Have no fear, Grubkiller is here.

This is my new story.

It's called 'Labyrinth of Evil', loosely based off of the legends of the same name. But it will have scenes from the Clone Wars 2003 cartoon, and an Ahsoka/Mandalore side plot. It all leads up into Revenge of the Sith.

Hope that you enjoy.

Please be sure to leave your thoughts down in the review section.

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Cato Neimoidia, Colonies.

Darkness was encroaching on Cato Neimoidia's western hemisphere. Although, exchanges of red and blue turbo laser fire, high above the beleaguered world, ripped the looming night to shreds.

Well under the fractured sky, in an orchard of manax trees that stubbled the lower ramparts of Viceroy Gunray's majestic redoubt, companies of clone troopers and battle droids were slaughtering each other with bloodless precision.

A flashing fan of blue energy, belonging to the lightsaber of Obi-Wan Kenobi, lit up the undersides of a cluster of trees.

Attacked by two Super Battle Droids, Obi-Wan stood his ground, twisting his upraised blade right and left to swat blaster bolts back at his enemies. Caught midsection by their own salvos, both droids came apart, with a scattering of their alloy limbs.

Obi-Wan moved again, dodging and deflecting blaster fire.

He saw Neimoidian harvester beetle.

A large five-meter long beetle with a flat head, three pairs of legs, and a set of cutter jaws. It could carry 5 times its own weight and were a source of wealth for the Neimoidians. And now, Obi-Wan was sliding under the seemingly oblivious creature's segmented thorax to dodge a volley of blaster bolts, and a spray of shrapnel from an explosion.

He then sprang to his feet and raced forward again.

From off to his left, he heard the sounds of whining and clicking servos. But off to his right, he heard a hushed cry of warning.

"Down, Master!"

Obi-Wan dropped into a crouch before Anakin's lips formed the final words, his lightsaber pointed down into the ground to keep himself from impaling his charging former apprentice. A blur of blue energy passed over his head, and seconds later, the head of a commando droid clanked onto the ground at his feet. Obi-Wan pivoted on his right foot to turn around, just in time to see the rest of the droid's body, with its vibrosword in hand, falling back onto the ground.

He then looked at Anakin, somewhat wide-eyed, and finally came to his feet. "You nearly took my head off."

Anakin's eyes flashed with amusement. "Sorry, Master, but your head was where my lightsaber needed to go."

"I suppose I should be grateful that your lightsaber needed to go there, rather than desired to."

Anakin's grin turned into a full-fledged smile, "Last time I checked, We were still on the same side, Master."

"Still, If I'd been a moment slower. . . "

Anakin gave the dead droid a kick with his booted foot. "Your fears are all in your mind, Master."

Obi-Wan scowled. "Without a head, I wouldn't have much mind left, now, would I?" He swept his blade in a flourishing pass, gesturing in the direction of the main fortress. "After you."

They resumed their charge, moving with supernatural speed and grace afforded by the force, their cloaks swirling behind them.

Victims of the initial bombardment, scores of battle droid lay sprawled on the ground, nothing but scorched limbs and torsos. Others tangled from the branches of trees that they were blasted into, some of which were on fire.

They cut and pushed their way through many more battle droids, urging their men to advance with them.

Eventually, after fighting their way through the leafy canopy, they came up to a broad irrigation canal, fed by a lake that surrounded the main fortress on three sides. In the west, a trio of Venator-class Start Destroyers hung in the gray clouds above. But to the north and east, the rest of the sky was in chaos, filled with explosions and turbo laser fire. Separatist warships held firm, firing on the Republic navy, supported by anti-ship defenses just outside the fortress's shield dome.

The Citadel rose from the peninsula, with a design that was inspired by the command towards on the tops of Trade Federation Core Ships. And somewhere inside this citadel, trapped by the Republic's siege forces, the Trade federation elite was inside.

With his home-world under siege, and other Separatist worlds in the Colonies all but devastated, one would think that Viceroy Gunray would flee into the Outer Rim like the rest of the Confederate leadership was doing. But rational thinking was never a Neimoidian's strong suit, especially where valuable possessions were concerned. So now, Gunray, with a Separatist battle group in support, he was determined to loot his own fortress for all that it had.

But the Republic had been waiting, With Space forces under the command of Master Kit Fisto were blockading the planet, while Obi-Wan and Anakin went in with their respective clone units to swoop in and finally capture Gunray - thirteen years overdue, so say many.

Burning gunship wreckages lay across the fortress grounds just outside the shield, surrounded by the corpses of clones who tried to infiltrate the fortress earlier.

Obi-Wan then heard movement coming from the far side of the canal. But Captain Rex was the first to point out the source of the noise. "There's the commander."

A gunboat glided into view from downstream, carrying several clone troopers with white and orange armor. Among them, was Clone Marshal Commander Cody, who stood on the bow of the boat. When it hit the shore, he gave a series of hand signals to his men to form a perimeter, before walking up to the Jedi generals.

"Sirs, I have the latest from airborne command." He said.

"Show us," Anakin said.

Cody dropped to one knee, his right hand activating a small comm device built into his left gauntlet. A cone of blue life emitted from the device, and showed a holographic image of the task force's commander, Jan Dodonna.

