Chapter 2: Amongst the Ruins

Clone Wars Journal entry 5 - Location: Mygeeto

"In the waning months of the Clone Wars, the 501st faced missions critical to the agenda of Chancellor Palpatine. When we arrived at the bombed out ruins of Mygeeto, our Jedi commander believed we had been sent to take out a droid energy collector. What Ki-Adi-Mundi didn't know however was that our unit of the 501st was really after an experimental Mygeetan power source, that the Chancellor wanted for his super laser. Keeping Mundi in the dark wasn't easy; the Jedi had become increasingly wary of the Chancellor's doings, and were on the lookout for the slightest hint of treachery. Just like the rest of them though, he never caught whiff of what was really going on, until it was far too late."

A shadow looms over the Republic. The Clone Wars have torn a rift across the galaxy, it’s populace weak in allegiance and resolve. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine has commissioned the Republics highly elite division of clones, the 501st Legion, to vanquish the Separatist threat once and for all. Their unwavering loyalty to the Chancellor, combined with the Republic’s desperation to see an end to the war, has set the stage for Palpatine’s ultimate plan.

During the beginning of the second half of the wars second year. The 501st were sent to the planet Mygeeto to assist Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi in liberating the planet from CIS control. This was but the first of many crucial battles destined to shape the fate of the galaxy.

On board a republic cruiser that is currently traveling through hyperspace. Orion Squad were currently stationed in their quarters on the ship. They were chilling out and relaxing in order to pass the time as their cruiser was traveling through hyperspace. They too are now wearing their new phase 2 armours. While their armours carried the same patterns as their phase 1’s. They were all blue this time, representing them as members of the 501st Legion.

Ghost was promoted to ARC Trooper (Advanced Recon Commando) and had a huge variety of weapons to his arsenal. He also had a battle skirt like Commander Fang. Two huge shoulder pads, his right one still holding his skull symbol.

Daxter’s Armour was the same in appearance (minus the colour change) The only big difference was his helmet which looked very different to the standard clone helmet. The only new addition was the built in lights in the forehead area. His backpack has also been upgraded to include a little droid arm that is used to hack doors. (similar to R2D2’s rotating arm he unlocks doors with) His right shoulder pad still had his wrench symbol.

Apex’s armour was the same as his old one, the only difference being his dark blue skirt around his waist. And like Daxter he had a different style of helmet. The visor was more like a line which makes it easier for him to see out of when it comes to aiming his sniper rifle. His right shoulder pad still has the crosshair symbol.

Boomstick’s armour was more bulky in appearance compared to the others. He too had a skirt on his waist but his was white instead of blue or grey. His helmet was also bulkier then the others in appearance. It also came with a missile tracker so he could keep an eye on the rockets he fires. He still had his rocket symbol on his right shoulder pad.

Thunder’s armour looked more like the standard phase 2 armours compared to the others. The only difference being his helmet having a green visor while the others were black. He also has a new jetpack on his back, one that came with a targeting missile (similar to Jango Fett’s jetpack) He still has the lightning bolt symbol on his right shoulder pad.

X-Ray’s armour like Thunder looked more like the standard armour. The only difference being the big medical symbol on his helmet and his shoulder pad.

They were suddenly interrupted by Commander Fang who was also wearing new phase 2 clone armour. He still kept the features that made him commander like his old armour. The only difference being that his armour has more blue on it compared to every other clone within the 501st. His loth wolf symbol on his right shoulder pad was also black instead of blue like his old armour, making it stand out from the blue colouring.

“Orion Squad, stand at attention!” He ordered. The Orion Squad clones all got up and stood at attention. Once he got their full attention he continued. “I expected you six to be in the command centre. We have just arrived at Mygeeto and the men are already boarding the dropships. As my best troops I expect you to do your best down there, you hear me?”

“Sir, yes sir!” They all shouted in unison.

“Good. Now let’s move em out. I’ll be briefing you on the plan as soon as we depart from the cruiser.” As soon as he finished his sentence he orders his squad members to follow him. Ghost and the others grab their weapons and equipment and all follows their commander.

Once on the dropship. All the clones gathered around Fang as he brings up a hologram layout of the separatist controlled city on Mygeeto.

“Alright men, today’s target is an Energy Collector on the northern section of the platform. This Energy Collector supplies power to every single Droid manufacturing plant on the planet. General Ki-Adi-Mundi will be leading this mission. Our objective is to destroy the Energy Collector and acquire the unique power crystals from its core.” Fang explains as he points to the where the energy collector was located.

