"The transponder beacon is signalling from a position near the mining complex in the southern hemisphere of Kinrah. Cross-referencing with Republic survey data, the civilisation on this planet is limited to one peninsula, a settlement and its spaceport. Other than that, nothing but dangerous wildlife and inhospitable terrain. If not for the rich titanium deposits, no one would bother with this sector," Anakin repeated the mission brief as they approached the last known position of the 501st, mostly because he himself had a habit of not paying enough attention to these things before he had been placed in command. And hearing what could have been a tourist guide might calm a few nerves. "It is irregular that we haven't been challenged by any air defence, but maybe we simply need to get closer. Our objective is to establish contact with the 501st Legion of the Grand Army and to extract them."

A thick layer of clouds hung over the entire subcontinent, making it impossible to see what was happening at the ground. But once they neared the transponder coordinates, after nearly ten minutes of tense failures, Anakin was able to raise the HQ of the 501st on the radio and was quickly patched through to Captain Rex.

"Skywalker? General, are you really here?"

"Well, who else would I be?"

"General, your voice is a treat for sore ears."

"Rex, what's the situation down there?" Ahsoka wanted to know, her voice full of worry at the audible relief in his voice.

"We're holding a solid defensive position here, but our losses are high. Are we being relieved?"

"Relieved? I barely have enough fighters to cover an evacuation. We're getting you out of there."

"General, we were ordered to defend this planet and its inhabitants with the dying breath of General Tiplee. We can evacuate, but that would mean abandoning nearly a hundred thousand civilians."

"Can you repeat the number of civilians?"

"Ninety-seven thousand six hundred and forty one as of 0600 today, Sir."

"Okay - We don't have the necessary transports for even - " Anakin trailed off, desperately trying to come up with something which wouldn't get them all killed instantly. "Prepare the wounded for MedEvac, we're getting at least them out of here. Do you have a suitable LZ for an assault cruiser?"

"The spaceport was overrun two weeks ago, but there's a spoil heap near the entrance of the mine. It will give you cover and the surrounding area should still be outside of artillery range," Rex replied after a moment of thought. "General, the airspace above the Seppie lines is certain death. They have enough Surface-to-Air batteries to shoot down a whole fleet. Approach over the ocean and don't let yourself be drawn to their positions."

"Got that, we'll engage their snubs until the Varykino gets to the coordinates," Anakin replied and powered up his sensors. After all, stealth was not an option when trying to land a ship of the size of a small village, but maybe he could draw the attention of the Seppies away from the cruiser. And indeed, seconds later his threat receiver was blaring a mixture of alerts for everything from navigation sensors up to the illumination from fire control systems. He swung left, out towards the ocean, making a big arc around any hostile positions while he ordered his ship to land.

Only when the 303rd broke through the cloud layer, the devastation below became visible. The strip of land they bypassed was torn up, dozens of square miles with little more than craters upon craters on a field of brown, any trace of plants or wildlife long gone. Dirt had been burnt into grotesque shapes by plasma and countless wrecked vehicles littered the wasteland between the lines. Towards one end, the ruins of a city were still smoking while sporadic fire was exchanged at the other end of the desolation.

It was not that such destruction was new to the former Jedi, but usually it was the result of a major campaign like Geonosis rather than one Legion holding a remote colony whose only purpose was the mining of resources.

A bit further inland, the charred remains of a forest were smouldering, thick, black smoke rising into the rain. Eight CiS transports sat next to the ruins of the planet's settlement, but by far the oddest sight was red plasma flying back and forth between the two lines. Jamming was heavy near the ground, and without the transponder, Anakin could not have said which side was which.

The air defence opened up, but the heavy batteries were badly aimed, their shells off by more than a mile, while their lighter counterparts lacked the reach for the descending starfighters. Those batteries were quickly targeted by artillery and soon shells rained on Confederate emplacements. In return, Hailfire tanks blanketed the other line with their missiles, their black contrails hiding a good part of the battlefield. Anakin winced at the thought of being in the middle of that barrage.

