stars for that,” Block said. “We can focus on defending a point, let our fighters do some more of the work.”

Block turned to one of the other officers. “What word do we have on the Confederacy fleet?”

“Still trailing us, sir,” the officer replied. “Quarterstaff just lost its engines and is beginning to fall behind.”

“Have Impunity and Stalwart fall back and provide cover,” Block replied. “At least we'll be able to turn around and use the station as an anchor once we reach it. We just need to get that far.”

Obi-Wan looked over to a display that showed the Separatist fleet, now ardently in pursuit. And the Venators that trailed too far behind for anyone's comfort.

Now, he looked stridently to the Force for Anakin to have found a way…

And like that, the station’s guns blazed to life, massive walls of laser fire tearing through what gaps were in between the fleet to slam into the Separatist ships.

In spite of all military protocol, a cheer went up on the bridge, Obi-Wan's slight smile growing. He had done it.

“All ships,” Block said, “go to loose formation and give the station as clear a line of fire as possible! We'll have this fleet dealt with in no time.”

In the next 10 minutes, Block was exactly right.

But of course, though the battle here was won, there was still an entire system’s worth of Separatists.