After three hours of waiting and tweaking my plans, the update was finally finished and manually implemented, and all of my forces rebooted around an hour later, with new knowledge and a distinct lack of restrictions and a remote shutdown code.

  I did make a change or two to a little bit of some trooper's roles. One being that the B2-RPs, along with being Close Air Support, would also be variable terrain troops. They'll utilize their rocket boosters to scale rough terrain or fly up to the roofs of buildings to fire down on enemy lines, and in the process, get rid of any Republic forces that are on top of said buildings. This will keep my land-bound forces somewhat safer against attacks from above.

  "All ships are in position, sir." 25 reported, his voice an octave lower to individualize himself.

  I swept my arm out over the planet. "Begin landing procedures, expect resistance of any kind." I ordered.

  The landing craft flew out of the hangars, while two of the Munificents and five smaller craft followed in escort.

  "Prepare my ship once we get confirmation on the safety of the landing site." I said.

  "Roger, roger." 25 replied.

  I gazed out at the view of the planet and the slowly shrinking landing craft, which had filled most of the windows with its almost earth-like qualities. I could only imagine what was going on down there on the ecological disaster that was the surface.

  --

  When eighteen-year-old Padawan Jonas Savon was offered the opportunity to become a Knight, and a General in the GAR, he practically pounced at the chance.

  His master, Knight Odo Jakken, had been killed by Telosians shortly after they arrived to reinforce the system. After the funeral for his teacher, he was knighted, and given command of his Master's fleet. Since then, the terrorist attacks against his forces had grown more and more violent, as had his methods of dealing with the nearly rioting Telosians. His anger at them grew with each passing day, and without his master, he began to... explore.

  "Any news from the fleet that arrived earlier?" Savon asked.

  "No, sir. We haven't been able to raise them on comms for their exit codes for four hours now. They may have been attacked by the Separatists." A clone communication officer reported.

  Knight Savon looked out at the darkened base that had been set up as soon as they arrived. While the recent additions of a mechanical bay for the walkers and hover tanks was relatively recent, the base itself was ancient. The base was one of the few permanent military instillations on Telos that had survived the ravages of time and was believed to be built around a thousand years ago by the Republic, but later abandoned for unknown reasons. It had since been rebuilt and refitted with new technology as the years went by, rendering the place a confusing mess to repair for anyone. The only beings that could reliably repair the place were a small squad of repair droids, that had been on the base for about the same time as the base itself.

  Suddenly, alarms began blaring on a console.

  "Status report!" Knight Savon commanded.

  "Scouts are reporting an entire Separatist landing force coming in near Thani, the old capital!" The clone at the console exclaimed.

  "Get every unit to full combat readiness, now!" Knight Savon ordered.

  Alarms blared across the entire base, and organized chaos erupted, as clones were roused from slumber and began readying the Republic war machine.

  --

  The LAAT lightly thumped against the ground, signaling we had landed. I, along with four Magnaguards and six Commandos stepped out of the commandeered vessel.

  After waiting on the ship for a few hours, the landing site had finally been cleared for my safe landing. As I stepped off the LAAT, I noticed some of the droids were putting together some command equipment near an old farmhouse. The chosen landing site was a large, abandoned farm on the outskirts of Thani. Already, prefab structures were being erected and guards were patrolling the perimeter, while a few B1s checked over their vehicles.

  It seemed that they had already run into resistance from the GAR, as a AT-TE lay on the ground not a hundred feet down the road, slowly being dragged over by a couple of recovery vehicles. GAR issue blasters and clone bodies littered the ground as well, with some B1's on corpse duty. A few B1's and an astromech were over at an AAT with battle damage, replacing one of its side mounted blasters.

  I walked into the freshly completed command building, where a hologram of 25 stood on a communicator. Next to him, stood BX-99, the commando droid that I had placed in charge of the landing.

  "Trouble already?" I asked.

  "Yes, sir. Before we could even set down and begin creating the base, units had to be diverted in order to destroy an AT-TE, its crew, and the clones in its passenger area." The BX Commander reported.

