Blood upon the Risers

I don't own Star Wars or Naruto.

"People speaking"

'People thinking'

A/N OK, so I've borrowed a few scenes from the Clint Eastwood master piece "Letters from Iwo Jima" I do not own the rights to this film, Clint Eastwood does. There is also a line from the film Valkyre which I also don't own.

Chapter 10

Three days after Naruto's promotion ceremony

The bridge of the republic cruiser Resolute was silent, so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Jedi Generals Obi-wan Kenobi, Sylvar, and Anakin Skywalker stared at the holoprojector with their commanders. The holoprojector showed General Tarant, his alien visage unnerved most of the naval officers on the bridge.

Anakin broke the silence with a question "So master we're going up against him?"

Obi-wan nodded and said "Yes, the clone intelligence units spotted general Tarant on Aargonar, a desert world. We estimate that he has a large force with him, Aargonar is known for its metal resources thus it is valuable. In one hour we'll be in the system, when we get there every soldier must prepare for a fleet that should be in support. General Sylvar will go over our ground plan when we get there but all soldiers must be on combat alert alpha. Commanders you are dismissed."

Naruto turned and headed out of the bridge, the elevator dropped Cody, Rex and himself off in the hanger. The four separated and went to their respective units. The blonde headed to Screwball's gunship to inspect their new gear.

The pilot noticed him and said "Commander, we've got jetpacks for the airborne, something about the parachutes malfunctioning too often."

Naruto inspected the white jet packs and nodded in a satisfactory manner "They'll due."

And with that he boarded the elevator which took him down to his company. All of the clones were armored up and almost ready to fight. The blonde got onto a table and addressed his soldiers. But before he spoke a replacement captain got their attention.

"Group attention!" shouted the ARC trooper who went by Edge.

The clones went silent and faced their commander. Naruto looked them over and saw that the three day rest did them good. He spoke with his diaphragm "Men, we are about to do battle against a General who is one of the best in the confederate army. He holds the desert world of Aargonar, a world that had precious metals. If they hold that planet, they will use the metal to make more battle droids. We are not going to allow that. The invasion will be in one hour, have all of your weapons prepped and ready to go. We've been given high altitude jet packs and new gear. We will use our new toys to our advantage, and tear apart their lines. Are we all in agreement?"

All of the soldiers before him bellowed out as one "Yes Sir." Then went about their duties.

Naruto got off of the table and motioned for Edge to follow him. Edge did so and soon the two soldiers were in Naruto's cabin.

The blonde turned to the clone and said "Captain Edge, mind if I ask you a question?"

Edge cocked his head to the side, this signaled Naruto to ask him whatever question that he wanted to know. "I've read your file you were in the clone special operation unit for a while. Why did you leave?"

Edge smiled and replied "I was in the retrieval line of work, bringing back deserters, just needed a change of pace is all sir."

Naruto nodded and accepted the answer, then he dismissed the younger officer. The blonde then contemplated something. Jiraiya the Senin had visited him one day ago and left a number of kunai and a holster which was now tied to his right pant leg. The man wanted to let him know of an organization called the Akatsuki, a group that hunted Jinchuriki. He had informed the irate mandalorian that they would for the most part be inactive for three years. Naruto was confused about that as an organization wouldn't just lay still for a few years without reason. No matter, the Akatsuki could wait, the war on the other hand could not. Naruto put on his helmet then proceeded to the armory. The elevator down was crowded with clones who, when the elevator stopped, exited and gathered their gear. Naruto looked over the DC-15 carbines and grabbed one along with a Z-6 rotary cannon. Naruto took them up to the hanger and began to put on his jetpack, then he heard the unmistakable voice of Jynx. The clone's tone gave him away as it had a slight forced accent to it. Jynx liked the way that the northern Coruscanti people spoke. Their voices had a twang to it which he copied.

"What the hell am I doing with this stuff?" he asked Janga who rolled her eyes at the trooper.

Stammer made a face and asked "What's going on Jynx?"

Jynx, who had a new grenade launcher in front of him shouted in frustration. "How the hell am I going to get planet side like this? Frigging thing almost weighs as much as Janga does and I still need my Deece, and grenades."