"General, we have a landing pad prepared for you. Sending locator frequency now."

"R2, program the autopilot," Anakin told his trusted droid before switching to the squadron's channel. "Gold 2, you have the lead while Gold 1 and I try to figure out what's going on here. White Flight, stay over the water and maintain top cover, Blue Flight, be ready to provide air support. Green and Gold, try to maintain air superiority over our lines and stay away from the Separatist positions."

"The AV-7s are our best friend here," Tup said as he walked the former Jedi through a network of tunnels and empty barracks. His armour had seen better days, with a lot of mud, dust and grime on the brilliant white, and a deep, blackened gash on the chest plate. Yet despite this and the general carnage, he was in a jovial mood, his step still with the same spring usually reserved for parades and troopers fresh from R&R. "We've set them up on reverse slopes and they can stop the droids dead. What's left of our AT/TEs is dug in and camouflaged to deal with armour, but most are scrap. The Seppies had six batteries of proton cannons, but we counter-batteried one and got four more in exchange for our starfighters. They still have some J-1s somewhere, but they are not committing them yet."

It was odd to see the 501st armed with E-5 blasters, but three weeks of constant fighting had quickly eaten through their supply of spare parts and power units. To counter that shortage, the clones had taken to scavenging the battlefield and grabbing every weapon they could get their hands on. It was not unusual in the heat of the battle, but almost every clone they met carried a scavenged weapon. Yet what impressed Ahsoka the most were the fortifications which housed the 501st.

"How did you build all of this?"

"We used mining prefabs. Something designed to be buried a mile below and withstand the weight of the stone above does a good job against blasters. The Hailfires are a problem, but we are doing our best to jam their guidance systems. We also - "

"Little Ahsoka, all grown up!" Rex interrupted as he stepped into the bunker, pretending to wipe a tear from his eyes.

"Oh shut up, it has been a month since we last saw each other," the Togruta said as she ran up the commanding officer of the 501st and, disregarding all protocol and rank, pulled him into a bear hug.

"A bit over two."

"Shuuut up!"

"What happened to Generals Tiplar and Tiplee?"

"Dead. They led a counter-charge and ended up meeting another droid attack in the open. That engagement wiped out an entire battalion of shinies, in just two hours. From then on, we honoured our last orders, to hold the line," Rex retold, his firm voice shaken and distant.

"So you are in charge here?" Anakin concluded, trying and failing to get a better picture of the overall situation from the bunker.

"Me? No, I just do my job and lead the 501st. The theatre commander is one Ise Brend."

"Who?"

"She leads the local militia. They gave the Seppies hell until we arrived. Miners who grabbed a blaster when they saw the clankers, but they know their business. Brend is a master of the defence, so she is in charge here. Leaves the day to day fighting to us while she comes up with the plans, fortifications, deals with logistics and handles the civilians."

"I would like to speak to this woman."

"Right away, Sir."

Standing in front of the command bunker were two Mandalorians holding traditional pikes and shields made out of polished beskar, but no firearms. On top of the slab of concrete flew a banner, a golden X on fields of red.

"I've not seen armour like yours before," Anakin said carefully as he eyed the dark crimson chest-plate with its golden ornaments. The styling was obviously Mandalorian, although not as sleek as what he had seen on their homeworld.

"I would be surprised if you had. My people left home shortly after the Annihilation and we made ourselves a home on the edge of the unknown regions," a newcomer said, wearing a more ornamental version of the same armour. The woman was tall, slightly taller than even Anakin, but where he was lean, she had a towering bulk. With brown hair and olive skin, her face looked softer than her voice would suggest, but there was steel in her dark eyes.

"So you are not involved in - "

"You mean that Death Watch business? My people have more decency than to get involved when one side has no honour and the other fights without it. Neither deserves to call themselves Mand'alor. Brainless brutes deserve no loyalty. And disarming our people - " she spat. "It would be kinder to put them before a firing squad. At least there's honour in death by blaster."

