SW System 9: Victory at Geonosis (Patreon)

On the way back, it was impossible not to notice that the Coreships were finally lifting off. However, unlike in the movie where almost all of them managed to escape, only six Coreships ascended into the Geonosian skies this time. The Commando teams had clearly been effective if they were allowed to be.

"General, it's nice to see you unharmed," Zack said the moment Iggios entered the Command Center, not even questioning the dead Acolyte he was carrying.

The Holomap remained crystal clear, thanks to Iggios' ability. It seemed that it could stay active over significant distances—something he intended to test later.

Padme and the Trooper accompanying her entered immediately after, glancing around for a moment.

"What’s the status on the enemy interceptors?" Iggios asked, fully aware that Padme would be asking for a Gunship the moment she had the chance.

"They're still infesting the skies, General. Most of our Gunships were able to land near the Acclamators, but anything still in the air was shot down," Zack reported, shifting his gaze between Iggios and the newly arrived senator.

"There's hope that they will head into orbit with the Coreships... We really lack any reliable form of small anti-air," one of the other Clone Commanders said, trying to find a reliable feed from the battle to help determine the positions of the interceptors.

Iggios looked up at the slowly rising Coreships, now just small specks in the sky.

"I think they will. Those Coreships are taking battle droids away. They have no reason to continue ground combat." He sighed, then turned back to Zack. "Ready the Gunship crews; I want them in the air the moment those interceptors leave." Zack nodded sharply as the clones began contacting the grounded Gunships.

"How long until they leave?" Padme asked sharply; Anakin's impatience must have rubbed off on her, among other things he may have rubbed on her.

"If they leave, a few minutes at most, Senator," Iggios replied casually. "You will likely need to share the Gunship with a Commando squad, though," he added as the flight charts were drawn up.

"That will be alright. There might be a need for them," she said, sounding a bit less tense. Iggios' strategy of not outright denying her seemed to work.

"And I will be going with you, too," he added, giving her a pointed look. Padme froze for a moment; Iggios had no idea why. Perhaps she was worried that her relationship with Anakin had been discovered before it could properly begin.

"The last we knew, your old Gunship went after Count Dooku. You don’t expect to go there alone, do you?" He sighed and returned his attention to the Holomap. The ground combat was slowly dying down, and according to reports from the Commando units, the Separatist leadership had already evacuated their positions.

Cleanup work remained; something the Clones were very capable of doing without Iggios hovering over them.

"General, the air is clearing up. The Geonosian interceptors are heading into orbit," Zack reported while sending out orders for the Gunships. Some were on pickup duty for the Commando teams; others would assist in mopping up the remaining droids.

Padme stood next to the Holomap, watching as the units moved with surprising dedication.

"You should have seen the mess when the battle started..." Iggios said with a short snicker. It seemed the battle would soon be over. Part of him wanted to see his rewards already, but he forced himself to focus. It wasn't over until the system declared it over, and getting distracted again might cost him those sweet, sweet upgrade points.

Before long, one of the Gunships landed near the Command Center, opening up for Padme and Iggios to enter. Iggios quickly grabbed the lightsaber from the fallen Acolyte, deciding to carry it with him, primarily to deliver it to Yoda. Killing a Darksider counted as part of the knighthood trial, if he recalled correctly.

"Commander Zack, I believe you have this under control," Iggios said as he entered the Gunship. "I hope we can work together again," he added before the door closed and the Gunship took off.

"Pilot, do you have the feed from the destroyed Gunship?" Iggios asked, and the clone nodded in response. He just wanted to be sure.

"D-Destroyed?" Padme exclaimed, her head turning sharply to Iggios.

"Afraid so. It was destroyed right next to the landing platform; we cannot be sure about casualties," Iggios replied, fairly certain that Obi-Wan and Anakin were fine—or at least alive. They were heading to confront one of the greatest duelists of the last century, so 'being fine' was relative.

Hopefully, Master Yoda arrived on time; if he did, maybe Anakin would keep his hand this time.

———

The flight to the hangar was tense, and nobody spoke much during the journey. Padmé looked torn between worry and caution, clearly conflicted about showing concern for her boyfriend while maintaining appearances.

Iggios, on the other hand, was more focused on the overall outcome of the battle and the potential reward.

