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Anakin Skywalker is on the path to become one of the greatest figures on the galactic scene. If you want to read an original story of greatness, you can check my story, Arrival : Ruptures. Comments, likes and reviews are appreciated. Here are the links for : AO3, Spacebattles, Royal Road and Webnovel.
—
Nal Hutta
The fleet transitioned into the system as one.
Twenty cruisers, a dozen corvettes, the mismatch of smaller ships they had acquired, and, of course, the fighters waiting in the hangars. The fleet around Nal Hutta only had two Gozanti-class cruisers to match them. Its external weapons weren't many, possibly leaving it as a carrier for starfighters.
The desperation of the Hutts was evident. Buckets of rust that had no business in space and outdated ships, which only the most down-on-their-luck pirates would employ, dotted the orbit.
Of course there were vessels in better condition among them. YT-1300s and 2400s were the greatest threats other than the Gozanti. A Lancer-class pursuit craft, a favorite of the pirates for its anti-starfighter capabilities, was screening the Gozanti.
"I am Supreme Marshal Qymaen jai Sheelal. You are outclassed and outnumbered. Surrender and your lives will be spared," Qymaen said aboard the Mystic Strike. His call was on an open channel, but it went unanswered. A whole minute passed by and he had enough.
"Your funeral," he growled, ordering the fleet forward.
—
Strange Tides
"This is where the fun begins," Anakin said. While Qymaen made his offer, he was heading for the Gozanti. Ventress was aboard along with a group of soldiers. They would destroy it and the Lancer before making for the planet.
"Ventress, take the helm," he said, getting up as he brought the ship out of the Mirror Dimension. She hopped on the seat without a word.
He retreated a few steps back. His thumbs touched together first, followed by a turn of his wrists. His pinky and ring fingers touched each other. He twisted his hands again, right below and left above, middle and ring fingers facing. His hands moved, the aforementioned fingers touching the palms of his hands.
He slid his right arm forward, index and thumb creating a circle, his left hand gliding over it. Finally, he waved his hands around one another, index and middle fingers stretched, and the rest curled.
His hands glowed golden, reaching all the way to his shoulders. He pulled them apart as if parting a curtain. Seven orbs, each one a miniature star of differing sizes, appeared in the space between his palms. He brought his hands closer, compressing the suns before spreading them wide open.
—
The Hutt fleet was shocked when the Strange Tides appeared out of nowhere. They scrambled to shoot it without friendly fire. Every sensor on the fleet went haywire before firing solutions could be acquired. Seven orbs, reminiscent of miniature stars, blazed into existence.
They expanded, blinding the ships and the crews. The Gozanti-class cruiser still had its shields up. It did not stop three of the seven pillars from shattering it in three places. The Lancer-class met the same fate, split into two by another pillar. Two YT-1300s and a single 2400 went down as well.
All without Strange Tides taking a single shot. The remaining ships tried to shoot it down at no matter the cost, but it disappeared into the Mirror Dimension again.
—
Mystic Strike
"Marshall, the Gozanti, the Lancer, two YT-1300s, and a single YT-2400 are down. The Gozanti didn't have the time to launch its fighter complement," the sensor operator reported.
The helmsman was the first one to react, jumping to his feet with a scream of delight. His crewmates followed, cheering for the devastating blow. Qymaen let it run for a few moments before coughing pointedly. The crew took their places again.
"All forward batteries, fire," he ordered, watching the fleet enter the firing range. Within seconds, the combined firepower of the fleet cut through the darkness. Each red beam of the turbo laser was a speck of light. Together, they were a lance of destruction raining on the Hutt fleet.
The return fire was… abysmal.
The YT class ships were pulling their weight in credits. They simply weren't able to act as a cohesive unit. The chaos of the instant death of their leadership had thrown the fleet into disarray. The fear that the Sorcerer could return any moment had them chasing at the shadows.
The enemy fleet was targeted based on the danger of the ships. The remaining YT class ships were the highest priority, leaving everything else secondary.
He ordered the comms to connect him to Corlen and one of his Izvoshra. "Bond of Brotherhood and Warlord's Tide, disengage and blockade Nar Shaddaa. I don't want anyone escaping."
"Understood Marshall," Corlen replied, taking his ship away.
"Launch our fighters. Clear the space and begin preparations to land our troops," he said. Anakin was a force multiplier, a hammer that could appear out of nowhere, strike the enemy with unmatched fury, and disappear just as quickly. He made their work so much easier that he felt like he was only cleaning up the remnants.