As he explains, X-Ray raises his hand, drawing the others attention to him. “Forgive me sir, but. According to the Jedi general, our only mission is to destroy the Energy Collector. We hadn’t received orders on recovering its crystals.”

“That’s because the demand for the crystals came from Supreme Chancellor Palpatine himself. He has ordered that we keep this information from the Jedi. So I advise that you do not breathe a word of this to him or the Jedi Council. Is that understood men?”

All the clones shout “Yes Sir” in unison, obeying the order. Ghost was then starting to think about why the chancellor wants to keep the Jedi in the dark about his doings. He then thought back on several rumours he heard about how the Jedi were starting to grow suspicious of the Chancellor, and were even having thoughts on removing him from power. Still, if he had to choose between his loyalties to the Jedi and the Republic…He would choose the Republic.

The dropship soon enters the skies above the city platform. Below them was a huge barrage of lasers being thrown between the two opposing sides. The battle had already started before they even got here. As they were nearing the landing platform, Fang diverted their attention to the hologram again.

“This planet may be controlled by the Seps. But if we can take out their source of power, Droid production facilities in the area will grind to a halt.” He then points to a building north of where the ship was about to land. “This building has controls for the bridge that connects the route to the Energy Collector. We’ll have to capture it before moving on. Once General Mundi arrives, he will guide us safely to the Energy Collector tower. Any questions?”

None of the clones answer which suited Fang just fine. As soon as the dropship lands on the platform, the doors open revealing the raging battle going on before their eyes.

“Go, go, go!” Fang orders. The clones all exit the dropship and begin to open fire on the droids. Ghost and his squad members waste no time shooting the droids, taking them out like it’s nothing.

“Come on boys, let’s turn this place into a scrap pile!” Boomstick cried out as he blasts groups of droids with his rocket launcher.

Daxter then sees an AT-RT Walker and immediately boards it. He then starts blasting away at a bunch of droids on the platform, clearing a path for his squad mates. “You lot head for the building, I’ll keep the Clankers off you!” He shouts to them.

Ghost and the others nod and make their way to the platform. Thunder then sees a droid AAT (Armoured Assault Tank) approaching Daxter’s walker. Daxter fires at it, but it’s armour was too strong for his walker. “Uh guys, I might need some help over here!” He shouts through their helmet comms.

“Thunder, help Dax take out that tank. The rest of you, cover me as I infiltrate the bridge control room.” Ghost orders.

Thunder ignites his jetpack and lands on top of the AAT. He opens the top hatch and aims his blaster at the droid piloting it. “Uh oh” That’s all the droid had time to say before he got blasted. Thunder then enters the tank and takes control of it.

“Ok, now how do you control this thing?” He asked himself while trying to figure out the tanks controls.

Ghost, Apex and X-Ray infiltrate the bridge control buildings. Once inside they were immediately attacked by Battle Droids. These droids however were different to the B1’s and B2’s. These ones wore white cloaks. One was holding an electro staff while the other two had a miniature one handed rocket launcher.

“Crap, it’s a couple of Grievous’s Magna Guards. I hear they’re specially designed by Grievous himself to even contend with highly skilled Jedi” Ghost pointed out. He then pulls out an EMP grenade and throws it at them, but to his surprise the Magna Guard with the electro staff smacks it back at them. They quickly duck as the grenade flies past them and ends up hitting the bridge controls.

The bridge controls short circuit and cause the raised bridge to suddenly fall down, connecting the pathway to the Energy Collector.

“Well…That’s one way to reset the bridge. Thanks for the assist guys” Apex says jokingly to the Magna Guards.

The guards ignore his sarcastic words and attack them. The two on the sides fire miniature missiles at Apex and X-Ray. The one with the elector staff head straight for Ghost and swings his staff at him. Ghost dodges with all his skill. He then blocks its strike with his rifle. But the guard over powers him and manages to knock him down. It then swings its staff downwards but misses him by a few inches. Ghost then pulls out his dual blaster pistols and shoots the guards head off, causing it to fall backwards and drop its electro staff.

Apex and X-Ray struggle with their guards at first. Apex is used to taking out enemies from a distance, so close quarters combat wasn’t his forte. As for X-Ray, while he does have combat training like the rest of his brothers. His arsenal mostly comprised of equipment used for healing, not fighting.

Apex then decides to tackle the guard and try and wrestle the gun out of its hands. That turned out to be a bad move as being a droid, it could not get overpowered easily in the strength department.

As for X-Ray, all he could do blind the droid by splashing its eyes with bacta liquid, causing the droid to short circuit. He then pulls out his blaster pistol and shoots the reactor on its chest, killing it for good.

