8 Welcome to Hell

(Above Jabiim)

*Alarm*

*BOOM*

The Defender was rocked as their aft deflectors were down, and the bridge was partially exposed to the gunfire of the separatist ships, picking himself up from the ground Novak scowled "Focus fire on the lead ship aim for their hanger bays if we can't get our reinforcements down then they sure as hell aren't!!!" He commanded.

"Yes sir!" The tactical officers shouted as they focused fire on the enemy ship's hanger bay. Novak could see the deflectors in that section start to overheat and a few seconds later they managed to punch through causing a large explosion on the right section of the ship.

"Sir we are taking hull damage!" One of the officers yelled.

"Have the escape pods made it into the atmosphere!?" Novak asked.

"No sir they haven't, they are getting shot down too easily!" He replied.

Novak cursed as he started running through different plans in his mind "Signal the assault ships, I want them to protect the escape pods and let the troops get planet side." He commanded.

"But sir if we do that we will lose the ships!" One of the officers commented.

"Tell everyone but the bridge crew to get to the escape pods so they can join the troops on the ground!" He instructed. Novak knew that he was condemning the officers of those ships to death but that was the price of war, he'd be able to get a significant number of troops on the ground at the cost of a dozen or so men. It was a hard choice but one that needed to be made and one he would willingly make himself. The republic ships continued to accumulate damage as the battle went on, Novak watched as both of his assault vessels blew up in protection of the escape pods "Lieutenant have the pods reached the atmosphere?!" The Admiral asked.

"Yes Admiral, the last pods from both assault vessels have reached through the atmosphere," the Lieutenant replied.

Admiral Novak nodded in acknowledgement but still had a grim expression on his face. Due to the electrically charged atmosphere of Jabiim; it made the whole planet a rather hostile place when it came to landing any ships. Meaning that other than a few windows of opportunity such as now it was completely impossible to take off the planet or even land. This was why Admiral Novak had not expected the ambush, it was dangerous to take gunships through the atmosphere never mind ships as large as those, whoever was commanding the first fleet must've been crazy or perhaps a genius since it worked.

*BOOM*

Admiral Novak watched as the two assault ships he sacrificed blew up, even if most of the bridge crew were clones Novak would honour the sacrifices they made regardless and he'd make sure to let the families of those who weren't clones know they died heroes. But right now there was nothing he could do, if he stayed the whole fleet would be destroyed, the window of opportunity to send down reinforcements had closed.

"Issue a full retreat, there is nothing more we can do here..." Novak commanded with a heavy heart.

His officers followed his command and all three cruisers turned and engaged their hyperspace engines while the assault cruisers covered them, they unfortunately lost another assault cruiser while they were attempting to leave but at least they had most of the fleet in tact though they would need to make repairs to the defender and some of the other cruisers. The separatists didn't follow and instead took up a defensive position around the planet as they started preparing for the next window of opportunity to support the Jabiim nationalists.

....

Standing in a hidden camp on the surface of Jabiim Alto Stratus the Leader of the Jabiim Nationalists looked upon the sky as he saw specs of light entering the atmosphere. He had been assured by the Separatists that the Loyalists and Republic forces wouldn't be receiving any reinforcements but as usual, their words proved to be false. He knew he could not trust the words of the Separatists anymore than he could the Republic both are as soulless as the droids and clones they send into battle.

Unfortunately he had no choice but to work with the separatists, they were the lesser of two evils when it came to it and he would rather die than make peace with the republic "Commander Stratus, our troops are ready to commence the assault on Choal," Colonel Mazzi stated as he approached Alto from

Behind.

Alto didn't respond right away and instead continued to watch the numerous specs of light appearing in the sky. A few minutes after he saw the last one the storm that had broken for a few hours returned and rain engulfed the planet once more making it almost impossible to bring any more reinforcements onto the planet. "I want a detachment sent to those escape pods, mop up the reinforcements before they have a chance to regroup I don't want the Jedi getting any more help than they already have," he ordered, Colonel Mazzi nodded before leaving and getting together a detachment of droids and nationalists.

