AN: Updating a day early, I've got shit to do tomorrow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Breeching Lama Su's lab/office, Corvus beelined towards a prominent computer, and began working his magic.
Hacking into the system, a flood of panicked messages arrived from all the other major cities. The administrators were currently losing their shit over this 'clone rebellion' that had come out of nowhere. Corvus typed back a reassuring message, letting them know that it was an isolated incident, and that help was on the way. Of course they didn't need to know that their goose was cooked, and that it was in fact not an isolated incident, but Corvus was all too happy to dangle the illusion of hope and safety for these narcissistic geneticists.
Having dealt with that, a priority message was incoming from the fleet stationed above the planet. As this was a group composed of Legends numbers, there were about a dozen Venators in space, well over 50 Acclamators, and a few heavily armed space stations just outside of orbit. The majority of the men of course were clones, but many of the officers were regular human Imperials.
Seeing that an incoming priority 1 holocall was flashing for his attention-from one Admiral Trace, a name Corvus was not familiar with-he decided to accept it. But before he did, he made sure to replace his Revan mask with the Bond mask.
"You're not Lama Su. What is going on down there?" The man said in a cultured, arrogant tone that demanded answers now.
"Admiral Trace, I am Agent 007 from the Inspectorate. A biological weapon has been deployed by the CIS, and the facilities are under quarantine. A purge of the infected is underway, so your sensors may detect some blaster fire. I want you to direct your ships to the various facilities planetside, and rescue the clone troopers who are unaffected."
"Preposterous! I am ordered not to leave my post! Should this be a mere diversion for an all out assault, we would be completely exposed. Besides, who is to say that this disease will not be transmitted to the fleet? This is out of the question." Trace immediately rebuked, and spoke down to Corvus as if he were a simpleton.
"You are to do precisely as I say. Transferring credentials now." Corvus ignored Trace's outburst, and sent over his codes marking him as a high priority figure.
"Sir, the code checks out." A clone voice said over the comm.
The blue hologram of Trace stared at Corvus's mask, then slightly shook his head.
"I can spare 12 Acclamators and a single Venator. The troop transport ships are already docked planetside, this shall suffice." Trace was frowning, and said as if he had marbles grinding in his teeth.
"The men need medical treatment. That is only possible upon military cruisers. Are you going to be the one to explain to the Emperor how ten million clone troopers perished in one day? That it was 100% preventable? That His Majesty's prized researchers, the kaminoans died due to this malfeasance?" Corvus said with schadenfreude, each word dripped with condescension and the venom of an Imperial officer celebrating at his peer's eventual dismissal or worse.
Trace gulped, and pulled at the side of his collar.
"You'll have your ships, damnit." Trace softly growled, then cut the transmission.
Corvus let out a sigh of relief, pleased that his gambit had worked. Securing those warships was going to be a hassle, but it would be much easier this way, with their hangar doors open. Just imagining trying to finesse his way through 50+ ships in space seemed like a hassle. By making them come to him, it would be potentially much more messy, but viable.
Thinking about the Admiral, if there was anything that would motivate these 'political' sissy officers, it would be the ruination of their careers. Very few of them stood for anything, all that mattered to them was power, prestige, and politics. Disgusting.
Shaking his head at the spineless worm, Corvus had a few more things to do on this console before he joined the fight.
Creating a new program, Corvus sent an update notification to every clone on Kamino. It told them that if they had received Order 86, to download this patch. All the update did, was mark friendlies on their HUD, and made it so that fighting all the other clones would be much easier. Corvus also added himself and all his companions to the list of allies. Lastly, they were instructed to splash some grease-or anything that leaves a mark-on their white armor so that they could be more easily told apart. He didn't want Yon or Jax to be going murder happy on any clone trooper they came across.
Having done that, Corvus messaged Jax & Yon on their shared channel over the comms to update them regarding this rapidly changing situation.
"Jax, Yon, I have incapacitated the Prime Minister, and am within his office. Respond."
A tense minute later, Corvus picked up a staticky message rife with the sound of blaster-fire.
"Master, I'm making a break with CF-99 now. They were imprisoned, but Omega and I have just released them." Jax said in a calm tone.
"And I just took out a group of clone assassins!" Yon said with pride.
"Okay, you're both safe, that's good. Listen closely to what I'm about to say. Clone troopers with grease stains or color splashed onto their gear are on our side, I activated the chips in their brain before Palpatine could get his hands on them. Reveal your lightsabers, and they will answer to you like they did in the past. I tricked the Admiral to land his ships, and after securing Tipoca City, we're going to forcefully take the fleet." Corvus hurriedly detailed his plan.
"...understood. The Bad Batch and I are linking up with friendlies as we speak. Converging on your location now, Master." Jax said in a calm tone, the sound of his lightsaber igniting sounded on the call, and the shouts of CF-99 going berserk in the background bled through.
"Yes. Master." Yon grated.
The boys were still clearly unnerved at working besides clones so soon after Order 66, and Corvus couldn't blame them. But this was war, he had to take every weapon he could lay his hands on.
"Good. I'll be moving to secure the armory, in a few minutes you two link up with me along the way." Corvus gave his final word on the matter, then hung up.
Looking at the terminal once more, Corvus began to direct the clones who were loyal to the Empire into traps, and had them leave ambush points into wide open hallways. Using the cameras and security systems such as automatic turrets, he acted like a conductor shifting troops around wherever he pleased. At the same time, he directed those troopers loyal to him into key chokepoints.
Several times officers and NCO's who had undergone Order 66 tried to take the initiative, but Corvus rebuffed them each time. Instead, he would make them split off squad by squad, and force them to charge positions that had cover, and where their foes were numerically superior. In response, all they could do was grumble under their breaths, and take the pounding. Afterall, good soldiers followed orders.