"You think that Duchess Satiné had no honour?"

"She embodied what is wrong with the Republic. Rather than facing what threatened her, she put her head in the sand and hoped that the Death Watch would just disappear if they were left on Concordia. She left her people weak and exposed, and gave her enemies time to grow in strength. From what we have heard here, it got to the point where they were defeated by a common criminal and his band of thugs. It is a disgrace for our people, our ancestral home in the hands of thugs and slavers."

"Maul is no common criminal, he slew a Jedi Master in single combat," Anakin objected, surprised by the venom in his voice. He and the Duchess had disagreed on almost everything, but she nonetheless had been a friend, and even more to Obi-Wan. Memories of a fight in the dunes of Tatooine and the funeral of Qui-Gon Jinn also flashed through his mind. Maul might not be on a level with Dooku or Grievous, but he was certainly a worthy adversary.

"And the battle droids mowed down 180 of your lot at Geonosis. So who ranks higher, a Sith wannabe or the rusty trashcans we're stacking five feet tall in front of our trenches?"

"You seem confident," Ahsoka pointed out through gritted teeth, not dignifying the question with an answer.

"I have a millennium of military tradition behind me. Do you honestly believe that that Confederacy would have stood a chance against the might of Old Mandalore? We would have ended their cause within the month rather than take three years to reach a stalemate. And from what I've heard before we lost communications, the Republic was caught with their pants down once more."

"I - Yeah, the last offensive caught us on the wrong foot," Ahsoka admitted rubbing her arm. She hated conceding anything to the arrogant Mandalorian, especially after she had insulted the Duchess, yet it was the sad truth. "But we will drive them back after we are done here."

"That's a nice way of admitting that you've lost seven sectors in three days."

"I didn't lose anything. We've been winning one battle after another."

"Hah, at least you have the spirit of a warrior, Jedi!"

"We are no longer a Jedi," Anakin objected and got a throaty chuckle in response.

"You may have left your Order, but you still very much think like them."

"I think I was amongst the worst Jedi in recent memory - at least amongst those who did not fall to the dark side."

"What did you do, raid your council's stash of ancient liquor?"

"I avenged my mother."

"That's it? Your big sin? Your largest - "

"I put an entire village to the sword!" Anakin roared before he could think about what was about to say, his voice heavy with emotion. "The women and children too. All of them." He had no idea what had possessed him to blurt the secret out, but the needling remarks of that woman certainly did their part. Insults against himself he had known as long as he could remember, but insulting dead friends crossed a line. Yet that annoying Mandalorian only raised an eyebrow.

"Do you think that any of my warriors would not have done the same? For any of their comrades? Blood spilled must be repaid in blood! Tenfold!"

"Then I should have killed ten of those animals," Anakin replied, still seething with a mixture of anger and grief. "Not the entire village."

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you so accepting of the Clones?" Ahsoka interrupted, trying to steer the conversation to safer topics. "Most Mandalorians we've met weren't welcoming of them."

"They fight well, they fight as one like brothers and with honour. They also drink as well as any son or daughter of Mandalore. I don't care where they were born or that they technically were not born at all, they are fine warriors. They meet their fate upright, with the blaster in hand. And that's all that matters."

"I would prefer if they didn't have to meet such a fate at all."

"Yes, and why is that? If every citizen of Coruscant just gave one credit, you could pay for enough clones to win your war three times over. Or if even one in ten thousand enlisted. But the Core doesn't care about anything beyond their holiday place in the sun," the Mandalorian commander's tone twisted disdainfully as she spoke.

"That's not true," Ahsoka cut in. "There are many Senators who work hard for peace and prosperity - "

"You don't work for peace, you fight for it, girl. Only when your enemies are purged from the Galaxy, when their armies are in ruins, their factories burning and their fleets destroyed, will you know peace."