At the comment about her weight Janga buried a fist into Jynx's face, and then tried to bash his brains out, but Naruto stopped the fight before it could escalate.

"Enough! Jynx don't talk about Janga like that, secondly you deserved the fist, and third Janga if you punch him again I'll have you cleaning the mess halls with your tooth brush. Are we clear?" Naruto waited for his soldiers to respond. All of them nodded and went back to their tasks without another word.

An hour later

Obi-wan and Sylvar looked over the planet, they had run a scan of it to look for shield generator's but found none on the surface. Obi-wan voiced his thoughts "It would seem that Tarant did away with the navy, and simultaneously took out our advantage. Who should we send down first?"

The Cathar spoke up "The commanders have been itching for a fight, I'll go down with my troopers first, then the five hundred first followed by the two twelfth."

Obi-wan rubbed his beard and said "Very well, I'll inform Cody. Our only landing point will be the small dune sea to the north, it's a trap to lure our forces into the open. But it's the only landing zone that we have."

By now Anakin joined the two and voiced his opinion "that can't be the only way in. We'll be sending many clones to die."

The negotiator shook his head and said "Anakin I don't like it any more than you do but that's the only way in, the rest of the land to the south is just to ridged. You should relay this to Rex and your men."

Skywalker nodded and turned to his padawan "Ahsoka, monitor the battle from here, it'll be too dangerous on this one."

Ahsoka wanted to argue but nodded and accepted the order.

Ten minutes later

Everyone stood outside of the gunships, Sylvar stood with an armored Naruto who was strapping his Z-6 to his chest. The woman looked over to him and asked "Naruto, isn't that a bit much?"

Naruto turned to her after fastening the restraints "I'm not wanting to take any chances, so I'm traveling heavy."

The jedi nodded and said in her earpiece. "Listen up the Airborne will be deployed first, then the five hundred first will drop in last to mop up the enemy. We need everyone to stay alert as we are dealing with a professional soldier."

The airborne cheered as they entered the gunships, Naruto stood with Sylvar in his gunship as they descended to the planet. Five minutes later the gunships touched the ground and all of the troopers exited the transports. Naruto and Sylvar exited their ship and began a rush to the base of the cliff. The blonde huffed as the jetpack and Z-6 slowed him slightly. He would have ordered his soldiers to rocket their way there but it was too soon to start using them.

In General Tarant's bunker

The general watched the clones disembark from their gunships via his holoprojector, their AT-TE's were deployed soon after. He watched the enemy advance as his subordinates shifted uneasily.

Goros spoke to him "S-Sir, aren't you going to order the droids to open fire?"

Tarant shook his head and replied "Not yet, we wait."

Goros argued "Sir, they'll take the planet if we don't resist."

The Harch turned sharply to him and said "We wait until the landing zone is full."

Tarant's six eyes gazed at the projections of troops, as he thought 'This is only a small group, they've got more on the ships.' Then he whispered "Alright, let's go. Signal the droids to open fire."

Inside the cliff all of the droids that manned the artillery received the order as well as the ones that were stationed at the blaster cannons. They opened fire, and immediately all of the guns that were facing the clones came to life.

With Naruto

Naruto heard the noise of cannon fire and crouched behind a small hill of sand. The plasma that was fired from the cannon flew just over the hill and slammed into a walker which exploded and sent shrapnel into the clones that were using it for cover. Then a door fell down next to him and a blaster cannon opened fire on the clones behind him. The commander didn't have to think as he armed a grenade and flung it into the nest. It blew and sand was sent flying everywhere as their position was zeroed in by the artillery positions.

"Get to cover!" Naruto cried as more and more blaster bolts screamed over the top of the hill.

The blonde hit the ground as an explosion went off in front of him. Naruto shakily reached for his Z-6 but stopped when he saw the smoldering weapon. The blonde growled in anger as he watched clones be torn apart by the blaster cannons. He took his DC-15 carbine from around his torso and took aim at a pillbox. The droid inside of it noticed him and turned the rapidly firing cannon towards him, but the blonde was faster. Naruto pumped chakra into his legs and sprinted with all his might at the death machine and fired thrice. The blaster bolts took out the droid and the blonde crouched behind the duracrete structure.