Alto Stratus walked out of the cover of the canopy he was under and walked out to a nearby hill, on there was a tombstone that he had carved by hand. His cousin had died in the attack on shelter base, she had been shot in the gut with a blaster and her legs had been crushed by one of their war machines. Even so, she clung to life, she clung on long enough for Alto to find her and for her to die in his arms.

*Did I help our people... Did I do well*

He'll never forget her final words to him, she loved Jabiim just as much as he did and to see their planet being exploited and forgotten by the republic despite their loyalty hurt her. She died for Jabiim and he would make sure that her sacrifice would not be in vain, he would destroy the republic and the loyalists, he would tear them all limb from limb and cast their bodies into the mud.

Pressing his forehead to the tombstone he leaned down on her grave, his knees sinking into the mud "Rest knowing our home will be saved..." he whispered. He then stood up; the rain still beating down on his head and dripping down his body.

Behind him, his officers stood ready for battle, and he would only be too happy to lead them to it "Let's move out and show these cowardly Jedi how war is done!" He shouted out as he raised his rifle. His men started to cheer as he walked down the muddy hill, they parted for him cheering him on still before he got to his personal Land Cruiser.

———————————————————-

The Baudo-class star yacht was a beautiful ship, a true sight to behold and with the additions and changes that Aurra had made to it the ship was easily a true force to be reckoned with. However, that was before the ship crash-landed on Jabiim, now the ship was half buried in a mud pool with plasma leaking from the engines, inside the ship was a wreck as the alarms blared and the voice of the computer glitched as it issued warnings about life support.

Jaden groaned as his eyes started to flutter open, his vision was blurred and all he could see was the red flashing of the alarms in the cockpit. He found himself drifting unconscious again but with the little awareness of the situation he had he bit his cheek; the pain managed to stop him from passing out again, and he managed to wake up a little more. Pushing himself up he realised he was still strapped to the seat, the panel in front of him was cracked and glitching and the controls looked nearly broken.

Jaden's mind was hazy and he struggled to channel the force to try and heal his wounds like Satele had taught him, if he tried to meditate he felt like he would pass out once more. Unclipping his safety belt he fell forward into the panel in front of him, he was struggling to breathe as there was smoke coming from somewhere on the ship. "SD!" Jaden called out as he fell not the metal floor having a severe coughing fit; looking towards the exit of the cockpit he could see a green plasma fire spewing from an open panel.

*W-W-Warning*

*L-L-Life S-Support Failing*

"SD!" He shouted again as he tried to look for his droid companion but the droid was gone; whether he was damaged or destroyed, Jaden didn't know, but at the moment he had bigger things to worry about. Looking to the left he saw Aurra Sing, the assassin that had been sent to sabotage the ship, as he looked at her he saw that she looked relatively unharmed; the metal she was wrapped in having taken the brunt of the damage.

Pushing himself up he stumbled towards the emergency oxygen masks, they were stored near the exit of the cockpit and luckily were still intact. Opening the slightly dented metal, he pulled a mask out and greedily breathed in the fresh air; though his lungs were greatly pained from inhaling the toxic fumes being emitted into the ship. Taking a few moments to catch his breath and shake off the haze he felt enveloping his mind; Jaden sat on the floor gripping his oxygen mask tightly.

He looked over to Aurra, there was no way she would survive without his help, and Jaden wondered whether he should even give her any considering what she'd done. He didn't much like killing despite having to do more than his fair share during his life, but the main problem would be controlling her if she was awake, as he couldn't leave her in the metal the entire time.

'I'll come up with something,' he thought to himself before standing up with the assistance of the wall. He grabbed another oxygen mask from the cabinet and limped over to Aurra before strapping it around her face and stopping her from inhaling any more of the toxic fumes. Now that she was dealt with Jaden headed out of the cockpit; he hoped that the fact the ship hadn't blown up yet meant the damage wasn't critical, but he couldn't be sure so he'd need to check the engine room.

