Commander Celestia of the 187th Legion was not having a good day. For starters, her armoured company was stuck. Three of their tanks were taken out by AATs earlier that morning, and now General Windu is gone as he had left to seek the help from local freedom fighters.

The alicorn rolled her eyes at this. She still remembered when Windu was dead set against the idea of using locals to bolster their numbers. Now he was doing the same thing, and leaving his troopers to continue the offensive. At least this campaign was almost over. It was just the capital and some outlying villages that needed to be liberated. Then the Republic could resume their operations in the Mid-Rim.

Celestia flew low over the ground, a small company of ARF troopers on their AT-RTs followed. She was scouting ahead of the convoy to see where the remaining droids were located. After that initial line of tanks they encountered on the highway, there had been little to no droid resistance. It was strange. Normally, droids had a strong multi-layer defense, with lines of increasing difficult defenses.

But not here. It wasn’t normal, and Celestia didn’t like it when her enemy wasn’t normal. The sun was setting below the horizon. She could see it as she crested a large hill. The alicorn stopped and landed on the ground. Her troopers stopped behind her.

She stared into the sunset, although she wasn’t sure why. The alicorn had been to over 20 different planets over the course of the war. She had seen hundreds of sunsets. But for some reason, this one was special.

Her eyes followed the sun down until it disappeared behind the horizon, where a small village was coming into view. When day turned to night, the lights from the buildings revealed that it was still inhabited.

Celestia shook herself to focus. She had a job to do. She turned to one of the troopers and spoke.

“Inform Ponds that we found a village, and we’re going to secure it.” The trooper nodded and activated his long range comms. Once that was done, Celestia spread her wings and took off.

Nothing. There was nothing in the village. According to the villagers, the droids left hours ago, taking all of their treasures with them.

Ronan angrily kicked a can into an alleyway. The others were right, the 187th was weeks of boredom and minutes of action. He was hoping that being an ARF trooper would meana he’d see more action, but instead, he’s been more of a glorified scout! When would the droid put up another fight?

His anger must’ve been obvious because Celestia marched over to him. He couldn’t see her face under her helmet, but he could tell it was a scowl.

“Trooper, calm yourself. We’re here to free these people, not kick their trash around.”

“Sorry, ma’am.” He looked down, not wanting to look her in the face. Celestia was much like General Windu, she was too cautious and stoic. She didn’t seek out any action, nor did she seem to like to fight. What kind of trooper didn’t want to fight?

“Trooper, I know you’re frustrated.” The Commander said softly. “I know you’re eager to fight. But this is not the time or the place.” Ronan looked up at her. “This is going to be a long war, you know it and I know it. You’ll have your chances, but for now, do your job, follow orders, and help these people. They are innocent people, and soldiers protect the innocent.” Ronan nodded, then walked back to the unit. Celestia watched him go, shaking her head slightly. That trooper was too much of a fighter, which she normally didn’t mind. But he was trying to act like the Mandalorians of old, from the stories Jango and the other trainers told to inspire them.

Some troopers just took it more to heart than intended.

With a sigh, she activated her commlink. “This is Commander Celestia calling Command.”

“This is Command, send traffic.”

“Village is cleared, droids have pulled out and left the villagers alone. Be advised, it’s mostly women and children.”

“Understood, we’re 3 miles out. ETA: 10 minutes.” Good, hopefully there were some rations to spare.

“Understood, out.” With that, she shut down the comms and walked back to meet with her troopers.

It was at that moment her ears picked up on something. It was like a shrill hum. The sound of droid fighter engines. Her eyes shot up to the dark skies, where a formation of bombers were seen diving down toward the village.

Ronan turned his eyes to the sky, the sound of droid bombers filling his ears. “Take cover!” Came the order. Troopers and civilians ran for whatever cover they could find. Ronan ran for a building to his left. He could see a group of women and children inside. As he ran, he looked up again. The bombers were pulling away. But their payload was still screaming towards them. One of those bombs was heading directly for the house he was running to.

In a flash, the building exploded, engulfed in flames. Ronan only had a split second to see a little twi’lek girl look at him with terror before the flames consumed her. The ARF trooper was flung backwards onto the ground as more bombs fell around him.