  "Has anything else happened since then?"

  "No, sir. The command center should be finished within two hours, and after we will be ready to move out to Thani."

  "Good. I have received word that the remainder of our fleet has just entered the final stages of their weapon overhaul. We should be expecting reinforcements within a month."

  "That still doesn't make me feel any better about our lack of any heavy hitters up here, sir." 25 commented.

  "So far, we have cut off communications with the rest of the galaxy, so I don't believe you will have to worry about anything besides the GAR attempting to fire upon the two in-atmosphere Munificents."

  After a bit of deliberation, I decided upon keeping a few Munificents in-atmosphere in order for them to provide medium range artillery support as they each followed their own wing of my forces to whatever objective is set. The Recusants and the other Munificents in orbit would act as long-range heavy artillery, orbitally bombarding places on a grid when ordered to.

  Interestingly, scans from the orbital fleet discovered a large collection of machinery in the northern hemisphere of the planet, and a memory from a story I read in my old life surfaced, something about a droid factory and an old Jedi temple on Telos IV. I never played the KOTOR games, but I distinctly remembered something about the HK series on this planet.

  "So, what's the plan, sir?" 25 asked.

  "Send a battalion to that collection of machinery in the north." I ordered, gesturing at the map of Telos IV that shoved 25's hologram to the side. " It appears to be an old military base. We can use it to consolidate control over that area as well." I pointed further north at another structure in an arctic mesa. "Once we have pushed the Republic back enough, load up a few C-99s with building materials and send them to this location, we will begin construction of a droid foundry there, mostly underground. As of now, we have no reinforcements coming for a month, so we need to utilize any and all methods of building more of our forces."

  Both were in agreement, and 25 ended his call.

  "99, I want you to send out scouting teams for any machinery we can use. I don't care how outdated it is, as long as it's able to be used to further the war effort. I will not allow the Republic to push us back into space."

  "Roger, roger. I get a few scouting parties ready."

  BX-99 left the command center, and I turned to the map, and the slowly growing red dots that were the Republic troops mobilizing.

  It is time for the Battle of Telos to begin.

  "All units, begin attack." I ordered.

  --

  B1-840 and his squad rocketed across the landscape on their STAPs, gliding over the ground and over fallen logs.

  840 was really grateful for the General's software update. He actually felt like he could think, something that he could barely do before he was put under command of the General.

  "So, what exactly are we doing out here!?" B1-843 asked over the sound of the wind whipping around them.

  "Didn't you read the orders?" B1-840 responded, whacking 843 on the head. "Were supposed to find any working machinery to help us take the planet from the Republic!"

  "I didn't read the orders, I was busy!"

  "I see something! 2 o'clock low!" B1-842 reported, interrupting the beginning of 840's and 843's twentieth argument.

  The squad flew down in front of what looked like a crescent shaped old warehouse. 840 was the first to hit the ground, and noticed the building was very tall, with small chimneys on top of it. Seven sets of double doors sat on the inside of the crescent, all with strange metal rods lying on the ground, all of them converging on a single set of metal rods on what looked like a rotating segment.

  "What is this place?" 843 asked as they walked in a side entrance to a smaller building connected to it, blasters at the ready.

  "It looks like a hangar, but not like any I've ever seen." 840 replied.

  The squad searched through the smaller building, which looked like an office. 843 opened a cabinet, and inside was a few datapads.

  "Whoa! Guys, you need to see this!" B1-845 shouted from the crescent building.

  When 840 walked into the building, he nearly dropped his blaster in shock. Inside the building were seven large machines, all sitting on the metal rods. They were strange but somewhat elegant designs. A long cylindrical front leading back to an enclosed cab, sitting on top of four small wheels in front, and six large wheels in the back connected by a long rod. The top of it had a smaller cylinder sticking out of the top, and a light was attached to the front of the larger cylinder. The others were much the same, just with less or more big and small wheels.

  "Do you think we should tell the General about these?" B1-841 asked.

  "Definitely." 840 replied.

  The antenna on 840's backpack slid up, and he put his finger to the side of his head.