"Push forward!" he bellowed then took off into a run towards the droids dug in position, all the while he heard the screams of dying troopers.

Naruto barreled forward as he saw another blaster cannon that was tearing up his men, the blonde looked behind him and noticed a blaze trooper hulking forward.

The trooper reached his position and Naruto sounded off. "Burn 'em out when the grenade goes off."

The blonde threw a smoke grenade and when it went off the flame user stomped forward and poured oil into the well concealed bunker. He then used his flame thrower. The electronic screams filled the air momentarily before a rocket slammed into the flame trooper's position killing him. Naruto turned his attention to the base of the cliff to discover that AATs were stationed there.

Battle droids manned tanks that fired at the now slowly advancing clones. Naruto noticed this and activated his jetpack. The blonde rocketed into the air and came down on a tank. The enraged blonde opened up on the droid that was acting as a spotter, he sent it into oblivion with a two round burst then opened the hatch. Naruto tossed an EMP grenade into it and jumped off as his men reached him. The AAT crackled for a second before going silent. The blonde turned and faced the carnage behind him, every which way was filled with explosions and black smoke from the AT-TE's that had been easy targets for the artillery.

Sylvar clapped him on the shoulder and said "Well done Commander, now let's get rid of the rest of the tanks."

Naruto nodded and pointed to Janga, Jynx, stammer and Catch. "You three follow me, we'll deal with the tanks so that we can advance."

The two groups split again with Naruto and company moving diagonally to deal with the tanks. Naruto aimed at a spotter and shot his head off, but it had relayed their position as the main cannon aimed at them. The group launched from the ground via their jet packs but Catch was to slow and was torn apart by the blast. In retaliation Jynx aimed his grenade launcher at the tank and fired as the next blast reached the end of the canon barrel. The war machine went up in a ball of flame as they touched down. Naruto nearly slipped into a hole in the ground that looked like the beginning of a tunnel network. The blonde breathed deeply as he threw a thermal detonator into it. The battle droids inside panicked at the grenade before it detonated.

Naruto then got onto his radio and spoke to the troopers as the three cloned continued to destroy two more tanks. "This is Commander Brelor to all troopers, move up. Edge!"

The clone in question crouched behind cover beside the blonde and asked "Yes sir?"

Naruto then ordered "Edge should I get killed regroup with the general. She advanced with a squad."

The clone nodded and blasted off to deal with the tanks and pillboxes. The clones that were left behind advanced even as the heavy blaster cannons were still firing. The blonde and his troopers regrouped and went up the steep hills, as they were now joined by other clones from different units. One clone slipped on the loose gravel then pulled himself up before getting his head blown off by a sniper. The clone dropped a Z-6 which Naruto picked up and opened fire at the enemy which was torn to shreds. Unbeknownst to the blonde a droid with a rocket launcher aimed at their position from another hill. The droid fired and made the ground shift. Naruto zeroed in on its location and unleashed a torrent from the rotary cannon, before advancing with the men. The blonde made it to the top of the hill where the clones were mixed in with the rocky terrain in an attempt to not be hit by a firing line of droideka's.

Naruto was going to activate his jet pack to get his men an opening when Sylvar used the force to jump up and slam her fist to the ground. The blast knocked the ruined droids off their feet, the jedi then brought up her lightsaber to redirect a blast from a dwarf spider droid and send it back to the owner. Naruto got up and rocketed to her location while firing the cannon in his grasp. Once beside her the blonde noted to his horror that there were hundreds more. The dwarf spiders opened fire on them and advanced.

Inside Tarant's bunker

Tarant smiled as the republic fell into his trap the dwarf spider droids were a welcome addition to his forces, now they and a contingent of battle droids were closing the jaws of a trap, the spider droids would advance from the front while the battle droids would come out from well concealed tunnels behind the clones.