"Computer damage report!" He shouted out, though the interface didn't respond and seemed to be stuck in a loop giving the warning about life support failing.

Jaden made his way out of the cockpit and approached the circuit bays just outside; he jumped back as when he opened the circuit panel a plume of green fire exited nearly burning him "Kriff!" He shouted, before closing the panel again. That wouldn't stop the fire for long, but in the meantime, it would hold; he had to get down to engineering and shut off the engines manually. If he didn't then the plasma leaks would only get worse, and he didn't want to think what might happen if they managed to burst the hyperdrive.

Quickly making his way to the lounge, he avoided the damaged sections while still feeling the heat from various fires around the ship. The elevator was out of use so he had to use the emergency ladder though he ended up burning his hands as he grabbed the hatch. He eventually managed to get to the engineering bay, and to say it didn't look good would be an understatement; just from the sounds the engine was making Jaden could tell he was in trouble, but luckily not everything seemed to be bad as SD8 was down here trying to keep the engines together.

"SD!" Jaden said enthusiastically, as he ran towards the small droid that was plugged into a droid port near the engines.

"BEEP BOOP."

"What's with the attitude I was knocked out what do you want me to do?" He said incredulously as he walked over to the engineering panel.

"SD give me a look at the damaged systems," he asked, as he started looking through the engines for the source of the leak.

"Boop boop boop beep."

"I know most of the ship is damaged just give me a list so we can stop this ship from blowing up," he said tiredly, as he brought up an image of the engines. He could see a section near the top on the starboard side was glowing red 'It must've leaked into the life support systems from there and travelled throughout the ship,' he thought to himself before taking down the image.

Tapping quickly on the panel, Jaden quickly engaged a manual shutdown of the engines; they couldn't fix anything if the engines were only minutes away from rupturing again. Now that he thought about it SD8 said that a booby trap is what brought them down; who would be stupid enough to create a trap that ruptures their engines.

'Maybe I should've left her to die.'

Jaden sighed in relief as the noise the engines were making started to quieten and eventually, it ceased altogether. "Alright SD we got some work to do," he said, as he opened another cabinet grabbing two plasma extinguishers that were aimed within.

"We need to extinguish all the fires before we can get to work on repairing anything." He handed the smaller extinguisher to SD8 who shifted his body forming hands to take it. Jaden walked out of the engineering bay and started to get to work putting out all the plasma fires that were on the ship; he hoped that the damage wasn't too substantial as right now he was trapped on the planet in the midst of a civil war.

———————————————————-

Not too far away from Jaden's ship was where a group of the escape pods had landed, and not far from them was the single gunship that hadn't been completely destroyed when coming down to the planet. Clones started pouring out of the escape pods as they searched the crashed gunship for any signs of life; sadly it seemed that most of the crew had died with the exception of Commander Delts who climbed out of the wreckage with the help of his men.

"Report..." he said with a little difficulty, as he sat down on a nearby rock.

"We have eight pods carrying ten men and their equipment; short-range scanners have indicated five other possible landing zones where the other escape pods could've landed," The Sergeant explained as he handed Delts a data pad.

"What are your orders sir."

"Set up a temporary operating base, we have most likely been seen by the enemy; expect an assault force within the next few hours," he ordered as he took his helmet off and nursed the headache that was pulsing through his mind.

"Shall I send for a medic sir?" the Clone Sergeant asked.

Delts waved him off "Get the base set up I'll have time for medical assistance after we secure our position," he replied before putting his helmet back on.

As the troops all moved around setting up a temporary base of operations Delts just sat there with a heavy feeling weighing upon his chest; they were at a disadvantage in almost every conceivable way. They had no armoured support, no air support and no reinforcements coming; they weren't even sure where the main force they were supposed to be reinforcing was located, as they only had short-range scanning capabilities at the moment.