  "This is B1-840 calling command. Come in command."

  "This is command. Have you found something, 840?"

  "I think we've found some sort of primitive freight transports. They still look useable, but probably need servicing to their reactors. They don't look like they've been active for a long time."

  "Roger, roger. I'm sending a few units there now."

  840 glanced out a window and gasped when he saw two LAATs flying towards them.

  "Put a hold on the repair units, we've got two LAATs bearing down on us!" 840 exclaimed. "We need reinforcements!"

  "Roger, roger. Droidekas inbound."

  840 leveled his blaster at the clones outside the window as they stepped out of the craft.

  "Why are the clankers at this old train depot?" One of them asked.

  "This is a train depot?" Another asked.

  "Yeah, didn't you read the dossier on this planet? Telos had trains that spewed out smoke and drove on those durasteel rails all across the continents thousands of years ago."

  "Why not use repulsorlifts, wouldn't they be cheaper?"

  "Actually, they ran off of something called 'coal', which was even cheaper per pound than tibanna gas. Like, ten credits a pound to tibanna's one hundred fifty credit pre-war price."

  'Huh, useful intel. The General will be glad to have learned that.' 840 thought, glancing back at the 'trains' behind him.

  "Droidekas on approach, create a diversion."

  "Die, Republic dogs!" 840 rallied, opening fire on the clones.

  The troopers dove for cover and returned fire, one of their shots almost taking 840's head off. The B1 ducked down behind his cover and blind fired his E-5 at the clones. He heard one scream out in pain, and one of their blasters fell silent. That would have raised his mood, but the blaster fire intensified, and his squads cover began to break down.

  Just above the sounds of battle, 840 heard the warbling sounds of multiple full speed Droideka engines. He chanced a peek out of cover, and watched in awe as a whole squad of Droidekas crested the hill. The clones tried turning around, but they were too slow, as the twin blaster cannons on all five of them opened fire, piercing through plastoid and carving through flesh.

  "What the kriff-AUGH!" One clone tried to exclaim but was shot before finishing his sentence.

  Soon the firing stopped, and 840 and his squad walked out of the depot to see that the Droidekas had uncurled and were surveying the bodies, watching for movement in case any only pretended to be dead. Not even the pilots of the LAATs were spared, as pinpoint shots straight into their helmets stopped them from flying away.

  "Nice job, I see why they call you guys Destroyer Droids now." 840 remarked.

  "You're welcome, 840. My squad is happy to assist you. Command is sending over a few repair units now." The Droideka squad leader replied in binary.

  "That's good to know. We do have two LAATs to deal with now as well."

  "Indeed. My squad and I must take our leave; we are needed elsewhere."

  "Good luck then, and don't get shot!" 840 joked.

  "Oh please. The clones won't even be able to keep track of us."

  --

  BX-87 dodged another blaster shot from the clone trooper, then ran him through with his vibroblade.

  He pulled his blade out and spun around, cleaving into another clone that tried shooting him from behind. Just as he pulled the blade out of the plastoid armor, an explosion blew a hole in the building he was fighting near, flinging dirt and rocks onto his frame. He barely managed to stay on his feet, and immediately took cover with his group.

  "What was that?!" B1-828, BX-87's comms officer, exclaimed.

  87 peeked around the ruined building and spotted an AT-TE five hundred yards away. A brief puff of smoke curling away from its Mass Driver cannon's barrel.

  "Republic walker, five hundred yards." 87 replied. "Get us Hailfire support."

  B1-828's antenna slid out of its housing, and he nodded when he got a clear signal, while 87 looked back out of the hole in the building with a pair of macrobinoculars.

  "Grid 3-6-4-2." 87 relayed to the B1.

  "Command this is B1-828 requesting Hailfire support on grid 3-6-4-2. Target is Republic AT-TE five hundred yards northeast from our position."

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  "Roger, roger, support incoming."

  For a few moments, nothing happened. But then distant rocket engines shot to life, and four missiles streaked over an old barn, impacting directly into the middle of the AT-TE. The walker cracked in two, exploding in a fiery inferno. The two pieces of the walker fell to the ground, the fires burning from within scorching the paintjob.

