A New Jedi in an Old Republic

Venator Class Destroyer Sathanas

Hyperspace

Anakin and -1479 met in the latter's office. "I trust you got settled in properly, Lieutenant?" the Commander asked.

"Yes sir. Not much in the way of personal effects." Just a robe and lightsabre – and he wasn't going to get rid of either of those. "Are those the plans?" he indicated the stack of dataslates on the table that weren't there before.

"They are," -1479 agreed. "Sit down, and start to review them."

Picking up one on the top, Anakin looked it over. It showed the five capital ships forming a cross, with the Eriadu in the center, the two Venators 'above' and behind it, with the Acclamators below and behind. In front of the formation was another cross of fighters, offset by 1/8th of a rotation from the orientation of the capital ships, and a hole in front of the Dreadnought. As he read further down, the idea behind this formation was the that fighters would protect the larger ships, who would bring their weapons to bear on their target. The fighters were placed to avoid the heavy weapons on the capital ships.

Setting it aside, he looked at the next one. This one had the Venators with a fighter screen while the other three ships and their fighters attacked from the side. It seemed to be an ambush plan where the enemy was aiming to go for the higher valued ships.

The third was plans for an independent fighter strike, which Anakin read in more detail.

Some time later, the two of them were finished reviewing everything. "What is your opinion," -1479 asked.

"There's a lot here," Anakin said. "I think the combined formations are the best as we're not leaving anything out of the fight, but a lot of these depend on what the enemy is doing." It was like any other fight, really. You brought what you had, and they brought theirs, and you saw who made fewer mistakes and leveraged their advantages better. "But in terms of what we are doing, I think the pilots need to practice attack and defense." He looked out at the hanger. "And I want to see how good they are. Can you get us launched as soon as we reach Eriadu?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that the sooner we can get into flight and practicing, the better."

"I would have to run that by the Captain," -1479 said. "Though I remember that we are supposed to be performing drills."

"Then make this a drill!" Anakin suggested with pride. "See how fast we can get my squadron up and out as soon as we leave hyperspace!"

"That's worth suggesting."

Bridge

"That's an excellent suggestion," Corvell said. "I know the value of having fighters in the air when combat is expected." He sat at the table with Anakin, -1479, and his executive officer, another Clone whom Corvell had taken to calling 'XO' in lieu of his number. "Make it a scram drill. We leave Hyperspace, get Skywalker's fighters up and out into guard positions, then close up the hanger and reset for the next squadron."

Anakin was pleased that his suggestion was worth merit in the eyes of the Captain. "What then, sir?"

"Once all the ships have their fighters out, we will start to organize war drills." Corvell said as he activated the hologram projector set into the table. "We know that we will be out-numbered on the fighter front, so all ships and fighters will reduce their weapons to practice settings – they'll hit, but won't do much damage. We will rotate seven-eighths of our fighters and bombers to be the attackers, making runs on our ships as guarded by the other one-eighth." He showed on the hologram how most of the fighters would fly away from their capital ships, then make attack runs on the ships and their remaining fighters. "Lieutenant Skywalker, I want you in charge of the attackers."

"Sir?"

"I've seen you fly," Corvell said with a smile. "You're an attacker. You don't like waiting for the enemy to come to you, so I want you in a position where you are comfortable while you learn to lead."

Anakin sat up a little straighter. "Sir."

"Good. Anything else?"

"I will have the fighters rigged for practice weapons by the time we arrive," -1479 said.

"And I will make sure the ship is ready," XO noted.

"Good, because I've already informed the Commodore of the plans, and he's approved."

Eriadu System

Four ships emerged from hyperspace, the two smaller ones pulling ahead of the larger ones as they opened up their forward hangers. The doors widened and between the two of them, three dozen fighters were soon flying in circles around the larger ships.

"Slow," Tarkin frowned as he watched from the cockpit of his shuttle. "Do the doors really take that long to open and close?"

"I would have to check sir," his aide replied, a man loyal to his family. "I recall that the blast-doors are reinforced to prevent hostile fire from penetrating into the flight deck. Perhaps the weight of the doors is slowing their operation?" It was a legitimate theory. Explosions in open flight decks were not something anyone wanted to experience.

"Perhaps. Check with the blueprints for the ships, then. See if anything can be done about that." Tarkin turned back to the front of the ship, and the distant homeworld. He frowned, for now he was going to have to play politics with those who thought that they knew better, sitting in safety, rather than on the front lines of the war to come.