Back at Naruto's position

Naruto pulled Sylvar down into a hole as the spider droids fired, the blast kicked up dirt. It was then that Naruto barely made out the voice of a battle droid as he turned and opened fire to their rear line.

"Open fire on the Republic dogs." It droned as it shot clones in the back.

The clones to the rear turned and tried to fire at the droids but were blasted down, leaving the men in the middle to open fire to the rear. Jynx fired his grenade launcher as quickly as he could but the droids kept coming out of holes in the ground. A wounded Stammer flanked around one of the holes and tossed a thermal detonator into it. The grenade collapsed the hole and Jynx got the hint and shot grenades at the other three holes. Janga focused on the spider droids and used a rocket launcher to blow up a few of them as her comrades were being vaporized beside her. Sylvar was about to call a retreat when she felt Skywalker's presence in the force. And soon enough Anakin Skywalker led a charge with the five hundred first legion who ran into the spider droids flank. The clones got on top of them and unleashed a hail of blaster fire in their CPU's. At this Naruto dropped his now empty Z-6 and along with his general flung themselves in the center of the droids. Naruto emptied his DC carbine into one's eye then smashed a Rasengan into another. Seeing their commander in the midst of the chaos caused the clones to advance. The droids were assaulted by the now emboldened clones, the droids experienced a slaughter. The carnage lasted over twenty minutes before ending.

Once the blasters stopped Sylvar turned to Naruto and said "Commander, take a squad and clear out the caves, the rest of us will hold here and set up a staging area to launch our next assault."

Naruto nodded and selected what he dubbed the "original three" the only three survivors of his squad. The blonde spoke to them when they gathered "Take off the jet packs, no room in there."

The three were about to enter the tunnels before Naruto stopped Stammer. "Your wounded, stay here and inform me on what goes on. Edge will take your place." Stammer wanted to argue but instead called for a medic to look at his injured leg.

Edge took his place and followed Naruto and the others into the caves. They entered the dimly lit cavern and were immediately set on by super battle droids. The blonde took cover and popped one in the shoulder, and due to the declining plane that it was on it rolled to his position where Naruto unloaded his rifle's blaster bolts into it. Jynx fired a grenade at the remaining two and put them out of commission before dropping his weapon. Naruto then moved forward and handed his rifle to the clone and pulled out his pistols. The thunder of artillery sounded above them and the blonde mandalorian signaled his troops to move ahead. They did so slowly and with purpose, oddly enough there were no droids between them and the canons only the one's that manned the guns. The clones surrounded the gun crew and once they were all in place Naruto ordered Janga to open fire. The she-clone let out a battle cry and wasted the droids. The five droids were down and their commander stood there with his hands raised.

"I surrender." Said the human who walked slowly towards them.

Naruto aimed a pistol at the human's head and barked "Your name and rank now."

The man kept his hands raised and answered "Colonel Vlad Bonteri. Onderon artillery."

Naruto grabbed Vlad's arms and zip-tied them behind his back, then he laid him down and flipped the colonel onto his back and asked "Where are the other guns?"

Vlad answered "There are two more up above us and three to the right of us."

Naruto nodded and said "Edge you stay here and watch him, Jynx and Janga take the two up top, while I take the three to the right."

The clones nodded and accepted their assignments, the blonde headed through a passage on the right that zigzagged to a gun. There Naruto made three shadow clones and surrounded the droids. The clones fired and destroyed the two battle droids that manned it. The blonde furrowed his eyebrow in concern. There had to be a reason for the so little numbers of defenders, Tarant was known for creating impenetrable defenses, why have so little defenses? Naruto wondered as he placed a charge on the gun emplacement and after a few seconds watched it explode.

His radio crackled to life with Janga's voice filling it. "Sir, both guns have been neutralized."

Naruto spoke through his own "Outstanding, regroup with Edge and head outside, I've still got two more. Take the prisoner with you."

Janga responded "Will do sir."

