Chapter 151: Tally

Chapter 151: Tally

- Kashyyyk – 61 Days into the Clone Wars-

The afternoon after the celebration was less pleasant than their morning of catching up on the news had been, and far less pleasant still than the celebration of the day before. While rescue operations and basic recovery had been done the same day as the battle, a final accounting of losses was only just starting to become available. The tally of the dead wouldn’t be done for at least several more days, as both Wookiee hospitals and the medical cruisers that the League had brought along continued to labor over the wounded. The numbers for the pure hardware losses, however, were now being finalized and were unfortunate enough on their own.

While there was no question that they’d inflicted a significantly lopsided victory on the CIS fleet they’d face, it hadn’t been all one sided. The worst losses were, of course, among the starfighter corps and gunships that had been committed against the Vulture swarms. The numbers there were more painful, at least in pure hardware, than any battle the League had been in so far, surpassing even Geonosis in sheer numbers of lost fighters by quite a hefty number. Having known they would likely be facing a major CIS fleet, the League had brought along four of the Lucrehulks taken back during the Hutt Crusade, ships the League had eventually refitted entirely as carriers. In addition, they’d brought along a number of smaller carriers such as several ES-27cs. The ES-27c was a significantly upsized carrier, based on the ES-24c used in the Crusade, which could carry 48 squadrons on its own, and was now the main carrier of the League Navy.

Despite bringing along those carriers, the total fighter cover they’d had for the entire League fleet had been ‘only’ 24,504 fighters. That was exclusive of their bombers, which hadn’t been committed to the scrum with the Vultures, instead being used in the final clash to thicken torpedo fire. Wookiees, unfortunately, didn’t really get along with Star Fighters due to their size, and hadn’t had that many to commit as a result. Other groups that had come to Kashyyyk’s aid had, but in total had accounted for only another 162 squadrons, or just under 2,000 additional fighters of varying quality.

The CIS Fleet must have loaded heavy with Vultures, likely stripping them from the ships disabled but not destroy in the earlier trap, as they had fielded over 327,000 Vultures. Admittedly, they’d kept roughly 100,000 of those back to screen their heavier fleet elements, covering for how badly their lighter ships had been stripped away by that same ambush. That had still been a little worse than eight and half to one odds against their own screening force in the fighter clash, and it was only the addition of the numerous anti-starfighter gunboats to the equation that had kept it from being a disastrous ratio.

It had still cost the League a total of 11,217 fighters.

Thankfully, the League had fielded entirely Hero-Sidekick Mk II pairs in the fighter engagement, and the Sidekicks were explicitly designed to value the living pilot of their paired Hero over the droid brain. The droid brain, after all, was always a fully backed up before combat to preserve its capabilities despite hardware destruction. That prioritization meant that a lopsided number of their loses were Sidekicks, rather than the manned Heroes, of which they’d lost ‘only’ 3,712. Of those, a solid seventeen percent of pilots had been able to eject and survived until post battle recovery, bringing their total pilot losses down to 3,081. Still a horrifying number in any sane universe, but a fraction of the total losses from the overall battle. Indeed, it had to be counted as a massive success, as the entire starfighter and gunboat detachment had accounted for over 150,000 Vultures for the loss of less than ten percent that figure in exchange.

In the pure calculous of war, the starfighter corps had done exceptionally well and, sadly, only accounted for a fraction of the battle’s dead. Of their larger ships, they’d lost two Paladins outright, with another six heavily damaged enough that they were going to need weeks, at minimum, in a repair slip. Thirteen Volitions had joined the destroyed or too-badly-damaged to recover capital ships, with another twenty-three of that class damaged enough to need serious yard time. Likewise, even more significant losses in their lighter vessels had been had, despite the near-rout they’d eventually inflicted on the larger fleet.

In total, only the significantly more protracted fight over Dac had cost the League so much in the way of ship losses up to this point, and even a single one of those lost Paladins accounted for more sentient crew than their total fighter corps losses. The current, non-finalized death tally estimates were something like 48,500 dead. With that number both expected to go up, and honestly only as low as it was because the League Navy had an average of ten droids for every sentient crewman. The losses for the Wookiees and others were nearly as high, despite a far smaller number of total participants, due to lack of that level of automation. The Wookiees, in particular, had lost one of their Centurian-class refits, and those old designs were crew heavy even after a lot of refitting. That ship alone had taken over 8,000 Wookiee SDF personnel into death with it.