Jedi Temple

Coruscant

Obi-wan was not angry.

Jedi Knights did not get angry.

He did not need to re-read the message that was from Anakin. It was small and simple.

What he did want, was to talk with someone who could listen without bias.

Invisible Hand

Deep Space

Grevious looked out over his ships. "Are we ready?" he asked.

"Roger roger!"

"Then accelerate to light speed!"

"Um... to where, General?"

For a moment, the cyborg was filled with pure rage. Then he destroyed the offending droid. "To the Seswenna sector!"

Eriadu System

Anakin swung his V-19 into a tight spiral, up and to the right as the sound of a missile lock echoed in the cockpit. "R2! Can you break the lock?" he asked as he wondered where the hell Black 10 was.

R2 chirped back that he was trying. "Black 10! Status!" Anakin reversed his roll, the g-forces overcoming the compensators and for a moment he was afraid that he would fly out of his restraints and into the cockpit window.

"10 is KIA," a clone reported, "Black Squad is down to 1, 7, and 14."

"Seven, 14, form on each other and support! Keep enemy bombers tied down!" He fired his fighter's blasters as he decelerated to let other blasters pass in front of him. Seven-on-one odds were horrible, as he was learning. It was easy when he was attacking, but as a defender? There were too many targets, too much fire coming his way.

"Fourteen confirms."

"This is Corvell," the voice of the Captain cut through all the chatter. "Scenario over. The Sathanas has suffered fatal damage. Victory to the attackers."

Anakin relaxed, letting his fighter settle into a straight line. He had lost, and it was infuriating. He should have been able to do better than that! "Black squadron, form on me."

"Two Copies." "Eight Copies." Soon, the not-quite-dead defenders of their ship arranged themselves behind him in a triangle formation. And in local space, the other fighters all fell into their organizational forms as well. "What's the word, One?"

Anakin let out a deep breath to steady himself. "We wait on the Captain," he replied. "Though I can't say I don't enjoy the odds when the enemy is as tough as you are."

"I don't think any of us did," Three noted. Just listening to the voices, Anakin was getting better and better and telling who was who. Three liked a little bit of sarcasm. Twelve just grunted while flying. That sort of thing.

"All flights, return to your ships," White One said over the whole of the fighter groups. "The Commodore has given the order, as we've detected the enemy crossing into the Sector. It's time to take the fight to them!"

There were a great many cheers in response to that.

Flight Bridge, Sathanas

Corvell watched as the fighters landed on his ship. While he was still learning the ins and outs of carrier operations, he found that with his inexperience some things became more and more apparent. The single egress point made sense as the fighters could be prepared ahead of time, but attempting to land the whole of the flight group was a hassle as they simply couldn't have the fighters land directly on the pads. They had to land on the strip down the middle of the ship, then be maneuvered through the force fields and into the pressurized bay.

It was slow. And it offended him. It looked like a good idea on paper – someone had seen to that. But in practice? Not so much. "Once all fighters are landed, XO, close up the ship, and fall into formation Alpha with the Eriadu. I'm going to get ready for the briefing that the Commodore is sure to give."

"Understood," the clone officer said with a salute.

Corvell walked back over the raised platform that the officers stood on, over the pits that contained the individual clones who worked the ship's systems. He wondered how long it would take before the citizens of the Republic took those seats, rather than leaving them to these creations of Kamino. Or would they have their own ships, with no attempts at integration?

Pushing aside the thoughts, he reached the holographic table, just as the signal from Tarkin came in. He accepted it. "Captain Corvell reporting."

"Good. It's just the two of us while the others get their ships in order."

"My fighters are landing as we speak," Corvell pointed out, in case the Commodore thought that he was absurdly ahead of the other ships.

"I understand," Tarkin replied. "However, you have been leading these ships the past day in terms of exercises. Do you believe we are ready?"

No, Corvell wanted to say. They were not ready. But that would be wrong. "We are as ready as we can be, until the shots start firing," he said instead. "I would rather we had more practice with formation flying, but that appears to be out of our hands now."

"Yes, it is," Tarkin said. "I will explain more once the rest of the Captains are available."

"Shall I get my CAG here?" he asked, leaving the other half of it unasked. What about the Jedi?

"No," Tarkin shook his head. "Let them deal with their fighters first, we may need to have a quick turnaround."