The two Commando Clone squads inside were silent; one of them was wiping what Iggios could only guess was Geonosian blood off his gauntlet, while a few others meticulously cleaned their weapons. The rest appeared lost in thought or conversed strictly through comms.

As they were about to land, Iggios extended his hand and handed Padmé the blaster he had taken from Jango in the arena.

"I believe you know how to use one of these," he said with a chuckle as she took it and nodded. "We don't know what's inside... Stay sharp." Iggios instructed as they exited the gunship, and the Commando Clones quickly fell into tight formation.

Iggios took the lead, his lightsaber illuminating the way as they entered the cliffside hangar. The faint sounds of lightsabers clashing echoed around them, prompting Iggios to signal for the clones to follow him as he picked up the pace.

The main hangar area was dimly lit by the opening in the cliffside; the lights were off, likely due to someone having cut through one of the power cables.

The duel occurring as Iggios and the others entered was intense. Master Yoda whirled around, using his small stature and incredible agility alongside Form IV, while Dooku dodged gracefully, clearly on the defensive.

Iggios rushed in just as the Commando Clones and Padmé opened fire, but Dooku was already well-positioned for a quick getaway. With a simple hand gesture, a massive pillar cracked and crumbled, threatening to fall on the downed forms of Anakin and Obi-Wan.

Yoda instantly turned to stop the pillar from crashing down, aided by Iggios, who also halted his charge and reached out with the Force.

This provided Dooku with just enough breathing room to flee and enter his parked ship. The moment Dooku was inside, the ship roared to life and sped away, taking him with it.

"Well, shit," Iggios murmured as he helped Yoda lower the pillar away from the two injured Jedi. There went his hope for the war coming to an end.

How had this happened? Yoda had gone after Dooku much sooner than depicted in the movie, so why were Anakin and Obi-Wan still lying on the floor? One would have thought he would have reached them much sooner.

"Much more powerful my old apprentice has become," Yoda sighed, calling his cane back to himself. He looked winded; age was taking its toll on his endurance, and Iggios suspected that Dooku was not faring any better.

"You were delayed, weren’t you?" Iggios asked, and the ancient Jedi nodded.

"Two acolytes, Dooku had. Ambush me, they did."

"Three. I fought and killed one. He was charging the Command Center," Iggios reported with a heavy sigh and handed over his opponent’s lightsaber over to the ancient master. He was quite sure that the acolytes had to have been something from the Legends continuity.

Yoda’s eyes narrowed as they pierced through the young Padawan before he hummed in contemplation.

"Many things the Jedi have missed." This admission surprised Iggios; he had expected the old master to keep pressing forward. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.

"Let's get them some medical attention. There's only so much we can do here," Iggios said, turning to Anakin and Obi-Wan, who were being helped to their feet by Padmé and the clones.

Anakin was still missing part of his arm, which could not be comfortable in the slightest, while Obi-Wan was cut on his thigh and had multiple wounds on his arm. He still fared much better than Anakin, though.

"A full report of the battle, I wish to hear," Yoda ordered, gently using his cane to push Iggios forward towards the gunship. Iggios snorted, unsure how to even start describing the battle.

"As far as I’m concerned, it was a mixed bag, Master," he replied, frowning slightly. "But if you want my opinion, Jedi should not lead large operations." The assertion was firm, laced with disappointment towards his colleagues. "Most of the Jedi have self-appointed themselves as Generals and almost led our most elite forces straight into enemy fire. With such Generals, we don’t need competent enemies," Iggios concluded as the gunship took off, heading directly towards the Command Center.

"Commander Zack, could you please send us a small air escort? Just in case," Iggios requested over his comm.

He received an affirmative response almost immediately. This was still a battlefield, even if it felt calm; Geonosians were still holed up deep in their tunnels, and who knew what could happen if they let their guard down.

"On the other hand, the Jedi leading smaller units through the tunnels have been doing quite well," Iggios reported to Master Yoda. "The casualties on our side are… I wouldn’t say acceptable, but they are definitely less than what I expected. At least for now, the numbers keep climbing as we reorganize.” He sighed heavily, deciding to start with the news about the Jedi before Yoda could receive any other reports. He was confident that the clones, or any trained military officer, would support his assessment.

“Harshly, you speak,” Yoda noted, sensing Iggios' feelings about the situation. “Certain that the Jedi Council was wrong to take command, you are.” He wasn't entirely wrong.