"That's barbaric."

"That's what your Republic did to Mandalore," Brend retorted. "The Annihilation. We weren't prepared, we ruined our relationships with our neighbours and we paid the price. That's when my clan was driven from our lands."

"And yet you are fighting for the Republic."

"Such is the way of the warrior. The Republic used our own tactics against us. It would be the height of dishonour to hate them for that. We would have done the same to Coruscant had we been able to, but it was not to be."

"You are simply going to forget about the whole thing?"

"We do not forget. We remember it, but those responsible are long dead and our only regret is that they did not die to our weapons. Woe to the vanquished - "

Not in the mood for another biased history lesson, Anakin cut in with all the tact he could muster, which was not a lot at this point. "Why are you even here? Are you a group of mercenaries, or - "

"To provide security and expertise for the mining operation."

"You do not look like mining experts," Anakin pointed out dryly, gesturing at the command post which looked more professional than most he had seen during the war.

"When we left the Mandalore, our only resources were the ones we could dig from the ground. We mastered mining out of necessity and it remains a pillar of what little economy we can call our own on Dima'shen."

"That does not explain why you are in command here."

"Because I have the most experience with defensive warfare. And it's personal," Brend added darkly. "When the Confederacy came, it was not our fight. But they bombarded us without warning. Mandalore lost four sons and three daughters through that surprise attack. And with blood spilled, honour demanded that we must fight. The people chose to fight, so we organised a fighting force."

"Just like that?"

"What else should I have waited for, a written invitation by your Senate? Our first goal was to defend the city, but we were outnumbered by more than a hundred to one. When the second line fell, the civilians were evacuated into the mine. That's when your Jedi friends showed up," she said, venom dripping from her voice. "We finally had enough men to hold, to force the droids to overextend themselves, but those twins did not understand the concept of a defensive battle. After the first wave, they ordered a general attack. The droids responded with artillery and that's when the first fell, caught out in the open with no cover nearby."

"Rex said as much," Anakin replied tightly. Not so long ago, that might have been him, leaping out of the trenches and charging the enemy head-on. And he would have carried the battle, but at what cost?

"Then came the second wave and caught the Clones out of position. They pushed further and almost broke through. Your friend plugged the holes as well as she could and went out in the middle of a droid battalion. A warrior's death, honourably fighting to her last, dying breath. Unlike her sister."

"And then you decided to simply take over."

"No," Brend replied harshly. "Commander Rex recognised how well our defences worked and offered me command."

"Why do you think that you are more qualified than Rex?"

"Boy, I studied warfare before you were even born, before your Clones were an idea in whoever commissioned them. I also outrank him by seniority."

While the Varykino was loaded with the wounded, the flight crews went through the ship and stripped her bare of anything which might be useful for the fighting on the ground. Her entire stock of spare parts was transferred to tunnels as were most of the ordnance aboard. The external armaments for the R-22s were turned into makeshift defences, missile racks becoming AA emplacements while torpedoes became anti-tank ordnance and laser pods supplanted heavy blasters.

In the meantime, her concussion missiles and laser turrets significantly improved the GAR's air defence and took a ferocious toll on the Vulture droids and Hyena bombers. Between the 303rd, what was left of the 501st's aviation and the grounded ship, the Confederacy lost over 600 Vulture droids in exchange for only twenty starfighters, most of them older V-19s. The culling of the separatists also resulted in a complete halt of their bombardments, giving the Clones a welcome breather.

Varykino's gas supply was emptied to replenish the 501st, who could now mothball some of their captured droid blasters and dust off their DC-15s. With less than 15% ammunition and most of her secondary and tertiary batteries removed, the cruiser would be in no shape for a major space battle, but given that her next task would be evacuating wounded clones, this was of little concern. However, there were other concerns.

"Sir, we don't have clearance from any medical station."