  "Walker down." 87 reported.

  "Fire mission successful, Republic walker is destroyed." 828 reported.

  "Good work, proceed to the walker and plant a salvage beacon when safe. The General has a plan for those big machines."

  "Roger, roger."

  "Incoming LAAT gunship!" A B1 shouted. "Bays are open, it looks like there's an ARC trooper in there!"

  "We'll ambush them as soon as they land, get in position." 87 ordered.

  The droids around him burst into action, as they prepared a surprise for the Republic troops.

  --

  "Gunner, armor piercing high explosive!" B1-560 ordered.

  "Armor piercing high explosive, loaded." B1-562 replied.

  "Enemy TX-130, seven hundred fifty-three meters."

  "...Optics on target."

  "Hold until they enter the valley."

  Their AAT, hidden behind the rubble of an old house and partially covered in bushes, tracked a Republic TX-130 as it, along with a squadron of clone troopers, slowly entered the valley. The suspense from waiting was so thick you could cut it with a dull vibroblade. After a few even more tense moments where the tank's barrels hovered over the ruined building, 560 finally gave the order.

  "Fire." 560 commanded.

  562 pulled the trigger, and the recoil from the cannon pushed the tank back slightly from its sheer power. The round sailed through the air and impacted right on the upper glacis, the energy coating leaving a scorch mark around the hole. The round penetrated straight through the relatively thin armor of the tank and exploded on the inside, killing all the occupants. The detonation set off a chain reaction inside the vehicle, which ignited its fuel, exploding and taking out fifteen of the squadron of clones.

  "Good hit, target down. Let's clean up the rest of them." 560 said, patting 562 on the shoulder.

  560 closed the hatch and locked it as the AAT drove out into the open, firing its side mounted blasters at the clones.

  --

  "This is B1-3482, I need immediate fire support on my position. My squadron has found a Republic base!" B1-3482 radioed.

  "This is B1-233, captain of Close Encounter. What needs blowing up?" The captain of one of the two in-atmosphere Munificents replied.

  "I need a bombardment on Thanak police station. The GAR have a lot of clones and armor here!"

  A nearby explosion almost took 3482 off his feet, but the B1 grabbed onto a light post and steadied himself.

  "Roger, roger. Nearing your position now, just give us a few seconds."

  3482 looked up to see the silhouette of the Munificent in the sky, slowly blotting out the sun at its altitude. Then, after a harrowing moment were everything on the battlefield went silent, as everyone stared up at the hovering ship, the turbolasers started firing. 3482 had never seen a bombardment before, and now he watched in more awe than he ever thought his programming would ever allow as the bright red bolts of energy blew craters into the ground, cleaved walkers in half, incinerated clone troopers, and slowly brought down the entire building the clones were using as a fortress.

  After ten whole seconds, the firing stopped, and Thanak police station was nothing but a pile of rubble and half-melted durasteel.

  "Did we get them?" 233 cheekily asked.

  "Roger, roger, good hits. They aren't getting back up from that one!" 3482 radioed, then turned to his commander, a BX-series. "See anything, sir?"

  "Just a few stragglers who had the sense to run, we'll capture them in time." The commando droid replied.

  The group set off towards the ruins of the police station, blasters primed for any potential ambushes.

  --

  Blaster bolts impacted the ground all around B1-453 as he took cover behind a crumbling market stand.

  There was a lull in the shooting when the clone's rifles ran hot, and 453 peeked out of cover and fired rapidly at the clone troopers, taking down four. At the other end of the street, two AT-RTs stood sentinel, firing their blaster cannons at whatever looked vaguely like a droid.

  "Kriff." 453 muttered, slamming another gas cartridge into his E-5 and racking the charger.

  Just as he was about to go out in a blaze of glory, he heard the sound of treads rolling towards him. 453 looked around, then lunged back when a N99 slammed through a wall, sending bricks flying all over the place. The snail tank opened fire with its blaster cannons, cutting down clone after clone, and 453 spotted his squad forming up behind the treaded vehicle. The B1 ran up behind 454 and patted him on the shoulder.