With Edge

Captain Edge watched the prisoner, who laid still. The colonel stared at him and Edge stared back. The captain had been in the shadow troopers for a month and had proven his loyalty to the republic, he never bent let alone broke the combat guidelines of the Republic Army. One of which was 'Never take enemy officers prisoner.' The Ex-shadow trooper fished out a silencer from a pocket and screwed it into the barrel of his weapon, before pointing it at the frightened colonel's head and blasting his brains out. Edge decided that he would never break a guideline.

A few minutes later Janga and Jynx got to his position. The female clone asked the officer "sir, what happened?"

The captain answered smoothly "He tried to rush me." The clones bought the lie.

With Naruto

Naruto followed the passage to the other two guns which had stopped firing. The blonde didn't want to walk into an ambush so he threw a flash bang and EMP grenade into the room. Naruto stepped cautiously into the room, which was empty save for a battle droid that had its foot on a rung of a latter a second to long. Naruto put a hand to his radio but was stopped from calling for help as a click was heard and flash bang grenades went off around the blonde. Thanks to the polarized lens on his helmet the effect that the flash had was minor compared to the sound. Someone had tuned the sound to that of a high pitched whine which cracked his helmets lens. The blonde staggered a bit due to the noise and wasn't prepared for the assault that came next. Something knocked Naruto off his feet then jabbed him hard in the chest. The blonde grunted in pain from the electro shock that came afterwards. Naruto regained his senses and brought his legs up then rolled back. He narrowly avoided the strike and when he was upright again the blonde tore his helmet off his head as he watched the ten Magna droids advanced on him but were stopped by a hiss. A trandoshan jumped down from a perch that was a stalactite.

It spoke in broken basic "Human no look up, human not scarier than Gabosht."

Naruto aimed his DC rifle as a red aura wrapped around him. He spoke harshly as the thought of most of his men killed in this battle went to the forefront of his mind. "What you fail to realize is I'm far scarier than you."

With that Naruto shot the head off the droid nearest him, and rolled behind another. It turned and was about to strike but Naruto substituted himself with a magna droid which took the hit that was intended for him. Gabosht wasn't idle he aimed his grenade launcher and fired at the blonde. Due to him paying more attention to the droids. The blast hit the area next to him and the explosion threw him into a wall. Naruto was now in a daze, as he stood shakily. The carbine that he had was in pieces and the lone trandoshan was approaching him. Naruto cursed himself as he didn't bring his sword, he didn't have room with all of the equipment that he had brought. Naruto would have taken out his pistols, had they not fallen out of their holsters.

Gabosht laughed and said mockingly "Gunray wrong, you big pushover."

Naruto growled at the name, as it seemed that the nemoidian didn't know when to quit. The blonde then stood up and reached into the kunai holster that was on his pant leg. The trandoshan pointed his launcher at him but Naruto teleported behind the lizard and jammed the knife into his side. The blade pierced a lung due to the upwards angle of the blade. Naruto continued to stab the trandoshan until he dropped the grenade launcher. The blonde breathed a sigh of relief when he found that no more guns were in the cave, thus he gathered his pistols then regrouped with his men. Naruto backtracked to the first gun emplacement and found his soldiers looking at the corpse of Vlad Bonteri. Naruto looked in between the squad and the colonel.

Edge answered his commander's unasked question. "He tried to rush me sir."

Naruto was too drained to do anything but exit the cave, once outside he reported to Sylvar.

"Commander, good to see you. I take it all of the guns have been destroyed?" she asked in a tired tone.

Naruto nodded and said "Yes, we dealt with all of the guns in the tunnels but we have a problem. There were too many explosions on our way into the hills, Tarant must have moved some of the guns and a number of troops at the last second. The artillery was lightly defended."

Sylvar raised an eyebrow but nodded her head and revealed her battle strategy to the mandalorian. "We'll think on that later, for now let's focus on advancing." She paused and brought up a small map on a holo then resumed speaking as she pointed at the rocky hills two clicks ahead of them. "The enemy in entrenched in these hills, Anakin took a battalion into the larger portion of the caves and has been trying to stop the cannons from firing at our reinforcements. From what you've told me, Tarant has moved only a handful of cannons, so we'll set up a defensive position here and rest for the night. Tomorrow we'll advance."