Whether it was Yoda's intuitive observation or his ability to sense Iggios' emotions didn’t matter for now. The old Grandmaster was deep in thought, hopefully reconsidering some decisions.

“How many Jedi have studied army command or fleet engagement intricacies?” Iggios asked bluntly. “Or more importantly, who in the Jedi Temple has any understanding of wartime logistics, supply lines, and planetary sieges?” He highlighted the crucial knowledge a general would need in this war.

Learning how to effectively utilize clones in ground assaults was manageable for an average Jedi, but without understanding what truly wins a war, achieving victory in ground battles would be nearly useless.

It was no wonder the war had extended for almost three years in the source material. The Republic's leadership structure had no idea what they were doing during the first half of the conflict. Adding to this confusion was Sidious manipulating both the CIS and the Republic from the shadows, which explained the protraction of the conflict.

With an effective command structure, the Republic should have been able to overrun the CIS within the first six months—possibly even forcing a surrender. However, it was difficult to determine how much of the early failures resulted from faulty information provided by Sidious versus genuine incompetence.

Iggios could only hope that Jedi wouldn’t be given high military ranks until they had grasped the basics. Given that Palpatine was already granted emergency powers, he was certain the push for the Jedi to become generals was imminent.

“Perhaps right, you are. Prepared for war, the Jedi are not.” the ancient Grandmaster conceded. “Handled the battle well, you have.” As soon as Yoda finished speaking, the system made itself known once more.

Congratulations, User. You have successfully survived your first battle.

Calculating Rewards.

Well, that was certainly something. It seemed the System recognized that Iggios' role in the battle was more or less over. It was now up to the pilots and Admirals—if the GAR even had any—to inflict as much damage as possible on the CIS fleet.

He was already eager to acquire all the prerequisites for Battle Meditation. However, reality hit him quickly.

This System likely wouldn’t grant him enough points initially to purchase something so advanced as Battle Meditation. Additionally, using it would probably place him in a meditative state, forcing him to choose between enhancing his troops and actually commanding them. Perhaps mastery of the ability would improve that aspect, but even then, the training required to get to that point would be challenging at best.

He wondered what the range of the most basic version of it would be. Would it even be worth it?

Iggios decided not to dwell on these concerns until he had actually received the points. There was bound to be something useful among all those upgrades anyway.

———

The full report to Master Yoda didn't take too long, mainly due to the excellent work of the Clone Commanders. It turned out they were logging every Gunship path and every revoked or changed order issued by Iggios and Zack.

The Holomap could also replay the entire battle in great detail, sparing Iggios from lengthy explanations.

He was soon released to seek some actual medical attention. His left hand was still burned from Jango, not to mention the Sith Lightning he was hit with due to his overconfidence. And while he felt fine, it was probably safer to get checked out.

Rewards Calculated!

User performance measured. Congratulations, you have achieved an A+ Ranking for your performance.

Detailed comparison against the original timeline available.

Received: 30 Upgrade Points

Good Job, User.

Thirty points sounded like a significant amount, but Iggios knew it was far from enough to achieve anything truly game-changing.

He could technically afford Battle Meditation now, or he would be able to if his Force Affinity were at A-Rank. However, raising his Force Affinity from B+ to A- would cost him fifty points on its own.

Additionally, upgrading from A- to A would require another hundred points. Each of these upgrades had to be purchased, and each one was more expensive than the last. He didn't even want to imagine how costly it would be to upgrade all the way to S+.

Curious about his progress, Iggios decided to compare his performance against the original timeline. It couldn’t have been that bad, right?

Original timeline for comparison.

Deployment: ~200,000 clones deployed, ~10,000 Clone Commandos deployed.

Casualties among regular forces: ~65,000 Clones dead, ~12,000 heavily injured, ~8,000 Clones lightly injured.

Casualties among Commando Units: ~4,982 dead, ~600 heavily injured, and ~1,300 lightly injured.

By the Forces' immaterial titties! Those casualties were nearly crippling. It's no wonder the GAR needed months to reorganize after such a Pyrrhic victory.

Iggios focused on his role in preserving troop strength, noting much better numbers.