Ghost was about to aid Apex with his opponent. But he stopped as his arm was suddenly grabbed by the electro staff guard, who seemed to be able to move without its head. Ghost didn’t have time to react as the guard shocks him with its staff, sending him to the floor.

As the headless guard was about to finish him off, a barrage of rapid laser fire comes out of nowhere and hammers the guard in its back. Ghost quickly moved out the way as the Magna Guard hit the ground once again. Ghost then kicks the droid to make sure it was down for good this time. He then looks up and sees that the guard was taken out by Commander Fang, who was wielding a huge shoulder mounted minigun. He then targets the guard Apex was struggling with and kills it dead.

“Thank you, sir. Sorry we had to rely on you to take out three droids.” Ghost says as he approaches him.

“No shame in your actions at all, Ghost.” Though we’ve encountered them many times throughout the war, Grievous’s Magna Guards always find new ways to fight us. Never take them lightly.” He says with a supportive tone. He then looks out the window and notices that the bridge has been lowered. “Nice work men. Now we need to make some space for General Mundi to land. We need to take out those heavy turrets that are firing at our gunships.”

“I don’t think that’ll be much of a problem, sir. Boomstick already beat you to it.” X-Ray added as he pointed over to Boomstick who was riding atop of the stolen AAT that Thunder was driving. They then fire their rockets at the turrets, destroying them with ease.

“Did Thunder just commandeer one of the droids tanks? I’m surprised he knows how to drive that thing… Alright, enough messing around. Lets go meet up with General Mundi, and then we can begin our assault on the Energy Collector.

“RIGHT!” the clones shout out in unison. They all exit the building and make their way over to the landing platform to greet Ki-Adi-Mundi.

The clones arrive at the landing platform and watch Ki-Adi-Mundi exit the dropship with a squad of Clone Marines. Fang salutes him while the others stood at attention.

“Commander Fang, I appreciate the ground support with those turrets.” Says the Jedi Master.

“Indeed General Mundi. Now that you’ve arrived, my men and I are at your disposal. We are prepared to move out to the Energy Collector on your orders, sir.” Fang replies.

“Very good. But before we begin the assault on the Energy Collector, we need to get past the droids shield barricades. This will allow the men to move their vehicles through to assist us should we need them.”

“Understood sir. We’ll follow your lead.” Fangs says with pride.

Ki-Adi-Mundi nods and leads the clones in the direction of the energy collector. Fang and his squad follow after them. Daxter was still controlling the AT-RT Walker. Thunder however ditches the tank and uses his jetpack to fly in the direction.

More battle droids attack them. Mundi ignites his lightsaber and hacks away at them. The clones open fire on the droids as the approached the energy shield blocking their way. Thunder sees a shield generator on the others side of it and lands on the platform close to it. He then fires his jetpack missile at the generator, shutting down the shield, allowing Daxter’s walker to move on through.

“Good job, Thunder.” Fang calls out to him. He then turns to Apex. “Apex, station yourself in that tower. It’ll serve as an excellent look out point for our mission.”.

“On it.” Apex replied. He rushes over to the small towers and fires his grapple gun at the top. He then pulls himself up and reaches the top. Once he was in position, he begins sniping droids on the bridge, clearing a path for the clones as the close in on the Energy Collector.

As the clones close in on the Energy Collector building. They were shocked at how many droids were guarding it, not to mention the many tanks they had around the building.

“Damn, now I wish I’d kept that tank.” Thunder complained to himself.

“The building is protected by a forcefield. Before we can get inside, we’ll have to destroy the generators places around the building.” Ghost pointed out.

“What about the droid tanks? There’s too many of them for my little walker to handle.” Daxter points out as well.

“My men and I will deal with them. Commander, you and your troops focus on getting that shield down.” Ki-Adi-Mundi orders.

Fang, Ghost, Boomstick, Thunder and X-Ray make their way round the building with a bunch of 501st clones to take out the forcefield while Daxter aided Mundi and his men against the tanks.

As they circle round the building they encounter five Super Battle Droids. They all raise their left arms this time instead of their right, and at the same time fire small missiles at them.

“WATCH THOSE WRIST ROCKETS!” Ghost cries out.

Orion squad and most of the clones dodge them, but the missiles end up killing a couple of droids in the process. This pisses of Fang. He stands his ground and fires his minigun at the droids, turning them into pieces of metal and shrapnel.

“You mess with any of my brothers, you mess with the entirety of the 501st!” He says to them even though they are now incapable of replying.