Naruto nodded and went to set up a defensive position on the little available high ground. They'd set up a few mortar positions and had riflemen guarding them. Naruto entrenched himself in between two rocks with Edge and the original three. Night came and Jynx was passing out rations.

The clone handed one to his commander and said "We got some real fine dining here sir."

Naruto leaned back against a rock and was about to reply when a flare on the other side of the line went up. The blonde put on his helmet and aimed his rifle downrange, with the others doing the same a few seconds later. No metal clanking was heard for a moment but soon the soldiers saw super battle droids marching right at them.

"Droids! Open fire!" shouted Naruto as he squeezed the trigger of his rifle.

The azure bolts of his carbine flew into the droids and knocked them down only to have another line of droids take their place. The droids fired back with everything they had, and soon the yells and screams of clones reached Naruto's ears. Up on a ridge a droid aimed a rocket launcher at their position. Naruto shot it down but not before it got a shot off. The rocket slammed into a group of clones that were engulfed in a ball of flame. Naruto continued to shoot the clankers when a boom filled his ears, and he knew what was happening. The artillery that the general had moved were now firing at them. Shells hit the rocks around them and several clones were killed in the explosions. The droids didn't relent as they continued to march towards the troopers.

The clones who manned the mortars fired directly into the droids, which were reduced to scrap but the march remained in step and they continued. The blonde threw a grenade and it went into a row of the machines. The grenade exploded which turned the battle droids into shrapnel. Then Edge began to scream. Naruto turned and saw the captain had a hole in his helmet near where his jaw would be.

"Keep him down." Naruto ordered Janga who did so as Naruto took her Z-6 and gave her his rifle. The blonde then placed the blaster cannon onto a rock. He opened fire with the weapon and aimed left, the action cut a swathe into the droids who were still advancing. Naruto turned his attention right and shredded the droids legs out from under them. Then the fighting abruptly stopped, a medic got into Naruto's position as a tactical droid tried to crawl away from the wreckage that was his fellows. Naruto pulled out a pistol and aimed at its forehead. He pulled the trigger once and the droid ceased all movement. The night was theirs, but at what cost?

With Tarant

The Harch sighed as he received the information about the failed charge, he'd expected it to fail in truth and was counting on that happening. The remaining droids in the tunnels were wiped out and now a large contingent of droids were also gone. He still had cards to play, if only a few.

Goros questioned "Why do we not continue the artillery barrage?"

Tarant looked at the nemoidian and replied tiredly "I will wait until they are in range, only when we can know for a fact that they will be killed in droves will we strike."

Goros looked angry and shouted "This is non-sense, we could shell them all night and make them tired instead of dwindling their numbers slowly."

The officer stomped away then called "I will lead the attack at dawn with the rigged droids."

Tarant didn't care, Goros in his opinion was a waste. No talent but frontal assault.

The Harch looked at the holomap of the hills and saw that the clones would reach him in less than a day. The game it seemed was nearly over.

Back with Naruto

The medic had tried to treat Edge's wound. The clone turned to the blonde commander and whispered "Sir, there is shrapnel that nearly shattered his jaw bone, he won't make it if we don't get him to a medical station. I've given him morphine to get him comfortable."

Naruto nodded and looked to see Edge asleep. The blonde turned back to the medic and nodded before saying "Take him off the line fast."

The clone saluted and got his partner then hauled the captain to a transport that was to the rear of the line. The transport was gone a few minutes after that. Naruto then hunkered down with Stammer to watch the line as the rest of the men slept. The blonde continued to watch the line until three in the morning, when the Generals ordered all of the units to advance. Naruto marched with his soldiers alongside General Sylvar who looked no better than he did. After thirty minutes of marching the rocks created a "V" shape as they did and the sun shone in their eyes. Clanking reached Naruto's ears and he motioned for the company to take cover behind the low boulders that lined the path. Soon the clanking stopped, Naruto didn't understand why at first, until all hell broke loose. The sound of a rock falling down the side of the rock wall was enough to clue both officers into what was going on. Both Naruto and Sylvar looked up to the top of the walls and discover the droids were almost literally on top of them. Naruto wasted no time in ordering his men as he fired up at the droids, his soldiers got the hint and opened up on the machines that were on the high ground. But what baffled the clones was that a single explosion ignited the entire lot of droids. A nemoidian was thrown into the middle of the path and he groaned weakly as he got to his feet.