The deployment figures remained the same, which caused him to frown. To his knowledge, there were only about six thousand commando clones available, but the rest could have been occupied with predetermined assignments or infiltrating the ships in orbit.

Deployment: ~200,000 clones deployed, ~10,000 Clone Commandos deployed.

Casualties among regular forces: ~16,000 Clones dead, ~2,300 heavily injured, ~4,000 Clones lightly injured.

Casualties among Commando Units: ~1,500 dead, ~250 heavily injured, ~850 lightly injured.

Iggios raised his eyebrow higher and higher as he continued reading. The number of casualties was not great, particularly among the Commando units, but the figures were significantly better than the original count.

Nevertheless, losing fifteen percent of the elite units wasn't the best way to start. On the other hand, the casualties among the regular forces had dropped by over four times, marking a substantial improvement.

User has also caused much more damage to the enemy forces.

The System interrupted Iggios from his musing. At least it was with good news this time.

"That so? I honestly don't recall how many Coreships were originally destroyed." He pondered, although he was certain it could not have been many.

Originally, three out of fourteen Coreships were destroyed.

Under User's command, eight Coreships never even lifted, and two more were captured in orbit by the Commando units.

Oh, that sounded like a lot more damage than in the original timeline. The CIS would not hold such an overwhelming numerical advantage for the early months of the war, it seems.

Iggios wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. This battle shifted from a Pyrrhic victory for the Galactic Republic to a decisive one.

The takeover of some Coreships partly explained the significant losses suffered by the Commando units; some Coreships must have had more of their droids activated, which resulted in the deaths of the infiltrators.

But what would Palpatine do? Would he fuck the Republic over now that they were in a better position? Or would he try to portray this as his personal victory and begin building his cult of personality much sooner?

These upgrade points, as much as Iggios would love to use them, would have to wait until he was assigned. Or at least until Palpatine made a move. He couldn’t risk spending points on something he might not need later.

“What a start to all this, huh…” he pondered aloud.

The tutorial phase is over. The difficulty set to 'Realistic' for the best results.

"Oi, oi, oi! The fuck you mean 'Realistic'? Why can't I have kiddy cartoon difficulty?" Iggios hissed with indignation. This System was clearly trying to kill him.

User has performed well on this difficulty setting until now. System has no reason to lower it.

Fret not, User. Higher difficulties give you more rewards and even allow for more powerful summons and upgrades.

"So you stuck me on the highest difficulty? Seriously, some warning would be appreciated next time." Iggios pouted, “I swear... If you had a physical form I would fucking strangle you.”

Far from the highest, User. But it is the highest eligible for a newbie.

The Ministry of Death would not allow new Users to face truly unfair difficulties.

"And what exactly is this Ministry of Death?" Iggios asked, unsure of what to think. He was not a fan of that name; it sounded excessively bureaucratic.

Perhaps it was the origin of this System, for some reason. But why had he been chosen for this particular System? Why not some other, more fitting ability? And why not one of the incredibly overpowered Systems?

Ministry of Death regulates displaced souls, or Reincarnators, as you would call them.

Infinite realities, infinite possibilities. Or a bored deity shoving a dead person into another world...

Ministry of Death makes sure that these Reincarnators do not cause too much damage to the timelines they are sent to.

"I have a feeling that not all of them are getting a smartass System as a 'guide'," Iggios commented, a small shiver running down his spine.

Some Reincarnators get a cheat of sorts, sometimes a System, sometimes another ability that helps them enjoy their new life.

The disruptive Reincarnators are assigned to a Hunter team to be eliminated, and the timeline is reset.

Please do not cause that much damage, User.

"Good to know... I guess," Iggis sighed. That was more information than he had expected, but it mostly served as a warning. If he went too far, some kind of deity would come to drag him into an afterlife office—a horrendous fate, indeed.

It seemed that he was currently getting the better end of the deal. He could only hope that other Reincarnators would not intrude on this timeline.

“Wait a minute. Does that mean I can’t change anything?” He asked, frozen for a moment.

User can change anything he wishes, unless their idea of changfes is committing a Galaxy-wide genocide or trying to usurp the ‘story’ completely.

Keep in mind that everyone around you is real, not some NPC programmed to cater to your every whim.

Ominous for sure, but at least reasonable rules, even if much more vague than Iggios would have liked. He wondered if conquering planets counted as galactic genocide.