The fact that the total death toll was significantly lighter than Geonosis still didn’t prevent the sting, or Izuku from wrestling with questions of if he could have done better.

Fortunately or unfortunately, despite the fact that such things would always weigh heavy on his heart and soul, he had needed to deal with those sorts of losses before during the Hutt Crusade. This time, at least, he could also console himself that not a single civilian had been killed due to the battle itself. Though a few had been lost in accidents during the rush to set up the initial minefield trap and during the recovery efforts post-battle. Given the known Wookiee population of Kashyyyk was close to 75 million, it was still unquestionably a worthwhile battle to have been fought and a great success. Doubly so as it had nearly destroyed a major CIS fleet. Between their near total losses at Kashyyyk and their only slightly-less-total losses at Onderon, the CIS was going to genuinely feel the numbers lost to this attempt at opening a path into the Core worlds.

Which was a good thing, given that the last two months had allowed the CIS to conquer entirely too many of the worlds within their new borders, leaving them positioned to use their numerical advantage against the Republic properly. The Republic might have made up some ground in numbers, at least somewhat, but even with new construction and the unexpected Clone and Jedi fleets, the CIS had a significantly heavier weight of metal remaining. Now that they’d digested most of their initial rush of gains, the really heavy fighting was only just set to begin.

Which made it both good and necessary that Izuku’s political advisors, including Chairman Vy and Ambassador Esa Rotsino, had agreed the Summit with the Republic at Kashyyyk was an acceptable move. The pair had also been full of warnings that there would need to be an extremely favorable deal struck to get the majority of the League of Free Stars worlds onboard. Even many of the new worlds, which had more favorable memories of the Republic in at least some cases, were reluctant to see the League get truly heavily involved. They’d fled to the League for protection and, just as bad, were worried about what came after the CIS was done. Those worlds had technically seceded from the Republic, just as the CIS worlds had, and feared being tarred with the same brush for joining the League.

Assurances would need to be made. With some way to actually hold the Republic to them after the fighting was done devised.

Frankly, Izuku both fully understood and agreed with that fact, even if he also knew that the Sith, at least, needed removing. So far, attempts by LIS to find a way to assassinate either Palpatine or Dooku hadn’t found any purchase, so broader military action was required for at least that much. Privately, Izuku wondered if a core of more…moderate…CIS worlds surviving as another new polity might not be a good thing. Though he certainly wouldn’t be mentioning that near anyone with Republic loyalties anytime soon.

Still, for now, the Summit was the way forward. On a positive note, it would provide a chance for all of his lovers, save Mei sadly, to be in the same place for once. Padmé and Sabé would be coming as representatives for the newer League worlds, and Shaak had officially been appointed as the Jedi Order’s connection to the League, only having been delayed from joining them so far by apparently gaining a new Padawan. It would be good to see everyone again, though Izuku admitted he was curious about Shaak’s new tag along in particular…

… … …

- Kashyyyk – 65 Days into the Clone Wars-

“Shaak! Finally!”

Izuku watched in amusement as Aayla greeted their mutual lover with a hug…then ended up outright grinning as Aayla didn’t hesitate to lock Shaak in a kiss. A rather deep one. His amusement, of course, was for the utterly poleaxed expression on her new Padawan’s face. The younger Togruta looked like she was stuck between shock, confusion, and having an awkwardly timed awakening of some sort.

Well, if it was the last one at least it wouldn’t be his problem. They’d talked to Shaak in advance of her arrival to see how she wanted to handle the fact that she had a new, temple-trained, Padawan. He’d been a little surprised when she’d elected to not hide their relationship at all, pointing out that doing so and Ahsoka finding out about it accidently later would likely do more damage than just being blunt about it. Given that she was apparently already letting her new learner access one of the Shan Family holocrons and the opinions within, hopefully it wouldn’t break the girl’s mind too much.