Tarkin looked to one side, listening to something from his crew. "Put them on," he said, and three more Captains joined the two of them.

"Captains," Tarkin said without preamble, ignoring the fact that he was talking to Corvell just a moment earlier. "Sector border patrols detected the hyperspace signatures of the Confederacy fleet that they have been shadowing crossing the border." Between them, a map of the sector expanded, showing the projected course of the enemy. "Right now they appear to be headed for Eriadu itself, but that goes against their observed strategic methodology. I believe it to be a feint. Once our ships have recovered their fighters, we will take on provisions from the tankers that are now on their way to us from in system. After that, we will move out on a reciprocal course to intercept the enemy."

"How do you intend to draw them out of hyperspace?" Corvell asked.

"We have no Interdiction craft at this time, so we shall be forced to engage them when they reach their target, or when they revert to real space for orientation." Tarkin's distaste was nearly physical. The first meant that the enemy was actively attacking a target, the other meant that they only had a small window of opportunity to make their entrance, on the order of minutes.

Corvell was equally glad he was running his crew through their Scramble drills. It seemed like it was turning into a good choice. But then, he couldn't afford to depend on luck.

"What will our formation be?" Algnut asked. As the captain of the other Venator, he had more experience with carrier operations, but less in command than Corvell, who was career navy.

"Beta," Tarkin said with no hesitation. That mean the Acclamators in front, with the Dreadnought right between them, screening the Venators behind as they launched fighters before moving up to the wings to provide their heavy weapons on the firing line. The other captains all indicated their assent. "Anything else?"

"What is the expected opposition?" Algnut spoke again.

"Four, possibly five Mulificent-class Frigates." Tarkin did not like having insufficient information. "We will have the advantage in terms of ships, however, the sheer number of drone fighters they can deploy will be cause for concern."

"Hence the lopsided training," Corvell interjected. "Intelligence has noted that the Confederacy units trade quality for quantity. We need to be ready for that."

"I notice that your tactics assume us on the defensive," Captain Giran did not sneer as he said that.

"The fighters on the defensive at the start of battle, yes," Corvell justified his decision. "Once we have a better grasp on the odds needed, we can divert our fighters and bombers to the offensive. I would rather prepare for the worst, and be relieved when it doesn't happen, than prepare for what I want, and fail to adapt when it doesn't happen!" The reprimand was sharp, coming from the man who only answered to Tarkin.

Tarkin said nothing. His face betrayed nothing at the interplay. "Attend to your ships," he said firmly. "Once we have taken on the supplies, we move out." At his command, the holograms winked out.

Flight Deck

Anakin waited for R2 to sound the clear before stepping out of his fighter. The entire landing bay was crowded, and he had to set down near the front of the long landing strip and then wait for the doors to close and the air to be pumped in before he could get out.

Being assistant CAG meant that he landed second last. White One, -1479 was last. Anakin waited for him to disembark, even as the over-worked deck crews struggled to deal with all the fighters at once.

"I think this is not a good idea," Anakin said. "Such a narrow landing strip, it's too easy to jam."

"I'm agreeing with you," -1479 said as he took off his helmet. The two of them waited at the fore of the ship, the spin of the vessel as it changed vectors obvious due to their distance from the engines. "But that would be a discussion for another time." He started to walk up the length of the landing strip, Anakin following as they slipped between and under the crowded area.

"R2!" Anakin called back, "Stay with the ship, I'll come get you!"

"What do you think of the exercise?" -1479 asked, the myriad sounds of clones working covering it up from causal eavesdropping.

Having time to think after being asked that by his squadmate, Anakin was honest, as Obi-wan had taught him. "I think with the odds stacked so far against the defender, their victory was impossible. It could be a hit to morale, to be given a suicide job like that."

"We're Clones," -1479 gruffly reminded Anakin. "We'll do our job."

"And better if you live, to do the next job," Anakin replied. "Dying is easy," he recalled the words of some of his other teachers, "but it is the end. In living, you learn. In learning, you grow stronger, and with that strength, you can apply it to the challenges you face."

-1479 paused, thinking. "I understand what you are trying to say, and I realize that I didn't say what I wanted to say properly. We may be clones, bred to fight, and in fighting, we may die. But we do not fear death. It comes when it comes for us, and we accept it. But we will not go quietly when it comes. Death takes us? We'll offer it one hand, and the other will be on the trigger, pushing it to make sure that we do not go alone."