Spending about half an hour decimating the Imperial clones in a piecemeal manner, most of Tipoca City had been secured, and Corvus didn't even have to lift his lightsaber.
All that was left was the last remnant holdout of about 1,000 men desperately trying to survive. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Order 86 clones were converging on their location with murderous intentions.
Before he left, he shot Lama Su with another blaster set to stun, and then rigged the room full of explosives.
Dawning his Revan regalia, and Cortosis-Weave robes, Corvus left the meeting room, and ignited his twin blue lightsabers. Azure beams of plasma hummed to life, and promised murder as he stepped out into the hallway.
"Follow me." Corvus ordered the unit of clones that had been stationed outside the room.
"Sir!" The clone commander saluted, then turned to his men. "You heard the General, for the Republic!"
"Huah!" The hundreds of clones who had been mobilized to this location cheered.
Corvus took the lead, and applied all the usual buffs to himself, as well as [Energy Resistance] to the troopers nearest to him.
Strolling down long corridors, the sound of marching boots echoed down the hallway, and Corvus advanced towards the sound of blasterfire. Alarms were blaring, men were calling out for medics, and hundreds of white armored bodies lined the sides of walls testament to the grim realities of war.
Seeing a group of men posted up at the end of a straight hallway shooting off pot shots around the corner, Corvus strode past them into a wave of oncoming blue bolts.
Flicking his twin lightsabers, Corvus deflected a deluge of blaster fire back at the enemy, and provided cover for the men following in his wake. Stepping up beside him, the troopers went full auto, and unleashed hell upon the enemy.
"Grenade!" A man shouted in worry, but Corvus sent it back with a flick of his hand, and a small application of the Force.
An explosion rocked the area around him, and water from the storm outside began to leak inside due to cracked glass. Men instinctively ducked, or dropped to the ground, but Corvus had stood his ground, and saw this for the opening that it was.
Gripping his sabers tightly, Corvus took this brief distraction, and rushed the enemy line. The clones on the other side weren't FNG's, and despite being disoriented, and having lost a lot of men, were swift to resume firing.
Corvus emerged from the rain and smoke like a phantom in the night. His figure blurred, and the clones-tightly packed as they were-had a difficult time drawing a bead on him. By the time a handful had gotten a shot off, a dozen had already been sliced, diced, and stabbed to death.
This entire time, Corvus had been meticulously using Pause in his every step. Each bolt sent his way was perfectly deflected, dodged or absorbed by his [Energy Resistance] shield to maximize his damage.
One clone engineer tried blasting him with a shotgun full of slugs, and Corvus flung his hand, interposing a body in between them to absorb the rounds. Using [Force Push] he then slammed the corpse into the engineer, killing him on the spot.
Ducking low, he evaded a lightsaber from a decloaked assassin, twirled his saber backward, and impaled him through the heart. His other saber swept wildly in an arc mimicking the Form VII lessons he had been taught, and in one fluid motion, he disarmed two more saber-wielding assassins in front of him.
Within seconds of this happening, a blaze trooper ran up, and began to unleash a torrent of all consuming fire within this narrow hallway. Unphased by this sudden development, Corvus clenched his fist, and squeezed the nub at the end of the blaze troopers flamethrower closed. Within a second, a backwards feedback loop had occurred, and the flame had ignited his ammo pack, resulting in a tumultuous explosion.
Emerging from the flames unscathed thanks to his [Energy Resistance] and cloak of Cortosis-Weave clothing, Corvus continued his blitz as he advanced towards the armory.
Cloak fluttering due to the explosions, and wind entering through broken walls, Corvus eventually linked up with his students.
Jax was leading a charge with the Bad Batch, and acting like a typical commander. He was calm, precise, and accurately parrying shots protecting his unit with cover, whilst they decimated the enemy.
Yon, meanwhile, was repeatedly entering the enemy line with his invisibility, and repeatedly used stolen grenades or explosives to kill as many clones as possible. Those who followed in his wake had suffered heavy casualties, but the enemy on his end had died at double or triple the rate compared to the ones Jax was fighting.
Victory was all but within their grasp. After this, a large battle to conquer the starships would come next.
Inspired by this scene, Corvus knew that he could affect the upcoming battle on a grander scale. He was more than a melee combatant. He was a Jedi.
Taking a seat to meditate, he held the lightsaber he was attuned with to use as a Focus.
Focus: At the cost of 1/4 of the FP bar, boost a lightside ability by 50% in strength. All darkside abilities increase by 25% whilst wielding this lightsaber.
Pulling upon this active ability, Corvus stretched his abilities to the limit, and pulled upon the raging raw power of nature that he had attuned himself to on Kamino, and pulled off a miracle he ordinarily would be unable to accomplish.
Casting [Heal], [Valor], and [Energy Resistance] upon the thousands of Order 86 clones-and his allies-Corvus buffed everyone for the fight to come.
Opening his eyes, Corvus felt the stunned stares of everyone that had made it to the armory. Standing up, he held his lightsabers aloft.
"For the Republic!"
His cry thrummed in the Force, and every man present raised their blasters in salute.
"For the Republic!" Their cheers were absolutely deafening, and shook the walls.
Jax, and Yon looked at him with pride, and he nodded.
This was it, this was the moment. A new army had been born, one that would rival the 501st, and bring the Jedi back from the brink of destruction. He couldn't wait to rub this victory in Palpatine's oh-so-smug face!
Steadying himself in the Force, Corvus began issuing commands. By the end of the day, Kamino's facilities would lie in ruin, and Palpatine's dreams of immortality via cloning would be erased forever.
Oh how Corvus loved when a plan came together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AN: Read 100+ chapters ahead at: patreon.com/KarpQQ
I update there every Mon, Tues, Wednesday, Thursday
Publicly on Fridays