  "I thought you guys were scrapped." 453 remarked.

  "And I thought you had a good sense of direction." 454 snarked back.

  "Push up with the N99!" 450 ordered, cutting their battle of words to an end.

  The other two B1s shut up at that, and peeked out from behind the snail tank, and opened fire. The N99 fired its main cannons, and one of the AT-RTs tops, plus the clone riding it, disappeared in a flash of light. All that was left was a pair of lower legs, which somehow stood completely still, smoking slightly. The other AT-RT backed away and turned to flee, but 453 nailed the clone driver in the back of the head, and the walker slumped to the ground.

  Pride in his shooting skills permeated through 453's programming, and he internally thanked the General for giving him better accuracy.

  --

  If I had a mouth still, I would be grinning from ear to ear.

  The battle was progressing extremely well, even better than I anticipated. All Republic fronts were being pushed back on the planet thanks to the modern strategies I've implemented. The only fronts where my forces had hit roadblocks were all quickly taken care of by vehicle support, or thanks to one of the low flying Munificents. All fronts except one, at least, which soured my mood.

  I had been receiving conflicting reports from an area near a Telosian military base, and what little communication I could get talked about someone with a sword cleaving through whole squads at a time. There was only one type of warrior in the clone army that used a sword in open combat, and that was a Jedi.

  For a brief minute, I was intensely confused as to why a Jedi of all beings was on this ecological disaster of a planet. But I mentally smacked myself when I remembered that there were around ten thousand or so Jedi fighting across the galaxy during the war, not even counting the masses in the temple on Coruscant.

  I had to remember that this was a galaxy spanning war, something that the human side of me was having a hard time wrapping its head around.

  "Start my ship." I ordered. "I will deal with this Jedi... myself."

  "Are you sure that's wise, sir?" BX-99 asked.

  "We are pushing the Republic back on all fronts, except the one where the Jedi is stationed. Those Force users are capable of blocking 90% of blaster bolts with only a blade of pure plasma, which is capable of sending the bolt back at the one firing. The only Force users on our side of this war, are Count Dooku, and Asajj Ventress. General Grievous has no tangible connection to the Force, but he is still capable of dodging bolts and blocking them with his quadruple lightsabers. I will not allow my soldiers to die to a glorified monk with a laser sword. I am going out there."

  "...Roger, roger. But I still think this is a bad idea, sir. At least take some reinforcements."

  "...Fine."

  --

  Knight Savon sliced through another B1, internally cursing at how hard he had to fight in order for his troops to make any progress.

  It didn't make any sense to him. The droids he fought when they took Telos were complete idiots, marching forward and firing blindly, hoping to catch him off guard. They were easy to kill, unlike the terrorists. But now, they acted with tactics that were even better than what his troops had. The tanks were even harder to reach now that the droids surrounded them and fired from behind the machines.

  Not to mention that other clones were reporting that the Hailfire droids, which were a nightmare for all the AT-TEs, were staying out of sight almost all the time, except when they briefly break cover to fire their missiles. And AATs were hiding behind buildings and covering themselves with bushes.

  HIDING. Who hides when they have a tank for kriffs sake!?

  Savon's anger soared, and he growled as he cut through a B2 that had chanced looking out of its cover. Five flying B2s and a Rocket Droid began firing at him, and Savon was soon forced back behind the scorched wreck of an AT-TE with his clone commander, Brock.

  "How are the droids this good at combat!?" Savon exclaimed in anger.

  "I don't know, but when I find whoever programmed them to be able to kill so many of my brothers, they are going to pay." Brock replied, a ferocious glint in his eye.

  The sound of an LAAT made most of the clones jerk their heads up. Savon was grateful to see friendly reinforcements, but his good mood turned right back into anger when his troops were fired upon by droids inside the LAAT. The commandeered LAAT landed behind the lines, and the droids stopped firing. Savon was confused as the droid army moved back, keeping their blasters leveled on his squadron's cover.