"Welcome to hell," Delts couldn't help but say to himself, as he chuckled.

———————————————————-

While all this was happening, the main republic forces at the remnants of Shelter Base salvaged what they could before making the journey to Cobalt station; the second most fortified base of operations they had. Aubrie Wryn sat on her knees as she looked at the wreckage of the AT-AT that had claimed the life of her Master; while she was able to remain calm and collected her fellow Padawan Anakin Skywalker did not.

Not that she did not feel pain at the loss — she did — but they were in a war and such things were expected; she could not jeopardise the safety of those who followed her because she succumbed to her emotions and could not think clearly. Aubrie closed her mind and started to meditate, as right now her mind was in a chaotic state not dissimilar to Skywalker; she felt anger at the Separatists and Nationalists for killing her Master, but she also felt anger at her Master for bringing her here. She had been selected to train under Jedi Master Mace Windu before she was assigned to this planet, but her hopes of that ever happening were slowly drifting away the longer this war went on.

Aubrie cast those thoughts away as she tried to regain some inner peace; when she opened her eyes she felt ready to continue. Even though it had been a few days since the attack on Shelter Base she hadn't been able to properly grieve for her Master; it was expected of her to use her abilities to heal the injured — which she didn't mind — but it was straining on her, to say the least.

Aubrie joined the other Padawans and the Clone Officers under the command canopy, as they were discussing matters related to their current situation. Jedi Master Leska who was now the highest ranking member of their forces after General Norcuna was discussing their journey towards Cobalt base; though as she spoke there Aubrie couldn't help but sense the grim and tense atmosphere.

"Once we have scavenged what we can we will make our way to Cobalt Base, and from there we can start setting up supply lines to our forward bases," she stated.

"But what about the reinforcements!" Anakin asked as he gestured towards the sky.

Leska sighed heavily "We aren't in any position to help them, but I will contact General Norcuna to see if he can arrange for a unit to search for survivors," she said hoping to placate the hot-tempered padawan.

"It may be too late by the time they arrive!" Anakin responded his temper quickly overwhelming him.

"Padawan Skywalker, I believe you should go outside and take a moment to calm yourself," she said sternly. Anakin scowled and quickly turned on his heels before walking outside.

"He isn't wrong though I wish he would calm his thoughts... they are quite hard on my mind," Tae Diath stated, as he placed his hand on his head.

"Give me some clones and I'll make sure to crush any separatists that stand in my way," Zule Hiss said with barely concealed anger.

General Leska was torn, as she did not want to send these children off on such a dangerous mission, but she didn't want to let the men who had come to offer them relief die in vain "Captain how many troops can you spare?" She asks as she looks to the Clone Captain next to her.

"Preferably none, but it wouldn't kill us to lose a squad or two," the Captain replied.

Leska nodded "Aubrie, Zule, you shall both take a squad and head towards the crash site and look for survivors, but do not take any risks and if you find an overwhelming enemy force retreat," she instructed. It wasn't hard to see why she would ask Aubrie to go as it was likely they'd have a lot of injured troops.

"Of course, Master," Aubrie said evenly, as she left the protection of the canopy once again feeling droplets of rain pour down on her. Zule was more abrupt in her departure and offered no sign of acknowledgement that she understood her orders.

"Come on let's go," Zule said as she grabbed Aubrie by the arm. Not wanting to make a scene with the older girl Aubrie allowed her to; the only resistance she offered was a tired sigh.

(AN: So I've made a few adjustments to the battle as some stuff in the comics is left out (Or I just couldn't find it) anyway I'm gonna be adding events maybe draw out the war, add other stuff and make it a bit more bloody; so should be fun. Also, I started actually trying to use better punctuation as before I just did what I could to make it easy to read, I figure it's best to get into good habits. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Also for those in the comments who will be like ooooh he didn't kill aurra what a simp! She isn't in the harem nor does Jaden find her attractive. He's 15 so he will make bad choices you'll just have to deal with it 🙄)