Ghost and the others recover and continue circling the building. They then find the two generators at the back of the building. Boomstick wastes no time and blows them up with his rocket launcher.

The Force field dissipates and the clones begin to move in and take out the Energy Collector core.

“The shields are down, let’s take out the core.” Ghost says to his teammates. But as they move into the building, the were shocked to see that the Energy Collector core was guarded by three Droideka’s.

“Destroyers! Take Cover!” Fang calls out as he tackles Ghost, getting him behind cover as the Droideka’s activated their force fields and open fired on them.

“Figures the Clankers would have the best of the best guard their power source. Now what?” Thunder asks as he faces Fang.

“Remember your training, Thunder. Destroyers may be fast, and the come equipped with their own shield generators. But they have two weaknesses. Anyone remember what they are?” He asks his men.

X-Ray immediately explains it to Thunder. “their shields are designed to reflect anything short of a cannon. Any high velocity attacks are bounced off, but the shields don’t stop slow or stationary objects. They’re designed to absorb them, so nothing hinders their movement.”

“At least someone has remembered their homework. Ghost and I will keep them distracted. Thunder, you use your EMP grenades to shut off their shields and temporarily paralyse them. Remember to do it slowly, otherwise they’ll just bounce off.”

With that, Ghost and Fang enter the building and open fire on the Droideka’s. The Droideka’s turn their attention to them and open fire. Thunder and X-Ray sneak in while their backs are turned and slowly roll their EMP grenades towards them. The grenades pass through the shields and detonate within, causing the Droideka’s to short circuit. Once their shields were down Ghost and Fang blast them without hesitation.

The Orion Squad gather around the energy collector core and stare at the raw green energy it’s producing through the many tubes that ran underground.

“Ok let’s take out the core. But remember not to do too much damage, the Chancellor want the energy crystals intact.” Fang instructs them.

“Leave this to me.” Boomstick says. He then places a couple bombs around the core. The clones quickly leave the area as Boomstick hits the detonator.

The Energy Collector explodes with green energy. All the droid facilities in the city suddenly shut down upon losing power. Apex sees the explosion from his tower and raises his fist in victory.

Daxter, Mundi and the other clones see this from where they were as they finished off the last of the tanks.

“Mission accomplished. We should leave the area and retreat back to our outpost at once.” Ki-Adi instructs the clones.

The Clone Marines under his command obey and all head back their base. Daxter however stays behind and waits for his squad members.

Once the smoke clears the members of Orion Squad take in their victory. Fang notices Mundi leaving and takes advantage of this.

“Well done men. Now we must complete the mission the Chancellor assigned us. We must collect the core samples and bring them back to our dropship on the other side of the city. Expect a lot of CIS resistance on the way, so don’t let your guard down.” He orders.

The clones obey. Ghost then grabs a big chunk of the power crystals and places them in his satchel. They all exit the building and begin making their way back to their dropship.

On the way back to their base of operations, they run into a massive droid resistance. They were programmed to stop them from stealing the Mygeeton crystals at all costs. The clones fight hard as they blast their way through rows and rows of battle droids to get back to the dropship in one piece.

As Ghost blasts his way through the droids, he notices the dropship in the distance awaiting their return. “Sir, I can see the dropship!” He calls out to Fang.

“Daxter, clear a path through these droids with your walker. We can’t afford to lose too many men!” He calls out to Daxter.

Daxter salutes him and fire the walkers missiles, taking out a huge bunch of droids. They all begin to close in on the dropship. But they suddenly stop upon seeing their pathway being blocked by five Droideka’s, seven Magna Guards with rocket launchers, and an AAT. The AAT open fires on Daxter’s walker. Daxter barely had enough time to jump out as it blows up, the shockwave sending him over the platform edge.

“DAXTER!” Ghost cries out as he races towards his location.

“No! Get the crystals to dropship!” Daxter shouts back as he’s hanging for dear life on the platform edge. “I’ll be fine, just go!”

“But-“ He was then interrupted by Thunder who grabs his shoulder.

“I’ve got Dax. You focus on getting the crystals back. The rest of us will keep the Clankers busy.” Thunder reassures him.

Ghost turns to Fang for clarification, to which he nods. Ghost begins to run past the droid barricade. The droids attempt to blast him but were preoccupied with Fang, Boomstick and the other clones shooting at them.

Thunder ignites his jetpack and flies down to where Daxter is. He grabs his hands and flies him safely back onto the platform. “Come on brother, we gotta get rid of these Clankers.” He pointed out.

“No, I got a better idea.” Daxter says. He then pulls out his auto turret from his backpack and tosses it behind the droids. The turret automatically sets itself up and fires at the Magna Guards from behind.