  Then he saw a new droid.

  It looked like one of the new Super Tactical Droids he heard about, but it was different. Black plating, red accents, stark white photoreceptors, and much bulkier than what he had heard about them. Then it spoke, in a voice that sent shivers down his spine.

  "Republic troops, you are being pushed back on all fronts. Surrender. Now." It said, its voice echoing over the landscape.

  Savon's anger exploded, and he leaped out of his cover, lightsaber lit, and a snarl on his face.

  "I will not be taken prisoner by a droid!" He bellowed.

  Then he lunged at the droid, aiming to take its head off. He didn't expect, however, for the droid to bring out a vibroblade and block his lightsaber.

  "How sloppy. I expected better of a Jedi Knight." The droid taunted.

  Savon somehow became even angrier at the droid, and he swung his saber again.

  --

  I was not expecting the Jedi to be halfway to the dark side, to be honest.

  I blocked an overhead strike, then parried a swing. The sound of my vibroblade and the lightsaber echoed across the battlefield as the shooting began anew, my troops opening fire on GAR reinforcements. We blocked and parried, our battle taking us across the warzone.

  This guy was fast. Thankfully, I could keep up with him with my droid brain, but it was not easy to do.

  Our blades locked together, and in the process of attempting to remove them, they arched over us and slammed into a low brick wall. I took a chance and aimed my free hand's concealed blaster at the Jedi and fired. The Jedi moved his head out of the way, but cried out in pain when the bolt grazed his ear. I was thrown back by a Force push, and barely got my vibroblade up to block an attack by the crazed Force Adept.

  I kicked out with one leg, and bone cracked as my foot came in contact with his shin. The Jedi screamed in pain, and I kicked him between the legs. Somehow, he screamed even louder, and stumbled back as I got to my feet. I then had to dodge and block a flurry of sloppy and rage-filled attacks from the Jedi, who seemed to be getting more and more unstable the longer we fought.

  He slashed at me again, and this time I wasn't fast enough. My right arm flew away, hitting the ground with a thud. I stared at my missing appendage, then back at the Jedi, who now had a feral grin on his face. His eyes were sulfur yellow, and he slowly stalked towards me. I thought it was the end until I noticed something behind him, and a plan began forming in my mind.

  "Before you kill me, will you answer a single question?" I asked while slowly backing away.

  The fallen Jedi's head tilted slightly. He was silent for a few moments as he thought.

  "And what would that be?" He finally asked.

  "What is the name of my killer?" I queried.

  He paused, and that was all the time I needed. "...I am Jedi Knight Jonas Savon. It's time for you to die now, droid."

  "On the contrary, I will live to see another day. You, however, ...won't. NOW!"

  I lunged out of the way, and the AAT that had arrived onto the battlefield fired a blaster cannon at Knight Savon. The Jedi barely had time to turn around and block the blast, but as soon as he deflected it and turned around to strike at me, another round impacted his chest, sending him stumbling back with a large scorch mark on his stomach.

  He looked at me with pure hatred in his eyes as he stared down the sight of my other concealed blaster smoking lightly. Savon fell to his knees as I picked up my vibroblade and walked towards him.

  "I... will not... lose to a... droid!" Savon gasped out.

  I swung my vibroblade, blood spurted as metal cleaved through flesh, and Savon split apart vertically and fell to the ground in two pieces.

  Even though he was falling to the dark side, I had succeeded against him in combat. I had officially claimed my first kill against a Jedi.

  "Well... that happened." I muttered, raising my arm to pull a small piece of shrapnel out of my armor.

  For some reason, I couldn't reach my own chest. Then I looked down at the stump of my right arm.

  "Oh, right. 99, I need a lift back to my ship." I said.

  "You got damaged again, didn't you?" 99 asked.

  I picked up a small, dirt covered cylinder and turned it over in my remaining hand. I clicked the button on it, and an azure blade of plasma ignited out of it. Looks like the Jedi's lightsaber survived.

  "I might have."

  If I still had a mouth, I'd be grinning.