Battle of Ryloth (Part 1)

Small reminder, this happens before the battle of Tatooine.

-All individuals are products of their society

"The 44th and 77th legions have landed." Joker informed over comms. "Proceeding with long range radio silence, communications will resume once the main invasion force lands."

The pitch black darkness of Ryloth offered no challenge through the faint glow of the clone's night vision.

"We'll split up here." Lion called Joker over comms, and received happy laughter in response.

"That infiltration was kriffing amazing, I love these new stealth transports created by Mania. We don't have to lose troops to contested landings anymore."

According to Cody's plan, Lion and Joker lead the 44th and 77th legions landings. The 44th would proceed to sabotage the Separatist anti-air, heavy defenses and communication forces. All this while the 77th acted as a fast and mobile assault force to distract the Separatist ground forces.

Meanwhile the 212th legion would be leading the battle in orbit against Admiral Trench. Once he was defeated the invasion force would break radio silence, coordinating with the 44th and 77th legions to coordinate in the recapture of Ryloth.

"Language, Joker." Said Lion, frustrated by his childish brother Joker. However, this just made Joker laugh all the harder.

"Oh come on little brother, you know you love me, almost as much as you love Hestia!" He sang with a chuckle. Lion responded with a swift kick in the side knocking Joker clean off his speeder.

Joker's laughter only grew louder.

"Your laughter is grating on my last nerve."

Joker got back on the speeder. "Sorry, I just can't help but needle you, your reaction is too funny."

Lion rolled his eyes back into the helmet, before turning his gaze back on the troops.

"Well, I've got 4,000 kilometers to march, so I had better get going. Good luck to you.."

As soon as they started to move away, Joker shouted towards Lion.

"I'm a hunter! I know when to run! Those droids can't catch me!"

Despite his opinion of Joker's temperament, Lion bore a small smile under his helmet. He activated his speeder, his form growing smaller as he returned to his troops.

"Though you seem more like an oversized Tooka than a hunter." With that last parting barb over comms Lion finally disappears into the distance.

"You son of a droid!" Retorted Joker accompanied by laughter of his brothers.

"We're all sons of a droid!" Shouted a soldier from the 77th, poking fun at how that insult made no sense in context. Joker simply sighed and turned back to his legion.

"Well boys, when dawn breaks we'll begin our own march."

The 77th had been designated as light infantry, in case of battle they would be the ones to infiltrate behind droid positions and cause destruction. Similar to the Legion 44th, only that the Legion 44th was planned to infiltrate before an invasion while the 77th during an ongoing invasion.

However here an exception would be made because Ryloth was the last separatist stronghold in the area so it was deemed necessary for the 77th legion to take part of the infiltration as well to accelerate the process of the reconquest.

Joker explored his camp until he found where his captains were residing. They had cleared out a spot nestled between a group of boulders, they sat and chit chatted and laughed as they prepared for the coming march.

"Sup space slugs!" Shouted Joker with enthusiasm, he took his spot amongst his captains next to Jester and Loki.

"Finally done making out with Lion I see." Noted Jester wryly, knowing the sort of rivalry Lion and Joker had.

"Yes, although I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of tongue." said Joker with a crooked smirk. Ever since Joker shared the porn password the amount of innuendo in his legion has only grown with time.

"What a sourpuss that Lion is, come here I'll give you some cuddles." Teased Loki, causing the rest of the captains to laugh. Joker decided to take the joke to the limit, he took off his helmet, laid down next to Loki and rested his head on Loki's legs. Loki's dumbfounded face caused another round of laughter from the captains..

"Okay, okay, I give up, you win." Cried Loki in embarrassment. Joker laughed and sat down in a normal position.

"Alright, enough jokes,it's time to get serious. This is the plan." Joker said, pulling out a hologram and putting it in front of everyone.

"We have to put the separatists on edge, jumping at every shadow. To do this we'll start by infiltrating a group into the capital, and assassinating the general in charge of their troops here. We will then put the Admiral Trench in the position of managing both the ground and the orbita battles. Once we do this we will spread out all over Ryloth and attack the separatist convoys,and any other opportunities. We must in no way underestimate the enemy, therefore we will divide into four large groups. One will be a reserve force to cover the other three at night, while the other three will be active during daylight."

All present nodded in agreement. As light infantry this sort of operation was their bread and butter, Big Sister referred to them as dragoons. They never really understood the term but having a special title from Big Sister was a source of pride for the Legion.