"What - Why?" Anakin asked, taken aback by the denied request. He had dealt with the GAR's hospital system a few times, but they had just waved the paperwork. Sometimes, the nearest station had been unavailable, but an alternative had always been offered.

"The entire network is overwhelmed, and they have 53 transports waiting to unload their wounded, Sir!" the communication officer, a tall man with mousy hair, reported.

Anakin froze at that number. Assuming that every ship wasn't fully loaded, that still meant more than 50000 wounded waiting on ships, with more than twice that number in the medical network already. Add that number once more to account for the dead, and the Grand Army had suffered more than a tenth of its entire strength as casualties within a week. And he had 1581 wounded sitting aboard the Varykino, a significant portion needing immediate medical care, with none available for at least a week, likely more. If only -

"Plot a course for Naboo," he ordered. It went against regulations, and it would likely cause a diplomatic incident, but Padmé could take care of that. "And alert the hospitals there of your imminent arrival."

There would be hell to pay for this, but given how bloody the fighting had become, preserving every life was a priority. Sadly, Anakin knew, that was an opinion shared by few.

"There must be something we can do. Waiting here won't win us this battle," Anakin grumbled after a week on Kinrah. Those days had been filled with nothing but fighting, sitting and sleeping in the same trench, fending off attack after attack. Before the Separatist starfighters had been culled, flying had been a welcome distraction, but given the lack of opposition, patrols had become just as boring as sitting in a trench. And the wall of air defence weapons over the Seppy lines made ground attack missions suicide.

The previous day had been a lull with only one assault, but before that, four or five waves had been the norm and since the sun rose, three charges had been broken. His reserves had long since been committed to the line and a detachment from the miners' militia was all which Anakin had to plug holes if the need arose.

"If you want to end up like your fellow Jedi, feel free to run into certain death."

"I get that just storming into those clankers is asking for my death, but there has to be another way."

That was how, a few hours later under the cover of darkness, he, Ahsoka and a handpicked group of clones found themselves crawling through the mud between the lines. Under regular circumstances, Rex would have been right behind him, but due to the overall butchery on this planet, he was stuck at headquarters, trying to organise a still oversized formation on four hours of sleep. Even Fives had been through a series of battlefield promotions and was now responsible for an entire battalion.

Under camouflage nets and thermal blankets, the group was invisible to the droid sentries and slowly made their way to the edge of the first trench. Not that the Confederacy had bothered with field fortifications, they had simply taken over the positions they had stormed before Anakin had arrived.

Trying to recall the reconnaissance pictures he had memorised, the former Jedi recognised an ammunition dump which was Ahsoka's first target. Wordlessly, he gave the signal, yet she remained still as a statue to his left. Anakin waited for what felt like an eternity and was about to disregard his own orders regarding silence and ask what the problem was when he heard the distinct if distant sound of B1 footsteps. It was a small patrol, less than a handful, but even a single droid could ruin their plan if it raised the alarm. Only after the droids were well past them, Ahsoka went ahead, followed by a handful of clones.

Perhaps the craziest part of the ruse was the fact that a dozen clones had been "armed" with mining lights which, after some impromptu field modifications and a bit of paint, could pass as lightsabers at distance. In combat, they were nothing but fragile clubs, but the goal was not to inflict damage, but rather to make the Separatist command believe that there was a significant number of Jedi on Kinrah, that their lines have been infiltrated. Together with the nightly raid, Anakin hoped that he could delay further attacks by a few days, giving the 501st a much-needed relief.

He was about to mark a position for an artillery strike when Click, a shiny who had distinguished himself in the previous fighting, prodded his arm and pointed at a group of dark shapes behind a small ridge.

Even with night vision binoculars, it still took Anakin a moment to recognise the C-9979 landing ships, their wings still loaded with assault tanks, platoon attack craft and multi troop transports.

"This is Skywalker, I have a priority target. I want every gun to fire on these coordinates. Priority 1," he mumbled into his com unit as he pressed down the designator. "I repeat, everything on the marked position, priority 1!"

