Separatist Dawn : Book 1 : Fall Of The Republic

The Stage Is Set

It was a cold dark night as rain splattered against the side of a lonely Clone Trooper's helmet as he stood guard over one of the many cloning facilities on the world.

"CT-174 Are you seeing this?" Another Clone radioed in.

"Am I seeing what?" CT-174 responded confused as he looked around him.

"Bring up your binoculars and look east."

CT-174 would do this slowly, and as he looked out over the vast open waters of Kamino he saw something strange, there were lights getting larger and larger, as if something was coming towards them.

"What the hell are they?" He asked cautiously.

"I'm not sure, but keep your guard up."

Another light then emanated from the others, this one was green and left a strange sort of flair effect as it traveled. CT-174's face then dropped under his helmet, "ITS THE ENEMY!" He yelled "ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS!" He then began to run as the green laser blast exploded into the side of the station sending him flying from his feet.

The source of the lights was then revealed, four Vulture Droids flew overhead before beginning to circle round for another attack. As CT-174 stood to his feet he felt relieved that he was still alive, however, this did not last long. Another Vulture Droid came from the opposite direction, blasting the platform and instantly ending the Clone Troopers life.

The Vulture Droids that carried out the initial attack were not your typical Vulture Droids, these new Fighters were designed with piolet control in mind. The name of this new fighter class was simply Vulture Fighters, it was an obvious name but was still just as effective. Inside these new fighters where an equally as impressive prototype of their own. "This is Echo Leader" B1-98 said into his comms "The initial attack has begun, prepare to send in the rest of the fleet"

B1-98 was but one of five prototype B1 units, designed to be more battle hardened and intelligent, their official model title was B4 but due to their purpose of blending in with other B1 units their designation was kept the same to match them.

General Grievous' hologram soon appeared in front of B1-98 "Good" he said before coughing "Make sure their defenses are weakened to enable our descent" his hologram then swiftly cut off as he finished his sentence.

B1-98 then turned his fighter quickly to the right and rejoined with his team who went by the designation Echo Team. "This is Echo Leader, concentrate your fire on the anti-ship cannons" B1-98 ordered as he flew into formation.

"Affirmative." The team said one by one as they split off just as quickly as they had regrouped.

Clones had begun scrambling to their stations manning the various defense cannons darted all across the cloning facility. "HOW THE HELL DID THESE CLANKERS GET THROUGH OUR DEFENCES!" One clone yelled as he opened fire sending powerful blasts towards the various Echo Team members.

"I don't know! Perhaps they had some sort of cloaking mechanism!" Another replied.

"WHAT? ON A SHIP THAT SMALL? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" The first yelled back.

B1-98 and the rest of Echo Team continued to evade the incoming fire, blasting away at the defenses in the process.

"There defenses are unorganized, they did not expect us!" B1-65 said over the comms.

"They never do" B1-49 replied, joy present in his voice.

B1-98 chose to remain silent during the attack, not bothering to reply to the ensuing conversation between his teammates.

"At this rate, I predict a CIS victory at 97%" B1-26 said softly, his mind dwelling more on the statistics of the battle.

"That may be so, but their defenses are strong and they may be hiding some form of trump card" B1-55 also chimed in focusing more on the alternatives.

It is worth pointing out that each of these droids has been programmed with distinct personalities, along with this their advanced intelligence also allows them to mimic emotion on a much higher scale than normal Battle Droids.

The ships would continue to destroy one weapon emplacement after the other until very few remained. "General Grievous send in the attack force" B1-98 spoke up once again.

This time round Grievous did not show himself by hologram, instead only his voice came through the comms. "Good work Captain, your contribution will help us greatly" more coughing could then be heard as his transmission cut off.

Up on the bridge of a Subjugator Class Heavy Cruiser, Grievous turned to face his crew "Prepare to exit hyperspace!" He ordered as he walked past many of the control stations that dotted the bridge.

"Roger Roger" could then be heard from many of the droids.

Moments later the ship along with all the others in the fleet lept out of Hyperspace launching towards the Republic Defence Fleet. "Fire all weapons!" Grievous continued to order as he turned to face out the window.

"General, I expect the campaign goes well?" Count Dooku's voice could be heard as a spider Droid carrying a holographic generator walked towards him.

"Yes, we are carrying out our attack as we speak" Grievous explained proudly.

"Good, do not fail me Grievous, you have had too many chances already..." Dooku's image then vanished seconds before the attack fleets weapons fired at full force.

The Republic Defence Fleet was caught completely off guard with many of its ships taking a heavy pounding, there were two Venator Class Star Destroyers currently stationed in orbit with a third stationed down below guarding the main cloning complex.

"We have caught them off guard!" Grievous began to yell "NOW TAKE THIS CHANCE AND WIPE THEM OUT!"