Also, hopefully she wouldn’t immediately rat out Shaak Ti’s growing little group of reformists within the Jedi Order. Though Shaak herself had judged that to be a highly unlikely reaction. Moreover, apparently the most likely person she’d go to if she did was Master Plo Koon, who was both already aware and had directed Shaak Ti to Ahsoka in the first place. It was a risk, but a risk that Shaak Ti had deemed acceptable. As she’d put it, ‘no point in letting the brain washing she’s been subjected to stick any longer than necessary.’

Which had been a particularly interesting statement, given Izuku himself hadn’t been aware she’d grown to feel that way about some of the Jedi Order’s practices. He supposed maybe it should have been obvious, with her going out of her way to create a reformist movement within the Order, but she’d never actually said as much outright. As far as he could tell, Shaak had simply examined the truth for herself, both from the Shan Holcrons and discussions with Master Bnar on Ossus, found the current Jedi Order wanting, and then set about calmly acting to correct it. No dramatics, just swift and decisive action.

Somehow, that fit Shaak Ti to a T. Perhaps to a Ti, even? No, that was a bad joke and he should feel ashamed it had occurred to him.

Aayla and Shaak broke up a moment later, and Izuku stepped in for his own kiss, but kept it more chaste than Aayla had. He could feel the additional spike of surprised shock from the new kid, and grinned as he pointed her out to Shaak.

“Perhaps you should introduce us to your new Padawan, before we break her world view any further? She hasn’t even met Zavra yet and already looks a bit pale.”

Shaak Ti chuckled even as she smoothly stepped away, ending up halfway between them and Ahsoka, turned to one side.

“Ahsoka, meet Sovereign of the League of Free Stars, Izuku Midoriya, and former Jedi Knight Aayla’Secura. Who I believe technically holds an Ambassador at Large position with the League these days. Izuku, Aayla, meet my new Padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano. Whose reaction to Zavra I expect to be considerably more entertaining even than this.”

Ahsoka was very clearly trying to stop looking like a fish, spluttering and floundering a bit, and Izuku took pity on her.

“Don’t worry, we understand it’s a shock that Jedi have sex drives. Why, I’ve heard a few of them even have senses of humor, too! If you stick around you’ll get used to the chaos and ever-shifting surprises eventually. Hopefully. For now, welcome aboard. Try not to let the resident Sith confuse you too badly, as she absolutely will feed on it and try to get that expression out of you again.”

Ahsoka, he judged, had almost gotten her surprise under control when he added that last sentence. Now she just looked even more confused, along with a bit alarmed. Aayla, of course, decided to ‘help.’

“Oh, don’t worry, she’s not an evil Sith, just a Sith by species! Admittedly, she does enjoy a good cackle and a little lightning now and again, but who doesn’t? She only bites in the bedroom though, and you most certainly don’t have to worry about that.”

Doing his best to suppress his laughter at the increasingly incredulous face the young Togruta was giving all of them, Izuku led the way out of the private hangar. He managed to hold a straight face at least long enough to get ahead of the Padawan, so she didn’t see him grinning like a loon. It was slightly possible that Aayla and Zavra were a bad influence on his own sense of humor. Wait, could he blame them for the ‘to a Ti’ joke? You know what, he absolutely could. It was clearly one of their faults. That was his story and he was sticking to it..

… … …

- Kashyyyk – 67 Days into the Clone Wars-

Standing to the side and watching as a now-less-confused Ahsoka sparred with Aayla, being properly encouraged to use Jar'Kai for apparently the first time ever, Izuku had to admit that he was impressed. The moves lacked refinement, and the reverse grip she seemed to default to was a poor match for her current forms and lightsaber grips. Those were all things that could be fixed, however, and it was clear she had talent in spades. Enough so that he was properly disgusted her previous instructors had apparently tried to quash her dual wielding. Shaking that thought off, he turned to Shaak, who was also watching the match with interest. It was, he thought, time to ask a question that had been on his mind since first learning she’d taken on another Padawan.

“How are you doing? I know you said before that Asajj was a special case, and that you didn’t want to take on another Padawan again aside from her.”