There was no confirmation, but less than three minutes later, the whole landing area erupted in fire as shells began to fall. Most merely kicked up dirt and further cratered what already looked like a barren moon, but at least a dozen managed to hit something vital. A pillar of flames broke through the hull of one landing ship, illuminating the whole area in an eerie red. Another transport was hit in its fuel cells and soon gas was flooding the surroundings of the ship. Another shot from the fire mission ignited the spilled fuel and a fiery torrent raged around the parked ships.

"Fire for effect."

More shells were hurled towards the transports, two of which had already broken apart while one was torn apart by internal explosions. One C-9979 activated its shields, but before the protection could come online, two shots hit the translucent barrier before it could properly form. Then a third punched through and detonated something inside the ship, a blinding, white flash briefly illuminating everything.

Ducking low, Anakin relished the destruction he had unleashed as the shockwave washed over him. The remaining landing ships were thrown around like toys, tanks and smaller transports tearing themselves free from their loading hardpoints. Out in the trenches, his Clones sold their lives dearly, on average trading one of them for over two hundred droids. Given their situation, this was not sustainable, yet still a lot better than what they usually achieved in a battle. But this attack alone had wiped out a droid army twice the size of the force which had invaded Naboo a decade ago before it could disembark.

After being bolstered by new clones and a few veterans returning from medical treatments, the 501st has had a nominal strength of 5000 men when they departed their staging area above Taris. With 4 battalions and their attached support, it had been a very oversized unit, but their deployment had certainly warranted that.

As of three hours ago, the 501st had reported 2219 men combat-ready. Covering a peninsula roughly ten miles wide, that resulted in 220 soldiers per mile of ground they had to cover. That might look acceptable on paper, but Anakin's eyes told him a different story. Of those 220 soldiers, on average about a third had suffered minor injuries and would have been rotated out of the line if reinforcements were available. Another third had deficiencies in their equipment, mostly due to a lack of spare parts and munitions. And then there were those who were still fighting despite being wounded and short of equipment.

Only 736 clones still had their DC-15 blasters, armour with all parts intact and had made it through a month of fighting without being wounded. Not even a full-strength battalion. And that was the crux of the problem before even thinking about the fact that the whole unit should have been rotated out of the line three times over by now based upon how long they had been fighting.

Anakin was desperate for anything to break the stalemate, but the cupboard was empty. Only their artillery was still sufficiently supplied. If he wanted armour to support an offensive, he would have to make-do with operational 3 AT-TEs, another ten had been dug in but were unable to move anymore. And given the sheer amount of air defence, not even the 303rd could tip the balance.

If any staff officer from the GAR command had been nearby, he would have struggled to rate the 501st even suited for limited defensive operations, the lowest readiness classification within the Grand Army.

"Master, I sense someone. It's still faint, but the presence is familiar and heading towards us," Ahsoka said and pulled him out of his thoughts.

While the person was indeed far away, Anakin had no issues recognising the unique imprint the newcomer had in the force. After all, they had fought not so long ago.

AN:

I honestly have no idea which parts of the original Mandalorian lore are still canon, therefore I don't know how accurate this chapter is to canon. At the same time, I don't particularly care either way. I'm not here to recycle canon or Legends, I'm here to tell a story. So I went through Wookieepedia, took what was useful and mashed it with several historical civilisations here on Earth. After all, there have to be at least some Mandalorians in the Galaxy who are neither New Mandalorians nor Death Watch.

And funnily enough, the whole Mandalorian thing was not planned in the initial outline, but they fit really well into later elements and closed a few holes for which I'd have to find a different solution otherwise, so expect to see them again eventually.

As for the size of the 501st, I picked a number roughly in the middle between canon (800/912) and legend (9216). Disney canon fits the military designations better, but from what we see in the show, clone units come with a lot more gadgets (artillery, air-lift capacities, CAS, starfighters, ...) that you'd expect from a regiment.