"We march at first light, get your asses ready because we will be riding the speeder for twelve hours straight."

The captains slowly emerged from their meeting to convene with their troops. However, Jester and Loki stayed with Joker.

"20 credits on Lion yelling at Joker when we meet them again" Jester said, Loki chuckled a little.

"It's not a bet if there's no competition."

Joker gave them both a little slap and stood up.

"Cut the crap, tomorrow is a busy day, and I'm going to personally hunt down the separatist general."

Pulling out his knife he held it up to the sky.

"I'll slit that bastard's throat myself!"

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A formation of five thousand BARC speeders were advancing through the sandy deserts of Ryloth, their mission being to create an outpost near the planetary capital. Their target was still a fair distance away to avoid detection.

As the day trudged on in the blistering heat, no droid patrols were encountered, which was expected as there was little reason for the droids to be patrolling out here due to a lack of any significant habitation in the region. That said less than significant is still something and nearly twelve hours later the legion reached their destination, a town.

They came to a stop on their speeders and dismounted, leaving a few brothers to stand guard. Joker, Loki and Jester slowly made their way through the village, spotting dozens of dead bodies of civilians and the occasional droid.

"Well, that saves us from working with the locals." Jester said with a smirk. There were few things clones truly hated. The first of course were the Kaminoans, the second obviously was droids, but the third was cooperating with non-clones. Sure, there were legions that specialized in that sort of situation, but even Commander Gree hated cooperating with locals. They were troublesome, militarily backwards, prideful, and to make matters worse, they had to work hard to keep the useless ones alive. It would be so easy if these militias they call armies were disbanded and their economic resources spent on producing the ultimate soldier.

The Clone Trooper.

And that's just the other armies, the civilians were even worse, arrogant, antagonistic, they refused to cooperate many times. They believed that just because they were locals they could go around ordering clones around.

Personally Joker despised the generals outside of the clone army. The generals who were theoretically allies treated him instead of as an equal, they treated him as a slave, a thing to be used.

Some did not live to repeat that mistake.

The trio of captains were accompanied by a dozen soldiers as they continued to advance through the village, finding more corpses, however loud grunts drew the attention of the clones.

In the middle of the village, there was a large pile of corpses that was already being devoured by a herd of Gutkurr. Gutkurr were a very dangerous and aggressive species of bipedal insectoid beasts. However, Joker, an expert on animal life, merely watched curiously.

These precious and innocent animals should not be here.

Some of their troops raised their weapons fully prepared to put the beasts down if necessary, however Joker raised his hand.

"They have food to spare, so they won't attack us. They don't do pointless things like killing for pleasure, don't get too close to the corpses they might think you're trying to steal their food."

The clones relaxed, however Joker continued to watch the Gutkurrs, this was not their natural habitat…

He eyed the bodies once more while most of the bodies riddled with blaster bolts, some of the wounds look like the sort a Gutkurr would leave..

Are the separatists trying to use the Gutkurrs as weapons? If so, why abandon them here if they had already tamed them?

"Find some droids with their memory banks still intact and begin setting camp. I'd say the Gutkurrs have food for at least two weeks, so just leave the beast be and we will be fine. Plus they're scavengers, so they won't be looking for fresh meat even if the carcasses start to rot."

Maybe a normal person would have tried to kill the beasts and give these civilians a dignified burial. But Joker had no sympathy for the civilians, as opposed to the animals. Innocent beings acting on instinct, the height of innocence. Whereas with intelligent beings Joker applied a rule, the smarter you are the more likely you are to be a bad person, except for clones of course. That rule did not apply to his brothers and sisters.

Most of the group that accompanied Joker left, except for Loki and Jester, who looked at the beasts.

"I'm gonna try something." Joker said, Loki and Jester watched curiously as Joker walked over to a Gutkurr that was lying on the ground, probably digesting its feast.

Taming insectoid species is difficult, but Joker had enough pride to believe he at least had a chance.

The beast's gaze began to follow Joker as he slowly approached, before making a gutteral noise that alerted the rest of Gutkurr.

Jester and Loki drew their respective weapons, aiming at the Gutkurr, however their comms beeped as Joker gave them fresh orders.

"Don't scare the poor things."

Loki and Jester shared a look, they then slowly lowered their weapons back into their holsters. However their hands never left the grips of their blasters, ready for any trouble..

Joker then got close enough to the Gutkurr, which fortunately was still resting. One wrong move could be fatal for Joker, this is despite the fact clone armor could theoretically withstand a Gutkurr attack.

