Eight of his tanks just seemed to blow up. That annoyed Kirak. It also meant there was a special operations group at their rear. That was ok; there was also a Republic special operations group at their rear. Kirak sent out a scrambled message to them. They got it and sent back their ok.

Kirak turned back to the scene in front of him. He ordered the five remaining tanks to fire on the enemy tanks. The tank rocked as it fired. He watched with grim satisfaction as five of the enemy tanks went up in flames. He then ordered the ground troops to move on the tanks.

Fifty of the TTR RPGC moved in and placed remote mines on the tanks. They were covered by enough troops to keep the enemy away. When they were all planted, Kirak gave the order to surge forward. The Republic troops began to move forward, firing constantly on the enemy troops.

The outgunned enemy troops began to die quickly. They were so hopelessly outnumbered that they wouldn’t stand a chance against the Republic’s forward momentum. They were helplessly slaughtered until the RPGC and Troopers moved into the city. That left the enemy troops room to hide.

Kirak gave the order to detonate the remote mines. The mines had been placed on all the remaining enemy tanks. Kirak smiled as one of the troops in the city detonated the mines. He was surprised to see that all but one of the tanks went up in a ball of smoke. It didn’t matter as the tank was outgunned. Kirak sat back and smiled



Captain Tryvl, a former mines specialist, was in charge of the Republics special operations unit on Geonosis. They had been there for days and the enemy group seemed to not know about them or their arrival. That didn’t surprise them as they had arrived on the opposite side of the planet.

He got his orders from General Kirak and turned to his men. He silently motioned for them to break off in pairs. They did so and moved to circle where they had seen the enemy special operations group go. They stopped and moved in once a perimeter was set.

They closed in on the cluster of rocks the enemy was using for cover. As they got a tight hold, a trooper stepped into each opening with his blaster pointed at the enemy. A few approached from the top of the rocks as well. They all pointed their blasters at them.

“Freeze. Put down your weapons and you won’t be harmed.”

The enemy was outnumbered. There were twenty Republic troops and only about ten of the enemy troops. That was two-one odds. They could handle that. They waited for a response.

"Move!" Neychev barked at the driver of his tank, who set the vehicle in motion towards the ComTech encampment. He ducked back into the armored tank as blaster fire rang out, and a few bolts came close to his vehicle. He grabbed his comlink.

"Commander Grant, report your status" He said.

"Enemy forces are advancing. And we have killed hundreds but they still come. Request permission to retreat." Came the reply.

"Granted. The transports will be ready. We have built some automated blaster cannons within the compound, and around the entrance. It will hold them off long enough to get off the planet but we must move quickly" Neychev responded.

"Yes sir. I am ordering my forces to retreat" Grant said.

Neychev switched the comm channel to his base commander.

"Commandant. Are the transports ready?"

"Yes sir. Shall we evacuate?"

"Yes. Inform the Reliance to prepare to pick us up. And as soon as our infantry comes in, activate the automated defenses"

"Understood"

Neychev cut the transmission just as the tank entered the Black Hand/ComTech compound, and toward the large transports that awaited to take them to orbit.




"Sir. A transmission from the planet. It says were are to enter into low orbit and pick up the transports. Captain Neychev has ordered the evacuation" Reliant's comm officer reported.

Braxton nodded, "Lets go. Helm, take us into orbit, directly opposite of the enemy space forces. I don't want to come into visual contact with them" He said.

The Aegis cruiser began to move into position even as the shuttles began to ascend from Geonosis' atmosphere...



“Freeze. Put down your weapons and you won’t be harmed.”

Aeon didn't move. Instead he motioned ever so slightly to the rest of his group. The other Shi'ido in the group instantly froze. Their skin began to crawl as they changed their forms.

Instead of the tall gray aliens that the Republic troops saw at first, they we looking at six huge Wookies.

Aeon motioned with his shaggy hand and the other members of his squad, the Noghri, moved into action, faster than the eye could catch. Eight slender assassin's knives shot out of their hands and found targets. Eight Troopers suddenly found blades sticking out of their chests. The six Wookies also moved into action, firing with their blaster rifles and killing more of the enemy. Then they each rushed the surprised Tholatin forces, who were still recovering from the shapeshifting and the Noghri attack. He roared in Wookie form and the Black Hand special forces came on their enemy like an avenging wind.

Seconds later it was over, with one Shi'ido killed and several Noghri wounded.

They picked up their causualties and trudged off to the rendezvous point, where their small evac shuttle waited.



Neychev sighed deeply as he stepped off his shuttle and onto the flight deck of the Aegis cruiser. All around him the Black Hand troops simarily disembarked. It had been a quick evac. All of the equipment had to eb abandoned, as the enemy was at the gates of the compound. They would lick their wounds, they would survive.

The cruiser shuddered as it went into hyperspace. And left Geonosis behind...

Kirak nodded with satisfaction as the enemy retreated. He would rather have taken some of them alive so they could be questioned, but retreat was good enough for now. The troops were already finished taking out the automated weapons by the time the last shuttle left.

Kirak himself left his tank and walked into the compound. It was simple and yet complex. Nothing spectacular on the outside, but as soon as you went inside a lot of equipment could be seen. Some of the equipment had markings on it that TTR had never seen.

Kirak supposed it was nothing of importance. He and his troops went through the camp taking down all the defenses and packing up all the equipment. They wanted the camp gone so it couldn’t be used against them in the future.



Radon nodded with grim satisfaction as the reports of losses came in. He wasn’t happy with how many men and tanks were lost, but under the circumstances, he didn’t mind. He did have to take into account the ambush in the trench.

The fleet had come away from the battle unscathed. Its ships remained in pristine condition. Admiral Horn would be happy about that. He might not be happy that the enemies ship had gotten away. He’d take a pounding for that, but oh well. It was done.

Conclusion

The Republic’s forces finished off the enemy base and began to move again. They headed for the Geonosian colonies in order to see what they had to say. After an intense firefight with them, and some persuasion by one of the diplomats on the mission, the Geonosians agreed to join the Republic.

As it turns out, they despised the Empire for what they had done to the planet at the Empire’s very beginning. Count Dooku had destroyed their world and littered it with the junk of a monumental battle. They wanted to take up arms against the enemy, and the Republic offered them that chance.

Relics were collected from the planet and would be returned to Tholatin for study. Then they would be put in Tholatin’s galactic museum. There, millions of people could study them unhindered. It was a great day for the Republic.