Celestia activated her shield, expanding it as far as it could go. The bombs impacted the shield, their flames spread over it. The heat was intense, troopers and civilians inside had to shield their eyes from the bright light. The alicorn pushed against the flames, burning her energy to ensure that others would survive this attack. Her horn burned as her magic was pushed to the limits.

She gave it everything she got; the only other thing she could do was scream.

It was over in less than a minute. As quickly as the bombers appeared, they were gone. The village was engulfed in flames. Screams mixed in with the roar of the fires. Ronan slowly got up and looked around at the hell that surrounded him. The building he almost ran into was completely gone, replaced with a tower of napalm.

He could see troopers putting each other out with blankets and fire equipment. Villagers running around to either help or escape. But his eyes fell on the young mother holding her child, who was almost unrecognizable as the body was burnt to a crisp. Her cries were drowned out by the others, but the ARF trooper could hear it so clearly. Ronan couldn’t describe what he was feeling.

It was like rage, sorrow, pain, fear, and confusion, all rolled into one. Why did this happen? Was it because they were there? Was there even a reason?

Ronan couldn’t answer those questions. But he could answer a different question. He was never going to let this happen to innocent people, ever again.

Celestia lowered the shield, panting to catch her breath. She looked at the destruction around her. With a groan, she slowly stood up. Two troopers ran over to assist her, but she waved them off. Once standing, she turned to them.

“Get these villagers out of here, and start putting out these fires!” The troopers nodded and went to work escorting the Twi’leks out of the village. Celestia watched them go before she collapsed once again. When she fell to her knees, the reality of the situation hit her like a speeder. The droids had bombed the village, with the intention of burning it to the ground. They had no purpose other than to cause destruction, kill as many as possible. They did this to leave only ashes for the Republic.

“Commander!” Celestia turned her head to see Ronan running toward her. He slid over to her and grabbed her withers. He started to lift her up, but she stopped him.

“I’m fine, Ronan. I can get up.” It was a struggle, but she eventually managed to stand up. She faced the ARF trooper, who stared the scene around him.

“Ronan.” She said, he said nothing. “Ronan!” He turned to her. “Focus on helping those still alive, help them get to safety.” Ronan nodded and ran off. Her radio was going haywire as dozens of troopers were calling in. They were from other units in different villages. All were reporting fire bombing raids. This wasn’t random. The droids were going to destroy everything on Ryloth. She had to contact General Windu.

Mace Windu watched the Twi’lek female dance alongside General Syndulla. He was trying his best to convince the rebel leader to help him take the capital. The problem was that Syndulla feared that the Republic would occupy them like the Separatists did.

“How long before I am fighting you, Master Jedi?” Before Windu could remark, his commlink bleeped rapidly. He pulled it out and activated it, and the image of Commander Celestia appeared. Her hair was disheveled and her eyes were sunken, her energy was drained.

“Commander, report.” Celestia sighed, then spoke.

“The droids have started a fire bombing campaign.” Windu’s eyes widened. “Several villages in our sector have been destroyed, sir.” All had gone silent in the rebel base. Syndulla was shaken. There was a long silence before he spoke.

“Make the arrangements, I will speak to Senator Taa.”

Celestia pulled the last body out of the wreckage of a hut, the corpse was unrecognizable. But the small frame made it obvious it was a female. Two troopers carefully grabbed the body and brought it over to a gathering point. Twelve rows of 7 bodies each were laid out on the outskirts of the destroyed village. Most of the fires had either been put out or died from lack of fuel. She sighed as she ran the numbers through her head.

84 Dead Civilians, with dozens more suffering severe burns, and 8 of her own men were lost in the flames. The loud stomps of the AT-TEs signalled the arrival of Commander Ponds and the rest of the Battalion. She turned to face the commander as he hoped down from the walker and marched over to him. He gave a stoic salute, but she did not return it. She was too tired to be respectful.

“General Windu ordered all units to move out, immediately.” He stated. Several ARF Troopers turned to look at him. Celestia could see the looks of shock and anger under their helmets, since her face was sharing in the anger.

“Ponds, we can’t leave these civilians.” She argued.

“General Syndulla is sending some of his people over to bring them to their hideout. They’ll take over. General Windu ordered us to leave some spare rations and medical supplies and move out. We have to take the capital before the week is over.”