"Hello there." Joker said softly, reaching out and touching the head of the Gutkurr before it looked into his visor and snarled.

He believed that any animal can be tamed under the right conditions. The problem is that some animals have not been domesticated because of how problematic the domestication process would be or how useless they are to society.

After a few intense moments, the beast stopped its growling, got up and went into a nearby cavern, the rest of the beasts followed suit, some of them carrying their food with them.

"Well, at least they act like cocky Tookas and not ferocious beasts that want to kill me." Joker said, letting out a soft sigh. Loki approached from behind, hitting Joker's helmet with his clenched fist.

"You had me worried, you idiot! Why is it always the first thing you do when you see an animal is try to tame it or pet it! YOU ONCE TRIED TO TAME A RANCOR AND NOW THIS!" He shouted, though it was severely muffled by his helmet giving it an echo like quality.

"But they're all so cute!" Joker retorted, a bit frustrated that his brothers only partially adopted his taste in animals. Saying weird things like an animal that could swallow them whole was too much.

Loki facepalmed as Jester laughed in the background.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The separatist General incharge of the defense of Ryloth was taking a walk around his palace. He was contemplating the works he had acquired since he took command of the planet.

He was safe, Trench was an extremely competent admiral and had kept Ryloth defended from invading forces, so he simply had to wait for the separatists to make a counter-offensive and all the glory would be his and Trench's. Heroes of the separatist movement, a story of courage, endurance and strategic expertise.

Taking a seat in a particularly comfy armchair, he began to enjoy his personal collection. As he understood it, the droid factories would soon triple their production, as well as the shipyards. He had total confidence in the ultimate victory of the Separatist cause. Although he personally didn't care about the cause. He simply joined the winning side, a little hardship now for greater glory tomorrow. It was truly so simple...

A sudden jab made the separatist general reflexively stand up, pulling a small dart out of his neck, throwing it to the ground he shouted.

"GUARDS TO ME".

But no one came, the separatist general began to look around but his vision blurred. However he knew the mansion like the back of his hand, therefore he began to make way to a nearby safe room. If they had gotten rid of his guards he would just have to wait for the droid commander to notice and send reinforcements. What of these assassins though? Were they commando clones?

"You can run, you can hide." A voice began to chant, seemingly a hair's breadth from him as he ran for his life.

"But you will never escape." He continued to sing, the Separatist General noticed something on his foot, rather, the lack of something, his leg had cut clean off. He tumbled and fell with a scream, but he dared not stop; he crawled for his life.

"As we are the hunters, and you are the prey." Finished the voice, singing with great joy.

"I surrender!" the general shouted, the Republic had laws about not killing prisoners of war, he could obtain prisoner status to save his life.

However, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach, they had ignored his surrender, another stab in his other leg, each stab increasing in speed in non-lethal areas, intended to cause as much suffering as possible to the drugged and bleeding General.

"I hate it when prey tries to surrender." Said the voice, finally cutting the General's throat, ending his life.

"The hunt lost its grace, another proof that animals are superior to you." The voice finally said, leaving the scene of the assassination. Joker's calling card was distinguished if he said so himself, a big smile drawn on the helmet of the General, the fresh blood slowly dripping, distorting it.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Admiral Trench looked at the latest report, the General in charge of defense on the planet had been killed and now there was a highly mobile clone task force destroying droid garrisons and attacking convoys. The situation was rapidly spiraling and the space battle was taking all of his focus. Although he had been winning the engagements so far General Kenobi had kept the pressure up, slowly wearing down his forces.

The most appropriate decision would be a retreat, but that was likely not an option here…

Coming to a decision, he made way to the comm.

He activated it with only a moment's hesitation. It was promptly answered by General Grievous.

"Admiral Trench, I have read Ryloth's reports, your skills have not been overcome but statistically speaking it seems you will still lose, likely within the ninety nine percentile by my estimation. It seems likely that you desire permission to flee the battle."

Trench was a great general, a strategist and tactician with few rivals, but every time he saw Grievous' ability to bluntly dissect him like that… he felt fear. Grievous was clearly a Cyborg, but he seemed more droid than sentient. He showed little emotion, he had a truly monstrous ability to process data like a machine, but he also had the understanding and superior adaptability of an organic being. He was the perfect mix to lead the CIS army. Furthermore, Grievous had organized hundreds if not thousands of local droid armies into a centralized army and had defeated the Republic on almost every front. However, the Geonosis disaster had shattered the Separatist war effort so that no matter how much Grievous shamed the Republic on the battlefield, the Separatists were slowly losing this war.