Sylvar ignited her light saber and strode over to the nemoidian who tried to pull out a blaster pistol only to have it ripped from his grasp via the force. The Cathar spoke "Surrender and face justice nemoidian."

The nemoidian didn't answer and instead shouted "Long live the confederacy!" and hit his chest.

A whining sound went off as the alien ran towards the group only to be pushed away with the force by Sylvar. The nemoidian was vaporized in the explosion, and soon after the group continued into the hills. Naruto ordered Stammer to scout ahead and report his findings after a few minutes. Stammer reported back to the blonde and Sylvar after five minutes of scouting.

"Sir, I think the Harch's bunker is up ahead. The entire area is guarded by Commando droids and artillery that's aimed for the paths that reach It." he said to them.

Both officers thought for a moment before Sylvar dismissed the clone and turned to Naruto.

"Commander, the only way to end this without us being wiped out is to create a diversion. The main force will mock attack while you enter the bunker and switch off the shield and the droids."

Naruto wanted to protest that he didn't want to leave his soldiers but the General cut him off. "You've proven to the men that you'd rather fight by them rather than behind them. Now, it's my turn to prove that."

Naruto took a breath and nodded before saying "Yes Ma'am, I'll circle around and find a way inside."

Sylvar responded "We'll wait for your signal."

Naruto nodded and made his way back and around the bunker.

With Tarant

The general had watched the Nemoidians poison themselves. Each one slipped away quietly as he debated taking a poison capsule himself. But he wanted to talk with the soldier that came to arrest him or kill him. So, the Harch went over to the droid control station and locked them in position before deactivating them. Tarant was done fighting, and he didn't feel like dealing death anymore. The Harch then sat at his desk and waited patiently for the end. After a few minutes a soldier wearing mandalorian armor entered the room, his rifle trained at the Harch's head. That was before he noted the bodies on the floor.

Naruto looked at Tarant and said "You held back."

Tarant nodded at the accusation and replied "I don't like being forced to defend places where the odds of winning are impossible. The count wanted me dead, I've spoken out against him to many times so he sent me here."

Naruto retorted "Please surrender Tarant, you'll get a fair trial."

The Harch snorted a laugh and replied "I'd happily surrender, but I cannot. Dooku threatened my loved ones with death if I didn't comply with his demands. He told me that either I succeed or die. So that said, I'd like a pistol please. A personal preference."

Naruto sighed, he was reluctant to let Tarant just kill himself, but he was making a sacrifice to save his family. After a few moments of debating the blonde put one of his pistols on Tarant's desk then stepped away from it.

The Harch held the weapon gingerly before he sighed and said "I'm thinking… of earlier times."

A single blast was heard and the Harch's body went limp in the chair. Naruto shakily retrieved his weapon then deactivated the shield before he reported back to Sylvar. The blonde walked out of the bunker and headed straight for his General who felt the shift in the force when Tarant killed himself. Naruto sat down on a rock as the cruisers landed and the clones cheered for their hard won victory, all save for the blonde. Once the tally was counted and losses were added up it was discovered that the death toll for the separatists forces were half that of the republic.

On Taris

Exar Kun's plans were moving ahead without any notice. He'd just infected a clone with the plague and sent him on his merry way. Back to the Cruiser "Prosecutor" he went, no one. Not a single clone, even the infected one was privy to what horrors awaited them in deep space.

"Master, why not infest the entire planet before the republic clones?" Pekt asked the sith.

Exar swiveled his gaze from the leaving republic cruiser and said "Your place is not to question slave, but I'll indulge you. The Rakghoul disease can infect anything it comes into contact with, a single scratch will infect the victim. The republic will be in such disarray that they wont notice what's going on here."

The sith's then began his plan to infect the entire under city with the rakghoul plague. All he needed was three victems at most and the fate of Taris would be sealed.