"Generals Kenobi and Skywalker, provincial recon unit reports that Viceroy Gunray and his entourage are making their way to the north side of the redoubt. Our forces have been hammering the shield from above, and from points along the shore, but the shield generator is in a hardened site. Gunships are taking heavy fire from turbolaser cannons in the lower ramparts. If your team is still committed to taking Gunray alive, you're going to have to skirt those defenses and find an alternative way into the palace. At this point we cannot reinforce, repeat, cannot reinforce."

When the hologram faded, Obi-Wan looked at Cody, Anakin, and Rex. "Any suggestions?"

Cody made a few adjustments on his holo-device, and a 3-D model of the fort's schematics appeared in midair. "Well sir, assuming Gunray's fortress is similar to other Naimoidian structures of this scale, then the underground levels will contain fungus farms and processing and shipment areas. There will be access from the shipping areas to the midlevel grub hatcheries, and from the hatcheries to the upper levels."

Obi-Wan and Anakin studied the images carefully, but were still stumped.

"I agree that we can probably reach the upper levels, Cody," Obi-Wan said at last. "But how do you propose we reach the fungus farms to begin with?"

Cody stood up, turned around, and pointed at the leafy canopy that Anakin and Obi-Wan had just fought through. "We go in with them."

Anakin and Obi-Wan looked at where Cody was pointing, and saw the massive harvester beetles from earlier, who were marching towards the fortress with their fungal cargo.

Anakin smiled. "Okay, let's saddle up." He said before he slapped Obi-Wan on the back as he walked by.

But as the clones began to mount up, Obi-Wan just scowled.

"Oh, just wonderful."

Fungal farms, interior of Gunray's redoubt.

Deep in the bowels of Gunray's fortress a group of battle droids were watching over a nest of harvester beetles. The path they took in and out of the fortress was heavily mined in order to keep the hive in check, and to discourage the curious.

But then, they heard the rumbling of several large objects coming their way.

"What's that noise?" One asked.

"Probably the last shipment. Open the hatch and let them in. And then we're getting out of here."

"That sounds great," one droid said as he went to go and open the door. When the large hatch slid open, he saw several beetles on the other side. But instead of the fungus they were meant to carry, the droid saw two robed men, and several figures wearing white armor. "Hey, you're not authorized."

Then came the snap-hiss of two lightsabers being activated, and the clicks of several rifles being activated.

"Oh no!" The droids exclaimed before he was blasted apart by every clone in sight.

Then several beetles, carrying unauthorized cargo, came stomping into the nest, startling the rest of the hive. Several mines were set off, rocking the whole fungal cavern. As the Jedi and clones climbed off of the beetles and started firing, one droid went to raise the alarm while his metal comrades engaged the Republic strike team.

He pressed a button and spoke into the comm device. "Security to the fungal farms. We have Jedi and clones attacking the-" The droid said before he was cut off by a blaster bolt that put an end to his career quite suddenly.

When the droids were cleared out, a clone ARC trooper, named Echo, used his cybernetic enhancements to access the door controls, and he began to override the controls.

As the Jedi, Cody, and Rex walked over, the rest of the clones were setting up a perimeter.

"Alright Echo, ca you get us through?" Rex asked.

"Gah, it's gonna take a little while. This security is tight." Echo said.

Suddenly, the cave was filled with a loud buzzing noise, and seconds later, a hundred STAPs slew into the cavern, and started swarming over the Jedi and their men. Cody and his men aimed up at the flying weapons platforms and started firing. They managed to down several of them. But for every one they destroyed, ten more took their place.

That's when several Droideka snipers appeared on several different vantage points, and began to pick off the clones, who were forced to take cover behind the Jedi, who used their lightsabers to deflect the oncoming shots.

Meanwhile, the beetles were going absolutely insane. They continued to stomp around, ramming into the walls of the cavern, and stepping on the very mines that were meant to discourage them from wondering off.

One of the beetles stomped over to the Jedi and their clones, who tried to dive out of the way of its imposing presence. But one clone was caught in it knife-like pinchers. He screamed in terror as he was slowly being crushed by the massive bug. But then, Anakin slid underneath it, and slashed his blade up through the bug's pinchers, freeing the injured trooper.

Anakin carried the man over to cover, where Obi-Wan and the clones were still trying to hold off the oncoming droids.

But then, as the mines continued to explode and large beetles continued to slam into the supports, they noticed that the ceiling was about to cave in, threatening to bury everyone inside.

"Anytime, Echo!" Obi-Wan called out.

That's when the door finally slid open. "Got it!" The ARC trooper exclaimed.

"Everyone inside, now!" Obi-Wan shouted, as large boulders began to fall down from the ceiling, smashing flying STAPs, crushing beetles, and setting off the remaining explosives.

Anakin and a Clone Medic specialist, named Kix, helped the injured trooper inside first. Then Cody, Rex, and the others went through. And finally Obi-Wan, after deflecting a few more blaster bolts, jumped through the door, just as the cavern was completely buried.

The Jedi had once again infiltrated a Separatist stronghold.

And just as Subtle as always.

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Well folks, that was part one of this story. Hope you enjoyed.

Part two will be up soon.

Stick around until then.

Until next time, as always, this is Grubkiller, over and out.