“I’m not leaving these people behind to fend for themselves before the others arrive.”

Now Ponds was getting annoyed. “I’m sorry, Commander. But those are our orders.” He made sure to emphasize the word Orders. Celestia growled as she knew what she had to do. She turned to her men.

“Leave the spare blankets and rations here. Then grab your walkers. We’re moving out!”

Another ARF, Sneaks if she remembered correctly, stepped forward. “Ma’am, you can’t be serious!”

She didn’t even look at the trooper before continuing. “If your walker was damaged and can’t move, then pile into the AT-TEs, we leave in 10.” Without hesitation, she left with Ponds to sit in the Command Walker. She could hear the grumblings and growls from her men as she walked past.

The sun rose over the plains of Ryloth. Celestia stood on the top of the Command Walker, watching it do so. She felt the pull again, as if the star itself was calling out to her. Maybe Knave had a point, maybe she did have the Force if she was having these feelings.

Maybe she should talk to one of the Jedi about it. Not General Windu, she already had some issues with him and suddenly asking him about having the Force would make that distrust soar. She had to ask someone else.

She thought of Cadence’s relationship with General Kenobi. From what her younger sister said about him, he seemed like a caring Jedi. Maybe he could help her.

“All tanks halt!” The AT-TE stomped and halted. Celestia jumped down and walked up to Ponds and the two Generals. She could see the Capital in the distance, poking out like a spike in the ground. It was surrounded by a bottomless pit and high walls. Taking the city was not going to be easy.

She spotted something else that made her blood boil. Civilians, hundreds of them, lined the walls. Surrounded by droids, who abused any who moved out of place. Living shields. It wasn’t enough that the droids were bombing them, but now they were using them to protect themselves. Wat Tambor was a coward and she was going to ensure he dies a coward’s death.

“I’ll go.” Windu said as he stood up. “Be ready to charge across once I have the bridge open.” With the orders given, he and two ARF troopers walked away. No doubt putting in a plan that would ensure the bridge was up when they crossed it. Ponds walked off to ready the men. Celestia was about to join them when General Syndulla stopped her.

She looked at him as he seemed to be looking her over.

“Can I help you, sir?” His eyes went to hers, his expression neutral.

“I see you suffered some burns.” He said. Celestia looked herself over, realizing how filthy her armor was. It was ashy in some areas and pitch black in others. She remembered pulling a little girl out of a burning hut. The poor girl was crying her eyes out as her mother and father were crushed under debris. The alicorn had to run through a wall of flames to get to her, but she couldn’t go back for the rest of the family as the hut exploded as soon as she escaped.

The girl’s screams echoed in her mind for the rest of the night.

“I did, I was in one of the villages.” She said, not noticing the tears that built up in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, General.”

The Rebel General nodded. “I understand. I thank you for doing what you could.” He gave a small bow, which surprised the alicorn. She was used to people blaming the clones for everything.

They never did enough, it didn’t matter that they were dying by the thousands to protect them. It wasn’t enough that they had to suffer everyday so that others wouldn’t. It wasn’t enough that they were trying!

But Syndulla, he understood, and, in a selfish way, Celestia appreciated that, more than she realized.

“I wish I could’ve done more.” She said honestly, then walked away. She had a battle to prepare for and she was going to make sure she did more.

It went well, too well. It was barely even a battle. There were so few droids left in the city that it didn’t matter. Celestia watched as Wat Tambor was taken away in cuffs aboard a gunship, escorted by Ponds and his men. She glared at him, the source of all of the suffering she had witnessed and endured. But that changed as she watched her men march side by side with the rebels, as the citizens cheered them on as they paraded through the Capital. She saw clones hugged and kissed by females and patted on the shoulder by the males.

It was a sight that made her heart melt. For some reason, she turned to the sun, and felt the ball of plasma and flame smile upon them.

Author's Note

Sorry about the lack of proper action in this chapter, but I wanted to focus on the civilians that are caught up in this conflict and the thoughts of Celestia as she witnessed these horrific acts.

Also sorry for how short this was compared to the others, I promise to have longer chapters in the future.

Let me know if you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you soon, on the battlefield.