Regardless, the true battle would start on the surface. The homeworld of the Hutts wouldn't be so easy to take. They owned the planet in every sense of the word. Every single hand that could hold a gun worked for them.
Which meant millions of potential enemies. They had brought fifty thousand soldiers in total. Their job was not to take the planet but to secure landing sites. Anakin's portals would bring the recovered warriors of Kalee to Nal Hutta. He knew Freedom First could not just bombard the enemy combatants from orbit. The civilian casualties made it impossible.
Localized air strikes would continuously hammer enemy positions instead.
—
Nal Hutta
Bilbousa
He didn't look back at the destruction he caused. His sole target was the Hutt Council Chambers. The Hutts would inevitably be looking to escape. The hot and swampy planet no doubt would be the most difficult one to take.
"That's where the chambers are," Ventress said, pointing out of the cockpit, through the broken lens of space. A white dome, massive enough to land a cruiser or two on, dominated the center of the capital. He increased the speed, burning hard towards the building. He brought the ship out just at the safe edge of the torpedo launch distance.
Two of them shattered the top. Slabs of duracrete fell inside, creating an opening. The three Izvoshra and three of the finest men Corlen had chosen followed him. Once Ventress and Artoo were out, he lowered them to the floor on a mandala, sending the ship back into the Mirror Dimension.
Ventress immediately began to deflect blaster bolts. The men returned fire, but they were in a disadvantageous position. Anakin clicked his tongue, drowning out the sound of the battle. He covered the group in a sphere before it extended from all sides. The Hutt grunts were crushed to the walls.
He quickly landed, twirling his hand to open a portal. Ventress and the men were killing the goons that tried to get up. If they weren't going to surrender, then there was no reason to take them prisoners.
Bentilais stood on the other end of the portal, blaster rifle at the ready. He nodded, charging through. A wave of Kaleesh, like the grains of sand in a sand storm, flowed after him.
"Go and do what you have to do," Bentilais said. "We will take this place."
Anakin nodded, flying towards the chambers. He brought his hands together, tips of his fingers touching. Blades appeared around him in a swarm, a shield protecting him in front. The elite security units of the Hutts, the Hutta Guard, were the only ones with weapons permitted inside the building. Mostly composed of Weequays, there was a small army waiting for him. Dozens of blaster bolts impacted on his shield in an instant. It held, and he launched his blades in retaliation. The Force gave him the edge he needed to be on both offense and defense at the same time. His hand sigils kept the shield and the blades up while he guided the weapons with the Force.
It was no different than trying to breach the armor of a tank with blasters.
The dancing blades skewered a guard after guard. Entire hallways and rooms were left chockfull of corpses. He pushed on without a delay, searching for the Hutts.
—
When he barged in the council chambers after turning a host of Gamorreans to ash, he found no one. Not a single soul was present. He activated his comlink. "Qymaen, the council chambers are empty. Where could they have gone?"
"The slugs have a landing pad, but we are watching it. They don't dare approach it. They must be hiding."
"I'll keep searching," he said.
—
Ventress sent another bolt back to its owner. She was outside the council building, helping the Kaleesh troops hold their ground on the stairs. They had already secured the portal site, pouring out of the council chambers building without losing momentum.
The swarm of warriors was never-ending, and the enemy forces did not seem to have any intention to retreat either.
Still, they were winning.
She fell into a rhythm, letting the Force guide her. She blocked one heading for her head, another to her abdomen, and more. Her attention wavered for a second as the fighters and bombers passed overhead. Starfighter-grade lasers and bombs rained down the wide street heading to the complex. Explosions blinded them, and she had to get to cover.
The enemy fire lost its intensity as the street was blocked by the smoke. Bentilais ordered his troops to cease firing, waiting for their line of sight to clear. The starfighters and bombers were still continuing, hunting down reinforcements.
"Move," Bentilais ordered through the comms. Where hundreds of enemy combatants were advancing on the complex, only craters and corpses remained. The soldiers followed the orders, weapons raised, seeking hostile forces.
She grinned beneath her hood, following them.
Overhead, transports began to land, ready to disgorge fifty thousand more troops.
—
He couldn't find the Hutts anywhere. He knew they were in the building. Otherwise, the Hutta Guard wouldn't be. They couldn't leave the planet without the fleet shooting them down. So the council members had to be around, but where? He returned to the meeting chamber to try something different.