With the droids distracted, Boomstick fires his missiles at the Droideka’s and blows them up. Unfortunately they still had the tank to tend with. Boomstick attempts to reload his launcher, but was shocked to realise he was out of missiles.

“I’m out of rockets, Sir!” He tells Fang.

“Take cover! We gotta hold this position until Ghost makes it to the dropship.” He orders as they seek shelter from the tanks blaster fire. The tank then fires a heavy shot at the cover they were hiding behind. “INCOMING!”

They all brace for impact, but were shocked to see the blast stop in mid-air. The look to their left and see that it was stopped by Ki-Adi- Mundi. He then uses the force to send the blast back at the tank, destroying it. Mundi then offers his hand to Fang who accepts it.

“I’m not letting anymore clones die today.” He says as he helps him up.

Before Fang could express his gratitude, more droid reinforcements arrive and open fire on them. Mundi and his clone army hold their position and fight back.

“You and your men get out of here! We still got a mission to complete here. We gotta keep fighting until Mygeeto is under Republic control. Now go!” He orders the 501st clones.

“You heard the general men, lets get off this planet!” He shouts to his men. The clones all leave and head straight for the dropship.

Once all the clones were safely aboard the dropship. They left Mygeeto and headed back to their Republic cruiser. Ghost was staring down at the strange looking green crystals. He couldn’t help but compare them to the same type of crystals the Jedi use to power their lightsabers. Why would the Chancellor want with a crystal powerful enough to power an entire city with but a small chunk?

His thought process was interrupted by Commander Fang who snatched the crystals from him. “Nicely done, gentlemen. Your work today has made the Chancellor a very happy man.” Once we return to Coruscant I will be delivering the power crystals to the Chancellor personally.” He says proudly.

“What do you think he need the crystals for, sir?” Ghost asks him.

“Who knows. But whatever the reason, we should be fortunate that such a source of power is now in the right hands.” Maybe if we’re lucky, it’ll give us an edge in the war that’ll finally cripple the CIS for good” Fang replied as he looks over the crystals.

The dropship then docks into the cruiser and the clones all exit the dropship and head to their living quarters. The members of Orion Squad all take their helmets off, carrying them under their arms. As they made their way over there, Ghost turned to Daxter.

“You could’ve been killed back there, Dax. I could’ve saved you, but you stopped me. Why?” He asked him.

“We’ve had many moments where one of us came close to death more time then I can count. We should be getting used to it by this point.” Apex pointed out.

Daxter sighs before answering Ghost. “Look Ghost… While I appreciate your concern for us. You gotta understand that there will always be a high chance that some of us will die in battle. We clones were made to be expendable. We can’t risk the deaths of many just to save one, you know that.”

Ghost didn’t reply, instead he simply nodded and walked on. X-Ray then speaks up. “Ghost is a great soldier. It makes sense that he would be made ARC trooper out of the six of us. Who knows. Maybe of Commander Fang retires, Ghost may take his place.”

“Or if he dies.” Boomstick added. This causes the other to look at him. “What? I’m just saying it’s a possibility.”

Thunder then lets out a yawn and stretches his arms up. “Man that mission was tiring. Don’t know about you guys, but I plan on sleeping throughout the whole trip back.”

“Right behind you, brother.” Apex nods in agreement.

The members of Orion Squad all make their way to their barracks for a well deserved nap. Commander Fang watched them as the left. He had his helmet off and smiles at his squad members. Once they were out of sight, he pulls out a small holopad and contacts Chancellor Palpatine.

“Ah Commander Fang. Did you retrieve the power crystals?” Palpatine asks.

“Yes sir. My squad was able to obtain them with maximum effort.” He replies.

“And the Jedi?” He asks.

“General Mundi suspects nothing of the crystals. The Jedi have no idea of project Death Star.”

“Good. Have the crystals delivered to my office immediately.” He instructs him.

“Yes my lord.” He says. And with that he calls off. Fang then take sone last look at the crystals and thinks to himself. “With what I saw these crystals do on Mygeeto, I can’t help but wonder what they can do for Project Death Star.”

Fang then leaves the area and heads for his living quarters. The Republic Cruiser then turns away from Mygeeto and makes the jump to hyperspace. Charting course back to Coruscant.

Clone Wars Journal Entry 6 – Location: Republic Cruiser

"The success of the mission on Mygeeto was something of a revelation for the men of the 501st. Suddenly, we realized that the Jedi could be fooled. And if they could be fooled, they could be killed."

To Be Continued