Shaak’s attention flickered away from the fight to him, before returning at least halfway to watching the spar. At least some of her mind was clearly mulling over the question and her answer, however, so he gave her the space to think it over properly. Eventually, as the current match ended and Aayla transitioned into showing Ahsoka some adaptations she could make to fix the weaknesses in her style, Shaak managed a response.

“Good, I think. I believe I have learned what I did wrong, if I could be said to have done anything wrong, with my previous Padawans. It was failing to give them the breadth of experience that they should have had, instead of just the technical skills and instincts, that led to any part I had in their deaths. Seeing just how dramatically different the galaxy can be than what you expect, not just in danger but in everything from relationships to the way one approaches the Force? It’s changed my own perspective greatly, and I think I failed to show them that reality. I believe I can do better with Ahsoka. Just as importantly, I believe that you, Aayla, Zavra, even Padmé and Sabé, will each have your own lessons to teach her. By exposure if not directly. She had the talent, and I believe will end up far more well-rounded than…previous attempts.”

Izuku nodded, resting a hand on his lover’s shoulder and giving it a squeeze. Her presence in the Force had become slightly melancholy, but unwavering, as she spoke.

“Well, if she can survive Zavra, she’ll survive anything. Though I have questions if any planet they are left alone together on will also survive.”

Shaak Ti chuckled ruefully at that. Past her initial shock as seeing a living, breathing Sith pureblood, Ahsoka had gotten on with Zavra like a house on fire. Izuku had no idea how the two of them had gotten a rotary cannon into the mess hall, let alone how they’d converted it to fire mash potatoes. But they had, and the food fight that had resulted had certainly been educational in how inventive soldiers that needed some stress relief could be at weaponizing rations.

Honestly, Izuku couldn’t even be mad at the waste. As always with Zavra, the entire thing had somehow served a purpose that almost seemed accidental to those that didn’t know her. The heaviness that the Miruko’s crew had been carrying since Geonosis, and which had only grown worse after the Battle of Kashyyyk, had noticeably lightened after the ‘misadventure.’ Enough so that the ‘punishment’ both Zavra and Ahsoka had gotten for the resulting mess had been less true punishment and more ‘ways to keep them busy.’ One of which was the very training Ahsoka was practically glowing over now.

“I did consider that simply leaving the two of them on a CIS planet with a few dozen crates of explosives might result in a world surrendering. Though I’m afraid it might also end up being declared a War Crime of some sort by the new Senate committee trying to come up with proper definitions for those.”

Izuku snorted, grinning as he delivered a piece of Mei Hatsume wisdom he’d picked up before ever ending up in this reality.

“Remember, my dear. It’s only a War Crime the second time you do it. The first is required for them to think of adding it to the list.”

Given that she was smiling, melancholy air entirely vanished, he’d accept the playful swat he got for that comment in good grace…for now. He could spank her into moaning submission later, in private, where there weren’t innocent Padawans to give not-so-innocent dreams to. He was, after all, almost certain from the way Ahsoka’s eyes had lingered a few times on Aayla in particular, that the kiss she’d witnessed had started something in the poor hormonal teenager’s mind. Maybe they could find her a nice girlfriend from the Ossus academy?

That could be a good chance to build more bridges, assuming it went well…

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

A/N 1: As I mentioned before, despite the Battle of Kashyyyk being a firm victory, the good guys didn't come out unscathed against a significantly larger fleet. I'm not going to harp on about loses too often, but I felt the need to go over it in at least in passing detail at least once, to show that the war IS costing the League, despite them coming out ahead in their battles so far. Losses here weren't even close to as bad as their ground loses on Geonosis, but possibly more costly in absolute material terms due to Capital Ships being seriously expensive, even for the League, who can make such ships cheaper than the CIS or Republic.

A/N 2: Ah, poor Ahsoka. I don't know how much we'll see of her, but I did want to show her initial shock at discovery of her new Master's relationships. I kinda DO want to show her and Zavra interacting more directly at some point, since it should be explosive and entertaining, but it will depend on finding a could place to fit that in (spoiler, I already found one such place in the current Early Access chapters :-p). The Mashed Potato Rotary Canon we got a background snippet about will have to do for now :-p.