He sat down in a meditative position, focusing. He drew the Force to himself. The Mystic Arts would be no help in locating the Hutts. If the midichlorians were present in every living being, then he should be able to track them. At least as the creation of the Force itself.
He opened his mind and soul to the outside, applying the principles of the Mystic Arts. He couldn't cast a spell to track the Hutts, but the fundamentals were similar. He had the Force in him, but it also depended on drawing it from the field that all living beings created.
He drew and drew before expelling it all. His intention was to use it like a scanner, feeling everything as far as the pulse would travel. He had tried it several times on smaller scales and succeeded. This was simply a matter of increasing the area to cover.
He wasn't prepared for sensory overload.
He felt everything. Every living being was like a candle light in the dark. Their shapes were clear to him, like a high-resolution scan. Even the fauna and the flora were visible to him.
He felt tens of thousands at once. The Kaleesh were delighted at the victory. The Hutt loyalists were angry and frustrated and flickered off in droves every second. The civilians were terrified, trying to run. Ventress, a bonfire in the dark, was gliding around a group of Weequays, each swing ending another life.
He also felt several lifeforms below the complex. Five of them were Hutts; the rest were Gamorreans and other races. He got up slowly, the image he created in his mind disappearing. Of course the Hutts would have a place to hide, even in the seat of their power.
He touched the floor, rearranging the stone ground under the speaker's podium. They floated up in bricks, moving and moving until there was a hole. It was dark and he couldn't see the end. Regardless, he jumped down, telling Artoo to hide until he returned.
—
The cloak slowed him down until he came to a full stop, feet barely above the elevator. The inside was surprisingly well lighted, giving him away. The Hutts, whose voice he heard a while back on the shaft, fell silent. He created a sword, similar in length to a lightsaber but entirely the product of the Mystic Arts.
A leathery orange-skinned alien with three bone spikes on each side of his head, a Nikto, shot at him. He swung the sword, deflecting it back. His aim was precise, and the alien fell, a hole in his head.
Nineteen guards in total were left.
He approached slowly, senses attuned to the Force. He couldn't deflect nineteen shots at once, so he also created a shield, blocking what he couldn't send back. Each step he took ended with the death of a guard. Ten steps in and a Weequay was in the reach of his sword. He took the alien's head off, deflecting a shot aimed at his back, ducking beneath the punch of the Gamorrean, and slicing him up from groin to neck.
He twirled around once, letting two shots bypass him.
The remaining Gamorreans, just numbering six, were pulling towards the wall, the Hutts behind them. His sword changed. The handle extended, the blade becoming wider and curved at the end. A guandao, a type of halberd from his master's world, would be the weapon to end this.
He twirled it in a circle, deflecting shots away. He thrust it forward, extending the blade. It impaled the guard in the middle by the neck. He pulled the alien towards himself, freeing the blade in the process. An upward slash split the alien's jaw and front of his skull apart.
The cloak gave him a boost, bringing him close to the rightmost guard. A downward slash split the alien's helmet and head in half. He was ready to leap forward when the remaining guards dropped their blasters.
He stood there, blood dripping from the guandao.
"You are under arrest," he said to the Hutts, holding the halberd up, blade pointing at them. The council members raised their chubby little arms, heads jerking up and down in a very enthusiastic form of agreement.
He dismissed the halberd, opening a portal straight into the cells of Mystic Strike. Guards were already instructed to wait for him. They surged forward, creating a line before the Hutts, weapons aimed.
"Sir," the captain saluted him. Anakin nodded back. "Captain, all yours," he said.
"Thank you, sir," the older man said. "Move, you fat hairless banthas!" he screamed to the Hutts. His men spread to the sides, pushing the slugs through the portal.
He pressed his comlink again. "Qymaen, I got the Hutt Council."
His reply was a deep, dark chuckle. "Well done, brother. Those filth stood no chance against you," he said. "The surface battle will continue for a while. You should rest and give the men a chance to earn their freedom or glory."
He exhaled with a smile. "Very well."
—
In the next chapter:
Sidious brooded in the darkness. His fury tightly controlled and his power in the dark side masked, he sat in his room. The Sorcerer had struck Nal Hutta, and it did not look good. The records taken as he destroyed a Gozanti-class cruiser showed thermal explosions with heat reaching that of the surface of a star.
He could throw lightning bolts that made the Sith lightning look like sparks from a short circuit, summon stars to strike down his enemies, and more.
He wanted that power.
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