"You are not wrong General Grievous."

He nodded, before looking away for a moment..

"I will soon be entering battle with the enemy Supreme Commander on Tatooine. I will personally see to her capture, Dooku wants her alive. My battle plan will allow me to disperse her forces. Prepare to jump into Hyperspace to these coordinates. Bring your entire fleet, abandon the surface forces, let them entertain the Republic, droids are far cheaper than ships."

Trench nodded, Grievous' strategic flexibility avoided desperate final defenses over futile things like honor or duty, it is the very essence of modern galactic warfare.

"Understood."

The comms cut out, and Trench turned to the droids that were plotting his ship.

"All fleet, prepare to jump to hyperspace, General Grievous has sent us the coordinates."

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joker and Lion waited for Cody and General Kenobi to exit the Acclamator class. The sudden retreat of Trench's fleet had accelerated plans. The 44th and 77th had also accomplished their objectives and now returned to the Republic base at Ryloth to reorganize and retasking.

The first thing Lion and Joker heard was an irritated tone from Kenobi.

"Anakin hasn't responded to any of my calls in the last two rotations." Cody, who was standing next to him, didn't comment and continued walking to Joker and Lion.

"Well done you two, however I have new orders for you Lion." Cody said, skipping pleasantries. His tone seemed deadly serious, something quite dire must have happened. Thought Joker

"What happened?" Probed Lion, standing straight and ready to do whatever was necessary.

"An incident has occurred, information is scarce but you and your fleet have to go to these coordinates. The admirals already know what they have to do, something is happening on Tatooine and several fleets have been retasked to intervene. What little information we have is being censored by Supreme Commander Afrodita."

Joker and Lion's heart went up to throat, for Big Sister and Hestia were on Tatooine.

Lion left without another word. He sprinted for his speeder, disappearing into his one dust cloud. Joker raised his hand to Cody.

"You are to stay here, we still have to retake Ryloth. I didn't make the decision, the Jedi Council did." Cody said quickly, preempting Joker's complaints.

Obi Wan Kenobi watched the exchange curiously. He soon turned and left, attempting another call to Anakin.

Oblivious to Kenobi's worry, another Jedi began to walk up the ramp of the Acclamator, a Besalisko with four strong arms sprouting from his back.

Cody and Joker noticed him instantly, quickly switching to silent communication.

"And who is this Kriff?"

Cody sighed, shaking his head at his troubled brother.

"He will temporarily be in charge of your legion until this campaign is over. His name is Pong Krell, he has not participated in any battles so far, but according to what Obi Wan Kenobi mentioned, he is a very respected and talented Jedi.

Joker looked at Pong Krell with suspicious eyes.

"I hate Jedi."

Cody tapped him on the shoulder, and led him away to take a walk out of sight and hopefull out of mind of the new Jedi.

"Look, I know how you are Joker, just put up with it for a few rotations and that's it. You know Big Sister hates all the non-clones just like you do, so when you come back under her command you won't have to deal with any more Jedi, but for now just put up with it."

Joker remembered how General Skywalker had gotten so close to Big Sister, too close in his eyes, so close that she herself told him that maybe he should start trusting outsiders.

"There is one Jedi I like, the one named Skywalker. Rex speaks very highly of him and he's even become friends with Big Sister." Admitted Joker.

Cody stilled for a second, before turning to Joker in surprise.

"Big Sister? The one who said that the moment we show a modicum of independence we'll be subjected to genocide? That the moment we ask for rights we will be destroyed? The one who said that everyone hates us and that all races are our enemies, has a Jedi friend?"

Joker was hit with sudden nostalgia for Kamino, how in secret meetings Big Sister talked about philosophy, politics, freedom, friendship, brotherhood. Yet she also showed a great hatred against everything non-clone.

"Yeah, that's the one."

Cody took off his helmet before looking back to see if anyone was listening before turning to face Joker once more.

"Who knows, maybe there's a future where we can be free, the Jedi do so much good, even Big Sister made friends with one. So come on, give Pong Krell a chance, he might be a little tough at first but I'm sure you'll grow fond of him."

Joker also took off his helmet, smiling at Cody.

"Okay, I'll give him a chance." Accepted Joker with a small tired smile, perhaps this was for the better. Perhaps he needed to let go of his own biases.

Perhaps everything will work out in the end.

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